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Margaret Thatcher was the woman who, virtually single-handed and in the space of one tumultuous decade, transformed a nation.
In the view of her many admirers, she thrust a strike-infested half-pace Britain back among the front-runners in the commanding peaks of the industrial nations of the world.
Her detractors, many of them just as vociferous, saw her as the personification of an uncaring new political philosophy known by both sides as Thatcherism.
Tireless, fearless, unshakeable and always in command, she was Britain's first woman Prime Minister - and the first leader to win three General Elections in a row.
Mrs Thatcher, who became Baroness Thatcher, resigned as Prime Minister in November 1990 after a year in which her fortunes plummeted.
It was a year in which she faced a series of damaging resignations from the Cabinet, her own political judgments were publicly denounced by her own colleagues, catastrophic by-election humiliations, internal party strife, and a sense in the country that people had had enough of her after 11 years in power.
But history will almost certainly proclaim her as one of the greatest British peacetime leaders.
Her supporters believe she put the drive back into the British people.
And as she transformed the nation - attempting to release the grip of the state on massive industries and public services alike - she strode the earth as one of the most influential, talked-about, listened-to and dominant statesmen of the Western world.
When Argentina invaded the Falklands, she despatched a task force to the South Atlantic which drove the enemy off the islands in an incomparable military operation 8,000 miles from home.
She successfully defied Arthur Scargill's nationwide and year-long miners' strike, which threatened to cripple Britain's entire economic base.
Her triumphant achievement of power in May 1979 signalled the end of the era when trade union leaders trooped in and out of 10, Downing Street, haggling and bargaining with her Labour predecessors.
Instead she stripped the unions of many of their powers with the aim of transferring them to managements and individual consumers.
Within weeks of her arrival in Downing Street, foreign correspondents from all points of the globe - absent for so long from the House of Commons - flocked back to the press gallery. It was a sure sign that the world was sitting up and listening once again to what Britain had to say.
Whether you liked Mrs Thatcher or loathed her - and her Tory predecessor Edward Heath hated her beyond belief - whether you agreed with her or found her policies utterly repugnant, you could not deny her energy and drive.
Even many political foes secretly admired this single-minded woman, who never contemplated defeat and for whom all issues were black and white, not hedged about with grey.
Even - indeed particularly - her most bitter political enemies were forced to praise her crusading clarity of purpose and her determination, in their eyes, to serve "her people".
Veteran left winger Tony Benn frequently held her up as an example of how a great political party should be led, comparing her with what he regarded as Neil Kinnock's fudged leadership of the Labour Party.
Margaret Thatcher towered above all other political figures in Britain and her dominance of the Cabinet was supreme and rarely challenged. She was the equal of statesmen across the world. She elevated Downing Street to something like the status of the White House and the Kremlin, symbols of the then two great superpowers. Nobody talked down to her.
Yet the Iron Lady - a title bestowed upon her by her enemies in Moscow, which, incidentally she relished - was not all stern, steely and strident. She was delightful with children and she could not disguise her glee - "We are a grandmother" - when her grandson Michael was born in Dallas in February, 1989.
She regularly and touchingly admitted that she could not do her job properly without the unfailing and unstinting support of her "marvellous" husband, Denis. He was, she said, the "golden thread" running through her life. His death, in June 2003, some weeks after major heart surgery, was a profound blow to her.
Sir Denis, as he became after she left Downing Street, was constantly at her side, an impeccable consort, protecting her and guiding her in all weathers and in all parts of the world.
His death came at a time when Margaret Thatcher's own health - she was ten years younger than him - was the subject of speculation. She had suffered a series of strokes and her doctors had forbidden her to make any more speeches - instructions which she was occasionally known to breach.
Thatcher always conceded, too, that personal attacks on her, and particularly on members of her family, wounded her deeply. And yet the woman who took on Argentina and who had the people of Moscow reaching out and yearning to touch her, could not bear the sight of creepy-crawlies or snakes.
Mrs Thatcher was obsessively British, batting for Britain wherever she went, wearing exquisite home-produced clothes, upbraiding those who did not, and turning up her nose at the French Perrier Water. "What's wrong with British water?" she demanded.
Her dramatic downfall came about during the second of two challenges to her leadership. She realised that if she stayed on to take her challenger Michael Heseltine - a man she disliked intensely, personally and politically - into a second ballot, he would almost certainly supplant her. That was a prospect she could not bear to see happen.
And so, after consulting her Cabinet colleagues, one by one, she decided she must go, and tearfully gave the Cabinet the news the following morning.
By doing so, she paved the way for one of her favourite "sons" John Major to follow her into 10, Downing Street. But her support for him was luke-warm. She was to say later that she backed him because he was "the best of a poor bunch".
She marked her decision to quit with the historic expression: "It's a funny old world" - pointing out that she had been summarily removed from power even though she had won every election she had fought.
Years later, she was to be praised by two Labour Prime Ministers, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, both of whom invited her into Downing Street soon after they came to power. These were events which enraged some factions in the Labour Party.
Baroness Thatcher maintained a gruelling programme of lecture tours worldwide, showing little, if any, sign of slowing down her scorching pace. But there were moments when her stamina and health came into question.
Once, in 1994, she collapsed in the middle of a speech in Santiago, Chile. but she shrugged off warnings from her friends that she should start to take things more easily.
And later that year, her friends were shocked at her gaunt and haggard aspect, three days before her 69th birthday, when she made a token appearance on the platform of the Tory Party conference in Bournemouth.
Her response to that renewed expression of alarm among her supporters was to dash off on another exhausting global speaking tour.
Margaret Hilda Roberts was born in 1925 in the Lincolnshire town of Grantham. She quickly had the virtues of thrift, hard work, morality and patriotism drilled into her by her beloved father Alderman Alfred Roberts, who ran two grocers' shops and a post-office, and became mayor of the town in 1943.
Alderman Roberts was a devout Methodist, a lay preacher and a proudly self-made man. Margaret never forgot - and throughout her career never tired of quoting - his words to her: "You'll never get anywhere if you don't work, girl."
Not only that, but she acted on it. For it was her colossal industry, her almost innocent belief that all her objectives not only could but would be achieved which launched her into a political career unsurpassed by any woman before her - and precious few men as well.
Her associates at school and university - she had few close friends - recall her as industrious, serious-minded, and soberly-dressed, but also possessing what one of them has since described as "an irritating sense of her own superiority".
Inevitably she became head girl at Kesteven and Grantham Girls' High School. She went on a bursary to Somerville College, Oxford, where she read chemistry.
Her principal at Oxford fell short of wild enthusiasm for her abilities, describing her as "a perfectly good second-class scientist".
However, she went on to become only the third woman president of the University's Conservative Association. She continued to work as a chemist until 1954 when she switched to become a barrister specialising in tax cases.
It was in this part of her career that she demonstrated her formidable ability to master a brief and to shame those who had not bothered to do so.
And it was the kind of training which years later made her virtually invulnerable at Question Time in the House of Commons. No matter what subject, however abstruse, was pitched at her, and without previous notice, she dealt with it with total command.
In 1951 she married Denis Thatcher, a shrewd and highly successful industrialist some ten years her senior. Contrary to common belief, Mrs Thatcher never dominated that marriage. Denis, an independent character, carried on with his business life while she pursued her political career.
Mrs Thatcher launched into her battle to get into Parliament by unsuccessfully fighting Dartford - where she met Denis - in 1950 and again in 1951. Their twins, Mark and Carol, were born by Caesarean operation.
She finally entered the Commons in 1959 as Member for Finchley, a seat she represented throughout her career as an MP. The smartly-dressed, brisk and businesslike blonde did not remain unnoticed for long.
In the final years of the Harold Macmillan-Alec Douglas-Home administrations, Mrs Thatcher was parliamentary secretary, Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance.
Later, Mr Heath, the man she was destined to topple from the Tory leadership, took her into his shadow cabinet in 1966, but not without what turned out to be fateful reservations. He observed uncannily: "Once she's there, we'll never be able to get rid of her."
A quarter of a century later Mr Heath was still brooding moodily over those words.
When the Heath administration took office in 1970, Mrs Thatcher became Education Secretary, a key job in the new cabinet. Here, she worked uneasily. Her natural desire to give people independence and self-reliance was constrained - and had to be - by the collective approach of a Government much more timid than her own administrations were to be.
The two disasters that befell the Conservatives - general election defeats in February and October 1974 under the uninspiring leadership of Mr Heath - gave Mrs Thatcher the opportunity she so desperately sought.
The word quickly went around that Mrs Thatcher would be bold enough to challenge him. She hurled down the gauntlet - and from that moment Heath was a beaten, resentful and doomed man.
In 1975 she drove in triumph from the House of Commons to Conservative Central Office where she straightaway set in train an unstoppable campaign whose momentum, four years later, was to pitch her into power.
First Harold Wilson and then his successor James Callaghan quickly found they had a sweetly snarling tigress to deal with at the Despatch Box, compared with the lumbering bear that was Edward Heath.
She injected new heart, spirit and fire into the Conservative Party. Meanwhile Labour staggered from one crisis to another, winding up with the so-called 1978-79 winter of discontent, during which strikers even refused to bury the dead and with the Government seemingly impotent to act.
To crown it all Callaghan returned to the grime and snow of strike-ravaged Britain from an indulgent summit in the tropical sunshine of Guadeloupe and was reported as saying: "Crisis? What crisis?"
The words were, in fact, a headline in the following day's Sun newspaper. But from that moment on he, too, was a doomed man.
Within months, Mrs Thatcher, aged 53, was stepping into Downing Street, softly quoting from memory the exquisite prayer of St Francis of Assisi: "Where there is discord, may we bring harmony. Where there is error, may we bring truth. Where there is doubt, may we bring faith. Where there is despair, may we bring hope."
She had belied her prediction seven years earlier, when questioned about the likelihood of there being a woman Prime Minister. She had said then: "I don't think it will come for many, many years. I don't think it will come in my lifetime."
Mrs Thatcher set to work with fervour. As inflation continued to rise, she served notice of the strict monetary policy which she was never to betray.
The state was to be "rolled back" in a huge programme of privatisation. Trade union power was to be curbed and new laws introduced to make it harder to go on strike.
Among her first major achievements was to settle the Rhodesia crisis which had been lingering unresolved since the mid-1960s.
Lord Soames went out to Rhodesia and within months - after years of vain negotiations, mainly by Labour - it was ironically a Conservative Government in Britain which helped install a Marxist administration under Robert Mugabe in the newly-renamed Zimbabwe. Mugabe was not the favoured choice, but she had ended a 13-year crisis, even though Mugabe's victory would, years later, produce a different but no less savage crisis for Zimbabwe and in particular its white population.
She also quickly made her presence felt with foreign leaders. Mrs Thatcher had a nervous habit, particularly with strangers, of so dominating a conversation that the other party could rarely get a word in.
The former Irish Prime Minister Jack Lynch said with feeling after prolonged negotiations with her in Dublin: "It was adamant, persistent and if I may say so very repetitive."
Mrs Thatcher quickly wanted to divest the unions of power. But Employment Secretary James Prior, a voluble but nervous man, amazingly sold her the idea of caution and doing everything "step by step".
She succumbed reluctantly to his reasoning, but this was only the first of a series of screaming rows the pair of them had.
`Unnamed sources' always said that she treated her colleagues - and civil servants - abominably. That was never true. She relished a fight, she usually won, but was courteous in all her personal encounters.
But she respected - and listened to - those of her colleagues who stood up to her. After she left power, volume after volume of political memoirs, from embittered and angry former Cabinet Ministers in her administrations, described fearsome storms within the Cabinet and without.
Significantly she never had a woman in her Cabinet who wielded any influence of any consequence. Baroness Young was the only woman to reach her Cabinet, and then only briefly, as Leader of the House of Lords: a post which carried virtually no authority within the Government.
Thatcher could not handle women, but shamelessly exploited her feminine wiles as well as her innate dominance to succumb or win over her male Cabinet colleagues.
Once she described herself as "the strongest man" in her Cabinet. Her inability to do business with women was graphically demonstrated when she had talks in Delhi with Indira Gandhi, who was later to be assassinated.
The Indian leader also found it virtually impossible to negotiate with another woman as powerful and clever as herself. When they emerged from a private meeting, the sparks fairly flew off both of them.
From the moment Thatcher ousted him from the leadership, Mr Heath remained embittered, resentful and sometimes unapproachable.
Every so often he would raise his head and explode into rancour. But his unwillingness to face the fact of his defeat quickly lost him friends.
Meanwhile, Mrs Thatcher, now proclaimed as some kind of dragon-slaying St George, marched upward and onward. She rejected demands for increased public spending in the face of world recession, stood firm against bloody inner city riots, and refused to bow to IRA threats over hunger strikers.
She defended her decision not to recommend honours for Britain's Moscow Olympic team - the athletes had taken part against her wishes - in view of the human rights situation in Russia and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
But later she was to relent partially by making one of the "transgressors", athlete Colin Moynihan, a junior minister in one of her subsequent administrations.
She had epitomised her style, some say her obstinacy, when she told the Tory Party conference in 1980: "To those waiting with bated breath for that favourite media catch-phrase, the U-turn, I have only one thing to say, you turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning."
That phrase, greeted with uproarious cheers, lived on down the ages, and perfectly summed up the woman in a handful of words.
When President Reagan arrived on the scene there was an instant rapport, a close and abiding friendship which endured long after he left office and continued until his death. She remained friendly with his widow, Nancy and the two met from time to time.
The warmth between Reagan and Thatcher was remarkable and during that period the "special relationship" between Britain and the United States was very special indeed.
But there was one serious disagreement between them. On October, 1983, US forces invaded the Caribbean island of Grenada to overthrow the ultra-leftists who had just seized power.
Thatcher was incandescent that this invasion had taken place on a Commonwealth country, whose nominal head of state was the Queen, without any consultation. It was to be the only blot on an otherwise unflawed political relationship.
Her most formidable test was to come in 1982 when Argentina invaded the Falklands, hoping that Britain would not bother to attempt the massive long-distance operation of reclaiming them. The Argentine dictator General Galtieri had grossly underestimated the lady.
A huge and majestic task force was soon under sail, speeding south armed to the teeth, and determined to liberate the Falkland Islanders. While the bloody conflict raged on - one `of the great military achievements of modern times' - Mrs Thatcher wore nothing but black.
She was sombre and near-ecstatic in turn as the news from the front plunged and soared as each day passed. It was "our boys" at the front, and when South Georgia was recaptured by the Royal Marines midway through the conflict she stood outside Downing Street and said: "We should rejoice at that news."
To mount the task force was itself a calculated gamble. Not even her top military advisers could guarantee success. But typically she went ahead, outwardly proclaiming that nothing but triumph was possible.
And afterwards, announcing the ceasefire to a joyous nation, she proclaimed: "We knew what we had to do and we went about it and did it. Great Britain is great again."
No wonder, therefore, after the invaders had been driven off, that Mrs Thatcher received a tumultuous reception when she visited the Falklands the following January. Then and thereafter she would never compromise the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands. She would negotiate with Argentina on everything but sovereignty.
And no wonder, too, when she went to the country in 1983 - in what she denied was a khaki election - the nation swept her back to power with an overall majority of more than 140. Hers was the kind of leadership Britain had not seen since the days of war.
But she was helped on her way by a tattered and disillusioned Labour Party by now in disarray, torn apart by the birth of the SDP, bedevilled by internal strife and personal bickering, and led by Michael Foot, an old and stumbling man who was clearly no match for Mrs Thatcher.
But this was not before she had virtually publicly rebuked Francis Pym, who had been Foreign Secretary during the Falklands conflict, for suggesting, during the campaign, that democracy would be served better if the Tories had only a small Commons majority. Mrs Thatcher was outraged by this remark, and wasted little time after the election to dump him. His political career swiftly drew to a close, although he was subsequently to prove an irritant to her on the back-benches.
Before long the miners' strike was upon her. The miners had succeeded in toppling Mr Heath in 1974. Mrs Thatcher was made of sterner stuff.
The Government's policy was "no surrender", while Arthur Scargill, day after day, ran rings round the blundering National Coal Board chairman, Sir Ian MacGregor, to the exasperation of Mrs Thatcher.
The strike, one of the most bitter and bloody to hit Britain, surged on for a year, with scenes of violent clashes between mounted police and pickets almost a nightly feature on TV screens. Neil Kinnock, by now the Labour leader, seemed afraid to condemn either one side or the other.
But Mrs Thatcher knew where to stand. And after almost precisely a year the strike fizzled out, the miners dejected and broken and with feelings of hate likely to linger for decades in Britain's coalfields communities between those who supported and those who opposed Arthur Scargill.
That dispute was followed by the hardly less vicious News International Wapping battle, when Rupert Murdoch abruptly sacked his printers and left Fleet Street. Violent demonstrations became a Saturday-night commonplace, but they, too, stopped after a year.
There was to be no "tinkering" with privatisation as in the Heath era when a few pubs in Carlisle and Thomas Cook's were taken out of public hands. She privatised water, electricity, gas, telecommunications, and whatever else came to hand. "If it moves, privatise it," became the Government's motto.
Local authorities were forced to use private companies for many of their services. She was determined to weaken the power of the state and of the official in Whitehall and town hall alike.
It was after the 1983 election that the Cecil Parkinson affair blew up. It was he as Tory chairman who had master-minded the 1983 election landslide and it was now his admitted affair with his secretary Sara Keays which so embarrassed Mrs Thatcher, a consistent proclaimer of the virtues of family life.
The affair overshadowed the 1983 Tory Conference in Blackpool, and virtually ruined what was to have been a spectacular victory rally.
Reluctantly, she had no option but to relieve him of his Cabinet post as Trade and Industry Secretary. His extra-marital activities had driven a coach and horses through her family policy.
But his enforced departure she regarded as an immense loss to the Cabinet, and - as she promised at the time of his resignation - she restored him to office after the 1987 general election.
Mrs Thatcher's narrowest escape came in the 1984 Brighton bombing when the IRA just failed to assassinate her with an explosion which shattered the seafront Grand Hotel, temporary home for most of the Cabinet during the Tory Party conference.
She had left the bathroom in her hotel suite only seconds before the bomb destroyed it.
Despite the deaths of her close friends and injuries to others, and the shock to herself, the conference went ahead the following morning when she defiantly told delegates: "It was an attempt not only to disrupt and terminate our conference, it was an attempt to cripple Her Majesty's democratically-elected Government.
"That is the scale of the outrage in which we have all shared. And the fact we are gathered here, now, shocked but composed and determined, is a sign not only that this attack has failed, but that all attempts to destroy democracy by terrorism will fail."
A few days later, in a moving comment, she described being in church the following Sunday, with the sun's rays beaming on the flowers. She said: "This is a day I was not meant to see."
Mrs Thatcher, unbowed, marched ahead. With inflation now seemingly under control, and relations with Ireland improving by the signing of the nevertheless contentious Anglo-Irish Agreement, there seemed nothing in her way.
It was in 1984, also, that she stirred up massive trade union anger by banning union membership at GCHQ, the Government Communications Headquarters in Cheltenham. The activities of trade unions at GCHQ had caused concern in Washington. Union membership was restored to GCHQ as one of the first acts of the Blair Labour Government in 1997.
It was in 1985, that the storm over the book Spycatcher erupted. This was written by a former MI5 operative, Peter Wright and purported to expose a catalogue of abuses by the secret services which, he said, had "bugged and burgled our way across London".
Mrs Thatcher tried to stop publication throughout the world. But even efforts to ban it in Britain also eventually failed, at which point she introduced legislation imposing an "obligation of confidentiality" on retired members of the security services.
Then, late in 1985 another crisis suddenly hit her - the Westland Helicopter affair. This was a row over a small helicopter company which grew on a scale which, unbelievably, came close to destroying the Government itself.
It erupted into a scarcely-disguised internal Cabinet battle between Michael Heseltine, Defence Secretary, and Leon Brittan, Trade and Industry Secretary.
With the leaking to the Press Association early in January, 1986, of damning but selective parts of a letter written to Mr Heseltine by the then Solicitor-General, Sir Patrick Mayhew, the affair assumed a grotesque importance out of all proportion to the size of the helicopter company involved.
Both Heseltine, dramatically - by storming out of the Cabinet room - and later Brittan, more formally, quit the Cabinet. It was a savage blow to Mrs Thatcher and a sign to the outside world that all was not well within the Government.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister was travelling around the world in high-speed convoys which allowed no time for idle sightseeing. Wherever she went she not only batted for Britain but - and particularly behind the Iron Curtain - shamelessly preached to Communists in particular the virtues of Thatcherism.
Her rapport with the Soviet leader Mr Gorbachev was, in a different way, as warm as that with President Reagan. They both enjoyed each other's debating. "I can do business with him," she once famously declared.
And on one occasion in the Kremlin, they talked for nine hours on end - to such an extent that she did not have time to change for a state banquet in the Kremlin that night.
On the streets of Moscow, Warsaw, Budapest, Peking, Nairobi, Lagos, Kuala Lumpur, Bombay, Jakarta, and New York, in fact wherever she went, the crowds poured out to greet her, stretching out to touch her, kissing her hand and her face.
The adulation world-wide was remarkable. In more than one country, Poland and the former Czechoslovakia to name but two, serious journalists asked her at news conferences whether she would take over their ramshackle governments. This was the kind of irresistible - but not bogus - flattery which she revelled in.
Her line towards the Common Market remained firm: loyal support but fiercely against any idea of a United States of Europe. She was accused by Mr Heath of megaphone and foghorn diplomacy, shouting at the Europeans and others when quieter dialogue would - in his opinion - have been more appropriate and more effective.
She would probably have agreed. But politicians the world over were used to being "handbagged" by Mrs Thatcher. They had come to expect no less. Mrs Thatcher never did anything behind cupped hands or in a whisper.
She went to the country again in 1987 on the advice of her party chairman, Mr Norman Tebbit, with whom, it is said, she had had some acrimonious rows, even though they were politically of the same kidney. But fences were mended - temporarily at any rate.
This campaign, however, was on the face of it a disaster. There was bickering within Central Office as Mr Tebbit accused Lord Young of interfering with his proposals. And towards the end, Mrs Thatcher, on so-called "wobbly Thursday", went into a rage as at least one opinion poll showed Labour hot on her heels.
It gave her and her colleagues a chilling fright. The Tories were almost certainly helped by Labour's over-slick and, if anything, too professional campaign, and by the Opposition's inability to produce an acceptable defence policy.
Mrs Thatcher made several blunders herself during the campaign but perhaps her strongest card was to proclaim that the possession of nuclear weapons had brought about 40 years of peace. And that the ostentatious strength of the West had led the Soviet Union to meet them on disarmament proposals.
The Prime Minister wanted not just to win that election, but to win by a large majority so that she could still retain foreign confidence in her. As it was she swept home by a 101 majority this time, a much relieved woman.
Once again, she could at least partially thank Labour for her victory since their campaign was even worse than the Tories'.
Immediately after that election victory, she set about an inner-city clean-up policy designed to sweep Labour out of office in key city councils. But things were starting to go wrong again. Inflation began to creep up, and her policies towards the National Health Service were being greeted nationwide with suspicion and dislike.
Mrs Thatcher's final 12 months in Downing Street were uncomfortable, full of rumblings, dangerous discontent among some of her Cabinet ministers, whispering on the backbenches, calamitous by-election defeats, and a feeling nationwide that the "indestructible" lady had been there too long, and was fraying at the edges.
She remained totally dominant, but there were moments when her boldness began to look more like rashness. It started in July 1989 when she unceremoniously ejected Sir Geoffrey Howe from the Foreign Office, invested him with the spurious title of Deputy Prime Minister, and made him Leader of the Commons.
John Major, who was then no more than a face in the crowd, was put into the Foreign Office.
Her removal of Sir Geoffrey was in fact an appalling misjudgment that she was to live to regret. She could never believe that the mild-mannered, avuncular shambling figure was to be the one whose savagery, 16 months later, catapulted her from power.
Then, three months later Nigel Lawson - described by Mrs Thatcher only days earlier as "unassailable" - resigned as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Lawson believed that the regular presence in Downing Street of her adviser, and "family friend", Sir Alan Walters, a bitter opponent of European union, and an unrepentant monetarist, undermined his position as Chancellor. He could no longer continue.
It was a shattering blow to her Government. But she responded immediately, by putting Mr Major in the Treasury where, a few months earlier he had been Chief Secretary.
This provoked a slow but perceptible and uncontrollable movement of earth which gradually gathered the momentum of an avalanche and which finally tossed her out of office a year later.
Sir Anthony Meyer, an old and obscure but embittered Tory backbencher from North Wales, dared to challenge her for the leadership. She won by 314 votes to 33, but it was an omen. The result meant that some 60 Tory MPs had either voted against her or refused to vote for her. It was very bad news indeed.
And as the months slid nervously by, two more veteran Cabinet ministers deserted the ranks, Sir Norman Fowler (Employment) and Peter Walker (Wales). Although both ostensibly left for personal reasons, it began to appear that her government was crumbling fast.
Then came the disastrous by-election defeat in Tory-rock-solid Mid-Staffordshire in March, 1990, caused by the suicide of the sitting MP John Heddle. Labour, astonishingly, swept the Tories out. It looked like the start of something bad. And it was.
There was even worse to follow. The subsequent defeat in the Eastbourne by-election was particularly poignant for Mrs Thatcher since the vacancy was caused by the IRA assassination of her dear friend Ian Gow, a tireless pro-Unionist crusader for peace in Northern Ireland.
This was followed by the Bradford North by-election where the Tories, in this once-Conservative seat, were driven into third place. The opinion polls were bad. There was debris everywhere.
It was, however, the European Summit in Rome in early November which set up a train of events which propelled Mrs Thatcher out of Downing Street.
She returned to Britain fulminating about the way the summit was conducted, accusing the hosts of incompetence. This was more than Sir Geoffrey could stomach.
A few days later, he knocked on Mrs Thatcher's study door at Downing Street, and presented her with his resignation. She was shocked. But the consequences were even more catastrophic.
Michael Heseltine, who had stormed from the Cabinet five years earlier over the Westland affair, wrote an open letter to his Henley constituency party overtly attacking the Prime Minister's handling of European affairs.
Then he slipped off to the Middle East amid a raging storm, still protesting that he would not, nevertheless, challenge Mrs Thatcher in office.
Sir Geoffrey returned centre-stage. He made a resignation statement in the Commons so untypically ferocious and damning that Mrs Thatcher, bleak-faced, could scarcely believe what she heard. She visibly wilted as Sir Geoffrey plunged in the dagger and twisted it without mercy. The words were so shocking that MPs audibly gasped at their savagery.
If she had not realised it already, Thatcher must then have known that her time was nearly up.
The awful power of that statement almost physically compelled Mr Heseltine, the following day, to challenge her for the leadership. She went to a summit in Paris and, to her dismay, just failed to get enough votes to score an outright win on the first ballot.
With "defeat" written all over her face, she said she would fight on "to win". But minister after minister warned her that by fighting on she stood the prospect of humiliation in the second ballot at the hands of the man she despised more than anyone else in the Commons.
So, the following morning, she stunned the world by announcing her resignation. Her exit was as grand as were all her entrances. She followed this up by delivering a shattering speech in the Commons in the face of a vote of no confidence.
At one point in it, she stopped momentarily and declared, almost with surprise in her voice: "I'm enjoying this." It was as though the shackles had been magically removed from her after 11 years.
Her downfall was a mixture of skulduggery among some of her colleagues, and a fear among others that people were getting bored with her to the extent that they would vote anti-Tory at the next election just to see a fresh face in power.
There were tears visible in her eyes as she was driven away from Downing Street for the last time after 11 years as Prime Minister to hand in her seals of office to the Queen.
Some days later, the Queen appointed her a member of the Order of Merit and her husband, Denis, was made an hereditary baronet. She was "deeply honoured" for her own part and "thrilled and delighted" for Denis.
But she insisted then that she wished to remain plain Mrs Thatcher.
It was not long, however, before she entered the House of Lords. She seemed incapable of living without some confrontational forum in which to operate.
And there was no diminution to her style. It was as fiery, unequivocal and straightforward as ever. Her ardour was undimmed and her contributions were no less full-blooded than ever they had been.
She was an extraordinary woman, who never understood why the Tories had discarded her. And she found life virtually impossible to live without a battle to fight - and to win.
Mrs Thatcher summed up, with remarkable prevision, her own beliefs three years before she became Prime Minister and just after the Kremlin had dubbed her - flatteringly, she thought - the Iron Lady.
She told her audience: "I stand before you tonight in my green chiffon evening gown, my face softly made up, my fair hair gently waved . . . the Iron Lady of the Western World? Me? A cold war warrior? Well, yes - if that is how they wish to interpret my defence of values and freedoms fundamental to our way of life."
Although Margaret Thatcher normally enjoyed robust health, she suffered one or two setbacks along the way. She was taken ill briefly once in Sri Lanka, damaged her ankle during a fall at a Conservative Party conference in Bournemouth, and suffered a minor stroke while on holiday with Sir Denis in Madeira late in 2001.
But she bounced back from all these setbacks. And in March 2002, she published her latest book, Statecraft.
It was around this time that her doctors told her that she must make no more public speeches, an instruction which she did not obey to the letter.
Then she suffered a devastating blow in June, 2003 when her husband, Denis, died after a short illness. He had seemed to have recovered from a six-hour heart bypass operation he had undergone some months earlier.
At the subsequent funeral service, Lady Thatcher looked frail and woebegone. At that time, stories started to emerge that she was losing her short-term memory and easily becoming confused. But she continued to attend the House of Lords from time to time.
It looked as though it was going to be a sad end to the life of such a powerful, decisive, fearless and honourable woman. However, her health appeared to improve after a visit to South Africa, and she started to make more regular appearances in the House of Lords.
Meanwhile, the 25th anniversary, in May 2004, of her accession to Downing Street as Britain's first woman Prime Minister, was celebrated with a lavish dinner at London's Savoy Hotel at which, defying doctors' orders, she spoke robustly, attacking the Blair Government and praising Michael Howard, the new Tory leader.
A year later there was to be another such occasion, this time at the Dorchester, to mark the 30th anniversary of her election as Tory leader in 1975.
But amid all these celebrations, there was a new and unpleasant shock for Lady Thatcher on the horizon: the arrest in South Africa on August 25, 2004, of her devoted son Sir Mark Thatcher, who was charged later with contravening two sections of South Africa's Foreign Military Assistance Act which bans residents in that country from taking part in any foreign military activity.
The charges related to "possible funding and logistical assistance in relation to an attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea" organised by Thatcher's friend Simon Mann.
By now Lady Thatcher, who doted on her son, was not in good health and there were genuine fears that her condition might worsen as a result of this affair.
There was every possibility that Mark might face a long jail sentence or worse, if he was extradited to Equatorial Guinea. It was a real fear.
He was released on two-million rand bail and spent some time under house arrest. He was later bailed to London to live with his mother.
Ultimately, to huge relief all round, following a process of plea bargaining, he pleaded guilty to the less serious charge of investing in an aircraft (used in the unsuccessful coup attempt) without making proper investigations into what it would be used for.
He was fined three million rand (about £245,500) and received a four-year suspended jail sentence.
In June 2004, Lady Thatcher attended the funeral service in Washington of her "dear friend" Ronald Reagan. In a moving, pre-recorded tribute, she said: "We have lost a great president, a great American and a great man. And I have lost a dear friend."
And in February, 2007, Lady Thatcher became the first ex-Prime Minister in history to have a statue of herself unveiled in the House of Commons while she was still alive.
At the ceremony, the Iron Lady said: "I might have preferred iron, but bronze will do. It won't rust and this time, I hope, the head will stay on."
This was a reference to the fact that some years earlier a political activist had decapitated a marble statue of her on loan to London's Guildhall.
Then, shortly after Gordon Brown - who had earlier praised Lady Thatcher as a "conviction politician" - became Prime Minister in June, 2007, he invited her into Downing Street, an event which created anger in some sections of the Labour Party.
But this was exactly what Tony Blair had done ten years earlier, soon after he entered Number 10.
There was another health scare in March, 2008. Lady Thatcher had succumbed to the heat at a dinner in the House of Lords, and fainted. She was taken to nearby St Thomas's Hospital for tests, but allowed to go home the following day.
And then in the late spring of 2009, she fell and broke an arm. She underwent an operation to have her arm pinned.


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keyconcepts needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 175 designs submitted by 53 freelance designers.
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Changing the way real estate operates
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Ganden's Timely Arrival
Jaime Austin
There were two things I wanted to accomplish before the arrival of our "little man." 1) finish painting and decorating his room and 2) see the ocean.
This sounds reasonable enough, but at 35 weeks we learned that "reasonable" was all a matter of your frame of reference when I went into early-term labor. I had been having flu symptoms for three days and had developed a hearty cough so I think my body just went into immune system overdrive and sent a system-wide "Eject!" command to my babe.
At that point we owned a car seat (but it wasn't installed), the baby's room reaked of primer and fresh drywall mud, and in our denial about the contractions I had been feeling 7 minutes apart for 10+ hours we arrived at the hospital without even packing a bag. So it was a reality check to both of us when the doctor said that I was 2 cm dilated, 75% effaced, and that it was highly possible that the baby would arrive in the next day or two. "The train has left the station," she said. As we processed this news our midwife Maria came to the hospital as we came to grips with the idea that our baby was coming earlier than expected. Then slowly after a few hours at the hospital the contractions slowed and then stopped. We were told we could go home until they started again.
Once we arrived home my husband immediately drew me a bath and poured me a glass of wine, both on doctor's orders. He then installed the car seat base, assembled the bassinet, and stayed up until the wee hours of the morning painting the trim of the room (even though we knew the baby wouldn't sleep in there for months). I knew I had chosen homebirth for a reason that was as much physical and mental—even though we were treated wonderfully at St. Lukes, my body sensed I was in a hospital and shut down my labor! My mantra became "37 weeks, 37 weeks" because my pregnancy had to last two more weeks for me to be able to have the home birth we had planned for.
We made it. At 37 weeks I told my baby that he was welcome to come whenever he wanted. At 37 weeks and 1 day my husband and I finished his room. At 37 weeks and 2 days we drove up to Muir Beach so that I could see the ocean. I had been visualizing waves in my labor preparation, imagining them washing over me and then fading away like a contraction, so I had been yearning to close my eyes and listen to the ocean and breathe the salty air so that I could imprint it on my senses to call on in time of need. It was a crisp, clear day and Dave and I went on a short walk and then sat on a log together and soaked in the sea. On our way home I suggested that we stop for lunch in Sausalito—I had been wanting to try a restaurant called 'Fish.' Apparently many others had the same idea because we had to wait in line for 45 minutes just to order our food. But I was super excited about the crab roll, so it seemed worth it. After we ordered there weren't any tables free, so we pulled two stools up to the bar and sat happily watching the food being prepared. Suddenly, there was a pop, followed by a whoosh, and I said to my husband, "I just felt a pop and now I feel like I'm peeing my pants." We both looked down and clear liquid was streaming down the stool and pooling on the floor below. It was a moment of wonder and shock; we looked at each other incredulous, laughing. It was 2:00pm. The three teenage girls sitting at the bar next to us looked over and asked (in a Southern drawl), "Are y'all going to have a baby today?" Then they took our picture. Dave's immediately reaction was to rush out of the restaurant, but I was like, "hell, no. I just waited 45 minutes to order my food, I'm hungry, and I'm going to eat this crab roll before I have this baby." So he ran back to the register and asked them to package everything to go. We waited another 10 minutes and then I wrapped his windbreaker around me like a diaper and we hobbled out of the restaurant.
Once in the car my first call was to Maria, our midwife. She had just arrived home from another birth and told me that contractions may not gear up for another 24 hours so I should go home and relax and call her when they were 5 minutes apart. My second call was to Natural Resources because we weren't scheduled to pick up the birth tub for another week and I really wanted to labor in the tub. They offered to try and find a tub for us and would call me back shortly. My first contraction happened as we were driving on the Golden Gate Bridge.
Once home, we quickly sat down and ate our food—I savored the crab roll, and part of a chocolate chip cookie. It was 3:30pm and Natural Resources called to say that they found a tub, so my husband left to pick it up (which involved squeezing it into our Mini Cooper so tightly that he couldn't move the stick shift out of second gear) and I called my parents to update them on my labor. During the conversation with my Dad I had to continually pause to breathe through the contractions, a signal that labor was progressing. At that point my contractions were between 3 and 5 minutes apart, so I called Maria again and she said she'd be over in an hour. When my water broke we debated if our little man would be a Sunday or Monday baby, and now I felt pretty confident that the baby was coming that night.
As the contractions grew stronger I moved from lying across the exercise ball in the living room, to folding myself forward over the kitchen counter. I was listening to my hypnobirthing mp3s and focusing on my breath. I felt strong and prepared. Dave was heroically scrambling to find a way to connect the hose to the sink to fill the tub (no time for dry runs!). Since my water had already broken I knew that I couldn't get in the tub as early as I had hoped, and I wasn't fully confident that we were going to get it set up and filled in time, so Maria suggested that I take a shower. Ahh, the shower, my happy labor place. The warm water felt amazing on my skin, I was alone with my contractions, and my voice reverberating within the enclosed space in a way that allowed me both focus and release. I remember Maria saying that I needed to do whatever made the contractions come on stronger, so I switched between squatting, placing a leg up on the shower bar, and rocking my pelvis back and forth. I remember stroking my belly from right to left and singing, "this is the way you go" as a way of trying to coax the little to guy to turn the appropriate direction to avoid back labor. I also remember saying at the end of each contraction: "bring it on baby, bring it on." And he did. Maria and Dave would periodically check-in, and I heard my mom arrive, but most of the time I was moaning through contractions and keeping my eyes closed. I was so happy in the shower that I lost track of time and inadvertently used up all the hot water just as Dave was able to get the hose connected between sink and birth tub. Oops. So the boiling of water began! One of my clearest memories from my labor is the cycle of Dave being around to apply counter pressure to my lower back during a contraction and then the second it was over he would whisper in my ear, "ok sweetie, now I have to go and boil more water!" and then he would disappear until my noises would signal another contraction. Dave jokes that he felt like he was attending a birth in the 1800s because we were at home, had a stack of our own clean towels and sheets ready and waiting, and were boiling water.
After I finally left the shower, Maria recommended that I move to the bed. We had recently purchased a padded stool for the cat to use as a step to get up on the bed—I kneeled on it with my body draped forward over my yoga bolster placed on the bed. Once again my eyes were closed and I just tried to relax into the contractions as they grew stronger and stronger and more challenging to bear calming—my hypnobirthing practice was being tested. After one contraction I looked up and saw that it was 9:15pm. I remembered reading somewhere that you should cover up the clocks so that you're not tracking how much time labor is taking, so I walked over and covered it with a shirt (which now seems a bit ridiculous). I was keeping my eyes squeezed closed both during and after then so my memories are all sounds. After one particularly strong contraction subsided, both Maria and Dave started to leave the room as another huge contraction immediately rolled through me. I remember screeching, "somebody stay and help me!!!!" at the top of my lungs. I was still kneeling draped over the bed hunched over my yoga bolster and the contractions were at their strongest yet. For the few moments between them Maria was telling me to blow out the tension. The baby's heart rate was still strong and steady. Soon, Maria told me that after the next contraction I should stand up and try to go to the bathroom. I remember waiting for the contraction to subside and as it started to lessen another one would immediately ramp back up, so at that point I think I screamed, "they won't stop!!" Eventually there was a small break, so Dave supported me as I hobbled over to the next room and the second I sat down on the toilet my body completely took over, I became possessed. My whole abdomen felt heavy, and I started making grunting noises. In my head I was thinking "this baby needs to come out now!" but I'm not sure if I was able to convey that in words or not. Maria ran over and asked if I was pushing, I'm pretty sure I said, "I can't help it." Since my water broke before contractions began I still had never been checked for dilation. With one touch Maria said the baby was coming and that I should move back to the bed. That's when my mind awarded me a moment of clarity. I remember thinking, "Dave has spent nearly all of my labor filling the tub, and I sure as hell am going to use it!!" So with that, I left everyone behind and strutted down the hall into the nursery (I wanted my boy to be born in his own room), threw my robe on the floor, and stepped into the tub. Dave and Maria followed.
I started squatting, as that's how I had seen it done in all the birth videos, but Maria told Dave to get into the tub as well and support me like a chair so that I could scoop my pelvis upward. Then the "animal" body kicked in, I surrendered. Sounds were coming out of my body that I was not in control of, nor even knew how I possessed. I remember Maria saying, "Jaime, you need to stop screaming. Make low, grunting, animal noises." Then Dave started making them in my ear so that I could mimic them. Next thing I knew I was being told to reach down and feel the head. All I could think was, "this baby needs to come out now." He had politely waited to hit the 37 week mark and now was rushing, ready. I only pushed a few times. I had Dave pinned between me and the side of the tub, the back of my head pushing into his face and shoulder. During the pushes Maria was reaching into the water and I could feel a tug—later I found out that the cord was wrapped around his neck twice and she was untangling my babe. I was imagining water and expecting to feel the "ring of fire" but only felt splitting. Only later did I learn that my little man burst through on his way into the world, my body either didn't have the time or the ability to stretch around him. With one big push his head was out, with the next push out flew his body. It was 10:30pm; 8.5 hours after my water broke. Maria scooped him up and handed him to me. He was so slippery and I felt so awkward, still balancing on my husband's lap, trying to keep the little guy warm without dropping him. As he was born Sue, the second midwife, had let herself into the house—the ending speed of my delivery must have taken even my midwives by surprise. I called for my mom, who had been waiting, praying, in the next room. She ran in with the camera and shot the most amazing photos that so perfectly captured the moments after his birth: Dave and I in the tub holding Ganden, Dave cutting the cord, both of us in mouth-gaping awe. Just after the birth I remember thinking that I didn't feel the euphoria that seems to so often appear on women's faces in the birth videos just after they give birth, all I remember feeling was discomfort. But then I saw the photos and was surprised at how glowing I look—I was radiating joy, love, power. I was mighty.
Two truths were confirmed for me through my birth experience: the wisdom of the body and the power of the mind. It's a delicate dance between these two because birth is about surrendering to sensation and allowing the instincts of the body to take over while harnessing the power that the mind has over the body. By thinking 'relaxxxx' (another of my mantras) and focusing the mind on a particular body part, that body part responds to the command. And relaxing into contractions is far less painful and more productive than fighting them. I mentally understood that going in, and physically felt its truth after a mere few contractions.
Body and baby engage in unknown communications to determine the proper timing for delivery. While a bit earlier than expected, my little boy knew he was strong enough to enter the world. He waited for us to finish his room so that he could be born in calming space fashioned with love. He waited for me to see the ocean so that I could imprint the sounds of the waves within my mind. Perhaps the sounds and smells of the ocean were his beckoning call, a prompt for my bag of waters to rupture, a shared signal to both of us that our minds and bodies were ready to turn inside out.
Ganden, may your laughter always reach up to heaven, my sweet little boy.
What happens after delivery is so often skipped in birth stories. After birthing the placenta I returned to my bed and was able to spend some quality time with my new baby and my husband. We cuddled and practiced nursing. I remember being in awe, but also being completely distracted by pain and continued contractions. After an hour or so Maria said that I had to go to St. Lukes for a repair since I had a fourth degree tear. When people ask me if I have any advice for women regarding birth I say, "embrace discomfort." I felt mentally, physically, and emotionally ready for the challenge of birth, but a bit under prepared for what would come afterward. I certainly didn't want to leave my brand new baby at home to go to the hospital. Once at St. Luke's I had to adamantly refuse the IV pain medications—I had made it this far naturally and other than local anesthetic was planning on staying natural. While laying on the table I had to repeat 'relax, reeeelllaaaxxxx', again and again because I was still racked with labor strength contractions but needed to lie still for the delicate suturing that was going on. But in the end I was able to return home and back to bed where my husband and little boy were lying skin-to-skin.
Thanks to Sue Baelen who took such good care of my little boy and my husband while I was away. And much thanks to Maria who caught my little boy and helped make our desire for a homebirth as close to our dreams as was possible. And thanks to my Mom and Dad who both gave Dave and I the space to share the birth experience together, and was very present and supportive during key important moments. And most of all, thanks to my husband who was with me every step of the way (especially when racing to carry pots of boiling water across the house to fill the birthing tub) and who even managed to stomach cutting the cord. I am truly blessed. I was prepared for the first few weeks as a mother to be challenging, but was not prepared for how gentle, joyful, and blissful they could be as we nested at home as a new family. The homebirth experience was wonderful in that it allowed me to "do my thing" during labor and delivery, but what was even more wonderful was the care and I support I felt after the delivery. Dave was there every step of the way (who knew breastfeeding could be a 2 person job?) and I felt like there was a team of people helping me to be successful as a mother, and for that I will always be grateful.


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The Benefits of Being Outside
Gardeners have known it for the longest time: Communing with nature is a beneficial and healthy endeavor.
Now there's research to back it up. According to a recent study at Virginia Tech University, "A view of trees may reduce the recovery time in the hospital after surgery by almost a full day."
Other studies show that spending time outside in a garden positively affects a person's emotions and improves a sense of well-being. Access to nature balances circadian rhythms, lowers blood pressure, reduces stress and increases absorption of Vitamin D.
There's even a name for it: horticultural therapy, and it has become a method of recovery, both physical and mental, for Alzheimer's patients; the physically handicapped; injured or ill patients; and troubled or abused children. Its benefits are now even being extended to young people with conditions such as autism and Down syndrome.
No one knows the value of gardening better than Pamela Buckman, the manager of The Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden at The New Orleans Museum of Art. She combines her knowledge of gardening with a Master's of Social Work to make sure those who visit and/or volunteer at the garden will always find a calming and satisfying experience.
The garden occupies approximately 5 acres in City Park adjacent to the museum, and this November it will celebrate its 10th anniversary. Credit goes to a team headed by architect Lee Ledbetter and his collaborator, landscape architect Brian Sawyer, for the success and tranquil beauty of this lovely oasis.
It started with a stand of 200-year-old live oaks at one end, a neglected camellia garden, which was once the Men's Camellia Collection at the other end, and a lagoon meandering smack-dab through the middle of it all. Looking at the now-peaceful landscape, it is difficult to visualize all the work that went into the substructure, which snakes underneath and through the site. It's amazing so many of the original oak and pine trees still grace the space.
The garden includes 63 sculptures, most of them donated to the museum by The Sydney and Walda Besthoff Foundation. The collection includes works by some of the great master sculptors of the 20th century, such as Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth, as well as works by Louisiana artists Ida Kohlmeyer and George Rodrigue.
"And though it is primarily the green of grass and bushes that serves as a backdrop to the sculptures, you can always find something blooming and something scented here," says Buckman. "In the spring, the irises are especially dramatic."
The ornamental plantings include white and purple blooming lilies of the Nile and two varieties of ginger. The ground cover is a combination of holly fern and Asian jasmine, and St. Augustine sod is used for all the lawn areas. A variety of aquatic plants at the lagoon's edge primarily consist of purple and yellow blooming varieties of the Louisiana irises, yellow flag irises, spider lilies, butterfly irises and horsetails.
Buckman loves all of her duties as garden manager, but working with volunteers is clearly one of her favorite tasks.
"Every day is different," she says. "Sometimes we need to do trimming, other days weeding or raking pine straw, but whatever they are doing, the volunteers are commingling with nature and getting dirty. The great thing about the garden is you can assign a task and volunteers can finish it, so they experience a visible measure of success. And there is always something to do – the weeds never take a vacation."
She also works with special groups such as court-ordered nonviolent offenders and clients from The Magnolia School, an organization that provides support to adults with intellectual and other developmental disabilities.
"We like the experience because it gives our clients such a fulfilling feeling," says Nancy Santolucito, horticulture trainer at the school.
Magnolia also has a therapeutic garden on its campus, accessible to clients who use wheelchairs, walkers or canes. The raised-bed garden is a haven for residents, staff and visitors.
"Our clients also help out at Longue Vue's garden and at the zoo," Santolucito says. "Being out in nature offers them a deep sense of well-being."
And if that's not enough therapy, Buckman has joined forces with East Jefferson General Hospital's Wellness Center to offer yoga and tai chi classes. Yoga class is available the first, second and third Saturday of every month in the garden at 8 a.m., and tai chi happens either in the gallery or garden on Mondays from 6 to 7 p.m. The fee is $5 per class and is free to Wellness Center and NOMA members.
When all the therapeutic factors of gardening are combined, one easily sees that gardening truly benefits the body, heart and soul. Gardening constantly reminds us that we are capable of nurturing and cultivating the earth, and through that endeavor we can find true peace and happiness.


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Cleveland (cities, United States)
Cleveland:1 City (1990 pop. 505,616), seat of Cuyahoga co., NE Ohio, on Lake Erie at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River; laid out (1796) by Moses Cleaveland, chartered as a city 1836. Ohio's second largest city and the center of the state's largest metropolitan area, it is an ore port and a Great Lakes shipping point. In spite of a dramatic decline in manufacturing, Cleveland remains to some extent dependent on heavy industry, including steel milling and the manufacture of engines, guided missiles, and space vehicles. There are numerous research firms; the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has a large center here, and the headquarters of the lighting division and the Lighting and Electrical Institute of the General Electric Company is in nearby Nela Park. Cleveland also houses some of the nation's largest law firms. The biomedical industry is the fastest growing segment of Cleveland's economy, in large part because of the presence of the Cleveland Clinic, a world-famous research and treatment facility and the city's largest employer.
Cleveland is the seat of Case Western Reserve Univ., Cleveland State Univ., John Carroll Univ., Notre Dame College, the Cleveland Institute of Art, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and several other colleges and seminaries. Visitors are drawn to the Mall (civic center); the Terminal Tower and Public Square; the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame; the Western Reserve Historical Society Museum; the museum of natural history, with a planetarium; Wade Park, with the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Fine Arts Garden; Rockefeller Park, enclosing the Shakespeare and Cultural Gardens; Severance Hall, where concerts of the internationally famous Cleveland Orchestra are performed; the Cleveland zoo; and an aquarium. The city also has a notable public library. The Cleveland Plain Dealer is a nationally known newspaper. In Lake View Cemetery are the graves of James A. Garfield, Mark Hanna (who made his fortune in Cleveland), John Hay, and John D. Rockefeller.
Cleveland grew rapidly after the opening of the first section of the Ohio and Erie Canal in 1827 and the arrival of the railroad in 1851. With its factories it attracted large numbers of 19th-century immigrants, including Irish, Germans, Italians, Poles, Czechs, Hungarians, and many others. Its location midway between the coal and oil fields of Pennsylvania and (via the Great Lakes) the Minnesota iron mines spurred industrialization; it was here that John D. Rockefeller began his oil dynasty. Cleveland's African-American community was formed largely by migration from the South after World War I.
The city was plagued during the 1960s by racial disorders, especially in the Hough and Glenville sections. In 1967, Cleveland became the first major U.S. city to elect a black mayor, Carl B. Stokes. As industry rapidly declined from the 1960s, the city went through a period of Rust Belt decay; numerous factories shut down and people and businesses moved to the suburbs. Cleveland's population declined 44% between 1950 and 1990. In 1979, the city declared bankruptcy after defaulting on $15.5 million in municipal loans. In the 1980s, however, Cleveland attracted investment downtown and revitalized some sections, and the 1990s saw the opening of Jacobs Field (for baseball's Indians), Gund Arena (for basketball's Cavaliers), Browns Stadium (for football's Browns), the Great Lakes Science Center, and the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame as well as the restoration of three historic downtown shopping arcades.
See E. J. Benton, Cultural Story of an American City: Cleveland (3 vol., 1943–46); G. E. Condon, Yesterday's Cleveland (1976); F. Thompson, The Workers Who Built Cleveland (1987).
2 City (1990 pop. 30,354), seat of Bradley co., SE Tenn.; inc. 1838. Agriculture (fruits, vegetables, wheat) is the economic mainstay, but a variety of products, including furniture, chemicals, and textiles, are manufactured. Lee College is there. Cleveland is headquarters of the Cherokee National Forest.


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This is from Fox News.
Why do you need an occupational license to give away water?
Why do you need to register for sales tax for free water?
Government out of control.
A Louisiana church was ordered to stop giving away free water along Mardi Gras parade routes because they did not have the proper permits.
"We were given a cease and desist order," said Matt Tipton, pastor of Hope Church in Metairie, LA. "We had no idea we were breaking the law.
Tipton said volunteers from his church were handing out free coffee and free bottles of water at two locations along a Mardi Gras parade route when they were stopped by Jefferson Parish officials. The church volunteers were cited for failing to secure an occupational license and for failure to register for a sales tax.
"It kind of threw me for a loop because they weren't in uniform," he said. "But once they pulled the ticket out, I was conviniced."
"We apologized," Tipton said. "We didn't know the rules."
The church had purchased about five thousand bottles of water labeled with the church's name and website address. They gave the remaining bottles to a local drug rehab center.
A spokesman for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office confirmed to Fox News that the church had violated the law.
The spokesman said the church was initially given a verbal warning – and then a written warning. He said it was not a citation – even though the warning clearly stated it was a "vendor warning citation."
The sheriff's department said there was "no validity to their complaint whatever their complaint may be."
Ken Klukowski, a senior legal fellow at the Family Research Council, said the citation was absurd.
"This is a perfect example of why so many people have a problem with big government," Klukowski said. "The idea that a church needs a permit to hand out water to thirsty people is unfortunate."
He said it's hard to believe that the government would get in the way of citizens helping each other out – "especially a church which was just doing its duty to be good Samaritans and help those in need."
Pastor Tipton said he sent an email to city leaders explaining that they were just trying to show their love to the city "and to serve the city."
He offered to provide volunteers to clean up trash or even clean portable toilets. However, city leaders did not initially respond and Tipton said he was given the runaround – told to go through three different department heads.
Klukowski said the incident is outrageous.
"The idea that you need an additional level of bureaucracy stopping a church from showing kindness to members of the community is a perfect example of a waste of taxpayer money and resources," he said.


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Bicentennial Park is located approximately 16 kilometres outside downtown Sydney and is the perfect spot for a picnic on the grassy shore of Lake Belvedere. But before you eat, build up your appetite with a nice walk, or hire a bicycle for a ride through the beautiful environment. The park also attracts bird watchers who enjoy walking along the wooden walkways through the mangroves.
The park is fairly new: it was created in 1988 to celebrate Australia's 200th anniversary. The swamps around the Parramatta River have been designated a nature reserve and the nearby waste dump has been transformed into a leisure area. In preparation for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, the Olympic village and stadium were built right next to the park. Today, this park is a beloved outdoor destination for people of all ages.
"Borrow an electric barbecue at café Lilies on the Park"


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Cookeville, Tenn.- The Maryville College Scots took on NCAA Division I foe Tennessee Tech on Thursday evening in front of over 7,000 fans at Tech's Overall Field. The Eagles set the pace early and often beating the Scots 56-7 for MC's first Division I challenge since 1979.
The Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles struck fast and furious scoring in their first four consecutive possessions. Tech quarterback Tre Lamb connected on a 24-yard score to Tim Benford in the first minute of the contest. Eagle running back Dontey Gay finished off a 67-yard drive with a 19-yard dash to pay dirt. Maryville native Zach Sharp's pair of PAT's made the score 14-0 with less than five minutes off the clock.
Lamb connected again with Benford for a 71 yard scoring pass with 6:13 left in the first quarter. Tech's fourth possession resulted in a seven play, 76 yard scoring drive. Ron Durbin recovered a completed pass fumbled at the Scots five yard line and took it to the house. At the end of the first period Tennessee Tech paced the Scots by a 28-0 mark.
The second quarter began with a Travis Adkins interception of MC quarterback Tim Conner. Adkins' second career pick resulted in a 11-yard TD scamper. Tech finished the first half with Lamb's 4th TD pass of the half. The signal caller connected with senior Charlie Stevens as time expired for a 38 yard score. At the half Maryville trailed 42-0.
MC's Conner saw his first pass attempt intercepted by Tech's Corey Watson. Watson crossed the goal line with a 38 yard return and Tech took a 49-0 advantage.
With 7:10 remaining in the third quarter Tech quarterback Darian Stone used a keeper around the right corner to cross the end zone from 74 yards away. The Eagles used Sharp's PAT to make the score 56-0.
The fourth quarter began with a strong Maryville offensive drive. Trailing 56-0 MC tried a fourth down and one, but Tech's defense stopped the Scots at the 22 yard line.
MC drove to a first and goal in the final four minutes after a long sustained drive. Tim Conner scrambled on a third down from three yards out to give MC their first score. The 14-play, 81 yard drive took 6:16 and Andrew Noboa's PAT made the score 56-7 with 2:45 remaining.
Tennessee Tech (1-1) finished with 566 combined offensive yards. Dontey Gay tallied 155 yards rushing averaging 8.2 yards on 19 carries. Quarterback Tre Lamb was 11-for-14 for 222 passing yards and four touchdown tosses. His favorite target was Tim Benford who hauled in six passes for 131 yards and a pair of scores. Tra'Dariu Goff paced the Eagle defense with eight total tackles.
Maryville (0-2) was paced offensively by Travis Felder's 71 yards rushing. Tim Conner was 13-for-22 for 108 yards while Jake Crawford went 9-for-20 via the air for 51 passing yards. Wesley Idlette pulled in seven passes for a team-high 54 yards receiving. Defensive backs Kane Crowell and Bud Christy led MC's defense with 11 total tackles each. Christy tied M's career interception mark with 13 picks following a second quarter interception and 20-yard return, his second pick of the season.
The Scots will take to the road on September 17 when they travel to LaGrange, Georgia to challenge the Panthers of LaGrange College.


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It's not until after his mother has died that Oliver (Ewan McGregor), that his father, Hal (Christopher Plummer), announces that he's gay and dying of cancer.
We don't waste our time on anything not worth your time. We celebrate the best of what's coming on film and TV. We cheer when our expectations are met and criticize when we're let down.


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This is a question directed at Jim of Seaward.
Back in November I posted a couple of questions on the support section, and ended up speaking to one of your engineers. He understood exactly where I was looking for the firmware to go, and said he would get a new release with my suggestions added. I just wonder if things are progressing - and when a release is due. My suggestions were:-
1. On a failure of a test (normally earth bond because you have not found a good earth) the tester enters the failure menu..... but the default option is "Fail appliance". The most likely default option in my view would be to "Re-test". I know the option is there, it just means the you have to scroll up two every time you try with a new earth connection, and when on your back, under a desk etc that is not the easiest thing to do!!
2. According to the manual for the Europa+, it is possible to set up to test a multiway extension "Automatically".
All I seem to be able to do is to perform multiple Earth continuity tests - followed by multiple Insulation tests. It also seems I can only ever do one polarity test.
My requirement is to test a home made trunking with one chassis plug to many chassis sockets. Each is wired using 3 core flex within the trunking - so each socket should be tested individually as the potential to get crossed/loose wires exists for each socket! Therefore the ideal would be to be able to perform one of each (including polarity)- repetatively moving the plug on each test, not do all the earth bond, then go back to socket 1 and do the insulation tests,
Is this still work in progress? If so, when do the support guys see having this released? The reason for the prompt is that these items are soon to be re-tested and I want to make my life easier if it is ready.


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RSA Academies' Teaching School Alliance
Modern Languages (2VKG)
PGCE with QTS full time with salary
- Accredited body
- Birmingham City University
- Financial support
- Salary
- Qualification
PGCE with QTS
A postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE) with qualified teacher status (QTS) allows you to teach in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It's also recognised internationally.
Many PGCE courses include credits that count toward a Master's degree.
- Course length
- 1 year
- Date you can apply from
- 9 October 2018
- Date course starts
- September 2019
- Website
- http://www.rsaacademiesteachingschool.org.uk/
- Vacancies
- No
About the course
Our Teaching School Alliance is led by three outstanding schools, all of which are designated National Teaching Schools: Arrow Vale RSA Academy in Redditch; Holyhead School in Birmingham; and Whitley Academy in Coventry. We also work in partnership with the RSA, and with secondary and primary schools across the region, driving forward action research projects, undertaking innovations in teaching and optimising the talents and commitment of our staff to develop creative ways of providing education. We try where possible to ensure links to the RSA are interleaved into your training programme.
The training programmes start with your school experience and will comprise of two contrasting teaching experiences over the course of the year, this will ensure you have access to a range of teaching strategies. All trainees will also attend subject and professional studies sessions which are spread throughout the year, these are delivered within an RSA School or at BCU campus. The programme combines both academic based assignments and the practical teaching experience. The assignments range from professional studies to subject specific and trainees are able to submit at master's level. You will complete three assignments throughout the year. The last assignment is a research project and we have employed a specialist to deliver the Design Thinking Module to support completion of this project, this is unique to RSA Academies' Teaching School Alliance. This year 75% of secondary trainees passed at Grade 1 and we have a completion rate of 90%. We offer a multi level support structure, to allow trainees access to a wide network of support.
School Direct is a school-based approach to teacher training, which enables you to experience the life of a 'real' teacher as you will be based in school from the very start of your training. We are working in partnership with Birmingham City University (BCU), and on successful completion of the course, you will be awarded a postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE with QTS) with the opportunity to obtain additional Masters' credits.
Interview process
The RSA Academies' Teaching School Alliance and BCU will check all applications. Those applicants meeting the entry criteria will be shortlisted and invited for interview which will involve:
A range of tests and activities to test suitability for teaching
*A formal interview which will consist of a three person on the panel asking a series of questions, covering a variety of topics
*A short interaction with students. This will include a teaching element of up to 30 minutes
*A 30 minute written task. Applicants will be given material to study relating to the task before the interview
Once all applicants have been interviewed, the Director of ITT and representatives from the TSA will meet to discuss the outcome of the interviews, and begin to match up potentially successful applicants the allocations available.
Once a list of selected applicants have been finalised, a provisional offer will be made in writing. This offer is provisional until several checks and agreements have been made.
These include:
*References (if not already done)
*Physical & mental fitness to teach
*Verification of qualifications (if not already done)
*Skills tests
All applicants applying to start a teacher training course are required to pass literacy and numeracy skills tests prior to entry/enrolment. We will interview you prior to tests being completed. Any offers made will be conditional on passing these tests.
How school placements work
Unlike other Teaching Alliances, we are led by three outstanding schools each of which are located in different areas within the West Midlands, within the family of schools, we can offer training in Birmingham, Dudley, Coventry, Redditch (South Birmingham). Our training facilities in each of our schools are leading edge and comprehensive to ensure all training needs are met. We also offer specialist training through the large variety of specialisms across, not only our lead schools, but also our strategic partners. During your training year, you will undertake two high quality school placements across our Teaching School Alliance.
You will have the opportunity of teaching all age ranges, including Post 16 and have access to teach a second subject to broaden your teaching knowledge and skills - this could be solo teaching or team teaching. You will spend a majority of your training in your host school, Sep - July. You will also undertake a second placement between Jan - Feb for a duration of 6 weeks. During this time you will also undertake a day in a Primary School setting. Our programme ensures you experience all key stages and have the opportunity to develop subject knowledge in a second subject.
Salaried Trainees are paid at Unqualified Point 1
Financial support
Financial support isn't available for this course because it comes with a salary.
If you choose a course without a salary, you may be eligible for financial support while you study, including bursaries, scholarships and loans.
First degree of a UK Higher Education Institution or equivalent qualification. A 2:1 is desirable but not essential; we will consider a lower class degree if applicants have sufficient subject/classroom experience.
Secondary candidates should note at least 50% of their subject knowledge at degree level should match the subject/s taught.
*All entrants have achieved a standard equivalent grade C in English language and literature, mathematics and science.
* All entrants hold a First degree of a United Kingdom Higher Education Institution or equivalent qualification (including overseas qualifications)
*All entrants hold suitable qualifications in their chosen subject area.
Personal qualities
We are looking for people who have the right personal qualities and potential to be a passionate and committed teacher to improve the outcomes for the young people we work with. While extensive experience of working with young people is not essential, it is often found that the strongest applicants are those who have shown an interest in working with young people.
We are looking for :
*Excellent communication and organisational skills
*Commitment to working hard
*Ability to establish good working relationships
*Confidence and ability to engage with children
*Commitment to a professional team
*Commitment to excellence in education
Other requirements
All entrants have provided suitable references, and have been subject to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).
For applicants that have studied outside the United Kingdom must check their qualifications with NARIC (National Academic Recognition Information Centre) before making an application to confirm that their qualifications are of an equivalent level to UK GCSEs A Levels and undergraduate degrees.
For more information visit:www.naric.org.uk
Must be able to demonstrate an ability to communicate clearly and grammatically in spoken and written Standard English.
About the training provider
RSA Academies' Teaching School Alliance and Birmingham City University are proud to be working together to provide an innovative and creative route into teaching. We provide trainee teachers with the opportunities they need to become creative and inspirational leaders of learning who will motivate and engage all learners, thus producing highly skilled graduate teachers who have an in-depth knowledge and understanding of teaching and learning,
You will enjoy a bespoke programme of training, our programmes are designed to build your confidence and subject knowledge as well as providing you with the necessary skills to become an effective classroom practitioner.
We strongly believe in school-led training because we can support you to become the very best practitioners, and in turn transform students' outcomes through challenging and stimulating teaching. We provide one-to-one support and access to a comprehensive and tailored CPD package, which will ensure you are fully supported during your training year and for your professional development.
Working within the RSA brings endless opportunities and brings unique benefits. There is strong encouragement and support for teachers as researchers, who are encouraged to try out new things and share their findings.
Unlike other Teaching Alliances, we are led by three outstanding schools and can offer training in Birmingham, Dudley, Coventry, Redditch (South Birmingham). Our training facilities in each of our schools are leading edge and comprehensive to ensure all training needs are met.
75% trainees passed at Grade 1 and a completion rate of 90%
Why train with us- (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sswl1BJEuW0)
Training with disabilities and other needs
We provide one-to-one support and access to a comprehensive and tailored CPD package, which will ensure you are fully supported during your training year and for your professional development.
RSA Academies' Teaching School Alliance support equal opportunities in recruitment of our trainees.
Contact details
- firstname.lastname@example.com
- Telephone
- 0121 523 1960
- Website
- http://www.rsaacademiesteachingschool.org.uk/
- Address
Milestone Lane
West Midlands
Support and advice
For questions about this course you should contact the training provider using the contact details above.
Get support and advice about teaching
Register with Get into Teaching, the Department for Education's free support and advice service, for personalised guidance from teaching experts. They can help you to prepare your application, book school experience, and access exclusive teaching events. You can also call them free on 0800 389 2500, or speak to an adviser using their online chat service, from 8am to 8pm, Monday to Friday.
Website support
If you have feedback or have had a problem using Find postgraduate teacher training you can contact us by email.
Is there something wrong with this page?
If there is something wrong with this course listing, contact us by email.


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Our dogs, our cats and all animals fill each of us with their boundless love, their playfulness and their enduring joy. When they leave us to cross the Rainbow Bridge, they take a piece of our heart with them. That piece of the heart is filled with the memories of the times we shared together.
We crafted this custom bracelet as a constant reminder of the times we shared together with our furry loved ones. The Sterling Silver heart charm represents the piece of our heart that will always be with our furry loved one. And, the sterling silver paw charm will be a constant reminder of the joy and fun they brought to our lives.
Made from solid Sterling Silver 925 and Rhodochrosite (light pink with white striations) stones (4mm), this keepsake will probably be one of your favorite items at Hendrick & Co. The Sterling Silver box chain bracelet measures 6.5 inches in length and is extendable up to 8 inches.
The Sterling Silver Memorial Bracelet is a keepsake that will not only last a lifetime, but it will also give a new life to an animal in need, in your pet's honor. Your pet can make a lasting impact in saving another animal.
Please expect a 5-10 day turnaround on all shipments.


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PDXScholar, a service of Portland State University Library, provides access to a diverse collection of academic, scholarly, scientific and creative content produced by faculty, students and staff. PDXScholar increases the visibility of authors' works, maximizes research impact, facilitates interdisciplinary research, and provides regional and global communities with immediate and permanent access.
Browse Research and Scholarship
Schools, Colleges, and Departments
Research Centers, Institutes, and Collaborations
PDXOpen: Open Access Textbooks
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Faculty Profiles (SelectedWorks)
Dissertations and Theses
Visit any of the disciplines in the Digital Commons Network™
Architecture •
Arts and Humanities •
Business •
Education •
Engineering •
Law •
Life Sciences
Medicine and Health Sciences • Physical Sciences and Mathematics • Social and Behavioral Sciences


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Theater Managers:
Old Greenbelt Theatre
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Greenbelt, MD 20770
Message: 301-329-2034 more »
Opened on September 21, 1938. It closed as a movie theater in 1976, but was used as a community arts center from 1980-1987. P&G Theatres, Inc. took over and reopened the movie theater in 1990. It closed under the name Old Greenbelt Theatre in May 2014.
It reopened May 1, 2015 as a non-profit operation under the management of Friends of Greenbelt Theatre (FGT).
The Marquee > Search > Owner/Operator > Friends of Greenbelt Theatre
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This movie theater is near Greenbelt, Lanham Seabrook, Lanham, Sthrn MD Fac, Southern MD Facility, Berwyn Hts, College Park, Berwyn Heights, Seabrook, Glenarden, Beltsville.
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text:
Most sane people keep a drawer full of delivery menus for the sole purpose of...ordering delivery. I too have a menu drawer, but can count on two hands the number of times I have actually ordered delivery in the past few years.
Call me a bad New Yorker. I'm pretty good with picking up takeout while out somewhere, but dialing from home is another story. Being so dangerously close to the kitchen, I usually wind up studying the menu for half an hour, choosing an entree, then deciding, screw this, I can make the same dish, except way better.
This hubris usually leads me to spend another couple of hours ransacking my cabinets, schlepping to the grocery store, figuring out a strategy, then executing it. Even if it is already past 9pm and I'm starving. Sure, it would have been easier and about 1 hour and 50 minutes faster to just call the damn Golden Panda Dynasty, but definitely not as satisfying. Or so I tell myself.
I wonder if delivery menu one-upmanship can be classified as a psychological disorder.
On the bright side, I can now whip up many MSG-free versions of takeout favorites, like General Tso's chicken, sweet and sour pork, and orange sesame chicken. This week was lemon chicken's turn. Sure, lemon chicken also exists as a dish in mainland China, but usually steamed, almost like Hainan chicken, with slices of lemon on top. Which is good in its own respect, but sometimes you just want a crunchy exterior.
So try this lemon chicken recipe and see how it compares. The sauce incorporates a little sautéed garlic and ginger, chicken broth, some lemon juice and zest, and enough sugar to balance out the tartness.
Let me know what you think!
Chinese Lemon Chicken
Serves 4
- 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs, cut into 1-inch cubes
- 1 teaspoon white sesame seeds
- 1 1/2 cups cornstarch
- 3 cups peanut or vegetable oil, plus 1 tablespoon for stir-frying
- Lemon slices (optional)
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 2 large egg whites
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 tablespoon minced ginger
- 1/4 cup chicken stock
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch, dissolved in 1 tablespoon water
- Marinate the chicken: In a medium bowl, combine the soy sauce, sesame oil, and egg whites. Add the chicken and stir gently to coat. Let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes.
- In a small dry pan, toast the sesame seeds for about 1 minute, or until they become lightly brown and aromatic. Transfer to a dish and set aside.
- Spread the 1 1/2 cups of cornstarch in a large bowl or deep plate. Toss the chicken cubes in the cornstarch and shake off any excess before frying.
- Heat the peanut oil in a wok or heavy-bottomed pot until it registers 350 degrees F on an instant-read oil thermometer. Working in 2 or 3 batches, add the chicken cubes and fry until lightly golden on the outside and cooked through, about 3 minutes. Remove the chicken with a slotted spoon and drain on a plate lined with paper towels. (Optional: To get the chicken extra-crispy, allow the chicken to drain and cool for about 5 minutes, then return the chicken to the wok to fry for another 30 seconds, until golden brown.)
- Transfer the oil to a heat-proof container. (It will take about 1 hour to fully cool, after which you can transfer it to a container with a tight lid to dispose of it.) If you used a wok to deep-fry, you can reuse it to make the sauce next by just wiping down the insides with a paper towel. If you used a heavy-bottomed pot for deep-frying, switch to a clean wok or large skillet.
- Prepare the sauce: Heat the wok or skillet over medium-high heat until a bead of water sizzles and evaporates on contact. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon peanut oil and swirl to coat the bottom. Add the garlic and ginger and cook briefly until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the chicken stock, lemon juice, lemon zest, soy sauce, and sugar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved and simmer until the liquid is reduced by half. Stir in the cornstarch mixture to thicken the sauce.
- Remove from the heat and toss the fried chicken in the sauce. Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with the toasted sesame seeds and lemon slices (if using).
First posted July 23, 2010. Updated June 5, 2013.


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No it isn't for just oh so very many reasons. It's... It's just really really not. This isn't the thread for "why" but if you want to Pm or get a new thread I'll run you through the myriad of reasons.
Daesh continues trying to make themselves as reprehensible as possible to as many people as possible by telling soldiers to kill babies with Down's Syndrome and other mental disabilities.
It seems like with every passing day they really become more and more like the old Nazi regime.
Tyranny works from the same playbook no matter what hat it's wearing this time around.
I know that Couch's lawyer made that "spoiled too rotten for his own good" argument during the trial, but was that really taken into account when he was sentenced to probation? What I've read about him going AWOL doesn't dwell on the judge's decision behind the sentencing.
Karma.Martin Skreli, the self-proclaimed "most eligible bachelor in the world" who jacked up the price of Daraprim from $14 to $750, has been arrested for securities violations and running a ponzi scheme. Enjoy your SEC probing, Skreli.
Meanwhile, in Poland, the Constitutional Tribunal crisis continues...The government relented and printed the CT's ruling that says that the three judges that had been chosen by the previous parliament need to be sworn in. Still, the president continues to refuse to do. Meanwhile, in the parliament, Law & Justice MPs are pushing with yet another change to the laws pertaining to the CT! Some lawyers (including our Ombudsman, as well as the Supreme Court) are already warning that these new laws might actually completely block the CT from making any rulings in the future...BTW. Check this out:These are our president's fans awaiting his arrival for a ceremony commemorating the 1970 massacre of workers by the Communist government. Do you know what the central sign says?"Mr President, blessed is the womb that birthed you and the breasts you sucked from."Seriously.
Failing to live up to your campaign promises, a staple of modern 'democracy'?
Or if he suddenly breaks into a Kenny G tune they know they've maimed his taste center.
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