text: Skin Cancer Basics By M Jason Hancey MD May 30, 2013 Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in the United States. More than 2 million people were diagnosed with skin cancer in 2010. This number is larger than all other cancers combined, and the incidence is increasing rapidly. Read More


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These cookies fell apart and were hard to scrape off the sheet, even after generous greasing.
Bev's Chocolate Chip Cookies
From EatingWell: Spring 2004, The Essential EatingWell Cookbook (2004), July/August 2012
EatingWell reader Beverley Sharpe of California contributed this recipe. She updated a favorite treat by cutting back on sugar and incorporating whole grains. To increase protein, she replaces the rolled oats with 1 cup almond meal.
179 Reviews for Bev's Chocolate Chip Cookies
I used 1/4 cup almond meal, 1/2 cup lightly ground rolled oats, the reest whole wheat flour, and spends for the white sugar and I added dried cranberries for half of the choc chips-they were delicious but I would like them to be less crumbly and a little more chewy, anyone have a healthy suggestion to accomplish that texture?
Avocado oil is best and rice bran.Nice recipe!
Avocado oil is best and rice bran.Nice recipe!
Thanks Bev for a delicious cookie recipe. It is nice to offer kids a favourite cookie with an improved ingredient list that the kids find even more delicious than the standard/typical recipe. This will be a new regular in our house. (I did bake them for 11 minutes only.)

subset: commoncrawl


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What is, in your opinion, the most surprising, weird, strange or really "WTF" language feature you have encountered?
Please only one feature per answer.
We started with Q&A. Technical documentation is next, and we need your help.
Whether you're a beginner or an experienced developer, you can contribute.
What is, in your opinion, the most surprising, weird, strange or really "WTF" language feature you have encountered?
Please only one feature per answer.
locked by Will May 1 '13 at 21:13
This question exists because it has historical significance, but it is not considered a good, on-topic question for this site, so please do not use it as evidence that you can ask similar questions here. This question and its answers are frozen and cannot be changed. More info: help center.
In Scala, there are no operators, just methods. So
All ASCII letters have the lowest precedence, but all non-ASCII (unicode) characters have the highest precedence. So if you wrote a method
And, just to top off the WTF of operators in Scala, all methods ending in
In PHP, a string is as good as a function pointer:
Unfortunately, this doesn't work:
In JavaScript the result of a method can depend upon the style braces are placed. This is the K&R style, where braces are placed right after the method signature and after a return statement:
Now, if I format this code to the Allman style, where braces are always placed on a new line, the result is different:
How come? In JavaScript the language places automatically semicolons at the end of each line if you won't do it yourself. So what really happened in the last code fragment was this:
So if you'd call
Other weird things:
In C++ overriding a virtual method hides all other overloads of that method. In Java this does not happen. This is very annoying. Example: http://codepad.org/uhvl1nJp
In C++ if a base class has a public virtual method foo() and a subclass has a private method foo(), this private method overrides the other one! This way you can call what is a private method outside of the class just by casting the subclass object pointer to a superclass object pointer. This shouldn't be possible: it's a violation of encapsulation. The new method should not be treated as an override of the old one. Example: http://codepad.org/LUGSNPdh
In PHP you can define functions to accept typed parameters (e.g. objects that are subclasses of a certain interface/class), the annoying thing is that this way you cannot use NULL as the actual parameter value in this case. Example: http://codepad.org/FphVRZ3S
Some 20 years ago, when I last dabbled in MUMPS, the implementations had some curious limitations. While hosts MUMPS was becoming ever more popular, MUMPS was traditionally a self-hosted language: computer language, operating system and database in a single package.
MUMPS was essentially about its database. Essentially, a huge multidimensional hash table, supported by a B* tree that made for very fast access. There wasn't any barrier between the language and the database either: if you wanted something to be stored there, you just prefixed the variable with a symbol indicating it was to be persisted to the backing store.
On the other hand, a filesystem was almost non-existent, and support for it even less so. About the only thing one could do was to load a program into memory from a file, and send whatever was in memory back to a file. And one had better clear the buffer before loading, otherwise it would get mixed with whatever was there first.
So, considering its self-hosting nature and the extremely hostile file system, one could wonder how these programs were edited. The editors, as a matter of fact, were written in MUMPS itself -- so how could the editor store the program in memory without written over itself?
Well, the trick was the ability to execute the contents of a variable as source code. An editor, then, loaded itself into variables, executed itself in them, cleared the memory, and then loaded, saved and edited files in memory, all the time executing from variables.
Add to that the fact that all commands could be shortened to their first letters (except the Z commands, shortened to two letters, that mostly handled the filesystem), and curiosities like the fact that
In Ruby, 0 evaluates as true in conditional expressions.
The absolute worst WTF has got to be Cobol's ALTERED GOTO.
The syntax is pretty straight forward: "ALTER label1 TO GOTO label2", but the results of debugging run-time spaghetti are mind-boggling.
One of my favorites in C++ is the "public abstract concrete inline destructor":
I stole this from Scott Meyers in Effective C++. It looks a bit weird to see a method that's both pure virtual (which generally means "abstract") and implemented inline, but it's the best and most concise way I've found to ensure that an object is polymorphically destructed.
In C-like languages (including C itself), you can use the "goes down to" operator:
This will print the numbers from 19 to 0.
"Piet is an esoteric programming language designed by David Morgan-Mar, whose programs are bitmaps that look like abstract art."
Piet program that prints Piet
Well, this one's also my all-time-favorite hard to find bug... treating integers beginning with a zero as octal numbers. This led to a bug that would only show between 8 and 10 in the morning:
Once, I helped building an automated regression test to be executed via cron at night. It worked nearly for everyone in a 20 person team - expect one developper complained every once in a while the automatic test had failed, but when run manually, everything worked fine. Not even once this could be reproduced manually.
Well, the reason was, we did some calculation (in bash) for statistics based on the output of the date command, and this failed only from 8:00 till 9:59 in the morning because we'd read the hour value as "08" (which is an illegal octal value, whereas "01" - "07" are valid octal values, and from "10" onwards everything is treated as decimal again)...
JavaScript dates are full of WTF.
As an NHibernate enthusiast, I was thrilled when I heard about
it literally changes the a object into b, which makes it trivial to write lazy-initialized proxies because all references to a will now reference b. Pretty neat!
I think it qualifies as a strange language feature in that no other language has this ability to my knowledge.
In FoxPro, if I remember correctly, every command can be abbreviated to 4 characters and everything else is ignored, so READ, READY, READINESS is all the same - whatever is after the first 4 characters is ignored. The guy who explained it to me liked that feature, but I thought it was creepy.
Common Lisp's
In INTERCAL that is the only form of output you'll ever get.
In C, the
This allows one to write surprising code, to newcomers anyway. Note that no one in their right minds would actually do this:
This prints
For some real fun/confusion with
(The confusion is only if one is confused about arrays, pointers, and operators.)
Might have already been said (and maybe this isn't so strange to some) but I thought this was pretty cool:
In Javascript, declaring the parameters a function accepts is only a convenience to the programmer. All variables passed through the function call are accessible by the keyword "arguments". So the following would alert "world":
Note, that while it may seem like these arguments are stored in an array (since you can access object properties in much the same way as array elements), they are not.
Java caches Integer object instances in the range from -128 to 127. If you don't know this the following might be somewhat unexpected.
Being able to cast out of range ints to enums in C# is quite weird in my opinion. Imagine this enum:
Now, if you write:
The compiler thinks that's fine. And the runtime, too.
See here for more details.
x = x + 1
This was very difficult to digest when I was a beginner and now functional languages don't use it, which is even more difficult!
If you don't see how this is strange: Consider the equals sign as a statement of assertion instead of an assignment action, as you used to do in basic algebra, then this is the equivalent of saying "zero equals one".
It's possible to write a program consisting entirely of punctuation.
How does this even work?!
I'm surprised no one mentioned the REALLY ugly switch-case implementation in most C-like languages
The good thing is newer languages got it implemented right.
Ok, since question will be in intermittent mode, I'll join to the "fun"
Go ( aka Issue9 ) use of upper case for visibility:
Visible outside the package:
Not visible outside the package
You can find more in this original answer.
Here's a good bunch of strange C features: http://www.steike.com/code/useless/evil-c/
In JavaScript, seeing
The C++ templating mechanism is Turing-complete: As long as you don't need input at run time, you can do arbitrary calculations at compile time. Arbitrary. Or you can easily write a C++ program that never compiles - but is syntactically correct.
In Perl you can do:
Is this possible in other languages?
I like sneaking-in octal values in C:
This is one of my favorites, you can do a println in Java without main().
This will compile and run, giving the println, but also an exception (java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: main)
This may have been already mentioned, but --
PHP's handling of octal values:
See here: http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=29676
Also note the comments on the bug - Derick calls it a feature (as shown by quoting "fix"), not a bug and he claims it would "slow down PHP dramatically in all cases where numbers are used inside scripts" - but then, why does PHP raise an error for 0A?
I think one could make a whole book about the weirdness of PHP...


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Endurance exercise and metabolism are linked to transcriptional activation of human telomeres, researchers propose.
1 + 1 = 1
July 1, 2015|
Nutrient levels in soil don't add up when food chains combine.
July 1, 2015|
Nutrient levels in soil don't add up when food chains combine.
July 1, 2015|
Five species of waterfowl have evolved a variety of adaptations to adjust to the high altitude of South America's Lake Titicaca.
July 1, 2015|
Scientists mutate a mating pheromone and its corresponding receptor in yeast to promote speciation.
July 1, 2015|
Disease eradication in the 21st century
July 1, 2015|
July 2015's selection of notable quotes
June 25, 2015|
Researchers have found the New Guinea flatworm, one of the world's most invasive species, in Florida, putting native ecosystems at serious risk.
June 22, 2015|
A new study shows that kangaroos are predominantly left-handed.
June 12, 2015|
The predatory toxins employed by animals separated by millions of years of evolution are virtually identical, a study shows.
June 10, 2015|
Researchers in Africa observe chimpanzees stealing palm wine from villagers' cups and imbibing the beverage.
June 8, 2015|
Dubbed "Hellboy," the triceratops relative sports a bevy of horns on its crested cranium.


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Lions, Tigers and Bears ... no, really!posted by Thom on Friday December 30th 9:44am
We Bought a Zoo.
An intriguing movie where Matt Damon takes a break from bad guys and guns. Well, he gets a gun for a moment. The important thing is he doesn't use it.
Matt plays Benjamin... more »


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i cannot open the personalize option on windows vista, you know you right click the desktop and go into where you change your background, screensaver, or HOW LONG YOU CAN LEAVE YOUR COMPUTER BEFORE STAND BY... i do not have a vista disc or a restore disc. and making a restore disc now would be useless right?
need some help, vista broke...
which brand u r having. U can call customer support so that they will rectify ur problem ASAP
well the brand of laptop is toshiba. and now that you think of it i still have 2 years on the warranty. they should fix a problem like this right?
s. definitely they ll.


text: Swishex is open source so I suppose I could redevelop the Swishex component to use the new Swish-E library. Ugh. -----Original Message----- From: firstname.lastname@example.com [mailto:email@example.com]On Behalf Of email@example.com Sent: Tuesday, February 18, 2003 8:20 AM To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: [SWISH-E] Re: swishex setup I tried the SWISHEX component with little success also. I ended up using a free ASPEXEC component that lets me run executables from an ASP. I have it run the swish search with whatever terms the user inputs. Then you have to parse and format the results to display the way you want them to. Just something to consider. Chris Pedersen "Thomas McDonald" <tom.mcdonald@westernsouthe To: Multiple recipients of list <email@example.com> rnlife.com> cc: Sent by: Subject: [SWISH-E] Re: swishex setup email@example.com u 02/18/2003 08:05 AM Please respond to tom.mcdonald Do you think it would just be better to make my own "Swishex" type solution by doing all the CGI stuff myself and then writing some xsl to format. If so, do you know any good tutorials on how to do this (I have never connected to a cgi via an iis/vbscript/asp page? Should I avoid this headache and just use the older Swish-e library? -----Original Message----- From: email@example.com [mailto:email@example.com]On Behalf Of Bill Moseley Sent: Friday, February 14, 2003 6:28 PM To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: [SWISH-E] Re: swishex setup On Fri, 14 Feb 2003, Thomas McDonald wrote: > I was able to successfully set up the Swishex demo. I then copied in my own > index files to replace the ones distributed with swishex and I started to > get the "server threw and exception" error. Any ideas on what went wrong? > I know my index files are good because I can search them from the command > prompt. My guess is the COM component is linked to an imcompatible swish-e library for your index. Make sure you index with the exact version of swish-e that swishex was linked against. http://www.octopod.net/technews/Articles/SwishEXComponent.html says it's based on Swish-E 2.0.5. 2.0.5 is old and much slower than the current version. -- Bill Moseley email@example.com on Tue Feb 18 13:39:20 2003


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I want to try to read a book a week for 12 weeks beginning this summer. I have already began collecting recommendations for which books to read, and I will refine the list at some point, to get the list to 12.
My question is, how can I approach this goal so as to complete it successfully? I have a tendency to pick up books and not quite finish them for a while, so the goal is not just to strike 12 books off a list, but to try to change that habit.
Also I think its a good opportunity to get a good sense of my reading speed, what is a good way to measure this across multiple books?


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HOW DOES IT WORK? All new applications for the project types listed above must be submitted via our web-based permit tracking system, Accela Citizen Access. Customers can log-in to the system and create their own applications for a new plan review, and then simply attach PDFs of site plans to that application before submitting. For more information on the process, visit Accela Citizen Access and log-in with your username and password. Review fees must be paid for new applications using cash, check (payable to "City of Charlotte"), or an established Mecklenburg County account. Once fees are received by City Land Development, the plan review can proceed. Utilizing on-screen comment & markup software, plan reviewers can do a simultaneous EPLAN review within the typical review timeframe. The applicant will receive an auto-generated email from the Accela system that lets them know when the reviewers' comments are available for download from Accela Citizen Access. The customer can then upload/attach their re-submittals of plans and calculations to the project record in Accela Citizen Access - a notification is generated to staff and this will begin the next round of review. Once all reviews are complete and the plans are approved by all reviewers, the PDF will be electronically stamped "approved" and attached as a permanent archive copy to the project record in the Accela permitting software (visit Accela Citizen Access).
Mecklenburg County Code Enforcement also accepts submittals of commercial plans for electronic plan review within their jurisdiction. Their process is similar to the City Land Development EPLAN Review process but it is a completely different system. Please visit the Mecklenburg County Code Enforcement website for Electronic Plan Review for more information.
Please read the Requirements and FAQ below for more information on how to use EPLANs!
What type of Plan can I submit as an EPLAN?What electronic format can I submit my EPLANs in?How do I track the status of my EPLAN review?Can I submit a Revision to a Previously Approved Plan?
What type of plan can I submit as an EPLAN?All residential and commercial subdivisions and commercial site development plans are required to be submitted as electronic plans now. In addition, subdivision sketch plans and plats, as-builts, and grading plans are to be EPLANs. (top)
What electronic format can I submit my EPLANs in?Currently to utilize the EPLAN Review process we require that you submit your plans in PDF format (to scale). It is critical that the submittal meets the NCBELS rules and regulations for electronically submitted plans. The simplest way to meet these rules is to ensure that your plans are plotted, signed and sealed by a professional, scanned, and saved to PDF format. (top)
How do I track the status of my EPLAN review?You should continue to use ACCELA Citizen Access to track the status of your plan. Please visit Accela Citizen Access at http://aca.accela.com/charlotte/ and utilize the "Search Applications" feature to find the detailed entry for your project. (top)
Can I submit a Revision to a Previously Approved Plan?Yes, simply select that category when you create a new on-line Application in Accela Citizen Access, and submit the proper review fee for a revision. Because there is no "insert" or "slipsheet" process required with EPLANs, the revision to the plan should include the entire plan set - not just select revised sheets. (top)What notification do I receive when the plan is approved, and will I get the plans sent back to me?When all reviewers have approved an EPLAN, they will sign off in the Accela permitting system accordingly. If the plan review is finalized and no additional reviews are needed (i.e. NCDOT driveway permit review), the PDF plans including Acrobat approval stamps added will be available to the applicant (and the general public) as an attachment to the Accela permit record for the project as a related document. The Applicant for the project will receive an automated e-mail to let them know the plans are approved and available. (top)


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2-Pack London Fog Umbrellas - Large, 52" Wide for $19.99 + free shipping
London Fog is known the world over for their high quality weather busting apparel and accessories. And when it comes to umbrellas you need something durable, easy to open and large enough for full protection. This 2-PACK from London Fog is everything you will ever need in an umbrella. And because you get two you can always keep an extra handy at work, in your car or wherever you might be suddenly surprised by the rain. Why pay the same price for just one when you can get two?
nuts & bolts
Auto Open Sport
Dk Green/Black/Desert
100% Polyester
Drawstring Carrying Pouch
Auto Open
what's in the box
2 - London Fog Umbrellas, Each with a Drawstring Carrying Pouch, New With Tags
5 Comments add a comment
Where does it say it's 52"? I'm tempted to buy two sets, but only if they are ACTUALLY oversized.
@kexline: It seems to be implied by the URL.
But you're right, it's not in the actual item description.
No, it's there...
Auto Open Sport
Dk Green/Black/Desert
100% Polyester
Drawstring Carrying Pouch
52" Wide
This is perfect. My wife and I both need new umbrellas since recent windy storms busted the hell out of our current ones..
@kexline, @designgrrl and @firefox91: When I posted this about 7:00 this morning (Woot Central Time), I copied and pasted exactly what it said. At that time the last line of the description was "Auto Open." The folks over at DealGenius must have been watching your comments and changed it to read "52" Wide" as it does now. Not the first time I've seen a vendor there be responsive to our posts over here! Pretty cool!
DEAD...Sold Out


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Up one level: Hawaii


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Folding Deck Chair with Aluminum Frame, White-Poplar - Wise Boat Seats
This item is found in the following Product Families
Wise Folding Deck Chairs
The Wise Folding Deck Chair offers a simple and convenient solution for portable seating. This seat features high compression foam padding for …
Height: 30"
Width: 26"
Depth: 24"
Seat Depth: 15.75"
- Plastic Injected Molded Seat Frames
- Bright dipped anodized aluminum frames
- 8 Legs for added strength
- 6 year warranty on frame
- 3 year warranty on frame
This product ships in 20 business days.
Add to Cart and enter your Postal Code to determine the shipping charges and estimated delivery date.
Most products and orders leave our warehouse in 1 business day. However, select items may take more processing time. Alaska and Hawaii orders please add 1 additional warehouse processing day.
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Please be careful when ordering this product, it has limitations that differ from our General 30-day Return Policy. After all, we want you to be satisfied with your order so you'll return again and again as an iboats.com customer, and to also recommend us to your boating friends
- Seats
- All seat returns are subject to a 15-25% restocking charge. The item(s) must be in clean and resalable condition otherwise the return will be denied.


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Please enter a maximum of 5 recipients. Use ; to separate more than one email address.
Jacobi is the world's largest manufacturer and distributor of coconut shell activated carbon. The transaction, which has an enterprise value of $400 million, is expected to close in January 2014.
Japan-based Osaka Gas Chemicals, a wholly-owned subsidiary
of Osaka Gas, has entered into an agreement with AddSorb
Holding to acquire all the shares of Jacobi Carbons, the
companies said on Tuesday.
Jacobi is the worlds largest manufacturer and
distributor of coconut shell activated carbon. It is
headquartered in Kalmar, Sweden, The transaction, which has an
enterprise value of $400 million, is expected to close in
January 2014.
Osaka Gas Chemicals has a leading position in the activated
carbon market in Japan through its subsidiary Japan
EnviroChemicals, who manufactures and distributes
high-value-added activated carbons made from coconut shells and
wood sawdust.
Meanwhile, Jacobi is the largest leading global coconut shell
activated carbon manufacturer with a comprehensive and diverse
product portfolio catering to a global blue-chip customer base
across an array of end-market applications. The acquisition
will reinforce both companies existing strengths in the
activated carbon industry and create a global
leader across key end-market applications, delivering
significant additional value for customers.
The combination of Jacobi and Osaka Gas Chemicals will
greatly benefit our global customer base through an expanded
product offering, enhanced R&D capabilities and additional
end-market applications," said Anders Skeini, CEO of Jacobi. "I
look forward to Jacobis next chapter of development in
cooperation with Osaka Gas Chemicals."
Activated carbons are used in an increasing
number of purification processes including, among others,
drinking and process water filtration, air and gas
purification, recovery of precious metals and purification of a
wide range of food products.
The market for activated carbons is expected to grow
significantly due to more stringent global regulations of water
and air pollution in developed countries and the improvement of
living standards in emerging countries.
In line with Osaka Gas growth ambitions, the development
of environment and non-energy related
businesses, including the expansion of the materials solutions
business, are key areas of focus. As a result of the
acquisition, Osaka Gas Chemicals will become the third largest
manufacturer of activated carbons globally and the largest
manufacturer of high value-added activated carbon made from
coconut shells.
Jacobis strong management team, led by CEO Anders
Skeini, and high level of responsiveness to customer demands
have been instrumental in transforming the business into a
leading global player that consistently outpaces activated
carbon market growth," said Masataka Fujiwara, president of
Osaka Gas Chemicals. "The acquisition of Jacobi is directly
aligned with our strategic ambitions and enhances our existing
capabilities in the attractive activated carbon market segment."
All comments are subject to editorial review.
All fields are compulsory.
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A searchable database of project activity in the global hydrocarbon processing industry
Engineers and designers are highly skilled individuals. Forcing them to enter design changes using tables, forms and spreadsheets is unproductive and uneconomical, and it increases the likelihood of human error—this is the way that most instrumentation software systems currently work. For too long, software vendors have denied engineers and designers the simple practicality of a graphical visual engineering interface with "drag and drop" capability and inbuilt intelligence, ensuring changes are automatically replicated into all the associated data and databases.
Is 2016 the peak for US gasoline demand?
Too soon to tell
July 2016


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Flow-straighteners are used before flow-meters because they remove disturbances from the flow and achieve nearly-fully developped velocity profiles. But is there any other uses of flow straighteners than flow-metering ? Car companies like Mitsubishi, for instance, developped their own models of flow straighteners, what for ?
Jet pipe is employed in turbo-jet engine. It is situated before afterburner and after the turbine. It (among all the other functions) also acts as the flow straightener.
Flow straighteners are also used in experimental setups, where a uniform flow free of swirl is required. Swirl can be induced notably by a motor. This could be important in wind tunnel design, or study of liquid flows in ducts.
In order to properly remove swirl, honeycomb designs having cell lengths at least 6-8 times their diameter should be used, see reference.
I don't know if this counts as a "use", but check out this fountain at the Detroit airport.


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The Garden as Art Cocktail Reception
Guild Hall presents The Garden as Art, a tour of some of the most spectacular gardens and homes in the Hamptons that took place on Saturday, August 24th. Leading up to the day-long event, Guild Hall hosted a cocktail reception for Patron and Benefactor ticket holders at the artists Alice and Allan Ryan's Bridgehampton home. Guests enjoyed cocktails, light bites and a tour of their lovely garden. The evening was sponsored by Acqua di Parma, who gifted the women in attendance a lovely floral-inspired fragrance.


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The 2nd Princess Margaret Hospital Conference on New Developments in Cancer Management
Last Modified: June 30, 2002
Conference Dates: September 19 - 21, 2002
Conference Location: Toronto, Ontario Canada
Sponsoring Group: Princess Margaret Hospital and Imedex, Inc.
Conference Web Page URL: http://www.imedex.com/Imedex%20website/images/Flash/pmh02.htm
Topics Covered: Lung Cancer, Gastrointestinal Cancer, Head and Neck Cancer, Breast Cancer, Hematologic Malignancies, Genito-urinary Cancer, Gynecological Cancers, Imaging, Supportive Care
Conference Objectives: To update attendees on standard cancer therapies, new experimental programs and advances in supportive care, which they may consider to apply in the treatment of their cancer patients
Who Should Attend: physicians, nurses and other health care practioners working in cancer treatment
Conference Agenda: SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM Thursday, September 19, 2002 11:00 am Welcome and Introduction 11:10 am Genes, proteins and people: The impact of novel technology on target discovery Christopher Paige 12 noon Lunch Symposium Supported by Ortho Biotech Session I: Lung Cancer 1:00 pm CT Screening for lung cancer. Are the current studies definitive? Jane Crossin 1:20 pm Combined modality therapy for stage III non-small cell lung cancer Ronald L. Burkes 1:40 pm Targeted therapy for non-small cell lung cancer Joan H. Schiller 2:00 pm Is there a role for surgery in the treatment of mesothelioma? Michael R. Johnston 2:20 pm Q&A Session II: Gastrointestinal Cancer 2:30 pm Surgical aspects of esophageal cancer treatment Gail E. Darling 2:45 pm Adjuvant treatment for esophageal cancer Rebecca Wong 3:00 pm Q&A 3:05 pm Surgical aspects of stomach cancer treatment Rod E. Schwarz 3:20 pm Adjuvant therapy for stomach cancer Jolie Ringash 3:35 pm Q&A 3:40 pm Break 4:00 pm Surgery for pancreatic cancer Murray F. Brennan 4:15 pm Adjuvant and advanced pancreatic cancer treatment Malcolm Moore 4:30 pm Q&A Session III: Head and Neck Cancer 4:35 pm New approaches to surgical reconstruction of the larynx Ralph W. Gilbert 4:50 pm New concepts in oromandibular reconstruction Peter C. Neligan 5:05 pm Altered fractionation and new concepts in precision radiotherapy in head and neck malignancies Brian O?Sullivan 5:20 pm Chemotherapy in the management of head and neck malignancy Lilian Siu 5:35 pm Panel discussion: The management of advanced head and neck cancer: What are the options? Moderator: Jonathan C. Irish Panel Members: Brian O?Sullivan, John Waldron, Lillian Siu, Ian F. Tannock, and Patrick J. Gullane 6:00 pm Evening Symposium Friday, September 20, 2002 7:00 am Breakfast Symposium 8:00 am Session IV: Breast Cancer 8:00 am Aromatase inhibitors in breast cancer prevention and adjuvant therapy. Paul E. Goss 8:20 am Micrometastases in lymph nodes and bone marrow: Implications for therapy Michael Crump 8:40 am Managing side effects of adjuvant therapy Charles L. Loprinzi 9:00 am Regional radiation as part of adjuvant therapy for 1-3 positive axillary nodes: Should it be the standard of care? Katherine Vallis 9:20 am Q&A 9:30 am Break Session V: Supportive Care Program 10:00 am Contemporary indications and expectations from palliative radiotherapy Rebecca Wong 10:20 am Palliative surgical interventions for cancer patients Alexandra M. Easson 10:40 am Fungal infections: What is new in 2002? Coleman Rotstein 11:00 am Management of mucositis in cancer patients. What is new in 2002? Edward B. Rubenstein 11:20 am Are bisphosphonates all that they are cracked up to be? David Warr 11:40 am Q&A 12:00 noon Lunch Symposium Supported by AstraZeneca Session VI: Hematologic Malignancies (part A) 1:00 pm Acute leukemia in the elderly Richard A.Wells 1:20 pm Chronic myeloid leukemia: Therapy in evolution Jeffrey H. Lipton 1:40 pm Pathogenesis and therapeutic options of myelodysplasia Elihu Estey 2:00 pm Update on myeloma therapy A. Keith Stewart 2:20 pm Q&A 2:30 pm Break Session VII: Hematologic Malignancies (part B) 3:00 pm The power of molecular diagnostics in the management of NHL Margaret A. Shipp 3:20 pm Novel therapies in the management of NHL Michael Crump 3:40 pm The role of radiotherapy in Hodgkin?s disease Mary Gospodarowicz 4:00 pm Biology and management of CLL John G. Gribben 4:20 pm Q&A 4:30 pm Evening Symposium Saturday, September 21, 2002 8:00 am Session VIII: Imaging 8:00 am New advances in breast imaging Christine Wilson 8:20 am PET Scanning 9:00 am Q&A Session IX: Genito-urinary Cancer 9:10 am New targets for prostate cancer chemotherapy Philip Kantoff 9:30 am Management of the primary tumour in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma. Michael Jewett 9:50 am High-precision RT and beyond for localised prostate cancer Charles Catton 10:10 am Reassessing the role of chemotherapy in advanced bladder cancer. Malcolm Moore 10:30 am Q&A 10:50 am Break Session X: Gynecological Cancers 11:10 am Can ovarian cancer be prevented? Barry Rosen 11:30 am Debate: Radiation and surgery are of unproven value in the curative treatment of ovarian cancer. Pro: Ken Swenerton and Jeremy F. Sturgeon Con: Joan Murphy and Anthony W. Fyles 12:00 noon Novel therapeutics in ovarian cancer Amit M. Oza 12:15 pm Palliative surgery in ovarian cancer Denny DePetrillo 12:30 pm Conclusion and farewell Ronald Feld
Registration Information: Register by phone to 770-751-7332, fax: 770-751-7334, email: email@example.com, online at www.imedex.com
Conference Fees: Physicians: $225+, Nurses, Fellows and Residents: $125+
Continuing Education: Yes
Miscellany: CME: 16 hours, category 1 AMA-PRA and Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada---------------------------------------------- Novel Therapeutic Approaches in the Treatment of Multiple Myeloma (New York, New York)
Conference Dates: October 3, 2002
Conference Location: Marquis Ballroom, Marriott Marquis, 1535 Broadway, New York, New York, USA
Sponsoring Group: The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation
Conference Web Page URL: www.multiplemyeloma.org
Topics Covered: bisphosphonates
- thalidomide
- novel therapies
- genetics
- transplantation
- current approaches in the treatment of multiple myeloma chemotherapy
Conference Objectives: To provide patients, family and friends with a comprehensive overview of the latest biological and clinical research information on myeloma.
Who Should Attend: patient, patient family and friends
Conference Agenda:
- 4:15-5 - Dr. David Roodman, bisphosphonates
- 5-5:45 - Dr. Bart Barlogie, transplantation
- 5:45-6:15- break
- 6:15-7 - Dr. Bergsagel, genetics
- 7-7:45 Dr. Ken Anderson, novel therapies
- 7:45-8:30 - Dr. Ruben Niesvizky,
- current approaches to myeloma
- 8:30-9 - Additional Q&A
Registration Information: Please contact Sarah Davis at the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation at 203-972-1250 or email email@example.com.
Conference Fees: Free
Continuing Education: No


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Suppose we have $X_{p\times n} \sim N_p(\mu, \Delta \otimes \Sigma)$. Then what is the distribution of $H_p X H_n$ where $H_p = I_p - 1_p1_p^T/p$ and $H_n = I_n - 1_n 1_n^T/n$?
I know that it should be $H_p X H_n \sim N_p(H_p \mu H_n, (H_n^T \Delta H_n) \otimes (H_p^T \Sigma H_p))$, but what are the entries of $H_p \mu H_n$ and $H_n^T \Delta H_n$? Are there any nice clean properties of the centering matrix that can help?


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Does the gap created by a rock-fall have to be replaced to make a continuous path before additional cards can be added on to the disconnected portion of a path? Or can you continue to extend the disconnected path in the hopes of filling in the missing link on a later turn or allowing one of your teammates to potentially fill in the gap?
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Is it required to reconnect a path that has been disrupted by a rock-fall before adding onto the end of the path in Saboteur?
All new tunnels must connect to the ladder. This was answered by the Designer on Boardgamegeek.
See Pat Ludwig's answer - you can't play cards on a disconnected path.
However, my group has always played that you can still continue the "disconnected" portion of the tunnel. Of course, you can't win until it's reconnected to the start.
We've always justified this by explaining that some dwarves were trapped in the disconnected portion of the tunnel after the fall :)


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Donaire Media Day
World Bantamweight Champion Nonito "The Filipino Flash" Donaire works out during media day at the Kingsway Gym in New York for his New York debut against undefeated Omar Narvaez of Argentina, Saturday, October 22. read more »
Doniare in NY
Nonito Donaire is in NY for his upcoming fight on October 22nd against Omar Narvaez. read more »
Nishioka vs Marquez Fight Night
Fight night photos from October 1, 2011 - Top Rank Live: Nishioka vs Marquez read more »
Nishioka vs Marquez Weigh Ins
Pics from Nishioka vs Marquez weigh ins at the MGM Grand on September 30, 2011. Both men fight on Saturday October 1st on Fox Sports Top Rank Live. read more »
Nishioka vs Marquez
Media workouts for both Toshiaki Nishioka and Rafael Marquez. Both men will meet in the ring on Saturday, October 1, 2011 at the MGM Grand. read more »
Juanma Lopez Training
Juan Manuel Lopez is ready for action this Saturday, October 1st against Mike Oliver in Puerto Rico. read more »


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Conducting an initial interview with sexual assault survivors requires a specialized skill set. Join VRLC Staff Attorney Laura Mahr for this free webinar in which participants will learn the step-by-step process involved in conducting an effective holistic intake interview. The webinar will also outline the seven areas of civil law that may offer solutions to survivors' most pressing needs, as well as the key discussions that advocates and attorneys can have with survivors in order to identify and address their unique concerns. Note: Due to limited space, this webinar is for LAV grantee and sub-grantees only. However, they are taking a waiting list of non-LAV grantees. If your organization is not an LAV grantee or sub-grantee, you can use the registration link above to be added to the waitlist, and they will contact you should space become available.
Links:[1] http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VRLC_WhatDoYouSayAfterHello
[2] http://www.nsvrc.org/event-type/webinar


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With the chances for passage of a state budget before the end of the fiscal year on June 30 all but dead, local projects like the Magna training center and WKU campus projects may be put on hold.
If the General Assembly fails to pass a final budget, Governor Fletcher would most likely enact a spending plan much as Governor Patton did during a similar situation in 2002, but that action was challenged in court, and only covers essential government services.
ITA president Jim Vance says the Governor and Speaker of the House have committed to funding a training center for Magna International, the Transpark's first tenant, but he doesn't see how that will be possible until a final budget is passed. Late last year, Magna announced its plans to bring $200 million in investment and 1100 new jobs to Warren County.
Vance says Magna will fulfill its commitment even without a training center, but the money that would have been spent on the training will be spent in another community.
WKU President Dr. Gary Ransdell is concerned about the funding for three capital projects on the university's campus:
All of those projects will be put on indefinite hold until the budget, in whatever form it may take, passes.
Ransdell also says an upcoming tuition increases and the wave of tuition hikes over the past four years are "directly related" to the lack of new state funding for higher education, and the uncertainty of the budget situation.
The new fiscal year will begin on July 1.


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TORRANCE, Calif. — Smack Sportswear, a maker of custom-designed volleyball and beach active apparel, has lured the former True Religion Apparel executive Charles A. Lesser out of retirement and into its CFO spot.
Smack manufactures its Southern California-inspired apparel in its headquarters, five miles away from the home of beach volleyball.
"After reviewing a number of candidates, and carefully examining their records, it was True Religion Apparel's success while Charles Lesser was CFO that caught my attention. He was CFO when the company first traded on the OTC-BB with roughly the same revenues we have presently. During his tenure as CFO at True Religion, their sales skyrocketed to $160 million in 2007 (when he left the company). I believe that the Smack Sportswear brand has more world-wide appeal today than True Religion had in 2003, and that we can achieve similar success with Charles as our CFO."
Prior to True Religion, Lesser was an officer at various private and public companies, including Weider Sporting Goods. During his three-year tenure as Weider's CFO, the company's revenues grew 300% and experienced 5x profit growth.


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(FROM CNN) – Vice President Joe Biden leveled a heavy charge at Mitt Romney on Tuesday, arguing the presumptive GOP nominee's proposed policies on Wall Street reform would be detrimental for Americans.
"(Romney) is going to let the big banks once again write their own rules, unchain Wall Street," Biden said at a campaign event in Danville, Virginia. "He is going to put y'all back in chains."
Biden later clarified the remarks at an event in Wytheville, Virginia suggesting his comments were in reference to House Speaker John Boehner's use of the word 'unshackled' in talking about Ryan's House budget proposal.
"The last time these guys unshackled the economy, to use their term, they put the middle class in shackles. That's how we got where we are," said Biden. And I'm told that when I made that comment earlier today in Danville, Virginia, the Romney campaign put out a tweet. You know, tweets these days? Put out a tweet, went on the airwaves saying, 'Biden, he's outrageous in saying that,' I think I said instead of 'unshackled,' 'unchained.' 'Outrageous to say that," said Biden. "That's what we had. I'm using their own words. I got a message for them. If you want to know what's outrageous, it's their policies and the effects of their policies on middle class America. That's what's outrageous."
The former Massachusetts governor has previously stated his opposition to the so-called Dodd-Frank bill, also known as the financial reform bill signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010. The bill was designed to rein in risky practices and prevent another Wall Street meltdown similar to the one that occurred in 2008.
Critics, including Romney, rail against the legislation for being too heavy with regulation and argue the new law is crippling for small banks. However, the Republican candidate has clarified his position in the past, saying he does not support the "deregulation" of Wall Street, as some in the GOP have trumpeted, and argued instead that some regulations are necessary.
"Of course you have to have laws and regulations to make free markets able to produce and to be effective," Romney said at a fund-raising event in London last month. "But you have to make the regulations modern and up to date."
"Dealing with all the new regulatory burden has caused a lot of community banks to pull back–at the very time we'd like them to step forward and provide financing to small business," Romney continued. "I'd like to get rid of Dodd-Frank and go back and look at regulation piece by piece."
Some conservatives Tuesday were quick to react on Twitter to Biden's remarks, making a racial connection between the vice president's "chains" comment and slavery. Biden was speaking to a largely black crowd in Danville, in the heart of Virginia, a city with a long history of racial tension.
Responding to Biden's speech, Romney's campaign said Team Obama has "reached a new low."
"The comments made by the Vice President of the United States are not acceptable in our political discourse and demonstrate yet again that the Obama Campaign will say and do anything to win this election," Romney national press secretary Andrea Saul said in a statement. "President Obama should tell the American people whether he agrees with Joe Biden's comments."
Later Tuesday, Obama's deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter attempted to dispel the controversy around Biden's statement, comparing his words to Republicans who have called for the "unshackling" of the private sector from regulations in recent months.
"Since then, the Vice President has often used a similar metaphor to describe the need to 'unshackle' the middle class," Cutter said in a statement. "Today's comments were a derivative of those remarks, describing the devastating impact letting Wall Street write its own rules again would have on middle class families."
Cutter added that they "find the Romney campaign's outrage over the Vice President's comments today hypocritical, particularly in light of their own candidate's stump speech questioning the President's patriotism."
Biden's Wall Street attack line was one of many launched at the Republican rival and his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan, during the vice president's speech Tuesday. It marked the second day in a row in which Biden has unleashed some digs at the recently-formed GOP ticket. Piling onto comments he made the day prior, Biden argued the selection of Ryan now defines Romney.
"Before Governor Romney had a tendency to either be vague or change his position a lot. Well, it's now clear," Biden said, adding that there's "no distinction" between the policies of House Republicans and Romney.
The vice president also recycled a Washington Post report from June that claimed Romney's former private equity firm, Bain Capital, was a "pioneer" in advising the practice of outsourcing. Democrats have since used the report to peg Romney as a would-be "outsourcer-in-chief," though Romney's team argues the former Bain CEO had left the company before the firm began wading into the field of outsourcing.
Biden, however, wasted no time taking multiple jabs at Romney over the issue, including a new line: "Everybody wants to be a pioneer, but I don't want to be on that wagon train."
The vice president, who recently returned from a beachside vacation, retook the campaign trail this week, where he's known as the president's attack dog and pulls no punches in criticizing the Republican opposition.
While thanking the Virginia crowd and closing out his speech, however, the vice president made a mistake, mixing up the state in which he was speaking.
"With you we can win North Carolina again," he said, before exiting the stage.
Biden campaigned Monday in North Carolina, but has events all day in Virginia on Tuesday.
– CNN Political Reporter Peter Hamby contributed to this report.


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"Invisible Child": the NYT reports on homeless children
This week the New York Times has been running a series called "Invisible Child" -- an in-depth report on the problem of chronic homelessness in New York City, told through the experiences of an eleven-year-old girl named Dasani who lives with her family (mother, stepfather, and seven siblings) in a Brooklyn shelter.
Reporter Andrea Elliott and photographer Ruth Fremson have done a remarkable job communicating what life is like for families like Dasani's, and the many obstacles that stand in the way of a hopeful future for a child who lives in poverty in the city. The series, divided into five parts, is very long, and very much worth the time it takes to read. It is like a supersized version of those profiles of the "Neediest Cases" that the Times runs during the holidays to remind readers to donate to its Neediest Cases Fund. In this case, however, the focus is not on how charitable foundations have helped Dasani and her family, but about how public initiatives and institutions have tried to assist them, and have often fallen far short of their needs. It also looks squarely at the economic disparities that exist in Fort Greene and throughout the city, with wealthy New Yorkers living alongside desperately poor ones. (Part 3 opens with an unforgettable scene: Dasani's mother stops at a wine store's evening tasting with her kids in tow.) The sorts of luxuries that high-income New Yorkers enjoy, and that the Times typically can't fetishize fervidly enough, seem far less ordinary and innocent through the eyes of an outsider like Dasani. (Which reminds me: be sure to read David Cloutier's piece in the latest Commonweal on the perils for Christians of the luxuries we take for granted.)
Elliott's hard work -- the series was obviously many months in the making -- fulfills one of the highest objectives of journalism: it makes the invisible visible, and tells the story of people whose voice is seldom heard. Its generous sweep takes in not just the "invisible" but massive problem of homelessness, but also the problems that plague public schools, and the conflicts that reformers' interventions can create; the tangle of social agencies designed to help people like Dasani's family, and the circumstances that keep clients from reaping the benefits; and the attempts made under Mayor Michael Bloomberg to address these issues and how they have fared. Along with Ian Frazier's excellent New Yorker article "Hidden City," published in October, "Invisible Child" offers an unforgettable look at what it means to be homeless in today's New York. You won't come away hopeful, but you probably will come away wanting to help any way you can. [Update: see here for suggestions.]
Unless you're on the editorial board at the New York Post, that is. Their response to the "Invisible Child" series, published on December 9, must be read to be believed.
Headlined "The New York Times' 'homeless' hooey," the editorial scoffed that Elliott had failed in her presumed objective to paint New York as "a hard-hearted city." In fact, said the Post, the story "suggests just the opposite" -- "If the city is at fault here, it might well be for having been too generous — providing so much that neither the father nor mother seems much inclined to provide for their kids."
Congratulations, Post editors; you have found a way to update "Are there no workhouses?" for contemporary readers -- and just in time for Christmas! All those inclined to gripe that conservatives are unfairly caricatured as not caring about the poor, please address future complaints to the Post, care of William McGurn.
The Post is not known for its high standards of either journalism or decency, and it certainly has no time for in-depth, long-form reporting on the plight of the poor (or anything else). Still, their response to "Invisible Child" -- if they felt compelled to offer one at all, which they shouldn't have -- might have taken any number of less monstrous forms. They could have pointed out that the myriad failures of well-intentioned government programs described in Elliot's story demonstrate the importance of giving generously to private charities at this time of economic struggle. They could have railed, however insincerely, against the government for failing to provide more effective ways for people like Dasani's parents to "provide for their kids." ("An open public assistance case allows the agency to be reimbursed with federal funds," Elliott explains in Part 2, "while also making the family eligible for child care and job training — the kind of supports that could help in finding a home. But the problem for Chanel and Supreme comes down to basic math: Even with two full-time jobs, on minimum wage, they would have combined salaries of only $2,300 per month — just enough to cover the average rent for a studio in Brooklyn.") Or they could simply have expressed appreciation for this intimate glimpse of how hard life can be for many New Yorkers, concluding with a stock expression of goodwill -- "While we may not agree on how best to confront these problems, surely we can all" etc. Instead, the Post decided to read a reported article as an editorial, projecting a highly simplified argument and perspective onto a deeply complicated story, and then sneering: "The Times and Elliott, like much of the liberal establishment, seem to think it's the city's job to provide comfortable lives to outrageously irresponsible parents. In this case, that's a couple with a long history of drug problems and difficulty holding jobs. Something's wrong with that picture."
Well, yes, a lot is wrong with that picture. The personal struggles of Dasani's parents, from drug addiction to emotional immaturity to general discouragement and despair, are vividly depicted in Elliott's story (that's how the Post knows about them). So are the economic conditions that make a phrase like "difficulty holding jobs" dishonest at best. But what "Invisible Child" focuses on most of all is the kids, Dasani and her siblings and all the others housed at their shelter and in places like it. They live in squalor -- the description of the bathroom they must share with other shelter residents is enough to make you cry -- they go to school hungry, and they are destined to grow up both much too fast and not at all. The Post's editorial does not offer even a few words of compassion for their plight. Instead it ends with its verdict that, really, the city has been "too generous," and concludes with a nasty zinger: "That would be a story worth reading."
What's the "that" they're referring to? The story of how Chanel and Supreme are lazy good-for-nothing poor people? Or the story of what their lives would be like if the city weren't so "generous"? It's not clear. But what really makes that last line heartless is its implication that the story Elliott did report on is not worth telling. In fact, it's "hooey."
I know people who subscribe to the Post, and I've often wondered how they make peace with its gleeful moral bankruptcy. But I don't know a single human being who could read "Invisible Child" and come away with the impression that Dasani's story is not worth hearing. Why, then, is the Post so anxious to tell its readers that they shouldn't read it? That, as they say, would be a story worth reading.
About the Author
Mollie Wilson O'Reilly is an editor at large and columnist at Commonweal.
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Mollie -- "Why. . .is the Post so anxious to tell its readers that they shouldn't read it?"
You answered the question yourself two sentences before that one: "gleeful moral bankruptcy." The same gleeful moral bankruptcy one finds in John Stossel, who began his faux-panhandler routine for Fox by saying, "OK, let's go freeloading!" (Colbert's characterization of Stossel as a "70's -era porn moustache" is priceless.)
The Post's perspective on the poor was summed up well by Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest: "If the poor can't set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them?"
The Post's answer to Jesus, I suppose, is why were you in prison, sick and hungry? Wasn't it your fault?
It was a surprise to me that the owner of Modells in the series "Undercover Boss" discovers that one of his employees is homeless. We are indeed in a gilded age with the opposite happening. Catholic charities does a lot of good work. But when you are renovating the Cathedral at $187, 000, 000 the help for the Dasani's of this world should be a lot more visible. There are a good number of parishes which feed the needy and homeless. But most parishes are very lax. Should not the care of the poor be the most prominent activity of every parish?
In John 21, Jesus makes his third revelation to the Disciples after the Resurrection. Three times He asks Simon Peter if he loves Him. Of course, Peter answers Yes each time. And each time after the Yes, Jesus says, "Feed my lambs" (15), "Tend my sheep" (16), "Feed my sheep." (17)
The issue for the writers at the Post is to whom is the commandment directed? Is this a duty only of an individual, or is the duty imposed on the community? And if on a community, then which community: that of our immediate circle (say our parish), or is there an obligation that falls on us ensemble as a city or a country? The radical Libertarian interpretation, to which the Post subscribes editorially, is that such duties as may exist oblige only the individual, and they include duties on all parties, not just those of us who are successful and well off.
Mark L
On a related note, there's this story about a San Francisco techno-entrepreneur with a not-so-gleeful moral bankruptcy:
If there's one good thing about this guy and the Post, it's that we're finally seeing in full the contempt that the business class and its lackeys have long harbored toward the rest of us.
Good post, Mollie. The story makes it very clear that Dasani's parents carry a heavy responsibility for the turmoil she lives in. It introduces the city government's failures this way: "Yet Dasani's trials are not solely of her parents' making. They are also the result of decisions made a world away, in the marble confines of City Hall." And this is amply documented in the story that follows.
This statement in the article caught my eye:
Dasani's circumstances are largely the outcome of parental dysfunction. While nearly one-third of New York's homeless children are supported by a working adult, her mother and father are unemployed, have a history of arrests and are battling drug addiction.
The parents are unemployed drug addicts. But what, they don't have any responsibility? The writer calls this parental dysfunction, and that poor child faces an uncertain future. I'm sorry, but those parents are despicable; they have created a lving hell for an innocent child. Sounds like what they need is a public horsewhipping.
And a public horsewhipping would do for the child exactly what?
Bob - I understand the visceral reaction. I do think, though, that considering the plight of the child gives a different perspective. Surely our society's obligation to the well-being of the child is even higher than whatever our obligation is or should be to adults like Dasani's parents who make poor choices (and quite possibly started their own lives in a social deficit, for which they're now reaping bitter fruit).
As another perenthetical aside: considering the plight of the child puts a different spin on problems of illegal/undocumented immigrants, too.
One possibility for circumstances like Dasani's is for the state to assume custody, and try to place Dasani in foster care, and perhaps eventually adoption. I haven't had a chance yet to read the series, but I'd be surprised if the authors don't examine that option. I'm not recommending or opposing that. It's not too far different from the judge trying to figure out what to do about Huck Finn and his drunken dad.
Asked what would Jesus do about the poor, conservatives and libertarians inevitably say that Jesus didn't say anything about big-government poverty programs; rather, that he intended for individuals to help each other through private charity.
Two problems with that answer: first, given the number of times Jesus had to exhort the rich to help the poor, appealing to altruism must not have worked very well. Second, first-century Palestine didn't have a population of 310 million. For all its inefficiency, government is better equipped to help the poor than are charities.
If, after the childhood Dasani has had, she succumbs to addiction herself and can't find a job, or can't find a job that will support her and her own children, should we horsewhip her too? At what point does she stop being an innocent victim and become despicable, like her parents? Do we get to horsewhip her as soon as she turns eighteen?
Angela - I wouldn't want us to have to choose between the state and private charity. They're both essential components (and not the only components) of any safety net we can weave to help those who are poor.
Re: Jim and Matt's comments about Dasani's parents -- Part 3 of the series tells their respective stories, going back to their childhoods. They were, not surprisingly, born into circumstances much like Dasani's. Knowing more about where they came from adds another dimension to the story -- not, I'm afraid, a hopeful dimension, but a very sympathetic one. They've failed their kids in many ways, but to say that they are "not much inclined to provide" is completely wrong. (I have a feeling the author of the Post's take did not realize there were 4 more chapters after that first one -- even though all were posted online at once. Not that it matters, since they were going to misrepresent the story regardless.)
Matt's question is exactly right: if you want to make this about "personal responsibility" (something Andrea Elliott specifically acknowledges, and rejects as simplistic), where do you draw the line between innocent victim and despicable trash?
This story could have been written about New York City children, who are poor, anytime in the last 150 years, and probably was (and probably in the New York Times!). The compassion of many good people and the reform measures adopted as a result of such stories have been complicit in making the situation of these children as bad or worse than the previous generation.
Let me cite one example because I was involved in a research project that examined the conditions raised by a lawsuit, Sugarman v. Wilder, which eventually and effectively ended the system that we knew as orphanages or congregate settings or homes for children.
Many of those institutions were run by religious groups, Catholic, Jewish, Protestant. The New York Civil Liberties Union argued that the placement process on the basis of religion was unconstitutional and detrimental in particular to black Protestant children. That criteria for placement was indeed in place when these institutions were founded in the ninetheenth century. It had brokent down mid-twentieth century by virtue of institutions accepting children not primarily on the basis of their religion but on the basis of their needs--needs that agencies thought they could meet. Obviously there were some children who were very difficult to place in any setting. The NYCLU won the case and destroyed this system.
The long-term effects have been the closing of most, if not all, of those institutions. Foster care was promoted in their place. But that system is not functioning well and many agencies and social workers are reluctant to separate children from their parent(s) even when it would be in the interest of the child. Where can these children go when their parents are "dysfunctional." They go nowhere, because there is nowhere for them to go.
A better child welfare system is one answer, but there are better ones. Affordable housing, jobs, higher wages, better schools, effective contraception--all of that would be more effective in providing for the 22,000 children the story identifies. But that's probably not going to happen either.
What's the lesson? Reformers should be circumspect in what they decide to reform and think ahead about what will replace the system they are dismantling.
One can argue the various merits or demerits of public versus private charity, of how much to tax or not to tax, but this much is clear (at least to me): Do not define public charity (that is, the taking of one person's wealth by force of law and giving it to another) as Christ's love of the poor.
By the way, every person has the ability to choose between good an evil. No one put a gun to the heads of that child's parents and forced them to begin taking drugs. They chose to do so. At some point that child will face such choices and God's graces will support her when she does.
Kind of like how you choose to be such a smarmy bastard, eh?
If God's graces don't support her, can we hope that the reporter, Andrea Elliott and her Pulitzer Prize along with the New York Times will support her?
The Times's public editor, Margaret Sullivan, wrote an interesting post today on how the story came together and what the response has been like, along with suggestions for how readers can help Dasani's family and others like them.
It's also worth reading through the over 2000 comments that accompany the series, including the second one under "reader picks," Mary from California. It is an account of someone who worked with families like Dasani's. No self-congratulations in Mary's account. http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2013/invisible-child/comments/
Well Abe, one man's smarm is another man's charm, as he said in alarm...
God's graces will support her when she does
But grace does not come out of thin air. It is incarnated, and since we are the Body of Christ, it is through our attitude towards her that she will encounter God's graces. We can pray that God shows us what he wants us to do as his instrument of grace to help her. We can't abstractly leave it to God and wash our hands of it. As His people, it's our responsibility.
Do not define public charity (that is, the taking of one person's wealth by force of law and giving it to another) as Christ's love of the poor.
From the apostolic exhortation of Pope Francis:
180. Reading the Scriptures also makes it clear that the Gospel is not merely about our personal relationship with God. Nor should our loving response to God be seen simply as an accumulation of small personal gestures to individuals in need, a kind of "charity à la carte", or a series of acts aimed solely at easing our conscience. The Gospel is about the kingdom of God (cf. Lk 4:43); it is about loving God who reigns in our world. To the extent that he reigns within us, the life of society will be a setting for universal fraternity, justice, peace and dignity. Both Christian preaching and life, then, are meant to have an impact on society.
188. The Church has realized that the need to heed this plea is itself born of the liberating action of grace within each of us, and thus it is not a question of a mission reserved only to a few: "The Church, guided by the Gospel of mercy and by love for mankind, hears the cry for justice and intends to respond to it with all her might".[153] In this context we can understand Jesus' command to his disciples: "You yourselves give them something to eat!" (Mk6:37): it means working to eliminate the structural causes of poverty and to promote the integral development of the poor, as well as small daily acts of solidarity in meeting the real needs which we encounter. The word "solidarity" is a little worn and at times poorly understood, but it refers to something more than a few sporadic acts of generosity. It presumes the creation of a new mindset which thinks in terms of community and the priority of the life of all over the appropriation of goods by a few.
203. The dignity of each human person and the pursuit of the common good are concerns which ought to shape all economic policies.
I too was taken with the remarkable series published this week in the Times. Still a number of questions arose in my mind, and I decided to send them off to the "Public Editor" of the Times. I transcribe them here to see if they are of concern to others:
"The series by Andrea Elliott is riveting and will certainly be in contention for a Pulitzer Price.
Nonetheless, I do have some questions (some of which you began to address in your post of December 12). In brief, I'd like to know more of the "backstory." Thus:
1. how was this family chosen? who put Ms Elliott in touch with them?
2. What was the attraction for the family to have so much of their personal stories shared?
What were the preliminary conversations like? who took part? did one or another voice dominate?
3. Did the "Times" make any financial commitments/disbursements?
4. The reference to Dickens has been invoked by many commentators, there are places where Ms Elliott seems to be interpreting Dasani's thoughts, feelings; did that represent creative extrapolations on the reporter's part from the situations encountered?
5. incidents of fighting were reported. Were the "Times'" reporters present; did they make any effort to intervene?
6. where there interventions on the reporter's part: for example, when Giant's calls to Chanel go unanwered?
I do not raise the questions in a querelous manner, but in order to obtain a fuller sense of this remarkable account."
The crux of the problem is two-fold: public aid is mostly inadequate to help overcome severe poverty and unemployment, and children are pretty much doomed to the care of their parent(s) rather than separated and 'sentenced' to foster care.
What works is intensive programmatic supports on a transitional housing site with supportive services and supervision. It typically takes 18 to 24 months for the issues to be resolved and for the family to successfully transition to permanent housing. Many of the barriers are imposed by the social service sector itself: lack of section 8 housing vouchers, lack of any affordable housing availability, insufficient supports through TANF and Food Stamps, lack of unemployment extensions, and a lot of bureaucratic red tape to sign up and submit periodical reports. Then, relapses for the drug or alcohol afflicted are common and without intervention or treatment programs.
The real problem is that too many of us have bought into the 'personal responsibility' accusation which disqualifies these folk as 'unworthy of help.'
I cannot believe Margaret is advocating the return to Oliver Twist conditions and abusive and strict orphanages. Where would you place a "Boys Town" for NYC? What do you do about the irreversible harm done to children when they are taken away from family and parent and separated from siblings? The best solution is to keep the family together in safe and secure housing with supportive programs. Instead of worrying 24 hours a day about where they will sleep and how they will eat, they can find the help they need to navigate the system and begin to work through their issues.
If it is your interpretation of the Holy Father's words that he is demanding a socialist state to eliminate all poverty and injustice (which would by necessity be totaltarian in order to force compliance by all citizens), then I think you are 100% wrong. Besides, hasn't all that been tried, to disaterous results, already. National Socialism in Germany, marxist socialism in the old Soviet Union and Cuba (China seems to be a different animal; it is implementing capitalist techniques within a marxist political structure).
Capitalist economies have the highest standards of living, and we should always remember the past: Try remebering Mao's massacres, Stalin's starvation of the peasant farmers, and Pol Pot's hideous atrcities...
Matthew, I just love your reply. I feel exactly as you do but could not find a way to express how I felt. I feel that the parents are so very likely responding to their own life histories, as do we, more than we might want to even admit. I just don't believe in free choice all that much: I do believe in it, but, as they say, those of us who are "successful" or "productive" usually stand on the shoulders of giants or on the shoulders of those who have helped us so much along the way. To me, it doesn't matter if the persons involved are children, teens or adults: I see them all as in much need of compassion and assistance, not comments such as "they made poor choices" - and then shutting the door. We need to ask ourselves how we would turn out if we never had good parental figures, or not suffiencet emotional support from a loving adult.
No, Bob, I don't think that pope Francis is demanding a socialist state. I think that he is requesting a change from unfettered capitalism. How do you interpret
"working to eliminate the structural causes of poverty and to promote the integral development of the poor",
what do you think he means by
"a new mindset which thinks in terms of community and the priority of the life of all over the appropriation of goods by a few",
(who are those few) and how do you think capitalist economies are shaped by concerns for
"the dignity of each human person and the pursuit of the common good" ?
Mike Evans - great comment above re: intensive-support transitionsal environments. FWIW, I've worked with our local Catholic Charities in the past to raise funds for just such a project. it is quite successful, but the scale at which it operates is distressingly small: it is able to provide housing and related resources for a couple of dozen client families at a time, when the scope of the problem, even in our suburban region, runs into the hundreds or, probably, thousands. But we're not able to raise funds at a scale that would allow CC to address the overall candidate population. I'm not privy to all the program funding details, but it's quite likely that the private money we raise is supplemented by government grants, but that is a well that seems to run a little dryer every year.
In the village where I live (in the Chicago area, suburbs style themselves "villages"), the local interfaith pastors' council also has spun up an iniatiative along the lines of what you describe. There are something like 30 members of the council, but the initiative is funded to serve 5-6 families at a time - again, a small fraction of the overall problem.
The work being done by these intiatives is great. If only we could find a money multiplier for them.
Given the realities of scarce funding, I think the question that needs to be asked is, If we can't provide the best option to everyone, is there a second -best option for most that is affordable? Dasani's plight, as described here, doesn't sound like second-best; it sounds like what happens via inertia in a world where virtually nobody cares very much.
Mike Evans: "I cannot believe Margaret is advocating the return to Oliver Twist conditions and abusive and strict orphanages." No, you don't have to believe that.
As you know or should know most institutions of the nineteen-sixties, seventies, and eighties were not Oliver-Twist institutions. Many of them were of high quality and offered specialized services. My point was that most of those closed without due consideration of what would replace them: Foster care or remaining in troubled families. You write of the kind of intensive services that can benefit such families. At the same time you and Jim P both acknowledge how expensive and few they are.
My over-all point: Advocates for change especially when it comes to children and children's services often seem to be blind to the unintended consequences of the changes they bring about through legal action and moral crusades. Shouldn't we be asking whether children will actually be better off; in the case of NYC children and family services it appears not.
Perhaps only cranks like the NYPost will mock or find fault with the series. But I am struck by the following: In the first piece in the series Dasani is fixed on keeping her family's residence secret from the other girls in her new school lest she be looked down upon. What she had hoped could be concealed has throughout the series been revealed not only to school mates, but to the world, and not only where she lives but how she has come to live there. Does anyone else find this abusive albeit informative?
I find the best way to interpret a text is to begin by reading what it actually says. Your interpretation of Evangelii Gaudium appears to begin instead with what you're sure Pope Francis could not have said because, in your judgment, it would be obviously false and popes don't say obviously false things. So the holy father could not have criticized capitalism—even though he very plainly did—because you are sure that the only possible alternatives to it are all totalitarian. Thus does a misreading of history lead to a misreading, or non-reading, of the pope's actual words. There are more things in heaven and on earth, and in this exhortation, than are dreamt of in your cramped and complacent philosophy.
Bob Schwartz:
I was taken aback by what you wrote:
those parents are despicable. . . .Sounds like what they need is a public horsewhipping.
Do you really think that? And do you think it can be reconciled with what Pope Francis has been saying about the need for mercy, the primacy of mercy?
The contrast between your comment and the preceding one, by Paul Moses, is striking. Given what you wrote, I assume you agree with the first part of what he said: "The story makes it very clear that Dasani's parents carry a heavy responsibility for the turmoil she lives in."
But what about the second part?
[The story] introduces the city government's failures this way: "Yet Dasani's trials are not solely of her parents' making. They are also the result of decisions made a world away, in the marble confines of City Hall." And this is amply documented (emphasis added) in the story that follows.
Would you simply say that Paul is right in the first part, and wrong in the second?
I hope you'll respond.
I want to respond to Bob Schwartz. You can be as angry as you like at the parents for their irresponsibility. What about our responsibility to children like Dasani. Are we just going to tsk tsk the parents and do nothing to help them? Poverty does not look good. Poor people are not attractive, smell good, or look good. Christ taught us that these are our brothers and sisters. Would we be able to do any better than those parents were we in their situation? How can we feel so self righteous when we allow these tragedies to continue. " What you do to the least of mine, you do for me." I think that is what I remember being taught .
Yes Gene, I meant it.
As for "unfettered capitaism" I presume the Pope means "unregulated capitalism" But, at least in the U.S., there are thousands of regulations on capitalism: Environmental, financial, workplace, you name it. So how could he be talking about the U.S. as an "unfettered" economy?
Matthew: "Complacent"? Me? I worry constantly that the U.S will end like Cuba, or Venezuela. Cramped, maybe. Definitely not complacent! As for the totalitarian aspect of all this, since everything we think and do ultimately affects the economy, everything we think and do must be controlled in order to bring to effect a society where no one is poor, no none is discriminated against, and into the bargain, everyone will be fulfilled to the max, and there'll be marmalade skies till the end of time. Because as you know, the poor will not always be with us...Oh, wait...
Hell yes we should take care of them! And the parents need severe sociaization training before they even get near those kids again.
You should read what Milton Friedman has to say about a social program that works. Google Milton Friedman's social program. Milton the conservative!! Capitalism in this country is capitalization run-amuck. Capitalism does get people out of poverty, but it also has only one goal... To make money. By itself , without regulations to protect society, this is a system that exploits the most vulnerable. It is not beneficial to the whole of society. For example, we are subsidizing walmart workers. They make so little that they qualify for food stamps and additional money to get them out of poverty. What's wrong with that picture. Should my taxes pay for Walmart's workers? I think capitalism works if there is a safety net so that everyone has access to food, shelter, education, and safety.
Bob, I forgot... For a society that doesn't believe in helping the undeserving, we certainly have no problem putting out money to keep people in prison. If we spent that money caring for children , we might not have to use it to incarcerate them when they're older.
But there are thousands of federal, state, county, and city programs that purport to help people. I agree with spending money to help children, but for the love of God, keep those poor kids away from the drug addicts, prostitutes, and child molesters who are their parents.
It should be obvious to everyone by now that Bob Schwartz is trolling -- that is, entertaining himself by saying outrageous things in order to provoke a response from people who are actually taking this whole subject seriously. ("Child molesters"?) Please stop responding to him as though he were making an earnest argument based on a thorough reading of the "Invisible Child" series, rather than just typing terrible and dimwitted things for kicks.
Fr. Imbelli,
Your questions and your description of the story as "remarkable" suggest that you are questioning its authenticity.
Regarding how Dasani was chosen, it's clear to me that the reporters tried to maximize contrasts. They may have picked the Auburn family residence because it was particularly squalid and stuck in the middle of now-affluent neighborhoods, and in that shelter, they may have picked Dasani for her striking good looks, that make the reader want to read on to see what happens to her, and her being on the honor roll at school.
I note, though, that the reporter never showed her doing homework, (although they once mention that the children do their homework "hunched over on mattresses") and that the principal talked about "how capable the girl is... Without even trying, she keeps up." That raised a red flag for me. The mother, although loving her children, loved by her children, keeping the family closely knit, and quite likeable, has a problem with self-control and discipline: she has difficulty staying off drugs, keeping her weight down, using contraception (I'm guessing that part - it's not mentioned), and not letting her anger get the better of her in conflicts... Does this smart and beautiful girl also lack self-control and discipline? It's not clear to me. Since that lack if a big part of the family's problems, I'd be more optimistic reading about a child who works hard to get good grades than about a child who keeps up "without even trying". In that respect, the principal's efforts, to try to teach her to not fight even when provoked, seem right on target.
Regarding your other questions, I guess that you're asking how much the observer changes the observation itself. There is a note about it in the end.
Andrea Elliott, an investigative reporter with The New York Times, began following Dasani and her family in September 2012. The series is written in the present tense, based on real-time reporting by Ms. Elliott and Ruth Fremson, a photographer with The Times, both of whom used audio and video tools.
Throughout the year, Dasani's family also documented their lives in video dispatches from the Auburn Family Residence, which does not allow visitors beyond the lobby. Ms. Elliott and Ms. Fremson gained access to the shelter to record conditions there.
The reporting also drew from court documents, city and state inspection reports, police records, the family's case files at city agencies and dozens of interviews with shelter residents. Most scenes were reported firsthand; others were reconstructed based on interviews and video and audio recordings.
I am guessing that the fighting pictures were reconstructed. Now, it is mentioned towards the end that "the shelter is providing a steadier supply of formula, diapers and other items to mothers". Then there is the fairy tale start of Dasani's work for "Giant", and the happy ending of the series, with the "stunning news" of their moving into a real apartment. One is left to wonder: does the reporters' presence around the family have something to do with the happy turn of events? For example, did the reporters give a few strategic phone calls so that they could have a happy ending to their story, or was the shelter director spurred into action by their presence, or is it just chance? Did the family let them report on them in exchange for the promise of help to get them out of the shelter? Maybe they did not even have to say it, but Dasani's family understood that having reporters around would help their case with the administration, without needing to be told.
So, if that's where your questions are leading, I agree that the ending is a bit too good to be true, and was probably influenced by the reporters' presence. In "real life", Dasani's family would stay stuck in the shelter and maybe some day get turned out and find themselves on the street, and, most likely, Dasani's resilience would finally break. Instead, as things stand now, it seems that they are being given a chance to get back on their feet. Maybe that's not realistic enough for a Pulitzer!
my use of "remarkable" was in no way pejorative, or a "questioning of the story's authenticity."
My questions were my effort to understand more fully the circumstances of the selection of the family, the conditions of their participation, and the extent of the involvement of the reporter and the "Times" in the situations so movingly depicted.
Thanks for engaging the questions ... and adding some of your own.
Claire uses the phrase "real apartment" when referring to the unit in Harlem to which Dasani's family moves. It is important to note that the move of Dasani's family from the horror of the Auburn shelter to the "real apartment" in Harlem was not a move out of the NYC shelter system. That apartment is leased by the NYC Department of Homeless services and is referred to as a "cluster shelter unit" in the DHS system.
These cluster units were privately-owned, rent-regulated apartments or single rooms (SROs) that low-income people were living in not long before they became "cluster" units. The city is paying sometimes as much as 4 times what the market or rent-regulation would pay. This has created a huge incentive for these private landlords to harass, buy-out or illegally evict low-income tenants throughout the city so these units could be transformed into cluster shelter units. Families in otherwise stable, affordable housing are being made homeless and forced into the shelter system so people already in the system can move in to the apartments and have the city (taxpayers) pay 3-4 times what the landlords were getting. Not only are the private landlords being given incentive to evict current tenants, they are creating a greater demand for their over-priced product by pushing more families into the shelter system. Icing on the cake of this scandal -- former Bloomberg officials are making a lot of money in the private sector running this cluster system.
This program is perhaps the biggest boondoggle of the Bloomberg era which has received the scantest attention. I offer 3 links if you are interested in understanding this better:
While the picture in the NY Times of the unit Dasani's family moved into suggests it is an apartment in good condition -- many of these units look great at first, but the slumlord profiteers behind them usually only did cosmetic work and problems abound.
As Public Advocate, de Blasio was critical of this system. Hopefully reform of it will be job one.
Jack Marth's post points to an underlying conundrum in the whole housing-the-homeless fiasco. Trying to solve the problem through subsidies or priority lists for public housing create incentives for people making themselves homeless. Sometimes they have been staying with family or sometimes they have to face a rent increase. There are many reasons that temporary homelessness may seem a better alternative. According to the Times families spend an average of 13 months in this system...far shorter than Dasani's family.
As the Times five-part series pointed out (a number of times) Bloomberg ended the policy of giving families in shelters priority for public housing. He said he was ending it because it induced people to apply for shelters so they could get on those priority lists. I have never seen data about how many families this ever involved and given the reluctance of tenants to give up apartments in public housing, it's difficult to imagine it was ever a major source for the families in shelters. But who knows?
Now, in Marth's example, getting rents four times market value from the city induces landlords to force out tenants, some of whom certainly go into the shelter system. A vicious circle.
I doubt the social welfare system can fix this problem. And I doubt deBlasio can fix it within that system. The city and state have to return to aregime of rent regulation along with requiring developers to include a percentage of apartments for middle and low-income families in their gazzillion dollar buildings. The city gives developers a lot in the way of tax abatements; it's not too much that the city get something in return.
Jack Marth,
thank you for the enlightening (and depressing) reading. Do you share Peggy Steinfels' doubts?
My catechetical duties at my parish are canceled this morning due the snow -- so I have a few minutes to offer a tentative response.
I am not sure I fully understand Ms. Steinfels doubts so these are mostly random thoughts, not meant to respond systematically.
I think Bloomberg over-reacted to the fear that people were entering the system simply to access affordable housing. No doubt there were some folks who did that. But anyone familar with the bureaucratic morass of the city shelter system, even when it functions as it is supposed to function, knows that someone entering it must be pretty desperate in the first place.
Soon after eliminating the priority access to Section 8 vouchers and public housing for shelter residents, the city and state created a voucher program (called "Advantage") for shelter residents which functioned like Section 8 -- but with a huge difference, the subsidy only lasted 2-3 years. The theory was families would use these 2-3 years to get financially stable enough to afford the rent. This simply did not happen. (the financial crisis of 2008 did not help) Many families ended up being evicted and re-entered the shelter system.
The larger reality is that housing is increasingly out of reach to poor and low-income families unless the housing is subsidized. The city eliminated the Advantage program which certainly has a role in families staying as long as they are now in the shelter system, forcing the city to expand cluster shelter sites, costing the city even more than the Advantage program did. Adavantage would have been much cheaper than cluster shelters.
Federal policy is key in my mind. Section 8 works really well. Section 8 funding should be expanded so cities like NYC with huge waiting lists can better meet the real need for affordable housing. Instead advocates for housing struggle each year just to maintain current inadequate levels. The sequester set that back and my understanding of the budget deal just announced is that Section 8 sequester cuts will not be restored. The city and state need these federal dollars to be not only restored, but expanded.
One final observation, the dysfunction and pathology in Dasani's family clearly will not simply disappear once the family is moved into permanent, affordable housing. This a family in need of more services to help them gain more stability and self-sufficiency. it may never happen -- but hopefully it will not live on for generations. Regardless, whatever can be done now or in the future to help this family will have more efficacy if the family has secure, affordable housing. The system does not need to "fix" all the problems in Dasani's family before housing them. I would also point out that there are many, many families in the NYC shelter system who are simply there because of financial realities. They don't need any more help than affordable housing. Allowing them to languish in a place like Auburn may only push otherwise functional, resilent families into dysfunction and pathology.
Mr. Schwartz,
How exactly do you define socialism?
Your comment to Claire (December 13, 2013 - 12:58pm) lumps together multiple versions of socialism without distinction. Pol Pot's understanding of socialism was the opposite of Stalin's and incompatible with Mao's. Cuban socialism is not the same as the socialism of Stalin, Mao, or Pol Pot, and has more in common with the post-Stalin era socialism of the Soviet Union (though they are now taking cues from post-Mao China as well). There is nothing "marxist" about China's political structure. "Leninist" seems to be the word that you are looking for, though neither Lenin nor Stalin would recognize today's China as socialist. In a later comment you also threw Venezuela, which is still a capitalist country (neither Marx and Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, or Pol Pot would understand it to be socialist), into the mix. You also bizarrely conflate all of these systems with National Socialism in Germany, which despite the name was a fascist system (an extreme, ultra-nationalistic form of capitalism), and has nothing to do with the other forms of socialism you mentioned. As is clear from his writings, speeches, actions, etc. Hitler was deeply anti-Marxist, anti-Leninist, and hated the Soviet Union.
You wrote,
It should be obvious to everyone by now that Bob Schwartz is trolling -- that is, entertaining himself by saying outrageous things in order to provoke a response from people who are actually taking this whole subject seriously. ("Child molesters"?) Please stop responding to him as though he were making an earnest argument based on a thorough reading of the "Invisible Child" series, rather than just typing terrible and dimwitted things for kicks.
I see it differently. That is, I'm convinced that Bob is not trolling or making his comments "for kicks." Why am I convinced? I've been corresponding with him offline for six years. It has been a good correspondence, one I'm grateful for. Obviously I can't share it with you, but I'm confident that if you saw it – especially the long, moving, personal email he sent me two days ago, in response to one I sent him about this thread -- you'd reach the same conclusion as I have.
Do Bob and I have our disagreements? Of course, as was obvious earlier on this thread, when I wrote that I was "taken aback" by his comment about Dasani's parents. But while I vehemently disagree with what he said, I'm sure he didn't say it as a troll or "for kicks."
I have to wonder whether modern metropolises simply reach a saturation point of population. There just doesn't seem to be enough *space* in New York City to accommodate all the people who want to live there.
Is there literally not enough space for the current population? If there is space in outlying areas where housing might be built, are there jobs nearby for the people who would live in them?
It now seems that it is quite possible for Mother Earth to be literally over-run by us Earthlings.
Gene Palumbo, wih whom I've had a sort of back channel email relationship, is a guy that defnes what it means to be a Christian (he actually talks to me in a civil and friendly manner, given the political gulf between us) even though I'm absolutely certain we probably disagree 90% on political theory. He did a lot of reporting on the ugliness going on in El Salvdor in the early eighties, and is an articulate and thoughtful guy who seems incapable of meanness.
I realize that what I'm saying has nothing to do with the original post, but there it is.
To Mollie, I say only that I will attempt to self-edit my future remarks so as to strip away any doubt as to whether or not I'm trolling.
Michael: I thought that was a point I was trying to make about socialism: That the common thread uniting all the different types was that they all exhibited the need for absolute control of their "subjects" in order to immanentize the eschaton (did I get the spelling right?), as it were.
Thanks to Gene and Bob for the edifing exchange. One merit of dotCom is that a lot of good things happen "back channel."
If anyone is still checking in to this thread, here are some reflections by Ruth Fremson, the photographer of the series. She speaks to a few of the questions I raised above.