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Rob Portman's Push Not Too Popular
At the height of campaign season, and while under extra scrutiny as a potential vice presidential pick, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) is on a quixotic bid to reform how the miscellaneous tariff bill is crafted.
In the process, he's going against the Republican Ways and Means Committee chairman — a close friend, as it happens — while giving bipartisan cover to a vulnerable Democratic Senator.
"I'm just trying to get something done here that helps the country," Portman said in an interview in his office in the Russell Senate Office Building.
The miscellaneous tariff bill, or MTB as it is known inside the Beltway, is a collection of scores of narrowly targeted bills that temporarily suspend taxes on importing chemicals and other goods U.S. manufacturers hope to use for less cost.
Although relatively obscure, it's a top priority of the business lobby. But the bill is in limbo because many critics of Congressional earmarks say the limited tariff benefits that make up the law are banned under House and Senate rules.
Portman, a veteran of both Bush administrations and the House, has joined Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) in introducing legislation that would give the International Trade Commission the first look at the proposals, rather than vetting what Congress sends to the ITC, transcending the problem with the earmark ban.
Their bill has the backing of many Republican leaders. Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl offered the bill as an amendment to Citrus Trust Fund legislation in a Finance Committee markup Wednesday.
"If we don't modify the process, we're not going to have any MTB this year," the Arizona Republican said, adding that most Senate Republicans believe the tariff suspensions qualify as earmarks.
But Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), whom McCaskill has described as fiercely protective of his committee's turf, panned the bill, which lost on a voice vote.
"This process as I understand it — although it's not been vetted — reduces transparency," Baucus said, warning ominously of "lobbyists" influencing the ITC. "It's a secret process."
House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.), Baucus noted, is "strongly opposed" as well, adding, "He thinks it's a bad idea."
Baucus and Camp had been pushing to move the MTB through without altering the earmark ban.
And as Camp was fending off pressure from conservative groups that the MTB plan amounted to pushing through earmarks, the Portman-McCaskill proposal was announced, undercutting his argument that no such change to the process was necessary.
The move caused tension between the two lawmakers, even though their friendship dates back to Portman's tenure in the House, when they both sat on the Ways and Means Committee together.
"Dave Camp is not just a friend, he's one of my best friends in Congress," Portman said.
"He's legitimately concerned that if we try to put these reforms in place this year that we're gonna miss a year on the process of approving these tariff bills. And I agree with his concern. We tried to answer that in the legislation by expediting the process for this year. And that's where we've asked the ITC to expedite their review to get them back to Congress for a vote.
"I've been trying to respond to that very legitimate concern but at the same time make it clear that in my judgment — and maybe I'm wrong — but in my judgment, we're gonna end up with no progress this year unless we have a reformed system."
A spokeswoman for Camp pointed to the Finance Committee vote as evidence "that we have strong bipartisan support for the transparent MTB process under way in both the House and Senate."
Meanwhile, Portman's partnership with McCaskill has raised eyebrows because the Missouri Democrat is facing real peril in her re-election bid.
Facing an uphill battle in a state that President Barack Obama is not expected to contest seriously, McCaskill has cultivated a staunchly independent profile, including breaking from her party on key issues that hold populist appeal.
Sen. Roy Blunt (R), her home-state colleague, participated in working groups on the bill, but he never signed on as a co-sponsor.
"I'm not particularly supportive of the way that language turned out," Blunt said in a brief interview, adding that the political implications for McCaskill's campaign had nothing whatsoever to do with his decision not to sign on.
Portman, too, said politics had nothing to do with the issue.
"Look, this is a political year, no question about it," he said. "I'm not absent from the campaign trail, as you know, but this is about getting something done that helps American workers.
"I think we shouldn't worry about the politics. They're gonna sort themselves out. This is not gonna make a big difference in any election. This is not gonna change the dynamics of any race, national or state. This is a relatively small matter in the context of the big concerns we have as a country. But it's an important one," Portman said.
Meanwhile, the intense speculation on Portman as a frontrunning contender to be presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney's vice presidential pick has focused attention on his record and personality.
Portman said he did not know whether Romney had decided on a vice presidential candidate yet and declined to discuss the campaign's vetting of him, aside from recounting some of the more clever methods reporters have used to query him about it.
He also declined to perform an impression of Obama his aides said was dead-on. "Not a chance," Portman said.


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Lately, a strange feeling has gotten hold of me. I am not yet able to fully articulate it, but something tells me that God is relocating to a different residence. He has hired a moving company and they are at this time loading all His furniture and possessions into a van and awaiting His instructions as to the destination. The truth is He's been thinking for a long time about moving but has not yet done so because we, in our ignorance, are still busy visiting His old home, completely blind to the fact that the curtains have been taken down, most of His furniture has already been removed, and He is standing in the doorway, dressed in His jacket and ready to go. He nevertheless listens to us, smiling and feeling sorry for us that in our utter blindness we still believe we are sitting comfortably in His living room, chatting and having coffee with Him, while in fact He is sitting on the edge of His chair, gazing longingly at the door, dreaming of His new home.
Synagogues – whether Orthodox, Conservative or Reform – are no longer His primary residence. Surely some of the worshippers are pious people who try to communicate with their Creator, but overall, the majority of these places have become religiously sterile and spiritually empty. So God is moving to unconventional minyanim and places such as Israeli cafes, debating clubs, community centers, unaffiliated religious gatherings, and atypical batei midrash. The reason is obvious. In some of those places people are actually looking for Him. And that is what He loves; not those who have already found Him and take Him for granted. He is moving in with the young people who have a sense that He is there but cannot yet find Him. It gives Him a thrill. In some of these cafes He encounters young men sporting ponytails, without kippot, but with tzitziyot hanging out of their T-shirts, praying in their own words, attempting to find Him. In secular yeshivot, He meets women in trousers and mini-skirts who are earnestly arguing about what it means to be Jewish and who kiss mezuzot when they enter a fashion show. Then there are those who, to His delight, are keen on putting on tefillin once in a while and do this with great excitement; or who enthusiastically light Shabbat candles Friday night and can get into a serious discussion about Buddhism and how to combine some of its wisdom with Kabbalah and incorporate it into Jewish practice.
No, they don't do it because it is tradition, or nostalgia, as their grandparents did, but because they sincerely want to connect, to grow and become better, deeper and more authentic Jews, but at their own pace and without being told by others what they ought to do. They won't go for the conventional outreach programs, which try to indoctrinate them. No, they strive to come closer because of an enormous urge and inner explosion of their neshamot. No better place for God to be, even if these attempts may not always achieve the correct goals and are sometimes misdirected.
At these unconventional sites, theological discourses take place over a glass of beer, and the participants talk deep into the night because they can't get enough of this great stuff called Judaism. Many of these people want to study God and understand why He created the world and what the meaning of life is all about. What is the human condition? What is a religious experience? How do we confront death? What is the meaning of Halacha? What are we Jews doing here in this strange universe? They realize that life becomes more and more perplexing, and these questions are therefore of radical importance. These are, after all, eternal issues. Who wants to live a life that passes by unnoticed? It is in this mysterious stratosphere that God loves to dwell. He can't get enough of it.
Regrettably, His interest wavers when He enters conventional synagogues. He finds little excitement there. People, including myself, seem to go through the motions, activate their automatic pilot, do what they are told, say the words in the prayer book, and go home to make Kiddush. Few are asking questions on how to relate to God, why they are Jewish and what their lives really are all about. Many do not want to be confronted with these nasty issues. They only disturb their peace of mind. A nice, conventional dvar Torah is good enough. After all, everything has already been discussed and resolved. Regular synagogue visitors – again, like me – only speak to Him when they need Him, but almost nobody ever speaks about Him or hears Him when He calls for help in pursuing the purpose of His creation.
So God is moving to more interesting places. He laughs when He thinks of the old slogan, "God is dead." It was a childhood disease. He knows we learned our lesson. It is too easy, too simplistic, and has not solved anything. He knows that He has not yet been replaced with something better. Oh yes, there are still run-of-the-mill scientists who believe that they have it all worked out. Some neurologists sincerely believe that "we are our brains" and that our thinking is nothing more than sensory activity. They seem to believe that one can find the essence of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony by analyzing the ink with which the composer wrote this masterpiece. There are even Nobel Prize winners who believe that we will soon enter God's mind and know it all, no longer needing Him. They are like the man who searches for his watch in the middle of the night. When asked why he is looking under the street lamp, if he lost his watch a block away, he answers: "This is the only place where I can see anything." These scientists have still not realized that there are more things, on earth and in heaven, than their research will ever grasp. They have convinced themselves that they are merely objective spectators and have not yet understood that they themselves are actors in the mysterious drama of what is called life.
And God simply winks. During the duration of this long-term disease beginning in the nineteenth century, antibodies have been developing to fight against the denial of His very being. Although atheism is still alive and kicking, many have become immune to all these simplistic ideas. Over the years, more and more antitoxins have accumulated, and we are now stunned by the fact that He, after all, may indeed be in our midst. Suddenly, an outdated hypothesis has come to life again. God is a real possibility, and we had better become aware of that.
But here's the catch: While the religious establishment is now shouting from the rooftops "We told you so," it has not yet grasped that this is completely untrue. The discovery of God did not happen because of conventional religion but in spite of it.
The truth is that the great shift concerning God took place far away from the official religious establishment. It is in fact a miracle that some people continued believing in God while religion often did everything to make this impossible. For centuries the church blundered time after time. Since the days when Galileo proved the Church wrong, it was constantly forced to change its position. And even then it did so reluctantly. The enormous loss of prestige that religion suffered because of it is beyond description. God was pushed into the corner. Not because He was not there, but because He was constantly misrepresented by people who spoke in His name. Since the Renaissance, many other great minds have moved the world forward; and while several may have missed the boat, a large number of them introduced radical new perspectives of the greatest importance. Yet, the Church's only response was to fight them tooth and nail until, out of utter necessity, when all its arguments had run out, it had to succumb and apologize once again for its mistakes. Time and again, religion lagged behind in sharing the victory of new scientific and philosophical insights. Ironically, long before the Church officially sanctioned these new discoveries, they were already part and parcel of the new world. As always, the imprimatur came too late.
And so religion paid a heavy price. Its territory became smaller and smaller. The constant need for capitulation made many people leave the world of religion and opt for the secular approach. And the story is not over yet. Scientists are now discussing the possibility of creating life forms in the laboratory that do not depend on DNA to survive and evolve. In all likelihood, several religious leaders will fight this again, with force and ferocity, and will probably have to succumb once more when they can no longer deny the hard facts of science.
But what was happening in the Jewish religious world? While it cannot be denied that Judaism, too, got caught up in all these debates, and quite a few staunch traditionalists were not much better than some of the church fathers, the overall situation within Judaism was much more receptive to scientific developments. While the Church declared in one authoritative voice— often the synod— that these new scientific discoveries were outright heresy, such pronouncements never took place in the synagogue. This is because Judaism is so different from other religions. Positions of unconditional belief were never its main concern. They were always debated, but never finalized as was the case with the Church. What kept Judaism busy was the question of how to live one's life while living in the presence of God and one's fellow man, as expressed in the all-encompassing halachic literature. Because of that, it did not see scientific discoveries as much of a challenge. There was also a strong feeling that scientific progress was a God-given blessing. The greatest Jewish religious thinker of the Middle Ages, Maimonides, was even prepared to give up on the concept of creation ex nihilo if it would be proven untrue. Although he was attacked for some of these radical and enlightened ideas, the general attitude was: let science do its thing, and if we were wrong in the past because we relied on the science of those days, we will now rectify our position. Even when the Talmud made scientific statements, many—although certainly not all—understood them to be the result of scientific knowledge of the day, and not sacrosanct. And even when these debates became more intensive, it was never argued that opposing views should be absolutely silenced. There was no final authority in matters of belief, no Jewish synod. (1) At the same time, many sages warned against making science into an idol that is all-knowing and can solve life's riddles.
Nominally a great age of scientific inquiry, ours has actually become an age of superstition about the infallibility of science; of almost mystical faith in its non-mystical methods; above all…of external verities; of traffic-cop morality and rabbit-test truth. (2)
But today all this has changed. In many Orthodox circles, Judaism's beliefs have become more holy than the pope. Suddenly, there is an attempt to outdo old- fashioned Catholicism; to insist that the world is actually nearly 5,800 years old; that the creation chapter must be taken literally; that seven days consist of twenty-four hours each and not one minute more; that there is no foundation to the theory of evolution; and that the Talmud's scientific observations came straight from Sinai. That this happened in the past, when there was limited scientific knowledge, is understandable; but that such claims are still made today is downright embarrassing. It makes us blush. We can laugh about it only because the hopelessness of some of these ideas has already passed the point of being disputable. They have faded into flickering embers soon to be extinguished.
Surely it could be argued that possibly science will change its mind. But if the core beliefs of Judaism are not undermined (and they are not!), and as long as there is no indication that science will change its mind in the near future, there is no need to reject these scientific positions. And let us never forget that it is not even completely clear what these core beliefs are! So why fight modern science? (3)
The incredible damage done by doing so is beyond description. It makes Judaism laughable and, in the eyes of many intelligent people, completely outmoded. It makes it impossible to inspire many searching souls who know what science teaches us. If not for this mistaken understanding of Judaism, many people would not have left the fold and could actually have enjoyed Judaism as a major force in their lives.
And it is here that many of us, including myself, are at fault. We blame the Synagogue for this failure, as we blamed the Church hundreds of years ago. Many of us have said, "Judaism has failed"; "It is outdated"; "I am getting out." But such statements are as unfair as they are illogical. Judaism is not an institution external to us, which one can abandon as one quits a hockey club. We are the Synagogue, and we are Judaism. When Galileo revolutionized our view concerning the solar system, it was not only the Church that failed; we all failed. Those who from the perspective of Galileo claim that the Church was backward are reasoning post factum.
We must realize that while Judaism consists of core beliefs and values that are eternal and divine, it is also the product of the culture during which time it developed. That, too, is part of God's plan and has a higher purpose. And when history moves on and God reveals new knowledge, the purpose is to incorporate that into our thinking and religious experience. Ignoring this is silencing God's voice.
Religion will not regain its old power until it can face change in the same spirit as does science. Its principles may be eternal, but the expression of those principles requires continual development. (4)
That is why God is relocating. He doesn't want to live in a place where His ongoing creation is unappreciated and even denied.
We have replaced God with prayers, no longer realizing to Whom we are praying. We even use Halacha as an escape from experiencing Him. We are so busy with creating halachic problems, and so completely absorbed by trying to solve them, that we are unaware of our hiding behind this practice so as not to deal with His existence. In many ways this is understandable. Since the days of the Holocaust, we have refused to confront the problem of His existence due to the enormity of the evil, which He allowed to happen. So we threw ourselves into Halacha to escape the question. But while the problem of God's involvement in the Holocaust will never be solved, we must realize that the purpose of Halacha is to have an encounter with Him, not just with the Halacha. Halacha is the channel through which we can reach Him, not just laws to live by. Notwithstanding the incomprehensibility of the Holocaust, we must return to God. It's high time we realize that His being is of a total different nature than we have ever imagined. God can only be understood in a way that is similar to the relationship between a computer hard disk and what you see on the screen. What you see on the screen is totally different from what is inscribed in the hard disk. You can examine the inside of the disk using the most powerful microscope, but you will see nothing even slightly resembling pictures, colors or words. We are mistaken when we picture God based on the world screen. In no way does it reveal the actual contents of the hard disk, God Himself. All we know is that God's ways—which we see only through the external sense of sight—is somehow related to the disk. The problem is that we believe we can have a good look at God by watching the screen. But we haven't the slightest clue of what is actually going on in the disk. The Holocaust will always remain an enigma, but it can never deny the Divine disk. (5)
It is in those who are still uncomfortable with God that new insights about Him are formed. And it will be in those uneasy environments that Judaism will be rediscovered and developed. The need for religious transcendence, and for the spiritual thread that keeps many young people on their toes, is enormous. Numerous secular people are joining a new category of spiritual theologians. Matters of weltanschauung are pivotal to many secular Jews now. The problem is that for them, and for the religious, the Torah is transmitted on a wavelength that is out of range of their spiritual transistors' frequency. Yes, we turn on the radio, but we hear strange noises and unusual static. There is serious transmission failure. We are no longer sure where the pipelines are. God has relocated.
In the world of physics, matters are becoming more and more hazy. Our brains are penetrating places where well-established notions, such as matter and substance, have evaporated. They have been transformed to puzzling phenomena. They have moved, and God has moved with them. Science is becoming intangible, and it's happening at a speed that we can't keep up with. It puts us in a difficult position and causes us anxiety. We are all living in exile, within a mystical landscape. Those who are aware of this are alive; those who are not have left this world unwittingly.
The question is whether we move our synagogues to where God is now dwelling. Will we, the religious, live up to the expectations of the young people in cafes and discussions groups who have preceded us? Will we apologize to them and join in their discussions, creating a real religious experience out of our synagogue service? Or will we, as usual, stay put, fight the truth, and then be put to shame?
When will we move Judaism to the front seat so that it once again becomes the leader instead of a follower?
Will we move to God's new habitat, or are we still drinking coffee in His old home where the curtains have been removed and He is long gone?
(With thanks to my dear friend Y.D. Zirkind for his comments. The ideas expressed, however, are solely mine.)
- Admittedly, this is my personal conclusion after reading up on Jewish sources and history in relation to science. To mention only a few sources: Pesachim 94b; Maimonides, Guide for thePerplexed, vol. 3, chapter 14; Mishneh Torah, Kiddush HaChodesh, 17:24; Sefer HaTemunah, attributed to the Tanna Rabbi Nehunya ben haKana; Rabbi Avraham ben haRambam, "Maamar al odot Drashot Chazal," Milchamot Hashem, (Jerusalem: Mossad HaRav Kook, 1986); Rabbi Yitzchak Lampronti, Pachad Yitzchak; under the heading of "Tzeidah"; Letter by Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch published in the journal, Hama'yan, 1976, chapter 4; Rabbi David Zvi Hoffman's commentary on Vayikra, German edition, page 6; Rabbi Yisrael Lipschitz, Drush Ohr Ha-Hayyim at the end of Tractate Sanhedrin in Seder Nezikin. See, also, Chief Rabbi Herzog's letter to Professor Straus in Responsa Heichal Yitzchak, Orach Chayim, No. 29.
Others may disagree and accuse me of wishful thinking. In that case, Jewish thinkers have to work even harder to put the record straight! For me and many others, a Judaism that, for example, sincerely claims that the world is actually 5,800 years old is unacceptable. For an overview of the Jewish approach to science, see: http://www.yctorah.org/component/option,com_docman/task,doc_details/gid,172/Itemid,13/
- Louis Kronenberger, Company Manners: A Cultural Inquiry into American Life (Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1954) p. 94.
- Regarding the claim that the full text of the Torah is divine, or that miracles are possible, it is a matter of debate whether these are completely denied by scientific knowledge, or not. Many of these claims are not solely within the sphere of pure science. They touch on matters related to the philosophy of science or, in the case of Bible criticism, to literary interpretation.
- Alfred North Whitehead, Science and the Modern World (Cambridge University Press, 1925) p. 234.
- I borrow this comparison from my dear friend Professor Yehudah Gellman of Ben Gurion University. See his: God's Kindness Has Overwhelmed Us: A Contemporary Doctrine of the Jews as the Chosen People, Emunot: Jewish Philosophy and Kabbalah Series (Brighton, MA: Academic Studies Press, 2012).
"Questions to Ponder" by the David Cardozo Academy Think Tank:
- Do you agree that "God has relocated" away from synagogues and traditional religious venues? Or would you say that God is more easily found in those places where we usually look for Him?
- Have you ever felt that new scientific discoveries challenged your religious faith? Was your solution to deny the validity of faith or science, or did you find a third way to reconcile them? Do you feel that your solution is applicable to other such challenges?
- If a self-proclaimed atheist challenges you to defend the validity of religious faith in our age, what would you say? Do you think your defense would convince your challenger (and does it matter)?
- If you were asked to define the core beliefs of Judaism, which beliefs would you choose? Do you feel that your choices are vulnerable to future advances of science, or could they be redefined to take into account new knowledge?
- Do you feel that positing "core beliefs" bolsters religious faith, or is this detrimental to the future development of religion? If religion is not based on belief, on what is it based?

subset: commoncrawl


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Oscars red carpet: a runway of sharp elbows and high fashion stakes
When Jennifer Lawrence tripped on her way to accept her best actress Oscar last year, her blush pink princess-like Dior Haute Couture gown was captured in all its glory as the unscripted moment made ripples around the world.
That bonus air-time for a single dress at one of the world's premier global events is priceless for the likes of Dior, one of the strongest fashion houses in the cutthroat marketplace that the Oscars red carpet is today.
Success on the red carpet can buy cachet that no advertising can - both for designers and stars - and profits for luxury brands for years to come. With stakes that high, the more established houses are raising their game and leaving little room for newcomers to make a splash, like they might have a decade ago.
The red carpet, which will be televised live before the March 2 Academy Awards ceremony, presents "a great and free opportunity" for a designer to reach an audience that expands beyond the fashion set, said Ariel Foxman, editor of fashion magazine InStyle.
"It's free marketing," Foxman said. "Advertising dollars are so expensive, and marketing budgets are so fractured these days with social media, digital media, print media and television media, so it's more valuable than ever."
One way of estimating the monetary benefits of having a standout dress on the red carpet is to compare how much a brand would otherwise spend on commercial advertising during the same time, said Milton Pedraza, chief executive officer of the Luxury Group Institute, a consulting firm.
According to a report by Kantar Media released this week, the average cost of a 30-second advertising spot during the 2013 Oscars was $1.65 million. The show was watched by 40.3 million viewers in the United States and several hundred million more across the world.
For Lawrence's 2013 Oscar acceptance speech and her accidental trip on the stairs to the stage, she had more than 75 seconds of solo camera time. For a commercial spot of the same duration at the same time, Dior would have had to pay more than $4 million. And this doesn't include the time dedicated to Lawrence and her gown on the pre-show televised red carpet.
For this year, Kantar Media estimates that a 30-second advertising spot will cost brands an average of $1.8 million during the primetime show.
Lawrence, 23, who is nominated again this year in the best supporting actress category for "American Hustle," is a Dior brand ambassador, wearing the Paris fashion house's designs to all her public events.
While Christian Dior group has not disclosed how much it paid for its deal with Lawrence and doesn't discuss her impact on its sales, the high-end couture label is on the rise. In 2013, couture's profits totaled 165 million euros ($226 million), up 26 percent from 2012.
While the Oscars has launched newcomer designers such as Olivier Theyskens, worn by Madonna in 1998, and Elie Saab, donned by Halle Berry when she won best actress in 2002, the big names in fashion don't leave much room for new talent anymore, said Hollywood fashion publicist Marilyn Heston.
Heston, the founder of publicity firm MHA Media whose success stories include introducing Jimmy Choo shoes and Lebanese designer Saab to Hollywood, said the Oscars red carpet is today dominated by established luxury brands.
"For young designers, finding their way into this world, it's really difficult," Heston said. "It's much more difficult to get successful placements for the big events when the eyes of the world are watching, the stakes are higher and there are more people in the game."
With the red carpet in mind, many of the top fashion houses have created capsule couture lines, such as Chanel Haute Couture, Atelier Versace, Armani Prive and Gucci Premiere, which are the highest of the high end.
For British designer Georgina Chapman, co-founder of Marchesa, the red carpet launched her then-unknown brand in 2004 when actress Renee Zellweger wore a red and gold Marchesa dress to the premiere of "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason."
"The next day, the dress was on the cover of every single newspaper and there was Marchesa written as well. And it really hit home that this is what a red carpet can do for a brand," said Chapman, who is married to one of Hollywood's most powerful men, film producer Harvey Weinstein.
The pinnacle for Marchesa came in 2010 when Sandra Bullock won the best actress Oscar wearing a gold sequined gown by the brand. Chapman said the dress received 40 million mentions in media.
The ultimate coup for a designer is to dress a young rising star on the Oscar red carpet, as fashion houses are trying to appeal to millennials who are likely to become customers as they earn more money, Pedraza said.
From Carey Mulligan's quirky Prada gown covered with miniature kitchen utensils in 2010, Lawrence's bold red form-fitting Calvin Klein in 2011, to Rooney Mara's white structured Givenchy gown offset by jet black hair in 2012, each year one emerging actress is sure to make a fashion statement.
This year, all eyes are on "12 Years a Slave" best supporting actress nominee Lupita Nyong'o, who has so far captivated fashion critics with her vibrant color choices.
From a vermillion Ralph Lauren column gown with a cape at the Golden Globes, a turquoise figure-hugging Gucci dress with a floral detailed neckline at the Screen Actor's Guild Awards, to a jade Dior Haute Couture gown at the BAFTAs in London, the 30-year-old actress has topped the best-dressed lists.
Nyong'o's fashion hits have cast a spotlight on her stylist, newcomer Micaela Erlanger, whose savvy picks have showcased the actress' versatility, made her a fashion muse almost overnight, and helped her land a campaign with luxury brand Miu Miu.
"Having that standout moment or having that public image is really an integral part of building someone's persona," said Erlanger.
As for what the Kenyan actress will wear on the Oscars red carpet, Erlanger isn't giving any clues. She has been scouring runways at this month's fashion presentations in New York and London in search of a standout dress.
"There should be an element of surprise, and that's what keeps everyone interested. I might go for the whimsy and unexpected but keep it modern and classic at the same time," the stylist teased.
尽管克里斯汀•迪奥(Christian Dior)集团并未透露它此次与劳伦斯合作的价码,也未提到她对产品销量的影响,但这个高端定制品牌的销量正不断上升。2013年,高级定制盈利达1亿6500万欧元(2亿2600万美元),比2012年增长了26%。
赫斯顿是公关公司MHA媒体的创始人,该公司成功将吉米•周(Jimmy Choo)的鞋和黎巴嫩裔设计师萨博引入好莱坞市场,她说如今的奥斯卡红毯已被成熟的奢侈品品牌所垄断。
由于红毯效应的出现,许多顶级时尚公司创建了小型服装生产线,比如香奈儿高级定制服装(Chanel Haute Couture),阿特利尔•范思哲高级定制(Atelier Versace),阿玛尼高级定制(Armani Prive)和古琦高级定制(Gucci Premiere),这些都是高端品牌中的顶级品牌。
凭借金球奖上的朱红色拉夫•劳伦(Ralph Lauren) 圆柱形礼服搭配披肩,美国演员公会奖上领口缀满花朵的古琦(Gucci)蓝绿色紧身礼服以及在伦敦英国电影和电视艺术学院奖上的浅绿色迪奥高级定制礼服,现年30岁的尼永奥登上了最佳着装的榜首。
尼永奥在时尚方面的成功使人们的目光投向了她的造型师米凯拉•厄兰格,她的智慧充分展现了尼永奥的多面性,使她几乎在一夜之间成为了时尚缪斯并成功促成了他与奢侈品牌缪缪(Miu Miu)的合作。
(译者 李艳荍 编辑 丹妮)
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1970 Ford Mercury Cougar XR-7 - Second-Chance Cat
Cougar Love Is A Recurrent Affair
Kevin Cornwell of Williamsport, Maryland, owns this beautiful '70 Mercury Cougar XR-7. The Cougar bug originally bit him in 1981 when he was a high-school student. Back then, he bought a '70 Cougar and used it as his only transportation for many years.
Kevin says that things like marriage, children, and mortgages became his priority, and his first Cougar was eventually sold. Ever since then, he had wanted another one. About four years ago, when he could wait no longer, he began the search for a classic Cougar, using the Internet and keeping an eye on places like eBay. It was good fortune that after a thorough search, the perfect car turned up right in his hometown.
A friend of Kevin's knew someone who was a Cougar enthusiast, who just so happened to have a '70 XR-7 for sale. The two went to look at the car in February. In the snow and cold they were led to a garage where the Cougar awaited, carefully stored under heavy blankets. As soon as the blankets were lifted, Kevin knew the car would be his. The 351 Cleveland engine fired right up on that cold day, and with its 11.5:1 compression ratio, there was plenty of rumble to cinch the deal even further. The money changed hands, but many weeks went by as Kevin waited for the weather to improve. At last, the day came when he was able to drive the car home.
Kevin is happy to have another cat in his collection, and although this Cougar is in excellent condition, it's not a trailer queen. He likes the Eliminator extras because they look great, but he's the first to tell you the car is an Eliminator clone, looking just the way he likes it. He drives the Cougar in good weather and goes to lots of summer car shows near Maryland. Most of the Cougar aficionados we know will tell you that once you've had a Mercury Cougar, you'll always want to have one in your garage. Certainly Kevin is a good example of this Ford, er, Mercury phenomenon.
The Details
'70 Mercury Cougar XR-7
Owner: Kevin Cornwell, Williamsport, MD
351 Cleveland
4V cylinder heads
11.5:1 compression
Lunati cam w/.562 valve lift
Boss 351 intake manifold
Holley 650-cfm carb
MSD distributor and ignition system
Modified C4 automatic
2,500-rpm stall torque converter
3.73 gears
Front: Rebuilt stock, KYB Gas-a-Just shocks
Rear: Rebuilt stock, KYB Gas-a-Just shocks
Front: Stock disc
Rear: Stock drum
Front: American Racing chrome-finishTorq Thrust D, 16x7
Rear: American Racing chrome-finish Torq Thrust D, 16x7
Front: Kumho Ecsta 711, P225/50R16
Rear: Kumho Ecsta 711, P245/50R16
Original upholstery, XR-7 trim, factory center console with T-handle shifter, Auto Meter instrumentation including column-mounted tachometer and console-mounted water and oil gauges
Code 2156 Bright Gold poly paint Eliminator hoodscoop and graphics
Eliminator front and rear spoilers


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Monday, March 29, 2010
Lumina Clothing Co.
7 comments:
Did you take these photos?ReplyDelete
2" to 3.25" is a pretty big jump. Where is the 2.75" when you need it?ReplyDelete
Nichoas- The offer THREE widths, there is a middle width available too. I was just listing the two bookends.ReplyDelete
For neckties they only list 2: skinny - 2" and traditional - 3.25."ReplyDelete
Bowties are 2" or 2.5." They have some nice stuff too.
Hey Nicholas-ReplyDelete
We haven't had much interest in the 2.5" tie, which is why we haven't added it online. We definitely produce it, and we have been planning to add it but have recently been extremely busy. Since you asked, we will add it to the online shop ASAP.
Lumina Clothing Co.
You might also check out Cordial Churchman for you hand-sewn, North Carolina bow tie needs.ReplyDelete
Basseq- I'm all about CC...I've talked about them a few times on Sart Inc. Ellie makes fantastic stuff.ReplyDelete


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The Tara is the source of tannins for Ecotintes processes, the tannins are very important as color fixatives in cotton (cellulose).
They are used in the range of pearl and in addition to pepper to darken other colors.
The Caesalpinia spinosa, commonly known as "Tara", "taya", "divi divi cold ground," "boorish", "jump rope," Serrano "," little wine "," yellow Acacia. Its quality is the main dye tannin content (53%) and gallic acid (9%).
Peru is the world's largest producer of Tara, with 80% of production. This basically comes from natural forests, however marginal land cultivation and irrigation is increasing.
According to the Forest Map of Peru tare is occupying the shrub layer of scrub where it is associated with species such as Capparis prisca "Stick" Salix humboldtiana "Sauce", Schinus molle "Molle" puya sp, Acacia sp and some grasses and a variety of species of the genus Calliandra, Rubus, Croton, among others.
The tare is also, as many dye plants, medicine. Used to relieve ailments of the throat, sinusitis, vaginal yeast infections, swollen eye wash, chronic wounds and tooth decay, stomach pain, diarrhea, cholera, rheumatism and cold; purifying cholesterol.
Colours made with Tara by Ecotintes.
Click image to enlarge


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The Department of Drama, Theatre & Dance offers the study of the subjects appropriate for a liberal arts degree. A balanced combination of theory and practice aims at giving an understanding of the arts of drama, theatre and dance that can serve as a foundation for graduate study. Every effort is made to provide scope for the development of individual talent and skills as a preliminary step for those students who intend to pursue future conservatory training for a stage or dance career.
The department offers strong, diversified academic programs in theatre (covering history, literature, acting, directing, stage management, design, and technical theatre), and dance (modern, ballet, tap, Asian and African dance, choreography, and history). Each year, on our three stages, the department presents a wide range of five fully realized productions. These are dramas and comedies, classic and modern plays, new plays, musicals, operas, and dance concerts. Under the guidance of faculty and guest directors and designers, student actors and dancers perform for audiences drawn from all segments of the college community, as well as Queens neighborhoods.
There are also several opportunities annually for student actors and dancers to produce and direct work under faculty supervision. In addition to providing opportunities for students to major or minor in Drama, Theatre & Dance, the department devotes many of its offerings to courses that satisfy mandated general education requirements in the liberal arts. Moreover, non-majors participate regularly and extensively in all aspects of our production program as actors, dancers, technicians, and backstage crew members.
Acting Chair: Edisa Weeks
Dept. Office: Rathaus 213
Phone: 718-997-3090


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American Media Dodging UN Surveillance Story
by Norman Solomon (9 March 2003)
Three days after a British newspaper revealed a memo about U.S. spying on U.N. Security Council delegations, I asked Daniel Ellsberg to assess the importance of the story. "This leak," he replied, "is more timely and potentially more important than the Pentagon Papers."
The key word is "timely." Publication of the secret Pentagon Papers in 1971, made possible by Ellsberg's heroic decision to leak those documents, came after the Vietnam War had already been underway for many years. But with all-out war on Iraq still in the future, the leak about spying at the United Nations could erode the Bush administration's already slim chances of getting a war resolution through the Security Council.
"As part of its battle to win votes in favor of war against Iraq," the London-based Observer reported on March 2, the U.S. government developed an "aggressive surveillance operation, which involves interception of the home and office telephones and the e-mails of U.N. delegates." The smoking gun was "a memorandum written by a top official at the National Security Agency -- the U.S. body which intercepts communications around the world -- and circulated to both senior agents in his organization and to a friendly foreign intelligence agency."
The Observer added: "The leaked memorandum makes clear that the target of the heightened surveillance efforts are the delegations from Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Mexico, Guinea and Pakistan at the U.N. headquarters in New York -- the so-called 'Middle Six' delegations whose votes are being fought over by the pro-war party, led by the U.S. and Britain, and the party arguing for more time for U.N. inspections, led by France, China and Russia."
The NSA memo, dated Jan. 31, outlines the wide scope of the surveillance activities, seeking any information useful to push a war resolution through the Security Council -- "the whole gamut of information that could give U.S. policymakers an edge in obtaining results favorable to U.S. goals or to head off surprises."
Three days after the memo came to light, the Times of London printed an article noting that the Bush administration "finds itself isolated" in its zeal for war on Iraq. "In the most recent setback," the newspaper reported, "a memorandum by the U.S. National Security Agency, leaked to the Observer, revealed that American spies were ordered to eavesdrop on the conversations of the six undecided countries on the United Nations Security Council."
The London Times article called it an "embarrassing disclosure." And the embarrassment was nearly worldwide. From Russia to France to Chile to Japan to Australia, the story was big mainstream news. But not in the United States.
Several days after the "embarrassing disclosure," not a word about it had appeared in America's supposed paper of record. The New York Times -- the single most influential media outlet in the United States -- still had not printed anything about the story. How could that be?
"Well, it's not that we haven't been interested," New York Times deputy foreign editor Alison Smale said on the evening of March 5, nearly 96 hours after the Observer broke the story. "We could get no confirmation or comment" on the memo from U.S. officials.
The Times opted not to relay the Observer's account, Smale told me. "We would normally expect to do our own intelligence reporting." She added: "We are still definitely looking into it. It's not that we're not."
Belated coverage would be better than none at all. But readers should be suspicious of the failure of the New York Times to cover this story during the crucial first days after it broke. At some moments in history, when war and peace hang in the balance, journalism delayed is journalism denied.
Overall, the sparse U.S. coverage that did take place seemed eager to downplay the significance of the Observer's revelations. On March 4, the Washington Post ran a back-page 514-word article headlined "Spying Report No Shock to U.N.," while the Los Angeles Times published a longer piece that began by emphasizing that U.S. spy activities at the United Nations are "long-standing."
The U.S. media treatment has contrasted sharply with coverage on other continents. "While some have taken a ho-hum attitude in the U.S., many around the world are furious," says Ed Vulliamy, one of the Observer reporters who wrote the March 2 article. "Still, almost all governments are extremely reluctant to speak up against the espionage. This further illustrates their vulnerability to the U.S. government."
To Daniel Ellsberg, the leaking of the NSA memo was a hopeful sign. "Truth-telling like this can stop a war," he said. Time is short for insiders at intelligence agencies "to tell the truth and save many many lives." But major news outlets must stop dodging the information that emerges.
- from The Observer


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No one looks forward to capital budget time.
Some departments get what they want; others need to try again next year.
Just like Christmas, it's rare to get everything you wanted.
We announced our 2006 capital budget early this year: $13.5 million. …but that doesn't mean everything was set in stone. When push comes to shove, we still need to work out the specifics and make it all balance out.
On Monday, Will looked…well, in pain.
He gently told his assembled staff of directors that some hard decisions needed to be made in order to finalize the budget for 2006. Even though the $13.5 million budget is more than twice the amount of our previous record capital budget, we were still–on paper–way over.
So something had to go. (No, not The Voyage. Calm down!)
Will presented three options that would get us back on budget. Several directors groaned. A few others blanched. We talked through the options carefully, cautiously.
Will looked sick to his stomach.
Then Joe, who has worked here all but one of the years since we opened in 1946, suggested Option #4: Will, I could wait another year for my department to move to new offices.
It was very quiet in the room.
Then Wayne spoke up. He could do without some of the food-service extras that were on the list. April offered she could wait another year for new warehouse shelving. And Vanessa suggested dropping her new storage building from the list.
One by one, each director came forward until the budget was where it needed to be.
It was amazing.
Sort of like a Jimmy Stewart movie.


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Doctor's Profile
Profile ID: 203688
183 views
No insurances listed.
The study of disease. It is the bridge between science and medicine. It underpins every aspect of patient care, from diagnostic testing and treatment advice to using cutting-edge genetic technologies and preventing disease.
Anatomic pathology & clinical pathology
A medical specialty that is concerned with the diagnosis of disease based on the laboratory analysis of bodily fluids, such as blood, urine, and tissue homogenates or extracts using the tools of chemistry, microbiology, hematology, and molecular pathology.
- Jefferson Med Coll-Thos Jefferson Univ, Philadelphia Pa 19107, 1974
- Penn St U Hp-M S Hershey Mc, Anatomic And Clinical Pathology; Conemaugh Valley Mem Hosp, Flexible Or Transitional Year
Hospital Affiliations
Languages Spoken
Board Certifications
- Anatomic Pathology; Clinical Pathology
Professional Memberships
Special areas of practice expertise


text:
Diamond Pattern Lace Long Sleeves Style Men Dress Shirts
$69.12 Regular price $176.60
Type: Men Shirts
Free Shipping
Due to Different Suppliers and Brands, Please Check The Size Chart Carefully, Each Item May Have Its Own Size Chart, So You Can Choose The Size That Will Perfectly Fit to You.
Ex: If The Item is Asian Size, It is Better You Choose Bigger Size.
Shirts Type: Dress Shirts
Material: Polyester,Spandex
Sleeve Length(cm): Full
Collar: Turn-down Collar
Style: Smart Casual
Fabric Type: Broadcloth
Sleeve Style: Regular
Pattern Type: Solid
Closure Type: Single Breasted
Gender: Men
Item Type: Shirts


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[…] in America anymore, and simply must be offshored to sweatshops in third-world hellholes, think of American Apparel: Brief background on why I like them so much: this is a $500 million manufacturer of t-shirts, […]
Nivi · January 8th, 2009
Ed: This is a guest post by Kevin Meyer, the President of Factory Strategies Group, which operates Superfactory. He also writes an excellent blog called Evolving Excellence. In this post, Kevin describes how American Apparel unwittingly applies lean practices like short cycle times (concept-to-product in 8 days), integrated QA, cross-functional teams, and more.
American Apparel has long been one of my favorite companies. I love companies that think outside the box, ignore popular wisdom, and, in doing so, teach us some lessons.
Brief background on why I like them so much: this is a $500 million manufacturer of t-shirts, underwear, and the like. Typically low margin products, the kind of thing that usually comes from Asian and Central American sweatshops.
But not at American Apparel. This company makes over 1 million articles of clothing per week, from their one factory in Los Angeles and they grew 40% this year. They pay their 5,000-person workforce significantly above minimum wage (average is $12-$15 per hour), give them full subsidized benefits (such as high quality health care insurance for $8 per week), and they turn a profit.
This should embarrass the heck out of any executive who thinks he has to outsource in order to find effective labor. Or at least call into question his fundamental competence as a leader. If American Apparel can manufacture low margin clothing efficiently enough to beat the sweatshops (in California no less), then anyone should be able to. If they try hard enough.
Apparently some of the brass at the company have kept tabs on my blog as, about a month ago, I got a phone call inviting me to come down for a visit. It was everything I expected, and more, and in many aspects it rivaled the various Japanese factories I visited recently.
First Impressions
One of those aspects was the first impression. When we arrived at Saishunkan in Japan, we were greeted by a gardener who turned out to be the chairwoman of the $270 million company. At another factory we walked in to see the president of a $100 million company on his knees scrubbing the floor.
When you arrive at American Apparel, you see several massive multi-story warehouse buildings. At the business address is an open entrance with an old table and a visitor sign-in sheet. That's it. It's on the lower left of building in the photo below. No, not the far left… that would be the company store. The open gap entrance just to the right of the store… which looks like any of the other roll-up dock doors.
No fancy lobby with glitzy lighting and display cases, no plush waiting rooms. An open entrance with a guard and a sign-in sheet. For a $500 million company with over 5,000 employees.
As you can tell from this photo and the others, the buildings aren't in particularly great shape either. But they serve their purpose, and do it well. They may need a coat of paint, but they're clean, neat, and filled with a lot of happy brains.
The people
The value at American Apparel isn't created by the building, or the machines, but by the people. So many companies—probably the vast majority—think of their people as a cost. Very few companies recognize the value of the brain that sits slightly north of their people's hands. American Apparel realizes that the value of that brain more than offsets the traditional cost difference between their employee's hands and a pair of hands in a sweatshop.
What value has been added by the brains of their employees? How about this: their highest volume product, a "deep V" t-shirt, was the idea of one of their shop floor folks. Or this: American Apparel makes and sells a variety of unusual products, such as dog sweaters and baby bibs. Why? Because their employees figured out how to design those products with the little remaining scrap that exists after cutting out the patterns for the mainline products. There's still some scrap left, so they had another idea: create a machine that would combine and weave it into bikini straps and cords for hoodies… like in the photo on the right. There's still a tiny bit of scrap material left, so that is sent to a recycler, who turns it back into yarn and thread, which is then turned back into cloth for more products.
In fact, sustainability is a big deal to American Apparel. How many of you haven't embarked on sustainability programs because of their cost? Well, American Apparel recycles just about everything, obtains 30% of its power from solar cells on the roof (and they are looking into getting much more), and many of their trucks run on biodiesel. They buy as much organic cotton as they can… domestic organic cotton—they believe that the carbon footprint created by sourcing organic cotton from overseas is too much of a negative offset. Anyone interested in growing more organic cotton in the U.S., here's your customer. So once again, if you think sustainability is too expensive, then you should be embarrassed.
But let's get back to the people. Production takes place on each floor of all of these buildings by multitudes of 4 to 8 person cells (they call them "workcenters"). A kit of cut cloth is wheeled to each cell and they crank through it. A chart of metrics is maintained at each cell. See the column on the right, which I know you can't read? It's dollars… and reflects the dollar value of what the cell has created, and most importantly the actual dollar portion that they get to share. A form of piecework on top of a nice base hourly rate. Each cell has a quality control person, and other quality people roam between the cells.
Do you see that they're smiling? It's no wonder; they are valued and treated very well. Not only do they have a doctor on site, they have a full modern clinic. Back when there was a transit strike in LA, the company bought a couple thousand bicycles and created a bike loan program, with free maintenance, that still exists. How many companies have purposely eliminated phones on their manufacturing floor to cut costs? American Apparel has phones all over the place, and provides free calls—even long distance. That's a major benefit to their primarily immigrant workforce.
And perhaps most importantly, the company actively solicits their employee's ideas and recommendations, and they actively implement them. It's no wonder their retention rate is over 98%.
Vertical integration
A few more concepts.
How about the importance of gemba? Administration, marketing, design, and other offices are scattered throughout the buildings. They are not adjacent to each other. So everyone must walk through the factory floor multiple times a day. Everyone is continually aware that they are in a manufacturing facility.
Another concept: complete vertical integration. Everything is done at this cluster of buildings, with the exception of some dyeing that is done a few miles away. Design is done, often tested by Dov Charney himself, and sent to the factory floor. Time from raw concept to a finished product in over 200 stores worldwide? Eight days. Compare that to the weeks and months it can take to send a container across the ocean. Did the Olson Twins wear something unique yesterday? A new design can be created and placed into stores almost immediately to capitalize on the brief craze.
Complete advertising development, through photographing the models, to final printing, is also done at the factory. The props for all of the stores are created and sent from this factory. When a new store is opened, the fixtures and initial inventory are sent, often pre-hung on hangars so the new retail clerks can focus on selling.
Since everything is created in one factory, they can react fast, and therefore the stores don't have to maintain as much inventory. Shipments, globally, are smaller and more frequent. They have a unique way to balance raw material inventory: if raw inventory gets too large, they simply create a new design that will consume that inventory and sell it. A luxury many of us wish we had.
Are you embarrassed yet?
I've previously written about Sun Hydraulics, a 1,000 employee, $170M company, with no job titles except "plant manager"… the guy in charge of watering the plants in the factory. American Apparel is very similar. Sure there is the CEO, there's a marketing department, and there are cell leaders. But not much more. I asked a couple of my hosts what they did and I got answers like "some strategy stuff, but then I also figure out how to hire people for the stores." Basically whatever needs to be done.
American Apparel may be very altruistic, but they still realize they're a business. A business that has to make money to continue to provide the stable solid jobs for their valued workforce. My hosts told me about some other companies with similar values, who focused too heavily on the "communal good" and soon went out of business.
And yes, I saw Dov. He's been in the news quite a bit recently, thanks to a workplace atmosphere that would make some cringe. At the risk of offending the more sensitive among us, part of me applauds his guts to run the company as he sees fit, traditional rules be damned. It even earned him a great spoof on Saturday Night Live. By any measure, he is a retail genius and he has the smarts to see outside of the "must outsource to make clothes" traditional mindset.
But here's my final and perhaps most important lesson: do what works. It's that simple. Tools, even lean tools, are just tools. Leadership requires people. At American Apparel there are no cheesy signs with "Teamwork" and "Challenge" on them. There are no glitzy glass lobbies. There is no sign of lean manufacturing in the traditional sense, and they don't profess to be lean. No heavy lean training of employees, no overwhelming visual controls besides the metrics charts at the cells, no Shingo Prizes or Baldrige Awards.
But there are bunch of people recognized and compensated for their knowledge, creativity, ideas, and experience. A group of people who realize that speed creates value, knowledge creates ideas, ideas create profit. They figure out what works, then they do it exceptionally well.
A 5,000 person, $500 million low margin clothing company, operating from a single factory in the least business-friendly state of one of the highest "cost" manufacturing countries. Beating the overseas sweatshops and still growing rapidly.
Are you embarrassed yet?
Topics Lean · Organization
5 comments · Show
Absolutely phenomenal example of great leadership.
Putting people into silos causes politics, disconnect from the rest of the organization, and super-specialization. In the new economy the old model is just too rigid. Often we look for very complex solutions for our business problems, when something this simple is under our noses. Keep it simple, keep it rewarding, and squash the biggest killer of companies—overblown egos.
Great article!
[…] found this nice little write-up on the Venture Hacks blog. It was written by Kevin Meyer of the Factory Strategies […]
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Steve Barry s chain of stores is one of the famous chain stores in the US which has a collection of high quality and low cost branded apparel. Besides Bitten, Steve Barry s stores have an authentic collection of top American brands such as Hershey s, Hasbro and General Mills


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Ganesha Idol Moonstone(4.80 Grams)
The Moonstone Ganesha Idol is made of polished Natural Moon stone 4.80 Grams and dimensions with L-25.71, W-13.79, H-9.24 mm
- Description
- Additional information
- Shipping Details
The Moonstone Ganesha Idol is made of polished Natural Moon stone 4.80 Grams and dimensions with L-25.71, W-13.79, H-9.24 mm. The elephant god lord ganapathi, who is honoured for his wisdom by both the Buddhists & Hindus. The Moonstone Gemstone is also called as chandrakant mani stone in Hindi.
Ganesha also known as Ganapati, Vinayaka, Pillaiyar and Binayak, is most powerful god worshiped deities in the Hindu pantheon.
Additional information
|4.80 g
|25.71 × 13.79 × 9.24 mm
All order received will be processed and delivered in 2-5 working days in anywhere in india after receiving confirmed Payments and in 10-15 working days world wide. kindly contact us on Phone: 040-27130685, +91-9848237182 or email us at - firstname.lastname@example.com for any query on order related and Bulk Orders. Shipping fee includes handling and packing charges. All safety measures are taken to pack the product such that there is no physical damage incurred to the Final Product. The product will be send to the shipping address and we will provide you the tracking number so that you can track it during the whole shipping process. We are not responsible for non-delivery of packages due to wrong address. Import charges & Customs Duty:- Our shipping charges are not inclusive of any such charges applicable, Generally there is no custom duties or import taxes for Gemstones worldwide. For international shipments, the customer is liable to pay any additional custom duty and import charges imposed by their government at the port of arrival.


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Working with the Media
In this course, you will learn about branding and the role of public relations as opposed to adjacent fields like advertising and marketing. You will understand the media and how to leverage storytelling with different outlets and gatekeepers. Foundational mass communication and public relations theories will be discussed in terms of issue and crisis management.
- Fecha Incio:01/05/2023
- Idioma: Inglés
- Certificado: No


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Rant: I'm Tired of 'White Guy Photography' Projects
This post is prompted by, but not exactly about, the Humans of New York project/phenomenon (Side Note: This is not an anti-HONY rant. If anything, HONY is merely the straw which broke the camel's back).
I've been aware of HONY for a while as it's been gathering steam and it's never interested me. I've skimmed it a few times but each time I do, I have a gut-level reaction to it as "just another white guy photographing New York."
It took me a while to confirm that that was indeed my reaction to the project.
Thinking about it more, I'm realizing that it's my reaction to a lot of photographic projects. Not just in New York but in general. I'm allergic to "white guy photography."
This is distinct from photography by white guys. What I'm having problems with is the approach which entails traveling, or moving, someplace with the intent of documenting and photographing so as to "explain" or "capture" it for others. And the amount of privilege required to start such a project and make those kinds of claims is generally limited to (but not exclusively the domain of) white guys.
As much as this is a time-honored approach, I'm done with it.
I grew up looking forward to each new issue of National Geographic. The photography was great and it was a fantastic way to learn about the world. At the same time, even as a kid, I was aware of the colonial viewpoint in how it depicted different cultures, bodies, etc.
(Side Note: This is not an anti-National Geographic rant either. That magazine is responsible for a lot of my visual education and it's still a source of excellent photography. At the same time, I've come to realize its limitations, especially when the photos are decoupled from the articles.)
As a child of the 80s, I got to watch its viewpoint shift from the exotic abroad to focus more on the US. In some ways this must have been an interesting editorial shift as it applied the colonial view to ourselves. However, since a lot of those features were on American cities, I can't help but think that the result has been to view our cities, especially the poor, majority-minority ones as being dangerous or exotic.
But this was all in the 1980s. To see the same approach taken toward non-white or non-mainstream cultures now feels old and stale. And with almost everyone having the tools to document and represent themselves now, it starts treading into self-serving, patronizing, white-guilt behavior too.
The colonial view doesn't work for me anymore. At its best, I find it boring. At its worst, I find it racist. In almost all cases I'm tired of it.
I'm tired of the outsider view which treats cities as urban jungles full of diversity which have to be tamed. I'm tired of the idea that you can just drive through a culture snapping photos and claim to be presenting it to the rest of us. I'm tired of the idea that non-white or native people are exotic objects. I'm tired of the lack of context which results in the photos providing little to no information about the actual culture being depicted.
I'm tired of the way that, even today, so many westerners gush about this kind of photography.
I'm tired of the way that so many people still aspire to create this kind of photography.
We've already reached the point where most everything has been photographed. If our goal is to increase the sophistication with which we photograph, a large part of this has to include how we approach and view other cultures.
Which means that this rant in many ways is the other side of the blinders coin. So many of us only see—without realizing it—the white-male perspective that we've come to believe that that perspective is what photography is. We need to do better, whether it's showing how other cultures are representing themselves or explaining why we're bored of certain points of view.
About the author: Nick Vossbrink is a photographer based out of the San Francisco Bay area. He likes to say that his style is shoot first, make sense of it later; using his camera to take 'notes' of what he sees and then looking back at those notes to search for patterns. You can follow him on his website and blog. This article originally appeared here. Given the massive amount of attention the post has received, a followup has already been published here.
Image credit: People Photographing People Photographing People by See-ming Lee æŽæ€æ˜Ž SML


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As IT systems are getting more complex, designing them correctly is getting more difficult, too, says computer scientist Krishnendu Chatterjee. For his work on game theoretic models for the synthesis of correct systems he has now won both a €1.2 million (approximately US$1.7 million) grant from the European Research Council and a US$200,000 Microsoft Research Faculty Fellowship.
Both awards aim to support up-and-coming researchers. Chatterjee is an assistant professor at the Institute of Science and Technology (IST) Austria in Klosterneuburg near Vienna. His research group deals with computer-aided verification and game theory.
Chatterjee says he will mainly spend the money to add researchers to his team. "As I and my team do theoretical research we don't need much special, costly equipment. What we need is research staff," he said. So far Chatterjee is planning to hire one more postdoc researcher and three Ph.D. students.
Currently Chatterjee is working on quantitative graph games and their application to the synthesis of correct systems. "Our goal is to develop automated tools that help in the development of software systems," he said. The researcher aims to advance the methods of verification for reactive systems such as operating systems. These systems are usually modeled as a graph. To verify such a system, games are played on the graphs. Chatterjee's work focuses on mathematical theory to find new ways to deal with large graph games.
"An intuitive description of graph games is the game of chess: Vertices of the graph represent configurations of the chess board, and players make moves in turns from one vertex to another," said Chatterjee. Transferred to system analysis, this means the system and the environment are the players and every vertex represents a state of the system resulting from their opposing actions. "The goal is to ensure the system behaves correctly against all environment behaviors," Chatterjee added.
"As Microsoft develops operating systems, our work has a close relation to their work," Chatterjee said. Relevance to the aims of Microsoft research is one of the criteria for the software company when selecting the research faculty fellows. Chatterjee said that in the context of the fellowship he will collaborate with Microsoft researchers in Redmond and India.
Chatterjee has been working with IST Austria since June 2009. The institute, inaugurated in 2009, is dedicated to basic research and graduate education in the natural and mathematical sciences. Thus far 20 professors have joined IST Austria.
Chatterjee earned his Ph.D. in computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, where his thesis about so-called "omega-regular games" won the David J. Sakrison award for outstanding research. In addition the European Association for Computer Science Logic decorated him with their Ackermann award, named after the mathematician Wilhelm Ackermann.


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Published on June 15th, 20120
Top Gear: Stunt School Revolution
Millions downloaded Top Gear: Stunt School. Now check out the all-new (and FREE) Top Gear: Stunt School Revolution. With incredible new visuals, loads more outrageous cars, iconic world locations, endless and mostly ridiculous customizations and truly unbelievable stunts, it's everything you'd expect from the Top Gear team. And all this, for FREE.
Want to balloon hop a motor home to clear the Grand Canyon? Use your sports car and escape Alcatraz by leaping as far as you can and landing on a barge? Speed through a roller-coaster on a New York skyscraper with a cow on your pickup? You can do all this and more in Top Gear: Stunt School Revolution.
• Endless vehicle customisations to tweak your car performance to any scenario
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Oct. 30 -- THURSDAY, Oct. 29 (HealthDay News) -- Treatment with tumor necrosis factor (TNF) blockers doesn't increase rheumatoid arthritis patients' risk of cancer, new research has found.
TNF is a substance secreted by immune cells that regulates the immune system and plays a role in inflammation. TNF blockers are immunosuppressants that reduce inflammation in people with rheumatoid arthritis, but concerns have been raised that long-term use of the drugs may increase the risk of infections and cancer.
Swedish researchers analyzed data from 6,366 rheumatoid arthritis patients who started anti-TNF therapy with infliximab (Remicade), adalimumab (Humira) or etanercept (Enbrel) between January 1999 and July 2006. The study participants were compared with other groups of rheumatoid arthritis patients, including 61,160 not taking medications, 4,015 taking methotrexate (the gold standard of treatment) and 4,105 taking combinations of disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (other than TNF blockers).
According to the study authors, 240 first cancers were diagnosed during follow-up among patients who had no history of cancer when they began anti-TNF treatment. Compared to rheumatoid arthritis patients who didn't take anti-TNF drugs or those with no history of cancer, the relative cancer risk of anti-TNF therapy was 1.00 and remained unchanged for those taking immunosuppressant drugs for up to six years, the researchers found.
"Our research indicates the overall cancer risk is the same for rheumatoid arthritis patients on immunosuppressant therapies and those not taking medications for the disease," confirmed team leader Dr. Johan Askling, of the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, in a news release. However, "given several uncertainties, continued vigilance remains prudent."
The study is published in the November issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism.
More information
The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about rheumatoid arthritis.


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Channeling "The Jungle Book," the GM Bare Necessity Truck Concept is supposed to give truck buyers only what they need and nothing more. So what's that fancy reversible bulkhead doing there?
I didn't think we'd design a truck as part of the Eco Initiative project. After talking to environmentally concerned and fuel-price-shocked truck owners, we had to.
This project is a real challenge. The people I spoke with used their trucks for EVERYTHING!
We talked to truck owners who were taking personal responsibility for the environment. They were cleaning up city parks, converting their homes to solar power, taking on real projects to do their part. These projects demanded a truck. Their current trucks got less than 20 mpg. They wanted a better way to get the job done without burning so much fuel.
The Bare Necessity Idea that we tossed at these folks (the concept that people would be willing to make some sacrifices to live more efficiently) hit the mark! The people we spoke with said they needed more efficiency, but they weren't going to give up their truck altogether.
Bare Necessity Truck was born.
People do everything with their trucks. They haul big items, dirty stuff, tow trailers and sometimes have four or five people to carry.
Our engineers recommended a couple of different hybrid engines and some great weight-saving materials. The designers had to do our part to make this truck perform efficiently AND look efficient (it is kind of embarrassing driving around a large truck when there is empty space behind you).
How could we do it all with less? It meant designing the truck with fewer parts, eliminating un-necessary features, and scaling down the size of the vehicle. It also meant using more environmentally -friendly materials AND more durable long-lasting materials that don't need to be replaced for a long time. Having two doors instead of four reduces vehicle weight and parts. Having a single piece bed simplifies the truck too.
It also meant shrinking the truck without giving up capability. Quite the challenge. Sharing space between the cab and the bed seemed like a logical place to start since there is often unused space in either the cab or the bed of a pickup. The bulkhead of a current truck is the back wall that separates the cab from the bed. To share the space between the cab and the pickup bed, the bulkhead has to move.
Our Chevy Avalanche does a nice job of opening the bed into the cab for occasional use while keeping the vehicle length down. I wanted to see if we could build on this idea. The idea was to devise a bulkhead that always keeps the cab separate from the bed and effectively moves the partition forward or backwards.
After a considerable amount of sketching, cutting and pasting, I came up with one crazy idea that I thought might work, the reversible bulkhead.
Yes, the bulkhead flips 180 degrees and reverses itself. The cool thing is it swaps about two feet of space between the cab and the bed. This means we could remove up to two feet of length from the truck, quite an amount of length and weight. Now a truck that's the length of a short cab pickup can do the job of a crewcab truck. One person can transform the truck from two rows of seats with a very short bed to one row of seats with a medium length bed in under 1 minute. We came up with several other approaches to this problem, but this one will generate the most discussion.
Bare Necessity Truck is just a rough idea right now. It's a good time to weigh in if you'd like to provide constructive feedback.
The big questions are what does do it all with less mean to you? What do you need in a truck?


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Price: This item is no longer available
Click here for available sounds. When ordering, please indicate corresponding decoder number or specify sound needed and we will match accordingly. Keep in mind that ESU adds new sounds regulary.
LokSound V4.0 decoders help many H0 model railroaders to operate their locos with realistic sounds, something that friends of the smaller N and TT gauges don´t need to do without. We even once more reduced the new LokSound micro V4.0 decoder´s dimensions compared to its forerunner. With a size of only 25mm x 10.6mm x 3.8mm it is the world´s smallest LokSound decoder! Since there are also no more mechanical obstacles in the way, it is a pleasure to enjoy all the decoder´s features: the LokSound micro V4.0 incorporates a complete digital decoder, which, besides DCC and Motorola®, also understands Selectrix®. Beside the two light outputs we were even able to integrate a sound-section, equal to that of its bigger brothers and two user selectable function outputs. The LokSound micro V4.0 will be either shipped as 6-pin NEM651 or 8-pin NEM652 plug version. For the first time we also offer the new wireless Next18 interface version. Every LokSound micro V4.0 decoder comes with a new 16mmx25mm loudspeaker (0.6 x 1.0 inch) plus sound chamber.
Operational mode: The LokSound micro V4.0 recognises DCC, Selectrix® and the Motorola® protocol. It can be operated with 14, 28 or 128 drive steps or on analogue DC layouts in DCC mode. You can assign the decoders to 2-digit, 3-digit (1-127) or 4-digit (1-9999) addresses as well as a consist address. The Motorola®-protocol provides the operation of the LokSound micro V4.0 decoders with Märklin® control stations 6020®, 6021®, delta®, mobile station® and central station®. The decoders can be used with the addresses 01 – 255 on this mode. A second address provides the possibility to use the function keys F5 to F8. The Selectrix® protocol provides the possibility to use LokSound V4.0 decoders with this also established system. All established DCC brake systems like the well-known Lenz® LG100, but also the new Lenz® ABC brake units with asymmetrical DCC signal are recognised as well as the braking on DC (with switched polarity) or on Selectrix® diode brake systems. Of course, our top decoder is able to determine a constant braking distance, so that your locos stop in front of the red signal, no matter what speed your loco is at. The decoders can switch automatically between all modes (Motorola®, DC, DCC, Selectrix®) during operation. This is important if some parts of your layout work with analogue control (e.g. fiddle yards).
Motor management: From a LokPilot decoder, you rightly expect an excellent motor management. With the LokPilot micro V4.0, ESU introduces the once more improved fifth generation of load control. The standard frequency is adjusted adaptively to the speed with a basic frequency of 40 kHz. The result is an even better slow driving performance. Your locos will crawl super slowly - thanks to the 10 Bit A/D convertor. With Dynamic Drive Control (DDC) you can limit the influence of back EMF and glide smoothly around the depot area and over turnouts; while on the main, when going uphill, the engine slows down prototypically. The load control is well-prepared for all customary motor types, such as ROCO®, Fleischmann®, Brawa®, Mehano®, Bemo®, Märklin®, Faulhaber® or Maxon® motors. 0.75A steady load is more than the above-mentioned motos need and offers enough energy reserves, even for longer block trains.
Sound: The most important element of the new LokSound micro V4.0 decoder is the sound chip. This is why we have equipped the decoder with an enormous memory of 32 MBit to save up to 276 seconds of original sounds. The LokSound micro V4.0 works with 8 polyphonic channels, i.e. that the decoder is able to play up to 8 different sounds simultaneously, using the 16-Bit mixer and the nearly noiseless D/A convertor. So we can provide a much better monitoring of the original locomotive´s complex elements as it is possible to combine several channels. You will notice the difference immediatly! The sounds will be amplified up to three times louder than before by using a new digital "class D" amplifier. The speakers haven´t been left unchanged, too. We also changed from the old type of speakers to speakers with an impedance of 4 Ohms. Use our provided stock of new developed speakers! All single sounds of the LokSound micro V4.0 can be mixed in volume individually on nearly every digital control station. The new super flexible sound engine without static schedule provides a very prototypical simulation of all railroad vehicles.
Analogue mode: LokSound micro V4.0 decoders can be used on DC ayouts as well. The motor and the synchronisation of all driving-, sound- and light functions will be controlled in analogue mode, too! So, model railroaders without digital systems can enjoy the LokSounds, despite the sounds on function keys.
Functions: LokSound micro V4.0 decoders have 4 function outputs with the possibility of using constant current of 150mA. These outputs can be assigned individually. Apart from that, there are two more non-amplified outputs with logic level. All important light functions like Flash, Gyrolight, Mars light, fire box and so on are provided including the individual adjustment of brightness for each function. Of course, the decoders provide automatic coupling and decoupling for couplers by Roco®, Krois® and Telex® and from now on even a full beaming head light function. The LED mode controls the right light effects when using LEDs.
Safe operation: If desired it is possible to connect a PowerPack (ESU Art.No. 54670) to the LokSound micro V4.0, as to all other ESU decoders of the 4th generation. This energy storage continues to supply the decoder with energy if the power consumption is not optimal due to dirty tracks.
RailComPlus®: A very important function of the LokSound micro V4.0 decoder is the integrated RailComPlus® function. Your locos will be recognised automatically by an appropriate digital command station fast as lightning and will receive, if needed, a new address. Forget about the cumbersome typing and programming!
Protection: Of course, all function outputs and the motor current output are overload protected. We want you to have fun with your decoder as long as possible!
Future built-in: You can update the firmware of the LokSound decoders. This means, the internal software on the decoder's memory can be replaced by new versions if necessary. You'll simply need the ESU LokProgrammer and a PC.
Sound variations: ESU, as the technologic and market leader takes your requirements for sound very seriously. There are already more than 200 sound variations available for the LokSound micro V4.0. ESU is extending the sound library all the time and provides all sounds on our homepage for free download.
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Spas Abound in Vegas: Here are Some of Our Favorites
By Kelly Westhoff
I wasn't expecting to be pampered in Vegas. Eat too much? Yes. Stay up late? Of course. Dissolve into a state of utter spa bliss? I'd take it, but was that even an option?
There are plenty of Las Vegas tours to check out, along with the glitz and glamour of riding down the strip sticking out the top of a limo.
My image of Las Vegas was that it was a city more accustomed to breaking humans down than putting them back together. What I experienced on a recent visit, however, proved my vision needed a makeover.
Promising Pleasure
Las Vegas, Nevada is in the business of promising pleasure, so I wasn't surprised that its biggest hotels all have spas built right into them, nor was I surprised that all of these spas offer foot rubs, scalp massages and steaming, aromatic baths.
I was surprised, though, by just how many spa experiences I had to choose from. For example, upon checking in to my suite at the Palazzo, I found a 30-page spa menu waiting for me in my room. The menu listed fitness classes and beauty services available at the Canyon Ranch Spa inside the hotel.
I could have signed up for a Pilates class or a rock-climbing session. I could have analyzed my body fat, met with a nutritionist, or ordered a gourmet lunch at the spa café.
But I didn't want to do any of those things. I wanted a beauty service and it took me half an hour to read through all those choices.
Should I pick a conditioning body scrub with Omega 3-rich flaxseed oil? How about a detoxifying cocoon? Or maybe I should go with the "Sea-Esta" treatment. It promised I would breathe in "negatively ionized sea air."
Intimidated by all my options, I ended up booking a basic 50-minute massage.
First Impressions
The next morning, after breakfast, I headed to the Canyon Ranch Spa for my appointment. I was given a locker in which to stash my street clothes. Then I wrapped myself in a plush robe and a slipped on a pair of sandals to wear to the spa.
The women's locker room was more than I imagined. It was spotless and decluttered. Gentle sounds of a bubbling brook piped in overhead. Beyond the lockers were private showers plus sink space with lotions, deodorants, and hair dryers.
Signs pointed to another arm of the locker room with a steam room, sauna, and whirlpool. I'd have to come back to that, though, as my appointment was about to begin. I hurried on to the end of the hall and the women's lounge to await my masseuse.
As soon as I saw the lounge, I wished I'd arrived sooner. The lighting was soft. The walls, carpet, and furniture were various shades of chocolate, ivory, and teal. Pitchers of cucumber water stood ready and magazines were spread throughout the space, just waiting for someone to come along and flip their pages.
Serenity Now
Even though I had booked just a standard massage, I was not disappointed. My masseuse worked hard to knead out all my stress.
Once she'd finished with my back, she laid a warm blanket over me as she moved on to my legs. Later, as she worked her fingers through my hair and applied pressure to points on my neck, she laid a heated mask over my face.
At the end of my 50 minutes, the masseuse handed me back my robe, which had been warming in some sort of heating device. It felt absolutely delicious to wrap myself back up in its toasty folds.
The massage done, I was left to my own devices. As a guest, I was given free rein to stay in the spa for as long as I wanted. I could even leave and come back later in the day.
I proceeded straight back to the women's lounge and those waiting magazines. I cozied up on a lounger, pulled a sheer shade around me for privacy, and spent the next hour lost in several copies of O.
Hurts So Good
I was so relaxed when I left the spa that day that I knew I would be back. Emboldened, perhaps, by my good experience, I ventured beyond the basic massage for my next day's appointment.
For the next day, I booked the "Sole Rejuvenation," a 50-minute foot-focused rub down. Knowing that I would have access to everything in the spa, I picked an earlier time so that I could linger in the saunas and steam rooms.
Nobody has ever rubbed my feet the way my foot masseuse did. Oh, it hurt so good! As I squirmed, she told me, according to Eastern reflexology charts, which of my internal organs she was manipulating.
At the end of that session, instead of heading for the women's lounge, I relaxed in the co-ed space. I lounged in the Salt Grotto, a warm tiled room filled with sea-salt mist.
I moved on to the Wave Room, where I tipped back in a zero gravity chair and was mesmerized by the sounds of dolphins and visions of dripping water overhead.
Eventually, I made my way back to the women's lounge where I dedicated myself to spending time in every single specialized room. There was the sauna, the steam room, and the laconium, a space in which the air was heavy with herbal-infused humidity.
Before hitting the shower, I stepped into the igloo and let a chilling mist seal my pores.
When I finally emerged from the spa, I was surprised to open my cell phone and find eight missed calls. I had lost myself for so long that my Vegas travel companions had started to worry. Now that's what I call a getaway!
Sisterly Tip
My sister-in-law is a spa aficionado who has sampled the services at a number of Las Vegas spas. Before my flight to the desert, she gave me a tip.
At Costco, I could buy discounted certificates that were good at a variety of Vegas spas. She did this on a regular basis, spending $80 to get $100 worth of Spa Finder gift certificates.
If I was willing to spend $240 at Costco before my trip, I could get $300 worth of Spa Finder certificates. Once in Vegas, she said, this savings would become apparent as the starting rate for a basic 50-minute massage is generally $150.
See the Spa Finder web site for a complete listing of spas that will accept the certificates. You can also purchase certificates at the Spa Finder site, although for face value.
Where to Spa in Vegas
The Canyon Ranch Spa is part of both the Palazzo and the Venetian hotels. It offers a range of beauty services, fitness classes and nutrition counseling. Spa clients can also dine at the spa restaurant-café.
Canyon Ranch Spa brochure with all treatment options
The spa inside The Palms hotel is called Palms Spa. It offers a wide range of beauty services including a package called the Aura-Soma® treatment. Palms Spa is the only Vegas spa to offer this treatment, which is based on the idea that "you are the colors you choose."
If you book the treatment, you will choose four bottles of colored liquids (out of 107 options) that you feel represent a specific area of your life. A consultant will "read" your colors. You then choose to have a massage, a body wrap or a foot treatment.
Spa Bellagio, at the Bellagio hotel, offers some unique treatments from around the world including Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy, where a masseuse will walk up and down your back while hanging on to a pole overhead, among others.
Spa Bellagio brochure with all treatment options
There are two spas inside Mandalay Bay. The hotel has two separate towers and each tower has its own spa. Spa Mandalay is inside Mandalay Bay. It's a larger facility with a vast range of offerings, including beauty treatments, lounging pools and fitness classes.
THE Bathhouse is inside THE Hotel at Mandalay Bay. It is a smaller space, but its design is contemporary, sleek, and European. It offers fitness classes, lounging pools, massage services, and traditional East Indian wellness treatments, known as Ayurvedic treatments.
The Grand Spa at the MGM Grand hotel offers a list of massage options a mile long. If you choose the Thai Raindrop Technique, nine essential oils will drip onto your spine while your body massaged with warm stones and stretched by your masseuse.
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By: Roger Simon September 4, 2008 10:50 AM EST
ST. PAUL, Minn. — On behalf of the media, I would like to say we are sorry.
On behalf of the elite media, I would like to say we are very sorry.
We have asked questions this week that we should never have asked.
We have asked pathetic questions like: Who is Sarah Palin? What is her record? Where does she stand on the issues? And is she is qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency?
We have asked mean questions like: How well did John McCain know her before he selected her? How well did his campaign vet her? And was she his first choice?
Bad questions. Bad media. Bad.
It is not our job to ask questions. Or it shouldn't be. To hear from the pols at the Republican National Convention this week, our job is to endorse and support the decisions of the pols.
Sarah Palin hit the nail on the head Wednesday night (and several in the audience wish she had hit some reporters on the head instead) when she said: "I'm not a member of the permanent political establishment. And I've learned quickly, these past few days, that if you're not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone."
But where did we go wrong with Sarah Palin? Let me count the ways:
First, we should have stuck to the warm, human interest stuff like how she likes mooseburgers and hit an important free throw at her high school basketball tournament even though she had a stress fracture.
Second, we should have stuck to the press release stuff like how she opposed the Bridge to Nowhere (after she supported it).
Third, we should never have strayed into the other stuff. Like when The Washington Post recently wrote: "Palin is under investigation by a bipartisan state legislative body. … Palin had promised to cooperate with the legislative inquiry, but this week she hired a lawyer to fight to move the case to the jurisdiction of the state personnel board, which Palin appoints."
Why go there? What trees does that plant?
Fourth, we should stop making with all the questions already. She gave a really good speech. And why go beyond that? As we all know, speeches cannot be written by others and rehearsed for days. They are true windows to the soul.
Unless they are delivered by Barack Obama, that is. In which case, as Palin said Wednesday, speeches are just a "cloud of rhetoric."
Fifth, we should stop reporting on the families of the candidates. Unless the candidates want us to.
Sarah Palin wanted the media to report on her teenage son, Track, who enlisted in the Army on Sept. 11, 2007, and soon will deploy to Iraq.
Sarah Palin did not want the media to report on her teenage daughter, Bristol, who is pregnant and unmarried.
Sarah Palin thinks that one is good for her campaign and one is not, and that the media should report only on what is good for her campaign. That is our job, and that is our duty. If that is not actually in the Constitution, it should be. (And someday may be.)
The official theme of the convention's third day was "prosperity," but the unofficial theme was "the media are really, really awful."
Even Mike Huckabee, who campaigned for president this year by saying "I am a conservative, but I am not mad at anybody," discovered Wednesday night that he is mad at somebody.
"I'd like to thank the elite media for doing something," Huckabee said, "that, quite frankly, I didn't think could be done: unify the Republican party and all of America in support of John McCain and Sarah Palin."
And could that be the real point of the attacks on the media? To unify the Republican Party?
No, that is simply the cynical, media view.
Though as Lily Tomlin says, "No matter how cynical I get, it's just never enough to keep up."
I couldn't resist that. For which I am sorry.