text:
Will Hillary ever forgive us?
Hillary Clinton's memoir says more about her and the Democratic Party than she'll ever realize.read the book and wrote this review so you won't have to.
READERS OF SocialistWorker.org will probably not be shocked to learn that Hillary Clinton's What Happened is a bad book. So why bother with a review? One answer is that, while books like this aren't exactly intellectual achievements, they do provide a useful window into how the ruling class thinks about us--and that's worth knowing.
Just to state the obvious first, however, much of What Happened is boring in a thoroughly banal and predictable way: Hillary met a voter on the campaign trail who inspired her! Hillary has a list of wonkish policies! Hillary loves her family!
There are the inevitable references to Hillbilly Elegy, self-care and Hamilton. In fact, the book reads like Clinton--or her interns, rather--gathered a bunch of think pieces from Vox and Slate, put them through a blender, sprinkled in some quotes from fridge magnets, and frosted the whole thing with cloying Methodist pieties.
If you're wondering if Clinton takes responsibility for anything in this book, she absolutely does: She takes responsibility for being too smart and too good for the rest of us. Clinton confesses that her "instinctive response is to talk about how we can fix things," but people were simply too angry to listen.
In one passage, Clinton describes throngs of women coming up to her to do penance after the election:
On one occasion, an older woman dragged her adult daughter by the arm to come talk to me and ordered her to apologize for not voting--which she did, head bowed in contrition. I wanted to stare right in her eyes and say, 'You didn't vote? How could you not vote?! You abdicated your responsibility as a citizen at the worst possible time! And now you want me to make you feel better?' Of course, I didn't say any of that.
Clinton was too classy to scold this young woman to her face. She chose to do it in a book that will be bought by people across the country.
At one point, Clinton even bizarrely wonders whether her efforts to help residents of Flint, Michigan, by publicizing the water crisis and proposing a different course lost her white voters in the state--but magnanimously explains "that's not what it was about for me," because there were "real live kids" to help.
Truly a portrait in courage.
THIS EMPHASIS on her ostensible devotion on dealing with "real live" issues runs throughout What Happened, and it is the underlying point of her attacks on Bernie Sanders, who comes in for about as much criticism as Trump.
Clinton accuses Sanders of "thunder[ing] on at every event about the sins of "the millionaires and billionaires," while she "was more focused on offering practical solutions that would address real problems and make life better for people." As if "millionaires and billionaires" had nothing to do with the "real problems" working-class people face.
Clinton's "practical solutions" are a patchwork of pretty tame policies: a higher minimum wage (but not too high!); some fixes to Obamacare; giving businesses more money in the hope that they might create jobs someday; even a program to encourage people to move out of economically struggling towns (and she wonders why she lost in the Rust Belt!).
By "practical solutions," Clinton doesn't mean solutions that are "practical" to implement. She means solutions that are "practical" for the ruling class, by causing them minimal inconvenience while forestalling more radical changes.
Clinton would never use those words to say that. On the other hand, however, she is quite explicit about her hatred of radicalism.
For anyone who remembers the legend of Bill and Hillary Clinton as young 1960s radicals, read what she has to say about the 1968 police attacks on antiwar protesters at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Clinton says she worried that "the antiwar movement was causing a backlash that would help elect Richard Nixon and prolong the war."
Never mind that the 1968 convention protests took place because the Democrats bypassed popular antiwar choices to nominate a pro-war presidential candidate, Hubert Humphrey--and Chicago's Mayor Richard Daley sicced his cops on anyone who dissented.
Clinton recounts the debates among youth at the time: "Should our goal be reform or revolution?" She concluded that "the system had to be reformed from the inside" because people who are suffering now can't "wait" for a "revolution."
This, of course, presents a false choice between pursuing change in the here and now versus doing nothing and waiting passively for the revolution to happen. In fact, the history of the socialist tradition in this country and others is of hard and patient organizing in the here and now, inside the labor movement, the Black freedom struggle, the women's movement and antiwar fights.
But socialists see these acts as building toward revolution, not as an alternative to it. Clinton ignores the root cause of the suffering she discusses--decisions made by the ruling class, including Clinton herself.
Thus, Clinton complains about protesters from the movement for Black lives who disrupted her talks and called for her to take responsibility for the 1994 crime bill passed during the Bill Clinton administration that kicked the era mass incarceration into high gear.
Clinton, in fact, defends the crime bill as a "tough compromise" and tosses in a defense of her husband's destruction of welfare for good measure.
This sums up Clinton's "practical solutions": policies that devastate Black and working-class communities. She scolds the protesters for not "engag[ing] constructively"--unlike the "leaders" she met with who back neoliberal education reforms that tear apart Black and Latino working-class schools.
THE CHAPTER on "Turning Mourning into a Movement" highlights Clinton's insincerity and condescension.
Clinton seeks to impress her readers with how deeply she felt the grief of family members of victims of police violence--and then goes on to assure readers that "I feel strongly about this: the vast majority of police officers are honorable, brave public servants who put their lives on the line every day to protect others."
She writes some platitudes about systematic racism, then turns the whole issue into a discussion of gun control, ignoring the fact that the Black Lives Matter movement erupted precisely against the murderers who are armed and funded by the state.
But this is typical of What Happened: One of the most insidious things about it is the way Clinton appropriates the struggles of ordinary people to try to convince us that her interests are the same as ours.
She complains about the burden of "emotional labor," a concept originally meant to explain how workers, especially female service workers, are expected to restrict and manage their feelings according to the priorities of corporations and ruling institutions.
Clinton's discussion of the question revolves around "women CEOs" and "women heads of state"--and she goes on to credit female politicians' experience with "emotional labor" for allowing them to form better coalitions in Congress than their male counterparts. The nature of these coalitions--are they, for example, agreements brokered by women to support wars or deport immigrants?--is, of course, left unspecified.
Clinton also succeeds in what might seem like an impossible task: attacking Trump from the right. She fully indulges paranoia about Russia that sounds like it could have come from a 1950s propaganda film.
For example, she compares the U.S. to a body whose immune system has been weakened: "Now that the Russians have infected us and seen how weak our defenses are, they'll keep at it...Their ultimate goal is to undermine--perhaps even destroy--Western democracy itself." Makes you wonder what's happening to our precious bodily fluids?
"[W]e need to get tough with Putin," Clinton says--by increasing U.S. intervention in Syria and Ukraine, and bolstering NATO (no appeals to "emotional labor" here!). Clinton warns that Trump will not "face this threat head-on" and begs us not to dismiss her discussion of Russia "as me trying to shift blame for my loss in 2016."
In a way, Clinton is right. While she is trying to shift the blame for her loss, she's also trying, as she did throughout the 2016 campaign, to present herself to the ruling class as the best manager of U.S. imperialism--a defender of the American-dominated world order that "defended universal human rights, defied totalitarianism, and delivered unprecedented peace, prosperity and freedom."
That list, of course, leaves out the millions killed by the U.S. across the world over the course of the last century. But maybe the Chileans or Palestinians or Vietnamese had it coming because they didn't "engage constructively."
SO IT'S no surprise to learn that--along with the cops, the military and intelligence agencies--Clinton finds she has much in common with the political leaders on the "other side": the Republicans. She gushes about how warm and comforting George W. Bush was during Trump's inauguration ceremony.
Clinton also finds inspiration in Theodore Roosevelt, the white supremacist and imperialist who she praises as "a shrewd politician who managed to fend off the demands of angry populists on his left who wanted to go even further toward Socialism, and conservatives on his right who would have let the robber barons amass even more wealth and power."
Clinton clearly sees herself in this mode, bragging about her "defense of the American system of free enterprise" during the Iowa primaries, for example. Still, socialists might be heartened by these passages--leading U.S. politicians now feel the need to openly attack socialism, rather than simply ignore it.
Let me close by adopting one good piece of advice from Hillary Clinton: "Find an organization that's doing work you believe in...If it doesn't exist, build it."
The political bankruptcy of Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party as a whole in the face of the horrors of the Trump era proves like nothing else can the need for our own working-class organizations. So fight the right, build the left, and join the socialists!


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text:
Gold-Tone Twisted Hoop Earrings
- Product Videos
Count on the team at 1928 Jewelry Company to take the golden hoop to the next level. Incorporating their many years of experience and extensive archive of historic pieces, they have translated yesterday's looks into contemporary triumphs.
These earrings are a perfect size, an ideal weight (not too heavy, not too light), and an adventure in textural design. And as perfect today as a century ago.
- Product Type
- Earrings
- Brand
- 1928 Jewelry
- Theme
- Vintage Style
- Dimensions
- 1.27in L x 0.20in W
- Piece Count
- 1
1928 Jewelry
For fashionistas that love the vintage vibe, 1928 Jewelry has been a favorite for nearly 50 years. Simple and charming, elegant and classy, bold and dramatic or quirky and unique, 1928 Jewelry adds the finishing touch to any ensemble. Necklaces, bracelets, earrings, brooches, rings and more in colorful daytime looks and classy white or black for evening. Drawing inspiration from the vaults of rich European capitals to antique laden attics of Old American estates, 1928 designs are modern replicas of exquisite vintage jewelry. All are crafted to respect the details of period pieces while offering fresh designs to fit today's styles, and at exceptional value prices.
- Earring Type
- Hoop
- Backing Type
- Push Back
- Jewelry Country of Origin
- United States of America
- Material
- Base Metal
- Material Color
- Gold Tone
- Density
- Solid
- Finishing Technique
- Antiqued
What is the Jewel Safe™ Protection Plan
Jewel Safe™ Protection Plan is a 2 year protection plan for jewelry, loose gemstones, and watches sold at JTV® and on JTV.com. Customer service is available 8 a.m. EST to 11 p.m. EST Monday thru Friday for your convenience. The Protection Plan begins on the date of order shipment and covers most damage from normal wear and tear, moisture damage for watches and includes a ring re-sizing for rings. Customers will never pay any out-of-pocket expenses, including shipping. Jewel Safe™ can be transferred to any new owner of the piece of jewelry or watch; Jewel Safe™ sticks with the product, not the purchaser. If your jewelry or watch cannot be repaired, it will be replaced with a check for the full purchase price, plus applicable taxes paid.
What it covers:
For jewelry Jewel Safe™ covers:
- Damage to any stone (including cracks, chips, scratches and breakage)
- Lost enhancement, or side, stones
- Broken chains, links or clasps
- Broken, worn or bent prongs
- Dented or misshapen jewelry
- Cracked or thinning bands
- Kinks or knots in chains
- Broken earring posts
- Stretched or broken pearl strands
- 1 ring re-sizing
For gemstones Jewel Safe™ covers:
- Damage to your gemstone (including cracks, chips, and breakage)
- Damage to any stone (cracked, chipped, scratched) not resulting from mishandling of the stone or damaged resulting from 3rd parties.
For watches Jewel Safe™ covers:
- Damage to the crystal (including scratches, cracks, chips and breakage)
- Movement
- Clasps
- Bands (breakage of metal or leather discoloration); bezel
- Stem and crown damage
- Moisture damage
How it Works:
If you ever need assistance, it's as easy as these 3 steps:
- Call the toll free number (800) 366-4010 for a specialist that can further assist you.
- Receive a prepaid label and all shipping instructions.
- Your jewelry, gemstone, or watch is repaired and returned to you. If it can't be repaired, it's replaced!
Who Should Purchase:
We know how much our customers value their jewelry, gemstones, and watches, that's why we offer Jewel Safe™. This is protection for 2 full years that will cover against almost all normal wear and tear. We want to help our customer protect their investment in their jewelry and watches purchased from JTV®, so all customers who feel like this matches their frame of mind should purchase Jewel Safe™.
|Shipping Method: per order line item
|Three (3) Day
|Two (2) Day
|Next Day
|Mexico: a $12.00 surcharge per item will be added to the U.S. shipping fees listed above.
|Canada: a $5.00 surcharge per item will be added to the U.S. shipping fees listed above.
For additional international shipping options and rates please contact our Customer Experience Team 1-800-550-8393.
Satisfaction Guarantee
We at JTV want you to be completely satisfied with your purchase. If you're not, send it back in its as-shipped condition within 30 days of receipt. Please complete and include the Satisfaction Guarantee return form located on the back of your invoice. For your own protection, merchandise should be returned prepaid and insured via UPS, FedEx, or U.S. mail. Send all returns to: JTV, Customer Returns, 190 Hayfield Rd., Knoxville, TN 37922. For your convenience, a pre-addressed return label can be found on the bottom front of your invoice. Please return one item only per package. Shipping charges are nonrefundable.
What is your return policy?
We at JTV want you to be completely satisfied with your purchase. If you are not totally satisfied, just send it back in its condition "as shipped" to you within 30 days from the date of receipt for an exchange or a refund for the price of the item. Note: We follow standard CD and DVD return policies. CDs and DVDs are nonreturnable if the cellophane is opened. Jewelry that has been sized or otherwise altered cannot be returned. Shipping and handling fees are nonrefundable.


text:
One offensive play that has not lost its power in modern football is the option. Spread offenses utilize option principles to test the mettle of a defense's structure. An option offense forces the defense to play assignment football. Each player on a defense must stay gap sound and understand how the structure of the defense adapts versus each option play. When defending an offense that runs a variation of the Triple Option from Spread formations, a defense must have three main components: 1) a Dive player, 2) a Quarterback player, & 3) a pitch-man. Add pulling guards and trap plays and a Spread Option offense can inflict a lot of damage if the defense is not disciplined.
One of the main keys for defending Spread Option teams is eye discipline. It is imperative that each position on a defense understands his fits and read keys. When option teams motion it creates eye "candy" and distractors for defenders, especially at the linebacker level (Jet or Orbit motion). Spread Option teams also make it difficult to blitz. When applying pressure to an option offense the defense can expose itself to being a man short if the players do not understand how the pressure changes option responsibilities.
Many defenses choose to stay in base and fit the option. This can work if the defense has better players than the offense, but in most cases staying static helps the offense learn how to pinpoint a defense's weaknesses. Understanding how Spread Option teams want to attack a defense's structure is crucial in defending option offenses. Below are 5 tips for defending these types of teams: Continue reading "5 Tips for Defending Spread Option Teams"


text:
Republicans banking on 2012
While hundreds of millions of dollars are spent in battles over President Barack Obama's ambitious legislative agenda in Washington, underneath the radar, some of the Republican Party's next best hopes are laying the groundwork for the bid to replace him — or at least secure their place in the GOP hierarchy.
Consider this: In the first half of 2009, Mitt Romney's political committee paid $188,000 to a small army of consultants, Newt Gingrich's dropped $628,000 on charter flights, Mike Huckabee's wrote staff paychecks totaling $131,000 and Sarah Palin's spent $107,000 raising more money.
All four are considered potential presidential candidates, and the flurry of campaign finance activity, outlined in reports filed late last month with the Federal Election Commission and Internal Revenue Service, may hold clues about their prospects — and intentions.
Each insist they're using their efforts to help rebuild the party — and the conservative movement — after the GOP's debilitating losses in the past two election cycles, not jockeying for 2012 pole position.
But the manner in which such money is being spent suggests they are as much focused on accumulating the resources for a national infrastructure and keeping high their national profiles as party-building activities.
"If you're a Republican thinking about running against Obama, you just can't wake up in January 2011 and say, 'I think I want to run for president.' If you wait until then, it's too late," said Michael Toner, a former FEC chairman who was general counsel for George W. Bush's presidential campaign in 2000 and Fred Thompson's in 2008. "You're going to have to be able to raise hundreds of millions of dollars, so you have to spend 2009 and 2010 building out your fundraising base, your infrastructure and your network."
The political groups run by Romney, Gingrich, Huckabee and Palin, combined with those run by Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia and Sens. John Thune of South Dakota and Jim DeMint of South Carolina (also thought of as at least possible 2012 GOP prospects), brought in a total of $12.9 million in the first half of the year, a POLITICO analysis of IRS and FEC reports found.
These entities, which are not campaign committees and are legally barred from directly supporting their own potential campaigns, spent a total of $12.4 million, including $6.2 million on fundraising, $1.2 million on 39 staffers' salaries and benefits, $851,000 on direct mail, $686,000 on consultants, $192,000 on websites, $123,000 on catering and $111,000 on lawyers. The groups ended June with $2 million in the bank.
Gingrich, who flirted with a 2008 presidential campaign, far outpaced the field, pulling in an impressive $8.1 million. That total is largely because his committee, American Solutions for Winning the Future, is a so-called 527 group, freeing it from federal election laws including the $5,000-per-year limit on contributions to which the other groups analyzed by POLITICO must adhere because they are leadership political action committees.
The former House speaker was able to use his 3-year-old organization, which accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in huge checks from oil companies and other business groups in the first half of the year, to pay a 20-person political staff including longtime aides and to fund his travel by charter jet and chauffeured town car around the country to promote his books and pet causes, including offshore oil drilling and opposition to the Democratic cap-and-trade proposals. America Solutions spent the majority of its cash — $5.5 million — on telemarketing and direct mail but also found $23,000 to advertise in newspapers, on the Web and in a NASCAR publication.
The goal of American Solutions is not to promote Gingrich but "to provide solutions and transform the country from the world that fails to the world that works," said Dan Varroney, the group's chief operating officer .
As a 527, American Solutions cannot contribute directly to federal candidates, which is a primary stated purpose of most leadership PACs. Aspiring presidential candidates have doled out contributions from their leadership PACs to politicians in early battleground states in an effort to win influential endorsements, though many of the groups contribute only a tiny fraction of the cash they bring in, leading advocates for stricter campaign finance rules to criticize them as little more than slush funds used by politicians to boost their own careers.
Among the federal leadership PACs POLITICO analyzed, the ones chaired by former Govs. Huckabee of Arkansas, Palin of Alaska and Romney of Massachusetts were the least generous in terms of direct donations, which made up 5 percent or less of the cash they spent in the first six months of the year.
Romney, whose early infrastructure in 2008 allowed his presidential campaign to get off to a quick start, garnered attention in February when his leadership PAC, Free and Strong America, cut $1,000 checks to the dozen House Republicans targeted by Democrats for voting against Obama's stimulus. In all, the PAC has contributed about $62,000 this year, though a state-based affiliate gave $11,000 more.
Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said the group contributed to the debate over the GOP's future during the first half of the year by "talk[ing] about issues, messages and themes" and suggested the group would start making more direct donations to candidates as the 2010 election cycle progresses. "You can't plant a garden without doing some spade work first," Fehrnstrom said.
The group, which raised $1.9 million in the first half of the year, has spent the lion's share of its cash on direct mail and other fundraising efforts, as well as on maintaining the nucleus of Romney's 2008 campaign team, including über-campaign lawyer Ben Ginsberg, whose firm collected $45,000 in fees from Romney's group, Fehrnstrom (who was paid $53,000), campaign manager Beth Myers ($60,000) and deputy campaign manager Peter Flaherty ($30,000).
Likewise, Palin's SarahPAC, which brought in $733,000 in the first six months of the year, spent $240,000 on consulting, fundraising and salaries, compared with $10,000 on campaign contributions.
And Huckabee's Huck PAC, which raised $305,000, paid more than $243,000 to staffers (including his daughter, Huck PAC Executive Director Sarah Huckabee), consultants and fundraising vendors.
The PACs in POLITICO's analysis that were most generous with their cash were those run by Republicans with less prominent 2012 profiles: Cantor, Thune and DeMint.
Cantor's Every Republican Is Crucial (ERIC) PAC contributed $393,000 of the $856,000 it raised this year. Thune's Heartland Values PAC raised only $61,000, but it donated $27,000. And DeMint's two PACs, MINT PAC and Senate Conservatives Fund, raised a combined $851,000, spending $616,000 on direct mailings and $65,000 on contributions and independent expenditures to benefit mostly very conservative Republican Senate candidates.
"This is about electing conservatives to the Senate," said an operative who works with DeMint. "It's not about DeMint running for president. And I think what he's doing with the PAC really speaks for itself."
Cantor, Thune and DeMint can also use their relatively uncontested 2010 reelection bids — for which they've raised a combined $14.5 million — to build their donor files and networks, a model Hillary Clinton used during her 2006 Senate reelection that helped set the stage for her 2008 Democratic presidential bid.
Other Republicans are also using their political positions to keep their profiles raised. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who has a relatively inactive 527 group, has been traveling the country meeting activists and raising money for his 2011 reelection campaign. It's not clear how much he's raised, since he won't have to disclose his campaign finances for months.
And Govs. Haley Barbour of Mississippi and Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota are expected to use their posts as chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the Republican Governors Association to travel the country raising cash for the party's gubernatorial candidates — and their own profiles.
Pawlenty, who will not seek reelection next year, has been test-driving a national message before activists around the country in recent weeks and is expected to form a federal leadership after he closes out his Minnesota campaign account, according to a source close to him.
Jason Torchinsky, who served as general counsel for Rudy Giuliani's 2008 presidential bid says these Republicans can wait to make a splash, adding, "They do need to be building their networks now, but there are lots of avenues that they can use to build networks."


text: Artist: Sadat X Album: Wild Cowboys Song: The Lump Lump Verse One: People often see me in jams, and be thinkin I'm high No that just be my lazy eye What's your reply to the evidence against you Your girlfriend found one hand just one loan credit Exclaimed you was fuckin you claim downtown where Fred can beat that, win that, quick nigga wins the ballgames Tailwind nose is a must on any con any truck When riding on luck you catch an empty Riding on the wave is real good, suave bola You be playin the low low, while your girlfriend be like, "Oh no!" I seen it with my own eyes and I know that it was him Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned Episodes of Free Willy bring strife in your life You can flip and use the gift of gab, but don't waver If you love your girlfriend, then you better save her Cause the next man is eager, to run up in yours Be in her drawers, put your girl on her fours Sometime's the girls game's tighter than a sloppy ass nigga I got my girl locked down hey that's the truth nigga She gone away for the weekend, man she right uptown Runnin around with my man Boogie Brown I keep your arms in the air, your feet on the floor While you're over there frontin with these kids your girl's givin jaw Chorus: I been doin my own thing (2X) Verse Two: Oh you got your own dough, from where I don't know You hold degrees from two universities Girl you're worth cheese in the nine-seis Sadat owns apartment keys, is it Alize for Dolo You got a mind on top of that spine plus the lump lump Highly educated and highly motivated Workin girl skirt tight love to hurt What to exert, I break your next man's pocket Smell of freak fragrant, unlike the vagrant You can pay the rent always, and don't be gettin hallways In the bed girlie and at work by nine Put on the work force ridin on a iron horse Bring it home to dad, the one piece cause I'm here Workout baby doll and keep yo' career No chiggedy, no diggedy, not you Glad that I got you, when I did Cause you was runnin wild with this out of style kid, no class Light in the ass, white enough to pass Shotproof glass for the midnight mass Chorus Verse Three: I have seen this chick at the bar, furiously she was searchin She want to wet her whistle with the glass of bubbly She want the Willie Dom not the cheap sherry Tryin to front with the outfit that's goin back tomorrow Now she's makin me dream, if she played to force it Dom she want to toss it, back in that Jet when the bottle's gone and that's a fact Give you the wrong number knowin it's the wrong number Front on a nigga never that, not I If you see me at the bar it's dry throat because I'm keepin these hoes dry Hey lookie there there's Harlem Slim! Lookin at me, but then you're walkin with him I be a little old for them young girl games I know a lot of tricks but I ain't namin no names One burnt my man, left his beef in flames Actin ill wild like the untamed dames Just came to mingle where I flowed the river Thames When I was young in the clubs they played Cool James Get rich without jail, is one of my aims You remember Good Times, with courderoy jeans Chorus (repeat 2.5X)


text:
Nokia has started testing its online music store in India, with plans to launch services to consumers before the end of this year.
"Right now our own people are testing the site, and we will go live as scheduled in the second half of this year," a spokeswoman for Nokia said on Wednesday.
The music download service will be initially available only against vouchers issued to customers at the time of buying handsets and other equipment from Nokia, the spokeswoman said.
Allowing consumers to pay online to download music will require the site to have a payment mechanism. This will be possible only after Nokia's joint venture with Indian partner, HCL Infosystems, starts handling the online payments, the spokeswoman said. By Indian rules, online retailing requires a company that has an Indian partner, she added.
Nokia said in January it was setting up a joint venture with HCL to offer mobile value-added services such as navigation, music and other entertainment to Indian consumers.
A number of companies, including mobile phone service providers, are now offering online music downloads in India.
Nokia has signed up a number of top music labels in the country. On its beta site it currently features music from a number of labels including T-Series, Times Music, and Universal Music India. "The store will help promote legal music," the spokeswoman said.
Nokia said on its India music store site that its service uses Microsoft DRM (digital rights management) technology.


text:
Duration: 6 days - 5 nights
Day 1: Airport pick up - Hanoi City tour - Hotel
Day 2: Halong Bay 2 days/1night
Day 3: Halong - Hanoi - Hotel
Day 4: Hanoi - Mai Chau Valley
Day 5: Mai Chau - Hanoi
Day 6: Perfume Pagoda or Hoa Lu - Tam Coc one day - Hotel
Day 7: Flying home
Note: B: Breakfast, L: Lunch, D: Dinner
Tour itinerary:
Day 1 : Aiport pick up – City tour – Night train to Sapa (B-L)
Arrive at Noi Bai international airport. Welcome by your local tour guide and driver. Transfer to our hotel to leave baggages, relax – Enjoy breakfast or welcome drink. Get pick up for City tour. Visit the Ho Chi Minh Complex (before 10:30am), containing the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, the Presidential Palace, Ho Chi Minh`s house on stilts and the One Pillar Pagoda. Continue on to the Temple of Literature, Vietnam`s first university. Lunch at a local restaurant. In the afternoon, visit the Museum or Pergoda, Hoan Kiem lake, Ngoc Son temple. Visit Museum or enjoy your time in Dong Xuan Market for shopping. Dinner at the restarant on your own. Overnight at Hanoi Culture Hostel.
Day 2: Hanoi – Halong Bay (L/D)
07h00 – 07h30 Enjoy your breakfast at Hanoi Culture Hostel.
08h00 – 08h30 Pick-up at hotel and start the scenic, 3.5 hour drive to Halong Bay. Enjoy the landscape of the Red River Delta country side and have a short break on the way.
12h00 – 12h30 Embark on Cruise followed by a short cruise briefing
13h00 – 15h30 Savor a delectable lunch on Cruise among the limestone islands…
15h30 – 16h30 Kayak among the hidden areas of the bay, around the Luon Cave area.
16h30 Back to Cruise
16h30 – 17h30 Cruise to Soi Sim island. Go swimming and relaxing at the beach of Soi Sim or climp up to the top of the island for a panorama view of Halong Bay
17h30 Return to the main boat for a shower. Relax or snap photos as the sun starts to set
19h00 Dinner is served. Socialize with other guests, fish for squid, or just laze around
Overnight on board.
Day 3: Halong Bay – Hanoi (B/L)
06h30 – 07h00 Start your day with Tai Chi exercises or a photo hunt
07h30 – 08h30 Have breakfast at sunrise.
08h30 – 09h30 Explore the amazing Sung Sot Cave – the nicest cave in Halong Bay.
09h30 Return to the boat. Freshen up and check out of your cabin.
09h30 – 10h30 Continue your cruise exploring the Bay, passing Ba Hang fishing village, Dog Islet and more…
10h30 – 11h30 While heading back to the habor, watch the cooking demonstration before enjoying a traditional Vietnamese lunch.
12h00 Disembark Cruise
12h30 Transfer back to your hotel in Hanoi city center.
16h30 – 17h00 Trip finishes.
17h30: Check in hotel – Free & Easy, over night at Hanoi Culture Hostel.
Day 4: Hanoi - Mai Chau Valley (B/L/D)
7:30 – 8:00 : Pickup at your Hotel in the Old Quarter in our comfortable van
10:00 : Short break
11:30 – 12:00 : Scenic photo stop of Mai Chau valley/arrive in Mai Chau, welcome Drinks.
12:15 : Traditional lunch in local village (vegetarian available)
14:00 – 16:30 : Bicycle ride with your tour guide, see farmers working in fields, locals weaving scarves and visit surrounding peaceful villages.
16:30 – 18:00 : Free time for bicycling, walking, shopping
18:00 : Enjoy the outdoor BBQ party in the garden and watch the Thai's traditional dance and drink the traiditional wine "ruou can" Overnight in the communal stilt house or Valley View Bungalow
Day 5 : Trekking to remote rural villages (B,L)
7:30 - 8:00 : Wakeup and eat breakfast
8:00 : Go with local tour guideto visit more remote rural villages Na Meo and Na Mo villages to understand more about their culturevand customs.
12:00 : Back to the homestay for lunch and check-out
13:00 : 15:00 : Free time for shopping and relaxing
15:00 – 15:30 : Say goodbye to the family to get on the bus to drive back to Hanoi
18:30 – 19:00 : Arrive in Hanoi Old Quater. Drop you off at your hotel. End of tour over night at Hanoi Culture Hostel
Day 6: Hanoi – Hoa Lu – Tam Coc (B/L)
07h00 – 07h30 Enjoy your breakfast at Hanoi Culture Hostel.
08h00: Leave Hanoi Capital for Ninh Binh, enjoying the beautiful sceneries of the rural areas on the way. About 10h00 arrive Hoa Lu, visit the the two temples of King Dinh and King Le in the 10th century, finding out the heroic histories of this two Kings in Chinese Wars. After that, we go to Tam Coc (10 km far from Hoa Lu).
Have lunch at local restaurant.
After lunch you will get on bamboo boat - rowed by the local people - in Hoang Long river to visit Tam Coc (three caves) on the way, you also have chance to see the paddy field if you visit Tam Coc in April or September.
15h30: Back to the Harbour for the bus transfer to Hanoi.
17h45: Arrive in Hanoi, end of the tour.
18h00: Check in hotel – Free & Easy over night at Hanoi Culture Hostel
Day 7: Flying home
You will be served breakfast before getting pick up to the airport.
Price: 389 (USD)/pax
Special offer:
* Bathroom or room for you to fresh, take shower between the trips.
* Breakfast every morning you back from the trip*
* Welcome drink
* Luggage storage
Tour itinerary and price are very flexible. In order to get the most special price and your require is met perfectly, please contact us here: http://hanoigoldenholidayhotel.com/en-us/contact-us.html
Cancellation Policy:
- Any cancellation or amendment is received before 7 days prior to departure date, no fee will be charged.
- Any cancellation or amendment is received after 7 days to departure date, 100% of deposit and prepaid payment will be charged.
- Failure to arrival at our hotel will be treated as No-show, 100% of deposit and prepaid payment will be charged and the tours are not guaranteed.
- No-show 100% of the deposit and prepaid payment will be charged.
Children Policy
Child under 4 years old: Free of charge and share bed with parents.
Child from 4 until 6 years old : surcharge 50% as adult rate.
Child from 7 until 10 years old : surcharge 75% as adult rate.
Children from 11 and above: as adult.


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Kevin Kewley grew up hearing stories of his parent's "infamous parasail" they'd use in an uncommon sport called off-road parasailing. Lured by tales of high-flying adventure he decided to try it himself. The results are amazing if not a little terrifying.
Like most other forms of parasailing, off-road parasailing involves a person being towed behind a vehicle in a specially designed parachute/sail at speeds fast enough to cause the chute to lift. Unlike the most common form of parasailing, off-roaders use 4x4 trucks instead of boats.
"I found this [sail] for $500 on Craigslist and a few hours later me and a friend were the new proud owners," said Kewley. "I remember the sellers being a bit confused when they asked what kind of boat we have and I answered by saying we don't have a boat, but my Xterra should do just fine."
The Xterra itself, named Penny, is a modified 2008 Off Road version with upgraded suspension, tires, a light bar, and a tow hitch that's just as good for pulling a parasail as it is for helping other trucks get unstick. Though it makes a good parasailing vehicle, he says other trucks could work as well.
A regular car, however, would probably not work. The biggest necessity in doing this type of parasailing is space, which is why boats are so popular for the activity. The distances needed to keep a sail in the air and then gently slow it to the ground are great, so Kewley and his friends use trucks in the middle of the desert.
"We try to map out a big loop, keeping in mind that the car will have to drive at least 25mph to keep the parasail flying. Depending on the area it can make for some intense off-roading," said Kewley. "We once got all four tires off the ground trying to keep it flying."
It requires a crew of people to safely guide and maintain a flying sail because hardened desert is a little less forgiving than water.
"We always start the parasail directly downwind from the vehicle, if not the whole canopy will swing itself downwind once it's off the ground. Once the rider is suited up and harnessed in the car will slowly pull forward until the 200ft rope is taught. With two people holding each side of the parasail canopy open the driver will pretty much floor it.
The rider will just take a few steps forward and then is launched skyward pretty quickly, it's always one of the best parts of the ride; going from a standstill to 150ft up in a few seconds. In the back of the car we'll have someone keeping an eye on the parasail, constantly telling the driver it's altitude. If the terrain gets too rough, and the parasail starts dropping to 50, 40, 30ft, the driver will know he's got to pick up the pace or things will literally come crashing down.
To mix things up a bit we've started deliberately slowing down and speeding up, it causes the whole parasail to go up and down. To land, the driver just gradually slows down, with the co-pilot relaying the altitude."
What happens if you miss the jump is you end up in a tuck-and-roll situation he describes as "jumping off the roof of a house holding an umbrella."
This danger gets to the heart of why, outside of some crazy Europeans, off-road parasailing is an extreme sport for extremely few on this continent despite the relative ease and safety of traditional on-water parasailing.
"So far the only accident we've had is someone getting dragged a few feet when the rope wasn't completely taught during takeoff, they we're OK though," Kewley assured us with a touch of understatement. "Besides that no injuries so far, it is pretty dangerous though."
The dollar-per-thrill ratio is in favor of the thrill-seeker, as is the case with most off-roading adventures, as the equipment requirements are low.
"You just have to be crazy enough to parasail behind a car on land."
We're not sure if any of us here are crazy enough, but we are grateful those who do bring cameras with them.
(Photos courtesy of Kevin Kewley)


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By David Crane defrev at gmail dot com September 26, 2008 Speaking of M14/M1A tactical rifles, just in case you're not quite ready to go bullpup, J. Allen Enterprises, Inc (JAE) has a good-looking M14/M1A rifle stock comprised of a composite polymer skin chemically-bonded over an aircraft-grade aluminum skeleton. So, what's the point. Well, first, it looks pretty slick. But, …Read More »
Tag Archives: m14 stocks
McCann Industries Ultra-Lightweight Carbon Fiber M14/M1A Rifle/Carbine Chassis
by David Crane defrev at gmail.com All photographic images contained in this article were taken by DefenseReview.com at SHOT Show 2008, and they are the exclusive property of DefenseReview.com. DefenseReview.com owns the copyright on these photos. All photos were shot with a 7.2-megapixel Sony Cyber-shot digital camera (Model #: DSC-P150). March 21, 2008 While DefenseReview was exploring the booths inside …Read More »
21st Century M14/M1A Battle Rifle: Meet the Troy Modular Chassis System (MCS)
by David Crane defrev at gmail.com January 7, 2008 Troy Industries, Inc. is currently making a patent-pending modular chassis system for the M14/M1A rifle that uprates it to a true 21st-century 7.62x51mm NATO (7.62mm NATO)/.308 Win. battle rifle for U.S. military Special Operations (SPECOPS) tactical/warfare operations. It's called, appropriately enough, the Troy Industries M14/M1A Modular Chassis System (MCS). According to …Read More »


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…maybe we can save our publishing butts with Kosmix.
In 1998 Google founder Sergey Brin offered fellow Stanford University PhD students Anand Rajarman and Venky Harinarayan the chance to buy Google for $1m (£675,000). They said no.
A year later, with Amazon's backing, Mr Rajarmand and Mr Harinarayan offered $300m. But Mr Brin, and Google co-founders Larry Page, refused to accept less than $1bn.
Today the Indian internet entrepreneurs have secured $20m of new funding from Time Warner for their own search site – Kosmix.


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The Secret Beyond Matter
Author: Jubair Ali Al-Sayed
As 2012 winds to a close, and we bid farewell to this year with it's ups and downs, let us take a few minutes to focus on a pop-culture phenomenon which has become the subject of discussion and debate over the past several years, and which has certainly become a subject of great interest, this year in particular: The 2012 phenomenon.
The 2012 phenomenon is both an erroneous New-Age idea as well as an apocalyptic concept, and now that the month of December is upon us, we would do well to examine this false belief in greater detail, so that we may have a greater understanding of what is sure to be a theme that we will encounter in the mass media with greater frequency as we get closer to December 21st of this year.
Therefore, let us begin with the actual facts, starting with the vanished civilization of the Mayans.
The pre-Columbian Mayans were a fascinating people well-known by modern archeologists for their fully-developed writing system, their art, architecture and their highly developed mathematical and astronomical observations. Though the Mayan civilization itself is no more, the Mayan people still exist to this day and can be found in Guatemala, southern Mexico and the Yucatan Peninsula, Belize, El Salvador, and western Honduras; indeed, there are some seven million people of Mayan descent found throughout the Central American region. Their civilization reached its zenith between the years 250 to 900 A.D. and gradually declined over the following centuries.
Aside from the impressive ruins of great Mayan cities such as Palenque and Chichen Itza, the Mayans also bequeathed to those civilizations who followed them a legacy which has survived well into the 21st Century; the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar.
The Mayans themselves did not invent the Long Count Calendar; it is believed by most archeologists that it was actually invented by the Olmecs, an earlier vanished civilization. However, the Mayans adapted this calendar to suit their own particular mythological beliefs, and it is from the Mayan adaptation that the 2012 phenomenon begins. Thus, it behooves us to examine what the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar is, and how it functions.
The Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar is a linear calendar operating on a base 20 function. Thus, 20 days form a uinal; 18 uinals form a tun composed of 360 days (close to one solar year); 20 tuns make a k'atun, and 20 k'atuns form a b'ak'tun or a period of 144,000 days or about 394 solar years. Therefore, a Mayan calendar date of 22.214.171.124.12 represents 6 b'ak'tuns, 5 k'atuns, 2 tuns, 10 uinals and 12 days.
So what does this have to do with December 21st, 2012 in the Western calendar and some apocalyptic or transformative event? In short, very little. The Mayan calendar goes forward far beyond the completion of the 13th b'ak'tun, the cycle which comes to its end this year, as can be seen in the west panel of the Temple of Inscriptions in the ruins of Palenque; it calculates the date commemorating the coronation of the Maya ruler K'ininch Janaab' Pakal (which occurred on July 27th, 615 A.D) all the way forward to October 21st, 4772 A.D, which is over four thousand years forward from the time of that long-deceased king. Indeed, another truly fascinating, and genuinely mind-boggling example can be found on Stele 1, in the ruins of the city of Coba (present-day Mexico) which projects forward to a calendar date inscribed as 18.104.22.168.220.127.116.11.126.96.36.199.126.96.36.199.22.214.171.124.0.0.0.0, or twenty units above the b'ak'tun placing it at 41 octillion years in the future, which would be three quintillion times the known age of the universe according to astrophysicists. This represents a prodigious feat of mathematical computation, to put it mildly, and all the more so for a society which lacked metal tools, pulleys or for that matter, the wheel.
Then where does this belief in some apocalyptic event arise?
The Mayans left us with not only a written language, but a literary tradition as well. In Mayan literature and myth, there is a strong tradition of "world ages"; much of what we know about this stems from the Popol Vuh, a compilation of the creation myths of K'iche' Maya. In their creation accounts, the imaginary Mayan gods created three previous worlds, with our world being the fourth. The third world ended after thirteen b'ak'tun, or roughly 5,125 years. The Mayans Long Count "Day Zero" corresponds to August 11th, 3114 B.C.; this means the fourth world (our world) will reach the end of its thirteenth b'ak'tun on Mayan date 18.104.22.168.0 or December 21st 2012 in the Western Calendar.
And it is at this point that a good deal of speculation comes into play. How would the Mayans have considered the end of the cycle? As the end of time itself? Or perhaps as a reason to celebrate? Sadly, the available Mayan literature is largely silent on the matter, as it was more concerned with recording actual historic or past mythical events than it was with making prophecies. Students of Mayan culture and history, anthropologists, and other experts have almost no consensus as to what, if any, significance this turning of the 13th b'ak'tun would have had for Mayan civilization, as that civilization is no more. Indeed, the modern Mayans have openly and publicly ridiculed the notion that the world is coming to end on December 21st 2012, considering such ideas to be a grotesque misinterpretation of their culture, mythology and folklore. And in fact, there is only one reference in all of classical Mayan literature to the 13th b'ak'tun, which is to be found at the Tortuguero site in the southern part of the Mexican state of Tabasco on a monument known as Monument 6; sadly, the inscription itself has been partially defaced. Its translation is as follows:
It will be completed in the 13th b'ak'tun
It is 4 Ajaw 3 K'an'kin
and it will happen a [possibly the word "seeing"]
It is the display of B'olon-Yokte' [an imaginary Mayan deity]
In a great investiture.
There is debate among scholars as to what exactly this means. Some scholars have concluded that a person would be dressed up as this imaginary Mayan deity B'olon-Yokte' and paraded around; other scholars dispute this interpretation. Thus, we have no way of knowing with any certainty what the closing of the 13th b'ak'tun meant to the Mayans. So, if the Mayans themselves left no distinct record of the significance of this date, or even its meaning within the context of Mayan civilization, then how did this mistaken belief in some cataclysmic event occurring on December 21st 2012 come into being? For that, we must look not to the Mayans, nor other Mesoamerican civilizations, but rather a little closer to home.
European identification with the Mayans and the end of the world goes back all the way to the time of Christopher Columbus. During his voyage of 1502, he was at work writing a book called the Libro de las profecias when he first heard about the Mayans. Columbus believed that his discoveries of distant lands and peoples were prophesied, and that they were somehow signs of the Christian apocalypse. Indeed, during the time of the Spanish Conquest of the New World, eschatological fears were running riot throughout Europe, in particular a false astrological prediction for a second Great Flood which was forecast to occur in 1524. Of course, this didn't happen, nor did any other such world-shattering catastrophe. It goes without saying that in every age there have been predictions of doom, disaster, mass destruction and whatnot, and all of them thus far have maintained an enviably consistent record of being spectacularly wrong. Then in the early 1900s, German scholar Ernst Förstemann represented the end of the world coming about through a global deluge based on his interpretation of the last page of the Dresden Codex, a Mayan document found in the ruins of Chichen Itza. It is Herr Förstemann and the Dresden Codex which arguably forms the basis of the current obsession with the year 2012.
In fairness to both Christopher Columbus and Ernst Förstemann, neither of them mentioned the year 2012 or the 13th b'ak'tun whatsoever. Herr Förstemann also pointed out it was quite unclear as to whether the Dresden Codex itself is referring to a future event, or something that might have happened in the distant past or an event in Mayan mythology. However, Herr Förstemann's ideas were repeated (and considerably embellished upon) by the archeologist Sylvanus Morley in his book, The Ancient Maya, first published in 1946. These notions floated about in a rather nebulous form until the early 1970s, which saw the rise of the so-called "New Age" movement, that false and pernicious pseudo-religious movement in the service of the dajjal. It was the New Age movement, a crazy catch-all of false Eastern religions, superstitions, and crank ideas which seized upon the Mayan concepts and transformed them out of all recognition to the culture on which these ideas were based.
By 1975, the idea of the 13th b'ak'tun and its possible meaning was being explored by several New Age authors, who were generally of the opinion that a "global transformation of consciousness" would emerge at the end of the 13th cycle. Of course, this was combined with the "Age of Aquarius" notion that had become so widespread throughout American popular counterculture in the mid to late 1960s. Interestingly, the "Age of Aquarius" has no basis in science; it is purely astrological in origin, not astronomical. There are many interpretations of what this "global transformation of consciousness" will entail, from the occasionally sublime to the downright preposterous such as the Earth passing through a "galactic synchronization beam" which would result in "galactic entrainment" of people "plugged into the Earth's electromagnetic battery". Others have spoken of the Earth's alignment with the center of our galaxy, or a planetary alignment; neither of these ideas are supported by astronomy. Astrophysicists will tell you that it's virtually impossible to calculate when the Earth will align with center of our galaxy, and they will also tell you there is no planetary alignment scheduled for December 21st, 2012.
Now certainly these ideas, though utterly false and unsupported by science, are far less dire than the recent slew of doomsday scenarios which have come to dominate the discussion as of late. In examining this aspect of the 2012 phenomenon, we have to look at a curious overlapping of disparate concepts, namely:
1) New Age superstitions
2) Secret knowledge
3) American Evangelical Christian eschatology
As noted earlier, the end of the 13th b'ak'tun in the Long Count Calendar will arrive on December 21st, 2012. However, as to what significance the original Mayan civilization would have assigned to this is purely a matter of speculation. For that which is unknown, there is always something to fill the breach, and the false New Age movement has certainly done that many times over. Rather than rely on scholarly interpretations from anthropologists, archeologists, linguists, and experts in the field, the New Age movement has created their own interpretations and impressions of Mayan civilization, and instead of being able to have a serious and intelligent discussion about Mayan culture with a non-academic, what we get instead is people whose heads have been filled with fatuous notions and pseudo-science; instead of a discussion of how genuinely remarkable the Mayans were at astronomic calculations, we are treated to discussions on how the Mayans were allegedly able to calculate not only the exact center of our galaxy, but that they also knew of the supermassive singularity which (it is believed) lies at its epicenter, something modern astrophysics has only quite recently come to hypothesize about. Instead of giving due credit and a sense of respect to the Mayans for erecting their pyramids, palaces and cities with little more than stone and wood tools and raw manpower, we are told that these pyramids and other impressive structures were erected not by the Mayans, but by telekinetic little green men. In this fashion, the New Age movement has distorted not only Mayan culture, but the historic record and achievements of Mayan civilization, and reduced the remarkable people of this ancient civilization to little more than colorful extras in a B-grade science fiction film.
The New Age movement also relies quite heavily on the concept of secret knowledge, which is essentially the idea of hidden or previously unknown knowledge from distant times and places. No doubt we have all heard of some charlatan who claims to have experienced their "past lives" in such fanciful locales as Lemuria or even perhaps on distant planets in other galaxies, or seen on television a spiritual snake-oil salesman who will disclose the secret of eternal happiness to you, which he gleaned by discussing the matter with some extraterrestrial being while zipping around Alpha Centauri in a UFO, for the mere sum of $2,500. Quite aside from the obvious fact that the entire New Age movement is nothing but the dajjal's way of leading mankind astray from our Almighty Lord, Allah (and the fact that it also serves to enrich it's peddlers beyond the dreams of avarice), the idea of secret knowledge holds a distinct appeal to those lost souls who are deeply suspicious of mainstream Western thought, and ultimately feel a good deal of antipathy toward the culture in which they live. As an example, a certain British author and public speaker has recently been selling out seminars in the United States where he disseminates his "secret knowledge" that our planet is nothing but a hollow sphere, that reptilian extraterrestrials are manipulating world events from their undersea bases, that the Moon is some manner of spaceship, and that the Queen of England, the U.S. President and other world leaders are, in fact, reptile/human hybrid monstrosities determined to enslave us all. That any rational human being would believe such lunacy (not to mention actually paying money to attend such a seminar in order to hear what are essentially the ravings of a paranoid madman) serves as a clear warning sign that something has gone terribly wrong in the sociocultural milieu. It is indicative of a deeply underlying cultural paranoia.
The third ingredient in this heady, if toxic, brew is American Evangelical Christian eschatology, and in particular the emergence of dispensational premillennialism as a dominant End Times scenario among certain sects of fundamentalist Christians in the United States and its accompanying cultural impact.
Briefly, dispensational premillennialism is the doctrine that the Prophet Jesus (pbuh) will return to take up Christians into heaven in an event known as the Rapture (it should be noted here there is nothing in the Gospel to support this point of view; those who believe in it generally cite First Thessalonians, Chapter 4, verse 17. However, mainstream Christians such as Orthodox Christians, the Roman Catholic Church, and mainstream Protestant churches maintain this particular verse is simply a general reference to the Day of Judgment), which will be followed by a seven-year period of war, death, pestilence, destruction, famine and general unpleasantness known as the Tribulation, after which the Prophet Jesus (pbuh) will return with the saints to reign for a thousand years.
Until the last quarter or so of the 20th Century, dispensational premillennialism was adhered to largely by Calvinists and assorted Christian fundamentalist denominations. However, starting in the 1970s, this peculiar (and erroneous) doctrine burst onto the public scene through the publication of The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey, though it had been propagated earlier through the Scofield Reference Bible and Lewis Chafer's eight-volume tome Systematic Theology. After the 1970 publication of The Late Great Planet Earth, which was a bestseller (28 million copies), the doctrine entered mainstream American religious discussion and is still with us to this day; for example, the continuing popularity and cultural influence of the Left Behind series by Tim Lahaye and Jerry Jenkins. It has also been spread through the work of influential American evangelists such as the late Jerry Falwell, Ray Comfort, Dwight Pentecost, and a good many others.
This particular variant of Christian eschatology is exceptionally violent, and involves a good deal of suffering, destruction, and the shedding of oceans of blood (may Allah forbid). As Christian fundamentalists became a stronger force on the American sociopolitical and cultural scene towards the end of the 20th Century, it was perhaps quite natural that their particular interpretation of the End Times would come to have a cultural impact. And it has, indeed.
One particular example can stand out. Prior to the changeover from 1999 to the year 2000, there was much hysteria, particularly in the U.S., about the so-called "Y2K bug", an alleged software defect that would supposedly cause trains to derail, airplanes to fall from the sky, the world's arsenal of nuclear-tipped ICBM's to spontaneously launch, and in short, cause us to all die horribly. Needless to say, this didn't happen. But there was certainly a distinctly apocalyptic scent in the air, for those readers old enough to recall that time. And there were quite a few fundamentalist Christians who maintained that "Y2K" was indeed the dread fulfillment of Biblical prophecy; many well-known Christian personalities took to the airwaves in the run-up to the changeover from 1999 to 2000 and spread a good many rumors, stories, false statistics and outright misrepresentations, which of course did nothing to allay fears. As it turned out, the only problems encountered were wholly insignificant and easily fixed.
Thus, through a trifecta of New Age nonsense, an increasingly paranoid society that is profoundly distrustful of its own institutions, and the cultural impact of a belief in a violent eschatological event, many find themselves looking ahead to a particular date toward the end of this year with a sense of the strongest foreboding. Though it may manifest itself in different hypothetical scenarios, from the arrival of the next solar maximum (actually not due until 2013), to our planet colliding with another celestial object (the so-called Planet X/Nibiru theory, easily debunked as an object the size of a small planet would already be clearly visible in the skies, even in daytime), to a host of other ideas including, but not limited to, an extraterrestrial invasion much like the film "Independence Day", people are genuinely preparing for some kind of apocalyptic scenario to play out. This can be observed by the simple fact that recent statistics out of the United States show Americans are stocking up on:
1) Non-perishable foodstuffs
2) Firearms and ammunition
Indeed as to the latter, there has been a recorded 32% increase in the sale of firearms in the last quarter of 2011 according to the American F.B.I. Until quite recently, there was a major shortage of ammunition available on the American market, this shortage being created by overwhelming consumer demand. Similar sales increases corresponding to those of firearms have also been noted for non-perishable foodstuffs, including U.S. military surplus MRE's (Meals Ready-to-Eat) to civilians. This begs a legitimate question; what are people afraid of? Are Americans genuinely afraid that their civilization is somehow going to collapse in the next 12 months? Are they truly anticipating some kind of cataclysmic event? Is it merely widespread cultural angst reflecting a degree of political paranoia?
Or have they been deceived by the New Age movement?
If we take a brief look back at some recent trends in American pop-culture, we can see that a spate of television shows, films, and books have surfaced in the last few years, all of them dealing with the 2012 phenomenon. The History Channel, an American cable network, aired the following programs; Decoding the Past, 2012: End of Days, Last Days on Earth, Seven Signs of the Apocalypse, and Nostradamus 2012. A trip to any reasonably well-stocked bookstore will reveal scores of titles dealing with the subject, and of course, we must mention Roland Emmerich's hugely entertaining blockbuster disaster film, "2012", which went on to gross over 750 million dollars worldwide. All of this amounts to a sort of conditioning; people begin to believe that some sort of unprecedented catastrophe is going to take place imminently which will lead to the either the destruction of the world, or at the very least the end of human civilization. If the sociocultural consensus comes to anticipate something so strongly, it creates an extraordinarily tense and doom-laden cultural atmosphere; the society which has allowed itself to become fixated on the certainty of a violent apocalyptic event basically becomes a powder-keg in search of a spark. This is the way of the dajjal. By poisoning the minds of men and turning them away from Almighty Allah, he inevitably guides them down the path which ends in their ruin.
Fortunately, some of our Christian brothers have recognized this danger, and have themselves launched a counter-offensive to tell people they have nothing to fear on December 21st 2012. They quote from the Gospel (correctly) that no man knows the hour of the Day of Judgment, as that knowledge lies with Allah alone. They point out that much of the fear associated with the Mayan Long Count Calendar is the result of deliberate New Age deceitfulness at worst, or a blatant misinterpretation of Mayan culture at best.
We, as Muslims, naturally look forward to the coming of Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh), and the Golden Age in which all mankind, be they Muslim, Christian or Jew will live together in harmony, peace, and prosperity. We look forward to the arrival of Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh) and the coming of the Prophet Jesus (pbuh) not as events filled with terror, bloodshed, and violence, but as events as foretold by our beloved Prophet Muhammad (saas) who said that Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh) would not even "awaken a sleeper" or "cause so much as a nose to bleed". Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh) and Prophet Jesus (pbuh) will come soon, insha'Allah, and they will bring love, gentleness, and peace to the world. And surely that is something worth praying for, and we continue to do so five times a day.
One last note on the 2012 phenomenon. The government of Mexico is planning on using the year 2012, without its apocalyptic connotations, to hopefully revive Mexico's ailing tourism industry, which has been lately beset by difficulties caused by narco-gang wars and increasing crime. Their tourism initiative hopes to draw on the popularity of the ruins of the long-vanished Mayan civilization and their appeal. As tourism forms a good-sized part of Mexico's annual revenues, let us wish them well; many people, particularly in small towns and villages near the Mayan ruins, depend on the tourist trade for their livelihoods. And let us also hope that the tourists, in turn, will discover a far more honest and historically accurate representation of Mayan culture and gain a better appreciation of this fascinating people, who accomplished so much with so little.
Men ask you concerning the Hour. Say, "The knowledge of it is with Allah alone. And what may make you perceive? Perhaps the Hour is near."
(Surah Ahzab, 63)


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PARIS — In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing, it's only natural to ask why some terrorists are only caught after they've inflicted carnage on innocent civilians. What went wrong?
Here are a few significant reasons why authorities still manage to miss terrorism until it's too late:
1. It doesn't help that U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper understated the threat when he told Congress in March that counterterrorism efforts "have degraded core al-Qaeda to a point that the group is probably unable to carry out complex, large-scale attacks in the West." So I guess it's all over now that "core al-Qaeda" isn't issuing official membership cards anymore? I'm pretty sure that setting off a bomb somewhere and talking about jihad with your mom while planning trips to al-Qaeda-infested regions of the globe is all it takes to join up these days.
Naturally, Clapper's words were largely misconstrued to suggest that the terrorist group was no longer a threat. That was just a month before cookware in the hands of junior jihadists using tactics from the official al-Qaeda playbook would send Boston and the nation into a terror panic. As for the complexity of the attacks — who cares? Does the IQ of the terrorist or the craftsmanship of the bomb really matter as long as it successfully detonates?
2. People who think that everything is a government plot to take away their freedoms are a ubiquitous obstruction to counterterrorism operations. They somehow figure that the same government that loses their tax return every other year and can't manage to pass public-safety legislation is somehow capable of coordinating elaborate terrorist hoaxes as a cover for what they really want: unfettered molestation of every airline passenger.
My personal favorites: those who label every terrorist event a "false flag" — a term they likely learned via osmosis when they fell asleep while reading a John Le Carré novel, making them instant experts on subversion strategy. It's these morons, becoming increasingly mainstream, to whom intelligence agencies cater when they fail to aggressively pursue leads due to how counterterrorism operations might ultimately be perceived, barring a major investigative breakthrough.
3. A culture of complacency among various government authorities responsive to bleeding-heart baddie-huggers ultimately leads to negligence, with risks festering to the point of full-blown threat. We've learned that there were plenty of warnings about the Boston bombing suspects, notably from Russian intelligence and the CIA.
One of the two allegedly al-Qaeda-linked suspects recently charged in Canada with plotting to target a Toronto-to-New York train had previously faced a deportation hearing, and his refugee claim was rejected because he had already racked up five fraud convictions during his short stay in Canada. He managed to obtain residency by arguing that as a "Palestinian by blood" (despite being born in the United Arab Emirates), he had no home nation to which he could be deported.
4. Western nations have been far too quick to distribute citizenship and its accompanying privileges like candy as a matter of official policy, ignoring potentially problematic ideology in favor of superficial values like "diversity."
As a result, some Russian immigrants aren't recognized as Islamists but rather just "ethnic Chechens," as was the case with the Boston bombing suspects and also with a Canadian citizen of Chechen origin who was among the leaders of an attack that killed several dozen hostages at an Algerian gas plant earlier this year.
5) There's a general lack of understanding of terrorists and the nature of their allegiances. Basically, they have none. They'll work with anyone who will serve their objectives today, then double-cross the same allies tomorrow. Anyone projecting any morality onto their alliances will end up confused at best and dead at worst.
Take Syrian al-Qaeda, for example: Jabhat al-Nusra. Its members loathe the West and Israel as much as Hezbollah does. However, they're fighting against Assad along with the West, and actively attacking Iran-backed, Assad-supporting Hezbollah. It's this kind of convolution that recently made some Canadians ask, "Why would al-Qaeda-linked suspects in Canada wanting to blow up a train allegedly be getting funding from al-Qaeda in Iran when Iran is Shiite and al-Qaeda is Sunni and those two hate each other? This is obviously nonsense!" Right — because Iran has never funded al-Qaeda against Western interests before.
It helps to remember the terrorist golden rule: Every one of these groups just wants to be in charge. And they will try to knock off any and all other parties systemically until that happens. Go ahead — just try wedging reason, diplomacy or integrity into that.
Still, some will try — at our collective peril.
(Rachel Marsden is a columnist, political strategist and former Fox News host based in Paris. She appears frequently on TV and in publications in the U.S. and abroad. Her website can be found at: http://www.rachelmarsden.com.)
Also see,
Rachel Marsden: Boston bombing case parallels Toulouse attacks


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