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Sunday, December 27, 2009
Should we believe what we can't disprove?
"The question to ask the faithful is, how would you distinguish the difference between faith in something true and faith in something false without evidence?"
This reminded me of the question I have often asked, "How does a theist know the god he believes in is moral, if he asserts that humans are not able to judge his god's actions when they appear to be wrong?"
But it also put me in mind of a recent conversation I had over the holiday. A theist asserted that it's not reasonable for people to assert there is/is no god, since there's no way to prove or disprove it. It's an old, tired, and well-rebutted refrain, but, somehow, it never seems to lose steam. The interesting thing about this particular exchange is that the theist rebutted herself in short order.
I replied, "Of course we can prove if a thing exists. It's like Big Foot. First we have to have a clear definition of what it is we are claiming exists: a great ape. Then we define how it manifests—in this case, where this thing can be discovered: North American woodlands. Then we go looking for a great ape in the North American woodlands. If it's there, eventually the evidence to demonstrate it exists should become available—and when it does, we can say it exists."
To this she replied, "But what if you don't find any evidence?"
To which I replied, "Well, then I would wonder why these people were asserting that a great ape lives in the North American woodlands."
And here is where it got interesting. AE viewers will understand, probably, my take on Big Foot. You will grasp that my question was along the lines of the Dragon in my Garage: Without any manifestation—there is no rational reason for someone to assert something is there.
However, this theist took it as a statement of my own assertion that I accept something must be there, otherwise, people wouldn't have asserted there was something there. She thought I was presenting the theist fallacy, the argument from popularity. "If lots of people assert it is true, it must be true."
But her reply was priceless: "Well, in ancient Greece, there were lots of things people claimed lived in the world that I'm pretty sure don't exist." And "pretty sure" was put forward with a chuckle—in the same way we might assert we're pretty sure that W.C. Fields wouldn't turn down a drink. It was a positive statement that "people assert all sorts of nonexistent things exist—like satyrs, winged-horses, and wood nymphs of the ancient Greeks."
Of course, the beauty of this is that she just asserted that she accepts these things don't exist—despite the fact that nobody has ever "proved" they don't exist. And wasn't her initial statement that this was an ignorant position for someone to hold?
To frame it in terms of the initial query from the viewer mail: "How does this theist distinguish between the thing that doesn't exist and the thing that exists but manifests in exactly the same way as the thing that doesn't exist?" Obviously, she feels confident she has reasonable basis upon which to reject some of these claims of existence of supernatural beings, while she accepts other such claims—but, without being able to "disprove" either, how does she differentiate? And further, why would she criticize the atheist for a more consistent application of a standard she clearly uses herself: In the absence of a conclusive demonstration of existence, it's reasonable to dismiss inconclusive evidence and unsupported claims, and assert your disbelief (of Greek supernatural beings)—even if you can't or haven't "disproved" the claim.
I wish I would have thought more quickly. This particular theist doesn't believe in the existence of ghosts. Ghosts would have been far more appropriate to the dialogue in this case, as it is something far more people believe in than Big Foot, and for which much "evidence" and "testimony" is, and has been, presented from eye-witnesses and "researchers" in paranormal fields. And yet, she has asserted to me on numerous occasions that she understands such things do not exist.
I still don't know how she differentiates.
28 comments:
Theist thinking: "If there's no way to differentiate in absence of evidence either way, I'll go with what I've grown comfortable with."
Many do understand that emotion is not a cognitive tool, but their emotions tell them that abandoning comfort would hurt, so they go with emotion anyway.
Bypass the intellect.- Anonymous12/27/2009 3:37 PM
Some theists apparently have a mode of thinking that's not easy for me to grasp.
ReplyDelete There an endless number thing that others believe in that I do not. I find no crying need to spend my time trying to disprove the existence of what I consider silly ideas. I don't feel like spending time justifying my position on gods. These beliefs have never been mine and are not important to my life. No atheist has an obligation to accept god's existence just because they have no interest in studying all the arguments which ultimately lead nowhere. God is in the end not worth the effort.
ReplyDelete- Anonymous12/28/2009 7:19 AM
David CT:
From a personal standpoint, I couldn't agree more. In fact, just yesterday I advised two atheists in communities of theists that they are not required to understand and offer alternate explanations of things such as cosmology, evolution, or anything else.
It's so odd that in regard to theism, there is this idea that it doesn't have to be supported or demonstrated--it seems to "stand" upon the idea that "we don't know anything better."
Too often the atheist response is "yes we do," and then the atheist proceeds to have to study and find answers--which are available, but, as you note, unnecessary.
The answer that should be offered is, "I don't really know all that much about cosmology or biology (assuming the atheist doesn't), but I don't see how what YOUR asserting makes sense."
In one of the letters, someone complained about being presented with the "I didn't come from any monkey" reply to evolution. He posited a long explanation of evolution and how it works and how this is a misconception. But the real point is this: OK, you don't accept evolution--how does your assertion of "mud and magic" make sense?
Like you, while I don't mind offering corrections to false facts I'm presented with, I don't see how it's necessary when I'm talking about belief in god. I need to see some merits for that belief offered. The idea that the theist rejects other hypotheses, theorie or even reality is not relevant. I want to know on what grounds he accepts what he's asserting--not what he rejects. Reject it all, for goodness sake--but at some point you need to show me how your ideas are rational or supported by conclusive evidence.
I can't just assert fairies make my flowers grow in my garden, and then "support" that claim by asserting that I reject the idea of photosynthesis.
OK, you reject photosynthesis--but what on earth got you to "fairies"? I have had a "back and forth" with a theist on fark.com for quite a while now.
He initially started with an argument from authority, along the lines of "I'm an engineer, so you can trust me with the science". Then he proceeded to blather about how creationism is scientific.
After being countered at every point, usually with links to scientific papers or lectures by eminent scientists, he finally stopped trying to sound scientific.
Perhaps I'm optimistic, but I think very soon he will be willing to admit that his idea that other peoples silly superstitions are wrong because they belong to other people, and that his silly superstition is right because he holds that superstition.
On the other hand, I'm not holding my breath.I was told by a theist that he "got tired of wondering whether there was a god or not, so [he] put all his eggs in this basket (theism)."
Why not do the same thing to every other unsubstantiated claim?
I just cannot wrap my mind around it.
How can someone stop wondering and come to a conclusion by force of will? It sounds like he fell for Pascal's wager."I was told by a theist that he "got tired of wondering whether there was a god or not, so [he] put all his eggs in this basket (theism)."
Why not do the same thing to every other unsubstantiated claim?"
Pascal's wager to me always seemed to in reality sway towards atheism.
"we know life exists so enjoy life and hope for an afterlife" seems to be demonstrably THE best bet since it's no cost for the bet and as likely to get a 'win' as any one religion."The whole engineer->theist thing is just bizarre.
Engineers aren't scientists any more than painters are chemists."
For the sake of my engineer friends, I have to insist that the problem is not in the engineers necessarily but the fact that engineering lacks a peer review and critique process. They don't foster skepticism and critical thinking as "hard" science does. Basically it can be used as a badge of intellect while lacking the rigors that scientists face.
But to demonstrate that engineers can be very good scientists or scientific folk, look at the Myth Busters. To my knowledge Jamie and Adam's real training is in engineering fields, and it's them bringing the critical thinking into that field that makes them excel over your typical cookie cutter schematic schmuck.The human brain is a wonderfully creative thing. It can generate an almost infinite amount of hypothesis.
I replaced a laptop hard drive for a friend of a friend. She is into angels and crystal energy.
She seriously suggested to me that energy from her crystals may damaged the hard drive.
She looked me straight in the eye and said "they are really powerful". When I asked her the nature of this energy and how it can be measured, she was not able.
I cannot disprove that crystal energy damaged the computer but I did give her a few more likely alternatives. Her kids may have treated the laptop roughly or hard disk simply failed mechanically from one of a myriad of reasons. Even when supplied with far more reasonable explanations a true believer will not listen. "You can't prove it's not true", seems to be enough validation for many people.Disclaimer 1: I am not trolling. I am an atheist -- I swear on a stack of The God Delusion.
Disclaimer 2: I'm aware that this is your blog; I'm only complaining, not demanding change.
I came to this blog looking for an Internet place to "hang out" with fellow atheists. After a couple of weeks, I've decided this isn't the place for me, and this thread is as good an example as any of my reasons.
You may fairly argue that I'm merely posting to flame you in order to salve my ego -- so I concede that this post may not make it past moderation. But I thought you might find some interest in why I'm uncomfortable here.
First, I grew up on a farm. I was 11 before I knew "shit" was a bad word. I take a back seat to few people in the fluency of my vulgarity; it doesn't "offend" me in the slightest. The difference is that I reserve it for cows and tractors; unleashing it on people is just something I disagree with (I don't believe in the concept of "bad language" personally, but oto, and I choose to respect that), most especially when those folks weren't employing vulgarities themselves (at least by their own standards).
Second, I'm a political conservative. The leftward political tilt here was perhaps to be expected, since conservatism does tend more toward religious belief. But the gratuitous shots at conservative politicians (when aimed at their politics rather than their religious beliefs) simply strike me as irrelevant here.
The general tone of anger here really puts me off. There are real reasons for "angry atheism", but I just think it's like railing against the weather.
So, in sum, this isn't a community for me; I'm sure I'll look in from time to time, but I had thought to become an active participant -- though not any longer.
OK, now you can all jump in and call *me* names! :-)Neutron: I wound up posting my comment to the wrong thread. It was meant for the pope-attack thread. If you can move it; great.
No need. It serves its purpose here just as well.
While I'm sorry you feel the way you do, I think you've misjudged the blog and this group of folks if you feel there's a "general tone of anger" here. Even at the "pope knocked down" thread, there was no anger in the original post. The only person to introduce anger into that discussion was JD Curtis with his histrionic overreaction to the whole thing.
As you noticed you'd posted your comment to the wrong thread, I wonder if you actually took the time to read Tracie's post at all. That ought to have clued you in that a "general tone of anger" is not S.O.P. here. Tracie's posts are always extremely detailed and thoughtful, and in her responses, even to people who don't agree with her, she's the soul of civility. Kazim's posts are even-tempered and witty. I tend to be the snarky guy, finding things to make fun of, but I flatter myself I vary it up a bit when I'm in an analytical mood to write something much more in-depth. True, there are things about which I write where I am angry. I submit they are things worthy of being angry about. Is it not justifiable to be angry at the spectacle of the Catholic Church shielding sexual predators among its priests from prosecution? Is it not justifiable to be angry when people are denied equal rights (or even basic civil rights) because of their creed, or sexual preference? Should we not be angry at fundamentalist frauds who bilk their congregations for millions? When is it okay to be angry and when is it not?
I think you have taken a single flamewar with an (in my opinion) unjustifiably angry theist and blown it out of proportion to where you think it represents the blog and this community as a whole. I do hope you reconsider and stick around enough to look at the bigger picture, and find out what the people who write and comment here are really like. Because if you think we're the sort who will "jump in and call you names" because you're exercising your free choice and offering your sincere opinions in a respectful tone, you really don't know us.
Take care. We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread...Martin,
Thank you for your thoughtful reply. As this is off-topic for this particular thread, I'll just keep this short.
I did, in fact, read Tracie's entry; I've read all of the stuff posted here over the past couple of weeks, plus some of the historical stuff. I wouldn't be so incautious as to let just one thread pollute my opinion, honest!
As to the pope-attack thread, with all due respect, JD's original post wasn't "angry" at all; the incivility and vulgar tone started with responses to his original post. It is true that he began to get more belligerent as the thread went on, but by far the bulk of the incivility and *all* of the vulgarity came from responses to his posts.
While this isn't true of *all* threads, of course, I did read at least a couple of other threads in which essentially the same conditions held.
Let me reiterate that I have no objection per se to the anger, incivility, and vulgarity. It's just that it sets a tone here that I find, overall, distasteful.
Thanks for your invitation to hang around a bit longer; I'll do that. And I again apologize for being so fumble-fingeredly stupid as to post to the wrong thread (and for my utter failure to keep this as short as I'd promised!).- Anonymous12/29/2009 4:17 PM
I would agree with Martin on a few summary points, and beyond that I don't have much to say, because I can't really insist that a person fits in with this group. You know what you like, and if this isn't it--then I accept your assessment.
When I saw your qualifier that you had posted to the wrong thread, my first thought was "Oh, OK--that makes more sense"--since this thread seemed to have none of the things you mentioned you objected to. And my article for this thread was pretty benign.
However, I quickly wondered along the lines of Martin--if this post and thread doesn't represent what you object to, then clearly we offer more than what you object to here.
I actually can get "fired up" over issues--but I can't recall the last time I ever "got angry" at a human being I was dialoging with. I can't recall the last time I was ever offended or insulted--although I've certainly been the target many times of people clearly trying to offend and insult me. I'm not averse to swears, but I don't ever "aim" them at anyone. I might drop the F-bomb alot in conversation--but I don't ever tell a person F-you or F-off. I don't hurl emotional abuse at people. However, I live in a real world where I understand it's anyone's right to hurl such abuse at me or at anyone else. I simply, for myself, don't engage that.
If you lean conservative, I'm sure there is a left-feel here for you. And that could be unsettling if you're looking for community and not debate. And that's fair. I would say that most conservative atheists will get arguments here. And I would agree that if I wanted to sit around debating my every thought and opinion, I'd be hanging out at a theist forum and not here, where I can share community.
So, wherever you land, best of luck. I know conservative atheists are "out there"--I have met them. So, probably you will locate them soon enough.
Take care! @Neutron, you said..."As to the pope-attack thread, with all due respect, JD's original post wasn't "angry" at all; the incivility and vulgar tone started with responses to his original post."
I disagree. The incivility started with JD saying "...let it sink in for a bit while you are wondering why you feel empty on this day while the rest of the world is rejoicing."
Who's feeling empty? Oh, right, we're atheists so of course we feel empty right? How nice of JD to come by and tell people he doesn't know how empty we are.Trying to get back on topic here... Theists have shifting standards when it comes to assess their belief. I remember a muslim fundie accointance who was ready to believe every ridiculous claim of miracle coming from Muslim converts, but would be sceptical to similar claims coming from Christians. Virgin Mary appearing in Our Lady of Whatever in times of war? Pure hallucination from gullible and stressed people. A guy claiming to have been frozen in ice and survived, thus discovering Allah's greatness? Of course it's true, if he says so, why would he lie? There was a Catholic girl I know who would acknowledge that the Bible could not tell the whole literal truth (even though the text claims it does), but was sure that there was more historical truth in the Bible than any other religious text.
I also think that theists willingly mixes sincerity and evidence. That the early Christians believed that Jesus was the Son of God did not make it so.Well, since the drift is my fault, let me take a crack at correcting it.
Like the crystal energy person with a dead hard drive, from a previous post in this thread, many theists appear to have a thought process that goes "unless you can disprove it, it is OK for me to believe it is true" (answering Tracie's post headline in the affirmative). Proof isn't required to *believe* something -- only to *stop* believing.
For them, belief itself requires only scant evidence, or even no evidence at all (and never mind what passes as "evidence" for some ...). There are all kinds of people who believe all kinds of strange things with no more evidence than an airy wave of the hand -- and some have quite literally drunk the Kool-Aid for their belief.
Maybe that's what's behind the animosity of fundamentalists toward evolution. Perhaps they see the conflict of vilifying biologists for believing evolution on what they think is "scant evidence" while holding their own beliefs based on scant evidence.
Or perhaps, if only subconsciously, they realize that, by their own standard, they should believe evolution if they can't disprove it.
Nah. Either of those positions would imply reason. That can't be it.
This dichotomy of thinking was never presented more directly than by Whoopi Goldberg on The O'Reilly Factor. After a long (and polite) discussion, she finally said "Bill, you're using reason and logic, and I just go with what I feel."
That, I think, is theist thinking in a nutshell (quite independently of whether she herself is or is not a theist.)
(There -- I've just taken a gratuitous shot at a liberal. I'm starting to get the HANG of this place!) :-)"This dichotomy of thinking was never presented more directly than by Whoopi Goldberg on The O'Reilly Factor. After a long (and polite) discussion, she finally said "Bill, you're using reason and logic, and I just go with what I feel.""
wait a minute! O'Reilly was on the side of reason and logic in a discussion?? I'm gonna have to see if I can find a clip of this. Excuse me for being a Doubting Thomas, but seeing is believing afterall lolwait a minute! O'Reilly was on the side of reason and logic in a discussion??
I expected this. You have to actually watch the show, rather than read a synopsis of it from some left-wing columnist with a broadaxe to grind. Let me just cite the incident of a Denver Post columnist who wrote that "O'Reilly spewed racist bile" in a column. When confronted, she admitted that all O'Reilly did was use the term "illegal alien", which, to her, was racist. That's all he said.
The easiest way to get O'Reilly to yell at you on the show is to ignore the point of his question and go off into your own little soliloquy instead. If you debate him, he'll debate you. And he generally gives good debaters the last word.
I find much of liberalism rooted in exactly the kind of intellectual "honesty" illustrated by the Denver Post columnist. But I am not here to argue against liberalism, but rather FOR atheism. I apologize for providing the bait, and I won't repeat the error.
OK, I can't resist one dig, Martin: I don't think it is a coincidence that two of the people you cite are comedians and Robert Scheer is almost laughably illogical, which arguably amounts to the same thing.
That's it; no more politics from me here, ever.Erg. If only such discussions could end so easily. Most of us have watched O'Reilly (I quit because I got sick of him blaming "the secularists" for everything he didn't like), and I think your generous characterization of him doesn't really pass "No Spin Zone" muster. He does in fact go off on guests he doesn't agree with, with little provocation, the perfect example being his infamous post-9/11 "interview" with Jeremy Glick. Glick, who lost his father in the attacks, was invited on to explain his opposition to war, and while doing so, O'Reilly went apeshit, screaming his usual "SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" while Glick entirely maintained his composure ("Please don't tell me to shut up."). I watched this unravel live, so you can't say I'm providing second-hand reporting from a lefty blog on this. After seeing a consistent pattern like this from BO'R, I pretty much lost whatever respect or interest I had in him as a journalist.
I should also mention that one of the liberal comedians I named is also now a U.S. Senator, who recently drafted legislation prohibiting the government from giving defense contracts to companies that prevent their employees "from taking workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court," a bill that was opposed by 30 conservative senators. One is prompted to ask what could possibly possess right-wing lawmakers to protect a company's right to protect rapists.
Franken has shown a great deal more trustworthiness and integrity as as senator than Obama has as president."I expected this. You have to actually watch the show, rather than read a synopsis of it from some left-wing columnist with a broadaxe to grind."
"If you debate him, he'll debate you. And he generally gives good debaters the last word."
I agree with Martin on this. Your analysis of O'Reilly is contrary to many of the interview/debate clips I have ever seen of him. And I have seen alot.
Of the clips I have seen I admit that his points are rarely ones I can agree with or find even remotely logical, but he often dominates the conversation and doesn't give his guest the opportunity to finish his/her points. He seems to only want to preach at times. The Richard Dawkins interview springs most firmly in my mind as a good example of this, but there are plenty of others.
To be fair though, I have seen him give more disciplined interviews. I've just watched an interview with Marilyn Manson, where his Authoritarian biases were coming through clearly, but at least he gave Manson the chance to make his points.
But as I am someone who would lean more to the right than most people here on economic policy, I find it very telling that even I rarely find him logical or reasonable. On the other hand I am very libertarian/anarchist when it comes to personal freedoms.
However while I may be biased, I think that O'Reilly's lack of reasoning powers transcends wherever your position might be politically
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Mother's Day gifts to dazzle mom
So here we are, coming up on Mother's Day and you're faced with the traditional dilemma: flowers, candy ... or both? So here we are, coming up on Mother's Day and you're faced with the traditional dilemma: flowers, candy ... or both? So here we are, coming up on Mother's Day and you're faced with the traditional dilemma: flowers, candy ... or both?
How about something else? I've been putting aside some choice items for you to pick from, and I'm sure if your mom is any sort of foodie at all she'll be delighted.
So without further ado, let's get looking!
Pepper Up!
I've told you about Pepper Passion before, but one of these beauties makes an even better gift for the elegant mom.
Calling these works of art salt and pepper mills is like calling the Empire State Building a barn. Yes, they're technically in the same category, but the difference is huge. These are absolutely beautiful pieces, each unique and handmade from exotic woods. You'll find species here of which you've likely never heard, from African Blackwood to Ziricote.
The designs are artistic, with a grace that would make them the centerpiece of any table. The inner workings are top-notch, as well, grinding pepper into a fine dust or the big cracked chunks that make gravies and sauces pop at the table.
And speaking of pepper, there is a variety of exotic peppercorns available on the site to pair with your shiny new mill. I've sampled the Talamanca peppercorns, and there is no more fragrant black pepper around, to my nose. It's just great stuff, and invites you to use it on a variety of foods.
These are not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but this is one of those rare occurrences where the asking price is completely justified. You won't find these anywhere else, and they easily qualify as "instant heirlooms" by anyone's measure.
Custom Kitchen Duds
The idea of a custom apron may seem outdated, but to me it's just retro enough to be extremely cool. But unless you're a whiz with a Singer, how are you going to pull it off?
That's where All Occasion Aprons comes in. The expert seamstress there can take whatever Mom's favorite fabric is and whip it into an apron that will match whatever color scheme she wishes. Does she have a favorite dress? You can get an apron to match. Is the kitchen blue and white? Avocado? Get her an apron that will harmonize with the decor.
Just drop an e-mail via the link on the front page of the site and talk to the pros. They will help you make Mom an apron that will be the hit of the foodie circuit.
Personally, I have one in green camouflage, cut extra long to fit my overly tall frame.
Sweet Stuff
Of course, gourmet sweets are always a good Mother's Day choice. Consider going to her favorite chocolate shop to get her some quality chocolates. Chocolate-dipped fruit is also a tasty treat. If she doesn't like chocolate, consider getting her a cake or pie in her favorite flavor.
Toy Store
If you can't decide what to get for mom, head on over to the good folks at Williams-Sonoma. There are plenty of sites around that sell kitchen gadgets, but the great grandpappy of all of them is W-S. There's not much that can't be found there, and it's all top-rate.
You can buy mom a gift certificate, or get gift ideas from the experts on the site. Rush delivery is available, so even you "Oh, jeez, Mother's Day is THIS weekend?" goobers can pick up something nice.
You might want to bookmark this one for Father's Day, too.
MOST importantly: Don't just toss mom a gift on Mother's Day. Spend some time with her. See if there's anything around the house that needs doing. Take her out to her favorite place for lunch or dinner. Play Scrabble. Just talk all afternoon.
She's your mom, and you only get one of those.

subset: commoncrawl


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Maternity Skirts
Our Maternity Skirts are designed with the ample stretch to accommodate your growing belly while slimming your overall silhouette. They make the perfect complement to a pretty maternity top or blouse. Choose from TummyStyle's variety of maternity skirt lengths, patterns and styles to find the look you love!


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Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:
• Understand how companies make financing, payout and risk management decisions that create value
• Measure the effects of leverage on profitability, risk, and valuation
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• Understand the links between payout policies and company performance
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• Pick an appropriate financing package for an M&A or leveraged buyout deal
This course is part of the iMBA offered by the University of Illinois, a flexible, fully-accredited online MBA at an incredibly competitive price. For more information, please see the Resource page in this course and onlinemba.illinois.edu.


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Facebook murder suspect details gambling debts, girlfriend trouble in videos
CLEVELAND (AP) - The suspect in the random killing of a retiree posted on Facebook made his living mentoring teens in Cleveland, but his life appeared to be unraveling under the weight of gambling debts and trouble with his girlfriend.
Rambling videos he shared showed his despair, saying he was out of options and wanted to kill as many innocent people as he could.
While authorities have not found any evidence that he killed anyone else, the manhunt for Steve Stephens stretched into a third day on Tuesday and far beyond the neighborhood where police said he shot a 74-year-old man who was picking up aluminum cans on Sunday after spending Easter with some of his children.
Stephens, 37, could be anywhere, authorities said, calling it a nationwide search. A $50,000 reward is being offered for information leading to his capture and prosecution.
Ohio police announce $50K reward for arrest of Facebook murder suspect
Stephens posted a video of himself killing Robert Godwin Sr., a former foundry worker who had 10 children, police said. In it, he said, "I snapped, I just snapped." But police would not speculate on what was behind it.
"Only Steve knows that," Williams said.
In the video, Stephens told Godwin a woman's name and said, "She's the reason that this is about to happen to you." Godwin did not seem to recognize the name.
The woman Stephens spoke of, Joy Lane, said in a text message to CBS that "we had been in a relationship for several years. I am sorry that all of this has happened."
She also said Stephens was "a nice guy" who was good to her and her children.
Police say Stephens had a permit to carry a concealed weapon.
WEWS-TV reports that a video Stephens posted to Facebook last year showed him firing rapidly at targets at the Sherwin Shooting Sports range, in violation of its safety rules, and being warned to stop by an employee.
The owner of the Willoughby gun range, Blake Frederick, told Cleveland.com that he recalls Stephens as nice and jovial and doesn't remember anything negative about him.
Stephens filed for bankruptcy two years ago despite holding down a job as a counselor helping young people develop job skills and find employment. The behavioral health agency where he worked said an extensive background check before he was hired turned up nothing worrisome.
In one video posted on Facebook, Stephens said that he gambled away everything and that he and his girlfriend had planned to marry but did not, without saying why. He blamed her for what was about to happen.
Some friends said they knew about his gambling. But the videos showed a man they did not recognize.
Alexis Lee, who saw Stephens last week, said his childhood friend always seemed respectful and got along with everybody.
"He never ever told me he had problems or issues. It was always good things," Lee said. "He was always just so happy and cool, calm, collected, like, that's why it's so shocking."
Other neighbors said he was quiet as a kid and intelligent, recalling how he went to college and got a master's degree.
"He was just a no problem person at all, compared to a lot of people," said Cynthia Coley, a former neighbor.
Search for Ohio Facebook murder suspect widened to Michigan
In one video in which he blamed his girlfriend, Stephens said he woke up last week and "couldn't take it anymore."
Investigators said that Godwin was the only victim so far linked to Stephens, despite his claim on Facebook that he killed over a dozen people.
On Monday evening, Facebook announced that it was launching a review for reporting harmful content following the killing. The company said that Stephens posted a video of himself announcing his intent to commit murder, then two minutes later posted another video of himself shooting and killing Godwin. A few minutes after that, he went live and confessed.
The company said it disabled Stephen's account within 23 minutes of receiving the first report about the video of the fatal shooting and two hours after receiving any report.
"In this case we did not receive a report about the first video, and we only received a report about the second video -- containing the shooting -- more than an hour and 45 minutes after it was posted," said Justin Osofsky, Facebook's vice president of global operations. "We received reports about the third video, containing the man's live confession, only after it had ended."
Officers searched dozens of places around Cleveland without finding Stephens or any other victims before expanding the manhunt. Detectives spoke with the suspect on Sunday by cellphone and tried to persuade him to surrender, police said.
Law enforcement officials said his cellphone was last tracked Sunday afternoon in Erie, Pennsylvania, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of Cleveland. Police in Philadelphia said eight elementary schools and a high school were locked down Monday while they investigated reported sightings but found nothing.


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There are a number of possible causes for such a behavior. This FAQ will help you to find out what is causing the problem in your specific situation. In this FAQ we will be using destination device as a generic term for the device you are trying to connect to. The destination device can be anything from a normal computer, to a server, to a network printer.
1. Are you trying to connect to the destination device using a host name?
If you are using a host name, please try once using its IP address instead. If that works, the problem has to do with DNS resolution. Please make sure DNS is enabled for the VPN connection and correctly configured. Note that using Bonjour or NETBIOS hostnames is generally not possible over VPN.
2. Is the IP address you are connecting to really part of the remote network?
For example, if your remote network is 192.168.13.0/24, you should be able to connect to IPs starting with 192.168.13.x, but connections to IPs starting with 192.168.14.x will not work as they are outside the address range of traffic tunneled through the VPN.
3. Is the local address in VPN Tracker part of the remote network?
Using a local address in VPN Tracker (Basic > Local Address) that is part of the remote network is not possible with most VPN gateways. Please use a local address that is outside all remote networks. For example, if your remote network is 192.168.13.0/24, do not use an address starting with 192.168.13. If you are using an automatic configuration method (e.g. Mode Config, EasyVPN, DHCP over VPN) you may be able to assign a local address to VPN Tracker that is part of the remote network. Refer to the configuration guide for your VPN gateway for more information.
4. Could multiple VPN users use the same local address?
If multiple VPN users exist, pleas make sure no two users are using the same local address (Basic > Local Address), otherwise one of them will not be able to use the tunnel anymore whenever both of them are connected. If that field is empty in your configuration, VPN Tracker will just use the IP address of your primary network interface as local address, and of course, this can also cause an address conflict with another user, that's why we do not recommend to leave that field empty if there are multiple VPN users.
5. Can you ping the LAN address of the VPN gateway?
You can find a ping tool directly in VPN Tracker under Tools > Ping Host. The LAN address of the VPN gateway is special in the regard that this address doesn't need to be routed at all. So if you can ping that address but no other remote address, it is most likely a routing issue at the remote end.
6. If you can't ping anything, try re-running the VPN Availability Test
The VPN Availability Test can be found in the menu: Tools > VPN Availability Test. Then try connecting the VPN again. The results of this test depend on the capabilities of your local Internet router/modem or the Internet connection itself and they influence how the VPN tunnel is established. VPN Tracker automatically runs the test for every new Internet connection it is able to detect but even if a connection has been tested before, there are various reasons why the behavior of that connection may have changed in the meantime.
7. Is your VPN gateway the default gateway (router) of its network?
If the VPN gateway is not the default gateway, you will in many cases need a suitable routing setup in order for responses to reach you. Whenever a device doesn't know how to reach an IP address directly, it forwards its reply to its default gateway and if that isn't the VPN gateway, it won't know what to do with that reply data. In that case its important to configure the default gateway to forward replies to VPN users to the VPN gateway.
8. Is your VPN gateway the default gateway (router) of its network?
For more details, we would like to direct you to the following FAQ entry.
Some kinds of software may cause issues with VPN Tracker:
Personal Firewalls usually ask the user, if an app should be allowed to send network traffic. It's important to grant VPN Tracker full network access. If you have already added rules for VPN Tracker, please whitelist VPN Tracker.
Protection Software often sees VPN traffic as a potential source of threat, as it isn't able to analyze that traffic because of its very strong encryption. Please ensure VPN Tracker is ignored by any protection software running on your Mac and allow VPN traffic to pass through.
Other VPN clients should not be a problem, if they are designed to co-exist with othe VPN apps. Unfortunately, not all other clients are and some capture all VPN traffic as soon as they are installed, even if the app is not running. In these situations, you may need to uninstall the VPN client - we also suggest asking the vendor to improve its "cooperation" with other VPN apps.
Here are some common examples of the types of apps mentioned above. If you are uncertain whether any of these applications may be installed on your system, try the following:
kextstat | grep -v com.apple
You'll get a list of all kernel extensions that are not from Apple. Just compare that list with the identifiers in parenthesis below:
Such a setup is called "Host to Everywhere" in VPN Tracker. All non-local traffic will be sent through the VPN. For this setup to work, it must be properly configured in VPN Tracker and on the VPN gateway:
Once these are configured, it should already be possible to establish the VPN connection. However, it is very likely that Internet access will not yet work. For Internet access to work, several more things need to be configured on the VPN gateway:
Note that not alll VPN gateways can be configured for Host to Everywhere connections. Most devices designed for small office or home networks (e.g. devices by NETGEAR or Linksys) are not capable of dealing with Host to Everywhere connections.
Download VPN Tracker free
You will need to download VPN tracker World Connect. You can do so using this link. VPN Tracker World Connect must be installed using the App Store. Once you've installed the app on your device, sign in with your equinux ID and password.
Testing VPN throughput using a remote file share is usually not a good idea for two reasons:
The first reason is the file sharing protocol itself. File sharing protocols like SMB, AFP, or NFS have been designed for local networks that are fast, reliable, and have a very low latency. The Internet on the other hand is slow (at least the connection to it), unreliable and has a very high latency. For realistic results, you need to use a protocol that was optimized for such a situation, like HTTP or FTP.
The second reason is the implementation of the file sharing protocol. Today most file shares use SMB, the Windows file sharing protocol. Apple has its own implementation of that protocol but this implementation is anything but good. While the SMB 3.x implementation is already poor, the SMB 1.x/2.x implementation (compatibility mode) is horrible, and for several reasons macOS will often fall back into that compatibility mode. When testing with a local NAS file share, we got 28 MBps using SMB 3 and only 18 MBps using SMB 1, compared to 50 MBps using AFP.
If you have a Mac at the remote side, it's pretty easy to setup a benchmark HTTP server. All you need is to open the standard application "Terminal" (use spotlight to find it) and then run the following set of commands (every command is confirmed by Return/Enter):
mkdir /tmp/www-bench cd /tmp/www-bench dd count=1048576 bs=1024 if=/dev/random of=1GiB.dat php -S 0.0.0.0:8080
The First command creates a new directory, the second one enters that directory, the third one creates a 1 GiB data file filled with random data, the last one starts a primitive HTTP server that serves the content of the current directory at port 8080. Now your VPN users can just open this address in Safari (or any other browser):
Where "a.b.c.d" is the IP address of the Mac where you just typed the commands above. By watching the transfer speed in browser, you get a good idea of how capable your VPN is. Of course, this is limited by many factors, like the speed of your local Internet connection, the speed of the remote Internet connection, and the CPU power of the VPN gateway (which is usually far less than the CPU power of a Mac).
To clean up after the test, activate the terminal window again and hit CTRL+C to stop the HTTP server, and finally run the following two commands:
cd rm -r /tmp/www-bench
WatchGuard Firebox X Edge e-Series devices with Fireware XTM (Fireware 11) are fully supported in current versions of VPN Tracker. For details please see our configuration guide.
Devices running an older firmware may often work using the following setup. Please note however that we can't guarantee that this setup will work in all cases.
Start by creating a new user on the Firebox Edge and then configure MUVPN support for this user.
In VPN Tracker, use a "Custom Connection" device profile as the basis for your new connection.
Map the WatchGuard settings to your VPN Tracker configuration as shown in the table below:
The following settings are independent of your specific MUVPN configuration:
Finally make sure the that VPN Tracker's "Network" setting is set to "Host to Network", and the correct Remote Network (i.e. the network that you want connect to through the VPN) is used (e.g. 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0).
Open the VPN Tracker 365 app and go to "VPN Tracker 365" > "Preferences"Next to "Update", check the box "Get early access to Pre-Release versions"From the drop down menu, select "Beta versions"
Go to "Preferences" > "Network" in Parallels and change the DHCP ranges for Shared and/or Host-Only Networking so they no longer conflict with your VPN's remote network.
VMware Fusion
A PDF with instructions can be downloaded from the VMware community forums:
By default, traffic to the remote network cannot be sent through the VPN tunnel if it is using the same network as the local network.
Resolving a Network Conflict using Traffic Control
You can use Traffic Control and VPN Tracker will send non-essential local network traffic over the VPN.
Activate Traffic Control: > Go to Advanced > Traffic Control > Check "Force traffic over the VPN if remote networks conflict with local networks"
Note that you will never be able to reach the following addresses over VPN: The IP address of your local router, your DHCP server, and your DNS server(s). If you need to reach those IPs over VPN, you will have to resolve the network conflict instead of using Traffic Control. The same applies for any IPs that you need to reach locally and over VPN.
Resolving a Network Conflict Manually
You have two basic options for resolving a conflict:
If you decide to change the remote network, it makes sense to choose a private network that less commonly used. According to our informal statistics, conflicts are least likely using these networks:
If these are not an option, use a subnet of 10.0.0.0/8, excluding 10.0.0.0/24, 10.0.1.0/24, 10.1.0.0/24, 10.1.1.0/24. However, since wireless network operators sometimes choose to use the entire 10.0.0.0/8 network, the first two options are preferred.
If you have a more sophisticated VPN gateway, in particular a SonicWALL, you may be able to set up an alternative remote network on the VPN gateway that is mapped 1:1 through Network Address Translation (NAT) onto the actual network. Users can then connect to this network instead if they have a conflict of networks. We have a guide available that describes this approach for SonicWALL devices.
If the conflict is caused by virtual network interfaces (e.g. Parallels, VMware), see here for more information.
VPN Tracker supports industry standard OpenVPN, IPsec (IKEv1 + IKEv2), L2TP, PPTP, SSL, SSTP, and WireGuard® protocols. This means that it will work with almost all devices supporting these types of VPN connections.
A list of tested devices is available on our website
There are hundreds of VPN devices available on the market, and we'd love to offer device profiles for all of them. Unfortunately, it is impossible to test all devices. If your gateway is not in the list, it will probably still work with VPN Tracker.
Tip: Try out one of our custom protocol profiles to test your VPN connection free in VPN Tracker on Mac, iPhone or iPad.
Open the VPN Tracker 365 app and go to "VPN Tracker 365" > "Preferences"Next to "Update", check the box "Get early access to Pre-Release versions"From the drop down menu, select "Nightly Builds"
There is a known bug in the Watchguard firmware that is causing a lot of trouble. Currently, we still do not know why VPN Tracker is triggering this bug, as the Windows client seems to not trigger it. We talked with Watchguard, but even they could not tell us what we are doing wrong. Basically the tunnel dies internally in the Watchguard (it's still shown as open and established, but traffic arriving over this tunnel is rejected as if the tunnel was closed).
If you are using a Branch Office VPN at the moment, try switching to a MUVPN if possible. MUVPN works with VPN Tracker as well and usually yields for better results.
Please refer to the following description.
Yes, VPN Tracker supports IPsec (IKEv1 + IKEv2), L2TP (Mac only), PPTP (Mac only), OpenVPN, SonicWALL SSL VPN, Cisco AnyConnect SSL VPN, Fortinet SSL VPN, SSTP VPN, and WireGuard® VPN (Beta - learn more). Additional protocols are on our roadmap.
WireGuard is a registered trademark of Jason A. Donenfeld.
VPN Tracker automatically stores a backup of all your VPN connections on your Mac. If you have inadvertently deleted a connection, or wish to revert to an earlier copy of a connection, you can manually restore the backup copy.
1. Turn off Personal Safe syncing
You need to deactivate Personal Safe for the connections you're trying to restore from your backup, to prevent unwanted changes being synced:
2. Restore from your Backup
/Library/Application Support/VPN Tracker 365
Here you'll see a number of backup folders, all organized and named by date.
All of your connections will now be restored to their backed-up state.
3. Re-activate Personal Safe
This depends on your settings. The most common setup is "Host to Network", in which case only traffic to the specified remote network(s) will go through the VPN tunnel.
With a "Host to Everywhere" setup, all traffic – except traffic to the local network(s) – goes through the VPN. A Host to Everywhere connection requires a suitable setup on the VPN gateway.
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Dr. Grumpy's Guide to Life, Chapter 1
(As a public service I have written the following, for you to print off and use before your next Pump-It-Up party. For those of you who don't have small children, or simply live in a box, Pump-It-Up is a national chain with indoor giant inflatable bouncers to hold kid's birthday parties at).
Congratulations! You've decided to host your child's party at Pump-It-Up.
They and their friends will enjoy it a great deal.
Key things to remember:
1. Going into the giant inflatable bouncing arena to fight your kids with oversized boxing gloves and paddles looks easy. Because of your higher center of gravity, however, you'll quickly find out that you're at a distinct disadvantage. In fact, you will likely get your ass kicked fairly easily by the swarm of 1st graders who will line up for a chance to beat you. Fighting on your knees does not improve the situation, and makes it easier for one of their partners to sneak up and jump on your back.
2. Although adults are welcome to go on all the giant bouncers, they are not adult friendly. In particular, the inflatable obstacle course is a good way to get yourself killed. When a kid claws up the inflatable steps and ladder to both of the slides involved, they have plenty of space to reposition themselves at the top to go down the slide feet first. YOU WON'T, and may find yourself pulling yourself to the top of the ladder, then as you are amazed you made it that far, you'll suddenly pitch forward uncontrollably, going down the slide head first and wrenching your neck at the bottom (which I did). While you're lying there, trying to figure out if you can still move your legs, a friendly teenage attendant will come over to remind you that head-first isn't allowed, and to please not do it again.
The steps in the obstacle course ladders are designed for kids and adult pygmies. You will be lucky to be able to use them as toeholds. Trying to climb them with your feet sideways only helps somewhat.
As you struggle through the obstacle course, you can expect to be passed by several kindergartners, who will wonder why their friend's Dad is so slow.
3. You WILL be injured. At present my neck is still stiff and my left ankle is killing me. I also have multiple bruises from falls and being stepped on, and several knee and elbow scrapes. When you first enter the facility and fill out the forms about how many kids you have with you and how many pizzas and bottles of pop you want, I recommend you give them a card listing your insurance coverage, hospital preference, and blood type.
4. Do not feed yourself or your kids a large meal before going unless you wish to spend some of the bouncer time you paid for watching a friendly teenage attendant clean Taco Bell out of a bouncer.
5. If one of the fun-loving kids traps you inside something by turning off the air compressor, don't panic. Before you asphyxiate from vinyl a friendly teenage attendant will turn it back on again, then lecture you not to do it again.
Enjoy! You just paid a fortune for your injuries!
If you follow these simple precautions, you will likely live to see your child's next birthday party - which will also be held at Pump-it-Up.


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Monday, May 10, 2010
Fusilli with Walnuts and Garlic Sauce - Blue Monday
Oregon Coast
From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...When a chef with the stature of Mario Batali embraces a trend you know it has become mainstream. Last week he announced his decision to observe Meatless Monday in all of his 14 restaurants. He plans to have at least two meatless entrees on his menus every Monday. You can read more about his decision here. I am also embracing the trend and will try to prepare a meatless meal each week. That may be easier said than done. Like many of you, I am married to a committed carnivore who will not easily adapt to the notion. We are going to try anyway. I've started to round up recipes that are new and interesting, but meatless. Good recipes will go a long way to make the transition painless. So will ear plugs. The first of the recipes is an old one I've resurrected from Patricia Wells' book, Trattoria. It's easy to make, uses a handful of readily available ingredients and is absolutely delicious if it is served hot. Garlic lovers should be cautious and use no more than is called for in the recipe. Excess garlic will overpower the subtle flavor of the walnuts and the dish will lose it clean flavor. Experience is a great teacher. The recipe also calls for heavy cream. You can substitute a lower fat alternative, but go no further back than whole milk. If you serve this as an entree, you'll also want to serve a large salad and a crusty peasant bread. I went with an arugula and orange salad that nicely balanced the creamy walnut sauce that dressed the pasta. Here's the recipe for a simple but tasty meatless pasta.
Fusilli with Walnut and Garlic Sauce...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite, courtesy of Patrica Well Wells
2 large cloves garlic, minced
Kosher salt
1 cup toasted walnut halves
1 cup heavy cream
12-ounces dried fusilli
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Coarsely cracked black pepper to taste
1) Place garlic, a pinch of salt and walnuts in bowl of a food processor. Process until nuts are coarsely ground. Add cream and process to form a fairly smooth sauce with flecks of walnuts in it. Add salt and pepper to taste.
2) Bring 6 quarts of water to a rolling boil. Add 3 tablespoons of salt and fusilli. Cook until pasta is tender but firm to the bite.
3) While pasta cooks, heat sauce in a microwave or stovetop until warm.
4) Drain pasta. Transfer to a serving bowl and toss to combine. Add cheese and again toss to combine. Add salt ans pepper to taste. Serve Immediately. Yield: 4 -5 servings.
You might also enjoy these recipes:
Pasta Puttanesca - One Perfect Bite
Straw and Hay - One Perfect Bite
Capellini Capricciosi - One Perfect Bite
This post is being linked to:
Smiling Sally - Blue Monday
Meatless Monday at My Sweet and Savory
65 comments :
- Susi's Kochen und Backen said...
This sounds delicious! If all of your meatless Monday recipes are like that I will jump on the band wagon as well. Can't wait to try this one :o)
- May 10, 2010 at 12:43 AM
- Rue said...
Love this "Meatless Monday" idea. And I'm always up for garlic sauce!
- May 10, 2010 at 12:56 AM
- LV said...
A perfect blue Monday with a perfectly delicious meal. Really sounds great.
- May 10, 2010 at 1:07 AM
- Lady Patchy said...
food looks delicious and the coast is so lovely.
- May 10, 2010 at 1:15 AM
- Unknown said...
O lovely! That sauce looks so easy and delicious!
- May 10, 2010 at 1:36 AM
- Deb in Hawaii said...
This looks delicious! I have really been enjoying walnuts more and more lately and I love to do veggie days or veggie meals each week--good for people and the planet. ;-)
- May 10, 2010 at 2:08 AM
- Ciao Chow Linda said...
I can just imagine the yummy taste of this dish. Wish my fork could go through the screen.
- May 10, 2010 at 2:36 AM
- Diane said...
So simple and yummy, we eat a lot of pasta so this one is a must. Diane
- May 10, 2010 at 3:27 AM
- Ana Powell said...
Delicious "Blue Monday" dish.
Awesome sauce x - May 10, 2010 at 4:05 AM
- Alessandra said...
I love walnut sauce for pasta. And I am meatless every Monday (and every other day, as a matter of fact, hehehe). I heard that many US restaurants are proposing a meatless Monday, to save resources. What a great idea :-)
- May 10, 2010 at 4:21 AM
- Sushma Mallya said...
Rich & creamy fusilli..nice and delicious..have a great week mary..
- May 10, 2010 at 4:52 AM
- MaryMoh said...
Oh no...I have just used up my double cream to make chocolate swiss roll :( Otherwise I can make this for lunch. The walnut sauce sounds very delicious. Thank for sharing.
- May 10, 2010 at 5:06 AM
- Carol at Serendipity said...
This sounds very good. I like the idea of meatless Monday. Now if I could just get my husband to go along with this....
Carol - May 10, 2010 at 5:29 AM
- Mary said...
..."So will ear plugs" LOL! Sounds like a wonderful meal, good luck with your carnivore :-)
- May 10, 2010 at 5:37 AM
- Daniela said...
The photo is beautiful, and that pasta looks delicious :)
- May 10, 2010 at 5:50 AM
- Inspired by eRecipeCards said...
I am with your carnivorous husband on the whole no meat thing... But a terrific side dish!
Good luck with this. Bottom line, he will eat what is cooked - May 10, 2010 at 6:29 AM
- Cherine said...
This looks so good!
- May 10, 2010 at 6:51 AM
- pam said...
I was just thinking that I was going to eat meatless once a week. And since I love a catchy phrase "Meatless Mondays" sounds good to me!
- May 10, 2010 at 6:53 AM
- Deana Sidney said...
I just found a stash of walnuts... recipe sounds great... maybe we should all blog meatless mondays... this is a delicious way to start.. how bad can walnuts and cream be for a carnivore.. you have one lucky husband!!
- May 10, 2010 at 7:05 AM
- Becky K. said...
I have two men who would not know what to do without meat. My husband and oldest son...but who knows...maybe they could learn.
Becky K. - May 10, 2010 at 7:12 AM
- tasteofbeirut said...
This pasta dish sounds lovely; walnuts and cheese make a great combo;
So Mario Batali is going vegan on Mondays? Well good for him; I don't find it at all hard to avoid meat, lebanese cuisine is replete with vegan recipes! - May 10, 2010 at 8:21 AM
- gengen said...
It is sounds yummy. Happy blue Monday.
- May 10, 2010 at 8:26 AM
- SmilingSally said...
Ah, how I'd love to visit that spot in Oregon! I love the blues. Happy Blue Monday, Mary.
- May 10, 2010 at 8:56 AM
- Italians Do Eat Better said...
Che bel piatto di fusilli! Poi con la salsa di noci e aglio è veramente originale. Bravissima! Buona giornata :-)
- May 10, 2010 at 9:02 AM
- Kristen said...
This sounds delicious, but like you, I'd need ear plugs to serve this to my meat loving husband. He'd wonder where the chicken was hiding.
- May 10, 2010 at 9:05 AM
- Joe Ambrosino said...
As a "meatless 4 nights a week" cook, I appreciate your offerings Mary. This is an interesting recipe. My roots are southern Italian, so I'm not so well versed in cream sauces. BTW, I tried your strawberry yogurt pie. It was great. Thanks for the suggestion.
- May 10, 2010 at 9:29 AM
- Rachana said...
This sounds delicious! Have a great week Mary!
- May 10, 2010 at 9:30 AM
- Jaynie said...
I never thought my husband would go for meatless meals either. But since I started meatless meals a few times a week about a month ago, he hasn't complained. This dish sounds delicious.
- May 10, 2010 at 9:37 AM
- Cathy said...
Simple and flavor packed. This looks so delicious, Mary. I'm all for a meatless day or two each week.
- May 10, 2010 at 9:48 AM
- Valérie said...
What a lovely pasta dish! And wow, Meatless Mondays is really catching on! I don't adhere to it myself, but I find that I usually have at least one or two meat-free days a week as it is. I think I actually accidentally went meatless for a whole week once: it wasn't on purpose, I just happened to choose meatless recipes. I was kind of craving steak after that, though!
- May 10, 2010 at 9:56 AM
- Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...
I usually have meatless meals at least once a week so I could make a more conscious decision and go for a Monday. Your fuscilli dish looks delicious Mary.
- May 10, 2010 at 10:04 AM
- Rachel Cotterill said...
As a vegetarian, if this means more veggie ideas on your blog, I'll be very happy ;)
- May 10, 2010 at 10:29 AM
- Jody said...
Followed you here from a message you left on my blog. I love this place! Beautiful photos and amazing recipes. I look forward to visiting often.
- May 10, 2010 at 10:37 AM
- Allie and Pattie said...
Oh Mary, this pasta is rght up my alley. Now to convince my Irish meat-and-potatoes husband!
xoxo Pattie - May 10, 2010 at 10:50 AM
- Karen said...
I could do meatless Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but the stink coming from across the table wouldn't be worth it. LOL This pasta sounds really good!
- May 10, 2010 at 11:23 AM
- From the Kitchen said...
Thanks Mary, I need more recipes like this. I, too, am trying to reduce our consumption of meat. I do have a number of meatless dishes that are quite good. One of them is a tweaked macaroni and cheese (pasta quatro fromage). Growing up in the south, macaroni and cheese was (still is in many places) considered a side dish. I'm thinking "meatless Monday" would be a good choice for us.
Bonnie - May 10, 2010 at 11:25 AM
- Kim said...
Going meatless once a week is a fabulous idea and I would love to do it. Like you, I am married to a carnivore who thinks that every meal must contain a huge portion of meat. This pasta sounds fantastic!
- May 10, 2010 at 12:03 PM
- Maria said...
Great recipe for Meatless Monday!
- May 10, 2010 at 1:12 PM
- natalia said...
Ciao Mary ! Thank you so much for your nice comment !! Your site is great as your view !! Great pasta too !!
- May 10, 2010 at 1:28 PM
- Joanna said...
This looks fabulous! I do a meatless meal at least twice a week, and have found that a few great vegetarian cookbooks help keep me motivated. Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything: Vegetarian is my current favorite. Thanks, also, for visiting my blog!
- May 10, 2010 at 1:32 PM
- Barbara said...
This is truly a perfect pasta recipe. I love the walnut/garlic sauce...nice and thick and it will stick in the fusilli curves too!
I do like fish and eat that 5 days a week AND then order it when I go out. Chicken or turkey is another alternate. So why not pasta on the last day? Super idea! - May 10, 2010 at 3:22 PM
- Arlette said...
Hello my friend, I hope you had a nice mother's day .
This is a wonderful sauce I always make but I serve it with linguini instead.
Eating meatless food, is healthy and tasty and I truely enjoy eating them. The Lebanese Cuisine full of wonderful meatless meals which we all love and enjoy eating.
I am married to a meat and potato guy but he is changing..
one word to remember our body needs 30 days to get rid of big meat meal, so imagine how much time we need for cleansing. - May 10, 2010 at 3:35 PM
- Juliana said...
Mary, this is something that I can try to make tonight...I have all the ingredients...sounds like a plan :-)
- May 10, 2010 at 3:45 PM
- Ren- Lady Of The Arts said...
I just bought a bag of walnuts!
I usually add them to my pesto but have never done a cream sauce.
Thanks for sharing-
LOVE the line 'so will ear plugs' made me laugh out loud! - May 10, 2010 at 4:06 PM
- Federica Simoni said...
questi fusilli sono eccezionali!!! complimenti!! buona settimana!! ciao!
- May 10, 2010 at 4:17 PM
- Jen_from_NJ said...
I try to make at least one meatless meal per week. My husband has adapted well to it. Beans or nuts are always good choices. Your pasta looks fantastic! Perfect meatless Monday dish!
- May 10, 2010 at 4:18 PM
- Jacalyn @ rmebathproducts.com said...
Great recipe and I do love the meatless! If you have a moment please stop by my blog to see my new feature, Beautiful Blogging!
Have a great week!
Jacalyn - May 10, 2010 at 4:20 PM
- Ann said...
Sounds like a great recipe. I always go meatless so this one is perfect for my collection. Walnuts are good for us all as well as garlic. Hmmm....getting hungry just thinking of it.
The Tattered Tassel - May 10, 2010 at 4:26 PM
- The Blonde Duck said...
I've been craving mac and cheese all day. This isn't helping.
- May 10, 2010 at 4:30 PM
- hobby baker Kelly said...
Oh I could definitely go for something nice, simple and rich like that right about now. :)
- May 10, 2010 at 5:28 PM
- Marice said...
yum yum yum! and i love that shot of coast! :)
u may view mine here - May 10, 2010 at 5:47 PM
- Shy said...
Hi Ms Mary,
You always have tasty and sumptious food with recipe bonus in your blog. Happy Blue Monday.
Shy - May 10, 2010 at 7:23 PM
- DailyChef said...
this looks awesome. I was hoping for a vegetarian meal tonight, and I think I just found it!
- May 10, 2010 at 8:11 PM
- Baking is my Zen...sweet nibbles for the soul said...
Simple and delish!
I can eat pasta every night!
Carmen - May 10, 2010 at 8:19 PM
- Chats the Comfy Cook said...
I want to write about Mario Batalli, next week when I post the next Meatless Mondays but since you have done such a great job, could I ask you to please post this great recipe on my blog, Meatless Mondays. Thanks for considering it.
http://sweetsav.blogspot.com/2010/05/meatless-mondays-unlimited-choices.html - May 10, 2010 at 8:38 PM
- Louis la Vache said...
WOW! This is really excellent!
- May 10, 2010 at 10:02 PM
- Krista said...
How wonderful! I can just imagine how delicious this was and I love the idea of the salad alongside.
As much meat as we eat, I try to plan for 1 meatless meal per week as well. Great idea. I look forward seeing more of your meatless recipe as inspiration for my own menus. - May 10, 2010 at 11:39 PM
- A 2 Z said...
Hi Mary,
I'm a new follower. I'm also married to a carnivore. I do cook pasta dishes but within a few hours he is back in the fridge because in his mind he did not have a complete meal because it was meatless. I will come back to check your new meatless recipes. Thanks for sharing! Happy Blue Monday! - May 10, 2010 at 11:50 PM
mmmmm, this one is a keeper, too! How do you get any cooking done with that view? Just beautiful!
...Karen - May 11, 2010 at 9:42 AM
- Lucia said...
Wow I just visited your blog and read the comment about meatless Mondays. I just wrote that in my blog entry for yesterday! Enjoyed your blog and will back to visit often, I will be following you! Thank you for your kind remarks on my blog.
I would love to do more meatless days but the spouse does need meat every now and then. - May 11, 2010 at 8:38 PM
- oneordinaryday said...
Oh, this is such a delicious meal! Thank you for sharing a wonderful recipe.
- May 12, 2010 at 11:52 AM
- Julie said...
We try and eat meatless at least one day a week. Not always Monday's :). My husband is one of those who doesn't think it's a meal unless it has meat. Often I will make something and he will say, this would be so good with some type of meat. He's slowly getting used to it.
I will have to give this one a try. Garlic sauce sounds delicious. - May 17, 2010 at 7:10 AM
- Chats the Comfy Cook said...
You really helped me by posting this info on Mario Batalli at My Meatless Mondays.
I have not gotten to this recipe yet but this is one that I know will work, in our family. I will let you know how it goes over.
We love nuts added to almost anything so this has everything going for it. - May 17, 2010 at 12:02 PM
Thank you for this great recipe! My boyfriend and I whipped this up in about 20 mins after returning from grocery shopping late tonight, and we loved it!
- August 25, 2010 at 10:50 PM
- Mary Bergfeld said...
Anon., Thank you for letting me know. I really like this recipe and am so glad you enjoyed it as well. I hope you have a wonderful evening. Blessings...Mary
- August 25, 2010 at 11:16 PM


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A VPN, or a Virtual Private Network, is a great tool to protect your privacy and security while you use the internet. Whether you're at home or using public Wi-Fi while traveling, the best combine great pricing with security features and privacy guarantees that make them worth your trust. This week, we're looking at five of the best VPN providers, based on your nominations.
Earlier in the week, we asked you which VPN service providers you thought were the best—the ones that don't keep logs, protect your anonymity, don't discriminate against traffic or protocol types, offer exit servers to help you get around location-restricted content blocks, and deliver the best bang for your buck. It takes a lot to make a VPN service worth your trust, but there are some good ones out there. Here are some of the ones you thought were the best, in no specific order:
Private Internet Access
Private Internet Access is one of our favorite VPN service providers, and based on the number of nominations they picked up, they're one of yours as well. PIA is one of those VPN service providers that both protects your privacy and security by encrypting all of the traffic between your home computer (or home network) and their service, but also anonymizes it and helps you get around regional content restrictions by giving you a choice of exit servers (close to 1000, in 10 different countries.) PIA doesn't log data about your session or connection details, they don't discriminate against protocols or IP addresses, and they don't host any data about its users activities at all. They support a number of different authentication and encryption methods, support virtually every mobile and desktop operating system, and their pricing isn't bad either ($7/mo or $40/yr for up to five devices connected simultaneously.)
PIA has made the list every time Torrentfreak looked into privacy protecting VPN providers, and picked up an Editors Choice award from PCMag. Those of you who chimed in in the nominations thread noted that they also provide connectivity options for your home router so you can stay constantly connected, connect to your home network when you're away, or customize your solution. Many of you praised their customer support and technical expertise. Read more in the nominations thread here.
TorGuard's claim to fame is that they offer specific types of servers for different activities. That gives you the ability to connect to torrent-friendly services if you need to download something, encryption and anonymity-friendly servers if you just need a little privacy and security, and so on. They're also one of the few VPN service providers to take DNS leaking seriously, and they even offer their own test to make sure that your VPN—even if you don't use them—isn't leaking DNS and thus information you thought was secure. Depending on your usage habits and patterns, TorGuard has different plans for you. For our purposes though, their full VPN service will set you back $10/mo or $60/yr, and they have less expensive plans if you just want an anonymous proxy or a torrent proxy. Their full VPN service however features over 200 exit servers in 18 countries, no logging or data retention of any kind, and their network is set up in a way that they actually have no information to collect on their user activities—they don't know what you're doing or when you're connected. They delivered a really great response to Torrentfreak's questions that's well worth a read for more info. They also support multiple connectivity protocols, support for virtually every desktop and mobile OS, and even offer their customers encrypted, offshore email service if you want to take advantage of it.
Those of you who praised TorGuard in the call for contenders thread noted that they have "Stealth" VPN servers to protect you against deep packet inspection (a technique used to capture and systematically decrypt or inspect encrypted data, usually used by corporate networks, university networks, or specific "agencies.") You also noted that they support OpenVPN, help you get connected via your home network, and have great customer service. Read more in the nominations thread here.
IPVanish VPN
IPVanish takes an interesting approach to privacy and security. They use shared IP addresses, so when they say no one has any idea what you're doing when you're connected, they mean it. That doesn't mean they're compromising security though—they have over 14,0000 IPs to share on over a hundred exit servers in 47 different countries. You can choose where you'd prefer to connect, which again is perfect for getting around location restrictions, and their encryption makes sure your traffic is safe from prying eyes. They support OS X, Windows, and Ubuntu (although it wouldn't be too hard to stretch that to other distributions), along with iOS and Android, and they offer configuration utilities so you can set you home router to connect to them as well. They feature multiple connection protocols, don't discriminate against traffic types or port usage, don't monitor your activities, and only log a few things. Torrentfreak gave them the nod as well. Accounts with IPVanish are $10/mo or $78/yr, and you can connect two devices at once (as long as they're using different protocols.)
IPVanish earned high praise in the call for contenders thread for its speed while connected. How they manage to do it is impressive, but the service manages to hold itself to a high standard of privacy and security while giving you breakneck speeds that you may not be accustomed to with a VPN. The service proudly notes that they're happy with you streaming video or music while you're connected to get around pesky content blocks, especially if you're an expat who's currently abroad but wishes they could see their favorite TV shows back home or make use of their streaming music subscription. Read more in the nomination thread here.
CyberGhost VPN
CyberGhost has been around for a long time, and while we've mentioned them before, they made a great showing in the call for contenders thread. Like any good, trustworthy VPN provider, they both encrypt all of the data that passes through your connection and anonymize your location. They offer free and paid subscription plans, so if you just need a little security on the go, you may be able to get away with a free account. The service just went through a massive overhaul about a year ago, where they removed traffic and bandwidth restrictions for free accounts, and improved security from the ground up. CyberGhost doesn't log any traffic, and they don't monitor what you're doing while you're connected. They do retain some information, but not much. They offer your choice of exit servers in 23 different countries (free users can pick from one of 14, still impressive for a free service), and you can see server status at any time. Their clients are easy to use, support virtually every mobile and desktop platforms, and they don't discriminate against traffic types, protocols, or IP addresses (in fact, they just donated 10,000 licenses to users in Turkey to get around their location-blocks.)
The only major difference between free and pro CyberGhost accounts is that free accounts disconnect after 3 hours, and are limited to the official client, while pro accounts can use other connection protoctols and have way more servers in more countries to choose from. You'll pay $7/mo or $40/yr for a premium account, but if you need more than one device connected at any given time, you'll need to step up to Premium Plus, at $11/mo and $70/yr. Those of you who praised the service noted their great connection speeds, wealth of servers to choose from (even for free users). Read more in the nomination thread here.
Of course, no list of great options would be complete with the DIY approach. If you don't need exit servers in different countries, and your primary need is to encrypt and secure your data when you're away from home, you can roll yout own VPN with OpenVPN or a number of other free, open-source tools. Many of the best routers on the market support OpenVPN out of the box, and even if they don't, the DD-WRT or Tomato firmwares do, so if you can install those on your router, you'll be all set. The beauty of a home-rolled VPN is that you get to set the level of encryption, you get complete control over who connects and who has access to what parts of your home network, and where your data goes from there.
Of course, this setup is best for people traveling who want to encrypt their data while they're on the go, but with a couple of friends, it's easy to set up a mesh network that would get you around content restrictions and port blocks. Similarly, advanced users can fire up a VPN on their preferred host or VPS provider and keep their VPN running there while they connect to it when necessary. The sky's the limit with the DIY option, it just takes the skill and knowhow to do it, and some compromise on the level of features and tools you get. You won't get quite as much as a professional VPN service provides, but you might get everything that you need. Check out the nominations thread here.
Now that you've seen the top five, it's time to put them to an all-out vote to determine the winner.
We have more than a few honorable mentions this week, including one of my personal favorites, Hideman VPN, for their cross-platform, mobile-friendly, no-logging VPN service—complete with free VPN options for people just looking for a little security on the go without shelling out for a premium service. Also noteworthy are the great people over at Tunnelbear, who are constantly working to improve and update their service to help you get around regional restrictions and blocks—-and recently unveiled a browser add-on to tunnel some services but not others, giving you even more control over your connection.
We'll also give the nod to AirVPN, a popular pick around Lifehacker HQ that packs in way more features than you might possibly need. You can forward remote ports, pick and choose exit services in multiple countries, and even generate an OpenVPN config through their wizard to connect your home network to their service all the time—oh, and they don't log, don't discriminate against protocols, and they have no idea when you're connected. If you're looking to walk the line between a truly DIY option and a VPN that you roll at home, configure, and then connect to externally, they're worth a look.
We should also highlight VyprVPN, which was a really tough call. VyprVPN is owned by the same company that owns Giganews, the Usenet service provider. You can use VyprVPN as a stand-alone VPN client, but you'll sign up for Giganews when you get it. They did very well in the call for contenders thread—although many of their votes were from first-time accounts—and they certainly talk the talk on privacy issues. They have multiple exit servers in multiple countries, strong encryption, and they're improving their service all the time. However, they have a history of logging user data, sometimes a lot of user data, and at the very least log user sessions and data for troubleshooting, acceptable use issues, and more for up to 90 days. That's not an issue if you don't care about logging, but they were cagey with Torrentfreak back in 2011 on the topic, cagey with me when I last spoke to a rep from the company, and this Reddit thread is rather illuminating as well. Still, there are signs that things may be changing with VyprVPN. The feature set and the face of the company both look good, and they combine Usenet with VPN services which is great, but we don't feel comfortable calling them one of the best if we can't verify their commitment to your privacy and anonymity as well as the security of your data.
A final note—something we mentioned when we talked about how to tell if your VPN provider is trustworthy—don't fall into the geography trap, assuming that an overseas VPN or one outside your country is somehow safer or more committed to privacy than ones based in your own or subject to your own laws. A local VPN that doesn't keep logs and has none to turn over is more trustworthy than an overseas VPN that logs everything and is happy to turn your data over to anyone who asks—and there are definitely VPN providers that fall in both categories.
Want to make the case for your personal favorite, even if it wasn't included in the list? Remember, the top five are based on your most popular nominations from the call for contenders thread from earlier in the week. Don't just complain about the top five, let us know what your preferred alternative is—and make your case for it—in the discussions below.
The Hive Five is based on reader nominations. As with most Hive Five posts, if your favorite was left out, it didn't get the nominations required in the call for contenders post to make the top five. We understand it's a bit of a popularity contest. Have a suggestion for the Hive Five? Send us an email at [email protected]!
Photo by Maksim Kabakou.


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Project Members
- Michael Cysouw
- Corinna Handschuh
- Jochen Trommer (Universität Leipzig)
- Doreen Gyorgi - doreengeorgi gmx.de (Universität Leipzig)
- Juliane Böttger
- Hanne Köhn
This project is a member of the DFG-funded Forschergruppe "Grammatik und Verarbeitung verbaler Argumente".
The internal structure of person portmanteaus
In this project we investigate the world-wide diversity and universal structure of person portmanteaus. Person portmanteaus are markers which bundle the expression of person for subject and object of a verbal predicate into a single morphological unit.
Although person portmanteaus implement a radically simple alternative to more familiar strategies of cross-referencing verbal arguments, they are cross-linguistically highly marked, and tend to be restricted to very specific combinations of subject and object. Person portmanteaus may therefore be regarded as a type of argument encoding sui generis as well as a litmus test for general properties of argument encoding in head-marking languages.
An important though somewhat paradox property of person portmanteaus is that they are not necessarily unanalyzable. Many such markers can be understood synchronically and/or diachronically as non-portmanteaus, either because they are formed by concatenation from two different person formatives, or because they are identical in form to non-portmanteau person markers.
Based on these observations, this project addresses the following closely related questions:
- Are there systematic restrictions on the location of portmanteaus in paradigms?
- To which extent are portmanteaus analyzable?
- What is the formal representation of portmanteaus?
- What is the extent and distribution of portmanteau microvariation within groups of closely related languages?
- How do portmanteaus develop historically (and how do they disappear)?
To answer these questions, we combine methods from typology, formal morphology, and historical reconstruction. Apart from constructing a cross-linguistic typological database for person portmanteaus to extract general properties, we focus on the behavior of portmanteaus in three small-scale language families (Nilotic, Iroquoian, and Uralic). For these languages we will provide in-depth formal analyses of the relevant person portmanteaus, investigate the range of microvariation in the families, and attempt to reconstruct the diachronic development of person portmanteaus on the background of the overall pronominal cross-referencing systems (based on the available descriptive literature).
Cysouw, Michael. 1998. Pronoun descriptions: Nilotic. Manuscript.
Trommer, Jochen: Ø-Agreement in Turkana. In: Scales. Mark Richards & Andrej L. Malchukov (Eds.) Linguistische Arbeitsberichte 86.


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A man can't believe a thief was caught inside his truck...and was then released without charge.Really? Sadly, I can believe it all too well…
A neighbour witnessed what happened and called police, who soon caught the man red-handed inside the vehicle.*sigh*
Yet the Crown Prosecution Service later dropped the case – through a lack of evidence.
Mr Byrd works as a scrap metal dealer and lost work while police fingerprinted his open-backed truck. Scenes of crime officers also searched his BMW car.They what?!? Why?
Mr Byrd said police had even recovered some of his property from the man, including a Nintendo DS and a satellite navigation system, which were inside the truck.And – no doubt to the officers' frustration as well – all to no avail:
The neighbour, who saw it happen in the early hours of last Wednesday, was also prepared to give a full witness statement.
A spokesperson for the CPS insisted there was "insufficient evidence" to bring about a conviction.Strange.
He said: "Having given careful consideration to all of the available evidence in this matter, a decision was made in accordance with the code for crown prosecutors, that there was insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction.
"The police have therefore been advised no further action should be taken in respect of this case."


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How to Replace the Wheel on a Cub Cadet Walk-Behind Mower
These instructions will explain how to replace a wheel on one of Cub Cadet's walk-behind lawn mowers. Over time the wheel can become damaged or worn out, reducing traction and possibly the alignment of the mower. Depending on your model, the instructions for lawn mower wheel repair listed below may vary slightly. Always be sure to check your operator's manual for detailed instructions.
Step 1 - Prepare the mower for maintenance
Make sure the engine is cool. Disconnect the spark plug ignition wire. Put the height adjuster at the highest level.
Step 2 - Remove the lawn mower wheel
Using a socket wrench, unbolt the wheel and remove it from the lawn mower.
Step 3 - Apply lubrication
Lubricate the new wheel's bushings with a dry lubricant, such as graphite.
Step 4 - Replace the lawn mower wheel
Tighten the wheel nut and adjust the height of the wheel to match the other three.
Step 5 - Ready the mower for operation
Reconnect the spark plug ignition wire. While running the mower for the first time on the new wheel, keep an eye out for vibrations or wobbling, which could indicate the lawn mower wheel assembly was not properly replaced.
You can order a proper replacement wheel for your machine through the lawn mower wheels page from Cub Cadet or enter your part number in the Parts Finder tool on the right. Use this guide to safely replace the wheel on your Cub Cadet walk-behind lawn mower. If the lawn mower wheel assembly is damaged, or you are unable to replace the wheel, contact your local service center. If necessary, they should be able to make more involved repairs to your walk-behind mower


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Logistics Waste and Product
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If your business activities involve dealing with waste products that could be classified as hazardous, we offer a range of services to ensure your waste is dealt with efficiently and with regulatory compliance. Our waste and product services include waste sampling and landfill subsidence monitoring to provide you with trusted and reliable information about your products and processes. As world leaders in laboratory analysis, we provide comprehensive waste sampling and monitoring services to protect your business and the environment.
Avoid costly penalties and reputational damage by dealing with your waste in a transparent and environmentally safe manner. Call our accredited teams to benefit from our waste and product services today.


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President Barack Obama said he'll sign a $50.5 billion emergency relief measure for Superstorm Sandy victims as soon as it lands on his desk.
Three months after Sandy ravaged coastal areas in much of the Northeast, Obama chided lawmakers for taking their time to approve the funding even as he commended them for providing the long-awaited aid.
"So while I had hoped Congress would provide this aid sooner, I applaud the lawmakers from both parties who helped shepherd this important package though," Obama said in a statement late Monday.
Despite opposition from conservatives concerned about adding billions of dollars to the nation's debt, the Senate cleared the bill, 62-36, after House Republicans had stripped it earlier this month of spending unrelated to disasters.
"This is a huge relief," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.
Northeast lawmakers said the money is urgently needed to start rebuilding homes, businesses, public transportation facilities and other infrastructure damaged by the Oct. 29 storm, one of the worst to strike the Northeast. Sandy is blamed for more than 130 deaths in the U.S. and tens of billions of dollars in property damages, particularly in New York and New Jersey.
The measure is aimed primarily at helping residents and businesses as well as state and local governments rebuild from the storm. The biggest chunk of money is $16 billion for Housing and Urban Development Department community block grants. Of that, about $12.1 billion will be shared among Sandy victims as well as those from other federally declared disasters in 2011-13. The remaining $3.9 billion is solely for Sandy-related projects.
More than $11 billion will go to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster relief aid fund for Sandy and other disasters. Another $10 billion is devoted to repairing New York and New Jersey transit systems.
Earlier in January, Congress approved and Obama signed a $9.7 billion bill to replenish the National Flood Insurance Program, which has received well over 100,000 claims related to Sandy. Added to the new, $50.5 billion package, the total is roughly in line with the $60.4 billion Obama requested in December.
The aid package was greased for passage before the last Congress adjourned and the new one came in on Jan. 3. But Speaker John Boehner refused to bring it to the floor after two-thirds of House Republicans voted against a "fiscal cliff" deficit-reduction deal raising taxes on couples making more than $450,000 a year while deferring some $24 billion in spending cuts in defense and domestic programs.
The ruckus after the Senate had passed an earlier $60.4 billion Sandy relief package by a nearly 2-to-1 margin on Dec. 28 exposed deep political divisions within Republican ranks. "There's only one group to blame for the continued suffering of these innocent victims: the House majority and their speaker, John Boehner," Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie fumed at the time.
Top House Republicans responded by bringing new Sandy aid legislation to the floor under ground rules designed to win over as many Republicans as possible while retaining support from Democrats eager to approve as much in disaster aid as possible.
GOP leaders cut spending in the Senate bill unrelated to disasters. One was to transfer $1 billion from training programs for Iraqi policemen to bolstering security at U.S. diplomatic missions. The shift in money followed a Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
Also deleted was $188 million for an Amtrak expansion project that included new, long-planned tunnels from New Jersey to Penn Station in Manhattan.
As with past natural disasters, the Sandy aid bill is not offset with spending cuts, meaning the aid adds to the deficit. The lone exception is an offset provision requiring that $3.4 billion for Army Corps of Engineers projects to protect against future storms be covered by an equal amount of unspecified spending cuts in other programs before next October.
The Senate on Monday rejected, 35-62, an attempt by conservatives to amend the final package with an offset provision to cut federal programs across the board by one-half of 1 percent through 2021.
Associated Press writer Josh Lederman contributed to this report.
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