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NFL Playoff Clarity: A Sunday that seemed to have so many awesome NFL playoff possibilities yielded to the reality that it's not nearly as wide open – but nearly as compelling.
In the AFC, the Jets – yes, the Jets! – control their own destiny after beating the Dolphins in an ugly one last night. But now only a game versus the hapless Raiders stands between them and a Wild Card slot, and if the Jets lose that one, they don't DESERVE to make the playoffs. Eric Mangini locks in for NFL Coach of the Year.
(The other Wild Card slot in the AFC looks like it will go to the Broncos, who also control their own destiny.)
In the NFC, the Eagles secured a playoff spot yesterday with that thrashing of the Cowboys. (Jeff Garcia for NFC MVP???) That leaves one spot left, and, whee, it is guaranteed that a .500 team will get it.
(Even more amazing, the team with the inside track is the Giants, who have stumbled to the finish – understatement – but hold the tiebreaker over the other WC contenders: Packers, Panthers, Rams, Falcons.)
Wade leads Heat over Kobe/Lakers in NBA Xmas tradition: Any doubts that Dwyane Wade is the best player in the NBA? Maybe you think that
MLB Hot Stove: Yankees trading Randy Johnson? Now THAT is a great development – totally unexpected, but totally viable. Will he go back to the D'backs? Or elsewhere in the NL West, like
Meanwhile, the other implication is: If the Yankees can shed Johnson's $16M salary, does that make them instant players for Barry Zito? Suddenly, the Mets have gotten a little nervous – and, for Zito agent Scott Boras, no better Christmas gift could have been given.
Gone Bowlin':
College Hoops Polls: I'm trying to figure out how pollsters can rank No. 2 UNC over No. 3 Florida when they have a common opponent both teams played at home:
The Top 8 in both polls is the same: UCLA, UNC,
Tiger is AP Athlete of the Year: I guess I don't argue, but there isn't much more boring in sports than Tiger winning anything anymore, particularly end-of-year awards.
More intriguing was the rest of the ballot: LaDainian Tomlinson in 2nd (not a bad pick); Federer in 3rd; Wade in 4th; Pujols and Howard, appropriately, tied for 5th.
I'll ask this: Where the hell was Vince Young on that list!? He only carried his team to the Win of the Year in the Game of the Year with the Single-Game Performance of the Year, then turned around and – as a rookie NFL QB, the toughest position in sports – led the Titans to the precipice of the playoffs. He's the "Dan Shanoff Male Athlete of the Year*," for whatever THAT is worth...
* - Not the same as my "Sports Person of the Year," which I didn't reveal last week but will get to this week...

subset: commoncrawl


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In elementary schools, it's time to dial back Halloween
Oct 17, 2013
Inside the First Amendment
By Charles C. Haynes
Principal Orlando Taylor believed he was doing the right thing last week when he sent a letter home announcing to parents that Halloween celebrations will be banned this year at Inglewood Elementary School.
But Taylor underestimated how many parents in Towamencin Township, Pennsylvania are emotionally attached to the annual parties and parades featuring goblins, witches and ghosts. Outraged parents denounced the ban, calling it everything from ridiculous to un-American.
After the media got wind of the story, Taylor was transformed overnight from respectable school principal into the Grinch who stole Halloween.
Higher-ups in the school district scrambled to quell the controversy, announcing that Taylor had misstated the policy. It turns out that teachers are allowed to have Halloween parties, but school-wide Halloween events such as costume parades must be held before or after school.
Although the "Halloween banned" story turned out to be a bust, the media wouldn't have to look hard to find many other districts that are moving away from Halloween-themed activities during the school day and either moving them to non-school hours or replacing them with "harvest festivals" without Halloween paraphernalia.
This trend to de-emphasize Halloween in elementary schools isn't driven by fear of First Amendment lawsuits – or, at least, it shouldn't be.
True, some images and symbols associated with "trick or treat" can be traced to ancient pagan and other religious practices. But Halloween in America has been so thoroughly secularized that no court in the land is likely to view school Halloween parties as an establishment of religion.
What's actually pushing public schools to re-think Halloween is the recognition that growing numbers of Christian, Muslim and other religious parents are opting their kids out of Halloween celebrations at school. A judge may not see Halloween as "religious," but many parents see activities involving images of witches, demons and ghosts as offensive to their faith.
Non-religious objections to Halloween are also gaining traction in some school districts. Many educators want to reclaim time lost to Halloween activities during the school day. Others worry that school parades and parties leave out poor families who can't afford the increasingly elaborate costumes.
None of these objections matter much to Halloween enthusiasts, as the brouhaha in Pennsylvania illustrates. Their basic message seems to be "don't spoil the fun for my kid."
But when Halloween-themed lessons and activities are ubiquitous in classrooms for weeks at a time – which is the case in many elementary schools – it isn't much fun for parents who are trying to avoid Halloween. Kids assigned to color the witches green, sing spooky songs and read about haunted houses can't opt out without opting out of school for much of October.
Eliminating Halloween altogether, as Principal Taylor discovered, is too unpopular, unrealistic and counter-cultural to make sense for most school districts. But toning it down – as Taylor's district is apparently trying to do – is a good idea. Pushing costume parades to after school hours, for example, makes them voluntary for families who want to participate.
If Halloween lessons and activities disappeared tomorrow from the October curriculum, little of educational value would be lost. On the contrary, less Halloween could mean more time to teach something that really matters.
Even better, dialing back Halloween during the school day would send a message of respect for the beliefs and values of many religious parents.
Yes, Halloween as currently celebrated in elementary school classrooms is constitutional. But just because it's legal doesn't make it right.
Charles C. Haynes is director of the Religious Freedom Center of the Newseum Institute, 555 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C., 20001. Web: religiousfreedomeducation.org. Email:firstname.lastname@example.com


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Monday, December 3, 2012
She did not, at least not according to property records and as far as any of Your Mama's better connected canaries deep inside the Platinum Triangle real estate game know.
Tamara Ecclestone is the daughter of diminutive Formula One racing bigwig and multi-billionaire Bernie Ecclestone and the dark haired older sister of brassy blond jet setter Petra Ecclestone who—and the children sure recall—(in)famously dropped a toe curling $85,000,000 on Candy Spelling's grotesquely gargantuan 50-some room mega-mansion in Holmby Hills after she made an unsuccessful eighty million dollar bid to buy Miz Saperstein's Frenchified pile of super-luxe imported limestone.*
The flood of requests for clarification re: the possible sale of Fleur de Lys to Tamara Ecclestone stem from a loquacious report late last week in the British tabloid The Daily Mail that stated the high-heeled, well-heeled, and newly single Miss Ecclestone—she recently booted her man-friend after she discovered he made sordid amateur sex video with another woman—"plans to rent the lavish property before buying it." For be if for Your Mama to slice hairs but planning to rent and/or buy is not the same thing as actually renting and/or buying. We plan to fit into our size 30 waist APC jeans one day but that does not mean we actually will. right?
While it's quite possible, of course, that Tamara may have arranged to lease the grandiose 4.25-plus acre estate, which would most certainly make a magnificent backdrop for her shockingly shallow reality program Billion $$ Girl, but Your Mama finds it almost unfathomable that she would cough up tens upon tens of millions of dollars for her sister's real estate sloppy seconds. Stranger things have happened but this snarky and cynical real estate gossip is not holding our boozy breath.
Interestingly, The Daily Mail printed and posted loads of photographs of the screamingly opulent Fleur de Lys all done up in a style Marie Antoinette might swoon over but everyone in Los Angeles who knows anything at all about the highest of the high-end properties currently on the market well knows that while the liberally gilded and heavily ornamented architecture remains intact Miz Saperstein recently had much if not all of her ludicrously expensive and finely pedigreed Frenchy frou-frou furnishings replaced with much more clean lined, comfortable and contemporary day-core.
Back in London, Tamara owns an historic 16,000 square foot mansion in the ultra-exclusive and hyper-secure Kensington Palace Gardens that she bought last year for about $70,000,000. Renovations will cost another $20-30 million add another 4,000 square feet, according to reports, and include a two level basement with indoor pool, nightclub and bowling alley. The multi-room master suite was designed, so the stories go, with separate cocktail and Champagne bars because, well, why not? Her new, across the street neighbors will be Prince William and the newly preggers Duchess Catherine but we can't imagine they'll be borrowing much sugar from each other.
*We can't confirm it, of course, but several sources have told Your Mama that Miz Saperstein turned down an $80 million offer by Petra just as several years ago—so the stories go—she also rebuffed at least one other offer of $100 million. If either of those gossip nuggets are true, she had to be kicking herself in her perfectly tailored real estate pants.
aerial photo: Pacific Coast News
59 comments:
there's a new article on DailyMail about Tamara and again they say she has bought it.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2242349/Tamara-Ecclestone-admits-shes-gained-weight-following-love-split.html?ito=feeds-newsxml - December 3, 2012 at 7:16 PM
Does anyone honestly think Tamara would settle on a house her baby sister dumped, one that is smaller? Of course not. With the Ecclestones everything has to be bigger and grander than the last.
Gurl has her heart set on Chateau des Fleurs in Bel Air and will put in a nine-figure offer when the 60000 square foot woolly mammoth is complete! Watch and weep! - December 3, 2012 at 7:27 PM
If she finally got it, it would make sense, she is the perfect buyer for it. Let's face it, this is a way better property than Candi Spelling's house. No offense Candi.
- December 3, 2012 at 8:22 PM
Bernie sold F1 years ago and got cash for it, he said he put around 3 billion pounds in their trust , can you imagine the interest that has accumulated over the years.
- December 3, 2012 at 8:26 PM
i don't see them going broke.They probably have enough money to buy 50 houses like this one.
- December 3, 2012 at 8:38 PM
"For be if"???. Perhaps Mama you were trying to say "forbear it"? Or "Forbear if"
- December 3, 2012 at 10:22 PM
Rumors are the tabloids got the wrong house. Tamara bought Muhamid Hadid's new Hillcrest mega mansion. It went in escro last month.
Which makes sense. Fluer de Lys is not up for rent. I don't think Ms S would turn down $100 million just to rent out the behemoth.
And please, lets leave Chateau Des Fleurs out of this mess. That Bel Air estate is way too respectable and epic for the Ecclestones. - December 3, 2012 at 10:23 PM
- Bed & Breakfast said...
- This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
- December 3, 2012 at 11:00 PM
Fluer de Lys better than The Manor?
Sorry dear. I will have to disagree.
The Manor is a home. Mammoth yes, but still a home. Fluer de Lys is a crass, opulant pile of a trophy property that was built for show.
Many mega mansions are being bought left right and centre, but Fluer de Lys remains the white elephant of all white elephants.
- December 3, 2012 at 11:28 PM
Hadid's new Hillcrest mansion? Do you maybe mean the one on Crescent listed at 58? Did I miss something?
I am living for the comment above about how The Manor, all 27 bathrooms and 56000 square feet of it, is a "home" but Fleur de Lys is "a crass, opulant pile of a trophy property that was built for show"
Funny, I always found both to be "a crass, opulant pile of a trophy property that was built for show"
No? Am I wrong?
P.S. Not to be a bitch or anything but it's opulent, not opulant. - December 4, 2012 at 12:23 AM
Waiting for Rabbi Hedda to give us an insight into how historically (in)correct the house is!
In any case it has a bad feng shui, because of the so-called "arrow of death".
Google it and you will find an article. - December 4, 2012 at 1:15 AM
Rumor has it that Tamara is livid about not finding a bigger house than the Manor in LA. She's planning to lay siege to Petra's palace starting Christmas Eve with a hired 500-man army comprised of gay male strippers from West Hollywood. Some of her generals include Robbie Williams, Tom Cruise, and that old lesbian Madame Elton John. There have been scattered sightings of her growing powerpuff army in every corner of Holmby Hills. 'Tis true.
- December 4, 2012 at 2:24 AM
Anonymous probably meant Hadid's North Crescent Drive estate.
I also read on Wall Street Journal that "The Crescent Palace" (as it is known) went into escro 3 weeks ago.
And i couldn't care less whether The Manor is better than Fluer de Lys or not. Both of them are guady and over the top.
- December 4, 2012 at 3:33 AM
While I have not been in the Manor I have been in Fleur de Lys numerous times as Ms. Saperstein has hosted lovely gay galas for the Trevor Project and I most recently I was there for the new Range Rover Unveiling. First the house is amazing (Yes she rents it out by the night for Parties),and beyond tasteful, an architectural delight, a nod to another era...yet modernized for today's luxury life that the madam leads. The bones are amazing and yes with Ms. S new modern furniture delights it is heaven. Fleur de Lys may be smaller but far more substantial on merit, and nod to historic greatness.
Like having hot hay sex, once you have had it you crave it.. once you enter Fleur de Lys your life is changed nothing again will measure up to this heavenly pile.
xxoo - December 4, 2012 at 7:25 AM
I could do some sick burnouts in that motor court
- December 4, 2012 at 8:05 AM
i don't see how DailyMail could have gotten that specific info unless someone from her pr gave it to them.
- December 4, 2012 at 8:18 AM
If the story is true about Sapperstein killing Petra's deal on Lys by requiring she pay for her movers, it should be a lesson to sellers everywhere not to be greedy.
- December 4, 2012 at 8:29 AM
- This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
- December 4, 2012 at 9:19 AM
no way in hell would tamara buy hadids place on sunset. I could see her buying sapersteins because it would one up her sister. its not petras sloppy seconds, petra wanted fleur de lys much more than the manor,but suzzane saperstein was the one who acted like an idiot and you dont scorn a billionairess so she walked away on principle, id do the same thing.
- December 4, 2012 at 9:23 AM
Mama, Kinderlach, and especially Anonymous 1:15 a.m.:
The facade of Fleur de Lys inspires the Rabbi to go to her happy place. It reminds her of the Clampett Beverly Hillbillies home prior to its most unfortunate remuddling, which rendered it unrecognizable.
Concerning that pesky feng shui death arrow, the Rabbi suggests installing a traffic circle halfway up the drive, similar to those in New Jersey on the way to the seashore. Center a birdbath in the circle; ornithologic aviation patterns will disseminate and neutralize the arrow energy. Surround the birdbath with roses, the flowers of love. No idolatrous nymphs need support the birdbath, thank you very much, only a classic column, please. Remove hardscaping immediately adjacent to the house and replace with landscaping, or a terrace if ambitious. (Maybe a porte cochere? Just kidding.) Place potted jade plants on each side of the entry to enhance income and its management. Use urns similar to those of the South Parterre of Versailles; i.e., the royal estate in France and not Florida, or planter boxes similar to those of the Orangery. Hang little feng shui mirrors, concave to be nice to the neighbors, on each of the front doors, to enable guests to reapply make-up before entering.
The rear elevation of Fleur de Lys has proportions similar to the West Facade of Versailles, again the palace in France and not Florida. With a little kabbalistic hocus pocus (the Rabbi is a descendant of Rabbi Yehudah Lowe, Maharal of Prague and creator of the golem), Fleur de Lys could be declared kosher, albeit a smidge large for the Rabbi's modest requirements.
Perhaps the Kinderlach have altenative opinions. Little Gay Boy? Dr. Snowman? Candy? Candi? Atticus?
Rabbi Hedda LaCasa
Via Long-Distance Consultation - December 4, 2012 at 9:48 AM
"Bernie sold F1 years ago and got cash for it"
Rubbish! Bernie is still the head honcho, he's in charge & owns the sport.
- December 4, 2012 at 10:09 AM
- Unknown said...
- This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
- December 4, 2012 at 10:10 AM
Always a delight to read these most interesting posts by Rabbi Hedda. But I am intrigued – how would you replace the hardscaping and not endanger those five windows on the ground floor? You would plant what?
- December 4, 2012 at 10:29 AM
Always a delight to read these most interesting posts by Rabbi Hedda. But I am intrigued – how would you replace the hardscaping and not endanger those five windows on the ground floor? You would plant what?
- December 4, 2012 at 10:29 AM
It's much better than the Manor, though still wildly ostentatious. I agree with the Rabbi about the need to replace some of the hardscaping - that huge expanse of concrete makes the place look exactly like a museum or an enormous mausoleum.
- December 4, 2012 at 10:48 AM
Billionaires are just millionaires on a different scale, really...
Comparing Fleur de Lys with The Manor is truly an apples & oranges prospect; the architecture of Fleur de Lys is not historically accurate, but rather an homage to the "let them eat cake" school of French design. It almost shows restraint...almost.
On the other hand, The Manor is just a bloated mass, size for its own sake -- one could hardly use the term "architecture" in the same breath unless it was followed immediately by a snigger. And let us not forget the former Bing Crosby home was demolished for this.
Both structures are monuments to the most wretched of excesses.
LGB never really concerned himself with feng shui as a child, after all, there's barely enough room to swing a cat, let alone an arrow of death, on a 50' x 100' foot lot.
Anyway, on a scale like this, a long, curving drive is kinda beside the point; I'd reorient the gate to line up with the covered passageway to the rear parking court and have the entrance come in on the north side of the entry court, parallel to the facade. A nice, stepped fountain with staircase could be placed where the current drive enters the courtyard to complete a vista across the property, much like this:
But hey, that's me. - December 4, 2012 at 10:57 AM
There existed a French "let them eat cake" school of architecture? I got that line to mean that there existed French architects (French school of design) who built humongous, wretchedly awful ("let them eat cake", let them see what I can build and how much money I have) manors and castles? I thought the French were always associated with refinement and elegance.
Whatever happened to the architect of the Manor? Was he a futurist that had something to do with one part of the LAX? Or perhaps just they have the same name.
Did you all see the model of the house as it was supposed to be? It kind of looked Colonial in that reality show in which Candy starred about her moving out and not at all French. - December 4, 2012 at 11:22 AM
Do architects who really specialize in historical styles and do so correctly and with taste exist today? Who are they? Perhaps someone from the Notre-Dame's school of classical architecture?
- December 4, 2012 at 11:27 AM
I'd reorient the gate to line up with the covered passageway to the rear parking court and have the entrance come in on the north side of the entry court, parallel to the facade.
I'm not sure I can picture this. That is, I do not know what goes where. The house spreads in the NE - SW direction and the current gate is almost in the east of the property. I guess no facade, all four sides of it, aren't looking to the north exactly.
Oh, wait, there are two gates. One for the entry to the property and the other for the entry to the front court. So that one would have to be demolished and you would have the road go straight to that semicircular thing above the roofed passageway.
But I guess I don't know how it would be parallel to the facade and be on the N side. - December 4, 2012 at 11:58 AM
Rubbish! Bernie is still the head honcho, he's in charge & owns the sport.
he sold it years ago and his stake in f1 is now 5%. That's how sisters have a 3 billion pounds trust fund at their disposal.
He still runs the sport. - December 4, 2012 at 12:20 PM
@ 11:47 Yes, many Architects specialize in traditional styles, and are able to execute their designs with aplomb. Some that come to mind include: Virgil W. McDowell inc, Duncan McRoberts assoc., Marc Appleton and Assoc., Ferguson & Shamamian, Tichenor & Thorp, amongst others.
Mind you, this is a west coast list...there must be tons on the east coast! - December 4, 2012 at 12:42 PM
- FalseProfit said...
Des Fleurs is not for sale. It is being built for a dirtbag mobile home slumlord named Jeffrey A. Kaplan.
- December 4, 2012 at 1:08 PM
I was referring to the main gate off Angelo Drive (NNE -- the entry to the property); the long, sinuous drive seems like overkill to me. I'd rather reclaim it for the outdoor living space CA is so envied for.
As for period architects, the only one I care for on the East Coast is Oliver Cope. - December 4, 2012 at 1:45 PM
Anon. 10:29 a.m., if Fleur de Lys was an east coast home, the Rabbi would underplant a three season flowering ground cover, perhaps vinca, with a spring bulb display; tulips would be appropriately formal. The Rabbi isn't as familiar with left coast flora; however, she'd suggest a similar low-growing design to prevent competition with the windows. LGB, Hedda appreciates a gezunte portion of the Oliver Cope residences. It appears that Mama already has a new property to critique!
Rabbi Hedda - December 4, 2012 at 2:27 PM
" ... he sold it years ago and his stake in f1 is now 5%"
The Ecclestone families current share is 30%, not sure where you're getting 5%. - December 4, 2012 at 5:42 PM
The Ecclestone families current share is 30%, not sure where you're getting 5%.
its been reported in the british press many times.Bernie E. has about 5.3% and Bambino trust an additional 8.5% stake in f1. - December 4, 2012 at 6:30 PM
Fleur de Lys is a bazillion times better than that pile The Manor. Petra would have to pour about $50 million into that place to make it halfway decent.
- December 4, 2012 at 6:52 PM
Petra is preggers!!! Do you think she will have an extra wing added onto the Manor now that there are three people crowding up the place?
- December 4, 2012 at 6:59 PM
Well, we're just gonna have to agree to disagree.
The Manor is tha shizzz....it rocks. Fluer De Lys isn't. - December 4, 2012 at 9:36 PM
Howdy do, Mama!
This ain't the type a place I normally hang, but I was Googlin' "Easy Women" an that led me to this Tamara and that led me here. She ain't all that bad and her site has good pics of her in underwear and black boots.
This bein' a housin' place I felt the need talk about the place, but skip all the needless talk about day-kor, etc. The joint has the basics: kitchen, pooper and bedroom. The rest just don't matter. Like they say, "if you don't mind, it don't matter".
Now, what do matter is convenience and I done think Miss Tamara will agree. This place looks good to me. The nearest check cashin' place is only 2.9 miles, liquor store 1.7 miles, Pep Boys 2.7 miles. The Dodge dealer (like them little ads a poppin' up all over your site) is only 2.6 miles so oil changes for my diesel Ram 4X4 is a snap! Adult movies and books can be had by only goin' 1.7 miles. Further, they's a body waxin' place that's also only 1.7 miles from the house - walkin' distance! (Be great if they was in the same strip mall) This do "matter" cuz I mind: No man like a hairy woman!
- December 4, 2012 at 10:58 PM
Thank you, Rabbi!
Thank you, li'l boy! - December 5, 2012 at 7:41 AM
Weirdly, Rabbi Hedda didn't have a problem with the tetrastyle covering only the first floor and not going all the way up!
Such a weird residence. Even though it has this glow about it, perhaps because of that limestone, it still looks like a simple pavilion or a stable at a village chateau somewhere in France. The landscaping is too sterile and involves a lot of assumptions as to what something like this is supposed to look and not really a whole lot of enthusiasm and inspiration. - December 5, 2012 at 8:04 AM
Shalom Anonymous 8:04 a.m.
The Rabbi has no difficulty with the single-story portico. Versailles has several along its noble level, and many homes, European, early-American, colonial revival, and Greek revival, include single-story porticoes as well. She concurs that the landscaping and Fleur de Lys home itself share a sterile quality, and she would never, ever be able to feel comfortable in this home.
Rabbi Hedda
- December 5, 2012 at 9:31 AM
- Unknown said...
- This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
- December 5, 2012 at 12:49 PM
The previous poster is 100% correct that Fleur de Lys is a bazillion times better than that pile The Manor.
Candy's "manor" was only ever a very large house, with very large rooms that were dry-walled like any nice suburban home. (tho candy obviously liked patches of flocked wall decoration which was HIlarious
Fleur de Lys contains amazing craftsmanship and design including stonework and millwork etc. quality material.
that does not mean a person should be forced to want it more than The Manor
--but don't compare the level of workmanship or materials cuz there FDL is far and above "the Manor"
- December 5, 2012 at 1:41 PM
Consider me your most official source into the Ecclestones:
Tamara is trying to close on buying Saperstein's Fleur de Lys, but Ms. Saperstein is acting like a big diva once again. Unlike Petra, Tamara's not putting her foot down and there's a lot of back-and-forth drama going on. Ms. Saperstein previously demanded that Petra pay for the movers, even when Petra offered $100 million in cash. Ms. Saperstein decided that the $25 million short would be in exchange for her antique 18th century French furniture. Therefore, not only was Miss Diva demanding that Petra pay for the movers, but she also wanted to take the furniture along with her. Even though Petra never cared for the fluffy furniture, she planned on selling the furniture to antique dealers. Petra took the high road; and she deemed that stooping down to passive-aggressive Ms. Saperstein's requests proved troublesome. It seems like Ms. Saperstein has finally learned the lesson.
Tamara is not interested in any other property but Fleur de Flys. It's not really about sibling rivalry or one-upping her sister. In addition, whoever said that Tamara is eyeing Petra's sloppy seconds is ridiculous. Petra's #1 property choice was Fleur de Lys all along. Tamara's coming to LA today (December 5) to close on the property and meet Ms. Saperstein in the flesh. - December 5, 2012 at 3:54 PM
Who wants to bet that the "official source" is 100% incorrect about everything he posted?
- December 5, 2012 at 4:58 PM
- Your Mama said...
Hunny, if you're to be my official source for news about the young Ecclestone heiresses—and heaven knows I'd simply adore one—why don't you just email me directly at email@example.com?
Capiche? - December 5, 2012 at 5:18 PM
What's wrong with Ms. Saperstein requiring that whomever wants to buy Fleur de Lys be able to afford to pay for the movers as well as the estate? The Ecclestones need to stop bitchin' about not convincing Saperstein to lower her price and figure out how to raise the ca$h needed to pay the $125 million. Why does Saperstein have to lower her price at all? It's not Saperstein's fault she's out of Ecclestone's league. Period.
Come up with the cash or work out a deal to compensate Saperstein for her outstanding estate. - December 5, 2012 at 9:23 PM
- Guanajuato Real Estate said...
- This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
- December 5, 2012 at 11:22 PM
Oh, Marc Appleton!
I thought he only did renovations!
I wish I could find someone who knows how to design in the French tradition.
I can't even find a real French architect who does that sort of mansion. - December 5, 2012 at 11:55 PM
I'm hoping someone, anyone, will snatch up this steaming pile of s*** soon so that it can finally be bulldozed and replaced with something with taste. It's just a scar on the face of the Earth. I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.
- December 6, 2012 at 12:54 AM
Jeho, explain why you don't like it.
Which one of these two ladies is the richer one, Tamara or Petra? - December 6, 2012 at 1:52 AM
Your Mama, if this deal indeed does get through, do post another aerial photograph of the mansion if you have access to Pacific Coast News data-base!
- December 6, 2012 at 3:05 AM
The Daily Mail is reporting that Tamara landed in Los Angeles and that she was picked by a white 170,000£ Rolls-Royce. So perhaps...
- December 6, 2012 at 4:47 AM
o_O Madame Saperstein is known to drive (or be driven in) a white Rolls! Could they have gone out for lunch to discuss details?!
- December 6, 2012 at 6:54 AM
Children, settle down. It was Petra's Rolls.
- December 6, 2012 at 8:20 AM
Carla, there is nothing wrong with requiring that the seller pay for movers...except that it blew the deal and now this broad has to rent out her home to cover the costs, and pay for her botox.
- December 6, 2012 at 9:08 AM
- Unknown said...
- This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
- March 5, 2013 at 2:13 AM


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Looming Cuts Could Mean Big Changes For U.S. Military
Without a deal by March 1, across-the-board federal spending cuts will kick in — including deep cuts to the nation's defense budget. Michele Flournoy, former undersecretary of defense for policy, and NPR's Tom Bowman discuss what sequestration might mean for the U.S. military.
This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan, in Washington. If no budget deal is reached by March 1st, automatic, across-the-board spending cuts known as the sequester kick in. And that includes the defense budget, which accounts for roughly 20 percent of federal spending.
In a recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Michele Flournoy, former undersecretary of defense for policy, says deep cuts should be a last resort not the default course of action, but she also argues that there are changes that could add up to significant savings and still allow for an effective, agile military ready to respond to any contingency.
She has her cuts. If you've worked for the Defense Department, in uniform or out, what are yours? Give us a call, 800-989-8255. What's the best way to cut defense spending? Our email address is email@example.com. You can also join the conversation on our website. That's at npr.org. Click on TALK OF THE NATION.
Later in the program, China's options after North Korea's atomic weapons test today. But first the defense budget. Michele Flournoy, now a senior advisor for the Boston Consulting Group, joins us here in Studio 3A. Good to have you back on TALK OF THE NATION.
MICHELE FLOURNOY: Good afternoon.
CONAN: And we'll get to your op-ed in just a moment, but I'd like to begin with that news from North Korea. There's still a ways to go before they can marry that bomb to the ballistic missile they tested in December. But it seems just a matter of time, and they say they're targeting us.
FLOURNOY: It's a very disturbing provocation. I think the assessment is that some of these provocations are occurring because the new leader has to consolidate power within North Korea, and he's trying to sort of prove himself to his military and so forth. But nevertheless, they are marching down the nuclear road, they are developing ballistic missiles, and we have to be concerned.
So I think it's very important that the U.S. continue to try to get some concerted international action, particularly from China, to try to rein in the North.
CONAN: And how do you do that?
FLOURNOY: I think a lot of this is working through the U.N., trying to increase the sanctions but particularly helping China understand that it's really in their interest to rein in North Korea. The last thing they want is a destabilizing situation in the region.
CONAN: Well, we're going to have, as I say, more on China's options later in the program with a former CIA - the CIA's former senior China analyst. But let's go on to cutting the defense budget. And you wrote the U.S. has an abysmal record of managing post-war draw-downs of defense spending. We're expecting to hear the president say tonight another 34,000 troops coming out of Afghanistan by this time next year. You worry about a hollow force.
FLOURNOY: I do. And you look at our record after the end of World War II, the end of Vietnam, the end of the Civil War, we tended to draw down in a way that took very deep cuts in readiness and modernization. And so the force that might have looked good on paper really didn't have the capabilities we necessarily needed.
But in all of those periods, we were facing a period of greater calm and a period of greater peace. As we come out of the war in Afghanistan, the world doesn't look very calm or peaceful. We have a lot of challenges on the horizon, and we need a military that still can be very responsive to emergencies abroad.
CONAN: And so how do you do that? There's going to be cuts no matter whether there's a sequester or not, you argue. I think you're probably right.
FLOURNOY: Absolutely. I think there will be probably a 10 percent cut as part of any budget deal that gets agreed. But if you look at the broader defense enterprise, there are places we can become leaner and meaner, if you will. We have too much overhead. Over the last decade, the civilian workforce in DOD has grown by about 100,000.
The level - the number of contractors has also grown. You look at health care, and everybody wants that benefit to stay, to be sustainable for our men and women who serve and their families. But DOD health care is growing much faster than civilian health care in terms of cost. It's also growing faster than government programs like VA, Veterans Affairs, and also Medicare.
So there's something wrong there in terms of the way we're managing that. We're not doing it as effectively as we need to. Infrastructure, the department hasn't been allowed to take - to close bases, to realign its infrastructure since the 1990s. We have a lot that we don't need.
And finally acquisition reform. We're just not getting the value for taxpayer dollars that we need to as we procure systems.
CONAN: Let me talk about the other player in this game, and that's Congress. The military would like to maybe lose or contract some bases. Those are all in congressional districts, they're all in states. This is a difficult process. There's - you talk about health care. This comes up before the Congress, and Congress votes it down every single time. There is also the question of acquisitions. The Department of Defense, the secretary goes up and says we don't want this or that or that, please don't buy them for us, and the Congress votes them anyway.
FLOURNOY: Yes, Congress has to be a critical partner in this, and in a period of growing budgets, there's really no need to make hard tradeoffs, to take any pain. But we're in a different situation now. The budget is going to be coming down. The world still is a dangerous place. You know, if you don't take some of these efficiencies in the defense enterprise, you will have to take down capability, readiness in a way that could very much impact our national security.
We have to start talking about these tradeoffs in very strategic terms and have that conversation with key members of Congress.
CONAN: Let's bring another voice into the conversation, our own Pentagon correspondent, Tow Bowman. Always good to have you with us here in Studio 3A.
TOM BOWMAN, BYLINE: Hey Neal.
CONAN: First of all, I have to say the - in advance of The Sequester, again that would take effect on March 1st, the Navy has withdrawn one of its two carriers from the Persian Gulf. Is this a real savings, or is this sort of theatrics saying oh no, there's going to be terrible things happening if the sequester goes ahead?
BOWMAN: Well, I'm not sure exactly how much it would save by pulling - the Truman was supposed to deploy on Friday, last Friday, for the Persian Gulf. So it'll mean you'll have less than two there at all times. They're going to pay the sailors whether they're on shore or on the ship. I mean, I'm sure there's steaming time and oil that, you know, you would have to pay for and so forth.
CONAN: The carrier's nuclear powered, its accompanying vessels are not.
BOWMAN: Exactly right. So I'm not sure exactly how much it would save. And they also said, beyond that, that they would have, you know, the military service members, rather than getting a 1.7 pay increase for next year, they get a one percent pay increase. So you just wonder if some of this is political. Everybody's concerned about Iran at this time, by pulling that carrier out. Also everybody wants to support the soldiers. By cutting their expected pay increase, that's sending the message to the Congress and to everyone that listen, you have to deal with this situation.
So much of this now is high-stakes poker. Let's face it. You know, you're pressuring the Hill to deal with this, and the chiefs were up on the Hill today talking about the impact of sequestration if it goes into effect the first of March. This is some of the things that General Ray Odierno, Army Chief of Staff, said: We'll curtail training for 80 percent of the force. We'll terminate 3,100 temporary and term employees. We'll furlough up to a quarter of a million civilians, cancel depot maintenance, delay equipment readiness for six divisions - so six out of 10 Army divisions.
So clearly if the sequestration goes into effect and this meat-axe approach happens, there'll be a lot of problems for the military. But again, some of the things they're doing right now, I think, is tactics.
CONAN: And Michele Flournoy, maintenance is a critical item, probably the easiest thing to cut back on.
FLOURNOY: It is. The dollars are very available. You get immediate reductions if you cut them, and so forth. And yet you tend to - you know, you take additional risk in terms of your ability to respond to events abroad. You also, if you defer maintenance too much, you can find yourself paying much higher cost down the line.
So the sequester really does take across-the-board cuts. There's no flexibility. It's absolutely the wrong way to deal with the budget challenges we face. If you were to get a budget deal, at least you could have - make some choices about where to protect your priorities and where to accept and manage some risk.
CONAN: Michele Flournoy, the former undersecretary of defense for policy, has suggested some cuts. We'd like to hear yours, if you worked for the DOD in or out of uniform, 800-989-8255. Email us, firstname.lastname@example.com. Let's talk with Chris(ph), Chris joins us from Springfield, Missouri.
CHRIS: Hi, yeah, I've worked with the DOD for the last 10 years, several contract bases, trying to get our software up there. And we had a meeting two years ago up in Warrensburg sponsored by former Congressman Ike Skelton. And they were telling us that these cuts were coming, and they wanted to know what our input.
And the biggest complaint that we had for most people was the fact that these bases, Whiteman or Fort Leonard Wood, would not hire local contractors or local suppliers. One gentleman talked about he was trying to sell restaurant equipment and things like that, refrigeration and stuff, and he had to go through the naval port up in Philadelphia, which was ridiculous because you had all this cost, transportation cost and everything like this.
And there wasn't an honest bidding going on, even though they say open bidding. Most of this bidding goes to the established lobbyists or the established contractors out there. And most of us small businesses don't even have a ghost of a chance to even be considered for our products.
CONAN: Michele Flournoy, has he got a point?
FLOURNOY: He does, unfortunately. I think there are parts of the Pentagon that are starting to experiment with things like reverse auctioning for smaller buys to favor small businesses, to allow them to, you know, really put in bids, compete on a more level playing field. But it's not as - it's not being pursued to the extent it needs to be to really open up the marketplace to local bidders.
CONAN: And this is one-offs or localized contracts...
FLOURNOY: Smaller buys.
CONAN: It's not for, you know, 1,800 refrigerator units where you get economies of scale.
FLOURNOY: Exactly.
CONAN: All right. Chris, thanks very much.
CHRIS: Thank you, appreciate it.
CONAN: And Tom Bowman, as we look at these ideas, civilians work for the Defense Department, contractors in particular, well, that's always a popular cut, isn't it?
BOWMAN: You know, it is, particularly some of these temporary workers that they were talking about, as well, and contractors. But as Michele pointed out, there's been an expansion not only of civilian DOD workers but contractors, as well. And it's just hard sometimes to cut these people.
CONAN: But doesn't that work still need to get done?
FLOURNOY: You know, the work needs to get done, but, you know, when I returned to the Pentagon in my last job, the office that I oversaw had grown from 600 people in the '90s to about 1,000 people more recently. When I tried to reshape my workforce, I found I could cut the budget by 20 percent, but I didn't actually have the authorities from Congress to reshape the workforce because of certain protections and so forth.
And so I couldn't do with less, even though - I wasn't allowed to do with less. And I actually think that some of the cuts I would have pursued would have made the organization more agile and more responsive.
CONAN: We're talking about smart ways to cut the defense budget. Pentagon officials are still drawing up contingency plans. If you've worked for the Defense Department, in uniform or out, what are you suggestions? What's the best way to cut spending? 800-989-8255. Email firstname.lastname@example.com. Stay with us. I'm Neal Conan. It's the TALK OF THE NATION, from NPR News.
CONAN: This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. Facing the possibility of automatic, across-the-board spending cuts, the Pentagon laid off tens of thousands of part-time workers. The Air Force says it will cut flying hours for pilots by a third and buy fewer of the new F-35 jets. The Navy plans to cancel some deployments. The Army will reduce training - all part of cuts that Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter described today as the collateral damage of political gridlock.
If cuts are coming, we're talking today about the best way to go about it. If you've worked for the Defense Department, in uniform or out, what's the best way to cut spending? 800-989-8255. Email us, firstname.lastname@example.com. You can also join the conversation on our website. That's at npr.org. Click on TALK OF THE NATION.
NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman is with us, also Michele Flournoy, former undersecretary of defense for policy, now a senior advisor for the Boston Consulting Group. Let's go next to Kyle(ph), and Kyle with us from Newport in Rhode Island.
KYLE: As we speak, I'm driving past the Naval War College, where I worked for many years. But I was calling to find out, from your guest particularly, during the Rumsfeld administration, or legacy, when he wanted to streamline and make the Pentagon a big more businesslike, and everything went out to contractors - maintenance, base operations, security, almost everything that was not holding a weapon, and even some of that - did we actually save money? Did the Pentagon save money in that big move, or have we spent more maintaining these contracts than they would have doing it organically within the system?
FLOURNOY: You know, I think it's hard to generalize, but, you know, most people who have looked at this closely believe that the pendulum swung too far in the privatization direction. What you need is a balanced approach where you have enough of an internal government/civilian cadre that can actually manage acquisition and those contracts smartly, effectively.
When you contract out too much, we actually got to the point of contractors overseeing contractors, and you lost the sort of focus on value for the taxpayer. And so I think we have to find the right balance.
And you know, to give the Pentagon credit, people like Ash Carter, who was mentioned earlier, the deputy secretary, he's actually been pursuing something called better buying power. It's a set of initiatives that's moving in this direction. I just think we need to use the budget pressure, the burning platform to go faster down this road.
KYLE: I see. Well, I was curious. Ash Carter wrote one of the books I read long ago, "Managing Nuclear Operations," and one of the savings suggestions I had would be to go from a strategic nuclear triad to go to a dyad of just bombers and submarine weapons. Do you think he would go for that, or is that even possible?
FLOURNOY: Well, whether we go for a triad or a dyad, I certainly think there is room to take our strategic nuclear force down to lower levels if we could get the Russians to agree. My hope is that President Obama will make that a goal as part of his second term.
CONAN: Apparently Tom Bowman, we're expecting maybe a proposal for - going from 1,700 nuclear weapons to 1,000 again in a negotiation with the Russians.
BOWMAN: Exactly. We were talking about that a little bit earlier. Part of the challenge here is getting Russia's Putin to go along with this.
CONAN: Kyle, thanks very much for the suggestion. Of course he's talking about getting rid of one of those terrible Air Force programs, not the Navy program he was working with before.
BOWMAN: And that's always a challenge.
CONAN: Here's an email from David: We have already seen enough cuts. I'm in the Utah Army National Guard. When I deployed to Iraq, I was doing the job of a non-commissioned officer but being paid as a lower enlisted. This is because they cut two sections from my battery, and there is no room to move up. I'm seeing good soldiers with years of experience leaving because there's no more opportunity for promotion. We're losing our experienced soldiers and replacing them with unqualified and inexperienced soldiers that are just stuck it out long enough to fill in the space.
And if there's a drawdown in the force structure, that means fewer soldiers, fewer Marines, inevitably things like that are going to happen.
FLOURNOY: This is a great example of the kinds of unintended consequences that occur when you try to solve the entire budget problem, or most of it, on the back of the force rather than looking for excess capacity or inefficiencies in the defense enterprise writ large.
BOWMAN: And even beyond that, there are some who are calling for further cuts in the Army and the Marine Corps, for example, if there are more Pentagon cuts coming down the road. Even if you get past sequestration and you come up with more cuts in the Pentagon, they're suggesting more cuts among the troops.
CONAN: Would you advocate that, Michele Flournoy?
FLOURNOY: You know, not at this time, based on what I understand of the threat environment and what I believe is a very strong strategy. I mean about a year ago, President Obama personally led an effort with the secretary of Defense, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, all of the chiefs, all of the combatant commanders, to develop a new strategy.
And that strategy is very sound. And to the extent we can resource that, I think we want to hold onto that if at all possible.
CONAN: Let's go next to Grant, Grant on the line with us from Anchorage.
GRANT: Yes, I'm actually currently active duty, but had spent some time overseas, in Europe and in (unintelligible) for the Navy. And I saw quite a bit of bureaucracy not only with maintaining installations we have overseas but even finding purpose for some of them to maintain I guess readiness for forces (unintelligible) as we saw in Libya, we definitely have an opportunity to use all of those bases that were over there, but now that Libya is done and even, you know, as far back as Cold War issues that we were dealing with, having bases overseas, the need is just not there as much as it was.
And I kind of have the opinion that we keep those open almost as a center of social welfare for the countries that we're in, whether it's Italy or Spain or any of those countries over there. And they're necessary, and they need to be there, but not as big as they are.
And we support NATO quite a bit, and I feel as though there's a loyalty we have to NATO, but it doesn't - it's not a loyalty to the taxpayers as far as what we spend that money on and how we spend it.
CONAN: Michele Flournoy?
FLOURNOY: It's a very - it's a very important point. I think in this budget environment, everything has to be on the table - our overseas basing structure but also our domestic basing infrastructure. The truth is, most of the reductions that have been taken have been taken overseas because we haven't been able to touch the domestic basing infrastructure since the last round of BRAC in the 1990s.
But you know, Congress needs to understand, yes, we may be affecting facilities and their constituencies, but we're freeing up money to reinvest in things like modernization, which also creates jobs for Americans.
CONAN: BRAC would be Base Reductions and Consolidations. So...
BOWMAN: And the problem is that, as Michele said, the last one was in the 1990s. It tells you everything, I think, that Congress is very reluctant to cut back on bases. They see these are public works programs for their states and districts, and it's very difficult to push those things through.
CONAN: Let's see if we can go next to - this is Mark, and Mark's on the line with us from Tucson.
MARK: Hi there.
CONAN: Go ahead.
MARK: Thanks for taking my call.
CONAN: Sure.
MARK: So related to what Grant just said, there's another type of subsidy going on, and I think there's a set of rules that the DOD has to follow for procuring things, and these could be entire weapons systems or very mundane things like office supplies.
And hidden in those procurement rules is a bunch of social engineering. So if you're on a base somewhere and you have to buy office supplies, maybe you don't just go to the open market and competitively buy them like you and I would do. Maybe you have to go Lighthouse for the Blind or some other worthy cause.
And I'm all for worthy causes, right, that's great, except that that hides in the budget not as subsidy to the blind, for instance; it hides in the budget as office supplies or weapons system or, you know, whatever procurements we give to our favorite suppliers. Everybody likes to beat up on KBR and Halliburton and Blackwater, but I mean there's a lot of directed procurement activity.
Some of it is buried in procurement rules, some of it is buried in sole-source contracts, and all of it is noncompetitive and all of it drives up price. That's my comment.
CONAN: Thank you very much.
MARK: I don't know how to turn that into a question.
CONAN: Well, let's, first of all, find out if you're right.
FLOURNOY: Well, I do think there are - there's a Byzantine morass of acquisition rules that people have to follow. And you know, I do think that a good scrub of those should be part of the acquisition reform process. But there are also things we can do, you know, stabilizing the requirements we set for weapons systems, incentivizing program managers to actually find savings rather than trying to protect the budgets for their programs and keep them as high as possible.
There are a lot of things we can do, you know, low-hanging fruit that we can pursue, short of the long-term requirement to completely scrub the legal and regulatory structure for acquisition.
CONAN: In a way it seems to be that, except that what we're hearing is about procurement of F-35s, what we're hearing is the same kind of problems you might encounter in any big organization. Granted, the Pentagon is a bigger organization than any other on the planet. But what's unique about this particular agency, this particular arm of government, as opposed to, you know, Hewlett-Packard?
FLOURNOY: Well, you know, in the private sector, companies get to these hard choices because of - for survival. That if they're going to compete and stay alive, they've got to take money out of overhead. They've got to shed excess infrastructure. They've got to get leaner in terms of how they procure things. In the Department of Defense, we're talking about the mission. Can we actually do the mission of this department which is protecting Americans at home and abroad, protecting our national security?
We are at a point where there are very real tradeoffs between our ability to do that mission. If you protect everything, you take everything off the table, well, we can't touch health care, we can't touch infrastructure, we can't touch overhead, you're going to touch the mission. You're going to touch your ability to secure our interests at home and abroad.
CONAN: Tom Bowman, we mentioned some of the political difficulties you were talking about - base reductions earlier, also Tricare, military health care extremely popular in Congress, very reluctant to change that or reduce it. The other kinds of - some of the other kinds of reductions we're talking about also have to be voted by Congress. Is this - is the atmosphere there changing?
BOWMAN: You know, I don't think so. I mean clearly people want to cut back on the budget, writ large, but a lot of Republicans want to shield the Pentagon from any cuts. But as Michele said in her article, trying to find savings in health care is key. Former Defense Secretary Bob Gates said these costs are eating us alive, and there hasn't been an increase in some of the health care plans for military retirees in - what - 15 or more years. I think the plan now is they pay about $600 per year for a family plan. Now, most families would pay seven, $8,000 a year and...
CONAN: I can still sit here and write...
BOWMAN: Right.
CONAN: ...the press release: howling in protest that those who have served our country on the frontlines are now being...
BOWMAN: Right.
CONAN: ...jacked up by (unintelligible).
BOWMAN: But some of the lobbyist groups will say, well, listen, you're taking benefits away from the fighting men and women. Well, that's true, to a certain extent, but not all of these folks have deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. Not all of them have been in the tip of the spear - the people I go with to, let's say, Afghanistan, when I'm out in field, we're talking about all sorts of people who served, let's say, 20 years at an airbase in the United States. And clearly, they served their country, but they're not under fire. So I think we have to make a distinction between some of these folks.
FLOURNOY: But there are also lots of ways you can get cost out of health care without jacking up the prices or the - what is paid by the beneficiaries, the, you know, the active-duty military, the retirees and their families. For example, when you look at military health care, service utilization is two and a half times what it is in the civilian sector. Why is that? You know, there are ways to look at that to use...
CONAN: And otherwise, they go to the doctor two and a half more times than I do.
FLOURNOY: ...and also prescription use significantly higher than civilian counterparts. So, you know, there are ways to look at what's going on and have a better management approach. Another example, use of mail order and generics. The DOD is not up to where the civilian benchmark is. Getting them to the civilian benchmark could save literally a billion or more dollars per year. Retirees that are working age, there are lots of people who've come out of the military, go into the private sector.
They turned down health care in their private sector job, and they stay on the DOD health care rolls. Is that right? If - when that money could otherwise be invested in modernization and readiness, shouldn't we have a law that says Tricare can be a second pair, but not your first pair if you're a working age retiree in the private sector?
BOWMAN: Now, we're talking about some of these people, let's say, have been in the Air Force 20 years, retired at age 42 and then go work for a defense contractor.
CONAN: We're talking with NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman and former undersecretary of defense for policy Michele Flournoy, now senior adviser for the Boston Consulting Group. You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. But, Tom Bowman, let me ask you a question. We're looking for budget cuts. Let's assume, for example, The Sequester doesn't go ahead or, well, anyway, some sort of a deal is going to be worked out eventually.
They'll pass a budget eventually. Boy, there's an optimistic statement in this town. But if you're looking for money to save, it's the paraphrase of the old Willie Sutton line: Why do you rob banks? Why do you go to the Pentagon for cuts? Because that's where the money is. If you're going to cut things, you're going to go there. Is it going to be procurements like the F-35, a very expensive weapon system? Is it going to be actually Congress approving trims in military health care?
BOWMAN: Well, the problem with military health care for budget savings is Congress has repeatedly not wanted to go down that road and find savings in military health care. So what are you left with? You're left with things, like the F-35, or people. And some defense analysts we talked with would say you could still trim the Army. You could still trim the Marine Corps, which is still after the cuts, still larger than they were prior to 9/11. But as Michele said with the, you know, defense plans they're looking at now, you would need a force that is current - the current size.
So the question is where do you come up with cuts? Others have said operations and maintenance accounts. With all the equipment coming back from Afghanistan, let's say, do you have to fix everything right away, the armored vehicles, the helicopters, the aircraft? Could you defer some of that maintenance on some of those and find some savings? So depending on who you talk with, people - everyone comes up with a different scenario.
CONAN: And, Michele Flournoy, looking at the political realities, if there was one item in your list that you could prioritize and say do this, what would it be?
FLOURNOY: Oh, I'd say it would be to de-layer and streamline headquarters. When - over the last 10 years of growth, you've had headquarters staff in the Pentagon, in the defense agencies, across the board, grow substantially. When you look at the private sector, big companies like AT&T, what - they go through a systematic de-layering process, they routinely take out 15 to 20 percent of their costs. This is sizeable cost savings, but you need the Congress to give you the authorities to actually streamline the organization, take out layers and take out unnecessary jobs.
And are those people in uniform or are those people - civilian jobs?
I think most of the headquarters is going to be civilians' jobs, perhaps, some military as well.
CONAN: And are you hopeful that these cuts will go ahead?
FLOURNOY: Well, you know, I - you have to be an optimist to stay in this town for too long. But, you know, even on the health care front - I mean, yes, if you go to Congress and you say, we're going to cut benefits for the men and women who serve, of course, they're going to oppose it. But if you go and you say, we're going to actually manage to better health outcomes. And because we're going to manage to better health outcomes, we're going to reduce the cost, because we're going to adopt best practices from the private sector. Then, they're interested. That's a different conversation. So I think we have to frame this in a way that we can actually have the conversation rather than just ruling everything out.
CONAN: Michele Flournoy, as always, thanks very much for your time today.
FLOURNOY: Thank you.
CONAN: We wish you the best. Tom Bowman, also appreciate your time.
BOWMAN: You're welcome.
CONAN: When we come back, the U.N. promises consequences after North Korea detonates its third nuclear device. But will China, with its veto power in the Security Council and its enormous influence in Pyongyang, go along? We'll talk with a former CIA senior China analyst next. Stay with us. I'm Neal Conan. It's the TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.
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Enhance your Trail-A-Bike with the Back Rest! Offers additional back support and security for your little one and peace of mind for you. Perfect for kids who like to take a break from pedaling while out on a ride.
• Breathable, ergonomic padding for added comfort and support
• Contoured safety-buckle system offers improved security
• Under-arm padding prevents pinching and discomfort, enhances support
• Fits 25.6mm and 27.2mm seatpost with included shim
• Weight: 2.6 lb (1.2 kg)
• For ages 3 and up


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(AP) A state-by-state look at the Northeast blizzard
By The Associated Press
A look at effects in states and provinces in the path of the storm sweeping across the Northeast and southern Canada:
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy imposed a travel ban Friday on the state's highways and deployed National Guard troops around the state for rescues or other emergencies.
A coastal flood warning was posted for southern Fairfield County, saying Friday evening's high tide could be 3 to 5 feet higher than normal in western Long Island Sound.
The state's two biggest utilities planned for the possibility that up to 30 percent of their customers _ more than 400,000 homes and businesses _ would lose power. As of early Saturday, more than 35,000 had no service.
Nonessential state workers were ordered to stay home Friday. Schools, colleges and state courthouses were also closed. All flights after 1:30 p.m. at Bradley Airport near Hartford were canceled. Connecticut Transit ceased all bus service by 6 p.m. Friday.
Some gas stations ran out of fuel Thursday night during the rush to prepare for the storm.
State offices closed early Friday as the storm that contributed to a 19-car pileup in Cumberland that took four hours to clear.
Registration and practice runs for the National Toboggan Championships were held Friday as scheduled, but Saturday's races were postponed for a day.
Up to 2 feet of snow was forecast along the southern coast, with lesser amounts across the rest of the state.
Forecasters said the storm could top Boston's record of 27.6 inches, set in 2003.
Gov. Deval Patrick declared a state of emergency and ordered a statewide travel ban, believed to be the first since the blizzard of 1978.
Emergency management officials reported more than 400,000 utility customers without power early Saturday, while Boston's transit system was shut down along with Logan Airport. Flights were expected to resume Saturday afternoon.
In Plymouth, the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant lost power and automatically shut down during the storm. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said there's no threat to public safety.
The Steamship Authority suspended all ferry service between Nantucket and Hyannis and between Martha's Vineyard and Woods Hole.
On Cape Cod, shelters opened at high schools in Sandwich, South Yarmouth, Eastham and Falmouth after a flood warning was issued; as much as 2 feet of snow is expected.
Harvard University's Hasty Pudding roast for Golden Globe-winning actor Keifer Sutherland took place Friday evening in Cambridge despite the storm.
A blizzard warning is in effect through 4 p.m. Saturday for portions of the state. Gov. Maggie Hassan declared a state of emergency but stopped short of ordering everyone off the roads.
Hundreds of schools were closed Friday, airlines canceled flights and sporting and civic events were postponed.
State-run liquor stores were slated to close at 6 p.m. Friday to encourage people to get off the roads by 7 p.m., when the storm is supposed to intensify.
Backcountry hikers were of high-mountain whiteout conditions and 80 to 90 mph gusts.
A blizzard warning for northeast New Jersey called for as much as 14 inches of snow. Up to 10 inches were possible for most of the state, with 2 to 5 inches in south Jersey.
Although assuring residents the state had the resources to keep roads and bridges passable, Gov. Chris Christie urged everyone to just stay home.
Parts of the coast were expected to see waves up to 12 feet and minor to moderate flooding during high tide. Brick Township and Toms River, which were hit hard by Superstorm Sandy, issued voluntary evacuation orders for areas still recovering from that storm.
The blizzard zone included the state's largest city, Newark, with a population of more than 275,000. Mayor Cory Booker urged residents to prepare for widespread power failures.
NJ Transit said it would suspend service on its northern routes from 8 p.m. Friday through Saturday. Bus service north of Interstate 195, including into New York, was also suspended indefinitely.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency as snow fell heavily Friday afternoon, though officials took pains to assure residents that it would not be as bad as Superstorm Sandy.
About 2,300 flights were canceled and the state's airports were expected to close, Cuomo said. Regional transportation was still running and was expected to continue throughout the night.
In New York City, where 8 to 12 inches were expected, Mayor Michael Bloomberg sought to clear the streets of cars and people so 1,700 city plows could get to work; drivers were expected to work 12-hour shifts. Amtrak canceled service north of the city.
New York closed Interstate 84 to truck traffic between Pennsylvania and Connecticut. A 74-year-old man died after being struck by a car in Poughkeepsie; the driver said she lost control in the snowy conditions, police said.
Snowfall predictions were 10 to 15 inches in the lower Hudson Valley and 12 to 16 inches on Long Island. Depths of 6 to 18 inches were forecast upstate.
Hundreds of cars got stuck on the Long Island Expressway when snow began falling Friday afternoon, and dozens of disabled motorists remained on the road early Saturday as police worked to free them.
More than 10,000 customers were without power statewide Saturday, mostly on Long Island.
At least 350 traffic collisions were reported in Toronto, and at least three people died in southern Ontario.
Many flights were canceled in Toronto, some of them because destination airports in the United States were closed by the snow.
An 80-year-old woman in Hamilton collapsed while shoveling her driveway, and two men were killed in car crashes, one of them in a multi-vehicle collision.
The storm was predicted to bring a mixture of rain, snow and ice to the state.
In the Pocono Mountains, where more than a foot of snow could fall, schools were closed or dismissed early, and flights were canceled at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Airport. Snow fell at a rate of 1 to 1 1/2 inches an hour in some areas Friday evening, turning major arteries in northeastern Pennsylvania slushy or snow-covered.
Farther south, more than a hundred flights were canceled out of Philadelphia Airport. The city was forecast to get 2 to 5 inches of snow.
Utility companies reported about 1,200 customers without power by Friday night.
Utility companies reported 185,000 customers without power Friday night but conditions were only expected to get worse as the state braced for up to 2 feet of snow.
Interstate 95 and other major highways were closed to traffic and transportation officials limited commercial traffic on the Newport Pell Bridge because of winds gusting more than 60 mph.
About 100 state plows were already out on the roads, bolstered by 200 private contractors, officials said.
Nonessential state workers were sent home Friday afternoon. Many schools closed and transit service was suspended at noon Friday. The last plane left T.F. Green Airport near Providence just before 1:30 p.m. Friday; no other flights were scheduled to leave until Saturday.
The storm was blamed for a multiple-vehicle accident and a series of other crashes on Interstate 89 in Bolton and South Burlington. Hundreds of schools were closed.
Northern Vermont is expected to get 4 to 8 inches of snow by Saturday morning, while central and southeastern parts of the state could get 8 to 16 inches.
Nearly 6 inches of snow had fallen by early Friday afternoon at Mad River Glen ski area in Fayston, according to a spokesman who said a total of 18 inches was possible.
Sources: State and local authorities; AP reporting


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It's been a whole year since we first made chocolate play dough and it was LONG overdue that we made some and played with it again! What were we thinking waiting so long? This stuff is the BEST! It looks great, smells wonderful and prompts so much imaginative play, and only takes 4 minutes to make. Perfect!
- 2 cups plain flour (all purpose)
- 1 cup salt
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 2 tbsps vegetable oil
- 2 tbsps cream of tartar
- 2 cups of boiling water
- 4 drops of glycerine (optional extra for increased shine and stretch)
- Combine all of the dry ingredients in a bowl
- Stir in the vegetable oil
- Mix together
- Stir in the boiling water (adult only) and mix until combined
- When it has cooled a little, knead it on a clean surface until it loses all stickiness and becomes smooth and stretchy. No residue should come off on your fingers. If it is still sticky add a little more flour, if too dry and crumbly add more water, a tablespoon at a time.
I purposefully saved the most ENORMOUS chocolate box from Christmas and dutifully ate all the chocs up so that we could play play play! Just like the last time we made this, we set about rolling and squishing the dough to make pretend chocolates to fill up the box. There was lots of discussion about how to fit the dough into the correctly shaped hole, as some were ovals, some circles, some square and others rectangles. Cakie was very good at recognising the shapes but found it much harder to make the 3D shapes to match. We worked on those together and it was a great challenge, both in terms of maths (awareness of shape and space) and fine motor skills (moulding and forming shapes.)
They have both been playing with this non-stop as the smell is SO delicious! So far they have made boxes of chocolates, rolled out cookie-dough, made brownies and cooked them in the "oven", and formed them into chocolate fairy cakes with Hama bead sprinkles and candles on top! We have also had a whole morning role-playing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and putting together a chocolate shop, which have been plenty of wonderful, imaginative fun. I'm exhausted from all the playing!
Learning Links:
- creativity: create forms and shapes using malleable materials, pretend one object represents another during pretend play, use imagination to take on a character or role
- maths: recognise and name 2D and 3D shapes, create representations of 3D shapes, match and sort by size and shape
- literacy: tell stories and remain in role/ character during imaginative play


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Lemon and Herb CrockPot Roasted Chicken Recipe
originally published May 1, 2008. Updated with new photo via deposit photos @bhofack 5/15
My oh my, what a tasty bird this was! I had a frozen chicken that I thawed for a few days in the fridge and plopped it whole into the crockpot. I did make a whole chicken earlier in the year, that was delicious, but this guy had an awesome moist, lemony garlic flavor that made my knees go a bit weak.
And it was so easy!
The Ingredients.
--one thawed and skinned whole chicken. It wasn't as gross for me this time! yay! But I'm not pregnant, so if you are and are prone to pukeage, be forewarned...
--head of garlic
--2 lemons (yeah, those are lemons. I tried to find yellow ones, and even went outside at 3:30am (I had insomnia) with a flashlight to find riper ones, and nearly scared the neighbors cat bald, but could only find green guys. They still tasted okay.)
--salt and pepper
--a bunch of fresh rosemary (this is from my mom's garden. hi, mom! thanks for the rosemary!)
The Directions.
After you skin the chicken and keep from puking, rub it inside and out with a bunch of salt and pepper.
Plop it into the crockpot.
Peel your garlic and shove a bunch of the whole cloves into the bird cavity and throw some more on top and around the chicken.
Slice the lemon and put slices on top, around, and inside the bird
Wash the rosemary and do the same. If you are using dried rosemary, use a good amount---probably 2-3 tablespoons of dried herbs.
Your chicken should look a bit like this:
Do not add water.cook on low for 8-10 hours. I put this on at 4am, and had it for lunch at noon. Then I took a 2hr nap!
The Verdict:
This is a moist, delicious chicken that is company-worthy. It will fall apart when you take it out of the crock if you cook it as long as I did. If you would like a fancier presentation, keep an eye on it and check the doneness after 6 or 7 hours, then carefully remove with large tongs.
Keep the garlic to serve alongside with some rice or potatoes and some fresh vegetables.
To make broth:
If you are fancy-pants, keep the crock drippings and the bones to make a lovely chicken broth.
It's pretty easy -- just add about 8 cups of water to the pot, then slow cook on low overnight. In the morning, unplug and let it cool down completely. Using SUPER CLEAN hands (or food handler gloves), pick through and remove all the bones. Drain through a colander into a large pot to save the chicken broth.
You can then make homemade chicken noodle soup!


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Tens of millions of people globally claim Irish heritage, due to the country's long history of emigration to places such as the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. In recent years, many more people have been moving to Ireland than leaving, providing benefits to the country but also posing challenges. This article provides an overview of Ireland's migration trends and policies, past and present.
Read Article
The international humanitarian protection system built amid the ashes of World War II has come under increasing strain, as record numbers of people flee internationally and travel farther distances. New barriers to protection in destination countries have captured public attention, but governments are also experimenting with ways to offer sanctuary, which could signal a remaking of the global system, as this article explains.
Mexico is the source of the world's second-largest migrant population. In recent years the country has found itself at an unexpected crossroads: Managing the transit of growing numbers of asylum seekers and other migrants headed to the United States. Meanwhile, the Mexican-born population in the United States has declined significantly since 2010. This article provides an overview of the major trends and policies.
The Immigration Act of 1924 shaped the U.S. population over the course of the 20th century, greatly restricting immigration and ensuring that arriving immigrants were mostly from Northern and Western Europe. The century-old law was one of the most restrictive in U.S. history and helped create the framework for key provisions of the U.S. immigration system that remain in place a century later. This article analyzes the effect and legacy of the 1924 law.
Immigrants have served in the U.S. armed forces since the nation's founding. In recent years, a growing share of U.S. military veterans are immigrants, due to shrinking numbers of veterans overall and a rising number of foreign born. This article offers details about the composition of the immigrant population with U.S. military service.
In recent decades, countries worldwide have expanded voting rights to their diasporas as well as certain resident noncitizens. Voting access in general has grown over time, as barriers based on sex, literacy, and other characteristics have fallen, and migrants' increasingly expansive rights to vote are part of that trend worldwide. This article provides a global overview of the dynamics.
Whether as migrant-sending or migrant-receiving locations—or both—many countries have rich, complex international and internal migration histories. MPI's online journal, the Migration Information Source, offers resources on more than 100 nations. Written by leading scholars, these articles delve into countries' migration histories, demographics, policymaking, and more.
Immigration touches on many facets of life in the United States. Get the facts with this useful resource, which compiles in one place answers to some of the most often-asked questions about immigration and immigrants in the United States now and historically. This article contains essential data on the immigrant population, immigration levels, trends in immigration enforcement, and much more.
Severe weather, rising seas, and other consequences of global climate change are affecting the way people live, work, and move around the planet. While there is no clear, direct line between the impacts of climate change and changing human movement, there are indications that the warming planet is indirectly creating or altering patterns of migration. Our podcast Changing Climate, Changing Migration dives deep into the intersection of climate change and migration to separate fact from fiction.
The term "refugee," like the people it describes, can cover a lot of ground. Sharon Stanton Russell, Research Scholar at MIT, maps out out who qualifies for refugee status, as well as the most pressing issues facing the community of institutions tasked to protect them.
As Russia enters the 21st century, it is confronting a set of migration issues unimaginable just a decade ago. Timothy Heleniak of the World Bank and Georgetown University's Center for Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies maps out the complex past and difficult present of the world's largest country.