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INDIANAPOLIS (MarketWatch) — Is Wall Street a "rigged game," too difficult for anyone but the professionals? This is a common argument used to explain the defection of the individual investor from the stock market.
For example, Brian Lund at bclund writes: "The average trader sees the market increasingly as a 'rigged' game, one in which they have little or no chance to win."
Felix Salmon of Reuters, in a discussion of falling trading volumes, writes something extremely similar: "Nowadays, however, the message is sinking in: it's a rigged game, you can't win, and you're better off with a passive strategy."
Games investors play
There's nothing wrong with a passive investment strategy. Indeed I devote much of my book, "Abnormal Returns: Winning Strategies From the Frontlines of the Investment Blogosphere," to discussing how for the vast majority of investors a largely hands-off investment strategy focused on index funds is the best answer to all investing needs.
Yet, in some respect, simply owning index funds outsources your portfolio to others to deal with the "rigged market."
Then again, one could easily argue today's markets are not all that rigged. One need only look at the performance — or, rather, the underperformance — of active mutual-fund managers and hedge-fund managers to see that.
If the market were rigged, you'd expect to see the professionals post better results. For now, these managers are having a difficult time beating the market over any reasonable time frame.
Nor are investors necessarily fleeing the stock market en masse. Since the onset of the financial crisis, persistent outflows from actively managed equity mutual funds have been more than offset by inflows into equity exchange-traded funds. Some argue that this says more about the preference of investors for index funds than about equities. Read more: 5 top stock funds raking in your cash.
Salmon at Reuters argues that what we are seeing is the decline of individual stock picking. He notes how this "upper-middle-class hobby" of stock picking resembles that of golf.
There are strong parallels between investors and golfers. One is the belief that a new piece of equipment (golf) or newsletter (investing) will somehow change poor underlying results. Salmon notes the high cost of online services and newsletters focused on individual investors and their generally poor performance. Readers of the Hulbert Financial Digest, a service of MarketWatch, which tracks the performance of newsletter writers, will not be surprised by this assertion. However, a strict focus on performance may well be misplaced.


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Chalkwork Collection
The Chalkwork Collection contains all bitmap icon sets within the Chalkwork family: Basic, Information Management, Commerce, Editing Controls, Flags, HTML and Payments. Designed for a wide range of common actions and metaphors useful to web and software designers alike, the entire family is unified by a consistent visual style.
This collection contains 595 original icons with 1,619 variations for over 2,200 icons in total, all in 3 sizes and 6 file formats: transparent PNG, TIF, GIF, BMP, Windows ICO, and Mac ICNS. It is available under the standard Chalkwork licenses.
Chalkwork Collection Preview
For a detailed preview of each respective set within this collection, please visit the Basic, Information Management, Commerce, Editing Controls, Flags, HTML and Payments preview pages.

subset: commoncrawl


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May 29, 2010
AUSTIN, Texas -- Jane Doolittle finished comfortably in the top-12 in the high jump at the NCAA West Preliminary, becoming the fifth Gaucho to qualify for the final round of the NCAA Championships.
Doolittle cleared 5'11.25" (1.81m) on her first attempt to secure qualification. She only missed one attempt - at 1.74m - during the course of the competition. The competition was halted at 1.81m, as the field had already been reduced to the 12 competitors who will advance to the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Ore.
Two Gauchos were involved in the women's triple jump. Tamara Thomas finished 25th with her best mark measuring 41'3.25" (12.58m), which is a new UCSB record. Tayler Williams fouled on her first two attempts and wasn't able to attack on her third and final attempt, settling for a 44th-place finish at 37'10.75" (11.55m).
Likewise, two Gauchos took part in the women's 5000m run. Amanda Moreno was closest to advancing to Eugene, as she finished 16th with a time of 16:59.53. It took a time of 16:42.27 to finish 12th and advance. Crystal Reed also participated in the 5k, but was unable to complete the race.
Finally, the men's 4x400m relay posted a UCSB-record time of 3:09.18 but fell a couple seconds short of advancing. It took a time of 3:07.30 to qualify at-large.
The five Gauchos who have advanced to the NCAA Championships are Doolittle in the women's high jump, Danielle Domenichelli in the women's 10,000m, Julian deRubira in the men's steeplechase, Ryan Martin in the 800m, and Kayla Smith in the women's shot put. Barbara Nwaba will also compete in the heptathlon, having secured automatic advancement two weeks ago at the Big West Championships.
The NCAA Track and Field Championships will take place on June 9-12 in Eugene, Ore.
- UCSBgauchos.com -


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When we first saw the talk last week that some Cleveland fans were angry with Browns receiver Josh Gordon because he was partying with LeBron James after the Miami Heat won the NBA title, we didn't mention it here. Gordon is a grown man who can hang out with whoever he wants, and the fact that James is an unpopular man in his former hometown of Cleveland doesn't mean Gordon can't be friends with him.
But longtime Browns beat reporter Tony Grossi of ESPNCleveland.com reports that concerns in Cleveland about Gordon go a lot deeper than just hanging out with a basketball player who spurned the Cavaliers.
According to Grossi's reporting, "something happened to Gordon" after his rookie season, and he "was influenced by the wrong people."
Meanwhile, Bud Shaw of the Cleveland Plain Dealer writes that Gordon has given team management reason to question his maturity with his actions.
Former Browns center LeCharles Bentley told Gordon on Twitter that the way he acts is "not a good look" for a guy who has just been suspended for violating the NFL substance abuse policy.
"YOU'RE suspended, YOU let YOUR team down but it's a priority to party with guys WAY out of your tax bracket," Bentley wrote. "I'd cut you, resign you, cut you again, resign you, then bench you."
At the moment, all indications are that the Browns still see Gordon being a big part of the offense, starting in Week Three after his two-game suspension ends. But after an impressive rookie season, Gordon's first NFL offseason isn't going well.


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Woodside Real Estate
Woodside is nestled among the redwood-covered mountains along the coastal ridge of the San Francisco Peninsula and is located close to the Silicon Valley and Stanford University. Founded by explorers and fur-traders in the 1830s, the town has retained its rural character and natural charm. Residents enjoy extensive trails for horseback riding, cycling and hiking and the weekends bring in visitors for equestrian and biking events. Downtown is quaint but convenient, featuring a handful of restaurants as well as an independent grocery store, a hardware store and a home and garden store. Woodside is home to many Silicon Valley professionals, well-known entertainers, high-tech entrepreneurs and CEOs, making it one of the country's most desirable communities. Rural charm and outstanding location make Woodside quite a town.
Woodside Property Info
area data
While overarching trends in real estate such as interest rates, economic factors, and consumer confidence all influence the purchase or sale of a home, smaller monthly changes in our local markets can affect your transaction just as much. Our real time market data gives you the most accurate and timely snapshot of your city or neighborhood.
Woodside Market Report
Market News, May 2019
All residential. Information obtained from the Multiple Listing Service and/or public records. This third party information has not been independently verified.
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Internet Sensation Eduard 'Mr. Trololo' Khil Dead at Age 77
Last week we brought you word that Eduard Khil ',aka Mr. Trololo,' was gravely ill after suffering a stroke.
Now we've learned that Khil, whose 1976 Soviet TV performance of the song 'I Am Glad, 'Cause I'm Finally Returning Back Home' became a unlikely viral video hit in late 2009, has died at age 77. The stroke was the cause of his death, according to his manager Tatyana Mamedova.
Khil was a big star in the Soviet Union during the '60s and '70s, however his music fell out of favor in the '80s when Russians were exposed to more music from the West.
He was reportedly baffled when he first learned that 'I Am Glad, 'Cause I'm Finally Returning Back Home' had become an internet hit, but quickly came to embrace the new attention.
What makes the song unique is that Khil sings sounds rather than words. One theory on why he does this is that the original lyrics glamorized American cowboys — something that Soviet censors wouldn't allow.
However, the grandson of Arkady Ostrovsky, who wrote the song's music, said that his grandfather gave Khil the tune without traditional words during a dispute with his regular lyricist over whether a song's words or music are more important to its success.
Whatever the reason for the lack of words, Khil's non-lexical vocable singing style was what made the song such a hit thirty-plus years later. Check out the tune below.


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This apk is safe to download from this mirror. This is an original app file and free of any virus.
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by George Zamora
SOCORRO, N.M., Feb. 16, 2004 – Dayle Renee Kerr nee Parker, a graduate of Los Lunas High School who is now a senior majoring in chemical engineering at New Mexico Tech, recently was named a Macey Scholar at the state-supported research university. The honor includes a $5,000 scholarship award.
Kerr is the daughter of George and Vicki Parker of Los Lunas. She is married to Clay Kerr, an alumnus of New Mexico Tech who now works for Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM).
Last year, Kerr also was named a New Mexico Tech Scholar for her demonstrated academic excellence, having maintained a 3.95 grade point average (GPA).
Kerr's research experience includes an internship since May 2000 with Sandia National Laboratories, during which she has focused on trace detection of explosives using traditional systems such as high-performance liquid and gas chromatographs.
"I currently do research on handheld explosive detection devices geared toward improving our national security," Kerr says.
Kerr is an active member of the New Mexico Tech student chapter of the Tau Beta Pi national engineering honor society, which recently was honored as one of the top three chapters in the nation.
In her spare time, Kerr enjoys riding horses (a carryover from her high school days when she was a competitive barrel racer and breakaway roper), snow and water skiing, and sewing quilts.
"Because New Mexico Tech is a small school, each student receives one-on-one time with their professors," Kerr relates. "That is the educational aspect I like most about Tech."
New Mexico Tech students named Macey Scholars are selected on the basis of their demonstrated academic accomplishments, both in the classroom and research laboratory, as well as their active participation in institutional service and co-curricular activities.
The Macey Scholars Program is funded by an endowment established by William B. Macey and Jean M. Macey of Albuquerque and Tucson. William Macey graduated from the New Mexico School of Mines (as New Mexico Tech was known in its early years) in 1942, and also was awarded an honorary doctorate by Tech in 1984.


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Home runs knock out Miller, Cardinals
ST. LOUIS -- It didn't take long for the Texas Rangers to get acquainted with Cardinals starter Shelby Miller.
Making his first start against a Rangers team he grew up watching, Miller surrendered two first-pitch homers, and they were all the Rangers needed to come out on top Saturday night.View Full Game Coverage
ST. LOUIS -- It didn't take long for the Texas Rangers to get acquainted with Cardinals starter Shelby Miller.
Making his first start against a Rangers team he grew up watching, Miller surrendered two first-pitch homers, and they were all the Rangers needed to come out on top Saturday night.View Full Game Coverage
After a one-hour and six-minute rain delay at the start of the game, the Cardinals fell, 4-2, in a second straight loss to their 2011 World Series foe in front of 44,651 fans at Busch Stadium.
"This is a good, well-balanced team," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. "If we continued to play them, we would continue to see close games like we have. … We don't enjoy being on the losing end. We think that we can be on the other side. They had some guys put some good at-bats together today."
Miller struck out two in a perfect first inning, but he was hit for a double and then a 376-foot homer in the second as A.J. Pierzynski took him deep on the first pitch of his at-bat.
"When you throw one right down the middle, it's easy to hit any kind of fastball, it doesn't matter how hard it is or how soft it is," Miller said. "You just got to tip your cap to an offensive lineup like that. They're a good team over there, and you can't make too many mistakes with them."
The Cardinals tied it up at 2 in the second when David Freese knocked a triple off the wall and reached home on a sacrifice fly from Shane Robinson. But Miller served up another two-run homer on another first pitch, this time to Nelson Cruz, in the third.
While they didn't come away with any other runs, the Rangers hit Miller six other times and only grounded out once in 25 at-bats against the rookie right-hander.
"You're going to get a lot of fly balls with a power-hitting team," Miller said. "The middle of the lineup over there really doesn't get the ball on the ground. They're going to hit balls hard. I got away with a couple more tonight that potentially could have been worse."
Miller ran into trouble again in the sixth when he walked one batter, allowed a single and then let opposing starter Martin Perez reach on a bunt when his throw to first was off the mark. With two outs and the bases loaded, Seth Maness relieved Miller and secured the final out.
"It just got to the point where he needed help," Matheny said. "[Miller] was a little fatigued as he was getting close to 90 [pitches], but he still had something in the tank. But it was a great opportunity to get him some help, especially him being down a couple runs at that point."
The two homers were the seventh and eighth on the year for Miller, and it was the third time he's given up multiple home runs in a game this season. He also walked one batter and struck out five in 5 2/3 innings.
In his second start of the season, Perez effectively handled the dangerous Cardinals lineup, limiting St. Louis to two runs on five hits and one walk in seven innings. Perez is the second straight Rangers lefty to give the Cardinals trouble. St. Louis entered the game hitting .233 (143-for-614) against left-handers for the season as opposed to a .289 average against righties.
"We definitely talked about those numbers," said Rangers manager Ron Washington. "The numbers say what's happened, but every day you play the game, you never know what will happen. Perez did a great job."
"I don't think there's really much there except we're facing guys who are making good pitches on us," Matheny said. "You look at the career numbers of our guys for the bulk of our lineup, they hit lefties extremely well. You just go through times where it doesn't happen how you want it to."
Relievers Maness, Kevin Siegrist and Michael Blazek combined to pitch 3 1/3 scoreless innings. Blazek made his Major League debut on a night when all four Cardinals pitchers were rookies. Blazek, who acknowledged having jitters that went away after his first pitch, struck out his first two batters and induced a groundout from Ian Kinsler in the ninth.
"I tried to just picture throwing back in [Triple-A] Memphis or [Double-A] Springfield," Blazek said. "It's something you've been dreaming of for like 15, 16 years, as soon as you start playing. It's something I'll never forget."
St. Louis struck first with one run in the first inning as Allen Craig drove home Carlos Beltran with a two-out single. Craig has 21 RBIs in June, the most he's had in one month while in the Majors. He pushed 20 runs across in September last year.
Yadier Molina's 0-for-4 performance dropped his batting average to .358 as he fell behind Detroit's Miguel Cabrera, who reclaimed the Majors' best average at .368.
Chad Thornburg is an associate reporter for MLB.com.


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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Brian Cameron, executive director of the Center for Enterprise Architecture at Penn State's College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), has been named to the governance board for the Enterprise Architecture Body of Knowledge (EABOK) initiative and EABOK Consortium, which were recently launched by the MITRE Corp. and offers enterprise architecture (EA) practitioners and researchers a centralized location for exchanging knowledge about the profession.
"It is a great honor to be asked to be on the governing board of the EABOK and EABOK Consortium," Cameron said. "This type of international effort is greatly needed for the field of enterprise architecture."
The MITRE Corp. is a nonprofit organization that provides systems engineering, research and development, and information technology support to the government. EABOK transitions the organization's original publication, "The Guide to the (Evolving) Enterprise Architecture Body of Knowledge," from a stand-alone MITRE document to an online community resource. The information that can be shared on the site includes methodologies, perspectives on the EA discipline and research results.
In addition to developing and hosting the website, MITRE was instrumental in establishing the EABOK Consortium — a broad spectrum of senior EA leaders hailing from industry, government, academia and professional associations. The consortium manages the EABOK structure and content, including the collection and review of submitted material — new or previously published — posted to the site. The consortium is also helping to evolve the field through information sharing, hosting face-to-face meetings between EA leaders and fostering dialogue among practitioners.
Enterprise architecture — a discipline and strategic knowledge asset — helps businesses and organizations evolve to meet changing business needs. Enterprise architects analyze areas of common activity within or between organizations where information and other resources are exchanged. The analysis offers managers a guide for transitioning organizations to meet strategic goals and adapt to change by integrating strategy, business goals and technology.
The purpose of the Center for Enterprise Architecture, which was established in January 2011, is to gather intellectual resources across Penn State to address open and important research concerns and questions that span the design, functioning and governance of contemporary, information-driven enterprises. Through multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary research methods, the center looks to address large-scale applications such as health care informatics, large service-based and manufacturing firms, nonprofit initiatives, federal and state government transformation, and the design of homeland security agencies.
EA practitioners and researchers are encouraged to share their work by visiting www.mitre.org/eabok and clicking the "Contributions" tab.


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I have been doing a lot of wall hangings lately and decided to do a canvas again. I was inspired by a project I saw by Gabrielle Pollaco that she did recently and loved how she did the background of it. Then I realized I owned the book she had been inspired by. The book is called Collage Couture by Julie Nutting!! Fantastic book!! Anyways this is what I came up with. I call it Twinkle.
The background is compiled of several different pieces of torn patterned paper adhered with mod podge!
These are the new Flutterbies #2 Chippies. For all the chippies on this canvas I did a trick using mod podge and napkins. I plan on doing a tutorial soon to show how I did it.
Thanks for stopping by and God Bless!!


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People will grow up with Meadham Kirchhoff. The Tumblr generation will go nuts for this.
London Womenswear A/W 2013
Roundup Report
Amelie Hegardt illustrates the Erdem show
London Round-up: Live Panel Discussion
Lou Stoppard, Tim Blanks, Alex Fury, Susie Bubble and Emma Elwick-Bates review London womenswear A/W 2013 live on 13 March 2013 at 15:00 GMT.


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More on the disturbing case of Jene Newsome, the decorated lesbian Air Force sergeant discharged in January 2010 under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Detectives with the Rapid City (SD) Police Department outed Newsome to her superiors at Ellsworth Air Force Base, which led to her dismissal. Newsome will now sue Rapid City and the Rapid City Police Department over the outing, reports the Rapid City Journal.
"Given the city of Rapid City's unwillingness to acknowledge the wrongful and unlawful acts done by ... members of the police department, we have no choice but to file a lawsuit against the city of Rapid City in federal court," says attorney Jeffrey Fransen.
Newsome's case first came to light in March, when the American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota sent a letter to Mayor Alan Hanks alleging the police department had violated Newsome's privacy and constitutional rights by sharing information about her sexual orientation with Air Force officials. In the March 19 letter, ACLU executive director Robert Doody asked the police department to pay damages and issue an apology to Newsome, along with reprimanding the officers involved in the incident and changing department policy to ban the release of information about military members' sexuality.
The incident in question occurred Nov. 20, 2009, when officers, in the course of serving an out-of-state felony arrest warrant on charges of grand theft for Cheryl Hutson, noticed an Iowa marriage certificate with Hutson and Newsome's names on it at their home. That detail was included in the police report, a document that Garinger later shared with the Office of Special Investigation at Ellsworth. Stauffacher was also involved in the arrest.
The Rapid City Police Dept. claims the officer was not being spiteful and followed department protocol. Newsome told KOTA-TV the detective told her "he knew how the military worked" and implied she would be discharged. "I played by 'don't ask, don't tell,' " Newsome says. "I just don't agree with what the Rapid City Police Department did. ... They violated a lot of internal policies on their end, and I feel like my privacy was violated."
In Marc 2010, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced more "humane" changes to DADT enforcement. But third party outings are still grounds for discharge, as the discharges by Sgt. Jene Newsome and Lt. Robin R. Chaurasiya have demonstrated.
You May Want to Read:
Editorial: Newsome's Discharge Motivated by "Spite"
Chief: Officers Followed Protocol to Out Air Force Sgt
Air Force Sgt Discharged Under "Don't Ask" Files Complaint
Rapid City PD to "Tighten" Policies After Outed Air Force Sgt


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Dec. 18, 2009
NORTHRIDGE, Calif. -
Complete Big West All-Academic Fall Sports Team in PDF Format
A total of 12 Cal State Northridge student-athletes earned a spot on the 2009 Big West Conference All-Academic Fall Sports Team. Women's cross country and soccer led the way for the Matadors, placing four members each on the squad.
For Don Strametz and his women's cross country team, seniors Marissa Crook (Kinesiology) and Sandra Velarde (Education) were joined by juniors Lilyana Morejon (Urban Studies) and Nanci Velarde (Kinesiology). As a team, the Matadors finished seventh at the 2009 Big West Cross Country Championships with Morejon's third-place finish, the highest finish by a Matador since 2005, leading the way.
Head Coach Keith West saw four members of his women's soccer team earn a spot on the team: senior Kelley Ross (Liberal Studies), junior Katie Fox (Kinesiology) and sophomores Brielle Slepicoff (Biology) and Alexis Barbara (Undeclared). For Fox and Slepicoff, this is the second time in 2009 that they have been recognized by the league, as they earned All-Big West Second Team and All-Big West Honorable Mention honors, respectively.
In women's volleyball, senior Tela Burnett (Consumer Science) and junior Siara Grayson (Civil Engineering) earned a spot on the team for head coach Jeff Stork. Burnett was fifth on the team with 102 kills while Grayson added 17 in 2009. The women's volleyball team finished the year 8-22 overall and 4-12 against Big West opponents.
Finally, sophomore Matthew Chavez (Finance) and redshirt freshman Joe Franco (Accounting) were selected from the men's soccer team. The Matadors, led by Big West Conference Coach of the Year Terry Davila, finished 10-8-2 overall for fourth place in the conference.
To qualify for the team, student-athletes must have participated in at least 50 percent of their team's contests or events while maintaining 3.2 cumulative GPA. The student-athletes also must have been at their respective university for at least one year.


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ZDNet sees the Ubuntu Based Dell Developers machine.../
ZDNet has a quick update and first impression of a new Dell Laptop that will be based on Ubuntu. The concept is cool and the laptop looks and sounds usable. The big question is will people switch from Windows to it or will this just eat into Apple's market share?


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The Renewable Energy Directive requires member states to source 20% of electricity from renewable sources. The commission has proposed a daily penalty of €133,228 for Poland and €11,404 for Cyprus until the directive is transposed into law.
The final amount of the fine will be decided by the court, with the payments to start from the judgement. In January 2011 and November 2011 respectively, Poland and Cyprus were both notified about a failure to transpose the directive into law.
Speaking about the move, Oettinger said: "We are committed to reaching our energy and climate targets by 2020. To this end, the enforcement of the renewable energy legislation in all member states is vital. Renewables are a solution to global climate change, European economic growth and security of supply issues."
Last year, Oettinger threatened to take action against EU states that did not fulfil their renewables obligation. At EWEA 2013 he hinted there was a strong chance new legislation would come in stopping member states from "chopping and changing" subsidies.
Oettinger said the challenge, in these economically troubled times, was that renewables were seen as a "nice to have rather than a must have".
According to the latest Windicator, Poland installed 573MW of wind power as of October 2012, taking its capacity to 2,189MW. Cyprus added 30MW in 2012, taking its capacity to 164MW (an increase of 22%).


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ReleasesBack to
Jason Moran
Osby recorded Inner Circle in 1999 but chose to postpone its release until 2002, for artistic reasons. Save for Tarus Mateen in place of Lonnie Plaxico, the disc boasts the same lineup as Jason Moran's debut, Soundtrack to Human Motion, and a similar temperament as well. Each piece has its own unique logic, whether it's the meticulously plotted pauses of "Entruption," the dizzying, impenetrable matrix of "Fragmatic Decoding," or the round robin of unaccompanied solos that constitutes "The Inner Circle Principle." Osby has a characteristic way with stealthy, walking lines and harmonies; it comes through most clearly on "Equalatogram" and "Sons of the Confidential." His reading of Björk's "All Neon Like" anticipates what Moran would soon do, on Facing Left, with "Jöga." And his cover of Mingus' classic "Self-Portrait in Three Colors" is faithful to the original, coming at the end like a dessert. It's a relatively short program, but a comprehensive and highly creative one. ~ David R. Adler


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I bumped into James Wolcott two blocks before I reached Canteen, the cavernous Manhattan restaurant in which we had arranged to meet. Dressed in a striped cotton shirt, wrinkled khakis and a red L.L. Bean jacket, the most feared critic in America was shuffling along the street under a plus-size umbrella. Though infrequently photographed, he was easy to spot: rotund belly, massive forehead, lank hair and a spectacular collection of dark circles under piercing blue eyes.
At one of Canteens orange booths, where we sat far from the well-dressed Soho-ites, Wolcott ordered a plate of macaroni and cheese and a Coke. If hed finished off his meal with apple pie I wouldnt have been surprised. (He ordered a second Coke instead.) Both in person and on the page, Wolcott is a strikingly unpretentious fellow -- appropriately, since one of his critical specialties is to skewer the pretensions of others.
Yet the cultural critic for Vanity Fair is one of the highest-paid journalists in America, with a salary said to lie within the $250,000--$400,000 range. Its serious money for a writer, and he works hard to make those Conde Nast dollars count. In an age in which critics are either toothless or equipped with vast, cosmetic smiles, Wolcott draws blood. The insulted and the injured include Maureen Dowd, Richard Ford, Jay McInerney, Bret Easton Ellis, Woody Allen, Pauline Kael, confessional writers of all stripes, TV pundits, Darren Star, Michael Kinsley, Steven Brill -- call them the Wolcott Wounded.
Wolcott is much more than just a sharpshooter, however. Theres real intellectual sinew behind his barbs. He is an unusually versatile critic, able to follow a masterly dissection of Martin Amis prose style one month -- Amiss early work was fast, mean, and vernacular, a sporty convertible capable of darting through traffic and turning on a hair. With fame and maturity his prose has lost its racing stripes. The slang and noise-density of his early work have been replaced with leather upholstery and a parliamentary drone -- with a thorough trashing of reality TV the next -- Survivor is economic Darwinism in a loincloth, complete with product placements . . . Todays Peeping Tom casts a cold eye, now that hes become an entrepreneur. In the last few years he has written about Alfred Hitchcock, Sex and the City, lesbian chic, confessional literature, scuzz movies and the Canadian writer-director Ken Finkleman. He a also contributes lengthy book reviews to The New Republic and the London Review of Books.
A college dropout and autodidact from a Catholic family in Baltimore, Wolcott began his career in the 1970s at The Village Voice, where he wrote about everything from politics to punk while particularly endearing himself to readers of his television column, Medium Cool, which ran in the paper from 1978 to 1982. (I meet people now whove barely read anything Ive written since then and still remember it, he told me, a claim I was able to verify a few hours later when I told a friend that Id just interviewed Wolcott. Really? he replied. I loved that column he did in The Voice. Whats he been doing since then?) Following an acrimonious parting of the ways with The Voice in 1982, Wolcott moved to Vanity Fair under Tina Brown, followed her to The New Yorker in 1992, then went back to Vanity Fair in 1996, where he has remained ever since, reading the cultures tea leaves and occasionally pouring boiling water over his victims hands.
Given how quickly and fluently Wolcott speaks, its surprising that hes not a more prolific writer. Blame it on perfectionism. (There are two types of journalistic assignments, he told me, quoting Martin Amis dad, Kingsley. The hard ones that turn out to be hard, and the easy ones that turn out to be hard.) The perfectionism extended to the writing of his first novel, The Catsitters, published this week by HarperCollins. Its a light novel, ideal for the beach, but Wolcott labored over it for the best part of a decade. Featuring an amiable actor-bartender hero named Johnny Downs -- a man so mild he has been pussywhipped by an actual cat (his beloved Slinky) -- and a ferocious Southern belle named Darlene Ryder (imagine Camille Paglia as a relationships counselor) who sets out to turn Johnny into marriage material, the book is an unpretentious and enjoyable romantic comedy of a curiously old-fashioned sort.
Undeniably, that comes as a surprise. But having spent the last quarter of a century showing how clever he is in his criticism, Wolcott evidently didnt feel the need to prove it all over again by putting on an intellectual fireworks display in his first novel. In fact, one of the notable things about The Catsitters is that it doesnt feel like a first novel at all. This is a controlled -- almost too controlled -- performance, in which, unlike most first novels, the parts have been sacrificed to the whole and not the other way around. Its also, lets face it, a commercial work of fiction -- a book with readers in mind, and perhaps viewers too.
Deliberately ignored in The Catsitters is the kind of downtown scene one might expect to find in a novel written by a mordant star of Americas glossiest publishing empire. There are no junkies, supermodels, media-world machinations, fashion designers or roman a clef gossip. The book is old-fashioned in other ways, too -- not least in its optimism about male-female relationships. The section in which two college-age girls -- the titular catsitters -- spend a drunken week with Johnny after their official catsitting duties have ended, has the kind of relaxed, witty sexiness that makes you feel, God, if only life was always like that! The episode ends in disaster, of course, when Amanda, Johnnys very uptown, very marriage-minded girlfriend, arrives unexpectedly. But then Amanda and Johnny were never meant to be anyway -- or so decides Darlene, who turns out to be a much trickier character than we first realize.
Darlene may be a spiky cynic, but ultimately her advice boils down to the idea that women want to get married, and men do as well -- even if they dont realize it. By coating Darlenes words with bile, Wolcott disguises the fact that whats being prescribed is a dose of gentlemanly good manners. Youve never been willing to do what needs to be done to keep a woman, Johnny. Youre like most men, oblivious, Darlene says near the beginning of the novel, and what follows is a complete course in How To Get a Woman To Marry You (from Johnnys point of view) or How To Turn a Likable Schlump Into Something Worth Marrying (from Darlenes).
Wolcott himself has been married for seven years, to Vanity Fair writer Laura Jacobs. They live together on the Upper West Side with their three cats. He says that his novel is based on some of his own premarital dating woes. An edited version of our conversation follows.
L.A. WEEKLY: I liked the fact that The Catsitters was funny and witty but it wasnt knocking itself out trying to be funny and witty.
JAMES WOLCOTT: I knew going in I did not want to write a jokey book, and I didnt want to write a book where the so-called funny lines are really sarcastic lines. I read these New York novels, and everybody in them sounds like theyre auditioning for Friends. Ill read novels set on the Upper West Side, and everybody talks in the same rhythms, with the same frame of reference. So I wanted to have characters that were funny, but people are not funny in the same way. Some people are funny because they are totally laconic and drop in a comment when you least expect it, and other people are funny because they go off on riffs like standup comics. Everybodys different. I didnt want it to be one of those novels where everyones at a cocktail party and exchanging clever putdowns. A lot of downtown novels are like that, novels about the literary scene. The thing is, most of these are not novels that make it. If the characters are recognizable, the New York press will make a big thing about it, but the rest of the country doesnt care at all.
Your book struck me as being a very courtly, old-fashioned New York novel in a lot of ways. Its certainly not Sex and the City.
I wanted the novel to be so old-fashioned it would seem new. One of the things Im really happy with is that its not a cliched New York novel. Its sort of an idealized portrait of New York. Its the way Id like Manhattan to be, because Manhattan now is so money-insane. The other thing I strove to do was to create characters you can imagine holding their own in a separate book. In so many novels theres a protagonist and narrator, and everyone else is kind of filler. I wanted people to feel that at any point Darlene could just take over and say, You know what? Its my novel now. Or Gleason. Or Claudia Prentiss. To me Claudia is a fascinating character. Because there are women like that. You can never quite figure them out.
Given that the majority of fiction readers are women, how concerned were you that the novel would appeal to them?
I definitely wanted The Catsitters to appeal to women, or at the very least not alienate them unduly. Publishing people are always puzzled when a new Philip Roth novel doesnt sell up to expectations, given the rave reviews. Im not -- Ive spoken to too many women whove said they avoid Roth because they consider him so sexist and misogynist. Since Im not a macho sort, I never intended to write a sexual-conquest novel, so it was never a matter of pandering to a female audience by betraying my own impulses or attitudes. The character who chafes on some women readers is Darlene, because shes so cutthroat in her comments and unsentimental. Im happy to hear some readers dont like her, because I intended Darlene to be a divisive force -- shes what keeps the novel from becoming too cute and cuddly.
You obviously enjoy writing about women, which is one of the nice things about the book. Its a guys book in a way, and yet women are at the center of it.
Ive always been much more interested in women than men. Guy talk is very uninteresting to me. I was once at a party for Nancy Lemann, it was a book party and so there were all of these New Republic, Newsweek, Harvard, yuppie journalists, and an incredibly attractive batch of female fiction writers. These guys formed a conversational circle and paid no attention to the women in the room at all. They were all doing shoptalk. Did you hear who Charlie Peters hired at the Washington Monthly? I hear Spy has an attack coming out on so-and-so. In fact, as I recall, Nancys fiance was in a separate room because there was a Knicks game on. He was watching a Knicks game with his friends at his girlfriends book party. And every so often youd hear a roar of applause because the Knicks had scored a three-pointer. I couldnt believe how unsexed these guys were. It was hilarious.
Where did you get all this relationship advice that Darlene spouts? Did you actually go and read a few self-help books?
I did read those, but they actually were not that helpful. I had a lot of Southern female friends. They were not girlfriends, but they were female friends, and they were incredibly sharp about men and women. In fact, one of the things that fascinated me was this notion that Southern women are sort of Southern belles, la-di-da, lounge around -- these gals were spitfires. Some of them would come up North and say, Im amazed at the way Northern women behave. And they wonder why they dont have a boyfriend? Northern women would often have this attitude of Youre probably going to screw me over because thats what men do and thats whats been happening to me and youre no better than the rest. So treat me right by hurting me! In fact, one Southern woman once said to me -- this was at a party Id thrown -- I could take the man away from any woman at a this party. Not because Im better-looking, I just know how to do it.
The New York Post ran an item about you in which they referred to your book as lowbrow. What do you say to that charge?
Lowbrow, highbrow, middlebrow -- these categories have become completely arbitrary. Stephen King was considered lowbrow until he started publishing in The New Yorker; now even his trashiest stuff gets respectful treatment. Joyce Carol Oates has always been a trashy lowbrow decked out as a tortured highbrow. I knew when I started the novel that if I didnt write something inside and packed with allusions I would be accused of slumming. But I wanted someone who had never read or heard of me -- the vast majority out there -- to be able to pick up the novel on a whim and become engrossed in the story and characters. I never assumed there was an audience out there panting for a novel just because it was by me.
Has the experience of writing The Catsitters made you feel any different about reviewing novels yourself?
It gives me a better sense of how it works internally. And Im much more sympathetic now to what a writer goes through, and how hard it is to actually have a career, to actually bring out the fourth or fifth novel, because there are so many things working against you. Not only bad reviews, but a general indifference to your work, the sense that youre no longer the flavor of the month. What will probably change in my reviewing is that I now wont be reviewing people bringing out their first novel, unless its a novel thats getting a huge amount of attention and cant be ignored. I feel now Ive been around long enough, it would be kind of bullying.
Who were the critics that influenced you?
I was incredibly sympathetic to Marvin Mudrick, who was one of my favorite critics. He wrote a review of Susan Sontag that is the most hilarious, brilliant, totally disrespectful piece ever written on Sontag. He didnt take her seriously for a moment. He deconstructed her writing and showed how the same words appeared in essay after essay. He also threw in a shot at Elizabeth Hardwick that shocked the hell out of the New York publishing world, because nobody had ever dared to take a poke at Hardwick. He quotes some of the Hardwick introduction to the Susan Sontag Reader -- this ardent introduction -- and then says, They should both take a cold shower -- preferably not together. People couldnt believe it. He was utterly fearless.
My models were always Jewish hipsters like Mudrick, Albert Goldman, Seymour Krim, Manny Farber. Im not Jewish myself, but these guys to me -- they were the real swingers, all of them incredibly funny writers. Manny Farbers film criticism was brilliantly hilarious.
Who do you like now?
There are very few people I read now, because there are very few people who write with that kind of energy. Ill tell you who I really like is the New Criterion poetry critic, William Logan. Hes every bit as good as Randall Jarrell was. He takes on everybody. Hes terrific. I like Dave Hickey a lot. He did a tribute to the Carpenters that I thought was one of the great pieces of criticism Id read. There arent many others. The thing about all those Jewish hipsters was none of them were careerists.
You have a reputation for being vitriolic.
I think its totally overblown. A lot of that reputation was based on stuff I wrote 15 years ago at The Village Voice. When youre writing for The Village Voice, you can throw uppercuts in a way. Youre taking on bigger institutions and bigger writers. But at The New Yorker you could really kill somebodys career, and the same thing at Vanity Fair. Ive always thought of myself much more as like a comedian.
Speaking of The Voice, you did an interview with New York Press recently in which you were very critical of what was going on there politically when you left.
By the time I left The Voice, there really was a political filter, and if you had a certain politics you were not going to get in. The only person who escaped that was Stanley Crouch, but Crouch is black. And Im not sure how conservative he was when he first came in, because he was mostly a jazz writer. But Stanley would deliberately say these incredibly provocative, anti-P.C. things that other writers could not get away with, but he could. And then they got rid of Stanley when he popped some other writer in the mouth. But then -- forget it. It wasnt just that you couldnt be conservative, they had to know where your politics were coming from. They really did. They did not want some independent who might fool them.
I dont like all the writers they use particularly, but it was very smart of Salon, which was clearly pro-Clinton, to let a David Horowitz or Camille Paglia write for them. I cannot tell you how [monotonous] the standard drumbeat on Camille Paglia is. Why do they run Camille Paglia . . . I hate Camille Paglia . . . The fact is, Camilles column gets a lot of hits and Camille makes a lot of sense. Camille has an incredible strain of common sense.
I think thats what people hate, actually -- common sense. Thats what rankles.
Yeah, it really rankles! They want her to be more of a lunatic. But what I notice is that it isnt enough that they disagree with her column. They dont want it in there to begin with. See, that was the kind of thing I hated at The Voice, this thing of a We dont want that spectrum to be heard. It affected the paper in a lot of ways. Even now, one of the things thats hilarious about The Voice is the way people who dont even write about politics will stick in the Bush-Cheney references just to show that Hey, Im not sold! You cant make me bend to the hegemony of . . . It makes for a real dreariness. Salon is much better for having different voices. I wish more magazines would do that. The thing is, I dont even think theyre afraid of their readers. I think its all internal dissent. I think theyre afraid of people in the office having hissy fits. I did a joke in The Voice, and all these people circulated a petition to protest my joke in The Voice.
You made a joke in the office?
No, no, it was a joke in my column. I was talking about a certain television personality, and I said something like, I dont need this person screaming at me about my inadequacies. Thats what girlfriends are for! Which I thought was very mild, because really its a joke about me, saying Im the sort of person who frustrates girlfriends. And I said, You can write anything you want in terms of petitions, but do you realize how absurd its going to be if you run a letter in The Voice protesting a joke with 18 or 20 names attached to it? Thats the kind of thing you do about, you know, We deplore the bombing of the Palestinian townships . . . You dont do it for a joke.
But at The Voice this tension would build up, and a lot of the feuds that would break out were not about the subject itself, they really were office animosities that had been building for years. Nat Hentoff was the focus because the feminists hated him, and Hentoff would goad them sometimes, when he wrote about abortion and things like that. So there would be these big battles in The Voice that would seem to be about a particular issue, but they werent. They were really about the fact that they wanted Hentoff out. And I think thats why a lot of publications are very cowardly. They dont want that interoffice friction. You need certain publications to have almost a benign dictator at the top, to say, Im going to open up the paper to different voices, and if you dont like it you can leave. But dont tell me that so-and-so has no right to be in the paper.
In your essay about Pauline Kael and her followers, you made New York intellectual life sound pretty intolerant.
Its absurd the way it is in New York: William Buckleys phrase, the averted gaze -- I notice you, but Im not going to look at you. Or, Im going to snub you and make it a point that you know I snubbed you. A lot of people get demonized. Hilton Kramer in person is incredibly agreeable, funny, and knowledgeable about New York intellectual life of the past 50 years, but if you were to mention him in certain circles -- its not that they dont want to read Hilton Kramer, its [that they believe] people like him should not be allowed to exist. Why cant he just go away? Oh yeah, lets just leave it all up to Arthur Danto and the October crowd! I dont take my disagreements with people personally, I really dont. If someone disagrees with me about a movie or a writer, I dont pretend they dont exist if Im introduced to them. I thought New Yorkers supposedly thrived on give-and-take. All this stuff you read about the Partisan Review gang, how they would argue into the late hours and get vocal but still keep coming to each others parties. Now its like, Oh no, you wont be invited if you say something that somehow doesnt fit.
As I remember in your Paulettes piece, that was true when you first arrived in New York. Thats not a recent development.
I think its gotten worse. I wasnt around during the Vietnam period, which Im told really did turn people against each other, but I saw it happen when things really did become much more P.C. I think its been more and more true. It was certainly true of the movie critics. All of a sudden they would do this thing of sniffing, Oh, you didnt get it. My wife and I walked into this book party, and there were two of Pauline Kaels proteges, and they saw us and they went for the door. That article was taken as the biggest sacrilege Ive ever committed. Because I let out secrets.
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Are you still friends with Kael?
Oh no, this was the end. She once said to me, I dont tell them what to write. And I was thinking, Oh, Pauline, they dont have to be told. Theyve known you for 10 or 15 years. F.R. Leavis didnt have to tell his followers what to write. They knew at a certain point. They knew who they were expected to be in favor of and not in favor of. You know, Pauline played her favorites, and it was clear, and it was okay, but if you disagreed with someone about a movie, they would literally fall dead silent and turn their head away. Like you had made a joke about their dead mother or something.
Do you ever feel bad about past remarks?
I thought I was much too personally severe with Michael Kinsley when I wrote about Slate. I was a little rough there. I feel bad that Pauline Kael took it as deeply as she did, because were all independent critics, were all strong-willed critics, and its not as if Pauline hasnt had scrapes with her friends before, a lot worse than this. So, I regret it, but if thats how it plays out Im not going to change it. If you start pulling your punches in advance, thats deadly. So I dont try to go out of my way to be nasty, but at the same, a lot of times I think, Okay, Im just going to say it, and if the person gets upset, they get upset.


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House Committee on Government Reform, Subcommittee on Government Management, Information and Technology (Horn) on implementation of the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996 (PL 104-134)
Yvette S. Jackson, Deputy Commissioner for Finance, Assessment and Management testified.
June 8, 2000
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:
Thank you for the opportunity to come here today to discuss the Social Security Administration's (SSA) efforts to implement and comply with the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996 (DCIA). We particularly appreciate your, leadership, Mr. Chairman, and that of this subcommittee in enactment of this legislation which has enabled SSA to improve our debt management program. As you will see, we have already implemented a significant number of debt collection improvements. We will implement five more debt collection tools in the year 2001. When we finish with those tools, we will turn our attention to the remaining provisions to be implemented.
Background on SSA's Debt
The public's trust in the Social Security program is absolutely critical. Even a perception of lack of program integrity can threaten this trust. SSA is dedicated to program stewardship and program integrity. We must remain vigilant if we are to fulfill our role as capable stewards of the public trust.
Before I discuss our progress in implementing the debt collection provisions of DCIA and other laws, I will briefly describe some basic points about SSA's debt. It is important to know why it occurs, how much of it occurs, and actions we take to control it.
SSA has undertaken significant initiatives over the past several years to prevent and detect Social Security program overpayments. Our stewardship responsibilities require that we recover as much of the debt owed as possible. Our goal is to achieve an annual average increase of 7 percent in debt collections over the 5-year period from Fiscal Years 1998-2002. In Fiscal Year 1999, we met our goal for both the Title II and Title XVI programs. In Fiscal Year 1999 our collections for Title II were $1.2 billion, an 8 percent increase. In the Title XVI program, we collected $640 million, an 18.7 percent increase.
SSA's debts consist of overpayments that occur in the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs. An overpayment results when a beneficiary is paid more money than he or she is due. People become overpaid for a variety of reasons. Retirees under the age of 65 are overpaid when, for example, they work and earn more money than allowed for unreduced benefits. Disabled beneficiaries can become overpaid as a result of medical recovery. SSI recipients are overpaid when they have increased income or resources over the allowable limit.
In fiscal year (FY) 1999, overpayment-related events led to $3.6 billion in new debts in the OASDI and SSI programs. While this amount seems high, I would like to put it in context. In FY 1999, SSA paid $410 billion in benefits to over 50 million people receiving OASDI and SSI payments. Overpayments of $3.6 billion amounted to less than 1 percent of those benefit outlays. The elimination of the annual earnings test for beneficiaries who are age 65 up to age 70 will further reduce the rate of new debts by avoiding about $445 million in new debt in the OASDI program.
When overpayments do occur, SSA uses a vigorous debt collection program. If the individual is on the benefit rolls, we recover the overpayment by withholding future monthly payments. We have a high degree of success in collecting debts owed by people on the rolls, achieving a collection rate of more than 90 percent. If the overpaid person is no longer on the rolls, we employ our in-house billing and follow-up system to collect the debts. It is this type of debt for which the tools provided by DCIA and other laws are effective, since they give us the enforcement capability we need to collect from recalcitrant debtors. Of course, if the overpaid person later becomes re-entitled, we collect the debt from ongoing monthly benefits. We are committed to using every available technique to collect debts owed to SSA.
Embedded in our commitment to provide world class service to our customers are measurements and enhancements that promote an accurate benefit calculation. The accuracy of our decisions in the Old Age and Survivors Insurance program and the effect of any error on dollar outlays have consistently been very good, exceeding 99 percent. In fact, the systematic fixes and improvements we have made in postentitlement computations over the last few years have eliminated hundreds of thousands of errors.
On another crucial front, we have initiated a series of actions to attack the problem of the accuracy rate in the SSI program which was 94.3 percent in 1999. The SSI program is a needs-based program that provides monthly cash assistance to individuals who are aged, blind or disabled. Over the past several years, the program has grown in size and complexity. We have increased the number of SSI case reviews once individuals are on the rolls which helps us to detect overpayments.
We also have a strong program of computer matches that detect and prevent debts. For instance, SSA conducts matches involving prisoners, nursing homes and wages that detect debts each year. In FY 1999, SSA's matches saved $2.5 billion in combined collections and debt prevention. Redeterminations of ongoing SSI eligibility led to the eventual collection of $0.6 billion and prevented the occurrence of $1 billion in overpayments. It is critical to note that the Social Security Number (SSN) is used in those matching operations, and is essential to its continuance.
SSA's Progress on Debt Collection Tools
SSA has made substantial progress toward implementing the debt collection tools authorized by DCIA, as well as other legislation enacted during the 1990s. This has greatly improved SSA's ability to collect its debt.
Tools Already Implemented
In the decade of the 1990s, SSA strengthened its debt collection program in a number of significant ways. In November 1990, we were given the authority to use tax refund offset (TRO), in which debts are recovered directly from Federal tax refunds before the refunds are sent to taxpayers. We began receiving our first collections from TRO in January 1992. We expanded TRO twice--in 1995 and again in 1998--to add new classes of debtors, such as SSI debtors and to make use of the Treasury Offset Program (TOP). TRO and TOP, which allows us to collect delinquent debts from Federal payments in addition to tax refunds, have yielded $275 million in offsets from former OASDI and SSI recipients who owed delinquent debts.
In 1995, we began using credit bureau locator services to help us track down delinquent debtors who moved and left no forwarding address. This online, automated system has enabled us to obtain close to 200,000 addresses of delinquent debtors, and resume our debt collection efforts.
In 1998, we began reporting our delinquent OASDI debtors to credit bureaus as a way of inducing them to repay their debts, and thus clear their credit records. To date, we have reported almost 75,000 delinquent debtors to credit bureaus. As a result of the letters we send to delinquent debtors warning them of our plans to refer them for offset and report their delinquencies to credit bureaus, we have collected $95 million in voluntary payments from people who seek to avoid those actions.
Tools to Be Implemented by February 2001 (Phase 1)
We have been busy over the last year developing the debt collection tools that we think have the most payoff and can be fairly quickly implemented. Our choices were governed by which tools would give us the most return earliest in the process of collecting the debt.
In January 2001, we will implement mandatory cross program recovery, or the collection of an SSI debt from the debtor's OASDI benefits. The Noncitizen Benefit Clarification and Other Technical Amendments Act, which was enacted in October 1998, granted the authority for this collection tool. We estimate that it will yield about $175 million in extra collections over the next 5 years.
Also in January 2001, we plan to implement two additional tools to collect delinquent SSI debts. Those tools are administrative offset, which is the collection of a delinquent debt from a Federal payment in addition to a tax refund, and credit bureau reporting. We received the authority to use these tools for SSI debts when the Foster Care Independence Act of 1999 was passed in December 1999.
In February 2001, SSA, in partnership with the Financial Management Service (FMS) plans to implement Benefit Payment Offset (BPO). This is the reduction of Social Security benefits to collect delinquent debts owed to other Federal agencies. While this tool will not contribute to SSA's debt collections, it will benefit the Federal government by enabling the Treasury Department to collect an estimated $40-60 million in delinquent debt. Treasury estimates that about 400,000 Social Security OASDI beneficiaries per year will incur a reduction of their benefits as payment toward another Federal debt.
In view of the magnitude and potential sensitivity of this program, I would like to talk about what SSA and FMS are doing to develop it. First, we fully support this project and we intend to implement it as soon as possible. We have a target date of February 2001. We have been working with FMS since July 1998 to develop a program that gives maximum collections at a minimum cost to the Federal government.
As you can imagine, we had many issues to resolve, such as concerns about adequate notification of Social Security beneficiaries who will incur an offset. We want to be sure that the right people are offset for the correct amount. We also want to ensure that the people who are offset under this program understand why it is happening and whom they can contact when they have questions.
We have worked out these issues with FMS. Our agencies are in the final phase of our development of BPO. SSA and FMS signed an agreement for conducting the program. We have developed the required systems changes, which were extensive because they would affect the amount of Social Security benefits payable to people. We are poised to begin the testing phase of the program, where both FMS and SSA will ensure that BPO functions as it should. All of our preparations have been designed to make sure that the citizens to whom BPO applies are treated fairly; that Federal agencies which are owed debts receive them in an efficient and effective way; and that SSA can deliver world-class service to the public. In less than one year, we expect BPO to start generating debt collections for the Federal government.
Tools to Be Implemented After February 2001 (Phase 2)
In June 2001, we plan to implement administrative wage garnishment, a DCIA-authorized tool, as one more tool for collecting delinquent OASDI and SSI overpayments. We believe that this debt collection tool plus administrative offset and credit bureau reporting for SSI debts will yield at least an additional $10 million per year in debt collections.
While the next year will be one of great activity for our development of debt collection tools, we also have plans for putting into place additional tools. We will initially focus on a DCIA provision, Federal salary offset, which is the collection of a delinquent debt owed by a Federal worker from his or her salary. Treasury plans to incorporate Federal salary offset into TOP after the third quarter of FY 2001.
We will also implement another DCIA provision--Treasury's cross servicing program, in which Treasury acts as a debt collector for Federal agencies. Although we fully intend to participate in cross servicing, we want to use our limited resources to first complete implementing the debt collection tools that will yield the most collections. We have been working with Treasury and will continue to work with them on this program. In fact, we have a round of meetings coming up this month with Treasury on cross servicing.
An important aspect of cross servicing involves the use of private collection agencies, which is on our list of debt collection tools to implement after we finish the tools that we believe are more lucrative and can be quickly implemented.
Interest charging is another provision of DCIA that we plan to implement. Our priorities are such that we will begin developing interest charging as early as the year 2002. While interest charging is a valuable tool, we believe it will function more as a threat to our debtors, yielding collections in the form of voluntary repayments by people who perceive it as something to avoid.
Recently, we began working with FMS and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on the continuous tax levy program. Under this program, IRS will collect delinquent tax debts from payments made by SSA. We fully support this program, which is conducted by Treasury through the Treasury Offset Program. At this time, SSA, together with FMS and IRS, are engaged in planning and analysis of the impact on Treasury, SSA and the American people to whom this program will apply. As with Benefit Payment Offset, we want to be sure that the continuous tax levy program is built to achieve collections in an efficient and effective way, while protecting the people subject to it, and allowing SSA to continue its mission.
In conclusion, our Agency has accomplished much in the way of implementing the new debt collection tools authorized for us. We are well on our way to completing the implementation of an additional five major debt collection tools. In less than one year, we will implement mandatory cross program recovery, administrative offset and credit bureau reporting for SSI debts, administrative wage garnishment for OASDI and SSI debts, and benefit payment offset. Immediately after that, we will focus on the remaining authorities of Federal salary offset, cross servicing, private collection agencies and interest charging.
SSA is committed to implementing the provisions of DCIA and other relevant debt collection laws. Our record of achievement--implementing TRO, administrative offset, and credit bureau reporting--shows our commitment to debt management.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today. I will be glad to answer any questions you may have.


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Jennifer Langosch and Mark Shelton / MLB.com
Ahead of Tuesday's deadline, the Cardinals added four players to their 40-man roster to protect them from being selected in next month's Rule 5 Draft.
St. Louis purchased the contracts of right-handed pitchers Michael Blazek, Keith Butler and Eric Fornataro and left-hander Kevin Siegrist. All four players ended the 2012 season at Double-A Springfield.
Major League Baseball's deadline to protect players was Tuesday at 10:59 p.m. CT. Players first signed at age 18 must be added to 40-man rosters within five years or they become eligible to be drafted by other organizations through the Rule 5 process. Players signed at 19 years old are to be protected within four years.
Clubs pay $50,000 to select a player in the Rule 5 Draft, to be held on Dec. 6 at the conclusion of the Winter Meetings in Nashville. If that player doesn't stay on the 25-man roster for the full season, he must be offered back to his former team for $25,000.
With the additions, the Cardinals' 40-man roster is at 39 players.
Blazek, ranked by MLB.com as the Cardinals' No. 13 prospect, spent the majority of the 2012 season at Springfield, where he posted a 4.16 ERA in 40 appearances (seven starts). He also made two appearances with Triple-A Memphis, including one start.
A 35th-round selection in the 2007 First-Year Player Draft, Blazek transitioned into a relief role this season after pitching primarily as a starter in previous years.
Fornataro, ranked No. 17, moved into a bullpen role in 2012. That helped boost his velocity into the upper-90s.
Fornataro, 24, made 57 appearances and posted a 2.39 ERA with Springfield. In addition to recording five saves, Fornataro collected 41 strikeouts in 67 2/3 innings. He was particularly tough against right-handed batters.
Butler, 23, led Springfield with 25 saves, finishing second in the Texas League, and he was 5-1 with a 2.76 ERA in 53 appearances -- all in relief. He was the Cardinals' 24th-round selection in the 2009 Draft.
Siegrist just wrapped up a stint in the Arizona Fall League, where he went 2-1 with a 2.37 ERA in six games (five starts) for the Surprise Saguaros. The lefty struck out 27 and walked just six in 19 innings. The time in Arizona helped Siegrist make up innings that he missed during the regular season due to time on the disabled list with a shoulder strain.
The 23-year-old Siegrist split the season between Class A-Advanced and Double-A and finished with a combined 2.77 ERA.


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Rheumatic Heart Disease
What is rheumatic heart disease?
Rheumatic heart disease is a condition in which permanent damage to heart valves is caused by rheumatic fever. The heart valve is damaged by a disease process that generally begins with a strep throat caused by streptococcus A bacteria, that may eventually cause rheumatic fever.
The effects of rheumatic fever:
- Rheumatic fever, an inflammatory disease, can affect many connective tissues, especially in the heart, joints, skin, or brain.
- Rheumatic fever can occur at any age, but usually occurs in children five to 15 years old.
- Rheumatic fever causes heart damage – particularly scarring of the heart valves – forcing the heart to work harder to pump blood and may eventually cause congestive heart failure.
What are the symptoms of rheumatic fever?
The following are the most common symptoms for rheumatic fever; however, each individual may experience symptoms differently. Symptoms, which vary greatly, typically begin one to six weeks after a bout of strep throat, although, in some cases, the infection may have been too mild to have been recognized. Symptoms may include:
- fever
- swollen, tender, red and extremely painful joints – particularly the knees, ankles, elbows, or wrists
- nodules over swollen joints
- red, raised, lattice-like rash, usually on the chest, back, and abdomen
- uncontrolled movements of arms, legs, or facial muscles
- weakness and shortness of breath
The symptoms of rheumatic fever may resemble other bone disorders or medical problems. Consult your physician for a diagnosis.
Treatment for rheumatic heart disease:
Specific treatment for rheumatic heart disease will be determined by your physician based on:
- your overall health and medical history
- extent of the disease
- your tolerance for specific medications, procedures, or therapies
- expectations for the course of the disease
- your opinion or preference
Since rheumatic fever is the cause of rheumatic heart disease, the best treatment is to prevent rheumatic fever from occurring. Penicillin and other antibiotics can usually treat strep throat (a streptococcus A bacterial infection) and stop acute rheumatic fever from developing.
Persons who have previously contracted rheumatic fever are often given continuous (daily or monthly) antibiotic treatments, possibly for life, to prevent future attacks of rheumatic fever and lower the risk of heart damage. Antibiotic therapy has sharply reduced the incidence and mortality rate of rheumatic fever/rheumatic heart disease. To reduce inflammation, aspirin, steroids, or non-steroidal medications may be given. Surgery may be necessary to repair or replace the damaged valve.


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Like to have different opinions
38 komentar
Hey there,
You might want to read this post about breakfast ideas.
Zsolt - www.thuild.com
Thanks Zsolt, that was a top discussion of last year!
For more inspiration (in the way of photos), check out this thread: Your Guest Breakfast Offering
Rambujehotel, if you've got a particular challenge for breakfast that you need tips for (for example, early check outs), let the community know. The more information, the better :)
Happy posting!
My personal approach is - advertise on booking site that cooked brakfast os available if you want this then book it - I provide a continental style breakfast for free - so most people are not bothered about paying for something they may feel they don't need. Yes this does cost me a little bit more - but to me it's all about good customer relations - and look at the reviews I get must have some impact and pays in other ways
hi guys
simple put on the booking.com extranet about the breakfast charges and if early check-outs they will not care to pay for it but keep in mind tell the guest on arrival that these are the food menu available in case of early check-out so u will not miss the guest anymore.
manager-nalan group of hotels
south india
Good day! What we do is that we offer breakfast with a standard contribution with no description because we al always prepare food on morning and night so what is available and new ideas we serve. So our menu is according to the person who wants to cook so it varies. The main ingredients for breakfast are fruits, tea, grains and diferente options per day as the local breakfast in the area. The secret is the mix of spices or ingredients and because we have open/shared kitchen, many guests interact in the cooking expirience!
good day too
tell the guest that food is prepared on the daily market vegetable availability since Ur requirement is limited. also speak with guest the reality what you are facing in daily business so that they will be humble to have the great food of your and request them to make the comment's on the Facebook and Instagram and also TripAdvisor just try this one's
I am self-contained with my farm stay and have muesli or granola and oats available at all times. On arrival, my guests can let me know what they would like as an extra. Some didn't bring anything and they insist in paying me for their breakfast which is whatever they like. Some foreign people don't understand what self-contained is and the last thing I want to do is seeing a guest leave unhappy with an empty stomach.
But anyway, often people like a little extra like milk, or some prefer just a few slices of brown bread.
Milk is not digested well by everyone, for some, it's a treat and others simply don't care. As long as they have their coffee. And that is available at all times. Organic, Fair-trade, fresh kuku coffee. Nothing that sets you off better than a great coffee in the morning! YAY
Aaltje, your culinary skills are famous on the forum - this apple pie post is how I first got to know you. Can you post a slice to Amsterdam? 😋
Wow, Lucy, you should submit this into our February photo challenge. Crepes in France definitely fits the theme!
Food allergies, Glenn McKnight they are on the rise isn't it.
So gluten free options are more and more requested.
Home-made yoghurt and farm milk from the cow - all grass based, no hormones used, people admire a lot.
Eggs are a good one too.
I have tried to make waffles also gluten free with a small waffle maker, and they looked and tasted amazing too.
My grandson can't have gluten, egg and dairy and managed to create a waffle with oat milk and grapeseed oil or coconut oil, coconut sugar grinded it in the coffee grinder, and added egg replacer. And it worked, very yummy! There are alternatives. It took some extra effort but got it now. Worth trying.
Enjoy all your guests and your breakfast preparations!
Aaltje B.
Hi all,
We serve a different main course for breakfast breakfast every day, but all breakfasts include Melon with Serrano ham, Yogurt with fresh strawberries and blueberries, Freshly baked bread, a cheeseboard with four different cheeses and crackers, home made strawberry jam and marmalade, as well as tea or coffee and water, and orange juice. The main courses are Pancakes with syrups, Omelette with toast, or Scrambled eggs with smoked salmon.
Most guests appreciate the way we do it, and we do ask about food allergies or other dietary requirements, and try to note which guests do not eat certain things, and offer them an alternative the next day.
Fantastic choice.
I think the level of breakfast choices is an important option. If are marketing your rooms as more on the inexpensive side, I assume a continental breakfast suits the budget conscious. If you are charging alot I think the extra touches makes sense.
We have not had anyone ask for any items that are restricted to their diet.
On the other hand you have lots of other considerations , Vegan, Vegetarian, Halal and Kosher.
In my wife's family we have Seven Day Adventist- No pork products. She also has Hindu and its strict vegetarian.
Since she is from Jamaica we can make Ackees and Salt cod, fried plantain etc which is a cultural experience. This I would do with lots of communication in advance. We made for a US black guests and one was from Jamaica but the rest couldn't eat the Ackees and Saltcod and it was expensive and waste
Love the Dutch breakfast. Reminds me of my visit to Amsterdam.
My guests prepare their own breakfast. I have for them in the fridge local home made products such as goat milk, eggs, yoghurt. Freshf Fruits, juices, home made cakes and cookies, bread, hand made marmalades and pure honey. Since coffee is so important to many people guests can prepare their own cup of coffee having to choose between instant coffee, espresso, capuccino but above all the best Greek coffee.
My guesthouse is self catering so we supply a simple continental breakfast of pastries, bread, spreads, cereals and milk and leave the guests to quiet enjoyment of their stay . They know where to contact us if they need and a lot of them enjoy reducing their expenses further by using our fully equipped kitchen facilities.
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text:
Buy Now:
Arranger: Paul Lavender
Composer: Jule Styne
Composer: Sammy Cahn
Writer: Jule Styne
Writer: Paul Lavender
Writer: Sammy Cahn
Ensemble: Concert Band
Instrumentation: Eb Alto Sax 1
Instrumentation: Part
Pages: 1
Product Code: 248341-HLD
Concert Band, Sheet Music Download, Concert Band. Arranger: Paul Lavender. Composer: Jule Styne; Sammy Cahn. Writer: Jule Styne; Paul Lavender; Sammy Cahn.
With this printable sheet music download you can print
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� 2019 Music44. All rights reserved.


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War on Christmas?
John Stewart, in typical masterly fashion, just skewers the Christian Christmas Jihadists at Fox News in their annual "War on Christmas" outrage:
|The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
|Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
|The War on Christmas: Friendly Fire Edition
I made somewhat similar points back in 2009 in response to a "War on Christmas" poem I received by email. But Stewart's segment is so immensely superior in driving home the absurdity of the "War on Christmas" meme, that I just had to share it. One of my favorite lines: "Christmas is so big now, it's eating other holidays."


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"Us And Them - Cold War" is a turn-based strategy game about cold war that you can play either as CIA or KGB.
Although it is a game of territorial expansion, the rivals do not attack their opponent using military force. Instead they use an army of Spies, Assassins and Experts of various kinds (like economy, technology etc.) in order to destabilize the enemy's countries socially, economically, politically and finally to change their governments' ideology and attach them in their own political block.
The player will have to manage resources like money, oil and technology. He must place his units strategically on the map and create a series of spy networks waiting for the right moment to unleash a series of sabotages, assassinations, bribes, revolutions, arrests and interrogations of enemy units. Since most of the units are hidden to the enemy, the collection and interception of crucial information about the countries, the units' attributes and their whereabouts is essential for victory.
- Take advantage of great Cold War personalities like Che Guevara, Henry Kissinger, Mao Ze Dong, Fidel Castro the Pope and many many more!
- Research and develop spy gadgets right out of James Bond's laboratories and some famous equipment of real life spies.
- Take part in the historic Space Race
- Use your nuclear arsenal to intimidate the opponent.
- A series of special rules will allow you to deploy special strategies like the "Domino Effect" and the "Communist sandwich".
- All units, as a representation of actual persons, have their own skills and attributes that make them unique.
- The game features a series of random events that in the most part are real events of the cold war era.
September 20,
Tech Support & F.A.Q.
Click here if
you have any
questions or you are experiencing problems with the game.
June 17, 2014
Patch 1.3.1 for steam version
Patch 1.3.1 is
available on steam.
We would like to thank Primescribe team for translating the game. http://primescribe.ru/
Click here to see what is improved.
April 1, 2014
Patch 1.2.2 for steam version
We have just delivered patch 1.2.2 to steam. Click here to see what is improved.
March 20, 2014
Russian version in development
Currently the game is available in English, German and Greek language. After a demand from many users, we have started working on a Russian version of the game. This is a game where you can also play as KGB after all!
March 18,
Us and Them - Cold War is now available on steam.


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If you haven't flown much recently but have miles sitting in a frequent flier account, they could vanish before your eyes.
Back when frequent flier programs began in the 1980s, miles either never expired or had a shelf-life of at least three years. Today, however, airlines put tighter limits on the lifespan of your hard-earned miles, and expiration policies vary by airline.
Should you find your balance suddenly showing zero, don't panic. Many airlines offer the ability to reinstate expired miles for a fee. (Read more: How to Quickly Rack Up Frequent Flier Miles)
Here's a breakdown of U.S. airline policies on mileage expiration and how to get them back or extend their life.
AirTran: oints in AirTran's A Rewards program expire one year after their posting date. Members can extend the life of the credits by one year for $29 each (plus tax), but cannot buy them back after expiration.
Alaska Airlines: Mileage accrued in Alaska's Mileage Plan program are subject to expiration after two years of account inactivity. Deleted mileage can be reinstated for a $75 fee for up to one year.
American Airlines: Miles earned in the AAdvantage program expire after 18 months of inactivity. Miles that expired on or after December 31, 2002 are eligible for reactivation at a rate of $200-$600 (plus tax), depending on the number of miles reactivated.
Delta: Delta ucks the industry and is the only major U.S. airline without a mileage expiration policy. However, the airline reserves the right to close a member's account if repeated communication attempts to a member go unanswered.
JetBlue: Points don't expire as long as you earn points by flying JetBlue or using the JetBlue Card from American Express on eligible purchases at least once in a 12-month period. JetBlue does not offer a program to reinstate expired points.
Southwest: Points in Southwest's Rapid Rewards program don't expire as long as you have flight or partner earning activity every 24 months. Southwest does not offer a program to reinstate expired points.
United: Miles in United's MileagePlus program expire after 18 months of inactivity. Miles may be reinstated within 18 months following expiration for $50-$400, depending on the amount of miles reactivated.
US Airways: Miles are subject to forfeiture if no miles have been earned or redeemed within a consecutive 18-month period. US Airways charges between $10-$400 to reinstate expired Dividend Miles for an additional 18 months. If you do not reinstate forfeited miles within 36 months of the last activity date, they will be permanently deleted.
Coming soon on Road Warrior, I'll provide inexpensive tips to avoid mileage expiration in the first place — some as cheap as $2.


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WriteTheWeb is no longer publishing. These
pages are archived here, but will not be updated. The search function
is also disabled. Thank you.
You know weblogs are passe when even politicians are jumping on the bandwagon...
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Read more
What do you use QuickTopic for? Discussing off-topic stuff that crops up on mailing lists? There's waaaay more to it than that, as our interview with founder Steve Yost reveals.
Read more
A new browser has emerged for the open source GNOME desktop
platform. Epiphany seeks
to live up to the claims of its name in terms of simplicity and
Web mail is among the most helpful web applications online,
it lets you to access, launch, accept and control your email throughout a web browser. The great component of web mail is
that you may access your email anywhere in the world, providing
it has an online connection as well as web browser.
It has been popular by several technology businesses including
portals and search engines such as Google Gmail, Yahoo! Mail,
and Microsoft's Hotmail. Typically these businesses present
their complimentary web mail service to attract clients to keep
returning back to their website. Many people check their email
everyday, the more a guest visits a site, the more proceeds a
business could create selling advertisements.
Centrally Stored Email. This is the capability to access your
email from any place that has a web browse and Internet
connection. It is not necessary that you are restricted to one
PC at one place to launch and receive email.
Easy and Free Registration. Most web mail services build it very
easy to register for an email account and begin using it
instantly. Even a beginner with almost no tech experience may
start an email account and make use of it in minutes. Most of
web mail services present their email service at no cost.
Huge Storage Capacity. Many web mail services presently let you
to save a data with over one gigabyte. This signifies that it is
not necessary to erase your old emails and its attachments.
Compound Email Addresses. Many individuals have more than one
email address as well as web mail which makes it simple and free
to do so. Many people might have email addresses for bulk email offers that they
register for.
Maintenance and Management. Traditional email users made it
essential for you to maintain and manage to your own email, but
now today, all the maintenance and management is completed by
the web mail services. You don't have to fret about the
reconfiguring software, patches, etc.
Noah Grey wrote a piece of software called Greymatter, and with it helped the blogosphere take its first hesitant steps into the limelight. Then he kind of disappeared, and then he kind of came back again. Last week, he kindly agreed to spill his heart to WriteTheWeb, about Greymatter, blogs (and hating the word "blog"), copyright, and spirituality.
1 comments
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RSS has a troubled enough history already with respect to "standards compliance," but the trend for RSS aggregators leave bogus referrer information is becoming immensely irritating.
4 comments
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Jo Walsh is creator and curator of the spacenamespace project, an adventure in collaborative mapping. As an ambitious first step, she is overseeing the building of an interactive map of London, accessible via an instant messaging bot. WriteTheWeb asked her to explain the roots of the idea, and how it is progressing. Her answer follows.
Nearly three years after launching, we've given WtW a fresh look, and a new injection of content. In 2003 the issues that we set out to cover in 2000 are as relevant as ever: following and campaigning for the writeable web, where participation by creation is as important as reading.
NetNewsWire has become one of the most talked-about applications for Mac-owning webloggers. In its initial incarnation as a freeware RSS reader, it successfully boosted awareness and usage of RSS across the blogosphere. Just when people thought it couldn't get any better, the commercial version appeared offering built-in weblog editing too. WriteTheWeb spoke to NetNewsWire's creator, Brent Simmons.
When is a weblog not a weblog? When it's a game. Kevan Davies and friends have started up a web site whose purpose is nothing more than defining its own existence.
Meg Hourihan will be conducting a session at the Emerging Technology Conference on The Margins of the Writable Web.
You must have noticed it - the fast-growing trend among content sites to start charging for content. But just because it works for some, it won't necessarily work for all, and there appear to be a lot of site owners who have not grasped that yet.
Small-time web publishers, fanzine writers, and webloggers have had little or no chance of standing up against The Man when sent a legal letter or email asking them to "cease and desist" with whatever it is they are publishing online. Not until now, that is, thanks to the arrival of Chilling Effects.
Some people are taking the concept of weblogs and applying it to the wider concept of knowledge management. The result is k-logging ("knowledge-logging"). But will it catch on - will your employer dump Lotus Notes databases in favour of browsers and blog-style brain-dumps?
3 comments
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A prestigious digital history project conducted by the BBC in the 1980s is now just so much junk, because no-one can figure out a way to read the disks the data was stored on. What does this tell us about all the data we are committing to electronic storage now?
The movie industry wants to avoid getting Napstered at all costs. It is taking unprecedented steps to protect moving images from being digitally copied.


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Jamie Renton wrote:Joe Simon - Drowning in a Sea of Love https: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=08t_uHnm_nc
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will vine wrote: Cool For Cats ? The weekend didn't star here. It went out on a tuesday originally, later, I think, repeated on a saturday.....so here it is for you on sunday morning.
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WARNER ROBINS , Ga., Aug. 8 (UPI) -- A Georgia boy ended up with a suspension after he brought a toy to school as part of an assignment that his teacher handed out.
Ramsey McDonald's teacher asked fourth graders at Miller Elementary School to bring in their most beloved toys so that they could talk about them.
The youngster told his dad that he was going to bring in his iPad and some other toys.
"They were trying to get the kids to know each other," said the boy's father, Scott McDonald.
On Tuesday, McDonald received a call from the school.
"They told me my son brought a weapon to school and they asked me if I was aware," McDonald told WMAZ. "I asked them what it was and they said it was a plastic Nerf gun."
The boy ended up with a three-day in-school suspension for bringing the toy to class.
"He told me he didn't know they would think it was a weapon or he wouldn't have brought it to school," McDonald said.


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Stone Age Politics: House Kills Medical Marijuana Bill
PIERRE - At a time when states like Colorado and Washington have decriminalized marijuana for recreational use, South Dakota has seen a bill to allow courts to consider medical necessity as a mitigating circumstance in cases of simple possession killed in House committee.
There is a multitude of anecdotal evidence of marijuana's beneficial medical uses, however the federal government continues to treat it as a substance with no redeeming medical value. Conversely, cocaine and methamphetamine are classified as having some medical use, rare as cause for prescribing those drugs may be.
The principle reason for this lies not with scientific study, which has largely been impossible given marijuana's controlled status, but stems from sheer political posturing. Culture clash dating back to 1960s has made politicians afraid to appear weak on the drug issue. As a result, we have policy designed to make politicos appear tough on crime rather than be in accord with evidence and commonsense.
Perhaps the most obvious example of this is opposing medical marijuana on the grounds that its availability must be restricted because it is a "gateway" drug. This type of reasoning is usually based on asking heroin or crack users if they tried marijuana first, which is rife with bias. Marijuana is much more widely available than any harder drug, so it stands to reason that it would be encountered earlier.
More importantly, the question shouldn't be how many heroin users tried marijuana before moving on, but rather what percentage of marijuana users eventually made their way to heroin. Obviously, this percentage is considerably smaller.
Using the "gateway" reasoning, shouldn't we also criminalize and crack down on alcohol, tobacco, and even caffeine? After all, doesn't the typical heroin user likely try these drugs earlier on their path to becoming a junkie?
Obviously, no one wants to see more kids on drugs or witness the personal tragedy of drug abuse. However, the notion that the law respects the average adult enough to allow them to indulge in alcohol, which is responsible for at least as much social mayhem, but not marijuana, smacks of senseless hypocrisy.
It is high time that politicians drop the drug warrior pretense and act to relieve the unnecessary suffering of those who could be benefitted by medical marijuana.