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GOP sees cash in gay marriage shift
Republican fundraisers say the changing views of gay marriage in their party could unlock big money from GOP donors in places like New York, California and Florida — where some Republicans have kept their checkbooks closed over what they saw as misplaced priorities, at best, or intolerance, at worst, at the highest ranks of the party.
Several Republicans pointed to Sen. Rob Portman's switch in support of gay marriage as a watershed moment for the party. And more than two dozen high-profile Republicans asked the Supreme Court to back gay rights. And even Foster Friess, Rick Santorum's top benefactor, has softened his stance on domestic partnership.
Story Continued Below
"Republicans' intolerance to marriage equality has been detrimental to winning," said Aaron McLear, a California Republican strategist. "Big donors understand that they don't want to invest in campaigns focused on a losing issue, and I think certainly the fiscal issues for Republicans are much more marketable."
(Also on POLITICO: Rob Portman backs gay marriage)
Republican fundraiser Jim McCray agreed. "I think it will open up donors across the board, because it demonstrates Republicans are trying to recreate the big tent they were known for," McCray said.
It's not clear how much money could come from donors supportive of the party's move toward new thoughts on gay marriage. Pro gay-rights donors have long been an important source of campaign cash for Democrats, including after President Barack Obama pushed through a repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which barred openly gay people from serving in the military.
And operatives believe the money is there for Republicans, too.
Several lawmakers told POLITICO the issue has come up in meetings with potential big donors, who take a different view than the party base.
Portman himself has taken heat from New York donors who believe the party's emphasis on social issues is one of the major reasons for losses this fall. Their views were taken so seriously that Portman, vice chairman of finance for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, held a dozen meetings with big New York donors recently in an attempt to assuage their fears about the direction of the party.
(PHOTOS: 25 gay marriage milestones)
One GOP fundraising operative said Portman's announcement could provide a fundraising boost to the debt-saddled NRSC.
"Those donors are libertarian on social issues, and a lot of them support [gay marriage]," said the operative, who deals regularly with top-tier GOP donors. "So, it could actually help."
American Unity PAC, a super PAC started by Elliott Associates hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer to push Republican candidates to support gay marriage, plans to announce big changes related to its fundraising in the coming weeks as it ramps up for the midterm elections.
( PHOTOS: Pols who evolved on gay marriage)
"I expect we're going to play a major, major role in 2014. As more and more true conservatives come out in support of the freedom to marry, it gives us a lot more opportunity to play a role and make a difference in races," said Jeff Cook-McCormac, a senior adviser to American Unity PAC.


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January 7, 2018
Throwback #2
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|The final pancetta
You see for Charcutepalooza, we're supposed to post on the 15th of every month. I got my bacon done in time (see here and here), but the pancetta still had to dry for a week or more before I could enjoy that yumminess. Now I present it to you, dear readers.
|The pancetta before the cure.
|The hanging pancetta
I wanted something simple for my first dish using all this porky goodness. I love pancetta in any kind of pasta dish. I know it brings a depth to beans, to vegetables, but I love it wrapped around some lovely strands of pasta. I wanted to use a traditional white bean for this pasta, but alas, I was out.
It's cold with freezing rain here in New England this morning and there was no way in hell I was going out in that until I absolutely had to. So, as always, I modified and the result was pretty tasty, even if it's not exactly what I was going for. Either way, enjoy and consider joining us for Charcutepalooza. It's a jolly good time so far!
Oh and quick moment of self-promotion here, because I haven't done it in a while. You can follow Lighter and Local on twitter (if you don't it's @kimmybingham) and if you want tasty morsels to pop up in your Facebook feed, you can find me there as well. Just "like" the Lighter and Local page! You can always subscribe in an RSS reader or by email - check the side of your screen here for all the links. And please, never fear emailing me. I love to hear from all of you!
|The pancetta, sliced
Pasta with Pancetta and Chickpeas
Serves: 4
1/2 cup pancetta, diced
2 small shallots (or 1 large), roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 cup chickpeas (if using canned, drained and rinsed)
1/2 pound pasta of your choosing (I used thick spaghetti)
salt and pepper
Parmesan cheese for serving
Get your water going for your pasta, throw a little kosher salt in there to get it really going. Cook according to directions, drain, set aside.
Now, in a large skillet (large enough to hold the pasta in the end) - place your pancetta and turn up the heat to medium to medium-high and fry it up. Transfer to a paper-towel lined plate.
Let the skillet cool a bit and wipe out a little bit of the pancetta grease, leaving some behind. Now, heat skillet back up to medium heat and add your shallots. Cook 3-4 minutes until they're softened. Next, add your garlic and cook until fragrant, do not burn that garlic, you'll regret it later. Now, add your two teaspoons of olive oil, chickpeas, and pancetta, and cook 2-3 minutes until they warm up. The reason we're adding the olive oil so late is because we don't want a ton of it to cook off, we want it to coat the pasta we're going to add. Salt and pepper this mixture to your taste
Serve with grated Parmesan cheese and enjoy!
Now add your pasta to the skillet, folding in the pancetta mixture until everything is coated.


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Enjoy drinks in style with glasses you designed. Join our glass etching CraftJam and learn to master this amazing technique. In this CraftJam you get to unleash your inner artist and decorate glasses just the way you like them. Perfect to liven up your home or give as a gift.
As a Valentines gift, we will be giving out a free copy of 125,000 Ways to Say I Love You by Pia Frey to every Jammer.
In two hours your our certified JamMaster will show you:
how to make creative and cool designs on glass
how to create stencils with an x-acto knife and a cutting board
how to transfer designs permanently on glass using etching creme
This class is beginner-friendly; no experience necessary! And we've got all the materials you'll need, including 4 glasses, etching solution, brushes, stencils etc.
BYOB – crafting is paired best with your favorite drink of choice!
CraftJams are hosted in an intimate setting with a twelve attendee maximum. Make sure to purchase your ticket before the event is sold out!
Before the class
We encourage you to brainstorm and print out any ideas you have for your glasses. We suggest simple silhouettes, something that would be easy for you to cut out multiple times.
The glasses are is 4" tall, so keep the designs around the 2" to 3" range. You get 4 glasses as your canvases so consider whether you want to make a set or 4 individual glasses. Find inspiration from our Glass Etching Pinterest board and printable silhouette gallery.
We will supply some silhouettes at the class as well so don't fret if you don't have time to print. You are also free to draw your of original designs free hand!
Other Available Dates


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Monday, February 20, 2012
Every time I go to the beach I find some glass, over time it has grown to a pretty fine collection and has become a hobby for me. Leeluu loves looking for it..."treasure hunting" as she calls it. Some people believe that sea glass is just like, or even better than precious gems!
The color of the glass determines where it came from...the browns and greens usually come from bottles, but it is the blues and purples that I love. They have a history that date back to the late 19 century.
When the tide is low is the best time to go hunting, its very addictive and relaxing! Do you collect anything?
5 comments:
Cool! I love the sea...we are pretty landlocked here. I have a few different collections, but mostly they are just practical collections. I love yours thoughReplyDelete
Oh beautiful! I'm not much of a collector...my interests seem to blow where the wind takes me...but I do love your collection of sea glass!ReplyDelete
Wow, what a creative way to put what others would discard into beautiful use! How did you connect them? Are they sharp or rounded by a type of erosion when you find them?ReplyDelete
Blessed...I didn't connect them, it is just a jar poured out onto the floor. It would be neat to do something with them though....hmmmmReplyDelete
The glass is rounded softened by the sand, rocks and waves. If I do find a piece that is still pretty new, I throw it back into the sea.
- AnonymousFebruary 23, 2012 at 2:44 PM
Seeing that picture reminds me of Glassy Beach from my hometown in Newfoundland :)ReplyDelete


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#86188 - リブ シェイプ チューンドマフラー (シルバー)
Discontinued, replacement part: #86138
Ribbed Tuned Pipes for the Savage monster truck! Constructed of high strength aluminum in the popular "ribbed" shape, these new tuned pipes help engines produce more power than the stock Savage composite tuned pipe. Available in Black, Purple and bright Silver finish, these pipes are all anodized for extra protection and have the HPI logo laser-etched into the side of the pipe. Packaged individually, with all hardware necessary for mounting.


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Get DVD Talk Feeds
Despite its sweeping visuals and epic scale, Steven Spielberg's War Horse remains focused on its equine hero, Joey, as he travels throughout France and Germany during World War I. Adapted from Michael Morpurgo's children's novel, War Horse bounces between the characters and settings Joey encounters as a British Cavalry horse, and Spielberg captures the horrors and beauty of the period landscape. War Horse is classic filmmaking; dramatic and sentimental, with heartache and triumph for its characters. The toll of war on Europe is sometimes overlooked outside of a few startling scenes of violence, which dampers the film's resonance some, but War Horse supplements its narrative creaks with earnest storytelling.
Farmer Ted Narracott (Peter Mullan) buys a thoroughbred at auction despite being told the horse will never pull a plow. Ted's wife, Rose (Emily Watson), demands he return the horse, but his son, Albert (Jeremy Irvine), promises to train the horse, which he names Joey. Ted is haunted by memories of his time in South African during the Second Boer War, and turns to the bottle for relief, leaving Joey and Rose responsible for paying the rent. In a rousing early scene, Albert gets Joey to plow a rocky field and saves the family's farm from vindictive landlord Lyons (David Thewlis). The good luck eventually dries up, and Ted sells Joey to Calvary officer Capt. Nicholls (Tom Hiddleston), who promises to look after Joey and return him to Albert after the war.
Violence fills Joey's first months at war, as the British quickly learn their traditional battle charges are futile against a hail of machine-gun bullets. Although Joey cannot speak, War Horse follows the horse across Europe, where he meets soldiers and civilians alike. In the possession of German troops, Joey encounters young soldiers Gunther (David Kross) and Michael (Leonard Carow), who foolishly desert to save their lives. Joey meets fragile Emilie (Celine Buckens) and her grandfather (Niels Arestrup), who live on a farm near the German front. The story later moves forward several years, and Joey continues to suffer under the harsh German command. War Horse glimpses battle from many angles, and, while the big picture is never captured, it succeeds at portraying the hardship and loss of war at a personal level.
Spielberg released two very different films in 2011: Motion-capture animated film The Adventures of Tintin and War Horse, which received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. The Adventures of Tintin is breathless fun, but War Horse is more traditional filmmaking. Spielberg captures the landscape and frames the actors in beautiful mise-en-scène in a manner not seen since his Saving Private Ryan. Every shot is beautifully composed and framed, and film buffs should appreciate Spielberg's mastery of his craft. Albert eventually enlists and fights with the British in the Second Battle of the Somme, where soldiers hide from German guns and bombs in mud-soaked trenches. Albert enlisted for his country and for Joey, who he hopes to see again.
Before its film adaptation, Morpurgo's story was turned into a successful stage production that used life-sized puppets for the horses. The material is suited for that medium, which allows an audience to focus on the core story without demanding a visual depiction of all the surrounding events. As a film, War Horse is nimble and mostly satisfying, but at times lacks this context. War Horse is sad because a horse suffers greatly, yet millions of people died in World War I. Spielberg provides glimpses of the tragedy, but overlooks most of the fallout. After the first hour, Albert gets too little screen time to earn much sympathy, but Joey is the real hero anyway. Joey is the most charismatic and developed character in War Horse, and that makes the film a success.
The 2.40:1/1080p/AVC-encoded transfer for War Horse complements Spielberg's sharp directorial eye and the beautiful cinematography from Janusz Kaminski. Detail is excellent, and Spielberg's frequent deep-focus shots stretch for miles. Close-ups reveal every facial detail, sweat bead and dried patch of mud on the tired soldiers, as well as Joey's chocolate coat. Colors are bold and lush, and rotate from the fertile greens and reds of rural France to the harsh grays and blacks of the German war zone. Blacks are solid and do not crush, and War Horse appears at all times film-like. No compression artifacts appear, and the only hiccup to report is some very slight aliasing.
The disc's 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack supports the thunderous chaos of war, with excellent range and dynamic clarity. Dialogue is crisp and clear, and directional dialogue is frequent. The 7.1 mix is immersive and expertly designed to place the viewer amid the environment on screen. Ambient effects surround the viewer, and action effects rumble throughout the sound field and awaken the subwoofer. Machine gun fire ricochets around the room, horses gallop and rattle the floor, and panicked voices pan through the rear and front speakers. This is an excellent mix, and the fantastic range means quiet scenes are just as powerful. A French 7.1 DTS-HD HR track and a Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital track are also available, as are English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles.
War Horse arrives on Blu-ray as a 4-disc "combo pack" from Touchstone. Disc 1 contains the film, Disc 2 holds the majority of the extras, Disc 3 is a DVD copy of War Horse, and Disc 4 contains an iTunes-compatible digital copy of the film. The thick Blu-ray case is wrapped in an attractive, textured slipcover. Spielberg and his filmmaking team are heavily featured in the set's extras, but, as usual, Spielberg does not provide a commentary. The disc also lacks interactive or picture-in-picture content, but the material included is thorough and interesting:
War Horse has old-fashioned sensibilities, but its equine hero's struggles under British and German leadership during World War I are timeless. Steven Spielberg shoots across Europe and captures the beauty and horrors of the war-torn landscape as war horse Joey bounces between various riders and strangers. War Horse occasionally misses the big picture and fallout of war, but its voiceless lead is a compelling protagonist. The Blu-ray features excellent picture and sound and some weighty extras. Highly Recommended.
William lives in Burlington, North Carolina, and looks forward to a Friday-afternoon matinee.


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'Antarctic Mike' delivers inspirational message at Invisible Disabilities Association benefit
Adventure athlete Mike Pierce earned the nickname Antarctic Mike after completing marathons in some of the world's coldest climates: the Canadian Arctic, Siberia and Antarctica.
He painted a vivid description of some of those adventures when he spoke at the fifth Honor Awards Banquet hosted by the Invisible Disabilities Association, a Parker-based nonprofit that encourages, educates and connects people and organizations touched by illness, pain and injury around the globe through its website, online social network, literature, projects and seminars. Wayne Connell is the IDA's founder and executive director.
Pierce shared the many ways in which adventure sports changed his life, including the importance of being mentally focused and conditioned to run his most challenging and important marathon: that of helping his wife, Angela, manage the health challenges she has faced since breaking bones in 168 places after falling 125 feet off a mountain in Durango in 1985. Since then, she has had 40 surgeries and copes with chronic pain, hepatitis C, kidney failure and post-traumatic stress disorder.


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Prof John Saxton FBASES (Chair of the Scientific Programme Committee)
"I am delighted to welcome you to BASES Conference 2019.
We aim to provide 2 days of world-leading content across sport and exercise sciences. Whether you wish to present your own research or listen to others, I hope you will join us for what promises to be an outstanding event."
Early bird delegate prices
Available until Friday 13 September 2019
Platinum Supporter
Gold Supporters
Cambridge Nutritional Sciences


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In a handwritten letter to himself, dated December 13, 1990, Specialist Alan Rogers, a twenty-three-year-old African-American chaplain's assistant, grappled with the issue of fear as he prepared for his first combat tour. Aboard Flight 104 from Germany to Saudi Arabia, as part of Operation Desert Shield, he wrote, "It seems like only yesterday that we were initially alerted that our unit would be deploying to the Persian Gulf to support the multinational force buildup already operating in the Middle East theater. Yet, in the midst of all the preparations and briefings, frenzied activity and excitement, there exists a general feeling of numbness. This really isn't happening . . . this world crisis is not going to affect me. . . ." Rogers was an unusually soft-spoken and cerebral enlistee—he'd been voted "most intellectual" in his high-school class—and he found himself replaying the lyrics to Diana Ross's "Theme from Mahogany" in his head ("Do you know where you're going to?").
Rogers went on to a distinguished military career. After earning two Kuwait Liberation medals with the 8th Battalion, 43rd Air Defense Artillery, which provided Patriot-missile support against Saddam Hussein's Soviet-made Scuds, he returned home and, on an R.O.T.C. scholarship at the University of Florida, earned his bachelor's degree, in religion. Then he accepted a commission as an intelligence officer. While stationed in Arizona, as an aide-de-camp at Fort Huachuca, he received a master's degree in organizational management from the University of Phoenix, and later, after serving two tours in South Korea, and returning to the Middle East in 2002 for the initial phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom, he pursued a second master's, in policy management, at Georgetown. The Georgetown stint was part of an élite Defense Department internship program offered to twenty captains across the services, and it included an assignment to the Pentagon—in Rogers's case, as a special assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense, Gordon England. After the internship, he worked at the Pentagon as the lead biometrics officer in Army Intelligence—"the stuff that you see on 'C.S.I.: Miami,' " as one of his friends put it, referring to the use of advanced fingerprinting techniques and retinal scans, which are particularly useful in counter-insurgency warfare, and in tracking the sources of improvised explosive devices, the primary killer of U.S. troops. Biometrics was a notorious mess, but Rogers excelled in the role, owing in large part to his facility for reconciling the technological demands of civilian contractors with the Army bureaucracy. "Every biometrics staff in the Pentagon and beyond—every single one, and I'm not joking here—contacted me and asked if they could borrow Major Rogers to help them work out their biometrics problems," his supervisor later recalled. "Every meeting—fights, pandemonium—heads would turn to Alan."
The measure of a soldier can fairly be said to consist of his ability to maintain the respect of his peers and his subordinates while earning it anew from his superiors. Rogers rarely talked about himself, which helped contribute to a widespread sense among his troops that he was there "solely for them," as one Pentagon colleague said recently, but he was also fearless when it came to briefing two- and three-star generals. "If the sun was coming up and Alan said, 'You know, it's still kind of dark outside,' people would say, 'Yeah, maybe it is kind of dark outside,' " the colleague recalled. Rogers was deeply attracted to the symbolism of the Army, frequently leading civilian friends on tours of the Pentagon and of Arlington National Cemetery, and after he began his third tour in Iraq, last December, he took note of the weather in Baghdad, which wasn't so different from Florida's, and declared, "This is an ideal time to be here." Major Rogers was by then approaching twenty years' service, and was on track to be eligible for promotion to lieutenant colonel. He believed in the nobility of the mission.
In Baghdad, Rogers was assigned to the 1st Division National Police Transition Team, which involved embedding with Iraqi military units in an effort to train them for eventual self-sufficiency. He was part of an eleven-man unit known as Team Stiletto, working closely with several Iraqis who were nicknamed Steve, Mike, Leo, Kiwi, and Dave. "It is an understatement to say this is a significant paradigm shift for our conventional army," he wrote in an e-mail to friends, after arriving at Forward Operating Base Shield, on the site of the former Olympic Training Center. "Throw into the mix the deadly I.E.D.'s that continue to produce casualties daily, rampant corruption and mixed allegiances, a Shia/Sunni divide that threatens all of our progress, coupled with a myriad of other elements, and it makes for the very complex battlespace which is Iraq today."
At the end of January, Rogers spent the better part of a Saturday night checking back in with home, by e-mail and using a "morale phone" that he shared with a couple of other soldiers. He had a two-week leave coming up, so that he could stand as the best man in his friend Shay Hill's wedding, in Jacksonville, and he called Hill, who was heading out to a rugby game and couldn't talk. He was able to reach another friend, Kelly O'Connor, an Army recruiter stationed in St. Augustine; they talked about the relevance of his pre-deployment training at Fort Riley, in Kansas (so far, so good), and about the upcoming bachelor party they were planning for Hill, in Orlando. Rogers had no siblings, and had lost both his parents to illness in 2000. He thought of Hill and O'Connor as surrogate brothers. By the time Hill returned Rogers's call, it was four in the morning in Iraq, and he could tell that he had woken Rogers up, so he kept the conversation brief. The next night, while helping his fiancée, Theresa, sort through the effects of her grandmother, who had recently died, Hill got a call from one of his neighbors in Jacksonville, who said that there were two men in uniform standing outside his door.
Several hours after the inadvertent wakeup call, it turned out, Rogers was sitting in the right rear seat of an armored Humvee, in East Baghdad, on a routine morning patrol, as it passed a guardrail concealing an I.E.D. The force of the explosion blew straight through the vehicle, knocking an Iraqi interpreter, in the left seat, into the street. The interpreter and an American gunner who was standing beside Rogers in the Humvee were injured. Rogers died instantly. He was forty.
Deputy Secretary England attended a memorial service at the Pentagon, where Thomas Gandy, a director of counterintelligence and human intelligence, hailed Rogers as "simply the most talented officer I ever had the opportunity to serve with," and described his selflessness in taking wounded veterans at Walter Reed hospital to a Super Bowl party on a nearby base. "There was something special about Alan Rogers," Lieutenant General John F. Kimmons, the deputy chief of staff for Army Intelligence, said. "He was more than he seemed."
An obituary in the Gainesville Sun mentioned that Rogers was divorced and a Baptist minister—news, in both cases, to many of his friends at the Washington, D.C., chapter of American Veterans for Equal Rights (AVER), formerly known as Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Veterans of America. The minister claim was accurate—Rogers's troops on Team Stiletto called him the Preacher, on account of his frequent sermonlike pep talks—and before his burial at Arlington National Cemetery, in March, a "homegoing service" was held for his casket at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, in Starke, Florida, where he was ordained, in 1995. (Governor Charlie Crist ordered the flags at the statehouse flown at half-mast for the occasion.) The mention of a divorce was not accurate; it may have been a story some acquaintances passed on to explain why Rogers did not have a wife or a girlfriend. "We made a statement that he was married to the Army," one longtime friend told me.
Defense Department policy acts as a deep closet, even in death. From the Second World War until the Clinton Presidency, homosexuality in the armed services was banned outright; declaring oneself gay was a common draft-dodging maneuver during the Vietnam years. When Bill Clinton took office, in 1993, he vowed to end the ban, but, facing strong opposition from the four-star community, he settled on a compromise: "Don't ask, don't tell," which attempted to draw a distinction between homosexuality (not forbidden in theory) and homosexual conduct (grounds for immediate discharge). The effectiveness of the distinction has been a source of debate ever since.
Shortly after Rogers moved to Washington, in 2004, he joined AVER, and served as the local chapter's membership coördinator and treasurer, participating in "pride" festivals in Baltimore and Washington and organizing rafting and movie trips; among the latter was a trip to see "Gunner Palace," a documentary about the experiences of soldiers in Iraq. In March of 2005, an AVER member named Tom posted to the organization's Yahoo discussion group an Army Times op-ed titled "Gays in the Military: It's a Question of Liberty." "Thanks for sharing this," Rogers posted, in response. "It's nice to see active-duty field-grade officers making a strong case for the repeal of D.A.D.T. and publishing it in the Army Times. Curious to read some of the backlash the subsequent issues will no doubt contain." (A retired officer, Lieutenant Colonel James E. Schmidt, wrote, "The Bible clearly states that homosexuality is a sin. Leaders must have respect from those they lead. I do not think many soldiers will respect or follow a leader who promotes sin.") As word of Rogers's death spread in the gay community, some began to wonder if he might not qualify as the first known gay casualty of the Iraq war. Opponents of the military's policy, noting his impeccable résumé, and his work with the Deputy Secretary of Defense, saw in Rogers a transformative figure and began soliciting media coverage.
About a dozen gay active-duty personnel, including one senior officer, attended Rogers's formal burial at Arlington, and joined in a memorial celebration later that evening at a local bed-and-breakfast that was attended by reporters from the Washington Post and from N.P.R.'s "Morning Edition." The Post's unusually detailed obituary ran the following week, under the headline "ARMY OFFICER REMEMBERED AS HERO: FRIENDS, FELLOW SOLDIERS MOURN LOSS OF 'EXCEPTIONAL' MAN." It cited his Purple Heart and his two bronze stars, discussed the Persian rug that Rogers's team in Baghdad had pitched in to buy for Shay Hill as a wedding gift, and quoted Mark Nadel, Rogers's thesis adviser at Georgetown, saying that he recalled thinking, "This is a guy I'm going to hear from in ten years, and he's going to be a general." It did not mention that the subject of the thesis was the effect of "Don't ask, don't tell" on United States military recruiting and retention rates. The N.P.R. segment was pegged to news of the four-thousand-casualty mark having been crossed five years after the invasion, with Rogers's story standing in as a kind of Everyman soldier's. "You should know that about two hundred people came to the burial, soldiers and civilians alike," the host, Steve Inskeep, said. "Major Rogers had no wife or child to take away the flag that draped his coffin, so soldiers folded that flag and gave it to his cousin, Cathy Long."
The coverage pleased Long, who is fifty-nine, and who became close to Rogers after the death of both his parents, assuming an almost motherly role. Others, particularly those who had tipped off the Post and N.P.R., were frustrated by what was omitted. Weren't the skill and the secrecy with which Rogers had compartmentalized the varied and seemingly incompatible aspects of his accomplished life a notable part of his "exceptional" story? Outing him was left to the Washington Blade, a gay weekly, which ran the headline "MEDIA, MILITARY KEPT SOLDIER IN CLOSET AFTER DEATH: FRIENDS SAY GAY MAN KILLED IN IRAQ WOULD WANT THE TRUTH TO BE KNOWN." The blogger Andrew Sullivan linked to the Blade account and encouraged readers to complain to the Post. "I can see why outing someone who is alive and closeted is unethical," he wrote. "Inning someone who is dead and was out is a function of utterly misplaced sensitivity, rooted in well-intentioned but incontrovertible homophobia."
At the end of March, a patent agent in the Washington, D.C., area named Rob Pilaud decided to create a Wikipedia page for Rogers. Pilaud was a peripheral friend of Rogers—he wasn't aware of the death until he received an e-mail invitation to the bed-and-breakfast gathering, seven weeks afterward—but he felt connected to the cause through his father (a retired enlisted man) and his domestic partner (a former military interpreter).
Two days after the Wikipedia entry appeared, an anonymous editor removed nearly all the biographical information, including references to Rogers's involvement with AVER. The new entry read, simply, "Alan G. Rogers was a United States Army Major that died in Iraq in late January 2008. Alan was an ordained pastor." The anonymous editor also added a comment on the Wiki Talk page which suggested that he or she had an even more personal connection to the subject: "Alan's life was not about his sexual orientation but rather about the body of work he performed ministering to others and helping the defense of the country. Quit trying to press an agenda that Alan wouldn't have wanted made public just to suit your own ends."
Pilaud decided to track the tamperer's I.P. address, and what he found lent credence to a growing conspiracy theory among his friends. The address associated with the computer on which the edits were made was assigned to "Army Information Systems Command-Pentagon." A subsequent search appeared to connect the computer to the department run by Lieutenant General John F. Kimmons, the deputy chief of staff for Army Intelligence, who had not only praised Rogers at the Pentagon memorial service ("I rated Alan in the top five per cent of all M.I. majors I had seen in thirty-four years of service") but had also presented the American flag to Cathy Long at the burial. A brief Wiki edit war ensued. Pilaud expanded on his initial entry, referring to Rogers as a "civil rights activist." He uploaded a photograph of Rogers holding hands with another man on the beach at a same-sex wedding ceremony. He added that "the subsequent coverage of his death in the national media sparked a debate as to what information should and should not be included in the biography of a gay military person killed in action."
Pilaud told me a few weeks later, "There's this sort of dark side of me that thinks they shoved him off to Iraq to get rid of him." He wondered if a further military coverup might not be to blame for the fact that Georgetown had proved unable to furnish a copy of Rogers's master's thesis.
The coverup, such as it was, was not the result of any coördinated government campaign but a freelance effort enabled by the good intentions of colleagues and friends whose own experiences with Rogers made it hard to conceive of him as a dissident of any kind. Lieutenant Colonel Mike Hardy worked in the cubicle across from Rogers at the Pentagon, and spoke movingly at the memorial service, comparing Rogers's mentoring of his troops to the sacrifices of the apostle Paul. He and Rogers were the only African-Americans in the office with Army backgrounds. "Alan was a few years behind me, but I would have rated him above me in leadership and intelligence," Hardy said recently. Hardy was assigned the role of casualty assistance officer, overseeing the execution of Rogers's will, and evidently took this to include the protection of Rogers's legacy from people who seemed too ready to introduce politics into the grieving process. After the bed-and-breakfast gathering, where he was struck by the composition of the mourners, Hardy sent an e-mail to Donna St. George, the Post reporter, expressing vague concern, on behalf of Rogers's family, about the tone of her forthcoming piece. Deborah Howell, the Post's ombudsman, did not mention Hardy or the letter in her follow-up account, "PUBLIC DEATH, PRIVATE LIFE," but she explained that the paper's decision not to disclose Rogers's sexuality had been an "agonizing" one, which was ultimately made by the paper's executive editor, Len Downie, who preferred to exercise caution in the absence of any proof of the soldier's own wishes. (Howell concluded that the paper had erred: "There was enough evidence—particularly of Rogers's feelings about 'Don't ask, don't tell'—to warrant quoting his friends and adding that dimension to the story of his life.")
"To a person—I really mean every person in the office was completely surprised," Hardy told me, referring to Rogers's private life. Hardy's officemates knew Rogers as an easygoing college-football enthusiast and a capable volleyball player—their team captain, last June, at the annual office picnic. " 'The first openly gay soldier to die in Iraq,' " Hardy said, recalling Pilaud's Wikipedia entry. "We're, like, 'Hold it. If it's a surprise to all of us, that can't count as the first openly gay soldier to die in Iraq.' And we just felt there was an agenda that wasn't Alan's." Hardy said that he did not know who had made the Wikipedia edits, but he mentioned a recent article in USA Today in which a soldier's mother expressed some unease about the specificity of the instructions her son had given her in the event of his death—which friends should speak on his behalf, what songs to play at his funeral. "Nowhere—and I read the will—did Alan leave any piece of paper that said that," Hardy told me. "He did not make any moves to be remembered as a gay soldier. Nowhere in those phone calls home did he say, 'Let everyone know that I died a proud gay officer.' " Of course, being a proud gay officer is tantamount, under the current military policy, to being a retired gay officer with no pension.
Hardy's appeal to the wishes and concerns of the family may have been weakened by the fact that the closest living relatives of the deceased were only cousins, but he found additional moral support from Rogers's longtime friend Shay Hill, whom Rogers had designated his executor and sole benefactor. Hill lodged a complaint with the Washington Blade arguing that Rogers's sexuality had "no more relevance than the color of his skin," and, after joking with Hardy about the biographical editing, even considered pursuing defamation charges against Wikipedia on behalf of the Rogers estate. "It's really minimizing him," Hill told me. "Granted, we remember the bad and the good, but typically we remember the good. I'm not saying being gay is bad or good, just saying he would rather be remembered for a lot more than that."
After Rogers's death, it emerged that there were a number of people who considered him to be their closest friend, and who felt that they were in a position to discern how he would have wished to be remembered. Their differing notions may have said more about the richness of Rogers's friendships than about his beliefs. Nearly everyone, in recalling Rogers, talked about his great strength as a listener—his habit of drawing people out and making them feel as though their best selves had been understood. Only in retrospect did they realize that he never revealed much of himself.
The wrangling over Rogers's private life threatened to obscure a remarkable American biography. He was born in New York City in 1967; the man his mother had married was in prison and denied paternity, so she, a Roman Catholic of Trinidadian descent, put him up for adoption. He lived at the Foundling Hospital, an orphanage on Sixth Avenue, until he was three, when he moved into the Mitchel Houses, in the South Bronx, with his new parents, George and Genevieve Rogers. George worked in a garment factory; Genevieve stayed home to take care of Alan, who was never told that he was adopted. When Alan was in the fourth grade, he and his mother moved to Hampton, Florida, an hour southwest of Jacksonville, to take care of Genevieve's mother, who was ailing. (George continued working at the factory, and joined them after he retired.) Hampton has a population of about four hundred, and the new living circumstances could hardly have been more different from the South Bronx.
The Rogerses were devout Southern Baptists, and in Hampton Alan mostly kept to himself and his Bible, occasionally picking buckets of pecans from a giant tree in the back yard. He was the only boy to carry a briefcase to school in the eighth grade, and in high school he joined the debate team. In every picture from his school days, his shirts appear pressed and tucked. "He reminded me of Urkel growing up—you know, the nerdy Urkel," Gordon Smith, a former classmate, who is now the police chief in the neighboring town of Starke, said recently. "But he got along with everybody. Nothing bothered him. He just read his Bible. He was one of those few people you meet in life where nobody has nothing bad to say. It was just hard for me to picture him going into the military. I'll be honest with you: I'd have never dreamed it in my life that he'd be a military man. I believed he'd be a preacher. 'Cause he never was a tough, macho kind of guy."
At the time of Rogers's enlistment, in 1987, he had never been to the Atlantic Ocean, despite the fact that he lived no farther than seventy miles from the coast. It is not difficult to imagine that, amid such a sheltered environment, and given his family's limited financial means, the Army seemed an easy way out—all the more so when he was assigned to Giebelstadt Army Airfield, in Germany. While in Germany, friends recalled, Rogers struggled to reconcile his emerging sexuality with his faith, and found sanctuary in a house owned by an American pharmaceutical executive named Marty McNeil, who was married (his wife worked for Stars and Stripes) and also had a male lover. McNeil's house was a popular retreat for gay service members in Germany at the time, but McNeil was also a practicing Roman Catholic, and he often spoke with Rogers about his admiration of the Jesuits. Rogers joined the Giebelstadt Gospel Church and became an associate pastor. "Alan really cared deeply about what people felt about him—people's respect for him," McNeil told me. "He went to a lot of effort to maintain that respect. He certainly impressed the hell out of my father, an ex-marine." McNeil said that he and his father had "one of those 'Don't ask, don't tell' relationships," but that his father continued to ask about Rogers ten years after Rogers had left the country.
Broadly speaking, Rogers's friends could be divided into two camps, one associated with Florida and the other with Washington. "Shay was never really a part of Alan's gay life," Tami Sadowski, a close friend from Washington, said in April, at a gathering at her house, where several people expressed reservations about Hill's handling of the estate, and shared recollections of Rogers as a lover of good food and fashion, who enjoyed taking long vacations in the Greek Isles. In 2004, Sadowski attended an Army ball as Rogers's date, and last year she asked Rogers to stand beside her as a "man of honor" at her marriage to Matt Wagenhofer. "I think we were all a little surprised to find out that Shay was the sole beneficiary of the will," she said, and added that she had started an Alan G. Rogers Memorial Scholarship Fund, to which Hill had not yet contributed anything. As Rogers's beneficiary, Hill was entitled to the military life-insurance policy of four hundred thousand dollars.
Hill, an affable environmental scientist with a slight drawl and a ruddy complexion, met Rogers in 1992, while selling boiled peanuts at the side of the road outside Gainesville to pay for his education at a local community college. Rogers, who had recently returned from Germany and had enrolled at the University of Florida, didn't particularly like boiled peanuts, but he decided to stop one day after noticing that Hill seemed always to be waving at him when he drove by. The waves were nothing more than a simple salesman's trick. "I almost didn't have the heart to say, 'I'm actually waving to everybody,' " Hill told me. But Rogers took the opportunity to invite Hill to a party, and Hill, in turn, invited Rogers to join in his regular games of Risk. Before long, they became roommates—Rogers had told Hill that he was gay—in what Hill calls the "international house of people," which included "a guy from Mexico, a black lady from England, and a white guy from South Africa."
Hill met his future wife, Theresa Bennett, at the Riverside Avenue Christian Church, in Jacksonville, in 2005. She was a commercial banker and came from a prominent Florida family—her grandfather Charles Bennett was the longest-serving congressman in the state's history, and the man responsible for placing the phrase "In God We Trust" on the nation's currency. She objected to homosexuality on religious grounds and likened it to drug addiction, so Hill spoke cautiously about Rogers before introducing her to him. He took her to Washington for Rogers's graduation from Georgetown, in 2005, and they arranged to stay at his town house. "There was an ironing board, there was a whole vase of fresh flowers near my bed, all clean linens, everything organized in the bathroom," she recalled. "You could eat off the floor." The discovery was unsettling at first—"I'm, like, 'Shay has an African-American gay best friend. This is interesting' "—but she came to regard Rogers as her favorite of Shay's friends, and the most respectful and supportive of their relationship. This may have been Rogers's singular gift: an extraordinary ability to read the anxieties of others, and to offer a suitable version of himself to fit the situation. "He realized that you don't change the system by alienating those who are against you," Shay told me. "You change the system by trying to convince those who are against you."
When I first met the Hills, a couple of months had passed since their wedding, and their house was overrun with boxes containing the personal effects of Major Alan G. Rogers, which had recently been delivered by the Army, as well as dozens of testimonials and condolences from dignitaries and acquaintances as varied as Senator Sam Brownback, of Kansas, and "Steve," of Team Stiletto. ("Sir . . . would be honored if you would accept this Babylonian Lion. He wanted to do one last thing for the man he called his friend, Alan.") Hill had been looking forward to the shipment as an opportunity to peer into the soul of a close but intensely private friend. "Think about if you died tomorrow," he said. "What would somebody remember you by? That, to me, is the neatest thing about receiving all these items."
Rogers did not appear to have kept a regular diary, however, and the writings that Hill had unearthed were for the most part spiritually reflective, not personally introspective. ("Rev. Rogers's life philosophy is summed up in these two sentences: 'If you meet me and forget me, you have lost NOTHING. When you meet Jesus and forget Him, you have lost EVERYTHING!' ") Rogers's collection of books was extensive, but notable more for its breadth (from the complete "Left Behind" series to Samantha Power's "A Problem from Hell") than for its exploration of any particular themes or ideas. A bright-orange life preserver served as a reminder that Rogers, for all his travels, had never learned to swim.
Hill pointed to a bongo drum—a gift from the men of the Bravo Company human-intelligence unit out of Yongsan, South Korea. "Here's something cool," he said. The skin of the drum had been marked up to resemble an interrogation form, and its joking tone suggested that some of Rogers's troops would have been neither shocked nor offended by Pilaud's Wikipedia entry: "Alan Rogers, a.k.a. Preacherman, Captain Velveeta . . . Source is very cocky and sure to talk about his knowledge of men's fashion. Do not talk about the inappropriateness of his tuxedo." A list of the subject's "documents" included "one book, titled 'Searching for My Perfect Bride,' unsuccessfully well used . . . one V.I.P. membership to all the clubs on Texas Street . . . one copy, 'It's Raining Men' CD."
Hill referred to his inheritance as "blood money," and after a few days of living with Rogers's effects he seemed to regard each unopened box as a kind of rebuke—a reminder of guilt. "The biggest burden has been not to wither his worldly goods away—to do something with them, aside from taking care of myself or my family," he said. "It's a higher responsibility." It was also slow going. He had had to get up early on the morning after learning of Rogers's death, and drive to Tallahassee to dig wells at the site of a proposed gas station. The wedding followed not long afterward, and then came an abbreviated honeymoon in Napa Valley. These were not ideal circumstances for grieving, or the most salutary conditions for beginning a happy marriage. Hill still had a dime that he found on the street during his bachelor party, in February; it had oxidized in such a way that President Roosevelt's face appeared black. It was dated 1967, the year of Rogers's birth, and Hill had noticed, while looking up at the stars that night, that Mars—the Roman god of war—was shining directly overhead. Hill's first fiduciary act as the executor of the Rogers estate was to sign for his dead best friend's credit-card bill when checking out of the rooms that Rogers had reserved for the occasion.
"You wonder, like, why he picked me," Hill said at one point. "I wonder that sometimes. A lot of people were his friends." He recounted the story of the deaths of Rogers's parents, which occurred in swift succession in 2000, when Rogers was stationed in Korea. George Rogers had had a heart attack while driving to visit Genevieve, who was suffering from kidney failure. She died less than two weeks later. In the interim period, Rogers was going through some family paperwork, and discovered that he'd been adopted. "She wasn't feeling well enough for him to approach her," Hill said. "So here he is, a grown man, had just buried his father, and he found out he was adopted. And I'm there as a friend to experience that. I don't know how I would have reacted if it were me. But then he did the eulogy at his mom's funeral. It was just amazing how he had the wherewithal."
Kelly O'Connor, the Army recruiter from St. Augustine, first met Rogers at a Kmart in Arizona, where O'Connor was working part time to pay for community college. One day, while stocking shelves, he noticed a customer wearing a Florida Gators T-shirt, and made a taunting comment; the Florida-Florida State football game was coming up, and O'Connor was a Seminoles fan. Rogers was the Gators partisan, and he invited O'Connor to a party to watch the game. The two men later ended up serving overlapping combat tours—O'Connor was a construction engineer who helped build base camps—at the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Upon returning to the United States, O'Connor volunteered for recruiting duty. "Anybody who was interested in military intelligence, I used to be able to call Alan," he told me. "It was just another of the things he did—he could talk to applicants about all the different careers that Intel had. He would make time in his schedule to call them back." O'Connor now runs the recruiting station in St. Augustine, and he was, like many of Rogers's friends, curious about Rogers's thesis.
The thesis did not turn up among Rogers's personal effects, although Theresa Hill showed me a white binder on the kitchen floor, labelled "Capstone Project Research," that left little doubt about the strength of Rogers's convictions on the matter. The binder included a printout of an e-mail from Rogers to his friend Jason Cianciotto (an AVER member at whose same-sex wedding Rogers had offered a prayer), explaining that his adviser was urging him to work on concealing his biases, and to focus more on analysis than on advocacy. (The adviser, Mark Nadel, explained that because the project was a capstone paper and not, technically, a thesis, there was no protocol for keeping a copy on file.) The research followed the history of attitudes toward gay servicemen in the military both before and since the introduction of the current policy, and included the story of Private First Class Barry Winchell, who was beaten to death in 1999 by a fellow-soldier at Fort Campbell, in Kentucky, because of suspicions that he was gay. Survey results have shown a steady increase in tolerance over time, with generals typically lagging behind enlisted men. A Zogby poll, in 2006, of people who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan showed that nearly half believed at least one member in their own unit to be gay, and, among those who felt certain that they had served alongside a gay colleague, about two-thirds did not think troop morale had been affected. Two weeks ago, the Washington Post released the results of a poll indicating that seventy-five per cent of Americans now favor repealing "Don't ask, don't tell," up from forty-four per cent fifteen years ago. Fifty per cent of veterans agreed.
While working in biometrics, after completing the thesis, Rogers had his first extended exposure to civilian contractors, and realized that not only did they make twice as much money for doing similar work, in many cases, as that of active-duty officers; they had their private lives to themselves. Shortly after accepting his third tour of duty in Iraq, last year, Rogers began telling friends that he planned to retire from the Army when he reached the twenty-year mark, which would have coincided with his stateside return. He was beginning to worry that he would never get a chance to settle down and enjoy a long-term relationship. One of the people he called on the night before his death was his friend Tami Sadowski, who works as a real-estate broker in Maryland. They had made arrangements to go house hunting in the D.C. area during his two-week leave.
"He followed every rule he believed in," a close friend and colleague who got to know Rogers well while they were both living in Atlanta, near the headquarters of the Third U.S. Army, in 2003, told me. "He believed in the Army. It was so important to him. This is probably the perfect case study of somebody who was gay and accepted the Army's values—and how it doesn't work at the end of the day. If he hadn't died in Iraq, the Army would have lost him."
A couple of weeks after Memorial Day, Hampton held a political rally at its City Park, a sandy square a few hundred yards from the one-story house where Rogers and his parents had lived. Hampton's mayor, Jim Mitzel, refers to the town as "Mayberry, U.S.A." The rally featured short speeches by candidates running for the local school board, county commissioner, sheriff, and even for Congress, and was intended to raise money for a Hampton Veterans Memorial, which would be dedicated in the honor of Major Rogers, Hampton's first and only casualty of the War on Terror. Rude Roy the BBQ Boy, a burly Vietnam veteran with a gray ponytail, was selling pulled-pork sandwiches and burgers, and donating twenty per cent of his proceeds to the effort; and the Mayor's wife, Jennifer, occasionally passed around a jar and minded a folding table at which contributors could inspect potential designs for the memorial statue. (Five thousand dollars would buy a helmet sitting atop a standing machine gun, and twice that much added a pair of boots.) On a pole to the right of the town bandstand, Mayor Mitzel had affixed a poster board mounted with a couple of local newspaper stories about Rogers. "SOLDIER: TOOK CARE OF HIS AGING PARENTS AS THEY GREW WEAK" read one headline, above an article that repeated the divorce canard.
Gordon Smith, the Starke police chief and Rogers's old classmate, was there, running for the office of sheriff, with a large contingent of supporters giving out free ice cream. ("There's nobody more red, white, and blue than Gordon Smith," he said. "Nobody loves the Lord above more than I do.") During pauses between speeches, a man wearing an American-flag bandanna sang karaoke to the music of Eric Clapton and Creed. The other candidates included a member of the National Guard who had been called to drill duty, and who therefore asked the Hampton police chief to read a statement on his behalf, and a man, Charles Van Zant, who said that his call to public service had come last year when his son, a member of the local school board, began his second Iraq deployment, and Governor Crist asked Dad to fill in. Van Zant, who was running for the State House, said that he had sought higher counsel in devising his platform. "I asked the Lord, 'Is there something else that you'd like for me to do?' " Van Zant said. "And he showed me two things. One, he showed me plainly that he wanted me to get in the fight against abortion politically. . . . Secondly, we've got an amendment coming up on our constitution that you need to vote yes for. It's amendment No. 2. It has to do with the definition of marriage as one man, one woman." Except for this digression, the day's honoree might have felt entirely at home.
Shay Hill and his wife spent the morning holding a yard sale to unload some of Rogers's less personal belongings—furniture, clothes, books—and they arrived late. After two weekends, they'd sold five hundred and forty-four dollars' worth, or just enough to clear a path through the living room. Instead of donating to Tami Sadowski's scholarship fund in Washington, they planned to give the cash to an organization in Jacksonville called Community Connections, for homeless women and children. Hill's pickup truck was loaded with paintings and some other selected items of Rogers's—a family Bible, a Buffalo Soldier figurine—that he intended to give to Cathy Long and her husband, Jerry.
The Longs, the only black people in the park, were easily recognizable as representatives of the Rogers family. Cathy is the grand-niece of George Rogers, Alan's adoptive father. She and Jerry were living in the Bronx, where Jerry worked as a New York City cop, when Alan was adopted. They had a son who was about the same age, and had joined George and Genevieve and Alan for their first Thanksgiving dinner. In 1990, the Longs moved to Ocala, about an hour south of Hampton, which is where I'd first met them, a few weeks before the rally.
Cathy works the night shift at a hospital, as a nurse, so she had suggested that we have an early dinner, at four o'clock, in a Piccadilly Cafeteria on State Road 40. She and Jerry seemed to be on familiar terms with much of the staff and the clientele. Hill had warned me that the Longs didn't approve of homosexuality, and Cathy seemed uncomfortable talking about it. "As far as the family is concerned, we really did not become privy, I guess you could say, to 'the information' until Alan had passed," she said. "Just because he felt that all people should be treated the same—and I'm sure that that was the extent of his involvement, not that he was trying to parade any particular life style, or whatever. He just loved people. He was a people person."
Jerry, a Vietnam veteran, said grace before we ate. Cathy mentioned the phone call she'd received from Rogers the day before his death; they were in Georgia at the time, looking at investment properties, and Rogers was worried about the possibility of their leaving Ocala, which he'd come to see as an extension of his home base. In retrospect, Cathy felt that the way he'd said "I love you," at the close of the conversation, seemed like a final goodbye. She hadn't yet been able to delete his number from her phone, and she said that, in the days after the guardrail explosion, she'd received more than fifty calls from servicemen and women, many of them in Iraq. "One of the generals, I had to console him," she said. "He tried to express his condolences, but I was concerned with what was going on with him, because he was still there." She and Jerry couldn't agree on whether their Verizon bill for that month had exceeded three hundred or eight hundred dollars.
They recalled the last time they'd seen Rogers, about a year ago, and how eager he had been to take them to the Jacksonville Landing, a waterfront tourist plaza with restaurants and shops. When they arrived, the Landing was closed, because of a terrorist threat, so they met at a Japanese restaurant instead, and Shay Hill showed up carrying a five-foot python in a pillowcase—Rogers's pet, as it turned out, which had been left in Hill's care. "I joked with Alan for the longest time," Cathy told me. "I said, 'You know, Alan, I finally saw a side of you that I didn't know was there.' I never took him to be a snake owner." The python's name is Alexis, and it currently lives in a tank in the Hills' bedroom.
In late June, Shay Hill received a CD from the Army, the contents of which drastically altered his perspective on the preceding five months. It contained the unclassified files from Rogers's laptop in Iraq, among them a "letter of intent," to accompany his will.
Rogers had told Hill that the letter of intent would be included in a box of clothes for the wedding that he was shipping to Jacksonville before departing for Iraq. He'd mentioned it primarily to suggest that Hill not open the box when it arrived. Hill recalled this exchange on the night that the two Army representatives came to his door with the news of Rogers's death. He told Kelly O'Connor, who had raced over from St. Augustine, and they opened the box together. But there was no letter. Evidently, Rogers did not finish writing it until he had arrived in Baghdad, in December.
"Well, if you're reading this, you've got a lot of work to do," Rogers wrote, and then explained in some detail the various ways in which he had clearly considered the question of his legacy. He wished his funds to be disbursed not only to other friends and family but to a variety of organizations: the N.A.A.C.P., AVER, and the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which publishes a gay soldier's survival guide. The letter also mentioned a godson, living in California, for whom Rogers wanted to set up a trust; Hill hadn't known of any godchildren, and he didn't recognize the names of the child's parents. "I'm not even sure if they know Alan is dead," he said, marvelling at the number of secrets his friend had kept.
Hill realized that none of the people mentioned in the letter knew of its existence, and that, legally speaking, he was still the sole beneficiary. Who was to say that Rogers hadn't intended to revise the letter further? He hadn't printed it and signed it, after all. Shay and Theresa had recently made an offer on a new home, and they'd been planning to use much of the life-insurance money for the down payment. "I did make some purchases I wouldn't have made," Shay said, with a mixture of remorse and aggravation. "This has completely thrown our lives into a whirlwind. My house has been saturated with physical stuff."
But his conscience soon overpowered his frustration, and after consulting a minister he even began to relieve himself of the guilt associated with all the remaining household clutter. "Little did I know that he wasn't blessing me as much as I thought he was," Hill said. "I mean, I was blessed to be his best friend. Maybe that's the whole life lesson."
He read aloud some more from Rogers's letter: "Growing up in New York, and then moving to the small town of Hampton, I never imagined that I would see much beyond the city limits of Bradford County. My parents gave me so much love and hope that there was a better life out there, and by God's grace I found it. The U.S. Army has provided me such a wonderful opportunity to realize my dreams to go to college and see parts of the world that I had only read about in schoolbooks. I've been to countries that many only dream about. Walked the streets of Europe: Paris, Greece, Spain, Germany, England, Italy, Czech Republic. I've seen Asia, South America, and, of course, the Middle East. . . . As you know I've been raised in the Church and have always had a love, reverence, and fascination for God. I am blessed to be saved by His grace, and so I know that I am going up yonder to be with my Lord. Please tell those who remain not to grieve too much but to have a big party and celebrate. . . . My only regret is that I have never found that special one to grow old with and watch the sunset with." ♦


text:
059 V as in Victini/
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Host: SBJ | Guests: Irene
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text:
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
fruit leather fun!
Here I have autumn apple, orchard cherry, abundant apricot, mango sunrise, summer strawberry, and ripened raspberry. I used to also buy grape until my son told me one day "this tastes just like raisins". That was a big "Duh!" moment for me and I stopped buying grape since then. Don't let that stop you, but I figure we already have raisins and there's no need to repeat that flavor! :)
I sometimes will buy the Trader Joe's fruit leather too. I think all their flavors are apple blends though, like apple-strawberry, apple-raspberry and I think one that's apple- mixed berry blend.
I only have one of these on hand at the moment -
I most often will cut these large strips into smaller pieces. I like to use mini sized cookie cutters to make cute shapes, but if I'm in a rush I'll just use a knife or kitchen shears to cut into smaller pieces. My daughter can manage to eat a full piece of fruit leather straight from the package (I keep one in my purse and another in the diaper bag for emergency snack purposes), but she makes a big drooly sticky mess of herself with it which I prefer to avoid. :)
To cut the fruit leather into cute shapes is easy - just place the mini cutter on top of the fruit leather piece and press firmly. The pressing firmly part can be painful to fingers so I will usually fold a clean dishtowel over the top of the cutter to push on. Metal cookie cutters work best.
The positive part of the cut-out image is what you will most often see in my bento pictures.
The negative part of the image I keep in a sealed snack-sized zip-top baggie to keep for later. I've tried using just a sealed container, like a small Lock & Lock box or Tupperware, but I was finding the fruit leather would dry out pretty quickly (like in just a day or two!), but in a zip-loc type bag with all the air pushed out they keep for a long time. Sometimes I'll grab my snack bag of these pieces when I'm headed out for some quick errands to keep her occupied and content at the grocery store or I'll add these pieces to her home snacks and meals.
Nothing goes to waste! :)
10 comments:
- The Planet Pink said... [Reply to comment]
great idea about the leftovers! I also hate to give an entire strip to my 2 year old. She'd eat it all, but make a huge mess in the process.
- March 9, 2010 at 2:47 PM
- Jenn @ BentoForKidlet said... [Reply to comment]
I love the idea of fruit leather shapes! Very nice :D
- March 9, 2010 at 2:55 PM
- Alie said... [Reply to comment]
I buy those Stretch Island fruit leather strips too. I get a really good deal on them at Costco (though of course you'd end up with the grape flavor then..) I find them quite hard to cut with cookie cutters. You must be strong! I often put a rolling pin on top of the cutter to put enough pressure on it to cut it without cutting up my fingers. :)
I always have a few in my purse too.
- March 9, 2010 at 3:39 PM
- Melissa said... [Reply to comment]
I haven't seen them at Costco! I'll definitely be taking a closer look next time I go. I don't have too much trouble finding them locally at our grocery stores, but they are often out of some flavors.
- March 9, 2010 at 4:50 PM
- Alie said... [Reply to comment]
Oh do check COSTCO! You have to buy a variety pack and it comes to something like $0.22 each which is MUCH cheaper than my grocery store.
- March 9, 2010 at 7:23 PM
- Melissa said... [Reply to comment]
Wow, that's awesome. I think they are .59 cents each here, sometimes on sale for .49 cents.
Crossing my fingers my Costco has them! :)
- March 9, 2010 at 7:45 PM
- Shannon said... [Reply to comment]
Our Costco doesn't have them, but I noticed Target has an Archer Farms organic version. They are $2.99 for a box of 10. My kids love them :)
- March 10, 2010 at 1:46 AM
- mrs. fuzz said... [Reply to comment]
We get ours at Costco too. Hopefully you can find them there! That's a great idea about the leftover scraps. I have pondered that, not really sure what to do with them other than eat them. :)
- March 12, 2010 at 10:05 PM
- Lisa said... [Reply to comment]
You'll find them in the candy/snack section at Costco. Near the packages nuts, usually.
- March 13, 2010 at 10:39 PM
- Melissa said... [Reply to comment]
Unfortunately, I don't think my Costco has them afterall. I searched high and low in the candy aisle, which is also the granola bar aisle...and then the nut aisle. And then the dried fruit aisle and still nothing. I'll double check asking customer service next time I go in (ran out of time this trip, had to pick up daughter from preschool), but it doesn't look promising. I did pick up a box of the organic Archer Farms ones from Target to try out.
Incidentally, I just realized that the Island Fruit Leather starts off with apple puree in all of their flavors too. So they are apple blends also, just like Trader Joe's. It's just Trader Joe's is more open and labels it as such right there in the open. LOL :)
I'm happy that my oldest son has decided he really likes the strawberry and cherry flavors. It takes him a long time to warm up to new foods, and I'm glad he's finally given these his seal of approval.
- March 14, 2010 at 2:44 PM


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Dec 27 2007
Asymmetry Of Ringing
I have recently just finished helping teach a beginners course for Church Bell Ringing. It was a ten week adult education evening class that gave the learners a very broad over view of what bell ringing is about, getting them ringing hand bells and also giving them a chance to ring the church bells. The course has been rung for several years now and the learners on this years course have really shone through and a few have even got to the stage of ringing rounds and call changes.
NB. For the rest of this article I'm going to talking in terms of open handstroke lead ringing, i.e. leaving a one-bell gap between last bell backstroke and first bell handstroke.
Once you progress past the basic handling of a bell and start ringing methods, it is assumed that you need no further tutoring on how to control the bell and get it striking at the right time. However, I'm sure more than a few ringers out there are tired of being told:
Pull your back stroke in!
What I have noticed is that invariably when someone is told to pull their backstroke in (ringing closer to the bell before them on backstroke) they then start clashing with the bell before them at handstroke. This, I believe, is because most learners are never actually told that ringing a bell is an asymmetrical movement. That is to say that the length of time that you hold up at backstroke is not the same as the length of time that you hold up at handstroke.
The reason for this is that there are an un-even number of stroke pull whole pull – each bell pulling handstroke and backstroke. This is because of the one-bell gap that is left between the last bell backstroke and the first bell handstroke:
The numbers above represent 6 bells ringing two whole pulls, handstroke and backstroke. The first bell has to hold up slightly at handstroke in order to leave the gap which means that all the other bells have to hold up slightly. At backstroke there is no gap and therefore the first bell does not need to hold up, meaning the other bells don't need to hold-up.
I believe it is this concept of handstroke and backstroke being different in timing, and learners not being taught this that causes most of the problems. Learners are taught about the theory of open handstroke leading and that you need to leave the gap but they are not told what it means for the actual ringing motion.


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This contents page for the Kalendare de Potages Dyuers lists a wide range of recipes including 'creme de coloure' (coloured cream), 'a gos in higepotte' (goose hotchpotch), and 'bruet of almayne' (sauce of almonds).
About Potage Dyvers
This cookery book is estimated to have been written between 1430 and 1440. It is divided into three parts, the first headed Kalendare de Potages dyuers (diverse directory/ guide/ list of dishes) ; the second part headed Kalendare de Leche Metys (guide to sliced meats) ; and the third part headed 'Dyuerse bake metis' (Diverse baked meats). The book includes bills of fare for a number of extravagant banquets.
Many of the words used in these recipes are altered forms of the French, for example 'let' rather than 'lait' for milk, or 'fryit' instead of 'froid' for cold. In comparison to more modern cookery books, the recipes contained in this manuscript are quite imprecise. They do not provide the reader with quantities or cooking times. However, they do contain a some detailed instructions, such as how to grind, chop, boil, strain or scald your ingredients.
It is unlikely that the reader would have to learned to cook from the book. What is more probable, is that trained chefs working in grand households would have used the book to remind themselves of the kinds of dishes served at royal tables. The book may also have been used by those servants responsible for keeping kitchen supplies well stocked, and for ensuring that there was as little waste (and theft) as possible. These members of staff would have been expected to know exactly what ingredients were necessary for each meal. The descriptions of grand and indulgent feasts suggest that the book may also have been used to heighten the prestige of the owner.
Potage Dyvers is one of over fifty medieval recipe manuscripts still in existence - and this does not include the manuscripts of medical recipes, many of which contain culinary recipes.


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Loren Bouchard is the creator of the animated tv comedy Bob's Burgers, a series about a family and the restaurant they own and live above, currently in its fourth season on Fox. In addition to being the co-executive producer and showrunner, Loren also composed the show's opening theme. I interviewed Loren in his office, where his desk is surrounded by musical instruments. In this episode, he talks about which ones went into the theme, and the emotions he wanted to evoke with each of them. Plus a few thoughts from cast members Jon Benjamin and Eugene Mirman.
footnotes and links:
Here's the original Bob's Burgers Pilot, with Loren's first version of the theme song.
Bob's Burgers website and Facebook page
Seasons 1–3 on Netflix


text: LOS ANGELES -- Mike DAntonis "Marshall plan" worked to perfection on a night when the Lakers coach didnt have any other choice. Pau Gasol had 23 points and 17 rebounds, and injury-riddled Los Angeles used its sixth different starting point guard of the season in a 110-99 victory over the Utah Jazz on Friday night. Kendall Marshall was given the assignment by DAntoni, who has used 18 different starting lineups this season. He was the 14th player to start a game for the Lakers overall, finishing with 20 points and 15 assists in 40 minutes -- all career highs. "Ive got to give all the thanks to my teammates. They did a great job of helping me out, as well as the coaches," Marshall said. "When were knocking down shots and playing defence, that makes it really easy on me." Marshalls other three starts in the NBA came last season with Phoenix, and the Suns lost all three games despite his 37 assists. He spent 2 1/2 weeks with the Delaware 87ers of the D-League before the Lakers signed him on Dec. 20. "Everything happens for a reason, so Im thankful for the position Im in right now and I want to make the most of it with this team," he said. Marshall began his freshman season at North Carolina as a backup point guard to Larry Drew II, before coach Roy Williams made him a starter. In one game, he had 16 assists to help beat Florida State. As a sophomore, he set an ACC single-season record with 351 assists. "One thing I do take pride in is being a leader," Marshall said. "It definitely felt like I was back at Carolina, just the way that we were playing tonight. There were a lot of similarities. We were getting up and down the floor, and Im excited about it. But the thing Im most excited about is starting the year with a win." The victory snapped a six-game losing streak for the Lakers, who concluded a four-game stretch against teams that are last in their respective divisions. Gordon Hayward scored 22 points for the Jazz. They never led in their rematch with the Lakers -- which came a week after Derrick Favours putback dunk with 2.1 seconds remaining beat them 105-103 at Salt Lake City and snapped Utahs four-game home losing streak. Gasol missed that game in Utah because of a respiratory infection, joining Kobe Bryant, Steve Blake and Steve Nash on a lengthy infirmary list that also has included Jordan Farmar, Xavier Henry, Wesley Johnson and Chris Kaman. Johnson was back in the lineup and was the first player off DAntonis depleted bench, getting 11 points in 22 minutes after missing Tuesdays game because of gastroenteritis. Trailing by 21 points with 4 minutes left in the third quarter, Utah narrowed the gap to 90-86 with a 19-7 run capped by Enes Kanters short jumper with 4:47 to play. But Nick Young responded with a 20-footer to ignite a game-ending 16-9 run that was highlighted by 3-pointers 30 seconds apart by Jodie Meeks and Marshall. "I thought we had opportunities," Utah coach Tyrone Corbin said. "I respect our guys for the way they fought back after we got ourselves in a big hole. We really cant afford to do that, especially on the road." Gasol led the Lakers to a 52-40 halftime lead with 16 points and eight rebounds, while Marshall had nine assists and seven points. Utah, trying for its first three-game winning streak of the season after beating Charlotte and Milwaukee at home, missed 12 of its first 15 shots while Los Angeles opened the game with a 19-6 run. "It seems like when Kobe comes back, were going to have a lot of guys coming back. ..." DAntoni said. "Hopefully we can stay within striking distance to at least give ourselves a chance going down the stretch and try to salvage the season." NOTES: With Bryant not close to returning from his fractured left knee, the Lakers already have been bumped from two nationally scheduled telecasts on the original cable schedule -- Jan. 8 at Houston (ESPN) and Jan. 20 at Chicago (TNT). ... The Jazz already have lost a league-worst 19 games by double-digit margins, just two fewer than they did all of last season. ... Utah, which came in 17th in the league in 3-point shooting percentage at 34.9, came up empty on its first nine attempts from behind the arc before Richard Jefferson connected with 4:04 left in the second quarter. Bryce Love Womens Jersey . After rookie right-hander Alex Colome excelled in a 5-2 victory in the opener, the Rays fell to Chris Tillman and the Orioles 4-1 on Friday night. Landon Collins Womens Jersey . Tottenham claimed top spot in Group K by winning 2-0 at Tromso after defender Adnan Causevic scored an own goal before Mousa Dembele put the result beyond doubt. Valencia made sure it will finish first in Group A with a 1-0 win at Swansea thanks to an early goal from Dani Parejo. https://www.redskinssportsgoods.com/Wome...ed-Jersey/ . The (35-35-10) Jets have 80 points and are also playing .500 hockey on home ice this season with a 17-17-6 record. Michael Hutchinson will start his second straight game in goal. Derrius Guice Jersey . 22. Wade averaged 26.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 2.0 steals while leading the Heat to a 3-0 record. The 31-year-old shot 60 percent from the field and 50 percent from 3-point range en route to his 17th weekly honor. Charles Mann Redskins Jersey . Moors, from Cambridge Ont., landed a double-twisting, double somersault in the layout position, en route to a score of 14.600 points in the womens floor exercise, more than a full point ahead of runner-up Pia Tolle of Germany.ELCHE, Spain - Elches lack of a finishing touch condemned it to a 1-1 draw at home with Levante on Friday, as the hosts struggle to secure a second season in Spains first division. Striker Yiadom Boakye managed to beat Levante goalkeeper Keylor Navas with a deflected shot in the 63rd, but Angel Rodriguez equalized in the 74th by converting his own rebound. Elche wasted several chances down the stretchh, with forward Garry Rodriguez being particularly unfortunate in not finding the goal.dddddddddddd Elche inched four points above the relegation zone before the rest of the 35th round of games are played. The game at Martinez Valero Stadium began after a minute of silence in honour of former Barcelona coach Tito Vilanova, who died on Friday at the age of 45 after a battle with cancer. ' ' '


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Nutrition Facts
Ingredients and Preparation
- Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting fat and salt. When pasta is cooked, reserve ¼ cup of water and drain the rest.
- Meanwhile, heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add shrimp and cook for 1 minute. Turn shrimp over, add tomatoes and garlic, and cook for 1-2 additional minutes, until shrimp are cooked through.
- Toss shrimp mixture with cooked linguini, stir in feta and reserved pasta water, and serve.


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|Trail Length: 0.6 miles
|Type of trail: Loop
|County: Rabun County, GA
|Our rating: Moderate
|Features: waterfalls, picnicking, historic, camping
|Your rating:
|Usage: Light
|Added on: October 18, 2005
|Last hiked: October 08, 2015
|Updated on: February 07, 2016
|About these ratings
Additional Trails
Hiking trails in Rabun County, GA
Warwoman Dell has a history. The small Forest Service park was the site of a Civilian Conservation Corps camp in the 1930's that focused on reforesting the surrounding areas and building parks with camping areas like Warwoman Dell. But the history of the dell extends well past the CCC. People like to argue for which "Warwoman" the dell is named after. Two women became famous for being Warwomen in Georgia. First was Nancy Hart, a Revolutionary War era woman who may have fought at the Battle of Kettle Creek with her husband and sons. Second is Nancy Ward, a "beloved woman" of the Cherokee Nation also known as Warwoman. She was very powerful in the Cherokee clan rule, for she was the last Warwoman in the East. When the Cherokee chiefs voted to go to war, it could only happen if the Warwoman approved.
Within Warwoman Dell is a short nature trail loop that takes you to some of the highlights in the park, including a small portion of the roadbed of the railroad that John C. Calhoun wanted to build from Charleston, South Carolina to Cincinnati, Ohio before the The Civil War, although work stopped on the track well before the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter (Charleston). Then, in the 1930's, the CCC built a camp here. No remains of the camp buildings exist (they were modular wooden structures and were transported elsewhere to be used as barracks during World War II). A series of stone structures, identified as trout hatcheries by a sign in the park is the only remnants of the CCC at Warwoman Dell.
Two distinct trails mark the hike to Becky Branch Falls. Becky Branch runs through Warwoman Dell, under a bridge just past the first parking lot. The climb to Warwoman Dell Road is on the Bartram Trail, just past the trout hatchery on the right. A marker notes the entrance to the trail. The sharp climb to the road is eased by a couple of well-done switchbacks, but these may be difficult if you have a fear of heights. If they are problematic you may not want to continue because the drop both the Bartram Trail and Becky Branch Falls Trail is worse.
Once on the road you have a choice: climb the Becky Branch Falls Trail, almost directly in front of you across the road, or walk down the road to the frequently obscured entrance to the Bartram Trail on the other side of the stream. It is easily located a few steps past the culvert at the deep end of a small cove. Becky Branch Trail is a dead climb to the falls, which is the way we normally go, but the Bartram Trail has a couple of switchbacks that make the climb easier. This narrative is told as a loop hiking the Becky Branch Trail first.
When you enter the forest the gentle gurgle of the stream takes over, creating a pleasant backdrop to the short hike up an old logging road. The mountainsides are covered with a typical north Georgia hardwood mix including some white oak and hickory while the valley is filled with rhododendron. About halfway the trail bears left and narrows as Becky Branch rises to the trail. The noise of the waterfall drowns out all other noise as the trail turns right and drops to a wooden bridge that also serves as an excellent viewing platform for these bi-level falls.
Continue across the bridge to return on the Bartram Trail. Turn right on this wide-well done trail that winds through Rabun County in north Georgia for 37 miles. When you come out on Warwoman Dell Road turn left and watch for a historic marker on the left marking the Bartram Trail entrance to Warwoman Dell park.
Pages related to Becky Branch Falls
Becky Branch Falls
Directions to Becky Branch Falls
Add a link to Becky Branch Falls
Georgia Hikes
Your guide to hiking and walking trails in the state of Georgia
Article Links
Bartram Trail
Battle of Kettle Creek
Cherokee Nation
Civilian Conservation Corps
Fort Sumter
John C. Calhoun
Rabun County
The Civil War
Georgia Trails
Georgia Trails Index
Add link from your web site to Becky Branch Falls


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Fast and Light. Arc'teryx lightest GORE-TEX® Pro jacket for climbers and alpinists. Designed with minimal features to maximize breathability and minimize weight for fast and light adventures. Built using GORE-TEX® Pro 3L with supple yet durable N40p-X face fabric. Alpha Series: Climbing and alpine focused systems | FL: Fast and Light.
A hardwearing, minimalist alpine shell designed for those wanting to travel fast and light in the mountains. The lightest and most breathable alpinist waterproof/breathable jacket in the Arc'teryx line, it has a clean feature set and trim fit to keep the weight and packed size to the minimum while providing uncompromised breathability.
A great deal of thought goes into each design element to achieve a balance between function, fit and performance. The Alpha FL is designed for fast and light travel: maximum breathability, minimum weight. Simple, with only a single pocket, an ergonomic pattern and trim fit keeps the jacket lean to increase breathability and decrease bulk and weight. Enhanced with the core climbing features such as helmet compatible StormHood™, a two-piece Hemlock™ harness blocker, and the chest pocket which is both harness and pack compatible. The perfect balance between performance and functionality for climbers the Alpha FL is a must have piece in your rack of gear.
We are committed to performance materials that endure. N40p-X GORE-TEX® Pro 3L delivers lightweight, long wearing waterproof protection with a high level of breathability. The high-tenacity nylon face fabric is light, tough and delivers excellent water repellency.
Arc'teryx uses narrow GORE® seam tapes and micro seam allowances in its waterproof/breathable constructions to reduce the weight of materials, increase breathability and create supple, free moving garments. This jacket is patterned to reduce all the seams to a minimum and built using the micro 8mm seam tape in strategic areas and thus freeing the surface from glue which prevents breathability. The combination of the two provides the ultimate in breathability and freedom of movement while minimizing its weight. The best of all worlds.
Fast and light mountain travel is all about traveling light: essentials only, constant motion, energy efficient layers. Companion pieces to the Alpha FL would include the Alpha FL 30/45 pack, Atom LT jacket, Nuclei Hoody, Alpha SL Pant or Gamma Rock Pant and Phase base layers.
- Waterproof
- Breathable
- Lightweight
- Compressible and packable
- Micro-seam allowance (1.6 mm) reduces bulk and weight
- GORE-TEX® Pro three-layer construction
- Tiny GORE® seam tape
- Anatomical shaping for fit and comfort
- Articulated elbows
- e3D Ergonomic 3-Dimensional patterning for enhanced comfort and mobility
- No-lift gusseted underarms
- Trim fit for enhanced breathability
- Helmet compatible StormHood™
- Laminated brim
- Externally accessed hood drawcords
- WaterTight™ Vislon front zip
- Laminated die-cut Velcro® cuff adjusters reduce bulk, and won't catch or tear off
- Drop back hem
- Adjustable hem drawcord
- Two-piece harness Hemlock™ inserts fold betted and keep jacket in position under harness
- Chest pocket with laminated zip
- Note: Our WaterTight™ zippers are highly water resistant, but not waterproof. We do not recommend keeping items in your pockets that may be damaged by moisture
- Includes stuff sack with webbing loop to clip to a harness
- N40p-X GORE-TEX® Pro 3L


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The Price of Smart Power
Will Obama's nuclear deal with Iran come at the cost of Syrian lives?
"President Obama has put in play every single tool in the toolbox, short of military intervention." That was Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, talking about Syria the other day.
But couldn't we find a few more tools?
Story Continued Below
Clearly, Power herself cares deeply about the plight of the Syrians whose lives have been destroyed by a civil war that has sent millions fleeing across borders, that has killed well over 100,000 people, the vast majority of them with regular old awful weapons of war as opposed to the horrific chemical weapons we are now working with the Syrian government to remove from the country and destroy.
By all accounts, she has pressured and nudged and cajoled behind the scenes in the Obama administration to do more to halt the killing, which she calls "the most heartbreaking circumstance confronting us today." When she studied the failures of the Clinton White House in not responding to the genocidal killings in Rwanda in 1994 for her Pulitzer Prize-winning book, A Problem from Hell, Power concluded that Washington's failure to pay sufficient attention, as much as anything else, had doomed the Rwandans. As she told me in our interview at a POLITICO Women Rule event, "Syria doesn't suffer from a lack of meetings—we meet on it every day. The president's getting briefed on it every day."
Unfortunately, better process doesn't mean a better outcome.
For now, more meetings are what we will get. On Monday, it was announced there would be high-level Syria talks starting on Jan. 22, unless they are canceled again—which is very possible, according to various sources—to bring the warring factions to the table in Geneva, under the auspices of both the United States, which has called for the ouster of Bashar Assad, and Russia, the principal international supporter of Assad's embattled regime. It's taken more than a year and a half of heavy diplomatic lifting just to get a date for Geneva II, as it's being called, and few hold out hope that it will be any more successful than Geneva I in leading to peace—or even real peace talks. ( This damning cartoon, unearthed by BuzzFeed's Miriam Berger, pretty much nails it.)
Consider what I heard the other day at a meeting in Washington with senior Western officials, several of whom have portfolios that include this particular problem from hell: We could pretend "the trend lines are good" and that we're on track for real peace talks. "But that wouldn't be an honest assessment."
Not when an estimated 9 million of Syria's 20 million population are in need of aid this winter, including 4 million children. Not when the Assad regime has only gotten stronger since it used chemical weapons an estimated dozen times against its own people, causing Obama to threaten military action—then back off in the face of congressional opposition and settle instead on a face-saving, Russia-brokered deal to work on eliminating Syria's chemical weapons arsenal. What's happened since the deal in September? The consequences have been "very bad," I heard the Western officials say: "The regime has been legitimized and the opposition has been sidelined."
Given those grim facts, both Power and Secretary of State John Kerry make the case for an activist diplomacy on Syria, and of course they are not wrong. As Kerry told me in an interview earlier this month, "Do you just sit on your rear end and do nothing? Or do you try to get to the political solution? … I'm not starry-eyed about it. It's harder than hell. … But I know the alternative is worse. If you want a complete implosion of Syria, and you want to see terrorism rise—which it is, even now—and you want more pressure on Jordan, which is our ally and friend and beleaguered by refugees, do nothing."
But there must be more options for Obama besides brute force and diplomatic jawboning and humanitarian check-writing, as important as those are. Read the Wall Street Journal's powerful reconstruction of the run-up to the Assad government's August chemical weapons attack on the outskirts of Damascus. You can practically hear the pleas of the opposition figures, who begged not just for weapons and military support—which the United States might have been justifiably skeptical in offering, given the extremist jihadism practiced by many of the rebel fighting groups—but also for atropine injectors and gas masks to deal with the chemical attack they knew was coming. Surely, the tool kit could have included a few of those.


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