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Dear patient readers,
The site went down at 5:00 AM. I managed not to notice that I hadn't didn't save all the links I had generated after it came back. Sorry!
Who Needs Humans? Australian Shepherd Takes Herself Sledding Sputnik (margarita). She even seems to know how to bank the sled to take the curve at the bottom.
Dog 'lay beside dead owner for weeks' in Hungary flat BBC
Dog snatched by swooping eagle dropped off four miles from home in Pennsylvania The Times
Cold snap pushes manatee to springs Citrus County Chronicle (resilc)
Skiers stuck in swinging chairlift at Austrian resort Daily Mail (EM)
How Tiny Ticks And Brainworms Are Bringing Down The Mighty Moose Vermont Public Radio (resilc)
A Former Facebook VP Says Social Media Is Destroying Society Science Alert (David L)
Maybe Sex Robots Will Make Men, Not Women, Obsolete Cathy O'Neil, Bloomberg
Is Your Child Lying to You? That's Good New York Times. This is not only on the first page, above the fold, but in the upper right corner. Lambert is as appalled as I am.
Intel Security Train Wreck
Woo-yay, Meltdown CPU fixes are here. Now, Spectre flaws will haunt tech industry for years The Register
LET'S TALK INTEL, MELTDOWN, AND SPECTRE Hackaday
Spectre Attacks: Exploiting Speculative Execution Spectre. Lambert says this is "incredibly lucid".
Avoid speculative indirect calls in kernel Hacker News.
Intel facing class-action lawsuits over Meltdown and Spectre bugs Guardian (furzy)
First Djibouti … now Pakistan tipped to have Chinese naval base South China Morning Post
Investigation reveals how Park received and spent nearly $3 million in illegal payments from NIS The Hankyoreh (Bill B)
Hammond refuses to rule out customs union with EU after Brexit Guardian
Sellers slash prices after family home market stalls The Times
The U.S. Wanted to Discuss Iran. Russia Brought Up Black Lives Matter. New York Times (Kevin W). Important.
Saudis Get Extra Pay After Price Surge Sparked Public Complaints Bloomberg (resilc)
Despite failing, UN Jerusalem bid paints Israel, US as alone against the world Times of Isreal (JTM). From last month, still germane.
New Cold War
Undersea cables the Achilles' heel in lead-up to new cold war Asia Times
Imperial Collapse Watch
The Immoral Misuse of Psychology in Support of Empire Counterpunch
Trump Transistion
Tillerson defends Trump's mental health BBC
Trumpworld's Counter-Collusion Narrative Is Beginning to Crumble Vanity Fair (furzy)
Trump asked 'Why can't Medicare simply cover everybody?' before pushing Obamacare repeal CNBC
G.O.P. Senators Call for Inquiry Into Author of Trump Dossier
Trump's First Year Was a Disaster. Here's Why I Have Hope. New York Magazine (resilc)
Interior revokes climate change and mitigation policies High Country News (Glenn F)
'All-encompassing' China war topped Bannon's White House agenda South China Morning Post (margarita)
Taibbi: Why Michael Wolff's Book Is Good News Rolling Stone (resilc)
EPA chief Pruitt is said to be eyeing attorney general job Politico
Marijuana Crackdown by Sessions Leaves GOP Fearing 2018 Backlash Bloomberg (resilc)
Roy Moore Accuser's House Burns Down; Arson Probe Opened Daily Beast (furzy). Ugh.
Senator proposes sovereignty as a way to economic development Lincoln Journal Star. Mike M:
As Yves and Lambert say, "Kill me now." Nebraska has managed to avoid becoming North Kansas – in large part because there's less than two million of us – but the dry rot of term limits in the Unicameral (our one house "non-partisan" state legislature) has given us dimbulbs like this one.
To quote the great philosopher Bill the Cat, "Ack! Thppt!"
Jacob Hacker Rises Again to Stop Single Payer Health Over Profit (martha r)
The Debt Beneath NorthmanTrader (martha r)
Fake News
James Risen, the New York Times and the Sliming of Wen Ho Lee Counterpunch
Black Injustice Tipping Point
A provocative last request for Erica Garner Washington Post (martha r). This omits a point made in a tweet that followed immediately: Garner's family and close allies were put off by white reporters who had ignored her when alive calling for quotes now that she was dead. I am sure they were talking to Matt Taibbi, for instance.
Funeral services for Erica Garner:
Monday January 8th, 2018
Viewing: 4pm
Funeral 5pm
First Corinthian Baptist Church
1912 Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard
You can send flowers to this address as well.
— Blackstar Flower (@BlackstarFlower) January 5, 2018
Costco Wants to Build the Largest Chicken Factory Farm in America—and Local Residents Are Fighting Back Alternet
"Where modern macroeconomics went wrong" – my contribution to the new OxREP 'Rebuilding Macroeconomic Theory' project, out today. Free issue from 5 Jan until 7 Feb: https://t.co/snJA38adCW
— Joseph E. Stiglitz (@JosephEStiglitz) January 5, 2018
December jobs report: late cycle mediocre growth reasserts itself Angry Bear
Negative interest rates Jim Hamilton
Class Warfare
The Myth of "Populism" Jacobin (martha r)
Americans Haven't Been This Poor and Indebted in Decades New York Magazine
Extreme poverty returns to America Washington Post (UserFriendly)
Presidents Clinton and Obama Helped Make the Democrats a Wall Street Party- Thomas Frank on RAI (7/9) Real News Network (UserFriendly)
Foxconn tax subsidies to build Wisconsin plant reach over $4 billion – World Socialist Web Site (UserFriendly)
Antidote du jour. Jim D sent this image from the story It's -100 Degrees on Mount Washington, N.H.:
Richard Smith is on a roll:
An octopus named Otto caused an aquarium power outage by climbing to the edge of his tank and shooting a jet of water at a bright light that was annoying him. He's also been seen juggling hermit crabs, throwing rocks at the glass, and re-arranging his tank surroundings. pic.twitter.com/Bwo4xoaJ60
— Google Facts (@GoogleFacts) January 5, 2018
See yesterday's Links and Antidote du Jour here.
We're going into our 10th day of a cold that is an everlasting gobstopper. If only phlegm was marketable as a commodity, we'd be well off. Talked to a checker @ the supermarket in the Big Smoke, who told me her ordeal lasted 5 weeks, and i've been hearing 3 weeks all over the place. And we were the lucky ones that didn't get hit by what i'm terming "The Christmas Flu" which will satisfy those that despise the other candidate for nom de flu'me, the secular "Holiday Flu".
It turned out to be the perfect petri dish, the Christmas get together.
Nonetheless it's taking down the state and the LA Times just now noticed, funny that.
So many people have fallen sick with influenza in California that pharmacies have run out of flu medicines, emergency rooms are packed, and the death toll is rising higher than in previous years.
The emergency room at UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica typically treats about 140 patients a day, but at least one day this week had more than 200 patients — mostly because of the flu, said the ER's medical director, Dr. Wally Ghurabi.
"The Northridge earthquake was the last time we saw over 200 patients," Ghurabi said.
State health officials said Friday that there was no region of the state where people were being spared from the flu.
In Riverside and San Bernardino counties, ambulance services have been severely strained because of the number of flu calls coming in, local health officials said.
Plus, emergency rooms are so crowded that ambulances arriving at hospitals can't immediately unload their patients, so they're unable to leave for incoming 911 calls, said Jose Arballo Jr., spokesman for the Riverside County Department of Public Health.
Dr. Matthew Mullarky, an emergency physician at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, said that half of the patients he saw on a recent ER shift were so sick that he had to keep them in the hospital. Most of them were older than 85, with the flu and pneumonia.
"It's incredibly scary," he said.
The Rev Kev
Apparently it has also spread to Nebraska and Ohio (http://www.omaha.com/livewellnebraska/flu-is-on-the-rise-in-nebraska-and-iowa-and/article_b697e866-f295-11e7-84c9-2f4bef5212a2.html) but I am wondering what will happen when it hits those areas that have high concentrations of asthma cases mentioned here on NC a day or so ago.
Flu meds are of dubious benefit per most authoritative reviews…
Expect to see them hyped endlessly therefore
Even if the flu vaccine doesn't prevent you from getting the flu, it reduces the severity for people who come down with a strain that the vaccine did not contain, which can mean the difference between a day or two in bed vs. a stay in the hospital; or life and death.
Correct. Gives the immune system a general as well as a specific boost, especially in the elderly.
"The public health and medical communities generally accept the premise that
currently licensed influenza vaccines are largely effective in preventing influenza
infection in most populations.
We conclude, however, that the currently licensed
influenza vaccines can provide moderate protection against virologically confirmed
influenza, but such protection is greatly reduced or absent in some seasons.
Furthermore, even though TIV provides some protection for healthy adults 18 to 64
years of age, evidence for protection in adults 65 years of age and older with TIV
is lacking.
Evidence is also limited regarding the efficacy and effectiveness of TIV in
children age 2 to 17 years.
LAIVs have consistently shown highest efficacy in young
children (from 6 months to 7 years old), while evidence of protection is not available
for individuals from 8 to 59 years of age"
Lack of _available_ health care is third world stuff.
I saw this 15 years ago when my father-in-law passed away. I was speaking with the hospital administrator when I asked him what kind of hospice services the new wing would have. He said, "none," and turned away.
A couple of friends became newly minted RN's years ago, and they could've gone to work for the prison-industrial-complex for $51 an hour or $34 an hour working for the public hospital.
drumlin woodchuckles
We had a month-and-a-half cold out here in SE Michigan in September. I had it. I wonder if this is the same cold being out there now.
Why on earth is there an invite to send flowers to the Erica Garner funeral? Why not instead put that money to use continuing her work?
I understand your viewpoint. I offer that those near & dear to Erica also need to know that we held her in the highest regard so they might be inspired. I live too far away to send flowers, knowing that the flower peddlers at a distance do not send what you are expecting. Now, if we only knew how to guarantee that our money will be spent as you suggest.
Beauty, comfort, honor.
During her last days whoever was tweeting from her account tweeted requests not to send donations. The only tweet I saw about flowers was informational, not an invite. It appears that her loved ones want to keep fund-raising separate from the final days of her life and death.
Richard H Caldwell
Go, Otto!
Regarding Richard Smith's Octopus: Here is a review of two books about the octopus, from LRB.
I have only read the first of the two books, which is fascinating and thoughtful. From the review:
"Peter Godfrey-Smith is a philosopher and diver who has been studying octopuses and other cephalopods in the wild, mostly off the coast of his native Sydney, for years. The alienness of octopuses, in his view, provides an opportunity to reflect on the nature of cognition and consciousness without simply projecting from the human example. Because of their evolutionary distance from us, octopuses are an 'independent experiment in the evolution of large brains and complex behaviour'. Insofar as we are able to make intelligent contact with them – to understand octopuses and have them understand us – it is 'not because of a shared history, not because of kinship, but because evolution built minds twice over'. The potential worry is that the evolutionary chasm between us and the octopus is too great to make mutual intelligibility possible. In that case the octopus will have something to teach us about the limits of our own understanding."
Thanks for the article! I can't find the article on any of the crapified search engines, but do you remember the octopus that trashed his tank and then hid in a broom/mop closet for eight months? There was a sink in the closet. Lovely creatures.
It was a homeless octopus. It was arrested for vagrency in a rich neighborhood of sharks.
Here's a link to the review:
Byron the Light Bulb
Order Octopoda, phylum Mollusca. A phylum from which its members gave our species the conch, seashell finance, and imperial purple while nourishing us back from extinction in coastal caves roughly 100,000 years ago. The octopus was once thought to be solitary creatures, but now researchers have found a group of 15 living together off the coast of NSW Australia, dubbed "Octlantis", whose citizens live in dens constructed of crustacean husks. We don't know yet the role Octlantis played in the last POTUS election, but I would point out how much better those eight-legged Aussies are at working together in harmony than the current US admin.
Patrick Donnelly
Octopus are the fallback bodies for souls, should humans become extinct.
On other worlds they are the dominant species. Bats on yet more worlds. The animal life on Earth (Adam) is an indication of the evolved forms available in the enormous volume of space within Eden (Sun). Any new planets ejected by the plasma pinch we call a star may surprise us, if they survive the journey. Souls are an energy based life form and may transfer to animal bodies, if they wish.
The Rev Kev
That foto of Marty the cat in today's Antidote du jour just goes to show you that they are indeed the dominant life-form on this planet. Even mankind's high-tech devices such as laptops are casually dismissed and re-purposed as bed warmers by our feline overlords. If you ask me if in a century's time whether mankind will be serving cats like the ancient Egyptians did, I would answer 'Yes, so nothing will change.'
They don't seem to worry about EMF of those devices.
Should they?
I missed the 2017 Ignobel prize announcements a few months ago, but the Physics prize went to this paper on "The Rheology of Cats" which is a must-read for antidote of the day lovers: http://www.rheology.org/sor/publications/rheology_b/RB2014Jul.pdf
The paper begins on p. 16 of the pdf.
Jim Haygood
Pakistani politician Imran Khan skewers the US in a series of incendiary tweets using the harshest words of all — FACTS:
From the start I had opposed Pak becoming part of US-led so-called "War on Terror". Now, after suffering 70k dead, over $100 bn loss to economy, when we had nothing to do with 9/11, constant "do more" US taunts & after nation has been humiliated by Trump, GoP saying the same.
Lesson to be learnt by us is never to be used by others for short term paltry financial benefits ever again. Our society became radicalised and polarised as we helped CIA create jihadi groups; then, a decade later, we tried to eliminate them as terrorists on US orders.
And now Pakistan being blamed for US failures in Afghanistan by an ignorant and ungrateful Donald Trump.
Finally Pak suffers ultimate insult: being made scapegoat for US failure in Afghanistan. A couple of thousand or so Haqqanis allegedly in Pak are supposed to be cause of why the most well-equipped mly force in history, 150k NATO troops + over 200k Afghan army could not succeed?
Found jihadi groups, then spend years and trillions to "fight" them — that's the way of the arsonist firefighter who styles hisself as our Uncle Sam.
One could argue that Trump is actually doing the world a favor by exposing America's own naked id to full view. No more smooth Obama platitudes about the US as benevolent indispensable nation. Trump is a PR disaster for the MIC, which is undoubtedly why they were so vehemently against him.
The above assumes that he maintains his blowhard status and doesn't start any actual new wars
I'd say the United Stasi is teetering, as we are now in the "Sinatra Doctrine" part of the final act, mirroring the USSR's iron curtain call.
"Sinatra Doctrine" was the name that the Soviet government of Mikhail Gorbachev used jokingly to describe its policy of allowing neighboring Warsaw Pact states to determine their own internal affairs. The name alluded to the song "My Way" popularized by Frank Sinatra—the Soviet Union was allowing these states to go their own way.
The phrase was coined on 25 October 1989 by Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennadi Gerasimov. He was speaking to reporters in Helsinki about a speech made two days earlier by Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze. The latter had said that the Soviets recognized the freedom of choice of all countries, specifically including the other Warsaw Pact states. Gerasimov told the interviewer that, "We now have the Frank Sinatra doctrine. He has a song, I Did It My Way. So every country decides on its own which road to take." When asked whether this would include Moscow accepting the rejection of communist parties in the Soviet bloc. He replied: "That's for sure… political structures must be decided by the people who live there."
Jim Haygood
But it's only a little war:
U.S. Central Command chief Gen. Joseph Votel outlined details of the American battle plan in Afghanistan on Tuesday, a battle plan which will depend heavily on the new influx of 3,900 U.S. troops into the country approved by President Trump late last year.
American and NATO commanders intend to "focus on offensive operations and … look for a major effort to gain the initiative very quickly as we enter into the fighting season," the general said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Doubtless our
ARVNAfghan allies will fight valiantly under the visionary leadership of President ThieuGhani to win hearts 'n minds. /snark
"American forces in Afghanistan will pursue a more aggressive battle plan for the 16-year conflict in the coming year, with U.S. troops more engaged in the fight against the Taliban and other extremist groups…"
I'm guessing that "other extremist groups" must include Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), recently tagged as terrorists by USA.
I have a feeling of foredoom about all of this.
Excellent point, and it happens to be similar to what MOE is saying today in his most recent post. Trumps positions are so extreme it's causing EU and others to grow a spine and detach themselves from the U.S. lock step and that also means the neocon/neoliberal interventionist imperial agenda – a good thing.
If Germany detaches itself from being in lock step with the U.S. – which seems more and more possible as it sees itself losing so much by sanctioning Russia – that may drive a nail in the coffin of U.S. imperialism.
And note it's America not Russia that is growing "isolated" as time goes by.
Dr. Roberts
I'm not really seeing much of this, to be honest. If anything leaders in Europe, who have been following the US lead on so many issues, are trying to ignore Trump and make token efforts at resisting him. They're waiting for a more palatable face to return to the White House so they can go back to never making their own decisions on foreign policy. There really have been no major new foreign policy initiatives from the EU during this time, they just seem to be refusing to go along with some of Trump's more out of line policies.
Sept. Of 2016 I was in Europe and while everyone was terrified of Trump, I told them I was optimistic because it would mean Europe would have to go its own way because Trump was too offensive for Europeans to let their governments continue their relationship with the US as before. Alas I underestimated the institutional inertia and lack of dynamism in the European political class.
Hey the anti-Rome wasn't built in a day. Yes the poodles (no offense EU) continue to wag their tails but many US policies are genuinely against their best interests. It's not only a PR matter.
Moreover, euroelites love using "the mean Americans twisted our arms!" as an excuse for doing what they want to do anyway.
Europe doesn't want to go it alone, and is hoping that Trump will go away like a bad dream.
Completely agree and this idea seems to extend to his economic and environmental pillaging. Trump does us a favor by his boorish flouting of rapacious policies.
David May
That's an interesting article. Thank you, Jim. Regarding your last point on US govt military spending: the neoliberal takeover of the state is truly frightening, but I seem to recall that you favor big business over Uncle Sam. Be careful of what you wish for; schoolboy fantasy economics are devastating in reality.
Jim Haygood
Having spent 15 years running a small business, I regard big business as a gov-subsidized enemy, as most NFIB members do.
Geoffrey Dewan
Remember all those articles after 9-11 querulously asking. "Why do they hate us?".
No, they hate you for your freedoms, such the freedom to have your DNA nabbed thanks to the feinstein/hatch rapid DNA bill
Why, they hate us for our freedoms of course. If there was any good from GWB's administration, it was this bit of the marketing to war that exposed the cheerleading for what it was: pure mendacity. I re-use it whenever I can in the comments sections to articles that reek of banging the drum. My comments recently:
Why does Venezuela hate us for our freedoms?
Why does Iran hate us for our freedoms?
The TV series Braindead (which didn't get nearly the viewers it should have) perfectly reveled in the braindeadedness of DC in general, but also did a perfect skewering of this legacy from GWB:
Braindead 1×08: "The Path to War Part One: The Gathering Political Storm"
Back at the Intelligence Committee meeting, Wheatus has wrapped up with his weirdly cooperative witness. Ella takes the mic. She thanks Ahmed for speaking, and asks if he blames America for his radicalism. He obviously wasn't prepared for this question, so he stalls while she presses him, wasn't the drone made of American technology? "Why do you hate America?" she finally asks. "Because of your… freedom?" he guesses.
If you've never seen that series, I highly recommend finding it and watching it. It is rewarding.
And look: Americans don't care! Millions of people are dying for no reason, the highways and airports and schools are falling apart, lifespans are getting shorter, the list of countries that hate us grows every day. So what?
"So what?"
Have you seen the frothyness happening in the futures markets for guillotines?
(I wish I'd gone long on pitchfork futures when I still had some money in pocket.)
Also, I'd ask, what Americans are we talking about here? America has become defacto a financially segregated society. Actually, looking back over American history, this is a resegregation. One reason that the, for want of a better term, Conservative Elites have fought so hard and so long to roll back the New Deal programs is that those programs, by and large, worked. Worked for the generality, that is. The wealthy had to do with less. Smaller yachts, smaller limos, smaller mansions, smaller entourages; all meant a visible diminishment of perceived status.
The downtrodden Americans that I meet every day now may not be able to articulate their rage and frustration, but they feel those feelings, and recognize that something in American society is gravely wrong. Trump had a chance to become a famous President by redressing some of those popular concerns. That he failed so far to do so is more a reflection of the lack of a coherent Left in American politics to carry the banner of the People. Whoever, Left or Right, picks up on this vital need in the body politic will find power laying in the street to be picked up.
Finally, somewhat off topic, but germane, is the observation that "Poor but Honest" is a false assertion. Poor people, anywhere, anytime, will do what it takes to feed their families. If that takes the rejection of the rule of law, so be it.
Dangerous times are ahead.
Its going to take an elite faction breaking away from the corporate mob, using their power and financial resources to support local communities built and maintained under the principle of the common good. Without that, everything will be left to chance and what freedoms the other elite faction grant the plebs.
Disenchantment with the corporate model has not nearly progressed far enough for radical change. Wishful thinking prevails and there is still plenty of resources available for plundering. All the while, new schemes are dreamt up by MBA's to fleece a captivate public. For example, I just paid $75 dollars to RENT a chemistry textbook for my daughters nursing coursework. Just one book of many required. That on top of tens of thousands of dollars in tuition fees. No wonder small businesses are failing. There will be no discretionary funds available. Good intentions are driven from the public sphere leaving only greed and corruption to flourish- or self delusion illustrated by the excuse of "good people" having to do terrible things. No, a good person eventually has to refuse to participate in exploitation in order to remain sane and whole. No wonder the American public is insane. We live under a political system that breeds schizophrenia. Evil outcomes are masked by good intentions, and only delusion or violent outbursts provides relief from the contradiction.
Instead of supporting a middle class with humane public policy, our corporate overlords are hell bent on creating a peasant class.
Historically, I don't believe nations are well defended by peasant armies or mercenaries.
foghorn longhorn
Trump was "hired" to break the sob, not fix it.
He seems to be accomplishing that task.
It will be the task of the next one to fix it.
Turbulent times for sure, but a process that must be carried out.
I think this agrees with your point.
How Polanyi best explains Trump, Brexit and the over-reach of economic liberalism – Jeremy Smith
From Polanyi:
"A self-regulating market-system is a utopia. No society could stand its devastating effects once it got really going. Hardly had laissez-faire started when the State and voluntary organizations intervened to protect society through factory laws, Trade Union and Church action from the mechanism of the market."
Commented on by Kuttner:
"We have been here before. During the period between the two world wars, free-market liberals governing Britain, France, and the US tried to restore the pre–World War I laissez-faire system. They resurrected the gold standard and put war debts and reparations ahead of economic recovery. It was an era of free trade and rampant speculation, with no controls on private capital. The result was a decade of economic insecurity ending in depression, a weakening of parliamentary democracy, and fascist backlash…."
drumlin woodchuckles
I read that when we were ramping up aid to the Mujahideen in Afghanistan . . . routing it through Pakistan . . . that the CIA was taking the Pakistani ISI's word for it on which groups to fund up. Mohammed Shah Massoud of the Northern Alliance warned those Americans he had any contact with that many other Mujahid groups were nasty Islamist antiAmericanitic antiAmericanites. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was among the very worst of these. So naturally the Pakistani ISI picked the Gulbuddin Hekmatyar group to receive the most American aid, training and weapons.
If my memory is correct, someone should counter skewer this so-called "Imran Khan" with THAT. And also remind him of Pakistan's role in the 9/11 attacks. As well as Pakistan's freely chosen creation and support of IslamoJihadi terrorism against India.
All true. The Pakistani government are far from being babes in the woods. Rather, they, or at least some factions and Institutions, were enthusiastic participants in their American friends' adventures.
That doesn't mean that Imran Khan's larger point is not valid.
Why do you say "so-called 'Imran Khan'"?
He's a real person and that's his name. He used to be a cricket player, then ran for office…
And I thought his twitter comments were quite incisive and needed saying.
"someone should counter skewer this so-called "Imran Khan" with THAT. And also remind him of Pakistan's role in the 9/11 attacks. As well as Pakistan's freely chosen creation and support of IslamoJihadi terrorism against India."
And don't forget to remind this so-called "Imran Khan" of all the frredoms you enjoy! He'll hate that!
The Rev Kev
It's not like Pakistan had a choice after 9/11. Richard L. Armitage, then the deputy secretary of state, threatened Pakistan's intelligence director back then that if they did not do what the US wanted, then: "Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age."
Off The Street
Trump and his counter-intuitive actions make me think of an FDR ploy. The latter would tell legislators and others "Now go out there and make me do it" to get them to say in public what he couldn't or wouldn't. With Trump, one asks what he might not say, given his proclivities. However, at some nth level chess playing, he could be maneuvering for some defense budget reductions by exposing the massive waste and ineffectual behaviors. I could be talking myself into that, thinking of some way to get more of a handle on intractable budget problems.
Jim Haygood
A study published last month set aside the fantasyland 7.34% average assumed return used by public pensions, and instead discounted their liabilities at a 15-year Treasury bond yield of 2.14%. Hilarity did not ensue:
Unfunded liabilities [at 2.14% discount rate] of state-administered pension plans now exceed $6 trillion. The national average funding ratio is a mere 33.7 percent, amounting to an $18,676 unfunded liability for every resident of the United States.
The Pension Protection Act of 2006 regards large private sector pension plans at risk of default if they have less than an 80% funded ratio under standard actuarial assumptions, or a 70% funded ratio under worst-case assumptions. By 2011, this standard was fully phased in for private defined benefit plans.
However, the Pension Protection Act does not apply to public sector DB plans. If the Pension Protection Act were applied to the public sector, every single state would be considered at risk of default assuming a risk-free rate of return. Even using their official optimistic return assumptions, 35 states would fall short of the standard.
CalPERS, which is using a 7.375% assumed return in this fiscal year, gets special mention for forcing exiting municipalities to value their liabilities at 3.8% — an almost realistic return that CalPERS actually expects to earn.
At a risk-free rate of 2.14 percent, CalPERS has more than $987 billion in unfunded liabilities. That's equal to five and a half years of the state's entire $180 billion budget.
It's gonna take a lot of weed sales to raise a trillion dollahs, so let's get started. :-)
I've been wondering how exactly the states reached this outcome.
I suppose the general outline is that the states overestimated their pension investment yields so that they could put less money into the pensions and spend that money elsewhere.
But feels like there's a lot more going on here. Pensions are part of total compensation. I suppose part of the idea for state pensions in the first place is that pensions help address a deficit between public and private wages? Or what are we trying to do preserving state pensions while private pensions have been eviscerated?
Probably need an overview of the situation. Anyone know a good one?
John k
I thought risk free rate is 30- yr bond, currently 2.811?
The Rev Kev
Normally I don't comment on links that I suggest but here I will make an exception. Earlier this week, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova advised the US to remember its own experience in "putting down protests," including mass arrests and crackdown against the Occupy Wall Street movement and operations against protesters in Ferguson, Missouri. "There is no doubt that the US delegation to the UN has something to tell the world," Zakharova said in a Facebook post. "Haley can, for example, share the US experience of putting down protests, tell [the Security Council] about the mass arrests and crackdown against the Occupy Wall Street movement or about the 'clean-up operation' in Fergusson." if you have not seen Maria Zakharova in action, she is a sight to be seen. She is smart, accomplished, passionate and does not suffer fools gladly.
If "America First" was all about rebuilding America's infrastructure, reforming the financial sector, re-calibrating foreign policy and rationalizing the military, I think most of the world would have cheered them on. But trying to pretend that it is still the 1950s and that the US can do whatever it wants without consequence is leaving the US in a very vulnerable position. Who would go into a future 'Coalition of the Willing' in case of a major campaign? How dependable is a treaty or agreement with the US? How reliable an ally are they at the moment? It is just not Trump doing this, to be fair, but a whole raft of elites that habitually put their personal welfare and ambitions above that of their country. I think that most people would tolerate a set of elites so long as they share some of the wealth around and prove themselves competent but that appears to be no longer the case and I am not just talking about the US here.
Is there a way we can watch Maria Zakharova without going to Russia Today? /sarc
They don't talk about reparations for Native Americans, and we won't talk about reparations for Native Siberians.
Similarly, there is no need to talk about Tibet, with China, if both sides can focus on something more important, like North Korea.
"Jacob Hacker Rises Again to Stop Single Payer "
It's distressing to see how many of the Dem candidates coming out of the woodwork for 2018
buy into Hacker-style incrementalism.
Contrast the discussion of health care on the issue pages of two candidates who will remain anonymous:
Access to affordable, quality health care is a right for every American – and to date, our nation has failed to live up to this promise. Republicans in Washington have offered policy ideas that will kick people off of their health insurance plans and raise premiums for all [residents] – [Candidate 1] knows this is the wrong approach. Instead we must come together to fix the problems and strengthen the system we have with a public option to ensure all families have options available to them, while also bringing down costs.
Instead of partisan politics, [residents] need predictability and a Congress that will work to fix the ACA where it's broken, while protecting its core mission of making high quality healthcare more affordable and accessible at every step. [Candidate 2] knows that the best way to find common-sense fixes to the ACA is to bring people together around shared … values. Common ground for doctors, nurses, small business owners, and patients together means protecting the things we value most, changing the things that aren't working, and all sharing in the benefits of healthy [residents].
with this:
Health care is a human right
The healthcare crisis is driven by many factors. Endorsed by state and national health care experts,
Rebecca Otto's Healthy Minnesota Plan will achieve universal, affordable, comprehensive, guaranteed, publicly financed health care.
Well, the one big take away from that is we now know Rebecca Otto won't be getting any help from the DC Democrats.
But the DCCC is undoubtedly excited about this one.
From her health care issue page:
… In Congress, Gina will make affordable, accessible, quality healthcare for every American – regardless of sex, age, income, or employment status – a top priority.
Accessible is the tell.
Health care a human right.
What do animals get – animal rights? Do those rights include health care, or just 'humane' treatment?
Often, they make only a much humbly-asked request (not quit a right demanded) – LEAVE US ALONE!!!
But that sounds a lot like Libertarians.
How Tiny Ticks And Brainworms Are Bringing Down The Mighty Moose Vermont Public Radio (resilc)
A permanent NPS employee (the holiest of holy jobs in the park, it only took him 20 or so years of being a seasonal to attain it) I know, told me earlier this year that he encountered ticks @ 6,000 feet in the forest for the trees, which shocked him as they typically hang out no more than 5,000 feet, but that was then and this is now.
The cyclone of warm pleasant weather here will be a blessing for the bark beetles on their reunion tour with the various pine trees from 3,000 to 7,000 feet that they missed on their last concert dates. I'd guestimate that they killed 1 out of 4, and initially the newlydeads are termed 'red trees' and they look more ocher in color, but 'ocher trees' sounds funny. When they've been expired a few years, the new term is 'grey trees' as they've lost all of their needles and the bones are bleaching out. They have a skeletal look after being deadreds. One vast ridge above me @ 5,000 feet as i'm typing has about a 90% mortality rate, and we call it Cemetery Ridge.
Like the tiny ticks taking down the mighty moose, it doesn't take much for a bark beetle to lay waste to 150-200 foot tall upright standing members of the community. Once they compromise the tree's vascular ability to transport water to the upper branches of management, they're toast.
I've seen trees go from looking very much alive, to being dead as doornails 4 days later.
fresno dan
The news she heard came as a shock: A UPMC representative stood in front of the group and told them their jobs were being outsourced to a contractor in Massachusetts. The representative told them it wouldn't be a big change, since the contractor, Nuance Communications, would rehire them all for the exact same position and the same hourly pay.
Her first paycheck at the per-line rate worked out to just $6.36 per hour—below the minimum wage.*
A perhaps more striking way to put it is that during those 10 years, all net job growth in the American economy has been in contingent jobs.
* It worked out for her former employer: In the four years since the outsourcing, UPMC's net income has more than doubled.
Jim Haygood
Saturday morning cartoons, comrades! I am not making this up:
Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart. I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star to President of the United States (on my first try). I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius….and a very stable genius at that!
7:30 AM – Jan 6, 2018
Share it with your kids. Just to goes to show that with a healthy enough dose of self-esteem, nothing is impossible.
*wipes away tears of admiration*
Twas the day before Christmas in Russia
When all through Vladimir's house
There was merriment and laughter
The emperor's new disclosures-a disaster
Katniss Everdeen
It's starting to look like he's trying to get kicked out.
He's purposely, like, triggering folks.
Full honeybadger mode and he should get a cut of the book proceeds, easily quintipled sales with his statement, tweets and lawsuit.
He left out humble talk about limiting characters!
fresno dan
Jim Haygood
January 6, 2018 at 10:05 am
like….wow….really wow, DUDE
but when you got a big button, you need a stable genius
Seriously, does anyone here, know anyone, other than as a joke, who would ever speak like that? Is this intended as a joke, and Trump is a really funny guy?
Comrade Jim;
Whether by design or accident, POTUS Trump, (P-Trump for short,) has discovered a really near genius way to wield power. He is bypassing the MSM and various previous gatekeepers to Power by using the Twitter to communicate directly to the public. He has already displayed a facility with branding and other forms of public relations, vide the television programs and franchising of his name. He could parlay all this into a real Cult of Personality. I'm just glad he isn't into racehorses. The Senate would never be the same.
(Of course, it could be this poor horse.) See: http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/others/president-trump-horse-fake-news-castrated-donald-racing-a7654741.html
Throughout his life, his, like, greatest asset has been his daddy's money. I think that would qualify as not smart, but rich…. and a very stable rich at that!
An octopus named Otto caused an aquarium power outage by climbing to the edge of his tank and shooting a jet of water at a bright light that was annoying him. He's also been seen juggling hermit crabs, throwing rocks at the glass, and re-arranging his tank surroundings.
I understand some artists are like that…maybe not the juggling part.
A Former Facebook VP Says Social Media Is Destroying Society
He's feeling guilty, so he's giving back his billions right? Or is he using it to create another platform? Shouldn't this be under Guillotine as another example of billionaire stupidity?
I think one of the consequences of the current emphasis on virtue signaling is that people start thinking that saying they feel guilty is enough to expiate the underlying wrong.
They are the two extremes, it seems to me.
In a more unforgiving environment, like the 50's America or Edo period Japan, you would have done everything possible to cover up things like excessive drinking, etc.
The other end is to address an underling wrong by just talking about felling guilty.
"I was vulnerable to your best girl friend's sexiness at a moment of personal weakness. I feel so bad at being unfaithful….just like all the previous occasions."
I find that New York Magazine article linked in the "Class Warfare" section very curious. The author writes that:
"Still, there may be a separate, secondary explanation for why Republicans have failed to benefit from presiding over a good economy: That economy isn't nearly as good as the past year of jobs reports and stock tickers would have one believe."
As readers of this blog are well aware, the same phenomena were happening in the Obama years, but it didn't seem to interest the mainstream media at that point. If the economy isn't good for fundamental reasons, the media need to just state that, instead of reserving it as an additional political point against the Trump Administration.
Enquiring Mind
Social media developers appear to have little to no conscience, so all is well in eNeo-Liberal.comland. As a recent 60 Minutes episode showed, website and software features are designed in to stimulate dopamine response to get and keep users hooked on the latest incarnation. When you see people shuffling along with their noses buried in devices, or taking selfies just because, they can't seem to help it. :(
Some on the other end of such behavior are starting to notice, ranging from the average parent whose patience is wearing thin over the intrusion of devices into mealtime, conversations and any prior human togetherness. Performers also have started to react, when they are treated like part of the landscape instead of the reason for the devicee attendance. Witness a recent comment from a singer decrying the audience turning its back on him so they could pose for that have-to-have selfie for immediate posting to whatever platform is Hot Right Now.
Such overt displays of self-absorption would seem to be cries for help, manifested as Look-At-Me attention-grabbers. Who wonders about the mental health of those shuffling and stumbling from one selfie opportunity to the next, when the sense of self is being submerged in the process? That is the modern bread and circuses, with no calories or nutritional benefit. In other contexts, that would qualify as abuse or harassment.
And then there's those selfie-takers who do so in dangerous places like ledges, cliffs & such who fall off to their death, or worse, to horrible life-long injuries.
Sometimes that's just Darwin's law in action, but how self-absorbed do you have to be to take a selfie teetering on a cliff edge or bridge trestle?
What burns me now is attending an expensive performance like a play or symphony and all the dolts around me who insist on tweeting emailing & posting throughout the whole thing. Totally rude & distracting to have those bright lights flaring up along w various chirps & tweet noises.
Seems like almost no one anymore can go to a show of some sort & just watch & enjoy it.
…in the future everybody will be famous for 15 pixels
Note to Enquiring and RU
Thanks, both of you, for the comments. We live on southern Vancouver Island, BC (that's Canada). I've visited Victoria's famous Butchart Gardens on occasion. Notable especially during tourist season, is the number of visitors who travel the gardens as we do, from one end to the other, and never actually see a live flower or shrub. People travel with their devices in front of them, taking constant pictures or short movies of the beautiful sights. They see the gardens only through the intermediation of the cellphones and tablets in front of their eyes. Fortunately, the family company banned selfie sticks. People were climbing into the middle of flower beds!
The town of Chemainus nearby has live theatre, which we enjoy. They announce to the audience before each performance that all devices must be turned off, and it is enforced by expulsion. It is also clearly stated on programmes for each performance. My wife and I laugh sometimes at the number of attendees who make an urgent grab for their cellphones during intermission. Imagine! 90 to 120 minutes unhooked!
The Debt Beneath – NorthmanTrader
Ignoring the bits about Fed Debt in the article, it was interesting to see the analysis on private debt. Notice the scales:
– corporate debt is in trillions of dollars
– consumer debt is in billions of dollars
– margin debt (for players in the stock market) is in billions of dollars
If corporations start to use their reduced taxes to unwind their debt (taken on for stock buy backs), that has to be deflationary. But given consumer inflation has been tame while they took on the debt, would their unwinding of that debt have any noticeable effect?
Separately, article notes the trend of the 10Y yield going down since 1982 (the Volcker administration) and in spite of that the calls for that to reverse to some degree. I'm with the author, I don't see that happening. Unless the Fed Reserve starts letting the little people into the party again, like they did pre-1982.
And separately, looks like the chart they had on margin debt was pulled from this article. https://www.advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/2017/12/27/a-look-at-nyse-margin-debt-and-the-market Look at the last chart in particular to better see the correlation with the S&P500.
Getting back to the topic of Fed Debt, the article reminded us of Yellen's mendacity, "It's the type of thing that should keep people awake at night".
Our Cara Cara navel orange tree only fruited for the first time in it's 4th year and has about 8 large orbs to show for it. They have a reddish flesh and a more complex flavor than Washington navels. Yum.
Wen Ho Lee?
How about Bill Clinton authorizing technology transfers to China in exchange for Loral Cash?
More on the struggles of Generation Y:
It's sad that the media has relentlessly attacked younger people as entitled. The reality is that they are poor.
Filiform Radical
Re: The U.S. Wanted to Discuss Iran. Russia Brought Up Black Lives Matter.
Another lovely example of editorial spin by way of headline. The actual article is about the overall resistance to America's potential use of the protests as a pretext for getting rid of the nuclear deal, and the actual story is that this included countries which we might not normally expect to go against the US, but of course the headline is about the objection by a country which large portions of the population regard as our implacable foe. This downplays the heel-dragging among our allies, makes the whole thing seem purely politically motivated and disingenuous,* and further plays up US conflict with Russia.
* To the aforementioned portions of the population, that is.
The Jacobin article on Populism asks an excellent question at the end of its analysis:
" When writers…continue to describe populism in ways eerily similar to Hofstadter's definition, we should wonder why this particular vision of the movement has proven so successful?"
One answer is that Hofstadter used static categories of analysis which were totally inadequate to the social realities he sought to understand. By linking his definition of populism to a "yearning" or to some kind of "romantic attitude" he ends up relying on literary traditions, rather than looking directly at the the lives and activities of more than two million participants who eventually formulated a political/economic strategy based on their actual struggles against railroads, bankers and concentrated power.
At a deeper cultural level I would argue that Hofstadter's vision of populism has maintained its hold because his findings then, and perhaps even more so today, harmonize nicely with a conventional wisdom that maintains an almost instinctual condescension towards any attempt at popular assertion led primarily by average citizens.
Many, many intellectuals continue to approach populist politics through the lens of condescension.
I once had a computer teacher who's constant refrain was "back up or pack up.
Another alarming article – for imperial collapse watch:
I wonder where the money for all these weapons is being spent.
The Contractor's yacht is named "ECP"* because that's where the money came from.
The money quote: "Service leaders and their partners (and far too often future colleagues) in the defense industry keep pursuing unrealistic programs and Congress keeps voting for them."
It's interesting that to find examples of successful competitive prototyping, they have to go back to the Boyd/Sprey programs from the 70s. The Tom Christie quote completes the trifecta. Also, due to industry consolidation (and our decades-old national project of de-industrialization), the opportunities for competitive procurements are often very limited.
Lastly, I wonder how much it cost to develop that "Raider" font on the B-21 slide…
* Engineering Change Proposal
Patrick Donnelly
Lying has survival value.
Humans are not the only species on this planet to lie to others of their kind or to predators.
Schools make pupils compliant and therefore suit armies and corporations. Home schooling does not!
Lying was so easy for me that I eventually stopped doing it! Boring! Now I offend with the truth! More fun!
A truth anyway….. gotta keep some secrets!
Re: Is Your Child Lying to You? That's Good New York Times. This is not only on the first page, above the fold, but in the upper right corner. Lambert is as appalled as I am.
I read the linked article and was wondering where the disgust was coming from. Are you upset at the title of the article and the clickbaity nature of the conclusion? The page placement? Or by the research in the article? I'm not pleased by the article title personally, but certainly not appalled.
I have three boys – 6, 4, and 4 – and they all lie about things from time to time. My experience closely follows the researcher's points regarding limiting dishonest behavior. Every child learns to lie; rewards of treats/money/etc. have diminishing returns, spankings are useless against lying, while rewards or incentives that play to approval/appreciation/dignity have the highest rate of success and far less diminishing returns.
Anyway, Yves, Lambert, and Co., thank you for running a great site here. Excellent articles and thought-provoking comments. Bravo!
Re: The Immoral Misuse of Psychology in Support of Empire
Thanks much for that (ever since Counterpunch started to depressingly note: Join the debate on Facebook , I rarely visit the site, though I used to quite frequently).
I had meant to thank you for the link yesterday, but got wrapped up in the Amazon piece and forgot.
To my thought, enough cannot be said about this issue; particularly the difference between being mentally ill, versus being temporarily traumatized, yet permanently overmedicated (particularly as regards the consequences of being labeled poor and, mistakenly, permanently mentally ill in a world where no one except the wealthy can expunge the internet of life threatening false 'data' which prevents them from livable wage employment).
Then, there are the horrid, mostly hushed up, differences in 'care and treatment' (for the Poor, military 'grunts,' and prisoners of The State, who are generally doped up in a hideous Government partnership with Big Pharma (or worse), versus one on one, non medicated discussions) determined by class and 'enemy' status on so many levels.
When a wealthy, or even upper middleclass, person talks about their shrink, they are not only not considered a danger, but they are considered highly rational by those who sign their paychecks. When anyone else does, the likelihood is that they will be marked (and over medicated) for life.


text:
TV Show Info
TV Show Name: Pee-Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special
Studio: Binder Entertainment
Genre(s): Comedy/Seasonal
Release Date(s): December 21, 1988
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
It is Christmas time at Pee-wee's Playhouse and all of Pee-wee's friends are celebrating. As Pee-wee's wishlist for Santa grows longer and longer, the only thing Pee-wee (Paul Reubens) seems to be getting is fruitcakes. More and more guests stop by, and Pee-wee is just hoping for all the gifts he can get.
Directed by Wayne Orr and Paul Reubens, Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special aired in primetime on December 21, 1988. It is also known as Christmas at Pee Wee's Playhouse, and Pee-wee Herman's Christmas Special. It was well received and has become a bit of a cult classic due to its strange "Pee-Wee" style. It was nominated for Outstanding Achievement in in Graphic Design and Title Sequence, Outstanding Art Direction for a Variety or Music Program, and Outstanding Costume Design for a Variety or Music Program.
I loved watching Pee-wee's Playhouse, but Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special kicks it up a notch. It feels more adult than the standard playhouse but not quite up to the Pee-wee stage show (which is pretty crude at points). The show is fun, odd, and a product of its time…which makes it near perfect.
This is just another prime example of why Pee-wee's Playhouse was not for kids. This special is amusing in its quirkiness and campy-ness and full of bizarre guests that look like they should be (and were on) The Love Boat rather than a kids' show. The show also has some weird content with some really strange sexual undertones (the like the actual Pee-wee's Playhouse stage show). In this show, I particularly like when Pee-wee says he added a room built of fruitcakes and opens the door to a bunch of buff shirtless construction men…bizarre, yet hilarious.
The guests really make this show. There are the Pee-Wee Herman regulars like Cowboy Curtis (Lawrence "Larry" Fishburn), Miss Yvonne (Lynne Marie Stewart), Reba the Mail-Woman (S. Epatha Merkerson), the King of Cartoons (William Marshall), Ricardo (Vic Trevino), Jambi (John Paragon), and Mrs. Rene (Suzanne Kent)…who brings the "Hanukkah portion of the special"…which made fun of the PC before political correctness was really a thing. In addition to them, a ton of guest stars stop by like Annette Funicello, Frankie Avalon, k.d. lang, Cher, Grace Jones, Dinah Shore, Little Richard, the Del Rubio Triplettes, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey, Joan Rivers, and Magic Johnson (whose cousin is Magic Screen).
Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special is a great campy edition to the Christmas viewing list. A sheer oddity, watch the show and question why people thought this was for kids at all…Christmas is Pee-Wee's favorite time so have a merry one with this special and a Happy New Year!!! (AAAAHHHH!!!! You just said the Secret Word!!!)
Related Links:
Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985)

subset: commoncrawl


text:
RUSH: All right. So it's on the table that the media, "Noooo, they're just reporting facts about Hezbollah. They're not promoting them, and they're not saying that they're really good people. They're just reporting facts!" Yeah, like they report the facts of US soldiers and how we are murderers and rapists and we tear up people's homes — not just the Drive-By Media saying that, but John Kerry has accused US soldiers of terrorizing Iraqis in their homes at night and disturbing religious services. You know what Senator Durbin and others in the Drive-By Media have said about people that run our prisons, Club Gitmo and Abu Ghraib?
We know Ted Kennedy has talked about how Abu Ghraib is no different now than when Saddam ran it, it's just under different "management." You don't get any heroic stories about the US military in Iraq, no stories of heroism and sacrifice — and certainly nowhere else in the US effort in this war on terror are such stories to be found in the Drive-By Media. The Drive-By Media just today, ladies and gentlemen, reporting on how many civilians Israel has killed with their missile strikes into south Lebanon, and not a word about the missiles launched from civilian locations in south Lebanon!
I mentioned to you yesterday that the Hezbollah "social workers," the matchmaking services, all the wonderful garbage removal and sewage work that Hezbollah is doing. Never do we hear that they are launching missiles into Haifa and other areas of Israel from private homes. You don't hear that reported. No, no, no, no, no, no! You don't — and now this from the Christian Science Monitor. "With Israel's confrontation with Hezbollah and Lebanon lurching closer to all-out war, winds of anger are blowing through the Middle East that are likely to strengthen the political hand of radical Islamists from Egypt to Saudi Arabia."
Well, this is a prediction; it's not a news story! See the word "likely to strengthen the political hand of…"? It's a prediction.
"The confrontation, coupled with the rising civilian toll also poses a serious threat to US interests in the region. Islamists who are hostile to Israel and the US and to their Arab allies who have criticized Hezbollah, are shoring up support, increasing the chances that they will seize power if the elections [President] Bush has urged for the region take place. Countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia have little influence over the militant Shi'ite group and its backers, Iran and Syria, so their statements may be of little practical value. Instead, their comments emphasize the widening gap between their regimes and their people."
What that's about is this story. I had one yesterday and have another one here, from the Jerusalem Post: "Arab World Fed Up with Hezbollah." I told you yesterday; this reports it again today, that Egypt and Saudi Arabia and Jordan, the Emirates, none of them — they are not condemning Israel as they have in the past. They are condemning Hezbollah. So here you have CNN International doing this story humanizing the "great leader, the great sheik," Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah, and we hear about all the great work that he's doing, to make life better for his people, including strapping bombs on their backs and sending them out to die in acts of terror.
Winning over the Arab street? Hezbollah winning over the Arab street? The Arabs are divided over this. How do they know this is happening? They say it's "likely to strengthen the political hand." What do they do? Are they taking a poll of registered Arab voters, for crying out loud? How do they know any of this? By the way, we're not talking about democracies here. What the hell does it matter what the Arab street thinks as long as their governments are calling the shots? What you have here is, quite simply, the Drive-By Media trying to counter the reality of Arab division and creating their own reality again, their own alternative universe here.
You know why Arab governments are not rallying behind Iran and Hezbollah here? It's not Arab! Iran is Persian. They are not Arabs, and the Arab nations that are in the region see them as a threat to their oil fields, because of their ramping up with their nukes. Now, the Christian Science Monitor won't write this. Christian Science Monitor is not going to write anything about the fact that neighboring countries fear Iran. No! It's always gotta be hatred directed at the United States. I wonder what the Iranian street thinks about what its mullahs are doing, and will they look into that? I wonder what the Drive-By Media thinks about what kind of unrest is going on inside Iran.
So what you have here, folks, is a classic example of the humanizing of our enemies, the humanizing of Israel's enemies, the demonization of our guys, the demonization of our allies that stand with us — in this case Israel. It's all done for the express purpose of portraying the United States and its allies in this case, as the focus of evil in the modern world. Here's a story from the Boston Globe today. It's a Reuters story, actually. The headline: "Iran's Hezbollah Says Ready to Attack US and Israel — Iran's Hizbollah, which claims links to the Lebanese group of the same name, said [today] it stood ready to attack Israeli and U.S. interests worldwide.
"'We have 2,000 volunteers who have registered since last year,' said Iranian Hizbollah's spokesman Mojtaba Bigdeli…" He's not a spokesman, he's a spokesterrorist. He was "speaking by telephone from the central seminary city of Qom. 'They have been trained and they can become fully armed. We are ready to dispatch them to every corner of the world to jeopardise Israel and America's interests. We are only waiting for the Supreme Leader's green light to take action. If America wants to ignite World War Three ? we welcome it.'" This is the Iranian branch of Hezbollah. The Iranian branch of Hezbollah is also in Lebanon. Hezbollah is Iran, and it's funded, trained, and maintained and they've even issued them orders, and now the Drive-By Media is beginning to say that, "You know, the Israelis are just… It's all over so little. It's just two kidnapped soldiers! "Why, now Israel's out-of-proportion response…" and I want to deal with that after the break.
Israel's "out-of-proportion response" is, guess what, folks? It's "creating new terrorists," just like our trip into Iraq is said to have been "creating new terrorists." It's the Drive-By Media and the Democrats who say that. Now the same thing is being said about Israel, which in this case, is acting in self-defense. Israel is making them mad by defending themselves! See, we're just supposed to see that Israel is so big compared to these poor little Hezbollah guys. Look at these Hezbollah guys. They haven't shaved in 200 years! They're so poor — and what do you expect them to do? They have rockets; they launch them. Israel should know better. Israel should be grown up, but no, Israel is making them mad.
So the media template here and the action line are easy to see.
RUSH: I just saw it again. CNN just played their puff piece profile of what's his name, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader, the "charismatic leader" of Hezbollah, who's building sewers and massive social programs to help his small group of disadvantaged people deal with the big Goliath of Israel and the United States. They went to Damascus. They're in Syria doing man-on-the-street interviews with Syrians who speak English, praising this Nasrallah guy to the hilt. "He's great. He's this; he's that. We love him," and the conclusion on the part of the CNN reporter was: his support is increasing. His popularity is going up. It's big. It's big. It's big — and of course this action against Israel is making him even more popular.
I'm telling you, I have seen videotapes of this guy's speeches to his people, and it's the one thing that anybody could go get. CNN, none of the news agencies, bother to do that. They don't go out and find speeches of these people to their own people — and they never did it with Arafat. You know, Arafat would respond in English, condemning every act of terrorism that occurred, and then when he went back and started speaking in his native tongue, he would say something totally different. Everybody in the Drive-By Media knew it but would not make a bill deal out of it. They're not doing it now. This guy Nasrallah is
CALLER: Hi. I am real nervous to talk to you here. Anyway, one of the things that hit me as you were talking earlier, is you were talking about how they were praising everything that he does, and it just hit me that it's almost a smoke screen-type argument that they're putting out, similar to what they'll do… It's almost like they're making him a made man, sort of like the Mafia would do. They take somebody that's wicked and does bad things but (garbled) he's doing all these great things, and the great things create a smoke screen for his what real motives and desires are, and that is to take power and destroy others.
RUSH: Of course, but I'm not sure I heard everything you said (not your fault) but I think one of the aspects of this is, is that you get no judgment from the media when reporting on the bad guys. You get no judgment on the US military. You get judgment on the US president. You don't get any judgment on Ted Kennedy's actions. You don't get any judgment of Chuck Schumer or Dick Durbin's actions. You get judgment on George Bush's actions and Rumsfeld and it is clear to the Drive-By Media who the good guys are and the bad guys. So if you want to say, "Well, they're just doing a factual report here on old Nasrallah," there's no judgment on Hezbollah as a terrorist organization!
There's no judgment on actions that they engage in and the acts that they commit, and there's plenty of judgment elsewhere from the Drive-By Media. You know, who can explain it, folks? We all have our theories. I just think it boils down to two things. I think there's such
There's no judgment whatsoever. Gene, Albuquerque, New Mexico, welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hello. I just wanted to offer something to the mix. First of all, I'd say you're a hell of a choreographer. You do a great job of pulling a lot of divergent things together. I heard something this morning that really kind of put together a series of dots for me. I heard one of our local stockbrokers talking about how some NYMEX traders were watching a lot of heavy activity buying of oil futures, oil contracts all through June, very large acquisitions, more than the normal concern for prices and hedging. The second thing I'd add to that is the big meeting in Damascus, where all the major players in terror were there. Iran, Iraq, Hezbollah, Hamas, PLO, Al-Qaeda was supposedly there. All of them were there, and then you put that together with Blair's comments yesterday that there was concern about this whole thing being orchestrated. It starts to really raise some real serious questions about what's going on here and how serious it is. If everybody remembers, one of the major things that happened in front of 9/11 was heavy buying of oil future contracts. So I just wanted to run this by you and see what — if it raised red flags in your mind.
RUSH: Now, don't stop there. I mean, I need you to tell me where you think — leave 9/11 out of it for a minute. Because one thing that can't be denied: the whole thing was orchestrated. What did happen was that Hezbollah
CALLER: Well, my mind is that this is a choreographed, you know, orchestrated effort across the Arab world of the —
RUSH: By who?
CALLER: — terror leaders to really do something. I mean, this is more than to just expand the war in the Middle East. It could be a great smoke screen for other things here in the domestic arena. I just think that there's some seriousness to a level that a lot of people aren't talking about. You know, it's not about this isolated thing or an escalation in the Middle East. I think your points earlier raised this whole thing about, you know, it's not about two people getting kidnapped. You know, it's an orchestrated plan to really do what they've been saying. A lot of people didn't believe Hitler; a lot of people don't believe these guys and they keep blowing it off until we had 9/11. I'm just concerned that this is going to go much — and I'm concerned about what's going to happen here in August.
RUSH: So basically this is a distraction, and Israel fell for it, and everybody else now is falling for it by getting involved into thinking that we're on the verge of a major, major war when in fact it could just be a diversionary tactic to get us focused elsewhere while something
CALLER: I'm just suggesting because we get so easily distracted. We're such total crows: we go for the shiny thing and we beat it to death. That's what the media does. They get fixated. Well, you and I know that. Terrorists know that. So I'm just trying to think outside the box here, and when you start — when people start — putting hundreds of millions of dollars of their money into oil contracts, you know, they're sure something's going to come down.
RUSH: Well, they're not sure, but they're betting.
CALLER: Well, it depends on — I'd like to know who they were. That's what I would like to know, and I'd like to know why there isn't some media coverage of this whole thing that happened in Damascus. I mean, where was it? I mean, if that isn't a major event, what would be?
RUSH: Well, look, I know about it, and you know about it. There has been coverage of it, otherwise we wouldn't know. Now, Fox is doing a puff piece on this guy Nasrallah! (Laughing) Well, I don't know if they're doing a puff piece but they've got some guy talking about him with the cutest, most cuddly looking picture of this terrorist that you've ever seen! You mentioned Hitler and because people are ignoring Ahmadinejad as they ignored Hitler. This DVD that I saw, this documentary/movie that some people very concerned about this have put together called Obsession, many of these Arab terrorists and the Al-Qaedas and this Hezbollah guy
*Note: Links to content outside RushLimbaugh.com usually become inactive over time.


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Best Lunch Boxes
Whether you're headed off to the job site or the playground, taking lunch with you can be an absolute necessity for staying nourished on-the-go. But there's nothing worse than getting to lunch hour and discovering that your lunch box didn't keep your juice cold, or your soup warm. We figured it was high time to remedy that. Here are our top picks for lunch boxes for mom, dad, and the kids.
Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members! Download the app.
Largest Capacity
Seehonor Insulated Lunch Box
Lunch for Two. With an astounding 7-liter capacity, this insulated lunch box has room for two meals!
What We Liked:
This is the largest size of lunch box we reviewed, and we love it! If you need space for two meals, this is the bag you want. Insulated with thick, eco-friendly PEVA lining, it will keep your food hot or cold for up to six hours. The outside is water-resistant, comes with a durable strap, and is easy to clean. You'll even be able to bring your favorite drink with the external mesh drink holder. This lunch box is excellent for multiple uses from the office to the ballpark and beyond. Buy it here.
Best Everyday Lunch Box
MIER Adult Lunch Box
Lunch for One. Take your lunch to work or school with separate compartments to keep food hot and/or cold.
What We Liked:
Separate sections in this lunch box allow for keeping some items hot and others cold during your day. The top features a roomy pouch, and the bottom has a square compartment that's perfect for housing a Tupperware or sandwich-sized container in addition to drinks. It's lined with eco-friendly PEVA insulation and cleans easily. A shoulder strap rounds out this solid work or school lunch bag option. Bonus points: Two small exterior pockets are perfect for storing cell phones, keys, or other items on-the-go. Get it now.
Best for Kids
OmieBox Bento Box for Kids
Kid-Friendly and Leak-Proof. Portioning out healthy meals for the kids has never been easier with this highly organized bento box.
What We Liked:
This lunch box takes organization to the max! A leak-proof hot food or liquid section has enough room for a cup of food and can be removed to provide more room for cold food. Cold sections hold 4.5 cups of food, and you can easily insert a box of juice or milk. The lunch box is highly durable and built to withstand the rigors of getting carted back and forth from school. It comes apart for easy cleaning, is well-insulated, and BPA-free. Bonus points: Replacement seals are available so you can reuse the liquid section instead of replacing the lunch box each year. Get it now.
Best for Teens
Rubbermaid LunchBlox Lunch Bag
Highschooler-Approved. Send your teen to school with this roomy, lightweight lunch bag that blends in well with a backpack.
What We Liked:
This bag is incredibly lightweight and easy to transport. It can fit inside a backpack or be carried separately. The bag doesn't draw attention, making it the perfect addition for your high schooler who wants to take lunch without sticking out. This bag pairs perfectly with Rubbermaid's convenient LunchBlox system that makes packing lunches ahead of time a breeze. There is a removable shoulder strap, and the insulated lining is BPA-free. Buy it here.
This article was written by a third party for use in our affiliate program and has not yet been endorsed by our editors.


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Grosset 'Polish Hill' Clare Valley Riesling
Grosset 'Polish Hill' Clare Valley Riesling
Ex Tax: €49.99
- Stock: 7
- CountryAustralia
Product Description
Jeff Grosset is best known for his Rieslings which have shown a consistency of style and quality, making this one of Australia's greatest wineries. By combining a disciplined approach and decades of experience, Grosset consistently achieves the purest expression of variety and place.
Related Categories Wine White Wine


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'The Bold & The Beautiful' Production is 'Paused' to Expand COVID-19 Testing
Production on The Bold & The Beautiful has been paused again.
Just one day after returning to set, production for the long-running CBS soap opera halted to "better accommodate the large volume of testing needed," a spokesperson shared with Variety.
The Bold & the Beautiful returned to production at Television City Studios in Los Angeles on Tuesday (June 16). It was one of the very first shows to start film again since the coronavirus outbreak.
"We have paused very briefly to modify our testing protocol to better accommodate the large volume of testing needed," the spokesperson shared in a statement. "Safety remains our top priority as we continue to move forward with the production of the Bold and the Beautiful. B&B filmed with cast and crew today and it was a successful first day back at work."
Production for The Bold & the Beautiful is scheduled to resume on Tuesday, June 23.
Source: Read Full Article


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Southern Shores Realty offers over 350 Outer Banks rentals from Corolla to S. Nags Head. We've been an Outer Banks tradition since 1947, providing families just like yours with memories that last a lifetime. Take a moment to search through our extensive selection of Outer Banks rentals, choose your favorite, and book online today!
One coupon per person. Not valid with other offers. Expires May 2024


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I would consider this to be a beginner-level project. It requires a certain amount of finesse with hand tools, some basic soldering skills, and some patience. Nothing terribly technical. I think you can do this one. I believe in you.
- (3) .100 inch hole spacing prototype board (roughly 2″x3″ or larger, we'll be cutting it up)
- (1) Micro USB Connector Breakout Board
- (4) 4.3 mm pogo pins
- Epoxy, Solder, Hot Glue
All of these items are the kinds of things electronics hobbyists like myself have sitting around already, with the exception of the pogo pins. Taken individually, the pogo pins are cheap. I paid about 8 cents apiece for mine. Overall, they're a little expensive for this project simply because I had to buy them in a large quantity. I'm sure I'll think of something else fun or useful to do with them. Brushes for tiny electric motors, maybe?
- 2mm drill bit
- 1mm drill bit
- Soldering iron
- Small saw (for cutting perf board)
- Flat file
- A small vise or other clamping device to hold your work in place


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Air Charter Advisors arrange private jet charter services on the Premier 1, a 6 passenger light business jet aircraft manufactured by Hawker Beechcraft designed to compete with the Cessna CitationJet series.
Originally designed by Raytheon in 1994 as their first business jet, the Premier (Model 390) was created to offer a high-performing business jet with low acquisition and operating costs. Production was later taken over by Beechcraft Hawker, and in 2001, it became the first composite fuselage business jet to gain FAA certification.
In 2006, the Premier 1A was certified as the world's largest single-pilot business jet featuring improved avionics and brakes, and a redesigned cabin over the original.
For instant pricing & availability on Premier 1/1As and similar light business jets near you, give us a call at +1 (888) 987-5387 or request a quote for more information.
The cost to charter to Beech 390 Premier 1 / 1A starts at around $3,250 an hour* and will vary based on year of make and model; aircraft routing, scheduling, positioning; passenger and baggage totals, and other factors. Please request a free quote for all-inclusive charter costs, and lock in guaranteed rates with a private jet card.
The Premier I was designed by Raytheon/Hawker to be a unique business jet, utilizing an advanced lightweight fuselage (graphite/epoxy laminate and honeycomb composite), rather than an aluminum airframe.
This weight reduction provides exceptional fuel efficiency, and the swept wings, originally designed by Raytheon, minimizes drag while increasing speed and high-altitude performance.
The composite design also creates a huge cabin (315 cubic feet) that can accommodate up to 6 passengers with 4 fully-adjustable club seats and two fixed seats in the rear of the cabin. A combined total of 77 cubic feet of storage is available between the interior and exterior, and twin Williams FJ44-2A engines make sure this light jet is as fast as it is comfortable.
The Premier IA debuted in 2008 and is essentially the same aircraft as the original, with upgrades to the avionics systems, brakes, and cabin.
A total of 292 were built during its 12-year production run with 163 Premier IA models built during its 5 years on the market. The price to acquire a pre-owned model ranges from $1 million to $2.4 million.
Air Charter Advisors offers private jet acquisition services for individuals and business team interested in purchasing a Beechcraft Premier 1/1A. This light jet from Raytheon/Hawker Beechcraft debuted in 2001, enjoying an 11 year production run which included the Premier IA.
With 200 hours of flight time, the Premier 1/1A cost of ownership carries an annual budget of $692k, with fixed costs accounting for $473k and operating/variable costs around $219k. The operational cost for the Premier 1/1A comes out to around $1,250-$1,450 per hour, or approximately $7.15 per mile.
Pre-owned models from 2003 to 2011 are typically priced at between $1.25 million and $2.5 million. Our team offers access to used aircraft both on and off the market. Give us a call or request more information to buy a Beechcraft Premier 1.
Our brokers offer a variety of private jet charter services on the Premier 1/1A, including on-demand flights, jet cards, fractional/individual ownership, and more. Call our advisors at +1 (888) 987-JETS (5387)or request a free quote for more information.
* Average hourly rates vary depending on make, model and year; amenities, routing and scheduling/availability, and do not include fuel, taxes, crew charges, ramp, hangar, FBO, overnights, daily minimums, taxes, international fees, catering, ground transport, or de-icing. If you would like an accurate quote, please call or email. Pictures are for example only. The age, color, interior layout, hourly rates, specifications, dimensions may all vary between aircraft. All images copyrighted and provided courtesy of Hawker Beechcraft / Textron Aviation.
Current Empty Leg Deals Los Angeles, CA to Miami, FL, USA on 9/12/2023 Fly private from Los Angeles, CA to ...READ MORE


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Four people, including a young boy, were killed after fire broke out in an apartment in New York City, police have said.
The incident, currently being investigated as a possible murder-suicide, left two adult women, one man and a boy of around five dead in an eight-unit building located in the Queens borough of New York. Police did not confirm the nature of the relationship between the victims, but local news channel NY1 cites unnamed sources who claim that the adult male involved in the incident was a resident of the property.
New York Police Department Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea said investigators are only beginning their work and urged for patience before they release more information, Reuters reported. "We will take the evidence wherever it leads us," Shea said. "We don't want to leave any stone unturned."
Video footage of police swarming the building on 30th Drive near 23rd Street in Astoria around before 9 p.m. Monday has spread widely on social media. The officers arrived on the scene in response to an aided case of heavy bleeding, presumably of one of the victims, Shea said in his statement broadcast by a local ABC affiliate. The detective chief did not specify who "directed" local precinct officers to the crime scene, however the New York Post reported that the 911 call came after a cleaning woman arrived on the crime scene and witnessed some of the bloody aftermath. Officers arrived to search the first-floor apartment shortly after.
"Upon entering that location, they observed in quicktime four individuals that were apparently the victims of gunshot wounds," Shea said, amid conflicting reports about the cause of death of all victims. Some outlets suggest all victims were shot dead, however the Associated Press reports that the man found dead in the first-floor apartment had his throat slashed. Shea highlighted that he only gave a "very active and very preliminary statement," with more to definitive answers to come as the investigation continues. At least one source told the New York Post that the deceased man had both sustained a gunshot injury and his throat slashed.
A weapon used in the incident was reportedly recovered, CBS New York reported, and police are working on determining if people in the relevant area had placed 911 calls with related information to the victims.
"There are calls that we believe are going to be related to that building, but it's a little preliminary," Shea said.
Read More: New York man charged with stabbing 101-year-old neighbor in her home
Police have released no official information about the identity of the four people killed in the incident, however a neighbor described the resident of the Queens apartment as a jovial man and a physical therapist by trade.
"He was the happiest person I've ever seen," Steven Levine, who lives in the apartment upstairs, told the Post. "He has parties in the backyard—a tall, happy guy." The newspaper cites unnamed sources who claim the deceased resident recently had family and financial problems, though investigators have not commented on this.


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Many of The Athletic's recent hires have been Sports Illustrated alums, especially since former SI group editorial director Paul Fichtenbaum landed there last summer. They continued that trend Wednesday with the hire of one of the most prominent ex-SI writers, but someone whose recent prominence hasn't come for anything positive: Rick Reilly.
Reilly tweeted about his first piece there Wednesday, complete with the requisite subscription promo:
Thrilled to start contributing to The Athletic, the best thing to happen 2 sportswriting since Marriott points. Here's my first take on Tiger et al. You want in? Get 40% off a subscription by using https://t.co/hBnNQq9EjGhttps://t.co/fVI724Ui9F
— Rick Reilly (@ReillyRick) May 9, 2018
Reilly wrote for SI from 1985 to 2008, when he left for ESPN and a contract reportedly worth up to $3 million annually. But his ESPN contributions worked out so poorly that said contract became one of the go-to standards for bad sports media contracts, and he mostly made headlines for things that didn't work out, such as an interview show that was yanked after 13 episodes, repeated self-plagiarism, misquotes (of his own father-in-law, even), his attempt to get on-air credit for something he didn't report, and a whole lot of terrible tweets.
The Worldwide Leader extended his contract in 2013 for some reason, but he gradually gave up or lost role after role following that, from columns to Monday Night Countdown features. And he hadn't been heard from in a while, so the world probably presumed he was sitting on a beach crafting dental puns. But for some reason, The Athletic decided he's a valuable addition, and they're since getting clowned on for it:
it's important that we commit to building a diverse staff, look for fresh new voices, and bring aboard writers who understand the state of modern sports and where it's headed
welcome, rick reilly!
— Erik Malinowski (@erikmal) May 9, 2018
Rick Reilly is an unapologetic hack who misquoted his own father-in-law to defend a racist team name. So, uh, no thanks @TheAthleticHQ
— Bill (@Bill_TPA) May 9, 2018
The Athletic hired Rick Reilly? in 2018?
— CJ Fogler #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) May 9, 2018
I wish The Athletic had something more than a paywall to put Rick Reilly behind. maybe a pay-bank vault, beyond a pay-enchanted bridge where you must solve a troll's 3 riddles
— Matthew Callan (@scratchbomb) May 9, 2018
Congrats to The Athletic on hiring Rick Reilly!!
Can't wait for his first column on all the ways Kate Upton makes his wiener feel weird pic.twitter.com/zKwaOHS3zb
— Tyler Conway (@jtylerconway) May 9, 2018
my condolences to everyone who is now coworkers with Rick Reilly
— Marc Normandin (@Marc_Normandin) May 9, 2018
Rick Reilly in the Athletic and I suddenly want a refund on my subscription.
— Nikolai Denmark (@NikolaiDenmark) May 9, 2018
An overall challenge with The Athletic is that they're trying to attract so many different kinds of sports fans that they're certain to hire some personalities some fans can't stand. And there's always the argument that readers don't have to read everything on the site (which is surely impossible at this point anyway, given how many people The Athletic has hired), and that they can choose what's relevant to them and ignore the rest.
But going with a personality who draws as much criticism and negativity as Reilly is certainly a bold move. It's possible that this could build a following with an older audience who fondly remembers Reilly's SI work, but it's also possible that this will turn off a lot of people who remember what he's done recently. Bringing in a controversial figure like Reilly is certainly a notable move for the site, and it will be interesting to see how it turns out.


text: Unless you love, you cannot be of any help. Help cannot be a duty. If it comes out of duty it is ugly, egoistic; it humiliates the other. When. it comes out of love it obliges nobody; it is for the sheer joy of sharing. In fact you feel thankful to the person who accepted your help, because he respected it, he welcomed it–he could have rejected it.


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Perfectionism: The Thief Of Good Singing
Sometimes the things that improve our singing the most have nothing to do with singing at all. This couldn't be more true when it comes to the standards we set for ourselves and why I say that perfectionism is the thief of good singing. We all want to sound good but at what point does that tip into perfectionism, and how can you know? Here are a few questions to ask yourself: Do I set standards waaaaay higher and more demanding for myself then the standards I apply to my friends/colleagues/family? Do I ever find that I have all-or-nothing thinking where I feel "almost perfect" as a failure? Do I ever have difficulty taking pride in my accomplishments because I am so focused on tiny perceived mistakes or imperfections in my work that I have trouble acknowledging the larger achievement? If you answered "Yes" to any of these questions then you, my friend, just might be a perfectionist. Welcome to the club! Illustrious members include Steve Jobs, Mozart, Flaubert so you are in very good company. The thing is, while perfectionism may work for some people, it is mostly disastrous for singers. When we feel we have to be perfect


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Why does God allow evil?
One of the most common questions people ask about Christianity is why God allows so much suffering and evil in the world. In this talk I give a few answers to that issue, and try to understand the greater nature of suffering in this world.https://jontopping.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/GOOD-problem-of-evil.mp3


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Complete Editions and Editions of Selected Works
The scholarly-critical Complete Editions of the works of leading composers form a central part of the Bärenreiter publishing programme. These pioneering publications have brought Bärenreiter international acclaim.
From the very beginning, Bärenreiter's new Complete Editions have been designed to serve scholars and performers alike whilst reflecting the latest in musicological research. To ensure that each composition is published in keeping with scholarly-critical methods in a form as close as possible to the composer's original intentions, the editorial work is conducted by highly qualified and internationally renowned musicologists who work for the most part at institutes specially founded for the research and publication of these works. This high editorial standard is complemented by a well-presented layout, excellent printing as well as high quality paper.
Today more than 600,000 Bärenreiter Complete Editions volumes are to be found in musicological institutes and libraries all over the world.


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The Importance of Electrical Outlet Maintenance
One of the primary causes of electrical fires and electrocutions in the home are faulty outlets. Outlets can present a danger for a number of reasons, including:
- Old, Ungrounded Outlets. In older homes it's not uncommon to still find ungrounded outlets, or outlets that have old wiring with connections. Old outlets should be replaced with new, grounded outlets to reduce the risk of fire and electrocution.
- Worn Out Outlets. Over time outlets can become worn out from use, especially if cords are not unplugged properly (always unplug from the grip at the end of the plug, never yank on the cord). When inserting a plug into an outlet it should feel snug, not overly tight or loose.
- Improperly Installed or Damaged Outlets. Improperly wired receptacles can be dangerous and are a common cause of home electrical fires. Wiring should always be performed by a licensed electrician. If an outlet cover is cracked or feels warm to the touch, have the receptacle inspected by an electrician.
- Outlets That Are Not Childproof. If there are young children in the home, don't rely on plastic outlet covers, they can easily be removed by a curious toddler. Have tamper resistant receptacles (TRR) installed. They will deactivate the outlet when a foreign object is inserted.
- Outlets in wet locations that do not have GFCIs. Outlets in kitchens, bathrooms, laundry rooms and outdoors should be equipped with a ground fault interrupter (GFI) to prevent electrical shock if exposed to water. Test the GFI by pressing the "test" button located on the outlet, it should deactivate the outlet immediately.
By inspecting your outlets for any of the conditions above you can protect your home and family from the risk of accidental electrocution or fire. If you need help, ABC is here to answer all your electrical questions.
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Given Ken Clarke's welcome realisation that prison does not, after all, work, I suppose it makes sense to to cut the funding to the prison service, though it would perhaps be wiser to wait until the cut in numbers has actually materialsed before cutting the staff.
However, if fewer offenders are to be sent to prison there will clearly be more on probation, performing community service or otherwise compensating for their crimes. This surely needs more qualified and experienced workers to supervise and guide them. So a cut in funds to the probation service makes no sense at all.
Although I am no expert I understand that there are rehabilitation programmes outside prison that are very effective, but they do cost money. Failing to provide it not only means that non-custodial sentences are ineffective (and held to ridicule by the tabloids) but unreformed miscreants cost more money in the future.
The coalition is rightly trying to curtail short term thinking in the City. Long term thinking in the prison and probation services would be equally welcome.
Saturday, 30 October 2010
Fewer Prisoners
Posted by Peter Wrigley at 07:03
Labels: Society
2 comments:
- Anonymous30 October 2010 at 21:22
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