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Benefits of online medical records outweigh the risks
This post is adapted from one that first appeared in the San Jose Mercury News
by Larry Magid
A couple of years ago I arrived at my hotel in Berlin after a 12 hour flight and noticed that I had forgotten to pack medication I was taking at the time. Of course, I had no idea the actual name of the medication, let alone the exact dosage. And when I discovered it was missing, it was the middle of the night in California, so I couldn't call my clinic or pharmacy.
But it wasn't a problem. I logged on to the Palo Alto Medical Foundation's My Health Online website, found the prescription information and — with the hotel's assistance — arranged an immediate phone consultation with a local doctor, who prescribed replacement pills. The only reason I needed to speak to a doctor was because the German pharmacy wouldn't fill a foreign prescription. Had I been in the United States, I could have skipped the phone call and used the site to request that the prescription be sent to a local pharmacy.
That service, which is now also available via a smartphone app, has made me a smarter health care consumer. Thanks to the site and app I can now access all of my medical records, including most test results, notes from physician visits, preventive services and more. I can also use the service to request appointments and exchange messages with clinic doctors. It even lets you graph vital signs and numeric test results to see how you're doing over time.
Palo Alto Medical, which is part of the Sutter Health Network, is one of many clinics, including Kaiser Permanente, that gives patients online access to their own records. It's part of a growing national trend to provide electronic medical records, which has been endorsed by both the Bush and Obama administrations and is rapidly becoming a reality throughout the country. It's also, of course, tied into billing and insurance and Medicare reimbursement systems that can be used to streamline the process.
But according to a letter sent out by the heads of the Justice Department and the Department of Health and Human Services, "some providers are using this technology to game the system," and inflate their bills.
There are also privacy concerns. In a 2010 Wall Street Journal op-ed, psychiatrist Deborah Peel, founder of Patient Privacy Rights, complained that "lab test results are disclosed to insurance companies before we even know the results." She added that data is being released to "insurers, drug companies, employers and others willing to pay for the information to use in making decisions about you, your job or your treatments, or for research." Her group is calling for tighter controls and recognition that "that patients own their health data."
I share the group's privacy concerns, especially when it comes to insurance companies' ability to deny coverage or claims based on pre-existing conditions that are now part of our permanent records. The Affordable Care Act bans pre-existing condition exclusions starting in 2014, assuming Congressional opponents don't succeed in overturning this provision of "Obama Care."
I also share concerns about the security of medical records. This summer, the Department of Health and Human Services' website posted a spreadsheet with medical record data breaches that affected 500 or more patients. There were 499 instances affecting more than 21 million people.
While abuse is a risk, failing to implement a portable and easily accessible medical records database system poses an even greater risk. As much as I like the medical records system I use, I'm bothered that there is no easy way for my other health care providers to access that data or incorporate their data about me into the same database.
If I see a doctor or have tests conducted outside of this closed system, there's no way to integrate the data. If I want to share it with a doctor outside the system, I have to print it out or capture the screen and send it via email. If someone were to show up unconscious at an emergency room, chances are the doctors will have no way to access that person's records, which could lead to the possibility of missing important diagnostic information and the risk of a dangerous drug interaction.
Just as it's now easy to visit an ATM machine from just about any bank in almost any country and access funds stored at your local bank, it ought to be possible for any medical provider — with your permission — to access your medical records from anywhere. There need to be safeguards but there also needs to be a way that patients can issue advanced directives allowing first responders and emergency personnel to access records with strong safeguards in place to make sure that is can't be abused.


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Heather Hammond, 1975, attempted murder, first-degree wanton endangerment, in jail, $75,000 cash bond set, continued to Nov. 2.
Adam Edward Killion, 1982, unauthorized use of motor vehicle, pleaded guilty, 180 days, restitution, court costs.
Roy Miller, 1978, flagrant non-support, two counts of contempt of court, pleaded not guilty, continued to Oct. 26.
Chris Rabourn, 1990, receiving stolen property under $10,000, probable cause established, transferred to grand jury, in jail, $5,000 cash bond set.
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Bleeding and Clotting Disorders |
I am a 57 year old woman in good health. I just had a cbc done and I had a white blood cell count of 5.1 and an elevated precentage of lymphocytes of 45.8%. segs were 44.2%. I am a little bit worried. My doctor had given me a copy of these tests and said everything was okay. Should I be worried and do I need more tests? Thank you very much.
No, you should not be worried. The number that counts is absolute segs and lymphocytes, which are normal at 2295 and 2244 respectfully.
Eric H Kraut, MD Professor of Hematology College of Medicine The Ohio State University |


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Scientist (PMTS) in the Scalable Algorithms department at the center for Computing Research at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
My research spans a wide range of topics in applied mathematics, numerical analysis, and computer science.
FedEX/UPS/DHL Sandia National Laboratories 1515 Eubank SE MS 1318 Albuquerque, NM 87123


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Another day, another rumored release date for the much anticipated HTC Dream. Our previous report of a September 23rd release date has now been replaced by a WSJ report claiming that the actual release date will be closer to "late October". Which makes a wee bit more sense, that September 23rd deadline was right around the corner.
Shop: Insanely Cheap Wireless Plans | Chromebooks: Asus Flip | Acer R13


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Several weeks ago we scheduled a creative meeting to work on the production pieces for our fall kickoff meeting. We had a blank piece of paper. We were in the dreaming phase of the brainstorming process.
But we had a problem…actually a couple of problems.
1. We sandwiched this creative meeting in the middle of a really busy day – a day where most of us had gone from meeting to meeting to meeting with no room to breath.
2. None of had taken any time before the meeting to explore, to think, to imagine, to expose ourselves to possibilities, or to dream.
It was obvious that this meeting was going nowhere fast.
Instead of pushing everyone to spout out ideas and force a creative direction, I pulled back on the pressure to come up with the best idea and instead we talked more about what we hoped to accomplish and communicate in this meeting. We talked about how we wanted people to feel. Imagine that…we talked about the purpose of the event!
This meeting ended early. We established the "feel" we were going for, but beyond that we didn't accomplish much. Most important, we sent everyone off with the assignment of exploring.
What has wowed you lately?
What made you laugh?
What made you cry?
What captured your attention?
What took you to another place?
What entertained you?
What communicated a moving message?
Ending that meeting early was a good decision.
When we met the next time, there were a lot of good ideas. One idea spun into another and then another. I love those kinds of meetings!
I think we've landed on a strong creative direction for our fall kickoff meeting. I'll share more about where we landed later.
I recently read a good article on the Perfect Brainstorm. You might like it!


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Communication Division
The Communication Division at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) is responsible for the university's official internal and external communication. We are the contact point for local and international media, help researchers and the departments publicize their research, organize large events, and work with community relations.
Find stories and experts
NTNU's scientists and educators conduct research on everything from rural urban renewal in China to new forms of renewable energy. The Communication Division can help members of the press find NTNU experts.
Media and outreach
- Gemini.no - research magazine for NTNU and SINTEF
- Forskning.no - national and international research news
- NTNU image bank - links to Flickr-sites
- Press releases
- Brochures (in Norwegian)
Web and social media
- ntnu.no (Norwegian) and ntnu.edu (English)
- NTNU's intranet Innsida
- Social media: Linkedin | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Flickr
- Media surveillance
Events and public relations
- Matriculation ceremony
- The National Science Week
- Researcher Grand Prix
- Doctoral Degree Awards Ceremony
Marketing and branding
- NTNU Alumni - the official organization for former students of NTNU
- National and international marketing
- Graphic profile (in Norwegian)
- Cultural outreach and collaborations
Contact Information
Press Contacts
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Office Address
Main Administration Building Gløshaugen campus
Handelshøyskolen i Trondheim, Klæbuveien 72, 5. etg. (previously HiST)
Mailing Address
NTNU Communication Division
NO-7491 Trondheim
Information resources
- Brochures (most in Norwegian)
- NTNU logos
- Slide series about NTNU
- Press releases


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Atletico Madrid join race for Hamburg's Hakan Çalhanoğlu
Atletico Madrid are reportedly prepared to battle a host of English Premier League giants for the rights to Hamburg's 20-year-old midfielder, Hakan Çalhanoğlu.
According to German newspaper, Hamburger Morgenpost, Atletico Madrid and Juventus were both seen scouting the Turkish international, with the report adding that Los Colchoneros would be interested in signing the Turkish international as a direct replacement for their current Turkish international, Arda Turan, who has been linked with a move away from the Vicente Calderon this summer.
Çalhanoğlu has been praised for his versatility and playmaking ability, just like Turan and is likely to make a move this summer as Hamburg may be relegated and forced to sell the rising star.
The midfielder originally sign a four-year deal he signed with the German side from Karlsruher SC in the summer of 2012, but recently renewed it, keeping him with the club until 2018.
Çalhanoğlu has been linked with not only Atletico Madrid and Juventus, but Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool for next season.


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As we look back on the year that was, let's honor some of the outstanding issues and accomplishments for community sustainability that came to light during the year. In many cases, naming a particular item one of the best of 2012 may be a bit (not completely) arbitrary: by definition, sustainability is seldom a single "event" that occurs wholly within one calendar year. But, in each of these cases, something caught my attention this year.
Mine is a very personal list. Yours may differ, which is part of the fun. Let's get to it.
- Best community sustainability issue that reached critical mass this year: water. Maybe it's that I work for NRDC, whose water team has become invested in community solutions in a big way. My colleagues published the second edition of our major green infrastructure report, Rooftops to Rivers, late last year, celebrating the efforts of cities across the country in solving serious runoff pollution problems with smart landscaping, green roofs, permeable paving and related approaches that also make dense neighborhoods healthier and more beautiful. This year, they followed up with another (and seriously wonky) report detailing how local and state governments can potentially stimulate billions of dollars in private investment in these solutions. And, as the year drew to a close, superstorm Sandy had demonstrated with terrible ferocity the importance of urban water management to a resilient future.
But, beyond NRDC's work or individual storm events, a lot of good things happened in 2012 to mark significant progress in using soft approaches to cleaner watersheds. In particular, the federal EPA approved Philadelphia's plan to deploy the most comprehensive green infrastructure program found in any US city; New York City announced that it, too, was embarking on a major green infrastructure program to reduce runoff and resulting sewage overflows; Washington, DC proposed a comprehensive zoning update that will include, among other things, green infrastructure requirements for new construction, and settled a lawsuit by agreeing to tighter deadlines for waterway cleanup.
Meanwhile, the city of Chicago announced a program of small grants to help individual homeowners adopt "backyard" projects such as plantings and rain barrels that help clean the watershed; and, in Seattle, long a leader in these issues, Washington State University and the non-profit Stewardship Partners are working to install 12,000 rain gardens in Puget Sound communities by 2016. If you're working on city sustainability and aren't including clean water solutions in your portfolio, you're not just overlooking a critical set of concerns but also missing a lot of creativity and excitement.
- Best regional plans for thoughtful land use and transportation investment: the Southern California and Sacramento Sustainable Communities Strategies. The best work to emerge so far from the implementation of California's SB 375, the state's landmark smart growth legislation, these two plans tackle climate change by placing a majority of new homes and jobs in transit-accessible locations, reducing traffic and related carbon emissions, preserving single-family neighborhoods, and saving hundreds of square miles of farmland and open space. Now the plans must be carried out, of course, but the law's mix of carrots and sticks makes me hopeful.
- Best provocative new book: The Space Between. This one was a very tough call, given The Walkable City, Jeff Speck's definitive work on how to shape cities that put people, not cars, first, and Chuck Marohn's burning fiscal indictment of sprawl, Thoughts on Building Strong Towns. But my nod goes to Eric Jacobsen's Christian case for cities, The Space Between, because of its freshness.
- Best expansion of the green city vocabulary: Walk Appeal. This one comes from Steve Mouzon, who also gave us the apt phrase "original green" to describe buildings and communities that respond to environmental issues naturally rather than with technological add-ons. "Walk appeal" describes the extent to which a street or community induces us to use our feet simply because it's enjoyable. (Honorable mention: Scott Doyon's "pub shed.")
- Best well-deserved recognition for a sustainability leader: Dr. Richard Jackson's Heinz award. Long a champion of safe, walkable, clean neighborhoods, Dick Jackson is chair of the department of environmental health sciences at UCLA. He'll be the first to tell you that he's far from the only one who is showing us why we need to improve our built environment to protect human health. But no one does it with more conviction and authority. This year Dick's fantastic work earned a prestigious Heinz award; I can't think of anyone more deserving.
- Best new idea in community revitalization: use of LEED-ND as a planning framework for recovering neighborhoods. OK, I'm (very) biased on this one. But many of us involved in the creation of the green rating and certification system LEED for Neighborhood Development hoped from the beginning that the system would find multiple informal uses for citizens and planners in addition to its formal application in honoring worthy new development with certification. Constructed as a logical, ordered framework of standards measuring neighborhood characteristics that affect sustainability, LEED-ND also provides a structure for guiding the thinking of community development corporations and other leaders of distressed city neighborhoods as they plan improvements. It is now being used for just that purpose in Philadelphia, Indianapolis, Boston, Los Angeles, and perhaps elsewhere.
- Best municipal blueprint for changing an unsustainable community into a sustainable one: Plan El Paso. This superlative city plan could just as easily have been picked as one of the best in 2011, when it was preliminary and EPA recognized it with a national award for achievement in smart growth. But, in March of this year, the city council formally adopted it and, in November, El Paso voters approved the issuance of $473 million dollars' worth of bonds to begin funding it. These actions give us another opportunity to salute the city's leadership – and the skill of its planning team – in moving forward with what may well be the nation's best-articulated commitment to a more sustainable future in a community not previously known for environmental aspiration.
- Best continually improving and evolving sustainability tool: Walk Score. The genius of Walk Score is its simplicity: enter an address and you get a numerical rating from zero to 100 instantly. Walk Score isn't perfect, particularly because it relies on imperfect databases and also because it attempts to quantify something – walkability – that is partially subjective. But it's incredibly good in approximating the relative completeness and convenience of locations. Best of all, its keepers don't rest on their laurels but continuously tinker with the system's underpinnings to make it more reliably accurate. (Honorable mention in this category goes to the ever-improving and highly useful Housing + Transportation Affordability Index from the Center for Neighborhood Technology.)
- Best accumulated body of recent work by a federal agency: HUD. As I wrote earlier this month, I have been seriously impressed by the community-building work of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development since its Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities was created almost three years ago. Working with an extremely limited budget (as federal programs go), HUD continues to assist cities and towns all over the country as they develop commitments and investment for a more resilient, greener future. It's a remarkable portfolio of accomplishment. (Honorable mention to the work of the National Endowment for the Arts, including its Our Town program, and to EPA's always-impressive Office of Sustainable Communities.)
- Best little-known work by a community-based non-profit that deserves a pat on the back: The Boston Project. A faith-based organization in the city's Talbot Norfolk Triangle district, the Boston Project embodies "a passion for seeing renewal in urban neighborhoods." It was founded by Paul and Glenna Malkemes, who run the organization's activities out of their house; the first floor serves as a free, pleasant and safe drop-in center where youth can come and go at their leisure to do homework or enjoy fellowship. With its affiliate TNT Neighbors United, the project is working, with some success, to create "a multi-site urban garden" with a walkable route that connects community green spaces such as planned play areas, passive parks, vegetable gardens, and orchards.
- Best body of educational work by a national non-profit: American Society of Landscape Architects. With a relatively small staff, ASLA is quietly doing incredibly innovative work that improves city communities. Go to the organization's web site and see, among other things, 30 (mostly urban) case studies that illustrate the transformative effects of sustainable landscape design; animations of the possible, using Google Sketchup to show how to build parks out of waste, design neighborhoods for active living, create smart landscaping that saves energy, transform ugly transportation infrastructure into attractive people spaces, and design wildlife-friendly neighborhoods; a guide to the beautiful hidden spaces of Washington, DC; a study on the economic benefits of green infrastructure; an interactive tour of the Society's own innovative green roof; materials on brownfields transformation; and much more. Not to mention the Sustainable Sites Initiative, a partnership undertaking that seeks to do for landscapes what LEED has done for buildings and neighborhood development. Very, very impressive. (Honorable mention: Project for Public Spaces.)
- Best sustained excellence in writing about people and community: PlaceShakers. The hard-to-define, geographically dispersed firm PlaceMakers does a lot of things, but what I like best about them is their writing, in the PlaceShakers blog. Scott Doyon, Ben Brown, Hazel Borys and company are kind of all over the place in what they think and write about, and that's a very good thing. While it all comes back, one way or another, to a decidedly new urbanist view of community design (form-based codes, the transect, skinny streets, and so forth), it's a refreshingly broad and very well-written take on that approach. Scott, for instance, explains walkability by reference to where the bars are in his community; Hazel links neighborhood feel to Christmas carols and a meditation on the Ode to Joy that most of us know as the last movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony; when Ben discusses the intricacies of housing market trends, you feel as if they are being explained by your favorite uncle. And, yes, the rest of them write, too. Their articles aren't lectures so much as stories told by interesting and fun people who, in the process, tell you as much about themselves as about their subject matter.
- Best architecture/planning firm of the year: Mithun. There are firms that design outstanding urbanism. And there are firms that design outstanding green buildings and community features. But there is none that integrates those two important concepts – both critical for sustainability – better than Seattle-based Mithun. I reported on two of its projects during the year: the firm was the guiding force behind Denver's award-winning Mariposa project as well as the master planner for the excellent green revitalization concept for the Sunset neighborhood of Renton, Washington. Late in 2012 Mithun added significant talent and capacity by merging with the highly accomplished, San Francisco-based Daniel Solomon Design Partners, long a leader in urbanist design solutions. It will be exciting to see how the firm's work will continue to evolve.
Not a bad year, that. Next, I'll look at some stories to follow in 2013. Happy New Year, everybody.
Related posts:
- HUD builds impressive record of support for smarter community planning (December 5, 2012)
- EPA honors seven outstanding community sustainability projects (November 28, 2012)
- Sandy as preview: making communities more resilient to severe climate events (with Lee Epstein) (November 5, 2012)
- How California is planning growth for a prosperous economy and clean environment (September 25, 2012)
- How far will we walk to go somewhere? It depends. (July 30, 2012)
- Walk Score gets interactive, makes space for user photos & comments (September 26, 2012)
- Kaidslist: the trendy Ins and Outs of smart growth & sustainability (February 15, 2011)
Move your cursor over the images for credit information.
Kaid Benfield writes about community, development, and the environment, here and in the national media. For more posts, see his blog's home page


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StartUpHire is the place to find Tradeshow Coordinator jobs. Review the list of Tradeshow Coordinator career opportunities to the left. These Tradeshow Coordinator jobs represent some of the most rewarding careers available.
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Lancashire Disability Incrediball Squad Retain National Title
The Lancashire Disability Incrediball Squad retained the ECB / BACD National County Championship on Monday 17 September beating Somerset at the County Ground Derbyshire.
Somerset won the toss and elected to bat. They scored 128 all out from 38.4 overs thanks to top scorer K Cosens with 72. Lancashire bowlers Calum Savage 1 for 13 off 5 ,Alan Foster 2 for 13 off 8, Stefan Holmes 4 for 28 of 7, Steve Kenny 2 for 8 off 2.4 and Pat Scott 1 for 2 off 2 the wicket takers.
Lancashire's reply started badly losing S Kenny (1) and Z Green (1) with only 3 on the board. Skipper T Foster was the next to fall (6) with C Savage following for 8 to leave Lancs 40-4. A good partnership of 30 between opener N Robinson and Pat Scott pushed the score to 70 before Pat fell (13). Next to go was J Simpson (3) followed by S Holmes (9) leaving Lancs on 89-7. This brought player coach & manager A Foster (16no) to the crease who along with opener N Robinson (36no) saw Lancs home with 2.3 overs to spare. This sparked off scenes of jubilation as the team ran on to the pitch.
Whilst Lancashire have played better this season it is a fantastic achievement to retain the title and bodes well for the future. All credit must go to the players for their passion and commitment this year and to assistant coaches Tony Foster and Rick Holmes for their patience and skill.
Bobby Denning (Cricket Development Manager) said: "On behalf of the LCB, I'd like to congratulate the Lancashire Disability Incrediball Squad on retaining the Title. This is the result of hard work and dedication by the players, coaches and volunteers that support the squad throughout the season. Here in Lancashire our Disability Cricket programmes are constantly growing and I'm pleased the successes of these programmes are clear to see. I hope we can continue buidling upon these successes and programmes in place."
For fwww.bacd.co.uk.
urther details about the ECB / BACD County Championship visit:Report by: Alan Foster
Player Coach & Manager (Lancashire Incrediball Squad)


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Posted on 11/05/2008 4:27:49 AM PST by PSYCHO-FREEP
Forget about "I told you so's", or all other prognostications or writings previously expressed on this forum. What matters now is the fact that we have risen from our beds to this real and prolonged nightmare.
Looking closely at who and what Obama is, the only thing I can relate this to in regards to "reasons", is that Obama MAY be the ANTICHRIST.
Look at the similarities in this scenario to that of the Biblical description of the Anti-Christ. The stage seems to have been set and the World situation is prime for this to be set in motion.
I invite observations from other FReepers in what similarites they might see, in much the same way I do.
Any astute reasons for why I might be wrong wrong?
Please tell me this is just a bad dream.
Uh no, he's not the Anti-Christ.
My understanding of Scripture says that the Antichrist will rise out of the resurrected Roman Empire. Kenya nor Hawaii figure in well. Other than that—he may be.
Well, he has done one thing that the anti-christ has power to do and that is convince a mass amount of people that he is something that he really isn't.
I mean this is all far-fetched but I can't seem to understand how so many people in this democratic country went out and voted for a man who is obviously a socialist.
Some generation has got to be the one to see the end.
I wish it wasn't us, but we have to live with what we're dealt, so to speak.
Biblical Scholars will say that this is the only way to describe what has happened.
He will bring the Humanist World together with a "plan". Socialist Western Europe.
Then Iran will rise up and take Old Babylon (Baghdad/Iraq) and the stage will be set for Armageddon.
Real spooky, for sure.
Uhhh, B. Hussein Obama isn't smart enough to be anti-christ....unless Obama gets possessed by Satan.
Nah. This is going to be great. The Democrats control the whole thing now.
They and the media have no one to blame for anything that goes wrong.
The deification, glorification and exaltation of Obamessiah; the mortal, anti-American, anti-Semitic, Socialist, black racist with mirey feet of clay and his wife Amarosa2 will begin immediately. Glorious documentaries on the life of Obamessiah will be created. Catchy and moving songs to brain wash children, the youth and adults will be written for America's newly elected "dear leader". School curriculums on every grade level will be created and history concerning the person, life and times of Obamessiah will be re written in order to program the masses to bow down and worship at the feet of "the One", the Obamessiah. Slick mass media presentations and massive outdoor Nuremburg rallies will be held to hypnotize the throngs of adulating lemmings. Obamessiahs Praetorian Guard National Civilian Force will march in the streets; maintain order and proper obeisance toward Lord Obamessiah.
All of this will be designed for one purpose and one purpose only: to control the masses and to motivate them to follow and worship the beast; Obamessiah, America's new overlord I mean president.
A time of spiritual testing is upon us all. May the true God and Father of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ have mercy upon us all and may His Holy Spirit help us to remain faithful to the true and living God, may we remain faithful to Christ as Salt and Light, courageous and strong in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation. I ask this in the name that is above every name; Jesus Christ our Lord, amen.
II Thess 2: 8-12 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.
For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.
We've seen the delusion start.
We have a couple months reprieve before inauguration day. Time to stock up and lock and load.
Actually, when he was born, Kenya was an British protectorate, so in a sense, he IS out of the revived Roman Empire.
He is not THE anti-Christ. He is simply an anti-Christian moral relativist....and a Marxist.
God is still in control, lets discuss this new great adventure with typical Freeper enthusiasm
The morning after | Self
Posted on Wednesday, November 05, 2008 6:33:49 AM by Raycpa
I want the countdown bumper sticker with the date 01-20-13
I want to blame my overeating on Obama
I want all my Democratic friends' goldfish dead
I want nifty meaningless phrases like Bush lied etc.
I want Obama to be both the most evil manipulative president and the dumbest dupe on the planet.
The realist in me sides with you. I think this country will melt down economically and then some European dictator will emerge as the Bible predicts.
But America is in the way and has to fall from the top for this to happen.
What has happened is a young guy beat an old guy in an election by appealing to young voters and those who have felt the economic crunch.
Mac had to fight a two front war — against the Bush past record and Obama's promises for the future.
I always heard the AntiChrist would be European, and he would show up after the Rapture.
Sadly they will.
They'll say that their hand was forced because of the "mess" the Republicans left this country. They'll claim they had no choice but to fill in the blank .
It'll be blamed on President Bush no matter what.
I want to get some things off my chest, without appearing to be preaching to everybody:
To all: Ive always tried to keep my posts somewhat short and succinct, and will try to do so now. I willingly admit that I prayed regularly that McCain would win the election. But, as we can see, my prayers, and all the other prayers in the same vein, were not answered. I have not lost faith in God and want to believe that He has not forsaken us. I will not moan and groan and make dire predictions about the next 4 years. I will not belittle and bad-mouth the election or the voters. That would only bring me down to the level of the Democrats. I assure everybody that they are prowling Free Republic today, gleefully reporting back to their own kind how miserable we are. I refuse to give them that satisfaction. I already have my own personal list of people whose movies, songs, shows, etc. I boycott. It will increase somewhat. I will not show my fellow employees, by word or action, how I feel about this turn of events. I WILL keep a detailed journal of everything that happens when the new regime takes over. I suggest that a lot of other folks here do the same. Last but not least, please fellow FReepers, remember that God works in mysterious ways. Perhaps this is a test He is putting us through. We will have to wait and see what happens next.
Nah. When the Dems control Congress, the President becomes like the Queen of England. Congress tells the President what they will allow.
I personally think he is in over his head.
Read in Revelations what happens to The Anti-christ .... if it IS Obama, he's in for a bad end. :-)
What about his mother's side?
This is too real for comfort. I agree.....
AND......."a Major League A".
A very gratious and wise thought. I too will try not to feed the "Beast".
For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 28 For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
Actually, AMERICA is in over it's head.
Not a chance. The Dems controlled Congress for the last two years. It's like 1992 EXCEPT that we have FreeRepublic now. The Democrats have one year and 10 months to get it right or they are gone.
We've been through this before.
And now he, Obama, the Beast from the sea of humanity (and from Hawaii and the Pacific Sea), shall rise to great authority... he has only 42 months (3 and 1/2 years) alotted to him... and next we shall see the mortal head wound afflict him... and his miraculous recovery, a satanic miracle... and he will come against God's people... yes, "CHANGE" is coming, yes, indeed...
"The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was astonished and followed the beast. Men worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, "Who is like the beast? Who can make war against him?"
The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for forty-two months. He opened his mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them. And he was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beastall whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world." (REV. 13:2-8)
They voted for HARD CORE SOCIALIST but also for someone who is linked to ISLAM,who is linked to black activism hatred(WRIGHT)...
I am also hoping that 2010 will be our best chance. Time to route out all the RINO's.
What you said.
Jimmuh Cawtuh.....(And his drunken brother Billy)
Enough, please. Obama is a raging Liberal who is going to shove this country further toward Socialism, period. He isn't evil, he isn't an "Anti-Christ." He is someone we profoundly disagree with. Oppose him but let's not turn into the rabid Bush-hating left on the day after the election. Obama is going to usher in policies we all hate and think are completely wrong for the country, but that in and of itself is no reason to hate him personally or turn him into some monster.
I think the secret to 2010 is Sarah Palin. She fired up a generation of conservative women. We need to get them into office.
And Bill Clinton
Friends, THIS is how we respond. Go to work, be of good cheer. Don't sulk, don't pout, don't quit.
This man is not the Antichrist. For one, don't you think the Antichrist would have married better? Secondly, do you honestly think the Antichrist would need a teleprompter? (Laugh at them folks, it is going to make the next 4 years easier.)
We only have 2 years until the midterm elections. Find your candidate, get behind him or her. Knock on doors, make calls, talk to people.
"Obama is a raging Liberal who is going to shove this country further toward Socialism"
Forget Obama. He answers to Congress now. He's like the Queen of England. They will tell him what to say. They run in two years. He doesn't
You just sent a raw chill down my spine with that Biblical quote..... (Eerie as it seems.)
You're probably right. This guy is still a clueless lightweight. Nancy and Harry are licking their chops. They're going to walk in on Day One and say, OK, Mr. President (hiding their snickers), this is what you are going to do.
This anti-Christian moral relativism and Marxism would be of the spirit of Antichrist, forerunners, and alleged "Christians" voting for that could be interpreted as part of "the great falling away" - the "Great Apostasy" preceding the tribulation, turmoil, and chaos leading into the Age of the Antichrist.
American "Christians" voting to expand abortion, infanticide, and embryonic stem cell research, changing laws for the definition of marriage, etc., could be interpreted as part of "the Great Apostasy." That Obama has also been mesmerizing crowds with mass hypnosis and mind control, that big media networks have been promoting that, leaves no room for comfort.
With Obama already having said he will expand abortion on demand, great evil will come from this which invites biblical interpretations. The "changing laws" part is biblical and prophetic. So is the slaughter of innocents. Only spiritual blindness from sin and apostasy prevents people from seeing this and reading the signs. Abortion, euthanasia, and genocidal embryonic stem cell research are prompted by evil spirits. Demons. Those who promote that are under that influence.
PLease see and understand #31......
My husband and I were talking about this just yesterday after we voted. God always answers prayers, just not always in the way we would like. Sometimes, as many people know, we have to go through a trial/tribulation period before His hand in our destiny becomes clear.
May God Bless you, and America.
Nancy and Harry have to go. Their job was to hammer the president. They are no longer of any use. If the Democrats keep them, they are in trouble.
Nancy did nothing while she was Speaker and Reid did even less than that.
The Democrats need change.
Obama is a form of the anti-christ but my biblical studies lead me to the pre-trib position. When the anti-christ arrives on the scene, all believers will be gone from this earth. Yes, I believe in the rapture. Obama's election points to the darkness of America's soul.
Yes, God's plan and time is much different from ours.
We don't always understand why things go the way they do. All we can pray for as he has directed us, is that his will be done. And not question or own selfish need or desires.
Romans 13 says that God puts leaders in authority.
Can you imagine what would happen if Obama got Saved while in office? The media would come unglued. I mean screaming, foaming at the mouth, rabid unglued. How would they handle a black President giving the Glory on national TV?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.


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Jätsiabi is a fun blue car, which comes with joy and music to bring you the best ice cream whereever you need it the most. Jätsiabi cars have their regular routes from May to September in Tallinn, Harjumaa, Pärnu and Tartumaa, but you can also order Jätsiabi to your party.
JETI ice creams in a waffle cup: chocolate, vanilla with chocolate chips, toffee with toffee filling.
VANILLA NINJA: vanilla and chocolate.
KOOREJÄÄTIS in a waffle: vanilla, chocolate, banana, wildberry, vanilla-dairy ice cream with caramel chips and vanilla-dairy ice cream with chocolate chips.
SUUR KOOREJÄÄTIS waffle cup- caramel cream ice-nut waffle cup and chocolate ice cream with cherry preserves.
Onu Eskimo: banana dairy ice cream with glaze and vanilla dairy ice cream with glaze.
RAKS ice cream with cookie- chocolate and vanilla ice cream with cookies.
BIG RAKS: strawberry- cream ice cream with cookies in yoghurt coating and vanilla cream ice cream with cookies in almond-choc.glaze.
RAKS waffle roll: vanilla dairy ice cream in wafer roll and chocolate cream ice cream in wafer roll.
LIMBO ROCKY: Pineapple-orange-strawberry fruitice
LIMBO ROCKET: Orange- pineapple-strawberry-kiwi fruitice
FITNESS yoghurt ice cream: strawberry yoghurt ice cream with strawberry pieces, wildberry yoghurt ice cream.
BATMAN: banana dairy ice cream with glaze and vanilla dairy ice cream with glaz.
ONU ESKIMO 1L: vanilla and banana.


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With Instructables you can share what you make with the world, and tap into an ever-growing community of creative experts.
Mitering the edges of two panels that but up against each other is the best way to create a stone facade appear seamless. Here's a quick tutorial on how ...
Measure and mark the end of your panel. Remember to measure twice, maybe three times, and cut once.
With your saw set at a 45 degree angle cut the vertical length of the panel. This will be the piece hanging over the preexisting corner to meet your ...
Flip the remaining panel over and cut a 45 degree angle that is reversed to the last cut. This should leave you will a small triangular scrap with as little of ...
Install your panels to the wall, making sure the miter is nice and tight and the edges of the panels are aligned. Parts may of the miter may ...
Overhanging yellow polyurethane can be filed down. Conceal the spots with a little faux-painting touch-ups.
Fill any remaining gaps with color-appropriate caulk
And you should be one clean corner closer to a finished project! For more information drop by the how-to on FauxPanels.com
Updating Fireplace with Faux Stone Panelsby BDesigns1972
Faux Stone Paintingby Rhonda Chase Design
Faux Stone Feature Wallby troberts8


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Jun 17,2008
'Tree Hill' gears up, while 'Good Old Fashioned' stars hang out
Posted by Amy with 2 Comments
Look out for more big movie trucks on the streets and cameras rolling down city sidewalks. Don't play Will Forte in Donkey Kong. And watch out for the possible return of the mullet. Such is the state of filming in the Port City.
One Tree Hill begins filming its sixth season Wednesday, according to Johnny Griffin, director of the Wilmington Regional Film Commission. The CW drama left off last season with, among other things, Lucas asking a mystery woman over the phone to fly to Las Vegas and marry him. New episodes return in the fall.
But One Tree Hill isn't the only production bustling around town. The independent feature film A Good Old Fashioned Orgy began shooting here May 27 and will continue through July 2.
The film comedy stars Lindsay Sloane (Sabrina, The Teenage Witch and Over Her Dead Body), Saturday Night Live members Jason Sudeikis and Will Forte, as well as Leslie Bibb (Iron Man), Martin Starr (Knocked Up and Freaks & Geeks) and Lake Bell, who played Dr. Laura Daughtery on Wilmington-made NBC series Surface.
Two of the actors were spotted at Blue Post Billiards recently. Bell was playing pool and, reportedly, Forte knocked one of the locals off the top scores on the Donkey Kong arcade game.
Meanwhile, locals are still waiting to hear if (or when) HBO series East Bound and Down will begin filming here.
Griffin said it looks like the show will come to Wilmington in the fall, but nothing is certain.
East Bound will be produced by Gary Sanchez Productions, which is partly owned by actor Will Ferrell. Another person listed as producer on the pilot, David Hartley, is no stranger to Wilmington. He's lived here for some time and produced Dawson's Creek and One Tree Hill.
East Bound is about a burned out major league ballplayer who returns to his hometown, the only job he can land is teaching PE at his old middle school.
Specifics on the story line are few, but when the pilot was filmed here in June 2007, a casting call was sent out for extras with mullet hair cuts.
Amy Hotz: 343-2099
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on Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 at 9:12 pm and is filed under filming.
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Truth, justice and the American way?
Details of crimes under international law still classified Top Secret
On his first full day in office, 21 January 2009, President Barack Obama signed a memorandum committing his administration to an "unprecedented" level of openness in government, on the grounds that "transparency promotes accountability". He signed another memorandum on the same day, this one relating to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), in which he asserted that "accountability requires transparency". To this, he added the well-known words of US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis from 1913, namely that "sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants."
Without official light being thrown upon precisely what happened in the secret detention, interrogation and rendition programmes operated by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) under the authority of then President George W. Bush, the human rights violations that were committed in those programmes continue to fester. This lack of truth, compounded by the absence of accountability and remedy for victims, leaves the USA in serious violation of its international human rights obligations.
A judgment issued on 13 December 2012 by the European Court of Human Rights should shame the US authorities into the sort of action they have so far failed to take. The decision centres on the case of Khaled El-Masri, a German national who was handed over to a CIA rendition team by Macedonian authorities in early 2004 and flown to enforced disappearance and further abuse in secret US custody in Afghanistan. While the ruling focused on the responsibility of Macedonia in this episode, the USA cannot escape the fact that the European Court of Human Rights expressly found that US personnel had subjected Khaled El-Masri to torture at Skopje airport and to enforced disappearance until his release four months later.
Torture and enforced disappearance are crimes under international law. There has been no accountability, no remedy, and little truth in the USA about such crimes and other human rights violations committed during these programmes. Khaled El-Masri pursued redress in the USA, but the lawsuit he brought against the CIA was met by the Bush administration's invocation of the "state secrets privilege" and dismissed by the federal courts. He is not the only one to have had this happen to him - for example, the Obama administration adopted its predecessor's use of this doctrine in the case of five men who say they were the victims of multiple human rights violations in the context of the CIA rendition programme. In 2011, without comment, the US Supreme Court refused to take the case, leaving in place the lower courts' dismissal of the lawsuit and the plaintiffs without judicial remedy in the USA, precisely as had happened to Khaled El-Masri in 2007.
The European Court noted the fate of Khaled El-Masri's lawsuit in the USA, pointedly adding that "the concept of 'State secrets' has often been invoked to obstruct the search for the truth." The El-Masri judgment highlights the principle that victims and the public have the right to the truth about such serious human rights violations. Without the truth, the full extent of the crimes and human rights violations committed will never be revealed, and the pain and suffering of the victims never fully recognized.
A week before the European Court's decision, a US Army Colonel in his role as a military judge overseeing trial proceedings at the US naval base in Guantánamo Bay in Cuba issued an order that illustrates an alternative approach to truth and justice, one that if adopted by any other government could be expected to end up condemned in the Department of State's global human rights reports.
The military judge's ruling of 6 December 2012 gave the US government precisely what it had asked for, namely a protective order to prevent disclosure of "national security information" during proceedings against five Guantánamo detainees charged with involvement in the attacks of 11 September 2001 and facing capital trial by military commission. To look at it another way, there remains the prospect of the US government executing these five men after proceedings that do not meet international fair trial standards and without disclosing the specifics about the enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment to which they were subjected in secret CIA custody, and without bringing anyone responsible to justice. Would that warrant US condemnation if committed by any other government?
Under the protective order, the term "information" applies, "without limitation", to the "observations and experiences" of the detainees themselves. To prevent disclosure of such information at any proceedings, there will be a 40-second delay in broadcast from the courtroom to the public gallery. Information concerning gross violations of human rights or serious violations of international humanitarian law should never be subject to withholding from the victims or the public on national security grounds. However, the information to be prevented from disclosure under the order will include:
the names of the "foreign countries" in which the five detainees were held in secret US custody prior to their transfer to Guantánamo in early September 2006 - periods lasting from three and a half to four years;
the "enhanced interrogation techniques" applied to the detainees in secret custody, including "descriptions of the techniques as applied, the duration, frequency, sequencing, and limitations of those techniques";
any description of the conditions of confinement which the five endured in secret custody;
the names, identities, and physical descriptions of any persons involved with the capture, transfer, detention, or interrogation of the detainees.
"respect for the right to truth serves to advance respect for the rule of law, transparency, honesty, accountability, justice and good governance - all key principles underlying a democratic society."
US representative at a panel discussion on the right to truth at the UN Human Rights Council, 2010
Of course, the identity of at least one person involved in the detention and interrogation of these detainees is already widely known. His name is George W. Bush, and it was he who on 17 September 2001 signed the authorization under which the CIA set up their secret detention programme. After leaving office, he confirmed this in his memoirs and even went so far as to assert that he had personally approved the use of "water-boarding" - mock execution by interrupted drowning - against one of these "9/11 defendants". The precise wording in the Bush memoirs is: "[Then CIA Director] George Tenet asked if he had permission to use enhanced interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed... 'Damn right,' I said." According to official documents, this detainee was subjected to more than 180 applications of water-boarding in secret CIA custody during March 2003. As the current President and Attorney General of the USA have acknowledged, water-boarding is torture. The former President's assertion is enough in and of itself to trigger the international legal obligation to carry out a criminal investigation with a view to prosecution, whether in the USA or in other countries to which George W. Bush travels.
Meanwhile, President Obama has just been, or is about to be, provided with a copy of a congressional report on the CIA's secret detention and interrogation programme. Said to be over 6,000 pages long, with more than 35,000 footnotes, the report is the outcome of a review by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence initiated in 2009. Coincidentally, the Committee voted to approve the report and its findings on the same day as the European Court issued its El-Masri decision.
According to the Committee's Chairperson, Senator Dianne Feinstein, the report includes "details of each detainee in CIA custody, the conditions under which they were detained, [and] how they were interrogated". She said that it reveals some "startling" details about the CIA programme and added that she and a majority of the Committee strongly believe that "the creation of long-term, clandestine 'black sites' and the use of so-called 'enhanced-interrogation techniques' were terrible mistakes." It was not just mistakes that were made, however; crimes were committed.
Senator Feinstein said that she would be giving a copy of the report to President Obama and "key executive branch officials" for their review and comment. How much of the report will be declassified and made public will be decided by the Committee "after receiving the executive branch comments", she said.
Unless the relevant US authorities adopt a fundamental change of approach to the facts of the CIA programme, the details of the human rights violations to which those held in it were subjected will remain hidden and those responsible for these crimes will remain unaccountable. Colonel Pohl's protective order is just the latest indicator that the CIA and the administration intend to keep the public in the dark in this regard. In June 2009, for example, then CIA Director (and now Secretary of Defense) Leon Panetta signed a declaration in federal court in the context of FOIA litigation, opposing the disclosure of documents relating to the CIA programme as operated during the Bush administration, including those relating to where detainees were held and how they were treated. The courts have generally deferred to such invocations of secrecy by the executive. At the same time, the Department of Justice has shut down all criminal investigations into the secret detention programme, including against those responsible for the destruction of videotapes depicting evidence of crimes under international law, namely of a detainee subjected to enforced disappearance being water-boarded.
Soon after the Senate Intelligence Committee announced in early 2009 that it would review the CIA secret detention programme, CIA Director Panetta announced that the Committee's Chair and Vice Chair had assured him that the goal of the review was to inform "future policy decisions" rather than "to punish those who followed guidance from the Department of Justice." This mirrors the forward-looking orientation adopted by President Obama, to the exclusion of full truth and accountability for the human rights violations committed in the counter-terrorism context.
Within months of taking office, President Obama said that he opposed the creation of an independent commission to investigate human rights violations in this context, because he believed that the USA's "institutions are strong enough to deliver accountability". The institutions of the three branches of government, however, have collaborated to perpetuate impunity and a lack of truth and remedy, leaving the USA in serious breach of its international obligations.
Four years on, President Obama should revisit his words on the interdependence of transparency and accountability. He and the other administration officials tasked with reviewing and commenting on the Senate Intelligence Committee's report should do so not only with the century-old words of Justice Brandeis in mind, but also the recent El-Masri ruling of the European Court of Human Rights, and its affirmation of the rights to truth and remedy and of the state's obligations relating to accountability. As the US representative at a panel discussion on the right to truth at the UN Human Rights Council in 2010 said, "respect for the right to truth serves to advance respect for the rule of law, transparency, honesty, accountability, justice and good governance - all key principles underlying a democratic society."
Any information contained in the report relating to human rights violations, including the crimes under international law of torture and enforced disappearance should be declassified and made public. Those responsible should be brought to justice. Victims should be provided genuine access to meaningful remedy.
It is not as if the USA needs to call upon Superman to make this happen - just its own officials armed with the necessary political will to meet US obligations to ensure truth and justice.


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It's not easy designing costumes for the circus; there are all sorts of things to worry about — like budgets, materials, silhouettes, and tiger urine. These and more were part of the learning curve when theatre costume designer Ann Hould-Ward went to work for the Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey circus. Hould-Ward has several iconic Broadway designs to her credit, including Sunday in the Park With George (done in collaboration with the late Patricia Zipprodt), the original production of ...
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As the opening day of the IHSA 1A and 2A state basketball finals kicked off Friday afternoon at the Peoria Civic Center, rambunctious fans of Heyworth High School and Sesser-Valier High School entered Carver Arena almost an hour before tip-off of the 1A semifinal game. Some of those fans decided to dress extravagantly in support of their respective teams.
Heyworth fan Reed Stielow
Reed, 10, said he's had a blast following the team all season. Among his favorite moments are the team's penchant for not playing well early in the games before storming back in exciting fashion in the second half to win, which has happened numerous times, according to him. Reed personally knows Kaleb Marr, a starting forward, and Ryan Tomlin and Adam Wickenhauser, both reserve guards, and cheers ardently for all three.
As for the jester hat, he saw it in a store and only saw perfection.
"I told my mom, 'We need this in our lives.'"
Damon Hart and Dustin Payne, Sesser-Valier High School students
Eighteen-year-olds Hart and Payne have dreamed of getting back to Peoria for the state finals since the eighth grade — as fans, of course. Sesser-Valier's basketball team made it to the state finals in 2010, claiming second place. Hart and Payne feel sole responsibility for pumping up the crowd in favor of Sesser-Valier to shift momentum of the game to their favor.
"There's been some trash-talking on social media along the way," Hart recalled.
"We're getting first this time around," Payne added. "We're going for gold."
Heyworth beat Sesser-Valier 57-51. Heyworth will play Mooseheart for the Class 1A championship at 2 p.m. Saturday.
— Compiled by Thomas Bruch
Teams get plenty of fan support at IHSA state finals
Mar 14, 2014 at 8:42 PM


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94 N. Main Street, Jasper, GA - (706) 253-2457
Atlanta, August 26, 2013 – The Supreme Court of Georgia has unanimously agreed to hear the state's appeal of a Fulton County judge's order that stopped the execution of Warren Lee Hill from going forward.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Gail Tusan issued a stay of execution July 18, 2013 to review the constitutionality of a new Georgia statute that makes certain information about the drug used in executions a "confidential state secret." For the time being, Hill's stay will remain in place.
In granting the state's application to appeal, the high court has asked the parties to address four questions:
Assuming the parties request oral arguments, they will likely be held in the next several months.
Hill's attorneys opposed the high court's review of Judge Tusan's order, arguing that the Fulton County court was correct to grant the stay while that court considers the constitutionality of Official Code of Georgia § 42-5-36 (d).
Hill, 53, was scheduled to be put to death July 19 by lethal injection at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, GA. However, Judge Tusan issued an injunction, finding that under the new law, "neither the Plaintiff, nor the general public, has sufficient information with which to measure the safety of the drug that would be used to execute Plaintiff, as there is insufficient information regarding how it was compounded."
Hill was given the death sentence in 1991 after a Lee County jury convicted him of murder in the 1990 bludgeoning death of a fellow prison inmate, Joseph Handspike. At the time, Hill was serving a life prison sentence for the 1986 shooting death of his 18-year-old girlfriend, Myra Sylvia Wright.
Earlier this year, Hill's attorneys filed motions in the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay of execution in two other cases in which he claims that experts have recently reversed their positions and now conclude Hill is "mentally retarded" and therefore ineligible for the death penalty. Those motions remain pending in that court.


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Mornin'… Monday already? This was my first weekend living in the house. I expected a quiet weekend spent at home unpacking, nesting and relaxing. Unfortunately the social side of me won out again and I ended up out both nights and much of the days. How is a girl supposed to decorate and have a life?
Last night I pulled up all of the drop cloths to reveal my new wood floors. It was a exciting moment to see them in all their glory as they were covered up as soon as they were installed. Budget was a big factor here and I did quite a bit of shopping around to find a a suitable brown stain in my price range. I went with Mullican's St Andrew's series in Oak Dark Chocolate. The wood is prefinished and I did 3″ wide planks. We painted to the baseboard black for a little drama. I love the contrast of dark floors, dark base and white walls (BM Swiss Coffee.) I can't wait to fill them with art!
That's my new kitchen island you see in the back. More on that soon.
Things are really moving along, though and I have so much to share. It's just a matter of photographing and deciding the best way to reveal spaces. This is where you guys come in. Do you like the weekly progression- similar to how I am sharing the One Room Challenge for the bedroom makeover? Do you want me to stick to one room at a time? What room do you want to see next? Or do you like random updates about everything? Any input would be greatly appreciated.
I also just wanted to take a moment to address the state of this blog. In the past, I have done product round-ups and shown a lot of room inspiration on top of my own work. Recently, with business being so busy (thank goodness!) and the cottage renovation in full swing, the blog has pretty much been dedicated to Cottage updates along with an occasional project reveal. I simply cannot make the time to come up with other content. I hope you guys will forgive my singular focus. Actually, I hope you really enjoy it. Certainly when the Cottage is complete, I will return to a more well-rounded blog, but until then, this is what I can offer you.
Thanks, as always, for following along. Toodles…
The First Floor, Before.
See more of the original space here.


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Tuesday , 28 March 2017
It's that time of year again. It would be wonderful if there was just one, entirely effective way of getting through the infamous Finals, but due to variances in major, credit load, and individual strengths and weaknesses—there isn't.
Don't lose hope, though! Even with only a few days left, it is possible to maximize your working potential using a few general tips.
First, prioritize. I made a tally list of everything I had left to do in each class, and double-checked the due-dates. Figure out what needs the most work. Is there a paper that's barely started? Work on outlining and researching, so that when crunch time comes you won't be completely unprepared.
Second, gather your resources. If you have a cumulative final, don't wait until the night before to collect your notes—start going through your notebook, print-outs, and online resources provided by the professor (such as power-points) and organize them as neatly as possible.
Third, be realistic. Sometimes it seems necessary to cut your losses and let one (or two or more) assignments slip in favor of getting others that are "more important" done. However, you should focus on cutting out other time-consumers. Take a week off from Facebook (it will still be there when you get back). Save your end-of-the-semester celebratory plans for after you've finished your assignments.
Above all, keep a positive attitude. Believing in your ability to get work done is a powerful incentive in itself.
December 1, 2016
April 25, 2016
May 6, 2015
April 30, 2015


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Me? Nope.
I just tried to make it look like a photo if i remember right.
Me? Nope.
I just tried to make it look like a photo if i remember right.
Juggernaut Demo?
"A Few Good Batmen"
My first attempt at some kind of decent pose, I hope it's good
That's a shitload of smoke coming off the tip of the cigarette.
Test pose checking out Bloo and Rusty's new Resident Evil models. The backdrop is a convoy in a post-apocalyptic wasteland escorted by mercenaries, delivering supplies to another town.
Yes, I know the anti-aliasing isn't there. No I cannot turn it on, my laptop is a piece of shit hardware-wise. What's that you say? Buy a new laptop? Okay. As soon as I get out of college in three damn years, get a decent paying job, and save up the thousand+ dollars. Then I'll buy a decent laptop. Then I'll turn on my damn anti-aliasing.
In the meantime, enjoy this thing I made over the span of two hours.
I like it. Its a bit empty though. Could do with some dead bodies or something like that. The AA isn't really that bad.
Those demon bastards are going to pay for killing that bunny.
Also, I wish I knew of good models I could take apart to make some of the Doom creatures. This guy needs to bag himself a cyberdemon or something.
Are those models for the people from Fallout 3/Fallout New Vegas?
TEST POSE CHECKING OUT Bloo AND Rusty's NEW RESIDENT EVIL MODELS.
A rather weird way to hold a rifle.
I know that the night map will be better, but i haven't got one, so I used gm_bigcity :D
You forgot to hit the "Render" button
If i hit it, i get a black screen, and a crash...
Okay, I found a similar thread on forum, and fixed it. Renders perfectly
Thanks mate
Something has got to be done with those black hands on that Male_07 skin.
May I ask what thread you found the solution on?
And please don't use emoticons after every sentence.
Going to fix that for him tomorrow.
The duck could be at a better angle. I couldn't see what it was at first.
I just decided it was a fat dildo.
I disabled multicore rendering in Video options
Isn't that in the title and on the first page?
Yep. I failed
Heh... I checked and I already had Multicore Rendering off.
silly me
Got bored made another
My very first hud. Don't tell me it's nothing to be proud of because I know that.
All he had to do was follow the damn train.
I made this in a public server and on gm_construct.
Ragdolls moves so damn terribly in non local games.
Look what I found in my screenshot landfill
I don't even
An LRA(Lord's Resistance Army) soldier beating down two INTERPOL officers.


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Don't expect bluebonnets to be a showstopper
Updated 11:02 pm, Friday, February 22, 2013
Texans' annual rite of spring has begun: bluebonnet sightings.
"We're starting to see scattered early blooms, and they are a bit smaller than usual," said Lu Hollander, spokeswoman for the Washington County Chamber of Commerce/Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Drier than normal conditions October through December means we'll see only a moderate showing of bluebonnets in many areas across Texas, said Damon Waitt, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center's senior botanist.
"Indian paintbrush, bluebonnets and other early spring bloomers won't likely be as plentiful along state roadsides this year," said Waitt, who also is the center's senior director.
But the intermittent rains that fell in January and February will encourage a better show from late-spring and early summer flowers such as Indian blanket and horsemint, he said.
Robbed of nutrients
Houston wildflower watchers who travel along popular bluebonnet trails in Washington County are likely to find smaller and fewer blooms than the spectacular 2012 show.
"I'd love to say we'll have a record crop of bluebonnets and other wildflowers this year but find we pretty much have to agree with the Lady Bird Johnson Center's projection of a moderate show," Hollander said.
Members of her office will be driving Washington County roads for the next few weeks to locate the best viewing areas, she said. They will be posted at visitbrenhamtexas.com.
Author and Washington County nurseryman Mike Shoup agrees with the outlook.
"We will have flowers but not a lot of bluebonnets, or spotty brilliance only here and there," the owner of the Antique Rose Emporium said. "We will have other flowers, but those were even hampered by the 2011 drought and the invasive mustard.
"Mother nature can surprise us, but I don't see it now."
The towering, yellow-flowering mustard, aka bastard cabbage, became an increasing concern last spring as it pre-empted bluebonnet and other wildflowers in some areas, robbing them of sun and soil nutrients.
Still around
Hollander said bluebonnets were spotted in Brenham in January. Late-winter rains will encourage more around mid-March from bluebonnet rosettes along county roads.
Bluebonnets are flowering near Marble Falls and other areas in Central Texas. Thanks to irrigation, several bluebonnets are in bloom at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
Long-living, perennial wildflowers that need less rain - such as winecup and pink evening primrose - should fare better than bluebonnets and other annual flowers, according to the center. Blackfoot daisies, baby blue eyes, giant spiderwort and prairie verbena are also in bloom.
Carolina jessamine, spring cress and windflower have all been spotted closer to Houston.


text:
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text:
Located in Midtown, Stewart Hotel is adjacent to Madison Square Garden and within a 10-minute walk of other popular attractions like Macy's. This 618-room, 4-star hotel has a restaurant, a fitness center, and a 24-hour business center. It's in central New York and also a short walk from Empire State Building and Times Square.
Enjoy a bite to eat at the hotel's restaurant, or relax with a drink at the bar/lounge. Order from room service to satisfy your hunger without leaving your room. Start each morning with cooked-to-order breakfast, available for a fee from 7 AM to 10 AM.
All 618 air-conditioned rooms feature refrigerators, coffee makers, and free weekday newspapers. TVs come with cable channels and pay movies, and guests can stay connected with WiFi. Bathrooms offer hair dryers and free toiletries, and pillowtop beds with premium bedding ensure a restful night. Other standard amenities include video-game consoles, laptop-compatible safes, and phones.
Property features
At Stewart Hotel, guests have access to a fitness center, WiFi in public areas, and 9 meeting rooms. Parking is available for USD 45.00-55.00 per night (USD 70.00-75.00 per night for valet parking), and there's also an area shuttle for a fee. Multilingual staff at the front desk are standing by 24/7 to help with dry cleaning/laundry, concierge services, and luggage storage. Other amenities at this family-friendly hotel include a 24-hour business center, express check-in, and express check-out.
- Walking distance to Madison Square Garden and Macy's
- Onsite dining
- Fitness center
- 24-hour business center
Stewart Hotel
Hotel Amenities
Hotel Amenities
The hotel offers a restaurant. A bar/lounge is on site where guests can unwind with a drink. Business-related amenities at this 4-star property consist of a 24-hour business center and meeting rooms.
High-speed wireless Internet access (included with resort fee) is available. This family-friendly hotel also offers a fitness center, tour/ticket assistance, and multilingual staff. Onsite parking is available (surcharge).
Stewart Hotel is a smoke-free property.
- Free newspapers in lobby
- Use of nearby fitness center (discount)
- Fitness facilities
- Babysitting or childcare (surcharge)
- Bar/lounge
- Safe-deposit box at front desk
- Express check-in
- Multilingual staff
- 24-hour front desk
- Porter/bellhop
- Express check-out
- Hair salon
- ATM/banking
- Laundry facilities
- Dry cleaning/laundry service
- Television in common areas
- Elevator/lift
- Number of floors - 28
- Breakfast available (surcharge)
- WiFi (surcharge)
- Concierge services
- Total number of rooms - 618
- Luggage storage
- Area shuttle (surcharge)
- Meeting rooms 9
- Valet parking (surcharge)
- Restaurant
- Self parking (surcharge)
- 24-hour business center
- Smoke-free property
- Tours/ticket assistance
- Number of buildings/towers - 1
- Wedding services
Family Friendly Amenities
- Family Hotel
- Laundry facilities
- Babysitting or childcare (surcharge)
- In-room childcare (surcharge)
- Refrigerator
- Cribs/infant beds (complimentary)
Available in all rooms: Wireless internet access ( USD 30 per stay )
Available in some public areas: Wireless internet access ( USD 30 per stay )
Self parking (surcharge), Valet parking (surcharge)
Room Amenities
Stewart Hotel offers 618 air-conditioned accommodations with laptop-compatible safes and video-game consoles. Pillowtop beds feature premium bedding. Televisions come with premium cable channels and pay movies. Guests can make use of the in-room refrigerators and coffee/tea makers. Bathrooms include showers, complimentary toiletries, and hair dryers.
In-room wireless high-speed Internet access is available for a surcharge. Business-friendly amenities include desks, complimentary weekday newspapers, and phones. Additionally, rooms include irons/ironing boards and blackout drapes/curtains. Housekeeping is offered daily and hypo-allergenic bedding can be requested.
- Premium TV channels
- Pay movies
- Video-game console
- Premium bedding
- Hypo-allergenic bedding available
- Room service (limited hours)
- Air conditioning
- In-room climate control (air conditioning)
- Free weekday newspaper
- Blackout drapes/curtains
- Phone
- Refrigerator
- Coffee/tea maker
- Private bathroom
- Free toiletries
- Hair dryer
- Shower only
- In-room childcare (surcharge)
- Pillowtop mattress
- Iron/ironing board
- Daily housekeeping
- Desk
- Television
- In-room safe (laptop compatible)
- Cable TV service
- WiFi (surcharge)
- Rollaway/extra beds (surcharge)
- Free cribs/infant beds
Where to Eat
Niles - This restaurant specializes in international cuisine. Guests can enjoy drinks at the bar. A children's menu is available.
Room service (during limited hours) is available.
Start your morning with a cooked-to-order breakfast, available each day from 7 AM to 10 AM for a surcharge. You can order up room service during limited hours.
Nearby Things to Do
The recreational activities listed below are available either on site or nearby; fees may apply.
- Hiking/biking trails nearby
If you have requests for specific accessibility needs, please note them at check-out when you book your room.
- Accessible bathroom
- In-room accessibility
- Roll-in shower
Hotel Policies
Check-in time starts at 4 PM
Minimum check-in age is 18
Check-out time is 11 AM
Payment types
Children and extra beds
- Children are welcome.
- Rollaway/extra beds are available for USD 30.00 per night.
- Free cribs (infant beds)!
- Pets allowed for an extra charge of USD 50 per pet, per night
- 1 per room
- Specific rooms only, restrictions apply
- Pet-friendly rooms can be requested by contacting the property at the number on the booking confirmation
You need to know
Extra-person charges may apply and vary depending on property policy.
Government-issued photo identification and a credit card are required at check-in for incidental charges.
Special requests are subject to availability upon check-in and may incur additional charges. Special requests cannot be guaranteed.
Parking height restrictions apply
- Resort fee: USD 32.66 per accommodation, per night
- Fitness center access
- Business center/computer access
- Internet access
- Phone calls
- In-room safe
- In-room coffee
- Additional inclusions
Optional extras
- Fee for cooked-to-order breakfast: USD 20 per person (approximately)
- Fee for in-room wireless Internet: USD 30 per stay (rates may vary)
- Fee for wireless Internet in public areas: USD 30 per stay (rates may vary)
- Self parking fee: USD 45.00-55.00 per night
- Valet parking fee: USD 70.00-75.00 per night
- Pet fee: USD 50 per pet, per night
- Rollaway bed fee: USD 30.00 per night
Hotel Name
- Affinia Manhattan
- Affinia Manhattan Hotel
- Affinia Manhattan Hotel New York
- Affinia Manhattan New York
- Manhattan Affinia
- Affinia Manhattan Hotel New York City
- Manhattan NYC-an Affinia hotel New York
- Manhattan NYC-an Affinia hotel
- Manhattan NYC-an Affinia New York
- Manhattan NYC-an Affinia
- Affinia Manhattan New York City
- Stewart Hotel New York
- Manhattan NYC an Affinia hotel
We should mention
The property allows pets in specific rooms only and has other pet restrictions (surcharges apply and can be found in the Fees section). Guests can arrange to bring pets by contacting the property directly, using the contact information on the booking confirmation.
Awards & Affiliations
- This property is affiliated with the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association (IGLTA) and welcomes lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) guests.
Added Value
Book a stay in any room or rate plan and receive the following amenities (included in the daily resort fee): USD 10 daily food and drink credit valid at Cupboard or Corner Store (must be redeemed daily); daily Wine Hour during Social Sips from 5 PM to 6 PM; wireless Internet access for all devices; unlimited package handling and storage prior to and during your stay; business services, including printing; local and domestic long-distance calls; 24-hour access to the fitness center; access to bikes (where applicable); and concierge services.
Full details at check-in. Offer subject to availability. Taxes and gratuity may not be included. Offer is not valid with groups/conventions and may not be combined with other promotional offers. Other restrictions and blackout dates may apply.


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I was rooting around my basement when I came across my fathers' old Pioneer HPM-60 speakers and though it'd be a fun idea to rebuild them, since the woofers have rotted out long ago and the remaining speakers probably aren't in the best shape.
I can tell that the woofer is 10 inches and there is one midrange that is slightly smaller than 5 inches, but I am unsure about the other speakers. Here's a general picture of the speakers.
So... I feel this is a foolish question to ask because I don't know much about this at all.. but does any one know the size of the top-most speakers? Is the silver dome thing even a tweeter?
I've looked on Parts-express for speakers and have been choosing Dayton brand speakers, seeing as they have a lot of reviews and high ratings. Overall, I'm looking to spend a small amount of money on this project, like $200 max, as these will not be used as primary speakers.
Thanks for your help.


text:
They Didn't Know What Time It Was
On November 18, 1883, the nation finally settled on the method of synchronizing all clocks that we call standard time. Why did it take so long to figure that one out?
October/november 1983 | Volume 34, Issue 6
In a few years the Naval Observatory in Washington became the chief source of time signals, while Western Union was gaining a monopoly on their transmission. In 1877 the company installed a time ball atop its tall new building in New York. Made of copper, perforated to minimize air resistance, the threeand-a-half-foot globe poised 250 feet above street level was clearly visible throughout the harbor and business district of lower Manhattan. A Times editor remarked approvingly, "In these days of railroads and railroad-like ways of doing business, a man whose time is money to him must attend not only to his hours and minutes, but even to his seconds."
Unfortunately this second-conscious man would have been dissatisfied with the Western Union time ball; it did not always fall at exactly the right moment. The cause perhaps lay with the mechanism that had to adjust the difference in mean solar time between New York and Washington—12 minutes, 10.47 seconds. Whatever the reasons, people were calling for a system that would eliminate time differentials between major cities.
In 1882 the American Meteorological Society offered a "Proposed Schedule for Standards of Time." The author leaned heavily on Harvard's eminent mathematician, Benjamin Peirce, who had suggested dividing North America into time zones, each of fifteen degrees of longitude and so bounded that the differential between local sun time and the uniform zone time would nowhere be greater than thirty minutes.
Newspapers publicized the idea; readers immediately got worried. Should the entire East Coast, they asked, be forced to accept the time of some one city—Washington, perhaps? Or New York? Or even Pittsburgh, as some of its local boosters insisted? People bridled particularly at Peirce's proposal to synchronize the time in all the zones with that of the Royal Naval Observatory at Greenwich, England; not even in Europe was Greenwich longitude acknowledged as the zero meridian.
If the scientific community and the newspapers hoped to prod Congress into action, they were disappointed. It would have been political suicide to ignore the strong grass-roots opposition to giving up local time, which many insisted on calling "God's Time." Congress did, however, adopt a resolution in 1882 calling for an international conference to choose a prime meridian for the entire world. Before this could be organized, however, the nation's railroads, of all businesses the most adversely affected by the multiplicity of local times, decided they could wait no longer and took action of their own.
Ten years earlier, at their annual convention, railroad managers had listened politely to Charles F. Dowd, principal of a seminary for young ladies in Saratoga Springs, New York, as he outlined a plan for time zones that anticipated Peirce's. They listened to Dowd again in 1873, with greater interest, but the depression that year persuaded them to shelve the idea. Dowd carried his campaign to executives of other kinds of business and won considerable support. But no other enterprise had as much at stake as the railroads—or such potential influence.
Once prosperity returned, the railroad men asked one of their own, William F. Alien, to study the matter and prepare a report. As editor of the mighty Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines and as secretary of the National Railway Time Convention, Alien could speak the language of the railroad establishment as Dowd, an outsider, could not. The 1883 convention accepted his report with enthusiasm.
Announced in October 1883, the railroad plan was to take effect a month later. Public response was varied. Boston, after a town meeting dominated by university scientists, agreed to accept the railroads' Eastern time. In New York there was not even a public meeting; the mayor simply ordered all city clocks to conform, and the private sector promptly fell into line. But in Chicago things were different. The Illinois Central Railroad chose to defer the change to Central standard until the city fathers accepted it, and that, for the moment, was out of the question. A number of local working people feared that the change, of about nine minutes, might somehow result in longer working hours. But the Chicago Board of Trade and several prominent jewelers did convert, which only compounded the confusion. Meanwhile, in Washington, the superintendent of the Naval Observatory flouted the attorney general's firm opinion that no change was permissible without formal congressional approval and announced his intention to telegraph the new railroad time to all government time balls and time guns. For some years thereafter, government clocks in the District of Columbia remained on the old local time while all others showed the railroads' Eastern standard time.
For all its eventual significance for the nation's way of life, the day of the actual change—November 18, 1883, a Sunday—passed with little incident. In communities rejecting the railroad plan, only clocks in railroad stations were set ahead or back. Elsewhere the curious gathered in front of jewelers' shops and then moved on, disappointed that the controversial change involved nothing more than stopping a clock for a few minutes. In New York a reporter picked up this dialogue:


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If you're wealthy, here's some good news: You don't have to die in 2010, have a loved one pass on from natural causes or "throw Grandma from a train" for your family to save big bucks from the temporary lapse of the federal estate tax.
As part of the Bush tax cuts passed in 2001, the estate tax and related generation-skipping tax disappeared Jan.1, 2010–for just one year. On Jan. 1, 2011, when the Bush tax cuts themselves expire, both taxes will come roaring back at their full pre-Bush strength, with a top estate tax rate of 55% and only the first $1 million of an estate exempt. Planners always assumed Congress would have been able to agree on a permanent estate tax level before 2010, but now worry the whole disappearing/reappearing act could turn into an administrative and legal nightmare for some families.
Meanwhile the rich are racing to make taxable gifts. Taxable? Yep. Under the Bush tax cuts, the gift tax, which is paid on wealth of more than $1 million transferred while you're alive, did not disappear as of Jan 1. But the gift tax rate fell from 45% to 35%. Absent a political compromise, it too will rise to 55% in 2011.
"Make taxable gifts! Yes, you read right!" estate lawyer Martin Shenkman declared in a 59-page analysis of estate tax repeal on his Web site LawEasy.com. "If you make large, taxable gifts at the 2010 35% maximum gift tax rate, that could be a whopping savings from incurring the 55% marginal estate tax rate that comes into play in 2011 and later years if Congress does nothing."
David Pratt, an estate lawyer with Proskauer Rose in Boca Raton, Fla., reports he has a client who waited until Jan. 1 to give $20 million outright to his three children, all in their 50s, in hopes of snagging the 35% gift tax rate. "Someone who makes a taxable gift or a generation-skipping transfer today may pick up a windfall," Pratt exults.
The reason Pratt says "may" is because the higher 45% gift tax rate that prevailed in 2009, along with the estate and generation-skipping taxes, will be restored retroactively if some Democrats have their way. True, the $20 million gift at a 35% tax rate won't save money for the family of Pratt's client if the client dies this year when there isn't an estate tax and the estate tax isn't imposed retroactively. In that case, the $20 million could have gone to the kids tax-free. But he's not planning on dying this year.
The Congressional Budget Office saw this gift flurry coming. In a Dec. 18 report it predicted gift tax receipts in 2011 would grow to $14.7 billion from $1.4 billion in 2009 as the wealthy rushed to cash in on the one year rate break. "The wealthy appear to be very responsive to their expectations of changes in tax rates and to differences between estate and gift tax rates," the CBO report observes. (When the Tax Reform Act of 1976 raised the maximum gift tax rate from 57.75% to 70%, gift taxes quadrupled in the months between the law's enactment and its effective date.)
Not that most wealthy folks attempting to capitalize on the law lapse are eager to pay any tax, even at a lower rate.There's a lot of action now in speculative and conditional gifts–mostly gifts designed to make use of the lapse in the generation-skipping tax in case it isn't restored retroactively. (The GST applies while you're alive, as well as at death, to money that skips a generation, for example, by going to grandkids when your kids are still living. With the GST, the government can grab as much as 80% of an estate–assuming a top-level estate and GST rate of 55%.)
Special trusts known as GRATs and CLATs have long been used by wealthy parents to transfer large amounts to their children at little or no gift tax cost. But these techniques couldn't be used to get cash to grandchildren tax-free when the GST was in force.
So lawyers are now writing GRATs and CLATs that can go either way: They're worded so that if the generation-skipping tax is reinstated retroactively, the kids get the money; if it isn't reinstated, the grandkids cash in.
Pratt also has several clients who are setting up "inter vivos marital disclaimer" trusts as a way to potentially get money to grandkids without GST tax. For example, a husband creates a trust to benefit his wife for the rest of her life, with the balance going to their grandchildren at her death. Within nine months of the time of the gift, the wife decides whether to disclaim (meaning give up) her rights to the money in the trust, depending on what Congress does. If there is no GST tax, she disclaims it all, letting it go straight to the grandkids with only the normal 35% gift tax due. If there is a generation-skipping tax, the spouse keeps the money for herself tax-free. (Spouses can give each other any amount without owing gift taxes, so long as they're both U.S. citizens.)
"It's an unprecedented opportunity," marvels Robert Keebler, a CPA with Baker Tilly Virchow Krause in Green Bay, Wisc. "With fast action, creative planning and artfully drafted trust provisions, estate planning professionals can help their clients capitalize on a reality that most professionals thought they would never see."
See Also:
Congress Throws Estate Plans Into Disarray