text:
In the case of the literary adaptations, the results resemble Masterpiece Theatre, and in truth some of the authors don't suffer much from this treatment: Balzac cranked out innumerable short fictions in which the plot is the main thing, the characters are vivid, and the descriptions were mostly padding, because he was paid by the word. One loses little by putting his work on the small screen. In recent seasons, Maupassant's short stories have been a special favorite, as well, explored in a recurring omnibus, Chez Maupassant, that has never been awful, and sometimes quite good.
Since Marcel Proust wrote about the period immediately following Maupassant, you can almost hear French TV programmers shrug their shoulders and ask, "Pourquoi pas?" And yet to the rest of us, the notion of presenting the entirety of A la recherche du temps perdu as a four-hour miniseries in two parts seems like — it must be — an elaborate joke.
Hélas, screenwriter–director Nina Companéez wasn't kidding.
Companéez told one French interviewer* that, until recently, she'd agreed with everybody else: Proust must be unfilmable. Then a fan gave her encouragement, and she dove in headlong, adapting the multi-volume novel with astonishing efficiency.
But efficiency is of course one of the very, very last qualities that anyone might associate with Marcel Proust, and it raises larger problems when the task at hand is a dramatic adaptation. Except for very brilliant or very experimental directors, such as Raúl Ruiz, "dramatizing" is going to mean a focus on the plot, and while the Recherche has got a very good one, it's not the main purpose of the novel. Proust is less interested in who did what, when, than he is in impressions and meaning, how ideas and events connect ("the concatenation of things," as Charlus puts it), how memory resides in the senses, more than in the mind.
Instead of trying to translate Proust's concerns into a visual and aural language, as Ruiz did in his adaptation of Le temps retrouvé (1999), Companéez gives us a dramatized Cliff's Notes, highlighting most of the best-known scenes and characters, along with token but minuscule amounts of thematic material.
The first volume, Du côté de chez Swann, lays the groundwork for the rest of the novel, in the narrator's impressions from childhood and in Swann's affair with Odette, which prefigures the narrator's affair with Albertine. Companéez dismisses the former in a couple of flashbacks and eliminates the latter altogether. That it's possible to do better, even without digging too deep into the thematic material, can be seen in a series of graphic-novel adaptations of the Recherche by Stéphane Huet: Companéez's script doesn't even rise to the level of a bande dessinée.
And while Companéez borrows from previous screen adaptations (most notably, albeit very briefly, the shifting scenery devised by Ruiz), she doesn't seem to have learned much from them — starting with the principal lesson that one must take one's time in order to recover lost time.
Companéez gives us helpful title cards to tell us when we're moving from one volume to the next (roughly every 40 minutes), and we get fleeting glimpses of all the major characters, sometimes incarnated by perfectly decent actors who don't have time to flesh out their roles. Andy Gillet is obscenely handsome, and a good choice for Robert de Saint-Loup, but he's bleached-blond beyond recognition and barely registers here; neither does the wily Françoise Bertin, as Mme de Villeparisis, though she does her darnedest to make every line count for as much as possible. Swann (Eric Ruf) is barely seen at all.
I'm pleased to tell you they're in the arcade of the Palais-Royal.
Some characters in the Recherche are so juicy, actors must yearn to portray them, but the path is strewn with perils. How many actresses are the right age to play Albertine, yet capable of projecting the qualities that make her so mysterious and maddening? Sylvie Testud, who played her in Chantal Akerman's adaptation of La captive (2000), managed to do it, but she's a protean talent who can do almost anything, and she had the advantage of a contemporary idiom and costumes. (Akerman updated the story to the present day.**)
Caroline Tillette, who plays Albertine here, is very beautiful and displays a broad emotional range — but she falls just short of making herself compelling. As a result, the Narrator's obsession, his mood swings, his outbursts seem more petulant than anything else.
And in Micha Lescot's performance, the Narrator is the second-biggest problem with Companéez's miniseries (right after the fact that she attempted the thing in the first place). Lescot is taller and thinner than Proust was, but he's approximately the right type, and in certain scenes he's better than competent. Yet he's simply not mature enough as an actor to play a role of this complexity: the famous scene of the madeleine looked like a TV commercial. Lescot smiled and his eyes widened, and you expected to hear him say, "Miam, c'est trop bon, les madeleines de Combray!" A transcendent moment in literature — in all of human experience, really — is made insufferably inane.
In a variety of ways, Proust himself sabotaged anybody trying to dramatize or portray his Narrator. Not least of these is coyness with the Narrator's name, which Proust admits — just once — is Marcel.*** It's one thing when a prose writer glosses over the formalities of introduction when characters meet, quite another when we watch the scene and the poor Narrator is never once introduced by name. The awkwardness is built in.
Saint-Loup (Gillet) and the Duchesse de Guermantes (Varela)
The Narrator must be wonderfully charming in the salon and the ballroom, or he wouldn't be invited back so often, but Proust never wrote that dialogue — and Companéez doesn't, either — so that most of the time poor Lescot must stand around looking like a dolt. We don't understand what the Duchesse de Guermantes (Valentine Varela) sees in him.
Likewise, if the audience witnesses only the outward signs of the Narrator's jealousy, and not the furious internal soliloquies and multi-page analyses found in the novel, then the Narrator appears to be overreacting, hysterical, peevish. It's hard to identify with him — which is of course what Proust intends that we do.
The Narrator meets Rachel Quand du Seigneur, not that it makes any difference.
One of the great pleasures of the Recherche is watching just how long it takes the Narrator to understand that Charlus is an "invert" (Proust's favored term for "homosexual"). The Narrator is naïf and at first explains Charlus' behavior by ascribing it to some form of aristocracy or eccentricity he's never encountered before — while the astute reader understands almost immediately what's going on. It's pitch-perfect ironic comedy, on the page, but on the screen, the Narrator once again looks like an idiot. (In both book and miniseries, he fails to catch on until he plays Peeping Tom, spying on Charlus and Jupien.)
Huge chunks of the miniseries were filmed in Cabourg,
the real-life model for Balbec.
Charlus gets a lot of screen time in this adaptation, and in Didier Sandre's performance, he's the best part of the show. (At one point, he even wears a replica of the suit that's worn in a famous portrait of Robert de Montesquiou, one of the character's real-life models.) Impeccably aristocratic even in abject despair, at once delicate and tempestuous, Sandre's Baron is a vivid, gutsy creation.
My beloved Dominique Blanc is curiously restrained as Mme Verdurin, whose craftiness and comedy ought to have afforded her greater opportunity to enjoy herself, and to dazzle us. You keep thinking how interesting she'd be in this role — and then you remember that she's already playing it. But Anne Danais fields a couple of nice scenes as Françoise, the housekeeper; and Catherine Samie, a distinguished actress with the Comédie Française, scores strongly as the Narrator's devoted Grandmother.
Companéez gives us a full sequence of scenes in which the Grandmother happily prepares to have her photograph made, until the Narrator teases her: the resulting portrait is rather timid and sad (and beautifully played by Samie); shortly thereafter, the Grandmother suffers a stroke and dies. The Narrator instantly regrets his behavior toward her, but there's worse to come: Françoise explains that, on the morning in question, the Grandmother had already suffered a first stroke, and while she was still able, she wanted the photograph to remind her grandson of a time when she was happy.
The Narrator's regret is therefore compounded, and it will haunt him (and Proust's readers) forever. To try to portray that regret in the context of a film, much less a TV miniseries, may not be impossible, but for conventional talents, it's a fool's errand. I don't understand why Companéez attempted it, or why anybody greenlighted the project when she proposed it.
But let this much be said: at several points during the miniseries, I nodded off and, upon waking, wasn't sure what movie I was watching. This is an indisputably Proustian experience — its equivalent is described in the first paragraph of the Recherche, after all. And so I must concede that Companéez succeeded, in part, even as she betrayed her author by making him something he never was before: dull.
*NOTE: Did France 2, the network that aired Companéez's miniseries, have misgivings about the project? One clue may lie in the absence of the writer–director and cast members from the network's interview programs. Typically, when France 2 has scheduled a "major event," they devote some of their arts coverage (of which they boast an admirable amount) to background reporting and interviews on it, but if they did so for Companéez's Recherche, I completely missed out.
**Ruiz and Akerman's films were part of a projected series of films, one film and one director apiece for the seven volumes of Proust's novel; the series was discontinued after Akerman completed her contribution. Her film is intriguing; Ruiz's, brilliant. In the performances of Stanislas Merhar (in Akerman's film) and Marcello Mazzarella (in Ruiz's), Companéez and Lescot might have picked up useful pointers on how to portray Proust's Narrator, but the idea doesn't seem to have occurred to either of them.
***Contrary to the opinion of the promo writers at France 2, who billed the miniseries as "the memoirs of Marcel Proust," the Recherche is anything but a conventional autobiography, as the author reminds us repeatedly.
APPENDIX: For an idea of how Ruiz and Akerman approached this material, here's Mazzarella, a strong, mature actor, as Marcel, with Catherine Deneuve as Odette, in Le temps retrouvé:
Look at Mazzarella's eyes: that's how you play someone who thinks while he's observing! In four hours, poor Micha Lescot didn't give us anything as eloquent as this single image. Also please note that Mazzarella looks at least as much like Proust as Lescot does, so there's no sacrifice of verisimilitude; and that Odette appears prominently in Ruiz's movie, though she doesn't in Companéez's miniseries.
And here, in a mise-en-scène that speaks more clearly than anything you'll see in that miniseries, are Merhar and Testud in Akerman's La captive:


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The more aerobic exercise that overweight or obese children got in a randomized trial, the less likely they were to develop prediabetic insulin resistance, researchers said.
Among 209 children, age 7 to 11, who were assigned to undertake 20 or 40 minutes per day of aerobic exercise, or to no intervention, a dose-response relationship was apparent between the amount of exercise and reductions in time-averaged insulin levels relative to a usual-care control group, reported Catherine Davis, PhD, of the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, Ga., and colleagues.
Action Points
- The more aerobic exercise that overweight or obese children got in a randomized trial, the less likely they were to develop prediabetic insulin resistance.
- Point out that more exercise was also associated with larger reductions in total body fat and in visceral fat.
More exercise was also associated with larger reductions in total body fat and in visceral fat, the researchers reported in the Sept. 19 obesity-themed issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Although exercise generally is known to be metabolically beneficial to overweight and obese children, this is the first pediatric study to demonstrate a dose-response relationship between exercise and avoidance of adverse metabolic outcomes, the researchers indicated.
Davis and colleagues recruited overweight or obese school children from the Augusta area from 2003 to 2006 to participate in the study for up to 15 weeks. A total of 222 entered the study, with 209 completing one semester.
Children included in the trial had a baseline body mass index of at least the 85th percentile for their age and were considered sedentary. The latter was defined as no participation in a regular physical activity program providing more than 1 hour of exercise weekly.
They were randomized 1:1:1 to their usual level of physical activity or to participate in after-school exercise programs that provided 20 minutes (low dose) or 40 minutes (high dose) of aerobic exercise every school day for a semester. The activities varied, with several running and jumping games employed, such as modified forms of basketball and soccer.
Children in these programs were rewarded for intensity of effort, rather than for conventional athletic performance measures such as points scored or team wins. Davis and colleagues noted that such a reward system would "encourage even unfit children to exercise intensely."
Additionally, the families of the children enrolled in the study were offered monthly lifestyle education classes on healthy diet, physical activity, and stress management. However, there were no dietary restrictions in placed on the participants.
Primary outcome measures included the area under the curve for serum insulin during an oral glucose tolerance test (insulin AUC); aerobic fitness as measured by peak oxygen consumption; percent body fat as measured by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry; and visceral fat measured with MRI scans. Outcomes were calculated on an intention-to-treat basis.
At baseline, the mean BMI was 25.9 kg/m2, which translated to the 97th percentile for the overall sample. Some 85% were considered obese. Mean body fat percentage was 40.5% and participants carried an average of 33.4 cm3 of visceral fat. The authors stated said 28% of the children had prediabetes.
Mean insulin AUC at baseline was 16.3 mU/mL.
After adjusting for age, sex, race, and Tanner growth stage, insulin AUCs declined by a mean of 2.96 mU/mL relative to control in the low-dose exercise group and by 3.56 mU/mL versus control in the high-dose group (both P<0.05 versus control, P=0.64 for high versus low dose).
Body fat percentage dropped by 0.84 points in the low-dose group relative to control and by 1.42 points relative to control in the high-dose group (both P<0.05 versus control, P=0.13 for high versus low dose).
Visceral fat volume was reduced by 2.77 cm3 relative to control with low-dose exercise and by 3.86 cm3 with high-dose exercise (both P≤0.01 versus control, P=0.32 for high versus low dose).
For the remaining primary outcome, aerobic fitness, both exercise groups showed improvement of 2.4 mL/kg/min relative to control (P<0.05), with no meaningful difference between them.
These improvements with exercise in all four primary outcomes were apparent relative to baseline levels within the study arms as well as relative to the control group.
Although significant differences in outcomes between the low- and high-dose groups were generally not found, Davis and colleagues interpreted the general pattern as showing "a dose-response gradient."
Limitations to the study included its short duration, lack of follow-up after the interventions ended, and its open-label design, the researchers indicated. Also, the daily snack, which was offered only to the exercise groups, may have affected outcomes.
The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science.
Study authors declared they had no relevant financial interests.
Primary Source
Journal of the American Medical Association
Source Reference: Davis C, et al "Exercise dose and diabetes risk in overweight and obese children: a randomized controlled trial" JAMA 2012; DOI: 10.1001/2012.jama.10762.

subset: commoncrawl


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Current arrangements are that all EU citizens registered to vote in the UK can vote in local and European elections. Only UK and Commonwealth citizens can vote in general elections or by-elections. There are two massive problems with this in practice; the first is that the standard of accuracy of our electoral registers is of third-world standard, the second is that even illegals and overstayers can vote.
Firstly, the Commonwealth. I believe the Commonwealth has the potential to be as important as Europe in terms of our trade and prosperity; the scope for defence and reciprocal arrangements is also huge and beneficial, and the global Anglophone alliance a source of strength. I fully support the tradition of young single people from the Commonwealth spending a year or two in the UK, whether working behind bars or as management accountants for one of the temp agencies or in the NHS. However, I've never understood the need for Commonwealth citizens to have the vote here, or for UK resident citizens to have the vote in Nigeria or Tonga. Since Labour abolished exit controls, and as there's no link between the electoral registers and the immigration database, it's quite possible for illegal overstayers or those with fraudulent identities to infect the probity of our voter base. So we must end the right of Commonwealth citizens to vote in the UK.
Secondly, the extent of fraud and error on the registers is massive. In 2001 the Labour government introduced postal and proxy voting on demand. In 2003 and 2004 the Electoral Commission called on the government to tighten checks on postal and proxy voting - and was ignored. The results have been clear to see;
- On 4/4/05 a judge declared void two local election results in Birmingham because of Labour postal vote fraud and said the evidence of fraud "would disgrace a banana republic"
- On 8/4/05 a Labour councillor in Blackburn was jailed for stealing 233 postal votes
- On 14/4/05 the Head of Birmingham's electoral team was suspended following the discovery of 1,000 uncounted postal votes
- In May 2005 police were investigating 25 cases of electoral fraud in 19 constituencies
- In April 2006 police were investigating postal vote fraud in Tower Hamlets, six other London boroughs and Birmingham
- In May and June 2006 police were called to investigate intimidation and vote rigging in Surrey, Coventry, London and Birmingham.
So a great clear-out of the registers is also urgently needed. I suggest this takes place very quickly, alongside the 2011 census, with a once-only requirement for UK citizens to provide evidence (passport or birth certificate) of citizenship.
And as to who can vote in any referendum on the EU - whether before or after the Lisbon


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The Swiss family-owned and family-operated watchmaking Company, RAYMOND WEIL, proudly inaugurated a new boutique in Suria KLCC, Kuala Lumpur City Center, Malaysia, on August 26th 2014. Situated in a prime location, this new boutique is the perfect environment for an ultimate RAYMOND WEIL experience. The Brand has been present in Malaysia for over 30 years. This new point of sale affirms the Brand's endeavor to expand and serve its burgeoning clientele across the South East Asia region.
Well-known for its watchmaking excellence, creative design and high quality standards offered at unequalled price points, RAYMOND WEIL today counts more than 3,500 points of sale and 15 exclusive boutiques, in 95 different countries. The boutiques' sleek design, conceived by RAYMOND WEIL's architect-decorator, enables clients to fully immerse themselves in the universe of the music-loving watchmaker, made of Swiss horological excellence, creative classicism and a passion for music and the arts. The new RAYMOND WEIL boutique in Kuala Lumpur is no exception to the rule. It offers a cozy and warm atmosphere thanks to the use of a soft lighting, noble colors and precious materials such as wood, leather and aluminum.
"We are delighted to open a new RAYMOND WEIL boutique in such a prime location in Kuala Lumpur. With this exclusive boutique, we invite clients to discover our Brand's universe and experience a unique and elegant sense of service in a welcoming atmosphere", says Elie Bernheim, CEO of RAYMOND WEIL.
Located beneath the iconic Petronas Towers in the city's landmark retail precinct, Suria KLCC offers an array of goods and services to please the needs of shoppers; from fashion, entertainment, arts & culture to local delicacies and international gourmets. Set in the heart of Kuala Lumpur's Golden Triangle, Suria KLCC is surrounded by hotels, office buildings, a scenic park and dancing fountains, promising hours of leisurely pleasure.


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Compare cheap flights to Shenzhen
Shenzhen is one of China's most successful Special Economic Zones (SEZs). If you want to see a good representation of the Chinese economic success story, this is the city to visit. Of course, flying is the fastest and most convenient option to get here.
When is the cheapest time to fly to Shenzhen?
Flights to Shenzhen
Shenzhen's domestic and international flights are served by the Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport. The airport serves as the base for Shenzhen Airlines and Jade Cargo International. Noted as one of China's busiest airports by passenger traffic, the Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport is located 35 kilometers away from the city center. It has three main terminals: Terminals A, B, and D. Terminals A and B serve domestic flights while Terminal D is intended for international flights. Domestic flights include flights to and from various major cities including Beijing, Chongqing, Dazhou, Guiyang, Hangzhou, Shanhai, Tianjin, and Wuhan. International flights include Tokyo, Pyongyang (seasonal), Seoul, Incheon, Kaohsiung, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu, Bangkok, Osaka, and Singapore. Macau and Taipei flights are classified as international flights.
There are regular bus and minibus services that link the airport to various points in the city. Also, there are intercity bus services that travel to nearby cities like Dongguan and Hong Kong. Taxis, expectedly, are also available. Fares range from ¥100 to ¥150. Those who want to quickly go to Shenzhen Airport from Macau can avail of helicopter services from Terminal Maritimo.
Shenzhen: A Representation of China
Shenzhen is a city that represents many of the things China has become known for. It is a densely populated city but is also one of the richest. It is listed as one of the UNESCO Creative Cities. The city is also the location of some interesting historical sites dotting the suburban area.
Plan your Shenzhen trip now with Skiddoo and find the best flight deals you can book online! Book as early as possible to get cheap travel deals.
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Temperature average in November
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Cheapest time to fly to Shenzhen (SZX)
All prices refer to return flights to Shenzhen and include taxes and charges.
Our experiences customer support team is there to help you every step of the way.
With the Skiddoo Price Promise, if you find a cheaper price online we'll match it!


text:
Driver Licensing Law Changes (2011)
NOTE: The information presented below is for historical purposes only, and may be out of date.
Effective August 28, 2011 - House Bills 204, 294, and 499.
House Bill 204
- Allows military personnel on active duty (and their dependents) to renew a driver license without examination when renewal is initiated within a specified time from discharge or return to state.
House Bill 499
- Modifies provisions of law related to who may report an impaired driver.


text:
December 29, 2019: Smoothie Social
Coming soon! I post in the archive by the next day.
My weekly GYSTS email give you one actionable thing to do for the week that will make you life a little easier. As "they" say, "Fail to plan; plan to fail." Get these emails (and more!) delivered right to your inbox by clicking HERE.


text:
Some of you already know that I ordered this a few months ago and it just came in right after I got back from Montreal, since then I've been changing a few things here and there just taking my time but it's getting pretty close to me bringing it out for the rest of summer so here we go.
It's a Frecso Green 2002 Volkswagen Passat GLS Avant, 1.8T with 5 speed manual, heated black leather interior, AC glove box, sunroof, it's loaded.
As soon as I got it home I put some Audi A4 17's on it
Later that same night just before I put it away so I could work on it
It also came with a set of Momo X-43 18x8.5 wheels, the one wheel out from the stack is cracked, I've already taken the tire off and have had it aside to start working on fixing it, going to send it out to have it welded once I get it straight again. I could send the one cracked wheel away and have it refinished for me back to factory colour, or, it would cost the same for me to straighten it myself, get someone to weld it, and for me to do a full colour change on all four wheels.. so naturally I'm going with the latter.
Timing belt was done, still have to do the alternator belt and AC belt, none are needed, just keeping up on maintenance before a problem occurs.
Time for euro mods, boring old white DRL light
Euro AF amber DRL and polished the headlights
I actually had a burned out license plate light so I change both with LEDs
And then got really carried away and changed every single interior light with LEDs
I start detailing the interior, for some reason only the drivers side OEM floor mat is missing, and so far I haven't been able to find one of these at a scrap yard in town for a replacement OEM rubber floor mat
Got it put away in the yard and took the A4 wheels off, gave them to Adam for his URS4
I had a lot of moisture in one tail light, took it off, found a crack along the lens seam, sealed it up, water tested, no moisture, good to go.
Brakes were working way too good so I had to shitty them up a bit, made sure everything was black to match my soul.
And now I started doing some things
I'm going to try and get the rear brakes done, new diverter valve on, and attempt to tackle the Alternator and AC belts tomorrow, start on the wheels this week, and hopefully if everything can go right, the car will be out again this coming weekend, maybe with the Momo X-43's on it, but that's a stretch


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Hollywood, Los Angeles
Hollywood, Los Angeles
Hollywood, Los Angeles
[Verse 1]
My footsteps in ashes
Why do I kill everything I touch?
Why do blood run so deep?
After so long why it mean so much
Shadows of a song, man it could've been a rap
Coulda wrapped up shit and said I'm never looking back
Took a backpack, packed everything I owned
Into it hopped onto a train, threw it on the track
I guess that's what I do, at least what I do best
I beg my pardon
Part from you girl, you the one that I do bless
With this holy water (holy water)
Gold rolly on him (Gold rolly on him)
Took a bubble bath with the preacher's daughter that's holy water
Could you imagine magic in the air
The passion while I'm passing Ls
Inhale smoke and laughing
Last lap of lux
Deluxe trucks and wagons
Y'all pass the dutch
I done puffed the dragon
Niggas be draggin ass and don't make shit
And they wonder why it don't make sense
Said it's been a while, they wonder where you been
I've been locked up in that basement
I was 16 with a mixtape
Now I'm 19 with a mixtape
Tryna be 21 with a million dollars
Like praise the Lord, hallelujah, holla
Would you dance with me in the rain?
Would you share your empathy, kill my pain?
Paint this picture for me
I'll be by ya mañana
When you need me I'm gone call ya
Call my baby, Natalia
You the reason, wonder why my feet don't touch the ground
Wonder why my feet don't touch the ground
I'll be by ya mañana
When you need me I'm gone call ya
Call me crazy, ooh mama, marijuana
Wonder why my feet don't touch the ground
Wonder why my feet don't touch the ground
Hollywood, Los Angeles
Hollywood, Los Angeles
Streets of gold and good cannabis
But ooh I know you so scandalous
[Verse 2]
Hollywood Los Angeles, Hollywood Los Angeles
Streets of gold and good cannabis but ooh I know you so scandalous
Scared to leave but still scared to stay
Staying content disappearing away
Would you rather fade out filled with regret
Or put a gun to your head
Take it out with a bang
Suicide letter, signed Kurt Cobain
Suicide letter, signed Kirko Bangz
Drank in my cup while I'm cutting my wrists
Because all these rap niggas all sound so same
I'm going to stay this just one last time
This one last thing
People are sheep to the radio heard it don't take too much to make a dumb ass sing
Sing along with me, sing along this your jawn
Ladies this your favorite song
In the mirror, put this on
Hit your zan, get in your zone
I can tell I see she know
But she know she don't need no more
She been drinking way too much
I must admit you way too cold
I caught you looking across that room
You wrong you think that I don't know
Your girlfriend probably played that roll
Like 'I know you seen his type before'
That's neither here nor there
But I will say this cause I do know that
You're the only one that I need that's fact
And the fact of the matter is I got your back
Vic Mensa drops a little gem from his extended stay in Los Angeles


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Talk:Ethan Allen
Jump to navigation Jump to search
starting the discussion page. Templates and tags and stuff should go here. sorry for the informality 184.108.40.206 03:42, 12 September 2007 (UTC)
Are all of the images on this page public domain or follow fair use somehow? if not, something needs to be done about them. They seem a bit random, and only slightly relevant. 188.8.131.52 03:43, 12 September 2007 (UTC)


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Joshua Cooper Ramo of Kissinger Associates told advisors and other guests at Schwab Impact on Thursday evening that, in order to meet the challenges of the 21st Century, they need to come to grips with the abundance of shifts happening globally – especially in China.
"The rise of China is one of the most important changes of our lifetime, and the outcome remains uncertain," said Ramo, author of "The Age of the Unthinkable." "For the U.S., it involves the challenge of ideas, economics and values and also the opportunity for cooperation," he said at the closing session the conference, which was attended by some 2,100 Schwab-affiliated independent advisors and 1,900 other guests.
The Chinese, explained Ramo, see the major U.S. news from Sept. 11, 2001, and Sept, 14, 2008 (when Lehman Brothers went under) as related. "They are markers of big, powerful events," he said. Like the Arab Spring, the Chinese work to stay abreast and to understand the connections between events that cause organizations to change and/or collapse under new and different pressures.
"How do Chinese look at this? It's the nature of the age. Looked at from their worldview, they are looking for instability. This is one of the fundamental cultural differences between the United States and China," Ramo (left) explained.
Ramo described "the unthinkable" as trends such as the loss of U.S. jobs and the increase in Chinese ownership of U.S. debt. But rather than seeing such developments as unpredictable, he urged the Schwab Impact audience to view them in a very broad global context.
"There's been an explosion of world actors," he said. This includes hedge funds, terror cells, non-governmental organizations and urban residents.
"This proliferation will not change," added Ramo. In other words, the dramatic, often unpredictable shifts we are seeing today will only become more dramatic in the future.
(Earlier on Thursday, company founder and Chairman Charles Schwab praised economic growth in China, but said the company was not ready to do business there yet due to regulatory and other constraints.)
In this context, there will be individuals and groups on the planet who may appreciate some aspects of the United States and its culture (namely pop culture) but do not agree with all of its foreign policies and other political stances.
Such a dichotomy, Ramo says, requires more cooperation. "In a more networked world, it means there is nowhere to hide from risk," he explained.
The tensions between change and continuity are being felt acutely in China today, which is why its leaders try to maintain strong links "to its revolutionary past," the analyst noted. To avoid a potential military conflict with the Chinese (and others) "requires new ways of engagement and interaction," he said.
It means that the United States has a "tremendous" responsibility to forge new, creative ties to the expanding nation. "This will define the generation. There are many reasons to find conflict, so how can we do the unthinkable?" he asked, urging America to forge new means of interaction.
Click here to read AdvisorOne's complete coverage of Schwab Impact 2011.


text:
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text:
This specific ISBN edition is currently not available.View all copies of this ISBN edition:
Book by DAVID MITCHELL
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
David Mitchell is the award-winning and bestselling author of The Bone Clocks, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, Black Swan Green, Cloud Atlas, Number9Dream, and Ghostwritten. Twice shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Mitchell was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time in 2007. With KA Yoshida, Mitchell translated from the Japanese the internationally bestselling memoir The Reason I Jump. He lives in Ireland with his wife and two children.
From the Hardcover edition.
Do not set foot in my office. That's Dad's rule. But the phone'd rung twenty-five
times. Normal people give up after ten or eleven, unless it's a matter of
life or death. Don't they? Dad's got an answering machine like James Garner's
in The Rockford Files with big reels of tape. But he's stopped leaving it
switched on recently. Thirty rings, the phone got to. Julia couldn't hear it up
in her converted attic 'cause "Don't You Want Me?" by Human League was
thumping out dead loud. Forty rings. Mum couldn't hear 'cause the washing
machine was on berserk cycle and she was hoovering the living room. Fifty
rings. That's just not normal. S'pose Dad'd been mangled by a juggernaut on
the M5 and the police only had this office number 'cause all his other I.D.'d
got incinerated? We could lose our final chance to see our charred father in
the terminal ward.
So I went in, thinking of a bride going into Bluebeard's chamber after
being told not to. (Bluebeard, mind, was waiting for that to happen.) Dad's office
smells of pound notes, papery but metallic too. The blinds were down so
it felt like evening, not ten in the morning. There's a serious clock on the
wall, exactly the same make as the serious clocks on the walls at school.
There's a photo of Dad shaking hands with Craig Salt when Dad got made regional
sales director for Greenland. (Greenland the supermarket chain, not
Greenland the country.) Dad's IBM computer sits on the steel desk. Thousands
of pounds, IBMs cost. The office phone's red like a nuclear hotline and
it's got buttons you push, not the dial you get on normal phones.
So anyway, I took a deep breath, picked up the receiver, and said our
number. I can say that without stammering, at least. Usually.
But the person on the other end didn't answer.
"Hello?" I said. "Hello?"
They breathed in like they'd cut themselves on paper.
"Can you hear me? I can't hear you."
Very faint, I recognized the Sesame Street music.
"If you can hear me"—I remembered a Children's Film Foundation film
where this happened—"tap the phone, once."
There was no tap, just more Sesame Street.
"You might have the wrong number," I said, wondering.
A baby began wailing and the receiver was slammed down.
When people listen they make a listening noise.
I'd heard it, so they'd heard me.
"May as well be hanged for a sheep as hanged for a handkerchief." Miss
Throckmorton taught us that aeons ago. 'Cause I'd sort of had a reason to
have come into the forbidden chamber, I peered through Dad's razor-sharp
blind, over the glebe, past the cockerel tree, over more fields, up to the
Malvern Hills. Pale morning, icy sky, frosted crusts on the hills, but no sign of
sticking snow, worse luck. Dad's swivelly chair's a lot like the Millennium
Falcon's laser tower. I blasted away at the skyful of Russian MiGs streaming
over the Malverns. Soon tens of thousands of people between here and
Cardiff owed me their lives. The glebe was littered with mangled fusilages
and blackened wings. I'd shoot the Soviet airmen with tranquilizer darts as
they pressed their ejector seats. Our marines'll mop them up. I'd refuse all
medals. "Thanks, but no thanks," I'd tell Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan
when Mum invited them in, "I was just doing my job."
Dad's got this fab pencil sharpener clamped to his desk. It makes pencils
sharp enough to puncture body armor. H pencils're sharpest, they're Dad's
faves. I prefer 2Bs.
The doorbell went. I put the blind back to how it was, checked I'd left no
other traces of my incursion, slipped out, and flew downstairs to see who it
was. The last six steps I took in one death-defying bound.
Moron, grinny-zitty as ever. His bumfluff's getting thicker, mind. "You'll
never guess what!"
"You know the lake in the woods?"
"What about it?"
"It's only"—Moron checked that we weren't being overheard—"gone and
froze solid! Half the kids in the village're there, right now. Ace doss or what?"
"Jason!" Mum appeared from the kitchen. "You're letting the cold in!
Either invite Dean inside—hello Dean—or shut the door."
"Um . . . just going out for a bit, Mum."
"Um . . . where?"
"Just for some healthy fresh air."
That was a strategic mistake. "What are you up to?"
I wanted to say "Nothing" but Hangman decided not to let me. "Why
would I be up to anything?" I avoided her stare as I put on my navy duffel
"What's your new black parka done to offend you, may I ask?"
I still couldn't say "Nothing." (Truth is, black means you fancy yourself as
a hard-knock. Adults can't be expected to understand.) "My duffel's a bit
warmer, that's all. It's parky out."
"Lunch is one o'clock sharp." Mum went back to changing the Hoover
bag. "Dad's coming home to eat. Put on a woolly hat or your head'll freeze."
Woolly hats're gay but I could stuff it in my pocket later.
"Good-bye then, Mrs. Taylor," said Moron.
"Good-bye, Dean," said Mum.
Mum's never liked Moron.
Moron's my height and he's okay but Jesus he pongs of gravy. Moron wears
ankle-flappers from charity shops and lives down Druggers End in a brick cottage
that pongs of gravy too. His real name's Dean Moran (rhymes with "warren")
but our P.E. teacher Mr. Carver started calling him "Moron" in our first
week and it's stuck. I call him "Dean" if we're on our own but name's aren't
just names. Kids who're really popular get called by their first names, so Nick
Yew's always just "Nick." Kids who're a bit popular like Gilbert Swinyard have
sort of respectful nicknames like "Yardy." Next down are kids like me who call
each other by our surnames. Below us are kids with piss-take nicknames like
Moran Moron or Nicholas Briar, who's Knickerless Bra. It's all ranks, being a
boy, like the army. If I called Gilbert Swinyard just "Swinyard," he'd kick my
face in. Or if I called Moron "Dean" in front of everyone, it'd damage my
own standing. So you've got to watch out.
Girls don't do this so much, 'cept for Dawn Madden, who's a boy gone
wrong in some experiment. Girls don't scrap so much as boys either. (That said,
just before school broke up for Christmas, Dawn Madden and Andrea Bozard
started yelling "Bitch!" and "Slag!" in the bus queues after school. Punching
tits and pulling hair and everything, they were.) Wish I'd been born a girl,
sometimes. They're generally loads more civilized. But if I ever admitted that
out loud I'd get bumhole plummer scrawled on my locker. That happened to
Floyd Chaceley for admitting he liked Johann Sebastian Bach. Mind you, if
they knew Eliot Bolivar, who gets poems published in Black Swan Green Parish
Magazine, was me, they'd gouge me to death behind the tennis courts with
blunt woodwork tools and spray the Sex Pistols logo on my gravestone.
So anyway, as Moron and I walked to the lake he told me about the
Scalectrix he'd got for Christmas. On Boxing Day its transformer blew up and
nearly wiped out his entire family. "Yeah, sure," I said. But Moron swore it on
his nan's grave. So I told him he should write to That's Life on BBC and get
Esther Rantzen to make the manufacturer pay compensation. Moron
thought that might be difficult 'cause his dad'd bought it off a Brummie at
Tewkesbury Market on Christmas Eve. I didn't dare ask what a "Brummie"
was in case it's the same as "bummer" or "bumboy," which means homo.
"Yeah," I said, "see what you mean." Moron asked me what I'd got for Christmas.
I'd actually got £13.50 in book tokens and a poster of Middle-earth, but
books're gay so I talked about the Game of Life, which I'd got from Uncle
Brian and Aunt Alice. It's a board game you win by getting your little car to
the end of the road of life first, and with the most money. We crossed the
crossroads by the Black Swan and went into the woods. Wished I'd rubbed
ointment into my lips 'cause they get chapped when it's this cold.
Soon we heard kids through the trees, shouting and screaming. "Last one
to the lake's a spaz!" yelled Moron, haring off before I was ready. Straight off
he tripped over a frozen tire rut, went flying, and landed on his arse. Trust
Moran. "I think I might've got a concussion," he said.
"Concussion's if you hit your head. Unless your brain's up your arse."
What a line. Pity nobody who matters was around to hear it.
The lake in the woods was epic. Tiny bubbles were trapped in the ice like in
Fox's Glacier Mints. Neal Brose had proper Olympic ice skates he hired out
for 5p a go, though Pete Redmarley was allowed to use them for free so other
kids'd see him speed-skating around and want a go too. Just staying up on the
ice is hard enough. I fell over loads before I got the knack of sliding in my
trainers. Ross Wilcox turned up with his cousin Gary Drake and Dawn Mad-
den. All three're pretty good skaters. Drake and Wilcox're taller than me too
now. (They'd cut the fingers off of their gloves to show the scars they'd got
playing Scabby Queen. Mum'd murder me.) Squelch sat on the humpy island
in the middle of the lake where the ducks normally live, shouting, "Arse
over tit! Arse over tit!" at whoever fell over. Squelch's funny in the head 'cause
he was born too early, so nobody ever thumps him one. Not hard, anyway.
Grant Burch rode his servant Philip Phelps's Raleigh Chopper actually on
the ice. He kept his balance for a few seconds, but when he pulled a wheelie
the bike went flying. After it landed it looked like Uri Geller'd tortured it to
death. Phelps grinned sickly. Bet he was wondering what he'd tell his dad.
Then Pete Redmarley and Grant Burch decided the frozen lake'd be perfect
for British Bulldogs. Nick Yew said, "Okay, I'm on for that," so it was decided.
I hate British Bulldogs. When Miss Throckmorton banned it at our primary
school after Lee Biggs lost three teeth playing it, I was dead relieved. But this
morning any kid who denied loving British Bulldogs'd've looked a total
ponce. Specially kids from up Kingfisher Meadows like me.
About twenty or twenty-five of us boys, plus Dawn Madden, stood in a
bunch to be picked like slaves in a slave market. Grant Burch and Nick Yew
were joint captains of one team. Pete Redmarley and Gilbert Swinyard were
the captains of the other. Ross Wilcox and Gary Drake both got picked before
me by Pete Redmarley, but I got picked by Grant Burch on the sixth pass,
which wasn't embarrassingly late. Moron and Squelch were the last two left.
Grant Burch and Pete Redmarley joked, "No, you can have 'em both, we
want to win!" and Moron and Squelch had to laugh like they thought it was
funny too. Maybe Squelch really did. (Moron didn't. When everyone looked
away, he had the same face as that time after we all told him we were playing
Hide-and-Seek and sent him off to hide. It took an hour for him to work out
nobody was looking for him.) Nick Yew won the toss so us lot were the Runners
first and Pete Redmarley's team were the Bulldogs. Unimportant kids'
coats were put at either end of the lake as goalmouths to reach through and
to defend. Girls, apart from Dawn Madden, and the littl'uns were cleared off
the ice. Redmarley's Bulldogs formed a pack in the middle and us Runners
slid to our starting goal. My heart was drumming now. Bulldogs and Runners
crouched like sprinters. The captains led the chant.
"British Bulldogs! One two three!"
Screaming like kamikazes, we charged. I slipped over (accidentally on purpose)
just before the front wave of Runners smashed into the Bulldogs. This'd
tie up most of the hardest Bulldogs in fights with our front Runners. (Bulldogs
have to pin down both shoulders of Runners onto the ice for long
enough to shout "British Bulldogs one two three.") With luck, my strategy'd
clear some spaces to dodge through and on to our home goalposts. My plan
worked pretty well at first. The Tookey brothers and Gary Drake all crashed
into Nick Yew. A flying leg kicked my shin but I got past them without coming
a cropper. But then Ross Wilcox came homing in on me. I tried to wriggle
past but Wilcox got a firm grip on my wrist and tried to pull me down. But
instead of trying to struggle free I got a firmer grip on his wrist and flung him
off me, straight into Ant Little and Darren Croome. Ace in the face or what?
Games and sports aren't about taking part or even about winning. Games and
sports're really about humiliating your enemies. Lee Biggs tried a poxy rugby
tackle on me but I shook him free no sweat. He's too worried about the teeth
he's got left to be a decent Bulldog. I was the fourth Runner home. Grant
Burch shouted, "Nice work Jacey-boy!" Nick Yew'd fought free of the Tookeys
and Gary Drake and got home too. About a third of the Runners got captured
and turned into Bulldogs for the next pass. I hate that about British Bulldogs.
It forces you to be a traitor.
So anyway, we all chanted, "British Bulldogs one two THREE!" and
charged like last time but this time I had no chance. Ross Wilcox and Gary
Drake and Dawn Madden targeted me from the start. No matter how I tried
to dodge through the fray it was hopeless. I hadn't got halfway across the lake
before they got me. Ross Wilcox went for my legs, Gary Drake toppled me,
and Dawn Madden sat on my chest and pinned my shoulders down with her
knees. I just lay there and let them convert me into a Bulldog. In my heart I'd
always be a Runner. Gary Drake gave me a dead leg, which might or might
not've been on purpose. Dawn Madden's got cruel eyes like a Chinese empress
and sometimes one glimpse at school makes me think about her all day.
Ross Wilcox jumped up and punched the air like he'd scored at Old Trafford.
The spazzo. "Yeah, yeah, Wilcox," I said, "three against one, well done."
Wilcox flashed me a V-sign and slid off for another battle. Grant Burch and
Nick Yew came windmilling at a thick pocket of Bulldogs and half of them
went flying.
Then Gilbert Swinyard yelled at the top of his lungs, "PIIIIIILEONNNNNN!"
That was the signal for every Runner and every Bulldog on
the lake to throw themselves onto a wriggling, groaning, growing pyramid of
kids. The game itself was sort of forgotten. I held back, pretending to limp a
bit from my dead leg. Then we heard the sound of a chain saw in the woods,
flying down the track, straight toward us.
The chain saw wasn't a chain saw. It was Tom Yew on his purple Suzuki
150cc scrambler. Pluto Noak was clinging to the back, without a helmet.
British Bulldogs was aborted 'cause Tom Yew's a minor legend in Black
Swan Green. Tom Yew serves in the Royal Navy on a frigate called HMS
Coventry. Tom Yew's got every Led Zep album ever made and can play the
guitar introduction to "Stairway to Heaven." Tom Yew's actually shaken
hands with Peter Shilton, the England goalkeeper. Pluto Noak's a less shiny
legend. He left school without even taking his CSEs last year. Now he
works in the Pork Scratchings factory in Upton-on-Severn. (There's rumors
Pluto Noak's smoked cannabis but obviously it wasn't the type that cauliflowerizes
your brain and makes you jump off roofs onto railings.) Tom Yew
parked his Suzuki by the bench on the narrow end of the lake and sat on it,
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Book Description HODDER & STOUGHTON, United Kingdom, 2007. Paperback. Condition: New. Language: English. Brand new Book. The dazzling novel from critically-acclaimed David Mitchell.Shortlisted for the 2006 Costa Novel AwardLonglisted for the Man Booker Prize 2006January, 1982. Thirteen-year-old Jason Taylor - covert stammerer and reluctant poet - anticipates a stultifying year in his backwater English village. But he hasn't reckoned with bullies, simmering family discord, the Falklands War, a threatened gypsy invasion and those mysterious entities known as girls. Charting thirteen months in the black hole between childhood and adolescence, this is a captivating novel, wry, painful and vibrant with the stuff of life. Seller Inventory # HUK9780340822807
Book Description HODDER & STOUGHTON, United Kingdom, 2007. Paperback. Condition: New. Language: English. Brand new Book. The dazzling novel from critically-acclaimed David Mitchell.Shortlisted for the 2006 Costa Novel AwardLonglisted for the Man Booker Prize 2006January, 1982. Thirteen-year-old Jason Taylor - covert stammerer and reluctant poet - anticipates a stultifying year in his backwater English village. But he hasn't reckoned with bullies, simmering family discord, the Falklands War, a threatened gypsy invasion and those mysterious entities known as girls. Charting thirteen months in the black hole between childhood and adolescence, this is a captivating novel, wry, painful and vibrant with the stuff of life. Seller Inventory # HUK9780340822807
Book Description HODDER & STOUGHTON, United Kingdom, 2007. Paperback. Condition: New. Language: English. Brand new Book. The dazzling novel from critically-acclaimed David Mitchell.Shortlisted for the 2006 Costa Novel AwardLonglisted for the Man Booker Prize 2006January, 1982. Thirteen-year-old Jason Taylor - covert stammerer and reluctant poet - anticipates a stultifying year in his backwater English village. But he hasn't reckoned with bullies, simmering family discord, the Falklands War, a threatened gypsy invasion and those mysterious entities known as girls. Charting thirteen months in the black hole between childhood and adolescence, this is a captivating novel, wry, painful and vibrant with the stuff of life. Seller Inventory # HUK9780340822807
Book Description 2006. Paperback. Condition: New. Paperback. The dazzling novel from critically-acclaimed David Mitchell.Shortlisted for the 2006 Costa Novel AwardLonglisted for the Man Booker Prize 2006January, 1982. Thirteen-year-old Jason Taylor .Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. 384 pages. 0.269. Seller Inventory # 9780340822807
Book Description Sceptre, 2007. Paperback. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # XB0340822805
Book Description QPD, 2006. Paperback. Condition: New. BRAND NEW ** SUPER FAST SHIPPING FROM UK WAREHOUSE ** 30 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE. Seller Inventory # mon0000228130
Book Description Hodder & Stoughton General Division. Paperback / softback. Condition: New. New copy - Usually dispatched within 2 working days. Seller Inventory # B9780340822807
Book Description Condition: New. Not Signed; The dazzling novel from critically-acclaimed David Mitchell. Shortlisted for the 2006 Costa Novel Award Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2006 January, 1982. Thirteen-year-old Jason Taylor - covert stammerer and reluctant poet - anticipates a stultifying year in his backwater English village. But. book. Seller Inventory # ria9780340822807_rkm
Book Description Hodder & Stoughton 2007-04-02, London, 2007. paperback. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 9780340822807
Book Description Hodder and Stoughton General Division, 2006. PAP. Condition: New. New Book. Shipped from UK. Established seller since 2000. Seller Inventory # BB-9780340822807


text:
NBC's "Sunday Night Football" lineup is getting younger while maintaining its robust level of blonde.
|Carrie Underwood is no stranger to singing for NFL crowds. Take a look back at memorable Super Bowl performances.
The network announced Tuesday that Carrie Underwood will replace Faith Hill as the singer of its introductory theme song each week. Hill announced weeks ago she wouldn't be continuing with the show.
Underwood's first Sunday regular-season appearance on the show will come before a Dallas Cowboys game, featuring her ex, Tony Romo. We can only hope that NBC keeps the same lyrics to the theme song this season, so we can hear Underwoood sing, "Al and Chris are the best on TV."
Classic American songwriting, right there.
Follow Gregg Rosenthal on Twitter @greggrosenthal.


text:
Voter Paradox for Candidates: A survey asks presented respondents with 28 attributes, then asked those attributes made the respondent more or less likely to vote for the candidate. [SF Gate]
All by Himself: "If the mark of a real independent is lack of friends, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is the quintessential nonpartisan in American politics right now," writes NYT's Jennifer Steinhauer. [New York Times]
Climate Law Battle Heats Up: Lobbyists are weighing in on Prop 23, which casts the green spotlight -- once again -- on California. [Sacramento Bee]
Districts Back School Finance System Lawsuit: The lawsuit claims the system is unconstitutional. [The Sun]
Willing to Change: More than 160 of the 188 schools on California's persistently low-performing list agreed to implement changes. In return, they get a cut of a $146 million grant. [California Watch]
Who Are These People?: Interest groups have vague names and big money. [LA Times]


text:
Liberty News
Liberty Sponsors Local Semi-Professional Basketball Team
Continuing in its commitment to athletic excellence and community involvement, Liberty University announced plans this week to be the title sponsor of the Lynchburg Legends, a local semi-professional basketball team for 2012.
"God has blessed the University and we want to give back to the community," said Lee Beaumont, director of Auxiliary Services. "We feel the Legends are providing a valuable community service and activity and the school is proud to sponsor this organization."
A member of the American Basketball Association (ABA), the Legends began their inaugural year in November and is currently ranked No. 24 according to ABA power rankings.
In addition to sharing their love for the game of basketball, the mission of the Lynchburg Legends is to provide family-friendly entertainment within the local community. The team currently maintains service partnerships with the Boys and Girls Club of Lynchburg, the Salvation Army, and the Jubilee Family Development Center, seeking to positively impact the lives of children and sports enthusiasts within the community.
The Legends also have close ties to Liberty. The team's General Manager and CEO, Derek Polley is a 2011 graduate of Liberty University and player Damien Hubbard is a former forward for the Flames.
For more information on the Legends, visit www.LynchburgLegendsABA.com.


text:
On Valentines Day my son was asked to make a valentine's card to send to the soldiers in Iraq as part of a "support the troops campaign". He declined and told his buddies, "You shouldn't do that, I'm not going to do it, the troops do nothing for me." This remark incensed his after school councilors, and Cosmo was placed at the "time out" table in the front of the auditorium. (Though I was assured by the councilors that he was not being punished.) I spoke to the administrators, supporting my son's stance, and thought the incident was water under the bridge, until an administrator chose to single me out and give me a letter of thanks from the local police department that organized the "Support the Troops Campaign". What follows is my response.
February 27th, 2007
Dear Ms. Frederick,
I am in receipt of the letter provided JCC from Kathleen Andrews of the Plantation Police Department thanking you for organizing the "Support the Troops" campaign. I am not quite certain why you deemed it necessary that I should be singled out to receive this letter, but I would love to revisit this topic in more detail. Thank you for providing me with the opportunity.
As I write this, over 3000 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq, upwards of 60,000 have been maimed, countless others have suffered deep psychological scars that will remain with them for their lifetime. Over 600,000 Iraqis have been killed, (not including the 500,000 children who died during the Clinton years and sanctions) millions more maimed, untold numbers have been poisoned by depleted uranium, and will suffer for generations to come. Who knows how many have suffered psychological trauma, no one is keeping count of this statistic. Millions are displaced, homeless, without means to support themselves or their families. Four years into this occupation, millions more have been sickened by drinking dirty water. The lack of doctors, lack of medicine, lack of necessary medical equipment and the lack of electricity have all contributed to this catastrophe, and now, even food is a major issue. (Where exactly do you suppose the 100's of billions of taxpayer dollars that have been poured into this quagmire have ended up? Certainly not in the rebuilding of Iraq, nor in the "support of our troops", who are still lacking in even the most basic gear critical for their survival- though a McDonalds can be found in the Green zone.)
As you may or not may not know, the vast majority of the Iraqi casualties are children, woman, elders, and other non-combatants. I won't begin to guess how many of these casualties come directly at the hands of our troops. But I will say this- unequivocally- their deaths are the direct result of an immoral American foreign policy, and each of us, as American citizens, carry this burden and this responsibility.
One thing Kathleen Andrews fails to address in her letter is the sense of abandonment our troops feel because they have been abandoned by our government. They are ill equipped (lacking basic armor for their Humvess as well as the proper vests for themselves) on a mission that seems pointless, if not reckless. Nor does she address the fact that they feel abandoned because many are on their 3rd or 4th tour, with no end in sight, and even less progress to show for their sacrifice. I would propose that if people are serious about supporting our troops, they take a minute, or an hour, to write to their Congress people demanding action- proper equipment, proper training, limited deployments, and a mission that has clear objectives and goals. Perhaps the best support one could offer is a demand that our troops end the occupation and return home. Far from "negativity", as Ms. Andrews would describe it, this would show a true concern for our men and women in harms way.
Once home, perhaps we could demand that they get the care they need- especially for the psychological trauma they suffered while in the war zone. Perhaps you are familiar with the story of Jon Schulze, a US Marine from Minnesota, who recently committed suicide after being turned away from a VA Hospital, even though he told them 3 times in as many days, that he was suicidal. He was found hanging from a rafter in his basement. His case is far from an isolated incident. I personally know vets who are a hairs breadth away from killing themselves and the only help they get from the VA is prescription drugs. So, perhaps we should get serious about what constitutes "supporting the troops".
One thing you have mentioned repeatedly is that Cosmo is "just a boy", implying that he shouldn't have an opinion about these matters and he should just do what he is told. I disagree completely. One thing I have impressed upon him is that in the face of injustice, silence is not an option. Even though he is "just a boy", I am thankful that he had the courage to speak up and to refuse to do this project. He was particularly upset when he heard his councilor say that the troops were "saving America". It's nice to know even an eight year old knows better.
I think it is a shame that 8 year-old children (and even younger I assume, as children as young as 5 or 6 attend your program), were told to write valentines cards to the troops in the first place, and the fact that they are expected to do this without thought or question is ridiculous. Any teacher worth their salt should be encouraging children to think for them selves, question authority, and never, ever do anything blindly on faith- isn't that what education (and democracy) is all about?
I can think of plenty of valentines that could have been written around the topic of the war that would have been useful and positive. The children could have been offered an option- perhaps it would be kind to write to children in the war zone, expressing love and hope for them (and us). Perhaps the kids could write to the children of soldiers who have been killed in Iraq, or who have lost their limbs, or their minds, expressing sympathy, love and hope for them (and us). Perhaps the children could have written valentines to our so-called leaders who continue to fund this catastrophe, expressing love and hope for peace (for them, and us). Of course, in writing to the troops, they could ask them not to kill (but I ask you, would you have considered this "supporting the troops"?)
One thing that Cosmo has learned from me at his young age is that peace never comes from the barrel of a gun and the vast majority of victims of war are children just like him, as well as their mothers, fathers, and grandparents. While adults easily dismiss this "collateral damage", children get it. They recognize the immorality (though they may not label it as such) and the horror of this fact. No rationalizations, no denials, no obfuscations overcome this basic fact of war.
I teach peace in my household, not war. I have a deep and abiding faith in the concept of "Not harming any living being", (the first precept in Buddhism), and in working non-violently for change. In living this, I am far from perfect, but I endeavor to protect and take care of all living creatures. I do not believe in the efficacy of violence to solve anything, and recognize that war is self-defeating. I also recognize that this country is steeped in violence. We imprison over 2 million citizens, we endorse the death penalty, pass laws against feeding the homeless in public parks, we build walls to keep out immigrants and allow vigilantes to track them down in the desert. We spend 1.7 billion dollars a day on the military (again- not enough armor? You must be kidding me.)
I would like to quote Dr King, who said, "I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government."
Sadly, things have not changed much in 40 years. Again, quoting King, "Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of (Vietnam) Iraq. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home, and death and corruption in (Vietnam) Iraq. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as one who loves America, to the leaders of our own nation: The great initiative in this war is ours; the initiative to stop it must be ours."
And finally, "We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent coannihilation. We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam Iraq and justice throughout the developing world, a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight."
I share teachings on non-violence with my child. He is free to ask questions, and often, my response is simply, "I don't know". This encourages both of us to look deeper. This education will benefit my son, his friends, his classmates, and society at large far more so than being blindly told to "support the troops". Real support for the troops in Iraq and the many troops to come (including, someday, my boy's peers) is teaching peace as a process, a process that begins with me. A process that includes social justice, equality, love, equanimity, and compassion- a process that has understanding as a catalyst. It comes with the recognition that those deemed my "enemy", are in fact, not separate from myself. It goes hand in hand with the concept of tikkun olam, and the work before us as individuals and as community. This supports not only the troops, but all living things. Perhaps the next time JCC wishes to support something, the JCC administrators can think about including peace, love, and compassion in the lesson plan. This would benefit us all a great deal and I think my son would be an enthusiastic participant.
Ms. Frederick, I understand you may not hold one single belief of mine as your own. This is fine with me. (Perhaps you have never been shot at by a soldier, or stood in front of a tank as it leveled it's canon at you, or been hit with a sound bomb or tear gas canister, perhaps a 10 year old child, shot by a soldier, has never run, terrified, into your arms. Perhaps you have never sat with a distraught soldier as he told the story of his best friend blown up by an IED.)
This letter is in no way trying to impose my belief system on you. I am simply sharing my feelings, thoughts, and experiences.
I am asking, though, that you take care with those whose care has been entrusted to you. As you know, children's minds are supple, but they can also be easily molded. What is open, loving and pure can be closed, distorted, and easily manipulated. We need look no further than our own experience for proof of this. As a teacher, I hope you encourage children to think for themselves, ask questions, and make positive choices. I hope that because "he is just a boy" you don't feel obliged to impose your beliefs on my son or any of your other charges. This would be a grave disservice to them. Perhaps if we encourage our children to question, and remain open, loving and kind, their world will be just a bit brighter, a bit more caring, a bit more loving then the world we birthed them into. And perhaps, just perhaps, we may be open enough to learn something from them.
Finally, I understand you may feel good and right about your participation in the "Support the Troops" campaign, and I imagine that is why you chose to share the letter with me. I hope it is equally fine with you that we chose to express our support in what we believe is a more wholesome manner.
If you have a chance, watch Cloy Richards talk about his tour of duty: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022607T.shtml
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Support the troops.
On Valentines Day my son was asked to make a valentine's card to send to the soldiers in Iraq as part of a "support the troops campaign". He declined and told his buddies, "You shouldn't do that, I'm not going to do it, the troops do nothing for me." This remark incensed his after school councilors, and Cosmo was placed at the "time out" table in the front of the auditorium. (Though I was assured by the councilors that he was not being punished.) I spoke to the administrators, supporting my son's stance, and thought the incident was water under the bridge, until an administrator chose to single me out and give me a letter of thanks from the local police department that organized the "Support the Troops Campaign". What follows is my response.


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by Matt Dalby, sports information graduate assistant
MORROW, Ga. – The No. 16 Georgia College women's tennis squad (5-5, 2-4 PBC) grabbed a quick 2-1 lead after doubles action, but were unable to keep up falling 7-2 at No. 9 Clayton State (4-5, 3-1 PBC) in a Peach Belt Conference (PBC) match Sunday afternoon.
GC was quick out of the gate, picking up a pair of wins in the doubles portion of the match. May Johnson (Sydney, Australia) and Michelle Lingner (Dunwoody, Ga.) defeated Martina Dedaj and Jessica Budd 9-7 at the first spot, while Kayla Barksdale (Augusta, Ga.) and Lisa Setyon-Ortenzio (Paris) also won 8-3 over Marie Cercelletti and Hannah Keeling.
The Lakers would steal the lone doubles victory from Ivana Marevic (Rottweil, Germany) and Leah Pridgeon (Lawrenceville, Ga.) who fell to Charlotte Fabricius and Alyze' Pagal 8-6 at the third spot.
Unfortunately, the 'Cats were unable to pick up any more wins on the day as the Lakers swept the singles portion of the match.
Marevic battled Dedaj in a three-set thriller, eventually falling 3-6, 6-3 6-4, while Setyon-Ortenzio also battled to a 6-0, 7-6 defeat at the hands of Cercellati.
Budd was able to handle Pridgeon at the No. 5 position, holding her off 7-5, 6-4. Johnson was taken out by Keeling 6-4, 6-1 in the No. 2 position, as was Barksdale by Fabricius 6-2, 6-2 at the No. 4 slot.
Rounding out the scoring for the Lakers was Pagal who defeated Lingner 6-4, 6-1 at the sixth slot.
The Bobcat women will look to rebound Tuesday, March 20 when they travel to Lander University at 2:30 p.m. in a crucial PBC meeting.


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The family formed many branches, some in other regions. The Chagnon branch gave its name to Chagnon, a village in the department of Loire, in the district of Saint-Étienne. The branch Chaigneau was established in a village in the department of Eure, in the district of Evreux. The branch Chaigne was established in Bordeaux. Several members of this illustrious family distinguished themselves in various parts of France. [1]CITATION[CLOSE]
Dionne, N.-E., Origine Des Familles Canadiennes-Français. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1969. Print.
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MELBOURNE, FL - Health First's Holmes Regional Medical Center welcomed Brevard's first baby of the new year today.
Beautiful baby Talullah Amber Seefelt was born at 8:54 am at Holmes Regional Medical Center. Talullah weighed in at 6 pounds, 12 ounces. Talullah's mom, Melissa Luster and dad Brian Seefelt are so excited about their new arrival.
Talullah is the first baby for the Melbourne, Florida couple. Talullah was due January 10th (dad says they were hoping for the 11th so they could say she was born 1/1/11). But because the baby was breech, a c-section had been scheduled for January 5th. However, Talullah had other plans! Melissa went into labor around 10pm New Year's Eve. She called Brian, a Brevard County Firefighter Paramedic, who was at work, and the couple rushed to Holmes Regional Medical Center.
Incredibly, Talullah is not the first New Year's baby in the family. Her paternal grandmother was also a New Year's baby!
The Birth Suites, Holmes Regional Medical Center's mother/baby wing, features 23 private, exquisitely appointed post-partum rooms, many with magnificent views of the Indian River. They feature seven special care rooms, eight birthing rooms, two C-section rooms and 14 nursery beds. All of these features are complemented by our Level II Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
Happy New Year from Health First Media Relations!


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Flippin' Flapjacks provides motivation at Ride The Rockies
The mountain views are spectacular during Ride the Rockies, but the sight of the "pancake man" at work is one of my favorite visions of the tour, and I try to witness it every morning. It's one of the treats I'm looking forward to most during the 2014 tour, which starts this weekend.
A rider needs a push to start pedaling when the sun is still well below the mountain horizon and temperatures are brisk. The pancake man, cheerfully cranking out flapjacks and sausage links by the score at the first rest stop, provides a healthy dose of motivation slathered in butter and syrup. (The pancake man operation is actually a company, Flippin' Flapjacks, run by Dan and Kelly Kuper.)
The catch is, the line forms early and — despite the pancake man's heroic efforts and his wondrous batter-dispensing and grilling apparatus — it quickly grows to insane proportions. So early risers get the reward.


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Hugo Chávez's cheering section
Let us pause and reflect. The left's favorite self-aggrandizing thug has shed this mortal coil. Hugo Chávez, R.I.P.
All the country's least reflective and most reflexive ideologues of the left immediately issued warm farewells — Sean Penn, Michael Moore, Oliver Stone and, of course, the nation's 39th president, Jimmy Carter.
Story Continued Below
Carter praised Chávez for his commitment "to bring profound changes to his country," which by installing himself as the effective president for life, he certainly did. Carter noted his "formidable communications skills," a quality that is not unusual in successful populist demagogues. In the gentle tone of someone who regrets that his good friend sometimes cheats at bridge, Carter allowed that he did not agree "with all of the methods followed by his government."
Such is the appeal of the socialist caudillo that ThinkProgress had to take a break from blogging about the latest Republican idiocy, real or imagined, to warn off its allies with a piece titled, "Why Democrats Shouldn't Eulogize Hugo Chávez."
It didn't get to New York Rep. José Serrano in time. He rushed to praise Chávez: "He understood democracy and basic human desires for a dignified life." As a technical matter, Serrano is right: Chávez understood democracy exceedingly well, if by that you mean he understood how to exploit its forms while hollowing out its institutions to entrench himself in power in perpetuity.
He displaced a corrupt, conscienceless oligarchy when he took power in 1999, and replaced it with his own corrupt, conscienceless rule. In a recent report, Human Rights Watch detailed how "the accumulation of power in the executive and the erosion of human rights protections have allowed the Chávez government to intimidate, censor, and prosecute critics and perceived opponents in a wide range of cases involving the judiciary, the media, and civil society."
Chávez got his first political break in a failed military coup and never lost his taste for militarizing politics. Fidel Castro was his mentor, and he propped up the Castro regime with Venezuela's ample oil. He funded guerrillas warring against the democratically elected government of Colombia. He praised every heinous dictator around the planet as a brother-in-arms. He was hell on the plutocrats, and also on the Jews. "Don't let yourselves be poisoned by those wandering Jews," he warned his countrymen, in a sentiment worthy of the 15th century.


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Empower Pioneers. Forge Possibility.
The Office of Student Engagement is committed to the student experience. Through co- curricular programming and dynamic support networks, we strive to empower students throughout their college journey, linking them to possibilities that engage their pioneering spirit and create connections within our University of Denver Community.
Pillar Statements:
We care about relationships. Our work is centered on building and nurturing positive connections with our campus partners; students, faculty and staff. This means being intentional in our interactions and seeking to holistically know people as individuals, rather than defining them by their roles.
We believe that every voice matters. Conversation is the means through which individuals' self-awareness and understanding of others can be explored. It is our responsibility to create learning spaces that encourage authentic dialogue and inclusive practices.
Caring for the personal and professional growth of our students is central to our mission. Recognizing that each student is an individual with unique identities and needs, we provide various programs and opportunities that engage students in self-discovery beyond an isolated experience, throughout their college journey.


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White Scroll Lantern
Courtenay Lambert Floral and Event Design specializes in stunning and unique floral designs and spectacular special events, weddings, and parties. Whether you're planning a wedding, social, or corporate event, we can help you manage the design details and choose flowers that make your event memorable. An event florist and designer servicing greater Cincinnati, northern Kentucky, and destination weddings and events.
Courtenay Lambert Floral and Event Design | 4212 Airport Rd. Suite 108, Cincinnati, Ohio 45226, United States


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British television is making Australians laugh !
According to a recent international survey commissioned by BBC Worldwide, British humour is the number one reason why Australian audiences tune into British television. So Australian audiences should be happy with UKTV's April line-up which offers viewers the perfect mix of great British humour and quality entertainment from two of […]Read more ›


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Welcome to the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies program at UVM!
Leadership and policy studies in education requires a complex understanding of educational institutions, politics, culture, change processes, and the needs of an increasingly diverse and global world.
Central to our program is the belief that the study of leadership and policy studies requires building and sustaining communities of learning between practitioners and researchers and the communities they serve. We develop change agents who can construct and apply knowledge to make a positive difference in the lives of individuals, families, and communities.
Our program is nationally recognized and a member of the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED) including over 50 institutions of higher education across the United States. We are proud to offer both the Ed.D. and Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies.


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- Champions League round-up
Man City crash out as Arsenal qualify for last-16
Manchester City's Champions League adventure is over after they failed to beat Real Madrid on Wednesday, but Arsenal can look forward to the last-16 draw after they qualified with victory over Montpellier.
English champions Manchester City had to win at home to Madrid in order to extend their campaign at the Etihad, but an early strike from Karim Benzema earned Madrid a 1-1 draw and left Roberto Mancini's men with only the Europa League left to target.
City are stuck on three points from five games, knowing they must win their last fixture at Dortmund to avoid total elimination from Europe.
It took ten minutes for Benzema to expose Mancini's decision to play Maicon as a wing-back, drifting behind the Brazilian to meet a searching Angel Di Maria cross for 1-0. Maicon then twice failed to stop Cristiano Ronaldo deliveries from the left, but Sami Khedira shot wide on both occasions.
City's embarrassing defending continued, with Ronaldo running clean through only to see his dink over Joe Hart cleared off the line. When the ball returned to the Portuguese's feet, Hart did a fine job smothering him at the second attempt.
A first effort from City did not come until the 21st minute, when Sergio Aguero forced Iker Casillas to tip over, and by contrast Khedira should have been celebrating his hat-trick when Hart dived at his feet to leave the midfielder frustrated for a third time.
Maicon, doing his best work away from his own area, toed a ball wide and David Silva danced past two defenders to set up Edin Dzeko - who sliced hopelessly off target, but City's desperation for a goal grew as Aguero and Dzeko wasted further chances the other side of the interval.
An equaliser finally arrived 15 minutes from time, with Alvaro Arbeloa sent off for bringing down Aguero inside the area, and the Argentine forward rolled home the penalty for 1-1. City pressed for a winner, but Carlos Tevez could not get his toe to their clearest opening.
Dortmund join Madrid in the knockout stages after they thumped Ajax 4-1 in Amsterdam. Goals from Marco Reus, Mario Gotze and Robert Lewandowski (2) ensured the Bundesliga outfit finish top of Group D ahead of the final game.
It took less than ten minutes for the Germans to take the lead, with Gotze drifting forward before slipping the ball to Reus, who scored his third Champions League goal on his travels this season. Gotze was enjoying a magical night, waltzing past defenders at will, and he netted the second ten minutes from the break.
There was still time for Lewandowski to bag a third before half-time, showing his opportunistic nature to capitalise on goalkeeping hesitancy, and the same man netted his second midway through the second half before Danny Hoesen's token response.
Arsenal were guaranteed qualification if they could beat Montpellier - in addition to an Olympiakos defeat at Schalke - and that exact scenario played out as the Gunners triumphed 2-0 thanks to Jack Wilshere and Lukas Podolski.
Arsene Wenger's side have reached the magical 10-point marker, viewed as the tally that usually secures qualification, and they can now focus on attempting to snatch top spot in Group B from Schalke, who are a point better off.
After a sloppy start Arsenal almost took the lead when Laurent Koscielny crashed a header against the bar. Instead they waited until early in the second period to score their 400th goal in European football, Wilshere arriving onto Olivier Giroud's nod-down to lift the ball over the advancing keeper.
Giroud then played the role of creator again as his one-two sent the ball the way of Podolski, but the German still had plenty to do as he sent a thunderous volley past Geoffrey Jourdren from the edge of the area.
Schalke stand to secure the 'easier' draw in the last-16 as they top the group with a game to play. The Bundesliga club beat Olympiakos 1-0 thanks to Christian Fuchs' 77th-minute winner, meaning the Greeks will drop into the Europa League.
Elsewhere, Group C has been won by Malaga, who remain unbeaten in five matches following a 2-2 draw with Zenit St Petersburg. The Spaniards now cannot be overtaken and have a better head-to-head record against AC Milan.
Strikes from Diego Buonanote and Sebastian Fernandez had Malaga ahead inside ten minutes in Russia. Danny responded four minutes after half-time for Zenit before Viktor Fayzulin equalised three minutes from the end.
AC Milan join Malaga in the knockout rounds after they won a potentially tricky away encounter at Anderlecht 3-1. Anderlecht and Zenit will now fight for the Europa League spot.
Stephan El Shaarawy was the man to break the deadlock two minutes into the second period, showing deft control at the far post to score against the run of play. Anderlecht then lost Bram Nuytinck to a red card, and from the resulting free-kick Philippe Mexes scored a wonder goal with an overhead kick for the Italians, before Alexandre Pato made things safe after Tom De Sutter's brief reply.
In Group A, Porto remain set to qualify top after they beat Dinamo Zagreb 3-0. Lucho Gonzalez, Joao Moutinho and Silvestre Varela scored the Porto goals.
And Paris St Germain confirmed their place in the last-16 with a 2-0 win at Dynamo Kiev. Ezequiel Lavezzi opened the scoring with a delicate dink from Zlatan Ibrahimovic's pass, and then added another in the 52nd minute.


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Picture: Toby Keith at the 2012 Nightclub & Bar Convention and Trade Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Las Vegas, Nevada - 13.03.12
Country singer Toby Keith's daughter Krystal is joining her famous father on his upcoming tour as an opening act.
The Beer For My Horses hitmaker is making his Shut Up and Hold On tour a family affair when it kicks off in May (14) after enlisting his 28-year-old daughter to serve as a supporting act.
Krystal's first full length album, Whiskey & Lace, was released last year (13) and she's eager to prove that she can make a name for herself, even without the help of her superstar father.
She tells country music site The Boot, "I have been singing since I was little bitty (small), and then doing competitions. Anytime I was in the circle of my dad, people always knew me as Krystal Keith. I had a small following that saw me grow up and sing in our local Opry (country music venue).
"There are going to be those people that don't listen to the Ep or album, and just decide things based on my name, but if they're willing to listen to the music with an open mind, I think my music will stand on its own."


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Natural Mudcloth Pillow
Natural Mudcloth Pillow
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Size: 10x22
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Repeat+World's product line is inspired by our passion for elevated design. Attention to detail results in unique and luxurious pieces that are adaptable to all design genres.
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**Each pillow is handmade with unique vintage textiles. Variations in color and patterns in textiles is normal.


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Pentagon Mansfield - 01623 549 076
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This Nissan NV200 Van, registration DV15OOF has a 1.5 Diesel engine with a Manual gearbox. Finished in the colour White, it was first registered on 30th Mar 2015. In testing the NV200 Van achieved a fuel consumption figure of 57.7 mpg (combined) and CO2 emissions of 128 g/km.
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