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Source: http://www.facebook.com/hardwarezone.com.sg/posts/10153157697285371
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Thursday, August 29, 2013
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Sweet Baby Abby | Babies | The Pretty Blog
Little?Abby Barker?s parents, Rachel and Larry, says everyone who meets their ?little?ray of sunshine? falls in love with her. And it?s not just the proud parents?who think so. We also couldn?t resist these happy photos of the young family. Abby?is just the most cheerful and gorgeous girl. Crystal Stokes met up with the?Bakers at their home in Charlotte, South Carolina, to capture their everyday?life with their young daughter.
Source: http://www.theprettyblog.com/family-and-kids/sweet-baby-abby/
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Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Vintage Burning Man Photos Provide Rare Glimpse Into The Birth Of A Counterculture
It's hard to believe that Burning Man's early years involved little more than a handful of hippies dancing around a seaside San Francisco bonfire.
Since its humble beginnings in 1986, the festival has swelled into an international phenomenon, drawing more than 60,000 individuals to the remote Nevada desert each August and spawning a subculture that permeates year round.
This collection of photos, provided exclusively to The Huffington Post, reveals a simpler side of The Burn, with founder Larry Harvey and his cohorts setting the scene first on SF's Baker Beach, and a few years later, in Nevada's pop-up paradise of Black Rock City.
Behold, a rare glimpse inside the origins of what is now a worldwide way of life:
Baker Beach Arrival, 1989.
Raising the Man, Baker Beach, 1989.
Assembling the Man, Baker Beach, 1989.
Loading Seven Sections on Seven Pickups, 1989.
Drummer, Black Rock Pre-Burn, 1990.
Black Rock Pioneer Burners, 1990.
Larry and Crimson Rose, Pre-Burn, 1998.
BONUS: The story of the playa is now a major motion picture! "Spark: A Burning Man Story" opened August 16, 2013. For more information on the film, available on VOD, check out showtimes and locations here.
Earlier on HuffPost:
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/19/vintage-burning-man-photos_n_3770030.html
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Monday, August 5, 2013
10 Tips For Raising Resilient Kids | Psych Central
While adulthood is filled with serious responsibilities, childhood isn?t exactly stress-free. Kids take tests, learn new information, change schools, change neighborhoods, get sick, get braces, encounter bullies, make new friends and occasionally get hurt by those friends.
What helps kids in navigating these kinds of challenges is resilience. Resilient kids are problem solvers. They face unfamiliar or tough situations and strive to find good solutions.
?When they step into a situation, [resilient kids] have a sense they can figure out what they need to do and can handle what is thrown at them with a sense of confidence,? said Lynn Lyons, LICSW, a psychotherapist who specializes in treating anxious families and co-author of the book Anxious Kids, Anxious Parents: 7 Ways to Stop the Worry Cycle and Raise Courageous and Independent Children with anxiety expert Reid Wilson, Ph.D.
This doesn?t mean that kids have to do everything on their own, she said. Rather, they know how to ask for help and are able to problem-solve their next steps.
Resilience isn?t birthright. It can be taught. Lyons encouraged parents to equip their kids with the skills to handle the unexpected, which actually contrasts our cultural approach.
?We have become a culture of trying to make sure our kids are comfortable. We as parents are trying to stay one step ahead of everything our kids are going to run into.? The problem? ?Life doesn?t work that way.?
Anxious people have an especially hard time helping their kids tolerate uncertainty, simply because they have a hard time tolerating it themselves. ?The idea of putting your child through the same pain that you went through is intolerable,? Lyons said. So anxious parents try to protect their kids and shield them from worst-case scenarios.
However, a parent?s job isn?t to be there all the time for their kids, she said. It?s to teach them to handle uncertainty and to problem-solve. Below, Lyons shared her valuable suggestions for raising resilient kids.
1. Don?t accommodate every need.
According to Lyons, ?whenever we try to provide certainty and comfort, we are getting in the way of children being able to develop their own problem-solving and mastery.? (Overprotecting kids only fuels their anxiety.)
She gave a ?dramatic but not uncommon example.? A child gets out of school at 3:15. But they worry about their parent picking them up on time. So the parent arrives an hour earlier and parks by their child?s classroom so they can see the parent is there.
In another example, parents let their 7-year-old sleep on a mattress on the floor in their bedroom because they?re too uncomfortable to sleep in their own room.
2. Avoid eliminating all risk.
Naturally, parents want to keep their kids safe. But eliminating all risk robs kids of learning resiliency. In one family Lyons knows, the kids aren?t allowed to eat when the parents are not home, because there?s a risk they might choke on their food. (If the kids are old enough to stay home alone, they?re old enough to eat, she said.)
The key is to allow appropriate risks and teach your kids essential skills. ?Start young. The child who?s going to get his driver?s license is going to have started when he?s 5 [years old] learning how to ride his bike and look both ways [slow down and pay attention].?
Giving kids age-appropriate freedom helps them learn their own limits, she said.
3. Teach them to problem-solve.
Let?s say your child wants to go to sleep-away camp, but they?re nervous about being away from home. An anxious parent, Lyons said, might say, ?Well, then there?s no reason for you to go.?
But a better approach is to normalize your child?s nervousness, and help them figure out how to navigate being homesick. So you might ask your child how they can practice getting used to being away from home.
When Lyons?s son was anxious about his first final exam, they brainstormed strategies, including how he?d manage his time and schedule in order to study for the exam.
In other words, engage your child in figuring out how they can handle challenges. Give them the opportunity, over and over, ?to figure out what works and what doesn?t.?
4. Teach your kids concrete skills.
When Lyons works with kids, she focuses on the specific skills they?ll need to learn in order to handle certain situations. She asks herself, ?Where are we going with this [situation]? What skill do they need to get there?? For instance, she might teach a shy child how to greet someone and start a conversation.
5. Avoid ?why? questions.
?Why? questions aren?t helpful in promoting problem-solving. If your child left their bike in the rain, and you ask ?why?? ?what will they say? I was careless. I?m an 8-year-old,? Lyons said.
Ask ?how? questions instead. ?You left your bike out in the rain, and your chain rusted. How will you fix that?? For instance, they might go online to see how to fix the chain or contribute money to a new chain, she said.
Lyons uses ?how? questions to teach her clients different skills. ?How do you get yourself out of bed when it?s warm and cozy? How do you handle the noisy boys on the bus that bug you??
6. Don?t provide all the answers.
Rather than providing your kids with every answer, start using the phrase ?I don?t know,? ?followed by promoting problem-solving,? Lyons said. Using this phrase helps kids learn to tolerate uncertainty and think about ways to deal with potential challenges.
Also, starting with small situations when they?re young helps prepare kids to handle bigger trials. They won?t like it, but they?ll get used to it, she said.
For instance, if your child asks if they?re getting a shot at the doctor?s office, instead of placating them, say, ?I don?t know. You might be due for a shot. Let?s figure out how you?re doing to get through it.?
Similarly, if your child asks, ?Am I going to get sick today?? instead of saying, ?No, you won?t,? respond with, ?You might, so how might you handle that??
If your child worries they?ll hate their college, instead of saying, ?You?ll love it,? you might explain that some freshmen don?t like their school, and help them figure out what to do if they feel the same way, she said.
7. Avoid talking in catastrophic terms.
Pay attention to what you say to your kids and around them. Anxious parents, in particular, tend to ?talk very catastrophically around their children,? Lyons said. For instance, instead of saying ?It?s really important for you to learn how to swim,? they say, ?It?s really important for you to learn how to swim because it?d be devastating to me if you drowned.?
8. Let your kids make mistakes.
?Failure is not the end of the world. [It?s the] place you get to when you figure out what to do next,? Lyons said. Letting kids mess up is tough and painful for parents. But it helps kids learn how to fix slip-ups and make better decisions next time.
According to Lyons, if a child has an assignment, anxious or overprotective parents typically want to make sure the project is perfect, even if their child has no interest in doing it in the first place. But let your kids see the consequences of their actions.
Similarly, if your child doesn?t want to go to football practice, let them stay home, Lyons said. Next time they?ll sit on the bench and probably feel uncomfortable.
9. Help them manage their emotions.
Emotional management is key in resilience. Teach your kids that all emotions are OK, Lyons said. It?s OK to feel angry that you lost the game or someone else finished your ice cream. Also, teach them that after feeling their feelings, they need to think through what they?re doing next, she said.
?Kids learn very quickly which powerful emotions get them what they want. Parents have to learn how to ride the emotions, too.? You might tell your child, ?I understand that you feel that way. I?d feel the same way if I were in your shoes, but now you have to figure out what the appropriate next step is.?
If your child throws a tantrum, she said, be clear about what behavior is appropriate (and inappropriate). You might say, ?I?m sorry we?re not going to get ice cream, but this behavior is unacceptable.?
10. Model resiliency.
Of course, kids also learn from observing their parents? behavior. Try to be calm and consistent, Lyons said. ?You cannot say to a child you want them to control their emotions, while you yourself are flipping out.?
?Parenting takes a lot of practice and we all screw up.? When you do make a mistake, admit it. ?I really screwed up. I?m sorry I handled that poorly. Let?s talk about a different way to handle that in the future,? Lyons said.
Resiliency helps kids navigate the inevitable trials, triumphs and tribulations of childhood and adolescence. Resilient kids also become resilient adults, able to survive and thrive in the face of life?s unavoidable stressors.
?
Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S. is an Associate Editor at Psych Central and blogs regularly about eating and self-image issues on her own blog, Weightless. APA Reference
Tartakovsky, M. (2013). 10 Tips For Raising Resilient Kids. Psych Central. Retrieved on August 6, 2013, from http://psychcentral.com/lib/10-tips-for-raising-resilient-kids/00017272
????Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 25 Jul 2013
????Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.
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Source: http://psychcentral.com/lib/10-tips-for-raising-resilient-kids/00017272
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Elite can?t rescue the Bank of Israel governor
Jacob Frenkel and Leo Leiderman could be elected to the next Knesset on the roster of Yesh Atid, if that party (whose name means ?There Is a Future?) still has a future by then. Hong Kong and Deutsche Bank will not bother them; they will seek the public?s trust, because according to the Israeli system, trust is wholesale, not retail ? we buy the whole package. All that...
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Paul Ryan: Government Shutdown Strategy Is 'Swinging For The Fences' On Obamacare
Healthcare In America Is Already 'The Best In The World'
One of the more positive sounding admonitions from health care reform opponents was that the United States had "the best health care in the world," so why would you mess with it? Well, it's true that if you want the experience the pinnacle of medical care, you come to the United States. And if you want the pinnacle of haute cuisine, you go to Per Se. If you want the pinnacle of commercial air travel, you get a first class seat on British Airways. Now, naturally, you wouldn't let just anyone mess with someone's tasting menu or state-of-the-art air-beds. But like anything that's "the best," the best health care in the world isn't for everybody. The costs are prohibitively high, the access is prohibitively exclusive, and the resources are prohibitively scarce. What do the people in America who "fly coach" in the health care system get? Well, at the time of the health care reform debate, they were participating in a system that was, by all objective measurements, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/24/us-health-care-expensive_n_624248.html">overpriced and underperforming</a> -- if you were lucky enough to be participating in it. As anyone who's fortunate enough to have employer based health care or unfortunate enough to have a pre-existing condition can tell you, health care for ordinary people already involved all of those things that we were told would be a feature of the Affordable Care Act -- long waits, limited choice, and rationing. When the <a href="http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Content/Publications/Fund-Reports/2010/Jun/Mirror-Mirror-Update.aspx">Commonwealth Fund rated health care systems by nation</a>, the top marks in the surveyed categories went to the United Kingdom, New Zealand and the Netherlands. Ezra Klein examined the study, and <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/06/us_health-care_system_still_ba.html">observed</a>: "The issue isn't just that we don't have universal health care. Our delivery system underperforms, too. 'Even when access and equity measures are not considered, the U.S. ranks behind most of the other countries on most measures. With the inclusion of primary care physician survey data in the analysis, it is apparent that the U.S. is lagging in adoption of national policies that promote primary care, quality improvement, and information technology.'"
Death Panels
The only thing that perhaps matched the vastness of the spread or the depth of the traction of the "death panel" lie was the predictability that such a lie would come to be told in the first place. After all, this was a Democratic president trying to sell a new health care reform plan with the intention of opening access and reducing cost to millions of Americans who had gone without for so long. What's the best way to counter it? Tell everyone that millions of Americans would have increased access ... <i>to Death!</i> The best account of how the "death panel" myth was born into this world and spread like garbage across the landscape has been penned by Brendan Nyhan, who in 2010 wrote "Why the "Death Panel" Myth Wouldn't Die: Misinformation in the Health Care Reform Debate." <a href="http://www.dartmouth.edu/~nyhan/health-care-misinformation.pdf">You should go read the whole thing</a>. But to summarize, the lie began where many lies about health care reform begin -- with serial liar Betsy McCaughey, who in 1994 <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/07/andrew-sullivans-mccaughe_n_313157.html">polluted the pages of the New Republic</a> with a staggering pile of deception in an effort to scuttle President Bill Clinton's health care reform. As Nyhan documents, she re-emerged in 2009 when "she invented the false claim that the health care legislation in Congress would result in seniors being directed to 'end their life sooner.'" Nyhan: "McCaughey's statement was a reference to a provision in the Democratic health care bill that would have provided funding for an advanced care planning for Medicare recipients once every five years or more frequently if they become seriously ill. As independent fact-checkers showed (PolitiFact.com 2009b; FactCheck.org 2009a), her statement that these consultations would be mandatory was simply false--they would be entirely voluntary. Similarly, there is no evidence that Medicare patients would be pressured during these consultations to "do what's in society's best interest...and cut your life short." But the match that lit the death panel flame was not McCaughey, it was Sarah Palin, who repeated McCaughey's claims in a Facebook posting and invented the term "death panel." As Nyhan reports, Palin's claims were met with condemnation from independent observers and factcheckers, but the virality of the term "death panel" far outstripped its own debunking. To this day, the shorthand for this outrageous falsehood remains more firmly planted in the discourse than the truth. One thing worth pointing out is that Palin, in creating the term "death panel," <i>intended</i> to deceive people with it. In an interview with the <em>National Review</em>, <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/228636/rogue-record/rich-lowry">Palin admitted</a>: "The term I used to describe the panel making these decisions should not be taken literally." Rather, it was "a lot like when President Reagan used to refer to the Soviet Union as the 'evil empire.' He got his point across." Of course, while Reagan was exaggerating for effect, he wasn't trying to prey on the goodwill of those who were listening to him.
The Affordable Care Act Is A "Jobs-Killer"
Naturally, the GOP greeted anything that the Obama White House did -- from regulating pollution to flossing after meals -- as something that would "kill jobs." The Affordable Care Act was no different. As you might recall, Republicans' first attempt at repeal came in the form of an inartfully named law called the "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act." But did the health reform plan threaten jobs? Not by any honest measure. <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/01/17/106950/is-health-care-law-really-a-job.html">Per McClatchy Newspapers</a>: <blockquote>"The claim has no justification," said Micah Weinberg, a senior research fellow at the centrist New America Foundation's Health Policy Program. Since the law contains dual mandates that most individuals must obtain health insurance coverage and most employers must offer it by 2014, "the effect on employment is probably zero or close to it," said Amitabh Chandra, a professor of public policy at Harvard University.</blockquote> As McClatchy reported, the "job-killing" claim creatively used the "lie of omission" -- relying on "out of date" data or omitting "offsetting information that would weaken the argument." The Congressional Budget Office, playing it straight, deemed it essentially too premature to measure what the effect the bill would have on the labor market. At the time, Speaker John Boehner dismissed the CBO, saying, "CBO is entitled to their opinion." Perhaps, but lately, job growth in the health care industry has <a href="https://www.advisory.com/Daily-Briefing/2012/03/07/Jobs-report-preview" target="_hplink">bucked the economic downturn and health care has remained a robust sector of employment</a>. And it stands to reason that enrolling another 30 million Americans into health insurance will increase the demand for health care services and products, which in turn should trigger the creation of more jobs. Is there a downside? Sure. More demand, and greater labor costs, could push health care prices upward even as other effects of health reform push them down. But it's more likely that repealing the bill will have a negative impact on jobs than retaining it.
The Affordable Care Act Would Add To The Deficit
The only thing more important than painting the Affordable Care Act as a certain killer of jobs was to paint it as a certain murderer of America's fiscal future. Surely this big government program was going to push indebtedness to such a height that our servitude to our future Chinese overlords was a <i>fait accompli</i>. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/18/cbo-score-on-health-care_n_502543.html">As Ryan Grim reported in May of 2010</a>, the CBO disagreed: <blockquote>Comprehensive health care reform will cost the federal government $940 billion over a ten-year period, but will increase revenue and cut other costs by a greater amount, leading to a reduction of $138 billion in the federal deficit over the same period, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, a Democratic source tells HuffPost. It will cut the deficit by $1.2 trillion over the second ten year period. The source said it also extends Medicare's solvency by at least nine years and reduces the rate of its growth by 1.4 percent, while closing the doughnut hole for seniors, meaning there will no longer be a gap in coverage of medication.</blockquote> Recently, the CBO updated its ten-year estimate by dropping off the first two years of the law (where there was little to no implementation) and adding two years at the back end (during which time there would be full implementation). As you might imagine, replacing two years of low numbers with two years of higher numbers increased the ten-year estimate. But opponents of the bill immediately freaked out and declared the costs to have skyrocketed. <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/03/obamacare-haters-angered-by-facts.html">As Jonathan Chait reported</a>: <blockquote>The outcry was so widespread that the CBO took the unusual step of releasing a second update to explain to outraged conservatives that they were completely misreading the whole thing: "Some of the commentary on those reports has suggested that CBO and JCT have changed their estimates of the effects of the ACA to a significant degree. That's not our perspective. ... Although the latest projections extend the original ones by three years (corresponding to the shift in the regular ten-year projection period since the ACA was first being developed), the projections for each given year have changed little, on net, since March 2010." That is CBO-speak for: "Go home. You people are all crazy."</blockquote> As Chait goes on to note, the CBO now projects that "the law would reduce the deficit by slightly more than it had originally forecast."
The Affordable Care Act $500 Billion Cut From Medicare
Normally, if you tell Republicans that you're going to cut $500 billion from Medicare, they will respond by saying, "Hooray, but could we make it <i>$700 billion</i>?" But the moment they got it into their heads that the Affordable Care Act would make that cut from Medicare, suddenly everyone from the party of ending Medicare As We Know It, Forever got all hot with concern about what would happen to these longstanding recipients of government health care. In fairness, <a href="http://www.factcheck.org/2010/03/a-final-weekend-of-whoppers/">as Factcheck pointed out</a>, the GOP opponents of Obama's plan were simply picking up a cudgel that had recently been wielded by the president himself: <blockquote>Whether these are "cuts" or much-needed "savings" depends on the political expedience of the moment, it seems. When Republican Sen. John McCain, then a presidential candidate, proposed similar reductions to pay for his health care plan, it was the Obama camp that attacked the Republican for cutting benefits.</blockquote> <a href="http://www.factcheck.org/2010/03/a-final-weekend-of-whoppers/">Nevertheless</a>! <blockquote>Whatever you want to call them, it's a $500 billion reduction in the growth of future spending over 10 years, not a slashing of the current Medicare budget or benefits. It's true that those who get their coverage through Medicare Advantage's private plans (about 22 percent of Medicare enrollees) would see fewer add-on benefits; the bill aims to reduce the heftier payments made by the government to Medicare Advantage plans, compared with regular fee-for-service Medicare.</blockquote> The <i>New England Journal of Medicine</i> <a href="http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMp1005588">concurred</a>: <blockquote>A phased elimination of the substantial overpayments to Medicare Advantage plans, which now enroll nearly 25% of Medicare beneficiaries, will produce an estimated $132 billion in savings over 10 years. [...] The ACA also produces nearly $200 billion in savings by assuming that providers can improve their productivity as firms in other industries have done. On the basis of this presumed improvement, the law reduces Medicare's annual "market basket" updates for most types of providers - a provision that has generated controversy.</blockquote> The law doesn't cut any customer benefits, just the amount that providers get paid. Hospitals and drug companies agreed to these cuts based on the calculation that more people with insurance meant more people consuming what they sell and, more importantly for the hospitals, fewer people getting treated and simply not paying for it.
The Affordable Care Act Provides Free Health Care For Undocumented Immigrants
This lie was launched to prominence with the help of a false accuser, South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson, who famously heckled President Barack Obama during an address to a Joint Session of Congress by yelling "You lie!" after the president had mentioned that undocumented immigrants would not be eligible for the credits for the bill's proposed health care exchanges. As Time's Michael Scherer pointed out, this was not much of a challenge for factcheckers: <blockquote>In the Senate Finance Committee's working framework for a health plan, which Obama's speech seemed most to mimic, there is the line, "No illegal immigrants will benefit from the health care tax credits." Similarly, the major health-care-reform bill to pass out of committee in the House, H.R. 3200, contains Section 246, which is called "NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS."</blockquote> In fact, <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/04/why_immigrants_get_short_shrif.html">as Ezra Klein pointed out</a>, the Affordable Care Act "goes out of its way to exclude" undocumented immigrants: <blockquote>As the AP points out...there are about 7 million unauthorized immigrants who will be prohibited from buying insurance on the newly created exchanges, even if they pay out of their own pocket. And the exclusion of this group from health reform -- along with other restrictions that affect fully legal immigrants as well -- could create a massive coverage gap that puts a strain on the rest of the health system as well.</blockquote> Klein goes on to add that "immigrants-rights advocates tried to prevent this scenario from happening," but they ended up losing to the politics of the day. The concession they won was a promise from the president that he would shepherd a comprehensive immigration reform package through the legislature. They lost that round, too.
Republicans, And Their Ideas, Were Left Out Of The Bill And The Process
Were health care policies dear to Republicans left out of the health care reform bill? Totally! <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/health/2009/10/29/171026/top-10-reasons-why-republicans-should-support-the-house-health-bill/">Unless we're counting the following</a>: --Deficit-neutral bill --Longterm cost reduction --Interstate competition that allows consumers to purchase insurance across state lines --Medical malpractice reform --High-risk pools --An extension of the time young people were allowed to remain on their parents' policies --No public money for abortion --Small business exemptions/tax credits --Job wellness programs --Delivery system reform In fact, the Democrats were eager to get GOP input and enthusiastic about including many of their desired components in the bill. Oh, and did we mention that the Affordable Care Act was modeled on a reform designed and implemented by a former Republican governor and presidential candidate, whose innovation was widely celebrated by the GOP while said former governor was running for president? And did we mention that the individual mandate that was used in Romneycare to ensure "no free riders" was originally dreamed up by the Heritage Foundation? And did we add that additional DNA of the Affordable Care Act was borrowed from the Senate GOP alternative to the Clinton plan in the 1990s and the <a href="http://www.bipartisanpolicy.org/news/press-releases/2009/08/bipartisan-policy-center-releases-report-improving-health-care-quality-a" target="_hplink">2009 Bipartisan Policy Committee plan</a>, which was endorsed by Tom Daschle, Howard Baker, and Bob Dole? As for the process, you might recall that the White House very patiently waited for the bipartisan Gang Of Six to weigh in with its own solution, and openly courted one Republican gang member, Sen. Chuck Grassley, long after it was clear to every reporter inside the Beltway that Grassley was intentionally acting in bad faith. And perhaps you don't recall the bipartisan health care summit that was held in March of 2009? if so, don't feel bad about it -- RNC Chairman Michael Steele couldn't remember it either, <a href="http://politicalcorrection.org/blog/201002250005">when he yelled at the president for not having one</a>.
The Demonization Of 'Deem And Pass'
So, here's a fun little story about obscure parliamentary procedures. In May of 2010, as the health care reform michegas was steaming toward its endgame, it looked like the measure might fall. The Senate had passed a bill, but the House was stuck in a bit of a jam. It had no other choice but to take a vote on the Senate's bill, because if the House bill ended up in a conference committee to be reconciled with the Senate's, the whole resulting she-bang was assured of a filibuster, as the Democrats had, in the intervening period, lost their Senate supermajority. But the House had a problem. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/16/health-care-opponents-dem_n_501353.html">As I wrote at the time</a>: <blockquote>House members are averse to doing anything that looks like they approve of the various side-deals that were made in the Senate -- like the so-called "Cornhusker Kickback." The House intends to remove those unpopular features in budget reconciliation, but if they pursue budget reconciliation on a standard legislative timeline -- where they pass the Senate bill outright first and then go back to pass a reconciliation package of fixes -- they'd still appear to be endorsing the sketchy side deals, and then the GOP would jump up and down on their heads. Enter "deem and pass." Under this process, the House will simply skip to approving the reconciliation fixes, and "deem" the Senate bill to be passed. By doing it this way, the Democrats get the Senate bill passed while simultaneously coming out against the unpopular features of the same.</blockquote> "Deem and pass" is the aforementioned obscure parliamentary procedure. And here's the thing about obscure parliamentary procedures -- everyone <i>loves</i> them when their side is doing them, but when they're being <i>done to you</i>, then they are basically evil schemes from the blasted plains of Hell. So if you're guessing that the Republicans declared the Democrats' use of "deem and pass" -- which also carried the moniker "the Slaughter Rule," after Rep. Louise Slaughter, who proposed its use in this instance -- to be a monstrous and unprecedented abuse of power, then give yourself a prize! And give yourself a bonus if you guessed that in reality, the GOP had used "deem and pass" <i>lots of times</i>. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/16/house-has-long-history-of_n_500623.html">As Ryan Grim reported</a>, "deeming resolutions" had been in use dating back to 1933, and in 2005 and 2006, Republicans employed them 36 times. Other Republicans complained that Slaughter was supporting a tactic that she once vigorously opposed. <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/03/the_arms_race_of_rules.html">That's true</a>! She fought the "deem and pass" during the Bush administration and lost. Which is precisely when she learned how effective it could be!
The Affordable Care Act Would Create A Mad Army of IRS Agents
Lots of people wouldn't mind having better access to more affordable health care. But what if it came with thousands of IRS agents, picking through your stool sample? That sounds pretty bad. It also sounds pretty implausible! But that was no impediment to multiple health care reform opponents making claims that the tax man was COMMINAGETCHA! In this case, the individual mandate -- which requires people to purchase insurance or incur a tax penalty -- provided the fertile soil for this deception to spread. A March 2010 floor speech from a panicked Sen. John Ensign was typical of the genre: <blockquote>My amendment goes to the heart of one of the problems with this bill. There is an individual mandate that puts fines on people that can also attach civil penalties. And 16,500 new IRS agents are going to be required to be hired because of the health care reform bill.</blockquote> March of 2010 was a pretty great time for this particular lie. In one five day period, Ensign was joined by Reps. Paul Ryan ("There is an individual mandate. It mandates individuals purchase government-approved health insurance or face a fine to be collected by the IRS which will need $10 billion additional and 16,500 new IRS agents to police and enforce this mandate."), Pete Sessions ("16,000 new IRS agents will be hired simply to make sure that this health care bill is enforced.") and Cliff Stearns ("There is $10 billion to hire about 16,000 new IRS agents to enforce the individual mandate on every American"). All wrong! <a href="http://factcheck.org/2010/03/irs-expansion/">Per Factcheck</a>: <blockquote>This wildly inaccurate claim started as an inflated, partisan assertion that 16,500 new IRS employees might be required to administer the new law. That devolved quickly into a claim, made by some Republican lawmakers, that 16,500 IRS "agents" would be required. Republican Rep. Ron Paul of Texas even claimed in a televised interview that all 16,500 would be carrying guns. None of those claims is true. The IRS' main job under the new law isn't to enforce penalties. Its first task is to inform many small-business owners of a new tax credit that the new law grants them -- starting this year -- which will pay up to 35 percent of the employer's contribution toward their workers' health insurance. And in 2014 the IRS will also be administering additional subsidies -- in the form of refundable tax credits -- to help millions of low- and middle-income individuals buy health insurance. The law does make individuals subject to a tax, starting in 2014, if they fail to obtain health insurance coverage. But IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman testified before a hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee March 25 that the IRS won't be auditing individuals to certify that they have obtained health insurance.</blockquote> As Factcheck goes on to note, <a href="http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-111hr3590enr/pdf/BILLS-111hr3590enr.pdf">on page 131 of the bill that was passed</a>, the IRS is explicitly prohibited from "from using the liens and levies commonly used to collect money owed by delinquent taxpayers, and rules out any criminal penalties for individuals who refuse to pay the tax or those who don't obtain coverage."
Affordable Care Act Bill Is Way Too Long And Impossible To Read!
Oh, Congresscritters, the poor dears! So many bills to read and so little time -- between raising campaign cash at lush fundraisers and receiving marching orders from powerful corporate interests -- to actually read them all. <a href="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_08/019629.php">And this Affordable Care Act was a real humdinger of a long bill</a>. And long bills are bad because length implies complication and complication requires study and study implies some form of "work." So the proper thing to do is to mulch the entire print run of the bill and use it to power the boiler that heats the "sex dungeon" in the Longworth Office Building, the end! Actually, reading the bill is not that hard, despite the complaints. As the folks at <a href="http://computationallegalstudies.com/2009/11/08/facts-about-the-length-of-h-r-3962/">Computational Legal Studies were able to divine</a>: <blockquote>Those versed in the typesetting practices of the United States Congress know that the printed version of a bill contains a significant amount of whitespace including non-trivial space between lines, large headers and margins, an embedded table of contents, and large font. For example, consider page 12 of the printed version of H.R. 3962. This page contains fewer than 150 substantive words. We believe a simple page count vastly overstates the actual length of bill. Rather than use page counts, we counted the number of words contained in the bill and compared these counts to the number of words in the existing United States Code. In addition, we consider the number of text blocks in the bill -- where a text block is a unit of text under a section, subsection, clause, or sub-clause.</blockquote> <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/09/house-health-care-bill-ac_n_350810.html">As HuffPost noted in March of 2010</a>, "the total number of words in the House Health Reform Bill are 363,086," and when you throw out the words in the titles and tables of contents and whatnot, leaving only words that "impact substantive law," the word count drops to 234,812. "Harry Potter And the Order Of The Phoenix," a popular book read by small children, is 257,000 words long. (Although in fairness to Congress, the Affordable Care Act contains very few exciting accounts of Quidditch matches.)
The 2012ers Join The Fun
We couldn't have a list of Affordable Care Act distortions without noting the ways some of your 2012ers have added to the canon. Herman Cain said that if the ACA had been implemented, <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/politics-elections/177511-video-cain-if-obamacare-had-been-implemented-already-id-be-dead-">he'd be dead</a>. Not likely! The new law expands coverage so that uninsured individuals who face what Cain faced (cancer) have a better chance of getting coverage, and it restricts insurers from tossing cancer patients off the rolls based on their "pre-existing condition." But more to the point, Cain would have always been the wealthy guy who could afford to choose his doctor and pick the care he wanted. The Affordable Care Act doesn't prohibit wealthy people from spending money. Rick Santorum says that his daughter, who is diagnosed with a genetic disorder called trisomy 18 and who required special needs care, <a href="http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2011/04/25/santorum-more-disabled-people-will-be-denied-care-under-obamacare/">would be "denied care" under the Affordable Care Act</a>. Nope! Again, the law restricts insurers from throwing people with pre-existing conditions off their rolls. And for individuals under 19, that went into effect in September of 2010. Michele Bachmann believes that the Affordable Care Act would open "sex clinics" in public schools. This is Michele Bachmann we're talking about. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/01/bachmann-sex-clinics-will_n_306292.html">Do you even need to ask</a>? And finally, Mitt Romney has said, as recently as March 5, that he never intended his CommonwealthCare reform to serve as a "model for the nation." "Very early on," he insisted, "we were asked -- is what you've done in Massachusetts something you would have the entire government do, the federal government do? I said no, from the very beginning." Unless "very early on" and "from the very beginning" mean something different from the conventional definition of those phrases, <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/03/05/438044/romney-mandate-model-video/">Romney should augment his daily pharmaceutical intake with some memory-enhancing gingko biloba</a>.
So Many More To Choose From!
Obviously, we did what we could to include as many of these lies and distortions as possible, but there's no way to include them all. If you're a completist, however, be sure to check out the <a href="http://www.thefrisky.com/2012-03-14/fact-or-fiction-obamacare%E2%80%99s-1-dollar-abortions/">Impossible Tale Of The One-Dollar Abortion</a>, the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/09/AR2011020905682.html">Story of the State-Based Inflexibility That Wasn't</a>, <a href="http://politicalcorrection.org/factcheck/201101210006">The Curious Case of the Politically Connected Waivers</a> and <a href="http://www.minnpost.com/dc-dispatches/2011/03/michele-bachmanns-health-care-cover-charges-hard-fathom">Nancy Drew And The Hidden $105 Billion Expenditure</a>.
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/04/paul-ryan-government-shutdown_n_3704568.html
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Sunday, August 4, 2013
Coach Doug Diel a hero for local youth sports
ARLINGTON ? Maintaining a strong youth sports culture in a single community requires volunteer efforts from dozens of local sports fanatics, who rarely receive recognition for their behind-the-scenes efforts. One such man is Doug Diel, who has been involved in youth sports in Arlington for almost 20 years.
?I grew up here and even played sports from fifth grade up until my freshman year,? said Diel. ?I quit playing in high school and went to work.?
Diel began work at a car dealership in downtown Arlington. Years later, he met his wife Michelle, and began to coach her sons in baseball.
?In 1996, I started coaching some of my friends? kids and got really serious when my stepson Devin was in second grade. He is 16 now,? said Diel. ?I coached Little League with Devin?s team at Stilly Valley, starting from T-ball, and then coached all the way up through two years ago.?
He also coached T-ball at the Arlington Boys & Girls Club, and has coached his son Dane, 13, in basketball at Arlington AAU since he was 4 years old.
Baseball and basketball aren?t the only sports that Diel is involved with ? he also coaches football.
?I?ve coached tackle football for Arlington since 2006, when I didn?t have a kid on the team and these guys were peewees. I coached all the way up to now,? he said. ?This year I have the Arlington Youth Football Association?s eighth-grade team.?
Bodie Williams, one of the players who has been coached by Diel since he was a little kid, is glad to have him as his football coach again.
?There are kids that weren?t playing before, that are playing now, that he is coaching,? said Williams, 13. ?It?s just because of the way he coaches. I think of Doug as a father figure and on the field he is always fun. He teaches me a lot, and since he has taught me since I was little, everything I learned, I learned from him.?
Diel?s son Dane agrees.
?He?s like one of those coaches where you can still have fun while being serious,? he said. ?He really likes to win, and like Bodie said, everything I learned is from him.?
Jaren Carey, 12, believes that Diel?s connection with his players helps them gain confidence on and off the field.
?I feel like Doug is always on the field right next to me, telling me everything I need to do right before I do it. I think that?s what makes him such a good coach and what makes us good football players.?
Michelle Diel, Doug?s wife and a volunteer supporter of local youth sports, said she is always impressed with her husband?s caring and supportive attitude toward his players.
?He loves to win, but even when they don?t you?d never know the difference,? she said. ?He loves the kids like they are his own. Sometimes after a loss you?ll see players on other teams hanging their heads, but that?s never the case with Doug?s players because he just won?t let them feel that way.?
Diel said it?s difficult to lose, but although he enjoys winning, it?s not his main reason for coaching.
?We?ve had some tough years,? he said. ?What about our last baseball season? We never won a game. I just want them to have fun and keep playing. That?s the way I?ve always thought, that sports are really important for these kids. Not that they are all troublemakers, but if they keep busy with sports, then they aren?t getting in trouble.?
Williams said that he is glad Diel comes back to coach every year because it helps the players feel like the effort is worthwhile.
?He wants us to continue our lives with the game of football, and he feels like if he doesn?t come back, why should we?? he said.
Williams, Cary and Dane Diel are going into their final year of middle school and all three are hoping to be competitive at the high school level ? in baseball, football, basketball and wrestling ? when they get there, and they want to thank Diel for helping them get a good start in athletics.
?He?s just a great coach who always helps us when we need it,? said Williams.
Although her son and his teammates will soon be growing too old for youth sports, Michelle Diel believes her husband will always be looking for some way to support the community?s athletic programs.
?Doug has a grandson who is 3 years old, so I?m sure he will want to coach him,? she said. ?I don?t see Doug hanging up his coaching hat anytime soon.?
?
Contact Arlington Times Reporter Lauren Salcedo at lsalcedo@arlingtontimes.com or 360-659-1300, Ext. 5054.Source: http://feeds.soundpublishing.com/~r/northsoundsports/~3/vyQ4WlqrX98/217779351.html
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AORN & Chamberlain College of Nursing Announce New Education Collaboration
The?Association of periOperative Registered Nurses?(AORN) and Chamberlain College of Nursing?announced a new education collaboration that provides AORN members with a special tuition rate for Chamberlain's post-licensure degree programs.
AORN is a national nonprofit membership association that represents the interests of perioperative nurses - nurses who work in the surgical suite - by providing nursing education, standards and clinical practice resources.
While the number of perioperative nurses has grown, approximately only a half of all certified perioperative nurses hold a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree or higher. Chamberlain's collaboration with AORN expands access to advanced education opportunities and improves their career mobility.
"We strive to be leaders in health care by giving perioperative nurses the resources to elevate their education so they can provide optimal care for their patients," says Susan Bakewell, MS, RN-BC, director of perioperative education for AORN. "Our collaboration with Chamberlain aligns with our vision to establish standards of excellence in the delivery of perioperative nursing care. It is a gateway for AORN nurses to meet rising education standards, advance their careers and provide superior care."
Through this opportunity, AORN members who meet Chamberlain's admission requirements can now receive a special tuition rate for the following post licensure nursing degree programs and options: RN to BSN option, RN-BSN to Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) option, MSN degree program, Doctor of Nursing Practice degree program and graduate certificate programs.
Benefits also include a waived application fee and a designated Chamberlain admissions representative who will provide enrollment assistance specifically for AORN members.
"Chamberlain is committed to offering opportunities for lifelong learning," said Dr. W. Richard Cowling, vice president of academic affairs for Chamberlain College of Nursing. "Our education collaboration with AORN will help perioperative nurses become leaders who are responsive to the continuing advances in health care."
For more information about Chamberlain's education program with AORN, visit chamberlain.edu/healthcarepartners. For more information about the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses, visit?aorn.org.
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Open Letter to Eric Burdon: Cancel Apartheid Israel Concert
Dear Eric Burdon,
It is with consternation we are aware you are booked to play Israel on August 1, 2013. We would like to inform you about the important means of resistance which has been chosen by Palestinian people to assist in their attainment of justice, rights and freedom after 65 years of oppression in the Palestinian homelands by Israel.
?
We are asking that you join the existing long list of performers of conscience and others [1] who respect the Palestinian-led global call to boycott until Israel.
?
"meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people?s inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law by:
?
1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194."[2]
?
We understand you have spent time in the Negev, where at present under the vicious Prawer Plan, ?Israel is demolishing the homes of, and expelling more than 40,000 Indigenous Palestinian Bedouin people against their will in order to "judaize" the Bedouins' homeland.[3] Surely you would support the boycott to protest this terrible act of ethnic cleansing.
?
You have been requested by Palestinians to stand against Israel's apartheid regime, which has been described as worse than that perpetrated by South Africa by several noted South African anti-apartheidists.
?
Baleka Mbete, National Chairperson of the ANC, former Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa (2008-9) and former Speaker of the National Assembly at the 2012 African National Congress (ANC) International Solidarity Conference said that she has been to Palestine herself and that the Israeli regime is not only comparable but ?far worse than Apartheid South Africa.? [4]?
'As a South African newspaper editor, Mondli Makhanya, put it in after a 2008 trip to the Middle East: "It seems to me that the Israelis would like the Palestinians to disappear. There was never anything like that in our case. The whites did not want the blacks to disappear."'[5]
?
Especially since your music forms part of rock and roll's foundations, Eric, please don't permit yourself and your important legacy to be appropriated in the service of Israel's cynical propaganda to disguise the oppression and obliteration of Palestinian people. ?Join Mira Nair, internationally-acclaimed director of Salaam Bombay!, Monsoon Wedding and Mississippi Masala, who stated just last week:
'I was just invited to Israel as a guest of honor at the Haifa International Film Festival with ?The Reluctant Fundamentalist.? I will not be going to Israel at this time. I will go to Israel when the walls come down. I will go to Israel when occupation is gone. I will go to Israel when the state does not privilege one religion over another. I will go to Israel when Apartheid is over. I will go to Israel, soon. I stand with the [Palestinian Campaign] for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and the larger Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Movement.' [6]
?
In order to set a principled example alongside many artists and academics who have cancelled their appearances after being made aware of the boycott [7], we hope you will be persuaded to support the boycott of apartheid Israel wholeheartedly, and at the least, cancel your performance, refuse to cross the picket line and compromise the struggle for freedom of Palestinian people.
?
We are a group, of over 1000 members, representing many countries around the globe, who believe that it is essential for musicians & other artists to heed the call of the PACBI, and join in the boycott of Israel. This is essential in order to work towards justice for the Palestinian people under occupation, and also in refugee camps and in the diaspora throughout the world.
?
[1] http://www.bdsmovement.net/timeline
[2] http://www.bdsmovement.net/call
[7] http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=2093
http://refrainplayingisrael.blogspot.com/2013/07/open-letter-to-eric-burdon-cancel.html
Posted on 31-07-2013
Source: http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=2231
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Saturday, August 3, 2013
Google counters Find My iPhone with Android Device Manager
You might have watched Android 4.3 running on a laptop earlier today, and now there?s more great Android news to share. Google has just announced Android Device Manager, which will allow you to locate your phone or tablet if it happens to go missing.
Think of it as Google?s take on Find my iPhone, which Apple first announced around three years ago. Others have offered up similar Android tracking tools, but this is the first to come straight out of Mountain View.
Functionality is fairly basic in this first release of ADM, but the important boxes are ticked. You can force your device to ring (handy when you?ve merely forgotten where you put it down at home), check its position on a map, or wipe it.
You can?t remotely lock your device, but if you?re concerned enough to use ADM then you really ought to be using a PIN, pattern unlock, or some form of lockscreen protection anyway.
Android Device Manager isn?t afraid of a little fragmentation, either. It?s compatible with anything running Android 2.2 or later, which means that a whopping 98.7% of Android devices can use it.
Don?t go looking for ADM in Google Play just yet. Google?s official blog post says that it will be available ?later this month.? In the meantime you?ll have to make do with a third-party app or just be extra careful not to misplace your phone.
Once you?ve got Android Device Manager installed, you?re free to leave it in the pocket of the pants you forget to wear home from your next office party. Just make sure to locate it before the battery runs out, or you might lose both your phone and your dignity.
Now read:?Man catches cheating wife using iPhone 4S and Find My Friends
Source: http://www.geek.com/android/google-counters-find-my-iphone-with-android-device-manager-1564342/
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New data leads to restated annual sales rates for U.S. auto sector
DETROIT (Reuters) - The U.S. auto industry's weaker-than-expected overall sales results for July disappeared on Friday after the federal government released updated data used to compute the annual sales rate each month.
The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) on Friday released the recalculated seasonal factors used to compute the monthly sales pace, resulting in a rate for July of 15.8 million vehicles, according to research firm Autodata. That matched analysts' expectations, rather than falling short - as it looked on Thursday when the rate was 15.67 before the recalculation.
Analysts, who had warned the BEA recalculation could shift results by several tenths of a point, had said the July sales to individual consumers, also known as retail sales, remains strong.
The recalculation, which is done annually to adjust for variations like weather and holidays, affected all figures, resulting in changes for every month.
For instance, April had been the only month this year to fall below an annual sales rate of 15 million when it initially came in at 14.92 million. The rate for April now stands at 15.19, now making October 2012 the last month to fall below 15 million.
Industry executives have said they expect sales for the U.S. auto industry to finish the year between 15 million and 15.5 million vehicles, which would be up from 14.5 million last year.
July's updated sales rate follows June's recalculated 15.88 million rate. That gives the U.S. industry two consecutive months with a strong pace of sales as it heads toward the fall, when automakers typically release new models that lure buyers into showrooms.
(Reporting by Ben Klayman)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/data-leads-restated-annual-sales-rates-u-auto-183630826.html
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London building projects stall as confidence and investment drop
Its report reveals the value of new construction orders in London has fallen by almost a quarter in just two years, with small and medium-sized firms hardest hit.?
Although a number of long-term major projects are under way, at least six commercial building schemes in the City? have been stalled or cancelled recently. They include The Pinnacle in Bishopsgate, 100 Bishopsgate, Principal Place, London Wall Place, the Can of Ham, and Trinity One. They are all office towers waiting for commercial tenants to take space before construction can begin or continue.
?The Assembly report may come as some embarrassment Mayor Boris Johnson, who often cites prominent long-term building projects such as the Shard as proof that the construction industry in London is booming.
But offices in the Shard are still unlet,? an example of confidence in the office market remaining low.
The report notes that amid a severe housing crisis, the capital has planning permission for 210,000 new homes.
But they are not being built for a variety of reasons, including a large number of sites owned by ?non-builders?, and smaller firms experiencing difficulties obtaining funding.
The Assembly?s economy committee heard that 45 per cent of sites with planning permission are owned by investors, foreign interests and the public sector.
Although about 260,000 Londoners are employed in construction, the Assembly says the industry is suffering from skills shortages.
It needs glaziers, plasterers and specialists in plasterboarding and cladding, but there is inadequate training provision in London. Proposed solutions include ?retrofitting? existing housing to bring them up to standard, and increasing the number of apprenticeships available to the sector.
Economy committee chairman Stephen Knight said: ?The construction industry is a vital part of the London economy, and it is clear public-sector investment to boost housebuilding and retrofitting could have a significant impact on boosting jobs and growth.?
7,000 shops now standing empty?
There are more than 7,000 empty shops across London, costing the economy about ?350?million a year in lost trade.
The figure is twice as bad as feared, after calculations based on business rates were released by London Councils.
It shows that while the economy as a whole is improving, the capital?s high streets are far from insulated from the downturn.
Streets Ahead, a report by the body representing London?s 33 local authorities, demanded ?radical? action to stimulate growth.
It called for powers to tackle clusters of betting shops, payday lenders and fried food outlets, which can all lead to decline.
Pippa Crerar
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Friday, August 2, 2013
Good afternoon, TV5 viewers...and HAPPY FRIDAY! Golf carts are a normal mode of...
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Source: http://www.facebook.com/WABITV5/posts/10151865783177784
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BlackBerry begins BBM beta for Android (update: official comment)
Blackberry promised us back at BBLive that we'd see BBM on Android and iOS devices before the end of the summer. Well, we've hit the dog days of August, and while most of those devices are still BBM-free, it appears a select few Androids are finally getting to beta test the app. Blackberry OS reports that email invites are rolling out now to folks registered with BlackBerry's Beta Zone to test out BBM. Other than registration, users simply need a handset running Android 4.0 and up and they'll be messaging across the great platform divide in no time. We've reached out to the good people at BlackBerry for comment on the matter, and will update this post when we hear back.
Update: We just got an official comment on the beta rollout, and it turns out the it had a limited number of slots, which have all been claimed:
BlackBerry has begun internal testing of BBM on Android and iOS devices. We invited our employees to nominate friends and family to participate in a limited Android beta. Those slots are now full. For more information, please visit www.blackberry.com/bbm.
Filed under: Mobile, Blackberry
Source: Blackberry OS
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/QjNq-aOGvWo/
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Glendora Catholic school dismisses gay Rancho Cucamonga teacher after publicized wedding
Christopher Persky, 32, left, and his partner of 10 years Ken Bencomo, 45, both of Rancho Cucamonga, tearfully embrace after getting married at the San Bernardino County Hall of Records in San Bernardino on Monday, July 1, 2013. (Rachel Luna / Staff Photographer)
A Rancho Cucamonga man who taught 17 years at a Catholic high school was fired from his job days after he married his gay partner in a San Bernardino civil ceremony.While school representatives declined comment on the matter, an attorney representing 45-year-old Ken Bencomo says he was fired because of the same-sex ceremony.
"The reason given was that the marriage occurred and the school's position was that it violated church teachings," said Chatsworth attorney Patrick McGarrigle.
Bencomo, 45, was head of the English department at St. Lucy's Priory High School in Glendora, but also worked as a yearbook moderator and dance coach.
Students say they were aware of Bencomo's sexual orientation.
"He never talked
Ken Bencomo, right, was fired from his job as a Catholic school teacher shortly after his same-sex wedding in San Bernardino. (By Rachel Luna)
about his personal life to his students, but it's something that students and faculty knew," said former student, Abigail O'Brien, 19, of Upland.McGarrigle also said the school was aware long before he got married.
"St. Lucy's has known of Mr. Bencomo's orientation for years," she said. "Administrators had been introduced to his partner in the past, so the suggestion that Ken's orientation is a surprise or that his lifestyle somehow violated doctrine is at odds with the school's knowledge and what seemed to be acceptance of him until most recently."
In an online petition protesting Bencomo's termination, supporters of the former teacher say a July 2 article in the Daily Bulletin prompted the school to dismiss him. Bencomo
and his husband, Christopher Persky, 32, of Rancho Cucamonga were one of the first gay couples to line up at the San Bernardino County Assessor-Recorder's Office to get married July 1 following a Supreme Court decision allowing same-sex marriage.He appeared in photographs and video for the story.
Sister Helen Dziuk, assistant principal at St. Lucy's, declined comment and referred inquiries to the school's attorney, Joseph Stark.
St. Lucy's officials later issued a written statement, saying the school plans to continue educating students "in the tradition of the Catholic faith."
"As a Benedictine school, St. Lucy's is a community for those who wish to express Christian values in education and develop person and academic excellence," the statement said.
Stark said an attorney representing Bencomo contacted the school on Sunday, but declined to elaborate.
"I have yet to see what his allegations are, so I can't comment," he said.
While about 2,000 people had signed the petition by Wednesday and more than 1,300 had joined a Facebook discussion group about Bencomo, not everyone felt the school's decision was wrong.
James Wellman, a former board and executive committee member for the school, said he thought Bencomo might still be teaching at St. Lucy's had he not appeared in the newspaper.
"We should not forget that Ken has been teaching at a Catholic high school. Anyone who believes that St. Lucy's operates in a totally independent fashion from the Catholic Church is gravely mistaken," he said.
The Diocese of San Bernardino said its Catholic schools prohibit discrimination against teachers or other school employees based on their lifestyle choices.
"However, if a teacher or school employee makes a public display of behavior that is counter to church teaching - such as homosexuality, sex outside of marriage, having a child outside of marriage - that can impact their employment status," said John Andrews, diocese spokesman.
School policies outlined by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles say a staff member can be counseled or disciplined if he or she engages in "behavior counter to the moral teachings and standards of the church."
Former St. Lucy's student, Brittany Littleton, said policies regarding staff at Catholic schools need to change.
"I am joined by many students and alumni in saying that we believe this is a fight for love and equality, and as such we wish to display love and kindness, even while feeling hurt and shock," the Beverly Hills woman said.
McGarrigle said Bencomo is hoping to resolve issues with the school without pursuing legal action.
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Source: http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_23767763?source=rss
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Rand Paul vs. Chris Christie
In a likely preview of the 2016 Republican presidential nominating contest, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul spent the week battling over the role of government and their vision for the country.
The debate escalated quickly and at times even got a little personal.
Here's basically how it went down, with a few liberties taken.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chris-christie-vs--rand-paul-182546972.html
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