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I love to cook, but I didn’t always like it. Like many other people, I suffered from a mild version of mageirocophobia — the fear of cooking. In my case, I was reluctant to try new recipes and felt overwhelmed by cooking when crunched for time. Familiar meals like pasta and burgers were no problem. I would page wistfully through cookbooks and watch episodes of the Food Network. There seemed to be a huge gap between wanting to cook and making it happen.
Why does it matter? Cooking can make you a more mindful eater. Restaurants are not doing our waistlines any favors. They give us huge portions and deceptively, innocent looking creations that are simply unhealthy. Cooking a dish yourself helps you know exactly what is in it — which gives you a much more accurate gauge of how healthy it is. Also, it’s difficult to mindlessly consume a dish that you’ve put time and energy into. When you mindfully cook, you learn how to taste to get the spices and flavor just right. This helps you to savor — to be more in tune with the flavor and emotionally invested in enjoying the meal.
I’ve heard the theory that if you can read a recipe, you can cook. So, why is it that so many very intelligent men and women get overwhelmed, throw their hands up in the air and deem themselves incapable in the kitchen? There are many things that stand in the way. In part, it may be perfectionism. What if this dish doesn’t come out just right? It’s very difficult for many of us to not be good at something on the first try. Not to mention that all change is difficult. Trying something new, in general, can cause anxiety.
If you feel like you don’t have time, you aren’t alone. This is a common justification (and legitimate reason) for avoiding cooking. Trying a new recipe takes added concentration, time and effort to get the hang of it. Think of how easily (almost mindlessly) you can put together a recipe that you’ve made for years. Consider that many simple meals can be put together in 10 minutes or so, less time than it takes to drive to a restaurant. Rachael Ray can make a meal from start to finish in 30 minutes flat.
If you want to become a more mindful eater, give cooking a try.
1) Unfortunately, there is the perception that cooking is a burden and chore. Until we turn this around in our minds, we will always be tempted to just go out to dinner or order in. Recognize that cooking can help you to be a more mindful eater. It’s an essential tool for managing your weight.
2) Find the right recipe. Choose a new recipe that is simple. I recently read Light and Delish, a “bookazine” that features 400 calorie or less recipes. These recipes don’t ask for wild ingredients. Most of them can be found right in your cabinet. Not only are the recipes delicious, as the name suggests, but manageable and mindful of the calorie content and healthy ingredients. The recipes show that when food is healthy, you can eat larger portions and you don’t have to be hungry. This week I made, Healthy Makeover Meatloaf.
3)Be open minded. Put your perfectionistic self on hold. If it doesn’t work out, that’s okay. Have a sense of humor and a back-up plan if all else fails.
4) Pre-cooking. Read through the entire recipe from start to finish several times before even considering cooking it. Make yourself very familiar with the instructions. Too often, we get through half of the recipe only to find that we’ve done it in the wrong order because we didn’t take the time to read through it completely. Buy all the ingredients several days before you get started. Going to the store can be exhausting and sabotage your will to cook. There is nothing more frustrating than realizing you are missing an item or two. Thankfully, cooking can also save you money. In some cases, it can be less expensive than fast food.
5) Cook Together. I’ve named one of my favorite new recipes, “Sara’s Casserole.” My friend Sara made it for me one day when I was very under the weather. I complimented it many times and had asked for the recipe more than once. She realized, on some level, that I had mageirocophobia and offered to come over and make it with me. It completely took out the intimidation factor of the new recipe, which turned out to be incredibly easy. Tasty does not always equal hard. It’s now one of my staple recipes. So, making a new recipe with a friend can help you approach rather than avoid cooking.
6) Make your dish for a supportive audience. If your spouse is a picky eater or has difficulty with change, they may not be the best test case for your new recipe.
7) Give yourself a 30 day challenge. Try at least one new recipe each week during that time. See if simply swapping a few restaurant meals for home cooked meals helps you to be a more mindful eater.
I’m happy to say that I’ve completely overcome my anxiety toward cooking. I no longer feel overwhelmed by the kitchen. In fact, I’m starting to create my own recipes. Mindful cooking is one of the tools I use to make me a more mindful eater. So, if you see a recipe with more than three ingredients and say “forget it,” don’t worry, there is hope.
Susan Albers, Psy.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist, specializing in eating issues, weight loss, body image concerns, and mindfulness. She is author of 50 Ways to Soothe Yourself Without Food, Eating Mindfully, Eat, Drink, and Be Mindful, and Mindful Eating 101 and a Huffington Post blogger. Her books have been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, O, the Oprah Magazine, Natural Health and Self Magazine and on the Dr. Oz TV Show. Visit Albers online at www.eatingmindfully.com

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

It’s finally back-to school time! (Or end-of-summer-Fridays time, for us senior citizens in the crowd). You know what that means – buying new books, layering those comfy sweaters, and meeting some new romantic prospects. Your summer fling? Old news already. You’re about to have a whole new crop of guys to potentially add to your gaggle.
Techno-Romance – or the rampant use of technologies to cultivate and explore romantic, sexual and flirtatious interactions – will undoubtedly play a huge role in your burgeoning relationships this fall. Emailing, texting, Gchatting, tweeting, BlackBerry Messengering…these are only a small fraction of the ways that you’re likely to end up communicating with, and getting to know, your potential paramours. And this reliance on technology to engage in modern courtship won’t surprise you or the many friends of yours who will be lucky enough to hear every single detail about each and every interaction with that cute guy in your statistics class.
But you know who it will surprise? And confuse? And concern? Your mother. Not that this will stop her from constantly asking for updates on your dating life, or slyly asking if you’ll be bringing anyone home for Thanksgiving this year.
Sure, your mother may seem hip and enlightened, with a new and inappropriately active Facebook account to prove it. Sure, she may have finally learned how to text (although she hasn’t yet figured out that she doesn’t need to sign, “Love, Mom” at the end of every message). And sure, you may get more emails from her – usually forwarded warnings about rapists and contaminated vegetable recalls – than from anyone else in your address book. But don’t be fooled. She didn’t come of age in the post-dating world. Try as she might, she just doesn’t quite get it.
Behind her carefully crafted veil of understanding coolness, your mother is still hearing your stories and looking out for the classic signs of romance – a phone call, a requisite number of hours spent getting to know each other at nice restaurants, a willingness to meet the parents, a ring. Your tales of late-night parties, flirtatious intramural soccer matches and ambiguous group dinners make her head spin. And the most confusing post-dating reality of them all? Techno-Romance.
What exactly is bewildering her? And why shouldn’t you feel guilty as you sense her fear that you’ll never get married and deliver her beloved grandchildren, even though you told her all about that guy from your study group who has been throwing charming jokes into his emails to you about test schedules and response papers?
Here are 5 Techno-Romance truths that your mother will never understand.
1) That random text message means something!
Have you ever tried to tell your mother the story of the hot guy from your dorm who texted you the previous night, letting you know that he was in a dive bar and dancing to that Ke$ha song that you both (secretly) love? That’s a disheartening conversation to have.
While you try to explain that it was a sign of him thinking about you, and that it’s so great to have a mutual, fun joke that you’re exploring, she’ll be stuck wondering why he’s hanging out in a bar – probably cavorting with other women – instead of taking you out on a candlelit boat cruise. Sigh.
Herein lies one of the big generational misunderstandings about Techno-Romance. Our parents and their cohorts equate texting with hooking up, interpreting a text exchange as an easy way for the young folk to get in touch late at night and do inappropriate things. What they don’t realize is that these days, we text like we talk – constantly, and for many different purposes.
Texts pervade every area of our lives, including romance. Not just sex, but romance. Nowadays, it’s just as much a tool for getting to know someone on a real level as it is a way to make that 3 AM booty call happen. So follow your instincts about what that text did or didn’t signify, and take your mother’s interpretation with a grain of salt.
2) Just because he’s your Facebook friend, that doesn’t necessarily mean that either of you is interested or justified in asking the other out on a date.
As parents become more and more comfortable with Facebook (make it stop!!), they like to start throwing it around in their day-to-day conversation. So when you’re telling your mother about a new guy who may or may not be interested in you, there’s a good chance that you’ll eventually get asked, “Well, are you two friends on Facebook?” As if a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer to that question should really clarify things.
What does it mean to be Facebook friends? It could mean a million things. Yes, it could be read as a sign of interest, as I recently found out while interviewing guys about their friend requesting policies for romantic prospects. But it could also signify that you’re simply in a class together, or that you met through mutual friends in the dining hall, or that either one of you is the type to go around friend requesting everyone you meet (we all know that person, right?). Facebook may be a cesspool of sexual tension and romantic possibility, but the signals are usually too mixed and unclear to interpret on their own.
So, I’m sorry, mother. But that fact that he Facebook friended me – along with 17 other of my acquaintances – is not a sure sign that I should make a move.
3) No one is going to rob you just because you checked in on Foursquare.
Mothers can’t help it – they live in perpetual fear that someone is going to kill you, or at least take all your stuff. Therefore, the idea that you would willingly tell people that you’re not at home – and that, in fact, you’re at a concert six blocks away! – is terrifying to them. I guess this will all make sense once we’re mothers…?
Knowing this, you might want to consider refraining from telling a story that begins with, “So his friend checked into this bar on Foursquare, and they saw that my friends were at a diner just a couple streets away, so then we all met up and hung out and the two of us talked and flirted the whole time!” What do you hear in this story? That you met a guy on a group-non-date and now he’s in your gaggle. What does your mother hear in this story? That a whole group of boys knew you weren’t at home and could’ve broken into your room and stolen your laptop!!!!
Just don’t be surprised when she doesn’t see the romantic potential in that scenario. But in the meantime, keep using Foursquare to explore those options and expand your network of prospects.
4) You’re not following him on Twitter because you’re stalking him and really want to know what he ate for lunch every day.
The idea of expressing any sort of sentiment in 140 characters or less blows most mothers’ minds. So a brief mention of, “And then he replied to my tweet,” or “Then I emailed him to discuss this really interesting article that he’d retweeted,” is just going to confuse the hell out of her.
Unless she’s super tech-savvy, she’s not going to be able to wrap her head around the idea that you, and everyone else on Twitter – including that guy – might actually have something to say and share with the world. She likes to sit around with her friends while they shake their heads at our Millennial generation, wondering why we feel the need to tell everyone and anyone what we had for lunch today.
So trying to convince her that your respective Twitter feeds might truly be a thought-provoking source of conversation and getting-to-know-you banter in the romantic realm? I wouldn’t recommend wasting your breath.
5) Signing up for an online dating site is not a sign that you’re feeling desperate and unlovable, and are convinced that you’ll never meet anyone otherwise.
Your mother may be excited when you sign up for an online dating site – you’re finally getting serious about looking for your future husband, instead of just hooking up with guys she doesn’t approve of! – but she may also get a little worried about you. Have you been feeling desperate and sad lately? Has someone broken your heart? Are you getting nervous that you’ll never meet anyone in real life? Is that why you’re doing online dating?
What she doesn’t realize is that the stigma surrounding online dating is almost gone. Almost. Close enough so that having a profile on Match.com or OkCupid in no way means that you’re a big, weird loser. It mostly just means that you’re looking to open up your options and meet some interesting new people, in the romantic realm and otherwise. And who doesn’t want to do that?
So ignore her hints of concern, and try not to roll your eyes when she just happens to start reminding you of how wonderful and attractive you are and offers again to set you up with her friend Shirley’s son – the nice dentist. You know that you’re desirable. You just want to meet other desirable people, easily and often. And that’s why you’re online dating.
For more on the post-dating world, check out www.WTFIsUpWithMyLoveLife.com.

Follow Jessica Massa on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/jessmassa

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

First, there was the jaw-dropping story of a British woman who was caught on camera tossing an affectionate cat into an outdoor trash bin. Then, it was an Eastern European girl slinging crying puppies into a fast-moving stream. Now, right here in America, some people have imprisoned a dog inside a box barely bigger than his own body. The box has solid sides, and the dog can only see out if he jumps up and peers over them. He has been locked in the box for months. To add to the mental torture, the dog has worn his teeth down to the nubs from biting at his prison, so his owners occasionally take him out of the box to drill painful holes vertically into his teeth in order to irrigate them. And right there by the side of the box, the dog’s keepers also manually extract sperm from him and use it to breed other dogs to sell. There’s more, but the abuse I’ve already described is enough to make any decent person sick.
Take a look at Google Maps and you can look down into the container and see the dog lying there.
Why, you may ask, aren’t these people in jail? How is it that the local humane society has not swooped in and seized the dog?
Oh, I’m sorry. Did I write “dog”? I meant to write “killer whale.” And the people perpetrating this horror are SeaWorld executives. So why exactly does swapping one intelligent animal for another or swapping an average Joe for rich business executives lessen the horror of this orca’s ordeal or the injustice of the situation? Answer: It doesn’t.
Tilikum is the killer whale. He killed a human being — for the third time — earlier this year. Perhaps there’s a reason why killer whales are called “killer” whales. Tilikum didn’t give his keeper, Dawn Brancheau, a little playful toss or misjudge and hold her under water just a second too long for her to survive. He shook her like a rag doll, slammed her into the side of the pool, stopped her from surfacing and tore her body apart. My bet is that he knew exactly what he was doing. Having seen how he is kept and knowing where he came from, it’s not hard to comprehend the depth of his anger and frustration.
Tilikum is 32 years old. When he was just 2 years old, he was caught by marine “cowboys” who kidnap dolphins and orcas to sell to amusement parks. He was taken from his family, his pod, in the open waters off Iceland, and he’s lived in a cement pool ever since, unable to use his echolocation, unable to swim away, to travel the oceans, to hear or see his relatives. He is “trained” to eat what he’s given and do what he’s told. He is also trained to roll over, which allows trainers to masturbate him with a gloved hand and collect his semen in a container. His semen is frozen for later use or used immediately to inseminate female orcas at one of SeaWorld’s parks so as to provide additional animals to use in shows.
Life in a tiny concrete tank is no life at all for these animals, as evidenced by the death this week of Tilikum’s 12-year-old son at SeaWorld San Diego. Twelve! This orca would likely have lived to be 50 or 60 in the open sea, his rightful home.
After the third human being lost her life to Tilikum, SeaWorld reduced his meager “world” even further. Tilly is now relegated mostly, if not solely, to the “F pool,” a solid-sided concrete pool that measures just 36 feet long and 25 feet wide. Tilikum is 22 feet long with a big wide orca girth. He weighs more than 12,000 pounds. So he has to scrunch just to turn around. And once turned, there he is again, nose against the other wall. He has been condemned to hang in place in the water indefinitely.
PETA is calling on the local humane society and the state’s attorney to free Tilly. After all, cruelty to animals, whether to a dog or to an orca, is illegal in all states.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Hey, where are Sherlock and Lt. Columbo when we really need them?
No, it’s not to set us straight on the Hound of the Baskervilles or figure out who stole what or who murdered whom, but rather to zero in on a more perplexing mystery that impacts all of us — the direction of the flip-flop economy.
The myriad of views on the subject — which will have a major voice in determining the outcome of the fall elections — is enough to drive anyone nuts.
For confirmation, just look at the financial pages of your local newspapers and leading business magazines. Or click on TV’s financial networks. Or scan the research commentaries of the major brokerages and investment advisers. It’s all the same. You’re bombarded with a slew of wildly conflicting economic scenarios that will have you shaking your head.
For example, here’s what the experts are saying, kicking off with those who insist a double-dip recession is inescapable. Some of their key reasons: the government’s inability to effectively address the three most serious and critical economic ills — the housing depression, high unemployment and the refusal of banks to lend on a broad scale.
In contrast, other economists vehemently disagree, insisting there will be no double-dip, certainly, they believe, not in an election year. The president’s new stimulus initiatives to bolster the economy by creating jobs, notably tax incentives and infrastucture spending, should help speed up the recovery, they argue. At worst, they say, we’ll see slow growth.
Then again, some economists argue that the recession, which started in late 2007, has yet to say goodbye and importantly is apt to worsen because of diminishing stimulus and excessive debt at the consumer and business levels. That means, they point out, consumption will weaken as consumers, especially the retiring baby boomers, opt more for saving then spending, and business will be reluctant to expand.
Meanwhile, a number of economists say the president’s new economic-boosting proposals won’t fly and are highly suspect because Republicans have no vested interest in seeing the economy improve before the November elections. Accordingly, Obama’s economic ideas, it’s thought, if not D.O.A. (dead on arrival), are almost certain to run into a Congressional stone wall and nothing will get done.
On top of this, two of the country’s widely tracked economists, the New York Times’ Paul Krugman and Merrill Lynch’s former North American economic chief David Rosenberg, have recently told us we’re depression bound.
Confused? Who wouldn’t be? So who should we believe? The answer, of course, is that it’s all guesswork, that no one can be cocksure of what’s ahead because of all the bumps on the economic road.
For some thoughts, I rang up a voice of reason in this economic wilderness — Standard & Poor’s well regarded, astute senior economist David Wyss, a fella not prone to flamboyant and irrational comments.
For starters, he belittles the president’s job-boosting proposals, noting they’re not particularly good because they’re only temporary. At best, he sees little more than a short term lift. The infrastructure spending should have been in his first bill, he says.
As for fears of a double-dip, Wyss doesn’t see it. The recovery is fragile, but there’s nothing to push the economy down more, he says. “We’re having a half-speed recovery, nothing to get excited about, but it’s better than none.”
On the plus side, he points to a pickup in consumer spending. “Consumers are starting to stick their heads out of the shell,” he says. Yet another plus is pretty good equipment spending, up 15% year over year.
Underscoring the slow growth nature of the economy, Wyss looks for uninspiring GDP growth of 1.6% in the current quarter, 2% in the final quarter and 2.4% for all of 2011.
What about those depression forecasts making the rounds? “No way, a gross exaggeration,” Wyss says.
Our economic worry-wart also has his concerns, among them the threat of a major default, especially in Europe, and another freeze in the financial markets, with banks afraid to lend, an event that would further push home prices down and unemployment up.
Likewise, he points to the danger of a Japanese deflationary scenario, a formula for weak growth and declining prices. As a result, home prices in Japan are down 35% from where they were 15 years ago, while its stock market is off 75% from where it was 20 years ago.
All that aside, we’re plagued by a number of serious economic ailments that suggest any economic bull at this point is likely full of bull. Among those that come to mind:
One in every six Americans is now getting some form of government assistance.
A total of 40.8 million of us — expected to rise to 43.3 million next year — are collecting food stamps.
About 78 million baby boomers, one eighth of the population, are headed for retirement with an average nest egg of just around $50,000.
About 25% of all mortgages are under water (meaning the homeowners owe more on their homes than they’re worth). In addition, 4.2 million vacant homes (8.9 months supply) are looking for buyers, 7.3 million homeowners are at least 30 days delinquent on their mortgage payments, and another 4 million homes are in the foreclosure process.
Around 14.9 million people are unemployed, a figure that jumps to 25.7 million if you include part-timers who can’t get full time employment and discouraged workers who’ve left the work force because of their inability to obtain a job.
On top of this, my wife, Harriet, who walks several miles a day, tells me the number of New York City panhandlers and homeless people sleeping on the sidewalks is appreciably on the rise. “You see them everywhere,” she says
I don’t know how you see all of this, but to me this is not what economic recoveries and bull markets are all about.
It all reminds me of a catchy song, “Blowin’ in the wind”, written by Bob Dylan in the sixties, a period when the nation was caught up in the Vietnam War and people were looking for answers.
Alas, we’re now once again looking for answers.
What do you think? E-mail me at Dandordan@aol.com

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

The man promoting tomorrow’s Glenn Beck / Sarah Palin event in Anchorage says it has nothing to do with sucking blood from the World Trade Center dead.
An “off-ish” day for the passengers of American Airlines Flights 11 and 77 and United Airlines Flights 175 and 93.
It’s just another crazy, fluky, menological mix-up for Beck, like honoring himself at the Lincoln Memorial on the anniversary of “I have a dream.”
Which, you may recall, was just a happy accident too.
Glenn Beck didn’t even realize September 11th was the anniversary of the September 11th attacks. He thinks of it as the day after the Alaska State Fair.
Anyway, get over it. You can’t go around seeing dark symbolism and hidden patterns of meaning everywhere, or you’ll end up counting clues about communism in the murals at Rockefeller Center. Like Glenn Beck does.
Speaking of subtext, here’s a funny song that Tea Party patriots have enjoyed live at their rallies and over 4 million times on YouTube.
The surfeited lump singing it calls Obama “The Great Reneger” ten times, each time with greater self-delight. But it’s just a coincidence that “reneger” kind of sounds like something else. Not racist, just serendipitiously hilarious!
Christopher Cox says he has no idea what’s on the playlist for Beck’s show. Or even what Beck wants to say. It’ll just be “whatever he’s led to talk about.” And Sarah Palin, of course, introducing Beck, will read whatever’s written on her hand.
Maybe something like this:
It would be eerie if she chose those words, because a lot of them run nine and ten letters. And eerier still, because they say everything you need to say about Beck’s people, and they were written by D.H. Lawrence.
Who was born 125 years ago, tomorrow, September 11th.
What a weird coincidence!
I’ll bet that’s the surprise Beck and Palin are going to be talking about.
Lemme hear it, Alaska! Are you ready for a diddlin’?

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

What to follow in Turkey this Sunday? It is either the World Basketball Championship final game or the constitutional amendment referendum. Both will give you a heart attack.
Turkey’s ruling party AKP (Justice and Development Party) pushed for a last minute constitutional amendment package towards the end of last legislative session. The package ended up in limbo, thus the high court ruled for a referandum.
Under the package, there are 26 articles that range from affirmative action towards women and war veterans to a major structural change in the appeals courts. And the AKP wants you to vote for all of them in one ballot.
So as a citizen of Turkey, you may support limiting the powers the judiciary but if you vote yes, you are also losing your power to sue the state in case it decides to confiscate your land, or denies to pay damages in case of a gas explotion in your backyard.
And the dilemma.. Turkey’s Islamist Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan pushes for affirmative action for women in the workplace, but openly says “I do not believe in the equality of men and women.” So? What are we voting for anyway?
The road to hell is paved with good intentions, they say. Erdogan and his party probably had better intentions in mind when they decided to push for a constitutional amendment. One of them is a soft landing to a presidential system that will pave the way for Erdogan’s bid in 2012. Another one may be a show of commitment of EU reform process. Yet, none of them seem to fully convince the voter.
According to the latest polls, the yea’s and nay’s are split by a hair. And the big prize is the undecided voter which adds up to 9%.
The vote is also the biggest test for Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the new leader of the main opposition party CHP (Republican People’s Party). Kilicdaroglu rallied in 71 something provinces in some 50 days. Against the fully financed AKP machinery, CHP carried out a grassroots campaign “In the Bus” and “On the Web.”
Kilicdaroglu, a former Social Security administration bureaucrat, highlighted eight years of AKP nepotism and the creation of a nouveau riche. His sheer perseverence to hold rallies and townhall meetings doubled the party’s approval ratings up to 33%. As an Alewite Muslim, Kilicdaroglu represents the progressive arm of Islam in the Middle East. And knowing his foreign policy credentials are still thin, soon he will be hitting the road to Brussels and Berlin.
So, whatever happens this Sunday, there will be a new political ballgame in Turkey.
As for the basketball finals…Turkish authorities are expecting President Obama to watch the game in Istanbul. Game time!

Follow Ahu Ozyurt on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/ahuozyurt

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

I can’t help but comment on this growing “Islamophobia,” or fear of Islam and Muslims, that seems to be a growing problem in this country.
Honestly I didn’t even know such a word existed until recently. That’s just sad. Not that I didn’t know the word existed, but that there is such a need for a word to describe the feeling. Clearly in America, a largely Christian country, Islam has always been a “foreign” religion, one I dare say most Americans know very little about. But since 9-11 it has become more and more a religion that increasing numbers of Americans seem to have no problem being openly bigoted against. Throw in the uproar over the proposed Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero in New York and this thing has really exploded. And by no means is this limited to the protests over the mosque in New York. Other states have also seen protests and ugliness related to mosques and Muslims.
One of the most interesting and stupid manifestations of this anti-Muslim fervor is the large numbers of people who love to claim Obama is a Muslim. What’s interesting isn’t how wrong they are about this but rather the fact that the accusation is clearly thrown out there as if being a Muslim would be another strike against him. In other words the way it is said, it is clear being Muslim would not be good. People who say it, say it like it is some dark crime or secret. The argument many make is that their point is that he is lying, not that he is a Muslim. Yeah right.
It is so ironic that the foundation of our country is supposedly our willingness to accept other people from wherever and whatever their beliefs. Our open society. And yet it is very clear with this open Islamophobia, that we are not as open as we pretend.
Islam is the religion of a lot of good people. Over a billion of them throughout the world. America is making a fool of itself and its principles over this issue and it does not make us look good in the eyes of many citizens around the world, Muslim and otherwise.
Some of this is just a fear of the unknown, thus the public service videos being put out by Muslim organizations. I hope they work.
But it is also a sad statement that they/we have to put out videos letting some Americans know that Muslims are just people too. How can some of these people not know this already? If they don’t already know it, I don’t know how effective these videos will be.

Follow Earnest Harris on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/earnestharris

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Recently, I had the pleasure of facilitating an event called “Innovations in Social Justice: New Hope, New Actions” at the Hub in Berkeley, California. Among the panelists was a 21-year-old rapper, artist and community organizer who goes by the name Babye Champ, the Scraper Bike King. A Scraper Bike is an ordinary bike decorated with foil, spray paint, and everyday items like candy bar wrappers. Scraper Bikes have become a worldwide phenomenon, in part thanks to this YouTube video created by Babye Champ several years ago.
Babye Champ is one of the originators of the tricked out bikes. Early on they were meant to give him and his friends a positive outlet in the rough East Oakland California neighborhood where he lives. Just this year Babye Champ has attended five funerals of young friends, mostly due to street violence. He came to the evening event at the Hub from the funeral of a fifteen year old cousin killed earlier that week in a gun related incident.
While the bikes themselves are beautiful, as this stunning video reveals, what is really amazing is the compelling youth movement which Babye Champ has built around them. Babye Champ and his friends have launched an activity which keeps thousands of youth in his neighborhood and around the San Francisco Bay Area on the streets in a positive way. They organize local rides, have initiated a Scraper Bike summer camp, and invite youth to join a popular Scraper Bike Team — all without formal funding. Team members must be at least seven years old and agree to maintain a 3.0 GPA.
Scraper bikes are popping up all over the world, including countries like Russia, Australia, and in the UK. Babye Champ’s artistry and activities have attracted local and national news coverage, and he was recently named “Best Green Transport Innovator” by California’s East Bay Express.
His dream is to establish a local bike store in Oakland to double as a community center and where he can practice his art, steer young people away from negative activities, and build a global brand and movement.
Babye Champ’s commitment to his own and the larger community is truly inspiring, and his success an important reminder of the power of indigenous, bottom up movements. He delivers a message to young and old alike that we can and should empower ourselves in the pursuit of social change.
Babye Champ is much more than a just a street artist. He is a champion of hope, and we need more youth leaders just like him.

Follow Paul Lamb on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/plamb

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

I recently bought a new toy for my cat, Rashi. This string on a stick was an instant success as evidenced by his pouncing from under chairs and running after me. After 15 minutes of following the string at break-neck speeds, Rashi was left panting but meowing for more. While he had plenty of opportunities to play alone with the toy mice that litter my living room, he was missing social play with me. He now follows me daily, meowing and getting more excited when I walk to where the toy is stored. Since we have begun to play together, Rashi now sleeps next to me at night. Social play is turning on neural circuitry that is causing him to bond to me.
Neoteny is the retention of juvenile attributes into adulthood. While frequently associated with physical features, humans are one of the few species that retain personality attributes of our childhood as well. Characteristics such as playfulness, curiosity, displays of affection and social behavior. But somewhere in the establishment of our cultural system, we have learned to depress our neotenous characteristics as we age for behaviors that we identify as mature.
(Ironically, at the same time we’ve stifled the behaviors that typify youth, we’ve waged an outright war on getting older. Last year we spent over $88 billion on anti-aging treatments for our face and bodies; a number that doesn’t include gym memberships, diets and fountain-of-youth vitamin blends.)
When is the last time you walked into a room and felt compelled to try every chair — jumping up and down and moving back and forth on each seat — not only to help you choose the most comfortable but also just to know what each chair felt like? My 7-year-old nephew did this the first time he visited me. This is how he made his choice of where to sit.
Neuroscience underscores what every good parent knows intuitively: play is key to healthy intellectual, emotional and social development — as important as sleep, rest and food in developing “imagination, dexterity, and physical, cognitive and emotional strength.” Our curiosity and fearlessness help us learn about the world and each other. But as we age, we push playfulness aside. Instead we enter a room full of chairs and choose one based on an assumption about the way the chair looks. And even if the chair turns out to be really uncomfortable most of us A) remain seated or B) discreetly move to another — maybe even apologizing to others for not being certain the first time.
In 1938, Dutch cultural theorist Johan Huizinga postulated that man was play and that all culture evolved from acts of play- not just in the Greek Olympic sense but right down to our political and social structures: art, law, religion, and even war. Arguing in evolutionary terms that play in animals predates human culture, Huizinga states that the very cultural systems we now take for granted are a result of activities happening in play states evolving from the same behaviors seen in non-human animals. Huizinga observes that play is distinct in that it occurs outside of our ordinary, life-sustaining activities — eating, sleeping and reproducing — forming what we understand as culture in human groups.
So what is play? Founded by Dr. Stewart Brown in an effort to streamline and coordinate the scientific research on play, the National Institute for Play has identified seven patterns of play and the cause and effect on human development: (1) Attunement Play; (2) Body Play and Movement; (3) Object Play; (4) Social Play; (5) Imaginative and Pretend Play; (6) Storytelling-Narrative Play; and (8) Transformative-Integrative and Creative play — each contributing to our understanding of play as a natural phenomenon.
If nothing more, we know that play is fun and that fun feels good. We are driven to play even if we can’t articulate why we flirt with our favorite waitress or why images of South African airline kulula’s “Flying 101″ Boeings (see images included) circled the web more times than the plane itself may ever circle the earth. Playing is a way of experiencing our world, a way of bringing joy to the mundane. And fundamentally: Play is a way of learning. When we are in the play state we are in a personal flow state where we can experiment, fail and grow. There is a biological reason we don’t lose our neotenous playful characteristics as we age but we need to embrace these traits instead of shunning them. As play scholar Brian Sutton-Smith notes: “The opposite of play is not work, it is depression.”
flying 101
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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

If the 20th century was about supersizing our food, stuff, cars and homes, the 21st century — according to TreeHugger.com founder Graham Hill — is about editing our lives back to a more more satisfying simplicity.
“We really have a culture of excess,” he explained to me from his home office in his new 350-square-foot apartment in Soho. “We have excess, we’re not any happier and what you’ll see again and again are people who really cut back and really edit their lives will find themselves much happier. They have more mental clarity. They end up having more time and it’s often better financially.”
The skill of this century is editing
Hill has made millions starting and selling successful businesses (including TreeHugger.com), graced the cover of Inc magazine and the centerfold of Vanity Fair, and now he’s certain that it’s time to cut back our way of life — for the planet, but just as importantly, for our own sanity.
“I believe that this century that the skill of the century is editing,” explains Hill, “and so cutting back on space, cutting back on possessions, cutting back on media, cutting back on friends.”
He calls his premise LifeEdited, and the basic idea is to get rid of stuff and use more shared services like Zipcar and Netflix so you can be free from having to store and care for too many possessions.
Crowdsourcing a tiny home redesign
To take the conversation public, he’s bought a second tiny apartment in his building — this one is 420 square feet — and he’s preparing to crowdsource its redesign. He’s already received $10,000 from the NRDC and is looking for more prize money for those who can come up with the best ideas for his future digs. He’s also getting help from crowdsourcing veterans mutopo (Starbucks, McDonalds) and jovoto (Easy Jet and Greenpeace) to make sure the effort is truly collaborative.
When Hill invited me and our mutual friend SuChin Pak (she and Hill met while shooting a story for Discovery’s “Planet Green” several years ago) to tour his future tiny pad, it felt small, dark and dated — it dates all the way back to when apartments could come without a shower (he explained that the previous tenant took sponge baths or used a community shower). But Graham, who holds a degree in architecture, believes that with the right design less square footage can truly be more.
“We don’t want it to feel like it’s about sacrifice. Part of the brief [one of the requirements for the competition] is a sit-down dinner for 16 so we want to have some elements of luxury. It’s almost like you’re just designing a massive piece of furniture — it’s so detailed and you cut down all of your stuff and really thought about what you need in there, and that will just make it an amazing place to live.”
Hill already has ideas about where the design needs to go for small to work well: the walls need to be knocked down to create one big space and you need to work with multifunctional furniture to transform the space from living room to bedroom to office.
What does one man need?
The competition, the crowdsourcing, the tiny place — it could all seem like simply a marketing stunt. But with Hill, I got the sense he’s beyond commercial gags (his current apartment really is bare except for his two bikes), and a conversation between him and SuChin in his future living room made it clear my hunch was right.
SuChin: You’ve lived in boats [Hill spent seven months of this past year on board the 60-foot Plastiki, a boat made from recycled plastic bottles], you’ve lived in trailers, you’ve lived in tents, you’ve lived in really nice fancy apartments.
Graham: 720 square feet. It was very expansive (laughs).
SuChin: For New York that’s a lot. In a way this project feels like a culmination of all your life experiences because you’ve lived in a lot of places and you know ‘this is what I really do need and this is what I really don’t need.’
Graham: That’s a good point. I’ve not only lived in a lot of places I’ve also done a ton of traveling so I generally just need a rollie and a bookbag and that’s my office and my clothing and everything I need.
SuChin: What are your essentials?
Graham: Besides a laptop, some clothes and not too many shoes and (laughs) I do have this unfortunate kite-surfing addiction (points to four huge surfboard-sized duffel bags not he floor). Yeah I probably own more kite-surfing stuff than anything else.
Go small and save yourself 100 grand
If you’re not convinced by a kite-surfing entrepreneur with a lot of life experience in small spaces that your life can be improved by downsizing, Graham was also ready to point out that living small can also be a lot cheaper: “In New York a bargain is a thousand dollars a square foot so if you save 100 square feet, you save yourself a hundred grand”.
TreeHugger.com founder Graham Hill on LifeEdited:
A 350-square-foot bachelor pad: Graham Hill’s edited home:
Related faircompanies videos:
The burden of stuff: seeking the simple life in the Rockies
A tiny home tour: living in 96-square-feet
Living small: when home is a 150-square-foot RV
A tiny home for a growing family (bed under stairs included)
Thoreau’s simple life at Walden

Follow Kirsten Dirksen on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/kirstendirksen

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

We have all watched the U.S. debt markets grind to an exasperating halt in the last three years. It started with the auction rate securities markets, then the corporate debt markets, then the mortgage markets and then other asset-backed securities markets. Like a huge power-generator winding down, the sinking hum told us that the plug had been pulled on the U.S. debt party.
However, just as we were packing up the mirrored ball and smoke machines, we heard a loud thumping down the hall. And with a short walk and slight push of the door we found ourselves staring at a euphoric sea of college students moshing to possibly the biggest debt party of all — student loans. Better than happy hour, these loans are essentially free up front. Just head up to the bar, look cute and “presto” here’s $25,000 to get your academic funk on.
While the party analogy approaches hyperbole, many elements approach reality. The student loan debt markets are alive and well and they may just be the next lending vehicle to explode all over our newly pressed, Obama-stimulated dress shirt. According to the most-recent lending numbers from the Department of Education, federal student loan disbursements were up $75.1 billion (25% year over year) from 2008 to 2009. By some estimates student loans surpassed credit card debt for the first time this year. And, just like credit cards, these loans and their state and private counterparts enjoy a healthy secondary market that fosters their liquidity and keeps the loans cheap. This in turn keeps students borrowing and the student loan party humming.
Even the most prudent students ask themselves, “Should I jump in or just watch from afar?” “Oh, but it looks so fun,” a little voice says. Because it is easy money, it is fun; but another little voice needs to tell you — students and parents alike — about some of the risks. Yes, student loans allow you to party now, but the hangover is very real, possibly even debilitating to your financial future. In the vein of caveat emptor, here are the biggest risks that face any student getting ready to swan dive into the student loan mosh pit:
1. Student Loans make future borrowing more costly. This is often a shock to ex-college students loaded with student debt. They take student loans without considering that it is “debt” that will affect their ability to get car loans, house loans or any other personal loans in the future. Even if you think you can afford new debt payments, many lenders will not lend to you because you are carrying too much debt. Even if they give you the loan, your interest rate on that loan will typically be higher due to your higher debt-to-income ratio. The Journal of Student Financial Aid, recommends that a student’s monthly debt payments should not exceed 8% of the student’s income after graduation. The problem is that most students have no idea what they will make after graduation, so forecasting on the low-side of your earning potential is prudent.
2.You cannot walk away from your student loans. I once had a professor tell me that college was a place to get knocked down so that the institution could help you get back up. The idea is that college is a nurturing place, where you make mistakes, learn from them and avoid making them in the real world. Certainly, this professor was not talking about student loans. If you make the “mistake” of assuming too much student debt and, thus, fail to repay it, our nurturing government has a number of tools to bludgeon you with. They can take your tax refunds, garnish your paychecks, take your federal benefits, sue you and/or destroy your credit. To add insult to injury, most student loans cannot be discharged in bankruptcy.
3.Co-signing parents are responsible for *all* of your debt. Many students look at co-signing as something akin to getting permission for a spring-break in Cabo. To the contrary, by co-signing for your loan, your parents are signing up to pay-in-full any amount you fail to pay on your student loans. Some students may think, “Cool!” but, in the words of Bill Cosby, your parents brought you into this world and they can take you out.
4.Not all loans are created equal. Many people research federal student loans and assume that private student loans operate similarly. This is not the case. Federal loans have fixed, low and sometimes subsidized interest rates (currently at 2% to 8% depending on need). They also often offer flexible repayment, deferment and consolidation options. Private loans on the other hand are a mixed-bag. They have higher interest rates than federal loans and those rates are often variable. Private loans are seldom flexible regarding repayment or forbearance and do not offer consolidation options. Private loans can also have interest rates as high as many credit cards (15%+) and yet most people would never put tuition on their credit card.
5.Student loan debt can survive the death of the student. If co-signing were not enough, many private student loan agreements require that the family is on the hook in the event that the student dies or is otherwise incapacitated. This has led to some heart-wrenching stories of families who are grieving over the death of a loved one having to pay their loved one’s student loans as well. Make sure you ask lenders about these clauses in advance and understand exactly how they work.
In their purest form, student loans are a noble vehicle enabling us to be a more educated nation. However, when money is involved, nobility can often take a back seat. Do your research up front, understand the amount and type of debt you are assuming and feel free to party — just party smartly. Unfortunately in the student loan world, there is no cab to take you home and the hangover can last a lifetime.
Avvo helps consumers navigate the often-confusing legal industry. Avvo is a *free* resource offering almost 6,000 articles and discussions regarding debt issues, including student loans.

Follow Mark Britton on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/Mark_Britton

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Your Savings Rate: Keeping the Good Habits Once the Recession Is Over
Americans are nothing if not resourceful. Confronted with lower incomes and a scary financial outlook during the recent recession, Americans not only got by with less, but they actually increased their savings rates during the crisis. Now that the recession may be ending, it’s time to keep up the good work.
For all their resolve and resiliency in the recession, many Americans were forced to recognize that up till then, they had been a little lax about savings. Average savings rates were virtually zero leading up to the recession, leaving many people with little in reserve to meet the setbacks that followed. Next time around it can be different, if you extend some of the good habits you acquired by necessity into the next economic expansion.
Here are some cost-saving measures you may have taken in the recession — and how they can really pay off once the economy recovers.
You refinanced. One of the biggest silver linings of the recession was that it brought current mortgage rates down to record lows. People found they could save huge amounts of money by refinancing. Now, just make sure you’ve locked in those low rates with a fixed-rate mortgage, so you can keep the savings going.
You ran your household on a smaller paycheck. Some people had to take lower-paying jobs, some had to do without bonuses, and some households dropped from two paychecks to one. Whatever your situation, it may well get better as the economy improves. However, don’t automatically ramp your lifestyle back up. As your income improves, earmark some of that additional money for savings.
You ate out less often. Cutting back on the restaurant habit really adds up over the course of the year. The nice thing is, once you break a habit, you miss it less and less as time goes on.
You consolidated your credit cards. As credit card rates rose, savvy customers consolidated their balances into the cards with the lowest rates. Keep this habit — it will not only mean you pay less interest, but the fewer credit cards you have, the less likely you are to run up debt.
You saved on insurance. Those commercials are often correct — people really can save hundreds by shopping around for insurance. Get the most out of this effort by putting the money you saved into savings year after year.
You downsized your cable package. It’s amazing how things like cable TV packages get ramped up over time. Once you realize you can survive on dozens rather than hundreds of channels, there’s no need to go back.
You shopped for the best savings account rates. Perhaps it was CD rates or money market rates instead, but when bank rates started falling, consumers became more active in hunting for better deals. Keep in mind that the banks offering the best savings account rates may change from time to time, so don’t get complacent.
Perhaps the big lesson here is not to look at any cut in your budget a one-time savings. Even when you have the income to restore some of those cuts, make them ongoing savings by instead paying that money into a savings account. By multiplying those savings over many months and years, and earning bank interest rates on top, you’ll really make your good habits pay off.

Source:
During crisis, people saving more, cutting debts • Oct 02, 2009 • The Poughkeepsie Journal: http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20091002/BUSINESS/910020327/During-crisis–people-saving-more–cutting-debts

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

What do Kickstart, Bridge International Academies, and the One Acre Fund have in common? First, they are all extremely high performance organizations that have grown substantially since launching. However, and more interesting to this conversation, is that all three have been specifically designed to maximize impact. The founders are focused on improving their ROIs, not return on investment in the traditional sense, but return for impact (total costs of project/total impact created).
This is also not measured on inputs (i.e. the many non-profit organizations who report $$$ fundraised, schools built, or computers delivered), but real impact focused on positive behavioral changes in the communities where they work and live. Impact focused on positive outcomes in health, education, or household incomes.
Designing for impact, maximizing this impact and scaling is exactly the type of programs that the Mulago Foundation supports and this past week I attended a retreat hosted by the Foundation for their Rainer Arnhold Fellows program at a beautiful hideaway in Bolinas, Calif.
Over the course of seven days, the fellows participate in a series of conversations focused on fundraising, building and managing Boards of Directors, and most importantly how to ensure that their organizations are designed to maximize impact and scale.
“If an intervention can’t demonstrate real impact, it shouldn’t be scaled up. We don’t invest in organizations that don’t measure impact: they’re flying blind and we would be too” says Kevin Starr of The Mulago Foundation.
One of the tools that the Mulago Foundation is helping to pioneer is its Design Iteration Flow, otherwise known as the “DIF.”
The DIF tool walks organization leaders through a series of steps that help to clarify its mission and focus the organization on the impact it is trying to create. In my own work with Farm Builders, I’ve found the process to be extremely helpful in mapping the behavioral changes needed to ultimately reduce poverty for rural farmers in Liberia.
The DIF starts with the Big Idea: One sentence on “why we are here and what are we trying to do” including how the organization expects to scale. An interesting finding from Mulago’s research into how organizations scale is that there are really only five proven methods. Thinking about how one’s organization fits into these criteria can be especially helpful in clarifying how a social entrepreneur prioritizes the organization’s work.
For example, the big idea for Nuru, an organization becoming the “general contractor of the NGO sector” as articulated by founder Jake Harriman is:
“We’re trying to end extreme poverty in remote areas by training and equipping service minded leaders with the BEST solutions in poverty reduction to empower them to lift themselves out of poverty within five years.”
An important point to the Nuru model is that within five years the western staff exits each community where it is working, leaving behind a completely self-sustaining model that continues to grow on its own and impact an entire nation.
The DIF tool then walks the user through a series of steps to better clarify the impact desired and how to create the behavioral changes needed, ending with steps to help outline the organizational and financial model required to support its intervention (more information in future weeks on each of these topics). Download the DIF and begin filling out for your own organization here.
The rest of the week consisted of numerous meetings with a host of immensely talented faculty members and highly skilled, energized, entrepreneurs focused on positive social change. Each of the Rainer Arnhold Fellows have created amazing organizations. Learn more about how they are helping to better the communities most in need and how you too can get involved and make a difference!
Name: Komaza
Big Idea: Reduce poverty by helping poor, dry-land, African farmers plant trees.
Name: iTeach
Big Idea: Pilot interventions to improve HIV and TB services in low-performance, high-burden settings — that save lives. iTEACH is based at ground zero for the global HIV-TB co-epidemics, in KZN, South Africa.
Name: Nuru
Big Idea: End extreme poverty in remote areas by training and equipping service minded leaders with the best solutions in poverty reduction.
Name: Samasource
Big Idea: End poverty by connecting the poor to work over the Internet.
Name: It’s Wild
Big Idea: Use conservation agreements to turn poachers into farmers, with access to markets in return for “conservation farming.”
Name: FrontlineSMS:Medic
Big Idea: Help community health organizations extend care using innovative and cheap mobile technology.
Name: One Heart World-Wide
Big Idea: Provide a culturally sensitive network of safety for pregnant women and their newborns in remote areas of the world. One Heart has delivered operations in Tibet and now extends into rural Nepal and Mexico.
Name: Global Micro Clinic Project
Big Idea: Turn patient groups into high impact self-providers of health care.
Name: D-Rev (Design Revolution)
Big Idea: Design and deliver revolutionary market-driven technologies to better health outcomes and increase incomes in the developing world.
Name: Farm Builders
Big Idea: Rebuild broken farms by providing a suite of support services for smallholder farms. Farm Builders is starting in post-conflict Liberia with rubber farmers whose lands were destroyed during the conflict.
Name: Bamyan Media
Big Idea: Produce reality TV series showcasing entrepreneurs and their business models to drive mass enterprise creation. Bamyan Media is the producer of the hit “Dream & Achieve” reality show in Afghanistan.
Name: Smallholders Foundation
Big Idea: Use rural radio programs in Nigeria to deliver productivity-boosting education to remote farmers.
Name: Jacaranda Health
Big Idea: Deliver a new model of maternity healthcare that provides an affordable, high-quality care for the urban poor.
Name: Working Villages
Big Idea: Create profitable vocational farms that train farmers in a new 10-acre model.
Name: Wild4Life
Big Idea: Leverage a network of partner organizations to give rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa access to HIV/AIDS prevention, testing and treatment.

Follow Jacob Donnelly on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/jdonnelly33

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Seventy two hours ago I returned from Beirut, Lebanon where there is a promise of fresh violence, ready to erupt soon after the month of Ramadan ends tomorrow.
A synagogue in this predominantly Muslim and Christian city is being lovingly restored in a frantic process of re-building following decades of civil war and Israeli attacks. The Maghden Abraham Synagogue located in the middle of newly renovated downtown Beirut in an area known as the “Solidere” started restoration work in 2008, and now it is almost complete. There are 4 million people in Lebanon and only 500 are Jewish. Hassan Nasrallah, the increasingly popular leader of the Hizbullah, has not protested the restoration of this synagogue.
I conducted an unscientific survey amongst friends and on the streets of elite neighborhoods like Hamra and Achrafiyeh. Most laughed at the media feeding frenzy over the “Ground Zero Mosque” in New York. “This can only happen in America,” said one. Most felt that it should be built and were surprised that I, as a Muslim, am against this “mosque” in downtown Manhattan.
And then I came back home. To America. Where an angry looking, mustachioed, Pentecostal pastor with a flock of a mere 50 decided to become famous in the land where everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes, at least.
Seven hours ago I tweeted — “The new “balloon boy” is called “Pastor” Jones, his 15 minutes are ON and LIVE! Will he get a show on Fox? #Koran burning”
Terry Jones is indeed enjoying his fifteen minutes of fame in the land of the free and the home of the brave, where Islam is hot again in this election season. Problem is that like many television anchors on CNN, MSNBC and Fox — he cannot even pronounce Imam correctly — he says “Iman.” Problem also is that his knowledge of the Quran is negligible at best.
This uniquely American media farce continues and makes for disturbing, yet entertaining television. A new player has entered the equation to face bemused cable television cameras.
Muhammad Masri from Orlando, a seemingly well-intentioned Imam from Orlando deserts his sleepy (and probably hungry) Ramadan flock to try and broker peace before all hell breaks loose.
Cable TV informs us that the Indian born Daisy Khan, the media-savvy, soundbite-heavy wife of “America’s Imam”, Egyptian born Feisal Rauf, apparently agrees to Masri and Jones visiting them and their Cordoba Circus in Manhattan. Jones seems to think that Rauf will move Park 51. Masri says that he himself wants Park 51 to be re-located. At the time of writing this, Rauf has only issued a comment denying any planned re-location.
Rauf is back in America and got his prime-time exclusive on the thankfully-soon-to-be-replaced Larry King last night. Speaking once again in his carefully calibrated sound-bites he said he wanted to be back home before he spoke on an issue that has divided this entire country, lead to increased hate crimes against Muslims and made many Muslims like me deeply uncomfortable. (Well thank you, “Imam” Feisal, your concern for our well being is deeply appreciated and we are now eager to appoint you spokesperson for all Muslims living in the land.)
In the last week many doubts and some excellent reporting on the unsavory reputation of his builder for Park 51-Sharif El-Gamal have emerged. There are also un-confirmed rumors that the “good” Imam Feisal may have his own skeletons in what for some is a crowded closet and might even be a “slum landlord”, Allah forbid!
The speculation continues and we have front row seats for a uniquely Islamophobic circus where all the primary players are eager publicity seekers and are getting exactly what they wanted: their fifteen minutes of fame.
For a Muslim like me, who is not represented by Feisal Rauf’s Sufi Islam rhetoric and finds his media persona deeply troubling, the choices remain unclear and confusing. I have already been criticized for my recent case against the proposed building of this mosque. I even had to “unfriend” some Facebook attackers who got personal and illogical.
For the thousands of mostly illiterate, hungry and powerless Muslims that will gather in mosques in Islamabad, Karachi, Cairo, Delhi, Jakarta, Nairobi and Riyadh in a few hours for Khutba’s or sermons marking Eid-ul Fitr, the end of the holy month of fasting, Ramadan, the continuing Islam circus in America could either be very confusing or a call to violence. It is very far removed from the realities of their lives, for sure.
I still firmly believe that Feisal Rauf would not make much if any sense to most Muslims who live outside the “first world”. I also firmly believe that Pastor Jones is a marginal figure and part of a lunatic fringe within Christianity. I now know that both of them hanker after fame with little regard to the consequences of their actions. They should meet perhaps: they might find a lot in common.

Follow Parvez Sharma on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/parvezsharma

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

In the August 16 & 23 issue of The New Yorker, you can read a story of obsession, possession, excess and alienation that might fascinate or repel you. It’s the story of John Lurie, an artist whom you may remember as the hypnotizing actor in Jim Jarmusch’s Stranger Than Paradise and Down by Law. Or perhaps you recall him as the leader of the legendary Lounge Lizards (above). It’s also the story of John Perry, once John Lurie’s closest friend and devotee. This is the tale of how that friendship imploded (or exploded), and how Perry systematically dismantled Lurie’s sense of stability. Or not. For all we know, it may be that these no-holds-barred bad boys were playing the writer, Tad Friend, like one of Lurie’s saxophones, executing a piece of performance art whereby they co-inflated their shared history into a rift of King Kong proportions.
In the end, were it not for Daphne Merkin, the response might well be: Who cares?
Merkin’s meticulous dissections of depression have set a standard for courage in the face of the mind’s adversities. They deserve respect. They persist in the memory when reading about the mind games and miseries that these men, Lurie and Perry, have apparently inflicted on each other. (To be fair, Lurie was afflicted with an undiagnosed illness with a host of horrific symptoms that rendered him unable to leave his home for six years between 2002 and 2008. That’s enough to make anyone shaky.)
But back to Merkin. She is a cartographer in the land of those who are most dispossessed. A siren on the shore and Odysseus both — calling out to the sailors to wreck themselves on the shoals of the brittle truth about the fragility of mental health, while simultaneously sailing the demon-dominated seas in search of safe haven.
Daphne Merkin persists. In the words of the beleaguered Mrs. Loman in Death of a Salesman, she reminds us that “attention must be paid.” She is willing to risk the label ‘bourgeois’ in her quest for understanding of how each day can be borne. Frank about her upper-middle-class childhood and the more predictable milestones of her adulthood (even dropping Woody Allen’s name with a clunk), she is equally candid when she writes, “I have sat in shrinks’ offices going on four decades now and talked about my wish to die the way other people might talk about their wish to find a lover.”
In both her August 4 New York Times Magazine cover story about being a serial analysand, and in an article in the same publication on May 10, 2009 (from which the “wish to die” quotation comes), Merkin shows the courage of a burn victim on a tightrope. One wonders how she can concentrate, given the severity and visibility of her wounds. One reads and watches her keep her balance just enough to continue detailing what ails her and her relationships, trying to get to a place that might feel like the state of grace that no one is promised but so many seem, to her, to have experienced–the one where we feel seen for who we are.
Reading the New Yorker article about Lurie and Perry, one is stricken by how each man very clearly wants to control how both of them are perceived. One questions whether authenticity enters that picture. It’s hard to ignore the roles that women play in the lives of these two quasi-quasars. The point is very clearly made that both men have enjoyed the kind of downtown Manhattan celebrity that made ‘irresistible’ the starting gate for their evenings. A succession of girlfriends and co-dependents are quoted and often lauded for the ways in which they translate the language of feelings for these totems of aggression. On the other hand, Merkin writes of a solitary journey of “microdot-ing” her past and present feelings to a succession of therapists over four decades in an attempt to come to a cohesive sense of self.
The word had to be mentioned sooner or later: Self. As in self-absorption. As in self-pity. As in self-ish.
Doubtless, the discussion of all those S-words will continue as long as there is a condition called depression and as long as anyone has time and money enough to contemplate, in the company of a professional, his or her feelings about loneliness, isolation, and futility.
What prompts thoughts of Ms. Merkin in comparison to the epic of Lurie and Perry is that she confronts herself again and again–in ways that are excruciatingly revealing and painfully quotidian–with what may be a hope that by risking her audience’s disdain or, even worse, indifference, she may find her own meaning of the hell in which she has so clearly dwelled. It seems that willingness to confront self is the very thing that both Lurie and Perry seem to be avoiding while continuing their sandbox stand-off.
(To read the rest, click here.)

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Well, most of the reporting on this case was based on reading a bad press release, rather than reading the judge’s opinion.
Judge for yourself, it’s linked to by the honest material here.
The judge says “craigslist leaves this field with something less than total victory.” Not total victory, just a little less.
The judge kinda split the baby, but saidwe acted in good faith. We’ll keep fighting the good fight in California.

Follow Craig Newmark on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/craignewmark

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose. In English, that’s ‘The more things change, the more they stay the same.’
That phrase came to mind as I reviewed the reams of headlines produced by Catalyst during the years since Mayor Richard M. Daley took the reins of the Chicago Public Schools. Many of the stories that Catalyst has written over the last 15 years are the same stories we write and discuss now–budget cuts, too many high school dropouts, too few preschools…and so on.
That’s not to say that Daley, who’s stepping down from the job everyone in town thought he had locked up for life, has been bad for public schools. His education legacy, in some ways, is positive: labor peace after years of strike threats, a lower dropout rate, a smaller district bureaucracy and more high school graduates enrolling in college. Other big-city mayors, including New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg, followed suit on one of Daley’s major moves: scrapping the district’s policy of social promotion of failing students. This past week, the mayor appeared at two public events showcasing education: a press conference to announce a revamp of career training in high schools and a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new school on the Southwest Side.
Yet Daley’s most ambitious strategy, Renaissance 2010, has had mixed results and still angers grassroots activists because it shut down failing and under-enrolled schools and sparked an explosion in privately-run charters.
These new Renaissance schools have brought a chance at a better education to students eager to escape failing traditional schools but unable to get a coveted slot in magnet schools with special programs or selective schools. Some Renaissance schools, indeed, are high-performing. Yet school closings have been detrimental to students. A study by researchers at the University of Chicago shows that most displaced kids landed at another bad school. And despite Renaissance, three out of four Chicago Public Schools students remain enrolled in low-performing schools.
Most importantly, Renaissance 2010 never included a strategy for improving neighborhood schools that still enroll the vast majority of students.
The public judges schools by test scores, and despite some improvement, Chicago’s scores have yet to reach state standards–not to mention national averages, a better measure of how well schools are preparing students for life and work in the 21st Century.
Whoever wins the coming mayoral free-for-all will have to come up with a plan to raise achievement–and Chicago is beyond the stage at which the rollout of a big program will cut it.
Whatever school improvement strategy the mayor’s successor devises, the devil will be in the details.
One key element will be to boost morale, which teachers report is at rock-bottom because of layoffs and budget cuts. The toughest schools are most likely to have a revolving door of teachers, according to another University of Chicago study. And many veteran teachers fear that the district wants to push out experienced educators in favor of lower-paid rookies (a complaint heard in workplaces everywhere, not just schools). Chicago schools need a leader who can inspire teachers and make clear that their hard work is valued, needed and supported.
Good teachers are just one element of good schools. Community and parent involvement, strong leadership, and challenging coursework for students are other essential elements, research has found. The worst schools won’t improve without all the pieces of the puzzle.
The next schools CEO should be someone who understands the puzzle at ground level. That’s something Daley’s hand-picked CEOs–Paul Vallas, Arne Duncan, Ron Huberman, all non-educators–haven’t brought to the table. Duncan gets a bad rap in some circles, but seemed to best understand that idea and worked closely with his chief education officer. That job is now vacant.
Maybe managers fit the bill under Daley’s tenure, as a way to shake up the system. But to take schools to the next level, the next mayor needs to heed critics who have long called for an educator with a proven track record to run the system.
It’s no guarantee, but it’s a shot. Besides, we’re tired of recycling headlines.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

So, in Alaska politics, is it all about the money?
Would Joe Miller have beaten Lisa Murkowski if they ran against each other in a general election? Most people say no. The ability of this particular primary to call out the Tea Party faithful, by way of a $600,000 media blitz funded by the Tea Party Express demonizing Murkowski, and a ballot initiative on parental notification for abortion, called out the far right in droves, and showed us first hand what happens when “Get Out the Vote” meets apathy.
While Lisa Murkowski decides whether or not to run a write-in campaign, the national endorsements are flooding in for Joe Miller. Before Murkowski’s final decision has been announced, senators like John McCain, Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn and Jim DeMint are flocking to support her opponent. Murkowski, the current Republican senator, whose got all kinds of clout in D.C., hasn’t even said she’s out of the race yet. And yet, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) is rearing its head and winging its way to the Last Frontier.
$200,000 is big money, especially in an Alaska election where a dollar goes a lot farther than it does in large media markets. It’s possible that before this is over, the candidate that everyone says is a sure thing will have had to run a multi-million dollar campaign against a potential write-in candidate whose last name is M-U-R-K-O-W-S-K-I, and the relatively unknown Democrat Scott McAdams. But, Alaska is supposed to be such a Republican state. All you’ve got to do is find a guy who’s got an R next to his name, put him in a plaid shirt, have him say he hates the federal government, and he’ll trounce anybody, right?
What the national media seems to be missing is the fact that what Alaska wanted more than anything, just four short years ago, was a small town mayor from humble roots who was ready to run a grassroots campaign while thumbing her nose at the establishment; who told Alaskans there would be no more “business as usual”; that Alaskans came first; that she was just regular folks; whose campaign slogan was “Take a Stand”; whose family had an interest in commercial fishing; and who said we don’t care how they do it Outside…this is Alaska.
Sarah Palin’s story, meet Scott McAdams’ story. OK, minus the drama, the ego, the narcissism, the instability and the lack of intellectual curiosity. And the red Naughty Monkey pumps.
But back to Joe Miller.
His experience? The only public office he’s ever run for was State House, and he lost. To a Democrat. In Fairbanks.
His platform? Tell the federal government to keep their stinkin’ money (also known as one third of the Alaskan economy).
His primary campaign strategy? Distorting the record of, and disrespecting a well-loved sitting Senator who by all reasonable assumptions would have trounced him in a head to head general election, and making her many loyal supporters hate his guts.
His past history with the party? He tried to overthrow the Alaska Republican Party two years ago by staging a coup and ousting Party Chair Randy Ruedrich. He failed.
And don’t forget that a recent Rasmussen poll, had Scott McAdams – a relatively unknown Democrat – trailing the half-million dollar Tea Party darlin’ Joe Miller by only six points – 50/44.
That’s why the money is flowing in. The Republicans on a national level would have loved this to be an easy race. They all could have focused their time, and money elsewhere. But they’re ready to pump hundreds of thousands of dollars into this campaign, and throw a sitting senator who still may run under the bus by backing her extremist rival. Why? Because they know they could lose, which would not only mean two Democratic Senators in Washington D.C., but egg all over the face of Sarah Palin, their golden goose on the fundraising circuit.
The biggest obstacle for Scott McAdams right now is money. The grassroots is rising, but time is short. He hasn’t had much support or infrastructure because everyone just knew Lisa would win the primary and go back to Washington. Surprise!
McAdams’ mission now is to quickly let voters know where he stands on the issues, and reassure them that he’s a strong candidate. He’s raising money hand over fist from the base, and from terrified moderates in Alaska, and on Act Blue. But, will the big bucks come from the DSCC or elsewhere? Are they asking themselves why the Republicans are throwing money at this as fast as they can? They ought to be. Will Alaskans loosen up the purse strings and make up for it if the outside money doesn’t come? Time will tell, and there isn’t much of it to spare.
So, why does U.S. News & World Report say that the NRSC shouldn’t be interested in Alaska? And why do the number crunchers say that Miller is a shoe-in? Because they don’t know all this. They think that Alaska is as easy to predict as everywhere else. Guess what happened the last time everyone predicted what would happen? Joe Miller beat Lisa Murkowski. And the time before that? Sarah Palin beat former Governor Tony Knowles. And Mark Begich beat Ted Stevens. And if the polls had been right, we’d have Congressman Ethan Berkowitz (D) in Washington D.C., and Don Young (R) would be off in hip-waders, standing in some river trying to catch one of the last salmon of the season, and enjoying the second year of his retirement.
Think you’ve got Alaska all figured out? Think again.

Follow Jeanne Devon (“AKMuckraker”) on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/Mudflats

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

I’m thrilled at the response to my previous blog post on America’s need for 401(k) reform. The bad news is that big business has already developed a strategy to kill reform — by intimidating the rank and file into lobbying against it. And it’s perfectly legal.
While President Obama justifiably criticized the Supreme Court’s Citizen United ruling that pretty much removes the limits from campaign spending in advertising, the real scandal on Capitol Hill isn’t bankrolling corrupt candidates but creating a “fake citizens lobby” that convinces elected officials to vote the wrong way. It’s perfectly legal for big business to pressure employees to lobby against reform that would help employees — presumably employing the “spin” that reform is a job killer.
The group that’s behind this tactic is one you’ve probably never heard of, BIPAC, a coalition of business owners and associations. When it comes to corporate skulduggery, you can’t get much more lowlife than the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), one of BIPAC’s leading members. NAM has fought against regulating derivatives because doing so “could hinder job creation for manufacturing” — gee, which factories manufacture derivatives? NAM has also demanded the overhaul of the Family and Medical Leave Act because employees abuse it, and argued that employees who suffer from repetitive stress injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome aren’t really disabled.
There’s a good chance that a “fake grass-roots effort” orchestrated by NAM helped convince members of Congress to drop their support for the Employee Free Choice Act, which lets workers opt for unionization simply by signing cards rather than through secret ballot elections. When I went to the page on a website that BIPAC created displaying sample campaigns, I saw a link where employees of NAM’s member companies are encouraged to “Tell Members of Congress to Oppose the ‘Employee FORCED Choice Act.” Technically speaking, businesses can’t punish employees who refuse to go along with this effort but in these tough economic times, I wouldn’t be surprised if employees are likely to do what they’re told rather than risk their job security.
Not surprisingly, NAM is a member of an employer group whose purpose is to fight any reform of 401(k) plans called The Coalition on Employee Retirement Benefits (CERB). Remember Enron? One of its most despicable practices was matching employees 401(k) contributions with company stock, which turns into “play money” if the company goes under. It’s very likely that CERB’s lobbying efforts watered down the Pension Security Act, which merely allows workers to sell company stock within three years of receiving it rather than limiting it in 401(k) accounts or prohibiting it altogether. As I pointed out in my book, “America, Welcome to the Poorhouse,” in a letter to members of the Senate Finance Committee, CERB hints that if Congress is too hard on employers they might stop making 401(k) contributions altogether: “[If] employers are not allowed to meet the legitimate business of encouraging employee ownership…they are likely to reduce or eliminate matching contributions.”
How do we get members of Congress to work for the taxpayers who pay their salaries, as opposed to the business lobby? My thinking is that the chance of passing genuine campaign reform legislation is slim — especially since Congress would have to vote for it. Instead we should create a citizens lobby, comprised of blue and white collar Americans who are watching their American dream turn into a nightmare, whether we’re talking about higher medical co-pays, or unaffordable mortgages. Even when it comes to job shortages, most of us are “all in this financial stress together” — whether we’re affected by blue-collar factory jobs that have been outsourced to China or radiology/engineering jobs that have been off-shored to India.
As former SEIU President Andy Stern told me, “Team USA is in trouble. We don’t have a plan. Let’s grow up, people. This is a global economic war. We need to shake off complacency and get out of our self-analytical malaise.” Forget about this Tea Party nonsense, we need a genuine new American revolution against the business lobby and those in Washington who do its bidding.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

We so do NOT like change. We (editorial “we,” as the right wing pundits use it)) realized this on arriving at the newly relocated Toronto Film Festival. You see, mastering a film fest is no simple matter. It requires cunning, forbearance, the bladder of a camel, a good sense of direction, and sharp elbows — and the thing is, after several years, I had the old festival on Bloor Street around the posh Yorkville area nailed. But the city elders have anointed downtown Toronto as the New Entertainment Section. Anchoring it is the almost-completed TIFF Bell Lightbox, an immense glass complex and one-stop cinephile’s paradise, ten years in the making, that will house screenings, gallery shows, exhibitions, workshops, multi-media events and more.
Meanwhile we journos must navigate the sketchy streets of Toronto’s Entertainment Section. Shawarma and “Jerk” joints abound, along with a shady facade near my hotel called Mansion with a cash machine in its heart. Hard to find a place for breakfast, too. I stumbled over the trolley tracks towards a hole in the wall only to be greeted by a waiter who seemed surprised I wanted food. No one seemed to understand the word “cereal.”
Then there’s the Scotiabank Theatyer, the temporary — let’s pray — venue for press screenings. The place suggests a Third World fantasy of American trendiness and cool. From the lobby’s ceiling dangles a hideous space invader thing-y and a three-story escalator bears you to a concourse of slanting, undulating levels and glinting disco balls, not recommended for those with vertigo issues. This venue is free of anything remotely healthy to consume — in fact, the array of pizza, burger, and pretzel and mustard fare — plus enough sweets to trigger a hypoglycemic coma — play like shorthand for the American diet.
Most astonishing, in a theater that can seat upwards of two thousand souls, I could find only one bathroom. Elephants get better treatment. The solution might be to just scatter newspaper shavings in strategic corners. The TIFF volunteers offer good will and smiles — but ask them the whereabouts (“whereaboats” in Canadian) of something and they’ll say, Good question!
Oh yeah, the movies. I’m here to tell you that with “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger” Woody Allen is in terrific form — in fact, the best in years. With the usual white titles on black, oldie “When You Wish Upon a Star” tinkling on the soundtrack, you relax back in your seat and happily surrender to Woody-land. A voice-over instantly takes charge to relate a story of two London-based couples with adulterous itches. Josh Brolin is bashing away at a new novel without much success, while wife Naomi Watts works for elegant art gallerist Antonio Banderas. Brolin has the hots for neighboring guitarist Freida Pinto, while Watts covets her boss. The kinks and twists in the characters’ destiny amuse without flagging. You will love the scene in which Watts does her damndest to convey her attraction to Banderas, who maddeningly refuses even to acknowledge that she’s coming on to him. It’s a brilliant new bit in Woody’s gallery of miscommunicating couples.
Yet another story concerns a senior, Anthony Hopkins, who has dumped his wife to pursue fitness and who eventually marries a hooker. Easy laughs and Viagra jokes here, but Hopkins lends them gravitas. Of course, this being Woody-land, Hopkins has been prompted to alter his life by a vision of eternity yawning before him, impelling him to live it up NOW. (Cue Larry David in “Whatever It Takes” who wakes up at night exclaiming “the horror, the horror.”) Who but Woody can make fear of death so consistently entertaining? Meanwhile, Hopkins’s abandoned wife has fallen prey to a fortune teller who believes in reincarnation. By film’s end the lives of the characters are pretty much in a shambles. With one exception: a character who has bought peace and fulfillment by abandoning reason and living entirely in illusion. A sardonic denouement, but delivered with the lightest of touches.
More tomorrow on Darren Aronofsky’s controversial “The Black Swan.”

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Have you heard about the rats who found sugar or saccharin more tantalizing than cocaine?
That’s right, in a fascinating study, most of the critters studied — a whopping 94 percent — wanted sugar or saccharin, not cocaine.
Anyhow, today, while doing some research for my next book, “Beyond Sugar Shock” — the follow-up to my first book “Sugar Shock” — I was reminded of this fascinating study from Dr. Serge Ahmed, a scientist with the University of Bordeaux in France. Last year, I had the pleasure of meeting Serge while on a ferry en route to a Food Addiction conference on IslandWood, Bainbridge Island to give fitness guru Jack LaLanne a Lifetime Achievement Award. Incidentally, LaLanne, who turns 96 on Sept. 26, has been sugar-free for more than EIGHT decades.(By the way, you can listen to a special radio interview I conducted with Jack here.)
Back to the glorious commuter boat ride with Dr. Serge Ahmed. Just imagine: There I am, grateful to have the good fortune to hang out with one of the most fascinating scientists, who is studying my top area of interest, sugar addiction! In fact, I’ve been so intrigued by the topic that Chapter 9, “Proof Pours In: New Studies Show That You Can Become Dependent on Sweets,” was the first one I wrote for my book “Sugar Shock.” So there Serge and I are on the ferry. After practicing my rusty French on him, I asked Serge (in English this time so I wouldn’t miss anything) about his sugar addiction research. Now, just imagine Serge speaking with his adorable French accent. He told me, “Connie, I was so surprised. We discovered that sugar may be as addictive as cocaine.” You had to see Serge’s face to get a sense of this monumental discovery. His eyebrows lifted. His eyes grew big. His face registered shock. He moved his hands about dramatically.
The next day, at the conference, Serge laid out his findings in more detail to the attendees of this event, called “Food Addiction: The Obesity Epidemic Connection.” The title of Serge’s presentation said it all. It posed the question, “Is Sugar as Addictive as Cocaine?”Ultimately, Serge and his research team discovered that intense sweetness “is much more rewarding and probably more addictive than intravenous cocaine.” Or, to put it another way, the French scientists’ findings “clearly demonstrate that intense sweetness can surpass cocaine reward, even in drug-sensitized and drug-addicted individuals.” In the booklet presented to Food Addiction conference attendees, Serge concludes: “When society finally discovers that refined sugar is just another white powder, along with pure cocaine, it will change its mind and attitude toward refined food addiction.” At the same conference, I also had the pleasure of meeting renowned addiction researcher Dr. Bartley Hoebel of Princeton University’s Neuroscience Institute, whose work I mentioned in a recent AOL News story about Ellen DeGeneres and Jeff Garlin kicking sugar. What a treat! As I discussed in my book Sugar Shock, Dr. Hoebel — who has been studying sugar addiction for 10 years — found that sugar can act on the brain in ways similar to drugs of abuse. Dr. Hoebel’s rats even went into withdrawal symptoms within a half hour of being administered the opiate blocker naloxone.Their “teeth started chattering,” Dr. Hoebel told me. “They waved their heads back and forth. Their forepaws quivered. They acted anxious in a maze test. These are all signs of sugar withdrawal. They weren’t as pronounced as what we see with morphine, but it was withdrawal.” What happened? Well, Dr. Hoebel thinks that “sugar triggered production of the brain’s natural opiates or morphine-like compounds.” Wait a minute! But the rats didn’t have drugs. They just had sugar! The rats would rather go into sugar shock than have cocaine!
So why am I bringing up these addiction studies? Because, if you have an overpowering sugar habit, I want you to know that this addictive feeling is not all in your head. You actually can get hooked. But more importantly, I’m here to bring you hope. You can cut out your pesky sugar or carb cravings. Certainly, you can try on your own, but it can be really tough, and frankly, I wouldn’t wish this cutting-loose-on-your-own on anyone! That’s why for over 12 years — ever since I kicked sugar myself — I’ve been developing a program to help you Break Free of Your Sugar Addiction — and to help you release your habit easily.
Alas, back in 1998, I used to be like those sugar-clamoring rats. (Are you, too?) But, thankfully, that’s history and I no longer crave sugary foods. You heard me right. You should know is that I do not miss the substance. Honest! So, my mission these days is to show you that you don’t have to be consumed by these gotta-have-sugar-NOW feelings. You can achieve Sugar Liberation! And, if you allow me, it would be my honor to take you to that delicious state of Sugar Freedom.
Just think: When you remove sugar from your diet (or at least cut back on your intake), you will get benefits galore! For instance:
Your weight could easily peel off
You could become more cheerful
You may concentrate better
You may say bye bye to severe PMS, infertility or a horrible menopause.
You could get along better with loved ones.
You could have a revved-up libido.
You may have lots of energy — more so than you’ve had in years.
And more.
Warmly,
Connie Bennett, Author, Sugar Shock and Beyond Sugar Shock (Upcoming/Hay House)P.S. Sign up now for this Pre-Fall Special of only $147 by Tues., Sept. 15 at 11:59 EST tonight. Just go to www.BreakFreeWithConnie.com
Special thanks to Mike Adams and NaturalNews.com for the above cartoon, which you can read about here.
Connie Bennett is author of the bestselling book, Sugar Shock!, which has been praised by Dr. Mehmet Oz, Dr. Christiane Northrup, Marilu Henner and many others. She is now writing her next book, Beyond Sugar Shock, for Hay House. Connie is a certified life coach, certified health coach, experienced journalist, host of the Gab with the Gurus Radio Show, which is available on iTunes. Connie is also a former sugar addict, who is now dedicated to helping people around the world to Break Free of their Sugar Addiction and Other Bad Habits (what she calls Babits). Connie is founder of the acclaimed Break Free of Your Sugar Addiction in 6 Weeks Program, which next begins Tues, Sept. 14. Listen to Connie’s Free Tele-Party now to discover 10 Reasons You are Hooked on Sugar. Then, act now to take advantage of the Pre-Fall Special at www.BreakFreeWithConnie.com

Follow Connie Bennett on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/SmartHabitsGirl

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Plans by a Florida fruitcake named Terry Jones to burn the holy book of Islam, the Koran, and the media coverage of the non-event, triggered widespread and sometimes violent demonstrations in Afghanistan. At least one person was killed, shot to death by perhaps Afghan security forces. Jones had earlier canceled his book-burning event, but only after a statement by the President of the United States and a direct plea by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who should not have had to waste his time pleading with a little loony-tune who calls himself a Christian preacher. The cancellation – or maybe it was just a postponement – failed to halt the demonstrations in Afghanistan, where Jones’s incendiary plans had placed U.S. and other coalition forces at grave risk.
What Jones has been threatening to do – burn a copy of the Koran – was willfully stupid but would not be illegal in the U.S., where the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects such acts as free speech. Remember when Vietnam War protesters burned American flags? That was protected speech as well. So was the Dutch cartoon that depicted the Prophet Muhammed as a bombhead, although its publication, along with eleven other similar depictions of Muhammed, ignited rioting worldwide that led to an estimated 100 deaths. German Chancellor Angela Merkel this week was somehow able to condemn one form of free speech -Koran-burning – while applauding the Dutch cartoonist.
All this has raised questions about the First Amendment and about the responsibility of the mass media, as well as about the blind intolerance of some Muslims.
Polls in the past have found that many Americans would repeal the First Amendment if given the chance, which shows that they do not understand it. In addition to making the press the only constitutionally protected form of free enterprise (thus creating the so-called Fourth Estate), the First Amendment also protects our right to assemble peaceably, our right to petition the government, and our freedom to practice whatever religion we choose. In addition to allowing Terry Jones to burn a book, the First Amendment protects the rantings of the Limbaughs and Becks and the biases of Faux News.
Let’s be clear: you cannot have a democracy without free speech and a free press. If there were no First Amendment, only the speech of the political party in power would be protected. But let’s be equally clear about the responsibility of citizens vis–vis the First Amendment: the right of free speech is a very great power, and if used irresponsibly, as Jones proposed to do, it can undermine democracy. But what about the mass media, who made little tiny Terry Jones and his little tiny band of likeminded (meaning “mindless”) followers into front page news around the globe? True, they have the freedom to print, broadcast, Tweet, email, blog whatever they choose, but where’s the sense of proportion? Terry Jones doesn’t represent America – or at least he didn’t until his stupidity was magnified by media coverage. Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, in their excellent little book The Elements of Journalism (Crown Publishers) address just this type of issue in a chapter titled, “Make the News Comprehensive and Proportional.” It’s proportionality that got way out of whack in the Terry Jones story. Kovach and Rosenstiel compare sensationalism in the news to the early mapmakers who exaggerated the importance of their own countries:
Terry Jones should have had more sense. The news media should have treated him as the mosquito he is. The Muslims who riot in response to free speech should say hello to the 21st century and recognize the rights and freedoms of democratic countries. And we should all defend our own democracy by exercising our First Amendment rights – and responsibilities.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

By Terry FitzPatrick, Senior Writer-Producer/Deputy Communications Director of Free the Slaves
Trafficked into sexual slavery at 14, Tina Frundt now heads her own anti-slavery organization. Based in Washington, D.C., Courtney’s House is scheduled to open a shelter dedicated to rehabilitating survivors of sex trafficking. Frundt is the 2010 recipient of the Frederick Douglass Freedom Award, given every year by Free the Slaves to survivors of slavery who now dedicate their lives to helping others.
Tina Frundt says that no little girl dreams of becoming a sex slave when she grows up. That’s why Tina risks her life in the middle of the night to reach out to teens that are trapped. She knows their pain and fear. “The reason why I’m so compelled to do this work is because I’m a survivor of sex trafficking,” Tina says, “and quite honestly, nobody did this for me.”
It takes Tina just ten seconds to let a sex slave know that someone cares about their plight and can help them escape. She does it on the streets of Washington, D.C. at night. Walking casually along, she hands off a simple trinket that contains a telephone hotline number. It’s a covert encounter, and Tina works hard to blend in so that traffickers won’t become suspicious.
“If we were handing out papers or a big sign that said trafficking hotline, they wouldn’t call it because they know we didn’t know how to come at them correctly,” Tina says.
Tina’s innovative approach works. Sex slaves do call her hotline. And once they’ve made that call, to a hotline staffed entirely by sex slavery survivors, they know there’s a path to freedom.
Tina bounced through more than 20 foster homes before being adopted by loving parents at age 12. She was insecure and vulnerable when a guy in his 20s approached her one day as she was heading to a neighborhood store in Chicago.
“I didn’t know what trafficking was,” Tina says. “I didn’t know what a pimp was. I didn’t know what slavery was. I had no idea.”
The older guy struck up a friendly conversation. He wasn’t threatening. Tina thought she had nothing to fear. The guy began to buy her gifts and drive her to school. He was building up trust, while secretly planning to snatch it away.
On her 14th birthday, Tina accepted a ride from the man, but this time he trafficked her to Cleveland, Ohio, where she was raped and trapped as a sex slave.
For more than a year, Tina was forced to serve up to 18 men a day. She was beaten and burned with cigarettes if she failed to earn enough money for the trafficker. She was warned that calling for help would be futile.
“The trafficker told me that if I ever told the police anything, that they would arrest me and no one would help me. And everything he said was true. Everything.”
Tina escaped sex slavery by going to jail. The trafficker had broken her arm with a baseball bat, but when police came, they saw Tina as a criminal, not a victim.
Tina says she hit bottom at least ten times after that. But everything changed when she helped herself by helping others to freedom. She began by hiding escaped sex slaves in her own house. She then started to speak out, telling her story to the public.
“I don’t think people understand that there can be sex slaves in the United States,” Tina says.
Tina started her own anti-slavery organization with a small inheritance she received when her adoptive mom died in 2008. It’s called Courtney’s House, named for one of her daughters. The group runs the street outreach project and telephone hotline. A first-of-its kind shelter for U.S.-born teenage sex slavery survivors in the Washington metro area is scheduled to open soon. It will provide a safe and supportive environment for survivors to begin rebuilding their lives.
It’s difficult for Tina to tell her story in public, but she does so to build awareness that American children are being forced into sex slavery on American soil. She has brought her message to the United Nations and the U.S. Congress.
She passes out flyers and speaks to Washington commuters through a megaphone to alert them to what happens outside their office buildings at night. She conducts training workshops for groups in other cities to make their street outreach teams more effective.
Her personal experience makes Tina a beacon of hope for others coming out of sex slavery.
“I listen to Tina because she is not just someone with a college degree or has done some research on this,” says Shamer, a sex slavery survivor. “She’s someone who’s walked in my shoes.”
Tina thinks of Shamer and the many others she has rescued as her family. And many love her like a mom.

Follow Free The Slaves on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/freetheslaves

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

For those who have been too busy worrying about their fantasy drafts to notice, several NFL teams are in serious jeopardy of having multiple games blacked out this season. Taxpayers and fans in cities around the country should be outraged.
If an NFL game is not sold out 72 hours prior to kickoff, league rules mandate that the game be blacked out in the local market. Last season, the NFL blacked out 22 games and this season looks worse.
A lot worse.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers became the first victims of the league’s blackout policy, having failed to sell out this weekend’s game against the Cleveland Brown before the deadline.
While Browns fans will get to see this game because it’s in Tampa, they may miss future games played in Cleveland. On Thursday, Sherrod Brown, the junior Democratic senator from Ohio, released a letter to NFL-commissioner Roger Goodell calling the NFL’s blackout policy “deeply troubling.” That’s Senator-speak for seriously f’d up.
Brown may be primarily concerned about fans of the Browns and the Bengals, but the problem affects sports fans around the country. Especially in this economy.
Consider that 18 of the 32 NFL teams raised their ticket prices this year.
And according to Team Marketing Research, it cost an average of $413 to take a family of four to an NFL game last season. That’s for one game.
Now, some may argue that this is just a matter of capitalism and that the owners have every right to blackout television broadcasts if their games aren’t sold out. That would be fine if most of these owners weren’t benefiting from taxpayer funded stadiums.
The Buccaneers, for instance, play in Raymond James Stadium, which cost $168.5 million and which was financed entirely by raising taxes. The taxpayers of Tampa built the stadium only after Bucs owner Malcolm Glazer threatened to move the team if they didn’t. (It’s one of the key steps in what “Field of Schemes” author Neil deMause calls “the great stadium swindle.”) So now Tampa taxpayers who paid for the stadium and who can’t afford to go to the games can’t even see the Bucs on television thanks to the rules of the owners — most of whom didn’t pay for the stadiums they play in.
Browns fans are intimately aware of the “art of the steal,” having lost their team after refusing to cave to Art Moddell in the mid-90′s and being forced to build a new stadium in order to reactivate the Browns. The team now plays in the $283 million Cleveland Browns Stadium. Meanwhile, Bengals fans (actually, Hamilton County taxpayers) forked over $455 million for Paul Brown Stadium, which opened in 2000. And despite all the money Clevelanders and Cincinattians paid because they love their NFL teams, their loyalties may be rewarded with blackouts.
Fans in Kansas City, Detroit, San Diego, and St. Louis, among others, may also feel the same sense of betrayal this season.
In addition, for those who argue that the government shouldn’t get involved in the matter, remember that before Congress got involved in the 1970′s, the NFL blacked out all home games, whether they were sold out or not. It wasn’t until Congress passed a law that the NFL relented and agreed to show games sold out prior to 72 hours before kickoff. FCC regulations further require that these games be blacked out.
Sports fans around the country need to stand up and demand that the NFL end the practice of blacking out games, at least in cities with taxpayer financed stadiums. Fans should contact their representatives and senators and ask them to write to the FCC and Roger Goodell.
With any luck, a few more senators will be willing to join Sherrod Brown in asking the NFL to remember that “football has long been a source of pride for communities” around the country and that blackouts betray loyal fans.
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Brian Frederick is the Executive Director ofSports Fans Coalition. He holds a Ph.D. in Communication and lives in Washington, D.C. Email him at sportsfanscoalition@gmail.com

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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com