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Renewing the Bush tax cuts is like:
…driving your car off the cliff, paying a tow truck twice the price of the car to haul it back up,
then driving it back over because your brother-in-law’s cousin’s friend told you this time it will fly.
…celebrating your one day sobriety pin with a cognac and crack party.
…getting gonorrhea from unprotected sex, and after you get rid of it, going back to the bath house to see if you can get something incurable this time.
…a 400 pound person going on all McDonald’s diet.
…after the drunk British football hooligans have rioted and burned down the stadium, you rebuild the stadium and, this time, to make it better, you offer free all-you-can-drink beer.
…a prostitute getting out of ‘the life’ by switching from cash to credit cards.
…losing all your money with Bernie Madoff, then convincing the rest of your family to break him out of jail so they can invest all their money with him too.
…after the earthquake rebuilding your house on the fault line, instead of just next to it.
…giving your local alchemist your life savings to turn lead into gold, and after the lead remains lead, robbing the bank to pay him to do it again.
…invading Afghanistan to get Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar, then, after you fail, invading Iraq to get weapons of mass destruction that don’t exist.
…putting poison in your food to teach the dog not to eat off the table, then forgetting what you did and eating it yourself.
…after you get lung cancer, smoking again because the worst has already happened.
…is like knowingly doing 2001-2009 all over again, a few people get rich, no new jobs are created, and the whole economy collapses.
This is a contest. It’s open to everyone. The writer of the best comparison gets to live with the consequences of whatever our loony legislators and waffling president do.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Joe Bonamassa is to the blues-rock guitar what a tsunami is to a coastline: A devastating force of nature to be reckoned with. Easily one of the top guitarists living, he could go toe-to-toe with Stevie Ray Vaughn and Jimi Hendrix. So why haven’t you heard of him?
He opened for B.B. King at the age of 12, and has played with Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Foreigner, Robert Cray, Stephen Stills, Joe Cocker, Gregg Allman, Steve Winwood, Paul Jones, Ted Nugent, Warren Haynes, and Derek Trucks, to name a few.
Bonamassa is a member of the newly-formed rock super group Black Country Communion which includes Joe, Deep Purple/Black Sabbath bassist Glenn Hughes, former-Foreigner drummer Jason Bonham, and KISS keyboardist Derek Sherinian.
The fourth generation of Bonamassas who have been musicians, he is the most successful. He has played at top venues all over the world, including the Royal Albert Hall in London.
In Europe and the rest of the world, Bonamassa is a bigger name. His concert at the Royal Albert Hall in 2009 sold out 5800 seats in less than a week when they went on sale four months in advance of the concert date. First and foremost a Blues man, his act is a harder sell in America. At the Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Florida last night, they sized down the already small venue to 2,500.
Bonamassa has opened for B.B. King a few times, and he’s played a lot of gigs from state fairs with fellow blues-rocker Johnny Lang down to an old hall in Fort Lauderdale, FLA which he recounts had seven people turn out to see him.
“Those seven people got the best show of their lives,” he told the crowd at Hard Rock Live last night.
That’s true of pretty much every concert that he has ever given. Bonamassa is the hardest working man in show business. He generally has no opening act, and he never leaves the stage until the last encore two hours later. He plays with a control that few living artists possess. He can play with blinding speed, or the faintest delicacy that can bring even the drunks at the Hard Rock into awe-stricken silence.
He plays and plays at concerts, and never talks much within the first forty minutes. To introduce guest drummer Jason Bonham at the Hollywood, Florida Hard Rock concert he prefaced Bonham’s introduction with: “You know it’s something special if you hear me talk more than once.”
Bonamassa’s simple stage suits and combed back hair and sunglasses make him look like Agent Smith from “The Matrix” with Converse shoes.
He blew away Ft. Lauderdale audiences opening for B.B. King two years ago. “I would have paid to just see him,” said one amazed fan after he blew the audience away with 30 minutes of virtuosity on the acoustic blues guitar.
He does this, from Japan to Sweden to South Florida for more than 200 nights each year. His old concert shirts read: “Joe Bonamassa: Always on the Road.”
The only thing holding him back in his early days was that he could play a guitar like nobody’s business, but his vocal talents were more under-developed and required a few years of nurturing. Today, a strong voice with a lot of range gives him the whole package.
“This kid’s potential is unbelievable. He hasn’t even begun to scratch the surface,” gushed B.B. King of 12-year-old Joe. “He’s one of a kind.”
Even though he’s an excellent student of American Blues artists like Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker, he cites Eric Clapton, Paul Kossoff and Peter Green’s British Blues as more of his source of inspiration. He played with Clapton in his Royal Albert Hall concert.
Bonamassa debuted as a solo artist in 2000 with a CD called “A New Yesterday” produced by Tom Dowd which featured guest performances by Gregg Allman, Rick Derringer and Leslie West. His 2002 followup, “So, It’s Like That” was his first to hit #1 on Billboard’s Blues chart. Subsequent albums “You & Me” (2006) and “Sloe Gin” (2007) both hit the top of the Blues board at Billboard.
He has also spun records as a DJ for shows on both UK rock station “Planet Rock” and on Sirius/XM’s Bluesville channel.
His 2011 calendar looks like his bid to finally conquer the American market is well under way. He will play mostly U.S. dates, including the House of Blues in Las Vegas on February 19, 2011.
Wherever he goes, if you like Clapton, Hendrix, or Stevie Ray, you’ll love Joe Bonamassa, and tell a friend. In just a few years, he could be a 25 year overnight sensation.
My shiny two.

Follow Brian Ross on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/theclevertwit

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Leave it to Ralph Nader to do a Tea Party like slur of President Obama the few times a reporter comes calling. During the presidential campaign a peeved and unnerved Nader didn’t stop at criticizing Obama for what he considered a bought and paid for Beltway insider. He asked rhetorically “Is it because he wants to talk white?” Nader got singed for playing the race card (along with a lot of applause from some who should have known better). Now Nader’s back and he topped that by calling Obama “a con man” in an interview with The Hill.
He couldn’t stop at that slur and had to add “I have no use for him.” There are a couple of reasons Nader’s still around and still gets an occasional nod in the press. The obvious one is that he can always be depended to take a swipe at Obama when there’s a touchy issue at the head of the nation’s political table that puts Obama on the spot. The tax cut deal Obama brokered with the GOP that sent liberal Democrats and progressives into orbit was the wedge to squeeze Nader into the press to rap Obama.
The other reason that Nader has some press ink value is because there are many that still like and admire him, and like even more like his anti-corporate, tweaking of the two parties. They fervently believe there is no substantive difference between the Democrats and Republicans. They don’t see Obama as a real change guy but rather another deal making Beltway insider who has betrayed his hope and change promise. That’s been the constant mantra of left side Democrats and Independents who pound Obama for what they believe are flips, reversals and shifts on crucial policy issues; the tax cut deal being just the latest.
Though Nader has for the most part been the invisible man in the media, he’s still doggedly talking up his populist message, and railing at what he calls the Democrats and GOP corporate laden policies.
But Nader is not delusionary. Though he flatly called for someone to oppose Obama in the 2012 Democratic primary, he knows that someone is not him. He’s had his moments in the political sun, and the combination of age (he’s 76), the still heavy historical cross he’ll always bear as the “spoiler” who tipped the election to Bush in 2000, and his virtual disappearance from the media scene except for the occasional pro forma raps of Obama, make him a political anachronism, and to some, even a pariah.
Now his charge that Obama is a “con man” may get a few cheers from the diehard Obama loathers on the left, but it won’t do much to make Nader a voice that anyone at the top will listen to and heed. In other words, Nader’s biting personal words about Obama “I have no use for him” apply to him as well with those who count.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He hosts nationally broadcast political affairs radio talk shows on Pacifica and KTYM Radio Los Angeles. Follow Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Twitter and on thehutchinsonreportnews.com and view The Hutchinson Report here.

Follow Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Twitter:
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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Many Democrats want a better vision for America than the initial deal struck with Republicans. Call us TARPed out — weary from bailout fatigue, we just can’t see meeting Republican hostage takers’ demands. Watching Bill Clinton help Barack Obama extend George Bush tax cuts — something no one could have imagined nearly four years ago during the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary — it’s easy to see why Democrats have cognitive dissonance. Here were two enormously popular Democratic leaders saying we should hand Republicans their “holy grail” because this is the best we can do. Is it? Let’s discuss.
Remember our psychology. It is not in our nature to accept top-down edicts. As President Clinton often observed: “Democrats want to fall in love; Republicans want to fall in line” — yet there he was asking Democrats to fall in line. And President Obama called us to service with “real change that comes from the bottom up.” A more interactive approach would go a long way toward uniting us around a common vision.
Respect our principles. Democrats have deep love of country and principle. Those of us fighting this fight since spring 2001 — when even John McCain opposed the budget busting spending — aren’t realistically going to abandon our principles. We have made fair economic policy a touchstone of every campaign since fall 2001 — and convinced the American people that we were right. Contrary to the personal attacks on our temperament, maturity, and philosophy, we happen to be an agreement with the majority of the American people.
Examine the policy. Democrats want the best economic policy possible for our country. We can add. We know the math is not there for President Obama to keep his campaign promise. We know that the Senate does not have 60 votes and will not use reconciliation (as Republicans did to pass the cuts in 2001). We know that we have to make a bipartisan deal in order to help struggling families. But we are unconvinced that this is the best deal. That is a matter of basic economics: why one year for workers and two years for the top 2%? Why an estate tax gift to billionaires at the expense of vital necessities for workers? Why no help for homeowners and 99ers? Unlike TARP where only the Fed had the keys to the kingdom, we know the tax code and can propose ideas to make it work better for Main Street. As we learned from Senator Sanders during his 8 hour speech aka the “#tfilibernie” our nation is ready to engage in debate.
Psychology, principle, policy are why we have the Democrats dilemma: fall in love or fall in line. My email inbox is replete with laments from Democrats — particularly young people — who’ve slept on floors, donated time, put themselves on the line to stop the concentration of wealth and power to the top 2 percent. I hope they’ll engage with the same respect they want — we all want — from our leaders. They want to know that Washington is still listening to them; that they can contribute to this debate for a better way for our president, our party, and our country to move forward.
As we look to the future, we must take on this dilemma head on and address the concerns of Democrats who won’t fall in love and won’t fall in line so that we can continue to thrive as a big tent national party.

Follow Christine Pelosi on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/sfpelosi

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Bill Clinton seems the perfect validator for Barack Obama — which is why the president is utilizing the former president for selling his tax deal. After all, the economy boomed when Clinton was president and 22 million net new jobs were created. From a more narrow political perspective — and this is important to Democrats in Washington — Bill Clinton was reelected, even though he lost both houses of Congress in the 1994 midterms.
But the analogy falls apart as soon as you realize Clinton’s economy was vastly different from Obama’s. The recession Clinton inherited was relatively small, and caused by the Fed raising interest rates too high to ward off inflation. So it could be reversed by the Fed lowering interest rates — as the Fed did in 1994. By 1995, the so-called “jobless recovery” had morphed into a full-blown jobs recovery. By 1996, at pollster Dick Morris’s urging, Clinton could proclaim to the American people “you’ve never had it so good, and you ain’t seen nothing yet.”
The Great Recession has been far larger, caused not by the Fed raising interest rates but by the bursting of a giant housing bubble. In 2008, the biggest asset of most middle-class people, upon which they borrowed and that they assumed would be their nest eggs for retirement, collapsed. Housing prices continue to fall in most parts of the country. The Fed has lowered interest rates all it can, and unemployment remains sky high.
Bill Clinton presided over an economic boom engineered by Fed chair Alan Greenspan, who felt confident he could drop interest rates far lower than anyone expected without risking inflation. The result was 4 percent unemployment in many parts of America, as well as the best jobs recovery in history.
The price Greenspan exacted from Clinton — and a resurgent Republican congress demanded — was a balanced budget. As a result, Clinton had to give up much of his “investment agenda” in education, infrastructure, and other long-neglected means of building the productivity of average working Americans. The economy enjoyed a huge cyclical recovery.
But the economy’s underlying structure remained as it had been before, including stagnant wages for most Americans. Within a few years the middle and working class was treating their homes as ATMs, borrowing trillions of dollars in order to maintain their standard of living, and at the same time demand enough goods and services to keep almost everyone in jobs.
Those days are over. The Democratic Party can no longer ignore critical investments in the productivity of average workers. Nor can it ignore the increasing concentration of income and wealth at the very top, and the inability of America’s middle and working class to get the economy moving again.
The GOP hasn’t changed their story or their strategy since the 1990s. It’s the fault of big government. That was false then, and it’s false now. The structural problems are now much worse, and the cyclical recovery from the Great Recession pathetically anemic.
If the Democratic Party has stood for anything over the years it is to maintain and restore upward mobility for the majority of working Americans, ensure that the playing field isn’t tilted in the direction of the privileged, and limit the power of the richest among us to entrench themselves and their heirs into a semi-permanent plutocracy.
Continuing the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, including a sharp cut in the estate tax, violates these core principles. Doing so in the midst of an economic emergency that demands bold measures to rescue America’s vast middle and working class adds further insult. For President Obama and former President Clinton to tell America there’s “no other choice” or that “this is the best we can do” — when Democrats remain putatively in control of the House, Senate, and the presidency — is misleading.
I admire Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. I advised the former and worked for the latter. They are good men. But they have either been outwitted by the privileged and powerful of America, or seduced by those on Wall Street and the executive suites of America into believing that the Republican nostrums are necessary, or succumbed Democratic advisors who think in terms of small-bore tactics rather than large and principled strategies.
I urge congressional Democrats to remember the larger principles — not in order to be purist or make the perfect the enemy of the better, but to move toward an economy and a society that we believe in, that reflects the needs of the vast majority of Americans at this difficult time.
Robert Reich is the author of Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future, now in bookstores. This post originally appeared at RobertReich.org.

This Blogger’s Books from
Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future
by Robert B. Reich
Reason: Why Liberals Will Win the Battle for America
by Robert B. Reich

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Tonight at the Howlin Wolf in New Orleans, the women of Coastal Heritage Society of Louisiana will host their second Burlesque for the Bayou fund raiser featuring the best in New Orleans burlesque.
Dancers including the Rev. Spooky LeStrange, Dorian Faust, Roulette Rose, Sparro D’Luxe and Lana Allure will be joined by house band The Unnaturals; emcee Sharkey von Tiki and comedian Bobby Frilot. All are donating their time and talents to help raise funds for the CHSL outreach profiled recently in The Huffington Post by Rocky Kistner of NRDC.
CHSL founders Joannie Hughes, Vickie Manning Perrin and outreach coordinator Kindra Arnesen have been working tirelessly to collect everything from boxes of food to medical supplies for coastal residents out of work since the BP Oil Spill in April.
One of the most active groups in areas hit hard by the oil spill, CHSL is providing special holiday dinner care packages to the families in need, and toys and gifts for the the children in those families. The Coastal Heritage Society asked its friends in New Orleans dance, comedy and music to pitch in and raise funds for coastal residents tonight, and this is the second time since the oil spill that Burlesque for the Bayou has come together.
Tickets for tonight’s show are $13, and if you can’t make it to New Orleans a limited edition Burlesque for the Bayou T-shirt or cap is available through December 15th.

Follow Karen Dalton-Beninato on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/kbeninato

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Elfee admires famed set designer Tony Duquette for his “wild imagination and ability to see beauty in what others would consider rubbish.” Rarely paying more than twenty dollars for any piece in her wardrobe, Elfee looks like she’s just stepped off the set of one of her favorite shows, “Mad Men.” Keep reading below. This was originally posted on StyleLikeU.com
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Elfee is an actress, stylist and designer who was born and raised in Seattle, WA. She went to school for fashion design at FIDM. Since, Elfee has spent time in New York as a stylist, worked for StyleLikeU and is currently in LA pursuing acting.
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Still, she takes the elegance of the ’50s to another diverse, artistic planet, especially with her signature “pomp fro” under a silk scarf. A twin full skirt and beige plaid top gets paired with a pale pink crinoline, Victorian booties, cobalt blue gloves and floral tights. I love Elfee for her fearless, chameleonic, eclectic elegance and her no-holds-barred approach to experiencing life. She is no doubt a dead ringer for her icon, Audrey Hepburn, for her wide open nature as much as her classic movie star style and looks.
WATCH
Despite the fact that she calls herself polymathic in her career, wearing pretty dresses puts her in such a good mood that she says, “Ultimately, I want to be a housewife…wear pretty dresses and carry my kids around in matching outfits.” I first met Elfee with a silver conch belt in her hair at one of my favorite events, The Manhattan Vintage Clothing Show, and it was love at first sight. Like me, she thoroughly enjoys observing people who use what they wear as an extension of their personal identity, but only those sans facade or pretense. As a result, she has been one of SLU’s most zealous scouts. And like us, she hopes to be a successful artist and have the ability to grow the potential of others with a spark of talent, but otherwise do not have the means to make their ideas tangible, much like the struggle that she feels she faces in her own life.
If you love Elfee, you may also like Diane Naegel, Legacy Russell and Kelle Calco.
More Photos on Stylelikeu.com!

Follow StyleLikeU on Twitter:
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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

The four points of Wealth Without Wall Street.org are:
1. Move Your Money. Take the power away from Wall Street banks and give them to banks and credit unions in your community.
2. Don’t use credit cards. They are a tool that Wall Street uses to tie the average consumer in chains.
3. Give back to your community.
4. The point that I primarily want to focus on is creating and promoting a small businesss.
As a writer and businessman, I know firsthand the value of a well-written media story.
If you trace the history of almost any national company, you’ll find that somewhere along the way a story in a publication put that company in the spotlight.
It’s like winning the media lottery. You toil for many years in relative obscurity and suddenly you become an overnight sensation.
It happened to me.
I was 23 when I started my structured settlement and financial consulting business, McNay Settlement Group. For a few years, it grew only by word of mouth.
That all changed because of a story in the Lexington Herald Leader.
Business Editor Jim Jordan wrote a feature about my work with injury victims that explained it in a way that captivated the reader. It also grabbed the attention of many national publications.
We went from being a local business to a national business as a result of a few hundred well-written words.
Now the shoe is on the other foot. I’m a writer.
I know that comments in my newspaper column or in my blogs on The Huffington Post have tremendous power.
I want to scream when I see small businesses, with the potential to be “overnight sensations,” screw it up.
Journalists are not interested in being public relations or marketing people. They are interested in finding good stories. Some business people don’t seem to get that.
It helps if a business has an identifiable owner or spokesperson.
It’s more than just ego that made the late Dave Thomas, who started Wendy’s, or John Schnatter, who started Papa John’s, star in their company’s television commercials. It was a way to remind people that the fast food chains were not started by nameless, faceless corporations.
They were started by entrepreneurs chasing the American dream.
Faceless corporations do not make for a good story. Chasing the American dream does.
If you have some connection to the rich, famous, or powerful, make sure the world knows about it.
I watched Ted Gregory build his small Montgomery Inn, a rib joint outside of Cincinnati, into a national powerhouse. Whenever a Bob Hope or an Arnold Palmer or a well-known celebrity ate at the restaurant, Ted made sure that the world knew about it.
I watched another Cincinnati restaurant owner, Jeff Ruby, use the same celebrity strategy.
Not everyone has a celebrity clientele, but anyone who is successful in business knows how to sell.
Ironically, that selling skill often goes out the window when dealing with journalists.
Business owners who can be charming and customer friendly in business dealings can turn uncooperative, pushy or defensive when talking to the news media.
Business owners need to treat journalists just like any other clients they are talking to on a one-on-one basis. They just keep in mind that the world might be listening.
And as with any good client, once a media relationship is developed, the business owner needs to make sure to keep it up.
The same skills that will make you a business success, like following through on commitments and saying “Please” and “Thank you,” will make you successful in communicating with the media.
Don McNay speaks to Local First Lexington
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Don McNay spoke to a meeting of members of Local First Lexington about Wealth Without Wall Street and becoming an overnight business sensation.
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Don McNay, CLU, ChFC, MSFS, CSSC is the founder of McNay Settlement Group, a structured settlement firm based in Richmond Kentucky. He is also an award winning columnist and Huffington Post Contributor. McNay is a member of the Eastern Kentucky University Hall of Distinguished Alumni and has masters degrees from Vanderbilt University and the American College. He is a lifetime member of the Million Dollar Round Table.

This Blogger’s Books from
Son of a Son of a Gambler: Winners, Losers and What to Do When You Win the Lottery
by Don McNay
The Unbridled World Of Ernie Fletcher: Reflections on Kentucky’s Governor
by DON McNAY

Follow Don McNay on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/Donmcnay

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy (VT), chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on the State Department and Foreign Operations, has called on President Obama’s administration to suspend aid to Haiti and cancel visas for its top officials. Leahy’s statement comes as the streets of Haiti are in chaos over a disputed election that was plagued by fraud, voter intimidation, ballot stuffing and violence even before the votes were counted.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her husband, Bill Clinton, who is the UN Special Envoy to Haiti, have so far been silent on the contested elections.
This silence may end as Sarah Palin will be in Haiti this weekend with Franklin Graham, who heads up Samaritan’s Purse, a charitable organization involved in providing water filtration and other aid to the 1.5 million displaced in refugee camps since the January earthquake which killed 250,000 and injured up to 300,000.
Polling and leaked results had indicated a surprise in which the Preval government’s choice, Jude Celestin, was relegated to third place behind a grandmother and a popular, flamboyant musician. All polling had indicated that 70-year-old Mirlande H. Manigat, a former parliamentarian, Sorbonne graduate and the wife of a past president, along with businessman and musician Michel “Sweet Mickey” Martelly (49) had surged in a crowded field.
The final tally prompted a statement from the US Embassy in Haiti questioning results that put Celestin in the two-person run-off ahead of Martelly.
In a statement, Leahy said:
Leahy’s request to freeze travel for Haitian government officials is important, given the WikiLeaks cable on Haiti that indicated the current president, Rene Preval, wants to guarantee his safety after the election. From 09PORTAUPRINCE575, DECONSTRUCTING PREVAL:
The State Department has also issued a travel advisory to Haiti for US citizens, recommending against all unnecessary travel as violence continues and reports from there indicate continuing violence over the disputed election.
We received direct street testimony from our regular contact, and there is more from the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network:
(This is what) happened on the Champ de Mars. I was not in PA, I was in Carrefour when I heard about it. Some people wearing Celestin’s t shirt were demonstrating on the Champs de Mars by 1 pm. (wearing Celestin’s t-shirt don’t mean anything to me cause anyone can do it, anyone who wants an explosion in Haiti — it could be Celestin or anyone else) So they were around 50 according to witnesses. They had a car and a few motorbikes with them. As they were singing, dancing and walking on the streets some people on the champs de Mars started to yell “Micky, Micky” (Martelly’s artist name) and one of the bikers got a bottle on his head. So he stopped his motorbyke and walked towards those people. He took his gun and shooted people just like , from one block of LePlaza and two blocks from the main police station of PAP. They talked about three to five people were killed and many injured. The closes health care facilities is the General Hospital. Dr Alix Lassegue ( who you met ) talked on radio to say that the hospital can still provide health to people sick or people injured, of course everything is not ok as usual because of the situation of the street but he needed help this afternoon because the X Ray lab is not working and the people injured needed X Ray in emergency.
Reuters has supporting video here, but embedding has been disabled.
In Friday’s DOS press briefing and in response to a question as to whether DOS would support Leahy, Assistant secretary Phillip Crowley hedged on taking immediate action, but seemed to signal that DOS would stand behind its original statement from the Haiti embassy.
We have already publicly stated our significant concerns about the results that have been announced. There is a process underway. I think today is the last day to file formal complaints to challenge the results that have been announced. And we are committed to support this review. It needs to be credible. The results that — when these results are finalized, leading to a run-off election next month, the people of Haiti have to believe that these are the candidates that they have chosen, they haven’t been chosen by the government behind closed doors.
This is a critical moment for Haiti. We are prepared to support Haiti. We are also sending a very clear message to the existing government that that this election has to be done properly, in accord with the wishes of the Haitian people. We will judge our future relationship by the actions that Haiti undertakes, but — and we are committed to supporting this process. But let’s wait until we see what happens first, and then we will judge the implications.
Camp Canaan in November Photo: Nienaber
Silence from US officials such as Secretary of State Clinton cannot be endured for much longer as a cholera epidemic continues to spread unabated with 96,092 cases and 2,167 deaths. Even these numbers are in dispute, as it is widely believed that there is gross under-reporting from remote areas. Civil unrest has compounded the problem, but the government and NGOs had done virtually nothing to prepare for an epidemic of diarrheal disease since the January earthquake. The squalid, fetid conditions in the camps and lack of access to clean water all but guaranteed an epidemic.
UN Nepalese Base in Mirebalais Photo G. Nienaber
The CDC, French scientists and The New England Journal of Medicine have confirmed that the cholera strain was introduced into Haiti in a single event at the UN base in Mirebalais, where Nepalese soldiers were deployed from a cholera stricken area in their homeland. Septic waste leaked or was dumped into the Artibonite River system — the source of water for drinking and bathing.

This Blogger’s Books from
Gorilla Dreams: The Legacy of Dian Fossey
by Georgianne Nienaber
Horse Sense
by Georgianne Nienaber

Follow Georgianne Nienaber on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/nienaber

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

How many ex-husbands does a gal need in order to enter into Elizabeth Taylor territory? Does two plus a peck of beaus tip me in her direction, or qualify me as a normal, middle-aged, urban woman?
Looking back, I realized that all the men in my life had one thing in common: badinage. Yes, they loved banter — word play — just as much as I do. Being quick with the quips is what makes this writer swoon.
Of course, I’m too busy putting the finishing touches on my forthcoming book, “RIPE: Rich, Rewarding Work After 50,” to think about romance (though a good romantic comedy does help me wind down at the end of a busy day). Which is why, in the midst of all this hard work, I was delighted when two badinage-enhancers came onto my radar:
“Mordecai Richler: The Last of the Wild Jews”: Richler’s characters are often expert badinage players — think Duddy Kravitz in the movie that made Richard Dreyfuss’s career. This documentary follows Richler’s ascent in the world of literature and places him among the cohort of Jewish writers and intellectuals known as the “wild Jews,” famous for their cutting wit and affinity for troublemaking. Love it! Thanks to Francine Pelletier and Bravo for making it happen. “Mordecai Richler: The Last of the Wild Jews” airs on Bravo on Sunday, Dec. 19, just days before the release of “Barney’s Version,” the film adaptation of Richler’s final novel.
Orijinz: Ever wondered why we say the things we do, the origin of words and phrases? Oh, I love Orijinz! One player reads the origin, and the others guess the matching word or phrase. Clever, fascinating, and laugh-out-loud funny. Warning: people get addicted to this game! One woman told founder Brad Chase that when her husband got a job overseas, he took one deck with him so that they could still play via skype. Even better, this is a New Radical company: proceeds go to Reading Is Fundamental and Teachers Without Borders. I’ll share Orijinz with my family at Christmas, for sure. We’re all big on badinage, especially after the eggnog kicks in — wild WASPs, one and all!
So, gentlemen, remember. It’s not about the size of your vocabulary but how you use it.
Are you a fan of badinage? Do you love word play and banter? What’s your favourite romantic comedy? (One review I read of “Love & Other Drugs,” starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway, said that it might help bring back the rom-com — I hope so!)
***
Julia Moulden is an author, speaker and columnist. Read her HuffPost archive, including more about the New Radicals and the first columns about her upcoming book, “RIPE.”

This Blogger’s Books from
We Are the New Radicals: A Manifesto for Reinventing Yourself and Saving the World
by Julia Moulden

Follow Julia Moulden on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/juliamoulden

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

I received the following statistic from the Harvard Business Review’s posting of the Daily Stat.
First, how the researchers came to the conclusion that female jealousy is at the source of this discrepancy wasn’t clear. They based their research on the number of callbacks, not on who looked at the CVs and made the decision to interview the candidate or not.
Could we please stop blaming women for the lack of gender parity in the workplace? I could fill many books with stories of women helping women get ahead in life as well as at work. Yes, there are women who do stupid things to other women, just as there are men who do stupid things that affect both men and women. Why do we have to focus on women being cat-fighting backstabbers?
Then there was no indication in the study of the positions being filled, the culture of the organizations that were included, the level of professionalism of the photos and the fact that these were fake rsums to begin with.
I have also seen a lot of spammers on Twitter using pictures of normal-looking, trustworthy women to get you to follow them (which contradicts the research described above). My academic background tells me that there are too many variables to consider Ruffle’s study as valid research. I’ve also read studies that suggest that having a picture always gives you an advantage over the faceless.
That being said…
We are posting our pictures everywhere these days. If your picture isn’t on a rsum, someone could probably find you on the Internet to see what you look like. I think we should be concerned more about what our pictures say about us than whether someone will hate us for looking good.
As a public speaker, I’ve been redoing my professional photos for years. Not only do I want something that is high-quality because that is how I want people to think of me, but I also want to portray the type of person I am for the situation. For example, I need individual photos that say I am:
A dynamic, fun speaker
A brilliant thinker and trend-spotter focused on the success of women in the workplace
A writer who shares intimate moments of her life to enrich the lives of others
A personal coach you can trust to help you work with your most difficult issues at work
None of my descriptions say “brilliant executive” or “practical mommy blogger.” If I lived these roles, my pictures would be different.
Just as we humans judge real people in 10 to 20 seconds, we judge pictures even more quickly. With no “moving factors” such as eye contact, gestures, words and personal connection to consider, we assess pictures based on facial expression, clothes, age, gender, weight, ethnicity, background (if anything or anyone else is in the picture) and whether the person looks like someone else we know.
Therefore, before you post a picture anywhere, consider how these factors represent you and match how you want viewers to identify you.
If you have some pictures to choose from, send them out to a group of people you trust and ask them to write a one-sentence caption for each picture describing what the picture says about you. When evaluating what pictures to use, the perception of others is more critical than your own.
What do your pictures say about you? Consider the impact before you do your next mobile upload.
To avoid perpetuating the story that women judge each other more harshly, pay attention to your own inner judge when you look at the image of strangers. When you see a picture on a rsum, marketing flyer or Facebook page, do you know anything about the person’s integrity (honesty and openness)? What is the focus of their work and life’s contribution? How did they come by the wisdom they claim to have? Do they demonstrate wit and insight by their writing? You can’t find these markers in a picture.
Look beyond the picture before you make snap judgments.
And if you have a minute, tell me what you think my picture says about me!
Marcia Reynolds, Psy.D., president of Covisioning and author of “Wander Woman: How High-Achieving Women Find Contentment and Direction,” helps her clients find both success and happiness in this crazy, chaotic and judgment-filled world.

This Blogger’s Books from
Outsmart Your Brain! How to Make Success Feel Easy
by Marcia Reynolds
Wander Woman: How High-Achieving Women Find Contentment and Direction
by Marcia Reynolds

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www.twitter.com/MarciaReynolds

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

The Senate’s inability to pass legislation repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was this weeks’ hot queer news, but we brought you plenty of other posts on a variety of topics. Which posts were must-reads? Every week I pick two posts from every day that you shouldn’t miss. Here are this week’s picks:
Sunday
Three Trans-Focused Web Tools You Should Know About Filed by: Toshio Meronek
Idolization of the Male Form: 1890 Photo Filed by: Gloria Brame Ph.D.
Monday
Glee: Stepford Gays Filed by: Steven Cheslik-DeMeyer
Chris Colfer: The Face of Hope Filed by: Betty Greene Salwak
Tuesday
Obama admits: I was born in Morocco
Filed by: Alex Blaze
Salvation Army donations down dramatically this year Filed by: Bil Browning
Wednesday
Oprah loves Gayle, but not like that Filed by: Alex Blaze
Thumbs up for ‘Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys’ Filed by: Rev Irene Monroe
Thursday
Nothing for the 99ers (And Not Much for Anyone Else) Filed by: Terrance Heath
The White Lie Filed by: Father Tony
Friday
Screw playing the game, let’s take it all to the courts Filed by: Phil Reese
DADT Repeal is Dead, Long Live DADT Repeal Filed by: Jarrod Chlapowski
Don’t forget:
Subscribe to the Bilerico Project Report to get all of the previous day’s posts sent to you every night at midnight Eastern time.
Follow Bilerico Project on Twitter for links to new posts, breaking news and contest opportunities.
Subscribe to the Bilerico Project RSS feed to read posts via a feedreader like Google Reader or Bloglines, or include the feed in a customized homepage like My Yahoo! or iGoogle.
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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

In the words of the old Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen song, as made famous by Frank Sinatra, nonproliferation and disarmament, like love and marriage, “go together like a horse and carriage.” Nonproliferation — preventing states that don’t currently possess nuclear weapons — works in tandem with disarmament — states with nuclear weapons divesting themselves of same. “You can’t have one without the other.” Right?
After all — continuing with the musical metaphor — that’s how the refrain goes in that old strain of a treaty, the NPT (nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty). Let’s all sing the sixth stanza (aka, article) together: “Each of the Parties to theTreatyundertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.” (Actually, it would probably require a good rapper to do it justice.)
Yet many maintain that Article VI does not, in fact, commit nuclear-weapons states to a long-term divestment of those weapons. Christopher Ford of the Hudson Institute outlined this position as well as anybody in a Nonproliferation Review article that he wrote shortly after he left the Bush administration as its lead negotiator on the NPT. Negotiations toward that end in themselves, he wrote, are sufficient for a state to be in compliance with Article VI. In the years since, such as in a recent piece for his website, New Paradigms Forum, titled “Disarmament Versus Nonproliferation?,” he’s written about how nonproliferation doesn’t necessarily follow in the wake of disarmament.Before we address if and why it was a “disheartening year,” we’ll note that the “elsewhere” Ford outlined our lack of nonproliferation progress is yet another piece he wrote titled “Nuclear Disarmament, Nonproliferation, and the ‘Credibility Thesis’”. It reads, in part:In the recent New Paradigms Forum piece, he wonders… Where, one might ask, is the credibility-derived “payoff” in nonproliferation cooperation for U.S. progress and leadership in this field to date? And what reason do we have to believe, in its absence, that such a payoff will materialize in the future?This usage of the term “credibility” is almost unique to Ford. The only other instance we found was by Joseph Gerson of the American Friends Service Committee, who, last spring, referred to a credibility gap between President Obama’s disarmament vows and his actions. To put it another way, Gerson doesn’t seem to believe that the United States is showing sufficient disarmament leadership, or setting a strong enough example, in following the letter of the law of Article VI, to convince states desirous of nuclear weapons that their covetousness is misplaced. He represents the view of not only much of the disarmament community, but the Non-Aligned Movement (an organization of states not aligned with major power blocs).
Ford acknowledges those agents in the recent article.There will surely be those who will argue that the credibility thesis has yettrulyto be tested — that is, who will chalk up the world’s failure to unite in solving all these problems to our failure to do more, and more quickly, in moving toward “zero.” A global united front in support of vigorous nonproliferation wouldreally have materialized, it will be said, if we had only done moreto disarm.It must be acknowledged that not only does Ford understand disarmament advocates like few other conservatives, but, odds are, his judgment is sound when he asserts that whether or not we disarm has no bearing whatsoever on the plans of states that hope to acquire or develop nuclear weapons. Still, it behooves us to look at the issue from the vantage point of a small nation, to which 50 nuclear weapons is the stuff of daydreams. The 1,500 to which new START binds Russia and the United States (if ratified by the Senate, which looks less and less likely since the elections) still constitutes an arsenal unimaginable in its immensity.
Furthermore, to the “street” in those nations, the idea that not only can’t you have nuclear weapons when others do, but that the nation with the most nukes is leading the call to deprive you of any, not only violates your sense of fair play at its most fundamental level, but is capable of inducing outright cognitive dissonance. In addition, while, deep down, the nation’s statesmen likely share those sentiments, they may also feel that the reading of Article IV alluded to above is, at worst, counterintuitive; at best, legalistic.
That kind of hairsplitting scarcely becomes a superpower-slash-world leader in disarmament. Besides, as Jonathan Schell says, the most dangerous illusion is that “we can hold on to nuclear weapons while at the same time stopping their proliferation to other countries. That is an absolutely unworkable proposition. It just cannot happen in the real world.”
What’s more, attempting to enforce nonproliferation while you still retain 1,500 weapons plus for your personal deterrence is yet another reminder to a small nation of its second-class citizenship as a state. After all, prestige might even be the better part of nuclear aspiration. (Note to nuclear-weapons states: when it comes to throwing small states off the nuclear scent, sharing research in such cutting-edge areas as nanotechnology might, when combined with disarmament, work synergistic wonders.)
On top of everything else we’ve come up with an ingenious force multiplier for our hypocrisy — the $80 billion Obama has committed to nuclear modernization over the next decade to win Republican Senate votes to raitfy START. We vastly underestimate Tehran if we think this is lost on the mullahs. In fact, they can be forgiven for perceiving new START as a smoke screen (however thin) for what really is more of a strategic retrenchment in our commitment to nuclear weapons than a rejection of them. Nothing says we’re into nuclear weapons for the long haul better than watered-down treaties and the compromises we make to secure them.
Still, there’s no denying the legitimacy of the conservative argument that the urgency of nonproliferation precludes waiting around for substantive disarmament which, if it’s actually happening, seems to be unfolding over a timetable spanning generations. But proliferation, with nuclear Big Brother — the International Atomic Energy Association — looking over the shoulder of states like Iran, while the nuclear black market is a shadow of what it once was, is proceeding at a glacial pace as well. One reason that the American public is skeptical that Iran isn’t close to developing nuclear weapons is that it can’t understand what’s taking a large state so long to get up to speed on a 60-year old technology.
Of course, nonproliferation can be enforced much more quickly than disarmament can be generated — by attacking the offending state. But the military road to absolute nonproliferation is closed, in the case of Iran, for instance, because social norms on the part of the United States prevent it from mounting a massive enough attack (read: high civilian casualties) to keep Iran’s nuclear program from rising from the ashes — and, this time, unfettered by international constraints it would now disdain. Thus disarmament moves not much more slowly than nonproliferation.
Whether or not disarmament discourages proliferation is immaterial — it’s our only recourse. Besides, does anybody think the time will come when small states will actually pass the United States on the up nuclear escalator while it’s on the down escalator to disarmament? The United States would push the emergency shut-off button to disarmament in a heartbeat.
In the end, what the chorus of the Cahn-Van Heusen song reminds us about love and marriage can also be applied to nonproliferation and disarmament: “Try, try, try to separate them, it’s an illusion.”
For more by Russ Wellen, visit Focal Points, the blog he edits for Foreign Policy in Focus.

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www.twitter.com/http://twitter.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

If you have recently lost a loved one with whom you would otherwise be sharing this holiday season, you might be finding yourself wanting to burrow under your covers with a box of tissues until the holidays have passed. If this sounds like you, it’s time for some T.L.C. I don’t believe we should ever push down our emotions, though social conventions might make it advisable to develop strategies for dealing with these challenges privately or having a dear and trusted friend bear witness to what we are feeling. Remember that even at their best, holidays can be stressful. So, make taking thoughtful and loving care of yourself your number-one priority for the holidays.
Until 2006, I spent every Christmas except one with my mother. We shared a home for the last nine years of her life. For the past four Christmases, I have been adrift, unable to decorate my house for the holidays and spending Christmas like a peripheral, orphaned outsider to other people’s ways of spending the holiday. This year, I am finally ready to create Christmas on my own terms — just for me.
I have worked hard to develop the ability to pay attention to my own truth, and this year I am ready to give myself a beautiful Christmas. I am profoundly aware of the fact that part of not having my own Christmas these past four years has been because I was telling myself it didn’t matter because I had no one to make a fuss over. Then I had the tearful realization that I really need to make a fuss over myself this year. So, I am joyfully decorating my house with garlands, lights, wreaths, candles, angels and stars and plan to get a real Christmas tree, hoping that it survives my cats’ first Christmas. I am buying myself lots of presents, too, and signing the tags from all different people who have loved me and enriched my life. My heart is full and open again, and it simply took as long as it took.
Here are my suggestions for how to honor your own process of regaining an inner balance with the holidays.
Pay attention and be ruthlessly honest with yourself about what you feel and what you need to do and not do as you move through this holiday season. Whether you have other people to coordinate your plans with or are facing the holidays alone, be as true to yourself as possible. Others may try to include you in their plans, or they may not, but it is really up to you to figure out what would be best for you. If you feel like sitting home in your pajamas sipping hot chocolate and crying or nibbling on cold pizza crust from the night before, that’s OK. If you feel happy and want to joyfully participate in the holidays — that’s OK, too. Don’t judge your truth, just live it and trust your own inner wisdom to carry you through.
Be patient, kind and compassionate with yourself about what is true for you. There are no set rules about how to face the holidays carrying the loss of a loved one. This is a very personal matter. For many of us, the holidays trigger memories of thoughts, feelings, tastes, smells, rituals and traditions shared with our loved one. Without this person, the holidays may feel hollow and meaningless. If possible, reach for the deeper meaning of these holy days and the privilege of having shared them with someone you loved. Sometimes we take that for granted until we lose it. So, if your loss feels overwhelming, consider transforming it into gratitude for the blessing of having had this person in your life who touched you so deeply.
Take loving care of yourself. Grief takes many forms. You might find yourself lethargic or grumpy or somehow out of sorts. That’s OK. Just stay focused on what is happening inside you and tend to yourself as you would to anyone else you love deeply. Love yourself deeply through this time.
Anticipate and plan ahead. Don’t wait for others to make plans for you that may or may not have anything at all to do with what you really need. Face your truth and communicate what you need this year to those with whom you would otherwise be spending the holidays. If you have no one, consider new options like volunteering in your community, spending a quiet holiday by yourself or asking someone to include you in part of their festivities. You might even take a trip to either avoid the whole experience or to immerse yourself in another culture’s interpretation of the holidays.
Make room for your grief or sadness. Grief is a very private matter, and the holidays have a way of magnifying it. Welcome your grief. Your sadness and tears are expressions of the healing process of letting go and moving forward into your life without your loved one. If you try to postpone or ignore your grief, it will find other ways to manifest and demand your attention. So, be open to your grieving and trust that it is healing.
If appropriate, create a new ritual to honor the memory of your deceased loved one as you celebrate the holidays. My mother and I decorated shoe boxes that we put under the Christmas tree. Each of us would take time to write little messages of love and appreciation for the other, put them in each other’s box and then read them on Christmas morning. I am immersing myself in our love this Christmas by rereading our messages and adding new notes of appreciation for my mother’s love. By putting the names of people who have loved me on the tags of all the presents I have bought myself, I am also remembering them and surrounding myself with their love this Christmas.
Remember that the holidays will pass. Chances are they will present challenges. Rise to the occasion and take good care of your sweet self.
***
Please feel free to leave a comment below, or contact me at judithjohnson@hvc.rr.com. You can also retweet this post, share it on Facebook or e-mail it to friends who may enjoy it. To learn more about me, visit my website at www.judithjohnson.com. For information on my future blogs, click on “Become a Fan” at the top of this page.

This Blogger’s Books from
The Wedding Ceremony Planner: The Essential Guide to the Most Important Part of Your Wedding Day
by Judith Johnson

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

With the increased awareness of celiac disease and gluten intolerance, new gluten-free products are continually hitting the market. Many of these products come with a high price tag as they must be produced in specially designed kitchens separate from products made with wheat, spelt, rye or barley. Some gluten-free foods contain uncommon flours and ingredients to maximize their texture and palatability. Eating a gluten-free diet does not have to cost a lot of money, however. Many foods are naturally gluten-free and will not add a lot to your grocery bill.
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All fresh and un-sauced frozen fruits and vegetables are gluten-free. Buy vegetables in season as they are usually less expensive. Frozen berries are usually less expensive than fresh. If you have a local farmers’ market, consider it as another cheaper produce resource.
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References
Celiac Sprue Association: Gluten Free Flours and Grains
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Andrea Cespedes is a professionally trained chef who has focused studies in nutrition. With more than 20 years of experience in the fitness industry, she coaches cycling and running and teaches Pilates and yoga. She is an American Council on Exercise-certified personal trainer and has degrees from Princeton and Columbia University.

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As the mother of a suicide victim, the news of 46 year-old Mark Madoff’s apparent suicide by hanging earlier this morning, has left me… I don’t exactly know how it has left me, but the predominant feeling is one of sickness and…
Sadness, Sorrow, Nausea… I want to cry.
I vividly remember the news, when it broke (who doesn’t), of Bernie Madoff’s arrest.
It wasn’t long after that that our own financial difficulties forced us into seeing and accepting that we had no choice but to sell our family home.
A debilitating depression crushed me and kept me in bed for weeks. The only contact with the outside world was via email, for I was not up to talking to anyone.
One off-color email from a friend mentioned how at the time of the great depression, stock brokers were jumping to their death and people felt a little sorry for them, while now on the other hand, people were calling for Madoff to jump. She cut & pasted a flyer in the body of the email that read:
JUMP MADOFF JUMP!
When I was better, I went for a walk with my son Andrew, then 19 years old, and asked him whom he thought was better off, Madoff or us.
“Madoff,” he said without stopping to ponder the question. “He’s got money.”
“But…”
“No, really,” he insisted. “You’ll see, with all the money he has, his lawyers will get him out of this somehow.”
Directly and indirectly, so many of us have suffered as a result of Bernie Madoff’s greed. And the ripple effect of the scam is beyond imagination.
I have not written about this before, but I know, I believe, I am convinced that Madoff’s ponzi scheme is also responsible for my own Son’s suicide. The same son I quoted here.
And I tell why: Andrew Williamson-Noble, my son, transferred from Drexel University to NYU in January of 2009, his sophomore year.
We didn’t know it then, but NYU had also been effected by Madoff’s robbery and one of the cost cutting measures NYU took, was that of reducing their security spending.
Take Bobst, NYU’s library for instance, before the cuts, the security detail consisted of one guard patrolling the building and one permanently at the entrance desk.
Post Madoff the security consisted of one guard at the desk and the second one patrolling two buldings instead of one.
When my son entered the library, in the predawn hours of November 3rd. 2009, he was able to go up to the off-bounds tenth floor unimpeded, unchallenged, climb over the Lexan glass, and jump to his death from the same spot where other boys had jumped to their deaths before him.
Had NYU not lost money because of it’s investments with Madoff, and had there not been budget cuts as a result, I am convinced that my son would be alive.
And before any of you gets all bent out of shape and start shouting that when someone is determined to die of suicide that someone will find a way, I am going to shout back:
WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!
Read the literature and you’ll see that with the means taken away, the impulse for suicide evaporates.
So I know where I lay the blame for my son’s death!
But Mark Madoff’s death by suicide, fills me sorrow nevetherless.
www.foreverinvictus.com
getyourwellnesson.com

Follow Esmeralda Williamson-Noble on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/loaenterprise

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

The front door closes and all the air seems sucked out of my apartment. My teenage daughter, that effervescent energy source, is gone for another two weeks. We have had our usual form of fond Sunday farewell – the quick sideways hug of a daughter with breasts. But there are no more traces of her weekend presence once that door closes, no more buzzing of text messages, no more cracker crumbs on the couch, no more Ugg boots on the floor. I feel my daughter’s absence acutely, especially in that blue hour after her departure when my main thought is: “Now what?”
Talking on the phone most days will be our only lifeline in Seattle until I see her again and I do realize how fortunate I am to have those regular calls since many divorced dads do not. I also chat every now and then with her older brother in Arizona. Thank goodness for ESPN, providing its steady outpouring of sports for the three of us to discuss across the distance.
These have been the facts of my life in my decade as a divorced weekend dad. This is how things have been since my spouse and I used a mediator to forge our dissolution agreement and parenting plan. Love for our children ruled our actions, although our own love had withered away. Mediation was tough work together, complex and uncertain and tense, but we tried to emphasize the children’s best interests in making the arrangements that would govern our separate lives under joint custody.
Having the children spend most of their time at their mom’s was one of our major decisions in mediation. We knew other divorced parents who opted for more egalitarian parenting arrangements, ones that had their kids shuttling back-and-forth between parents, some shifts coming as frequently as twice a week. That arrangement might have helped parents ease their guilt about a failed marriage with children, but the kids paid the price, becoming rootless little travelers toting duffle bags. Or so it seemed to these two parents at that decisive moment affecting four lives.
Our kids would have a settled base of operations where they would set off most mornings to school. That seemed a better option for them, although we did not do any great research prior to that decision. It was simply something we both believed. Money came into play, as it always does. My wife earned much more in public relations than I earned in journalism, so she could provide a closer approximation of what the kids had enjoyed before our separation. That was even more the case with the child support I was contributing, the equivalent of one paycheck a month mailed directly to my former spouse. That is what the Washington State child support formula mandated, according to our mediator’s calculations.
I was intent on being the compassionate and compromising dad, not the angry guerrilla fighter seen in countless divorce dramas. And some small benefits did come my way by using that approach – an extra Monday with one child at the end of kid weekends, two Wednesdays a month when the three of us would have dinner. Little did I know then that their schoolwork, plus their growing independence and my various residences, would make it difficult to schedule those extra days. They kept getting cancelled until that important parenting plan provision became nothing more than a distant memory.
There was a lot that this dad did not know back then. I did not know how short my kid weekends would seem – just when our time together assumed a sense of semi-normalcy, Sunday afternoon required good-by hugs once again. I did not know either how our couple of days together would put such pressure on getting along. The weekend dad, I’ve discovered, is a neutered parent by necessity, one who avoids conflict at all costs. Occasional chores are lightly suggested, cleaning up the kitchen, brushing teeth, but there are only rare instances of anything even approaching discipline. It’s not that this dad does not care about such things. It’s just that our time together is too precious for more than token attempts at what was traditionally a father’s responsibility for discipline.
I try to make the best of all this, with various outings and events, particularly sports, plus candelit dinners, classical music on the stereo. Meals have been one of my favorite times as a three-person family since conversation does flow, with many quips, some laughs, even whole sentences exchanged between the older brother and younger sister. Their dad’s table has remained the likeliest spot that she would get ribbed about her latest fashion acquisition or he would take it on the chin for that sprouting of hair under his bottom lip. As my son’s departure for Arizona State University loomed, I took some comfort from knowing that my place had provided some of his closest encounters with his sister, even if that was dictated by the tight quarters of my apartments or my shoebox condo.
Those places have been nice enough, but I felt they had to be – for my kids far more than for me. The last thing I wanted was their dad weekends to force them to reside someplace they did not like. Maybe I should not have felt that pressure, but I did not want to chance things. So I spent more on rents or a mortgage than I should have, stretched my finances thin month after month, in hopes of minimizing the differences between their mom’s spacious homes and their dad’s one-bedroom places. At least the kids were always good sports about what must have seemed like camping at Dad’s.
Our vacations brought other pressures. This was a divorced weekend dad’s annual shot at a kind of redemption, but another place where this father’s dreams collided with financial realities. Dreams usually won out, as did credit card companies, but again I did not feel that I had other recourse. I could not envision finally calling up my kids as adults some day and asking them if they wanted to take off on that special vacation we had discussed all those years. There may be some divorced dads who could follow that entirely rational course, but not this one. I am a soft touch with my kids, always will be. Besides, we might have missed such vacation moments as rounding a curve on a deserted gravel road in Yellowstone and watching a herd of buffalo heading straight toward our stopped station wagon.
“Will they charge the car?” asked my worried son.
“How should I know?” I replied. “I’ve never driven into a herd of buffalo before.”
The buffalo parted in front of the car at the last moment, to our relief, and kept snorting loudly as they passed by, their huge shapes filling the side windows.
How my kids have turned out has been my greatest consolation during all the time when they are at their mom’s. I would be rich indeed if I had a dollar for every time I heard, “You have great kids.” And they truly are exemplary, serious about their studies and their fun, zealous about avoiding real trouble, devoted to each other despite their differences. They are not perfect by any means, even in my loving eyes, but they are two fine young adults. I suppose their mother is most responsible for that, based upon the amount of time they have been under her care, although I would also like to credit our civil relationship as former spouses, as well as my efforts to stay involved in my kids’ lives. I do know that my relationship with my kids is much better than my relationship with my late father – more open, more communicative, more honest, less turbulent. This is a source of considerable pride and relief for me at this later stage of my life, especially since I did not want children in my first marriage, because of all that family turmoil during Vietnam, and was still hesitant about having children in my second (but what I would have missed!).
Night-jarring questions and regrets remain an unavoidable part of divorced weekend dad territory. I will always wonder if what was decided during divorce mediation was indeed the better course for the children. I will always wonder, too, whether what I sacrificed of our potential time together in the subsequent decade did indeed pay some dividends for my kids, or will at some time in the future, as I have hoped.
I now recognize that what I gave up and what impact it had will forever remain the greatest question of my life, one probably never destined to have any definitive answer. A divorced weekend dad can compile numerous scrapbooks containing photographs of memorable times with his children, I have learned, but he can never escape haunting self-doubts about being such a limited parent.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

I am never the first to admit when I am wrong, but nor are Bill Clinton, Roger Clemens, or the Pope. I am, however, the first to admit when I have become too smug. You see, in traveling the path of intellectualism that runs parallel to the pursuit of professional writing, sometimes I forget my true nature. This column is my reaffirmed commitment to being a dumbass.
A good man, Danny Chapman, who reads all my columns, pointed out that lately I have been writing for the sake of sounding intelligent rather than actually writing to inform and educate other dumbasses, which was why I got in to writing in the first place. He, of course, is correct. But I was too busy not being a dumbass to realize that, and so, to him, and to you, other reader (there can’t be more than two of you), I apologize.
Since I am posting this in a forum of higher thinking, it might come across as a smarmy, and therefore, winking think piece at Mr. Chapman’s expense. Quite the contrary, it also links to Facebook (sorry, that was me being smug again).
What I am trying to say, is that the established aim of my life has always been to gorge on the words of intellectuals and disseminate the information to the masses… this doesn’t make me any sort of divine conduit, mind you, because more often than not, my analysis are completely fucking wrong. As I remind you, I am a dumbass. But despite my shortcomings in comprehensive learning, it does not detract from my overall goal: educating other dumbasses with what I think is education. And what could be a better forum for spreading “false” education than literature? Hitler had Mein Kampf, I have mein column.
The sweetness of my position comes not only from my ability to kick the living shit out of most eggheads who point out that the meanings of my words are incorrect, but from the knowledge that “incorrect” has no place in literature. Math and science can deal in absolutes; we writers can only pontificate in theories. For those of you eggheads that point out that this column flies wildly in the face of my previous one (and that that one flies wildly in the face of the one before that), please defer back to that earlier mention about my kicking abilities.
Now when someone points out that my definition of a word is incorrect, I can say, “Who says that Merriam Webster is correct?” And the eggheads will say, “John Locke’s treatise on social contracts theorizes that we have to have certain agreements in place to maintain a societal collective…” to which I can respond: “There’s that ‘theory’ word again.”
You see, fellow dumbasses? What I have gleaned from my time in the so-called “land of milk and honey,” is that you never have to be wrong as long as you stay away from math and science. And us dumbasses do that very well! What I am trying to teach you through my column is that we can ALL be intellectuals. Organized religion has been doing this for years… even Jenny McCarthy seems to have figured this out, though she foolishly attacks science. From here to forth, there shall be no limitation on what we can claim is right and what we can print as truth. That is the secret that those fat cats in Washington don’t want us to know! With this information, wee can all be the rich kings of the Earth, with me, naturally, being the richest and the kingliest.
Of course the sad reality of it all is that none of us will do anything with this information because we’re dumbasses. Not that it really matters anyway, because like I said earlier, I’m probably wrong. But you have to admit: I’m much better at being wrong than you are.

This Blogger’s Books from
The Dead Janitors Club: Pathetically True Tales of a Crime Scene Cleanup King
by Jeff Klima

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On Monday, the same day the White House was finalizing its $900 billion tax deal with Republicans, the president gave an important address at a vocational technical school in North Carolina.
It was his clearest statement yet about the challenges America faces in the global economy. The United States has gone from 1st to 9th place among nations in the percentage of its population that graduates from college, he noted. We now rank 24th in the portion of our children who have a high school degree. Our infrastructure is crumbling.
“The most competitive race is between America and our competitors around the world,” he said. “In the race for the future, America is in danger of falling behind.”
But the president’s tax deal makes it harder for the United States to get back on top. By extending the Bush tax cuts to the wealthy, shrinking the estate tax, and freezing discretionary spending (on everything except defense), he’s leaving almost nothing for education and infrastructure.
And by embracing deficit reduction while agreeing to $900 billion in tax breaks — the lion’s share for the rich — he’s making education and infrastructure spending sitting ducks for a Republican congress intent on shrinking the size of government.
The states — many of them broke — are still firing teachers, doing away with preschool programs, and raising tuitions and fees at public universities. And now that the stimulus is about over, there won’t be any more money to rehabilitate the roads, bridges, sewers, and energy systems that are still falling apart all over America.
“We can win the competition,” the President said, Monday. His words were inspiring. But his deed that day, approving a tax deal that continues George W. Bush’s fiscal policies, makes that goal harder to achieve.
Robert Reich is the author of Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future, now in bookstores. This post originally appeared at RobertReich.org.

This Blogger’s Books from
Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future
by Robert B. Reich
Reason: Why Liberals Will Win the Battle for America
by Robert B. Reich

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

It’s in the hands of the capricious gatekeepers of history now, this day December 10 of the year 2010. There have been filibusters, but not in the memory of any living American has such a rhyme to the ages and passion to justice been brought to the floor of the United States Senate. Complex and complete and concise because of its scope, the last unselfish Senator delivered unto us what hitherto secrets and deliberately suppressed thought on governing we need in order to be citizens of a self government in this new or any millennium. A task at which the Fourth Estate has miserably failed for decades.
It is part of the Congressional Record now, the tome begun 234 years ago that takes a full floor of any library that deigns to house a single printed copy. Most of the Record is inconsequential push and pull, spoken and recorded for the posterity of whatever ship of fools might exert a temporary grip on power. To these millions of pages the distinguished Mr. Sanders has added a burning bright bookmark for the ages.
It will take the purging and burning of the Congressional Record to deny the world of the inescapable heart and intellect and soul of this hero of egalitarian principle. It may well be that the dark forces of political convenience and money try to extinguish the fires set in a hundred thousand minds by a man from Vermont this day. It may well be that the princes of privilege of some abysmal autocratic future try to purge the phosphoric beacon laid into the epochal tome by America’s Senator. But as God has so mercifully given us in the past, the human virtue of indefatigable search for truth will find Our Senator, America’s Senator, a legend, in a thousand yards of books.
It’s done, on the Record, and may no man attempt to put it asunder from the history of this nation. Today and into what history exists in which people can read the written word or care about history, Bernie Sanders of Vermont is a touchstone of the American history.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Imagine being the parent of a young child who is not acting normally and being told by your doctor that your child has autism, that there is no known cause, and there is no known treatment except, perhaps, some behavioral therapy. That is exactly what Jackson’s parents were told as their 22-month-old son regressed into the non-verbal psychic prison of social withdrawal, disconnection, and repetitive behaviors typical of autism.
While we don’t have all the answers, and more research is needed to identify and validate the causes and treatment of autism, there are new signs of hope. A study just published in The Journal of the American Medical Association by researchers from the University of California, Davis called “Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Autism” (i) discovered a profound and serious biological underpinning of autism — an acquired loss of the ability to produce energy in the cells, damage to mitochondria (the energy factories in your cells), and an increase in oxidative stress (the same chemical reaction that causes cars to rust, apples to turn brown, fat to become rancid, and skin to wrinkle). These disturbances in energy metabolism were not due to genetic mutations, which is often seen in mitochondrial problems, but a condition the children studied acquired in utero or after birth.
Bottom line, if brain cells cannot produce enough energy, and there is too much oxidative stress, then neurons don’t fire, connections aren’t made and the lights don’t go on for these children. In fact, this problem of energy loss is found in most chronic disease and aging — from diabetes to heart disease to dementia. Brain function and neurodevelopment in particular are highly dependent on energy.
This is exactly the problem, I documented and found in Jackson when I first saw him. He had a profound loss of energy in his cells (particularly his brain cells), and indicators of severe oxidative stress. This is the same problem many other researchers have found in similar studies. (ii) Despite the evidence, most physicians don’t test for mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress or other myriad factors commonly found in autistic children.
Let’s look more closely at what this new study in The Journal of the American Medical Association tells us about mitochondrial dysfunction, and how this may lead us to new methods of treatment — methods similar to the ones I used to help reverse Jackson’s autism.
Autism: Brain Disorder or Body-Based Biological Illness?
The big debate (iii) that ranges in autism circles is about whether or not autism is a fixed, irreversible brain-based genetic disorder, or a systemic, reversible body-based biological condition that has identifiable causes, measurable abnormalities, and treatable dysfunctions. In other words is autism a life sentence or a reversible condition?
Many studies have illuminated the causes and possible treatments for autism, but mainstream physicians or scientists ignore most of this data. This new study, breaks new ground because it was published in one of the world’s major medical journals.
In it researchers from UC Davis examined children two to five years of age from the Childhood Autism Risk From Genes and Environment (CHARGE) study in California — a population-based, case-control investigation with confirmed autism cases and age-matched, genetically unrelated, typically developing controls, that was launched in 2003 and is still ongoing. What they discovered was the aforementioned mitochondrial dysfunction that lead to problems with energy. Interestingly, these abnormalities were not found in neurons on a brain biopsy but from examining white blood cells called lymphocytes. This means the energy deficit was a systemic problem — not one residing solely in the brain.
This study forces the question: How do children acquire energy deficits that affect their whole system, not just the brain?
The causes of mitochondrial dysfunction are well known, specifically as it relates to metabolism and the brain, and I have documented them in my books “UtraMetabolism” and “The UltraMind Solution.” They include environmental toxins (iv) — mercury, lead and persistent organic pollutants(v) — latent infections, gluten and allergens (which trigger inflammation) sugar and processed foods,(vi) a nutrient-depleted diet(vii) and nutritional deficiencies.(viii) These are all potentially treatable and reversible causes of mitochondrial dysfunction that have been clearly documented.
I found all these problems in Jackson, and over a period of two years we slowly unraveled and treated the underlying causes of his energy loss which included gut inflammation, mercury, and nutrient deficiencies. Over time, the tests for his mitochondrial function and oxidative stress (as well as levels of inflammation and nutrient status) all normalized. When they became normal, so did Jackson. He went from full-blown regressive autism to a normal, bright beautiful six-year-old boy.
What it Means if Autism Can be Reversed
This is just one story, but if autism can be reversed in one child, if there is any possibility of effective treatments or a potential cure, it forces us to ask critical questions: How did this happen? Can it happen in other children? What were the biological patterns found and how were they treated?
The emotional and financial costs of autism for families and societies is staggering. Now one in five — or 20 percent — of children have some neurodevelopmental disorder. How can we sidestep our scientific and moral obligation and sit back and accept the limited resources allocated by the National Institutes of Health ($5.1 billion for cancer, but only $141 million for autism) and society as a whole.
Most neurodevelopmental disorders have common roots. But looking at only one aspect of such conditions will not solve the problem of autism. Current autism research is based on an outdated approach — one that is something like blind men examining the proverbial elephant. Each researcher works in his or her own silo examining different factors and coming to different conclusions. Research that integrates, synthesizes and examines all the data on causes and potential treatments is practically non-existent.
The mitochondrial dysfunction identified in the JAMA study I’ve been talking about is ultimately only one downstream symptom of many upstream causes. Other researchers have found systemic inflammation,(ix) brain inflammation,(x) gut inflammation,(xi) elevated levels of toxins and metals, gluten and casein antibodies,(xii) nutrient deficiencies including omega-3 fats,(xiii) vitamin D,(xiv) zinc, and magnesium, and collections of metabolic dysfunction related to quirky genes that make it difficult to perform chemical reactions essential for health in the body such as methylation and sulfation.(xv)
The take home message here is that the answer to autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders will not be found in one of these factors, but in all of them taken together in varying degrees in each individual. There is no such thing as “autism.” Rather there are “autisms” — different patterns of biological dysfunction unique to each child that result in multiple insults to the brain that all manifest with symptoms we call autism.
Future research must synthesize current data and design relevant whole systems research studies that don’t focus on a single factor, but examine all the factors together. Then we must apply these findings in a comprehensive fashion, as is being done by many practitioners today who work in parallel — rather than in collaboration with — conventional approaches and often achieve remarkable results.
To close, I’d like to share Jackson’s story, as told by his father. I have documented this case report in a peer reviewed published paper which you can read if you are interested in the details of the case.(xvi) It is called “Autism: Is it All in the Head?” and it can be found at http://drhyman.com.
But more important than my paper is Jackson’s story and his beautiful smile.
WATCH:
What do you think about a comprehensive approach to autism treatment? Do you think autism is “all in the head” or a systemic disorder that can be reversed? Do you have an autism story to share yourself? Please leave your thoughts or your story by adding a comment below.
To your good health,
Mark Hyman, MD
References
(i) Giulivi, C., Zhang, Y.F., Omanska-Klusek, A., et al. 2010. Mitochondrial dysfunction in autism. JAMA. 304(21):2389-96.
(ii) Haas, R.H. 2010. Autism and mitochondrial disease. Dev Disabil Res Rev. 16(2):144-53.
(iii) Herbert, M. 2005. Autism: A brain disorder or a disorder that affects the brain. Clinical Neuropsychiatry 2(6): 354-379
(iv) Landrigan, P.J. 2010. What causes autism? Exploring the environmental contribution. Curr Opin Pediatr. 22(2): 219-25. Review.
(v) Kern, J.K., Geier, D.A., Adams, J.B., et al. 2010. Toxicity biomarkers in autism spectrum disorder: A blinded study of urinary porphyrins. Pediatr Int. Jul 4 Epub ahead of print.
(vi) Feillet-Coudray, C., Sutra, T., Fouret, G., et al. 2009. Oxidative stress in rats fed a high-fat high-sucrose diet and preventive effect of polyphenols: Involvement of mitochondrial and NAD(P)H oxidase systems. Free Radic Biol Med. 46(5): 624-32.
(vii) Dufault, R., Schnoll, R., Lukiw, W.J., et al. 2009. Mercury exposure, nutritional deficiencies, and metabolic disruptions may affect learning in children. Behav Brain Funct. 27(5): 44.
(viii) Ames, B.N. 2004. A role for supplements in optimizing health: the metabolic tune-up. Arch Biochem Biophys. 423(1): 227-34. Review.
(ix) Careaga, M., Van de Water, J., and P. Ashwood. 2010. Immune dysfunction in autism: a pathway to treatment. Neurotherapeutics. 7(3): 283-92. Review.
(x) Li X., Chauhan, A., Sheikh, A.M., Patil, S., et al. 2009. Elevated immune response in the brain of autistic patients. J Neuroimmunol. 207(1-2): 111-6. Jan 20 Epub ahead of print.
(xi) Ashwood, P., Anthony, A., Torrente, F., and A.J. Wakefield. 2004. Spontaneous mucosal lymphocyte cytokine profiles in children with autism and gastrointestinal symptoms: mucosal immune activation and reduced counter regulatory interleukin-10. J Clin Immunol. 24(6): 664-73.
(xii) Jyonouchi, H., Sun, S., and N. Itokazu. 2002. Innate immunity associated with inflammatory responses and cytokine production against common dietary proteins in patients with autism spectrum disorder. Neuropsychobiology. 46(2): 76-84.
(xiii) Bell, J.G., MacKinlay, E.E., Dick, J.R., et al. 2004. Essential fatty acids and phospholipase A2 in autistic spectrum disorders. Prostaglandins Leukot Essent Fatty Acids. 71(4): 201-4.
(xiv) Cannell, J.J. 2008. Autism and vitamin D. Med Hypotheses. 70(4): 750-9.
(xv) James, S.J., Melnyk, S., Jernigan, S., et al. 2006. Metabolic endophenotype and related genotypes are associated with oxidative stress in children with autism. Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet. 141B(8): 947-56.
(xvi) Hyman, M.A. 2008. Autism: is it all in the head? Altern Ther Health Med. 14(6): 12-5.
Mark Hyman, M.D. is a practicing physician, founder of The UltraWellness Center, a four-time New York Times bestselling author, and an international leader in the field of Functional Medicine. You can follow him on Twitter, connect with him on LinkedIn, watch his videos on YouTube, become a fan on Facebook, and subscribe to his newsletter.

This Blogger’s Books from
The UltraSimple Diet: Kick-Start Your Metabolism and Safely Lose Up to 10 Pounds in 7 Days
by Mark Hyman
The UltraMetabolism Cookbook: 200 Delicious Recipes that Will Turn on Your Fat-Burning DNA
by Mark M.D. Hyman

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I am very excited about Sesame Street’s new wellness initiative, called “Food for Thought.” This new segment will guide and educate children on the importance of eating healthy and the nation’s current “food insecurity” crisis.
Food insecurity is a growing problem in which children are deprived of sufficiently nutritious foods because of the cost. Instead, they are receiving low-budget, fast, canned and packaged foods because fresh food is too expensive. Approximately 17 million children in the United States are food insecure and more than half of them are under age six. This is leading to one of our nation’s greatest woes: childhood obesity and, eventually, increased health risks.
This week, Sesame Street implemented four new Muppets, called “Superfoods.” The Superfood cast consists of a banana, a brick of low-fat cheese, a whole wheat bun and a stalk of broccoli.
A Google preview of the segment aired for this first time on Tuesday, and I must say that I was very impressed. The song, called “Try, Try Again,” was admittedly catchy and I found that the interaction between characters was simple and understandable — even for a two-year-old.
In the skit, Elmo tries “healthy” food, presented by these Superfoods. The skit conveys his initial fear of trying the new foods, which is a very common emotion that children experience. Afterwards, Elmo tastes the foods for a second time. Kids learn that even if they dislike a food the first time they try it, that they can change their palettes and eventually enjoy the new flavors.
This, in my opinion, is so necessary.
According to a survey by The Nielsen Co., children ages two through 11 watch approximately 23.5 hours of TV per week. While the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends kids watch under two hours of TV per day, there will always be children that watch too much. Instead of having children’s TV heroes obsessed with candy and sugar, why not teach them to look up to characters who are shown to love healthy foods and live healthy lifestyles?
In my book, “The Food Cure for Kids,” I insist that our current ways of eating (processed and unnatural foods) are unfamiliar to our genes and are causing malfunctions at every level of our health. Children need the phytochemicals that are found in fruits, vegetables, and other plants to protect their bodies from disease. They need healthy foods to keep their bodies and brains strong. Teaching healthy habits will lead to better overall performance of our nation’s children, in school, in sports and in life. So why not follow Sesame Street’s lead?
In a similar light, San Francisco became the first major city to prohibit restaurants from providing a free toy with meals that exceed a certain level of calories, sugar and fat. That means goodbye to McDonald’s fatty meals and the incentive for children to order them.
All these initiatives, big and small, are ways to get our children on the right path of health and healthy eating habits. Let’s hope that some of these lessons rub off on parents too!

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The recent release of two important reports led me to ask this question.
The National Education Policy Center sharedabrief that reviews available research on several different aspects of teacher evaluation and makes recommendations for a comprehensive approach to teacher evaluation. If different measures, like observation (by peers and principals), teacher self-reports, student surveys, classroom artifacts, portfolios and value-added assessmentare used, then the weaknesses of one measure can be offset by the strengths of another.
Meanwhile, the much-anticipated PISA rankings came out, revealing that America is (still) in the “middle of the pack” of international rankings of 15-year-old performance in reading, science and math.Putting anxious hand-wringing andconcerns about representativeness and meaning aside, if we take the rankings at face value, then there is merit in examining how more successful school systems work, and learning from what makes them so successful.
One of thekey things that such systems have in common is that they take teaching seriously. Drawing from research summarized in Linda Darling-Hammond’s The Flat World and Education,common features of the teacher experience in places like the Scandinavian nations, Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong include:
Between three and four years of high-quality teacher education, typically funded at government expense. Pre-service teacher education programs in these places tend to include courses in content-specific pedagogy to develop teachers’ knowledge of how their discipline works and empower them to help learners deal with certain types of conceptual issues unique to their field, research projects where teachers write theses on teaching practice and other issues in the schools, andat least one year of training within a school setting. Like the rest of the teaching and learning system, teacher education programs are regularly evaluated and updated, with teachers playing a central role in the process.
Extensive mentoring and meaningful ongoing professional development. Teachers in these systems spend their first years working closely with veteran teachers, who often receive special training on how to be good mentors. New and veteran teachers alike spend a considerable amount of time engaging in professional learning, which is often embedded within the generous amounts of time (between 15-25 hours a week!) they have for collaborative planning. They frequently do action research projects with their colleagues and present their learning to other teachers through publications or at conferences. Release time for observations in other teachers’ classrooms is also common, after which teachers take time to critique each other and offer feedback.Leadership development. Teachers are given the opportunity to develop curriculum and assessments, mentor and coach teachers, and offer professional development. The strongest teachers are recruited to become principals, who are trained to serve as instructional leaders.Professional pay and status. Teachers are paid comparably to members of other professions, and teaching itself is highly honored. Some governments make special efforts to recruit their best students into the teaching profession, which simultaneously boosts the strength of the teaching corps and the prestige of the profession as a whole.
Recognizing that “teaching is the profession that makes all other professions possible,” other nations devote considerable time and resources into teaching. Note, too, that all of these investments are based on two key assumptions:
That teachers should teach, develop and evaluate each other (and that every facet of education — from teacher training to school leadership — should be informed and led by professional educators).That teachers will stay in teaching until they retire, thereby allowing them to continue the cycle of developing other teachers and leading schools, and making such extensive investments worthwhile.
Though we have examples of strong teacher education, induction and professional development programs here, there is no large-scale effort to coordinate and/or duplicate these programs to ensure that every single teacher benefits from them.Here, it is more often the case that:
Teachers must forgo income (and more often, go into debt) in order to participate in high-quality, in-depth teacher preparation programs, or skip such preparation and go directly into the classroom (typically the neediest ones) with little to no trainingMentoring is spotty.Professional development is shallow and often disconnected from any given teacher’s specific needs as a practitioner.Teachers have relatively little built-in time (three to five hours a week) to plan at all, let alone collaboratively.Teachers are increasingly observed, evaluated and led by school leaders who are not well-trained, experienced educators.Teachers are underpaid relative to other professions with similar levels of education.
Unlike our international peers, Americans don’t consider teaching a prestigious profession or even much of a profession at all (“Those who can, do, those who can’t, teach”). We don’t invest in teachers or teaching, we only nominally (if at all) involve teachers in the process of making major decisions about education, and we’ve even becomeshockingly comfortable with the idea of teaching being a disposable job — something people do for a couple of years before moving on to something else (…better? …More important?).
And our national conversation about improving the quality of teaching focuses primarily on “getting rid of bad teachers.” Instead of doing what’s necessary to develop and keep good teachers, like improving teacher education and induction programs, implementing comprehensive evaluation systems and embedding teachers in supportive, well-resourced school communities, America glorifies whomever seems the most willing to fire people.
Rather than guaranteeing teacher quality before teachers take responsibility for students, we’re growing a system where we put teachers in the classroom, then try to figure out if they’re good enough after the fact. This experiment-and-punish approach is remarkably cruel to both teachers and students, especially the neediest ones — who are often subjected to strings of over-worked, under-supported, and under-trained instructors year after year.If we really want to build a world-class school system, why waste time and money on witch hunts and magic bullets?
Why not emulate world-class school systems?

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Well, the debate continues apace. Fourteen states and the District of Columbia have already voted to legalize medical marijuana. And eight states continue to consider the matter. If these considerations end up in the affirmative, we will have reached a point where the citizens in almost half of our states will have decided the medical merits and clinical value of a federally designated and controlled substance through the ballot box. No FDA review and approval required for this particular prescription medicine.
Through our nation’s democratic political processes voters will have functionally certified the clinical effectiveness and “do no harm” character of a psychopharmacological treatment for both acute and chronic maladies, rather than through the use of our existing scientific review processes and well understood procedures of our Food and Drug Administration.
No carefully designed and implemented controlled clinical trials, no need for health-risk assessments, no encompassing epidemiological evidence required. We will have replaced them, in the case of medical marijuana, with some good doses of political rhetoric, numerous provocative “talking head” media debates, many formal legislative and pubic hearings and a final certification of medicinal safety and efficacy by majority vote.
I find this fascinating! It is certainly a legitimate question to ask as to whether marijuana has clinically therapeutic and/or curative characteristics. There is nothing wrong with a serious consideration as to whether this easily grown plant has merits as prescription medication for a select number of illnesses and health conditions, acute or chronic.
For many years now one of the plant’s key ingredients, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, has been available to prescribers and patients in the form of the cannabinoid pills Marinol and Cesamet. A major complaint of patients, however, has been the inefficiency and ineffectiveness of the means of delivery of these medications. They are swallowed and as a result are slow to act and depress both the psychoactive and medicinal effects of the pill’s THC.
In contrast when marijuana is smoked, as provided by voter authorized medical marijuana dispensaries, the active components of the plant are efficiently inhaled directly into the lungs and immediately into the blood stream — purportedly providing both the psychoactive as well as the medicinal effects of the marijuana.
So, let’s pretend for a moment that an efficient, clinically effective respiratory means of delivering only the medically beneficial components of marijuana were to be developed in some pharmaceutical laboratory. Wouldn’t it be reasonable for us to expect that because of its therapeutic import, such a new medication, with its unique respiratory delivery system, would require FDA review and approval, subsequent prescriptive distribution and then clinical management through on-going medical supervision, as is currently the case with Marinol and Cesamet?
Then we could retreat from our peculiar practice of authorizing prescription medicines through the ballot box. And we could avoid the unintended consequences of our emerging medical marijuana distribution system — a system vulnerable to concerns such as uncontrolled dose amounts; poorly monitored treatment protocols, on-going exposure to high levels of carcinogens, higher than any commercially sold cigarette; heightened probability of accidents due to intoxication; and almost certain diversion and subsequent increased availability for recreational rather than medicinal use. Prescribed, distributed, smoked medical marijuana may have its clinical value. But it does have its downsides — some potentially serious ones.
Let’s step back for a moment and look at what else could be going on here. Let’s stipulate that as a carefully crafted tactical first step toward someone’s ultimate objective of legalization that the medical marijuana political gambit is not a bad first act. For how many in the political arena can ultimately stand against the winds blowing in favor of helping the seriously sick and those with chronic pain?
If the end were truly better medications for patients perhaps it would be simpler and safer to just develop an efficient, effective delivery system for the clinically valuable components of this ubiquitous plant. Just like we have with medicinal derivatives from other plants such as those crafted from the poppy.
But, if legalization is in fact the ultimate intent of this current scripting of the American political psyche and landscape regarding medical marijuana, then let’s be clear. Let us distinguish ends from means. Let’s not be too naive regarding what this may actually be about.
If the end of this political gambit is legalization perhaps we should deal with the complex public health and medical matters associated with that proposition directly and thoughtfully. Not through the smoke screen of politically approved medical marijuana distraction, a distraction that is most likely just a means to another more problematic end.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com