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The new Sakineh confession broadcast on Press TV on Saturday, December 11, is the new episode of the strange “reality” show that the Iranian regime has staged around her case. Even though I have been following this case very closely, it has become difficult for me to keep track of all the new stories that the Iranian authorities have regularly added to it. It seems that they are trying to confuse the world, and I’m afraid that they have been very successful in doing just that.
For those of you who, for the sake of the truth, would like to get to the bottom of this situation, I have a piece of advice: stick to the basics. Actually, the basic facts about this case are very simple and you don’t need to be a lawyer to understand them. They are:
What is Sakineh’s crime? Is it having have had a hand in her husband’s murder or is it adultery? Maybe both? Okay, let’s assume it’s both. Sakineh was tried in 2006 for having had an illicit relationship with 2 men after the death of her husband, for which she was sentenced to 99 lashes, a sentence that was carried out. Later, as one of those men was on trial for the murder of Sakineh’s husband, she was suspected of having been an accomplice in the murder and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. In the meantime, the man accused of the murder was found guilty but walked away. However, later, the case was reopened because someone in the system decided that Sakineh had had the illicit relationship with the 2 men before her husband’s death, which would change the situation altogether, because now her crime was adultery, for which the punishment could be stoning. And Sakineh was subsequently sentenced to death by stoning. After this, her son, Sajjad, reached out to the world and asked all of us to save his mother. This brought world-wide attention to the case, and made the Iranian authorities uncomfortable, because no matter what religion or ideology one believes in, it is not difficult to agree that stoning is barbaric. After the website that was created in support of Sakineh quickly collected hundreds of thousands of signatures, Iranian authorities did everything in their power to convince the world that Sakineh’s punishment had nothing to do with adultery, but it was all about her having had a hand in the murder of her husband. So, we were told that she could be hanged instead of stoned to death. But hadn’t she already been sentenced to prison for the same crime? According to Iranian law, people cannot be stoned for having committed murder; stoning is a punishment only for adultery.
If there was a rule of law in Iran, Sakineh would not have been subjected to punishment for the same crime more than once, but it seems like she has received 2 sentences for having allegedly committed adultery and also for having allegedly been involved in killing her husband.
If there was a rule of law in Iran, Sakineh’s first and second lawyers would not have been persecuted: her first lawyer, Mohammad Mostafai, had to escape Iran after his wife was arrested and kept hostage by the Iranian authorities so that he would give himself up. However, he escaped the country and is in Norway now. Her second lawyer, Houtan Kian, is in prison in Iran right now. He was arrested a few weeks ago for having dared to defend her.
If there was a rule of law in Iran, Sakineh’s son Sajjad, would not have been arrested for simply asking the world to save his mother.
If there was a rule of law in Iran, Press TV would not have been allowed to take Sakineh out of the prison and force her to make a public confession in a terrible, humiliating, and inhumane way.
If there was a rule of law in Iran, the man who actually killed Sakineh’s husband would have been in prison. Also, if Sakineh committed adultery with him, then I think it’s safe to say that he committed adultery with her. Yet he walked away and she was the one sentenced to being stoned to death.
The recent televised confession of Sakineh, which was filmed in her home and in the presence of her son, has, very unfortunately, made some people believe that she is guilty and deserves to die, but they are terribly wrong. Her confession is meaningless. I was imprisoned in Evin prison at the age of 16 for 2 years, 2 months, and 12 days. During this time, I was tortured, raped, and threatened that if I didn’t cooperate, my family would be harmed. I signed every piece of paper they gave me without even reading it. I would have confessed to anything under torture to stop the pain. I cooperated, so my family was safe, and if they had arrested one of my loved ones, I would have done anything to save him/her. Sakineh’s son is now in prison. Put yourself in her shoes. Wouldn’t you have confessed to murder if it would save your son? I know I would.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

If I find the fantastically clever Sarah Palin to be one of the shallowest and blatantly self-serving politicians, err, political celebrities I’ve ever seen, it doesn’t stop me from taking pause upon seeing these AP shots from Franklin Graham’s cholera treatment center in Haiti.
Damn right it’s revolting seeing Sarah getting her hair made up like this field hospital is her movie set — same as it’s irksome seeing Sara and Greta Van Susteren wearing far-less-than-compassionate expressions and acting like looky-loos while being trailed by a video guy, Greta sporting a huge piece of gear herself.
And then, the multiple shots of Sarah sanitizing and washing her hands suggests the former Gov is primarily concerned, above all humanitarian else, about catching something.
There are two questions I can’t quite answer, however. 1.) Compassion notwithstanding, could these exact same images have been created if it was Biden, Bill Clinton, Hillary or Nancy Pelosi moving around this camp with media in tow over the same afternoon? 2.) How much was it the Palin team’s behavior, attitude or reputation that so encouraged these AP photographers (one or both local?) along with AP photo editors to suddenly drop the typical, everyday play-along (since we all get the difference betweenthis vs. this) and deliver these scathing photo op-defying pictures of “the Sarah show?”
For a breakdown of the latest visual spin, visit BagNewsNotes (and follow our Twitter feed here).
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(photo 1:Dieu Nalio Chery/AP. caption:Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, center, has her hair done during a visit to a cholera treatment center set up by the NGO Samaritan’s Purse in Cabaret, Haiti, Saturday Dec. 11, 2010. Palin arrived Saturday in Haiti as part of a brief humanitarian mission in an impoverished nation struggling to overcome post-election violence and a cholera epidemic. At right, Palin’s husband, Todd Palin. photo 2:Ramon Espinosa/AP. caption:Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, second from left, visits a cholera treatment center run by Rev. Franklin Graham’s relief organization Samaritan’s Purse accompanied by Fox News Channel journalist Greta Van Susteren, fourth from left, in Cabaret, Haiti, Saturday Dec. 11, 2010. Palin arrived in Haiti as part of a brief humanitarian mission in the impoverished nation struggling to overcome post-election violence and a cholera epidemic. photo 3:Ramon Espinosa/AP. caption:Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is pictured through the windshield of a car while rubbing her hands with hand sanitizer after visiting a cholera treatment center run by Rev. Franklin Graham’s relief organization Samaritan’s Purse in Cabaret, Haiti, Saturday Dec. 11, 2010. Palin arrived in Haiti as part of a brief humanitarian mission in the impoverished nation struggling to overcome post-election violence and a cholera epidemic. photo 4: Dieu Nalio Chery/AP. caption:Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin wipes her hands after visiting a cholera treatment center set up by the NGO Samaritan’s Purse in Cabaret, Haiti, Saturday Dec. 11, 2010. Palin arrived Saturday in Haiti as part of a brief humanitarian mission in an impoverished nation struggling to overcome post-election violence and a cholera epidemic.)

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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Two employees were discharged, one for possible embezzlement of $200,000-$250,000 and the other for violation of policies. An outside probe is ongoing. Details: The Hollywood Reporter.
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Watch for my new book “Hollywood on Strike!,” due out next month. Subscribe to my blog (jhandel.com)

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Metrodome roof collapses from snow in Minneapolis
The inflatable roof of the Metrodome sports stadium in the US mid-western city of Minneapolis collapsed on Sunday after a snowfall of 17 inches (43cm).
No one was hurt, but a 10-yard (nine-meter) strip of the fibreglass roof was left dangling above the playing field.
The National Football League has been forced to move a game between the Minnesota Vikings and the New York Giants to Detroit on Monday night.
The storm has now moved east, dumping heavy snow on Illinois and Michigan.
Officials are optimistic about the chances of repairing the roof in time for the Vikings' next home game on 20 December.
The Vikings-Giants game had already been postponed for a day and a half because the snowstorm delayed the New York team's flight.
The Metrodome covers an area of 20 acres (eight hectares), with a 10-acre roof made of fibreglass coated in Teflon. The roof is 195 feet (60m) high and is supported by 20 electric fans.

Source:BBC

First, a big thanks to the Personal Democracy Forum for its timely FLASH conference on WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. I was privileged to be there in the audience.
WikiLeaks is new — now. It combines the anonymity and distributed support of p2p networking with a message pointed directly at government and media both, exposing their private parts. It also has a visible front figure, Julian Assange. What may be less known is that back in 1670, a new voice, Benedict de Spinoza, with similar pretensions to seriousness and relevance as Mr. Assange, arrived on the scene. In 1670, Spinoza published a book, the Theological-Political Treatise, which advocated toleration of all points of view and free speech, and which claimed the best society lets every person reach their own goals. The book even argued the purpose of a state is to protect freedom. That’s the good news.
The book also said that God is governed by the laws of nature, that most priests are cons, frauds and predators, that the Bible should be read in its historical context, and that no miracles contradict nature. The treatise was in Latin, and was immediately banned. The Vatican unbanned it in 1966.
When Spinoza died in 1677, he left two manuscripts in a secret desk drawer. His friends liberated them the next day. The day after that, police searched the apartment. We know all this about Spinoza, of course, because his works were published anonymously, republished often, and commented on endlessly over the next two centuries. Spinoza’s banned works were sold right next to the Marquis de Sade’s, over the same under-the-table networks as pornography and copyrighted music. They were in every private library in Europe. Their number overwhelms the number of books by any other author at the time, except for Anonymous and the Bible.
Two recent books by Jonathan Israel, a historian now at the Institute for Advanced Research at Princeton, cover how all the controversy and spewing as opinion about Spinoza evolved. Israel calls Spinoza the father of the Radical Enlightenment. Reading these histories, the repetitiveness and squabbles are so boring. Conservatives and liberals repeat the same points. One writer’s gutter is another writer’s bowling alley. One soon realizes, almost no one read Spinoza anymore. He was banned, so it was illegal to use his own words to defend him. He was NSFR. It is worth reading him, though, to learn what the fuss was about.
Up to the French Revolution and beyond, anyone “convicted” of being Spinozist could end up in prison or dead. The great liberal John Locke argued endlessly that atheists should have no rights, they were enemy combatants. Spinoza was Public Enemy No. 1. Moderate liberals like Locke had one great argument in favor of their kind of tolerance: if not us, Spinoza. Friends of Spinoza, meanwhile, argued with evidence, he was never an atheist. His personal life was clean as a whistle. Charges laid against him were lies.
Imagine Bill Keller at the NY Times working to persuade the US government that certain Times reporters should be permitted to view all diplomatic cables with “secret” designations. Bill Keller would be a moderate liberal in the ancient regime century after Spinoza and before the French Revolution.
If you want a sneak peak at the future and the role of dumps such as WikiLeaks in it, look at the history of the diffusion and reaction to Spinoza’s work. You won’t go too far wrong.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

There was no doubt Newton would win the Heisman. Whether he gets to keep it is still uncertain. These two sentences – from the Associated Press – introduce us to the controversy surrounding Cam Newton.
There was little debate among voters regarding who was the “best” player in college football this season. But did the “best” player deserve the Heisman?
The problem for many people is Cecil Newton, the father of Cam. It has been reported that Cecil asked Mississippi State for $180,000 in return for Cam becoming a Bulldog. The NCAA – as fans of college sports understand – substantially restrict the payment to college athletes. So what Cecil asked for was clearly a violation of the rules. And that means what Cecil allegedly did might mean that Cam’s Heisman might ultimately have to be returned.
So should Cam be unhappy with his father? Well, that’s not what he said on Saturday. With Cam’s father back in Georgia, Cam told his parents: “Thank you for all you did for me”; and to his father he added: “To my father, I love you so much.”
Such statements suggest Cam is not unhappy with his father. And according to Dan Wetzel – of Yahoo! Sports – Cam certainly shouldn’t be upset. Wetzel’s column does a wonderful job of outlining the problems with how the NCAA treats the elite athletes colleges and universities employ. Below is quite a bit of what Wetzel says (and I encourage everyone to read the entire column):
I find that I agree with much of what Wetzel say. The NCAA is clearly exploiting athletes like Cam Newton. And to argue that somehow Cecil Newton is a “bad guy” because he makes an effort to minimize this exploitation seems misguided.
But I still think Cam should be a bit miffed with his father.
To understand my position, you need to consider the research of Robert Brown and R. Todd Jewell. These two economists estimated* the amount of revenue created by a premium college football player in 2004. This estimate – utilizing data from the mid-1990s – suggested that a college football player who is ultimately drafted into the NFL will create more than $400,000 each year he plays college football. If we adjust for how prices have changed since the mid-1990s, we see that a future NFL draft pick is easily worth more than $500,000 today. And Newton isn’t an ordinary draft pick. A player like Newton – who is being explicitly marketed by his university – must be worth much more.
And yet, Cecil Newton only allegedly asked for $180,000. And I think when Cam heard that he should have been a bit upset. Cam Newton is probably worth at least three times this figure to a university. For his father to ask for so little, though, is a dis-service to his son.
So it looks like Cecil – if he did what he is accused of doing – was at least on the right track. But given the economic value Cam generated for Auburn, Cam should really think about getting a different agent when he moves on to the NFL.
* the citation for this article is as follows: Brown, Robert W. and R. Todd Jewell. “Measuring Marginal Revenue Product of College Athletics: Updated Estimates,” in Economics of College Sports, edited by Rodney Fort and John Fizel (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2004).

This Blogger’s Books from
The Wages of Wins: Taking Measure of the Many Myths in Modern Sport (Stanford Business Books)
by David Berri, Martin Schmidt, Stacey Brook
Stumbling On Wins: Two Economists Expose the Pitfalls on the Road to Victory in Professional Sports
by David J. Berri, Martin B. Schmidt

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Blue Valentine is rated R! Every so often you get to stand up for something that you believe in. We believed in presenting relationships and sexuality with an honesty and truthfulness often lacking in the grand tradition of hollywood sensationalism. I am thankful the MPAA saw the light and were humble enough to reverse their decision and for all the support from the industry and fans of Blue Valentine. This is a victory for free speech and artistic integrity.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Attn: Liam Neeson, Michael Apted, Andrew Adamson, Mark Johnson
Re: Voyage Of The Dawn Treader’s 24-Million Dollar Opening Weekend
If…you…..diss….them….they won’t come.

This Blogger’s Books from
The Lion, The Professor And The Movies: Narnia’s Journey To The Big Screen
by Mark Joseph
Wild Card: The Promise and Peril of Sarah Palin
by Mark Joseph

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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

It was a gruesome weekend for wide releases, as two sure-fire openers underperformed, which frankly ought to make Disney very nervous for next weekend. Debuting at a somewhat soft number one was The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The picture is the third in the Chronicles of Narnia series, and likely the last. The first two films in the series were financed in a joint venture between Walden Entertainment and Walt Disney. But after the (comparatively) underwhelming domestic performance of the second film in the series, Prince Caspian, Disney cut its losses and 20th Century Fox picked up the popular fantasy franchise. With a $24.5 million opening weekend for a $140 million venture, Fox will likely do the same cutting and running unless overseas numbers astound. This opening weekend is nearly identical to The Golden Compass, which opened with $25 million on this weekend in December 2007. That infamous ‘flop’ cost $180 million and ended up with just $70 million in the US. Of course, the film grossed $302 million overseas, so Fox has to be praying for a similar result.
The series debuted on this weekend five years ago, as the heavily-hyped and Christian-centric Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe opened with $65 million. The film had genuine legs over the holiday season and went on to gross $291 million domestic and $745 million worldwide, completely stealing the thunder from the otherwise solidly performing King Kong ($218 million domestic/$550 million worldwide) which opened the following weekend. The second film in the francise, Prince Caspian, debuted in mid-May of 2008, opening with ‘just’ $55 million. But the sequel lacked the reams of free publicity that the first film received, both for its ‘Christian undertones’ (I can’t speak for the later books, but the first one is no more overtly religious than The Matrix) and the popularity of that first volume. It was also hurt by a marketing campaign that emphasized the more violent and less fantastical nature of the story, making the PG-rated film look like a PG-13 rated action picture. The arguably superior second picture ended its run with $141 million in domestic grosses and $419 million worldwide. That’s certainly nothing to sneeze at, even with the $225 million budget. But perception is everything and the film was tagged a failure. When part 3 was offered, Disney demanded a budget cut to $100 million (which wasn’t the worst idea in the world, if only on principle), but Walden balked and Fox stepped up with the $140 million ‘required’.
Alas, Voyage of the Dawn Treader was most hampered by a general disinterest. Most of the press went to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part I, Tangled, and Tron: Legacy, leaving the once-mighty Chronicles of Narnia as just an also-ran. The film seemed to be halfheartedly marketed, with a far-more kid-centric campaign this time around. But the ads revealed no real story and little spectacle outside of the kids on a boat and Aslan making a bigger appearance here than he did in Prince Caspian. Alas, the once dominant Narnia series is now playing in the same shallow pool as Eragon and The Spiderwick Chronicles. On paper, Fox’s decision, to keep the budget under $150 million and move the series back to it’s mid-December berth was a seemingly smart one. This was just a case of audiences losing interest in a once noted series. More aggressive marketing may have helped, or it may have just added to the red ink. The Chronicles of Narnia perhaps was never that beloved a series, and the hype over the much-read first book simply kept its first sequel above water. Whatever the case, we will likely not be seeing a film version of The Silver Chair.
The other big wide release also stumbled a bit, but the damage was not quite as severe. The Tourist, a romantic thriller starring Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie, opened with $17 million. It’s a softer opening than the two are used to in their purely commercial vehicles, but romantic thrillers are not what either of these two titans are known for. It’s not a disaster, as $17-23 million is about what Depp is good for when he’s not in a big budget fantasy film (think The Secret Window and/or Once Upon A Time In Mexico). The marketing was pretty solid, with a fun and peppy trailer leading the way. The deciding factor may have been the dreadful reviews, which highlighted the film’s apparent dullness. Reviews are more important for films aimed at adults, and Sony hid this one until the last possible minute. The big problem is that this relatively light and action-free thriller cost $100 million. Had the picture been brought in at a reasonable $40-60 million, the soft debut might not have been a big deal. But now Sony is depending on overseas numbers (which Depp and Jolie are usually good for) to save the day. Still, the film may have legs during the holiday season, as the PG-13 caper may appeal to large groups of general moviegoers who don’t like video games (Tron: Legacy), westerns (True Grit), god-awful looking family films (Yogi Bear and Gulliver’s Travels) or the R-rated Oscar bait floating around (Black Swan, The Fighter, etc).
The big news once again came in limited release. The Fighter debuted on just four screens, and once again a four-screen debut of an anticipated awards-bait drama scored huge. The film grossed $320,000 for an $80,000 per-screen average. The justifiably-acclaimed underdog boxing drama goes wide next weekend, where it has a shot at being a mainstream hit, as it delivers the populist crowd-pleasing bits (first trailer) amidst the artier details (second trailer) and occasionally devastating emotional beats. Arguably as impressive was the successful expansion of equally terrific Black Swan, which grossed $3.3 million on just 90 screens. That’s a $37,022 per-screen average, setting the film up for probable mainstream success when the film goes wide over Christmas weekend. It’s playability outside of film-nerd world is still a question mark, but this is looking more like a Up in the Air/Juno crossover hit, depending on whether general moviegoers can handle the horror elements and overt sexuality at play. Both films further cement their status as Oscar contenders, even if both are more likely score in the acting categories (Christian Bale and Natalie Portman respectively) than take home the big prize.
For holdover news and a peak at next weekend’s big releases, read the rest of this article at Mendelson’s Memos.

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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

It arrived in an email 6 weeks in advance – a request to attend the office holiday party from an ex-boyfriend who was still single. Perhaps he was concerned that if he placed a phone call, a more acceptable form of etiquette, that his request would be declined or the call would not be returned. It was likely that he didn’t want to get rejected, so the email was his delivery of choice; a netiquette no-no.
After 6 months apart, he wanted to bring an appropriate guest to his office party who was a known entity. Selecting someone he had dated only once or twice would be too risky. It was time to recycle an ex.
At a time where we are in peak season for breaking up, couples are also reuniting over the holidays. In the last week, three separate singles told me they were giving a former relationship another try. Thoughts of not kissing under the mistletoe led some right back into the arms of a relationship that previously ran its course.
The “Recycling the Ex” phenomenon isn’t new, but it’s in full swing in the weeks leading up to Christmas and New Years. Some relationships may stick. Others may be a temporary fix to soothe the holiday blues. Usually you will remember why it didn’t work in the first place. Often it’s hard to go back.
However, here are some tips on how to attend that special holiday event with your former beau or girlfriend and make it a better experience for all involved.
1.Don’t talk about what went wrong. You know the reason you broke up. He or she knows the reason you broke up. There’s no need to rehash the past and spend time going down memory lane.
2.Don’t talk about your dating history while you were apart. Perhaps one of you had a lusty affair and the other never got over your initial break-up. There’s no reason to compare bad date stories or wonder how many people your ex went to bed with.
3.Do keep the conversation light and easy. Just like your initial first dates, remember to leave the drama behind. You might think the familiarity should allow you to accelerate things, but being a “Debbie or Donnie Downer” will turn him or her away faster than you can imagine. Ask about his or her family, how work is going, or talk about the latest accomplishments of your children.
4.Don’t try to pick up where you left off. Don’t assume your ex wants to get back together long-term. Try and look at this as a new friendship or the beginning of a new relationship that just happened to resurface during the holidays. Don’t start planning your future all over again and keep the expectations low.
5.Don’t sleep together. Avoid being overly affectionate in public the first time you see each other after a break-up. Unless you really want a “friends with benefits” relationship, don’t end up back in bed right away. You may wake up regretting it in the morning with your emotions at an all-time high, wondering where the relationship will go.
If things go well when you reunite over the holidays, keep the communication going. Sending a text message to say that you had a great time, instead of calling the next day, won’t win her heart.
Are you recycling an ex at the holidays? If so, feel free to comment.
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The Perils of Cyber-Dating: Confessions of a Hopeful Romantic Looking for Love Online
by Julie Spira

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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

The mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, has said there is “no way, no how” he is going to run for the US presidency in 2012.
Appearing on NBC television's Meet the Press programme, he said that those urging him to seek the presidency “should cease and desist”.
Mr Bloomberg, 68, said he intended to remain focused on being mayor.
But he said he would continue to speak out on national issues that impact on New York, such as immigration.
Mr Bloomberg, who is in his third term as mayor, said: “The bottom line is that I've a great job.”
He added: “I want to go out being, having a reputation as, a very good, maybe the greatest mayor ever.”
While some of his backers have urged him to run, Mr Bloomberg said talk of a White House bid in 2012 came “because the press wants something to write about”.
The founder of the Bloomberg news media empire, Mr Bloomberg is a former Democrat turned Republican turned independent.

Source:BBC

Every December 10th, the Nobel prizes for Literature, Physics, Chemistry, Medicine and Economics are handed out in Stockholm by the King of Sweden, with the Swedish royal family in attendance (the Peace prize is awarded on the same day in Oslo, Norway). This was the first Nobel ceremony for Crown Princess Victoria since her marriage, and she showed off her newlywed glow in a stunning Elie Saab silk gown with embroidered details. She sets off the look with the dazzling Napoleonic steel-cut tiara, a diamond necklace and pearl drop earrings.
Scroll through to see Princess Victoria’s dress and jewels for the Nobel ceremony over the past few years, and vote for your favorite look.
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Sweden’s Crown Princess Victoria, left, is escorted by Nobel Chemistry laureate Ei-ichi Negishi, right, to the Prince’s Gallery during the Nobel banquet in the Stockholm Town Hall, Sweden, Friday Dec. 10, 2010. Professor Negishi is a Japanese citizen, born in China, affiliated to Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA.
Sweden’s Crown Princess Victoria, left, is escorted by Nobel Chemistry laureate Ei-ichi Negishi, right, to the Prince’s Gallery during the Nobel banquet in the Stockholm Town Hall, Sweden, Friday Dec. 10, 2010. Professor Negishi is a Japanese citizen, born in China, affiliated to Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA.
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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

This week, President Obama and Mitch McConnell played “Let’s Make A Deal” on the Bush tax cuts, but House Democrats aren’t sure “The Price Is Right” and passed a non-binding resolution opposing the bargain — putting its passage in “Jeopardy!”. When it comes to gays in the military, the Pentagon thinks it’s best “To Tell The Truth,” but the Senate refused to repeal DADT, preferring the “I’ve Got A Secret” status quo. Meanwhile, in the latest episode of “Tattletales,” Julian Assange was arrested in a bizarre case involving “sex by surprise” and having sex with a broken condom — which certainly puts a whole other spin on the concept of WikiLeaks. Where is Bert Convy when you need him? Elsewhere, I tried to sell Conan on the concept of trading “Casual Fridays” for “Jeggings Fridays.”

This Blogger’s Books from
Third World America: How Our Politicians Are Abandoning the Middle Class and Betraying the American Dream
by Arianna Huffington

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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

The best the NCAA has to offer was on display last night and it wasn’t the Heisman Trophy presentation in New York City. It took place a quick ride south from Manhattan on the Acela Express, in Philadelphia, where the Navy Midshipmen took on the Black Knights of Army.
In the hypocrisy that has become college football, where programs like USC and players like Cameron Newton, who could have been the best thing for the sport with his boyish exuberance and bright smile, carry the moniker of “performing without integrity,” while others, like the Universities of Florida and Miami might as well play home games in jumpsuit orange, the Army-Navy game is, well, an apparition because of what it means to a decade of volunteers who have fought two wars for us in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The game itself wasn’t particularly great. Mistakes were made far too often on both sides and Navy, having defeated West Point eight straight years, was heavily favored despite a much improved Army team that earned a bowl bid for the first time in the last few years.
The Midshipmen ran over Army with a triple option attack in the first quarter to the tune of 17-0 but then the backfield got the yips and fumbled the ball twice on their side of the fifty allowing Army to score once and put it on the doorstep with less than two minutes left in the half. Then, senior captain and safety Wyatt Middleton, playing in his next to last game before deployment, knocked the ball loose from Army quarterback Trent Steelman, and dashed 98 yards downfield in a fourteen point flip that eventually wound up at 31-17 by night’s end in Navy’s favor.
But, that’s not the real story of this game. The service academy players represent what the NCAA wants to portray as college football because -unlike their counterparts who might move off to lucrative contracts at the next level or more likely, happy hours team reunions, a normal life like you or me – players from both the Army and Navy squads will be deployed to areas where becoming a casualty doesn’t mean a season ending knee injury.
These players, like Senior punter Kyle Delahooke who will spend the next five years with the Marine Corps, want to win because they know they represent the men and women who they will be deployed alongside in the upcoming years. They play for those like Staff Sergeant Sal Giunta, standing on the field before the game as the first living recipient of the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War and who, at the same age as Army linebacker and team captain Stephen Anderson, was knocked down by a bullet to the chest, got up, and ran after his friend and squad member, Sgt. Josh Brennan who had been shot eight times and was being dragged into the night by two Taliban fighters. Giunta managed to save Brennan from the enemy but he could not save the badly wounded soldier’s life and he later died after being medevaced off the field of battle. That’s who the players play for, who they try to represent and who they will be alongside eventually.
With sixteen seconds left and down two scores, Trent Steelman, hurried his team to the line in an effort to score and the sea of cadets in gray rallied with him and after he was taken down and the game came to an end after a brief change of possession at 5:55pm ET, the Navy Midshipmen and the Army Black Knights became brothers once again because more acutely than others they understand that Navy football verse Army football isn’t war. It’s a game. It doesn’t mean a whole lot in the long run. But, last night as Steelman’s knee hit the ground at 1:55am, somewhere on a cold mountain ridge in half way around the world in Afghanistan thousands of miles from home, a couple Naval officers huddled next to a television and smiled, because it means a whole lot to them.

Follow Colin Barnicle on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/colinbarnicle

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Recently, I was heading for a social event that called for something more elegant than Dr. Scholl’s. So, here I am coiffed and polished with clutch in hand, and I slip on my fabulous sky-high strappies and toddle off onto the rough city streets when halfway down the block I feel the very recognizable rush of distracting discomfort working its way up my body. Suddenly, I remember just how much it takes to really “work” a pair of heels. With each attempted heel strike I realize I’m restricted to smashing the ball of my foot repeatedly into the relentless concrete runway. Pain begins in the ankle joints and works its way up to my calves stopping briefly to visit my knees but, finding no satisfaction there, moves up to my quads, wends it way in and around my hip joints and finally comes to land around my low back spreading itself out with the unconscious abandon of an unwelcome guest in your living room. I
Now, as a teacher of the body arts and acknowledged kinesiology geek, I am not thrown by this pain, but instead immediately enthralled by the challenge being presented to me by these pin-pointed symbols of sexiness.
I must teeter off track for a moment to point out that the irony of heels as bringing automatic sexiness to their wearer is not lost on me in the least, especially as the simple truth is that when not operated correctly or, like me, if you are so terribly out of practice that you’ve lost your Manolo mojo, then you must acknowledge that the effect is quite the opposite of sexy and more often than not downright silly. I see ladies traversing the city on tiptoe daily and I’m steps away from an impromptu intervention which might go something like this, “Hi, I’m sorry to have to do this, but as a Pilates professional it’s my duty to remove from your possession those five-inch Louboutins and replace them with these training shoes which are yes, considerably uglier, but also far more stable and sensible. No need to thank me — your improved posture is reward enough!”
And so now it’s my turn and I’m blowing the whistle on myself, but I have neither the time nor sensible shoes at the ready. And so, I do the next best thing: I spend the next few blocks trying to assess and correct the situation now plaguing my lower half.
First, I direct all my attention to what any Pilates teacher worth the weight of their Wunda chair would, my “powerhouse” (the abdominal muscles and their next-door neighbors). I begin by pulling my navel away from the front of my pants and track it as I draw it up the anterior portion of my spine, which might look a bit like trying to close the zipper on your tightest pair of jeans, elongating the waist and lightening the load on the hips.
Doing this I’ve already halved the pain in my back and taken a considerable amount of weight off my ankle joints. My knees are peacefully going along for the ride and taking it all in. Next, I fix my gaze straight ahead and with each inhalation I send the image for my back to start rising as if being hoisted from above so that I am lifted both front and back. Now I am aware of more wobble in my step because my ankles are slightly destabilized from the lack of weight bearing down from above that would help counter the harsh return from the pavement below. But no problem, I will just add to my multi-tasking the job of placing my feet down just so to ensure that I am landing and pushing off the middle of my foot, somewhere around the ball of the second toe. And it’s starting to come together for me now, I’m lifted and striding confidently (yet cautiously) onward to my fete. I’ve reclaimed the heel (and my dignity), and made a very important decision for myself and, arrogantly, for all western womankind. Tomorrow, when rooting through our closets … we won’t choose the Choos!
Try These Well-Heeled Movements to Stretch & Strengthen
1. Runway Roll Down
This exercise will help to determine if you’re strong enough to really “work” those heels. TIP: keep your knees ‘soft’ (unlocked) so you don’t topple forward onto your head.
Don your steepest stilettos and position yourself with your back against a sturdy wall.
Walk your feet a few inches from the base of the wall while making sure every vertebra is glued to the wall behind you — especially your sacrum (the back of your pelvis).
Take a deep inhalation, drawing your belly up into your spine and then bring your chin toward your chest.
Slowly begin to round forward, “peeling” each vertebra off the wall sequentially as you exhale.
See how far you can roll down (stop when you run out of breath) and then inhale to begin rolling back up again.
Make sure that you replace each vertebra on the wall an inch above where you found it.
You can practice this three times getting stronger and more conscious with each repetition.
This exercise is also effective without heels on. Simply complete the same sequence with your feet planted solidly on the floor about a foot from the wall.
2. L’EGG-ercise
This exercise will stretch both your calves and Achilles tendons (the parts that shorten the most in heels) while strengthening your ankles and inner thighs for better stability atop shaky stilettos. (Do this one barefoot!)
Stand tall with your heels together and toes about three inches apart, legs squeezed together from the upper inner thighs.
Draw your abs in and up and rise gently to the balls of your feet. Imagine you are holding a raw egg between your ankle bones and bend into a pli position with knees wide apart.
Do not allow your ankle bones to widen to the point that you might drop your invisible egg.
Lower your heels to the floor without straightening your legs.
When they won’t lower any further straighten your legs and return to the starting position.
Repeat five times (improving with each one) and then reverse the sequence five times.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

As we enter this busy holiday travel season it appears that deep vein thrombosis or blood clots are not the only worry on air travelers minds when it comes to health risks. The new concern, that has the media buzzing, is exposure to radiation from the new airport scanners.
By the end of 2011 it’s estimated that in airports around the country there will be over 1000 new scanners, which employ very low energy backscatter X-rays. They are used to look under our clothing to check for concealed weapons. In fact these the X-rays are so weak they are intended to bounce off our bodies as opposed to penetrating inside like a diagnostic medical X-ray. In fact they would be useless if they penetrated deep into our bodies.
The stated radiation dose from these scanners is 0.02 microsieverts. A microsievert (Sv)is one millionth of a sievert (Sv), which is a standard international unit of radiation dose. It reflects the biological effect of the radiation. Microsieverts, denoted Sv are the units used to measure the effective dose of radiation in a medical procedure. To give you an idea of the scale of different exposures in medical procedures, a chest X-ray’s effective radiation dose is 100 Sv, a mammogram’s is 400 Sv and CT scan of the abdomen and pelvis is about 15,000 Sv. This is according to a consumer website (www.radiologyInfo.org) sponsored jointly by the American College of Radiology (ACR) and the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
We all experience natural environmental background radiation from both the earth’s radioactive materials and the cosmic radiation from the atmosphere. According to ACR and RSNA, it’s estimated that on average a person is exposed to about 3000Sv per year. This dose varies depending on where we live. Living at higher altitudes such as Denver exposes you to 1500Sv more per year than if you live at sea level. Radon gas is one of the more common exposures people get from their homes. This also varies depending on where you live, but on average it is about 2000Sv per year. Even a transcontinental flight exposes you to about 30Sv.
The National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP) along with the ACR states that a traveler would require more that 1,000 backscatter scans a year to reach the low dose of a standard chest X-ray. However, just as statistics for prognosis and survival of cancer are really only applicable to populations or groups of patients and are not a good predictor for an individual patient, critics are afraid the converse would apply for these statistics? Meaning it’s a numbers game, so while each individual traveler’s risk may be minuscule, if you scanned over 700 million travelers a year, would cancers develop in some people?
I posed this question to a colleague and expert, Dr. Barry Daly M.D., professor of Radiology and vice chair for research in the department of Radiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He told me even if you scanned all these travelers and then looked at the population, it is still only a very minimal theoretical risk. And because of the very low dose of penetration of the backscatter scan, any cancer risk would be limited to skin cancers. Other experts have also echoed this, adding that if any skin cancers did develop they would probably be basal cell carcinomas. Incidentally these are the most curable form of skin cancer.
There are other types of scanners on the market that use non-ionizing radiation, radio waves called Millimeter-wave scanners. And while the TSA plans on using both of these types of technologies in scanners, as passengers we probably won’t be able to choose which scanner we want to go through at airports.
However, as a physician, it seems somewhat ironic to me that people are voicing these concerns about what is essentially a very tiny dose of radiation. Especially when I see so many patients who don’t take action to reduce their known and proven cancer risks. Smoking causes 30 percent of all cancer deaths and about 80-90 precent of lung cancer deaths in the United States. Yet according the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) still over one fifth of American adults smoke.
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) estimates that obesity and physical inactivity account for about 30 percent of several major cancers, such as colon, breast, uterine, kidney and esophageal cancer. Despite these statistics, still almost one third of the population qualifies as obese. Looking at just skin cancers, which account for the most common form of cancer in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS) the fasting rising type of skin cancer is malignant melanoma. So whether it comes from the sun or artificial light, ultraviolet (UV) radiation is a proven carcinogen and this is yet another example of how we don’t take precautions to reduce our cancer risks.
With that said, if you are still worried and want to reduce this minuscule added exposure, you do have the choice. Just submit to a pat down, where only your pride, not your skin’s DNA would be theoretically jeopardized. But in today’s world, we cannot have it all. It is unrealistic to say to TSA, ” Don’t profile me, don’t radiate me, don’t touch me but I expect to be completely safe and secure when I fly!” Unfortunately, we are all going to have to compromise a bit or stay home.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Every day we see stories in the media about the latest medical “breakthroughs” that could lead to treatments or cures for dreaded diseases. We are overwhelmed with snippets about stem cells, genes linked to Alzheimer’s disease, autism and diabetes. We hear that cancer drugs are being tailored to treat an individual tumor. And yet, many breakthroughs like these have not borne fruit for patients.
Whether it’s because science is hard and unpredictable, or that resources are limited, or there is lack of prioritization — too many great scientific ideas sit at the laboratory bench waiting for translation. But, there are successful models that have turned a basic discovery into an effective therapeutic option. These models can provide pathways to a healthier future.
We are at a critical inflection point in current discussions within the biomedical research establishment about what actions need to be taken to push the science toward cures where possible. We need to take advantage of this moment, and we need to bring patients, the public and policymakers into the conversation. Next week from December 13-15 FasterCures is convening in New York City all of the sectors involved in medical research to do just that. Partnering for Cures is a meeting like no other, a place to forge collaborations and participate in outcome-focused dialogue about the challenges facing medical research. We have always maintained that each of the sectors plays a vital role, whether it is government, industry, philanthropy, academia, finance or the non-profits. And the need for their ability to seamlessly pass the baton from one to the other has never been greater or the stakes higher.
Successful models have integrated all of these sectors. Everyone needs to be at this table. Few life-saving therapies have come to market without the resources of private industry. Increasingly, patients have become more sophisticated and disease groups are ever innovating with new models for collaboration with academia and industry. The U.S. government is recognizing that it can play a special and critical role in providing an environment where successful partnerships can grow and proliferate. Partnering for Cures provides an opportunity for all sectors to productively collide, creating an ultimate open source opportunity to shine a light on these models so others can learn and build on them.
One area of keen interest to us is identifying solutions and models to cross the so-called “Valley of Death” — an ever-widening gap in funding and support for the kind of research that moves basic science down the path toward treatments.
In a new report released today by FasterCures, “Crossing Over the Valley of Death,” we highlight the productivity gap that currently exists today, how research moves from molecule to marketplace, how we can traverse the Valley of Death and what all of the sectors are doing towards that end. Many players are marching into that valley, but we are far from reaching the other side.
The need to keep marching with the resources required to make the passage is recognized by advisors to U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Dr. Francis Collins, who have recommended that a new translational medicine and therapeutics development center be created by the federal agency post-haste. This proposed center would bring together existing NIH activities in translational research and medicine and allow greater coordination and collaboration internally as well as externally, and ultimately, we hope, produce greater outcomes.
We need to support this recommendation, which if implemented would shine a light on the critically needed but under-resourced and under-appreciated area of translational research. In our jump to embrace this incredible opportunity, however, we need to ensure that Peter is not robbed to pay Paul. NIH’s other strengths include supporting the nation’s basic biomedical research enterprise, and that focus cannot be lost or diminished in our impatience with the pace of progress. Basic science is still as important as ever, but we also want and deserve concrete outcomes.
Dr. Robert Beall, President and CEO of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation often talks about the Foundation’s own model for de-risking research as providing “more shots on goal.” Never has the need been greater to have all of the sectors implement that same approach, to take bold steps to move forward swiftly.
Our nation’s wise and prolonged investment in basic science has produced discoveries that now need translation. Knowledge gained from basic discoveries allows us to take more strategic and informed shots on goal. This new and important focus on translation no doubt makes some in the research community uncomfortable, as they worry about focus, changing research priorities and competition over scarce dollars.
We recognize those concerns, but at the same time, the need for accountability and outcomes prevail. Patients need to know that we, the collective “we” in the medical research system, are doing everything we can to get new preventive, diagnostic and treatment options through the pipeline and into the clinic. The alternative to this change is the status quo — 15 years for an intervention to go from bench to bedside. Clearly that isn’t acceptable. Is it?
Join us at Partnering for Cures, December 13-15 in New York City. www.partneringforcures.org.

Follow Margaret Anderson on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/fastercures

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

I’ve been thinking this week about the abrupt resignation/termination of a young, successful women’s soccer coach at Belmont (Baptist) University in Tennessee. She is a lesbian with a partner. They are having a baby. She told her team about the baby and was immediately removed from duty or removed herself from duty under duress.
Her student-athletes were devastated, asked the administration to reinstate her and, when denied, held protests on campus. The media got involved. A major donor called for her rehire. The President issued an apologetic statement for his failure to comment sooner, soothing in tone, but with no reinstatement commitment.
So, things are a bit of a mess at Belmont.
The university is ranked amongst the best value campuses in the U.S.. That value is tarnished now because Belmont evidently played foul. Americans like fair-play. This situation won’t go away easily and it’s complicated.
Belmont is a distinctively Christian institution. As such, it has the legal right to choose who can teach and who cannot as well as who can attend and who cannot. The President claims that sexual orientation has not been an issue in hiring or firing during his tenure. Recent events make this sound like, “I did not inhale”.
There is an old saying that we are as sick as our secrets. I sense deep feelings of dis-ease on the campus now. The leaders need to engage the entire campus in deep introspection and healing. Exclusion and discrimination, in all forms, for all reasons, hurt everyone. The litmus test of the real value of Belmont will be its response to this situation. They have an opportunity to take the first step in righting a great wrong and serve as example to their peer institutions throughout America in doing what is right.
I went to a Christian college. My alma mater is struggling just like Belmont is struggling. A few weeks ago they refused to let a gay student write an editorial about establishing a gay-straight alliance on campus. Sad.
Belmont and other colleges and universities that characterize themselves as Christian are really challenged by no strings attached inclusion of young people and faculty who live their lives with full integrity regarding their sexuality and their sex lives. Why? Christians know that Jesus knew everything about everyone with whom he walked and dined and slept.
He never said, I can only imagine what Jesus would say about Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. And, He never mentioned homosexuality.
I think Jesus would find it unacceptable that most of our Christian institutions (and our government) create policies about sexual behavior rather than the kinds of behaviors He talked about in the Sermon on the Mount.
Consider the climate our rules make for LGBTQ students at these distinctively Christian institutions. They are supposed to have sex only inside marriage (but they can’t marry the people they love) and they aren’t supposed to be gay (even though they are). I cannot imagine the pain of being an LGBTQ student or faculty member at Belmont now, compelled by fear to lie. I can’t imagine that Jesus would ask them to.
The problem in the Institution we call Christ’s Church is that even though it claims to be distinctively Christian, it simply fails to conform to the standards of inclusion that Jesus modeled in his life — bringing the most “excluded” people in society into his circle of love — as his friends and disciples. Even in the last minutes of his life, He invited a man society considered “unclean” with Him into Paradise — the thief who hung on the Cross beside Him.
The Church is an institution created by humankind. It is fallible and it is failing in its witness to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people just as it has with women and people of color in the past. Belmont is called to Christian witness. So, now it is time to think out of the box like Jesus did. I believe He is knocking on the door at Belmont and I hope they open it and their arms to everyone.

This Blogger’s Books from
Would Jesus Discriminate?: The 21st Century Question
by Cindi Love

Follow Rev. Dr. Cindi Love on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/SoulforceLove

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

For decades, religious diversity in American seminaries meant the admission of students from different Christian denominations. Then Jews began to attend and even founded prominent seminaries, notably Hebrew Union College, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and the Jewish Theological Seminary.
Yet with the notable exception of the MacDonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary, few American seminaries have historically developed programs focusing on the study of Islam. The Muslim population had been dramatically underrepresented. Only in the past decade have these trends begun to change, with a greater emphasis on both teaching Islamic studies in Christian and Jewish institutions and the increasingly prominent idea that it is time for Muslim Americans to found a seminary of their own.
Regarding the latter, the last two years have shown a particular flurry of growth and institution-building within the Muslim American community. First was the founding of Zaytuna College (as an outgrowth of the Zaytuna Institute) in 2009, designed to become a full-scale university for Muslim undergraduate and graduate students in America.
Then, just this past October, a landmark interfaith workshop, “Judaism and Islam in America,” co-sponsored by the Jewish Theological Seminary, Hartford Seminary and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), brought to the fore discussions about building an American seminary for the training of imams and Muslim religious scholars. While such a project may still be years in the making, excitement surrounding the idea for a Muslim American seminary reflects a growing need to train Muslim clergy well-versed in traditional texts and with an understanding of the American context in which they would work.
Yet even as an institution that trains Muslim American clergy remains in discussion, Muslim students are now becoming valued as essential participants in divinity and seminary programs across the United States. In fact, a number of new partnerships have emerged in recognition of the growing presence of Muslims and Islamic studies in seminaries.
Since 2008, for example, the Hebrew Union College and University of Southern California have partnered with the Omar Ibn Al-Khattab Foundation, a Los Angeles-based philanthropic organisation that works to support other Muslim organisations, to establish the Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement. All three institutions feel that the center holds significant potential, noting the success of its interfaith text-study programs and existing efforts to bolster Jewish studies programmes in majority-Muslim countries while also strengthening Islamic studies programs in North America and Europe.
Other centers, such as the Center of Christian-Muslim Engagement for Peace and Justice (CCME) at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, have been in existence even longer. CCME has focused largely on encouraging Christian graduates of the seminary to become knowledgeable about Islam so they can more effectively collaborate with Muslim organisations and clergy throughout their future careers.
Most remarkable, however, was the announcement earlier this year that southern California’s Claremont School of Theology, an institution affiliated with the United Methodist Church, is poised to add clerical training programs for Muslim and Jewish students. When it does, it will become the only institution in the world to train imams alongside pastors and rabbis.
While these profound institutional shifts may be more visible, cultural shifts in seminaries are also rapidly taking place. When I first spoke with colleagues about the potential to found State of Formation, a blog for top emerging religious and ethics leaders from across America, the first question many asked was whether I would be recruiting Muslim students. This would never have happened five years ago and is an indication that Muslim students are not simply tolerated in American seminaries but actively welcomed.
Seminaries have historically been at the leading edge of social change in America. It would seem that one of their current causes is the fuller embrace of Muslims in American society — beginning in their very own classrooms.
This article was adapted from the Common Ground News Service and republished with permission.

Follow Joshua Stanton on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/dialogueeditor

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Quick! What’s the first image that pops into your mind when someone says feminist? Bra burnings? Gloria Steinem? Old news?
If you said Gloria Steinem, that’s good. If you thought old news, that’s not so good.
Born in 1956, I’m from the generation that came slightly after the brilliant, ferocious and committed vanguard of the women’s movement, and I’ve enjoyed the benefits of their hard work. Like many of my peers (even those slightly older or younger), I’ve called myself a feminist. But am I really?
When I turned 50, I started thinking through every aspect of my life, reflecting on the past and planning for the future. In addition to assessing my health, eating, beauty routines, style, finances, relationships and so on, I also wanted to make sure that my voice was authentic and strong.
In my journey to discover who I really was — and who I wanted to be — after I turned 50, I reached out to many other women, to talk, to listen, to learn. Through one such new relationship, I met Marianne Schnall, founder and director of feminist.com. Talking with Marianne caused me to revisit my understanding of feminism, and to explore how (or if) it was still relevant in today’s complex world. After all, hadn’t women secured a better future as a result of feminism, and weren’t there far graver and urgent problems to focus on now?
At the launch party I recently attended in honor of Marianne’s new book, “Daring to Be Ourselves,” which is a compilation of the best quotes from some of the worlds most successful women, Gloria Steinem described Marianne as a brave feminist: a woman who day in and day out walks the walk and talks the talk of feminism through her work, her writing, her roles as wife, mother, daughter, sister and friend. In her early 40s, she is leading the way for the next generation of feminists, and is doing it with conviction, love, and compassion. Marianne is a brave feminist.
But, Marianne, and other committed men and women who are working daily to secure the fundamental rights of women and girls around the world, have their work cut out for them. Author Isabel Allende, one of the many accomplished women who are quoted in “Daring to Be Ourselves,” summed up the problem quite succinctly:
Singer Annie Lennox, in an interview with Marianne, shared her views: “I get very frustrated when I hear women saying, “Oh, feminism is pass,” because feminism means empowerment. We need feminism. It’s not against men; it’s about the empowerment of all.”
In recent years, I found myself shying away from calling myself a feminist, because I, too –perhaps bowed by current social thinking — thought that feminism was old news, and that the movement was still run by those who might be out of touch with today’s realities.
But, I was wrong. Feminism started as a movement to change laws, and the perception of women as secondary to men. But, feminism has morphed into something much bigger and bolder, with an even greater potential to affect global change.
To embrace feminism is to embrace this fundamental truth: every human being has rights.
Feminism is more essential and relevant today than ever before. Just pick up any newspaper and see how the concepts of equality, tolerance and compassion, which are at the very core of feminism, are disintegrating around the world. Perhaps if those involved in the recent tragic bullying cases had been taught the tenets of feminism at an early age, these events would not have occurred.
On some very profound levels, feminism has become my own personal moral compass. It guides my daily behavior toward everyone — regardless of gender, age, color, sexual orientation, creed or nationality, and I am raising my two daughters to be feminists as well. It’s true, my heart is pulled more toward the ongoing plight of women and children around the world, including in our own country, but the moral code of feminism now shapes my worldview, and my approach to life.
It isn’t always easy calling oneself a feminist, though, so consider yourself forewarned. People (men and women) will occasionally roll their eyes and make snarky (and ignorant) remarks about your political orientation. But, to be a brave feminist, you must ignore the noise, speak up, use your voice and be true to your own convictions.
Playwright Eve Ensler offers this advice: “Give voice to what you know to be true, and do not be afraid of being disliked or exiled. I think that’s the hard work of standing up for what you see.”
Even if you would never have called yourself a feminist in the past, consider it part of your future. But don’t just be a feminist. Be a brave feminist.
Please “friend” me on Facebook, and follow me on Twitter. Staying connected is a powerful tool.

This Blogger’s Books from
The Best of Everything After 50: The Experts’ Guide to Style, Sex, Health, Money, and More
by Barbara Hannah Grufferman

Follow Barbara Hannah Grufferman on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/BGrufferman

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Yep, it’s that time of year again, when we aspire to stay calm, sane and steady — and maybe even have a little fun — in the face of demands piling on at holiday time. This is my list of how to minimize the inevitable stress of the holidays.
Take Care of Your Body
Try to do all the things you know are good for your physical well-being: get regular exercise; take it easy on the caffeine, sugar and alcohol; get enough sleep; eat healthy food; get a massage; do your yoga — you know this stuff. This is the baseline of stress reduction.
Track Your Physical Comfort
Take time to check in with your body and see how it’s feeling. Just paying attention is key. Once you notice, you can make small corrections to relieve discomfort before it takes over. Breathe into tight places; stretch and move when your back or neck feels stiff; look out the window when your eyes are straining at the computer screen; massage your neck and press the acupoints when a headache is lurking. But you have to notice what’s amiss first. And besides, just noticing will ground you in your body — that alone is a very good thing.
Learn to Relax at Will
Develop a regular practice to relax you. If possible, start and end the day with guided imagery, yoga, meditation, relaxation, deep breathing, petting the cat in a rocking chair or just listening to soothing music. Even five minutes, twice a day, will give you some protective cushioning against the day’s stresses. And if you can’t manage this daily, do it whenever you can. There’s no such thing as blowing the whole thing.
Give Yourself a Time-Out When You’re Getting Crazed
When you find yourself starting to lose it, or you’re butting up against your own rigidity or circular thinking, take a quick break. Step away. Go outside for a walk, do some guided imagery, snuggle your favorite squeezer, play some music, call a loving friend or do a couple of yoga stretches. Five minutes of conscious AWOL can clear your mind and give you back your perspective, flexibility and common sense.
Dose Your Day with Humor
Humor, by its nature, provides instant distance, balance and perspective, if even for a moment. As long as it’s gentle, it allows us to step back and take everything, including ourselves, less seriously. So practice the art of finding the ludicrous, paradoxical and nonsensical in daily events. And don’t forget, laughing itself is priceless. A good belly laugh, like good sex, changes biochemistry and clears out emotional gunk.
Be Realistic and Know Your Limits
It’s a wonderful thing to know what you can and cannot do. Wrestle your perfectionism to the ground and don’t let idealized expectations press you into doing more than you can realistically manage. Can’t get those cards out by Christmas? Do New Year’s or Valentine’s cards. (Isn’t the whole point to stay in touch with people you care about? Is there a time limit on that?) Remember to say no. Set limits. Work smart. Take imperfect shortcuts. This is especially important around holiday time, when trying too hard to do too much creates the exact opposite of the holiday feeling you’re striving for, and you morph into the cranky, resentful, martyred, overworked nightmare you swore you’d never be.
Manage Your Time
A corollary is to try not to over-commit. If you do, make a list and prioritize. (Just getting these things out of your head and onto a piece of paper will reduce some stress.) If the list is out of control, look it over (with a friend if necessary) and assess what has to go — and then cancel, with apologies. Then tackle things you can finish, one at a time, if at all possible, and enjoy the satisfaction that comes with getting a chunk done. Procrastination can be a terrible stressor — we’re always aware of what we should be doing while we’re not doing it, and it’s a real joy-killer and energy-sapper. Do a piece and check that sucker off!
When Scheduling, Give Yourself Room to Breathe
If you find yourself scheduling yourself with back to back meetings, consider the possibility that you’re an adrenaline junkie, running from appointment to appointment to feed your addiction. Leave time between things, to catch your breath, reflect on what’s next, acquaint yourself with a calmer class of neurohormones that return you to equilibrium. Once you get out of the habit of racing, you won’t be so eager to go back to it, I promise.
Keep Asking Yourself If You’d Rather Be Happy or Right
A lot of stress is generated — for ourselves and others — by our need to be right, show we’re right, prove we’re right. And really, so what if we’re right? Better to cleanse our psychic pallet and de-gunk our day by letting go of an issue and moving on. Mind you, this is not the same as being a chump. It’s about taking care of ourselves, and therein lies right relationship, clear focus and, yes, even (dare I say it?) happiness.
Don’t Be Proud — Get Support When the Chips Are Down
Sometimes talking things out with someone you trust will allow you to safely acknowledge your feelings, let off some steam, get you away from obsessive thinking and rediscover your mislaid perspective. Sometimes friends even have helpful advice to give. Sometimes they actually stop us from doing really dumb things. At times, they’ll even do errands and some cooking for us.
Practice Staying in the Moment
By mindfully going about your day, putting your awareness into what you’re doing at the moment, you’ll be using even mundane, everyday activities as the focus of meditation, and, simple as it sounds, you can regain peace and balance there. And yes, even peeling potatoes can be a route to spiritual attunement and inner centering, once we place our full attention on those suckers.
Notice Little Moments of Beauty and Sweetness
This sounds trite and hokey but it works. Notice beauty around you and take a moment to breathe it in; watch the snow fall; take in the fragrance of your surroundings; sink your full awareness into the taste of something wonderful … same with taking in a smile, a gracious act, a loving gesture, a good face, your own kindness. Practicing gratitude for these lovely bits and pieces of daily life is a potent way to heal into the moment. And it feels really good, it’s self-reinforcing and contagious, too.
Okay, I’ve got more but this is enough. Take care, be well and good luck — and happy holidays!

This Blogger’s Books from
Invisible Heroes: Survivors of Trauma and How They Heal
by Belleruth Naparstek
Invisible Heroes: Survivors of Trauma and How They Heal
by Belleruth Naparstek

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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

The first English-language collection of poetry written by 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo is set for publication by Minneapolis-based Graywolf Press. The collection, entitled “June Fourth Elegies,” Graywolf announced last week, will be translated by the poet Jeffrey Yang and presented in both English and Chinese.
“June Fourth Elegies” will give English speakers an opportunity to experience firsthand the hope and tragedy of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Liu, then a 33-year-old university professor, was one of the leaders of the non-violent protest that turned deadly when the Chinese Army opened fire. Yang described the manuscript to the Minneapolis Star Tribune: “The way the book is structured, the poems were written kind of at the same time every year, when Tiananmen happened, each one is a kind of recollection of a certain aspect of June 4. They’re very elegiac.”
Elegies, if you aren’t aware, are poems written to commemorate the dead. The book, for obvious reasons, has yet to be published in China.
Liu was officially given the Nobel in a ceremony this past Friday, though his incarceration for “subversion of state power” prevented his attending. The Chinese government has called the award an “obscenity” and a “blasphemy,” and has reportedly arrested more than 30 people for celebrating Liu’s good news.
A few of Liu’s poems are already available online in English, and they are well worth your reading. The poems were translated by Yang for PEN International, a group that fights for free expression worldwide (Liu himself is a member). You can read the poems here. They give us some insight into the coming book, which promises to be accessible and beautifully imagistic, as in these excerpts from “A Small Rat in Prison”:
“Elegies” is also sure to be powerfully heartfelt. Liu’s wife said that when he learned about the Nobel he cried and dedicated the award to the “dead spirits of Tiananmen.”
In a moving event almost exactly one year ago, American writers gathered on the steps of the New York Public Library to draw attention to Liu’s plight. They read translations of some of Liu’s poetry, which you can hear below:
“Daybreak,” read by the playwright Edward Albee
“Longing to Escape,” read by the novelist Don DeLillo
“One Letter,” read by E.L. Doctorow
In a 2006 interview with PEN international, when Liu was the acting president of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, he appealed to writers throughout the world “to continue to pay attention to Chinese writers and to … help them to obtain their freedom of writing.” He continued, “If the Chinese people has the support of the whole world we work together to change China from a totalitarian state, from a state without freedom of writing into a free nation … then it will mean to elevate the standard of civilization for the whole world.”
The forthcoming “Elegies” will help to open the eyes of the English-speaking world to Liu’s fight. Hopefully, by the time the book is published, Liu Xiaobo will be free to read the poems to us himself.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

The appearance of a larger-than-life hero, shaman, guru or healer to rescue us from our disorienting despair is a persistent theme in most faith traditions. Instead of discovering the inner spunk to repair and rebirth our intentions, we search the skies for a savior. I am convinced that filling the holes in our hearts — from disappointment, postponed dreams or profound loss — begins with gratitude, not surrender. In opening the lens to the gifts around us, surprises abound.
One of the most powerful memories of my childhood was the empty chair at the end of our dining room table. After my father died when I was 14, my mother, sister and I tried to fill our small table with one another’s company, but the image of the lone chair was a constant reminder of the emptiness around us. With my wife’s sudden death two years ago, more empty chairs filled in my home and heart. I’m not alone. Our media overdoses us with holiday stories of tragic war deaths and sad homecomings to more empty chairs, and the lengthening shadows of memory they bring.
Now we step into a new holiday season, flush with the reminders of our year. Despite record unemployment, uneven economic news, and the prevailing clouds of seemingly endless war and loss, mass audiences continue to devour 24/7 coverage of the next Sarah Palin gaff, the winner of “Dancing with the Stars” or the ascension of a newly anointed 14-year old teen idol. However diverting this popcorn of “news” is to our larger attention, this is a rough season for many people.
Novelist David Grossman found his way back to life after the death of his son by writing, something I deeply understand. He recently reflected that “writing was the only way to return from the exile of everything you knew, the story of your life. In loss, you don’t belong to anything. Nothing can be taken for granted. For me, writing was my way of making sense of the chaos, for in finding the right word, I found a way of choosing life.”
I write each morning at 6 a.m., before my day really begins, to invite possibility into what’s next. My morning ritual reminds me of the wisdom that is around us, if we can only ask. And to be even more grateful for what we receive.
All of us are finding our way to something ahead of us. I suggest the wisest way to make the glow of holiday celebration last is to express gratitude for the life we have, and to deeply acknowledge our grateful feelings to everyone who touches our life.
Researchers confirm that feeling grateful brings more lasting energy, greater optimism, and more authentic social connections. Some studies confirm that grateful people make more money, sleep more deeply and have greater resistance to illness. Psychologist Jeffrey Froh of Hofstra University reminds us that “a lot of these findings are things we learned in kindergarten or our grandmothers told us,” but now science gives us permission to believe them. In fact, ancient philosophers reminded us that gratitude was an indispensable human virtue. Cicero wrote, “A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all other virtues.”
This year, perhaps in response to the many generous friends who persist in providing updraft to my daily life, I have consciously begun some new daily rituals of acknowledging and appreciating the people who help me. I make it a point to thank each person, from the smiling barista at Starbucks to my newspaper delivery man, and in small ways express how much I appreciate them. My new mantra when people ask how I am is, “Better now that you’re here.” And I mean it.
There’s a wise Buddhist exercise, called Naikan self-reflection, that invites us to ponder each day: “What have I received from … ? What have I given to … ? Who made me laugh? Whom have I troubled and need to ask forgiveness for my actions?”
Mindfulness of how we are with others is only part of the acknowledgment process. How are we to ourselves? What is our own self-talk? How critical or forgiving are we of our actions, intentions, gaffs and lapses? How much time do we spend judging others, as well as own faults? No wonder we can slip into darker moods, indulge in that extra slice of pie or glass of wine, all to soften and stuff our sadness. Instead, being grateful for your life, your family, your friends, will help lift your holiday spirits in an authentic way. When we step away from judging and instead celebrate in large and small ways the precious moments of our life, we experience a sense of gratitude that can boost everyone’s positive emotions.
The empty chairs of intention and attention — to everyone in our life — beg to be filled. It’s not as lonely anymore. It begins by being grateful and acknowledging all who make your life better.
This year I thank my dear friends, our wise children, my clients, my partners, my students, colleagues, audiences and readers for their generous spirits and patience with me when I may have forgotten a birthday, or wasn’t the best friend I could be when they needed me. I work hard at not letting that happen, but at times I lapsed. I know. I will be better.
I deeply acknowledge how each of you helped me shape a new life in another important year, one in which I somehow slipped into 70. How did that happen?
I am committed to a 2011 where each of you will feel that I am “better now that you’re here.” Because I am. Whether with a whisper or a hug, know that I thank you. I won’t wait until the game is called for darkness for you to know how much you mean to me.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com