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It was one of those butterfly wing events: a butterfly flaps its wings and an earthquake erupts on the other side of the world. Well, in this case it was far less dramatic–my husband took a trip to Walmart in a last-ditch effort to put a few more Christmas presents under the tree, and I resolved a conundrum that had baffled me for more than a year. The mystery was this:
Why the heck was I getting fatter, even as my weight stayed the same?
For the last six months, my clothes had gotten tighter. This one particular pair of summer pants, which I use as a baseline for ideal trimness, on a recent trip to Florida had revealed itself to be, well, embarrassingly tight. Yet, I hadn’t changed my eating habits one bit, and the scale kept reassuring me that my weight was the same as it had been for–well, I can’t tell you how many decades, because that would seriously date me, but let’s just say, my weight was pretty much the same number as it had been since my twenties.
That’s what is soooo annoying about the midlife bulge. It creeps up on you, unannounced, unexpectedly, and inexplicably. I’ve seen it happen to friends for years–even people who have been skinny all their lives, suddenly begin to bulge, then inflate, then spread out, seemingly with no end in sight.
The problem with these kind of strange changes in your body is this: once started, where is it ever going to end? A few years down the road, would that innocuous bulge factor turn me into a full-fledged blimp? Scary thought, but we’ve all seen it happen.
So, back to Santa’s Walmart adventure. A particularly unwieldy and heavy package under the tree turned out to be–of all things–a kettle bell with a brief instructional DVD.
Okay, some background is needed here. I’ve been an avid yoga practitioner for years. In addition to being a writer, I teach yoga, and I use yoga as therapy with my clients. I love yoga for its amazing effects on mind and body; and I have always shunned exercise forms that disassociate the mind from the body. You know, the kind where you park your mind in front of the TV while your arms mindlessly pump iron or your legs wander off to do 5K on the treadmill? Volumes could be written about how sad it is to disassociate mind and body during exercise, and the wonderful gifts one misses out on–of mental and physical development, and even spiritual deepening.
But I digress. My main point is this–I had avoided weight training like the plaque. Booooring! Mechanical and mindless! A waste of time! No matter that thumbing my nose at weight lifting as a fitness form was entirely yogic. I, for one, wasn’t going to build a body of comatose bulk.
However, that stocky kettle bell in the midst of the crinkled Christmas wrapping looked strangely intriguing. Why not give it a try? So, next morning, I launched right into a couple of the workouts, heedlessly disregarding the warm-up section. Needless to say, I could barely walk or sit down the next few days. Still, I was hooked. This was surprisingly fun.
I read somewhere that high-intensity strength training produces human growth hormone. And indeed, there was a palpable change in the hormonal cocktail pulsing through my veins after each workout–creating the same feeling of youthfulness, aliveness, vibrancy I used to have as a kid. Sort of like spring–but in January.
So, I decided to let go of my very unyogic close-mindedness and added a kettle bell workout to my morning exercise routine 2 to 3 times a week. And this is when something really strange happened.
Within a very short while, my clothes began to fit again!
This was truly amazing. I finally realized why I had been getting fat, while not gaining weight. I had fallen victim to one of those scourges of middle age that slowly creeps up on us without our knowing: sarcopenia, or progressive muscle loss.
Despite a daily yoga practice, my writing work also forces me to sit much of the day. The upshot? Even though I was doing a moderate yoga practice, I was still losing more muscle mass than I was holding on to–or rather, as we shall see below, losing a particular type of muscle mass. Muscles weigh more than fat, so hence the strange phenomenon that even as my butt and waist line expanded as muscle cells slowly were replaced by fat cells, my weight stayed the same.
Sarcopenia–The Cousin of Osteoporosis
We hear a lot about the progressive bone loss of osteopenia and osteoporosis. The muscle equivalent of this is the progressive muscle loss a.k.a. sarcopenia, which begins to unfold as early as age 25. Progressing slowly at first, sarcopenia becomes a real concern from the mid-forties and onward, as the muscle loss continues to accelerate. From the mid-forties, most people lose muscle mass at an estimated rate of 1% per year! If you do the math, this means that by the age of 70, the average person has lost as much as 25% of their muscle mass; another 25%, on average, is lost by the age of 90–a staggering amount, which leads to numerous systemic changes in the body.
Sarcopenia is not a disease–it comes with no high-tech tests or fancy drugs, and as a consequence, it has received relatively little attention in our market-driven medical system. That doesn’t mean that it’s unimportant, however. Decreasing muscle mass is just as much a problem as thinning bones. Sarcopenia is linked to the thinning bones of osteoporosis, but it is also the backdrop against which a multitude of other age-related changes and ailments arise.
Ever wonder why you eat like a bird and still gain weight? If you are above 45, sarcopenia may well be a factor. Muscle tissue is the most active metabolic tissue in the body, and when muscle mass decreases, so does the resting metabolic rate of the body. With loss of muscle mass, we need less calories. Yet when we continue to eat the same amounts, the result, inevitably, is those extra pounds.
Sarcopenia is also a factor in the development of osteoporosis and in diminished cardiovascular fitness. It is thought to play a role in impaired glucose tolerance, diabetes, arthritis, and immune dysfunction. In addition, sarcopenia impacts our ability to withstand disease, because when we’re sick, the body draws protein from the muscles to build antibodies, heal wounds, and fight illness. If the muscle protein “reservoir” is depleted by sarcopenia, resistance is less.
Most significantly, sarcopenia leads to what for most people is the leading concern of aging–the progressive frailty that prevents the elderly from living a full and independent life. The frailty that stems from loss of muscle mass is even more universal than the disability associated with osteoporosis.
Sarcopenia is a serious degenerative condition. It appears as innocuous changes at first–difficulty climbing the stairs, getting up when we kneel down, and so on. But over time, these small shifts makes it harder and harder to perform even simple daily activities–do chores, take a walk, climb stairs, go grocery shopping, and so on. And of course, the harder it is to bend down and reach for that pan at the bottom shelf in the cabinet, the less we do it, creating a vicious cycle of gradually decreasing physical activity, which speeds up muscle loss even more. Women, who to begin with have less muscle mass by men, in particular face risks from loss of muscle mass. We, statistically, also are more likely to be too frail to take care of ourselves in old age.
Sarcopenia is caused by several factors. As we age, the nerve cells that link the brain to the muscles gradually die off. As the chemical connections to the muscles cells are lost, the muscle cells begin to deteriorate. Hormonal changes play a role as well. The levels of such hormones as testosterone, estrogen, and growth hormone, decline with age. These hormones are involved in protein metabolism and maintenance, and as the rate of muscle protein synthesis declines, muscle mass decreases, and further, the muscles are less able to regenerate themselves following injury or overload. Inadequate protein intake can also play a role. If we don’t get enough protein, the body will use amino acids from the muscles as an extra source of protein.
The largest predictor of sarcopenia, however, is lack of physical activity. When it comes to muscles and aging, “Use It or Lose It” pretty much sums it up. Physical inactivity precipitates a faster and greater loss of muscle mass. And as we age, people with less muscle mass to begin with, like for osteoporosis, pay a higher price.
This was where the big surprise was for me. I had a daily, moderate exercise routine. But as the kettle bell taught me, because I also have a job that necessitates that I sit a good part of the day, it wasn’t enough to slow the inexorable march of Father Time.
Half Empty or Half Full?
Fortunately, the glass is not just half empty, it is also half full. If you use it, you won’t lose it. You can’t completely halt loss of muscle mass as you age, but it can be slowed and, to a degree, reversed. Building muscle mass, particularly after the age of 45, is like putting savings in the bank. All other things equal, it will help see you through old age with much greater vitality, energy, and health.
The big lesson for me, however, was that it does matter which types of exercise you do, and cross-training is key. Popular fitness activities like yoga, walking, jogging, swimming, or biking are endurance-related activities. As such, they mainly increase a certain type of muscle fiber, the so-called slow twitch muscle fibers. You also need to include activities that strengthen the so-called fast twitch muscle fibers, which tend to be lost in greater numbers as we grow older. The fast twitch fibers are involved when a high, sudden muscular action has to be mobilized–such as, for example, in repeatedly swinging a kettle bell above your head.
The standard fitness prescription for sarcopenia is progressive resistance training, which uses muscles at a high level of intensity, i.e. close to their maximum contraction strength, for short periods of time. As little as two 40 minute sessions a week is enough to yield the results you need.
Keep in mind, the need for variety, however. Muscle fibers develop according to how much they are used, so it’s important to have a well-rounded exercise program that mobilizes all the different types of muscle fibers. And, while it’s important to train your muscles to become stronger, it’s equally important to engage in forms of exercise, such as yoga, that challenges the mind and teach the muscles to work together in different ways, so that you build functional strength as well. As much as mere muscle mass, this will improve your performance in everyday activity.
Ultimately, many people find it most rewarding to engage in holistic physical activities that include both weight-bearing (using the body’s own weight) and work all of the muscles in coordination, such as yoga, tai chi, martial arts, and some forms of dance. These holistic forms of activity help keep the body vital, energetic, and fully functional, because they augment multiple dimensions of fitness: not just muscle strength, but posture, flexibility, balance, and endurance.
The good news is that a little goes a long way, and carries its own rewards. Physical activity provides not just increased muscle strength, but also the vigor, increased energy and vitality that come with being stronger. As you build muscle and physical fitness, you create a positive cycle–the better and stronger you feel, the more likely you are to stay active and do things you enjoy–gardening, playing tennis, and the like, strengthening your body even more. And the stronger you become and more active you keep, the more likely you are to be able to continue to enjoy your life to its fullest, no matter what your age.

Follow Eva Norlyk Smith, Ph.D. on Twitter:
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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

During the 2010 midterm elections, Republican senate nominee Sharron Angle of Utah said that “if this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies.”
Lest her reference be too subtle for dummies, she immediately added, “I’ll tell you the first thing we need to do is take Harry Reid out.”
In March 2009, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn) said she wanted the residents of her state “armed and dangerous” over President Obama’s plan to reduce global warming through cap and trade legislation.
And who can forget Sarah Palin’s U.S. map of targeted Democratic congressional districts that used rifle crosshairs.
Which brings us to Tucson, Arizona, January 8, 2011. One of Sister Sarah’s crosshairs hovered over the congressional district of Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, shot with others (including a federal judge, who died) at point blank range while holding a mid-morning, open-air town hall with constituents in a grocery store parking lot. Giffords barely beat a Tea Party-backed Republican to win reelection last November.
Words and imagery matter. The far Right increasingly makes use of these dangerous examples to get their most rabid supporters foaming at the mouth. Make no mistake: these politicians do it because it works. At the least it can win a nomination, and often enough a general election.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter that the Arizona shooter is deranged. That goes without saying. Still, elected officials and candidates who engage in such provocative fan-flaming are planting seeds that encourage gun violence, and anyone with half a brain knows it.
It’s time for the Sharron Angle’s of this world, and her fellow travelers, to “man up.”

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Being the target of violence has always been a risk for those in public office in this country. The organization I head, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, is named after an individual, Jim Brady, who was shot and seriously injured nearly 30 years ago while serving as President Reagan’s Press Secretary. During my first month as mayor of Fort Wayne, Indiana, I started receiving death threats which my Police Department considered to be very credible. Too many public officials have been killed and injured in this country in my lifetime — nearly all of them by guns.
I first met Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords shortly after her election in 2006. All who met her felt that she had the potential to go far in politics and government. Our hearts and prayers go out to her for a successful recovery, and to the families of the Federal Judge, the young child, the District Director for the Congresswoman and the others killed and injured at the Tuscon grocery store today.
While we are all still learning details about this shooting, and particularly the 22-year old responsible for this horrendous act, we should find it unacceptable that when Americans and our elected leaders are assembling in public places, their lives are at risk from gun violence.
We also are deeply concerned about the heated political rhetoric that escalates debates and controversies, and sometimes makes it seem as if violence is an acceptable response to honest disagreements. Shortly after President Obama took office, the head of the NRA crowed that “the guys with the guns make the rules;” participants in Congressional forums and Presidential events started carrying guns in public; and then, just last year a candidate for U.S. Senate said the citizens unhappy with elections results should consider exercising their “Second Amendment remedies” and Sarah Palin used gun “target” metaphors encouraging voters to defeat Rep. Giffords and others.
We, as Americans, can and should do more to restore civility to our political discourse. And we can and should do more to address the easy access to high-powered guns that make it too easy for dangerous and irresponsible people to disrupt and destroy the lives of innocent Americans, and political leaders who are simply trying to serve their communities and our country.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

The Climate Post Offers a Rundown of the Week in Climate and Energy News
In 1865 William Stanley Jevons pointed out something paradoxical: historically, the better we get at efficiently using a resource, the more of that resource we use. Known as the “Jevons paradox,” it’s been the elephant in the room for advocates of energy efficiency, who cite it as one of the core technologies that could reduce the carbon intensity of our industrial civilization. But perhaps it’s time to lay this “rule” to rest, says Energy Circle Founder Peter Troast, who points out that increased resource usage has always taken place in the context of ever-increasing supplies of energy and an expanding economy.
In the same vein, a new study from researchers at Stanford suggests the appetite for travel has reached saturation in the developed world, meaning further gains in transportation energy efficiency “could leave the absolute levels of [transport-related greenhouse gas] emissions in 2020 or 2030 lower than today.”
Meanwhile, oil prices are creeping back up, leading the chief economist at the International Energy Agency to warn that the price of a barrel of crude imperils the current global economic recovery.
EPA’s New Climate Rules Spur Intense Debate
The industry response to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s forthcoming regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act has led to a war of words at the National Journal, where representatives from the National Mining Association and the George C. Marshall Institute duke it out with the likes of Jon A. Anda of UBS Securities, who says EPA regulations “may hurt today’s economy, but not materially because de-carbonization will come gradually over decades, new energy technologies tend to be more domestic and labor-intensive, and U.S. investment in long-lived plant and equipment is already stymied by policy uncertainty.”
Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) equates the new regulations to “a new gas tax.”
“The fight [over EPA's new climate rules] has gotten so ugly that the EPA took the unprecedented step this month of announcing it will directly issue greenhouse gas permits to Texas industries beginning in January after the state openly refused to comply with new federal regulations.”
Predictably, the tussle has since been cited by a member of the Texas Nationalist Movement as the latest, best reason for the state to secede.
The New York Times says the new regulations carry significant political risk to the current administration.
Kate Sheppard of Mother Jones reports Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) — the incoming chair of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is currently formulating ways to block the rules — used to advocate for action on global warming, but has since expunged his website (and public pronouncements) of this view.
White House Science Advisor John Holdren Thinks Forthcoming Congressional Hearings on Climate Science Will Be “Educational”
“I think in the new Congress, there will unquestionably be hearings on climate science — I think those hearings are going to end up being educational. I think we’ll probably move the opinions of some of the members of Congress who currently call themselves skeptics, because I think a lot of good scientists are going to come in and explain very clearly what we know and how we know it and what it means, and it’s a very persuasive case,” Holdren told Energy Now.
Related: Climate change is still a national security threat.
Will It Be Centuries Before Warming-Enhanced Storm Damage Is Quantifiable?
A controversial new paper argues that extracting the signal of climate change effects from the noise of variable weather in order to put a price tag on global warming could take centuries, but Climate Progress cites a report by the reinsurer Munich Re, “Large number of weather extremes as strong indication of climate change,” as a counter-example.
Depending on your opinions on the issue, it might seem ironic that even as this debate is taking place, biblical levels of extreme weather in Australia have shut down exports of coal.
World Population of Cars to Hit 2 Billion, Good Thing For These New Sources of Solar Power, Nuclear Energy and Liquid Fuel
Growth in the developing world — all right, mostly China — will soon push the number of cars on the planet past the 2 billion mark, reports Scientific American. In other words, a new method for thermochemically creating automotive fuel directly from sunlight might come in handy. Qantas is also testing jets run on biofuels made exclusively from waste.
Or, if you prefer getting off the internal combustion engine altogether, Slate’s gadget guy loves,/a> the new all-electric Nissan Leaf, calling it a “Prius-killer.” If you’d like to charge up that Leaf with electricity from something other than fossil fuels, free solar panels are real, and they’re here — as long as you’re ready to pay for the cheaper-than-market-rate electricity they produce. Todd Woody of Grist points out that solar thermal power — easily the cheapest form of solar energy we have, per watt — is experiencing boom times.
Chinese media are reporting the country’s scientists have come up with a new way to reprocess spent uranium, one which will ensure “China [will] have sufficient nuclear fuel for at least 3,000 years.” Nuclear power aside, the European Union is on target to produce one-fifth of all its energy from renewable sources by 2020.
The Climate Post is produced each Thursday by Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has been one of my good friends in the House of Representatives. When she was brutally shot, Gabby was out doing what she loved to do — meeting with her constituents in a local setting, allowing people to speak to her directly about the issues that concerned them. This act of shooting Gabby and many others is an act of unthinkable, uncivilized brutality and we all fear acts like this could have a chilling effect on our democratic system.
Gabby and I have been colleagues on the Armed Services Committee, sitting just a few seats away from each other. She is a fighter there for the people she represents and now she is fighting for her life. She has been one of the hardest working members of the House since she was first elected four years ago. She is dedicated to her constituents, and well liked by all her colleagues. We are all praying for Gabby, her family and the families of all the other victims.

Follow Rep. Chellie Pingree on Twitter:
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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

In the minutes following the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and members of her staff, the website operated by Sarah Palin that illustrated Gifford’s 8th district with gun crosshairs drawn on a map was scrubbed from the internet.
The site, TakeBackThe20.com, was operating normally at 1:07 CST when I connected to obtain an image of the crosshairs map:
View image
When I connected approximately one hour later at 2:10 PM, the site had been replaced with a webserver error, meaning that the webserver was answering but that the content upon it an hour earlier was not being served
View image
Later, at approximately 2:45 PM, the server could no longer be reached at all. Clicks to it met with a DNS error, meaning that any clicks to TakeBackThe20.com would not find an underlying IP address.
View image
While material on the site including the aformementioned map can be found elsewhere on Facebook and Twitter and other web sites, at press time, no image of the site was found in The Internet Archive at archive.org.

Follow Rob Warmowski on Twitter:
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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Gradually, over time, political rhetoric used by politicians and the media has become more inflamatory. The degree to which violent words and phrases are considered commonplace is striking. Candidates are “targeted”. An opponent is “in the crosshairs”. Liberals have to be
“eliminated”. Opponents are “enemies”. This kind of language eminates largely from those who claim to defend American democracy against those who would destroy it, who are evil, and who want to “take away our freedoms”.
Today we have seen the results of this rhetoric. Those with a megaphone, whether provided by public office or a media outlet, have responsibilities. They cannot avoid the consequences of their blatant efforts to inflame, anger, and outrage. We all know that there are unstable and potentially dangerous people among us. To repeatedly appeal to their basest instincts is to invite and welcome their predictable violence.
So long as we all tolerate this kind of irresponsible and dangerous rhetoric or, in the case of some commentators, treat it with delight, reward it, and consider it cute, so long will we place all those in public life, whom the provocateurs dislike, in the crosshairs of danger.
That this is carried out, and often rewarded, in the name of the Constitution, democratic rights and liberties, and patriotism is a mockery of all this nation claims to believe and almost all of us continue to struggle to preserve. America is better than this.

This Blogger’s Books from
Under The Eagle’s Wing: A National Security Strategy of the United States for 2009 (Speaker’s Corner)
by Gary Hart
Restoration of the Republic: The Jeffersonian Ideal in 21st-Century America
by Gary Hart

Follow Gary Hart on Twitter:
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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Source:Associated Press
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Pittsburgh scored touchdowns off two mistakes by Kentucky’s punting team and the Panthers, playing for their former coach, beat the Wildcats 27-10 in the BBVA Compass Bowl on Saturday.Andrew Taglianetti blocked a punt to set up Pittsburgh’s first touchdown late in the first half. An incomplete pass on Kentucky’s fake punt early in the second half set up Tino Sunseri’s 13-yard touchdown pass to Brock DeCicco. Sunseri also ran for a touchdown.The Panthers (8-5) protected the lead with their running game in a win players dedicated to former coach Dave Wannstedt, who was forced to resign after a disappointing regular season.Defensive coordinator Phil Bennett, Pittsburgh’s acting head coach for the bowl game, was hired Friday to be defensive coordinator at Baylor.Bennett was soaked with a cooler with a little more than 1 minute remaining.”We’ve got good kids,” Bennett said. “They’ve been through a lot. I’m just proud of them and I know Dave Wannstedt is.”Sunseri completed 9 of 19 passes for 96 yards and a touchdown. Dion Lewis ran for 105 yards and a touchdown, and Ray Graham added 90 yards rushing as the Panthers outgained Kentucky 261-104 on the ground.Kentucky (6-7), playing without suspended quarterback Mike Hartline, fell far below its average of 33 points per game. Morgan Newton, making his first start of the season, was 21 of 36 passing for 211 yards.Pitt led 20-3 before the Wildcats’ only touchdown, a 1-yard run by Moncell Allen late in the third quarter. The Panthers answered with a long drive and 2-yard touchdown run by Lewis.Randall Cobb set the Southeastern Conference’s single-season record for all-purpose yards, but the versatile junior wasn’t enough for the Wildcats to overcome their special teams mistakes.Pittsburgh led 6-3 on two field goals by Dan Hutchins before Taglianetti blocked Ryan Tydlacka’s punt late in the first half. Tydlacka appeared to take an extra step before attempting a rugby style punt.Pitt’s Kolby Gray recovered at the Kentucky 10, setting up Sunseri’s 1-yard scoring run for a 13-3 lead with only 34 seconds remaining in the half.Kentucky’s first possession of the second half ended with another key mistake by its punting team. Matt Roark took the snap on the apparent punt but he didn’t have time to make his planned pass. He was ruled down on the Kentucky 35 before throwing an incomplete pass.Following a 21-yard run by Graham, Sunseri’s touchdown pass to DeCicco gave the Panthers a 20-3 lead.Craig McIntosh gave Kentucky a 3-0 lead with a 50-yard field goal, matching the longest of the sophomore’s career, in the first quarter. The kick was the longest in the five-year history of the bowl.McIntosh missed from 41 yards in the fourth quarter.There were offsetting personal fouls when players traded punches in the second quarter. Tempers flared when Pittsburgh was called for a false start and a Kentucky player hit Sunseri as officials attempted to stop the play. Pittsburgh’s Jason Pinkston responded with a shove to set off the brawl.Coaches were successful in keeping players on the sideline.Cobb passed former Arkansas running back Darren McFadden’s 2007 SEC record of 2,310 all-purpose yards. Cobb entered the game 119 yards behind McFadden’s mark.
Links:Full news story
Source:espn.go.com

I’m not saying that putting a bullseye on Arizona Democrat Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ congressional race – as Sarah Palin did – was an explicit or intentional invitation to violence. Nor am I saying that the “Get on Target for Victory” events held by the guy Giffords beat – “Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office Shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly” – was the reason her assassin went after her. This tragedy is still unfolding, and the questions of motive and incitement will be argued about for a long time to come.
But I am saying that the “lock and load”/”take up your arms” rhetoric of American politics isn’t just an overheated metaphor. For years, the language of sports has dominated political journalism, and discourse about hardball and the horserace and the rest of the macho athletic lexicon has been a factor in the trivialization of our public sphere. This has helped dumb down democracy, making a serious national discussion about anything important too wonky for words.
The “second amendment solution,” though, does something worse than make politics a branch of entertainment. It makes it a blood sport. I know politics ain’t beanbag. But words have consequences, rhetoric shapes reality, and much as we like to believe that we are creatures of reason, there is something about our species’ limbic system and lizard brainstems that makes us susceptible to irrational fantasies.
If you’re worried that violent video games may make kids prone to bad behavior; if you think that mysogenic and homophobic rap lyrics are dangerous to society; if you believe that a nipple in a Superbowl halftime show is a threat to our moral fabric – then surely you should also fear that the way public and media figures have framed political participation with shooting gallery imagery is just as potentially lethal.

Follow Marty Kaplan on Twitter:
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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

The Palestine-Israel conflict is no pesky regional skirmish. This century-long battle over territory threatens to draw the entire global community into its bowels if it is not dealt with soon, and the only way out of the current paralysis is to kill the “peace process” once and for all.
There is no other way to end our dependence on what is probably the least successful attempt at conflict resolution in modern history — like wasted addicts, hoping that another tweak here or there might be the one to produce a breakthrough. No it won’t, and we need to destroy this addiction in order to get onto the path of recovery.
Some realities to consider:
Nineteen years of a drawn out “peace process” has seen the establishment and institutionalization of a “peace industry” so gargantuan and far-reaching that it makes the United Nations look like a nimble start-up operation.
From Madrid to Oslo to Annapolis to the Quartet, we are hampered by agreements, roadmaps and conditions that create a thicket of red tape and limit our maneuverability. Layer upon layer of superficial “process” obscures the path forward. Which is why we are standing quite still.
Even the participants are fake. The Palestinian “Authority” — well — has none. We squeezed out the elected body and inserted our own players. When we throw eve-of-peace-talks ceremonies at the White House, we invite Egypt and Jordan, who have absolutely nothing of substance to contribute. And we studiously ignore all the parties that count – Hamas and Syria are fundamentally unavoidable in any settlement.
Welcome to the Middle East Peace Game — in which we get to choose the players, make up the rules and set the time table.
Excluded from the game is anything remotely resembling an actual solution, or any meaningful negotiation around the contentious core issues. We don’t want this game to end. Like NATO and the other Cold War games we set up — we are not sure exactly how to dismantle them and have long since forgotten the end goal. The goal, it seems, is to simply stay in “play.”
So here we are at the start of 2011, entering the 20th year of the “Peace Process.” The reality of establishing two states died years before the idea did — just around the time we realized that Israel had used the peace process to sneak in half a million Jewish settlers into the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, thereby ending the land-for-peace basis of any lasting agreement.
Peace Game Was a Long-Term “Jobs Program”
Established by the Oslo Agreement to allow Palestinians to begin a process of self-governance, the Palestinian Authority (PA) instead turned out to be a nifty way to remove Israeli troops from the daily grind of confrontation, whilst quite brilliantly allowing Palestinians to administer their own occupation.
And we threw money at our handpicked Palestinian leadership — creating graft, corruption and a sense of entitlement the likes of which has not been seen since the CEO of Halliburton became vice president of the United States. In the process, we cordoned off the “opposition” into a hellhole called Gaza, and sought to destroy them by punishing an entire civilian population.
So focused were we on establishing players and rules, not for one honest second did we drill down on the core issues required to resolve this most divisive conflict: 1) final borders; 2) status of Jerusalem 3) the right of return for Palestinian refugees; 4) sovereignty issues, including water and air space rights; security, etc
The Peace Process Industry instead created a thousand other issues to be addressed first: who is in charge of guarding the grove of olive trees below that hill, around the corner from Abul Abed’s house? Who is going to ride in the second car when the PA president visits a town in Sector C? Who is going to collect taxes from the Palestinian worker building a gazebo for a Jewish settler family on illegally confiscated land? And other such numbing minutae.
If Rot Persists, Do a Demolition
Quite understandably then, nothing has moved forward in twenty years. Yet today, the same set of leaders in Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Jordan, the US Congress, State Department, Arab League and European Union are still trying to resuscitate these dead talks by suggesting itty-bitty, incremental steps that they hope will breathe some life into this cadaver.
There is only one way out of this. Kill the Peace Game. No Oslo Agreement. No Palestinian Authority. No Quartet. Kill the Game now and start a new chapter premised fully on achieving a solution-at-any-cost and soliciting the participation of any party, action or initiative that can deliver results within a ridiculously short time frame. Trust me, all the parties know their bottom line after twenty years of thinking about it — it should take about a week to figure out where they converge.
Now, I have been recently wondering why the idea of “changing course” creates such paralyzing fear amongst the group of nations/actors listed above. Honestly, I promise to not offer up even a single original idea: the script has practically been writing itself this past year — except the main “players” have either not been watching, or are refusing to accept a new narrative that challenges their playbook.
Clearly, to end their addiction to this game, an intervention is required. Here’s an example of how to do this decisively: Acting PA President Mahmoud Abbas can, in one fell swoop 1) Quit; 2) Declare that Palestinians will no longer welcome a US role in peace brokering; 3) Dissolve the Palestinian Authority and fold themselves back into the PLO or a similar umbrella liberation movement; 4) Demand that the UN Security Council enforce all resolutions on the Palestine-Israel conflict within a set timetable –or the following will take place:
Palestinian leaders representing all factions will form an interim governing body and declare a Palestinian state on all territories occupied by Israel in 1967. The Palestinian security forces will be mobilized to protect the independent Palestinian state and its borders.Palestinians will stop subsidizing their own occupation by refusing to pay taxes to any non-Palestinian institution, and will immediately halt all work in Jewish settlements.Palestinians will demand that the Arab League restore the Middle East-wide boycott on companies doing business with Israel until all IDF troops and Jewish settlers have been removed from territories occupied in 1967. The 118-nation Non-Aligned Movement and various western groups/unions already participating in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) of Israel will be invited to join.
Peace Process “Frankensteins” Are Failing Anyway
Now here’s the rub. One can be fairly certain that Abbas and his PA cronies will do nothing of the sort. But in short shrift, that may not matter any longer.
The pro-US, Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority has virtually no credibility left among its own populations — Israeli politicians are all over the WikiLeaks cables brandishing this fact. Without reconciliation with the main Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, the PA will fall. And since the US, Israel and Egypt have done everything in their power to prevent this reconciliation, they are the architects of the PA’s demise.
As highly-militarized states do, Israel will reflexively rush to prop up its occupation, inserting IDF troops back into the West Bank to underline its authority. But now they will be facing the US-trained Palestinian security forces who will, if provoked, turn their newfound skills and weapons onto Israeli occupation targets. At that point the IDF could be facing down Hamas soldiers defending Palestinian borders and towns as well.
Either way, once the IDF is back on the scene you can expect every Who Down in Whoville to go back into resistance. Ding dong, third intifada.
Turmoil Will Finally Light a Fire Under the International Community
Twenty years of “process with no peace” has lost Washington any remaining credibility as a peace broker, and few countries will feel under obligation to pay even lip service to further US promises or plans. Attempts to veto resolutions on Israel’s illegal settlements will only gain the derision of the international community at this point, and the Obama administration’s recent efforts to prevent a Palestinian unilateral declaration of statehood is likely only to undermine its Palestinian partners back home.
Because whether Abbas declares an independent Palestinian state tomorrow or not, the concept is well and truly out of the box and making the rounds. Seven nations have now – quite organically, it seems — recognized a Palestinian state in the last month: Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay and Chile have all either recognized the state on 1967 borders or will do so imminently. And according to news outlets, Mexico, Peru and Nicaragua are also reported to be considering recognition.
It would be political suicide for the pro-US regimes of Muslim-majority states like Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia — and Abbas’ PA — to not publicly declare their recognition of an independent Palestinian state when half of Christian Latin America has already done so.
The United Kingdom, a relatively staunch supporter of Israel, has followed this news by confirming that it is considering moves to upgrade the Palestinian delegation in London to the status of a full diplomatic mission shortly. Britain is not alone — it joins France, Spain and Portugal in doing so.
A few weeks ago, more than two dozen former EU leaders issued a letter calling for boycotts and sanctions against Israel for rejecting a settlement freeze in the occupied territories in defiance of international law.
The 26-member Who’s Who from the European Union “called for the EU to prohibit import of products made in settlements, and demanded that Israel fund the bulk of aid to Palestinians. The letter also urged the EU to make an upgrade of relations with Israel contingent on the cessation of settlement construction.”
The PA warned last week that it will take the issue of Israel’s illegal settlement activity to the UN Security Council, where surely a half dozen or so dusty resolutions on the subject already exist, awaiting a time when the Security Council puts its full weight behind the enforcement of these rulings. Having already used its authority to justify a war in Iraq, authorize four rounds of sanctions against Iran and fund an ill-conceived investigation into the death of a former Lebanese PM, the Security Council will be hard pressed to ignore its own resolutions on the illegal Jewish settlements.
The fact is, the time is right. Never before has Israel bent this far to the right. A series of statements and developments in the Jewish state suggest a thriving racism that fits snugly into the narrative of an “Apartheid” Israel that was bound to emerge if the two-state solution was lost — words to that effect from no less authoritative figures than US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert.
Two Breakout Scenarios for the Bold:
Settlements first. If the UNSC can do its magic without the interference of a US veto, “de-settling” the West Bank may be the first step toward a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders. Boycott, sanctions, divestment or NATO forces — whatever it takes to get those settlers out and recognize an independent Palestinian state. This is a scenario where Israel will be required to act according to international law or suffer the consequences. The way we did it in Iraq. But legitimately, this time.
The second option: Israel militarily re-occupies the West Bank to prevent a unilateral Palestinian takeover, and we are back to square one, as though this pointless peace process had never occurred.
But this is a different world, and this would be a “back to the future” occupation. An apartheid-style state occupying Palestine cannot survive in 21st century global politics where the only thing we know what to do with Apatheid is.. .dismantle it. And so the second solution — again, one that has developed quite organically – presents itself. A single state where Jews, Christians and Muslims live as equals under the law.
Now this is just pure poison for hard-core Zionists and right-wing Israelis. Many have warned Tel Aviv that the lack of progress toward establishing a Palestinian state and resolving outstanding conflict issues will result in the unraveling of the “Jewish” identity of the state — and staunch supporters from Jeffrey Goldberg to Thomas Friedman are finally questioning the Israel “they thought they knew,” a sure sign that this extremist government has broken with the international community in its thinking.
Israel has one of two choices to make right now: remove all Jewish settlements from occupied territories and withdraw behind 1967 lines, or prepare for co-existence in One State, where all residents are equal under the law. These choices will remain the same regardless of which Israeli government coalition leads the country — neither the Israeli left or right has stopped the flow of settlers into occupied territories or forged a peace deal. So dreaming of a Netanyahu-Livni coalition will not change anything except the rhetoric.
The Palestinian leadership has one of two choices to make too: break with the peace process trajectory in order to build the foundations for a future, or go under. There is nothing of this peace process that has served Palestinian national interests, so the PA will eventually be forced to take action of some sort. The concern is not that it will not renounce the process; the danger is that it will only do it in increments — or half-heartedly — providing Washington and Tel Aviv an opportunity to prod vulnerabilities or exploit divisions.
Enough with the repeated threats/promises of Mahmoud Abbas and Saeb Erekat to quit, declare a state, dissolve the PA or go to the UNSC. Just do it — and do it all at once. Kill this Peace Game and create in its place a defined, time-lined, multi-pronged strategy that utilizes the new influencers on the global stage like Russia, China, India, — strategic Israeli trading partners — to force a resolution based on the core issues and the removal of settlements from all occupied territories… or multilaterally declare One State for all.
Only then can we expect a breakthrough.
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Timing — Check in later, between 4-6PM as the front desk can see the cancellations and no-shows of that day. Also, if your dates are flexible, don’t book on busy holiday times, as upgrades cannot be given if a hotel is at full occupancy.
Book a room in the middle price range — It’s not impossible to get upgraded when booking the cheapest room category available, but it doesn’t help your odds. Book a room that is in the mid range for better chances.
Be nice — It’s that simple. Front desk staff and hotel managers deal with a lot of people and handle a lot of problems and stress during their day. Sometimes, just being personable, and friendly can go a long way.
Ask — It doesn’t hurt to ask, and the worst thing that can happen is that you get declined. Ask if an upgrade is available. If it’s a special occasion, it doesn’t hurt to volunteer that information either.
Hotel mistake? Sometimes a hotel’s mistake can work to your advantage. Perhaps your room wasn’t ready upon check-in, construction causing loss of sleep – you can always address a hotel issue with the management in a nice manner and see if they will do something (like provide an upgrade) for the inconvenience.
It’s all about relationships, baby — It’s true, who you knows matter, and even more so if it happens to be the general manager at the hotel you’re staying at. Don’t have a connection? Don’t fret. Book on luxury hotel site and they’ll do the contacting for you. Half the hotels offer free perks and free upgrades, and if you book with a Visa card at one of the 900 Visa properties, you get an automatic free room upgrade. Frequent Kiwi bookers can earn VIP status, and that’s when they actually contact the hotel on your behalf to request for upgrades. There are some other sites that offer this as well, but you have to buy a membership.
Where you book matters — If you’re booking a standard, room, a hotel actually can give you a different room just based on the booking source you made the reservation on. Ever experience a really crappy room when booking on Expedia only to find that your friend that booked the same room category at the same price got a better one?
Loyalty — You’ll have better chances of a free upgrade if you are loyal to the hotel and provide repeat business. It doesn’t hurt at the time of reservation to let them know that you’ve stayed there before. Hotels know that it costs a lot less to keep a repeat customer happy then it is to acquire a new one, so often they’ll give special treatment to return customers.
Title drop — There aren’t any guarantees, but you may find that title dropping can increase your chances of special treatment and upgrades. Hotels may want to impress you more because they know you’re an important businessperson, someone who can refer new business or have blogging or press power.
Volunteering information — If you’re at the hotel celebrating a special occasion, like a birthday or anniversary, it can only help your case if you share the information with the front desk. Also, if you did book as a VIP on a site like Kiwi Collection, mention this and politely inquire about upgrade possibility.
Amy Chan is an avid traveler, blogger and has reviewed a large range of luxury hotels on Kiwi Collection. To read more of her blogs, visit amyfabulous.com

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“He’s just not that into you,” is what friends must be thinking about the one-sided, dysfunctional relationship I can’t seem to break off. I, too, find it pathetic that I grovel for attention, hoping for a shout out or an inadvertent butt call from a cell phone, anything to suggest that I’m on God’s buddy list.
I can’t ascribe the fascination to chemistry. If God has made me tremble, it’s because of fear, not foreplay. I’m the one repeatedly begging for forgiveness, never hearing, “No, this was my bad.” My role is to be righteous while God gets to be self-righteous. And regardless of how I try to please, I get less face time than a friend with benefits.
The stories about God are awesome, and the message is unmistakable. Play around, God forbid, with others and you’ll pay. As with any long relationship, the stories become familiar and you want to scream, “Enough already with the omnipotence!” I tried to get past the narcissism to keep our standing date, usually from Friday night through Saturday at sundown. But did God ever surprise me with dinner reservations or a concert? No, it was up to me to make the plans. Did God ever ask, “This week, let’s hear what vengeance you’ve wrought?” Though everything was about God, I was expected to believe that God had my back.
In my teen years, I got the idea to test God by doing something forbidden. I’d risk incurring God’s wrath to see what would happen. I ate a cheeseburger that wasn’t kosher, and almost immediately, Hurricane Carol took a turn and started heading in our direction. Everyone west of the George Washington Bridge was about to pay for my transgression. Our homes would be washed away and we’d be forced into exile, wandering in the Pocono Mountains for forty years. Luckily, the Amish and Quakers aren’t as oppressive as the Egyptians. It appeared that the storm was coming to prove to me that God exists. I hoped to get forgiven, after which I’d play by the rules. But northern New Jersey was spared; it was the southern coastal towns that took the hit. Maybe someone from Seaside Heights had pissed off God more than I had. My plan didn’t pan out.
Still single in my late 30′s, it occurred to me that God might have felt a storm, even a major one, wasn’t personal enough and that God was firing back at me by having me remain single forever. Now I was praying in earnest. “Look, I’m sorry I offended you, but haven’t I done enough atoning? Every Yom Kippur I’m the one in the seat behind the plaque donated by the Glassman family, fasting and hoping to see your compassionate side. Come on, already, give me a break. I want a husband, one of my own, not those guys who think of marriage as a time share.

A close friend who was on a liquid protein diet called. “I’m invited to a dinner party and I asked to bring you as my designated eater.” I went along, had two portions of veal stew made by the man who would later become my husband. My getting married at the age of 38, to my family and most of my single girlfriends, was more of a miracle than any burning bush. Overcoming multiple fertility problems to give birth at the age of 41? Better than the parting of the Red Sea. Okay, I wasn’t as old as Sarah, and I did get help from a team of fertility experts, but this is the story God should want in the Bible. The Book of Sybil would do a lot to boost God’s PR. God could be the new Mark Zuckerberg. (And, by the way, God, it looks as if he’s getting rewarded big time despite helping himself to his Harvard neighbors’ idea.)

Were my prayers answered? An argument could be made that they were, but it’s hard to distinguish religion from coincidence. It’s not impossible that the value of believing and praying is the placebo effect. I’m still waiting for a sign. I know we’re not allowed to see God, but how about a blog?

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Communism, terrorism, bad teachers — the new enemy of freedom, finally getting the recognition they deserve.
Ineffective. Disorganized. Boring. Lazy. No class control — or too much control. Bad things go down in those classrooms. Fights break out. Things get vandalized. Minds get wasted. So do millions of dollars of public funding.
Of course, you’re not one of those bad teachers — and neither am I, though I have often thought that there is at least a little bad teacher in all of us and that one of the greatest challenges of being an educator is guarding against those impulses. I suppose I should speak for myself on that account.
I have never seen or personally heard of anyone entering the teaching profession for the purpose of stealing money from the tax-payers and sabotaging the lives of children. They all seem to start out with the right intentions.
Like Mr. D who came to our school with passion and energy and a desire to rewrite the destinies of his at-risk students. He taught English and drama gushing with his love for literature and creative expression. He threw himself into the work and set out to mount a production of Romeo and Juliet from the ground up with virtually no budget and a drama class of more than 30 students none of whom had ever before been in a school play. They were students who had been incarcerated, who had been expelled from other schools, sometimes for assaulting teachers and administrators. He worked long hours and the results were stunning. The rest of the faculty watched the performance in awe. It contained moments that transcended the lives of everyone involved, even though the original Romeo had disappeared two days before the production (on the run from gang rivals, according to his associates) and Mr. D had to find a last-minute replacement — who performed the role with a script in hand.
Mr. D was never the same after that play. By the next fall he’d become sullen and temperamental. He missed days, then weeks of school, lost control of his classes and curriculum and found himself in combat with disgruntled students. One day he completely lost it and was taken from his classroom in handcuffs. A sad and sobering day — especially for those of us who remembered what he’d been like before Romeo and Juliet. We understood that this over-extended overly-passionate too-thin-skinned soul-fried man wasn’t so different from any of the rest of us. He’d made mistakes, lost his way. He might have had personal problems we weren’t aware of. Maybe we could have given him more support. Perhaps he would have survived or even prospered in a different situation with less challenging students and more external structure in the school. On the other hand, he had done serious damage to our students by not really teaching them for a few years. He probably shouldn’t have lasted as long as he did.
Like those aging burn-outs. That’s the kind of bad teacher I’m most afraid of one day becoming — once effective, even inspiring, but having let it all slowly slip away. We had a math teacher, Mr. T, around that same time as Mr. D, who taught probabilities by playing cards and shooting craps with students and letting them sleep and come in and out of the room as they pleased. If anyone demanded some real math instruction, he would direct the student to a table with tattered math books and say, “Do some problems.” He was in his thirty-second year with the school district. More recently our school received a must-place social studies teacher, Ms. B, who showed animated movies and gave students rudimentary worksheets of seemingly arbitrary subject matter which they would pass around and copy from each other when they weren’t talking on their cell phones, braiding and trimming hair, polishing sneakers, practicing graffiti or snoozing.
Perhaps I’m idealistic to believe that either of them had ever been effective teachers but in other cases I’ve witnessed the devolution: first the complacency, then the exhaustion, a year or two with particularly recalcitrant students, over-heated and/or freezing classrooms, combative administrators, nasty parents, a personal crisis or two — then they go into survival mode. I am determined never to let it happen to me — but I think it would be arrogant to believe that it couldn’t have or couldn’t still.
Now that bad teachers have been identified as a public enemy, the fear of becoming one makes new teachers particularly susceptible to the fraud that if students are quiet and obedient — and can bubble enough right answers once a year on a test — then they must be learning. That belief can create surreptitiously bad teachers who control students without really teaching them very much.
An even greater challenge for new teachers is defending themselves against the collective resistance and seemingly intractable disinterest and apathy of students. It is easy to interpret this as an unwillingness to learn. There is, of course, a profound subtext to this behavior. The overwhelming majority of students want, somewhat desperately, to be made to work hard and get and smarter — though the students themselves may not fully understand this. I have seen teachers allow the apathetic bravado and feigned recalcitrance to erode the integrity of a curriculum and surrender to a career of low expectations and uninspired instruction.
There are probably many ways to succeed as a teacher, with differing combinations of temperament, talent, knowledge, pedagogy and even luck. But the most essential element might be empathy. Unless a teacher understands what it is like for his or her students — the tedium of school, the fear and anxiety of life, the insecurity and narcissism and exhaustion of the adolescent culture — it may not be possible to reach them in a meaningful way.
I was lucky. Having myself been a marginal-to-bad high school student, I have always understood the quick-triggered boredom, the tortured restlessness and pent-up rage, and the vexation at adult authority that so many of my students feel. That understanding — above everything else — has kept me from losing my effectiveness.
Without empathy — and, for that matter, without a sincere affection for the students — I don’t see how anyone can endure six hours a day in a classroom.
It’s what I’ve admired — empathy and a love of students — in the teachers who’ve inspired me. For those in education and government who are infatuated with objective measurements, I’m not sure there will ever be an accurate one for empathy or love — but perhaps the testing industry ought to make an effort.
Meanwhile we should have more empathy for struggling teachers. Right away! Eradicate that pervading sink-or-swim attitude. Get over the false belief that more mandatory training and test-driven pressure will improve the quality of teaching. Re-direct those resources into a real, extensive, meaningful and sustainable support system.

This Blogger’s Books from
Now’s the Time
by Larry Strauss
Unfinished Business
by Larry Strauss

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During the holiday break I had a discussion with a student from a large university in Arizona. She shared with me how angry she was at a classmate who cheated on the final exam. She told me that it “pissed her off.” She spent hours studying for the test and the other student had the nerve to cheat and then brag about it. She said she felt “totally ripped off.”
Over the past week I have been thinking about that conversation and the subject of cheating. I’ve grouped my thoughts into three areas:
– Cheating is the symptom of something else
– Cheating (and the prevention of cheating) is big business
– Cheating has the power to ruin your reputation in the long term
I am sharing this information with you not to preach to you about the evils of cheating, but to help you be wiser about the subject of cheating. I am a realist. Cheating is going to happen, but I hope that if it crosses your path that you will remember this article. Before I start let me be clear, I don’t endorse cheating.
Cheating is the symptom of something else
The first topic I’ll discuss has to do with the fact that cheating is not a naturally occurring behavior. It is a symptom of something else going on in our lives. Something you are doing or thinking that causes you to make the choice of cheating. This might include poor time management, lack of interest, or being in over your head.
Procrastination and poor time management are major drivers behind the cheating symptom. If you mismanaged your time studying for an exam because you were partying too much or got lazy, you probably panicked when you realized you messed up and were desperate for a way to fix it. Cheating seems to be a quick way out. You make crib sheets, type answers into your cell phone, try to get copies of the test, or even ask people to text you the answers. Cheating is the result of something else you have done, i.e. getting your priorities mixed up or being bad at time management. You can control the symptom of cheating if you recognize the source of the issue and do something about it.
If you find that this sounds familiar, search online for time management skills, or speak with your advisor about resources on campus. Trust me, you are not the only one with this issue.
Lack of interest or boredom can also leads to the symptom of cheating. Sometime in your academic career you will take classes that you simply aren’t “in to” and you’ll feel no connection to the outcome of the class (except for the grade). You won’t care. You’ll “hate” the class and would rather have your fingernails pulled out than write another paper for the class. Your feelings for the class bring on the symptom of cheating. As such, you’ll look for the easiest way out and may decide to plagiarize content for the paper from the Internet. You will mix the words up a bit and take from several different sources thinking that there is no way that the instructor will ever know. Guess again, they will. I’ll discuss how later.
If a class is boring, speak to the instructor and find out how the class relates to real life and your interests. If you make it interesting to you, you’ll want to be more engaged. If you simply can’t find any connection to the class or any reason in the world to take the class other than that it is required for your degree, deal with it. It won’t be the first or last time you’ll have to do something that you don’t like. Realize that the class is what it is, and luckily it is only a few months long. I’ve been there and know how hard it is. Challenge yourself to tough it out and avoid falling victim to the symptom of cheating.
Another set of circumstances that can lead to the symptom of cheating is getting in over your head. Students often try to take on too much, academically. Often students’ egos get in the way and they find themselves competing with other students to be at the top of their class, or they are overconfident in their academic ability.
I find that many students are very hard on themselves about grades and class standings. They let grades dictate their own self worth. They are under pressure from family and friends to be the best. Maybe in high school they were at the top of their class and now they are not. For some, a quick fix to getting an A is cheating.
Advice: Being at the top of your class or getting straight A’s isn’t worth a dime if you’ve cheated your way through. You will be found out. Get yourself a tutor and/or talk to your advisor about the difficulty of your schedule. It’s OK and even expected at some colleges not to get straight A’s. If you are getting pressure from your parents, take them through your schedule and study habits. Walk them through your class syllabus. Help them understand how intense the workload is and how hard you are working.
Cheating (and the prevention of cheating) is big business
The second topic that occurs to me about cheating is that there are a lot of businesses that actually depend on cheaters. Their business model relies on you not using your time correctly, getting stressed out, and being afraid of failure. They want you to resort to cheating. Don’t believe me? Go online and Google “term papers.” You’ll find hundreds of sites that will write term papers for you. Some charge as much as $10 a page and guarantee they will be original papers. Some websites even brag that the papers are written by retired instructors who have a Ph.D. They play on your vulnerability and need you to cheat to stay in business. Lots of promises will be made, but beware: if it sounds too good to be true, it is. Don’t waste your money.
Other businesses that bank on cheating include turnitin.com and caveon.com. Turnitin.com checks for plagiarism, and caveon.com is an exam security firm that uses data analysis to protect tests from cheaters.
As many as 10,000 universities now use the service provided by turnitin.com to scan student papers. The scan will pick up any sections that are plagiarized. If you use any material that has been printed or is available electronically, turnitin.com will catch it. I know of students who lift as little as one sentence from an article without citing it correctly and were penalized for plagiarism with an “F” in the course. As I mentioned earlier, tools like turnitin.com are how many instructors find out that you have plagiarized you papers. You may not be caught every time, but you will at some point. Be careful.
Turnitin.com, and other companies like it, hope you will continue to feel the need to cheat. They need you to do so to stay in business. By all means, don’t help line the pockets of companies who want you to lose control of things, panic and be cornered into cheating. Put them out of business, or at least hurt their bottom line.
Hint: If you are going to lift material, always paraphrase or site the source.
Cheating has the power to ruin your reputation in the long term
The third and last topic addresses the power of cheating. Few things can affect your reputation as much as cheating does. As I said earlier, I’m a realist. Cheating happens. If you cheat, you might want to think twice about telling your friends. Word spreads very quickly on a college campus. I am surprised at how carefree students are when bragging about cheating. I’ve witnessed it first hand and have even seen it on Facebook.
Why do people brag? I have found that when people brag about cheating they are really looking for others to respond in a way that will make them feel better about themselves and what they did. Too often the bragger ends up looking foolish and sets themselves up to be caught. Keep bragging and someone will turn you in. If you are looking for someone to make you feel better about yourself for cheating, stop looking. You’ll feel better about yourself if you manage your life in a way that doesn’t lead to cheating in the first place. I’ll guarantee that you’ll feel better about yourself academically and personally if you take control of your life situation.
A soap-box moment: One of the most valuable things you have in this life is your reputation. You may not think that cheating and bragging about it will affect your reputation in the long run, but like the student I spoke to from Arizona, people will remember you as the person who cheated on the final exam. I have college friends I will never hire for a job because they were cheaters in the past. I have colleagues who have said the same. The reputation you make now will affect you for the rest of your life. People remember. If you don’t believe me, ask your parents if they remember anyone from high school or college who cheated. Chances are they will.
So here’s the bottom line: if you cheat, you cheat. I’m not here to judge you or your life choices. I do ask that you be wise about cheating and think it through. Remember, it is a symptom of something else that is going on in your life. You are in control of your life, therefore you are in control of the symptom of cheating. Be smart. Be wise.

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The incredible West Virginian coalfield leader Judy Bonds died of cancer on January 3rd, 2010. Judy was 58 years old.
Much has been written about Judy since she won the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2003 for her work to abolish mountaintop removal coal mining, to protect kids at an elementary school who were sick from coal dust, and to return Appalachia to an environmentally sustainable way of life.
The Washington Post article, which nicely details Judy’s evolution from mother and waitress to Goldman Prize winner, quotes the fundamental simplicity of Judy’s message, “The health and safety of Appalachia’s poor were being sacrificed for the profits of energy companies.”
I met Judy 6 years ago at the first demonstration to protect the kids at Marsh Fork Elementary. It was my first film shoot with MTR activists, having already covered all the “industry” material I knew I needed for my film, Burning the Future.
Judy’s short stature belied her awesome power. She had an ability to deliver a message on point, with fervor, and still have a smile in her eyes beyond the anger. That’s how she was with friends in the crowd — an example of loving strength. Judy rallied the crowd and then turned to me to say, “this is a war, and it’s only the beginning. You and all those other folks with cameras and microphones, you have a job to do in this war. I hope you do it.”
Judy then marched with Bo Webb onto the bridge, over the Coal River that she loved so much, and towards the security guards demanding that the coal operators come talk with them. Of course, none came so Judy and Bo held their ground until they were put into a police car and taken away amidst cheering crowds.
This was my introduction to MTR activism, my welcome wagon from a breed of humanity that has had uniquely fertile ground in Appalachia, my baptism into our shared responsibility to bring MTR’s demise no matter who we are, no matter where we live. The introduction came with fervor, with anger, with purpose, with tears, and with smiling eyes and cheers. It came from Judy. And I hope that I, “and all those other folks with cameras and microphones” do a job of which Judy will be eternally proud.
Cheering crowds.
Over the years, I’ve seen Judy’s army of neighbors grow from a few dozen in the Coal River Valley to many, many thousands around the world. Judy will always be loved by the growing masses who have cheered her work and who now cheer her journey on.
Judy’s family has requested that donations are made in her name to Coal River Mountain Watch, where Judy was the Executive Director, to help them continue her important work.

This Blogger’s Books from
Burning the Future: Coal in America
Directed by David Novack

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For the second time in less than a month, a major conservative leader has spoken out for prison reform.
First there was Reverend Pat Robertson, who made national news when he spoke out against the criminalization of marijuana. On his December 16 show, while doing a segment on faith-based programs in prison and a new campaign named Right on Crime, a push by conservatives advocating for prison reform, he spoke emotionally about ruining young people lives by sending them to jail for only “few ounces of pot.”
“We’re locking up people that take a couple of puffs of marijuana, and the next thing you know they’ve got 10 years,” said Robertson. “I’m not exactly for the use of drugs — don’t get me wrong – but I just believe that criminalizing marijuana, criminalizing the possession of a few ounces of pot and that kind of thing, I mean, it’s just, it’s costing us a fortune and it’s ruining young people.”
Ethan Nadelmann, Executive Director of the Drug Policy Alliance, was quoted in the Washington Post on the significance of Rev. Roberson’s words. “His voice is respected by hundreds of thousands or millions of people who might not otherwise think about this issue seriously. His comments were a very important step forward. The only way that this country’s going to end up with more sensible and sane drug laws is if people call for it from across the political spectrum.”
Today, another prominent voice from the right spoke out against over-incarceration. Former GOP Speaker of the House and possible 2012 Presidential Candidate Newt Gingrich co-authored with Vice President of Prison Fellowship Pat Nolan an op-ed in the Washington Post in which they called for prison reform as a smart way for states to save money and lives. They point out that instead of spending $50,000 to lock someone up in a cage, states need smart, common sense approaches that will save money and keep the public safe. They urge legislators to act with courage and creativity, and hope conservative leaders will join them in reforming the criminal justice system.
The United States has spent hundreds of billions of dollars waging a 40-year “war on drugs” that has been responsible for the imprisonment of millions of our fellow Americans. Despite the enormous waste of money and lives, drugs are as easily available as ever.
At a time when Democrats and Republicans are having a difficult time agreeing on anything, let’s hope that we can come together to help end America’s longest, unwinnable war.
Tony Newman is the director of media relations at the Drug Policy Alliance (www.drugpolicy.org)

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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

At Endless Simmer, we really only travel for one reason — new things to stuff our faces with! But we’re done with Rome and Paris. Here are our 10 favorite new destinations that are worth the trip just for the grub.
10. South Korea
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For one of Asia’s smallest countries, South Korea puts its giant neighbors to shame, at least in the kitchen. From bi bim bap to bulgogi to kimchi with melted mozzarella, this is some of the funkiest food around that still manages to be tasty.
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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

A US congresswoman has been rushed to hospital after after she and up to 12 people were shot at a public event in Arizona.
Gabrielle Giffords, a Democratic member of the US House of Representatives, was shot in the head at close range. Her condition is unknown.
The gunman was arrested after the shooting at the event at a supermarket in Tucson city attended by hundreds.
Reports say members of her staff were among the other people who were hit.
Ms Giffords, 40, who represents the eighth district of Arizona in the House, is married to space shuttle astronaut Mark Kelly.
She serves on several congressional committees, including those covering the armed services and foreign affairs.

Source:BBC

It’s Christmas Eve, and the family has gathered for what turns out to be a distinctly non-traditional celebration. Instead of singing “Away in a Manger” or “Noel, Noel, born is the King of Israel,” my daughter, knowing her father has a decent interest in indecent words, has downloaded on her iPad what she says is the nation’s most popular song: Cee Lo Green’s “F**k You.” The family is all ears.
Over and over again, the great F-word is repeated. “F**k you! And f**k her too!” is the recurring plaint of the rejected lover. These are not the kind of lyrics that Cole Porter wrote, or that Stephen Sondheim writes. Their lyrics make you want to think about what you are hearing. With Cee Lo, the words wash over you. Your mind begins to wonder and — an unintended consequence — you can reflect on other things.
In this case, I couldn’t help thinking about a movie, The Moon Is Blue, a mild comedy that once caused a national hullabaloo because it included such highly charged words as “preg*ant,” “sed*ce,” and “virg*n.” The people who were most upset were the same ones who prayed regularly to the Blessed Virg*n Mary. The Motion Picture Association of America refused to give the film its seal of approval, the National Legion of Decency gave it a “C” for “Condemned,” New York’s Francis Cardinal Spellman denounced it as “an occasion of sin,” and local authorities in various jurisdictions censored the film or banned it entirely. All this about the film version of a play that had run for two seasons on Broadway, then toured around the country, without shaking the foundations of public morality to any discernible degree.
“F**k you! And f**k her too!” We have come a rather long way. And it has been a h*ll of a ride.
Would-be censors often claim that they are protecting the young, without realizing just how much the young know. When I myself was young, a few eons ago, male children often became acquainted with so-called “bad” words for the first time when they went to Boy Scout camp in the summer. Here they learned to revel in foul language. So accustomed did they become to using bad words after a week or two that they had trouble — or so they claimed — cleaning up their vocabularies upon returning home. Then they commiserated with one another. “I almost asked my mother to please pass the f**king butter,” was a typical complaint. Really, the Scouts should create a merit badge for use of bad language. It demands at least as much skill as basket weaving and is likely to be much more useful in later life.
Then there was the time that I asked my son, then aged five, what were the worst words that he knew. Out of his cherubic mouth came: “F**king a**hole.” After picking myself up floor the floor, I asked where he had learned those words. “From listening in at the window of the first-grade classroom.” I don’t think that he knew the literal meaning of the phrase, but that’s just a guess. I chickened out, afraid to ask that question.
“F**k you! And f**k her too!”
The operative word here is not, as often supposed, a slang term. Nor is it an acronym for For Unlawful (or Unnatural) Carnal Knowledge, accusations supposedly made in medieval trials for rape and sodomy. Rather, it is part of our language’s oldest stock, probably related to the Middle Dutch fokken, to mock, strike, copulate with, and the German ficken, to rub, itch, scratch, have sexual intercourse with. It hasn’t been found in writing prior to the early sixteenth century, probably because it was so fraught with sex and violence that it was heavily tabooed. The earliest example of the term in The Oxford English Dictionary involves clerical transgressions. It comes from a pre-1500 anonymous poem, Flyn, flyys, (from the first line, “Flyn, flyys, and freris,” meaning “Fleas, flies, and friars”), where the loaded word is enciphered as gxddbov, which equals the fake Latin fuccant, each letter of gxddbov standing for the previous one in the alphabet. The crucial line translates as “The friars [meaning the Carmelite monks of Cambridge] are not in heaven because they fuck the wives of Ely [a nearby town].”
“F**k you! And f**k her too!”
The taboo is greatly relaxed nowadays. But is this progress? Or simply change? There doesn’t seem to be a lot new under the sun. Some twenty-five hundred years ago Heraclitus said, “You can’t step twice into the same river. For other waters are ever flowing on to you.” Maybe we should ditch progress, with its implications of forward and backward, high and low, good and bad, and speak instead of, say, cultural change, social change, or evolutionary change.
“F**k you. And f**k her too!”
But we don’t know exactly what Heraclitus meant. His statement exists without context, just a fragment of a large work. Most likely, he was referring to continuous change over time, but it could be that he was advancing the more unsettling idea that all natural objects constantly change, in which case the apparent stability of the world around us is but a phantasm and we cannot believe the evidence of our senses. Later philosophers in the ancient world regarded Heraclitus as “obscure.”
“F**k you! And f**k her too!”
Cee Lo is about done. And so I am.
A belated but Joyous N*el to you — and to her, too!

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Oh, dear, the resolutionistas have been at it again — people encouraging us to make new year’s resolutions. Ours is a culture of constant self improvement.
What if, this year, we forgot about all that? What if we accentuated the positive instead? In keeping with the 2011 theme of this column (“the power of one”), I asked a bunch of women this question, “What one thing do you love about yourself and wouldn’t change for anything?”
Some of them talked about physical characteristics.
My uber-busy-lawyer sister, Elizabeth Moulden, shot back, “My freckles!”
Louise Walker, who’s getting her Ph.D. and was enroute to Australia to deliver her first paper, wrote a considered reply from the airport lounge. “My nose is the kind of nose that no plastic surgeon has in his portfolio or framed on her wall. It’s not an ugly nose mind you, but rather a nose with character, a noble nose. It forms a large arc in the middle of my face that makes profile shots a little more jarring than full frontals. It’s the same arc that I love on my mother’s face, so I suppose I associate my bold facial architecture with my mother’s ferocious love for her children, her irrepressible sense of mischief and her formidable will. We are just not cute nose kind of girls. As I enter 2011, it is my distinctive proboscis that gets there first. I wouldn’t change it for anything.”
Some of my poll respondents talked about qualities that they love.
“I love the way I bring out the best in people,” Julia Howell , a philanthropy consultant, said with a smile. “I think it’s about empathy. Being able to move out of myself and put myself in someone else’s shoes. When I’m parenting well, I just know what to do.”
It was amazing how many of them mentioned a particular quality.
Rebecca Dempster wrote from Nairobi, “One thing that I love about myself is my insatiable curiosity about the world. I could never give up wanting to learn more about the world and everything and everyone in it.”
Andrea Knight, Managing Editor of the Azrieli Foundation’s Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program, put it this way, “I’m interested in almost everything (except Lindsay Lohan) and curious about everything: ‘inquiring minds want to know’, ‘smart women thirst for knowledge’ ‘I’m not nosy, I just want to know’.”
Of course, some of these gals ignored the rule (ahem, “one thing”!) and shared more.
Social media guru Gloria Roheim wrote, “It was a toss up between my curiosity or my honesty, but honesty is slightly ahead in this race. If I had to give up my honesty, or if I had to be inauthentic, or if I had to do something I didn’t love, I would loose my ‘self’. Not my ego, my true self. The same is true for curiosity, but since I only get one choice honesty prevails. That is, of course, unless I can event a word called curi-honesty? Could I? .”
And my sister added, “And having Emma!” (her daughter).
One of the great joys of passing 50 is that we love ourselves so much more than we did when we were younger (my new book explores this). So, while I’m tempted to fire off a dozen answers, but I’ll stick to one.
I choose my smile. Oh, I wasn’t always happy with it. As a teenager I hated my slight overbite and my oversized front teeth. Over the years, various dentists have tried to toy with it (bonding! whitening!), but I’ve always resisted. And, once, a business partner told me I show too much gum when I smile (need I add “former”)?
But today I just love my grin – and especially because it says so much about me. I smile a lot because I love life (just check out the photo with my HuffPost bio and you’ll see what I mean).
Now, over to you. How would you answer this question? “What one thing do you love about yourself and wouldn’t change for anything?”
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

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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

When I think of great leaders it is interesting that, for the most part, current day so called leaders don’t really come to mind.
The face of leadership has definitely changed. From spiritual leaders to top political and corporate figures, we have witnessed some pretty big cracks in integrity and character lately. Is it time for a leadership makeover?
I am sensing a shift of some kind when it comes to the way we not only lead as small business owners, or leadership of any kind for that matter. Connecting with staff, vendors, clients, and the community isn’t about who has the best technology, the nicest car, or even the best idea. Leadership, or should I say a new way to lead, isn’t about any of that and isn’t about leading with your head. It is heart and soul and is a leader who cares more about the spotlight being on his/her “team” and not about self glory that will make any leader truly shine.
I was sharing with my team yesterday that I believe there is an honestly shift on a collective level happening; an honesty that is raw and real and connects us all. I felt it when I was watching what was being seen around the world yesterday when Ted Williams spoke about his drug addiction that ended his once blossoming radio career. He is getting a second chance to lead and inspire many. I hope he takes that responsibility to heart and is a wonderful success story of leadership. It was not only his “golden voice” but his willingness to share his “story” in such an honest and real way that captured the attention of millions of people. It is that connection created by owning up to our life’s choices and path that everyone can relate to.
When we are honest and take off our leadership “mask”, setting aside ego with an understanding that we are equally integral to the success of the team, that is when we empower others and truly lead. We all have a story, even leaders. We don’t want to just hear about the logo. We want to know the person behind the logo, the dreamer and the doer, like Mark Zuckerberg. We want to see a face, and a hear the story, behind the business name. We want to connect, relate, and be excited for our leaders success as much as our own.
Makeover your own leadership style to start off 2011 and know that what makes a great leader great is when others can connect with you, believe in you, and relate to your story.

Follow Michelle Renee on Twitter:
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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Re-entry following a vacation is trying at the best of times. You come back to “normal life” with looming deadlines, piles of unwashed laundry and all those things you really did mean to finish — but didn’t quite get to — right before you left. (Not to mention that fresh take on life you developed while travelling that you’re darn well going to start implementing… now.)
Toss in some jet lag and — if you’re me, about 10 gazillion bags worth of purchases you made at Target — and it’s a recipe for disaster.
Which is why — having just returned from a two and a half week vacation to the U.S. yesterday — I decided that this time, I’d really work consciously not to make re-entry the agonizing, adrenaline-fuelled stress-fest that it usually is in my life.
Well, I’m pleased to report that on day five of the Good Lord’s Year 2011… something I resolved to do differently in the new year actually worked.
Here are five ways to manage re-entry after a vacation:
Shower First. Pay no attention to that whole soap-dodging trend. It’s amazing what a shower can do to wake up the senses. Make sure you do it as soon as you get home, even if you’ve already taken a shower that day. A shower — plus a good, strong hot cup of coffee — are, I am convinced, the foundation for a successful re-entry launch.
Make Piles. I’m a big believer in lowering your expectations. Once you’re clean and caffeinated, the single best thing you can do for yourself upon re-entry is not to take on too much that very first day. You’ll exhaust yourself. Instead, what I’d recommend is making piles: bills to pay… holiday cards to answer… dry-cleaning that’s accrued during your trip. You don’t have to actually *do* any of these things. But just putting them in the right piles will contribute enormously to your piece of mind knowing that they will, eventually, get done.
Fill In Your Calendar. Another small but not over-whelming task you can assign to yourself on that very first day back from a trip is to fill in the dates on your calendar (or “diary” as we say over here in the ‘hood.) Much like making piles, inputting your daughter’s swim class schedule, noting the next few book club meetings and (hopefully) setting aside a few date nights out with your partner can go along way towards making you feel in control of your life, before you actually step in to control it. And the beauty of this task is that it can be executed in a near-somnolent state.
Set In Motion One Big Thing. This may sound contradictory with points (2) and (3) but it doesn’t have to be. You know how we all have those giant, endless to-do lists that contain a small array of intractable items that never, ever make it off ground zero? While you’re wandering around your house in a bleary-eyed state after a vacation, take action on one of those babies — the really hard ones. You don’t need to resolve it that very first day. But even if it’s just about taking one small step to activate action on said item, you’ll feel so much better. In my own case, I decided yesterday that even though I’d been avoiding it for… um, like four months… I was going to defrost my refrigerator. Yes it was a pain in the neck. Yes, I had to sacrifice my favorite brand of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream to the cause (Imagine Whirled Peace, in case you’re wondering.) But the prospect of opening the refrigerator in 2011 and not seeing an iceberg befitting “March Of The Penguins”? Priceless.
Open Your Mail Last. While it can be awfully tempting when you’ve been away from home for a while to open up all of your mail right away, it’s a terrible idea. Mail — whether it’s personal, business or just a doctor’s appointment — is deeply distracting. You get caught up in the photo of someone else’s cute kids. You learn that you didn’t get that job you applied for. You start reading all about the latest changes to your retirement plan. Do yourself a favor and get the small stuff done first. And then reward yourself by reading your mail last when you can really concentrate. Ditto Email. Trust me.
Happy re-entry.
And Happy 2011.

Follow Delia Lloyd on Twitter:
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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Ah, the book tour. That literary rite-of-passage that all authors at one time or another dream of, thoughts of which keep them going through the tough times. Who hasn’t imagined standing in front of a group of eager readers, people who — unlike your friends & family — actually want to hear you expound upon the writing process? Who hasn’t fantasized about sitting at a table, facing an endless line of people all clutching Your book, happily awaiting your signature?
I’m getting ready to depart upon one of these tours – details here, for anyone who wants to know them. And having been around the block a time or two, I have a clearer idea of what to expect.
When I was first published, several years ago, I arranged bookstore appearances myself. I was not at the top of my publisher’s priority list, and thus discovered what so many authors do — if I wanted any publicity, it was up to me. I was a newly-minted author, bright eyed and bushy tailed, and so naturally, I wanted to do a book tour. Even though my agent gently tried to persuade me it might not be the best use of my time or money.
Nonsense! Of course, total strangers would want to leave the comfort of their homes on a weeknight just to see me, an author they’d never heard of, who’d written a book they didn’t know existed!
Fueling my excitement was the bookstores themselves. I dutifully went around to visit many local stores before my book was out, and sent off mailings to those further afield. So many managers begged me to do an appearance that I was, of course, flattered.
So I packed my bags, loaded up the gas tank, used up all of my husband’s Marriott points, and hit the road.
Only to experience what many authors had experienced before me.
The signing where only the janitor showed up. The one where I was put at a table in front of the store, expected to accost every customer entering the place. The ones where the bookstore manager’s definition of “we’ll do lots of publicity and get the word out!” was to stick a poster up at the front counter the day before the signing.
Once, at a mall bookstore (this was in the olden days of B. Dalton and Waldenbooks), I was even stuck outside the store, in the mall itself. Standing there with a copy of a book in my hand, egged on by the manager, I felt like a cheese pusher from Hickory Farms.
I endured the litanies of “No, I’m not going to buy your book! “Excuse me, where’s the bathroom?” And my personal favorite: “Sorry, never heard of you — but can you help me get my book published?”
And I vowed never, ever, to put myself through it again.
Author’s memories, however, are famously short. Flash forward a few years, to a new book and a new publisher. I’m going back on tour, but this time — it’s personal!
Sorry for the movie trailer hyperbole. Actually, it’s just different.
Funny thing about publishers. They know what they’re doing. Sometimes, in this ever-changing world of digital publishing, self-publishing, revolving editors, we authors forget that.
A publisher is not going to pay good money to send an author on a fool’s errand So if they’re not certain, or at least as certain as is possible, that there will be publicity, an audience, a go-to bookstore with a great track record of packing the place and generating lots of local interest, they’re not going to send their authors, whom they really do value, out.
In other words, unlike authors, publishers know when to, well — say no.
I’ve now been lucky enough to experience both kinds of tours; the one that I cobbled together myself, and the one put together by publishing experts. And there’s a world of difference. Of course, there is. And when you’re fortunate enough to have written a book that people have actually heard of, well — there’s an entire universe of difference.
My publisher, smartly, builds my bookstore appearances around ticketed events; literary foundations, museums, with lecture series who invite me to appear. These events come with some ready-made publicity, as well as ready-made audiences.
I’ve also learned to listen to my publisher. When a bookstore contacts me personally about an appearance, I pass the request on to my publicist. Only once did I ignore her advice and do an event anyway.
Only the janitor showed up.
It’s really hard, when asked, when begged to do an appearance, to say no. It’s an ego thing, for sure; it’s what we’ve always dreamed of. It’s also an altruistic thing; authors love bookstores and they want to help them out in any way they can. And we know that so many need our help, these days.
But I would say to that newly-minted, bright eyed and busy tailed author out there: Hold on a minute. Ask lots of questions, not just of the bookstore, but of your agent, your peers. Trust their experience. Value yourself and your time.
And I realize that most of you will ignore what I say.
I’m heading the week of January 10th. I can’t wait to meet readers, shake hands with bookstore owners, steal a few hotel towels. After all these years, I still hold onto my fantasies of an author’s life and have been fortunate enough to experience some of them. As far as the others, I’m still hoping and dreaming.
It’s what keeps us going, after all, we starry-eyed literary types. Hope. Fantasy. A lively imagination.
And if painful reality intrudes, we just shrug. After all, we’re writers.
We can always use it in our next novels — or blog posts.

Follow Melanie Benjamin on Twitter:
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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Interesting, Tom. You want your critics to kiss your ass. But let’s take a look at that 10-6 record you’re so proud of and which apparently got you to keep your job. Your team played 5 games against opponents with winning records for the 2010 season and you lost 4 of them. Your other 2 losses were against teams with losing records, including Dallas at home. That game was overlooked in all the media coverage of the collapse. The Dallas loss showed you have a team that has bad let-downs. As for your 10 wins, one, only one, was against a team with a winning record for the season. Losing those two games toward the end of the season was not an anomaly. The team played to its level in those games.
Your quarterback has regressed under your coaching and would barely make a list of the top ten quarterbacks in the league. Your martinet-like style has not translated to on the field efficiency given your turnover-prone offense. The failure to have a “hands” team on the field as the Eagles were making a comeback was beyond incompetent. Andy Reid said if he saw those players on the field he wouldn’t have tried the onside kick. When the Pats were throttling the Jets, Bill B. assembled his entire team on the sidelines to talk to them, presumably to tell them to keep the pressure on. Where was your team meeting on the sidelines when the Eagles were coming back? You were in panic mode. (See absence of a “hands” team.) You don’t prepare your teams well during the week. You don’t manage the game well when it’s played.
Many of the sportswriters who cover the Giants and various sports radio hosts are all for you, and so is ownership. I heard John Mara extolling the virtues of the 10 and 6 season. He didn’t look closely enough at the numbers. So you have your job. And we Giants fans have you. The problem for us is that your vulgarity is the least of your shortcomings.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com