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Public schools sit between a number of rocks and hard places.
Tax Payer Groups with nothing better to do than complain about taxes, no matter how small, or how they may benefit others around them.
Seniors who have checked out of society. Not all seniors fit this mold, but there are a significant numbers that basically say, I got my kids educated – it is your problem to educate yours. Don’t tax me.
Those without kids who blame kids for all society’s problems.
Those who believe the public schools did a disservice to themselves or to their kids and are now on the warpath to dismantle or cripple it.
Those who don’t want their kids associating with others who are not “like” themselves are paired with the parents who feel the public school supply an inferior product. These groups are pushing for subsidies for their own kids’ school system.
Those who feel that government is a failure no matter what evidence you can give them to the

UNITED NATIONS – With Egypt arguably the biggest story in the world, the main bodies of the United Nations have been as silent as they were on Tunisia last month — or on Yemen or Jordan.
Ban Ki-moon, the secretary-general, despite objections from Egypt, spoke out many times, as did Navi Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner of Human Rights, as well Irina Bokova, the executive director of UNESCO (U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). But the major UN bodies did not back them up.
The 102-member General Assembly was quiet as was the prestigious 15-nation Security

There’s probably no better time to confess it: I’ve built a good part of my life around the Green Bay Packers. I like to think it doesn’t get out of control. I try to do good work and be a reasonably reliable teacher, colleague, friend, uncle, brother, and son.
Just don’t let anyone get in the way of my full-throated Packer passion.
“That is odd,” a USC colleague told me the other day, when I described taping Packer helmet lights to my television in anticipation of Sunday’s Super Bowl. His fixed smile told me he wasn’t

Over the past days, the airwaves and talking heads have been frightening us with somber predictions of what would happen to the price of oil should current events in Egypt shutter the canal. The oil boys and their allies can barely contain themselves in their appearances of concern and like minded predictions of calamity, such as today’s Reuters report quoting Imad al-Atiqi, member of Kuwait’s Supreme Petroleum Council “I expect oil to reach $110 during the first half of 2011… A huge amount of oil passes through the Suez Canal…” Thus ever nudging oil prices skyward with Brent Crude already surpassing $100 a barrel. Yet has anyone stopped to determine what the closure of the Suez Canal would actually mean to the oil market in dollars and cents?
In the shipping world the type of vessel that can transit the Suez Canal has its own designation named a “Suezmax”

Two photos, each showing conciliation, right? Think again.
The top image, Sunday’s message from the Tahrir Square and the people’s uprising, offers a moving demonstration of Coptic Christians and Muslims merging central religious symbols, the bible, the cross and the Koran, standing united against the government.
In the bottom photo, in contrast, we have the Government on this American SuperSunday gaining traction now in blunting the uprising (as well as confusing, and at-least partly pacifying Western governments)by making a show of negotiations. What’s so brilliant here is how the sidelined Coach Mubarak — by way of his quarterback, Vice-President Suleiman– is simultaneously using a regal and highly-official looking, though completely informal and unofficial sit down with the Muslim Brotherhood (the trapping make it look like a summit!) to feign good faith negotiations, while simultaneously stoking fears in the West about an Islamic take-over AND raising the visibility of the Brotherhood to drive a wedge between those good Christians and Muslims we see in the Square.
As BagNews friend and contributing photographer, David Degner, tweeted from Cairo this morning:
“My neighborhood ful stand returned this morning. Things might be returning to normal, that is good, and bad.”
You notice the-supposedly absent President Mubarak regally and centrally framed in the distance? If the Egyptian playing field is looking neater today, I’d say the prospects for a populist win is getting a lot uglier.
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For the latest in visual politics, visit BagNewsNotes (and follow us on Twitter).
See BagNews photos and reports on the Egyptian Uprising from US ex-pat David Degner here, here and here.
(photo 1: Khaled/Desouki/AFP/Getty

They say it’s the thought behind the gift that counts, but we all know that’s not entirely true.
Valentine’s Day is just around the corner – and many of us are cringing. Too many times over the years, we’ve been given — or have given — corny or perfunctory gifts, made predictable restaurant reservations, or relied on the dubious crutch of Hallmark.
If the present provides so little inspiration when it comes to expressing adoration for your paramour, why not look to the past? So many old-guard romantic rituals and gestures have been left behind in the name of progress — and are well due for a comeback.
In this special edition of Let’s Bring Back — my longtime column showcasing forgotten-yet-delightful objects, pastimes, fashions, culinary delectables, and personalities — I present twenty romantic, humorous, and old-fashioned ways to celebrate Valentine’s Day with your lover.
For additional inspiration, please consult my new Let’s Bring Back book — from which the entries below are excerpted — and I welcome your further suggestions in the comments section.
Without further ago, let’s bring back …
The following material is excerpted from Let’s Bring Back (Chronicle Books, 2010):
1. Go on a winter picnic.
Grab a bundle of red wool blankets, a box of truffles, and a bottle of Champagne — which you can chill by wedging it in a nearby snowbank. Snuggle up and enjoy the winter landscape.

This March, while South by Southwest will introduce Style X, pronounced Style “By”, an event aimed at showcasing emerging designers from around the country. Over the last few years, SXSW participants have gotten accustomed to fashion brands having a presence in Austin during that eventful week in March. American Apparel is known for its flea market setup in Downtown Austin with bargain basement pricing not available in its retail stores. And other notable brands such as Dickie’s, Levi’s and Ray Ban have sponsored performances by the likes of Kanye West, The xx and Broken Bells.
Fashion designers and labels catering to musicians is nothing

It seems that new year’s resolutions are barely off our lips when we face our first big dieting challenge: Super Bowl Sunday. In terms of home parties, the Super Bowl ranks number one (even beating New Year’s Eve celebrations), and it ranks number two in terms of Calorie consumption, second only to Thanksgiving Day feasts. Super Bowl fans consume 4,000 tons of popcorn, 14,000 tons of chips and approximately 3,200,000 pizzas1 — but who’s counting?
According to Elisabetta Poiti, director of the Duke Diet and Fitness Center, “People get very excited watching football, and they don’t see what they’re shoveling in their mouths. They eat out of excitement, stress, happiness, sadness, all the emotions that go along with watching the big game.” Sounds like it doesn’t matter whether you’re on the winning team or not; all the emotions can lead to thousands of extra Calories and fat grams without even realizing

There are certain necessities in life, and having a mentor is one of them. No matter where you are in your career — just starting, rising, stuck, at the end — you need such a coach. In fact, you need a series of them.
Where do you find them? Look around you and see whom you

In his State of the Union address, President Obama outlined a plan for the United States to win the future through better education, smarter innovation and broader investment. He would have done well to invoke another favorite phrase–”the fierce urgency of now”, itself borrowed from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.–to bolster his case.
That urgency was imprinted in black and white, quite literally, the next

HuffPost has revolutionized journalism in the last few years by taking over the news and news feature delivery business. Now I’m using the blog to venture into the realm of story publishing. Starting this week, my novel Seeing Red will be serialized on the Huffington Post. Here is CHAPTER ONE:
“Sex and Cinnamon”
Years later, she tries to focus on the details: the cinnamon sugar sticking to her

Serving as primary caregiver to my mother during the last six months of her life was my first prolonged and intimate encounter with the healthcare system. I was shocked and deeply disturbed to discover the many ways that our healthcare system dishonors, alienates and harms our loved ones entrusted to it. I can only hope that healthcare reform will eliminate the reasons why nurses and other healthcare workers repeatedly giggle dismissively as they say that hospitals are the worst place to be if you are sick, that they are hotbeds for infection.
The truth of this comment rendered me helpless to rescue my mother from an insidious downward spiral as she fell victim to the infections that ran rampant in a local

The first edition of “A Mindful Dialogue” launched Jan. 24, 2010 right after the earthquake in Haiti and was created as a vehicle toward raising the necessary funds to inspire hope and to help rebuild a devastated Haiti. As you well know, the Haiti Earthquake created trauma for millions of people — physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. In the blink of an eye, millions of people lost friends, family, and

If I had a dollar for every person who told me they were frustrated with their boss, I would be a very rich woman. In a decade of career coaching, I have learned that people don’t leave jobs, they leave bad bosses.
Good Managers Don’t Always Make Good Leaders
In many organizations, managers who are given the responsibility to complete predetermined goals or projects are rewarded for their success with an upgraded role in a leadership position. Many managers fail as leaders because they lack the skills and competencies to develop relationships with their employees and build loyalty with their

This January, in honor of my 44th birthday, I resolved to fix, change, organize, replace or otherwise deal with anything that had been driving me bonkers.
This is what the late Thomas J. Leonard (widely considered the father of life coaching) referred to as “eliminating tolerations.” And let me tell you, when it comes to life-changing revolutionary acts, this practice is a doozie.
I consider tackling tolerations a revolutionary act because at any given time, most of us are putting up with hundreds of these energy-drainers — everything from niggling little distractions to sources of frustration so oppressive and so entrenched that we’ve become practically inured to

Without DICER1, the Alu RNA accumulates with toxic consequences leading to the death of the retina.
Professor Jayakrishna Ambati, from the University of Kentucky, told the BBC: “This work opens many new doors of research.
“First, we need to identify various classes of molecules that can either increase DICER1 levels or block Alu RNA so that these can be evaluated in clinical trials.
“Second, we need to understand more about the biological processes that lead to reduction in DICER1 levels and the precise source of the Alu RNA transcripts.”
Professor Ian Grierson, school of clinical sciences at the University of Liverpool, said: “This is a great piece of science which provides another jigsaw piece which we need to put together with other

President Barack Obama will walk across Lafayette Park on Monday to address the United States Chamber of Commerce at its headquarters. What should he tell them?
Since the November elections, Obama has been trying to repair his relationship with business leaders, who believe that the President’s occasional efforts to slap their wrists for corporate recklessness and major catastrophes (such as excessive Wall Street bonuses, the BP oil spill, and the Upper Big Branch mine disaster), and to promote sensible rules designed to protect the health and safety of American families, means that he is anti-business. Progressives and liberals, meanwhile, think Obama has been too business-friendly pointing to his recent appointment of Wall Street executive William Daley and GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt. Most observers expect Obama to offer the Chamber an olive

This post is dedicated to my “coffee girls.” For the past eight years, I have met with the same group of women at a local bagel joint on Thursday mornings. Having met when our children were in the same preschool, we have seen each other through divorces, job changes, my stress having twins, and the like. Our time together is so sacred that we rearrange our lives to make it work and physically miss each other when we have to skip a few weeks. Guess what we talk about? Nothing in

Have you ever paid attention to your inner dialogue? Do you even know that you have an inner dialogue? Most people are so busy in their lives that they haven’t slowed down long enough to realize what is going on in their head. You have a little voice in your head that is constantly running a dialogue about everything that is happening in your life. It’s important to become aware of your inner dialogue because that little voice is managing your life, without you even knowing it. At my company, The Handel Group, we have broken down that voice into two distinct personas: the chicken and the

Ten thousand miles away from my home I find myself confronted with an inner monologue I thought I would never find rolling around in my head. Would I eat human flesh? What a question.
I am sitting with my wife in a small home in a remote village on the southern end of the island country of Madagascar. We have been spending the weekend with a family that is celebrating the ritual circumcision of a 5 year old

As we age, more and more of us have family and friends with substantial memory loss. They do not just forget a name and have to wait for hours or even days for it to pop back into their minds. They do not just go from one room to another and have to go back to the first room to remember why they left in the first place. These kinds of failures of memory are increasingly common with age and not a big

Why not?
Why can’t I ask that? This graceful phrase has rung in my head ever since the dazzling JFK spoke it (I remember he did it with the white-haired poet Robert Frost by his side). Who could argue with those elegiac words? Except, what about those other words?
“…a government of the people, by the people, for the people.”
And if I am not to ask what can this country do for me, shouldn’t I at least ask what exactly a country is for, by which I believe JFK meant government?
Nowadays I think it’s very clear what the government “is for” – for the same people all the way down through history – the one’s who’ve had the willingness to crawl, fight and lie their way to the top.
Fascinating to watch our government bob and weave against democracy in Egypt. Why?
“The Middle East could well descend into chaos if there isn’t an orderly transition,” says Hilary Clinton (our supposed progressive