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That the world is held together by a web is a precept shared by multicultural spiritual traditions as well as the most modern of scientific theory as described by quantum physics.
Spider Woman, the creatrix of the Native American peoples who populate the magic desert circle of the Southwest United States and the Northwest of Mexico, is said to have woven the world out of sun rays.
Don Juan, the shamanic teacher of Carlos Castaneda, expressed the Spider Woman world view when he described the silver filaments that extend from everyone’s solar plexus and reach out to join the silver filaments of everyone else’s cord, creating a vibrant living web of connection.
The Eskimos of Baffin Bay create elaborate webs in their games of Cat’s

After witnessing the 9/11 attacks, I swore I’d never again live in a home without an American flag standing guard outside the front door. A decade later, I find myself a disillusioned patriot, wondering why so many Americans failed to learn an important and frightening lesson from that horrid day: the monsters who flew those planes into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, murdering fellow Muslims as well as Christians and Jews, had tacit approval of billions who resent–for right or wrong–America’s heavy footprint on the globe.
My legal education requires me to stipulate facts at the outset. As Americans, we enjoy the greatest liberal democratic political system devised by man, one deeply rooted in individual liberty. We benefit from a tattered but mostly intact free market economy, which has provided more than adequate food, clothing and shelter, not just for the rich, but for nearly everyone from a relatively small underclass to a huge middle class.
Indeed, we are an exceptional

Well, now that we’ve gone and cut off cable, we thought maybe we could go all the way. So after a convincing call with Verizon, we ordered up new internet service – with a promise of fast connection and great service. We’d replace our cable modem and be ‘cable free’. Now, I have to say I was a bit

The episode began with Chris Harrison telling the women it would be one of the best weeks of their lives. But there seemed to be an awful lot of drama this week, which made me wonder if (horror or horrors!) Chris Harrison might have been wrong.
One on One with Emily
The date began with a helicopter ride. (Thanks to Brad’s racetrack therapy, Emily seemed to be over her traumatic past and fear of flying.) They flew to a private island, where they had a picnic. Both of them said they were nervous, ostensibly because they like each

I heard a new word from a new friend, Zach. Custom composition is his full-time job, as the one-man maker, performer, and visual-literary artist behind “poemstore.” Zach crafts exquisite zips of curbside poetry on his manual typewriter for lucky passersby. Name the subject and Zach with architect you a poem, asking only for a donation and a photo of the poem for his website.
So, the new word: “Coinsequence” — when a coincidence happens in a

Have any of you seen the 2008 movie “Rachel Getting Married”? In its raw simplicity, it often is hauntingly on my mind. The movie reminds me of how relationships tumble along, how crisis can allow for growth. I often wonder how change occurs, how relationships evolve and get stronger. The movie reminds me that this growth is often mysterious and

If, on Presidents Day 2011, I had to rank the last twelve presidents since America became the world’s most powerful empire, in World War II, I’d put them in the following order:
1.Franklin D. Roosevelt: by far and away, in my view, the greatest of all our modern American Caesars — in wisdom, courage, determination, selflessness, judgment and vision.
In the second tier I would rank these three Caesars:
2.Harry S Truman , who truly stepped up to the plate in April 1945, and made the historic decisions that ended World War II and defined the post-war era:
The decision to use the atomic bomb to end the war with the Empire of Japan
The Marshall plan
The Berlin Airlift
The decision to fight back in Korea, tho’ failing to stop MacArthur from crossing the 38th Parallel.
3.Dwight D. Eisenhower, who brought the Korean War to an end, kept the U.S. strong but out of foreign wars (especially during the 1956 Suez Crisis) — and attempted to find a modus vivendi with the Russians (including the second maddest Soviet emperor, Nikita Khrushchev).
4.John

When we booked the trip at Christmas, it didn’t seem so remarkable.
We would fly in for a whirlwind visit; see the pyramids, the sphinx and antiquities. We would stay in a nice hotel overlooking the Nile. We planned to go to the bazaar and eat our body weight in hommos.
On January 25, that changed somewhat. As the dates clicked closer to our intended departure, family members implored us to not

I read an article in the NY Times last month that pegged Tara Stiles as the ‘it’ yoga teacher of the moment… the ‘rebel’ yoga teacher, the Times called her.
Seems young Tara’s style is to do away with the Sanskrit names for yoga poses and all that supposedly scary yoga lingo in favor of her own bare bones, stripped down style. There is no chanting and for some people, that’s a good thing. I’m generally okay with chanting as long as it doesn’t take over the

My mother Lillian Golden is turning 95 this year in March. She is vivacious and vital; has an impeccable memory, is beautiful, gracious and an inspiration to everyone who meets her. An inspiration of what aging gracefully can look like, in a culture that is obsessed with and idolizes youth.
She still lives in her own condo and is an active and integral part of the social scene in her building. She is strong, tenacious and stubborn and has never been in the hospital overnight, other than to have her

Amidst the demands for democratic change across the Middle East and North Africa, the United States is now confronted with important questions demanding both introspection and foresight. Where our relationships with each of these nations facing revolution vary to great degrees, there is one particular relationship that I wish to draw attention to from the human rights perspective. The relationship between the US and Algeria is one heavily entrenched in trade relations, oil deals, and geopolitical positioning. However, for the United States, as a nation that so staunchly asserts its ideals on human rights and strives so ardently to protect them, this relationship is one worth

Summary: In which I ponder China.
The first day of fashion week, the Daily Front Row ran a profile of Gawker’s Nick Denton, talking about how fashion doesn’t have much of an audience. I personally started fashion week with a profile of Daphne Guinness — her words seemed to ring in my ears during the week: “It feels cold.”
Let’s first start out with the shows I adored. And the winners are — Altuzarra, Libertine and Bibhu Mohapatra. Altuzarra’s red trimmed coat was almost

“You can’t maintain power through coercion,” President Barack Obama declared at last Tuesday’s press conference, taking aim at dictators in the Arab world and Iran. Two days later, he brought the weight of his office to bear on Mahmoud Abbas to get the Palestinians to withdraw a resolution condemning Israeli settlements from the United Nations Security Council.
When the strongest UN member state asks the weakest not-yet-state to do something, coercion is a good word to describe it — particularly as the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority depends on U.S. aid for its existence.
In theory, the UN resolution was one that the administration should have had no problem supporting since it has repeatedly condemned Israel’s relentless colonization of settlements on land that it occupied during the 1967 war in violation of international law.
Or has it? Even though senior officials often proclaim their rejection of the “illegitimacy of continued Israeli settlements” a closer reading suggests this administration has sided with Israel on its settlement project.
There is a big difference between condemning Israeli settlements as illegal, as in fact they are under the law, and speaking of the “illegitimacy of continued Israeli settlements.” Illegal means that not one settlement or settler in Jerusalem and the West Bank has the right to be there, unless the Palestinians grant that right as part of a final settlement.
By contrast, in speaking of “continued” settlement as illegitimate, the Obama administration seems only to condemn new construction, not passing any opinion on the massive and destructive construction of the past 44 years.
No wonder that Palestinian negotiators were unable to get Obama’s special envoy George Mitchell to agree to recognize the pre-1967 armistice lines as the borders of a Palestinian state, as revealed in the Palestine Papers.
And no wonder the Netanyahu government is racing ahead with new settlement construction and demolitions of Palestinian homes. It’s betting that anything settlers can build today won’t be considered “continued” but a finished fact on the ground.
Both Obama and Abbas were in a tight spot over the resolution: Obama might have lost a chance for a second term to his presidency if he had supported it; Abbas would almost certainly have lost his presidency if he hadn’t.
Obama would have incurred the wrath of American Jews and Christians who support Israel right or wrong even if the US Administration had simply abstained on the

They’re not “illegal”. They’re “illegitimate”.
That’s the excuse that the world’s most powerful nation, a beacon of freedom and democracy, came up with to explain why it vetoed a UNSC resolution calling Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal.
That’s the best they had.
All the President’s men, all the President’s speech writers, all the President’s media strategists – they all worked for days on end on that one. And that’s the ingenious combination of letters and syllables they came up with to define an Israeli policy – that they themselves oppose! That they themselves were willing to pay billions of dollars just so Israel would stop it for three months. 90 days!!!
They’re not

Passion so intense the sheets are smoldering. He’s begging for more. You are in total control, pushing him, and you, into a state of ecstasy both of you have only dreamed.
Sex with your guy has always been great, but this time you rocked his world like no other woman on his notorious list of conquests ever has. As you reclaim your side of the bed, being the independent temptress of seduction that you are, the unthinkable happens: he follows you across the bed and wraps you into the most intense, I-will-love-you-forever spoon that you have ever

Dear President Obama,
I have been a devoted supporter of your presidency up until now. But by allowing the complete deregulation of GMO/GE alfalfa, and now sugar beets, you have unleashed another wave of UNCONTAINABLE contamination on this planet. These toxic crops not only exist so that companies like Monsanto can make more money by selling more toxic chemicals that destroy our environment and our climate, but also the human diseases that these chemicals cause are at the root of the health issues you claim are so important to you and your family, including: cancer, diabetes, obesity, autism, ADHD, childhood leukemia, organ failure, infertility, birth defects, and reduced intelligence.
I am extremely disappointed that you gave in to the bullying of Monsanto and its legion of lobbyists, all paid for by the corrupt subsidies of the American Farm Bill.
If you really want to create jobs, support organic farmers. If you really want to lower taxes, support organic

Alan Greenspan has been strangely missing from the fierce battle over the future of public sector unions in Wisconsin and other states. His absence is strange because he bears more responsibility for the current conflict than anyone else alive.
The reason is simple. Mr. Greenspan’s incredible incompetence in allowing the $8 trillion housing bubble to grow unchecked created the fiscal crisis that is gripping Wisconsin and most other

Americans who ditch retail banking due to higher fees this year might look for inspiration to a surprising group: low-income African American women with kids and no college.
Last month, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon made headlines when he estimated that roughly five percent of today’s banking customers may be pushed out of the retail banking system by banks that charge higher fees in response to recent regulations. Last week, Citigroup Chief Executive Vikram Pandit echoed

Irish Central reported today a dramatic scene in Dublin’s St. Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, part of the Vatican’s visitation (that is, investigation) by Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston and Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York of the troubled church in Ireland (Hat-tip to Dotcommonweal and Whispers):
Earlier, Archbishop Martin and Cardinal O’Malley lay prostrate before the cathedral’s main altar in another highly symbolic act, with the two men using the same gesture performed by the presider each year during the Good Friday liturgy, which serves as a sign of sinfulness and repentance. (The washing of the feet is performed at the Holy Thursday Mass, as another symbolic gesture of penance, and a sign of the humble foot-washing that Jesus himself did for his disciples at the Last Supper.) These kinds of ritual penances are necessary. Of course these are by no means the only penances that need to be done by church leaders; nor are such liturgical acts a substitute for real reform in the church or for real restitution to the victims; nor are such symbolic penances sufficient to end the scourge of sexual abuse in the

There should be two lasting lessons to emerge from the heroic labor-led protests in Wisconsin.
First, working people–with our many allies, students, seniors, women’s organizations, and more–are inspired and ready to fight.
Second, we need to send a clear and unequivocal message to the right-wing politicians and those in the media suggesting further concessions from working people.
Working people did not create the recession or the budgetary crisis facing federal, state and local governments, and there can be no more concessions, period.
It should be apparent that the right wants to scapegoat workers and their unions, and is trying to exploit the economic crisis for an all-out assault on unions, public employees, and all working people in a campaign that is funded by rightwing, corporate billionaires like the Koch brothers.
Their goal is no less than to break unions and silence the voice of all working people to fight for better working conditions and improved standards for all working people.
For example, while demanding major cuts in public pensions, the right also wants to make sweeping cuts in Social Security , even though Social Security is in sound economic shape.
What all working families should know:
1.Who caused the economic crisis? Banks, Wall Street speculators, mortgage lenders, global corporations shifting jobs from the U.S.

I’m ashamed. Late at night, in bed, with my laptop anchored snugly in my comforter, I watch YouTube clips of conservative pundits, usually ones with “ballistic,” “explodes” and “gets served a cold glass of shut up juice” in the title. It’s not that I’m trying to school myself in Republican talking points. There is nothing so noble about waking up to “Bill O’Reilly Discusses Lesbian Teens” branded across your Macbook screen.
These jaunts are more accurately likened to the colonial encounters of an Imperial

On February 3, we launched the first edition of GateGuru’s “Know Before You Go Series: Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport”, which revealed exclusive insider tips and valuable insight from experienced travelers “on-the-ground” to help you better navigate ATL airport. The “Know Before You Go Series” pulls information and data reviewed from hundreds of thousands of GateGuru users, and provides a top-line summary on the good, the bad and the ugly of today’s largest airport hubs. With this said, it only makes sense to next feature Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport (ORD). To see tips such as these, as well as other information about over 115 domestic and international airports, download the award-winning, free GateGuru iPhone