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And so it begins.
The United Nations climate negotiations re-opened today in South Africa, and the gloves are off. With the echo of the opening gavel still reverberating in the Durban International Convention Center, acrimonious political differences are already playing out in the media.
Rumors about rich countries colluding to avoid taking on new legally-binding commitments before 2020 took a new turn yesterday, when the BBC reported that India and Brazil had defected to the other side, joining countries like the US, Japan and Russia who have been holding out against a new binding agreement.
AOSIS, the Association of Small Island States, reacted furiously: “It is a betrayal not just of small island nations, many of whom would be destined for extinction, but a betrayal of all humanity. There are no plausible technical, economic or legal impediments for not taking the actions required by science — we need to act now!” These are strong words coming from diplomats schooled in pulling their punches, and rightly so.
Canada, duly playing its part as a climate criminal, has thrown its own Tar Sands oil on the

The fashion business is not asblack and white as it usedto be.Gone are the days when black designersonly focused on their own demographics, theirown community,their”own people.” The color and culture line has definitely been blurred, and thank goodness for that. Who has the right to tell a consumer what will best suit their body better than a designer? If you were to interview designers from different cultural backgrounds, locations and regions around the world they would only have one thread in common: the human body as their inspiration.Not the color of skin.
Although skin tone inspiresdesignersto pick the shade of fabric that will best suit a model, initially they are moved by something they saw either inthepast: fashion, a plant, a tree, a flower, architecture, some object of some sort. Oftenwhen a designer travels to different parts of the world they are influenced by the culture and the history of the location they are

As expected, Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn part I (essay) topped the holiday weekend box office as three new family films (including The Muppets) and three limited releases more-or-less cannibalized each other. The big opener of the weekend was The Muppets (review). All eyes were watching this much-hyped franchise revival, and the fans did not let Kermit and company down. The picture, which Disney wisely spent just $45 million to produce, grossed $29.5 million on Fri-Sun and $42 million over its five-day

It’s the holidays, which means it’s that time of year when we all pack on a few extra pounds.
Of CO2, that is.
Many young Americans live far from our families. It’s the downside of the young American dream of “Go west, young woman!” — sung more appropriately by the Dixie Chicks in Wide Open Spaces (I couldn’t listen to this song without crying for several years after college.) Take my family, for example: parents in Massachusetts, in-laws in Tennessee, brother in Utah, I’m in California. So we fly to see each other every Christmas.
Truth is, it’s better to use just about any other form of transportation than

Founder of People’s Revolution, a new judge on America’s Next Top Model, an author, and always dressed in black (with a minor exception), Kelly Cutrone is a PR mastermind. From how she got started in the biz to her new venture with Chris Burch (Tory’s ex), Kelly has lots to tell us. Read on darlings, because this is Part I of my interview with Kelly.
S: Let’s start from the beginning. Why PR?
K: I moved to New York when I was 21 and quickly met someone named Anthony Haden-Guest who at the time was the art critic for Vanity

In my mind, I can see miracles
I can also see death
In my mind, I can mourn for a minute
I can also know this moment of joy
In my mind, I can vacillate
I can also fixate on what if
In my mind, I can ask God
Please, please, please change your mind
In the world, I am cheerful
I wear a smile and I am living for today
In the world, I am confident
I say I’m fine and that is true
In the world, I am a beacon
I channel hope and faith and love
In the world I cheerlead
I ask our friends to join us in ecstasy today
In the world we are lucky
We found our love and live it well
In the world we are hopeful
We treat each minute like a day
In the world we are random
Cancer strikes where it will
In the world we cling to one another
We would have done that anyway
In my mind, I am sometimes fearful
I wonder what we won’t get to have
In my mind, I can fall off track sometimes
I don’t know if I can bear what comes to be
In my mind, I cry for an instant
I don’t want to lose this love I have
In my mind, I seek God’s help
I want today to go on and on
Whatever comes our way, we’ll go hand in hand
Whatever comes our way, we’ll face it together
Whatever comes our way, we’ll know we have been lucky
Whatever comes our way, we have known love.

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I have never begun a column with more misgivings.
Foreign and domestic, President Obama has accomplished far more than his critics allow. In some ways — the way he took out Osama bin Laden, for instance — he’s shown a fine, if cerebral, executive ability.
But I can’t avoid a shudder when I look over the coming election. The premises of the president’s campaign — “Can you really want to put guys who got us into this mess back in power?” and “It could have been worse” — are somewhat less than

The Democratic Republic of Congo, in the heart of Africa, is not filling the world’s headlines, but it is at a crossroads. Today’s elections and the kind of governance that ensues could take Congo and Central Africa towards peace and realizing its potential, or — the terrifying alternative of allowing it drift into more violence and instability. For the people of Congo, for regional stability and global prosperity, the world community needs to support Congo’s efforts over the long haul.
Congo staged its first election in 2006 after decades of

A little more than a year ago, on the day after the GOP regained control of the House of Representatives, Speaker-to-be John Boehner said one of the first orders of business after he took charge would be the repeal of health care reform.
“I believe that the health care bill that was enacted by the current Congress will kill jobs in America, ruin the best health care system in the world, and bankrupt our country,” Boehner said at a press conference. “That means we have to do everything we can to try to repeal this bill and replace it with common sense reforms to bring down the cost of health care.”
Boehner is not the first nor the only Republican to try to make us believe that the U.S. has the world’s best health care system and that we’re bound to lose that distinction because of Obamacare. I’ve heard GOP candidates for president say the same thing in recent months, charging that we need to get rid of a President who clearly is trying to fix something that doesn’t need fixing, something that isn’t broken in the first place.
Well, those guys need to get out

I live in Hong Kong, where according to the tourist board there are more than 11,000 restaurants. That’s a lot of choice. That’s also a lot of washing up. Having been the founder and publishing editor of LUXE City Guides for the last nine years and as Chairman of the Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan Academy panel for the

We’re excited to team up with Facebook to bring you the latest in HuffPost Social News: The Huffington Post Social Reader.
The HuffPost Social Reader is a one-stop-shop on Facebook that lets you and your friends easily see and share all of your HuffPost activities, from your favorite stories to the slideshows you’re voting on. It’s an amazing real-time app that keeps you updated how your community of friends is enjoying HuffPost. And it all happens without ever having to leave Facebook.
The HuffPost Social Reader is the online version of the communal “living room,” where sharing and commenting on stories is not only encouraged, but essential to the reading experience. Only now, instead of couches and a fireplace, we’re making it possible to share from wherever you are — and on whatever

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Unemployment as reported is at 9 percent. But it’s actually more than 16 percent. Some smart statistician came up with a distinction. A slight of hand to make the unemployment number tolerable rather than

Well, the distraction technique was working for a while–all the political bickering and almost humorous “debating”–meanwhile, we are all in complete denial. So much so that I don’t believe the new UN report that was buried on my Yahoo home page will make a dent in anyone’s consciousness…and that’s probably how we will destroy ourselves, not really noticing until, perhaps, it’s too late.
I’m going to copy the whole article here because it is freakishly short and to the point:
This. Is.

We all know that “birther queen” Orly Taitz is cuckoo bananas, with her ridiculous conspiracy theory that President Obama is not a U.S. citizen.Evidence and facts haven’t slowed her down. She continues questioning the President’s citizenship, most recently challenging the placement of his name on the New Hampshire primary ballot.
Just last week, Taitz testified before the New Hampshire Ballot Law Commission that President Obama’s birth certificate was forged and, therefore, his name should be removed from the New Hampshire ballot. The commission unanimously rejected to remove Obama’s name from the

The fact that the dim-witted and near-sighted MPAA has slapped an NC-17 rating on Steve McQueen’s Shame implies that there is something prurient about this film, whose central figure is a sex addict, struggling with his demons.
But, as intense and involving as this film is, the last thing it is would be sexy. Yes, there’s nudity. Yes, there are scenes of people copulating energetically. But sexy? Hardly.
In fact, McQueen’s film, which he cowrote with Abi Morgan (“The Iron Lady”), is the

Blame Seattle. A certain coffee shop chain started there four decades ago and changed the way Americans thought about coffee. Dried-out coffee flakes sold in tin cans were out. Highly polished European contraptions that hissed noisily and sent forth geysers of steam were in.
Despite, or perhaps because of, the rapid expansion of Starbucks and other standardized chains, small coffeehouses are

Sometimes it is not just the numbers. The human factor and historical imperatives need play their role in policy formation.
Unquestionably, the financial impasse in Europe today has historical foundations. A prosperous and diligent Germany is called upon to relent its rigid financial determinants to relieve the regional economic pressures, to in effect underwrite the noble experiment of a now faltering Europe. The Germany being asked to step up and take the risks inherent to underwriting the enterprise of ‘Europe’ has a memory writ large of financial excess and

May the suicide of Joaquin Luna not go in vain.
DREAM Act student, Joaquin Luna, recently took his life in Texas. At 18 years old, he had aspirations of becoming an engineer. He was one of ours. He took his life because he felt as an undocumented immigrant he had nowhere to

Is there anyone out there besides me who’s feeling a little sorry for the Bridezilla these days? This oft-maligned monster-in-white — with actual TV shows dedicated to her outrageous behavior — has been getting a bad rap of late, and might as well be taking Frankenstein as her new last name. But can we give the poor gal a break for a moment? After all, she’s in the heat of planning a wedding day that she’s likely been dreaming of since childhood, and has a 24-hour window to get it right — with any luck, no do-overs in her future. Complicating this one-shot, fairytale opportunity are a potential host of landmines, including, but not limited to, anxieties over money, tricky family dynamics, loss of independence, pressure to look her all-time best, and the potential judgments of everyone on the guest list about her choice of food, venue, dress, vows… and

I am obsessed with the topic of women’s economic self-sufficiency. When I was in my early twenties, I thought it was important, as an abstract principle, for women to be able to support themselves. But I didn’t know the half of it. Being a divorce lawyer for more than two decades has made me see up close and personal the devastating effect that total dependence on a husband can have.
I am not surprised by women older than me who embraced a traditional homemaker role at a time when other options weren’t really on the

Maintaining sanity during divorce, while large waves of unpredictable and conflicting emotions rise and fall, is an enormous personal challenge. Remaining sane and grounded, however, is our adult responsibility regardless of the temptation to think and act otherwise. Children need their parents more than ever and work responsibilities continue.
The definition of, and suggestions for maintaining sanity during a divorce differ, depending on whether you are the initiator of the divorce or the one who is left. The emotional state and perspectives are quite

“Tomorrow, you promise yourself, will be different, yet tomorrow is too often a repetition of today.” ~ James T. McCay
I have been going to the same bank for 20-plus years and have become known by many of the long-time employees there as a good listener. Recently, I had an interesting conversation with one of the tellers that I would like to share with you. I had no sooner extended my normal “Howzitgoin?” and she began an instant download and diatribe about her 32-year-old son who she can’t get to leave home, saying that “He doesn’t work, help with living expenses, or even clean up his room.” I just smiled and listened intently to her story until she said something so juicy, so ripe for reply, I could not let it