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One Man Gang was a popular bad guy in the wrestling world in the 1980s. Fortunately (or unfortunately if you’re a fan of men in tights from the Teddy Ruxpin era) he has nothing to do with today’s “A-Sides.” The grappler’s moniker, however, resonates in that both artists featured here are one-man shows. Chris Carrabba has spent the better part of this year touring to celebrate the 10th anniversary of his debut Dashboard Confessional album The Swiss Army Romance. He recently wrapped up a brief series of acoustic shows in the Midwest and on the East Coast in connection to his first-ever solo effort, Covered In The Flood, which finds the singer/songwriter covering a wide range of artists he respects from

It all started with doodles — on the back of a page schedule of a major national magazine.
Lisa Ferber — lowly copyeditor by day, fearless writer by night — needed a creative outlet while she waited hours and hours, for the final pages of Men’s Journal to arrive on her desk for final changes. Instead of tapping her foot, pacing or chatting on Skype, she grabbed the closest thing to her — the “bookmap” or schedule of pages — and started drawing. People, places, things and Woody Allen-esque New York social milieu from growing up Jewish on the Upper West Side, all came to her faster than words could formulate in her brain.
While never having the intention of substituting drawing for writing, Ferber nonetheless found that when her elderly mother became terminally ill, the lifelong playwright, lyricist and story author couldn’t put words to paper. So, she picked up a paintbrush and added her own editorial flair to the pieces:

One of my favorite “secrets of adulthood” is, “Just because something is fun for other people doesn’t mean it’s fun for me, and vice versa.” This sounds simple, but it actually was a huge breakthrough for me. So many things that other people consider “fun” are not fun for me, and it took me an astonishingly long time to realize that. Drinking wine, shopping, doing crossword puzzles, cooking, most games… I just don’t enjoy those

“All healing is first a healing of the heart.” — Carl Townsend
I remember the first time I heard the maxim that “Bad things happen fast, and good things happen over time.” It was a recognition that hadn’t occurred to me until I was faced with sweeping and traumatic shifts in health and relationships. Illness, accidents, natural disasters and even broken hearts happen seemingly instantaneously. In retrospect, we can sometimes see the choices or events that lead up to them, but after the fact it usually doesn’t matter what was missed because now life has become a mission of healing.
Healing is the good that happens slowly over time. Helen Keller accurately described this when she said, “Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.” Overcoming, strengthening and re-centering are the gifts in any crisis we

“I have this theory that if one person can go out of their way to show compassion, then it will start a chain reaction of the same. People will never know how far a little kindness can go.”
– Rachel Joy Scott, August 5, 1981-April 20, 1999
When bad things happen, it’s hard to imagine any good coming of it. This is especially true when bad things happen to good people, like slain Virginia Tech police officer Deriek Crouse. And yet, when the worst human action inspires a surprisingly goodhearted reaction, it brings out the very best human qualities: hope, solidarity, kindness and compassion.
To inspire these life-affirming qualities, it’s traditional to tell stories in other contexts about good coming from bad, especially during the

Last night I went to an advance screening of Steven Spielberg’s new film, The War Horse. My companion was noted journalist Caroline Graham (Vanity Fair, the New Yorker), who happens to come from Devon, the region in England featured in the movie where much of it was filmed. To briefly recap the story, it depicts how a young Devon farm boy in pre-World War I England raises a splendid horse named Joey, only to see it sold to the military for service in France.
The young man enlists and searches for his horse amidst the horror of trench warfare (and it is truly gut-wrenchingly violent.) There is an interlude where the horse it rescued by a French farmer and his daughter, and another incident where the horse is freed from barbed wire by a British and German soldier working hand-in-hand and

In December 1971 when the late Sheikh Zayed Al-Nahyan united seven disparate emirates
into the United Arab Emirates, the United States was quick to recognize the
independence of this nascent nation of one million in the heart of the
energy-rich Persian Gulf. That gesture of goodwill 40 years ago has
blossomed into a deep-seated multi-dimensional relationship that has
transformed the U.A.E. as one of America’s most important allies.
While the emirate of Dubai has certainly captured the attention of many in
the West as a financial hub and tourist destination, it is Abu Dhabi that
plays a leading role in shaping the nature of relations with Washington.
Indeed, the tone and tenor of U.S.-U.A.E. relations is set by Abu Dhabi’s 50
year-Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin

Last night I had the privilege to attend Detroit Soup, a “collaborative situation” that micro-funds good community works while providing tasty delights and mingling with good, chill people — Detroiters. I came expecting to have a good time. I’ve heard of events like this — people bring $5 apiece, and then hear about cool projects before eating. After the meal, everybody votes, and one winning project gets the collective prize money from everyone in

Whenever the Muppets are involved, you can expect some silliness, giggles and lots of fun. But Kermit, the Frog, the Swedish Chef, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker, are deadly serious when it comes to safety.
To make sure the holiday season is full of fun, the furry stars of the new movie, The Muppets, have teamed up with Underwriters Laboratories (UL) to produce public service announcements, “Commit a Minute to Safety.”
According to the Center for Disease Control, 9.2 million children visit emergency rooms each year due to accidental injuries — that’s 17 kids every

The world of little girls begins as such a lovely place. Heart and rainbow doodles adorn notebook covers, best friendships are formed within seconds, and bold, exuberant voices carry squeals of carefree laughter and brazen delight. Happiness is worn on a sleeve and anger is voiced with authentic candor.
Length-of-stay in this accepting, kindly world is time-limited for many girls,

When it comes to climate change, the 2000s are a dynasty. 2011 is being recognized as the tenth-hottest year on record. 2010 tops the charts — tied (by some estimates) with 2005. When 2009 came to an end, it was the

In November, Judge Richard Posner of the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals gave a speech where he lamented that courts were no longer giving substantial deference to the decisions of educators because, in his words, judges “don’t have any systematic knowledge of the education process.”
As quoted in Education Week’s School Law Blog:
Judge Posner is wrong, and it is time to end this bizarre practice that assumes judges who are competent to decide whether a man lives or dies for his crimes are incompetent to decide whether a school administrator crossed a line in a strip-search.
The Supreme Court’s Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier case is often cited to support the idea that judges must bow to the decisions of

“This obsession with a legally binding treaty [to tackle climate change] is an obstacle for countries achieving targets they have committed to,” declared Paul Bledsoe, a climate change adviser to President Clinton. “What we need is national will to reach stated goals.”
Given that the only international agreement so far, the Kyoto Protocol, expires in 2012, and greenhouse gases have been rising instead of falling, we clearly need a new obsession — or a way to pay for the most catastrophic impacts of climate change.
In a world facing economic meltdown, the question for many is not “how” but “why.” Even with carbon caps and emissions trading systems limited to Europe, parts of the U.S., and a voluntary market, the value of carbon trades in 2011 will top $140 billion. That’s a big tax already imposed on the economy, even if offset by benefits that are less obvious. So could we stimulate economic growth (which would certainly answer the “why”) with policies and technologies that emerge from something other than those being considered around the United Nations’ table in Durban this week (thus answering the “how”)?
The answer is

At the end of each year, I like to take stock of both the highlights and setbacks women have encountered over the past year. Great strides were made for women and minorities in 2011 and, looking ahead, I hope to see a positive impact in our community as several new public policies and programs take effect. But even with the many successes of 2011, we must also acknowledge the disparities and downfalls. As we reflect on this year’s events, let’s celebrate women’s progress, recognize what needs to be improved and take the next steps — together — into the New Year.
4 Steps Forward

According to a recent Harvard Business Review article, the road to top jobs in major corporations is shifting. The article, which details research findings relative to “The New Path to the C-Suite,” discusses how the functions of marketing, finance and human resources (HR) are evolving. But perhaps the most crucial finding points to the struggles HR executives face when it comes to gaining clout in the C-Suite.
This is not the first time the effectiveness and influence of the HR function has been called into question. A variety of magazine and newspaper articles over the last several decades have pointed out that HR is often an administrative unit, which adds little strategic

As EPA prepares the first-ever national standards for carbon pollution from new fossil fuel powerplants, the coal industry is embarking, predictably, on its latest dis-information campaign to try to block these desperately needed public health and climate safeguards. New coal plants are dirty, risky, and expensive. No wonder the smart money won’t touch them.
Flacks for the coal lobby have their hair on fire about the rumored content of draft EPA standards that haven’t even been released. They say the standards will kill new coal

Rick Perry’s new ad, “Strong,” is raising quite a ruckus on the Internet.
That’s why I made a video parody of it.
If you haven’t seen the original, watch it first.
read full news from www.huffingtonpost.com

This year the lanyards given out by the environmental groups have a famous Nelson Mandela quote that is quite fitting for the current state of play in the final days of the global warming negotiations in South Africa. The quote from Mandela says: It always seems impossible, until its done.” Will countries rally in the final days and hours or will they block progress? Will they rise above their current stated positions? Will they move forward with strong actions to reduce emissions by all key countries and help the most vulnerable deal with the impacts of global warming?
Ministers are meeting in closed sessions now. Agreement seems out of reach at this stage. It is hard to tell how this can come

We would all like to make plenty of money. Money good. Poverty bad, right? And of course, once we have it, we would all love to know how to manage that money so that it grows, rather than turns into old Porsches and beach home rentals.
Unfortunately, many of us don’t fully realize the level of our own financial ignorance until we are 25 years old, three years out of college, living with two roommates in a small, dingy apartment and continually on the lookout for great new Ramen recipes, with really no clear way to climb out of the financial hole.
Millions of young Americans are in a bad place when it comes to understanding their personal finances or even the subject of economics. Are our curriculums failing our kids in this regard? Should high schools be responsible for shining a hard light on the potentially grim realities facing those with low earnings power in today’s hyper-competitive workplace?
In theory, our school system was designed to prepare students for the real

SuAnne Big Crow was furious after she watched an NBC broadcast about the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1981. “They came here and showed all of the terrible things and did not bother to show any of the good things,” she said.
Big Crow was a star basketball player, and a proud defender of her homelands. She was only 17 and she could not understand how a supposedly sophisticated news network could be so negative. She was too young to realize that NBC was more interested in the shock effect of the show and not the

By: Robyn Gee
Could bolstering the Latino teacher workforce have an impact on the widening achievement gap between Latino students and their white and black peers in America?
According to the Washington Post, more than 21 percent of schoolchildren are Latino, compared to seven percent of teachers, a wider disparity than any other racial or ethnic minority in the U.S. The article cites research that suggests that having more Latino teachers would lead to better attendance, fewer behavioral problems, and better test scores for Latino students.
Traditionally, Latino students in the U.S. struggle to perform academically compared to their white and black peers. Education Week reports that in 2007, 27 percent of Hispanic children lived in poverty compared with 10 percent of white children, which had a trickle down

Two important reforms are stopping the revolving door between Washington and the nation’s financial giants, and preventing financiers from flipping companies (making short-term profits by borrowing big sums to buy them, then squeezing payrolls and firing employees, and reselling the stripped-down companies at a profit — unless the debt-laden firms fall into bankruptcy first).
Remarkably, the frontrunners for the Republican nomination for president seem to agree. At least, that’s the clear implication from what they’ve said today.
During a morning appearance on Fox News, Mitt Romney said Newt Gingrich should return the $1.6 million in payments he received from mortgage financial giant Freddy Mac.
Gingrich has tried to defend himself by saying Freddy paid him as a “historian,” but anyone with half a brain knows Freddy wasn’t interested in history. It coughed up the money because they wanted Newt to influence his former House colleagues, so they wouldn’t take steps to reduce Freddy’s financial risk or reach.
In effect, Romney is taking a swipe not only at Gingrich but at the well-oiled revolving door linking financial giants to former congressional leaders, Treasury officials, and their staffs.
read full news from www.huffingtonpost.com

House Republicans are expected to pass critical legislation this week to extend a middle class tax cut and unemployment benefits. But their price for this important fiscal stimulus is unrelated, harmful riders which put our families at risk.
Ironically, Republican leaders are offering a payroll tax cut to help American families on one hand, and with the other hand, they are supporting a provision that will block clean air standards for the largest boilers — a provision that is designed to protect the American people from toxic mercury, lead, and arsenic pollution.
If they succeed, objective scientific data show there will be up to 8,100 more premature deaths per year, 52,000 more asthma cases per year, 5,100 more hearts attacks per year, and 400,000 more lost work days per year. That is because the rule they seek to overturn would reduce mercury pollution, which can, among other things, cause developmental disabilities in children and damage to the brain and nervous system of infants.
Here is the truth: the proposed rule affects less than 1 percent of industrial boilers in the nation — the biggest, dirtiest facilities that should have reduced their dangerous pollution at least a decade ago.
According to the President and CEO of the American Boiler Manufacturers Association, Randy Rawson, “There appears to be nothing in [the Environmental Protection Agency's] proposals that cannot be handled in a timely and cost-effective way…These rules still hold a strong promise to create additional, high-paying skilled and unskilled domestic manufacturing jobs in the boiler and in associated