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I’ve always loved animation – make that, good animation – and feel lucky that my kids were the perfect age when Disney had its second golden age of animation in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
My son was 4 when I took him to see 1991′s Beauty and the Beast – and when it came out on home video, it quickly entered the hot rotation in the family VCR. It was the first animated film ever nominated for the Oscars’ Best Picture category and wound up sweeping the music categories (it had three nominations for best song). If there had been an Academy Award for animated feature, it would have won that, too.
So I’m of a divided mind about the new 3D conversion of Beauty and the Beast. Granted, in the days before home theaters and streaming video, Disney regularly revived their animated features for theatrical release, thinking rightly that a new generation of potential movie-goers sprouted up on a regular basis, to whom something like Pinocchio or Lady and the Tramp was brand

The two most visible environmental issues today, climate change and agriculture, are about as different as they could be. Taken together, though, they give some reminders. Environmental consciousness is very young. Its challenge to some of the ways we live is

I love the way I feel after a good night’s sleep. My body is rested; my mind feels clear and alert; and I am happy to just linger in bed and relax. Of course, this delightful state is eventually interrupted by an alarm going off or the dog barking for me to feed him.
But I continue to feel good throughout the day if I slept well the night before. It’s as if my entire system — my body and my brain — have been reset in a healthy

Have you ever been in a situation where you felt pressure to pull a positive out of a negative without forewarning? Try this: “Congratulations on your degree, your father has Cancer.” Looking back now, the blunt proximity of my college graduation and my father’s illness made his diagnosis seem like an oxymoron. “Be happy you are about to embark on an adventurous time of your life, begin your Master’s towards your career and please do not worry, we have some of the best doctors in the country who are going to cut out your father’s prostate. We will let you know if there is anything you can do.”
The sadness in my father’s eyes and the fear in my mom’s burned a pit in my stomach, not to mention seeing my brothers’ efforts to function in emotional numbness. There had to be ways I could help.
The opposite of cancer to me is

Does this jacket make me look smart? Do these shoes make me look powerful? I have always been a firm believer in dressing for the position you wish to have or in this hyper-competitive market, or to keep.
Before Jesse Garza and I started Visual Therapy nearly two decades ago, I was in banking and always tried to dress slightly above my station. At first, I did this because I was young and I felt that I needed to look more mature but as time went on I was promoted very quickly. I worked very hard but realized that the way I dressed gave me an additional sense of confidence and changed the way I moved through the

Hurt Feelings. They’re like noses. We all have them. They come in all shapes and

It’s a well-worn truth that the modern world is built upon science and technology. But this truth doesn’t dominate everyday life as much as one might think. Science is materialistic, and it explains the world through objective data. People lead their lives, at least partly, apart from

The Cataloochee Valley hides in a secluded corner of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. A few historical structures dot the landscape as reminders of the once thriving community that existed here. Due to it’s relative solitude, no paved roads service the valley.
The main population here is Elk, 25 of which were introduced in

Recently, a friend of mine told me about her daughter’s friends — two teenage girls who are touting beer cans in their Facebook profile photos. These are under-aged kids. 14-year-olds.
“Why are their parents letting them put pictures of themselves with beer on the Internet?” I said.
“I think a lot of these parents are more concerned about their kids’ popularity than they are with anything else,” she said.
What does this mean? Is it a bullying backlash?
Newspaper headlines point to relentless bullying stories that end in suicide — Phoebe Prince’s 2010suicide which stemmed from slut-shaming, and most recently, Tennessee teen Jacob Rogers’s suicide due to severe anti-gay torments, come to mind.
Has the quest for popularity become so anxiety-provoking that parents, who are otherwise involved in their children’s lives — sports, arts, grades, clothing — would allow their child to pose drunk with a beer can on the Internet? Of course there is the idea that the parentsdon’tknow what’s happening in their kids’ lives, but I don’t believe

As a member of the 40 percent — that is, the parent of a child on the special education side of an Integrated Co-Teaching (ICT) class, I’ve often wondered what the other “half” (the 60 percent) thinks about these inclusion classes.
For those not in the know, ICT classes (formerly known as CTT, Collaborative Team Teaching) have a 40 to 60 percent ratio of children with special needs. These classes have a general education teacher and a special education teacher who jointly provide instruction to both students with and without disabilities (the 40 percent have IEPs, Individualized Education Program). I checked in with some 60 percenters in Brooklyn to find out what things look like from their vantage point.
When Lynn Melnick found out last school year that her daughter was being placed in the kindergarten inclusion class at PS 58, she was

Like a lot of things in life, this photography project started with a random image. Like a lot of times in life, sometimes you have to get away from a place in order to rediscover it. These two sentences basically initiated my on-going photography project called “Intimacy Under the Wires.”
As a street photographer based in New York City, I hardly (if ever) come across the sight of laundry hung outside windows to get dry. It was a very common thing for me to see, however, when I grew up in

January. Those four frosty syllables are enough to send a chill down the spine of even the greatest optimist. But it doesn’t have to conjure thoughts of days spent indoors and gray skies. We here atBlack Tomato won’t allow

This is the second installment of a five-part series. Read part one and part two.
Beneath a morning sky that seems about to collapse under its own weight, we venture to the Rossaveal ferry terminal and board the Happy Hooker for a ride across Galway Bay to Inishmore Island, one in the triptych of the fabled Aran Islands. These are the western-most habitable islands in Europe: next stop, Newfoundland. We’re met by driver-guide Michael Hernon, a champion for his isle, who evokes the sense that the rest of the world is far away and unnecessary.
He boasts the island’s assets as we pootle along: “19 types of bees, 437 wildflowers, 30 types of butterflies” and herds of white Connemara

Actually, what vitamin is generated from hysterical, uncontrollable laughter? Vitamin H for Happiness? I have read thousands of books in my life and I have never laughed so hard, so often, and so deeply (yes, that was the sound of my lungs squeegeeing). I actually had a woman on a plane turn to me and ask me, “What on earth are you reading?” The woman on my previous flight had the decency not to ask, since I am sure she couldn’t tell if I was sobbing uncontrollably or laughing hysterically, or just insane. Or all of the above. Tears definitely came out of my eyes.
What’s so funny about In a Sunburned Country? Well, it’s a book about Australia, and while the Australians are funny in general and also very happy-go-lucky, the funny bits are really more about Bill Bryson, an American who writes like a Brit, describing his antics in a country that feeds into his deep curiosity and sense of

When I landed in Berlin’s Tegel Airport for a nine-day trip, I exited the plane and was surprised to see the baggage carousel right outside my gate. “How efficient,” I thought. Then I realized I had just failed my very first test of Break That German Stereotype.
Germany Close Up is a program administered by the New Synagogue of Berlin and supported by a grant from the European Recovery Program of the German Federal

Note: The following contains spoilers if you have not seen Season 2, Episode 6 of “Teen Mom 2,” entitled “Lean on Me.”
Well friends, Santa has left the building.
Last week’s Christmas episode found our gals doing relatively well … except Jenelle, who is always about as happy as the twist-y possessed lady from “The Devil Inside” commercials.
But lest we begin to feel any semblance of happiness, the contents of diapers hit the fan during this double episode — and we’re reminded, once more, that all true “Teen Mom 2″ fans are masochists.
Jenelle
Update: Since this episode of “Teen Mom 2″ aired, it was reported that Jenelle was arrested on Tues., Jan. 10, for allegedly making harassing phone calls and threatening an unidentified person.
Teen monster Jenelle gets the text most girls dream about when they’re dating deadbeat guys:
“Hey baby, just got bailed out of jail by my cousin! Let’s meet up! I miss you.” (Kieffer, we didn’t take you for an exclamation point man!)
They decide to meet at Oxymoron Central,

Here’s a question from an email I received not long ago. The subject line was, “The Clear Truth of Scripture.” The question was, “What we’re asking for is a straight answer out of you people on where in the Bible you find a passage that shows God approves of same sex marriage. Can you do that or not?”
Finally a question I can answer without hesitation.
And the answer is “no.”
There is no single text, no specific chapter and verse, that I can point anyone to and say, “Here it is: the clear truth of scripture in support of same-sex marriage!”
Nor is there any “clear truth of scripture” in support of the equality or ordination of women.
Nor is there any “clear truth of scripture” on the sanctity of interracial marriage.
Nor is there any “clear truth of scripture” opposing the death penalty, supporting the abolition of slavery, or proving that the Earth revolves around the Sun — which you may remember got Galileo in all kinds of trouble with the clear-truth-of-scripture crowd in his

No one knows exactly how many gay, lesbian, or transgender people there are throughout the world.
This is so partly because some of these gay folks don’t know it themselves and partly because they know it, but they don’t want to share this information with others (namely their family or government).
And it is with good reason that people hide their sexual preferences. In cultures where homosexuality is less accepted, the consequences of being queer range from being ostracized to bringing shame to your family to being killed.
According to a March 2010 Economist article on homosexuality in China, due to the tremendous pressure on men to produce an heir, there are “millions upon millions of women are trapped in loveless and often miserable marriages to homosexual men.”
The article goes on to say that, “It is estimated that 15-20% of gay men in America marry heterosexual women.” Gayhusbands.com estimates that there are 4 million women in this country who are currently married, or who have been married to gay men. Those are some staggering numbers.
In the “culture” of marriage here in the West — while no one will be beheaded for coming out of the closet — it is definitely not cool to be gay while married to a member of the opposite

Fire burns; it also purifies. Count my words as fire, burning embers that purify an unspeakable truth spoken at last.
Two lesbians of African descent abandon fear for risk and decide to marry in New York City, breaking social taboo in Africa while making U.S. history. But did their struggle for equality pay off in their homeland? In other words, are Kelebohile Nkhereanye and Renee Boyd any more equal to those who matter most to them? To be more precise, is this married lesbian couple of African descent celebrated in Africa by family, tribe, church, government, nation, and continent? Or — and this is a no-brainer — do they have the same status as lesbians who never married or made history, women with very strong sexual stirrings for other women who face death by execution or rape because of being African lesbians? Even though Kelebohile Nkhereanye and Renee Boyd made history in the U.S., in their beloved Africa such a couple couldn’t exist, and when just such a couples does, they can be murdered, tortured, or gang-raped, because they have no

Source:Associated Press
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LOS ANGELES — Kobe Bryant scored 48 points — his fifth straight game with 25 or more — and the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Phoenix Suns 99-83 Tuesday night to win their seventh straight at home and third in a row overall.Bryant, the NBA’s leading scorer, topped the 40-point mark for the first time this season, the first in the league to do so. He was 18 of 31 from the floor and made 12 of 13 free throws. Pau Gasol added 16 points and 12 rebounds.Channing Frye scored 17 points, Marcin Gortat had 16 points and 12 rebounds, and Steve Nash added 13 points and eight assists for the Suns, who had their two-game winning streak snapped.Shannon Brown scored Phoenix’s first six points of the fourth quarter, twice drawing the Suns within one. He and Frye then hit consecutive 3-pointers that got the Suns to 83-82, but they were never able to take the lead in Brown’s first game against his former team. He finished with 11 points.The Lakers closed the game on a 16-2 run, including 10 in a row against a Suns team that is just behind them in the Pacific Division. Bryant had their final 10 points.Phoenix led by one in the third and tied the game twice after that before getting outscored 11-6 to end the quarter trailing 73-68.The Lakers led 46-40 at the break after allowing the Suns to erase most of their 12-point lead in the second quarter. The Suns got balanced scoring in a 15-2 run that drew them within one before Bryant and Gasol keyed a 9-2 spurt to end the first half, when Bryant scored 23.Bryant scored 13 of the Lakers’ final 15 points to put them up 25-19 in the first quarter after they trailed by nine.Game notes It was Bryant’s 108th career 40-point game. He had three last season. … The Lakers had 15 turnovers after turning the ball over 27 times in a 90-82 win against Memphis two nights earlier. … The Lakers G Jason Kapono missed the game to be with his wife after she gave birth to twins and F-C Troy Murphy sat out with an upset stomach. … Brown said he had mixed emotions about facing the team he won two NBA titles with before leaving the Lakers as a free agent. Bryant scored over Brown to end the first quarter. … The game was the first of 18 back-to-back sets the Lakers will play in this lockout-shortened season. They’ll be at Utah on Wednesday night.
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Source:espn.go.com

The Obama White House continues to push for a settlement that would let bankers avoid being punished – or even investigated – for a wave of mortgage-related crimes that includes perjury, tax evasion, and several types of fraud.[1]
Despite the President’s new-found populism – rhetorically, anyway – officials in his Administration continue to push an unfair deal designed to conceal the financial Crime of the Century.
The Financial Times reported on new details of the proposed settlement, whose stated purpose is to punish banks and reduce the amount of money owed by underwater homeowners. But it’s increasingly clear that the deal wouldn’t help homeowners very much and wouldn’t punish bankers at all.
Banks could lower those loan balances by reducing the amount owed on mortgages owned by investors and not by the bank

A Conversation with Dion DiMucci
Mike Ragogna: Dion, how are you?
Dion DiMucci: Well, good, thanks. How are you?
MR: Great, and it’s terrific to speak with you again. Your new album, Tank Full Of Blues, marks the third of a series of recent blues projects.
DD: Well, when I recorded, “The Wanderer” and “Ruby Baby” and “Runaround Sue” back in the day, Rock ‘n’ roll was basically blues. All you had to do was turn a minor chord major and you had rock ‘n’

It’s a state bordering on 10 percent unemployment having suffered decades of plant closings at the hands of Wall Street predators. Will South Carolina voters be receptive to the argument by Mitt Romney’s GOP rivals New Gingrich and Rick Perry that his record in business as CEO of Bain Capital renders him unelectable?
Here’s how Perry put it in a midnight interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan:
So far Romney has not met the merits of the charge, but instead defended in two ways: By claiming that his rivals are attacking capitalism, and accusing them of joining the Democrats in making these charges.
Given the momentum of his early victories Romney might be able to brush aside Republican foes with such deflection.
read full news from www.huffingtonpost.com

You know who won, so here are my takeaways from what might be the beginning of the end:
1. Romney Actually Won Big
There is a rumor going around that Romney did not win convincingly. “Five Years Campaigning, Less Than 40%?,” blared Huffington Post’s quizzical election headline. Here’s a better question: Who breaks 40% while winning New Hampshire?
John McCain didn’t — he won with 37% last