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Every social movement I have been involved with, or covering, develops/invents its own language of liberation, its own alphabet, and its own buzzwords, rhetoric and discourse. Here are some of the key words I heard/retained in covering the Occupy Wall Street movement. I am sure there are many words, phrases, and slogans I overlooked, never heard or forgot. Send your favorites to: dissector@mediachannel.org.
These are words that power a struggle and speak to the internal processes that attracted so many to take part, as well as the issues that drive it and the obstacles that face

The short answer is No.
At least that’s what it will feel like. You will examine warning labels on baby Tylenol. You will peruse pediatric websites at 2 am seeking guidance on teething, green poop, or how to get your baby to leave you

Aspiring writers are often encouraged to “write what you know.” But when dramatists and screenwriters reach a certain level of success, they sometimes opt to vent their professional frustrations in a creative work that bears an uncanny resemblance to their personal lives.
During the recent holidays I spent some time catching up on neglected movie musicals. One of them, 1970′s Darling Lili, had been an epic flop for its star, Julie Andrews, and her husband, writer-director Blake Edwards. Following its release, the movie was butchered by studio executives in an attempt to cut its running time down from the original length of 143 minutes.
In 1981, Edwards took his revenge on the film industry by writing and directing S.O.B., a ribald satire which revolved around a Hollywood star named Sally Miles with a “Goody Two-Shoes” reputation who, much like the actress portraying her, had been typecast as an eternal virgin. In the film, her husband, Felix Farmer (Richard Mulligan), had just produced an expensive flop called Night Wind (whose bad reviews were inspiring unfortunate headlines such as “Director’s Latest Film Breaks Wind”)
Edwards didn’t hold his

At a prayer breakfast in Port-au-Prince last month, 23 Haitian and U.S. women colleagues met to drink coffee, share a bite and, well, grieve. Our host, Danielle St. Lot, Haitian activist and entrepreneur, did not plan this grieving and we certainly did not expect

Americans are engaged in their quadrennial exercise in political free play we call the presidential election. Actually, very few are direct participants — most are passive observers. Mitt Romney is proclaimed by all the media to have almost sewn up the Republican nomination based on the votes of less than 1% of the Republicans who went to the polls in 2008.

In terms of creating moments that capture the excitement a live musical performance can arouse, Todd Graff knows his stuff. He showed it in 2003′s underrated Camp, in 2009′s disposable Bandslam — and he does it again in Joyful Noise, a movie with big, rousing soul-gospel songs that take your mind off how mediocre — or worse — the rest of the movie is.
The obvious model for Joyful Noise is Glee (except for the TV show’s gay subtext). We have the eager but underfunded (and, seemingly, outmoded) little choir, going up against the big-city Goliaths in a national gospel competition called, appropriately, Joyful Noise.
Graff seemingly has seen his share of backstage musicals — and tries to condense them all into the script for this one. The elements may be modern but the archetypes are as old as movie musicals or, for that matter, drama.
The film is about a church choir from tiny Pacashau, Ga., which annually makes it to the semi-finals of the national Joyful Noise contest — but no

Since the late 1970s, when some type of a college education essentially became a requirement for a solid, sustainable, middle-class job, the cost of that education has skyrocketed.
The annual price tag for a college credential has risen about three times as fast as inflation, and there is no sign that it’s slowing down. In the last decade alone, tuition rates at public colleges and universities, which enroll about 80 percent of American students, rose by an average of 5.6 percentage points above inflation every year.
Despite those vast price increases, students continued to line up for admission to one of the nation’s colleges. To pay the bills, students and their families borrowed — a lot.
Some $110 billion in student loans was borrowed last year. That’s more than half the amount that was borrowed between the passage of the first Higher Education Act, in 1965, and the end of President Bill Clinton’s second term.
By now, in most industries, customers would have said, enough is

Resilience — Part 2
At the outset of World War II, the British Ministry of Information came up with the slogan “Keep Calm and Carry On” for a poster designed to allay the fear that Germany would invade Great Britain. My friend, a commander serving in Afghanistan, uses it for his signature line. Presence of mind in the midst of crisis is a precious capacity, indeed. Zen and the Art of Archery presents the power of immersed concentration (although it does not portray Zen practice

News item: The Washington Post:
I had just reached into the fridge for a piece of leftover cherry pie when I heard a voice, “Hey fatso, you sure you want to eat that?”
I looked around and saw nobody. What the heck, I thought, it must be my imagination.
Then, as I raised a forkful to my mouth, I heard the voice again, even louder. “Do you have any idea what that stuff does to your arteries? Clogs ‘em right up and before you know it, your ticker calls it quits.”
“Who is this?” I demanded.
“It’s me, your refrigerator,” the voice answered, “and unless you want Blue Cross and Blue Shield to cancel your health insurance, you better put that pie down and eat those carrots and celery in my vegetable compartment.”
“Well, I don’t know,” I said. “What gives you right to tell me what I can and can’t eat?”
“Right, schmight,” the voice replied, “this is 2012 and if you eat that pie, you’re gonna be all over YouTube and Facebook, and Lipitor’s sales reps are gonna be camping on your doorstep.”
I was so discombolated by this strange encounter that I dropped the cherry pie, making a mess of my white shirt and blue

Many of my patients express their frustration that massage therapy generally is not covered by their health insurance, yet the health benefits seem tremendous for them. I believe that the growing trend of discontent with lack of coverage for massage therapy is not just limited to patients, but from health practitioners as well.
What is even more unfortunate is that sometimes health care practitioners rarely fully lay hands on patients even for office visits and evaluations anymore. As a part of most healing modalities in the past, the simple touch therapy of examining and treating the patient imparts a level of healing that is now becoming lost in modern day

As a new year begins, it’s the perfect time to set goals for a fitter you. You’ve made a promise to yourself (again) to get in shape, shed some weight and to be a healthier, happier person. While most of these undertakings take time, energy, and planning, there are quick changes that you can make today that can improve your well-being and put you in the driver’s seat on the journey to a new and improved you.
Read on for helpful tips to get you there.
Find what motivates you — Self-reflection is as important as your reflection in the mirror. Look inward to understand why you’re setting

In his October 15 story on Fisher v. Texas, the first challenge to the Supreme Court’s 2003 Grutter v. Bollinger decision establishing diversity as a compelling state interest, New York Times correspondent Adam Liptak summed up the risks as follows:
I couldn’t agree more, which is why I will be extremely disappointed if Grutter is overturned.
What I won’t be is surprised.
As a citizen of Mexican and Native American descent and CEO of The Consortium for Graduate Study in Management, the leading advocate for diversity and inclusion in American business education and practice, I am always looking for signs that the country finally sees diversity for what it is — not a minority problem, but a tremendous national

Source:Associated Press
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LOS ANGELES — Chris Paul had 27 points and 11 assists and the Los Angeles Clippers rallied to beat Miami 95-89 in overtime Wednesday night, dealing the Heat a second straight extra-time loss.
Heat Reaction
For a quick take after each game, check the Heat Reaction.
• Heat Index
Blake Griffin had 20 points and 12 rebounds, Caron Butler added 20 points, and Chauncey Billups had 12 for the Clippers, 9-2 against Miami at home since 2001-02. DeAndre Jordan had 11 rebounds.LeBron James had 23 points and 13 rebounds for the 200th double-double of his career, Mario Chalmers added 18 points, Dwyane Wade 17 and Chris Bosh had 16 points and 11 rebounds for the Heat, who lost at Golden State in OT a night earlier. The Heat have lost their last four games against the Clippers at Staples Center.The Clippers outscored the Heat 9-3 in the extra session, when James, Bosh and Wade missed on a combined seven shots and the team was 1 for 10. Miami coach Erik Spoelstra got ejected after a technical foul with 5 seconds left.Miami’s Big Three struggled in the fourth quarter, too, combining to go 3 for 8 as the team went 4 of 12.
Lob City Ledger
For a quick take after Clippers games, check the Lob City Ledger.
The Clippers led by two with 27 seconds left in regulation before James tied it 86 on a free throw. The Clippers called their final timeout and Paul dribbled around with James hounding him before putting up a shot that missed as time expired, forcing the Heat to the third overtime of their trip.James missed three consecutive baskets in overtime and he was 6 of 10 from the line in the final 5:49 of regulation. Chalmers hit a 3-pointer for Miami’s only points in the extra session.Jordan scored four points and Butler had three in OT.With the Clippers trailing 84-83, Billups got fouled by James on a 3-pointer with 27 seconds left in regulation and made all three free throws. The Clippers finished 17 of 23 from the line, while the Heat were 20 of 34.The Heat won two video reviews in the final 16 seconds of regulation, but they failed to make a field goal in the final 7:32.Neither team led by more than three points in a physical fourth quarter that featured Wade knocking Paul to the court and Norris Cole and Mo Williams colliding.The Clippers ended the third quarter with a 12-9 spurt, capped by Paul whipping a pass across the lane to Jordan for a baseline dunk that sent them into the final 12 minutes leading 70-69. Paul and Butler combined for 10 of the Clippers’ 12 points in the run.Game notes Paul evened his career rivalry with good friend James at six wins apiece. … The game drew a standing room only crowd of 19,341. The Clippers have sold out all five of their home games and 17 straight dating to last season. … Celebs attending included Rihanna, Chris Rock, Billy Crystal, Sinbad, Gabrielle Union, and former Los Angeles Angels teammates Jered Weaver and John Lackey. Union is Wade’s girlfriend.
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Source:Associated Press
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SALT LAKE CITY — Kobe Bryant scored 40 points and Andrew Bynum blocked Al Jefferson’s shot with 1.9 seconds left in overtime to lift the Los Angeles Lakers to a 90-87 victory over Utah on Wednesday night, ending the Jazz’s winning streak at five.The win was the first on the road for the Lakers, while Utah dropped its first home game after starting 5-0.
More on the Lakers
For more news, notes and analysis of the Lakers, check out the Land O’ Lakers blog from the Kamenetzky Brothers. Blog
Los Angeles handed the Jazz a 96-71 loss Dec. 27 in Utah’s season opener.This one was close, with Paul Millsap’s tip-in tying it at 78 with 21 seconds left in regulation.Bryant missed a shot at the buzzer that would have won it in regulation for Los Angeles.Millsap scored the first four points of overtime, but the Lakers fought back, with 3-pointers by Bryant and Pau Gasol.The Jazz had a chance to win it, but Bynum blocked Jefferson’s short jumper.Millsap led Utah with 29 points.Bryant sank a pair of free throws for the final margin, then blocked a long 3-point attempt by Devin Harris as the Jazz inbounded with 0.7 seconds remaining in OT.The Lakers led by six points in the fourth quarter but the Jazz fought back.Josh Howard’s 3-pointer tied it at 76 with 57 seconds remaining. Bryant followed with an off-balance jumper, but Millsap tied it again at 78 with 21 seconds left on a tip-in.In overtime, Bynum came up big.His tip-in gave the Lakers an 88-85 lead with 51 seconds left, then he had the block.Bynum did not play in the first game this season because he was serving a suspension.The Jazz shot just 38.7 percent.Jefferson, who had 30 points Tuesday, had just 11 Wednesday on 5-of-17 shooting. He had only two points in the first 19 minutes.The Lakers jumped ahead 53-50 midway through the third quarter, with Bryant scoring six points in an 8-2 run.The Lakers bumped their lead to six points, before Jefferson sparked a rally with a baseline jumper and back-to-back blocks.Steve Blake’s 3-pointer and a goaltending call against Utah’s Derrick Favors gave the Lakers a 66-61 lead entering the fourth quarter.Utah led 42-41 at halftime after holding the Lakers to just 15 points in the second quarter.Neither team shot the ball well in the first half, with the Jazz hitting 43.5 percent of their shots and the Lakers shooting 45 percent.Utah shot 38.7 percent on the night.The Jazz opened the second quarter on a 6-0 run, with Utah’s bench providing the spark. Favors jammed off the fast break, rookie Enes Kanter powered up a layup despite a defender on the ball, and C.J. Miles grabbed an errant pass and dunked for a 29-26 Utah lead with 9:05 left in the half.Bryant kept the Lakers right there, with 21 first-half points on 8-of-13 shooting.Game notes Lakers forward Jason Kapono was not with the team Wednesday so he could be with his wife, who gave birth Tuesday to twin girls. … Josh McRoberts (sprained toe/thumb) and Troy Murphy (stomach ailment) also did not suit up for L.A. … Jazz guard Raja Bell was assessed a first-quarter technical after giving Bryant a quick shove then having a few words with him. … Both teams were a combined 1-10 from 3-point range in the first half… Lakers guard Steve Blake suffered a rib contusion in the fourth quarter.
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“Yes, I want to plead guilty. I wanted from the first moment to confess sincerely. I truly am sorry for this act. I feel very bad.”
This was the forced statement muttered by the internationally notorious Joran van der Sloot in a Peruvian courtroom on Wednesday

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has all but wrapped up the Republican presidential nomination following a strong victory in the New Hampshire Primary. Meanwhile, there is still a fierce effort by conservative candidates in the party to slow Romney in the South Carolina primary no matter the cost.
But Governor Romney has himself stumbled several times in his quest for the White House. Speaking in New Hampshire the other day, Romney gleefully said, “I like being able to fire people who provide services to me.” He was speaking about an insurance company, but his words were most insensitive and played into the “job-killing” narrative being used by his opponents about his time at Bain Capital.
In his Tuesday night acceptance speech, Romney called President Barack Obama, “a leader who divides us with the bitter politics of envy.” Romney was referring to the president’s comments about fairness and income inequality, the 1% versus 99% argument. Rather than show any compassion on the subject, Romney defended his “politics of envy” comment on The Today Show Wednesday.
“I think it’s fine to talk about those things in quiet rooms,” the former governor said, “But the president has made it part of his campaign

The people of Haiti have suffered enormously in the aftermath of the earthquake in 2010. At the same time, their creativity, faith, hope and joy continue to lead them into a more gracious future. Yet, we are all diminished by the reality of the situation in Haiti. Reconstruction has been painfully slow, funds promised by other nations have not yet been paid or paid in full, and many, many people still live in tents.
The Diocese of Haiti has been serving the people of Haiti with schools (with more than 250 of them back in operation a few short months after the earthquake), with medical facilities and the beginnings of spiritual and cultural

Remembering is important.
Today as we mark the second anniversary of the 7.0 earthquake that leveled the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince and its surrounding areas, it is important that we remember this natural disaster in which hundreds of thousands were killed, countless injured and one of the poorest countries in the world was sent deeper into poverty, if that is possible.
More than simply recalling the day, it is important that we quite literally re-member — that we reconnect and attach ourselves again to that part of the body of humanity that was severed from the rest of the world by the initial, catastrophic event and has been continually isolated by the resultant health, economic and infrastructural devastation.
Of course there are many governments, faith organizations, relief agencies and others working hard to address the ongoing needs of the Haitian people and assist in the Herculean task of recovery. But for the vast majority of us, Haiti has been replaced in our consciousness by the subsequent natural disasters in Japan, New Zealand, Turkey and here at home, or by whatever today’s news cycle presents. That is the problem. Once a disaster is off the front page, even one as colossal as the 2010 earthquake in Haiti or the 2011 tsunami in Japan, we tend to detach from

The news about the American education system has been bleak over the last year — from elementary schools that seem “designed to fail” to for-profit universities that are scooping up borrowed tuition dollars without providing their graduates with much hope of gainful employment. No surprise then that the American public has grown increasingly suspicious of educators and their institutions. Once widely respected college programs are criticized for raising tuition in excess of inflation, despite the fact that they are giving significant financial aid and satisfying the demands of students and their families for (increasingly costly) support services. There is a growing lack of confidence in American education — one that mirrors the general crisis of confidence in the

For reasons that I will never be able to explain, I watched the second episode of ABC cross-dressing sitcom, “Work It.” Perhaps it was morbid curiosity? Perhaps it’s that “Work It” takes place in my hometown of St. Louis? (For the record, unlike the characters in “Work It” not every resident of St. Louis has a picture of the St. Louis Arch in his or her

As of New Year’s Day, LGBT residents of Delaware and Hawaii can finally enter into civil unions. Sounds awfully romantic, huh? I have mixed feelings on the subject. So do lots of other LGBT people.
How would you like to be proposed to and enter in a civil union? How often do you see civil unions on wedding blogs? Do civil unions change the world?
And what on earth is a civil union, anyway?
This definition comes from the Gay Wedding Institute glossary:
In a nutshell, civil unions are progress for same-sex couples and families, but they are still a cop-out made by politicians too afraid of the phrase “gay marriage.”
See, the thing is, many same-sex couples, while they see civil unions as progress, still “hold out” for legal marriage before planning a full, big-deal wedding because they don’t see much meaning in a separate and unequal institution.
A perfect example of this happened in Rhode Island. Over the summer the Rhode Island legislature came close to passing same-sex marriage, like most of the other New England states, but ended up settling for civil

When asked to evaluate the French Revolution, Zhou En-lai, supposedly said, “It is too soon to say.” As we mark the tenth anniversary of No Child Left Behind, the law’s defenders are making the same argument.
So, reporters must follow the convention of saying that “the jury is still out,” and that NCLB “did shine a light on underperforming minority groups,” before they recount the law’s failure to increase scores on national standardized tests. For instance, the National Research Council’s blue ribbon panel concluded that twenty years of test-driven accountability produced minimal increases in student performance (about 0.08 of a standard deviation) while prompting many unintended negative effects.
As the true believers grasp at any straw to defend NCLB, we should take the time to savor the ways that they twist themselves into pretzels while pleading innocence. For instance, the Huffington Post’s Joy Resmovits reported some jewels from these advocates for test-driven

I have often expressed my shock and dismay over the seemingly inexplicable success of the Kardashian klan. I have wondered aloud whether they have any talent beyond self-promotion and conspicuous consumption. Still, I find myself outraged by a new report that claims that Khloe is not the biological daughter of the late Robert Kardashian. Those claims apparently come from each of the two women who married Robert after he and first wife Kris (Khloe’s mom) divorced in 1990.
Let me make this perfectly clear: Khloe is a

A month into my first year of teaching seventh graders in Oakland, Calif., we were in the school library, using the big tables there to spread out as we outlined Africa on poster paper and added geographical features. My students chatted as they worked.
“Are you married, Ms. Sokolower?” one of them asked me. My stomach instantly tied in a