Locally Speaking

Gov. Christie Signs Food Stamps Law At The Right Time

Gov. Chris Christie signed off on a bill that will give people on food stamps a better chance of becoming self-sufficient. And it won’t involve the state dipping heavily into its own strained finances.

Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union) can take a well-deserved victory lap for introducing the legislation. It comes at the right time for a hurting state.

The program that Christie approved helps people who have been trying to make ends meet, and who are unemployed or underemployed and reliant on food stamps. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, has a job training component that requires a state investment to get federal matching dollars.

Lesniak’s bill directs the state to use private donations to make sure we make the most of available federal dollars. The Nicholson Foundation is one of the donor foundations eager to partner with the state. It will provide the funding that will constitute the state investment and thereby draw in the federal funds.

Once the state Department of Human Services issues a request for proposals, those combined funds can be made available to organizations experienced in job-training programs, such as nonprofit agencies and colleges and universities, to develop specific programs for food stamp recipients who have been long out of work or need to brush up their skills.

The latest jobless figures look like a ray of hope: The state unemployment rate dropped from 9.3 percent to 9.0 percent in March, according to the U.S. Labor Department, the sharpest drop in more than a decade. That’s still higher than the national rate of 7.6 percent.

Christie said the improving job numbers prove the time is ripe for a 10 percent tax cut. That’s a bit premature, though. It’s still very much a fragile recovery.

Lesniak has bristled that the governor should have signed the bill two months ago, when it passed the Assembly and Senate. That’s true. But it’s good to see the governor come around and focus on the people who are struggling on the fringes of a limping economy. –Nj.com/April 20, 2013

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Christie Introduces Plan To Reduce Gun Violence

Gov. Chris Christie unveiled a plan Friday to combat gun violence — though some critics called his initiative "gun safety light."

Christie said he will introduce bills to ban future purchases of the Barrett .50-caliber sniper rifle, strengthen background checks, require parental consent for the purchase of some video games and impose stricter penalties on people who break gun laws in New Jersey. -By Brent Johnson/Nj.com/April 22, 2013

Be careful what kind of question you ask a smart man. . .you might get an answer which you do not WANT to hear, but which you NEED to hear!

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Why America is NOT the greatest country in the world, anymore

How Mainstream Media Are Stoking Violence Against Muslims

'Mainstream' Media characterizations of Muslims function to justify oppression at home and imperial devastation abroad.

The Western press and social media often seem to exercise two options for dealing with the Muslim population of the world: overt, unabashed Islamophobia or slightly subtler Islamophobia.

As Georgetown University's John L Esposito writes in the foreword to Nathan Lean's The Islamophobia Industry: How the Right Manufactures Fear of Muslims, 9/11 and other terror attacks "have exacerbated the growth of Islamophobia exponentially" and resulted in a situation in which "Islam and the Middle East often dominate the negative headlines", thanks in part to the calculated machinations of "a number of journalists and scholars".

Needless to say, the aftermath of 9/11 did not yield much thoughtful consideration on the part of the mainstream punditry as to the context for such events. According to one prominent narrative, 9/11 was simply evidence of an inherent and unfounded Muslim hatred of the West.

A notable exception was veteran British journalist Robert Fisk. In an article published in The Nation immediately following the attacks, Fisk issued the following prescient warning:

    "[T]his is not really the war of democracy versus terror that the world will be asked to believe in the coming days. It is also about US missiles smashing into Palestinian homes and US helicopters firing missiles into a Lebanese ambulance in 1996 and American shells crashing into a village called Qana and about a Lebanese militia - paid and uniformed by America's Israeli ally - hacking and raping and murdering their way through refugee camps."

The sale of the "war on terror", Fisk stressed, depended on the obscuration of all details regarding past and continuing devastation of Arab lands and lives - including US State Department-applauded sanctions that eliminated half a million children in Iraq - "lest they provide the smallest fractional reason for the mass savagery on September 11".

Outlets such as Fox News took advantage of the opportunity to impute mass savagery to select Arab populations via de-contextualized post-9/11 headlines like, "Arafat Horrified by Attacks, but Thousands of Palestinians Celebrate; Rest of World Outraged".

'Muslim Sickos'

The demonisation of Muslims by certified sociopaths such as Pamela Geller comes, of course, as no surprise. However, the subtler dissemination of similar sentiments in Western mainstream discourse underscores the fundamental utility of the sociopathic sector in making institutionalized prejudice appear more rationally benign.

For example, according to Dr Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, executive director of the Institute for Policy Research and Development in the UK:

    "[a] study commissioned by the Greater London Authority of 352 articles over a randomly selected one week period in 2007, found that 91 percent of articles about Muslims were 'negative'."

As it turns out, a little journalistic trick called "the invention of information" may come in handy in the proliferation of negativity. A 2008 article by Peter Osborne in the British Independent - titled "The shameful Islamophobia at the heart of Britain's press" - catalogues some of the news industry's more egregious deviations from the truth, such as a front-page story in The Sunannouncing that a "Muslim hate mob" had vandalized a home and left a "Fuck off" message in the driveway.

As Osborne notes, The Sun quoted MP Philip Davies' opinion that "[i]f there's anybody who should fuck off, it's the Muslims who are doing this kind of thing". Osborne adds:

    "But there was one very big problem with The Sun story. There was no Muslim involvement of any kind."

Other instances of scaremongering discrimination and deceit cited in the Independent report include:

1. A front-page newspaper headline implying that "Muslim Sickos" were to blame for the disappearance of a young girl. The corresponding text reportedly revealed that the so-called "Muslim Sickos" merely suggested on the internet that the girl's parents were involved in her kidnapping.

2. A Daily Express article "claim[ing] that NatWest and Halifax had removed images of piggy banks from their promotional material in an effort to avoid offending Muslim customers".

3. A story about a Muslim bus driver commanding passengers to disembark at prayer time.

Beards and civilization

John L Esposito highlights some of the disconcerting repercussions of pervasive Islamophobic rhetoric in the US in his foreword to The Islamophobia Industry. According to a 2006 USA Today-Gallup Poll of non-Muslim Americans, Esposito writes:

    "[f]ewer than half the respondents believed that US Muslims are loyal to the United States. Nearly one-quarter of Americans - 22 percent - said they would not like to have a Muslim as a neighbor; 31 percent said they would feel nervous if they noticed a Muslim man on their flight, and 18 percent said they would feel nervous if they noticed a Muslim woman on their flight. About 4 in 10 Americans favour more rigorous security measures for Muslims than those used for other US citizens: requiring Muslims who are US citizens to carry a special ID and undergo special, more intensive, security checks before boarding airplanes."

It's not enormously difficult to see how such a climate would spawn record levels of anti-Muslim violence in the country.

The de facto criminalization of certain types of facial hair and other signifiers of Islamic piety is meanwhile aided and abetted by certain journalistic manoeuvers such as references to "bearded savages" and the like in the mainstream press.

A 1998 New York Times feat of Orientalist travel writing entitled "Exotic Oman Opens Its Doors" begins:

    "Think of the Persian Gulf and what do you see? Gulf war soldiers, burning oil, bearded fanatics, polluted seas and flat, bleak desert."

Luckily for the author-vacationer, Judith Miller, "exotic" Oman defies stereotypes and proves itself to be an "exquisitely civilized country". As for less fortunate Persian Gulf locales, the same Miller subsequently expanded her talents from providing the Times' readership with detailed descriptions of the turtle egg-laying process on the Omani coast to falsified reports of an Iraqi WMD programme.

In the end, media characterisations of Muslims kill two birds with one stone, justifying oppression at home and imperial devastation abroad. –By Belén Fernández/AltnerNet/April 1, 2013

About the Author: Belén Fernández, contributing editor at Jacobin magazine, is the author of The Imperial Messenger: Thomas Friedman at Work, published by Verso in 2011. She is an editor at PULSE Media and her articles have appeared at the London Review of Books blog and Al Jazeera.

Please, Be Kind To Your Pets This Summer

America Doesn’t Have A Gun Problem, It Has A Gang Problem

Chicago’s murder numbers have hit that magic 500. Baltimore’s murder toll has passed 200. In Philly, it’s up to 324, the highest since 2007. In Detroit, it’s approaching 400, another record. In New Orleans, it’s almost at 200. New York City is down to 414 from 508. In Los Angeles, it’s over 500. In St. Louis it’s 113 and 130 in Oakland.  It’s 121 in Memphis and 76 in Birmingham.

Washington, D.C., home of the boys and girls who can solve it all, is nearing its own big 100.

Those 12 cities alone account for nearly 3,200 dead and nearly a quarter of all murders in the United States. And we haven’t even visited sunny Atlanta or chilly Cleveland.

These cities are the heartland of America’s real gun culture. It isn’t the bitter gun-and-bible clingers in McCain and Romney territory who are racking up a more horrifying annual kill rate than Al Qaeda; it’s Obama’s own voting base.

Chicago, where Obama delivered his victory speech, has homicide numbers that match all of Japan and are higher than Spain, Poland and pre-war Syria. If Chicago gets any worse, it will find itself passing the number of murders for the entire country of Canada.

Chicago’s murder rate of 15.65 per 100,000 people looks nothing like the American 4.2 rate, the Midwestern 4.5 or the Illinois’ 5.6 rates, but it does look like the murder rates in failed countries like Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe. To achieve Chicago’s murder rate, African countries usually have to experience a bloody genocidal civil war or decades of tyranny.

But Chicago isn’t even all that unique. Or the worst case scenario. That would be New Orleans which at an incredible 72.8 murder rate is ten times higher than the national average. If New Orleans were a country, it would have the 2nd highest murder rate in the world, beating out El Salvador.

Louisiana went red for Romney 58 to 40, but Orleans Parish went blue for Obama 80 to 17.

St. Louis has a murder rate just a little lower than Belize. Baltimore has a worse murder rate than South Africa and Detroit has a worse murder rate than Colombia. Obama won both St. Louis and Baltimore by comfortable margins. He won Detroit’s Wayne County 73 to 26.

Homicide rates like these show that something is broken, but it isn’t broken among the Romney voters rushing to stock up on assault rifles every time Obama begins threatening their right to buy them; it’s broken among Obama’s base.

Any serious conversation about gun violence and gun culture has to begin at home; in Chicago, in Baltimore, in New York City, in Los Angeles and in Washington, D.C.

Voting for Obama does not make people innately homicidal. Just look at Seattle which is agonizing over its 26 murders. That’s about the same number of murders as East St. Louis which has only 27,000 people to Seattle’s 620,000.

So what is happening in Chicago to drive it to the gates of hell ahead of Zimbabwe and Rwanda?

A breakdown of the Chicago killing fields shows that 83% of those murdered in Chicago last year had criminal records. In Philly, it’s 75%. In Milwaukee it’s 77% percent. In New Orleans, it’s 64%. In Baltimore, it’s 91%. Many were felons who had served time. And as many as 80% of the homicides were gang related.

Chicago’s problem isn’t guns; it’s gangs. Gun control efforts in Chicago or any other major city are doomed because gangs represent organized crime networks which stretch down to Mexico, and trying to cut off their gun supply will be as effective as trying to cut off their drug supply.

America’s murder rate isn’t the work of the suburban and rural homeowners who shop for guns at sporting goods stores and at gun shows, and whom news shows profile after every shooting, but by the gangs embedded in the urban areas controlled by the Democratic machine. The gangs who drive up America’s murder rate look nothing like the occasional mentally ill suburban white kid who goes off his medication and decides to shoot up a school. Lanza, like most serial killers, is a media aberration, not the norm.

National murder statistics show that blacks are far more likely to be killers than whites and they are also far more likely to be killed. The single largest cause of homicides is the argument. 4th on the list is juvenile gang activity with 676 murders, which combined with various flavors of gangland killings takes us nearly to the 1,000 mark. America has more gangland murders than Sierra Leone, Eritrea and Puerto Rico have murders.

Our national murder rate is not some incomprehensible mystery that can only be attributed to the inanimate tools, the steel, brass and wood that do the work. It is largely the work of adult males from age 18 to 39 with criminal records killing other males of that same age and criminal past.

If this were going on in Rwanda, El Salvador or Sierra Leone, we would have no trouble knowing what to make of it, and silly pearl-clutching nonsense about gun control would never even come up. But this is Chicago, it’s Baltimore, it’s Philly and NOLA; and so we refuse to see that our major cities are in the same boat as some of the worst trouble spots in the world.

Lanza and Newtown are comforting aberrations. They allow us to take refuge in the fantasy that homicides in America are the work of the occasional serial killer practicing his dark art in one of those perfect small towns that always show up in murder mysteries or Stephen King novels. They fool us into thinking that there is something American about our murder rate that can be traced to hunting season, patriotism and bad mothers.

But go to Chicago or Baltimore. Go where the killings really happen and the illusion comes apart.

There is a war going on in America between gangs of young men who bear an uncanny resemblance to their counterparts in Sierra Leone or El Salvador. They live like them, they fight for control of the streets like them and they kill like them.

America’s horrific murder rate is a result of the transformation of major American cities into Sierra Leone, Somalia, Rwanda and El Salvador. Our murder rate now largely consists of criminals killing criminals.

As David Kennedy, the head of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control, put it, “The majority of homicide victims have extensive criminal histories. This is simply the way that the world of criminal homicide works. It’s a fact.”

America is, on a county by county basis, not a violent country, just as it, on a county by county basis, did not vote for Obama. It is being dragged down by broken cities full of broken families whose mayors would like to trash the Bill of Rights for the entire country in the vain hope that national gun control will save their cities, even though gun control is likely to be as much help to Chicago or New Orleans as the War on Drugs.

Obama’s pretense that there needs to be a national conversation about rural American gun owners is a dishonest and cynical ploy that distracts attention from the real problem that he and politicians like him have sat on for generations.

We do not need to have a conversation about the NRA. We need to have a conversation about Chicago. –By Daniel Greenfield/Front Page Mag/December 31, 2012

People Not “Smart Enough For Democracy To Flourish” Study Shows

Livescience.com comments on a report by David Dunning, a research psychologist at Cornell, which “shows that incompetent people are inherently unable to judge the competence of other people, or the quality of those people’s ideas.”

For example, if people lack expertise on tax reform, it is very difficult for them to identify the candidates who are actual experts. They simply lack the mental tools needed to make meaningful judgments.

As a result, no amount of information or facts about political candidates can override the inherent inability of many voters to accurately evaluate them. On top of that, “very smart ideas are going to be hard for people to adopt, because most people don’t have the sophistication to recognize how good an idea is,” Dunning told Life’s Little Mysteries.

He and colleague Justin Kruger, formerly of Cornell and now of New York University, have demonstrated again and again that people are self-delusional when it comes to their own intellectual skills. Whether the researchers are testing people’s ability to rate the funniness of jokes, the correctness of grammar, or even their own performance in a game of chess, the duo has found  that people always assess their own performance as “above average” — even people who, when tested, actually perform at the very bottom of the pile.

The reason for this disconnect is simple: “If you have gaps in your knowledge in a given area, then you’re not in a position to assess your own gaps or the gaps of others,” Dunning said. . . .

The most incompetent among us serve as canaries in the coal mine signifying a larger quandary in the concept of democracy; truly ignorant people may be the worst judges of candidates and ideas, Dunning said, but we all suffer from a degree of blindness stemming from our own personal lack of expertise.

This study essentially reviews the old lesson of philosophy: it is not so terrible if you don’t know something, but it is vital to know that you don’t know. It is vital to have the humility to admit when you don’t know. This is the more egregious offense at the heart of this problem which the report does not address: it’s not the ignorance itself that’s the problem, it’s the pride and other spiritual flaws that prevent people simply from saying “I don’t know.”

For this reason, the Proverb says, “The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright: but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness” (Pro. 15:2). Without such integrity, freedom cannot exist in the land. –American Vision News/March 1, 2012

Locally Speaking

N.J. Voters Strongly Support Minimum-Wage Hike, Poll Shows
 
New Jersey voters are ready to bump up the minimum wage by a dollar an hour, with strong support coming from Democrats and Republicans alike, according to a poll released today.

The Rutgers-Eagleton survey found 76 percent of voters favor raising the wage floor from $7.25 to $8.25 an hour and installing automatic yearly increases afterward, while 20 percent are opposed.

The question will be on the ballot in November, at the same time New Jerseyans will choose a governor and all 120 state legislators.

The fact is, unless a strong opposition campaign emerges, this amendment is highly likely to pass," said David Redlawsk, the poll director. "Given the economic dislocation of the last four years, large numbers of New Jerseyans have been touched by joblessness and financial challenges. Most seem to think those at the lower end of the ladder deserve a chance to do better."

Raising the minimum wage via constitutional amendment has never been done in New Jersey, but the survey found voters across the political spectrum are comfortable with the idea: it was favored by 97 percent of Democrats, 57 percent of Republicans, and 71 percent of independents.

In January, Gov. Chris Christie vetoed a minimum-wage increase passed by Democrats, offering instead a dollar and hour bump phased in over three years. The Republican governor also rejected the automatic yearly increases, which business groups opposed and which Christie said would "jeopardize the economic recovery we all seek."

In response, state Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex) and state Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) got their chambers to approve the ballot question for November, saying voters should get to settle it.

The Rutgers-Eagleton poll also found strong support for a voter referendum on legalizing same-sex marriage, with 69 percent of respondents saying the question should also be on the ballot this year, and 62 percent saying they would vote to legalize.

Christie vetoed a same-sex marriage bill last year, saying voters should decide that question. Democrats have not pursued a ballot question.

"The evidence is that New Jersey voters would readily add the state to the list of those legalizing marriage equality," Redlawsk said.

The poll of 819 registered voters, with a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points, was conducted from April 3 to 7. -Salvador Rizzo/Nj.com/April 16, 2013

Ragbag Headliners

Dave Agema On RNC Reaffirming Opposition To Gay Marriage: 'We Have Won The Battle'

Former Michigan state representative Dave Agema was a key sponsor of the Republican National Committee's resolution to oppose marriage equality.

The Republican National Committee has approved a resolution sponsored by Michigan Committeeman Dave Agema to reaffirm the party platform, including opposition to gay marriage.

"I am pleased with our success in the face of unrelenting criticism from the left and want to thank national social conservative leaders who made their voices heard loud and clear in this process," Agema said in a release following today's vote at the RNC's annual spring meeting in Los Angeles.

"I hope that we can all now move forward and talk about other issues … We have won the battle, and I will have nothing more to say on this matter."

Agema, a former state representative from West Michigan, has faced criticism in recent weeks after sharing on Facebook a dubiously sourced article about gay marriage that purported to warn parents about the physical and mental health implications of the "filthy lifestyle."

He defended himself earlier this week during a radio interview, blaming criticism on well-funded gay activists, arguing for Christian intervention and suggesting that public schools could condition children to accept homosexuality and choose to be gay.

A group of roughly 200 Michigan grassroots Republicans have called on Agema to resign, but aside from former Attorney General Mike Cox, many of the state's most prominent party leaders have avoided direct discussion of the situation.

Dennis Lennox, a Grand Traverse County Republican precinct delegate who has been leading calls for Agema to resign, said he was not surprised that the RNC affirmed the party's official platform position on gay marriage, noting that was not the issue.

"Tone and messaging matter," he said. "There's such a thing as winning the battle but losing the war. Dave Agema may have won the battle in Los Angeles, but bigotry, intolerance and hateful rhetoric have no place in the Republican Party."

Nathan Triplett, the Democratic Mayor Pro Tem of East Lansing who has criticized top Michigan Republicans for failing to embrace gay rights, responded to today's resolution on Twitter. "Look across this country," he wrote. "Each passing day we get closer to full equality for LGBT Americans. Agema can't stop forward march of progress."

The Agema controversy began just days after the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two gay-marriage cases and one week after the release of an RNC report suggesting that the party adopt a more inclusive tone in order to attract young voters.

"Already, there is a generational difference within the conservative movement about issues involving the treatment and the rights of gays," reads the report, "and for many younger voters, these issues are a gateway into whether the Party is a place they want to be."

The report frustrated some Republicans, including Agema, who said that if it had moderated its stance on gay marriage, "then many of our voters and social conservative leaders would have left the party."

TIME reports that the RNC passed two resolutions related to gay marriage, including Agema's. They were grouped together with others and passed by voice vote in "an effort to avoid debate on the floor."

Read the full text of each resolution here.

Editor's note: This post was updated with additional responses to today's RNC resolutions.

Jonathan Oosting is a Capitol reporter for MLive Media Group. Email him, find him on Google+ or follow him on Twitter. -By Jonathan Oosting/Michigan/April 12, 2013

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‘We Will Not Give In Or Surrender,’ PM Says As Nation Remembers Fallen

Some 1.5 million at ceremonies for Israel’s 25,578 war and terror victims; morning siren brings country to standstill.

A two-minute siren brought the country to a halt at 11 a.m. Monday, as Israel continued its Memorial Day events in remembrance of 25,578 war and terror victims.

Speaking at the official state ceremony for Israel’s fallen, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who lost his brother Yoni in the 1976 Entebbe raid, said he had been asked how to cope by children he met recently who had lost parents in wars or terror attacks.

“I answered honestly that I don’t know how to advise on how to manage with a loss like that. I told them that the death of my brother toughened me,” he told those gathered at the military cemetery at Mount Herzl. “We know that there is no real relief or comforting.”

Netanyahu also said Israel would continue to fight but also work toward peace.

“We will continue to work to make peace with our neighbors and to defend our land,” he said. “From the day of Israel’s birth great forces tried to destroy her. They never succeeded and will never succeed.”

Some 1.5 million Israelis were visiting cemeteries and memorial sites for services Sunday evening and Monday. All in all, 23,085 members of the country’s security forces died while in active service since Israel’s 1947-8 War of Independence, along with those who fought in Zionist pre-state militias going back to 1860.

Later Monday, when darkness descends, Israel will pass into its 65th Independence Day in a striking transition from sirens and memory to fireworks and revelry.

Memorial Day began on Sunday night with a one-minute siren at 8 p.m. and an official ceremony at the Western Wall.

The day commemorates, in addition to servicemen and women, the 2,493 civilians who were killed in terror attacks.

Speaking at a ceremony for terror victims, Netanyahu said violence against civilians had been a constant challenge for the Zionist enterprise, surrounded by enemies who sought to kill or maim.

“We will not give in or surrender. We will pursue the terrorists relentlessly and we will strike them in any place. Terror is not from heaven, it is a mortal act,” he said. “Our willpower is greater than their willpower. We will never be like the murders who do not hesitate to slaughter innocent people. we will not teach our children vengeance and hatred.”

At a ceremony in Jerusalem marking deaths in anti-Semitic incidents and terror attacks around the world, Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky said that Israelis and Jews in the Diaspora are dealing with “one front” in terms of anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli activity.

Sharansky said he toured US college campuses last week, where “enemies of Israel are made and the young generation of Jews grow distant from us,” but stressed that Israeli emissaries work to “strengthen the bond between Jews and Israel.”

Judea Pearl, father of Daniel Pearl, said that his son’s brutal murder in Pakistan 11 years ago helped “turn around the war against barbarism,” adding that the murder helped to bring about the collapse of “moral relativism” and showed there are “simple criteria for good and bad.”

Over the past year, 92 names were added to the list of fallen among the ranks of Israel’s security forces. That number includes all soldiers who died while in active service, whether they fell in the battlefield or died of accidents or disease.

Speaking at the Kiryat Shaul military cemetery in Tel Aviv, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said the bereaved families carry the burden of Israel’s existence on their shoulders.

“The pain and the agony, that accompany you every day, are our national lot,” he said. “The price that you paid for the continued existence of the State of Israel is hard to bear and unimaginable.”

Earlier, Ya’alon sent a letter to bereaved families saying that Israel is nation that seeks peace, but will continue to fight for its security.

“In their deaths those who fell bequeathed to us life and also the right to fight for our existence here,” he wrote. “The struggle is not over, rather it is changing in nature, heading in new directions and demands from us to each time to take up the fight anew.”

In the Jerusalem neighborhood of Mea She’arim, anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox Jews deliberately marched during the siren to protest the creation of Israel, carrying signs that said they “mourn the 65 years of Israel’s existence.”

At Jerusalem’s Western Wall on Sunday evening, the beginning of Memorial Day, President Shimon Peres addressed a ceremony attended by bereaved families.

“We will not forget even for a moment and will always remember those to whom the survival of Israel and its glory are indebted,” Peres said at the Western Wall plaza. “Those who over the 65 years of the state’s existence, protected her with their bodies, their blood and their lives, defended her borders and the security of her citizens, her independence and her freedom.”

Israel, the president said, “is as dear to us as the bravery of her fighters, and as dear as the depth of the sorrow for each fallen soldier. Here, next to the sacred stones of the Kotel, I say on behalf of all of Israel, that you, the fallen of Israel’s wars deserve eternal glory and our ultimate gratitude.”

Speaking after Peres, IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz reflected on his own encounters with bereavement, with “all the mothers and fathers I knew, the sons and daughters who are no more.”

“Between the eyes of the sons that are lit through the stones of hope and dreams of the Jewish people,” he said, indicating the Western Wall, “I find my peers, my soldiers and commanders. In their sacrifice, the sons and daughters have become forever ingrained in the character of the state. Their stories of dedication and courage remind us to whom we owe the fact that we can walk these paths. It is no coincidence that we call them the salt of the earth. They are the essence of the tears of the Land of Israel.”

Earlier Sunday, Netanyahu addressed Israel’s bereaved families, stressing that their loved ones had not fallen in vain and that the memory of the victims dwells in the hearts of the Israeli people.

“Brothers and sisters, members of the family of bereavement,” said Netanyahu, “on Memorial Day we remember our fallen loved ones, who fell during the Israeli wars and the acts of terror throughout the years.”

The prime minister’s own brother, Yoni, was killed in 1976 while leading an assault force to free Israeli hostages at the Entebbe airport.

“We remember, we weep, and we hurt,” he said. “Each family has its own grief, and the grief felt by every one of us merges with the pain of the entire nation of Israel: pain over the life that has been cut short, pain over the fact that all that is now left is memorial day.

“There is no real remedy and there is no full solace. But there is one deep and fundamental consolation: the knowledge that thanks to those who have fallen, the State of Israel was founded and the Jewish people’s stature took a turn for the better. Thanks to them, we live here, forever.”

“May their memories be blessed,” the prime minister concluded.

Memorial Day events began Sunday afternoon in Jerusalem with a ceremony at the building of Yad LeBanim , an association for bereaved families. The event was attended by the prime minister, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, JerusalemMayor Nir Barkat and the president of the Supreme Court, Asher Grunis, among others.

“Since our emergence as a people, we have had to fight for our liberty and our existence,” Netanyahu said at the ceremony. “Haters of Israel have exiled us, persecuted us and tried to annihilate the memory of Israel. Even today there are those who threaten to destroy us. They cannot, they will never. We are not belligerent, but if it is destined for us, we will cling to our swords and head into battle.”

Still, he asserted, Israelis’ hands were “extended in peace” to all their neighbors. -By Adiv Sterman and Gavriel Fiske/The Times Of Israel/April 15, 2013

Uruguay Legalizes Gay Marriage

Uruguayan lawmakers voted Wednesday to legalize gay marriage, making the South American country the third in the Americas to do so.

Supporters of the law, who had filled the public seats in the legislative building, erupted in celebration when the results were announced. The bill received the backing of 71 of the 92 members of the Chamber of Deputies present.

"We are living a historic moment," said Federico Grana, a leader of the Black Sheep Collective, a gay rights group that drafted the proposal. "In terms of the steps needed, we calculate that the first gay couples should be getting married 90 days after the promulgation of the law, or in the middle of July."

The "marriage equality project," as it is called, was already approved by ample majorities in both legislative houses, but senators made some changes that required a final vote by the deputies. Among them: Gay and lesbian foreigners will now be allowed to come to Uruguay to marry, just as heterosexual couples can, said Michelle Suarez of the Black Sheep Collective.

President Jose Mujica, whose governing Broad Front majority backed the law, is expected to put it into effect within 10 days.

Nationalist Sen. Gerardo Amarilla opposed the law, saying it "debases the institution of marriage" and affects the family, especially in its "role in procreation."

The vote makes Uruguay the third country in the Americas after Canada and Argentina to eliminate laws making marriage, adoption and other family rights exclusive to heterosexuals. In all, 12 nations around the world now have taken this step.

While some countries have carved out new territory for gay and lesbian couples without affecting heterosexual marrieds, Uruguay is creating a single set of rules for all people, gay or straight. Instead of the words "husband and wife" in marriage contracts, it refers to the gender-neutral "contracting parties."

All couples will get to decide which parent's surname comes first when they have children. All couples can adopt, or undergo in-vitro fertilization procedures.

The legislation also updates divorce laws in Uruguay, which in 1912 gave women only the right to unilaterally renounce their wedding vows as a sort of equalizer to male power. Now either spouse will be able to unilaterally request a divorce and get one. The law also raises the age when people can legally marry from 12 years old for girls and 14 for boys to 16 for both genders.

Outside congress, gay couples holding hands, transvestites and transgender couples jumped in celebration when the result was announced. People in costumes carrying Uruguayan and rainbow flags danced to electronic music.

"I have all the rights and obligations of everyone else. I pay my taxes and fulfill my responsibilities, why would I be discriminated against?" said Roberto Acosta, a 62-year-old retired gay man.

Mujica, who spent more than a decade in prison for his actions as a leftist guerrilla in the 1970s and still lives on a ramshackle flower farm in a poor neighborhood on the edge of Uruguay's capital, has pushed for a series of liberal laws recently. Congress agreed to decriminalize abortion, but Mujica had to suspend an effort to put the government in charge of the marijuana business, saying society has to reach consensus on that idea first.

Uruguay's Roman Catholic Church asked lawmakers to vote their conscience and challenged the label of "marriage equality" as a false pretext, saying it's "not justice but an inconsistent assimilation that will only further weaken marriage." -By Pablo Fernandez/Huffington Post/April 4, 2013

Have you ever made copies of personal documents in stores where you insert a coin and/or establishments such as, hospitals, offices, real estate offices, Fedex, etc.?

^^^*^^^

Copy Machines, a Security Risk?

On Boston Bombing Suspect, Obama Strikes Right Balance

Shortly after midnight during September of 1980, a woman approached two police officers in Queens and told them she had been raped by a man carrying a gun in a shoulder holster.

Police gave chase and caught the man, but the holster was empty. They asked him where the gun was, and he told them he had discarded it among a stack of boxes nearby, where they did indeed find the gun.

Courts in New York state dismissed the gun charges, saying the police were obliged to read the suspect his Miranda rights before asking where the gun was.

And so began the long fight to punch out exceptions to the Miranda requirement that suspects be told of their right to remain silent and their right to an attorney.

Now we are plunged back in the thick of that debate in the wake of the bombings in Boston. The FBI did not initially read the surviving suspect his Miranda rights, citing a “public safety” exemption that grew from that rape case in Queens. The ACLU cautioned against using that exception to fish for intelligence.

But some Republicans are urging Obama to go further and classify the suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, as an enemy combatant. That would allow the authorities to hold him indefinitely, without Miranda, and without even a lawyer. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has suggested that Tsarnaev be held in this state for a month or so before being transferred for trial in the civilian court system.

Our sense is that Obama got this one right, but it is anything but an easy call. This is a balancing act, so those looking for easy black-and-white answers will find no satisfaction here.

* * *

First, on Miranda. The gun charges against the suspect in Queens were reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 1984 ruling that established the public safety exemption. Police acted properly, the court ruled, because the gun posed an immediate public threat.

In the post 9/11 era, that exception has been expanded by the Justice Department in ways that have not yet been tested by the courts. In October 2010, a memo from Attorney General Eric Holder gave the FBI permission to use the public safety exception “to collect valuable and timely intelligence not related to any immediate threat.”

That appears to be what the FBI relied on last week when it captured Tsarnaev. There may have been no ticking bomb, but information on training or support he may have received could lead the FBI to other active terror cells within our borders. Most experts say this exception could last no longer than 48 hours.

And even if the FBI overstepped, and the suspect’s statements are excluded from court, Tsarnaev could be convicted on other evidence, including the admissions he and his older brother made to the man whom they carjacked after the bombing.

* * *

Holding Tsarnaev as an enemy combatant is another matter. Yes, this was a crime of terror and its purpose was to kill people, not a conventional crime intended for profit. And yes, Tsarnaev might talk more freely without a lawyer present.

But we lose something when we throw aside the hard-fought restraints on government power. And history shows that any power claimed by one administration can be abused by the next.

The New York Times recently published an op-ed from a prisoner at Guantánamo who has been held as an enemy combatant for 11 years with no charges and no trial, force-fed to prevent his death from a hunger strike. It is a grotesque description of the price we pay for compromising our basic values.

And it’s not necessary. Tsarnaev faces a possible death sentence and can be pressured to talk while in the civilian system, as criminals are every day. So far, no evidence has emerged linking him or his brother to al Qaeda. As demented as these Boston crimes were, they did not present the kind of existential threat that would justify throwing overboard fundamental values. –Nj.com

Mini Snickers Cheesecakes

Yield:32 cupcakes

Ingredients:

For the crust:

2 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
6 tbsp.  butter, melted
3 tbsp. sugar

For the filling:

2 lbs. cream cheese, at room temperature
1½ cups sugar
Pinch of salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature

For the topping:

caramel sauce
chocolate sauce
Snickers bars, cut up into small pieces

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325˚ F.  Line cupcake pans with paper liners.  In a small bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, melted butter and sugar.  Stir together with a fork until well blended and all the dry ingredients are moistened.  Press 1 tablespoon of the mixture into the bottom of each cupcake liner.  (Use a small drinking glass, like a sippy cup, to press crumbs down.) Bake until just set, 5 minutes.  Transfer to a cooling rack.

To make the cheesecake, beat the cream cheese on medium-high speed in the bowl of an electric mixer until fluffy.  Blend in the sugar until smooth.  Mix in the salt and vanilla.  Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

To assemble, spoon 3 tablespoons of the cheesecake batter over the crust in each cupcake liner.

Bake until the filling is set, about 22 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking.  (They will look quite puffed initially but will return to normal quickly.)  Transfer to a wire cooling rack and let cool to room temperature.  Transfer to the refrigerator and let chill for at least 4 hours before serving.

When you are ready to eat, just drizzle cheesecakes with caramel and chocolate syrup and top with cut up pieces of Snickers. –Preparing The Soil

– Cheesecake recipe adapted from this recipe which was adapted from Martha Stewart Cupcakes.

Wait, Men Fake Orgasms?

Several years ago, a 25-year-old male patient walked into Dr. Abraham Morgentaler’s office with a surprising problem: He was faking orgasms.

A man faking it? Morgentaler, an associate clinical professor of urology at Harvard Medical School, had never heard of such a thing. After he got over the puzzle of how a man could effectively pull off such a … sleight of semen, he got to the patient’s motivation. As Morgentaler writes in his new book, “Why Men Fake It: The Totally Unexpected Truth About Men and Sex,” his patient was having trouble climaxing during sex with his girlfriend, so he feigned pleasure for her benefit. He “was simply trying to do what he believed was the right thing by her.”

Morgentaler came to realize that faking it was more common among men than he had realized — and that this general sexual sentiment was, too. “That is a refrain I hear regularly from men in one form or another, yet this admirable, loving aspect of male sexuality is hidden among the detritus that passes as wisdom about what men are all about,” he writes. His book — which paints a portrait of men who feel anxious about their erections, pressured into having sex and concerned about their partner’s pleasure — is all about correcting that.

Morgentaler has treated men with sexual and reproductive problems for 25 years and bases much of his book on his decades of experience with clients. Clearly, his sample is a bit skewed: These are men who have sought out sex-related medical help. But Morgentaler says it’s important to know the range of experiences that are out there. Men are more sexually complicated — and kinder-hearted — than we realize, he says. “For every man who behaves badly, I can give you 10 who are dedicated and thoughtful and doing the best they know how to be a man and a solid partner,” he writes.

I spoke with Morgentaler by phone about everything from the prevalence of erectile dysfunction to myths about testosterone.

One of the first myths that you address in the book is that “men are only concerned with their own orgasm.” So how did the men you’ve worked with feel about female pleasure?

The big surprise to me when I started doing this work 25 years ago is that once a man is in a relationship, men seem to care more about their partner than themselves. Early in my career, I remember a guy walked into my office … In the waiting room, he looks too cool for school; he thinks he’s just the cat’s meow. But when he gets in the exam room, he’s totally torn apart talking about his girlfriend and how he can’t satisfy her because he has premature ejaculation.

I have a case in the book of a 27-year-old paraplegic who can’t feel or move anything from the waist down. I treat him so that he can have sex, and he comes back and is totally thrilled. His whole personality is different. What he says is, “It’s fantastic. I feel like a man again!” I think the natural response to that would be, “Yeah, he’s having sex so it must be good for him.” But here’s the thing: This is a guy who feels nothing down there. He feels good about himself as a man; [it's] not because he’s getting off or having these pleasurable sensations from sex, but it’s about what he’s able to provide for his wife.

The other angle on this, which shows how far we’ve come and how much has changed over the past 40 years or so, is that I have men who are divorced or widowed and are dating again, and they’ve got a problem like ED. Men who have ED can almost all still have an orgasm. So in essence, they still have the pleasure from sex, but [ED] is an insult to their masculine identity. This guy in his mid-50s who saw me the other day said, “I can’t even date like this. What woman would want to be with a guy that can’t satisfy her?” The idea that a man might be rejected because he can’t be an adequate provider sexually turns everything upside down. It wasn’t that long ago, the ’50s or so, that we saw this term about women doing their “wifely duty.” It was assumed that women didn’t enjoy sex and that part of the marriage relationship was that the woman had to submit to it for the benefit of the relationship.

You also argue that the belief that men’s sexual behavior is influenced by testosterone is false. Can you explain that?

So, like a lot of myths that persist, it’s partly true. Testosterone is critical for a man’s sexual desire and functioning. What’s out there in news stories, and frankly even in some academic papers, is the idea that men are the product of their minute by minute, moment by moment variations in testosterone. A week or two ago, a British newspaper reported that men aren’t designed to be monogamous and that if a woman wants to find a man who will be faithful, she should find a man with low testosterone. Now that’s crazy. It doesn’t work that way!

It’s part of a picture we have where we accept complexity for women but we simplify the story for men. It’s as if people think we know everything there is to know about men, and it’s false. It’s actually very challenging and complex times for both genders. Women have entered the marketplace and [they] graduate at higher rates — from high school, college, medical schools, law schools — which is great for them. There’s absolutely been a need for gender equality. But there’s been an impact for men. There are a lot of men now who are in relationships or may enter into relationships where it’s the woman who has the better-paying job or more prestige. The challenge for men is how to feel good about themselves as a man while still embracing the strength and capability of today’s woman.

And how specifically does that dynamic affect men’s sex lives?

Well, I think part of what’s happened is that the opportunity for men to be the provider, if you will, in most realms of life, like [they were] in the 1950s, has decreased. For a lot of men, it’s in the bedroom that this role may still be there, and if anything, it becomes more important now than it was in the past. That’s why one of the things that’s a cruel joke is that men are stuck with a very high rate of sexual dysfunction now. So as much as they want to feel great, to sexually feel like they’re the provider, if you will, we have slightly more than 50 percent of men between the ages of 40 and 70 who have some degree of erectile dysfunction.

And why is that so common?

It just is. Part of what happens is that almost anything that’s bad for blood vessels is bad for that part of the man’s anatomy. Diabetes, heart disease, atherosclerosis, obesity, lipids like cholesterol — all of them are bad for blood vessels, and they’re all risk factors for ED.

So, to the book’s title, how exactly do men fake orgasms?

That’s the question everyone wants answered. When a patient first came to me with that, which was probably five or six years ago, I confessed that I’d never heard any such thing and I was fascinated myself. Since then I’ve realized it’s not so rare. But what really interested me about that story, after I got over the question of how did he do it, is the mind of men and why a man would do that. It turns out the reasons men fake it are actually pretty similar to the reasons that women fake it. In their minds — and we can argue whether or not it’s productive thing to do — but in their minds, it’s actually a form of kindness. They’re kind of letting the other person know that they’ve done a good job. In this particular case in the book, this guy had trouble having an orgasm during intercourse, but it had never bothered him before. He’s felt like a stud. The problem happened when he fell in love. Once he got his feelings involved, he became concerned that she was feeling bad about her own feminine charms and skills, and so to solve that for her he started to fake it.

How common is it really, though?

There’s not a lot of work on it, but there was an online survey from a men’s website, which probably attracted mainly younger guys, where 31 percent of the guys said they had faked it at one point or another in their lives. It’s a pretty high number! And I can tell you anecdotally that when I got a first copy of my book, I went out to a restaurant to show it to a friend. We’re sitting at the bar, and there’s a group right next to us who saw the cover of the book, and a woman said, “Faking it? It can’t be about faking orgasms because men can’t do that.” One of the men with her said, “Sure they can. I’ve done it many times!”

So how was it really done? The assumption is often that it can’t be done because with men there is actual … evidence.

I know. Would it be terrible of me if I left that as a tease for your reader to actually get into the book? It feels like giving away the ending of a whodunnit.

Sure, that’s a fair bargain. Moving along, how have you noticed the rise of Viagra in your practice?

It’s changed so much of how we think about men and sex. First off, let me tell you that I was in practice a long time before Viagra was available. The numbers of men who would admit to having ED was tiny. Matter of fact, we didn’t know how common it was until 1994, when there was a big study called the Massachusetts Male Aging Study, which blew the lid on this issue. It was only a little while before that that the Masters and Johnson idea was universally held, that if a man has a sexual problem it was all in his head. When I started my practice in the late 1980s, a lot of the guys who did come to see me for ED would start telling me about how they thought they had their problem because they slept in the bed with their mother until age four or they wet the bed until they were age eight. They were all grasping at this psychological failure that had somehow led to this problem.

When Viagra came out, all of a sudden there were ads on television with the presidential contender Bob Dole talking about it and introducing the term ED to the public, and everybody was fascinated. We started seeing ads on television that talked about erections — even the four-hour erection that required medical attention. That was wild. It brought this whole issue to the forefront; we had words for it in public discourse that were acceptable, and of course it was in Pfizer’s interest to actually inform the public that this was a common condition that could be treated. Now what’s happened as a result is that it’s changed expectations for men and their sexuality. Now men have the idea, which I’m not sure they had before, that they can be sexual even if they live to be 120. Every day, we see patients who request the pills or who already take them but who actually don’t have true ED. Then the question is, if the guy has adequate ability to have sex and he’s able to have a climax, then what does he gain by being a little bit firmer? And it goes back to this idea that it’s not really about his pleasure. Most guys will say that they think they’re providing a better experience for their partner. A guy’s sense of his masculinity, especially in the sexual realm, is not about what he experienced himself; he gets his sense of masculinity through the eyes of his partner.

I’m curious if your observations of these dynamics are different when it comes to gay male patients.

One of the issues for gay men is they all share the same equipment. Masculinity in the gay world is a different story, to some extent, than in relationships between men and women. Part of the struggle for straight men and women is that the traditional roles we grew up with are shifting. I would suggest to you that in the gay world those relationships have never been terribly well established. There’s talk of tops and bottoms, but if you have two men, regardless of whether they’re a top or bottom, how much is their essence and idea of self attached to being a provider? I think it is a different story for them.

This idea of defining masculinity while social roles and ideas are so rapidly changing is a challenge for everybody. To me, one of the reasons I thought it was worthwhile to write this book now is that we have so little information regarding the truth about men. There’s been an ongoing conversation and evolution for women over the past 40 years. For men, there’s been almost nothing. When we have such a big void, it gets filled by something. And I think the void has been filled by mythology, by negative impressions created by the bad apples that show up in the scandal sheets, and by the loudest and most brazen. I think that there’s a tremendous need for men to enter into the conversation and for people to know, especially in the sexual realm, what’s real. –By Tracy Clark-Flory/AlterNet/April 14, 2013

About the Author: Tracy Clark-Flory is a staff writer at Salon. Follow@tracyclarkflory on Twitter.

Solar Powered Tent

Another Killer Disease Striking Homosexuals

Health officials work to diffuse fears of national epidemic.

“Gay” sex is becoming even more dangerous.

Health officials are warning sexually active “gay” men about an outbreak of potentially deadly bacterial meningitis in Los Angeles and New York.

The disease has infected 22 people in New York and caused seven deaths since 2010. Health officials in Los Angeles are testing to see if the strain infecting “gay” men there is the same one hitting New York.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation began offering free meningitis vaccines today after a “gay” man from West Hollywood was declared brain dead on Friday.

Thirty-three-year-old lawyer Brett Shaad died within a week of feeling sick.

Authorities suspect he was exposed to bacterial meningitis at a party in Palm Springs the weekend of March 30 that attracts “gay” revelers from across the country.

The New York Daily News is calling the disease an STD threat, even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not classify bacterial meningitis as a sexually transmitted disease.

The CDC does say the disease can not be spread by casual contact, but, “Some bacteria can spread through the exchange of respiratory and throat secretions (e.g., kissing).”

KTLA reported the death of Shaad, a West Hollywood lawyer, has caused alarm.

“We’re not saying at this point that we have an outbreak in Los Angeles,” Michael Weinstein, president of the AHF, told KTLA. “But we know that this disease is serious, it’s deadly and that it can spread relatively easily.”

The AP reported Shaad went to an emergency room on Wednesday and on Thursday he was in a coma.

Symptoms of the disease often appear within three to seven days of exposure. They include fever, stiff neck, nausea, headache, vomiting, increased sensitivity to light and an altered mental state, often confusion.

West Hollywood Councilman John Duran said notices are being posted.

“For a lot of our younger community members, 35 and under, this is the first time they’ve lost a friend who is young and healthy,” Duran said. “A lot of us over 40 are having déjà vu, having lived through the AIDS epidemic.”

Meanwhile, health experts try to minimize alarm over a national epidemic “among gay men.”

“This is not a disease transmittable mainly by sexual contact. It’s spread by respiratory droplets, which means you can be sitting and having a prolonged conversation with somebody and spread the disease without having sex,” said Dr. Parveen Kaur of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

Kaur said usually out of 100 cases, there will be 10 to 15 fatalities, while just about that many will be left with hearing loss, diminished mental capacity or other problems. –By Garth Kant/WND/April 15, 2013

A Funeral For A Homeless Man

Time is like a river. You cannot touch the water twice, because the flow that has passed will never pass again. Enjoy every moment of life.
 
As a bagpiper, I play many gigs. Recently I was asked by a funeral director to play at a graveside service for a homeless man. He had no family or friends, so the service was to be at a pauper's grave in some cemetery in the Nova Scotia back country. As I was not familiar with the backwoods, I got lost on the way, and being a typical man, I didn't stop to ask for directions.

Finally, I arrived an hour late. The funeral guy had evidently gone and the hearse was nowhere in sight. There were only the grave-diggers and crew left, and they were eating lunch. I felt badly and I apologized to the men for being late. I went to the side of the grave and looked down and the vault lid was already in place. I didn't know what else to do, so I started to play.

The workers put down their lunches and began to gather around. I played out my heart and soul for this man with no family and friends. I played like I've never played before for this homeless man. And as I played Amazing Grace, the workers began to weep. They wept, I wept, we all wept together. It was a very moving experience.

When I finished, I packed up my bagpipes and started for my car. My head hung low, my heart was heavy. As I opened the door to my car, I heard one of the workers say, "I never seen anything like that before and I've been putting in septic tanks for twenty years."

Apparently, I was still lost. And to this day, I really don't know where the homeless man is buried. –Author Unknown

Locally Speaking

Gov. Christie Ranks No. 4 In Conservative Event's Straw Poll Looking Ahead To 2016

 

New Jersey's governor is accustomed to basking in the limelight — not coming in fourth place.

 

But that's exactly what the results of the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, straw poll on Saturday indicated in its look ahead to the 2016 presidential race, the Huffington Post reports.

So which presidential hopefuls bypassed Gov. Chris Christie for the polls top three spots? Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) topped the list followed by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) who came in third, the report said.

 

Christie, a Republican, made headlines after he was snubbed by the CPAC. The governor did not get an invite to the influential conference that met in Washington, D.C. last week. Christie has been under fire from the right wing of the Republican party since praising President Obama during Hurricane Sandy just days before Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney lost the election.

Last year, Romney ranked No. 1 in the CPAC poll, the report said, foreshadowing his nomination as the Republican presidential contender.

 

In the poll, Paul received 25 percent of the vote while Rubio trailed closely with 23 percent, the report said. Santorum received 8 percent and Christie received 7 percent.

A few weeks ago, Christie downplayed receiving the cold shoulder by saying, "I wish them all the best" and adding "I can't sweat the small stuff," at a recent town hall in Montville. –By Eunice Lee/Nj.com/March 17, 2013

<><><>*<><><>

N.J. Freedoms Lacking: State Ranks Near Bottom Of The List Again

 

New Jersey is among the most taxed, restricted and regulated states in the country, according to a study published by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

 

And the lack of freedoms isn’t just limited to fireworks and raw milk, the experts say.

High taxes and regulations covering most aspects of modern life are why the Garden State ranks 48 out of the 50 states in terms of freedoms, the study found.

 

Founded in 1980, the Mercatus Center conducts market-oriented research work with graduate students at George Mason University. The Center has ties to billionaire Charles Koch, who sits on its board of directors, according to the Mercatus website. Koch and his brother David operate Koch Industries, one of the largest privately held companies in America and are frequent contributors to Republican and tea party candidates.

 

New Jersey is highly regulated and highly taxed, said Jason Sorens, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Buffalo, who co-authored the report for the Mercatus Center. The state also has significant debt, averaged at 22.1 percent of income, the experts found.

 

The state’s property tax burden and other financial obligations don’t translate to increased government spending – partly because New Jersey pays significantly more to the federal government than it gets back in grants and other subsidies, Sorens said.

 

“Most of the time some equivalence between income and spending is expected,” Sorens said. “But New Jersey is average in government spending, while it has among the highest taxes in the country.”

Other factors that dragged New Jersey down the list were gun controls that are among the tightest in the country, relatively restrictive marijuana laws, and property rights protections that were “abysmal,” the report concluded.

 

The state also ranked dead-last in terms of travel freedoms, owing to seat belt laws, motorcycle and bicycle helmet requirements, and sobriety checkpoints, among other factors, Sorens and co-author William Ruger found.

 

The Garden State has been near the bottom of the rankings over the past decade – with rankings at 46, 47 and 48 over the years 2001, 2007 and 2009 of the Mercatus study, respectively. In 2011, the state ranked 49th.

 

This year, New York was ranked at 50, and California at 49. The top five “freest” states were North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, New Hampshire and Oklahoma.

 

Recommendations for the Garden State to improve its ranking were to slash property taxes, end rent control, and liberalize travel restrictions such as seat belt and cell phone-while-driving laws, while also cutting spending on libraries, sanitation and sewerage, and employee retirement benefits, they found.

 

A general historical pattern of which states were free or not free emerged from the latest study, Sorens said. Freedoms were affected by how early a state had become urbanized. Places that had urbanized with labor and progressive movements in the 19th century were generally more inclined to accept more regulations and restrictions, he said.

 

“With states that had early urbanization, we found that it influences present-day ideology,” Sorens said.

 

Some onlookers were not surprised by the ranking.

 

“This isn’t surprising to small-business owners in New Jersey,” said Laurie Ehlbeck, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business. "The politicians and bureaucrats at every level have their fingers in virtually every commercial and personal activity in New Jersey.” -By Seth Augenstein/Nj.com/March 28, 2013

Amanda Curtis, Montana Democrat, Calls Out GOP Colleagues For Opposing Repeal Of Anti-Gay Law

Thirty-eight legislators in the Montana state House voted on Monday to keep sex between gay people illegal, a fact that elicited a stinging rebuke from state Rep. Amanda Curtis (D-Butte) in a video posted to YouTube.

 

"The good news," according to Curtis, is that that the bill -- designed to repeal a law that targets gay individuals -- will move forward in the state House after a 60-38 vote. "[The] bad news is that there are 38 people in the House of Representatives who think that's how their district wants them to vote ... or [they] are not listening to their district and believe so strongly that gays should be felons that they have a moral obligation to keep it that way."

 

Curtis said it was hard for her to hold herself back from walking "across the floor" during debate on the bill in order to "punch" her colleague, state Rep. Krayton Kerns (R-Laurel), who "insinuated that if you are gay you do not have a moral character."

 

Montana, which has an almost 40-year-old ban on "sexual contact or sexual intercourse between two persons of the same sex," is one of 14 states nationwide with restrictions on sodomy.

 

In 1997, the state Supreme Court ruled that the ban on sodomy was unconstitutional, but the state legislature has yet to repeal the statute.

 

"Under this law, I am considered a felon," state Rep. Bryce Bennett (D-Missoula), who is gay, said on Monday. "I am not your equal."

 

Curtis lauded Bennett's "really personal testimony," and accused her Republican colleagues of "promoting hate today on the House floor." -By Preston Maddock/Huffington Post/April 9, 2013

Chuck Woolery cuts the budget brilliantly, which the U.S. Congress is unable [or does not want] to do. Woollery might make a much better President than either Obama or Romney

^^^*^^^

Chuck Woolery on Budget Cuts

Alternatives For Chemotherapy

AFTER YEARS OF TELLING PEOPLE CHEMOTHERAPY IS THE ONLY WAY TO TRY AND ELIMINATE CANCER, JOHNS HOPKINS IS FINALLY STARTING TO TELL YOU THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE WAY

 

1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.

 

2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person's lifetime.

 

3. When the person's immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors.

 

4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors.

 

5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system.

 

6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastro-intestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.

 

7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.

 

8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction.

 

9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.

 

10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.

 

11. An effective way to battle cancer is to STARVE the cancer cells by not feeding it with foods it needs to multiple.

 

What cancer cells feed on:

 

a. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells. Note: Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses but only in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in colour. Better alternative is Bragg's aminos or sea salt.

 

b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soy milk, cancer cells will starved.

 

c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.

 

d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes t o nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells.

 

To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts) and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).

 

e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer-fighting properties. Water--best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.

 

12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines will become putrified and leads to more toxic buildup.

 

13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body's killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.

 

14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the body's own killer cells to destroy cancer cells. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body's normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.

 

15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor.

 

Anger, unforgiving and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.

 

16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells. –Source/Author Unknown

 

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