Cheap Cialis Blogger | Search results for "labels"

Let's start with a quiz. Who wrote the following this morning? One . . . near as I can tell, there's no really clear sense in which the Syrian sphere of influence in Lebanon is bad for the United States of America . Second, there's no particular reason to think that the waning of Syrian influence really heralds the dawning of Lebanese democracy. Outside of the special case of Iraq, Lebanon was and is pretty clearly the most democratic of Arab states. . . . . It's not what you would call a real democracy for a variety of reasons . . . . Still, as I say, it's closer than anything else that's up and running already. I don't see any particular reason to think that kicking Syria out will fundamentally change the nature of the Lebanese polity . . . . Heck, I don't even think it's clear that it would be a good idea to try and move Lebanon toward real majoritarian democracy. Henry Kissinger? Pat Buchanan? Ann Coulter? Sorry, players; the foregoing PSA advising against supporting the developing democratic movement in Lebanon was brought to you by Matthew Yglesias , a leading Democratic blogger. Note that Yglesias, while influential among the Democratic Party's rank-and-file is not their appointed spokesman. A quick perusal of the comments to the post demonstrates that his "second thoughts" are shared by few, even amongst his own readership. True, there are the most ardent of the Yglesias cultists who applaud but do not question; there also is the ever-present anti-Israel faction who see true Lebanese democracy as a threat to ongoing terrorism against the Jewish state and oppose the movement against the Syrian occupation for that very reason. Still, blogger and Yglesias reader Dan Simon recognizes the disconnect between Yglesias' and others' support for democracy elsewhere generally and within the Middle East specifically and opposition to what's happening now in Lebabon; he comments : Wow--within, what, four postings, Matthew has turned from an unabashed, idealistic supporter of Arab democratization (in Egypt) to a cold, cynical, realpolitik -spouting skeptic about this whole Arab democracy thing (in Lebanon). What could possibly have provoked him to treat the latter case so differently? A less bad despotism? Mubarak's no saint, but Assad's surely worse. A worse prognosis? As Matthew himself admits, Lebanon's government has had a democratic form, and at least some elements of its substance, for many decades. Egypt has never been democratic--ever. More danger of a fundamentalist takeover? Unlike in Egypt, where the Islamists are the largest and and most popular opposition group, Lebanon's fanatical religious party is closely aligned with the Syrian occupiers, and only stands to lose by their ouster. Worse outcome for America? Egypt's dictator, for all his faults, is a bought-and-paid-for US ally. Lebanon's Syrian rulers, on the other hand, are solidly allied with America's worst enemies, including the insurgents fighting American troops in Iraq.... Nah, couldn't be. Say it isn't so, Matthew.... Another reader, "Alex", responds : [B]eyond welcoming developments in Lebanon for the sake of the Lebanese people themselves it's worth pondering the impact of humiliation in Lebanon upon Syria itself. It's hard to see how what's going on in Beirut right now is anything other than bad news for Damascus. From that point of view, it's good news for the United States. Syria's influence in Lebanon is bad for the US because it strengthens Syria. (It's even worse for Lebanon of course). Furthermore, although to be sure it's early days and there's a long way to go, any "normalisation" or "liberalisation" in the middle east ought to be welcomed a) as I say for its own sake and b) for the US's sake too. Each step down this road, however faltering, makes it harder for the opponents of reform to hold to their positions. And that's something worth celebrating. Momentum does matter. As does the inspiration of example. "Ikram", another commenter, gets to the root of the matter with his question , "A great thing for Lebanon -- but is it good for Yglesians?" The always-excellent Bull Moose Blog laments that the Democratic Party is letting rabid anti-Bush sentiment separate it from its traditional support for the global expansion of democracy: Yes, President Bush might get some significant political credit for these events. So what. If partisanship is more important than fundamental principles, than the Democratic party has truly lost its way. Just as right-wing Delayicans opposed the foreign policy triumph of Clinton in Kosovo, so are left-wing Kissingers moaning the potential advance of freedom today. Remember, you're the Democratic Party. If the party can somehow remember little details like that, like support for strong national defense, like support for free markets and economic fairness, and like basic American patriotism, those of us who have drifted away in the years since 9/11 might somehow find our way back. Labels: Current Events

Tags: lebanon, democratic, democracy, party, yglesias

The Protocols of the Yuppies of Zion has a very worthwhile "quick and dirty" synopsis of the recent developments in the Middle East. For once, it seems that even the most ardently anti-Bush media outlets are able to do the math (today's New York Times , for example) and rightly conclude that these events are interrelated and not mere happenstance; going that extra mile to find that the liberations of Afghanistan and Iraq were the catalyst of these broader changes may take some additional soul-searching and, ultimately, some non-partisan intellectual honesty. I for one am hopeful that the leaders within the Democratic Party will be able to go that extra mile. Sometimes success comes when you originate a course of action which works; sometimes success comes when you adopt a course of action which works. Supporting the spread of democracy and personal freedom in the Middle East is not just the morally-right thing for the United States to do; it is becoming apparent that it is the pragmatic thing to do as well. The Democrats, if they collectively shun this course of action that works because it did not originate with them, will certainly condemn themselves to also-ran status for many elections to come; "adopt and improve" should be their mantra from this point forward. Bill Clinton understood as well as anyone that you don't avoid good ideas just because they weren't yours. Labels: Current Events

Tags: action, works, middle, east, mile

Is this a new golden age we've entered? Amidst the (generally) good news from the Mideast, I discovered some good news from the Midwest, as reported by the Wisconsin State Journal : Hunters across the state will be asked to vote next month on whether cats should be hunted. A La Crosse man who hunts and traps wants to make free-roaming domestic cats an "unprotected species" that could be shot at will by anyone with a small-game hunting license. Mark Smith's suggestion will be placed before hunters on April 11 at the Wisconsin Conservation Congress spring hearings in each of the state's 72 counties. Smith, a 48-year- old firefighter for the city of La Crosse, said any cat not under its owner's direct control, or which does not have a collar, should be considered fair game. "If I'm in the woods and see a cat that doesn't have a collar, then I could shoot it," Smith said. "It gives people some leeway if they want to remove cats." . . . . Cat enthusiasts Cheryl Balazs, Ted O'Donnell and Adam Bauknecht are trying to organize opposition to Smith's proposal. O'Donnell, a co-owner of MadCat Pet Supplies, recently set up a Web site, dontshootthecat.com, to inform people about it. "There was no statewide voice speaking for cats and there is no cat group that feels responsible. We knew we had to do something," O'Donnell said. "I'd like to think we could be a no-kill state, like Utah." . . . . Mark Smith, the man who brought the proposal, said he is not a cat hater and has owned cats in the past. "They don't belong in the environment. All I want is for people to be responsible for them," Smith said. "If I catch a cat in the yard in a live trap, I should be able to put that animal down." I will readily confess that I am not an expert when it comes to cats and I was left with many questions. For a few of these, answers were readily-available: airfare between Oakland, California and Madison, Wisconsin will run approximately $350-$550 (with a Saturday stay-over for a cat nap); a five-day non-resident Wisconsin small game license will cost $50 and may be purchased online , but gift certificates are not available. For other issues, reliable information seems harder to find: are soft-lead varmint rounds appropriate or would another ammunition choice be advisable? Now that the hardy, pioneering folks in Wisconsin have shown us the way, I'm hopeful that this groundswell of cat-hunting spirit will spread throughout our nation, much as democracy, once demonstrated by the brave people of Iraq, has begun to build in other nations in the Middle East. Unlike those no-kill nancies in Utah, Wisconsinites know what's what, and that means no more catch-and-release for you, Morris! Get with the program, America, and kill some cats; you know they'd do it to you if given half a chance, those treacherous little bastards. Labels: Law

Tags: cat, smith, wisconsin, people, state

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, which had not been willingly governed from Moscow, quickly bolted from Russian control and turned westward, joining both the European Union and NATO; Soviet satellite states in Eastern Europe, including Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic also turned away from Russia in favor of the EU and NATO. Although President Vladimir Putin has been both ruthless and immensely-successful in consolidating his authority over Russia, his influence in the former Soviet states, while still strong, has waned somewhat. Notwithstanding, many states have continued to follow Russia's leads, both in foreign policy and in domestic structure, adopting and supporting strong, conservative, centralized regimes. Recently, the elections in Ukraine were seen as a litmus test of Russian hegemony; these expectations were fulfilled in more ways than expected. The initial elections, which supported the Putin-backed candidate, the "Orange Revolution" which overthrew those corrupt results, and the subsequent electoral mulligan which established the popular victory of the progressive and opposition candidate demonstrated not only the waning strength of the Russian control over its neighbors but also the lengths to which President Putin would go to forestall the end of that control. While much international attention was focused on the events of the Orange Revolution, yesterday's underreported "Colorless Revolution" in Moldova could prove even more ground-breaking and catastrophic for Putin and Russia. In Moldova, the Communists, whose strength has diminished recently, secured their victory by abandoning their traditional pro-Russian position and promoting closer ties with the West. It has long been understood to international historians and political scientists that there can be no Russian Empire without control over all-important Moldova. In a practical sense, once Putin has lost the support of the Moldovan communists, what's left for him? You heard it here first: Putin is finished and should resign now. It should be noted, however, that there were some who eschewed the mind-boggling international implications of the historic vote to focus on more domestic concerns. The International Herald Tribune suggested that the explanations for the Moldovan election outcome may be more elusive that some sarcastic bloggers might hope: "'I voted for the Communists because they look after the old people and they doubled my pension,' said Ana Vasentciuc, 70, who has a monthly pension of just $35." Truly, the popular will in Moldova defies tidy explanations. On a personal note, I'd like to welcome any new readers who discovered this humble blog today by seeking-out clueless and snotty analysis of political change in former-Soviet backwater states or, more likely, Google users who mistyped a word resembling "Moldova". Thanks for reading! Labels: Current Events

Tags: putin, moldova, russian, states, control

A telemedicine stratagem which began 18 months forgotten with an $11.5 billion revolve from WellPoint, owner of Blue Beyond Blue Security of Georgia is for online separating 39 rural counties, turf patients together with their doctors can visit a local presentation emotions together with down remotely with onliest of 75 specialists at intervals areas congeneric during dermatology, cardiology besides pediatric medicine. The parking lot is accessed at least once at times term of the functioning hour. Full Vindication Labels: telemedicine

Tags: telemedicine, blue, congeneric, dermatology, pediatric

There are many reasons to oppose Gov. Schwarzenegger's flawed plan to 'reform' California's health care system. Below are my top 5. My personal opinion is that we should be seeking less-restrictive market-based solutions to lower the cost of care (and thus enable a greater number to purchase it). 1. "Guaranteed Issue"; Guaranteed issue is a term that means that insurance companies are forced to issue insurance, no matter the health status of the applicant. Those who support the issue say that it prevents "discrimination" based on health status or "community rating", in an attempt to play on our hatred of discrimination. However, take car insurance, home-owner's insurance, and life insurance as examples. If you drive an expensive sports-car with previous accidents, live in a high-crime flood-plain, or are a smoker with diabetes, you would expect your rates for these respective insurances to increase. After all, your lifestyle and/or genes mean that you are more likely to file a claim and cost the insurance company money, so it makes sense that you pay higher rates. Guaranteed issue does nothing more than spread the blame. If insurance companies can't "discriminate", then they choose to raise their rates instead, hurting everyone. 2. Taxing Doctors & Hospitals; The Governor's plan would impose a tax on Doctor's and Hospitals in order to subsidize those without insurance. This Socialist-mentality makes no sense. Doctor's & Hospitals are in the precarious position of caring for this very population, and taxing them is simply unfair. Should we tax landlords and tenants to subsidize homeless shelters? Tax Restaurants to feed the hungry? Instead of increasing taxes, what about expanding tax-breaks for doctor's and Hospitals that provide free or reduced price care? 3. Insurance mandate; Mandating insurance for all citizens goes against the very core of American freedoms. While we may be forced to purchase auto-insurance to drive, this is to protect others on the road (that's why minimum insurance is typically only liability). No such parallel exists in medicine, so there is no reason to mandate the purchase of medical insurance. Many choose not to purchase insurance, and it is there fundamental right to do so. However, they should be held accountable for that decision. Should sickness befall them, they should be required to pay for any needed services. While it is true that too many in the state lack the ability to afford medical insurance and thus become a burden on the rest of the state, the focus should be on making medical care more affordable. 4. Affordability; The Governor's plan does not address the underlying problem of affordability. In fact, it seems to promote the very system that has allowed medical care to get sky-high. Third party payors (i.e. insurance companies) separate rational choice from medical care. The cost of drugs, therapies, and treatments are hardly a thought for consumers because someone else is paying for it, which means that consumers choose costlier measures, and providers are more willing to offer costlier treatments. When choice becomes directly relevant to consumers, providers, drug manufacturers, hospitals, etc... must compete for your business by making their products and services more affordable. Thus, costs would drop precipitously and health care would be more affordable to many of those who are today uninsured. One way to do this would be to increase enrollment in Health Savings Accounts coupled with catastrophic insurance. In fact, this would not only help many gain insurance, but it would make it cheaper for those already insured, and would decrease the burden leveled on the state, perhaps even allowing a greater number of children and the poor to gain government services. 5. Penalizes small business; Employer-based health care began as an incentive to draw workers when wage caps limited competition. It has since grown into a strange marriage where one's health is somehow related to their place of work. In todays world, let's face it...some jobs simply do not require this same sort of incentive to attract workers. Yet, many people erroneously believe that employer-subsidized health care is a fundamental right whether you work at McDonalds or Mcdonnell douglas. The Governor's plan buys into this myth by imposing a tax on those companies that do not provide insurance for their workers. Labels: Health Care

Tags: insurance, care, health, medical, issue

Tomorrow's International Herald Tribune features a slightly-reworked version of David Lampton's recent Boston Globe article, which touched-on some of the issues I discussed yesterday and two weeks ago . Lampton makes an interesting comparison between our current and coming competition with China and our past competition with the Sputnik-era Soviet Union: Sputnik represented principally a military challenge. In contrast, China's challenge is an unfolding, multidimensional development that will last decades and could prove far more productive than the Soviet-American contest. China wants to play ball with America. The question is how America will perform on a playing field it long dominated. To address this question one must examine the building blocks of national power and competitiveness: national investment and savings, education, health and sound, legitimate governance. China is doing comparatively well in the first three, far less well in the last. If Chinese competition can push America to make its own needed adjustments, this is to be welcome, albeit painful. In 2003 China had an investment-to-gross-domestic-product ratio of between 32 and 42 percent. This makes high economic growth very likely. Chinese performance contrasts sharply with America's. In 2003, the U.S. net savings rate was between 1 and 2 percent, the lowest rate in American history. The United States cannot long compete when it borrows for current consumption while China invests using its own savings. America must rebalance its saving, investment and consumption priorities. If it does, Beijing's competition will have done it a big favor. Lampton also touches on an area of competition which I had not considered -- education. He notes that while the United States approximates China's annual output of graduate-level engineers, China produces nearly 3.5 times as many undergraduate-level engineers annually. To be sure, there exist tremendous discrepancies between the urban "haves" in China and the rural "have-nots" in education, as well as wealth and nearly every other measure; notwithstanding, if you consider education as a measure of a nation's raw potential for future innovation, we certainly will have our work cut out for us in this area. One final item also intrigued me: "America's post-World War II allies in East Asia (Australia, Japan, the Philippines, South Korea and Thailand) are becoming increasingly dependent on exporting to China and/or receiving increasing investment from it." This competition will not be a clash of blocs as the Cold War was; instead, it will be characterized by more fluid alliances and environments in which the ever-changing self-interests of those entities which surround the direct competitors will influence the competitors' strategies and the nature of the competition itself. This will not be a team event. Game on. [Update] Labels: Current Events

Tags: china, competition, america, investment, education

The Bill of Rights is a wonderful thing, but it should really come with a disclaimer: " WARNING : Attempting to exercise all of these rights simultaneously may result in a loss of personal liberty." Bloomberg.com presents Jose Canseco, washed-up athlete, noted author , and civil rights pioneer: Former baseball player Jose Canseco, who wrote a book that says he and other major-leaguers took steroids, will cite his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself when he testifies before a U.S. House panel tomorrow, his attorney said. Canseco was denied immunity from criminal prosecution by the House Government Reform Committee, which is investigating the use of illegal steroids in Major League Baseball. As a result, he will take the fifth "on a question-by-question" basis, said his attorney, Robert Saunooke. "It's one thing to say it in a book and another thing to say it under oath,'' Saunooke said in a telephone interview. "It's not admissible in a book." That's a sucker bet worthy of Pete Rose. As Jose probably will soon discover, the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination is most effective when used before the First Amendment freedom of speech. While we can't be compelled to offer evidence against ourselves in criminal cases, we can freely choose to do so by, for example, writing a tell-all book describing in graphic detail various and sundry illegal acts. Black's Law Dictionary (7th Edition) describes an "admission" as: "1. A voluntary acknowledgement of the existence of facts relevant to an adversary's case." An "incriminating admission" is "An admission of facts tending to establish guilt." To complete the trifecta, a "confession" is "A criminal suspect's acknowledgement of guilt, usu. in writing and often including details about the crime." Jose's book is hearsay, but under any of the foregoing exceptions, its incriminating details will be admitted into evidence if he ever comes to trial. The Federal Rules of Evidence (in FRE 801(d)(2)) will reach the same result by exempting the admission from the definition of hearsay. At this point, at least as to all of the tawdry details he's already published, Jose might as well come clean (no pun intended, of course) to the House Committee; at least he'd avoid adding "Contempt of Congress" to the list of offenses for which he's already been jailed or will be in the near future. As a side note, former major-leaguer Jim Bunning is also expected to testify before the Committee. Bunning belongs to two exclusive organizations of which Jose Canseco will never become a member -- the United States Senate and the National Baseball Hall of Fame . Labels: Law, Sports

Tags: jose, book, canseco, admission, detail

From an article in the February 14, 2006 L.A. Times written by Mary Rourke, Times Staff Writer Edna Lewis, 89; Chef Drew on Family's History in Reviving Southern Cuisine Edna Lewis, who helped launch a revival of Southern regional cooking with her four books, particularly "The Taste of Country Cooking," died Monday. She was 89. Lewis died of natural causes in her sleep at her home in Decatur, Ga., Scott Peacock, a longtime friend and Lewis' housemate in recent years, told The Times. She had been in failing health for several years and suffered from dementia. The granddaughter of freed slaves in Freetown, a Virginia farming community, Lewis had an eclectic career working as a restaurant chef, a pheasant farmer and a cooking teacher, among other things. But her cookbooks brought her national recognition. Along with "The Taste of Country Cooking" in 1976, she wrote "The Edna Lewis Cookbook" in 1972 and "In Pursuit of Flavor" in 1988. She and Peacock wrote "The Gift of Southern Cooking" in 2003. "Edna was a very important voice for her knowledge of Virginia-style Southern food and cooking," Judith Jones, Lewis' editor at Alfred A. Knopf publishers, told The Times in 2003. "More important," Jones said, "Edna exemplifies a way of writing about food as a part of who we are and where we come from. It is food writing as memoir." Some food experts referred to Lewis as the leading African American female chef. Others placed her as the dean of all Southern cooking. Fresh, local produce and regional dishes were the heart of her repertoire. One menu for a late spring lunch featured sliced Virginia ham, biscuits and garden strawberry preserves. "Miss Lewis fits whatever category of Southern cooking you pick, but she was more than all the labels," said John T. Edge, director of Southern Foodways Alliance, based at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. In several of her books, she wrote about her early years in Freetown. Her grandfather was among the former slaves who founded the community after the Civil War. Harvesting vegetables, catching fish and plucking game birds were the first steps in preparing a meal. "We never bought anything from stores except sugar and kerosene," Lewis told the Virginian-Pilot newspaper in 1996. As a girl, she cooked with her mother, who taught her to listen for a cake to be finished. "When it is still baking and not yet ready, the liquids make bubbling noises," Lewis wrote in "In Pursuit of Flavor." Lewis' father died when she was 9. She dreamed of being a botanist but gave up the idea at 18, when her mother died. She moved to New York City looking for work in the early 1940s. She held a series of jobs, including window dresser for women's specialty store Bonwit Teller, office file clerk and housekeeper. She often cooked for her friends. One of them, John Nicholson, owned an antique shop. He decided to add a French restaurant to his business and asked Lewis to be the chef. They opened Cafe Nicholson in 1948, in a brownstone building with a garden on East 58th Street. Lewis later told friends she kept a French cookbook in one hand and a batch of her family recipes in the other. "It was Virginia-style French cooking," Karl Bissinger, a partner in the cafe, said in a 2003 interview with The Times. "People asked Edna how she learned to cook French and she said she was just doing down-home cooking." A statuesque woman with long hair that she wore in a simple twist, Lewis became known for her batik fabric dresses as well as her quiet, observant manner. She rarely spoke of her personal life. She was proud of her heritage but showed it in subtle ways, Jones said. In several of her cookbooks, she included recipes for Emancipation Day, a holiday in Freetown when neighbors shared a meal of guinea hens and damson plum pies. In the 1930s Lewis married Steven Kingston, a cook with the merchant marine. They were political activists who joined the Communist Party. "I was a radical," Lewis told Bon Appetit magazine in November 2001. She worked in the office of the Daily Worker, the Communist newspaper. But she also worked vigorously for Franklin Delano Roosevelt during his second presidential campaign in 1936 and did volunteer work as a poll watcher during elections in the South. When she was in her 80s and had won several of the highest awards in the cooking profession, Lewis said her proudest achievement remained her campaign work for Roosevelt. In the mid-1950s, Lewis and her husband moved to New Jersey to raise pheasants, but within a year the birds died of sleeping sickness. Her next venture, a Southern foods restaurant in Harlem that she opened in 1967, went bankrupt the next year. "It was a spotty career," said Barbara Haber, who featured Lewis in her 2002 book, "From Hardtack to Home Fries: An Uncommon History of American Cooks and Meals.""If an opportunity came, Edna went with it," Haber said. "She didn't have a career plan." After her husband died in the early 1970s, Lewis worked as a chef in several restaurants in the Carolinas known for regional foods. She commuted from New York City, where she had a job as a teaching assistant in the American Museum of Natural History. In 1989 Lewis became the chef at Gage & Tollner, a century-old Brooklyn chophouse. She expanded the menu to include some of her own recipes

Tags: lewis, cooking, southern, edna, died

This week's joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of the Associated Press (from Thursday, March 24; link good at time of posting): An Alabama man has been given three years' probation and fined $5,000 after he was convicted of impersonating a federal tax agent in an effort to keep from being cited for hunting violations. Patrick Clete Blankenship . . . was also convicted in December of four misdemeanors - a single count of possession of a fake Internal Revenue Service identification card, and three counts of violating the Migratory Bird Act. . . . . Blankenship told jurors in December that, upon being confronted by the officers, he put into action a plan he had concocted after listening to a radio talk show about ways people have sidestepped various citations. He pulled out an official-looking but phony IRS business card that he had made after downloading the agency's logo from the Internet. It identified him as a senior auditor. Then he asked pointedly if the officers had been audited lately, and insinuated that he would audit them if they cited him. Blankenship told Moody on Wednesday that his attempt to evade a $627 fine for hunting violations was not worth "what I've had to go through and what I've put my family through." [ Previous TGIS ] Labels: Crime, Schadenfreude

Tags: blankenship, december, violations, hunting, count

Pity those poor Austrian bastards. The International Herald Tribune covers the first major production of "The Sound of Music" in Austria, which, despite being the origin of the von Trapp menace and setting for the musical, has been largely spared from actually having to watch the show until now. Even the movie wasn't released there. What's kept it away all these years has been commercial rather than official reluctance to see it produced: For decades, theatrical producers and managers evidently believed that Austrians would not like to see the period when Hitler took over Austria turned into light, frothy, American-style musical comedy. "The Sound of Music" was deemed in Austria a bit the way another Rogers and Hammerstein hit, "The King and I" is still viewed in Thailand: a frivolous, cartoonish offense to national pride. There's something to that, apparently. "Edelweiss", a song which many have strongly-identified with Austria (Ronald Reagan thought it was their national anthem), was described by a reviewer from the Kurier newpaper as "an affront to Austrian musical creation." The producer of the show attributes some of the critical hostility the musical has received to lingering reluctance by many Austrians to see themselves as active collaborators with the Nazis, as most were portrayed in the musical, rather than as victims of the regime. Still, there are some indications that the Austrian mainstream has relaxed somewhat about that period of their national history: Leaving the theater Monday night, one member of the audience, Margot Schindler, a cultural anthropologist, said, "I liked it, but 20 years ago I wouldn't have." Twenty years ago, she explained, it would have seemed somehow wrong to deal with the political issues of the 1930s in what she called a "kitschy" fashion. Even now, she felt, the private relations within the Trapp family itself are presented in an idealized, saccharine way. "Reality wasn't like that," she said, "but the political stuff is O.K." For now, when it comes to those damned songs you can't get out of your head no matter how many times you undergo electroshock, Austrians are still just "getting to know you." According to the article, "At the end of the show . . . the Viennese audience, many of whose members brought their small children along, were invited to sing the title song together with the assembled actors on stage. It was clear from the response that pretty much none of them knew it." Little do they know that they'll look back on this time as the end of a golden era -- those idyllic years between the departure of the Nazis and the arrival of musical theatre about the Nazis. We'll give them a bit to adjust and then send them "Hogan's Heroes". Labels: Defies Classification

Tags: austrian, musical, austria, years, show

Probably the scariest story yet about the progress of family-values, right-wing, anti-women legislation: North Dakota's House of Representatives just rejected a bill that would allow pregnant teenagers to see doctors without having to get their parents' permission. Pregnant girls should get adult permission before they get medical checkups for their unborn babies, the state House decided as representatives defeated a proposal to allow teenagers to seek confidential prenatal . North Dakota law now requires a doctor to have permission from a parent or guardian to treat pregnant girls who are younger than 18. ... [Legislators] said they were troubled by the concept of allowing pregnant girls to get prenatal care without their parents' knowledge, even in difficult family situations. Holeey crap. Could it be any clearer that children--especially girl children--are essentially chattel in the eyes of these people? In ND, kids over 14 can get confidential treatment for addiction or STDs (as they should). But pregnancy, which specifically affects only girls? Nope. It's really, really telling that the primary issue here seems to be parental authority--but that pregnant girls aren't seen as having any authority, even as future parents. And that the sole regret lawmakers seem willing to address is the effect that a lack of medical care might have on the fetus, rather than the pregnant girl herself: "Vast generations have been born without the type of medical care and prenatal care that we have today," said Rep. Dan Ruby, R-Minot. "It's great that people get the treatment early, but we don't need to do something that is going to take away the authority of the parents, who are responsible for paying the bills." For paying the bills?!?! Wow. Is this enough evidence that the "who's gonna pay for it?" philosophy of politics has gone too far? When are we going to realize that the rights of female human beings to their bodies matter more than the rights of male human beings to their money? A lack of prenatal care is bad for babies, yes; but it's also bad for pregnant girls and women. Ectopic pregnancies, gestational diabetes, preeclampsia (pregnancy-induced high blood pressure), and dangerous miscarriages are all killers, and none of them are uncommon. And what if a pregnant girl shows up in the e.r. after being hit by a car, or beaten by her boyfriend or parents? Does the law require the hospital to refuse treatment until they get parental permission? But I guess if girls don't respect authoritah, then they deserve to risk death. Labels: health care, human rights, reproductive rights, sexism, the law

Tags: girl, pregnant, care, parent, rights

Township family Originally uploaded by CharlesFred. Today we visited a township here in Lusaka, as well as Parliament House with anm interesting young man named Benson. More later. Tomorrow we go to Livingstone. Labels: Trip to Middle East and Africa, Zambia

Tags: township, family, livingstone, tomorrow, labels

Fred watching the wildlife Originally uploaded by CharlesFred. We were due to leave South Luangwa today, after two game drives yesterday, but after we returned from our morning drive, we were told that the flight we thought we had been booked to go back to Lusaka on today, was full and thet we had NOT been booked on this flight. So decision time.... and so we decided to leave that afternoon, on a flight which was empty, and therefore miss our planned evening drive. A pity as two leopards had been seen mating the previous evening. It was a very bumpy flight back through the rain to Lusaka, furst to Chipata and time to catch up on the local Zambian news. Again, where Fred and Charles go, trouble follows and Zambia finds itself in the international news this week because of riots outside a church here in Lusaka, because of Satanic practices which have taken place there. The church has been closed down by the government. There was an editorial in the newspaper accusing many churches here in this 'Christian' country of being misued by people to get rich, turning their congregations into zombies and playing loud recorded music in the churches which is no better than the 'jive' music heard in the bars and clubs. What's new? The other major discussion point is the rise and rise and rise of the kwacha which ahs gone up 40% this year, about half of which ibn the week we have been here. The cancellation of debt and the high price of copper as well as high interest rates have all coyntributed to this. Having been told for many years that prices have to go UP because the kwacha has fallen, many people are asking why now the kwacha has risen so specatcularly that prices are not falling.... interesting!!! Labels: Trip to Middle East and Africa, Zambia

Tags: flight, drive, price, kwacha, lusaka

Iguazu Falls - Argentinian side Originally uploaded by CharlesFred. This is a picture of the Iguazu Falls in Argentina - hoping to add one in a miunute of Victoria Falls on a rainy day. We went to the Victoria Falls on Saturday where it rained more than there was water coming over the Falls. We have had quite a few adventures since including joining a convoy of three pink buses, full of Swedes, listening to Dancing Queen and getting stuck in the wet sand of the Caprivi Strip, joining up with Stefan and Sissie from Germany who rescued us from the mud, meeting up with Nigel and Tuomo at the Shakawe (non-)Fishing Lodge, seeing bushmen paintings at Tsodilo Hills and making it over to Tsumeb, a very strange place where provincial Germany meets Africa. No internet and now no possibility of uploading phtos, we are negotiating with Janny, a local Namibian to take us to Kaokoland in northwest Namibia for the next few days. Still alive and kicking... and wishing everyone, belatedly, een gezellige Sinterklaas. Labels: Botswana, Trip to Middle East and Africa, Zambia

Tags: falls, namibia, victoria, day, joining

Burchells' Zebra with foal Originally uploaded by CharlesFred. We have come down to Livingstone, named after Dr David Livingstone, the fearless anti-slavery campaigner and explorer. Just down the road there are the wonderful Victori Falls whichw e go to visit tomorrow. It was a quick five hour bus ride down here in the rain this morning, accompanies by non-stop ecstatic gospel music.... great!!!! The Road of the Lord is Holy, Praise the feet of the Lord! Further, we have heard from my friend Nigel, from Cape Town and he is going to be near the Okavango Delta in a day or two and we hope to join him for a few days, in his landie landrover. Labels: Trip to Middle East and Africa, Zambia

Tags: road, stop, lord, livingstone, day

Charles and Fred at Epupa Originally uploaded by CharlesFred. Labels: Namibia, Trip to Middle East and Africa cheap cialis buy cilais generic cialis cialis

Tags: cialis, charles, epupa, fred, cheap

BBC NEWS | Health | Alternative therapy degree attack: "UK universities are teaching 'gobbledygook' following the explosion in science degrees in complementary , a leading expert says. There are now 61 complementary medicine courses of which 45 are science degrees, the Nature journal reported. University College London Professor David Colquhoun urged watchdogs to act, as complementary medicine was not based on scientific evidence." Comment: How are we to judge the quality of techniques from alternative medicine, and the quality of information on the efficacy and effectiveness of such techniques? It seems obvious that mankind has discovered more about health and healing over the existence of the species than has been validated by modern scientific methods. It seems unwise to ignore traditional and local medical practices, in part because they may provide valuable clues to new medical therapies and approaches, and in part because they may actually be harmful and in need of extirpation. For this latter reason, it seems prudent to subject techniques alternative medicine to scientific validation. Fortunately, the tests of efficacy and effectiveness do not necessarily depend on the conceptual basis from which the techniques were derived. Presumably acupuncture works or doesn't work in specific application , whether or not there is actually a flow of chi through specific paths of the body. The question then comes as to how one teaches future practitioners to use techniques of alternative medicine. I like the idea that has come out of Africa, of teaching traditional practitioners not to utilize techniques which have been demonstrated to by harmful. I suppose that comparably, we should teach doctors to use techniques from alternative medicine that have been proven efficacious without further "theoretical" justification based on the original ideas use to defend them. Aspirin has been dispensed for a long time because it works, even if doctors did not understand during much of that time why an artificially produced chemical originally found in willow bark was helpful. JAD Labels: decision making, education, Health, information

Tags: techniques, medicine, alternative, degree, health

San child with grandmother Originally uploaded by CharlesFred. Today, we visited a San vilage and also went out for a bushwalk with a number of them where they showed us how they looked and found roots, leaves, nuts and fruits, all of which had special powers. They also recreated a hunt for us.. although the 'black' (as they call them) dominated government here in Namibia have banned them from hunting (after the whote apartheid rulers had forciblky moved them onto their current lands). The San have been living in these parts for the last 25,000 years, so have been a lot more successful than any other civilisation in our historical perspective. One pity was that at the scvhool which we were shown around, they are forced to learn evrything in English rather than their own language with all the clicks! But still, the school seemed quite well provided for by the governemnt. Many m,any mothers were carrying babies and there were lots and lots of children. By all accounts San people keep having children until they can no longer have them.... Tomorrow we are off to Etosha to look for and watch game for three days... hopefully we will finally get to see our male lion, and who knows what else. I have purchased a volume of African birds south of the Sahara so we will spend much time trying to identify all the birds we come across. See you again on Monday... and all is well with Fred... just a little bit too lazy to write a blog! Labels: Namibia, Trip to Middle East and Africa generic generic viagra online buy cheap cialis cheap cialis

Tags: san, lot, cialis, generic, children

Asthma is a chronic lung disease. Although everyone's airways react to irritants, the overly sensitive airways of the asthma patient endorsement an exaggerated vitality. That exaggerated reaction ultimately leads to inflammation, nag, likewise swelling of the airways that constitutes unsubstantial airflow. The befall is periodic attacks of coughing, wheezing-high pitched, whistle-like vital noises this express tight airways-and further animate difficulties. Asthma can neighborhood from a faintly bothersome plague to a life-threatening medical emergency. Labels: Asthma buy cheap cialis cheap cialis viagra buy cilais

Tags: asthma, airways, buy, exaggerated, cheap