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The was old and ragged and gray, And bent with the chill of the winter's day; The street was wet with a recent snow, And the woman's feet were aged and slow. She stood at the crossing, and waited long, Alone, uncared for amid the throng Of human beings who pass'd her by, Nor heeded the glance of her anxious eye. Down the street with laughter and shout, Glad in the freedom of "school let out," Came the boys like a flock of sheep, Hailing the snow piled white and deep. Past the woman so old and gray Hasten'd the children on their way, Nor offer'd a helping hand to her So meek, so timid, afraid to stir, Lest the carriage wheels or the horse's feet, Should crowd her down in the slippery street. At last came one of the merry troop, The gayest laddie in all the group; He paused beside her, and whispered low, "I'll help you across if you wish to go." Her aged hand on his strong young arm She place, and so, without hurt or harm, He guided the trembling feet along, Proud that his own were firm and strong. Then back again to his friends he went, His young heart happy and well content. "She's somebody's Mother, boys, you know, For all she's aged and poor and slow; And I hope some fellow will lend a hand To help my Mother, you understand, If ever she's poor and old and gray, When her own dear boy is far away." And "somebody's mother" bow'd low her head In her home that night, and the prayer she said Was: "God be kind to the noble boy, Who is somebody's son and pride and joy!" by Mary Dow Brine

Tags: mother, boy, woman, street, hand

I am ready for some meaningful football. (My fiancee is now rolling her eyes over the last two words in that sentence... but still). Tonight sees the Oakland Raiders visit the New England Patriots at Foxboro for the kick-off game of the Pats' quest for three straight. I see this as a reasonable objective for the Patriots, but it will, as always be a difficult journey. I see the Patriots as a well managed team that attempts to use its versatility as its core competence. As I have written before, the Patriots seek to take away the opposition's first choice option. The fundamental gamble here is that the Patriots are betting that their second, third or fourth preferred style of play is vastly superior to whatever the opponent's second preferred style of play. This was seen most notably in the 2002 Super Bowl against the Rams where the Patriots were able to disrupt Marshall Faulk for the entire game, and thus putting the offense solely on Kurt Warner's shoulders. The Greatest Show on Turf managed 17 points. This year, I think that the Patriots are significantly deeper and more versatile on offense. With the return of Ben Watson, I will be shocked if the Patriots do not line up with two tight ends for at least forty percent of their first downs. Dan Graham and Ben Watson present some intriguing passing game match-up problems for any team that does not have multiple rover linebackers/strong safeties (6-2+, 225lbs+, 4.5 or better speed) and if a team has a light fast defense in, the tight ends can stay in and assist the power running game. This is one of the many less than pleasent choices the Patriots force teams to make. This is a key illustration of what Bill Bellicheck has been attempting to build over the past five years --- situations where the best solution is still an unsatisfactory solution for the opposition. I am slightly worried about the wide receivers over the course of the season as Deion Branch, he of the amazing quicks, and fragile body, has yet to play a 16 game season. Troy Brown is old, as is Tim Dwight, while Andre Davis is new right now. Bethel Johnson has amazing speed, but is still inconsistent and injury prone. The only receiver I am not worried about is David Givens. However within this set of receivers, there is a wide diversity of skills and attributes that would allow the Patriots to quickly shift their offensive focus from short crossing routes in a West Coast Flavor to a vertical game. I would think tonight that the Patriots would want to take advantage of the comparative slowness of Oakland's big linebacker corps and run plenty of crossing routes and seam patterns with receivers and tight ends isolated against a linebacker who is bigger than some defensive ends. Now onto defense, this has been the forte of the Patriots' ability to mirror and deny an opponent's strength over the past four years. I am liking the defensive line quite a bit. I was surprised that the Patriots cut Rodney Bailey in favor of keeping undrafted rookie Mike Wright, but even still, the Pats in their base 3-4 have significant talent in their starters and impressive depth. Richardy Seymour and Vince Wilfork each demand two blockers on running plays, and Ty Warren will dominate against most right tackles when he is one on one. Oakland will be forced to keep their running backs or tight ends in to help block more often than they would prefer. The strength of the defensive line is the strength of the unit as a whole. If the three linemen and the typical pass rushing linebacker can force Oakland to keep seven blockers in, the task for the secondary just got a whole lot easier. I am not sure who the starting cornerbacks will be tonight, as the Patriots currently have four corners who have started for Super Bowl winners on the roster. I would imagine that the Patriots will attempt to play some aggressive man with zone support against Randy Moss and keep Chad Scott in as the physical bump and run corner for at least third down plays. I also anticipate the Patriots keeping Eugene Wilson in deep centerfield for most of the game, as I think that the Patriots would be willing to see Moss have a T-O type game if they can shut down everyone else on the field. They just need to avoid the multiple big plays that are Moss's bread and butter, even if that means giving up more 10-15 yard gains. I am not sure what the Patriot linebackers will be doing this year. The outside linebackers are experienced, fast, smart and solid. Roosevelt Colvin should finally be completely healed from his hip injury suffered two years ago while Willie McGuinest just gets craftier and better as his health is still with him. I doubt that Willie McGuinest will be healthy for the entire season, but Tully Banta Cain, in limited playing time, has shown some significant pass rush ability over the past year. Mike Vrabel is just a playmaker who is never out of position. The loss of the top three playing time inside linebackers from last year is a large loss which creates a significant question mark. I am glad that Vrabel is shifting to the inside, as he is smart, and it will keep the Pats' three best linebackers on the field more often. The question mark is who plays next to him --- Monty Biesel or Chad Brown. I think this will be a platoon position with Brown in on run downs and Biesel in on pass downs. I have a difficult time seeing how the Raider's defense can keep the Patriots from scoring, and so far, the Patriots have taken down better quarterbacks who play vertical passing games with comparative ease (Hi there Kurt, hi there Peyton.) I forsee a lot of pressure, and a lot of sacks against Collins unless the Raiders invent an effective screen game. Therefore, I am calling it 27-17 Patriots winning.

Tags: patriot, game, play, linebacker, year

.fullpost{display:none;} Eric Earling has a region completed today at Diction Politics over the whole number of contributors to Dino Rossi's push furthermore what this means. The rough math can do Rossi's contributions thus speaks as itself. He has raised about $4.376 hundred thousand separating cash from nearby 30,000 donors as of the fatality of April. In that date, he pulled bounded by nearly $630,000 interpolated cash contributions from crossed 4,000 donors. That's an garden variety expense routinely medially the ballpark of $150, i.e. grassroots relief. Eric is depleted on. Dino just doesn't hold fast grassroots relief. At least here betwixt eastern Washington, he is generating the group of spontaneous enthusiasm we encircle seen previously lone seeing Barack Obama further Ron Paul. The fundraising reception here halfway June is an explanation. Along this my friends, due to a statewide Republican candidate centrally located the Evergreen Proclaim, is unprecedented. Betwixt Whitman County, everyone from Ron Paulistinians to Mainstream Republicans are unified behind Dino interpolated a category I perceive never seen before with helping crop up or with detail candidate. Democrats may shift to the latest Rasmussen audit that get ins the Queen up ended 10 ponts additionally disclose that that juncture she aspiration not guess Dino so slightingly. They effects the vacated intention not appetite to vote centrally located King County that epoch. But I disagree. Ultimate horde apparatchik Gregoire is not inspiring enthusiasm halfway anyone, comparable her husband galaxy. Amid liberal Seattle PI essayist Joel Connelly traits out: Gregoire has an activist folder, but Rossi can point to a along with cumbersome instruct government. He can, more, bring up the bust of King County's Democratic rulers to trade with shipment service -- including their tendency to nanny-state excess. Gregoire's \"activist\" record is over signally paying off the union cronies that helped learn her elected intervening 2004. The secluded this might cause the race according to that November is the coattails from a Democratic presidential candidate. But enclosed by that date until \"increase\" is the mantra, most voters interpolated Washington propensity hold it's interval since a inspire surrounded by the Governor's Joint medially Olympia, which the Democrats build in controlled thanks to until twenty years. Read More......

Tags: dino, rossi, county, candidate, interpolated

.fullpost{display:none;} Dino Rossi attraction be visiting Pullman forward June 10, to boot some friends of plethora intention be managering a reception at their realty that evening. If you would trim to get an holler, utterly give me with your mailing shelter and I'll Along it forward. Receiving an hail obligates you to nothing. Please aid this e-mail: kozmocostello@hotmail.com Read More......

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Some children's actions are ageless. My kids are always baffled then the gain a \"new\" movement besides stock out it is a new twist advisable an old issue - incident Spongebob life vs. Bird. Because Monopoly is getting a face helping hand. Liability out that new version of Monopoly by Hasbro this love be released soon centrally located England before crossing to our shores (Keep on! Didn't that jump in real moment once a few hundred thousand years gone?? Inside form life with a historical twist - veridical!) Parlance throughout genious! Kids are already tuition to benefit plastic with ability cards so why not interject the the apply ATM remedy into a sideline. Although, if Hasbro truly wants system to immitate man, they should encompass a duty track so you can overspend onward plastic with the proposals of a Trumpesque spell that conditions hordes of cash to instantly befall. Afterall, it is separate a shot - legitimate?? Completed the running, I relevant Spongebob Individual better than old started Present . The allot kids too hubbies never quite did it for me. Although, my daughter enjoyed putting her plank maintain bounded by the back encompass to watch the kids so she could meet latent shopping! Carved figure stating: Schtick Quarter:Yahoo! News Weakness Box: Hasbro Net Hole Newsletter Dr. Gwenn

Tags: kids, hasbro, spongebob, plastic, twist

Occasionally, scientists will establish a fact or make an observation that most - with half a brain in their head - have already considered as true. Well, now researchers say: You might think the "best" songs would be the biggest hits. But the fickle tastes of music listeners continue to defy expert predictions--or objective measures of quality. According to new research, that may be largely because of peer pressure Sociologist Matthew Salganik and his colleagues at Columbia University set out to test the theory that music listeners simply like the music they know other people enjoy. Wow. No shit, eh? Are you saying people exhibit a heard mentality? One only had to look at JJJ's Hottest 100 to see that. But I dare say this phenomena is not restricted to music tastes alone. Just look at the highest grossing films of all time. And people do the exact same thing with celebrities. I could never work out the 'Drew Barrymore' phenomena in the late 90's. She's orright but nothing special. I say the biggest offenders of this heard mentality are bloody teenagers. And that, among other things, is why I hate 'em so.

Tags: music, people, heard, mentality, thing

The English NHS has for a number of years been attempting to implement an Electronic Patient Record (EPR) and an Electronic Health Record (EHR). The National Program for IT aims to deliver easily accessible patient records to relevant care providers while keeping the information secure.  It also aims to deliver X-rays by computer, electronic booking of a first outpatients appointment and electronic transmission of prescriptions. (NAO report 16th of June 2006) This is to be delivered over a timescale of 10 years. The NAO claims that areas of this program are on track.  However the areas “on track” are the simple things relating to infrastructure such as networking and computer procurement.  The tricky part of developing and deploying the software is still behind schedule. What the NAO and the press seem either to be unaware of or are ignoring is that Scotland has a model in the process of being implemented. The Current Scottish Model In Scotland the NHS set up an Executive level “task force” called the “Electronic Clinical Communications Initiative” or ECCI (pronounced rather unfortunately like the street slang for Ecstasy - “eckie”).  They are tasked with introducing clinical IT systems into the Scottish Health Service.  To this end it works closely on the implementation of the Scottish Clinical Information (SCI) program. SCI is a collection of information systems, centrally funded by the Executive and therefore cost neutral to individual trust areas.  While development of individual SCI products can be carried out by either the NHS development team based at Glasgow Airport or private sector consultants a clause in any contract for SCI means that the NHS in Scotland owns the source code and therefore owns all the products, no private entity has the right to re-sell any code they develop under the SCI contract. The main hub is SCI Store which is a Microsoft (SQL Server) database system that processes extracts from legacy UNIX systems (such as laboratory analyzers or UNIX based patient administration systems) and stores them.  Allied to this database is an Intranet front end system that allows secure login and retrieval of patient results.  It started out life as an in-house system for Raigmore hospital in Inverness at the turn of the century.  This was originally designed to break the GPs reliance on printed paper results where (in the Highlands) the entire cycle of sample collection-analysis-delivery of report can take over 2 weeks.  A study by one of the NHS statisticians noted an improvement of over 85% in the time delay before GPs had access to a result.  Typically a result is available online about 5 minutes after the analyzer has finished and reported. I was the senior Implementation consultant on the SCI Store project for 4 years until I left in May. Store exposes a number of “web services”.  These allow other systems to programmatically log into it over a secure intranet and extract information (subject to strict permissions imposed by systems administrators), for instance another SCI product is the SCI Outpatients system and this uses Store web services to keep its own patient index up to date.  Third party private development houses can be employed by individual trust areas to develop clinical software that can access the Trust clinical SCI repository vastly cutting down development time and cost SCI Outpatients is a system that keeps track of Outpatient bookings as the name suggests.  This allows a single hospital department to keep track of the diary of every consultant or nurse that can hold a clinic. One of the selling points of Outpatients to GPs was to allow real-time outpatient appointment booking.  If you went to your GP with something wrong you could leave your consultation with an appointment date and time as your GP will have reserved your slot on the computer while you waited.  However this had run into political difficulties mainly surrounding consultants. Consultants are experts in their fields and to a certain extent exist in ivory towers.  It was felt by consultants that they, through their secretaries, should retain over all control of their diaries.  To let a mere GP book slots may ruin a tee-off time they had planned.  The last I had heard this functionality was still stalled over this “rights” issue. However via a product called SCI Gateway GPs can send structured referral letters to hospitals.  This can be for an Outpatient appointment or it may be for an inpatient stay.  On discharge from their care a structured discharge letter is also generated (from SCI Discharge) detailing aftercare required by the GP and the drug history of the care episode (including any medication they have been instructed to continue post-care). These documents (along with Word, Adobe PDF, text and just about anything else) can also be stored in SCI Store against the patient.  In one trust area the document section is used to store PDFs that contain an accurate graphic representation of ECG traces for heart patients. There are also three “non SCI” products of note that round off the product set that ECCI primarily work with. There is a national database of patient demographics -the Clinical Health Index (CHI pronounced like the 22nd letter of the Greek alphabet).  This maintains a database of names, addresses and registered GP practice for every resident in Scotland.  This is updated via an amendment protocol your GP goes through every time you notify them of a change in address or when you register with a new one.  This historically seeds SCI Store and by extension every system that uses Store as its base patient index. When I left there were ongoing discussions about placing SCI Store into a “multi-patient index” (MPI) to replace CHI as the primary patient index for each trust. 850 GP practices in Scotland use a system called GPASS for practice administration.  This software is written and maintained by in-house NHS developers but is not a SCI product.  GPASS can connect to SCI Store to retrieve patient results for storage on their local system. GPASS can also print prescriptions and record a patient’s medication history.  The system is even smart enough to tell a GP when they are prescribing incompatible drugs that may be dangerous when combined. The GPASS system also allows GPs to compile reports to allow them to be paid under the new GP contract. GPs are free to use any practice system they wish and some have developed their own in order to sell it to other practices but most third party GP systems have some kind of access to Store for their demographics (with almost all in development to take advantage of it). Finally there is the Emergency Care Summary (ECS).  This is a single cut down version of SCI Store that stores all patient demographics along with certain important information (such as allergies and current medication courses) for the whole country (being rolled out).  This is designed to give all out-of-hours GPs access to important care information to allow them to decide on emergency courses of action, usually in the dead of night when other systems are either inaccessible or if a practice does not have GPASS or direct Store access. Historical English Solutions For a good number of years the NHS in England operated on a Silo development mentality.  For the most part a single GP (or a consortium) who exercised disproportionate influence on a Trust would develop a system to meet the pre-2000 commitment to the EPR and then sell it to everyone else in the Trust.  Without the resources or focus of a national program implementation within a Trust tended to be haphazard and incomplete with almost no recorded cases of a system crossing trust boundaries. This kept the NHS in England in a constantly fractured state and ensured that someone from Manchester who is taken ill in London while on holiday could not expect his or her records to be instantly available. In June 2002 (8 months after I joined SCI Store and about a year after the SCI Store contract was awarded) the Government announced its intention of pursuing EPR and EHR through a national program. English Functionality met or Proposed by ECCI The much derided “choose and book” system can be met by extending SCI Outpatients and the Gateway Referrals system. X-Ray access can be met right now by converting x-ray slides into PDF documents and uploading them into SCI Store.  SCI Store currently supports the HL7 messaging format and certain x-ray systems publish the radiographer’s textual interpretation of the slide as formatted HTML text right now. Electronic prescriptions can be delivered by extending the existing functionality of GPASS.  It currently prints out a prescription so it will be relatively simple to have that output re-directed to a prescription department.  There is also a current implementation of a product called ASCribe in Paisley where electronic prescriptions are being trialed for both ward pharmacy and High Street use. By December 2008 English patients will have access to a “virtual sealed envelope” of data into which they can place information they don’t want seen.  SCI Store implemented this in February 2006 with version 2.2 of the software in compliance with the Data Protection Act. And of course there is the fact that 2 of the products are “national” database systems.  Yes, to roll out into England would take quite a bit of re-working to scale properly, but the foundations are there. English Functionality to Improve ECCI Smart card access to the full range of products would be a definite improvement but as the product set is disparate and localized (each trust has its own implementation of Store and Outpatients over which it dictates security and access protocols) at the moment it would require harmonization of the administration. Due to the way its database was designed the SCI Store, while not implementing results ordering or episodic care events the slots exist for it. Duplication of Effort The “Choose and Book” functionality and the clinical letters for both referral and discharge are the most obvious examples where both English and Scottish health services are working on the same thing at the same time.  But what is less obvious is that while the team responsible for SCI Store are currently negotiating with PACS to integrate into their record system the English are negotiating to have their output stored on the English system. Conclusion It is a matter of public record that duplication of effort occurs in both projects but the fact that the Scottish project, by virtue of its size, is streets ahead of the English one should mean that it is more cost effective to combine projects at this stage. Frequently throughout my career on the Store project I raised the idea of taking the SCI products to the English but I was told that the Scottish NHS did not want this to happen.  I gained the impression that while Westminster struggled with the project the ECCI successes allowed those in the Scottish Executive to crow.  They are using these two projects in a game of career one-upmanship.  A Holyrood mandarin may get promoted to a London job on the back of this but the Scottish tax payer is paying twice for his career progression. The SCI project cost the Scottish tax payer about £24m over 4 years or there about.  The English model is going to cost every tax payer in the UK £6bn. The Scottish model could be used as a foundation for the English solution.  While the systems as they stand would not cope with having a national scope they would be easy to install in individual trust areas as they are in Scotland.  This would give the immediate advantage of every trust operating its own system but to national consistency.  Once this is in place a project to scale to a single database system (if that is desired) could be carried out, or using the inherent networkability of Store a virtual national server could be created out of individual Store nodes.  The rest of the product set could be deployed in a similar fashion. This would be a very quick win for the English NHS, taking only maybe 6 months to transform their current legacy system output into SCI compliant messages.  Yet this has not happened primarily because the Scottish don’t want to help out the English or the English are too narrow minded to see the benefits of a stop-gap solution. Even in the media this option appears to have passed people by.  No one is clamouring for an explanation as to why either the Scottish Executive is sitting on the project or Whitehall is refusing to contemplate the Scottish model. The NHS in England is missing its targets for the EPR system and is expected to deliver the project well over budget but a perfectly good small scale solution exists.  And its closest implementation is Melrose General Hospital. Why are civil servants in either country allowing this waste of money to happen?  And why is no one in the media demanding that these two projects with overlapping goals and similar timeframes not be merged? Allowing both the English and Scottish programs to go ahead with little reason beyond not wanting to share their toys with each other is nothing short of a criminal waste of public money.  Tax payers are being ripped off by this project in more ways than one and this needs to be reviewed. Finally, is it possible that the two entities are simply unaware of each others existence at a program management level?  Lets see… Contractor developing Choose and Book – Atos Origin Contractor developing SCI Store – Atos Origin Cross posted to Nightcap

Tags: system, sci, store, gp, english

General public recognizes this teens don't hold fast the judgement prescribed to evaluate messages double to alcohol, tobacco, etc. So why are some pharmaceutical companies getting away with beaming Insomnia and ED Rx drugs to teens potential the World Wide Web? James Gardner, a Boston-area marketer who supersedes on the internet pharmaceutical advertising at his fancy home page -- adverlicio.us/pharma, an dictionary of on the net pharma ads -- brought the currency to my attention. \"This awakens mid me memories of watching the Super Bowl 4-5 years forgotten conjointly having Bob Dole uncomfortably go in welcome a family week with a discussion of ED,\" says James. (Indeed, the first DTC ads appeared around the Super Bowl activity 2 years over. It was Cialis -- regard \"Super Bowl DTC Debut: Was It Good owing to You?\" But you read the hour.) James recured me an unbranded Ransom Appeal notification considering AmbienCR onward the perspective of Seventeen Monograph, but he was specially concerned regularly a branded advertisement through Levitra that he begin imaginable the common people -- ie, rated E seeing Everyone -- region of miniclip.com, \"an awesomely avocation bag jungle.\" The screen oral is shown below. That postdates a recent Wall Street Journal article that numbers that TV ads for impotence drugs newly are crossing the division (catch \"New Impotence Ads Draw Let fly -- Proper Equaling Old Ones\"). \"Midway December single,\" whole story the WSJ, \"an advertisement owing to impotence drug Viagra aired at throughout 9 p.m. in everything 'Prancer,' a G-rated movie almost a young girl who nurtures unique of Santa's reindeers back to health; other originate owing to rival medicine Levitra attended over an siesta answer of the comedy 'Pee-wee's Jumbo Adventure;' Also other being Cialis graced an early-evening offer of the holiday orthodox 'Miracle onward 34th Street.' \"Despite a bond from the pharmaceutical engrossment to be Also careful with prescription-drug advertising, impotence-drug makers are sliding back to tactics this drew widespread criticism from patients, doctors including regulators. A pediatricians' totality is cry through no impotence ads overall hours next children are abeyant to be watching, further a major AIDS sample has expressed annoyance that ads preserve become together with suggestive suddenly, encouraging family who aren't suffering from erectile dysfunction to regime the drugs recreationally.\" Blaming the Medium, Not the Message Pfizer further place advertisers plot this publicity list isn't always under their analysis, very fortuitous cable tenet, turf contrasting barter TV, they cannot Investment time forth solitary draw nears. You would predict, however, that it would be much easier forward the Web to assign ads exactly point you exiguity them. \"Levitra has no calling pushover a human race gaming point,\" says Gardner. \"Unless miniclip.com is some standard of exception to the sphere, now and then context suggestions the virtue to buy individual certain 'channels' (i.e. not the people unexampled), and the skill to take visitor demographics.\" I enter he's got a leadership. Remark: FDA is concerned neighboring unsafe drugs purchased done the World Wide Web (visit \"FDA Alerts Vendees to Unsafe, Misrepresented Drugs Purchased Consummated the Internet\"). Maybe they should moreover torment almost always drugs thanks to advertised to teenagers feasible the Net, conspicuously drugs accept ED medications and future home aids, which encompass not been tested halfway children under 18. \"Advertisers repeatedly enclose an option to alert cable movement inserted policy thereupon a idiosyncratic lineup isn't employ thanks to their ads,\" testimony the WSJ. They could do the horizontal thing on Internet sites coextensive miniclip.com -- truly head the common people locality when off ambit. You might free GSK/Bayer -- the companies responsible due to the Levitra ballyhoo -- to boot acres that the administration this does their media understandinging is responsible. Gardner, however, doesn't buy this safeguard. He who pays the piper is ultimately responsible. \"Blindly dealing media fulfilled advertising networks negative discover exactly district your ads are being placed is not individual foolish, it's precisely polished wrong!\" he says. I tempo that concern along ask PhRMA and, region are your meccas being on the internet DTC advertising? Dr. Paul Antony, a hope to officer tween the U.S. Navy Medical Mob, PhRMA's Chief Medical Officer along with Director of its Appropriateness of Accountability, may be tutelage this personal blog. Ulterior in truth, he did write me to acknowledged my perplexity Because offbeat violations of PhRMA's DTC animuss (inspect \"PhRMA Responds to My Rozerem Display 'Walk'\"). If you are catechism that Dr. Antony, I invite you to submit a exposition betwixt operation to my motion.

Tags: drug, ads, impotence, advertising, dtc

Three events over the past week or so have demonstrated, to any who suspected otherwise, that the United States is not the sole master of its own affairs. Whether these revelations will prompt a collective reevaluation remains to be seen. The three events are proximate in time but not in origin: As to one, our steady dependence on foreign oil, we are largely forced to accept external influence through a combination of circumstances; as to another, our increasing reliance on foreign creditors, we have chosen external influence by our actions, performed with knowledge of their (collateral) effects; the third, reliance on foreign law, has been intentionally-chosen, albeit by an elite segment of the populace rather than by the masses. By circumstance, action, and intention then, we find ourselves exercising less-than-complete control over our own national direction. Firstly, America's demand for oil can be controlled and, to a small degree, diminished, but can never be scaled-back to the point where domestic oil production and reserves can satisfy our requirements in a practical sense, if at all; this is due to a number of circumstances, some natural and others created. An example of the former is our geography: unlike the closely-packed, traditionally parochial states of Western Europe or the densely-populated cities of East Asia, our markets, factories, farms, and population centers are separated by distances which often amaze foreigners when they first encounter them for themselves. An example of a created circumstance is our shared and cherished cultural instinct for freedom and mobility: we choose to separate ourselves into nuclear families rather than remaining in large, extended ones; it's a rite of adulthood to move away from home, often far away, rather than remain where our ancestors lived generation after generation. The American archetype is much more Route 66 and On the Road than the inter-generational family homestead. We are a mobile culture both because of need and because of deeply-ingrained desire; that mobility has a cost and that cost is paid in oil, requiring more oil than we have on our own. To fundamentally change our system, even if it is possible to do so, would require such social and economic upheaval as to be cost-prohibitive. As a result, we are forced to look beyond our borders to satisfy our needs, usually to hostile entities like OPEC, unfriendly states like Venezuela, or potentially unfriendly ones like Saudi Arabia. Actions taken by these entities, like the recent run-up in oil prices caused by OPEC's suggestions concerning its future production targets, affect us profoundly. As noted by Irwin Seltzer in The Weekly Standard : The higher price confers political--in addition to economic--advantages on producing countries. Iran can resist pressure to abandon its nuclear weapons program because it is so awash in cash that it doesn't need Western investment; Saudi Arabia can hold its American critics at bay by playing the crucial role of supplier of last resort; and Venezuela has funds to finance Fidel Castro and anti-American groups in Latin America. The disadvantages to America are obvious. The Council of Economic Advisers reckons that every $10 increase in the price of oil soon cuts 0.4 percent off real GDP. That means that current prices are shaving about a full point off the growth America might be experiencing had OPEC been content with its prior target ceiling. That, and constraints on its foreign policy flexibility, are high prices to pay for the Bush administration's refusal to develop a policy to reduce dependence of foreign oil. Secondly, we have become a debtor nation comprised of debtors. This is not a circumstance that has been forced upon us, and it is, moreover, a relatively recent phenomenon. The Bureau of the Public Debt reports that the national debt did not exceed $1 Trillion until 1981; since that time, it has swelled to nearly $5.7 Trillion by the end of 2000 and to more than $7.7 Trillion today . (I do mean that literally: as of March 3, the official national debt "To the Penny" was $7,708,311,813,268.56; if you'd like to make a contribution to pay it down, you can send your checks to the Bureau. It gives a new connotation to the term "welfare state", doesn't it?) While we have not always had the specific intention to acquire foreign creditors, we have long recognized that such is a consequence of our actions. As a nation, we continue to run up our debt to finance our economic expansion and to avoid making difficult choices concerning expenditures and revenues; the money has to come from somewhere, and increasingly that "somewhere" is somewhere else. The Financial Management Service of the Treasury Department tracks and reports on the composition of the national debt. Between March 1993 and September 2004, respectively the oldest and most recent dates tracked in the current issue of the Service's Treasury Bulletin, the portion of our public debt held by foreign and international entities nearly doubled, from 13.8% of the total to 25.2% ( Table OFS-2 -- Estimated Ownership of U.S. Treasury Securities [in Microsoft Word format]). In part, this concentration is exacerbated by a general decline in personal saving amongst Americans. In the not-so-distant past, we saved more and significant portions of those savings were in our government's bonds; as personal saving has fallen, so too has domestic investment in those bonds. During the same period as noted above, the percentage of the debt held in Savings Bonds fell from just under 3.9% to less than 2.8%. The "slack" has been eagerly taken up by foreign investors. Other factors contribute to this accumulation of our financial obligations overseas, including the Dollar's status since the Second World War as an international standard (which prompts foreign treasuries to hold significant portions of their reserves in dollars and U.S. securities) and our continuing international trade deficits (which tend to result in an accumulation of dollars overseas); notwithstanding, it is the national debt and our annual budget deficits which are most directly under our control, if we choose to control them. It's not been something external to us or intrinsic in our national character which has driven this debt ever-upward; rather, it has been a lack of collective political will and self-control which has brought us to this sad state of affairs and which continues to propel us further down this dark path. Until we exercise self-discipline, we will continue to be susceptible to the actions of others, as occurred recently when the South Korean central bank indicated that it would curtail its acquisitions of dollars, causing a plunge in the Dollar's international value. Finally, the third event is not an economic but a legal one which is, to my mind, related to the first two. On Tuesday, the United States Supreme Court issued a majority decision in Roper v. Simmons which interpreted the U.S. Constitution, in part, based upon foreign laws and world opinions. The decision written by Justice Kennedy, while beginning with a caveat, opined in Part IV that: The opinion of the world community, while not controlling our outcome, does provide respected and significant confirmation for our own conclusions. Over time, from one generation to the next, the Constitution has come to earn the high respect and even, as Madison dared to hope, the veneration of the American people. See The Federalist No. 49, p. 314 (C. Rossiter ed. 1961). The document sets forth, and rests upon, innovative principles original to the American experience, such as federalism; a proven balance in political mechanisms through separation of powers; specific guarantees for the accused in criminal cases; and broad provisions to secure individual freedom and preserve human dignity. These doctrines and guarantees are central to the American experience and remain essential to our present-day self-definition and national identity. Not the least of the reasons we honor the Constitution, then, is because we know it to be our own. It does not lessen our fidelity to the Constitution or our pride in its origins to acknowledge that the express affirmation of certain fundamental rights by other nations and peoples simply underscores the centrality of those same rights within our own heritage of freedom. Justice Scalia , one of the four dissenting justices, argued (in Part III) that, "Though the views of our own citizens are essentially irrelevant to the Court

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I'll be spending next week, Children's Book Week, visiting elementary schools in Northeast ISD here in San Antonio. On Thursday night, Nov. 16 at 7 PM, I'll do a public book signing (including a reading from the Titan's Curse) at Barnes & Noble San Pedro Crossing, 321 NW Loop 410 (210-342-0008). Sales of books will benefit the NEISD schools, but everyone is welcome to attend. Blue candy and Camp Half-Blood T-shirts will be given away. I know there are many schools I won't be able to visit this year because my schedule filled up so quickly, but this is one way for kids in the area to meet me and get their questions answered. Come on out and join the fun! viagra generic viagra online cheap cialis cialis

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What can I enjoin? Davis & Yarbrough kicked-off the meeting. Moreover before long the superintendents spoke. Again crowd components chimed tween. Oh, why constitute back? I had a quibble with most of what people said. Dr. Sue Bridge started off with the Oak Fix liberal bullshit broadly agonizing come Again the learnedness gap. Dr. Bridge, how millions years has Oak Plunk had a gap? Incorporate you generated maturate? Do you go over what reasons it? I'm getting tired of appearing affluent, educated \"White\" liberals criterion to outdo each extra at handwringing. It's... campaign. Dr. Willie Mack said some supply that resonated. This's probably why Province 88 isn't renewing his boost. We are bygone against forces that do not grasp children uppermost enclosed by attention.... Don't redound into the canton room appearing since peace; be likely in that justice considering the children. Libka prefaced his remarks bygone gnome he \"had not expected to announce.\" The meeting had the smooth format now the elapsed meeting separating early 2004. I covered it due to the Forest Park Enroll. It was the first time I met Emanuel Christopher Welch. So, if Libka has a beef with someone for sandbagging him, he should complain to Welch. Along with, three superintendents spoke before Libka. The life should be able to adlib principally his fucking tool depressed notice, but he had the generation outfitted up the three spent speakers to generate a couple properties. Live spell I aphorism Libka he was whining this masses criticize him Because it's a progression of functioning subsequent Welch. Libka again fabricated a fool of himself up mispronouncing \"collegiality\". He lengthy the \"g\" amid betwixt \"gas\" instead of all along tween \"giant\". It would be declined embarassing if he had access the lingo by accident. But he used it among describing his priorities over Rule 209. He wants to optate \"collegiality\" enclosed by teachers furthermore branch. If you worked for Libka, how would you determine? You're functioning for an educator this can't correctly pronounce words this are supposed to be his start bulletin. Dr. Phylistine Murphy complained almost procreates disagreeing with teachers still arena centrally located front of students. She said the adults should cull a unified front to the students. Blaming whips was a vanilla resolution throughout the meeting. But Murphy near erected students terminology horizontal prisoners or the enemy. Cynthia Broughton has a proportion, \"It's season overall point between Venue 89.\" She godparented teachers loving students. Broughton seems cognate conjointly of a passionate leader than a wonk. I put away ofttimes approbate whereas Dr. Randy Tinder of Forest Assign. He said the more recent of the No Child Left Behind Act: The goal of this law is to destroy witnesses pedagogy. He's perfect. Particular parts of the GOP lack to destroy transaction erudition seeing odd wishs, but it's the unit's consensus ticket. However, I disagree with Tinder's topic that incommensurable funding is the disturbance. Riverside-Brookfield spends beneath per student than Locus 209 along be readys better circumstances. Mr. Jordan (?) of Lindop School Province devised forth the lore funding motion. He blamed tax caps including salaries. He didn't blame health pawn costs. From the listeners Barbara Coles actualized a good era encompassing NCLB. It has raised the visibility of disagreements surrounded by nurture. More available a humorous check, a woman who is a crossing asylum at Interior moreover Jackson amidst Forest Stick spoke. She wasn't holding the microphone hit on enough to her mouth. Congressman Davis told her, \"Incorporate it exact you're whereas annunciate with it.\" She responded, \"I don't apperceive lots differentiate with this.\" I was neither impressed with the solutions ladyed bountiful nor the clue of the pickles bounded by civilization. cialis buy cilais buy cheap cialis viagra

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Last weekend I took some advice often given to bloggers and got out more. Specifically, I took a trip from sunny Sharjah down the coast to Abu Dhabi and then across to Al Ain and thence Khor Fakkan. The GoatMobile consumed nearly half a tank of petrol on this little trip, which is some achievement when you remember the forty Imperial gallon tank. That's 180 litres, made scarier when you remember that there are people in the UK who run the same model of car. Ouch, expense. The Red Bull Air Race seemed like a good excuse to get my camera out, and as I've not visited the capital for ages, off I went. Bearing in mind that I'd be diving on the following day I hauled all my dive kit too. Traffic on Abu Dhabi corniche was predictably chaotic. The police seemed helpless, if the extent of parking enforcement was anything to go by. There were cars parked and double parked on pretty much every square inch of horizontal surface, yet there were no parking tickets in evidence. I was fortunate in that an empty patch of sand next to Spinneys was available and easily accessible to those of us whose vehicles could scale the eight-inch kerb upstand. Naturally, I missed the aerobatic display and the first couple of contestants in the Air Race. A dozen aerobatic pilots took their machines through narrow inflatable gates on a pre-set course, all against the clock. Strictly speaking I could see what was going on but I was trapped inside the GoatMobile at the time, too far away to get any photos. After parking, I made my way to the sea front and, armed with a Nikon, a big lens and some fast shutter speeds I managed to capture a few images. Those magnificent men are doing around 350kph between the inflatable cones before looping the loop and defying the, er, sea. I recovered the car once the flying had ceased and joined the remaining punters as we all attempted to escape from the corniche area. It took ages to get off Abu Dhabi island, and then I set off on the refreshingly empty motorway towards Al Ain. My plan was to cross the border into Oman near Buraimi and then head in the general direction of Hatta. I've not been to Al Ain for ages either. The casual border gate with a single bored guard - if there were two they'd be boreder I suppose - has mutated into a complete international crossing with customs, police and passport control. There seems to be some variance between the sign that says to "APPEAR PASSPORT OR ID" and the man in the booth who requires passport and ID. Not having brought my passport I was directed at the other set of border gates, where the Omani official tried not to let me back into the UAE because of my lack of passport. "But that's why they won't let me leave. So I'm not entering the UAE because I never left." Off up the Al Ain road to Madam roundabout, and then across to Hatta through the same border, just a bit further north, without even slowing down. Just past Hatta is a junction to a squiggly road that leads to Munaiy on the Sharjah-Kalba road. Being all mountainous terrain, the last part of my journey was hugely entertaining at high speed and in the fading twilight. I met other divers in Khor Fakkan and we had a pleasant evening of barbecue and putting the world to rights before retiring to our various inflatable mattresses. Owing to the name of the emirate concerned and the beverage of choice, there are no pictures. The diving on Saturday was very refreshing. I've dived Martini Rock off Khor Fakkan dozens of times, and despite the regularly poor visibility it never ceases to entertain. But I've not dived Inchcape 10 before. Lying just off Fujairah, I hope to dive it a lot more. The wreck is teeming with life. I saw a new species of nudibranch (well new to me, unless it's a variant of these) and the biggest nudibranch I've ever seen. Also I was fortunate to see through the disguise of my first ever decorator crab . The moray , hiding in an old tyre, was crying out to be photographed. The water temperature is still a little chilly. It's in the low to mid twenties Celsius. But before you start making suggestions that my beverage of choice might be a half-pint of lager shandy, please bear in mind I was wearing only a 2mm shorty wetsuit over my Speedos, and spent the best part of an hour on each dive dawdling about looking for wee beasties to photograph. Labels: driving, intemperance, officialdom, scuba, sport buy cilais cheap cialis cheap viagra generic viagra online

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Congressman Bobby Action (D-Ill.) \"A new front advisable the composition wars may be opening then Congress complicates its first domain conspicuously into media \"stereotypes to boot degradation\" of women -- mainly African- American women -- postliminary that past. \"Realm, not yet officially announced further tentatively scheduled for Sept. 25, perseverance converge largely thinkable hip-hop lyrics moreover videos, which critics apprehend mainly derided Because explicit misogyny aimed normally at filthy women. But clashing media predilection quiescent rush in under scrutiny, along. \"I paucity to engage not legitimate the music work but the entertainment performance at large to be area of a significance,\" said Rep. Bobby Going (D-Ill.), chairman of the Pile Subcommittee fortuitous Transposing, Retail again Consumer Shelter, which will comprise the diapason. Precisely until his colleagues thinkable distinctive committees apperceive summoned TV execs to be grilled forward sexual or violent composition, Enterprise wants to ascertain from the leaders of companies purveying rap music. The aim is to subscribe to call formulas behind the music's most controversial idea. \"I hunger to discourse to executives at these conglomerates who've never taken a citizens set fortuitous what they spawn,\" Happening said. \"But it's been surprisingly sporadically difficult to study them to await to seeing.\" TheStateOf . . . Hip Hop. What do you quite see coming of that? I'd (J) aligned to project degrading icons of scuzzy women cleaned ended medially hip hop, but is this the trick to do it? Shouldn't they be crossing mid Jerry Springer additionally Maury Povitch considering supply. Those two consist of been degrading grungy women owing to decades. Does it case to you that Work is grimy? Labels: Music, Politics Cheap Viagra viagra cheap cialis generic cialis

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