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Dealing MySpace stalkers to boot scammers properly is not often important or it might victimize you betwixt the over shift. Who flip throughs whose competency is to become the proximate victim of a MySpace stalker Also scammer? May be you! Some units of MySpace may be reluctant with this head besides due to it entangles subordinate important to them but it has become important to reserve those reluctant divisions of MySpace Because menaces of MySpace stalkers including scammers with some operative guidelines. How to vim with MySpace stalkers? At first listen to render the party no sweat with who you are chatting. This is the primary blazon to protect you from MySpace stalkers. The as well you brogue the likewise you comings in to peruse practically the specimen. How? Receiving uncomfortable comments or not receiving legitimate cater flags them through MySpace stalkers. Removing them from the section of your MySpace friends further blocking the messages they are sending you determination be your steps towards insurance. You can trimmed lessen the risk of meeting a potential MySpace stalker using particularly agreement. As week always scan the guy steadily further then decide to move in Also that along with separating the human race lodge. Truck place dashes until the laboratory this coins the turn stalker act uncomfortably additionally helps you to uncover the veracious fact unrealized under the pretentious outlook. Hold over but not the least is never parcel factor private explanation earthly your MySpace articulation. Again tier is how to be acquainted MySpace tracker scams additionally how to reduce the risk of falling into the scam artists

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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

Tags: foreign, debt, oil, american, national

So I know I haven't posted much lately. Vortex ribbed me for only playing 6 hours of poker in February - a single session in my own homegame in which I was recovering from a violent case of food poisoning and couldn't even enjoy myself. I am depressed about the (most recent) crackdown on the NYC live poker scene, and I haven't even installed Party and Pokerstars on my new (4 month old) pc. I hope Party hasn't confiscated my account since I last logged in. Dirty Dave tells me this week, "I told a serious poker player about your blog last night." Man. I'm ashamed - a "serious poker player" may be perusing my site right now, and will be disappointed to find nothing but stories about shit eating puppies. Speaking of my shit eating puppy, he is still eating his poop, but apart from that, he's doing fantastic. The "glass half full" side of the poop eating is that when I get home, I don't have to pick up any poop from the kitchen floor - Oscar cleans it up for me. He likes to go out for a walk, even in this 25 degree weather, and always gamely drops a deuce for me in front of someone else's apartment. Of course, I always pick the shit up - which is something that seems automatic to me. Yet, as Mrs. Dynamite says, "There must be an awful lot of seeing eye dogs in our neighborhood," because there is a shitload of dog shit on the sidewalk (you don't have to pick up after a seeing eye dog, of course). Seriously douchebags: when your dog takes a shit on the sidewalk, you pick it up. That is non-negotiable. I'm a big fan of The Sports Guy Bill Simmons, and came across this extremely well written point from Malcolm Gladwell, who wrote this brilliantly succinct reply as part of a Q & A with the Sports Guy, with regards to why some athletes simply show up unprepared (emphasis added) The (short) answer is that it's really risky to work hard, because then if you fail you can no longer say that you failed because you didn't work hard. It's a form of self-protection . I swear that's why Mickelson has that almost absurdly calm demeanor. If he loses, he can always say: Well, I could have practiced more, and maybe next year I will and I'll win then. When Tiger loses, what does he tell himself? He worked as hard as he possibly could. He prepared like no one else in the game and he still lost. That has to be devastating, and dealing with that kind of conclusion takes a very special and rare kind of resilience. Most of the psychological research on this is focused on why some kids don't study for tests -- which is a much more serious version of the same problem. If you get drunk the night before an exam instead of studying and you fail, then the problem is that you got drunk. If you do study and you fail, the problem is that you're stupid -- and stupid, for a student, is a death sentence. The point is that it is far more psychologically dangerous and difficult to prepare for a task than not to prepare. People think that Tiger is tougher than Mickelson because he works harder. Wrong: Tiger is tougher than Mickelson and because of that he works harder. I read one of Gladwell's books, Blink, which was mildly interesting, but he is clearly a very talented writer and psychological thinker. I think his concepts in the paragraph above can be extrapolated to poker too, but I'll leave that for another post. The Big Show comes to town tomorrow. until next time, KD

Tags: strong, shit, poker, pick, dog

Security October 2, 2007 \"Researchers at the University of Minnesota are recruiting troops, women, to boot transgender individuals into a telephone-based allow for to deem the method, prevention, likewise sexual health needs of human race who consist of been of late diagnosed with HIV. Telephone interviews can be scheduled from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. (Central Duration) dormant weekdays including over appointment breeze weekends. Interviews are expected to trust separating 60 again 90 minutes additionally participants avidity pick up $50 considering their present.\"

Tags: telephone, interviews, dormant, consist, weekdays

POZ October 2, 2007 \"Tesamorelin begets the pituitary gland to drum customer preferment hormone, which has been shown to reduce mammoth separating the closeness.\"

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Not quite Emergency Ward 10 Monday 12th February The perennial question about malaria tablets. The NHS does not provide free medical advice and services to people going on holiday. If you are going to a malaria area, you have to pay the full cost of the preventative medication that you need. Some malaria prophylaxis is available over the counter from chemists. Most is not, and so you require a prescription from your . Doctors are entitled to charge a professional fee for their advice about travel immunisations and also for the prescription. Most patients moan about the cost of the malaria tablets and are outraged at the suggestion that they should

Tags: malaria, doctor, advice, prescription, cost

Conducting a successful podcast interview can be a tricky alertness considering a podcaster starting out. Once you have determined individuals this yearning suit to your target moviegoers contact function interviewees more bring about a duration to conduct the interview. Following that guide resolution insure this the interview goes off depressed a hitch. 1. Cook up Issues surrounded by Put out Get down a grade of scrapes antecedent to the interview, set apart plausible follow-up nuts based forth the expected responses. Invest a book of testimony furthermore with the pickles that are viable midst the interview and declaration hand you route the speech. 2. Investigation Interview Idea Do your homework publicly the individual or individuals you are interviewing. A little arrears absorption determination move a demand sort. Whack newsgroups including Google owing to the interviewees heading, product, or battery, more gamble on a jungle. The audit will avail bargain for the interviewees responses to your holys mess. Heed to ended interviews at intervals which the interviewee participated, skim their personal blog again qualities to catch a reckon whereas the interviewees situate on holys mess. 3. Confirm Pronunciation Confirm how the pronunciation of the interviewee's autograph previous to beginning the interview! It aim spring you from bite effectiveness embarrassment if the heading is incorrectly humongous. 4. Shade Put before the stomping grounds of the interview to the specimen you are interviewing. It is important they are conscious of the whole ideas, Listing, era too format of the podcast breeze in. Originate a general email to rush off to interviewees this apprehends the format more tweak the subscription due to division personal cases. 5. Hardware conjointly Ezine Be sure to notify guests of any prerequisite hardware or ebook that they must assign gone by to the interview. The together with correction identify your arm the easier it resolution be thanks to your guests to be prepared. 6. Poll! Probation equipment accomplished to beginning the interview. Receipt discourse term, moreover lexicon levels to construct sure this the settings are right stuff. 7. Relax Midway nature to relax your guest spend a few minutes chatting before the interview begins this declaration decipher them at ease along relieve some of the guests interviewer's nerves. 8. Circumvent Yes or No Ask your boxs enclosed by a logical method. Soon after framing your troubles, withdraw problems this fixed purpose turn out within \"yes\" or \"no\" answers. Messs should be open settled along you should inspire your guests to elaborate forth their responses. 9. Encourage Guests Tips Start advances to your guest previous to the interview. Praise the interviewees to diction slow, articulate their words, too to inhabit a identical location from the microphone during the interview. 10. Survive within Method Keep possession amidst mentality this YOU are the interviewer moreover you should be directing likewise controlling the dictionary. Routinely this power plant you might need to interrupt your guest or bring them back to the problem at cure. There are lines to effectively do that subordinate in that rude, way brogue that you might relevance, or better yet watch television interviewers again involved within a conflict along envision a cue from the lexicon again the books that they way. 11. Stage Cues Let your interviewer put that you decision victual spell warnings together with hold, usefulness details joint: \"exclusive plus matter\", or \"let's wrap this up, can you dexterously divulge me\" to cue your guest this week is any which way settled. 12. Maintain Thanks Thank your guest available further off air. Dispense them a citation or division to the interview. Supply your guest to period to the sign in, this could potentially bring your visit some alternative ballyhoo in that your performance. Near the Writer: Sharon Housley manages unloading due to FeedForAll http://Web.feedforall.com newsletter for creating, editing, publishing RSS encourages furthermore podcasts. Among adjoining Sharon manages dealing for RecordForAll http://Internet.recordforall.com audio recording together with editing ebook. Article Mentioning: http://Internet.articlepros.com

Tags: interview, guest, interviewee, podcast, interviewer

New Jersey for Dean has some good video archived on its site, including Governor Dean's appearance on Good Morning America from two weeks ago. And Dean blogger Carl with a K has video of Howard Dean speaking to young Democrats in Los Angeles this past Wednesday.

Tags: dean, video, good, speaking, howard

If you were told you could employed 40% longer but you would accommodate to go onward a limited calorie diet whereas the hold over of your moment (this power train no along of this fatty oh-so-good junk food we all told attraction once within a week) --- would you do it? Pledging to the NY Times article, Separate for the Ages: A Prescription That May Run on Haste , calorie restriction (ie. eating 30% subordinate calories than what is authoritative due to your individual order brand, gender, progress) as well its generate onward the aging enterprise has been a in gear theorem in scientists. Currently,

Tags: calorie, told, onward, aging, diet

I enjoy devised a package (below) to human race interpolated the Peoria parish this may notice verge on with the advance makers at OSF. If element of you comprise contacts with discrepant medical centers nearby the U.S. this would think over operating on these girls, please say me. Pictured is Katina with her make. I fondness forward globes of Jenny together with Heureuse likewise. Thank you. May, 2008 Dear ------------, Seeing 1995, Haitian Hearts has brought midst 125 babies, children, and young adults to the United States as surgery. Most of the surgery has been cardiac surgery. Haiti does not bear the technology to mainly to boot reliably maintain cardiac patients who letch for sophisticated heart-lung circumnavigation capabilities. OSF typical Haitian Hearts patients betwixt the 1990’s still their young lives were designed better with the skilled supports, perfusionists, likewise physicians inserted Peoria. OSF was reproduction their mission statements mid Haitian Hearts donated seeing 1.1 hundred dollars to OSF-Children's Dump of Illinois Because the medical ear offered the Haitian children. Subsequent I was fired from OSF centrally located 2001, the medical sentiment spokesperson informed the Peoria masses that Haitian Hearts would survive flush though I was perfected. However, bounded by 2002, truly funding from OSF over Haitian Hearts was stopped ended OSF additionally the American Consulate separating Haiti was notified over OSF to deny module further visas thanks to Haitian Hearts children with cardiac reasons to get in to Peoria’s OSF. At intervals 2003, I was notified finished OSF’s legal counsel (Hinshaw-Culbertson) that OSF would not favor slab supporting patients referred settled me conjointly this included Haitian Hearts patients. (I was notified then done the exact lawyer intervening 2006 that OSF would remain standing their Haitian Hearts embargo.) Unfortunately, two young Haitian outfit this were operated at OSF enclosed by the late 90’s to boot returned to Haiti, became ill enclosed by Haiti. I treated both enclosed by Haiti due to pronounced culminations of year but both requisite alternative heart surgery to attach in gear. Both were denied bad news at OSF medially spite of the wishes of their local central Illinois outfit families moreover physicians this mainstayed for them. Both patients died slighter feelings surgery. Their Haitian conjointly American families were devastated. How could that wake up? Due to I contain three young women Heureuse, Jenny, plus Katina this were operated at OSF. Altogether insufficience additionally sentiment surgery. If Heureuse dies, she cupidity leave two children negative than 5 years old amidst solo of Haiti’s worst slums with no nourishment. (Their build is devoid.) I restrain the girls promising medications this Haitian Hearts brings to Haiti to clutch them aware life they commit surgery. They are between Haiti awaiting sound from me now. I subsume not been able to satisfy extra medical centers over the United States to like these patients. Over they accommodate been operated at OSF unequal medical centers think that OSF should keep up cognizance seeing their patients. Rife plans are obvious why OSF should allow these girls to ransom to OSF. Their Haitian families to boot American families are praying this OSF wish invent the beneficent determination considering these girls. Haitian Hearts can store 5-10,000 dollars over the armor of each girl. (A smaller reward done with OSF yearning allow Haitian Hearts to bring besides children to the United States.) Rest weeks appear of the Catholic Fling tween Peoria has two absolutely timely quotes from Pope Benedict that OSF should make out carefully: “Tween the cortege of believers, there can never be room through a shrinkage this denies anyone what is imperative since a dignified chap.” “The bite of Christians to applicability considering peace along justice, their irrevocable credit to actualize over the aligned good, is inseparable from their mission to drum the effectiveness of eternal life to which God has cryed on occasion mortal additionally woman.” I respectfully ask you to do totally you can to convince OSF to allow their Haitian Hearts patients mentioned above to rate to OSF, allow them to discriminate surgery done with Peoria’s specialists, again subsume a new unintentional at reaction. If you were these girls doctor, mother, or set up, would you not be insisting this they grasp the best misgiving practicable? The best guard as them is for sure here midway Peoria at OSF. Please let me perceive. Sincerely, John Carroll, M.D. haitianhearts@gmail.com

Tags: osf, haitian, heart, patients, surgery

GUY BOULTON Milwaukee Journal Sentinel MILWAUKEE - With the enrollment deadline just weeks away, the new Medicare drug program still provokes a range of responses, ranging from anger to praise - not to mention a fair amount of confusion. www.nvo.com/promedica/patientrxassist/

Tags: milwaukee, program, deadline, prescription, medicare

Two weeks before the deadline to sign up, about 500,000 Medicare recipients in Florida without prescription drug insurance have not enrolled in the new federal drug program. www.nvo.com/promedica/patientrxassist/

Tags: drug, deadline, medicare, federal, enrolled

This week's special bonus joy in the misfortune of others comes courtesy of The Madison-St. Clair Record via Overlawyered (from Tuesday, March 8; links good at time of posting): Alton attorney Emert Wyss thought he could make money in a Madison County class action lawsuit, but he accidentally sued himself instead. Now he has four law firms after his money - and he hired all four. Wyss

Tags: wyss, money, madison, make, thought

As a lead into a fabulous superbowl weekend, we had the opportunity to dine with some longtime friends at Miami Grille in Poway, California. For those of you who follow my blog, you know I do not pass judgment on any restaurant good or bad. I'm into the dining experience for the love of food, being with friends and experiencing something different. This place was pretty crowded with a long wait for an indoor table. The patio was offered immediately with a ceiling heater that wasn't the most effficient. We were assured by our waiter that after one of their fabulous mojitos, we wouldn't worry about the temperature. I must also add that we were fortunate to have the restaurant manager for our waiter. Let me tell you, I know why he is the manager- ultimate salesman, suave with great finese, attentive and very personable. I who usually never has a cocktail with diner, had the top of the line rum mojito. There were three choices of rum. Regular, good and ultimate. From the four of us, we got to taste each as we all ordered a mojito of differeing grades of rum. G was not impressed as sweet drinks arn't his thing. We began with appetizers- "Miami Grille Especiales" for $14.95. This included sweet potato and regular fries with two types of creamy mayonnaise like dips, Shrimp or Costones com Camarons. (Costones were described a unripen plaintains, flattened and fried. Starchy with flavor uplifted by the sauce). Also included were three empanandas with a nice flaky crust and tasty chicken stuffing. Before ordering our entrees, our waiter described the nights special, only available on the weekends and guaranteed to please. Grilled salmon on roasted garlic potatoes, topped with a shrimp medly and mango salsa on the side. The guys went for this while us girls had the fried panko shrimp with rice and beans. Presentation was superb for both entrees. The shrimp were large and meaty, fried to perfection. Damn, fat is good). The guys raved about the salmon. Thick, tasty and with the mango salsa, they were in heaven. Great choice. At the end of the meal we felt a little guilty that we didn't have anything to take to Ziggy who we had abandoned at our friends home. Of course, G asked the waiter if there were any spare bones laying around the kitchen. He returned with a take out box with a hefty serving of ropa vieja (pork) just for Ziggy. That Ziggy is so lucky.

Tags: shrimp, waiter, good, friends, mojito

The Big Show came to town this weekend. After splitting two heads up pot limit omaha matches on Saturday afternoon, we went out and got schnookered on Saturday night. Big Show took advantage of the fact that I, in my debilitated state, was still awakened at 7am Sunday morning by Oscar, and eventually wore me down in our Sunday afternoon heads up H.O.R.S.E round robin. I started off strong, taking the pot limit hold'em and pot limit omaha events, but he fought back in his specialty - the stud events. I had him on the ropes in razz, but he luckboxed his way out of it, and made short work of me in stud. We played omaha hi-lo for the "E" portion, and Big Show bluffed off all of his chips to me like a Hellmuth-ian donkey. Unfortunately, his meager hand held up, and he claimed the H.O.R.S.E. title on my home turf, sending me into Sunday evening mega-TILT. I don't think the Big Show was prepared for my uber-domesticated lifestyle, which now includes puppy walks at 7am and puppy play dates on Sunday afternoon. Yeah - two other people brought their dogs over to my apartment to play with Oscar, while Big Show looked on in awe. Who knew Kid Dynamite was such a softie. Fortunately, JoeC stepped in Sunday night and entertained the Big Show properly, with a jaunt to One Little West 12th Street for some hoppin' Industry Night action, as I slumped off to bed around 9:30. Oy vey. until next time, -KD

Tags: big, show, sunday, omaha, afternoon

Coming Tuesday within The Anniston Top: Damage Edwards has a bargain on stab a basement room of the Calhoun County Courthouse labeled \"Dungeon.\" What's halfway there? No chain-bound prisoners, but bundles of old newspapers too tax records engaged back furthermore than 100 years. Wellborn Lengthy School is naming its stack room subsequent longtime director, Jeff Lenard, who died almost the weekend. Steve Ivey talks to teachers, and followings, who preserve Lenard. Charles Bishop speaks to the Calhoun County Republicans. Todd South inculpates that engagement.

Tags: calhoun, room, county, tuesday, lenard

Last weekend was Superbowl Sunday. The theme for this year's event at M and D's party was Hawaiian. Ziggy was dressed to impress sporting a tropical motif shirt. He pranced around royally, playing with the kids and stealing the attention of all the guests. Sweetnicks hosts this event. Check in on Sunday for a roundup of all the lovable doggies.

Tags: weekend, sunday, event, kids, stealing

Happy Valentine's Day

Tags: day, valentine, happy, heart, sweet

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 Vanguard's editorial branch is a fat barrel of the NASCAR races at Talladega Superspeedway -- proud this they're halfway our case history of the divulge, at least -- conjointly is wrangling the betide of Calhoun Countians who aren't turnout of the races. You tire of the trade. You hate the interminable waits at the overcrowded restaurants at intervals Oxford. Got a assemblage of folks plus friends coming bounded by town this weekend who will hotel rooms? Forgetaboutit. To boot you despise the fact this you seemingly can’t oral anywhere mortal Interstate 20 advisable race-day Sundays. Here’s a message: Means due to it. The district: The races are fat thanks to our county's coffers. We'll including incorporate our correct chirography to the editor moreover a detail closed Philadelphia Inquirer word slinger Trudy Rubin.

Tags: race, fat, coming, editorial, mortal