Welcome

Welcome
John William Tuohy lives in Washington DC

And I believe in you........................





“Many of us spend our whole lives running from feeling with the mistaken belief that you can not bear the pain. But you have already borne the pain. What you have not done is feel all you are beyond that pain.” Kahlil Gibran


On forgiveness.................

When it comes to a question of our forgiving other people, it is partly the same and partly different [from asking God to forgive us]. It is the same because, here also, forgiving does not mean excusing.

Many people seem to think it does.

They think that if you ask them to forgive someone who has cheated or bullied them you are trying to make out that there was really no cheating or no bullying. But if that were so, there would be nothing to forgive. They keep on replying, ‘But I tell you the man broke a most solemn promise.’ Exactly: that is precisely what you have to forgive. 
(This doesn’t mean that you must necessarily believe his next promise. It does mean that you must make every effort to kill every taste of resentment in your own heart—every wish to humiliate or hurt him or to pay him out.)

The difference between this situation and the one in which you are asking God’s forgiveness is this. In our own case we accept excuses too easily; in other people’s we do not accept them easily enough. C.S. Lewis, in Weight Of Glory



Take care of yourself.........
With every act of self- care your authentic self gets stronger, and the critical, fearful mind gets weaker. Every act of self-care is a powerful declaration: I am on my side; each day I am more and more on my side. Susan Weiss Berry


 


HERE'S A NICE POEM FOR YOU.......................................

In the Ancient Tradition
By David Budbill

In the Ancient Tradition
I live within the ancient tradition:
the poet as mountain recluse,
withdrawn and hidden,
a life of genteel poverty,
a quiet life of meditation,
which gives me lots of time
to gnash my teeth and worry over
how I want to be known and read
by everyone and have admirers
everywhere and lots of money!

Dilemma
I want to be
famous
so I can be
humble
about being
famous.
What good is my
humility
when I am
stuck
in this
obscurity?




David Wolf Budbill (born 1940, Cleveland, Ohio) is a poet, and playwright. He is the author of eight books of poems, eight plays, a novel, a collection of short stories, a picture book for children, and dozens of essays, introductions, speeches, and book reviews.


His three most recent books of poems are Happy Life (Copper Canyon Press, 2011), While We’ve Still Got Feet (Copper Canyon Press, 2005) and Moment to Moment: Poems of a Mountain Recluse (Copper Canyon Press, 1999).
His collection of narrative poems, Judevine, was republished in an expanded edition by Chelsea Green Publishing Company in 1999. He has also served as an occasional commentator on National Public Radio's All Things Considered.
He is the creator and editor of The Judevine Mountain Emailite: a Cyberzine: an On-Line and On-Going Journal of Politics and Opinion, which is available on his website.
In 2000, Budbill wrote the libretto for an opera, with music by composer Erik Nielsen, called A Fleeting Animal: An Opera from Judevine, which is based on two characters from the Judevine poems. A Fleeting Animal premiered in Vermont in October 2000 to rave reviews and packed houses.
Among his honors and prizes are his first Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from New England College, in Henniker, New Hampshire, in January 2009. David's other prizes and honors include: a Guggenheim Fellowship in Poetry in 1981, a National Endowment for the Arts Play Writing Fellowship in 1991, The Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award for Fiction in 1978, and The Vermont Arts Council’s Walter Cerf Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts in 2002. In November 2009 David was inducted as a Fellow into the Vermont Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2011, David received the Kjell Meling Memorial Award for Distinction in the Arts & Humanities. presented by Pennsylvania State University/Altoona.
Happy Life (Copper Canyon Press, 2011) is his latest collection of poems. Inspired by ancient Chinese and Japanese reclusive poets, Budbill continues a discourse about his struggles living a simple life in a complex modern time.

He lives in the mountains or northern Vermont with his wife, painter Lois Eby; their daughter is the poet Nadine Wolf Budbill.His papers are held at University of Vermont.






http://www.amazon.com/No-Time-Say-Goodbye-Memoir/dp/

 In 1962, six year old John Tuohy, his two brothers and two sisters entered Connecticut’s foster care system and were promptly split apart. Over the next ten years, John would live in more than ten foster homes, group homes and state schools, from his native Waterbury to Ansonia, New Haven, West Haven, Deep River and Hartford. In the end, a decade later, the state returned him to the same home and the same parents they had taken him from. As tragic as is funny compelling story will make you cry and laugh as you journey with this child to overcome the obstacles of the foster care system and find his dreams.
http://www.amazon.com/No-Time-Say-Goodbye-Memoir/dp/0692361294/
http://amemoirofalifeinfostercare.blogspot.com/

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John William Tuohy is a writer who lives in Washington DC. He holds an MFA in writing from Lindenwood University. He is the author of numerous non-fiction on the history of organized crime including the ground break biography of bootlegger Roger Tuohy "When Capone's Mob Murdered Touhy" and "Guns and Glamour: A History of Organized Crime in Chicago."
His non-fiction crime short stories have appeared in The New Criminologist, American Mafia and other publications. John won the City of Chicago's Celtic Playfest for his work The Hannigan's of Beverly, and his short story fiction work, Karma Finds Franny Glass, appeared in AdmitTwo Magazine in October of 2008.
His play, Cyberdate.Com, was chosen for a public performance at the Actors Chapel in Manhattan in February of 2007 as part of the groups Reading Series for New York project. In June of 2008, the play won the Virginia Theater of The First Amendment Award for best new play.


Contact John:
MYWRITERSSITE.BLOGSPOT.COM
JWTUOHY95@GMAIL.COM



HERE'S SOME WONDERFUL ART FOR YOU TO ENJOY........................................

 “Normality is a paved road: It’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it.” Vincent van Gogh




Great art is the outward expression of an inner life of the artist, and this innerlife will result in his personal vision of the world. Edward Hopper

Hopper

                      Edward Hopper (1882-1967), Two Puritans, oil on canvas, painted in 1945.
 Edward Hopper (American, 1882-1967), Barn at Essex, 1929. Watercolor and pencil on paper, 16 x 25 in.
                                            Edward Hopper Night Windows, 1928

                                               Edward Hopper, Hotel by a Railroad

                                             Edward Hopper, Rooms by the Sea, 1951
                Edward Hopper, Second Story Sunlight, Oil on canvas, 1960

                                   Edward Hopper, self portrait 1925-30


People taking pictures of people: Old Grandfather Mountain, North Carolina

 I'm an amateur photographer, I travel a lot so some years ago and I noticed that everywhere I went there was someone taking a photo of someone else. It's part of the human condition and I think it’s fun so I started snapping pictures of people taking pictures. 





A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.


Visit our Shakespeare Blog at the address below
http://shakespeareinamericanenglish.blogspot.com/



THE WRITERS LIFE.....................









AND NOW A FEW WORDS FROM EMERSON..................

Real action is in silent moments.

We are taught by great actions that the universe is the property of every individual in it.

Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it.





I LOVE BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOS FROM FILM................



A naked couple look on in amusement as a fully-clothed man turns to stare in disgust at a passing naturist on the beach. 1959

AND COLOR TOO..........................




BAIL REFORM HAS TO HAPPEN.....................



New Mexico voters may decide bail reform
Andrew Oxford
 Can you put a price on freedom?
Judges do every day when they arraign criminal defendants and set bail. But critics say pegging a dollar figure to a suspect’s freedom is unfair and unsafe.
A gang member can bond out of jail with ease if they have a steady income from drug sales but a drug user with no criminal history but little money could wait for their day in court behind bars.
That can leave the poorest criminal defendants out of a job and separated from family members who may need their support, punishing them before being found guilty of anything, reform advocates argue.
Meanwhile, criminal defendants with a history can post bail if they can afford it.
Last week, a committee of lawyers, judges and legal experts New Mexico courts should have the power to order the most dangerous criminal suspects detained without bail.
While the proposal may seem “tough on crime,” some advocates for abolishing the practice of demanding money for a suspect’s freedom until their day in court see it as one step towards what they view as a fairer system — in which the threat a criminal defendant poses to society is the deciding factor in their release rather than whether they have the cash to post bail.
The state’s constitution currently guarantees everyone the right to bail unless they are charged with a capital offense such as murder and “the proof is evident or the presumption great,” though New Mexico abolished capital punishment in 2009. Courts can also deny bail for a period of 60 days for certain criminal defendants who have prior felony convictions.
“Because the New Mexico Constitution mandates that bail be set for all defendants subject to these limited exceptions, New Mexico judges lack the authority to detain many of the most dangerous, violent individuals,” UNM School of Law Professor Leo Romero wrote Aug. 14 to the New Mexico Supreme Court on behalf of its Ad Hoc Pretrial Release Committee, which was formed earlier this year to recommend reforms to the state’s laws regarding bail.
The only option is to impose an extremely high money bail, Romero wrote, but noted a New Mexico Supreme Court decision last year prohibits setting bail for the purpose of preventing a defendant’s release before trial.
“Intentionally setting bail so high as to be unattainable is simply a less honest method of unlawfully denying bail altogether,” the court ruled in State v. Brown.
“In light of these authorities and the challenges faced by New Mexico judges, a majority of the committee recommends that the Supreme Court should pursue a constitutional amendment that will permit New Mexico judges to detain defendants pending trial in cases where no type of pretrial release and/or conditions of pretrial release will reasonably assure the defendant’s appearance in court or the safety of any other person and the committee,” Romero wrote.
Currently, “it’s not their danger to you or I, but their ability to raise cash” that decides whether a criminal defendant remains in jail before trial, said Timothy J. Murray, director emeritus of the Pretrial Justice Institute.
“The most risky and dangerous defendant can secure their release if they have the means to do so,” he said.
Of 68 people in custody at the Taos County Adult Detention Center Tuesday (Aug. 19), for example, approximately one-fourth were awaiting trial on nonviolent charges.
Preventive detention is just one of several measures recommended by the Pretrial Justice Institute, which advocates for bail decision-making processes based on risk rather than a criminal defendant’s resources.
The institute also recommends pretrial risk assessments for defendants, pretrial supervision and monitoring, citing suspects for certain crimes rather than arresting them and ensuring criminal defendants are represented by an attorney during their first appearance in court as well as eliminating bond schedules which dictate based on the alleged crime how much a suspect needs to pay to get out of jail before seeing a judge.
The New Mexico Supreme Court Ad Hoc Pretrial Release Committee is expected to propose several such reforms by the end of the year.
Amending the New Mexico Constitution to allow for preventive detention will require the approval of voters, however.
The committee did not recommend specific language for such a ballot measure but asked the supreme court, Administrative Office of the Courts and legislature work together to draft a question for voters.
To be included in the 2016 general election, lawmakers will need to approve a constitutional ballot question by the end of their session in February.
New Mexico would join a growing number of states changing how judges set bail.
New Jersey voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure in 2014 amending their state constitution to allow for preventive detention. But unlike in New Mexico, where bail reform has been spurred by a court ruling, the question of preventive detention was put to voters after years of legislative effort.
The approval of preventive detention was tied to a series of other reforms, winning the proposal backing from civil liberties groups.
“We supported the preventive detention piece but only because it was part of a larger holistic bail reform,” said Roseanne Scotti of the Drug Policy Alliance.
New Jersey is now implementing risk assessments for criminal defendants, eliminating bond schedules and is creating a pretrial supervision unit responsible for monitoring suspects released from jail pending future court dates.
Scotti cautioned that states must ensure preventive detention comes with due process.
“You can’t have preventive detention just as a way of keeping people in jail for years,” she said, emphasizing assessment and speedy trials are made all the more important when judges have the authority to detain suspects without bond.
Bail bondsmen in New Mexico and across the country have been critical of such measures.
A local bail bondsman and former judge is skeptical, for example, that the state government could take on responsibility for monitoring criminal defendants released ahead of trial.
“Does the state have money to do it? Probably not,” said Erminio Martinez.
Consistency in bail across the state would be the most useful reform, he said.
Bond schedules vary from county to county, for example. A comparison of bond schedules across the state published last year by the UNM Institute for Social Research found a wide range of bonds imposed for similar charges across 22 jurisdictions. Taos County’s bond schedule is higher than most included in the study. Bond schedules may be dispensed with entirely, though, following the New Mexico Supreme Court’s decision in State v. Brown.
Martinez said he would also support releasing more criminal defendants on their own recognizance. But either way, the bondsman acknowledged changes are likely to come.
Andrew Oxford is a reporter for The Taos News.




GOOD WORDS TO HAVE........................



Cannibalize   \KAN-uh-buh-lyze\ 1: to take salvageable parts from (as a disabled machine) for use in building or repairing another machine  2: To take (sales) away from an existing product by selling or being sold as a similar but new product usually from the same manufacturer; also : to affect (as an existing product) adversely by cannibalizing sales 3 : to practice cannibalism
 During World War II, military personnel often used salvageable parts from disabled vehicles and aircraft to repair other vehicles and aircraft. This sacrifice of one thing for the sake of another of its kind must have reminded some folks of cannibalism by humans and animals, because the process came to be known as cannibalizing. The armed forces of this time were also known to cannibalize—that is, to take away personnel from—units to build up other units. It didn't take long for this military slang to become civilianized. Since its demobilization, the term has been used in a variety of contexts.



Happiness spreads but depression doesn’t
August 22, 2015 News, Tid Bits 2 Comments
London :Having a friend who suffers from depression does not put you at risk of becoming depressed, a new study has found.
Researchers found that having friends can halve the probability of developing, or double the probability of recovering from, depression over a six to 12 month period.
The findings are the result of a study of the way teenagers in a group of US high schools influenced each others’ mood. The academics used a mathematical model to establish if depression spreads from friend to friend.
 “The good news is we’ve found that a healthy mood amongst friends is linked with a significantly reduced risk of developing and increased chance of recovering from depression,” said Frances Griffiths, head of social science and systems in health at Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick.
The researchers looked at more than 2,000 adolescents in a network of US high school students.
They examined how their mood influenced each other by modelling the spread of moods using similar methods to those used to track the spread of infectious diseases.
The mathematical model used suggests that adolescents who have five or more mentally healthy friends have half the probability of becoming depressed compared to adolescents with no healthy friends.
And teenagers who have 10 healthy friends have double the probability of recovering from depressive symptoms compared to adolescents with just three healthy friends.
 “In the context of depression, this is a very large effect size. Changing risk by a factor of two is unusual,” said lead author Edward Hill, a mathematics researcher at the University of Warwick.
 “Our results suggest that promotion of any friendship between adolescents can reduce depression since having depressed friends does not put them at risk, but having healthy friends is both protective and curative,” Hill said.
Social factors such as living alone or having experienced abuse in childhood are already linked to depression. Also social support, such as having someone to talk to has been cited as important for recovery from depression.
 “It could be that having a stronger social network is an effective way to treat depression. More work needs to be done but it may be that we could significantly reduce the burden of depression through cheap, low-risk social interventions,” said Thomas House, senior lecturer in applied mathematics from the University of Manchester.
 “As a society, if we enable friendships to develop among adolescents (for example providing youth clubs) each adolescent is more likely to have enough friends with healthy mood to have a protective effect,” House said.
The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.



Happiness in the journey to the dream
It’s important to have dreams and goals, but don’t let it stop you from living your life
By Ali Al Aradi
At some point in time, every individual keeps different long term or short term objectives that are either personal, professional, financial or social. Sometimes you are not even aware of it yourself, but you are passing through the journey of life with dreams at all times. These dreams may be related to a higher purpose or to our day-to-day lives.
Every action that you perform aims to fulfil this dream. Moreover, these actions are associated with the expectation of achieving some objectives. However, you do not always achieve these objectives and if you don’t, the feelings of anxiety or worry overwhelm you. Even if the set objectives are achieved, the nature of the journey prior to achieving those objectives is stressful when compared to a journey that is free of expectations. Worry and stress not only harm us emotionally, but it also harms our physical body and our relationships, which make the journey difficult and tiring.
It is not wrong to be action oriented and to have some clear objectives in order to make progress towards dreams, but you need to be capable of targeting your dream without becoming preoccupied with a specific timeline that it must be achieved. You cannot have the expectation of having them fulfilled immediately or by a specific date. If so, you will not enjoy the present as you constantly worry or get upset about the future.
It is natural to be happy when you achieve a goal, but if your happiness is dependent on achievements, then it will always be delayed. Happiness is ‘now’ and cannot be saved for later. It is commonly said that happiness is a journey, not a destination. In my opinion, happiness is not only in reaching your dream and your destination, but also in the journey to the dream.
- The reader is a human resource development lecturer and writer based in Manama, Bahrain.


 A NATIONAL BASIC INCOME.............................


Basic income is a human right
By Daniel Elliot
Everyone should be entitled to a basic income.
Universal Basic Income (UBI) is not a new idea. But it is an idea whose time has come. It is one of the simplest, most obvious pieces of social policy imaginable: every member of a society, with no exceptions, is entitled to enough money to live on.
Eligibility is not conditional on age or employment status, or education or criminal record like the poorly-built social welfare programs of modern Australia that have deep, but invisible, cracks for the most vulnerable to fall into.
With this one policy we can end poverty and social vulnerability and greatly strengthen workers rights. It would help close racial and gender inequalities and exploitation.
Poverty and need
Imagine an Australia where unemployment benefits, pensions, youth allowance, and other payments are all replaced by a basic income of $20,000 a year per adult — about $400 a week, roughly the poverty line for an independent adult. The advantages would be immediate and obvious.
The most immediate effect would be to cut poverty for all people who are not afflicted with addiction or some other compulsion that would prevent them from spending that money on the essentials of life.
By taking the radical step of realising that poverty is caused by a lack of money — rather than lack of skill, incentive or moral character as right-wingers so often claim — and structurally redressing that, we cut the Gordian knot. What a mind-boggling quantity of human stress, toil and misery would be eliminated if everyone could be assured that, at the end of the day, they know for a certainty that they are entitled to the essentials of life as a legally enforceable human right.
Labour and the future of work
With the implementation of UBI, workers become hugely empowered in their negotiations with their bosses. Without the threat of poverty and destitution that unemployment now holds, workers can afford to be far bolder in their negotiations.
The wages for dirty, dangerous and unpleasant jobs — currently filled at low pay, overwhelmingly by those with no alternative — will rise significantly. How much would you actually have to pay someone to clean toilets when they can refuse?
This empowerment is not only likely to raise wages for the least desirable jobs, it is also likely to lead to a cut in the work-week across the board. People will be able to refuse more hours and have more time to spend with friends and family, care for children, the old and infirm, relax, educate themselves, volunteer in their communities and get politically active.
This would be a powerful blow against because it would effectively eliminate the ability of capital to threaten workers with destitution as a tool of coercion. As such, it would greatly diminish the potential for exploitation.
UBI can also provide security to the “precariat”, the rapidly growing segment of workers who lack income security due to casualisation of work, being self-employed, or working in highly unpredictable or seasonal industries. This security can allow people to pursue their talents and passions without the fear of poverty. This can also provide support for cooperative enterprises, which may not be able to support their members initially.
When access to the necessities of life are a human right, volunteering and community organising are no longer de facto penalised by the need to sell labour-time to capital in order to survive. New chances can be created for people to become full-time volunteers, or cut their waged working hours and replace them with volunteering and community work.
This redistribution can also be used to smooth the economic and social transitions that will be needed to deal with challenges such as climate change and automation.
Typically, these costs fall almost entirely on workers — in the form of higher prices for electricity and petrol, layoffs due to the abolition of obsolete industries or replacement of human labour with machines. But these hardships can be greatly mitigated by taking the sting out of unemployment and by ensuring that everyone has enough for the essentials.
The automation and obsolescence of jobs should be a joyous thing that we all welcome: the same ends are being met with fewer labour-hours. There is more time to relax and have fun, more time to improve your mind and body, more time to spend with your loved ones and build your communities. Only the peculiar structure of capitalism could turn developments so obviously positive into something to be feared.
As this payment is uniform, it immediately cuts income differences based on race, gender and sexuality. A white heterosexual male gets the same $20,000 as an indigenous transwoman.
This guaranteed payment can also provide the basis for community housing and share housing for disadvantaged groups. We all know that the cost of living can drop dramatically as the number of inhabitants in a shared house rises. When they have access to a stable, guaranteed source of income, people can gain independence, political consciousness and ultimately social liberation.
What UBI is not
UBI cannot replace all social welfare programs. Not everyone will have the same costs associated with living, and things like disability benefits must be maintained.
UBI cannot replace a robust public health system. It is not there to manage preventative care or catastrophic illness.
There are also many injustices in our society that UBI cannot redress, such as discrimination and police brutality.
UBI is not socialism. Its implementation would not end the capitalist mode of production. UBI is not incompatible with dictatorial relations in the workplace, production for profit and private ownership of capital.
That does not make it any less radical. It ensures the needs of all are met. It guarantees everyone a share of the collective productive capacity of the society. It eliminates the greatest coercive tool of employers and opens the way for genuine freedom of choice for workers.
It frees up countless millions of wasted labour hours, which can be better used for leisure, or for community building — or for revolution. It’s only one part of the new world we want to build but it can be a key component of building the kind of socialism that is worth fighting for.

Like the article? Subscribe to Green Left now! You can also like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter


ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS....................





Contest will select artwork for Visitors Guide cover

Posted: Aug 21, 2015 5:11 PM EDTUpdated: Aug 21, 2015 5:24 PM EDT
Written by Ron Steele, Anchor
A Cedar Valley contest will select new artwork for the cover of the 2016 Waterloo-Cedar Falls Visitors Guide.
Interested artists are encouraged to submit their original art.
Here is the information on the contest:  Entry deadline is September 25, 2015.
The Cedar Falls Tourism & Visitors Bureau and Waterloo Convention & Visitors Bureau are seeking submissions for original artwork to be featured on the cover of the 2016 Waterloo-Cedar Falls Visitors Guide (WCFVG).
This award-winning, 80-page publication serves as the official guide to the Cedar Valley and is a great resource for both residents and visitors. Each year, the WCFVG includes a colorful and vibrant cover to inspire and entice potential travelers to plan a trip to the area. And next year, one lucky winner will have the opportunity to showcase their very own original artwork on the cover of the guide.
In 2016, 60,000 guides will be distributed to travelers who request the guide via phone, email and website. Guides will also be available at various tradeshows, hotels, attractions, welcome centers, and visitor centers throughout the state. In addition, a digital version of the guide will be displayed on each of the Bureaus’ websites as well as Courier Communications’ website.
• Application/cover artwork deadline: September 25, 2015.
• Send cover artwork submissions to: Waterloo Convention & Visitors Bureau, Attn: Beth Keeney, 500 Jefferson Street, Waterloo, IA 50701.
• You can also email cover artwork submissions to beth@travelwaterloo.com. Or, drop them off at the Waterloo Convention & Visitors Bureau (Mon-Fri 8am-5pm) or Cedar Falls Tourism & Visitors Bureau (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat 9am-4pm, Sun Noon-4pm).
• The winner will be selected by a panel of judges and announced October 9, 2015.
• See the application for additional contest rules.
Cover artwork must represent the Waterloo-Cedar Falls area as a whole, and accurately depict life and/or the visitor experience in the Cedar Valley. Submissions from amateur and professional artists and photographers are welcome.
For more information, contact the Waterloo Convention & Visitors Bureau at (319) 233-8350 or beth@travelwaterloo.com.




PAID FAMILY LEAVE IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO ................



Why some moms go back to work 2 weeks after giving birth
While recent headlines have heralded the generous new paid parental leave policies of Netflix and Microsoft, an analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics by In These Times, a nonprofit magazine, found one-fourth of American moms are back at work within two weeks.
"It's not because they recover at a supernatural pace. Or because they value their jobs over their babies," wrote Danielle Paquette of the Washington Post. "Some simply can’t afford the pay cut. Buying groceries for many American women trumps resting for as long as the doctor advises. So, they go back to the office — even if the C-section cuts haven’t yet healed or a premature baby remains in the hospital."
Roughly 13 percent of U.S. workers "have access to any form of paid family leave, which includes parental leave and other time off to care for a family member," In These Times reported. "The highest-paid workers are most likely to have it, according to BLS numbers, with more than 1 in 5 of the top 10 percent of earners getting paid family leave, compared to 1 in 20 in the bottom quartile. Unionized workers are more likely to get benefits than non-unionized workers.
"What do the rest of American women do without a law that guarantees this basic support?" the article asked, then answered: "Some new mothers who don’t get paid leave quit their jobs, which can leave them desperate for income and have serious consequences in terms of work opportunities and lifetime earnings. Others may choose not to have children (though it’s impossible to definitively quantify how the difficulty of integrating work and childbirth factors into those decisions). And some try to stitch together their own paid leaves through accumulated vacation time and personal days, or through independently purchased insurance policies."
The Department of Health and Human Services’ Maternal and Child Health Bureau reported in 2008 the average length of leave taken by women who had given birth was 10 weeks. The numbers have not been updated. And although the Family Medical Leave Act allows women who qualify to take up to 12 weeks unpaid leave to provide care for a family member, which includes a newborn, some women fall through the cracks, according to the analysis.
It cites the example of women who had not been at the job long enough when they gave birth, sometimes due to premature delivery, and other circumstances.
Paquette wrote, "Less educated workers appeared to have it much worse: Eighty percent of college graduates took at least six weeks off to care for a new baby, and only 54 percent of women without degrees did so."
She also noted that about 43 million American employees do not have paid sick leave they can use to care for a child. "Access depends on occupation. Those with the highest salaries often enjoy the most generous benefits: 88 percent of private sector managers and financial workers enjoy paid time off, more than double the rate among service workers (40 percent) and construction workers (38 percent)."
Maternity and paternity have been getting a lot of press attention recently. Earlier this month, Netflix announced that it would allow new mothers and fathers to take as much time off as they wanted during the first year after a child's birth or adoption. And USA Today reported Microsoft would increase paid leave to 12 weeks, with eight more weeks possible for moms as "paid maternity disability leave."
According to an article in the Deseret News, Fortune magazine has referred to such generous parental leave policies as a "game changer."
Christian Science Monitor and other reports say the Netflix policy will apply only to workers considered "talent," those who are highly educated and sought-after, not the average workers. Writes Robert Reich, "First, these new policies apply only to a tiny group considered “talent” – highly educated and in high demand.
"They’re getting whatever perks firms can throw at them in order to recruit and keep them."
The U.S. Navy has tripled maternity leave, to 18 weeks, according to USA Today.
It's not just leave expansions that are in the spotlight recently, either. The Washington Post reported that contract workers are not covered by paid parental leave policies and other benefits, although they may work full-time in jobs that look like they are employees. And some of them are challenging their status.
Email: lois@deseretnews.com, Twitter: Loisco

  



Taxing soda, saving lives
Mexico'ssurchargeonsugarydrinksistheRealThing
By Kate Kilpatrick in Mexico City
Published on Wednesday, August 19, 2015

There’s a certain irony to Coca-Cola’s expansion of its hugely popular “Share a Coke” advertising campaign in Mexico. The rollout includes soda cans personalized with names like Luis and Gabriela, including versions with names printed in Braille. Mexico consumes more soda per capita than any other country, and research links sugary drinks to obesity and diabetes, a leading cause of death in Mexico.
And blindness.
More than 14 million Mexicans have diabetic retinopathy, which impairs vision.
That could explain why Mexico became the first country to impose a national soda tax, which went into effect on the first day of 2014.
“It was a really big deal. A really, really big deal,” said Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University and the author of the forthcoming book “Soda Politics: Taking On Big Soda (and Winning).”
“Generally, the taxes are considered the most radical things you can do about obesity,” said obesity expert Kelly Brownell, the dean of the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.
The tax is an excise tax (meaning it’s paid at the point of purchase) that tacks on a peso (about 6 cents) per liter to sales of sugar- or syrup-sweetened sodas, juices, energy drinks and bottled tea and coffee. It also applies to drink powders and concentrates but excludes flavored milks, diet sodas and bottled waters.
Mexico drinks more Coca-Cola than everyone else
Mexico’s consumption of Coca-Cola carbonated beverages alone (Coke, Fanta, Sprite, others) dwarfs the rest of the world. While Coca-Cola is the leading soft drink company in Mexico, government estimates put overall consumption as high as 176 liters, or 496 cans, of soda a year per person.
Mexicans drink an astounding 176 liters of sugary drinks per year, on average, compared with just under 95 liters in the U.S. and 22 liters globally, according to an April 2015 report from Mexico's Center for Public Finance Studies. If accurate, that would make Mexicans by far the biggest soda drinkers in the world. However consumption reports vary. The 2015 Euromonitor report on worldwide consumption of carbonated soft drinks found Mexico has reduced its per capita consumption to 111 liters, behind both Argentina (142 liters) and Chile (127 liters), but ahead of the U.S. (103 liters). An Al Jazeera analysis of Coca-Cola sales reports determined more than 122 liters of Coca-Cola carbonated drinks alone were sold per person in Mexico in 2014.
Mexico also has the highest rate of deaths directly linked to sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs, in policy-speak), according to a 2010 Tufts University study.
“Sodas are deeply entrenched in Mexican culture as a result of deliberate soda marketing in the ’80s and ’90s. Because the water supply in Mexico is not very good, sodas replaced water, and they’re used in religious ceremonies, and they’re sold in 3-liter bottles there,” said Nestle. “So [the soda corporations] have enormous political power … because their political activities are so extraordinarily comprehensive.”
According to a Reuters investigation, Big Soda in Mexico plays an outsize role in determining the country’s policies on obesity, food labeling, trade and other public health matters. No one exemplifies the industry’s coziness in political circles better than Vicente Fox, who served as the president of Mexico from 2000 to 2006. Before his political career, he was the president of Coca-Cola Mexico.
On the pro-tax side, consumer advocacy group El Poder del Consumidor launched a sophisticated education, marketing and lobbying campaign, with the help of a $16.5 million commitment from Bloomberg Philanthropies.
“In the administration of Felipe Calderón, from 2006 to 2012, we had half a million people that died from diabetes. In 2013 we had 75,000 people receive amputations because of diabetes,” said El Poder del Consumidor’s director, Alejandro Calvillo. “These are more victims than organized crime.”
Current President Enrique Peña Nieto has stated that the primary purpose of the soda tax is to combat obesity and diabetes, particularly among children. And nowhere is the
Researchers at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University measured the mortality rate due to sugary drinks across the 20 most populous countries. Their study found that Mexico had more preventable deaths attributed to sugar-sweetened beverages than any other — an estimated 24,000 in 2010, compared with 72 in Bangladesh. It also found that sugary drinks are responsible for nearly half (45 percent) the deaths from cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer in Mexico.
“SSBs are a single, modifiable component of diet that can impact preventable death/disability in adults in high-, middle- and low-income countries, indicating a need for strong global prevention programs,” the study concluded.
Public health advocates say the most cost-effective public policy interventions for fighting obesity are taxing unhealthy foods and drinks, requiring simple, intuitive front-of-package nutrition labeling and restricting marketing of unhealthy foods and drinks to kids.
The soda industry fought the tax, and according to Calvillo, “when the soda industry talks [in Mexico], it’s Coke that’s speaking.”
According to a report from market researcher Euromonitor International on soft drinks in Mexico, three companies hold nearly 70 percent of market share. The Coca-Cola Co. has 45 percent of the Mexican market, which accounted for $2 billion in revenue in 2014, according to the company’s SEC filings. The company’s penetration in the country is so successful, it’s been dubbed the Coca-colonization of Mexico.
Francisco Crespo, the president of Coca-Cola Mexico, and Francisco Zambrana, the president of the Mexican beverage association ANPRAC, denied requests to meet with Al Jazeera in person or speak by phone. Crespo’s office shared this statement on behalf of the company: “The special tax on sugar-sweetened beverages has not been effective to reduce the overweight and obesity levels in Mexico. Imposing taxes on a single category can’t be the solution because people take in calories from many food and beverage sources, therefore, taxing one product is unfair and will not solve a problem as complex as obesity.”
In attempts to stave off the tax, the soda industry questioned the science behind the link between soda consumption and obesity and argued that the tax would cost jobs and hurt the economy.
The industry positioned it as an unfair tax on chubby people and one that would be felt most by the poor, who, it argued, rely on sugary drinks to meet their minimum calorie needs.
And it promoted the need for individual responsibility and an active lifestyle rather than government regulation. Coke encouraged customers, “Haz deporte” (play sports), and ANPRAC launched a “Know yourself, get active, get balanced” campaign.
It’s the same argument that landed Coca-Cola in hot water last week when The New York Times reported that the company is funding the nonprofit Global Energy Balance Network, which argues that soda drinkers should worry less about calories consumed and more about calories expended through exercise.
It’s an argument that nutritionists have disputed for years.
“There is no doubt that physical activity is an important public health priority, but it is unlikely to be an effective tool for obesity prevention without major shifts in caloric intake,” Brownell co-wrote in a 2012 article published in the medical journal Circulation.
In the end, Coca-Cola suffered a 1 percent decline in volume of sales in Mexico in 2014, which they attribute in their SEC filings as being "primarily due to the impact of a new excise tax." But Mexico clearly remains a top market. Last summer the company announced an additional $8.2 billion investment in its Mexico operations by 2020. (During a photo op, Peña Nieto was presented with an Enrique can.)
And there’s certainly no slowdown in marketing campaigns. On Coca-Cola International’s July quarterly earnings call, the company’s president, Ahmet Bozer, highlighted Germany, Mexico and Nigeria as markets where advertising is being increased in order to drive revenue.
“The bottlers and our teams have strong conviction about how better and more advertising drives top line,” he said.
As Calvillo sees it, the responsibility lies with the Mexican government to rein in industry practices and protect citizens.
“The industry will do everything, everything that the governments permit. Their nature is to take earnings — and it’s OK. They need to report [to their shareholders] each three months how they increased their value,” he said.
The food industry has a special interest in targeting children, who are still developing taste preferences and brand loyalties.
But it also has an interest in those children getting fat.
The average U.S. child today is more than 10 pounds heavier than 30 years ago, according to a recent article published in The Lancet, “Child and adolescent obesity: part of a bigger picture”. That implies an extra 200 calories per day, at an average cost of $1.12 daily, or more than $400 per year per child. And the chances are that children who overeat will continue to overeat through adulthood.
“Left to the market, children’s nutrition security is all too easily undermined,” the authors warned.
At the Coca-Cola Store in downtown Mexico City, workers in red pinstripe uniforms float around restocking the refrigerators. The first two cases are reserved for Coke products, including the new lower-calorie, stevia-sweetened Coca-Cola Life, which arrived on Mexican shelves late last year. The others display the vast assortment of other Coca-Cola products in Mexico — from classics like Sprite, Fanta, Lift and Fresca to Ciel waters and del Valle juices, Powerades and Fuze teas to lesser-known fizzy drinks like Delaware Punch, Senzao Hawaina and Prisco Mundet.
The store’s manager, Mark Masmiah, estimated that about 3,000 customers visit the small store daily. He said classic Coca-Cola — “la roja” (the red) — remains by far the most popular purchase. And the soda tax?
“It has not affected business at all,” he said.
But preliminary results from a study by Mexico’s National Institute of Public Health and the University of North Carolina paint a different picture. The study was funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
According to the findings, the soda tax was effectively a 10 percent tax, and Mexicans bought 6 percent less of sugary drinks in 2014 as a direct result of the increased cost and awareness around it.
The reduction was across all incomes, with the largest — 9 percent — among the poorest group. Furthermore, the impact is growing, with the end of the year marking notably fewer sales.
The drop came despite national and international public health groups’ recommendation of a 20 percent tax on SSBs to notably reduce consumption.
“For me, the most impressive part is that it was an effective tax at all,” said Brownell. “I was delighted that Mexico passed the tax but worried it would be too small to have any impact on consumption.”
Simon Barquera, the director of nutrition policy and program research at Mexico’s National Institute of Public Health, was also pleasantly surprised by the preliminary results.
Last year, he said, saw “two of the most important campaigns in Mexico”: “Share a Coke” and the World Cup. “Even with that in place and with a lot of investment in sports events, there was a reduction [in soda consumption].”
But alongside enthusiasm for the apparent impact is frustration with how the tax revenue is being used.
According to the Mexican government, the soda tax brought in $1.3 billion in revenue in 2014. However, only $900,000 has been authorized for installing water fountains in public schools — one of the soda tax advocates’ key demands.
While the tax has certainly put pressure on the soda companies, they are far from defeated. “Companies are looking at alternatives,” Barquera said.
According to Euromonitor International’s “Soft Drinks in Mexico” report in March, the most common strategies are to reformulate products (using sugar substitutes) to avoid the tax and to highlight any natural ingredients in products to boost sales.
“Probably the food industry needs to transform to less unhealthy and more healthy products, and they need to recognize that they need to inform in a fair way to the consumer,” Barquera said. “It’s very easy in developing countries to mislead the consumers. They think caffeine is good because it gives you energy and concentration and the sugar is good because it gives you performance, and in reality, these kinds of messages are not allowed in developed countries.”
“McDonald’s and Coke are having trouble with maintaining profits in the U.S., but they’re making tons of money outside of the U.S. The euphemism is ‘emerging markets,’ but you can easily say that just means exploiting the most vulnerable parts of the world,” said Brownell. “I think companies have to be held accountable for their behavior.”

Edited by Katherine Lanpher, Mark Rykoff




Half the lies they tell about me aren't true.”


THE BOOK OF FUNNY, ODD AND INTERESTING THINGS THAT PEOPLE SAY

Compiled by

John William Tuohy


In response to the application question “What is Your Educational Background?”

While I've never quite gotten a degree, I am quite close to several.


Completed 11 years of high school.


College, August 1880-May 1984.


Finished eighth in my high school graduating class of ten.


Suspected to graduate early next year.


No education or experience.

Skills and Accomplishments of prespctive employees
Received a plague for Salesperson of the Year.

I was proud to win the Gregg Typting Award.

I have an excellent track record, although I am not a horse.

Proven ability to track down and correct erors.

Excellent memory; strong math aptitude; excellent memory.

I have never had a single blemish held against me and my IQ is off the charts.

I am quick at typing, about 25 word per minute, 35 with caffeinated coffee.

Outstanding worker; flexible 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

Special Requests made by prospective employees
Desired Salary: $1.00 Per Year

I'll need $30K to start, full medical, three weeks of vacation, stock options and ideally a European sedan.

Please call me after 5:30 because I am self-employed and my employer does not know I am looking for another job.

I want a boss of average height, not too tall, though not strangely small (though I guess I could get used to just about anything given time).

I need just enough money to have pizza every night.

I prefer informality like wearing sports shirts and sandals for footwear in the summer.

I prefer setting my own pace. When things get slack I like the right to walk out and get a haircut during working hours.

Last Position Held Job Responsibilities
Maintained files and reports, did data processing, cashed employees' paychecks.


Responsibilities included checking customers out.


Creator / Writer: ihatemylife.us, Los Angeles, CA


Overlooked all areas to ensure an overwhelming success.


Develop and recommend an annual operating expense fudget.


Dealing with customers' conflicts that arouse.


While I am open to the initial nature of an assignment, I am decidedly disposed that it be so oriented as to at least partially incorporate the experience enjoyed heretofore and that it be configured so as to ultimately lead to the application of more rarefied facets of financial management as the major sphere of responsibility.

THE ART OF WAR...............................









 THE ART OF PULP..................................


Add caption




FROM LLR BOOKS. COM
Litchfield Literary Books. A really small company run by writers.

AMERICAN HISTORY

The Day Nixon Met Elvis
Paperback 46 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Day-Nixon-Met-elvis/

Theodore Roosevelt: Letters to his Children. 1903-1918
Paperback 194 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Theodore-Roosevelt-Letters-Children-1903-1918/dp/

THE ANCIENT GREEKS AND CIVILIZATIONS
The Works of Horace
Paperback 174 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Works-Horace-Richard-Willoughby/

The Quotable Greeks
Paperback 234 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Greeks-Richard-W-Willoughby

The Quotable Epictetus
Paperback 142 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Epictetus-Golden-Sayings

Quo Vadis: A narrative of the time of Nero
Paperback 420 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quo-Vadis-Narrative-Time-Nero

CHILDRENS BOOKS
The Porchless Pumpkin: A Halloween Story for Children
A Halloween play for young children. By consent of the author, this play may be performed, at no charge, by educational institutions, neighborhood organizations and other not-for-profit-organizations.
A fun story with a moral
“I believe that Denny O'Day is an American treasure and this little book proves it. Jack is a pumpkin who happens to be very small, by pumpkins standards and as a result he goes unbought in the pumpkin patch on Halloween eve, but at the last moment he is given his chance to prove that just because you're small doesn't mean you can't be brave. Here is the point that I found so wonderful, the book stresses that while size doesn't matter when it comes to courage...ITS OKAY TO BE SCARED....as well. I think children need to hear that, that's its okay to be unsure because life is a ongoing lesson isn't it?”
Paperback: 42 pages
http://www.amazon.com/OLANTERN-PORCHLESS-PUMPKIN-Halloween-Children

BOOKS ON FOSTER CARE
It's Not All Right to be a Foster Kid....no matter what they tell you: Tweet the books contents
Paperback 94 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Right-Foster-Kid-no-matter-what

From the Author
I spent my childhood, from age seven through seventeen, in foster care.  Over the course of those ten years, many decent, well-meaning, and concerned people told me, "It's okay to be foster kid."
In saying that, those very good people meant to encourage me, and I appreciated their kindness then, and all these many decades later, I still appreciate their good intentions. But as I was tossed around the foster care system, it began to dawn on me that they were wrong.  It was not all right to be a foster kid.
During my time in the system, I was bounced every eighteen months from three foster homes to an orphanage to a boy's school and to a group home before I left on my own accord at age seventeen.
In the course of my stay in foster care, I was severely beaten in two homes by my "care givers" and separated from my four siblings who were also in care, sometimes only blocks away from where I was living.
I left the system rather than to wait to age out, although the effects of leaving the system without any family, means, or safety net of any kind, were the same as if I had aged out. I lived in poverty for the first part of my life, dropped out of high school, and had continuous problems with the law.
 Today, almost nothing about foster care has changed.  Exactly what happened to me is happening to some other child, somewhere in America, right now.  The system, corrupt, bloated, and inefficient, goes on, unchanging and secretive.
Something has gone wrong in a system that was originally a compassionate social policy built to improve lives but is now a definitive cause in ruining lives.  Due to gross negligence, mismanagement, apathy, and greed, mostly what the foster care system builds are dangerous consequences. Truly, foster care has become our epic national disgrace and a nightmare for those of us who have lived through it.
Yet there is a suspicion among some Americans that foster care costs too much, undermines the work ethic, and is at odds with a satisfying life.  Others see foster care as a part of the welfare system, as legal plunder of the public treasuries.
 None of that is true; in fact, all that sort of thinking does is to blame the victims.  There is not a single child in the system who wants to be there or asked to be there.  Foster kids are in foster care because they had nowhere else to go.  It's that simple.  And believe me, if those kids could get out of the system and be reunited with their parents and lead normal, healthy lives, they would. And if foster care is a sort of legal plunder of the public treasuries, it's not the kids in the system who are doing the plundering.
 We need to end this needless suffering.  We need to end it because it is morally and ethically wrong and because the generations to come will not judge us on the might of our armed forces or our technological advancements or on our fabulous wealth.
 Rather, they will judge us, I am certain, on our compassion for those who are friendless, on our decency to those who have nothing and on our efforts, successful or not, to make our nation and our world a better place.  And if we cannot accomplish those things in the short time allotted to us, then let them say of us "at least they tried."
You can change the tragedy of foster care and here's how to do it.  We have created this book so that almost all of it can be tweeted out by you to the world.  You have the power to improve the lives of those in our society who are least able to defend themselves.  All you need is the will to do it.
 If the American people, as good, decent and generous as they are, knew what was going on in foster care, in their name and with their money, they would stop it.  But, generally speaking, although the public has a vague notion that foster care is a mess, they don't have the complete picture. They are not aware of the human, economic and social cost that the mismanagement of the foster care system puts on our nation.
By tweeting the facts laid out in this work, you can help to change all of that.  You can make a difference.  You can change things for the better.
We can always change the future for a foster kid; to make it better ...you have the power to do that. Speak up (or tweet out) because it's your country.  Don't depend on the "The other guy" to speak up for these kids, because you are the other guy.
We cannot build a future for foster children, but we can build foster children for the future and the time to start that change is today.

No time to say Goodbye: Memoirs of a life in foster 
Paperbook 440 Books
http://www.amazon.com/No-Time-Say-Goodbye-Memoir
  
BOOKS ABOUT FILM

On the Waterfront: The Making of a Great American Film
Paperback: 416 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Waterfront-Making-Great-American-Film/

BOOKS ABOUT GHOSTS AND THE SUPERNATUAL

Scotish Ghost Stories
Paperback 186 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Scottish-Ghost-Stories-Elliott-ODonell

HUMOR BOOKS
The Book of funny odd and interesting things people say
Paperback: 278 pages
http://www.amazon.com/book-funny-interesting-things-people

The Wee Book of Irish Jokes
http://www.amazon.com/Book-Series-Irish-Jokes-ebook

Perfect Behavior: A guide for Ladies and Gentlemen in all Social Crises
http://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Behavior-Ladies-Gentlemen-Social

BOOKS ABOUT THE 1960s

You Don’t Need a Weatherman. Underground 1969
Paperback 122 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Weatherman-Notes-Weatherman-Underground-1969

Baby Boomers Guide to the Beatles Songs of the Sixties
Paperback
http://www.amazon.com/Boomers-Guide-Beatles-Songs-Sixties/

Baby Boomers Guide to Songs of the 1960s
http://www.amazon.com/Baby-Boomers-Guide-Songs-1960s


IRISH- AMERICANA
The Connecticut Irish
Paper back 140 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Connecticut-Irish-Catherine-F-Connolly

 The Wee Book of Irish Jokes
http://www.amazon.com/Book-Series-Irish-Jokes-ebook/

The Wee Book of Irish Recipes 
http://www.amazon.com/The-Wee-Book-Irish-Recipes/
 
 The Wee Book of the American-Irish Gangsters
  http://www.amazon.com/The-Wee-Book-Irish-American-Gangsters/

 The Wee book of Irish Blessings... 
http://www.amazon.com/Series-Blessing-Proverbs-Toasts-ebook/

The Wee Book of the American Irish in Their Own Words
http://www.amazon.com/Book-American-Irish-Their-Words/

Everything you need to know about St. Patrick
Paperback 26 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Need-About-Saint-Patrick

A Reading Book in Ancient Irish History
Paperback 147pages
http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Book-Ancient-Irish-History

The Book of Things Irish
http://www.amazon.com/Book-Things-Irish-William-Tuohy/

Poets and Dreamer; Stories translated from the Irish
Paperback 158 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Poets-Dreamers-Stories-Translated-Irish/

The History of the Great Irish Famine: Abridged and Illustrated
Paperback 356 pages
http://www.amazon.com/History-Great-Irish-Famine-Illustrated/


BOOKS ABOUT NEW ENGLAND

The New England Mafia
http://www.amazon.com/The-New-England-Mafia-ebook/

Wicked Good New England Recipes
http://www.amazon.com/Wicked-Good-New-England-Recipes/

The Connecticut Irish
Paper back 140 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Connecticut-Irish-Catherine-F-Connolly

The Twenty-Fifth Regiment Connecticut Volunteers
Paperback 64 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Twenty-Fifth-Regiment-Connecticut-Volunteers-Rebellion

The Life of James Mars
Paperback 54 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Life-James-Mars-Slave-Connecticut

Stories of Colonial Connecticut
Paperback 116 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Stories-Colonial-Connnecticut-Caroline-Clifford

What they Say in Old New England
Paperback 194 pages
http://www.amazon.com/What-they-say-New-England/


BOOK ABOUT ORGANIZED CRIME

Chicago Organized Crime
Chicago-Mob-Bosses
http://www.amazon.com/Chicagos-Mob-Bosses-Accardo-ebook

The Mob Files: It Happened Here: Places of Note in Chicago gangland 1900-2000
http://www.amazon.com/The-Mob-Files-1900-2000-ebook

An Illustrated Chronological History of the Chicago Mob. Time Line 1837-2000
http://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Chronological-History-Chicago-1837-2000/

Mob Buster: Report of Special Agent Virgil Peterson to the Kefauver Committee
http://www.amazon.com/Mob-Buster-Peterson-Committee-ebook/

The Mob Files. Guns and Glamour: The Chicago Mob. A History. 1900-2000
http://www.amazon.com/Mob-Files-Guns-Glamour-ebook/

Shooting the Mob: Organized crime in photos. Crime Boss Tony Accardo
http://www.amazon.com/Shooting-Mob-Organized-photos-Accardo/

Shooting the Mob: Organized Crime in Photos: The Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre.
http://www.amazon.com/Shooting-Mob-Organized-Valentines-Massacre

The Life and World of Al Capone in Photos
http://www.amazon.com/Life-World-Al-Capone

AL CAPONE: The Biography of a Self-Made Man.: Revised from the 0riginal 1930 edition.Over 200 new photographs
Paperback: 340 pages
http://www.amazon.com/CAPONE-Biography-Self-Made-Over-photographs

Whacked. One Hundred Years Murder and Mayhem in the Chicago Outfit
Paperback: 172 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Whacked-Hundred-Murder-Mayhem-Chicago/

Las Vegas Organized Crime
The Mob in Vegas
http://www.amazon.com/Mob-Files-Vegas-ebook

Bugsy & His Flamingo: The Testimony of Virginia Hill
http://www.amazon.com/Bugsy-His-Flamingo-Testimony-Virginia/

Testimony by Mobsters Lewis McWillie, Joseph Campisi and Irwin Weiner (The Mob Files Series)
http://www.amazon.com/The-Kennedy-Assassination-Ruby-Testimony-ebook

Rattling the Cup on Chicago Crime.
Paperback 264 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Rattling-Cup-Chicago-Crime-Abridged

The Life and Times of Terrible Tommy O’Connor.
Paperback 94 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Life-Times-Terrible-Tommy-OConnor

The Mob, Sam Giancana and the overthrow of the Black Policy Racket in Chicago
Paperback 200 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Giancana-ovethrow-Policy-Rackets-Chicago

When Capone’s Mob Murdered Roger Touhy. In Photos
Paperback 234 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Capones-Murdered-Roger-Touhy-photos

Organized Crime in Hollywood
The Mob in Hollywood
http://www.amazon.com/Mob-Files-Hollywood-ebook/

The Bioff Scandal
Paperback 54 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Bioff-Scandal-Shakedown-Hollywood-Studios

Organized Crime in New York
Joe Pistone’s war on the mafia
http://www.amazon.com/Joe-Petrosinos-War-Mafia-Files/

Mob Testimony: Joe Pistone, Michael Scars DiLeonardo, Angelo Lonardo and others
http://www.amazon.com/Mob-Testimony-DiLeonardo-testimony-Undercover/

The New York Mafia: The Origins of the New York Mob
http://www.amazon.com/The-New-York-Mafia-Origins

The New York Mob: The Bosses
http://www.amazon.com/The-New-York-Mob-Bosses/

Organized Crime 25 Years after Valachi. Hearings before the US Senate
http://www.amazon.com/Organized-Crime-Valachi-Hearings-ebook

Shooting the mob: Dutch Schultz
http://www.amazon.com/Shooting-Mob-Organized-Photographs-Schultz

Gangland Gaslight: The Killing of Rosy Rosenthal. (Illustrated)
http://www.amazon.com/Gangland-Gaslight-Killing-Rosenthal-Illustrated/

Early Street Gangs and Gangsters of New York City
Paperback 382 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Early-Street-Gangs-Gangsters-York

THE RUSSIAN MOBS
The Russian Mafia in America
http://www.amazon.com/The-Russian-Mafia-America-ebook/

The Threat of Russian Organzied Crime
Paperback 192 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Threat-Russian-Organized-Crime-photographs-ebook

Organized Crime/General
Best of Mob Stories
http://www.amazon.com/Files-Series-Illustrated-Articles-Organized-Crime/

Best of Mob Stories Part 2
http://www.amazon.com/Series-Illustrated-Articles-Organized-ebook/

Illustrated-Book-Prohibition-Gangsters
http://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Book-Prohibition-Gangsters-ebook

Mob Recipes to Die For. Meals and Mobsters in Photos
http://www.amazon.com/Recipes-For-Meals-Mobsters-Photos

More Mob Recipes to Die For. Meals and Mobs
http://www.amazon.com/More-Recipes-Meals-Mobsters-Photos

The New England Mafia
http://www.amazon.com/The-New-England-Mafia-ebook

Shooting the mob. Organized crime in photos. Dead Mobsters, Gangsters and Hoods.
http://www.amazon.com/Shooting-mob-Organized-photos-Mobsters-Gangsters/

The Salerno Report: The Mafia and the Murder of President John F. Kennedy
http://www.amazon.com/The-Salerno-Report-President-ebook/

The Mob Files: Mob Wars. "We only kill each other"
http://www.amazon.com/The-Mob-Files-Wars-other/

The Mob across America
http://www.amazon.com/The-Files-Across-America-ebook/

The US Government’s Time Line of Organzied Crime 1920-1987
http://www.amazon.com/GOVERNMENTS-ORGANIZED-1920-1987-Illustrated-ebook/

Early Street Gangs and Gangsters of New York City: 1800-1919. Illustrated
http://www.amazon.com/Gangsters-1800-1919-Illustrated-Street-ebook/

The Mob Files: Mob Cops, Lawyers and Informants and Fronts
http://www.amazon.com/The-Mob-Files-Informants-ebook/

Gangster Quotes: Mobsters in their own words. Illustrated
Paperback: 128 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Gangsters-Quotes-Mobsters-words-Illustrated/

The Book of American-Jewish Gangsters: A Pictorial History.
Paperback: 436 pages
http://www.amazon.com/The-Book-American-Jewish-Gangsters-Pictorial/

The Mob and the Kennedy Assassination
Paperback 414 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Mob-Kennedy-Assassination-Ruby-Testimony-Mobsters


BOOKS ABOUT THE OLD WEST

The Last Outlaw: The story of Cole Younger, by Himself
Paperback 152 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Last-Outlaw-Story-Younger-Himself

BOOKS ON PHOTOGRAPHY
Chicago: A photographic essay.
 Paperback: 200 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Chicago-Photographic-Essay-William-Thomas

STAGE PLAYS
Boomers on a train: A ten minute play
Paperback 22 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Boomers-train-ten-minute-Play-ebook

Four Short Plays
By John William Tuohy
http://www.amazon.com/Four-Short-Plays-William-Tuohy

Four More Short Plays
By John William Tuohy
http://www.amazon.com/Four-Short-Plays-William-Tuohy/

High and Goodbye: Everybody gets the Timothy Leary they deserve. A full length play
By John William Tuohy
http://www.amazon.com/High-Goodbye-Everybody-Timothy-deserve

Cyberdate. An Everyday Love Story about Everyday People
By John William Tuohy
http://www.amazon.com/Cyberdate-Everyday-Story-People-ebook/

The Dutchman's Soliloquy: A one Act Play based on the factual last words of Gangster Dutch Schultz.
By John William Tuohy
http://www.amazon.com/Dutchmans-Soliloquy-factual-Gangster-Schultz/

Fishbowling on The Last Words of Dutch Schultz: Or William S. Burroughs intersects with Dutch Schultz
Print Length: 57 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Fishbowling-Last-Words-Dutch-Schultz-ebook/

American Shakespeare: August Wilson in his own words. A One Act Play
By John William Tuohy
http://www.amazon.com/American-Shakespeare-August-Wilson-ebook

She Stoops to Conquer
http://www.amazon.com/She-Stoops-Conquer-Oliver-Goldsmith/

The Seven Deadly Sins of Gilligan’s Island: A ten minute play
Print Length: 14 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Deadly-Gilligans-Island-minute-ebook/

BOOKS ABOUT VIRGINIA
OUT OF CONTROL: An Informal History of the Fairfax County Police
http://www.amazon.com/Control-Informal-History-Fairfax-Police/

McLean Virginia. A short informal history
http://www.amazon.com/McLean-Virginia-Short-Informal-History/


THE QUOTABLE SERIES

The Quotable Emerson: Life lessons from the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Over 300 quotes
http://www.amazon.com/The-Quotable-Emerson-lessons-quotes

The Quotable John F. Kennedy
http://www.amazon.com/The-Quotable-John-F-Kennedy/

The Quotable Oscar Wilde
http://www.amazon.com/The-Quotable-Oscar-Wilde-lessons/

The Quotable Machiavelli
http://www.amazon.com/The-Quotable-Machiavelli-Richard-Thayer/

The Quotable Confucius: Life Lesson from the Chinese Master
http://www.amazon.com/The-Quotable-Confucius-Lesson-Chinese/

The Quotable Henry David Thoreau
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Henry-Thoreau-Quotables-ebook

The Quotable Robert F. Kennedy
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Robert-F-Kennedy-Illustrated/

The Quotable Writer: Writers on the Writers Life
http://www.amazon.com/The-Quotable-Writer-Quotables-ebook

The words of Walt Whitman: An American Poet
Paperback: 162 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Words-Walt-Whitman-American-Poet

Gangster Quotes: Mobsters in their own words. Illustrated
Paperback: 128 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Gangsters-Quotes-Mobsters-words-Illustrated/

The Quotable Popes
Paperback 66 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Popes-Maria-Conasenti

The Quotable Kahlil Gibran with Artwork from Kahlil Gibran
Paperback 52 pages
Kahlil Gibran, an artist, poet, and writer was born on January 6, 1883 n the north of modern-day Lebanon and in what was then part of Ottoman Empire. He had no formal schooling in Lebanon. In 1895, the family immigrated to the United States when Kahlil was a young man and settled in South Boston. Gibran enrolled in an art school and was soon a member of the avant-garde community and became especially close to Boston artist, photographer, and publisher Fred Holland Day who encouraged and supported Gibran’s creative projects. An accomplished artist in drawing and watercolor, Kahlil attended art school in Paris from 1908 to 1910, pursuing a symbolist and romantic style. He held his first art exhibition of his drawings in 1904 in Boston, at Day's studio. It was at this exhibition, that Gibran met Mary Elizabeth Haskell, who ten years his senior. The two formed an important friendship and love affair that lasted the rest of Gibran’s short life. Haskell influenced every aspect of Gibran’s personal life and career. She became his editor when he began to write and ushered his first book into publication in 1918, The Madman, a slim volume of aphorisms and parables written in biblical cadence somewhere between poetry and prose. Gibran died in New York City on April 10, 1931, at the age of 48 from cirrhosis of the liver and tuberculosis.
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Kahlil-Gibran-artwork/

The Quotable Dorothy Parker
Paperback 86 pages

The Quotable Machiavelli
Paperback 36 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Machiavelli-Richard-L-Thayer

The Quotable Greeks
Paperback 230 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Greeks-Richard-W-Willoughby

The Quotabe Oscar Wilde
Paperback 24 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Oscar-Wilde-lessons-words/

The Quotable Helen Keller
Paperback 66 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Helen-Keller-Richard-Willoughby

The Art of War: Sun Tzu
Paperback 60 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Confucius-Lesson-Chinese-Quotables-ebook

The Quotable Shakespeare
Paperback 54 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Shakespeare-Richard-W-Willoughby

The Quotable Gorucho Marx
Paperback 46 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Groucho-Marx-Devon-Alexander





































































































BLOGLAPEDIA’S BLOGS

ARCHITECTURE
Architecture for the blog of it
http://architecturefortheblogofit.blogspot.com/

THE ARTS
Art for the Blog of It
http://artfortheblogofit.blogspot.com/

Art for the Pop of it
http://artforthepopofit.blogspot.com/

Photography for the blog of it
http://photographyfortheblogofit.blogspot.com/

Music for the Blog of it
http://musicfortheblogofit.blogspot.com/

Sculpture this and Sculpture that
http://sculpturethisandsculpturethat.blogspot.com/

The art of War (Propaganda art through the ages)
http://theartofwarcleverhuh.blogspot.com/

Album Art (Photographic arts)
http://albumartsocheesyitsgood.blogspot.com/

Pulp Fiction Trash (The art of Pulp Fiction covers)
http://pulpfictiontrash.blogspot.com/

Admit it, you want to Read this Book (The art of Pulp Fiction covers)
http://goaheadadmitityouwanttoread.blogspot.com/

FILM
The Godfather Trilogy BlogSpot
http://thegodfathertrilogyblogspot.blogspot.com/

On the Waterfront: The Making of a great American Film
http://onthewaterfrontthefilm.blogspot.com/

FOOD
Absolutely blogalicious
http://absolutelyblogalicious.blogspot.com/

The Wee Book of Irish Recipes (Book support site)
http://theweeblogofirishrecipes.blogspot.com/

Good chowda (New England foods)
http://goodchowda.blogspot.com/

Old New England Recipes (Book support site)
http://oldnewenglandrecipes.blogspot.com/

And I Love Clams (New England foods)
http://andiloveclams.blogspot.com/

In Praise of the Rhode Island Wiener (New England foods)
http://inpraiseoftherhodeislandwiener.blogspot.com/

Wicked Cool New England Recipes (New England foods)
http://whickedcoolnewenglandrecipes.blogspot.com

Old New England Recipes (New England foods)
http://oldnewenglandrecipes.blogspot.com

FOSTER CARE
Foster Care new and Updates

Aging out of the system

Murder, Death and Abuse in the Foster Care system

Angel and Saints in the Foster Care System

The Foster Children’s Blogs

Foster Care Legislation

The Foster Children’s Bill of Right

Foster Kids own Story

The Adventures of Foster Kid.

HEALTH
Me vs. Diabetes (Diabetes education site)
http://mevsdiabetes-bloglapedia.blogspot.com/

HISTORY
The Quotable Helen Keller
http://thequotablehelenkeller.blogspot.com/

Teddy Roosevelt's Letters to his children (Book support site)
http://teddyrooseveltsletterstohischildren.blogspot.com/

The Quotable Machiavelli (Book support site)
http://thequotablemachiavelli.blogspot.com/

HUMOR
Whatever you do, don't laugh
http://whateveryoudodontlaugh.blogspot.com/

The Quotable Grouch Marx
http://thequotablegrouchmarx.blogspot.com/

IRISH-AMERICANA
A Big Blog of Irish Literature
http://abigblogofirishliterature.blogspot.com/

The Wee Blog of Irish Jokes (Book support blog)
http://theweeblogofirishjokes.blogspot.com/

The Wee Blog of Irish Recipes
http://theweeblogofirishrecipes.blogspot.com/

The Irish American Gangster
http://irishamericangangsters.blogspot.com

The Irish in their Own Words
http://theirishintheirownwords.blogspot.com/

When Washington Was Irish
http://whenwashingtonwasirish.blogspot.com/

The Wee Book of Irish Recipes (Book support site)
http://theweeblogofirishrecipes.blogspot.com/

LITERATURE
Following Fitzgerald
http://followingfitzgerald.blogspot.com/

Shakespeare
http://shakespeareinamericanenglish.blogspot.com/

The Blogable Robert Frost
http://theblogablerobertfrost.blogspot.com/

Charles Dickens
http://charlesdickensfan.blogspot.com/

The Beat Poets of the Forever Generation
http://thebeatspoetsoftheforevergenera.blogspot.com/

Holden Caulfield Blog Spot
http://holdencaulfieldblogspot.blogspot.com/

The Quotable Oscar Wilde
http://thequotableoscarwilde.blogspot.com/

NEW ENGLAND BLOGS
The Quotable Thoreau
http://thequotablethenrydavidthoreau.blogspot.com/

Old New England Recipes
http://oldnewenglandrecipes.blogspot.com

Wicked Cool New England Recipes
http://whickedcoolnewenglandrecipes.blogspot.com

Emerson
http://emersonsaidit.blogspot.com/

The New England Mafia
http://thenewenglandmafia.blogspot.com/

And I Love Clams
http://andiloveclams.blogspot.com/

In Praise of the Rhode Island Wiener
http://inpraiseoftherhodeislandwiener.blogspot.com/

Watch Hill
http://watchhillwesterly.blogspot.com/

York Beach
http://yorkbeachfortheblogofit.blogspot.com/

The Connecticut History Blog
http://connecticuthistory.blogspot.com/

The Connecticut Irish
http://theconnecticutirish.blogspot.com/

Good chowda
http://goodchowda.blogspot.com/

NOSTALGIA
God, How I hated the 70s
http://godhowihatedthe70s.blogspot.com/

Child of the Sixties Forever
http://childofthesixtiesforeverandever.blogspot.com/

The Kennedy’s in the 60’s
http://thekennedysinthe60s.blogspot.com/

Music of the Sixties Forever
http://musicofthesixtiesforever.blogspot.com/

Elvis and Nixon at the White House (Book support site)
http://elvisandnixonatthewhitehouse.blogspot.com/

Beatles Fan Forever
http://beatlesfanforever.blogspot.com/

Year One, 1955
http://yearone1955.blogspot.com/

Robert Kennedy in His Own Words

The 1980s were fun
http://the1980swereokayactually.blogspot.com/

The 1990s. The last decade.
http://1990sthelastdecade.blogspot.com/

ORGANIZED CRIME
The Russian Mafia
http://russianmafiagangster.blogspot.com/

The American Jewish Gangster
http://theamericanjewishgangster.blogspot.com/

The Mob in Hollywood
http://themobinhollywood.blogspot.com/

We Only Kill Each Other
http://weonlykilleachother.blogspot.com/

Early Gangsters of New York City
http://earlygangstersofnewyorkcity.blogspot.com/

Al Capone: Biography of a self-made Man
http://alcaponethebiographyofaselfmademan.blogspot.com/

The Life and World of Al Capone
http://thelifeandworldofalcapone.blogspot.com/

The Salerno Report
http://salernoreportmafiaandurderjohnkennedy.blogspot.com/

Guns and Glamour
http://gunsandglamourthechicagomobahistory.blogspot.com/

The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre
http://thesaintvalentinesdaymassacre.blogspot.com/

Mob Testimony
http://mobtestimony.blogspot.com/

Recipes we would Die For
http://recipeswewoulddiefor.blogspot.com/

The Prohibition in Pictures
http://theprohibitioninpictures.blogspot.com/

The Mob in Pictures
http://themobinpictures.blogspot.com/

The Mob in Vegas
http://themobinvegasinpictures.blogspot.com/

The Irish American Gangster
http://irishamericangangsters.blogspot.com

Roger Touhy Gangster
http://rogertouhygangsters.blogspot.com/

Chicago’s Mob Bosses
http://chicagosmobbossesfromaccardoto.blogspot.com/

Chicago Gang Land: It Happened Here
http://chicagoganglandithappenedhere.blogspot.com/

Whacked: One Hundred years of Murder in Gangland
http://whackedonehundredyearsmurderand.blogspot.com/

The Mob Across America
http://themobacrossamerica.blogspot.com/

Mob Cops, Lawyers and Front Men
http://mobcopslawyersandinformantsand.blogspot.com/

Shooting the Mob: Dutch Schultz
http://shootingthemobdutchschultz.blogspot.com/

Bugsy& His Flamingo: The Testimony of Virginia Hill
http://bugsyandvirginiahill.blogspot.com/

After Valachi. Hearings before the US Senate on Organized Crime
http://aftervalachi.blogspot.com/

Mob Buster: Report of Special Agent Virgil Peterson to the Kefauver Committee (Book support site)
http://virgilpetersonmobbuster.blogspot.com/

The US Government’s Timeline of Organized Crime (Book support site)
http://timelineoforganizedcrime.blogspot.com/

The Kefauver Organized Crime Hearings (Book support site)
http://thekefauverorganizedcrimehearings.blogspot.com/

Joe Valachi's testimony on the Mafia (Book support site)
http://joevalachistestimonyonthemafia.blogspot.com/

Mobsters in the News
http://mobstersinthenews.blogspot.com/

Shooting the Mob: Dead Mobsters (Book support site)
http://deadmobsters.blogspot.com/

The Stolen Years Full Text (Roger Touhy)
http://thestolenyearsfulltext.blogspot.com/

Mobsters in Black and White
http://mobstersinblackandwhite.blogspot.com/

Mafia Gangsters, Wiseguys and Goodfellas
http://mafiagangsterswiseguysandgoodfellas.blogspot.com/

Whacked: One Hundred Years of Murder and Mayhem in the Chicago Mob (Book support site)
http://whackedonehundredyearsmurderand.blogspot.com/

Gangland Gaslight: The Killing of Rosy Rosenthal (Book support site)
http://ganglandgaslightrosyrosenthal.blogspot.com/

The Best of the Mob Files Series (Book support site)
http://thebestofthemobfilesseries.blogspot.com/

PHILOSOPHY
It’s All Greek Mythology to me
http://itsallgreekmythologytome.blogspot.com/

PSYCHOLOGY
Psychologically Relevant
http://psychologicallyrelevant.blogspot.com/

SNOBBERY
The Rarifieid Tribe
http://therarifiedtribe.blogspot.com/

Perfect Behavior
http://perfectbehavior.blogspot.com/

TRAVEL
The Upscale Traveler
http://theupscaletraveler.blogspot.com/

TRIVIA
The Mish Mosh Blog
http://theupscaletraveler.blogspot.com/

WASHINGTON DC
DC Behind the Monuments
http://dcbehindthemonuments.blogspot.com/

Washington Oddities
http://washingtonoddities.blogspot.com/

When Washington Was Irish
http://whenwashingtonwasirish.blogspot.com/