“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withdrawn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, 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.
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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
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The
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Paperback 142 pages
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Quo
Vadis: A narrative of the time of Nero
Paperback 420 pages
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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
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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
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BOOKS ABOUT GHOSTS AND THE SUPERNATUAL
Scotish
Ghost Stories
Paperback 186 pages
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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
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http://www.amazon.com/Book-Series-Irish-Jokes-ebook
Perfect
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http://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Behavior-Ladies-Gentlemen-Social
BOOKS ABOUT THE 1960s
You Don’t
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Paperback 122 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Weatherman-Notes-Weatherman-Underground-1969
Baby
Boomers Guide to the Beatles Songs of the Sixties
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Baby
Boomers Guide to Songs of the 1960s
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IRISH- AMERICANA
The
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Paper back 140 pages
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The Wee Book of Irish Jokes
http://www.amazon.com/Book-Series-Irish-Jokes-ebook/
The Wee
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The Wee Book of the American-Irish Gangsters
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The Wee book of Irish Blessings...
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The Wee
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Everything
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Paperback 26 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Need-About-Saint-Patrick
A Reading
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Paperback 147pages
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The Book
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Poets and
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Paperback 158 pages
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The
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Paperback 356 pages
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BOOKS ABOUT NEW ENGLAND
The New
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http://www.amazon.com/The-New-England-Mafia-ebook/
Wicked
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The
Connecticut Irish
Paper back 140 pages
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The
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Paperback 64 pages
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The Life
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Stories
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Paperback 116 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Stories-Colonial-Connnecticut-Caroline-Clifford
What they
Say in Old New England
Paperback 194 pages
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BOOK ABOUT ORGANIZED CRIME
Chicago
Organized Crime
Chicago-Mob-Bosses
http://www.amazon.com/Chicagos-Mob-Bosses-Accardo-ebook
The Mob
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http://www.amazon.com/The-Mob-Files-1900-2000-ebook
An
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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
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Shooting
the Mob: Organized Crime in Photos: The Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre.
http://www.amazon.com/Shooting-Mob-Organized-Valentines-Massacre
The Life
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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
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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
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Paperback 94 pages
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The Mob,
Sam Giancana and the overthrow of the Black Policy Racket in Chicago
Paperback 200 pages
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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
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Paperback 54 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Bioff-Scandal-Shakedown-Hollywood-Studios
Organized
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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/