Besides the Shows, presentations and parties during NYFW, I also had the pleasure to preview Meredith Wendell's NEW Collection and let me tell you that my eyes were in Heaven! Colors, Colors and more Colors + a good dose of texture and prints. I can't establish which piece is my favorite, I really can't!
All the bags and pouches are individual great manufactured in bold colors with unique great details and fine Italian leather.
I'll let you to decide the best piece ( I'm sure it will be a hard decision :)
Sound the trumpets and let the stop watch begin, it is One Room Challenge time ladies! Whoop Whoop!
My dear friend Linda asked me to join in the fun for the second time and I am pumped and ready for some design action. Just look who I get to play in the sandbox with this time.
I know. Good, right?!
For those of you new to my blog, welcome and I look forward to getting to know you.
And for those of you who are new to this addictive series, here is the gist - 20 bloggers pick a room in their house (or the house of a client) to makeover. Every Wednesday for the next six weeks we will report on our progress, roadblocks and detours, ending with a big reveal full of oohs and aahs.
Six (short) weeks. Funny how six weeks sounds like a nice amount of time, until that clock begins and suddenly it seems like the snap of a finger.
You might be thinking, "Elizabeth, you fool. That room looks fine to me."
But hold on with the name calling. I have a few good reasons actually.
First, those yellow walls aren't doing anyone any favors. They've been that way for five years now and I'm officially over them. While a happy choice in a lot of spaces, yellow in the basement just makes everything feel a bit jaundicey. (jaundice-like?) It's time for a change.
Then there is this saucy number. I found her at Goodwill for $20. She is in mint condition and after taking her vintage cushions for a spa day at the cleaners she is ready to rock the family (room). And green couch/yellow walls is not a good combo.
And the straw that broke the bloggers back was this little event. We had a really wet spring/summer. Not good. The only thing that prevented tears was the fact that I HATE that carpet. So I'm taking it as a sign of good things to come. I tried to convince the girls that we got water in the basement because they never pick up their toys but they didn't buy it.
So the plan is to change this room entirely. Something fresh, clean and most importantly dry. I'm channeling Anna Spiro and I'm going light, bright and colorful with a capital C.
The to do list is long. So very, very long.
- Rip up gross carpet (floor and stairs) and replace flooring - Paint and plank walls and bookshelves - Recover estate sale chairs - Create some sort of art station for the girls - Paint chairs and table - Repair and paint coffee table - Create toy storage that doesn't involve the words 'pink' or 'plastic' - Get some art on those walls - Find rugs - New Lighting
I'll be referring to my Pinterest board on the regular, so feel free to check my organized brainstorm. And if you see a woman wandering around Home Depot with paint in her hair and a list in her hand, that's me. At Home Depot. For the third time this week.
Now let's check in with the others and see what great plans they have for us!
Four of seven formerly fired workers decided to return to work at Palermo Inc.
By H. Nelson Goodson
October 2, 2013
Milwaukee, WI - On Tuesday, Voces de la Frontera (VDLF) reported that seven Palermo Pizza workers who were terminated more than a year ago for supporting a union and walked out in support of more than 100 striking workers got $106,000 in back pay. Four of the seven fired workers decided to return to work.
The back pay marks another victory for VDLF who helped the fired workers get their money for the unfair labor practices that was conducted at Palermo Inc.
So far in the past year, Palermo Inc. has paid at least $63,000 for health and safety violations that included a three finger amputation in May 7, 2013. The recent three OSHA citations for violations totaled $13,500, which each violation totaled $4,500, according to VDLF.
SUV driver rear ended biker who slowed down after an SUV driver got to close, according to YouTube video of Sunday's incident.
By H. Nelson Goodson
October 1, 2013
Manhattan, NY - On Sunday, Alexian Lien, 33, who was driving his SUV Range Rover along the Manhattan highway with his wife, Rosalyn and 2-year-old child apparently got some biker justice after rear ending Christopher Cruz, 28, of New Jersey. Lien got to close to Cruz who was riding his sports bike and the incident caused Cruz to gesture at Lien. Cruz slowed down in front of the SUV and it seems Lien just kept going and rear ended him, according to the YouTube footage recorded by another biker.
The highway incident made other bikers stopped to help Cruz, but Lien wouldn't get out of his vehicle and panicked. Other bikers tried to get Lien out to face what he had done, but Lien was very uncooperative. Lien was attempting to flee the scene when bikers near the SUV tried to stop him by hitting the vehicle with helmets and slashing the tires, so he couldn't leave the scene. Lien in a panick mode, according to police decided to press on the gas pedal to get out of the situation quickly, but ran over several other motorcycles, striking bikers and running over a biker.
Edwin "Jay" Mieses is seen getting of his bike to help Cruz who suffered minor injuries when Lien in a driving frenzy ran over Mieses and broke both of his legs. Mieses family told media outlets that he is paralyzed and won't walk again. He also suffered bruised lungs, including spine fractures and was in a medically induced-coma St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital, according to doctors who say he might not walk again.
Mieses has two children ages 10 and 14, according to family members.
Cruz was arrested by police and is facing misdeamenor charges for reckless driving, icluding endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child for initiating what police are calling a rode rage that extended through a 50 block chase by more than 30 bikers who went after Lien for the hit-and-run incident. No police were in the area for at least 6 minutes, according to the YouTube footage that went viral.
Another biker turned himself to police, Ellen Edwards, 28, of Queens was also questioned by police. Edwards was facing charges for reckless endangerment, criminal mischief and menacing, but was released without pending charges, according to police. Witnesses say, that Lien was driving fast and wouldn't slow. Police haven't provided information, if Lien attempted to call for help after striking Cruz.
Lien hasn't been charged for a hit-and-run or striking Cruz, Mieses and other bikers including running over multiple motorcycles.
Police continue to investigate the incident that left Lien beat up, with a slashed face and chest. Authorities are looking for another biker who was captured on video hitting and breaking Lien's door window with a helmet after Lien took a side street and got stuck in traffic. Lien's wife and child were not hurt in the incident.
NY police say more than 50 bikers were out with a biker group called the Hollywood Stuntz who organized a rally ride for the group on Sunday without a permit when the incident occurred.
At least 30 other bikers are being sought by police in connection with Lien's beating, chase, slashing after he caused a hit-and-run incident.
NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly told media that Lien fled the scene because he feared for his life and safety of his family.
As many hit-and-run drivers do after causing serious injury and damage to other people, according to a police source.
The irresistible force in blue is just about to hit the immovable wall in red.
In my opinion, this "sure thing" growth "driver" is just about over. It's possible that we crash through the wall a bit, but it's not sustainable over the long-term.
“September had only 23 selling days,” said Kurt McNeil, G.M.'s vice president for United States sales operations. “All of this goes a long way in explaining the month-to-month decline” in the annual rate of industrywide sales.
You will note that he said it goes a long way. He did not say it goes the entire way. Go figure.
This is a film with a powerful Christian message you can share with your teenagers without them thinking you’re square. Okay maybe they think you’re square anyway, but they’ll still appreciate the film. It is a little bit mushy in parts, but hey, it’s a love story. As writer and producer Galley Molina says, it’s a story of “surrender, redemption and second chances.” Inspired by Molina’s own life experiences, I’m In Love with a Church Girltells the story of a man trying to break away from his drug-dealer past after doing time in prison.
Miles Montego, played by hip-hop star Jeff “Ja Rule” Atkins, is now a successful show promoter. But has he really left that old life behind? He still hangs out at his old haunts with his “boys,” Martin, (played by Christian rap star, T-Bone), “T” (played by Tobymac), and their gang. Trailing Montego are a DEA surveillance team, (Stephen Baldwin and Michael Madsen) gathering evidence to arrest them in a major drug bust.
Stopped at an intersection in the middle of town, Miles spies Vanessa Leon (played by Adrienne Bailon) driving by in the opposite direction in a silver convertible. Smitten, he turns his car around and speeds off after her, only to be stopped by the police. Later he coincidentally meets her at a pool party put on by a mutual friend, Nick, (well-known star of The Sopranos, Vincent Pastore). Thus begins their stormy romance, where Miles is inspired to learn about God through his love for Vanessa, and Vanessa learns, to her consternation, about Miles’ past life.
Church GirlProducer Galley Molina is CEO of Reverence Gospel Media (RGM). The movie closely parallels his life. In the movie, however, Miles finds the church girl and God after leaving jail. In real life, Molina found the church girl (to whom he is now married) and God first.
Then he went to jail.
"They think that once you become saved your life is just peaches and cream," said Molina. "For me, the storm of my life happened after. I gave my life to Christ and then I was indicted, I went to bed on top of the world and I woke up with the world on top of me."
Molina began writing Church Girl while in prison. In the movie he plays himself as the pastor of Vanessa’s church. On Miles’ first visit to the church, he sees Galley drive up in a gleaming white Lamborghini, decked out in white shirt and slacks, wearing a white cap. When Galley walks out on the stage to give the sermon, Miles is shocked to realize he is the pastor. It is an understatement to say that Galley does not look like your average pastor. After the service, they have a humorous but meaningful exchange:
Miles (skeptical): “So, you’re really like a pastor, huh? I mean like, a real pastor?”
Galley (amused): “As opposed to, like, an imaginary, cartoon pastor?”
Miles (skeptical): “Nah, that’s not what I meant. I mean, you don’t even look like a pastor.”
Galley (amused): “So, what’s a real pastor supposed to look like, Miles?”
Miles (skeptical): “I don’t know, I mean, look at you, man… your clothes, your jewelry…”
Galley (amused): “You’re kinda decked out yourself, Miles.”
Miles (accusing): “Yeah, but, I don’t drive no Lambo pastor.”
Galley (amused): “Lambo huh? I recall pulling into the parking lot and seeing a four-door black Bentley that I ain’t never seen here before, and I’m assuming that’s yours, man.”
Miles (accusing): “Yeah, but I ain’t no pastor.”
Galley (serious): “True that, but last time I read the Bible, it said nothing about style being a sin… Kinda goes back to that old saying about ‘you cannot judge a book by its cover,’ you heard?”
Miles (accepting): “Yeah I dig. So what made you want to be a pastor anyway?”
Galley(persuasive): “Well, God had a calling in my life, Miles. And as much as I tried to avoid that call, I couldn’t avoid it anymore. And here I am… He’s got a calling in your life too… in everybody’s life. But you gotta answer the phone when he calls, you dig?”
The narrative is authentic and the actors are comfortable with it. It sounds real because it is real for them. The dialog comes right from the streets, and Ja Rule, Molina, Bailon and the others give compelling performances. Moreover, in writing the script, Molina managed to pull off authentic dialog without any character uttering a single expletive – an accomplishment in and of itself.
I won’t tell you the rest of the story. You will have to watch the movie yourself to find out what happens.
In a genuinely ironic case of life imitating art, Atkins went to jail immediately following the movie’s filming in 2011 to serve a two year prison sentence on weapons and tax evasion charges. Though he had dabbled in religion, unlike many of the film’s participants, Ja Rule was not a Christian. At the time, Molina said, “Ja Rule has been ministered to. He's a dear friend… We've been praying for him a lot. He's been open; he's been so [receptive] to the word.”
Now out again, Atkins says it changed him. "It's been real crazy. Real reflective. You go through something like that…it changes you a little bit… You get a chance to really to be at one with yourself. A lot of late nights, by myself… So, you know, I'm really in a good head space. I really want to just do what I'm doing and not focus on nothing negative at all… Right now I'm on my God flow, you know what I mean? I got Job 1:21 tattooed on my chest."
The soundtrack was produced by 5-time Grammy Award winner and Christian music legend Israel Houghton, who wrote and performed original songs for the movie, including Providence, Sunday Kind of Love, Better, Worthy of All Praise and I Surrender. T-Bone also performed in a number of pieces, including, Possess My Body, Return of the Bionic Man and others.
For his part, T-Bone was enthusiastic to participatein the film upon reading the script. A Christian for 15 years, he too has a similar life story of street life and redemption. What got him the most was when he realized that the character he plays in the movie was actually someone he knew of “back in the day, when I was doing my thing…”
As a piece of contemporary drama, the film stands on its own. Actors turn in good performances and the story is solid and entertaining. Still, given Hollywood’s hostility to anything and everything Christian, this is a very brave film. It is boldly, proudly Christian, and as Molina says, it is indeed an inspiring story of “surrender, redemption and second chances.” Films like this should be supported if for no other reason than to reward producers willing to risk making healthy, clean and entertainingmovies with an uplifting message, in counterpoint to the typically violent and decadent Hollywood fare.
Grammy Award-winning singer Donnie McClurkin said of the film, "I've seen this movie, and am both moved and inspired by the story, the characters, and the quality of both movie and music… This is not what people have come to expect from Christian films, and I know it will resonate deeply with viewers – even those who would never have gone anywhere near a movie that touches on the subject of faith."
I’m In Love With a Church Girl Opens nationally on October 18. HERE is a list of theatres where you can see it in your state.
Each year the US Treasury Department collects trillions of dollars in taxes. Last year that amount was $2.449 trillion, and this year it is projected to bring in $2.902 trillion.
If we look at federal spending on the conventional Gregorian calendar instead of the fiscal calendar, as of last Wednesday the federal government had already spent all of this year’s income, and every dollar spent after Wednesday is money it doesn’t have and has to be borrowed. That is called deficit spending and Wednesday was Deficit Day, the day after which every government action is performed on borrowed money.
Since there was at the time more than three months left in the year, between last Wednesday and December 31 the federal government will spend about $10 billion each day that it doesn’t have, adding $900 billion more to the national debt. This is another year of profligate spending that bloats our already bloated national debt still further, pushing the total near the $17 trillion mark.
The Heritage Foundation created an example that puts our federal government’s fiscal irresponsibility in perspective: The median family income in the US is $52,000 this year. If the median family spent money the way the government does, it will spend $64,000 this year, meaning it would put $12,000 on a credit card, without any regard for the $312,000 in existing debt the family already has accumulated. Other than many politicians and bureaucrats, who thinks this makes any sense at all?
Our government has so much debt that it breaks down to just slightly less per American citizen than the aforementioned median family’s annual income.
President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress demand yet another increase in the debt ceiling, opening the way for even more debt, although they want you to believe it’s only for paying existing bills.
A recent Bloomberg poll shows that 60 percent of the participants believe Congress should require spending cuts before raising the debt ceiling, even if that puts the nation at risk of default, while only 28 percent think the increase should be granted without conditions.
But Congressional Democrats want no restrictions on spending, either now or in the future. That is the source of their influence with voters, hence their power to impose asinine laws like the Affordable Care Act on the American people, despite the people’s dislike for that law.
However, if spending limits do come about, projects like the $27 million to teach Moroccans to make pottery would have to go. And the highly important half-million dollar project to create a video game called “Prom Week” to enable Americans the relive their high school prom would be sacrificed. Maybe we don’t really need a $376 million renovation of the White House, and we will no longer be able to pay unemployment benefits to those 1,000 prisoners who collected weekly benefits over a four-month period, costing taxpayers $7 million.
You may argue that those examples of foolish spending and waste amount to pocket change, but the complete list contains many more examples, and we must remember that pennies here and there add up to dollars, and millions of dollars here and there add up to billions of dollars. More importantly: The government has no business doing any of these things, at any cost, ever.
And, with the end of the fiscal year upon them, federal departments, agencies and offices have been busy spending whatever is left in their budgets, fearing that if they don’t spend it all, they will get less next time.
Some examples from The Washington Post: “the Veterans Affairs Department spent more than a half million dollars for artwork, the Coast Guard spent nearly $200,000 on ‘cubicle furniture rehab,’ and the Agriculture Department spent $140,000 on toner cartridges in just one day.”
And, according to Fox News, “federal agencies last week spent money on junkets for Chinese wine connoisseurs, Christmas tree initiatives, radio ads promoting New Jersey blueberries, a maple syrup recipe contest and produced a YouTube video to instruct on the proper handling of watermelons.”
So much for putting the interests of the taxpayers first.
Raising the debt ceiling is tied to a government shut down: raise the debt ceiling and everything is fine. Don’t raise it and the government shuts down. By the time you read this, government either will or won’t have been shut down. Either way, the term “shut down” is so far from accurate that it’s dishonest to use it. The government will “slow down,” not shut down. Sure, it will be hard on some, and the longer it lasts the harder it will be, but it’s not the crisis the Democrats and the media want us to think it is.
But in order to make everyone think it will be the end of the world, they have sacrificed their elitist façade of “tolerance” in favor of name-calling. The same people who cringe at calling terrorists and jihadists “terrorists” and “jihadists” have no problem calling Republicans and conservatives terrorists and jihadists, as well as hostage-takers, extremists, anarchists, arsonists and racists.
It should be no surprise that yet again politics has elbowed out integrity and service.
"It was the wing cameras -- those simple HD wing cameras -- that grabbed everybody's attention," Asner, a professor at the California-based Carnegie Institution for Science, told the Huffington Post.
They revealed vast tracts of dead zones slicing ever-widening swathes through the once-emerald expanses of the Amazon -- the trails of a modern-day gold rush.
"A lot of poor folks from up in the Andes have migrated down to partake in a very classic-style gold rush," Asner explained. "It's totally illegal. It's totally unplanned. It's totally informal.
Dr. Gregory Asner didn't need hyper-spectral imaging to tell him something was very wrong with Earth's mightiest rain forest.
In fact, none of the super-sensory techno-gadgetry aboard his research plane -- dubbed the Carnegie Airborne Observatory -- would tell a more horrifying tale than a basic pair of wing-mounted cameras.
"It was the wing cameras -- those simple HD wing cameras -- that grabbed everybody's attention," Asner, a professor at the California-based Carnegie Institution for Science, told the Huffington Post.
They revealed vast tracts of dead zones slicing ever-widening swathes through the once-emerald expanses of the Amazon -- the trails of a modern-day gold rush.
"A lot of poor folks from up in the Andes have migrated down to partake in a very classic-style gold rush," Asner explained. "It's totally illegal. It's totally unplanned. It's totally informal.
"It's somewhere between 300 per cent and 500 per cent higher than the government thought was going on. There might be 50,000 of these miners now."
And, as their operations rake claws across the Amazon, the toll not only on the land but the people who have long called it home has become impossible to ignore.
"It is amazing to see the gold mining expand so rapidly," Asner noted. "I've been on the ground, covertly, in the mines, and it is horrendous for the people who are working and living there, but they don't care because gold is so valuable currently."
Indeed, the Amazon may be the most vital victim of the 2008 financial crisis. Amid the bailouts, collapse of financial institutions and market panic of that dismal year, the price of gold skyrocketed.
Asner estimates before the crisis, the Amazon was studded with some 2,100 hectares of goldmines.
And after gold prices surged?
"The rate went up from 2,100 to 6,500 -- and it has gone up since then."
The Madness of Leadership A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet **************
"The day may dawn when fair play, love for one's fellow men, respect for justice and freedom, will enable tormented generations to march forth triumphant from the hideous epoch in which we have to dwell. Meanwhile, never flinch, never weary, never despair." ~ Winston Churchill
Did you know that Churchill was a depressive? Oh, yes. He struggled with depression most of his life.
The world would be surprised, indeed, to know the depressives who became great leaders in politics, in arts and sciences, and yes, in religion, over the past decades and ages.
Why do you suppose that happened?
I have a theory. See, depressives are great "thinkers." They tend to turn inward under stress. Instead of relying wholly on advisers and an entourage of sycophants, they rely upon themselves and their own abilities and, for the religious among them -- they also lean heavily upon their God -- for they have learned, more than most men, I think, the inherent weakness of man from wrestling with that weakness every waking hour of their lives.
Despair, as Churchill mentioned above, was a condition he lived with almost daily. He understood it as few did or do.
But, here's the thing about recognizing despair and over coming it -- or enduring it -- if you will: You no longer fear it -- and -- you learn that each bout survived makes you stronger much as a fiery crucible refines it's contents.
Having survived despair, the depressive knows the "worse that can happen" and his mind has broken the shackles that fear had previously imposed and he is free to think, to plan, to call forth his creative abilities, to attack whatever the problem is before him. In Churchill's time and place it was World War Two.
I am convinced that Churchill learned to use the repressed anger and melancholic depression to his advantage. That is what great men do, nay, that is what great human beings do!
John Adams, 2nd President of the United States and one of America's founding fathers was a depressive. Charles Dickens, that great British writer was, too, a depressive. So were/are Buzz Aldrin, American astronaut, the second man to set foot on the moon; Hans Christian Andersen, Danish writer; Dick Cavett, American talk show host; Ray Charles, African-American singer; Charles Darwin, British naturalist; Bob Dylan, American singer-songwriter, poet and artist; William Faulkner, American author; Harrison Ford, American actor; Ken Griffey Jr., American MLB player; Ernest Hemingway, American writer; Abraham Lincoln, American lawyer and politician, 16th President of the United States; John D. Rockefeller, American industrialist; Leo Tolstoy, Russian writer; Mohandas Gandhi, leader of Indian nationalism in British-ruled India; Mark Twain, American writer; Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., American civil rights leader; Mike Wallace, American journalist on 60 Minutes; and Boris Yeltsin, first President of Russia; SOURCE:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_with_major_depressive_disorder
Depressives tend to see the world as it really is. As a rule, they do not fool themselves into believing they are "in control." Normal people do.
Depressives are pragmatic and have the ability to adapt to a changing reality even when they don't particularly like it. They don't care about society's "norm" and structures, nor do they care for doing "what is expected of them." Example: "When Neville Chamberlain returned from signing the Munich agreement with Hitler in 1938, only Churchill and a small coterie refused to stand and cheer in parliament, eliciting boos and hisses from other honorable members."SOURCE:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904800304576474451102761640.html
Churchill saw Chamberlain's blunder with the clarity and realism that many, if not most, "normal" persons lack.
Depressives also value, highly, other people's opinions. That, alone, makes them next to unique! BUT -- a warning: those empathetic depressives may not be out to defeat you as an opponent, but they are fixated upon showing you the error(s) of your ways and changing your mind along with your opinion!
Nassir Ghaemi, (runs the Mood Disorders Program at Tufts Medical Center in Boston) in an article for the Wall Street Journal entitled: "Depression in Command," said the following: "When times are good and the ship of state only needs to sail straight, mentally healthy people function well as political leaders. But in times of crisis and tumult, those who are mentally abnormal, even ill, become the greatest leaders. We might call this the Inverse Law of Sanity."
Mr. Ghaemi continues: "Great crisis leaders are not like the rest of us; nor are they like mentally healthy leaders. When society is happy, they toil in sadness, seeking help from friends and family and doctors as they cope with an illness that can be debilitating, even deadly. Sometimes they are up, sometimes they are down, but they are never quite well.
When traditional approaches begin to fail, however, great crisis leaders see new opportunities. When the past no longer guides the future, they invent a new future. When old questions are unanswerable and new questions unrecognized, they create new solutions. They are realistic enough to see painful truths, and when calamity occurs, they can lift up the rest of us."SOURCE: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904800304576474451102761640.html
So, where DOES their strength come from? "Their weakness is the secret of their strength," according to Mr. Ghaemi. I believe him.
I am now, and have been for most of my life, acquainted with a number of depressives. One thing I have found to be -- oh, so true -- is their honestly in answering a probing question. Many depressives are reluctant to offer an answer to an unasked question, but, when the question is PUT to them, they tend to reply with clarity, realism, pragmatism, truthfulness, and on occasion, biting humor. When asked for a suggested solution to a problem, they will often surprise by offering a creative solution that defies the normal thinking patterns and can be -- and often is -- described as being "out of the box."
Consider this: In 2006 an article was published by psychiatrists at the Duke University Medical Center which reviewed the biographies of American presidents from 1776 to 1974. This study, which was published in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease analyzed the historical data of 37 presidents looking for symptoms of mental illness as defined by the criteria of the DSM-IV, the Diagnostic Statistical Manual. What they found was startling. According to the Duke researchers, 49% of former presidents had experienced some form of mental illness. Depression was the most common type of presidential mental illness (24%) which some experts say is a high percentage compared with the national average.
Here is a list of the presidents who have been diagnosed with depression through analysis of historical data:
There is an old saw that says: "Have you ever noticed that when all hell breaks loose, and destruction is assured, there always seems to be one person who steps forward with all the right answers, who knows EXACTLY what to do to save the day? Have you ever noticed that, more often than not, that person is insane?"
I hope that through these humble scribblings you can now see the truth in that old "saying."
It is also true that while it my not pay to be nuts, quite often it REALLY does help!
Oil prices increased about fivefold from 2003 to 2008, raising fears that world petroleum production is becoming unable to keep up with demand. The fact that there are few alternatives to petroleum for aviation fuel adds urgency to the search for alternatives. Twenty-five airlines were bankrupted or stopped operations in the first six months of 2008, largely due to fuel costs.
The following chart shows what the consumer price index has done since hitting the bottom in December of 2008. I have added a 2nd order polynomial trend line in red (excluding the temporary deflationary deviation from February 2010 to April 2011).
Click to enlarge.
It's an awesome display of gravity if ever I've seen one.
But it's striking that the Fed's preferred price measure is declining at a time when the main conversation among policy makers is when and how to tighten monetary policy, rather than to make it more accommodative.
The last thing on the minds of most people is deflation.
In my very humble opinion, ZIRP is going to be with us for what will seem to be an eternity, just like it was in Japan. It is also my very humble opinion that our stock market won't like much better than Japan's did. Not right away perhaps, but eventually.
The Building Where Little But Political Posturing Gets Done - 2013
Tiring of the predictable sophistry and political hyperbole Rational Nation USA offers the following NPRpiece as a informational data point for the last minute political junkies who continue to believe the sky will fall in should the feral government shutdown at midnight. It has happened before (more than once) and yet we all survived and the markets didn't crash. Sleep well tonight. Irrespective of the 11th hour outcome, whatever that may be, life, as well as the world will continue on pretty much as we've all become accustomed to. Pleasant dreams.
Remember that when all is said and done it really is just about politics and political brinkmanship. Of course the interesting factor is this... We continue to reelect the same strain of political buffoons over and over again. Go figure...
While the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a resolution Friday that keeps the government funded through Dec. 15, the measure also defunded President Obama's signature health care law — which means it has virtually no chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate.
If a budget resolution doesn't hit President Obama's desk before Oct. 1, that's a big problem: The government will be forced to close its doors.
With that prospect looming, here are eight things you should know about the possible shutdown: It won't be the first time
Since a new budgeting process was put into place in 1976, the U.S. government has shut down 17 times. Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan each dealt with six shutdowns during their terms in office, lasting anywhere from one day to 2 1/2 weeks.
The last actual shutdown came in 1996 — though the government came close during budget negotiations in 2011.
The last shutdown lasted three weeks
The three-week shutdown that lasted from Dec. 16, 1995, to Jan. 6, 1996, ranks as the longest in U.S. history. As a result, about 284,000 federal workers were furloughed, and around 475,000 essential employees went without a paycheck, although they were eventually reimbursed.
They weren't the only ones inconvenienced. Some benefits for military veterans were delayed, and cleanup at more than 600 toxic waste sites was stopped. The government also shut down for six days in mid-November 1995, initially resulting in the furlough of 800,000 federal employees. The Congressional Research Service reported the shutdowns cost taxpayers a combined $1.4 billion. Only the "essentials"
Only federal employees deemed "essential" would continue to come to work during a shutdown. Employees who qualify as essential include those involved in national security, protecting life and property and providing benefit payments.
That means members of the military, border control agents, air traffic controllers, the FBI and the TSA are among those who would remain on duty. The president and members of Congress are also exempt from furlough and must decide which of their respective staff members to keep around during a shutdown.
The checks are in the mail
Even in the event of a shutdown, Social Security beneficiaries will still find their checks in their mailboxes and doctors and hospitals will receive Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. However, if the government does not resolve the budget situation by Nov. 1, those entitlement program payments could be delayed by up to two weeks.
Even in a shutdown, the Postal Service delivers
One reason Americans will get their entitlement checks: A government shutdown would not hit the operations of the U.S. Postal Service. Government agencies that the Treasury Department does not directly fund, like USPS, would be relatively unaffected in the short term by a shutdown . Some postal employees would very likely face furlough, but it wouldn't be enough to completely close down the agency. National parks and museums? Forget it
Have plans to visit a national park or go sightseeing in the nation's capital? You might want to cancel them. During the Clinton-era shutdowns, 368 national parks closed, resulting in the loss of 7 million visitors. In Washington, D.C., the public would be unable to visit the monuments and museums that millions of tourists flock to every year. The Capitol building would remain open, though.
Visa and passport delays
Those hoping to enter or leave the country during a shutdown would most likely experience some difficulty. The government was unable to process around 200,000 pending passport applications and a daily average of 30,000 visa and passport applications by foreigners during the 1995-96 shutdowns. This would result not only in a headache for would-be travelers but a loss in millions for the airline and tourism industries.
Who would be blamed for a shutdown?
Generally speaking, no one comes out looking good if the government shuts down. A Pew Research poll conducted Sept. 19-22 shows 39 percent of Americans would blame Republicans if a shutdown were to occur, compared with 36 percent who would fault the Obama administration and 17 percent who would hold both sides responsible. According to a Pew poll from a comparable period during the 2011 budget battle, the public spread the blame around nearly identically.
MIDDLE EAST historian Tom Holland told a briefing in London last night that the world is watching the effective extinction of Christianity from its birthplace.In an apocalyptic appraisal of the worsening political situation in the region, a panel of experts provided a mass of evidence and statistics for the end of the region’s nation states under the onslaught of militant Islam.‘In terms of the sheer scale of the hatreds and sectarian rivalries, we are witnessing something on the scale of horror of the European Thirty Years War,’ said Holland.‘It is the climax of a process grinding its way through the twentieth century – the effective extinction of Christianity from its birthplace.’The event titled ‘Reporting the Middle East: Why the truth is getting lost’ at the National Liberal Club in Whitehall, sought answers to the ‘anaemic’ coverage of attacks on Egypt’s Christians on 14 August. Pre-planned destruction of scores of ancient churches, monasteries, schools, orphanages and businesses had gone unreported for days across the West, Nina Shea, Director of the Hudson Institute Religious Freedom Centre in Washington said.
After the Islamists swept multiple elections during the first revolution in 2011, US newspapers asking how it would change Egypt suggested merely that women would be prohibited from wearing skimpy clothes, and Sharm el-Sheikh would close as a tourist destination.
This was ‘utterly trivial’ she said. Persecution of Copts, who dated their church to Gospel writer St Mark in Alexandria, was at its worst since the fourteenth century, with ‘horrific levels of violence’. ‘It has been the worst persecution in 700 years against the oldest, largest remaining Christian minority in the Middle East.’
The media had failed to ask the most basic questions, she said. ‘Why were the Copts singled out, what was the significance and purpose of the attacks?’
A fourth-century church dedicated to St Mary – whom Muslims were supposed to revere – and that was a UNESCO World Heritage site, had been destroyed and designated as a Muslim prayer space. It was 200 years older than the Bamyan Statues in Afghanistan, yet the mainstream media had ignored its demise.
Yet there was enough evidence to show that the violence was part of a plan to ‘drive out the Copts, to terrorize them into leaving’, she added.
Lapido Chief Executive Dr Jenny Taylor who organized the event which was co-hosted with foreign policy think tank Henry Jackson Society, said the media’s job was impeded by ‘secular blinders’. They tended to report the Middle East’s religions as a ‘variant of a Westminster debate’ with ‘left-wing underdogs versus right-wing overdogs and the Christians getting lumped in with the overdogs if they get mentioned at all.’
Holland said Egypt was not a developing nation, which needed help to emerge as a Western democracy but had been the world’s first state, with a civilization on a level with China and Iran. In Roman times, it had been the world’s bread basket.
Now it was the single largest importer of wheat anywhere on the planet.
In answer to a question from the floor he agreed there had been what felt like ‘silence’ from Western churches, governments and indeed Western Muslims after the attacks, which belied Islamist propaganda that the West colluded with Christians.
Shea also spoke about Syria.
Christians in Syria were now ‘caught in the middle’, she said. There was a shadow war against them by rebels, with jihadis and al-Qaeda factions deliberately attacking Christians.
‘When they conquer a town they set up sharia courts and mini sharia states. The Christians are fleeing. Given the choice to be killed or to leave, they leave. If they stay, the jizya tax is imposed, and then raised. If they cannot pay they are killed.’
She said Christians dared not go to refugee camps run by rebels as they would be recruited to fight. The so-called Damascus Plan drafted by the Free Syrian Army for after the war ends, included retribution killings against any who did not oppose Assad.
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I feel sorry for the Churches of the Middle East. In every Muslim nation they are being destroyed. In Bethlehem, under the Palestinian Authority, Christians have gone from a majority population of 85% to a minority population of 10%. Pretty soon the only Christians in the city will be the priests, nuns, and tourists. Already the Palestinian Authority has decided to turn the Church of the Nativity into a mosque. The Church of the Nativity is one of the holiest sites in the Christian world. Yet there will be no protests when this happens.
The only place in the Middle East where there is total and free religious liberty is Israel. Yet the Christian Churches will not praise Israel for this, but condemns the Jewish State instead.
Between 1949 and 1955 every Arab nation forcibly removed most of the Jews from their nations. They laughed doing so, saying:
First the Saturday people. Then the Sunday people.
In most of the Arab world there are not enough Jews to satisfy their blood lust. For instance there are only 9 Jews in Egypt. (All elderly women.) So now it is the turn of the Sunday people to leave. And like with the Jews, the world is remaining silent.
Until Christian and World leaders cry out and demand a stop to the persecution, the murders, the rapes, the torture of their fellow Christians, the Muslims will keep doing what they want and laughing while we just sit back and do nothing.
Happy Monday y'all! I'm still recovering from an A+ weekend but I've got one more party in me. That's why I'm over at The Pink Pagoda joining in on the Blue and White Monday party.
