Thursday, December 20, 2012

NALS 61st Annual Education Conference & National Forum RECAP ...

View In-Depth Conference Recap |?View Conference Photos |?View Conference Handouts

NALS? 61st Annual Education Conference & National Forum, held in Portland, Oregon, on October 18-21, 2012, made for a memorable time. ?Take Your Career to New Heights!? was the conference theme, and with over 42 top-quality education sessions tailored to the following specialty tracks designated by NALS: litigation/civil law, corporate law, estate planning/family law, and general practice, taking their careers to new heights is exactly what attendees did!

The addition of a ?NALS Genius Bar?, designed to assist attendees with social networking and technology, was also a big hit. Hands-on training for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and various electronic devices was available for attendees, providing them with an onsite? technology resource.

The weekend started off with a bang as the dynamic keynote speaker, Sharmen Lane, also known as The How Gal, presented her ?Now to WOW? program which provided inspiring, life-changing information and tools to find our passion and take action. Ms. Lane went from being a high school dropout manicurist to a magna cum laude college graduate, millionaire, and private pilot. She has been highly recognized for her award-winning career in sales and leadership and is now a highly recommended international speaker and five-time author. Her programs offer motivation, inspiration, and information to help create the life you want. Ms. Lane?s new book, Giving You the Wow and the How, was available for sale after her presentation.

The education began on Thursday with three sessions in each specialty track. The litigation/civil law track included sessions that focused on products liability, food safety litigation, and insurance coverage. The corporate law track included sessions on construction contracts, HOA, and the importance of due diligence in real estate transactions. Thursday?s estate planning/family law track included sessions on same-sex relationships, balancing work life and caregiving responsibilities, and elder abuse. The general law track offered a session on organization in ever-changing environments, and included a two-part session on the inner workings of Microsoft Word.

The great education continued on Friday with sessions in the litigation/civil law track, which focused on dram shop claims, iPod/iPad technology, trial preparation, and IP litigation.? In the corporate law track, participants learned about bankruptcy litigation, the uniform commercial code, securities, and the nuts and bolts of commercial leasing.? The estate planning/family law sessions kicked off with a discussion on elder law issues for legal professionals followed by sessions on end-of-life decisions, social security, and bankruptcy tools to stop foreclosures and preserve the family home. Friday?s general law sessions began with ?60 Tips, Tricks, and Gadgets,? and? continued with sessions on stress management, ethics, and digital forensics.

A fun-filled night was in store for attendees of the NALS Foundation Gala Event on Friday night. With the theme of ?Casino Royale,? there were blackjack, roulette, and craps tables, with professional dealers for each.? The NALS Foundation provided attendees with ?funny money? to spend on the games of their choosing. There were some great prizes given away, including the new iPad 2!

After an enjoyable evening,? it was back to business on Saturday with more quality education. The litigation/civil law track kicked off with a session on legal citations, followed by a session titled ?Depositions, Discovery, and Difficult People, and wrapping up with a session on reviewing medical records. The corporate law track offered sessions about debt collection, alternative dispute resolution clauses, and immigration law. The Saturday estate planning/family law sessions explored probate from a paralegal?s perspective, followed by a session on divorce, meretricious relationships, relocation and third-party custody. The final session of the day covered disability and special needs planning. The general law track covered the topics of gang enforcement, restraining/protective orders, and legal writing.

On Saturday afternoon, many members were recognized at the annual Recognition Luncheon for their excellent contributions and continued dedication to NALS. One of the first groups that was recognized for their hard work and dedication was the Portland Conference Task Force who worked tirelessly to obtain over 40 speakers for the confernece:

Jeanne Preston, PP, PLS?Task Force Chair
Marie Carter, PP, PLS?Sponsorship Chair
Judy Gehrke, PLS, CLA
Traci Kerian, PP, PLS
Kevin McKenzie, PLS
Brenda Piplovick, PP, PLS

Another group deserving recognition was those in attendance who had, since March 2012, received their CLE Award:

Donrue Talley Brathovd, PP, PLS
Babs DeKeyser, PP, PLS
Linda Hanley
Jacquelyn Hannigan, PP, PLS
Nancy Harris, PP, PLS
Carol Pyle
Amylyn Riedling, PP, PLS
Audrey M. Saxton, PP, PLS
Cynthia Squier, PP, PLS
Cheryl Summerhill, PLS
Dara Wasalino Tremblay, PLS
Sandra D. Williams, PLS

Those in attendance who obtained and renewed their certifications since March 2012 were also recognized by Karen Kuhn, PP, PLS, NALS Certifying Board Chair:

PLS Certification:
Raquel Wood, PLS

PP Certification:
Tonya Mashue, PP
Audrey Saxton, PP, PLS

PLS Recertification:
Candace Johnson, PLS
Audrey M. Saxton, PP, PLS
Sharon Wotherspoon, PLS

PP Recertification:
Janette M. Olexa, PP,? PLS
Brynne Williamson, PP, PLS-SC

Certifying Board Chair Karen then recognized those members earning Specialty Certificates in one of the four educational tracks offered by NALS:

Brynne Williamson, PP, PLS-SC Estate Planning/Family Law

The NALS Award of Excellence is the top honor a member can receive from NALS. This award began in 1957 and was then called the Legal Secretary of the Year.? The name was changed in 1994 to better reflect the membership of NALS and to be more inclusive of those being honored. Saving the best for last, the final award of the Recognition Luncheon was the 2012 NALS Award of Excellence awarded to Cheryl Summerhill, PLS. Congratulations, Cheryl, and thank you for all of your great contributions to NALS. Check out the Winter Issue of @Law Magazine for more information about Cheryl?s journey to receiving this award.

To wrap up a great day, closing keynote speaker, Nancy Noonan, spoke about creating excellence in challenging times. The session was interactive and allowed members to meet and share something they had done recently for the very first time. Ms. Noonan explained three elements of mastery: knowledge, skills, and the search for excellence. She concluded her session with advice on making creativity the norm in our lives, not the exception, and left us with the following quote: ?Possibilities are often disguised as obstacles.?

With numerous opportunities for networking, recognition, education, and entertainment, this year?s conference provided a little something for everyone. If you were unable to attend, check out the conference pictures to see what you missed, and be sure to mark your calendars for October 17-20, 2013, and join us next year in Atlanta, Georgia!

| theNALSdocket |

Source: http://www.nals.org/?p=8074

wisconsin recall doris day buffalo sabres texas news kim mulkey sarah palin today show dallas tornado video

NRA Page Goes Dark: Facebook, Twitter Down & Silent; Time for Tougher Gun Laws & Control? (POLL)

First Posted: Dec 18, 2012 08:01 PM EST

(Photo : Facebook) NRA Facebook Blog

The National Rifle Association (NRA) 'downed' its main Facebook page earlier this week while one of its other social media outlet, Twitter, went silent just days after the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut took place.

Only the NRA's Facebook blog page remains up and its last activity logged dates to December 14, 6:30 a.m. just hours before the massacre occurred, as reported by NBCNews.

Like Us on Facebook

The blog page logs posts about the associations giveaways, contests, TV shows & more and the number of likes this Facebook page has received in the last 4 days has ascended from 6,562 to the current count of 7,310.

The NRA's news website remained viewable on Tuesday night but no post or story regarding Friday's killings could be found.

The shootings that left 20 children and six adults dead carried out by 20-year-old Adam Lanza has renewed a national debate on tougher gun control/laws in the nation with many advocating and pushing for a assault weapons ban as earliest as 2013.

Is it time for tougher gun laws/control?

? 2012 Latinos Post. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

Source: http://www.latinospost.com/articles/8365/20121218/nra-page-goes-dark-facebook-twitter-down.htm

Google News Newton les miserables virginia tech shooting Bbc News China abc

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Dutch troops lack experience on Patriot missiles in Turkey

  • Moroccans voice opposition to Dutch ?abortion ship?

    Al Arabiya - Tuesday 18th December, 2012

    The Dutch non-profit organization Women on Waves, which is organizing the visit, says the ship will arrive at Smir, in northern Morocco on Thursday afternoon, around 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of ...

  • Dutch Crown prince Willem and his wife Maxima who visited Turkey on the occasion?

    Turkish Press - Tuesday 18th December, 2012

    Dutch Crown prince Willem and his wife Maxima who visited Turkey on the occasion of celebrations marking the 400th anniversary of the establishment of relations between Turkey and Holland, cycled ...

  • More Dutch jihadists but their number is still minute report

    Dutch News.nl - Monday 17th December, 2012

    More people have travelled from the Netherlands to take part in jihadist fighting elsewhere in the world but their number is still 'small', according to a justice ministry briefing, quoted ...

  • Research and Markets Netherlands Diagnostic Imaging Market Outlook to 2018 - Ultrasound Systems MRI Systems ...

    General Sources - Monday 17th December, 2012

    Research and Markets: Netherlands Diagnostic Imaging Market Outlook to 2018 - Ultrasound Systems, MRI Systems, Computed Tomography Systems, Nuclear Imaging Equipment, X-Ray Systems, Mammography ...

  • Gbagbo hearing to confirm charges in February ICC

    Expatica - Monday 17th December, 2012

    A hearing to decide if ex-Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo should go on trial for crimes against humanity will be held in February, the International Criminal Court announced on Monday.The ...

  • Spending a night in a Dutch ice hotel

    Kuwait Times - Monday 17th December, 2012

    Published Date: December 29, 2011 It could be any standard hotel room in the quaint northeastern Dutch city of Zwolle, with a bed, a minibar, bathrobes and two pairs of slippers. Except for the ...

  • Dutch pension funds need ?firm measures? to return to satisfactory funding levels

    European Pensions - Monday 17th December, 2012

    Firm measures are necessary to bring scheme funding levels of Dutch pension funds up to the minimum required funding ratio of 105 per cent within five years, warns De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) in ...

  • Dutch pension funds sell off securities

    European Pensions - Monday 17th December, 2012

    EUR 26bn worth of securities were sold by Dutch pension funds in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to figures published by De Nederlandsche Bank. The funds carried out equities sales ...

  • Dutch tax authorities rule on landmark tax rebate for UK pension funds

    European Pensions - Monday 17th December, 2012

    UK pension funds are set to enjoy a ?100million rebate from the Dutch tax authorities following a tax ruling, says the UK branch of KPMG. The professional services provider?s test ...

  • Net worth of Dutch investment funds decreases further

    European Pensions - Monday 17th December, 2012

    The net worth of supervised Dutch investment funds fell by ?6.4bn (eight per cent) in the third quarter of 2008 (Q3 2008), with De Nederlandsche Bank attributing losses to investment ...

  • Dutch pension funds receive ?4.9bn in dividends over 11 months

    European Pensions - Monday 17th December, 2012

    Between April 2007 and March 2008, Dutch pension funds are reported as having received ?4.9bn in dividends on quoted shares, according to De Nederlandsche Bank. Pension fund holdings of ...

  • Netherlands streets ahead in use of Liability Driven Investment

    European Pensions - Monday 17th December, 2012

    Sixty-one per cent of Dutch pension funds are currently employing a Liability Driven Investment (LDI) strategy, an increase of 18 per cent on last year?s figures. Fiduciary manager SEI ...

  • Source: http://www.amsterdamnews.net/index.php/sid/211483697/scat/ec440608e2050e3b

    i robot the big c the visitor king of kings ostara andy kaufman masters 2012

    Military Veterans Explore "Moral Injury"

    Bliss writes: "Indigenous people tend to have extended rituals for welcoming warriors home and re-integrating them into civilian society. In the United States we lack such rituals ..."

    A grieving soldier. (photo: ob1left/flickr)
    A grieving soldier. (photo: ob1left/flickr)

    By Shepherd Bliss, Reader Supported News

    18 December 12


    Reader Supported News | Perspective

    ?

    ur Veterans Writing Group met the morning after Pearl Harbor Day for our regular winter gathering, as we have convened seasonally for twenty years. We came from throughout Northern California to a spacious redwood home in the Sebastopol countryside.

    "Nobody wins a war. There are victors, but you lose the youth of your country," a 94-year-old Pearl survivor reportedly said on the news. "We haven't won any wars," added Pearl survivor Herb Louden, 95 years old, of Sonoma County. As I listened throughout the day to the stories and writings of two-dozen veterans and others directly injured by war - ranging from World War II to Desert Storm - we felt like living proof of these statements.

    But we have been busy recovering from what has recently been described as "moral injury," which I consider a better description than the clinical term Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). We are simply not disorders; war is the disorder. Moral injury can lead to difficulty sleeping, staying in relationships, and keeping jobs. It can create alcoholism, homelessness, imprisonment, feeling ashamed and bad about oneself, depression, hopelessness, and the final response - suicide. Or homicide.

    The co-author of the book, "Soul Repair: Recovering From Moral Injury After War," professor Gabriella Lettin, Ph.D., writes, "War does not end when peace is declared and the troops come home. It continues in the 'hidden wounds of war.'"

    I arrived to our fourth all-day meeting of the year depressed from weeks of little sleep and nightmares after being laid off from teaching a college leadership course that I had successfully taught for three years at Sonoma State University. I felt worthless after nearly 40 years of college teaching. I had been sent back down alone into a familiar darkness. Yet the minute I entered the room my spirits lifted, and continued to rise as I listened to my comrades tell their stories, which ranged from the heavy-hearted to the humorous.

    Most were long-time members of the group, but there are usually newcomers at each gathering. This time it included an Army combat medic who was discharged as a Conscientious Objector. Another had lost her uncle in Vietnam and recently went to the stream by which he died.

    "I've gone back to Vietnam a few times to say that I'm sorry," reported Paul Duffey. "We help kids with heart operations and have done about 300 a year for the last ten years." Many vets return to that crime scene.

    Former UC Berkeley professor Maxine Hong Kingston is our writing teacher and attends most meetings, but she had just returned from Hawaii. In a Pearl Harbor Day email she reported that a new vets' writing group at San Quentin prison was using our book "Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace," which she edited (www.vow.vop.org). Too many vets are in prison, homeless, or hiding out. More to come, as wars continue.

    Among those who told their stories were decorated combat vets, pilots, Buddhists, filmmakers, recently homeless, a body escort for the deceased coming home, teachers, gardeners, poets, artists, a former monk, parents, and a machinist.

    Our format for the day is to sit in a circle and begin with a meditation. Then we have a check-in with each person speaking briefly. We meditate again and then disperse in silence to write, returning for a potluck lunch that starts in silence. There is a powerful and healing intimacy in silence. In the afternoon we read out loud what we have written, and listen without judgment.

    Writing from traumatic memories evokes them - though now with some distance and in a context where they can be remembered, re-framed, and discharged. Then we take a walking meditation into the tall trees, which embrace and witness us.

    As tears dropped during both the morning and afternoon sessions, the grief felt throughout the room connected us. By being openly expressed and received, the sadness was released. Voices that had been silenced by domestic and other forms of violence found words and receptive ears. None of us were alone anymore, but together with understanding comrades. Safety prevailed, as well as permission to speak one's truth without judgment. Forgiveness was felt.

    One of us had held the hands of four people who died during the last year, as well as the paw of a departing pet. We're seasoned about dealing with death and wounds - to both the body and soul.

    The military community differs from that of the civilian world. We are "Other," having had unique experiences; those of us raised in military families or who saw duty in the services. The rules of appropriate behavior differ, and it can be difficult to go back and forth between those two communities.

    Over lunch we speak about "moral injury." Newsweek's December 10 issue reports studies about "the psychological burden of killing." Many veterans speak about a sadness attributed to "bearing witness to evil and human suffering and seeing death and participating in it."

    "Every generation gives war trauma a different name," explained Korean vet Jiwon Chung at lunch. "Soldier's heart, shell shock, battle fatigue, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Moral injury, the latest term, is important because it de-pathologizes the condition. If you go to war, come back, and are not the same, not at ease, troubled, or suffering, it is not because you are psychically weak, but because you are morally strong. What you witnessed or did went against your deepest moral convictions, violating our humanity to the core."

    Chung later added, "That we vets suffer moral injury, despite the tremendous suffering and anguish it brings, is actually a validation of our humanity. War is the reason for moral injury, not any individual shortcoming. Peace, justice, and reparation are the cures for moral injury."

    Suicides by veterans of the American wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have doubled since 2004. Over 1,000 vets attempt to take their lives each month. Killing or witnessing people being killed can disturb the soul.

    I do not like the clinical term Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It labels those of us who suffer from war trauma as being a disorder. Problems we may have, but it would be better to understand that the primary disorder is war itself.

    In my case, I resigned my officer's commission in the US Army to protest the American War in Vietnam, much to the disappointment of my family, which gave its name to Ft. Bliss, Texas. Then I moved to Chile. My trauma comes from being raised in a military family, and was increased by "the other 9/11," which happened in Chile, September 11, 1973. The US supported Gen. Augusto Pinochet to topple the democratically-elected government.

    Among those who were tortured and executed was my close friend Frank Teruggi, whom I had recruited to work there with me. So I carry survivor's guilt, which contributes to "moral injury." I can still hear Frank crying out, inside, these forty years later. 9/11 has been an anniversary date for me for many decades. Certain sounds trigger my re-wired nervous system, and I am no longer fully in present time.

    "It feels like I've lost my soul," one vet is quoted in Newsweek as saying, which I can echo. So I have been working to recover from this shadow on my soul. One deep loss - such as my recent one of a teaching contract - tends to evoke previous losses, such as mine of Frank, and my family.

    I co-taught a "War and Peace" course at Sonoma State University for three years, which helped me recover from moral injury, as did teaching "Identity and Global Challenges" for six semesters. I had to be professional and focus on the needs of students, though I do teach partly from emotional intelligence. I am fortunately now teaching less stressful subjects at a smaller values-based college more committed to diversity.

    Many vets will be returning from the killing fields and homes in Afghanistan and Iraq, and who knows where else in the near future. Iran? Pakistan? Some have worked on my organic farm. Farms can be healing places, as one works outside with plants and animals, caring for them, with fewer people around. I have written about this in books and elsewhere as agro-therapy.

    Indigenous people tend to have extended rituals for welcoming warriors home and re-integrating them into civilian society. In the United States we lack such rituals, except for the loud, chirpy parades, or we leave it up to therapists with little time. Since returning home from war is not like a football game, but about killing people, perhaps we need what Vietnam vet Karl Marlantes calls a "solemn parade" in his book "What It Is Like to Go to War."

    I have been to the woods with men for what is called "grief work," after which one is often exhilarated by the release. One of the best relationships I have ever had with a woman included holding each other while we were both crying, often for a long time. We each have much to cry about.

    This year, as in the past, I have had college students who descended from the holocaust and from internment camps of Japanese here in the US. Though those horrific events occurred before their lives, such moral damage within a family can pass through the generations, even when not spoken about.

    My World War II soldier-father, for example, never spoke of his war experiences, which impaired his hearing and feeling, trying to deny and bury his experiences. He did, however, name my brother, who became a Marine, after his buddy who died in combat.

    It was left up to me, who bears my father's name and that of my warrior grandfather, being a third, to break the lengthy Bliss lineage of war-making and embark on a journey of soul recovery. This included denying my former wife a child, since I knew I could not survive sending another Bliss to war. So, now of grandfather age, I am childless, though able to turn to the grandchildren of friends for their regeneration. Many veterans have trouble shifting from war zones to family life, often separating from spouses.

    "My oath is to see the darkness but not be overcome by it," newcomer Heather Box tells our vets group on the morning after Pearl Harbor Day. When her father lost his brother in Vietnam, "it has had a silent presence in our family life since then."

    To transform that moral injury, Heather traveled to find the stream by which her uncle had died and reported the following: "A Vietnamese farmer was standing by a tree that I had assumed had been there since the war, one that has stood as a witness to all the horror and all the beauty that has come across this land. I am learning from that tree to be more grounded and rooted, even in times of darkness." Our prompt for the day was to be stimulated to write by trees, as we sat in a circle here in the Redwood Empire.

    Telling one's story, and writing it down, can be healing. As for my own healing, in addition to writing and farming, I plan to play more with children, especially toddlers, as well as hang out with horses, dogs and chickens. Since our group met I have already been able to sleep better.
    For more information about Veteran Writers Groups visit: www.vow.vop.org.


    Shepherd Bliss teaches at Dominican University of California, has operated the organic Kokopelli Farm for the last 20 years, and has contributed to two dozen books. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

    Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.

    Source: http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/282-98/15105-military-veterans-explore-qmoral-injuryq

    same day flower delivery valentines day westminster dog show valentines day cards hallmark grammy winners obama budget

    Tuesday KULR-8 Sports On-Demand 12/18

    Story Published: Dec 18, 2012 at 11:00 PM MST

    Story Updated: Dec 18, 2012 at 10:13 PM MST

    Your source for local and surrounding area scores, highlights, and sports news. Be sure to watch KULR-8 News at 6:00 and 10:00 nightly Monday - Friday, and 5:00 and 10:00 Saturday and Sunday nights, for complete sports news coverage.

    Have a sports score to report, or have an idea for a sports story?
    Send an email to the KULR-8 Sports Department at sports@kulr.com, or give us a call at 406-656-8558.

    Source: http://www.kulr8.com/sports/local/Tuesday-KULR-8-Sports-On-Demand-1218-184056291.html

    joe paterno near death joepa sc primary bill moyers heidi klum and seal divorce craigslist killer extremely loud and incredibly close

    Tuesday, December 18, 2012

    Nikki Haley to announce DeMint?s U.S. Senate replacement

    (Reuters) - The father of the man suspected of killing 26 people at a Connecticut elementary school said on Saturday he was in a "state of disbelief" and was fully cooperating with law enforcement officials investigating the massacre. Peter Lanza, father of 20-year-old Adam Lanza, who law enforcement officials have said burst into Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday and killed 20 children and six adults, said: "We are in a state of disbelief and trying to find whatever answers we can. We too are asking why. ...

    Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/nikki-haley-announce-demint-u-senate-replacement-noon-132545253--election.html

    packers giants game golden globe winners 2012 ricky gervais golden globes epidermolysis bullosa miss wisconsin law abiding citizen golden globes 2012

    Breakfast Links for 12/17/12 - Children, Shootings and God's Plan ...

    BREAKFAST LINKS 12/17/12:

    Amy Julia Becker, Patheos/Thin Places: ?Advent is a time of longing, of crying out for God to continue to break into this broken world and make it right. And so, with anger and fear and sorrow and the thinnest wisp of hope, we cry out. Come, Lord Jesus. Come into the horror. Make it right.?

    Kyle Roberts, Patheos/Cultivare: ?Among the many things Jesus showed us about God, is this: When we suffer, Jesus weeps. And so God weeps. I believe with my whole heart that God is weeping for the people of Connecticut. For those children. For their parents and loved ones. That?s about all we can say.?

    Kyle Smith, New York Post: The Message of ?Zero Dark Thirty?

    Ben Witherington, Patheos/The Bible and Culture: ?I was watching an interview this week after the massacre in Newtown and the inevitable question was asked?= ?What could we do to prevent this from happening again?? The candid answer given by a former head of various FBI operations was as follows? ?absolutely nothing unless we are prepared to significantly change our gun laws and also change what we do with the mentally ill?. But even that would not be enough because some mass murderers are not technically deranged, they are simply wicked. There is a difference.?

    Nicola Abe, Der Spiegel Online: The Woes of an American Drone Operator

    Peter Enns, Patheos/Peter Enns: ?I can easily get my arms around a God whose book begins with a mythic story of a naked first couple holding a?conversation?with a serpent, or a Bible that wasn?t written?until?the 5th?century?BC. But yesterday? There is nothing ?easy? about it.?

    Maureen Dowd, New York Times: ?Living on the Edge of the Cliff

    Nicholas Wolterstoff via Kurt Willems, Patheos/Pangea Blog: ??The history of our world is the history of our suffering together. Every act of evil extracts a tear from God, every plunge into anguish extracts a sob from God. But the history of our world is the history of our deliverance together. God?s work to release himself from his suffering is his work to deliver the world from its agony; our struggle for joy and justice is our struggle to relieve God?s sorrow. When God?s cup of suffering is full, our world?s redemption is fulfilled. Until justice and peace embrace, God?s dance of joy is delayed (91).?

    Charles Stanley, Washington Post: In Tragedy We Grieve, In God We Hope

    Joel J. Miller, Patheos/Joel J. Miller: ?It?s intriguing to contemplate one of the last conversations Lincoln had before dying. ?We will visit the Holy Land,? he said, speaking to his wife, ?and see those places hallowed by the footsteps of the Savior.?? From bastard to savior.

    Edward J. Blum, Huff Post Religion: The Shooting of Children and God?s Plan

    Joel J. Miller, Patheos/Joel J. Miller: ?That is our hope. Not to make sense of evil, but to hope in grace. When answers elude, only mercy remains.?

    Source: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/philosophicalfragments/2012/12/17/breakfast-links-for-121712-children-shootings-and-gods-plan-living-on-the-cliff-edge-lessons-of-zero-dark-thirty/

    noaa Jessica Ridgeway jessica biel ipad mini Kevin Krim Autumn Pasquale ann coulter

    Even without Congress, Obama could act to restrict guns (reuters)

    Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

    Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/271451437?client_source=feed&format=rss

    NFL Network att libya engadget twin towers gizmodo cnet

    Massage Therapy and Bodywork | ArticlePDQ.com

    ?

    ??? One of the most important methods for providing pleasure to is massage. Used by professionally trained massage therapy therapists, this practice provides ultimate relief to long-pending pain to the muscles and tendons. Message therapy works on the principle of applying structured or unstructured stress on different areas of one?s human body.???????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

    ? Massage therapy has a got a lengthy binding connection with Body-work. Before we could comprehend the connection between massage therapy and bodywork, we need to comprehend the definition of bodywork. Body-work is practiced by anyone who has studied alternative therapy which offers with some way of touching or rational understanding of a human system. Body-work could be classified in the umbrella of Somatic Professions which include any strategy related to body-mind disciplines, movement therapy or body-mind integration.

    All this leads us to a factor that in most situations, bodywork and massage are the same words with different definitions but are interchangeably used. The only difference that I could factor out is that bodywork would include massage treatments and other types of contact and heal methods. Body-work allows the patient to benefit from a very effective therapy which would impact their posture in a positive way. Body-work which is often combined with self improvement and psychotherapy of one?s human is primarily used as a pleasure strategy. Massage therapy offers with application of stress or contact on areas of one?s human body or the whole human body itself.

    The procedure for a massage therapy used on you is very simple. The person is asked to remove his clothes (happens only in some cases) and lie down on his stomach on a smooth floor. An expert therapist starts rubbing one?s human body with his hands. The areas of one?s human body which are extremely impacted by a massage therapy are the vertebrae (upper and lower), hip and shoulders. Many massage therapy treatments are also done with the help of an Ayurvedic or an Fragrant Oil which enhances the consequences of the Massage Therapy. Massage is used on the subject for him to avail of physiological benefits by means of a massage.

    Massage therapy has acquired tremendous expert significance over the last few years because of which many organizations have now started offering massage therapy and bodywork as a part of their services. When you go to such organizations for a massage, you would be made to lay smooth on a massage therapy table with you being partially disrobed or your human body being wrapped around in towels. This is a very questionable aspect of massage therapy as in some countries; personal areas of one?s human body like a man?s genital area or the nipples of woman are not draped at all. Thailand, a country which is famous for massage therapy salons does not drape the personal areas of the human body at all.

    Techniques of massage therapy and bodywork are undergoing a major sea-change in terms of the way they are practiced. Significantly, this way of therapy of human body issues which do not have any side-effects of using a drug at all is gaining fast popularity in almost all areas of the world.

    ?

    ?

    Contact for prenatal massage grand junction . http://www.elementsmassagegj.com?

    ?

    Source: http://articlepdq.com/health-fitness/exercise/massage-therapy-and-bodywork/

    march madness swain match day nene dark shadows trailer nate mcmillan clooney arrested

    NASA GRAIL lunar twins begin their last burn

    Dec. 17, 2012 ? Ebb and Flow -- the two twin spacecraft of NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission -- have begun their final rocket burns. They are scheduled to impact the moon at around 2:28 p.m. PST (5:28 EST).

    NASA is providing live commentary of the pre-planned lunar surface impacts by GRAIL beginning at 2 p.m. PST (5 p.m. EST) Monday, Dec. 17. The event will be broadcast on NASA Television and streamed on the agency's website. For NASA TV streaming video, schedule and downlink information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv . The coverage will also be streamed live on Ustream at: http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2 .

    The two probes will hit a mountain near the lunar north pole, bringing their successful prime and extended science missions to an end. The two probes are being sent purposely into the moon because they no longer have enough altitude or fuel to continue science operations.

    Commentary will originate from the GRAIL control room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Coverage will last about 35 minutes and include live interviews with GRAIL team members. GRAIL's final resting place on the moon will be in shadow at the time of impact, so no video documentation of the impacts is expected. GRAIL data are allowing scientists to learn about the moon's internal structure and composition in unprecedented detail.

    Join the conversation on Twitter by following the hashtag #GRAIL.

    For the mission's press kit and other information about GRAIL, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/grail . You can follow JPL News on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/nasajpl , and on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/nasajpl .

    Update: The twin spacecraft of NASA's GRAIL mission have completed their final rocket burns. Their pre-planned lunar impact is expected at about 2:28 p.m. PST (5:28 EST).

    Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

    Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:


    Story Source:

    The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

    Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


    Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

    Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

    Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/space_time/astronomy/~3/eYPW3Q-rbzk/121217171117.htm

    end of the world 2012 pink martini times square 2012 predictions new years eve ball drop new years eve times square 2012 2012 holidays

    Monday, December 17, 2012

    Choosing To Retire To A Tucson Arizona ... - Home and Family ...

    Selecting Tucson

    If you have recently retired or taken a pension lump sum, deciding on an Arizona retirement community is easy. Arizona is pretty terrain with mountains, desert, and cityscapes to please anyone?s taste. Tucson is about 100 miles north of the Mexican border to the United States; it is just about encased by mountains and has warm mild winters. Many trees and cacti grow well in the Tucson Arizona area; the mountains give many hiking possibilities. There additionally are many cultural attractions including museums, theaters, and fine dining areas. Tucson also has a wide range of medical facilities and specialists in nearly every field.

    Apartment Living

    Some Arizona retirement communities are apartments. These apartments are especially designed with active people in mind. The clubhouses will probably have planned social events and hobby meet-ups. Most Arizona retirement communities are near golf, tennis, and other sporting locations so their residents can pursue their preferred sports. The residences are likely to have massive fully kitted out kitchens, spacious terraces and balconies, and vast floor plans. Many apartment communities for Arizona retirees have both one and two bedroom plans, average costs are between 1500 and 3000 dollars each month. Most Arizona retirement communities which are apartments will have parking for big automobiles such as recreational automobiles, boats, and camping trailers. Apartments are the best living situation for folk who have no need for a lot of room or that travel often and just need a place to call home for some time.

    Living In A Retirement Housing Development

    Some housing developments in Tucson are Arizona retirement communities. These communities will generally have a number of housing with a few central facilities like community centres, pools, golfing courses, and tennis courts for the residents to enjoy. The housing change in price and size but approximately start around 250,000 dollars. Living in a home rather than a loft is excellent for folks who are interested in living in Arizona all year. Furthermore selecting to get a home in an Arizona retirement community gives the owner freedom to enjoy hobbies like gardening, woodworking, or other garage and lawn friendly art forms which are easier to pursue in a home than a residence. Choosing to live in an Arizona retirement community is a good choice for people who like a lot of sun with out the risk of devastating typhoons, volcanic eruptions or tremors. A place with hot summer temperatures and mild short winters is ideal for most retirees to enjoy their silver and golden years.

    This article is courtesy of adviser hub. We stress that prior to taking any early pension release or pension lump sum you need to undertake a full pension plan review with a professional pension adviser who can explain the potential effect on your revenue in retirement.

    Tags: pension lump sum, Pension plan, pension release

    Source: http://homeandfamily.emilie.org/uncategorized/choosing-to-retire-to-a-tucson-arizona-retirement-community/

    Cyber Monday 2012 Walmart.com detroit lions NFL.com Thanksgiving Day cooking a turkey toysrus

    Source: http://uneref.posterous.com/choosing-to-retire-to-a-tucson-arizona-home-a

    the scream stephen colbert new madrid fault rihanna and chris brown affirmative action helicon zac efron and taylor swift

    Source: http://arnoldolexaro85.typepad.com/blog/2012/12/choosing-to-retire-to-a-tucson-arizona-home-and-family.html

    alabama vs lsu bcs championship game beyonce baby detroit auto show tebow broncos downton abbey season 2 2013 dodge dart

    Sunday, December 16, 2012

    Experts: No link between Asperger's, violence

    (AP) ? While an official has said that the 20-year-old gunman in the Connecticut school shooting had Asperger's syndrome, experts say there is no connection between the disorder and violence.

    Asperger's is a mild form of autism often characterized by social awkwardness.

    "There really is no clear association between Asperger's and violent behavior," said psychologist Elizabeth Laugeson, an assistant clinical professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

    Little is known about Adam Lanza, identified by police as the shooter in the Friday massacre at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school. He fatally shot his mother before going to the school and killing 20 young children, six adults and himself, authorities said.

    A law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss the unfolding investigation, said Lanza had been diagnosed with Asperger's.

    High school classmates and others have described him as bright but painfully shy, anxious and a loner. Those kinds of symptoms are consistent with Asperger's, said psychologist Eric Butter of Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, who treats autism, including Asperger's, but has no knowledge of Lanza's case.

    Research suggests people with autism do have a higher rate of aggressive behavior ? outbursts, shoving or pushing or angry shouting ? than the general population, he said.

    "But we are not talking about the kind of planned and intentional type of violence we have seen at Newtown," he said in an email.

    "These types of tragedies have occurred at the hands of individuals with many different types of personalities and psychological profiles," he added.

    Autism is a developmental disorder that can range from mild to severe. Asperger's generally is thought of as a mild form. Both autism and Asperger's can be characterized by poor social skills, repetitive behavior or interests and problems communicating. Unlike classic autism, Asperger's does not typically involve delays in mental development or speech.

    Experts say those with autism and related disorders are sometimes diagnosed with other mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder or obsessive-compulsive disorder.

    "I think it's far more likely that what happened may have more to do with some other kind of mental health condition like depression or anxiety rather than Asperger's," Laugeson said.

    She said those with Asperger's tend to focus on rules and be very law-abiding.

    "There's something more to this," she said. "We just don't know what that is yet."

    After much debate, the term Asperger's is being dropped from the diagnostic manual used by the nation's psychiatrists. In changes approved earlier this month, Asperger's will be incorporated under the umbrella term "autism spectrum disorder" for all the ranges of autism.

    __

    AP Writer Matt Apuzzo contributed to this report.

    ___

    Online:

    Asperger's information: http://1.usa.gov/3tGSp5

    Associated Press

    Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-12-15-Connecticut%20School%20Shooting-Asperger's/id-66b2014886aa41d2add00ddfd6bd87c5

    new england patriots superbowl halftime madonna madonna papa johns guacamole recipe ufc 143 results

    Is Plastic Surgery The Best Choice For Me? ? Darul Uloom Newcastle

    Posted by ZippererBouman402 on December 15, 2012 in Articles with No Comments


    Plastic surgery was once merely a luxurious provided through the uppr type. Developments in modern technology and medical science have right now made different treatments attainable by almost any person. Furthermore, the explanations for plastic surgery have grown, as it is will no longer just for those seeking to stay hunting fresh, also for automobile accident and illness sufferers seeking to just maintain onto their own health. As your odds of surgical treatment in the foreseeable future expand every day, it?s great to find out some recommendations.

    The conventional medical advice of having an additional opinion for just about any analysis continue to applies to plastic surgery. If your medical professional is completely assured, they may carry out a method for you personally with small or even no chance, check issues out with a different practitioner. If you can, obtain a thirdly judgment if your first couple of clash inside their suggestions.

    When contemplating surgical treatment, you desire to make certain that you analysis up to you are able to regarding the method on your own. This is significant, in order that whenever you really do speak with a specialist about it the conditions, and operations that they can point out usually are not overseas for you. That you will be not listening to this data the very first time.

    Receiving aesthetic surgery is actually a lifestyle-adjusting selection that may or may not have implications. Make certain that acquiring a certain aesthetic process accomplished is actually what you want, and also you feel that it meets your needs. It is important that you think about what features in your life this ?new you? might modify.

    Be aware of the charges involved with your surgical treatment. Don?t indicator any paperwork without completely speaking about and also the doctor disclosing exact costs. It is essential that you don?t just verbally agree with an amount, but have it published downward within the documents. There has been times when people were actually overcharged for surgical operations and failed to understand the overall costs beforehand.

    Usually do not be scared to inquire your cosmetic surgeon something you want to check with. Lots of people believe their inquiries are goofy, and refrain from inquiring them. As being an affected individual, it is your ability to know precisely what is occurring together with your well being. Regardless of what it is actually, question your plastic surgeon!

    Well before investing in plastic cosmetic surgery for cosmetic motives, attempt other available choices. Make sure to look at workout, diet program, face lotions, as well as other low-intrusive treatments initially. These choices are more healthy and fewer high-risk. They might provide you with the effects that you want. Even though they are doing not, they will assist you to ready your body for plastic surgery. This will make the process less difficult.

    Cosmetic plastic surgery can be something occurring for a lot more individuals with every passing year. Some nonetheless get it done in order to keep their younger visual appeal, but developing amounts of people get it done to reduce scars and injury from accidents or maybe reconstruct parts of the body after cancerous cells are taken out. Whatever explanation you might have for surgical treatment, retain the suggestions and assistance presented in thoughts to create the best from the situation.

    Get various cheap Peyton Manning Jersey
    right now with prompt shipping and delivery, safe and sound checkout & excellent support services from acknowledged Robert Griffin III Womens Jersey retail store.

    You may follow the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are closed.

    Source: http://darululoomnewcastle.co.za/?p=23701

    jcpenney toys r us toys r us kohls target target walmart

    How to check the weather and get forecasts using Siri

    Siri not only makes for a great digital assistant but a great weather forecaster as well. With a little help from Siri, you can make sure you're never caught without your umbrella, raincoat, snow shovel, or suntan lotion again.

    How to check current weather conditions with Siri

    How do you find out about the weather? Just ask Siri.

    1. Press and hold down the Home button to activate Siri.
    2. Ask Siri to check the weather. For example, "What's the weather today?"

    Tap the weather widget to go to the Weather App.

    How to view a weekly weather or future forecast with Siri

    If you care more about the entire weekly forecast, or a specific day of the upcoming week, you can ask Siri to show you that instead, and highlight it for you as well.

    1. Press and hold down the Home button to activate Siri.
    2. Ask Siri to tell you what the weekly weather looks like. For example, "What is the forecast for this week?" or "What's the weather on Friday?"

    How to check the weather in a different location with Siri

    If you're traveling or simply care more about the weather someplace else than you do at home, Siri can give you the same information for another area.

    1. Press and hold down the Home button to activate Siri.
    2. Ask Siri to tell you the weather in another location. For example, "What's the weather like in Chicago?" or "Will it be hot in San Francisco today?"

    How to ask Siri other weather-related questions

    You can also ask Siri more practical questions, like "do I need a rain jacket today". They'll call up the same weather widget, but they let you ask what you're specifically interested in finding out.

    1. Press and hold down the Home button to activate Siri.
    2. Ask Siri if you need anything special to prepare for the weather. For example, "Do I need a coat today?" or "Will I I need an umbrella tomorrow?"

    How to check sunrise and sunset times with Siri

    Want to make sure you're up at the crack of dawn, or that you make it home before dusk? Siri can tell you that as well.

    1. Press and hold down the Home button to activate Siri.
    2. Ask Siri to tell you when the sun is setting or rising. For example, "What time will the sun set tonight?" or "What time did the sun rise this morning?"

    How to get more help with Siri

    How to check the weather and view forecasts using Siri

    If you still need help with setting up or using Siri with your iPhone Calendar, or any other Siri feature, head on over to our Siri Forum and ask away!



    Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/WODq_mlZbqg/story01.htm

    binders of women Alexis Wright presidential debates seahawks Felix Baumgartner Little Nemo gawker

    Engineers develop new energy-efficient computer memory using magnetic materials

    Dec. 14, 2012 ? By using electric voltage instead of a flowing electric current, researchers from UCLA's Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have made major improvements to an ultra-fast, high-capacity class of computer memory known as magnetoresistive random access memory, or MRAM.

    The UCLA team's improved memory, which they call MeRAM for magnetoelectric random access memory, has great potential to be used in future memory chips for almost all electronic applications, including smart-phones, tablets, computers and microprocessors, as well as for data storage, like the solid-state disks used in computers and large data centers.

    MeRAM's key advantage over existing technologies is that it combines extraordinary low energy with very high density, high-speed reading and writing times, and non-volatility -- the ability to retain data when no power is applied, similar to hard disk drives and flash memory sticks, but MeRAM is much faster.

    Currently, magnetic memory is based on a technology called spin-transfer torque (STT), which uses the magnetic property of electrons -- referred to as spin -- in addition to their charge. STT utilizes an electric current to move electrons to write data into the memory.

    Yet while STT is superior in many respects to competing memory technologies, its electric current-based write mechanism still requires a certain amount of power, which means that it generates heat when data is written into it. In addition, its memory capacity is limited by how close to each other bits of data can be physically placed, a process which itself is limited by the currents required to write information. The low bit capacity, in turn, translates into a relatively large cost per bit, limiting STT's range of applications.

    With MeRAM, the UCLA team has replaced STT's electric current with voltage to write data into the memory. This eliminates the need to move large numbers of electrons through wires and instead uses voltage -- the difference in electrical potential -- to switch the magnetic bits and write information into the memory. This has resulted in computer memory that generates much less heat, making it 10 to 1,000 times more energy-efficient. And the memory can be more than five-times as dense, with more bits of information stored in the same physical area, which also brings down the cost per bit.

    The research team was led by principal investigator Kang L. Wang, UCLA's Raytheon Professor of Electrical Engineering, and included lead author Juan G. Alzate, an electrical engineering graduate student, and Pedram Khalili, a research associate in electrical engineering and project manager for the UCLA-DARPA research programs in non-volatile logic.

    "The ability to switch nanoscale magnets using voltages is an exciting and fast-growing area of research in magnetism," Khalili said. "This work presents new insights into questions such as how to control the switching direction using voltage pulses, how to ensure that devices will work without needing external magnetic fields, and how to integrate them into high-density memory arrays.

    "Once developed into a product," he added, "MeRAM's advantage over competing technologies will not be limited to its lower power dissipation, but equally importantly, it may allow for extremely dense MRAM. This can open up new application areas where low cost and high capacity are the main constraints."

    Said Alzate: "The recent announcement of the first commercial chips for STT-RAM also opens the door for MeRAM, since our devices share a very similar set of materials and fabrication processes, maintaining compatibility with the current logic circuit technology of STT-RAM while alleviating the constrains on power and density."

    The research was presented Dec. 12 in a paper called "Voltage-Induced Switching of Nanoscale Magnetic Tunnel Junctions" at the 2012 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting in San Francisco, the semiconductor industry's "pre-eminent forum for reporting technological breakthroughs in the areas of semiconductor and electronic device technology."

    MeRAM uses nanoscale structures called voltage-controlled magnet-insulator junctions, which have several layers stacked on top of each other, including two composed of magnetic materials. However, while one layer's magnetic direction is fixed, the other can be manipulated via an electric field. The devices are specially designed to be sensitive to electric fields. When the electric field is applied, it results in voltage -- a difference in electric potential between the two magnetic layers. This voltage accumulates or depletes the electrons at the surface of these layers, writing bits of information into the memory.

    "Ultra-low-power spintronic devices such as this one have potential implications beyond the memory industry," Wang said. They can enable new instant-on electronic systems, where memory is integrated with logic and computing, thereby completely eliminating standby power and greatly enhancing their functionality."

    The work was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) NV Logic Program. Other authors included researchers from the UCLA Department of Electrical Engineering; UC Irvine's Department of Physics and Astronomy; Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (a Western Digital Company); and Singulus Technologies, of Germany.

    Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

    Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:


    Story Source:

    The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - Los Angeles. The original article was written by Matthew Chin.

    Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


    Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

    Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

    Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/d0bloDU7lis/121214191516.htm

    avengers soa andy williams andy williams Lady Gaga New Girl Avalanna

    Saturday, December 15, 2012

    Flailing Honduras in yet another political crisis

    TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) ? Members of the ruling party met behind closed doors, bartering all night for votes to depose four Supreme Court justices who had rejected the president's plan to weed out corrupt police. Ominously, soldiers and police surrounded the National Congress.

    As the hours ticked by, representatives inside puffed on cigarettes in violation of their own anti-smoking laws and jokingly accused each other of vote-buying. Then shortly before dawn Wednesday, President Porfirio Lobo's National Party overwhelmingly and, many say illegally, approved the judges' dismissal.

    That was a risky move.

    "We don't know when we leave after the vote if there will be prosecutors waiting to detain us," admitted Sergio Castellanos of the Democratic Unification party, who voted with the majority. "Here you have to be ready for anything."

    On global rosters of failing states, Honduras doesn't even crack the top 50, yet by many grim measures the troubled Central American republic is barely clinging to its status as a functioning country.

    Three years after former President Manuel Zelaya was run out of office at gunpoint in his pajamas, Lobo is struggling. He has twice warned that his enemies are conspiring to oust him in a coup, and he then provoked a constitutional crisis with the judges' removal, an act that legal scholars describe as everything from an abuse of power to a betrayal of the country.

    Political turmoil is but the latest trouble bedeviling Honduras. Even in the best of times, Lobo's government, police and military control only about two-thirds of the country. In at least three states, drug gangs rule the highways and clandestine airstrips, with firepower greater than law enforcement's, said Cesar Caceres, a former adviser to the Security Ministry.

    As a result, three-quarters of all U.S.-bound cocaine passes through the country's lawless outback in an illicit business that has led to an explosion of violence, which in some cities has reached epidemic proportions. Honduras has more homicides than any other country in the world with 91 per 100,000 people, the World Health Organization says.

    The country is as poor as it is violent.

    The national government is so broke it needs to borrow $100 million to pay its employees, including members of the electoral council, who say they can't issue complete results from last month's primary for 2013 presidential candidates until vote-counters are paid.

    Two out of three Hondurans live in poverty, on less than $1.25 a day, and only a quarter of children complete middle school. Every day, hundreds of people give up on their homeland altogether to make the dangerous trek north to look for work in the United States.

    Since Lobo's election, the U.S. government frequently has noted Honduran progress on national reconciliation and respect for human rights, while acknowledging continued problems with corruption and impunity.

    But many Hondurans say their country's problems are more fundamental.

    "Honduras is a weak state in a tremendous institutional crisis," said Hugo Noe Pino, who has served at times as finance minister, central bank president and Honduran ambassador to the United States. He called the country "ungovernable."

    Jore Yllescas, a presidential commissioner for the Department of Revenue, concurred.

    "Honduras is almost a failed state, incapable of solving its education or health problems, let alone justice, security or control of its own territory," Yllescas said. "I wouldn't dare to stay that it's reversible. I have no evidence to show that."

    Long before political scientists began to talk of failed states, Honduras was known disparagingly as a "banana republic."

    In the late 19th century, U.S. companies like United Fruit and Standard Fruit owned vast tracts of land and relied on the Honduran military to quell labor rebellions. The elites then formed the country's two major political parties in support of the fruit companies, cementing ties between Honduras' business and political interests, said Marvin Barahona, a historian at a Jesuit think tank in the capital.

    With wealth concentrated in the hands of a few families, Honduras remained poor. Decades later, as U.S. aid poured into government coffers, many citizens complained that their country had been converted into Washington's client state, a base for the U.S. military and U.S.-backed Contras fighting the Sandinistas in neighboring Nicaragua.

    But the status quo was fine with the oligarchy. Zelaya, a rich landowner from Olancho state, was one of them when he was elected president in 2006. When he began to move away from Washington towards Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez, however, his opponents feared a populist threat. His proposal for a referrendum on changing the constitution was the last straw. He was booted out by leaders of his own party, backed by the army.

    The U.S. suspended aid as a sanction for the coup, and in the ensuing political chaos, drug traffickers saw an opening.

    "Direct flights from the Venezuela-Colombia border soared to runways in Honduras, and thus began a violent struggle for control of this drug corridor," according to the 2012 U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime report. The report estimates drug trafficking now accounts for about 13 percent of Hondura's gross domestic product.

    Cocaine shipments are dropped in the Mosquito Coast region, bordering Nicaragua, then are moved through Olancho or Gracias a Dios states, converging on the border of Guatemala.

    In high drug-trafficking areas, many people depend on the cartels, not the government, to provide jobs and services.

    "We're like Colombia of the 1980s," said Caceres, the former Security Ministry adviser who now heads a security support program for the European Union in Honduras. "People linked to drug trafficking are seen by part of the population as benefactors, because of the inability of the state to offer solutions to their poverty."

    Hondurans say corruption and crony politics have deprived state coffers of revenue thanks to politicians who enact laws to favor their own business interests.

    For example, Tito Asfura, a city council member running for mayor of Tegucigalpa, holds the garbage collecting contract for the capital and sits on the corporation that renews the contract. Fast-food franchises proliferating in the city's many shopping malls and street corners get tax breaks for creating jobs that often pay less than minimum wage, or for promoting "tourism."

    "The culture of tax evasion is amazing in Honduras," said Mario Lopez Steiner, the 16th director of the country's Department of Revenue in 18 years.

    Since taking office in January 2010, Lobo has been under international pressure to fix the broken country. He brokered an agreement to let ousted former President Zelaya return to form his own political party, and tried to regain the trust of foreign investors.

    Lobo proposed creating private cities with their own laws and authorities, arguing that the country's justice system didn't work. It was an attempt "to create a Honduras from scratch," said Octavio Sanchez, Lobo's chief of Cabinet. But the Supreme Court declared the move unconstitutional.

    In a nation where people have to regularly dodge extortion attempts from police and daily violence, Lobo launched a program of background checks on police officers ? a priority of the U.S. government, which gives Honduras about $100 million a year in aid.

    Lobo's police reform sowed the seeds of the current confrontation. A constitutional court declared the purge unconstitutional because it did not include an appeals process for dismissed officers, and the full Supreme Court was expected to uphold the ruling. Before it could, congress voted to put the reform to a popular vote, and replaced the dissenting court members. The attorney general reacted immediately, saying he would consider prosecuting the congressmen who approved the ouster.

    The Honduran constitution gives the president, judiciary and congress autonomous powers. Since the coup of 2009, and despite a subsequent truth commission report recommending the constitution be changed to allow for impeaching a president or a justice, little has changed.

    Lobo interrupted all television programing on Thursday to call for a national dialogue with the country's key players, many of whom he accused of trying to oust him just a week ago, "to find a way out of this crisis."

    Average Hondurans call it a power-struggle among the elites, and say they don't want to get in the middle of it.

    "God help us, we don't want the chaos of another coup," said bus driver Moises Cruz. "The worst is that we're going through this crisis again because of all these politicians who only look out for themselves."

    Source: http://news.yahoo.com/flailing-honduras-yet-another-political-crisis-082422678.html

    hillary clinton morgan freeman virginia tech shooting Bbc News Google News NRA Columbine shooting