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Media Law Prof Blog

Editor: Christine A. Corcos
Louisiana State Univ.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), Copyright, and Internet Privacy

Iryna Ievdokymova, Leiden University, Leiden Law School, has published ACTA and the Enforcement of Copyright in Cyberspace: The Impact on Privacy, at 19 European Law Journal 759 (2013). Here is the abstract.

As the reach of the Internet expands, governments increasingly seek to introduce initiatives aimed at controlling individuals' online activity. One such initiative, aimed, inter alia, at introducing enhanced online copyright enforcement standards, is the Anti‐Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). The paper analyses a possible effect of Art. 27(3) of the agreement on the data protection and privacy rights, as spelled out in the EU legal order. Firstly, the EU legal framework on Internet surveillance for copyright enforcement will be addressed. Next, the principles and safeguards applicable to data processing in the context of communications surveillance will be illustrated with reference to the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights. It will be argued that ACTA, if interpreted broadly and implemented without safeguards, would provide an incentive for graduated response systems, which, as it will be shown on the example of the French graduated response, may trump privacy rights on a massive scale.

The full text is not available from SSRN.

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The Seamen’s Provident Fund Act, 1966

An Act no. 4 of the year 1966 i.e. ‘The Seamen’s Provident Fund Act, 1966’ being the Act of Parliament was enacted with the view to make provisions for establishment of Institution of Provident fund for seamen. The Act was assented on 26th March, 1966.

Section 3 of the Act of 1966 requires the Government to provide for a Scheme which is to be notifies in the Official Gazette. The scheme referred herein above is called ‘the Seamen’s Provident Fund Scheme’ which may take effect either prospectively or retrospectively, and immediately thereafter there should be constituted a Fund as per the provisions thereof provided in such Scheme and this Act. Such Scheme is required to provide for the matters given under the Schedule annexed to this Act.

Section 5 of the Act of 1966 provides for the constitution of Board, which should vested with the aforementioned Fund and the same to be administered by it. The section 4 thereof gives certain objects and purposes for which such Fund to be utilized by the Board, including pay and allowances of employees of the Board and other administrative expenses thereof.

Another important provision i.e. section 8 of the Act of 1966 is regarding contributions from all employers to whom the provisions of that Act applies. The said contribution should made by them to the Fund under that Act in respect of each Seaman, being the member, employed by them. Further, section 9 of the Act of 1966 related to the due amount determination under any provision of this Act or of the Scheme, by the Seamen’s Provident Fund Commissioner or any Deputy Seamen’s Provident Fund Commissioner by their order and for this purpose to conduct necessary enquiry. And section 11 is very important so far as it is recognising the Fund under this to be Provident Fund within the meaning of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (Act no. 43 of 1961).

The penal provisions under the Act of 1966 were provided under section 16 thereof. Avoiding payment which is to be made under that Act or Scheme or enabling other to avoid such payment or even making any false statements or representation are offences and liable to punishment. And the punishment extends to two year or fine or both as per this provision. Section 17 provides for offences by company.

by Faim Khalilkhan Pathan.

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Wedding Cake FAQ

It is recommended to confirm your wedding cake 6-8 months prior to your wedding date. For weddings in the peak months of July, August, September and beginning of October you should consider booking your wedding cake 8-10 months in advance.

Layers prices vary as each cake is tailored to your specific requirements and style. There are many factors that determine the price of a wedding cake such as size, shape, servings and the complexity of the design.

Layers provides free consultations where you will meet with Jennifer and discuss your wedding cake in detail. You will also sample some of Layers most popular flavors and fillings, look through our portfolio of wedding cakes and see onsite displays of Jennifer’s work.

Yes, we offer delivery and setup at a fee of $25 within the downtown Halifax/Dartmouth area only.

Layers sells wedding cakes and cupcakes only at this time. We may sell special occasion cakes in the future so please keep in touch.

To confirm your wedding cake a deposit of 50% is required along with a signed contract. The balance is due 1 month prior to your wedding date.

We accept all major credit cards, cheque and cash

Yes, we have many options to choose from; glass, porcelain, silver and wood. In addition to the rental fee a deposit of $100 is required for all cake stand rentals. This deposit will be refunded once the stand is returned in original condition within 4 business days of the wedding.

If we didn’t answer your question here please give us a call at 446-2206 or email to


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Posts Tagged Metal Gear Solid

Konami Releases Trailer for Next Metal Gear Solid at GDC 2013

Friday, March 29, 2013 No Comments

Earlier today, at the 2013 Game Developers Conference (GDC), Konami and Kojima Productions unveiled a trailer for what will be the next installment of the core Metal Gear Solid series in the Metal Gear franchise. Entitled Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, the new title is in development for both Playstation 3 and Xbox […]

Art of Video Games Logo

Smithsonian American Art Museum to Hold Video Game Exhibition Kickoff Event

Thursday, March 15, 2012 No Comments

This is reaching us a little bit late, however, it’s well worth noting. This weekend, the Smithsonian American Art Museum will be kicking off a new exhibition on video games, called The Art of Video Games. Featuring lectures and discussions by industry pioneers, film screenings, cos-play opportunities, hands-on gamplay sessions and even musical performances, the […]

Metal Gear Solid 3D

Metal Gear Solid Tree-D

Wednesday, March 14, 2012 No Comments

I have zero experience with the Metal Gear Solid franchise. For years I’ve been hearing about the awesomeness that is Hideo Kojima and the game series in general. Well, I finally got a chance to play one of the games, on the 3DS. Metal Gear Solid 3D Snake Eater is one of the few games […]

Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater 3D Releases… Wait, What?!?

Wednesday, February 22, 2012 No Comments

Konami announced the official release of its 3D re-release of the hit stealth-action title Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater 3D this week. So, if you’re thinking “Wait a second… Didn’t you guys say it already released?”, the short answer is, yes we did. And at this point, the only assumption we can make as to […]

A Look at the Circle Pad Pro

Wednesday, February 15, 2012 2 Comments

In this week’s video, L.E. and Nathan take a look at Nintendo’s new Circle Pad Pro accessory for the Nintendo 3DS. It’s an in-depth look like you’ve never seen it before, with references to dining. Of course, those are only short-lived so click the link to watch!

Metal Gear Solid Gets RISKy

Wednesday, September 28, 2011 No Comments

Must… have… NOW! Konami announced this week that Hasbro’s USAopoly will be releasing a special Metal Gear Solid edition of its popular war board game, RISK, next month. The special Metal Gear Solid RISK Limited Edition takes the classic board game and gives it a major infusion of MGS lore, putting you in control of […]

Konami Announces Fan Events for 2011 San Diego Comic-Con

Wednesday, July 20, 2011 No Comments

It seems we missed a major 2011 Comic-Con announcement from Konami recently, as we just got a reminder about it! (Actually, that’s pretty helpful from time to time). Konami will be holding a couple of special events for fans at the San Diego Comic-Con this weekend, including a signing event with Hideo Kojima and a […]

Ontario Government to Help Fund Silicon Knights Game Development Engine Project

Thursday, July 14, 2011 No Comments

This morning, the Government of Ontario announced that it will help St. Catherines-based video game developer Silicon Knights (Too Human, Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem) create 80 new jobs and protect 97 existing positions within the company. How, you ask? The province is helping SK fund the development of “the best 3D Game Development Engine” (the […]

Gaming Companies, Stop Coming Up With New Terms for Existing Actions!

Monday, June 6, 2011 No Comments

What is it with companies trying to make non-words out of actual words? I’m just going to be blunt, go right out there and say it. It’s completely unnecessary! If you weren’t already aware, I’m talking about Hideo Kojima’s unveiling of “Transfarring” during the Konami Pre-E3 show this past Thursday night. The term refers to […]

Konami Pre-E3 Show Reveals Fun and Odd Surprises

Friday, June 3, 2011 2 Comments

Last night, we got the chance to attend the Toronto portion of Konami’s first ever Pre-E3 show. Joining our fellow journalists and some lucky Konami fans, we played a few titles from this past year, and watched trailers for upcoming titles on a big screen. Once the show kicked off, we got an extended look […]

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When I am too busy and there is no time for enough rest,I nag about my situation and hope that I could have just a free time to be relax !

When my days last so long and I don't have any especial work to do I nag about my situation again and hope for busy time and a satisfactory job !!

So Now I just lough and know that Life is just the joy of a moment that has been passed !So enjoy It !


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How old were you when you got a mobile? Everybody knows that teenagers love their phones. Here are some mobile phone facts.

  •  Two-thirds of 12-15-year-olds in the UK have a smartphone.
  •  People in the UK send 50 text messages a week on average.
  •  British 12-15-year-olds send an average of 200 messages a week.
  •  British girls aged between 12 and 15 text more than boys of the same age group. Girls send 221 messages a week!

Parents want their kids to be safe. Are teenagers safer with a mobile phone or without? Many parents want their children to have a phone so that they can be in contact at any time or in any place. On the other hand, for lots of parents a phone is a source of possible danger. Parents worry that their child may meet the wrong kind of ‘friends’ on social networking sites or that they might receive cruel messages from school bullies. Some parents have rules about their children’s mobile phone and internet usage and bad behaviour can result in removal of mobile privileges.

The great thing about my kids having mobile phones is that I can keep in touch with them. The worst thing about teenagers having phones is that some young people use them to send offensive messages to each other.
William, from Coventry. William is a parent of two teenagers.

A teenager feels lost without a phone. If my daughters behave badly, I confiscate their phones and their behaviour quickly improves.
Kiera, mother of 15-year-old twins.

Mobile phones are permitted at school in the UK but pupils are not allowed to use them in class and they must be on silent during lessons. Teachers can take away phones if these rules are broken. School students can use their phones at break time and at lunchtime. Some teachers in British schools complain that pupils don’t always follow the rules and that lessons are disrupted by people texting, making and receiving calls, looking at social networking sites, watching videos and even making videos in the class.

My mum is scared that I’m going to lose my phone or that someone is going to steal it. She won’t buy me the really cool phone that I want. I’ve got this rubbish one that doesn’t do much. I suppose that makes sense but it’s not fair that everyone else has a smartphone and I don’t.
Tam, 14, from Wrexham.

I know that some people want mobiles to be banned at school but as a language teacher I find that phones can be pretty useful in class ... for educational purposes of course. For example, the students write a dialogue in French, they record it on a phone, then they listen to the recording and try to correct any mistakes or improve pronunciation. They love it!
Stan, from Chester. Stan is a French teacher.

A mobile phone contract in the UK usually comes with a number of text messages included in the price. Of course lots of people send messages completely free of charge using an app that’s also free to download. If you want to send text messages in English you need to know some abbreviations. Here are some to get you started:

LOL = laugh out loud
POS = parent over shoulder
BRB = be right back
TYVM = thank you very much
BCNU = be seeing you (meaning ‘goodbye’)
ASAP = as soon as possible
OIC = oh I see (means ‘I understand’)
TTFN = Ta ta for now (means ‘goodbye')
BFFL= best friends for life

TYVM 4 reading this article. BCNU!

Total votes: 1407
Language level:

Some parents confiscate their teenager's phone as a punishment for poor behaviour. Is that a good idea? What's your opinion?

Jesulin's picture
Jesulin 13 April, 2016 - 21:28

I think phones are important in our lifes,and they help us a lot,but sometimes we are addicts and we use them too much.I think we can live without phones and we need to use them less and respect some rules like dont use it while eating or speaking face to face.
In conclusion phones are important but not necessary.

69 users have voted.
ANABR's picture
ANABR 13 April, 2016 - 20:20

In my opinion, I think that nowadays teenagers depend very much on their phones; so sometimes it is properly that our parents take it away. in this way they will not have a poor behaviour.

73 users have voted.
AnaCant3's picture
AnaCant3 13 April, 2016 - 19:43

I think that bad behaviour must be punished, and that's a good punishment because we are every time mor addicted to our mobile phones.

63 users have voted.
fbascon's picture
fbascon 13 April, 2016 - 17:37

We think the mobile phone are very important and essential in our life but these is false. We can live without our mobile phones.

62 users have voted.
isabelbm01's picture
isabelbm01 13 April, 2016 - 16:57

In my opinion with the passage of the years increasingly mobiles phones are purchased before the children and increasingly children studied less and take worst notes because they are distracted with the mobile phone.

71 users have voted.
Mjjimcan's picture
Mjjimcan 13 April, 2016 - 16:54

In my opinion it is a good idea becouse your parents know what is the best for you and all things they do are for your own the best, but sometimes students need their phone too search information or to do their homework.

64 users have voted.
Leonor's picture
Leonor 13 April, 2016 - 16:31

I think it depends on the time you pass with your mobile phone and how important is for you, because if the teenager is all the day with the mobile, confiscate it would be a good punishment for poor behaviour but if is a teenager who doesn't care about mobiles it won't be very effective.

64 users have voted.
nerea2016's picture
nerea2016 13 April, 2016 - 16:06

I think this article is very interesting.I can understand that parents want us to be safe but They have to understand that a mobile phone is very useful and can keep you in contact with them wherever you are.

63 users have voted.
Jo - Coordinator's picture
Jo - Coordinator 14 April, 2016 - 07:48

Hi Nerea2016,
Welcome to LearnEnglish Teens! I have changed your username because we don't allow real names (name and surname) as usernames for safety reasons. It makes it easy to identify you in real life. Make sure you stay safe online by protecting your identity.
So, please use this username to log in from now on. If you have any doubts or questions, please send us an email or you can check our House Rules here:
We hope you enjoy using the website.
Thanks :)
Joanna (LearnEnglish Teens Team)
59 users have voted.
Nano_2001's picture
Nano_2001 30 November, 2015 - 16:23

In my opinion i think that this article useful as many teenagers now are using their cellphones badly. however,the cellphone is extremely important for contacting each other.

80 users have voted.
Lalosgf's picture
Lalosgf 5 November, 2015 - 16:18

In my opinion I am not sure about that because the phones are very important for their and the solution is simple the parents has to talk with their childrens about this problem

74 users have voted.
Mai_27's picture
Mai_27 5 November, 2015 - 16:14

I believe, before, the parents punishment to their children, They have to speak with their children, them if it's necessary a punishment yes, if no, no.

80 users have voted.
evelynjimenez's picture
evelynjimenez 5 November, 2015 - 16:20

in my opinion the idea is good because it is a way that the teen to understand that evil that they have done and at the same time it is not violence but only detract materially.

76 users have voted.
calebmm20's picture
calebmm20 5 November, 2015 - 16:12

I´m afraid I have to disagree.
I think that it is not a good idea to remove adolescents their mobile phones as a form of punishment however teens think that their lives depend on their mobile phones.

80 users have voted.


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Driving A Culture And Practice Of Innovation

SIM Professional Development

Course introduction

Most organisations realize that they must Innovate! The challenge is that most companies focus on cost cutting or process Innovation and do not know how to drive value-creating Innovation. This 2 day program provides a comprehensive guide to the cultural as well as practical aspects of driving Innovation within the Organisation. This interactive workshop provides a structured Innovation Framework from which to evaluate your organisations Innovation progress on Strategy, Culture, Process and Ideas and to develop an Innovation Action Plan to overcome Innovation stumbling blocks. Learn from leaders in Innovation in the consumer durables and healthcare business and experience the Innovation ideation process for yourself.

Course Benefits

  • Identify and how innovation can drive growth within your organization.
  • Gain a real world appreciation for the cultural challenges of driving innovation in organisations from two leaders in the field of Innovation Management: Mayo Clinic and Whirlpool.
  • Understand your Organisation’s Innovation Management weakness by using our proprietary Innovation Audit tool and develop an Innovation Action Plan using the Innovation Framework.
  • Be Empowered with Innovation processes and tools so as to put innovation into practice in your organisation.
  • Receive an Innovation Questions & Provocations set of cards free.

Target Audience

Level 3 - New Managers; Level 4 - Managers across functional areas.

This includes: Marketing Managers, Product Managers, R&D, Organisational Development Managers, Operations, Design Specialists, etc.

Course Outline

1.   Innovation as a Driver of Change and Progress

2.   Types of Innovation

3.   Barriers to Innovation - Evaluating your Innovation Efforts – An Innovation Audit

4.   The Innovation Framework: - Strategy, Process, Culture, Ideas

5.   A Clear Innovation Strategy - Mayo Clinic case

6.   Building a Culture of Innovation -Whirlpool Case Study

7.   Innovation Process - Discovery and Framing Innovation Challenges

8.    Innovation Process - Idea Generation

9.    Hands-on Ideation Experience

10.  Innovation Action Plan.

Available Course Sessions

Please click here to stay updated on upcoming sessions.

Trainer Profile

Angela Koch

Angela Koch brings a wealth of Creativity and Innovation practice following a career as Strategic Planning Director with Global Brand and Communications companies In Johannesburg, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Angela's work has her involved in two important domains: Brand Innovation and Product Innovation. Her Innovation clients come from the consumer goods sector, consumer electronics, hospitality and services. She facilitates projects to discover the next growth engine for a business and creates experiential learning experiences so that employees feel empowered to participate in Innovation efforts.


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2012 Tea Party Prism

The Tea Party Movement is the driving force in American politics.

In every aspect of our politics‚both in campaigns, in State Houses and up on Capitol Hill—the Tea Party Movement is re-shaping the debate on debt and the role and scope of government.

This grass-roots, bottom-up movement completely dominated the 2010 GOP senatorial, congressional and gubernatorial primaries—and won almost every contested GOP race. Even long-time conservative senators were defeated in GOP conventions and primaries because, in the eyes of the Tea Party Movement, they were “too liberal” on fiscal issues.

But not every Tea Party GOP nominee won their general election races. The two most notable losers of races that a better GOP candidate would probably have won were Delaware (Christine O’Donnell) and Nevada (Sharon Angle).

With the power of the Tea Party Movement in mind, the best way to analyze the 2012 GOP presidential field is through a Tea Party prism:

• No candidate is going to be the 2012 GOP nominee unless the Tea Party Movement embraces him or her;

• Thus, we can begin to eliminate candidates who are unacceptable to the Tea Party Movement;

• Mitt Romney has gone out of his way to distance himself from Tea Partiers; his RomneyCare health bill dooms him.

• Haley Barbour was a two-decade long inside-the-Beltway lobbyist; the Tea Party Movement abhors lobbyists, insiders and those who have lived off the political system;

• Jon Huntsman—who, you ask?—can forget it. Known in Utah as a “liberal” Republican who then served as Obama’s ambassador to China cannot win the support of the Tea Party Movement.

• Newt? Too self-promoting, too many marriages, too mouthy…has no credibility.

• Donald Trump? While many agree with his China rhetoric, he is un-electable. And he cannot survive serious scrutiny. But, before that happens, he does excite Tea Partiers with his “outsider” image. (It is indeed just an image; Trump has played footsie with long-time Democrat incumbents and funded their campaigns. The Tea Party doesn’t know that—yet. But they will. And they will not embrace him.)

• Forget the other also-rans, too, like Rick Santorum and Rudy Giuliani. No one digs them at all. They are yesterday’s news.

• OK. Who can be the darling of the Tea Party Movement? (But not necessarily someone who can win the general election.)

• Today, they are focusing on Michelle Bachman, who senses that there is no one else right now who excites the Tea Party. They have loved Sarah Palin—and still might if she runs. But her recent absence from the scene has opened up the way for other. Bachman is just Palin 2.0.

• Tim Pawlenty is trying to be all things to all people: he’s trying to have one foot in the GOP Establishment camp and the other foot in the Tea Party camp. The problem is that when you try to be all things to all people, you often end up being nothing to anybody. Pawlenty is also boring—a fatal problem in the era of TV in politics.

• Governor Mitch Daniels is dithering about running. He has a Tea Party-friendly economic story to tell—but he appears to lack the fire in the belly for this 2012 race.

• Huckabee is still very much alive as a candidate—although rumors abound that he is not going to run because he’s making a ton of dough on TV—and he appeals to Evangelicals and to some Tea Partiers, but not all. He is the front-runner right now. But a weak one.

• Ron Paul is more of a libertarian than a Tea Partier—but he does have strong, devoted supporters. He is a good man. But he will not be the GOP nominee or the Tea Party candidate.

Conclusion: the Tea Party Movement will select the 2012 GOP nominee. That is not to say that candidate will win the White House. For example, Michele Bachman could be the Christine O’Donnell/Sharon Angle of the 2012 GOP presidential race: she might win the support of the Tea Party Movement , but she is un-electable in the general election because independent voters will not vote for her.

We on the Right have a big problem: we have no one running—yet—who can win both the support of the Tea Party Movement andcan then win over the crucial independent voters in the fall of 2012.

Obama can be beaten. But only if the exact right kind of candidate runs against him.

So we have to keep looking for just such a candidate.

Kill the Leader—Not the People

(This piece is for conjecture—for argument’s sake—and for debate. Nothing more.)

In 1932 a teenage American student—Tony Duke
—was touring Europe with his mother, step-father and his older brother when they were invited to attend an Opera in Munich. Sitting just ten rows from the stage, Tony noticed that several rows of seats directly in front of him were roped off for some still-to-arrive VIPs.

During the opera’s second act these VIPs indeed made a grand entrance: the opera house’s spotlight illuminated them as they took their seats. Half the audience stood and gave an enthusiastic ovation while the other half nervously sat on their hands. Tony immediately noticed the brown uniforms and Swastika insignias on their arms as his older, more knowledgeable brother whispered to him, “That is Adolph Hitler.”

The Nazi group took their seats, with the soon-to-be German dictator sitting in the seat directly in front of Tony Duke.

For the rest of the evening, Tony stared as the back of Hitler’s head and neck.

And wondered what would happen if he could reach over and use his hands to kill this evil man who would soon begin a war that would kill over 12 million people.

In fact, ever since that night, Tony Duke—now 92 and still going strong
—has had a frequent, recurring dream: what if he had killed Hitler?

Oh, how the world would have been different!

One terrible man’s death might have prevented 12 million others because Hitler was a unique, singular form of evil leader who would not and could not have been replaced with someone with his maniacal vision, oratorical inspiration and delusional narcissism.

Of course, young Tony Duke did not kill Hitler. Nor did anyone else until Hitler himself took his own life in the spring of 1945 in his Berlin bunker.

OK. Jump to today. The U.S. has just led the way into Libya, where another brutal, sick, delusional maniac has raped and brutalized his sovereign nation for over 40 years. (Please let’s put aside the argument that we should not be involved in this Libyan conflict; that is indeed my view. We can not be the world’s policeman but just for the sake of argument, please follow the following logic.) Suddenly the U.S. and her allies have decided to aid the anti-Khaddafy rebels—but we have also announced that “we are not targeting Khaddafy.” Then officials cite the long-standing Executive Order prohibiting assassination of foreign leaders.

Indeed, on February 18, 1976—in the wake of revelations of widespread CIA abuses of power—President Ford signed Executive Order #11905, which re-defined the roles of various intelligence agencies and what was and was not acceptable behavior. Included in this Executive Order was this one line: (g) Prohibition of Assassination. No employee of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, political assassination.

That prohibition remains in effect today. An Executive Order has the force of law–with one exception: any subsequent President of the United States can change it; Congress has nothing to do with it.

So let us consider this: isn’t is smarter, easier, cheaper and more humane to decapitate the Tripoli regime by assassinating Khaddafy—than killing thousands of his followers, soldiers, local workers who have been forced at gunpoint to tow the line-and leaving him alive and still in power?

Why have this self-imposed restriction on assassinating an evil leader who is a threat to the world when eliminating him is the single most effective way to stop the threat?

Wouldn’t it also have been better to assassinate Saddam Hussein than to invade his country, killing tens of thousands of Iraqis in the process—not to mention thousands of US soldiers killed and seriously wounded?

“Regime change” through assassination would not work in the case of China as that government is not driven by one maniac; indeed, it is run by the Communist Party, which is a collection of maniacs.

Let’s face it: we did try to kill Khaddafy the first night when a Tomahawk cruise missile slammed into his compound. We also tried in 1986 when we bombed Libya and his tent. But these two attempts were ancillary to a larger bombing campaign. If we really wanted to get him, we could.

And it would save a lot of lives.

The best way to kill a snake is to chop off its head.

Which Way The Revolution?

As President Obama’s ratings again slip into the low-to-mid 40’s, no potential Republican candidate is even close to capturing the imagination and fervor of the huge built-in anti-Obama sentiment inside the GOP, Tea Party and conservative movement.

In fact, the candidates are failing so badly that unelectable names like Donald “I love Hillary and Bill and I have donated tons of cash to liberal Democrats all across this country” Trump and Newt “I cheated on two wives because I love my country so much” Gingrich are actually getting news coverage.

If these two clowns are getting coverage, it tells us that we have no one.

And the so-called serious candidates, like Mitt “I invented ObamaCare before Obama!” Romney and Haley “I was the best danged lobbyist you ever done seen!” Barbour and Tim “I will be all things to all people!” Pawlenty are most definitely not catching fire. In fact, the more they are seen, the less they are liked. Quote after quote from audience members at each public appearance highlight the fact that there is just no passion for any of these men—while there is uber passion to defeat the President in 2012.

At the same time, there is rising discontent on the Right with the GOP House leadership. Speaker Boehner is caught between a rock and a hard place: if he tries to forge deals with the Senate Democrats and the White House, his Tea Party freshmen revolt. Conversely, when he assuages the Right, he has to take such hard-line positions that no deal with the Democrats is possible.

As predicted here before, the Debt Ceiling Increase vote will be an epic battle between the GOP leadership and the Tea Party. It will likely shatter the fragile GOP-Tea Party coalition.

Indeed, Tea Party members all around the nation today are growing increasingly hostile to the GOP—with long-time stalwarts like Orrin Hatch and Richard Lugar sure to face difficult primaries in 2012.

Meanwhile, what has happened to the Revolution in the Middle East? Has it fizzled—or is it merely taking a respite?

Egypt: after the initial post-Mubarak heady days of seeming victory, things are back to normal. And it is worth asking: will the Army really allow its power to be diminished by democratic elections? Or will they rig them like all the previous elections?

Libya: Khaddafi has—so far—survived. He butchers his people. It looks like he will stay – at least for a while.

Saudia Arabia and Bahrain: The Saudi Royal Family has learned its lessons and brutally repressed any demonstrations in the Kingdom—and even has crossed into Bahrain to put down Shi’a demonstrations against the Suni Bahraini leadership.

Thus, the sweeping pro-freedom revolution appears to have fizzled out.

Japan: the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown will be used by the Left here to try to stop future nuclear reactors—at a time we need them to offset our dependence of foreign oil.

Here we have oil prices spiking—has anyone thought about $5 per gallon?—and yet the Environmental Left won’t let us drill and also wants to stop future nuclear reactors.

How are we to acquire energy?

Conclusion: the American economy remains in a morass and thus Obama, too, is languishing. But the GOP is in even worse shape.

The only salvation would be a new candidate—spunky and smart—who can unite the Tea Party passion and the GOP and then harness the fervent anti-Obama sentiment that is lurking out there.

When you find that candidate, please give me a call.


text:
Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Further Salient News..

Keith Ng has just posted a letter received in his capacity as News Editor of Salient. The ramifications are mind-boggling.

Check it out here.

Salient also need dosh to finance their legal challenges - email salient@vuwsa.org.nz if you can help.

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text:
Almost a million Londoners are trying to survive on poverty pay

Since 2010, the cost of living in London has outstripped wage growth on almost every measure

The triumphant tone of the chancellor’s Budget last week rang in sharp contrast to the everyday experience of most Londoners. Whilst George Osborne told a story of sunshine and growth, ordinary people in the capital and beyond face a much gloomier reality.

A new report I launched yesterday, The High Cost of Low Wages, set out that reality and it’s not pretty. Since 2010 the cost of living in London has outstripped wage growth on almost every measure. Whilst wages have grown by just 3.5 per cent since 2010, the capital’s living costs have rocketed:

  • Energy costs are up 26.5 per cent, 9.8 times faster than wages
  • Housing costs are up 34 per cent, 9.5 times higher than wage rises
  • Travel costs are up 20 per cent, 5.6 times faster than wages (Z1-6 Travelcard)
  • Food costs are up 13 per cent, 4.7 times faster than wages

When inflation is taken into account, London’s average real terms pay dropped from £700 a week in 2010 to just £646 in 2014. This amounts to a real terms cut of £2,802 a year as a result of wages rising far slower than inflation. All of this, however, was strangely absent from the chancellor’s rosy view of how the economy is doing.

Politicians can trade statistics all day long but speak to ordinary people, and you get the real picture. When I asked Londoners what they thought about the cost of living in the capital the response was stark:

“I am being priced out of the city I was raised in and I come from a comfortable background, heaven help those without the family support networks I enjoy.”

– 20-29 year old male from Hackney

“The only thing that’s not going up is salaries.”

– 40-49 year old female from Newham

“Energy bills going up and up. Cost of housing is a joke. Can’t afford to buy in London or the home counties despite having been born and raised in London.”
– 30-39 year old woman from Hammersmith and Fulham

“It is near impossible for young families to survive in London. They can’t afford housing or transport.”

– 50-59 year old female from Hillingdon

This isn’t a story of statistics – it’s about the impact on people’s lives.

With housing, travel and living costs rising far faster than wages it’s clear that the government’s economic policies are not working for the majority of people on low and middle incomes. Instead of pretending otherwise the government should be honest about the challenges of rising living costs and focusing on measures which, whilst simple, would make a massive amount of difference.

One of those relatively low hanging fruits is increasing uptake of the London Living Wage. The latest official figures from the Mayor’s Office show that in 2010, 557,000 Londoners were paid below the London Living Wage.

By 2014 this figure had risen to 917,000, leaving an additional 360,000 Londoners paid less than is deemed necessary to live in the capital. That means almost a million people are working for a wage below what they need to make ends meet. It’s not just a moral argument that this is wrong, it’s an economic one as it is left to the state to make up the difference, paying out tax credits to subsidise companies who pay a poverty wage.

Boris Johnson likes to boast about his support for the London Living Wage, but with prices outstripping wage growth and almost a million Londoners forced to live on poverty pay, there is a mountain to climb to make London a fair pay city.

As election season goes into overdrive you could be forgiven for thinking the high cost of living is less stark than some make out. Yet a few weeks ago the mayor’s own annual survey found that a staggering 92 per cent of Londoners agree that the cost of living has increased in the past year – a statistic which surprisingly didn’t make it into his press release!

It’s clear, not only from the figures but from peoples’ personal stories, that the economic recovery has not been felt by many low and middle income families. Prices up, pay down in real terms and thousands forced to get by on poverty pay – not a record any chancellor should be proud of.

Fiona Twycross AM is Labour’s London Assembly economic spokesperson. Follow her on Twitter

8 Responses to “Almost a million Londoners are trying to survive on poverty pay”

  1. JoeDM

    Uncontrolled immigration forcing down British workers pay !!!

  2. robertcp

    Housing costs are the major problem in London and it should be an aim for house prices to stop increasing.

  3. Guest

    Lies you’re spouting to cover up for your Torynomics, blaming the Other rather than admitting you are the problem!

  4. Jack

    Immigrants put pressure on housing though. More demand + limited supply = rising prices. Now, you could argue that supply should have been increased, which is true, but since it hasn’t been, more immigrants have pushed up prices. That’s not about blame, it’s just what happened.

  5. Castilian

    Too right.

  6. Guest

    They’re a minor factor.
    It’s the only one you care about though.

  7. Guest

    Nothing like blaming the Other while opposing house building like the right, eh?

  8. MichaelHFerguson

    22222Ultra Income source by leftfootforward Find Here

Leave a Reply


text:
Welfare is being weaponised against the disabled, says Green Party co-leader

Jonathan Bartley says disabled are prisoners in their homes thanks to Tory cuts

Photo: Pete Lopeman

I wasn’t expecting my first public event after I became one of the Green Party’s new co-leaders to have me in tears.

But as I got up to speak in Committee Room 21, I found I couldn’t stop the water rolling down my cheeks, having heard person after person tell their stories about the terrible toll that the closure of the Independent Living Fund was taking on them.

One spoke about how she was told to wear incontinence pads, because there was no longer funding for someone to support her going to the toilet. Another how she now had to line up six cups of water by her bed before she went to sleep, because she would have to stay there so long before someone came to help her up.

This is 2016. It could have been 1916. Disabled people are becoming prisoners in their own homes, because of an entirely unnecessary and pernicious ideological assault on our welfare state.

People are suffering and, in the most horrifying of cases, dying after the support that they once relied upon is being removed through sanctions and draconian cuts at both the national and local level.

They are being certified as ‘fit for work’ when they clearly aren’t. This government is weaponising welfare against those least able to defend themselves.

In the 2015 general election I challenged Iain Duncan Smith about the suicides of benefit claimants during a television debate on welfare. He denied that his department was investigating any. His falsehood was later exposed.

On Wednesday, I joined disabled people outside Downing Street where they read out the names of around 100 people who had died. What was striking was that many of the people there knew the people who had died personally. They were there to bear witness to what had happened to their friends, their children and their allies.

It has got to the point where the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has condemned the regressive nature of UK government policies such as the Bedroom Tax and Universal Credit as breaching the UK’s international human rights obligations.

It has also expressed ‘deep concern’ about changes to benefits which disproportionately affect women, young people, ethnic minorities and disabled people.

But the point at which the tears began to roll freely down my face two days before, was when those present talked about the future for disabled children like my own.

Many of those present knew the international fight over decades that they had to wage in order to get basic rights. Rights which are now being rolled back – and which will continue to be. Disabled people know all too well what post-Brexit Britain might look like under this government.

It was little surprise therefore to see those men and women from Disabled People Against Cuts make their way on Wednesday from Downing Street, up to Westminster Bridge. There they proceeded to block the road and bring the traffic to a standstill.

They were risking arrest because they can’t see any other options available to them. And they would no doubt do it again for the sake of not just themselves, but the next generation.

But as well as coming together as a social movement, we need to come together as an effective opposition. Now is not the time to be fighting among ourselves, but fighting for those who need us.

Bold ideas aren’t going to deliver change on their own. Disabled people, and many others who are suffering in this new age of insecurity, need united support.

Back in committee room 21, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell arrived. And so I asked him if he would write to Labour-led councils to ringfence former Independent Living Fund money for the disabled.  He agreed – and let’s hope Labour councils take action.

The time has surely come to stand together.

Jonathan Bartley is co-leader of the Green Party

See: Housing benefit cap will cut or close 85 per cent of women’s shelters

6 Responses to “Welfare is being weaponised against the disabled, says Green Party co-leader”

  1. Sharon root

    I detest the feeling of fear that is now so much of a part of my daily life, fear of going through the WCA and what will happen and fear of losing my home due to bedroom tax at some point! I very nearly bought my last council house but I didnt because I felt more secure as a tenant but this Gov has destroyed that just to save going to the trouble of building more social housing!

  2. Clarecrip

    I think it is high time we got back to talking about social security rather than welfare or benefits. This is not just playing with words, it recognises that a civilised society has a moral obligation to enable people to live with security. Security that we can get out of bed, security that we can be appropriately dressed, that we can eat 3 healthy meals a day, keep clean, go to the loo, however we do it, with dignity, security that we can have a safe roof over our heads and security that we can participate in society. This government is failing its citizens. I live in constant fear of the dreaded brown envelope, when will I be reassessed for ESA? When will I be moved onto PIP and what will my income be, or will it disappear altogether, will I be forced into total dependence on my husband? I am fortunate, I am not sufficiently disabled to have needed the ILF, my husband has had a good income and will have a secure pension shortly, but I still fear for my future, how much worse must it be for those totally reliant on a failing social (in)security system and woefully inadequate social care?

  3. Sally Scott-Robinson

    It is terrifying to be at the mercy of the current system. The insecurity it engenders is one of the cruellest aspects of so-called austerity. When I first became disabled back in the 1990’s the then DSS sent me to an assessment centre for a week where they tested every aspect of my abilities and care needs. At the end of the assessment, I was told that intellectually I could do anything I wanted but I’d have to do it lying down! I was awarded DLA medium rate care and high rate mobility. Things have deteriorated over time and I am now less able than I was then. I am still waiting for an assessment for PIP and the waiting in itself is very stressful. Every time a brown envelope comes through the door I am afraid to open it. I have seen friends in all sorts of trouble because they have been assessed ‘fit for work’ when they could barely look after themselves. Although I know I am physically incapable of working I hold out very little hope that the current system is in any way fair and dread the prospect of having to go through the rigmarole of appeals etc.

  4. David Davies

    The Prime Directive of The Stasi is to remove benefits, or at least reduce them. I am in daily dread of the drop on the mat of another brown envelope which demands `clarification’ of information that we both know they already have. They cut my ESA by £11.37/week from the beginning of May, as the result of a `change in circumstances’, of which I am oblivious – and they will not explain.
    These unaccountable individuals are evil.

  5. Mark Serlin

    This has been going on for years, where have you been? Well done for finally speaking out though.

  6. Joanna Burkitt

    I used to get SDA until they did away with the benefit. I also had DLA all my life. I had a pip assessment & was turned down. My DLA is stopping too. This means my parents will have to support me financially as well as physically. They are elderly. I need help with lots of things but scored 0 in the assessment due to the lies.

Leave a Reply


text:
Monday, September 30, 2013

September Wrap-Up

Hello there! I can not believe October is upon us! September flew by, probably because I was planning  one event after another.

My efforts to plan a month's worth of preschool activities and lessons in a few days totally paid off, with the highlight being G is for Grape squashing!

Two Birthdays, which resulted in two really delicious cakes and two really bad pictures of those cakes.

I did get a chance to share a new recipe, YUMMY SALTED CARAMEL FROSTING I made for the boxing party.  Moving forward I think I'll try this on a caramel cupcake!

My head is spinning from all the planning and excitement that September had to offer, now on to OCTOBER!!!!

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Chocolate Cupcakes With Salted Caramel Frosting

As promised I will share a recipe for chocolate cupcakes with salted caramel frosting.  I have been wanting to try my hand at salted caramel frosting for a while now.  The initial plan was to make them for my hub's, or Bear's birthday cake.   Of course they had to act like it was their special day and make cake requests of their own. He he.  My next opportunity to make the cupcakes I wanted to make, was for the boxing party my hubs and I hosted.  I know, cupcakes don't exactly scream boxing party food.  However, who can resist sinfully rich chocolate cupcakes, topped with a healthy sized amount of salted caramel frosting, with a piece of caramel candy smooshed into the top? Not many.

I have made the these chocolate cupcakes many a time and topped them with everything from vanilla butter cream to Italian meringue white chocolate butter cream (yes, I about died too). But never, have I tried the creamy sweet, nutty flavored caramel frosting on top.  I searched pinterest and google to find the perfect recipe.  There are quite a few recipes that are simple, basically melting caramel candies and adding it to butter cream.  I needed more.  I really wanted the challenge and taste of a from scratch caramel frosting.  I found it here.   Anything that includes heavy cream, butter, and sugar has to be good, right?

The frosting was perfect!  So creamy and perfectly... caramelly(?)  The way the caramel frosting complimented the chocolate cupcakes was pure bliss.

Beatty's Chocolate Cake Recipe (Ina Garten)

Salted Caramel Frosting
1/2  cup salted butter
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp salt
2-3 cups powdered sugar
10 - 15 caramel candies, cut in half
Kosher Salt for sprinkling

Melt the butter and brown sugar in a small saucepan over low heat.  Add heavy cream.  Stirring constantly, increase heat to medium.  Add salt.  Allow mixture to bubble for 2 minutes.  Allow to cool. Once mixture is completely cooled, transfer to mixing bowl and beat in sifted, powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, until you reach your desired consistency.  I used all 3 cups, but it tasted wonderful after just 2 cups.  After piping frosting on all my cupcakes, I placed a caramel candy on top then sprinkled with a little kosher salt.  Um... Yum!

Monday, September 16, 2013

Preschool At Home: Stamping, Stomping, and Silly Sentences

Whoa!! I feel like I just got off a crazy roller coaster ride.  It's been a super busy week.  I mentioned in this post that we celebrated two birthdays, and a sick (possibly teething) baby.  Well, on top of all that we hosted a huge boxing party.  My husband is really into boxing and is a huge Mayweather fan so it was fitting.  We had about 30 people here on Saturday.  It was loud, messy, and down right fantastically fun.

Even with all the planning and prep work, I still managed to squeeze in some preschool time.  Here are some of our highlights from the last 2 weeks.

Theme: All About Me
Letter: Gg
Sight Word: is
Focus:  My Feelings/ My Birthday

We continue to follow the Zoomin' Movin Alphabet.  It's perfect for my little guys, whom are obsessed with all things that go.  It's free from Royal Baloo.  While, I don't do everything that comes with each unit, I use it as a guide to help with my planning.

I like to do sensory activities with the boys, so when I saw this grape sensory idea on Play Learn Love, I knew I had to try it.  I started by laying down some plastic to cover the floor, then grabbing an old bin, last, I gave each little one a container of grapes to harvest.  This took a lot of patience for them.  Bear lost interest in it pretty quickly so I took over his container.  Ace, who loves all things messy, moved quickly knowing that he would soon have the time of his life stomping and squishing grapes.

Bear played in the grapes for a bit, but he is not as interested in sensory play as Ace.  I'm trying to get him more and more interested in things like this.  At one point he disappeared and returned with his fire truck and just drove his little truck through the grapes.

Once upon a time, Ace couldn't stand getting his hands dirty or icky.  Now, He'd swim in messy sticky stuff if I'd let him... hmmm.

CJ had fun exploring in the grapes too.  While the boys played we talked about the sound that g makes, and other words that start with g.

Love these baby feet.

I was really excited to get our new Melissa and Doug letter stamp set.  We have a few stamps the boys like to play with, but I really wanted a full upper and lower case set, and a non-toxic pad.  I gave Ace some of his sight word cards and he practiced stamping them.  Bear is obsessed with the letter B so he did a lot of B and G stamping.

These pictures are really dark, typically my back doors give great light, but not on a dark and stormy afternoon.
By the way, the sight word cards come from the Zoomin' Movin' Alphabet Units.
Using salt on a tray was a great sensory activity for Bear.  He was able to get his hands "messy" then quickly dust them off if he wanted.  I let the boys do what ever they want in their salt, and just allow teachable moments to occur.  Bear typically asks me to write a B, although today he asked for an A.

 Ace was drawing different types of faces (happy, sad) because we had been discussing feelings.

I made a feelings lapbook for the boys to explore.  The printables came from 1+1+1=1, you can download them for free here.

I was really excited to use the sight words Ace knows in sentences.  He was so proud of himself for reading them.  Of course he had to make some of his own.  It was interesting watching him put the cards down.  He first began just laying the in random order and telling me his own sentence (even if it didn't match what was actually on the table).  I started to rearrange his sentences so they would make sense and I think we both got a little frustrated.  Him, because I was messing up his sentences, and me because I wanted him to make sentences that made sense.  We compromised in the end and I told him he could make "silly" sentences (thanks mom for the good idea!).  He was totally okay with that.  I find that I am constantly struggling with balancing fun, creativity, and learning.  It's helpful to keep reminding myself he is only 4.

We finished out our week by decorating cupcakes.  I had this activity planned for the afternoon of Bears birthday since we weren't having a party or anything.  My hubs decided to take the day off so we spent a great day as a family eating pizza and visiting Chuck E Cheese.  We ended up doing this activity in the evening and Bear was burnt out, so it ended up just being Ace.  In hindsight I should have just saved it for the next day.  Oh well.

As always, thanks for reading!!

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

2 Birthdays, And A Sick Baby

Hello folks!  September is a very busy time for us.  Mainly because we start the month with 2 birthdays.  My hubs and Bear have birthdays on consecutive days.  When my little brown bear was born the day after my husbands birthday, I promised myself I would make them both their own cake each year, as opposed to one cake with two names.  This should be pretty simple, but since I'm such a cake and icing snob I make them from scratch, and decorate them as close to professional as I can.

My husbands cake turned out fabulous!  He requested the red velvet and cream cheese cake I made him a few years ago.  Since I have made it before, it was pretty simple to recreate.  For Bear I had planned on keeping it simple.  We decided that we'd have a quiet birthday no big party.  Maybe share cake with my mom, and our neighbors, but that was about it.  I figured a simple round cake would be fine and I'd throw a toy train on top for fun.  MY little guy simply requested a "chotet tate" for his birthday.  For some reason in a moment of mom guilt I decided to make a train cake.  I made a train cake for Ace when he turned two that was super cute.  I mistakenly figured that since I've made it, it too would be easy to recreate.  Wrong-o!!!

My first mistake was using a super moist chocolate cake.  Moist cakes are NOT good for carving.  The second problem was my little sick CJ.  Ever try to complete a baking marathon with a baby who can't be put down.  Poor little guy was extra cuddly, something he's not been into ever since he started cruising.  I did love the extra snuggles I got from my warm and sniffly baby, but it was a huge hindrance in my cake baking, and decorating schedule.  Sigh.

Anyway, I finished all the baking Sunday night, and moved onto creating a chocolate train cake for my soon to be 3 year old.  The final product was not my favorite cake at all.  it tasted great, and resembled a sad little train.  In fact my husband actually agreed with me when I said I thought it was ugly.  The nerve!! Of course when I picked up my sweet little boy to show him his "train" cake in the fridge, a smile spread from ear to ear and he exclaimed "My train tate!".  Suddenly my attitude about his cake changed and I realized it truly is the thought that counts.

Now, the bad blogger that I am, I didn't snap any before pictures of my two cakes.  Instead I'll share with you what they look like after two days of getting picked on.  NO slices here after guests leave.  Straight off the cake with a fork... that's how we roll people!

I'll leave you with some links to other cakes I've made in the past and a promise to share my next cupcake conquest with you once it's complete.  Chocolate cupcakes with salted caramel frosting!  Sounds delish right? Can't wait to try it!


text:
Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Who knew that grits could change your life?

I'm completely obsessed with the
Southern Living Cheddar Cheese Grits Casserole recipe.
A lady in my Bible study made it for a pot lock recently
and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it.

If you see me in real life
and I have a far away look in my eye
it's because I'm dreaming of this casserole.
I just had to share the recipe with y'all.
It's just about the yummiest thing
I've had in a long while.

Southern Living Cheddar Cheese Grits Casserole

  • 4 cups milk
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1 cup uncooked quick-cooking grits
  • 1 large egg, lightly beaten
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon pepper
  • 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
  • 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • Garnish: parsley sprigs

  1. Bring milk just to a boil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat; gradually whisk in butter and grits. Reduce heat, and simmer, whisking constantly, 5 to 7 minutes or until grits are done. Remove from heat.
  2. Stir in egg and next 3 ingredients. Pour into a lightly greased 11- x 7-inch baking dish. Sprinkle evenly with grated Parmesan cheese.
  3. Bake, covered, at 350° for 35 to 40 minutes or until mixture is set. Serve immediately. Garnish, if desired.

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text:
Friday, February 24, 2012

Keeping us sane

 The three of us enter the small room at the hospice office where we have met with her once a month since January 2011 and take our places at the rectangular table. Richard always sits with his back to the window. I always sit on Richard’s left and have become quite familiar with the big painting on the wall facing me of a wispy, bright orange-red poppy. She sits opposite Richard.

 For many years she taught elementary school children. Then, 7 years ago, her husband died and she retired shortly thereafter. Now she teaches people like us how not loose our minds as we move through the process of processing the death of a loved one.

She smiles. “So,” she says, looking at each of us in turn. “How are you two doing?”

 In our session in January we had discussed some things that I had read Joan Didion’s book The Year of Magical Thinking, which chronicles her journey through the year after her husband died unexpectedly of a heart attack while they were eating dinner at home.

So I tell her
 I am tired. I am just really very tired of Nathaniel being dead. I want him to stop being dead so everything can go back to normal.
 Magical thinking.

She smiles. And nods. She understands.

I mention something Didion says in her book. She could not give away her husband’s shoes, because he would need them if he came back…

Richard sort of interrupts me and starts to talk. This is typical ADD behavior and I understand him, and it is OK.

He begins to tell her about the evening popcorn ritual. There were three snap-lock containers with tight-fitting lids: a round one (Richard’s), a tall rectangular one (mine), and a shorter, fat square one (Nathaniel’s), each with our name on it. Every morning Richard popped the popcorn for that evening, put each person’s share in his or her container, snapped the lid down, and sat it on top of the refrigerator.

Richard continues on with the morning popcorn routine, only now just two containers sit on top of the refrigerator. Richard cannot bring himself to take Nathaniel’s name off his container and use the container for other things. It sits unused on a shelf in the pantry.

It’s his container.

More magical thinking.

I tell her about what happened during the brief cold snap a few weeks ago. Richard wanted the electric blanket for the bed and asked me to find it. I was sure I had given it to Nathaniel the winter before so he would be warm. His room gets rather cold at night. I tore apart his bed to look for it. The electric blanket was not on his bed, and so I began to remake the bed.

Nathaniel was obsessive about his bed. It had to be perfect. All of the blankets had to hang exactly the same length on all sides. No wrinkles were allowed. The comforter or bed spread had to be exactly even all the way around. Sometimes he spent 30 minutes making his bed. As sick as he was when he walked out of his bedroom for the last time on December 12, 2010, his bed was perfectly made. Nobody has slept in the bed since then, except the cat.

As I got the comforter back on his bed, I thought to myself …
Nathaniel is going to be so upset at me for tearing into his bed and not putting it back the way it was. He will not be happy at all.
More magical thinking.

She smiles, and nods. “One of the hard things I had to come to grips with,” she said, “was that I did not have to do everything the way Louis [her husband] would have done it. I could do it the way I wanted, and it was OK.”

But she does much more than just smile and nod at us. Her wise words have helped to keep us sane. Technically, she was supposed to cut us loose in January, but we saw her this month and we will see her again in March.

After every visit I have waited for Richard to say, “I don’t think we need to come back,” especially since I had a hard time getting him to agree to see her the first time. And after every visit, when she says, “Shall we schedule another appointment?” He says, “Yes.”

She seems pleased. She herself is grieving the death of her mother, who died a few months before Nathaniel died. We always ask her how she doing. Sometimes I think she needs us as much as we need her.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Rolling in graves…

The woman who announced the musical group Bach to the Future at the concert we attended Saturday night mentioned that were they able, Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and other great composers of the classical music that this amazing group of musicians is tinkering with might be rolling in their graves by the time the concert was over. She warned us that it was not going to be a typical classical music concert.

And indeed it wasn’t. But it was wonderful.

Frankly, I think Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart would be thrilled that their music is still being played, and that clever young (well, at 60-something, even folks who might be in their 40s suddenly seem young) musicians are doing things to keep it interesting.

Very interesting. Unless one holds that their music is sacred and must not be tinkered with for any reason.

We don’t go out too often, so it was a real treat to have date. And even better, we saw Judy and Charlie walk in the auditorium and so we got up out of our seats and went to meet them. Seeing them come in was hidden blessing, because the seats we had picked were too close to the front and I think it would have been too loud.

And I almost felt like a silly high school kid meeting up with friends at an event. Judy said later her face hurt from smiling so much. Mine too.  I believe I actually laughed out loud at the very end of the concert, when the fellow who was playing the piano/synthesizer said that their last piece would be a synergy of music from two of the greatest composers: Beethoven and…. I was curious who he would pick…. Carlos Santana. That sent me off on a trip back to memory lane to a Santana concert I attended in 1969 or 1970.

And the band launched into the haunting opening strains of Black Magic Woman and then here came the opening bars of Beethoven’s Fifth. It was magic all right.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Climbing back in the saddle

It has been so many years since I have climbed on a horse that I doubt I could even do it without a serious step stool to get up high enough -- my hip joints are cranky these days.

Maybe I'll just try writing a little bit every day -- even if it is something not very important -- and see if I can move this blog forward a bit.

I dunno... I'll see how this goes...

Even if I had no followers to keep interested, and even if I never got another comment, I have found that keeping this blog has been an amazing thing for me on a personal level. To be able to go back years and read a bit of how I was feeling then has been so.... well.... good. Helps to keep it real. Helps to see where I have been...

Amazing what a good night's sleep does for one. I was so tired last night...  and angry... and depressed... and really unhappy... but after actually sleeping -- without the benefit of drugs -- I feel pretty darn good this morning.

Whoops. I just got yelled at for leaving apple peelings in the sink from last night. The ants, which are supposed to be dormant during the winter, are out in force because it has been so warm.

Oh well, it is only 7:15... let's hope the day does not go downhill from here.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Clean underwear

Being caught in the grip of writer’s block is like having a brain in handcuffs. And I have been struggling with it since I last posted here.

Last Saturday, I attended the local writer’s group meeting, who had a guest speaker, a creative writing teacher and English professor from the local university. He talked briefly about writer’s block and how to overcome it. Make yourself write something everyday, he says, even if you can’t get beyond a few sentences. Find something in your experience that you can write about, something in the present that reminds you of something in the past. Even if it is only a few thoughts. Write it. He shared a poem he was working on – but had gotten stalled -- about mowing the lawn on a hot summer day and hitting a Rose of Sharon bush with it, and how that reminded him of the Grapes of Wrath, which he had just finished teaching to one of his literature classes…

I have come up with any number of what I thought were clever opening sentences to start a post in the week since then, but have not been able to develop them any further. I am even having some trouble answering my e-mail.

An e-mail from a cousin back in January – a month ago in fact -- who is “holed up in hotel” somewhere in New York with his partner and their cat, having relocated there from Washington, DC, and trying to find a house to buy, who wonders about the bond between the four of us cousins who are the first-born in our respective families.

I need to ponder that thought and answer him.

And then comes some e-mails from another cousin, also a first-born, who has recently arrived back home after spending close to a month taking care of her aging parents, especially her mother – my remaining Aunty who I love dearly -- who is slowly recovering from a very serious illness.

I had written to my cousin – also a month ago -- about the meal out we ate at a rather expensive restaurant on the anniversary of our son’s death…
We went to Springfield and had lunch at an amazing restaurant in the funky old downtown section. We have been aware of the restaurant for a long time but never went there because it is rather expensive. But as my friend Sheila points out – “Nathaniel’s dead. Who are you saving all of this money for now? If you don’t want to spend it, someone else will be happy to spend it for you…”
 My cousin writes back…

It is important to enjoy the fruits of your labor, this I see for myself also. If you could see our underwear, you would laugh, we both are in need of new panties. We just are not spending the money on ourselves…the ones I have now are not long for this world, I fear. I wouldn't let mom help me with laundry while there, just because I didn't want her to see my undies.
Some of my underwear is atrocious, so I had to laugh at that. Why not throw them away? I have unopened packages of underwear. But, what I suddenly remembered after reading this was not embarrassment as an adult that my parents would see my underwear when I was there on a visit (although, now that I think about it, I can recall washing underwear out by hand, for some reason, and hanging them on a hanger in my old bedroom), but a conversation my mother had with me while we were driving in the car one evening to the library. We were by ourselves, so I suspect my father was home watching the other children.

Always make sure you have clean underwear on when you go out in the car because you never know if you are going to get into an accident and you will have to go to the hospital.

My mother was such an amazing woman and she was so wise and I miss her so much. I remember so few specifics of the many conversations we had over the years… and this is what I remember now? Wear clean underwear?

But of course other memories are flooding our minds right now. Tomorrow would have been our son’s birthday. It is comforting to talk together about little flashback memories that pop into our heads. When he was a little boy, we created a bedtime routine (as advised by Dr Spock, I think) to help avoid problems getting him to bed. Part of the routine was that Richard would put him on top of his dresser and he would leap off into Richard’s arms. And then he would say “One more time…” as a way to prolong going to bed. And so Richard would put him up there “one more time…” and then… and then... time ran out.


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Thursday, September 06, 2012

Behaving slightly badly in public

A couple of Friday nights ago a group of singers and musicians from St. Louis arrived at the Civic Center down the road apiece to present us a concert of African music and songs.

Richard decided he was not interested in going, and having somewhat of an independent streak, I hopped in the car and went by myself, intending to meet friends and some friends of the friends at the Civic Center and sit with them.

This we accomplished, deliberately choosing to sit in the middle very near the back of the auditorium because often these sorts of concerts involve audience participation and none of us were too inclined to participate and wanted to be out of reach and out of sight should the people on stage come off the stage and began stalking the aisle for victims.

I started off the evening in fine form by explaining to a friend of the friend how my husband and I had been sitting in a totally empty theater, and had commented that “we shouldn’t have a problem with someone sitting in front of us and blocking our view”, when lo and behold, another couple came in and sat right in front of us. Which of course made us start to giggle before we got up and moved. And I for some reason, I thought it necessary to mention that when this happened we were seeing an adult movie. My friend’s husband perked up his ears “And where was this?” he wants to know. I didn’t realize until later that they probably all thought that by “adult” I meant an “xxx movie”, when all I meant was that it a movie made for grownups.

I was saved from further embarrassment by the program beginning. And, sure enough, for two of the songs, members of the audience were invited to “come on up” and help them out. As it happened, children were involved both times.

I am afraid I behaved a bit badly. I chalk it up to racial stereotyping, harking back to the title of the early 90s film White Men Can’t Jump.

The first instance occurred when they recruited two little girls to join them on the stage – one black and one white – who were encouraged to dance along as the singers were singing. The little black girl got into the swing of things and was making an effort to move in rhythm to the music – she wasn’t quite in sync but she was trying. The little white girl mostly stood there, frozen, like a deer caught in headlights. I am afraid the words “white girls can’t dance” were heard coming from my mouth.

And then a little later, they invited another child to come up and play the rain stick. The rain stick is a hollow tube lined on the inside with obstacles (thorns or pegs or whatever) and filled with small objects (pebbles or seeds or whatever). When the stick is tilted end-to-end, the objects inside bounce off the obstacles inside as they fall to the other end and it makes a lovely sound, like rain.

The woman handed the little boy the rain stick and showed him how to make the sound and said “You can’t mess this up.” And the song began.

Sure enough, the little boy messed it up. He was trying to do a good job, this was obvious from the intensity on his face. He was concentrating intently on that stick, but instead of s-l-o-w-l-y tipping the stick up and down, he did it very rapidly, so whatever was inside basically stayed in the middle of the tube and did not move at all. The rain stick made no sound.

So even though he was trying so hard to do a good job, he was doing it wrong and he failed. I am learning a few life lessons about trying so hard to do a good job and being given the impression that I am not doing a good job, no matter how hard I try. The little fellow with the rain stick only had to fail once at it. I on the other hand, am being given the opportunity to do it over and over and over. Sometimes I wonder why they just haven’t fired me. And then I wonder what sort of feedback my colleagues are getting that I don’t know about. And maybe I am really not quite that bad.

And the other life lesson I am learning about this is that people need pats on the back. Lots of ‘em. So, go get out there and started patting…


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Saturday, July 21, 2012

6 Years and Counting!

I typically make Emily a card for our anniversary, but instead, I’m blogging it!  I’ve been married to the love of my life for 6 whole years now. It all started out here:

1 year later she was already pregnant with Lily and life couldn’t get any better, or so I thought.

Anniversary & Company Picnic 029

Then came Lily.  She turned our life upside down in the most perfect way.Lily 016

Just two years into our marriage, and we just kept falling more and more in love…still haven’t stopped.

Feeding Time 094

Then came Michael.  That kid can melt your heart in an instant with his perfect little inflections and expressions.

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I can’t seem to find a 3rd anniversary picture, but I assure you.  We were still smiling (though quite exhausted from a 3 week old, hence the lack of pictures)

By year 4 we were just spoiled rotten with like the perfect life ever.  Look at that smile.  I’m so glad our kids have Emily’s smile.

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P.S.  My Emily, I love your freckles…

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Last year I celebrated 5 years with my beautiful bride.  Adam was well on his way, we had a new house and well, could it get any better?

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Then came Adam to prove that yes, it in fact can get better.  That boy smiles like it’s his job.

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Then fast-forward to now.  This is us.  Ben and Emily Lemmon.  Married for 6 years.  I can’t wait until I can fill this blog with 50 years of beautiful memories together.  (Well, 44 years from now I doubt we’ll be using blogs, but you get the point Smile).

1 comment:

Jen and Jared said...

Awww, congrats you guys! You have such a beautiful family!


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Wednesday, December 16, 2009

lesbifriends with queerFAQtor wednesdays

lesbifriends x queerFAQtor wednesday=
debunking gay myths, rumors and stereotypes

to expand on the topics that were discussed in this video, i think its important to stress i understand that not everyone is as ok with the gay community as i am. i personally am entitled to my belief of those who dont support me and my world, are both narrow minded and hateful- but i know that it would be hypocritical of me to not allow them the same chance to speak that i get. you will find that i disagree with many of my peers on this- i dont think its right to counter a movement against gays with anger and name calling, an eye for an eye leaves us both blind (ghandi). when you step back and think rationally, there is always a logical way of explaining things and even if there isnt, spewing venom solves nothing. you do whatever makes you happy in this great big world, and im going to do the same. ill respect all of those around me, and hope that the same privilege is afforded to me.

  1. A friend turned me onto your blog and you're thoughts are intriguing at points and you do raise a few good ones from time to time.

    This being said however I find myself curious at what's the greater point of your blog if there is one because you're clearly addressing a larger public(larger than your circle of friends unless you're trying to be humorous.

    You, like many homosexuals, seem to be of the proud variant(which you've made a video of claiming you're not one of, but perhaps my own personal standards of what is acceptable behavior is different).

    You also talk down to people because of things you've been through(see how dare you rant in your video), people have problems. Yours was sexuality it seems, but being someone who has had a less than perfect life(father is a homosexual in the closet who quintessentially destroyed my family as a result- I love him dearly and respect him as a father and have had little to no negative feedback to the gay community as a result. This is one of the simplest issues I've had in my life, feel free to hit me up on my aim if you'd like my life story @ loyaltyunbound13).

    If you want to gain acceptance in the public eye, become known for something worth being known for. Being intelligent, a good speaker, engaging, and funny. I mean look at gay celebrities, Ellen D. got noticed....not for being gay.

    Also stereotypical of D.C. people within the country, the country is bigger than your backyard. I get DC is the center focal point, and that people in DC are "worldly" but you tend to overemphasize issues. This is a suggestion to move your attention to other aspects of our country. Not hating on DC people, I have a few that are really awesome but as you made a point via the flannel thing, stereotypes exist for a reason.

    Could this be a great blog? Most easily. I look forward to seeing more of your work and tracking your progress as an "artist".

  2. you are absolutely amazing!

    Ive just started dating a girl and it is my first rleationship with a female. and i love it, it has totally changed the way i look at things. the hardest thing is the reactions of my family, my friends have been great but my mum in particular thinks im doing it for attention whih is insane i dont understand why anybody would ever do it for attention as its not easy at all.

    i love your blog.

  3. @anon-
    first and foremost, i appreciate your honesty and bluntness about my blog as a whole. its clear that you have taken the time to read a few of my posts and get a basic feel of what i do on this page.

    im trying to take everything you said in without having my opinions clouded by the fact that i am not sure i understand your issue with me taking about DC from time to time. i live in this area, and was born and bred here (in fact, i do not LIVE in dc, nor have i claimed to). do i keep my blog pretty topical? sure, i dont really see an issue with that. i never claim to be on the pulse of world news when it comes to this blog. i dont express myself here in that manner- and quite frankly, i dont think my readers have issue with me discussing dc gay marriage and dc events regardless of where they live.

    you mention my 'talking down to people' that try to tell me that i am wrong in saying i am a homosexual, im sorry if thats how i came across. let me clarify- everyone is entitled to their opinion, including myself. i think its wrong for anyone to speak down to another person. if i did that by saying 'how dare you' then so be it, but my intention was to point out how ridiculous it is for others to try to 'fix' gay people (i feel the same way when a straight man is hassled in his 30s for not being married, even if that is his choice). im sorry about your fathers latent homosexuality ruining your family, but my sexuality has not been the biggest hurdle in my life. i did not 'poo-poo' anyone elses life, if you listen to what i say on the tape- but if thats the message you gathered, i hope my writing has fixed that.

    as it pertains to my little page here- yes, my sexuality is something im proud of and i am involved in the gay community- i think my blog reflects that. however, you asked 'the greater point of my blog' here because i enjoy writing- its something that is a passion of mine. i didnt start my blog to do anything but express myself and connect with both like minded people and those who challenge my line of thinking.

    again, i appreciate you taking the time to check out what i have going on here. eventually it would be great to be known as an articulate, smart, witty, dynamic woman, who also is a lesbian. we are in new times my friend, prior to ellen it wasnt as socially acceptable for people to be out and then make it in the entertainment world (hence the website in her namesake- i most certainly dont try to use my sexuality to get ahead in my career. in fact, most in my corporate life forget im gay b/c its not a topic brought up often.

    my blog is my safe haven.
    my blog is where i go to write.
    my blog is my baby, and something i have a passion for.
    if other people read that and gain anything from it- thats just icing on the cake. all im trying to do is be myself =)

  4. A person would have to be blind not to see how "intelligent, well spoken, engaging, and funny" Ashley is.
    Though her blog is an excellent look into and commentary on lesbian culture, it's also an excellent look into and commentary on life.

  5. so prior to reading the first comment added to this video i was going to comment that the beginning of this video made me laugh hysterically because of the dog shit.

    but then i read that first comment and it kind of irritated me a bit because "anonymous" is completely wrong about you as a person. you are probably one of the few people i've met that do not talk down to people and do not feel the need to make others feel like shit for their opinions. and i don't think that anywhere in any of your blogs that you are belittling anyone else's opinions/beliefs.

    and why are you not allowed to talk about your city ? it's kind of like how when i moved up there from florida, all i talked about was florida.. because that's what i knew. sure, you've been other places in the country, but what you know best is DC/VA and what happens in your daily life happens there.

    i feel like this person didn't quiet get the right message from your blog/videos and is judging you completely wrong because you are extremely intelligent and i happen to respect your opinions because they're not so narrow-minded.

  6. Hey Ashley,

    I'm absolutely thrilled that you are the new vlogger for QueerFAQtor Wednesdays, it's like my humpday thrill of the week, yes I too celebrate humpday with a great passion.

    I couldnt help but agree with your video this week, all the stereotypes placed around gays just seems incredible. Going back to your "living off the grid" post, I am one of those girls, I'm surrounded by straight people, most of them being men. Admittedly, I love being a resident lesbian celebrity at parties however, I'm so tired of hearing the "you haven't experienced a real man" argument after hearing that I in fact, am a gold star lesbian. This frustrates me because what, were just socially constructed to be straight? That straight people don't have to experiment with people of the same sex for some sort of straight confirmation. I don't know, but being gay definitely isn't a walk in the park.

    That's my piece, and I love your blog. I read every post and watch every video. You definitely remind me of Ellen because you keep me constantly laughing but on the other hand you raise some interesting arguments that get me thinking. Keep it up, this blog is my ultimate procrastination tool from school work!

    Take care and Merry Christmas Ashley!


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Meeting Little Miss Maggie

This post is about a week overdue, but with my freak medical malady last week, I just didn't have it in me to write it. Better late than never, right?? So, without further ado, I'd like to introduce my almost brand-spankin-new niece: Maggie Kathleen. Isn't she the sweetest?

There's nothing sweeter than a baby girl, you know. I might be a bit biased about that. Maggie was born on a Wednesday, but we couldn't make the trip to Atlanta until Thursday afternoon, and I didn't get to see her until Friday morning. She was totally worth the wait.

My girls, Kendall in particular, were completely enthralled by her. It was the first time that Kendall had really been around a baby, and she wanted to hold her. And when I say that she wanted to hold her, I mean that she completely flipped out if someone else in her presence was holding Maggie and she was not.

It was incredibly sweet. When the screaming wasn't driving me crazy, that is.

I did take a picture with the proud mama (my sister), but I don't think she would appreciate me putting it on the internet for all the world to see. It wasn't a particularly good photo of either of us (totally not the photographer's fault, Dad!).

On a completely unrelated note, it really doesn't seem like that long ago since we made the trip to Atlanta to meet my nephew, Will (sitting next to Kendall up there in the "cousins" photo). But it's been three and a half years already. Where has the time gone?? Atlanta is a long way from central Mississippi, and I don't get to see my sister that often. This trip was particularly bittersweet. I loved visiting with Stacy and loving on sweet little Maggie, and I hated to go. I'm already trying to figure out when I can see her again. I don't know when it will happen, but I hope it's not too far down the road.

Until next time, grace and peace.


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DanielLC comments on Knowing About Biases Can Hurt People - Less Wrong

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Comment author: DanielLC 27 December 2009 07:04:34AM 2 points [-]

If you gave him almost anything else that complex, it actually would be false. Once something gets even moderately complex, there is a huge number of other things that complex.

Technically, he should figure that there's just a one in 10^somethingorother chance that it's true, but you can't remember all 10^somethingorother things that are that unlikely, so you're best off to reject it.


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Couture: Chanel

Apparently, the skirt-over-pants look is back.
Oh, and so are flats.

Images via Style

Couture: Dior

Dior is usually one of my favorites.
The shapes and silhouettes and huge ballgowns, I love them.
This collection wasn't my favorite, but the more I look at it, the more I like it,
and there certainly are pieces which are just beautiful.

Images via Style


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Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Just an update on my book event schedule. I've had a few additions I haven't had a chance to add to my website. You find me:
In New Jersey at--
Ridgewood Library on Thursday 4/28 at 4pm
Watchung Booksellsers in Montclair, Saturday 4/30 at 11am
Over the Moon Toys in Highland Park, Sunday 5/1 at 1pm
+++ four school events at area elementary and middle schools.

Get in touch with me if you have questions about any of the events. (you can also reach me at my website Come out of if you can! Pearls galore and little treats for the tots, plus a scarf-tying demo. And how useful is that?

More blog postings coming soon. One I'm particularly excited about--my edition of Kids Say the Darndest Things. I've got some doozies from my school events!


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Echoes cafe- Top rated and totally managed by differently abled staff!

The big deal is that this 4.6 rated Echoes cafe is totally managed by differently abled staff. The positive vibes and motivation strings are laid down all over the place.
Echoes cafe satyaniketan

A popular café with an average rating of above 4 located in Satya niketan is not a big deal. Rather, there is a straight wall-to-wall chain of café’s and restaurants here, all with good enough ratings. The big deal is that one of these 4.6 rated Echoes cafe (zomato) is totally managed by differently abled staff (mute and deaf).

The positive vibes and motivation strings are laid down all over the place. So, god forbid, if such a time comes to you when sadness is building around, Echoes cafe is there to hold you and get you going.

Echoes cafe satyaniketan

The staff which works here also wondered in the starting that how would they get themselves going in a job which demands the normal functioning of all their senses. But once they got familiar with the whole process in 4-5 days, they got confident and this has become their favorite job since then to see people coming and going happily.

Here is the answer to how this all operates!

When you enter the café, a card would be shown mentioning that you are dining with differently abled staff.

Placing an order: There is a code associated with every dish on the menu. For eg. Pasta code is P1,P2 and so on. Alongside, there is a sign mentioned on the menu for the code. You can order either by gesturing the sign or by writing the code and quantity down on a paper.

Echoes cafe satyaniketan

How do you call a waiter? ‘Oye’, ‘Hello’, ‘Sunna bhaiya’.. Nothing of the sort works here. Here you need to press a switch placed near your seat which will turn on the light bulb to let the waiter know that what table number needs him and he will be straight there to help you.

Echoes cafe satyaniketan

Asking for things other than your order, the café has a notes-card with notes such as “Knife please”,“Menu”,”Bill please”,”Thank you”!

The cofounders of the café feel great the way their staff runs the place and they dream about incorporating as many as such people and building a suitable friendly environment for them. The staff is glad to do something meaningful with their lives by bringing smiles on people’s faces and the customers keep blessing these generous people for such a great initiative.

Address: 17, 1st Floor, Opposite Sri Venkateshwara College, Satyaniketan

Contact: +91 9999258597, 011 30806577

Price: INR 600 for two {approx.}

Timings: 10.30am – 11pm (Weekdays)

              12:00 noon-11PM(Weekends)

Nearest Metro Station: AIIMS

Recommended Dish: Fiery chicken, Makhani Pizza, Cream cheese pasta, Choco death shake

“Echoes – Eat Engage Energize”. Indeed, eating here is an engaging and energizing experience. Take your pick the first chance you get!

Picture credits: News18, DU Beat, LBB, Dineout

I am a travel freak who loves writing different sorts of travel experiences. I am a strong believer of the fact that the gladdest moment in human life, is a magical departure into unknown lands. You can reach me at
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Selasa, 25 September 2012

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