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Thursday, February 28, 2013
Kendra Wilkinson Isn?t Ready to Sacrifice Social Life for Second Child
"I'm not going to be going out and everything's going to be at home," the reality starlet, who appeared on Tuesday's season premiere of ABC's Celebrity Wife Swap, tells PEOPLE of what having another child would mean.
Circumnavigating Life's Detours | World of Psychology
?A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.?
~ Anonymous
The one thing about life that is certain is its unpredictability. Nothing stays the same forever. Every day we are bombarded with new stimuli, new challenges and new events.
For some of us, unpredictability creates a state of panic; it keeps us up at night and distracts us from enjoying the world around us. People like being in control of their social world and vulnerability is seen as a sign of weakness.
Uncertainty is so abhorred that Berger and Calabrese (1975) proposed the uncertainty reduction theory. The theory asserts that the anxiety created by uncertainty of the social world motivates people to reduce and avoid uncertainty.
So how can we better navigate around life?s inevitable detours?
Most of us are taught the importance of planning, being highly structured and organized. We have at our disposal copious technological devices designed to ensure that we stay on the right track within the right time frame. While spontaneity remains the spice of life, we relish existing within the confines of predictability (a safe and comfortable environment). Life, however, takes its own twists and turns, and for good reason. If it did not, we would quickly get bored.
I once encountered a woman suffering from severe depression. In her early 30s, she stated that her life is nothing like she imagined it would be. She revealed all her expected dreams and aspirations in a wonderfully detailed timeline. However, she despaired over all the obstacles, setbacks and wrong turns she had taken that have ?prevented? her from achieving her dreams.
I asked her ?if you were driving to town, and there was a roadblock, what would you do? Would you stay at the roadblock until the road was repaired, then proceed to drive to your destination?? With a confused expression she vehemently stated that she would have done the most sensible thing: ?Find another route.?
It is easy to become discouraged when things do not go according to plan. We all want things to turn out perfectly. But, just as we won?t sit by a roadblock waiting for the road to open, we should not sit at life?s roadblocks and despair about how difficult or unfair life is. There is always more than one way to get from point A to point B.
Erikson speaks about this in the last stage of his psychosocial theory of development. When we look back at our life, how are we going to see it? We have two options: We can anguish over all the obstacles and roadblocks that came our way, or we can enjoy the scenery of different routes, take pictures along the way, meet new people, develop new skills and practice acceptance.
How can we challenge ourselves to enjoy the scenery of a detour?
- Be flexible.Make plans but do not ever cast them in stone. Leave room for life?s curveballs. From an evolutionary perspective we are designed to be able to adapt. Use this to your full advantage.
- Increase coping skills.Consciously engage in activities that increase your ability to cope with uncertainty, e.g. finding humor in situations.
- Determine the controllable vs. uncontrollable events.Do not ruminate on events that are beyond your control. Focus instead on the events in your life that you can control and practice acceptance of those that you cannot.
- Meditate. The positive benefits of meditation cannot be overestimated. Meditation can create a state of calm and equanimity, decreasing your chances of experiencing panic in response to a detour.
Reference
Berger, C.R. & Calabrese, R.J. (1975). Some explorations in initial interaction and beyond: Toward a developmental theory of interpersonal communication. Human Communication Research, 1, 99-112.
Alina Williams works as a clinical psychologist in Trinidad and Tobago. She is also employed as a senior lecturer in psychology at the College of Science, Technology and Applied Arts. She is an avid reader of memoirs and biographies that relate to mental illnesses. She has a keen interest in understanding cognitive processes in human behavior.Like this author?
Catch up on other posts by Alina Williams, M.Sc. (or subscribe to their feed).
????Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 25 Feb 2013
????Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.
APA Reference
Williams, A. (2013). Circumnavigating Life?s Detours. Psych Central. Retrieved on February 27, 2013, from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/02/26/circumnavigating-lifes-detours/
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Source: http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/02/26/circumnavigating-lifes-detours/
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Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Why we don't eat horse meat: It's economics
Why do we have such an aversion to horse meat?
The discovery of traces of horse meat in food products supposedly made of beef or pork has caused a scandal in Britain and, most recently, prompted Ikea to withdraw its Swedish meatballs from stores in 21 European countries.
Related: No horse in IKEA meatballs in the US, store says
The controversy is obviously about more than the mislabeling of food. The very idea of eating horse strikes many people in Britain and the U.S. as abhorrent ? despite the fact that horse is considered a proper food item in many parts of the world.
A new study from researchers at Oxford University says the roots of the taboo on horse meat are in the spread of Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England. But the real reason may be something more pedestrian: simple economics.
Although church authorities did attempt to root out the practice of eating horse in Northern Europe and the U.K. because of its perceived connection with paganism, there's no evidence that this was the decisive factor in turning popular sentiment against horse meat.
It seems far more likely that the aversion grew out of common sense home economics. Cows are just more efficient sources of food than horses.
Brian Palmer of Slate explains that in terms of caloric content, 3 ounces of cows give you more bang per pound:
A three-ounce serving of roast horse has 149 calories, 24 grams of protein, and five grams of fat. The same amount of beef tenderloin has 179 calories, 24 grams of protein, and nine grams of fat. Horse milk, which some Central Asians drink in fermented form, has one-third the fat of cow's milk.
To the contemporary eye, that may make it sound as if horse meat is healthier than beef. But that's only because we have ample sources of calories and fat available to us. For most of human history, that hasn't been true. Medieval residents of Northern Europe would have certainly appreciated the higher calorie, higher fat content of beef. Even without the scientific ways of discovering precise fat and caloric intakes, it would have been easy to notice that a serving of beef left you feeling more full than a serving of horse.
What's more, the different digestive systems of horses and cows mean that cows are more efficient eaters. A 2002 study published in the Journal of Applied Ecology found that horses eat 63 percent more than cattle. This isn't just a matter of bulk. Horses also eat more "digestible material" with actual nutritional content than cows, according to the study.
This is rooted in the differences between the digestive systems of the animals. Here's how Jessica Walling, a graduate student at Central Washington University, explains it at the Mustang Management blog:
[Cows and horses] diverged from common ancestors into two families known as Artiodactyla and Perissodactyla ? ruminant and cecal digesters. Fermentation in the cecum and the rumen is similar. However, horses are only 70% as efficient as cows at digestion. This is because cattle regurgitate and chew partially digested food as "cud," repeatedly. Food is ground into smaller particle sizes. Another reason cattle are more efficient is because the food they intake is digested by microbes before it enters the true stomach.
Given a choice between raising cows and horses for food, it makes far more sense to raise cows. To put it differently, people who preferred beef to horse meat would have been healthier, heartier and used available resources more efficiently. They would, in short, have been more prosperous and successful. Over time, the beef eaters would triumph over the horse eaters.
While early Christian leadership may have nudged some in Europe away from eating horse meat, it's very likely the more efficient culinary taste would have won out even without a papal edict.
Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/why-eating-horse-meat-taboo-its-economics-1C8565314
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Dennis Rodman worms his way into North Korea
Flamboyant former NBA star Dennis Rodman is surrounded by journalists upon arrival at Pyongyang Airport, North Korea, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013. The American known as "The Worm" arrived in Pyongyang, becoming an unlikely ambassador for sports diplomacy at a time of heightened tensions between the U.S. and North Korea. (AP Photo/Kim Kwang Hyon)
Flamboyant former NBA star Dennis Rodman is surrounded by journalists upon arrival at Pyongyang Airport, North Korea, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013. The American known as "The Worm" arrived in Pyongyang, becoming an unlikely ambassador for sports diplomacy at a time of heightened tensions between the U.S. and North Korea. (AP Photo/Kim Kwang Hyon)
Flamboyant former NBA star Dennis Rodman, fifth from right, poses with three members of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team, in red jerseys, and a production crew for the media upon arrival at Pyongyang Airport, North Korea, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013. Rodman known as "The Worm" arrived in Pyongyang, becoming an unlikely ambassador for sports diplomacy at a time of heightened tensions between the U.S. and North Korea. (AP Photo/Kim Kwang Hyon)
Flamboyant former NBA star Dennis Rodman, right, scratches his face upon arrival at Pyongyang Airport, North Korea, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013. The American known as "The Worm" arrived in Pyongyang, becoming an unlikely ambassador for sports diplomacy at a time of heightened tensions between the U.S. and North Korea. (AP Photo/Kim Kwang Hyon)
Flamboyant former NBA star Dennis Rodman, right, scratches his face upon arrival at Pyongyang Airport, North Korea, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013. The American known as "The Worm" arrived in Pyongyang, becoming an unlikely ambassador for sports diplomacy at a time of heightened tensions between the U.S. and North Korea. (AP Photo/Kim Kwang Hyon)
PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) ? Former NBA star Dennis Rodman brought his basketball skills and flamboyant style ? tattoos, nose studs and all ? on Tuesday to a country with possibly the world's strictest dress code: North Korea.
Arriving in Pyongyang, the American athlete and showman known as "The Worm" became an unlikely ambassador for sports diplomacy at a time of heightened tensions between the U.S. and North Korea. Or maybe not so unlikely: Young leader Kim Jong Un is said to have been a fan of the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s, when Rodman won three championships with the club.
Rodman is joining three members of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team and a VICE correspondent for a news show on North Korea that will air on HBO later this year, VICE producers told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview Tuesday before they landed.
"It's my first time, I think it's most of these guys' first time here, so hopefully everything's going to be OK , and hoping the kids have a good time for the game," Rodman told reporters after arriving in Pyongyang.
Rodman and VICE's producers said the Americans hope to engage in a little "basketball diplomacy" by running a basketball camp for children and playing with North Korea's top basketball stars.
"Is sending the Harlem Globetrotters and Dennis Rodman to the DPRK strange? In a word, yes," said Shane Smith, the VICE founder who is host of the upcoming series, referring to North Korea by the initials of its formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "But finding common ground on the basketball court is a beautiful thing."
The notoriously unpredictable and irrepressible Rodman might seem an odd fit for regimented North Korea, where men's fashion rarely ventures beyond military khaki and where growing facial hair is forbidden.
Shown a photo of a snarling Rodman, piercings dangling from his lower lip and two massive tattoos emblazoned on his chest, one North Korean in Pyongyang recoiled and said: "He looks like a monster!"
But Rodman is also a Hall of Fame basketball player and one of the best defenders and rebounders to ever play the game. During a storied, often controversial career, he won five NBA championships ? a feat appreciated even in North Korea.
Rodman, now 51, was low-key and soft-spoken Tuesday in cobalt blue sweatpants and a Polo Ralph Lauren cap. There was a bit of flash: white-rimmed sunglasses and studs in his nose and lower lip. But he told AP he was there to teach basketball and talk to people, not to stir up trouble.
Showier were three Harlem Globetrotters dressed in fire-engine red. Rookie Moose Weekes flashed the crowd a huge smile as he made his way off the Air Koryo plane.
"We use the basketball as a tool to build cultural ties, build bridges among countries," said Buckets Blakes, a Globetrotters veteran. "We're all about happiness and joy and making people smile."
Rodman's trip is the second high-profile American visit this year to North Korea, a country that remains in a state of war with the U.S. It also comes two weeks after North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test in defiance of U.N. bans against atomic and missile activity.
Google's executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, made a surprise four-day trip in January to Pyongyang, where he met with officials and toured computer labs, just weeks after North Korea launched a satellite into space on the back of a long-range rocket.
Washington, Tokyo, Seoul and others consider both the rocket launch and the nuclear test provocative acts that threaten regional security.
North Korea characterizes the satellite launch as a peaceful bid to explore space, but says the nuclear test was meant as a deliberate warning to Washington. Pyongyang says it needs to build nuclear weapons to defend itself against the U.S., and is believed to be trying to build an atomic bomb small enough to mount on a missile capable of reaching the mainland U.S.
VICE, known for its sometimes irreverent journalism, has made two previous visits to North Korea, coming out with the "VICE Guide to North Korea." The HBO series, which will air weekly starting April 5, features documentary-style news reports from around the world.
The Americans also will visit North Korea's national monuments, the SEK animation studio and a new skate park in Pyongyang.
The U.S. State Department hasn't been contacted about travel to North Korea by this group, a senior administration official said, requesting anonymity to comment before any trip had been made public. The official said the department does not vet U.S. citizens' private travel to North Korea and urges U.S. citizens contemplating travel there to review a travel warning on its website.
In a now-defunct U.S.-North Korean agreement in which Washington had planned last year to give food aid to Pyongyang in exchange for nuclear concessions, Washington had said it was prepared to increase people-to-people exchanges with the North, including in the areas of culture, education and sports.
Promoting technology and sports are two major policy priorities of Kim Jong Un, who took power in December 2011 following the death of his father, Kim Jong Il.
Along with soccer, basketball is enormously popular in North Korea, where it's not uncommon to see basketball hoops set up in hotel parking lots or in schoolyards. It's a game that doesn't require much equipment or upkeep.
The U.S. remains Enemy No. 1 in North Korea, and North Koreans have limited exposure to American pop culture. But they know Michael Jordan, a former teammate of Rodman's when they both played for the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s.
During a historic visit to North Korea in 2000, then-U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright presented Kim Jong Il, famously an NBA fan, with a basketball signed by Jordan that later went on display in the huge cave at Mount Myohyang that holds gifts to the leaders.
North Korea even had its own Jordan wannabe: Ri Myong Hun, a 7-foot-9 star player who is said to have renamed himself "Michael" after his favorite player and moved to Canada for a few years in the 1990s in hopes of making it into the NBA.
Even today, Jordan remains well-loved here. At the Mansudae Art Studio, which produces the country's top art, a portrait of Jordan spotted last week, complete with a replica of his signature and "NBA" painted in one corner, seemed an odd inclusion among the propaganda posters and celadon vases on display.
An informal poll of North Koreans revealed that "The Worm" isn't quite as much a household name in Pyongyang.
But Kim Jong Un was a basketball-crazy adolescent when Rodman was with the Bulls, and when the Harlem Globetrotters kept up a frenetic travel schedule worldwide.
In a memoir about his decade serving as Kim Jong Il's personal sushi chef, a man who goes by the pen name Kenji Fujimoto recalled that basketball was the young Kim Jong Un's biggest passion, and that the Chicago Bulls were his favorite.
___
Associated Press writer Matthew Pennington in Washington contributed to this report. Follow Lee, AP's bureau chief for Pyongyang and Seoul, at twitter.com/newsjean.
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Tuesday, February 26, 2013
The Science Of Being 'Top Dog'
"To compete well means to take risks that are normally constrained by fear," Po Bronson tells NPR's Michel Martin.
ManoAfrica/iStockphoto.comFollowing their best-selling book, NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children, Bronson and Ashley Merryman teamed up again for Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing.
Bronson says "risk-taking is a crucial quality of competitiveness." Science shows that "if you focus on the odds, you tend not to take the risk," he says.
He points to an evident gender bias when it comes to risk. The book states that women tend to be really good at assessing their own odds, while "men are good at ignoring the odds." This can be a good thing, though, Bronson says: "There's times in our life that ignoring the odds is crucial."
Bronson admits that discovering gender differences in competitive styles was a hard thing to accept. "As the son of a feminist single working mother, I've never given gender differences much hay before in my life," he says. "But here, the science was showing gaps in differences between men and women that were too large to ignore."
Merryman points to women's skills at "careful risk analysis and ability to judge really well" as a blessing and a curse. She says that while they are assets on Wall Street, for example, those skills could also work against women. While men can tend to be overconfident, women "will apply that same careful risk analysis to her own work," she says. "Rather than overselling herself, she's underselling herself."
Bronson says research has shown that at a younger age, women handle competition better than men, especially at elite schools. "Kids keep score," he points out. "They're very conscious of how they rank versus other people around them, boys especially so."
And "whether girls are on top or in the middle or slightly below," he says, "they do terrific in elite schools." Boys, however, struggle if they are not on top. "Being a little fish in a big pond is a particularly bad experience for them," he says. "Girls can handle it."
But are we better off knowing these things?
"We definitely don't want to use any of the science to pigeonhole people," Merryman says, but what the authors learned shouldn't be ignored. "There isn't an ideal type of competitor," she says. "Po and I write about how people can be playing to win or playing not to lose."
The difference, she explains, is that playing to win means focusing on success, whereas playing not to lose focuses on preventing mistakes. "I think it's easy to switch into that playing-not-to-lose mentality," Merryman says, "but if you want to grow, if you want to challenge yourself, if you want to innovate, you have to force yourself to be playing to win."
Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/02/25/172879971/the-science-of-being-top-dog?ft=1&f=1007
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Monday, February 25, 2013
Video: Temptations singer Otis ?Damon? Harris dies
>>> from the music world a sad note to report about the passing of a one-time member of the temptations. papa was a rolling stone
>> otis harris sang the lead on the 1972 hit " papa was a rolling stone ." he was the youngest member of the group, awe editioning when he was 21 years old. his family tells us wilson died earlier this week after a long battle with prostate cancer . he was 62.
Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/50923195/
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Sunday, February 24, 2013
Giving Really Does Beat Receiving
Giving really is better than receiving, new research confirms. ?That research found people in both rich and impoverished countries say they feel better about donating money to charity, spending money on others or giving to others than they do about buying something for themselves.
That simple finding, however, suggests that the positive feeling a person has after giving to another person may be a component of human nature.
"Our findings suggest that the psychological reward experienced from helping others?may be deeply ingrained in human nature, emerging in diverse cultural and economic contexts," said lead author Lara Aknin of Simon Fraser University in Canada.
To prove this, Aknin and a team of researchers studied a poll of 234,917 people from 126 countries around the world. They found that respondents worldwide experienced feelings of well-being after giving to others. Those feelings were universal among people of?different income levels and social structures and in countries with different levels of freedom and corruption.
Researchers say people are more likely to experience those gains in well-being because giving to others is more memorable than spending money on themselves. In all experiments, respondents more easily recalled times when they purchased something for someone else than times when they had bought something for themselves, the researchers found.
"From an evolutionary perspective, the emotional benefits that people experience when they help others acts to encourage generous behavior beneficial to long-term human survival," Aknin said.
The research was published in the American Psychological Association's Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.?
This story was provided by BusinessNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience. Follow David Mielach on Twitter @D_M89 or BusinessNewsDaily @bndarticles. We're also on Facebook & Google+.
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Source: http://news.yahoo.com/giving-really-does-beat-receiving-142043621.html
Michigan GOP re-elects Chairman Schostak
Lansing?Michigan Republican Chairman Bobby Schostak won another two-year term, overcoming a challenge from attorney Todd Courser who had argued the party needs to take its core conservative principles to young people and minorities who heavily supported President Barack Obama.
Schostak had the backing of Gov. Rick Snyder, who made a convention speech celebrating the Michigan's GOP's successes in the face of Obama's strong showing in the state and across the country. He characterized the gathering of Republicans in the Lansing Center as more unified than the strident battle for control of the state Democratic Party going on at the same time in Detroit.
Republicans will head into the 2014 election with an advantage because Democrats "are fighting with each other," Snyder said.
Courser had maintained that Republicans trail Democrats in connecting with voters it needs, particularly youth on college campuses and minorities, because it lacks the kind of sophisticated technology used by the Obama campaign.
His argument was that GOP candidates don't have to abandon conservative stances that appeared to hurt them last year, but must use data-mining techniques and tailored messaging to connect with real people who share those views.
The race for chairmanship, while not as divisive as the Democrats' battle, mirrored the struggle among national party leaders about how to respond to Obama's victory?particularly his showing among demographics such as Latinos, youth, African Americans and working women ? that are key to future elections success.
Courser, a Lapeer attorney who describes himself as a constitutional conservative, maintained the party needs to sharpen is message but not move toward the center. Schostak bridged whatever divide there is between those with such views, such as the various local tea party groups around the state, and more-moderate Republicans who've been the party's base.
Courser maintained the that GOP did too much losing last year: 16 electoral votes to Obama, the U.S. Senate race to incumbent Debbie Stabenow, five state House seats and an array of state university board seats. Schostak and Snyder noted that Obama's victory didn't keep Michigan from holding onto a state House majority, nine of 14 congressional seats and a State Supreme Court conservative majority.
Peter Konetchy of Roscommon, who was a GOP primary candidate for the U.S. Senate last year, was at the convention promoting his political action committee to support candidates for the state legislature who'd push for state's rights legislation to counter federal gun laws, educational standards and the Affordable Care Act.
Konetchy wouldn't say whether he wanted a new chairman, but he's clearly disillusioned with the direction of the state party. He believes it's swinging moderate when it should be heading toward more conservatism.
"I don't think Washington, D.C., will be ever be able to restrain itself," Konetchy said. "But I believe the state can."
Phil Sawinski of Detroit said he had no preference in the chairmanship race. He was more interested in the effect the convention might have on Snyder.
"If it has the result of informing the governor to oppose Obamacare and sign the anti-gun-free-zone bill when it comes up in the legislature, that will put a smile on my face," said Sawinski, who was carrying a sign advertising a "Vote Biblically" web site.
Snyder, of course, unsuccessfully tried to persuade lawmakers to approve a state-created health insurance exchange under the federal Affordable Care Act, usually dubbed Obamacare. He's now pushing for legislative approval to accept a $31-million federal grant to make Michigan the seventh state creating an exchange cooperatively with the federal government.
And Snyder last year vetoed a bill that would have permitted concealed handguns in gun-free zones, such as libraries, public schools and churches. He objected to weapons in schools after a young gunman killed 20 children and six adults at a Connecticut elementary school. Similar legislations has been reintroduced but tweaked to require permission from a school board or superintendent for concealed weapons in schools.
gheinlein@detroitnews.com
Source: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130223/POLITICS02/302230375/1361/rss41
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Pakistan police say 17 of wedding party killed in bus crash
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Saturday, February 23, 2013
Watch live: Vice President Joe Biden to speak today in Connecticut at conference on gun violence
FILE - In this Jan. 9, 2013 file photo, Vice President Joe Biden, with Attorney General Eric Holder at left, speaks during a meeting with victims' groups and gun safety organizations in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington. Biden plans to speak at a gun violence conference a few miles from the scene of last years Newtown, Conn., school shooting massacre on Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
DANBURY ? Vice President Joe Biden spoke Thursday at a gun violence conference a few miles from the scene of last year's Newtown school shooting massacre.
Watch live:?Connecticut Network is streaming video from the conference, which is set for 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The conference, in Danbury, is to push President Barack Obama's gun control proposals. It was organized by members of the state's congressional delegation including U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who said the proximity to Newtown was of "symbolic significance."
"There will be people with enormous expertise speaking but also Connecticut and Newtown residents who have felt the full burden and brunt of this horrific tragedy," Blumenthal said.
Other officials including U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan also were scheduled to address the conference at Western Connecticut State University.
Obama is pushing for universal background checks for gun owners, a ban on military-style assault weapons and limiting the size of ammunition magazines.
There is a planned panel discussion on gun violence. A second panel was to discuss mental health and school safety initiatives.
Related: Malloy reveals 'common sense' gun violence prevention proposal
Gun makers and lobbyists weren't invited to participate in the conference, but Blumenthal said gun rights advocates will have opportunities in hearings and other forums to express their points of view. Continued...
Meanwhile, the mother of a 7-year-old girl killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre urged lawmakers at the conference to pass meaningful laws to help prevent another tragedy, winning a standing ovation as officials vowed to act.
Chris and Lynn McDonnell, whose daughter Grace was among 20 first graders and six educators killed in December, spoke Thursday in Danbury.
"We ask our representatives to look into their hearts and remember the 26 beautiful lives we lost and pass meaningful laws to help prevent this from happening again," Lynn McDonnell said, sparking a standing ovation.
Chris McDonnell said he hoped the moral responsibility of gun owners would be discussed.
The conference at Western Connecticut State University is to push President Barack Obama's gun control proposals. It was organized by members of the state's congressional delegation.
Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy revealed his own gun control package ahead of his appearance at the conference. He said Thursday that he wants to immediately ban high-capacity ammunition magazines, require background checks for the transfer of any firearm and expand the state's assault weapons ban. The Democrat has expressed frustration with the pace of the state legislature's efforts to form a response to the Newtown tragedy.
The gunman, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, killed his mother at their Newtown home before going to the school and slaughtering 20 children and six adults. He committed suicide as police arrived.
As a teenager, Lanza studied at Western Connecticut State, earning a 3.26 grade point average before taking his last class in the summer of 2009. Classmates remembered him as quiet, a trait some thought was a result of him being younger than his peers.
Obama is pushing for universal background checks for gun owners, a ban on many military-style weapons and a limit on the size of magazines.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who organized the conference with two other members of the state's congressional delegation, said those measures are achievable. He said the Newtown shooting dramatically changed the prospects for gun control. Continued...
"Two months ago gun violence and measures to stop it were untouchable," Blumenthal said. "The forces of resistance as strong as they once appeared are a shadow of what they were."
A second panel was to discuss mental health and school safety initiatives.
Malloy, Newtown First Selectman Pat Llodra, state police Capt. Dale Hourigan and the mayors of Bridgeport and Hartford planned to participate, along with other experts in the fields of mental health, law enforcement and education.
Gun makers and lobbyists weren't invited to participate in the conference, but Blumenthal said gun rights advocates will have opportunities in hearings and other forums to express their points of view.
Source: http://nhregister.com/articles/2013/02/21/news/doc512501201237a726887736.txt
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Friday, February 22, 2013
Zillow Launches its First Rental App for iPad
Using QR Codes to Deliver Maps Electronically - cartographers
are tapping into technology in the form of Quick Response Codes (QR
codes) to help promote, sell and deliver maps electronically. Ted
Florence discusses QR codes, what they are and how they are useful for
maps and map producers.?
10 Resources To Help You Get Started Programming with Python -
There's no question that if you want a head start in your career as a
GIS Analyst, programmer, or other technology professional that Python
programming is a must. Just look around on twitter, follow some geo
hacks on Google +, check out the developer resources, and attend a
GeoGeek meetup of WhereCamp and you'll hear about python.
Exploring Foursquare with The Explore foursquare map - A look at some clever mapping functionality available to users of the foursquare service
58% Use Location-based Apps Despite Privacy Concerns - A telephone poll of 1,000 Americans shows that many people are concerned about geolocation, which uses data from a computer or mobile device to identify a physical location
The Really Big List of Mapping, Geo location Mobile developer resources, APIs and Tools? - The Mobile Ecosystem... no question that mobile is huge and the opportunity for developers, in particular, geo developers! There's loads of developer resources on the web so to help the developer, here's a listing of just some of the fine dev resources, blogs, toolsets and more to consider when developing or porting your app to a smartphone or Tablet.
Mobile Technology Feature - Top 10 Business Apps for Android - Android has become one of the most popular mobile operating systems
in the world due to advanced software, competitive manufacturers, and an
app market that is filled with exciting and useful applications. Read
on for this fine Top 10 List compiled by tech writer, Blake Sanders
ArcGIS.com Mashup Tutorial with Flickr and Foursquare data -
Here's a simple "how to" tutorial on working with the free ArcGIS.com
to easily import KML or RSS data from Flickr and foursquare into ArcGIS
to create your own custom map mashup.
Most Users of Free Photo Apps Say Adding Cool Effects is Most Useful? - Adding cool effects to photos was rated as the most useful thing by more than half of consumers surveyed using free online photography services, according to CatchFree a free online service that helps people find the best free mobile and web applications to perform useful tasks.
10 Things That You Should Be Including In Your Press Release -
We'd like to share a short list of 10 items that anyone creating a
press release might/should consider including in their press release.?
Flickr GPS Photo Tag Tip? - Here's a tip for Flickr users who want to share their GPS information with their photos. note, in order to do this you'll need to be capturing photos using a GPS-enabled or GPS-aware camera (see you're smartphone hardware settings to ensure that GPS or location sharing is turned "ON)".?
Source: http://www.lbszone.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9771&Itemid=2
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Using global knowledge to keep Melbourne moving
Students and an academic from the University of Melbourne have recently completed a piece of work for the Committee for Melbourne using knowledge from across the world to provide input into benchmarking Melbourne?s public transport system.
Around 800,000 people move throughout Melbourne every day and this is expected to increase to more than one million by 2030. Such a large movement of people places heavy demands on a public transport network.
Victoria?s public transport network incorporates metropolitan and regional rail, route buses and the world?s longest tram network, and a team of students from the University of Melbourne?s Faculty of Business & Economics are working on a short-term research program for the Committee to research and identify leading public transport cities across the globe and compare these with Melbourne.
Committee for Melbourne
The students developed their own original Public Transport Value Framework, which identified key determinants of value from a consumer perspective and measured the performance of seven cities against these indicators.
Professor Margaret Abernethy who is supervising the students outlined the value of the research, ?this is an important study for the Committee for Melbourne as they are an independent association whose role is to influence policy not only in Melbourne but hopefully elsewhere in Australia. The research our students conduct will add to a collective piece of work regarding the value of public transport to Melbourne.?
One of the students and team leader Umanda Attanayake feels that the team?s research has produced insights that could form the basis of a strategy to combat these problems ?we feel that consideration of these ideas is important in understanding why Melbourne?s public transport stands where it does, relative to others, and has provided the client with exciting future research opportunities ? perhaps even for a future intake of MBP students?
From left to right, students Umanda Attanayake, Claire Du, Jessica Chan and Abhinav Suthakar.
The Committee for Melbourne is an apolitical not-for-profit, member network that unites a cross-section of Melbourne?s leaders and organisations to work together and enhance Melbourne?s economic, social and environmental future.
Nathan Stribley, Policy Manager at the Committee, outlined the value of the this project ?the program continues to provide inquisitive, well rounded students that easily transition into a professional environment and deliver high quality analysis that can be incorporated into our work program.?
The students complete the research as a part of the Melbourne Business Practicum (MBP) within the Faculty of Business & Economics at the University of Melbourne.
The MBP is an intensive subject that involves a team of four students, working with a Melbourne based host organisation during the winter and summer term for 10 consecutive days, with a week of induction and post assessment.
The MBP aims to provide students with real experience in a workplace environment, working on a challenging project and its organiser Sue Elston encourage business interested in participating to get in touch, ?The MBP is a wonderful initiative that benefits all those who get involved. The business gets access to some of the leading young business and economic minds in Australia and the students get to put their theories into action.?
Source: http://benews.unimelb.edu.au/2013/using-global-knowledge-to-keep-melbourne-moving/
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Thursday, February 21, 2013
Strongsville teachers union will 'announce its plans for a potenetial strike' at Feb. 21 press conference
Strongsville Teachers 2013 Protest
Teachers gathered in the Feb. 7 Strongsville Board of Education Work Session. They were holding signs reading (Photo by CORY SHAFFER, SUN NEWS)
STRONGSVILLE- The union representing 385 Strongsville teachers could issue a strike notice at a just-announced press conference scheduled for 6:15 p.m. Feb. 21.
In an email, the Strongsville Education Association? said the press conference - which will take place at the Strongsville High School auditorium 45 minutes before the Board of Education meets in the media center - will "provide details on its current labor dispute with the Board of Education and to announce its plans for a potential strike."
It will be open to union members and members of the media only.
The teachers union overwhelmingly approved a strike authorization Feb. 15. If the union issues the district a strike notice at the press conference, teachers could strike as early as March 4.
Ongoing negotiations have been at a standstill, as displayed at the board's Feb. 7 work session and Jan. 17 regular meeting, as hundreds of teachers protested and chanted at the first and silently disrupted the latter.
More Strongsville stories
Return to Strongsville home page
Contact Shaffer at (216) 986-5479 or cshaffer@sunnews.com.
Follow me on Twitter @cory_shaffer
Source: http://www.cleveland.com/strongsville/index.ssf/2013/02/strongsville_teachers_union_wi.html
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China Now Has More Tablets And Smartphones Than The US
After becoming the world?s leading manufacturer of goods and largest emitter of carbon dioxide, China can add world?s leading consumer of mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) to its trophy case.
?By the end of February 2013, China will have 246 million devices compared to 230 million in the U.S.,??says mobile analytics company Flurry, which estimates that its survey covers more than 90% of the world?s ?smart devices.?
In January, the US and China were within one million devices of one another. Flurry is measuring what it calls ?active? devices, which means phones and tablets that are actually connecting to the internet, and not simply devices sold.
Despite the enormous size of the Chinese market, it is still the sixth-fastest growing market for tablets and smartphones, by Flurry?s estimate.
Even as this growth slows, its dizzying pace, and the relatively maturity of the US market for smartphones means that China will almost certainly remain a larger market for mobile devices than the US.
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/china-now-has-more-tablets-and-smartphones-than-the-us-2013-2
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Wednesday, February 20, 2013
UberHype for Android Puts Great New Music on your Phone, Anywhere You Are
Android: Whether you're a fan of music streaming and discovery site The Hype Machine or you just enjoy finding and listening to great new music, UberHype for Android is a must-have. The app brings all of the music available at The Hype Machine to your Android phone, and makes it easy to search for, stream, save, and share great new music, anywhere you go.
UberHype offers all of the features available on the web: If you don't have a Hype Machine account, you can sign up through the app (if you want?you don't need an account to use the app.) From there, it's easy to browse the most popular tracks, the newest songs added to the site, the most talked-about or buzzed-about songs, or just see the ones that have been added by the music blogs that contribute to Hype Machine. When you find something you like, you can subscribe to the artist or the music blog that uploaded it, save it to your favorites, or just press play to stream it immediately, or start listening to a playlist for continuous playback that won't stop until you tell it to.
You can favorite tracks to listen to them later, and if you have friends on Hype Machine, you can see their favorited tracks in the app as well. The app itself is well designed, and makes finding new music easy, even though under the hood there are tons of sharing and social features to help you connect with friends and artists. The app is free, and available over at Google Play.
UberHype (Free) | Google Play
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West beats East 143-138 in NBA All-Star Game
HOUSTON? -- LeBron James had the ball in his hands and a comeback on his mind.
Kobe Bryant blocked those plans -- twice.
He may not leap like Blake Griffin, but Bryant can still get up when he needs to, especially when the defenseless part of the All-Star game is over and it's time to stop somebody -- even the league's best player.
Bryant blocked James' jumper, turning it into a dunk by Kevin Durant that helped the Western Conference put away the East 143-138 on Sunday.
On Michael Jordan's 50th birthday, the players most often compared to him turned the final minutes into a 1-on-1 duel, and it went to Bryant -- the guy Jordan said he'd pick between the two.
"It was a great block," Durant said. "I haven't really seen any MVP get a jumper blocked like that. It was a really great play.?
Chris Paul had 20 points, 15 assists and won MVP honors, and Durant scored 30 points. Griffin finished with 19, joining his Clippers teammate, Paul, in creating Lob City deep in the heart of Texas.
"You just want to play fast. I like to throw the lob. I like to see guys hit 3s," Paul said. "When we're out on the court with all that firepower, why wouldn't you want to make passes? You've got KD filling one of the lanes, you've got Blake, Kobe on the wing. There's nothing like it.?
Bryant added a second late block of James, the MVP of the 2006 game here after leading a big East comeback. This time, he scored 19 points but shot only 7 of 18 after making 60 percent of his shots in six straight games before the break.
"I'm known for my defense. I can defend. I'm pretty smart with my defense," said Bryant, who got the nod from Jordan over James based on his five championship rings. That's one less than MJ and four more than King James.
Carmelo Anthony led the East with 26 points and 12 rebounds.
"I think we played really good defense at the end of the game as a team," Durant said. "Kobe was really going with the ball. It's tough to stop LeBron, but he did his best. He was able to block a few of his shots. But CP did a really good job of keeping us in the game.?
The first dunk of the game came 16 seconds in, Paul throwing a pass to Griffin as part of the West's 7-0 start. The West led after each of the first three quarters, though was never ahead by more than eight points through three periods.
They finally pushed it into double figures early in the fourth fueled by former Oklahoma City teammates Russell Westbrook and James Harden, but couldn't put it away until a late run behind the guys from the city of Los Angeles -- who along with Lakers center Dwight Howard gave Los Angeles all but one of the West's starting spots.
Paul hit two 3-pointers, Bryant made a layup, and his block of James led to Durant's dunk that made it 136-126. Griffin had one last forceful dunk to help close it out, throwing a pass to himself off the backboard and climbing high in his neon green sneakers to slam it home and make it 142-134.
Harden had 15 points in his home arena, where the sights of the game were on the floor and the sounds were at the rim -- which shook repeatedly after thunderous dunks for most of the game before, as usual, players tried to make some stops down the stretch.
Players' sneakers were a variety of pastels and fluorescent colors that looked like they came right from Easter Sunday church, many clashing so badly with their multi-colored socks that they may as well have been created by spilling out random paint buckets.
James and Dwyane Wade wore purple, and Griffin's neon look was also sported by the usually not-so-loud Tim Duncan and Brook Lopez.
But the NBA's high-flyers sure could leap in them.
Durant slammed one down so hard at one point that he stumbled backward after landing, appearing woozy. He came in as the career leader in points per game with 28.3 and may have won a second straight MVP award if not for Paul's big finish.
But the Kobe-LeBron matchup down the stretch showed that even in an All-Star game, when it's time to determine a winner, the 34-year-old Bryant is all business.
"It was all in good spirit, man. It was just two guys that love to compete, love to go at it. So I had a lot of fun," said James, who at 28 has plenty of time to catch up to Jordan and Bryant in when it comes to NBA championships.
Bryant finished with only nine points but had eight assists. Griffin shot 9 of 11 from the field and didn't miss until trying to violently throw one down from a few feet away from the basket.
Indiana's Paul George scored 17 and Kyrie Irving had 15 for the East.
Not everybody had it so easy. Chris Bosh shot two airballs in the first quarter and was booed, tossed up another in the second, and had Tony Parker dribble the ball through his legs on defense. He was even pulled down the stretch by his own coach, Erik Spoelstra, right after Bryant blew right by him for a layup.
Bosh finished 3 of 9. Wade had 21 points on 10-of-13 shooting, the best performance of the three Heat players in the starting lineup. He and James helped the East pull out a two-point win in the 2006 game here, but the West didn't play Bryant-level defense back then.
"Second time in Houston, it was great," Wade said. "We didn't get the win, but we are all winners, because all 24 of us are All-Stars. So it was great.?
There were plenty of laughs, players performing comedic skits and poking fun at each other on the Toyota Center's massive overhead scoreboard. Even the celebrities that surrounded the court -- Westbrook almost crashed into Beyonce and Jay-Z while trying for a first-half steal -- seemed entertained.
Two of Houston's biggest basketball stars, Hakeem Olajuwon and Yao Ming, who was honored after the first quarter, and Olympic gold medalists Usain Bolt and Gabby Douglas were among the athletes who weren't in the game.
Players wore warmup jackets with patches commemorating their individual and team career accolades during a lengthy pregame that included a performance by Ne-Yo. They actually warmed up twice, needing to get loose again after watching and being introduced during the elaborate show.
The game capped a weekend of change in Texas, where David Stern presided over his final All-Star game as commissioner and players' association executive director Billy Hunter was voted out of office -- a result he seems likely to contest.
Boston's Kevin Garnett said before coming to Houston he thought his 15th All-Star selection would be his last, and turned it over to the young guys early. He played only 6 minutes of the first half before calling it a night.
?
Source: http://www.nwcn.com/sports/West-beats-East-143-138-in-NBA-All-Star-Game-191635301.html
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Tuesday, February 19, 2013
SWIISS: Troops value morale but question meaning
by Jeannie Wurz, swissinfo.ch
Feb 15, 2013 - 15:56
While they value the camaraderie it offers, nearly two-thirds of Swiss troops don?t feel their military service contributes anything to the country?s security, says a survey presented to top army officers on Thursday.
The survey asked troops to what extent they agreed with a series of statements about leadership, tasks and attitudes toward their military service. It surveyed 15 per cent of all recruits, soldiers, course participants and officers across the Swiss military. For the first time, the survey made use of telephone text messaging technology for data gathering.
Many of the results were positive: more than 70 per cent of responders felt they were able to reach the goals set for their units and that their instructors were technically competent.
However, other responses were ?disappointing? and ?not good at all?, according to army spokesman Christoph Brunner. For example, only about 30 per cent would ?recommend further military education to an acquaintance? and just over a third of army members said they felt they were contributing to Switzerland?s security and making a civil contribution.
The head of the army, Lieutenant General Andr? Blattmann, commissioned the study in January 2012 ?because we want to get better?, Brunner told swissinfo.ch.
?We want to have a direct response from our troops as to how they judge their service,? he explained.
Brunner says that in reaction to the survey results, senior staff officers have been informed they will be responsible in future for helping their subordinates understand why Switzerland needs an army, what services the army is providing for the country and how they are contributing to the security of Switzerland.
The officers will have to communicate this message in presentations given to each unit.
For 2013 the army will continue to collect information, but the survey will be adapted so that there are five different versions, and all members of the army will be required to respond, compared with 11,497 selected as a representative sample in 2012.
Debating conscription
The survey results come amid years of debate over whether Switzerland?s conscript military should continue to operate under the same model.
A pacifist group known as Switzerland Without an Army proposed the latest initiative to end conscription, which is pending. Discussions are set to be continued in the Senate before the cabinet sets a date for a nationwide ballot on the issue.
It will be the third time in less than 25 years that anti-conscription initiatives have been put to voters.
Jeannie Wurz, swissinfo.ch
Source: http://intellibriefs.blogspot.com/2013/02/swiiss-troops-value-morale-but-question.html
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Monday, February 18, 2013
Why Microsoft?s new Office 2013 license may send users to Google Docs
If you buy a perpetual retail license for Office 2013, it will be locked to the computer you first install it on, forever. Buy a new PC and you won't be allowed to install your existing copy of Office on it, even if you wipe the disk of the old PC. You'll have to splurge for a new one.
This is a change in policy from Office 2010. Office 2010 permitted a single transition from one PC to a new one. It's not, however, an entirely new policy: OEM pre-installed versions of Office (and Windows) are similarly tied to their (OEM) hardware and can't migrate. Adam Turner at The Age?first pressed Microsoft for clarification over what its "single PC" constraint actually meant, and noted the newly aligned OEM and retail licenses.
It's difficult to see the wisdom in this change. It's not a big change, but it's not a nice one, either.
Retail sales make up a minority of the Office business. Microsoft doesn't habitually report the exact level of retail sales, but we can perhaps make estimates based on the information the company does provide.
The Microsoft Business Division (MBD), the reporting group within the company that includes Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Dynamics, and Lync, reported last quarter that 60 percent of its revenue is from multi-year subscriptions?Software Assurance plans. The remaining 40 percent is what Microsoft calls "transactional;" one-off purchases, encompassing both OEM preinstalls and boxed copies bought online or in bricks-and-mortar stores.
The company's 2012 annual report also has some useful information. The report says that in its 2012 financial year, 80 percent of its sales were to businesses, 20 percent to consumers. A reasonable inference is that business sales include essentially all of the multi-year revenue (as it is only this year that Microsoft offered a consumer-oriented subscription, Office 365 Home Premium), and about half of the transactional revenue.
In the annual report, Microsoft also emphasizes that while the 80 percent of business revenue is relatively consistent, driven primarily by the number of information workers, the 20 percent is much more dependent on the broader level of PC sales and product launches. This in turn suggests that a significant proportion of it is made up of OEM sales, for which there's been no relevant licensing change.
One final data point: Windows division reports that around 75-80 percent of its revenue comes from OEM sales.
Even optimistically, retail revenue is unlikely to account for more than 20 percent of MBD revenue, and it might be a lot less. If MBD's transactional revenue has the same level of OEM sales as Windows, it'd mean that retail sales were no more than 10 percent of revenue. It's a nice business, but it's not Microsoft's major money-maker, and not representative of the majority of Office customers.
It's spectacularly unlikely that this licensing change is going to increase that revenue in any meaningful way. It's also unlikely to make any material difference to many people. The only people who'd be impacted are those who migrate software between systems, and while that's common among enthusiasts, it's probably not mainstream: the mainstream solution is to buy an OEM preinstall license, or buy retail Office alongside a new PC, use that PC for 5 years (or more) until it no longer works, then throw it away and repeat the process.
Transplanting software from one machine to another (or invoking Ship of Theseus-like questions over when an upgraded PC becomes a new one) is something for enthusiasts?perhaps explaining why the OEM license restrictions have for the most part been shrugged off?and even if Microsoft managed to generate some extra sales to those enthusiasts, it's never going to amount to very much.
But that is arguably missing the point. The software giant is penalizing a small, typically vocal group of users and provoking many column inches of complaint. This is a change that looks bad. It makes Microsoft appear petty and small-minded, determined to wring every last dollar from its customer base. And while that may in fact be the case, doing so in such a brazen manner does nothing more than get people's backs up.
The underlying reason for the change is almost certainly not any direct revenue generated by additional sales. Rather, it's yet another incentive to buy an Office 365 Home Premium subscription. The $99 a year subscription lets you use Office 2013 on up to five PCs, and those licenses float; you can decommission old PCs and move licenses to new ones as necessary. That's the carrot; the stick is the price hike and additional restrictions on perpetual licenses.
The problem is that there are plenty of customers who reject the subscription model out of hand, either because they find an overt rental model offensive, or because they don't place much value in having the current version of the software and hence find occasional perpetual licenses to be more cost effective.?The retail license change doesn't fundamentally alter that calculus for those users. It just makes clear that Microsoft doesn't really?like?such users.
So they probably won't flock to Office 365. What they might well do instead is download LibreOffice 4 or switch to Google Docs?moves that hurt Microsoft far more than simply moving an Office install from an old computer to a new one. Those enthusiasts could take the mass market with them. It's happened before, with Firefox and Chrome. It can happen again, to Office. Licensing changes that alienate users make that only more likely to happen.
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Ferruginous Hawk? Pinoche, California
I came across this hawk while in Panoche Valley in California. It was a good distance off, and the heat shimmer was terrible through the scope (hence, the bad photos), but the all-white belly and rufous back make me wonder if this is a Ferruginous Hawk (vice a Red-tailed Hawk). I'm wondering what the experts here think. Tks much.
Marc
Source: http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=250882&goto=newpost
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GOP Senator Would Take Away Health Coverage From 30 Million Americans To Avoid Military Cuts
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Sunday the government should protect the Defense Department from automatic spending cuts by slashing $1.2 trillion from the Affordable Care Act.During an appearance on Fox News Sunday, Graham suggested that the sequester?s across-the-board cuts to federal spending, including about a roughly 7.5 percent reduction in military spending, would be ?destroying the military.? But rather than agree to President Obama?s proposed alternatives to the sequester, the South Carolina Republican said we should save money by eliminating health care for the 30 million people covered by the Affordable Care Act:
CHRIS WALLACE: Let me just ask you one more question about the sequestration before we let you go, Senator. You know if we go into the sequester, the president is going to hammer Republicans, the White House already put out a list of all the things, terrible things that will happen if a sequester kicks in, 70,000 children losing Head Start. 2100 fewer food inspectors and small business will lose $900 million in loan guarantees and you know, Senator, the president will say your party is forcing this to protect tax cuts for the wealthy.
GRAHAM: Well, all i can say is the commander-in-chief thought ? came up with the idea of sequestration, destroying the military and putting a lot of good programs at risk. It is my belief ? take Obamacare and put it on the table. You can make $86,000 a year in income and still get a government subsidy under Obamacare. Obamacare is destroying health care in this country and people are leaving the private sector, because their companies cannot afford to offer Obamacare and if you want to look at ways to find $1.2 trillion in savings over the next decade, look at Obamacare, don?t destroy the military and cut blindly across the board. There are many ways to do it but the president is the commander-in-chief and on his watch we?ll begin to unravel the finest military in the history of the world, at a time when we need it most. The Iranians are watching us, we are allowing people to be destroyed in Syria, and i?m disappointed in our commander-in-chief.
The draconian cuts to vital programs Graham and other Republicans are demanding, including providing health insurance for the millions of Americans who otherwise would not have it, will hurt the economy and hurt real people.
But Graham?s ?solution? also misses a key reality: Obamacare actually reduced the deficit. His proposal to put its elimination on the table would mean increasing the budget deficit by an estimated $109 billion over the same 10-year period, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.
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