Otherwise occupied: What price revolution? [watches]
Every time a citizen with good intentions provokes a police-state reaction from the local authorities, the angels smile and society moves one millimeter closer to salvation. It doesn't take much to provoke them. Just down the road in liberal, affable Chapel Hill, where I lived for many years without experiencing police brutality or much civil disobedience, a reporter with a camera recorded steroidal officers in full SWAT-team battle gear, pistols and assault rifles at the ready, charging an unarmed encampment of self-described anarchists who had "liberated" a vacant building. A few seconds later the reporter was arrested, handcuffed and forced to lie facedown on the pavement with the unfortunate anarchists, who had neither resisted nor threatened any crime greater than trespassing. Amazed bystanders chanted "Shame! Shame!"
Shame, indeed. Attempts by the police chief and the mayor to defend this preposterous cinematic overkill only added to the embarrassment. They claim that the assault rifles were not aimed at the protesters, but the photograph is there for everyone to see that they're lying. Police attacked without warning due, they claimed, to "the known risks associated with anarchist groups," as if America has been much plagued by anarchist violence. If some protester had made a nervous grab for his cellphone or his fountain pen, would we have had a bullet-riddled (unarmed) corpse lying on Franklin Street? For that frozen moment caught by the beleaguered reporter's camera, downtown Chapel Hill looked like the streets of Cairo or Damascus.
This is North Carolina, where we like to believe that our law enforcement officers still emulate Sheriff Andy Taylor of the canonical Andy Griffith Show. What would Andy have done in the same situation, instead of recruiting 15 commandos in riot gear to arrest seven unarmed trespassers? He would, of course, have sent over Aunt Bee with a plate of fresh brownies, and then amiably advised the young people that they could have breakfast tomorrow at home, or with him at the jailhouse—their choice. And he would have kept his excitable deputy Barney Fife, with his one bullet, as far from the crime scene as possible.
Real life was never much like Mayberry R.F.D. But Chapel Hill is nothing much like Oakland or Manhattan, where a wild variety of dangerous characters might be camping out with the idealists. I'm sympathetic to the plight of police officers, who are—thanks to America's psychotic gun cult and its captive legislators, next to suicide bombers, the craziest people left on Earth—facing the Streets of Laredo every day on the job.
Last week in Wake County, a deputy answering a domestic disturbance call took a shotgun blast in the chest and was saved only by his bulletproof vest. In the NRA's Second Amendment Nation, any gray-haired lady tending her philodendrons may be packing a Glock. But in a temperate zone like Chapel Hill, someone in authority ought to be experienced and prudent enough to realize that college-town demonstrators are a fairly harmless lot compared to wife beaters, or even Tea Party soldiers whose T-shirts say "God, Guns, Babies."
"Anarchist" is one of those alien-sounding words that make simple people very nervous. Sometimes I wish that protesters would merely state their grievances and leave all those isms, those media-tortured labels, at home. It only takes one nervous rifleman, maybe one who grew up hearing about depraved radicals and atheists on right-wing radio, to panic and trigger Kent State, or Tahrir Square. With the Occupy Wall Street movement now spreading to hundreds of cities and campuses, and mounting pressure on thousands of defensive and unsophisticated police officers, it would be the safe and civilized decision to leave those assault rifles back in their lockers—at least until someone spots a demonstrator carrying one.
The liberators of the derelict auto dealership in Chapel Hill were acting independently of the local "Occupy" encampment, which disavowed their action while acknowledging their affiliation with the movement. But the Occupiers, whose critique of America emphasizes its mindless materialism, are no doubt delighted to point out what a sleepy Southern town full of Ph.D.s will do to protect abandoned property. Never mind the rhetoric. Just look at the picture.
Occupy 6, Chapel Hill 0. No need to kick the extra point. Other critical points for the movement were scored at UC Davis, where passive protesters were callously and viciously pepper-sprayed, and at UC Berkeley, where Robert Hass, a former U.S. poet laureate, described a cordon of Alameda County deputies with billy clubs smashing students and faculty indiscriminately. Hass himself was hit in the ribs and arms, his wife was knocked to the ground, and a Wordsworth scholar was dragged across the grass by her long humanist hair.
Idiot force has been deployed against Occupy at dozens of its tent cities, although assault rifles have yet to appear anywhere other than Chapel Hill. Every image of belligerent overreaction to a nonviolent protest—diligently videotaped, instantly online—is a victory for this promising experiment in civil disobedience, which in the digital age commands an audience inconceivable to Mohandas Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr.
But those great martyrs of nonviolence, who succeeded in spite of the violence they failed to survive, laid down the rules of this game. It's about self-control: You conquer by conquering yourself. Your enemy is exposed, isolated and in the end defeated by his brutality and lack of restraint.
That's all to the good, unless those are your ribs, your hair. The other lesson young rebels learn rapidly is that revolutions, in the words of one of Chapel Hill's declared anarchists, "are not like a dinner party." Civil disobedience is no walk in the park. It involves serious physical risks. There are sometimes martyrs. Pressed sufficiently, even the most benign authority will usually show its fangs. Television deceives. Was there ever a real-life lawman like Sheriff Andy Taylor, who never met a malefactor he didn't like? Or even one like Marshal Matt Dillon, who was always fair and avoided violence if he could? It's not a great secret that most people who seek authority, or defend it, fall toward the controlling side of the psychological spectrum. They tend to prize order and orderly citizens, an equilibrium that civil disobedience so rudely violates. "Disturbing the peace" is a punishable offense with deep historical roots.
Disturb their peace and they will bite you, they will beat you. They might shoot you. Expect no smiles, no brownies. You make a stern, life-altering commitment when you take your grievances to the street. I had to grin at an e-mail an old friend forwarded to me, from his daughter in New York, who joined last week's night march across the Brooklyn Bridge to reclaim Zuccotti Park. "Being a revolutionary is cold work," she reports.
It's cold, dangerous and not always rewarding. Failed movements make cynics of young people who embrace a cause with everything they have and see it come to nothing. My generation, the one that marched against segregation and the war in Vietnam, can point to major achievements and major disappointments. On our worst days we feel that we, as a generation, are a major disappointment. It's a right-wing canard that the tie-dyed Aquarians all ended up in pinstripes—true Jerry Rubins are rare—but how did the egalitarian dreams of the '60s decay into the grim corporate feudalism that Occupy Wall Street so quixotically confronts? At what point, exactly, was it clear that greed had trumped altruism and cash had devoured representative democracy?
If this is a revolution we're watching, perhaps it's not so much class warfare as generational warfare. The most deluded members of my generation join the mock-revolution they call the tea party, funded by fascist billionaires, scripted by the usual talk-radio gargoyles and apparently so stunted by the brain plaque of advancing age that it imagines the government is its archenemy, to the great amusement of the corporate leviathans who operate that government like a hand puppet.
This cruel farce draws most of its recruits from my own demographic group, and I'm ashamed. Who knows why expired testosterone leads to big guns, silly hats and prayer breakfasts? The late George Kennan, a brilliant diplomat and historian but a disturbing elitist, once espoused limiting the vote to white males. In America's best interests, I'd be willing to see that Kennan doctrine reversed: Take the vote away from white men, or at least all white men over 45. See what that would do for the GOP. Naturally, I hope the young people in charge would make exceptions for me and a couple of my friends.
The truth, in spite of all the graybeards who keep running for president, is that our time is over. If I slept out on the ground my arthritis would cripple me. And in all honesty, though I joined a march or two in my time, passive resistance was never one of my strengths. If some storm trooper with a truncheon steamrollered my wife the way Hass' wife was steamrollered, I'd get his badge number and probably burn his house down. It's an ethnic tic. You probably saw Braveheart.
It's up to them now, the green, clean, unexpected revolutionaries one Manhattan office worker called "those terrific kids in the park." It's up to you, whoever you are, and encouraging polls indicate that most Americans don't buy the predictable smears from the right-wing coven, the ones that dismiss you as spoiled children of privilege who would rather demonstrate than work. If our self-esteem is based on the noxiousness of our enemies—I cherish mine—you should all be swollen with pride. You've been called "fascists" by Karl Rove, a criminal thug who belongs on Cellblock B instead of Fox News. Ann Coulter claims that America views you with "hilarity and revulsion," which pretty accurately sums up her own impact and her career. "Go get a bath right after you get a job," snarls Newt Gingrich, an influence-peddler who's had no legitimate job for 15 years and exists only to give the word "hypocrisy" a human face.
My sympathies are obvious. What you in the tents can accomplish remains to be seen. But what I think I see, through the media fog of polarized America, is the return of the full-fledged idealists (as opposed to single-issue idealists) who seemed to go underground around 1980, possibly because the mass media abandoned them during the mudslide of self-celebration that began with Reaganism and culminated in Facebook.
I say God bless them, and God will if he still has any investment in the United States of America. The Goliath they challenge has crushed a thousand Davids. The good news is that "the kids" are right on target. Their diagnosis is bull's-eye correct, and the patient is critical. For this country to survive, it must find saner ways to pursue and multiply wealth, and find them quickly. The cannibal capitalism that produced a Goldman Sachs and a Bernie Madoff is subhuman and obscene. There's no form of government more inherently offensive than plutocracy—only theocracy comes close. When a citizen comes of age in a plutocracy, he has no moral choice but to slay Pluto or die trying.
The history of American plutocracy is shockingly simple. The Industrial Revolution fueled the metamorphosis of capitalism into a ravenous monster that devoured resources, landscapes and human beings on a scale no wars or natural disasters had ever approached. The wealth generated by this devastation created colossal corporations and financial operations far more powerful than elected governments; long ago the individuals who controlled these giants learned that it was cost-effective to buy up the politicians and turn governments into virtual subsidiaries. Along with the unprecedented wealth of the new ruling class came two protective myths, transparently false but widely accepted: one, that the feeble, compliant federal government was somehow the enemy of free enterprise; two, the outrageous trickle-down theory, which urged us to choke the rich with riches in the hope that they would disgorge a few crumbs for the peasants.
Investment banks and hedge funds were designed as perfect engines for multiplying the assets of the affluent. The Wall Street elite of the 20th century—Masters of the Universe, Tom Wolfe called them—flew so far above the laws of the land that they began to imagine themselves exempt from all laws, including economics, physics and averages. This magical thinking came to a head with a wave of death-defying speculation in mortgage-backed securities, and quite suddenly, in 2008, the walls came tumbling down, exposing a phantom economy based on nothing but arrogance and sleight of hand.
Huge banks failed while others begged for taxpayer bailouts, the markets reeled and contracted, unemployment soared, foreign banks and governments began to look askance at America's credit. Instead of a stable economy and an affluent society we confronted a hemorrhaging scandal, a crime accurately portrayed as the looting of America. We woke up from our consumer coma to discover that the bastards had stolen everything. You've seen the numbers: The wealthiest 1 percent of Americans, the super-rich targeted by OWS, emerged from this shattered, looted economy with a net worth greater than the "bottom" 90 percent.
In the past 30 years they've nearly tripled their after-tax income—275 percent—while the poorest fifth gained a virtually stagnant 18 percent. Economist Paul Krugman emphasizes that it's the one-tenth of 1 percent, the fabulously rich one-thousandth, who account for a lion's share of the 1 percent's gains. These high lords of lucre have increased their income 400 percent since 1979.
Meanwhile, one in seven Americans lives below the poverty line, and a full one-third,100 million—live in poverty or what The New York Times calls "the fretful zone just above it." One in 15, the largest percentage since the Great Depression, falls 50 percent below the poverty line, with an annual individual income of less than $6,000. In a recent German study that established a "social justice" index (poverty levels, education, health care, income equality) for countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United States ranked 27th among 31 nations, outstripping only Greece, Turkey, Chile and Mexico. Meanwhile, also, Wall Street banks on taxpayer life support continued to pay out billions in bonuses, monstrously inflated CEO salaries showed no signs of shrinking and the Republican Party campaigned for more of the bloody same, and a stronger dose of it: no taxes, no regulations, no unions.
This is beyond unacceptable, much closer to unspeakable, like an economic survey comparing the French court at Versailles to the sans-culottes. This is not what the Founders of the Great American Experiment had in mind (they thought slavery might be the fatal worm in our apple, but it turned out to be capitalism). This is what the OWS demonstrators, emerging from our underperforming high schools and colleges, found blocking their way to the future. Critics chide them for failing to establish specific demands, but a slate of demands from Occupy Chicago struck me as savvy and dead-on: repeal tax cuts and close loopholes for the rich, prosecute the Wall Street felons of 2008, separate commercial lending from investment banking, rein in lobbyists, eliminate corporate personhood and overturn the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision of 2010.
This last demand is perhaps the most critical. The decision that defined campaign contributions as free speech, delivered by the court's 5-4 Republican majority, removed the last legal obstacles to a wallet-based political system that leaves the 1, or one-hundredth of 1 percent, in unchallenged control of our fortunes and our public lives. It opened the floodgates for a multibillion-dollar campaign to defeat President Obama, and any candidates who might resist corporate feudalism, in 2012.
In the words of the late Molly Ivins, "We either get the money out of politics or we lose the democracy."
There's a grave possibility that it has already been lost. But those "terrific kids" in the tents, with their black-and-blue ribs and their eyes red from pepper spray, seem to be the only Americans who are dead sure what's at stake. "I want us to be the country's moral touchstone, its unofficial conscience, its model for what is good," said one rebel named Katie, coughing with bronchitis from sleeping outside.
Wear garlic against the pundit or politician who sneers at Katie. She and her friends may be the last, best hope, if hope there is. Join them if you're young and tough enough, send them money if you can still afford it, but for God's sake listen to them. Their voices represent either America waking up at last, or its final, futile protests about to be smothered by dumb money and dumb force. Will you sit on the sidelines and watch?
Shame, indeed. Attempts by the police chief and the mayor to defend this preposterous cinematic overkill only added to the embarrassment. They claim that the assault rifles were not aimed at the protesters, but the photograph is there for everyone to see that they're lying. Police attacked without warning due, they claimed, to "the known risks associated with anarchist groups," as if America has been much plagued by anarchist violence. If some protester had made a nervous grab for his cellphone or his fountain pen, would we have had a bullet-riddled (unarmed) corpse lying on Franklin Street? For that frozen moment caught by the beleaguered reporter's camera, downtown Chapel Hill looked like the streets of Cairo or Damascus.
This is North Carolina, where we like to believe that our law enforcement officers still emulate Sheriff Andy Taylor of the canonical Andy Griffith Show. What would Andy have done in the same situation, instead of recruiting 15 commandos in riot gear to arrest seven unarmed trespassers? He would, of course, have sent over Aunt Bee with a plate of fresh brownies, and then amiably advised the young people that they could have breakfast tomorrow at home, or with him at the jailhouse—their choice. And he would have kept his excitable deputy Barney Fife, with his one bullet, as far from the crime scene as possible.
Real life was never much like Mayberry R.F.D. But Chapel Hill is nothing much like Oakland or Manhattan, where a wild variety of dangerous characters might be camping out with the idealists. I'm sympathetic to the plight of police officers, who are—thanks to America's psychotic gun cult and its captive legislators, next to suicide bombers, the craziest people left on Earth—facing the Streets of Laredo every day on the job.
Last week in Wake County, a deputy answering a domestic disturbance call took a shotgun blast in the chest and was saved only by his bulletproof vest. In the NRA's Second Amendment Nation, any gray-haired lady tending her philodendrons may be packing a Glock. But in a temperate zone like Chapel Hill, someone in authority ought to be experienced and prudent enough to realize that college-town demonstrators are a fairly harmless lot compared to wife beaters, or even Tea Party soldiers whose T-shirts say "God, Guns, Babies."
"Anarchist" is one of those alien-sounding words that make simple people very nervous. Sometimes I wish that protesters would merely state their grievances and leave all those isms, those media-tortured labels, at home. It only takes one nervous rifleman, maybe one who grew up hearing about depraved radicals and atheists on right-wing radio, to panic and trigger Kent State, or Tahrir Square. With the Occupy Wall Street movement now spreading to hundreds of cities and campuses, and mounting pressure on thousands of defensive and unsophisticated police officers, it would be the safe and civilized decision to leave those assault rifles back in their lockers—at least until someone spots a demonstrator carrying one.
The liberators of the derelict auto dealership in Chapel Hill were acting independently of the local "Occupy" encampment, which disavowed their action while acknowledging their affiliation with the movement. But the Occupiers, whose critique of America emphasizes its mindless materialism, are no doubt delighted to point out what a sleepy Southern town full of Ph.D.s will do to protect abandoned property. Never mind the rhetoric. Just look at the picture.
Occupy 6, Chapel Hill 0. No need to kick the extra point. Other critical points for the movement were scored at UC Davis, where passive protesters were callously and viciously pepper-sprayed, and at UC Berkeley, where Robert Hass, a former U.S. poet laureate, described a cordon of Alameda County deputies with billy clubs smashing students and faculty indiscriminately. Hass himself was hit in the ribs and arms, his wife was knocked to the ground, and a Wordsworth scholar was dragged across the grass by her long humanist hair.
Idiot force has been deployed against Occupy at dozens of its tent cities, although assault rifles have yet to appear anywhere other than Chapel Hill. Every image of belligerent overreaction to a nonviolent protest—diligently videotaped, instantly online—is a victory for this promising experiment in civil disobedience, which in the digital age commands an audience inconceivable to Mohandas Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr.
But those great martyrs of nonviolence, who succeeded in spite of the violence they failed to survive, laid down the rules of this game. It's about self-control: You conquer by conquering yourself. Your enemy is exposed, isolated and in the end defeated by his brutality and lack of restraint.
That's all to the good, unless those are your ribs, your hair. The other lesson young rebels learn rapidly is that revolutions, in the words of one of Chapel Hill's declared anarchists, "are not like a dinner party." Civil disobedience is no walk in the park. It involves serious physical risks. There are sometimes martyrs. Pressed sufficiently, even the most benign authority will usually show its fangs. Television deceives. Was there ever a real-life lawman like Sheriff Andy Taylor, who never met a malefactor he didn't like? Or even one like Marshal Matt Dillon, who was always fair and avoided violence if he could? It's not a great secret that most people who seek authority, or defend it, fall toward the controlling side of the psychological spectrum. They tend to prize order and orderly citizens, an equilibrium that civil disobedience so rudely violates. "Disturbing the peace" is a punishable offense with deep historical roots.
Disturb their peace and they will bite you, they will beat you. They might shoot you. Expect no smiles, no brownies. You make a stern, life-altering commitment when you take your grievances to the street. I had to grin at an e-mail an old friend forwarded to me, from his daughter in New York, who joined last week's night march across the Brooklyn Bridge to reclaim Zuccotti Park. "Being a revolutionary is cold work," she reports.
It's cold, dangerous and not always rewarding. Failed movements make cynics of young people who embrace a cause with everything they have and see it come to nothing. My generation, the one that marched against segregation and the war in Vietnam, can point to major achievements and major disappointments. On our worst days we feel that we, as a generation, are a major disappointment. It's a right-wing canard that the tie-dyed Aquarians all ended up in pinstripes—true Jerry Rubins are rare—but how did the egalitarian dreams of the '60s decay into the grim corporate feudalism that Occupy Wall Street so quixotically confronts? At what point, exactly, was it clear that greed had trumped altruism and cash had devoured representative democracy?
If this is a revolution we're watching, perhaps it's not so much class warfare as generational warfare. The most deluded members of my generation join the mock-revolution they call the tea party, funded by fascist billionaires, scripted by the usual talk-radio gargoyles and apparently so stunted by the brain plaque of advancing age that it imagines the government is its archenemy, to the great amusement of the corporate leviathans who operate that government like a hand puppet.
This cruel farce draws most of its recruits from my own demographic group, and I'm ashamed. Who knows why expired testosterone leads to big guns, silly hats and prayer breakfasts? The late George Kennan, a brilliant diplomat and historian but a disturbing elitist, once espoused limiting the vote to white males. In America's best interests, I'd be willing to see that Kennan doctrine reversed: Take the vote away from white men, or at least all white men over 45. See what that would do for the GOP. Naturally, I hope the young people in charge would make exceptions for me and a couple of my friends.
The truth, in spite of all the graybeards who keep running for president, is that our time is over. If I slept out on the ground my arthritis would cripple me. And in all honesty, though I joined a march or two in my time, passive resistance was never one of my strengths. If some storm trooper with a truncheon steamrollered my wife the way Hass' wife was steamrollered, I'd get his badge number and probably burn his house down. It's an ethnic tic. You probably saw Braveheart.
It's up to them now, the green, clean, unexpected revolutionaries one Manhattan office worker called "those terrific kids in the park." It's up to you, whoever you are, and encouraging polls indicate that most Americans don't buy the predictable smears from the right-wing coven, the ones that dismiss you as spoiled children of privilege who would rather demonstrate than work. If our self-esteem is based on the noxiousness of our enemies—I cherish mine—you should all be swollen with pride. You've been called "fascists" by Karl Rove, a criminal thug who belongs on Cellblock B instead of Fox News. Ann Coulter claims that America views you with "hilarity and revulsion," which pretty accurately sums up her own impact and her career. "Go get a bath right after you get a job," snarls Newt Gingrich, an influence-peddler who's had no legitimate job for 15 years and exists only to give the word "hypocrisy" a human face.
My sympathies are obvious. What you in the tents can accomplish remains to be seen. But what I think I see, through the media fog of polarized America, is the return of the full-fledged idealists (as opposed to single-issue idealists) who seemed to go underground around 1980, possibly because the mass media abandoned them during the mudslide of self-celebration that began with Reaganism and culminated in Facebook.
I say God bless them, and God will if he still has any investment in the United States of America. The Goliath they challenge has crushed a thousand Davids. The good news is that "the kids" are right on target. Their diagnosis is bull's-eye correct, and the patient is critical. For this country to survive, it must find saner ways to pursue and multiply wealth, and find them quickly. The cannibal capitalism that produced a Goldman Sachs and a Bernie Madoff is subhuman and obscene. There's no form of government more inherently offensive than plutocracy—only theocracy comes close. When a citizen comes of age in a plutocracy, he has no moral choice but to slay Pluto or die trying.
The history of American plutocracy is shockingly simple. The Industrial Revolution fueled the metamorphosis of capitalism into a ravenous monster that devoured resources, landscapes and human beings on a scale no wars or natural disasters had ever approached. The wealth generated by this devastation created colossal corporations and financial operations far more powerful than elected governments; long ago the individuals who controlled these giants learned that it was cost-effective to buy up the politicians and turn governments into virtual subsidiaries. Along with the unprecedented wealth of the new ruling class came two protective myths, transparently false but widely accepted: one, that the feeble, compliant federal government was somehow the enemy of free enterprise; two, the outrageous trickle-down theory, which urged us to choke the rich with riches in the hope that they would disgorge a few crumbs for the peasants.
Investment banks and hedge funds were designed as perfect engines for multiplying the assets of the affluent. The Wall Street elite of the 20th century—Masters of the Universe, Tom Wolfe called them—flew so far above the laws of the land that they began to imagine themselves exempt from all laws, including economics, physics and averages. This magical thinking came to a head with a wave of death-defying speculation in mortgage-backed securities, and quite suddenly, in 2008, the walls came tumbling down, exposing a phantom economy based on nothing but arrogance and sleight of hand.
Huge banks failed while others begged for taxpayer bailouts, the markets reeled and contracted, unemployment soared, foreign banks and governments began to look askance at America's credit. Instead of a stable economy and an affluent society we confronted a hemorrhaging scandal, a crime accurately portrayed as the looting of America. We woke up from our consumer coma to discover that the bastards had stolen everything. You've seen the numbers: The wealthiest 1 percent of Americans, the super-rich targeted by OWS, emerged from this shattered, looted economy with a net worth greater than the "bottom" 90 percent.
In the past 30 years they've nearly tripled their after-tax income—275 percent—while the poorest fifth gained a virtually stagnant 18 percent. Economist Paul Krugman emphasizes that it's the one-tenth of 1 percent, the fabulously rich one-thousandth, who account for a lion's share of the 1 percent's gains. These high lords of lucre have increased their income 400 percent since 1979.
Meanwhile, one in seven Americans lives below the poverty line, and a full one-third,100 million—live in poverty or what The New York Times calls "the fretful zone just above it." One in 15, the largest percentage since the Great Depression, falls 50 percent below the poverty line, with an annual individual income of less than $6,000. In a recent German study that established a "social justice" index (poverty levels, education, health care, income equality) for countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United States ranked 27th among 31 nations, outstripping only Greece, Turkey, Chile and Mexico. Meanwhile, also, Wall Street banks on taxpayer life support continued to pay out billions in bonuses, monstrously inflated CEO salaries showed no signs of shrinking and the Republican Party campaigned for more of the bloody same, and a stronger dose of it: no taxes, no regulations, no unions.
This is beyond unacceptable, much closer to unspeakable, like an economic survey comparing the French court at Versailles to the sans-culottes. This is not what the Founders of the Great American Experiment had in mind (they thought slavery might be the fatal worm in our apple, but it turned out to be capitalism). This is what the OWS demonstrators, emerging from our underperforming high schools and colleges, found blocking their way to the future. Critics chide them for failing to establish specific demands, but a slate of demands from Occupy Chicago struck me as savvy and dead-on: repeal tax cuts and close loopholes for the rich, prosecute the Wall Street felons of 2008, separate commercial lending from investment banking, rein in lobbyists, eliminate corporate personhood and overturn the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision of 2010.
This last demand is perhaps the most critical. The decision that defined campaign contributions as free speech, delivered by the court's 5-4 Republican majority, removed the last legal obstacles to a wallet-based political system that leaves the 1, or one-hundredth of 1 percent, in unchallenged control of our fortunes and our public lives. It opened the floodgates for a multibillion-dollar campaign to defeat President Obama, and any candidates who might resist corporate feudalism, in 2012.
In the words of the late Molly Ivins, "We either get the money out of politics or we lose the democracy."
There's a grave possibility that it has already been lost. But those "terrific kids" in the tents, with their black-and-blue ribs and their eyes red from pepper spray, seem to be the only Americans who are dead sure what's at stake. "I want us to be the country's moral touchstone, its unofficial conscience, its model for what is good," said one rebel named Katie, coughing with bronchitis from sleeping outside.
Wear garlic against the pundit or politician who sneers at Katie. She and her friends may be the last, best hope, if hope there is. Join them if you're young and tough enough, send them money if you can still afford it, but for God's sake listen to them. Their voices represent either America waking up at last, or its final, futile protests about to be smothered by dumb money and dumb force. Will you sit on the sidelines and watch?
Women spreading deadly E coli germs with handbags and smartphones [watches]
EUGENE, Ore. – A local Eugene child care center features a sign on its door stating: "Mahalo," the Hawaii word for "thank you" for removing shoes, and also for not setting your handbag or cell phone down inside due to "fecal bacteria" found on the bottoms of handbags and smartphones.
When you set your handbag down indoors – on your kitchen counter, on a coffee table or in a closet – you are carrying what scientists call "a major tote for microbes." Prevention magazine reported "the worst place to set your handbag is the kitchen counter" after researchers swabs showed "up to 10,000 bacteria per square inch on purse bottoms;" while a third of women’s bags "tested positive for fecal bacteria." In turn, Prevention noted how "a woman’s carryall gets parked in some nasty spots," such as the floor of the bus, beneath the restaurant table, and even on the floor of a public bathroom.
In turn, women are advised by health experts to "put your bag in a drawer" or anywhere away from where food is being prepared or eaten. Also, don’t let young children "touch" your handbag or smartphone that’s been out in public, due to the same types of bacteria that’s found on public toilet seats.
Exposure to germs at an all-time high, due to funky lifestyles
When women enter a bathroom stall and set down their handbag – without thinking about the germs waiting to catch a ride home with them – they usually take the middle stalls. That’s not wise, states Prevention magazine that states "the worst stall to pick is the one in the middle."
In turn, women are carrying all manner of ills from touching "germy toilet and bathroom handles," and then from placing their handbags on the floor; while also texting and making calls while on the toilet.
"I hate to do it, but when I use a public ladies room I just go a bit nuts with the precautions one must take these days. I put my handbag on the hook and then take out antibacterial wet-wipes to cleanse the stall door, and then to wipe my iPhone after calling someone," explains Jan, a Eugene local who said she’s sick and tired of "getting stuff out in public."
Moreover, Jan explains what while she’s washing her hands after going to the bathroom she recites the song "Happy Birthday" to herself two times before stopping the washing of her hands.
"My friend is a nurse and she tells me that the number one thing I can do out in public is to ‘really’ wash my hands after using a bathroom and before eating out. Funny, but I see a lot of hurried women these days that don’t have a clue; they leave the stall texting or taking clearly on their phones while forgetting to wash their hands. It’s gross," Jan asserted.
Smartphones filthy dirty, called dangerous carriers of E coli bacteria
You’re doing your business in a bathroom stall, and you overhear the person next to you talking on their cell phone; can you image them touching themselves and then touching their smartphone, asks a student here who said she’s "grossed out."
A new British study states that "one in every six cellphones is contaminated with fecal matter." It’s not news that both cellphones and smartphones contain fecal matter. After all, it’s known that more than 96 percent of Americans own cell or smartphones and they touch both the phones and "other stuff" all throughout their day.
In fact, a college student here in Eugene says "I’m grossed out when in the ladies room and I overhear phone chat in the stalls. Can you image them touching themselves and then touching their phones and then shaking hands with someone."
Smartphones viewed as dirty as a toilet seat
A new British health study finds cell and smart phone users taking their devices into the toilet with them, revealed on widetrends.com in a recent report that also noted how "95 percent of the study participants said they washed their hands after using the restroom, 92 percent of phones and 82 percent of hands had some kind of bacteria on them. The study found 16 percent of hands and phones contained E. coli, dangerous bacteria associated with food poisoning. Fecal bacteria can linger on surfaces for hours -- especially in warmer weather -- and can be spread easily."
Also, the study found that 25 percent "of the phones sampled carried Staphylococcus aureus, naturally present in skin but potentially dangerous if transferred between people," researchers said. "In all, 92 percent of cellphones and 82 percent of hands tested had some traces of bacteria."
"We found a direct link between how dirty your hands were and how dirty your phone was. If people did wash their hands properly with soap this link would not exist," said Dr. Ron Cutler, who headed the British study, reported widetrends.com.
Smartphone health safety demands no shaking hands after using a device
With news that most cell and smartphones are possibly "the dirtiest devices" now being used in public,
Doctor Val Curtis, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said in recent BBC News report that : "This study provides more evidence that some people still don’t wash their hands properly, especially after going to the toilet. I hope the thought of having E coli on their hands and phones encourages them to take more care in the bathroom – washing your hands with soap is such a simple thing to do but there is no doubt it saves lives."
Moreover, Doctor Ron Cutler, of Queen Mary, University of London, said: "While some cities did much better than others, the fact that E coli was present on phones and hands in every location shows this is a nationwide problem. People may claim they wash their hands regularly but the science shows otherwise."
The study found 16 percent of hands and phones contained E. coli, dangerous bacteria associated with food poisoning. Fecal bacteria can linger on surfaces for hours — especially in warmer weather — and can be spread easily.
For instance, many adults who use call or smartphones throughout the day, should never, ever touch children until they wash their hands – after reciting happy birthday to me at least five times – said a Coos Bay child care center attendant who points to recent outbreaks that she thinks are tied to parents "touching their cellphones and then touching their kids."
Image source of a woman enjoying her handbag; while not worrying about putting it down in a bathroom or restaurant. This practice is not a good idea due to bacteria living on every square inch of a purse bottom, with most women’s handbags carrying "fecal bacteria," say health experts. Photo courtesy Wikipedia
When you set your handbag down indoors – on your kitchen counter, on a coffee table or in a closet – you are carrying what scientists call "a major tote for microbes." Prevention magazine reported "the worst place to set your handbag is the kitchen counter" after researchers swabs showed "up to 10,000 bacteria per square inch on purse bottoms;" while a third of women’s bags "tested positive for fecal bacteria." In turn, Prevention noted how "a woman’s carryall gets parked in some nasty spots," such as the floor of the bus, beneath the restaurant table, and even on the floor of a public bathroom.
In turn, women are advised by health experts to "put your bag in a drawer" or anywhere away from where food is being prepared or eaten. Also, don’t let young children "touch" your handbag or smartphone that’s been out in public, due to the same types of bacteria that’s found on public toilet seats.
Exposure to germs at an all-time high, due to funky lifestyles
When women enter a bathroom stall and set down their handbag – without thinking about the germs waiting to catch a ride home with them – they usually take the middle stalls. That’s not wise, states Prevention magazine that states "the worst stall to pick is the one in the middle."
In turn, women are carrying all manner of ills from touching "germy toilet and bathroom handles," and then from placing their handbags on the floor; while also texting and making calls while on the toilet.
"I hate to do it, but when I use a public ladies room I just go a bit nuts with the precautions one must take these days. I put my handbag on the hook and then take out antibacterial wet-wipes to cleanse the stall door, and then to wipe my iPhone after calling someone," explains Jan, a Eugene local who said she’s sick and tired of "getting stuff out in public."
Moreover, Jan explains what while she’s washing her hands after going to the bathroom she recites the song "Happy Birthday" to herself two times before stopping the washing of her hands.
"My friend is a nurse and she tells me that the number one thing I can do out in public is to ‘really’ wash my hands after using a bathroom and before eating out. Funny, but I see a lot of hurried women these days that don’t have a clue; they leave the stall texting or taking clearly on their phones while forgetting to wash their hands. It’s gross," Jan asserted.
Smartphones filthy dirty, called dangerous carriers of E coli bacteria
You’re doing your business in a bathroom stall, and you overhear the person next to you talking on their cell phone; can you image them touching themselves and then touching their smartphone, asks a student here who said she’s "grossed out."
A new British study states that "one in every six cellphones is contaminated with fecal matter." It’s not news that both cellphones and smartphones contain fecal matter. After all, it’s known that more than 96 percent of Americans own cell or smartphones and they touch both the phones and "other stuff" all throughout their day.
In fact, a college student here in Eugene says "I’m grossed out when in the ladies room and I overhear phone chat in the stalls. Can you image them touching themselves and then touching their phones and then shaking hands with someone."
Smartphones viewed as dirty as a toilet seat
A new British health study finds cell and smart phone users taking their devices into the toilet with them, revealed on widetrends.com in a recent report that also noted how "95 percent of the study participants said they washed their hands after using the restroom, 92 percent of phones and 82 percent of hands had some kind of bacteria on them. The study found 16 percent of hands and phones contained E. coli, dangerous bacteria associated with food poisoning. Fecal bacteria can linger on surfaces for hours -- especially in warmer weather -- and can be spread easily."
Also, the study found that 25 percent "of the phones sampled carried Staphylococcus aureus, naturally present in skin but potentially dangerous if transferred between people," researchers said. "In all, 92 percent of cellphones and 82 percent of hands tested had some traces of bacteria."
"We found a direct link between how dirty your hands were and how dirty your phone was. If people did wash their hands properly with soap this link would not exist," said Dr. Ron Cutler, who headed the British study, reported widetrends.com.
Smartphone health safety demands no shaking hands after using a device
With news that most cell and smartphones are possibly "the dirtiest devices" now being used in public,
Doctor Val Curtis, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said in recent BBC News report that : "This study provides more evidence that some people still don’t wash their hands properly, especially after going to the toilet. I hope the thought of having E coli on their hands and phones encourages them to take more care in the bathroom – washing your hands with soap is such a simple thing to do but there is no doubt it saves lives."
Moreover, Doctor Ron Cutler, of Queen Mary, University of London, said: "While some cities did much better than others, the fact that E coli was present on phones and hands in every location shows this is a nationwide problem. People may claim they wash their hands regularly but the science shows otherwise."
The study found 16 percent of hands and phones contained E. coli, dangerous bacteria associated with food poisoning. Fecal bacteria can linger on surfaces for hours — especially in warmer weather — and can be spread easily.
For instance, many adults who use call or smartphones throughout the day, should never, ever touch children until they wash their hands – after reciting happy birthday to me at least five times – said a Coos Bay child care center attendant who points to recent outbreaks that she thinks are tied to parents "touching their cellphones and then touching their kids."
Image source of a woman enjoying her handbag; while not worrying about putting it down in a bathroom or restaurant. This practice is not a good idea due to bacteria living on every square inch of a purse bottom, with most women’s handbags carrying "fecal bacteria," say health experts. Photo courtesy Wikipedia
Snap is Back [watches]
What's behind the surge in popularity of snapback hats?
By traditional baseball hat standards, the most popular hats in the country right now are ugly and cheap. They're ugly because of the gaping holes in the back of them and their rigid, often pointy faces. They're cheap because of the plastic bands that determine the hat's size in the back, compared to the backs of hats that are continuous all the way around—fitted hats. They are snapbacks, and despite being cheap, ugly, and often defunct, they are the hottest hat on the market right now—from lacrosse bros to rappers, but especially right here at PC. The question is: Why?
Last week, the PC Campus Bookstore sent an e-mail to what I assume was the entire campus: "Snapback Hats Now Back in Stock! Hurry, Before They Sell Out!" I hadn't remembered ever getting an e-mail like that from the bookstore before, one notifying us that a particular item was available again. I could picture the hats in question. They were the gray snapbacks with the black brim and huge Friar logo placed unevenly on the side that I had seen guys wearing around campus. I knew they were cool. Before I continue, I think it's important to make it clear that I am a snapback supporter. I'm the proud owner of a vintage 1994 U.S. FIFA World Cup gem that I found at the Salvation Army on Smith Street. I know they are cool, but I also knew that, the fact that these old school lids are popular again was a story, especially because of their prominence at PC in particular. So I went to the bookstore to try to find out what exactly prompted the e-mail I got, and if that kind of promotional e-mail was rare like I thought it was.
As it turns out, the bookstore doesn't just send out e-mails for the return of any old item. I met with Joe Rushworth, manager of the bookstore, who gave me some insight as to just how well snapbacks are doing at his store at the moment. "They're hot right now," he told me. "It's been a great first couple of weeks with them. They sold great within their first week of arrival, both in the store and online."
The bookstore no longer offers only the one style of snapback I had remembered seeing. There are four or five different ones, excluding trucker hat snapbacks (which are not included in the upsurge of popularity that I'm talking about). We focused on one snapback that had been selling particularly well—a sweet-looking The Game-brand black one with a green under brim. It had the white, blocky words "FRIARS" and "PROVIDENCE COLLEGE" in two columns separated by lines on the face. Joe told me that the bookstore sold 65 percent of its stock of that particular hat during the week ending November 5, which compares to the 20 percent average selling rate of other items.
Rushworth told me he had witnessed PC bookstore sales dating back to the 1980s, so he was the perfect person to ask about something I find particularly interesting: the revival of the snapback trend. The style of snapback that is popular now was first popular 20 years ago, in the early 1990s (hence the prestige of my coveted hat that has an enormous "1994" taking up the majority of the face). I asked Rushworth about how the very same style snapback was selling in the PC Bookstore 20 years ago. "Oh, big time," he replied. Rushworth said that the very same blocky-lettered, black hat that is doing so well today was by far one of the most demanded items in the store in the early '90s.
Michaelle Dirubio, textbook manager at the bookstore, heard I was there to learn about snapbacks. "Kids come in and ask ‘I heard you have snapbacks,'" she said. Her words proved to be spot on. As I was leaving, there was a boy checking out; he was buying the same snapback I had just been talking to Joe about.
The next step was to hear directly from the source. I needed to find a snapback wearer on campus—a task that proved to involve an extraordinarily little amount of effort. The PC campus is peppered with snapbackers, so I walked for about 80 seconds around lower Slavin until I found one.
I met sophomores Dave Montefusco and Connor Dougherty, who shared the bookstore's though about snapbacks—they're hot right now. "It's the trend," said Montefusco, whose backwards snapback was unique in its modernity. His was a black and gray 2011 Boston Bruins Stanley Cup Champions hat— a relatively uncommon one compared to the majority of snapbacks that get their pizzazz from appearing as though they're from an earlier decade. Indeed, despite the vintage look that make most snapbacks appealing, both boys thought that being "now" is what drew them to the hats. "It's the style that's in," said Dougherty. "You see musicians wearing them a lot."
Of course, the snapback surge is a trend, but Dougherty offered some explanation for the trend by comparing snapbacks to the style of hat they have overtaken in popularity—fitteds. "They have a lot more style than fitteds," he said. More, he sighted practical advantages the plastic snaps bring to the hat. "They have a lot more breathing room," he added. Dougherty also sighted adjustability as giving snapbacks an edge over fitteds, whose set circumference can warp over time. As ugly as the snaps and gaping hole in the back make the new popular hat, I learned that both their style and their comfort contribute to their current popularity.
By traditional baseball hat standards, the most popular hats in the country right now are ugly and cheap. They're ugly because of the gaping holes in the back of them and their rigid, often pointy faces. They're cheap because of the plastic bands that determine the hat's size in the back, compared to the backs of hats that are continuous all the way around—fitted hats. They are snapbacks, and despite being cheap, ugly, and often defunct, they are the hottest hat on the market right now—from lacrosse bros to rappers, but especially right here at PC. The question is: Why?
Last week, the PC Campus Bookstore sent an e-mail to what I assume was the entire campus: "Snapback Hats Now Back in Stock! Hurry, Before They Sell Out!" I hadn't remembered ever getting an e-mail like that from the bookstore before, one notifying us that a particular item was available again. I could picture the hats in question. They were the gray snapbacks with the black brim and huge Friar logo placed unevenly on the side that I had seen guys wearing around campus. I knew they were cool. Before I continue, I think it's important to make it clear that I am a snapback supporter. I'm the proud owner of a vintage 1994 U.S. FIFA World Cup gem that I found at the Salvation Army on Smith Street. I know they are cool, but I also knew that, the fact that these old school lids are popular again was a story, especially because of their prominence at PC in particular. So I went to the bookstore to try to find out what exactly prompted the e-mail I got, and if that kind of promotional e-mail was rare like I thought it was.
As it turns out, the bookstore doesn't just send out e-mails for the return of any old item. I met with Joe Rushworth, manager of the bookstore, who gave me some insight as to just how well snapbacks are doing at his store at the moment. "They're hot right now," he told me. "It's been a great first couple of weeks with them. They sold great within their first week of arrival, both in the store and online."
The bookstore no longer offers only the one style of snapback I had remembered seeing. There are four or five different ones, excluding trucker hat snapbacks (which are not included in the upsurge of popularity that I'm talking about). We focused on one snapback that had been selling particularly well—a sweet-looking The Game-brand black one with a green under brim. It had the white, blocky words "FRIARS" and "PROVIDENCE COLLEGE" in two columns separated by lines on the face. Joe told me that the bookstore sold 65 percent of its stock of that particular hat during the week ending November 5, which compares to the 20 percent average selling rate of other items.
Rushworth told me he had witnessed PC bookstore sales dating back to the 1980s, so he was the perfect person to ask about something I find particularly interesting: the revival of the snapback trend. The style of snapback that is popular now was first popular 20 years ago, in the early 1990s (hence the prestige of my coveted hat that has an enormous "1994" taking up the majority of the face). I asked Rushworth about how the very same style snapback was selling in the PC Bookstore 20 years ago. "Oh, big time," he replied. Rushworth said that the very same blocky-lettered, black hat that is doing so well today was by far one of the most demanded items in the store in the early '90s.
Michaelle Dirubio, textbook manager at the bookstore, heard I was there to learn about snapbacks. "Kids come in and ask ‘I heard you have snapbacks,'" she said. Her words proved to be spot on. As I was leaving, there was a boy checking out; he was buying the same snapback I had just been talking to Joe about.
The next step was to hear directly from the source. I needed to find a snapback wearer on campus—a task that proved to involve an extraordinarily little amount of effort. The PC campus is peppered with snapbackers, so I walked for about 80 seconds around lower Slavin until I found one.
I met sophomores Dave Montefusco and Connor Dougherty, who shared the bookstore's though about snapbacks—they're hot right now. "It's the trend," said Montefusco, whose backwards snapback was unique in its modernity. His was a black and gray 2011 Boston Bruins Stanley Cup Champions hat— a relatively uncommon one compared to the majority of snapbacks that get their pizzazz from appearing as though they're from an earlier decade. Indeed, despite the vintage look that make most snapbacks appealing, both boys thought that being "now" is what drew them to the hats. "It's the style that's in," said Dougherty. "You see musicians wearing them a lot."
Of course, the snapback surge is a trend, but Dougherty offered some explanation for the trend by comparing snapbacks to the style of hat they have overtaken in popularity—fitteds. "They have a lot more style than fitteds," he said. More, he sighted practical advantages the plastic snaps bring to the hat. "They have a lot more breathing room," he added. Dougherty also sighted adjustability as giving snapbacks an edge over fitteds, whose set circumference can warp over time. As ugly as the snaps and gaping hole in the back make the new popular hat, I learned that both their style and their comfort contribute to their current popularity.
Monster Energy Hats Indian Grand Prix | Inside F1 from New Delhi [watches]
The other big draw was supposed to be a Metallica gig, part of Monster Energy Hats the Rocks circus. This was cancelled on Friday night,
Monster Energy Hats officially due to technical reasons, unofficially due to the venue being swamped with people and unable to cope with the numbers Monster Energy Hats.
The fans didn’t take too Monster Energy Hats kindly to the Monster Energy Hats cancellation and the subsequent damage to the venue was big news in the local press. Oddly enough in one case next to the report of how good the concert had been. Work in F1 long enough and you’ll experience the pain of Monster Energy Hats seeing your carefully crafted Monster Energy Hats report ruined by a last lap engine failure or blow out (and yes Kimi R?ikk?nen at the 2005 European Grand Prix, I’m looking at you). It must be nice working for the paper that decides to print it anyway Monster Energy Hats.
Despite years of Monster Energy Hats going to in China, Brazil, Turkey etc., nothing can prepare you for Monster Energy Hats the roads of India. On leaving Indira Gandhi Airport it becomes obvious that the normal rules to not apply. Lane markings are a basis for negotiation, direction is a matter of personal choice Monster Energy Hats.
Auto-rickshaws swarm everywhere and riding three-up on a scooter Monster Energy Hats seems like good form, the family version of which is to have a small child perched on the tank, dad driving in the middle and mum riding side-saddle on the back -usually elegantly attired in a sari which somehow doesn’t get tangled in the wheel. Obviously that still leaves room for bags, boxes, the odd propane tank and more often than you’d think, Monster Energy Hats a monkey.
In a Monster Energy Hats race against Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery, Seb, with the help of an instructor fitted a tyre to a rim. Professional it wasn’t; gameshow it most certainly was. Paul admitted to not having done it for about 15 years, but even so it was a surprise when Seb emerged the winner. “I controlled the lead to the chequered flag,” he said in deadpan triumph. Paul was magnanimous in defeat -but reckoned Seb’s tyre pressure was rubbish Monster Energy Hats.
Monster Energy Hats officially due to technical reasons, unofficially due to the venue being swamped with people and unable to cope with the numbers Monster Energy Hats.
The fans didn’t take too Monster Energy Hats kindly to the Monster Energy Hats cancellation and the subsequent damage to the venue was big news in the local press. Oddly enough in one case next to the report of how good the concert had been. Work in F1 long enough and you’ll experience the pain of Monster Energy Hats seeing your carefully crafted Monster Energy Hats report ruined by a last lap engine failure or blow out (and yes Kimi R?ikk?nen at the 2005 European Grand Prix, I’m looking at you). It must be nice working for the paper that decides to print it anyway Monster Energy Hats.
Despite years of Monster Energy Hats going to in China, Brazil, Turkey etc., nothing can prepare you for Monster Energy Hats the roads of India. On leaving Indira Gandhi Airport it becomes obvious that the normal rules to not apply. Lane markings are a basis for negotiation, direction is a matter of personal choice Monster Energy Hats.
Auto-rickshaws swarm everywhere and riding three-up on a scooter Monster Energy Hats seems like good form, the family version of which is to have a small child perched on the tank, dad driving in the middle and mum riding side-saddle on the back -usually elegantly attired in a sari which somehow doesn’t get tangled in the wheel. Obviously that still leaves room for bags, boxes, the odd propane tank and more often than you’d think, Monster Energy Hats a monkey.
In a Monster Energy Hats race against Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery, Seb, with the help of an instructor fitted a tyre to a rim. Professional it wasn’t; gameshow it most certainly was. Paul admitted to not having done it for about 15 years, but even so it was a surprise when Seb emerged the winner. “I controlled the lead to the chequered flag,” he said in deadpan triumph. Paul was magnanimous in defeat -but reckoned Seb’s tyre pressure was rubbish Monster Energy Hats.
Ladd began the game with a kill and Noftz [watches]
Ladd began the game with a kill and Noftz
Ladd began the game with a kill and Noftz added an ace staking New Riegel out to a 5-0 lead. St. Joe came back with the next three points, before the Blue Jackets decided it was time to put the match away.
"Our energy was up and everyone played together as a team and not just as individuals," Scherger said of the third game. "It was a team effort. Just working together as a team is the main thing, always staying up even when we're winning; always trying your best the whole time."
Scherger took the serve as the Blue Jackets scored 13 straight points. During the spurt, Ladd and Kara Scherger each slammed three kills.
St. Joe finally got a point to break the streak, but Ladd served the final six points and Kara Scherger slammed the final kill to end the match.
"We took advantage of what we can do," Scherger said. "I know we got a couple good hitters in the front row and Lauren Ladd had such a height advantage so we went to her quite a bit tonight. Just because I knew she was going to be able to dominate at the net."
Ladd led with 16 kills and had four aces. Kara Scherger added 11 kills with Noftz delivering 23 assists.
"They make it pretty nice," Noftz said of setting up the kill leaders. "It's pretty easy just knowing you got to get the ball to them and they'll get it done."
Noftz and Brooke Scherger each had 20 digs on the defensive end.
"Defensively we're just so quick, and a lot of times we have such great defense and that way, we can run our offense because our defense," Walerius said. "We can get to every ball and are able to get a good set off of it."
Ladd began the game with a kill and Noftz added an ace staking New Riegel out to a 5-0 lead. St. Joe came back with the next three points, before the Blue Jackets decided it was time to put the match away.
"Our energy was up and everyone played together as a team and not just as individuals," Scherger said of the third game. "It was a team effort. Just working together as a team is the main thing, always staying up even when we're winning; always trying your best the whole time."
Scherger took the serve as the Blue Jackets scored 13 straight points. During the spurt, Ladd and Kara Scherger each slammed three kills.
St. Joe finally got a point to break the streak, but Ladd served the final six points and Kara Scherger slammed the final kill to end the match.
"We took advantage of what we can do," Scherger said. "I know we got a couple good hitters in the front row and Lauren Ladd had such a height advantage so we went to her quite a bit tonight. Just because I knew she was going to be able to dominate at the net."
Ladd led with 16 kills and had four aces. Kara Scherger added 11 kills with Noftz delivering 23 assists.
"They make it pretty nice," Noftz said of setting up the kill leaders. "It's pretty easy just knowing you got to get the ball to them and they'll get it done."
Noftz and Brooke Scherger each had 20 digs on the defensive end.
"Defensively we're just so quick, and a lot of times we have such great defense and that way, we can run our offense because our defense," Walerius said. "We can get to every ball and are able to get a good set off of it."
Hunters in more than a dozen states [watches]
Hunters in more than a dozen states
Hunters in more than a dozen states can rest easy — their right to track deer or shoot pheasant now has been protected in their state constitutions.
Those rights will extend to hunters in Kentucky and Wyoming if voters there agree next year, and more states soon may follow.
The idea of enshrining hunting and fishing rights in state constitutions is sweeping the country even though supporters and hunters themselves acknowledge that no one is trying to in pry rifles from their hands.
"I haven't seen anyone on a local level holding up signs in front of the public area saying we're a bunch of evil-doers," said Jason Brion, a Lincoln hunter who nonetheless supports more protection for the sport.
But those behind the push insist the threat is real and that sportsmen need protection as the population becomes more urban and fewer hunters and anglers take to the forests, fields and streams.
"It's obvious there's less of a threat in Nebraska than, say, Massachusetts or Connecticut," said Wes Sheets, chairman of the Nebraska Sportsmen's Foundation, which backed the Nebraska effort. "But there is a threat. There is a concern. You don't win wars in one fell swoop. You win them incrementally, changing the rules over time. One day you wake up, and everything's different."
The issue may be the rarest of all legislative phenomena — a measure related to firearms use that isn't hotly disputed. Other bills to allow the open carrying of firearms or the carrying of guns on campus are causing fierce conflicts in state legislatures.
The reaction to the right to hunt campaign is mostly befuddlement.
"If we have a constitutional right to hunt and fish, why not a right to shop and golf?" asked Ashley Byrne, a spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. She called it a "solution in search of a problem."
Thirteen states have now guaranteed the right to hunt and fish in their constitutions. Three states added the language last year — Arkansas, South Carolina and Tennessee. Only Alabama, Minnesota and Vermont had such amendments before 2000.
Pro-hunting measures were introduced in at least 14 state legislatures last year. Some state legislatures, preoccupied with budget problems, didn't complete action on the issue.
In Nebraska, the measure had strong support in the Legislature but was postponed amid concerns it could restrict farmers' irrigation rights by giving priority to fishermen using the water.
Amendments that have reached the ballot have won overwhelmingly, including 89 percent support in South Carolina, 87 percent in Tennessee and 83 percent in Arkansas.
Hunters in more than a dozen states can rest easy — their right to track deer or shoot pheasant now has been protected in their state constitutions.
Those rights will extend to hunters in Kentucky and Wyoming if voters there agree next year, and more states soon may follow.
The idea of enshrining hunting and fishing rights in state constitutions is sweeping the country even though supporters and hunters themselves acknowledge that no one is trying to in pry rifles from their hands.
"I haven't seen anyone on a local level holding up signs in front of the public area saying we're a bunch of evil-doers," said Jason Brion, a Lincoln hunter who nonetheless supports more protection for the sport.
But those behind the push insist the threat is real and that sportsmen need protection as the population becomes more urban and fewer hunters and anglers take to the forests, fields and streams.
"It's obvious there's less of a threat in Nebraska than, say, Massachusetts or Connecticut," said Wes Sheets, chairman of the Nebraska Sportsmen's Foundation, which backed the Nebraska effort. "But there is a threat. There is a concern. You don't win wars in one fell swoop. You win them incrementally, changing the rules over time. One day you wake up, and everything's different."
The issue may be the rarest of all legislative phenomena — a measure related to firearms use that isn't hotly disputed. Other bills to allow the open carrying of firearms or the carrying of guns on campus are causing fierce conflicts in state legislatures.
The reaction to the right to hunt campaign is mostly befuddlement.
"If we have a constitutional right to hunt and fish, why not a right to shop and golf?" asked Ashley Byrne, a spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. She called it a "solution in search of a problem."
Thirteen states have now guaranteed the right to hunt and fish in their constitutions. Three states added the language last year — Arkansas, South Carolina and Tennessee. Only Alabama, Minnesota and Vermont had such amendments before 2000.
Pro-hunting measures were introduced in at least 14 state legislatures last year. Some state legislatures, preoccupied with budget problems, didn't complete action on the issue.
In Nebraska, the measure had strong support in the Legislature but was postponed amid concerns it could restrict farmers' irrigation rights by giving priority to fishermen using the water.
Amendments that have reached the ballot have won overwhelmingly, including 89 percent support in South Carolina, 87 percent in Tennessee and 83 percent in Arkansas.
A Naperville man currently on court supervision [watches]
A Naperville man currently on court supervision
A Naperville man currently on court supervision for battery has been charged again with that crime, after allegedly tearing up a ticket and throwing his jacket at a police sergeant.
Kenneth D. Price, 57, is scheduled to appear Oct. 18 in DuPage County Circuit Court in Wheaton. He is charged with a misdemeanor count of battery and under a municipal ordinance with depositing material on a highway, or littering, according to court records.
Naperville police were called about 7:46 p.m. Saturday to Price’s home on the 1700 block of Penn Court, in the University Heights area of the city’s far east side.
Sgt. Gregg Bell said an officer responded to “a loud music complaint” from a neighbor. The volume was such that, “as soon as the officer pulled into the court, he could hear the music playing,” Bell said Tuesday.
Price answered the knock at his front door and was “very profane toward the officer,” Bell said. He allegedly slammed the door in the officer’s face and did so again when he knocked for a second time, all the while being “very argumentative and just belligerent to the officer,” Bell said.
Two backup officers arrived at the scene just as the officer had finished writing Price a ticket for playing overly loud music, Bell said. Price allegedly tore up the citation and threw the pieces into the air, where they fluttered onto the pavement of Penn Court.
Price then allegedly hurled his jacket, which struck the sergeant, a written police report indicated. Bell said the officer was not injured.
Naperville police also arrested Price on Jan. 15, 2010, on charges of battery and domestic battery, court records showed.
A judge in December placed Price on 12 months of court supervision and assessed unspecified fines and legal costs, according to records. The domestic battery complaint was dismissed.
A Naperville man currently on court supervision for battery has been charged again with that crime, after allegedly tearing up a ticket and throwing his jacket at a police sergeant.
Kenneth D. Price, 57, is scheduled to appear Oct. 18 in DuPage County Circuit Court in Wheaton. He is charged with a misdemeanor count of battery and under a municipal ordinance with depositing material on a highway, or littering, according to court records.
Naperville police were called about 7:46 p.m. Saturday to Price’s home on the 1700 block of Penn Court, in the University Heights area of the city’s far east side.
Sgt. Gregg Bell said an officer responded to “a loud music complaint” from a neighbor. The volume was such that, “as soon as the officer pulled into the court, he could hear the music playing,” Bell said Tuesday.
Price answered the knock at his front door and was “very profane toward the officer,” Bell said. He allegedly slammed the door in the officer’s face and did so again when he knocked for a second time, all the while being “very argumentative and just belligerent to the officer,” Bell said.
Two backup officers arrived at the scene just as the officer had finished writing Price a ticket for playing overly loud music, Bell said. Price allegedly tore up the citation and threw the pieces into the air, where they fluttered onto the pavement of Penn Court.
Price then allegedly hurled his jacket, which struck the sergeant, a written police report indicated. Bell said the officer was not injured.
Naperville police also arrested Price on Jan. 15, 2010, on charges of battery and domestic battery, court records showed.
A judge in December placed Price on 12 months of court supervision and assessed unspecified fines and legal costs, according to records. The domestic battery complaint was dismissed.
About 45 minutes after the bag was found [watches]
About 45 minutes after the bag was found
About 45 minutes after the bag was found, one Jayesh Mathur approached the General Railway Police to claim it, but the cops refused saying it was recovered from a coupe booked by Dikshit. The MP, who is Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit's son, told the media that the bag belonged to Mathur, who is an architect. "He had placed the bag in my coach for the night as it was safer there. He was travelling in an AC II-tier compartment," Dikshit said.
Asked why his medicines were found in the bag, Dikshit said, "Why do you want to disclaim my claim that the bag doesn't belong to me?"
Mathur told mediapersons that the money was meant to buy a property in Bhopal. "My father is purchasing a small flat in Bhopal, that's why we carried the cash. I thought Sandeep's attendants must have removed the bag along with the rest of his luggage, but it was left in the train by mistake. I remembered it only when I reached my hotel," he said.
"A case was registered under the Police Act and after investigations, the money has been released. We will wait for further court orders from the SDM's court,'' said S P Arjaria, IP, General Railway Police.
Dikshit runs an NGO from Arera Colony in Bhopal and often travels to the city. "If only I had not forgotten the bag, I would not have got into this stupid mess," Dikshit said later.
Terming the issue as "serious", the Delhi BJP has demanded a high level enquiry. "Dikshit had delivered a populist speech in Parliament on Jan Lokpal for ending corruption. His mother Sheila Dikshit had also stated that the CM should come under the Lokpal's purview. The recovery of a bag containing Rs 10 lakh from a politician is a matter of serious concern," said Vijender Gupta, president, BJP Delhi Pradesh.
Late on Thursday evening, West Central Railways announced a cash reward of Rs 2,000 for coach attendant Bhagwan Das "for showing utmost honesty and sincerity in his work".
"I consider the Railways my family. Will anyone steal from his own family? I am a follower of Anna Hazare and had even gone to the Ramlila Maidan during the agitation. When I found the bag, I called the RPF men on patrol who then handed over the bag to the General Railway Police,'' said Das. The police counted the money and found the bag contained Rs 10 lakh.
About 45 minutes after the bag was found, one Jayesh Mathur approached the General Railway Police to claim it, but the cops refused saying it was recovered from a coupe booked by Dikshit. The MP, who is Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit's son, told the media that the bag belonged to Mathur, who is an architect. "He had placed the bag in my coach for the night as it was safer there. He was travelling in an AC II-tier compartment," Dikshit said.
Asked why his medicines were found in the bag, Dikshit said, "Why do you want to disclaim my claim that the bag doesn't belong to me?"
Mathur told mediapersons that the money was meant to buy a property in Bhopal. "My father is purchasing a small flat in Bhopal, that's why we carried the cash. I thought Sandeep's attendants must have removed the bag along with the rest of his luggage, but it was left in the train by mistake. I remembered it only when I reached my hotel," he said.
"A case was registered under the Police Act and after investigations, the money has been released. We will wait for further court orders from the SDM's court,'' said S P Arjaria, IP, General Railway Police.
Dikshit runs an NGO from Arera Colony in Bhopal and often travels to the city. "If only I had not forgotten the bag, I would not have got into this stupid mess," Dikshit said later.
Terming the issue as "serious", the Delhi BJP has demanded a high level enquiry. "Dikshit had delivered a populist speech in Parliament on Jan Lokpal for ending corruption. His mother Sheila Dikshit had also stated that the CM should come under the Lokpal's purview. The recovery of a bag containing Rs 10 lakh from a politician is a matter of serious concern," said Vijender Gupta, president, BJP Delhi Pradesh.
Late on Thursday evening, West Central Railways announced a cash reward of Rs 2,000 for coach attendant Bhagwan Das "for showing utmost honesty and sincerity in his work".
"I consider the Railways my family. Will anyone steal from his own family? I am a follower of Anna Hazare and had even gone to the Ramlila Maidan during the agitation. When I found the bag, I called the RPF men on patrol who then handed over the bag to the General Railway Police,'' said Das. The police counted the money and found the bag contained Rs 10 lakh.
Drivers can't be afraid to fight on the track [watches]
Drivers can't be afraid to fight on the track
Drivers can't be afraid to fight on the track if they feel they've been wronged, but playing mind games with Johnson's team? Is that really the best path to a championship?
"The No. 48 is perhaps the mentally strongest team there is out there,'' Brad Keselowski said about Johnson's team. "I don't think anyone would argue that and they have speed. That's a lethal combination because when you have the mental focus that they have you can execute, and when you have speed, that's two of the three parts of the pie with the third one being a little bit of luck. They've had that, too, over the last few years.
"Certainly nobody knows if they'll have the luck this year, too. It doesn't mean it's going to be easy for anyone to beat them, but as far as time's concerned, eventually they've got to lose one, right? Eventually it's got to happen. But as far as where we're at with our team, I'm trying not to focus or prepare on just the No. 48. I think that's where everybody screws up, personally.''
Might Keselowski be conceding too much to Johnson's team by his approach? He doesn't think so.
"I don't believe in playing to other people's strengths,'' Keselowski said, referring to the team's mental toughness. "I play to their weaknesses and that's kind of where I was going with that."
Not everyone seems to take such an approach. Jeff Gordon says when he won his championships and dominated the sport in the mid-1990s, he saw the impact it had on other teams.
"Ray [Evernham] used to always say, a lot of times we would go to a track and have the competition beat before we ever got on the racetrack,'' Gordon said of the former crew chief, with whom he won three of his four titles. "If you can really perform at a high level consistently, then you get the competition looking at what you are doing, and paying attention and sometimes taking them off of their game and what they are capable of doing and that is another advantage. The No. 48 team has certainly been able to do that; everybody has their eye on them, everybody watches them.''
While it's natural to look at the best in any sport, Jeff Burton questions that way of preparing for the Chase. He says a team's focus should be elsewhere heading into the final 10 races of the season.
Drivers can't be afraid to fight on the track if they feel they've been wronged, but playing mind games with Johnson's team? Is that really the best path to a championship?
"The No. 48 is perhaps the mentally strongest team there is out there,'' Brad Keselowski said about Johnson's team. "I don't think anyone would argue that and they have speed. That's a lethal combination because when you have the mental focus that they have you can execute, and when you have speed, that's two of the three parts of the pie with the third one being a little bit of luck. They've had that, too, over the last few years.
"Certainly nobody knows if they'll have the luck this year, too. It doesn't mean it's going to be easy for anyone to beat them, but as far as time's concerned, eventually they've got to lose one, right? Eventually it's got to happen. But as far as where we're at with our team, I'm trying not to focus or prepare on just the No. 48. I think that's where everybody screws up, personally.''
Might Keselowski be conceding too much to Johnson's team by his approach? He doesn't think so.
"I don't believe in playing to other people's strengths,'' Keselowski said, referring to the team's mental toughness. "I play to their weaknesses and that's kind of where I was going with that."
Not everyone seems to take such an approach. Jeff Gordon says when he won his championships and dominated the sport in the mid-1990s, he saw the impact it had on other teams.
"Ray [Evernham] used to always say, a lot of times we would go to a track and have the competition beat before we ever got on the racetrack,'' Gordon said of the former crew chief, with whom he won three of his four titles. "If you can really perform at a high level consistently, then you get the competition looking at what you are doing, and paying attention and sometimes taking them off of their game and what they are capable of doing and that is another advantage. The No. 48 team has certainly been able to do that; everybody has their eye on them, everybody watches them.''
While it's natural to look at the best in any sport, Jeff Burton questions that way of preparing for the Chase. He says a team's focus should be elsewhere heading into the final 10 races of the season.
Virginia Spangler Polley [watches]
Virginia Spangler Polley
Virginia Spangler Polley, of Chattanooga, said she doesn't limit herself to buying only American-made merchandise.
"I am a free-market person and buy well-made products that offer a good value," she said. "I try to encourage manufacturers that are competitive. If America can't make a product competitively, it should change its practices or switch to manufacturing something it can do well."
Some people are taking it a step further.
Maddie Kertay of Chattanooga said she has starting making her clothes.
"I have taken this in my own hands this year and am working on sewing all my own clothes," she said.
Still, finding fabric made in America is difficult.
"According to data from the 2010 Census, nearly 100 percent of all apparel Americans use is imported, up from nearly 57 percent in 2000," the ABC report noted.
"My goal tends more to the side of being self-sufficient in this age of crazy prices, so it is not so much about it being made here or there, it's about cultivating the ability not to be tied to the economic market of any country to the point where I would not be able to dress my family," Kertay said.
Mark Carter of Cleveland, Tenn., said finding clothing made in America is "a losing battle."
Baird admitted it's difficult, if not impossible, to stock a retail business with only American-made products.
"I'm a minority," he said of his stock that is roughly 70 percent made in America. "But I'm finding more and more that people really appreciate it. It is amazing to me how many people don't realize how much is not made in America. I tell people to look at labels of what they're wearing, what they're sitting on, etc., and it never fails that the majority of people are surprised to find out that most of it is not made in America."
Virginia Spangler Polley, of Chattanooga, said she doesn't limit herself to buying only American-made merchandise.
"I am a free-market person and buy well-made products that offer a good value," she said. "I try to encourage manufacturers that are competitive. If America can't make a product competitively, it should change its practices or switch to manufacturing something it can do well."
Some people are taking it a step further.
Maddie Kertay of Chattanooga said she has starting making her clothes.
"I have taken this in my own hands this year and am working on sewing all my own clothes," she said.
Still, finding fabric made in America is difficult.
"According to data from the 2010 Census, nearly 100 percent of all apparel Americans use is imported, up from nearly 57 percent in 2000," the ABC report noted.
"My goal tends more to the side of being self-sufficient in this age of crazy prices, so it is not so much about it being made here or there, it's about cultivating the ability not to be tied to the economic market of any country to the point where I would not be able to dress my family," Kertay said.
Mark Carter of Cleveland, Tenn., said finding clothing made in America is "a losing battle."
Baird admitted it's difficult, if not impossible, to stock a retail business with only American-made products.
"I'm a minority," he said of his stock that is roughly 70 percent made in America. "But I'm finding more and more that people really appreciate it. It is amazing to me how many people don't realize how much is not made in America. I tell people to look at labels of what they're wearing, what they're sitting on, etc., and it never fails that the majority of people are surprised to find out that most of it is not made in America."
