Online House Hunting

How much did a house sell for? I've been told of a free site where anyone can go and see how much someone paid for their home (the price registered in the books at their local court house). Does anyone know what the name of this free site is and could possibly tell me. Thanks ahead!!

Are we really free or are we now in 21st century workhouses? we may think we are free to do what we want but most people are now tied into jobs asked to work 24/7 just to keep their head above water. There are now two types of people in this country the well off professionals who have second /third homes rented out as their pension fund which has caused all the house price problems for local people who cant afford to buy. Then there are the normall dare i say working class struggling to make ends meet at the end of the month, some with 2 jobs to survive no big payrises for us just bigger bills is this freedom ? This country is turning into one big warehouse for foreign goods and a nation of telephone data clerks/advisers Im in the UK but this probably applies in other countrys too

how to search property value for free? due to the current housing market, i'm just curios and would like to know what is the actual sales price for the house around me, is there a way to search the property value for free?? will i be able to get free property information from the local property tax office ?? i had used homegain.com, zillow.com , but some property are not listed there. appreciate if anyone know any other website or local service where i can get the info.Thank you.

how do I sell my house online? 2 bdrs front rm, family rm, dining rm , kitchen, utility rm patio off the kitchen, small basement, new furnace and water heater, roof is 3yrs old shade trees in back yard, small detatched garage, front porch, all new carpet in the living rm family rm and dining rm, both bed rooms have hard wood floors. neighbors do not bother you. very low taxes. If you like a small country town and living you`ll love this house. Population about 1,500 people. my heat bill runs on the average of$98.00 a month and the electric bill around $72.00 a month water sewage& garbage collection $45.00 a month. If you have a garden or swiming pool the will give you a 20% discount on two months of your water bill in the summer time. Also if you buy gravel or rock at the local rock quarry the city will deliver it to your house free of charge. I had all new insulation put in this house in november od 2006. refrigerater and stove stay with the house, any item you want to buy at a reasonable price will stay with the

Anyone know of Canadian snowboard sites like www.the-house.com? I'm looking for a more local site that offers similar selection to that of www.the-house.com ... The company/site needs to be Canadian and it would be even better if it were from Ontario. (Canadian pricing and free shipping)

Is therer anywhere to have a dog castrated / neutered for cheap/free in Greater London or the Surrey area? Hi there, I'm wondering if you could please tell me if there is any place where I can get a male dog castrated/neutered for free or for cheap in the Greater London or Surrey? I am on income support and claim housing benefit so I am looking for the cheapest price available - I contacted my local PDSA but they will still charge almost £65 for the treatment even though I am currently receiving the above benefits. If anyone else anywhere that does it cheaply or free for people on benefits, I would be very grateful. Thanks :)

What is a polite way to suggest a "No Fat Chicks" hiring policy at my local bar? So I have this local sports bar down the street from my house where I spend a good deal of time (it keeps me from having to suffer the wife and kids three or four nights a week.) The food is great, the booze is reasonably priced, and the bartender/owner is a great guy. He lets me play pool for free, challenges me to a game of Big Buck Hunter occasionally, and never gets tired of my complaints about having to go to so called "performances" by my 5 year old and his school, or supervising "play-dates" for my 2 year olds. The problem is that his waitresses started out a little on the skinnier side of 115 pounds, and let me tell you, those free chicken wings and tater skins have done nothing but pack the beef on those two (probably over 120 by now.) They used to be one of the reasons I went to this bar. I mean, the wife packed on some beef after the twins, and I'm just not interested anymore, so the least my local bar can do is have some decent eye-candy for me to flirt with, buy shots for, and discreetly tap on the bum when they do a good job (in lieu of a tip, of course.) Anyway, I'd like to suggest to the owner that his current two waitresses be fired and replaced by some younger, skinnier, more attractive talent. How do I go about doing this without seeming like too much of a jerk?

what can a realtor do for me? OK I am hunting for a new home (first home.)I seen a few places and think I finally decided exactly what and where I want it. I want a new home to a specific floor plan in a new community being built in Murfreesboro TN (in case any local laws apply.) The question I have now is: given that I have picked what I want, what can a realtor do for me. As far as I know, a realtor gets paid off the house’s price, it wont be extra money off my pocket but less money towards the seller’s pocket. That’s all nice and dandy, but what will he do for me that I have not done already? Can he actually haggle something for me? I am horrible at haggling, I admit, so if he can get me something for free, upgrades or price cuts, then I may look for a good realtor, else I see no much use to bother finding one. So again: what can a realtor do for me, given this situation.

What are people's feelings to this?Michelle Malkin:Free, unlimited health care for illegal aliens? Michelle Malkin:Free, unlimited health care for illegal aliens http://www.modbee.com/opinion/national/story/792477.html Big Nanny Democrats want to ration health care for everyone in America — except those who break our immigration laws. Last week, the House Ways and Means Committee defeated an amendment that would have prevented illegal aliens from using the so-called public health insurance option. Every Democrat on the panel voted against the measure. Nevada GOP Rep. Dean Heller's measure would have enforced income, eligibility and immigration verification screening on all Obamacare patients. Unlike most everything else stuffed into the House Democrats' plan, the citizenship vetting process would not have required building a new bureaucracy. Heller proposed using existing state and federal databases created years ago to root out entitlement fraud. If the congressional majority are truly committed to President Barack Obama's quest to wring cost savings from the system, why won't they adopt the same anti-fraud checks imposed on other government health and welfare beneficiaries? The Democratic leadership denies that an estimated 12 million to 20 million illegal immigrants will receive taxpayer-subsidized health insurance coverage. But Obama lit the fuse in February when he signed the massive expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program. That law loosened eligibility requirements for legal immigrants and their children by watering down document and evidentiary standards — making it easy for individuals to use fake Social Security cards to apply for benefits. In addition, Obama's S-CHIP expansion revoked Medicaid application time limits that were part of the 1996 welfare reform law. Immigration activists see the provisions as first steps toward universal coverage for illegals. Immigration analyst James R. Edwards Jr. reported last week in National Review that "no health legislation on the table requires federal, state or local agencies — or private institutions receiving federal funds — to check the immigration status of health- program applicants, so some of the money distributed via Medicaid and tax credits inevitably would go to illegal aliens." Moreover, the Senate Finance Committee plan creates a new preference for illegal aliens by exempting them from the mandate to buy insurance. That's right. Law-abiding, uninsured Americans would be fined if they didn't submit to the Obamacare prescription. Law-breaking border-crossers, visa- overstayers and deportation fugitives would be spared. The solution is not to give them health insurance, but to turn off the magnets that draw them to enter illegally in the first place. For years, advocates of uncontrolled immigration have argued that illegal aliens are not getting free health care, and that even if they were, they would not be not draining government budgets. The fiscal crisis in California gives lie to those talking points. In March, the Associated Press reported that Sacramento and Contra Costa counties were slashing staff and closing clinics due to the prohibitive costs of providing nonemergency health services for illegal immigrants. "The general situation there is being faced by nearly every health department across the country, and if not right now, shortly," Robert M. Pestronk, executive director of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, said. The Texas state comptroller put the price tag for illegal alien hospital care at $1.3 billion in 2006. USA Today reported that from 2001 to 2004, spending for emergency Medicaid for illegal immigrants rose 28 percent in North Carolina alone. Clinics across the Midwest have also been closed under the weight of illegal immigrant care costs. At a time when Democratic leaders are pushing rationed care in a world of limited resources, Americans might wonder where the call for shared sacrifice is from illegal immigrant patients like those in Los Angeles getting free liver and kidney transplants at UCLA Medical Center. "I'm just mad," illegal alien Jose Lopez told the Los Angeles Times last year after receiving two taxpayer- subsidized liver transplants while impatiently awaiting approval for state health insurance. Now, multiply that sense of entitlement by 12 million to 20 million illegal immigrants. Welcome to the open-borders Obamacare nightmare. Malkin's e-mail address is malkinblog@gmail.com.

How many people have lost their jobs to illegals? I finally figured it out. I kept hearing about all those jobs Americans just won't do. We're never really told what they are, but I guess we should be happy they're getting done and stop complaining about all the negative aspects of having twenty million illegal aliens in our midst. Perhaps we should just accept the idea that 25 American citizens are going to continue to be killed every day by illegals - half of them by drunk drivers - because it's a small price to pay to get all those jobs done. We should get used to the idea that nearly four million children of illegals are filling our public schools, and that more than 300,000 illegal aliens are serving time in our prisons. There are another 640,000 illegals who should be in prison but aren't because they are fugitives. We're not paying to incarcerate them, so that's a plus, but unfortunately they are probably the ones responsible for killing those 25 Americans every day. And, of course, we are getting those jobs done. We really shouldn't complain about the resurgence of heretofore-eradicated diseases, including Tuberculosis and the plague. You've probably heard that bedbugs are also making a comeback. But it's okay, because we're getting all those jobs done. I guess we should be more than willing to pay the cost for illegals to flood our hospital emergency rooms for free service; and it's the least we can do to declare their babies born on our soil as American citizens. What else could a compassionate society do for people doing all those jobs for us? Americans should be happy to press one for English and to sort through multicultural instructions written in Spanish (and sometimes other languages) in order to find the English directions. But again, who else is going to do all those jobs? Snobby, self-indulgent Americans? I don't think so. I have to confess that I was less than thrilled recently to see my local super market put up new signs over their food aisles directing customers to the item of their choice in both English and Spanish. I found myself wondering how long it would take me to figure out in Mexico City that "Jalapeño" means "Pepper." But after I thought about all those jobs lazy, spoiled Americans (apparently including me) simply won't do, I realized it was well worth whatever inconvenience I might experience. To tell you the truth, I was at a loss to figure out which jobs the invading hordes of illegals actually were doing that my fellow Americans and I won't do. Oh, I know the usual answers, but those don't seem to be the jobs I see them doing. In fact, I see them roofing houses and making good money at it. I see them working hard at more and more skilled jobs that people I know personally would gladly do. Then, as I wrote at the beginning of this column, I finally figured it out. It was the story of the Fort Dix Six that finally made it all click for me. Six Muslim men were arrested for plotting to kill American soldiers at Fort Dix, New Jersey. I have a photo hanging on my office wall of my father's Army platoon at Fort Dix . It is dated April 4, 1942. Fort Dix has been a primary jumping-off point for our troops headed overseas for generations, which, of course, is what made it such a tempting target. At least three of the Fort Dix Six were in this country illegally. They were brothers. They owned a roofing company. Again, that's not a job American workers won't do, so what could they possibly be doing here? That's when it hit me. Being a member of a terrorist cell is the one job Americans just won't do. Maybe we all need to contact our senators and representatives one more time about the travesty of justice currently coming up for a vote. If you do, please do it before it becomes law. Oh yeah, make sure to include the president on the list. Maybe, if all else fails, we can persuade him to, or coerce him into, a veto of this latest give away of our national sovereignty.

When Barack Obama Was Born in 1961 Can you Relate? 1961 The cold war continued to worsen with the USSR exploding some very large bombs during testing and then masterminding the building of the Berlin Wall separating East from West Berlin, America sent a battle group to Germany and Americans and Russians Glared at each other across the border, due to this uncertainty many Americans built backyard fallout shelters incase of nuclear war. To make matters worse the Americans financed anti-Castro Cubans for an invasion at the bay of pigs which was an unmitigated disaster. The Soviets put the first man in space in April Yuri Gagarin followed by the US in May with Alan Shepard. popular music included Chubby Checkers "The Twist" and top movies included "West Side Story" and "The Parent Trap" . Cost Of Living 1961 How Much things cost in 1961 Yearly Inflation Rate USA 1.07% Yearly Inflation Rate UK 2.9% Average Cost of new house $12,500.00 Average Income per year $5,315.00 Cost of a gallon of Gas 27 cents Average Cost of a new car $2,850.00 Bacon for 1LB 67 cents Eggs per dozen 30 cents Below are some Prices for UK guides in Pounds Stirling Average House Price 2,770 What Events Happened In 1961 Fidel Castro declares Cuba is to adopt Communism and bans free elections US Cuban Exiles and CIA mount unsuccessful attempt to overthrow Castro known as the ( Bay of Pigs ) John F. Kennedy inaugurated as President of the United States President John F. Kennedy advises American families to build bomb shelters The Peace Corps is established by John F. Kennedy President Kennedy asks Congress for $531 million to put a man on the moon Race Riots in Cities throughout the United States The Xingu National Park is created in Brazil Britain applies for membership of the EEC Segregation on railways in the south ends Texas Sales Tax Introduced Construction of the Berlin Wall begins. East German Authorities close the border between east and west Berlin UN General Assembly condemns Apartheid Estimate of the Worlds Population reaches 4 billion Farthings no longer legal tender in Britain South Africa becomes an independent republic. Last Journey of The Orient Express Paris - Bucharest The first six flags theme parks opens "Six Flags Over Texas" at Arlington, Texas Amnesty International Started in United Kingdom The Antarctic Treaty System comes into force to regulate international relations with respect to Antarctica to ensure in the interests of all mankind that Antarctica shall continue forever to be used exclusively for peaceful purposes Pampers the first disposable diaper are introduced Members of the Portuguese leftist movement hijack The luxury cruise liner "Santa Maria". Members of The UK Portland Spy Ring are found guilty of selling plans of the HMS Dreadnought, Britain's first nuclear submarine to the Russians During the Monza Italian Grand Prix Race Baron Wolfgang von Trips Ferrari crashes off the track onto embankment filled with spectators killing 14 plus the driver. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) started "Freedom Riders" test the United States Supreme Court decision Boynton v. Virginia on May 20th , over local segregation ordinances Popular Culture The farthing coin, used since the 13th century, ceases to be legal tender in the United Kingdom. British satirical magazine Private Eyeis published for first time The Jerk , the Frug , the Pony become popular dances Black and white 5 pound notes cease to be a legal tender in the UK Popular Films The Guns of Navarone The Parent Trap The Absent-Minded Professor The Alamo Swiss Family Robinson 101 Dalmatians Breakfast at Tiffany's El Cid West Side Story Popular TV Mister Ed The Avengers Technology 1961 Yuri Gagarin is the first human in space. The First inflight movie is shown on TWA The First electric toothbrush is produced Squibb Co. Alan Shepard makes first US Space Flight Niagra Falls starts producing hydroelectric power The first quasar is discovered by Allan Sandage at Mt Palomar, California IBM introduces the Selectric typewriterGolfball Inventions Invented by Inventors and Country ( or attributed to First Use ) Human Space Travel Russia Yuri Gagarin - the first human in space

should we Knock down more churches to make way fo much need "1st time buyers" and can donate the land as well ? Prince Charles, the Queen and the church the 3 richest land owners in Britain could donate 20% to the state(with clauses that that silly man Brown cant spend it elsewhere) and not miss it and solve the 1st time Buy crisis and stablise Britain to become leader in the economic revival and free up grade 11 listed stuff a little bit as its getting out of hand. Local Councils aswell should have time limits to resolve planing issues to speed things up with refunds to the person who submits if replysgo outside these limits as this contibutes to higher house prices also should we knock down more churches to make way for much needed..!st time housing.and have the land donated to the state.

How easy is it to convert a propane engine to run from CNG? I have a gas well w/ free gas. Would it violate? I have a propane 20 horsepower Onan engine- the Onan Performer 20HP. It is from a propane floor burnisher ( you know the buffers they use to polish the grocery store with). It is set up for tanked propane and it has a 2 cylinder engine with a single throat manifold. I'm not too familiar with the exact way the propane is delivered, but I gather it is pulled into the intake from manifold vacuum. I do know that most natural gas appliances can be set up to run off of propane gas by changing a simple jet. However these engines are far more complicated I presume. The engine will be stationary and hooked to a standard natural gas line. My purpose for the conversion is that my sister lives in a remote area of Ohio where the gas wells have been producing for well over 100 years. My aunts well has been going since 1920 and she even keeps her burners on 24/7. It's very odd that even in the summer she leaves them on. I'm 43 and since I was a little kid she has done this. My parents well was drilled in about 1978 and the deal was that the gas company would give 8% of all gas piped out. This amounts to about two $500 checks annually. It is not uncommon for the well to be turned off for a few months out of the year based on demand. I've been told that all wells in the program are rotated for equal usage. Not too sure how true this is. You know, I'm not even sure if there is a meter for the house. Since my folks have passed and my sister now resides on the property and they use the checks to cover the property tax and upkeep of the house and 70 acres it sits on. It's a sweet deal for her because she also gets free rent. The downside is there is very few job opportunities in this remote area. So I was hoping I could help her make electric with this engine. She has a gas powered 7 kilowatt generator that I will take the generator from. The Onan engine is a vertical shaft, and her generator is horizontal so I will need to figure out a way to unite them. I figured I could use a couple of universal joints in series and make a transition from vertical to horizontal. Any ideas for an easier way? I am pretty sure that using the gas to produce electric fits within the guidelines of " for the consumption of the one primary residence". My Aunt who moved her trailer to the property in her later years had to pay the usual rate of $50 a month for unlimited natural gas. Hmm, as I write this this leads me to believe that what I am attempting could be desired by anyone who has an unchanging price for an unlimited usage on a fossil fuel. I'd obviously keep it low because an epidemic of people using their gas to make electric could cause serious problems. Don't get me wrong, I realize that maybe even if this could be pulled off I might be being totally inconsiderate of it's effects on the environment, but as of yet I don't see the harm. As far as electric goes, the source for the area is from two large reactors that can be seen on the horizon from the high elevation property. The locals are told it's a coal burning plant. Coal does come in on conveyors, but when you drive by the facility there are nuclear signs posted everywhere. It's the Keiger Creek plant just east of Gallipolis Ohio if you are interested. Any ideas would be gratefully considered. The engine will be located more than likely underground. It being an air cooled engine though might mean a different air circulation set-up. No, you obviously didn't read it. Were you in a hurry, or are you a slow reader?? I suppose maybe I said CNG ( oops, I thought CNG was clean natural gas, maybe I'm wrong, is it compressed natural gas?) if so, my bad, but I did say I am using it straight from the gas line in a stationary application. Reading my whole 2,3,4 paragraphs I clearly described it. ...bummer if my only answerer gets 'best answer' by default, because the answer is not a good answer especially since you didn't do what you were taught in school- READ THE ENTIRE QUESTION BEFORE ANSWERING!

Is Obama's "financial regulatory overhaul" essentially the last piece of the socialist pie? http://www.examiner.com/x-13396-Minneapolis-Economic-Policy-Examiner~y2009m6d19-Fed-up-with-Ben-Bernanke I don't know whether housing prices are where they should be, but much of what has happened has been supported by the strength of the U.S. economy." This was Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke speaking on CNBC back in 2006. He was referring to the rapid increase in housing prices when asked why some economists were warning us about a housing bubble. Indeed, Ben had not a clue whether housing prices were where they should have been, but he did know much of what had happened had been supported by himself and at the expense of US homeowners. Only in government can someone keep their job after failing so miserably at doing their job. If Ben Bernanke were a corporate economist, accountant, or CEO, he would've been fired for incompetence and already taking orders at the local McDonald's. Instead, to the dismay of real economists and free-marketeers, he is about to be rewarded and given more power than any other chairman in the Fed's clandestine 96 year history. Barack Obama, who surely is not letting a good crisis go to waste, has just introduced a bill which amounts to the final piece of the socialist pie. It is a bill to put yet another stranglehold on wall street and the private sector, while giving the Federal Reserve, whose chairman is a macroeconomist who didn't even see our recession coming, the power to dismantle any business it deems as a "threat to our economy". Government takeover will be complete. Barack is piling up layers of oversight over layers of oversight in new government agencies, so much so that it is hard to fathom that any of these federal watchdogs are going to be doing anything other than chasing their own tails at our expense. The plan includes but is not limited to: These from the associated press: -Giving new authority to the Federal Reserve to supervise firms considered so big or influential that their failure could topple the economy. -Creating a system to dismantle a troubled firm. Once the Fed and the Treasury Department decide an institution is a threat to the economy, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. would step in to break it down and sell its assets with minimal impact on investors. -Establishing a "national bank supervisor" to monitor all federally chartered banks and federal branches of foreign banks. The Fed and FDIC would retain their existing roles in helping to supervise state-chartered banks. Now, the fact that what you just read probably has you seeing communist red is beside the point. The point is that this is a serious case of the private sector being accused of crimes it did not commit, with the real culprit not only keeping his job, but being rewarded for the worst recession since the 1930's. Ben Bernanke and his central bank created the conditions that led to this massive bust, but that is for another article. The question here is, why did Ben and his band of banking brothers, as the leading economic forecasters and comptrollers of our economy, not foresee this massive collapse coming? Why, when Ben spends all his working hours artificially controlling and "preventing" a collapse as such we have just seen with its powers to change interest rates, control the money supply, and provide liquidity to our banks, did he not act to prevent this collapse? And if the Federal Reserve is worth its salt as a necessary agent of economic control, then why did this collapse occur? What is the job of the Federal Reserve and what has it been up to lately? Therein lies the problem. Nobody knows but Ben. In the era of Obamanomics, everything private and free is being attacked and assaulted from every angle under the guise of transparency, oversight, and regulation. The only one who is still shrouded in secrecy and above the law is the boss himself. Could it be that the reason Ben and his buddies didn't see this storm on the horizon is that he was a part of the storm and that his intervention into our markets contributed to the very conditions he was trying to prevent? True free market capitalism will always lead to more prosperity for everyone than central economic planning. The two cannot co-exist without the booms being followed by the inevitable painful busts. The market will adjust itself, no matter how powerful or intelligent our planners think they might be. Checks and balances are in place to keep three branches of government from becoming too powerful. The American people are the final authority when elections come around. There is a fourth branch of government that Americans do not know much about, but it is only a matter of time until the small, informed, educated masses demand answers. There are questions being asked, who's watching the Federal Reserve, and what has it done for us lately? Mopar Mike, maybe, but this is about as close to socialism as you can get without actually calling it socialism. Basicly it will put the Federal Reserve in charge of the private sector. And I can also assure you that this trend towards more and more central planning isn't going to reverse.

IF you were going to loan your child money for a bizness? IF you were going to loan your child money for a bizness, wouldn’t you feel better if it was a bizness, you were already successful in AND it was a bizness that your son/daughter wanted to be in? My mom & step-bro were going to help me start my own biz, exactly like theirs. We’ll call it: ‘AJAX’ AJAX biz they have over 20 yr. exp. They have a proven product, a local ‘house-hold name’. Great relations with suppliers & customers. I have intermediate exp in this biz. I found a great location, 5k month rent, other side of town. In this biz, you buy for a dollar, sell for three. I researched all the costs for build-out, negotiated free-rent for B-O, a B-O allowance, etc. I figured I needed 65k, they backed out saying, “it’s a 100k, out of our price range, rent is too high” Instead, they wanted to support me in different biz they have 0 exp in that I only have amateur exp in, an hour away in another town, 12k rent, AND buy it for a dollar, sell it for $1.30! Initial investment 100k. I argued and argued this made no sense for a month and not until a cousin of mine explained to them, exactly what I have been saying ( he is a VERY successful accountant) did they acknowledge it was a bad investment. But, too late now, the first opp. is lost. The probability of success is much higher for the first biz than the second one described. I understand it was THEIR money to invest, but the deal was I had to pay it back. I don’t understand why they did this to me and this question probably belongs in the Psyche category. second biz was already opened and was failing and we would have had a partner in that biz on top of our 100k inv. let me add that here in FLA, business in some cases, is seasonal. Back in July, MOM said, you can't open a bizness now, it's summer and biz is slow, you will fail after three mos. Now is not time to open. I EXPLAINED: We won't be open till Late October when SEASON starts. HER REPLY was: Then it will be right when season starts, you will be too busy and I will have to help you 60 or 70 hours a week. SO, WHICH IS IT? Ya don't do the biz cause you'll have none or because you'll have too much? c'mon. I should really ask this over in Psyche Hooter responded "DON"T LOOK A GIFT HORSE IN THE MOUTH" Excellent advice. I think next time someone offers me a 100K loan, But I have to use it to start a bizness selling ice to the eskimo's, I'll take it. Irregardless of the fact that I have to pay it back and the biz might fail.

This is from the Washington Post! And you wonder why? Georgetown's Hidden History First, it was a slave port. Later, it was a thriving center of black life. Today, it's a virtually all-white enclave. Why? Georgetown's Hidden History First, it was a slave port. Later, it was a thriving center of black life. Today, it's a virtually all-white enclave. Why? By Andrew Stephen Sunday, July 16, 2006; B01 Two negro men $300 One ditto woman $150 Four ditto girls $150 Two horses $200 Two cows $30 It was a shocking discovery . Flipping through files at the local library a few months ago for a school project, my 16-year-old son chanced upon the deeds of the house in which we live. He already knew it was one of the oldest in Georgetown; now he learned that in 1807, it was owned by a Thomas Turner and valued at $3,500. But it was the valuation of this other property, listed so matter-of-factly in the records, that stopped him cold: Slaves, he realized, had once lived in our house. This awful knowledge set him on a quest for the hidden history of Georgetown, exposing unpalatable truths that had been lost, if not willfully forgotten, over the decades: that the supposedly chic Georgetown of today had once been the center of a thriving slave trade, a significant port of call for traffickers in human flesh transported in from Africa and plantations in Maryland and Virginia. Yet so obscured has this history become that not even most Washingtonians are aware of it. Nor are they aware of the flourishing black community, mostly descended from those slaves, that once occupied a large portion of Georgetown -- until a combination of legislative, social and economic pressures gradually forced nearly all the black people out, turning the neighborhood into the wealthy, effectively all-white enclave it is today. My son's research unearthed one part of this forgotten narrative of our neighborhood. A second hint lay in a curious Georgetown phenomenon that had always puzzled us: the continuing existence of several thriving black churches, filled every Sunday morning with African Americans who do not actually live here. The history of our own house, though, still seemed surreal -- until, that is, very recently. Deep in the bowels of our house, there is a crude crawl space beneath the basement, a darkly mysterious place in which it is impossible to stand upright. It is filled with an ancient cesspit, cavities, brickwork and ledges that I had vaguely assumed served some long-forgotten purpose; one of my least-favorite tasks is crawling into it to remove the bodies of our share of the huge Norway rats that swarm all over the neighborhood. A month or so ago, an electrician had to crawl into the space, and afterward I apologized that he'd had to do so. "No problem," he replied. "You can see that was where slaves did the cooking." For me, at least, the penny suddenly dropped. In that space below my house where only rats now live, we concluded, fellow humans had almost certainly cooked for Mr. Turner and his family -- and may even have slept there, too. This thought brought home to my family and me some realities of U.S. history that so many white Americans choose either not to know or to forget: the roots of racial animosity and why their legacy persists to this day. Lest we forget, there were neither blacks nor whites in Georgetown -- then known as Tahoga -- before British settlers came ashore around 1696. It was a peaceful village inhabited by the Nacotchanke Indians. Straightforward facts and precise dates of Georgetown history are difficult to establish; much of the subject is undocumented, and accounts differ. But the basic story is indisputable. The Indians were soon expunged by the settlers. Then, in the 18th century, white entrepreneurs realized that huge sums of money could be made from the insatiable demand -- in both Europe and the United States -- for the tobacco cultivated in Virginia and Maryland (of which Georgetown was then a part). Because of its position on the Potomac, Georgetown provided an ideal port from which ships laden with tobacco could sail to Europe; by the end of the 18th century, it was just about the largest tobacco port in the United States, an economic powerhouse to which slaves were brought to provide labor and to service the households of the tobacco merchants. Slavery, of course, is as old as humanity. European powers -- first Portugal, followed by Spain, France and Britain -- began abducting men and women from Africa to work as slaves in the New World. To its everlasting shame, Britain, my own country, was responsible for the transport of probably more than a million slaves, many of them to work in the sugar fields of the Caribbean. But at the point when English abolitionists were finally forcing an end to my country's slave trade, America's exploitation of slaves on its soil had not even reached its zenith. The year of Britain's Abolition of the Slave Trade Act -- 1807 -- has a special resonance for me, as it is the very year when Thomas Turner owned those seven slaves. I shudder to realize that just a two-minute walk from my house, a white man named John Beattie conducted a highly successful slave-trade business on what is now O Street, just east of Wisconsin Avenue, that flourished well into the second half of the 19th century. Blacks thus became essential economic tools for the development of Georgetown, but were simultaneously feared and rejected socially. The first Georgetown law to oppress them came as early as 1795, forbidding them to congregate in groups of seven or more. The 1800 Census showed that, in a population of 5,120 in Georgetown, there were already 1,449 slaves and 277 "free blacks." There was a lone exception to the congregating law: Blacks could go to church on the Sabbath. But they were still kept rigidly separate from whites. St. John's Episcopal Church, established in 1816 at 33rd and O streets NW, had an outdoor staircase built especially for blacks; it's still there today. That same year, hardly surprisingly, a handful of free black men managed to start their own tiny church -- which was to become Mount Zion United Methodist Church, one of the churches that remain a potent black force in Georgetown today. It was another half-century, though, before Mount Zion was allowed to have its own black minister. Its burial crypt, still visible at the church's cemetery at 27th and Q streets NW, was reputed to be a hiding place for escaped slaves fleeing to the North via the Underground Railroad. I imagine that at least the girls who formed part of the property of my house in 1807 were still alive when the 1848 "Black Code; Ordinances of the Corporation of Georgetown" was introduced. It is hard to convey the viciousness of the laws, so I will confine myself to just three examples: The code decreed that any black person swimming in the Potomac or Rock Creek at night "shall be publicly whipped"; that any black person who watched a cockfight could be punished with as many as 39 lashes; and that even flying a kite was punishable by whipping. That same year, 77 slaves tried to escape this kind of oppression on a ship called the Pearl; furious owners sent a posse on a steamer called the Salem to recapture them, and it caught up with the Pearl 140 miles downriver. The black flight from Georgetown was already beginning. But blacks were still being bought and sold here as late as November 1861. The next year, President Abraham Lincoln signed a local law that freed slaves eight months before the Emancipation Proclamation. Furious white merchants demanded compensation, and an "expert examiner of slaves" was brought in. After examining their teeth and general health, he assessed the overall value of the slaves of Georgetown, D.C., at $300,000. Georgetown's whites then voted against a Negro Suffrage Bill by 712 to 1, passing a motion describing it as "wholly uncalled for, and an act of grievous oppression." Blacks from the South, anticipating freedom, nonetheless poured into Georgetown. Between 1865 and 1870, its black population increased from 1,935 to 3,271. Over the next two or three decades, a skilled black working class started to emerge alongside a handful of black professionals. But countless laws and regulations that continued well into the 20th century prevented true economic and social emancipation: Only white passengers were allowed to ride on Georgetown's new electric streetcars, for example, enabling them to commute to Washington for well-paying jobs that were effectively denied to blacks. Then came a series of economic blows that began to seal the fate of Georgetown's blacks. The Potomac silted up, virtually ending the industrial effectiveness of Georgetown's harbor. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, which flowed through Georgetown and was crucial to many businesses such as flour and paper mills, flooded disastrously in 1889. Blacks were the first to lose their jobs when countless firms went bust. By 1910, the black population of Georgetown had peaked, and when the Great Depression struck 19 years later, more and more blacks found themselves displaced by whites taking menial jobs. Perversely, FDR's New Deal then began to work against blacks in Georgetown. Thousands of well-paid white government workers poured into Washington, creating further demand for housing and pushing property prices ever higher in Georgetown. "The dispossession of the Negro resident [of Georgetown]," the Conference on Better Housing Among Negroes reported, "is jointly managed by the city's leading realtors and their allied banks and trust companies." Two pieces of legislation passed in the 20th century by none other than Congress itself, though, were the final straws for Georgetown's blacks. The ostensible purpose of the District of Columbia Alley Dwelling Act of 1934 was to get rid of slums; but I suspect that to a House with only one black member and a Senate with none at all, slums and blacks were synonymous. Then, in 1950, Congress passed the Old Georgetown Act "to preserve and protect places of historic interest," but it had the effect of making Georgetown's gentrification legally enforceable. It was pushed through despite fears from "Negro groups," The Washington Post reported at the time, that it "might drive them from the area." Less than a decade later, Georgetown's black population had dwindled to fewer than 3 percent, and in 1972 The Post noted that fewer than 250 remained, "so few that some Georgetown residents are unaware they are there." Blacks were thus becoming invisible by the time the likes of Democratic doyenne Pamela Harriman started creating Georgetown's all-white "social salons" of such ludicrous legend. Indeed, racism was so entrenched in the nation's capital that even the glamorous young Sen. John F. Kennedy voluntarily signed a deed containing a "restrictive covenant" when he bought his house on N Street NW in 1957, agreeing that the home should not "ever be used or occupied or sold, conveyed, leased, rented, or given to Negroes or any person or persons of the Negro race or blood." Which brings us full circle to 2006. My son and I went to Mount Zion church on a recent Sunday morning and met an 84-year-old black parishioner named Carter Bowman, who was born in Georgetown but who long ago moved out. With neat serendipity, we met three generations of Bowmans because his son and grandson, who attends university in England, happened to be visiting. But if you go three generations in the reverse direction, you find that all of Carter Bowman's great-grandparents were born and raised when slavery was at its most intense in Georgetown. For all I know, they could have resided in that crude basement in my house, or someplace like it. Knowing what I know now, I found it strangely moving when the Rev. Robert Slade, chief pastor at Mount Zion -- who doesn't live in Georgetown -- told my son that "when we didn't have anything, the church was our everything. . . . When there was nothing and no place to go, [it] was the one place to go." Slade's words, to us, explain why the emotional bonds to the black churches in Georgetown remain so strong. It took a 16-year-old to bring all these realities of life in Georgetown, past and present, home to me. As a foreigner who remains deeply attached to America, I find it bewildering how so self-reverential a country can proclaim that all men are created equal but then proceed to implement racist oppression that manifestly expresses the reverse. The truth that my son and I discovered is that for many decades, blacks in Georgetown were treated little better than rats. He will never forget that, and neither will I. newstatesman@usa.net Andrew Stephen is the U.S. editor of the New Statesman magazine.

Should I buy a single-family home now or wait because market's going to get even worse? My husband and I found a 1-family home in Jackson Heights, Queens. We like this home a lot, even though it has termite problem and is in need of renovation. We agreed on a price of 480k, 11% off the asking price. If you are local RE who knows the market/area or have a better insight into Queens/NYC housing market, feel free to put in your 2 cents. Or if you live in this neighborhood, let us know what you think. Being a first-time buyer, I'm nervous. 1.Is the agreed price fair? For a 3br house with a garage. 2.The biggest question is should I hold off because it’s going to get even worse? How long and how much worse? I’m sure no one has an exact answer, because if you did, you should be making more than Warren Buffet. Just want to see what others are thinking.

Service Provider Threatens to Put Lien on My House? I was verbally promised a job for free in a package of services on my property by a local business, but it was never performed. Last week, I called them again to request it, and I made it very clear that it was supposed to be free. They kept saying they'd check their notes and call me back, but never did. A day later, the guy came to perform a routine service and finished the "free" job I've been asking for. All was pleasant until he left me an invoice for a charge of $150. I called the office to explain how things progressed and my intention to not pay an additional $150 for something I'd never have wanted had I known its hefty price tag, the person simply flipped and threatened to put a lien against my property. I now feel deceived and helpless. How would you handle something like this? What is the likelihood of them putting a lien on me? How and where to file complaints for businesses? I am in California. I greatly appreciate your input! Thanks much for all your answers! I have a bit more information: the "free" job that I requested was never put into contract, and I didn't sign anything authorizing it, either. Does it make me safe from a legal perspective? Thanks again!

Obligation to use realtors? Hi. This question may likely irk realtors reading this. But am hoping to get answers from all sides. I recently listed my house with a local realtor. Though it may sound made-up, a week or 2 prior to contacting the realtor I called a number that was on a postcard from one of the services that offer to buy your home from you. I figured this would be a quicker process than listing / showing the house. However, because the postcard was dated the phone number was no longer active. So I proceeded with the realtor. Just this weekend I received an updated postcard from the same service. So I called the number and the person says they are indeed very interested in buying, would only buy directly from me at a price not including realtor's commission, else they cannot flip the house for a profit. The person informs me that I can simply terminate my listing agreement, and pay a breakage fee. Then I'm free to sell the house to him. Other than bad business practice, do I have a legal leg to stand on if I do break the listing agreement? Does the fact that I did attempt to contact this service prior to my listing agreement, and that it was my intent to not use a realtor at the time help? I am indeed committed to paying commissions to the realtor on any other buyers, but feel with this buyer the circumstances preceded my business dealing with the realtor. The language in the listing agreement says commission is earned / payable upon any sale of the property by seller to anyone at any price on any terms. Based on this I don't believe I have an "out" like the buying service person says. I definitely don't want to be mislead by him, so he can buy the house, only to find out I was foolish to think I can break my listing agreement that simple. Please advise. Thanks in advance.

Why every time an old statute gets turned over (Glass - Steagall) the consumer gets 'screwed'? "It gives manufacturers and dealers a weapon to use against discounters, which will raise prices and stifle innovation," he said. High Court Overturns Century-Old Antitrust Rule Manufacturers Gain Say on Retail Prices By Ylan Q. Mui and Robert Barnes Washington Post Staff Writers Friday, June 29, 2007; Page D01 The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday overturned a nearly century-old ruling that prohibited manufacturers from dictating the minimum prices retailers must charge for their goods, saying such agreements could spark competition rather than stifle it. The 5 to 4 opinion, delivered by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, found that minimum-pricing requirements by manufacturers do not constitute an automatic violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Instead, the agreements must be judged on a case-by-case basis according to a "rule of reason" to determine whether they interfere with market competition. The 5 to 4 opinion found that minimum-pricing agreements must be judged on a case-by-case basis. (By Win Mcnamee -- Getty Images) Bench Conference Andrew Cohen blogs multiple times daily about the latest legal developments and issues. • Kennedy (and the Court) Without Tears • The Court's 'Swing Vote' Finally Swings Again • Time for Congress to Put Up or Shut Up • More Bench Conference Sign Up for RSS Feed Who's Blogging? Read what bloggers are saying about this article. Jaime Was Here Jaime Was Here Editorials from Hell's leading daily newspaper, The Dis Brimstone-Daily Pitchfork Full List of Blogs (4 links) » Most Blogged About Articles On washingtonpost.com | On the web Save & Share Article What's This? DiggGoogle del.icio.usYahoo! RedditFacebook Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. joined Kennedy in the opinion. Justice Stephen G. Breyer filed a dissenting opinion with Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, arguing that little has changed in the U.S. economy to warrant overruling a decision that has held up since 1911. The reach of that previous case, Dr. Miles Medical Co. v. John D. Park & Sons Co., has been vast. In his dissent, Breyer described it as being embedded in antitrust law. It has covered the price of perfume, the cost of cars and countless other goods. The decision is why manufacturers can only offer suggested retail prices. But some free-market economists have argued that Dr. Miles outlived its usefulness and is unnecessary as an antitrust weapon in a modern economy. Their analysis holds that minimum-resale pricing would ensure retailers make enough profit to provide better service to customers and promote the manufacturer's products. It would eliminate "free riding," in which a consumer might try out the latest tennis racket at the local pro shop and then hit the Internet to find a cheaper price. Even if minimum-price requirements were to hurt retail competition, free-market economists say it doesn't affect competition among brands. No manufacturer would want to price itself out of business. In its opinion, the court found that reasoning to be persuasive, at least in some instances. Mallory Duncan, general counsel for the National Retail Federation, said the justices "put a thumb on the scale in favor of those manufacturers who would like to set resale prices. "It doesn't guarantee them the right to do it," he said. "But it gives them a little more ammunition." Consumer groups counter that the restriction has saved shoppers hundreds of billions of dollars over the years. Mark Cooper, director of research for the Consumer Federation of America, said yesterday's ruling will make it more difficult for discounters and small businesses to challenge large manufacturers. "It gives manufacturers and dealers a weapon to use against discounters, which will raise prices and stifle innovation," he said. Glass-Steagall Act From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Two separate United States laws are known as the Glass-Steagall Act. The Acts (Glass & Steagall) were both reactions of the U.S. government to cope with the economic problems which followed the Stock Market Crash of 1929. Both bills were sponsored by Democratic Senator Carter Glass of Lynchburg, Virginia, a former Secretary of the Treasury, and Democratic Congressman Henry B. Steagall of Alabama, Chairman of the House Committee on Banking and Currency. Contents [hide] 1 First Glass Steagall Act of February 1932 2 Second Glass-Steagall Act (officially called: Banking Act of 1933) (June 16, 1933) 3 Repeal of the Acts 4 Note 5 Emergency Banking Relief Act of 1933 (March 9, 1933) 6 External link [edit] First Glass Steagall Act of February 1932 This act allowed that government obligations as well as commercial paper can be used as reserve in banks. Therefore, banks were able to increase credit, and more money was in circulation. It was enacted under President Herbert Hoover. Do not confuse this act with the second Glass Steagall Act of 1933. See: [http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1504.html ] [edit] Second Glass-Steagall Act (officially called: Banking Act of 1933) (June 16, 1933) This act introduced the separation of bank types according to their business (commercial and investment banking), and it founded the Federal Deposit Insurance Company for insuring bank deposits. Literature in economics usually refers to this Glass Steagall Act, since it had a stronger impact on US banking regulation. See: Original Text of the act: "Banking Act of 1933", (= Glass Steagall Act), in: Walsh, Gerard P. Jr. (ed.), Federal Reserve Act of 1913. With Amendments and Laws Relating to Banking, Washington 1981, pp. 163-199. A pdf is available here (downloading takes a while): [1] "Understanding How Glass-Steagall Act Impacts Investment Banking and the Role of Commercial Banks" [2] [edit] Repeal of the Acts On November 12, 1999, President Bill Clinton signed into law the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which repealed the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933. One impact of this repeal is that certain advisory activities of the banks are now regulated by the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. [edit] Note Do not confuse those two acts with this one: [edit] Emergency Banking Relief Act of 1933 (March 9, 1933) This act authorizes President Roosevelt to forbid hoarding of gold coins. It authorizes the Treasury to request all people and companies of the U.S. to send in their gold reserves (transportation will be paid by the Treasury.) In addition, this act rules that all banks stop their business (bank holiday) until the Comptroller of the Currency has examined the soundness of such banks and has approved reopening. This act has nothing to do with the Glass Steagall Acts, however, it has often been mixed up. See: President Franklin Roosevelt's Bank Holiday Declaration, 1933: [3] Original Text of the Emergency Banking Relief Act of 1933: [4] [edit] External link Back to the Twenties Through the Looking Glass - Steagall Hour long Wizards of Money MP3 explaining the Glass-Steagall Act, background to it and impact of it. Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass-Steagall_Act" Categories: 1932 in law | Legal history of the United States | United States federal banking legislation | History of the United States (1918–1945) | Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

Should we give money to poor ppl? ZAKAAT (Alms) Ramadan is the month of giving and benevolence, the Messenger was more benevolent than a falling rain. Muslims are encouraged to emulate the Messenger of Allah (saas), to assess and pay their Zakaat during the month of Ramadan, thus combining the two pillars of Islam at the same time. Zakaat (alms) is the name of what a believer returns out of his or her wealth to the neediest of Muslims for the sake of the Almighty Allah. It is called Zakaat because the word Zakaat is from Zakaa which means, to increase, purify and bless. Who Should Give Zakaat The obligation of Zakaat is mandatory on every Muslim who possesses the minimum Nisaab, whether the person is man, woman, young, old sane or insane. Because the proof of Zakaat in Al-Qur`an and Sunnah is general and does not exclude young or insane. Allah (SWT) stated that: "Of their goods take alms so that thou mightiest purify and sanctify them..." (Al-Qur`an, 9: 103) Imam Ibn Hazim said that every Muslim young or old sane or insane needs to cleanse his or her wealth with Zakaat because of generality of the evidence. Anas bin Malik reported that the Messenger of Allah (saas) said: "Trade with the money of the orphan, lest it is eaten up by Zakaat." (At-Tabraani) In another Hadith `Amru bin Shuaib related from his grandfather that the Messenger of Allah said: "Whoever is entrusted with money of an orphan should trade with it and should not leave it sitting to be used up by charity." (Tirmidhi) The point of reference in these reports is that the Messenger (saas) urged the trustee on the estate of people who due to age or other reasons cannot manage their own financial affairs, to invest it in a business that will yield a return and make it grow until they are in a position to do so themselves. For, if proper investment is not made with an ophan's inheritance, it will be depleted by charity, thus leaving the orphan with little or nothing. The Nisaab The Lawgiver, Allah has prescribed the minimum amount that is obligatory for Zakaat in different ranges of properties, and that minimum amount is known as nisaab. The reason for nisaab is to ensure that no one is forced to give Zakaat out of what he or she does not have, and that no wealth goes without Zakaat. Nisaab is also an insurance against the tyranny of the state to tax the poor and or the neediest as is the case in many countries. Nisaab is a reference point for the average Muslim who is not sure whether he possesses the minimum wealth on which Zakaat is obligatory. The wealthy need not worry about the Nisaab. Zakaat is obligatory on their entire wealth and must be paid out at the end of financial year that they set for their Zakaat. The Nisaab will not be valid unless it fulfills two conditions: 1) The amount that has reached Nisaab must be the excess or surplus known as "faadil" from one's essential needs such as food, clothing, housing, vehicles, tools and machinery that is used in business. The essentials for living are exempted from Zakaat. Although what constitutes nisaab may change from one country to another, the amount that is needed for the basic needs of living in different countries is very similar, because the market place determines the prices, whether it is an official market or a non-official market. In the poorest countries people do without or live below the poverty standard, and that is why many go hungry or without basic essentials. However, we must realize that Zakaat is an act of worship (ebadah) like Salaat. The element of intention (niyyah) is necessary, and we should not overly rely on state agencies to determine for us the requirements of our religious duty. The so called the "consumption basket" (that is poverty level as determined the social security administration which are updated every fiscal year) may not be the same as what Islam considers minimum Nisaab. In the industrialized countries, the consumption basket may include items that are not necessarily essential, such as entertainment, extra clothing, variety of food, eating in restaurant or eating at home, owning more than one car as opposed to having three cars in the driveway, drinking water as opposed to juices, eating regular food or special "health" food. This is why I believe it is essential that we do not lose site of the fact that Zakaat is ebadah of wealth, like salaat and fasting. Non Muslims may consider all the things mentioned above as essentials while Muslims will not. Indeed, no Muslims in good standing will attempt to hide behind the label of consumption basket so as to evade Zakaat. Nisaab eliminates the possibility of injustice or unfair treatment of the Zakaat payer. To suggest that if we do not follow the rules of International Monetary Fund or the arbitrary figures of social security administration or department of agriculture we will be doing injustice to the Zakaat payer is ludicrous. 2) Nisaab must mature, that is the money is not liable for Zakaat unless it has remained a full year in the possession of a person. This is the understanding of the majority of the scholars. Imam Abu Hanifah (raa) said: "What should be considered is the existence of nisaab at the beginning and the end of the Zakaat year set by the payer". It does not matter if the nisaab money increases or decreases during the calendar year, as we will explain later. This condition does not include farm produce, for it is due on the day it is harvested. Allah (SWT) stated: "... But render the dues that are proper on the day that the harvest is gathered..." (Al-Qur`an, 6: 141) According to Imam Al-`Abadi, (raa) Zakaat money is of two kinds: one that by its nature can not be invested and Zakaat of this category is due on the day of harvest. This includes all the farm produce that is liable for Zakaat. The other is wealth that can be invested in the hope of a good return, like cash, gold or silver, because the opportunity is there that cash in one's hand can be invested for a good return. This includes currency investment, merchandise and livestock. Their Zakaat is not due until they have matured in one full year. The proof of this condition is the Hadith related by Ibn `Umar that the Messenger of Allah (saas) said: "He who acquires property is not liable for Zakaat on it till a year passes." According to Ibn Rushd (raa) this is the understanding of the majority of scholars, including the four rightly guided Khalifahs. Zakaat Of Salaries The condition of yearly term maturity applies to the commodities on which the Lawgiver said Zakaat is due, and this includes silver, gold, modern paper currency and livestock. Paper currency is analogous to silver, therefore, it takes the case of silver. There is no Zakaat on salary, earned income from wage earners or professionals or independent contractors until such money matures in a full year. There is no such thing as paying your Zakaat on the day you receive your paycheck. What the wage earner must know is that he or she can purify that money with charity (sadaqah) anytime they cash the paycheck. Allah (SWT) states: "And in their wealth and possessions (was remembered) the right of the needy, he who asks and he who (for some reason) was prevented (from asking)." (Al-Qur`an, 51: 19). We can deduce from the concept of "yearly maturity" of wealth on which Zakaat is due as encouraging, among other things, saving on the part of the Zakaat payer, and enhances the chances for eradicating poverty, because if the poor receives his rightful share of Zakaat there will be the possibility that he can take Zakaat money and invest it and become a Zakaat payer instead of recipient. This possibility will be lost if he receives few Zakaat dollars every month. To say that the wage earner just brings his check home and spends everything on necessities and lives from check to check with nothing left over means the person is eligible for Zakaat. Using farm produce as analogous to salary for Zakaat is wrong analogy. As Imam Al-`Abadi said, these are two different categories of money. $2, 500.00 cash can be invested by the person and expect a good return whereas it will be difficult to invest a bushel of corn. It can be traded as a commodity, which is what it is. This why we must know that analogy has rules that must be followed before it is applied. Certainly the jurists are unanimous that earned income, known as almal al-mustafadah, should either be added to existing money and wait until that amount reaches maturity and then give their Zakaat; or if there is no money on hand the time one possesses this money, he or she should wait one full year before assessing it for Zakaat. Zakaat is one of the five pillars of Islam and a vital element in the religion of Islam. It is the twin sister of Salaat. In Al-Qur`an, Allah (SWT) stated: "So establish regular Prayer and give regular Alms; and obey the Messenger; that you may receive mercy." (Al-Qur`an, 24: 56) Also, "...Establish regular Prayer and give regular Alms, and loan to Allah a beautiful loan...." (Al-Qur`an, 73: 20) "And they have been commanded no more than this: to worship Allah, offering Him sincere devotion, being true (in faith); to establish regular Prayer and to practice regular charity; and that is the religion right and straight." (Al-Qur`an, 98: 5) In a famous Hadith reported by `Umar Bin Khattab (raa), the Messenger of Allah (saas) responded to Jibreel (as) and said: "... Islam is to testify that there is no deity but Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, to perform the prayer, to pay Zakaat, to observe fasting in Ramadan, and to make pilgrimage to the house of Allah if you are able to do os...." (Bukhari, Muslim) There is consensus among Muslim scholars that it is mandatory on every believer who is financially able. Whoever knowingly denies this obligation, while he possesses the minimum amount, would be considered a disbeliever and a renegade from Islam. Whoever is stingy, or tries to cheat, is considered among the wrongdoers. Zakaat is mandatory on four categories of items. 1. Farm produce of seeds and fruits, such as wheat, barley, rice, dates, raisins, cocoa, pistachios, coffee, cashews. Allah (SWT) stated: "O you who believe, give of the good things which you have (honorably) earned, and of the fruits of the earth which We have produced for you..." (Al-Qur`an, 2: 267) Also: "... But render the dues that are proper on the day that the harvest is gathered..." (Al-Qur`an, 6: 141) Thus, these two verses and many others indicate that Zakaat is due on farm products that reached the minimum amount (nisaab). No farm product is liable for Zakaat unless it is a product that is considered as food and can be stocked or saved naturally without refrigeration. If the produce is perishable fruit, such as grapes, there is no Zakaat. But if one sells them they will pay their Zakaat on the profit earned when it matures. The nisaab is 612 kilos, which equals 1,346.40 lb. There is no Zakaat on produce that is less than this amount. If the farm produce or crops grow dependant on rainwater, or without any man's labor or irrigation, Zakaat due is one-tenth of the total. If it is grown by irrigation, then the Zakaat due is half of one-tenth of the total produce. There is no Zakaat on fruits like apples or oranges or vegetables which are perishable and need refrigeration for long storage, but they should be considered as any income if the profit earned from their sale reaches the amount of Zakaat, then Zakaat should be given. 2. Cattle, including camels, cows, sheep and goats, that are freely graze and are raised for trade and production. For Zakaat to be obligatory, the number must reach the nisaab. The nisaab of camels is five, of cows 30, of sheep and goats, 40. By freely grazing is meant the animal goes out to feed without the owner buying or bringing it feed or hay. If it is not a grazing animal, there is no Zakaat in the stock by itself. The stock will, however, be considered as articles of trade, then will be assessed for Zakaat as articles of trade when the profit earned from their sale reaches the amount by itself or in combination with other articles of the trade. 3. Merchandise and goods of trade and commerce. This includes anything that is obtained for the business of buying and selling: land, animals, food provisions, fabric, cars, spare parts, etc. This inventory is evaluated annually and assessed for Zakaat, whether the value is the same as the amount spent on it, more, or less. The owners of grocery stores, like any other business, must evaluate every item and give their Zakaat. Simple bookkeeping of inventory, orders, cash on hand, and credits, that is non-delinquent loans, will give one a good picture of the zakaatable assets. But if one is unable to account for everything in the store or shop, he should assess it according to his ability until he is sure that his conscience is clear. There is no Zakaat on what is within one's dwelling or property which includes food, drinks, furniture, houses, animals, cars, clothes and shoes. The only exception is gold and silver. There is no Zakaat on assets from rentals or lease, whether they are apartment units, taxi cabs, etc. That is, there is no Zakaat on the apartment units, buses or cars for rental like yellow cabs company or trucks for rental or equipments. But there is Zakaat on the proceeds or incomes from these rental assets if these assets reach the executable amount, either by themselves or in combination with other assets. Business Activities Many scholars are of the opinion that any business activity that brings any return to the entrepreneur or investor should be assessed for Zakaat. If the activity has a prescribed nisaab, such as gold, silver or paper currency, that nisaab is applied for Zakaat. But if the business has no declared nisaab, its nisaab is the nisaab of commerce, one reason being that most business activities are considered as commerce and because, in actual fact, it is not factitious business name, such as GM, Apple or GE that is taxed for Zakaat, it is the individual investor. We do not tax cooperations such IBM, Apple, GM or Rajihy Bank but the individual investors, share holders and owners of these corporations. Indeed, there are enough rules in Zakaat books to cover all types of business activity, be it cash or risk investment. If the business activity is analogous to commerce, it should be assessed the same rate as commerce. To subject the business to a different Zakaat rate of 10%, which is the rate of farm products instead of its correct rate of 2.5%, the rate of commerce, is unfair and unjustified. Besides, there is no proof, even a weak one, to justify this unfair arbitrary taxation. The difference between 2.5% and 10% is high. The Zakaat system is not like a state revenue collection, but Allah's `ebadah. However, if a business person decides to give more than 2.5% after deducting all the expenses including depreciation, Allah (SWT) will accept it from him. 4. Gold and silver, whether used for commerce or jewelry. Allah (SWT) states: "...And there are those who bury gold and silver and spend it not in the way of Allah: announce unto them a most grievous penalty. On the day when heat will be produced out of that (wealth) in the fire of hell, and with it will be branded their foreheads, their flanks and their backs. This is the (treasure) which you buried for yourselves: taste you, then, the (treasures) you buried." (Al-Qur`an, 9: 34-35). By hoarding is meant refusal to give it in the path of Allah, which includes Zakaat. In a hadith reported by Abu Hurairah (raa), the Messenger of Allah (saas) said: "For the owner or possessor of gold and silver who does not fulfill its obligation, on the Day of Resurrection it will be cast into sheets of fire and be branded on his forehead, side and back. Whenever it cools it is to be repeated for him in a day whose length is the length of fifty thousand years, until the judgement is rendered among the people." (Muslim). By its obligation is meant assessing it for Zakaat. In another version: "No possessor of a treasure who does not give its Zakaat." Zakaat is mandatory in gold and silver, irrespective of its form: in coins, raw or nugget, or jewelry for wearing, or for rent, because of the generality of evidence of Zakaat without any detail. In a report by Abdullah bin `Amr bin `Aas (raa), he related that a woman came to the Messenger of Allah with her daughter. On the daughter's wrist were two heavy gold bracelets. The Messenger asked her, "Do you pay Zakaat on this?" She replied, "No." The Messenger said: "Would it please you that Allah will encircle you with two bracelets of fire?" The reporter commented that she took them off and threw them down in front of the Messenger, and said: "They are for Allah and his Messenger." (Ahmed, Tirmidhi). The Messenger's wife reported that: "The Messenger entered into my house and saw in my hand a huge ring made of silver, so he asked, `What is this?' I replied, `I made them to beautify myself for you, O Messenger of Allah.' He inquired, `Do you give their Zakaat?' I said, `No,' or `Allah willing.' He said: `It will suffice you in the hellfire.'" (Abu Dawuud). Zakaat is due on gold when it reaches the amount of (nisaab), which is 20 Dinaar. According to a hadith, the Messenger said: "No Zakaat on you is due until it reaches 20 dinaar." (Abu Dawud) The Islamic dinaar (currency) is one mithqal, a unit of weight which weighs four and one quarter of a gram. Thus, the nisaab is 85 grams. This is equal to $30.00 US dollars. Similarly, there is no Zakaat on silver until it reaches five oqiyah, because the Messenger said: "There is no Zakaat on less then five oqiyah." (Muslim/Bukhari) Oqiyah is equal to forty Islamic dirhams. The nisaab is 200 dirhams. One dirham is equivalent to 595 grams. The zakaatable amount in both the gold and silver is a quarter of a tenth only. Paper Currency There is Zakaat on modern paper currency because it is equivalent to silver. During the early days of Islam, silver and gold were the currency of exchange minted into dirham for silver and dinaar for gold. Silver, not gold, had a larger circulation. Thus many scholars are of opinion that silver should be the standard for the paper currencies of today because that is more advantageous to the Zakaat payer, as it raises the minimum nisaab whereas gold lowers it. Although both metals are no longer circulated, they are still considered as a security against ever fluctuating paper money. Silver should be used as a standard to assess Zakaat annually, not paper currency, even if the currency is hard currency like the US dollar, Yen and Deutch Mark or Pound Sterling. Because these currencies are backed by political decisions that may not have anything to do with the economy, the value and strength of this paper money depends largely on all haram usury system of interest rates. Thus, the Zakaat payer should look up in the local newspaper's financial or business section for the price of silver which is currently about $3.82. per ounce. The nisaab, then, is 596 x .04=28.80 ounce multiplied by$3.82= 90.91. therefore. The nisaab is about $100.00, as of December 17, 1991. The nisaab should be based on the market value of the currency. If the money is hard currency, there will be no problem, but if the money is a non-marketable currency, like most currencies in the third world countries, the nisaab should be based on the black market, which realistically reflects the value of the currency on the money market. In any case, the silver rate should be used to assess the Zakaat. If the nisaab is determined, the zakaatable amount is 2.5%, or .025 multiplied by the amount. For instance, if the zakaatable amount is $56,000.00 it will be 56,000. x .025 = $1,400.00. Zakaat is due on gold, silver, and or paper currency, whether it is cash in hand or credit in the hands of borrowers. Zakaat is due on debts or cost of merchandize or rental money. If the borrower is a wealthy person that you know will pay back the debt, the lender (that is Halaal lending free of usury) should include that money in the assessment and give its Zakaat. However, one can delay Zakaat on a loan until he receives payment, then return its Zakaat for the past years that he was unable to assess for Zakaat. If the borrower is poor or is refusing to pay the debt, there will be no Zakaat on the money until the lender receives the money. Then he will assess it for Zakaat of one past due year, but there will be no Zakaat in the years before that. There is no Zakaat on precious stones such as diamonds, or metals such uranium, regardless of their value. Gold and silver, of course are assessed for Zakaat. However, if a person possesses any of these stones or metals, he should give their Zakaat like any other articles of trade. If a person possesses diamonds or any other precious stones as an edge against inflation or for ornaments, there will no Zakaat on these. How To Give Zakaat Zakaat may be assessed and returned in two ways: a) Make a record of all money earned, either daily or monthly, which has reached the nisaab and remains in the treasury. The Zakaat of that money would be due one year later on the same day the money was earned and reached nisaab. This means every month's income must be set aside and assessed for Zakaat and so will be the case for the rest of the months. For instance, the income of January, 1991 will be assessed for Zakaat in January, 1992, and the income of February, 1991 will be assessed for Zakaat in February 1992, etc. This method of assessing Zakaat is very difficult because it entails complete bookkeeping of daily or monthly earnings. b) The best way is to set a day or a month, preferably Ramadan, for your annual Zakaat return calendar, say Ramadan 1st, 1412. One year later on the same day Ramadan, 1413, your Zakaat is due and payable. Whatever is in the savings is due for Zakaat, regardless of whether all the amount in the savings reaches a year or not. For instance: if you have $20,000.00 in the savings account on the 1st of Ramadan, 1412 and one year later by the 1st of Ramadan, 1413 there is $50, 000.00, your Zakaat will be assessed for $50,000.00, that is: $50.000.00 x .025= $1,250.00. If, on the other hand, by the 1st of Ramadan, 1413 the amount in the savings is $15,000.00, your Zakaat will be for the amount in the savings, that is $15,000.00 x .025= $375.00. This method is the best because it is easy to assess, meets one's obligation and relieve one's conscience. The Recipient Of Zakaat Knowing who qualifies as recipient of Zakaat is an important aspect of Zakaat collection in Islam. Fortunately, Allah (SWT) has been merciful to us in that He Himself spelled out the people eligible to receive Zakaat. In Surah Tawbah He stated: "Alms are for the poor and the needy; and those employed to administer (the funds); for those whose hearts have been (recently) reconciled (to truth); for those in bondage and in debt; in the cause of Allah; and for the wayfarer: (thus is it) ordained by Allah, and Allah is full of knowledge and wisdom." (Al-Qur`an, 9: 60) In this verse Allah enumerated the people who deserve this divine welfare, and they are as follows: The poor and the needy. These are individuals, and those under their care, to live on. By the poor and needy is meant the people whose income or salaries, or whatever material goods they have, fall short of the cost of living in a given environment and economy. The poor and the needy should be given what will suffice them and their families for one full year. The needy who want to get married and have no means should be given enough for this purpose, and so, too, the student who needs money for tuition, rent, food, and books. The working poor should be given supplementary Zakaat. But the wealthy, or any person with enough income to live on should not be given Zakaat, even if they asked for it. Instead, they should be warned and admonished for asking for what does not belong to them. In a hadith reported by Abdullah bin `Umar, the Messenger of Allah (saas) stated: "A man keeps on asking others for something till he comes on the day of Resurrection without any piece of flesh on his face." (Bukhari/Muslim). This hadith indicates a humiliating appearance before Allah (SWT) that awaits a person who asks illegally. Some said: this hadith implies Allah will punish a person with the very limb, the face, that he used to impress on others to give him their money unlawfully. In another hadith reported by Abu Hurairah, the Messenger of Allah said: "Whoever asks people for their money so as to get rich, he is asking for flames of fire. It is up to him to ask for more or less (he should beware)." (Muslim) This hadith indicates the severity of the punishment, the more one asks the more punishment, the less one asks the less the punishment. In another hadith, reported by Hakeem bin Hizaam said: I begged the Messenger of Allah and he gave me. I begged again, and he gave me. I begged again and he gave me. He then said: "This money is green and sweet; he who receives it from people with a cheerful heart, Allah will bless him in it; he who receives it, with an avaricious mind would not be blessed in it. He will be like the person who eats without being satisfied; and the upper hand is better than the lower hand" (Muslim) This hadith gave an analogy between money and green, ripened fruit that people love to eat. Thus, it indicates that both are greatly loved but easily finished. For money that is easy come easy go, one must be careful about the punishment that awaits the illegal eater. If a person asks for Zakaat and there are no signs of wealth, and he does not know that he should not ask, or a person who is well and able, who can work, but does not; if these people do not know that it is not permissible for them to ask, it may be given anyway. In a hadith reported by Ahmed, Abu Dawud, and Nasa'e, two men came to the Messenger of Allah (saas) and asked for Zakaat. He looked at them closely and found them strong and able, he said, "If you want I will give you. But you should know that the wealthy or an able person who can work has no share in Zakaat" (Ahmad) Those who administer the Zakaat department, assigning people for collecting, bookkeeping, making lists of people eligible for Zakaat, and a financial calendar. These people will receive Zakaat as compensation for their work, even if they are wealthy. This does not include a person who works as an agent for one or two wealthy people to take Zakaat for himself. They should donate their time for Zakaat disbursement and do it with honesty and truthfulness. If they can not, they should be paid or rewarded for their time. In a hadith related by Abu Musa Al-Ashi`ari (raa), the Messenger of Allah said: "A trustworthy Muslim executor is the one who executes completely what has been entrusted to him of Zakaat money in good faith." (Bukhari) That is, he will give the Zakaat money to any of the eligible recipients of Zakaat. He should carry on the duty voluntarily, but if he can not distribute the money without being paid, the Zakaat payer should pay him for his work. The payment for the service of distributing Zakaat should not come out of Zakaat money. The new converts to Islam whose hearts we want to harmonize into the fold of Islam, either because their faith is weak or we are afraid of their being harmed, should be given Zakaat to strengthen their Iman or until we no longer fear their harm. The bonds person who has contracted with his master to buy himself out of bondage deserve Zakaat and should be given enough to pay off their debt to the master and be freed themselves; similarly, Muslim prisoners of war if their freedom is tied to monetary payment, deserve Zakaat sufficient enough to secure their release. On the other hand, if a pearson accidently killed someone and have no means to pay off the blood money, he should be helped from Zakaat funds. The people in debt are of two kinds: (A) The guarantor, who takes the responsibility of someone else's debt so as to reconcile the two warring parties, to extinguish the fire of fitnah between them. If the person requests Zakaat money to pay off this debt he should be given it, which will encourage him to continue in this noble cause. In a hadith reported by Qubaysah Al-Hilaaly (raa), he said I was under debt (hamaalah) and I came to the Messenger (saas) and begged him to help me pay it off. The Messenger told him: "Wait until we receive charity, so we will command that it be given to you." However, the Messenger stated: "O Qubaysah, begging is not permitted except for one of three categories of people: A man who has incurred debt (as guarantor to reconcile blood wit) for him begging is permissible till he pays that off, after which he must stop it; a man whose property has been destroyed by calamity which has smitten him; for him begging is permissible till he gets what will support life or will provide him reasonable subsistence; and a man who has been smitten by poverty, the genuineness of which should be confirmed by three knowledgeable members of his people; for him begging is permissible till he gets what will support him, or will provide him subsistence. Besides these three, Qubaysah, begging is forbidden for every other persons, and one who engages in such consumes that which is forbidden." (Muslim) (B) Whoever incurs debt and has no money to pay it back will be given from Zakaat to help pay his debt, whether the amount is large or small; or his creditor should be paid directly on his behalf, so long as it is paid off. Zakaat can be given in the path of Allah. By this is meant to finance a Jihad effort in the path of Allah, not for Jihad for other reasons. The fighter (mujahid) will be given as salary what will be enough for him. If he needs to buy arms or some other supplies related to the war effort, Zakaat money should be used provided the effort is to raise the banner of Islam. The wayfarer. This is the traveller who in a strange land runs out of money. He or she deserves Zakaat, enough money to take him back to his country, even if he is wealthy and can find someone to loan him the money. On his part, he should take with him on his trip sufficient money, if he is wealthy, so that he will not need Zakaat. Zakaat money can not be used to pay off other obligations, such as giving Zakaat money to people you are obligated to take care of by law; or Zakaat money can not be used to pay for hotel and food expenses. It is, however, permissible to give Zakaat to a wife or family member, provided it is not part of their daily living expense money, but is needed to pay off a debt for one's wife if she can not pay it. So is the case for one's parents if they can not pay their debt. Zakaat money may be given to members of the family for their expenses if one is not obligated to take care of them financially. The wife can pay off a debt of her husband with Zakaat money, because he may be among the eight eligible recipients and she is not obligated to spend on him as he is on her. The eight eligible recipients of Zakaat can be denied their right to Zakaat without proof from Al-Qur`an or Sunnah. In a hadith reported by Ibn Mas`ud, his wife Zaynab heard the Messenger of Allah order women to give Zakaat, so she asked the Messenger (saas): " O Messenger of Allah, you commanded us to give Zakaat, and I have jewelry that I wanted to assess for Zakaat, but my husband Abdullah bin Mas`ud claimed that his son deserves it more than anyone." The Messenger replied: Your husband Ibn Mas`ud is right. Your son deserves your charity more than anyone." In another hadith reported by Salman bin `Aamir, he said the Messenger of Allah said: " Charity to the poor is only charity, but charity to the rest of kind is charity and maintenance of relations (sillah)." (Nisaee) No loan should be written off as Zakaat because Zakaat is taken and given. Allah (SWT) said: "Of their goods take alms...." (Al-Qur`an, 9: 103) And in a Hadith the Messenger has been reported as saying: "Allah has mandated on you Zakaat to be taken from the wealthy and to be given to the poor." Thus, writing off debt is not taken. For instance, If you loan a person money, you can not write off that loan as a Zakaat. However, it could be written off as sadaqah charity. Furthermore, loan, delinquent or not, is considered an absent money, therefore, it should not be transacted in Zakaat. for Zakaat is assessed only in cash in hand. Besides, debt money is valued less than cash in the hand, and using that money for alms is like exchanging good money for bad. The assessor of alms should try to give his Zakaat to an eligible person, but if he makes a mistake and gives it to an ineligible person it is accepted. In a hadith related by Abu Hurairah, he said the Messenger said: "A man expressed his intention to give charity, so he came with his charity and placed it in the hand of an adulteress. In the morning the people were talking and saying charity was given to an adulteress last night. The donor said: O Allah, to thee be the Praise - charity to an adulteress! He then again expressed his intention to give charity, so he went out with it and placed it in the hand of a rich person. In the morning the people were talking and saying charity was given to a rich person. The donor said, O Allah to You be the praise - charity to a rich man! He then expressed his intention to give charity, so he went out with his charity and placed it in the hand of a thief. In the morning the people were talking and saying charity to the thief. So the man said, O Allah to You be the praise (what a misfortune that charity has been given) to the adulteress, the rich and the thief! Then someone came to him and told him your charity has been accepted. As for the adulteress the charity might become the means whereby she might restrain from fornication. The rich man might perhaps learn a lesson and spend from what Allah has given him, and the thief might thereby restrain from committing theft. (Muslim/ Bukhari) http://www.islamfortoday.com/beliefs.htm

Gas Price Whining Forces Rush to Explain Capitalism Yet Again? Gas Price Whining Forces Rush to Explain Capitalism Yet Again RUSH: I went to the MoveOn.org website today. You know what they're all up in arms about today? High gas prices. They're sending out an action e-mail to all of their members asking people to sign a petition to get Congress to do something about high gas prices, and Congress is going to do something about high gas prices. Have you heard this? They are going to sue OPEC! They are going to sue OPEC for high gas prices. Why aren't they suing Big Oil, I wonder? The House voted yesterday to allow the government to sue OPEC over oil production quotas. They ought to sue themselves! They're the ones standing in the way of our energy independence. You know, high gasoline prices, high oil prices today are partially due to the fact that back in the Clinton administration and since the Democrats have prevented any drilling in, say, ANWR or anywhere else for our own supplies of oil. They have all this dramatic talk about alternative fuels and so forth, which is a pipe dream. There's nothing down the road that's anywhere near something that's going to solve whatever problem we have. But I find it interesting they want to sue OPEC and not Big Oil. This is, again, something that will go nowhere. BREAK TRANSCRIPT RUSH: "The jump in U.S. gasoline prices this year has so far drained consumers of an extra $20 billion, or about $146 for each passenger car in the country, the Government Accountability Office told Congress on Tuesday." That's also known as the GAO. "The national price for regular unleaded gasoline hit a record $3.22 a gallon this week, and is up $1.05 since the beginning of February, according to the Energy Department." Now, get this. "The added expense is taking money away from consumers to spend on other goods and services." Yes, it is. "Spending billions more on gasoline constrains consumers' budgets, leaving less money available for other purchases." Why don't you people think about this on tax cuts, for crying out loud? If you want to cut prices on gasoline, cut the taxes, the state, the city, the feds, whatever else. It adds up to 60 cents a gallon. It's all profit. We've been over this I don't know how many times. Mrs. Clinton said something about doing something to increase the supply, lower the price, I forget what it was, and I'm sitting there thinking, if you are Big Oil and you are a global concern, your market is the world, why in the world would you invest heavily in -- I think this is about refineries, we need to be building more refines -- who's standing in the way of building more refineries? Environmentalist wackos. And who are they aligned with? They're aligned with the Democrats and left. But if you're Big Oil, why would you even consider investing gazillions of dollars in a country that is trying to ban your product? Somebody needs to ask that question besides me. BREAK TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Mike in northern Wisconsin somewhere you're next on the EIB Network. Hello, sir. CALLER: Hey, Rush, how's it going? RUSH: Fine, sir. CALLER: I got a tanker up here, a gas tanker, and I'm not going to tell you who I drive for -- RUSH: Wait, wait, hold -- time-out, time-out, I want to hear -- you driving the tanker? CALLER: Yes, I am right now. I'm going to get another load of that precious liquid gold. RUSH: Yes. CALLER: (Laughing.) Anyway, what I wanted to say was, I just delivered in a store here, and they were lined up at two stations, the one I was at and one across the street. The prices -- for granted, let's say they're just high, okay, whatever. RUSH: Right. CALLER: We can't keep gas in the ground, people are buying it as fast as we can put it in the ground. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I'm just telling you it doesn't seem -- if the world is going you know where in a handbasket and everything is going bad, people seem to be buying gas and going on vacations up here and -- RUSH: We know this is true. Your little story here is anecdotal, but we know it's true. There have been surveys. Something came out yesterday that driving went down for a while, on a percentage basis from the previous year. But from what you're describing, people waiting in line for your truck to show up to refill the tanks at the station? CALLER: There was people there waiting, and I pulled in, and I had to block the road just so I could get in and unload this thing, and we ran all weekend. We had trucks out all week running. Now, if the economy is so bad, how come people keep buying all this gas and the motorcycles and their motor homes and -- somebody's making money somewhere putting this gas in their tanks. RUSH: You are really shrewd, I have to tell you, and plus you have the benefit of being an eyewitness to this. This notion the economy is in bad shape and that people are fretting over gasoline prices is simply manufactured news, manufactured news from the Democrat Party, and they're trying to compare it to food prices, which it is a necessary. We all have to eat in this country. I had somebody ask me the other day, "Rush, let me ask you a question, you once said, and you're right, that that you go to the grocery store and the profit markup in a grocery store on basic foodstuffs is 1%, grocery stores make their money selling the stuff at the checkout counter and the magazines and the candy and all this sort of stuff and the mops and the spic-and-span, whatever's in there. But on basic foodstuffs, profit margin is 1%, because people have to eat." He said, "Well, why doesn't Big Oil look at it that way. People have to drive to get to the grocery store to eat." I said, "Well, both prices, both profit markups, both businesses are constrained by the market forces in which they operate. People do need gasoline, and that's why they're driving." They're not going to slow down and they're not going to stop going to work and they're not going to get on the light rail train. We have some of the ugliest light rail trains I have ever seen in my life right down here in West Palm Beach. I don't go over there much, but sometimes I have to get to the airport. You get stopped sometimes, when I come in late from a flight getting home, midnight or one o'clock, that seems to be when these things are moving, and nobody's on them -- wait, no, that's the freight trains. Take it back. These are the transit, the rush hour, little all-day-long light train. They're supposed to be painted to look like Florida blue with the palm trees. They don't look like that. They look ugly. They look like they're unfinished, looks like they bought used train cars and they haven't done anything to them. But the thing I noticed, they're always empty. I scour, I look in the windows, you might see one or two people on a three-car train. They're empty. People don't want to get on these things, and they don't want to get on buses, outside of New York, where this is standard form of transportation, cabs and buses and subways and so forth. But around the rest of the country they want to drive their cars and they're going to and they're going to pay whatever it costs. They might complain but they'll pay it. BREAK TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Darren in Billings, Montana, I'm glad you waited as we get back to the phones. Welcome to the EIB Network. CALLER: Hey, Rush, it's great to talk with you. Mostly dittos from Montana. RUSH: Thank you, sir. Never been there and would love to go. CALLER: I'd say, we'd love to have you up here sometime. RUSH: I'll make it at some point. CALLER: There we go. Hey, the problem with the analogy of the oil company and the grocery store is that the oil companies own the product from the raw stage to the retail stage. And the grocery store is actually the true showcase of the free market, where they're buying products from different places and different manufacturers and wholesalers, whereas the oil companies are controlling it all. RUSH: So? CALLER: Well, this is the reason that gas is the price that it is. They're the ones handling that. There is no free market in the oil business. RUSH: Okay. There's no free market in the oil business? The prices in the oil business are fixed? Democrats in Congress conducted an investigation, I think it was Senate Democrats might have conducted an investigation after Hurricane Katrina to find out if there was price fixing. The Democrats couldn't find any evidence of it. CALLER: No, I wouldn't say that there's price fixing. RUSH: Well, if you -- CALLER: I simply don't think that there is the true free market that we see in all the other industries. I don't see any other industry that controls things from raw material to retail sale. I don't think that the supply-demand -- RUSH: Well, then tell me how it is that the prices in this country are lower than they are anywhere else in the world? CALLER: I don't have an answer for you right off on that. RUSH: Well, you know, I've got limited time -- CALLER: I don't know how all the other countries are working. RUSH: You're a great guy, you're a nice guy. There's no free market in gasoline. Propaganda works on this every time the price starts going up, and I don't get it. I just don't. BREAK TRANSCRIPT RUSH: When you get otherwise intelligent people saying there's no free market in the price of gasoline, after all of the countless years of detailed attention paid to the subject, the painstaking research, the patient presentation of facts by me, I often throw up my hands. Let me try, because I know that the gas price is one of these things that when it comes up, it goes up, people think that there's some suspicious or conspiratorial reason behind it, they just cannot accept the fact that the free market works in gasoline. So let me ask a question. Or let me ask many questions. Let us speak of many answers. How many oil companies are there that sell gasoline in the United States of America? How many are there? Take a wild guess. I don't even know the answer, but it doesn't matter because there's more than one. If you don't think they are competing with each other, then you don't know the world. ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, and whoever the others are, they compete with one another. That's number one. I realize that some of you might think they all get together and set the price and so forth. Second thing is, how many companies are there selling gasoline in this country that are not American? Citgo is one, there's Hugo Chavez. British Petroleum. Do you think that ExxonMobil and BP and the rest are getting together with Hugo to set prices in the United States? Remember, now, these people are the world market. Now, where does this oil come from? Gasoline is oil first and there are a bunch of different places it comes from. All over the world. Comes from Canada. In fact, that's the number one country we get oil from. That's our number one importer. Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Russia. The oil companies do not own this oil as it is. I don't know if you've noticed this, but Hugo Chavez just kicked the oil companies out of Venezuela. He's nationalizing everything. He's taken it, screw you, if you want to stay here and run the wells and so forth we can work out a little production deal, but, ha-ha-ha-ha, this stuff belongs to Venezuela because the oil is ours. Same thing happened in Saudi Arabia and Rockefeller got his change before that happened, but same thing happened there, basically. "We don't need you anymore." So tell me how it is that oil, which starts the whole price timeline, coming from so many different places in the world, ends up as refined gasoline with no free market determining the price in this country. I want to know how this is possible. I want to know how it is that BP, ExxonMobil, Citgo, name other companies, the size that are out there -- hell, I don't know -- Conoco's merged with somebody. I want to know how they're getting together with the Russians and with the Saudis and coordinating this. Then I want you to tell me, the guys playing the futures market in oil on the commodities market, I want you to tell me how they are involved in this so that the price is set by one person from the time it comes out of the ground 'til it gets to your car as gasoline, the idea that that's true is false. All these companies compete with one another at the retail level, they are competing with each other to find oil all over the world. We have to buy oil from all these different countries, and we have to refine it here. All of these aspects have market circumstances that rein in the desire for people to charge more than what they can get for it. Then you've got the stockholders of these publicly traded companies who are demanding profits as big as they can be. They're publicly traded companies and if the managers of these companies don't get as big a profit as they could or if they get too little a profit, there's going to be hell to pay from the shareholders. Now, I want to know how in the world anybody can genuinely think that the oil companies, who are citizens of the world, own every bit of oil that comes out of the ground and then every bit of the processing before it becomes gasoline, then it becomes gasoline and goes into your tank, I want to know how this happens. This is news to me. And why is it that the Democrats in the Congress are suing OPEC in order to do something about the rising gas prices. Why aren't they suing Big Oil? And how is it that OPEC isn't Big Oil and how is it that Hugo Chavez isn't Big Oil and how is it that Russia isn't Big Oil, and how is it that British Petroleum and ExxonMobil and Conoco or whoever else, how come they are? I'm sitting here mystified by all this. This is not to say that I'm insensitive to the price, but the idea here -- oh, and one more question. Have you heard of a country called China? I'm sure many of you have. We refer to them here lovingly and affectionately as the ChiComs. Well, despite their best efforts over there, they are having an expanding economy. There are now multimillionaires in China and more and more people have access to automobiles that use gasoline, and they are putting a lot of pressure on the worldwide supply of gasoline, and in this country, your friends, the Democrats, are standing in the way of this country finding any more oil on our property; be it Alaska; be it off one of the coasts, they won't let it happen, while at the same time they're talking about energy independence. So I want to know how it is, at that Big Oil, which earns 30% of its income from operations in the United States, I want to know how it is that Big Oil and all these companies competing with one another somehow control the product around the world from the moment it comes out of the ground. I want to know how they own Saudi Arabia. I want to know how they own Russia. I want to know how they own Iran. I want to know how they own Venezuela. Niger, Big Oil -- there's oil coming out of the ground everywhere but here. I want to know this. If you can answer these questions, with all the pressure on the supply, the worldwide supply that the rising Chinese economy is put -- and the Indian economy, by the way, they're going bonkers as well, if you can tell me how Big Oil controls every drop from the time it comes out of the ground until tends up as gasoline in your tank, then I can maybe accept your -- but you can't tell me because it's not possible, because it isn't true, because it doesn't happen. If you want a shocking statistic, I've forgotten the actual numbers here. Going to have to go back to my website tonight to the archives, I gotta remember the date and find this. Maybe Koko can search for it real quick when he hears what I'm talking about here. I was playing golf with a guy who had just had a conversation with an energy expert and he was passing the story on, secondhand. I didn't hear it from the horse's mouth, but the numbers of people in the world who don't have electricity would stun you. Who don't have running water, stun you. Don't drive, don't have automobile, would stun you. It's a vast, vast majority. If those people ever got -- by the way, you people like flipping on the light switch at home. You like when the air-conditioner works? Where do you think that comes from? They won't let us do nuke power, so it's coal and it's oil. I haven't even scratched the surface of the oil industry here. I haven't even begun to scratch the surface, the costs in finding it, drilling it, bringing it up, transporting it as crude across the oceans and pipelines and so forth. I literally am amazed that somehow the truth and the facts of the oil business, economics of the oil business, escape people when the economics of most other things are never questioned. Well, I'm not totally mystified. You've got the Democrat Party and the Drive-By Media routinely telling people they're being gouged, and you've got Democrats talk windfall profits taxes and so forth and so on. I'm blue in the face trying to describe to you how much every gallon you buy goes to your state, local, and federal government as total profit. Nobody ever complains and they're talking about raising those taxes, by the way, in the midst of all this, yeah, because, you know what, as the price goes up, some people are buying fewer gallons of gas, and that's less tax money. So the roads may not be repaired, bridges may not be prepared and so forth. So all these people out there wanting you driving these little windmill hybrids. I'll tell you what, if everybody did that, and the consumption of gasoline went down big time, you think the taxes wouldn't go up to make up the loss to the government? It would. This market is so complex, it's like the climate, although it's not nearly as complex as the climate, it is profoundly complex, and to try to control it and corner it is impossible. BREAK TRANSCRIPT RUSH: I have a little chart from the year 2001 from the Wall Street Journal. The source of this chart is Energy Intelligence Group. It's a chart of oil companies by size of crude production. The largest oil company in the world: Saudi ARAMCO is the number one oil company in the world in 2001, producing 8.3 million barrels of oil a day. Next is the National Iranian Oil Company, NIOC, at 3.77 million barrels of crude a day. The third largest oil company is PEMEX, that's Mexico, 3.56 million barrels, and they just announced a huge find in the in the Gulf of Mexico off of their shores. The fourth largest oil company by crude production -- and this is going to be a small number now given what's recently happened there -- is Venezuela. The company is PDVSA, three million barrels of crude a day, but they've just nationalized a bunch of oil down there, they claim, so they're going to be higher than that. Number five is ExxonMobil at 2.54 million barrels of crude a day. So you got Saudi Arabia at 8.3 million barrels a day. There's ExxonMobil at 2.54. ExxonMobil's market share of the world oil market is 3%. Don't anybody call here again and tell me about Big Oil engaging in price fixing and controlling every bit of the oil from the ground to your tank as gasoline.

The Best of ISTANBUL? The Best of ISTANBUL WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR: 1) memorable/dramatic scenery, landscape photography, or specifically where to find the best (viewpoints, vistas, city views, natural views, panoramas, sunsets, etc..) 2) also looking for hikes/hilltops/lookouts, and other amazing, breathtaking views? 3) lovely/charming streets, cute villages, hidden nooks/places? 4) specialty/unique regional cuisine/gastronomy (at places where local's eat @ local's prices (5-10USmax). Here food must be made with love, and regional favorites are specialties. Also the fewer tourists - the better. What I've got so far... Blue mosque, Haga sophia, Topakapi palace, Shahzade Mosque, Sulemaine mosque, Ortakoy Mosque, Ibrahim Pasha mosque, Fatih mosuqe, Mehmet mosque, Iznik mosque, Cihangir mosque, Rüstem Pasha Mosque, Sokollu Mehmet Pasha Mosque, Mihrimah Mosque, Yeni Valide Camii, Nuruosmaniye Mosque, Beyazit Mosque, Nusretiye Mosque, view of Maidan tower at Sunset (from boat?), Mikla restaurant view (Marmara pera hotel rooftop), Grilled fish sandwiches from boats near the Galata Bridge, with lemon, salt, raw onions, and pickles, sunset view of Old town (from Karaköy wharf/Galata bridge), Balat/Fenner architecture? (what's here?), Yedikule neighbourhood (what's here?), Anadolu Kavagi, views of Old town from hotel rooftops on Asian side, Soguk Cesme Sokak street (and other wooden houses), Kilimli beach (Ağva), Yerebatan Saray Sarnici, Çamlıca Hill, what is attractive in Kemalpaşa? If you can help me edit my list (group items based on district, etc...), that would really help. Of course, feel free to add, or remove items as you like. I'll have 5 weeks to explore Istanbul. Thanks

Why do charity shops charge so much for things they sell? Ive noticed that over the past few years the price of clothes etc has shot up. I was in my local red cross chairty shop last saturday and the jeans were £5.50, shoes £4.50, and tops £4,20. The thing is you can buy the same items in primark for less and at least they dont smell. They get things for free, dont have to pay their staff as its voluntary work, i just cant understand why they have to charge so much. A barnados shop has opened in the city centre that sells really modern clothing, bags and shoes and even in there you could by the same things cheaper from the actual shop they came from. I mean charging £9.50 for a pair of worn jeans is taking the pi**. I know where id rather shop and its not in a charity shop. Im sorry but if they brought the prices down a bit they might actually get customers. I took some of my sons old clothes into one near my house and the next day i went in for a book and they all have £3.00 tags on them!! £1.00 yes but not £3.00. Its cheaper at primark!!!!!

Who didn't want their breakfast this morning? KAMPONG SPEU, Cambodia - At dawn in a ramshackle elementary school in rural Cambodia, the children think of only one thing: their stomachs. They anxiously await the steaming buckets of free rice delivered to their desks. But by the end of the month, they will no longer get free breakfast from the U.N. World Food Program. About 450,000 Cambodian students will become the latest victims of soaring global food prices. Five local suppliers have defaulted on contracts to provide rice because they can get a higher price elsewhere, program officials say. Prices of rice have tripled on the global market since December. Faced with a shortfall of more than 14,000 tons of rice, and with more pressing needs to meet, the World Food Program stopped the free breakfasts in March. The schools' remaining stocks are expected to run out in the coming days. That will leave students without what was often the best meal they got all day. "I feel hopeless," said Boeurn Srey Leak, a 15-year-old in sixth grade. Rich countries have pledged $469 million for food aid to address what is expected to be a $755 million deficit, due to food prices that have risen 76 percent since December. The U.S., already the largest provider of food aid, is expected to contribute almost a third of that money. If Congress approves, the U.S. will contribute $770 million more to be available after Oct. 1. But the money will not arrive in time to save some food programs from being cut or ended. "I don't think there is a single program that doesn't have some kind of concerns because they have to scale down," said Susana Rico, an official of the World Food Program which feeds almost 89 million people worldwide, including 58.8 million children. "The majority of countries will suffer some kind of cutbacks in rations or programs in the next three to five months." The numbers are grim. In Burundi, Kenya and Zambia, hundreds of thousands of people face cuts in food rations after June. In Iraq, 500,000 recipients will likely lose food aid. In Yemen, it's 320,000 households, including children and the sick. Private aid agencies based in the U.S. also said food price hikes are hurting their projects. Mercy Corps will likely distribute 20 percent less food to Iraqi refugees in Syria and serve 12 percent fewer Colombian families fleeing violence in the countryside. World Vision may stop helping 1.5 million people — nearly a quarter of the number it serves — because of rising food prices and pledged donations not yet delivered. At least a third are children. In Cambodia, the free breakfasts that started in 2000 have made children visibly healthier, said Nheng Vorn, the principal of Choumpou Proek School, about 40 miles west of the capital, Phnom Penh. "They are more focused on lessons, and their reading ability has improved subsequently," he noted. But principals at many such rural schools don't have the money to replace the breakfast program. Girls in particular will be at risk of dropping out because families need them at home to work in the fields or help raise siblings, said Thomas Keusters, the World Food Program's Cambodia director. Children in Cambodia often start school late and repeat grades a lot, he said. "It's not uncommon to have a girl in grade five or six who is already 15 or 16 years old," Keusters said. "We are paying them to come to school. I'm very concerned about them because I have no rice." About six miles away from Choumpou Proek school, the students of Sangkum Seksa school devour hearty portions of rice, peas and sardines in the morning. The school has only 10 rooms, housed in two faded yellow concrete buildings. Some students go barefoot. "I can only feel pity for them," said the principal, Tan Sak. "I have no solution for them after the current stock is used up." Before the free breakfasts, many students left school before noon so they could eat lunch at home. "I had difficulty sitting in the class because my stomach was growling," Rim Channa, a 13-year-old fifth-grader. Now, once again, all they will have for breakfast is the tart fruit from the nearby tamarind trees.

Why can't the government tighten their belt also? Why can’t the administration just admit that all these different programs are going to be paid for either by us in the form of higher costs for everything or by our children and grandchildren who will end up paying a massive national debt. (and yes, I know Bush helped run that up also). Do they think we are totally unaware of the fact that there is no such thing as a free lunch in this country? Below is my take on things and if I am wrong, I would really appreciate someone telling me how and where I am wrong. Thanks Cap and Trade Bill: 1.Taxes or fees will be placed on those companies that use and produce oil, natural gas and coal. 2.This will increase their costs and those increases will be passed on to us in the form of higher prices for the products produced by them. For example, Pres. Obama stated during the campaign, that when cap and trade was implemented, our electric bills would skyrocket. 3.Other companies will also experience higher costs because of the above mentioned increases and they also will have to tag on that extra cost when they sell the products to the stores. This will result in higher wholesale prices. 4.The stores will also have experienced extra costs for their fuels and will then pass those extra costs on to us in the form of higher mark ups from the wholesale price. This will mean, that each and every one of us, whether rich or poor will be paying more for everything. No, the poor and middle class will not be taxed….but we will end up paying higher prices instead…so the end result will be the same. We have less money to spend, and our dollar will be worth less (inflation) Basically, the same thing would hold true for the Health Care Reforms that are being bantered around congress right now. Again, there is no free lunch. No matter HOW the government covers the medical costs for those individuals without insurance, the tax payer will be footing the bill either in direct taxes paid to the government, or in higher costs for our private health insurance that we carry. Either way, we lose. I am not against finding and developing alternate energy sources and I am certainly not against all people having access to decent health care, but why can’t the administration take responsibility for cutting their own costs so you and I do not have to pay so much out of our own pocket? For example: How much money is wasted on Washington parties, dinners, banquets etc? How many unnecessary projects are paid for out of tax money…like saving the Marsh Mouse or building tunnels for turtles so they don’t get smucked on the roads? Are you aware that the government spends more for a ream of paper to print on than I do if I go to my local small town office supply house? How about just using some common sense when it comes to purchasing? If I am not seeing this right, I truly do want to know. But don’t just say you are wrong. Tell me how and where I am off base here?

Could it be that the six million Jews who perished at the hands of the Nazis could have been saved? Many books have been published, read and forgotten. There is one book, however, which dare not be allowed to share this fate. This is the chronicles of Rabbi Michael Ber Weissmandl, ztl, of the war years, 1942 to 1945, so aptly named "Min Hametzar" (From the Depths). published in New York in 1961 in Hebrew. Not enough individuals have read this book. The ghastly facts uncovered in it are not sufficiently well known. Who can imagine the Hitlerite holocaust? Where is the language to describe it? All the known words of human speech have already been used for conventional occurrences; they have acquired everyday meanings and have been fashioned with an inability to describe the horrors of an Auschwitz or a Treblinka. What can be said to make individuals understand the wild cries of the night, when our brothers and sisters were led to the slaughterhouses? And in what way can one convey the conversion of precious Jews to the status of animals preparatory to being slaughtered? Skyscraping walls prevented their cries being heard, and in that horrible man-made silence, the most valuable portion of the Jewish people was compressed in the confines of the ghettos in hunger and in thirst, in epidemics and in torture, crying bitterly, only to themselves, until the end of their anguish; when they were loaded into the sealed anguish; when they were loaded in the sealed cattle-wagons for the week-long journeys, when their corpses and the still have-living reached the slaughterhouses and gas chambers. Where can existing words be found to fit this story, and who is there to coin new phrases with meaning enough to tell this tale? Yet all this was done through a directive from an innocent-looking office, where the S.S. murderers, with the methods of modern civilization gave the orders which, by chain reaction, set in motion all the machinery of death and destruction to which a stop could not be envisaged. One stroke of the pen to extinguish a hundred thousand lives. A few words enough for a million. And these few officers set the wheels turning in Auschwitz, in Treblinka; the Einsatzkomandos; the deep pits on the lonely plains of Europe overflowing with human blood. So much power behind it, such a military might enforcing it that only the winning of the World War could interfere with this running horror. But how astonished was Rabbi Weissmandl to discover that these strokes of the pen could so easily have been erased, that the Jewish tragedy could to a considerable extent, have been alleviated by some simple "old fashioned" methods. How many hundreds of thousands of Jewish lives could have been saved -- perhaps even millions. Wisliceny was the German henchman for the Jews of Slovakia, Eichmann's representative in that area for establishing the ghettos, destroying their livelihood and finally dispatching to slaughter the hundreds of thousands of Jews in Slovakia and the neighboring countries. He carried out this mission as directed by Eichman and as his own cravings commanded. His was the first country in Europe to be designated for the supply of Jews to the slaughter houses, as it was Slovakia that was first occupied by Hitler--even earlier than Poland. The puppet government of Cardinal Tissu had asked Hitler to "cleanse" its country of Jews. Officially it even paid Germany for transportation, and Wisliceny was the ultimate ruler and organizer. He was nearly always drunk; drunk from spirits and intoxicated with blood -- and seemingly unassailable. Rabbi WeissmandlRabbi Michael Ber Weissmandl, at the end of 1943, when two thirds of the Jews of Slovakia had already been transported for "work" to that far destination, got to know through a certain Hochberg -- an S.S. intriguer, and second in command to Wisliceny, that his chief was also lustful for money and that already on more than one occasion, money had bought relief for some individuals, postponing their deportation. Overwhelmed with joy at this discovery, he consulted his father-in-law, the great and renowned rabbi of Nitra, ztl, who agreed that if this old-fashioned method was effective, there was no reason why it would not be attempted on behalf of the great masses to be saved. Rabbi Weissmandl writes of this same Hochberg, "I was first there on Friday in the summer of 1942 -- Tammuz, 5702. I was standing in the corridor near to the office of Hochberg and all of the waiting rooms around were crowded with those who had come to Hochberg to beg a postponement of that ultimate journey for "work in the east," as many still believed. I heard the voice of Hochberg speaking on the phone to his chief, Wisliceny saying, 'Her Hauptstumbandfuehrer, ich melde ghorehsamst, the train has left: Man 727, Women 637, Children 1667: altogether 3,028 Jawohl!' Never will this total leave my memory; 1600 children! No outcry and no tears. No one cares. The whole world is silent. Jawohl, Herr Hauptsturmbanfuehrer. One of the famous men of Pressberg, Reb Aharon Gruenhut, finally succeeded in gaining confidence by Hochberg in Rabbi Weissmandl, for whom a secret appointment was arranged. On this occasion, the rabbi presented himself as one who had connections with rabbinical circles throughout the world. He showed Hochberg his passport that contained a British visa issued just before the outbreak of war, and told him of his visit to London and of conferences there to impress him with his high standing. He then made it clear that he had come on a secret mission of the highest importance as a representative of Jewry abroad, who had contacted him through the American "Joint" in Switzerland. Their message was that they were prepared to pay in cash for the stopping of all further transports of Jews from Slovakia to the east. The "Joint" was ready to pay the price that his chief, Wisliceny, would name. Rabbi Weissmandl emphasized that neither Hochberg nor Wisliceny should believe that his mission was directed by local Jews. During this conversation with Hochberg in 1943, when the scales of war were already a little out of balance for Hitler's Germany after the heavy defeats in the east and the support of the allies by American might, Rabbi Weissmandl was able, with American might, Rabbi Weissmandl was able , with careful tact, to introduce doubts into Hochberg's mind about German world conquest, and more specifically about Hochberg's own position after the war. He conveyed to him that it would be very much to his and his chief's advantage to make some provisions for their own safety. In this respect, he was now authorized to offer the promise of World Jewry that if they would stop all further transports, he and Wisliceny would be save. Hochberg became enraged at such suggestions, but as the conversation progressed, he became much softer and began to listen carefully to what was proposed. He listened and replied, "I must go to see Wisliceny." He left immediately and Rabbi Weissmandl waited. Every minute seemed like an hour; every hour seemed endless. He sat there exhausted, awaiting the reply fateful for the remaining Jews of Slovakia, with so many hanging in the balance. He had set there for many hours, when suddenly the door burst open and Hochberg hurried into the room. Speaking rapidly and with great excitement, he said, "the deal is done. My chief asked for $50,000 and no further transports will be sent; but he lays down the following terms: Wisliceny will show his goodwill: three transports -- next Tuesday, next Friday, the following Tuesday -- each of about 3000 souls, will be held up, but on Friday after that, the first Installment of $25,000 must be handed over. After that, there will be no further transports for seven weeks, to enable the second installment of $25,000 to be obtained and paid, after which there will be a final stopping of all transports. There is one further condition. You must be able to show that the money comes from abroad and not from Slovakian Jews themselves." The latter was an important point to this S.S. henchman, as a guarantee that it was world Jewry who was behind the deal, and who would finally keep its promise for his safety. In any case, Rabbi Weissmandl did not then think that Slovakian Jews could possibly find such a sum, as by that time they had been stripped of all their possessions. On that other hand, he did not imagine for one moment that the wealthy "Joint" would not provide such a relatively small sum to save literally tens of thousands of lives from total annihilation in the German slaughterhouses. Rabbi Weissmandl left Hochberg's office with hope and joy. He hurried home to Nitra to inform his father-in-law and to set about getting the deal consummated. The Rabbi of Nitra, in spite of his happiness at the possibility of saving so many lives, expressed some reservation. He felt that from a distance the "Joint" would not see their tragedy, and that the Zionist leaders working together with the "Joint" had a different calculation. But he suggested, representatives from beyond the "Kanzelel" -- the Council of Orthodox Jewish Communities -- should be drawn into this, and even the Zionists and non-Orthodox groups taken into partnership. The name of Mrs. Gisi Fleischman came to the forefront, as she was of Zionist circles and also the pre-war representative of the "Joint" in Slovakia. Besides her prominence, she was a good-hearted and courageous women and her word would carry weight with the "Joint". It was also decidedly to call on Mr. Fuerst -- known for both his integrity and financial ability. Among the weapons with which the Zionists have equipped themselves to pierce the walls of resistance to their influence, there is one most predominant. This is "ahavas Yisroel" -- love of the fellow Jew. This slogan and catch-phrase carries extra weight with the religious Jew to whom this concept has a special attraction. The Zionists have explained that their aim is achieving statehood is to provide a refuge and shelter for much tormented Jewry. The long, bloody paths of our, till now, 2000 year long exile, with its inquisitions, persecutions, pogroms, slaughter and torture, has always been at the front of every Jews mind. Seldom was there a place on this earth inhabited by Jews, or a stretch of time, without blood and tears at the hands of our many persecutors of all nations. It was these pogroms that provided, for the short-sighted, the initial conditioning to seek a solution in the outward idea of Zionist achievements. Possibly the Zionists, themselves, at the first steps of inception, were honestly taken by the idea of that solution; and it was this kernel of compassion that gave to them the power to influence others with this superficial consideration. Zionism has built on the basis that the solution of nationhood applicable to any other nation is in the same way also applicable to Jewry, as they could see no difference between the nations of the world and the Jewish people. As they see it, Jews regulate their fate by the same ways and means as all other peoples. The belief in exile by Heavenly Decree as a punishment for our sins, and the belief in Heavenly Redemption by the Will of the Creator was, to Zionism, non-existent. People's thoughts were not directed to the fundamental, all-embracing heresy upon which Zionism was established, but grasped only the attractive promises that were offered because unfortunately, Zionism arrived in the most feeble and small of all generation, coupled with distressing happenings, which contributed to the closing of people's minds to the truth and to their being led astray by the Zionist Idea. THE UNHEEDED CRY Read the gripping story of Rabbi Weissmandl, valiant holocaust leader who battled both Allied indifference and Nazi hatred. Available in our BookstoreHow much were Rabbi Weissmandl and his colleagues overcome with joy when they succeeded in getting the right people together! How great was their hope! But how much were they overwhelmed by sorrow when they tried to get things in motion, and how great was their frustration when they learned that the Zionists, together with the "Joint", stopped every outside help from reaching them. This was not only when it was a question of saving the remnants of the Jews of Slovakia -- about 40,000 souls -- but also when the possibility of saving what was still left of the Jews of Poland and Hungary was in question; a matter then of millions of souls. Then, too, the Zionists deliberately prevented any help from being extended under various excuses that even a child could see through. This was their policy -- stupid and merciless -- but they perused it relentlessly. In the end, they admitted openly that their policy was not to help fellow Jews, but to let them perish in the tens of thousands and in their millions. This is forever unforgettable and unforgivable. Zionist "ahavas Yisroel" must be displayed conspicuously and beyond any doubt. The Friday when the first installment of $25,000 had to be paid was fast approaching and there was not yet a way how this money could be found for Wisliceny. Mrs. Flesichman was also the representative of the World Jewish Congress and well known to the Jewish Agency. She was, therefore, considered to be the most suitable person to make contact with these organizations. Her words would be listed to.... The pressure became even greater when it was seen the S.S. oligarchy was in earnest. The first transport has been stopped. But how can contact be made with Zurich, with New York and with Jerusalem, the seat of the Jewish Agency, which influenced and coordinated the work of these other two bodies? Slovakia was then a small country sealed off by the German occupation of the surrounding territory. There was no common border with any free country, so how could any message be conveyed to the outside world? Shloime Stern was instrumental in finding a temporary solution. He obtained a diplomatic courier, who was prepared to take all the important messages to the "Joint" in Zurich. He was also able to borrow money, temporarily, from various sources in Slovakia, putting together the equivalent of the enormous sounding sum of $25,000. The money obtained was changed on the back market for dollars and handed over to Hochberg for Wisliceny. Hochberg accepted it and came back with the message that there would be no further transports for seven weeks, which time was set for the completion of the deal. They were all convinced that once the diplomatic courier would get their message to the "Joint" and the Jewish Agency, not $50,000 but ten times $50,000 would at once be put at their disposal for this and similar "deals." Surely Jews the world over would dance for joy upon hearing that at last the door was open in the inner circles of the S.S. and a way found to rescue their fellow Jews. Mrs. Fleischman sat down to write the memorandum to Salli Mayer, the "Joint" representative in Switzerland. She was careful in her every word, explaining the situation of hope that had been ignited. The "Joint" should hasten its help at this last moment and miss the life-saving opportunity that had been so dramatically forced. The memorandum was sent to the "Joint", to the Jewish Agency and to a personal friend of hers, Mr. N. Schwalbe in Zurich. And then they sat down to wait. Days went by, swallowed by weeks, and of the seven not many were left. The time for the final settlement was fast approaching and a great sum of money was needed. Many people had managed to escape from the hell of Poland to Slovakia on their way to Hungary and Romania, which were not yet being so intensely processed by the Hitler hordes. They were not a thousandth of a percent of those who were so brutally done to death, but still a number to be supported and a problem of Slovakian Jewry. Money was needed to bribe the Slovakian genarmerie and police to stop their pressure for the deportations to continue. Money was needed for the labor camps in Sered, Novaki and Wiener in Slovakia. The Slovakian anti-Semitic government had built these camps for a slave labor before deportation began, and it was put to those Jews still left there that if they, themselves, would build up and increase the capacity of those labor camps, they would absorb more and so relieve the pressure for "deportations." and above all, the money was needed to refund the temporary loans from so many sources that had gone towards the first payment to Wisliceny and to provide the second $25,000 that would finally seal this blood transaction. All this money was a matter of life or death for the tens of thousands of Jews in Slovakia and, in the end, for millions still alive throughout Europe. Who could provide and who should provide, if not the "Joint" and the Jewish Agency, who held possession of the vast sums of money given by Jews the world over for the help of their brethren in need? Was there anywhere at all any need that was greater? The diplomatic courier left for Zurich, holding in his hands the lamentations of the strangling remnants of Jewry; in his hands, their appeal from death. This courier had to spend some days in Zurich before his return. He was awaited with mounting anxiety, for with his advent were tied up all the hopes of the masses under sentence. And he returned. But not even a letter was sent with him by those "help organizations" only a verbal message that they had no time to write, and of help there was no mention at all. Rabbi Weissmandl writes that on hearing this message, they 'felt as though the house had collapsed on them'. It was only Mrs. Fleischman who started to explain matters after this great shock. She said that "uncle" Salli Mayer was a very cautious man and it was necessary to write again. It was also necessary to write to Mr. Silbersten, the Jewish Congress representative. "And who knows, maybe they are doing something great," she added. Maybe for such a big undertaking they had to refer to New York and Jerusalem -- who knows? View video clip from the documentary, "Among Blind Fools", on Rabbi Weissmandl and his efforts to save thousands of Jews from the holocaust.Rabbi Weissmandl, himself, followed up with letters to the Agency and the "Joint" in the name of the Rabbis left in Slovakia -- letters of tears and of pleading -- but still there was no reply. Meanwhile, the seven weeks had passed and they had to send to Hochberg, asking him to explain to Wisliceny that the messenger that was to bring the money from Switzerland had met with an accident and was delayed in a hospital there. He would be bringing the money in three or four weeks time. Wisliceny agreed to wait. In the end, a letter did come from the "Joint"; a letter written by Salli Mayer, which said that $50,000 was a lot of money for such a small country, and that in the previous year's budget of the "joint", only a few thousand dollars had been allocated for them. The "Joint" had to be run according to their system. The explanation given in the memorandum why they now need all this money and the documentary evidence as to what was happening in Poland, to which country the "deportations" took place, were exaggerated stories. This was the way of Eastern European Jewry, who were always asking for money. In general, he added, it was impossible to send anything at all just then, as the money was coming from America, which had prohibited the sending of funds to enemy countries. What was possible to do was to render some small help, monthly, if the "Joint" in Hungary would agree to do this out of the blocked account that been held since the outbreak of the war. Rabbi Weissmandl and his colleagues read the letter, but they could not believe it had been written by fellow Jews. Their hearts stopped beating when its contents became clear to them. But this was not the end. There was a further letter. It fully explained the first. But it was more deadly and more devastating. It disclosed the bottomless abyss to which born- Jews can sink -- the responsibility of Zionism.

Should we feel sorry for this family because of "their" bad choices? The American Dream turns into a debtor's nightmare A sad, but common, tale starts with alleged predatory lending, intensifies with impossibly high payments and usually ends in foreclosure. By Jennifer Delson and and Christopher Goffard, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers October 8, 2007 Soledad Aviles dreamed for years of owning a home, with a plot of land where he could grow corn and chiles as he did in his native Mexico. So he felt blessed last year when he learned he could buy a three-bedroom, single-story stucco house on West La Verne Avenue in Santa Ana. Referred to a local loan broker by a trusted friend, he borrowed the entire purchase price of $615,000 from Washington Mutual at a high interest rate typical of sub-prime loans. The monthly payment, as he says he understood it, would be $3,600 -- steep for a glass cutter who made $9 an hour -- but Aviles counted on his wife and three of his six daughters, who also worked low-paying jobs, to contribute. "We took out our pencils, figured out our take-home pay and figured out that if we all pitched in, it would work," said Aviles, 54, a stoop-shouldered, soft-spoken man with a sixth-grade education from Mexico. Relying on the broker's word, he signed loan documents written in English, a language he neither speaks nor reads, Aviles said. He was shocked to learn afterward that the monthly payment would not be $3,600, but $4,800 -- a price that forced him to rent out bedrooms, the garage and an enclosed porch while he and his wife slept on the couch. He fed his family with food from friends and corn he grew. Aviles says he was not aware that the February 2006 loan application he signed dramatically exaggerated his family's income. The application lists him as the owner of a landscaping business with a $7,400 monthly income. His 27-year-old daughter Marlene, who earns $9 an hour in a noodle factory, appears as the owner of a housecleaning company who makes $5,700 a month. The application lists their yearly income as $157,000, when, according to Aviles, it was really closer to $60,000. Now, five months behind on his payments, Aviles is scrambling to sell the house before the bank forecloses. Desperately ill from kidney disease and unable to work for the last year, he sits dejectedly at the dining room table, wondering when the bank will kick him out. Aviles' situation is hardly unique. Add his name to the ever-expanding list of casualties in the nationwide sub-prime mortgage debacle, his experience echoing that of thousands who bought homes in recent years only to find themselves in a sagging market saddled with payments they cannot make. But amid the storm of foreclosures, his story illustrates the special vulnerabilities of first-generation immigrants in places like predominantly Latino Santa Ana, where city leaders have identified about 800 sub-prime borrowers facing the potential loss of their homes. "We think this is just the tip of the iceberg, in terms of the breadth and depth," said Steve Harding, Santa Ana's deputy city manager. Apart from the language barrier, he said, many first-generation immigrants might have been especially vulnerable to sub-prime lending because they avoided checking accounts and credit cards, which prevented them from qualifying for regular loans. The city has teamed with the Fair Housing Council of Orange County to offer free foreclosure prevention workshops, hoping to teach people to avoid predatory lenders and find help as they face the loss of their homes. The Fair Housing Council said the number of people seeking help over mortgage woes, many of them Latinos living in Anaheim and Santa Ana, has soared. The group typically receives 15 to 20 complaints annually, but in September of this year the group received more than 20. The state Department of Real Estate, nonprofits and the Mexican consulate also have reported a rise in mortgage complaints, many of them from homeowners saying they signed documents they didn't understand. Across the state, many cases are landing in court. Kerstin Arusha, a directing attorney at the nonprofit Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, said that Spanish speakers, along with the elderly, "seem to be hardest hit by both sub-prime lending and predatory lending. There are many borrowers out there that were misled about the terms of the loan." The Law Foundation is suing a broker, real estate agent and lender in federal court on behalf of nine Santa Clara County families, many of whom speak only Spanish, contending they were lured into mortgages they didn't understand. The lawsuit alleges that the broker inflated incomes on loan applications, misrepresented the terms of the loans and stuck clients with higher payments than they had been promised. The victims "thought they saw the promise of the American Dream, and instead they ended up with a nightmare," Arusha said. "I think they were seen as easy targets for predatory lenders who could sell them a bill of goods without giving them disclosures in a language they understand." The Law Foundation is handling 10 other cases involving predatory lending, half of them for Latino clients, Arusha said. But in Orange County, the district attorney's office has not reported an increase in prosecutions for fraudulent lending. Elizabeth Henderson, a prosecutor in the county's fraud unit, said many such crimes go unreported in immigrant communities because of a distrust of law enforcement and confusion over what had occurred. "They're not really sure what they were promised, so they don't know if they were cheated," she said. Sitting in his Santa Ana home, waiting for the bank to kick him out or for his kidney to kill him, Aviles did not hesitate to characterize what had happened to him: "They used me, nothing more." He was led astray, he said, by a man he had considered a dear friend, Carlos Lares. They used to work in a factory together. He said Lares showed him about a dozen homes, including the one he bought, and offered to arrange a mortgage. State records show Lares lacks the real estate license required to show homes. In an interview with The Times, Lares denied showing homes and said he merely took Aviles to the office where he works, Century 21 South Coast. He declined to comment further. His business card lists him as a "team service associate." Part of me does feel bad for him, but he was stupid to think he could even make payments o $3600 a month, when he and his wife only make $9.00 an hour. WE should not have to bail him out or bail out others like them. This article is the start of letting the taxpayer bail these people out of their situations. Screw the people who made educated choices. """Jesus, Mary and Joseph.....a $600K house? $9/hr income. You must be kidding me. What was this man thinking in ANY language??? """" LOL that is the going rate in this part of the country. What is sad....... the majority of Santa Ana is a dump...... it is an illegals haven...... It is little TJ

Homework help multiple choice 10 points? 1)This award will pay 100% of tuition and allowable fees when attending a Florida public post-secondary institution; you will need to meet certain eligibility requirements including 75 hours of community service. A)Florida Academic Scholars Award (FAS) B)Florida Medallion Scholars Award (FMS) C)Florida Gold Seal Vocational Scholars Award (GSV) D)Subsidized FFEL Loan 2)This award will pay 100% of tuition and allowable fees for college credit courses leading to an associate degree at a Florida public community college or 75% of tuition and allowable fees at another Florida public post-secondary institution. There are certain eligibility requirements, but you do not need community service hours. A)Florida Academic Scholars Award (FAS) B)Florida Medallion Scholars Award (FMS) C)Florida Gold Seal Vocational Scholars Award (GSV) D)Subsidized FFEL Loan 3)A(n) _____ is not awarded on the basis of need. You'll be charged interest from the time the loan is disbursed until it is paid in full. A)subsidized loan B)grant C)scholarship D)unsubsidized loan 4)Money provided by a third party to help students meet the costs of attending college. It can be provided by various agencies including federal, state and local governments, universities, community organizations, and private corporations or individuals. A)Financial Aid B)Florida Pre-Paid College Plan C)College Board D)Bright Futures Scholarship 5)This award will pay 75% of tuition and allowable fees attending a Florida public post-secondary institution; you will need to meet certain eligibility requirements including core courses in a vocational program. A)Florida Academic Scholars Award (FAS) B)Florida Medallion Scholars Award (FMS) C)Florida Gold Seal Vocational Scholars Award (GSV) D)Subsidized FFEL Loan 6)Money for education expenses paid by the school for on-campus or community-based employment. A)Scholarships B)Loans C)Work-Study Programs D)Grants 7)This program consists of three lottery-funded scholarships for Florida high school graduates who demonstrate high academic achievement and enroll in eligible Florida public or private postsecondary institutions. A)Financial Aid B)Florida Pre-Paid College Plan C)College Board D)Bright Futures Scholarship 8)Using the _____ your parents or grandparents can lock in college tuition and dormitory housing at today’s prices. A)Financial Aid B)Florida Pre-Paid College Plan C)College Board D)Bright Futures Scholarship 9)These can come from many different places including national, state, public and private sources. This money can be awarded based on a variety of different factors such as financial need, academic or athletic achievement, program of study, and background. A)Scholarships B)Loans C)Work-Study Programs D)Grants 10)If you're looking for any type of financial assistance to attend school, completing the _____ is the first step. This application is used to apply for all need-based federal aid programs and some state aid programs. A)Office of Student Financial Assistance (OSFA) B)Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) C)Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG) D)Subsidized FFEL Loan

How can I get some good karma? I have had the worst luck lately. I'm not sure why the bad karma is clinging to me since I just donated to Toys for Tots, the Humane Society, and a local food pantry. I am also a psychology intern and do therapy for people with severe mental illness for free. Something isn't right. The house I put an offer on doubled in price, I walked out my door in high heels and stepped in two feet of snow, my brother overdosed on pills, my fiance's truck (our financial support) is broken, none of my friends have been talking to me, and much more. I am getting so depressed. I feel alone and irritated at everything that has been happening. What kinds of things can I do to get karma back on my side?

Why do people think bad about me? Its not a problem but I often wonder why people think I'm a bad person, lets see you someone can enlighten my on why people think the way they do. I'll explain me and my situations. I'm 19 don't smoke, drink, party,do drugs. I graduated High school on time, I am a certified computer tech, I'm working on my third language, I play and read music, my hobbys are World history, Cars "American cars such as corvettes and camaros" guitar piano and building computers and fixing them for cheap or free. I do volunteer work, I give guitar lessons for cheap considering that $10 dollars an hour is cheaper then the current price of $50 at local music shop.I do go to school "college" I'm studying Business admin, ive never gotten a speeding ticket nor been arrested. I help my sick mom with everything from cleaning the house to cooking. I am very respectful in two languages Im polite i say please,thank you hello goodbye, I hold the door for people small things like that. i don't go to church I wear clothes that fit me not loose not tight I often wear black T shirts only because I think it looks good with levis, my hair is not long but not short. I live in a in an area where most people have no high school diploma and believe everything Telemundo tells them and I'm not trying to come off as an asshole im being honest. So why do people treat me so bad or different compared to my friends who are nor lesser then me but no better yet there priorities are different from mine and addictions stop them from achieving their full potential. Im not one to judge but the fact is they much rather drink then go to school.... so on the list can go on. Yet its like the people treat them better then me. I don't expect spacial treatment but at lest treat me like with some consideration of feelings. for example I was walking down the street and this guy ask me in a smart ass tone of voice "shes getting bigger" not realizing what he meant at the moment that he thought I had a kid. I found out what he meant because the guys wife spoke to my mother and thought I messed up and had a mistakenly knocked up some random girl but my mother told his wife that im not the kids father but the kids uncle "It was my older bros kid" another example is people telling my mom im up to no good that i worship the devil because i wear black shirts alot and i don't dress all thuged out. I can name times were ive been literally ditched and stranded at places because the mother or whoever friends father mother i was with thought i was up to no good. What could it be?

I Found The Horse, Now I Need To Convince My Parents? Last year, I found the horse of my dreams. I started taking lessons with his owner on Cody (the horse of my dreams) and then I just fell in love with him. He's the perfect horse for me. He never bucks, rears, takes off with you, bites, kicks or anything like that. He has no past of severe health problems. He's kinda lazy but that's ok!!!! :) Recently, Sue started thinking about selling Cody. My parents saw how devestated I was by this and considered buying him and keeping him at my aunts house for me. But that's about 2 hours away. I would be able to see him every other weekend and on all summers. But my dad agrees with me, "what good would that do?" Then Cody got hurt but now he's better and we're getting him back into being ridden again. Sue is still thinking about selling him... She said to me on the phone the other day, "I would give Cody to you for a VERY good price or maybe even free..." and I talked to my dad about it. He said he'd have to talk to my mom and my aunt about it. when I talked to my aunt on the phone she said "I would keep the horse in my name legally but you could keep him at your local stable so you could ride him and take care of him and he would be your horse." We are going to sit down and have a conversation all together about this tomorrow when my Aunt just happened to be coming up for a work thing. My questions are: 1. How can I convince my dad that this IS a good idea? 2. What is a mature thing I can say to help my parents realize that I'm ready for this? Thanks so much in advance. By the way I'm 14 and have a lot of riding experience and experience with horses!

More Stupid Econ Homework I dont have time for ..? K guys,can you help me out,anyway possible is appreciated(: 1. Give TWO examples of financial capital. 2. Define inflation in your own words. 3. What is one problem with inflation? 4. What does inflation do to the value of financial assets? 5. What does the national debt represent? 6. For most developed countries, what does the national debt consist of? 7. Give an example of an IOU instrument the US government uses. 8. What is the Federal Reserve System? 9. What are its duties? 10. Explain in your own words how the Fed represents a mixture of government power and private ownership. 11. What kinds of safeguards have been established to ensure the Fed.'s neutrality and impartiality in economic affairs? Private property (Your right to own something is protected by law.) Free competition (Unfair trade practices, such as monopolies, are illegal.) Savers and investors (Laws regulate the banking industry.) Consumers (Consumer safety laws exist to make sure things we buy are safe.) Workers (The government sets a minimum wage.) 14. Select TWO of the above categories and give a specific example of how government intervenes in each of those areas. Give the example for the first category that you selected. 15. Give the example for the second category that you selected. The government also provides public goods and services. If you read the section on Public Expenditure, you will see a list of government departments and their respective responsibilities. Just from looking at this list, you can get an idea of the many services the government provides. 16. List AT LEAST FIVE public goods or services that the government provides that YOU benefit from. These can be related to the lists on this web site, or things you've thought up on your own. Finally, the government also helps in dealing with the nation's economic problems, by taxing, spending, and regulating the money supply. 17. List AT LEAST TWO kinds of taxes that you or that your family pays. 18. Based on what you've learned in this lesson, why is the US economy called a mixed economy? Because the government takes in less in taxes than it spends, it must borrow money each year. This borrowing is similar to individual overspending through the use of credit cards. The government borrows money to cover deficit spending by selling securities to individuals and businesses. The money the government owes on these securities is the National Debt. The federal securities include Treasury bonds, notes, and bills. United States Savings Bonds are actually loans that individuals make to the federal government. While the government acquires new debt each year by issuing new securities, it retires old debt by paying off bonds, notes, and bills as they come due. Do you think this is a problem? If so, you may use it as the basis for one of the next questions. 19. Name TWO major economic problems that exist in this country today. (If you haven't come up with any ideas from this lesson's reading and can't think of any off the top of your head, have a look in your local newspaper.) For each, include a) why it is a problem and b) what you think could be done to solve it. Please name the first economic problem. 20. Please name the second economic problem. 21. Write AT LEAST a paragraph describing Keynes' main contributions to economic thought and influence on modern economies. 22. To what two areas of control has the US government’s monetary policy historically been assigned? 23. What do all of these things have in common? Stock prices up Increase in household wealth Change in value of the dollar on currency markets I ncreased demand for big-ticket items Housing boom

Why do I get unwanted emails in my Yahoo account that are for future days and future years, are they viruses? I sent an email a few weeks ago and did not get a response. Please help. I am getting email in my "cvictormcknight@yahoo.com" email account that are for future days and future years. I would like to stop getting these emails. I never open them, because I do not know if they are viruses or not. Need your help ASAP. The following is a example of what it looks like: TODAY IS SUNDAY January 13, 2008 Inbox Switch to the new Yahoo! Mail View: All Messages Messages 1-200 of 2633First | Previous | Next | Last DeleteSpamMarkMove... Sender Subject Date Size Quick Quotes$250,000 Policy for around $10 a month! Mon Jan 18, 20383k DIRECT INSURE ONLINEAUT0 INSURANCE SAVINGS UP TO $600 A YEAR ! Mon Jan 18, 20385k Crush Mail WaitingYou Have 1 Unread Crush Mon Jan 18, 20383k DIRECT INSURE ONLINEAUT0 INSURANCE SAVINGS UP TO $600 A YEAR ! 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Help me revise my paper please? Today, oil prices are skyrocketing due to the huge dependency. America has meager amounts of oil supply on its own land; hence we look to other countries for help. These countries can charge more than what it is actually worth, causing an uproar about price. With little help that we have day after day, we look for alternative energy as a way to stop our dependency on oil itself. Scientists believe that alternative energy is more reliable than decreasing oil supply; it is less harmful to our surrounding environment and just plain out better for America in the long run. Oil isn’t only costly financially, it is also costing our environment. Today the world’s dependence on fossil fuels exacerbates air, soil, and water pollution (Roberts1). In addition, it is causing global climate change caused mainly by increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide gas. In present day there are numerous accounts of controversies concerning the issue of whether or not we should dig for oil on reserves. With alternative energy we will simply cut pollution, we can save the reserves and create energy in more effective ways. Oil, in years to come, will merely run out, causing complete chaos throughout the entire world. The world cannot continue to rely so heavily on fossil fuels without placing the global environment at risk. Acid rain and air pollution are two recognizable consequences of fossil fuel use (Brower1).An even greater threat is that global warming is taking its course. Whether or not one believes the most dire predictions by scientists of the magnitude and effects of global warming, the risks cannot be diminished without substitutes for fossil fuels (Bower1). Most of these energy technologies result in little or no pollution or hazardous waste, drawing entirely on domestic resources (Bower1). Alternative energy produces far less carbon dioxide and other GHGs(Green House Gases) than oil. Moreover it supports local agriculture creating more opportunities for the economy. (Roberts3) The wind will never stop blowing and the sun will never stop shining; therefore alternative, energy is a never ending source. There are several different ways to produce alternative energy, thus mass amounts can be produced and there is always another option. The most common source of alternative energy is the wind tribune, which is extremely efficient at producing energy. Wind power could replace up to 20% of our total electric consumption in the foreseeable future (Blumenthal1). Wind is a clean source of energy with none of the harmful byproducts like carbon dioxide. Another common source of energy is solar energy. The sun is the single most powerful source of energy that is free and extremely efficient. It is said that capitalizing on this could be one of the best ways to reduce the demands for oil, and looking forward in the future, the solar power can be the primary source of energy by future man (Blumenthal1).Available solar power provides 100times more energy than all proven reserves of coal, oil and natural gas could generate. Not only are there just solar and wind there is hydroelectric energy, which can simply be produced by dams, tidal energy, which uses the natural waves of the ocean, lastly biomass, which can be produced by animal waste, agricultural crops, grains, wood, mill residues, forest and aquatics (Blumenthal1). Yes, wind tribunes can be obnoxious to ones view, solar power can solemnly be found in sunny areas, and damns are sparse, but in reality those complaints are pathetic compared to all the complaints about oil. Scientists are advancing in new ways to make these simple problems disappear by creating smaller wind tribunes that are just as effective and creating new ways to apply the solar power source and hydroelectric source as well. With the various types of energy sources to fall back on it is truly hard for one to say alternative energy isn’t reliable. Currently the world relies heavily on the energy sources of coal, electricity, and carbon-containing substances such as fossil fuel. These elements, although found within the earth's ecosystem. are neither renewable nor found in abundance(Brower1). Fortunately, all alternative energy sources are renewable and found in abundance. Today, the worldwide energy demands total about 10,700,000 megawatts of power. It’s purely impossible to have such a huge demand with such a small amount of oil to supply that demand. Switching to alternative energy is extremely effective and has been done .A recent study published by the German Wind Energy Institute and the [the environmental campaigners] Greenpeace shows that Germany, Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Denmark together have sufficient wind resources to generate more than three times the combined electric power needs of the five countries (Mayer100). Studies have shown these elements such as the sun, wind and water are in abundance and can generate a continual supply of energy, which will never run out or fall s

Was He a hateful and murderous God and suddenly become LOVING in the NEW TESTAMENT? Murder in the Bible The act of murder is rampant in the Bible. In much of the Bible, especially the Old Testament, there are laws that command that people be killed for absurd reasons such as working on the Sabbath, being gay, cursing your parents, or not being a virgin on your wedding night. In addition to these crazy and immoral laws, there are plenty of examples of God's irrationality by his direct killing of many people for reasons that defy any rational explanation such as killing children who make fun of bald people, and the killing of a man who tried to keep the ark of God from falling during transport. There are also countless examples of mass murders commanded by God, including the murder of women, infants, and children. The following passages are a very small percentage of the total passages approving of murder in the Bible. They are divided here into three parts: 1) Capital Punishment Crimes, 2) God's Murders for Stupid Reasons, 3) Murdering Children, and 4) Miscellaneous Murders. This list is long, but it barely scratches the surface of all the murders approved of in the Bible. 1) Capital Punishment Crimes: Kill People Who Don't Listen to Priests Anyone arrogant enough to reject the verdict of the judge or of the priest who represents the LORD your God must be put to death. Such evil must be purged from Israel. (Deuteronomy 17:12 NLT) Kill Witches You should not let a sorceress live. (Exodus 22:17 NAB) Kill Homosexuals "If a man lies with a male as with a women, both of them shall be put to death for their abominable deed; they have forfeited their lives." (Leviticus 20:13 NAB) Kill Fortunetellers A man or a woman who acts as a medium or fortuneteller shall be put to death by stoning; they have no one but themselves to blame for their death. (Leviticus 20:27 NAB) Death for Hitting Dad Whoever strikes his father or mother shall be put to death. (Exodus 21:15 NAB) Death for Cursing Parents 1) If one curses his father or mother, his lamp will go out at the coming of darkness. (Proverbs 20:20 NAB) 2) All who curse their father or mother must be put to death. They are guilty of a capital offense. (Leviticus 20:9 NLT) Death for Adultery If a man commits adultery with another man's wife, both the man and the woman must be put to death. (Leviticus 20:10 NLT) Death for Fornication A priest's daughter who loses her honor by committing fornication and thereby dishonors her father also, shall be burned to death. (Leviticus 21:9 NAB) Death to Followers of Other Religions Whoever sacrifices to any god, except the Lord alone, shall be doomed. (Exodus 22:19 NAB) Kill Nonbelievers They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and soul; and everyone who would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. (2 Chronicles 15:12-13 NAB) Kill False Prophets If a man still prophesies, his parents, father and mother, shall say to him, "You shall not live, because you have spoken a lie in the name of the Lord." When he prophesies, his parents, father and mother, shall thrust him through. (Zechariah 13:3 NAB) Kill the Entire Town if One Person Worships Another God Suppose you hear in one of the towns the LORD your God is giving you that some worthless rabble among you have led their fellow citizens astray by encouraging them to worship foreign gods. In such cases, you must examine the facts carefully. If you find it is true and can prove that such a detestable act has occurred among you, you must attack that town and completely destroy all its inhabitants, as well as all the livestock. Then you must pile all the plunder in the middle of the street and burn it. Put the entire town to the torch as a burnt offering to the LORD your God. That town must remain a ruin forever; it may never be rebuilt. Keep none of the plunder that has been set apart for destruction. Then the LORD will turn from his fierce anger and be merciful to you. He will have compassion on you and make you a great nation, just as he solemnly promised your ancestors. "The LORD your God will be merciful only if you obey him and keep all the commands I am giving you today, doing what is pleasing to him." (Deuteronomy 13:13-19 NLT) Kill Women Who Are Not Virgins On Their Wedding Night But if this charge is true (that she wasn't a virgin on her wedding night), and evidence of the girls virginity is not found, they shall bring the girl to the entrance of her fathers house and there her townsman shall stone her to death, because she committed a crime against Israel by her unchasteness in her father's house. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst. (Deuteronomy 22:20-21 NAB) Kill Followers of Other Religions. 1) If your own full brother, or your son or daughter, or your beloved wife, or you intimate friend, entices you secretly to serve other gods, whom you and your fathers have not known, gods of any other nations, near at hand or far away, from one end of the earth to the other: do not yield to him or listen to him, nor look with pity upon him, to spare or shield him, but kill him. Your hand shall be the first raised to slay him; the rest of the people shall join in with you. You shall stone him to death, because he sought to lead you astray from the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. And all Israel, hearing of this, shall fear and never do such evil as this in your midst. (Deuteronomy 13:7-12 NAB) 2) Suppose a man or woman among you, in one of your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, has done evil in the sight of the LORD your God and has violated the covenant by serving other gods or by worshiping the sun, the moon, or any of the forces of heaven, which I have strictly forbidden. When you hear about it, investigate the matter thoroughly. If it is true that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, then that man or woman must be taken to the gates of the town and stoned to death. (Deuteronomy 17:2-5 NLT) Death for Blasphemy One day a man who had an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father got into a fight with one of the Israelite men. During the fight, this son of an Israelite woman blasphemed the LORD's name. So the man was brought to Moses for judgment. His mother's name was Shelomith. She was the daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan. They put the man in custody until the LORD's will in the matter should become clear. Then the LORD said to Moses, "Take the blasphemer outside the camp, and tell all those who heard him to lay their hands on his head. Then let the entire community stone him to death. Say to the people of Israel: Those who blaspheme God will suffer the consequences of their guilt and be punished. Anyone who blasphemes the LORD's name must be stoned to death by the whole community of Israel. Any Israelite or foreigner among you who blasphemes the LORD's name will surely die. (Leviticus 24:10-16 NLT) Kill False Prophets 1) Suppose there are prophets among you, or those who have dreams about the future, and they promise you signs or miracles, and the predicted signs or miracles take place. If the prophets then say, 'Come, let us worship the gods of foreign nations,' do not listen to them. The LORD your God is testing you to see if you love him with all your heart and soul. Serve only the LORD your God and fear him alone. Obey his commands, listen to his voice, and cling to him. The false prophets or dreamers who try to lead you astray must be put to death, for they encourage rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out of slavery in the land of Egypt. Since they try to keep you from following the LORD your God, you must execute them to remove the evil from among you. (Deuteronomy 13:1-5 NLT) 2) But any prophet who claims to give a message from another god or who falsely claims to speak for me must die.' You may wonder, 'How will we know whether the prophecy is from the LORD or not?' If the prophet predicts something in the LORD's name and it does not happen, the LORD did not give the message. That prophet has spoken on his own and need not be feared. (Deuteronomy 18:20-22 NLT) Infidels and Gays Should Die So God let them go ahead and do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other's bodies. Instead of believing what they knew was the truth about God, they deliberately chose to believe lies. So they worshiped the things God made but not the Creator himself, who is to be praised forever. Amen. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relationships with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men and, as a result, suffered within themselves the penalty they so richly deserved. When they refused to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their evil minds and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, fighting, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They are forever inventing new ways of sinning and are disobedient to their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, and are heartless and unforgiving. They are fully aware of God's death penalty for those who do these things, yet they go right ahead and do them anyway. And, worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too. (Romans 1:24-32 NLT) Kill Anyone who Approaches the Tabernacle For the LORD had said to Moses, 'Exempt the tribe of Levi from the census; do not include them when you count the rest of the Israelites. You must put the Levites in charge of the Tabernacle of the Covenant, along with its furnishings and equipment. They must carry the Tabernacle and its equipment as you travel, and they must care for it and camp around it. Whenever the Tabernacle is moved, the Levites will take it down and set it up again. Anyone else who goes too near the Tabernacle will be executed.' (Numbers 1:48-51 NLT) Kill People for Working on the Sabbath The LORD then gave these further instructions to Moses: 'Tell the people of Israel to keep my Sabbath day, for the Sabbath is a sign of the covenant between me and you forever. It helps you to remember that I am the LORD, who makes you holy. Yes, keep the Sabbath day, for it is holy. Anyone who desecrates it must die; anyone who works on that day will be cut off from the community. Work six days only, but the seventh day must be a day of total rest. I repeat: Because the LORD considers it a holy day, anyone who works on the Sabbath must be put to death.' (Exodus 31:12-15 NLT) 2) God's Murders for Stupid Reasons: Kill Brats From there Elisha went up to Bethel. While he was on his way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him. "Go up baldhead," they shouted, "go up baldhead!" The prophet turned and saw them, and he cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two shebears came out of the woods and tore forty two of the children to pieces. (2 Kings 2:23-24 NAB) God Kills the Curious And he smote of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of Jehovah, he smote of the people seventy men, `and' fifty thousand men; and the people mourned, because Jehovah had smitten the people with a great slaughter. And the men of Beth-shemesh said, Who is able to stand before Jehovah, this holy God? and to whom shall he go up from us? (1Samuel 6:19-20 ASV) Killed by a Lion Meanwhile, the LORD instructed one of the group of prophets to say to another man, "Strike me!" But the man refused to strike the prophet. Then the prophet told him, "Because you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD, a lion will kill you as soon as you leave me." And sure enough, when he had gone, a lion attacked and killed him. (1 Kings 20:35-36 NLT) Killing the Good Samaritan The ark of God was placed on a new cart and taken away from the house of Abinadab on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab guided the cart, with Ahio walking before it, while David and all the Israelites made merry before the Lord with all their strength, with singing and with citharas, harps, tambourines, sistrums, and cymbals. When they came to the threshing floor of Nodan, Uzzah reached out his hand to the ark of God to steady it, for the oxen were making it tip. But the Lord was angry with Uzzah; God struck him on that spot, and he died there before God. (2 Samuel 6:3-7 NAB) 3) Murdering Children Kill Sons of Sinners Make ready to slaughter his sons for the guilt of their fathers; Lest they rise and posses the earth, and fill the breadth of the world with tyrants. (Isaiah 14:21 NAB) God Will Kill Children The glory of Israel will fly away like a bird, for your children will die at birth or perish in the womb or never even be conceived. Even if your children do survive to grow up, I will take them from you. It will be a terrible day when I turn away and leave you alone. I have watched Israel become as beautiful and pleasant as Tyre. But now Israel will bring out her children to be slaughtered." O LORD, what should I request for your people? I will ask for wombs that don't give birth and breasts that give no milk. The LORD says, "All their wickedness began at Gilgal; there I began to hate them. I will drive them from my land because of their evil actions. I will love them no more because all their leaders are rebels. The people of Israel are stricken. Their roots are dried up; they will bear no more fruit. And if they give birth, I will slaughter their beloved children." (Hosea 9:11-16 NLT) Kill Men, Women, and Children "Then I heard the LORD say to the other men, "Follow him through the city and kill everyone whose forehead is not marked. Show no mercy; have no pity! Kill them all – old and young, girls and women and little children. But do not touch anyone with the mark. Begin your task right here at the Temple." So they began by killing the seventy leaders. "Defile the Temple!" the LORD commanded. "Fill its courtyards with the bodies of those you kill! Go!" So they went throughout the city and did as they were told." (Ezekiel 9:5-7 NLT) God Kills all the First Born of Egypt And at midnight the LORD killed all the firstborn sons in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn son of the captive in the dungeon. Even the firstborn of their livestock were killed. Pharaoh and his officials and all the people of Egypt woke up during the night, and loud wailing was heard throughout the land of Egypt. There was not a single house where someone had not died. (Exodus 12:29-30 NLT) Kill Old Men and Young Women "You are my battle-ax and sword," says the LORD. "With you I will shatter nations and destroy many kingdoms. With you I will shatter armies, destroying the horse and rider, the chariot and charioteer. With you I will shatter men and women, old people and children, young men and maidens. With you I will shatter shepherds and flocks, farmers and oxen, captains and rulers. "As you watch, I will repay Babylon and the people of Babylonia for all the wrong they have done to my people in Jerusalem," says the LORD. "Look, O mighty mountain, destroyer of the earth! I am your enemy," says the LORD. "I will raise my fist against you, to roll you down from the heights. When I am finished, you will be nothing but a heap of rubble. You will be desolate forever. Even your stones will never again be used for building. You will be completely wiped out," says the LORD. (Jeremiah 51:20-26) (Note that after God promises the Israelites a victory against Babylon, the Israelites actually get their butts kicked by them in the next chapter. So much for an all-knowing and all-powerful God.) God Will Kill the Children of Sinners If even then you remain hostile toward me and refuse to obey, I will inflict you with seven more disasters for your sins. I will release wild animals that will kill your children and destroy your cattle, so your numbers will dwindle and your roads will be deserted. (Leviticus 26:21-22 NLT) More Rape and Baby Killing Anyone who is captured will be run through with a sword. Their little children will be dashed to death right before their eyes. Their homes will be sacked and their wives raped by the attacking hordes. For I will stir up the Medes against Babylon, and no amount of silver or gold will buy them off. The attacking armies will shoot down the young people with arrows. They will have no mercy on helpless babies and will show no compassion for the children. (Isaiah 13:15-18 NLT) 4) Miscellaneous Murders More of Samson's Murders (The Lord saves Sampson from standing trial for 30 murders and arson by allowing him to kill 1000 more men.) When he reached Lehi, and the Philistines came shouting to meet him, the spirit of the Lord came upon him: the ropes around his arms become as flax that is consumed by fire and the bonds melted away from his hands. Near him was the fresh jawbone of an ass; he reached out, grasped it, and with it killed a thousand men. (Judges 15:14-15 NAB) Peter Kills Two People There was also a man named Ananias who, with his wife, Sapphira, sold some property. He brought part of the money to the apostles, but he claimed it was the full amount. His wife had agreed to this deception. Then Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself. The property was yours to sell or not sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this? You weren't lying to us but to God." As soon as Ananias heard these words, he fell to the floor and died. Everyone who heard about it was terrified. Then some young men wrapped him in a sheet and took him out and buried him. About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Peter asked her, "Was this the price you and your husband received for your land?" "Yes," she replied, "that was the price." And Peter said, "How could the two of you even think of doing a thing like this – conspiring together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Just outside that door are the young men who buried your husband, and they will carry you out, too." Instantly, she fell to the floor and died. When the young men came in and saw that she was dead, they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. Great fear gripped the entire church and all others who heard what had happened. (Acts 5:1-11 NLT) Mass Murder This is what the Lord of hosts has to say: 'I will punish what Amalek did to Israel when he barred his way as he was coming up from Egypt. Go, now, attack Amalek, and deal with him and all that he has under the ban. Do not spare him, but kill men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and asses.' (1 Samuel 15:2-3 NAB) You Have to Kill Cursed be he who does the Lords work remissly, cursed he who holds back his sword from blood. (Jeremiah 48:10 NAB) The Danites Kill the Next Town But the territory of the Danites was too small for them; so the Danites marched up and attacked Leshem, which they captured and put to the sword. Once they had taken possession of Lesham, they renamed the settlement after their ancestor Dan. (Joshua 19:47 NAB) God Kills Some More Then the LORD said to me, "Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me pleading for these people, I wouldn't help them. Away with them! Get them out of my sight! And if they say to you, 'But where can we go?' tell them, 'This is what the LORD says: Those who are destined for death, to death; those who are destined for war, to war; those who are destined for famine, to famine; those who are destined for captivity, to captivity.' "I will send four kinds of destroyers against them," says the LORD. "I will send the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, the vultures to devour, and the wild animals to finish up what is left. Because of the wicked things Manasseh son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem, I will make my people an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth." (Jeremiah 15:1-4 NLT) God Promises More Killing I will make Mount Seir utterly desolate, killing off all who try to escape and any who return. I will fill your mountains with the dead. Your hills, your valleys, and your streams will be filled with people slaughtered by the sword. I will make you desolate forever. Your cities will never be rebuilt. Then you will know that I am the LORD. (Ezekiel 35:7-9 NLT) The Angel of Death My angel will go before you and bring you to the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites; and I will wipe them out. (Exodus 23:23 NAB) Destruction of Ai Then the LORD said to Joshua, "Do not be afraid or discouraged. Take the entire army and attack Ai, for I have given to you the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land. You will destroy them as you destroyed Jericho and its king. But this time you may keep the captured goods and the cattle for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the city." So Joshua and the army of Israel set out to attack Ai. Joshua chose thirty thousand fighting men and sent them out at night with these orders: "Hide in ambush close behind the city and be ready for action. When our main army attacks, the men of Ai will come out to fight as they did before, and we will run away from them. We will let them chase us until they have all left the city. For they will say, 'The Israelites are running away from us as they did before.' Then you will jump up from your ambush and take possession of the city, for the LORD your God will give it to you. Set the city on fire, as the LORD has commanded. You have your orders." So they left that night and lay in ambush between Bethel and the west side of Ai. But Joshua remained among the people in the camp that night. Early the next morning Joshua roused his men and started toward Ai, accompanied by the leaders of Israel. They camped on the north side of Ai, with a valley between them and the city. That night Joshua sent five thousand men to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city. So they stationed the main army north of the city and the ambush west of the city. Joshua himself spent that night in the valley. When the king of Ai saw the Israelites across the valley, he and all his army hurriedly went out early the next morning and attacked the Israelites at a place overlooking the Jordan Valley. But he didn't realize there was an ambush behind the city. Joshua and the Israelite army fled toward the wilderness as though they were badly beaten, and all the men in the city were called out to chase after them. In this way, they were lured away from the city. There was not a man left in Ai or Bethel who did not chase after the Israelites, and the city was left wide open. Then the LORD said to Joshua, "Point your spear toward Ai, for I will give you the city." Joshua did as he was commanded. As soon as Joshua gave the signal, the men in ambush jumped up and poured into the city. They quickly captured it and set it on fire. When the men of Ai looked behind them, smoke from the city was filling the sky, and they had nowhere to go. For the Israelites who had fled in the direction of the wilderness now turned on their pursuers. When Joshua and the other Israelites saw that the ambush had succeeded and that smoke was rising from the city, they turned and attacked the men of Ai. Then the Israelites who were inside the city came out and started killing the enemy from the rear. So the men of Ai were caught in a trap, and all of them died. Not a single person survived or escaped. Only the king of Ai was taken alive and brought to Joshua. When the Israelite army finished killing all the men outside the city, they went back and finished off everyone inside. So the entire population of Ai was wiped out that day – twelve thousand in all. For Joshua kept holding out his spear until everyone who had lived in Ai was completely destroyed. Only the cattle and the treasures of the city were not destroyed, for the Israelites kept these for themselves, as the LORD had commanded Joshua. So Ai became a permanent mound of ruins, desolate to this very day. Joshua hung the king of Ai on a tree and left him there until evening. At sunset the Israelites took down the body and threw it in front of the city gate. They piled a great heap of stones over him that can still be seen today. (Joshua 8:1-29 NLT) Killing at Jericho When the people heard the sound of the horns, they shouted as loud as they could. Suddenly, the walls of Jericho collapsed, and the Israelites charged straight into the city from every side and captured it. They completely destroyed everything in it – men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep, donkeys – everything. (Joshua 6:20-21 NLT) God Kills an Extended Family "You have done more evil than all who lived before you. You have made other gods and have made me furious with your gold calves. And since you have turned your back on me, I will bring disaster on your dynasty and kill all your sons, slave or free alike. I will burn up your royal dynasty as one burns up trash until it is all gone. I, the LORD, vow that the members of your family who die in the city will be eaten by dogs, and those who die in the field will be eaten by vultures.'" Then Ahijah said to Jeroboam's wife, "Go on home, and when you enter the city, the child will die. All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He is the only member of your family who will have a proper burial, for this child is the only good thing that the LORD, the God of Israel, sees in the entire family of Jeroboam. And the LORD will raise up a king over Israel who will destroy the family of Jeroboam. This will happen today, even now! Then the LORD will shake Israel like a reed whipped about in a stream. He will uproot the people of Israel from this good land that he gave their ancestors and will scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, for they have angered the LORD by worshiping Asherah poles. He will abandon Israel because Jeroboam sinned and made all of Israel sin along with him." (1 Kings 14:9-16 NLT) Mass Murder The men of Israel withdrew through the territory of the Benjaminites, putting to the sword the inhabitants of the city, the livestock, and all they chanced upon. Moreover they destroyed by fire all the cities they came upon. (Judges 20:48 NAB) The Angel of Death That night the angel of the Lord went forth and struck down one hundred and eighty five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. Early the next morning, there they were, all the corpuses of the dead. (2 Kings 19:35 NAB) Kill Your Neighbors (Moses) stood at the entrance to the camp and shouted, "All of you who are on the LORD's side, come over here and join me." And all the Levites came. He told them, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Strap on your swords! Go back and forth from one end of the camp to the other, killing even your brothers, friends, and neighbors." The Levites obeyed Moses, and about three thousand people died that day. Then Moses told the Levites, "Today you have been ordained for the service of the LORD, for you obeyed him even though it meant killing your own sons and brothers. Because of this, he will now give you a great blessing." (Exodus 32:26-29 NLT) Kill the Family of Sinners And Joshua said to Achan, My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the LORD God of Israel, and make confession to him; and tell me now what thou hast done, hide it not from me. And Achan answered Joshua, and said, Indeed I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done. When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them, and behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it." [Note that the sin is not looting, but failing to give the loot to the treasury of the Lord.] "So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent, and behold, it was hid in his tent, and the silver under it. And they took them from the midst of the tent, and brought them to Joshua, and to all the children of Israel, and laid them out before the LORD. And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them to the valley of Achor. And Joshua said, why hast thou troubled us? the LORD shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones. And they raised over him a great heap of stones to this day. So the LORD turned from the fierceness of his anger: wherefore the name of that place was called the valley of Achor to this day. (Joshua 7:19-26 Webster's Bible) Kill Followers of Other Religions While the Israelites were camped at Acacia, some of the men defiled themselves by sleeping with the local Moabite women. These women invited them to attend sacrifices to their gods, and soon the Israelites were feasting with them and worshiping the gods of Moab. Before long Israel was joining in the worship of Baal of Peor, causing the LORD's anger to blaze against his people. The LORD issued the following command to Moses: "Seize all the ringleaders and execute them before the LORD in broad daylight, so his fierce anger will turn away from the people of Israel." So Moses ordered Israel's judges to execute everyone who had joined in worshiping Baal of Peor. Just then one of the Israelite men brought a Midianite woman into the camp, right before the eyes of Moses and all the people, as they were weeping at the entrance of the Tabernacle. When Phinehas son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron the priest saw this, he jumped up and left the assembly. Then he took a spear and rushed after the man into his tent. Phinehas thrust the spear all the way through the man's body and into the woman's stomach. So the plague against the Israelites was stopped, but not before 24,000 people had died. (Numbers 25:1-9 NLT) Murder At the customary time for offering the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet walked up to the altar and prayed, "O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, prove today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant. Prove that I have done all this at your command. O LORD, answer me! Answer me so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God and that you have brought them back to yourself." Immediately the fire of the LORD flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust. It even licked up all the water in the ditch! And when the people saw it, they fell on their faces and cried out, "The LORD is God! The LORD is God!" Then Elijah commanded, "Seize all the prophets of Baal. Don't let a single one escape!" So the people seized them all, and Elijah took them down to the Kishon Valley and killed them there. (1 Kings 18:36-40 NLT) Kill All of Babylon "Go up, my warriors, against the land of Merathaim and against the people of Pekod. Yes, march against Babylon, the land of rebels, a land that I will judge! Pursue, kill, and completely destroy them, as I have commanded you," says the LORD. "Let the battle cry be heard in the land, a shout of great destruction". (Jeremiah 50:21-22 NLT) Micah Kills a Whole Town Then, with Micah's idols and his priest, the men of Dan came to the town of Laish, whose people were peaceful and secure. They attacked and killed all the people and burned the town to the ground. There was no one to rescue the residents of the town, for they lived a great distance from Sidon and had no allies nearby. This happened in the valley near Beth-rehob.Then the people of the tribe of Dan rebuilt the town and lived there. They renamed the town Dan after their ancestor, Israel's son, but it had originally been called Laish. (Judges 18:27-29 NLT) (Note that God approves of this slaughter in verse 6.)

Toxic Attitude from Mother-in Law....? I am married and I did not realize that my MIL was part of the marriage. She is very well meaning. She helps us a lot. Lately, like in the last three years, she has become unbearable. We live in her house and she agreed with my husband that it would be rent free because she convinced us to move out to hell on earth, we pay all our bills. However, she tells the rest of the family that we don't pay anything and then we get everybody harrassing us by phone,e-mail and text. When my husband tries to talk to her she just says, "Who cares what they say" or "Don't get mad over it." or "Don't take it that way" or she walks away. She never stands up for him. I work and we are both in the Masters program at local university. Then she buys big priced items appliances and gives us a guilt trip for not accepting it by saying that we are ungrateful. Anything we accept she expects back all my husbands time and then some. snubs my family for being Mexican&she is too Help! Suggestions, comments

Old horses are cheap. Is it legal for me to buy one, slaughter it, and turn it into sausage/food? Right now, all my horse sausage comes from Quebec, because it's just damn near impossible to find it for sale in America. In Belgium I had a wonderful horse steak at a restaurant, but American restaurants never seem to serve horse. But when you look at Craigslist or local horse listings, there are farmers desperate to get rid of thier old horses. The prices are minimal, between $10 - $50, sometimes even free if you transport the horse yourself. If I rent a horse trailer and hook it up to my truck, I could easily take a horse to my house. My house has a little bit of land, but it also has a detatched garage. I could take the horse in there and slaughter it, then process it into cuts of meat and meat products. I really want to do this, because it would be cheaper than getting horse meat from Quebec, but what is the legality? Am I going to have to keep this all on the downlow because of the law? I live in Cali. The meat would be for myself and my friends, not for resale. Old horses may taste a bit worse, but I can't afford a foal or younger horse. Too expensive. Like I said, older horses are basically free.

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Obama is slamming Palin for supposedly ties to lobbyists, but do you guys know about his ties? ? Obama’s Early Campaigns Financed by Lobbyists Monday, September 8, 2008 3:29 PM By: Kenneth R. Timmerman While Sen. Barack Obama takes great pride in having recruited more than 1.2 million donors to his presidential campaign — many of whom contributed less than $100 — he hasn’t always been a man in touch with the grass roots. Indeed, his early campaigns for the Illinois state Senate were heavily financed by well-connected business leaders, lobbyists, trial lawyers, and labor unions, a Newsmax review of campaign finance records shows. Obama launched his first campaign for the Illinois Senate in July 1995 with a $5,000 loan from Al Johnson, a prominent Cadillac dealer in Chicago who was a close crony of Jesse L. Jackson Sr. Johnson boasted of having provided luxury cars to Jackson free of charge, as I reported in my 2002 book, "Shakedown: Exposing the Real Jesse Jackson." Johnson added another $2,000 to the pot as a contribution to the campaign in September 1995, making him Obama’s single largest supporter. Not all of the Friends of Obama campaign reports are available online through the state of Illinois Web site. While there is no specific record available showing that he paid off the $5,000 loan to Al Johnson, his June 30, 1997 financial statement shows that his campaign’s debts had been reduced from $12,494.38 to $3,637.01. The connection to Johnson came through Michelle Obama, who reportedly had been close to Jesse Jackson and his family since childhood. Obama’s only other contributor in the early days of his campaign was Tony Rezko, the Chicago slumlord and developer convicted in July on 12 counts of wire and mail fraud. Rezko gave Obama $2,000 in July 1995 as corporate donations from Lakeside Refreshments and Rezko Foods, both of which he controlled. Obama has said he never intervened on behalf of Rezko in state or federal business, and did not benefit from a sweatheart land deal with the convicted felon, although Rezko sold him a lot next to Obama’s house in Chicago at what appeared to be below-market prices. But in the 1990s, Obama’s Chicago lawfirm represented Rezko and his company, Rezmar Corp, as Rezko won government grants to build low-income housing for the poor. Both Rezko and his wife, Rita, worked on Obama’s first state Senate campaign in 1995, in addition to contributing money directly and through corporate entities. Once Obama was elected as a first-time state senator in 1996, he turned increasingly to big labor and big donors. Money from Political Action Committees (PACs) — the vehicles used by lobbyists and labor unions — often outweighed contributions from individuals by as much as 10-to-1. For the first half of 1997, for example, he collected $12,200 from PACs and trial lawyers, and just $4,175 from individuals. But even here, $2,000 of the money accounted for as individual contributions came from Rezko Concessions and Rezmar Corp, both of which were controlled by Tony Rezko. For the first half of 1998, this trend continued, with just $1,505 collected from individuals and $13,500 from PACs. Tony Rezko provided food valued at $457.70 that was listed as an “in-kind” contribution. As the 1998 elections approached, Obama picked up close to $30,000 from individuals, and an additional $23,850 from lobbyists. His single largest contribution — $5,000 — was from the Illinois Political Action Committee for Education (IPACE), the political arm of the state teachers’ union. His second largest — $3,000 — came from the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association. Next, with $1,000 each, came PACs representing the Teamsters, Social Workers, lawyers, dentists, the Chicago Teacher’s Union. A wide variety of local and federal labor unions gave him smaller amounts. By January 1999, lobbyists and lawyers had become his single largest source of funding. For the first half of 2000, Obama no longer bothered to solicit individual campaign contributors, while raising $14,600 from the lobbyists. Even though 2000 was an election year, he only raised $2,400 from individuals that fall, while raking in $28,560 from lobbyists and lawyers. And of the $2,400 from individuals, more than half came from Evanston, Ill., lawyer, Larry Suffredin Jr. “Obama’s source of support comes from the very far left of the Democrat party — unions, trial lawyers, social workers — not individuals,” said Cleta Mitchell, a partner in the Washington, D.C. law firm Foley and Lardner, which specializes in campaign finance law. “So, now they try to say they have all this money from little people. He didn’t get there with small contributions from little people. He got there with being financed for a number of years by ultra left wing interests.” It was those larger interests that provided the seed money and expertise that allowed the Obama campaign to build the broad base of smaller donors that his campaign now boasts of having recruited, Mitchell told Newsmax. My question is- Why is Obama slamming Palin when he's done worse? Please don't answer my question with a question. Is it too difficult to answer my question? Thus far, people are evading the question and saying, "but, but... Well, what about..." Come on, let's answer the question. Morbus- NewsMax has provided their sources, so your arguement is NULL AND VOID.

What would make you choose to go to a Video Rental Store over renting online? I want to open a video rental (well dvd, blu ray and cd) store with a difference. I am not a fan of the LOVEFILM type service as I tihnk it's restrictive, awkward and expensive. I would like something along the lines of a store where you can buy and/or rent DVDs/Blu Ray Discs and CDs (albums) at low prices with low late fees. I have been told that the video store is dead but i dont believe it. I would also encorporate a website into the idea of the store where you could reserve movies online and have them delivered to your front door or posted.(or you can pick them up) A website where u stream movies for a price would be fantastic but most peoples computers are not good enough to stream movies in dvd quality and now we have blu ray i think people will start renting more for the quality of the sound and picture which you cant get from torrents or streaming. Basically I want to know if these things like: *drop offs to your house and or postage *large selction of snacks in store at low prices *dvd/bluray/cd and game rental *online reservations and purchases *notifications to your phone/facebook etc when a rental is due back *special offers for good customers *comfy seating in store so you can sit and read movie blurbs *a computer database for CUSTOMERS to see what we have in store rather than having to ask the employees all the time *ability to buy tickets to local gigs and albums of local bands If these aspects would make a difference to you going to video stores rather than using a LOVEFILM type thing online...? And anything else you wana add, feel free to rant about the things you hate about video stores too! Thanks a lot! :D Charlotte

Internet Debate Essay. What Do You Think ? Please Help ! ( Year 10 Coursework)? It could be argued that the internet is the best technical development of our time. Since its creation in the late sixties, it has quickly become an important and beneficial piece of modern technology to millions of people all over the world. It is a global computer network, which provides a variety of facilities for communication, information and entertainment. With simple and immediate access to endless websites, available with just a click of a mouse, it may seem that surfing the net is the perfect cure for boredom. On the contrary, many people find themselves questioning this positive attitude towards the World Wide Web, when considering the risks and disadvantages that it brings, and the dangers that anyone may encounter whilst online. Amongst the most popular sites are social networks, such as ’Facebook’ and ‘Netlog’, where users have their own page within the network, and can communicate with each other no matter where in the world they are. People of any age, race or background can use these sites, which means you can talk to all sorts of people and learn about hundreds of different cultures and lifestyles. This is a great way to meet new friends or keep in touch with your old ones. ‘MySpace’ is a network where accounts and home pages are created by users, and pictures, music, blogs (online diaries) and videos can be uploaded. Bands, venues, individuals or even companies may have their own ‘MySpace’ and therefore you are sure to find something of interest amongst the thousands of accounts. ‘Msn Messenger’, the instant messaging service, is probably the most popular way for web users to stay in contact and have free, live conversations with any number of people. This means it is possible for many disabled internet users to talk amongst friends, without the trouble of leaving the house or the high expense of using the telephone. The disadvantage of this way of communicating is the lack of trust available between members, due to the fact that there is no sure way of knowing exactly whom you are talking to. People can lie about their identity, particularly their age, and paedophiles and stalkers may use the sites as easy access to their victims. Adults may lure children into thinking they are other children of a similar age and might convince them into meeting up with them in the outside world. This is called grooming and has been known to lead onto kidnappings, rape and violent attacks. Innocent youths may also fall victims to people of their own age, when accounts are hacked and abuse can be written through fake identities. It seems easier for teenagers to emotionally and mentally bully children of their own age whilst online, without the full contact of face-to-face conversation in real-life. Hateful messages can be sent through instant messaging, emails and even comment boxes on websites or someone’s personal page. This cyber bullying is a huge issue online and children can often feel unsafe within their own homes if they are suffering this abuse. Social networks may also have an addictive affect on users meaning they interact a lot less with friends and family. Users may even be left lacking the skills to have real conversations with people, without being able to hide behind a computer screen and keyboard. Then again, there is also the isolation that people who do not have internet access may face. They are unable to stay in touch with friends in the way that so may people take for granted. However, a final advantage of these social networking sites is that they are an advertisers dream. Businesses can easily advertise online, and popular sites such as these social networking ones are a huge opportunity to attract customers. Children, adults, parents and people of different professions and interests can be specifically targeted through certain websites, which are suited to them, in order to attract the most potential customers. A good example of this is through search engines, which make their money by displaying advertisements within the results of what the internet user has searched. Of course businesses can use the internet to their advantage in many other ways also. Records and databases can be held on the internet, and secured and accessed through passwords. The stock exchange can be viewed online and companies can check in on their competition by simply searching for them on the internet. They can research customer demand , or keep in touch with buyers, employees and other businesses via email or their own webpage .Finally, websites like ‘Monster’, which is an online directory where employees upload their CV’s, allow employers to find the most suitable staff, without having to hold hundreds of interviews. Another way in which the internet is highly useful is through its vast range of entertainment available. This entertainment can mean that it is no longer necessary to leave your seat in order to have fun, and therefore hundreds of people have a significant lack of exercise, which of course is a health risk. This has been linked to the increasing problem of obesity in both children and adults. On the other hand, the vast sources of entertainment are a major plus to millions of internet surfers. Video upload sites prove to be very popular with hundreds of thousands of viewers visiting Youtube everyday. Anyone can upload anything they like onto these sites from TV series, to homemade short films, music videos and any other creations. It is a great way to watch and create video blogs and learn about other people from across the world. It could even be said that the internet is better than a remote control. Online gaming is another aspect of the internet to enjoy. Hundreds of free games are available to download and play with genres to suit everyone. Puzzle, adventure, racing and even multiplayer games can be accessed quickly through many websites, the majority are free and simple to download or play though a flash player. Downloading is relied on by many people so that they can have the latest songs and films stored to their own computer and then sent to their phone or personal music and video players (Ipods or MP4s). ‘Limewire’ is a program that allows millions of files to be shared across the net and almost anything can be downloaded quickly and simply from this free source. This can mean that the artists and producers of songs are missing out on profits that they deserve. All this freedom of viewing on the net can be dangerous when there are no age restrictions. Youths may be badly influenced by violent images they see online, and unsuitable pornographic material is easily accessible to them at the click of a mouse. Most adults would agree that this needs to be more carefully regulated, but it is highly unlikely that age restrictions would ever prevent teenagers from intentionally viewing these sites, when they can simply type in a false age. This easy accessibility throughout the internet can be useful though when referring to educational purposes. Students have many websites available that are dedicated to encourage and enable studying, revision and coursework. BBC Bitesize in particular is a useful website which pupils of Key stage three and Key Stage four can use to assist them in learning. Teachers can also benefit from the online lesson plans on offer throughout the net and students can stay in touch with their tutors through email whenever necessary. The internet can also be considered as a brilliant learning aid because of its huge volumes of information covering endless varieties of subjects; it could be thought of as the biggest encyclopaedia in the world. Information that is usually unobtainable in local libraries is easily reached through search engines and students can read expert knowledge from specialists in the topic they need. Never the less there are still negative aspects to using the internet this way. It makes it possible for pupils to copy and cheat on tests and coursework using past essays and work that someone has uploaded onto the web previously. Some learners may become dependent on using the internet for help with their work and not able to perform as well under exam conditions in school. Some information gained from websites may be seriously outdated or inaccurate and therefore useless. There is also an unfair advantage on students that do no have internet access at home. Shopping online is another great way of taking advantage of the World Wide Web. You can purchase anything from a huge assortment of products from anywhere in the world; from clothes, gifts, memorabilia and anything else that you could possibly want. It’s the ultimate shopping experience, and shops you can find on the high street have their own online stores along with shops only available on the net. It is a much simpler way of browsing for whatever you may be looking for, without the bother of busy crowds. There are also often online discounts available, or some items sold on the internet are originally cheaper than on the high street anyway, and comparing prices online is easily done. Being able to shop online makes a big difference in peoples lives if they are disabled or seriously ill. Being housebound means that they do not get the chance to visit the supermarket or their local city centre on a regular basis, like so many people do, but that problem has been solved with home delivery. Anything they might buy off the internet can probably be delivered straight to their doorstep, whether it’s their weekly shop or something they’ve splashed out on. ‘Ebay’ is a massively successful online auction site where you can bid on items which other people are selling through the website. All you need is an online account and then you can start buying and selling pretty much what ever takes your fancy. You can make money by selling unwanted pieces in your home or save money by striking lucky in an auction, and having the winning bid on your requested item. However, things that you see on the internet may not always turn out to be what you expected when they arrive at your home. What you have bought may have been misrepresented online and you could be left disappointed with something you have no use of. It is also common to overspend without realising when buying online. Paying for goods via the internet is only possible by using a credit card and sometimes this means that you are not as aware of exactly how much money you are parting with, if you do not physically hand it over. Even more unfortunate is that your card details may not be secure and someone else could use your bank account without you knowing. Although using the internet is an essential aspect to many people’s lives, it does prove to have risks and consequences if used inappropriately or too often. Still, I have to disagree with the statement of “the internet is a monster out of control” because I find that the pros out weigh the cons by far. Without the internet certain aspects of life would prove difficult to me and millions of other people. The web is relied on everyday for purposes of work, school and play and as long as we approach it with more knowledge of the dangers, it can benefit us the many ways that it is intended to.

Is this the price to pay after you make a pact with the devil? When Pakistan's North West Frontier Province government ceded authority to the Taliban under a peace deal, giving them almost a free hand to impose their puritan Islamic rule on the around 600,000 people of Swat and its seven neighbouring districts, why didn't they stop to realise that innocent people like this young girl would be paying the price?? London, April 3 (IANS) A 17-year-old screaming, burqa-clad girl was whipped by Taliban fighters in Pakistan's restive Swat Valley for coming 'out of her house with another guy who was not her husband', a two-minute video shot through a mobile phone showed. The video showed the girl face down on the ground. Two men held her arms and feet while a third, a black-turbaned fighter with a flowing beard, whipped her repeatedly, the Guardian reported. The newspaper said it received the video through Samar Minallah, a Pashtun documentary maker. 'Please stop it,' the girl begged repeatedly. 'Either kill me or stop it now.' After 34 lashes the punishment stopped and the wailing girl was led into a stone building. 'She came out of her house with another guy who was not her husband, so we must punish her. There are boundaries you cannot cross,' the Guardian quoted Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan as saying. The punishment was meted out within last 10 days, Minallah said. 'This video is being widely circulated because the Taliban want people to see it. They want to give the message that this is taking place after the peace deal because this is something they ideologically believe in,' the newspaper quoted her as saying. The girl's brother is among the men who pinned her down, she added. 'It's symbolic that he does it with his own hands. It gives him honour in local society, that he has done it for the sake of religion.' The peace accord signed with pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Sufi Mohammad includes measures to establish Islamic courts, a ban on music, expulsion of prostitutes and pimps from the area, closure of businesses during prayer times, and a campaign against what they call obscenity.

Why doesnt Obama stop pretending to be listening to other ideas on health care? http://spectator.org/archives/2009/03/11/ostracized-by-obama/ As part of his drive to overhaul the nation's health-care system, President Obama has presented himself as a pragmatist who is more interested in creating the best possible plan than in rigidly adhering to a given ideology. "It's conceivable that there are other ideas out there that we have not thought of," he acknowledged at last Thursday's White House Health Care Summit. "If there is a way of getting this done where we're driving down costs and people are getting health insurance at an affordable rate and have choice of doctor, have flexibility in terms of their plans, and we could do that entirely through the market, I'd be happy to do it that way. If there was a way of doing it that involved more government regulation and involvement, I'm happy to do it that way as well. I just want to figure out what works." President Obama has used events such as community discussion groups and last week's summit to foster the impression that he is soliciting opinions from all angles of the health care debate, but the reality is a lot different. Obscured by the Administration's theatrics is the fact that it has kept at bay those who advocate free-market solutions rather than government-run health care. The guest list to the summit was a telling sign. Despite having representatives from 169 different labor, industry, and policy organizations, the White House did not invite any organizations that advocate a consumer-based free-market approach to health care. Progressive organizations such as the Center for American Progress, Health Care for America NOW!, and Campaign for America's Future were represented, but pro-market groups such as the Cato Institute, Consumers for Health Care Choices, the Galen Institute, or the Council for Affordable Health Insurance were not. "They brought in the health care establishment to basically divvy up the pie, and consumers were left out of it entirely," lamented Greg Scandlen, president of Consumers for Health Care Choices. "This is all predetermined and orchestrated to get the result they want." While the Republican Congressional leadership was on hand, many of the foremost proponents of a patient-focused approach to health care were not. "I suspect that that can't be an accident," Rep. John Shadegg, a Republican who has proposed a number of market-oriented reforms to the U.S. health care system and did not receive an invitation to the summit, said. "I suspect that they don't want those views expressed." Shadegg noted that other lawmakers who weren't invited included free marketers such as Rep. Paul Ryan, Rep. Tom Price, Sen. Richard Burr, Sen. Jim DeMint, and Obama's personal friend, Sen. Tom Coburn. By contrast, Sen. Bernard Sanders and Rep. John Conyers were on hand -- both of them advocate a socialized, or single-payer, system. The Obama administration's unwillingness to consider free-market views wasn't limited to the summit. TAS spoke to several professionals who took the Obama transition team up on its call to hold community meetings last December aimed at generating ideas on how to reform the health-care system. But those who came up with ideas focused on a consumer-based approach rather than a government-run one felt that their ideas were ignored. "They called out for everyone to have all of these town meetings, but if your town meeting didn't have a conclusion that agreed with theirs, they said 'thank you very much' and never came back to you," said Dr. Marcy Zwelling-Aamot, who participated in a meeting in Long Beach, California, along with a coalition of local lawmakers, hospitals, providers, and concerned residents. More here: http://spectator.org/archives/2009/03/11/ostracized-by-obama/ "The spectator is right wing propaganda at is finest." You liberals are quite predictable. I KNEW the article was going to get that reaction. Attack the messenger, not the message. You got anything that proves the info in the article completely wrong? I didnt think so. "First of all, Republican leaders and Republican Congressmen and Senators were invited." Well duh. The article mentions that. "While the Republican Congressional leadership was on hand, many of the foremost proponents of a patient-focused approach to health care were not. " "Insurance company executives, HMO's, doctors and hospitals were all heavily represented." Yes, the ESTABLISHMENT. Whats more, none of whom disagreed with the socialist plans. "The article complains about 'free-marketers' not being invited," Lie. It says many were not invited. It didnt say ALL were not invited "then near the end of the article (which you did not quote)" I didnt quote it because I cant fit the entire article. I had to excerpt. "it quotes a free-marketer that was invited. What a joke. " Again, the article says that MANY were not invited. It didnt say ALL. "What a joke. The American Spectator is a biased source. Nice try, but their game is easy to spot and see through." Nice try, but it was YOU that had to twist and lie about what the article did and didnt say in order to reach your biased conclusion. in other words, you set up a strawman so that you can knock it down. Waiting on you, Colleen, to explain how you manged to read things into the article that just isnt there. "That is a spurious claim in and of itself because it is readily apparent that a wide array of differing viewpoints were in fact represented" Yeah, but by how many. 50-5, 100-3? Whats more, their complaint is while they were invited, they werent listened to. They were invited just for show, not because Obama was interested in listening to their view. "Obviously there is a finite number of guests that can be invited. Duh" Duh. Obviously. But when youve got say, 400 limited seating, and invite lets say only 10 or 25 people of opposing views, the rest going to people you agree with,,. "'Many' free markerters weren't invited, but does it tell you that many single payer proponents were likewise not invited? Of course not because that is not the way propaganda is put together. For example: It goes out if its way to say John Conyers and Bernie Sanders were there and then tries to minimize the fact that many members of Congress with exactly opposite views were likewise present by not mentioning their names" It doesnt mention the single payer proponents because they WERE invited. The claim that they were likewise not invited is BS: http://prorev.com/2009/03/inside-obamas-healthcare-show-summit.html "Regular folks were also represented--I suppose you think that someone from the Cato Institute isn't the establishment" Not the Health Care establishment, which is what I was refering to. "Some single payer proponents were invited and some free-marketers were invited." You mean alot of single payer advocates were invited and very few free market advocates were invited. "Many single payer advocates were NOT invited just like many free-marketers were not invited---that was my point. The propagandist attempted to make it appear that free marketers were largely not invited and that single payers were largely invited. That is simply not the case." Wrong. That IS the case. Many single payer advocates were indeed invited as I pointed out. Many more than free market advocates. The article is dead on accurate about the lack of free market advocates being invited while many single payer advocates were clearly invited. "Please, this is just whining and it is bogus." Right. You give your opinions. People who disagree are "whining" "Certainly he had more people leaning toward his own perspective, but those with differing views were well represented too. The criticism is just more sore loser rhetoric." This has zilch to do with being a "sore loser". This is about the future well being of this country. "You guys lost, get over it." As long as Obama does things we disapprove of, you will continue to hear our voices in opposition. I dont recall your side "getting over it" when any Republican won office. "Pat Robertson's Regents University grads are no longer going to be staffing the government " And you and I and the whole country will be all the sadder for it, mark my words.

Have you seen this great article by Thomas Sowell? Here is an article written by Thomas Sowell. Title: Listening to a Liar "Hubris-laden charlatans" was the way a recent e-mail from a reader characterized the Obama administration. That phrase seems especially appropriate for the Charlatan-in-Chief, Barack Obama, whose speech to a joint session of Congress was both a masterpiece of rhetoric and a shameless fraud. To tell us, with a straight face, that he can insure millions more people without adding to the already skyrocketing deficit, is world-class chutzpa and an insult to anyone's intelligence. To do so after an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office has already showed this to be impossible reveals the depths of moral bankruptcy behind the glittering words. Did we really need CBO experts to tell us that there is no free lunch? Some people probably did and the true believers in the Obama cult may still believe the President, instead of believing either common sense or budget experts. Even those who can believe that Obama can conjure up the money through eliminating "waste, fraud and abuse" should ask themselves where he is going to conjure up the additional doctors, nurses, and hospitals needed to take care of millions more patients. If he can't pull off that miracle, then government-run medical care in the United States can be expected to produce what government-run medical care in Canada, Britain, and other countries has produced-- delays of weeks or months to get many treatments, not to mention arbitrary rationing decisions by bureaucrats. Obama can deny it in words but what matters are deeds-- and no one's words have been more repeatedly the direct opposite of his deeds-- whether talking about how his election campaign would be financed, how he would not rush legislation through Congress, or how his administration was not going to go after CIA agents for their past efforts to extract information from captured terrorists. President Obama has also declared emphatically that he will not interfere in the internal affairs of other nations-- while telling the Israelis where they can and cannot build settlements and telling the Hondurans whom they should and should not choose to be their president. One of the secrets of being a glib talker is not getting hung up over whether what you are saying is true, and instead giving your full attention to what is required by the audience and the circumstances of the moment, without letting facts get in your way and cramp your style. Obama has mastered that art. Con men understand that their job is not to use facts to convince skeptics but to use words to help the gullible to believe what they want to believe. No message has been more welcomed by the gullible, in countries around the world, than the promise of something for nothing. That is the core of Barack Obama's medical care plan. President Obama tells us that he will impose various mandates on insurance companies but will not interfere with our free choice between being insured by these companies or by the government. But if he can drive up the cost of private insurance with mandates and subsidize government insurance with the taxpayers' money, how long do you think it will be before we have the "single payer" system has he has advocated in the past? Mandates by politicians are what have driven up the cost of insurance already. Politicians love to play Santa Claus and leave it to others to raise prices to cover the inevitable costs. Politicians have driven privately owned municipal transit systems out of business in many cities, by simply imposing costs and restricting the fare increases needed to cover those costs. The federal government can drive out private insurance the same way that local politicians have driven out private municipal transit and replaced it with government-run transit systems. Barack Obama's insistence that various dangerous policies are not in the legislation he proposes sounds good but means nothing. Unbridled power is a blank check, no matter what its rationale may be. No law gave the President of the United States the power to fire the head of General Motors, but TARP money did. When there are "advisory" panels on what treatments to approve and the White House's existing medical advisor has complained of Americans' "over-utilization" of medical care, what does it take to connect the dots? Bottom line: Obama is utterly and completely untrustworthy, nothing he says can be believed based upon his well-established propensity for shameless lying to the American people.

Why did Henrietta Hughes and her son turn down offers of help when they included a JOB and paying rent? http://www.winknews.com/news/local/39518252.html The director of We Care Outreach Ministry, Tanya Johnson, says just last month she offered Henrietta Hughes permanent housing and a place to stay free for three months, but Hughes refused. "We would have allowed her to stay for the first 90 days, no income. You know free," said Tanya Johnson. We Care Outreach Ministry is a faith based organization in Fort Myers. Johnson says she also gave Henrietta and her son Corey, money, food and offered Corey job training courses, but it was refused. "We have extended a lot of her services to her," Johnson said. But Henrietta Hughes says these services weren't free and the apartment in East Fort Myers came with a price tag.

New Labour's UK - pensioners starving? (see below)? Elderly skipping meals to save cash 3 hours 21 mins ago Print Story Pensioners are skipping meals to save money on food during the recession, a shocking survey has found. Skip related content Related photos / videos Pensioners risk health to save money Play video Pensioners risk health to save money Play video Elderly skipping meals to save cash Related content Button buoyed as F1 ruling says diffuser legal Video: Pensioners risk health to save money Govt eyes NKorea move as 'temporary setback' Related Hot Topic: Local Government Have your say: Local Government A poll of 1,200 people aged over 60 showed one in five misses a meal while two-fifths are struggling to afford essential items and are cutting back on electricity and gas and socialising. Older people are not confident the Government will help them deal with the current recession and many are going to extreme measures to cope, putting their health at risk, Age Concern and Help the Aged said. The newly-merged charity warned that many elderly people, particularly the poorest pensioners, are among the worst hit by high prices. Those on low incomes face a far higher than average inflation rate and struggle to afford basic household essential items such as food and electricity, the report said. The group's charity director Michelle Mitchell said: "Many older people are being clobbered by high prices and are being pushed to extreme measures to cope financially. The Government cannot sit by while older people skip meals and put their health at risk. The oldest and poorest pensioners are being hit particularly hard." Ms Mitchell added: "The state of the economy is the defining issue of our times and this year's Budget will have many demands on it, but the challenge to Government is to ensure that older people, and older voters, aren't forgotten. Investment to stimulate the economy must also benefit them. "In addition to any package of support for older people, the Government must commit to rolling out automatic payment of benefits." Age Concern and Help the Aged called for a package of measures to be announced in next week's Budget to help low income pensioners with modest savings, including a commitment to move quickly to roll out automatic payment of income-related benefits including Pension Credit, Council Tax Benefit and Housing Benefit. Older people miss out on up to £5 billion in benefits each year, said the charity. A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said food and fuel prices "appear to have peaked", adding that this month pensioners will receive the biggest increase in the basic state pension since 2001. And he said: "We want older people to receive all the money they are entitled to and we've made it easier to claim. Pensioners can now claim pension credit, housing benefit and council tax benefit in just one free phonecall without having to sign or return any claim forms."

Feeling Pinch, Stores Woo Lagging Shoppers. Evaluate Article? Lackluster sales in this holiday season have retailers scrambling to wring a few last dollars from procrastinators by slashing prices, extending hours and wooing customers more persistently than last year. The moves show that retailers' strategy during this final weekend before Christmas -- when about 10% of holiday sales are expected to take place -- has become increasingly reliant on the same promotions and marathon hours once unique to the "Black Friday" weekend following Thanksgiving. But the discounts also reveal the pinch stores are in this year as the credit crunch, rising gas prices and winter storms have taken a toll on companies dependent on end-of-year sales. The tough economy has left aisles more empty this year. Total foot traffic at U.S. retail outlets took an 8.9% dive during the second full week of December, compared with the same period last year, according to an estimate from ShopperTrak RCT Corp., which bases its numbers on a formula that involves an electronic count of shoppers in malls and other retail outlets nationwide. A bright spot, however, has been online, where aggressive discounting and cut-rate deals on fast shipping have contributed to a surge in spending. From Nov. 1 to Dec. 16, online shoppers spent $23.5 billion, 19% higher than the corresponding days last year, according to comScore Inc., a Reston, Va., market research firm that tracks Web spending and traffic. Videogames, consoles and accessories are the fastest-growing category, more than doubling from the comparable period last year. Furniture, appliances and equipment ranks second, up 63%, while event tickets and consumer electronics are up 29% and 24%, respectively. Now, a final push is on, both online and in stores. Web retailers continued to hunt for business by cutting shipping charges to seal deals before the pre-Christmas shipping window closes. Shoebuy.com, a Boston-based unit of IAC/InterActive Corp. offered free express shipping until today. Online handbag merchant eBags upgraded purchases made by Wednesday from standard shipping to two-day air-shipping through UPS for no extra cost. Brick-and-mortar stores, meanwhile, retooled their hours for the weekend, hoping to spark their own shopping flurry. J.C. Penney Co. stores are staying open until midnight tonight and Saturday. Select Macy's Inc. stores on the East Coast will stay open nonstop throughout the weekend -- 107 hours straight for one branch in Queens. And New York-based FAO Schwarz made discounts of 25% to 50% on certain toys. Ed Schmults, the chief executive officer at FAO Schwarz, said that while foot traffic was up, business had not been as booming throughout the season as he hoped. The National Retail Federation, a trade group, is predicting just 4% in sales growth for 2007, the smallest growth rate in five years. Britt Beemer, chairman of America's Research Group, paints an even grimmer picture: He lowered his forecast of 2% retail sales growth to 1.8%, his lowest forecast in nearly 10 years. In the apparel category, men's clothing has showed modest single-digit growth through the first 20 days of the shopping season, according to MasterCard Spending Pulse, a unit of MasterCard Advisors, which tracks spending of all types. But women's apparel -- which last year constituted three times the sales of men's -- has been a major disappointment, as shoppers have avoided big purchases. Sales were down 5.7% from the same time last year. Retailers have responded with a flurry of price cuts, but large inventory remains in some stores. One of Gap Inc.'s Old Navy stores in downtown Chicago on Wednesday had piles of festive sweaters marked down to $20 from $36.50. Women's coats still stuffed the racks, despite being already marked down 50%, and its signature "performance fleece," also half off, was stacked eight shelves high. The bad tidings for apparel have left some retailers looking for other items to push. At Banana Republic, also owned by Gap, $64 gift sets of its perfumes, body creams and shower creams were marked down 30%. Gold-boxed gift sets of a new line of bath products at Ann Taylor Stores Corp. stores were discounted to $19.50 from $29. At Limited Brands Inc.'s Victoria's Secret, stores were piled with beauty gift sets, many 40% off. Meanwhile luxury goods are expected to have a good season this year, and retail consultant Frederick Crawford of AlixPartners predicts "pockets of good news" for high-end retail. For brands like Prada and Gucci, he expects to see 5% to 7% growth. According to retail surveys, electronics sales were down 0.5% in the three-week period between Nov. 18 and Dec. 9 compared to a year ago, according to Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis for market watcher NPD Group. He said consumers in recent years have been delaying purchases until closer to Christmas, which may account for the slowdown. Indeed, Angela Smith has waited until the last week to make her purchases. A 39-year-old bank employee in Dallas, Ms. Smith said she is waiting for prices to drop further as well as trying to spend less. For her three nephews, ages 12, 8 and 7, she plans to buy remote-controlled cars, which Wal-Mart Stores Inc. initially priced at $59 and has since dropped to $49. "I am going to swing by this weekend and see if they are going to take it down one more time," says Ms. Smith, who was shopping for a co-worker's present at her local Wal-Mart midweek. Home-furnishings retailers, fighting the weak housing market, are being particularly aggressive with their promotions this year. At Williams-Sonoma Inc.'s Pottery Barn store on Chicago's Michigan Avenue, Christmas-tree-shaped candles were discounted 50%, and holiday garlands of fake evergreen branches were 30% off. Wrapped gifts such as silver jewelry boxes, also marked down 30%, were stacked high Wednesday afternoon. Home-improvement outfits like Lowe's Cos. Inc. and Home Depot Inc. are destined to be hardest hit, says AlixPartners' Mr. Crawford. "Consumers are absolutely showing us that they will be delaying discretionary purchases" like gear to remodel a kitchen, he said. A boom-bust pattern is typical after Thanksgiving's Black Friday discounts, which encourages a flurry of purchases early but leads to a tapering off in early December, killing shopping momentum. This year the pattern was more pronounced: A double-digit sales surge on Black Friday exceeded retailers' expectations; but come December, throngs of shoppers didn't return. There was one exception, however: online retail. Web merchants have discounted and promoted heavily this season, say industry analysts. Shipping promotions have been particularly popular. Sixty-eight percent of surveyed Web retailers said they are offering express shipping promotions this year, up from 49% last year, according to Scott Silverman, executive director of Shop.org, an online retail trade group and unit of National Retail Federation. As the boom continues, these companies are becoming increasingly creative to draw customers. This year Ice.com, a Montreal-based Internet jeweler, has rolled out new videos to promote products and free overnight shipping. It has experimented with new marketing tricks such as buying front-page ads on Microsoft Corp.'s MSN and Yahoo Inc.'s Web sites this week. Ice.com even tried to tap influencers to drive word-of-mouth among blogs, magazine mentions and celebrities.

Why should I work anymore? You don't have to either...? I stumbled upon a little known kept secret after I was laid off WHICH SUCKED over a year ago. I was collecting on unemployment benefits after which is now extended. NOT SO BAD right, I made just as much if not more with no taxes taken out. My girlfriend applied for diability 3 times to get some more income for us, and she was finally approved for Soc Sec. benefits with the help of an attorney. I still don't work (on the table, lol), we are both on subsistence, she gets partial housing paid for (Section 8) where I live as well as our daughter. I simply claim that I am homeless, and the welfare office HAS TO provide for me. I simple don't make enough money $0 zero dollars. We both get a welfare check every month, food stamps, a Pennsylvania access card (like a credit card), we are eligible for several community services, WIC, free pharmaceutical and walk-in health care at a local clinic etc. If I told you how much we both made each month you'd crap your pants. This is no joke, check it out yourself, ask, find out... It's not what hand your dealt, it's how you play your cards... 5 years, then we move to a different county and it starts all over again, that's how it works folks. I'm not to proud to stand in line at the soup kitchen everyday. WE GET BY very comfortably... thanks Uncle $am, it's about time we help ourselves to the American dream, lol. You tell me who's crazy? Who is the fool? Why pay for the cow when you can get the milk for free? I NEVER took a hand-out before, but now I see things differently, no night shift, no driving, no car insurance, no gas prices, no bosses, overtime, etc

halloween story? Rodney and Jessica were in a costume shop, browsing the racks of witches' masks and zombie suits. "Hey, here's a good one!" Jessica called, holding a grotesque mask in front of her face to show Rodney. "Ew, gross, it looks like my grandma, but with more hair," Rodney said, making a face. Jessica sighed and put the mask back. "You just can't be happy, can you?" she asked. "Hey, it's your mask. Go as whatever you want, don't let me decide," he responded. He was walking away from her now, looking left and right at the full-body costumes hanging from the shelves. "Whatever," Jessica said, and walked the other way, towards the scary props section to check out some bloody plastic sickles. Rodney walked down the hall slowly, looking like a ten-year-old faced with a candy buffet. He walked past the cloaks, robes, hoods, lions, other various animals, famous movie characters, and assorted random people, such as ninjas and pirates. A particularly gruesome thing caught his eye in the corner, an ugly green troll. Upon closer inspection, however, he found that the suit was very low-quality. He wouldn't be scaring anybody wearing that thing. He poked the troll's big ugly nose, and the whole thing fell over. It had been sitting on a box, he saw, and something was poking out of it. Curious, he opened the box and pulled out the contents. It was some kind of death suit, as far as he could tell. The main body was a black cloak, and a black hood was pulled up over a hideous skull. The skull was deformed and misshapen, but that somehow added to the frightening effect. He reached his hand out to touch it, and found it rubbery and cold. Tentatively, he put it on, hiding his face behind the mask and under the hood, slipping his arms into skeleton-gloves that looked real. He picked up a metallic scythe, also in the box, and held it in what he thought was a menacing position. He peered into a mirror at the end of the aisle and jumped a little at his reflection. He honestly looked like the messenger of death, eyes black pieces of burnt coal, nose just two slits in his skinless face. He took the costume off and searched for his sister. He found her back in the masks section, looking again at witches. "Hey. Ready to go?" he asked, startling her a little. She almost dropped the hag's mask she had been about to put on. "Just a sec," she said, and slipped on the mask. Rodney looked at her carefully, studying. It was a pretty good mask; fairly realistic, creepily scary, and it would go great with the small crooked sickle she had also picked out. "Looks great, now let's go," he said. "Really?" she asked, taking the mask off. "Great. Thanks." They carried their items to the checkout line, where they waited behind a stout old man who was buying candy, supposedly for trick-or-treaters but most likely for himself. When the large man had finished, Jessica placed her scythe and mask on the counter. The clerk ran her scanner over the bar codes of each, and the total came up to almost twenty dollars. "A bit expensive, isn't it?" Jessica asked, handing the clerk the money. "The best," the clerk replied. "Worth every penny." "Would you still say that if you didn't work here?" Jessica asked, smiling as she took her small bag of stuff. The clerk smiled back a little, and gestured to Rodney. Rodney placed the costume and scythe on the counter and watched as the clerk searched them for price tags. Unable to find any, he called on the intercom: "Price check for..." He looked at the face and scythe. "Grim Reaper costume and scythe accessory, please." A few seconds later, a reply came. "Grim Reaper plus scythe? $19.95." "Okay, thank you," the clerk said, and rang up the total. Rodney paid, but couldn't help feeling that he was being charged for the wrong item. He had seen a Grim Reaper costume earlier, and it had looked a lot cheesier and probably cost a lot less. The scythe, too. You could barely tell this one was plastic. "Thank you," Rodney said, and he and Jessica walked out into the parking lot. "Are you ready yet?" Jessica called up the stairs impatiently. "Just a minute!" Rodney called back, his voice slightly muffled by the death mask he wore. He studied himself in the mirror. He looked scary, all right. Very scary. He walked downstairs, showing Jessica his costume for the first time. She made a face, much like the one he had given her when she had shown him the witch's mask that looked like his grandma. "Ew, it's disgusting," she said, looking sick. Then she laughed. "It's great! It looks real, too. I bet you'll win the costume contest, if there is one." "You think?" he asked, voice still muffled a little. She would never tell him this, but she felt better when he spoke. She felt better knowing that under the horrible costume, it was still her brother. "Definitely," she responded confidently. "Now let's go or we'll be late," she said, and they got into the car and drove away. There was no costume contest at the party, but they still had a great time. Bowls of candy corn were laid out on a table, and Rodney was thoroughly enjoying the terrified looks people gave him when they first saw him. After the real fear, though, there was just an apprehensive curiosity about the person behind the mask. When they found out that it was just Rodney, they often laughed and smiled. At one point in the party, Rodney went over to get some candy corn. He got there just in time to see the last of it taken by a rather skinny, nerdy-looking guy. He walked up to the skinny guy. "Hey, do you know if there's anymore of that candy corn anywhere?" he asked, hopeful. The skinny guy jumped when he saw Rodney, and replied carefully, thoughtfully chewing his candy corn. "I don't think so, man. Sorry," he said, through a mouth of orange, white, and yellow. Rodney opened his mouth to say that it was okay, but instead he uttered a low grunt and punched the skinny guy in the stomach. Hard. The skinny guy bent over in pain, candy corn spilling from his mouth, groaning a little as he fell to the floor, clutching his stomach. Rodney backed away, horrified. He hadn't meant to hit him; he never would have. Why had his gloved arm suddenly plunged itself deep into the skinny guy's stomach? People were turning to look now, eyes wide and mouths open, and Jessica broke free from the crowd. "Rodney! What's the matter with you?" she asked, anger flashing in his eyes. "Why would you do that?" "I don't know," Rodney said, fearfully and truthfully. "I...don't feel good, can we go?" She groaned. "I don't know why you chose to goof this up, Rodney." She turned towards the gathering crowd. "Everyone!" she shouted. "Sorry about my brother! He's feeling a little sick. We're going to go now; sorry for the inconvenience." She leaned in towards the skinny guy, still holding his stomach on the floor. "I'm especially sorry for you," she said, meaning it. Rodney and Jessica walked out of the party, seriously doubting that they would be invited back next year. "Why did you do that?" Jessica asked again. "I don't know," Rodney replied again. "There has to be a reason. Why did you do that?" "Fine, you want the truth? I'll give you the truth. The costume did it, okay? That horrible death costume. Happy now?" he said loudly. "Come on, don't be stupid. It's just a costume, you can't blame your stupid actions on it." "You asked why, I answered. If you don't believe me, that's your problem, not mine. You remember how there were no price tags on it? I don't think this thing was manufactured for Store-O-Horror, Jess." "You're just being stupid and irresponsible." Wow, Rodney thought. Three stupids in a row. New record. "Believe what you want, I'm not wearing that thing again. I'm probably not going trick-or-treating tomorrow either." "You have to go! It's a tradition!" "Yeah, well, too bad," Rodney said, feeling sorry for his sister but not wanting to put on that costume again. "I'll catch up with you, if I'm up to it," he said, but didn't expect to feel up to it. "Okay," she said, looking depressed. That night Rodney dreamt about the costume. He dreamt it was coming for him, floating out of the darkness, coming towards him with the large scythe in its hands. Rodney tried to run, but had nowhere to go. He stood there, immobile, as the horrid thing swung its scythe towards his neck. He woke up on the verge of screaming, but somehow held it back, then had to struggle with it again as he looked towards his closet and saw the costume staring back at him with its charcoal eyes and gaping mouth. "Okay, I'm going now. Last chance to come," Jessica said, standing at the door with an empty bag in one hand and her sickle in the other, her hag's mask on her face. "Thanks, but I'll probably just stay home. Like I said, I'll catch up with you if I feel like it," he said, trying to smile at her reassuringly. "Okay," she said, looking put out as she walked out the door and closed it behind her. Rodney sat on the couch, watching TV, a scary movie marathon. What was that? Was that a noise from upstairs? No, he reasoned, just the scary movies playing tricks with my senses, he thought. But there it is again... "Trick-or-treat!" they yelled, holding out their empty bags. Mrs. Kramer came to the door, a bowl of chocolates tucked under one arm. "Well now, let's see what we've got here. Hm...An alien, a pirate, a ghost, and two witches. In other words, Billy, Andy, Larry, Jessica and Beth," she said, pointing to each one as she spoke. "You're getting older," she said, as though suggesting that they were too old to trick-or-treat. "Where's your brother tonight, Jessica?" she asked, handing out pieces of candy to the trick-or-treaters. "He's home sick, Mrs. Kramer," she replied. "Oh, well that's a shame. Tell him to get better for me!" she called as they walked away. "Will do, Mrs. Kramer!" Jessica called back, waving. At the next house, it was more or less the same thing, only with Mr. Rockwell instead of Mrs. Kramer at the door. "Let's see...We've got a pirate, a witch, a ghost, another witch, a bug, and good old Death himself," he said, pointing to each individually. With a start, Jessica whirled around and saw her brother standing there in his costume. "Hey, Rodney. Feeling better?" she asked. He said nothing. "Not very talkative tonight, are you, Rodney?" Mr. Rockwell asked, handing out candy to each of them. He stopped when he got to Rodney, who apparently had no trick-or-treat bag. "Hey, where are you keeping your candy, boy? In your pants?" he asked good-naturedly. Rodney said nothing. "Oh well, I guess you're not feeling much better after all. Maybe you'd be better off inside, getting lots of rest," he said, and shut the door. They walked down the road, a strange procession of a pirate, an alien/bug, a ghost, two witches, and Death. "What's up, Rodney?" the ghost, Larry, asked. "You're not in the mood for candy tonight?" Rodney raised his scythe back over his head threateningly. Larry laughed nervously. "Haha, well, try not to hurt yourself." His expression changed from concern to worry to fear to out right terror in the space of a few seconds as Rodney swung his scythe with all his might. The blade connected with Larry's throat, cutting through his vocal cords and spinal cord, spilling blood across the pavement and scythe blade. Jessica and Beth screamed, Billy and Andy looking on in open-mouthed silent horror as Larry's head hit the cement with a wet smack. "Rodney!" Billy screamed, backing away. Rodney turned from Larry's decapitated body to Billy. He advanced, holding the scythe high above his head. "Hey, come on, man, this isn't funny!" he shouted, his last words as the scythe came slashing through his body, cutting it vertically in half. Well, almost. The blade got stuck about halfway through the cut, and Rodney had to place a foot on Billy's waist to yank the scythe out. Billy was making funny gurgling sounds as his blood spewed out onto the sidewalk and grass. Beth grabbed Jessica's hand and ran away, but Andy was paralyzed with fear. Rodney walked towards him, slowly, casually. "What's wrong with you?" Andy asked, and Rodney slashed through him horizontally, sending his torso crashing to the ground on top of his legs. "You're not you," Andy's upper half croaked, his last words before he slipped into the sweet relief of death. Jessica and Beth burst into the house. They were greeted with a grisly scene: pieces of Rodney were strewn about the living room, blood coating the walls, the furniture, the floor, even the ceiling. A meaty chunk of flesh slid sickly down the wall. "But..." Jessica breathed. "We just saw Rodney...Didn't we?" The living room door flew open, letting in a gust of wind and good old Death himself, bloody scythe in his hands. Jessica cast a glance to the ground, and realized with no real surprise that there were no feet there. The costume was floating. Beth turned towards Jessica as the thing slowly advanced, stepping through the puddles of Rodney's blood. "You or me," she said softly, and pushed Jessica towards the thing while running in the opposite direction, towards the back door. She heard a sickening squelching noise and opened the door in a hurry, escaping out into the cool black night. Death, like a shadow, was never far behind, and caught up with her eventually. It now lies dormant, waiting for one so foolish as to awaken it. You should look for it at your local costume shop. soz its so long hello again for you that are wunderin this was a mixed thing i made parts of it up and some bits i took from other stories you can find on the internet and your local library

Can you translate these English paragraphs to Tagalog about UAE??? Introduction Background: Definition Field Listing The Trucial States of the Persian Gulf coast granted the UK control of their defense and foreign affairs in 19th century treaties. In 1971, six of these states - Abu Zaby, 'Ajman, Al Fujayrah, Ash Shariqah, Dubayy, and Umm al Qaywayn - merged to form the United Arab Emirates (UAE). They were joined in 1972 by Ra's al Khaymah. The UAE's per capita GDP is on par with those of leading West European nations. Its generosity with oil revenues and its moderate foreign policy stance have allowed the UAE to play a vital role in the affairs of the region. Geography Location: Definition Field Listing Middle East, bordering the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf, between Oman and Saudi Arabia Geographic coordinates: Definition Field Listing 24 00 N, 54 00 E Map references: Definition Field Listing Middle East Area: Definition Field Listing Rank Order total: 83,600 sq km land: 83,600 sq km water: 0 sq km Area - comparative: Definition Field Listing slightly smaller than Maine Land boundaries: Definition Field Listing total: 867 km border countries: Oman 410 km, Saudi Arabia 457 km Coastline: Definition Field Listing 1,318 km Maritime claims: Definition Field Listing territorial sea: 12 nm contiguous zone: 24 nm exclusive economic zone: 200 nm continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin Climate: Definition Field Listing desert; cooler in eastern mountains Terrain: Definition Field Listing flat, barren coastal plain merging into rolling sand dunes of vast desert wasteland; mountains in east Elevation extremes: Definition Field Listing lowest point: Persian Gulf 0 m highest point: Jabal Yibir 1,527 m Natural resources: Definition Field Listing petroleum, natural gas Land use: Definition Field Listing arable land: 0.77% permanent crops: 2.27% other: 96.96% (2005) Irrigated land: Definition Field Listing 760 sq km (2003) Total renewable water resources: Definition Field Listing 0.2 cu km (1997) Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural): Definition Field Listing total: 2.3 cu km/yr (23%/9%/68%) per capita: 511 cu m/yr (2000) Natural hazards: Definition Field Listing frequent sand and dust storms Environment - current issues: Definition Field Listing lack of natural freshwater resources compensated by desalination plants; desertification; beach pollution from oil spills Environment - international agreements: Definition Field Listing party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea Geography - note: Definition Field Listing strategic location along southern approaches to Strait of Hormuz, a vital transit point for world crude oil Government Country name: Definition Field Listing conventional long form: United Arab Emirates conventional short form: none local long form: Al Imarat al Arabiyah al Muttahidah local short form: none former: Trucial Oman, Trucial States abbreviation: UAE Government type: Definition Field Listing federation with specified powers delegated to the UAE federal government and other powers reserved to member emirates Capital: Definition Field Listing name: Abu Dhabi geographic coordinates: 24 28 N, 54 22 E time difference: UTC+4 (9 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time) Administrative divisions: Definition Field Listing 7 emirates (imarat, singular - imarah); Abu Zaby (Abu Dhabi), 'Ajman, Al Fujayrah, Ash Shariqah (Sharjah), Dubayy (Dubai), Ra's al Khaymah, Umm al Qaywayn (Quwayn) Independence: Definition Field Listing 2 December 1971 (from UK) National holiday: Definition Field Listing Independence Day, 2 December (1971) Constitution: Definition Field Listing 2 December 1971; made permanent in 1996 Legal system: Definition Field Listing based on a dual system of Shari'a and civil courts; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction Suffrage: Definition Field Listing none Executive branch: Definition Field Listing chief of state: President KHALIFA bin Zayid al-Nuhayyan (since 3 November 2004), ruler of Abu Zaby (Abu Dhabi) (since 4 November 2004); Vice President and Prime Minister MUHAMMAD bin Rashid al-Maktum (since 5 January 2006) head of government: Prime Minister and Vice President MUHAMMAD bin Rashid al-Maktum (since 5 January 2006); Deputy Prime Ministers SULTAN bin Zayid al-Nuhayyan (since 20 November 1990) and HAMDAN bin Zayid al-Nuhayyan (since 20 October 2003) cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president note: there is also a Federal Supreme Council (FSC) composed of the seven emirate rulers; the FSC is the highest constitutional authority in the UAE; establishes general policies and sanctions federal legislation; meets four times a year; Abu Zaby (Abu Dhabi) and Dubayy (Dubai) rulers have effective veto power elections: president and vice president elected by the FSC for five-year terms (no term limits); election last held 3 November 2004 upon the death of the UAE's Founding Father and first President ZAYID bin Sultan Al Nuhayyan (next to be held in 2009); prime minister and deputy prime minister appointed by the president election results: KHALIFA bin Zayid al-Nuhayyan elected president by a unanimous vote of the FSC; MUHAMMAD bin Rashid al-Maktum unanimously affirmed vice president after the 2006 death of his brother Sheikh Maktum bin Rashid al-Maktum Legislative branch: Definition Field Listing unicameral Federal National Council (FNC) or Majlis al-Ittihad al-Watani (40 seats; 20 members appointed by the rulers of the constituent states, 20 members elected to serve two-year terms) elections: elections for one half of the FNC (the other half remains appointed) held in the UAE on 18-20 December 2006; the new electoral college - a body of 6,689 Emiratis (including 1,189 women) appointed by the rulers of the seven emirates - were the only eligible voters and candidates; 456 candidates including 65 women ran for 20 contested FNC seats; one female from the Emirate of Abu Dhabi won a seat note: reviews legislation but cannot change or veto Judicial branch: Definition Field Listing Union Supreme Court (judges are appointed by the president) Political parties and leaders: Definition Field Listing none Political pressure groups and leaders: Definition Field Listing NA International organization participation: Definition Field Listing ABEDA, AFESD, AMF, FAO, G-77, GCC, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, IMSO, Interpol, IOC, IPU, ISO, ITSO, ITU, LAS, MIGA, NAM, OAPEC, OIC, OPCW, OPEC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO Diplomatic representation in the US: Definition Field Listing chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant) chancery: 3522 International Court NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20008 telephone: [1] (202) 243-2400 FAX: [1] (202) 243-2432 consulate(s): New York, Houston Diplomatic representation from the US: Definition Field Listing chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires Martin R. QUINN embassy: Embassies District, Plot 38 Sector W59-02, Street No. 4, Abu Dhabi mailing address: P. O. Box 4009, Abu Dhabi telephone: [971] (2) 414-2200 FAX: [971] (2) 414-2603 consulate(s) general: Dubai Flag description: Definition Field Listing three equal horizontal bands of green (top), white, and black with a wider vertical red band on the hoist side Economy United Arab Emirates Top of Page Economy - overview: Definition Field Listing The UAE has an open economy with a high per capita income and a sizable annual trade surplus. Despite largely successful efforts at economic diversification, nearly 40% of GDP is still directly based on oil and gas output. Since the discovery of oil in the UAE more than 30 years ago, the UAE has undergone a profound transformation from an impoverished region of small desert principalities to a modern state with a high standard of living. The government has increased spending on job creation and infrastructure expansion and is opening up utilities to greater private sector involvement. In April 2004, the UAE signed a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement with Washington and in November 2004 agreed to undertake negotiations toward a Free Trade Agreement with the US. The country's Free Trade Zones - offering 100% foreign ownership and zero taxes - are helping to attract foreign investors. Higher oil revenue, strong liquidity, housing shortages, and cheap credit in 2005-07 led to a surge in asset prices (shares and real estate) and consumer inflation. Rising prices are increasing the operating costs for businesses in the UAE and adversely impacting government employees and others on fixed incomes. Dependence on oil and a large expatriate workforce are significant long-term challenges. The UAE's strategic plan for the next few years focuses on diversification and creating more opportunities for nationals through improved education and increased private sector employment. GDP (purchasing power parity): Definition Field Listing Rank Order $167.3 billion (2007 est.) GDP (official exchange rate): Definition Field Listing $192.6 billion (2007 est.) GDP - real growth rate: Definition Field Listing Rank Order 7.4% (2007 est.) GDP - per capita (PPP): Definition Field Listing Rank Order $37,300 (2007 est.) GDP - composition by sector: Definition Field Listing agriculture: 1.8% industry: 59.3% services: 38.9% (2007 est.) Labor force: Definition Field Listing Rank Order 3.065 million (2007 est.) Labor force - by occupation: Definition Field Listing agriculture: 7% industry: 15% services: 78% (2000 est.) Unemployment rate: Definition Field Listing Rank Order 2.4% (2001) Population below poverty line: Definition Field Listing 19.5% (2003) Household income or consumption by percentage share: Definition Field Listing lowest 10%: NA% highest 10%: NA% Inflation rate (consumer prices): Definition Field Listing Rank Order 11% (2007 est.) Investment (gross fixed): Definition Field Listing Rank Order 21.8% of GDP (2007 est.) Budget: Definition Field Listing revenues: $58.88 billion expenditures: $38.06 billion (2007 est.) Public debt: Definition Field Listing Rank Order 22.9% of GDP (2007 est.) Agriculture - products: Definition Field Listing dates, vegetables, watermelons; poultry, eggs, dairy products; fish Industries: Definition Field Listing petroleum and petrochemicals; fishing, aluminum, cement, fertilizers, commercial ship repair, construction materials, some boat building, handicrafts, textiles Industrial production growth rate: Definition Field Listing Rank Order 4.3% (2007 est.) Electricity - production: Definition Field Listing Rank Order 57.06 billion kWh (2005) Electricity - consumption: Definition Field Listing Rank Order 52.62 billion kWh (2005) Electricity - exports: Definition Field Listing 0 kWh (2005) Electricity - imports: Definition Field Listing 0 kWh (2005) Oil - production: Definition Field Listing Rank Order 2.54 million bbl/day (2006 est.) Oil - consumption: Definition Field Listing Rank Order 372,000 bbl/day (2005 est.) Oil - exports: Definition Field Listing Rank Order 2.54 million bbl/day (2004 est.) Oil - imports: Definition Field Listing Rank Order 137,200 bbl/day (2004) Oil - proved reserves: Definition Field Listing Rank Order 97.8 billion bbl (2007 est.) Natural gas - production: Definition Field Listing Rank Order 45.07 billion cu m (2005 est.) Natural gas - consumption: Definition Field Listing Rank Order 39.56 billion cu m (2005 est.) Natural gas - exports: Definition Field Listing Rank Order 6.848 billion cu m (2005 est.) Natural gas - imports: Definition Field Listing Rank Order 1.343 billion cu m (2005) Natural gas - proved reserves: Definition Field Listing Rank Order 5.823 trillion cu m (1 January 2006 est.) Current account balance: Definition Field Listing Rank Order $41.67 billion (2007 est.) Exports: Definition Field Listing Rank Order $156.6 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.) Exports - commodities: Definition Field Listing crude oil 45%, natural gas, reexports, dried fish, dates Exports - partners: Definition Field Listing Japan 23.4%, South Korea 10.3%, Thailand 5%, India 4.8% (2006) Imports: Definition Field Listing Rank Order $101.6 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.) Imports - commodities: Definition Field Listing machinery and transport equipment, chemicals, food Imports - partners: Definition Field Listing China 13.1%, India 10.2%, US 8.9%, Japan 6.2%, Germany 6.1%, Italy 4.7% (2006) Economic aid - donor: Definition Field Listing since its founding in 1971, the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development has given about $5.2 billion in aid to 56 countries (2004) Economic aid - recipient: Definition Field Listing $5.36 million (2004) Reserves of foreign exchange and gold: Definition Field Listing Rank Order $76.62 billion (31 December 2007 est.) Debt - external: Definition Field Listing Rank Order $57.52 billion (31 December 2007 est.) Stock of direct foreign investment - at home: Definition Field Listing Rank Order $44.37 billion (2007 est.) Stock of direct foreign investment - abroad: Definition Field Listing Rank Order $14.14 billion (2007 est.) Market value of publicly traded shares: Definition Field Listing Rank Order $138.5 billion (2006) Currency (code): Definition Field Listing Emirati dirham (AED) Exchange rates: Definition Field Listing Emirati dirhams per US dollar - 3.673 (2007), 3.673 (2006), 3.6725 (2005), 3.6725 (2004), 3.6725 (2003) note: officially pegged to the US dollar since February 2002 Fiscal year: Definition Field Listing calendar year Transnational Issues Disputes - international: Definition Field Listing boundary agreement was signed and ratified with Oman in 2003 for entire border, including Oman's Musandam Peninsula and Al Madhah enclaves, but contents of the agreement and detailed maps showing the alignment have not been published; Iran and UAE dispute Tunb Islands and Abu Musa Island, which Iran occupies Illicit drugs: Definition Field Listing the UAE is a drug transshipment point for traffickers given its proximity to Southwest Asian drug-producing countries; the UAE's position as a major financial center makes it vulnerable to money laundering; anti-money-laundering controls improving, but informal banking remains unregulated

I'm torn, should I even get another car? If so, new or old? My 1998 Chevy Lumina was totaled in an accident last week(other guys fault). So now I'm out a car, and while the other insurance company has taken liability they haven't settled yet. My car was old and had around 120,000 miles on it so I doubt I'll get much $ for it when the insurance company pays up. I *want* another car, but do I get an old car that I can actually afford (really cheap) but that I don't particularly like and will undoubtedly have many miles on it ( reliability and safety is important to me so I'm not going to buy a death trap or anything, just not anything that nice seems to be an option within my cheapo price range of $4,000) OR do I buy a year or two old car I *want* (Honda Fit Sport) but have to go into debt for the next three years and spend most/all of my savings when purchasing it? I don't have any debt of any kind currently. FACTORS TO CONSIDER Local transportation here is not very good (I'd give it a D+). I have $9,000 to my name. I'm graduating college in May and I live in Phoenix, Arizona. I'm 22 years old and getting a degree in Print Journalism. I have a job I have to drive 20 minutes to get to. I still live for free in my parents house and for now my parent are letting me borrow one of their cars. So no rent payments. I saved all my money for doing something fun after graduating and to have something to live off of while I figured out what the heck I'm gonna do, where I wanna live (not Phoenix), got a job, HAD FUN. I didn't not save all this money with intention to replace my car. I don't want to live with my parents for forever or use their car for forever. I feel like a leech doing that. But my career outlook isn't so good with journalism seeming to be going through its last death throws and the economy dead.

I ask Democrates, are we going to stand for the Left wing doing what the are doing?Glenn Greenwald?

Land Law situation? Last week your client Samantha completed the purchase of Blackacre, a large manor house with substantial grounds, all of which is registered at HM Land Registry with absolute freehold title. Samantha has been living abroad, where she saw the property advertised in a magazine. She was so struck by the photograph and description of the property she decided to buy it, and agreed all the terms and completed the transaction while still overseas. She has now returned to take up occupation, and on visiting it for the first time has been met with a number of alleged claims, as set out below. (a)The vendor, Julia, in whose sole name the property was registered, is still living in a cottage on the grounds with her brother Stephen, and her sister Margaret. Margaret says (truly) that she put up half the original purchase price money when Julia bought the property seven years ago, as Stephen had no money, and that all three of them moved to the cottage two years ago as the manor house had become too big for them. Margaret says that she does not want to move. (b)Stephen also says that he does not want to move. (c)Jones, a local farmer, produces a 25 year lease, granted last month, of a paddock behind the cottage. Margaret and Julia are still keeping their horses there. (d)Haye, another farmer, produces a seven year lease, granted two years a go, of an outbuilding in which he has been storing cattle feed. The lease contains an option to purchase the freehold of the outbuilding at the full market price at any time in the next five years. (e)Michael has a written contract dated 1 August 2000 for the grant to him of a ten year lease of the manor house commencing on 1 January 2006. He has not occupied the premises but his brother Albert has been allowed to live there rent-free until Michael’s return from the USA next year. Explain to Samantha which, if any, of these people’s rights in Blackacre can be enforced against her. How would your answer to (a) differ if the property had been registered in the names of Julia and Stephen and the transfer executed by both of them?

now that fox folk have got the nomination secured for the crooks they are willing to talk about how right Ron?

now that the real problems facing america can't be so easily hiden,?

Is Obama Disigenuous? http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23643866-5013948,00.html The illusion that is Barack Obama * Font Size: Decrease Increase * Print Page: Print Fred Siegel | May 05, 2008 POLITICAL campaigning necessarily produces a wide gap between words and deeds. This is the price of bringing together a broad coalition with disparate interests. All effective politicians are at times authentically insincere or sincerely inauthentic. Exaggeration, embellishment, overstatement, doubletalk, deception and lies presented as metaphorical truths are the order of the day. So, of course, Barack Obama is no different. He exaggerates the credit he deserves for a limited piece of ethics-reform legislation. He embellishes when he presents himself as having had a consistent record on the Iraq war when in fact he's done a fair amount of zigzagging. He engages in doubletalk when, on free trade and Iraq, he tells the yokels one thing and the policy people another. He overstates when he presents his minimal accomplishments in the Illinois Senate as proof of his stature. He engages in systematic deception when he says he doesn't take money from lobbyists. He presents a lie as metaphorical truth when he says it was the 1965 bloody Sunday attacks on peaceful civil rights protesters in Selma, Alabama, that inspired his parents to marry. (They had been married for years already.) All of this is unappealing, but also unexceptional. What makes it different is that there's not just a gap but a chasm between his actions and his professed principles, which would normally kill a candidacy. And because his deeds are so few, the disparity is all the more salient. Obama, far more than the others, is the "judge me by what I say and not what I do" candidate. He wants to be the conscience of the country without necessarily having one himself. The disparity between Obama's rhetoric of transcendence and his conventional Chicago racial and patronage politics is a leitmotiv of his political career. In New York, politicians (Al Sharpton excepted) are usually forced to pay at least passing tribute to universal principles and the ideal of clean government. But Chicago, until recently a city of Lithuanians, blacks and Poles governed by Irishmen on the patronage model of the Italian Christian Democrats, is the city of political and cultural tribalism. Blacks adapted to the tribalism and the corrupt patronage politics that accompanied it. Historically, one of the ironies of Chicago politics is that the clean-government candidates have been the most racist, while those most open to black aspirations have been the most corrupt. When the young Jesse Jackson received his first audience with then mayor Richard Daley Sr - impervious to the universalism of the civil rights movement in its glory - offered him a job as a toll-taker. Jackson thought the offer demeaning but in time adapted. In Chicago, racial reform has meant that the incumbent mayor, Richard M. Daley, has been cutting blacks in on the loot. Louis Farrakhan, Jackson, Jeremiah Wright and Obama are all, in part, the expression of that politics. It hasn't always worked for Chicago, which, under the pressure of increasing taxes to pay for bloated government, is losing its middle class. But it has served the city's political class admirably. For all his Camelot-like rhetoric, Obama is a product, in significant measure, of the political culture that Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass described: "We've had our chief of detectives sent to prison for running the Outfit's (the mob's) jewellery-heist ring. And we've had white guys with Outfit connections get $100 million in affirmative action contracts from their drinking buddy, Mayor Richard Daley ... That's the Chicago way." At no point did Obama, the would-be saviour of US politics, challenge this corruption, except for face-saving gestures as a legislator. He was, in his own Harvard law way, a product of it. Why, you may ask, did the operators of Chicago's political machine support Obama? Part of the answer was given long ago by the then boss of Chicago, Jake Arvey. When asked why he made Adlai Stevenson - a man, as with Obama, more famous for speeches than for accomplishments - his party's gubernatorial candidate in 1948, Arvey is said to have replied that he needed to "perfume the ticket". Obama first played a perfuming role as a state senator. His mentor, Emil Jones, the machine-made president of the Senate, allowed him to sponsor a minor ethics bill. In return, Obama made sure to send plenty of pork to Jones's district. When asked about pork-barrel spending, Jones famously replied: "Some call it pork; I call it steak." Obama repaid the generosity. When he had a chance to back clean Democratic candidates for president of the Cook County board of supervisors and Illinois governor, he stayed with the allies of the Outfit. The gubernatorial candidate he backed, Rod Blagojevich, is under federal investigation, in part because of his relationship with Tony Rezko, the man who helped Obama buy his house. The Chicago way has delivered politically for Obama even this year. Ninety per cent of his popular-vote lead over Hillary Clinton comes from Illinois, and two-thirds of that 90 per cent comes just from Cook County. Some of this advantage came from the efforts of Obama's political ally, the flame-throwing reverend James Meeks, a political force in his own right. Meeks, who mocks black moderates as "niggers", is an Illinois state senator, the pastor of a mega-church and a strong supporter of Jackson's powerful political operation, which has put its vote-pulling muscle squarely behind the Obama campaign. It was only with Obama's remark about bitter, white, working-class, small-town voters that we saw his difficulties appealing beyond the machine's reach. He won his US Senate race in 2004 not only because his opponents self-destructed but also because of the machine's ability to deliver votes. In Pennsylvania, he has lacked such assistance and the campaigning has not gone nearly so well. First, Obama pretended to be a tenpin bowler and scored a 37. Then, appearing before a supposedly closed San Francisco audience, he complained that small-town Pennsylvanians "cling to guns or religion or antipathy towards people who aren't like them, or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment, as a way to explain their frustrations". This is the man who belongs to a church built on bitterness, rancour and conspiratorial fear. During the Wright affair, Obama not only repeatedly lied about what he knew and when but violated the spirit of the civil rights movement in its mid-1960s glory. When, as a young man, I was on the periphery of the movement, there was an unwritten rule that if people told racist jokes or speakers engaged in defamatory rhetoric, you needed to register your immediate disapproval by confronting the speaker or ostentatiously walking out. Wright's "black theology" is essentially a Christianised version of Malcolm X's ideology of hate. But for 20 years, Obama, who had planned to run for mayor of Chicago, kept silent about the close, if at times competitive, relationship between Wright, whose 8000-member mega-church gave him his political base, and Farrakhan. His ambition overrode his moral integrity. As part of his "black value system", Wright attacked whites for their "middle classism", materialism, and "greed in a world of need". Obama sounded similar notes in his recent address at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York, in which he laid the blame for the sub-prime mortgage crisis on those who had "embraced an ethic of greed, corner cutting and inside dealing". But that's exactly what Obama did in buying his luxurious house. Given the choice of purchasing a less expensive home or getting into bed with his fundraiser-cum-slumlord-cum-fixer Rezko, Obama chose the latter. Then again, the oppressed of Trinity United Church of Christ are building Wright a $US1.6 million ($1.7million), 960sqm home complete with four-car garage, whirlpool and butler's pantry. This house, which backs on to a golf course, is to sit in Tinley Park, a gated community in southwest Chicago that is 93 per cent white. The Obamas' charitable giving is consistent with Wright's talking Left while living Right. Obama and his wife are quite well off. They had an estimated income of $US1.2 million from 2000 to 2004. But the man who preaches compassion and mutuality gave all of 1 per cent of that income to charity during those years. Most of that went to Wright's church. There is a similar chasm when it comes to Obama's claim to post-partisanship. His achievements in reaching out to moderate voters are largely proleptic. But words are not deeds and, although Obama has few concrete achievements to his name, his voting record hardly suggests an ability to rise above Left v Right. In the Illinois Senate, he made a specialty of voting present, but after his first two years in the US Senate, National Journal's analysis of rollcall votes found that he was more liberal than 86 per cent of his colleagues. His voting record has only moved further Left since then. The liberal Americans for Democratic Action gives him a 97.5 per cent rating, while National Journal ranks him the most liberal member of the Senate. By comparison, Clinton, who occasionally votes with the Republicans, ranks 16th. Obama is such a down-the-line partisan that, according to Congressional Quarterly, in the past two years he has voted with the Democrats more often than did the party's majority leader, Harry Reid. Likewise, for all his talk of post-racialism, Obama has played, with the contrivance of the press, traditional South Side Chicago racial politics. The day after his surprise loss in New Hampshire, and in anticipation of the South Carolina primary, with its heavily black electorate, South Side congressman Jesse Jackson Jr - Obama's national co-chairman - appeared on MSNBC to argue, in a prepared statement, that Clinton's teary moment on the campaign trail reflected her deep-seated racism. "Those tears," said Jackson, "have to be analysed ... They have to be looked at very, very carefully in light of Katrina, in light of other things that Mrs Clinton did not cry for, particularly as we head to South Carolina, where 45 per cent of African-Americans will participate in the Democratic contest ... We saw tears in response to her appearance, so that her appearance brought her to tears, but not hurricane Katrina, not other issues." In other words, whites who are at odds with, or who haven't delivered for, Chicago politicians can be obliquely accused of racism on the flimsiest basis, but pillars of local black politics such as Wright, with his exclusivist racial theology, are beyond criticism. Liberals love Obama's talk of taking on powerful financial interests. But here , too, he is rather slippery. In his Cooper Union speech, he denounced in no uncertain terms the "special interests" of people on Wall Street (who are well represented among his campaign donors). He, of course, had an opportunity to push for repealing the privileged tax treatment of private equity firms when that question was before Charles Grassley's Senate subcommittee - but he simply made a pro-forma statement in favour of doing so and disappeared. Nationally, as in Chicago, Obama the self-styled reformer never crosses swords with any of his putative foes. To pick another example, he has attacked "predatory" sub-prime lenders while taking roughly $US1.3 million in contributions from companies in that line of business. Obama is the internationalist opposed to free trade. He is the friend of race-baiters who thinks Don Imus deserved to be fired. He is the proponent of courage in the face of powerful interests who lacked the courage to break with Wright (until Wednesday). He is the man who would lead our efforts against terrorism yet was friendly with Bill Ayers, the unrepentant 1960s terrorist. He is the post-racialist supporter of affirmative action. He is the enemy of Big Oil who takes money from executives at Exxon-Mobil, Shell and British Petroleum. Obama has, in a sense, represented a new version of the invisible man, a candidate whose colour obscures his failings. But so far, the wild discrepancy between Obama's words and his deeds, and between his enormous ambitions and his minimal accomplishments, doesn't seem to have fazed his core supporters, who apparently suffer from a severe case of cognitive dissonance. Like cultists who rededicate themselves when the cult's prophecies have been falsified, his fans redouble their delusions in the face of his obvious hypocrisy. That is because Obama, in the imagination of many of his fans in the public and the press, is both a deduction from what was - the failures of the Bush administration and the scandals of the Clintons - and an expression of what should be. The ideal, the aspiration, is so rhetorically appealing that it has been assumed to be true. They remind one of Woodrow Wilson's answer when asked if his plan for a League of Nations was practicable: "If it won't work, it must be made to work." Fred Siegel is a contributing editor of City Journal. He teaches at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.

Is New York City already Democratic Socialism? It is so different from anywhere else in the U.S. it seems. Public School kids get school breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner, and take home Saturday meals, and summer breakfast and lunch. You are legally entitled to housing which is a right , and upon demand, if you are not provided within 24 hours a place to stay (even free of charge temporarily if you have no money),or the city must pay $100 first day $50 per day thereafter to you in fines. Water is included by law in all rent. And under most circumstances cannot be shut off legally, even for non-payment. Same with heat, with strict minimum guidelines, apartments must be kept at least 68 degrees during the daytime. You are exempt from having an electricity meter if you are poor and in subsidized housing without major appliances, or an electricity alowance if in private subsidized housing with meters. (Most people in our neighborhood have no electricity meters - the overwhelming majority in this area) 15 Public Hospitals and 6 Clinics (weverywhere) are not permitted to turn anyone away in the Emergency Room, Doctor Clinic, Dental Clinic, Family Planing Center, or Dept. of Health or City Fitness Centers, and Health Insurance Is not a Requirement. All government health Center fees are $10 for the poor, and all medicine at the many State Run Pharmacies are price controlled at $10 for the poor, and Free for all emergency patients. A city run non profit insurance company free for the lower class with only $1 deductibles for the middle class, and heavily subsidized state insurance for upper middle class. By law Medicine can never be denied if you have the inability to pay at any state pharmacy. Pretty much everyone in the city is in a government housing program, which covers poor, middles class, AND upper middle class semi public housing and housing lotteries. Food is also a guaranteed right, and must be distributed at drop in centers community centers, and shelter sites. Along with a 24 hour hunger hotline. Our own City funded full University and college system of 26 colleges and Universities citywide. Our own city run educational and news television and music and news radio station. (Both commercial free), plus the new city current affairs city hall network, and extensive NYC Media Group. Extensive rent control in the private rental market. Our own city progressive income tax, and our own NYC Earned Income Tax Credit, along with a very progressive state income tax and state Earned Income Tax Credit. Fully Funded Public Schools, with High Schools of Every Specialty, Fashion, Aviation, Performing Arts, Plumbing, Electricity, Transit, you name it, with up to 10 classes a day,in some cases beautiful labs, and even escalators, our own city version of the SAT just to get into competitive high schools, Flexible curriculums with electives at nearly every level. Classes can end as late as 6pm if you choose to stay all day with electives, etc. Very Extensive city planning, zoning, parks, all spaces. Wal-Mart has been outlawed from the city and is not allowed to be built here. Our supermarket grocery baggers are usually unionized. Higher minimum wage at $7.15 an hour. Stricter enforcement of labor laws in local courts. (Pro-labor court system) Our own state funded Welfare Safety Net System, to replace Clinton's eradication of Welfare (We decided to continue Welfare with our own money) 24 hour bus and train extensive transportation nearly every block of the city, even suburban areas, no more than 20 minute wait for trains late nights. *** Government is such a huge part of everyday life here, and yet poverty conditions are lower than many other cities, especially the south, we are pretty free (just like most of America, no dictator here), We are the safest city in America, and its largest at the same time (people are happier?) And our local economy is very productive (Welfare state, yet people still choose to work). And rich people didn't leave here in droves (In fact they are still moving to Manhattan in droves) (New Construction is Everywhere) (And almost no home foreclosures). So what gives? Are we already socialist? Is our state constitution socialist by making health care, water, electricity, housing, heat and food a constitutional right that the state must provide by law? True taxes are higher but mostly on the wealthy, and most people don't mind because everyone gets services, the poor middle and upper middle class, all get stuff, and the wealthy get a clean city with beautiful parks, and safety, and awesome transport / quality of life. There are the occasional people protesting, but here people seem to love government so the majority don't care about taxes since its money well spent. This list doesn't even cover half the programs here. (our local library is open 9am - pm 7 days a week with one whole floor dedicated job center with library job counselors), The city also sponsors free wireless internet in public spaces, the list goes on. Anything the private sector does, NYC government does it also. Just opened up the Center for Financial Empowerment with Free Budget Counselors, and Literacy Centers to learn English Free. List goes on.. ^9am-9pm typo

Cadidate X or Candidate Y? Candidate X Promises and Plans: 1.)Establish a $10 billion Foreclosure Prevention Fund 2.)Provide $10 billion in Relief for State and Local Governments 3.)Hardest-Hit by the Housing Crisis to Prevent Cuts in Vital Services. 4.)Extend and Expand Unemployment Insurance 5.)Provide a Tax Cut for Working Families 6.)Eliminate Income Taxes for Seniors Making Less than $50,000 7.)Simplify Tax Filings for Middle Class Americans 8.)Fight for Fair Trade 9.)Amend the North American Free Trade Agreement 10.)Improve Transition Assistance 11.)Invest in our Next Generation Innovators and Job Creators 12.)Double Funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership 13.)Invest In A Clean Energy Economy And Create 5 Million New Green Jobs 14.)Create New Job Training Programs for Clean Technologies 15.)Boost the Renewable Energy Sector and Create New Jobs 16.)Create a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank 17.)Invest in the Sciences 18.)Make the Research and Development Tax Credit Permanent 19.)Deploy Next-Generation Broadband 20.)Provide Tax Relief for Small Businesses and Start Up Companies 21.)Create a National Network of Public-Private Business Incubators 22.)Ensure Freedom to Unionize 23.)Fight Attacks on Workers' Right to Organize 24.)Protect Striking Workers 25.)Raise the Minimum Wage 26.)Protect Homeownership and Crack Down on Mortgage Fraud 27.)Address Predatory Credit Card Practices 28.)Reform Bankruptcy Laws 29.)Work/Family Balance 30.)Expand High-Quality Afterschool Opportunities Candidate Y Promises and Plans: 1.)Workplace Flexibility 2.)Relief for Families 3.)Government Reform 4.)Supporting Small Businesses 5.)Cheap and Clean Energy 6.)Better Healthcare 7.)Simpler and Fairer Taxes 8.)Lower Barriers to Trade 9.)Expanding Domestic Oil And Natural Gas Exploration And Production 10.)Taking Action Now To Break Our Dependency On Foreign Oil By Reforming Our Transportation Sector 11.)Investing In Clean, Alternative Sources Of Energy 12.)Protecting Our Environment And Addressing Climate Change: A Sound Energy Strategy Must Include A Solid Environmental Foundation 13.)Promoting Energy Efficiency 14.)Addressing Speculative Pricing Of Oil 15.)DC Personal Protection 16.)The Confiscation of Firearms After an Emergency 17.)Cut The Corporate Tax Rate From 35 To 25 Percent 18.)Seal the Pork Barrel 19.)Stop the Revolving Door and Restore Ethics 20.)Democracy is Not for Sale 21.)Excellence, Choice, and Competition in American Education 22.)Comprehensive Immigration Initiatives for a Secure Nation

Working on my contract essay skills (going to law school next fall) need help, stuck!!!!!? Sparky, an unlicensed electrical contractor, placed an ad in the local newspaper that read: No Job Too Small, No Job Too Big! Electrical Outlets Replaced–$15 Each Call Sparky at (213) 555-1234 Owen, a residential homeowner, saw the ad and called Sparky. Owen told Sparky, “I saw your ad and am hiring you to replace a total of ten electrical outlets in my home.” Owen and Sparky made arrangements to meet at Owen’s house the next day. When Sparky arrived, Owen explained to Sparky that Owen wanted to change the outlets in two rooms that were recently repainted and Owen thought that the outlets would look nicer if the current ivory colored outlets were replaced with white colored outlets. Sparky told Owen that he would do the job right now for $200–$20 per outlet. Owen said that he thought they had an agreement for $150–$15 per outlet as the ad said. Sparky told Owen the price was higher because the job was a small job. Owen told Sparky, “Go ahead and do it, I don’t have much choice, however, I heard that outlets made by ABC were the best so I expect you to install that brand.” Sparky went to his truck to gather the necessary supplies for Owen’s job. Sparky then realized that he had used the last of the ABC brand outlets on a previous job and all he had left were XYZ brand outlets. Sparky grabbed ten white XYZ outlets and promptly changed the ten outlets in Owen’s home without telling Owen that he was using XYZ brand outlets. Owen reluctantly paid Sparky $200. Owen was satisfied with Sparky’s work but felt that he had an agreement with Sparky for $150 instead of the $200. After leaving Owen’s residence, Sparky went to Big Box, the local home improvement store, to replenish some electrical supplies for his next job, later that afternoon. Homer, a sales associate in the electrical department explained to Sparky an electrical problem that he was having at home. Sparky told Homer that because of the way Homer had always taken care of Sparky with finding material at Big Box, he would fix Homer’s electrical problem for free. Sparky told Homer that the only time available would be 6:00 pm that evening. Homer agreed. Homer told Sparky that he would need to leave work early, resulting in two hours of lost pay, but he would be there by 6:00 pm. At Sparky’s next job, Sparky ran into unexpected difficulties and was not able to go to Homer’s home that night. Because of Sparky’s heavy work schedule, Sparky told Homer that he would not be able to fix Homer’s problem. Owen subsequently discovered that Sparky used XYZ brand outlets instead of ABC brand outlets. 1.What rights does Owen have against Sparky for breach of contract and partial or full return of the money paid to Sparky? Discuss. 2.Did Sparky have an enforceable obligation to Homer? Discuss. What law governs? Common law applies for all transactions where the subject matter is services. Here, in both cases above, common law would apply. Though one could make an argument that in Owen's case, Sparky gave him the wrong outlets, the overall case deals with services (or lack thereof); even the UCC 2-205 wouldn't fit in this case. UCC 2-205 deals with an offer to buy or sell goods in a certain period of time. Owen didn't actually buy the goods; rather, he bought the services Sparky provided. Therefore, common law will apply. 1.Owen v. Sparky To see if Owen has any contract rights against Sparky, I will first look to see if a valid enforceable contract exists. A valid enforceable contract consists of offer, acceptance, consideration and lack of defenses. Offer A manifestation of present contractual intent, communicated to an identified offeree containing definite and certain terms. AD: The general rule is that advertisements (eg. newspaper, ads, handbills, fliers, etc.) are not considered offers. Here, Owen saw a newspaper advertisement indicating electrical Outlets Replaced–$15 Each. Owen, a residential homeowner, saw the ad and called Sparky. Owen told Sparky, “I saw your ad and I am hiring you to replace a total of ten electrical outlets in my home.” Owen and Sparky made arrangements to meet at Owen’s house the next day This was not an acceptance of an offer. Acceptance An unequivocal assent to each and term of the offer.

Did I cover all the issues (contracts essay) or am I missing something? Sparky, an unlicensed electrical contractor, placed an ad in the local newspaper that read: No Job Too Small, No Job Too Big! Electrical Outlets Replaced–$15 Each Call Sparky at (213) 555-1234 Owen, a residential homeowner, saw the ad and called Sparky. Owen told Sparky, “I saw your ad and am hiring you to replace a total of ten electrical outlets in my home.” Owen and Sparky made arrangements to meet at Owen’s house the next day. When Sparky arrived, Owen explained to Sparky that Owen wanted to change the outlets in two rooms that were recently repainted and Owen thought that the outlets would look nicer if the current ivory colored outlets were replaced with white colored outlets. Sparky told Owen that he would do the job right now for $200–$20 per outlet. Owen said that he thought they had an agreement for $150–$15 per outlet as the ad said. Sparky told Owen the price was higher because the job was a small job. Owen told Sparky, “Go ahead and do it, I don’t have much choice, however, I heard that outlets made by ABC were the best so I expect you to install that brand.” Sparky went to his truck to gather the necessary supplies for Owen’s job. Sparky then realized that he had used the last of the ABC brand outlets on a previous job and all he had left were XYZ brand outlets. Sparky grabbed ten white XYZ outlets and promptly changed the ten outlets in Owen’s home without telling Owen that he was using XYZ brand outlets. Owen reluctantly paid Sparky $200. Owen was satisfied with Sparky’s work but felt that he had an agreement with Sparky for $150 instead of the $200. After leaving Owen’s residence, Sparky went to Big Box, the local home improvement store, to replenish some electrical supplies for his next job, later that afternoon. Homer, a sales associate in the electrical department explained to Sparky an electrical problem that he was having at home. Sparky told Homer that because of the way Homer had always taken care of Sparky with finding material at Big Box, he would fix Homer’s electrical problem for free. Sparky told Homer that the only time available would be 6:00 pm that evening. Homer agreed. Homer told Sparky that he would need to leave work early, resulting in two hours of lost pay, but he would be there by 6:00 pm. At Sparky’s next job, Sparky ran into unexpected difficulties and was not able to go to Homer’s home that night. Because of Sparky’s heavy work schedule, Sparky told Homer that he would not be able to fix Homer’s problem. Owen subsequently discovered that Sparky used XYZ brand outlets instead of ABC brand outlets. 1.What rights does Owen have against Sparky for breach of contract and partial or full return of the money paid to Sparky? Discuss. 2.Did Sparky have an enforceable obligation to Homer? Discuss. What law governs? Common law applies for all transactions where the subject matter is services. Here, in both cases above, common law would apply. Though one could make an argument that in Owen's case, Sparky gave him the wrong outlets, the overall case deals with services (or lack thereof); even the UCC 2-205 wouldn't fit in this case. UCC 2-205 deals with an offer to buy or sell goods in a certain period of time. Owen didn't actually buy the goods; rather, he bought the services Sparky provided. Therefore, common law will apply. 1.Owen v. Sparky To see if Owen has any contract rights against Sparky, I will first look to see if a valid enforceable contract exists. Valid enforceable contract A valid enforceable contract consists of offer, acceptance, consideration and lack of defenses. Offer A manifestation of present contractual intent, communicated to an identified offeree containing definite and certain terms. Here, Owen told Sparky, “I saw your ad and am hiring you to replace a total of ten electrical outlets in my home.” Owen has communicated to Sparky the exact nature of the transaction in which he is requesting Sparky to enter; Sparky is to install 10 electrical outlets in Owen's home. Because Owen told Sparky that he specifically wanted ten electrical outlets in his home replaced (which leaves no uncertainty in the type of work, extent of work, or nature of work requested) a valid offer exists. Therefore, a valid offer exists. Acceptance Is the unequivocal assent to the terms of the offer. Here, Owen a residential homeowner saw the ad and called Sparky. There was nothing said by Sparky as to accepting his offer to install the outlets. When parties are not dealing face-to-face (or other medium of substantially instantaneous communication) this would be construed as an inquiry by Owen. There, is no valid acceptance. Rejection A rejection occurs when the offeree communicates to the offeror the offeree is no longer interested in the offer. Here, Owen and Sparky made arrangements to meet at Owen’s house the next day (Nothing to accept, no definite terms). In, additi

Trying to see if anyone has any insight into this contracts essay? Sparky, an unlicensed electrical contractor, placed an ad in the local newspaper that read: No Job Too Small, No Job Too Big! Electrical Outlets Replaced–$15 Each Call Sparky at (213) 555-1234 Owen, a residential homeowner, saw the ad and called Sparky. Owen told Sparky, “I saw your ad and am hiring you to replace a total of ten electrical outlets in my home.” Owen and Sparky made arrangements to meet at Owen’s house the next day. When Sparky arrived, Owen explained to Sparky that Owen wanted to change the outlets in two rooms that were recently repainted and Owen thought that the outlets would look nicer if the current ivory colored outlets were replaced with white colored outlets. Sparky told Owen that he would do the job right now for $200–$20 per outlet. Owen said that he thought they had an agreement for $150–$15 per outlet as the ad said. Sparky told Owen the price was higher because the job was a small job. Owen told Sparky, “Go ahead and do it, I don’t have much choice, however, I heard that outlets made by ABC were the best so I expect you to install that brand.” Sparky went to his truck to gather the necessary supplies for Owen’s job. Sparky then realized that he had used the last of the ABC brand outlets on a previous job and all he had left were XYZ brand outlets. Sparky grabbed ten white XYZ outlets and promptly changed the ten outlets in Owen’s home without telling Owen that he was using XYZ brand outlets. Owen reluctantly paid Sparky $200. Owen was satisfied with Sparky’s work but felt that he had an agreement with Sparky for $150 instead of the $200. After leaving Owen’s residence, Sparky went to Big Box, the local home improvement store, to replenish some electrical supplies for his next job, later that afternoon. Homer, a sales associate in the electrical department explained to Sparky an electrical problem that he was having at home. Sparky told Homer that because of the way Homer had always taken care of Sparky with finding material at Big Box, he would fix Homer’s electrical problem for free. Sparky told Homer that the only time available would be 6:00 pm that evening. Homer agreed. Homer told Sparky that he would need to leave work early, resulting in two hours of lost pay, but he would be there by 6:00 pm. At Sparky’s next job, Sparky ran into unexpected difficulties and was not able to go to Homer’s home that night. Because of Sparky’s heavy work schedule, Sparky told Homer that he would not be able to fix Homer’s problem. Owen subsequently discovered that Sparky used XYZ brand outlets instead of ABC brand outlets. 1.What rights does Owen have against Sparky for breach of contract and partial or full return of the money paid to Sparky? Discuss. 2.Did Sparky have an enforceable obligation to Homer? Discuss. What law governs? Common law applies for all transactions where the subject matter is services. Here, in both cases above, common law would apply. Though one could make an argument that in Owen's case, Sparky gave him the wrong outlets, the overall case deals with services (or lack thereof); even the UCC 2-205 wouldn't fit in this case. UCC 2-205 deals with an offer to buy or sell goods in a certain period of time. Owen didn't actually buy the goods; rather, he bought the services Sparky provided. Therefore, common law will apply. 1.Owen v. Sparky To see if Owen has any contract rights against Sparky, I will first look to see if a valid enforceable contract exists. Valid enforceable contract A valid enforceable contract consists of offer, acceptance, consideration and lack of defenses. Offer A manifestation of present contractual intent, communicated to an identified offeree containing definite and certain terms. Here, Owen told Sparky, “I saw your ad and am hiring you to replace a total of ten electrical outlets in my home.” Therefore, a valid offer exists. Acceptance Is the unequivocal assent to the terms of the offer. Here, Owen a residential homeowner saw the ad and called Sparky. There was nothing said by Sparky as to accepting his offer to install the outlets. This would be construed as an inquiry by Owen There, is no valid acceptance. Rejection A rejection occurs when the offeree communicates to the offeror the offeree is no longer interested in the offer. Here, Owen and Sparky made arrangements to meet at Owen’s house the next day (Nothing to accept, no definite terms). In, addition, under common law, the acceptance must be the “mirror image” of the offer. Any additional terms will result in a rejection and counter offer. Therefore, a valid rejection exists. Offer A manifestation of present contractual intent, communicated to an identified offeree containing definite and certain terms. AD: The general rule is that advertisements (eg. newspaper, ads, handbills, fliers, etc.) are not considered offers but merely invitations to receive offers.

Does this facts prove that greeks are stolling Macedonian history?? Macedonia and Alexander were never greeks? Documents of the Continued Existence of Macedonia and the Macedonian Nation for a period of over 2500 years What follows are documents that speak of the continued existence of Macedonia and of the Macedonian nation through the last 25 centuries. Macedonia is clearly distinguished from Greece (Hellas), Thrace, Illyria, Bulgaria, Serbia, and the Macedonians are likewise distinguished as distinct nation from the Greeks, Thracians, Illyrians, Bulgarians, Serbs, Albanians, as nation which continued to exist and survive trough the centuries (makedonika.org). 500 B.C. - 500 A.D. Macedonia and the Macedonians as distinct nation in the works of the ancient Greek, Roman, and Jewish historians, as well in the works of the modern German, French, English, American historians. 586 A.D. From the "Miracles of St. Demetrius of Salonika, I ": "...For if one was to imagine them in a heap, not only the Macedonians gathered in Salonika... Certainly he who inspired the Macedonians with courage..." Mirac. I, 13, p.1285-14; 1313 758-759 A.D. From the Chronographia of Theophanes the Confessor "That year Constantine plundered the Sclavinii throughout Macedonia and subjugated the rest." Theoph., I, p.430, 21-22. From the Chronographia Tripertita by Anastasius Bibliothecarius: "In the eighteenth year of his reign, Constantine enslaved the Sclavinii of Macedonia and he subjugated the rest." A. B., p.282, 20-21. 8th Century From Strabonos Epithomatus: "And now, in that way almost all of Epirus, Hellada, the Peloponnese and Macedonia have also been settled by the Skiti-Slavs." C. Muller, Geographi graeci minores, Paris 1882, p.574. 821-823 A.D. From the letter of Michael II to the honorable Ludwig: "Thomas...having gathered our barges and dromon, had the opportunity to arrive in (some) parts of Thrace and Macedonia." Mansi, Michaelis Belbi et Theophilii....Florentinae, 1759 904 From On the Capture of Salonika by John Cametinae: "...I introduce you to the same, the great and the first city of the Macedonians..." J.K. Begunov, Kozma Prezviter v slavjanskih literaturah, Sofia 1976, p. 297 First half of 10th C. From On the Themes by Constantine Porphyrogenitus: "... So from a kingdom Macedonia turned into a province and now it has reached the position of a theme and strategy." C. Porfirogenito, De thematibus, Citta del Vaticano, 1952. 986 From the History of Leo the Deacon: "...since they robbed the region of the Macedonians mercilessly, destroying all adults.". Leonis Diaconi Historiae, Paris 1864, p. 311. 1041 From the Annals of Bari: "...he had already written to Sicily from where the unfortunate Macedonians, Paulicians and Calbrians arrived." G.H. Pertz, Annales Barenses, Monumenta Germaniae historica, Scriptores V, p.53. 1064 From the Chronicle of John Zonaras: "The Uzians...invaded Macedonia and plundered it, and reached Hellada". Ioannis Zonorae Epitomae historiarum, Vol. VIII, Ed. Th. Buttner-Wobst, Bonnae 1897, p.678. 1072-1073 From the History of Necephorus Vryenius: "...for the Scythians were carrying out sudden attacks in Thrace and Macedonia." Nicephori Bryenii commentarii, Ed. A. Meicke, Bonnae 1836, p.100, 102. 1083-1085 From De expeditione Yerosolymitana by Radulfo Cadonis: "...Beomund Guiscard sailed across the Adriatic and occupied Macedonia." Tancredi in expeditione Yerosolymitana ....Paris, 1854, p.499. c. 1106 From the letter of Theophylactes of Ohrid to Gregorius Camaterus: "...do not retain such a man in the narrow regions of our Macedonia...". Theophylacti, col. 496, B-C. Beginning of 12th Century From the Byzantine satire Timarion: "The day of Saint Demetrius in (Salonika) is as great a festival as the Panathinei in Athens or Panionii in Miletus; it is a grand Macedonian celebration in which not only the Macedonian people gather, but people of all sorts and from all directions: Greeks from different regions of Hellada, the Mizian tribes...". Vizantiiski Vremenik, Moscow VI 1953, p. 367. 1185 "Woe, woe, the city of Salonika is captured, I say, the metropolis of the Macedonians." Ephraimi Chronologici caesares; Ed. J.P. Migne - PG 143 , Paris 1891, p.198. Beginning of 13th C. From the synod records of the Ohrid Archibishopric: "Ioannis Ierakar by birth Macedonian". J. Pitra, Analacta sacra et classica specilegio Solesmensi parta, t. VI Juris ecclesiastici graecorum selecta paralipomena. Parissis et Romae 1891, col. 315. 1246 Ser was one a large city, but the Bulgarian Ivan had demolished when besieging it and other Macedonian cities. Georgii Acropolitae Opera, Recensuit A. Haisenberg vol. I, Lipsiae 1903, p.74-75, 77 1282-1321 ...that king's alliance is certain and unanswering, just as long as he can settle near to Macedonia. While he was spending his time on these (matters), the protostrator Theodore Sinadinus, once freed from the West, arrived in Byzantium. He governed Prilep, the neighbouring regions and the lower Macedonian towns. Ioan Cantacuzeni Historiarum libri IV, Ed. J.P.Migne - PG Paris 1866, p.94 1305 At the battle of Apros in 1305 there were five syntaxeis, differentiated by ethnicity: the Alans and Tourkopouloi in the van, followed by the Macedonians, the Anatolians, the Vlach infantry and the Thelematarioi. The Late Byzantine Army. Mark C. Bartusis 1992. p.256 1326 ...I beleive you know that Strimon...is the largest of all those that biscet Thrace and Macedonia... Nicephore Gregoras, Correspondence. Paris 1927, p.30-50. Middle 14th C. ...Stefan became king of the Tribals. After he had set off from the region of the Ionian Sea, he razed Epidamnus to the ground, went into Macedonia and made Skopje the capital... The king left the city of Skopje, taking with him men experienced in battle and a strong army and subordinated to his rule the places in the vicinity of Kastoria. Then having moved camp, he subjugated all of Macedonia, except for Terma... Laonici Chalcocondiae Historiarum. Ed. J. P. Migne - PG t.CLIX (Paris, 1866) col. 36, B-37, C. 1349 (Code of) the honorable and Christ-loving Macedonian Tsar Stefan, Serbian, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Dalmation, Arbanasian, Hungarian Wallachian and indipendent ruler of many other regions and lands... Lj. Stojanovic, Stari srpski zapisi i natpisi. Knj. III, Beograd 1905, p. 41 (nbr.4949). Middle of the 14th C. A Slav inscription from the church of St. George at Upper Kozjak in which a man called Bratan signs himself as being from Macedonia. Z. Rosolkovska-Nikolovska, Crkvata Sv. Georgi vo Goren Kozjak vo svetlinata na novite ispituvanja - Zbornik "Kiril Solunski", Kn. I, Skopje, MANU 1970, p. 222. 15th C. I remember the great subordination under which the Turk holds the emperor in Constantinople and all the Greeks, Macedonians and Bulgarians....As I said earlier, there are many Christians who are forced to serve the Turk, such as Greeks, Bulgarians, Macedonians, Albanians, Esclavinians, Rasians and Serbians... Bertrand de la Brocuiere, Putovanje preko mora, Beograd 1950, p.134-135, 140-141. 13th Century - 15th Century Byzantine historians of the Palaiologan period (13th Century - 15th Century) rarely make any distinction more specific then "Thrace" and "Macedonia". Thus we read of the "Thracians" and "Macedonians", the "Thracian and Macedonian armies", the "army" or "forces from Thrace and Macedonia"… For these historians the border between the two areas was the Nestos River or Kavalla. To the west was Macedonia to the east was Thrace. The Late Byzantine Army. Mark C. Bartusis 1992. p.65 1461-1462 When the enemy forces are battered, no one doubts that the whole of Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Epirus, Thessaly, Greece or Attica and the Peloponnese will return to the faithful....Inspired by this example the Thessalians, the Greeks, the Poloponnesians, the Epirans and the Macedonians will all rebel and will win ... Jovan Radonic, Gjurac Kastriot Skenderbeg i Arbanija u XV veku - Spomenik XCV (1942), p. 128-129. August 8th, 1470. The Sultan stopped and spent the night ...in afield that represented the Macedonian border...The River Vardar is nearby, which flows through Macedonia...of which some are Greeks, others Macedonians, Wallachs and even Italians, as well as other nations....Greeks and Macedonians live there... Gio Mario degli Angiolelo, A. Matkovski i P. Angelkova, Nekolku kratki patopisi za Makedonija, Glasnik na INI, VXI/1 (1972), p. 246-247. 1557 ...It is located in Thessaly, which borders on Macedonia, where the plague has reduced much of the population... Nbljudeni na mnozhestvo redki i zabelezhitelni neshta, videni v Grcija, Azija, Judea, Egipet, Arabia i drugi chuzhdi strani ot Pierre Belon d'Man, Sofia 1953, p.132-133; Frenski patepisi za Balkanite, XV-XVIII v. Sofia 1975, p. 95-98. 1566 ...called Jakov; I laboured for much time and many years for this work (in order to contribute) to the holy books. I came out of Macedonia, my fatherland, and I entered.... Lj. Stojanovich, Stari srpski zapisi i natpisi I, p. 203-204. 1579 German ruler Rudolph II to the Pope: ..the deliverer of this letter, don Petar Crnovic...born in Salonika and the other parts of Macedonia... A. Theiner, Vitera monumenta Slavorum meridionalium illustrantia. II. Zagrabiae 1875, p. 70. 1589 Gavril, Archbishop of Ohrid to Archduke Ferdinand of Habsburg: ...the Turk, who from day to day has pursued and blackmailed us and our ancestors ....in the whole of Macedonia, Greece and the nearby countries...then among our countries we have Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia, Oltenia... Landesregierungsarchive - Innsbruck, VI 50. 1593 Project by Alexander Komulovic to expel the Ottomans from the Balkans ...In other parts of Epirus and Macedonia almost all are Christians of the Greek ritual... Biblioth. Barberiana cod. mnc. LVIII, 33, - Starine (Zagreb), Knj. XIV (1882), p. 86-87. August 11th, 1607 The Duke of Savoy, Charles Emmanuel I, sends his own man of trust to Macedonia. ...who had arrived from Albania and Macedonia... V. Makrusev, Istoriski spomenici Juznih Slovena i okolnih naroda, Beograd 1882, p. 297-299. April 6-24, 1618 (Senato Secreta. 337. Macedonia) ...The nobility of Macedon do not wish to have anything to do with the king of Spain... Calendar of State Papers and Manuscripts relating to English Affairs existing in the Archives and Collections of Venice and other libraries in Northern Italy, London 1864, Vol XV, p. 201-202. 1624 A letter from Pope Urban VIII to the Archbishop of Ohrid, Porphyrius Palaelogus To the respected brothers Porphyrius Paleologus, Patriarch of Justiniana Prima of Ohrid and the other subordinate archbishops, bishops of Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania and of the other side of Macedonia. A. Theiner, Vetera monumenta Slavorum II, (Zagrebiae 1875), p. 123. 1690 Manifesto of the Austrian Emperor Leopold I to the Nations of the Balkans ...Therefier we kindly call all the people who live throughout Albania, Servia, Mysia, Bulgaria, Silistria, Illyria, Macedonia and Rashka... J. Radonjic and M. Kostic, Srpske privilegije od 1690 do 1792. SAN, Posebna izdanja CCXXV, Beograd 1954, p. 26-27. April 26th, 1690 Letter of protection from Leopold I. ...This is to inform you that two Macedonians, Marko Kraida born in Kosana and Dimitri Georgi Popovic, born in Macedonian Salonika, have told us that the Macedonian people, with respect for our most righteous task, with devotion and zeal towards our service....we graciously accept them under our imperial and royal mercy and in any case and way the above mantioned Macedonian people, cordially recommending to each and all of our willing commanders not to attack the Macedonian people....Issued in Vienna, April 26th, 1690. Representatives: defenders of the Macedonian people.... J. Radonic, Prilozi za istoriju Srba u Ungarskoj u XVI, XVII and XVIII veku. Knj. I, Matice srpske, nbr 25 and 26, Novi Sad 1908, p. 52-53. 1704 The French treveller and writer Paul Luca on Macedonia ...and hour after midnight for Kavalla, which is six miles away and once was a large Macedonian city by the sea coast. We should note that almost all the villages in Macedonia are full of Christians and there are few Turks. A. Matkovski and P. Angelakova, Patuvanjata na francuskiot petepisec Pol Luka niz Makedonija od 1704 do 1714-Istorija v/2 (1969). p. 101. End of 18th C. Reports by the French Consul in Salonika, Felix de Beaujour, about Macedonia. The pashalik of Salonika includes the whole of Lower Macedonia and covers 700 sq. miles....it must be noted that here I am only speaking about the most populated part of Macedonia; since Upper Macedonia and Epirus are less populated....In Macedonia, as in Poland, the peasants die from hunger, while the masters live in abundance of gold... Felix de Beaujour, Voyage militaire dans l'Empire Othoman, I, Paris 1829, p. 127-128. n.1; p.130, 132. 1821 Macedonians pertecipate in the Romanian uprising ...At that time there was a man they called Sludzar Todor who urged all the foreigners (mostly Macedonians) to rebel against the boyar... Marko K. Cepenkov, Makedonsko narodno tvoreshtvo, Kn. X, Skopje 1972, p.308 1846 ...I learnt the Slav alphabet from my father Makedonski, who calls himself so because we are Macedonians, and not Greeks.... Georgija Makedonski, Bogosluzhbena kniga "Opshti minej" - vo crkvata vo s. Radibush, Kriva Palanka, posledna nepagirana stranica. 1851 Bulgarian Comments on the language of J.H. Dzinot ...May the inhabitants of Skopje and those who speak similarly forgive me, but they do not understand our language and cannot speak either... "Bolgarski", Tsarigradski Vestnik, nbr. 55 (6.X.1851, p. 19). 1858 Education in Veles ....Archbishop Antim declared to his peers that all peoples have been enlightened by the Greeks and so it is necessary that Greek should be taught in the schools of Veles, and not Macedonian, since the children alrady know their own language from their home... J. N. Iz Velesa u Makedoniji: Srbski Dnevnik, nbr. 44 (1858) (according to Branislav Vraneshevic, Vojvodinska javnost, p. 320-321). 1865 A note from the priest Demetrius: In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, I, priest Demetrius, was born in the village of Ogut, in the Kriva Palanka region. and held the services in my native village, when in the year of our Lord 1848, the champions of the town of Kriva Palanka employed me as a priest against the will of His Grace, the Greek priest Kir Gavrail. Mr. Mikhail Makedonski interceded most in favor of my appointment, because I'm a Macedonian by birth and hold the services in the Slav language. Such was the Fate of my fatherland Macedonia, to suffer from the Greeks, so that they will not give us peace even today, although everyone knows that Macedonia is an older state then their kingdom. We had our own Slav educators, Cyril and Methodius, who left us our Slav alphabet. They were Macedonians born in Salonika, the glorious capital of Macedonia. Our Greek bishop does not admit this, so we do not want him to be our priest, but we want to have our own arch-priest, a Slav, for time everlasting. Amen. Zapis vo knigata Zitie Svetih vo Krivopalaneckata crkva. Pretposledna nepagirana strana. January 28, 1867 To the Editor of "Makedonija" newspaper: ...The Greeks and the greacomans have met the newspaper with sorrow, since they always tried to hellenize the Macedonians, destroying also the Archibishopric of Ohrid -The Spark of Our Future. Yet, however hard they have tried to stop us from making progress, they could not entirely uproot the feelings of the Macedonians that they are Macedonians. T.I. Kusev, Makedonija, Istanbul, Nbr. I (1/28/1867) March 25, 1870 ...lets us consider those of the present Macedonians who blinded by concealed glow of Hellenic wisdom, accept that they should scorn and revoke their own nationality...the time seems opportune for me to exclaim:Ah, how far away the time really is when Hellas, as everybody calls her today, was subjected to Macedonian authority... Stefan Zahariev, Chitalishte, Istanbul, I/7, 1871, p.214-216. November 30, 1870 ...A teacher named Mr. Shapkarevic...has come to visit me...the same day the books you had sent me...arrived. But as soon as he saw them he said that they should not be taught in the Macedonian schools, since they were in the Bulgarian dialect; and that we should take his books which are in the Macedonian dialect... Pravo of 10/30/1870 (according to B. Koneski, Kon Makedonskata prerodba, p.68). February 1874 A letter from P.R. Slaveykov to the Bulgarian Exarch: Your Grace, I arrived in Salonika on the evening of the 14th of last month (January 1874). I immediately went to meet all the important local people and some others from the other Macedonian towns. My aim was to gather information as son as possible on what was to be necessary for the succes of the mission with which you had entrusted me. I first met Father Averkij Zografski, and the following day Father Petar Dimitrov as well, the local president of the community. I may inform you, Your Grace, that the wind from here, from Salonika, blows and scatters to all sides. These two clergyman, to my mind, are the leaders of the movement fot the restoration of the Archbishopric of Ohrid, although one should not neglect Ohrid and to certain extent Bitola, Veles and Skopje either. The Uniate movement here is not without roots, as they think in Constantinople, especially His Grace, Count Ignatiev. During the time I have been in Macedonia I have ascertained the same we had formerly known and written three years ago. Now, as then or twenty years ago, we are dealing with the Macedonian question. In talks with few Macedonian "patriots" I have understood that this movement, which had been only bare words till a few years ago, is now clear and precise thought - "The Macedonians are not Bulgarians" and they persistenly strive, regardless of the price, to obtain a separate church of their own. They also have the support in their separatism of smoe high clergyman in Constantinople, especially His Grace Nathaniel Ohridski, Panariot Plovdivski, and Archimandrite Hariton Karpuzov. I have understood this month from reliable sources that there are letters which arrive every day from Constantinople to the Salonika community, and are then sent to the other communities in the provinces. The letters are written in this spirit. One such letter, which the Salonika community sent to the community of Voden, calls upon the inhabitants of Voden to break off all their relations with theExarchate until the Macedonian Church question is settled, because "now is the moment". Mr. Kuzman Shapkarev from Ohrid, who is well known to us, has done a great deal to spread the idea of the restoration of the Archbishopric of Ohrid; he consatnly travels between Kukish and Ohrid and v.v., but at whose expanse, I do not know. Mr. Dimitar Makedonski, "the Macedonian textbook writer", is no less active, reciving salary as a teacher from the Exarchate and from local Lazarists. Owing to such unreasonable sermons by the Macedonian patriots that the church question has been settled only in favor of the Bulgarians, there is discontent among the people towrds the eparchies of th4 Danube and Adrianople vilayets as well as envy because of the earlier awakening of the Bulgarians. One can especially feel a great resistance against the East Bulgarian variant in literature. A general impression is that the local people think that the Macedonians have been done a great harm with the settlement of the church question in favor of the Danubian and Thracian Bulgarians. This discontent has already grown into distrust of the Exarchate and its higher echalons. and there is an attitude formed that the local Macedonian dialect should be declared a literary language and a Macedonian hiearchy established. Great attention, Your Grace, should be paid to His Grace Nathaniel, who promised the local people taht as soon as he comes to his eparchy he will take steps for the restoration of the Archbishopric of Ohrid. He seems to be connected with the Macedonian craftsman in Constantinople, among whom he spreads the news about the agreement with the Patriarchate. For their own part they inform their own people in Macedonia about this. It causes great discontent here. Consequently, separatism has its roots in the secret circle of Constantinople. If you press them there, the commotion wil calm down here. Silence the trumpet, there won't be any echo! The question of Father Nil is a highly delicate one, because he has barricaded himself in Kukush and does not want to return. His ambition seems to have made him to this. He stuffed his head with the thought of becoming the Archbishop of Ohrid ar at least Metropolitan of Salonika. As an Exarchate delegate he spreads the news about the agreement with the Patriarchate as the " most informed person". He decribes the Exarchate to the people as indifferent and passive in saving the Macedonian population from Greek spiritual slavery. Father Nil, who proved to be completely immature, seems to be a hireling of the highest Turkish vilayet authorities. However, his disobidiance to his headquarters began at the moment when he was summoned to return to Constantinople. Instead of obeying orders, he remained waiting there. His disobidiance also comes as a result of the suggestions that have been arriving from Constatinople. He maintains constant relations with Bishop Panaret and Nathaniel especially with the latter, who has suggested he stay in Macedonia until he gets an appointment for Ohrid and arrives in Macedonia. I think that Father Nil should be cast out of Macedonia at any cost and sent to Constatinople, because he is dangerous here. He already acts under the protection of the local Lazarists and the French consul. Thoughts of the restoration of the Archbishop of Ohrid at the moment are most prevalent here, in Salonika. Here the schemes are being devised and here the hotheads are gathering. These thoughts of course are not based upon mature foundation, especially since Midhat-Pasha has been dismissed from Salonika. But they are gradually spreading to northern Macedonia, although they are not very clear. Some say one thing to the people and others say another. There is danger, if steps are not taken from spme authoritative place, of creating a genral ideal. Then the consequences would be much more serious. The best thing would be if His Grace, Count Ignatiev, were to visit Macedonia, because the population feels a secret hope thet only Russia could help them. Tomorrow, with Gos's help, I intend to meet some of the elders from the local community. I shall try to convince them of the groundlessnes of their aspirations for a separarte Church when they already have one in the form of the Exarchate. Certainly the most difficult question will be that of the appointment of bishops of Macedonian origin and especially that of the cheirotonia of Father Hariton. I kiss Your Grace's right hand. Salonika, Fabruary 1874. Your obedient P.R. Slaveykov Another letter from P.R. Slaveykov: Your Grace, I sent you a letter via a trustworthy man two days ago, in which I briefly described to you the situation in Salonika and Macedonia in connection with the unreasonable movement for the restoration of the Archbishopric of Ohrid in union with the Roman Catholic Church. After the meeting with some of the local elders I have understood that there were everywhere wide discussions for a broader plan, namely, to create a Uniate Church in Macedonia. According to reliable sources, only the cheirotonia of Father Hariton is awaited before action will be taken. Until the blessing of the Pope for the proclamation of the Uniate Archbishopric of Ohrid arrives, the bishops with their eparchies will be constituent apart of the Uniate Church with their seat in Adrianople. Then Father Nathaniel will be appointed Archbishop of Ohrid and the following appointments will be made in the eparchies: Father Panaret for the Pelagonia eparchy, Brother Kozma Prechistenski for the Debar eparchy, Father Nil Izvorov for the Salonika eparchy and Father Dorotej for the Skopje eparchy. The other eparchies, for which there are no candidates proposed, will temporarily be governed by the neighboring archpriests. Father Nil will be Bishop of Salonika, Kukush and Voden. Father Hariton, after his ordination, will also become bishop of the Serez and Melnik eparchies. Father Dionisij, as an archimandrite, will temporarily govern the Strumica eparchy. I have personal impression, Your Grace, that nobody here is asking for a real union with the Roman Catholic Church. It is simply a means of restoration of the Archbishopric of Ohrid. Catholic circles also feel this and therefore have no great confidence in the people with whom they are negotiating. So I do not think it is too late to actin order to overcome the discontent, which later could be subdued. The Uniate movement is more dangerous in the places where formerly there was a Union because of similar reasons. Kukush comes in the first place, followed by Dojran with sympathy from Strumica, Maleshevo and Voden. The Salonika, Serez, Melnik and Drama villages lag behind them. There is not any powerful stirring of the Uniate propaganda indeed, but where there is smoke there must be fire. The appointment of Bishop Nil is expected for the fire to blaze forth. The Poljanin eparchy will immediately turn into a Union and the Strumica and Voden eparchies will join in, as well as a huge number of villages in Salonika, Drama, Serres and other eparchies. The other Macedonian eparchies will certainly be shattered, too, first the Veles eparchy and then the Skopje one. The Veles eparchy is also dissatisfied with its bishop, Damaskin, while at the same time the citizens of Veles, aroused by a craving for power, believe that they should govern Macedonia in religious matters. The causes of such a situation in the whole of Macedonia are very obvious. The Macedonian eparchies and towns I have already mentioned are extremely embittered by the serious position of the Church and the people in which they find themselves. The spreading of the idea of restoration of the Archbishopric of Ohrid upon an Uniate basis is also helped by the French and Austrian consuls, who promise full protection before the Turkish authorities and persecution of the Constantinople Patriarchate. The Greeks themselves indirectly help the spreading of the Union in Macedonia, expecting the Exarchate to become weak because of the Union and thus finding allies in the liquidation of the Catholic propaganda in Macedonia. I have concluded this from the talks I had with the Greek consul in Salonika. He was not in the least worried at the danger of the spread of the Union in Macedonia. On the contrary, Greece is seeking support for its economic and national activity in Macedonia. According to the opinion of the Greek consul, the part of the people who will not accept the Union, disillusioned with the Exarchate, will remain under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate. In the talks I had it was not by chance that the agents and adherents of the Union mentioned that the "Macedonian question" could only be settled through the Union. In order to make full use of the discontent and bitterness of the people against the Exarchate, they strengthen their accusation against the Exarchate. They speak about the Macedonian question upon a religious basis, but at the same time stir up the old separatist trends among the Macedonians - to create a new ethnic region through the Union - in the spirit of Midhat-Pasha's schemes. As the Roman Catholic agents worked out a cultural and national program for the Union in 1860 for the liberation of the Bulgarian people from the Patriarchate, they now also appear with a specific program for the spiritual and national liberation of the Macedonian eparchies through the Union. The Macedonian activists already widely use the expression the Macedonian movement in their language of communication, by which one should understand independent national and church liberation. I must emphasize strongly, Your Excellency, that this is a factor of an important political character - separatism is being spread starting from a religious basis towards a broader national one. After the talks I had with Father Petar Dimov I felt that he has slowly retired from being drawn into the Union. Today he has officially renounced the Union and sent a letter to You expressing his loyalty to the Exarchate. I also talked to Father Averkij. He told me that he would also withdraw from the movement if appointments for the Exarchate bishops were issued by the autumn. My attitude towards these two Church dignitaries was moderate and friendly, because any repressive measures could stir up spirits. .... Your spiritual child P.R. Slaveykov S. Dimevski, Dve pisma na P. R. Slaveykov za makedonizmot. - Razgledi XIV, 5(1972), p.561-566 April 6, 1878 in Salonika To the Right Honorable Austen Henry Layard "...Russian agents are busy in the country, and even here, trying to get petitions that the whole of Macedonia be included in Bulgaria... They tell the people: If you remain out, your state (and you see what it is) will be worse then it was before, while if you attach yourselves to us and our cause, you will get all the benefits accruing to a large and powerful Kingdom, under Russian protection... I remain... Edward B. Barker British Museum, London, Dmss Layard Papers, Vol. LXXXIX Addd. 39.019, 186-187. 1878 From the record of the Imperial Russian secret archives on the arrangement and government of the Balkan regions. ...Count Shuvalev demands that all the necessary measures for pacification of Macedonia be undertaken. For its purpose, it would be desirable to send competent agents there, and to proclaim to the Macedonians on behalf of the Governor, the Emperor, that His Highness is concerned about their fate, as much as for the other Slavs, and they will be granted the same freedom as that of the Bulgarians, now already liberated.... Dokumenti iz sekretnite arhivi na Ruskoto pravitelstvo. Sofia 1893, p.11-12. 1878 The rules of the Macedonian Rebel Commitee of the Kresna Uprising It is well known to all of us that this ill-fated country of ours, Macedonia, owing to the egoistic aims of the Great Powers, was gain left to Turkey after the Congress of Berlin. As a result of that, in certain regions of our fatherland many scenes full full of blood, known to all of us, took place....We rebelled as advocates of freedom. With the blood we shed all over Macedonian fields and forests, we serve freedom, as the Macedonian army of Alexander of Macedon did, with our slogan "Freedom or Death!" The aim of the Uprising in Macedonia 1.The uprising in Macedonia...should be extended all over Macedonia. 2. Those people from Macedonia who feel themselves to be Macedonians and love the freedom of their fatherland are taking part in the uprising. From the private archives of Cyril, Patriarch of Bulgaria, Arch. of Act 2341, AE 50, pp. 30-61. The Residence of the monastery of Dragolevci, Sofia, P.R. Bulgaria. June 8, 1879 Georgi Pulevski to Despot Badzovic: ...The Bulgarians here are playing tricks with us and are turning the water to their mill alongside divine Nathaniel, who is a Macedonian, but rather inclined towards the Bulgarians... Arhiv Srbije (Beograd) Fond: Ministarstvo prosvete, P. nbr. 981/8.VI.1879; Razgledi XIV/10 (1972), p. 1132. March 23, 1881 Manifesto of the Provisional Government of Macedonia: ...our dear Macedonia, our dear homeland is calling upon you: you who are my faithful children, you who are descendants of Aristotle and Alexandar the Great, you in whose veins Macedonian blood flows, do not let me die, but help me!... President Vasil Chomo, Secretary Nikola Trajkov in Kjustendil Centralnii Gosudartsvenii Arhiv Okjabarskii revoljucii i socialtieskoga stroitelstva SSSR, Moskva - Fond Gr.Ignatieva No.730 - opis No. 1, ed.hr.79; Lj. lape, Odbrani tekstovi za istorijata na makedonskio narod, II del, Skopje 1976, p.256-258. May 9, 1888 Salonika. Temko Popov to Despot Badzovic ...I shall try to write to you, as far as possible, in our language, replacing the words I don't know with Bulgarian ones. What else can I do, Despot? While our language could one dictate to the other Slav languages, it has now remained the poorest of all, and like a begger, it serves either Bulgarian or Serbian....Let us no lie to ourselves, Despot, tha national spirit in Macedonia has reached such a stage today that even if Jesus Christ had come to the Earth, he would not have been able to persuade the Macedonian that he was a Bulgarian or a Serb, excepting those Macedonians in whom Bulgarian propaganda has already taken root. In order to convince yourself of this, you must have Bulgarianism in view. Bulgarian propaganda has now been working for 20 years in Macedonia, in the blindest of times - when Hellenism, coming from and entirely alien nation, started to take root in the Macedonian heart; but the Macedonians, seeing a ray of Slavism, rejected everything as if eyeless, without paying attention to the difference. It was sufficient for them to have broken with Hellenism. But what is to be done now i.e. after twenty years of Bulgarian striving, indoctrination and unsparing pecuniary sacrifaces? My dear Despot, everybody does what is natural, but unexpected for the Bulgarians, that is, now every Macedonian admits he is not a Bulgarian and declares loudly his nation, even though he may stilluse Bulgarian means, not having his own, of course. ... Your friend T. Popov Narodna Biblioteka, Belgrade - fond - Jovan Hadzi Vasiljevic II 413/III May 9 1988. 1890 A request by the citizens of Ohrid for the restoration of the Archbishopric of Ohrid To His Holiness, the Great Patriarch, Constantinople, We, loyal subjects to His Majesty, the Emperor Sultan Abdul Hamid II, for a long time did not have freedom for our Church, and since 1872 have become an even more misled flock, for we came under the Bulgarian Exarchate, deceived by Bulgarian propaganda. Thus we became schismatics, as well. ...Apart from the fact that Bulgarians deceived and beguiled us, they also reject our language, change our holy customs and alter our character, too. We cannot tolerate it any more and we do not want our children to curse us and the graves of our forefathers... (signatures of 120 citizens of Ohrid) DA DSIP - Beograd - PPO, F.7, d.6, p.br. 962, 1890. June 22, 1891 Skopje Theodosius, Metropolitan of Skopje, to Archimandrite Dionysius in Sofia. ...our Holy Exarchate headed by His Holiness Exarch Joseph I does everything possible to persuade the wretched Macedonian people that it has good intentions, that it cares for their present and future and that it wants to draw them out of the darkness of national unawareness and create holy Bulgarians of them. But I would not have to persuade you too long, my dearest brother in Christ, that our Holy Exarchate, with its religious and educational activity here, in Macedonia, in fact carries out a most miserable task, it deprives a people of its name and replaces it with another, it deprives them of their mother tongue and replaces it with another, alien one, in order to allow its government and its Bulgarian masters to extend their commerce to foreign territories, too. And what else would you call this, my dear brother, other then a new slavery, even more terrible then the Turkish one? The Turks take the property and the lives of the people, but do not encroach upon their spirit. They destroy the body but respect the soul. And our Holy Exarchate kills the latter, the perpetual... I have written this to you, so that you would not be amazed by my previous letter in which I stated my opinion that we clergyman, Macedonians in origin, should unite and urge our people to awaken, throw off foreign authority, throw off even the Patriarchate and the Exarchate, and spiritually unified under the wing of the Archbishopric of Ohrid, their only true Mother Church. Is it not high time to put an end to the national movements of a single people among which some recognize the Patriarchate, some the Exarchate and some even bow to Mohammed? Is it not high time to put an end to hatred between blood brothers? And how could this be achieved if not by the way of our national Church , by way of the Archbishopric of Ohrid? I shall be sincere, my dear brother in Christ, and shall openly declare to you: we, the Macedonians, to not suffer as much by the Turks, long live our Padishah, as by the Greeks, the Bulgarians and the Serbs, who have set upon us like vultures upon a carcass in this tortured land and want to split it up. ("And they parted Your garments, Jesus")..... ...Theodosius of Skopje Centralen D'rzhaven istoricheski archiv (Sofia) 176, op. 1. arh.ed. 595, l.5-42 - Razgledi, X/8 (1968), p.996-1000. December 4, 1891 Theodosius, Metropolitan of Skopje, to Pope Leo XIII I, the undersigned Metropolitan of Skopje, Theodosius, by God's Mercy head of Skopje eparchy, am submitting this request both in my name and in the name of of the whole Orthodox flock of Macedonia, in which we are begging His Holiness to accept us under the wing of the Roman Catholic Church...Our desire springs from the historical right of the Orthodox Macedonian people to be freed from the jurisdiction of foreign Churches - the Bulgarian Exarchate and the Constantinople Patriarchate - ....The borders of the Archbishopric should conform to the present borders of Macedonia... Archivio della S. Congregazione de Propaganda Fide - Roma: Indice della Potenza - Marzo 1892-93, Somm.XV, f.132-141. August 20, 1892 Serbian Consul in Bitola, Dimitrije Bodi, to Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vladan Djordjevic, in Belgrade. I have to inform you, dear Sir, that some intellectualist movement among the local teachers has recently appeared in the town of Kostur, which insists upon rejection of Greek and Bulgarian propaganda, and the introduction of the Macedonian dialect as the language of teaching in the schools. This initiative has in fact been started....If you are interested in these matters, Sir, please answer me with a ciphered telegram. DA - DSIP. P odd.I red 278 (1892). August 26, 1892 Serbian Consul in Bitola, Dimitrije Bodi, to Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vladan Djordjevic, in Belgrade. ....I have heard from my own people that the local community at its meeting of 22nd Auguts this year, decided that the teaching in the new 1892/1893 school year should be done in the Macedonian dialect. The town teachers were given the task of working a program for the language teaching and a provisional grammar of the Macedonian dialect.... DA - DSIP. P odd.I red 278 (1892). 1890 Karl Hron: "The Nationality of the Macedonian Slavs": ...From my own studies of the Serbo-Bulgarian dispute I came to the conviction that the Macedonians are an individual nation, both by their history and their language; thus, they are neither Serbs nor Bulgarians... Karl Hron, Das Volksthum der Slaven Makedoniens, Wien 1890, S. 4-5, 15-17, 20, 22,26 1896 Paul Argyriades (A French socialist born in Macedonia): ...Present day Macedonia is one of the European provinces of the Turkish Empire. It borders on the south with Epirus, Thessaly and the Mediterranean, on the east with Thrace and the Mediterranean, on the north with Mount Hemus, Bulgaria and Serbia and with Albania on the west....Macedonia, as the homeland of the two greatest personalities of the Ancient World - Aristotle and Alexander the Great, who conquered the world. should it anew conquer its independence and its autonomy?...And if an autonomous Macedonian administration were to be introduced in this land in ten years only, it would be the earthly paradise of the world...The small states - the Greek, Bulgaria and Serbian ones -argue for the acquisition of Macedonia, using all kinds of proofs - chauvinist and historical - invented in support of their interests, while no one seems to realize that if the historical truth were to be respected, Macedonia should rather have the right to possess all those countries, which would like to devour it, since once it governed and ruled them itself....The Macedonians do not want the kind of caresses which may strangle them. They want to remain Macedonians without any other epithet, guarding for themselves their beautiful Macedonia... Almanach de la Question Sociale. Illustre'. (Paris), Pour 1896, pp. 240-244. 1897 From "Maleshevski Balkan" journal: At Least Do Not Hinder Us There is hardly any harsher situation then that of the Macedonian cause. Aroused by sympathy, feelings and tradition to maintain always the closest links with its direct neighbors, the Bulgarians, Serbs, and others, today it surprises us most mercilessly and makes us repent. Nobody, undoubtedly nobody, would deny the justification of our hopes in the Bulgarians and the Serbs, as people who stand closest to us, as people with the same past as ours, etc. ... From "Maleshevski Balkan", Sofia, I, 16, 1 (1897). 1897 William Gladstone ...Next to the Ottoman Govt. nothing can be more deplorable and blameworthy then jealousies between Greek and Slav, and plans by the States already existing for appropriating other territory. Why not Macedonia for Macedonians, as well as Bulgaria for Bulgarians and Servia for Servians. And if they are small and weak, let them bind themselves together for defence, so that they may not be devoured by others, either great and small, which would probably be the effect of their quarreling among themselves. The Times (London), 6th January 1897, p.12 1898 Petar Mandzukov to Kostadin Kirkov ...Perhaps our slavery would not have been so difficult if various kinds of propaganda had not interfered in our affairs, which under the name of "brothers" and "benefactors" divide brothers from brothers and make the Turks commit the worst of crimes. Those "brothers" of ours do everything possible to prevent the unity of our freedom-loving forces. And what has been the result of such propaganda? Even the true sons of our country, those whoa re really not afraid to sacrifice their lives at the altar of our Fatherland, often wrongly think that the liberation of Macedonia could not be conceived without the interference of this or that state. They go over to the side of this or that people and forget their own people. Instead of uniting their forces in favor of their own people and striving in unison to liberate it from bondage, they cannot agree whom they should serve. We know, Kostadin, that our fatherland differs by its population from one Bulgaria, Greece or Serbia, which are homogenous countries. There are various nationalities and religions in our country. There are Macedonians, Greeks, Wallachians, Turks, Jews, Albanians, even a few Armenians. and let us not forget the Gypsies.... CDIA (Sofia), f.70, on., AE70-74; - Razgledi, X/7 (1968), p.847-851 1900 A. Brutus (A. Drandar): Concerning a movement in Macedonia A considerable section of the European press does not cease to inform us of the immense sufferings undergone by the Christian population of Macedonia....It was the sad fate of that population that made us publish this booklet, based upon our experience and personal observations I had acquired impartially, as a foreigner, during my stay in Macedonia of several years...If one takes a retrospective view of the history of Macedonia to the most ancient of times, one remains amazed by the great role this small country, this classical country par excellance, played in the world....The Macedonian, born in a land to which nature was so favorable, has always longed for heroic feats and aspired to great deeds...Even the glorious cradle of Ancient Hellenism is subjected to the Macedonian kings...We find Macedonians on the Byzantine throne at the time when this empire was at its peak. Following the course of history, we see how the star of Macedonia shone with the same intensity. It plays the chief role in the revival of the Slav people. Thus, the two brothers exalted to apostles, Cyril and Methodius, objects of general admiration for the Slav world, are Macedonians, and owing to the very existence of these two apostles, this small land becomes the cradle of the Slav people to whom it gives its religion and art...The inhabitants of Macedonia do not want to be annexed either to Bulgaria or Serbia, or Greece; they want, they want so strongly, to live a human life in an autonomous country. Their slogan is: Macedonia to the Macedonians. A. Brutus, A Propos d'un Mouvement en Macedonie, Bruxelles 1900, pp.12-13, 15, 56. 1901 A.V. Amfiteatrov: The Land of Discord Each Slav should and is obliged to feel sympathy for Macedonian freedom. But Macedonian freedom cannot be achieved with their own, Macedonian means. The land is too small and weak to fight against the power of Constantinople, which only has to give a sign and tens of thousands of soldiers will attack the Rumalian vilayets and strangle them like mice before Europe could compose itself, even before Europe could know it. Hence, Macedonia cannot be freed with its own forces. Only an evil enemy, an unconscious enemy of Slavism could desire an armed movement in Macedonia now when the land is totally unprepared for an uprising, in circumstances of tied hands of the whole Europe, of Serbo-Bulgarian clashes, of huge preparations of the Turks against the slightest possibilities of movement. Or a real fool. These were the exact words of one of the high-ranking persons deciding the fate of Balkan Slavism in a discussion with me concerning the Macedonian committees. Nobody in Europe, none of the Great Powers can actively intercede in favor of the Macedonians against the Turks at the present moment - except, perhaps, Austria. Bu the very name of Austria causes panic in the Macedonian Slav element, who will allow Austria to reign in Macedonia? For it would be the destruction of all ideas of pan-Slavism, it would be the end of the Eastern Question, it would be the decisive and last victory of the German world over the Slav world. Then, we the Russians, would only be humbly left to falling out of step with that state with the projected historical tasks, with the repudiation of racial ideals - a state similar to modern Italy or Spain, only in greater proportions. The young Slav states, adjacent to Macedonia, are too young and too poor to go into struggle for it. At the same time, these states are disintegrating both from the internal situation and external family hostilities. The Bulgarians and the Serbians cannot stand each other; each consider Macedonia as their lawful property. Neither the Bulgarians nor the Serbs have even the slightest desire to create Macedonia for Macedonia. Enthusiast for an autonomous Macedonia can only be found among the Macedonian natives. Neither the Serb nor the Bulgarian wants the autonomy of Macedonia. As far as the question of whether Macedonia should become Bulgarian or Serbian is concerned, every Bulgarian would tell you with utter sincerity: -It would be better that the Turks ruled there eternally then to give the Serbs a chance to spread towards the Aegean Sea. And the Serb would say: - It would be better that the Turks did there whatever they allow your damned brothers to achieve their Greater Bulgaria from one sea to the other! The question of nationality has not been settled in Macedonia and it is hard to assume that it will ever be settled in a satisfactory manner. If we are to believe Gopcevic and Jasterbov there are almost no Bulgarians - all of the are Serbs. If we are to believe Ofejkov and Miljukov, there are no Serbs, all of them are Bulgarians. It is more probable that where we are dealing with a perfectly branch of Slavs, transitional between the Bulgarians and the Serbs. But that branch taken alone is insufficiently significant to win its freedom and turn itself into a state unit. Consequently, no matter how the question of its nationality is resolved, it is deprived of the possibility to exist, so to say; it is cursed in itself to serve as political material directly for its neighbors, and deviously and indirectly for Europe, which governs its naighbours. The basic reason for the failures of the Macedonian revolutionary organization lies in the fact that it is fed by means that have historically proved their ineffectiveness against state order of a European kind to overthrow the system and authority that have nothing in common with European order; since with the tactics, which have overthrown many European government, it attempts to erase military slavery, which has continued in Macedonia and Old Serbia for five centuries now; since the arms, victorious in the civil war, are also used in external war, because the Turk is not a fellow-citizen and compatriot of the Slavs, but he was, is and will be their external enemy... - They consider me a Bulgarophile, I.A. Zinovjev told me. But it isn't so at all. I behave in perfectly equal manner to all Slavs, and, if a person is decent and likable, it is all the same to me whether he is a Bulgarian, a Serb or a Macedonian. But I am a Russian representative and I have been sent here to protect, first of all, Russian interests. Permanent patronage over the Balkan Slavs is inseparably linked with Russian interests. We are their natural patrons. But this patronage does not mean Russia's following of Slav leaders; patronage is not characterless yielding. However, as far as the Macedonian question is concerned, the Bulgarians, as our most spoilt children in the whole of the Slav world, would like precisely to lead Russia with them where they have blindly started closing their eyes, demanding that the patronage be turned into yielding. The activities of the Macedonian committees, long under the patronage (with) our tolerance of the Bulgarian government, had the following direct calculation: - We shall force the Turks to abandon their reserved behavior they have taken up and borne with difficulty - wit a series of small explosions, murders and blackmails we shall arose the fanatic excitement of the Moslems, the Sultan will be forced to give in to the demands of his subjects of the same faith, and Turkish atrocities will start in Macedonia, blood will be shed, villages will be burnt. For the attainment of the sublime goal it is of no consequence whether fifty or fifty thousand people will be killed - the main thing is: slaughter must be caused, which will in turn cause the necessity of European intervention, and since the protection of the Slavs is the perennial deed of Russia and it will never leave the Macedonian question to Austria - consequently, volens-nolens, Russia shall have to send again hundred of thousands of soldiers to the Balkan Peninsula and achieve the freedom of Macedonia with its bayonets, i.e. it should put the land into the mouth of the Bulgarians. For they don't recognize any other nationality in Macedonia except the Bulgarian one. Consequently, the future freedom of Macedonia for them is either the fulfillment of the Treaty of San Stefano and unification of Macedonia with the Bulgarian Principality, or a creation of a new autonomous Bulgarian body, which will sooner or later be merged with the former into an 'integral Bulgaria'.... Cvetan Stanoevski, Kako ja vidoa Makedonija, Skopje 1978, pp.189-190,193-194. 1902 Appeal of the "National Macedonian-Albanian League" Brother Macedonians! Brother Albanians! ...There is no need that the Bulgarians, the Greeks or others amend our homeland... Executive Committee British Museum (British Library), London, 1902 1902 Nikola Karev to Goce Delchev ...Let us not expect freedom either from the Greeks or the Bulgarians; it is we, the Macedonians, who should fight for our Macedonia ourselves... Neobjaveno pismo, Nova Makedonija, (Skopje), XXIV, nbr.7744 (May 5 1968), p.8 1903 Victor Berard on the Macedonians. The ambition for a small homeland, the egotism of a small nation, is not the ultimate ideal of the Macedonians. To replace Turkish subjugation with Greek, Serbian or Bulgarian dependence does not seem to them to represent some great gain...Until recently France did not know the Macedonians. They were Thracian, Peons, Sclavins for us, a wild and almost a mythical people, that lived somewhere at the bottom of some unknown land for us. We either did not know them or despised them, since we heard of them from the malicious notes of the ancient and modern Greeks... La Revue de Paris, Juin 1903. 1904 A Macedonian Theory Was it so long before the liberation of the Bulgarians that throughout Bulgaria, in answer to the question as to what they were (by nationality), the Bulgarians said they were "Christians" or raya (non-Moslem Turkish subjects)?And even now it is not so rare on occasion to hear a Bulgarian answering in court as to the question of his nationality that he is a "Christian". The notion of nationality has still not become a new accomplishment of his mind. During the Turkish period, the Bulgarian peasant referred to the Bulgarians in the towns as "Greeks" and city lother were "Greek dress" for him. And since the Greeks designated that peasant as a "fat-headed Bulgar", his brother from the town loved to be called a "Hellene", so that he should not be scorned for his real national name. It is not exactly the same case with what Mr. Misirkov elaborates concerning the name of the Macedonian Slav? The name "Bulgar" fell even in Bulgaria to such position which earned only the contempt of the others. This name appeared so empty even in the mouth of the Bulgarians themselves that it became a synonym for "Christian"; the later designated the whole ethnic contents of Bulgarian individual and social consciousness. When our peasant used to say "we are Bulgars", he meant "we are Christians", i.e. Orthodox. The Russian Tsar was a "Bulgarian Tsar" for him not by nationality, but by Orthodox Christianity. A. Teodorov-Balan, Edna makedonska teorija - Periodichesko spisanie (Sofia), LXV (1904), p.818 1907-1908 The Macedonian Villages ...I asked him what language they spoke, and my Greek interpreter carelessly rendered the answer Bulgare. The man himself had said Makedonski. I drew attention to this word and the witness explained that he did not consider the rural dialect used in Macedonia the same as Bulgarian, and refused to call it by that name. It was Macedonian, a word to which he gave the Slav form of Makedonski, but which I was to hear farther north in the Greek form of Makedonike. And so the "Bulgarophone" villagers are no longer willing to admit that they speak Bulgarian. They have coined a new term of their own accord, and henceforth their dialect, until they have got rid of it, is to be known as "Macedonian". My Athenian friends were delighted when I told them of this on my return. It should give even greater pleasure to those Bulgarian agents who are so anxious to see the Macedonians thought they are Macedonians. Allen Upward, The East End of Europe, London 1908, pp. 204-205 June 25, 1910 Archimandrite Neophyte in Skopje to Bulgarian Exarch Joseph in Constantinople: Starting from some time ago, as I have already informed You several times, matters in the eparchy, and especially here have not developed as they should. The Eparchy Council, which, as You know, consists of the town's elders, has decided to send You a letter in which it strongly condemns the candidature of the former Metropolitan of Skopje, Theodosius, and among other things, upon my suggestion writes the following in the protest: "Outraged, we read in the newspapers that a group of villains wishes at any cost to urge the population - the voters of the Skopje Eparchy - to bring back that typical intransigent, Theodosious, as the Metropolitan of the Skopje Eparchy. This is the same Theodosius who 17 or 18 years ago wanted to separate the Skopje Eparchy from the Exarchate and proclaim himself an independent Metropolitan. For this purpose, he then made a special seal on which he deleted the words "Bulgarian Exarchate", so sacred to us, and printed his own baptismal certificates, marriage certificates and other documents; he did not fulfill the circular letters and the orders of the Exarchate, etc. Yet, since at that time there were not such a strong anti-Bulgarian movement among the local Bulgarians, it was possible for the Exarchate to remove this dangerous schismatic in time and thereby preserve the unity of the Bulgarian Church in Turkey. Now this same schismatic, contrary to Exarchist interests, wishes to restore his eparchy and continue his dishonest business of disuniting our Bulgarian people. We protest most strongly against his nomination as Metropolitan of Skopje, because he insults the Bulgarian feeling among the population". Unfortunately, Your Grace, if the Eparchy Council has such people with common sense, this is not the case with some craftsman's circles, which have come under the influence of Mr. Petar Pop Arsov, a teacher, who has taken the idea into his head that he is a leader of the people. He constantly speaks against the Exarchate and its leadership, including myself, and urges the craftsman to support Metropolitan Theodosios' candidature, since he once suffered for defending the interests of the Macedonians. It would not be superfluous if I informed You about another problem, which, I presume, will represent a kind of plot in this whole election propaganda. I have understood from some members of the Council that Krste Petkov, who at one time started "Misirkovism", had requested from certain relative of his, living here in Skopje, that he put him in touch with this teacher, Petar Pop Arsov, in connection with collecting songs about Krale Marko in the Skopje district, and Mr. Pop Arsov was so kind as to agree immediately. I am writing this to you, Your Grace, a justified suspicion that schismatic forces are being brought to life here. The said Mr. Krste Misirkov expressed in a letter to his relative has desire to return to Macedonia, more precisely, to come to Skopje as soon as Macedonia was liberated. The man wished to be a professor at the Skopje university (?!). If this is true, and there are no reasons for lying to me, then You may conclude Yourself what danger threatens the Bulgarian idea in these historic times. Just imagine if the "Misirkovism" of Mr. Krste, the "separatism' of His Grace Theodosius and the "autonomism" of Mr. Petar Pop Arsov joined together! I am of the opinion, Your Grace, upon the basis of the protest by the Eparchy Council (which was, after all, published in the press) that the candidature of His Grace Theodosius should be withdrawn, by which a danger of as yet unseen proportions for the Bulgarian cause in Macedonia would be evaded. I remain Your Grace's younger brother in Jesus Christ and I pray for You. S. Dimevski, Diskusija - K.P. Misirkov i nacionalno-kulturniot razvoj na makedonskiot narod do Osloboduvanjeto - Zbornik Misirkov. Simpozium. Skopje, Institut za makedonski jazik, 1975, pp.338-339. 1905 Sveta Simic, representative of the Kingdom of Serbia in Bulgaria, to Jovan Jovanovich-Pizon, head of the consular department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Belgrade. D. Gruev again visited me last Saturday. D. Hristov also chanced to be in my house, so we spent more then 3 hours in discussion. The Macedonians have been afraid that the Bulgarians and we agreed to divide them, and accordingly they are the only ones left to frown at the Imperial Alliance. They suspect it hides something else. They continually make agreements and preparations but undertake nothing more serious. They constantly send smaller bands and ammunition into their country. All their activity is reduced to this only in present. They would like to make an agreement with us, but such as to sacrifice nothing of what they call their autonomy. They have come to see more and more that there are obstacles before them which they cannot fight successfully, and under the influence of which they continually lose their importance as an authoritative factor in the development of the Maced(onian) question. This is what hurts them immensely. They are divided among themselves, just as before. The differences of their views also intensify their personal hatred, which makes some of them avoid the others, plotting among themselves....Unfavorable rumors reach us from Macedonia, too. The people, craving for freedom, would like to reject their yoke and uncertainty as soon as possible, so that they would be ready for some decisive steps as well, but their distrust both of their leaders and Bulgaria prevent them. Under the influence of the news about the Imperial Alliance a mood has been created in which they would like to be freed from their yoke at any cost, even if they were compelled to come under Bulgaria and Serbia. And if these two did not help them, they would gladly accept Austrian occupation, as well... Arhiv SFR Jugoslavije (Belgrade) - Fond Jovan Jovanovic-Pizon, 80 (1905). 1906 To my brother in arms, Dushan, voyvoda from the village of Bistrica Brother, you should know that I have received your letter and understood all that you wrote me. We have put the people in great trouble, it is true, but who is to blame for this? You say we are to blame, we say you are to blame. As far as I know, ten years have passed (and) has never been over those years any bloodshed between ourselves or division into Serbomans or Bulgarophils. We have been Macedonian fighters and we will fight to the end for the Macedonian people, but we do not fight for Bulgaria or Serbia, nor Greece; they are free and live freely and drink in shaded inns; they have the right to drink so since they shed their blood earlier. We, who come from this Macedonian land should work for Macedonia, because our Macedonian brothers are murdered on the roads and our Macedonian sisters are disgraced by the bloody Turk, by the fat Turk. We are not against any nationality of either Bulgaria, Serbia, or Greece; we should recognize the merit of those who would help us. If there had been any Serbian, Bulgarian or Greek land here, they should not have waited for us to die in the mountains but should have liberated Macedonia with their armies; only then they could have demanded Serbia, Bulgarian or Greek land here... Blazhe Krusheski DA SSID - Fond Izvrshnog odbora Srpske narodne organizacije F-6 (1906) 1912 A.V. Amfiteatrov: Macedonia ...Following the Russian war, Turkey of the old regime finally turned into a "sick man", and the heirs of the executors of the expected will gathered around his death-bed. The future destiny of Macedonia came to depend not as much on the will of Turkey itself as on the sympathies of the European guardians. In the 19th century Europe learned through Germany, Italy and Greece to consider the right to national self-determination a little. Thus, all the states and countries bordering on Macedonia have started intensive propaganda in favor of their nationalities, as it were a race or along jump for an award. They have taken care, as much as they have means and power, to persuade Europe by truth and lies, that allegedly the national self-determination of the Macedonian inclines in their favor, and not in favor of the neighboring nation. In this respect the Bulgarians proved more swift the their rivals. In order to make Macedonia Bulgarian, they had to Bulgarize the Macedonians. Thus, following the Bulgaro-Serbian War of 1885, the greatest powers and considerable sacrifices of the Bulgarian state apparatus were given to the Bulgarization of the Macedonian Slavs. Bulgarian agents were the priests and the teachers; the

newer horizon demanded in usa politicking. can non natural born + nonbinding resolution senate run pres U S ?

Nanny question? Hello everyone! I am a nanny for an 10 1/2 month old baby girl in Arkansas. The mother's sister is expecting a baby in January, and they asked me if I would mind watching both babies at their house, at the same time. They told me that I can let them know an hourly price that I would like to be paid, but I am not sure what to tell them. Just a little background: I just graduated from college in May and am now having to pay back school loans, I am reading books in my free time about becoming a trainer for service dogs and dogs that help disabled and elderly people, so this is an interim job. The parents of the baby I am watching now are pretty well paid, the dad is an airplane pilot and the mom works for a local business. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks again, Nanny B I feel that I should also mention that I take the baby to 2 baby-play classes per week, and I live in a separate town- the drive each day totals 35-40 minutes.

Mentally Unemployed and Noticeably Stupid Association.? The M.U.N.S.A. test Have you an unusual Intelligence? Do you find you lose interest in supposedly "Interesting movies"? It could be that you're one of the 5% of the population that has the mental capacity of a steaming turd! If so, you may want to join MUNSA - Mentally Unemployed and Noticeably Stupid Association. Try the questionnaire below. The results could surprise you! If you can't even read the question, you're halfway there already - just get someone to fill out our full colour brochure at any trailing chemist, and you'll be in for some, good old fashioned non-challenging material. 1. Which of the following WAS one of the famous Marx Brothers? a. STRETCH b. SKID c. HARPO d. TYRE 2. The number missing from the series (1,2,4,..,16) is: a. YELLOW b. GERANIUM c. 8 d. TYRE 3. The letter missing from the series (a,b,c,..,e) is: a. z b. b c. d d. TYRE 4. A man walks into a Barber Shop, with $5.00. He buys 2 lemons at 45c each, 1 Pickled Eel for $2.40, 4 packets of washing powder for $3.15 each. What will happen? a. The Barber will wonder where all the stuffs coming from b. He wasn't in a Barber's shop, it was a Dairy c. The Barber will ask him if he's from MUNSA d. Tyre 5. Two trains leave the same station, but moving in opposite directions. The first train is travelling at 50km/hr EAST, while the second one is travelling 50km/hr WEST. Which train is travelling the fastest? a. The one going EAST b. The one going WEST c. Neither d. Tyre e. Why aren't there (e.)'s in all the other questions 6. What comes next in the series (RED, GREEN) a. A car b. Orange c. Insufficient Data d. Tyre 7. Mona Lisa was: a. A dissatisfied Woman b. A Song by Billy Idol c. A painting d. Tyre 8. The cold war was about: a. Ice b. Autumn c. A few people at the top not liking each other d. Tyre 9. Complete the following Sequence: (Tyre Tyre Tyre) a. Tyre b. Tyre c. Tyre d. Pardon? Ok, time to total up all your marks. Those of you who haven't mastered addition yet, go straight on to the application; you're the sort of person we're looking for. If not, Give yourself 5 points for every D, -5 for every C, (+10 if you can't add negative numbers yet), 0 for every B and 0 for every A you ticked. How did you do? 90 to 50: OK! You're the sort of person we're looking for. Add 10 points to your score if you haven't got the hang of using anything but crayons yet. 50 to -20: Who's been doing late night studying then? Sorry, you're just a run of the mill pleb - push off. -20 to -90: A computer geek I bet. Go join some place where they talk big numbers and floppy disks! Is 85 between 90 and 50? Alright! Go to the bottom of the class! You're a leading light in our Association; get someone to fill the form in for you and welcome aboard! What will MUNSA do for you? MUNSA is a group of people just like yourself, and as such will have much the same interests. We'll meet once a month to watch American Game Shows (Except for our "advanced" class which will be watching the Australian Imitations), Television Dating Games, and listening to Pulic readings of Romance Novels. Also at the meetings, you'll have the opportunity to buy: * Swamp land at ridiculously inflated prices * Genuine Japanese imports with UNTAMPERED ODOMETERS (with scratces on it) * Slice/Dice/Mince/Stack shelf-mount food mungers from C-Tel * "Safe" relocatable houses from Chernobyl and many many more things, as yet not exploited. As a special initial offer, you will be given a free Brain Warning device which rings an alarm if your IQ gets above 25, in time for you to go back to your local for a couple of jugs of your favourite Weasels.

African American questions do you know the answer? 1. Who was the first child of African parents born in England's American colonies? Abraham Lincoln Martin Luther King Jr. William Harriet Tubman See Explanation 2. What was the name of the first slave ship built in the English colonies? The Desire The Enterprise The Alabama The Free Help See Explanation 3. What was the first American colony to abolish slavery? Alabama New York New Jersey Vermont See Explanation 4. When was the importation of slaves outlawed in the U.S.? 1798 1808 1818 1865 See Explanation 5. What dispute led to the founding of the African Methodist Episcopal Church? Row vs. Wade Brown vs. Board of Education Segregation of St. George's Methodist Church The Cold War See Explanation 6. What was the first black newspaper? The Times The Herald The Report Freedom's Journal See Explanation 7. How big was the price on Harriet Tubman's head? $10,000 $20,000 $30,000 $40,000 See Explanation 8. Where in the South was Sojourner Truth (c. 1797-1883) born? Ulster County, New York Birmingham, Alabama South Africa Atlanta, Georgia See Explanation 9. Where did Fredrick Douglass get his last name? His master's last name a poem "The Lady of the Lake (1810)" His wife The President See Explanation 10. At its height, what was the slave population in the U.S.? about 1 million about 2 million about 3 million about 4 million See Explanation 11. What percentage of Southern families owned large plantations? 25% to 30% 8% to 15% 1% to 4% 50% to 90% See Explanation 12. What does "Ku Klux Klan" mean? Peacemakers From Greek "kuklos" meaning circle Shareholders Helpers See Explanation 13. How many Ku Klux Klan movements have there been? More than 100 major ones Fifty major ones Ten major ones Three major ones See Explanation 14. Who were the principles in the Supreme Court case, Plessy v. Ferguson? Homer Plessey, John H. Ferguson Martin Luther Plessey Homer Plessey John H. Ferguson See Explanation 15. Who wrote "Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others"? Abraham Lincoln W. E. b. Du Bois Martin Luther King Malcom X See Explanation 16. Who was the first president to invite an African-American man to the White House? George Washington Theodore Roosevelt Abraham Lincoln Hillary Clinton (or her husband Bill) See Explanation 17. What event sparked the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People? A 1908 race riot in Springfield, Massachusetts The war of 1812 The Los Angeles riots The Civil War See Explanation 18. When was the first "Negro History Week"? 1826 1986 1929 1926 See Explanation 19. Who popularized the slogan "Africa for the Africans at home and abroad"? John-Jacob Jingle-Hiemer Smith Elijah Muhammad Marcus Garvey Ralph Bunche See Explanation 20. What was Elijah Muhammad's name at birth? Elijah Poole Elijah Muhammad Elijah Clinton Elijah Reagan See Explanation 21. How did Jackie Robinson do in his first major league game? 3 hits in 279 at bats 2 hits in 9 at bats 1 hit in 2 at bats 0 hits in 3 at bats See Explanation 22. For what did Ralph bunche win the Noble Peace Prize? His performance on "The Love Boat" Rescuing hostages from the middle east Dieing during war time Mediating an end to an Arab Israeli conflict See Explanation 23. Why did Rosa Parks refuse to move from her seat in the white section of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama? revenge hate stupidity fatigue and principle See Explanation 24. Where did Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., get his doctorate? Boston University Florida Atlantic University University of Miami Florida State University See Explanation 25. When and where did Martin Luther King, Jr. make his "I Have a Dream" speech? Boca Raton, Florida, March 4, 1997 Boston, Massachusetts, April 8, 1369 Washington D.C., August 28, 1963 Washington state, August 28, 9163 See Explanation 26. Where was the first "sit-in" at a segregated lunch counter? Columbia, South Carolina Greensboro, North Carolina Atlantia, Georgia Tallahassee, Florida See Explanation 27. What did the "N" in SNCC stand for? Negro Now Nice Non-violent See Explanation 28. How did the 24th Amendment advance the cause of civil rights? Importation of slaves made illegal Outlaw slavery Desegregation laws Poll tax made illegal See Explanation 29. What were the names of the three civil rights workers murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in 1964? Rodney King, Jessee Jackson, and Thurgood Marshall Malcom X, Martin Luther King Jr., and Abraham Lincoln Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, and Chelsey Clinton James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner See Explanation 30. For what crime did Malcom X go to prison? Murder. Burglary. Adultery. Gluttony. See Explanation 31. Where was Malcom X Killed? Audubon Ballroom (before speaking) World Trade Center (at the bombing) Los Angeles (during the riots) Middle East(during the Gulf War) See Explanation 32. How long did the Watts riots of 1965 last? about 1 day about 1 month about 1 week about 1 year See Explanation 33. Who warned, "Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white--separate and unequal"? National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders The six o'clock evening news One of the big 3 (ABC, CBS, NBC) Your local newspaper See Explanation 34. What justice did Thurgood Marshall replace on the Supreme Court? Thomas Jefferson Thomas C. Clark Clare Mowbry Henry VIII See Explanation 35. What was "Resurrection City"? Part of Washington D.C. The bronx Miami, Florida Hollywood, California See Explanation 36. How many times did Jessee Jackson run for the U.S. Presidency? one time two times three times four times See Explanation 37. What year was Martin Luther King Day first observed as a federal holiday? 1966 1976 1986 1996 See Explanation 38. Who videotaped Rodney King's beating by Los Angeles police? John Jacob Jingle Himer Shmitt George Holliday Steven Speilburg Jim Henson See Explanation 39. Who was the first black woman senator? Harriet Tubman Sojourner Truth Rosa Parks Carol Moseley Braun See Explanation

To all Americans read this and even other nationals maybe you understand why terrorism is in Usa? The destruction of the world trade centre and the attack on the pentagon has been described as the greatest act of terrorism. However history demonstrates that the most horrific acts of Terrorism has been carried out by the freedom loving democratic nation, the United States of America . According to their own Official FBI definition of terrorism: “Terrorism is the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.” IRAQ : From 1991 to the present day the United States Air Force and Navy have slaughtered over 200,000 civilian people in Iraq with Depleted Uranium missiles, cluster bombs, cruise missiles and other so-called “smart bombs.” During the “Desert Storm” terror campaign the arsenal also included fuel-air bombs and napalm. 177 million pounds of bombs were dropped on the people of Iraq in the most concentrated aerial bombardment in the history of the world. In the 110,000 sorties of the six-week onslaught the cowardly American and British pilots (and to a lesser extent French and Saudi pilots) mass-murdered at least 200,000 people, using depleted uranium missiles, napalm, cluster-bombs, fuel-air bombs, cruise missiles and other so-called “smart bombs.” The slaughter of civilian people in the Amariyah bomb shelter was a Prime example of this American/British state terrorism. Most of them were women, children, elderly, and invalids from a new housing development. Cowardly U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force jet pilots caught one sixty-mile-long column of fleeing Iraqi soldiers and Palestinian civilian families in vehicles on the Kuwait to Basra highway - and pounded them ruthlessly with bombs and machine-gun fire. The road, clogged by four lanes of one-way, bumper-to-bumper traffic, was carpet bombed by B-52s dropping 1,000-pound bombs, and repeatedly hit with laser-guided missiles and “smart” bombs. All the Iraqi soldiers, as well as Palestinian workers and their families, were slaughtered without mercy. The bloodthirsty American pilots gleefully described the massacre as “shooting in a sheep pen.” During the Desert Storm terror campaign at least 944,000 rounds of Depleted Uranium ammo were fired from American A-10 Warthogs all over Iraq and Kuwait . When a depleted uranium tipped shell strikes a tank or armoured personnel carrier it easily penetrates the armour and burns the crew alive. The impact also vaporizes the depleted uranium, creating an aerosol of radioactive heavy-metal particles which can spread as far as 190 miles on the wind. When inhaled or ingested, the depleted uranium particles cause chemical and radioactive damage to the bronchial tree, kidneys, liver and bones. Cancer often results, and the effects can even include genetic damage. The Dutch Laka Foundation estimates that the United States terror campaign left behind 300-800 tons of radioactive waste from this ammunition all over Kuwait and Iraq - poisoning the air, the land, the water and the people everywhere. Afterwards, wherever the depleted uranium firing had been concentrated, there were cancer epidemics among Iraqi civilians living nearby. In the ten years since then, sanctions, polluted water and depleted uranium together have killed somewhere between 1,000,000 and 2,000,000 Iraqi civilian people. At least 600,000 of the dead are children. Cancer rates have quadrupled in areas of southern Iraq bombed by the American and British state terrorists. Since it began, thousands of Iraqi babies have been born with horrible birth defects. This is something that has never before been seen in Iraq . Over the course of only 43 days and nights, approximately 62,000-80,000 air-delivered cluster bombs were dropped on the Iraqi people by the American-led state terrorists. In addition, 10,000 MLRS rockets and 100,000 “Dual Purpose Improved Conventional Munition” artillery shells were fired. All this translates to about 24-30 million “sub munitions” or bomblets. Assuming a dud rate of 5%, it is estimated that the number of Dangerous land-mine cluster bomblets lying on or just under the surface of the ground in Iraq and Kuwait would be from 1.2 to 1.5 million. At least. In the desert, however, the percentage of these duds rose to 30%. So the number of unexploded ordnance still lying in wait for unsuspecting Iraqi children and civilian people could be as high as 7 to 9 million bomblets. A Human Rights Watch report says that of the estimated 24 to 30 million bomblets dropped during the Desert Storm terror campaign, the 1.2 to 1.5 million (at least) that did not immediately explode led to the bloody deaths of 1,220 Kuwaiti and 400 Iraqi people - mostly children - and over 2,500 maimed. And that was in just the first two years after the end of the “war.” So the American/British systematically targeted Iraq 's civilian infrastructure. Schools, hospitals, factories and every industry connected to food production, water purification and irrigation were targeted for destruction. U.S. Air Force and Navy pilots destroyed a baby formula plant, food warehouses, pharmaceutical plants, fertilizer plants, pesticide plants, storage facilities, refrigeration facilities, electrical generation and communication plants and every single grain silo in the country. All these were destroyed in order to intensify the impoverishing effect of the sanctions. In the process, U.S. and British pilots slaughtered at least 200,000 Iraqi men, women and children. And of course all these murdered human beings were dismissed by the Pentagon as “collateral damage.” In the 10 years since that carnage, the United Nations estimates that over one million Iraqi civilians – including 600,000 children below the age of five - have died as a result of American sanctions alone. One of the most important strategies of the 1991 terror-campaign against the civilian Iraqi people was the bombing of numerous water-purification plants. After that, the American sanctions prevented Iraqis from getting enough replacement parts to repair most of the plants. So, just as the evil U.S. and British governments planned, the lack of clean drinking water in Iraq has caused a massive human catastrophe. It is contaminated water, more than anything else, that is killing Iraqi babies and small children, by the thousands, every month. Because they are the most vulnerable they are dying from diarrhea and dysentery primarily, and also diseases such as typhoid, hepatitis, cholera and polio - all caused by bacteria and viruses within the contaminated water. And just to make the whole diabolical scheme complete, the American sanctions also prevent the Iraqis from acquiring sufficient medicine to treat these deadly diseases. In an interview of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on CBS's 60 Minutes, correspondent Lesley Stahl asked her if the death of these 600,000 Iraqi children was “worth it.” Albright's reply: “...we think the price is worth it.” General Colin Powell when asked about the number of Iraqi people who were slaughtered by Americans in the 1991 “Desert Storm” terror campaign: “It's really not a number I'm terribly interested in.” “If they turn on the radars we're going to blow up their goddamn SAMs [surface-to-air missiles]. They know we own their country. We own their airspace... We dictate the way they live and talk. And that's what's great about America right now. It's a good thing, especially when there's a lot of oil out there we need.” U.S. Brig. General William Looney Washington Post, August 30, 1999 - referring, in reality, to the brutal mass • murder of hundreds of civilian Iraqi men, women and children during 10,000 sorties by American/British. PALESTINE : Since September 29, 2000 the Israeli Army, together with violent gangs of Israeli “settlers,” have launched a massive military assault on the Palestinian people. In this latest onslaught the Israelis have murdered over 600 people so far, including many children, and injured over 15,000, many severely Of these 15,000 people, over 1000 have sustained serious physical or neurological injuries requiring long-term health care. The Israelis have surrounded all Palestinian villages and blocked all exits, refusing to allow those with severe injuries to get medical help outside. Meanwhile the Israeli Army fires into the villages with missiles from Cobra helicopter gunships and with shells and heavy-gauge ammo from tanks. Israeli invaders of the West Bank , who are given the misleading name of “settlers,” actually live in hilltop fortresses above many of the Palestinian villages. From these fortresses the “settlers” fire at will down on the unarmed Palestinian people below. In addition to murdering people, the Israeli military is extensively targeting infrastructure, with the intention of destroying the Palestinian economy. Under the guise of “retaliation,” “destroying sniper hiding places” or “protecting Israeli settlers,” Israeli helicopter gunships have fired missiles into Gaza TV studios, factories, office suites, police stations and administrative centers of the Palestinian Authority, destroying them all. VIETNAM : American Genocide of the Vietnamese People, 1945-1974 “I would like to say that several months ago in Detroit we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia. They told stories that at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam, in addition to the normal ravage of war and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country.” John Kerry Navy lieutenant, leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee 1971 During the Kennedy and Johnson administrations the number of murderous U.S. military personnel invading Vietnam jumped from 23,000 in 1963 to 184,000 in 1966. During 13 years of America's war against the people of Vietnam 8000,000 Tons of bombs (like Napalm and cluster bombs) and defoliants (Agent Orange) were dropped in total - and at least 3 MILLION Vietnamese people were slaughtered. During the Vietnam Genocide there was even an official CIA program of systematic terror, torture and mass-murder called Operation Phoenix. CAMBODIA : The direct American genocide of the Cambodian people lasted from 1969 to 1975. After that the Khmer Rouge, America 's covert clients, took over the job. Estimated civilian deaths: 2,000,000 - 2,500,000 people From the U.S. Air Force carpet • bombing and the Khmer Rouge combined. From Derailing Democracy by Dave McGowan: Not content with the destruction being wrought upon Southeast Asia, the U.S. began a massive covert bombing campaign against Cambodia , resulting in famine, economic chaos, and a staggeringly high death toll. The desperate conditions created by the bombing set the stage for the Rise to power of the Khmer Rouge, resulting in yet another round of death and destruction for the besieged country. >From Rogue State by William Blum: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^... Cambodian Prince Sihanouk was yet another leader who did not fancy being an American client. After many years of hostility toward his regime, including assassination plots and the infamous Nixon/Kissinger secret “carpet bombings” of 1969-70, Washington finally overthrew Sihanouk in a coup in 1970. This was all that was needed to impel Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge forces to enter the fray. Five years later, they took power. But the years of American bombing had caused Cambodia 's traditional economy to vanish. The old Cambodia had been destroyed forever. Incredibly, the Khmer Rouge were to inflict even greater misery upon this unhappy land. And to multiply the irony, the United States supported Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge after their subsequent defeat by the Vietnamese. LAOS : The United States Air Force dropped the equivalent of a planeload of bombs every eight minutes for nine years on the people of Laos, from 1965 to 1973 - over 2,000,000 tons. This was some of the heaviest aerial bombing in world history. Estimated civilian deaths: 500,000 people The United States dropped an estimated 285 million cluster bomblets all over Southeast Asia during the course of the Vietnam War - seven bomblets for every man, woman and child. By 1973 it was estimated that there were at least nine million unexploded bomblets still lying on Laotian territory. As much as half a million tons of unexploded ordnance (primarily cluster-bombs) remains littered all over the Laotian countryside - 35 years later. Every year, throughout all these past 35 years, hundreds of innocent Laotian children and civilian people are murdered or maimed by American cluster-bombs. Bombs dropped by United States Air Force crews. >From Rogue State by William Blum: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^... The Laotian left, led by the Pathet Lao, tried to effect social change peacefully, making significant electoral gains and taking part in coalition governments. But the United States would have none of that. The CIA and the State Department, through force, bribery and other pressures, engineered coups in 1958, 1959 and 1960. Eventually, the only option left for the Pathet Lao was armed force. The CIA created its infamous “Arme Clandestine”- totaling 30,000, from every corner of Asia - to do battle, while the US Air Force, between 1965 and 1973, rained down more than two million tons of bombs upon the people of Laos, many of whom were forced to live in caves for years in a desperate attempt to escape the monsters falling from the sky. After hundreds of thousands had been killed, many more maimed, and countless bombed villages with hardly stone standing upon stone, the Pathet Lao took control of the country, following on the heels of events in Vietnam. KOREA : Between 1950 and 1953 the greatest devastation was of course inflicted upon the civilian people of North Korea . The United States Corporate Mafia Government and military were terribly frustrated by the heroic determination of the Korean people and their Chinese allies to be free of American domination. To teach them the “virtues” of the American way, the Pentagon began a deliberate campaign of bloody genocide from the air and on the ground beginning in June 1950, using 20 times more napalm against the Korean people than it used in World War II. It was during the Korean Genocide that American military personnel first started using the term “****.” Many subhuman Americans felt it was okay to slaughter Korean children and rape Korean women because they were all just “gooks.” This sort of bestial racism is a tradition in the bloodthirsty United States military. War criminals always attempt to justify their own evil inhumanity by imagining their victims as being less than human. By the end of America's genocidal assault nearly 3 million civilian people in North Korea had died horribly, either directly from American bombing and massacres or from war-related causes such as starvation and disease. The events in Sinchon County are a typical example of American war crimes in Korea . SINCHON: Sinchon was considered a Communist stronghold when American troops occupied the town in September 1950. By the time a North Korean and Chinese counter-offensive was able to drive them out in early December 1950, racist American troops had already managed to mass-murder 35,383 people- one out of every four of the county's 140,000 inhabitants. To this day a local museum carefully chronicles the extent of U.S. war crimes in Sinchon: Americans burned 5,484 dwellings and destroyed 618 factories, public buildings and irrigation facilities, committing the cold-blooded murder of tens of thousands of people in the process. Then, when American troops were forced to retreat, they took revenge on women and children. In order to make the world safe for democracy, American troops murdered 900 helpless civilian people in an air-raid shelter by pouring gasoline into the shelter's ventilation hole and setting it on fire. In Wonam-ri , North Korea , American troops locked 502 women and their children in two storehouses and then burned them all alive too. This was done in December 1950, while American politicians and military leaders preached from every pulpit about the terrible threat of “Godless Communism.” “No refugees to cross the front line. Fire everyone trying to cross lines.” 8 th Cavalry Regiment communications log two days before the No Gun Ri massacre. “American soldiers played with our lives like boys playing with flies.” Chun Choon-ja - a 12-year-old Korean girl in 1950 survivor of the No Gun Ri massacre I TRIED TO EDIT IT BUT COULDNT BECAUSE THE CRIME IS SO MUCH IT DOESNT GET LESS THAN THIS BUT I DID REMOVE THE ONES IN JAPAN AND CAMBODIA

Could it be that the six million Jews who perished at the hands of the Nazis could have been saved? Many books have been published, read and forgotten. There is one book, however, which dare not be allowed to share this fate. This is the chronicles of Rabbi Michael Ber Weissmandl, ztl, of the war years, 1942 to 1945, so aptly named "Min Hametzar" (From the Depths). published in New York in 1961 in Hebrew. Not enough individuals have read this book. The ghastly facts uncovered in it are not sufficiently well known. Who can imagine the Hitlerite holocaust? Where is the language to describe it? All the known words of human speech have already been used for conventional occurrences; they have acquired everyday meanings and have been fashioned with an inability to describe the horrors of an Auschwitz or a Treblinka. What can be said to make individuals understand the wild cries of the night, when our brothers and sisters were led to the slaughterhouses? And in what way can one convey the conversion of precious Jews to the status of animals preparatory to being slaughtered? Skyscraping walls prevented their cries being heard, and in that horrible man-made silence, the most valuable portion of the Jewish people was compressed in the confines of the ghettos in hunger and in thirst, in epidemics and in torture, crying bitterly, only to themselves, until the end of their anguish; when they were loaded into the sealed anguish; when they were loaded in the sealed cattle-wagons for the week-long journeys, when their corpses and the still have-living reached the slaughterhouses and gas chambers. Where can existing words be found to fit this story, and who is there to coin new phrases with meaning enough to tell this tale? Yet all this was done through a directive from an innocent-looking office, where the S.S. murderers, with the methods of modern civilization gave the orders which, by chain reaction, set in motion all the machinery of death and destruction to which a stop could not be envisaged. One stroke of the pen to extinguish a hundred thousand lives. A few words enough for a million. And these few officers set the wheels turning in Auschwitz, in Treblinka; the Einsatzkomandos; the deep pits on the lonely plains of Europe overflowing with human blood. So much power behind it, such a military might enforcing it that only the winning of the World War could interfere with this running horror. But how astonished was Rabbi Weissmandl to discover that these strokes of the pen could so easily have been erased, that the Jewish tragedy could to a considerable extent, have been alleviated by some simple "old fashioned" methods. How many hundreds of thousands of Jewish lives could have been saved -- perhaps even millions. Wisliceny was the German henchman for the Jews of Slovakia, Eichmann's representative in that area for establishing the ghettos, destroying their livelihood and finally dispatching to slaughter the hundreds of thousands of Jews in Slovakia and the neighboring countries. He carried out this mission as directed by Eichman and as his own cravings commanded. His was the first country in Europe to be designated for the supply of Jews to the slaughter houses, as it was Slovakia that was first occupied by Hitler--even earlier than Poland. The puppet government of Cardinal Tissu had asked Hitler to "cleanse" its country of Jews. Officially it even paid Germany for transportation, and Wisliceny was the ultimate ruler and organizer. He was nearly always drunk; drunk from spirits and intoxicated with blood -- and seemingly unassailable. Rabbi WeissmandlRabbi Michael Ber Weissmandl, at the end of 1943, when two thirds of the Jews of Slovakia had already been transported for "work" to that far destination, got to know through a certain Hochberg -- an S.S. intriguer, and second in command to Wisliceny, that his chief was also lustful for money and that already on more than one occasion, money had bought relief for some individuals, postponing their deportation. Overwhelmed with joy at this discovery, he consulted his father-in-law, the great and renowned rabbi of Nitra, ztl, who agreed that if this old-fashioned method was effective, there was no reason why it would not be attempted on behalf of the great masses to be saved. Rabbi Weissmandl writes of this same Hochberg, "I was first there on Friday in the summer of 1942 -- Tammuz, 5702. I was standing in the corridor near to the office of Hochberg and all of the waiting rooms around were crowded with those who had come to Hochberg to beg a postponement of that ultimate journey for "work in the east," as many still believed. I heard the voice of Hochberg speaking on the phone to his chief, Wisliceny saying, 'Her Hauptstumbandfuehrer, ich melde ghorehsamst, the train has left: Man 727, Women 637, Children 1667: altogether 3,028 Jawohl!' Never will this total leave my memory; 1600 children! No outcry and no tears. No one cares. The whole world is silent. Jawohl, Herr Hauptsturmbanfuehrer. One of the famous men of Pressberg, Reb Aharon Gruenhut, finally succeeded in gaining confidence by Hochberg in Rabbi Weissmandl, for whom a secret appointment was arranged. On this occasion, the rabbi presented himself as one who had connections with rabbinical circles throughout the world. He showed Hochberg his passport that contained a British visa issued just before the outbreak of war, and told him of his visit to London and of conferences there to impress him with his high standing. He then made it clear that he had come on a secret mission of the highest importance as a representative of Jewry abroad, who had contacted him through the American "Joint" in Switzerland. Their message was that they were prepared to pay in cash for the stopping of all further transports of Jews from Slovakia to the east. The "Joint" was ready to pay the price that his chief, Wisliceny, would name. Rabbi Weissmandl emphasized that neither Hochberg nor Wisliceny should believe that his mission was directed by local Jews. During this conversation with Hochberg in 1943, when the scales of war were already a little out of balance for Hitler's Germany after the heavy defeats in the east and the support of the allies by American might, Rabbi Weissmandl was able, with American might, Rabbi Weissmandl was able , with careful tact, to introduce doubts into Hochberg's mind about German world conquest, and more specifically about Hochberg's own position after the war. He conveyed to him that it would be very much to his and his chief's advantage to make some provisions for their own safety. In this respect, he was now authorized to offer the promise of World Jewry that if they would stop all further transports, he and Wisliceny would be save. Hochberg became enraged at such suggestions, but as the conversation progressed, he became much softer and began to listen carefully to what was proposed. He listened and replied, "I must go to see Wisliceny." He left immediately and Rabbi Weissmandl waited. Every minute seemed like an hour; every hour seemed endless. He sat there exhausted, awaiting the reply fateful for the remaining Jews of Slovakia, with so many hanging in the balance. He had set there for many hours, when suddenly the door burst open and Hochberg hurried into the room. Speaking rapidly and with great excitement, he said, "the deal is done. My chief asked for $50,000 and no further transports will be sent; but he lays down the following terms: Wisliceny will show his goodwill: three transports -- next Tuesday, next Friday, the following Tuesday -- each of about 3000 souls, will be held up, but on Friday after that, the first Installment of $25,000 must be handed over. After that, there will be no further transports for seven weeks, to enable the second installment of $25,000 to be obtained and paid, after which there will be a final stopping of all transports. There is one further condition. You must be able to show that the money comes from abroad and not from Slovakian Jews themselves." The latter was an important point to this S.S. henchman, as a guarantee that it was world Jewry who was behind the deal, and who would finally keep its promise for his safety. In any case, Rabbi Weissmandl did not then think that Slovakian Jews could possibly find such a sum, as by that time they had been stripped of all their possessions. On that other hand, he did not imagine for one moment that the wealthy "Joint" would not provide such a relatively small sum to save literally tens of thousands of lives from total annihilation in the German slaughterhouses. Rabbi Weissmandl left Hochberg's office with hope and joy. He hurried home to Nitra to inform his father-in-law and to set about getting the deal consummated. The Rabbi of Nitra, in spite of his happiness at the possibility of saving so many lives, expressed some reservation. He felt that from a distance the "Joint" would not see their tragedy, and that the Zionist leaders working together with the "Joint" had a different calculation. But he suggested, representatives from beyond the "Kanzelel" -- the Council of Orthodox Jewish Communities -- should be drawn into this, and even the Zionists and non-Orthodox groups taken into partnership. The name of Mrs. Gisi Fleischman came to the forefront, as she was of Zionist circles and also the pre-war representative of the "Joint" in Slovakia. Besides her prominence, she was a good-hearted and courageous women and her word would carry weight with the "Joint". It was also decidedly to call on Mr. Fuerst -- known for both his integrity and financial ability. Among the weapons with which the Zionists have equipped themselves to pierce the walls of resistance to their influence, there is one most predominant. This is "ahavas Yisroel" -- love of the fellow Jew. This slogan and catch-phrase carries extra weight with the religious Jew to whom this concept has a special attraction. The Zionists have explained that their aim is achieving statehood is to provide a refuge and shelter for much tormented Jewry. The long, bloody paths of our, till now, 2000 year long exile, with its inquisitions, persecutions, pogroms, slaughter and torture, has always been at the front of every Jews mind. Seldom was there a place on this earth inhabited by Jews, or a stretch of time, without blood and tears at the hands of our many persecutors of all nations. It was these pogroms that provided, for the short-sighted, the initial conditioning to seek a solution in the outward idea of Zionist achievements. Possibly the Zionists, themselves, at the first steps of inception, were honestly taken by the idea of that solution; and it was this kernel of compassion that gave to them the power to influence others with this superficial consideration. Zionism has built on the basis that the solution of nationhood applicable to any other nation is in the same way also applicable to Jewry, as they could see no difference between the nations of the world and the Jewish people. As they see it, Jews regulate their fate by the same ways and means as all other peoples. The belief in exile by Heavenly Decree as a punishment for our sins, and the belief in Heavenly Redemption by the Will of the Creator was, to Zionism, non-existent. People's thoughts were not directed to the fundamental, all-embracing heresy upon which Zionism was established, but grasped only the attractive promises that were offered because unfortunately, Zionism arrived in the most feeble and small of all generation, coupled with distressing happenings, which contributed to the closing of people's minds to the truth and to their being led astray by the Zionist Idea. THE UNHEEDED CRY Read the gripping story of Rabbi Weissmandl, valiant holocaust leader who battled both Allied indifference and Nazi hatred. Available in our BookstoreHow much were Rabbi Weissmandl and his colleagues overcome with joy when they succeeded in getting the right people together! How great was their hope! But how much were they overwhelmed by sorrow when they tried to get things in motion, and how great was their frustration when they learned that the Zionists, together with the "Joint", stopped every outside help from reaching them. This was not only when it was a question of saving the remnants of the Jews of Slovakia -- about 40,000 souls -- but also when the possibility of saving what was still left of the Jews of Poland and Hungary was in question; a matter then of millions of souls. Then, too, the Zionists deliberately prevented any help from being extended under various excuses that even a child could see through. This was their policy -- stupid and merciless -- but they perused it relentlessly. In the end, they admitted openly that their policy was not to help fellow Jews, but to let them perish in the tens of thousands and in their millions. This is forever unforgettable and unforgivable. Zionist "ahavas Yisroel" must be displayed conspicuously and beyond any doubt. The Friday when the first installment of $25,000 had to be paid was fast approaching and there was not yet a way how this money could be found for Wisliceny. Mrs. Flesichman was also the representative of the World Jewish Congress and well known to the Jewish Agency. She was, therefore, considered to be the most suitable person to make contact with these organizations. Her words would be listed to.... The pressure became even greater when it was seen the S.S. oligarchy was in earnest. The first transport has been stopped. But how can contact be made with Zurich, with New York and with Jerusalem, the seat of the Jewish Agency, which influenced and coordinated the work of these other two bodies? Slovakia was then a small country sealed off by the German occupation of the surrounding territory. There was no common border with any free country, so how could any message be conveyed to the outside world? Shloime Stern was instrumental in finding a temporary solution. He obtained a diplomatic courier, who was prepared to take all the important messages to the "Joint" in Zurich. He was also able to borrow money, temporarily, from various sources in Slovakia, putting together the equivalent of the enormous sounding sum of $25,000. The money obtained was changed on the back market for dollars and handed over to Hochberg for Wisliceny. Hochberg accepted it and came back with the message that there would be no further transports for seven weeks, which time was set for the completion of the deal. They were all convinced that once the diplomatic courier would get their message to the "Joint" and the Jewish Agency, not $50,000 but ten times $50,000 would at once be put at their disposal for this and similar "deals." Surely Jews the world over would dance for joy upon hearing that at last the door was open in the inner circles of the S.S. and a way found to rescue their fellow Jews. Mrs. Fleischman sat down to write the memorandum to Salli Mayer, the "Joint" representative in Switzerland. She was careful in her every word, explaining the situation of hope that had been ignited. The "Joint" should hasten its help at this last moment and miss the life-saving opportunity that had been so dramatically forced. The memorandum was sent to the "Joint", to the Jewish Agency and to a personal friend of hers, Mr. N. Schwalbe in Zurich. And then they sat down to wait. Days went by, swallowed by weeks, and of the seven not many were left. The time for the final settlement was fast approaching and a great sum of money was needed. Many people had managed to escape from the hell of Poland to Slovakia on their way to Hungary and Romania, which were not yet being so intensely processed by the Hitler hordes. They were not a thousandth of a percent of those who were so brutally done to death, but still a number to be supported and a problem of Slovakian Jewry. Money was needed to bribe the Slovakian genarmerie and police to stop their pressure for the deportations to continue. Money was needed for the labor camps in Sered, Novaki and Wiener in Slovakia. The Slovakian anti-Semitic government had built these camps for a slave labor before deportation began, and it was put to those Jews still left there that if they, themselves, would build up and increase the capacity of those labor camps, they would absorb more and so relieve the pressure for "deportations." and above all, the money was needed to refund the temporary loans from so many sources that had gone towards the first payment to Wisliceny and to provide the second $25,000 that would finally seal this blood transaction. All this money was a matter of life or death for the tens of thousands of Jews in Slovakia and, in the end, for millions still alive throughout Europe. Who could provide and who should provide, if not the "Joint" and the Jewish Agency, who held possession of the vast sums of money given by Jews the world over for the help of their brethren in need? Was there anywhere at all any need that was greater? The diplomatic courier left for Zurich, holding in his hands the lamentations of the strangling remnants of Jewry; in his hands, their appeal from death. This courier had to spend some days in Zurich before his return. He was awaited with mounting anxiety, for with his advent were tied up all the hopes of the masses under sentence. And he returned. But not even a letter was sent with him by those "help organizations" only a verbal message that they had no time to write, and of help there was no mention at all. Rabbi Weissmandl writes that on hearing this message, they 'felt as though the house had collapsed on them'. It was only Mrs. Fleischman who started to explain matters after this great shock. She said that "uncle" Salli Mayer was a very cautious man and it was necessary to write again. It was also necessary to write to Mr. Silbersten, the Jewish Congress representative. "And who knows, maybe they are doing something great," she added. Maybe for such a big undertaking they had to refer to New York and Jerusalem -- who knows? View video clip from the documentary, "Among Blind Fools", on Rabbi Weissmandl and his efforts to save thousands of Jews from the holocaust.Rabbi Weissmandl, himself, followed up with letters to the Agency and the "Joint" in the name of the Rabbis left in Slovakia -- letters of tears and of pleading -- but still there was no reply. Meanwhile, the seven weeks had passed and they had to send to Hochberg, asking him to explain to Wisliceny that the messenger that was to bring the money from Switzerland had met with an accident and was delayed in a hospital there. He would be bringing the money in three or four weeks time. Wisliceny agreed to wait. In the end, a letter did come from the "Joint"; a letter written by Salli Mayer, which said that $50,000 was a lot of money for such a small country, and that in the previous year's budget of the "joint", only a few thousand dollars had been allocated for them. The "Joint" had to be run according to their system. The explanation given in the memorandum why they now need all this money and the documentary evidence as to what was happening in Poland, to which country the "deportations" took place, were exaggerated stories. This was the way of Eastern European Jewry, who were always asking for money. In general, he added, it was impossible to send anything at all just then, as the money was coming from America, which had prohibited the sending of funds to enemy countries. What was possible to do was to render some small help, monthly, if the "Joint" in Hungary would agree to do this out of the blocked account that been held since the outbreak of the war. Rabbi Weissmandl and his colleagues read the letter, but they could not believe it had been written by fellow Jews. Their hearts stopped beating when its contents became clear to them. But this was not the end. There was a further letter. It fully explained the first. But it was more deadly and more devastating. It disclosed the bottomless abyss to which born- Jews can sink -- the responsibility of Zionism.