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Demeter
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Demeter's Journal
February 22, 2014
For those of you unfamiliar with Venezuelan issues, don’t let the title of this article fool you. The revolution referred to is not what most media outlets are showing taking place today in Caracas, with protestors calling for the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The revolution that is here to stay is the Bolivarian Revolution, which began in 1998 when Hugo Chavez was first elected president and has subsequently transformed the mega oil producing nation into a socially-focused, progressive country with a grassroots government. Demonstrations taking place over the past few days in Venezuela are attempts to undermine and destroy that transformation in order to return power to the hands of the elite who ruled the nation previously for over 40 years.
Those protesting do not represent Venezuela’s vast working class majority that struggled to overcome the oppressive exclusion they were subjected to during administrations before Chavez. The youth taking to the streets today in Caracas and other cities throughout the country, hiding their faces behind masks and balaclavas, destroying public buildings, vehicles, burning garbage, violently blocking transit and throwing rocks and molotov cocktails at security forces are being driven by extremist right-wing interests from Venezuela’s wealthiest sector. Led by hardline neoconservatives, Leopoldo Lopez, Henrique Capriles and Maria Corina Machado – who come from three of the wealthiest families in Venezuela, the 1% of the 1% – the protesters seek not to revindicate their basic fundamental rights, or gain access to free healthcare or education, all of which are guaranteed by the state, thanks to Chavez, but rather are attempting to spiral the country into a state of ungovernability that would justify an international intervention leading to regime change.
Before Chavez was elected in 1998, Venezuela was in a very dark, difficult period with a dangerously eroded democracy. During the early 1990s, poverty swelled at around 80%, the economy was in a sinkhole, the nation’s vast middle class was disappearing with millions falling into economic dispair, constitutional rights were suspended, a national curfew was imposed and corruption was rampant. Those who protested the actions of the government were brutally repressed and often killed. In fact, during the period of so-called “representative democracy” in Venezuela from 1958-1998, before the nation’s transformation into a participatory democracy under Chavez, thousands of Venezuelans were disappeared, tortured, persecuted and assassinated by state security forces. None of their rights were guaranteed and no one, except the majority excluded poor, seemed to care. International Human Rights organizations showed little interest in Venezuela during that time, despite clear and systematic violations taking place against the people....Those in power during that period, also referred to in Venezuela as the “Fourth Republic”, represented an elite minority – families that held the nation’s wealth and profited heavily from the lucrative oil reserves. Millions of dollars from oil profits belonging to the state (oil was nationalized in Venezuela in 1976) were embezzled out of the country into the bloated bank accounts of wealthy Venezuelans and corrupt public officials who had homes in Miami, New York and the Dominican Republic and lived the high life off the backs of an impoverished majority.
Hugo Chavez’s electoral victory in 1998 shattered the opulent banquet the Venezuelan elite had enjoyed for decades, while they ran the country into the ground. He was elected precisely to break the hold on power those groups had harnessed for so many years, and Chavez’s promise was revolution – complete transformation of the economic, social and political system in the country. His electoral victories were solid, year after year, each time rising in popularity as more and more Venezuelans became motivated to participate in their governance and the construction of a new, inclusive, nation with social justice as its banner. Chavez’s election was a huge blow to Washington and the powerful interests in the United States that wanted control over Venezuela’s oil reserves – the largest on the planet. In April 2002, the Bush administration backed a coup d’etat to overthrow Chavez, led by the very same elite that had been in power before. The coup involved mass marches in the streets of Caracas, composed of the wealthy and middle classes, calling for Chavez’s ouster. Snipers were used to shoot on those in the marches, creating violence and chaos that was immediately blamed on Chavez. Television, radio and newspapers in Venezuela all joined in the coup efforts, manipulating images and distorting facts to justify Chavez’s overthrow. He became the villian, the evil dictator, the brutal murderer in the eyes of international media, though in reality those overthrowing him and their backers in Washington were responsible for the death and destruction caused. After Chavez was kidnapped on April 11, 2002 and set to be assassinated, the wealthy businessmen behind the coup took power and imposed a dictatorship. All democratic institutions were dissolved, including the legistature and the supreme court.
The majority who had voted for Chavez and had finally become protagonists in their own governance were determined to defend their democracy and took to the streets demanding return of their president. Forty-eight hours later, Chavez was rescued by millions of supporters and loyal armed forces. The coup was defeated and the revolution survived, but the threats continued....
MORE OF OUR FUTURE HISTORY AT LINK....IF WE ARE LUCKY, THAT IS. WE ARE ALMOST TOTALLY INTO THE "4TH REPUBLIC" SCENARIO IN THE US...
The Revolution is Here to Stay By Eva Golinger
http://zcomm.org/znetarticle/the-revolution-is-here-to-stay/For those of you unfamiliar with Venezuelan issues, don’t let the title of this article fool you. The revolution referred to is not what most media outlets are showing taking place today in Caracas, with protestors calling for the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The revolution that is here to stay is the Bolivarian Revolution, which began in 1998 when Hugo Chavez was first elected president and has subsequently transformed the mega oil producing nation into a socially-focused, progressive country with a grassroots government. Demonstrations taking place over the past few days in Venezuela are attempts to undermine and destroy that transformation in order to return power to the hands of the elite who ruled the nation previously for over 40 years.
Those protesting do not represent Venezuela’s vast working class majority that struggled to overcome the oppressive exclusion they were subjected to during administrations before Chavez. The youth taking to the streets today in Caracas and other cities throughout the country, hiding their faces behind masks and balaclavas, destroying public buildings, vehicles, burning garbage, violently blocking transit and throwing rocks and molotov cocktails at security forces are being driven by extremist right-wing interests from Venezuela’s wealthiest sector. Led by hardline neoconservatives, Leopoldo Lopez, Henrique Capriles and Maria Corina Machado – who come from three of the wealthiest families in Venezuela, the 1% of the 1% – the protesters seek not to revindicate their basic fundamental rights, or gain access to free healthcare or education, all of which are guaranteed by the state, thanks to Chavez, but rather are attempting to spiral the country into a state of ungovernability that would justify an international intervention leading to regime change.
Before Chavez was elected in 1998, Venezuela was in a very dark, difficult period with a dangerously eroded democracy. During the early 1990s, poverty swelled at around 80%, the economy was in a sinkhole, the nation’s vast middle class was disappearing with millions falling into economic dispair, constitutional rights were suspended, a national curfew was imposed and corruption was rampant. Those who protested the actions of the government were brutally repressed and often killed. In fact, during the period of so-called “representative democracy” in Venezuela from 1958-1998, before the nation’s transformation into a participatory democracy under Chavez, thousands of Venezuelans were disappeared, tortured, persecuted and assassinated by state security forces. None of their rights were guaranteed and no one, except the majority excluded poor, seemed to care. International Human Rights organizations showed little interest in Venezuela during that time, despite clear and systematic violations taking place against the people....Those in power during that period, also referred to in Venezuela as the “Fourth Republic”, represented an elite minority – families that held the nation’s wealth and profited heavily from the lucrative oil reserves. Millions of dollars from oil profits belonging to the state (oil was nationalized in Venezuela in 1976) were embezzled out of the country into the bloated bank accounts of wealthy Venezuelans and corrupt public officials who had homes in Miami, New York and the Dominican Republic and lived the high life off the backs of an impoverished majority.
Hugo Chavez’s electoral victory in 1998 shattered the opulent banquet the Venezuelan elite had enjoyed for decades, while they ran the country into the ground. He was elected precisely to break the hold on power those groups had harnessed for so many years, and Chavez’s promise was revolution – complete transformation of the economic, social and political system in the country. His electoral victories were solid, year after year, each time rising in popularity as more and more Venezuelans became motivated to participate in their governance and the construction of a new, inclusive, nation with social justice as its banner. Chavez’s election was a huge blow to Washington and the powerful interests in the United States that wanted control over Venezuela’s oil reserves – the largest on the planet. In April 2002, the Bush administration backed a coup d’etat to overthrow Chavez, led by the very same elite that had been in power before. The coup involved mass marches in the streets of Caracas, composed of the wealthy and middle classes, calling for Chavez’s ouster. Snipers were used to shoot on those in the marches, creating violence and chaos that was immediately blamed on Chavez. Television, radio and newspapers in Venezuela all joined in the coup efforts, manipulating images and distorting facts to justify Chavez’s overthrow. He became the villian, the evil dictator, the brutal murderer in the eyes of international media, though in reality those overthrowing him and their backers in Washington were responsible for the death and destruction caused. After Chavez was kidnapped on April 11, 2002 and set to be assassinated, the wealthy businessmen behind the coup took power and imposed a dictatorship. All democratic institutions were dissolved, including the legistature and the supreme court.
The majority who had voted for Chavez and had finally become protagonists in their own governance were determined to defend their democracy and took to the streets demanding return of their president. Forty-eight hours later, Chavez was rescued by millions of supporters and loyal armed forces. The coup was defeated and the revolution survived, but the threats continued....
MORE OF OUR FUTURE HISTORY AT LINK....IF WE ARE LUCKY, THAT IS. WE ARE ALMOST TOTALLY INTO THE "4TH REPUBLIC" SCENARIO IN THE US...
February 22, 2014
The 4th Estate by definition is a product of technology. Outside of the town crier, the Sunday sermon and the gossip, how could news be broadcast without a printing press?
For the longest time, news was the proprietary interest of the 1st Estate: the Church in the form of clerics writing the official history and biography and science, or what passed for science on parchment, as directed by the power structure. Controlling the skill of reading and writing controlled the news; "news" was the way to control the people and their behaviors, and Mother Church was very much into control....until Martin Luther, the printing press, the Gutenberg bible and use of the vernacular blew that business model to smithereens. Literacy spread, and people grew up in a wider, undetermined world of varied opinions. It was the Age of Enlightenment...the greatest flowering of all the arts and sciences known to humanity in the Western Hemisphere. Earlier flowerings were resurrected from long-hoarded texts that the Church "protected", and geniuses like Newton, Bacon, Franklin built upon these.
The 4th Estate grew exceedingly more powerful for centuries, making or unmaking leaders in politics, art, and other fields, and as technology developed, the 4th Estate branched out into radio, television, film, magazines, newsletters by subscription, etc.
The 2nd Estate, the Obscenely Wealthy, as I like to call them, would try to subvert journalism with propaganda, stuff that looked like news but was either a complete lie or merely advertising. They would produce their own form of journalism, to compete with less-biased presses. It took the end of the Laws against Monopoly (thank you, Ronald Reagan, for all the poison you force-fed the political process) for the Obscenely Wealthy to simply buy up and subvert the 4th Estate. Which brings us to today.
If not for the Internet, we would be in the feudal state of "news", but Technology, somehow, beat the Obscenely Wealthy just as the prize was within their gasp.
The story continues, AT POST 28....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=s8Wp_KLrLgo
Weekend Economists (Heart) the 4th Estate February 22-24, 2014
For lack of a better idea, and to commemorate the new venture that pulls Greenwald, Poitras, and Taibbi together, we salute and explore the wide world of Journalism.
The Fourth Estate (or fourth estate) is a societal or political force or institution whose influence is not consistently or officially recognized. "Fourth Estate" most commonly refers to the news media; especially print journalism or "the press". Thomas Carlyle attributed the origin of the term to Edmund Burke, who used it in a parliamentary debate in 1787 on the opening up of press reporting of the House of Commons of Great Britain. Earlier writers have applied the term to lawyers, to the British queens consort (acting as a free agent, independent of the king), and to the proletariat. The term makes implicit reference to the earlier division of the three Estates of the Realm....widipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Estate
The 4th Estate by definition is a product of technology. Outside of the town crier, the Sunday sermon and the gossip, how could news be broadcast without a printing press?
Dr. Debora B. Schwartz
English Department, California Polytechnic State University
The Three Estates
... The idea of the "estates" is important to the social structure of the Middle Ages. Feudal society was traditionally divided into three "estates" (roughly equivalent to social classes). The "First Estate" was the Church (clergy = those who prayed). The "Second Estate" was the Nobility (those who fought = knights). It was common for aristocrats to enter the Church and thus shift from the second to the first estate. The "Third Estate" was the Peasantry (everyone else, at least under feudalism: those who produced the food which supported those who prayed and those who fought, the members of the First and Second Estates). Note that the categories defined by these traditional "estates" are gender specific: they are defined by what a man does for a living as much as by the social class into which he was born.
Women were classified differently. Like men, medieval women were born into the second or third estate, and might eventually become members of the first (by entering the Church, willingly or not). But women were also categorized according to three specifically "feminine estates": virgin, wife and widow. It is interesting to note that a woman's estate was determined not by her profession but by her sexual activity: she is defined in relationship to the men with whom she sleeps, used to sleep, or never has slept.
The rigid division of society into the three traditional "estates" begins to break down in the later Middle Ages. By the time of Chaucer (mid-fourteenth century), we see the rise of a mercantile class (mercantile = merchants) in the cities, i.e. an urban middle-class, as well as a new subdivision of the clergy: intellectuals trained in literature and writing (and thus "clerics" like Chaucer's Clerk), but who were not destined to a professional career within the Church. Chaucer arguably belonged to both of these new categories...
http://cla.calpoly.edu/~dschwart/engl430/estates.html
English Department, California Polytechnic State University
The Three Estates
... The idea of the "estates" is important to the social structure of the Middle Ages. Feudal society was traditionally divided into three "estates" (roughly equivalent to social classes). The "First Estate" was the Church (clergy = those who prayed). The "Second Estate" was the Nobility (those who fought = knights). It was common for aristocrats to enter the Church and thus shift from the second to the first estate. The "Third Estate" was the Peasantry (everyone else, at least under feudalism: those who produced the food which supported those who prayed and those who fought, the members of the First and Second Estates). Note that the categories defined by these traditional "estates" are gender specific: they are defined by what a man does for a living as much as by the social class into which he was born.
Women were classified differently. Like men, medieval women were born into the second or third estate, and might eventually become members of the first (by entering the Church, willingly or not). But women were also categorized according to three specifically "feminine estates": virgin, wife and widow. It is interesting to note that a woman's estate was determined not by her profession but by her sexual activity: she is defined in relationship to the men with whom she sleeps, used to sleep, or never has slept.
The rigid division of society into the three traditional "estates" begins to break down in the later Middle Ages. By the time of Chaucer (mid-fourteenth century), we see the rise of a mercantile class (mercantile = merchants) in the cities, i.e. an urban middle-class, as well as a new subdivision of the clergy: intellectuals trained in literature and writing (and thus "clerics" like Chaucer's Clerk), but who were not destined to a professional career within the Church. Chaucer arguably belonged to both of these new categories...
http://cla.calpoly.edu/~dschwart/engl430/estates.html
For the longest time, news was the proprietary interest of the 1st Estate: the Church in the form of clerics writing the official history and biography and science, or what passed for science on parchment, as directed by the power structure. Controlling the skill of reading and writing controlled the news; "news" was the way to control the people and their behaviors, and Mother Church was very much into control....until Martin Luther, the printing press, the Gutenberg bible and use of the vernacular blew that business model to smithereens. Literacy spread, and people grew up in a wider, undetermined world of varied opinions. It was the Age of Enlightenment...the greatest flowering of all the arts and sciences known to humanity in the Western Hemisphere. Earlier flowerings were resurrected from long-hoarded texts that the Church "protected", and geniuses like Newton, Bacon, Franklin built upon these.
The 4th Estate grew exceedingly more powerful for centuries, making or unmaking leaders in politics, art, and other fields, and as technology developed, the 4th Estate branched out into radio, television, film, magazines, newsletters by subscription, etc.
The 2nd Estate, the Obscenely Wealthy, as I like to call them, would try to subvert journalism with propaganda, stuff that looked like news but was either a complete lie or merely advertising. They would produce their own form of journalism, to compete with less-biased presses. It took the end of the Laws against Monopoly (thank you, Ronald Reagan, for all the poison you force-fed the political process) for the Obscenely Wealthy to simply buy up and subvert the 4th Estate. Which brings us to today.
If not for the Internet, we would be in the feudal state of "news", but Technology, somehow, beat the Obscenely Wealthy just as the prize was within their gasp.
The story continues, AT POST 28....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=s8Wp_KLrLgo
February 18, 2014
http://www.thenation.com/article/178366/why-federal-reserve-needs-overhaul?page=full
This 100-year-old antique is undemocratic, too close to elite banking interests and often blind to the economic conditions that affect most Americans.
DETAILS AT LINK--MUST READ
Why the Federal Reserve Needs an Overhaul by William Greider
http://www.thenation.com/article/178366/why-federal-reserve-needs-overhaul?page=full
This 100-year-old antique is undemocratic, too close to elite banking interests and often blind to the economic conditions that affect most Americans.
DETAILS AT LINK--MUST READ
February 17, 2014
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: If the Currency Collapses & You Try to Flee Into Gold,There Won't Be Any
February 15, 2014
Okay, let's think about this
WHY IN GOD'S NAME WOULD ANY COUNTRY HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE USA, KNOWING THAT THIS GOVERNMENT HAS NO SCRUPLES AND LESS MONEY?
And furthermore, why would any foreign national have anything to do with any American-origin bank, knowing that they are responsible for the economic whirlwind that threatens all people of all nations?
The ONLY SENSIBLE THING to do is to cut off the USA and its Banksters and Corporations...boycott, deface, steal and extort legally or not. Any other course of action is enabling one's own rape and pillage.
I expect all treaties to be broken, all deals called off, open economic warfare, and open arms for ALL political refugees, not just Edward Snowden and Glen Greenwald. And there will be a lot of them.
If we are lucky, it won't get to a shooting war. If it does, expect to be droned.
The Golden Sacks Alumnae can expect to be hanging from the lampposts in whichever European nation they are sacking. And then, maybe we can have some hope of real change in the favor of people, not legal fictions like Corporations.
February 14, 2014
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-25719377
Shirley Temple, who has died aged 85, was that rare example of a Hollywood child star who, when the cameras stopped rolling, carved out a new career.
With her ringlets, dimples and precocious talent, America's "Little Princess", charmed audiences during the 1930s Depression. For four years, she was Hollywood's biggest box-office star, representing the kind of sweet, innocent girl everyone wanted as their daughter. And, after a period of domesticity, she re-emerged as a successful businesswoman and politician.
Shirley Temple was born in Santa Monica, California on 23 April 1928. Encouraged by her mother Gertrude, she learned to dance while she was still a toddler and was enrolled in a Los Angeles dance school at the age of three. This led to her being signed up by a talent spotter for Educational Pictures, which promptly featured her in a series of one-reelers entitled Baby Burlesques. Temple later described them as "a cynical exploitation of our childish innocence that occasionally were racist or sexist".
When Educational went bust in 1933, she signed up with Fox Film Corporation, appearing in a number of bit parts. In 1934, Stand Up and Cheer became her first feature film and she stole the show with her rendition of "Baby Take a Bow".
Her box-office potential was obvious and by the age of six she was earning $1,250 (£760) a week; more than $21,000 (£12,750) at today's values. The income from her films was doubled by sales of merchandise, including Shirley Temple dolls and a host of girls' clothes and accessories.
Temple's mother always accompanied her during filming. Years later, Temple recalled how her mother had been furious when a director sent her on an errand and then made Temple cry by frightening her.
"She never again left me alone on a set," Temple said.
Her mother was also said to have done her hair for each movie, with every hairstyle having exactly 56 curls.
Across the world, audiences flocked to see her in films such as Little Miss Marker and The Little Colonel and The The Littlest Rebel. The success of her films, such as Curly Top, was credited with helping save 20th Century Fox from bankruptcy. Everyone sang along to her songs, especially On the Good Ship Lollipop, which appeared in the film Bright Eyes. In 1935 she was awarded a special juvenile Oscar and her foot and handprints were added to those of stars such as Jean Harlow and Mary Pickford outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. On her ninth birthday, Temple received more than 135,000 presents from around the world, according to The Films of Shirley Temple, a 1978 book by Robert Windeler. The gifts included a baby kangaroo from Australia and a prize Jersey calf from schoolchildren in Oregon.
The late Roddy McDowall, a fellow child star and friend of Temple, once said: "She's indelible in the history of America because she appeared at a time of great social need, and people took her to their hearts."
By the age of 10, Temple was the country's top box-office draw. President Roosevelt even credited her with helping to raise American morale during the trials of the Great Depression. Her own assessment of this period is somewhat different. "I class myself with Rin Tin Tin," she once said, referring to the canine star. "They fell in love with a dog and a little girl." Goodness always triumphed over evil in her plots, which were often based on traditional fairy stories. As she got older her character was altered slightly as the fresh-faced little six-year-old turned into a pre-adolescent.
Shirley Temple and Sybil Jason in The Little Princess The Little Princess marked the peak of her career
The studio, aware that time was not on their side, began to invest more money in her films which, certainly in the early days, had been made on a tight budget. Directors of the stature of John Ford were hired and his collaboration with her, Wee Willie Winkie, remained Temple's favourite. The peak of her film career came in 1939 when The Little Princess, her first outing in Technicolor, became a critical and box-office success. It was loosely based on the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, about a girl who is left in a boarding school while her father goes off to fight in the Boer War.
The obit goes on for several more decades...I also heard snippets of a BBC radio interview in which Shirley talked about potting Eleanor Roosevelt with a slingshot at a White House barbecue...
Shine on, Bright Eyes!
Weekend Economists Watch the Stars Fall February 14-16, 2014
There have been so many deaths in the Entertainment world lately, but the one I felt the most was America's Sweetheart, Shirley Temple. Shirley was the best friend for little girls for the past 80 years...4 generations and counting. She never grew old, and never will.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-25719377
Shirley Temple, who has died aged 85, was that rare example of a Hollywood child star who, when the cameras stopped rolling, carved out a new career.
With her ringlets, dimples and precocious talent, America's "Little Princess", charmed audiences during the 1930s Depression. For four years, she was Hollywood's biggest box-office star, representing the kind of sweet, innocent girl everyone wanted as their daughter. And, after a period of domesticity, she re-emerged as a successful businesswoman and politician.
Shirley Temple was born in Santa Monica, California on 23 April 1928. Encouraged by her mother Gertrude, she learned to dance while she was still a toddler and was enrolled in a Los Angeles dance school at the age of three. This led to her being signed up by a talent spotter for Educational Pictures, which promptly featured her in a series of one-reelers entitled Baby Burlesques. Temple later described them as "a cynical exploitation of our childish innocence that occasionally were racist or sexist".
When Educational went bust in 1933, she signed up with Fox Film Corporation, appearing in a number of bit parts. In 1934, Stand Up and Cheer became her first feature film and she stole the show with her rendition of "Baby Take a Bow".
Her box-office potential was obvious and by the age of six she was earning $1,250 (£760) a week; more than $21,000 (£12,750) at today's values. The income from her films was doubled by sales of merchandise, including Shirley Temple dolls and a host of girls' clothes and accessories.
Temple's mother always accompanied her during filming. Years later, Temple recalled how her mother had been furious when a director sent her on an errand and then made Temple cry by frightening her.
"She never again left me alone on a set," Temple said.
Her mother was also said to have done her hair for each movie, with every hairstyle having exactly 56 curls.
Across the world, audiences flocked to see her in films such as Little Miss Marker and The Little Colonel and The The Littlest Rebel. The success of her films, such as Curly Top, was credited with helping save 20th Century Fox from bankruptcy. Everyone sang along to her songs, especially On the Good Ship Lollipop, which appeared in the film Bright Eyes. In 1935 she was awarded a special juvenile Oscar and her foot and handprints were added to those of stars such as Jean Harlow and Mary Pickford outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. On her ninth birthday, Temple received more than 135,000 presents from around the world, according to The Films of Shirley Temple, a 1978 book by Robert Windeler. The gifts included a baby kangaroo from Australia and a prize Jersey calf from schoolchildren in Oregon.
The late Roddy McDowall, a fellow child star and friend of Temple, once said: "She's indelible in the history of America because she appeared at a time of great social need, and people took her to their hearts."
By the age of 10, Temple was the country's top box-office draw. President Roosevelt even credited her with helping to raise American morale during the trials of the Great Depression. Her own assessment of this period is somewhat different. "I class myself with Rin Tin Tin," she once said, referring to the canine star. "They fell in love with a dog and a little girl." Goodness always triumphed over evil in her plots, which were often based on traditional fairy stories. As she got older her character was altered slightly as the fresh-faced little six-year-old turned into a pre-adolescent.
Shirley Temple and Sybil Jason in The Little Princess The Little Princess marked the peak of her career
The studio, aware that time was not on their side, began to invest more money in her films which, certainly in the early days, had been made on a tight budget. Directors of the stature of John Ford were hired and his collaboration with her, Wee Willie Winkie, remained Temple's favourite. The peak of her film career came in 1939 when The Little Princess, her first outing in Technicolor, became a critical and box-office success. It was loosely based on the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, about a girl who is left in a boarding school while her father goes off to fight in the Boer War.
The obit goes on for several more decades...I also heard snippets of a BBC radio interview in which Shirley talked about potting Eleanor Roosevelt with a slingshot at a White House barbecue...
Shine on, Bright Eyes!
February 14, 2014
So which countries ranked above the United States? Not surprisingly, Scandinavia (known for their kick-ass policies on promoting gender equality) scored extremely high yet again with the top 10 as follows:
1. Iceland
2. Finland
3. Norway
4. Sweden
5. Philippines
6. Ireland
7. New Zealand
8. Denmark
9. Switzerland
10. Nicaragua
Can You Guess the 10 Best Countries For Women? Hint: the U.S. Isn't One of Them
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36656.htmSo which countries ranked above the United States? Not surprisingly, Scandinavia (known for their kick-ass policies on promoting gender equality) scored extremely high yet again with the top 10 as follows:
1. Iceland
2. Finland
3. Norway
4. Sweden
5. Philippines
6. Ireland
7. New Zealand
8. Denmark
9. Switzerland
10. Nicaragua
February 14, 2014
I always felt that the Life Is Not Fair meme should ONLY refer to:
genetic or communicable diseases and other natural disasters.
The whole purpose of a social organism like humanity is to compensate for those things beyond our control.
February 9, 2014
I'm just a regular guy. I've been a special education teacher most of my life. I've had great moments and crummy ones, including a very low period after a divorce. But as I neared retirement, I looked at life and everyone around me differently. One night as my friend Craig and I were walking to the entrance of the Chicago Blackhawks game, I had a revelation. My friend and I have been going to the games for a decade, and the same homeless man was always stands at the same corner holding his cup asking for change and is polite as he can be. If he receives nothing he still says "God Bless You, have a good night." I know there are many homeless like this in many cities...My friend and I had been putting something into his cup when we left games for many years, but this particular night my friend and I decided that rather than selling our extra ticket we would put it into his cup and see what he does. We just left it for him. At the end of the game, as everyone knows, people rush to get to their cars to get out of the parking lots. The crowds are huge, but our new friend was looking for us and when he saw us his grin was ear to ear. As we walked by he said, "I got $50 for that ticket God Bless You and thank you for your kindness."
I've mentored and encouraged many students over the years, including many on the autism spectrum that society too often casts aside, but something about night that stirred me. About that time, I also heard of The Joy of Sox, a husband and wife team in Philadelphia that give socks to the homeless. It's something so basic, yet necessary. As my friend at the Hawks game always says: you can never have enough warm socks. This was the start of how I became known as "The Sockman". I bought some socks on my own, and I asked friends and relatives to forgo gifts for birthdays and Christmas and just give me socks. The response has been incredible, including former students and athletes I coached collecting for me.
My first trip was in my home state of Illinois. I went down to Decatur and stopped at two homeless shelters and other places around the city. I delivered close to 200 pair of socks that day alone. I began not just to hand out socks, but to try to stop and talk to people and hear their stories. One building looked as if it were a jail, it had barbed wire around it, one way in and one way out. Two gentlemen approached me, and I wasn't sure if I had done the right thing, but I was there so what could I do. They both politely asked if they could help me. I said I was the Sockman, and I was here to deliver socks to people who are struggling at this time in their life. They both smiled at each other and invited me into the building. It was the first time I had ever been inside what I thought a prison might be like. I asked how many residents they had at the facility: 60. I counted out 60 and presented them to what they called was the "main man". He explained that this was a halfway facility, and when they earned the right, they would move up the block to a different facility. I then went to the place up the block. A similar scenario played out, and I started riding around Decatur looking for homeless individuals in the cold. The reaction was always the same "Thank You and God Bless".
I talked with many of my friends and asked their ideas about not only being the Sockman, but what they thought about me selling my house, buying an RV and traveling around the United States to help the homeless. Needless to say, most of them thought I had lost my mind. My son felt I was having a midlife crisis but as I explained my idea, they all started getting excited for me. I wasn't sure how I was going to get my socks, so I challenged my friends to see if they could raise 5,000 pairs of socks. On my first challenge I ended up with even more than that.
MORE--BRING HANKY
You can never have enough warm socks –Tom McNamara The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/08/sockman-retired-teacher-gives-socks-to-homelessI'm just a regular guy. I've been a special education teacher most of my life. I've had great moments and crummy ones, including a very low period after a divorce. But as I neared retirement, I looked at life and everyone around me differently. One night as my friend Craig and I were walking to the entrance of the Chicago Blackhawks game, I had a revelation. My friend and I have been going to the games for a decade, and the same homeless man was always stands at the same corner holding his cup asking for change and is polite as he can be. If he receives nothing he still says "God Bless You, have a good night." I know there are many homeless like this in many cities...My friend and I had been putting something into his cup when we left games for many years, but this particular night my friend and I decided that rather than selling our extra ticket we would put it into his cup and see what he does. We just left it for him. At the end of the game, as everyone knows, people rush to get to their cars to get out of the parking lots. The crowds are huge, but our new friend was looking for us and when he saw us his grin was ear to ear. As we walked by he said, "I got $50 for that ticket God Bless You and thank you for your kindness."
I've mentored and encouraged many students over the years, including many on the autism spectrum that society too often casts aside, but something about night that stirred me. About that time, I also heard of The Joy of Sox, a husband and wife team in Philadelphia that give socks to the homeless. It's something so basic, yet necessary. As my friend at the Hawks game always says: you can never have enough warm socks. This was the start of how I became known as "The Sockman". I bought some socks on my own, and I asked friends and relatives to forgo gifts for birthdays and Christmas and just give me socks. The response has been incredible, including former students and athletes I coached collecting for me.
My first trip was in my home state of Illinois. I went down to Decatur and stopped at two homeless shelters and other places around the city. I delivered close to 200 pair of socks that day alone. I began not just to hand out socks, but to try to stop and talk to people and hear their stories. One building looked as if it were a jail, it had barbed wire around it, one way in and one way out. Two gentlemen approached me, and I wasn't sure if I had done the right thing, but I was there so what could I do. They both politely asked if they could help me. I said I was the Sockman, and I was here to deliver socks to people who are struggling at this time in their life. They both smiled at each other and invited me into the building. It was the first time I had ever been inside what I thought a prison might be like. I asked how many residents they had at the facility: 60. I counted out 60 and presented them to what they called was the "main man". He explained that this was a halfway facility, and when they earned the right, they would move up the block to a different facility. I then went to the place up the block. A similar scenario played out, and I started riding around Decatur looking for homeless individuals in the cold. The reaction was always the same "Thank You and God Bless".
I talked with many of my friends and asked their ideas about not only being the Sockman, but what they thought about me selling my house, buying an RV and traveling around the United States to help the homeless. Needless to say, most of them thought I had lost my mind. My son felt I was having a midlife crisis but as I explained my idea, they all started getting excited for me. I wasn't sure how I was going to get my socks, so I challenged my friends to see if they could raise 5,000 pairs of socks. On my first challenge I ended up with even more than that.
MORE--BRING HANKY
February 9, 2014
Intelligence officials investigating how Edward J. Snowden gained access to a huge trove of the country’s most highly classified documents say they have determined that he used inexpensive and widely available software to “scrape” the National Security Agency’s networks, and kept at it even after he was briefly challenged by agency officials.
Using “web crawler” software designed to search, index and back up a website, Mr. Snowden “scraped data out of our systems” while he went about his day job, according to a senior intelligence official. “We do not believe this was an individual sitting at a machine and downloading this much material in sequence,” the official said. The process, he added, was “quite automated.”
The findings are striking because the N.S.A.’s mission includes protecting the nation’s most sensitive military and intelligence computer systems from cyberattacks, especially the sophisticated attacks that emanate from Russia and China. Mr. Snowden’s “insider attack,” by contrast, was hardly sophisticated and should have been easily detected, investigators found.
Moreover, Mr. Snowden succeeded nearly three years after the WikiLeaks disclosures, in which military and State Department files, of far less sensitivity, were taken using similar techniques...
MORE...TALK ABOUT EGG ON ONES FACE!
Snowden Used Low-Cost Tool to Best N.S.A.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/us/snowden-used-low-cost-tool-to-best-nsa.htmlIntelligence officials investigating how Edward J. Snowden gained access to a huge trove of the country’s most highly classified documents say they have determined that he used inexpensive and widely available software to “scrape” the National Security Agency’s networks, and kept at it even after he was briefly challenged by agency officials.
Using “web crawler” software designed to search, index and back up a website, Mr. Snowden “scraped data out of our systems” while he went about his day job, according to a senior intelligence official. “We do not believe this was an individual sitting at a machine and downloading this much material in sequence,” the official said. The process, he added, was “quite automated.”
The findings are striking because the N.S.A.’s mission includes protecting the nation’s most sensitive military and intelligence computer systems from cyberattacks, especially the sophisticated attacks that emanate from Russia and China. Mr. Snowden’s “insider attack,” by contrast, was hardly sophisticated and should have been easily detected, investigators found.
Moreover, Mr. Snowden succeeded nearly three years after the WikiLeaks disclosures, in which military and State Department files, of far less sensitivity, were taken using similar techniques...
MORE...TALK ABOUT EGG ON ONES FACE!
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Gender: FemaleHometown: Ann Arbor, Michigan
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