(2) Anand,Vishwanathan - Kramnik,Vladimir (FIDE World Chess Championship Bonn, Germany (2), 15.10.2008)
My Friend Bill Ayers: Once wanted by the FBI, he's since become a model citizen. (THOMAS FRANK, 10/15/08, Wall Street Journal)
[I] am a friend of Mr. Ayers. In fact, I met him in the same way Mr. Obama says he did: 10 years ago, Mr. Ayers was a guy in my neighborhood in Chicago who knew something about fundraising. I knew nothing about it, I needed to learn, and a friend referred me to Bill.Bill's got lots of friends, and that's because he is today a dedicated servant of those less fortunate than himself; because he is unfailingly generous to people who ask for his help; and because he is kind and affable and even humble. Moral qualities which, by the way, were celebrated boisterously on day one of the GOP convention in September.
Mr. Ayers is a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), where his work is esteemed by colleagues of different political viewpoints. Herbert Walberg, an advocate of school vouchers who is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, told me he remembers Mr. Ayers as "a responsible colleague, in the professional sense of the word." Bill Schubert, who served as the chairman of UIC's Department of Curriculum and Instruction for many years, thinks so highly of Mr. Ayers that, in response to the current allegations, he compiled a lengthy résumé of the man's books, journal articles, guest lectures and keynote speeches. Mr. Ayers has been involved with countless foundation efforts and has received various awards. He volunteers for everything. He may once have been wanted by the FBI, but in the intervening years the man has become such a good citizen he ought to be an honorary Eagle Scout.
I do not defend the things Mr. Ayers did in his Weatherman days.
An Obama Vote Is No Sin for Catholics, Even With His Abortion Views (John Aloysius Farrell, 10/15/08, US News)
[Four years ago] I wrote a column comparing my church's leadership with the Taliban. [...]Ultimately, the absolutist position taken by antiabortion forces has been counterproductive. By focusing so much on overturning Roe v. Wade and refusing to work with pro-choice politicians on pragmatic steps that would actually reduce the number of abortions, they've let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Truth be told, there is nothing that Democratic Party leaders would like more than to make abortion safe, legal, and rare.
If they really believe that abortion is an abominable sin, Catholic conservatives should seize the opportunity to work with pro-choice Democrats on the "rare" part of that equation and save tens of thousands of potential lives each year.
Barack Obama is the most extreme pro-abortion candidate ever to seek the office of President of the United States. He is the most extreme pro-abortion member of the United States Senate. Indeed, he is the most extreme pro-abortion legislator ever to serve in either house of the United States Congress. Yet there are Catholics and Evangelicals-even self-identified pro-life Catholics and Evangelicals - who aggressively promote Obama's candidacy and even declare him the preferred candidate from the pro-life point of view.What is going on here? [...]
For starters, he supports legislation that would repeal the Hyde Amendment, which protects pro-life citizens from having to pay for abortions that are not necessary to save the life of the mother and are not the result of rape or incest. The abortion industry laments that this longstanding federal law, according to the pro-abortion group NARAL, ''forces about half the women who would otherwise have abortions to carry unintended pregnancies to term and bear children against their wishes instead.'' In other words, a whole lot of people who are alive today would have been exterminated in utero were it not for the Hyde Amendment. Obama has promised to reverse the situation so that abortions that the industry complains are not happening (because the federal government is not subsidizing them) would happen. That is why people who profit from abortion love Obama even more than they do his running mate.
But this barely scratches the surface of Obama's extremism. He has promised that ''the first thing I'd do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act'' (known as FOCA). This proposed legislation would create a federally guaranteed ''fundamental right'' to abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, including, as Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia has noted in a statement condemning the proposed Act, ''a right to abort a fully developed child in the final weeks for undefined 'health' reasons.'' In essence, FOCA would abolish virtually every existing state and federal limitation on abortion, including parental consent and notification laws for minors, state and federal funding restrictions on abortion, and conscience protections for pro-life citizens working in the health-care industry-protections against being forced to participate in the practice of abortion or else lose their jobs. The pro-abortion National Organization for Women has proclaimed with approval that FOCA would ''sweep away hundreds of anti-abortion laws [and] policies.''
It gets worse. Obama, unlike even many ''pro-choice'' legislators, opposed the ban on partial-birth abortions when he served in the Illinois legislature and condemned the Supreme Court decision that upheld legislation banning this heinous practice. He has referred to a baby conceived inadvertently by a young woman as a ''punishment'' that she should not endure. He has stated that women's equality requires access to abortion on demand. Appallingly, he wishes to strip federal funding from pro-life crisis pregnancy centers that provide alternatives to abortion for pregnant women in need. There is certainly nothing ''pro-choice'' about that.
But it gets even worse. Senator Obama, despite the urging of pro-life members of his own party, has not endorsed or offered support for the Pregnant Women Support Act, the signature bill of Democrats for Life, meant to reduce abortions by providing assistance for women facing crisis pregnancies. In fact, Obama has opposed key provisions of the Act, including providing coverage of unborn children in the State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP), and informed consent for women about the effects of abortion and the gestational age of their child. This legislation would not make a single abortion illegal. It simply seeks to make it easier for pregnant women to make the choice not to abort their babies. Here is a concrete test of whether Obama is ''pro-choice'' rather than pro-abortion. He flunked. Even Senator Edward Kennedy voted to include coverage of unborn children in S-CHIP. But Barack Obama stood resolutely with the most stalwart abortion advocates in opposing it.
It gets worse yet. In an act of breathtaking injustice which the Obama campaign lied about until critics produced documentary proof of what he had done, as an Illinois state senator Obama opposed legislation to protect children who are born alive, either as a result of an abortionist's unsuccessful effort to kill them in the womb, or by the deliberate delivery of the baby prior to viability. This legislation would not have banned any abortions. Indeed, it included a specific provision ensuring that it did not affect abortion laws. (This is one of the points Obama and his campaign lied about until they were caught.) The federal version of the bill passed unanimously in the United States Senate, winning the support of such ardent advocates of legal abortion as John Kerry and Barbara Boxer. But Barack Obama opposed it and worked to defeat it. For him, a child marked for abortion gets no protection-even ordinary medical or comfort care-even if she is born alive and entirely separated from her mother. So Obama has favored protecting what is literally a form of infanticide.
You may be thinking, it can't get worse than that. But it does.
For several years, Americans have been debating the use for biomedical research of embryos produced by in vitro fertilization (originally for reproductive purposes) but now left in a frozen condition in cryopreservation units. President Bush has restricted the use of federal funds for stem-cell research of the type that makes use of these embryos and destroys them in the process. I support the President's restriction, but some legislators with excellent pro-life records, including John McCain, argue that the use of federal money should be permitted where the embryos are going to be discarded or die anyway as the result of the parents' decision. Senator Obama, too, wants to lift the restriction.
But Obama would not stop there. He has co-sponsored a bill-strongly opposed by McCain-that would authorize the large-scale industrial production of human embryos for use in biomedical research in which they would be killed. In fact, the bill Obama co-sponsored would effectively require the killing of human beings in the embryonic stage that were produced by cloning. It would make it a federal crime for a woman to save an embryo by agreeing to have the tiny developing human being implanted in her womb so that he or she could be brought to term. This ''clone and kill'' bill would, if enacted, bring something to America that has heretofore existed only in China-the equivalent of legally mandated abortion. In an audacious act of deceit, Obama and his co-sponsors misleadingly call this an anti-cloning bill. But it is nothing of the kind. What it bans is not cloning, but allowing the embryonic children produced by cloning to survive.
Can it get still worse? Yes.
Decent people of every persuasion hold out the increasingly realistic hope of resolving the moral issue surrounding embryonic stem-cell research by developing methods to produce the exact equivalent of embryonic stem cells without using (or producing) embryos. But when a bill was introduced in the United States Senate to put a modest amount of federal money into research to develop these methods, Barack Obama was one of the few senators who opposed it. From any rational vantage point, this is unconscionable. Why would someone not wish to find a method of producing the pluripotent cells scientists want that all Americans could enthusiastically endorse? Why create and kill human embryos when there are alternatives that do not require the taking of nascent human lives? It is as if Obama is opposed to stem-cell research unless it involves killing human embryos.
This ultimate manifestation of Obama's extremism brings us back to the puzzle of his pro-life Catholic and Evangelical apologists.
They typically do not deny the facts I have reported. They could not; each one is a matter of public record. But despite Obama's injustices against the most vulnerable human beings, and despite the extraordinary support he receives from the industry that profits from killing the unborn (which should be a good indicator of where he stands), some Obama supporters insist that he is the better candidate from the pro-life point of view.
They say that his economic and social policies would so diminish the demand for abortion that the overall number would actually go down-despite the federal subsidizing of abortion and the elimination of hundreds of pro-life laws. The way to save lots of unborn babies, they say, is to vote for the pro-abortion-oops! ''pro-choice''-candidate. They tell us not to worry that Obama opposes the Hyde Amendment, the Mexico City Policy (against funding abortion abroad), parental consent and notification laws, conscience protections, and the funding of alternatives to embryo-destructive research. They ask us to look past his support for Roe v. Wade, the Freedom of Choice Act, partial-birth abortion, and human cloning and embryo-killing. An Obama presidency, they insist, means less killing of the unborn.
This is delusional.
We know that the federal and state pro-life laws and policies that Obama has promised to sweep away (and that John McCain would protect) save thousands of lives every year. Studies conducted by Professor Michael New and other social scientists have removed any doubt.
N.B.: As regards Mr. Farrell in particular, it should just be noted that abortions under the absolutist regime of the GOP are at a 30 year low.
Mantyhose: A must-have for men (Times of India, 16 Oct 2008)
Men have invaded ladies' fashion domain a little further, for after 'man-bras' and 'manscara' the latest must have for men is "mantyhose.""Mantyhose"or pantyhose for men have become a popular sheer garment from truck drivers to cowboys.
A self confessed male hosiery-wearer, Harisnya is so passionate about the issue he set up e-MANcipate, a website which he says aims to "accelerate the acceptance of male pantyhose as a regular clothing item".
The giant pink rabbit that can be seen from space (Daily Mail, 15th October 2008)
He has to be giant to bring us all that peace and love and the satchels full of free money....
Check out the ABC News Match-o-Matic if you want evidence that the partisan bitterness of today's politics is a function of the sameness of the parties.
Obama has 4-point lead on McCain in U.S. race (John Whitesides, 10/15/08, Reuters)
Democrat Barack Obama has a 4-point national lead over Republican John McCain as the White House rivals head into their final debate, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Wednesday.Obama leads McCain 48 percent to 44 percent among likely U.S. voters in the latest four-day tracking poll, down slightly from Obama's 6-point advantage on Tuesday. The poll has a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.
Cheney to get heart procedure (Politico, 10/15/08)
Doctors discovered this morning that Vice President Cheney has had a recurrence of an abnormal heart rhythm, his office announced.
Harvey Keitel Sustains Life on Mars: Busting thugs like it's 1973 (Robert Abele, October 16, 2008, LA Weekly)
Well, of course you’re going to feel like it’s 1973 again when you watch ABC’s Life on Mars. Harvey Keitel is in it. He hasn’t stopped oozing 1973 since he was a mean-streets member of the original Scorsese mob, and as Detective Gene Hunt, a barrel-chested bruiser who likes to use his fists as exclamation points when talking, his casting practically forgoes the design team’s need for rotary phones, wide lapels and sedans with doors the size of refrigerators. It’s shrewd casting, because although the show is told from the vantage of modern-day New York cop Sam Tyler (Jason O’Mara) — who suddenly finds himself in an eight-track time warp where dirtier, un-PC investigation techniques are the norm — it doesn’t work if the past in which Sam finds himself isn’t, well, present.Nothing against Philip Glenister, who originated the role of Hunt on the British series of the same name and was fun to watch [see “That Seventies Cop,” Abele’s review of the original series, at laweekly.com], but what he did was acting. Keitel just is...
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_b.png?x-id=ec952786-0171-411e-9feb-0d399de3e634)
Men are at their most romantic at age 53 (Chris Irvine, 14 Oct 2008, Daily Telegraph)
More than three quarters of those aged 51 to 55 believe saying "I love you" every day is the most romantic gesture of all, a poll of 2,000 men aged 18 to 65 found.The research showed the majority of men do not embrace romance until they are well into their fifties, despite dating from their early teens.
Men in their fifties are also more likely to appreciate a bit of romance in their lives and tend to surprise their wives or partners more often than their younger counterparts.
Cuban soccer defector: Freedom worth the risk (MICHELLE KAUFMAN, 10/14/08, MiamiHerald.com)
He ran, and ran, and ran. Six to eight blocks. At full speed, looking over his shoulder the whole way, worried that someone would snag him and deliver him back to the Cuban delegation. Finally, when he realized nobody was chasing him, Alcantara stopped at a corner, caught his breath, and flagged down a taxi.He speaks very little English, but he used what he knew when he got into the taxi cab. ''Drive me far,'' he told the driver, motioning with his hand. ``Go far, far, far.''
They drove for nearly half an hour and Alcantara, a 26-year-old forward, got off at a McDonald's. He asked the cabbie if he could borrow his cellphone to make a call. He called a friend in New Jersey, told him where he was, and the friend drove down to meet him.
On Friday morning, Alcantara met up with another friend, who took him shopping for food, clothing and toiletries, and drove home with him to Atlanta, where he will officially seek asylum and begin his new life. On Saturday night, he watched on television as Cuba lost 6-1 to the U.S. He felt bad for his teammates, but said he had no regrets. ''I love my team, but this is my life, and my future, and I had to do this,'' he said.
Alcantara had no idea that as he was getting over the most challenging day of his life, his teammate, Pedro Faife, was bolting from the team hotel back in D.C. with relatives, who drove him to their home in Orlando. The two hadn't spoken as of Monday morning, but Alcantara planned to get in touch later in the day.
''I feel so happy to finally be here, free to pursue my dreams,'' Alcantara said by cellphone Monday morning, on his way to Miami for a series of interviews with Spanish-language media. ``I've been dreaming of this for a long, long time, and I just had to wait for the right opportunity. It was a very scary decision, and I was nervous that first night, but thanks to the support of friends, and so many great people in this country, I am feeling much calmer.''
Alcantara comes from Pinar del Rio, and said his neighborhood was devastated by the recent hurricanes, making an already difficult life unbearable. He said his home suffered roof damage and other houses nearby were in ruins. The government made promises to help, but there didn't seem to be any help in sight. When he entered a grocery store Friday, his eyes welled with tears.
''It's beautiful to see the amount and quality of food here, the choices, the possibilities,'' he said. ``Meanwhile, people are hungry in Cuba, scraping to get by, obsessing about where they'll find dinner. I have to be careful with all this great food. If I keep eating, I won't be able to run anymore and I'll get out of shape.''
Alcantara stressed that he will always love Cuba, and has only warm feelings toward his teammates and coaches. But he felt ''trapped'' on the island, and had traveled enough through soccer to realize what life was like in other places. He was in East Rutherford, N.J., and Houston in 2007 for the Gold Cup, and the thought of defecting crossed his mind then, but he said family situations back home prevented him from doing so.
This time, nothing was holding him back. He is not married and has no children. His parents had no idea he planned to stay, and as of Monday he hadn't spoken to them yet. They don't have a telephone, so they're hard to reach, but also, Alcantara said he wanted to wait a few days to let the news sink in because he knows how hard it will hit them.
''I'm sure my parents are devastated with my decision, but in time, they'll realize this was the best thing,'' he said. ``There is no future for me in Cuba, no hope. You can dream there, but your dreams can't come true. It's a dead end for athletes, and for people of all professions. We hear promises, but they're never fulfilled. Here, you dream and if you work hard enough, and sacrifice, your dreams can be realized.''
Afghan Governor says Air Strike Kills 70 Taliban (Reuters, 10/15/08)
About 70 Taliban fighters were killed in an overnight air strike by foreign forces in the southern Afghan province of Helmand near the Pakistan border, the provincial governor said Wednesday.The attack took place late Tuesday in Helmand's Baram Cha district. [...]
Provincial authorities said earlier Wednesday that another 22 Taliban insurgents and six Afghan policemen were killed in overnight clashes in the south.
The Met Opera Will Offer Performances on the Web (DANIEL J. WAKIN, 10/15/08, NY Times)
Met Player, as the service is called, will be available through the Met’s Web site, metopera.org. At its inauguration, on the 125th anniversary of the Met’s first show, users will be able to choose from 13 high-definition video performances, 37 standard video recordings and 120 audio broadcasts dating to 1937. The company said it planned to add performances regularly, drawing on its vast historical archives and its continuing high-definition broadcasts.The catalog features classics like a “Lucia di Lammermoor” performance with Joan Sutherland and one with Maria Callas; a “Walküre” with Birgit Nilsson as Brünnhilde; a “Trovatore” with Leontyne Price and Franco Corelli; and a “Carmen” with Rosa Ponselle, in one of her rare full-length recorded performances. More recently, there are the “Tristan und Isolde” with Deborah Voigt and Robert Dean Smith, conducted by James Levine, and “I Puritani” with Anna Netrebko, each in high definition.
For $3.99 or $4.99 per streamed opera, users will have a six-hour window in which to listen to or watch a production, once it has started. A monthly subscription for $14.99 brings unlimited streaming, while a yearly subscription costs $149.99. [...]
[T]he Bayreuth Festival offered a live streaming of “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” last summer; the Royal Opera House in London has a free streamed “Don Giovanni” available; and the San Francisco Opera provides a few excerpts from its productions. But the Met’s on-demand streaming effort appears to be the most extensive of any house.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_b.png?x-id=9d3550e0-0dad-4c42-8544-aa074bf0fc08)
Oil falls below $78 on recession fears (Associated Press, October 15, 2008)
Light, sweet crude for November delivery was down 98 cents to $77.65 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midafternoon in Singapore. The contract fell overnight $2.56 to settle at $78.63. Oil prices have fallen by 47 percent since peaking near $150 a barrel in mid-July.
The price of oil slumped below 72 dollars on Wednesday, its lowest level for more than 13 months, as recession fears raised concerns about a prolonged drop in energy demand, analysts said.
Blu-ray DVD players drop below $300, even $200 (Tamara 'the Gadgetress' Chuang, 10/14/08, The Orange County Register)
Wow, I just noticed that Blu-ray DVD players have really been dropping in price. [...]Over at Amazon, there are quite a few Blu-ray players for under $300, including the Sony BDP-S350 for $278, the Samsung BD-P1500 for $225, Sony BDP-S300 for $249 and, well, pretty much every player is under $300.
The cheapest at Buy.com is $217, the Samsung BD-P1500, with free shipping.
But the best deal I could find on the Web was at a site I’ve never shopped at, the Consumer Depot, selling the Sony BDP-S300 for $169 (what, no remote?)
Of course, these players should get even cheaper because it’s technology and, well, you know, technology prices always fall. Plus, I’m sure there will be a ton of deals for the holidays.
Health Savings Accounts: More Time, Less Money: The effort involved in opting for HSAs over traditional insurance keeps most employees from choosing them, but those who do can really save (Lauren Young, 10/13/08, Business Week)
Although the deductible is high—averaging $1,500 for individuals and $3,000 for families—HSAs don't skimp on coverage. Plans pay 100% of all medical expenses once the deductible has been reached as well as preventive-care costs. There are no co-payments.HSAs can be a smart savings tool, particularly for small businesses and self-employed workers who need tax shelters and lower out-of-pocket expenses. That's why Vijay Goel, 31, of Los Angeles opened up an HSA to cut his health-care costs for his startup, HealthShoppr.com, which helps consumers shop for health-care services online.
Goel says his COBRA insurance, which would have extended coverage for 18 months after he left his job as a McKinsey consultant, cost $450 a month—and it covered only him, not his wife. Instead, he's spending $200 per month for a plan with a $3,000 deductible that insures both of them. "We've gotten our premium way down, which allows us to be protected without wasting tons of money that would go straight to the insurance company," he says. In addition, since HSA contributions can pay for dental and optometry services, the Goels have eliminated the need to pay for those two areas separately.
(The average premium costs for health coverage for a U.S. worker is $1,946. However, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the median per-person spending was just $776 in 2005, which is the most recent data available.)
Another perk: If you are generally healthy and don't rack up many bills, you can stash away a lot of money in an HSA. Mimi Grant, president of the Adaptive Business Leaders Organization in Orange, Calif., which offers executive leadership coaching, has more than $10,000 in her HSA, which she opened in June 2005. "Thank God I've been healthy, so the few charges I've had have been so relatively minor I've paid them out of pocket," says Grant, 60.
Most people don't have that much saved—the typical HSA account balance is just $1,348, according to the newsletter Inside Consumer-Directed Care. But savvy savers can build up substantial balances because participants may fund an account well beyond the deductible. Pretax contributions max out at $3,000 for individuals and $5,950 for families in 2009. There's also a $1,000 catch-up contribution if you are over age 55.
Another benefit HSAs offer is potential medical savings. When Fatima Mehdikarimi of Atlanta started thinking about having a second child, she and her husband switched into an HSA with a $7,000 deductible and no maternity coverage. It may sound counterintuitive, but their monthly premiums dropped from $900 per month to $360.
Then, after she found out she was pregnant, Mehdikarimi shopped around for a new hospital as well as a doctor to cut costs. Her bargaining chip? Cash. By offering to pay cash up front for all expenses, she first struck a deal with the hospital's finance manager to cover the delivery charges at a 40% discount. She also found an obstetrician willing to slash his fees by 40%. The lab cut its price, and so on.
In the end, Mehdikarimi figures she spent about $7,000 less on the second birth than the first one by driving a hard bargain with health-care providers.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_b.png?x-id=e6bb2e3e-4e07-423e-9e00-1ff070e3866e)
Arson ends Travolta's attempt to bring hope to ghettoes (John Lichfield, 14 October 2008, Independent)
Local officials said, however, that they believed that four days of filming with the Hollywood actor, due to start yesterday, had been "abandoned" for good.The movie’s producer, Luc Besson, had chosen to shoot a few sequences of a spy movie, "From Paris with Love" in Les Bosquets as a gesture of solidarity with local people. Nearly 100 people had been given jobs as extras and security guards.
Ten specially equipped cars, assembled for stunt sequences in the movie, were burned by persons unknown late on Sunday night. Local people insisted yesterday that the attack must be the work of "jealous" members of youth gangs from another district. Police said that they were investigating reports of an attempt to demand "protection money" from the production company.
Most people in the Les Bosquets estate at Montfermeil, 10 miles north east of Paris, had welcomed the filming. Moussba Harb, 43, hired as an extra, said that a "childhood dream, a gift from the heavens, has gone up in smoke."
However, tempers have been running high in recent days. M. Besson’s production company, Europacorps, had promised to pay 95 local people Euros 100 a day to work as extras, cooks or security guards.
Some local youths complained that, given the Euros 38m budget for the film, this was a paltry amount. The payments were increased to €200 a day.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_b.png?x-id=5d1ffed8-fdd3-412b-baae-5ac0a324bd7e)