Kate Middleton and Prince William: Marriage made in Heaven? (Part 53)

photo

Viewing the flypast

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, flanked by bridesmaids and a page boy, watch the Royal Air Force flypast over Buckingham Palace, following their marriage at Westminster Abbey, 29 April 2011.

The Royal Wedding Ceremony of William and Kate Live part 1/4
I really do wish Kate and William success in their marriage. I hope they truly are committed to each other, and if they are then the result will be a marriage that lasts their whole lifetime. Nevertheless, I do not think it is best to live together before marriage like they did, and I am writing this series to help couples see how best to prepare for marriage.
 
• Three quarters of all family breakdowns affecting young children now involve unmarried parents, new research suggests. The findings indicate that family breakdown is no longer driven by divorce, but by the collapse of unmarried partnerships. …The findings show that it is no longer plausible to argue that all relationship types were equal, researchers said. “The evidence is irrefutable. Unmarried parents are five times more likely to break up than married parents. Divorce is not the major problem any more.” Penny Mansfield, director of One Plus One, said that Britain appeared to have reached a watershed in the way families were forming. Whereas couples in previous generations did their courting, got married and had children in that order, nowadays growing numbers were having children first and only then deciding whether to remain in a couple relationship.
“The problem with this approach is that having children generally destabilizes a relationship. If you are trying to figure out whether to form a partnership in the early years after having a child, it’s a bit like pedaling uphill,” she said. “What we have lost is the idea that at the heart of marriage there is a link between parents which is of value of itself. That link would then cradle the upbringing of children. Maybe we need to rediscover this link in this new world of equality,” Ms Mansfield said. (From article: Unmarried Families are More Likely to Fall Apart, The London Times, as reviewed in Marriage for Life Newsletter, 10/10/2006.)
 
The Wild Cousins

Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice went out on a royal limb with the two most “interesting” looks of the day.
________________________________

Weekend To Remember Conference Testimony

Here’s a couple who went to a FamilyLife Conference and how it made a difference in their marriage.

 
 
June 14, 2011 – 3:16 am Categories: Current Events | Post a comment

Senator Pryor asks for Spending Cut Suggestions! Here are a few!(Part 61)

Senator Mark Pryor wants our ideas on how to cut federal spending. Take a look at this video clip below:

Senator Pryor has asked us to send our ideas to him at cutspending@pryor.senate.gov and I have done so in the past and will continue to do so in the future.

On May 11, 2011,  I emailed to this above address and I got this email back from Senator Pryor’s office:

Please note, this is not a monitored email account. Due to the sheer volume of correspondence I receive, I ask that constituents please contact me via my website with any responses or additional concerns. If you would like a specific reply to your message, please visit http://pryor.senate.gov/contact. This system ensures that I will continue to keep Arkansas First by allowing me to better organize the thousands of emails I get from Arkansans each week and ensuring that I have all the information I need to respond to your particular communication in timely manner.  I appreciate you writing. I always welcome your input and suggestions. Please do not hesitate to contact me on any issue of concern to you in the future.

Therefore, I went to the website and sent this email below:

Here are a few more I just emailed to him myself.

Senator Rand Paul on Feb 7, 2011 wrote the article “A Modest $500 Billion Proposal: My spending cuts would keep 85% of government funding and not touch Social Security,” Wall Street Journal and he observed:

Here are some of his specific suggestions:

Repeal Davis-Bacon: Saves $6 billion
The Davis-Bacon Act requires employers to pay workers at least the locally prevailing wage and fringe benefits on
federal construction projects of more than $2,000. The Department of Labor publishes Davis-Bacon prevailing wages
in four types of construction: residential, building, highway, and heavy construction. In 2008, for metropolitan areas,
Davis-Bacon prevailing wages rates for all projects were 62.4 percent higher than the average hourly wages reported
by the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES).
Davis-Bacon forces government contractors to pay wages that are higher than they normally would. These wages
increase the cost of the federal construction project, without increasing the labor productivity, quality, or timeliness in
completing the project.

June 14, 2011 – 12:01 am Categories: Uncategorized | Post a comment

Republican debate June 13, 2011

Obama front and center at GOP debate

Yahoo News reported today:

Republicans blast Obama, not each other

By John Whitesides28 mins ago

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (Reuters) – Republican White House contenders focused their attacks on President Barack Obama and refrained from attacking each other on Monday in their first major debate of the 2012 nominating race.

The seven Republican hopefuls criticized Obama as a failure on the economy and knocked his healthcare reform as a gross government intrusion, but sidestepped numerous chances to hit their party rivals in the face-to-face encounter.

“This president has failed, and he’s failed at a time when the American people counted on him to create jobs and get the economy growing,” said former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who leads the Republican pack in opinion polls.

Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, who on Sunday took a swipe at Romney’s Massachusetts healthcare plan and called it “Obamneycare,” carefully avoided a direct challenge to Romney as the contenders played nice with each other.

Romney defended the plan, a precursor to Obama’s 2010 healthcare overhaul law that has become a lightning rod for conservative critics, and said it was different in part because it did not raise taxes and was state-based.

“If people don’t like it in our state, they can change it. That’s the nature of why states are the right place for this type of responsibility,” Romney said.

Obama leads most opinion polls against potential Republican challengers in 2012, but his position has begun to slip in recent weeks as the economy struggles to recover.

The nationally televised forum in New Hampshire included most of the top-tier contenders for the Republican presidential nomination — a battle for the right to challenge Obama, a Democrat. New Hampshire holds an important early contest on the road to the Republican nomination.

“Any one of the people on this stage would be a better president than President Obama,” Romney said.

‘A DEFEATIST ATTITUDE’

The candidates declined to join in Democratic criticism of Pawlenty’s economic plan for relying on a rarely achieved 5 percent growth to fund his tax cuts. Pawlenty accused his critics of a failure of ambition.

“This idea that we can’t have 5 percent growth in America is hogwash. It’s a defeatist attitude,” he said.

Romney, who failed in a 2008 bid for the Republican nomination, leads the Republican pack in most polls but is an uneasy front-runner in a group that has drawn complaints from some in the party for being a weak field.

Representative Michele Bachmann, who had not entered the race before Monday, said she had just filed the paperwork to formally run for president. Jon Huntsman, the former governor of Utah who served as U.S. ambassador to China under Obama, also is expected to enter the race in the next few weeks.

The Republicans showed few policy differences during the debate. They mostly backed Representative Paul Ryan’s budget proposal that would scale back the Medicare health insurance plan for the elderly and disabled, and did not support raising the debt ceiling without dramatic spending cuts.

“We’re not that far apart on all the big issues,” said former pizza executive Herman Cain.

The debate on the campus of Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, was an early look at the contenders for the activists in the early-voting state who will play a critical role in the 2012 nominating battle.

The presidential election will be held in November 2012.

Romney, Bachmann and Newt Gingrich skipped a lightly attended debate last month, but appeared on Monday with four contenders who participated in the first one — former Senator Rick Santorum, Pawlenty, Cain and Representative Ron Paul.

Bachmann, a fiery conservative from Minnesota, has earned a following on cable TV news shows and among Tea Party activists with her outspoken condemnations of Obama and Washington insiders. She promised that Republicans would oust Obama in 2012.

“President Obama is a one-term president,” she said.

Gingrich, a former speaker of the House of Representatives, was not asked about last week’s desertion by most of his senior campaign staff over disagreements on the future of his campaign.

Other posts on this subject:

Republican debate June 13, 2011

Obama front and center at GOP debate Yahoo News reported today: Republicans blast Obama, not each other By John Whitesides28 mins ago MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (Reuters) – Republican White House contenders focused their attacks on President Barack Obama and refrained from attacking each other on Monday in their first major debate of the 2012 nominating race. The […]

Bachmann vs. Palin, potential race heats up

Politico Reported:   Stars collide: Bachmann vs. Palin By: Ben Smith and Maggie Haberman June 8, 2011 04:51 AM EDT Rep. Michele Bachmann’s prospective 2012 campaign appears increasingly set on a collision course with former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. The coming confrontation is being driven by a belief in Bachmann’s camp that the same grassroots, […]

Elisabeth Hasselbeck says Palin taking attention away from Romney

Elizabeth Hasselbeck: Sarah Palin manipulates the media and takes attention away from Mitt Romney The Huffington Post reported: Elisabeth Hasselbeck says Sarah Palin is “manipulating” the media away from giving attention to Mitt Romney. On Thursday’s “The View,” Hasslebeck argued that although the country is facing major economic problems — something she claims is Romney’s […]

Pawlenty wants to change income tax

 Tim Pawlenty at CPAC 2011 – Part 1 The Associated Press reported: CHICAGO – Republican Tim Pawlenty was set to propose an economic policy Tuesday that would simplify individual tax rates to just three options and cut taxes on business by more than half as he offered himself as a replacement to Barack Obama in […]

By Everette Hatcher III | Also posted in Taxes | Edit | Comments (0)

Brummett is wrong about Paul Revere not Palin

Gov. Sarah Palin’s June 5, 2011 Chris Wallace interview pt 1 of 2 Gov. Sarah Palin’s June 5, 2011 Chris Wallace interview pt 2 of 2 (Paul Revere story discussed) John Brummett is his article, “The Midnight ride of Mike Huckabee,” Arkansas News Bureau, June 7, 2011, he asserts: On an American history bus tour […]

Sarah Palin right about Paul Revere?

How Sarah Palin Got it Right About Paul Revere ‘Warning the British’ Mark Whittington Mark Whittington Sun Jun 5, 3:38 pm ET /news/common/pages/generic/darla/md?en=utf-8 COMMENTARY | Sarah Palin stepped out of Paul Revere’s home in Boston and appeared to get her history wrong. The Internet then exploded in ridicule and astonishment at the ditz from Alaska once again uttering nonsense. […]

Candidate #6,Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum: Republican Presidential Hopefuls (Part 2)

He’s back: Santorum runs as reliable conservative By ANDREW MIGA, Associated Press Andrew Miga, Associated Press 59 mins ago WASHINGTON – Two decades ago, Rick Santorum took the House by storm as a freshman rabble-rouser who gave the complacent Republican leadership fits. One decade ago, Santorum vaulted into the Senate GOP leadership as a young firebrand whose […]

Documentary about Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin’s Movie Makeover in The Undefeated Shushannah Walshe – 2 hrs 25 mins ago NEW YORK – A forgotten Sarah Palin who worked with Democrats to pass landmark legislation emerges in the new documentary The Undefeated. Shushannah Walshe gets an early look and talks to director Stephen K. Bannon. The Undefeated, a glowing, dramatic documentary about Sarah Palin’s history from the former Alaska […]

Romney believes in global warming

Romney reaffirms stance that global warming is real Bucking skeptics, he urges changes Mitt Romney, at UNH yesterday, said if elected, he would pursue more oil drilling, as well as natural gas and nuclear energy. (Stephan Savoia/Associated Press) By Matt Viser MANCHESTER, N.H. — In the first town hall of his freshly announced presidential campaign, Mitt […]

By Everette Hatcher III | Also posted in Global Warming | Edit | Comments (0)

Fact check on Romney

Fact-checking Romney’s statements   June 4, 2011 Here is a fact-check of statements made by Mitt Romney either in his campaign announcement speech Thursday or at his town hall meeting in Manchester, N.H., yesterday:  RAISING TAXES ROMNEY: “The expectation was that we’d have to raise taxes but [as governor of Massachusetts] I refused. I ordered […]

June 13, 2011 – 10:14 pm Categories: Uncategorized | Post a comment

The Characters referenced in Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris” (Part 1 William Faulkner)

John and William Faulkner

Photo by Phill Mullen

The only known photograph of William Faulkner (right) with his eldest brother, John, was taken in 1949. Like his brother, John Faulkner was also a writer, though their writing styles differed considerably.

My grandfather, John Murphey, (born 1910) grew up in Oxford, Mississippi and knew both Johncy and “Bill” Faulkner. He told me that Bill was a very bashful shy man. Johncy was outgoing and would be very friendly and would love to stop and visit.

My grandfather was in the moving business and he had moved Johncy several times, but Johncy still had several outstanding bills. Then one day Johncy told my grandfather to take the bills to his brother and he would pay them in full. I don’t know the exact date, but my grandfather was told that Faulkner had got his first big check from a publisher and I am guessing that it was  in the early 1930’s.

I just got finished watching Woody Allen’s latest movie “Midnight in Paris” and I loved it. In that movie there are several famous writers and artists that appear in the film. I am doing a series of posts that takes a look at this great writers and artists.

By the way, I know that some of you are wondering how many posts I will have before I am finished. Right now I have plans to look at Cole Porter, Fitzgerald, Heminingway, Juan Belmonte,Gertrude Stein, Gauguin, Lautrec, Geores Brague, Dali, Rodin,Coco Chanel, Modigliani, Matisse, Luis Bunuel, Josephine Baker, Van Gogh, Picasso, Man Ray, T.S. Elliot and several more.

William Faulkner is one of those writers. Here below is another review of the film:

June 10, 2011

Midnight in Paris (2011)

Midnight in Paris is not only Woody Allen’s best movie in decades, it is also one of the most joyous, warm-hearted and magical movies of his entire career.  A sumptuous love letter to both the city of Paris and its rich history, Allen’s romantic fantasy is also a touching ode to art and the artist that has (or had) created it.  Above all that, though, the film is a look at the perils of trying to escape from an imperfect present into a mythically “perfect” era of the past.

Self-described hack Hollywood screenwriter Gil (Owen Wilson) has come to Paris with his fiance Inez (Rachel McAdams) to both help plan their upcoming wedding and to finish his first attempt at a literary novel.  While Gil adores Paris and its history, Inez is contemptuous of both the city and Gil’s love for it.  Inez’s mother (Mimi Kennedy) and father (Kurt Fuller) are even less supportive.  The already stressed relationship between Gil and Inez cracks all the more when the couple meets the pedantic Paul (Michael Sheen), a former flame of Inez’s, and Carol (Nina Arianda).

While Inez spends more and more time with Paul, Gil just wanders Paris at night.  For when the clock strikes midnight, that is when the true magic of the City of Light is revealed.

Ah, to be in 1920s Paris and to be able to rub shoulders with the likes of Ernest Hemingway (a hilarious Corey Stoll), Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald (Allison Pill and Tom Hiddleston, respectively), and Salvador Dali (an even more hilarious Adrien Brody).  How cool would it be able to have Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates) herself critique your first novel?  Being a reader of Hemingway and Fitzgerald and a huge fan of William Faulkner (who is only mentioned in the film and not seen) I so wanted to be able to experience Owen Wilson’s lost-in-his-own-generation character’s time hoping adventure for myself.  My first words to my wife after the movie ended were, “Now I want to go to Paris!”

In my review of Woody Allen’s 1987 drama September, I made note of his penchant for cynicism and pessimism, especially in his dramas.  That penchant made Allen’s supposed “light” drama from last year, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, an almost soul crushing viewing experience for me.  That film not only left me feeling depressed and unfulfilled, but it also had me questioning whether or not my recent career change had been the right one to make.  I am guessing that, since I was struggling with a writing project of my own, I projected far too much of myself onto Josh Brolin’s washed up writer character.  I wanted him to succeed in his own writing project because I wanted to succeed in my own writing project.  When he did not and, in a Secret Window, Secret Garden styled plot development, the man stole another writer’s work and claimed it as his own, I was devastated.

Owen Wilson’s struggling writer character, however, is far more sympathetic and, even more important, a more honest character than Brolin’s scheming loser had been.  I was rooting for him to find his way to happiness and fulfillment, which are things that Allen routinely denies his more sympathetic characters.  Remembering the fate of the struggling writer in You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, I spent most of the running of Midnight in Paris dreading Gil’s eventual fate.  What bitter truth and/or horrible disappointment would come down on him and threaten to crush his hopes and dreams?

I will not answer that question in this review, but I will say that I left the move theater with a smile on my face and a glow in my heart.

Four stars out of four and one of the year’s best films.

Faulkner in Paris, 1925
Photo by W.C. Odiorne
After he wrote his first novel, Soldiers’ Pay, Faulkner traveled to Europe in the manner of many other young writers of the day. While in France, he adopted the look and air of a Bohemian poet by growing a beard and absorbing the art and culture of Paris’ Left Bank. One of his favorite places was in the Luxembourg Gardens, where he was photographed by William C. Odiorne. He wrote a long description of the Gardens, which he would later revise and incorporate into his novel Sanctuary. 

Jimmy heard many family stories growing up and he too  loved to tell stories. One of Jimmy Faulkner’s favorite stories was about how his famous uncle went to see the film Gone With The Wind seven times when it came out in 1939. “Brother Will (Faulkner was Jimmy’s uncle, but Jimmy called him Brother Will), never saw the ending,” Jimmy Faulkner said. “He always walked out the first time a Yankee came on the screen.”  Jimmy also takes great pride in the often quoted description of Jimmy  as “the only person who likes me (William Faulkner)  for who I am.”

Jimmy Faulkner describes his taking Brother Will to the hospital the night before he died in the new introduction to his father’s book My Brother Bill .  He writes, “I checked him in, and stayed with him until about 10 that night.  When I was ready to leave, I went to his bedside, reached down and took his hand. I told him, ‘Brother Will, when you’re ready to come home, let me know and I’ll come get you. He said “Yes, Jim, I will.’” He never got home alive. He died around 2 in the morning on July 6, 1962.

 ___________________________

From left, Murry “Jack” Falkner, age eight; Sallie Murry Wilkins, age eight, the boys’ first cousin; William Faulkner, age ten; seated, John “Johncy” Falkner, age six. The picture was taken in September 1907.

From left, Murry “Jack” Falkner, age eight; Sallie Murry Wilkins, age eight, the boys’ first cousin; William Faulkner, age ten; seated, John “Johncy” Falkner, age six. The picture was taken in September 1907.
1925: Faulkner travels to New Orleans. His goal is to book a freighter to Europe, hoping the expatriate experience will boost his career as it has those of writers such as Ernest Hemingway and Robert Frost. The New Orleans French Quarter is so congenial that he remains there six months, becoming friends with the writer Sherwood Anderson and launching his own career in fiction. Faulkner’s first novel, Soldiers’ Pay, receives Anderson’s blessing and is accepted by Anderson’s New York publisher, Boni and Liveright. Faulkner and his New Orleans roommate, the artist William Spratling, sail for Genoa in July, and Faulkner makes his way to Paris, his base for three months. He writes portions of two novels and several sketches, but he runs out of money and returns to Oxford, Mississippi, by Christmas.
______________________

William Faulkner, The Art of Fiction No. 12

Interviewed by Jean Stein in 1956 for Paris Review

INTERVIEWER

How did you get your background in the Bible?

FAULKNER

My Great-Grandfather Murry was a kind and gentle man, to us children anyway. That is, although he was a Scot, he was (to us) neither especially pious nor stern either: he was simply a man of inflexible principles. One of them was everybody, children on up through all adults present, had to have a verse from the Bible ready and glib at tongue-tip when we gathered at the table for breakfast each morning; if you didn’t have your scripture verse ready, you didn’t have any breakfast; you would be excused long enough to leave the room and swot one up (there was a maiden aunt, a kind of sergeant-major for this duty, who retired with the culprit and gave him a brisk breezing which carried him over the jump next time).

It had to be an authentic, correct verse. While we were little, it could be the same one, once you had it down good, morning after morning, until you got a little older and bigger, when one morning (by this time you would be pretty glib at it, galloping through without even listening to yourself since you were already five or ten minutes ahead, already among the ham and steak and fried chicken and grits and sweet potatoes and two or three kinds of hot bread) you would suddenly find his eyes on you—very blue, very kind and gentle, and even now not stern so much as inflexible—and next morning you had a new verse. In a way, that was when you discovered that your childhood was over; you had outgrown it and entered the world.

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The characters referenced in Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris” (Part 12, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel)

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Photo by Phill Mullen The only known photograph of William Faulkner (right) with his eldest brother, John, was taken in 1949. Like his brother, John Faulkner was also a writer, though their writing styles differed considerably. My grandfather, John Murphey, (born 1910) grew up in Oxford, Mississippi and knew both Johncy and “Bill” Faulkner. He […]

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June 13, 2011 – 3:19 pm Categories: Current Events | Post a comment

USA must defeat Guadeloupe in Gold Cup in KC tonight

The Kansas City Star reported:

The Kansas City Star reported:

Less than 24 hours after a history-making loss, the United States men’s national soccer team landed in Kansas City bloody, but unbowed.

Not only did a 2-1 defeat against Panama on Saturday night mark the Americans’ first group-play loss in the 20-year history of the Gold Cup, it also made their next game, an 8 p.m. showdown on Tuesday against Guadeloupe at Livestrong Sporting Park, a must-win if they want to advance to the quarterfinals of the 12-team tournament, which determines the best team in North America, Central America and the Caribbean.

“We have everything to play for,” said defender Clarence Goodson, who scored the United States’ only goal against Panama. “It was a little speed bump.”

But it might be more than that if the U.S. doesn’t find a way to beat Guadeloupe. The top two teams from each of the three groups advance to the quarterfinals, along with the two teams with the next best records — wild cards, if you will.

Panama, 2-0-0, is currently first in Group C, while the United States and Canada are tied for second at 1-1-0 and Guadeloupe is last at 0-2-0. A win for the U.S. practically guarantees a spot in the next round, while a loss would make things much murkier.

The good news is that the U.S. would seem to have a favorable matchup against Guadeloupe, a team that didn’t even qualify for seven of the past 11 Gold Cups. But Panama, which was winless against the U.S. in eight previous Gold Cup matches, showed how much history matters on Saturday when it outplayed the sluggish Americans and took a 2-0 first-half lead.

Afterward, U.S. captain Landon Donovan admitted that his team “came out flat.” But Goodson insisted Sunday they didn’t underestimate Panama.

“We all said leading up to the game they were a team that was dangerous,” Goodson said. “We made some bad mistakes and they punished us for it like any good team would.”

Goodson scored a goal in the 68th minute, lifting the United States’ comeback hopes, but it turned out to be too little, too late.

“We improved in the second half and had plenty of chances to score,” Goodson continued. “We just couldn’t put it in the back of net. That’s how it goes some days.”

Goodson, of course, was optimistic that Tuesday’s game would present a more favorable result. A big reason for that is the team’s continuity; this is a group that has played together for a while.

“We have 17 of 23 guys from the World Cup team, guys who have been around and know each other pretty well,” he said. “We’ve had some times where we looked very good, other times we haven’t. That’s how the game goes.”

The other reason for his optimism is the sellout crowd that’s expected to pack Livestrong Sporting Park, one that’s expected to be extremely pro-American.

And Goodson, who said he watched some of Sporting KC’s home opener against Chicago on Thursday, remains hopeful that raucous environment will carry over to their game, too.

“I know this is one of the premier stadiums in MLS and from what I hear, the best in the world,” Goodson said. “We’re certainly looking forward to it.

“Hopefully it lives up to those expectations.”

June 13, 2011 – 10:07 am Categories: Current Events | Post a comment

Donovan “We were …lackadaisical…” against Panama

LA Galaxy reported:

Gold Cup: USA at loss for answers after historic loss

No explanation for lackadaisical start, says Donovan after loss

Simon Borg
MLSsoccer.com
June 11, 2011
usmnt_donovan_goldcup_panama

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TAMPA, Fla. – It’s a script the US national team has seen play out plenty of times over the last year or so: Slow start. Early deficit. Frantic fight-back.

On some days, there’s a happy and even heroic ending for the USA, but not on Saturday night at Raymond James Stadium, where Panama made history by registering one of the biggest upsets in CONCACAF history by beating the Yanks 2-1.

“For some reason we were just a little lackadaisical and a little complacent early,” USA and LA Galaxy midfielder Landon Donovan said. “We had some of the ball and we felt OK about ourselves but they put us on our heels a few times and they made a play that changed the game. … We can’t start that way. That’s the overwhelming, obvious point.”

Panama netted a goal in the 19th minute and doubled their lead on a PK in the 36th. It was only after being scored upon that the USA reacted, although at times it was haphazard.

“I think we had some periods where we connected passes,” manager Bob Bradley said, “but the ideas in terms of how to play through, when to use the wide areas – I think we probably had the ball in some pretty good spots but we didn’t finish plays off well enough.”

It’s a character flaw that continues to surface for Bradley’s squad. But the most disconcerting part of it is that there are no answers offered up for why it happens or how to correct it. There is no solution in sight. And there’s very little time to figure it out with the third and decisive group match – a must-win against Guadaloupe – coming up on Tuesday.

“I don’t know if you can pinpoint it,” Donovan said. “Sometimes it just takes you a while to get going for whatever reason. There’s no excuse. There’s no reason. It just happened. You give them credit, they took advantage of it.”

“I don’t know,” defender Tim Ream said. “It was completely different from how we came out against Canada in Detroit. It wasn’t like we were looking past this game and already putting ourselves through. For whatever reason we just didn’t move the ball quick enough and put enough pressure on and come out with enough energy.”

The USA was praised for the opening half of the match against Canada, staking itself out to a 1-0 lead after just 15 minutes. That first win came under the roof of Detroit’s Ford Field, but the American manager and his players are not laying any blame on the warm temperatures in Tampa, which hit 90 degrees.

“I don’t think the heat was a factor,” Bradley said. “On the nigh,t we were not sharp enough. Now, with the fast turnaround, we’re clearly going to consider some changes and be ready to go for the game on Tuesday in Kansas City.

“The road to move forward in this tournament is a little different.”

Other posts on soccer:

The best soccer goal of the year in 2011?

Yahoo Sports reported: The rivalry between the Seattle Sounders and the Vancouver Whitecaps goes back to their days in the old NASL in the 1970s, but the final 10 minutes of their first MLS match against each other on Saturday night might have been the best yet. The Sounders’ Mauro Rosales pulled the score even […]

Escobar killed as a result of this game, Top 10 most Controversial World Cup Games (W. Hatcher v. E. Hatcher, Part 4)

Today we are discussing the 7th most controversial game. Everette Hatcher’s choice: I have chosen this game partly because it was a game that the USA won. Sadly Escobar was killed in a bar back in Columbia when he got home. Two of my sons were learning soccer at the time and they were 7 […]

Top 10 most Controversial World Cup Games (W. Hatcher v. E. Hatcher, Part 3)

Today we are discussing the 8th most controversial game. Everette Hatcher picks the Germany v. USA game in 2002. 2002 World Cup Quarter Finals: Germany vs United States Close call on hand-ball: In the 49th minute of Friday’s Germany-United States World Cup quarterfinal, a shot by American Gregg Berhalter bounced off German goalkeeper Oliver Kahn and […]

Gold Cup defense more difficult after 5 Mexican players fail test

Uploaded by TubeCentary on Jun 7, 2011 Goals from the GOLD CUP match. Dempsey and Altidore with the goals. Hilarious American commentary to go with it. The Associated Press reported: Five Mexican players fail test Associated Press CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Five players on Mexico’s soccer team, including goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa and defender Francisco Rodriguez, have […]

 

Top Ten List of greatest soccer players: E. Hatcher’s list v. W. Hatcher’s list (Part 10)

Today we are discussing the best player of all time. Everette Hatcher picks Pele. Pele The Great videosport.jumptv.com – A tribute to history’s greatest soccer player of all time. Wilson Hatcher’s pick: Lionel Messi Lionel Messi 2009 – Top 10 Goals *NEW* This list is based on talent not influence. For Pele would easily be […]

June 13, 2011 – 10:00 am Categories: Current Events | Post a comment

The best soccer goal of the year in 2011?

Yahoo Sports reported:

The rivalry between the Seattle Sounders and the Vancouver Whitecaps goes back to their days in the old NASL in the 1970s, but the final 10 minutes of their first MLS match against each other on Saturday night might have been the best yet. The Sounders’ Mauro Rosales pulled the score even at 1-1 with a goal in the 81st minute and Osvaldo Alonso put them up 2-1 in the 84th. Just one minute later, Vancoucer’s Eric Hassli equalized with his second goal of the night and it just might prove to be the goal of the season in MLS.

Hassli chipped the ball over the defender and ran around him to volley it into the far side of the net from the edge of the box. The match would end 2-2 and showed exactly why Vancouver made the largely unknown Frenchman their highest paid player.

With six goals and three red cards in 10 matches so far, Hassli has had a strange yet productive season that, to this point, has been highlighted by the fact that he was sent off after celebrating a goal by removing his jersey to reveal the exact same jersey. Now it’s highlighted by that and a pretty great goal.

Other posts on soccer:

The best soccer goal of the year in 2011?

Yahoo Sports reported: The rivalry between the Seattle Sounders and the Vancouver Whitecaps goes back to their days in the old NASL in the 1970s, but the final 10 minutes of their first MLS match against each other on Saturday night might have been the best yet. The Sounders’ Mauro Rosales pulled the score even […]

Escobar killed as a result of this game, Top 10 most Controversial World Cup Games (W. Hatcher v. E. Hatcher, Part 4)

Today we are discussing the 7th most controversial game. Everette Hatcher’s choice: I have chosen this game partly because it was a game that the USA won. Sadly Escobar was killed in a bar back in Columbia when he got home. Two of my sons were learning soccer at the time and they were 7 […]

Top 10 most Controversial World Cup Games (W. Hatcher v. E. Hatcher, Part 3)

Today we are discussing the 8th most controversial game. Everette Hatcher picks the Germany v. USA game in 2002. 2002 World Cup Quarter Finals: Germany vs United States Close call on hand-ball: In the 49th minute of Friday’s Germany-United States World Cup quarterfinal, a shot by American Gregg Berhalter bounced off German goalkeeper Oliver Kahn and […]

Gold Cup defense more difficult after 5 Mexican players fail test

Uploaded by TubeCentary on Jun 7, 2011 Goals from the GOLD CUP match. Dempsey and Altidore with the goals. Hilarious American commentary to go with it. The Associated Press reported: Five Mexican players fail test Associated Press CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Five players on Mexico’s soccer team, including goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa and defender Francisco Rodriguez, have […]

 

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Today we are discussing the best player of all time. Everette Hatcher picks Pele. Pele The Great videosport.jumptv.com – A tribute to history’s greatest soccer player of all time. Wilson Hatcher’s pick: Lionel Messi Lionel Messi 2009 – Top 10 Goals *NEW* This list is based on talent not influence. For Pele would easily be […]

 
June 13, 2011 – 9:53 am Categories: Current Events | Post a comment

Milton Friedman’s views on vouchers have not been tried?

On the Arkansas Times Blog the person using the username “Jake da Snake” noted, “Friedman also railed long and hard for school vouchers to be adopted, to little avail…” (June 11, 2011).

Milton Friedman firmly believed, “competition is a way in which both public and private schools can be required to satisfy their customers.”

Here is what has happened in a small experiment in Milwaukee:

Milton Friedman – School Choice

Professor Friedman spells out his recipe for fixing America’s broken educational system. http://www.LibertyPen.com

 

June 13, 2011 – 8:30 am Categories: Milton Friedman, Vouchers | Post a comment

First pictures of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords released

The Associated Press reported yesterday:Ariz. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, left, smiles at TIRR Memorial Hermann Hospital on May 17. (AP/P.K. Weiss, southwestphotobank.com)

The first photos of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords since she was shot in the head in a mass shooting in Tucson about five months ago were released early Sunday.

The photos appeared on her Facebook page.

Both pictures show the congresswoman outside. In one she is alone and smiling at the camera, her hair trimmed short with the skin on the side of her head slightly disclored but with no clear sign of any scarring. In the other, she is sitting with a woman.

Giffords has been in a Houston rehab facility since two weeks after the Jan. 8 shooting. Six people were killed and 13 were injured, including Giffords.

(AP/PGiffords Campaign - P.K. Weis)(AP/PGiffords Campaign – P.K. Weis)

Since the shooting, the only time the public was able to glimpse Giffords was April 27 as she boarded a plane to Florida to watch astronaut husband Mark Kelly launch into space. The grainy footage showed Giffords slowly but purposefully walking up the airplane’s stairs.

Since the shooting, the only time the public has gotten a glimpse of Giffords was April 27 as she boarded a plane to Florida to watch astronaut husband Mark Kelly launch into space. The grainy footage, taken from afar, showed Giffords slowly but purposefully walk up the airplane’s stairs.

The newly released photos provide a much clearer image.

Last month as Kelly was orbiting Earth, doctors repaired Giffords’ skull, finally freeing her from wearing a cumbersome protective helmet that her staff members say she hated.

Since the shooting, Giffords has made remarkable strides, requesting her favorite foods, singing her favorite songs, and relearning how to walk and talk, although she struggles to string sentences together.

In an interview with The Arizona Republic published Thursday, Giffords’ Chief of Staff Pia Carusone said Giffords’ limited speaking ability has led her to rely primarily on facial expressions and hand gestures to communicate.

“She is borrowing upon other ways of communicating. Her words are back more and more now, but she’s still using facial expressions as a way to express. Pointing. Gesturing,” Carusone said. “Add it all together and she’s able to express the basics of what she wants or needs. But, when it comes to a bigger and more complex thought that requires words, that’s where she’s had the trouble.”

Carusone also said that if Giffords’ recovery were to plateau now, “it would not be nearly the quality of life she had before.”

“All that we can hope for is that she won’t plateau today and that she’ll keep going and that when she does plateau, it will be at a place far away from here,” she said.

Jared Lee Loughner, 22, has pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the shooting and is being held at a Missouri facility. A judge declared him incompetent to stand trial, but prosecutors hope his competency can be restored so he can answer for the charges.

Previous posts concerning Representative Gabrielle Giffords: 

Candidate #10,Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin: Republican Presidential Hopefuls (Part C, )

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Brummett: Politicizing Arizona is Shameful

HALT:HaltingArkansasLiberalswithTruth.com Series:    Is Rightwing Rhetoric encouraging Violence? Part 3 Bill O’Reilly  on the left-incited politicization of the tragic shooting of Rep Gabrielle Giffords. In my last post in this series I stated,” I just wish that Gene Lyons, Max Brantley, Pat Lynch, Ernest Dumas, John Brummett and every other liberal would come out and […]

Are thousands of children in USA dying in gun accidents?

HALT:HaltingArkansasLiberalswithTruth.com Ronald Reagan and others comment on “Gun Control” efforts Series on Gun Control: Part 6 Max Brantley commented on Jan 8th (Arkansas Times Blog) on the Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords getting shot and that led to his comments on the state of Arizona laws on guns: “As I said to a pro-carry lobbyist n the […]

June 13, 2011 – 6:23 am Categories: Current Events | Post a comment

Brummett: We need to tax the rich more (Real Cause of Deficit Pt 12)

John Brummett asserts that liberals are right about the cause of the deficit. He asserts in his article “Harry let us down,” Arkansas News Bureau, April 4, 2011:

He is right that the actual deficit is caused by direct government spending exceeding income, an imbalance mostly caused, he will tell you with some justification, by the fact that we don’t tax rich people as much as we did in happier and more prosperous times.

We have heard the liberals like John Brummett say for years that Bush put us into this horrible position of deficits because of his tax cuts of 2001 and 2003. However, if Bush was responsible for taking the 236 billion surplus he inherited in 2000 and turning everything downward because of the tax cuts, then why did we only have a budget deficit of 161 billion in 2007?

Brian Riedl is the author of the article “The Three Biggest Myths About Tax Cuts and the Budget Deficit,” (Heritage Foundation, June 21, 2010), and the next few days I will be sharing portions of his article.

Riedl’s budget research has been featured in front-page stories and editorials in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times. He has discussed budget policy on NBC, CBS, PBS, CNN, FOX News, MSNBC, and C-SPAN. He also participates in the bipartisan “Fiscal Wake-Up Tour,” which holds town hall meetings across America focusing on the looming crisis in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

What the Deficit Commission Should Do

President Obama’s Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, known popularly as the “Deficit Commission,” has begun assembling recommendations to reduce the budget deficit to 3 percent of gross domestic product by 2015 and to address long-term deficits.

The commission should target the historical levels of taxes (18.0 percent of GDP) and spending (20.3 percent of GDP). Thus, successful reforms would:

  • Reform Medicaid and bring long-term sustainability to Social Security and Medicare. It may be possible to squeeze enough savings from other sources to meet the 2015 deficit target, but the swelling cost of these three programs would quickly devour those savings and continue expanding the budget deficit. Thus, the commission should look beyond 2015 and seek entitlement reforms that bring long-term sustainability to the federal budget.[19]
  • Reopen the health care law. While most of the current and future entitlement growth comes from Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, some of it comes from Obamacare. In fact, much of the law merely shifted spending from Medicare to new health subsidies. Even in the unlikely event that all of the scheduled Medicare cuts actually take place and new health subsidies are not expanded, the CBO estimates that Obamacare would expand federal spending by $382 billion through 2019 and substantially more thereafter.[20] The necessary bipartisan budget reform must include bipartisan health care reform.
  • Offer specific spending reforms, not just numerical targets. In 1982 and 1990, bipartisan budget deals coupled immediate tax increases with vague promises of distant spending cuts to meet preset targets. Predictably, the spending cuts were rarely implemented. Long-term spending targets and caps are an important part of budget reform, but they are hollow if not accompanied by specific, credible proposals to reform federal spending programs. Rather than punt the tough spending decisions, the commission should make specific proposals in its report to Congress and the President.
  • Avoid tax increases. Low tax revenues are not the problem. Even if the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts are extended, revenues are still projected to rise above the historical average. Furthermore, America simply cannot tax its way out of this problem. Financing the projected 10 percent of GDP long-term cost increase for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid would require permanently raising taxes by $12,000 per household (adjusted for both inflation and income growth).[21] Such steep tax rate increases would devastate families, businesses, and the economy.Even the “split the difference” policy of equal tax hikes and spending cuts would eventually push taxes up to near-European levels. Congress is already examining a European-style value-added tax (VAT)—a type of national sales tax— that would allow Congress to keep spending, rather than confront the unsustainable spending trends. Drowning the next generation of Americans in tax hikes is no better than drowning them in debt. Rather than simply raising taxes alongside rising spending, the deficit commission should recommend paring back the burgeoning spending programs.
  • Bring budget transparency. Social Security and Medicare face a staggering $46 trillion in unfunded obligations over the next 75 years. Yet these figures do not appear anywhere in the budget that Congress must approve annually. The commission should strongly recommend that Congress disclose all unfunded obligations in its annual budget and vote to acknowledge and approve the long-term consequences of their budget decisions. In addition, they should require that new proposals be scored over the long term, not just over the next 10 years, and create a long-term budget for entitlement programs.
  • ___________________
June 13, 2011 – 6:05 am Categories: Famous Arkansans | Post a comment