Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Text of Pope Benedict XVI's Christmas Eve homily (AP)

The Vatican's official English-language translation of Pope Benedict XVI's homily, to be delivered in Italian, during Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.

___

Dear Brothers and Sisters! The reading from Saint Paul's Letter to Titus that we have just heard begins solemnly with the word "apparuit," which then comes back again in the reading at the Dawn Mass: apparuit

"there has appeared". This is a programmatic word, by which the Church seeks to express synthetically the essence of Christmas. Formerly, people had spoken of God and formed human images of him in all sorts of different ways. God himself had spoken in many and various ways to mankind (cf. Heb 1:1 Mass during the Day). But now something new has happened: he has appeared. He has revealed himself. He has emerged from the inaccessible light in which he dwells. He himself has come into our midst. This was the great joy of Christmas for the early Church: God has appeared. No longer is he merely an idea, no longer do we have to form a picture of him on the basis of mere words. He has "appeared". But now we ask: how has he appeared? Who is he in reality? The reading at the Dawn Mass goes on to say: "the kindness and love of God our Savior for mankind were revealed" (Tit 3:4). For the people of pre-Christian times, whose response to the terrors and contradictions of the world was to fear that God himself might not be good either, that he too might well be cruel and arbitrary, this was a real "epiphany," the great light that has appeared to us: God is pure goodness. Today too, people who are no longer able to recognize God through faith are asking whether the ultimate power that underpins and sustains the world is truly good, or whether evil is just as powerful and primordial as the good and the beautiful which we encounter in radiant moments in our world. "The kindness and love of God our Savior for mankind were revealed:" this is the new, consoling certainty that is granted to us at Christmas. In all three Christmas Masses, the liturgy quotes a passage from the Prophet Isaiah, which describes the epiphany that took place at Christmas in greater detail: "A child is born for us, a son given to us and dominion is laid on his shoulders; and this is the name they give him: Wonder-Counsellor, Mighty-God, Eternal-Father, Prince-of-Peace. Wide is his dominion in a peace that has no end" (Is 9:5f.). Whether the prophet had a particular child in mind, born during his own period of history, we do not know. But it seems impossible. This is the only text in the Old Testament in which it is said of a child, of a human being: his name will be Mighty-God, Eternal-Father. We are presented with a vision that extends far beyond the historical moment into the mysterious, into the future. A child, in all its weakness, is Mighty God. A child, in all its neediness and dependence, is Eternal Father. And his peace "has no end." The prophet had previously described the child as "a great light" and had said of the peace he would usher in that the rod of the oppressor, the footgear of battle, every cloak rolled in blood would be burned (Is 9:1, 3-4). God has appeared as a child. It is in this guise that he pits himself against all violence and brings a message that is peace. At this hour, when the world is continually threatened by violence in so many places and in so many different ways, when over and over again there are oppressors' rods and bloodstained cloaks, we cry out to the Lord: O mighty God, you have appeared as a child and you have revealed yourself to us as the One who loves us, the One through whom love will triumph. And you have shown us that we must be peacemakers with you. We love your childish estate, your powerlessness, but we suffer from the continuing presence of violence in the world, and so we also ask you: manifest your power, O God. In this time of ours, in this world of ours, cause the oppressors' rods, the cloaks rolled in blood and the footgear of battle to be burned, so that your peace may triumph in this world of ours. Christmas is an epiphany the appearing of God and of his great light in a child that is born for us. Born in a stable in Bethlehem, not in the palaces of kings. In 1223, when Saint Francis of Assisi celebrated Christmas in Greccio with an ox and an ass and a manger full of hay, a new dimension of the mystery of Christmas came to light. Saint Francis of Assisi called Christmas "the feast of feasts" above all other feasts and he celebrated it with "unutterable devotion" (2 Celano 199; Fonti Francescane, 787). He kissed images of the Christ-child with great devotion and he stammered tender words such as children say, so Thomas of Celano tells us (ibid.). For the early Church, the feast of feasts was Easter: in the Resurrection Christ had flung open the doors of death and in so doing had radically changed the world: he had made a place for man in God himself. Now, Francis neither changed nor intended to change this objective order of precedence among the feasts, the inner structure of the faith centered on the Paschal Mystery. And yet through him and the character of his faith, something new took place: Francis discovered Jesus' humanity in an entirely new depth. This human existence of God became most visible to him at the moment when God's Son, born of the Virgin Mary, was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. The Resurrection presupposes the Incarnation. For God's Son to take the form of a child, a truly human child, made a profound impression on the heart of the Saint of Assisi, transforming faith into love. "The kindness and love of God our Savior for mankind were revealed" this phrase of Saint Paul now acquired an entirely new depth. In the child born in the stable at Bethlehem, we can as it were touch and caress God. And so the liturgical year acquired a second focus in a feast that is above all a feast of the heart. This has nothing to do with sentimentality. It is right here, in this new experience of the reality of Jesus' humanity that the great mystery of faith is revealed. Francis loved the child Jesus, because for him it was in this childish estate that God's humility shone forth. God became poor. His Son was born in the poverty of the stable. In the child Jesus, God made himself dependent, in need of human love, he put himself in the position of asking for human love our love. Today Christmas has become a commercial celebration, whose bright lights hide the mystery of God's humility, which in turn calls us to humility and simplicity. Let us ask the Lord to help us see through the superficial glitter of this season, and to discover behind it the child in the stable in Bethlehem, so as to find true joy and true light. Francis arranged for Mass to be celebrated on the manger that stood between the ox and the ass (cf. 1 Celano 85; Fonti 469). Later, an altar was built over this manger, so that where animals had once fed on hay, men could now receive the flesh of the spotless lamb Jesus Christ, for the salvation of soul and body, as Thomas of Celano tells us (cf. 1 Celano 87; Fonti 471). Francis himself, as a deacon, had sung the Christmas Gospel on the holy night in Greccio with resounding voice. Through the friars' radiant Christmas singing, the whole celebration seemed to be a great outburst of joy (1 Celano 85.86; Fonti 469, 470). It was the encounter with God's humility that caused this joy his goodness creates the true feast. Today, anyone wishing to enter the Church of Jesus' Nativity in Bethlehem will find that the doorway five and a half meters high, through which emperors and caliphs used to enter the building, is now largely walled up. Only a low opening of one and a half meters has remained. The intention was probably to provide the church with better protection from attack, but above all to prevent people from entering God's house on horseback. Anyone wishing to enter the place of Jesus' birth has to bend down. It seems to me that a deeper truth is revealed here, which should touch our hearts on this holy night: if we want to find the God who appeared as a child, then we must dismount from the high horse of our "enlightened" reason. We must set aside our false certainties, our intellectual pride, which prevents us from recognizing God's closeness. We must follow the interior path of Saint Francis the path leading to that ultimate outward and inward simplicity which enables the heart to see. We must bend down, spiritually we must as it were go on foot, in order to pass through the portal of faith and encounter the God who is so different from our prejudices and opinions the God who conceals himself in the humility of a newborn baby. In this spirit let us celebrate the liturgy of the holy night, let us strip away our fixation on what is material, on what can be measured and grasped. Let us allow ourselves to be made simple by the God who reveals himself to the simple of heart. And let us also pray especially at this hour for all who have to celebrate Christmas in poverty, in suffering, as migrants, that a ray of God's kindness may shine upon them, that they and we may be touched by the kindness that God chose to bring into the world through the birth of his Son in a stable. Amen.

___'

Copyright Vatican Publishing House

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/religion/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111224/ap_on_re_eu/eu_vatican_christmas_text

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Monday, December 26, 2011

FinanceProfessor.com: Impact Investing - YouTube

Fuqua School of BusinessImage via WikipediaImpact Investing - YouTube: Impact Investing

Duke' Fuqua School of Business just posted this fascinating talk by
It's sort of long, but very interesting talk on Impact Investing!

What is impact investing? I would define it as sort of the marriage between traditional finance and social entrepreneurship that concludes profit based organizations can and do much good.

(Oh and he is right, it sounds better to say "I am a social entrepreneur" than than "I run a charity").

From Wikipedia:

"Impact investing refers to investments made based on the practice of assessing not only the financial return on investment, but also the social and environmental impacts of the investment that happen in the course of the operations of the business and the consumption of the product or service which the business creates. An impact investor seeks to enhance social structure or environmental health as well as achieve financial returns."


Source: http://financeprofessorblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/impact-investing-youtube.html

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Sunday, December 25, 2011

Analysis: GOP's struggle on taxes gives Dems hope (AP)

WASHINGTON ? For all his problems with the economy, President Barack Obama is getting unexpected help from a Republican Party that seems incapable of capitalizing on its advantages.

Congressional Republicans' fumbling of the payroll tax extension issue is the latest example of party in-fighting and disarray that gives Democrats hope for the 2012 elections. GOP presidential contenders tried to distance themselves from the legislative mess. But they might be tarred nonetheless if swing voters decide the party is either inept at governing or too extreme.

The eventual GOP presidential nominee "will be somewhat shackled to the Republican brand," said Democratic strategist Erik Smith, even if it was Republicans in Congress who led the charge in an unpopular fight over the payroll tax. He said GOP House and Senate candidates will face even more problems.

The Wall Street Journal editorial page ? an important voice among conservatives ? berated Republican lawmakers for their handling of the payroll tax matter. Obama wanted to add another year to this year's reduction in the tax, which nearly all workers pay toward Social Security. Senate Republicans, after forcing Democrats to swallow several unrelated concessions, joined in an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote to approve only a two-month tax cut extension, with plans to revisit the issue next year.

House Republicans, who generally disliked the payroll tax cut from the start, refused to concur early this week. But House Speaker John Boehner on Thursday bowed to relentless criticism from conservative bloggers and several GOP senators and cleared a path for passing a bill Friday to renew the break for two months while congressional negotiators work on a longer-term measure.

If Congress doesn't act in the next 10 days, the payroll tax rate will return to 6.2 percent on Jan. 1, after one year at 4.2 percent. That would cost a family making $50,000 about $1,000.

Republican congressional leaders' actions "might end up re-electing the president before the 2012 campaign even begins in earnest," the Journal's editorial page said Wednesday.

Democrats point to episodes like the payroll tax fuss and say congressional Republicans are essentially controlled by tea party activists, whose tax and spending agendas are outside the political mainstream.

"Tea Party Republicans blocked a bipartisan bill to extend President Obama's payroll tax cut," the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said in a fundraising email Tuesday, minutes after a key House vote. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters, "The tea party tail is wagging the elephant."

Democratic strategists hope to remind voters of last summer's near-calamity over raising the limit on the federal debt ceiling. Then, as now, Boehner struggled to control his GOP caucus and to calculate which bills can and cannot pass. These Democrats want to paint the Republican Party as an out-of-touch institution that would rather stand for rigidly conservative principles than solve the nation's problems.

"I think the tea party-engendered dysfunction has the potential to really get the electorate's attention," said Jared Bernstein, a former Obama administration economist now with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. "At this point, the system is crippled by them."

All of this, of course, may be wishful thinking by Democrats. Republicans crushed them in the 2010 elections, giving the GOP control of the House and many governorships. Unemployment and other economic indicators bode badly for Obama's re-election hopes, and the payroll tax dust-up may seem a musty memory by next November.

One other worry looms. Americans' taxes still might rise by billions of dollars in 2012 if a deal can't be struck on a longer, one-year extension. Economists say that would depress spending and slow job growth, at least somewhat. Even if more voters blame Republicans than Democrats, Obama could end up as a net loser politically, given that the economic climate already is deeply troublesome for him.

GOP leaders say income tax cuts do more to stimulate economic growth than payroll tax reductions but worry about independents thinking it was Republicans who sought to raise their payroll taxes. At the same time, they know that hard-core conservative voters who have a bigger voice in GOP primaries might blame them for a tax cut they dislike.

Republicans may yet claim one political victory out of the payroll tax imbroglio, assuming the two-month extension goes through. In House-Senate negotiations they forced Obama to agree to an expedited decision on a proposed transcontinental oil pipeline opposed by environmental groups as part of the two-month extension.

The GOP still has a perception problem, though. Americans hold Congress in extremely low regard, but they put more blame on Republicans than Democrats.

A recent poll by the Pew Research Center found that a record-high 50 percent of Americans say the current Congress is less effective than most. By nearly 2-to-1, "more blame Republican leaders than Democratic leaders for this," Pew found. "By wide margins, the GOP is seen as the party that is more extreme in its positions, less willing to work with the other side to get things done, and less honest and ethical in the way it governs. And for the first time in over two years, the Democratic Party has gained the edge as the party better able to manage the federal government."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111223/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_gop_troubles_analysis

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Saturday, December 24, 2011

MJMcGuire: Blake Griffin? The guy from the Kia commercials? Pretty good. #nba

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Blake Griffin? The guy from the Kia commercials? Pretty good. #nba MJMcGuire

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Source: http://twitter.com/MJMcGuire/statuses/149711921929654272

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Source: Patriot missiles found on ship are legal ? This Just In - CNN ...

Patriot missiles found on a ship bound for Asia were being sent legally, a source told CNN Thursday.

Finnish authorities had discovered and seized the shipment for investigation.

The weapons were being sent to South Korea, a customs official familiar with the case told CNN.

"The exporters had all necessary permissions, including an export authorization and a special authorization for the export of war weapons," the source said. "The ship departed from the German port of Emden."

FULL STORY

Source: http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/22/source-patriot-missiles-found-on-ship-are-legal/

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Friday, December 23, 2011

Ian Thomsen of SI.com previews the 2011-2012 NBA Season

Thu, 22 Dec 2011

Mut and Lou talk with Ian about the incredibly short NBA preseason and what effect that will have on the players during the regular season. Ian also talks about how deep the Celtics lineup could be this season as well as whether he thinks Kris Humphries is really the most disliked NBA player.

Source: http://audio.weei.com/device/mobile/a/50109352/ian-thomsen-of-si-com-previews-the-2011-2012-nba-season.htm

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Jury finds man guilty of aiding al Qaeda (Reuters)

BOSTON (Reuters) ? A jury on Tuesday found a Massachusetts man guilty of supporting al Qaeda by translating Arabic messages and supporting militants through traveling to Yemen for terrorism training.

Tarek Mehanna, 29, was found guilty on all seven counts against him and faces the possibility of life in prison.

Mehanna was arrested in 2009 and charged with "providing and conspiring to provide material support to terrorists." He was also charged with conspiracy to kill in a foreign country and lying to law enforcement officers.

Prosecutors said the defendant answered a call to action from Osama bin Laden to battle U.S. soldiers.

They said he traveled to Yemen in 2004 to seek terrorism training, but never received it, and had planned to travel to Iraq to fight U.S. troops.

They also said he translated videos and texts from Arabic to English and distributed them online to further al Qaeda's cause.

Defense attorneys said Mehanna, a U.S. citizen, was merely trying to learn more about his Muslim heritage by studying Islamic law and translating classical texts. He traveled to Yemen to visit schools where he hoped to study, they said.

Mehanna openly opposed the U.S. military presence in Iraq and showed admiration for bin Laden's efforts to expel foreign powers from Muslim countries, defense attorneys said. He never worked for al Qaeda or had direct contact with the group.

Among the trial witnesses was one of Mehanna's friends, Daniel Maldonado, a New Hampshire man serving a 10-year sentence for obtaining al Qaeda military training.

The FBI released excerpts of blogs allegedly written by Mehanna about the appeal of martyrdom and transcripts of phone conversations between Mehanna and Maldonado.

Mehanna was born in Pennsylvania but grew up in Sudbury, a suburb west of Boston, and holds a doctorate degree from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.

(Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst, Peter Bohan and Greg McCune)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111220/us_nm/us_crime_mehanna

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Thursday, December 22, 2011

Congress moves toward standoff over payroll tax (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Partisan to the core, Congress careened toward a holiday-season standoff Monday on legislation to prevent a Social Security payroll tax increase for 160 million workers on Jan. 1.

"It's time to stop the nonsense. We can resolve these differences and we can do it in a way that provides certainty for job creators and others," said Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. A House vote was set for Tuesday to seek negotiations on a compromise to renew the cuts through 2012, a rejection of the bipartisan two-month extension that cleared the Senate over the weekend.

In an acid response, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid accused Boehner of risking a tax increase for millions "just because a few angry tea partyers raised their voices." The Nevada Democrat ruled out new negotiations until the two-month measure is enacted.

That left the two parties approaching Christmas-week gridlock over an effort to pass core elements of President Barack Obama's jobs program ? renewal of the tax cuts and long-term unemployment benefits ? that Republican and Democratic leaders alike say they favored.

It was the latest and likely the last such partisan confrontation in a year of divided government that brought the Treasury to the brink of a first-ever default last summer, and more than once pushed the vast federal establishment to the edge of a partial shutdown.

This time, unlike the others, Republican divisions were prominently on display.

The two-month measure that cleared the Senate, 89-10, on Saturday had the full support of the GOP leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell, who also told reporters he was optimistic the House would sign on. Senate negotiators had tried to agree on a compromise to cover a full year, but were unable to come up with enough savings to offset the cost and prevent deficits from rising.

The two-month extension was a fallback, and officials say that when McConnell personally informed Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of the deal at a private meeting, they said they would check with their rank and file.

But on Saturday, restive House conservatives made clear during a telephone conference call that they were unhappy with the measure.

"I've never seen us so unified," Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, said as he left a two-hour, closed-door meeting Monday night where Republicans firmed up their plans. He said the payroll tax cut that has been in effect this year failed to create any jobs, but favored extending it for another 12 months because "it's tough to raise taxes when you're in a down economy."

But House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said Republicans were "walking away from a tax cut." And Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, a member of the party leadership, accused Boehner of "claiming to support something and then sending it to a legislative graveyard where it never sees the light of day."

Not surprisingly, the White House weighed in on the side of Obama's Democratic allies.

Spokesman Jay Carney said Boehner was for the two-month stopgap bill "before he was against it" ? a claim that the House speaker flatly denied.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Carney added, `'It is not our job to negotiate between him and Senate Republicans."

"We are witnessing the concluding convulsion of confrontation and obstruction in the most unproductive, tea party-dominated partisan session of the Congress in which I have participated," said Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, second-ranking member of the Democratic leadership.

Ironically, until the House rank and file revolted, it appeared that Republicans had outmaneuvered Obama on one point.

The two-month measure that cleared the Senate required him to decide within 60 days to allow construction on a proposed oil pipeline that promises thousands of construction jobs. Obama had threatened to veto legislation that included the requirement, then did an about face.

The president recently announced he was delaying a decision on the pipeline until after the 2012 elections, meaning that while seeking a new term, he would not have to choose between disappointing environmentalists who oppose the project and blue collar unions that support it.

The provision relating to the Keystone XL pipeline first surfaced in the House, where Boehner and the leaders had used it as an incentive to persuade conservatives to approve an extension of the payroll tax cut that many claimed had failed to create jobs.

Several Republican officials said that on the Saturday conference call, Boehner told members of the rank and file that if they wanted to approve the Senate measure, they could point to the Keystone provision as a victory. These officials added, though, that the speaker called the two-month measure poor policy, and refrained from recommending one course over another.

The Senate-passed bill, as well as one that cleared the House last week, also would avert a threatened 27 percent cut in payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients.

There was no controversy on that provision, or much of one on anything but the duration of an extension.

Democrats gleefully distributed evidence of GOP disagreement, including comments from Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Richard Lugar of Indiana and others urging the House to approve the two-month measure.

But first-term House Republicans were unmoved.

"What they (the Senate) sent us over was an insult to the American people," said Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle, R-N.Y.

"I don't care about political implications" of letting taxes go up Jan. 1 for 160 million Americans, said Rep. Tom Reed, R-N.Y. "We will stay here as long as it takes in order to do what's right for the American people. That means working on Christmas, New Year's and other days. It's time to get the job done."

Professing a lack of concern about higher taxes was not a widely held position inside the party leadership, though. For both parties, the political implications seemed to matter hugely.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced it was sending automated phone calls into households in 20 targeted GOP-held districts demanding that lawmakers support the two-month extension, lest taxes go up.

Not to be outdone, the National Republican Congressional Committee issued a statement headlined "Vacation, All House Dems Ever Wanted" and claiming that Democrats wanted to raise taxes on the middle class.

It was unclear how much attention the political maneuvering would draw in a nation where consumers were in the final shopping countdown toward Christmas and the next national election was nearly a year away.

___

Associated Press writers Alan Fram and Laurie Kellman contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111220/ap_on_go_co/us_congress_rdp

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Monday, December 19, 2011

[OOC] Halo: The Last Effort :UNDER CONSTRUCTION:

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THESE ROLEPLAYS NEED CHARACTERS
The Trek:
What will you do when you're sentenced to death on a twisted gameshow in which you must travel 50 miles through the wastes of America and battle a strange plague which twists humans into viscous beasts?
The Stranded
When a freak plane accident strands you and multiple other survivors on a deserted island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, tensions rise, bonds will be made, and hope will be lost.
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This has promise, I will check back when your done making the Rp.

But in any case you can count me in.

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Sunday, December 18, 2011

Berenson heads to NY for holidays

FILE - U.S. political activist Lori Berenson speaks to The Associated Press at her home in Lima, Peru, in this Nov. 9, 2010 file photo. Paroled U.S. activist Lori Berenson was headed for New York early Saturday Dec. 17, 2011 after a Peruvian court ruled she and her toddler son could travel there for the holidays, airport security officials said. (AP Photo/Karel Navarro, File)

FILE - U.S. political activist Lori Berenson speaks to The Associated Press at her home in Lima, Peru, in this Nov. 9, 2010 file photo. Paroled U.S. activist Lori Berenson was headed for New York early Saturday Dec. 17, 2011 after a Peruvian court ruled she and her toddler son could travel there for the holidays, airport security officials said. (AP Photo/Karel Navarro, File)

(AP) ? Paroled U.S. activist Lori Berenson was headed for New York early Saturday after a Peruvian court ruled she and her toddler son could travel there for the holidays, airport security officials said.

Peru's ATV television showed video of Berenson and her 2 1/2-year-old son, Salvador at the airport in front of a ticket counter late Friday and said she was flying to New York.

Reached by cell phone, Berenson refused to comment.

But airport security officials told reporters she was flying directly to New York on an overnight flight.

A three-judge appeals court on Wednesday overturned a lower court judge's ruling denying Berenson permission to travel, said Guillermo Gonzalez, spokesman for Peru's judicial system.

He said Berenson, who was paroled last year after serving 15 years for aiding leftist rebels, was given permission to leave the country beginning Friday but must return by Jan. 11.

Earlier, her father Mark told The Associated Press she has every intention of returning to Peru.

The terms of her parole dictate that she cannot leave until her sentence as an accomplice to terrorism ends in 2015.

"As Lori says, if she doesn't come home, let Interpol arrest her," Mark Berenson said.

Peru could seek her extradition and return her to prison if she doesn't return in the allotted time, Gonzalez said.

Her father said he was "petrified" a negative local reaction to the New York visit could prevent the trip, including celebrating his 70th birthday Dec. 29.

"My worry is that there's going to be screaming to stop this," he said. Some Peruvians consider her a terrorist, opposed her parole and have publicly insulted her on the street.

There was no indication that Berenson encountered any trouble departing. The ATV video showed her pacing in front of a ticket counter, wearing a bulky black backpack, with Salvador in a stroller beside her. She wore pants and a brown polo shirt.

Berenson has been repeatedly hounded and mobbed by Peruvian news media, which has occasionally frightened young Salvador. Last month, one TV channel obtained her new address and showed video of her home.

"It was very dangerous," Mark Berenson said. "The (U.S.) Embassy complained."

"It's just not fair to Salvador or to her," he said. "They used her like she's a celebrity and she just wants to be a low-profile person and get on with her life and be a good citizen."

He said he would appeal to President Ollanta Humala to send his daughter home.

Humala could by law commute her sentence but has not indicated whether he might do so. The AP sought presidential palace comment but its calls were not returned.

Lori Berenson is separated from Salvador's father, Anibal Apari, whom she met in prison and who serves as her lawyer.

He told the AP that she had originally filed for permission to leave the country in October but was denied.

Mark Berenson said his daughter is looking forward to seeing relatives she hasn't met since her 20s, including his 96-year-old aunt, and that he wants his grandson, who loves trees, see the New York Botanical Garden's holiday display.

Since her initial parole in May 2010, Lori Berenson repeatedly expressed regret for aiding the rebel Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement.

Arrested in 1995, the former MIT student was accused of helping the rebels plan an armed takeover of Congress, an attack that never happened.

A military court convicted her the following year and sentenced her to life in prison for sedition. But after intense U.S. government pressure, she was retried in civil courts in 2001 and sentenced to 20 years for terrorist collaboration.

Berenson was unrepentant at the time of her arrest, but softened during years of sometimes harsh prison conditions, eventually being praised as a model prisoner.

Yet she is viewed by many as a symbol of the 1980-2000 rebel conflict that claimed some 70,000 lives. The fanatical Maoist Shining Path movement did most of the killing, while Tupac Amaru was a lesser player.

Berenson has acknowledged helping the rebels rent a safe house, where authorities seized a cache of weapons. But she insists she didn't know guns were being stored there. She denies ever belonging to Tupac Amaru or engaging in violent acts.

In an interview with the AP last year, Berenson said she was deeply troubled at having become Peru's "face of terrorism."

Its most famous prisoner, she also became a politically convenient scapegoat, she said.

___

Associated Press writer Martin Villena contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-12-17-LT-Peru-Lori-Berenson/id-6a2000fe0c394377b0cbe286f7ab9373

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Saturday, December 17, 2011

Penn St. coach says he saw, reported molestation

Penn State assistant football coach Mike McQueary, right, arrives at Dauphin County Court surrounded by heavy security Friday, Dec 16, 2011, in Harrisburg, Pa. McQueary declined to speak to reporters Friday as he entered the courthouse in Harrisburg for the hearing for Gary Schultz and Tim Curley, who are set to appear for a preliminary hearing related to the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse case. (AP Photo/Bradley C Bower)

Penn State assistant football coach Mike McQueary, right, arrives at Dauphin County Court surrounded by heavy security Friday, Dec 16, 2011, in Harrisburg, Pa. McQueary declined to speak to reporters Friday as he entered the courthouse in Harrisburg for the hearing for Gary Schultz and Tim Curley, who are set to appear for a preliminary hearing related to the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse case. (AP Photo/Bradley C Bower)

Former Penn State Vice President Gary Schultz, right, arrives for a preliminary hearing at Dauphin County Court, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011, in Harrisburg, Pa. A judge is to determine after the hearing if there's enough evidence to send Schultz and former Penn State athletic director Tim Curley to trial on charges of failure to report abuse to authorities and lying to a grand jury related to the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse case. (AP Photo/Bradley C Bower)

Former Penn State athletic director Tim Curley, right, arrives for a hearing at Dauphin County Court, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011, in Harrisburg, Pa. A judge is to determine after the hearing if there's enough evidence to send Curley and former university Vice President Gary Schultz to trial on charges of failure to report abuse to authorities and lying to a grand jury related to the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse case. (AP Photo/Bradley C Bower)

FILE -- In a Nov. 7, 2011 file photo former Penn State athletic director Tim Curley, left, and former Penn State Vice President Gary Schultz, right, enter a district judge's office for an arraignment in Harrisburg, Pa. Curley and Schultz have been charged with perjury and failure to report under Pennsylvania?s child protective services law in connection with the investigation into allegations involving former football defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, the state attorney general?s office. (AP Photo/Bradley C. Bower/file)

Penn State Assistant Football Coach Mike McQueary, left, departs the Dauphin County Court Friday, Dec 16, 2011 in Harrisburg, PA. McQueary, speaking for the first time in public about the 2002 encounter in a Penn State locker room, said he believes that Jerry Sandusky was attacking a child with his hands around the boy's waist but said he wasn't 100 percent sure it was intercourse. (AP Photo/Bradley C Bower)

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) ? As soon as he walked into the Penn State locker room, Mike McQueary heard running water and rhythmic, slapping sounds of "skin on skin." He looked in a mirror and saw a naked Jerry Sandusky, the former assistant coach, holding a young boy by the waist from behind, up against the wall in the campus shower.

"I just saw Coach Sandusky in the showers with a boy and what I saw was wrong and sexual," McQueary recalled telling his father that night in 2002. He repeated it the next morning to coach Joe Paterno, who slumped deep into his chair at his kitchen table.

"He said, 'I'm sorry you had to see that,'" McQueary said.

McQueary's testimony Friday at a preliminary hearing for two Penn State officials accused of covering up the story was the most detailed, public account yet of the child sex abuse allegations that have upended the university's football program and the entire central Pennsylvania campus. Paterno and the university president have lost their jobs, and officials Tim Curley and Gary Schultz are accused of lying to a grand jury about what McQueary told them.

A Pennsylvania judge on Friday held Curley, the university's athletic director, and Schultz, a retired senior vice president, for trial after the daylong hearing.

Curley said that McQueary never relayed the seriousness of what he saw, and said he was only told that Sandusky was "horsing around" with a boy but that his conduct wasn't sexual.

He said he told the university president about the episode and the top official at a children's charity that Sandusky founded, but never told university police. "I didn't see any reason because I didn't think at the time it was a crime," he told the grand jury, according to testimony read into the record on Friday.

Curley, Schultz and Paterno have been criticized for never telling police about the 2002 charges. Prosecutors say Sandusky continued to abuse boys for six more years. Sandusky has denied having inappropriate sexual contact with boys.

In about two hours on the witness stand, McQueary said again and again that what he saw was a sexual act, although he stopped short of saying he was sure that Sandusky, now 67, had raped the boy.

"I believe Jerry was sexually molesting him and having some type of sexual intercourse with him," McQueary said on Friday. He said later he "can't say 100 percent" that Sandusky and the boy were having intercourse because he was seeing Sandusky from behind.

He said after talking to his father, he went over to Paterno's home the next morning and said that what he had seen "was way over the lines, it was extremely sexual in nature." He said he would not have used words like sodomy or intercourse with Paterno; he did not get into that much detail out of respect for the coach, he said.

Paterno told the grand jury that McQueary said he saw Sandusky doing something of a "sexual nature" with the youngster but that he didn't press for details.

"I didn't push Mike ... because he was very upset," Paterno said. "I knew Mike was upset, and I knew some kind of inappropriate action was being taken by Jerry Sandusky with a youngster."

Paterno told McQueary he would talk to others about what he'd reported.

McQueary said he met nine or 10 days later with Curley and Schultz and told them he'd seen Sandusky and a boy, both naked, in the shower after hearing skin-on-skin slapping sounds.

"I would have described that it was extremely sexual and I thought that some kind of intercourse was going on," said McQueary.

McQueary said he was left with the impression both men took his report seriously. When asked why he didn't go to police, he referenced Schultz's position as a vice president at the university who had overseen the campus police

"I thought I was talking to the head of the police, to be frank with you," he said. "In my mind it was like speaking to a (district attorney). It was someone who police reported to and would know what to do with it."

The square-jawed, red-haired assistant coach spoke in a steady voice in his first public account of the alleged abuse, sometimes turning his seat and leaning toward defense lawyers to answer questions. His voice rose a few times and he blushed once when describing the sexual encounter in the shower.

Defense lawyers for Curley and Schultz argued that a perjury charge should not be based solely on a person's testimony under oath contradicting someone else's testimony. The defense said uncorroborated testimony from McQueary is not enough and sought to pick apart the ways he described the shower scene differently to different people.

The defense noted that McQueary admitted changing his description of the shower encounter when speaking with Paterno ? enough so that the coach didn't believe a crime had occurred.

McQueary said he had stopped by a campus football locker room to drop off a pair of sneakers in the spring of 2002 when he saw Sandusky with the boy, who he estimated was 10 or 12 years old.

McQueary, 37, said he has never described what he saw as anal rape or anal intercourse and couldn't see Sandusky's genitals, but that "it was very clear that it looked like there was intercourse going on."

In its report last month, the grand jury summarized McQueary's testimony as saying he "saw a naked boy ... with his hands up against the wall, being subjected to anal intercourse by a naked Sandusky."

McQueary said he peeked into the shower three times ? the first via a mirror, the other two times directly. The last time he looked in, Sandusky and the boy had separated, he said. He said he didn't say anything, but "I know they saw me. They looked directly in my eye, both of them."

McQueary said the entire encounter ? from when he first entered the locker room to when he retreated to his office ? lasted about 45 seconds.

Curley told the grand jury that he couldn't recall his specific conversation with McQueary, but McQueary never reported seeing anal intercourse or other sexual conduct. He said he spoke to Sandusky about it, who first denied having been in the shower with a boy, but later changed his story.

Schultz said he remembered McQueary and Paterno describing what the younger coach saw only in a very general way.

"I had the impression it was inappropriate," Schultz told the grand jury. "I had the feeling it was some kind of wrestling activity and maybe Jerry might have grabbed a young boy's genitals."

Under cross-examination, McQueary said he considered what he saw a crime but didn't call police because "it was delicate in nature."

"I tried to use my best judgment," he said. "I was sure the act was over." He said he never tried to find the boy.

Paterno, Schultz and Curley didn't testify, but District Judge William C. Wenner read their grand jury testimony from January at the Dauphin County hearing.

Curley's attorney, Caroline Roberto, said prosecutors "will never be able to reach their burden of proof at a trial."

Schultz's attorney, Tom Farrell, predicted his client would be acquitted.

He also took a shot at Paterno, saying, "I'm an Italian from Brooklyn, and he may not have called the police but he may have done what I would have done, which is get the boys in the car with a few baseball bats and crowbars and take it to the fellow."

Sandusky says he is innocent of 52 criminal charges stemming from what authorities say were sexual assaults over 12 years on 10 boys in his home, on Penn State property and elsewhere.

Curley, 57, was placed on leave by the university after his arrest. Schultz, 62, returned to retirement after spending about four decades at the school, most recently as senior vice president for business and finance, and treasurer.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-12-16-Penn%20State-Abuse/id-2fb7731227214b17b61b01631a6b09b4

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Hitchens Dies (talking-points-memo)

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Friday, December 16, 2011

Gaming Iowa Expectations

December 13, 2011


John Ellis says that Newt Gingrich will ultimately under-perform expectations in Iowa "because he does not have a substantial statewide organization" and "he doesn't have any money to buy telemarketing services."

However, Ron Paul "has a substantial field organization and so is likely to somewhat over-perform in the actual balloting."

The key for Mitt Romney "is for Paul to out-perform and for Gingrich to under-perform. This sets up a press narrative of the Gingrich souffle. The Newtster rose and then he fell. The normal laws of political gravity apply. Unstated conclusion: Gingrich is doomed. This is exactly the narrative that Romney needs going into New Hampshire."



Source: http://politicalwire.com/archives/2011/12/13/gaming_iowa_expectations.html

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Store Santas Trained to Lower Kid's Christmas Expectations (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | The Charles W. Howard Santa Claus School, which trains department store and shopping mall Santas, is training its students to deal with the Christmas desires of children in an era of economic malaise, according to the Daily Mail.

The idea is to tamp down on the expectations kids will have about what they'll find under the tree. In order to judge what kids should expect, the school is training their Santas to size-up the kids' parents to try to determine what socio-economic level they happen to be in and thus ascertain what they can afford.

On the one hand, this seems to be a rather sad concession to the continuing economic malaise. Dreams of iPads and video game systems under the tree, even if unfulfilled, can be a balm in a household where the folks are wondering where the next meal is or the mortgage is coming from. As long as Santa is careful not to make any specific promises, everything should work out.

Besides, how does one tell how rich someone is by what they wear? Some of the richest people in the world - the late Steve Jobs comes to mind - dress like slobs. An out of work middle manager will, more often than not, dressed rather well, especially if he or she has stopped by the mall after a job interview.

Here's an idea. If you don't want your kid wanting the latest electronic gadget, take him or her to the mall while dressed like a homeless person. Then Santa will do your work for you in making sure the kid doesn't expect anything.

Tina Korbe, writing at Hot Air, has an interesting idea. Why not send politicians to the Santa school and teach them to lower expectations from their constituents. Perhaps they will learn not to promise that new bridge to nowhere or health care entitlement that the country can't afford.

My favorite story of a store Santa lowering expectations comes from the classic film "A Christmas Story." The movie, set in the 1940s or thereabouts, concerns the quest of a young lad to get a Red Ryder BB gun, even though his mom is reluctant. He asks Santa for the weapon at one point. His response, brief and to the point, "You'll shoot your eye out, kid." No nonsense, no hand-wringing over the idea of parental poverty, just a helpful warning.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oped/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20111214/cm_ac/10566329_store_santas_trained_to_lower_kids_christmas_expectations

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Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Alec Baldwin kicked off LA flight for playing game (omg!)

FILE - In this April 6, 2011 file photo, actor Alec Baldwin speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. Baldwin says he was kicked off a plane at Los Angeles International Airport on Tuesday, Dec 6, 2011 after having words with a flight attendant over an "addicting" word game he was playing on his cellphone. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Alec Baldwin says he was kicked off a plane Tuesday at Los Angeles International Airport after having words with a flight attendant over an "addicting" word game he was playing on his cellphone.

The "30 Rock" actor was asked to get off a New York City-bound flight for playing "Words with Friends" while the plane idled at a gate Tuesday, said Baldwin's spokesman, Matthew Hiltzik.

"He loves 'Words with Friends' so much that he was willing to leave a plane for it," said Hiltzik, who added that Baldwin boarded another American Airlines flight to New York.

Baldwin, a prolific Twitter user, took to the social media site to vent, saying a "flight attendant on American reamed me out 4 playing Words With Friends while we sat at the gate, not moving."

It wasn't clear if passengers had been asked to turn off their cellphones, which is typical before a flight backs away from the terminal.

American Airlines spokesman Ed Martelle declined comment, citing customer privacy concerns.

Airport police Sgt. Belinda Nettles said officers did not respond to the incident.

Baldwin tweeted that it would be his last flight with American, despite the fact that they show "30 Rock" for in-flight entertainment. He mocked American Airlines flight attendants on Twitter, saying the airline is "where Catholic school gym teachers from the 1950's find jobs as flight attendants."

Baldwin called "Words With Friends" an "addicting" game. Players compete online to score the most points by building words with tiles on a Scrabble-like game board.

Baldwin plays the role of executive Jack Donaghy on "30 Rock" and played an amorous ex-husband to Meryl Streep in the 2009 romantic comedy "It's Complicated."

___

Shaya Tayefe Mohajer can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/APShaya . AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang contributed to this report and can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/DerrikJLang .

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_alec_baldwin_kicked_off_la_flight_playing_game234131426/43826762/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/alec-baldwin-kicked-off-la-flight-playing-game-234131426.html

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Tuesday, December 6, 2011

[OOC] Goals of the Good, the Bad, the Confused.

Forum rules
This forum is for OOC discussion about existing roleplays.

Please post all "Players Wanted" threads in the Roleplayers Wanted forum!

This topic is an Out Of Character part of the roleplay, ?The Return of Netharzeem?. Anything posted here will also show up there.

Topic Tags:

Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup.
Alright, so as the title suggests, this is mainly a thread to explain the goals of both parties in this RP. While they will be similar, it will again be left to the players (which will include myself) to improve the plot and create conflict (both within and without).

Now, Ethre'Drax "Drax" Hrumilliuos will be the guide for the anti-heroes in this RP. He will be working as a servant and provide some useful information concerning how they can free Netharzeem.

Simlarly, Jozan von Carstein (to be made) will be in charge of getting together the good heroes and try to stop the Netharzeem worshippers.
Jozan will be an agent of The Lunian Temple, and thus he will have quite the resources to use (depending on how many more good heroes we'll have). He'll be a member of a holy order that seeks to prevent Netharzeem from ever escaping his prison.

[Evil Heroes]
Now, to make it clear about how to open the portal, you'll need the following three items, and since Irish Wolf will be playing an evil wizard, it

1) The other half of the Ancient Summoning Spell from the Mages Library, located somewhere amongst their many thousands of books, in the Mage Capital Aunriel, within the border of the Aunriel.
[Reason:] Well, how else will you be able to open the portal? Ask "pretty please?"

2) The Staff of Power, wielded by the fifth cardinal of the Lunian Temple (Duke Nicholas Usaless). Unlike his peers, he talks directly to the Lunian worshippers, as close as standing before them. He is found in the metropolis city of St. Henderick, within the borders of the Lunian Empire
[Reason:] It will allow the person to boost their magical ability, thus making it easier to open the portal.

3) The Amulet of Protection. While this isn't found, it has to be made. The heroes will have to travel to the Dwarven kingdom of Dungar, through the tunnels and convince (one way or the other) the dwarves to smith this amulet and enchant it with their protective runes.
[Reason:]Opening a portal is much like switching between the channels of your average TV, you don't know exactly where the world/dimension/plane is, and it is most likely that some horrors will escape in the process. Better be safe than sorry.

[Good Heroes]
While I am aiming for an epic battle before the portal, I won't neglect the possibility that it could go the other way around.
Their aim is mainly to destroy, or prevent the anti-heroes from achieving their goals.

1) The other half of the Ancient Summoning Spell has to dispelled.
[Reason:] As the paper contains powerful enchantments which (if ripped over like normal paper) will cause the energies to be released. So, in conclusion, if you rip it in twos, it will say BOOM!

2) Have it relocated to the dungeon of Havenport.
[Reason:] while the staff is (officially) safe in the hands of Duke Nicholas Usaless, rather ensure that it is far away from the reach of anyone who'd abuse the staff's powers.

3) Simply prevent the amulet from being created. Ever.
[Reason:] It is all for the greater good of the world.

User avatar
Saxious
Member for 3 years



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