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Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/21134540/vp/52051943#52051943
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Friday, May 31, 2013
Key EU fishing reform deal clinched
31 May 2013
Last updated at 08:44 ET
Campaigners have welcomed an EU decision that looks likely to preserve fish stocks and support the owners of small fishing boats in coastal ports.
They say the fisheries deal between ministers and the European Parliament is good for fish and fishermen.
It is the latest step in marathon negotiations to reform the controversial Common Fisheries Policy.
Fishing groups are urging politicians to ensure that the reformed CFP rules allow them to stay in business.
The decision is a compromise between the European Parliament, which wants radical reform, and the Council, where member states led by Spain and France are trying to protect industrial fishing.
The final wording of the package has not yet been agreed and the full parliament plans to hold a vote on it in June or July.
Campaigners say the result is largely a victory for reform. It will allow nations to reallocate fish quotas from large operators to small, in a drive to reduce the damage caused by overfishing.
Simon Clydesdale from the environmental group Greenpeace said that ?for decades in Europe fishing has been a story of decline, with severe over-exploitation of fish stocks and small-scale fishermen squeezed out of business by a minority of fishing barons.
?For all its loopholes and sluggish timelines the policy agreed last night has the potential to turn Europe?s destructive and oversized fishing industry into a sustainable, low-impact sector.?
Crackdown on discardsAnother key decision consolidated the broad principle that Europe?s fish quotas should be set at a level where stocks can actually recover, instead of just stabilising. This was said by the Council to be a breakthrough, although Tony Long of the campaign group WWF complained: ?The majority of Europe?s governments decided to stonewall negotiations.?
The meeting confirmed a previous decision to phase out the policy of discarding fish ? starting with mackerel and other pelagic species by 2015. Pelagic fish live in the upper layers of the oceans. All fish will be covered by the policy by 2020. Again, there is something of a loophole as a small percentage of fish discards will continue until then.
The next phase is for fisheries to start working on detailed multi-annual plans to ensure that stocks are managed prudently. These should take the place of the annual December Fisheries Council meetings that have led to ministers bidding against each other to raise the quota for domestic fleets.
The UK environment department Defra has welcomed a move to allow regional fisheries to escape micro-management from Brussels.
Fisheries Minister Richard Benyon said the UK "has pressed hard for many years to reform this broken policy so we can fish more sustainably, ban discards and end the one-size-fits-all approach to decision-making.
"It is great news that we are almost there. We hope that we can agree the final deal very soon," he said.
An industry body, the Scottish Fishermen?s Federation, is urging the rule-makers to take practical steps to help fishing fleets. Its chief executive Bertie Armstrong said: ?Fishing provides a crucial renewable food resource, so it?s vital that measures to protect our fishermen are at the heart of the CFP.?
Meanwhile the British celebrity chef and Fish Fight campaigner, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, said the CFP reform "doesn't mean the Fish Fight is over, but this is a tremendous achievement which I really believe would not have happened without the help and support of all 860,000 of our Fish Fight supporters".
"The great news is that it will hugely reduce discards across Europe," he said.
Follow Roger on Twitter @rharrabin
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22717796#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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Are children who take Ritalin for ADHD at greater risk of future drug abuse?
May 29, 2013 ? UCLA research has shown that that children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder are far more likely than other kids to develop serious substance abuse problems as adolescents and adults. But do stimulant medications used to treat ADHD contribute to the risk?
UCLA psychologists have conducted the most comprehensive assessment ever on this question and have found that children with ADHD who take medications such as Ritalin and Adderall are at no greater risk of using alcohol, marijuana, nicotine or cocaine later in life than kids with ADHD who don't take these medications.
The psychologists analyzed 15 long-term studies, including data from three studies not yet published. These studies followed more than 2,500 children with ADHD from childhood into adolescence and young adulthood.
"We found the children were neither more likely nor less likely to develop alcohol and substance-use disorders as a result of being treated with stimulant medication," said Kathryn Humphreys, a doctoral candidate in UCLA's Department of Psychology and lead author of the study. "We found no association between the use of medication such as Ritalin and future abuse of alcohol, nicotine, marijuana and cocaine."
The children assessed in the studies, who had a mean age of 8 years old when the studies began and 20 at the most recent follow-up assessment, come from a broad geographical range, including California, New York, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Germany and Canada. The research is published in the May 29 issue of the journal JAMA Psychiatry, a psychiatry research journal published by the American Medical Association.
What does this study mean for parents of children with ADHD?
"For any particular child, parents should consult with the prescribing physician about potential side effects and long-term risks," said Steve S. Lee, a UCLA associate professor of psychology and senior author of the study. "Saying that all parents need not be concerned about the use of stimulant medication for their children is an overstatement; parents should have the conversation with the physician. As with other medications, there are potential side effects, and the patient should be carefully evaluated to, for example, determine the proper dosage."
"For parents whose major concern about Ritalin and Adderall is about the future risk for substance abuse, this study may be helpful to them," Humphreys said. "We found that on average, their child is at no more or less at risk for later substance dependence. This does not apply to every child but does apply on average. However, later substance use is usually not the only factor parents think about when they are choosing treatment for their child's ADHD."
Ritalin is associated with certain side effects, such as suppressing appetite, disrupting sleep and changes in weight, Lee said.
Lee, Humphreys and their colleagues reported in 2011 that children with ADHD are two to three times more likely than children without the disorder to develop serious substance-abuse problems in adolescence and adulthood, including the use of nicotine, alcohol, marijuana, cocaine and other drugs. This new study does not challenge that finding but finds that, on average, children who take stimulant medication for ADHD are not at additional risk for future substance abuse.
"The majority of children with ADHD -- at least two-thirds -- show significant problems academically, in social relationships, and with anxiety and depression when you follow them into adolescence," Lee said.
As the individuals in the studies get older, researchers will be able to study the rate at which they graduate from college, get married, have children and/or get divorced and to assess how well they function, Humphreys said.
ADHD occurs in approximately 5 percent to 10 percent of children in the U.S., and figures in many other industrialized countries with compulsory education are comparable, according to Lee. ADHD is about three to three-and-a-half more prevalent in boys than girls, he said.
Symptoms of the disorder include being easily distracted, fidgeting, being unable to complete a single task and being easily bored. However, to receive a diagnosis of ADHD by a child psychologist or psychiatrist, a child must have at least six of nine symptoms of either hyperactivity or inattention, the child's behavior must be causing problems in his or her life, and the symptoms must not be explainable by any medical condition or any other mental disorder.
Children can be hyperactive, distracted and inattentive for a variety of reasons, Lee said, not only because of ADHD but also because some of them are abused, malnourished, depressed or have impaired vision, Lee said.
Many more children meet the criteria for ADHD than are being treated for it, and many children may benefit from treatment who are not receiving it, Lee and Humphreys said.
Lee's laboratory is conducting a study of 230 children, both with and without ADHD, who were 6 to 9 years old at the beginning of the research and are now 10 to 13, to identify predictors of early and problematic alcohol use. That research is federally funded by the National Institutes of Health.
As children with ADHD enter adolescence and adulthood, they typically fall into three groups of roughly equal size, Lee said: one-third will have significant problems in school and socially; one-third will have moderate impairment; and one-third will exhibit only mild impairment.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/kKMdGxhW_5M/130529191039.htm
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Hollywood goes Broadway: Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Jesse Eisenberg presenting at Tony Awards
By Tony Maglio LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Have you ever been watching a "Flintstones" cartoon and thought, "This would be much better with professional wrestlers?" Us neither. But we're getting it anyway. WWE Studios has tag-teamed with Warner Bros. to co-produce a "Flintstones" direct-to-home-video animated movie, to be released on Blu-ray, DVD, VOD and digital download in early 2015, WWE Studios said on Wednesday. WWE talent John Cena, CM Punk and others will join owner Vince McMahon to provide voices for the movie, which will see Fred, Barney and the gang attending a WWE match. ...
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hollywood-goes-broadway-tom-hanks-scarlett-johansson-jesse-003633626.html
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Razer reveals the Blade Pro and 14-inch Blade gaming laptops (update: $999 Pro for indie game devs)
Razer promised it was aiming to iterate its Blade gaming laptop on a yearly basis, and despite the company's recent focus on tablets, it appears to be keeping its word. Today, a mere eight months after releasing the second-gen Blade, Razer unveiled two new members of the Blade family: the 17-inch Blade Pro and its 14-inch sibling. As you might expect, the Pro tops its elders with new silicon and storage options. It's exchanging third-gen Intel Ivy Bridge silicon for a fourth-gen Haswell chip and upgrading from an NVIDIA GTX 660M to a GTX 765M GPU. Oh, and Razer's nixed the HDD options from the big Blade's menu -- the Pro packs a 128GB SSD standard, with optional upgrades to 256 or 512GB. That new hardware is evidently smaller than what it's replacing: though the Pro shares the same size chassis as its predecessor, it packs a 74Wh battery (the older Blade has a 60Wh cell). Other than that, the Blade Pro comes with Razer's Switchblade interface, a trio of USB 3.0 ports, 802.11 a/b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 and a 1920 x 1080 display, just like the prior Blade.
Meanwhile, the new 14-inch Blade will come with mostly the same hardware as the Pro, meaning it's got a Haswell chip and GTX 765M graphics along with a buffet of SSD choices. Those components are stuffed inside a chassis that measures 13.6 x 9.3 x 0.66 inches, and weighs 4.13 pounds. Naturally, given its smaller size, it lacks the Switchblade LCD and buttons, has a 1.3 megapixel webcam (as opposed to the Pro's 2 megapixel unit) and a 14-inch 1600 x 900 display. And, despite its relatively svelte dimensions (for a portable gaming rig), the baby Blade still has a 70Wh battery inside. The Pro starts at $2,299, or $200 less than prior Blades and the 14-inch model will set you back a minimum of $1,799. Each will be available in North America in Q2, with a worldwide rollout of the Pro coming sometime later this year.
Update: Good news, Indie game developers! Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan just announced that those devs with a successfully funded Kickstarter can get a new Blade Pro for just $999.
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/jgweW8E1HwM/
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Thursday, May 30, 2013
Dropbox Currently Experiencing Widespread Service Outage
Dropbox is undergoing a pretty widespread service outage, according to our own tests and multiple reports from around the world on Twitter. It's been down for around 3o minutes as of this writing, and the outage appears to affect both Dropbox connected apps as well as the web-based Dropbox services on its own site. Users are greeted with the message above, and Dropbox has yet to comment on the outage via its public channels.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/K0aNUqK3qfI/
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Tech News Headlines - Yahoo! News
Apes Have Temper Tantrums, Too
Chimpanzees and bonobos have temper tantrums when their decisions don't play out as they'd hoped, hinting that humans aren't the only species to let More??
LiveScience.com - 3 hrs agoWhy Older Adults Are Happier
WASHINGTON ? People tend to get happier as they age, and a new study could explain why: Older adults may be better able to deal with negative emotions More??
LiveScience.com - 6 hrs agoSource: http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/techblog
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HTC T6 rumored to offer 5.9-inch 1080p display, 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800
If the HTC One is just too small for your needs, perhaps the latest rumor will perk you up: a 5.9-inch HTC device code-named the T6 is purportedly in development. Notable leakster @evleaks has dug up a few details about this handset, and -- if true -- this is going to be one heck of a refresh to the company's premier lineup. Here's what we've heard so far: it's consistent with the One's general look, sports a 1080p display, a 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 chipset (MSM8974), BoomSound, an OIS-equipped UltraPixel camera, 2GB RAM and a 3,300mAh battery. The T6 will supposedly feature a dedicated pen / stylus as well as a biometric fingerprint scanner around the back. Curiously, it's also reported that the T6 will have a microSD slot -- an addition that would be inconsistent with HTC's current design strategy -- and will run on Android Key Lime Pie. The latter rumor seems unlikely, given the high chance that 4.3 will be a Jelly Bean release, but we suppose anything can happen between now and late summer / early fall (the T6's supposed launch timeframe). That said, all of the above rumors are making us very excited -- and hopeful -- for what HTC is cooking up, provided it still fits comfortably in our hands.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, HTC
Source: TheUnlockr
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Syrian opposition says peace talks must guarantee Assad's exit
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Syria's opposition coalition said on Wednesday it would only take part in a planned peace conference in Geneva if a deadline was set for an internationally-guaranteed settlement based on President Bashar al-Assad leaving power.
In its first official reaction to the conference being prepared by the United States and Russia, the coalition voted to adopt a declaration seen by Reuters that said it was committed to the aim of removing Assad and his most senior officials.
"The participation of the Syrians in any conference is tied to the presentation of a deadline for a solution and giving the necessary binding international guarantees," said the statement, issued after seven days of meeting riven by internal dispute.
"The Syrian Coalition welcomes the international efforts to find a political solution to what Syria has been suffering for two years while being committed to the principles of the revolution," it said.
The declaration said "the removal of the head of the regime and the security and military command" was paramount.
The talks have been marred by disagreement within the coalition over broadening its membership and appointing a new leadership. Lack of unity has threatened to rob the Islamist-dominated alliance of international support.
The 60-member coalition has so far failed to agree on the wider involvement of a liberal opposition bloc, to the dismay of Western and some Arab backers keen to reduce Islamist influence.
(Reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Andrew Roche)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-opposition-says-peace-talks-must-guarantee-assads-165458402.html
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Gmail for iOS and desktop getting overhauled, aims to put you back in control
Google's Gmail is the next service from Mountain View to go through an overhaul, and today they're showing off what is rolling out across the desktop and to iOS. The aim; to give back control of your inbox to you.
In the desktop environment, all your mail will be organized into categories, all you need to do is dictate what they're going to be. At the top of your inbox, these categories will appear as tabs, with even the opportunity to drag and drop messages between them. On iOS you'll see your main, primary inbox when you fire up Gmail, but all the same categories will be accessible via the slide out menu.
For heavy Gmail users this is great news. We've had apps on iOS such as Mailbox that have come about to help you wrestle back control of your Gmail inbox, but the effort ultimately needed to come from Google. The iOS Gmail app is pretty good, but the desktop experience as it currently stands can be a chaotic environment, so any help is good help. The new inbox will roll out to everyone 'gradually', with an update to the iOS app due in the coming weeks. Is this likely to make you revert back to using Google's own apps to manage your Gmail?
Source: Google
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/WIXQp9KTR4c/story01.htm
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Game Added: Kinect Sports Gems: Boxing Fight
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Source: http://www.xbox360achievements.org/news-3163-Game-Added--Kinect-Sports-Gems--Boxing-Fight.html
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Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Drone crashes in southern Somalia, may have been shot down
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A suspected U.S. reconnaissance drone crashed on Tuesday in southern Somalia, where African forces are fighting Islamist al Shabaab insurgents, the rebels and the provincial governor said.
Lower Shabelle region governor Abdikadir Mohamed Nur said that al Shabaab militants had shot at the aircraft over the town of Bulamareer for several hours before it crashed.
"Finally they hit it and the drone crashed," Nur told Reuters.
The insurgents confirmed that a drone had crashed but did not say if they had downed it.
"A U.S. drone has just crashed near one of the towns under the administration of the Mujahideen in the Lower Shabelle region," al Shabaab said on a social media account.
Although the United States does not report its activities in Somalia, drones have been used in recent years to kill Somali and foreign al Shabaab fighters.
Western nations are worried that Somalia will sink back into chaos and provide a launchpad for Islamist militancy despite a fragile recovery after two decades of war.
Last year, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Pentagon was seeking to send drones to Kenya as part of a $40 million-plus military aid package to help four African countries fighting al Qaeda and al Shabaab militants
Bulamareer residents said al Shabaab fighters had kept them away from the crash site.
"Al Shabaab fighters surrounded the scene. We are not allowed to go near it," resident Aden Farah told Reuters.
Al Shabaab, which is affiliated with al Qaeda, said in January 2011 that a missile launched from a drone had killed Bilal el Berjawi, a Lebanese al Shabaab fighter who held a British passport.
Another missile killed four foreign militants south of the Somali capital Mogadishu in February 2012.
Al Shabaab were driven out of Mogadishu in late 2011 and are struggling to hold on to territory elsewhere in the face of attacks by Kenyan, Ethiopian and African Union forces trying to prevent Islamist militancy spreading out from Somalia.
(Reporting by Feisal Omar and Abdi Sheikh; Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/drone-crashes-southern-somalia-may-shot-down-141602526.html
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These Incredible Maps Were Made with Thousands of Photographs
Japanese photographer Sohei Nishino created these wonderful pieces of art by actually using individual pictures of landmarks and locations to map out the city. Nishino walks around each city for months and takes the photographs himself. It's a map that shows you the actual city, not just an outline.
The Diorama Maps are made from Nishino's experience of traveling around a city. He sketches a rough outline of the city's layout and then cuts up pictures and glues them into a map. It's not going to be completely accurate but you can definitely see the shape and more importantly the soul of the city come to life with his maps. [Sohei Nishino via PetaPixel]
New York, New York
Paris
Tokyo
Rio de Janeiro
Source: http://gizmodo.com/these-incredible-maps-were-made-with-thousands-of-photo-510210454
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Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Handy mit oder ohne VertragTo All Internet Marketers - How To Get ...
More and more people are realizing that the Internet offers great potential to set up a healthy business for pennies on the dollar. This is good news for internet marketers - but it also means that they need to lift their game.
Why? Because the would-be "netpreneur" has access to way more training than ever before. It's possible to get up to speed very quickly on what is needed to get started online. This, in turn, means that people quickly recognize what offers true value and what does not. They see so many sales letters that they become, to a certain degree, immune to the typical hype. They're willing to spend - but they want value for money. They want to be treated like intelligent and discerning adults.
So here's a message to all 'gurus' (and aspiring gurus) who are keen to get their share of the dollars waiting to be sent flying their way via cyberspace.
1) What does it take to make people want to buy "you" rather than some other internet marketer?
2) What might make people want to unsubscribe from your list?
3) And what pushes them into asking for a refund?
What Makes People Want to Buy?
- They buy if they can see that a product will give them new knowledge and understanding.
- They buy if the purchase will speed up business growth.
- They buy if a product will automate a task that eats into their time. (People quickly learn to spend their time on marketing and product creation, rather than repetitive tasks.)
Tip: Once newbies have been exposed to a few sales pages, it's not long before they learn to look beyond the sales hype. They study a sales letter carefully to work out what the product will "really" offer them. (Do they need this? Or will it duplicate something else they own?)
They also learn to look for value for money. Some higher-priced products are worth every cent. Some cheaper products add very little to what they already know.
(Note: Savvy internet marketers already realize that if they put together online interviews offering truly valuable information, they are far more likely to attract and keep new customers. A quick example: Jane Smith listens to a one-hour audio interview on search engine optimization and traffic. She finds out some really useful information she has not so far heard anywhere else. She decides that this guy knows what he's talking about and shells out a couple of hundred dollars for his products.)
What Makes People Want to Unsubscribe from a List?
- Getting four identical emails trying to sell them the same product, because the sender hasn't figured out how to move them from one list to another after they buy.
- Getting a 'canned' email sounding full of excitement about a new product or service - which turns out to be a duplicate of the email they get from six other marketers who are affiliates for the same product.
- Getting email from a product creator about anything under the sun because you bought XXX product from them. If your customers sign up for a newsletter, they expect mailings.
What Makes People Want to Ask for a Refund?
In the past, buyers tended to shrug and write off a bad purchase. But increasingly, people are prepared to stand up for their rights. If they feel they have not received value for money, they will ask for a refund.
So what makes them decide to ask for their money back?
- Software that doesn't work as it is supposed to.
- Physical products (CDs, DVDs) that don't work on their systems.
- An e-book that is full of content easily found in an hour's net-surfing.
- An e-book that has skimped on content or that has been poorly written.
- An e-book that not only skimps on content but is full of links to up-sells to get the 'really valuable' information, or is full of affiliate links.
The last case, an e-book full of affiliate links or links to an up-sell...is something you should be giving away free as part of your viral marketing campaign. Charge for it and you risk your reputation for being a source of quality information.
Other things that bite into your customer's valuable time.
- MP3's that are streamed from a website rather than being downloadable.
- e-books that are in ".exe" format only, so the customer can't print them out in one 'hit' (and can't access them on a Mac computer).
Give your clients anything that they can listen to or read away from the computer. Most of them spend enough hours a day at the keyboard already. They'd rather load an audio interview into their MP3 players and listen while they go for a walk or relax in the sun. They'd prefer to print out an e-book and read it or mark it up while sitting in an easy chair.
Please, please don't tether them to the computer!
And finally, about those "name squeeze" pages. People are very quickly getting tired of having to give up their email addresses just to get to a sales page. Do you want them to buy or not? These days, unless there's a huge buzz around the Net and they want to see what it's all about, prospective customers are just as likely to click the 'back' button on their browser, or close the window and leave.
After all, there's always another internet marketer waiting to sell them a product. Probably one very similar to yours. Marketers who respect their client's time and intelligence are the ones who will get their loyalty - and their cash.
About the author: Shane Woods has been earning an income since 2004. He is a highly skilled internet Marketer and researcher, specializing in earning an income from affiliate programs. http://www.automatedrecruiting.com
Author: Shane Woods
Source: http://pes3.de/957690-To-All-Internet-Marketers-How-To-Get-My-Business.html
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Steve Heilig: War -- What Is It Good For? Some Memorial Day Reflections
Memorial Day, like Veteran's Day, always brings conflicted thoughts and emotions. Here are some of them, spurred by some recent books and other reports. Americans have a longtime romance with war movies, books and stories, but these are a little different.
I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its stupidity.Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together.
- President/General Dwight D. Eisenhower
My father worked the "industrial" side of what Eisenhower famously called the military-industrial complex. He ran a division of a major automobile corporation that made weaponry, or parts thereof, for the military. After he died, we found a letter addressed to him from a senior general he worked with. The letter said (paraphrasing; I've misplaced it): "It has come to our attention that you have brought in a major project under budget and before deadline. Please don't ever do that again, as it makes us all look bad." The letter was a joke among old pals, but belied a major problem -- these old military cronies (my father was a Navy man, and stayed involved the rest of his life) were used to going way over budget in their use of tax dollars to fund "defense" or, in the case of Vietnam at the time, offense. It was an offhand insiders' joke among good old Cold Warriors -- who didn't seem to worry that their practices came at the expense of taxpayers' funds and probably human lives.
This old letter came to mind as I read of the current national budgetary debates, much of which has focused on the military. I'm no expert in this realm, but have found some recent books to be illuminating about our nation's military history, and how it has shaped and warped our economy and policy. Start with this fact: The U.S. spends more on "defense" than all other nations combined, but still we have lost and/or blundered most every war we've entered in the past half century. Now read on....
The first book is National Insecurity: The Cost of American Militarism by Melvin A. Goodman. Goodman, who spent 24 years with the CIA, provides an incisive insider's examination of what he calls our "military economy," and how outsized "defense" spending and profiteering results in much more "offense" than might otherwise be conducted or justified. The result is untold suffering and, in some cases, belated apologies. With a focus on the most recent such "adventures" in Iraq and Afghanistan, Goodman summarizes much of what any impartial informed view of these wars, especially the Iraq disaster, must conclude -- they have been a "monumental blunder," as former New York Times editor Bill Keller, a former supporter, had to conclude from the evidence a decade into the war.
Beyond the economic near-disaster brought to our own country, our national reputation was stained by our use of torture, which has again been confirmed by a recent bipartisan task force that concluded that such practices "had "no justification" and "damaged the standing of our nation, reduced our capacity to convey moral censure when necessary and potentially increased the danger to U.S. military personnel taken captive."
Further, we have provided oft-shameful care of veterans, and are now seeing a shameful scandal unfold regarding sexual abuse among our own soldiers.
It thus should not be so surprising to read of the tragic frequency of suicides among those we send to war (on this latter tragic point, a recent letter in the New York Times by Sandy Savett offered this terse prescription: "A good way to cut down on suicides in the military is to stop sending young people to war").
The second book is Nick Turse's Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam. The Vietnam War has been examined enough, with enough apology even by those who conducted it -- see Robert McNamara's belated mea culpa -- that one might think there was nothing left to tell or lament. But Turse provides a catalog of atrocities so pervasive and inexcusable that this reader will never be able to feel unreservedly proud of our nation again, and never feel wholly justified in criticizing another. Our military in this war was as bad as any in history. America committed genocide there -- and not for the first time.
The third book, also centered on the Vietnam War, is Napalm: An American Biography by Robert Neer. This one reads like a case study of arms development, with the product being deployed without discretion or mercy, in the name of victory but also profit. Countless humans -- and, I can't help but add, other creatures -- suffered and died horribly from napalm's use. True to form and too late for them, the United Nations called the use of napalm against civilians a war crime in 1980. Also true to form, our own nation admitted to that global consensus just a few years ago.
Napalm's most visible and infamous victim was Kim Phuc, a nine-year-old girl photgraphed running down a road in agony. In Neer's book, she now relates that she has been in physical pain ever since, but that for decades the psychic pain was even worse. She lived in anger and hatred of Americans, and "I had cursed them to death." But after finding foregiveness, "I feel there are no more scars on my heart." It's a beautiful redemption; but her struggle did not have to happen in the first place.
The final book is What Soldiers Do: Sex and the American GI in World War II France by Mary Louise Roberts. World War II was the one "good war," supposedly, where "the greatest generation" were unequivocal heroes. Well, read this book and learn how many of our soldiers acted simiarly to the hated Japanese and Germans, raping and abusing the very people they had just "liberated" -- with the acquiescence and even encouragement of their leaders. As the title says, maybe that's just what soldiers do -- history would seem to tell us so.
Currently there are budgetary debates about how much we might be able to cut "defense" spending. The argument becomes partisan, with "conservatives" arguing that this is the one area where we need to spend as much as we currently do -- or more. Somehow, as even a Republican politician has lamented, "Conservatism came to mean 'I deserve to drive my SUV as much as I want and will send other people's kids to fight for that right.'" But increasingly, even self-identified conservatives are joining Eisenhower in seeing the folly of our being "seduced by war" -- and that "support our troops" is an empty slogan when that just means a bumper sticker. How about cutting expenses on unneeded weaponry and bases, and spending that on better services for veterans -- and others? There are many opportunity costs to us being the biggest military power of all time. Even a relatively small percentage cut in military spending could fund so much in terms of human services, and many experts feel it could be done with no loss in terms of our national security. Goodman, in his book, offers expert advice on how this might be attained.
Now, I'm very aware of George Orwell's famed statement that "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." The majority of soldiers likely go to war, at least at first, due to loyalty and even idealism (although it must also be noted that enlistment in a no-draft military is often, even mostly, driven by economic need). I've no illusions that the world can be dangerous and I'm glad I live in a relatively safe, and even relatively dominant, nation. I even admit to "interventionist" urges when I read of, say, Syria's President Bashar al-Assad using language from his medical background to justify his regime's slaughter ("When a surgeon in an operating room ... cuts and cleans and amputates, and the wound bleeds, do we say to him your hands are stained with blood?"). That makes me wish we could somehow remove him from power, and save lives at a minimum.
But there is such a thing as overkill -- literally. It's said that everything looks like a nail if you're holding a hammer; the United States has long had many more "hammers" than it needs. We need to scale it back, and maybe these books and other viewpoints, even though they might not be entirely new, indicate a growing awareness of that. I consider myself a patriot, but blind patriotism is really meaningless; "my country, right or wrong" is the slogan of the blind. We can both honor those who have sacrificed and do much better. Even my hawkish and lifelong Republican father, as he was a highly-educated man, came to see Iraq as a mistake. And when the historical evidence is reviewed, it seems that the old 1969 Temptations/Edwin Starr Motown hit -- later revived by Bruce Springsteen -- had it right:
"War! What is it good for? Absolutely nothin'!"
Say it again.
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-heilig/war-what-is-it-good-for-s_b_3340842.html
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Republicans see 'Obamacare' issues as key to 2014
WASHINGTON (AP) ? If Republicans were writing a movie script for next year's congressional elections, the working title might be "2014: Apocalypse of Obamacare."
The plot: The rollout of President Barack Obama's health care law turns into such a disaster that enraged voters rebuke him by rewarding the GOP with undisputed control of Congress.
But there's a risk for Republicans if they're wrong and the Affordable Care Act works reasonably well, particularly in states that have embraced it. Republicans might be seen as obstinately standing in the way of progress.
The law already has been a political prop in two election seasons, but next year will be different.
Voters will have a real program to judge, working or dysfunctional. Will affordable health care finally be a reality for millions of uninsured working people? Or will premiums skyrocket as the heavy hand of government upends already fragile insurance markets for small businesses and individuals?
"The end of this movie has not been written," said Robert Blendon, a Harvard professor who tracks public opinion on health care. He says next year's movie actually will be a documentary: what happens in states that fully put the law in place and those that resist ? "a message of reality."
One of the most prominent doomsayers is Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who predicts "Obamacare" probably will be the biggest issue of 2014 and "an albatross around the neck of every Democrat who voted for it."
"This thing can't possibly work," says McConnell. "It will be a huge disaster in 2014."
Counting on that, House Republicans are busy framing an election narrative, voting to repeal the health law and trying to link it to the scandal over the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of tea party groups. It could help excite the conservative base.
But Democratic pollster Celinda Lake doubts reality will follow the GOP script. Next year, "we won't have to worry about the mythology laid out by the right wing about Obamacare: death panels and dramatic cuts to Medicare," she said.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said uninsured people in her state will have over 200 coverage options to choose from. "We have been hearing the fear, but in states like mine, people are seeing the reality," she said.
In just about five months, people without access to coverage through their jobs can start shopping for subsidized private insurance in new state markets. The actual benefits begin Jan. 1. But because of continuing opposition to the law from many Republican governors and state legislators, the federal government will be running the insurance markets in more than half the states.
Another major element of the law, the expansion of Medicaid to serve more low-income people, also has run into problems. With many legislative sessions over or winding down, it looks like fewer than half the states may accept the expansion. That means millions of low-income people are likely to remain uninsured, at least initially.
Other early indicators of how well the health care rollout might fare are mixed.
In a dozen or so states that have started releasing details of their new insurance markets, there's robust insurer interest in participating, according to the market research firm Avalere Health. That's a good signal for competition.
There still are concerns about a spike in premiums for people who already buy their own coverage, particularly the young and healthy. That could happen for several reasons.
The health care law forbids insurers to deny coverage to sick people, and it limits what older adults can be charged. Also, the plans that will be offered next year are more comprehensive than many bare-bones policies currently available to individuals.
Another big source of angst is the Obama administration. The Health and Human Services Department will be running the program in half the country while trying to fight off attempts by congressional Republicans to starve it financially. Unusual for a social program, the administration is largely operating behind a veil of secrecy.
Will Obama's underlings turn out to be the Keystone Kops of health care?
Frustration that he and his constituents couldn't get basic information from the administration led one of the authors of the law, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., to warn recently that he sees "a huge train wreck coming down."
Republicans loved it. Lost in the uproar was the fact that Baucus was referring to potential problems with implementation. He stills thinks the health care law itself is a good thing.
The administration official running the rollout, Gary Cohen, told Congress this past that he didn't agree with the senator's statement. "We are very much on schedule," Cohen said.
Republican pollster Bill McInturff says he's skeptical of what he hears from the administration as well as from his own party. McInturff, who has made polling on health care his specialty, says the launch of any national program is bound to have problems. President George W. Bush's Medicare prescription benefit went through several weeks of chaos before things got smoothed out.
"Life experience says to me there is not going to be some simple, clear narrative that is sitting here today," McInturff said.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/republicans-see-obamacare-issues-key-2014-074314054.html
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StanChart Kenya pretax profit falls in first quarter
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Standard Chartered Bank of Kenya posted a 16 percent drop in pretax profit for the first quarter to 2.73 billion shillings, it said on Tuesday.
The bank, controlled by Standard Chartered Plc, said total operating expenses increased by about 400 million shillings, driven by higher staff costs and loan-loss provisions.
Basic earnings per share fell to 6.06 shillings from 7.79 shillings a year ago, the bank said, adding that the outlook for the rest of the year was positive.
"We remain confident in the outlook for the business as we expect ... momentum to pick (up) pace, especially as the uncertainties around the elections are now behind us," Chief Executive Richard Etemesi said in a statement.
Optimism about east Africa's biggest economy has risen since the country held a peaceful presidential poll in March, in contrast with the violence-riddled poll of five years ago when more than 1,200 people died.
Standard Chartered Bank of Kenya's net interest income edged up 2 percent to 3.7 billion shillings, while non-interest income fell 9 percent to 1.7 billion shillings, due to the absence of last year's income from the sale of government securities.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stanchart-kenyas-q1-pretax-profit-slides-16-pct-132626528.html
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NACCHO health and racism news:Adam Goodes and Aussie stars ...
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The racist incident at the Swans vs Collingwood game last Friday night should not overshadow the magnificent performance by Adam Goodes (pictured above Friday night Indigenous Round ) nor the wonderful activities this week to celebrate the contribution of Indigenous players to the AFL, but it reinforces the need for ongoing education and the importance of calling racism out when it is witnessed.?Play by the Rules Co-Chair, Graeme Innes
The Australian Human Rights Commission?s Racism. It Stops With Me campaign and the Play by the Rules program have partnered to produce a powerful new TV Community Service Announcement (CSA) for sporting organisations to play at their events and to promote on their websites and through their social media forums.
REFER previous NACCHO communique Racism and Health consequences
??The TV CSA (and several radio CSAs) will be broadcast nationally until the start of August and will also be available on the Australian Human Rights Commission and Play by the Rules YouTube channels and websites,? said Commission President, Gillian Triggs.??
The TV CSA features an all-star cast of Australia?s best known sporting heroes including:
Sally Pearson (athletics), Adam Goodes (AFL), Liz Cambage (basketball), Greg Inglis (rugby league and NRL Indigenous All-stars), Peter Siddle (cricket), Mo?onia Gerrard (netball), AFL Indigenous All-stars, Archie Thompson (football/soccer), Cameron Smith (rugby league), Drew Mitchell (rugby union), Timana Tahu (rugby league), Nick Maxwell (AFL) and some grassroots athletes of different ages and backgrounds.
They reinforce the simple message ? Racism. It Stops With Me.
?Despite a range of programs and policies, incidents of racism and discrimination still occur on a regular basis from the elite to grassroots level across a range of sports every season.
??Sport is all about having fun, competing safely and getting a fair go, regardless of your skin colour, background or culture.
Whether you?re a player, spectator, coach or official, there?s simply no place for racism or discrimination in sport,? federal Disability Discrimination Commissioner and Play by the Rules Co-Chair, Graeme Innes said. ?The alleged racist incident at the Swans vs Collingwood game last night should not overshadow the magnificent performance by Adam Goodes nor the wonderful activities this week to celebrate the contribution of Indigenous players to the AFL, but it reinforces the need for ongoing education and the importance of calling racism out when it is witnessed.?
?Executive Director of Sport and Recreation Tasmania, Craig Martin, also a Play by the Rules Co-Chair, said, ?With the AFL, Rugby League, Netball and Rugby Union seasons all now in progress, the Football (soccer) season just finished and the Cricket Tests about to commence in the UK, this is a timely opportunity to remind everyone in sport that racism is not acceptable and will not be tolerated.?
?Racism. It Stops With Me is an initiative of the National Anti-Racism Strategy which invites all Australians to reflect on what they can do to counter racism wherever it happens. Sporting organisations can take a strong stand against racism by committing to the Racism.
It Stops with Me campaign at: itstopswithme.humanrights.gov.au/it-stops-with-me/support-campaign.
Clubs can also access tools and resources to stamp racism out of sport at:
www.playbytherules.net.au/component/content/article/81-resources/links/1245-racism-in-sport-toolkit?highlight=WyJyYWNpc20iXQ
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Play by the Rules is a unique collaboration between the Australian Sports Commission, Australian Human Rights Commission, all state and territory departments of sport and recreation, all state and territory anti-discrimination and human rights agencies, the NSW Commission for Children and Young People and the Australian and New Zealand Sports Law Association (ANZSLA). For more information on how to promote safe, fair and inclusive participation within your sporting club or organisation contact admin@playbytherules.net.au or visit www.playbytherules.net.au .
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Media contact: Brinsley Marlay (02) 9284 9656 or 0430 366 529
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US, Russia discuss peace plan as Syria worsens
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Monday, May 27, 2013, in Paris. (AP Photo/Jim Young, Pool)
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Monday, May 27, 2013, in Paris. (AP Photo/Jim Young, Pool)
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Monday, May 27, 2013, in Paris. (AP Photo/Jim Young, Pool)
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Monday, May 27, 2013, in Paris. (AP Photo/Jim Young, Pool)
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Monday, May 27, 2013, in Paris. (AP Photo/Jim Young, Pool)
PARIS (AP) ? The top U.S. and Russian diplomats met Monday to try to accelerate frustratingly slow peace efforts in Syria, where the signs point only to a worsening conflict.
Capping off an eight-day trip to the Middle East and Africa, Secretary of State John Kerry flew into the French capital to see Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and exchange updates on their respective diplomatic efforts.
The United States and its Arab allies are attempting to secure the participation of Syria's fractured opposition at an international peace conference in Geneva, planned for next month. Russia is pledging to deliver Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime to the talks.
But despite claims of progress by both powers, there is little evidence to suggest either side in Syria is ready to halt more than two years of violence that has killed more than 70,000 people. President Barack Obama has demanded that Assad leave power; Russia has stood by its closest ally in the Arab world.
Kerry said the U.S. and Russia each are committed to starting a political transition that "would allow the people of Syria to decide the future of Syria."
"We are committed to this," Kerry told reporters upon conclusion of the meeting. "We both want to make this conference happen, if possible, together with many other countries that will join up."
"It is our hope that we will come out of here with greater clarity about some of the issues that need to be worked on in the days ahead," he added.
Lavrov suggested much work remains if any peace conference is going to make headway, calling it a "very tall order." He also signaled continued disagreement between Washington and Moscow on the participants at the conference, saying it should include more interested parties than previous diplomatic gatherings. It was an apparent reference to Iran, which the United States and the Syrian opposition don't want to see involved in any negotiation.
The one-on-one Paris meeting between Kerry and Lavrov, to be immediately followed by a dinner that includes French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, occurred as Sen. John McCain slipped into Syria Monday to meet with rebels, and at an increasingly dangerous time for the country.
For the past week, regime troops and allies from Lebanon's Hezbollah ? and even some Iranian fighters ? have waged an offensive in Qusair, gaining ground against the rebels behind intense bombardments of the strategic western Syria town.
Hezbollah's enhanced role poses an assortment of concerns for the Obama administration, with the group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, vowing over the weekend that his militants would back Assad to victory.
Beyond providing powerful reinforcements to Assad's regime, Hezbollah's involvement increases the risk of spillover into Lebanon, a country as ethnically divided and fragile as Syria. Two rockets struck a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Beirut on Sunday, raising fears that the country could be plunged back into civil war.
And any conflict with Hezbollah threatens to drag in Israel, which has proven with airstrikes it won't tolerate large-scale and advanced weapons transfers to its northern border. Lebanon's state-run news agency reported one missile fired from that area toward the Jewish state on Sunday night.
For Kerry and other would-be peacemakers, the confluence of developments only reaffirms the need for a serious peace process to begin.
The Americans have stressed that any talks be carried out in good faith and lead to the full transfer of power to an interim government. Logic, they say, compels that this government not include Assad or other members of his government culpable in widespread abuses.
Getting to the talks hasn't been easy. Kerry is waiting for Syria's Sunni-led opposition coalition to unearth itself from a mountain of internal divisions, from adding new representatives to determining how Islamist or how secular to define their movement.
Opposition leaders met among themselves Monday in Istanbul for the fifth straight day. And while they've grappled for unity, they haven't given a firm yes to the peace strategy outlined by Kerry and Lavrov earlier this month.
McCain spokeswoman Rachel Dean confirmed the Arizona Republican met with rebels in Syria. She declined further comment. McCain has been a leading proponent of arming the rebels and other aggressive military steps against the Assad regime.
Russia has achieved, rhetorically at least, greater success. The Syrian government said Sunday it agreed "in principle" to send delegates to Geneva, strengthening Moscow's hand ahead of any direct ? and potentially proxy ? U.S.-Russian diplomatic negotiations.
With Syria's opposition scrambling politically and militarily, the European Union apparently is moving to bolster the opposition effort.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Monday the EU has decided to lift the arms embargo on the Syrian opposition while maintaining all other sanctions against Bashar Assad's regime after June 1.
The Obama administration has been mulling a similar step for months. Despite Assad's military advances and evidence that his forces used chemical weapons against the rebels, the Obama administration remains wary about getting too involved.
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What's an American lawyer doing in Afghanistan?
Kimberley Motley, best known for defending a young girl imprisoned for 'adultery' after being raped and impregnated in 2010, is the first US lawyer to litigate on behalf of Afghans in Afghanistan.
Afghan police take cover following a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday. A suicide bomber struck in the heart of the Afghan capital on Friday, sending a plume of smoke billowing over Kabul and setting up a gun battle in the second major attack in the city in little over a week, police said.
Ahmad Jamshid/AP
EnlargeAs Western troops plan for the drawdown in Afghanistan, one American lawyer has set up her own private practice in the Afghan capital and doesn?t have plans to leave any time soon. She?s?too?focused on helping make sure the laws are enforced.?
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The lawyer, Kimberley Motley, is best known for defending a girl imprisoned for ?adultery? after being raped and impregnated by her attacker in 2010. The victim had received a 12-year sentence in appellate court with the alternative of marrying her rapist, and was serving the sentence when her case came to Ms. Motley?s attention.
She lodged a request for a presidential pardon citing Sharia law, Afghan law, and international conventions, while at the same time launching an online petition that garnered 6,000 Afghan signatures in three days.?The girl was granted the pardon in December 2011 by President Karzai and released to a shelter.
Motley is trying to lead by example. She says it is important to draw attention to human rights abuses through specific cases ? if the victims are willing to go public ? in order, she says, ?to create test cases of how things can be done.?
She made her first trip to Afghanistan in 2008 as part of the US government?s rule-of-law support program after five years working for the Wisconsin Public Defenders? Office.?
The aim of the program was to address a lack of general legal knowledge. Motley and the others on the program helped train?local defense lawyers and assisted them in writing legal briefs.?Motley personally helped write the brief for?the landmark 2009 appeal by an Afghan student who had been sentenced to death after downloading an article on women?s rights.
As she looked around at all the nongovernmental organizations and researchers in Kabul trying to help,?though,?she realized tangible results were?relatively?few and far between. ?
So, ?sick of all the report writing on capacity building,? she determined the best way she?could achieve results was to act directly within the system.?She started her own private legal services and consultancy firm, initially taking only foreign clients.?She then spent two and a half years gaining familiarity with the complications and intricacies of Afghan law and courts?before she decided it was time to accept her first Afghan client.
A series of firsts
Motley?s first case?for an Afghan client?didn?t?draw?much attention, but?some of her subsequent ones?have made international headlines and brought her death threats and an arrest warrant, which she shrugs off. ?It?s sort of standard operating procedure,? she says.?
In December Motley filed the first civil suit against government officials for refusing to act: A young law student reported spousal abuse to police who did nothing, and the student was later killed. The case is currently pending.?Many local colleagues in the area have expressed appreciation for Motley?s work but also concern over potential backlash from conservatives.?
"Sometimes international attention is needed,"?says Mary Akrami, who opened Kabul?s first women?s shelter and who represented Afghan civil society at the 2001 Bonn Conference. "But sometimes it is also very risky, given the reactions we?ve seen from conservatives.??
Ms. Akrami has reason for concern. The few shelters in the country are in danger of shutting down due both to a sharp reduction in funding from the international community and an immediate threat to the Elimination of Violence Against Women law from traditionalist members of Parliament.??
Hurdles
Motley is determined to make an impact on the system, but faces a number of hurdles, including corruption, lack of understanding of law ? among both the population and many of those working within the system itself ? and widespread distrust of the formal justice system.?Many of the traditionalists have no?formal training?in Afghan?constitutional?law.
There are a lot of people currently working in the justice system who have been there for years, prior to any reform, says Heather Barr a researcher from Human Rights Watch. She points out that there are judges and lawyers who never went to university and who ?cannot read and write well, let alone understand? Afghan law.?
"You see this in the poor quality of judicial decisions, in the fact that there really isn?t any tradition of case law, of precedent. So it?s a very, very weak system, and it?s a system where rule of law is really compromised. And this is one of the threats to stability here,'' says Ms. Barr.
''There?s this feeling that if somebody violates your rights, if somebody comes to your house and steals from you or kills you, the government isn?t necessarily able or ready to protect you."?
Another major problem, Barr notes, is that ?the formal justice system is absent in many parts of the country,? leaving many with little choice but to make recourse to?jirgas?and?shuras?to solve disputes: traditional systems in which neither women nor the young have any voice.?
In an attempt to address the inconsistency of decisions handed down and thus the population?s faith in the system, Motley recently launched a set of sentencing guidelines drawn up on the basis of Afghan law and in collaboration with the Italian Cooperation.
She noted that the Supreme Court had already ?gotten on board? with the project. The idea is to apply the guidelines initially to juvenile cases, training judges and assessing them, and then eventually incorporate them into the entire justice system. She hopes that the guidelines will play a major role in increasing accountability.??I feel very strongly about this,? she says. ?I think this is a very good way of building foundations, and I think I have enough institutional knowledge to create something like this.??
Overall, though, she says that "whether or not it?s sustainable is really up to the Afghan people ? it?s always been up to whether or not they really want it."
Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/Kras8ZJmHwc/What-s-an-American-lawyer-doing-in-Afghanistan
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Americans gather to honor fallen service members
ATLANTA (AP) ? Americans gathered at memorials, museums and monuments and the president laid a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery to honor fallen service members on Memorial Day, as combat in Afghanistan approaches 12 years and the ranks of World War II veterans dwindle.
"Let us not forget as we gather here today that our nation is still at war," President Barack Obama said after laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns.
"When they give their lives, they are still being laid to rest in cemeteries in quiet corners across our country, including here in Arlington," he said. He told the stories of three soldiers who had died. Each had been devoted to their mission and were praised by others for saving lives.
Hours later, veterans from conflicts from World War II to Afghanistan and Iraq gathered in Atlanta to dedicate a new veterans' park. Soldiers, airmen, Marines and seamen looked on as veterans and military family members sprinkled soil, sand and water from battlefields and waterways across the world.
Retired Army Lt. Col. Rick Lester called it "a reminder of our country's timeline of freedom." A 26-year veteran with multiple tours in Vietnam, Germany and Korea, Lester conceived the ceremony as a way to honor living veterans and those who never made it home.
The pilot recalled in detail the numbers of men lost on missions he flew in Vietnam. "All I can think about is how those were some of the greatest guys I ever met and what they would have done for this country once they got back," he said.
The soil and sand ranged from Revolutionary battlefields like Lexington and Concord to Tikrit in Iraq. There was none from the Civil War, Lester said, because "that was a time that our country was divided."
Battlefield remnants were mixed in a helmet Lester's father wore on D-Day in France in 1944. They were sprinkled from cups that his uncle, a Marine, used in World War II. His father lived. His uncle was killed in action.
Susan Jimison poured water collected from the Hudson River, Chesapeake Bay, Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean.
Her brother, Mark Clotfelter, was a helicopter pilot shot down June 16, 1969, in Vietnam. The 22-year-old was later confirmed dead. Jimison was 14 at the time and recalled how a politically unpopular war affected the way her brother's death was treated. "Nobody talked about it," she said.
It wasn't until many years later that she started trying to learn about his military service and those who served alongside him. Now, she's married to a man, Michael Jimison, who flew with him, and she's writing a book about their company.
It's important, she said, for Americans to learn the personal stories behind military history and international conflict. "My brother died doing what he loved doing," she said.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined military leaders and others at the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument in Manhattan. He later encouraged New Yorkers to celebrate the day and the good weather but also "remember the sacrifice that was made so that we could be here."
At the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, about 20 bicyclists clustered around veteran and museum volunteer Tom Blakey. The paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division jumped at Normandy on D-Day ? June 6, 1944 ? and in May 1945 helped liberate the work camp at Wobbelin in northwest Germany.
"Most of us wondered why we were there, killing people and being killed," he said. "We didn't do anything to deserve it. When we got to that camp and saw what was there, the lights came on."
The cycling group makes regular weekend training runs, and on Monday started a Memorial Day ride about seven miles away at the national cemetery in Chalmette, where the Battle of New Orleans ? the last in the War of 1812 ? was fought.
Once again aboard the historic USS Hornet, 83-year-old Dale Berven reflected on his tour of duty in Korea as a naval aviator as he took in the commemoration. As the bugle corps warmed up, Berven looked out from the now-decommissioned aircraft carrier docked in Alameda, across the bay from San Francisco, which ferried him around the world in a goodwill tour in 1954, the year after the Korean War ended.
At just 23 years old, Berven said he flew dozens of sorties as a lieutenant junior grade with the 91st Fighter Squadron.
"I was young and single, I had volunteered and I wanted to do that type of work," said Berven, now a docent at the USS Hornet Museum. "That is how people are now. They're not drafted, so you have 18-, 19-year olds who are giving up their lives for the freedom of this country. We ought to honor all those service men and women and not bring politics into it."
In South Sioux City, Neb., a statue honoring a Navy dog handler was unveiled in his hometown. The statue of Petty Officer 1st Class John Douangdara (dwung-DEHR'-ah) and his dog, Bart, is part of a five-acre dog park that's named for Douangdara. Douangdara died along with 29 other Americans in August 2011 when a military helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan.
Across much of New England, several days of heavy rain gave way to sunny skies for parades in towns large and small.
In Portland, Maine, kids and even pets displayed the Stars and Stripes as veterans, youth groups law enforcement officials and civic organizations paraded to Monument Square to the tunes of a marching band, sirens from a police car and the rumble of motorcycles.
For some veterans, it was a somber event.
Richard Traiser, a Marine injured when his tank came under attack in Vietnam, helped deliver a three-volley salute with the Marine Corps League.
Memorial Day gives those who served an opportunity to get together and remember friends who didn't make it.
"I think about them a lot, especially the people I lost in my platoon," Traiser said. "I don't dwell on it in a morbid way, but it's on your mind."
In Connecticut, a Waterford man who was killed in the Vietnam War was honored with a hometown park area named for him. Arnold E. Holm Jr., nicknamed "Dusty," was killed when his helicopter was shot down on June 11, 1972.
The holiday weekend also marked the traditional start of the U.S. vacation season. AAA, one of the nation's largest leisure travel agencies, expected 31.2 million Americans to hit the road over the weekend, virtually the same number as last year. Gas prices were about the same as last year, up 1 cent to a national average of $3.65 a gallon Friday.
At the American Airpower Museum on Long Island, N.Y., a program honored Women Air Service Pilots, or WASPs, who tested and ferried completed aircraft from factories to bases during World War II. Thirty-eight died during the war, including Alice Lovejoy of Scarsdale, N.Y., who was killed on Sept. 13, 1944, in a midair collision over Texas.
Women have made their way up the ranks in the regular military since then, exhibited in Wisconsin, with retired Air Force Maj. Gwen Sheppard becoming the first woman to serve as the grand marshal of the Milwaukee Memorial Day parade.
"It's very important that we recognize not only their contribution to American history, but women's history," said Julia Lauria-Blum, curator of the WASP exhibit at the museum. "These women really blazed a path. And most important, they gave their lives serving their country and must be honored like anyone else on Memorial Day."
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Associated Press writers David Sharp in Portland, Maine; Janet McConnaughey in New Orleans; Garance Burke in San Francisco, and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/americans-gather-honor-fallen-members-091220037.html
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