Well, we all know how popular Arm's Reach products are. The Beautiful Dreamer Cocoon is no exception! They are sold out in every style except for the Shadow Stripe. Ya know what? I Love it! It is a perfect neutral tone that blends with everything.

I had never seen anything like this. After reading up on it, I learned that it creates the feeling of the womb so that newborns and preemies feel more secure.

I would check them out.... a ton of the Arm's Reach products have been on backorder for months- nation-wide... so grab them while you can!! :)

Arm's Reach Beautiful Dreamer Cocoon Sleeper, Shadow Stripe

Beck Modern Guilt MP3: Chemtrails	Tricky Knowle West Boy MP3: Past Mistake	Black Kids Partie Traumatic MP3: Hurricane Jane

Album of the week is Beck's Modern Guilt. Both progression and regression from Mr Hansen, as he builds on the success of Guero and The Information, yet strips away many of the superfluous gimmicks that littered his mid-90s albums. Full review later on in the week, but definitely get your hands on this one. Adrian Thaws up next, as Tricky returns with Knowle West Boy. Whilst still not a return to the form of Maxinquaye and Pre-Millennial Tension, this is a marked improvement on 2003's Vulnerable. An improvement, despite a decidedly unusual cover of Kylie's Slow. Nevertheless, five years in the making, and a welcome return. Sounding at times like it was five minutes in the making, Black Kids' debut platter is something of a disappointment. Seemingly rush-released to consolidate their position after the success of single I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend..., this album comes across as unfinished and a bit half-arsed. Which is a shame because when the Floridians get it together, the result can be truly exciting.

Melvins Nude With Boots MP3: Billy Fish	Leila Blood Looms & Blooms MP3: Norwegian Wood	Ratatat LP3 MP3: Falcon Jab

Co-hosts of this winter's ATP Nightmare Before Christmas, Melvins trot out their 16th LP Nude With Boots. Still garnering influential fans, this is pretty much Melvins on auto-pilot. The last time I encountered Leila was within a booing Björk crowd, now new Warp-signee unleashes her third LP. I'm assuming I'm missing something here, or the record must be a grower, as up to now I'm not all that impressed. Ratatat's third record, on the other hand, is pretty obvious. Take it or leave it Justice-esque electro stomping.

Eat Static Back To Earth	Crooked Still Still Crooked MP3: The Absentee	Cute Is What We Aim For Rotation MP3: Safe Ride

Three varied releases make up our third tier this week, with some dance from creaking Eat Static, straight-up indie pop from Brooklyn's Cute Is What We Aim For and a third LP from folky-bluegrass types Crooked Still. The latter two are particularly enjoyable, even if Rotation has the projected lifespan of a mayfly.

Five O'Clock Heroes Speak Your Language MP3: Who	Arms Kids Aflame	Great Big Sea Fortune's Favour MP3: Long Lost Love

Our last three releases throw up two surprises and one dreadful non-surprise. That comes in the form of Five O'Clock Heroes' second record Speak Your Language. Way back when, I quite enjoyed the Time On Your Side single, but the following album and recent godawful Why have destroyed any enthusiasm for this kind of turgid nonsense. The suprises are particularly good this week, our second Brooklyner, Todd Goldstein aka Arms providing the biggest. The record is some really sharp songwriter stuff, the highlight for me being the wonderful Sad, Sad, Sad. Fans of Bon Iver's debut will really enjoy this. And finally, the most bizzare concept of the week is Great Big Sea's continuing journey into rediscovering traditional Canadian folk songs and sea shanties. This is apparently their 9th release, and it is a record full of vim, a great blast of Newfoundland air.

You can vote for your favourite record of the week using our poll in the left sidebar

Last week's meagre pickings gave the following result:
=1. Watson Twins - Fire Songs
=1. Dirty Pretty Things - Romance At Short Notice
3. Fonda 500 - J'Mapelle Stereo

Former congressman Curt Weldon is helping broker deals between Russian and Ukranian weapons suppliers and the Iraqi and Libyan governments as part of his new job with a private American defense consulting firm, Wired.com has learned.

Weldon, who is currently being investigated by the FBI over alleged corruption during his time in office, visited Libya in March to discuss a possible military deal, according to a letter describing the trip from Weldon to Defense Solutions CEO Timothy Ringgold. In May, Weldon, together with Ringgold and another company representative, traveled to Moscow to discuss working with Russia's weapons-export agency on arms sales to the Middle East.

Both trips were part of the company's effort to tap into the growing -- and often legally murky -- market for selling weapons from former Eastern Bloc countries to the Middle East and Afghanistan.
The Russians want to sell weapons to Iraq directly, but "must go slow on Iraq because of political reasons" and want to work with an "intermediary" like Defense Solutions, CEO Ringgold subsequently wrote to colleagues. "They have not spoken with any American company that can offer the quid pro quo that we can or that has the connections in Russia that we have," he boasted.

A few years ago, an American company proposing to sell weapons to Libya might have triggered a congressional hearing. So, too, would have a proposal to conduct arms deals with Russia, which the United States has accused of selling high-tech weapons to Syria and Iran.

However, U.S. government efforts to rapidly equip countries like Afghanistan and Iraq -- which have largely Soviet-origin weapons -- have created legal ambiguities and loopholes in export controls that didn't exist in years past and given rise to a new class of arms trade middlemen. So, even though both Libya and the Russian arms export agency are on official U.S. blacklists, government officials and analysts involved in weapons sales say the rules have become unclear as the push to equip allies in the global war on terror has blazed new but uncertain legal ground.

Eagerly stepping into that virgin territory is Defense Solutions, a Pennsylvania-based company that is carving out a small but lucrative niche in a new international arms bazaar. The firm boasts as its advisors a number of influential Washington insiders, such as retired General Barry McCaffrey, the former White House drug czar.

Helping the firm make key connections is Curt Weldon, a former Republican congressman from Pennsylvania at the center of an FBI investigation into alleged conflicts of interest during his time in office. Weldon, now a key executive at Defense Solutions, is working with the company to set up these weapons deals.
It's an unusual, if not an entirely unexpected chapter for Weldon, whose time in office included frequent trips to Russia. As an influential member of the House Armed Services Committee, Weldon pushed for multibillion-dollar defense programs, like ballistic missile defense, and earned a reputation as a foreign policy gadfly, boasting of his contacts with officials in nations labeled by the administration as "rogue states" such as Libya and North Korea. Weldon's wild claims about a 9/11 cover-up and his sensationalist book warning of an Iranian terror plot, sometimes earned him official scorn and public ridicule, but it was accusations that he steered contracts to Eastern European businesses linked to his daughter's lobbying firm that drew the government's attention.

Link:http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2008/07/defense_solutions

......NOT. Like I'd choose a piece of trash like that. I actually tried to find some information about that song to make the joke sound more realistic but I was unable to find anything. I'm guessing the reason for that is because the person who composed the song for that game was shot shortly after releasing it. Shot or mangled or hit with a truck or all of the above. Anyway, my real pick is "Into the Wilderness", the opening song to Wild Arms 1 on the Playstation. Wild Arms is a great RPG by Media Vision and produced by Sony. Unlike most RPGs you get to choose your starting main character from three people and then they meet up later on. It's a very unique way to start and the game just gets better from there. The soundtrack was composed entirely by Michiko Naruke and is heavily inspired by American Westerns and features instruments like mandolins, electric and acoustic guitars, finger cymbals, trumpets and whistling. Michiko Naruke has done music for games such as Psycho Dream and Tenshi no Uta. If you haven't played Wild Arms I highly recommend you pick it up and try it or at least listen to the music. You won't be disappointed.

[viddler id=3947bfd5&w=437&h=363]

For more info on Michiko Naruke: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michiko_Naruke

For more info on Wild Arms: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Arms

The firm's "Distressed Real Estate Initiative" will involve at least 16 core lawyers in ten offices throughout the country, including those in Mid-Atlantic and Western locations hardest hit by the housing bust and the mortgage crisis, including Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

The purpose of the section, according to the firm, will be "to provide representation in acquisition, restructuring and bankruptcy matters."

 "In this period of turmoil in the financial markets and economic uncertainty, new real estate opportunities and challenges present themselves," said Michael Sklaroff, chair of Ballard's Real Estate Department. "We stand ready to serve clients with respect to existing positions and also in assisting them in acquisitions and debt and equity investments in troubled projects."

Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll was founded in 1886 and now employs more than 550 lawyers in twelve offices located throughout the mid-Atlantic corridor and the western United States.

When there is blood in the water, the sharks will appear.

Today was Shoulders and Arms. This workout ended up being noticeably easier than the first two. I'm rather sure that this is due to the fact that it works two small muscle groups, as opposed to the previous workouts, which focused on very large groups. Working smaller groups of muscles means that it takes less of a toll on you physically (the heart doesn't have to work as hard), and I'm okay with that. After the workout, my triceps are easily in the most pain. The chest work on Monday and today's tricep work have them hurting with every movement. But that's progress. I did appreciate that at the end of the workout, my entire arm had that pumped-up look, which always gives a little confidence boost.

I came home after the workout and had my whey protein shake, along with a package of tuna. I can't overstate how great those are. Okay, I can admit they don't smell great, and I know that eating tuna straight from the bag with nothing extra is probably disgusting to some people. But the nutritional value is great. I'm specifically talking about StarKist Chunk Light Tuna in water. In the larger packet (7 ounces and has 3.5 servings), there's 45.5 grams of protein, with only 210 calories and 1.5 grams of fat. That's incredible in my opinion. For dinner I'm actually cooking a chicken breast in the microwave right now. More high protein, low fat. I love it.

Tomorrow is supposed to be Yoga X. I don't think that's going to happen. The video is just too long. An hour and a half? I have other things I'd like to do. I will probably try it out for a half hour or so just to stretch out some of the soreness. And then I'll do Ab Ripper X, since I didn't do it today. It was a good day.

On another tagent I couldn't help but continue to envision me leaning back into a guys arms as we sat on a couch with his arms completely around me.  That close intimate contact was what I really really wanted and yet I can't seem to get.  Makes me a little sad.

I still check his Myspace to see if he has been on and read my email telling him how great he was.  He hasn't.  It is July and he is supposed to be back in this state within the next week.  Will he contact me? I doubt it.  Dont' you just love feeling and being vulnerable...? Fuck it, NO!

Blood diamonds or conflict diamonds

Conflict diamonds first captured the world's attention during the brutal conflict in Sierra-Leone during the late 90's. Rebel groups such as the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) took control of diamond mines and used forced labour or slave labour to dig and scavenge for diamonds. These diamonds were then sold at a handsome profit to jewelry and luxury goods companies. It is suspected that Cartier, Bloomigdale's, Bulgari and Harry Winston were all part of this trade though it is very difficult to prove so as it becomes impossible to prove the origin of a diamond once it is cut and 'cleaned'. Top notch companies also bought blood diamonds in bulk quantities and stored them in underground vaults so as to keep the demand(and subsequently,the prices) at a perennial high.

The money earned by the rebel groups in this manner was channelized into several other illegal activities,particularly (in procuring) arms and ammunition. Entire cities and towns were bombed and many innocent civilians killed in the subsequent gunfire. Those who survived the battering were taken in-the young boys were recruited as troops in the RUF(they were young and could be trained and brainwashed),the strong adult men in their prime were used as 'hands' in the diamond mines. The onslaught continued and sent the African economy reeling-unable to cope with turbulent conditions.

Thus a continuos cycle of exchange and trade-a supply and demand chain was setup between the diamond  trade and arms and ammunition trade-both flourished financially and the sale of one fed the other-a symbiotic relationship was setup. Arms were used in battles to secure mines and diamonds were used to procure arms.

Nearly 136,00 kg or 130 million karats of gem stones are sold each year,earning annual profits of over $26 billion.Of this figure a minimum of 4% is netted from the sale of blood diamonds.

Though the Kimberley process has in a long way stanched Africa's bleeding,it has not completely eradicated blood diamonds-they continue to be sold.

A fact: Surat is the center of the world's diamond cutting and polishing industry. Ninety-two percent of the world's diamonds are crafted here. It continues to remain the single largest passage for blood diamonds.

A suggestion - watch the movie Blood Diamond for a comprehensive take on the subject. 

We value your feedback/comments. Kindly leave behind your comments or feedback on the replies page.

we have two arms

they are projection of self

they are strong, flexible ad soft

thousands of movement we can make with Arms

projecting to the others

hence projecting to heaven

According to the New York Times, "Starbucks said Tuesday that it planned to close another 500 underperforming stores and eliminate as many as 12,000 full- and part-time positions. The company, which now plans to close a total of 600 underperforming stores, will take related charges totaling more than $325 million. Most of the stores, which are company owned, will be closed by the end of the first half of its fiscal year, which ends September 2009, the company said. Starbucks estimated that total pretax charges associated with the closures, including costs associated with severance, would be $328 million to $348 million. The nation’s largest coffee chain said 70 percent of the stores targeted for closure have been open since the beginning of fiscal 2006. The job losses would represent about 7 percent of the company’s global work force."

These closings are clearly fallout from the housing bust.  As the Times noted, Starbucks had "aggressively opened stores in areas like California and Florida, which have been hardest hit by the housing downturn. "

The next time economists get together to discuss whether we're really in a recession, they may have to meet somewhere other than the local Starbucks. 

It might be closed.

The gig was in my favourite venue at the moment- The Button Factory can be quite an different place depending on the group...and just as well since this was a very very intimate gig!

Star Turtle came on first and while they didn't have an audience to play off of they have some good solid songs- nothing innovative but fairly decent.

Then came a group who's name I embarrassingly cannot remember CTA, CJA??   I will have to ask Darragh from DRN when I see him later in the week- this is what happens when Word crashes on your new technogadget!  They had a good sound though with a kind of post/surf rock vibe- some good tunes as well (Empty Pockets?) and both the bassist and the lead female have good voices.  Ended with a real rocking number....will give them link-love when I have their name!

Dark Room Notes then came on and they were as fabulous as ever!  Some great new tracks and I really love the new ambient tunes that they have been doing.  They had their old favourites there as well with Love Like Nicotine and Shake Shake My Ceiling and Lets Light Fires which really grabs your attention.  There were also some new tracks called Treetops and Arms that have an excellent vibe.  During the gig they had some great visuals with an old black and white silent film playing in the background-something of the monster variety (and will have to ask Darragh the name for that as well!) but it certainly adds to the atmosphere and to their songs as well.

I ran into Darragh a couple of weeks after the gig and they will be recording their album shortly- a lot of the new tunes that I heard have been changed already so it looks like the album is going to a surprise!  From DRN this can only be a good thing and I can't wait to catch them at Electric Picnic which they have now confirmed they will be at.

At one point they had some free downloads from their MySpace site- not sure if that is still active but head along there anyway for a look!

One tyrannical regime I am willing to wager that they won't 'move onto' is Saudi Arabia. Strange that, given that the BAE corruption scandal came into focus again recently, as it was responsible for single handedly catapulting Britain to the top of the arms dealers list.

Not only do the Saudis not bother with the charade of democracy but they use OUR weapons to keep down their populace. And we bribe their autocratic leaders to buy our weapons. No hysteria about their torture of their civilians, their lack of democracy, their 'evil' leaders...wonder why?

But what does Mr Mugabe use against his people? Wasn't he a client of arms dealer UK plc too, as part of New Labour's 'ethical' foreign policy? Yet another dictator we gave arms too to fight his own people and we now demand the resignation of. Pick up the gun Robert.....

mugabe

With the 4^th of July nearly upon us, I thought I would take a moment to talk about freedom, freedom worth fighting for.

The 4^th of July, an American holiday, our day of independence. We learn about it in school, Paul Revere yelling “The British are coming, The British are coming!” and we all learned the signals, one if by land, two if by sea. Our history is important to us, the heroes and symbols give us an anchor in history, a reference to call to. They allow us, through story and song, to relive the events and to experience the pride or sorrow of our past.

America is just over 200 years old, young in the eyes of many other nations, but she has had a very productive past. She has had her ups and downs in the story of the world, but all-in-all she has be a faithful motherland to us, she has provided safety, jobs and prosperity.  

America, as any nation, has her problems; she has born the scars of slavery, civil war, two world wars and many slanders from with in her borders, but like a proud parent she holds her head high for she knows she is on the path of freedom.

Our Freedom is on her shoulders, the shoulders of all her fallen men and woman who fought for her, to protect her and promote her ideals all over Gods green earth. Our freedom was not free, we have paid the highest price for it, and we have paid the price of blood, the blood of our brothers and sisters.

Let us not let the blood of our brothers and sisters run in vane.

We have hear the call many times, have seen the heroes, and looked upon the symbols of the great nation, we have reflected and even at times protested, but in the end America has been good to her children.

America is not perfect, she has her flaws, but I chose to write about her in a more positive light, too many of her children are already writing about her faults and down side. We hear of her imperfections and hear tails of her lack of compassion, but it seems that they forget to offer up the stories of her great compassion, the stories of heroic tales and self sacrifice in her name.

America needs her children now more then ever before. She is being attacked from with in as well as from with out. Her history and her memory is being challenged and slandered, her valiant past is being turned in to nothing more then gun toting cowboys with a bad attitude. America is being displayed as a woman who once thought she was a beauty, but now is nothing but a want-a-be with a bad hair day.

Lady Liberty is no long the tall slender beauty she once was, in the eyes of others, but rather she is portrayed as an old cranky woman, who yells at the local kids for playing on her lawn.

Lady Liberty deserves more respect, she has taken in the world’s outcast, she has opened her arms to all who have no place to call home and welcomed them with love and understanding.

Freedom is offered to all who call her name, to all who are willing to take up the yoke and work hard for her. Freedom is a gift that is offered to the world, a gift that must be exercised and protected, for she is a fragile gift, one that is easily broken.

So this Independence Day remember that America, though she may seem broken bent and damaged she is the shinning beauty in the harbor, she is the Light on the hill, the beacon calling to all. She is the caring mother who loves all her children, and welcomes them home with open arms.

Paul  

Download

]]> http://colegialagirl.wordpress.com/?p=135 Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:12:00 +0000 Mer Pints http://colegialagirl.wordpress.com/?p=135

(Photo courtesy of Associated Press)

North Korea demolished the 60-foot-tall cooling tower at its main atomic reactor to commence “disablement process” in its nuclear arms development program. This is in response to U.S. concessions after declaring Thursday to dismantle its nuclear programs. Likewise North Korea’s Foreign Ministry welcomed Washington’s decision to free the country from US trade and sanctions blacklists.

On her part Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed the importance of the tower's destruction in preventing North Korea from making more plutonium in the manufacture of nuclear weapons. She further said that while it is important to get North Korea out of the plutonium business, “that will not be the end of the story,” it is not known how many bombs have already been made.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has taken North Korea out of U.S. trade and sanctions blacklist and a complete all-out withdrawal of its hostile policy toward (the North) for the denuclearization process to proceed smoothly. But where will this development lead to, a lasting peace and cooperation in the region?

North Korea blasts nuclear reactor tower

Associated Press

YONGBYON, North Korea - North Korea destroyed the most visible symbol of itsnuclear weapons program Friday, blasting apart the cooling tower at its main atomic reactor in a sign of its commitment to stop making plutonium for atomic bombs.

An explosion at the base of the cylindrical structure sent the tower collapsing into a cloud of white and gray smoke that billowed into blue skies as international journalists and diplomats looked on, according to video footage filmed by international video news agency Associated Press Television News.

The demolition of the 60-foot-tall cooling tower at the North's main reactor complex is a response to U.S. concessions after the North delivered a declaration Thursday of its nuclear programs to be dismantled.

"This is a very important step in the disablement process and I think it puts us in a good position to move into the next phase," said Sung Kim, the U.S. State Department's top expert on the Koreas who attended the demolition. Kim shook hands with a NorthKorean official following the tower's tumble to the ground.

In its first reaction to the developments this week, North Korea's Foreign Ministry welcomed Washington's decision to take the country off the U.S. trade and sanctions blacklists.

"The U.S. measure should lead to a complete and all-out withdrawal of its hostile policy toward (the North) so that the denuclearization process can proceed smoothly," the ministry said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

The symbolic tower explosion came just 20 months after Pyongyang shocked the world by detonating a nuclear bomb in an underground test to confirm its status as an atomic power. The nuclear blast spurred an about-face in the U.S. hard-line policy against Pyongyang, leading to the North's first steps to scale back its nuclear weapons development since the reactor became operational in 1986.

Last year, the North switched off the reactor at Yongbyon, some 60 miles north of the capital of Pyongyang, and it already has begun disabling the facility under the watch of U.S. experts so that it cannot easily be restarted.

The destruction of the cooling tower, which carries off waste heat to the atmosphere, is another step forward but not the most technically significant, because it is a simple piece of equipment that would be easy to rebuild.

Still, the demolition offers the most photogenic moment yet in the disarmament negotiations that have dragged on for more than five years and suffered repeated deadlocks and delays.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the tower's destruction would mark a step toward disablement, something that has been ongoing for many months to prevent the North from making more plutonium for bombs.

"It is important to get North Korea out of the plutonium business, but that will not be the end of the story," she said in Kyoto, Japan, on the sidelines of a meeting of the Group of Eight industrialized countries.

North Korea's nuclear declaration, which was delivered six months later than the country promised and has not yet been released publicly, is said to only give the overall figure for how much plutonium was produced at Yongbyon — but no details of bombs that may have been made.

Experts believe the North has produced up to 110 pounds of weapons-grade plutonium, enough for as many as 10 nuclear bombs.

The declaration was being distributed Friday by China, the chair of the arms talks, to the other countries involved, U.S. envoy Christopher Hill said.

"We'll have to study it very carefully and then we'll have to work on verification," Hill said in Kyoto.

The declaration does not address the North's alleged uranium enrichment program or suspicions of its nuclear proliferation to other countries, such as Syria.

Für alle Fans des WWII-Shooters "Brothers in Arms" gibt es ein neues Video zum im August erscheinenden Teil "Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway", zu bestaunen.

Weitere Screenshots und Bilder findet ihr auf 4Players.de. [Link]

Well, I finally after about 3 weeks broke down and e-mail Beach Body to see if I could get a replacement.  I was in luck I could.  They normally don't do that, but since I had already had the program and of course could not remember when I purchased it they said I could replace it for a fee, of course.  Okay, the cost was not a problem.  Just did not feel right knowing that I did not have all the DVD's there when I actually started the program.  I get on the phone and what do you know, I was in luck, since I am a Million Dollar Body Coach I could get the DVD at the coach's price.  Yes. 

So, I started the program hoping the DVD would come in in time when I actually had to do it.  Well, I rearranged the program slightly so I could do the Shoulders and Arms when it came it.  I have been so extremely busy this week.  It never fails. 

Last night, I thought I would give one more search to find the DVD.  I know I put it somewhere safe and so it would not get scratched.  I hate that.  Yes, I found it in one of my Yoga CD case.  Can you believe it.  I knew that would happen. 

Guess what came in the mail today?  You got it!  My Shoulders and Arms DVD.  Now I have two of those and TWO of Power and Grace Body Bar DVD.  I did the same thing to that one too.  Well, I got down to the fitness Conference in Dallas.  Dallasmania where Fitness Professionals go to learn.  I could not remember if I bought that one or not.  I was sure I did, but I again had misplaced it .  I get home and wal-la!  I find it.

Have I worked out today on Shoulders and Arms?  NO!  Urgh, been busy doing other stuff, like measuring for blinds, installing blinds, turning in details, letting the weather man's dog out to go tinkle, shopping for groceries and now I have to go teach Step with Salsa.  Then I have to go do my Turbo Kick Cardio at the studio and then teach class doing legs with this group.  By the way, the legs are a little sore in the hamstring.  I should be Okay for tomorrow.  Thanks for asking.  HA!

In informatl conversation, the problem of the Second Amendment is often cast in three contextual lights - each of which, I think, misses the real point.  The first sets the debate in terms of whether we can safely allow guns in our society. The second says "guns are inherently bad and evil and its a different world than it used to be and the police should protect us".  The third debates the value of guns in protecting us from the government.

All three of those arguments all center around...guns.  Why?  The value, role, and entire point of the Bill of Right has only ever been to support and cement the relationship of American citizens to their government. 

The Bill of Rights, if it was just a list of "things people should be able to do", would have been much, much longer. That is, if it had been created at all. 

The fact of the matter is that the Bill of Rights is the document that GUARANTEES that the government shall derive its power soley from the individual and not vice versa.  What is it that the rights of free speech, speedy and public trials, the right to not be arbitrarily searched, etc. are protecting us from? Not each other. Not foreign states. No, they're written as hedges against the enroachment of government-derived power taken from the individual.  They protect us from those in the government and without who would opt for the easy route - the one people in many less free, successful states follow willingly.  The Bill of Rights exists because for a free nation to exist and to thrive, the people MUST retain the locus of control. 

This goes beyond "free elections" and democracy.  Freedom is only a word if people expect their government to take care of them. If they expect the group - the police, the legislature, the executive branch - to solve their every problem and to make decisions for them. 

The reason our constitution is so amazing is that the framers understood that only from the flexibility and insight of free people is real strength derived.  The government should only ever be framework through which disputes are resolved and a mechanism for people to, where necassary, take civic advantage of economies of scale.  This is where centralized economies and other socialist constructs FAIL every time. It's an information theory problem.  There is too much information needed to make good decisions for a central, top heavy government to process that it just cant.  Similarly, everyone always acts in their own self interest so giving everyone the power to act in their own self interest is much more likely to yield solid, beneficial results than allowing a select few to force  many to act in the interests of the few.  There HAS to be math behind this somewhere.

At any rate, back to the point:  The Second Amendment is one of the lynchpin components of the Bill of Rights, our government, and the foundational principles that make it all work.  The Second Amendment says, in effect, that for a free state to exist, the -population- shall retain the RIGHT to USE FORCE in its own SELF-INTEREST and that right shall NOT be adbicated to the empty machinery of government which will unfailingly abuse it.  The power of the Second Amendment - which was reassirmed today - is in that specific line it draws. 

There are more threats to "the security of a free state" than foreign countries and abdicating our individual power to the empty, crushing machine of government is at the top of the list.

(Edit: This is an aside from the regularly unscheduled programming here and only represents my not-nearly-educated-enough opinion on the subject...)

so it's action time. we gave up soda, which i swear for me it has been harder than when i quit smoking. and we're going to start walking.  after all, i do want to be the cute pregnant lady not the one who's so big no one can tell if i'm pregnant or just fat. so yeah, this fattie is making some changes.

Orijinalini görmek için tıklayınız : Oyun Hileleri A-H

Randy Pitchford, Gearbox president, hammers home the importance of destructible environment cover.

"In Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway, being able to shred the kinds of things soldiers hide behind is a big deal. Yes, it does look awesome to see bullets tear apart a wooden fence splinter by splinter, but it is about more than just looking amazing. You see, if the cover that the enemy is protected by is invulnerable (as it is in just about every game you've played before), then your only option is to wait them out or charge up on them.

"Brothers in Arms has always been about suppression and looking for flanks (like real combat), but now it's also about combined arms and volume of fire. It's intense and the feature takes Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway to a new level of authenticity."

There's more: "Wood can be shredded splinter by splinter and hard cover emplacements, like sand bags, can be blown away with high explosives (grenade and bazookas). It's amazing to watch and great fun to play with. I can't believe we're actually doing what we're doing because no game I've ever played feels this cool with destructible environments.

2Having destructible environments/destructible cover changes the decisions that are made on the battlefield and the options for winning. It changes the game quite a bit. And there's a lot of variety too, not just in the gameplay but also in the background, in the level design and the ways that you progress through these environments and the tactical encounters you run into."

Courtesy of CVG.

Jun 20, 2008

The Case-Shiller Index of 20 large cities for April 2008 shows housing price declines are accelerating, and are now falling at a rate of 15.3% from last year's levels.

The report also showed that home prices fell 1.4 percent in April from a month earlier after a 2.2 percent decline in March.

There's one bit of "good" news in the report: home price declines were less than expected.  According to economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, the index was forecast to fall 16 percent from a year earlier.

Not surprisingly, the housing bust continues to be most severe in previous boom areas in the West and Florida. 

Here are the markets where prices are falling fastest:

Las Vegas: -26.8%
Miami: -26.7%
Phoenix: -25.0%
Los Angeles: -23.1%
San Diego: -22.4%
San Francisco: -22.1%

Average of 20 large cities: -15.3%

The decline in home prices appears to be spreading.  Chicago showed a 9.3 percent decline and prices in New York City declined by 8.4 percent.  Charlotte, North Carolina, showed a decline for the first time.

According to Bloomberg.com, "One bright spot in the report was that more cities showed a gain in prices in April compared with the previous month. Houses in eight areas rose in value, compared with just two in March. Month-over-month gains were led by Cleveland and Dallas."