Thanksgiving Day Weekend Kellsey and I visited the Dallas Arboretum for our first ever post-Aidan just-the-two-of-us-trip.
(Taken with Doug's super-de-dooper Nikon D70 Digital SLR camera.)
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - A hospital in the Netherlands - the first nation to permit euthanasia - recently proposed guidelines for mercy killings of terminally ill newborns, and then made a startling revelation: It has already begun carrying out such procedures, which include administering a lethal dose of sedatives.Let's hear it for State-run Healthcare!
The announcement by the Groningen Academic Hospital came amid a growing discussion in Holland on whether to legalize euthanasia on people incapable of deciding for themselves whether they want to end their lives - a prospect viewed with horror by euthanasia opponents and as a natural evolution by advocates.
The agency overseeing the national Do Not Call Registry is considering opening a loophole in the year-old program to allow companies to deliver ''pre-recorded message telemarketing.''Here is where you can let the FTC know what you think about this. Seriously, they want to know. Seriously, you should tell them.
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I hate to be the bearer of good news, because only pessimists are regarded as intellectually serious, but we're in the 11th month of the most prosperous year in human history. Last week, the World Bank released a report showing that global growth "accelerated sharply" this year to a rate of about 4 percent. Best of all, the poorer nations are leading the way.
What explains all this good news? The short answer is this thing we call globalization. Over the past decades, many nations have undertaken structural reforms to lower trade barriers, shore up property rights and free economic activity. International trade is surging. The poor nations that opened themselves up to trade, investment and those evil multinational corporations saw the sharpest poverty declines. Write this on your forehead: Free trade reduces world suffering.
Mr. Abrams, who got his start writing unremarkable feel-good films and earned his big break with an earnest television series about a pretty but nerdy college girl, has become an unlikely and somewhat subversive keeper of the action-suspense form.
Excerpted from the article No Blood for Chocolate! which appeared in the National Post (a Canadian Newspaper), but you need a subscription to access the article there, so if you want to read the whole article, go here.Via Instapundit, via The Diplomad's great post on how America ought to immitate France's foreign policy.
Where are the mass protests in the streets of the world's capitals against France's military intervention in the Ivory Coast?
This month, French peacekeepers in the former French colony launched a pre-emptive assault against the Ivorian air force. They also interferred with the internal politics of the troubled nation and sought regime change -- or at least they have been accused of both by President Laurent Gbagbo.
They acted without authorization by the United Nations Security Council.
They violated both the UN Charter and the terms of the peacekeeping resolution that established their specific mission in the West African nation.
The Security Council did sanction their attacks after the fact. Nonetheless, the French acted unilaterally, and only sought and
received a UN cover story later. There wasn't even a coalition of the willing. No Brits, Aussies, Poles or Dutch to help out; just French troops, jets, helicopters and armoured personnel carriers.
What's galling is the way the French have done it all without any deference to the multilateral consensus-building they so smugly demanded of the Americans and British last year when the boots were on the other feet.
Doubly galling is the silence -- even complicity -- of the UN and the international community, which last year so sanctimoniously and vocally obstructed the invasion of Iraq.
No other nation has inserted itself militarily into African affairs in the post-colonial period more than France -- nearly two dozen times -- including on behalf of the murderous Jean-Bedel Bokassa, who proclaimed himself emperor of the Central African Republic, and in support of the Hutu government of Rwanda, whose supporters butchered half a million or more Tutsis in 1994.
The truth is, international opposition to the Iraq war (including French opposition) was prompted as much by bitter anti-Americanism and irrational hatred of George W. Bush as it was by any true concern for peace or multilateralism.
A Last Will and Testament is a document that a person (called a "testator") signs in accordance with certain formalities required by law; that pertains to probate assets only (not to non-probate assets); that names the persons who should receive the probate assets upon the death of the testator (those persons are called "beneficiaries"); that names the person whom the testator wishes to be in charge of taking the assets through the probate process and dealing with the court (that person is known as the "personal representative" in Florida and most other states, "executor" in a few); and that may also nominate the people who would care for the children if the children are orphaned as a result of the testator’s death (those persons are known as "guardians").
The Will can be quite simple. It can also be quite complex, especially if it addresses death tax issues or establishes trusts for one purpose or another (such as providing for the children), issues that we will address later.
If a parent dies without a Will, his probate assets will be distributed according to "the laws of intestacy". To die "intestate" is, literally, to die without a Will. "Intestate" derives from the Latin word intestatus: in means "not" and tesatatus is the past participle of testari, "to make a Will".) The laws of intestacy are state laws and vary to some degree from state to state. In Florida, if a parent dies without a Will, then the probate assets will be distributed as follows:
1. If the decedent’s children are also the children of the decedent’s spouse, then the spouse gets the first $60,000 worth of the deceased parent’s probate estate plus one-half of the balance.
2. If one or more of the decedent’s children are not also the children of the decedent’s spouse, then the surviving spouse gets half of the probate estate. She doesn't get $60,000 off the top.
3. The other half of the probate assets goes to the children. That half is immediately subdivided into equal shares for each child. So, for example, if there are three children, each child gets one-third of that half, or a one-sixth share of the probate assets.
4. If the deceased parent is not survived by a spouse, that is, if the deceased parent is single, then all of the probate assets are divided in equal shares among the deceased parent’s children. With three children, for example, each would inherit a one-third share.
[Patrick Gill's] experiments, published in Science (19 November 2004) , demonstrate an optical measurement time three times more accurate than anything previously achieved. It thrusts NPL into the lead in the international race to perfect a new type of atomic clock.(from Slashdot)
Bono emphatically states, "No money changed hands. There were about three people in the universe who shouted sellout. Selling out is when you do something you don't want to for cash. We really wanted to do this. What could be cooler than having our own iPod and exploring new digital formats?"
The pact had practical benefits. Pop radio isn't quick to embrace noisy rock tunes, and declining sales led to belt-tightening that precludes labels from bankrolling expensive album launches. The iPod TV spots provided invaluable exposure. "Apple seemed like the most natural collaboration and something our fans would not be embarrassed about," Edge says. "Nobody wants to see their favorite band attached to something uncool. This is about looking into the future. It's a stepping stone to where the business is heading."
Both communities share an enthusiasm for technical creativity and up until recently there was even some overlap between the two groups. Are there any interesting stories about the creativity of either groups (that relate to the other group perhaps) that should be recorded and documented?"Discussion ensues.
When rich celebrities and comfortably ensconced academics and other elite blue-staters say they feel like going to France/Canada/wherever, what are they talking about? Isn't your problem with Bush what he will (supposedly) do to other people -- the poor, the unfortunate, the underclass, the third worlders? . . . It shouldn't matter where YOU are, since your problem with Bush is with what he will do to people other than you?It's short and to the point. Read the whole thing. :-)
Firmly establishing democracy in both countries will go a long way towards ensuring our peace. GW has the courage and stick-withit-ness to see this through.(I noted the change with this: Edited on 11.2.04 to "set an example" and apply pope link.)
About a year ago I was visiting West Point, and I was talking to a big officer, a general or colonel. But he had the medals and ribbons and the stature, and he asked me what I thought of President Bush. I tried to explain what most impressed me about Mr. Bush, and I kept falling back on words like "courage" and "guts." I wasn't capturing the special quality Mr. Bush has of making a tough decision and then staying with it if he thinks it's right and paying the price even when the price is high and--
I stopped speaking for a moment. There was silence. And then the general said, "You mean he's got two of 'em." And I laughed and said yes, that's exactly what I mean.
The red and blue maps that have been popping up in the papers again this week are certainly striking, but they conceal as much as they reveal. I've spent the past four years traveling to 36 states and writing millions of words trying to understand this values divide, and I can tell you there is no one explanation. It's ridiculous to say, as some liberals have this week, that we are perpetually refighting the Scopes trial, with the metro forces of enlightenment and reason arrayed against the retro forces of dogma and reaction.
In the first place, there is an immense diversity of opinion within regions, towns and families. Second, the values divide is a complex layering of conflicting views about faith, leadership, individualism, American exceptionalism, suburbia, Wal-Mart, decorum, economic opportunity, natural law, manliness, bourgeois virtues and a zillion other issues.
But the same insularity that caused many liberals to lose touch with the rest of the country now causes them to simplify, misunderstand and condescend to the people who voted for Bush. If you want to understand why Democrats keep losing elections, just listen to some coastal and university town liberals talk about how conformist and intolerant people in Red America are. It makes you wonder: why is it that people who are completely closed-minded talk endlessly about how open-minded they are?