New 8-inch Tablet from Micromax: Canvas Tab P650

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: justify;">Micromax is going to launch a new 8-inch tablet with Android OS. The tablets comes with tag of Canvas Tab P650. The display of device will 8-inch and you can buy this at Rs. 16,500. So it means your pocket will also happy and you can manage it with in your budget.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZsTfFiW3Yvo/UjqASJvThUI/AAAAAAAAAXc/y2iFxderfn0/s1600/605x663xMicromax_Canvas_Tab_jpg_pagespeed_ic_5yvsuMND02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Micromax: Canvas Tab P650" border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZsTfFiW3Yvo/UjqASJvThUI/AAAAAAAAAXc/y2iFxderfn0/s1600/605x663xMicromax_Canvas_Tab_jpg_pagespeed_ic_5yvsuMND02.jpg" title="" width="292" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">androidos</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">                                 </div><h3 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Technical specifications:</span></h3><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><ul><li>Processor: 1.2GHz quad-core</li><li>OS: Android 4.2.1</li><li>Camera: Rear camera 5 megapixel and front facing camera 2 megapixel</li><li>Space: 16GB internal storage with microSD card and 1GB RAM</li><li>Battery: 4800mAh</li><li>Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth</li><li>Colour: Blue, White</li><li>Price: Rs. 16,500</li></ul><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Other specifications: 3G support, video pinning to home-screen support, Smart Pause, and pop-up browser, preloaded apps like Opera mini, Spuul, Music Hub, M! Live , and M!.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hiw2ntW0a8c/UjqAEtRG0iI/AAAAAAAAAXU/hEsjbogkkbk/s1600/605x404xMicromax_Canvas_Tab_back_jpg_pagespeed_ic_Xi4xDjgu0f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img alt="micromax canvas tab P650" border="0" height="213" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hiw2ntW0a8c/UjqAEtRG0iI/AAAAAAAAAXU/hEsjbogkkbk/s1600/605x404xMicromax_Canvas_Tab_back_jpg_pagespeed_ic_Xi4xDjgu0f.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">androidos</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">                              </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to Mr. Rahul Sharma Micromax co-Founder “With Canvas Tab, we are offering Indian consumers a unique combination of superior technology complemented with unmatched style. It reinforces our commitment to massify and democratize technology by empowering the consumers with the best and most unique innovations that offer great value for them,”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://plus.google.com/100638775997274345522" rel="author">Anil Swami</a></div></div>

android 4.2 micromax canvas Wi-Fi New 8-inch Tablet from Micromax: Canvas Tab P650

Micromax is going to launch a new 8-inch tablet with Android OS. The tablets comes with tag of Canvas Tab P650. The display of device will 8...

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Marry Me Vladimir Putin, Marry Me!!

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Hello.  Schmoop here for <i>IWS Radio</i>.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_jvCxx_hxp916lpISjcf8dHTaqXeVf7IWh5c-3IW0g2WbrYplkxIZTqR0hMe9LGpr4WZYBc81WFz8Hw3AtAbUWVS1yR-5Qx6GNwbRXxn9wd9H35LvxyUBkwF2UXuAIa9FFDjFMurBfc_J/s1600/vladimir+putin+divorced+shirtless+horse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_jvCxx_hxp916lpISjcf8dHTaqXeVf7IWh5c-3IW0g2WbrYplkxIZTqR0hMe9LGpr4WZYBc81WFz8Hw3AtAbUWVS1yR-5Qx6GNwbRXxn9wd9H35LvxyUBkwF2UXuAIa9FFDjFMurBfc_J/s400/vladimir+putin+divorced+shirtless+horse.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />Some of you know me as the somewhat shy, hate to talk on the radio foil for some of Matt-Man and Jayman’s childish IWS Radio jokes, however…<br /><br />I am a real person...a real person with real feelings, and a woman…<br /><br />A 47 year old woman, whose blood runs hot with a lust deeper than the Volga River, and higher than the highest apexes of the Caucasus Mountains.<br /><br />I have never told anybody this, but when I found out in June of this year that Vladimir Putin was getting a divorce from his hag-bag of a wife Lyudmila Putina, I said to myself…<br /><br /><i>“Schmoop?  You need to rid yourself of this asshole Mahoney, this American malaise, and find a guy who wears the intrigue of the KGB upon his sleeve.  Who loves to go topless while riding horses, and who is sexy enough to say to the world…</i><br /><i><br /></i><i>“So the hell what?  Those dead bodies are Chechnyans. Who the hell cares?  Let’s take my Harley on a road trip, Baby!!  Who’s with me? You? YOU?”</i><br /><br />Damn right…I like badasses, and Vlad?  You <i>are</i> a badass.  Meeeeeeeeeow.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi651woXR8ELX9Jm02BZfZMnqXy-jvmZk5vEcCjXFDB6CNWUy3gwlA_nxiNAxjT4IS0a86gQLELfsiCrSAgJ_ckWzgIWbnD94syjbHOJta3nPSx94odaI3Z6jzVeOyGlRpjwDZw-leGmiuD/s1600/Vladimir+Putin+Asshole+Harley+Davidson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi651woXR8ELX9Jm02BZfZMnqXy-jvmZk5vEcCjXFDB6CNWUy3gwlA_nxiNAxjT4IS0a86gQLELfsiCrSAgJ_ckWzgIWbnD94syjbHOJta3nPSx94odaI3Z6jzVeOyGlRpjwDZw-leGmiuD/s400/Vladimir+Putin+Asshole+Harley+Davidson.jpg" width="400" /></a>You have it all.  You run an entire country with a steel hand.  You are a take-no-crap kinda guy, and yet, you have a softer side to you that perhaps only a woman like me can detect. And…<br /><br />I bet you are crazy lovable hell in bed. I bet making love to you is like spending a night with Rasputin.  All freaky, wacko, and never say die shit. All I get here is, <i>“Please!!  Don’t Touch <b>Me</b>!!”</i>  And dig it, that’s me talking!!  Ha!!<br /><br />Seriously Baby…Oh excuse me, <i>President</i> Baby…I want to become your American Mail Order Bride. Sad American men have been importing Russian brides for years; I think it is time to turn the tables upside down on the mail order bride business.<br /><br />And when you and I do, we can laugh, drink vodka, and you can lick the scar on my stomach that looks exactly like the Volga River.  When you lick that baby…you won’t be saying <i>“Oh Mommy!!”</i>; you’ll be saying, <i>“Oh Mother Russia!!”</i><br /><br />And listen sweetie…I do have my own set of skills just like your ninja type KGB skills…<br /><br />I’m verrrrrrrry flexible…<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji_rM79pqphqLOvFMLru-pMkgzWRLy3F52beQZXoJkb1G_PhqtmfXJf_ZoRmy8ZOgIXs7CfR2vbzEGJwAfAvmjOb6dIL3LOmAl-Ia9lU6fEjVhTvk6sch0wwaWbg7DWQGtqRgONCReSD1I/s1600/Schmoop+Leg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji_rM79pqphqLOvFMLru-pMkgzWRLy3F52beQZXoJkb1G_PhqtmfXJf_ZoRmy8ZOgIXs7CfR2vbzEGJwAfAvmjOb6dIL3LOmAl-Ia9lU6fEjVhTvk6sch0wwaWbg7DWQGtqRgONCReSD1I/s400/Schmoop+Leg.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />And I can look mean and stand-offish just like you…<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIc31c4xw1Y6KLgY8zQ_ni_2SbN5Hs0D-qK6biJn9qpKO16NNRo10uSobcT909Z7GkHv4-vdv4wfxTxOJup0Z_fdI-eTqwJxIvu0kRaGQfB2lcYkra_w6Y4jLfTNmbOzqC_EG3jlyi8_AM/s1600/Schmoop+Pat+Benatar+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIc31c4xw1Y6KLgY8zQ_ni_2SbN5Hs0D-qK6biJn9qpKO16NNRo10uSobcT909Z7GkHv4-vdv4wfxTxOJup0Z_fdI-eTqwJxIvu0kRaGQfB2lcYkra_w6Y4jLfTNmbOzqC_EG3jlyi8_AM/s400/Schmoop+Pat+Benatar+2.jpg" width="381" /></a></div><br />We my dear are a perfect match.  Hell my sexy friend, we are, in addition to other commonalities, both 5’7. So please, pleeeeeeeease…send for me.  While I am an American through and through, I am a Cossack by inspiration.<br /><br />And perhaps if you have me sent FedEx to Moscow and then marry me, our nations will have a common bond and we can all get along better.<br /><br />I now this a hard move for you because you said the other day that American Exceptionalism doesn’t exist, but let me tell you…<br /><br />Once you meet me, and marry me?  You will find that American Exceptionalism not only exists <i>within</i> my thighs, but more so...<i>between</i> my thighs.<br /><br />Please Call Me, Mr. President of U-Sexy-Stan, <i>callllllll </i>me…<br /><br /><i>Schmoop</i><br /><br /><a href="mailto:mattmaniws@ymail.com">mattmaniws@ymail.com</a><br /><a href="https://twitter.com/MattMan_IWS" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">@mattman_iws</span></a><br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/mattmaniws" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">My Facebook Page</span></a></div>

Marry Me Vladimir Putin, Marry Me!!

Hello.  Schmoop here for IWS Radio . Some of you know me as the somewhat shy, hate to talk on the radio foil for some of Matt-Man and Jayman...

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The Taperworm Hungers!

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTnpBc6piLrYt7j9X0XrYIEH04NpwzKgYnBRstk1pgJR6VrU0YIWn6mX1FtxHnXTm1N__LZvm6PTXLG8q7FQBwxkbWo5uiWl4GgG0PZfik3Ltc0p9H6syPoqfu4TzyhUM7MeSjJ_QYY_Q/s1600/Taper-Worm.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTnpBc6piLrYt7j9X0XrYIEH04NpwzKgYnBRstk1pgJR6VrU0YIWn6mX1FtxHnXTm1N__LZvm6PTXLG8q7FQBwxkbWo5uiWl4GgG0PZfik3Ltc0p9H6syPoqfu4TzyhUM7MeSjJ_QYY_Q/s320/Taper-Worm.jpg" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Click to enlarge.</span><br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/S-XEINagmaU" width="420"></iframe><br /><br /><div style="color: #666666;"><i>I am Sinistar.<br />Beware, I live.<br />Run! Run! Run!<br />Beware, coward.<br />Run, coward.<br />Raaaaarrrrrrr!<br />I hunger.</i></div><br />I'm experiencing a strange feeling of déjà vu.<br /><br /><b>September 18, 2013</b><br /><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2013/09/18/bernanke-is-terrified-at-the-impact-of-higher-rates-on-housing-and-the-debt-ceiling-debate/">Bernanke Is Terrified Of Higher Mortgage Rates And The Debt Ceiling Debate</a><br /><br /><div style="color: #666666;"><i>In his post-FOMC press conference, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke made it clear that he had lost control of the market, causing a tightening of financial conditions that directly hit the highly supported housing market through higher mortgage rates.</i></div><br /><b>See Also:</b><br /><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-tapeworm-hungers.html">The Tapeworm Hungers!</a><br /><br /><b>Source Data:</b><br /><a href="http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=mxx">St. Louis Fed: 30-Year Conventional Mortgage Rate (YoY)</a>

The Taperworm Hungers!

Click to enlarge. I am Sinistar. Beware, I live. Run! Run! Run! Beware, coward. Run, coward. Raaaaarrrrrrr! I hunger. I'm experiencing a...

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Real Net Personal Interest Income Growth

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3BPnjkDrheVmoIFqhQ_zrtan7JeY9S6Zedxu3161vXdXlbWnOD87lJaCl9rW4fTJeQByMqG4ISH1Y2X2BaFetVYtOG1bOcwTq2dn48oABoQnsFO3ZtqluhzqEebJwUfXNmbJISVBbIjM/s1600/Net+Personal+Interest+Income+Growth.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3BPnjkDrheVmoIFqhQ_zrtan7JeY9S6Zedxu3161vXdXlbWnOD87lJaCl9rW4fTJeQByMqG4ISH1Y2X2BaFetVYtOG1bOcwTq2dn48oABoQnsFO3ZtqluhzqEebJwUfXNmbJISVBbIjM/s320/Net+Personal+Interest+Income+Growth.jpg" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Click to enlarge.</span><br /><br />That's a fairly impressive downdraft (in blue), especially if one considers just how much money is out there to earn interest.<br /><br />1. <a href="http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=mxm">ZIRP once helped borrowers</a>, especially long-term borrowers with good credit who managed to refinance their homes at much lower interest rates. I'm not so sure it is helping many now though. <a href="http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/TERMCBCCALLNS">Credit card interest rates have certainly not fallen much in the last 10 years</a>.<br /><br />2. <a href="http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=mxn">ZIRP continues to hurt savers</a>, especially short-term savers who patiently wait for the end of ZIRP.<br /><br /><i style="color: red;">“Patience – A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue.”</i><span style="color: red;"> </span>- Ambrose Bierce, The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary<br /><br />Let me assure you that I generally have plenty of patience and despair, but not nearly enough to sit in treasury bills long-term. I've been a permabear since 2004. In hindsight, <a href="http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=mxo">sitting in treasury bills would have been an awful plan</a>.<br /><br />From what I can see, the "average" American currently <a href="http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=mxj">earns 5x more interest than he/she pays</a>. As monetary economic stimulus goes, at some point ZIRP could easily hurt savers far more than it helps borrowers. We may have already reached that point, just like Japan before us.<br /><br />As a side note, I really don't think the typical American is personally earning 5x more interest than what is paid. Toss a few billionaires into any party and the average starts looking pretty good. That's not enough to make the typical American rich though, unless streams of cash spill out of pockets as the billionaires wander around the room. You know, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trickle-down_economics">trickle-down economics</a> and what not. Cash falling out of billionaire pockets is about as likely to happen as the end of ZIRP, at least in the near-term.<br /><br />I will end here with 100% certainty. I am a long-term retired saver and the Fed's zero interest rate policy is forcing me to spend less than I otherwise would, lest my nest egg run dry before I die of old age. It's not a complaint. It's simply a fact. <a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2013/09/this-recovery-is-just-about-over.html">Spending less</a> is a rational reaction to lower real yields. That's not what the Fed intended me to do of course. Call it an unintended consequence. This uncertain world is full of them.<br /><br /><b>Source Data:</b><br /><a href="http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=mxi">St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart</a>

Real Net Personal Interest Income Growth

Click to enlarge. That's a fairly impressive downdraft (in blue), especially if one considers just how much money is out there to earn i...

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LIVE FROM NASHVILLE I

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Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Calibri;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.0pt;">When I was a parish priest, sometimes I would contact my bishop and get the reply “I’m at House of Bishops.” I had two bishops over those years. They would say it as if they were doing something important. I accepted it as a holy mystery, not caring to know anymore than I had to about the “councils of the church” except what directly affected the life of my small parish.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.0pt;">After being consecrated bishop of Nevada, I attended my first HOB meeting with a sense of foreboding. I expected bishops to be opinionated, pompous, judgmental, arrogant, and stuffy. What I found instead was a warmer greeting, a readier acceptance, than I had ever encountered in any group. I felt instantly safer than I had ever felt in my small town clergy “support” group.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.0pt;">So 6 years later, here I am in Nashville. No this is not a boondoggle. I am not seeing the sights. I spent today in hotel conference rooms learning the art of coactive coaching. For my first three years as bishop, Tom Ely, Bishop of Vermont, was my bishop coach, helping me to identify how my subjectivity was at play in my ministry and to clarify goals and plans. Now it is my turn to do that for future bishops. Tom of Vermont and Dan of Nevada bonded over those years. Tom also bonded with another new Bishop, Porter of Western North Carolina. But I know Porter from back when we were both priests in the Diocese of Atlanta. I even did a Celtic Spirituality program at his parish in Athens while he was on sabbatical. Connections. These are the sinews of that tie the church together. Tonight I met the new wife of a Florida bishop friend. They are close friends with the fiancée of a Nevada priest. More sinews.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.0pt;">Some folks are concerned that HOB meetings are governance councils in which all sorts of decisions are made, that the bishops are running the church (perhaps with foolish minds or evil intent) between General Conventions. Not actually. There is another body of mixed orders, the Executive Council, which exercises most of that kind of authority, hopefully with wise minds and benign intent. There is a business meeting at each HOB meeting, but it is short and limited to the narrow range of matters over which we have canonical jurisdiction. There really isn’t much governance going on here.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.0pt;">We gather for education and formation, for programs intended to make us better bishops back in our dioceses -- I hope to do a better job because of things I learned today – and to connect personally, to strengthen the bonds of affection that unite the church across its various fault lines. Tonight I had dinner with a bishop who is of quite a different theological and political leaning than myself. But we shared stories of our life histories, our families, and similar struggles in our respective dioceses.  The bishops are here to engage in a process that is essentially personal and formational. So rest easy, there is no serious danger we will repeal the Nicene Creed or adopt a new Prayer Book. There is a distinct likelihood that those of us from different regions and opposing ideologies will encounter each other at a human level and become friends. <o:p></o:p></span></div><!--EndFragment-->

LIVE FROM NASHVILLE I

When I was a parish priest, sometimes I would contact my bishop and get the reply “I’m at House of Bishops.” I had two bishops over th...

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Polar insulated water bottle review!

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NvojBLy6zI8/UjpLO9UEpXI/AAAAAAAAJwA/ZAJObqArdDU/s1600/13+-+1" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><i><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NvojBLy6zI8/UjpLO9UEpXI/AAAAAAAAJwA/ZAJObqArdDU/s320/13+-+1" width="320" /></i></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>The most important accessory during a workout is water because it rehydrates you and keeps you moving, am I right?</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>True there has been times I've exercised without water, which isn't good.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Now I can sweat at the gym in style with these two water bottles that I've received from <a href="http://www.polarbottle.com/">Polar bottle</a> .</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>I also got to pick my own designs that I wanted to review!</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>I chose the ergo flower candy and the purple big bear bottle , they are beautiful and the best thing about these water bottles is that they are insulated meaning you can use either hot or cold beverages in them!</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Whether your a coffee, tea, soda or if you just want water in it then these bottles are for you!</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>They go along great at the gym or on a hike!</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>They are easy to grip onto for a quick drink!</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Links:</i><br /><i><br /></i><i>Website:</i><br /><i><a href="http://www.polarbottle.com/">http://www.polarbottle.com/</a></i><br /><i>Pinterest:</i><br /><i><br /></i><i><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/polarbottle/">http://www.pinterest.com/polarbottle/</a></i><br /><i><br /></i><i>Instagram:</i><br /><i><br /></i><i><a href="http://instagram.com/polarbottle/">http://instagram.com/polarbottle/</a></i><br /><i><br /></i><i>Twitter:</i><br /><i><br /></i><i><a href="https://twitter.com/PolarBottle">https://twitter.com/PolarBottle</a></i><br /><i><br /></i><i>Facebook:</i><br /><i><br /></i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/polarbottle"><i>https://www.facebook.com/polarbottle</i></a></div>

Polar insulated water bottle review!

The most important accessory during a workout is water because it rehydrates you and keeps you moving, am I right? True there has been times...

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High Line Walking Tour on Saturday

This is just a reminder for those in NYC that I'll be giving an architectural walking tour of the High Line. Info and link for tickets below. <br /><br /><b>The High Line and Its Environs</b><br />Saturday, September 21, 11am to 1:30pm<br /><a href="http://www.92y.org/tribeca/tickets/production.aspx?performanceNumber=93969">Tickets at 92YTribeca</a><br /><img alt="High Line Section 2" height="640" src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5158/5819663179_5a2431b18c_z.jpg" width="606" /><br /><i>Trek the High Line taking in the park and the surrounding buildings and step off to get a closer look at select buildings.</i><br /><br />

High Line Walking Tour on Saturday

This is just a reminder for those in NYC that I'll be giving an architectural walking tour of the High Line. Info and link for tickets b...

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The Monetary Policy No-Fly Zone (Musical Tribute)

The following chart shows the 10-year moving average of the natural log of M2 money stock times the 10-year treasury yield. I'm using the natural log so exponential growth is seen as a straight line.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigVCneNY3I6nmnyn84a_4jtU16bSbzZlhcDrNJ7S6mSsiJzyy5HVGmqiB56Tf7w1Rfh-YgLsx4_pD_QcYtOXhtbSLA_LPOtN_z3Bj9yB_hx0IRQghE24x0sqV2vgjdVnR8577FTr0qgMU/s1600/The+Monetary+Policy+No-Fly+Zone.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigVCneNY3I6nmnyn84a_4jtU16bSbzZlhcDrNJ7S6mSsiJzyy5HVGmqiB56Tf7w1Rfh-YgLsx4_pD_QcYtOXhtbSLA_LPOtN_z3Bj9yB_hx0IRQghE24x0sqV2vgjdVnR8577FTr0qgMU/s320/The+Monetary+Policy+No-Fly+Zone.jpg" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Click to enlarge.</span><br /><br />Note that there are two long-term trends in the chart and they are both straight lines. Technically speaking, the transition between the two represents an exponential trend failure. <a href="http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=mwG">Here is a chart of the data</a> before the natural log is applied to more clearly show that failed exponential growth trend.<br /><br />As seen in the chart, this "new and improved" modern economy can apparently only tolerate a continually expanding money supply *and* a continually declining 10-year treasury yield.<br /><br />On the one hand, it was a therefore a mistake to enter the no-fly zone during the last 10 years. The attempt was shot down in flames as we entered the Great Recession. On the other hand, it was also a mistake to let the <a href="http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/DCOILWTICO">price of oil</a> rise so much. It helped us attain a Great Recession too. Can you say caught between Iraq and a hard place? Pun intended. Two mistakes can't make a right here, especially since both mistakes cannot be made at the same time! The Fed must choose one or the other.<br /><br />M2 is currently $10,790 billion. It would therefore currently take a 10-year treasury yield of just 2.29% to hit the median of 5.51.<br /><br />LN(10,790 x 2.29%) = 5.51<br /><br />On that first hand again, any rate above 2.29% on the 10-year treasury risks making a similar mistake. And on the other hand, <a href="http://www.tulsaworld.com/article.aspx/Oil_Price_rises_on_Fed_policy_decision_US_supply_report/20130918_501_0_NEWYOR167414?subj=298">there goes oil again</a>. Is it any wonder that the Fed is <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2013/09/18/no-taper-shocks-wall-street-fed-running-scared/">running scared</a> today? Two mistakes! Must choose one!<br /><br /><div style="color: #666666;"><i>“This FOMC edition feels less dovish than it does outright scared,” Mr. Green says.</i></div><br />I would suggest that the 10-year treasury could easily yield under 2.29% again in the not too distant future, or we'll die trying (recession). And if the price of oil rises more, we'll die trying anyway. It's only a matter of time.<br /><br />The vast majority of <a href="http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20130829/FREE/130829915">"financial experts"</a> felt that <a href="http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=mwM">3% and higher was a sure thing</a>. In sharp contrast, I was and am a long-term believer in <a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-long-term-death-of-real-yields.html">The Long-Term Death of Real Yields</a> theory. It's just going to get harder and harder to make money off of money.<br /><br />This economy continues to suffer under the illusion of prosperity. This is one of the weakest recoveries we've ever had and yet all I hear about on the TV is how resilient we are. It reminds me so much of the 2003 to 2007 era. Pardon my language, but <a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2007/11/happy-thanksgiving.html">three more years of Goldilocks</a> my @$$.<br /><br />What will the next recovery look like if/when we enter the next recession during ZIRP? I'd say the odds definitely favor it so perhaps it is best to think up answers now rather than when it is happening. As they say, if one must panic at least panic first. And when might hindsight show was a great time to panic? <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/stocks-slip-lower-market-waits-fed-decision-20295108">Hard to say.</a> Nothing brings more illusionary confidence than a Fed running scared.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/UKwVvSleM6w" width="420"></iframe><br /><br />Once again, just opinions. This is not investment advice.<br /><br /><b>See Also:</b><br /><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-inflationary-no-fly-zone.html">The Inflationary No-Fly Zone</a><br /><br /><b>Source Data:</b><br /><a href="http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=mwE">St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart</a>

The Monetary Policy No-Fly Zone (Musical Tribute)

The following chart shows the 10-year moving average of the natural log of M2 money stock times the 10-year treasury yield. I'm using th...

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Larry Page - Google+ - I’m excited to announce Calico, a new company that will focus on health and well-being, in particular the challenge of aging and associated diseases

<base href="data:"><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><div class="rA0qsb xZbqqd" style="position: absolute; width: 0px; color: rgb(64, 64, 64); font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "> </div><div class="vFgtwf" style="color: rgb(64, 64, 64); font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; ">I'm excited to announce Calico, a new company that will focus on health and well-being, in particular the challenge of aging and associated diseases.  Art Levinson, Chairman and former CEO of Genentech and Chairman of Apple, will be Chief Executive Officer.<br><br>OK … so you're probably thinking wow!  That's a lot different from what Google does today.  And you're right.  But as we explained in our first letter to shareholders, there's tremendous potential for technology more generally to improve people's lives.  So don't be surprised if we invest in projects that seem strange or speculative compared with our existing Internet businesses.  And please remember that new investments like this are very small by comparison to our core business.<br><br>Art and I are excited about tackling aging and illness.  These issues affect us all—from the decreased mobility and mental agility that comes with age, to life-threatening diseases that exact a terrible physical and emotional toll on individuals and families.  And while this is clearly a longer-term bet, we believe we can make good progress within reasonable timescales with the right goals and the right people.<br><br>Our press release has a few more details though it's still very early days so there's not much more to share yet.  Of course when Art has something more substantial to communicate (and that will likely take time), he'll provide an update.  Finally, thanks to Bill Maris for helping bring this idea to life and getting Art involved, and to Sergey Brin for consistently supporting 10X thinking like this.  It's hard for many companies to make long term investments.  So I'm tremendously excited about the innovative new way we're funding this project.  Now for the hard work!<br><br><a href="http://googlepress.blogspot.com/2013/09/calico-announcement.html" class="ot-anchor" rel="nofollow" style="color: rgb(66, 127, 237); cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; -webkit-transition: color 0.218s; ">http://googlepress.blogspot.com/2013/09/calico-announcement.html</a></div></div><a href="https://plus.google.com/+LarryPage/posts/Lh8SKC6sED1">https://plus.google.com/+LarryPage/posts/Lh8SKC6sED1</a><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>

Larry Page - Google+ - I’m excited to announce Calico, a new company that will focus on health and well-being, in particular the challenge of aging and associated diseases

  I'm excited to announce Calico, a new company that will focus on health and well-being, in particular the challenge of aging and assoc...

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SEC, finally, does something about insane CEO pay

You know something's out of whack when <a href="https://teamster.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2013/09/McKesson-CEO-jaw-dropping-pay.html">McKesson CEO John Hammergren rakes in $51.7 million </a>even though the company has paid nearly a $1 billion to settle Medicaid and other fraud claims on his watch. While he’s entitled to a $159 million pension, other McKesson workers can’t even afford to participate in their 401 (k) or buy into the company’s healthcare plan.<br /><br />On $13 an hour, Randolph Santiago, a material handler at McKesson's Lakeland, Fla., facility, can't come up with $160 a month for individual health coverage, let alone the higher cost of a family plan. His wife is on SSI after being diagnosed with clinical depression. His two daughters need braces, but at $8,500, they're beyond him.<br /><br />Hammergren makes 847 times the average worker at McKesson -- if you include his stock options and pension. That's so much that <a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2013/09/McKesson-CEO-jaw-dropping-pay.html" rel="nofollow">he receives an extra $17,000 for a financial planner</a> just to count all his money.<br /><br />It's time to do something about the growing gap between the one percenters at the top of corporations and the 99 percent who work for them. Fortunately, the Securities and Exchange Commission is doing something.<br /><br />The <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/18/us-usa-sec-ceopay-munis-idUSBRE98H0EX20130918" rel="nofollow">SEC today proposed a rule</a> requiring corporations to reveal the ratio between their CEO and median worker compensation. As one commissioner complained, the reason for doing it is to shame CEOs. (He thinks there's something wrong with that.)<br /><br />Congress passed a law in July 2010 that requires companies to disclose the gap between CEO and worker pay. Expect corporations to fight back. It’s not just the general public who’s fed up, investors care too. In fact, Hammergren’s compensation package received a stunning 78 percent rejection by shareholders at McKesson’s annual meeting this year.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.teamster.org/content/teamsters-praise-sec-proposed-rule-corporate-pay" rel="nofollow">Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa, in a statement, praised</a> the SEC:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">CEO pay keeps going up and worker pay keeps going down. This is a dirty secret that corporate CEOs don’t want exposed, and the SEC did the right thing by proposing this rule.</blockquote>The <a href="https://teamster.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.ips-dc.org/">Institute for Policy Studies</a> reports:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Expert observers of the corporate compensation scene have been calling for action around CEO-worker pay ratios ever since Peter Drucker, the founder of modern management science, called for a 25-to-1 ratio between top management and worker pay in <a href="https://teamster.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/WSJ_Drucker_execpay.pdf">a 1977 Wall Street Journal op-ed</a>.<br /><br />Back at that time pay ratios of 50- and 100-to-1 struck the American public — and experts like Drucker — as totally unjustifiable. Ratios that wide, Drucker wrote, endanger the great business achievement of the 20th century, “the steady narrowing of the income gap between the ‘big boss’ and the ‘working man.'”<br /><br />That achievement has now gone completely by the boards. Over recent decades, the CEO-worker pay gap has soared. Major corporate CEOs last year took in <a href="https://teamster.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.aflcio.org/Corporate-Watch/CEO-Pay-and-You">354 times more</a> compensation than average American workers, double the gap in the early 1990s. A Bloomberg News survey this past spring found that CEOs at eight major U.S. corporations <a href="https://teamster.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://go.bloomberg.com/multimedia/ceo-pay-ratio/">were making over 1,000 times</a> the average pay of workers in their industry.</blockquote>The IPS says pay ratio disclosure could be a game-changer in the struggle against insane executive compensation.<br /><br />Let's hope.<br /><br />

CEO Pay McKesson SEC SEC, finally, does something about insane CEO pay

You know something's out of whack when McKesson CEO John Hammergren rakes in $51.7 million even though the company has paid nearly a $1 ...

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Five years after bailouts, the rich are even richer

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim3PwZwAq804QVMaUCI8VTdd_8Ur6z6fN6R_yjlDgrYB-dKMccggxPbFXBatrwfutHGpAX9LhbrSCPXUNyJapGQwf0mlrCNKZdnjGoWxSd4CO_V4-E8V64Fpjtq28OE4zCQOATWVQ2C3gj/s1600/plunder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim3PwZwAq804QVMaUCI8VTdd_8Ur6z6fN6R_yjlDgrYB-dKMccggxPbFXBatrwfutHGpAX9LhbrSCPXUNyJapGQwf0mlrCNKZdnjGoWxSd4CO_V4-E8V64Fpjtq28OE4zCQOATWVQ2C3gj/s1600/plunder.jpg" /></a></div>The super-rich are doing super well -- and why not? They deserve it after sending financial markets into a tailspin, plunging the global economy into a deep recession, and bankrupting governments around the world.<br /><br />Oh wait.<br /><br />Over the last three years of recovery, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/17/median-income-falls-inequality_n_3941514.html" rel="nofollow">income for the top five percent has grown more than five percent</a> while income for the rest of us fell.  <br /><em></em><br /><em>Think Progress</em> <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/09/17/2636711/census-income-inequality/" rel="nofollow">reports</a>: <br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Overall income growth has been paltry since the recession, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/17/median-income-falls-inequality_n_3941514.html" rel="nofollow">according to the Census report</a>. After median household income fell for two years, it has leveled off, seeing virtually no growth over the past two. It was $51,017 in 2012, 8.3 percent lower than in 2007. </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">But the rich are doing far better. The top 5 percent was making $191,157 or more in 2012, while the bottom fifth made $20,599 or less. </blockquote><div>It’s amazing how little has changed in five years. Economist <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/09/17-2" rel="nofollow">Dean Baker writes</a>:</div><blockquote class="tr_bq">As we mark the fifth anniversary of the Wall Street bailouts, it is clear that little has changed in the way they do business. They are still engaging in the same sorts of market manipulation and tax gaming as they did before the crisis. </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">The weak conditions on the bailout money had no lasting effect in areas like executive compensation. The industry itself is more concentrated than ever as the big banks used the crisis to merge with other banks, making them even bigger. And the Dodd-Frank reforms have been watered down to the extent that many are now pointless. </blockquote><div>Five years ago, this seemed impossible. In September of 2008, the world was on the brink of economic meltdown. Governments scrambled to rescue big banks. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson gave grim reports to the nation. They said <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/id/26850571/ns/business-stocks_and_economy/t/bernanke-paulson-congress-must-act-now/" rel="nofollow">unprecedented intervention was needed</a> and they assured us that <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/01/business/economy/01fed.html?_r=0" rel="nofollow">sweeping regulatory reforms</a> would follow.<br /><br />That was right after huge debts that piled up in a shadow banking system popped the housing bubble. The iconic investment giant Lehman Brothers collapsed, sending shockwaves through the world financial system and taking down banks and corporations worldwide. There was long overdue rage directed at the greedy CEOs and bankers who made billions off of predatory subprime mortgages and complex financial instruments – literally <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2009/11/01/77791/how-goldman-secretly-bet-on-the.html#.UjngL2zD_cs" rel="nofollow">betting on people losing their homes</a> and lifesavings. <br /><br />There was even <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/foreclosuregate-could-force-bank-nationalization" rel="nofollow">talk of nationalizing the banks</a>. At the very least, a <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/03/house.bailout/index.html?section=cnn_latest" rel="nofollow">system overhaul was promised</a>, with tighter regulations to stop the reckless gambling of Wall Street’s “casino culture.”<br /><br />But today the casino is still pulling in huge profits – thanks to taxpayer money that rescued it in the first place. Remember when we were told the taxpayer bailout program called <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/07/24/neil-barofsky-s-bailout-why-tarp-failed.html" rel="nofollow">TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) was necessary to help underwater homeowners</a>? That didn't happen. It was supposed to help banks start lending again as well, and that didn't happen either. The banks sat on enormous stockpiles of money. Even up to the first three months of 2012, <a href="http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/05/01/bank-lending-shrinks/" rel="nofollow">major banks cut lending by $24 million</a>.<br /><br />All of that free government money that went to Wall Street resulted in an unprecedented transfer of wealth from the middle class to the super-rich. As the government took on the colossal debts of the high finance fraudsters, it led to soaring deficits and the ensuing budget cuts that devastated public services and the social safety net – all in the name of austerity.<br /><br />It was a grand heist by the rich against middle-class workers and the poor.<br /><br />Five years after the 2008 crash, <a href="http://www.moneynews.com/Economy/Krugman-inequality-education-wealth/2013/09/13/id/525546" rel="nofollow">95 percent of gains made since the recovery have gone to the top 1 percent</a>. Meanwhile for the bottom 60 percent wages have been stagnant or declining. And almost <a href="http://wallstcheatsheet.com/stocks/how-many-americans-are-still-underwater-or-anchored-to-their-homes.html/" rel="nofollow">25 percent of homeowners with mortgages are underwater</a>.<br /><br />So that wonderful recovery we’ve all heard about since the onset of the Great Recession? It’s been a recovery almost exclusively for the Wall Street tycoons who engineered the economic crisis. The rest of us are still paying for it.<br /><br />According to the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/sep/16/us-super-rich-recover-losses-financial-crisis-forbes" rel="nofollow"><em>Guardian</em></a>:</div><blockquote class="tr_bq">Five years after the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/financial-crisis" rel="nofollow">financial crisis</a>, America's super-rich have recovered all their losses to see their wealth reach an all-time high.</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">According to <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/luisakroll/2013/09/16/inside-the-2013-forbes-400-facts-and-figures-on-americas-richest/" rel="nofollow">Forbes magazine the 400 wealthiest Americans</a> are worth a record $2.02 trillion, up from $1.7tn in 2012, a collective fortune slightly bigger than Russia's economy. In another sign of fizziness at the top of the economy, the cost to enter the billionaires' club has also gone up to levels not seen since the 2008 crash. In 2013, an aspiring plutocrat needs at least $1.3bn to make the Forbes list</blockquote><div>In the same five years that the rich have been getting richer and workers’ wages remain stagnant, we’ve seen an all-out war on American workers in the form of “right to work” for less laws and other anti-worker attacks by right-wing groups like <a href="http://alecexposed.org/" rel="nofollow">ALEC</a> and the Koch Brothers.<br /><br />Five years is long enough. It’s time to fight back for workers and demand a recovery for the middle class.</div>

bailout bank regulation class warfare corporate greed financial crisis income inequality Lehman Brothers rec Wall Street Crime Five years after bailouts, the rich are even richer

The super-rich are doing super well -- and why not? They deserve it after sending financial markets into a tailspin, plunging the global eco...

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Debunking The Media Lie That No Mass Shooting Was Ever Stopped By An Armed Citizen

I have been seeing this bald faced lie repeatedly the last couple of days and it needs to be rebutted, hard.<br /><br />The cocksuckers in the media are hammering the anti gun agenda and they are using blatant lies coupled with subtly biased graphics and commentary.<br /><br />The following is a list of <s><b>NINE </b></s> <b>TEN </b>potential mass shootings that were stopped cold by either armed private citizens or law enforcement officers.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/10-potential-mass-shootings-that-were-stopped-by-someone-wit"><br />Pass this around and shove the nearest gun grabbers face in it.</a><br /><br />1. The Pearl High School shooting.<br /><br />2. The Parker Middle School dance shooting.<br /><br />3. The Appalachian School of Law shooting.<br /><br />4. The New Life Church shooting.<br /><br />5. The Trolley Square shooting.<br /><br />6. The Golden Market shooting.<br /><br />7. The New York Mills AT&T store shooting.<br /><br />8. The Clackamas Town Center shooting.<br /><br />9. The San Antonio Theater shooting.<br /><b><br />Update;<br /></b><br />My thanks to Robert The Biker in the comments for reminding me of the Fort Hood Shooting that was stopped by a lady MP.<br /><br /><br />10. The Fort Hood Shooting.<br /><br />That's an even ten.<br /><br /><br /><br />H/T to <a href="http://www.fark.com/">FARK</a> for the link to <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/10-potential-mass-shootings-that-were-stopped-by-someone-wit">BUZZFEED.</a><br />

Debunking The Media Lie That No Mass Shooting Was Ever Stopped By An Armed Citizen

I have been seeing this bald faced lie repeatedly the last couple of days and it needs to be rebutted, hard. The cocksuckers in the media ar...

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Confronting Pain - HealthLeaders Media

Physical pain is beginning to define America. Back pain. Knee pain. Spinal disorders. Headaches. Arthritis. Shingles. Migraines. Pain can be here today, gone tomorrow, or a constant presence, gnawing, clawing, endless. Whether sporadic or chronic, pain prompts patients to move from physician to physician, hospital to hospital, seeking the elixir, the magic cure, the one last surgery, even for some tentative relief.<br /><br><br /><br>In fact, pain is the most common reason patients visit doctors, hospitals, and health systems. The pain condition is so ingrained that it is dubbed the fifth vital sign by <br /><br>medical professionals.<br /><br><br /><br>As such, pain represents a flourishing patient market for healthcare. Hospitals are creating pain management centers with a focus on chronic and acute pain, relying on interventional and multidisciplinary procedures targeting long-term pain.<br /><br><br /><br>Pain impacts more Americans than diabetes, heart disease, and cancer combined, and costs the nation up to $635 billion each year in medical treatment and lost productivity, according to a 2011 Institute of Medicine report brief. Hospitals are responding to the booming pain market by focusing on various aspects of care. For hospitals, a key strategy is structuring their pain programs, from evaluating acute and chronic pain, to providing psychological evaluation if needed and patient education.<br /><br><br /><br>Hospitals also recognize the need to improve pain management outcomes to improve patient satisfaction scores on the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey. The HCAHPS survey, which is linked to CMS payments, asks patients about pain management.<br /><br><br /><br>Patient pain management is a "big part of patient satisfaction," says Thomas A. Mathew, MD, an internal medicine physician and hospitalist at the 1,100-licensed-bed Christiana Care Health System in Wilmington, Del., which has seen significant growth the past two years in pain management.<br /><br><br /><br>For years, its pain management program was part of its palliative care program, but the growth in patients who presented with pain as a complaint prompted the system to create a multidisciplinary team specializing in pain care, including anesthesiologists and interventional radiologists, Mathew says. Over time, pain management has overtaken palliative care.<br /><br><br /><br>The 1,158-licensed-bed Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis expanded the size of its Washington University Pain Management Center from 5,000 to 10,000 square feet to accommodate a growing patient population. In the meantime, it restructured its pain program into two areas, concentrating on chronic and cancer pain in the one area and acute perioperative pain in the other. The Pain Management Center is part of the hospital's Center for Advanced Medicine, and it includes outpatient and inpatient programs.<br /><br><br /><br> "We recently moved to a larger facility because of a growing need, with more and more patients to be seen and procedures to be done. You compare year-to-year and month-to-month, and those numbers are going up steadily," says Michael Bottros, MD, director of acute pain service at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and assistant professor of anesthesiology at the Washington University Pain Management Center. "We are seeing a variety of patients, from those with head and neck pain to low back pain to postsurgical pain."<br /><br><br /><br>The organization intends to offer pain care for a multitude of service lines. "If you improve patient management, you also indirectly improve everything else," Bottros says. "It has a rippling effect. With service lines such as oncology or surgery, pain is a factor in all of them. It's a common underlying feature. We are ensuring that appropriate pain care paths are developed for the patient based on the condition and the type of surgery they've had."<br /><br><br /><br>At the 907-bed Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, the number of pain patients has increased steadily, from 600 per month in 2007 to more than 1,000 this year. At least 70% are seeking treatment for spine-related pain: chronic low back pain, spinal stenosis, and herniated disks, says Chris Gilligan, MD, MBA, director of the center for pain medicine at MGH. As many as 30% of the patients are treated for other pain conditions, such as musculoskeletal pain, arthritis, shingles, and cancer-related conditions.<br /><br><br /><br>With increasing numbers of patients needing pain care, MGH has tried to make treatment more efficient, Gilligan says. For instance, back pain patients are admitted to the hospital's emergency department observation unit instead of an inpatient floor, as had been done previously. Consequently, patient length of stay in the hospital has been reduced, he adds.<br /><br><br /><br>"In the observation unit, we perform pain service consults in a very timely fashion," Gilligan says. "If we need imaging and/or injection, they happen quickly and we can reduce length of stay substantially compared to regular hospital admission."<br /><br><br /><br>Hospital pain treatment centers are becoming more prominent, especially since many general practitioners are reluctant to become involved in pain management because of their concerns about increased law enforcement scrutiny and widespread misuse of prescription drugs, says Tiffany Meert, chief operating officer of the Northern Nevada Medical Center, a 55-staffed-bed facility in Sparks, Nev. Those concerns have prompted the hospital to become involved in a partnership with a physician group to oversee pain management, she says.<br /><br><br /><br>Accidental drug overdoses that result in deaths have been rampant across the country. "It's a huge problem," says Gilligan of MGH<br /><br><br /><br>Mathew, the Christiana Care physician, says it is essential for healthcare leadership to overcome obstacles like potential drug overdoses to improve pain management. Pain care itself is "one of the biggest opportunities for improvement in medicine in healthcare, and the place where we just don't have adequate rules in the game because everybody's perception of pain is different and what the <br /><br>expectations are."<br /><br><br /><br>Success key No. 1: Dealing with prescription drugs<br /><br><br /><br>Arnold Feldman, MD, a longtime interventional pain specialist in Baton Rouge, La., didn't want to be associated with the word pain. Indeed, he removed the word from his practice sign several years ago and replaced it simply with "The Feldman Institute." While he continues to treat patients afflicted with pain, specializing in interventional pain management outpatient procedures, he wants to distance his practice from less scrupulous providers.<br /><br><br /><br>Law enforcement, especially the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, is increasingly scrutinizing physicians because of so-called drug or pill mills, physician practices that overprescribe powerful drugs that are linked to the abuse of painkillers. Opioid analgesics—including morphine, oxycodone, and methadone—are among the prescription drugs most often linked to abuse.<br /><br><br /><br>Drug overdose death rates in the United States have more than tripled since 1990, "and have never been higher," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly three in four prescription drug overdoses are caused by opioid pain relievers, the CDC states. The misuse and abuse of prescription painkillers was responsible for more than 475,000 ED visits in 2009, a number that nearly doubled in five years.<br /><br><br /><br>"[Law enforcement] are scrutinizing doctors like crazy," Feldman says. "We don't want to be associated with drug or narcotics mills." Law enforcement's focus has prompted many primary care physicians to shy away from prescribing pain pills at all. "Family doctors used to treat people with pain," he explains. "They will not anymore. One of the reasons is poor education about opioids and the fear of government scrutiny and prosecution."<br /><br><br /><br>Hospitals, too, are specifically organizing pain treatment programs not only to relieve pain but also to coordinate care that thwarts potential abuses. The American Medical Association has called for a multidisciplinary clinical approach to the treatment of chronic pain with a focus on responsible prescribing of opioids. Physicians, hospitals, and health systems also are touting nondrug therapies and integrative approaches to treat pain without narcotics.<br /><br><br /><br>The government has taken steps to assist hospitals in overcoming problems with opioids. The Joint Commission, for instance, issued a Sentinel Event Alert that urges hospitals to take specific steps to prevent serious complications or even deaths from opioids. A growing number of states are enacting policies that promote the delivery of effective pain management, according to an American Cancer Society Action Network report.<br /><br><br /><br>Pain treatment programs are focusing on medication reconciliation as a key element in helping to improve treatment of patients and combat overprescribing of drugs. Such programs are often linked to sophisticated electronic medical records that keep tabs on patient usage of drugs and physician prescribing.<br /><br><br /><br>"We have made a huge effort in our center the past several years to have our medication reconciliation be more effective," says Gilligan of MGH. Under the protocol, patients are evaluated and educated about the impact of their medications. The dosages and the responses are registered in medical records. The medical record indicates what medication is appropriate and what interventions are needed.<br /><br><br /><br>"Every single time, someone goes over what medications [patients] are taking, what those medications do, and this is done even before the doctor sees them, and [the doctor] again goes over it all," Gilligan says. As they leave the hospital, patients review a summary report. The physicians are monitored, too. If a physician makes a mistake related to the dosage ordered, "the EMR triggers a response. It isn't perfect, but it greatly reduces the chances for errors."<br /><br><br /><br>General practitioners and nurses aren't the only team members involved in medication reconciliation, Gilligan says. "If a patient has behavioral or mental health issues, and not just the chronic pain, there are people on staff to deal with that—psychologists and psychiatrists. The psychiatrists have additional training in pain and substance abuse." Neurologists also are included in the pain unit, he says.<br /><br><br /><br>Barnes-Jewish Hospital routinely updates prescribers, interns, residents, and nurse practitioners in the hospital about patients' medications, especially for those patients transferred from one area of the hospital to another. With its medical record, the hospital's pain management center coordinates medication the patients take in the home and hospital.<br /><br><br /><br>Barnes-Jewish Hospital also implemented the Pasero Opioid-induced Sedation Scale to improve assessment of opioid medication administration in non-ICU inpatient nursing units. "A lot of us are moving away from opioids as a frontline therapy," says Bottros. "We have a system-based approach."<br /><br><br /><br>Physicians in pain management programs are increasingly striking a balance between ordering proper medications and trying to ward off potential drug abuses, the American Cancer Society Action Network has found.<br /><br><br /><br>"Keeping the patients' perspective and needs in focus is extremely important in prescribing painkillers," says David Woodmansee, associate director for state and local campaigns for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. "That is the essence of balance."<br /><br><br /><br>Success key No. 2: Treating children's pain<br /><br><br /><br>While many hospitals are launching programs primarily to help adult patients cope with pain, others are focusing on children, especially cancer patients. A major concern is that younger children may have trouble communicating the extent of their pain, making diagnosis and treatment difficult. And, too often, physicians and hospitals lack expertise in providing proper medication and integrative or nonpharmacological therapies for children in pain, says Stefan Friedrichsdorf, MD, medical director of pain medicine, palliative care, and integrative medicine at the 381-staffed-bed Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota in Minneapolis.<br /><br><br /><br>An independent, not-for-profit healthcare system, Children's of Minnesota provides care through more than 12,000 children inpatient visits and more than 300,000 emergency room and other outpatient clinic visits every year. By establishing a specific pain management program, the hospital <br /><br>has added protocols that have resulted in improved outcomes and reduced length of stay for its patients, says Friedrichsdorf. The multidisciplinary team includes physicians, nurses, social workers, psychologists, and massage therapists. The pain management program has increased its volume of patients in each of the past several years, from a total of 1,117 children seen in 2008 to 1,440 in 2012.<br /><br><br /><br>Focusing on patient management has resulted in savings and reduced lengths of stay. One of the most significant efforts was establishing an advanced analgesia-sedation protocol for babies and children who had undergone open heart surgery. In pediatric circles, it is known that pediatric sedation requires a balance between risk and procedures. Studies have shown that the demand for procedural sedation for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures is increasing.<br /><br><br /><br>Hospitals must establish proper protocols to provide safe and high-quality sedation. The Minneapolis analgesia-sedation protocol has resulted in reduced length of stay from eight to seven days, and it intubated children four hours earlier, despite the fact that the children were considered generally "sicker" from their cardio scores, according to Friedrichsdorf.<br /><br><br /><br>In the cardiovascular ICU, process improvements also meant workflow changes, he adds. Adjustments were made to team roundings, such as the requirement that twice each day—from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. and again from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.—a team nurse, respiratory therapist, intensivist, cardiologist, cardiac surgeon, pharmacist, and pain physician round on every patient. If a rounding occurs at a cardiac ICU, a cardiac intensivist is involved.<br /><br><br /><br>The hospital's readmission rate within seven days, for any condition, was as low as 3.5% from January to December of 2012, which is notable when compared to 24 other children's hospitals, the lowest of which had a readmission rate of 4.1%, according to the Pediatric Health Information System, a database operated by the Alexandria, Va.–based Children's Hospital Association. Generally, Children's of Minnesota has "sent their patients home faster and that drives up satisfaction for the patients and their parents," Friedrichsdorf says.<br /><br><br /><br>Managing children's pain at hospitals across the country has been erratic, in part because of uncertainty among physicians in providing proper doses of medication for pain, says Friedrichsdorf. By not incorporating multidisciplinary teams to focus on children's pain needs, hospitals are coming up short for children, especially for those with acute chronic pain, he adds.<br /><br><br /><br>"Most children's hospitals are not even implementing the basic principles of acute or chronic pain management," he says. Among the places where these principles should be applied are in children with acute pain, postoperative pain, and cancer pain, after open-heart surgery and orthopedic procedures, and for chronic pain, such as abdominal and musculoskeletal pain.<br /><br><br /><br>"Children with cancer pain, they probably receive too little medication, and pediatric patients with chronic pain and headaches probably get too much," Friedrichsdorf says. "It's quite easy to prescribe strong medication and say, 'I'll see you in two weeks.' These kids need physical therapy and normalized lives. We extubate the children when they are admitted to our hospital and they receive advanced pain management. This is a business model that hospital leadership can get behind."<br /><br><br /><br>Success key No. 3: Comanaging pain<br /><br><br /><br>A pain management specialist looked around the Nevada desert and noticed it lacked more than water: There weren't many pain doctors around.<br /><br><br /><br>"Over the past few years, there has been only one pain management doctor for every 10,000 patients who come in for pain treatment," observes Denis Patterson, DO, now medical director of Northern Nevada Medical Center's Pain Management Center. "There's definitely a need for pain management, a huge need really, and pain management is very much underutilized in the community."<br /><br><br /><br>Patterson and his physician group were eager to establish protocols in a niche market, especially for patients who were clamoring for lower back pain care. The doctors reached a comanagement agreement with Northern Nevada Medical Center. Both physicians and hospital representatives comprise the leadership team that oversees pain management programs at the hospital's Pain Management Center.<br /><br><br /><br>"At the Pain Management Center, our goal is to return patients to a maximum level of functioning and independence by identifying the source pain and using advanced techniques to reduce the level of pain and suffering," says Patterson.<br /><br><br /><br>For the Northern Nevada Medical Center, teaming up with the physicians group was a good fit. The hospital was known in the community for its orthopedics program and had launched an outpatient rehabilitation and sports medicine unit, "which has been a fast-growing program," explains Meert, the hospital's COO. "Opening a pain management center was a natural fit for our continuum of care and for the population we serve," she says.<br /><br><br /><br>The comanagement program allows the hospital to have "highly respected, fellowship-trained pain management physicians at Nevada Advanced Pain Specialist to comanage quality outcomes and indicators as well as program enhancement and efficiency," Meert says. The hospital "invested capital" in the pain management program, especially with added imaging equipment and surgical staff. Within a year, the hospital began to recoup its investment by especially focusing on patients with lower back pain, she says, adding that "so many patients were in need." It was important that the hospital focus on "enhanced quality," Meert says. "It's a constant state of education."<br /><br><br /><br>More than 50% of patients report having knee pain, and when combining that statistic with those reporting low back and neck pain, that represents 85% of patients, according to Patterson. The hospital's pain management program is comanaged by the Northern Nevada Medical Center and a physicians group, the Reno-based Nevada Advanced Pain Specialists, which specializes in stroke, knee replacement, hip replacement, and spine surgery. The program received the Joint Commission's Gold Seal of Approval for low back pain.<br /><br><br /><br>At the Pain Management Center, patients undergo an evaluation that may include x-rays, magnetic resonance imaging scans, or nerve studies to find the specific disk, nerve root, joint, or tendon causing pain. After a physician identifies the source of pain, he or she may use image-guided techniques to deliver steroids, burn nerve endings, or perform other targeted therapies at the precise area causing pain.<br /><br><br /><br>The physicians group initiated the working relationship with the hospital after seeing the great need for pain care in the Sparks and Reno area of Nevada, say Meert and Patterson. Too often, primary care physicians lack knowledge about pain management, Patterson says. "Part of what we do is educating primary care doctors what patient management is, and that what we are trying to do is in the best interest of the patient."<br /><br><br /><br>With the comanagement arrangement, the hospital expanded staff, particularly surgery and imaging. Like other pain management programs, the staff includes therapists and acupuncturists. Physicians have increased referrals for patient care, Patterson says. The message to physicians is: "If it hurts, send them." Once patients are examined, "that allows us to triage them, work up a program, and see what's happening."<br /><br><br /><br>For both the hospital and the physicians, it's a good working relationship that allows for more patients into the program and reciprocal incentives for the medical group, Patterson says. The hospital reduces overhead costs for physicians, who bring patients to the facility. "It's nice," he says. "It lowers my overhead and they have a center where we can see patients. In return, we do a lot of cases at the hospital, and the hospital gets a facility fee. They make a profit in the end, and they have supplies for us."<br /><br><br /><br>The comanagement program involves leadership from both the physicians group and the hospital, Patterson says. It includes the physician partners and the hospital's CFO and CEO. "It's a win-win situation in the sense [that this is] an underutilized field," he says.<br /><br><br /><br>Success key No. 4: Pain management satisfaction<br /><br><br /><br>At Massachusetts General Hospital, daily meetings include physicians and administrative staff who review data and results from HCAHPS surveys, which score how patients say the hospital managed their pain. How often was the patient's pain well controlled during the hospital stay? Did the staff do everything they could to help patients with their pain?<br /><br><br /><br>MGH officials believe the hospital hasn't scored quite as well as it should, says Gilligan, the pain management director, even though the patients' perception about the hospital's level of care surrounding pain issues is consistently at or above the state average. "I think we score consistently low on that," he says. Most recently, in a survey of 300 patients from 2011 to 2012, 72% of patients reported that the pain was well controlled, which is comparable to the state average of 72%, and above the national average of 71%, according to Hospital Compare.<br /><br><br /><br>Gilligan says the hospital would score much higher if it weren't "very conservative with using narcotics for noncancer pain." Some patients say the hospital "doesn't listen to me" when they ask for more powerful drugs, he says. Still, the hospital's pain management center maintains its conservative approach.<br /><br><br /><br>Other hospital officials acknowledge that they, too, would get better satisfaction scores if they catered more to patients' requests for more drugs to relieve their pain. "To get great patient outcome scores, a lot of patients might say, 'Give me more drugs,' right?" notes Patterson of the Northern Nevada Medical Center. "It's a juggling act. I want to make sure the patients who are coming in are not just doctor shopping or trying to get drugs," he adds.<br /><br><br /><br>"That's a hard part of pain management. Could I get better patient satisfaction scores if I gave more opioids?" Patterson asks, perhaps rhetorically. "But after all, at the end of the day, I've got to do what's medically appropriate; I've got to sleep at night."<br /><br><br /><br>At the hospital, Patterson says, "I think we have a reputation as the strictest in town. The 'drug-seeking patients,' they'll come in for easy meds. They say, 'No offense, you're too strict. I'll go somewhere else.' " He tells the patients, "Hey, good luck. Let me help you out the door."<br /><br><br /><br>Hospital procedures themselves cause pain. Each year, hospitals perform about 10 million inpatient surgeries and 17 million outpatient surgeries, all of which require pain management.<br /><br><br /><br>So how does a hospital improve its patient satisfaction scores when it comes to pain management? Within the past year, Barnes-Jewish Hospital has made inroads in patient satisfaction score improvements through changed protocols, especially involving anesthesiologists in a revised process of care, says Bottros.<br /><br><br /><br>It is important that pain management is developed for the appropriate pain condition and the type of surgery a patient has had. The hospital has made "simple" rather than drastic changes to improve patient satisfaction scores, Bottros says. Barnes-Jewish Hospital has anesthesiologists in a leadership role in pain management, which has been important for postoperative care and postoperative pain control.<br /><br><br /><br>"There's a growing trend for anesthesiologists to show their worth as perioperative physicians, not just in the operating room but in preoperative assessment and planning. It is using anesthesiologists in a more robust fashion," Bottros says.<br /><br><br /><br>The hospital focuses on consistent pain management, implementing a multidisciplinary team focus, with an emphasis on communication and proper protocols. For instance, the team consistently paces the use of epidurals for pain associated with surgeries, and acetaminophen is used, not just the <br /><br>narcotics. It's important that the nursing staff consistently communicates with patients about their pain, and that message is directed to physicians.<br /><br><br /><br>The Barnes-Jewish Hospital has found ways to improve patient satisfaction scores dealing with pain. "In a very short time, the scores have increased robustly," Bottros says. In scores from patients who had gynecological surgery, patient satisfaction scores improved from 67% to 85% in two months in early 2013, he says.<br /><br><br /><br>Bottros noted that pain is sometimes difficult to control following surgery in orthopedics cases, such as knee replacement or hip pain. Yet those patient satisfaction scores also increased, from 55% to 83% for knee surgery, and 78% to 94% for hip surgery from September 2012 to April 2013.<br /><br><br /><br>Among colorectal surgical patients, for instance, patient satisfaction scores increased from 66% to 83.3% within the same six-month period, he says. "The only thing we changed is that we made sure the care path includes epidurals for perioperative pain, as well as other adjutant therapies."<br /><br><br /><br>In another area, knee replacement—where hospitals often have had difficulty achieving good scores among patients following surgery—the hospital's pain satisfaction scores jumped significantly from 55.4% to 83.3% from September 2012 to April 2013.<br /><br><br /><br>Because the reported improved patient satisfaction scores covered only a short period of time, Bottros concedes it's not a large, long-term sample. But he says the increased scores reflect the hospital's inroads into pain management and relief for patients.<br /><br><br /><br>"We try to ensure that we don't just stick to one particular technique," especially for postoperative pain management, he says. "For some surgeries, like abdominal, we use epidurals in combination with adjuvant medications such as IV acetaminophen or ketorolac, a nonsteroid anti-inflammatory drug," he adds. "For other surgeries, we use IV PCA [intravenous patient-controlled analgesia] in combination with adjuvant medications such as acetaminophen."<br /><br><br /><br>Patient attitudes about how hospitals control their pain is impacted by their perception of how the staff listens to them and cares about how they feel, with communication a key, Bottros says.<br /><br><br /><br>"I think in today's society, patients are a little less stoic than they might have been in the 1950s. Today people are more open to discussing their pain. Today patients are a lot more vocal about their problems and more vocal about their complaints," he says.<br /><br><br /><br>"If you improve pain management, you are also indirectly improving other aspects of patient satisfaction," Bottros says. "If a patient is happy with pain control, it does impact other scores as well."<br /><br><br /><br>Years ago, physicians were taught that pain control was "a symptom of some underlying disease, and as pain becomes more and more prevalent, and more chronic, that pain becomes a disease in itself," Bottros says. "We have started thinking outside the box a little bit, stopped trying to search for that elusive Pandora's Box, and now we're trying to accommodate patients."<br /><br><br /><br><a href="http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/print/MAG-296072/Confronting-Pain">http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/print/MAG-296072/Confronting-Pain</a>

Confronting Pain - HealthLeaders Media

Physical pain is beginning to define America. Back pain. Knee pain. Spinal disorders. Headaches. Arthritis. Shingles. Migraines. Pain can be...

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Workers getting paid like its 1989

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0h_dGLMurMP4xjAAQj0karoMUOl4wh1xSKmQjij1iKjIlQg5kGdVQdvjSJRxotdzsOuZ0gl8uzlPMW7NiMsJReB0n9JsivDzCYPRVFautp0X9h_sMBwY7hZtbHzXxAfJCZea7c_zxMdpC/s1600/middle-class_I7bsn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0h_dGLMurMP4xjAAQj0karoMUOl4wh1xSKmQjij1iKjIlQg5kGdVQdvjSJRxotdzsOuZ0gl8uzlPMW7NiMsJReB0n9JsivDzCYPRVFautp0X9h_sMBwY7hZtbHzXxAfJCZea7c_zxMdpC/s320/middle-class_I7bsn.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Employment might be up slightly, but salaries aren’t. Despite more people going back to work, American families are continuing to struggle and, according to a </span><a href="http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/income_wealth/cb13-165.html" rel="nofollow"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">new U.S. Census Bureau report</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><u><span style="color: blue;">,</span></u></span> are now making less than they did in 1989 when adjusted for inflation.<o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As Neil Irwin of The Washington Post pointed out, 24 years ago the median U.S. household made $51,681 in current dollars, compared to $51,017 in 2012. So despite employment gains, the situation remains dire. And </span><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/09/17/the-typical-american-family-makes-less-than-it-did-in-1989/?print=1" rel="nofollow"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the drop in salary can’t just be blamed on the last recession</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, he said:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div><blockquote class="tr_bq"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This isn’t a lost decade for economic gains for Americans. It is a lost generation.</span></blockquote></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why has that happened? Well one would have to be blind not to see that a </span><a href="http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/union2.pdf" rel="nofollow"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">drop in union membership</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> has had a major impact. In 1983, 20.1 percent of workers belonged to union. That number fell to 11.3 percent last year. </span><a href="http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2013/ted_20130513.htm" rel="nofollow"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Union jobs bring higher salaries</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. It’s not hard to understand.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Of course, the desire to pay lower wages is why groups such as the </span><a href="http://www.alecexposed.org/" rel="nofollow"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">American Legislative Exchange Council</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> (ALEC) and their corporate buddies have pushed for the implementation of no-rights-at-work laws in many states across the country. They know a good deal (for them) when they see it. So they wine-and-dine state lawmakers and spend millions to pass laws that hinder worker’s organizing efforts.<o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Another big reason is the enactment of the </span><a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/search?q=NAFTA&max-results=20&by-date=true"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">North American Free Trade Agreement and other so-called “free” trade deals</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. While American workers were promised more jobs and improved wages, they didn’t get either. All the benefits went to big business.<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> The result is while corporate profits continue to soar, nothing is trickling down to average workers. Three years into an economic recovery, they haven’t recovered a thing. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jared-bernstein/2012-poverty-income-health-insurance-data_b_3943458.html?view=screen" rel="nofollow"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Former Obama administration economist Jared Bernstein</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> said:</span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yes, the economy has expanded over these past few years, but to use a seasonal analogy, today’s report is yet another piece of evidence that this growth has once again done an end run around middle and lower income households on the way to the top of the scale.<o:p></o:p></span></blockquote></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> So where do workers go from here? Just follow what thousands of them have been doing in recent months at America’s ports, fast food chains and big-box retailers. They are saying enough is enough and walking off the job. They are taking a stand for fair wages, better working conditions and the right to organize. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That’s the path for a good job and more money in their pocket.</span></div>

ALEC Nafta union busting wage stagnation Workers getting paid like its 1989

Employment might be up slightly, but salaries aren’t. Despite more people going back to work, American families are continuing to struggle...

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Senior Reference Librarian and Instruction Coordinator - Fairfield University Library

<strong>Senior Reference Librarian and Instruction Coordinator - </strong><strong><strong><span style="color: #48286d;">Fairfield University Library</span></strong></strong>. We invite applications from creative, flexible, self-motivated librarians with a strong public services commitment and a vision and enthusiasm for teaching and technology to join collegial team. The successful candidate will be hired at the Librarian II level. The position may include occasional evening and weekend hours. Responsibilities: Provides dynamic leadership in the development, implementation, promotion, and assessment of the Library’s instruction program. Creates and maintains web-based and print instructional resources. Provides Reference Desk coverage. Participates in the Library Liaison program. Requirements: MLS from ALA accredited program. Two or more years professional academic reference department experience required. Teaching experience using active learning techniques and demonstrated ability to plan user education programs. Demonstrated technological competencies. Must be self-directed, well organized, and able to meet deadlines and multiple demands. Demonstrated ability to communicate, both orally and in writing, with a variety of audiences. Flexibility, creativity, energy, and ability to work in a changing environment, and with colleagues in a goal-oriented library team. Highly Desirable: Innovative application of web-based tools and software in the design and delivery of instruction. Second Master’s degree in a related field. To Apply: Submit letter of application, resume, and telephone numbers/e-mail addresses of three references to JoAnn Garrity, Administrative assistant, DiMenna-Nyselius Library, 1073 North Benson Road, Fairfield University, Fairfield, CT 06824-5195, or directed electronically to <a _fcksavedurl="mailto:librarian@fairfield.edu" href="mailto:librarian@fairfield.edu">librarian@fairfield.edu</a>. Preference given to applications received by <span style="color: red;">October 11, 2013</span>. Fairfield University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. The salary exceeds the Connecticut Library Association minimum.

Senior Reference Librarian and Instruction Coordinator - Fairfield University Library

Senior Reference Librarian and Instruction Coordinator - Fairfield University Library . We invite applications from creative, flexible, sel...

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