text:
Mike Munchak's Introduction Press Conference
K.S. BUD ADAMS JR.**
(opening statements)
This is Bud Adams and I'm talking to you from my office in Houston, Texas. I want to thank you for doing this today. We are here today to introduce the 16th head coach of the franchise and it will be Mike Munchak. He becomes the first former player of ours to become our head coach. He has been with our organization for 30 years in a variety of capacities. I can still remember when we drafted him as a player and what a fantastic player he was. At every level he has been a hard worker and he has only known success and how to achieve success. He made it into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He has the respect of the people who he played with and with those who have played for him. He is a smart football man and leader who will guide us again into the playoffs. I'm very excited to see what he can do. I thank you for joining us today for this big occasion to hear our new coach Mike Munchak. Thank you very much.
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT STEVE UNDERWOOD
(opening statements)*
In my 35 years of association with our organization, I have had the opportunity to introduce a good number of people. I have never taken greater pride and felt better about the gentleman who is going to speak to you next then I have about Mike Munchak. Mike brings such a wealth of understanding of football and of our organization to the table. I have no doubt about our future success.
HEAD COACH MIKE MUNCHAK
Thank you all for coming. You know for 30 years of service, I was expecting a gold watch or something. I can't tell you how excited I am, I feel like I hit the jackpot here standing here as the next head coach of the Tennessee Titans. It is unbelievable for me – it really is.
As you can tell, my relationship with this organization is truly unique – as Mr. Adams mentioned 30 years as a player and coach and I have only had to move one time. In this business that is totally unheard of to have that opportunity which gave me a great, stable home life with the family. The people in this organization have been like family to me, I have known them for so long. On behalf of my wife Marci, who is here, my daughter Julie, my daughter Alex is a teacher she can't be with us she is in Milan, Italy, as a teacher and myself, we have been very blessed to be a part of this organization.
First of all, I would like to thank Mr. Adams for entrusting me with the responsibility of leading the Titans into the next era. I know he wants to win and he will do whatever it takes to win. Again I want to thank Mr. Adams for believing in me and giving me this opportunity and I told him when I talked to him earlier before I came in here, I told Mr. Adams one thing I can tell for sure, I will not let you down. He was kind of happy to hear that I think. I was up for the challenge.
I would like to thank Coach Fisher for hiring me 14 years ago and taking a chance on a retired offensive lineman that never coached before, except for my daughter's softball teams. I can take credit for that. Over the years, Jeff (Fisher) and I became good friends and we shared a lot of good, Titan memories. Most of you all remember the '99 run to the Super Bowl and that far away from having something special happen that day, a loss in the Championship Game with the Raiders, two more shots when we had the best record in football and getting close but just not all the way. I have a lot of great memories with Jeff. I learned a lot from Coach Fisher and we obviously enjoy a very good relationship. I want to thank him for all he has done for me and he is a big part of why I am here today.
I'm from a big family from Scranton, Pennsylvania, with five sisters and a lot of friends and families have really have always supported my career. When I was a player they took bus trips and followed the Titans and Oilers all over the country – Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Cincinnati – to watch me play. When I started coaching, they did the same. They met at my parents' house in Scranton every Sunday. They took the big blow-up Titan football player and had it on the front porch – that is how proud they were – and they would get together and watch the games. During the week, my mom and dad would talk to me every Thursday or Friday before the game and before we hung up my mom would always say, 'Now listen Mike we never get to see you on the sidelines, make sure you stand next to Coach Fisher.' She will finally know that I truly am on the sidelines. She was thrilled when I talked to her today.
Whenever a team makes a change like this, it is difficult for everybody. There is a lot of uncertainty throughout the organization. We have been spoiled here – this is our first coaching change in obviously 14 years. I know it has been a tough decision, a tough time and a tough process for Steve Underwood and Mike Reinfeldt to go through. I want to thank both of you for believing in me and deciding I was the one to be the next head coach of the Tennessee Titans. I appreciate it very much. All I can say is obviously I have been here. I know what we are doing well. I know what we need to change. I can promise you that I will do what it takes to get us back on the winning track. Again thanks to both of you guys.
I feel to be successful in the NFL; we need the support of every single person in this building – the coaches, the players and the support staff. I feel as one of the leaders of this franchise that lies on my shoulders to make this happen. Just like when I coached the offensive line, I need to be a good leader. When I lead the guys, and I learned a lot of this from Coach (Joe) Paterno, first is to give direction. I need to lay out the plan for everyone, so everyone knows what is expected of them. The second thing I need to do is I must manage. I'm going to be a hands-on type of guy. I'm going to be involved in everything and to keep people focused on the task at hand. I'm going to make sure if there are problems, we are solving the problems before they become bigger issues. Probably third, and most importantly, I need to get out of the way. I'm going to let people perform and do their job. I'm going to let people put their signature on their play or their performance, so they can take responsibility for their job – take ownership for their job I should say. In my opinion, this type of leadership plus good personnel decisions will translate to wins on the field and ultimately that will be how I'm judged as a head coach is by wins and losses. People already have been asking me my philosophy, my vision for this team; everybody wants to know those things it seems. My philosophy is simple – no matter what your job is for this organization, is to be a pro. What I mean by that is know what to do and do it, no excuses, no whining, just do it. I have stressed that to my players very year with the offensive line. Secondly, my vision to me is someday presenting the Lombardi trophy to Mr. Adams and presenting each person in this organization with a Super Bowl ring and that is something we will get started on tomorrow or after this press conference I should say, to realize that vision.
To the Titans fans, 12 years of sellouts what else needs to be said? The support for this team in phenomenal and has been. It has been a home-field advantage over the years and we need to get that back. Everywhere I have been, I have never seen anything like this as far as the fans coming out even the years when it was a disappointing season, the fans were there. I was here in '99 which probably a lot of you were too and that run to the Super Bowl was something I have never experienced in my life. We came back from the Indianapolis game in the division round, and that airport was rocking. I get the chills now telling you about it. The fans were all over the place, they had the next day off for a holiday, and they lined … they probably can't do that these days with airport security. It was an awesome experience and something as a player, coach to watch happen to see a relationship between fans and the players – it was something I had never witnessed at that level. Obviously, the next week after we beat Jacksonville it was even larger at the stadium. They had to get us out of the airport and get us to the stadium because so many people wanted to get involved in this thing. I have seen that and I know what we need to get back to and that is one of the reasons … I know what it takes to be successful. I saw it. I saw the relationship and I say it to Titans fans everywhere, like I said to Mr. Adams, I will not let you down.
Finally to the media, I truly mean this, I am really looking forward to working with you all. I am looking forward to having a great working relationship as we get started with this process; you guys are a big part of it reporting the story and what you see. Some of you will have the opportunity to get to know me a lot more as we get going. Most of you speak to me once a year. We have to check on the offensive line OK we will talk to Munch for five minutes and I don't see you again unless we are doing poorly. 'What is going on with the O-line, I guess we have to go find out.' I know you will be asking a lot more questions and I will have a lot more responsibilities than just the offensive line. I am looking forward to working well with you. It will start right now and going forward and I'm just looking forward to you relationship because I know you guys are a big part of it. I know you have a job to do, so I will do my best with helping you get that done.
Again I want to thank everyone for coming out. I know it is a huge day for me. This is my excited face. I'm still kind of in shock; obviously three weeks ago this wasn't something that was expected so it is stills something that I'm digesting what happened and the opportunities in front of me. Like I said, I can't be happier and I'm excited for the opportunity that has given to me. When the smoke clears, I think we will all be happy about this day.
(on ever envisioning himself as a head coach when he first started coaching)
When Coach Fisher asked about coaching 14 years ago, it caught me off guard. I really wasn't thinking, I thought I would be coaching little guys. I thought high school and young kids teaching them the fundamentals is where I thought I would enjoy it the most. When he gave me the opportunity, I remember talking to my wife and saying you know what, I was around the organization for a couple years before Jeff gave me the opportunity and so that kind of got me hooked. I knew I had the fever, I knew I would get involved from that, but at that point I just enjoyed coaching the offensive line and never really thought head coaching. I think for me was being here for 14 years and having the opportunity to be a part of a winning organization there was no reason to leave. If you want to move upward usually in a job or profession, you have to leave and move to the next challenge. For me it was that I liked it here so much, my family loved Nashville my daughters loved the schools they were in, so there was no reason for me to leave. Family is first for me, first and foremost as far as when I make my decisions. I was never chasing the dream or chasing the head coach or chasing a coordinator title. I enjoyed what I did here, like I said earlier, we have done a lot of great things in this city. There is no reason ever to want to leave, so I was thrilled with what I was doing. In the back of my mind, yes saying sometimes if I was the head coach, I would do this or if I was the head coach, I would do that. I wasn't going to say that publicly, but I definitely knew what I would do. I have been around enough, I have been around good coaches, so I think I take a little bit from everybody I have been around and you will start seeing that applied here real soon.
(on if he is missing anything by not being a coordinator)
I don't think I'm lacking. Obviously, I have never been a head coach, we all know that, but I don't think I'm lacking anything, I guess other than experience which I will learn. Like I said, I'm in a unique position where the place I am the head coach, I know this place really well. It doesn't mean things will be the same, obviously they are not. There are going to be things that I think I can act immediately on things that need to be changed and get us going in a positive direction. I think I have been prepared - by coaching the offensive line for 14 years to me you are a coordinator. I'm coordinating the run game, I'm coordinating the protections. I'm in front of the group all the time, the players. I'm doing exactly what I'll be doing now. As a head coach for example, I'm not going to be calling plays. I didn't do that as a coach either. I feel ready to go. I feel like I'm surrounded by good people that I have learned from, Coach Fisher obviously being one here. I will learn as I go with certain things but I have a lot of people out there that will help me along the way.
(on opportunities to pursue other coordinator jobs along the way)
In the coaching world you talk but you don't talk. I have had opportunities if I wanted to pursue something; just like anybody you find ways to pursue things. Like I said, I go home with my family and sit down in five minutes and say would you ever want to leave here. 'No, no.' Well, what do you think about this opportunity? 'No, we like it here, we want to stay here. Hey, dad I have this great high school. I love this and that.' So, I never went any further. I was happy but everyone else wanted me to advance in some way, why aren't you doing this? I really enjoy what I do and this will lead to something else and obviously it led to something else. Here I am. It worked and staying where I felt comfortable is what I did and I have a unique opportunity that someone else coming here wouldn't have.
(on how long it will take to assemble a full staff)
I think that is going to be a work in progress. That is obviously the first step, talking the staff that is here and looking into replacing people and deciding exactly what we need to do. Obviously, I have been giving some thought to this over the past 10 days of what I would do. This is the day when I can start enacting some of that, so as soon as we know, you'll know. Right now, it is a lot of thought process and to me it is going to be like putting together a puzzle that is how I think you put it together. It is a group effort, so I want to have different strengths so people can get better. I'm not going to set any goals, but hopefully when I get it rolling this afternoon, like I said you will be hearing about our progress real soon.
(on how much he thinks he will be like Jeff Fisher and how he will be different)
I think I will be me. A lot of you are trying to figure out who I am other than the line coach who stays in that far corner of the field with (Jim) Washburn. Just watching Jeff, it was the way he adjusted well. I thought he did a good job of if it was a practice, cutting back practice, knowing when to cut back to what we were doing in preseason, during the season. He did a good job about reacting well to the players which I think the players responded well to. I watched him grow as a coach. I saw him come in just as I am coming in right now. I saw him come in as a DB coach and defensive coordinator and take over the Oilers/Titans then and I watched him grow into the job. I thought he adjusted well to changes around him. He didn't stay one way; if something came up, he did a good job of making adjustments. I'm aware don't get stuck in my ways and be willing to make adjustments and change.
(on his ideas for change for the organization)
That's not something I can … We're going to have, like you mentioned, five openings in position coaches available right now. So obviously there's going to be different chemistry in this building, and that will create change with the coaching changes we're going to make right there. So that'll depend on who we bring in, what's going on. So I'm not going to sit here and state exactly. I think it's something you'll see as we go. I think, as you see it, you'll go, 'Oh, that's what they're doing there.' Or we brought this guy in, we signed so and so as this position coach, 'OK, I can see what they're doing there.' And then same with personnel as we get going. To me, it's going to be a process. It's going to be a journey, and right now, it's all there. It's just now putting the pieces together. It may be, for example, I may want a certain type of D-line coach at that position, but he may not fit the coordinator I have. So I need to find the right guy to fit what I have there. I think chemistry is a huge part to me of us being successful, like I mentioned in my opening remarks, is that we have harmony—harmony in this building, harmony with the coaching staff. You want the players to see what we're doing. You want the players to see on the sidelines how the coaches are acting, how we're interacting, because that's how they're going to act. If I'm a head coach that's screaming and yelling at people and go losing my cool, they lose their cool. So I want a staff that fits. There's going to be certain things that I'm looking for in a coach for the same reason. (There is) a lot of work ahead of me and everybody else here. It's not just all me. I'm going to have a lot of help doing it, making the right decisions. I'm looking forward to building it.
(on what he expects from offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger moving forward)
We've obviously had a very good relationship, worked together for a long time and had success together. That's something, now that I'm in the position, like you said, we are where we are today, then yes, we will talk. That's the first thing I'll be doing, talking to the defensive guys that are here, the offensive staff who's here, kind of a chance to talk about what my vision is more specifically with them and then decide what's best.
(on if he expects Mike Heimerdinger to be back as the offensive coordinator)
To me, anything is open. I'm not going to talk as far as … To me, I feel like we're starting fresh. It's not the same-old, same-old. I think we can come in, sit down and figure out what's best for the Titans going forward with what we have here obviously and then just go from there. So I'm not going to say … Anything is possible.
(on if it's daunting to replace Jeff Fisher, the only head coach the team has had since its move to Tennessee)
I think if you think about it. I won't dwell on that. I'm not Coach Fisher. I'll be a lot different in a lot of ways, and I hope I'm the same in a lot of ways, obviously. He's had a great run here, and I explained some of the great things we did here. Sometimes you kind of forget, four opportunities. I know the disappointment of not getting the ring, but four shots at really having it in 14 years, there's only four or five teams that can say that. So things were done well here, and I saw what was done well. I had the advantage of having a close seat to all that, and I was part of that, hopefully part of why we were successful. That doesn't bother me, no. I'm going to be my own man, and I'll be judged by what I do, not what was done before me. I'm not looking here to blame anybody about what was left for me. I think it's a great opportunity here with what we have, and I think that I'm the guy to pick up the pieces and hopefully get us in the right direction.
(on any chances of Vince Young returning and what his plan is at quarterback)
I think Vince, obviously, has already been dealt with, and I'd probably leave it at that. As far as the quarterback, it's just going to depend on who's available. I know the system may be a little tougher this year with the labor agreement, so we'll see how that shakes out as far as what we can do and how quickly we can act on that position. Then you go to the draft, and that process has already started. We have the combine coming up, so we'll start looking at the younger quarterbacks that are available. I think we're going to find someone, hopefully, that fits the personnel we have. I obviously haven't been through that process yet, so I'll be able to provide more information on it as we start seeing what's out there and what our choices are.
(on his offensive philosophy)
I think it's similar to what you're saying. To me, it's going to start with our personnel. You just asked the question about the quarterback. To me, it's going to depend on who that quarterback is as far as what we can do. It all starts with the quarterback. This league is a quarterback league. We all know that. So depending on who you have to manage the game, that's going to depend on how much you put on a guy. If we get a veteran guy, if we sign someone that's one of these so-called top quarterbacks out there that everyone feels is a great fit, then all of a sudden we can do a lot more things. Your answer to that question will be tied more to the coordinator we bring in, that he can be flexible to the personnel we have. I think we have very good personnel in place. We all know the obvious. We've got to do something at the quarterback position on offense. But we're very strong in a lot of positions, which a lot of teams aren't that had an off year. So I'm excited about that. I think there's a lot of things we can do. We'll do a lot of things similar. The point is we need to stay on the field. We struggled last year to stay on the field as an offense—I'm stating the obvious. But we need to find a way, whatever that offense is, whatever that system is, we have to make first downs and stay out there. How we put that together will depend on who that quarterback is.
(on the strengths of the team right now)
Well, obviously coming from the offensive side, just like I just said, I think we're very strong—again, I don't want to go into personnel at all, especially on the defensive side because I haven't really evaluated the guys like I normally would or like I will going forward. But obviously we started out 5-2 for a reason. There's obviously people here we can win games with. We were thought of as one of the best teams in the league, I think, early in the season, the first half of the season. We came off a 13-3, and then last year we made the recovery from the bad start, so there's people here that can make plays. We've had some good drafts, especially on special teams, it was a huge plus last year what we were able to do there. I think there's a lot of good things in place, and like I've been saying about the organization, just like the coaches, I've got to find a way to fit in the right guys to get where we want to get. Just like the personnel, same thing. We have some spots that we have to fit in. Obviously on the offensive side we know exactly what it is. But I think, like my offensive line, there's no reason with the group you have right there, there's no reason we can't win a Super Bowl with that offensive line. That kind of thing. You have people in place that we should be able to play well with. We have a pretty good running back, right, that can make a lot of plays. We've just got to put him in position to let him do that.
(on how he approaches hiring his assistant coaching staff after only working on one staff during his career)
It's amazing how many people you know, especially when you get a job. They think, 'Oh!' Then all of a sudden your phone's ringing like crazy. Everyone has the next best guy. I've been already in the past week or so looking into the guys that are available. There's always good coaches. Am I going to sit here and say three weeks ago could we have gotten this guy and this guy? Yeah, maybe. You know what? This is where we are. It happened the way it happened. We didn't plan for it to happen this way. To me, it's that attitude of saying, OK, well how do we go from here? I think you'll find out in the next few weeks, hopefully, when we start filling those positions, you go, 'Oh, geez. That guy's pretty good. Oh, I didn't know he was available. Oh, that's good.' Or there will be some guys you don't know, and you'll do your homework on them and say, 'Yeah, this guy's pretty solid.' I'm looking for guys that are good teachers, just like I talked about here, that are, like I said, harmony, get along with each other and can push guys that need pushing in certain rooms. Things like that. I think it's an exciting process. We're all in this. It's going to be all of us. It's going to be the personnel guys upstairs saying, 'Hey, I saw this guy when I was out scouting,' for example. 'Hey, this guy's a pretty good coach. I saw him.' That kind of thing. And you're going to take the feedback from everybody and then hopefully get that feedback and between myself and our staff make the decision on how it fits.
(on what he's looking for in a defensive coordinator)
I think it starts with our personnel. I'm kind of locked into what personnel we have to start with and the fact that there may be the situation where we don't get to practice as much as we'd like to if there's a labor issue so that we can eliminate all of our offseason work. So I think finding someone that's similar, in a way, to what we've been doing as far as understanding the 4-3 concept that we are but is also not locked into one system. I don't want a guy that's just, 'That's all I know. This is what I do.' Why do you do it that way? 'I don't know, but this is how we do it.' I want a guy that's open to making adjustments. If we get a certain player in the draft, he can handle that. There's a lot of defensive coordinators. People get into this 3-4 or 4-3 thing. Well, a lot of teams play a lot of three-down (linemen) looks on third down, so they already have that scheme in, in a way. It's not as complicated as you might think, other than with personnel. You have to make sure you have the right personnel for it. So those are the things. When I'm talking to someone, especially this year, we want to have somebody that can come in and with the guys, assuming we don't get a chance to meet with them until, whenever, July, that we can come in and the coaches can do the adjusting and let the players come in and play so there's not a ton of learning going on. Obviously if we don't have any disruption, then obviously we'll have a lot more time to spend with them and maybe do a little bit more. So as I've been looking for people to fit that role, that's kind of how I'm looking, (with) an open mind because as an offensive guy who's never coached defense, I think I have a lot of ideas I can give him on how to attack and beat an offensive line or an offensive scheme because I've seen it for years. I think I can be very helpful to both sides of the ball because of my knowledge of what I hope the defense doesn't do on a given Sunday, and I don't understand why they don't sometimes to expose us on our side. So I feel I have a unique opportunity there, where I can be very helpful to who we [bring] in without getting in the way.
(on a rebuilding attitude versus a win-now mentality)
I think the mentality is to always win now. What I talk to players about the first day is can we win now. You don't want them to buy into some rebuilding mindset. I think we want to win. I think obviously there won't be that natural, like it may have been this year, where 'they better win or they're fired' mentality by some people reporting on us. But I think it's more that, to the team, you want the team always to have the urgency that it's now. Players' lives, careers are so short, that every year is different. There's never the same group in the room, and this may be their only opportunity at it. The year we went to the Super Bowl, I don't think anyone felt we were going before the season started. We were 8-8 two years in a row. There's a lot of teams—the Rams, I know, had losing records. That's the fun about this league. You can point to example after example of a team that turned around and went to the Super Bowl—the Saints, and on and on. The way the league is set up right now, you know, why not us? Why not the Titans? To me, they have to believe in that, and that starts with me sending that message on what we should be thinking—that way, not, 'Oh, poor old us. This happened to us, this happened to us.' Like I said, no excuses.
(on his timetable to finish putting the coaching staff together)
I wish we had the staff in place. I wish I could say, 'Hey, I'm inheriting a great staff and it's no different.' But I would hope we're going to do our best. You've got the Combine coming up in two weeks. We'd like to have as many guys in place as we can by then for the coaching staff. You'd hope we can move like that, but you just never know. Most of it's out of our control as far as who really is available when the time comes. This is something, like I mentioned, that'll start happening the next few days. We should start unraveling some of the people we're interested in and seeing the direction kind of we're planning on going.
(on if the 2010 team was disciplined enough and accountable enough)
Like I said, changes need to be made. I think when you don't win, there's obviously some things that weren't going right, and it's a combination of a lot of things. If a coach ever knew it was one thing, it would be very easy to fix. I think you hear us most of the time say, 'Well, it's not one thing. It's this and it's this and it's this.' I think that's the frustrating thing for coaches sometimes, is you can't really put your finger on, you know, why are we fumbling that ball? Like the (Super Bowl) game yesterday with the turnovers, it cost the game. And we all know that's usually what determines wins and losses, is the turnover ratio. No two head coaches are the same. I think the things that I talked about here earlier will be different than players are used to. I don't think the guys here, the players, some people think, 'Well, he's in house,' or 'People know him.' They know me, but they don't know my style. They don't know my expectations. They've never sat with me in that regard, is what I'm expecting. To most of the people in this building, it's going to be fresh. It's going to be new, and it's going to be exciting. Now it's up to us to keep it that way and kind of go from there.
(on how much he'll be involved in personnel decisions)
I think I'll be as involved as I can be. I think that's another relationship that has to be strong in this building, is the personnel. When I talk about this building—I don't know if you've ever been up on the second floor—there's a lot of guys up on that second floor. Personnel is up there, and our draft room is up there. That relationship to me has to be strong also, that they know what we're looking for as coaches so they know exactly what kind of guy fits our system or the kind of guys we're looking for. The coach's relationship with the scouts is huge, I think, if we're going to make good personnel decisions and ones that we're all involved in. Everyone has input in it. So definitely, yes, I would think like it has been, I would like to be involved in all of those decisions. Is my expertise going to be as strong at one position versus another? Obviously not. I'm going to lean on my coaches like Coach Fisher did, like Mike (Reinfeldt) does and the scouts do. We'll kind of rely on each other's expertise in certain areas but have an open mind. I should say I should have an open mind, that I'm willing to listen to anyone's opinion. It's not all about who makes the choice. It's about it's a good choice for the Titans.
(on the possibility of reaching out to the Texans to talk to assistant coach Bruce Matthews)
Well, when you say reach out, that's exactly … All of these coaching things are hard to talk about because you're not allowed to because they're on other staffs. But obviously guys like him would be a huge plus to any organization, so we will see.
(on if he's talked to Penn State Coach Joe Paterno)
I haven't talked to Coach Paterno in a little bit. The last time, I think, I talked to him was when I took one of my daughters on a college trip through there. I was trying to talk her into going to the North. I took her in the summer, I was smart. She saw the weather was great, and she said, 'Dad, I heard they get a lot of snow here. I think I'll stay in the South.' But I saw Coach Paterno then. When I first left there we used to talk quite a bit. Then, just over time, once I got into coaching, it's like I lost communication with everybody outside this building, and he was one of them. Like I mentioned in my remarks, someone says, 'Who influenced you the most?' It was probably him, his discipline, the way he ran the team. I have some ideas from what I learned from him on how he commanded the room, how he commanded the practice field. I think the other thing that settled to me was his hands-on involvement. He would run from position (to position)—I won't do that. And I don't have that high voice he has. 'Munchak!' You know, one of those things. You heard him yelling from 40 yards, and everyone just froze to see who he was yelling at, coaches included. It was interesting. But also he was hands on. He was involved in everything. He let the coaches coach, which I talked about earlier—get out of the way. He was good at that, but he also knew when to step in. I saw him do it with the line coach that I had when I was learning how to play offensive line. I saw him. He'd come up to me and show me how to do a technique. I'd see him show a receiver something. So he kind of surveyed the field. When I was watching that, I was 18, 19, I didn't understand it at the time. It's like your parents. You appreciate them more when you're out of the house for what they did for you. I think that's what he did for me. When I left there and saw it, when I heard other people, when I left Pennsylvania and saw how people respected Penn State and why, I realized, 'Oh, I was a part of that.' That's what I want to have happen here. I'm hoping to instill some of the things I learned from him in the players here. And players want that. People think, 'Oh, how do you handle this guy, how do you handle that guy?' Players want discipline. They want consistency. They want to be told what the parameters are. They want to see someone held accountable when they do something wrong. In the 30 years, I've seen all different kinds of guys, and ultimately that's what they want. They may cry about it and say a few things about it, but in the back of their mind, they're watching. They want to see, 'What do you do about that? What do you do about that? You see who that was who did that?' So you have to have a consistency, and that's what I learned from him. I watched him do that no matter who, if it was a star player. I saw him not play certain guys. It was interesting to see that for me. So he's probably the guy, by far, that I learned a lot from.
(on how long his contract lasts and if he feels like he's been given a chance)
Oh, I have a chance. I'm real happy with the opportunity I've been given. I was so happy I don't think I even asked Steve (Underwood) how many years it was for. I ran out of there so fast to get down here that I said, 'Let's worry about it later. Let's take it a year at a time.' But no, they've been great about this. And like I said, we're all in this together, and we're hoping this year. I'm not going to make any predictions or any of that stuff. I mean, that just gets you in trouble. But I think that we're going to be heading in the right direction. I think there's a lot of excitement, and that will come. I could sit here and say all kinds of nice things that we're going to do, but you guys will want to see it when we get on the practice field and you see the type of coaches we hire and the type of players we get in here. I think you'll all start going, 'OK, OK.' And then that's the goal, to take it a step at a time. I'm just thrilled to be the guy that's orchestrating it, that's having an opportunity to give my beliefs into the other coaching systems and hopefully spread the success I had in my career with players in my coaching style with the rest of the coaches and with this building and that I can learn a lot from everyone in this building also.
(on who approached who when the job became available)
I think it was kind of mutual. I think it was almost like a running understanding, that once you're here this long, that before you leave, you get an interview. So even if I left before Jeff (Fisher), I think I was going to go in for an interview and say, 'Hey, what do you think?' Or maybe for someone else's job, I don't know. Maybe if I could get a job in the front office. But it was mutual. I think when this happened it was more that I knew that I was going to get an opportunity, and just like the press conference when it all happened, I think just seeing Steve and Mike and realizing that I was going to be on the list, I was thrilled for that opportunity in front of them. Same thing for them. They really don't know me in this way either. They've seen me coach. They know I've had success. They're thinking, 'Well, here's my bio. Look at that stuff. It looks good. Well, does he want the job? What's going on with him? What's his mindset?' I think we needed that talk. It wasn't just, 'OK, we know who you are. Let's talk to the next guy.' We had a long interview and talked about a lot of things that we had never discussed before, just like we're saying here about our feelings about the team, my philosophies. You know, these are things that they weren't aware of . So that's kind of how the process got started, and I was just happy to be in the process and be in here when this happened to have a chance to step in.
(on his relationship with Mr. Adams)
I think that gets my foot in the door. Obviously when I've been working for 30 years, he's going to go. 'The guy must be doing … I'm going to …' I knew the opportunity was going to be there because of that. I think, like he said, when I met him in '82, when I got drafted in Houston, going down to his office down on the APC Building, back in the old days, sitting around with him. I sat down, and he didn't talk about football one bit. He talked about all the old oil days and the start of the AFL, great and interesting stuff. I must have sat there for 30 minutes, didn't talk one time about football or Penn State, other than saying, 'We're thrilled to have you here.' That's where it started. Like you said, he'd come around the team a couple times a year, just like he does now, speak to the players, come into the locker rooms after the games like he does. You know, just not a hands-on guy. He loves it and wants to win. Like I said earlier, it's important to him, obviously, and that was the kind of relationship I had with him. As a player, you're never really around the owner that much. You knew who he was, obviously. He'd show up at stuff. I'd see him at charity events and things like that. That was kind of the relationship we always had. I'd see him and talk to him. Obviously I became the guy he always knew—'Hey, you're still around?' It's like, 'You're coaching now? You're doing this?' So it was kind of a fun relationship I've had with him. He's the one that's given me the opportunities to stay here, and he's been a big part of it. The fact that obviously he knew who I was, that just gave me a foot in the door, and I had to prove I was worthy of the guy to take over. I don't think he's going to put his blessing on anything that obviously he wasn't 100 percent behind or didn't feel really good about. I know what he wants done, and that's the urgency to win. I'm going to do my part to help him with that.
(on what he wants the personality of the team to be)
Just what we talked about earlier. I want to be disciplined. We'll be prepared. For me, prepared is probably number one. We're prepared for any situation no matter what happens. That's how I felt as a coach. I don't want my guys ever to feel like they didn't know what was going to happen next. In 14 years of coaching these guys—and that's a lot of football games—I don't know if there was a game that we went into that something happened and we go, 'What do we do?' Well, we talk, make one adjustment, and we're doing it. I think that's how I am with stuff about being prepared. The thing about all the what-ifs—what do we do if this happens, what if this happens—you kind of take every situation that way. Be disciplined in that we will (be) hard-nosed, all that stuff. We're going to be physical and all that stuff, but disciplined meaning we know we're going to be physical. Everyone wants to be a physical team, but we have the guys here to do that. But I think you have to be a smart team. You have to play smart, play fast, all those good coaching words, right? But smart is a big thing. Smart meaning don't have the stupid penalty like happened in the Super Bowl yesterday, the 15-yarder on the kickoff. You have to play smart. You can't let your emotions get away with you, and I think that's the thing that you have to stress to the guys about playing smart, playing fast, being physical, being disciplined but prepared. To me, being prepared is what it's all about in this league. That's helped me a lot, I know, in my coaching.
(on how comfortable he will be with the off-field duties like radio or TV shows)
I think we'll grow together. I think we'll have some laughs, probably. But I think it's something, the more you do anything, you get better at it. I want to do whatever it takes to put the word out about what the Titans are doing and the good things we're doing in this community and for this team and this city, and so whatever opportunity I get where people ask of me to do those things, I'm going to do it so I can brag on what we're doing here as an organization even though I may be uncomfortable in some situations. That just goes with it. That's part of the package, and I'm hoping to do my best job representing this team. We'll work on those kinds of things, but I think it'll go alright.
Mike Vrabel Introductory Press Conference Transcript
Mike Vrabel is introduced as head coach of the Tennessee Titans.
Titans GM Jon Robinson's Press Conference Transcript
Titans GM Jon Robinson addresses reporters on Monday, discussing the team's future after it was announced Mike Mularkey won't return as head coach in 2018.
Coach Mularkey's Sunday Press Conference Transcript
Titans head coach Mike Mularkey addresses reporters during his season-ending press conference at Saint Thomas Sports Park.
Titans-Patriots Postgame Quotes
Postgame reaction from Titans head coach Mike Mularkey and Titans players following Saturday's AFC Divisional Playoff game at Gillette Stadium.
Coach Mularkey's Thursday Practice Transcript
Titans head coach Mike Mularkey addresses reporters following Thursday's practice at Saint Thomas Sports Park.
Coach Mularkey's Wednesday Practice Transcript
Titans head coach Mike Mularkey addresses reporters following Wednesday's practice at Saint Thomas Sports Park.
Coach Mularkey's Tuesday Practice Transcript
Titans head coach Mike Mularkey addresses reporters following Tuesday's practice at Saint Thomas Sports Park.
Coach Mularkey's Sunday Conference Call Transcript
Titans head coach Mike Mularkey addresses reporters in a conference call with reporters on Sunday afternoon.
Titans-Chiefs Postgame Quotes
Postgame reaction from Titans and Chiefs following Saturday's AFC Wild Card playoff game at Arrowhead stadium.


Located an hour and a half south of Miami, on the southern tip of beautiful Islamorada in the Florida Keys, you will find Bud N' Mary's Fishing Marina. Established in 1944 and home to over 40 legendary fishing captains and guides, it is the oldest and largest fishing fleet in the Florida Keys Fishing industry.
Islamorada is known as the Sportfishing Capital of the World, and rightfully so. More world record fish have been caught from our waters than any other location on earth. What facilitates Islamorada's reputation is that the Atlantic Ocean, Florida Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico all surround this island in the central Keys. Every fish that swims in our hemisphere can be caught here. Fishing in the Keys is an angler's dream come true!
Enjoyed yourself at Bud N' Mary's Fishing Marina?


text:
mail@tmsservices.com.au
TMS Services
Perth Security, Strata Cleaning & Maintenance
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TMS Services is committed to providing you with the best possible customer service experience. TMS Services is bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Crh), which sets out a number of principles concerning the privacy of individuals.
There are many aspects of the site which can be viewed without providing personal information, however, for access to future TMS Services customer support features you are required to submit personally identifiable information. This may include but not limited to a unique username and password, or provide sensitive information in the recovery of your lost password.
We may occasionally hire other companies to provide services on our behalf, including but not limited to handling customer support enquiries, processing transactions or customer freight shipping. Those companies will be permitted to obtain only the personal information they need to deliver the service. TMS Services takes reasonable steps to ensure that these organisations are bound by confidentiality and privacy obligations in relation to the protection of your personal information.
For each visitor to reach the site, we expressively collect the following non-personally identifiable information, including but not limited to browser type, version and language, operating system, pages viewed while browsing the Site, page access times and referring website address. This collected information is used solely internally for the purpose of gauging visitor traffic, trends and delivering personalized content to you while you are at this Site.
TMS Services reserves the right to make amendments to this Privacy Policy at any time. If you have objections to the Privacy Policy, you should not access or use the Site.
You have a right to access your personal information, subject to exceptions allowed by law. If you would like to do so, please let us know. You may be required to put your request in writing for security reasons. TMS Services reserves the right to charge a fee for searching for, and providing access to, your information on a per request basis.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
» 2017 Highlights
Minority Business Development Agency Releases Report on Contracting Barriers Impacting Minority Firms
The U.S. Department of Commerce, Minority Business Development Agency today released a new report, Contracting Barriers, and Factors Affecting Minority Business Enterprises: A Review of Existing Disparity Studies.The report, which spotlights disparities in state and local government contracting between minority-owned and nonminority-owned business enterprises, provides an in-depth review and analysis of disparity studies, summaries, and reports.
MBDA and Kauffman Foundation Partnership Providing Greater Access to the U.S. Census Bureau Data on Minority Entrepreneurs
The U.S. Department of Commerce's Census Bureau released the 2015 Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs and this year's survey data reveals an increase in the number of U.S. minority-owned employer firms, payroll, and the number of people employed. The survey release is significant because it provides an updated demographic snapshot of the Nation's employer businesses broken down by gender, ethnicity, race, and veteran status.
Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross to Join MBDA and NMSDC for 2017 National MED Week and NMSDC Business Conference in Detroit
The U.S. Department of Commerce's Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) today announced that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross will participate in the 2017 National Minority Enterprise Development Week celebration and National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) in Detroit. Secretary Ross will provide remarks during the keynote luncheon today at the Cobo Center in Detroit.
MBDA Announces 2017 National MED WEEK Award Winners
The U.S. Department of Commerce's Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) today announced the 2017 National Minority Enterprise Development (MED) Week Award winners. This year the Agency honored 15 minority business enterprises (MBEs), businesses leaders and advocates for their leadership, commitment and excellence in advancing the interests and the economic achievements of the minority business community.
MBDA History


TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now) - Amando Millabas is leading the effort to get local veterans back in school and on the job.
He's the Program Coordinator for the Veteran's Upward Bound Program at Pima Community College. It's the first federal grant for the program, and the first time it's available for the about 9,000 veterans in the Tucson area.
"Being a veteran myself, there's that connection. There's that reliability with the fellow veterans," he said.
Millabas has worked with about 70 veterans so far. He says have any more confidence and are able to get back to work. That's something Millabas says he's very proud of.
"We're like a hub that works with them and guides them along," he said. "We encourage them and stay connected with them so they can be successful. It's awesome, it's a significant achievement, personal gratification, but also knowing i'm helping a fellow veteran achieve their goals and aspirations.".
The program started at Pima Community College just a year ago. Now, as the program goes into it's second year, Millabas says it's another chance to do more to help more veterans.
"Oh absolutely proud. It's needed," he said.
Millabas and his team in the Upward Bound Program get referrals from military agencies across Southern Arizona. They also do their own outreach and head to fairs looking for Veterans who need some help.
You can learn more about the Veteran's Upward Bound Program by clicking HERE.
To nominate the hero in your life, go HERE or use the form below.


text:
Puppet::Type.newtype(:apache2conf) do
    ensurable
    newparam(:name) do
       desc "The name of the conf to enable"
       isnamevar
    end
end

Puppet::Type.type(:apache2conf).provide(:apache2conf) do
  def exists?
    File.exists?("/etc/apache2/conf-enabled/" + resource[:name] + ".conf")
  end

  def create
    system("a2enconf #{@resource[:name]}")
  end

  def destroy
    system("a2disconf #{@resource[:name]}")
  end
end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


This new vSAN Management Pack focuses on 3 main areas of vSAN: (1) Health and Availability, (2) Performance Analysis and (3) Capacity Planning. The goal of the pack is to give you confidence that vSAN is behaving as expected during day-to-day operations, but if an error does occur, help you to troubleshoot it quickly. Lastly, we want you to be able to monitor usage of resources on the vSAN cluster.
And you can also see a number of custom dashboards here as well. The beauty of vROps is that you can build you own custom dashboards to highlight what you feel you need visibility into. For example, as my colleague Pete Koehler highlighted in this blog post here, you may wish to compare workloads running on traditional datastores to workloads running on a vSAN datastore. Custom dashboards can give you a side-by-side comparison of these VM workloads.
But even without the custom dashboards, the default dashboards provide a wealth of information. This is an example of a vSAN Environment Overview, which displays the layout of this 4-node all-flash vSAN cluster, along with any outstanding alerts. Alerts can also be examined in more detail, or indeed acknowledged from this view.
Then of course there is the vSAN Performance views. You can look at performance from a VM perspective, disk group perspective and host perspective. Selecting one particular object enables widgets that will give you additional information about that object. For example, below I have selected a VM with in turn displays Latency and IOPS for that VM/VMDK. Further down, if a particular Disk Group is selected, I can get details about that disk group's write buffer performance.
The final default view is the Optimize vSAN Deployment view. This provides further details around both vSAN and non-vSAN datastores. This is a great screen for examining capacity usage, as well as workloads, both from a vSAN and non-vSAN perspective.
My understanding is that the vSAN Management Pack (stand-alone) is available with vROps version 6.4 (standard edition) and later. The vSAN management pack works with vSAN version 6.2 and 6.5 (and presumably any later versions). You can get the vSAN management pack from Solutions Exchange.
For those of you with vSAN deployments and who are also using vROps, this is a great addition to your management portfolio.
And just before I went live with this post, Pete informed me of a new click-thru demo showing how to use the new vSAN management pack to validate workload migrations. You can check it out on storagehub. Nice job Pete.
The mgmt pack link isn't working.
I will update the link in the post too. Thanks for the heads-up.


…but at least one local expert in the field of movement disorders stated Thursday that what most of these girls experienced is likely the result of mass hysteria.
It's describing a mass psychogenic (psychosomatic) group of symptoms shared among a large population, but doesn't it sound medieval? Doesn't that sound like the treatment would involve leeches or a stoning or visiting a shrine. In other words, it sounds like a junk, throwaway diagnosis that loosely translates into "we don't know what the hell is going on" and has the added bonus of being backhandedly sexist.


Searching for hotels in Schomberg (Calw) (Germany) or Schomberg (Calw) accommodation? Schömberg is a spa town in the northern part of the Black Forest in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Schömberg is located 15 km south of Pforzheim and lies on a plateau between the valley of the Enz with the town of Wildbad to its west and the Nagold valley with the town of Bad Liebenzell to its east.
Schömberg is touched by the Black Forest Mittelweg, and has scenic long-distance hiking trail from North Pforzheim to South Basel. The town is renowned as a health spa resort which features a fine therapeutic climate.
While you are in this resort area you will find a lot of indoor and outdoor activities to part take in, this include activities like horse riding, golfing, indoor go-kart and skate boarding. Schömberg also has as few places of interest which you may find fascinating like the Newark Museum, the Schomberg Center for Black Culture and The Jewish Museum, just to name a few. The town is also home to the annual Moja Arts Festivals.
Once in Schomberg you can find fine accommodation ranging from first class hotels to inns and bed and breakfast, this includes the Minotel Moenchs Lamm.
- Browse the Schomberg (Calw) Map or compare Schomberg (Calw) accommodation from Hotels, Motels, B&Bs, Lodging & Hostels to Holiday & Caravan Parks.
Resources, Information and guides on Schomberg (Calw). For things to do, attractions, restaurants, holidays and sites refer below.
About Page: Schomberg (Calw) Motels, Family Packages, Holiday Stays, Caravan Parks, Apartments, Hostels, Last Minute Schomberg (Calw) accommodation, 5 star Luxury to 2 star Budget hotels and resort deals. Compare Schomberg (Calw) hotel reservations, bookings and cheap rates.
Search Hotels in Schomberg (Calw).


The Star Trek 3 cast may be growing to include an actor from a hit TV show as the main villain. "The one who knocks" could be the next one to give Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) and his crew a hard time.
After a disappointing reception from fans with Star Trek Into Darkness and its re-imagining of the classic villain Kahn Noonien Singh from The Wrath of Khan, it has been clear that changes needed to be made to bring back the audience. J.J. Abrams left the director's chair in the hands of Fast and Furious' Justin Lin as he moved on to direct Star Wars Episode 7. Now two-time Star Trek veteran Simon Pegg will be taking on more than the engineering deck of the U.S.S. Enterprise as a new co-writer for the film.
The arguably biggest surprise yet could be arriving in the form of Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston joining the Star Trek 3 cast, again taking the role of a villain. Fans are probably hoping he isn't going to be cast as Christopher Lloyd's Klingon Commander Kruge from The Search for Spock, letting the story develop a whole new way.
Bryan Cranston has been an actor in high demand ever since the TV series about a crystal meth making high school teacher ended. He starred opposite Avengers: Age of Ultron stars Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the 2014 remake of Godzilla, and even had minor roles in other films and TV shows. Now his big-screen break-out may be as the main nemesis for Kirk and his crew.
IGN claims that Cranston was the one the writers had in mind when they created the villain for the Star Trek 3 cast.
New female characters will also allegedly come into the story, such as Leonard McCoy's (Karl Urban) ex-wife, the captain of another starship, and the President of the United Federation of Planets. Much about the story for the next Star Trek is not yet known, but it appears they are planning to bring the audience back.
Who do you think will be added to the Star Trek 3 cast? Could Bryan Cranston be the next villain?


text:
Tom Moody makes a special promise to his SRH fans
Updated on: May 28, 2018 4:38 pm IST
The final of the eleventh edition of the Indian Premier League witnessed an even contest between the Sunrisers Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings where the yellow army triumphed over the SRH in Wankhede on Sunday.
Sunrisers Hyderabad performed consistently throughout the tournament and proved themselves as one of the best teams of the tournament.
The Sunrisers Hyderabad impressed everyone with some top quality bowling throughout the season. Williamson and company defended some of the lowest totals on several occasions and left their opposition clueless.
Tom Moody, head coach of Sunrisers Hyderabad took to Twitter to thank the fans for supporting them throughout the season and promised to go a step further next season.
A special thank you to all our wonderful supporters, it's been a memorable #IPL2018 for us all. One step further next year #orangearmy #onwardsandupwards pic.twitter.com/ZYnQ5ut8P4
— Tom Moody (@TomMoodyCricket) May 28, 2018
Shalini Singh
A Writer | A Reader | Above all- A Human Being constantly looking forward to pushing the envelopes!
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'Flexible' Family Leave Is Lousy Feminism
Balancing work-life pressures is often considered the holy grail, but men can still opt out of these policies. To move the needle on gender inequality, the state needs to take more coercive action.
Gina Schouten
Categories: Gender & Sexuality, Law, Philosophy
Topics: Children and Family, Feminism
"You must know lots about Denmark," she says.
I've just told my new acquaintance that I'm a political philosopher, writing about family support policies.
Danish-style policies support caregiving but won't move the needle on gender inequality.
From that unmistakable longing in her eyes I'm guessing she's a mother. Maybe she longs for paid leave or help managing the overwhelming cost of daycare. Maybe she wants to enlist her partner as a genuine co-parent, rather delegating discrete tasks to him. (Maybe she longs to stop longing for that, because it only leaves her frustrated and because she'd prefer to feel simple gratitude for all that he does do.) Maybe this woman has no parenting partner. Maybe she just wants a better way to get through the week. Or a workplace where she doesn't have to pretend that dinnertime meetings aren't a problem for her. Or an employer who doesn't require workers to drain their sick and vacation time when they take leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act.
I later learn that sleep tops the list of things this mother is longing for. She thinks Denmark's generous paid family leave and childcare subsidies could make her load a little lighter. I know that longing—I've felt that longing, though I have little right to it—and I don't want to disappoint her. So when she asks whether I think we should replicate Denmark's family support regime in the United States, I have to steel myself to confess:
"Well, not exactly. . . . "
It's not that I don't see the problem Denmark's policies are supposed to solve. Parents, especially mothers, are doing too much with too little support—emphasis on the "especially mothers" part. Women still do far more childcare than men. Meanwhile, labor markets in the United States reward those who can commit to working long hours with little time off, penalizing those with serious childcare responsibilities. A growing body of research confirms that the gendered pay gap persists mostly because women take on a larger share of responsibility for childcare and because they make employment decisions to accommodate it.
The problem with Danish-style childcare support is that it's too flexible. It helps women, but men can still opt out. And they do.
We should not be optimistic that large-scale change will come by way of the kind of intra-industry competition that has improved family-friendly offerings in certain high-status professions. While highly skilled and highly sought-after employees can bargain for family friendly policies, employers won't bend over backward to accommodate workers they consider more expendable or replaceable. Competition among employers won't help parents outside the workforce, either. It won't fix our collective failure to recognize caregiving work as work, nor (relatedly) our tendency to under-value it. Meanwhile, it will drive demand for professional caregiving services without generating any coordination mechanism to ensure that caregivers are compensated fairly. And competition among employers won't help involuntarily unemployed men contend with norms of masculinity that tie their social worth to their status as earners. Gendered norms about caregiving and work are the linchpin for a lot of social ills, and labor markets on their own won't solve the problem. We need social change that only politics can deliver. We need social policy.
So why oppose Danish-style paid leaves and subsidized childcare? It's simple but perhaps counterintuitive: Danish-style policies support caregiving but won't move the needle on gender inequality.
Don't get me wrong. A lot of the policies that get most attention in this arena should be part of any social policy solution. Work-time regulation—especially to spur increased flexibility and decreased time demands—is essential. And childcare support of some kind must be part of the solution. The problem with Danish-style childcare support is that it's too flexible. It helps women balance work-life pressures, which should be one important aim of policy like this. But men can still opt out. And they do. To move the needle on gender inequality, family support policy must be crafted to influence who uses its provisions and how.
In other words, we need family support policy that is deliberately inflexible and intrusive: policy that is explicitly designed to incentivize childcare among fathers and labor market attachment among mothers. The main hurdle to justifying such policy is a philosophical question of legitimacy: May the state legitimately undertake such coercive policy?
I'll answer yes. But first, why doesn't flexible policy work?
Like a great deal of other research, a 2018 study using Danish administrative data finds that earnings inequality now mostly reflects different choices women and men make about how to care for children: women, more than men, "favor family amenities over pecuniary rewards," and suffer an earnings penalty as a result. Throughout almost all of the thirty-year period studied, Denmark provided generous job-protected paid parental leave so that parents could care for their children at home during their first six to twelve months. After the paid leave period, parents gained access to high-quality and heavily-subsidized options for purchasing care outside the home. Even so, significant gender inequality persists:
while gender inequality in Denmark was dramatically lower than in the United States around 1980, today the gender pay gap is between 15–20 percent in both countries and appears to have plateaued at that level. That is, gender convergence happened earlier in Scandinavia than elsewhere, but the process also slowed down earlier in Scandinavia allowing other countries to catch up. So even though these countries feature different public policies and labor markets, they are no longer very different in terms of overall gender inequality.
Although Denmark's generous family support provisions nudged them toward pay parity, the United States—which offers no paid leave, and where the costs of daycare increasingly rival the costs of rent—has since caught up. Now, neither party is budging. The study finds that "the impact of children on women is large and persistent across a wide range of labor market outcomes, while at the same time men are unaffected. The female child penalty in earnings is close to 20% in the long run." Driving that wage penalty are "sharp impacts of children on labor force participation, hours worked, wage rates, occupation, sector, and firm choices." While Denmark is not the most progressive among Nordic nations, no country has succeeded in completely closing the gender pay gap.
Policies that ease women's temporary exit from the labor force or their entry into more flexible tracks within it are an imperfect solution at best.
Women and men make different choices about whether and how to use the amenities on offer because those amenities impose opportunity costs at work, and because the relative value of the amenities—as well as the opportunity costs of using them—differs, on average, between women and men. Gender norms partly explain this. These norms no longer tell us that women should be full-time mothers and men full-time workers. But they evidently do influence how we navigate tradeoffs at the margins: women can care about their careers, but not if that means they aren't fully present for their children. For men, social norms ask that they be fully present for their kids only when they're present. Career obligations come first.
Even if these norms have only a slight effect—and their effect is arguably more than slight—they can generate powerful path dependencies and economic incentives. The parent who takes time off with her child will have lower monetary opportunity costs to cutting back later, because she'll have missed an annual raise or opted for a more flexible position. And when a child needs a parent, it is always tempting to think she needs the most familiar parent. For these reasons and more, women are likelier to take flexible scheduling options and parental leaves. Because such options are negatively priced in labor markets, nominally gender-neutral family support policy and work time regulation won't effectively combat gender inequality in caregiving and the workplace. Policies that ease women's temporary exit from the labor force or their entry into more flexible tracks within it are an imperfect solution at best.
To combat gender inequality, family support policy must offset the influence of gender norms. It must nudge men to do more childcare and women to forge on at work. Over time, it must erode gender norms by incentivizing behavior that flouts them: fathers and mothers both utilizing family-friendly provisions to be actively and comparably involved in the work of caring for children.
When it comes to the details of caregiver support policy, we should not aim for maximal flexibility.
Such policy might involve:
Packaging relatively short leave provisions with relatively generous daycare subsidies to encourage more families to opt for substitute care rather than for mothers to spend extended periods of time out of the labor market.
Investing less in caregiver resource accounts or cash subsidies, which lessen the financial burden of women's withdrawal from work, while investing relatively more in temporary leaves and subsidies for substitute care.
Paying high wage-replacement rates to lessen the disincentive for high earners to take leave. It is tempting to contain costs by capping pay for leave-takers below 100 percent of their usual earnings. But partial wage-replacement can discourage leave-taking by the higher earner in a two-job household. Since high earners are still disproportionally men, discerning the threshold below which partial wage replacement constrains uptake of leave and keeping wage replacement rates above that threshold can encourage paternal leave-taking. (High wage replacement rates should be funded through strongly progressive revenue generation mechanisms.)
Combatting workplace cultures that discourage male leave-taking, for example by imposing penalties on workplaces that fall below a set rate of leaves taken by eligible fathers.
Attaching conditions to leave entitlements to encourage leave-taking by men, such as portions of leave available only to fathers. (In 1997 Denmark established two weeks of leave available only to fathers, but abolished that leave in 2002, despite the popularity of similar policies in other Nordic countries and their demonstrated efficacy in prompting fathers to take more parental leave.)
Encouraging some leave to be taken very early on by the non-birthing parent: for example, structuring parental leaves such that each parent gets an additional month of leave on the condition that the non-birthing parent takes two months of leave immediately after the birthing parent's medical leave ends.
We also need policies to induce workplace culture reform and increase flexibility and time off, of course. But when it comes to the details of caregiver support policy, we should not aim for maximal flexibility. There is evidence enough for optimism that policy details such as these could promote more active fathering and more gender-equal parenting in the short term, thereby lessening gender inequality in earnings and, in time, eroding gendered parenting norms.
Should the government really be in the business of intentionally influencing families' work configurations and reforming social norms?
The policy details proposed above put the legitimacy worry into sharp relief. Intrusive and inflexible family support policy looks like illiberal family support policy. It looks like a call to use political power to promote a contested set of values, at a cost to citizens who reject those values, on the grounds that the values are true or especially worthy of promotion. Many feminists think de-gendered parenting is an ideal worth striving for. But liberal feminists should tread carefully in endorsing social policy to realize that putative ideal, just as gender traditionalists should tread carefully in their calls for social policy to realize their ideal of the good society. How can such intrusive social policy, evidently justified on the basis of contested feminist values, constitute a legitimate exercise of political power in a liberal society?
Even those who don't share feminists' vision of the good society should share their commitment to eroding gendered parenting norms.
Behind these worries stands a commitment to state neutrality: the idea that the state should not act on the basis of a contested ideal of the good life. Neutrality does not forbid social policy that disproportionally burdens or taxes certain values. Any social policy—and any omission of social policy—will impose disparate costs and benefits on different citizens depending on what they value and how they want to live. Consider an example: public funding for compulsory education can plausibly be said to impose higher monetary costs on citizens without children, since they pay into an education system that benefits everyone but benefits those with children most. And the compulsory part of public education plausibly imposes higher social costs on citizens who participate in certain tradition-based ways of life, since compulsory education induces the kind of exposure to questioning and diversity that is a driver of defection, thereby making such ways of life difficult to sustain over time. These disparate costs may be perfectly compliant with neutrality, depending on the reasons we can invoke to justify them.
State neutrality proscribes all reasonably-contested value commitments about what constitutes a good life as inadmissible grounds on which to justify public policy. Whatever disparate impacts they will invariably have, policies must be justifiable without invoking such contested values. Of course, public policy must be informed by some values. The values we may invoke to justify social policy include values that are part of the public political culture: values that enjoy broad support from a diverse array of citizens. So, for example, we may not institute a strongly progressive inheritance tax on the grounds that the interests of the rich are of comparatively little importance or that an acquisitive worldview is fundamentally flawed; but arguably we may institute such a policy on the grounds that it is necessary to ensure broad equality of opportunity in competitions for better-rewarded social positions. This is because—just assume for illustration if you're not convinced of this—antagonism toward the wealthy is not a value that enjoys broad support from a diverse array of citizens, but equal opportunity is.
Flexible family support policy can be justified on the back of values that enjoy broad support from diverse citizens who have different ideas about what makes for a good life or a good society. We might make the case, for example, that well-raised children generate public benefit and so the public should support those who do the raising. But to argue for family support policy that is designed explicitly to erode gendered parenting norms, we need to argue for the erosion of gendered parenting norms as a policy end in its own right.
Feminists who share my vision of a society free of gendered parenting norms can, consistent with liberal neutrality, endorse social policy to bring that ideal about. More importantly, precisely because such policy can be endorsed on neutral grounds, such feminists can insist that even those who don't share their vision of the good society should share their commitment to eroding gendered parenting norms.
As we've seen, neutrality forbids invoking certain contested values to justify social policy, but it permits broadly shared values to do that work. More strongly still, it designates certain political values as values that we can take for granted as shared, because those values encode fundamental interests we all share as free and equal citizens. These shared values include the presumption that we ought to be treated as free and equal citizens, and that we have fundamental shared interests in protecting our status as free and equal citizens and in preserving mutual respect among citizens construed as such. We can take these fundamental interests to be common ground, despite our many disagreements.
Social policy supported by the bedrock commitment to mutual respect among free and equal citizens is social policy that we cannot legitimately fail to enact.
Why do these values have such a privileged status? One way to see the answer is to notice that those values are what justify a commitment to liberal toleration—to neutrality—in the first place. We should abide by neutrality precisely in order to preserve mutual respect among citizens. In a liberal democracy, we construe ourselves and all other citizens as political equals with a presumption of freedom to pursue the good life as each sees it. To enjoy the benefits of living in a cooperative society with other citizens, we all accept some constraint on that prerogative. Neutrality tells us that the constraints we face are legitimate if and because they can be justified to us on terms that we can accept in our capacity as free and equal citizens. By acting democratically only in mutually justifiable ways, we express civic respect even to those who are constrained or burdened by our so acting. This means that we can't invoke reasons that are exclusive to some disputed view of the good and that we can't fail to heed those reasons that are implied by the liberal democratic values at the theoretical bottom of the whole enterprise. Social policy supported by the bedrock commitment to mutual respect among free and equal citizens is social policy that we cannot legitimately fail to enact.
We can see, now, that a commitment to liberal neutrality does not entail a commitment to keeping all values out of politics. It implies a commitment to keeping out of politics those values that are not either broadly implicit in our public political culture or implied by the fundamental commitments that justify liberal neutrality in the first place. In short, the ideal of liberal legitimacy cuts both both ways: if policies to de-gender parenting can be justified only by invoking contested feminist values, then those policies are illegitimate. But if such policies are favored by the fundamental shared interest in preserving mutual respect among free and equal citizens, then it is illegitimate not to enact them.
The question thus becomes: Is there a case to be made on the grounds of mutual respect in favor of intrusive, inflexible family leave?
First, let us consider one way that case can't be made. We might try to argue for social policy to de-gender parenting by invoking the distributive injustices that gendered parenting perpetuates. Women's greater share of caregiving leaves them materially worse off than men and disproportionally materially poor in absolute terms. We can argue that poverty is a social ill without invoking any reasonably disputed premises; indeed, that conclusion easily flows from the fundamental shared value of mutual respect among free and equal citizens. We clearly fail to show mutual respect when we allow some among us to live in poverty. Mutual respect plausibly does not impugn all material inequality; a line will need to be drawn. But if some amount of distributive equality is a shared value, and if gendered parenting causes distributive inequality that the shared value impugns, then perhaps we can justify intrusive, inflexible family support as legitimate on those grounds.
If distributive justice and social equality cannot justify intrusive family support policy, what can? The missing ingredient is the free in "free and equal citizens."
The problem is that such support is not necessary to realizing distributive equality. Even if de-gendering parenting would help to ameliorate poverty or bring about greater distributive equality, those distributive aims can be accomplished by other, less intrusive means, too—such as labor market reform, taxation policy, and provision of in-kind goods. This is true whether we think of the goal as distributive equality between women and men, or between parents and non-parents, or between primary parents and secondary parents. Setting aside the question of whether any of these forms of equality is favored by a shareable ideal of distributive justice, all could be achieved without de-gendering parenting. The upshot is that those who think we have reason to de-gender parenting cannot justify policy to accomplish it on the back of distributive justice.
I think that distributive equality in some form is a demand of mutual respect among free and equal citizens. But distributive equality is not what the "equal" in "free and equal citizens" means. Equal citizenship refers to a kind of social equality: to relationships of equal respect, equal civic standing, and non-domination. It is because we are presumed to be equals in this sense that mutual respect demands for each of us a justification for political action that we can accept: one based on reasons that we can recognize as such.
Can equal citizenship justify social policy to de-gender parenting? Not in any very straightforward way. Those who do relatively more parenting and who participate relatively less in labor markets plausibly do not currently stand as social equals. But the problem here is that caregiving is so devalued that it is not regarded as a source of social status in its own right. We should restore social equality by elevating the status of caregiving, and we can do this without persuading women to do less parenting or persuading men to do more. As someone who favors de-gendering parenting, I think we should work to equalize shares of it. But this cannot be for the sake of equal standing, because equal standing surely gives us more reason to elevate the status of roles that are currently unfairly and mistakenly devalued than to see to it that those devalued roles are shared equally between women and men.
To see why distributive fairness and social equality are not enough, suppose we achieve both: suppose caregiving and labor market participation are fairly rewarded and those who do them stand as social equals. Still, women might be socially steered into more caregiving-intensive roles and men into more labor-market-intensive roles. The source of this steering is the socially embedded assumption that sex dictates work specialization. And here's our case for intrusive and inflexible family leave policy: that source of steering is objectionable from the perspective of free and equal citizenship.
Our social arrangement is inimical to autonomy because it presumes that citizens will behave non-autonomously: that they will specialize by sex into caregiving and labor market roles.
Here's how the argument goes:
The socially-embedded assumption that sex rightly dictates work specialization is objectionable from the perspective of free and equal citizenship because that assumption is inimical to autonomy. An autonomous person can reflect upon, revise, and reject the social roles and affiliations that fundamentally shape her life. Her choices in domains central to her identity are not effectively determined by normalized and institutionally-embedded assumptions that members of a social group to which she belongs are best suited to populating particular roles. We can be autonomous in a gendered society, because social norms do not determine our choices. And while gender norms attach social costs to some of the options we choose among, that, in itself, is no problem from the perspective of autonomy. Our options always carry contingent social and material costs. What's objectionable is the particular configuration of social and material costs that gendered parenting norms sustain. Importantly, a social arrangement can be an affront to some value even without making realization of that value impossible. This can occur precisely when the arrangement is predicated on the assumption that citizens will not realize or aspire to realize the value in question. Our social arrangement is inimical to autonomy not because it makes autonomy impossible but because it presumes that citizens will behave non-autonomously: that they will specialize by sex into caregiving and labor market roles. Even without making gender-equal parenting impossible, and even without making autonomous choice impossible, our social arrangement is an affront to autonomy because it is predicated on the institutionalized assumption that one's sex will dictate the work that one does.
How does that gendered assumption infuse our social arrangement? Labor markets are still designed for workers with "someone else at home" to specialize in parenting so that the "working" partner can devote himself fully to wage earning. Employers are permitted to impose demands on workers that are incompatible with workers having serious caregiving commitments, and success at work requires living up to such demands. The institutionalized assumption that sex determines work specialization explains why employers have been empowered to impose those demands. It also explains the dearth of support for substitute caregiving in the United States. Because we assume parents—mothers—will internalize the costs of caring for their children, we have neglected to develop social mechanisms for sharing those costs. And, as we've seen, the gendered assumption that explains this institutional arrangement continues to influence our strategies for navigating it.
Because we assume parents—mothers—will internalize the costs of caring for their children, we have neglected to develop social mechanisms for sharing those costs.
The entrenched assumption that sex matters for parenting makes it socially and materially costly to avoid gendered parenting. A social arrangement that presumes that sex has this importance—and thus makes it very costly to arrange one's domestic life in defiance of that presumption—is an affront to autonomy. And these institutional arrangements and social norms are objectionable on grounds of autonomy even though individuals can autonomously choose to comply with or flout those norms.
Gendered parenting is thus objectionable at the bar of mutual respect among free and equal citizens. Because that bedrock liberal value of mutual respect supports a case for de-gendering parenting, all of us committed to that value—and to the constraints and demands of liberal legitimacy that rest atop it—should demand policy to bring our society more fully into alignment with it. There is no illiberalism here, no illegitimacy. We have a compelling case for intrusive, inflexible family support policy that even those who care nothing about gender equality must accept.
Note: Adapted with permission from Liberalism, Neutrality, and the Gendered Division of Labor, Oxford University Press.
Gina Schouten is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University. Her first book, Liberalism, Neutrality, and the Gendered Division of Labor, came out in June 2019 from Oxford University Press.
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text:
KOREACERATOPS
(koe-ree-ah-seh-rah-tops)
meaning: "Korea horn face"
Named By: YuonginNam Lee, Michael J. Ryan & Yoshitsugo Kobayashi in 2011
Time Period: Early Cretaceous, 103 Ma
Location: South Korea - Tando Basin
Size: Uncertain due to incomplete remains
Fossil(s): Articulated caudal (tail) vertebrae, ischia and partial hind limbs
Classification: | Chordata | Reptilia | Dinosauria | Ornithischia | Ceratopsia |
Koreaceratops is a genus of basal ceratopsian dinosaur discovered in Albian-age Lower Cretaceous rocks of South Korea. It is based on KIGAM VP 200801, an articulated series of 36 caudal vertebrae associated with partial hind limbs and ischia. This specimen was found in a sandstone block that had been incorporated into the Tando dam at Hwaseong City; the way the specimen is cut off suggests that more of it was present before quarrying. The dam was built in 1994, and the bones were first brought to the attention of paleontologists in 2008, after a public official noticed them. The specimen probably came from the lower Tando beds. The upper part of this informally named formation dates to 103 +- 0.5 million years ago. Koreaceratops was described by Yuong-Nam Lee and colleagues in 2011. The genus name is a combination of "Korea" and the Greek keras (keras) meaning 'horn' and opsis (opsis) meaning 'face'. The type species is K. hwaseongensis, named after Hwaseong City.
Koreaceratops is notable for the tall neural spines on its caudal vertebrae, and for the structure of its astragalus. In some of the distal caudal vertebrae, the neural spines are over five times the height of the vertebral centra to which they attach. Lee et al. noted that several other ceratopsians also had tall neural spines on their caudals. As this trait appears in several branches of ceratopsians, Lee et al. postulated that the feature was independently evolved, perhaps as an adaptation for swimming. Lee et al. performed a phylogenetic analysis and found Koreaceratops to be positioned between Archaeoceratops and more derived ceratopsians.
Read more about Koreaceratops at Wikipedia


text:
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text:
Grade 3. Ages 7-10.
"Everything seems so real," Cindy said. "I can feel a warm breeze," said Jack. "Is it coming from behind us?" "Jack, look, the little chimp is moving, and we're in a tree in the middle of the jungle!" There's magic going on and Cindy and Jack are into a real jungle adventure in a time long ago. Soon they will meet a man with a flute who knows and important royal secret.
While visiting a museum, Cindy and Jack magically enter a real jungle adventure.
When Jack and Cindy visit the natural history museum, they suddenly find themselves inside a living diorama. They cross paths with a two royal hunters and the royal jester, who befriends them. The strangers believe the children are royalty and escort them to a town where they learn about the local customs and spend the night. The next day, they arrive at the city where the ruler lives. Although he is ailing, he welcomes them and asks them whether it is customary to kill twins at birth in their country. The ruler's wife says the diviners want to perform a human sacrifice to heal him, but he objects, saying that God does not like human sacrifice. If he dies, his servants are all supposed to be killed anyway, though. He wants to consult his wise mother, but by custom is not allowed to see her anymore. The children secretly accept a carving of the trickster Esu from the ruler's wife and agree to pass it to the Queen Mother. The Queen Mother says it is a sign that a secret plan is being carried out and asks them not to spoil the secret if they notice something strange. When they return to the ruler's palace, the ailing ruler and the healthy jester have changed places! They pretend not to notice. The Queen Mother performs a magic spell that returns the children to the diorama in the museum.
Jack and Cindy (brother and sister); Atuke (royal jester), His Majesty the Oba of Edo, his head wife the Enahan, and his mother the Queen Mother
Mr. Edwards (Jack and Cindy's Dad), Elonmo (chief hunter), Uzi (Elonmo's helper), Agebeye, Itua, Obilo, Head Chief of Utesi, Onyan, Iranele, the Oba's son the Oko
Places Mentioned
Museum of Natural History, Manhattan, Hall of Africa, Africa, Erva, Edo
Themes/Keywords
jungle wildlife, village life, royalty, slavery, polygamy, twins, blood sacrifice, Christianity
For my grandson, Zachariah Jared Silver
Royal Magic at Amazon
Royal Magic at Abebooks
Royal Magic (paperback)
Published: Scholastic (Little Apple), 10/1/1991.
no credit for cover illustration
お城の魔女 / Oshiro no majo (paperback)
Published: フレーベル館 Furēberukan, 11/1/2010.