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Shelf Awareness for Readers for Tuesday, August 9, 2011
My Summer Reading Recommendations--Fiction Edition
Last week I wrote about word-of-mouth recommendations, and I've received many responses that I'm gathering up to share with you soon. But while I tally those, I thought I'd do some word-of-mouth recommending of my own.
My fellow book critics, bloggers and editors are, like me, elbow deep in fall galleys right now, but that doesn't do you any good when you're trying to fill a beach tote or top up your own "to be read" stack. Here's a list of my favorite novels that are out now, so you can plan some August library and bookstore choices. I've put these in alphabetical order by author surname because that is simply the only fair way to list them.
Once Upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell: A modern, female take on Huck Finn.
The Astral by Kate Christensen: A man's midlife crisis gets him out of a rut.
The Last Werewolf by Glenn Duncan: Smart, sexy creature-rific fun.
Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson: An utterly different take on the 1980s
Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman: A Ghanaian boy's life in the London projects.
Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante: A narrator with Alzheimer's involved in a murder.
A Good Hard Look by Ann Napolitano: Flannery O'Connor flirts with a married man.
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett: Passion and plotting in the Amazon rain forest.
Rules of Civility by Amor Towles: Manhattan in the 1930s is both glitzy--and sad.
Zazen by Vanessa Veselka: In a dystopian America, a young woman lives and loves.
Bookselling News
RIP: Nancy Wake, Holocaust Heroine & Novel's Inspiration
She once killed an SS guard with her bare hands--but off duty, the "White Mouse" of the Resistance movement, Nancy Wake, always wore lipstick and a glamorous coiffure.
Wake died on Sunday at age 98 in a London hospital. Nancy Wake left her native Australia as a teenager, and wound up in France married to a wealthy industrialist, Henri Fiocca.
She chose to become a courier for the French Resistance in the early days of World War II, and when notified that the Gestapo was coming to arrest her, kissed her husband goodbye (she would never see him again; he was arrested, tortured and killed, but never gave her up to the Nazis) and made her way to London where she volunteered for the Special Operations Executive, a clandestine body formed by Churchill to train agents in guerrilla warfare against the Nazis and to bolster local resistance groups in occupied France. On the night of April 29, 1944, Wake was parachuted into the Auvergne region, where she coordinated a 7,000-strong resistance group and headed successful attacks on German forces in the area.
Nancy Wake's story inspired novelist Sebastian Faulks's 1999 Charlotte Gray; later, that book's film adaptation featured Cate Blanchett as Wake. Read more of Nancy Wake's remarkable obituary in the Guardian.
McQueen Book Is King
Congratulations to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, whose retrospective of work by the late fashion designer Alexander McQueen drew huge crowds--nearly 600,000 people saw the show since it opened May 4--as well as all kinds of attention for the exhibition catalogue. The museum sold more than 100,000 copies of Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty by Andrew Bolton with contributions from Susannah Frankel and Tim Blanks at the show alone. (Distributed by Yale University Press, the $45 tome has more than 150,000 copies in print.) Elsewhere, the book has shown similar sales swagger: it has spent many weeks in the top 100 at Amazon and has been #1 in the online retailer's Arts and Photography category for much of the time since pub date. The book even warranted a mention in Sunday's New York Times Book Review's Inside the List column, a rare achievement for a museum exhibition catalogue.
After being extended by a week and after galleries remained open until midnight this past weekend--an unprecedented if fashionably late gesture--the exhibition closed yesterday. Still, for those still wanting to view McQueen's fashion creations, the book shines on.
Book Candy: Literary Real Estate
They say truth is stranger than fiction--but sometimes truth inspires fiction, as is the case with these 10 venues that actually exist (or, in the case of the Sands Point, N.Y., mansion that inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald, existed--the house has been demolished). Some are instantly familiar and recognizable, like Robert Frost's New Hampshire "Mending Wall," a low, humble stone fence, while others are surprising, like the Italian cliffhanging city of Narni, which inspired C.S. Lewis's magical land of Narnia. However, with any of these famed places, we're sure that the most surprising thing about them would be... their price tags.
Further Reading: This Beautiful Life
Helen Schulman's This Beautiful Life is a moving novel about how the events of a single night change a family forever. When 15-year-old Jake Bergamot becomes the catalyst for a younger schoolmate's sexually explicit video going viral, the choices he makes affect the choices that his parents make--and soon the carefully constructed "beautiful life" that the Bergamots have constructed is in disarray (there's a house of cards on the book jacket in case you need any clues about the outcome).
While Schulman's book is about the events of a single night, it doesn't take place entirely in that night. No wonder! The "single day" scenario isn't an easy one to pull off with panache. Three other books that use the conceit in different ways:
Saturday by Ian McEwan takes place in London on February 15, 2003--a post 9/11 day whose ordinariness has been forever shifted by global terror. A middle-aged neurosurgeon named Henry Perowne is woken before dawn by the sight of a fiery plane heading towards Heathrow Airport. While Henry's thoughts turn to terrorism, the events of his day show that the unease affecting First World countries can be more damaging in some ways than death and destruction.
One Day by David Nicholls might be a cheat--because while the action is confined to one day, it unfolds on that same day over a number of years. However, we're including it here because it is a clever and different way of looking at how 24 hours unfolds for humans. Dex and Emma meet at university in 1988, and over the ensuing 20 years we see them each July 15--sometimes together, sometimes not. No spoilers, here, but there is a major motion picture out in theaters now....
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf is a dreamy novel about the morning-to-evening 1920s London peregrinations of an upperclass chatelaine preparing for a dinner party. Clarissa Dalloway begins the day gazing at a skywriting plane--a scene that McEwan paid homage to in the aforementioned Saturday. If that novel primarily deals with world events through the lens of one man's actions, Woolf's deals with gender roles and the post-World War I Western world's new landscape.
Portrait of the Artist: Deborah Lawrenson
Deborah Lawrenson would like to correct a few misconceptions about her newly released novel, The Lantern (Harper).
"I know the book has been seen as a gothic thriller," Lawrenson said, speaking from her second home in France's Luberon, the region of Provence in which this book takes place. "It's not a thriller. It's far too slow!"
Lawrenson described her latest book, which concerns a British husband and wife living in relative expatriate isolation: "It's much more subtle than that. I might call it 'romantic suspense,' except that I think of it more as psychological suspense. It's slower than a thriller, dreamier than a thriller, and also more realistic. I feel a bit worried that people will expect full-throttle murder and ghosts and such--and that's not my book!"
Characters Eve and Dom are reserved, and are hiding feelings and worries from each other. Their French home is full of sensory pleasures, from scents to tastes to textures, yet Eve becomes increasingly worried that Dom is keeping terrible secrets from her. Lawrenson's inspiration? The classic tale Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, in which another young wife turns suspicious of her older, troubled husband.
"It's a great story, one that almost puts fingers in the mind. I've read it five or six times since I was a teenager," Lawrenson said. " What appeals to me is the quality of the writing. Du Maurier starts dreamily and then allows her plot to unfold. Not only does that appeal to me; it's something I quite happily lapse into myself."
Another element that The Lantern shares with Rebecca is a different sort of heroine. "Some people think Eve isn't a very modern heroine because she's so trusting in her marriage to a man whose history is somewhat obscure, who whisks her away to such a remote place. But I don't think of Eve as docile and subservient. There are women--men, too, but particularly women, I think--who find themselves in a situation like this and don't move on from it. "
Lawerenson says that the key to Eve's situation is that she's a bookworm. "She's not nearly as confident as she pretended to be when she took up with Dom. She's borrowed a certain amount of sophistication and she can't believe her luck in snagging such a handsome, accomplished man--but she doesn't have the experience, in the end, to confront him about his past."
This disconnect between spouses is, Lawrenson maintains, what brings her novel back to Rebecca. "What does Eve do when she feels slightly adrift? She retreats into her comfort zone, her books. The secondhand gothic overtones in her favorite books, from du Maurier to the Brontes, forms another kind of haunting. It skews her thinking about what is really going on. Like Rebecca, the emotional power that books have over Eve is the kind of effect that these books have had on millions of women."
Deborah Lawrenson's name is new to American readers, but she's published four novels in her native England, where she worked as a journalist. "When I started writing, I fell into the trap of writing about 'what you know,' and pushed out two funny, lightly satirical books about working on newspapers."
Unfortunately, while those two books did fairly well, the author's third, a "black comedy," didn't. "It was a combo of its not being a great book and my publishers being sold and the new owners dropping half of the list." Lawrenson laughed heartily. "I think they probably would have sold more copies if they'd simply dropped a couple of cases of the book from the top of Random House!"
"The first three books would have been better off in a drawer, but I learned how to write a book," Lawrenson said. "It just wasn't the kind of book I wanted to write! Finally, I sat down to write that book--and couldn't get my agent or any other to sell it. They couldn't figure out if it were a commercial book or a literary book. Finally, I got so cross I published it myself."
Lawrenson did a very good job with The Art of Falling--so good that Random House bought the rights and sold it well, which led to the deal for The Lantern here in the U.S. However, she wants anyone with authorly ambitions to hear her words on another misconception: that of instant success through self-publishing.
"There was a big difference with my own self-publishing efforts, you see," she explained. "I had been published three times already, and I knew in my heart that the book I self-published was a better book than those first three. I knew what to do. There's a great deal of information out there, but there's still no substitute for experience." --Bethanne Patrick
Women's Fiction Favorites
For the Seattle Times Lit Life summer reads series, Seattle Public Library reader services librarian Linda Johns recommended her women's fiction favorites, noting that one of her "favorite kinds of stories (and a favorite part of life) is the geography of friendship, where unexpected circumstances and simple proximity forge some of the strongest relationships imaginable
Closing Time: The 100 Best Closing Lines from Books
"I never saw any of them again--except the cops. No way has yet been invented to say goodbye to them." Everybody loves a great opening line, but Stylist drew attention to the "best 100 closing lines from books."
Hunger Games Sequel Release Date Set
Lionsgate will release Catching Fire, its adaptation of the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, on November 22, 2013, Variety reported.
"The magical thing about the Hunger Games trilogy is that the books have such a vastly broad appeal," said Joe Drake, co-COO of Lionsgate and president of its Motion Picture Group. "The stories truly offer something for everyone, and the period around the Thanksgiving weekend is such an opportunity for families and friends to make an event of going to the movies."
The Hunger Games, the initial film in the series directed by Gary Ross, will be released on March 23, 2012.
Becoming Marie Antoinette
by Juliet Grey
Becoming Marie Antoinette, Juliet Grey's debut novel, recounts Maria Antonia's transformation from youngest archduchess of Austria into Marie Antoinette, dauphine of France. Grey tells the story from the perspective of Marie Antoinette herself, capturing the innocent and anxious voice of a young child in Austria, and developing it along with the character into a teenaged girl about to become one of the most powerful women in the world.
Grey's novel is grounded in the era, and the extensive research shines through on its pages. From interesting tidbits about life at Versailles (nobles relieved themselves in the halls) to rich and vivid descriptions of the court life, clothing and styling of the French royalty in the 18th century, Grey is diligent in representing this rarified world. She also shows us Maria Antonia's step-by-step makeover into a queenly figure, which included 18th-century orthodontia, careful recording of bodily functions and strict language instruction.
Though certainly not an original subject--histories and novels about the doomed queen abound--Grey has taken a well-known story and breathed life into it. The first in a planned trilogy, Becoming Marie Antoinette sets up both the history and personality of this intriguing figure in a suitably elaborate and extravagant manner. Lovers of this era will delight in the detail to be found here and look forward to more from Grey on the next chapters of Marie Antoinette's short but captivating life. --Kerry McHugh, blogger at Entomology of a Bookworm
Discover: A lusciously detailed novel of Marie Antoinette's rise to power and the decadent, extravagant lifestyles of 18th-century Versailles.
Ballantine, $15, trade paper, 9780345523860
The Hangman's Daughter
by Oliver Potzsch, trans. by Lee Chadeayne
by Oliver Potzsch
This book takes readers to a grim time in history--16th-century Germany, where ignorance and fear led to many witch burnings. Hangman Jacob Kuisl, is one of the few who doesn't believe in witches; however, his job--an inherited position--requires a keen knowledge of herbs and techniques to cause as well as relieve pain, because he's also the town torturer and executioner. A man of contemporary sensibilities, he has taught his daughter, Magdalena, to read, and drinks himself comatose several days before every execution.
Three boys of an orphan gang are found murdered, each with a crude tattoo of what must be a witch's mark on their backs. The boys used to visit kind Martha Stechlin, the town midwife. Martha is jailed and will be tortured to make her confess to evil and name her confederates, because witches always work with other witches. In fact, some 70 years earlier, a local witch craze brought some 60 women to their deaths. Other disturbing events--the burning of a warehouse and the destruction of a new leper house--are attributed to the incarcerated Martha.
Martha's immediate burning would be more than a convenient political expediency for the town's aldermen--it would solve everything. That they know she is innocent is beside the point.
This work seamlessly merges brutality and compassion, and its elegant plot, appealing characters and satisfying conclusion will keep the reader wide awake and turning pages well into the night. --Judith Hawkins-Tillirson, proprietress, Wyrdhoard Books, and blogger at Still Working for Books
Discover: Sympathetic characters and elegant plotting will draw the reader into the world of this novel set in 16th-century Germany and keep the pages turning well into the night.
Mariner , $18, trade paper, 9780547745015
The Magician King
by Lev Grossman
In The Magician King Lev Grossman delivers the sequel that his 2009 novel The Magicians practically demanded, and delivers it with verve. This new book takes up the story of Quentin Coldwater two years into his reign as one of the rulers of the land of Fillory, the fictional kingdom summoned so vividly to life in The Magicians.
King Quentin embarks on a journey to the farthest reaches of his realm and finds himself consumed by a sometimes perilous quest ranging across the "multiverse" (including some unexpected, unsettling trips back to Earth) to find the Seven Golden Keys he must gather to save Fillory from ruin. Grossman ably draws on the same store of fantasy lore, from Narnia to Middle Earth, that formed the core of the first novel, and he leavens the homage with winks in the direction of pop culture icons like Monty Python and Bruce Willis.
The parallel, and more absorbing, plotline of Grossman's novel tells the story of Julia, Quentin's high school friend who failed the entrance exam to Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy years earlier. Through painstaking effort in a series of "safe houses" (reminiscent of crack houses), inhabited by a bizarre assortment of would-be magicians, she cobbles together the tools she needs to perform the magic Quentin had acquired in the "safe orderly system of Brakebills." Grossman manages to infuse the story with provocative explorations of the nature of heroism, the presence of magic in the "real" world and the eternal human quest for happiness and fulfillment.
In a recent Wall Street Journal profile on authors of literary fiction who've turned to fantasy and science fiction, Grossman asserted, "We are the mainstream. Literary fiction is a subculture." While that point is open to debate, if he and his colleagues keep turning out novels of this quality they'll doubtless attract a new cadre of avid readers. --Harvey Freedenberg, attorney and freelance reviewer
Discover: In a sequel to The Magicians, Quentin Coldwater and his Brakebills compatriots return to the land of Fillory for a daring quest.
Viking, $26.95, hardcover, 9780670022311
Chike and the River
by Chinua Achebe
More than 40 years ago, when Chinua Achebe's daughter started preschool in Nigeria, the internationally famous author of Things Fall Apart discovered that all the school texts for African children were written by Westerners. To right this imbalance, Achebe created Chike and the River, first published as a pamphlet in 1966, the story of a Nigerian boy who overcomes fear and poverty to cross the mighty Niger.
Eleven-year-old Chike leaves his small Nigerian village to live with his uncle in the larger town of Onitsha on the banks of the Niger River. Despite his mother's warnings about the river, Chike longs to cross it in a ferry, but doesn't have a shilling to buy a round-trip fare. The plot unfolds through one mishap after another, as every plan to secure the money fails him. Accompanied by two school friends, bad boy Ezekiel and good boy Samuel, Chike avoids stealing and deceit, but when he finds a six-pence--half the fare--his hopes are dashed when he's cheated by the local magician, Professor Chandus.
Chike succeeds in crossing the river, only to find that he's missed the last ferry home and is trapped on the other side. Too late he discovers that the lorry where he's hiding is being used by small-time thieves to commit a robbery, and finds himself in the dangerous position of being the only witness to a crime.
Winner of the 2007 Man Booker International Prize, Achebe has a lean style to his prose, and the novel works just as well for adults as for children. Chike is a perfect little Everyman in his struggles. Without a single slip, this succinct reading delight is a slice of life that depicts hardship realistically as a likable young Nigerian boy learns the tough lessons of life and graduates with honors. --Nick DiMartino, Nick's Picks, University Book Store, Seattle
Discover: A Nigerian boy struggles to cross the Niger River in this gripping and appealing 1966 tale for both middle readers and adults by the author of Things Fall Apart.
Anchor Books, $10, trade paper, 9780307473868
In the Sea There Are Crocodiles: Based on the True Story of Enaiatollah Akbari
by Fabio Geda, trans. by Howard Curtis
by Fabio Geda
When Enaiatollah Akbari was 10 years old, on the night his mother was forced to abandon him in Pakistan, she made him promise her three things: that he would never do drugs, never raise a weapon against another human being and never steal. The harrowing adventures that follow in this superb little novel are based on the true story Enaiat told to author Fabio Geda in Turin at the end of his perilous, five-year odyssey through Iran, Turkey and Greece, all the way to Italy.
The novel opens in Quetta, Pakistan, where his mother is forced to leave Enaiat in a crowded warehouse of people waiting for traffickers to help them emigrate. He and his mother fled their village when it fell under Taliban control. Enaiat's life-and-death adventures are narrated in a matter-of-fact, childlike way, without being cloying or sensational. He goes from working for a hostel keeper to braving the bazaar working for a shoe seller, and is rescued from a group of Pashtun boys who steal from him by a group of Hazara youths who become his allies and friends.
Determined to keep his three promises to his mother, young Enaiat manages to survive. He crosses treacherous mountains and endures a three-day journey packed with 50 other children into a truck bed's secret false bottom, sealed in total darkness. He's shuttled from crowded warehouses to underground garages jammed with illegals, chased by wild boars, and forced to cross the turbulent sea from Turkey to Greece with four other boys in a dinghy with a hole in it. He stows away on a Greek freighter for three days without food or water to arrive finally in Italy, the land where, at last, people treat him kindly. --Nick DiMartino, Nick's Picks, University Book Store, Seattle
Discover: A gripping novelization of 10-year-old Enaiatollah Akbari's five-year odyssey from Afghanistan through Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and Greece to freedom and a new life in Italy.
by Linwood Barclay
When Glen Garber's wife, Sheila, is killed in a drunk driving accident, he's shocked and disbelieving when he learns that she was the drunk driver. Suddenly a single father, he struggles to reconcile Sheila's final act with what he knew of her, but things just keep getting stranger. One of Sheila's best friends is killed in another bizarre accident right after yelling at Glen's eight-year-old daughter, Kelly, for overhearing a phone call.
The intrigue mounts. Glen receives threats and inexplicable instructions from Sheila's friends; someone shoots out Kelly's window; and a sinister figure with ties to organized crime pays a visit to the Garber household. Glen's contracting business, already in financial trouble, may be on its way to becoming another victim. The background and setting are über-current, with small-town families struggling to survive a recession, tricky sub-prime mortgages and home foreclosures. Unsure of the local police department, Glen is forced to undertake his own investigations. Is someone trying to destroy his business? What questionable sideline dealing was Sheila involved in? And who or what, exactly, killed her?
Glen, a competent builder but a decidedly amateur investigator, is most importantly a loving father. After all the dust settles, this heart-pounding thriller is surprising family-oriented. Barclay's (Never Look Away) fast-paced, twisting plot keeps the reader guessing at who the good guys and the bad guys are. Allegiances shift. Glen isn't sure who can be trusted; and while we stay a step ahead of him, the ending still comes with a shocking crash. --Julia Jenkins, librarian and blogger at pages of julia
Discover: A relentlessly paced thriller in which a man has to turn detective to protect his little girl and determine the truth behind his wife's death.
Bantam, $25, hardcover, 9780553807189
by Will Lavender
Alex Shipley is a professor at Harvard when she's summoned back to her alma mater, Jasper College, for a murder investigation. In 1982, Alex took a special class taught by Professor Richard Aldiss--via video feed from his prison cell. Aldiss had been convicted of the murders of two female grad students, women whose bodies were found bloodied by axe blows and covered with novels by a reclusive writer named Paul Fallows. In his class, Aldiss hopes that his students will solve the murders and clear his name.
The only way to do this is by using Fallows's two published novels and to master a mysterious game called "the Procedure"--which you can't master until you've been invited to play. Through Alex's investigations in the course of the class, she cleared Aldiss of murder. But now there's been another murder; could Aldiss have actually been guilty?
Will Lavender (Obedience) unfolds his puzzling thriller by shifting between 1994 and the present, telling the story through the limited third-person perspective of Alex Shipley. By alternating the time periods, Lavender builds the suspense, creating cliffhangers and then switching back to the opposite time. He provides just enough information to lead the reader to the edge of the cliff and then throws in a twist.
By using Alex's perspective, Lavender creates a tone of uncertainty. Alex believes her professor is innocent, but so much evidence points to the contrary. Her internal conflict increases the plot's intensity. Alex poses the question to her classmate, "What if you could read a book and treat it as a competition between you and its author?" Lavender is challenging his readers with Dominance; can you defeat the master? --Jen Forbus of Jen's Book Thoughts
Discover: A literary game as addictive as any Vegas poker table; you won't be able to stop reading once you start.
Simon & Schuster, $25, hardcover, 9781451617290
by Michael A. Stackpole
When a novel's cover features the protagonist standing bare-chested atop a mountain of skulls, sword in hand, you have a pretty good idea of what it's going to deliver, and Michael A. Stackpole's adaptation of the screenplay for the upcoming Conan the Barbarian film lives up to its promise. The story--which has broad similarities to the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, but is not a remake--begins with young Conan receiving his first training in the ways of the warrior from his father, until the day an evil warlord, Khalar Zym, comes to their village to steal an ancient artifact and kills his father. Years pass, and the young Cimmerian's desire for vengeance never cools; finally, an opportunity presents itself--along with a young woman who must be protected to thwart Khalar Zym's sorcerous schemes.
Stackpole works off the film's storyline and uses the descriptive passages to add tonal gradations to the characters, emphasizing elements like the young Conan's impatience to become a fighter or the perverse motivations of Khalar Zym's daughter, Marique. His version of the barbarian resonates well with Robert E. Howard's original conception of a cannily intelligent adventurer who could be grimly determined when pressed by circumstance. At the same time, his own voice has been well honed by years of writing epic fantasies (as well as media tie-ins for BattleTech and Star Wars), so this is no slavish imitation of Howard. If you didn't know there was a movie coming out, you could even welcome Stackpole's novel as a literary rebooting of the Conan franchise. (And who's to say we won't see some print-only sequels, at that?) --Ron Hogan, founder of Beatrice.com
Discover: Michael Stackpole's approach to the classic fantasy character doesn't mess with what ain't broken.
Berkley Boulevard, $7.99, mass market, 9780425242063
Wicked in Your Arms
by Sophie Jordan
In her latest, novelist Sophie Jordan (Firelight) introduces us to Grier Hadley, the illegitimate daughter of a London reprobate. Having made an obscenely large fortune through his various disreputable activities, Mr. Hadley decides it is time to purchase a bit of respectability through an advantageous marriage for his daughter. While doing her rounds on the Regency "marriage mart," Grier meets, and instantly clashes with, Sevastian Maksimi, the crown prince of a small European country who is in search of a highly pedigreed bride. Their attraction is immediate, intense and incredibly inconvenient, as neither is in any way what the other is looking for.
Relying on a standard plot of romantic literature, Jordan's novel could easily have come across as hackneyed and trite, but she breathes new life into the cliché through her personable and engaging main characters. The hero of the novel, despite being the quintessential fairytale prince, feels like a real person rather than just a collection of attractive qualities. Grier veers between grudging vulnerability and a refreshingly radical eccentricity.
Though she does employ a slightly jarring climax to tie off the emotional loose ends of the story, Jordan has imbued her work with a bracing touch of maturity. The relationship between Grier and her father, whom she simultaneously disdains and wants desperately to please, is particularly well drawn. Fans of Sophie Jordan, and of romance in general, will find Wicked in Your Arms to be a worthy addition to any collection. --Judie Evans, librarian
Discover: A Regency romance that blends the enchantment of a fairy tale with grown-up emotional sensibilities.
Avon, $7.99, mass market, 9780062032997
Childhood Under Siege: How Big Business Targets Children
by Joel Bakan
Every parent--and consumer--should read Bakan's work, which not only aims to protect children, but illuminates what "accountability" means in the U.S.
Bakan, who holds law degrees from Oxford and Harvard and wrote The Corporation, examines how the deregulation of industries as varied as pharmaceuticals, fast food, video games and environmental health has allowed "corporations... to incite and diminish fears in ways that serve their own purposes.... parents are systematically misinformed, and our fears channeled to serve the interests of... corporations rather than those of our children" Bakan explains how marketing aimed at kids has led to addictions to pet sites and video games, the current obesity epidemic, and exposure to BPA and other chemicals that are particularly hazardous for developing bodies.
While Bakan's assertions are well-documented (he includes 85 pages of end notes), he believes we should never discount our own intuition to guide our decisions. Since "watch dogs" are dependent on the industries they monitor, he reminds us also to use common sense to guide our purchases. For example, the gaming industry may refuse to admit responsibility for an increase in school violence, but what benefit results from young, developing minds spending hours killing and mutilating humanlike avatars?
However, Bakan does not simply require his readers to rely on common sense; he provides a compelling, well-documented study into the ramifications of allowing corporations to dictate the nutrition, entertainment, education and medications our children are led to believe they "need." --Kristen Galles, blogger at Book Club Classics
Discover: A chilling study of how unregulated corporations profit from children's vulnerability.
Free Press, $26, hardcover, 9781439121207
What if you contracted tuberculosis and there was no easy cure? Martha Brooks (Mistik Lake) tells the story of one feisty teenager, Marie-Claire, who, along with her brother and sister, is unwittingly exposed to TB by a favorite uncle, and must move to a nearby sanitarium for treatment. Set during World War II and based in part on the author's experience growing up on the grounds of a TB sanitarium in Canada, Queen of Hearts paints a vivid portrait of life in such a facility before the discovery of penicillin, when "chasing the cure" meant bed rest and more bed rest.
This is not the kind of existence a girl imagines for herself when she has just attended her first dance, met a soldier leaving to fight in the war, and experienced her first kiss. Even worse, Marie-Claire and her siblings must separate, and her brother Luc's condition deteriorates quickly. Marie-Claire writes notes to her brother, and receives answers from his roommate, the young musician Jack Hawkings, also a patient in the sanitarium, for whom she develops feelings.
Marie-Claire has a tough time adjusting to life in the facility. Visitors are few, as most outsiders, including her mother, stay away. But TB or not, Marie-Claire must learn to grow up. And like most teenagers, she is curious about life and love. Is there life after TB? Is there love? From the very first page, Martha Brooks draws us into her narrative. Rich in sensory details, every word adds to this compelling picture of life on the Canada prairie. --Lynn Becker, host of the monthly online discussion of children's books for SCBWI, Book Talk.
Discover: A compelling picture of life on the Canada prairie during WWII, with a teenage heroine coming of age in a tuberculosis sanitarium.
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $17.99, Hardcover, ages 12-up, 9780374342296
by Jessica Warman
Jessica Warman touches on themes from her Breathless and Where the Truth Lies in a novel that powerfully explores how privilege and athleticism masked the deeper demons plaguing Elizabeth Valchar. Part mystery, part psychological study, the book begins with a bomb blast: by the end of chapter one, we learn that Liz has just turned 18, that she celebrated with six friends (including her best friend and stepsister, Josie) on her parents' boat, and that the birthday girl wound up dead in the water. Literally. And Liz narrates the story.
Another classmate, Alex Berg, who died a year earlier, joins Liz on the dock. He tells Liz that he believes they are in this purgatory-like state because they're "supposed to... gain some kind of deeper understanding." Liz was in the popular crowd, with lots of money but little love; her mother died when she was nine of complications related to anorexia, and her father married Josie's mother just months later. Alex grew up with little money but surrounded by love and faith. Why are these two thrown together?
Warman spins a spellbinding web of intrigue while simultaneously delivering searing insights about life in high school and the cruelty and negligence that often accompany a sense of entitlement. Like Samantha Kingston in Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall, Liz must confront some hard truths about herself before she can find peace. Just try to put this book down. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness
Discover: A spellbinding story of 18-year-old gorgeous and popular Liz Valchar who must solve the mystery of what led to her death.
Walker & Co., $17.99, hardcover, ages 12-up, 9780802721822


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Q: Angular 2 project in Visual Studio 2017 I want to create a single page application using Angular 2 + Asp.Net Core API. I would like to use angular cli for angular application, and I will use Visual Studio as development environment. But I am not sure how should I organize things.
Should I have:

*

*One .Net Core project with angular files copied to wwwroot

*Two .Net Core projects, one for API, second one for angular where angular
files are copied to wwwroot

*One .Net Core for API and Web Site project for angular.

What is the best way for doing it?

A: Channel 9 has a tutorial for doing that.
There are different templates you can download.
 I use this one.

After that, you can create the new project from it.
 See the image below.

By the document,You might replace to replace web.config file Webserver section with the code if you use IIS.
<system.webServer>
  <rewrite>
    <rules>
      <rule name="Angular Routes" stopProcessing="true">
        <match url=".*" />
        <conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAll">
          <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" negate="true" />
          <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsDirectory" negate="true" />
        </conditions>
        <action type="Rewrite" url="/src/" />
      </rule>
    </rules>
  </rewrite>
</system.webServer>

Or you can follow this tutorial.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Travel synchros always intrigue me. They usually seem to involve huge odds!
I moved to Youngstown, OH after my husband and I got out of the Army. My husband is Italian and had an unusual last name and many times in Youngstown (when I wrote a check, or was introduced to someone) I would be asked, "Oh, do you know Larry?" who was, in fact my husband's cousin. He was also pretty popular considering how many times I was asked that question! I flew home to see my sister in Sacramento, CA about a year after I moved to Youngstown, OH. We were outside in her front yard when her next door neighbors pulled into their driveway. She called them over and introduced me. Immediately the husband said, "Oh, do you know Larry?" I remember actually feeling dizzy and faint I was so shocked. It turned out that this man had lived in Youngstown years before and knew my husband's cousin!
Thank you for your interesting story. Best wishes.


Much like our Gypsy Shield Conjure Oil, this blend of powdered herbs is a powerhouse! It came to my family from an old woman from Budapest, Hungary. Gypsy protection is probably some of the best around! Our powder is an Uncrossing powder, in itself, as it helps you return your spirit to a neutral state. In Gypsy culture, it's known as Evil Eye Powder.
1/2oz glass tubes with a tight-fitting cork. Settling is a natural occurrence. Our powders are already quite well-blended, but you may wish to shake them around a bit.


text:
Obama says troops will stay in Iraq after combat operations end this month
What the drawdown announcement means on the ground
Midterm elections, politics play part in blocking small business tax bill
Kashmir protests turn deadly as India plans response
Burundi reacts to militant group's threat over peacekeeping force
Coast Guard grants numerous waivers allowing BP to use dispersants
Despite an EPA order to restrict the use of oil dispersants to "rare cases" only – the US Coast Guard granted BP dozens of waivers allowing the toxic chemicals to be dumped on surface waters. According to US Representative Edward Markey, the federal directive was issued in late May –between then and July 19th, the Coast Guard gave the nod to 74 requests from BP resulting in the spread of hundreds of thousands of gallons of the dispersants in Gulf of Mexico waters. The Coast Guard's Thad Allen says that the chemicals are only used when needed. The EPA's Dr. Paul Anasta announced results today from the agency's second round of dispersant tests.
"The dispersant oil mixtures are generally no more toxic to the test species than oil alone."
However, the oil dispersed by the chemicals is now spread through the water column.
BP starts tests today on the two pronged approach to finally sealing the well. The so-called static kill procedure will force heavy mud down into the well – the move will be followed in some days by a concrete seal at the bottom.
Afghan women join anti-war protests
Afghans calling for foreign forces to leave the country took to the streets over the weekend – this time Afghan women were among the protestors. Bilal Jawad was there.
Hundreds protested against foreign troops on Sunday in Kabul. Chanting "death to the countries which interfere in the affairs of Afghanistan" they demanded foreign forces quickly withdraw.
"My name is Sahar, we are obviously condemning the occupation of Afghanistan by US and other foreign forces. The war of America is absolute futile, the last nine years have brought nothing for the people of Afghanistan but misfortune, killings, and shows the hypocrisy and dishonesty of USA and obviously the president government of Afghanistan."
The demonstration follows the deaths on Friday of four civilians whose car apparently pulled out in front of an armored vehicle belonging to an American Embassy contractor and was crushed. Demonstrators also decried the recent deaths of 52 civilians in Helmand province. Locals say the rocket was fired by foreign forces but NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has rejected the casualty numbers. This is not the first time that people took to streets against foreign forces but it is the first time that women participated, many carrying photos of dead civilians in their hands. Bilal Jawad, Kabul, Afghanistan.
Floods in Pakistan leave 1 million in need of aid
In Pakistan, the worst flooding in 80 years has killed more than a thousand people and left some 1 million people in need of emergency aid. Doctors Without Borders reports that entire towns have been washed away. Tens of thousands of soldiers have been pulled from combat missions to aid in search and recovery. Islamic charities – who largely provided aid during other natural disasters – are largely absent.
Israel strikes Gaza following rocket fire
Just after the League of Arab States gave a green light to direct peace talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel, rocket fire from Gaza into nearby Israeli towns followed. Over the weekend, Israel responded with warplanes. FSRN's Rami Almeghari reports.
Hamas says the Arab league's approval of direct talks between the PA and Israel would prompt Israel to further attack the Palestinian people. Hamas's statement came concurrent with a series of Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip over the weekend. The attacks killed senior Hamas resistance fighter, Essa Albatran, — thirteen other Gazans were wounded. Israel says the air strikes came in response to a Grad-type rocket, fired at the Israeli city of Ashkeklon. The rocket fire left no human causalities but did do some material damage.
This weekend's violence is the worst since the January2009 Israeli three-week war on the coastal territory, in which Albatran's wife and five children were killed after an Israeli warplane hit the family house. On Sunday—Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel holds Hamas responsible for the increase in violence and threatened retaliation.
Hamas has committed to unilateral ceasefires with Israel since January 2009, yet smaller factions continue to fire homemade rockets from Gaza. Rami al Meghari, FSRN, Gaza.
Israel agrees to UN investigation of flotilla raid
U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon says that Israel will cooperate with a U.N. investigation of the May attack on a humanitarian flotilla headed for Gaza — nine people died. Both Turkey and Israel will have representatives on the panel which will be led by the former PM of New Zealand and the outgoing President of Colombia – Alvaro Uribe.
House Ethics panel charges Maxine Waters with violations
The House Ethics committee said today it has found California's Maxine Waters in violation of House rules. Specifics of the charges were not made public. Waters is the second Democrat – and second African American – to be charged for ethics infractions in recent weeks – both she and Representative Charlie Rangel say they will challenge the charges at a public hearing.
President Obama said today that a planned drawdown of all US combat troops in Iraq was on schedule to be completed by the end of this month. But he described it as a transition and said that some 50,000 troops would stay in the country through 2011.
President Obama spoke today at the National Convention for Disabled American Veterans in Atlanta, Georgia.
"Shortly after taking office I announced our new strategy for Iraq and for a transition to full Iraqi responsibility and I made it clear that by August 31st, 2010 America's combat mission in Iraq would end. And that is exactly what we are doing, as promised and on schedule."
Obama highlighted the success of recent operations, saying that violence has been at its lowest in years. Yet according to data released by the Iraqi government over the weekend, July was the deadliest month for civilians since May 2008. During July almost 400 civilians and 50 Iraqi soldiers and 89 police officers were killed, according to the data. The US military disputed those numbers, saying they are nearly twice what has been recorded by the US.
President Obama also outlined the role that US forces would continue to play after combat operations end this month – which would stretch through 2011.
"During this period our forces will have a focused mission: supporting and training Iraqi forces, partnering with Iraqis in counter terrorism missions, and protecting our civilian and military efforts. These are dangerous tasks. There are still those with bombs and bullets that will try to stop Iraq progress and the hard truth is that we have not seen the end of America's sacrifice in Iraq. But make no mistake: our commitment in Iraq is changing from a military effort led by our troops to a civilian effort led by our diplomats."
Despite a drawdown of combat forces, many questions remain over the future of the US presence in Iraq. According to a July report from the Congressional Research Service, there are 19 percent more contractors than uniformed military in Iraq and Afghanistan. And it's still unclear how many will remain after combat troops pull out. The report says that as of March 2010, some 95,000 Department of Defense Contractors were in Iraq alone. Political stability within Iraq is another concern, the national leadership is at a stalemate after elections earlier this year led to no clear majority in Parliament.
For more we're joined by Zachary Lockman. He's the chair of the Department of Middle East and Islamic Studies at New York University.
Members of the House of Representatives went home last week for their summer break. The Senate now has one more week to finish a long list of Democrats' legislative priorities. It includes energy legislation, Medicare funding for states, money owed to minority farmers and the confirmation of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. Senators have also been unable to pass tax cuts for small businesses. As FSRN's Leigh Ann Caldwell reports, election year politics are a big factor in the Senate's inaction.
The Indian government is clamping down on multiple protests in Indian administered Kashmir, where at least four more people died in separate incidents today.
Tension in the region has been boiling for the last seven weeks, with police repeatedly using deadly force against civilian protestors.
The region's chief minister met with India's prime minister in New Delhi today. He urged people to restore calm and not attack police. But as FSRN's Shahnawaz Khan reports from Srinagar, the government's crackdown is actually stoking tensions.
Uganda hosted the African Union bi-annual summit in its capital Kampala last week. where the focus was on the threat from the Somali militant group Al Shabab. The group took credit for bombings in Uganda that killed at least 76 on July 11th. Al Shabab targeted Uganda because it has troops in Somalia. Now the group says Burundi is their next target. Zack Baddorf reports on how the Central African nation is responding to the threat.
Next story August 3, 2010
Previous story July 30, 2010

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Mahan Air is een luchtvaartmaatschappij uit Teheran, Iran. De maatschappij is verantwoordelijk voor binnenlandse en internationale lijnvluchten naar Europa, India, Pakistan en het Verre Oosten. Tevens verzorgt Mahan Air vrachtvluchten en gecharterde vluchten naar Rusland en het Midden-Oosten. De hub is het Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKA) in Teheran.

Bestemmingen
(juli 2007)

Binnenland
 Bandar Abbas
 Birjand
 Chah Bahar
 Kerman
 Mashhad
 Shiraz
 Teheran
 Zabol

Azië
 Bangkok
 Delhi
 Guangzhou
 Kochi
 Lahore
 Shanghai

Midden-Oosten
 Bahrein
 Damman
 Dubai
 Arbil

Europa
 Düsseldorf (Mahan Air was tijdelijk de toegang tot het Europese luchtruim ontzegd 11-9-2007) Sinds 2008 mag Mahan Air weer naar Europa vliegen
 Manchester (Mahan Air is tijdelijk de toegang tot het Britse luchtruim ontzegd)

Vloot
De vloot van Mahan Air bestond in juli 2016 uit:
14 Airbus A300-600
1 Airbus A300B2
9 Airbus A310-300
1 Airbus A321-100
4 Airbus A340-300
7 Airbus A340-600
9 BAE-146-300
1 BAE-146-200
4 AVRO RJ-100
4 AVRO RJ-85
2 Boeing 747-300
1 Boeing 747-400

Trivia
Mahan Air is de sponsor van Persepolis FC, die in de Iraanse Premier League speelt.

Mahan Air is de enige luchtvaartmaatschappij in Iran waar de crew stropdassen draagt, omdat het een privébedrijf is.

Op 25 juli 2007 wordt bekend dat de Iraanse luchtvaartmaatschappij Mahan Air voorlopig niet meer welkom is op luchthavens in het Verenigd Koninkrijk. Volgens het Britse ministerie van Transport is de maatschappij betrokken geweest bij diverse veiligheidsincidenten.
Ook zouden niet alle vliegtuigen van Mahan Air zijn uitgerust met het Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS), dat botsingen met andere vliegtuigen moet voorkomen. Mahan Air heeft de beschuldigen van het Britse Ministerie voor Transport van de hand gewezen. Volgens Hamd Arabnejad, General Manager van Mahan Air, zijn alle vliegtuigen van de maatschappij veilig en veroorzaakt het Britse Ministerie met haar beschuldigingen
onnodige trammelant en ongegronde schadeclaims van passagiers.

Externe links
 (NL) Mahan Air
 (EN/FA/MUL) Mahan Air
 Vloot van Mahan Air

Iraanse luchtvaartmaatschappij

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Georgia Tech's baseball team celebrates an 11-10 walk-off win over North Carolina on April 6, 2019. (Danny Karnik/Georgia Tech Athletics)
The reasons behind Georgia Tech's baseball resurgence
Ken Sugiura
It was mid-January, and inclement weather had forced Georgia Tech's baseball team into the football team's indoor practice facility to train. With a slight break in the weather, coach Danny Hall and his staff were willing to go out on the field to take batting practice with a defense in place, but put it to the team to decide.
Players were resistant, but eventually chose to go out onto the field.
"And before you know it, we've got a great workday in," assistant coach James Ramsey said.
There are many reasons why Hall's team has enjoyed a return to the top 25 and a spot atop the ACC's Coastal Division. The pitching is deeper. Hitters have made opposition pay with a more selective approach. But undergirding the revival, coaches and team members submit, is a changed mindset embodied in that cold-weather practice.
"We're all just trying to do stuff for the team, have at-bats for the team, making pitches for the team," two-way star Tristin English said. "Essentially, that's what's making us win baseball games."
Going into its three-game series at Duke starting Friday, Tech is 33-14 and tied for first in the Coastal with North Carolina. The Yellow Jackets have not had that many wins at the 47-game mark since 2011, which was the last time that they hosted an NCAA regional.
Ranked No. 9 in RPI, the Jackets are well on their way to being at home for the opening weekend of the NCAA tournament and are in contention to be a top-eight host, which would enable them to be at Russ Chandler Stadium for the super-regional round.
Hall cautioned against being too giddy at this point, but the change in the team culture is apparent. He and others point to the influence of Ramsey, a Wesleyan School grad who starred at Florida State. He returned to FSU in August after a seven-year minor-league career as a volunteer coach, but Hall hired him as a full-time assistant in January to replace Mike Nickeas, who left the team because of a family medical situation.
"I just think he's done a good job of making everybody just buy into the team, as opposed to, 'Well, our pitchers threw good today, but the offense was bad,' or 'The offense scored 10 runs, but we still lost 11-10,'" Hall said.
That ethic might be best exhibited in how the Jackets have won their past eight weekend series, seven against ACC competition. (The seven consecutive ACC series wins is a school record.) They won five of them after losing the series opener. In the past two seasons, Tech was 1-9 in weekend series after losing the opener. It speaks to Tech's improved pitching depth, certainly, but also to resolve.
"Most seasons, we've kind of rolled over after the Friday loss and, 'Well, that was our best shot,'" ace pitcher Connor Thomas said. "'We can't beat these guys.' But we're just a completely different team this year. I love it."
Ramsey also has helped train Tech hitters to adopt a more patient approach at the plate. As English explained, he swings only at pitches that he knows he can hit hard until he gets to two strikes.
"Like a borderline outside fastball is not a pitch that I can do any damage with," English said. "(Ramsey is) like, just spit on it. (The umpire) calls it a ball, now you're up 1-0 on the pitcher. Now if you have a chance to hit a different pitch, that may be in your zone."
Tech is 12th in on-base percentage this season, at .408, up from 70th last season, at .376. The Jackets strike out once per 4.5 at-bats, compared with 4.2 at-bats last season.
They're making at-bats count. Tech is 9-4 in one-run games after compiling a 7-14 record in the past two seasons. The Jackets have won four games in their final turn at-bat.
As Ramsey put it, this is the mindset that he is trying to help players absorb: "When you look across at another dugout, we feel like we're the better team, and it's the way that we train and it's the way ultimately we go out and compete that's going to prove that."
Hall noted, too, the addition of volunteer coach Dan Jaffe, and was careful to point out that he, pitching coach Jason Howell, former volunteer coach Eric Patterson and Nickeas already were trying to make gains in addressing matters such as culture and commitment. But he also acknowledged that some things may have slipped through the cracks.
"Sometimes change is good," he said. "In this case, it's been very good."
One other change: After every series win, the team gets a steak dinner the following week. When it's before a road trip, the team goes out to a restaurant. Beyond motivation, the time together has helped build bonds within the team and perhaps made players feel more valued. (Thomas said previously, the Thursday night dinner before a road series might have been at the Golden Corral.)
It was an idea hatched by Ramsey, and one that he, Hall and the athletic department's development office had to go out and ask for contributions to cover the cost. Hall said it's called the "fueling plan."
A happy problem for Hall: Eight consecutive series wins has caused the fueling plan account to get a little thin.
"No doubt," he said. "We'll just go try to get some more."


text:
Green Beans from Hawaii
One of only two states in the United States of America able to grow coffee plants commercially is Hawaii, the other being California.
Samuel Ruggles brought coffee to the Kona District in 1828, more trees were set out in the Kalihi and Niu valleys near Honolulu, in 1828 or 1829. On the island of Hawaii Rev. Joseph Goodrich tried planting some coffee to make the Hilo mission self-sustaining. Goodrich planted gardens over his 12 years at Hilo, and taught classes for native Hawaiians on cultivation of both for cash to support the mission, as well as vegetables and tropical fruits for their own meals.
Pioneer coffee merchant Henry Nicholas Greenwell (1826–1891)
Early commercial ventures on the island of Kauaʻi in 1836 and 1845 ended in failure. The first records of production were made in 1845, of only 248 pounds, grown on Kauaʻi and Hawaii island. The great Mahele in 1848 allowed private ownership of land for the first time. Large areas were once grown on Maui, but were replaced by sugarcane and other crops.
In particular, Scale insects infected many of the coffee trees on the other islands. The slopes in the Kona area were unsuitable for sugarcane, so the area became the center for the coffee industry in Hawaii. To be called Kona coffee, it must be grown in this district only.
In 1873, the world's fair in Vienna awarded Kona trader Henry Nicholas Greenwell an award for excellence, which gave some recognition to the "Kona" name. Around 1880 John Gaspar, Sr. (Married to Maria Rice Santos), built the first coffee mill in Hawaii near Kealakekua Bay. In 1892 the Guatemalan variety was introduced to Hawaii by German planter Hermann A. Widemann. Also about this time lady bugs were able to control the scale infestation.
The "coffee belt" in Kona is approximately two miles wide from 700 feet (210 m) to 2,000 feet (610 m) elevation. Other districts on the island where coffee is grown include Kaʻū in the far south, Puna in the southeast, and Hāmākua in the northeast.
Although coffee can be harvested year-round in Hawaii, highest production runs from August to December.
In the 2008–2009 season, there were about 790 farms on the island of Hawaii, and 40 on other islands. Average yield was equivalent to 1400 pounds of parchment per acre. A total of about 7,800 acres (3,200 ha) are planted with coffee throughout the state. A little over half the acreage is outside the island of Hawaii, in particular on the island of Kauai, indicating that farms on other islands are larger in average size compared to those on Hawaii.
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COMMUNITY SAVINGS AND LOAN ASSOCIATION is an entity registered at California with company number C0289679. Company is incorporated on 2nd August 1954. Current status of the company is MERGED OUT.
Do you know this company? Do you have positive or negative experience with COMMUNITY SAVINGS AND LOAN ASSOCIATION? Rate the company and help other users.
COMMUNITY SAVINGS FINANCIAL & INSURANCE SERVICES, INC.
COMMUNITY SCHOOL OF THE EAST BAY, INC.
COMMUNITY SCHOOL SOLUTIONS OF CALIFORNIA, INC.
COMMUNITY SATELLITE C. A. T. V., INC.


text:
Quotes \ Authors \ Nationality \ Nicaraguan
Quotes by Nicaraguan authors
"What helped me was I had people around me to remind me to help my country even when it did me wrong, have respect for my people, my family, my nation and mankind"
By Alexis Arguello, Athlete
"I think I went on a nice winning streak of about 20 fights until I fought Jorge Reyes and he stopped me in 6 rounds after I punched myself out"
"I do think the heart can balance out the mind, if your heart is in a good place it can give you the strength to do the right thing and behave the right way and overcome the mind"
"I could do what a lot of people are doing and that's sign the best Nicaraguan fighters and then sell them to Don King, but there's no way I'll do that"
"Boxing gave me the opportunities to grow into the person that I am today"
"Yes, across the board, these gentlemen understand they have the power to make a difference and even educate people to injustices that are occurring in their worlds"
"Not many people do at the age of 21 or younger even, know how to act nor could be concerned with anything other than fighting, women and money"
"It was a natural process, because when we go to the ring we are human beings, but once you feel the punches and the competition that's when the beast comes out and takes hold of us"
"I'd say the most memorable thing for me was my dedication and motivation in how I got so involved in boxing"
"Aside from a handful of guys boxing is missing the good trainers, that's why our sport is so in the air now because we don't have people who have the capability to not only train fighters but also train and create decent respectable citizens of the world"
"Actually punching is a mistake; a heavy hitter will cut you with one shot"
"When you put the interest of a kid on money instead of heart then you're destroying the beauty of our lives and our thought process, which should be about how much responsibilities you carry as an athlete and a citizen"
"Later in July I'm going to be promoting and putting on a boxing show of amateur fighters from July 21st through the 28th where one hundred kids will be fighting and competing with each other to see who's going to be the best"
"I have no regrets because I did everything by the book"
"Of course after the fight you want to make sure that you're okay and so is the other guy, it's a brotherhood in there, so you want to make sure everyone is okay after the war is over"
"See, I respect boxing because it has given me so much and that's why I will never allow anyone to mistreat the sport of boxing if I can help it"
"If you can believe this, I didn't fight for my first world title fight till I had 58 fights, so I really appreciated what I was fighting for and for whom as well"
"I had to get up run in the morning for 2 hours, go to the gym and also get good opponents as sparring partners because I'm a big believer in that how you train is how you will fight at least when it came to me that's how it worked"
"Fighters with 13 fights are winning world titles, and of course they don't know how to behave"
"When you won that title you should know now that you are representing a whole country or nation with your actions and you are now in a glass house or under a microscope and you better be ready to make your people proud"
"I'd take precision any day over power; as far as being tactical you know you have to see what's going on in there and also understand that for every punch that you or your opponent throws there's always a counter shot or two which you have to be ready to fire or defend"
"When money comes into play then that's all it's about wanting money, who's making the most who can get the most, me, me me... and in the end it screws up the person and the sport"
"When I was in top shape I'd go to the ring and show my conditioning"
"I'm doing it, I took responsibility in my country and I've done it with my bare hands"
"I made a gym, it's the best gym in Nicaragua, I have kids that this year July 6th through the 11th will be fighting and then will go on to the Central American Games and I'm sure at least one will win a gold medal"
"It's a lot about the individual and it's really up to you, how much you dedicate to the fight and how hard you are working and that's where the outcome will come"
"I believe more in precision, when you have the capability, like when you see a mosquito fly and you're able to hit it, you're able to hit it with a couple of short sharp shots... it's a beautiful thing"
"The U.S. embargo imposed on Nicaragua, rather than weakening the Sandinistas, actually maintained them in power"
By Bianca Jagger, Celebrity
"Of course, the kind of support that Cuba could give us was very limited when it came to building up our army, since they didn't manufacture armaments in the quantities that we required. So we turned to Algeria and the Soviet Union for support"
By Daniel Ortega, Statesman
"In Nicaragua, liberty, equality and the rule of law were the stuff of dreams. But in Paris I discovered the value of those words"
Page 1 of 2Next page


It's done. The border is open. The siege is lifted. Let the love begin (see Egypt opens Gaza border crossing, easing 4-year blockade by Ernesto Londono and Joel Greenberg posted 5/28/2011 on The Washington Post).
The Egyptian government had kept the border closed or tightly controlled since Hamas took over Gaza, bowing to Israeli concerns that militants could smuggle weapons into the coastal enclave and fears of a spillover of militant activity into Egypt.
Yes, militants could smuggle weapons. They did. And they fired them into Israeli cities. Because the Hamas charter calls for the destruction of Israel. You see, Hamas has no love for Israel. They hate Jews. And they keep trying to kill them. Hence the attacks on Israeli cities. Now Hosni Mubarak is gone. The once banned Muslim Brotherhood is now part of Egypt's future. The Egyptians sponsored talks in Cairo to help the militant Hamas join the moderate Fatah in a unity government. And now the Egypt-Gaza border is now open for business. But there's nothing to worry about, is there?
Oh, it is now an "Islamic Arab border." As in the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood. Who has close ties with the Islamist Hamas. Who has close ties with the Islamist Iran. But there is nothing to worry about, is there? As long as you're not a tiny Jewish state being swallowed in a sea of militant Islamism, that is.
The Israelis aren't all that happy with this development. Fatah and Hamas are, though (see Fatah official hails 'brave' Egyptian decision to open Rafah crossing by Reuters and The Associated Press posted 5/28/2011 on Haaretz.com).
"We are very happy, it was a brave decision by Egypt to open the crossing and to dismantle the prison imposed by Israel on the people (of Gaza)," [senior Fatah official] Shaath said.
Despite all of these developments, Hamas hasn't revised their charter. They refuse to renounce violence against Israel. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has yet to say he will accept a Jewish state (as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will accept a Palestinian state). Interestingly, Shaath was quick to say that just because the border is now open it won't mean bombs and explosives will cross. But that's what is on everyone's mind. Why? Because everyone knows that bombs and explosives will be crossing that border. Into Gaza. Where they'll be used to fulfill the Hamas charter.
So it is no wonder that the Israelis are a little skeptical about the Palestinian quest for peace. And then there were President Obama's remarks about restarting the peace process from the pre-1967 borders. When the Israelis escaped annihilation from a coordinated Arab attack (the Six-Day War). The Israelis won that conflict. And gained strategic ground. Making it more difficult for another coordinated Arab attack. And they refuse to just give up this security for hopes of peace when one of the negotiating parties still has the destruction of Israel in their charter.
And the other nonstarter in any negotiations is the right for displaced 1948 Palestinians (or their descendents) to return to the Jewish state in the two-state solution. For if they do, there won't be two states. They'll be one large Palestinian state. Asking for the pre-1967 borders and the right of return is asking for something they know the Israelis cannot give. So why ask for them? It's obvious. They don't want to negotiate a two-state settlement. They want to stay at war. And fulfill the Hamas charter. Of course, it's the Israelis that are being stubborn and don't want peace (see Abbas sees no hope for talks with Israel, firm on UN path by Reuters posted 5/28/2011 on The Jerusalem Post).
The Palestinian president said on Saturday there were "no shared foundations" for peace talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and seeking UN recognition of Palestinian statehood was his only option.
So they're going to try an 'end-around' instead. Get UN recognition of Palestinian statehood. Which the U.S. opposes. So that's more political posturing. To make it look like Israel and the U.S. are just mean, a couple of schoolyard bullies pushing around the innocent Palestinian people. The same people who fire missiles into Israel. And include Hamas. Who has the destruction of Israel in their charter.
So what does the Jew in the street think? Well, here's an opinion from a Jew that left Israel as a child and went to the United States (see Gene Simmons tells Obama to kiss off on 1967 by JPOST.COM Staff posted 5/28/2011 on The Jerusalem Post).
Calling President Obama naive and skewering him on foreign policy during his interview, Simmons didn't hold back on the expletives. "If you've never been to the moon, you can't issue policy about the moon. You have no f***king idea what it's like on the moon," he said.
Yes, the fire-breathing, blood-spitting demon with the super long tongue is a Jew. Okay, so Gene Simmons of Kiss probably doesn't represent the average Jew in the street, but his opinions are no doubt the same. He sees what they all see. For some reason, only diplomacy that weakens or destroys Israel is good diplomacy. Well he's not one to sit idly by and bite his tongue. (If you don't know who Gene Simmons is, ask your parents).
But Simmons says what many think. President Obama's foreign policy is naive. And it's making the world a more dangerous place. Especially in the Middle East. Where an aggressive and Islamist Iran is sitting back watching it all unfold in Act I. And getting ready to take center stage in Act II.
As empires go, few were as great and long lasting as the Roman Empire. At the height of empire, the Romans ruled most of Briton, Europe, parts of Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. The empire was so vast that the Romans split it in half. The Western Empire survived about 500 Years. The Eastern Empire survived about 1,500 years. The last thousand years of the Eastern Empire, the Byzantine Empire, ruled North Africa and the Middle East. Including the ancient Jewish homeland.
The Byzantine Empire eventually fell to Muslim invaders. And the Christian lands of the Roman Empire became Muslim. Including the Jewish homeland. The Muslims conquered the previous conquerors. And to the victors went the spoils. Parts of the Roman Empire in Spain, North Africa, the Middle East and parts of Eastern Europe became part of a new Muslim Empire (caliphate). There were about 1,000 years of war that expanded and contracted the empire. At the tail end of this empire was the Ottoman Empire. Which World War I ended. The Ottomans were on the losing side of that war. The British were on the winning side. And to the victors went the spoils. They administered the land called Palestine. And in exchange for Jewish and Arab support in the war against the Ottomans, the British promised both land carved out of the defeated Ottoman Empire. In the British Mandate for Palestine, the Jews would get back their Jewish homeland.
It was easier on paper, though. There were a lot of issues to resolve. And many of those the Arabs felt were resolved not in their best interests. And, well, there hasn't been peace in the Middle East since.
A Peace Settlement or a Surrender Settlement?
The Jews created their Jewish state in 1948. Covering less than half of the ancient Jewish homeland. The Kingdom of Israel. The Six-Day War (1967) pushed those borders further out. The surrounding Arab countries (Egypt, Jordan and Syria) were massing to invade Israel. But Israel struck first. Took out the Egyptian Air Force. Which gave them air superiority. That allowed them to push the Arabs back. And take the Golan Heights from Syria. The West Bank from Jordan. And the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt. They still have the Golan Heights and the West Bank. Which serves as strategic ground against further invasions. And they're reluctant to give them up. For if they do, they will become as vulnerable to attack as they were in 1967.
In a recent speech, U.S. President Obama called for the Israelis to do just that. To restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process by first going back to the pre-1967 boundaries. And that the issue of Palestinian refugees (rather, the descendants of the original refugees) will have to be negotiated. The Israelis do not see this as negotiation. They see it as surrender. For the Palestinian refugees want to return to Jewish land. So the two-state solution will have a Palestinian state and a Jewish/Palestinian state. Surrounded by enemies that will now be closer. And with a terrorist organization, Hamas, which has as its primary goal the destruction of Israel, now forming a unity government with Fatah. The only thing missing from this proposal is a blindfold and cigarette for Israel.
And yet there are those who speak with indignation about the Israelis refusing to negotiate for peace (see Palestinians to proceed with U.N. recognition bid by the Associated Press posted 5/21/2011 on CBS News).
[Aide to Abbas] Erekat said late Friday that Netanyahu's statements make it clear the Israeli leader is not a partner for peace, suggesting there is no point in returning to negotiations.
This from a government pursuing a unity agreement with Hamas who still fires missiles into Israel. They must know what they are asking for. And no doubt do. Repositioning for the final assault on Israel. At least that's what it must look like from the Jewish side.
Just about everyone has fought for the ancient lands of the Kingdom of Israel. Even before King David's time. Military conquest has been the diplomacy tool of choice forever. The Jews weren't happy to see the land wrested from them by the Romans (or the numerous conquerors before the Romans came). The Romans weren't happy to see the land taken by the Muslims. And the Muslims weren't happy to see that land taken away by the Allies with the fall of the Ottoman Empire after World War I.
There was a lot of map redrawing after World War I. Including in the Middle East. Map redrawing often results in civil wars. And the result of one of these wars was the creation of the Jewish state of Israel. Which resulted in a refugee problem. The Jews accepted the displaced Jews into the new Jewish state. No Arab state wanted the displaced Arabs. They became a people without a country. But with a cause.
All these years later there is still no peace. And people want to right wrongs. To give land back to the rightful owners. But their history suffers from tunnel vision. They see only what they want. The Arabs want to go back to the height of their military conquest. Their caliphate. For that military conquest was good. But not the ones before. Or the ones after. For they agree to the victors go the spoils. But only when they are the victors.
The problem with going back in time to correct wrongs is that history is full of past wrongs. So how far back should we go correcting past wrongs? Back to the original wrong? To the first time someone took another's land? To undo what the Persian Empire did? Undo what the Egyptians did? Undo what the Sumerians did? Undo what Homo sapiens did to the Neanderthals?
You can go back forever and find a people that wronged another. It is our history. And a violent history at that. But as we became more civilized we became less violent. More of us are able to live together. Peacefully. And that is the direction we should continue to progress. We need to stop living in the past. To stop using that diplomacy tool we call military conquest. The days of military expansionism are over. Or should be over. And you shouldn't use diplomatic negotiation as a ruse to prepare for a military conquest. Which it looks like the Palestinian side is doing in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
In 1967, Israel was surrounded by armed forces from Egypt, Syria and Jordan (with some Iraqi assistance). Egypt troops massed in the Sinai and closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping. An act of war in Israel's book. Again. Instead of waiting for the attack, the Israeli Air Force executed a surprise attack on the Egyptian Air Force. Wiped it out. Gave Israel air superiority throughout the conflict we call the Six-Day War. Which allowed it to repel the Arab assault. Israel then went on the offensive. And gained ground. Moved the borders to more defendable positions. Took the Golan Heights from Syria, making it harder for the Syrians to attack again. Took the West Bank of the River Jordan (and East Jerusalem), making it harder for the Jordanians to attack again. And took the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, making it harder for the Egyptians to attack again.
Of course, moving borders like this creates problems. Though Israel was now more secure, there were some one million Arabs now living under Israeli occupation. And a lot of refugees who were looking for a place to call home. Many since the 1948 Israeli creation. But no one wanted them. So they lived in refugee camps just outside of Israel. In sort of a 'no-nation' land. Wanting to go home. Where there was no longer a home for them.
President Obama gave a speech on Thursday (5/19/2011). The subject was the Middle East. The democracy movements. And the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. It was the peace process comments that people are talking about today. For he dropped a bomb on Israel. Figuratively, of course. He said the Israeli borders should return to what they were prior to the Six-Day War. Which is very problematic for the Israelis. First of all, it would make them very vulnerable to another pan-Arab attack. And this inconvenient fact. There are a lot of Israelis now living on that land that will be on the wrong side of the redrawn border. That's a bit of a problem, especially with all those refugees wanting to return home. Israel is not happy. And neither is much of the Arab world. Because they wanted even more. Such as Egypt's UN ambassador (see Egypt says Obama speech will help Palestinians by Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press, posted 5/20/2011 on The Daily News Egypt).
But the Egyptian ambassador said Obama missed an opportunity to address other key issues including Israel's continued settlement activities, water, ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the return of refugees "which is a critical issue," and the Palestinian demand for East Jerusalem as its capital.
Yes, the return of refugees. The "critical issue." In other words, they want the right of the refugees to return home. Not to the new Palestinian state. But to the Israeli state. Making it pretty much a Palestinian state, too. Thus the two-state solution becomes a single-state solution. And the Arab world gets what it always wanted. The removal of Israel from the map.
By the time those negotiations end, he said, the next US presidential elections would be over, which presumably would mean the White House would not face the political pressures that exist today and might look favorably on UN membership for Palestine.
Of course, being in office during the destruction of Israel could have a negative impact on anyone's reelection chances. What with Israel being such an important U.S. ally. So if you're going to throw them under the bus, best to do that after the next election.
Israel is not at all pleased with the new U.S. policy position (see Netanyahu Heads to White House After Obama Shift on Palestinian Statehood posted 5/20/2011 on FOX NEWS).
In a statement released late Thursday, Netanyahu said such a withdrawal would put at risk Israel's security. He effectively called on Obama to recant his latest demand.
It would appear that the new U.S. policy position is a nonstarter for Israel.
Part of the problem in trying to get an Israeli-Palestinian peace is that some of the Palestinians' opening bargaining position is the destruction of Israel. That would be Hamas. Who still lobs missiles into Israel. And who just recently moved towards a unity government with Fatah (see Obama, Netanyahu to Meet Amid Tense Backdrop posted 5/20/2011 on The Wall Street Journal).
Many U.S. officials had hoped Mr. Netanyahu would use his trip to Washington to lay out new concessions he would be prepared to make as part of a peace agreement.
But hopes have faded significantly in recent weeks, primarily because of the formation of a unity government between the main Palestinian political factions, including the militant organization Hamas, which the U.S. designates as a terrorist organization. Mr. Netanyahu has stated that he won't return to negotiations while Hamas is part of the Palestinian side or before it renounces its use of violence against Israel.
So moving the borders back and discussing rights of refugees to return while someone on the other side of the border wants to destroy you is a problem.
An Israeli official said Mr. Netanyahu was disappointed the speech didn't address the Palestinian demand to repatriate to Israel millions of Palestinians, most descendants of people who were driven from or fled homes in the war over the Jewish state's 1948 creation.
"There is a feeling that Washington does not understand the reality, Washington does not understand what we face," the official said.
Either they don't understand or they have great faith in the Palestinians. And Hamas. That they won't use greatly enhanced positions to do what they've been trying to do since 1948. Or, perhaps, this is some grand plan to win the war on terror. By abandoning Israel. And giving Iran the Middle East. And the Middle East oil. In a desperate attempt to get America's enemies to like her. One thing for sure, though, it's been proving to be a bad time to be a U.S. ally in the Middle East.
Early reports credit SEAL Team Six with the take down of Osama bin Laden. Despite losing a helicopter, they executed the mission with extreme precision. Which is the way SEALs like to do it. A grateful thanks goes out to all our men and women in the armed forces, especially those in the Special Forces community. Much of what they do never 'officially' happens. So they are truly America's unsung heroes. And a special thanks goes out to Navy SEAL and Rogue Warrior Richard Marcinko. He created SEAL Team Six and made it the potent asset it is today. It's not easy to become a SEAL. And Marcinko made it harder still to get into SEAL Team Six. A lot of what they do isn't humanly possible. And yet they do it. Because that's their business. Doing the impossible.
Number 1 on the FBI's most wanted terrorist list took awhile to find. Starting in the Clinton administration even before 9/11. Yes, he was killing Americans before 9/11. There were the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya. And the 2000 USS Cole bombing. Then came 9/11. Which intensified the manhunt (see Getting Osama bin Laden: How the mission went down by Mike Allen posted 5/2/2011 on Politico).
In the biggest break in a global pursuit of bin Laden that stretched back to the Clinton administration, the U.S. discovered the compound by following one of the terrorist's personal couriers, identified by terrorist detainees as one of the few al Qaeda couriers who bin Laden trusted.
Officials didn't learn the courier's name until 2007. Then it took two years to find him and track him back to this compound, which was discovered in August 2010.
It was this courier that led us to bin Laden. Identifying him was key. So important that President Bush authorized some forceful interrogation techniques (see Woman who died as a human shield was one of bin Laden's wives: White House posted 5/2/2011 on The Toronto Star).
Torture and interrogation tactics inside CIA prisons in Romania and Poland extracted the courier's name from Mohammed and his successor, Abu Faraj Al Libi, the Associated Press reported.
Former U.S. president George W. Bush had authorized the CIA to use torture; Obama closed the prison system.
Which of course led us not to some cave in Afghanistan near the Pakistan border. But inside Pakistan. In relative comfort (see US kills Osama bin Laden decade after 9/11 attacks by Kimberly Dozier and David Espo, Associated Press, posted 5/2/2011 on Yahoo! News).
The compound is about a half-mile from a Pakistani military academy, in a city that is home to three army regiments and thousands of military personnel. Abbottabad is surrounded by hills and with mountains in the distance.
Critics have long accused elements of Pakistan's security establishment of protecting bin Laden, though Islamabad has always denied it, and in a statement the foreign ministry said his death showed the country's resolve in the battle against terrorism.
Still, bin Laden's location raised pointed questions of whether Pakistani authorities knew the whereabouts of the world's most wanted man.
And there he was. Hiding in our ally's back yard. With all the comforts of home. Including a wife or two. For years. And all that time not that far from under our very noses. Was Pakistan complicit? Time will tell. Of course, Muslims helping Westerners to hunt down and kill Muslims is a tricky business. Helping Americans isn't exactly in their best interests. They may have been hiding him. But there were no communication lines going into that compound. The only contact with the outside world was via those couriers. So, yes, he was there. But what exactly was he doing while he was there? Probably not a lot. So even though he wasn't in Gitmo or dead, he may have been, for all intents and purposes, neutralized. Which would have helped American national security interests.
So bin Laden is dead. Does it change much? Perhaps. But not in the way most would think. Since 9/11 bin Laden hasn't been all that active. It's hard to be active when you're always hiding. The real al Qaeda threat of late has been in Yemen. Not Afghanistan. The recent attempts (the underwear bomber and the printer cartridge bombs) were launched from Yemen. So killing bin Laden may actually have a negative impact on U.S. security. Because it brought him back from relative obscurity. Perhaps offering a rallying call for our enemies. Especially when the U.S. acted unilaterally inside a sovereign Muslim Pakistan. Where the local population doesn't much like the U.S. to begin with.
Osama bin Laden may still have been active. And taking him out sends a message to other terrorists. But it is a distraction from more disturbing developments in the Middle East. In Egypt to be specific. Where a whole lot of change is happening. Some of which may not be for the good. Such as the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood. Opening the Gaza border crossing. Their brokering a unity deal between Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. And Egypt's move to normalize relations with Iran. Little good can come from these developments. And a lot bad can. So, yes, bin Laden got what he deserved. But the developing theater in the War on Terror may now be in the Middle East.
Osama bin Laden was a Saudi. 'Was' being the operative wood. The Saudis were glad to see him go (see Saudi hopes bin Laden death will aid terror fight by Mahmoud Habboush, Cynthia Johnston, Joseph Logan and Mark Heinrich, posted 5/2/2011 on Reuters).
"An official source expressed the hope of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia that the elimination of the leader of the terrorist al Qaeda organization would be a step toward supporting international efforts aimed at fighting terrorism," the news agency said.
It added that Riyadh hoped that bin Laden's demise would also help break up al Qaeda cells and eliminate the "misguided thought" it said was drives militancy.
He and the Wahhabi sect had been a problem for the Saudi kingdom. They were glad to get rid of him first from the kingdom. Then from the living. And when the U.S. offered them bin Laden's body for burial they refused. They did not want him buried in Saudi soil. But not everyone in the Middle East shared Saudi opinion (see Hamas condemns killing of al-Qa'ida leader by Reuters posted 5/2/2011 on The Independent).
Hamas condemned on Monday the US killing of Osama bin Laden as the assassination of an Arab holy warrior, differing sharply with the Palestinian Authority, the Islamist group's partner in a new unity deal.
"We ask God to offer him mercy with the true believers and the martyrs," Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, told reporters. ..
Hamas, classified by the United States and the European Union as a terrorist group over its violence against Israel, is due to sign a unity deal this week in Cairo with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's more secular Fatah movement.
Israel has condemned the agreement, saying it could sabotage any efforts to revive peace talks with the Palestinians. The deal envisages an interim unity government comprised of independents and Palestinian elections later in the year.
This is no surprise that Hamas would condemn bin Laden's killing. They share his hatred of Americans. And the State of Israel. What is troubling, though, is the unity deal between the secular Fatah in the West Bank and the Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Especially with that unity deal being brokered in post-Mubarak Egypt. This is very troubling indeed. For the Hamas Charter calls for the destruction of Israel. Which is still in the charter. Which begs the question, what will be a unified Hamas/Fatah position on Israel? Especially now that the Muslim Brotherhood, who supports that proviso in the Hamas charter, is ascendant in Egypt. Perhaps we can learn by the Muslim Brotherhood's reaction to the killing of bin Laden (see Egypt Muslim Brotherhood condemns Bin Laden death by the Associated Press posted 5/2/2011 on Yahoo! News).
The Brotherhood, which seeks the establishment of a state run according to Islamic principles through peaceful means, is Egypt's most powerful and organized political movement.
Post-Mubarak Egypt is not looking good. If current trends continue, it may be like exchanging a Mubarak-Egypt for another Iran. On the all important Suez Canal. And but a short walk from Israel. Public enemy number one for radical Islam. And let's not forget that Iran is working on a nuclear program.
The Dawn of a new Islamist Day in Egypt?
It's hard to find a bigger mistake in the Middle East than forcing Mubarak from office. For Egypt has a lot more radical Islam fomenting in their populace than they do democracy. Even bin Laden's number two, Ayman Al-Zawahri, is an Egyptian. And he may shortly become al Qaeda's number one. Which is cause for concern. Because he's not as nice a guy as Osama bin Laden was (see Egypt's Al-Zawahri likely to succeed bin Laden by Hamza Hendawi and Lee Keath, Associated Press, posted 5/2/2011 on the Daily News Egypt).
With bin Laden killed, Ayman Al-Zawahri becomes the top candidate for the world's top terror job.
It's too early to tell how exactly Al-Qaeda would change with its founder and supreme mentor gone, but the group under Al-Zawahri would likely be further radicalized, unleashing a new wave of attacks to avenge bin Laden's killing by US troops in Pakistan on Monday to send a message that it's business as usual.
Yes, the mentor bin Laden was the less radical one. The protégé, Al-Zawahri, may very well take it up a notch. At least to avenge his mentor's death. Unless the U.S. gets to him first.
The attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon made bin Laden Enemy No. 1 to the United States. But he likely could never have carried it out without Al-Zawahri. Bin Laden provided Al-Qaeda with the charisma and money, but Al-Zawahri brought the ideological fire, tactics and organizational skills needed to forge disparate militants into a network of cells in countries around the world.
"Al-Zawahri was always bin Laden's mentor, bin Laden always looked up to him," says terrorism expert Bruce Hoffman of Georgetown University.
Osama bin Laden may have put out the call for jihad on 9/11. By Al-Zawahri made it happen. And created an international terror network to boot.
Al-Zawahri ensured Al-Qaeda's survival, rebuilding Al-Qaeda's leadership in the Afghan-Pakistan border region and installing his allies as new lieutenants in key positions. Since then, the network inspired or had a direct hand in attacks in North Africa, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan, the 2004 train bombings in Madrid and the 2005 transit bombings in London.
It was Al-Zawahri, not bin Laden, who was responsible for post-9/11 al Qaeda.
But before Al-Qaeda — and before Al-Zawahri focused his wrath on the "far enemy," United States — his goal was to bring down the "near enemy," the US-allied government of then president Hosni Mubarak in his native Egypt.
And in what may prove one of the greatest blunders of national security, Al-Zawahri's 'far enemy' took out his 'near enemy'. And now all that radical Islam that's been simmering below the surface can boil over now. Because the U.S. got rid of the guy that contained it. Hosni Mubarak.
At the same time, Al-Zawahri began reassembling Islamic Jihad and surrounded bin Laden with Egyptian members of Jihad such as Mohamed Atef and Saif Al-Adel, who would one day play key roles in putting together the Sept. 11 attacks.
The alliance established Al-Zawahri as bin Laden's deputy and soon after came the bombings of the US embassies in Africa, followed by the 2000 suicide bombing of the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen, an attack Al-Zawahri is believed to have helped organize.
Apparently these Egyptians went to work for bin Laden because they were not welcomed in Egypt. Of course, that may have all changed. Egypt is moving closer to Hamas. And Iran. And there's talk about pulling out of the Camp David Accords with Israel. No doubt these Egyptians are now feeling that there is no place like home. And they're probably going back to Egypt. Eager to take part in the dawn of a new Islamist day there.
President Obama acted boldly by giving the go ahead for SEAL Team Six to take down Osama bin Laden. And some are already talking about how this will help his 2012 reelection chances. Of course, Osama bin Laden may be moot by then if the economy is still in recession. George H. W. Bush lost to Bill Clinton after riding record approval numbers after his victory in the Gulf War. Because it was the economy, stupid. Osama bin Laden is big. But his he bigger enough to overcome a recession?
But Obama has a bigger problem, though. He told Hosni Mubarak he had to go. That was a mistake. And it can have huge consequences. On the War on Terror. On Middle East stability. And on world peace. Bad things are already lining up to happen. The degree of bad may very well determine the 2012 election.


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I've had a recurring thought pop through my head lately, to which I've become more attuned and attentive. It has taken a few different shapes and gone through many iterations, yet, it has the same base. Do I truly believe the words I sing in praise/worship songs and those I confess from Scripture? Do I have them so ingrained in my heart that when I open my mouth I know those words are true and faithful? Scripture is filled with examples of the power our words hold, as well as admonitions and teachings on how best to use our words.
In the beginning Papa created the world by speaking it into existence. He spoke. He saw. He declared it was good. He created man in His image and His likeness, which means we also have the power to create with our words. Proverbs 18: 21 tells us death and life are in the power of the tongue and we will eat the fruit of it. It is very important we understand the words we choose are the words which shape our very atmosphere.
I am not writing about our word choices. What has so captivated my attention is my belief, or unbelief, in what I am declaring. My faith in God and His word. Words are declarations and decrees. Praise and worship songs, prayer, regular conversations, secular songs – all are declaration and decrees. What is it I truly believe when I lift my voice and sing?
Jesus our God unstoppable" (Unstoppable God, Elevation Church) are we actually grasping how unstoppable He is? Do we fully know that nothing is impossible with Him? Or, are we simply singing along because the words are in front of us and we aren't really paying attention to what it says? Another example is Break Every Chain. In this one, we are declaring the power in the name of Jesus to break every chain. Are we understanding the depth in these few simple words? It is easy to become caught up in the snappy beat, or the heart-tugging melody, yet miss the richness and power of the lyrics. The opposite is also true, we may not care for the melody or beat and therefore, completely miss the powerful message of the words.
What I've been thinking about recently has been convicting. The Holy Spirit pointed out my deafness to my confession through song because of familiarity. The same of prayer. Don't ever discount those dry places and seasons – they teach a lot! I lost the beauty and vision of God when I stopped paying attention and simply put myself on auto-pilot. I had a crises of faith, I suppose you could say. Since He spoke so sweetly to my heart about this, I have had a renewed interest in what comes out of my mouth and my attentiveness to it. Do I still have fails? Yes. I'm not perfect, but I'm perfectly human and divinely loved. I pay closer attention to the words I sing; and I believe He is who He says He is, He does what He says He will do and His Word is living and powerful and never returns void. I believe what I am declaring through song, through Scripture and through my word choices.


Walkers does not at present have any vacancy for a candidate attorney for 2018.
Walkers wishes to appoint one or more candidate attorneys, as of January 2019. We have an exciting and rewarding career opportunity for the spot-on candidate(s).
All compliant applications for candidate attorney positions duly received on or before 31 May 2018 will be acknowledged and considered. Please submit applications per email to roxannek@walkers.law , with subject heading: Candidate Attorneys for Walkers, 2019.