Holocaust denier removed as head of Argentine seminary
(CNN) -- A Holocaust denier Pope Benedict XVI welcomed back into the Roman Catholic Church last month has been removed from his position as head of a seminary in Argentina.
The views of Bishop Richard Williamson, who has led the seminary in La Reja since 2003, do not reflect those of The Society of St. Pius X, said Christian Bouchacourt, head of its Latin American chapter.
"It's obvious that a Catholic bishop cannot talk with the ecclesiastical authority, but to things related to faith and morality," Bouchacourt said in a written statement.
Williamson, shortly before the pope lifted his excommunication, denied the Nazis had systematically murdered 6 million Jews during World War II.
In his blog Saturday, Williamson, referring to himself, posted a note, saying, "His Excellency is neither dead, dying, nor retired."
Earlier Sunday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel phoned Pope Benedict about the issue, though neither side seemed to have shifted its position over Williamson.
"It was a very constructive conversation," the German government and the Vatican said in a joint statement about the call. Merkel and the pope expressed respect for each other's opinion, the release said -- diplomatic-speak for saying neither side budged.
Merkel demanded Tuesday that the pope firmly reject Holocaust denial.
"The pope and the Vatican must make absolutely clear that there can be no denial of the Holocaust," Merkel said.
The Vatican has pointed to several statements by Pope Benedict in the past few years condemning the destruction of European Jewry, including his visits to concentration camps. He has also said he did not know of Williamson's views on the Holocaust when he lifted the excommunication.
"I believe that the historical evidence is strongly against -- is hugely against -- 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler," Williamson said recently in an interview with a Swedish television station, which also appeared on various Web sites after its broadcast. "I believe there were no gas chambers."
Germany's Catholic bishops Saturday called for the expulsion of Williamson, a member of an ultra-conservative group expelled from the Church by Pope John Paul II in 1988.
"Mr. Williamson is impossible and irresponsible," Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, said Saturday, according to Spiegel Online. "I now see no room for him in the Catholic church."
In the Saturday article, Spiegel quotes Williamson saying he will not recant and that he would need more evidence to believe the Holocaust really happened.
"If I find this proof, then I will correct myself," he said. "But that will require some time."
On Wednesday, the Vatican had ordered Williamson to "distance himself" from his views "in an absolutely unequivocal and public manner."
The Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said Williamson will not be allowed to perform priestly functions if he does not recant. He said the pope was unaware of the comments when he rehabilitated Williamson and three other members of the Society of Saint Pius X.
Williamson apologized last week for the "distress" he has caused the pope, but did not retract his comments.
Williamson, who now lives in Argentina, and three other bishops who belong to the Society of Saint Pius X were excommunicated 20 years ago. The society was founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who rebelled against the Vatican's modernizing reforms in the 1960s, and who consecrated the men in unsanctioned ceremonies.
Williamson's reinstatement and comments have been fiercely criticized by Israel, American Jewish groups and political leaders.
The pope -- who was born in Germany and was a child during the Nazi era -- rejected Holocaust denial in public statements on January 28.
At the end of his weekly audience, the pope discussed his trips to the former concentration camp at Auschwitz and the images of "the heinous slaughter of millions of Jews, the innocent victims of a blind racial and religious hatred."
After his 14th birthday in 1941, Benedict -- then called Joseph Ratzinger -- was forced along with the rest of his class in Bavaria, southern Germany, to join the Hitler Youth. However his biographer John Allen Jr., said Ratzinger's family was strongly anti-Nazi.
His spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, called Williamson's remarks to Swedish television "absolutely indefensible."
Monday, February 9, 2009
I almost punched my computer...
You Try to Live on 500K in This Town (NYT)
PRIVATE school: $32,000 a year per student.
Mortgage: $96,000 a year.
Co-op maintenance fee: $96,000 a year.
Nanny: $45,000 a year.
We are already at $269,000, and we haven’t even gotten to taxes yet.
Five hundred thousand dollars — the amount President Obama wants to set as the top pay for banking executives whose firms accept government bailout money — seems like a lot, and it is a lot. To many people in many places, it is a princely sum to live on. But in the neighborhoods of New York City and its suburban enclaves where successful bankers live, half a million a year can go very fast.
“As hard as it is to believe, bankers who are living on the Upper East Side making $2 or $3 million a year have set up a life for themselves in which they are also at zero at the end of the year with credit cards and mortgage bills that are inescapable,” said Holly Peterson, the author of an Upper East Side novel of manners, “The Manny,” and the daughter of Peter G. Peterson, a founder of the equity firm the Blackstone Group. “Five hundred thousand dollars means taking their kids out of private school and selling their home in a fire sale.”
Sure, the solution may seem simple: move to Brooklyn or Hoboken, put the children in public schools and buy a MetroCard. But more than a few of the New York-based financial executives who would have their pay limited are men (and they are almost invariably men) whose identities are entwined with living a certain way in a certain neighborhood west of Third Avenue: a life of private schools, summer houses and charity galas that only a seven-figure income can stretch to cover.
Few are playing sad cellos over the fate of such folk, especially since the collapse of the institutions they run has yielded untold financial pain. But in New York, where a new study from the Center for an Urban Future, a nonprofit research group in Manhattan, estimates it takes $123,322 to enjoy the same middle-class life as someone earning $50,000 in Houston, extricating oneself from steep bills can be difficult.
Therefore, even if it is not for sympathy but for sport, consider the numbers.
The cold hard math can be cruel.
Like those taxes. If a person is married with two children, the weekly deductions on a $500,000 salary are: federal taxes, $2,645; Social Security, $596; Medicare, $139; state taxes, $682; and city, $372, bringing the weekly take-home to $5,180, or about $269,000 a year, said Martin Cohen, a Manhattan accountant.
Now move to living expenses.
Barbara Corcoran, a real estate executive, said that most well-to-do families take at least two vacations a year, a winter trip to the sun and a spring trip to the ski slopes.
Total minimum cost: $16,000.
A modest three-bedroom apartment, she said, which was purchased for $1.5 million, not the top of the market at all, carries a monthly mortgage of about $8,000 and a co-op maintenance fee of $8,000 a month. Total cost: $192,000. A summer house in Southampton that cost $4 million, again not the top of the market, carries annual mortgage payments of $240,000.
Many top executives have cars and drivers. A chauffeur’s pay is between $75,000 and $125,000 a year, the higher end for former police officers who can double as bodyguards, said a limousine driver who spoke anonymously because he does not want to alienate his society customers.
“Some of them want their drivers to have guns,” the driver said. “You get a cop and you have a driver.” To garage that car is about $700 a month.
A personal trainer at $80 an hour three times a week comes to about $12,000 a year.
The work in the gym pays off when one must don a formal gown for a charity gala. “Going to those parties,” said David Patrick Columbia, who is the editor of the New York Social Diary (newyorksocialdiary.com), “a woman can spend $10,000 or $15,000 on a dress. If she goes to three or four of those a year, she’s not going to wear the same dress.”
Total cost for three gowns: about $35,000.
Not every bank executive has school-age children, but for those who do, offspring can be expensive. In addition to paying tuition, “You’re not going to get through private school without tutoring a kid,” said Sandy Bass, the editor of Private School Insider, a newsletter that covers private schools in the New York City area. One hour of tutoring once a week is $125. “That’s the low end,” she said. “The higher end is 150, 175.” SAT tutors are about $250 an hour. Total cost for 30 weeks of regular tutoring: $3,750.
Two children in private school: $64,000.
Nanny: $45,000.
Ms. Bass, whose husband is an accountant with many high-end clients, said she spends about $425 every 10 days on groceries for her family. Annual cost: about $15,000.
More? Restaurants. Dry cleaning. Each Brooks Brothers suit costs about $1,000. If you run a bank, you can’t look like a slob.
The total costs here, which do not include a lot of things, like kennels for the dog when the family is away, summer camp, spas and other grooming for the human members of the family, donations to charity, and frozen hot chocolates at Serendipity, are $790,750, which would require about a $1.6-million salary to compensate for taxes. Give or take a few score thousand of dollars.
Does this money buy a chief executive stockholders might prize, a well-to-do man with a certain sureness of stride, something that might be lost if the executive were crowding onto the PATH train every morning at Journal Square, his newspaper splayed against the back of a stranger’s head?
The man would certainly not feel like himself on that train, said Candace Bushnell, the author of “Sex and the City” and other books chronicling New York social mores.
“People inherently understand that if they are going to get ahead in whatever corporate culture they are involved in, they need to take on the appurtenances of what defines that culture,” she said. “So if you are in a culture where spending a lot of money is a sign of success, it’s like the same thing that goes back to high school peer pressure. It’s about fitting in.”
By the way, the frozen hot chocolate costs $8.50.
PRIVATE school: $32,000 a year per student.
Mortgage: $96,000 a year.
Co-op maintenance fee: $96,000 a year.
Nanny: $45,000 a year.
We are already at $269,000, and we haven’t even gotten to taxes yet.
Five hundred thousand dollars — the amount President Obama wants to set as the top pay for banking executives whose firms accept government bailout money — seems like a lot, and it is a lot. To many people in many places, it is a princely sum to live on. But in the neighborhoods of New York City and its suburban enclaves where successful bankers live, half a million a year can go very fast.
“As hard as it is to believe, bankers who are living on the Upper East Side making $2 or $3 million a year have set up a life for themselves in which they are also at zero at the end of the year with credit cards and mortgage bills that are inescapable,” said Holly Peterson, the author of an Upper East Side novel of manners, “The Manny,” and the daughter of Peter G. Peterson, a founder of the equity firm the Blackstone Group. “Five hundred thousand dollars means taking their kids out of private school and selling their home in a fire sale.”
Sure, the solution may seem simple: move to Brooklyn or Hoboken, put the children in public schools and buy a MetroCard. But more than a few of the New York-based financial executives who would have their pay limited are men (and they are almost invariably men) whose identities are entwined with living a certain way in a certain neighborhood west of Third Avenue: a life of private schools, summer houses and charity galas that only a seven-figure income can stretch to cover.
Few are playing sad cellos over the fate of such folk, especially since the collapse of the institutions they run has yielded untold financial pain. But in New York, where a new study from the Center for an Urban Future, a nonprofit research group in Manhattan, estimates it takes $123,322 to enjoy the same middle-class life as someone earning $50,000 in Houston, extricating oneself from steep bills can be difficult.
Therefore, even if it is not for sympathy but for sport, consider the numbers.
The cold hard math can be cruel.
Like those taxes. If a person is married with two children, the weekly deductions on a $500,000 salary are: federal taxes, $2,645; Social Security, $596; Medicare, $139; state taxes, $682; and city, $372, bringing the weekly take-home to $5,180, or about $269,000 a year, said Martin Cohen, a Manhattan accountant.
Now move to living expenses.
Barbara Corcoran, a real estate executive, said that most well-to-do families take at least two vacations a year, a winter trip to the sun and a spring trip to the ski slopes.
Total minimum cost: $16,000.
A modest three-bedroom apartment, she said, which was purchased for $1.5 million, not the top of the market at all, carries a monthly mortgage of about $8,000 and a co-op maintenance fee of $8,000 a month. Total cost: $192,000. A summer house in Southampton that cost $4 million, again not the top of the market, carries annual mortgage payments of $240,000.
Many top executives have cars and drivers. A chauffeur’s pay is between $75,000 and $125,000 a year, the higher end for former police officers who can double as bodyguards, said a limousine driver who spoke anonymously because he does not want to alienate his society customers.
“Some of them want their drivers to have guns,” the driver said. “You get a cop and you have a driver.” To garage that car is about $700 a month.
A personal trainer at $80 an hour three times a week comes to about $12,000 a year.
The work in the gym pays off when one must don a formal gown for a charity gala. “Going to those parties,” said David Patrick Columbia, who is the editor of the New York Social Diary (newyorksocialdiary.com), “a woman can spend $10,000 or $15,000 on a dress. If she goes to three or four of those a year, she’s not going to wear the same dress.”
Total cost for three gowns: about $35,000.
Not every bank executive has school-age children, but for those who do, offspring can be expensive. In addition to paying tuition, “You’re not going to get through private school without tutoring a kid,” said Sandy Bass, the editor of Private School Insider, a newsletter that covers private schools in the New York City area. One hour of tutoring once a week is $125. “That’s the low end,” she said. “The higher end is 150, 175.” SAT tutors are about $250 an hour. Total cost for 30 weeks of regular tutoring: $3,750.
Two children in private school: $64,000.
Nanny: $45,000.
Ms. Bass, whose husband is an accountant with many high-end clients, said she spends about $425 every 10 days on groceries for her family. Annual cost: about $15,000.
More? Restaurants. Dry cleaning. Each Brooks Brothers suit costs about $1,000. If you run a bank, you can’t look like a slob.
The total costs here, which do not include a lot of things, like kennels for the dog when the family is away, summer camp, spas and other grooming for the human members of the family, donations to charity, and frozen hot chocolates at Serendipity, are $790,750, which would require about a $1.6-million salary to compensate for taxes. Give or take a few score thousand of dollars.
Does this money buy a chief executive stockholders might prize, a well-to-do man with a certain sureness of stride, something that might be lost if the executive were crowding onto the PATH train every morning at Journal Square, his newspaper splayed against the back of a stranger’s head?
The man would certainly not feel like himself on that train, said Candace Bushnell, the author of “Sex and the City” and other books chronicling New York social mores.
“People inherently understand that if they are going to get ahead in whatever corporate culture they are involved in, they need to take on the appurtenances of what defines that culture,” she said. “So if you are in a culture where spending a lot of money is a sign of success, it’s like the same thing that goes back to high school peer pressure. It’s about fitting in.”
By the way, the frozen hot chocolate costs $8.50.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Fox News -- You Really ARE Fair and Balanced...
Jessica Simpson Shocks Fans With Noticeably Fuller Figure
Once renowned for her famously taut abs and sculpted legs, it seems that country singer Jessica Simpson has eased up on her fitness regimen a bit.
The former “Newlyweds” star and ex-wife of Nick Lachey showed off her noticeably fuller curves at the Radio 99.9 Kiss Country's annual Chili Cookoff in Florida Sunday.
Donning mom-jeans, a tight black tank top and a muffin-top-inducing leopard belt, the songstress' appearance left the gossip-world abuzz.
Is Jess preggers? Did she gain sympathy weight for sis Ashlee (who just had a baby with hubby Pete Wetnz)? Is it all a ploy to get her on the cover of a magazine? Or is it, more likely, that the star has been eating the same diet that her Dallas Cowboys quarterback boyfriend Tony Romo does?
Indeed, the singer even admitted that she and Romo love to have “movie nights” where they cook and order in.
Still, don’t expect the singer — who seemed as happy as ever as she dedicated her performance to Romo — to be down in the mouth about her fuller frame.
She famously told Harpers Bazaar magazine that she prefers curves on a woman to a super-skinny frame.
“Curves are better,” she said. “I don’t get the whole rail thing. It’s not good for your heart, it’s not good for your mind; it’s emotionally destructive, it really is.”
Once renowned for her famously taut abs and sculpted legs, it seems that country singer Jessica Simpson has eased up on her fitness regimen a bit.
The former “Newlyweds” star and ex-wife of Nick Lachey showed off her noticeably fuller curves at the Radio 99.9 Kiss Country's annual Chili Cookoff in Florida Sunday.
Donning mom-jeans, a tight black tank top and a muffin-top-inducing leopard belt, the songstress' appearance left the gossip-world abuzz.
Is Jess preggers? Did she gain sympathy weight for sis Ashlee (who just had a baby with hubby Pete Wetnz)? Is it all a ploy to get her on the cover of a magazine? Or is it, more likely, that the star has been eating the same diet that her Dallas Cowboys quarterback boyfriend Tony Romo does?
Indeed, the singer even admitted that she and Romo love to have “movie nights” where they cook and order in.
Still, don’t expect the singer — who seemed as happy as ever as she dedicated her performance to Romo — to be down in the mouth about her fuller frame.
She famously told Harpers Bazaar magazine that she prefers curves on a woman to a super-skinny frame.
“Curves are better,” she said. “I don’t get the whole rail thing. It’s not good for your heart, it’s not good for your mind; it’s emotionally destructive, it really is.”
More on the Drug War in Mexico...
'Stewmaker' stirs horror in Mexico
Gruesome recipes of drug cartel's 'disposal expert' shocks the public
MEXICO CITY - As the nation's drug war rages on, with its weekly tallies of headless torsos, it is getting harder to produce a shock wave in the Mexican media. But the gruesome recipes of "The Stewmaker" have gripped public attention here, as authorities describe how a "disposal expert" working for a Tijuana drug cartel boss allegedly got rid of hundreds of bodies by dissolving the corpses in vats of acid.
The sour-faced mug shot of Santiago Meza López, 45, made the front pages Saturday and again on Monday, as federal agents presented new details about "El Pozolero." A pozole is a traditional Mexican stew made of hominy, pork and chilies. It is important to keep stirring the soup while it is on the stove.
In a news conference in Tijuana on Friday, Mexican army and law enforcement officials said that Meza confessed to disposing of more than 300 corpses, though they have not provided any evidence to support such a high number.
"They paid me $600 a week," Meza told journalists at a news conference overseen by masked soldiers and federal agents. "I ask for forgiveness from the families of the dead." Meza told agents he boiled the latest victim in acid 15 days earlier.
Key cog in the cartel machinery?
On Sunday, at a second news conference, this time in Mexico City, federal agents described Meza as an important cog in the cartel machinery — the man who disposed of bodies killed by hit men working for Teodoro "El Teo" García Simental, who is vying for control of the Tijuana drug trafficking cartel. Officials say much of the violence that killed more than 5,700 people last year was the result of fighting among cartels for control of lucrative smuggling corridors into the United States.
On Monday, a group of men armed with heavy weapons attacked the municipal police station in La Mision, a Baja California coastal town between Tijuana and Ensenada, where Meza was arrested while attending a party at an RV resort by the beach. No one was hurt in the attack on the police station, which was hit by 200 rounds. Afterward, trucks stolen from California were found abandoned nearby.
Baja officials told El Universal newspaper that they did not know who fired at the police station or why but said they suspect the attack was in reprisal for the arrest of Meza and two companions. One of his companions was the personal chef for cartel boss García. The other man was the chef's assistant. García was also reportedly at the beach party but escaped, according to Mexican news accounts.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration identified García as the chief rival of alleged Arellano Félix cartel leader Fernando Sánchez Arellano, known as "El Ingeniero," the engineer. Fighting between the armies of El Teo and El Ingeniero is responsible for much of the daily slaughter around the border city of Tijuana, according to Mexican law enforcement officials.
At the Sunday news conference, federal agents described "the recipe" followed by the Stewmaker: "The procedure to dispose of the corpses was to fill a drum with 200 liters of water and then put two sacks of caustic soda, put it over a fire and when it started to boil, put in the bodies."
Nine years of human disposals
The human remains, according to the federal agents, cooked for eight hours, and afterward there was nothing left but teeth and nails. After the liquid cooled, Meza allegedly put the remains in a plastic tub, took it to an empty lot and burned it with gasoline, according to federal agents.
The attorney general of Baja California, Rommel Moreno, said Meza will be shown photos of missing persons to see if he recognizes any. According to authorities, Meza said that when he received the bodies, the victims were already dead. Meza, a former truck driver, told authorities he had been disposing of corpses for the past nine years.
This has been a violent month along the border. On Friday, a prominent Tijuana businessman was shot and killed outside his home by what police describe as drug-addicted robbers. Rafael Fimbres Hernández was a well-known member of the Tijuana family that founded the Calimax supermarket chain. In Ciudad Juarez, the most deadly city in Mexico, local reporters have tallied 104 murders in January, including nine on Sunday.
© 2009 The Washington Post Company
Gruesome recipes of drug cartel's 'disposal expert' shocks the public
MEXICO CITY - As the nation's drug war rages on, with its weekly tallies of headless torsos, it is getting harder to produce a shock wave in the Mexican media. But the gruesome recipes of "The Stewmaker" have gripped public attention here, as authorities describe how a "disposal expert" working for a Tijuana drug cartel boss allegedly got rid of hundreds of bodies by dissolving the corpses in vats of acid.
The sour-faced mug shot of Santiago Meza López, 45, made the front pages Saturday and again on Monday, as federal agents presented new details about "El Pozolero." A pozole is a traditional Mexican stew made of hominy, pork and chilies. It is important to keep stirring the soup while it is on the stove.
In a news conference in Tijuana on Friday, Mexican army and law enforcement officials said that Meza confessed to disposing of more than 300 corpses, though they have not provided any evidence to support such a high number.
"They paid me $600 a week," Meza told journalists at a news conference overseen by masked soldiers and federal agents. "I ask for forgiveness from the families of the dead." Meza told agents he boiled the latest victim in acid 15 days earlier.
Key cog in the cartel machinery?
On Sunday, at a second news conference, this time in Mexico City, federal agents described Meza as an important cog in the cartel machinery — the man who disposed of bodies killed by hit men working for Teodoro "El Teo" García Simental, who is vying for control of the Tijuana drug trafficking cartel. Officials say much of the violence that killed more than 5,700 people last year was the result of fighting among cartels for control of lucrative smuggling corridors into the United States.
On Monday, a group of men armed with heavy weapons attacked the municipal police station in La Mision, a Baja California coastal town between Tijuana and Ensenada, where Meza was arrested while attending a party at an RV resort by the beach. No one was hurt in the attack on the police station, which was hit by 200 rounds. Afterward, trucks stolen from California were found abandoned nearby.
Baja officials told El Universal newspaper that they did not know who fired at the police station or why but said they suspect the attack was in reprisal for the arrest of Meza and two companions. One of his companions was the personal chef for cartel boss García. The other man was the chef's assistant. García was also reportedly at the beach party but escaped, according to Mexican news accounts.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration identified García as the chief rival of alleged Arellano Félix cartel leader Fernando Sánchez Arellano, known as "El Ingeniero," the engineer. Fighting between the armies of El Teo and El Ingeniero is responsible for much of the daily slaughter around the border city of Tijuana, according to Mexican law enforcement officials.
At the Sunday news conference, federal agents described "the recipe" followed by the Stewmaker: "The procedure to dispose of the corpses was to fill a drum with 200 liters of water and then put two sacks of caustic soda, put it over a fire and when it started to boil, put in the bodies."
Nine years of human disposals
The human remains, according to the federal agents, cooked for eight hours, and afterward there was nothing left but teeth and nails. After the liquid cooled, Meza allegedly put the remains in a plastic tub, took it to an empty lot and burned it with gasoline, according to federal agents.
The attorney general of Baja California, Rommel Moreno, said Meza will be shown photos of missing persons to see if he recognizes any. According to authorities, Meza said that when he received the bodies, the victims were already dead. Meza, a former truck driver, told authorities he had been disposing of corpses for the past nine years.
This has been a violent month along the border. On Friday, a prominent Tijuana businessman was shot and killed outside his home by what police describe as drug-addicted robbers. Rafael Fimbres Hernández was a well-known member of the Tijuana family that founded the Calimax supermarket chain. In Ciudad Juarez, the most deadly city in Mexico, local reporters have tallied 104 murders in January, including nine on Sunday.
© 2009 The Washington Post Company
Hahahaha -- Cougars in Michigan. At some bar in Royal Oak, probably...
Supplemental Notice Of Legislative Committees
TUESDAY, JANUARY 27
Senate Economic Development and Regulatory Reform (Committee Record), (Chr. Sanborn, 373-7670), Rm. 402/403 Capitol, 3:30 p.m.
· ERGONOMICS RULES BAN (Sanborn) Prohibits promulgation of rules regarding workplace ergonomics. (Bill request No. 1016; to be introduced.)
THURSDAY, JANUARY 29
Senate Agriculture (Committee Record), (Chr. VanWoerkom, 373-1635), Rm. 110 Farnum, 9 a.m.
· Presentation on the presence of cougars in Michigan
TUESDAY, JANUARY 27
Senate Economic Development and Regulatory Reform (Committee Record), (Chr. Sanborn, 373-7670), Rm. 402/403 Capitol, 3:30 p.m.
· ERGONOMICS RULES BAN (Sanborn) Prohibits promulgation of rules regarding workplace ergonomics. (Bill request No. 1016; to be introduced.)
THURSDAY, JANUARY 29
Senate Agriculture (Committee Record), (Chr. VanWoerkom, 373-1635), Rm. 110 Farnum, 9 a.m.
· Presentation on the presence of cougars in Michigan
Becky and Amy -- BEWARE...
Octuplets' births surprise California doctors
(CNN) -- A woman in California delivered what may be the nation's second live-born set of octuplets on Monday morning, surprising doctors who expected seven babies.
The six boys and two girls -- ranging in weight from 1 pound 8 ounces to 3 pounds 4 ounces -- were generally doing well in incubators following their Caesarean-section delivery at Kaiser Permanente hospital in Bellflower, California, doctors said.
Three of the babies need breathing assistance, but otherwise the eight don't appear to have serious problems, doctors said at a news conference Monday evening.
"It was a truly amazing delivery," said Dr. Karen Maples, chief of the hospital's obstetrics and gynecology department.
Doctors initially believed the mother -- whom they did not identify -- was pregnant with seven fetuses. The woman was 23 weeks pregnant when she was hospitalized seven weeks ago and ordered to bed rest.
Over a seven-week period, a team of 46 physicians, nurses and other staff prepared for the births. When they started the delivery Monday -- more than nine weeks before the babies would be full term -- they were in for a surprise.
"After we got to Baby G, we were surprised by the discovery of a Baby H," Maples said.
Getting the number correct with ultrasounds before delivery is difficult with so many babies, said Dr. Harold Henry, the hospital's chief of fetal medicine.
"It is quite easy to miss a baby when you're expecting seven," Henry said.
The hospital said the woman didn't want her personal information released to the news media, and it would not answer questions about whether she'd had fertility treatments.
Preliminary research indicates this is the second set of live-born octuplets in the United States, according to the hospital.
Eight babies believed to be the United States' first set of live octuplets were born in Houston, Texas, in 1998. One of the infants died days after birth. The seven other siblings recently celebrated their 10th birthday, the Houston Chronicle reported last month.
The first three to seven days will be critical for the California babies, said Dr. Mandhir Gupta, one of the doctors at the news conference. The infants could be in incubators for six to eight weeks and in the hospital for 10 weeks, Gupta said.
The mother is doing "very well" after the deliveries, which took about five minutes, Gupta said.
"She is very excited that she [has] all these babies and that the babies are looking good so far," Gupta said.
(CNN) -- A woman in California delivered what may be the nation's second live-born set of octuplets on Monday morning, surprising doctors who expected seven babies.
The six boys and two girls -- ranging in weight from 1 pound 8 ounces to 3 pounds 4 ounces -- were generally doing well in incubators following their Caesarean-section delivery at Kaiser Permanente hospital in Bellflower, California, doctors said.
Three of the babies need breathing assistance, but otherwise the eight don't appear to have serious problems, doctors said at a news conference Monday evening.
"It was a truly amazing delivery," said Dr. Karen Maples, chief of the hospital's obstetrics and gynecology department.
Doctors initially believed the mother -- whom they did not identify -- was pregnant with seven fetuses. The woman was 23 weeks pregnant when she was hospitalized seven weeks ago and ordered to bed rest.
Over a seven-week period, a team of 46 physicians, nurses and other staff prepared for the births. When they started the delivery Monday -- more than nine weeks before the babies would be full term -- they were in for a surprise.
"After we got to Baby G, we were surprised by the discovery of a Baby H," Maples said.
Getting the number correct with ultrasounds before delivery is difficult with so many babies, said Dr. Harold Henry, the hospital's chief of fetal medicine.
"It is quite easy to miss a baby when you're expecting seven," Henry said.
The hospital said the woman didn't want her personal information released to the news media, and it would not answer questions about whether she'd had fertility treatments.
Preliminary research indicates this is the second set of live-born octuplets in the United States, according to the hospital.
Eight babies believed to be the United States' first set of live octuplets were born in Houston, Texas, in 1998. One of the infants died days after birth. The seven other siblings recently celebrated their 10th birthday, the Houston Chronicle reported last month.
The first three to seven days will be critical for the California babies, said Dr. Mandhir Gupta, one of the doctors at the news conference. The infants could be in incubators for six to eight weeks and in the hospital for 10 weeks, Gupta said.
The mother is doing "very well" after the deliveries, which took about five minutes, Gupta said.
"She is very excited that she [has] all these babies and that the babies are looking good so far," Gupta said.
Way to go, secret government agencies...
Thrift store MP3 player contains secret military files
(CNN) -- A man walks into a thrift store.
It sounds like the opening line to a bad joke. And this case was a bad joke -- for the Pentagon.
Chris Ogle of New Zealand was in Oklahoma about a year ago when he bought a used MP3 player from a thrift store for $9. A few weeks ago, he plugged it into his computer to download a song, and he instead discovered confidential U.S. military files.
"The more I look at it, the more I see, and the less I think I should be," Ogle said with a nervous laugh in an interview with TVNZ.
The files included the home addresses, Social Security numbers and cell phone numbers of U.S. soldiers. The player also included what appeared to be mission briefings and lists of equipment deployed to hot spots in Afghanistan and Iraq. Most of the information appears to date to 2005.
The New Zealand journalist who first reported the story was able to contact at least one of the soldiers by dialing a phone number found in the files. He hung up once she explained why she was calling. Watch how man discovered secret military files »
Pentagon officials told CNN that they are aware of the MP3 player, but can't talk about it until investigators confirm that the information came from the U.S. Department of Defense.
"The government isn't doing a good job of protecting the information that it collects," said Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington.
Despite government efforts to protect sensitive information, this is a growing problem, privacy experts say.
Two years ago, the Department of Veterans Affairs lost track of a laptop with the personal information of millions of soldiers. And computer hard drives with classified military information have been found for sale at street markets in Afghanistan.
"When you can identify American personnel, when you have their names, their home address, their cell phone numbers, you put people in a dangerous position," Rotenberg said.
In this case, the personal information for several hundred soldiers landed in friendly hands. Ogle told CNN the MP3 player is being kept in a safe place and he will happily turn it over to U.S. military officials if they ask for it.
(CNN) -- A man walks into a thrift store.
It sounds like the opening line to a bad joke. And this case was a bad joke -- for the Pentagon.
Chris Ogle of New Zealand was in Oklahoma about a year ago when he bought a used MP3 player from a thrift store for $9. A few weeks ago, he plugged it into his computer to download a song, and he instead discovered confidential U.S. military files.
"The more I look at it, the more I see, and the less I think I should be," Ogle said with a nervous laugh in an interview with TVNZ.
The files included the home addresses, Social Security numbers and cell phone numbers of U.S. soldiers. The player also included what appeared to be mission briefings and lists of equipment deployed to hot spots in Afghanistan and Iraq. Most of the information appears to date to 2005.
The New Zealand journalist who first reported the story was able to contact at least one of the soldiers by dialing a phone number found in the files. He hung up once she explained why she was calling. Watch how man discovered secret military files »
Pentagon officials told CNN that they are aware of the MP3 player, but can't talk about it until investigators confirm that the information came from the U.S. Department of Defense.
"The government isn't doing a good job of protecting the information that it collects," said Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington.
Despite government efforts to protect sensitive information, this is a growing problem, privacy experts say.
Two years ago, the Department of Veterans Affairs lost track of a laptop with the personal information of millions of soldiers. And computer hard drives with classified military information have been found for sale at street markets in Afghanistan.
"When you can identify American personnel, when you have their names, their home address, their cell phone numbers, you put people in a dangerous position," Rotenberg said.
In this case, the personal information for several hundred soldiers landed in friendly hands. Ogle told CNN the MP3 player is being kept in a safe place and he will happily turn it over to U.S. military officials if they ask for it.
Monday, January 5, 2009
How is 20 Years A Lifetime??
Scientists: True love can last a lifetime
(CNN) -- Love's first blush fading? Lost that loving feeling? Love is not all around?
Sick of cliches?
Take heart, scientists have discovered that people can have a love that lasts a lifetime.
Using brain scans, researchers at Stony Brook University in New York have discovered a small number of couples respond with as much passion after 20 years together as most people only do during the early throes of romance, Britain's Sunday Times newspaper reported.
The researchers scanned the brains of couples together for 20 years and compared them with results from new lovers, the Sunday Times said.
About 10 percent of the mature couples had the same chemical reactions when shown photographs of their loved ones as those just starting out.
Previous research has suggested that the first stages of romantic love fade within 15 months and after 10 years it has gone completely, the newspaper said.
"The findings go against the traditional view of romance -- that it drops off sharply in the first decade -- but we are sure it's real," said Arthur Aron, a psychologist at Stony Brook, told the Sunday Times.
(CNN) -- Love's first blush fading? Lost that loving feeling? Love is not all around?
Sick of cliches?
Take heart, scientists have discovered that people can have a love that lasts a lifetime.
Using brain scans, researchers at Stony Brook University in New York have discovered a small number of couples respond with as much passion after 20 years together as most people only do during the early throes of romance, Britain's Sunday Times newspaper reported.
The researchers scanned the brains of couples together for 20 years and compared them with results from new lovers, the Sunday Times said.
About 10 percent of the mature couples had the same chemical reactions when shown photographs of their loved ones as those just starting out.
Previous research has suggested that the first stages of romantic love fade within 15 months and after 10 years it has gone completely, the newspaper said.
"The findings go against the traditional view of romance -- that it drops off sharply in the first decade -- but we are sure it's real," said Arthur Aron, a psychologist at Stony Brook, told the Sunday Times.
Bitch, you better have my money...
Obama plan includes $300 billion in tax cuts
The New York Times
WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama plans to include about $300 billion in tax cuts for workers and businesses in his economic recovery program, advisers said Sunday, as his team seeks to win over Congressional skeptics worried that he was too focused on government spending.
The legislation Mr. Obama is developing with Congressional Democrats will devote about 40 percent of the cost to tax cuts, including his centerpiece campaign promise to provide credits up to $500 for most workers, costing roughly $150 billion. The package will also include more than $100 billion in tax incentives for businesses to create jobs and invest in equipment or factories.
The overall economic package, of $675 billion to $775 billion, is taking shape as Mr. Obama arrived in Washington and planned to begin trying to build support in Congress and among the broader public for his approach to stimulating the economy. Mr. Obama, who flew to the capital on Sunday to join his family in a hotel suite while awaiting his inauguration, planned to meet with Congressional leaders on Monday and deliver a speech on Thursday laying the ground for his emerging economic program.
Although some tax cuts were always expected to be included in Mr. Obama’s economic package, his team disclosed the scope and some details of the plans on Sunday at a time when Republicans have begun voicing criticism of what they describe as an open-checkbook approach to spending. By focusing more attention on the tax cuts in the plan, Obama aides hope to frame it as a balanced, pragmatic approach.
'Radical reforms'
Mr. Obama will use his public events this week to promise what one adviser called “radical reforms” to impose more control over the regular federal budget down the road. Among other areas, the president-elect will focus on changing Pentagon contracting and aid to corporate America, advisers said. He will also designate a chief performance officer and a chief technology officer on Wednesday to help make government more efficient, they said.
Still, Democratic leaders in Congress acknowledged that the economic package would not be ready for Mr. Obama’s signature immediately after his inauguration on Jan. 20, as they once hoped.
“It’s going to be very difficult to get the package put together that early so that it can have sufficient time to be reviewed, and then sufficient time to be debated and passed,” Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the House majority leader, said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Mr. Hoyer said a more likely goal would be mid-February before Congress leaves on a Presidents’ Day recess. “We certainly want to see this package passed through the House of Representatives no later than the end of this month, get it over to the Senate, and have it to the president before we break for the presidential break,” Mr. Hoyer said.
Congressional Republicans continued to press for more public hearings and study, and some of their leaders threw out their own ideas for what should be in the plan. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, proposed Sunday that any money distributed to the states be provided as loans rather than outright grants.
“Nobody thinks we ought to be spending this money on things like mob museums and waterslides,” Mr. McConnell said on “This Week” on ABC. “And if the money were lent rather than just granted, states would I think spend it wisely, and the states that didn’t need it at all wouldn’t take any.”
Mr. McConnell said Republicans were more likely to favor tax relief and tax credits as part of the economic measure and said Congress should consider reducing the 25 percent income tax rate to 15 percent.
Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House speaker, said Congress would also take on the issue of waste in federal agencies, though she was not ready to disclose details of her approach. “We will have reforms related to waste, fraud and abuse,” she said in an interview.
Other Congressional officials said House Democrats would consider a plan this week requiring a new audit of all federal agencies and mandating Congressional hearings whenever inspectors general identify potential waste or fraud.
Mr. Obama’s team argued Sunday that the short-term cost of its economic plan was not a priority in the face of the dire problems in the economy. “There is no short run, other than keeping the economy from absolutely tanking. That’s the only short run,” Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. said on “This Week.” He added, “We’ve got to begin to stem this bleeding here, and begin to stop the loss of jobs and the creation of jobs.”
The economic package under consideration by the president-elect and his Congressional allies would commit $675 billion to $775 billion over two years. If the tax cuts represent 40 percent of that, as Mr. Obama’s advisers said Sunday, that would mean about $270 billion to $310 billion.
About half of that would go to workers under what Mr. Obama during his campaign called the Making Work Pay credit, worth up to $500 for individuals and $1,000 for families. The Obama campaign estimated that about 150 million Americans making less than $200,000 would qualify, including those who make too little to pay federal income taxes but would receive a check that would offset Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes.
Focus on stimulating spending
Mr. Obama’s advisers said Sunday that they were searching for a way to get that credit into Americans’ pockets quickly to help stimulate spending, but would not duplicate the rebate checks sent last year as part of an economic package signed by President Bush. Instead, they said, they were discussing making the credit retroactive to the 2008 tax year and adjusting withholding formulas so paychecks would start reflecting that right away.
Mr. Obama’s advisers said they were still discussing with Congressional leaders the precise plan for phasing out the credit for wealthier Americans. They said no tax increases were included in the plan because it was focused on measures that create jobs. Obama aides have signaled that they will wait to let Mr. Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans expire in 2010, rather than try to repeal them sooner.
Likewise, other tax proposals Mr. Obama made in the campaign are not in the economic package because they are not aimed directly at job creation. Aides said the president-elect might return to those later on, possibly as early as the annual budget proposal he is to present in February.
“There are lots of priorities that are not included here, not because they are any less important in the long run but because we really want to stick to the principle that this is an economic recovery plan,” one adviser said.
To encourage businesses to expand their work forces and operations, Mr. Obama wants a tax credit for each job created. During the campaign, he proposed $3,000 for each job. Advisers said he was now also trying to figure out a way to give incentives to businesses to resist cutting jobs, as so many have been doing.
The economic plan will also include other tax breaks intended to stir capital investment. The stimulus package Mr. Bush signed last year included a provision generally allowing businesses immediate depreciation of half of their spending in 2008 on new equipment, rather than spreading out that depreciation over years, reducing their immediate tax burdens. Mr. Obama’s advisers said they were planning to build on that, either by extending it to investment in 2009 and 2010 or through some other mechanism.
The Obama plan would also allow businesses to apply net operating losses from last year to offset tax liabilities from prior years, enabling them to claim refunds from the government now in hopes of encouraging capital investment, much as was done in a 2002 economic stimulus plan.
The New York Times
WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama plans to include about $300 billion in tax cuts for workers and businesses in his economic recovery program, advisers said Sunday, as his team seeks to win over Congressional skeptics worried that he was too focused on government spending.
The legislation Mr. Obama is developing with Congressional Democrats will devote about 40 percent of the cost to tax cuts, including his centerpiece campaign promise to provide credits up to $500 for most workers, costing roughly $150 billion. The package will also include more than $100 billion in tax incentives for businesses to create jobs and invest in equipment or factories.
The overall economic package, of $675 billion to $775 billion, is taking shape as Mr. Obama arrived in Washington and planned to begin trying to build support in Congress and among the broader public for his approach to stimulating the economy. Mr. Obama, who flew to the capital on Sunday to join his family in a hotel suite while awaiting his inauguration, planned to meet with Congressional leaders on Monday and deliver a speech on Thursday laying the ground for his emerging economic program.
Although some tax cuts were always expected to be included in Mr. Obama’s economic package, his team disclosed the scope and some details of the plans on Sunday at a time when Republicans have begun voicing criticism of what they describe as an open-checkbook approach to spending. By focusing more attention on the tax cuts in the plan, Obama aides hope to frame it as a balanced, pragmatic approach.
'Radical reforms'
Mr. Obama will use his public events this week to promise what one adviser called “radical reforms” to impose more control over the regular federal budget down the road. Among other areas, the president-elect will focus on changing Pentagon contracting and aid to corporate America, advisers said. He will also designate a chief performance officer and a chief technology officer on Wednesday to help make government more efficient, they said.
Still, Democratic leaders in Congress acknowledged that the economic package would not be ready for Mr. Obama’s signature immediately after his inauguration on Jan. 20, as they once hoped.
“It’s going to be very difficult to get the package put together that early so that it can have sufficient time to be reviewed, and then sufficient time to be debated and passed,” Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the House majority leader, said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Mr. Hoyer said a more likely goal would be mid-February before Congress leaves on a Presidents’ Day recess. “We certainly want to see this package passed through the House of Representatives no later than the end of this month, get it over to the Senate, and have it to the president before we break for the presidential break,” Mr. Hoyer said.
Congressional Republicans continued to press for more public hearings and study, and some of their leaders threw out their own ideas for what should be in the plan. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, proposed Sunday that any money distributed to the states be provided as loans rather than outright grants.
“Nobody thinks we ought to be spending this money on things like mob museums and waterslides,” Mr. McConnell said on “This Week” on ABC. “And if the money were lent rather than just granted, states would I think spend it wisely, and the states that didn’t need it at all wouldn’t take any.”
Mr. McConnell said Republicans were more likely to favor tax relief and tax credits as part of the economic measure and said Congress should consider reducing the 25 percent income tax rate to 15 percent.
Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House speaker, said Congress would also take on the issue of waste in federal agencies, though she was not ready to disclose details of her approach. “We will have reforms related to waste, fraud and abuse,” she said in an interview.
Other Congressional officials said House Democrats would consider a plan this week requiring a new audit of all federal agencies and mandating Congressional hearings whenever inspectors general identify potential waste or fraud.
Mr. Obama’s team argued Sunday that the short-term cost of its economic plan was not a priority in the face of the dire problems in the economy. “There is no short run, other than keeping the economy from absolutely tanking. That’s the only short run,” Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. said on “This Week.” He added, “We’ve got to begin to stem this bleeding here, and begin to stop the loss of jobs and the creation of jobs.”
The economic package under consideration by the president-elect and his Congressional allies would commit $675 billion to $775 billion over two years. If the tax cuts represent 40 percent of that, as Mr. Obama’s advisers said Sunday, that would mean about $270 billion to $310 billion.
About half of that would go to workers under what Mr. Obama during his campaign called the Making Work Pay credit, worth up to $500 for individuals and $1,000 for families. The Obama campaign estimated that about 150 million Americans making less than $200,000 would qualify, including those who make too little to pay federal income taxes but would receive a check that would offset Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes.
Focus on stimulating spending
Mr. Obama’s advisers said Sunday that they were searching for a way to get that credit into Americans’ pockets quickly to help stimulate spending, but would not duplicate the rebate checks sent last year as part of an economic package signed by President Bush. Instead, they said, they were discussing making the credit retroactive to the 2008 tax year and adjusting withholding formulas so paychecks would start reflecting that right away.
Mr. Obama’s advisers said they were still discussing with Congressional leaders the precise plan for phasing out the credit for wealthier Americans. They said no tax increases were included in the plan because it was focused on measures that create jobs. Obama aides have signaled that they will wait to let Mr. Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans expire in 2010, rather than try to repeal them sooner.
Likewise, other tax proposals Mr. Obama made in the campaign are not in the economic package because they are not aimed directly at job creation. Aides said the president-elect might return to those later on, possibly as early as the annual budget proposal he is to present in February.
“There are lots of priorities that are not included here, not because they are any less important in the long run but because we really want to stick to the principle that this is an economic recovery plan,” one adviser said.
To encourage businesses to expand their work forces and operations, Mr. Obama wants a tax credit for each job created. During the campaign, he proposed $3,000 for each job. Advisers said he was now also trying to figure out a way to give incentives to businesses to resist cutting jobs, as so many have been doing.
The economic plan will also include other tax breaks intended to stir capital investment. The stimulus package Mr. Bush signed last year included a provision generally allowing businesses immediate depreciation of half of their spending in 2008 on new equipment, rather than spreading out that depreciation over years, reducing their immediate tax burdens. Mr. Obama’s advisers said they were planning to build on that, either by extending it to investment in 2009 and 2010 or through some other mechanism.
The Obama plan would also allow businesses to apply net operating losses from last year to offset tax liabilities from prior years, enabling them to claim refunds from the government now in hopes of encouraging capital investment, much as was done in a 2002 economic stimulus plan.
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