Dialing for Derivatives

We love you Rick Moranis, God bless you in the new year and we hope you and your kids have a wonderful 2010.


From the New York Times
Op-Ed Contributor
Dialing for Derivatives
By RICK MORANIS
Published: January 31, 2009
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Rick Moranis is a writer and actor.

Tell Jim Webb to Put a Sock In It

I LOVE the state of Massachusetts. And oYEAH quite a poop-rising-around-Nancy-Pelosi's-Ferragamo's-freak-out on Capitol Hill. And Barney Frank's sputtering more than an overflowing waffle-iron. This is the grace of God alone. Breaking the Kennedy vice-grip could be synonymous with something Fran Lebowitz wrote about the probability of "finding a rabbi in Iraq". Thank you Lord! Now Mr. Brown, don't blow it.

Credit to AP Wire via Drudgereport - Kisses, Matty

In epic upset, GOP's Brown wins Mass. Senate race

AP – Massachusetts State Sen. Scott Brown, R-Wrentham, celebrates in Boston, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010, after … By GLEN JOHNSON and LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writers Glen Johnson And Liz Sidoti, Associated Press Writers – 29 mins ago
BOSTON – In an epic upset in liberal Massachusetts, Republican Scott Brown rode a wave of voter anger to win the U.S. Senate seat held by the late Edward M. Kennedy for nearly half a century, leaving President Barack Obama's health care overhaul in doubt and marring the end of his first year in office.

Addressing an exuberant victory celebration Tuesday night, Brown declared he was "ready to go to Washington without delay" as the crowd chanted, "Seat him now." Democrats indicated they would, deflating a budding controversy over whether they would try to block Brown long enough to complete congressional passage of the health care plan he has promised to oppose.

"The people of Massachusetts have spoken. We welcome Scott Brown to the Senate and will move to seat him as soon as the proper paperwork has been received," said Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin said he would notify the Senate on Wednesday that Brown had been elected.

The loss by the once-favored Democrat Martha Coakley in the Democratic stronghold was a stunning embarrassment for the White House after Obama rushed to Boston on Sunday to try to save the foundering candidate. Her defeat on Tuesday signaled big political problems for the president's party this fall when House, Senate and gubernatorial candidates are on the ballot nationwide.

Brown's victory was the third major loss for Democrats in statewide elections since Obama became president. Republicans won governors' seats in Virginia and New Jersey in November.

"I have no interest in sugarcoating what happened in Massachusetts," said Sen. Robert Menendez, the head of the Senate Democrats' campaign committee. "There is a lot of anxiety in the country right now. Americans are understandably impatient."

Brown will become the 41st Republican in the 100-member Senate, which could allow the GOP to block the president's health care legislation. Democrats needed Coakley to win for a 60th vote to thwart Republican filibusters. The trouble may go deeper: Democratic lawmakers could read the results as a vote against Obama's broader agenda, weakening their support for the president. And the results could scare some Democrats from seeking office this fall.

The Republican will finish Kennedy's unexpired term, facing re-election in 2012.

Brown led by 52 per cent to 47 percent with all but 3 percent of precincts counted. Turnout was exceptional for a special election in January, with light snow reported in parts of the state. More voters showed up at the polls Tuesday than in any non-presidential general election in Massachusetts since 1990.

One day shy of the first anniversary of Obama's swearing-in, the election played out amid a backdrop of animosity and resentment from voters over persistently high unemployment, Wall Street bailouts, exploding federal budget deficits and partisan wrangling over health care.

"I voted for Obama because I wanted change. ... I thought he'd bring it to us, but I just don't like the direction that he's heading," said John Triolo, 38, a registered independent who voted in Fitchburg.

He said his frustrations, including what he considered the too-quick pace of health care legislation, led him to vote for Brown.

For weeks considered a long shot, Brown seized on voter discontent to overtake Coakley in the campaign's final stretch. His candidacy energized Republicans, including backers of the "tea party" protest movement, while attracting disappointed Democrats and independents uneasy with where they felt the nation was heading.

A cornerstone of Brown's campaign was his promise to vote against the health care plan.

Though the president wasn't on the ballot, he was on many voters' minds.

Coakley called Brown conceding the race, and Obama talked to both Brown and Coakley, congratulating them on the race.

The Democrat said the president told her: "We can't win them all."

Brown will be the first Republican senator from Massachusetts in 30 years.

Even before the first results were announced, administration officials were privately accusing Coakley of a poorly run campaign and playing down the notion that Obama or a toxic political landscape had much to do with the outcome.

Coakley's supporters, in turn, blamed that very environment, saying her lead dropped significantly after the Senate passed health care reform shortly before Christmas and after the Christmas Day attempted airliner bombing that Obama himself said showed a failure of his administration.

Days before the polls closed, Democrats were fingerpointing and laying blame.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, head of the House Democrats' campaign effort, said Coakley's loss won't deter his colleagues from continuing to blame the previous administration.

"President George W. Bush and House Republicans drove our economy into a ditch and tried to run away from the accident," he said. "President Obama and congressional Democrats have been focused repairing the damage to our economy."

At Boston's Park Plaza Hotel, giddy Republicans cheered, chanted "USA" and waved the "tea party" version of the American flag.

Even before Brown won, the grass-roots network fueled by antiestablishment frustrations, sought credit for the victory, much like the liberal MoveOn.org did in the 2006 midterm elections when Democrats rose to power.

GOP chairman Michael Steele said Brown's "message of lower taxes, smaller government and fiscal responsibility clearly resonated with independent-minded voters in Massachusetts who were looking for a solution to decades of failed Democrat leadership."

Wall Street watched the election closely. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 116 points, and analysts attributed the increase to hopes the election would make it harder for Obama to make his changes to health care. That eased investor concerns that profits at companies such as insurers and drug makers would suffer.

Across Massachusetts, voters who had been bombarded with phone calls and dizzied with nonstop campaign commercials for Coakley and Brown gave a fitting turnout despite intermittent snow and rain statewide.

Galvin, who discounted sporadic reports of voter irregularities throughout the day, predicted turnout ranging from 1.6 million to 2.2 million, 40 percent to 55 percent of registered voters. The Dec. 8 primary had a scant turnout of about 20 percent.

Voters considered national issues including health care and the federal budget deficits.

Fears about spending drove Karla Bunch, 49, to vote for Brown. "It's time for the country, for the taxpayers, to take back their money," she said. And Elizabeth Reddin, 65, voted for Brown because she said she was turned off by the Democrat's negative advertisements, saying: "The Coakley stuff was disgusting."

___

Liz Sidoti reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Beth Fouhy, Bob Salsberg, Steve LeBlanc, Karen Testa, Kevin Vineys and Stephanie Reitz

God Bless You Abby Johnson for Leaving Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood Director Leaves, Has Change of Heart

Posted: 11:23 PM Nov 1, 2009
Reporter: Ashlea Sigman
Email Address: Sigman@kbtx.com

CREDIT TO KTBX online network and Ashlea Sigman

Planned Parenthood has been a part of Abby Johnson's life for the past eight years; that is until last month, when Abby resigned. Johnson said she realized she wanted to leave, after watching an ultrasound of an abortion procedure.

"I just thought I can't do this anymore, and it was just like a flash that hit me and I thought that's it," said Jonhson.

She handed in her resignation October 6. Johnson worked as the Bryan Planned Parenthood Director for two years.

According to Johnson, the non-profit was struggling under the weight of a tough economy, and changing it's business model from one that pushed prevention, to one that focused on abortion.

"It seemed like maybe that's not what a lot of people were believing any more because that's not where the money was. The money wasn't in family planning, the money wasn't in prevention, the money was in abortion and so I had a problem with that," said Johnson.

Johnson said she was told to bring in more women who wanted abortions, something the Episcopalian church goer recently became convicted about.

"I feel so pure in heart (since leaving). I don't have this guilt, I don't have this burden on me anymore that's how I know this conversion was a spiritual conversion."

Johnson now supports the Coalition For Life, the pro-life group with a building down the street from Planned Parenthood. Coalition volunteers can regularly be seen praying on the sidewalk in front of Planned Parenthood. Johnson has been meeting with the coalition's executive director, Shawn Carney, and has prayed with volunteers outside Planned Parenthood.

On Friday both Johnson and the Coalition For Life were issued temporary restraining orders filed by Planned Parenthood.

Rochelle Tafolla, a Planned Parenthood spokesperson issued the following statement: "We regret being forced to turn to the courts to protect the safety and confidentiality of our clients and staff, however, in this instance it is absolutely necessary."

The temporary restraining order contends that Planned Parenthood would be irreparably harmed by the disclosure of certain information, but does not bar Johnson or Coalition For Life volunteers from the premises.

As of Sunday evening, neither Johnson nor Carney had seen the complaint filed against them that prompted the restraining order.

A hearing about the order has been set for November 10.

Miep Gies Passes Away at 100

“First, Margot had fallen out of bed onto the stone floor. She couldn’t get up anymore. Anne died a day later.”

Janny Brilleslijper provided an eyewitness account of the deaths of Margot and Anne Frank in Bergen-Belsen.

At the end of October 1944, Anne and Margot are transported from Auschwitz-Birkenau to Bergen-Belsen. Their mother remains behind in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Edith falls ill and dies of exhaustion in January 1945. Auguste van Pels arrives at Bergen-Belsen with another transport of prisoners in November 1944. There she meets Anne and Margot again. Auguste van Pels is only at Bergen-Belsen for a short while and probably dies during a transport of prisoners to Theresienstadt. Anne and Margot succumb to typhus in March 1945, a few weeks before the camp is liberated by the British Army.

“Dearest Mother,

I hope that these lines get to you bringing you and and all the ones I love the news that I have been saved by the Russians, that I am well, am in good spirits, and being looked after well in every respect. Where Edith and the children are I do not know. We have been apart since September 5, 1944. I merely heard that they have been trans-
ported to Germany. One has to be hopeful to see them back well and healthy.”

The first letter from Otto Frank to his mother, February 23, 1945.

Otto Frank is liberated from Auschwitz on January 27, 1945. Shortly before his release, the Nazis evacuate the camp. Prisoners, who can still walk, must go with them. Peter van Pels is among these prisoners. He arrives at the Mathausen concentration camp in Austria at the end of Janaury. The prisoners have to perform heavy labor. Peter van Pels dies of exhaustion on May 5, 1945.


courtesy of the Anne Frank online museum; http://www.annefrank.org/content.asp?pid=160&lid=2


We honor Miep Gies who hid and supplied for Anne Frank, her family and others hiding with them for those 24 harrowing months prior to their subsequent capture, imprisonment and murder right before the end of WWII.

Gies saved Anne's diary before abandoning her home to the Nazi machine. Miep Gies had her own website and died in a nursing home in Amsterdam at the incredible age of 100 today.


Accolades

Mrs Gies was an employee of Anne Frank's father, Otto, who kept them and six others supplied during their two years in hiding in an attic in Amsterdam from 1942 to 1944.

But the family were found by the authorities, and deported. Gies and Otto Frank, next to her, were reunited after the war; Anne Frank died of typhus in the German concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen later.

It was Mrs Gies who collected up Anne Frank's papers, and locked them away, hoping that one day she would be able to give them back to the girl.

In the event, she returned them to Otto Frank, and helped him compile them into a diary that was published in 1947.

It went on to sell tens of millions of copies in dozens of languages.

She became a kind of ambassador for the diary, travelling to talk about Anne Frank and her experiences, campaigning against Holocaust denial and refuting allegations that the diary was a forgery.

For her efforts to protect the Franks and to preserve their memory, Mrs Gies won many accolades.

"This is very unfair," she told the Associated Press.

"So many others have done the same or even far more dangerous work."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7891056.stm February 2009

Goodbye Tavern

End of an era for New York's Tavern on the Green January 1, 2010 1:39 p.m. EST

Central Park

New York (CNN) -- The legendary New York restaurant Tavern on the Green closed its doors early Friday after serving its last supper and hosting a New Year's Eve party.

The iconic spot on the western edge of Central Park will undergo major renovations under a new operator and may even retain its famous name, but to many patrons, this is indisputably the end of an era.

Claudia Myers and Wayne Knowles, a semi-retired couple visiting recently from Norfolk, Virginia, were saddened by the news and decided to treat themselves to one last Tavern dinner. "I came here years ago and had good memories," Knowles said.

"It's the atmosphere and ambience," Myers added. "Everyone knows what Tavern on the Green is and where it is" -- here, Myers paused -- "except one cab driver. It's just a neat place. It has history, and it's in the park."

Ed Brown and his wife, Judy, also were in town for the holidays from Plantation, Florida, and were aware of the restaurant's plans. "It's my first and last time eating at Tavern on the Green," Brown said. "At least I can now say I ate there."

Rodney Shephard, the restaurant's maitre d' for the past 23 years, recently prepared for his last party. The event for 1,500 guests is nothing he couldn't handle, but he wasn't looking forward to the party on his last day of employment there.

"I never thought this day would come," said Shephard, 52. "Not like this. Not like the money-making machine that this place is."

The restaurant served its first meal in 1936, when Mayor Fiorello La Guardia presided over its opening as the city and the country were trying to dig out from the Great Depression.

iReporter enjoys a final meal at Tavern on the Green

The restaurant almost died in 1974, when the operator shuttered the "rustic little money-losing pub," as New York Times food writer Eric Asimov later described it.

But Warner LeRoy took over the Tavern's lease and invested $10 million in renovations. He added two rooms to the existing four and installed scores of copper and brass chandeliers, Tiffany-style stained glass, bull's-eye glass mirrors and ornate pastel-colored fixtures, as well as a 167-foot mural depicting Central Park.

After its 1976 reopening, words like "playful," "dazzling" and "eclectic" were used to describe the restaurant's ambience and the menu. "It was an over-the-top whimsical place," longtime publicist Shelley Clark said.

Warner LeRoy's father, Mervyn LeRoy, produced the film "The Wizard of Oz." A black-and-white photograph hanging in the Tavern shows Warner as a child with Judy Garland on the set of the 1939 movie.

See iReporter's photos of the famed restaurant

Jennifer Oz LeRoy, in her recently published book "Tavern on the Green -- 125 Recipes for Good Times," which was co-authored by her mother, Kay, described the vision of the restaurant that her father wanted.

"When he walked into the courtyard of the run-down building, he imagined something wholly original and incredible: He would build a room in that space that would look like the inside of a wedding cake," she recalled.

"He was a brilliant showman and a brilliant restaurateur. He was bigger than life," said the Tavern's chief operating officer, Michael Desiderio. "He thought dining is like a great show, and when the curtain goes up, everything must be perfect."

Shephard, who started as a front desk manager, fondly recalled LeRoy and the sense of family that he brought to the establishment: "It's like a second home. I consider the employees like your brothers and sisters, and now it's all going to be cut off."

The restaurant became the destination for anniversaries, birthdays and family affairs, serving more than 500,000 people a year -- an average of 1,400 dinners a night. Tourists eagerly descended upon the eatery for the crab cakes, wedge salad, salmon and Parmesan-crusted chicken.

Food critics didn't share in the enthusiasm.

Andrew Knowlton, restaurant editor for Bon Appetit magazine, said the restaurant has never been the greatest venue for foodies. "When you're serving 2,000 meals a deal, I don't care if you're [chefs] Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Daniel Boulud, you just can't put out that much of a volume and have top-quality food."

The LeRoy family was forced to file for bankruptcy in 2009 after losing a bidding war for the lease to another proprietor, Dean Poll, who also owns the Boathouse Restaurant in Central Park. Now that the restaurant is closed, its contents will be auctioned off by Guernsey's auction house.

As part of the 20-year license to operate the restaurant, Poll is expected to invest $25 million in renovations.

While maintaining the Victorian historic features of the building, Poll's plan is to incorporate green building technology, as well as replacing the kitchen and electrical and plumbing systems. The renovations, which are expected to take four years, will be conducted in phases so the restaurant can remain open.

Attorney Barry LePatner, who represents Poll, said the new revitalized restaurant will become a popular destination for tourists and New Yorkers alike. "The new incarnation of Tavern on the Green will integrate modern respect with an iconic location and a sensibility that will warm to New Yorkers," LePatner said. "We want more New Yorkers as well as tourists."

LePatner said that while the terms of the lease are still being negotiated with the city parks department and issues with labor unions are still unresolved, Poll's vision is to create a new era. "The game plan is to have one of the biggest creative moments in the history of the city, and bring Tavern on the Green back to its original, enhanced luster."

One issue still unresolved is the name of the restaurant, which the current management estimates is valued at $19 million. The LeRoy family says it trademarked the name in 1981. U.S. District Court Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum is expected to rule on the issue in January.

In the meantime, LePatner said, the city has filed a trademark for "Tavern in the Park," but he said Poll would like to retain the original name and feels it should rest with the site.