What we can and must learn from the Great Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami of 2011.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

This week nature in all its brutal savagery punished us, hitting our brothers in Japan with an earthquake of unparalleled strength and a tsunami that was the very definition of awe.

Today the world is rightly focused on the necessary work that follows such a cataclysmic event -- there are still survivors being pulled from the rubble of their lives... there are bodies, thousands of bodies, bobbing in the surf, a sight horrible and mesmerizing.

There are the dispossessed to feed, house, and comfort. Their worlds are gone... and in that instant the great earthquake struck their worlds were eradicated. They are now strangers in a land once theirs, now crushed by the profound power of nature.

These people need assistance, and they need it now.  Fortunately, the governments of this  planet, and the generous peoples of the world, are reasonably equipped to handle even this severe and escalating need.

But let us be very clear with each other: this work, no matter how urgent and pressing, is not the only work to be done regarding this raw and potent occurrence; the real work will be putting this event under a microscope. For the next great earthquake, the next great tsunami is already forming... and we must be better prepared. Here, then, is what we must do.

1) We must first treat these events not merely as crises which diverted our attention and lives but as learning opportunities. We must know which preparations and responses worked and how these things could be improved. We must also be clear on what went wrong, in each and every aspect of the matter. Those who ignore the lessons of the past are compelled to relive its horrors, unnecessarily so.

2) There must be a review of all in place tsunami reporting methods. Every time we improve our warning systems, by even a single minute, the lives of real people are saved. Thus, we must be certain that the latest tsunami warning technologies are in place and that adequate provision has been made for their improvement.

3) The world's nuclear nations must gather, with grave and serious intent, to review in the most minute detail, each and every nuclear installation on this planet. This scrutiny must be scientific, dispassionate, thorough.  

The events of this week in Japan will undoubtedly fuel acute hostility to nuclear power. Many will wish, indeed insist, on throwing the baby of nuclear power out with its bath water. Now is the moment when calmer heads must prevail.

The great nations, you see, rely upon this power source. The question should be how to ensure its safety, not how to facilitate its removal. Now, then, is the right and proper moment to review, in full detail, each aspect of each facility. These facilities were created with human limitations. Today, therefore, some of these facilities are at more risk than others. So, let us resolve, not to condemn, but to scrutinize and improve.

4) Communications must be better understood and improved. Leaders of the world must understand and review their role in the dissemination of crucial details. Questions about what information should be distributed and how are far too important to be left to commercial news media, which have different objectives.

The minute the earthquake happened, the minute the tsunami  occurred, the  Internet was full of concern, anxiety -- and waves of disinformation which continue to this minute.

This was the moment for President Obama and other world leaders to take control of the story... and, understanding the anxiety of the people, to assuage it with up-to-the-minute accuracies; timely facts, not sound bites from off-the-cuff pundits.

This did not happen and as a result there were moments approaching hysteria not merely in Japan but around Asia to Hawaii and the West Coast of the United States. There is absolutely no excuse for this. Ronald Reagan was called the Great Communicator... but every president and head of state must be such a practised communicator and must never merely allow the news media to follow their natural bent.

These media want the lurid, the melodramatic, the ghastly and horrifying. Leaders want to inform and calm the people, never inflame them. But we had too little such leadership and such communications to the people on this occasion. Into such a void, it is easy for Chicken Little to rise and frighten. President Obama let this happen... and he must accept responsibility for a lack of leadership that resulted in much avoidable pain and agitation.

Why didn't he use his powers to calm the nation? It seems to me an address to America was well and truly necessary. The president could and should have understood what people were feeling and taken action to inform and comfort them, minimizing the dread and uncertainty when the subject turns to nuclear power and the unseen killer that is radioactivity.

The president no doubt knowing these things slept soundly. His citizens, assailed by the endless drumbeat of horrible details, did not. Second terms have been derailed for less... and rightly so.

What is occurring now is not merely a Japanese issue, an Asian issue, an American issue. It is an issue of worldwide importance, one affecting not merely our comfort and security today, but the very essence and maintenance of our civilization.

That is why the people, unsettled, inadequately and confusingly informed, cry out for Leadership as today's headlines blare: "U.S. shows growing alarm over Japan nuclear crisis."  (March 17, 2011.)

For days now, the news media of the world have dished out a diet of alarm along with ersatz "experts", old and stale "facts", slip shod analysis and details which do everything except inform and assure. It has been an embarrassment on a cosmic scale... and it was all avoidable if the officials at the highest reaches of government had been clear on the objective: keeping us all reliably and timely informed.

Meanwhile the situation in Japan continues to deteriorate as we all, every last one of us, wonder about what will happen next. And whether, once this series of interlocking crises has passed, the leaders of the world will remember their charge: to do what's necessary to solve the problem, not merely apply a patch and be glad they'll be out of office when the next such crisis hits. God help us all should we get no better service than that.

About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc.,
where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online.
Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books.

Republished with author's permission by Sylvia Kinzie
http://WeBroadcastToYou.com.  

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Sleek, Easy, and Powerful Customizable System That Just Wallops Your Old Facebook Page!

Alright, first off, my apologies if I seem to be hyping and hyperboling about FBMaxed in the title above. However, to be perfectly honest with you, I don’t think any amount of hype and hyperbole is going to justify the immediate impact that using this astounding system is going to have on your facebook Page and getting more “likes” from the people that visit it. I mean, think about it.

A. Complete. Website.

Now, just to give you an idea of what this means. Your facebook Page now can have:

•HTML5 videos.
•Photo galleries
•Multiple pages on one facebook Page
•PHP email contact forms
•Lead capture opt-ins
•Sales pages, Landing pages, Reveal Splash pages
Yes. All of those on your facebook Page. Business has never been easier to do on facebook, seriously.

Alright, I’m getting a bit ahead of myself. When I first got my copy for review purposes, I thought to myself, well, this is a pretty sleek looking package, but of course one should never judge a book by its cover. There are always 3 things that I look for when determining whether a new product is worth my purchase and time: its results, its ease of delivery, and its support service.

RESULTS

FBMaxed pretty much delivers what it promises. What really got the whole product rocking is the three solid, customizable templates that is included with the system that makes editing the websites a breeze. The templates can be roughly grouped together as a video template that allows you to showcase videos on your facebook Page, an icons template that has icons on the front page that allow people to click to different pages (plus inclusion for videos), and a very easy to customize basic colors template that is easy on the eyes and highly adaptable to suit your needs.

Now, all of this won’t actually look good on facebook Page because you are limited to just being 800 pixels “tall”. Well, guess what, FBMaxed actually has coding that completely bypasses this restriction! There’s no scrollbars for limitation, you are actually building right into the facebook Page itself! So the end result is a really comfortably spaced-out, pleasing and jam-packed of information facebook Page that you can change on the fly to suit whatever you want! What about the addition of a special reveal splash page to prevent people who haven’t “liked” your page from seeing your actual page? It’s pure genius. Basically FBMaxed teaches you how to do include two seperate websites into one single facebook Page.

I got to give props to the creators of FBMaxed, this is a genius marketing tactic. To me, it serves to act as a teaser page to tempt people to click the “like” button, and boy, does it do it well because it has all the functionalities of a complete website! I’m not talking a simple teaser image with some text page, I’m talking the whole nine yards teaser web site complete with videos and opt-ins!

EASE OF DELIVERY

Aside from setting up a hosting account and getting a HTML editor and FTP program (which granted most of us Internet marketers should have by now), the system has no other costs really to think of. It’s a set-it-up-and-it’s-done deal. Hosting accounts are cheap to get and there are free HTML editors and FTP programs out there. So there aren’t any other “additional costs” to speak of for this product. Also, the complete system to implement itself is pretty easy to do. The instructions are clear and concise, and there are many images presented to better clarify the instructions. I find the images and graphics very helpful in speeding things along. All in all, it took me less than two hours to get everything rolling and going. Thumbs up!

SUPPORT SERVICE

The FBMaxed team promised that they will provide webinars every few days to their buyers to guide them through the system. Well, they certainly did not fail here. In fact, they excelled! I attended some of the webinars and I find the team to be really helpful and friendly with all of the questions and queries posted by the users. They seem to know the ins and outs of the entire system and that helps a lot if you have highly technical questions that needed answering. I never needed to worry about missing anything because all of the webinars are converted into downloadable videos so I can always get back to them later. Oh, and for the days where there’s no webinar but I had questions that needed answering? They also have email support for that too. Their replies are always prompt and clear. All in all, outstanding support service. Kudos to the FBMaxed team!

CONCLUSION

FBMaxed delivers. It combines the best of what  both iFrames and HTML5 can do for you on facebook and packages it into a complete system with three templates that’s easy to use and highly customisable. There’s very little theory and frills involved and it’s a lot of hands on, no-nonsense approach. Even the more technical parts are made easy to understand and do with the help of big, clear images. Excellent support service and a very smooth ease of delivery, no hidden costs to speak of, no up-sells or cross-sells.

Overall rating 9/10.
Alright, first off, my apologies if I seem to be hyping and hyperboling about FBMaxed in the title above. However, to be perfectly honest with you, I don’t think any amount of hype and hyperbole is going to justify the immediate impact that using this astounding system is going to have on your facebook Page and getting more “likes” from the people that visit it. I mean, think about it.

A. Complete. Website.

Now, just to give you an idea of what this means. Your facebook Page now can have:

•HTML5 videos.
•Photo galleries
•Multiple pages on one facebook Page
•PHP email contact forms
•Lead capture opt-ins
•Sales pages, Landing pages, Reveal Splash pages
Yes. All of those on your facebook Page. Business has never been easier to do on facebook, seriously.

Alright, I’m getting a bit ahead of myself. When I first got my copy for review purposes, I thought to myself, well, this is a pretty sleek looking package, but of course one should never judge a book by its cover. There are always 3 things that I look for when determining whether a new product is worth my purchase and time: its results, its ease of delivery, and its support service.

RESULTS

FBMaxed pretty much delivers what it promises. What really got the whole product rocking is the three solid, customizable templates that is included with the system that makes editing the websites a breeze. The templates can be roughly grouped together as a video template that allows you to showcase videos on your facebook Page, an icons template that has icons on the front page that allow people to click to different pages (plus inclusion for videos), and a very easy to customize basic colors template that is easy on the eyes and highly adaptable to suit your needs.

Now, all of this won’t actually look good on facebook Page because you are limited to just being 800 pixels “tall”. Well, guess what, FBMaxed actually has coding that completely bypasses this restriction! There’s no scrollbars for limitation, you are actually building right into the facebook Page itself! So the end result is a really comfortably spaced-out, pleasing and jam-packed of information facebook Page that you can change on the fly to suit whatever you want! What about the addition of a special reveal splash page to prevent people who haven’t “liked” your page from seeing your actual page? It’s pure genius. Basically FBMaxed teaches you how to do include two seperate websites into one single facebook Page.

I got to give props to the creators of FBMaxed, this is a genius marketing tactic. To me, it serves to act as a teaser page to tempt people to click the “like” button, and boy, does it do it well because it has all the functionalities of a complete website! I’m not talking a simple teaser image with some text page, I’m talking the whole nine yards teaser web site complete with videos and opt-ins!

EASE OF DELIVERY

Aside from setting up a hosting account and getting a HTML editor and FTP program (which granted most of us Internet marketers should have by now), the system has no other costs really to think of. It’s a set-it-up-and-it’s-done deal. Hosting accounts are cheap to get and there are free HTML editors and FTP programs out there. So there aren’t any other “additional costs” to speak of for this product. Also, the complete system to implement itself is pretty easy to do. The instructions are clear and concise, and there are many images presented to better clarify the instructions. I find the images and graphics very helpful in speeding things along. All in all, it took me less than two hours to get everything rolling and going. Thumbs up!

SUPPORT SERVICE

The FBMaxed team promised that they will provide webinars every few days to their buyers to guide them through the system. Well, they certainly did not fail here. In fact, they excelled! I attended some of the webinars and I find the team to be really helpful and friendly with all of the questions and queries posted by the users. They seem to know the ins and outs of the entire system and that helps a lot if you have highly technical questions that needed answering. I never needed to worry about missing anything because all of the webinars are converted into downloadable videos so I can always get back to them later. Oh, and for the days where there’s no webinar but I had questions that needed answering? They also have email support for that too. Their replies are always prompt and clear. All in all, outstanding support service. Kudos to the FBMaxed team!

CONCLUSION

FBMaxed delivers. It combines the best of what  both iFrames and HTML5 can do for you on facebook and packages it into a complete system with three templates that’s easy to use and highly customisable. There’s very little theory and frills involved and it’s a lot of hands on, no-nonsense approach. Even the more technical parts are made easy to understand and do with the help of big, clear images. Excellent support service and a very smooth ease of delivery, no hidden costs to speak of, no up-sells or cross-sells.

Overall rating 9/10.


 Republished with author's permission by Sylvia Kinzie
http://WeBroadcastToYou.com


Check out Facebook Maxed =>  Click Here

An appreciation for the life and profound insights of David Broder, dead at 81, the dean of American political observers and pundits.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
As a commentator myself, it is a sad honor to mark the passing of the dean of American commentators, David Broder, since 1966 political correspondent and columnist for the Washington Post.

An undoubted master is gone, and we as a nation are the poorer.

David Broder was the reporter's reporter.

It is easy when you are a writer on U.S. politics and national affairs, as Broder was for decades, to think that your job demands that you stay in the nation's capital working the phone and walking only the highly polished corridors of the powerful and the aspiring.

Broder strongly disagreed.

He more than any other contemporary political authority understood that what is great about America is not just or even merely what is happening in Washington,D.C., but what is happening at the grass roots, in the homes, places of business and religion of the citizens, though they are thousands of miles from marbled splendor and Victorian grandeur, the hot house environment of the government.

As a result, David Broder spent as much time out of his office as he did in it. And his columns were the better for it, since he thereby caught the nuances that eluded his less insightful colleagues who did not understand that their beat, as Broder's, was nothing less than all the highways and by ways of the Great Republic he venerated. Like Richard Nixon (for whom he retained a carefully parsed admiration), Broder liked to see how "it" (whatever the issue of the day) "played in Peoria."

This meant leaving the gilt and gold of the White House to walk amidst the everyday people of America from whence power comes, but whose representatives so often overlook and then forget it altogether.

Broder never did.

And he had the well-worn shoes and battered luggage to prove it, since he easily logged 100,000 miles a year, or more; his job both a sprint -- and a marathon.

Like all the great political columnists, commentators, pundits all, his love affair was with America itself, and he clearly believed God had indeed shed His grace on thee. Never out of touch with the people, unlike so many of those he covered, he remained in awe of their majesty and in touch with all their vicissitudes from the mundane to the monumental. If it was American, it interested Broder. It's what kept him active, focused, grounded, fresh. And worth reading and listening to through 11 White House administrations, beginning with Dwight D. Eisenhower's second term.

Child of the Middle West and its values.

David Salzer Broder was born in Chicago Heights, Illinois and graduated in 1947 from the University of Chicago, where he was editor of the newspaper and received a master's degree in political science in 1951.

After 2 years in the Army, he worked for a newspaper in Bloomington, Illinois, The Pantagraph, then moved to The Congressional Quarterly in 1955. Five years later he left the Quarterly for The Washington Star. In 1965 he was hired by The New York Times as political reporter. And there, one could suppose, he would stay, since The Times then as now, considered itself the most important newspaper in the most important country on earth. Broder thought otherwise.

His tenure at The Times was brief and unhappy. As  he  wrote in a letter delivered upon his departure The Times epitomized "endless bureaucratic frustration" and "parochialism of outlook", in short it was in his stinging analysis, part of the problem, not part of the solution. In 1966, he found his niche at the newspaper about to seize the citadel and become the leading source for American affairs and politics, the Washington Post. David Broder was one of the significant reasons for an  ascendency that only The New York Times disputed.

A man of note and an increasingly notable newspaper had found each other and knew they had a good thing going. They ascended together, Broder in part because of his high visibility as a political pundit, panelist and television commentator. In some ways he was an unlikely media "star", since he appeared bookish, scholarly, inexpressive for media which wanted "personalities," not detailed analysis. But, though he could be flat as a day-old glass of champagne, even without bubbles he delivered. In time his characteristic understated presentations became part of his value. He did not hype. He did not glamorize. He did not fawn or name drop. He reported the news... and then he commented on it. Today's Internet-driven commentators should take note. Broder's approach gave him a distinguished career and a grateful nation. What 'net commentator can say as much?

Pundit pitfalls.

All was not clear sailing, of course. He was after all a political pundit with constant deadlines. He had a few notable bad times. In 1976, he reported prematurely that Morris K. Udall of Arizona had won the Wisconsin presidential primary only to learn a few hours later the actual winner was Jimmy Carter, then governor of Georgia. Devastated and unforgiving, Broder insisted that for the integrity of the Post he must resign. The Post's editor, Benjamin Bradlee, out-insisted Broder who stayed. Bradlee was a wise man and Broder wise, too, to listen to him.

Later, during the Clinton administration, Broder so forgot the tenets of his profession, that he allowed his corrosive disdain for the president to show itself in an interview. This was a serious lapse in professional behavior; this time the Post suspended his news reporting on the issue. This no doubt rankled Broder, but set against a lifetime of achievement, the millions of miles logged, the thousands of people met, listened to, reported on, such lapses were minor indeed.

Besides, Broder delivered the goods regularly and in so doing could literally change American history. This is what he did when in 1972 he reported on Senator Edmund Muskie's fury against New Hampshire publisher William Loeb's scurrilous attacks on the Senator's wife. Broder broke the story that imploded Muskie's campaign with the impression that he was emotionally unfit for the presidency. Whether Muskie cried or not was never the issue; it was his emotional volatility and here Broder got the nuance, and the story, just right.

Now Broder is gone, the dean of the Washington press corps; the man covering the raw material of history, is now history himself. Praise him for his hard work, his high standards, his fairness and reporting skills. Praise him, too, for his ability throughout a long career to straddle the quite separate fields of news reporting and commentary, honest to a fault, the consummate professional.

Praise him, too, for doing his bit to capture the greatness of America and its enduring glory, by capturing the changing hopes, dreams, aspirations, and struggles of its people. Above all, remember this: behind the equanimity, there was always Broder's passion for the great land he knew so well, whose great story he had long and truly reported. He has now filed his last story, and we regret.

About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc.,
where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online.
Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors
to the website of your choice! Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books.
Republished with author's permission by Sylvia Kinzie http://WeBroadcastToYou.com

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Liam and Theo, companions in life, companions forever.

A tragic story of love


by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
This  is a story of colleagues... and friendship.

It is a story of love and of a bond that transcends death itself.

It is a story which, such being the way of good stories, takes you, by the powerful chords of memory, from this  story.... to your story, for you, I know, have such a story, too, though  it may  not have tugged at your heart for a long while.

This is the story, then, of Liam and Theo, and you'll be glad to know it.

Lance Corporal Liam Tasker was a dog handler with the British Royal Army Veterinary Corps.

Theo was his dog.

They were well known in Afghanistan, together day and night.  People in Afghanistan, who have so little to smile about, could not help but smile when Theo, irrepressible, running ahead, playing hide and seek was around. Theo made them happy,  in the ways that dogs have long since perfected. They liked him... after all he was risking his life every day for them... and they appreciated that.

The people appreciated Liam Tasker, too. Just 26, a Scotsman, and proud of it, from Kirkcaldy, Fife, Liam was someone who didn't have to go to Afghanistan. However, he had two loves... soldiering and dogs. In the army he got both; if Afghanstan was the destination, so be it.

Their partnership.

Liam and Theo had one of the most dangerous jobs of all... searching for explosives, the instruments of disfigurement and death with which Afghanistan is littered, and from which the people will suffer for years to come, so numerous are they and so lethal.

It was Liam and Theo's job to find these explosives and render them, instruments of sudden death and mayhem, harmless. It was serious, demanding work, and they were did it well. Theo, in fact, was something of a star; he had already drawn praise from Ministry of Defense officials for detecting 14 hidden bombs and weapons caches in just five months on his first tour of duty in Afghanistan. Theo's success meant this 22-month-old Springer spaniel got the privilege of staying in dangerous Afghanistan another month.

But the bond between Theo and Liam went far beyond their professional association. As was obvious to all, they liked each other.  It's the kind of thing even the least perceptive can see. They were buddies... pals... always the best of friends. And, being young, with energy to spare, they were not above mischief and hijinks, showing off for each other, egging the other on. Thus, they passed their time in perilous Afghanistan, saving lives, enjoying each other's company.

March 1, 2011

This began as a day like all days in the dangerous war zone that passes for brutalized Afghanistan... but in short order it became a day like no other , for both Liam and Theo.

L/Cpl Tasker suffered fatal injuries in a fight with the Taliban in Helmand Province while he and Theo were searching for explosives. .

Immediately, Theo knew something was very,very wrong. Liam was lying in the dust of Afghanistan, dead... Theo, hysterical, was taken back to Camp Bastion, the main British military  base. There he could not be comforted.

Just three hours later, Theo, confused, agitated, alone, his friend Liam gone, died of a fatal seizure brought on by stress.

Now it was Liam who had gone before, while Theo rushed to catch up, death together infinitely preferable to life alone.

This story touched the  heart of a great nation, for the British are a by word for loving animals of every kind. They each had their special thought that day... for Liam and Theo, of course, but also for the pet they had loved, who had most certainly loved them, too.

Liam and Theo come home...

On March 10, 2011, hundreds of mourners lined the main street through the Wiltshire town of Wootton Bassett. Liam and Theo were coming home, and everyday people had come, with their dogs and other pets, to say good-bye.

A dozen police and Prison Service dogs made their official appearance, too. The crowd was silent... but the barking of dogs could be heard in the background as a solemn bell rang out to mark the arrival of the cortege; perhaps they knew and understood what was happening...

Liam Tasker's family was there, too, and they, in their profound grief, took solace from the fact that now, forever, Liam and Theo would be together; such was the loyalty of dog to man... and of that man to his dog. L/Cpl Tasker's father Ian told ITV news: "my honest  opinion on this is, when Liam went down, that Theo didn't have the comfort from Liam to calm him down."

Liam's mother, Jane Duffy, simply said, "I would like to believe Theo died of a broken heart to be with Liam." I believe it, too.

358 members of the British Armed Forces have now died in Afghanistan. 6 British military dogs have also died since 2001.

Today in Afghanistan the unending war goes on. Valiant men and women and dogs in the Dog Training Group will do their jobs and do them well. Some of these will die. Let us hope they find in each other the support and bond now eternally epitomized by Liam Tasker and his dog Theo. Now together, they will remain together for all the cycles to come, glad of each other and young.

May they rest in peace.



About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc.,
where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice! Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books.
Republished with author's permission by Sylvia Kinzie
http://WeBroadcastToYou.com.

Thoughts on the common cold. Read this. Keep this. Your next cold is on the way!

 Ouch ... written so well I'm going to take some cures now!


by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

For the last four days, I have been engaged with a malady I know well... and so do you: the common cold. It is by far the most frequent infectious disease in humans.

We know that each of us adults contracts two to four infections a year. The average child contracts 6-12.  At any given  time, one or more of your office colleagues has reported in sick with a cold... or one or more of your children are down with one... or a friend... neighbor... fellow congregant, etc... or you. The minute the person now afflicted with a cold recovers... the indefatigable virus moves on, with split second precision, to its next victim. In other words, within your circles of life the common cold is always present, always flourishing.

Four days ago it became (as was bound to happen) my turn, and the cold immediately took precedence over every other task or consideration, thereby firmly establishing that common did not mean insignificant.

Over the last 100 hours, I have been

* hopeful that my own special procedures would nip it in the bud (they didn't);

* drowned in fluids of every kind.

* an eating machine with my mantra the one my grandmother gave me over 60 years ago, "feed a cold, starve a fever"; so I am eating and eating and eating more. What was self indulgence a minute before the cold was apparent, now is self preservation.

* sleeping. I am ordinarily a person of unquenchable energies... but in the last 4 days I have found fluffing my pillows too enervating... sleep is the sovereign remedy. I have indulged myself accordingly.

* coughing. My hacks and wheezes are now public property. Try as I might to control them, they know full well they control me and make a mockery of any attempt to control what they do and where they do it. I walk out with my head bowed and eyes down, hoping (but failing) that no one will know that I am a social menace.

All readers of this article will peruse the above list and recognize in my actions, what they, too, do when ensnared by the bug.  We are all prisoners, and we are glad to know what others have done not merely to mitigate the symptoms and manifestations, but to eradicate them forever by doing...

We have been told for our entire lives by every general practitioner worth his salt that there is nothing, absolutely nothing that will cure a cold. We hear this... but, secretly, we do not believe this. Our wallets get emptied as we try one medicament after another in the always hopeful but entirely vain search for The Cure to the Common Cold.

We acknowledge the power of the common cold, but each time we confront it we start by being hopeful, optimistic that this bout will be short and sweet, an event which does muddle our life and schedule, to be sure, but does not cripple and bring us to our knees. This time we feel sure the cold will be minimal, under control; after all, we have been here, done this dozens of times before. As a result, our outlook is cheery, optimistic. This time we are sure we will defeat this nonchalant invader.

But we are, as usual, wrong.

The cold is common but its pervasive power enables it to defeat each of us in quite unique ways. The cold knows us; we hardly begin to know the cold. That is to the cold's liking and satisfaction.

In short order, therefore, our initial (unwarranted) optimism has drained away, leaving us prey to the nagging suspicion that this could be The Big One, the one that strips away our strengths and resources, our energies, and our hopes, strong in only one thing, our grudging respect for the cold, our master, lingering, happy to own us.

At this moment, we call upon the unshakeable, unassailable wisdom of Grannie. She knew, we know, a thing or two about the menace and diminution of colds... and we need her skills desperately, now and at once.

It is chicken soup time, again. But we cannot call upon this proven power until we have assuaged the Spirit of Grannie, for here, as in so many ways, each of us has wandered from the tried and true. We have given insufficient attention (and hasty too) to the many ways that Grannie could help us if only we would remember her, her eruditions, her admonitions, her tried and true practices and ways. We stand abashed before her. We need her so, not just now. We must admit as much; then the rich libation, the succor of grannies worldwide and throughout the ages, will be made, in liberal portions too, to each of us, sinning, but (as always) forgiven.

We gulp this golden liquid down, manners forgotten. It warms... it soothes... it fails, for no matter how deep our belief in this ministration, sadly Grannie has met her match in the common cold. We are left to digest this horrifying, startling fact as best we can.

We have known this before, but each time we learn it anew, we are shocked. This is not the benevolent world we imagined...

And so we descend into the vast wasteland, mandated by the cold, of boredom, listlessness, despair. The cold, secure, owns us. And dictates that time, ordinarily fleet, shall be torpid, unremunerative, dull.

So this condition, over which we have utterly no power or control, continues for 7 to 10 days, our humiliation completed by the frequency and severity of the coughs, sore throats, runny noses, and fevers that assail us and hold us in their thrall.

You have been healthy, the cold proclaims; now you must pay for that transgression.

And so we do, the hours scarce moving at all. All semblance of normality quite gone.

The cold demands as much from all its servitors, and we obey as we survey and go down before the cold's fearful panoply: conjunctivitis (pink eye), muscle aches, fatigue, headaches, shivering, and loss of appetite. We would sign a document of Unconditional Surrender, but we are never told where to send it. The cold wants no document; it only wants our very souls.

Thus we, and I mean every one of us, wile away the unpleasant, interminable hours. We may, we think we are, moving towards normality and welcome health, but the pace is infinitesimal, or worse.

As penance we remind ourselves of what we must do to avoid this almost unbearable condition in future. We shall not touch eyes, nose or mouth with contaminated fingers. We will avoid spending time in an enclosed area with an infected person. We will stop smoking at once, for that extends the duration of the illness by at least 3 additional days. And all the other good advice we mean to follow assiduously if we are ever released...

... until we one day, one glorious day, a day of joy and merriment, we feel like ourselves again. And life is good. We are coldless.

Of course, we don't adhere to the many sensible procedures necessary to sharply reduce the number of "common" colds we get, their severity and length. Instead, we simply revert to the insouciant person we were and have always been. But this, you see, is not our decision, for in so doing we acknowledge that the cold itself erases our memories and good resolutions.

Otherwise, the cold, always delighting in our debilitated conditions, might not see us so situated quite so often.

And this would never, never do, for the common cold rejoices in its visits, even if we do not.

About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc.,
where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online.
Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY
and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice!
Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books.
Republished with author's permission by Sylvia Kinzie
http://WeBroadcastToYou.com

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The menace and idealism of James O'Keefe III punking liberal America one 'gotcha' incident after another.

 The eye of the public means so much more when documented. Dr Lant writes here about a practiced watcher... presented here by Sylvia Kinzie  


by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

You've got to hand it to James O'Keefe.

The man is clever, determined, bold, gutsy.


+And he's certainly dedicated, though what he does can be both immoral and illegal.

That doesn't seem to worry O'Keefe one iota.

He's a man on a mission... and he knows that every time he pulls off another punk, he not only achieves his specific objective; he gains more of the attention and resources of the greatest nation on earth, thereby enabling him to continue his unique endeavors.

And what's thrilling, he doesn't need a lot of money to achieve the results he wants; just the willingness of powerful people to talk honestly with him and to be what they so often are,  indiscrete. Indeed, these indiscretions are ridiculously easy to get. Someone just needs to coax them, with hidden cameras at the ready.

James E. O'Keefe III is that someone.

And he's now very, very good at what he and his organization do.

Background

O'Keefe (born June 28, 1984) is the elder of two children born to James  E. O'Keefe Jr., a materials engineer, and Deborah O'Keefe, a physical therapist.  He grew up in Bergen County, New Jersey, in a home that was politically "conservative but not rigidly so," according to his father.

He graduated from Westwood High School, where he showed an early interest in the arts, theater, and journalism. He achieved the highest rank, Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America.

He attended Rutgers  University in New Jersey, where he majored in philosophy and began writing a bi-weekly column for the university's student paper, The Daily Targum. He later founded the Rutgers Centurion, a conservative student newspaper with a $500 "Balance in the Media" grant from The Leadership Institute (LI), a non-profit organization that trains and places conservatives in government, politics, and the media.

Following graduation, O'Keefe worked for LI for a year traveling to various colleges to train students how to set up independent (conservative oriented) papers.  He was good at this job, but LI was worried that what he was doing might imperil their non-profit status. O'Keefe was asked to leave LI, but not before he began to understand the purifying potential of video; namely catching his subjects while "breaking the law." It was the nubbin of his outrageous successes.

After attending UCLA Law School for a year, O'Keefe formed his own organization, Project Veritas (Latin for truth). Its stated mission is to investigate and expose corruption, dishonesty, self-dealing, waste, fraud, and other misconduct in both public and private institutions in order to achieve a more ethical and transparent society."

O'Keefe calls himself a "progressive radical"; others have used such descriptions as "guerrilla documentarian", "muckraker", "gonzo journalist". His "aha" moment came while studying labor organizer Saul Alinsky's insight, to make "the enemy live up to its own book of rules."

At Rutgers O'Keefe, now publisher of the Centurion, practiced his hidden camera craft by claiming the breakfast cereal "Lucky Charms" was insensitive to the Irish. It was typical undergraduate fare... but it helped O'Keefe master the technical aspects of video... as well as what would grab people's attention and advance his career.

His lucky charm proved not to be a cereal, but Planned Parenthood.

In 2006 and 2007, O'Keefe helped plan and produce a series of 7 undercover videos with pro-life activist Lila Rose. These showed several Planned Parenthood workers willing to circumvent state laws requiring that abortion clinics report statutory rape. The videos received national attention and showed O'Keefe just what was possible... if he selected his subjects carefully and helped them, on the camera of course, to be confiding and indiscrete. Planned Parenthood lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in public grant money because of what O'Keefe got their own officials to show and say.

Bingo! O'Keefe now had a winning formula...

ACORN undercover videos.

In September, 2009, O'Keefe and his associate Hannah Giles published edited hidden camera recordings in which Giles posed as a prostitute and O'Keefe as her boyfriend in an attempt to elicit damaging responses from employees of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), an advocacy organization for persons of low and moderate income.

The videos were recorded during the summer of 2009 and showed low-level ACORN employees in six cities purportedly providing advice to Giles and O'Keefe on how to avoid detection by authorities of tax evasion, human smuggling and child prostitution.

Reaction from federal authorities was immediate and punitive; the U.S. Congress voted to eliminate federal funding to ACORN. James O'Keefe was on his way, a man not content to sit around and wait for reform. Instead, he was determined to get it fast by a proven ability to get officials to be indiscrete; then releasing the tapes via the Internet and other media resources.

Now a personage of consequence amongst conservatives, O'Keefe was ready for more, a whole lot more.

Getting a job at the U.S. Census Bureau, he explained to his superiors that he was being paid for work he didn't do. They shrugged their shoulders and essentially told him to make the most of his good fortune. Because their response was on camera, he did, giving the Census Bureau the black eye he felt it roundly deserved.

O'Keefe in due course went on to something that really bothered him: the situation at National Public Radio and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. For years, conservatives had railed about the perceived liberal bias of NPR. But O'Keefe was about action, not just windy talk.

He aimed to bring them down... and he had a ridiculously easy way of doing so.... by getting NPR officials to confirm (always on hidden camera of course) their strong biases. They were happy to give him just what he wanted...

Ronald Schiller, then NPR's senior vice president for fundraising, gave O'Keefe's operatives one injudicious comment after another...   indiscrete observations O'Keefe released at once, thereby bringing down Schiller and, just hours later, NPR's CEO Vivian Schiller (no relation), too. These were trophies conservatives en masse hadn't been able to deliver... but which O'Keefe got in a cake walk. Lots of eyes (and no doubt some checkbooks) were thereby opened, and O'Keefe's stock soared. It went even higher when he bumped off, almost as an afterthought, NPR executive Betsy Liley. Her indiscretion, on camera, was to suggest that a Muslim organization (again O'Keefe and his people) could probably make an anonymous $5 million donation the IRS need know nothing about. It was pathetic how fast she fell, leaving another gaping hole in NPR's much vaunted "impartiality".

O'Keefe's future looks rosy indeed amongst conservatives. He delivers what they want but can't get, thereby earning their admiration, even if his methods are often suspect, illegal, even cruel. In due course, of course, he'll go too far and become, for someone younger, bolder, more outrageous, the target himself. Hero though he is to some today, he will, at that moment, fall without a kindness from anyone, a fact which will embitter him for the rest of his long life. It often happens that way in politics, an unforgiving occupation.



About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., 
where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online.
Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed
visitors to the website of your choice!
Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books.
Republished with author's permission by Sylvia Kinzie
http://WeBroadcastToYou.com

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