Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy and David Cameron have all been forced to whistle in the dark with new year messages that seek to balance grim realism today with hope for a better tomorrow.So the Europe: 2010 pamphlet is easy to mock with hindsight. But that is not my purpose, quite the reverse.Longchamp Backpack Grant is a clever and sensible fellow whose booklet makes a number of smart predictions.Some of them have come true – he even refers to the then-uninvented EU foreign and security minister as a "Ms CFSP" long before most voters had heard of Lady Cathy Ashton – and notes the growing need for budgetary co-ordination and discipline within the eurozone. How true, Charles!The euro-sceptics (I admit to mild contagion on the currency issue) have had a field day with such writing and can claim to be correct about the wisdom of not joining sterling to the eurozone.
Scott Fitzgerald,and Oscar Wilde. (AP (2); Getty (1))10. Oscar WildeThe poet Oscar Wilde drank absinthe,smoked opium-tainted cigarettes,wore his hair long,and wore extravagant fur coats over his colorful suits. When asked by customs agents in America if he had anything to declare,he said,"Nothing but my genius." He was convicted of "gross indecency" for homosexual acts,which effectively ended his career as a playwright and poet.9. Ernest HemingwayIn 1934 Vanity Fair celebrated Ernest Hemingway with a set of paper dolls,featuring interchangeable matador,caveman,bon vivant,fisherman,and soldier outfits. The magazine was paying homage to "Papa" Hemingway’s larger-than-life image,which owed a great deal to the booze-soaked tall tales he liked to tell.
But now she's done just that. One of the men,Eric Stonestreet,also is losing weight,and the writers have incorporated it into his storyline."I have been watching in dismay and saying things to people who think I am overly sensitive to these issues as an eating-disorder therapist," said Carolyn Costin,founder of Monte Nido Treatment Center in Malibu,Calif.,and Eugene,Ore. "People have a right to lose weight. But somehow we have to find a way to make who people are—their talents and everything—more important than their size. And we don't always give that message,especially to kids. They grow up watching shows like this and often get the message that the thinner people have the higher status.
The payments from television deals and ticket sales still flowed in. But it was the workers and spectators that got hurt: the player who may have been injured when a cheap shot was missed,the coaches and fans who suffered when the results were miscalled,and small-time betters who found the spreads suddenly meaningless and unpredictable. Second,American management views low wages and dominance over labor as an entitlement. It’s no secret that organized labor has declined as a force in American culture. In 2011,according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,only 11.8 percent of salaried workers belong to a union,and only 7.6 percent of private-sector workers were represented by unions—down from 9.
They sounded confident and apparently made a case that most reporters more or less bought.Then Sandy came along,and whatever media momentum Romney had left was fully erased. The "we're inevitable" narrative got stopped cold. That may be the real political importance of Sandy,now that I think about it.And now,today,the Romney camp is dealing with a spate of pretty negative polls--down five in Ohio,down eight in Wisconsin,tied again in North Carolina. Meanwhile,the Gallup Daily Tracking,the one legit poll that the Romney people leaned on daily,suspended operations after Sandy. All they have now is Rasmussen,which would find Bashar al-Assad with a slight lead if he were the Republican nominee.
It means those hurt in the Bali attack and other bombings will be able to apply for compensation.? Andrew Lansley, the health secretary, has launched a consultation on whether cigarettes should be sold in plain packaging. (See 9.16am.) 12.39pm: In my paper round-up, I'm afraid I missed the Sun story saying YouGov polling suggests the Lib Dems could lose 50 of their 57 seats at the next election. But in the comments yahyah picked it, needless to say. She highlights Peter Kellner's commentary. Here's an extract.The moment when a trend or fashion takes off is a "tipping point". Nick Clegg's party has suffered the opposite — a slipping point.Its support in its own seats has slipped to the level where only a handful will be saved.
Hicks also said he wanted to send a second special-operations team of four men to Benghazi at 6 a.m. on September 12. But the team would have left Tripoli nearly an hour after the second wave of attacks began. Nonetheless,Hicks said,he did not know why the team was told to stand down.Longchamp Bags Outlet He thought it was prudent to send the team because he said U.S. personnel were still in danger and the remaining security personnel in Benghazi were exhausted. "People in Benghazi had been fighting all night," Hicks said. "We wanted to make sure the airport was secure for their withdrawal."Mark Thompson,the deputy coordinator for operations at the State Department's bureau of counter-terrorism during the Benghazi attacks,testified that the Foreign Emergency Support Team (FEST)—a special unit comprised of special-operations officers,FBI officers and diplomatic security personnel—was not deployed on the evening of the attacks.
