Taylor Swift was ailing when she took the stage at Friday’s KIIS FM Jingle Ball concert at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles. She tweeted, “I’m about to go onstage at @1027KIISFM #KIISJingleBall in LA. Fun fact: I have a wicked case of laryngitis. This should be interesting!”
WASHINGTON — Vice President Joe Biden defended the Obama administration’s nuclear talks with Iran to a room full of Israeli government officials, policymakers and delegates on Saturday, urging the key U.S. ally to trust Washington to make a reasonable deal.
“Our decision to extend a joint action plan proves that we’ll continue to press the negotiations to get a good deal to satisfy the bottom lines,” Biden said at the 11th annual Saban Forum.
The vice president declined to tiptoe diplomatically around the tensions of the negotiations, which have become the elephant in the room for the American-Israeli relationship.
“There’s been a lot of malarkey around our position on Iran,” Biden said in his customarily blunt fashion. “We will not let Iran acquire a nuclear weapon. Period. Period. End of discussion. It will not happen on our watch.”
Biden reiterated that Israel has been privy to every step of the negotiation process and expressed hope that the U.S. ally could trust America’s commitment to representing Israel’s interests.
“Let’s not make more of what are normal disagreements that occur between friends than warrants. … From the very beginning, we’ve consulted with the Israeli government, military, intelligence,” Biden said. “Every aspect of this policy has been discussed in detail.”
The vice president also warned congressional lawmakers against their threats to pass new Iran sanctions.
“I know there’s some … on the Hill who believe this is the moment for additional sanctions,” Biden said. “But now’s not the right time to do that. … This is not the time to risk a breakdown when we still have a chance of a breakthrough.”
Saturday’s remarks constituted Biden’s first appearance at the Saban Forum.
The event’s title this year — “Stormy Seas: The United States and Israel in a Tumultuous Middle East” — reflects the recognition of both governments that there’s a new fragility in this key strategic partnership. The weekend gathering aims to examine the alliance in the context of the Iranian nuclear negotiations and the greater regional turmoil.
The Saban Forum, which is sponsored by billionaire Israeli-American businessman Haim Saban in conjunction with the Brookings Institution, brings together policymakers, government officials and business leaders to discuss the Israeli-American partnership. Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke at the event Friday, and current Secretary of State John Kerry and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address the attendees Sunday.
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A march through central Athens to mark the sixth anniversary of the fatal police shooting of an unarmed teenager quickly turned violent Saturday, as marchers damaged store fronts and bus stations, and set fire to clothes looted from a shop.
Clashes also broke out between police and demonstrators marching through the northern city of Thessaloniki. At night, police fired tear gas and stun grenades after a crowd of marchers beat up two plainclothes policemen there. No casualties were immediately reported in either city.
The marches are commemorating the Dec. 6, 2008, police killing of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos in the capital, which led to two weeks of the most violent rioting Greece had seen in decades.
On Saturday, about 5,000 people were marching in Athens, passing the Greek Parliament and heading toward the spot where Grigoropoulos was killed, police said. At one point during, people broke into a Zara clothes shop, took racks of clothes into the street and burned them.
Clashes took in the Athens neighborhood of Exarchia, a haven for extreme leftists and anarchists, where Grigoropoulos was killed. Police cordoned off the neighborhood’s central square, firing tear gas and pepper spray. Police also had two vehicles armed with water cannons.
The marches come at a time when nearly nightly violent protests are being held by supporters of one of Grigoropoulos’ friends, jailed anarchist and convicted bank robber Nikos Romanos, 21. He was present when Grigoropoulos was killed and is now on a hunger strike, demanding prison leave to attend lectures after he passed university entrance exams.
Romanos, currently hospitalized under police guard, has been on the hunger strike since last month and doctors have said his health is failing. He was jailed with three young men following a February 2013 bank robbery in which they took a hostage as they tried to escape. Police released doctored mug shots of the four at the time to remove signs of severe facial bruising caused during their arrests, leading to an outcry at the time.
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras will meet with Romanos’ parents on Monday morning, following a request made through their lawyer on Saturday, the government said.
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Costas Kantouris contributed to this report from Thessaloniki.
President Barack Obama went to a hospital on Saturday after complaining about a sore throat, the White House announced.
According to the White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, Dr. Jackson, the president’s physician, recommended he go to Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington for diagnostic tests.
“According to Dr. Jackson, the test is a matter of convenience for the President, not a matter of urgency,” the White House said.
The trip was unscheduled. The press pool, journalists who typically follow the president, had initially been dismissed for the day.
The first trailer for Lifetime’s Whitney Houston biopic is finally here, and it looks pretty promising.
“Whitney,” which is Oscar-nominated actress Angela Bassett’s directorial debut, will follow the life story of the singer, focusing on her tumultuous relationship with Bobby Brown. The music legend will be played by Yaya DaCosta, who has appeared in “Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” “House” and “Ugly Betty.”
Recent criticisms from Houston’s family have brought attention to the biopic. Back in July, the singer’s mother Cissy Houston told “Entertainment Tonight” that the family was “exhausted by the continuing misinformation and comments.” Despite the fact that Bassett had a personal relationship with Houston when they worked on the 1995 film “Waiting to Exhale,” Cissy Houston said, “No one connected with this movie knew Whitney or anything about her relationship with Bobby.”
On HuffPost Live back in October, Bassett responded to the film’s criticisms. While the actress admitted that she didn’t know the singer very intimately, she said she knows “a little about being in the spotlight, a little about celebrity and its demands.”
“I know about being a woman, about being a black woman that came up in a little hometown,” Basset said. We just hope it’s better than Lifetime’s Aaliyah biopic.
“Whitney” premieres on Jan. 17 at 8:00 p.m. ET on Lifetime.
By Katie Racine
Reading Rolling Stone’s article about the gang rape at the University of Virginia made bile rise in your throat, tears sting your eyes, and an emptiness grow inside you that anyone could be brutalized and dehumanized to such an extent. Maybe you had to walk away a few times, unable to stomach reading it at one sitting. Perhaps your first thought was for all the women you know in college and felt yourself filled with fear that it could be them. It’s even possible it brought back long buried but never forgotten memories of your own of close calls or nights you wish you’d been anywhere else.
Jackie’s story made you feel. Its sensationalist portrayal of a vicious gang rape transported you into a darkened hazy room the likes of which you see on “American Horror Story,” not at the “Ivy League of the South.” It filled you with rage that this could be happening on our campuses, where instead of being a bastion of learning, social status and the predatory sexual dominance of frat boys are given priority. You were enraged that a school would actively hide cases of sexual “misconduct” from its records because “No one wants to go to a rape school,” and when you read that her friends actively discouraged her from seeking help because it would hurt their social status, you despaired for humanity.
The story spread across airwaves, social media, and campuses. UVa’s reputation was unalterably and rightfully sullied as students tagged the building of the frat in question, rallied for change, and demanded their school right the wrongs decades in the making. The ongoing investigation of 55 colleges for mishandling sexual assault under Title IX was finally being taken seriously by the nation. Parents, students, and faculty alike were saying “No more.”
Through its horror, Jackie’s story was an impetus, a fire lit in the hearts and minds that the time had come to stop letting rapists get away, to stop letting fear and peer pressure let barbaric acts be acceptable behavior in our society, and to shift the impetus of responsibility for stoping rape off the victims and on to the rapists. Finally, we thought, maybe things will change.
And now it has come to light that maybe Jackie’s story wasn’t entirely true. That this graphic depiction was a combination of Rolling Stone‘s biased and shoddy journalism predetermining the story without all the facts, and a girl who never wanted to share her tale, who suffers from PTSD, and may not be able to ever remember accurately what happened. This girl who hid her identity and that of her rapists, who never wanted to press charges, and asked to be taken out of the story is now having her account picked apart and derailed. Her friends and activists are doubting her, Rolling Stone is revoking their support, and all the details that viscerally grabbed the nation by its guts are being doubted. It’s the Duke case all over again, a woman cried rape, Rolling Stone jumped on the bandwagon, and in the end that case also fell apart. It’s the same story, again and again, that discredits rape victims every day.
So how are we meant to feel now? Angry? Duped? Disillusioned that yet again, right as the eyes of the world were taking seriously the very real facet of rape and sexual assault on our college campuses, that with one story’s unraveling so too goes all that progress?
So I say to you, so what? So what if this instance was more fictional than fact and didn’t actually happen to Jackie? Do we actually want anyone to have gone through this? This story was a shock and awe campaign that forced even the most ardent of rape culture deniers to stand up in horror and demand action.
We imagined ourselves, our sisters, daughters, and friends in the same situation. The countless women on that campus that have been raped, assaulted, harassed, and abused in frat parties and treated like they were nothing but an object to be used empathized with the story. Women across UVA and campuses across the nation were given courage to tell their stories of rape and of times they’d gone to their own school officials and been discouraged to report it. The proof is everywhere that the culture of sexaul assault described is a systemic problem, and not limited to this one brutality. That’s why women and men alike took to the streets, to the papers, and the Internet; they rallied and said enough is enough and we will not stand for this anymore.
And that is because in that story we were all Jackie. There are thousands of other Jackies whose stories are just as horrific and damning. And what did it hurt? Yes, Greek life was temporarily shut down for a few weeks at a school and investigations were created, but no names were released, no lives were ruined. Instead a school that knew this was a systemic problem took action and with the eyes of the world upon it took responsibility and committed to stopping this from happening. The rape culture we try so hard to deny was brought out from its diseased shadows and shocked people with its true face. Schools across the nation are scared because they knew it could have just as easily been their names in the news and the fear of that backlash can beget the change we so desperately need.
Don’t let the holes in this story diminish your rage, do not let the fire burning across our schools and nation be smothered by shoddy journalism and a troubled and traumatized girl who has clearly suffered. Don’t let Rolling Stone pass the onus of fact finding onto victims for their own failure to investigate. Don’t let this systemic disease fester and grow because of doubt and disdain.
Fan the flames, stand strong, and remember when you were Jackie. Remember how that felt.
And don’t ever let it happen again.
Originally posted on Literally, Darling an online magazine by and for twenty-something women, which features the personal, provocative, awkward, pop-filled and pressing issues of our gender and generation. This is an exact representation of our exaggerated selves.
ALSO ON HUFFPOST:
When her owner’s away, this yellow lab will surely play steal everything she possibly can from the refrigerator, wreaking maximum havoc.
YouTuber Adam Montiel said his 11-year-old lab, Allie, was sneaking into the fridge and freezer when people weren’t looking, and he was desperately curious to learn just how she was doing it. “We couldn’t figure [it] out,” he said, “so I hooked up a GoPro to find out.”
His video captured Allie in action. And we’ve got to say this dog has mad skills.
*Slow clap*
Watch the full video of Allie’s sneaky thievery in the video above.
Sugared pecans are a time honored tradition in Texas, for just about every holiday. This spicier version is super fun for Christmas!
Sugared pecans are a time honored Texas tradition. They’ve been on many a holiday table in my lifetime, though this spicier version is new to me. New, and completely addicting!
I know that many folks think of pecans and Georgia in the same thought, but pecans are one of Texas’s largest crops. Growing up, my nan had a giant pecan tree in her backyard, and every summer, my sister and I spent hours combing the grass for those precious brown and black shells.
I can smell them now – the woodsy, smoky smell that accompanies the outer shell. And the hours spent at my grandparents’ kitchen table, shucking those shells so the pecans could be preserved for the rest of the year.
Precious hours in the company of grandparents passing on the importance of gathering what nature gives us, and using it all year long. It’s a lesson I hope to pass on to my son in spades, as well as an appreciation for all flavors native to Texas.
Cinnamon and cayenne are a match made in heaven, especially to a Texan palate. (Don’t believe me? Just try my Mexican Chocolate Chewies Cookies!) You’ll find them paired with chocolate most of the time, but they marry so well that you can add them to anything – cream cheese frosting, roasted nuts, even cookie dough – and find yourself falling head over heels for the creation.
What I love most about these sugared pecans is how quick and easy they are. You can package them up in sweet little sacks with ribbon for homemade Christmas gifts, or simply put them out in strategically placed bowls for your Christmas party. Your party guests will find themselves coming back again and again for handfuls.
They’re excellent atop cakes, in cookies, and could even be used in pecan pie. They’re so quick to make, you’ll be putting them in everything! Toss them in Erin’s gluten free granola recipe or even chex mix to kick things up a notch.
Amber is a native Texan, born to a family of fabulous cooks. She shares her love of all things Tex-Mex and Southern both on her blog, Bluebonnets & Brownies, and here on Food Fanatic. She heavily endorses the use of the contraction “y’all”.
<A little while ago, one of my followers posed a very important question about organizing her time. She asked:
“After my father had a stroke I began managing our small family business. Since I was a little girl, my dream was always to run my own business. Now that I have that chance, it’s even more important for me to be able to run my business without adding to the stress that is part of being the mother of a new baby. I primarily work online. This means I spend most days at home and I can’t seem to get my work done. What can I do to organize my schedule so my work gets done, my business grows, and I have sufficient time to be a full-time mother?”
If you’re reading this, whether or not you’re a new mother like Julia, I’m sure you can relate to the struggle of managing your time when you own a small business.
One of my Keys to Abundance is to Make Space. When you make space in your life, you will have more time to follow your dreams. It can be as simple as taking the five action steps listed below.
I use this key to make my business grow, surf on a daily basis, do what I like, and get some daily fun beach time in with my dog, Ella.
My method of organizing is simple. And I’m sharing the method with you, hoping that it will inspire you. If you like, you can modify any of these steps and develop your own method for organizing your life.
1. Do something that makes you happy first thing in the morning
Every morning I start my days doing something that truly fulfills me — before I sit down to work on the computer. I surf, meditate, walk my dog on the beach or do yoga. I focus on my own well being first. I’ve learned that if I do something I find rewarding, something that increases my enthusiasm, I can carry that enthusiasm into my work, which in turn makes me more focused and efficient.
Do you remember the last time you flew on an airplane? At the beginning of the flight, attendants demonstrate how to use the oxygen mask. In case of an emergency, an adult must put his or her mask on first, before they help any children traveling with them to put on their masks.
The same principle applies in all other aspects of life. If you don’t help yourself, you can’t offer anything of value to others. This is why I invite you to do something you enjoy, every day, before starting your work.
Try it out for a week and note the positive changes this simple principle brings into your life!
2. Tackle four or five tasks each day
Instead of writing an endless list of tasks when you sit down to work, prioritize them and list only four or five. Then, focus on accomplishing them. Once you know what you should be doing that day, you won’t feel overwhelmed, and it will be easier to tackle your to do list.
Even though you may feel there are a thousand things to be done, it’s important to focus on achieving the four or five things you decided are your top priorities that day. When you do, you’ll be moving forward much faster than you would have if you were trying to complete all the tasks on a huge list.
3. Organize your weekly priorities
Every Friday I list all the things I must do on the coming week. Then I choose the three most important tasks that will allow my business to grow the furthest.
In the event I don’t finish my four or five daily tasks, I try to, at least, nail down my three most important priorities for the week, tasks that will help me grow my business and create tangible results. The rest of the tasks I can reprioritize and accomplish the following week.
I usually organize my tasks on a calendar. You can either use a paper calendar or the calendar function on your computer. I make my own calendar on paper. I like using colors and markers to let my “inner child” come out and play and bring the fun into work (I especially looove crossing off tasks on my to do list with a purple marker!).
I also stick colored Post-Its at the top of each week’s page. It helps me to have a visual reminder of what is truly important. Then, no matter what comes up, the Post-Its remind me what I absolutely need to do during my work week.
4. Always start with the easiest tasks
From the four or five daily tasks that you set for yourself each day, decide which one is the easiest to complete. Select something you’re enthusiastic about and start there. Once you have finished it, cross it off your list (it feels like a Hell Yeah! to cross out a finished task!).
At the end of the day, when you look at all the tasks you crossed off your list, turn that feeling of accomplishment into a feeling of gratitude. Be grateful that you were able to finish them. Gratitude anchors the energy of abundance, and as you tap into that energy, you will have more and more to be grateful for.
5. Take a day off if you feel that you need it!
If you feel drained and can’t seem to focus on anything on your to do list, take a full day off to pamper yourself. Instead of thinking you’re wasting your time, think of it as an investment in your business. When you stop to refresh yourself, you are gathering the speed to move forward later on!
The key is not to judge yourself for taking that break but to enjoy it since it will bring back the energy of enthusiasm to your work.
I truly hope my tips have been useful to you. If you’re looking for ways to organize your life and business even more in 2015, I’m ready to help! I’m hosting a Live Mastermind event in Austin, TX on December 12. I hope you’ll join me!
Mercedes Maidana is a Motivational Speaker and Business and Abundance Life Coach who guides women to launch and improve their businesses, go for their dreams, and take action steps to live life to their highest potential. Continue the conversation with Mercedes and learn more about her work on Facebook and Instagram.
“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.”
– Michael Altshuler
Many people think of time management as following a pre-determined schedule. They feel satisfied if they finish their to-do list or arrive on time for all of their appointments. Showing up early and tackling your tasks with enthusiasm is beneficial. It feels good to cross items off your to-do list.
But that’s not time management. That’s time use. Many times, it’s actually time abuse.
Time management advice often misses this crucial point.
To manage your time, you must manage your mind.
It’s almost impossible to stop yourself from procrastinating or wasting time if you are not engaging in activities that matter to you. And organizing your time around yourself is no easy task. You must take time, each and every day, to check in with yourself. Are you on track? Are most of your hours spent on actions that will move your goals forward?
There are some time-tested ideas that are helpful with time management.
First, always plan your day. Like managing money, the more time you spend planning your time, the more time becomes available.
“He who every morning plans the transaction of the day and follows out that plan, carries a thread that will guide him through the maze of the most busy life. But where no plan is laid, where the disposal of time is surrendered merely to the chance of incidence, chaos will soon reign.” – Victor Hugo
Second, track your time. Even one day of tracking can make a difference. When you see it in black and white, it can inspire you to change. For example, if you place great value on physical fitness but you spend 0 minutes exercising, you’ll have no choice but to rethink the way you are spending your time.
In the McKinsey Quarterly, Peter Bregman offers solid evidence that it’s best to identify up to 5 priorities in each area of your life for focus this year. 95 percent of your time should be spent on those priorities.
Bregman goes on to suggest that you schedule your day around these tasks by dividing a piece of paper into 6 sections. As you review your to-do list, assign the tasks to one of these sections. The sixth section is for “the other five percent.” These tasks are low priority. You may have to let go of many activities in order to focus on the top five priorities.
This is not easy. You will probably have a hard time saying no to the activities that don’t support your goals. But think about it.
You can do it all. Just not all at the same time.
Research has shown that it typically takes about 10 thousand hours to become at master at any skill set. Translated into work hours, this means that you need to work 5 years, 5 days a week, 8 hours a day to master your craft.
If you have just started down the path to your dream and you are fitting it in around your family and your job, it is very likely to take 10 years before you are a master at your new profession.
That’s too much time to waste on perfecting a skill that’s not in line with who you are. On the other hand, if you narrow your focus, and finish that book you’ve been meaning to write, or target only the most profitable prospects in your business, you’ll achieve success in those areas, which will clear the way for your next goal.
It takes self-discipline to resist the pull of doing it all now, or just giving up entirely when you realize you can’t do it all now. In fact, the beginning is the point at which most people give up. This is what we mean when we say to manage your time, you must manage your mind.
Sure, you can earn a pile of money and experience success in any career you choose, but after your 10 thousand hours, don’t you want to be engaged in an activity that inspires you?
Let’s face it. Most people spend lots of time doing things for “entertainment” or engaging in busy work. These time wasters are necessary to numb them to the reality that they are not using their greatest gifts. They are following a path laid out by someone else, rather than making the hard, yet simple choice to align their life with their unique talents and values. They just do what they’ve always done, and then it’s over.
Don’t be a follower. Be sure. Be certain. Be you.
Manage your time so that it supports your dreams. This is the road less traveled.
At its’ core, time management is self-management. If you are not surefooted, it’s easy to be knocked off track by the push and pull of forces outside of yourself. You have to take the time to choose.
If you want to be lead yourself to your dreams, you must identify and magnify your greatest strengths. You must follow your talent, instead of tamping it down while you squirrel away your time on the tasks assigned to you by others.
Take this minute right now. What’s one thing you can do to move you closer to your vision? Can you make one call, write one paragraph, or call one client? Do it. Make this minute count.
Time management means managing your mind, not your schedule. It means that you don’t listen to your vicious inner critic or your whining inner child. You listen to your solid, identity-based voice, deep within you, the one that knows the next right step.
Time comes with a heavy price. It’s your one and only lifetime. Make sure it’s working for you.
If time were to take on human form, would she be your taskmaster or freedom fighter?” – Richie Norton
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
