Jan 29

Lindsey Graham Explores 2016 GOP Presidential Run

Posted in: Today's Chili

WASHINGTON (AP) — South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham on Thursday said he has set up a committee to explore running for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016, portraying himself as a proven winner and a conservative willing to work with Democrats.

Graham told reporters that the website, called, “Security Through Strength,” would give him a way to raise money. He plans to visit New Hampshire and Iowa, the first to states to vote in the nomination fight, and see if his pragmatic message resonates. “I mean, are we going to be a party that embraces the fact that Democrats exist and you can get no big deal done without their buy-in?” said Graham, 59.

On such issues as national security and President Barack Obama’s health care law, Graham said, “If we don’t like what Obama’s offering the country, what would we offer the nation?”

Such pragmatism sounds too compromising to some conservatives who say they would stick firmly to positions favored by the party’s activist base. Graham, they point out, voted for Obama’s nominees to the Supreme Court, is likely to vote for Loretta Lynch for attorney general and helped write a comprehensive immigration overhaul bill.

More than a dozen Republicans, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and 2012 nominee Mitt Romney, say they are considering running in 2016.

Graham bristled when asked how the party’s conservative base could trust him given that voting record. He pointed out three times that he won the GOP nomination for Senate by 41 percentage points.

“I represent a form of conservatism that’s acceptable in the reddest of red states,” Graham said. “I am conservative by any rational definition.”

Graham has been a close ally of Sen. John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee who lost to Obama.

Graham cruised to re-election in November, easily defeating six GOP primary rivals who cited his history of negotiating with Democrats as proof that he wasn’t conservative enough.

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Jan 29

Famous Writers Share How They Handle Writer's Block

Posted in: Today's Chili

During her lifetime, Maya Angelou, the great author and poet, was nominated for a Pulitzer, awarded the National Medal of Arts, given over fifty honorary degrees and wrote the acclaimed memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. And yet, Angelou, like countless other famous writers, experienced periods of writer’s block. How did Angelou handle being stuck? As she once explained, “What I try to do is write. I may write for two weeks ‘the cat sat on the mat, that is that, not a rat.’ And it might be just the most boring and awful stuff. But I try,” said Angelou. “When I’m writing, I write. And then it’s as if the muse is convinced that I’m serious and says, ‘Okay. Okay. I’ll come.'”

And what are some other practical ways to combat writer’s block? Writing experts at takelessons.com recommend sometimes stepping away from your work. More often abandoning ship is the best bet for getting past major writer’s block. The website which connects students with a variety of diverse expert teachers in a multitude of fields also suggests practicing 15-20 minutes of totally random, uncensored writing to get your thoughts out without paying attention to grammar and punctuation. Also, they note that exercise, even getting up and doing a quick dance to a song on the radio, will help relax a frazzled mind and encourage ideas to flow.

Jason Rekulak, author of The Writer’s Block: 786 Ideas to Jump-Start Your Imagination, suggests a multitude of ways to cure being stuck. Rekulak advises that people should find opportunities to stretch their imagination. He asks students to write about “ten minutes that still make you cringe,” or “chronicle the longest amount of time you’ve ever gone without sleeping,” or recount “the biggest secret that you failed to keep.”

And if that’s not enough inspiration, these famous writers offer their guidance.

“I learned to produce whether I wanted to or not. It would be easy to say oh, I have writer’s block, oh, I have to wait for my muse. I don’t. Chain that muse to your desk and get the job done.” — Barbara Kingsolver

“Being a real writer means being able to do the work on a bad day.” — Norman Mailer

“The secret to getting ahead is getting started.” — Mark Twain.

“If I waited till I felt like writing, I’d never write at all.” — Anne Tyler

“Don’t get it right, just get it written.” — James Thurber

“The one ironclad rule is that I have to try. I have to walk into my writing room and pick up my pen every weekday morning.” — Anne Tyler

“Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything really good.” — William Faulkner

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” — Samuel Beckett

“If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word.” — Margaret Atwood

“Writing is 90 percent procrastination: reading magazines, eating cereal out of the box, watching infomercials. It’s a matter of doing everything you can to avoid writing, until it is about four in the morning and you reach the point where you have to write.” — Paul Rudnick

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Jan 29

Why Starbucks Is The Best Way To Boost Your Home's Value

Posted in: Today's Chili

We’re always hunting for ways to increase the value of our homes — and interior revamps or full-on remodels may do the trick.

Or you could just move near a Starbucks.

Homes located near a Starbucks coffee shop appreciate (aka increase in value) at a far faster rate than homes not near a Starbucks, according to experts at real estate database Zillow. Since 1997, houses near a Starbucks appreciated 96 percent while homes farther away appreciated only 65 percent, Zillow explains in their new book Zillow Talk.

The reason? One theory is that house hunters may think a Starbucks means the neighborhood is gentrifying. Or maybe it signals that a neighborhood is getting safer… and a safer neighborhood is buyers’ main reason for moving, according to a new survey from analysts at The Demand Institute. A simpler explanation? More than half of home buyers want restaurants and cafes within “a short drive” of their new home, so perhaps Starbucks fits that description.

Whatever the reason, the Zillow authors make two things clear: A neighborhood Starbucks isn’t the result of higher home prices; it causes them. And the closer you live to one, the better. After Starbucks opened in a particular neighborhood, nearby homes not only rose in value, but they also appreciated faster the closer they were to the shop.

“Starbucks equates with venti-sized home-value appreciation,” they write in a book excerpt on Quartz. “Moreover, Starbucks seems to be fueling — not following — these higher home values.”

So the next time you’ve got an urge to reach for the hammer, just get a latte and house hunt instead. Your home’s value will thank you.

(h/t Quartz)

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Jan 29

Why Julianne Moore Stopped Believing In God

Posted in: Today's Chili

In 2009, Julianne Moore’s mother, Anne Smith, died suddenly of septic shock. She was 68, and Moore was devastated. After that, she stopped believing in God.

“I learned when my mother died five years ago that there is no ‘there’ there,” Moore, 54, told The Hollywood Reporter. “Structure, it’s all imposed. We impose order and narrative on everything in order to understand it. Otherwise, there’s nothing but chaos.”

“We don’t know why it happened,” she explained. “She went to bed, and it turned out she had a huge bacterial infection.”

Moore does believe in therapy, though. The “Still Alice” star told THR that she started going to therapy in her early 30s because she found that she was incredibly unhappy.

“I was lonely,” she said. “I don’t think I felt happy. I didn’t have the kind of personal life I wanted. I’d spent my 20s working hard and trying to get to wherever there was, which wasn’t really anywhere. It was just a job, and I really wanted a family.”

This isn’t the first time Moore has opened up about how much therapy has helped her. In 2010, she told The Guardian that her therapist was the reason for her marriage with now-husband Bart Freundlich.

“The only reason I got married in 2003 was for my children,” she said. “I had a therapist who said marriage is really a container for a family and that made sense to me.”

H/T Us Magazine

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Jan 29

Carlsen Wins Dutch Chess Fest

Posted in: Today's Chili

Rising young stars, falling legends, deflated chess computers, clumsy soccer games, brilliant attacks, a commentator faux-pas, chess hungry spectators, windy beaches — all this was present during the Tata Steel traditional chess tournament (Jan. 9-25) in the coastal Dutch town of Wijk aan Zee, one of the major chess events of 2015.

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In the end, the world champion Magnus Carlsen, 22, emerged as the winner of the grandmaster group, but it wasn’t easy. A group of grandmasters in their early twenties chased him all the way. Carlsen overcame a sloppy start with an incredible spurt of six straight wins. He slowed down somewhat, finishing with four draws, but nobody was able to catch him.

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We expected last year’s winner, the Armenian Levon Aronian, 32, and the American-Italian Fabiano Caruana, 22, the number two rated player in the world behind Carlsen, to fight for the top honors, but they didn’t have a good start. Instead, four other young stars came through.

The Dutch grandmaster Anish Giri, 20, is the world’s top junior and number six on the FIDE Rating list. The new American addition Wesley So, 21, is right behind him at number seven. The top Chinese player Ding Liren, 22, only drew three games and booked seven wins against the bottom players. And the top Frenchman and former World Junior champion Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, 24, had the best result in games among the top five.

This year the grandmasters also played in Rotterdam and in The Hague (photo)

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Amazingly, the rhythm of the tournament was set by the 46-year-old Ukrainian grandmaster Vasyl Ivanchuk. He took quick lead after six rounds with 4.5 points. His first game drew some questions. It looked like his opponent Baadur Jobava of Georgia resigned in a drawn position.

Ivanchuk,Vasyl – Jobava,Baadur
Wijk aan Zee 2015

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43.Rxa4 Black resigned.

Somebody turned down the calculating power of the analytical engine Stockfish and it fooled the commentator Yasser Seirawan. When Jobava resigned, the engine showed the position as equal and Yasser asked:”Where is the win?” The answer came from Ivanchuk. He promptly showed the idea of “walking pants” – a theoretical term of two uncatchable pawns marching down.
43…bxa4 44.Kc4 Kc6 45.Kd3 Kd5 46.e6 fxe6 47.f6 Kd6 48.c4 e5 49.c5+ Ke6 50.c6
Just on time! The black king is hopeless against the white pawns. One of them queens, for example 50…e4+ 51.Kc2 e3 52.c7 Kd7 53.f7 e2 54.c8Q+ wins.

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There were always two sides to Ivanchuk. On the one hand, his career was full of brilliant strategic plans, incredible combinations and astonishing tournament victories only to be followed by sudden blunders, unexplainable losses and lapses in his performance.

In 1991 Ivanchuk turned 22. We were talking about a new world champion after he outplayed all the world’s best, including Kasparov, Karpov and Timman, and took first place in Linares. It helped him to the number two spot on the FIDE rating list.

However, in the summer of 1991 in Brussels, Artur Yusupov played his immortal rapid game and eliminated Ivanchuk from the Candidates matches. For the last two decades Ivanchuk has been one of the best players and together with Anand and Boris Gelfand – two grandmasters of his generation – refused to age in chess.

Ivanchuk was caught by Carlsen in round seven and in the next round faced Wesley So, 21, playing for the United States. Computers are one reason why the game is getting younger and So is the master of his laptop. He is so good that he became a coach of the U.S. team at the 2013 World Team Championship and 2014 Chess Olympiad.

“Wesley was extremely helpful,” says the U.S. captain John Donaldson.
“He knows an incredible amount about opening theory, likes to work on chess all the time, has a pleasant manner and is willing to share.” From now on, he will be playing for the U.S. team, perhaps even on the top board. On FIDE February Rating list So moves to number seven, the other American, Hikaru Nakamura, is number 10.

It seems So surprised Ivanchuk with a knight sacrifice in the delayed Marshall Attack in the Spanish opening. The Ukrainian just followed Aronian’s analysis from his Candidates game against Anand. But it became clear that Aronian’s analytical team unplugged the computer too soon, leaving the piece sacrifice undiscovered. Suddenly, there it was on the board, the work of number-crunching monster, too foreign to a human mind. And Wesley So knew about it. Giri and Carlsen were clearly interested in the game.

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Ivanchuk,Vasyl – So,Wesley
Wijk aan Zee 2015

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.h3

Ivanchuk avoids the Marshall gambit 8.c3 d5.

8…Bb7 9.d3 d5 10.exd5 Nxd5 11.Nbd2 Qd7!?

Levon Aronian’s novelty, connecting the rooks and planning to bring the queen rook into play.

12.Nxe5 Nxe5 13.Rxe5

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Aronian played 13…Nf6 almost immediately against Anand in the 2014 Candidates tournament and after 14.Re1 Rae8 15.Nf3 Bd6 16.Be3 Re7 17.d4 Rfe8 18.c3 h6 19.Ne5 Bxe5 20.dxe5 Rxe5 21.Qxd7 Nxd7 22.Red1 White had a bishop pair and turned his small edge into victory in 47 moves.

13…Nf4!

This knight leap is more in the spirit of the Marshall gambit and leads to a piece sacrifice.

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What do I do with the knight on f4?

14.Nf3 Nxg2!

The Dutch grandmaster Anish Giri pointed out this sacrifice in the third issue of New In Chess last year. It was picked up by a few players, but the credit goes to computers.
Komodo 8 suggest a different piece sacrifice: 14…Nxh3+ 15.gxh3 Bf6 16.Rh5 g6 with roughly equal chances.

15.Kxg2 a5!!

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An amazing computer move. The threat to win a piece back with 16…a4 gives Black time to bring his queen rook to the kingside via the square a6. “Show it to Levon,” writes Giri, ” and the rest he would have managed by himself.”

It looks like Aronian’s analytical team didn’t let the computer work long enough to find the little combination.

16.Rxe7

Ivanchuk decides to eliminate one attacking piece, but now the material is almost level and Black can still increase the pressure. Two other moves, 16.a4 and 16.c4, were already played.

Incredibly, the game Guliyev-Gustafsson, Germany 2014, followed 13 computer moves:

16.a4 Ra6 17.Qe2 Rg6+ 18.Kh2 Bd6 19.Nh4 Bxe5+ 20.Qxe5 Re8 21.Qf4 Rf6 22.Qg3 Re1 23.Bh6 Rxf2+ 24.Qxf2 Rxa1 25.Nf5 Rh1+ 26.Kg3 Bc8 27.Qg2 Qxf5 28.Qxh1 Qg6+ 29.Kf2 Qxh6 30.Qa8 Qxh3 31.Bd5 Qf5+ 32.Ke1 Qe5+ 33.Kd2 Qf4+ 34.Ke2 Qe5+ 35.Kd2 Qf4+ 36.Ke2 Qe5+ 37.Kd2 ½-½

It gives the impression the players agreed on the content beforehand.

After 16.c4 Ra6 17.d4 Rg6+ 18.Kh2 Rf6 Black has the edge because of White’s unstable king, for example:

A. 19.Re3 Bd6+ 20.Kg2 Rg6+ 21.Kf1 Qxh3+ 22.Ke2 (22.Ke1 Rf6 23.d5 Bc5-+) 22…Rf6!

B. 19.d5 bxc4 20.Bxc4 Bd6;

C. 19.Rd5 Bd6+ 20.Ne5 bxc4 21.f4 Qe6 or 19…Bxd5 20.cxd5 Qf5 21.Kf1 Re8.

16…Qxe7 17.c3 Ra6

The point of Black’s combination. The threat is 18…Rf6. Ivanchuk pushes his d-pawn to block the deadly diagonal a8-h1, but it does not work.

18.d4 Rf6

The computers prefer 18…Rg6+ 19.Kf1 Qd7 but So’s plan is good enough.

19.d5 a4 20.Bc2 Rd8 21.Qe1

After 21.Bg5 Rxd5 22.Bxf6 Qxf6 23.Qe2 Re5 24.Qd3 Bxf3+ 25.Qxf3 Rg5+ Black wins.

21…Qd7 22.Ng5 h6 23.Ne4 Rg6+

The pin 23…Qxd5 is even stronger.

24.Kh2 f5 25.Ng3 Qxd5 26.Qg1

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Black’s position is overwhelming and So can finish the game with various sacrifices. He chose the quiet hammer.

26…Qf3!

Another way to victory is 26…Rxg3! 27.Kxg3 (27.fxg3 Qd2+ 28.Bxd2 Rxd2+ 29.Qf2 Rxf2+ 30.Kg1 Rxc2 wins.) 27…Rd6 28.Kh2 Rg6! wins.

White resigned.

After 27.Be3 Qxe3! 28.fxe3 Rd2+ wins.

After Ivanchuk’s loss, Carlsen took the lead and was able to keep it till the end.

The Challenger Group

The 15-year-old Chinese whiz-kid Wei Li won the challenger tournament, a qualification for the top grandmaster group. Nobody could match his incredible result. The Chinese thought highly of him and included him in the gold medal team in the last olympiad.

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Wei certainly has a bright future. Besides the high score, he also entertained the fans.

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Wei Yi – Haast,Anne
Wijk aan Zee 2015, Group B

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 Qc7 6.Be3 a6 7.Qf3

This variation of the Taimanov Sicilian has a lot of admirers. White quickly clears the first rank, preparing the long castling.

7…Ne5

In connection with the next move, this plan scored well for Black. Wei does not believe in statistics: the black pieces will be pushed from the center. White will gain time and space. There is nothing wrong with the logical development 7…Nf6.

8.Qg3 h5

Wei scored a quick victory against Lei last October in Zhongshan: 8…Nf6 9.f4 Nc4 10.e5 Nxb2 11.Bd2 Nd5 12.Nxd5 exd5 13.Nf5 g6? (13…Qxc2 14.Nxg7+ Bxg7 15.Qxg7 Rf8 seems better.) 14.Nd6+ Bxd6 15.exd6 Qb6 (15…Qxd6 16.Qc3 wins.) 16.Qb3 Qxd6 17.Qxb2 Qe6+ 18.Kf2 and black resigned.

9.0-0-0 h4 10.Qh3 b5 11.f4 Nc4 12.Bxc4 Qxc4 13.f5 Bb7 14.Rhf1 e5

After 14…Rc8 15.Nf3 b4 16.Ne5 Qc7 17.fxe6! wins.

15.Nb3 Qc7 16.Kb1 Rc8?!

Allowing a nice tactical strike. 16…Nf6!? was necessary.

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17.f6!

The pawn on d7 is covered by the Queen only and Wei finds a little combination to win material.

17…Nxf6 18.Rxf6! gxf6 19.Bb6! Qc6

The Queen is overloaded. After 19…Qxb6 20.Qxd7 mates.

20.Na5 Qe6 21.Nxb7 Rb8

Exchanging the Queens 21…Qxh3 22.gxh3 Rb8 23.Nd6+ Bxd6 24.Rxd6 is also unpleasant, but now White wins with a direct attack.

22.Nd5 Rxb7

Black has no time to swap the queens: 22…Qxh3 23.Nc7+ Ke7 24.Bc5+ d6 25.Rxd6! Rxb7 (Or 25…f5 26.Nd5+ Ke8 27.Rd8+ Rxd8 28.Nf6 mate.) 26.Rd1mate.

23.Qc3! Qc6

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24.Nxf6+! Ke7

24…Qxf6 25.Qc8+ Ke7 26.Bc5+ d6 (26…Ke6 27.Qe8+ Be7 28.Rd6 mate.) 27.Qxb7+ and white mates soon.

25.Bd8+ Ke6

After 25…Kxd8 26.Qxc6 wins. But now the Queen returns to deliver a beautiful long-distance mate.

26.Qh3 mate.

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Undefeated with seven wins, David Navara, 29, didn’t finish first. It only magnifies Wei’s accomplishment. However, with his attractive play and high rating, the Czech champion belongs in the top group and I expect him to be there next year.

Navara produced some fascinating ideas throughout the event. One example is his miniature against Jan Timman, 63, who played one of the worst tournaments of his otherwise brilliant career.

Navara reversed the battery of Bishop and the Queen. The bishop acted like a slingshot shooting the queen into the enemy’s position to take advantage of the weak dark squares.

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Navara, David – Timman, Jan
Wijk aan Zee 2015, Group B

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ 4.Nbd2 0-0 5.a3 Be7 6.e4 d5 7.e5 Nfd7 8.Bd3 c5 9.h4!?

White prepares the Greek gift sacrifice 10.Bxh7+.

9…g6

After the other pawn defence 9…h6 White can set-up a dangerous Q+B battery 10.Bb1 Re8 11.Qc2.
Ignoring the threat losses, loses, for example 9…Nc6 10.Bxh7+ Kxh7 11.Ng5+ Kh6 12.Ndf3 and White’s attack prevails.

10.h5 cxd4 11.Nb3

A novelty, preventing 11…Nc5 and leaving the d2 square for the queen.

11…dxc4?!

Attacking the center with 11…Nc6 was a good alternative, for example 12.Bf4 dxc4 13.Bxc4 g5 with a playable game.

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12.Bxc4

Navara calculated the sharp computer variation 12.hxg6 cxd3 13.g7 Kxg7 but did not see 14.Nfxd4! It gives White a furious attack, for example: 14…Qc7 15.Rxh7+ Kg8 (15…Kxh7 16.Qxd3+ Kg8 17.Qg3+ Kh7 18.Bf4 Nc6 19.Kd2) 16.Qg4+ Kxh7 17.Bf4, threatening 18.Kd2 and 19.Rh1+.

12…b5 13.Bd3 Bb7 14.Qd2!

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White shifts the B+Q battery to the right. Computers agree with this move. White’s dark bishop is ready to catapult the white Queen to the square h6. The set-up of the Queen in front of the Bishop was seen in other openings.

14…Nxe5?

A flawed combination based on a double attack of two knights. But White has too much pressure against the black king and Timman never recovers the piece. Black should have tried 14…g5, although 15.Bc2 Bxf3 16.Qd3 f5 17.exf6 Nxf6 18.Qxf3 Qd6! 19.0-0! (19.Qxa8 Nc6 20.Qb7 Qe5+ 21.Be3 dxe3 22.0-0-0 Bxa3 23.bxa3 Na5 is equal.) 19…Nbd7 20.Bxg5 is more pleasant for White.

15.Nxe5 Qd5 16.Nf3 g5

A sad necessity. After 16…Qxb3 17.hxg6 Bxf3 (17…fxg6 18.Qh6 Kf7 (18…Rf7 19.Bxg6 Rg7 20.Bxh7+ Kf8 21.Nxd4+-) ) 18.g7 wins.;
And after 16…e5 comes 17.Qh6 Nd7 18.Bg5! threatening 19.hxg6.

17.Nxg5 f5

After 17…Qxb3 White can choose how to win: 18.Rh3 Qd5 19.Nxh7 f5 20.Qh6 Qe5+ 21.Be3 dxe3 22.Rg3+ Qxg3 23.fxg3; or 18.Bxh7+ Kh8 19.Nf3 Bxf3 20.gxf3 Qxf3 21.Qh6!.

18.Rh3 Qxg2

After 18…Nc6 19.Nxh7! wins.

19.Bf1

Or 19.Rg3 Qh1+ 20.Bf1 f4 21.Qe2 fxg3 22.Qxe6+ Kh8 23.Qxe7.
Black resigned.

Note that in the replay windows below you can click either on the arrows under the diagram or on the notation to follow the game.

Images by Alina l’Ami

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Jan 29

If I'd Let Fear Paralyze Me, I Wouldn't Have My Daughter

Posted in: Today's Chili

I’m slowly coming to terms with the fact that I won’t be having anymore kids. Short of some type of hostage situation or Apocalypse where we’re the only ones left to supply the world with more children, my husband is pretty adamant that two is plenty.

But, I sure am going to miss this:

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It’s ironic now that it was my husband who actually talked me into having a second child. When your first child gets cancer as a 1-year-old, it makes you question everything.

  • Did I eat too many chemicals as a kid?
  • Did I stand too close to the microwave when I was pregnant?
  • Did I clean with the wrong products?
  • Did I breathe something or touch something or live by something that causes cancer, ever, in my life?
  • Did I take medicine years ago that damaged something?
  • Am I the carrier of some undiagnosed gene mutation?

You go through so many questions and try to pinpoint something that you did wrong, because really, how in the world does a baby get cancer? HOW?!

Then there’s that question you don’t even want to say out loud: Will my next child get it, too? Or what if it’s not cancer but autism, down syndrome or cerebral palsy? I couldn’t handle another sick kid!

I also worried about what other people would say behind closed doors. I was afraid having a child with cancer had labeled me as defective. Everyone else was having healthy kids, so there must be something wrong with me. I knew as soon as I started telling people, they would smile to my face, but whisper and wonder behind my back.

Fear is such an ugly thing, isn’t it?

We still chose to expand our family from three to four. But when I delivered Abby at 24 weeks, my worst fears were realized. Do you know how terrible that is? You don’t wake up from these type of nightmares, you wake up to them.

Even in the midst of such heartache, I didn’t anticipate what happened next: I fell head over heels in love with this red, transparent micropreemie. I couldn’t hold her or bring her home. She was so medically fragile that she needed almost every machine and medication they had. But she was mine. Even with her eyes still fused together and no butt cheeks whatsoever (I didn’t even know that was possible!), she was my daughter. I loved her fiercely and without fear.

I will never, ever regret the decision to have her. Not for the fact that I could have died, and even as she’s morphing into a threenager and diagnosed with cerebral palsy, there’s no doubt in my mind that she is one of the best choices I’ve ever made. If I’d let my fear paralyze me, I’d never have her. Think about it, the very worst thing I could imagine happening ACTUALLY HAPPENED.

If you’ve ever been afraid to have another child, especially after a hard pregnancy, miscarriage or having a child with special needs, you’re not alone. Give yourself some time to heal, but don’t give in. You could miss your biggest blessing.

Three years later, the worst thing that could have happened? Letting my fear win. Because if it had, I’d be missing…her.

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Photography credit: www.matthartman.com

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Jan 29

Deflategate is Alice in Wonderland

Posted in: Today's Chili

Deflategate is the shorthand term given by the media’s news-entertainment complex to a comical story about absolutely nothing. Its sole purpose is to entertain us — under the guise of news — while actually distracting us from the serious issues of the day.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for entertainment. I like football. But get a grip. A story about the weight of a football is a story about entertainment. Deflategate is not a news story about the well being of the world (such as a story about global warming or about the Israel-Palestinian conflict). Deflategate is not even a serious news story about cheating in the multi-billion dollar sports entertainment industry. If it was, facts would matter and in this entertainment story, they don’t matter.

It’s like we are living in Alice’s fictitious Wonderland of long ago. First, we find the New England Patriots guilty of cheating by improperly deflating footballs (ostensibly to gain a competitive advantage which they didn’t need and which had no effect, if done, on the outcome of the contest). Then we gather the facts and have the trial.

Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wrote that Americans depend on “unambiguous honesties” in addressing issues (whatever the issues might be). Americans, she notes, refuse to acknowledge that all truth and honesty depend on context (facts) which create the very ambiguities that Americans seek to avoid.

In the media’s news-entertainment complex, it is easier to create an entertaining Alice in Wonderland fantasy of “unambiguous honesties” (that the footballs were improperly deflated by the New England Patriots football team), without knowing virtually any of the facts. It’s easier to do that than it is to collect and to judge the facts. In our Alice in Wonderland America people are left to believe what they want to believe — the facts and due process be damned.

Until all the facts are known, the media’s news-entertainment industry should leave the story alone. It should stop cheating the public by presenting the story as a serious news story about “cheating” rather than the entertainment story it is.

In an American court of law, the judge will invariably instruct jurors at the outset of a trial and throughout the trail that, until all of the facts are presented, the jurors should refrain from discussing the matter. Most importantly, they are instructed that they should decline to come to a judgment until the end of the trial when all of the facts have been collected and have been presented to them. Jurors are directed to do this because without the facts all we have are suspicions; and, according to the age old adage, “suspicion is more apt to be wrong than right; it is more apt to be unjust than just.”

In the court of public opinion, we would all be better off if all of us, the media’s news entertainment complex included, followed the judge’s instructions.

James I. Meyerson was an Assistant General Counsel with the NAACP from 1970-1981. Since then he has maintained a civil rights practice in New York City.

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Jan 29

New Data Illuminates Long Island's Education Inequities

Posted in: Today's Chili

Two new studies provide a remarkable look at education inequities on Long Island. They offer a view that is both distressing and instructive. Given that New York has the most segregated schools in America, according to the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, these studies should be the basis for a regional commitment to addressing these inequities.

The studies were released by two Long Island institutions – ERASE Racism and the Long Island Index – at an education forum convened by ERASE Racism last week in Melville. The forum brought together school administrators and education advocates and was the first step in drawing these studies and their implications to the attention of a wider audience.

The study by ERASE Racism – titled “Heading in the Wrong Direction: Growing School Segregation on Long Island” – revealed that, based on 2000 and 2010 Census data, Long Island continues to be one of the most racially segregated regions in the country, with segregation between blacks and whites remaining extremely high and segregation between Latinos, Asians and whites increasing. Long Island is more segregated by race than by income – with black and Latino families, regardless of income, experiencing high levels of racial segregation. For example, on average a black household that earns more than $75,000 resides in a neighborhood with a similar level of exposure to whites as a black household that earns less than $40,000.

According to the study, racial segregation, combined with concentrated poverty in majority black and Latino neighborhoods, perpetuates a public school system that is separate and unequal. Ninety-one percent of all students in high-need districts are black or Latino. Few of Long Island’s black and Latino students have access to the highest-performing schools on Long Island. Based on graduation rates, 3 percent of black students, 5 percent of Latino students, 28 percent of white students and 30 percent of Asian students on Long Island have access to the highest-performing school districts.

The report by the Long Island Index, which is published by the Rauch Foundation, of which I am President, was written by William Mangino, PhD, and Marc Silver, PhD, both sociology professors at Hofstra University. Titled “Still Separate & Not Getting More Equal: The Persistence of Economic and Racial Inequalities in Education on Long Island”, it revealed that the poorest school districts on Long Island were the hardest hit by the recession.

From 2009 to 2011, the average student in a High Poverty District saw expenditures on her education decrease by $1,100. Students in Mid Poverty Districts did not experience a decline in funding – only a leveling-off. From 2003 to 2012 (the latest data available), Low Poverty Districts increased their spending unabated, even seeing the largest single-year increase in revenues and expenditures from 2009 to 2010. From 2003 to 2012, the gap in financial resources between Long Island’s most privileged students and its most vulnerable students widened. In 2003, the gap in per-pupil expenditures was $2,600 (in 2013 dollars); in 2012, it was $6,000.

The report also analyzed the “fiscal cushion” of a school district, which reveals surplus funds and is calculated by subtracting expenditures from revenues for a given year. From 2003 to 2012, Low Poverty Districts averaged a cushion of $565 per student, while Mid Poverty and High Poverty Districts averaged cushions of $341 and $252, respectively. From 2005 to 2012, however, High Poverty Districts and Mid Poverty Districts saw a net decline in their fiscal cushion (respectively, 46 percent and 23 percent decreases), while overall Low Poverty Districts enjoyed a 331 percent increase.

Since 2006, schools in both Low and Mid Poverty Districts have also been getting smaller, while High Poverty Schools have been getting larger. In 2013, the average school in a Low Poverty District had 614 students, in a Mid Poverty District had 693 students and in a High Poverty District had 753 students. Schools in Low Poverty Districts are overwhelmingly white; schools in High Poverty Districts are predominantly Latino and black.

Educational inequality is firmly in place on Long Island, and addressing it should be a high priority for elected officials and residents of Long Island. If we expect public education to be the great equalizer – giving all students equal access to the American dream – we will have to confront the realities evident in these studies and make changes.

Addressing those educational inequalities requires tackling housing discrimination. With 125 school districts in Nassau and Suffolk counties, there is no separating the two issues.

The economic future of Long Island is tied to our ability to create the best possible workforce for the 21st century. Key to that is providing a first-rate education in a broadly diverse social environment throughout the region. All Long Islanders deserve it, and all depend upon it.

Nancy Rauch Douzinas is President of the Long Island-based Rauch Foundation.

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Jan 29

Widower Cries Tears Of Joy After Hearing Late Wife's Voice Again

Posted in: Today's Chili

Ever since his wife Ruby’s death in 2003, widower Stan Beaton has treasured the outgoing voicemail message she recorded on their phone — so much so that he refused to change phone companies out of fear that he might lose it. It was the only way he could still hear the sound of her voice.

In December, the message was lost during a service upgrade, which left the 68-year-old Brit “absolutely devastated” and also “extremely angry,” according to the BBC. So he contacted Virgin Media to see if they could retrieve it and — with the help of nearly a dozen engineers — they did.

In the video above, Beaton receives the news that the recording has been recovered. His emotional, teary-eyed reaction couldn’t be more heartwarming.

“It’s just a wonderful, wonderful sound that I thought was lost forever,” he said.

H/T BuzzFeed

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Jan 29

Pay-Check Equity: Demolishing 100 Percent of the Right's 'Arguments'

Posted in: Today's Chili

Although we all know the real reasons the Right opposes pay-check equity for women — their corporate paymasters do not want it, just like they opposed the Family Medical Leave Act, the Lily Ledbetter Act, and so forth, and many believe women should only be housewives anyhow — they have created a series of arguments opposing it that have been rebutted.

Instead of rebutting them, however, which is playing on their turf, let us just demolish each of them:

1. There is already pay-check equity if we correct for years of experience, training, level and so forth. There are, of course, factual rebuttals to this assertion, which proponents of simple fairness in the workplace muster.

But, really, why bother? Instead, let us recognize that, even if their assertion were true, then there is no harm in passing the law as nothing would change, but it would at least prevent backsliding into the way it “used to be”.

As Lily Ledbetter is a known victim, one might add the question, “you really think Lily Ledbetter was the only such case?” In my conversations, that is met with “oh that was a long time ago.” One reminds them that the theft of Lily’s pay began 40 years ago, but it persisted.

The pay-check equity law would prevent backsliding to the practices they admit occurred in yesteryear.

2. If women were indeed paid less, then rational companies, seeking the lower paid workers, would hire mostly women. Hence, since that has not happened, there is no pay-check inequality. Since even the rightiest righty recognizes that sometime in our past there was pay-check inequality, and companies did not behave as rational capitalists by predominantly hiring women, that is the end of this nonsense.

3. But, this is their all-time favorite: all the law will do is create work for trial-lawyers (whom they cannot stand because trial lawyers often sue their dearly-beloved corporate executives).

The Right especially loves this argument because they believe they fool people that they really, truly, honestly, cross-their-hearts-and-hope-to-die, want women to be paid equally in the workplace, but they just do not want trial lawyers to make all that money. They wish they could protect women, but gosh-darn, dagnabbit, they just cannot. Or, as Ann Romney exclaimed in her Republican convention speech, “we love you, women”. [We just cannot do anything for you].

This whole line of BS is easily demolished, by posing a simple question:

Please name a right that is not protected by lawyers. No takers?

Look how many trial lawyers are employed protecting the right to guns, to free speech, to freedom of religion, to freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures.

All rights are enforced by lawyers. Without enforcement, there is no right. If the criterion for a right is that it create no work for lawyers, we would have no rights at all.

So, why, pray tell, is it that the “no work for lawyers” criterion is uniquely applied to a vote on a right for women, the majority of people in this country, when it is applied to no other right we have by law or in the Constitution?

Indeed, if it were up to me (which it clearly is not!), I would use this last point as the primary rallying point: we are in the 21st century; women are the majority in the country; and, they are being denied a right because it would be enforced by lawyers, just as every other right is?

Of course, the Right will still vote against pay-check equity. It may help, however, to demolish the phony excuses, especially to right-wing women members of Congress.

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