Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/334485695?client_source=feed&format=rss
Category: Cassidy Wolf Namaste Aaron Alexis Never Forget 9/11 The Dirty
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
'The Neighbors' Celebrate Halloween With 'Sex and the City' Homage (Exclusive Videos)
ABC's alien comedy The Neighbors is offering its take on Halloween.
In two first looks at the Oct. 18 episode exclusive to The Hollywood Reporter, Larry Bird (Simon Templeman) comes up with the idea to combine two of his favorite holidays, Halloween and Chanukah, for what he dubs "Challoweenukah."
How does this new holiday work? Eight days of candy, dreidels, pumpkins and miracles (to signify that, he uses an image of a kitten draped in pearls). (Watch the scene below.)
PHOTOS: ABC's 2013-14 Season: Marvel's 'SHIELD,' 'Once Upon a Time' Spinoff and 'Trophy Wife'
Meanwhile, over at the Weaver household, they're coming up with the "perfect family Halloween costume" to celebrate the ghoulish holiday.
Naturally, they come up with what seems to be the "perfect" solution: the cast of Sex and the City!
Young Abby (Isabella Cramp) does her best Samantha impression -- complete with blonde wig, heart-shaped shades and large gold earrings. "I don't know what looks more delicious, that Cosmo or that hot Serbian…," she says in that unique Samantha drawl. Will they go through with it? (Watch the scene below.)
The Neighbors airs Fridays at 8:30 p.m. on ABC.
E-mail: Philiana.Ng@THR.com
Twitter: @insidethetube
Similar Articles: floyd mayweather Jenna Wolfe kim zolciak lindsay lohan Gold Cup final
Analysis: Letta plays safe with solid but unambitious Italian budget
By Gavin Jones
ROME (Reuters) - Italy's 2014 budget plays by the European Union rules, but seems designed more to offend nobody than to give the euro zone's most chronically sluggish economy a decisive boost.
Prime Minister Enrico Letta largely avoided unfunded tax cuts in the budget, which his cabinet approved late on Tuesday, meaning the deficit should stay within the EU ceiling set at 3 percent of economic output.
However, Letta also disappointed expectations he had raised for a large cut in taxes on employment, reflecting the fragility of his left-right coalition even after he survived an attempt to topple the government by conservative leader Silvio Berlusconi.
"This is a budget of ordinary administration," said Giacomo Vaciago, economics professor at Milan's Cattolica University.
"It has lots of very gradual, small steps which need a long period of political stability to bring any benefits, but the risk is that the government won't even be here in three months."
Letta had said the main pillar of the budget would be a reduction in non-salary labor costs to lift business investment and stagnant consumer spending through higher take-home pay. Business, unions and economists all applauded.
Employers lobby Confindustria had called for a cut in the "tax wedge" - the difference between how much it costs business to employ workers and how much they take home in pay - of at least 10 billion euros next year. Many economists had urged the government to be even bolder.
But the tax cut needed to be funded by unpopular spending cuts and the coalition proved unable to find them. In the end the budget reduced the tax wedge by just 2.5 billion euros, half the amount that the Treasury had originally penciled in, which was already widely considered insufficient.
The result is a budget which makes only marginal adjustments to tax and spending trends, reinforcing the reputation of Letta's government as being more concerned with political survival than bold decision-making or reform.
Letta focused at a news conference on the cumulative tax cuts envisaged over the next three years, yet the budget really sets policy only for 2014. Longer term goals are inevitably overtaken by intervening events, which are reflected in the following year's fiscal plan.
Last month Letta overcame Berlusconi's attempt to sink his government, but many analysts still expect elections next year. This situation was reflected by Letta's abdication of responsibility over how to distribute the budget's tax cuts among income groups.
That would be "up to parliament and the social partners to decide", he said, signaling a possibly difficult passage of the budget bill through parliament, where it must be approved before the end of the year to become law.
Despite Letta's caution on tax cuts, the budget gap is unlikely to fall to 2.5 percent of gross domestic product as targeted, although it should remain under the EU ceiling.
"The deficit will stay below 3 percent if the economy recovers," said Mizuho chief economist Riccardo Barbieri.
ZERO GROWTH
Italy has been in recession since the middle of 2011 and has averaged no growth at all over the last decade.
Vaciago said the government's 1 percent growth forecast for 2014, which is double the expectation of most economists, was reasonable so long as there were no external shocks. If there are any, Italy's weak domestic demand and lack of international competitiveness will make it "very vulnerable to future downturns".
Tough austerity adopted by Letta's predecessors meant the deficit was already projected to fall to 2.3 percent in 2014 from 3 percent this year, thanks to a return to modest economic growth and lower debt servicing costs.
Therefore the budget needed merely to redistribute resources to make the economy more likely to grow.
"It gives a very small stimulus, but I would have liked to see deeper cuts in expenditure and more significant cuts in the tax burden," said Barbieri. "The budget ticks all the boxes but it does everything on a very small scale because the government is unable or unwilling to cut spending more."
Barbieri said he was also disappointed to see the government aims to raise just 500 million euros next year from selling public buildings. Letta's predecessor Mario Monti targeted asset sales of around 16 billion euros per year, though he failed to achieve anything like that.
Confindustria and the unions gave the package an icy reception, pointing out the tax cuts would bolster average take home pay next year by no more than about five euros per month.
"It turns out that the cut in labour taxes is a fiction and so the economic recovery will be no more than a fiction as well," said Luigi Angeletti, leader of the moderate UIL union.
(editing by David Stamp)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-letta-plays-safe-solid-unambitious-italian-budget-171055777--business.html
Related Topics: Government Shutdown 2013 9/11 Memorial Amanda Rosenberg North West project runway
Power went out during Game 3 of ALCS in Detroit
DETROIT (AP) — A power outage interrupted Game 3 of the American League championship series for 17 minutes.
The lights high atop Comerica Park went out and the videoboards were dark between the top and bottom of the second inning, delaying the Boston Red Sox-Detroit Tigers game.
The Tigers were coming up to bat for a second time with two hits after Justin Verlander held Boston without a hit for the second straight inning when the game was stopped.
Ten minutes into the stoppage, fans had not been informed how long the game would be delayed. Five minutes later, the Red Sox took their positions in the field and right-hander Jake Peavy began warming up on the mound.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/power-went-during-game-3-alcs-detroit-210643803--spt.html
Category: Columbus Day 2013 south park Rihanna tiger woods Tropical Storm Flossie
Obama presents Afghan war vet with Medal of Honor
WASHINGTON (AP) — Four years after risking his life in Afghanistan, William D. Swenson solemnly received the Medal of Honor on Tuesday in a case of battlefield bravery with some odd twists: The young Army captain questioned the judgment of his superiors, and the paperwork nominating him for the award was lost. He left the military two years ago but wants to return to active duty, a rare move for a medal recipient.
The nation's highest military honor — a sky blue ribbon and medal — was clasped around Swenson's neck by President Barack Obama at the White House. The president described how Swenson repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire to recover fallen comrades and help save others during a battle against Taliban insurgents in the Ganjgal valley near the Pakistan border on Sept. 8, 2009. The fight claimed five Americans, 10 Afghan army troops and an interpreter.
Swenson is the second Medal of Honor recipient from that fight, just the second time in half a century that the medal has been awarded to two survivors of the same battle, Obama said. Two years ago, Obama presented the Medal of Honor to Marine Cpl. Dakota Meyer for heroic actions in the 2009 fight.
Obama noted that although America's highest military honor has been bestowed nearly 3,500 times, never before had the public been able to see any of the bravery it was designed to recognize. Video taken by the medevac crew's helmet cameras shows Swenson delivering a severely wounded soldier to the helicopter and kissing him on the head before returning to the heat of battle.
"A simple act of compassion and loyalty to a brother in arms," Obama said at the East Room ceremony attended by Swenson's parents, Julia and Carl, along with Vice President Joe Biden, first lady Michelle Obama, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and others.
Swenson also invited some of the Army soldiers and Marines who fought alongside him, and survivors of the five Americans.
Swenson, 34, of Seattle has been unemployed since leaving the military in February 2011. He has requested to return to active duty, rare for a Medal of Honor recipient, and his request is being reviewed, Army spokesman George Wright said.
A sober Swenson said the medal didn't belong to him alone. "This award was earned with a team, a team of our finest. This medal represents them. It represents us," he said in a brief statement afterward. He declined to answer questions.
Swenson was a trainer and adviser embedded with the Afghan Border Police Mentor Team in support of 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division when dozens of Taliban insurgents ambushed him and his team that September morning as they headed on foot to meet with village elders in rural Ganjgal in Kunar Province in northeastern Afghanistan.
Under a barrage of rocket-propelled grenades and mortar and machine-gun fire, Swenson returned fire before risking his life to help evacuate a wounded comrade, Army Sgt. Kenneth W. Westbrook, 41, of Shiprock, N.M. Westbrook later died from his wounds.
Swenson then made several trips to pick up injured Afghan soldiers and the fallen Americans, first by driving an unarmored Ford Ranger truck into battle and then grabbing a Humvee when the pickup gave out. He finally climbed into a second Humvee with a crew that included Meyer to retrieve the other fallen Americans.
Obama said Swenson is a "pretty low key guy" who would prefer a Pacific Northwest mountain trail surrounded by cedar trees to White House pomp. But, perhaps alluding to the partisan budget dispute gripping Washington, he said: "I think our nation needs this ceremony today."
Swenson complained to military leaders after the fight that many of his calls for help were rejected by superior officers. After an investigation, two Army officers were reprimanded for being "inadequate and ineffective" and for "contributing directly to the loss of life."
Swenson was first nominated for the award in 2009 but the paperwork was lost. It was resubmitted in 2011.
Swenson is the sixth living recipient of the Medal of Honor for actions in Iraq or Afghanistan, and the first army officer so decorated since the Vietnam War, the Army said. Swenson's previous military honors include a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star Medal.
___
Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor and Nedra Pickler contributed to this report.
___
Online:
Swenson Medal of Honor: http://www.army.mil/medalofhonor/swenson
Helmet video of Swenson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en1ZHMANDkg
___
Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-presents-afghan-war-vet-medal-honor-183607537--politics.html
Similar Articles: Panda Express ufc remembering 9/11 katy perry Larry Shippers
Smug Life: Why Is 'Catfish' So Dumb When It Doesn't Have To Be?
Max and Nev, probably thinking about how terrible Internet liars are.
MTV
Max and Nev, probably thinking about how terrible Internet liars are.
MTV
If you're not in the habit of watching MTV's Catfish, which ends its second season Tuesday night with a new episode and a reunion special, you might be surprised by how many interesting questions it raises.
Of course, you might be even more surprised by how blithely it ignores them.
Catfish as a television show is spun off from Catfish the 2010 documentary, in which handsome smoothie Nev Schulman (the kind of handsome smoothie who's very into how handsome and smooth he is) fell for a gorgeous woman online and then found out that it was a ruse by a substantially older, sadder, plainer woman impersonating a version of her own daughter. A lot of people questioned the veracity of some or all of the events in Catfish, but that didn't prevent it from sparking a lot of conversation.
So MTV, of course, made it into a TV show where Nev and his friend Max — and Max's utterly unnecessary little point-and-shoot camera, which he carries around constantly but could be fired into the sun without affecting the show at all — go around and visit other people who are in online relationships to, the show claims, help them learn the truth about whether the object of their affection is what he or she claims to be.
The structure of any given episode is that Nev and Max meet the Fished Person, who is earnest and hopeful and in love. Fished Person mentions a few obvious red flags — they've never video chatted with the Beloved, the Beloved has canceled three different phone numbers, the Beloved asks for money, whatever. Nev and Max look meaningfully at each other, because they've concluded that This Sounds Fishy (pun intended).
And then Nev and Max do some sleuthing, which literally consists essentially of using Google and Facebook to poke around, much like you might if you undertook such a project yourself and had a fourth-grade knowledge of the internet. They track down the Beloved and take the Fished Person to meet him or her. Usually, one or more of the following things happens:
1. The Beloved is much larger than the photos suggested. (This is the case for probably at least half, if not three-quarters, of episodes, to the point where Lovable Or Size 24? would make a decent alternate title if they ever need one.)
2. The Beloved is actually male [or female] when The Beloved was believed to be female [or male].
3. The Beloved is socially awkward.
4. The Beloved is in some other way not at all what was advertised.
Max and Nev and the Fished Person spend a lot of time saying HOW DARE YOU! to the Beloved, and the Beloved weakly apologizes and pleads insecurity or fear or tragedy. Max and Nev cart off the Fished Person, who vows not to give up on love but, in most cases, is through with the Beloved.
The moral is always the same: Lying is terrible, and liars are a menace, and it's easy to be taken advantage on the internet, so make sure you use Google at least as well as a fourth-grader.
The focus is consistently — perhaps not unerringly, but consistently — on the Fished Person as victim and the Beloved as betrayer. Over and over, the same sadness comes over Max and Nev as they realize they must break it to yet another completely innocent victim that they are just too good and pure for this earth.
Here are the kinds of questions that are almost never asked:
Why were you so eager to believe that a person who had only what looked like modeling photos on her Facebook page was exactly who she said she was?
Why did you ignore every sign that this wasn't on the up and up, and do you think it's possible that you have an unrealistic set of expectations?
If this person had told you the truth about who he really was, and had shown you a real photo, would you have given him the time of day? If not, does that provoke any remotely interesting thoughts in you about how you process first impressions?
Would you have told this girl that your affection for her was contingent on her appearance if she had asked you? If you would not, were you not leading her on as well?
And this question is not put to the audience: This person believed her real self would be rejected out of hand, so she presented a false self. What do you think about the fact that she was exactly right that her real self would be rejected out of hand? If we all agree that this is in no way an excuse for lying, can we still sit with it and understand that it probably hurts to live that way, and that perhaps the desire to be loved overwhelmed the desire to be ethical, which is perhaps not as open-and-shut as Nev and Max suggest?
Maybe it's not surprising that Nev, whose entire bio is based around feeling victimized because his hot internet girlfriend didn't turn out to be as advertised, isn't much interested in turning things around on the Fished Person to investigate how their expectations and wants and small dishonesties allowed the entire situation to continue.
It's sad, though, that so often, the show has it right in the palm of its hand, the fact that Everybody Hurts, Everybody Cries, and so forth, and while it often allows the Beloved to make a sincere apology followed by a sort of repenting dignity (he's decided to stop lying forever, hooray!), it rarely takes any interest in interrogating how, exactly, a Fished Person winds up falling in love with someone who never was. Instead, it retains the smug sense that every heartbreak has a victim and a perpetrator, and while the perpetrator may apologize and make good, she'll be the perpetrator forever.
Category: Nate Burleson liberace Sarin gas justin timberlake Lisa Robin Kelly
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Israel warns against nuclear compromise with Iran
Jerusalem (AFP) - Israel urged the world to avoid a partial deal with Iran which could see a relaxing of sanctions, as a new round of nuclear talks was launched Tuesday in Geneva.
The security cabinet warned the international community against any "partial agreement that would fail to bring about the full dismantling of the Iranian military nuclear programme...(which) could lead to the collapse of the sanctions regime."
Iran began two days of closed-door negotiations in Geneva on Tuesday with the P5+1 countries -- the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany, ending a six-month hiatus.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has launched a media blitz in recent days, warning against concessions to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
Rouhani's conciliatory tone has raised hopes of a breakthrough in the decade-long dispute over Tehran's nuclear programme.
The security cabinet statement called on world powers to be wary of Iran during negotiations.
"Iran believes it can get by with cosmetic concessions that would not significantly impede its path to developing nuclear weapons, concessions that could be reversed in weeks," the statement said.
"In exchange, Iran demands an easing of the sanctions, which have taken years to put in place."
The security cabinet said the P5+1 should "reject Iran's attempts to reach a deal that would leave it with the capability to develop nuclear weapons."
An Israeli official told AFP that the seven-member ministerial committee had met on Monday night but released the statement Tuesday morning to coincide with the launch of the Geneva talks.
Israel, it said, did not oppose Iran having a peaceful nuclear energy programme -- one which would not require uranium enrichment or plutonium production, it said.
"Iran claims that it supposedly has the 'right to enrich.' But a country that regularly deceives the international community, that violates UN Security Council resolutions ... has no such right," it said.
Later in the day, Netanyahu stressed that "now" was "an opportune moment to reach a genuine diplomatic solution that peacefully ends Iran's military nuclear program."
Speaking ahead of a meeting with Malta Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, Netanyahu said that pressure in the form of sanctions is what brought Iran back to the negotiating table.
"And it is that pressure which makes the peaceful dismantling of Iran's military nuclear programme possible," Netanyahu said in remarks relayed by his office.
But Netanyahu reiterated in parliament that the option of a unilateral Israeli military strike should remain on the table.
"Pre-emptive strikes must not be ruled out," he told MPs.
"Such strikes are not necessarily called for in every case... but there are situations in which thinking about the international response to such a step is not equal to the bloody price we would pay" for the existence of a nuclear-armed Iran.
The Geneva talks are aimed at reaching accord over Iran's nuclear programme, which Israel and the West say is aimed at developing an atomic bomb and Tehran says is for peaceful purposes only.
The Islamic republic has been slapped with several rounds of sanctions because of its nuclear programme.
Israel, the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear-armed power, wants Iran to meet four conditions before the sanctions are eased: halting all uranium enrichment; removing all enriched uranium from its territory; closing its underground nuclear facility in Qom; and halting construction of a plutonium reactor.
Israel has refused to rule out military strikes against Iran, with Netanyahu telling the UN General Assembly this month that the Jewish state would act unilaterally if necessary.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/israel-warns-against-nuclear-compromise-iran-073851087.html
Similar Articles: Wally Bell revenge Manny Machado obama princess diana
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)