hi im new

One very curious aspect of the fall-out from the chilling Baby P case is the role of Lord Laming. The 72 year-old former social worker was hired by Gordon Brown and Ed Balls several weeks ago to investigate Britain's social services in the wake of the death of Baby P; he will report next year. Laming also chaired the inquiry in 2003 into the death of Victoria Climbie which introduced a whole series of measures which appear to have failed Baby P. The Government then invites Laming back to investigate the consequences for social services after the latest outrage, which his Climbie review was supposed to make less likely. I am tempted to say you couldn't make this stuff up, but it gets worse.

Laming has written to Balls to say there is no need for a public inquiry on Baby P, which is probably in itself the correct judgment as all the facts are in the public domain anyway.

But Balls elaborated: "In his letter, Lord Laming also raises the question of a public inquiry into Haringey Children's Services. He says that he has been "struck by the robustness of the foundation on which current children's services are based." He sets out his view that a public inquiry into the services in Haringey would set back the progress that has been made in many places and divert effort from the actions needed now to keep children safe in Haringey. I agree with this judgment."

Laming is "struck by the robustness of the foundation on which current children's  services are based"? I bet he is. The  current regime was set up after he had  conducted the inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbie - the results of which were published in February 2003.

On his recommendation the Government established the Every Child Matters programme (where even the language is of the old East Germany; how many think that Not Every Child Matters?). It was aimed at creating "a better framework" to improve the lives of children. There was a raft of legislation and the creation of a database called ContactPoint which will hold information on all children in England and Wales, which manages to combine being both useless and sinister at the same time. Finally there was the creation of children's commissioners in the four constituent parts of the UK to co-ordinate efforts to improve the protection of children. They seem to spend a lot of money doing not a great deal apart from issuing pious pronouncements.

So, the Laming regime of child protection is set up and when it fails its first major public test, as it has over Baby P, he is summoned to give us the benefit of his wisdom once again and declares himself happy with the progress of his own recommended reforms despite another death in the same borough, Haringey, which had prompted his original inquiry.

Would it not have been more sensible to ask another person to investigate the Laming regime, rather than Laming himself? This could even, maybe, have been not a social worker but a public servant with experience of another area of government or public policy.

This business is all so very New Labour: the system was the right one, a process was followed, whoops it hasn't worked, call back the man who designed the system for another go, order up another report, act surprised if it happens again.

How very dispiriting and disturbing when there is so much at stake.

 

WELCOME TO THE FIRST EDITION OF MY SHOW!!!!!!

 

SEE YOU SOON ON WWE UNIVERSE SHOW

 

IN THIS WEEKLY EVENT I WILL GIVE YOU A TOPIC TO THINK ON IT OR TO START A DISCUSSION , EVERY MONDAY BEFORE MONDAY NIGHT RAW YOU WILL HAVE A TOPIC A VIDEO AND A PICTURE

BUT LET THE WORDS APART .

 

LETS BEGIN 

FIRST SHOW FIRST WEEK AND WE MUST BEGIN WITH THE BEST OF THE BEST , NO BETTER THE GREAT ONE!!!! M FIRST RING IS ABOUT THE ROCK : (briefly intrudiction) the rock , the great one , the people champ is a 7 times world champion , he was a real charismatic superstar and colorful speaker !!!!

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

MY BEST ROCK MOMENT

 

IMAGINE OF THE WEEK :

Unique, Personalized Gifts

Wow, this is a crazy time of year for shopping but who really thinks about shoplifters? I was at Kohl's in my local area picking up a gift when I approached the checkout line, it was roped off like the banks, only allowing one customer at a time to proceed to a register. A woman in her late 30's early 40's attractive, began speaking to me. I will talk to everyone, so as we were commenting on this crazy roping system for the 3 customers waiting, we shortly were headed out the door. Since I had a large boxed item rectagle shaped, I carried it with a paid sticker only and my little handbag hanging from my finger tips. As I walked about 20 feet from the doors towards the street, a scrubby man came racing from the parking lot area right towards me with his hand held in an upright stop position and the other hand clutching what looked like a phoney badge on a rope around the neck. He yelled" Stop! Loss Prevention!" I freaked out that this bummy looking felon was in my face damn near and I yelled," Ya right I have seen those warnings about people like you!" And I immediately rammed my box like a battering ram into this guys side as hard as I could and yelled call the police!!! He was pissed! He yelled, I am the Police! and shoved me aside to grab the lady I was speaking to in the roped line. I saw him walk her briskly into the store and was in total shock. I never thought crooks and thieves could be sharp dressed or middleclass women but more of a person who would be desperate, needy, or just a plain thug doing it for kicks. Had I had a gun on me, the Loss Prevention guy would have gotten shot, his tactics were frightening, and didn't appear to come from the store as he was outside waiting on her. Who can you trust now if your emails are telling us about parking lot thieves, rapists and muggers and you have an average joe stealing stuff right next to you?

I swear to God I was just looking for today's footage of the Press Conference when I found Diddy at home with my God daughters' you don't have to believe me, what do you hear them saying :49 LISTEN really close...

D'Lila & Jesse... T.T. Loves you both so very much, did you give them the copy of the prayer I prayed when they were born?

Oh my Gosh, they really said my name, what do you let them watch of me Sean, see you play too dang much boy, why you playing Sean...

EARS ON WGCI UNTIL 1 PM TODAY

Randy Orton has been telling friends that WWE offered him a 10-year contract, reports ProWrestling.net. Although there is still no word on whether Orton will agree to the deal, it says a lot about their faith in the young superstar. WWE is also trying to sign Rey Mysterio to a five-year deal.

Snow faflling outside the window, remeniscent of a whitewash on the earth, a cleansing of our lives.



...?...




And that's as far as my train of thought remans in the open. after that everything winds through unfamiliar forest and over rushing streams and rivers while i sit behind looking at the sace into which the tracks disappear, unable to follow them through the trees and undergrowth. Over the sloping and falling and twisting and winding ground. I can no longer weave pretty pictures on the page to paint picures of my demented world within your minds. I cannot pull the moss from the trees to reveal the rudimentary but intricate carvings in the dark wood which once inhabited my every thought and display the jumble of my mind, echoing the twists and turns which hide the train from my view.
the moss is too thick and when it finaly peels away from the bark, it does so to reveal clean, bare trees. no evidence that i was ever there. no resulting impact from the time i spent there. the decades my mind worked, the months my body retreated, the mere seconds left evidents of my presence.
all i can do anymore to explain my thoughts, emotions or visions is to put them blatently out there, in the world. to leave them alone and unprotected.
To simply say that i love him, he means the world to me. To settle for just saying, i feel so very alone. My voice, my companions, my faeries. all have gone into hiding, leaving me all alone.
perhaps it's because of him. ji found him, so i dont need them so much anymore. but now, when he's gone, i have NO cocmpany. noone to talk to or play with. i miss the comfort they once gave m e.
for those few of you ( or perhaps just one) who may remember. I think i may have found my Spirit. The One who would stay with me at night, hold me and warm me untill i drifted into sleep. who would comfort me when i woke trembling or screaming. it's the arm i feel round me every night and every morning while i'm with him. I wouldn't trade finding my spirit for anything. and he means more than the world to me.

 

Today's Topic: My weekend Wrap Up

Well what a nice long weekend we had right!  I did a little bit of shopping but mainly a lot of eating... haha.  Thanksgiving was spent at my parent's house in Orange County... I love my family especially the little ones, my nephews and niece.  I spent most of the weekend at my sister's house in Carmel Valley though.   Omg we played Nintendo Wii the entire weekend my body is so sore from that thing.

I hope you had a good weekend too... yooooo did you watch the MTV Britney Special last night?  Sooo good huh? I felt so bad for her and how hard it is for her to have a normal life.  I'm sure MTV will re-air it over and over again in case you missed it.  I really think you should check it out.  Welp, that's pretty much it. . . check out my video from Thanksgiving at my house. Gotta love la familia:)

Xoxo,

Sisanie

The champs at Eventhubs have put together an amazing Street Fighter IV uber resource!

It includes a review of the basic game systems and an overall FAQ, character rankings chart, and an in-depth character guide for ALL of the arcade challengers.

They've even got extras like stun, lifebar, dash, and jump statistics for all the characters, and a wiki on where you can find a SFIV arcade cabinet near you!

Check it out here.

FAUX News-  "I wish I had a daughter marry Troy Blackburn," says an unamed NFL owner. "Mike Brown got a great football mind when his daughter married Blackburn.  My understanding they met at UC Law school. The school produced Chris Collinsworth, Troy and Katie Brown Blackburn.  Wow, that's a lot of football genius."    UC President Nancy Zimpher is very proud of UC Law School in producing such football minds.  "It's the purpose of the law school to produce the future football executive," says Zimpher.

    Meanwhile, reporter G. Burbank asked Bengals owner Mike Brown, what does vice president Troy Blackburn do.  "He's one of the five vice presidents we have.  You need five and four has got to be family.  It's like third string quarterbacks, you can't have enough of these guys."  When pressed, Brown replied, "Troy works in mysterious ways."  "You mean he's like God?"  Brown, "Sure, whatever."

    This just in.  The Bengals are interested in obtaining Giants WR Plaxico Burress.  "We're surprised that Chris Henry is not working out. The good thing about Plaxico is that he shot himself not someone else. It's hard to hold a gun and a drink. James Bond can do it but that's the movies," says Mike Brown.  "We think that if we can add Plaxico, he'll be a good influence on Chad Johnson, Jason Shirley and of course, Chris Henry."

Reported by Tung NCheek.

 

 

 

 

    

bitknee peer and a tractor top billing on  celleb showbiz show, but who are they??  letter frm the back of beyond

  

Una extraña felicitación de Navidad.

 

Queridos amigos:

 

¿De qué podemos hablar en estos duros momentos, en los que la economía tiende a la contracción y sociedad a la reflexión y al ajuste?

 

No sé, podíamos hablar de Sacyr, ese valle hermoso en el que hasta hace poco tiempo pastaban alegremente las vacas. Las vacas sagradas, se comprende. Podíamos hablar de Martinsa-Fadesa, la inmobiliaria que tuvo el privilegio de ser la primera. Ya sabéis que no importa ser el último si se es alguna vez el primero. Ha sido la primera en caer, claro. Pero, antes, seguro que puso a buen recaudo los sabrosos beneficios de sus dirigentes, dejando a los acreedores el reparto equitativo de las migajas.

 

Podíamos hablar de la banca, ésa que persigue con saña los impagados y luego pide árnica al Gobierno para tapar los agujeros de la especulación. Podíamos hablar de los sueldos obscenos de los banqueros ¿Se pueden ganar 72.000.000 de euros al año y no resquebrajarse las estructuras de la sociedad? ¿Dónde está el dinero generado por la economía financiera cuando ésta dejaba suculentos beneficios? ¿Por qué no corremos a gorrazos a toda esta gente sin escrúpulos ni conciencia? ¿Por qué salimos a socorrerlos en lugar de mandarlos a galeras y tenerlos tres meses a pan y agua para que se enteren bien de qué va la cosa?

 

Podíamos hablar de los políticos, de los Hunos de Unamuno y de los Otros de Borges, todos ellos a salvo de las crisis negadas, habentes y futuras ¿Cómo se pueden ganar 100 ó 200.000 euros al mes y encima cobrar dietas por movimientos, agitaduras, manducaciones y pernoctaciones? ¿Por qué no se bajan los sueldos a la mitad para hacerse solidarios con los que no tienen ninguno o lo tienen ínfimo o sólo tienen el paro? ¿Por qué no creamos una plataforma para controlar la corrupción, que es pantagruélica, y el dispendio, que es asaz enjundioso? ¿Por qué tanto audi 8 a disposición de tanto mandatario de medio pelo? ¿No es suficiente con un audi 4? ¿Por qué tanto despacho de Madera de Boj y mármoles de Carrara? ¿Por qué van tirando el dinero en fastos y parafernalias de nuevos ricos cuando en realidad tenemos tanta miseria debajo de los manteles?

 

Podíamos hablar del Rey, pero me da mucha pena distraerle. Está tan extasiado mirando ese cuadro de tres millones de euros que acaban de ponerle en el despacho...

 

Podíamos hablar de todas estas cosas, digo. Pero de todas estas cosas están rebosantes los periódicos. Y las radios y las televisiones. Y, lo que es peor,  las sufridas cabezas de los ciudadanos que, desde el impresionante batacazo de Lehman Brothers, se han desayunado todos los días con las monumentales ****s de los financieros  (ésos que para celebrar un rescate se van al bar de la esquina y se gastan 500.000 dólares en copas), y con las mierdecitas calientes de los inmobiliarios que, con el nombre de viviendas hipotecadas, van dejando a la puerta de los acreedores.

 

¿De qué vamos a hablar, entonces? Pues, mira, no lo sé. En realidad yo empecé a escribir este artículo con la idea de hacer una felicitación de Navidad, pero pensando en los cuatro millones de euros que se ha gastado Gallardón en la iluminación de las calles de Madrid, me he quedado extasiado como el Rey ante la cúpula de Barceló, de la que dicen que recuerda a determinada cueva china. Normal, de China importamos un montón de juguetes. Este año, menos. Muchos menos. Parece que la crisis, aunque cierre algunas fábricas orientales, va a salir por fin al rescate de los niños, que están atiborrados de esa procelosa juguetería navideña que es perjudicial, que es hueca, que es vana.

 

El Gobierno (y la oposición con todos sus políticos al frente) tendría que hacer un esfuerzo dirigido a los que tienen verdadera necesidad. Nadie debería verse privado de lo básico. Nadie debería pasar una noche al relente. Nadie debería pasar hambre. Por lo demás, y salvados estos extremos, a lo mejor nos viene bien que nos pongan un poco en nuestro sitio, especialmente a aquellos que se han salido excesivamente de madre.

 

Sería bueno que el frío de la crisis nos dejara en los zapatos un poco de recogimiento y de humildad. Desde ahí se pueden tener muy felices fiestas.

 

Pues eso: ¡Muy Felices Fiestas!

 

Mariano Estrada www.mestrada.net Paisajes Literarios

 

 

Os dejo un extraño poema:

 

Un perro en la Navidad del 66 ó 67

 

"Un día triste y con frío,

las navidades pasadas,

oí el lamento de un perro

en el umbral de mi casa.

 

Abrí la puerta y entró,

porque en la calle nevaba,

y se acostó en un rincón

sobre una alfombra gastada.

 

Yo lo miré con ternura

y le di pan con palabras.

Él levantó la cabeza

y me miró con el alma.

 

Así pasó por las horas

mi corazón, sin notarlas.

Después se fue, no sé adónde

ni sé con quién ni sé nada.

 

Pero dejó en mi recuerdo

la luz de aquella mirada,

agradecida y hermosa,

profundamente cansada"

 

Tenía yo pocos años,

y la inocencia en la cara.

Nunca han llegado a mi puerta

las navidades tan blancas.

 

Mariano Estrada www.mestrada.net Paisajes Literarios

Posdata: este poema ha sido recuperado de la memoria

y rehecho con pretensión de fidelidad. No obstante, han

pasado por él más de 40 años...

 

http://paisajes.blogcindario.com/2008/12/00310-una-extrana-felicitacion-de-navidad.html

http://paisajes.blogcindario.com

 

Mega Ran just put out this one for your listening pleasure: Grow Up (Ultraklystron Mix). Impressive work! Mega Ran is also working on some fan mixes using the MM9 soundtrack. Read about it over in his blog!

 

A movie inspired by a World War 1 Christmas truce on the Western Front Dec 25th, 1914. Scottish, French and German troops decided to lay down arms for one night truce in the middle of a long and bloody battle. I've encluded a powerful clip from the movie here in my blog. My passion for empathy and peace was satisfied by watching this beautiful movie - go find it and watch it this holiday when the benign troubles we face with dry turkeys and xmas tree needles dropping start to get to us. It may help bring some perspective.

Cheers!

Mikki - I do love my girl Mikki.  Looking back, our meeting on another recovery website has turned out to be nothing more than one big huge God shot.  She's a true blessing in my life.

Mothers - All 5,243 of them.  They do have a tendency to get on my neves, but over the course of the 10+ years I've been around the rooms, that have undoubtedly saved my life.  Multiple times.

Max - My favorite big-butt border collie.  We got him the week of my high school graduation, which means he's now just about 13 years-old.  He's heard all my secrets, and seen me threw many bad nights in my early recovery.  He is ... and always will be ... one of my main men.

Maggie - The psychotic black lab I currently reside with.  About 15 minutes ago, she sent me flying across the backyard after she decided to chase a squirrel while on her leash.  Before that, she got knocked over a huge display of The Roommate's books.  But, I still can't help by love her ... uncoordinated moose that she is.

Medicine - This really needs no explaination.  I'm able to live today and maintain a reasonable quality of life, thanks to the pills I take on a daily basis. 

Music - Music was a gift my mother gave me at a very young age.  It has, without a doubt, been one of my saving graces.  There are days when it feels as if it's my only lifeline.

 

 

 

I can do no better than to quote the words of Cori herself:

The Indie Craft Wall, IndieCraftWall.com is a site made out of  frustration over the lack of affordable advertising for Indie Crafters.  The idea is...everyone who buys an inexpensive ad block on IndieCraftWall.com then puts a link to the site on their blog or Myspace page... thus creating lots of crafty traffic.

It is super easy to use.  You visit IndieCraftWall.com, click on a block, and instructions appear!  The hardest part is making sure that the image you upload is 4x4 inches and 72 pixels.  Anything smaller is too blurry.

Cori Crooks, a crafter and author of the art memoir "Sweet Charlotte's Seventh Mistake", came up with the idea about 2 months ago. She wanted an inexpensive way for Indie Crafters like herself to promote their shops. The ad space is $10 for 4 whole months -- that's only $2.50 a month! A great deal!

Indie Craft Wall benefits both buyers and sellers. Buyers can come to a web site that links artists directly. No supplies or antique stores -- just lots of nice photos of handmade goodness! In return sellers won't be charged crazy rates trying to get traffic to their store. 

What's also great about IndieCraftWall.com is the dedicated page that lists the clicks each artist gets! You are able to keep track of how many times someone who visited the wall went to your store!  It's totally cool!  Traffic is also driven to the site through links, site registries, Myspace gorilla marketing, and yapping about it!!! The number one rule about IndieCraftWall.com is: Talk about IndieCraftWall.com!

You can see my ad there in the lower left -- the cool thing is, if you hover over an ad at the site itself, you get to see the larger version. And it really is very affordable. Head on over to IndieCraftWall.com and check it out for yourself!

 

Saving The Environment Might Not Be As Easy As We Think

By Robert Sorley
Filed Under News & Reviews, The Big Picture | Leave a Comment

As the public ‘conversation’ about climate change and sustainable development moves closer and closer to center stage, it is now important to step away from our entrenching positions, take a deep breath, and look at a different category of ‘big pictures’.

Let’s leave the ‘skeptic-advocate’ dipole for the moment and move toward a set of principles that no sane person could seriously refute. Start with a few simple questions:

• Should governments, corporations, communities and individuals use their resources and organizations to behave in an environmentally responsible manner? Yes, of course.
• Should a new technology or initiative have the net result of greater units of greenhouse gas emissions for each unit of input? No, of course not.
• Does the state of our technology have the capacity to improve our emissions, our lifestyles and a sustainable agenda? Well, yes and no.

If truth be told, the technologies which currently have critical mass can only offer incremental improvements. A technological revolution of the scale which saw the elimination of wood burning in favor of hydrocarbon burning is still quite far away.

Several significant obstacles and large scale experiments must be addressed before the ‘non-combustion’ (ie. Wind, Water, Solar, Geothermal & Biofuel) will ever have the critical mass to truly rival the global reach of hydrocarbons.

Note the exclusion of nuclear energy from the previous list. There is a lesson to be drawn from our brief and tentative experiment with nuclear energy. Public attitudes turned against nuclear very early in its life cycle. Who is to say that nuclear’s experience will not repeat when the true and full costs of a “renewable energy” become clear?

Three problem-solving features contained in the main hydrocarbon applications are:

• Energy Density
• Transportability
• Small production area requirements

We, as a civilization, must either develop new technologies to address all three of these issues, or accept the inferiority of new technologies in these areas. If we opt for the latter, we must accept a measurable decline in our quality of life. If that’s not acceptable, we have the option to stick with hydrocarbons, as long as they are still around. But this option means that we must accept that anthropogenic-induced climate change will worsen. It may be much harder to measure the decline in our quality of life due to climate change, whereas the former will be acute.

ENERGY DENSITY

A gallon of regular gasoline holds 125,000 btu of energy content, or 34 MJ per liter. To describe this in daily terms, that gallon will propel 6 people in a 2.5T SUV a distance of 17 miles….all for a cost of roughly $3.00. Put another way, each mile costs 17 cents, so each person pays 3 cents for the benefit of moving one mile. Not even a rickshaw driver in the poorest country in the world would offer you this price!

Our academics and innovators are struggling to identify a viable alternative to the internal combustion engine when it comes to transporting people and material. The fuel cell, which once showed great promise is now dormant, wrapped up in the weaknesses of its own value chain. We may occasionally watch a 3 minute expose on the strange looking vehicles (with large surface areas) in the “North American Solar Challenge”, but we intuitively know these will never be able to carry a bevy of school children to their field trips.

The electric car may be of interest, but that requires plugging into the mains, which requires, in turn, that the power grid be designed for the increased demand. Since most of our electricity comes from hydrocarbons (gas, coal and oil) as of this date, we may run the risk of making the problem worse – unless it is very well thought out. Of course, we could always increase capacity by installing solar panels (photovoltaic cells) and wind turbines, but hydrocarbons will remain the core energy input.
The rules of energy density relegate our transportation issue to one of inc