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Sunday, March 17, 2013
TV journalist Anderson Cooper honored by gay media watchdog
By Chris Michaud
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pop star Madonna on Saturday presented CNN anchorman Anderson Cooper with a gay media watchdog's top honors in recognition of his stature and accomplishment as an openly gay journalist.
"Love thy neighbor as thyself," she said, decrying anti-gay bullying that sometimes has led to suicide. "It's an atrocity to me, and I don't accept it," she added to enthusiastic applause.
The annual Vito Russo Award is named after the activist and film historian who was one of the founding member of media watchdog group GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
"I am only here tonight because I've benefited from what they and so many others have done," said Cooper, who came out last summer, referring to activists like Russo and Larry Kramer.
The newsman said that "being gay is certainly one of the greatest blessings" of his life, adding that "it opened my head and heart in ways that I never could have predicted."
Past winners have included Suze Orman, Rosie O'Donnell, Elton John and Tom Ford.
Film director Bret Ratner received the ignoble Ally Award, a little over a year after he used a pejorative term for gays at a news conference promoting his stint producing the Oscars.
He quickly stepped down, then worked with GLAAD on a pro-gay public service announcement campaign.
In other awards handed out at the 24th annual ceremony, NBC's "Smash" was named outstanding television drama, and the film about 1980s AIDS activists, "How to Survive a Plague" won for outstanding documentary.
CBS' "The Amazing Race," which has been won by gay couples during its long run, received the award for reality program, while MSNBC's "Being Transgender in America" and "Good Morning America's report "Obama Endorses Marriage Equality" won awards for television journalism.
The Boston Globe, Rolling Stone magazine, City Pages' Andy Mannix, The New York Times' Frank Bruni and The Advocate/Out were among winners for print journalism. "The Whale" and "From White Plains" took the theater honors.
Awards also went to Spanish media including Telemundo, People en Espa?ol, voces.huffingtonpost.com and ElDiarioNY.com.
(Editing by Xavier Briand)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tv-journalist-anderson-cooper-honored-gay-media-watchdog-054609149.html
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Division among cardinals paved way for selection of Pope Francis
Behind the Sistine Chapel's closed doors, a fierce negotiating session led to the unlikely election of Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, say observers, because he was a Vatican outsider.
In this image taken from video, cardinals line up to place their hands on the Gospel to 'promise pledge and swear' to keep the oath of secrecy before taking their seats for the conclave to elect the next pope inside the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City Tuesday.
CTV/AP
EnlargeThe surprise election of Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as pope was the result of a determination among many cardinals to pick a candidate from outside Europe, Vatican insiders say.
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The South American was an unexpected choice to the outside world, but reflected a desire among a majority of his brother cardinals that the new pope should come from the developing world, where the Catholic Church is enjoying strong growth even as it stagnates in Europe.
The former archbishop of Argentina became the first non-European pope in 1,300 years when he was elected on Wednesday by the 114 other Catholic cardinals gathered beneath Michelangelo?s frescoed ceiling in the Sistine Chapel.
The last pope to come from outside Europe was Gregory III, a Syrian, who reigned in the eighth century.
Cardinal Bergoglio was especially attractive as a candidate to cardinals who wanted the new leader of the Catholic Church to come from south of the Rio Grande.
?A majority of the cardinals wanted a candidate from outside Europe. In that context, it made sense to look at Latin America, rather than Africa or Asia, because that?s where more than 40 percent of the world?s Catholics live,? says Alessandro Speciale, Vatican correspondent for the US-based Religion News Service.
?Bergoglio was the strongest candidate. Aside from being a spiritual leader and a man of the Gospel, he has never worked in Rome, so he was not tainted by involvement with the Curia.?
A compromise candidate
The Argentine, who is also the first Jesuit pope, benefited from unexpectedly weak support for Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan, who had been widely tipped as a front runner in the race for the papacy. (For more on Cardinal Scola, read about the men considered the leading contenders in the run up to the papal selection)
Scola?s chances were reportedly torpedoed by two opposing forces. Traditionalist cardinals feared that he would embark on reform of the Curia, the Church?s secretive and feud-ridden governing body, while those of a reformist bent thought that he would not go far enough because he was too much of a Vatican insider.
Among the traditionalists, his most powerful adversaries included Tarcisio Bertone, who was secretary of state under Benedict and therefore the Vatican?s de facto prime minister, and Cardinal Bertone?s immediate predecessor, Angelo Sodano.
Scola?s supporters deserted him as it became apparent that he had far less support than expected.
After just five votes, Bergoglio had the two-thirds majority required to be nominated pope.
?For the first two ballots, there were several names in the frame,? says Peter Jennings, a Catholic commentator and press secretary to the Archbishop of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, who spoke to several cardinals in the wake of the conclave.
?Bergoglio began to emerge after the third vote. The cardinals wanted somebody new, somebody fresh, somebody who will preach the Gospel in a way that is really relevant, who visits the sick and looks after the poor. Bergoglio ticks all those boxes," he says.?
The Argentine Jesuit was not a complete dark horse ? he reportedly received a large number of votes at the last conclave, in 2005, coming second only to the German cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was made Benedict XVI.
He evidently had an inkling that his chances were firming up by the middle of Wednesday, the second and final day of the conclave, because he appeared much more sombre than his normal ebullient self.
When the cardinals broke for lunch, he sat down next to Sean O?Malley, the archbishop of Boston. "He seemed very weighed down by what was happening," O'Malley told journalists at a press conference Thursday.?
Hours later, after the cardinals cast their fifth ballot, it was clear that Bergoglio had surged ahead and was cruising towards the two-thirds majority required under the Vatican constitution.
White smoke
"It was very moving as the names were sounding out," said Cardinal Sean Brady, the leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland, at a press briefing Thursday. "Bergoglio, Bergoglio, and suddenly the magic number of 77 was reached."?
The cardinals started applauding. "I don't think there was a dry eye in the house," Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York told reporters.?
Moments later, white smoke began billowing from the chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel and Bergoglio changed into his white papal vestments in the Room of the Tears, so named because of the weight of emotion that has overwhelmed newly-elected popes in the past.
An hour later he walked out onto the balcony of St. Peter?s Basilica to address the world for the first time as Pope Francis. ?
The behind-closed-doors maneuvering between the cardinals took place not just inside the Sistine Chapel but also in talks at meal times, when they retired for lunch and dinner to the Casa Santa Marta, a Vatican residence located in the shadow of St. Peter?s.
?Ever since The Last Supper, the Church decides its most important affairs at the dinner table,? said a cardinal who took place in the 2005 election of Joseph Ratzinger as Benedict XVI, in an interview with La Stampa newspaper.
There are high hopes that Bergoglio could succeed in cleaning out the Curia where Benedict failed. But the cardinal himself has disputed the idea that church leadership needs reform.?
In a February 2012 interview with La Stampa, reprinted this week,?he said the problems in the Curia had been ?exaggerated and manipulated to spread scandal? by journalists.
He accused the media of ?focusing on the negative rather than the positive aspects? of the Holy See?s governance.
Whether he still holds those views remains to be seen.
Early controversies
Already Francis?s brief papacy has been touched by controversy.
There have been accusations that, as a senior Jesuit in Argentina, he was complicit in the kidnapping and torture of two priests during the country?s ?dirty war."
Critics also allege that he stayed silent during systematic human rights abuses by Argentina?s former military dictatorship.
The Vatican hit back forcefully against these charges Friday, saying the allegations were baseless and defamatory.
Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said the accusations were being leveled as part of a ?left-wing, anti-clerical? conspiracy. At a press briefing in the Vatican media center Friday he?said the charges had to be ?clearly and firmly denied."?
And from other corners there was anger over the fact that the pope?s visit to a basilica in Rome on Thursday was attended by Cardinal Bernard Law, who resigned in disgrace as archbishop of Boston a decade ago over allegations that he covered up sex abuse by pedophile priests.
Cardinal Law was forced to leave the US after being named in dozens of law suits that accused him of failing to protect children.
He now lives in a residence attached to the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome and met the new pope when Francis prayed there during an early morning visit.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a US-based group representing sex abuse victims, said the encounter between Law and the pope ?rubbed salt into still festering wounds?.
?Of all the church officials to visit from the United States, we are disappointed that Pope Francis has chosen the worst of them,? said David Clohessy of SNAP in a statement.?
?Tragically, it took Pope Francis only a matter of hours before he dashed the hopes of abuse survivors by visiting the most discredited US prelate, Cardinal Bernard Law," he said.?
?The pontiff is an extremely smart man. He must have known the hurt that he would cause to already wounded victims and still disillusioned Catholics by this insensitive act.?
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Wednesday, March 13, 2013
House GOP Confident on Paul Ryan?s Medicare Plan
Rep. Paul Ryan?s plan to balance the federal budget in 10 years would have been, until recently, cause for House Republicans to fret. But emboldened by last year?s elections, in which they say attacks on Ryan?s previous proposals fizzled, the House GOP believes it can adopt the Budget Committee chairman?s new proposal and avoid backlash at the same time.
There are limits to that confidence. Moderate Republicans scuttled a push for Ryan?s Medicare overhaul to take effect earlier, something they say would have broken a promise that Americans now as young as 55 would still be able to enroll later in the traditional health care program. But that the Wisconsin congressman and his allies would even float such a proposal, one they could easily come back to, reflects a conviction they no longer should fear the politics of their fiscal conservative agenda. Their gamble might eventually amount to hubris; for now, Republicans say they?re just confident.
?I think these guys think the majority is safe, and if they?re ever going to do it, the time is now,? said Brock McCleary, a former deputy political director at the National Republican Congressional Committee. ?The push will be harder and will be even more aggressive.?
There are two reasons behind the GOP?s newfound belief: Republicans think they were successful defending the proposals last year, and they believe that, if anything, the new dynamics at play this year will help make their case.
Last year, House Democrats touted Ryan?s budget, especially its plan to provide future Medicare beneficiaries a stipend to purchase private insurance, as their ticket to the majority. But Republicans rebutted the attacks with a combination of offense and defense. On one hand, they used the Affordable Care Act to criticize Democrats for cutting more than $700 billion in Medicare spending?arguing that President Obama?s party was the only one reducing spending on current Medicare beneficiaries. Many Republicans paired that attack with an ad, featuring their elderly mother or grandmother, pleading with voters that they would never reduce benefits for current seniors.
The group most susceptible to the Democrats? argument, seniors, broke overwhelmingly for the GOP: 56 percent of them backed Mitt Romney?s candidacy. On Sunday, Ryan reiterated his contention that his budget had nothing to do with Romney?s, or any other Republican?s, defeat.
?We won the senior vote,? he said during an interview on Fox News Sunday. ?I did dozens of Medicare town-hall meetings in states like Florida, explaining how these are the best reforms to save the shrinking Medicare program and we are confident this is the way to go. It has bipartisan support. It?s an idea that came from Democrats in the first place.?
In 2014, Republicans are counting on a new wrinkle in this year?s fight to help carry them. Unlike previous years in which Ryan released his budget, Senate Democrats are crafting their own spending plan. That sets up a point of contrast, and Republicans are confident that despite the spending cuts and entitlement reforms in their own budget, the fact that it balances out makes it a political winner.
?You know, Democrats talk an awful lot about ?balance,? ? said House Speaker John Boehner at last week?s press briefing. ?So here?s my question to them: Where is their plan to balance the budget??
He added, ?I think the American people support our efforts to balance the budget over the next 10 years. And I would challenge President Obama and Senate Democrats to embrace this common-sense reform and offer their own plan to balance our budget.?
More than anything, House Republicans are just giddy at the opportunity to finally play offense on the budget. The aggressiveness they learned to harness last year can now be used to score points against the opposition, not just prevent points from being scored on them.
?We?re going into a fight that you know you have the tools to win,? said Andrea Bozek, a spokeswoman for the NRCC. ?If you?re going in with the mentality that you?re going to be on offense for all four quarters, you feel better about going into it.?
Of course, by November 2014, the GOP could regret its boldness. Democrats, for their part, welcome another fight over Medicare and Ryan?s budget more generally, dismissing any declaration that the issue went bust for them last year. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll from February found that 40 percent of adults trusted Democrats more than Republicans on Medicare; only 22 percent felt the opposite.
?The basic truth is any camp that is playing defense is not controlling the debate,? said Michael Bocian, a Democratic pollster who works with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. ?And they play defense on this issue because it?s in our wheelhouse.?
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/house-gop-confident-paul-ryan-medicare-plan-222937053--politics.html
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Making Money With Real Estate Investment | Kent Clothier
Ways to Make Money in Real Estate Investment
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The goal of real estate investment is to put funding in action today so it can grow and produce more money for you in the future. When the profit or ?return? exceeds coverage of the risk taken, taxes paid and costs of maintenance, you have seen some investment success.
Sounds pretty straight forward and simple doesn?t it? It gets ?better: The better news is, there are dozens of ways to make money with real estate investment.?Some are obvious and some not so much. One?caveat?to this is that simple does not always mean easy. Real estate investment education and coaching are key to a successful real estate investment business.?Nevertheless,?here are just 4 super simple ways of making money with real estate investment, that can get you started now.
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Cash Flow Income: Buying real estate for the purpose of creating a stream of cash flow can be an excellent investment and an easy source of income. When steps are taken to manage them well, rental properties like apartment or office buildings, storage units, car washes, rental houses, parking lots and more can be excellent sources of constant cash flow. The key here, though, is good?management and systems placement.
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Ancillary Real Estate Investment Income: Often overlooked as a viable source of real estate investment income, ancillary income includes things like on site coin laundry facilities in low-income apartment buildings, vending machines or paid parking structures. Essentially, these kinds of operations serve as small businesses within a bigger the real estate investment, sometimes allowing for a semi-captive collection of customers. If you get a little creative, there are a number of?opportunities?that can turn your real estate investment into the cash cow it was meant to be.
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Real Estate Wholesaling: One great example of a real estate specialist is the real estate wholesaler. Real estate wholesalers generate income by finding great properties at great prices and then placing them under contract, after which they then ?assign? or resell the property to another real estate investor who will often flip it; generally these properties are distressed. Investors usually have lines of credit, use hard money loans or are cash buyers, which facilitates quick closings. With real estate wholesaling, everyone is a winner. The original owner gets what is sometimes desperately needed, quick cash; the wholesaler makes an assignment fee and the investor gets a great investment opportunity that he didn?t have to scour the ends of the earth for.
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Real Estate Appreciation. Due to constant fluctuations in the real estate market, upgrades into the investment (rehabbing) or circumstantial changes to land development and the population around your property, your real estate becomes more, or less, valuable than when you purchased it. Because fluctuations are unpredictable, real estate appreciation is one of the more risky forms of real estate investment, though when the circumstances come together, it can be incredibly profitable. The good news is, the fluctuation is constant; if well prepared, the smart investor can sit tight and reap the rewards when economic improvements arise.
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About Kent Clothier
Kent Clothier is President and CEO of Real Estate Worldwide (REWW), a multi-faceted real estate education company with headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona, San Diego, California, and Boca Raton, Florida.Source: http://kentclothier.com/making-money-real-estate-investment
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Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Batman's mythology getting new boost from DC
Batman's transformative years are getting a few new twists.
DC Entertainment is going back into Bruce Wayne's past to see how he began his transformation from wealthy socialite to the scourge of Gotham's criminal underworld.
Key elements of the character's history are staying the same ? the murder of Wayne's parents, for example ? says Scott Snyder, the writer of "Batman" since its relaunch debuted in 2011.
"It's not 'let's redo the origin,'" he said Monday. "It's time for a new story showing how Batman became who he is in the New 52."
Snyder said the decision grew out of the success of the first year-and-a-half of DC's New 52, a sweeping reorganization of the publisher's characters that saw many given new origins and costumes that blended those from their first appearances decades ago with contemporary changes.
Snyder said readers will see how the crime fighter found his calling and what challenges he faced when first donning the costume of the Dark Knight.
The augmented origin begins June in the pages of "Batman" in an 11-issue story called "The Zero Year" that is illustrated by Greg Capullo.
"We tried to preserve as much of Batman's history as we could and keep what we could of this history intact," Snyder said of the change. "It's 'The Zero Year,' the one that no one has told the story of before. We see how Bruce became the Batman, built the cave, faced off with his first super villain."
It's not so much an origin story as it is a view into Batman's formative years.
"We're not going to take apart 'Year One,'" Snyder said, referring to the Frank Miller-David Mazzucchelli four-issue arc that recounted how Wayne began to fight crime after years away.
Instead Snyder, an Eagle Award-winning writer whose other efforts for DC include "Swamp Thing" and "American Vampire," said the "Zero Year" story will give readers new glimpses into the Bob Kane-created character who made his first appearance in the pages of "Detective Comics" No. 27 in May 1939.
"It's time for a new story showing how Batman became who he is in the New 52," said Snyder. "It builds up the mythology."
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Moore reported from Philadelphia. Follow him at http://www.twitter.com/mattmooreap
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Online:
http://www.dccomics.com.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/batmans-mythology-getting-boost-dc-062800003.html
ScienceDaily: Child Development News
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/rss/mind_brain/child_development.xml
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