The spectacle may 2014 by United Commercial Mortgage, Inc

THE SPECTACLE “WE TELL IT LIKE IT IS”

JUNE/2014 EDITION Controlling the American Public Codes of Hammurabi Is Benghazi a real scandal Zero Tolerance Investors Bail out of the Stock Mkt Rise of the Metro Sexual Trucking a killer industry Superiority of female workers How to get good at making money

Athletes and entertainers get paid way too much

Crankasauras

America is starving to death A D IV

ZEKE EMANUEL ER SIF

IED

AG SH AZ AR FIR INE IA E I LA N T W HE BE ME LLY DIC INE FA Be RS eP E age

Finding the right commercial mortgage broker Sex sells or does it Look to the skies the rapture is coming Going pro se´ Death Squads A BUDDING ARTIST

Editorial Staff Charles J. Papaccio Editor Contributing Articles: Carl Engelking— 5/11/14: Flying Car DAVID KIRSH– COVERT ACTION QUARTERLY SHEYNA STEINER-2/6/14: BANKRATE DR. MERCOLA-THE SCARY TREND OF BOOMER ADDICTION ELISE ACKERMAN-FORBES-2/24/13 JULIE BECKMAR-2/26/14 JASON FRIED: HOW TO GET GOOD AT MAKING MONEY DR. LEN COOPER-ATHLETES CITY OF MICHIGAN– SHARIA LAW AIDA AHMAD—RISE OF THE METROSEXUAL BRENT STAPLES– SUNDAY OBSERVER SCOTT REEDER– SPRINGFIELD, IL 3/12/14 HELEN W. GUNNARSSON– LAWPULSE JAMES CARPRETA-FNS-11/3/13

Controlling the American Public

20,21

Zeke Emanuel

18‐19

Codes of Hammurabi

24‐51

Harry Reid

9,12‐16

Is Benghazzi a Real Scandal

94‐95

Roaming the Streets

82‐83

Zero Tolerance

101‐103

Flying Car

87,92

Investors Bail Out of Stock Mkt

88‐91

Don’t Pee in the Pool

67,76

Rise of the Metro Sexual

86‐87

Why is Hollywood so dumb

21,85

Trucking a Killer Industry

52‐54

Superiority of Female Workers

Sex Sells or Does It

56‐57

Rapture

6‐9

Going Pro Se

54‐55

Death Squads

93, 95‐101

A Budding Ar st

64‐65

How to Get Good at Making $

86‐75

Fire in the Belly

Medicine Farse

58‐63

Be e Page

Athletes Get Paid too much

75,77‐79

American is Starving to Death

5,17

Finding the Right Mtg Broker

57,83,91

Crankasauras

80‐81

Sharia Law

84‐85

Illinois next taxing Exodus

22‐23

The ar cles contained herein are not necessarily the stance taken by this magazine. All contribu ng ar cles have been extracted from the internet and reproduced in this magazine with the excep on of ar cles wri en by the editor.

utilize the expression "fire as a part of the stomach" to allude to somebody's drive or inspiration to accomplish triumph. When you're questioning prospective workers for your business, individuals will regularly depict an "energy" for the item, engineering, or undertakings within reach. This is pleasant, yet fire in the paunch blazes on while ardor wears out. Fire in the tummy is a proceeded drive that doesn't ebb or stream while energy ascents and falls. To discover fire in the paunch in a potential new worker, search for three things:

thing to demonstrate to the world. You do this by making inquiries about their good examples, connections, family, and long haul aspirations. Individuals with flame in the stomach normally have somebody or aggregations that have essentialness to them. Discover who they are, the reason they are critical to them, and what they need to demonstrate at the end of the day. When you're established that the competitor will be persistent to make a guardian glad or demonstrate somebody wrong, you ought to be pondering where he or she will sit in your office.

FIRE IN THE BELLY

First and foremost, search for a history of drive. Individuals with drive have had it their entire life. It's in their DNA, and they've ordinarily showed it from right off the bat. Make inquiries about their first employment. Not the one after school, however the precise first thing they accomplished for pay. Surmise what: People with drive normally began working promptly in life and took the occupations they could get for the pay accessible. In the event that they are who you're searching for, they didn't then and don't currently have any issue with buckling down. It is their main event; it is who they are as individuals. They are determined and dependably will be.

Third, discover individuals who have overcome impediments true snags, for example, the departure of a parent, a catastrophe, or material setbacks. Get some information about their life growing up and the material conditions or occasions inside it. What were their all around beneficial occasions? Assuming that you need individuals who will experience dividers to succeed, contract individuals who as of recently have experienced dividers throughout their life. Discover somebody with any of these qualities, and as a rule you will profit consistently they are in your utilize. Truth be told, fire in the midsection comes to work consistently and brings vitality to each assignment.

Second, discover individuals with some4

The American People are being kept in the dark and starving for the truth. The obviously leftist media is purposely leading us in the wrong direction. But why? Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in it for them? They are not the elite nor will they ever be, so what is the hidden a g e n d a ? Maybe its guilt that drives the media to not report the facts, as they are rather skewed to the left. The media such as CNN, NBC, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, Huffington Post, New York Timesâ&#x20AC;Ś.I guess by now you get the message. Its mesmerizing really, when the truth gets distorted for reasons unbeknownst to a vast majority of Americans.

Kansas City, Missouri, is an enormous underground city extending many miles over the United States.

T h e

Ozarks Mountains is a wonderful rich mountain scene that fills the horizon in Kansas City, Missouri with a lot of natural life and streams and streams coursing through its valleys. These mountains have a percentage of the world's most far reaching characteristic hollow frameworks, and now likewise has a huge man-made underground city extending I believe itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a conspiracy to conthrough it. trol the American people who remain naive . Covered up in plain Continued on page 15 sight in the Ozarks Mountains in 5

he congrega on holds to the premillen‐ nial perspec ve, seeing an approaching ends mes from which it will be safe‐ guarded in the wake of being raptured by the Lord. The first occasion which is not an essen al issue may not be seen and is known as the joy, when the spared are to be 'made up for lost me,' whence the expression "joy" is taken. Some amillennialists may take the delight to be meta‐ phorical, as opposed to strict; these three assem‐ blies are liable to uphold that the entries with re‐ spect to the reappearance of Christ depict a solitary occasion. In the millennial and postmillennial per‐ spec ves, and in the post‐tribula on premillennial posi on, there are no qualifica ons in the ming of the bliss.

abandoned for the tribula on period. There are three fundamental convic ons with respect to the me span of the Rap‐ ture. Pre‐Tribula on Rap‐ ture, is the most famously taught view around Chris an religions. The individuals who acknowledge this viewpoint accept the Rap‐ ture will happen simply before the tribula on peri‐ od, at the start of the seven eth week of Daniel. The Rapture will introduce the last seven years of this age.

The other, more established u liza on of the ex‐ pression "Joy" is basically as an equivalent word for the last revival for the most part, without a convic‐ on that an assembly of individuals is abandoned on earth. The individuals who acknowledge the Rapture hypothesis accept that all non‐devotees on The pre‐tribula on posi on pushes that the delight the earth at the me will be deserted for the tribu‐ will happen before the start of the seven‐year tribu‐ la on period. The point when Paul composed his la on period, while the second nearing will happen Epistle to the Thessalonians, he tended to a blas‐ at the end of the seven‐year tribula on period. Mid phemous idea that was being coursed by a pro‐ ‐tribula onists hold that the examples of piety will duced le er to the Thessalonians It taught that the experience the first period Beginning of Travail, Rapture had occurred, and that the Thessalonians which is not "the tribula on”, yet will be raptured had been abandoned. The steadfast will be cleared into Heaven before the extreme overflowing of up in the skies to unite with Jesus in the joy, while God's fierceness in the second a large por on of non‐adherents will be abandoned to hold up for what is famously called the tribula on. Armageddon and the second happening to Christ. They don't accept that an aggrega on of individuals The pre‐wrath joy see likewise puts the joy sooner is deserted on earth. Non‐devotees will be aban‐ or later throughout the tribula on period before doned to face extreme tribula on as the an christ the second advancing. S ll others hold the rest plans to take his spot as the Beast, through the sev‐ will either be raptured throughout the tribula on en year period. In simply a couple of short hours, or at its end. The post‐tribula on posi on puts the sa sfac on at the end of the tribula on period. you ought to know beyond any doubt whether Post‐tribula onists observe the sa sfac on as hap‐ you've climbed into Heaven, or been deserted San pening all the while with the second happening of Francisco that means you! Ba le for yourselves as Christ. Amillennialists regularly see the delight of the guards of haziness drop upon the Earth ahead the Church as one and the same occasion with the of me of the Tribula on. In the event that Obama is deserted, he'll at any rate be generally readied. second happening to Christ. The individuals who Obama is not the An ‐Christ. acknowledge the Rapture hypothesis accept that all non‐professors on the earth at the me will be ‐ 6

t is frequently contended that faith in pre‐trib euphoria leaves one unassuming to face An christ and vulnerable to double dealing. Assuming that one doesn't have faith in the Rapture in being made up for lost me into paradise , it may then be possible that the An christ could put on such a psychic show of evil power that numerous might think he was Christ. An christ couldn't rise to power without the Rapture frightening the whole world into uni ng under him. When the Body of genuine dev‐ otees are raptured oﬀ the substance of the earth, there will nothing le that will have the ability to pre‐ vent the An christ from climbing to full power. Antichrist thought of "This is the blazing trial which is to attempt us, will be for the cleansing and purging of the genuine parts of the assemblage of Jesus" and "The trial of the Church is from Antichrist. The purpose of the tribulation is that the Anti-Christ will submit the "plague of devastation" by tainting the non-devotees; they will be deserted to face extreme tribulation as the anti-Christ plans to take his spot. In spite of the fact that the Anti-Christ and his supporters will be pleased that the Church has been taken out of this world, numerous keen people will be genuinely awed by the puzzling clearing of a huge number of individuals.

christ will not be difficult to spot once he begins to enter onto the world scene. With a percentage of the capable TV services that we now have set up, I am certain that the Body of Christ will be yelling from the roofs once the Antichrist is spotted.

You know the untamed one is alluding to the AntiChrist in light of the fact that, the verse says that Jesus will wreck him when He returns for the second time. This implies that the Body of Christ, the Church, will be is taken out before the Anti-Christ could be uncovered. Think about this, the Anti-

advancing will happen at the end of the seven-year tribulation period. Pre-tribulationists regularly depict the euphoria as Jesus desiring the congregation and the second nearing as Jesus accompanying the congregation.

The expression might be spread rapidly and it might become difficult to be heard for the Anti-Christ to ascent to the sort of force that the Bible is prognosticating. The individuals who distinguish the bliss with the second nearing are prone to underscore shared similitudes between entries of scripture where mists, trumpets, holy messengers or the lead celestial host, restoration, and social occasion are The effect of these weird occasions will soon be specified. overlooked by the lion's share of those living in the Historic pre-millennialists are less averse to Tribulation, on account of the falsehoods and the misleading of the Anti-Christ, who will sign a pledge utilize the expression "joy" to elucidate their with Israel and begin his discretionary success of position in qualification from dispensationalWithin pre-millennialism, the preworld government. Anti-Christ will profess to be the ists. precise "Christ" whom they hope to come to earth to tribulation position is the dominating view rule. That is something which the Anti-Christ, for all that recognizes the euphoria and second imhis sack of traps and lying signs and marvels, won't pending as two occasions. The prehave the capacity to perform. First of all is the timing of Anti-Christ’s rising to power. There are the tribulation position supports that the happiindividuals who propose that it can't happen until ness will happen before the start of the seven-year tribulation period, while the second the center of the seven year period.

Continued on Page 8 7

First and Second Comings as a period of extraordinary distress and The pre-wrath joy see additionally strife for Christians. Dissimilar to puts the happiness eventually postmillennialists, they accept throughout the tribulation period that it will happen after the Secbefore the second advancing. Post ond Coming as opposed to some-tribulationists discern the satistime recently, so Christ rules physfaction as happening at the same ically on earth throughout the time with the second happening to thousand years. However ScripChrist. Amillennialists, generally ture does not help the thought of a see the happiness of the Church as one and the same occasion with the second happening to Christ. New Testament discourses, with the thought that devotees might be gotten up to speed preceding judgment on the Earth and Jesus' second impending. The "second nearing" is an open occasion, wherein Christ's vicinity is forecasted to be obvithousand year compass between ously seen by all, as he comes the Second Coming and the Final back to end a fight, Second Com- Judgment. Might they pass up a ing Ready At the end of the tribu- great opportunity for the superb lation. The Second Coming of occasions of Christ's second adChrist will happen in stages. He vancing and the restoration? Paul spoke of his second nearing com- guaranteed them thusly that God monly, however in every other might spare the individuals who occasion He had the climactic oc- had officially kicked the bucket, casion Paul calls the "magnificent and those even now living. Nonshowing up" as a primary conadherents will in any case come to cern. There are various sections acknowledge Christ, despite the that discuss the age between the Church's nonappearance throughContinued from page 7

out this time, then again, these new Christians will persist compelling abuse , to the point of death by decapitating. They accept that humankind will basically get better and better through the deliberations of the Church, and when humanity gets heavenly enough Christ will return. His or her constitution, obviously, stays in the grave until the revival, which for the Christian is at the end of the Church age simply before the Tribulation. This is justifiable since the Church Age is the time of the Gentiles, though the Tribulation is the time of Jacob's inconvenience or the seventieth week of Daniel dictated by God for His dealings with Israel. He won't frustrate us! He will come -and His impending could be at any minute - however that advancing is for His Church just, which is made up of all accurate professors all over the place who have gained Him generally by confidence. 8

Actually, dividing Israel and the Church is secular problems which are a big waste of one of the significant keys to rightly under‐ me or ready yourself for the coming of standing Bible predic on. It was not un l Our Lord. It’s your choice so keep looking the Bible was made as the dialect of the for the signs. normal individuals that the trust of the pre‐ millennial return of Christ was restored in the Church.

Is Harry Reid a Scumbag

Happiness ‐ happening to Christ ‐ Signs to search for chapel, first revival, inescapable, Harry Reid abruptly, consuming, drinking, marriage, By John Solomon-The Washington assemble, lady, spouse. The a en on, ra‐ Times Thursday, March 13, 2014 ther, is upon the way that life was typical consuming, drinking, purchasing, oﬀering, EXCLUSIVE: plan ng, building and the way that the ex‐ FBI agents working alongside Utah act opposite thing wanted was judgment, state prosecutors in a wide-ranging corruption investigation have uncovSo it will be when Christ returns. ered accusations of wrongdoing by

The convic on that the Rapture is advanc‐ two of the U.S. Senate’s most promiing, as well as impending soon has a true, if nent figures — Majority Leader Harry Reid and rising Republican Sen. Mike inconspicuous eﬀect on the American po‐ Lee — but the Justice Department has li cal scene through outside strategy, mass thwarted their bid to launch a full fedtrading, and social issues like gay marriage eral investigation. The probe, conis your most loved government oﬃcial ducted by one Republican and one Democratic state prosecutor in Utah, propping for Armageddon? Here's an ex‐ has received accusations from an incep onally deficient aide, "An Incredible dicted businessman and political doGrowing Delusion" ‐ And as it was in the nor, interviewed other witnesses and mes of Noah, so should it be addi onally gathered preliminary evidence such in the mes of the happening to the Son of as financial records, Congressional Record statements and photographs man They did consume, they drank, they that corroborate some aspects of the wedded wives, they were given in mar‐ accusations, officials have told The riage, un l the day that Noah entered into Washington Times and ABC News. the ark, and the surge came, and wrecked every one of them. Continued on page 12 So, you can piddle around and worry about 9

Subsequently, the entire office of federal prosecutors in Utah was forced to recuse itself from the corruption case after questions surfaced about a conflict of interest involving one prosecutor and a subject of the probe. After the recusal, state prosecutors secured a • Whether both or either politician sought or received money court order transferring the federor other benefits from donors and/or fundraisers in connecal evidence gathered up to that tion with doing political favors or taking official actions. point to their possession. The pro• Whether Mr. Lee provided accurate information when he cess has left FBI agents in the unubought, then sold a Utah home for a big loss to a campaign con- sual position of trying to help two tributor and federal contractor, leaving his mortgage bank to local prosecutors make a case in absorb large losses. state court without the ability to use the federal court system to de“There are allegations, but they are very serious allegations and they need to be looked at by somebody,” Sim Gill, a Demo- termine whether accusations against two powerful members of Congress are true. crat who is the elected chief prosecutor in Salt Lake County, told The Times. “If true, or even if asserted, they truly should “We’re just two local prosecutors but everybody who was supbe investigated and put to rest, or be confirmed.” The investi- posed to look at this evidence above us has made a decision not gative efforts have been further complicated by the fact that to, and by default left it to us to investigate and prosecute at Mr. Reid worked to get Mr. Lee’s chief counsel, David Barlow, the state level,” Mr. Gill said. He and his counterpart in the confirmed in 2011 as the U.S. attorney in Salt Lake City. That wide-ranging probe, chief Davis County prosecutor Troy Rawlaction — a Democratic Senate leader letting a Republican be ings, praised the FBI agents assisting their case for their dedinamed to a key prosecutor’s position in the Obama administra- cation to finding the truth. tion — raised many eyebrows and angered some Democrats. But the Justice Department’s public integrity section — which normally handles corruption cases involving elected figures — rejected FBI agents’ bid to use a federal grand jury and subpoenas to determine whether the accusations are true and whether any federal crimes were committed by state and federal officials. The information involving Mr. Reid and Mr. Lee is not fully developed but centers on two primary issues:

The prosecutors said their current focus is pursuing state charges against Utah officials and figures, like former Utah Attorney General John Swallow. To the dismay of the investigators, the Justice Department declined to prosecute Mr. Swallow, a Republican. On Wednesday, a special committee of the Utah Legislature concluded that Mr. Swallow may have violated as many as eight state laws on abuse of public office. Mr. Swallow “compromised the principles and integrity of the office to benefit himself and his political supporters,” and he “hung a veritable ‘for sale’ sign on the office door that invited moneyed interests to seek special treatment and favors,” the legislative report concluded. Mr. Swallow has denied wrongdoing. A senior law enforcement official familiar with the discussions among FBI, Justice Department and state authorities said that after federal prosecutors declined to take the Swallow case or pursue the accusations about the senators, a decision was made to pursue justice wherever it could be achieved, even at the state level with FBI agents assisting. “The sentiment was that it doesn’t matter in the end where it occurs as long as justice is served,” the official said, speaking only on the condition of anonymity. Both state prosecutors said they eventually plan to pursue the accusations involving the senators and other federal officials — at least to determine whether any crimes were committed inside Utah borders that would warrant state charges. “We’re sweeping up that information and those items of evidence,” said Mr. Rawlings, a Republican. “I think it would be unfair to say we are currently investigating Sens. Reid and Lee at this time. But we are not going to ignore the scraps of evidence coming in about them. “Do we plan on formally turning attention to all of the scraps picked up about them? We do plan on that,” Mr. Rawlings said. People familiar with the probe said both FBI agents and local investigators have been frustrated for months by the Justice Department’s inaction on the initial accusations and evidence

against the two senators, and those concerns were recently elevated to FBI headquarters. The special agent in charge of the Utah office was summoned earlier this month to Washington to meet with senior FBI officials, and the bureau’s Utah office has been instructed that the FBI agents working the case may only assist in the state probe and cannot pursue federal criminal investigative leads — unless Justice finally approves a corruption probe. The frustrations have prompted discussions of seeking a special prosecutor who would bypass the Justice Department and U.S. attorney’s office and evaluate the evidence independently. FBI officials said it was rare but not unprecedented for their agents to assist a state-only investigation. “We’ve let agents provide expertise and assist on the ground investigations for states in the past, especially in complex cases where federal crimes weren’t clear,” a senior FBI official in Washington told The Times, speaking only on the condition of anonymity because the official wasn’t authorized to talk to reporters. “But in this case, DOJ risks creating the perception of a cover-up rather than let agents use the normal tools and follow the evidence wherever it leads — Republican, Democrat, Senate or not,” the senior FBI official said. Mr. Rawlings criticized the Justice Department for failing to let FBI agents examine the evidence for federal crimes and leaving the matter to state prosecutors with limited jurisdiction. “Based upon what we know today, we were surprised that the DOJ ran away,” he said. FBI agents have conducted some interviews in Utah and provided analysis of bank records. But until the Justice Department engages or a special prosecutor is named, the agents are handcuffed from using a federal grand jury to gather evidence. FBI officials requested Justice Department permission last year but were turned down in August, officials said. One focus of the investigation is on allegations by federally indicted businessman Jeremy Johnson, who says he was asked by Mr. Swallow and other intermediaries to route hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions and consulting payments to an associate of Mr. Reid and other companies in hopes that the senator would intervene on two matters.

The first was a dispute that Mr. Johnson was having with the Federal Trade Commission, which led to a fraud lawsuit against him. Mr. Johnson says he was instructed by intermediaries to write a $200,000 check to one company and a $50,000 check to a personal friend of Mr. Reid in return for getting the senator to intervene with the FTC, an intervention that did not happen.

in his retirement fund.’ And I was like, ‘OK, that’s how it is.’”

Mr. Johnson says Mr. Reid announced his new position in 2010 at a fundraiser with online gambling executives in a Las Vegas. In a recorded conversation published last year by a Utah newspaper, Mr. Johnson is heard telling Mr. Swallow about the Las Vegas event.

was paid to make that change.

Mr. Johnson said in the recording that he was instructed by intermediaries to route a seven-figure check to a company on the West Coast. Mr. Reid did introduce online poker legislation one month after his reelection in a closely contested race in 2010. The proposed legislation never went anyThe second accusation involves the timing of where. Mr. Reid’s changing his opposition to legisla- Jeffrey Ifrah, an online gambling industry attorney, tion allowing Internet poker. Mr. Reid’s attended the 2010 event with what he guessed were aides contend his change of heart was con- 60 to 70 others. He confirmed to ABC News that Mr. Reid announced his change of position on Internet sistent with a broader shift underway in his poker in front of the donors. But he said he did not state — and of the leading industry group, think the contributions influenced the decision and the American Gaming Association. laughed off Mr. Johnson’s suggestion that Mr. Reid

Mr. Johnson says Mr. Reid told the gathering: “Look, I’ve polled my constituents and they don’t like online poker, bottom line. … It’s bad for jobs here in Las Vegas. But I’m going to back what you guys are doing here. I’m going to introduce a bill for you.”

On the recording, Mr. Johnson tells Mr. Swallow that, after Mr. Reid departed, Mr. Johnson himself pulled aside an online gambling official to ask about his announcement.

“If someone said that, they must have been joking,” Mr. Ifrah said. “Let me tell you something about gamblers: They don’t give their money to anybody and I highly doubt they would have given it to Reid. When they have cash to spend, they gamble with it — period.”

Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Mr. Reid, confirmed that Mr. Johnson attended the fundraiser. “Senator Reid met with a large group of supporters, just as he met with thousands of people over the course of his reelection campaign, and took pictures and shook hands with countless people. The record indicates that Mr. Johnson was present at this large group meeting, but Senator Reid does not recall him as anything other than a face in the crowd,” Mr. Jentleson said.

“I [Mr. Johnson] said, ‘How in the hell did you “The event was a fundraiser, but Sen. Reid himself guys get him to do that?’ And he [the online gaming did not make a personal appeal for money. Fundraisofficial] says, ‘Let’s just say he got a little something 14

ing is a necessary reality of politics and Sen. Reid has always conducted his fundraising activities with full transparency and in full compliance with the law,” he added. When Mr. Johnson’s

ry environment to protect U.S. consumers, prevent underage gambling and respect the decisions of states that don’t allow gambling.” Mr. Reid’s

spokesman said his boss actually began reaccusations were first made public last considering that position in late 2009, well year, Mr. Reid called him a man of “low rec- before the fundraiser. ord and character” and termed his accounts “Sen. Reid has always opposed broad-based as “absurd and utterly false.” Mr. Jentleson online gaming, in part because of concerns that it echoed those sentiments Thursday. could not be regulated. Since the issue first arose “Mr. Johnson is a desperate individual who’s been nearly a decade ago, new regulations and new indicted on over 80 counts. His allegations are technologies have been developed, including technologies that would enable sites to block minors. false and the flailings of a desperate man,” the Due to these and other developments, Sen. Reid Reid spokesman said. Mr. Reid had long became convinced over time that states should be opposed online poker, making clear his po- allowed to decide for themselves whether to allow sition in a 2006 news conference. online poker,” Mr. Jentleson said. “I, at one time in my career, was chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission, which is the regulator for gaming in Nevada. I was there when gaming went to New Jersey. I do not believe in Internet gambling,” Mr. Reid told reporters. “I know how hard gambling is to control. I had my life threatened on more than one occasion as a result of untoward people who were involved in Nevada gambling. I was involved in shutting down major hotels because of the involvement of organized crime. The commodity of gambling is cash. And someone asked me if I oppose a study. I don’t oppose a study. If anyone wants to study it, they can study it. But unless I’m convinced differently, I do not favor Internet gambling.”

Mr. Johnson’s credibility is certain to come under attack from anyone he levels accusations against. Federal prosecutors secured a federal indictment accusing the St. George, Utah, businessman of 86 criminal charges accusing him and other executives of his former financial firm of bilking tens of thousands of consumers out of millions of dollars. A plea deal between him and the government fell through before the charges were filed, and the U.S. attorney’s office subsequently secured a gag order from a federal judge prohibiting Mr. JohnShortly after Mr. Reid won re-election, the son from talking to the media. Senate majority leader surprised many by Despite the accusations portraying Mr. Johnson as publicly supporting legislation to legalize a swindler, FBI and state investigators have unonline poker. “Under the status quo, Internet earthed some early information that would sub-

poker is played by millions of Americans every stantiate some aspects of his claims against state day in an essentially unregulated environment,” and federal officials. Mr. Reid said in December 2010. “The legis- (Continued on page 16) lation I am working on would get our collective heads out of the sand and create a strict regulato-

Continued from page 17

an Phillips said, adding that Mr. Lee at the They include canceled checks of some of time of the house transaction didn’t even know the buyer was a federal contractor. the payments Mr. Johnson purportedly made to third parties other than Mr. Reid, Around the same time, Mr. Lee made a speech on the Senate floor praising the other bank records and even a photo of same donor who bought his home. Mr. the fundraiser with Mr. Reid, officials Lee called the donor a “friend” and sugsaid. gested the donor’s books and writings The questions in the broad-ranging state might offer a blueprint for compromise in probe that surround Mr. Lee involve real congressional budget talks. estate transactions in which the Republican bought a home for $1.1 million in Utah Mr. Phillips said his boss did no other fain 2008 when he was still a private lawyer vors for the donor and that the brief menand then sold it for $720,000 after becom- tion on the Senate floor was “an off-theing a senator, leaving his mortgage bank, cuff, unplanned remark referencing a single line from a widely sold book” by the J.P. Morgan, to absorb a significant loss. Investigators want to know whether Mr. donor. Lee accurately described his personal fiMr. Lee told a local newspaper in Utah nances in conjunction with the mortgage that his sale of the home and the rental of transactions. the new property were not connected, but Investigators have gathered information rather separate transactions involving the that Mr. Lee sold the home in a short sale same friend. He said he gained empathy in 2011 to a campaign contributor and fed- with average Americans after experienceral contractor. As part of the short sale, ing the loss of his first home in the short Mr. Lee forfeited his down payment and sale. left the rest of the loss to his bank, then immediately turned around and rented another property from the same donor for just more than $2,000 a month. A spokesman for Mr. Lee confirmed the house transactions but said the senator accurately reported all of his finances and all the transactions were legal and proper.

“It certainly is something that is painful to go through, and I know a lot of people are going through it, and I feel for those who have had to go through it,” Mr. Lee told the Salt Lake City Tribune.

“The purchase of the house was completely aboveboard so there was little to consider about appearances,” spokesman Bri16

Con nued from page 5– America is Starving to Death

Imagine a machine tunneling seven miles per day through solid rock, boulders and clay...virtually anything below the waterline. A machine whose heart is a compact nuclear reactor circulating liquid lithium at 2,000 degrees F. through a rotating face that melts a tunnel 40 feet in diameter; even injecting magma into fractures in bedrock for extreme solidity, sealing the tunnel with a glassy lining, and leaving no excavated material behind.

Psychopaths also benefit from the vague public notion of “What comes around goes around”. Who would attack the environment, propagate poverty, misery and death and a radioactive future—who would deliberately devastate their own nest? Underground DUMBs connected by supersonic train systems are a tender topic for the elite. So their mainstream corporate media (MSM) buries DUMBs and the supporting blackoperations (Black-Ops) budget. Never a peep.

The nuclear sub terrene was born at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Patents were taken out in the '70s. And since their mission is a menace to public interest, sub terrenes have been minimized from public awareness.

People involved with DUMBs, those courageous enough to risk being suicided—their leaked information suggests there are over 100 DUMBs ranging between 2.5 and 4.3 cubic miles, and two miles deep. The ultraclassified Black-Ops budget is supposedly 25% of America’s gross national product (GNP), or about $1.25 trillion annually.

A system of government created for a small pathological minority that takes control over a society of normal people. “Normal" people, in this context, are those with a conscience, a soul. It can be difficult for a person of conscience to relate to psychopaths...difficult to understand the zero shame, and selfishness all the way to not wanting to share their planet with human garbage.

The elite's pathological inhumanity seems to enhance their finesse at executing plans for global domination over centuries...as well as perpetuating their malevolence across generations. What really frightens the elite is the public waking up and fighting for their own best interests. Public awareness, coordination and focus of potential public power...are such things possible?

ts highly unimaginable that our society would allow Zeke Emanuel a henchman for Obama to dictate to the American people how and when they should die. Zeke’s brother Rahm was orchestrating the goings of the Obama Administration. These two idiot brothers are forcing their socialist restrictions on freedom. This is something of concern since those who have any intelligence whatsoever understand that Obamacare is not so much providing medical care or not, but to control over everything we

old coldhearted bitch who puts her socialistic ideologies before helping this young girl. Her excuse, if I do it for her, I will have to do if for others as well. This is going to be an ongoing fight for years to come.

Zeke Emanuel—dr. death-orchest do. Why is this happening you ask? In part due to Obama’s ideology that he is the king of the hill and don’t you dare cross him. His Chicago style politics of thuggary and fear drive his agenda. So the Emanuels’ decided to jump on the bandwagon and support the medical mistransformation into a blustery nightmare. Zeke’s implementation of the death panels will determine what type of medical treatment you receive or don’t receive. If you are over sixty years of age you can count yourself out. The medical Nazi isn’t going to provide any treatment for you.

He is getting help from his friends like Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden and a host of others. Oh! Let’s not forget Kathleen Sibelius who denied treatment to a little girl on her deathbed with cancer, she didn’t care the

Obamacare’s Ezekiel Emanuel vs Health Insurance expert James Capretta on FNS Posted on Nov 3, 2013 at 12:15 PM in Politics | 119 Comments By The Right Scoop This interview between Obamacare architect E z e k i e l Emanuel and health insurance expert James Capretta is worth watching if for no other reason than you get to see what liberals are really like. Ezekiel Emanuel is Obama, 18

Pelosi, and Reid when they aren’t in front of the camera. He blames insurance companies for dropping insurers and companies for making ‘business decisions’ when they are pushing e m p l oyees into the exc h a n ge s because t h e y can’t af-

your ‘betters’ and isn’t more clear than when Emanuel is at the mic. He also interrupts Capretta so much that it becomes an issue in the interview with Wallace. Emanuel’s arrogance is only surpassed by his blind stupidity. It’s a conundrum of sorts on one hand you have the minority liberals getting the upper hand on the majority. Why? Because they scream the loudest,

trator of Obamacare ford to pay for health care for their employees or penalties from the federal government.

threaten, uses the EPS, IRS, JUSTICE departments as weapons against the American people. You get a feeling that we are overwhelmed by the those few who wield the power. It’s not a matter of what’s good for the American people but rather what’s best for political posturing.

As I said in the p a s t , Emanuel is a know -it-all jerk and he’s a classic example of a liberal who thinks they know what’s better for you than you know for yourself. Emanuel, Pelosi, Reid, and Obama think they are 19

Deceit Further Exacerbates an already has created our economy sick. Even before implementation, the economy was affected by deteriorating economy Apr 2014 Posted by United Commercial Mortgage Truths, Myths and Lies of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act PPACA Potential Law Suits Twenty-one State Attorney Generals have filed suits to shield their voters from being forced, in violation of the constitution, to buy government-approved insurance. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act represents more than a federal takeover of health care; it’s an instantaneous threat to political theory itself. Obama care can impose im-

Obama care-related complications.

ich individuals assume the economy is doing simply fine. Initially you would not assume that dropping spouses from a company’s health set up would have any material impact on the economy, however excavation slightly deeper I will see some doable pitfalls. It’s an easy name for an advanced law that’s attempting to tackle each the matter of providing cheap insurance to only concerning each American, whereas additionally attending to prevent the speed of inflation of health -care prices that account for nearly

ITS ABOUT CONTROLLING THE AME portant new health care prices on states and represent a serious federal usurpation of long-standing state authority in the regulation of personal insurance. This represents a federal takeover of the health care industry in the United States. The answer is to prevent new tax increases, promote tax cuts, that will expand personal growth thus enhancing the economy , and encouraging the viability and flexibility of insurance in order that staff can own their own health care set up, no matter what their job standing.

twenty percent of America’s economy. Individuals are a unit realizing that a lot of politicians vary and are not at odds, however are a unit stripe along to implement additional laws that prohibit freedom. Massive Control over American Assets

Obama care asserts federal management over health care edges and funding, establishes a posh one-size-fits-all Depending on wherever you get your news, health system, and centralizes Ameriopinions concerning Obama care run the gamut from a step within the right direction ca’s health care selections ,instead to the savior of the Yankee economy to the Obama care reduces alternative by inwhole unraveling of democracy. Obama care creasing government-controlled health 20

care, putting an burdensome price on future generations of taxpayers. The Feds authority is comprehensive, with the flexibility to manage the corporations leverage, liquidity, capital and activities. This unfair medical payment theme was originally planned by personal business to avoid the wage and value controls enacted in war II. The law seeks to manage health-care prices by penalizing hospitals that readmit patients shortly once they’re discharged and by requiring insurer’s agency to pay an excessive amount of overhead to reimburse a little of premiums to customers. Lies and management at the guts of state run health care.

ERICAN PUBLIC The implementers knew these prices and likeable controls that the bill would instill, for this wasn’t the primary law of its kind. It appears globalist controllers have crept into government positions and are a unit seeking additional obedience from the individuals. We tend to all recognize that the thought media is nothing more than a information tool utilized by the world elite to manage the thoughts and perceptions of the voters. Their goal is to stay you from the truth! Perpetually, firms which will transgress the system by their capability to

use tax attorneys will circumvent and cash in on the loopholes within the tax laws. Google and Facebook, have additionally found legitimate tax minimizing ways that have spared them from forking over federal company taxes on profits. Actually the general public, in watching their own taxes, might realize themselves feeling foolish compared. And any company is aware that paying additional taxes than de jure needed doesn’t build their shareholders happy.

Entertainers are so insolent to the rest of us due in part to our idolation of them. Most intelligent people are not star struck. There is no doubt that we have created a monster who has clearly overstepped their boundaries. They seem to be segregated from the rest of us because they support the liberal administration who h a s leaned on Hollywood for their influence. Hollywood is so conditioned to being pampered and having their way that they expect special privileges. They g e t paid Continued on page 85

ILLINOIS’ HIGH TAXES CREATE and Pennsylvania have more wealthy households leaving than MASS EXODUS By: Scott Reeder arriving, and California leads the 3/12/2014 11:42 AM nation for the net number of SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – One of my fa- wealthy households migrating vorite books is John Steinbeck’s away. The states gaining the most? “The Grapes of Wrath.” Florida and Texas. So what do East In that epic to me, farmers from Coast, Midwest and West Coast across Oklahoma load up all of states like Pennsylvania, Illinois their earthy goods on to Model T’s and California have in common? and flee the Dust Bowl for Califor- All three are high-tax states, said nia in the midst of the Great De- Joseph Henchman, a vice president pression. It’s easy to see that great at the Tax Foundation. On the other exodus along Route 66 as the face hand, Florida and Texas are much of migration from one state to an- lower tax states. “Illinois is particuother. And to be sure that is one larly vulnerable to more outface of relocation. Poor folks still migration because its neighbors — load up dilapidated cars with what Wisconsin and Indiana — are busy they own and seek out opportunity. lowering their taxes,” Henchman I saw it all the time when I was reporter in Las Vegas, families showing up with not much but their dreams and hopes of landing a wellpaying job. But that isn’t the only face of migration. When corporate executives or well-heeled retirees move, it is done with professional movers. You can often discern who the wealthiest of these households are by the amount of furniture and other belongings they have shipped. The Wall Street Journal recently looked at data from Allied Van Lines concerning where wealthy households were moving to and from. The report found that Illinois

added. On the other hand, the Illinois Legislature jacked up our income taxes by 67 percent back in 2011. This has hurt folks from all economic groups, and for folks who make their living making business decisions it has created one more incentive to leave Illinois. While it’s easy to shrug off the rich guy across town leaving, there is good reason for all of us to be concerned. Have you ever worked for a business person poorer than yourself? Me neither. Even those working in the public sector need to remember where taxes come from to pay for their jobs. And yet, Illinois 22

is consistently pursuing policies that are pushing these job creators to more hospitable business climates.

Where those jobs go, poor and middle-class Illinoisans are sure to follow as well. This migration translates into real money, according to Travis Brown, author of the book “How Money Walks,” a project that measures where people are moving based on tax returns. “Illinois as a state lost $29.27 billion over the 18 years from 1992 to 2010,” Brown said.

Brown said. Illinois is in that minority of states that continues to levy an estate tax. Increasingly, estate planners are advising retired, successful Illinoisans to consider moving to a state without an estate tax so assets can be passed more easily from one generation to the next. That hurts all of us. When successful retirees leave, they are no longer spending money in the Land of Lincoln, paying taxes here or donating to Illinois charities. That equates to fewer jobs for the rest of us and ultimately it’s why all of us should be concerned. Scott Reeder is a veteran statehouse reporter and the journalist in residence at the Illinois Policy Institute.

During that period, only California and New York lost more income than Illinois, his study found. “That’s a loss of $185,000 per hour. We forecast that between 2010 and 2014 Illinois lost somewhere between $5.4 and $7 billion in adjusted gross income due to migration,” 23

Exploring Ancient World Cultures Readings from the Ancient Near East Hammurabi's Code of Laws Translated by L. W. King

When Anu the Sublime, King of the Anunaki, and Bel, the lord of Heaven and earth, who decreed the fate of the land, assigned to Marduk, the over-ruling son of Ea, God of righteousness, dominion over earthly man, and made him great among the Igigi, they called Babylon by his illustrious name, made it great on earth, and founded an everlasting kingdom in it, whose foundations are laid so solidly as those of heaven and earth; then Anu and Bel called by name me, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, who feared God, to bring about the rule of righteousness in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil-doers; so that the strong should not harm the weak; so that I should rule over the blackheaded people like Shamash, and enlighten the land, to further the wellbeing of mankind. Hammurabi, the prince, called of Bel am I, making riches and increase, enriching Nippur and Dur-ilu beyond compare, sublime patron of E-kur; who reestablished Eridu and purified the worship of E-apsu; who conquered the four quarters of the world, made great the name of Babylon, rejoiced the heart of Marduk, his lord

who daily pays his devotions in Saggil; the royal scion whom Sin made; who enriched Ur; the humble, the reverent, who brings wealth to Gish-shirgal; the white king, heard of Shamash, the mighty, who again laid the foundations of Sippara; who clothed the gravestones of Malkat with green; who made E-babbar great, which is like the heavens, the warrior who guarded Larsa and renewed Ebabbar, with Shamash as his helper; the lord who granted new life to Uruk, who brought plenteous water to its inhabitants, raised the head of E-anna, and perfected the beauty of Anu and Nana; shield of the land, who reunited the scattered inhabitants of Isin; who richly endowed E-gal-mach; the protecting king of the city, brother of the god Zamama; who firmly founded the farms of Kish, crowned E-me-te-ursag with glory, redoubled the great holy treasures of Nana, managed the temple of Harsag-kalama; the grave of the enemy, whose help brought about the victory; who increased the power of Cuthah; made all glorious in Eshidlam, the black steer, who gored the enemy; beloved of the god Nebo, who rejoiced the inhabitants of Borsippa, the Sublime; who is indefatigable for E-zida; the divine king of the city; the White, Wise; who broadened the fields of Dilbat, who heaped up the harvests for Urash; the Mighty, 24

the lord to whom come scepter and crown, with which he clothes himself; the Elect of Ma-ma; who fixed the temple bounds of Kesh, who made rich the holy feasts of Nin-tu; the provident, solicitous, who provided food and drink for Lagash and Girsu, who provided large sacrificial offerings for the temple of Ningirsu; who captured the enemy, the Elect of the oracle who fulfilled the prediction of Hallab, who rejoiced the heart of Anunit; the pure prince, whose prayer is accepted by Adad; who satisfied the heart of Adad, the warrior, in Karkar, who restored the vessels for worship in E-udgal-gal; the king who granted life to the city of Adab; the guide of E-mach; the princely king of the city, the irresistible warrior, who granted life to the inhabitants of Mashkanshabri, and brought abundance to the temple of Shidlam; the White, Potent, who penetrated the secret cave of the bandits, saved the inhabitants of Malka from misfortune, and fixed their home fast in wealth; who established pure sacrificial gifts for Ea and Damgal-nun-na, who made his kingdom everlastingly great; the princely king of the city, who subjected the districts on the Ud-kib-nun-na Canal to the sway of Dagon, his Creator; who spared the inhabitants of Mera and Tutul; the sublime prince, who makes the face of Ninni shine; who presents

holy meals to the divinity of Nin-a-zu, who cared for its inhabitants in their need, provided a portion for them in Babylon in peace; the shepherd of the oppressed and of the slaves; whose deeds find favor before Anunit, who provided for Anunit in the temple of Dumash in the suburb of Agade; who recognizes the right, who rules by law; who gave back to the city of Ashur its protecting god; who let the name of Ishtar of Nineveh remain in E -mish-mish; the Sublime, who humbles himself before the great gods; successor of Sumula-il; the mighty son of Sin-muballit; the royal scion of Eternity; the mighty monarch, the sun of Babylon, whose rays shed light over the land of Sumer and Akkad; the king, obeyed by the four quarters of the world; Beloved of Ninni, am I. When Marduk sent me to rule over men, to give the protection of right to the land, I did right and righteousness in ..., and brought about the wellbeing of the oppressed. The Code of Laws 1. If any one ensnare another, putting a ban upon him, but he can not prove it, then he that ensnared him shall be put to death. 2. If any one bring an accusation against a man, and the accused go to the river and leap into the river, if he sink in the river his accuser shall take 25

possession of his house. But if the river prove that the accused is not guilty, and he escape unhurt, then he who had brought the accusation shall be put to death, while he who leaped into the river shall take possession of the house that had belonged to his accuser.

sheep, an ass or anything, or if he take it in charge, he is considered a thief and shall be put to death.

8. If any one steal cattle or sheep, or an ass, or a pig or a goat, if it belong to a god or to the court, the thief shall pay thirtyfold therefor; if they belonged to a freed man of the king he 3. If any one bring an accusation of shall pay tenfold; if the thief has nothany crime before the elders, and does ing with which to pay he shall be put not prove what he has charged, he to death. shall, if it be a capital offense 9. If any one lose an article, and find it charged, be put to death. in the possession of another: if the 4. If he satisfy the elders to impose a fine of grain or money, he shall receive the fine that the action produces.

person in whose possession the thing is found say "A merchant sold it to me, I paid for it before witnesses," and if the owner of the thing say, "I will bring witnesses who know my proper5. If a judge try a case, reach a decision, and present his judgment in writ- ty," then shall the purchaser bring the merchant who sold it to him, and the ing; if later error shall appear in his witnesses before whom he bought it, decision, and it be through his own and the owner shall bring witnesses fault, then he shall pay twelve times the fine set by him in the case, and he who can identify his property. The judge shall examine their testimony -shall be publicly removed from the judge's bench, and never again shall both of the witnesses before whom the price was paid, and of the withe sit there to render judgement. nesses who identify the lost article on 6. If any one steal the property of a oath. The merchant is then proved to temple or of the court, he shall be put be a thief and shall be put to death. to death, and also the one who reThe owner of the lost article receives ceives the stolen thing from him shall his property, and he who bought it rebe put to death. ceives the money he paid from the es7. If any one buy from the son or the tate of the merchant. slave of another man, without wit10. If the purchaser does not bring nesses or a contract, silver or gold, a the merchant and the witnesses bemale or female slave, an ox or a 26

fore whom he bought the article, but its owner bring witnesses who identify it, then the buyer is the thief and shall be put to death, and the owner receives the lost article.

18. If the slave will not give the name of the master, the finder shall bring him to the palace; a further investigation must follow, and the slave shall be returned to his master.

11. If the owner do not bring witnesses to identify the lost article, he is an evil-doer, he has traduced, and shall be put to death.

19. If he hold the slaves in his house, and they are caught there, he shall be put to death.

14. If any one steal the minor son of another, he shall be put to death.

22. If any one is committing a robbery and is caught, then he shall be put to death.

20. If the slave that he caught run 12. If the witnesses be not at hand, away from him, then shall he swear to then shall the judge set a limit, at the the owners of the slave, and he is expiration of six months. If his witfree of all blame. nesses have not appeared within the 21. If any one break a hole into a six months, he is an evil-doer, and house (break in to steal), he shall be shall bear the fine of the pending put to death before that hole and be case. buried.

15. If any one take a male or female slave of the court, or a male or female slave of a freed man, outside the city gates, he shall be put to death.

23. If the robber is not caught, then shall he who was robbed claim under oath the amount of his loss; then shall the community, and ... on whose 16. If any one receive into his house ground and territory and in whose a runaway male or female slave of domain it was compensate him for the court, or of a freedman, and does the goods stolen. not bring it out at the public procla24. If persons are stolen, then shall mation of the major domus, the mas- the community and ... pay one mina ter of the house shall be put to death. of silver to their relatives. 17. If any one find runaway male or female slaves in the open country and bring them to their masters, the master of the slaves shall pay him two shekels of silver.

25. If fire break out in a house, and some one who comes to put it out cast his eye upon the property of the owner of the house, and take the property of the master of the house, 27

he shall be thrown into that self-same fire.

sion of it and used it shall continue to use it.

26. If a chieftain or a man (common soldier), who has been ordered to go upon the king's highway for war does not go, but hires a mercenary, if he withholds the compensation, then shall this officer or man be put to death, and he who represented him shall take possession of his house.

31. If he hire it out for one year and then return, the house, garden, and field shall be given back to him, and he shall take it over again.

27. If a chieftain or man be caught in the misfortune of the king (captured in battle), and if his fields and garden be given to another and he take possession, if he return and reaches his place, his field and garden shall be returned to him, he shall take it over again.

32. If a chieftain or a man is captured on the "Way of the King" (in war), and a merchant buy him free, and bring him back to his place; if he have the means in his house to buy his freedom, he shall buy himself free: if he have nothing in his house with which to buy himself free, he shall be bought free by the temple of his community; if there be nothing in the temple with which to buy him free, the court shall buy his freedom. His field, garden, and house shall not be given for the purchase of his freedom.

28. If a chieftain or a man be caught in the misfortune of a king, if his son is able to enter into possession, then the 33. If a ... or a ... enter himself as withfield and garden shall be given to him, drawn from the "Way of the King," and he shall take over the fee of his father. send a mercenary as substitute, but 29. If his son is still young, and can not withdraw him, then the ... or ... shall be put to death. take possession, a third of the field and garden shall be given to his moth- 34. If a ... or a ... harm the property of er, and she shall bring him up. a captain, injure the captain, or take away from the captain a gift presented 30. If a chieftain or a man leave his to him by the king, then the ... or ... house, garden, and field and hires it out, and some one else takes posses- shall be put to death. sion of his house, garden, and field and uses it for three years: if the first owner return and claims his house, garden, and field, it shall not be given to him, but he who has taken posses-

35. If any one buy the cattle or sheep which the king has given to chieftains from him, he loses his money. 36. The field, garden, and house of a 28

chieftain, of a man, or of one subject to quit-rent, can not be sold.

just as his neighbor raised, to the owner of the field.

37. If any one buy the field, garden, and house of a chieftain, man, or one subject to quit-rent, his contract tablet of sale shall be broken (declared invalid) and he loses his money. The field, garden, and house return to their owners.

43. If he do not till the field, but let it lie fallow, he shall give grain like his neighbor's to the owner of the field, and the field which he let lie fallow he must plow and sow and return to its owner.

44. If any one take over a waste-lying 38. A chieftain, man, or one subject to field to make it arable, but is lazy, and quit-rent can not assign his tenure of does not make it arable, he shall plow field, house, and garden to his wife or the fallow field in the fourth year, hardaughter, nor can he assign it for a row it and till it, and give it back to its debt. owner, and for each ten gan (a measure of area) ten gur of grain shall be 39. He may, however, assign a field, paid. garden, or house which he has bought, and holds as property, to his 45. If a man rent his field for tillage for wife or daughter or give it for debt. a fixed rental, and receive the rent of his field, but bad weather come and 40. He may sell field, garden, and house to a merchant (royal agents) or destroy the harvest, the injury falls upto any other public official, the buyer on the tiller of the soil. holding field, house, and garden for its 46. If he do not receive a fixed rental usufruct. for his field, but lets it on half or third shares of the harvest, the grain on the 41. If any one fence in the field, garden, and house of a chieftain, man, or field shall be divided proportionately one subject to quit-rent, furnishing the between the tiller and the owner. palings therefor; if the chieftain, man, or one subject to quit-rent return to field, garden, and house, the palings which were given to him become his property.

47. If the tiller, because he did not succeed in the first year, has had the soil tilled by others, the owner may raise no objection; the field has been cultivated and he receives the harvest 42. If any one take over a field to till it, according to agreement. and obtain no harvest therefrom, it 48. If any one owe a debt for a loan, must be proved that he did no work on and a storm prostrates the grain, or the field, and he must deliver grain, the harvest fail, or the grain does not 29

grow for lack of water; in that year he need not give his creditor any grain, he washes his debt-tablet in water and pays no rent for this year.

sold for money, and the money shall replace the corn which he has caused to be ruined.

54. If he be not able to replace the 49. If any one take money from a mer- corn, then he and his possessions chant, and give the merchant a field shall be divided among the farmers tillable for corn or sesame and order whose corn he has flooded. him to plant corn or sesame in the 55. If any one open his ditches to wafield, and to harvest the crop; if the ter his crop, but is careless, and the cultivator plant corn or sesame in the water flood the field of his neighbor, field, at the harvest the corn or sesa- then he shall pay his neighbor corn me that is in the field shall belong to for his loss. the owner of the field and he shall pay 56. If a man let in the water, and the corn as rent, for the money he rewater overflow the plantation of his ceived from the merchant, and the neighbor, he shall pay ten gur of corn livelihood of the cultivator shall he for every ten gan of land. give to the merchant. 57. If a shepherd, without the permis50. If he give a cultivated corn-field or sion of the owner of the field, and a cultivated sesame-field, the corn or without the knowledge of the owner sesame in the field shall belong to the of the sheep, lets the sheep into a owner of the field, and he shall return field to graze, then the owner of the the money to the merchant as rent. field shall harvest his crop, and the 51. If he have no money to repay, then shepherd, who had pastured his flock he shall pay in corn or sesame in there without permission of the owner place of the money as rent for what he of the field, shall pay to the owner received from the merchant, accord- twenty gur of corn for every ten gan. ing to the royal tariff. 58. If after the flocks have left the pas52. If the cultivator do not plant corn ture and been shut up in the common or sesame in the field, the debtor's fold at the city gate, any shepherd let contract is not weakened. them into a field and they graze there, 53. If any one be too lazy to keep his this shepherd shall take possession of dam in proper condition, and does not the field which he has allowed to be so keep it; if then the dam break and grazed on, and at the harvest he must all the fields be flooded, then shall he pay sixty gur of corn for every ten in whose dam the break occurred be gan. 30

59. If any man, without the knowledge of the owner of a garden, fell a tree in a garden he shall pay half a mina in money. 60. If any one give over a field to a gardener, for him to plant it as a garden, if he work at it, and care for it for four years, in the fifth year the owner and the gardener shall divide it, the owner taking his part in charge. 61. If the gardener has not completed the planting of the field, leaving one part unused, this shall be assigned to him as his. 62. If he do not plant the field that was given over to him as a garden, if it be arable land (for corn or sesame) the gardener shall pay the owner the produce of the field for the years that he let it lie fallow, according to the product of neighboring fields, put the field in arable condition and return it to its owner.

garden and the product fall off, the gardener shall pay in proportion to other neighboring gardens. [The text for laws 66 through 99 is missing] 100. ... interest for the money, as much as he has received, he shall give a note therefor, and on the day, when they settle, pay to the merchant. 101. If there are no mercantile arrangements in the place whither he went, he shall leave the entire amount of money which he received with the broker to give to the merchant. 102. If a merchant entrust money to an agent (broker) for some investment, and the broker suffer a loss in the place to which he goes, he shall make good the capital to the merchant.

103. If, while on the journey, an enemy take away from him anything that he had, the broker shall swear by God 63. If he transform waste land into ar- and be free of obligation. able fields and return it to its owner, 104. If a merchant give an agent corn, the latter shall pay him for one year wool, oil, or any other goods to ten gur for ten gan. transport, the agent shall give a re64. If any one hand over his garden to ceipt for the amount, and compensate a gardener to work, the gardener the merchant therefor. Then he shall shall pay to its owner two-thirds of obtain a receipt form the merchant for the produce of the garden, for so long the money that he gives the merchant. as he has it in possession, and the 105. If the agent is careless, and does other third shall he keep. not take a receipt for the money which 65. If the gardener do not work in the he gave the merchant, he can not con31

sider the his own.

un-receipted money as

106. If the agent accept money from the merchant, but have a quarrel with the merchant (denying the receipt), then shall the merchant swear before God and witnesses that he has given this money to the agent, and the agent shall pay him three times the sum. 107. If the merchant cheat the agent, in that as the latter has returned to him all that had been given him, but the merchant denies the receipt of what had been returned to him, then shall this agent convict the merchant before God and the judges, and if he still deny receiving what the agent had given him shall pay six times the sum to the agent.

of usakani-drink to ... she shall receive fifty ka of corn at the harvest. 112. If any one be on a journey and entrust silver, gold, precious stones, or any movable property to another, and wish to recover it from him; if the latter do not bring all of the property to the appointed place, but appropriate it to his own use, then shall this man, who did not bring the property to hand it over, be convicted, and he shall pay fivefold for all that had been entrusted to him. 113. If any one have consignment of corn or money, and he take from the granary or box without the knowledge of the owner, then shall he who took corn without the knowledge of the owner out of the granary or money out of the box be legally convicted, and repay the corn he has taken. And he shall lose whatever commission was paid to him, or due him.

108. If a tavern-keeper (feminine) does not accept corn according to gross weight in payment of drink, but takes money, and the price of the drink is less than that of the corn, she 114. If a man have no claim on anothshall be convicted and thrown into the er for corn and money, and try to dewater. mand it by force, he shall pay one109. If conspirators meet in the house third of a mina of silver in every case. of a tavern-keeper, and these conspirators are not captured and delivered to the court, the tavern-keeper shall be put to death. 110. If a "sister of a god" open a tavern, or enter a tavern to drink, then shall this woman be burned to death. 111. If an inn-keeper furnish sixty ka

115. If any one have a claim for corn or money upon another and imprison him; if the prisoner die in prison a natural death, the case shall go no further. 116. If the prisoner die in prison from blows or maltreatment, the master of the prisoner shall convict the mer32

chant before the judge. If he was a free-born man, the son of the merchant shall be put to death; if it was a slave, he shall pay one-third of a mina of gold, and all that the master of the prisoner gave he shall forfeit. 117. If any one fail to meet a claim for debt, and sell himself, his wife, his son, and daughter for money or give them away to forced labor: they shall work for three years in the house of the man who bought them, or the proprietor, and in the fourth year they shall be set free. 118. If he give a male or female slave away for forced labor, and the merchant sublease them, or sell them for money, no objection can be raised.

er for all of the corn that he took. 121. If any one store corn in another man's house he shall pay him storage at the rate of one gur for every five ka of corn per year. 122. If any one give another silver, gold, or anything else to keep, he shall show everything to some witness, draw up a contract, and then hand it over for safe keeping. 123. If he turn it over for safe keeping without witness or contract, and if he to whom it was given deny it, then he has no legitimate claim.

124. If any one deliver silver, gold, or anything else to another for safe keeping, before a witness, but he deny it, he shall be brought before a 119. If any one fail to meet a claim for judge, and all that he has denied he debt, and he sell the maid servant shall pay in full. who has borne him children, for mon125. If any one place his property ey, the money which the merchant has with another for safe keeping, and paid shall be repaid to him by the there, either through thieves or robowner of the slave and she shall be bers, his property and the property of freed. the other man be lost, the owner of 120. If any one store corn for safe the house, through whose neglect the keeping in another person's house, loss took place, shall compensate the and any harm happen to the corn in owner for all that was given to him in storage, or if the owner of the house charge. But the owner of the house open the granary and take some of shall try to follow up and recover his the corn, or if especially he deny that property, and take it away from the the corn was stored in his house: then thief. the owner of the corn shall claim his 126. If any one who has not lost his corn before God (on oath), and the goods state that they have been lost, owner of the house shall pay its own33

and make false claims: if he claim his goods and amount of injury before God, even though he has not lost them, he shall be fully compensated for all his loss claimed. (I.e., the oath is all that is needed.)

other man, she shall jump into the river for her husband.

128. If a man take a woman to wife, but have no intercourse with her, this woman is no wife to him.

if then his wife go to another house this woman shall be held blameless.

133. If a man is taken prisoner in war, and there is a sustenance in his house, but his wife leave house and court, and go to another house: be127. If any one "point the fincause this wife did not keep her court, ger" (slander) at a sister of a god or and went to another house, she shall the wife of any one, and can not prove be judicially condemned and thrown it, this man shall be taken before the into the water. judges and his brow shall be marked. 134. If any one be captured in war and (by cutting the skin, or perhaps hair.) there is not sustenance in his house,

129. If a man's wife be surprised (in flagrante delicto) with another man, both shall be tied and thrown into the water, but the husband may pardon his wife and the king his slaves. 130. If a man violate the wife (betrothed or child-wife) of another man, who has never known a man, and still lives in her father's house, and sleep with her and be surprised, this man shall be put to death, but the wife is blameless. 131. If a man bring a charge against one's wife, but she is not surprised with another man, she must take an oath and then may return to her house. 132. If the "finger is pointed" at a man's wife about another man, but she is not caught sleeping with the

135. If a man be taken prisoner in war and there be no sustenance in his house and his wife go to another house and bear children; and if later her husband return and come to his home: then this wife shall return to her husband, but the children follow their father. 136. If any one leave his house, run away, and then his wife go to another house, if then he return, and wishes to take his wife back: because he fled from his home and ran away, the wife of this runaway shall not return to her husband. 137. If a man wish to separate from a woman who has borne him children, or from his wife who has borne him children: then he shall give that wife her dowry, and a part of the usufruct of field, garden, and property, so that 34

she can rear her children. When she has brought up her children, a portion of all that is given to the children, equal as that of one son, shall be given to her. She may then marry the man of her heart.

take her dowry and go back to her father's house.

138. If a man wishes to separate from his wife who has borne him no children, he shall give her the amount of her purchase money and the dowry which she brought from her father's house, and let her go.

144. If a man take a wife and this woman give her husband a maidservant, and she bear him children, but this man wishes to take another wife, this shall not be permitted to him; he shall not take a second wife.

143. If she is not innocent, but leaves her husband, and ruins her house, neglecting her husband, this woman shall be cast into the water.

139. If there was no purchase price he 145. If a man take a wife, and she bear shall give her one mina of gold as a him no children, and he intend to take gift of release. another wife: if he take this second 140. If he be a freed man he shall give wife, and bring her into the house, this her one-third of a mina of gold. second wife shall not be allowed equality with his wife. 141. If a man's wife, who lives in his house, wishes to leave it, plunges into debt, tries to ruin her house, neglects her husband, and is judicially convicted: if her husband offer her release, she may go on her way, and he gives her nothing as a gift of release. If her husband does not wish to release her, and if he take another wife, she shall remain as servant in her husband's house.

146. If a man take a wife and she give this man a maid-servant as wife and she bear him children, and then this maid assume equality with the wife: because she has borne him children her master shall not sell her for money, but he may keep her as a slave, reckoning her among the maidservants.

147. If she have not borne him chil142. If a woman quarrel with her hus- dren, then her mistress may sell her band, and say: "You are not congenial for money. to me," the reasons for her prejudice 148. If a man take a wife, and she be must be presented. If she is guiltless, seized by disease, if he then desire to and there is no fault on her part, but take a second wife he shall not put he leaves and neglects her, then no away his wife, who has been attacked guilt attaches to this woman, she shall 35

150. If a man give his wife a field, garden, and house and a deed therefor, if then after the death of her husband the sons raise no claim, then the mother may bequeath all to one of her sons whom she prefers, and need leave nothing to his brothers.

156. If a man betroth a girl to his son, but his son has not known her, and if then he defile her, he shall pay her half a gold mina, and compensate her for all that she brought out of her father's house. She may marry the man of her heart.

151. If a woman who lived in a man's house made an agreement with her husband, that no creditor can arrest her, and has given a document therefor: if that man, before he married that woman, had a debt, the creditor can not hold the woman for it. But if the woman, before she entered the man's house, had contracted a debt, her creditor can not arrest her husband therefor.

157. If any one be guilty of incest with his mother after his father, both shall be burned. 158. If any one be surprised after his father with his chief wife, who has

152. If after the woman had entered the man's house, both contracted a debt, both must pay the merchant. 153. If the wife of one man on account of another man has their mates (her husband and the other man's wife) murdered, both of them shall be imborne children, he shall be driven out paled. of his father's house. 154. If a man be guilty of incest with his daughter, he shall be driven from 159. If any one, who has brought chattels into his father-in-law's house, and the place (exiled). has paid the purchase-money, looks 155. If a man betroth a girl to his son, for another wife, and says to his father and his son have intercourse with her, -in-law: "I do not want your daughter," but he (the father) afterward defile the girl's father may keep all that he her, and be surprised, then he shall be had brought. bound and cast into the water 160. If a man bring chattels into the (drowned). 36

house of his father-in-law, and pay the "purchase price" (for his wife): if then the father of the girl say: "I will not give you my daughter," he shall give him back all that he brought with him.

had paid into the house of his fatherin-law is repaid to him, her husband shall have no claim upon the dowry of this woman; it belongs to her father's house.

161. If a man bring chattels into his father-in-law's house and pay the "purchase price," if then his friend slander him, and his father-in-law say to the young husband: "You shall not marry my daughter," the he shall give back to him undiminished all that he

164. If his father-in-law do not pay back to him the amount of the "purchase price" he may subtract the amount of the "Purchase price" from the dowry, and then pay the remainder to her father's house.

had brought with him; but his wife shall not be married to the friend. 162. If a man marry a woman, and she bear sons to him; if then this woman die, then shall her father have no claim on her dowry; this belongs to her sons.

165. If a man give to one of his sons whom he prefers a field, garden, and house, and a deed therefor: if later the father die, and the brothers divide the estate, then they shall first give him the present of his father, and he shall accept it; and the rest of the paternal property shall they divide. 166. If a man take wives for his son, but take no wife for his minor son, and if then he die: if the sons divide the estate, they shall set aside besides his portion the money for the "purchase price" for the minor brother who had taken no wife as yet, and secure a wife for him.

167. If a man marry a wife and she bear him children: if this wife die and he then take another wife and she bear him children: if then the father die, the sons must not partition the 163. If a man marry a woman and she estate according to the mothers, they bear him no sons; if then this woman shall divide the dowries of their mothdie, if the "purchase price" which he ers only in this way; the paternal es37

tate they shall divide equally with one The sons of the wife shall have no another. right to enslave the sons of the maid; the wife shall take her dowry (from 168. If a man wish to put his son out her father), and the gift that her husof his house, and declare before the judge: "I want to put my son out," then band gave her and deeded to her (separate from dowry, or the purthe judge shall examine into his reachase-money paid her father), and sons. If the son be guilty of no great live in the home of her husband: so fault, for which he can be rightfully long as she lives she shall use it, it put out, the father shall not put him shall not be sold for money. Whatever out. she 169. If he be guilty of a grave fault, leaves which should rightfully deprive him of shall the filial relationship, the father shall belong forgive him the first time; but if he be to her guilty of a grave fault a second time chilthe father may deprive his son of all dren. filial relation. 172. If 170. If his wife bear sons to a man, or her his maid-servant have borne sons, husand the father while still living says to band the children whom his maid-servant made has borne: "My sons," and he count her no them with the sons of his wife; if then gift, the father die, then the sons of the she wife and of the maid-servant shall dishall vide the paternal property in common. be The son of the wife is to partition and comchoose. pensated for her gift, and she shall re171. If, however, the father while still ceive a portion from the estate of her living did not say to the sons of the husband, equal to that of one child. If maid-servant: "My sons," and then the her sons oppress her, to force her out father dies, then the sons of the maid- of the house, the judge shall examine servant shall not share with the sons into the matter, and if the sons are at of the wife, but the freedom of the fault the woman shall not leave her maid and her sons shall be granted. husband's house. If the woman desire 38

to leave the house, she must leave to her sons the gift which her husband gave her, but she may take the dowry of her father's house. Then she may marry the man of her heart.

to enslave the children of the free.

176. If, however, a State slave or the slave of a freed man marry a man's daughter, and after he marries her she bring a dowry from a father's house, if 173. If this woman bear sons to her then they both enjoy it and found a second husband, in the place to which household, and accumulate means, if she went, and then die, her earlier and then the slave die, then she who was later sons shall divide the dowry befree born may take her dowry, and all tween them. that her husband and she had earned; she shall divide them into two parts, one-half the master for the slave shall take, and the other half shall the freeborn woman take for her children. If the free-born woman had no gift she shall take all that her husband and she had earned and divide it into two parts; and the master of the slave shall take one-half and she shall take the other for her children. 177. If a widow, whose children are not grown, wishes to enter another house (remarry), she shall not enter it without the knowledge of the judge. If she enter another house the judge shall examine the state of the house of her first husband. Then the house of her first husband shall be entrusted to 174. If she bear no sons to her second the second husband and the woman husband, the sons of her first husherself as managers. And a record band shall have the dowry. must be made thereof. She shall keep the house in order, bring up the chil175. If a State slave or the slave of a dren, and not sell the house-hold utenfreed man marry the daughter of a sils. He who buys the utensils of the free man, and children are born, the master of the slave shall have no right children of a widow shall lose his money, and the goods shall return to their 39

owners.

tate, and enjoy its usufruct so long as 178. If a "devoted woman" or a prosti- she lives. Her estate belongs to her brothers. tute to whom her father has given a dowry and a deed therefor, but if in 181. If a father devote a temple-maid this deed it is not stated that she may or temple-virgin to God and give her bequeath it as she pleases, and has no present: if then the father die, she not explicitly stated that she has the shall receive the third of a child's porright of disposal; if then her father tion from the inheritance of her fadie, then her brothers shall hold her ther's house, and enjoy its usufruct so field and garden, and give her corn, long as she lives. Her estate belongs oil, and milk according to her portion, to her brothers. and satisfy her. If her brothers do not 182. If a father devote his daughter as give her corn, oil, and milk according a wife of Mardi of Babylon (as in 181), to her share, then her field and garand give her no present, nor a deed; den shall support her. She shall have if then her father die, then shall she the usufruct of field and garden and receive one-third of her portion as a all that her father gave her so long as child of her father's house from her she lives, but she can not sell or asbrothers, but Marduk may leave her sign it to others. Her position of inher- estate to whomsoever she wishes. itance belongs to her brothers. 183. If a man give his daughter by a 179. If a "sister of a god," or a prosti- concubine a dowry, and a husband, tute, receive a gift from her father, and a deed; if then her father die, she and a deed in which it has been exshall receive no portion from the paplicitly stated that she may dispose of ternal estate. it as she pleases, and give her com184. If a man do not give a dowry to plete disposition thereof: if then her his daughter by a concubine, and no father die, then she may leave her husband; if then her father die, her property to whomsoever she pleases. brother shall give her a dowry acHer brothers can raise no claim therecording to her father's wealth and seto. cure a husband for her. 180. If a father give a present to his 185. If a man adopt a child and to his daughter -- either marriageable or a name as son, and rear him, this grown prostitute (unmarriageable) -- and son can not be demanded back again. then die, then she is to receive a por186. If a man adopt a son, and if after tion as a child from the paternal es40

he has taken him he injure his foster father and mother, then this adopted son shall return to his father's house.

192. If a son of a paramour or a prostitute say to his adoptive father or mother: "You are not my father, or my 187. The son of a paramour in the pal- mother," his tongue shall be cut off. ace service, or of a prostitute, can not 193. If the son of a paramour or a be demanded back. prostitute desire his father's house, and desert his 188. If an adoptive father and artizan has adoptive mother, undertaken and goes to his fato rear a ther's house, then child and shall his eye be put teaches him out. his craft, he can not be demanded back.

194. If a man give his child to a nurse and the child die in her hands, but the 189. If he nurse unbeknown has not taught him his craft, this adopted son may return to his father's to the father and mother nurse another child, then they shall convict her of house. having nursed another child without 190. If a man does not maintain a the knowledge of the father and mothchild that he has adopted as a son and er and her breasts shall be cut off. reared with his other children, then his adopted son may return to his fa- 195. If a son strike his father, his hands shall be hewn off. ther's house. 191. If a man, who had adopted a son 196. If a man put out the eye of anothand reared him, founded a household, er man, his eye shall be put out. and had children, wish to put this adopted son out, then this son shall not simply go his way. His adoptive father shall give him of his wealth onethird of a child's portion, and then he may go. He shall not give him of the field, garden, and house.

197. If he break another man's bone, his bone shall be broken. 198. If he put out the eye of a freed man, or break the bone of a freed man, he shall pay one gold mina. 199. If he put out the eye of a man's slave, or break the bone of a man's 41

slave, he shall pay one-half of its value.

208. If he was a freed man, he shall pay one-third of a mina.

200. If a man knock out the teeth of his equal, his teeth shall be knocked out.

209. If a man strike a free-born woman so that she lose her unborn child, he shall pay ten shekels for her loss.

201. If he knock out the teeth of a freed man, he shall pay one-third of a gold mina.

210. If the woman die, his daughter shall be put to death. 211. If a woman of the free class lose her child by a blow, he shall pay five shekels in money.

202. If any one strike the body of a man higher in rank than he, he shall receive sixty blows with an ox-whip in public. 203. If a freeborn man strike the body of another free-born man or equal rank, he shall pay one gold mina. 204. If a freed man strike the body of another freed man, he shall pay ten shekels in money.

212. If this woman die, he shall pay half a mina. 213. If he strike the maid-servant of a man, and she lose her child, he shall pay two shekels in money. 214. If this maid-servant die, he shall pay one-third of a mina.

205. If the slave of a freed man strike the body of a freed man, his ear shall be cut off.

215. If a physician make a large incision with an operating knife and cure it, or if he open a tumor (over the eye) 206. If during a quarrel one man strike with an operating knife, and saves the another and wound him, then he shall eye, he shall receive ten shekels in swear, "I did not injure him wittingly," money. and pay the physicians. 216. If the patient be a freed man, he 207. If the man die of his wound, he shall swear similarly, and if he (the deceased) was a free-born man, he shall pay half a mina in money.

receives five shekels. 217. If he be the slave of some one, his owner shall give the physician two shekels. 42

218. If a physician make a large incision with the operating knife, and kill him, or open a tumor with the operating knife, and cut out the eye, his hands shall be cut off.

with the sign of a slave, he shall be put to death, and buried in his house. The barber shall swear: "I did not mark him wittingly," and shall be guiltless.

219. If a physician make a large incision in the slave of a freed man, and kill him, he shall replace the slave with another slave.

228. If a builder build a house for some one and complete it, he shall give him a fee of two shekels in money for each sar of surface.

220. If he had opened a tumor with the operating knife, and put out his eye, he shall pay half his value.

229 If a builder build a house for some one, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built fall in and kill its owner, then that builder shall be put to death.

221. If a physician heal the broken bone or diseased soft part of a man, the patient shall pay the physician five 230. If it kill the son of the owner the shekels in money. son of that builder shall be put to death. 222. If he were a freed man he shall pay three shekels.

231. If it kill a slave of the owner, then 223. If he were a slave his owner shall he shall pay slave for slave to the owner of the house. pay the physician two shekels. 232. If it ruin goods, he shall make compensation for all that has been ruined, and inasmuch as he did not construct properly this house which he built and it fell, he shall re-erect the 225. If he perform a serious operation house from his own means. on an ass or ox, and kill it, he shall pay 233. If a builder build a house for the owner one-fourth of its value. some one, even though he has not yet 226. If a barber, without the completed it; if then the walls seem knowledge of his master, cut the sign toppling, the builder must make the of a slave on a slave not to be sold, walls solid from his own means. the hands of this barber shall be cut 234. If a shipbuilder build a boat of off. sixty gur for a man, he shall pay him a 227. If any one deceive a barber, and fee of two shekels in money. have him mark a slave not for sale 224. If a veterinary surgeon perform a serious operation on an ass or an ox, and cure it, the owner shall pay the surgeon one-sixth of a shekel as a fee.

235. If a shipbuilder build a boat for some one, and do not make it tight, if during that same year that boat is sent away and suffers injury, the shipbuilder shall take the boat apart and put it together tight at his own expense. The tight boat he shall give to the boat owner. 236. If a man rent his boat to a sailor, and the sailor is careless, and the boat is wrecked or goes aground, the sailor shall give the owner of the boat another boat as compensation. 237. If a man hire a sailor and his boat, and provide it with corn, clothing, oil and dates, and other things of the kind needed for fitting it: if the sailor is careless, the boat is wrecked, and its contents ruined, then the sailor shall compensate for the boat which was wrecked and all in it that he ruined. 238. If a sailor wreck any one's ship, but saves it, he shall pay the half of its value in money.

241. If any one impresses an ox for forced labor, he shall pay one-third of a mina in money. 242. If any one hire oxen for a year, he shall pay four gur of corn for plowoxen. 243. As rent of herd cattle he shall pay three gur of corn to the owner. 244. If any one hire an ox or an ass, and a lion kill it in the field, the loss is upon its owner. 245. If any one hire oxen, and kill them by bad treatment or blows, he shall compensate the owner, oxen for oxen. 246. If a man hire an ox, and he break its leg or cut the ligament of its neck, he shall compensate the owner with ox for ox. 247. If any one hire an ox, and put out its eye, he shall pay the owner onehalf of its value.

248. If any one hire an ox, and break off a horn, or cut off its tail, or hurt its 239. If a man hire a sailor, he shall pay muzzle, he shall pay one-fourth of its value in money. him six gur of corn per year. 240. If a merchantman run against a ferryboat, and wreck it, the master of the ship that was wrecked shall seek justice before God; the master of the merchantman, which wrecked the ferryboat, must compensate the owner for the boat and all that he ruined.

249. If any one hire an ox, and God strike it that it die, the man who hired it shall swear by God and be considered guiltless. 250. If while an ox is passing on the street (market) some one push it, and kill it, the owner can set up no claim in the suit (against the hirer). 44

251. If an ox be a goring ox, and it shown that he is a gorer, and he do not bind his horns, or fasten the ox up, and the ox gore a free-born man and kill him, the owner shall pay one-half a mina in money. 252. If he kill a man's slave, he shall pay one-third of a mina. 253. If any one agree with another to tend his field, give him seed, entrust a yoke of oxen to him, and bind him to cultivate the field, if he steal the corn or plants, and take them for himself, his hands shall be hewn off.

260. If any one steal a shadduf (used to draw water from the river or canal) or a plow, he shall pay three shekels in money. 261. If any one hire a herdsman for cattle or sheep, he shall pay him eight gur of corn per annum. 262. If any one, a cow or a sheep ... 263. If he kill the cattle or sheep that were given to him, he shall compensate the owner with cattle for cattle and sheep for sheep.

264. If a herdsman, to whom cattle or sheep have been entrusted for watch254. If he take the seed-corn for him- ing over, and who has received his self, and do not use the yoke of oxen, wages as agreed upon, and is satishe shall compensate him for the fied, diminish the number of the cattle amount of the seed-corn. or sheep, or make the increase by 255. If he sublet the man's yoke of ox- birth less, he shall make good the inen or steal the seed-corn, planting crease or profit which was lost in the nothing in the field, he shall be conterms of settlement. victed, and for each one hundred gan 265. If a herdsman, to whose care he shall pay sixty gur of corn. cattle or sheep have been entrusted, 256. If his community will not pay for him, then he shall be placed in that field with the cattle (at work).

be guilty of fraud and make false returns of the natural increase, or sell them for money, then shall he be con257. If any one hire a field laborer, he victed and pay the owner ten times the loss. shall pay him eight gur of corn per year. 266. If the animal be killed in the stable by God (an accident), or if a lion 258. If any one hire an ox-driver, he shall pay him six gur of corn per year. kill it, the herdsman shall declare his innocence before God, and the owner 259. If any one steal a water-wheel bears the accident in the stable. from the field, he shall pay five shek267. If the herdsman overlook someels in money to its owner. 45

thing, and an accident happen in the stable, then the herdsman is at fault for the accident which he has caused in the stable, and he must compensate the owner for the cattle or sheep.

270. If he hire a young animal for threshing, the hire is ten ka of corn.

268. If any one hire an ox for threshing, the amount of the hire is twenty ka of corn.

272. If any one hire a cart alone, he shall pay forty ka of corn per day.

271. If any one hire oxen, cart and driver, he shall pay one hundred and eighty ka of corn per day.

273. If any one hire a day laborer, he 269. If he hire an ass for threshing, the shall pay him from the New Year until hire is twenty ka of corn. the fifth month (April to August, when 46

days are long and the work hard) six gerahs in money per day; from the sixth month to the end of the year he shall give him five gerahs per day. 274. If any one hire a skilled artizan, he shall pay as wages of the ... five gerahs, as wages of the potter five gerahs, of a tailor five gerahs, of ... gerahs, ... of a ropemaker four gerahs, of ... gerahs, of a mason ... gerahs per day. 275. If any one hire a ferryboat, he shall pay three gerahs in money per day. 276. If he hire a freight-boat, he shall pay two and one-half gerahs per day. 277. If any one hire a ship of sixty gur, he shall pay one-sixth of a shekel in money as its hire per day. 278. If any one buy a male or female slave, and before a month has elapsed the benu-disease be developed, he shall return the slave to the seller, and receive the money which he had paid. 279. If any one by a male or female slave, and a third party claim it, the seller is liable for the claim. 280. If while in a foreign country a man buy a male or female slave belonging to another of his own country; if when he return home the owner of the male or female slave recognize it: if the male or female slave be a native of the country, he shall give them

back without any money. 281. If they are from another country, the buyer shall declare the amount of money paid therefor to the merchant, and keep the male or female slave. 282. If a slave say to his master: "You are not my master," if they convict him his master shall cut off his ear. The Epilogue Laws of justice which Hammurabi, the wise king, established. A righteous law, and pious statute did he teach the land. Hammurabi, the protecting king am I. I have not withdrawn myself from the men, whom Bel gave to me, the rule over whom Marduk gave to me, I was not negligent, but I made them a peaceful abiding-place. I expounded all great difficulties, I made the light shine upon them. With the mighty weapons which Zamama and Ishtar entrusted to me, with the keen vision with which Ea endowed me, with the wisdom that Marduk gave me, I have uprooted the enemy above and below (in north and south), subdued the earth, brought prosperity to the land, guaranteed security to the inhabitants in their homes; a disturber was not permitted. The great gods have called me, I am the salvationbearing shepherd, whose staff is straight, the good shadow that is spread over my city; on my breast I cherish the inhabitants of the land of 47

Sumer and Akkad; in my shelter I have let them repose in peace; in my deep wisdom have I enclosed them. That the strong might not injure the weak, in order to protect the widows and orphans, I have in Babylon the city where Anu and Bel raise high their head, in E-Sagil, the Temple, whose foundations stand firm as heaven and earth, in order to bespeak justice in the land, to settle all disputes, and heal all injuries, set up these my precious words, written upon my memorial stone, before the image of me, as king of righteousness. The king who ruleth among the kings of the cities am I. My words are well considered; there is no wisdom like unto mine. By the command of Shamash, the great judge of heaven and earth, let righteousness go forth in the land: by the order of Marduk, my lord, let no destruction befall my monument. In E-Sagil, which I love, let my name be ever repeated; let the oppressed, who has a case at law, come and stand before this my image as king of righteousness; let him read the inscription, and understand my precious words: the inscription will explain his case to him; he will find out what is just, and his heart will be glad, so that he will say: "Hammurabi is a ruler, who is as a father to his subjects, who holds the words of Marduk in reverence, who

has achieved conquest for Marduk over the north and south, who rejoices the heart of Marduk, his lord, who has bestowed benefits for ever and ever on his subjects, and has established order in the land." When he reads the record, let him

pray with full heart to Marduk, my lord, and Zarpanit, my lady; and then shall the protecting deities and the gods, who frequent E-Sagil, graciously grant the desires daily presented before Marduk, my lord, and Zarpanit, my lady. In future time, through all coming generations, let the king, who may be in the land, observe the words of righteousness which I have written on my monument; let him not alter the law of the land which I have given, the edicts which I have enacted; my monument let him not mar. If such a ruler have 48

wisdom, and be able to keep his land in order, he shall observe the words which I have written in this inscription; the rule, statute, and law of the land which I have given; the decisions which I have made will this inscription show him; let him rule his subjects accordingly, speak justice to them, give right decisions, root out the miscreants and criminals from this land, and grant prosperity to his subjects.

despise my curses, and fear not the curse of God, if he destroy the law which I have given, corrupt my words, change my monument, efface my name, write his name there, or on account of the curses commission another so to do, that man, whether king or ruler, patesi, or commoner, no matter what he be, may the great God (Anu), the Father of the gods, who has ordered my rule, withdraw from him the glory of royalty, break his scepter, Hammurabi, the king of righteouscurse his destiny. May Bel, the lord, ness, on whom Shamash has conwho fixeth destiny, whose command ferred right (or law) am I. My words are well considered; my deeds are not can not be altered, who has made my equaled; to bring low those that were kingdom great, order a rebellion which high; to humble his the proud, to exhand pel insolence. If can not a succeeding rulcontrol; er considers my may he words, which I let the have written in wind of this my inscripthe tion, if he do not overannul my law, nor throw corrupt my of his words, nor habitachange my monution ment, then may blow, Shamash lengthen that king's reign, as he has that of me, the king of right- may he ordain the years of his rule in groaning, years of scarcity, years of eousness, that he may reign in righteousness over his subjects. If this rul- famine, darkness without light, death with seeing eyes be fated to him; may er do not esteem my words, which I he (Bel) order with his potent mouth have written in my inscription, if he 49

the destruction of his city, the dispersion of his subjects, the cutting off of his rule, the removal of his name and memory from the land. May Belit, the great Mother, whose command is potent in E-Kur (the Babylonian Olympus), the Mistress, who harkens graciously to my petitions, in the seat of judgment and decision (where Bel fixes destiny), turn his affairs evil before Bel, and put the devastation of his land, the destruction of his subjects, the pouring out of his life like water into the mouth of King Bel. May Ea, the great ruler, whose fated decrees come to pass, the thinker of the gods, the omniscient, who maketh long the days of my life, withdraw understanding and wisdom from him, lead him to forgetfulness, shut up his rivers at their sources, and not allow corn or sustenance for man to grow in his land. May Shamash, the great Judge of heaven and earth, who supporteth all means of livelihood, Lord of lifecourage, shatter his dominion, annul his law, destroy his way, make vain the march of his troops, send him in his visions forecasts of the uprooting of the foundations of his throne and of the destruction of his land. May the condemnation of Shamash overtake him forthwith; may he be deprived of water above among the living, and his spirit below in the earth. May Sin (the Moon-god), the Lord of Heaven, the

divine father, whose crescent gives light among the gods, take away the crown and regal throne from him; may he put upon him heavy guilt, great decay, that nothing may be lower than he. May he destine him as fated, days, months and years of dominion filled with sighing and tears, increase of the burden of dominion, a life that is like unto death. May Adad, the lord of fruitfulness, ruler of heaven and earth, my helper, withhold from him rain from heaven, and the flood of water from the springs, destroying his land by famine and want; may he rage mightily over his city, and make his land into flood-hills (heaps of ruined cities). May Zamama, the great warrior, the first-born son of E-Kur, who goeth at my right hand, shatter his weapons on the field of battle, turn day into night for him, and let his foe triumph over him. May Ishtar, the goddess of fighting and war, who unfetters my weapons, my gracious protecting spirit, who loveth my dominion, curse his kingdom in her angry heart; in her great wrath, change his grace into evil, and shatter his weapons on the place of fighting and war. May she create disorder and sedition for him, strike down his warriors, that the earth may drink their blood, and throw down the piles of corpses of his warriors on the field; may she not grant him a life of mercy, deliver him 50

into the hands of his enemies, and imprison him in the land of his enemies. May Nergal, the might among the gods, whose contest is irresistible, who grants me victory, in his great might burn up his subjects like a slender reedstalk, cut off his limbs with his mighty weapons, and shatter him like an earthen image. May Nin-tu, the

does not understand, which he can not treat with dressing, which, like the bite of death, can not be removed, until they have sapped away his life. May he lament the loss of his life-power, and may the great gods of heaven and earth, the Anunaki, altogether inflict a curse and evil upon the confines of the temple, the walls of this E -barra (the Sun temple of Sippara), upon his dominion, his land, his warriors, his subjects, and his troops. May Bel curse him with the potent curses of his mouth that can not be altered, and may they come upon him forthwith.

sublime mistress of the lands, the fruitful mother, deny him a son, vouchsafe him no name, give him no successor among men. May Ninkarak, the daughter of Anu, who adjudges grace to me, cause to come upon his members in E-kur high fever, severe wounds, that can not be healed, whose nature the physician 51

TRUCKING A KILLER INDUSTRY

ruck drivers are a menace to highways, they are the undisputable hogs of the road. Those that have criminal records are hired by their employee who receives Obama tax credits that enable the trucker to avoid qualification. While everyone else are required to take a written exam they can avoid the costs and the embarrassment of failure. In any event truckers are not the sharpest pencil in the box, they like playing games with the unsuspecting driver. They enjoy playing the ì lock outî game which essentially blocks the driver into a pocket which prevents the driver from gaining access to the highway. Usually, what they will do is form a motorcade to prevent the driver from driving at an accelerated speed, only they can rule the road. Truckers are a sad bunch and also a

dangerous gang of thugs on else is invisible when trolling wheels. for the next victim. They Ití s the only job that they would be better off driving at can get, letí s face it night so that their impulses theyí re not exactly Einstein. are somewhat diminished There is one thing that they since they have a schedule to are good in doing and that is meet in the morning. When they work in the daytime they finding good food. have the night and darkness Some of the most notorious to protect their demonic murderers were serial killers ways. who would prey on defenseless women, these Remorse for their killings are truckers are all over the absent and they have no place like fucking locust. feelings since they view their Virtually, they have no killing as an accomplishment. consideration for anyone, Sometimes he will take a usually they are sociopaths. souvenir for his divestiture They are fluent in Swahili and and hide it in an obscure can drink several beers in the place that only he knows course of a minute. They about. Strangulation is the possess extruded stomachs, choice they prefer to deliver vile language, experts in their victimí s final blow. porno and cannot seem to Discardation of the body is differentiate fantasy from thrusted into a highly grassy reality. They know all the area within the broad strip clubs and the names of spectrum of rural seclusion. the strippers and their Killer truckers are usually idiosyncrasies. married with children and a Their needs are the only member of an unsuspecting thing that matters, everyone community. They utilize 52

their rigs as a weapon on the highway. Rigs encroach on regular drivers and would veer off into their lanes just because they can. A hotbed of drug activity, rigs in some instances are mules to move narcotics from one point to another. I am in no way debasing the trucking industry because IĂ m sure that there are truckers who do not fall into the aforementioned category. Trucks have been known to be hijacked by organized crime.

independent owner/operators showing a high level of trust and whose main role is to haul elevated status. (Cocaine is the illicit product most often caught freight for others. entering Canada at the border, These drivers are most while marijuana is the drug most vulnerable, because they are often trucked within the country.)

striving for economic viability due to the recession, more competition, and stricter new security and environmental rules. The report also warns of a middleman broker who serves as the key link between criminal groups and truck drivers. This person is a specialist who recruits, pays, and sometimes terrorizes There is more of a possibility truckers into carrying illicit that a trucker would know drugs, cash, and illegal other unscrupulous migrants. characters that lurk in the Money spent to transport illicit obscure. Recession driving cargo is a small cost of doing more truckers into organized business for criminal groups, but crime. In these hard is a "significant incentive" for economic times, more honest drivers. For example, a trucker can truck drivers are being lured be paid $28,000 to move $12 into carrying illegal goods, million worth of cocaine from California to Montreal. Besides and then gradually trapped in cocaine and cash, the cargo can the lifestyle. The trucking include illicit tobacco, marihuana, industry employs over ephedrine, and Ecstasy, which are 400,000 people in Canada, often packed in increasingly and the average fulltime sophisticated compartments built driver earns $858 a week. into tractor trailers. Moving large amounts of cash may be the The industry is dominated by criminalsĂ peak of success, small for-hire carriers and

Loads are often guaranteed, sometimes with money provided up front by the transporters. The trucker criminal "specialists" are held responsible for illicit cargo that has been lost, stolen or seized, often resulting in a nightmarish cost. For illicit cargo that is missing, the transporter is expected to provide compensation or risk harsh consequences, including extortion and violence. Violence associated to lost cargo includes beatings, kidnapping, and murder. Discipline is usually meted out from within the transportation group at the behest of the larger criminal organization or to deal with internal disputes. Loads stolen or seized from drivers provide leverage for further exploitation by crime groups, often resulting in an indentured arrangement in which the driver is drawn further into the criminal activity and required to move illicit commodities at no cost, to fulfill the debt. The ease by which trucking companies can be formed makes the industry especially attractive, which leads to a continued proliferation of illicit trucking 53

companies. Criminal groups conceal their illicit activities through layers of company ownerships, name changes, transfers and disclosures. They benefit from fragmented regulatory oversight, which is so complex that it is difficult for police to track at what point in the chain the criminal activity occurs. Organized crime groups own and operate trucking companies in relative autonomy, without close government or industry scrutiny and all these factors give them a "considerable advantage" over the police.

much of it fueled by the 1994 passage of NAFTA. This amount is expected to double, and in some cases quadruple, by 2020 on NAFTA trade corridors. Over 37,000 trucks cross the CanadaU.S. border every day, and trucking will continue to expand, outpacing rail, sea and air transport. The industry estimates that 375,000 new drivers will be needed in the next decade to meet demand.

More interdictions of commercial trucks means a short term inconvenience for criminals, forcing Lawpulse their shift to other modes, such as aircraft, boat, or the movement of more frequent and smaller loads. A judge's perspective on pro se litigants Doing so in private vehicles and rentals will By Helen W. Gunnarsson increase the importance of warehousing. Moreover, since smaller companies are finding cross-border trade less affordable (which some experts say might even challenge their ability to stay in business), criminal specialists may find ways to infiltrate and compromise larger trucking companies, in order to keep transporting their cargo abroad.

overnments are always striving in principle to streamline commercial transportation, but without compromising security. Security regulations such as the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative requires Canadian and American trusted drivers to have a FAST pass to more quickly get through the borders. Yet, stolen or fraudulently acquired FAST passes within commercial trucking demonstrate the vulnerability of these measures to organized crime.

How far may - and should, and must - a judge go in helping a pro se litigant have his or her day in court? If you're a litigator, there's a pretty good chance that there have been times when you've seethed in frustration at a judge's bending over backwards to help a pro se litigant through a case while holding you, the lawyer, to the usual stringent courtroom practice standards. Try looking at your case from the judge's point of view. "In reality, it is nearly impossible to hold a pro se party to the same standard as an attorney," writes Judge E. Kenneth Wright, Jr., Presiding Judge of the First Municipal District of the Circuit Court of Cook County.

In his article, Perceptions of justice and fairness for pro se litigants, published in the May 2011 issue of ISBA's Bench & Bar newsletter, Wright discusses the tension between providing pro se litigants meaningful There is now about $800 billion worth of trucking access to the courts and whether and to what extent it commerce yearly between Canada, Mexico, and the is permissible for judges to assist them while mainU.S., the largest venue for trade in North America, taining their authority, impartiality, and fairness. 54

The line between helping and representing

Little formal guidance

The number of pro se litigants is increasing, Wright Unfortunately, Wright says, trial judges have little says, and their needs outstrip the resources available formal guidance, either from the opinions of higher courts or from published codes of judicial conduct. to help them. Higher courts have affirmed that judges are to hold Legal aid organizations, courthouse help desks, bar pro se litigants to the same standards as an attorney. associations, telephone hotlines, websites, and other Canon 3 of the Code of Judicial Conduct (SCR 63) regroups assist pro se litigants with general legal inforquires judges to remain faithful to the law, to be unmation and filling out court forms. swayed by partisan interests, public clamor, or fear Those entities may also personally counsel the unrep- of criticism, to perform judicial duties without bias or resented litigants. Their ability to represent them in prejudice, and to disqualify themselves where they court, however, is limited by a number of factors, including time, personnel, and case acceptance requirements. Valuable though services short of courtroom representation can be, where litigants remain unrepresented, "the buck stops with us [judges]," Wright writes. "At the most basic level, many [pro se parties] do not understand the difference between a perceived harm and a legally recognized cause of action. The next question is whether they can prove their assertion, or alternatively proffer a proper defense," Wright writes.

are acting as lawyers in a proceeding. Judges are also to be efficient, patient, and toÂ ensure that litigants receive a fair trial. None of those standards, however, are of much help when unrepresented litigants appear in real-world courtrooms.

To cope as best they can with difficult situations, anecdotal reports suggest that many trial judges will cut pro se parties more slack in procedural requirements, though when it comes to proving their cases, they will require unrepresented parties to bear the same burdens as those represented as attorneys. For his part, Wright says "They will be held to the same standards as an attorney." But the result will be that they will go through a proceeding lacking a fundamental understanding of what they are doing and what they need to do in order to present their cases. And, sadly, when they lose, "The majority will leave upset, discouraged, and believing that everyone is in 'cahoots' against them."

Even many attorneys have a hard time satisfying courtroom obligations, Wright says. Where litigants are pro se, those difficulties are compounded. "Their fear as well as lack of knowledge and expertise will make them hesitant and belligerent. We [judges] will attempt to placate them by urging them to seek legal assistance. If they cannot obtain assistance, we will fall back on the black letter law.They will present Though Wright, like others attempting to grapple motions they do not understand and make arguwith this problem, does not have a solution, he prements fed to them by third parties." sents a question for judges and lawyers to ponder: How, he wonders, can judges require pro se litigants "Is perceived access to justice, justice at all?" to be prepared for and attend all status, prove-up, and motion dates as well as to meet filing deadlines? "At what point do we cross the line from providing assistance to ensure a fair trial to actually representing a pro se litigant?" 55

primal urges. Food is

in the search for new

Does Sex Really Sell And If So, Why?

one. Sex and reproduc-

customers. In particular,

By Paul Suggett

This underlying, pre-

and car advertisements

programmed disposition

have created strong links

to respond to sexual im-

with sex.

Sex In Advertising

Simply

put,

sex in

tion is definitely another. alcohol, fashion, perfume

agery is so strong, it has been used

adver-

for

tising is the use of sexually provocative or erotic imagery (or sounds, suggestions and subliminal messages) that are specifically de-

Does Sex Actually Sell? Yes, sex sells. It's a fact. Pop-

azines like

over 100 years in advertising. And the industry, while abusing it more and more, would be

ular mens magMaxim and

FHM

have experi-

mented often with their

covers. Overwhelmingly, foolish to ignore the signed to arouse interest when a sexy, semi-naked draw of sexual and erotic in a particular product, woman appears on the messaging. service or brand. cover, it outperforms an image of a male star,

Typically, sex refers to beautiful women (and in-

Back in 1885, W.Duke

even if that star is some-

creasingly, handsome

and Sons, a manufactur-

one men want to read

men) that are used to

er of facial soap, includ-

about.

lure in a viewer, reader

ed trading cards in the

When ads are more sex-

or listener, despite a ten- soap's packaging that in- ually provocative, men in uous a non-existent link cluded erotic images of particular are irresistibly to the brand being adver- the day's most popular tised. Throughout History, Sex

female stars. The link beple genetics. Men retween soap and sex is spond to sexual images.

Has Been Used As A Selling slim at best, but it Tool.

It's been said that as human beings, we have a lizard or reptilian brain that responds to certain

drawn to them. It's sim-

worked. And ever since, brands have purposely linked themselves to suggestive (or downright blatant) sexual imagery

And if your ad creates a sexual situation, it will get the desired response.

Sex Also Turns Off Customers

There's a fine line, and all they're responding to

you will ultimately lose

too often these days

it. Pornography, while not out.

brands are stepping way

used in advertising in its

over the line. Consumers

traditional sense, is a

are human, they will re-

multi-billion dollar busi-

spond, but they're also

ness. As the rules around

smart, well-educated peo- sex and consumers beple who will soon realize

come more relaxed, you

that they're being manip-

can guarantee that sex

ulated. People may buy

will become a bigger part

your product one or two

of our advertising land-

times due to the erotic

scape.

interplay, but if the product isn't any good, you won't hold onto the customers for long. Not only that, they'll feel cheated, talked down to, or outright patronized. And that will take a much greater effort on the part of the advertiser to regain that trust.

The Future of Sex in Advertising Sex is here to stay, and it's getting more blatant with every passing year. The rise of the internet over the last 20 years has produced a direct line for much stronger, graphic sexual material to enter consumers' homes. And

The Bottom Line - Use Sexual Ideas Only If It's Appropriate If you are advertising a male deodorant like Axe (Lynx in the UK) or lingerie like Victoria's Secret, you'd be a fool to overlook such a strong selling mechanism. But if you're trying to sell a lawn mower or a new sofa with nudity and sex, you're doing your product a serious disservice. Yes, you'll get attention. But it's the wrong kind of attention, and won't lead to a bigger and better brand. Sex, used sparingly and judicially, is a strong selling tool. But abuse it, and

FINDING THE RIGHT MORTGAGE BROKER If your in the searching mode for a commercial mortgage broker (CMB) itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; s a task that can render a person into doubt and despair. In the marketplace today, there are companies out there that act as Mortgage Brokers and Lenders but are fraudulent in their dealings. A professional commercial mortgage broker is also a professional who is attentive to the latest programs that the lenders are offering. There are procedures that are inherently found in a professional commercial brokerage. They will listen to what you have to say not what they want you to have. (Cont-pg 83) 57

The Scary Trend Of Boomer Addiction By Dr. Mercola The picture of a drug addict in your head is probably not one of a grey-haired grandmother or grandfather, a middle-aged professional or a soon-to-be retiree. But the face of drug addiction in the United States is changing, and a significant number of older adults, particularly those in the baby boomer generation, are struggling with both illicit and prescription drug abuse cludes prescription medications, abuse of which has become so severe among seniors that the NIH has devoted a new section of its Web site to address its effects.2

Conventional Medicine Turning Seniors Into Drug Addicts

Among seniors, the risks of all medications are increased, because the body takes longer to break down and get rid of the drug The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has than it does in a younger person. As a rereported that the number of people in their sult, the drug stays in an older person's 50s who are abusing illicit drugs more than system longer, where it can cause even doubled from 2002 to 2010, going from 2.7 greater damage. to 5.8 percent in this population. Among those 65 and older, 414,000 used illicit The most commonly abused prescripdrugs in 2010.1 tion medications among seniors, One reason for this, NIH suggested, is that baby boomers were more likely to use illicit drugs in their youth, which may make the drugs seem more acceptable now. This certainly appears to be the case â&#x20AC;Ś but it doesn't help that in many cases their phsc ans are the ones doing the "dealing." You see, the illicit drugs mentioned by the NIH are not only the "street" drugs that the name implies. This category also in-

along with their risks, include: Opioids (Painkillers) Morphine, codeine, oxycodone, hydrocodone and fentanyl all fall into this category. These drugs are not only addictive, they can lead to slowed breathing and death if too much is taken.

Depressants

In a study presented at the annual Used to treat anxiety and sleep disor- meeting of the American Public Health Association (APHA), it was reders, medications such as Valium, Xanax, Ambien, and Sonata are also vealed that spending for medications addictive, and cause side effects like to treat conditions associated with confusion, drowsiness and impaired normal aging, such as mental alertcoordination. This can be especially ness, sexual dysfunction, menorisky among seniors, as it increases pause, aging skin and hair loss, tallies up to more than the costs of the risk of accidents and falls. Furtreating most chronic diseases!4 ther, if these drugs are combined with alcohol or pain medications, the Use of such drugs jumped 18.5 percent, while costs increased close to results can be deadly. 46 percent, from 2006 to 2011. Stimulants Among those on Medicare (ages 65 These include drugs such as Ritalin, and up), usage increased 32 percent. Concerta and Adderall (the latter of In 2011, the study found, costs for which actually contains amphetamine, known and sold on the street these drugs ranked third in annual as "speed" or "crank"), which are of- prescription-drug costs among commercially insured individuals, which ten used to teat ADHD, narcolepsy was surpassed only by costs of treatand even sometimes depression. ing diabetes and high cholesterol! If Along with being highly addictive, only more people realized that they stimulants sometimes lead to feelings of hostility and paranoia, along could improve their mental abilities, sexual dysfunction, symptoms of with risks like irregular heartbeat, menopause and more using heart failure and seizures. healthy foods instead of drugs, the When a stimulant is combined with outcome of the study would be much another medication, such as an overdifferent, as would, likely, their the-counter cold medicine that conhealth â&#x20AC;Ś tains a decongestant, it can cause More Prescription Drugs Typically dangerously high blood pressure or Mean More Health Risks irregular heart rhythms. According to statistics from the KaiMedications to Treat Normal "Aging" Cost More Than Costs of ser Health Foundation, seniors aged 65 and older fill, on average, 28 preMost Chronic Disease scriptions per year. There's no doubt 59

that the United States has been manipulated into becoming a "polypharmacy nation." The word pharmacy' simply means "many drugs," but refers to instances where an individual is taking too many drugs -- either because more drugs are prescribed than are clinically indicated, or when the sheer number of pills simply becomes a burden for the patient. Many Americans are being impacted by poly-pharmacy, with unforeseen effects on their health â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and this is now, before a new era of governmentsponsored healthcare is likely to be ushered in, making drugs even more accessible and promoted as the only legally sanctioned treatment option; or worse, mandatory, as is already the case for certain types of pediatric cancers "requiring" chemotherapy be used, or compulsory flu vaccines during a state or federally declared health emergency. More medication is often viewed as a strategy to improve health, but those taking the most prescription drugs are at the greatest risks from adverse drug reactions, some of which can be worse than the disease they're intended to treat, and which cause a downward spiral of additional prescriptions being given in order to "treat" the original drug-induced symptoms.

On average, if you take one prescription drug you'll be exposed to 70 potential side effects. Some of the more commonly prescribed drugs average around 100 side effects each -- and some drugs even carry over 500! If you multiply this by multiple drugs, and then factor in the unforeseen effects of taking multiple drugs at one time, the health risks are astronomical. Dr. Michael Stern, a specialist in geriatric emergency medicine at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, told the New York Times. "Polypharmacy is responsible for up to 28 percent of hospital admissions and, if it were classified as such, it would be the fifth leading cause of death in the United States." In a study released last year by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA), officials emphasized that people should assume there IS risk in prescribed medicines. And, for the first time, deaths from properly prescribed drugs even outnumber traffic fatalities in the United States â&#x20AC;Ś Teens Getting High From Drugs in Mom and Dad's Medicine Cabinet In another study presented at the annual meeting of The American Public Health Association, 10 percent of 7th 60

to 12th graders surveyed said they had abused over-the-counter medications, such as cough syrups containing Dextromethorphan (DXM) and decongestants, to get high. This is yet another concerning trend, as teens will even go so far as to mix a variety of prescription pills together in a bowl at a party and take a mouthful of them like candy! The kids think this is a safe way to get high, since they see their parents taking the same medications all the time, but it often turns out to be a literal prescription for disaster, the side effects of which include permanent disability and death. What many fail to realize, whether a senior or a teen, is that prescription drugs can be just as addictive and deadly as illegal drugs. The painkiller Fentanyl, for instance, is approximately 100 times more potent than morphine. Also, in many cases there's no difference between a street drug and a prescription drug. For example, hydrocodone, a prescription opiate, is synthetic heroin. It's indistinguishable from any other heroine as far as your brain and body is concerned. So, if you're hooked on hydrocodone, you are in fact a good-old-fashioned heroin addict.

With teens, the problem is that prescription and over-the-counter drugs do not have the same stigma as illegal drugs, plus they're easier to access because their parents take them â&#x20AC;Ś and even if you take the recreational aspect out of it, the average child aged 18 and under in the United States still takes more than four prescription drugs a year!You Can Feel Great Without Drugs â&#x20AC;ŚIn fact, many report feeling better than they have in years once they're able to wean off of their medications (which is something you should do only under the guidance of your health care practitioner). Staying well naturally, without the use of drugs or even frequent conventional medical care, is not only possible, it may be the most successful strategy you can employ to increase your longevity. If you adhere to a healthy lifestyle, you most likely will never need medications in the first place. This includes: Proper Food Choices: For a comprehensive guide on which foods to eat and which to avoid, see my nutrition plan. Generally speaking, you should focus your diet on whole, unprocessed foods (organic vegetables, grass-fed meats, raw dairy, nuts, and so forth) that come from healthy, sustainable, local sources, such as a 61

small organic farm not far from (HGH) production, which is essential for optimal health, strength your home. For the best nutrition and health and vigor. benefits, you will want to eat a good portion of your food raw. Personally, I aim to eat about 75 percent of my food raw, including raw eggs and humanely raised pastured organic animal products that have not been raised on a CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation).

I've discussed the importance of Peak Fitness for your health on numerous occasions, so for more information, please review this previous article. Stress Reduction and a Positive Attitude: You cannot be optimally healthy if you avoid addressing the emotional component of your health and longevity, as your emotional state plays a role in nearly every physical disease -- from heart disease and depression, to arthritis and cancer.

Nearly as important as knowing which foods to eat more of is knowing which foods to avoid, and topping the list is fructose. When consumed in excess, sugar acts as a toxin and drives multiple disease processes in your body, not the Effective coping mechanisms are a least of which is insulin resistance, major longevity-promoting factor a major cause of accelerated aging. in part because stress has a direct Comprehensive Exercise Program, impact on inflammation, which in including High-Intensity Exercise turn underlies many of the chronic like Peak Fitness: Even if you're diseases that kill people premaeating the healthiest diet in the turely every day. The Emotional world, you still need to exercise to Freedom Technique, meditation, reach the highest levels of health, prayer, social support and exercise and you need to be exercising ef- are all viable options that can help fectively, which means including you maintain emotional and mennot only core-strengthening exer- tal equilibrium. cises, strength training, and Proper Sun Exposure to Optimize stretching but also high-intensity Vitamin D: We have long known activities into your rotation. Highthat it is best to get your vitamin intensity interval-type training D from sun exposure, and if at all boosts human growth hormone

possible, I strongly urge you to make sure you're getting out in the sun on a daily basis. There is preliminary evidence suggesting that oral vitamin D may not provide the identical benefits, although it's still better than none at all.

information that will help you develop a strategy to stop using the drugs by changing your lifestyle to take control of your health.

80 Year Old Be e Page

Take High Quality Animal-Based Omega-3 Fats: Animal-based omega-3 fat is a strong factor in helping people live longer, and many experts believe that it is likely the predominant reason why the Japanese are the longest lived race on the planet. Avoid as Many Chemicals, Toxins, and Pollutants as Possible: This includes tossing out your toxic household cleaners, soaps, personal hygiene products, air fresheners, bug sprays, lawn pesticides, and insecticides, just to name a few, and replacing them with nontoxic alternatives. Avoid Prescription Drugs. Do your homework. You can start on this site by using the search engine at the top of every page, which links to previous articles we have written over the past 15 years. Just type in the name of the drug or condition you are taking it for, and you will likely come up with dozens if not hundreds of pages of

She’s 80 years old in this picture. (It was taken in 2003.)Not bad at all Bettie. There really is no one quite like her these days. But her disappearance from the public eye sort of helped to solidify her in the hearts of fans. In the same way Marilyn Monroe died in her prime, and Jayne Mansfield as well, they live forever in our memories as young and beautiful. Bettie Page disappeared for decades, not allowing herself to be photographed at all, thus leaving us with the same impression as if she had died. All we have are the images of her as a young and magnificently beautiful model. 63

young high school student in Columbia, CAâ&#x20AC;? painted this ar s c image of the structure of scullery and its exis ng format and percep on. This is unusual for a fi een year old who by the way has already sold some of there art. She is a budding ar st with

internal capabili es for future endeavors. She is mature well beyond her years and has established a foothold in the community with her ar s c ventures. The imagery as you can see above is painstakingly detailed.

he aspects of visual perceptions must be understood when we talk of the mental ability of designer to generate images. Research has shown that knowledge has

been acquired by philosophers and psychologists in the subject of visual perception. Very interestingly, philosophers and psychologists have more clarity than visual designers about the process of visual perceptions and visual images in the mind of an artist. Psychologists as well as painters claim that they are not thinkers. Painters like to call themselves as creators, doers and makers. Most of the thinking is done between their work of art. Some external force forces them to think about abstractions, for example the desire to do something " new" or to "reject " what is existing, is actually the aim of the visual artist or the designer. This search for something "new" is, most of the times, an "accidental" process. That is why most artists or painters feel that the success that their work of art achieves is actually still to be received. And that is why artists reject praise. Most of the philosophical reasoning given by well-known painters has emerged after the paintings are done and not before completion.

Contributor

2/24/2013 @ 2:09PM

Elise Ackerman

FORBES

Superiority of Female Workers Confirmed: Study Finds Women Really Do Work Longer And Harder Than Men The findings of new study conducted by the Ponemon Institute, an independent research consultancy, on behalf of 3M, may be best reviewed to the tune of the Grateful Dead’s rendition of the song: “Women Are Smarter.” The point of the study was to measure the effect of 3M’s privacy filter on productivity, but the data ended up confirming a deeply held workplace behalf: women employees work harder.

proximately 53 percent of sub- dynamic: men work less when jects were female and 47 per- women are around. When both the researcher and subject cent were male. were female, the average time During a ten-minute experiworked was 4 minutes. When mental trial, female subjects worked 2.5 minutes compared both the researcher and subject were male, the average to 2.1 minutes for male subtime worked was 3.6 minutes. jects without a privacy filter installed and 4.9 minutes ver- And when there was a female sus 4.3 minutes for male sub- researcher and male subject, the average time worked was jects with a privacy filter in2.8 minutes. stalled.

When given the opportunity to As Jerry Garcia would say, “the walk away during an experi- women work harder, that’s Researchers observed 274 sub- mental waiting period 38 per- right.” jects working at companies cent of female workers walked scattered around the United away compared to 52 percent States in financial services, of male workers. consumer products, education, Researchers also documented health care and energy. Apanother interesting workplace 66

Chemists Decree: Don't Pee in the Pool Urine reacts with the chlorine in swimming pools, creating potentially dangerous chemical byproducts. JULIE BECKMAR 26 2014, 2:23 PM ET

Here’s the thing. One-piece bathing suits, when wet, are very annoying to take off. And when you’re swimming three hours a day, as I did for practice on my high school swim team, climbing out of the pool, taking it off, and putting it back on every time you have to use the bathroom starts to feel burdensome. So maybe you just… go…somewhere in between the one millionth and one millionth and first lap you’ve swum that day. Urine is sterile, and chlorine is sterilizing, right? This is the justification we offered ourselves, to counter our shame. Plus, decorated Olympic swimmers Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte do it. Turns out that was a pretty bad idea, for more reasons than just the ick factor. Anew study published in the American Chemical Society’s journal Environmental Science & Technology, looked at the chemistry of what happens when urine meets chlorine, and it isn’t pretty. The researchers mixed uric acid, found in both urine and sweat, with chlorine. Within an hour, they found that both trichloramine and cyanogen chloride had formed. These two chemicals are frequently found in chlorinated swimming pools—Ernest Blatchley III, one of the study’s authors, says that in the nearly 10 years he and his team have been studying swimming pool chemistry. On average, a person leaves about 30 to 80 milliliters of urine (Continued on page 76) 67

How to Get Good at Making Money BY JASON FRIED @JASONFRIED

A few years ago, I decided I wanted to learn to play the drums. I've always loved the drums. Whenever I listen to music, I hear the drums first. I can listen to a great jazz drummer like Art Blakey for hours on end. I'd give up almost anything to be as good as Glenn Kotche of Wilco. The path to learning the drums is pre y clear. You sign up for some lessons, you get some pads, you get some s cks, you learn some drills, and you prac ce. And you keep prac‐ cing. Every surface—your desk, your leg, your steering wheel—becomes a drum. You get be er over me, but you never really stop prac cing. This is how we learn most things. Whether you want to be a writer or a musician or a painter or a baker or an accountant, the way to get there is fairly clear. Not everyone's going to be as good as he or she would like to be, but at least you know where to start. Lessons, classes, books, internships, workshops... All of these things are accessible to most people who want them. One of the interes ng things about picking up the drums was that I realized it had been some me since I had actually tried to learn something new. We spend most of our child‐ hoods learning new things. But as you get older, the frequency with which you develop new talents slows down. Some mes it stops completely. That said, when I first started playing, I was bad. I sounded like someone was tripping over a drum set and knocking it on the floor. When you suck so badly at something new, it's com‐ for ng to know there are other things that you actually are good at. And being bad at drums reminded me of what I have go en pre y good at: making money. 68

Today, I run 37signals, a so ‐ ware and design firm that I co ‐founded in 1999. Sales have grown at double‐digit rates every year for the past dec‐ ade; so have profits. (Like many private companies, we don't disclose revenue.) How did I learn how to do this? I have a degree in finance, but I don't remember taking any classes that even remotely taught me how to make mon‐ ey. I've read plenty of busi‐ ness books. Same thing—lots of talk about money, but not much about how to actually make the stuﬀ. One thing I do know is that making money is not the same as star ng a business. For entrepreneurs, this is an important thing to under‐ stand. Most of us iden fy with the products we create or services we provide. I make so ware. He is a headhunter. She builds computer net‐ works. But the fact is, all of us must master one skill that su‐ persedes the others: making money. You can be the most crea ve so ware designer in

the world. But if you don't know how to make money, you're never going to have much of a business or a whole lot of autonomy. This is not about ge ng rich (though there's certainly nothing wrong with that). In‐ stead, for me, making money is about freedom. When you owe people money, they own you—or, at least, they own your schedule. As long as you remain profitable, the me‐ line is yours to create. It took me a long me to figure out how to make money. Here's how the lessons unfolded.

Shoes, Tennis Rackets, and More Shoes Understanding the buyer is the key to being a strong sell‐ er It started when I was about 14. In Illinois, that's when you can start working (with your parents' permission). So I went with my dad to get a worker's permit and got a summer job at the local gro‐ cery store. I don't remember learning much there. But a

year later, at my next summer job, the lessons flowed. I was working at Shelby's Pro Shop, a golf and tennis retail‐ er in Deerfield, where I grew up. I sold shoes and tennis rackets. I didn't play tennis, but I learned how to be a very good tennis‐shoe and tennis‐ racket salesman. That's be‐ cause I made the discovery that people's reasons for buy‐ ing things o en don't match up with the company's reason for selling them. Manufactur‐ ers used to dispatch reps to the pro shop to educate us on their latest and greatest tech‐ nologies. They'd tell us about the new ethylene vinyl ace‐ tate midsoles that made shoes more comfortable; the Goodyear‐brand rubber out‐ soles that made the shoes more durable; the new varia‐ on of Nike Air that was miles ahead of the compe on. They thought they were arm‐ ing us with facts that would impress the customers. But, it turned out, none of that stuﬀ ma ered. In fact, it had a neg‐ a ve eﬀect. When you de‐ scribe things in terms people 69

don't understand, they tend not to trust you as much. Trust is important. You can bluff your way into money, but for only so long. Once I stopped slinging the technical terms, I realized that when customers shop for shoes, they do three things. They consider the look and style. They try them on to see if they're comfortable. And they consider the price. En‐ dorsements by famous athletes help a lot, too. But the technology, the features, the spe‐ cial‐tes ng labs—I can't remember a single customer who cared. I sold a boatload of shoes and tennis rackets that summer. Understanding what people really want to know—and how that differs from what you want to tell them—is a fundamental tenet of sales. And you can't get good at making money unless you get good at selling. I learned this as a teenage shoe salesman, and it s ll drives how I operate. To be sure, this is hardly a unique insight. But judging by the number of companies and products that totally miss the mark, day a er day, it's a lesson that needs to be learned again and again. The Middleman Years In which I sell electronics, knives, and throwing stars—and learn that it's all about passion. A er a couple more summers at the pro shop, I decided to start my own business. It hadn't taken long to no ce that retail was pre y simple: The store bought stuff from distributors, marked it up, and sold it at a profit. Why couldn't I do that, too? It turned out, I could. I got a reseller's license from the state of Illinois. This allowed me to buy stuff cheaply from dis‐ tributors. This is where I learned my second key lesson: Sell only things you'd want to buy for yourself.

I originally got the reseller's license so I could buy stereo equipment, computer equipment, a cordless phone, and a radar detector. (My rusted‐out Datsun 510 was held together by bungee cords and duct tape, but I s ll liked to drive fast.) I soon realized that if I wanted these things, my friends probably did, too. I could sell them stuﬀ below what they'd pay in the store and s ll make a profit. So I picked some prices that seemed reasonable, pitched my peers, and the orders came in. I didn't sell a lot, but picking up an extra $100 here and there is a big deal when you're a teenager. I began oﬀering more items. Somehow I got hold of some military‐supply and spor ng‐ 70

goods catalogs. I cut out the high school, I started ge ng I decided to figure out how pictures of the stuff that interested in computers. I al‐ to make my own. I got Fi‐ looked cool—bu erfly so liked music. My collec on leMaker Pro (I paid for it knives, throwing stars, pock‐ of tapes and CDs was grow‐ with the stash I'd saved up et knives, and some other ing, and I wanted a be er selling stuff to my friends) things I'd prefer not to men‐ way to keep track of what I and started messing around. on—and created my own had and what I'd loaned out A er a few months, I had solved the problems I had catalog, which I photocopied to friends. and gave to my friends. The This was before the World with organizing my music. I stuff, as they say, sold (itself) Wide Web. So I tossed one of knew what music I had, didn't have a credit card— those junk mail AOL CDs in where it was, whom I had remember, I was in high the computer, installed the loaned it to, how much I paid school at the me. So I or‐ program, and convinced my for it. The solu on was ele‐ dered the items COD, cash on parents it was worth the gant and easy to use. I called delivery. I'd learn when UPS monthly fee. ("It'll help me it Audiofile. would be coming and feign research and study!" I ar‐ Most of the music‐collec on illness so I could stay home gued.) I started searching for products on AOL's file sec‐ from school. The delivery guy tools to help organize a mu‐ on were freeware. Down‐ rang the doorbell, I gave him sic collec on. load them, install them, and the cash, and he handed over There were a ton of them. you don't owe the author a the boxes. I don't know if Most were made with so ‐ dime. There were a few they do COD anymore, but ware called FileMaker Pro, a shareware op ons (you pay man, was it exci ng back program that makes it easy if you use them, but it's then. No one got rich—and I to create simple databases mostly an honor system), but don't think anyone was in‐ without really knowing how most were free. jured—but it was a great ed‐ to program. FileMaker also I'd already learned that I re‐ uca on. And the lesson lets you design your own in‐ ally enjoyed making money. stuck. terface, so you can make And I thought that Audiofile things look any way you'd was good. And even then, I like. Most of the music‐ thought that if something That'll Be $20, Please How, and why, to charge real organiza on programs were was good, then it was worth money for real products free and pre y lousy—ugly, paying for. So before making hard to use, loaded with un‐ it available to other AOL us‐ Around my senior year of ers, I added a limit in the necessary features. 71

program—people could file 25 CDs for free; a er that, it would cost $20 to unlock Audiofile and remove the limit. I remember my first customer. One day my parents gave me an envelope. It came from Germany and had those airmail stripes at the top. I opened it up, found a screenshot of Audiofile printed on a piece of paper—and a crisp $20 bill. More envelopes rolled in. Over the next few years, Audiofile probably generated $50,000—not bad for a kid in college in the early '90s. The lesson: People are happy to pay for things that work well. Never be afraid to put a price on something. If you pour your heart into something and make it great, sell it. For re‐ al money. Even if there are free op ons, even if the market is flooded with free. People will pay for things they love. This lesson is at the core of 37signals. There are plenty of free project management tools. There are plenty of free contact managers and customer rela onship management tools. There are plenty of free chat tools and organiza on tools. There are plenty of free confer‐ ences and workshops. Free is everywhere. But we charge for our products. And our cus‐ tomers are happy to pay for them. There's another lesson in here: Charging for something makes you want to make it be er. I've found this to be really important. It's a great lesson if you want to learn how to make money. A er all, paying for something is one of the most in mate things that can occur between two people. One person is offering something for sale, and the other person is spending hard‐earned cash to buy it. Both have worked hard to be able to offer the other something he or she wants. That's trust—and, dare I say, in macy. For customers, paying for some‐ thing sets a high expecta on. When you put a price on something, you get really honest feedback from customers. When entrepreneurs ask me how to get customers to tell us what they really think, I respond with two words: Charge them. They'll tell you what they think, demand excellence, and take the product seriously in a way they never would if they were just using it for free. As an entrepreneur, you should welcome that pressure. You should want to be forced to be good at what you do. Model Madness There are different pathways to the same dollar 72

Don't just charge. Try as many different pric‐ to be made. Just a quick one‐week project ing models as you can. That's a great way to for a fixed price. If you want more, we'll sell get be er at making money. you another. Before I launched 37signals, I worked as a We no longer design websites, so we don't freelance Web designer. I charged clients by offer 37express anymore. But it was a fan‐ the hour. I work quickly. But I soon realized tas c way to make money. Remove the fear, that charging hourly penalizes efficiency. If I and people will be more willing to pay you. can finish something in an hour that might People don't like uncertainty—especially take someone else three or four hours, why when they have to pay for it. A week and a should I be penalized? So when we launched fixed price is certain. 37signals in 1999, we charged clients by the We've con nued to experiment with pricing project. models. It's been a great way to get a 360‐ It worked great. But as the projects started degree view of how customers think about ge ng bigger and cos ng a lot more, I no‐ their money and our products. Our apps, for ced that clients became more re cent example, are available as monthly subscrip‐ about signing on. Big numbers and long me ons for $24 to $249 per month. We've sold frames make people nervous. More money our book Ge ng Real as an instant down‐ and more me mean more risk, and risk is load for $19 and as a paperback for $25. something all companies would prefer to We've sold ckets to our eight‐hour work‐ avoid. shops for up to $1,000. Lis ngs on our job I thought about the problem and decided to board are $400 for 30 days. We sell lis ngs try something new. Instead of doing long, on Sor olio, a service we built to help small expensive projects, we'd do short, afforda‐ businesses find Web designers, for $99 per ble ones. Instead of billing $50,000 for a 15‐ month. page website redesign that would take three We've even sold promo onal T‐shirts, for months, we'd charge $3,500 per page and $19, when just about everyone else in the offer to complete the page in a week. If you business gives them away. People wear want another page, it's another $3,500 and shirts they paid $19 for. People turn free T‐ another week. We called it 37express. shirts into rags. Rags don't promote anyone. It took off. It took the risk out. It let compa‐ nies try us out before commi ng to some‐ thing big. And it was a lot more fun for us— fewer mee ngs, less stress, fewer decisions

It's Never Too Soon to Be Hungry The true value of bootstrapping

I began learning these things when I was 14. There's a pile in the bank, and it's not there And I'm glad I did, because the habits entre‐ to collect interest. Your investors want you preneurs develop early in their careers go a to hire, invest, and buy. There's less—and in long way toward determining their success. some cases, no—pressure to make money. I've borrowed money to start a business on‐ While that sounds comfor ng, I think it ul ‐ ly once. My parents gave me $5,000 to buy mately hurts. It replaces the hustle, the my first computer when I went to college. scrap, the fight, with a false comfort of "we I'm embarrassed to admit I never paid them can worry about that later." back, but that's only because I knew they'd Anyone can spend money. Making it is the never accept the money. One day, I'll figure hard part, and being forced to do it early is one of the best ways to get be er at it later. out how to make that happen. But that's it. Everything else has been boot‐ Try, Try Again strapped—even though dozens of venture capitalists and private equity firms have A word about prac cing offered us lots of money. Instead, my cus‐ Like I said at the outset, it's all about prac‐ tomers have always been my investors. My ce. Whether you're playing drums or build‐ goal has always been to be profitable on Day ing a business, you're going to be pre y bad One. at something the first me you try it. The I can't say enough about bootstrapping. second me isn't much be er. Over me, Whether you're star ng your first business and a er a lot of prac ce, you begin to get or your next one, my advice is to bootstrap there. it. Bootstrapping forces you to think about So here's a great way to prac ce making making money on Day One. There's a funda‐ money: Buy and sell the same thing over mental difference between a bootstrapped and over on Craigslist or eBay. Seriously. business and a funded business. It's all about which side of the money you're on. Go buy something on Craigslist or eBay. Find From Day One, a bootstrapped business has something that's a bit of a commodity, so no choice but to make money. There's no you know there's always plenty of supply cushion in the bank and not much in the and demand. An iPod is a good test. Buy it, pockets. It's make money or go home. To a and then immediately resell it. Then buy it again. Each me, try selling it for more than bootstrapped business, money is air. you paid for it. See how far you can push it. On the other hand, from Day One, a funded See how much profit you can make off 10 business is all about spending money. transac ons. 74

Are Professional Athletes Paid Start tweaking the headline. Then start fid‐ Too Much? dling with the product descrip on. Vary the photographs. Take some pictures of the MARCH 19, 2013 / PHP AGENCY thing for sale; use other photos with other By: Dr. Len Cooper items, or people, in them. Shoot really high‐ When you quality shots, and also post crappy ones think about from your cell‐phone camera. Try every vari‐ the salaries a on you can think of. of profesI love doing this, because there's no real risk sional athinvolved. If you already have a business, you letes, what don't need to dream up a new product line is the first or rock the boat with crazy experiments. If thought that you don't have a business, it's a perfect way comes to mind? to work on your chops. The popular position is that they Jason Fried is co‐founder of 37signals, a Chi‐ are seriously overpaid. Joe Flacco of cago‐based so ware firm, and co‐author of the Baltimore Ravens, for instance, the book Rework, which was published last recently agreed to a six-year, $120 million contract. Can you imagine March. receiving a sum like that? Imagine all of the things you could do with Read more: h p://www.inc.com/magazine/20110301/making‐ that kind of money! money‐small‐business‐advice‐from‐jason‐ fried.html#ixzz30DGAmnFp

It’s true that some players get paid huge sums of money to play a game many play for free, but these professional athletes are worth every penny. Here are the most highly paid players in the four most popular sports in America: Continued on page 77

Hockey: Shea Weber, $14 million a year. 75

Continued from page 67 behind each time they visit the pool. They’ve found those two chemicals in every sample they’ve taken from a pool. “We know that there are associations between some of these chemicals and adverse human health outcomes, so we’re motivated to understand the chemistry behind their formation and decay,” says Blatchley, a professor at the School of Civil Engineering and Division of Environmental and Ecological Engineering at Purdue University. Exposure to trichloramine has been linked to respiratory problems, and cyanogen chloride can adversely affect the lungs, central nervous system, and cardiovascular system, according to the CDC.

of these chemicals contain nitrogen, Blatchley says, and uric acid also contains nitrogen, in a form the study’s authors suspected would be reactive with chlorine. They were right.

pool, such as at a swimming competition. In the presence of chlorine, cyanogen chloride in particular not only forms quickly, as shown in this study, but decays quickly as well. This means that if a lot of people are peeing in the pool, there’s the potential for a lot of cyanogen chloride to form, depleting the chlorine in the pool. While the cyanogen chloride would normally decay quickly, less chlorine means it might stick around longer, and that could be a real problem. All of this is to say that peeing in the pool is not harmless, despite Phelps’ and Lochte’s claims that it’s normal and everybody does it. “Chlorine kills it, so it’s not bad,” Phelps told the Wall Street Journal in 2012. That gets Blatchley’s dander up.

“There’s a lot of people in the swimming community who look up to these people and listen to what they have to say,” he says. “[Phelps and Lochte] are not chemists and Though there is uric acid in sweat, it’s a shouldn’t be making statements that are pretty small amount, and it’s really urine we that false.” should be worried about, Blatchley says. Which is comforting, since if you’re swimming hard, there’s not much you can do about sweating, but you can always, you know, not pee in the pool. Some people do and some people don’t, but on average, a person leaves about 30 to 80 milliliters of urine behind each time they visit the pool. A major concern, according to Blatchley, is times when there are a lot of people in one 76

Baseball: Alex Rodriguez, $28 million a year.

is the case, star players t first glance, get paid exactly what those amounts they are worth. are staggering. Sure, Professional athletes these athletes are ex- who develop their talceptionally talented at ents and skills to a what they do, but does higher level than their that warrant millions peers will naturally deand millions of dollars? mand a higher compen-

Before you answer, consider the amount of money these players bring to their respective sports through jersey and merchandise Basketball: Kobe Bry- sales, television reveant, $27.8 million a nue, and ticket sales. year. They easily bring more profit to their teams and their overall sport than they themselves make. Without their presence on the court or field, fans wouldn’t flock in such high numFootball: Joe Flacco, bers to see a game and $20.6 million a year. wouldn’t spend huge amounts of cash on team memorabilia. In a free market economy, people have a choice to buy the commodity of Baseball: Albert Pujols entertainment—and as we all know, Americans 300million over 10 yrs buy lots of it. Since that

sation. That shouldn’t surprise anyone; if someone does a better job at something than anyone else, that person is going to get paid top dollar. The world of sports is no exception: The best players get the best salaries. Since we are willing to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars to be entertained by people who do what we cannot (or do it better than we can), professional athletes deserve to be compensated accordingly. Their abilities and talents are rare and highly developed, requiring countless hours of training and practice. This isn’t just a hobby to them: It’s their job, 77

(Continued from page 77) which is why we call them professional athletes. If a player is the best the sport has to offer, he or she is earning that incredible salary during every game and every practice. Another point to consider is that most athletes do not play as many years as we might expect: Hockey: 5.6 years. Baseball: 5.6 years. Basketball: 4.8 years. Football: 3.3 years. The number of working years that most Americans have is typically 40 to 45 years. While most of us are bringing home much smaller paychecks, we’re bringing home a lot more of them. Professional sports are so demanding that after a few years many athletes are unable to compete any longer. Whereas most people get to use their years of experience to their advantage in their job, professional athletes get replaced by younger, uninjured players. Considering the short span of most professional athletes’ careers, they essentially earn their lifetime salary over the course of a few years.

sional athletes. Instead, I want to draw attention to the fact that, as a society, we fail abysmally when it comes to understanding how money works. Generally speaking, we are very short-term thinkers, which is why we tend to spend money in the moment with little regard for the financial consequences. We spend today rather than save for tomorrow and don’t consider our future lifestyle. In this regard, professional athletes are no different than the rest of us. This is one reason (among many) why professional athletes end up broke just a few years after they end their careers.

When you think about professional athletes, you probably think about the things they spend their money on—fancy cars, expensive parties, flashy jewelry, lavish houses. It’s true that athletes can afford just about anything they want during their earning years, and we all know about the extravagant lifestyles many of them choose to lead. But the fact is that for all their money, they are grossly underexposed to wise financial counsel. We tend to judge athletes for their financial indiscretions and luxurious lifestyles, but ask yourself this: If you were given your lifetime salaThe point of this blog isn’t just to ry within the span of just a few defend the earning power of profes- years, how disciplined would you be 78

with that income? Would you go spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on hotrods and vacations, or would you recognize that your money had to last the rest of your life and invest it wisely? Now ask yourself this: How wisely are you handling the money you actually do make? Are you spending every dime you make eating out and buying new gadgets, or are you planning for your future? When you come to the end of your working career, will you be financially solid or broke? The primary difference between average people and professional athletes is that many of the mistakes of athletes are put under the microscope of public scrutiny. This automatically creates the argument that professional athletes irresponsibly squander their vast fortunes. But if you were to examine the way that regular people handle their finances, you’d find that many of us are just as guilty of squandering our resources.

bunch of Average Joes playing! We spend our hard-earned money watching professionals because they perform at a level that is impossible for us—and they make it look easy. You might still be of the opinion that professional athletes are grossly overpaid. But rather than judge the mistakes they make with their money, I urge you to carefully consider your own financial choices. Whether you’re making millions of dollars or earning an average income, it’s surprisingly easy to get into financial trouble if you don’t have professional counsel. Start making wise choices with your money today and plan for your future. That way you can be sure you’ll have the means to attend to your favorite sporting events for many years to come.

If you ask me if professional athletes are overpaid, my answer is absolutely not. They perform at a level that less than one percent of us will ever come even close to. Imagine trying to get millions of people to attend a sporting event with a 79

He lovingly calls me Crankasaurus November 28, 2012 My hubby some mes caters to me. He'll bring me a chai tea la e or a chocolate des‐ sert if I am red or had a rough day. He'll ask me what I want for dinner or how I want it cooked. It is sweet. He is sweet.But some‐ mes he caters to my bad behaviour. He lovingly calls me Crankasaurus when I default to bad behaviour but truthfully, he walks around me on eggshells to avoid it. One day (and I mean like, last Tuesday) we were in the kitchen when I started tossing my crankiness all over the place. With each nasty ball I threw in the air, he would des‐ perately try to catch it. Ball up. Ball caught. BALL UP. Ball Caught. Something was amiss ‐out of alignment‐ and he tried with every eﬀort to manage it and make it right again. Un l final‐ ly I'd exhausted him and all his eﬀort and sanity he'd been trying to maintain dropped from him. Neither of us were happy. In fact we both felt worse. It was doomed from the minute I let Crankasaurus take over. But in the midst of this ny fragment of our lives that night, I had a moment of clarity. I realized that I had not listened to my genius li le soul's needs and in that moment I was

expec ng him to do it for me. He had taken the bait and tried hard to make up for my un‐ willingness to look a er myself. I saw how our ac ons (me throwing cranky around and him jumping to catch them) not only stemmed from ‐but also reinforced‐ my be‐ lief that I was broken or fragile and that I needed help from someone else. Yowzers. I'll admit, there have definitely been mes in the past when I did not and could not look a er myself. He was there to pick me up oﬀ the floor and try to make me feel be er. He tried hard. Some mes I think he deserves a blue ribbon for how hard he's tried to make me feel be er by catering to my needs. We do this y'know. I've been there too. As friends, family, siblings, parents. We rush to fix things hoping to make the other person feel be er. But last Tuesday it all came together. I real‐ ized that I am not broken. I am whole. I have always been whole. I can stay whole by going inside and calling upon a diﬀerent kind of strength. A strength that comes from know‐ ing and believing that I am ok and I am look‐ ing a er myself. My genius li le soul and I are safe in my being. I can feel however I feel but I choose my ac ons and my words the way I choose my clothes each day. Don't get me wrong, it's challenging as hell! But slowly, in my own way I am learning to consult my genius li le soul. And with more and more of 80

its guidance, I am learning to make more constructive and positive choices. And so now I try my darnedest to radiate this loving strength out rather than lob balls of crankiness. I can witness pain, anger, fear or shame in myself or another but I don't need to fix it. I just need to BE with it and LISTEN to it. The wholeness of body, mind and soul exists in each of us. In me. In you. In everyone. We all have this strength inside.

standing there waving like he is in the picture,” said Vincent Innocente, who took the New York City’s Staten Is‐ In New York City’s photo above on Sunland borough. Update — Staten Island, there day night. March 29, 11:30 a.m. ET: are reports of a grown

This Terrifying Clown Has This is either a brilorchestrated Been Roaming The Streets liantly Of Staten Island And Scaring stunt, or a horrifying, The Crap Out Of Everyone weird development in

The film produc on compa‐ ny Fuzz On The Lens finally took responsibility for the publicity stunt. posted on March 24, 2014 at 4:17pm EDT

man dressed in a clown costume who is wandering the streets, spooking locals and haunting their dreams for years to come.

Sightings have been reported by the Grasmere and Richmond Valley train stations, according to the Staten Island Ad“He was just kinda vance. On Instagram,

he’s been spotted in front of the de- cially if it’s a well known productour sign above, and lurking be- tion company as active in the community as we, a lot of people would hind trees and poles. Updated — March 25, 11:55 a.m. have some ties to each other. It’s ET: However terrifying this man bound to happen. But I could tell clown may be, it could just be the you it’s interesting getting messages from some other clown spotters result of a publicity stunt. Vin Innocente and the comedian The New York Post reported on Vic Dibitteto asking me if we [Fuzz Tuesday that three of the men who On The Lens] planned it to specifiposted photographs of the clown cally goof on them or not. on Instagram are all tied to the same Staten Island based horror Robert Privitera, another Staten movie production company, Fuzz Islander who is friends with Leavy and Innocente, captured this and On The Lens. posted it to Instagram five days On Monday BuzzFeed reached out ago. to Michael Leavy, who was the first person to post a picture of the terrifying clown and who is also listed as a filmmaker for Fuzz On The Lens. Leavy said he saw the clown and took the photograph, but did not confirm that the production Finding the Right Mortgage Broker— company is responsible for the or- continued from page 57 chestrating the possible hoax. Leavy told BuzzFeed:

A broker just doesn’ t throw funding documents against the wall. They process the documentation according to your requirements and match it up against the appropriate lending program. First they will have you send in submission forms, after review, you should receive an Intake report which

All I can say is that if people want to believe it’s me or my production company they can feel free to do so, I won’t complain, confirm, or deny. Apparently he was seen last night by more islanders. It’s a small island so a lot of people know each other, it’s just how it is. Espe- (continued-pg 91)

City in Michigan First to Fully Implement result in flogging and/or caning. In addition, the law imposes harsh Sharia Law laws with regards to women and Posted about 6 months ago | allows for child marriage. National Report In a surprise weekend vote, the city council of Dearborn, Michigan voted 4-3 to became the first US city to officially implement all aspects of Sharia Law. The tough new law, slated to go into effect January 1st, addresses secular law including crime, politics and economics as well as personal matters such as sexual intercourse, fasting, prayer, diet and hygiene. The new law could see citizens stoned for adultery or having a limb amputated for theft. Lesser offenses, such as drinking alcohol or abortion, could

Some in town seem to welcome the new legislation while others have denounced the m o v e a s “abhorrent”, a threat to freedom and incompatible with the Constitution. When asked by National Report about the need for such a law, local resident Jeremy Ahmed stated: “It is because of our n e e d that Allah the A l mighty, in all his generosity, has crea t e d laws for us, so that we can utilize them to obtain justice. We hope to see other cities taking 



this action in the face of the govCon nued from page 21 ernments inaction of passing millions of dollars to virtually do nothing such legislation”. but have fun, maybe they are guilty about Other local residents have taken it. Although Jews run Hollywood, they em‐ to social media sites with com- ploy actors that are so dumb and engrossed ments ranging from “praise be to in themselves that they don’t realize how Allah” and “long live Islam” to lucky they have it, but at least they can re‐ “RIP Dearborn” and “Only in member their lines. They crave public Obama’s America would an a en on, and would do almost anything to American city consider Sharia remain in the spotlight and then complain Law”. about the paparazzi. There are a few peo‐ The city of Dearborn is a wellple who can say that they have their cake known safe haven for Muslims but can also eat it. and Muslim sympathizers. With a population of around 98 thou- They get hung up with environmental caus‐ sand people, roughly 30% of its es like saving threatened fish while farmers residence are Muslims making starve for water for the crops that feed us. them the largest concentration of We should boyco the industry to fire Holly‐ Muslims in the United States. wood actors and replace the shows with The dangers of Sharia Law in documentaries. At least we may learn America were first outlined in a something, God forbid! Every day we see in 2010 study produced by the Cen- the news ,that a hair brain actor is either ter for Security Policy. While sha- hooked on alcohol and/or drugs. They ria includes strict rules for pray- serve no purpose then to populate more er and fasting, it is also an all- dumb asses. Once you have thought that encompassing legal and political you saw it all, some idiots decide to run for code that covers all aspects of life U.S Congress or even President. Yes, it was including those that have nothing an excep on to the rule that Ronald Reagan to do with religion. became President and a damned good one at that.

Published: Friday May 2, 2014 MYT 12:00:00 AM Updated: Friday May 2, 2014 MYT 7:37:05 AM Rise of the metrosexual

“It is important to use at least moisturiser a er shaving.” “I wash my face with soap and water in the shower. Every few days I will use facial cleanser.”

BY AIDA AHMAD

“I feel a man can look presentable with a he Star Online poll respond‐ nice hair cut and a good shave.” ents assert the importance of “Most men’s skin is always oily hence a proper cleansing and moisturising regime men’s grooming rou ne. THE concept of grooming and is important to prevent dirt and excess maintaining one’s appearance is no longer oil.”

“Cleanse, tone and moisturise are the It is important for men to look good too, three basic things to keep a fresh face.”

only a concern among women.

according to this week’s The Star We also asked if it was important for men Online poll where we asked the ques on to maintain a grooming rou ne and out of 539 respondents, 82% (441 respondents) — should men have a beauty regimen? Out of 539 respondents who took the poll, said “yes”. 63% answered “yes”. For the 37% of re‐ “It doesn’t need to be perfect or excessive, spondents who answered “no”, 25% (143 but it says a lot about someone who takes respondents) said it was unnecessary an eﬀort to look presentable. It shows that while 6% said they had no me. they care and love their body.” When we asked men what was their cur‐ “It is important to look one’s best. In to‐ rent facial care regimen, 33% out of 481 day’s world, pollu on, ea ng and drinking respondents said they used facial cleans‐ habits, and many other external factors ers, scrubs and moisturisers while 29% cause bad skin. Therefore, it is important to take preven ve or remedial ac on to said they relied on just soap and water. Here are some comments about men’s fa‐ maintain the wellbeing of one’s external and internal appearance.” cial care: “It is okay for men to take care of their “In my line of work, a clean and profes‐ sional appearance gives confidence to my skin, but no make up!” clients and the people I meet. It is excusa‐ 86

ble when I visit worksites and get sweaty month or once in every two months. and dirty.” “With pollu on, smoking (including secondhand smoke), stress and hec c life‐ styles, it’s ge ng more and more im‐ portant to know how to groom properly. It’s not about being vain.”

The Flying Car That Could Expe‐ dite Your Morning Commute

“Despite how much people preach about By Carl Engelking | May 1, 2014 1:41 pm not judging a book by its cover, it s ll hap‐ pens. A book with a nice cover a racts Flying cars have long been the unoﬃcial signpost that will mark our entrance into more readers.” “Grooming as in shaving, making sure your hair is not too long and shaggy are basics for personal hygiene and to look presenta‐ ble. However, if it includes moisturising, going for facials and shaping eyebrows (like what women do), that is overdoing it!” Skincare and beauty company L’Oreal Ma‐ laysia conducted a survey last year among 500 males in the country which showed The Future. Now, it appears, that key mo‐ that men are now paying more a en on ment could be soon approaching. to their appearance. Flying car prototypes are nothing new. Of those men, 56% claimed that personal The U.S. Patent Oﬃce in 1918 issued Felix grooming helped to build a degree of self‐ Longobardi the first patent for a flying ve‐ confidence, while others cited personal hy‐ hicle, which was also submersible in water. giene and looking good at work. Subsequent a empts at the flying car, The survey also showed that 86% of men though they flew, weren’t very prac cal. who use a grooming product, purchase it Con nued on page 92 themselves and a typical male consumer shops for grooming products once a 87

Why Investors Bail out of of escaping, investors' panicked blunders lead the Stock Market to their own grisly deBy Sheyna Steiner mise. Published February 06, Fleeing stock invest2014 ments when the marBankrate.com ket starts a serious slide is like floundering into the obvious trap laid by the supernatural chainsaw killer. It ife is full of feels like a daring getaway when in fact, it's risks. Crossing the just the opposite. street can be dicey, driving is unquestiona- Selling low locks in bly perilous and nearly losses forever, and everything you eat may there's slim opportunicause cancer or heart ty to catch the market disease. We bravely en- on the rebound. The gage in these potential- mantra of the misguidly life-threatening be- ed investor -- "sell low, haviors on a daily basis buy high" -- doesn't with barely a thought. lend itself to optimal

When it comes to taking stock market risk, though, the average investor behaves more like a doomed supporting character in a Bhorror movie: utterly terrified and unable to make any sort of rational decision. Instead

investing.

investors. An annual study called the Quantitative Analysis of Investor Behavior, or QAIB, by research firm Dalbar shows that individual investors regularly underperform the market -- even the bull market of 2012. Investor behavior drives returns because people consistently do the wrong things, such as selling out of mutual funds on bad news. In the most recent QAIB, Dalbar reports that over the past three years, the average equity investor received a return of 7.63% compared with 10.87% for the Standard and Poor's 500 index.

But people bail out of the stock market at just the wrong time over and over again.

"People need to rethink risk," says Greg McBride, senior financial analyst at BankThe illusion of safety rate.com. "Too many The irony is that trying people don't save to stay safe often leads enough to begin with and then they further to worse outcomes for

tirement and design a portfolio that delivers at least that return with the lowest possible risk. And that's the easy part: Sticking with the plan is It boils down to this: Accepting a lower where amateur investors run into trouble. rate of return in the interest of stay"Serious investors -- the foundations ing safe increases other risks over time, most notably the very real dan- and institutions -- the people that truly have a focus and strategy, they ger of not being able to retire when don't move in and out of the markets you'd like. How not to bail out of the stock mar- day to day or minute to minute. That is not the way you make money in the ket compound their shortfall risk by investing too conservatively because they are afraid of what amounts to a short-term pullback."

To avoid the cardinal sins of novice investors, construct an investing plan that accounts for your ability and willingness to take risk. Use a retirement calculator to target the approximate annual return you'll need to reach re-

market. All you do is incur trading and sales charges," says Michael Masiello, president of Masiello Retirement Solutions in Rochester, N.Y. He advises clients to avoid the TV when things get ugly. 89

"I usually tell them to turn off the even- have done best," says Jay Ritter, Coring news and go out for dinner," Masiel- dell Professor of Finance at the University of Florida. "For instance, in 2006 lo says. there were many stories about people Why does bad investing happen? getting rich off of real estate. Of course, Why do perfectly functional people turn 2006 turned out to be the peak before a out to be lousy investors? In a nutshell, disastrous real estate market collapse." it's the factory settings in the human Sad to say, but by the time an investor brain that are to blame. hears of a market move on the news, "Most people only buy after they see a it's a sign that the trend is on the way trend that has already taken place, and out. generally it is toward the latter part of a trend when it looks like everyone else "The trend is right on average, but it is is making money. The mind seeks pat- wrong at the extremes. When you look terns and people believe that the future at studies of fund flows and you look at is going to look like the past," says Mi- the way individual investors who really do not follow the market day to day bechael Gayed, CFA, chief investment have, those people tend to get in at the strategist of Pension Partners and coportfolio manager of the ATAC Inflation extremes," Gayed says. History repeats itself Rotation fund. Behavioral finance calls it a "recency bias." Basically, people are wired to believe that what happened in the market yesterday and today is what will happen tomorrow. That's one reason why individual investors are not generally on the leading edge of a market development. Instead of anticipating what's coming next, they jump on the bandwagon that's already tootling down the road.

The combination of today's 24/7 news world and the tendency of investors to overweight recent events does not lend itself to rational analysis of calamitous world events. When the market goes south, investors can hardly be faulted for thinking maybe this time is different; maybe this is the time that everything falls apart. To bail out of the stock market seems like the rational thing to do.

"One reason that people do worse than Of course, that kind of "this-time-isa buy-and-hold strategy is that the me- different" mindset could have applied to dia focuses attention on the assets that the dot-com bust or the correction be90

ceive a Financial Services Agreement which will define any upfront costs to Just for a little context, between Januremedy problems and the points that the ary 2000 and Oct. 7, 2002, the S&P broker is going to charge. 500 fell 46%. tween 2000 and 2002, McBride says.

"At that point we hadn't seen a decline like that in decades, and the financial crisis (of 2008) was even worse," he says. "Perspective shows us that with sharp drops, even unprecedentedly sharp drops, the economy and the markets return to profitability and we have seen a rebound. In some cases, the rebound came much quicker than forecast." Stepping back to look at the big picture, it's clear that the market goes up over very long periods of time. On a small scale, it's a mess. Case in point, from 1993 through 2013, the S&P 500 served up an average 7% annual return, not including dividends, says McBride. You could do a lot worse than a 7% return every year: If you're the typical investor, you probably did.

A d d i t i o n a l l y t h e C M B will prepare a diagnostic report, Overview, Commercial Loan Application (for the lender) and underwrite the loan which contains all the financial information and supporting documents. This will give you the best chance of getting your loan approved. If you don’ t get this type of service then you probably are barking up the wrong tree and need to move on. However, to lessen the burden on locating a qualified broker you can ask them how long have they been is business as a CMB. Some brokers can be correspondents to lenders which is a step up because of their professional expertise and meticulous loan submissions. www.ucmfinance.net

Con nued from page 83 (Finding Broker) will advise you of the problems associated with the loan and what can be done to remedy it. Then you will re91

Con nued from page 87

sions, detect bad weather, and automa ‐ owever, a team of Massachu‐ cally implement an emergency auto‐land se s Ins tute of Technology procedure if the driver becomes unre‐ alumni is working with a sponsive.

company called Terrafugia to develop a But the biggest feature to brag about to prototype that could make flying to work your friends if you someday get your a reasonable proposi on. hands on a TF‐X: It’s a hybrid. Fully Loaded

Development Timeline

The developers are the same MIT alumni You’re going to have to wait a while be‐ that developed the Transi on car‐plane, fore you get behind the wheel of a TF‐X. which s ll requires a 1,700‐foot runway Development is expected to take roughly to take to the skies. To eliminate the 8 to 12 years. If the TF‐X finally goes to need for runways, their new vehicle, market, it’s es mated to cost about as dubbed the TF‐X, would be capable of much as a very high‐end luxury vehicle. ver cal takeoﬀ and landing — a crucial However, if you can’t wait that long, the maneuver in urban environments. Based Transi on flying vehicle, men oned earli‐ on designs, its flight mechanics would be er, is nearly ready for sale. Designers are similar to themilitary’s V‐22 Osprey, s ll working through product develop‐ based on a video released by developers ment and the federal regulatory process. that simulates flight in the TF‐X (below). If you can spare about $280,000, the The TF‐X is designed to seat four passen‐ Transi on could be yours. gers, fit inside a standard single‐car gar‐ age, travel 500 miles on one trip, and reach speeds of 200 miles per hour, ac‐ cording to specifica ons listed on the Ter‐ rafugia website. It would take just five hours of training for the average car driv‐ er to learn how to safely operate the cra . And fortunately for future airborne com‐ muters, the TF‐X would feature auto‐ ma c systems that avoid mid‐air colli‐

Death Squads in El Salvador: A Pattern of U.S. Complicity by David Kirsch Covert Action Quarterly, Summer 1990 In 1963, the U.S. government sent acknowledged their participation in 10 Special Forces personnel to El the death squads. Their stories are Salvador to help General Jose Alber- notable because they not only conto Medrano set up the Organizacion firm

suspicions

that

the

death

Democratica Nacionalista (ORDEN)- squads are made up of members of the first paramilitary death squad in the Salvadoran military, but also bethat country. These Green Berets as- cause each one implicates U.S. persisted in the organization and indoc- sonnel in death squad activity. trination of rural "civic" squads which The term "death squad" while approgathered intelligence and carried out priately vivid, can be misleading bepolitical assassinations in coordina- cause it obscures their fundamental tion with the Salvadoran military. identity. Evidence shows that "death Now, there is compelling evidence to squads" are primarily military or parshow that for over 30 years, mem- amilitary units carrying out political bers of the U.S. military and the CIA assassinations and intimidation as have helped organize, train, and part of the Salvadoran government's fund death squad activity in El Sal- counterinsurgency strategy. Civilian vador.

death squads do exist but have often

In the last eight years, six Salvadoran been comprised of off-duty soldiers military deserters have publicly financed by wealthy Salvadoran businessmen. Cont on pg 95 93

Is Benghazi a Real Scandal?

mer deputy chief of mission in Libya.

The House Oversight Committee held "And I punched the phone number I didn't recognize and I got the ama hearing Wednesday to investigate the events that occurred last Sep-

bassador on the other end and he

tember at the American consulate in

said, 'Greg, we're under attack.'"

Benghazi, Libya, where an attack

Republicans spent days before the

killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and

hearing releasing portions of the wit-

three other Americans. The incident

nesses' testimony, including the alle-

has become a raison d'etre for the

gation that U.S. troops were pre-

GOP, which has doggedly tried to gin vented from going to aid the consuup interest in what it calls a "cover

late after the attack began. (The

up" by the Obama administration.

Pentagon is pushing back strongly on

"Benghazi matters. Not just because that charge.) U.N. Ambassador SuAmericans were murdered. Not just san Rice's response to the attack on because terrorists attacked a U.S. consulate. But because the White House and the State Department have engaged in misdirection at the

the Sunday morning talk show circuit also came under fire. "I was stunned, my jaw dropped and I was embarrassed" by Rice's answers,

highest levels to cover up whatever

Hicks said.

happened there," Rep. Jason Chaf-

Democrats, meanwhile, used the

fetz, R-Utah, wrote in U.S. News.

hearing to charge the GOP with play-

At the hearing, three current State

ing politics with national security.

Department employees laid out their version of events. "I found two missed calls on my phone, one from the ambassador and one from a phone number I didn't recognize,"

"Everything that I've seen so far with regard to this investigation shows me that it is a one-sided investigation," said Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the Oversight Com-

said Gregory Hicks, a State Depart- mittee's ranking member. "I find it ment foreign service officer and for- truly disturbing and very unfortunate 94

that when Americans come under at- ordered the discontinuation of OPS. tack the first thing some did in this country was attack Americans, attack the military, attack the president [and] attack the State Department," said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D -N.Y.

In spite of the official suspension of police assistance between 1974 and 1985, CIA and other U.S . officials worked with Salvadoran security forces throughout the restricted period to centralize and modernize surveillance, to continue training, and to fund key players in the death squad network.

Continued from pg 93

Even though the U.S. government's po-

t is important to point out that

lice training program had been thor-

the use of death squads has

oughly discredited, the Reagan admin-

been a strategy of U.S. counter- istration found other channels through insurgency doctrine. For exam- which to reinstate police assistance for

ple, the CIA's "Phoenix Program" was

El Salvador and Honduras. Attached to

responsible for the "neutralization" of

this assistance is the requirement that

over 40,000 Vietnamese suspected of

the president certify that aid recipients

working with the National Liberation

do not engage in torture, political per-

Front.

secution, or assassination. Even so,

Part of the U.S. counterinsurgency pro- certain members of Congress showed gram was run from the Office of Public

concern over the reinstatement of po-

Safety (OPS). OPS was part of U.S.

lice aid to repressive regimes. In a Sen-

AID, and worked with the Defense De-

ate Foreign Relations Committee hear-

partment and the CIA to modernize and ing, Senator Claiborne Pell (Dem.centralize the repressive capabilities of

Rhode Island) asked, "I was talking

client state police forces, including

about cattle prods specifically. Would

those in El Salvador. In 1974 Congress

they be included or not?"

torture) after which the victims were ndersecretary of State for killed. The job of his unit was to exeLatin American Affair Elliott cute people by strangulation, slitting

Abrams replied, "Well, I would say that their throats, or injecting them with in my view if the police of Costa Rica, poison. He admitted killing eight peowith their democratic tradition, say that ple and participating in many more exfor crowd control purposes they would ecutions. He stated that the Brigade like to have 50 shot [sic] batons, as Commander had sent written orders to they are called in a nonagricultural carry out the killings and that the use context, I would personally want to give of bullets was forbidden because they it to them. I think that government has might be traced to the military. earned enough trust, as I think we have Joya Martinez also claims that one of earned enough trust, not to be ques- the U.S. advisers working with the First tioned, frankly, about exporting torture Brigade sat at a desk next to his and equipment. But I would certainly be in received "all the reports from our favor of giving it to them if they want agents on clandestine captures, interit."

rogations...but we did not provide

Death Squad Members, Testimony

them with reports on the executions.

Cesar Vielman Joya Martinez, a soldier They did not want to hear of the actual in the First Infantry Brigade's Depart- killings." U.S. advisers authorized exment 2 (Intelligence), is the most re- penses for such extras as black glass cent Salvadoran to admit his involve- on squad vans to allow executions to ment in death squad activity. At a No- take place unobserved; provided vember 1, 1989 press conference Joya $4,000 for the monthly budget; and Martinez stated that certain military conducted classes in recruiting informunits in Department 2 carried out ants and conducting intelligence re"heavy interrogation" (a euphemism for connaissance. 96

Another Salvadoran soldier, Ricardo respond. What can we do?'.... The Castro, is the first officer to come for- American gave a broad smile and ward with information about death said, 'You've got to surprise him. We squad activity. Castro graduated from know this from experience. Give him a West Point in 1973 and was a compa- jolt. Do something that will just comny commander in the Salvadoran Ar- pletely amaze him, and that should my. He translated for several U.S. ad- bring him out of it." visers who taught, among other sub- Castro revealed that he held monthly jects, interrogation techniques. Castro briefings with then deputy CIA chief of claims that one U.S. instructor worked station in El Salvador Frederic Brugger out of the Sheraton Hotel (taken over who had recruited him for intelligence briefly during the November 1989 work after meeting at an interrogation FMLN offensive) and emphasized psy- class. Castro also claimed to have chological techniques. Castro recalled knowledge of the perpetration of large a class where Salvadoran soldiers massacres of civilians by Army Deasked the adviser about an impasse in partment 5. their torture sessions: He was obviIn December 1981, he met in Morazan ously against torture a lot of the time. Province with one of the officers that He favored selective torture.... When the U.S. instructor had advised. "They they learned some thing in class, they had two towns of about 300 people might go back to their fort that night each, and they were interrogating and practice.... I remember very disthem to see what they knew. Since tinctly some students talking about the I...knew something about interrogafact that people were conking out on tions, he said he might want me to them...as they were administering help. The Major told me that after the electric shock. 'We keep giving him interrogation, they were going to kill the electric shock, and he just doesn't them all." Castro was, however, reas97

signed and did not participate. Later, the Treasury Police in Army staff his pro-government mother told him, headquarters. "You know, son, these guerrillas, they General John Vessey, chairman of the invent the wildest lies. They say that in Joint Chiefs of Staff, was particularly December, 600 civilians were killed in disturbed by the implication of the Morazan." "Oh, shit, I was hoping I'd Green Berets and initiated an investibeen dreaming it," he thought. "I later gation. The investigator from the Army found out, they did go in and kill them Criminal Investigation Division stated, after all." Rene Hurtado worked as in- "My job was to clear the Army's name telligence agent for the Treasury Po- and I was going to do whatever [was] lice, one of the three Salvadoran par- necessary to do that." Hurtado refused amilitary forces. After a falling out with to cooperate with the investigator on an officer, he fled to Minnesota, took the advice of a member of Congress refuge with a Presbyterian Church whom the church parishioners had congregation, and began describing called upon. When the investigator routine torture methods used by para- was told this by the minister, he remilitary forces. These included beat- sponded, "Tell Mr. Hurtado that the ings, electric shock, suffocation, and Congressman has given him very mutilation. He described techniques costly advice. When I went to El Salsuch as tearing the skin from " interro- vador to investigate his allegations, at gation" subjects, sticking needles into the advice of the U.S. Ambassador, I them, or beating them in such a man- did not talk to members of the Salvaner that lasting internal injuries but no doran military. If I go again and talk to telltale external marks would be sus- the military, we don't know who will be tained. According to Hurtado, CIA hurt, do we?'' employees and Green Berets taught some of these torture techniques to

Following revelations of U.S. involve-

ment in death squad activities, the tions against domestic organizations House and Senate Intelligence Com- opposing Reagan's Central American mittees reported on allegations of policy. He has also asserted that the U.S. complicity in death squad activi- Salvadoran National Guard gave him ty. The Republican-dominated Sen- death lists which he compared to lists ate panel confirmed that Salvadoran of Salvadorans in the U.S. awaiting officials were involved, but denied deportation back to El Salvador. any direct U.S. role, keeping certain Varelli believes some may have been portions of its report classified. The killed on their return to El Salvador. House Committee stated that, "U.S. He reported these contacts with the intelligence agencies have not con- National Guard to the FBI. ducted any of their activities in such a Former Colonel Roberto Santivanez way as to directly encourage or sup- claimed that the then chief of the port death-squad activities." Rep. Salvadoran Treasury Police, Nicolas James Shannon (Dem.-Mass.), who Carranza, was the officer most active requested the inquiry, commented with the death squads. Colonel Carthat the report was "certainly not as ranza is also alleged to have received conclusive as the committee makes it $90,000 annually from the CIA. Carsound.''Varelli, Carranza, Montano, ranza has confirmed the close workand others ing relationship of the paramilitary Frank Varelli is the son of a former forces with U.S. intelligence. "[They] Salvadoran Minister of Defense and have collaborated with us in a certain National Police commander. When technical manner, providing us with Varelli's family came to the U.S. in advice. They receive information from 1980, Varelli started working as an everywhere in the world, and they FBI informant. Years later, he publicly have sophisticated equipment that revealed his role in FBI covert opera- enables them to better inform or at

least confirm the infor- of the death squad de- shocks to his back and mation we have. It's very serters.

Non

military ears.

helpful.''

sources have also report- Various sources have reCarlos Antonio Gomez ed the participation of ported the use of U.S.torture Montano was a para- U.S. personnel. For ex- manufactured trooper stationed at ample, another (highly equipment. Rene HurtaIlopango Air Force Base. placed anonymous civil- do, for example, exHe claimed to have seen ian) source maintained plained, "There re some eight Green Beret advisers that Armed Forces Gen- very sophisticated meth"torture eral Staff Departments 2 ods...of torture..[like the classes" during which a and 5 (organized with machine] that looks like a 17-year-old boy and a 13 help from U.S. Army radio, like a transformer; -year-old girl were tor- Colonel David Rodriguez, it s about 15 centimeters watching

two

tured. Montano claimed a Cuban-American) used across, with connecting that his unit and the tortures such as beating, wires. It says General and electric Electric on it...." Green Berets were joined burning by Salvadoran Air Force shock. U.S. involvement Many other documented Commander R a f a e l has also been asserted in accounts of brutality by Bustillo and other Salva- sworn accounts by some U.S. trained and advised doran officers during victims of torture. Jose military units exist. Inthese two sessions in Ruben Carrillo Cubas, a deed, the elite Atlacatl January 1981. A Salva- student, gave testimony Battalion has been implidoran officer told the as- that during his detention cated in several massasembled s o l d i e r s , by the Long Distance Re- cres over the past ten Patrol "[watching] will make you connaissance years and members of the (PRAL) in 1986, a U.S. feel more like a man.'' battalion have been inArmy Major tortured him dicted for the November Above are the accounts by applying electric 100

slayings of the six Jesuit priests and two women. It is widely accepted, in the mainstream media and among human rights organizations, that the Salvadoran government is responsible for most of the 70,000 deaths which are the result of ten years of civil war. The debate, however, has dwelled on whether the death squads

Published: April 28, 2012

There is no proof that the zero‐tolerance policing are strictly renegade military factions or adopted by New York and other cities in the a part of the larger apparatus. The evi- 1990’s had anything to do with the decline in vio‐ lent crime across the nation. Crime also dropped dence indicates that the death squads in jurisdictions that did not use the approach.

are simply components of the Salvador- Millions of people have been arrested under the an military. And that their activities are policy for minor violations, like possession of small amounts of marijuana. And one thing is be‐

not only common knowledge to U.S. yond dispute: this arrest‐first policy has filled the agencies, but that U.S. personnel have courts to bursting with first‐time, minor oﬀenders who do not belong there and wreaked havoc with people’s lives. Even when cases are dismissed, and continue to support their dally func- people can be shadowed for years by error‐ ridden criminal records.

been integral in organizing these units

tioning.

EDITORIAL | SUNDAY OBSERVER The Human Cost of ‘Zero Tolerance’

By BRENT STAPLES

The human toll is evident in New York City, where last year 50,000 people — one every 10 minutes — were arrested for possession of small amounts of marijuana. The city downplays the significance, saying these cases are typically dismissed and the record sealed if the person stays out of trouble for a year. But getting tangled in the court system is harrowing. And the record‐keeping can be unrelia‐ ble and far more porous than the city suggests. An analysis by the Legal Action Center, which as‐ sists 2,500 people with criminal records each year, has found that nearly half of its clients’ rap sheets 101

have errors. Defense lawyers say that too often the courts and police fail to report to the state about dismissals and other outcomes favorable to defendants. As for “sealed” records, background‐screening companies working for private employers can har‐ vest data at the time of an arrest and there is no guarantee that they will update to reflect dismis‐ sals — or expunge the information when records are sealed by the courts. While it is illegal to exclude people from jobs based solely on arrest or convictions, unless there is a compelling busi‐ ness reason for doing so, many employers quickly write off applicants who are flagged in these data‐ bases. New York City drove up its marijuana arrests — from just under 1,500 in 1980 to more than 50,000 a year today — despite the fact that the State Legislature in 1977 decriminalized possession of 25 grams or less of marijuana, making it a viola‐ tion, roughly akin to a traffic ticket. The problem is that the Legislature made public display of any amount of marijuana a misdemeanor, which can lead to arrest, jail and a record that follows the person for years. And New York’s police have been repeatedly accused of arresting people for posses‐ sion after forcing them to show “in public” the small amounts they had. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly tacitly admitted this practice last year, directing officers to make an arrest only when the drug really was in view.

from Brooklyn whose lawyers say she was arrest‐ ed after the police forced her to reveal a small packet of marijuana hidden in her purse. The judge said the charges would be dismissed if she stayed out of trouble for a year. A week later, the woman had been fired from her job as a janitor with the New York City Housing Authority. She has not been rehired. The city’s Housing Authority convenes a termina‐ tion hearing when a tenant is arrested. The au‐ thority says no one is evicted for low‐level mariju‐ ana arrests “in and of themselves.” But Steven Banks, attorney‐in‐chief of the Legal Aid Society, which represents 30,000 people in minor marijua‐ na arrests a year, says these cases often end with the leaseholder ejecting the person arrested — perhaps a son or grandson — to avoid eviction. People convicted of some misdemeanors cannot apply for public housing for three years; those convicted of violations are ineligible for two years.

Young parents have faced neglect accusations in family court after marijuana arrests, even if they are not ultimately charged with any crime. In a case described in The Times, a woman’s son and niece were removed from her home by child wel‐ fare workers after police found about a third of an ounce of marijuana — below the threshold for a misdemeanor — in a boyfriend’s backpack in her Bronx apartment. The district attorney declined to prosecute, but the children spent time in foster care, and her niece was not returned for over a Critics say the fact that 87 percent of those arrest‐ year. ed are black or Hispanic suggests that the police New York City’s overly zealous marijuana arrests, are deliberately singling out minority citizens for coupled with the unreliability and porousness of arrests that push some of them permanently to record‐keeping, damage the lives of tens of thou‐ the very margins of society. sands of people a year. The Legislature needs to An arrest, even without a conviction, can swiftly fix this. It must drop the public‐display distinction unleash disastrous personal consequences. Con‐ for marijuana, which invites far too many abuses. sider the 2011 case of a 26‐year‐old single mother It should also press law enforcement oﬃcials and the court system to make sure that criminal rec‐ 102

ords are more accurate to start with and that WE ARE HIRING-COMMISSION people who are victimized by errors have a plau‐ ONLY– COMMERCIAL LOAN OFsible way of getting them corrected.

FICERS-UNITED COMMERCIAL Employers and government agencies also have a MORTGAGE, INC-SEND RESUME responsibility here. They must not rush to their TO UCMFINANCE@GMX.COM own judgment about minor oﬀenders.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg needs to recognize that zero‐tolerance policing is not the panacea his Police Department seems to think it is. The police need to spend more time tracking down serious crime and less on minor oﬀenses. There is nothing minor about a record that can follow people for the rest of their lives.

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