Friday, December 31, 2010

December 31



"761 buildings, 445 sets of grounds, and 2,325 apartments, at roughly $1.7 billion"

--The Italian newspaper Libero's estimate of the market value of the Vatican's Propaganda Fide's real estate holdings; image, with caption: shots of seminarians from the Propaganda College in their college cassocks from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

The Last Three (Virtual) Feet: U.S. Embassy Baghdad Launches New Online Outreach: U.S. Department of State U.S. Department of State 31 December 2010, 11:19 am - Zikkir: - "At U.S. embassies around the world, State Department Public Diplomacy Officers are constantly asking themselves, 'How can we find new ways to communicate with foreign audiences?' Social media has opened new doors of dialogue for American diplomats seeking to engage foreign audiences. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have become new tools in the diplomatic toolbox of the modern Foreign Service Officer.


Here in Iraq the U.S. Embassy is dedicating greater resources and personnel to using social media to advance U.S. foreign policy objectives. At a time when explaining our new relationship with the government and people of Iraq is of critical importance, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has launched a new program on the embassy's YouTube channel entitled, 'Window into the U.S. Embassy.' The new program features Arabic-speaking American diplomats who explain how the United States and Iraq are building an enduring partnership through America's robust civilian commitment. Under the U.S.-Iraq Strategic Framework Agreement, signed in November 2008, both countries are building bridges of cooperation that will endure and strengthen Iraq (and the United States) as America fulfills its commitment to withdrawing all U.S. troops by December 2011. I'm a firm believer in Edward R. Murrow's tried and true words about effective communication with foreign audiences: 'The real crucial link in the international communication chain is the last three feet... one person talking to another.' While there's no substitute for meeting Iraqis face-to-face, and building relationships over a cup of steaming tea or a plate of kebabs, here at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad social media is helping us open windows into new audiences and build bridges across those last three (virtual) feet." Image from article

How will WikiLeaks impact public diplomacy? - milos, Persuasion, the Essence of Diplomacy: "Public diplomacy operates best by precept and example. By allowing WikiLeaks to publish, the USA would redeem its democratic ideal . ... Transparency may also boost public diplomacy discourse, which allows greater flexibility than traditional diplomacy. The basic premise of effective public diplomacy is that those governments utilising it have a lot of mutually beneficial things to share with the world, and reasonably little to conceal. To couple the above with an open media space, it also implies that public diplomacy will have to be honest rather than just serve as a smoke screen behind which corrupt and authoritarian regimes may continue to strive. Operating in such an environment could potentially cajole more introverted governments to open up, and thus self-reinforce adherence to transparency and further accountability to their respective publics. Finally, WikiLeaks may have pointed out missteps that have brought American public diplomacy into disrepute, but it has also offered a potential path to rehabilitate it by insisting on a more transparent engagement with the rest of the world based on a search for win-win outcomes to non-zero-sum games."

RFE/RL now providing "Belarus Crackdown" web section - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

Tourism and Tequila Worms: Expanding an Exchange Program in Tepic, Mexico - Luke Fernandez, itintheuniversity.blogspot.com: "Dina Berger [Holiday in Mexico: Critical Reflections on Tourism and Tourist Encounters (edited by Dina Berger and Andrew Wood)] explains that U.S.-Mexican tourism has also served as a form of informal diplomacy: Tourists, through pleasure travel, learned what made Mexico tick and learned to appreciate cultural difference and likeness….. those who enacted it seemingly played some role in forwarding foreign policy agendas, whether aware of it or not….tourism can and has acted as a medium for improving Mexican-U.S. relations. After all, through the act of travel, members of different nations came face-to-face with one another in a potentially meaningful exchange. And like more formal programs of public diplomacy, a certain image of national identity was portrayed by both host and guest. p.111-114"

2010 'confirmed increasing importance of Azerbaijan' - news.az: Inessa Baban, PhD candidate in geopolitics at the Paris-Sorbonne University, France: "The year 2010 confirmed the increasing importance of Azerbaijan at the regional and extra-regional level, as it was a focus for important actors like Turkey and Russia, the EU and US. Azerbaijan’s energy resources, its political, economic stability and strategic position obliged these actors to pay special attention to Azerbaijan and, consequently, to strengthen or improve their relations with Baku.


This external interest in Azerbaijan can be measured by the quantity and quality of official visits made by senior representatives of the EU, US, Turkey and Russia to Baku during the year. In turn, Azerbaijani policymakers managed and capitalized on this external interest in a smart way, advancing Azerbaijan’s interests by means of its traditional energy policy and adding very active public diplomacy - Azerbaijan hosted international cultural and academic events such as the Gabala International Musical Festival and the First Annual Symposium of International Relations Scholars. The establishment and development of a strong dialogue with Azerbaijani diasporas and its involvement with the implementation of this public diplomacy represent one of the most important achievements of Azerbaijan’s government and its foreign policy in 2010." Baban image from article

Ambassador Namik Tan - Larry Luxner, The Washington Diplomat: Besides his posts in Washington and Tel Aviv, Tan



has served as deputy undersecretary of bilateral political affairs and public diplomacy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2009-10), as well as deputy director-general at the ministry’s Information Department (2004-07). Image from article

KRI Dewaruci Pukau Italian Visitors - Embassy of Indonesia:


Oemar Ambassador, accompanied by Musurifun Lajawa, Counsellor of Socio-Cultural Affairs and Public Diplomacy, held a meeting with Lieutenant Colonel Suharto La Djide, Captain of KRI Dewaruci and Crews.

OhTen - Paul Rockower, Levantine: "One more year honing the craft of public diplomacy, one more year practicing the fine arts of knight errantry."

2010 Dedham Transcript's Year in Review: Dedham Council on Aging director fired for violating the conflict of interest law - dailynewstranscript.com "Following a matter that evolved into a heated public diplomacy hearing, Town Administrator William Keegan upheld his decision in February to fire Dedham Council on Aging Director Rita Kalcos for what he said was a 'blatant violation of the conflict of interest law.' The issue surrounding her termination involved the hiring of Nicholas McDonough, Kalcos’s son. McDonough was hired in 2009 to teach senior exercise classes until a permanent hire could be made. Keegan argued, because Kalcos oversaw the rate of pay for her son, this violated the state conflict of interest law. At her public hearing Kalcos continued to argue that she didn’t know she was in the wrong."

E-mail from Len Baldyga - "Dear Colleagues. I regret to inform you that Barry Zorthian, one of the legendary figures in the history of USIA and the Voice of America, passed away December 30. A funeral service is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday of next week at St. Mary's Apostolic Armenian Church, 4125 Fessenden St., NW, Washington, DC. A memorial service and burial at Arlington Cemetery will take place at a later date. Barry's wife Margaret passed away in July of this year. He is survived by two sons, Gregory J. (Robin) of Greenwich, CT and Stephen A. Zorthian of New York, NY. ... . Len Baldyga"

RELATED ITEMS

WikiLeaks cable dump reveals flaws of State Department's information-sharing tool - Joby Warrick, Washington Post: Before the infamous leak, the 250,000 State Department cables acquired by anti-secrecy activists resided in a database so obscure that few diplomats had heard of it. It had a bureaucratic name, Net-Centric Diplomacy, and served an important mission: the rapid sharing of information that could help uncover threats against the United States. But like many bureaucratic inventions, it expanded beyond what its creators had imagined. It also contained risks that no one foresaw. Millions of people around the world now know that the State Department's secret cables became the property of WikiLeaks. But only recently have investigators understood the critical role played by Net-Centric Diplomacy, a computer initiative that became the conduit for what was perhaps the biggest heist of sensitive U.S. government documents in modern times. Partly because of its design but also because of confusion among its users, the database became an inadvertent repository for a vast array of State Department cables, including records of the U.S. government's most sensitive discussions with foreign leaders and diplomats. Unfortunately for the department, the system lacked features to detect the unauthorized downloading by Pentagon employees and others of massive amounts of data, according to State Department officials and information-security experts. The result was a disastrous setback for U.S. diplomatic efforts around the globe. Via LB

WikiLeaks' Collateral Damage: Julian Assange's reckless behavior could cost Zimbabwe's leading democrat his life - James Kirchick, Wall Street Journal (subscription)

The West still leads the world in propaganda - raganwald.posterous.com: As relayed from Reddit though Hacker News: Someone was talking about a colleague of his who was Chinese and had come to the US, and who, over dinner with some other colleagues, said: "I can't believe how smooth your propaganda is here in the US. In China it is crude and everyone can see through it, but here you almost miss it."


To which all of the other colleagues replied: "What are you talking about? We don't have propaganda in the US!" Image from

Cuba Releases Political Prisoner‎ - Efe, Fox News Latino: The Cuban government released on parole political prisoner Egberto Angel Escobedo Morales, who was serving a 20-year sentence for espionage and engaging in enemy propaganda, the former prisoner told Efe.


Image from article, with caption: Egberto Angel Escobedo Moralez shown here with his wife after his release from prison. He served 15 years on espionage charges.

Evil Empire Round Up: Russia Today Promotes Hamas Propaganda Edition - mah29001.wordpress.com: Oh indeed Russia Today, the propaganda arm of the Kremlin is supporting Hamas, as Russia itself is also supporting Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups in the hopes that they will “not train” Chechen terrorists on the home front who pretty much say the same garbage about Russians being “occupiers” like the Palestinian Islamic radicals do with the Israelis…but don’t tell RT that. Aside from that, there are many YouTube Jihadis also praising the support for a well known terrorist group which Russia Today is purposely doing.

Most under-reported Vatican stories of 2010 - John L. Allen, Jr, National Catholic Reporter: 4. Scandals at Propaganda Fide and the Vatican Bank. In 2010, two venerable Vatican institutions, the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (the department for missionary activity still known by its old name, Propaganda Fide) and the Institute for the Works of Religion (popularly called the Vatican Bank), faced accusations of financial shenanigans. For centuries, Propaganda Fide has been a financial empire all to itself, owning scads of prime real estate and managing large bank accounts in order to fund overseas missions. The cardinal-prefect is informally dubbed the “Red Pope,”


a reference to the power and influence those resources generate. (The Italian newspaper Libero has estimated the market value of the congregation’s real estate holdings, which reportedly include 761 buildings, 445 sets of grounds, and 2,325 apartments, at roughly $1.7 billion.) Many observers have long believed that the wealth of Propaganda Fide, coupled with its near-total autonomy, made it ripe for a financial scandal, and 2010 turned out to be the year those chickens came home to roost. In June, Italian prosecutors announced that Italian Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe of Naples, who headed Propaganda Fide from 2001 to 2006, is the target of an anti-corruption probe. The theory is that Sepe gave Italian politicians sweetheart deals on apartments at the same time that millions of Euros in state funds were allocated for remodeling projects at Propaganda Fide, including its headquarters in Rome’s Piazza di Spagna. In effect, the suggestion is that Sepe bribed public officials to fund work that in some instances was never completed. As of this writing, an investigation by Italian prosecutors is on-going. Sepe has declared his innocence, saying, “I acted solely for the good of the church.” Image from

Vietnamese bishop rejects government propaganda - catholicculture.org: Bishop Chau Ngoc Tri of Da Nang, Vietnam, has condemned a government propaganda campaign against Catholic activists who oppose the seizure of church properties.

Chinese Government bans VoIP‎ - Telecoms News: The People’s Republic of China, so giving and generous to its population, and not at all restrictive. Yeah right, who are we kidding? The latest pitfall subsequently in the way of Chinese propaganda enthusiasts? Skype. That’s right. China has blocked its millions of workers from cheap calls via VoIP


by banning the communication, and will only allow state-owned enterprises; China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom to offer Internet phone services linking telephones and computers. China has also barred popular sites such as; Youtube, Flickr, Blogspot, Twitter and Hotmail. Even Internet search engine giant, Google, obey by China’s strict censorship laws, displaying only China approved sites in its searches. Image from

Google sites harder to access in China. New domestic search engine the reason?
- Kim Andre Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

NKorea's state TV airs British film 'Bend it Like Beckham' - timesofindia.indiatimes.com: Read more: NKorea's state TV airs British film 'Bend it Like Beckham' - The Times of India: Breaking the monotony of regular programmes and propaganda on North Korea's state TV, the channel has broadcast first ever western film -- Gurinder Chadha's 'Bend it Like Beckham'.


The 2002 film was aired on December 26 starring Parminder Nagra and Keira Knightley is set in London and revolves around an Indian family. The film tells the story of an Indian girl who aspires to be a soccer star against the wishes of her conservative parents. Image from

MORE QUOTATIONS FOR THE DAY

"Consumers use Google to get to other places, but they log on to Facebook to stay."

--Ylan Q. Mui and Peter Whoriskey, Facebook passes Google as most popular site on the Internet, two measures show, Washington Post

“America is the only country on the face of the earth where you won’t feel like a foreigner once you get in."

--Turkish Ambassador to Washington Namik Tan

"You've got to go to Europe and run for president of Europe!"


--Arnold Schwarzenegger, telling the Los Angeles Times what his children were thinking about him; image from


AMERICANA


Via SP by e-mail (no link) -- Happy New Year!

New Years: Funny Quotes, Resolutions Tips, Poems

Start your New Year off right with lots of laughter and some smart advice on meeting those New Year resolutions.



From Denny: Before you stay up all night to ring in the New Year, swill some good champagne and watch the fireworks on TV, catch a laugh here. I rounded up the best and funniest quotes about the New Year. Enjoy some New Year's poems too.






New Years Quotes

* New Year's Day… now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. - Mark Twain

* Youth is when you're allowed to stay up late on New Year's Eve. Middle age is when you're forced to. - Bill Vaughan

* New Year's is a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to anybody save as a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks, and friendly calls and humbug resolutions. - Mark Twain

* The proper behavior all through the holiday season is to be drunk. This drunkenness culminates on New Year's Eve, when you get so drunk you kiss the person you're married to. - P. J. O'Rourke

* Now there are more overweight people in America than average-weight people. So overweight people are now average... which means, you have met your New Year's resolution. - Jay Leno

* Drop the last year into the silent limbo of the past. Let it go, for it was imperfect, and thank God that it can go. - Brooks Atkinson




* New Year's Resolution: To tolerate fools more gladly, provided this does not encourage them to take up more of my time. - James Agate

* An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves. - Bill Vaughan

* Many people look forward to the New Year for a new start on old habits. - Anonymous

* May all your troubles last as long as your New Year's resolutions! - Joey Adams



* I made no resolutions for the New Year. The habit of making plans, of criticizing, sanctioning and molding my life, is too much of a daily event for me. - Anais Nin

* Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account. - Oscar Wilde

* I'm a little bit older, a little bit wiser, a little bit rounder, but still none the wiser. - Robert Paul

* A New Year's resolution is something that goes in one Year and out the other. - Anonymous

* From New Year's on the outlook brightens; good humor lost in a mood of failure returns. I resolve to stop complaining. - Leonard Bernstein

* The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot. - Michael Altshuler

* Never tell your resolution beforehand, or it's twice as onerous a duty. - John Selden




* It wouldn't be New Year's if I didn't have regrets. - William Thomas

* People are so worried about what they eat between Christmas and the New Year, but they really should be worried about what they eat between the New Year and Christmas. – Anonymous

* The only way to spend New Year's Eve is either quietly with friends or in a brothel. Otherwise when the evening ends and people pair off, someone is bound to be left in tears. - W.H. Auden

* A New Year's resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other. - Anonymous



* New Year's Eve, where auld acquaintance be forgot! Unless, of course, those tests come back positive. - Jay Leno

* It is better to spend money like there's no tomorrow than to spend tonight like there's no money. - P. J. O'Rourke

* Every New Year is the direct descendant, isn't it, of a long line of proven criminals? - Ogden Nash

* Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense. - Ralph Waldo Emerson



New Year's Blessings

* New Year's eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights. - Hamilton Wright Mabie

* Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true. - Alfred Lord Tennyson

* Look not mournfully into the past. It comes not back again. Wisely improve the present. It is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy future, without fear, and with a manly heart. - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

* I will seek elegance rather than luxury, refinement rather than fashion. I will seek to be worthy more than respectable, wealthy and not rich. I will study hard, think quietly, talk gently, and act frankly. I will listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with an open heart. I will bear all things cheerfully, do all things bravely await occasions and hurry never. In a word I will let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious grow up through the common. - William Ellery Channing

* We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives, not looking for flaws, but for potential. - Ellen Goodman

* The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul. - G.K. Chesterton





New Year's Poems

Happy New Year!!

A New Years toast to love and laughter
and happily ever after

A health to you, a wealth to you,
And the best that life can give to you.

Dance as if no one were watching,
Sing as if no one were listening and
Live every day as if it were your last. - Anonymous


Auld Lang Syne

by Robert Burns

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll take a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne

We twa hae run aboot the braes
And pou'd the gowans fine;
we've wander'd mony a weary foot
Sin' auld lang syne

We two hae paidled i' the burn,
Frae mornin' sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar'd
Sin' auld lang syne

And here's a hand, my trusty friend,
And gie's a hand o' thine;
We'll take a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll take a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne




What can be said in New Year rhymes,
That's not been said a thousand times?
The new years come, the old years go,
We know we dream, we dream we know.
We rise up laughing with the light,
We lie down weeping with the night.
We hug the world until it stings,
We curse it then and sigh for wings.
We live, we love, we woo, we wed,
We wreathe our prides, we sheet our dead.
We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear,
And that's the burden of a year. - Ella Wheeler Wilcox



Funny New Year's Resolutions


One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this: To rise above the little things. - John Burroughs

* But can one still make resolutions when one is over forty? I live according to twenty-year old habits. - Andre Gide

* I do think New Year's resolutions can't technically be expected to begin on New Year's Day, don't you? Since, because it's an extension of New Year's Eve, smokers are already on a smoking roll and cannot be expected to stop abruptly on the stroke of midnight with so much nicotine in the system. Also dieting on New Year's Day isn't a good idea as you can't eat rationally but really need to be free to consume whatever is necessary, moment by moment, in order to ease your hangover. I think it would be much more sensible if resolutions began generally on January the second. - Helen Fielding, Bridget Jones's Diary

* He who breaks a resolution is a weakling; He who makes one is a fool. - F. M. Knowles, A Cheerful Year Book

* Every new year people make resolutions to change aspects of themselves they believe are negative. A majority of people revert back to how they were before and feel like failures. This year I challenge you to a new resolution. I challenge you to just be yourself. - Aisha Elderwyn

* For last year's words belong to last year's language and next year's words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning. - T. S. Eliot

* Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each New Year find you a better man. - Benjamin Franklin

* Your Merry Christmas may depend on what others do for you. But your Happy New Year depends on what you do for others. - Anonymous

* We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called "Opportunity" and its first chapter is New Year's Day. - Edith Lovejoy Pierce






It is an amusing human observation that we are a bundle of paradoxes and contradictions, shifting so often, that it can be so swift as to exist on an hourly basis. Talk about change your mind. And, every year, when the new year is beginning, we think about "time."  We think about how we have wasted it or not enjoyed enough of it to do all things we wanted to do.

TIME

Even a temporal calendar is an attempt to grab a hold of ourselves as if to tame our temperaments. Creating artificial time of the past and the future - rather than living fully awake in the present with a lot less stress - seems to be the curse humanity has called down upon ourselves. It is ludicrous, I mean, who in their right mind chooses to curse themselves? Silly.

THE NEW YEAR

Yet, here we arrive every year at what our calendars deem to be the beginning of THE NEW YEAR, like it's a monster from a scary book. Some look forward to it with delight and anticipation, the optimists, and others, the pessimists, dread it, worrying about the future. Hey, people! It's just a silly calendar! :) Take it in stride, laugh with it, laugh at it, but, most of all: LAUGH - and laugh out loud so the whole world can hear you!

BEST NEW YEARS QUOTE

This quote is so true about human nature it just begged to be moved to the top of the line:

* Making resolutions is a cleansing ritual of self assessment and repentance that demands personal honesty and, ultimately, reinforces humility. Breaking them is part of the cycle. - Eric Zorn

CLOCK TIME

By now you have properly figured out that I don't bother to wear a watch. In fact, as soon as I graduated university quite some time ago (feels like a life time, hmmm... maybe it was...) I put away all my watches and the clocks in every room. As far as I was concerned I was done with "childhood." I made a decision then to follow a spiritual rhythm of the day and night which is basically about getting in tune with Nature, Spirit and the Universe.

NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS

My New Year's resolution? They never quite sat right with me as I make course corrections all year long. There was a time in the personal "ancient" past when I tried to do as everyone else in my culture. What I found is exactly like the quote: I ended up rarely honoring the full resolution, maybe parts of it.

HONORING NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS

Over the years I've often wondered why people have such a tough time with it, struggling as I did too. What I decided - I'm big on deciding what my take is on anything which I suppose that's what creates a writer or blogger - well, I thought the reason we rarely follow through well on those resolutions is because of four annoying facts.

FIRST FACT


The first fact is that we get too grandiose in our goals, creating too many high hurdles for ourselves to achieve.

SECOND FACT

The second fact is that we fail to take those resolutions and break them down into much smaller goals that are easier to achieve.

THIRD FACT

The third fact is we allow those striving for goals to drag on far too long, killing our enthusiasm that began the journey in the first place. Choose goals that can be achieved in short spurts of time like a few days or a few weeks. Once you let it drag on too long it is easy to get discouraged and then you end up abandoning your resolution.

FOURTH FACT

And the fourth fact? Waiting all year long to suddenly make a course correction is like taking an old ruin of a 100 year old house and finally deciding to renovate it and so it becomes a dizzying busy of a money pit.

NEW YEARS ADVICE AND TIPS

Do yourself a favor; make small personal Life corrections all year long and then you can do like my husband and I do at New Years: celebrate how much progress we have made for the year. Instead of piling a "To Do List" onto yourself at the beginning of a new calendar year, celebrate with a "Finished List" like a birthday celebration of good things. That way you celebrate what is best about yourself instead of worrying about what is not perfect. Well, it works for me about reducing daily and cultural stress; I never said I was conventional about my outlook... :)

BE KIND TO YOURSELF TOO


As I collected the New Years quotes, New Years poems, New Years blessing and New Years resolutions I was struck by how overwhelmed people felt by it all. Well, The Delphi Oracle here has solved the problem! Treat yourself kindly, make small personal Life corrections often all year long and then you can breathe a sigh of smug relief when THE NEW YEAR begins!

I like this New Year's Resolution the best:


* Resolve to make at least one person happy every day, and then in ten years you may have made three thousand, six hundred and fifty persons happy, or brightened a small town by your contribution to the fund of general enjoyment. - Sydney Smith





*** Check out these posts too: 

New Year Celebrations: History And Trivia - Check out how celebrating the New Year was once considered controversial throughout history.

Best New Years Cartoons 2010

Poll: Most Admired People For 2010 - Check out the most admired people in America for 2010.

72 Posts Roundup at Dennys Blogs - 20 Dec 2010

Funny WikiLeaks Cartoons

17 Christmas Music and Fun Videos

36 Christmas Posts: Music, Humor, Poems, Stories, Quotes

New Years Reflection: Wine Glass Abyss, Libations Friday! 1 Jan 2010

Wonderful Serious Quotes About Time

Funny New Years Animations and Clip Art

8 Easy Yummy New Years Recipes to Warm Your Guests

Fun Kid Recipes, Activities Keep Them Busy For Holidays



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Beautiful Illustrated Quotations - spiritual quotes, philosophy
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Happy New Year

Happy New Year and May all your dreams come true!

Be sure to meet back here on Monday for a fabulous giveaway from Pottery Barn.
You won't want to miss it, believe me!
2010 In Review ~ Best of Blogs of 2010
Top 10 of 2010 Blog Posts on Bright Bold and Beautiful
and more Best of 2010 posts... See you next year!

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Thursday, December 30, 2010

A Personal Message and Inspiration for 2011

Have you ever felt like you belonged on the "island of misfit toys"? Well, I have... I was at dinner last night with two great friends, and they were telling me about the high-school reunion that I recently missed. The truth is, I actually went to one school from 1st-9th, another for 10th and 11th, and we moved to a different city for my Senior year, thus a third school. So, which school class reunion am I supposed to attend? If you have really read this far, I promise there is a point to my story.
For a brief moment at dinner last night, I did feel sorry for myself, feeling like I did not belong to one certain group. Then, I snapped out of it. Don't get me wrong, I am very grateful for all of my friends and experiences I have encountered along the way. But, I am a firm believer of living in the present. I am 43 years old, and last year I would have told you that 2009 was the best year of my life. However, now that we have come to the end of 2010, I would say that this year has been even better.
So to all of you ~ If you are not doing what you love, change your ways.
If there is a hobby you want to try ~ try it!
Dream...
Imagine...
Believe in Yourself
Cherish your family and friends
Live, Laugh, and most certainly Love

Here is to being grateful for our past, and looking ahead to 2011!
I hope you will join me here each and every day on Bright Bold and Beautiful.
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Poll: Most Admired People For 2010

Check out the most admired people in America for 2010. How do Hillary, Oprah and Palin rank?



How do Hillary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey and Sarah Palin rank?

From Denny: Check out the recent Gallup Poll lately? Guess who are the most admired people of 2010? You would be correct if you guessed President Obama as the most admired man in America. Obama, now the 44th president, was listed as the most admired man in America back in 2008 and 2009 too. So far, Obama has risen above the usual iconic religious leaders and former presidents.



*** Be sure to check out the links in the post as it's some interesting reading on their biographies and accomplishments.


Most Admired Men 




Most admired man by group polled:

Democrats chose Barack Obama by 46 percent, Bill Clinton by 7 percent and Nelson Mandela by 5 percent.

Independents chose Obama by 17 percent (about one-third of Independents are former Democrats)

Republicans, of course, chose George W. Bush first, yet surprisingly, chose Obama as second.



Ever since Gallup began this Most Admired Man Poll back in 1946 it was sitting presidents who dominated the results. Apparently, it's typical for presidents in their second year of office to be ranked as the most admired of any living man in the world. Talk about "go to your head." That must be some heady stuff to wrap your brain around.

How Obama ranked in recent years since his election:

2008 - Americans chose Obama by 32 percent, extremely high for just a president-elect, though that percentage is similar to when Republican President Dwight Eisenhower was chosen.

2209 - Americans chose Obama by 30 percent, the highest for the first year of office for a president.

2010 - Americans chose Obama by 22 percent this year, clearly less popular, reflecting the frustration of voters with his constant compromise and weak legislation.

A religious icon making his 54th appearance in the top 10 of most admired men is Rev. Billy Graham.  That doubles the number President Ronald Reagan showed when he was in the top 10.  His score was 31 appearances.

President Jimmy Carter was not named for the past two years but showed up in this year's poll for his 27th appearance.  He tied with Pope John Paul II for the third all-time.

Most Admired Women

Who is the most admired woman for her ninth consecutive year?  Hillary Clinton.  She has dominated the Most Admired Woman title for much of the the past two decades.  She has to her credit 15 times she has ranked as number one on this poll since she first appeared on it back in 1992.

Other notables on this year's list?  The same as in 2009 (not in order of ranking):

Queen Elizabeth II
Sarah Palin
Oprah Winfrey
Michelle Obama
Condoleezza Rice

Women most admired by group polled:

Democrats chose Hillary Clinton by 31 percent, Oprah Winfrey by 13 percent, Michelle Obama by 10 percent.
Independents chose Hillary Clinton by 15 percent, Oprah Winfrey by 10 percent and Sarah Palin by 7 percent.
Republicans chose Sarah Palin by 26 percent, Oprah Winfrey by 8 percent and Hillary Clinton by 5 percent. (Remember, Hillary was a registered Republican in her youth, "a Goldwater Girl," later changing to Democrat when she married Bill Clinton)

Queen Elizabeth II has appeared in the top ten of the  poll for 43 times, the highest record for any woman.  Oprah Winfrey hasn't done bad for herself either.  She consistently polls in the top ten, around second or third, for every year since 1997.  She has always been ranked somewhere in the top ten since 1988, a tribute to the longevity of her popularity, though she has never placed as number one.




What do these First Ladies all have in common:  Eleanor Roosevelt, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Hillary Clinton?  All share a strong popularity long beyond their husband's presidencies.  Of course, Hillary Clinton has done many "firsts" like she was the first former First Lady to run for Senator and won. Clinton was the first First Lady to run for President, and was the first First Lady to become the Secretary of State.  Definitely a memorable career that will keep the history books talking for centuries.

Over the years of this poll of most admired women it is First Ladies who figure prominently in the top three spots during their White House tenure.  Unlike their husbands they do not seem to garner the top spot.  The only First Lady to win that top spot has been, you guessed it, Hillary Clinton.  She experienced six number one rankings during Bill Clinton's two terms as president.

How did Nancy Reagan do on the list? She achieved the top spot for three times during her husband's two terms.  What about Barbara Bush?  She soared to the top spot twice during her husband's one term.  What about Rosalynn Carter?  She either tied for first place or won the top spot during three years of her husband's single term.

Top overall ranking?  No one has won it since Laura Bush did back in 2001, the year of the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York City.




What about First Lady Michelle Obama, how is she faring?  Apparently, not well, turning in a single digit performance.  Perhaps she is overshadowed by her husband?  Her numbers are on the low side compared to most First Ladies, though Obama's  are as low as Laura Bush's for most of her husband's presidency.  Rosalynn Carter also experienced low numbers during the first year of her husband's presidency.

One explanation for low numbers turned in for Michelle Obama is because most Democrats give higher mentions to Hillary Clinton, someone with a longer and larger body of public work.  Michelle Obama also trails Oprah Winfrey in mentions among Democrats.  Winfrey is also another long term powerhouse in the public domain.  It will be interesting to see Michelle Obama decades from now as she adds to her current public works.  Tackling childhood obesity and diabetes is an admirable goal.  And reintroducing fellow Americans to good nutrition as an alternative to fast food is a tough sell too.  Michelle Obama, like many first ladies at this point in their husband's terms, is still in the early stages of carving out a niche for herself.

This USA Today/Gallup poll surveyed 1,019 adults over the age of 18, using random sampling from 10-12 Dec 2010.


*** Be sure to check out the links in the post as it's some interesting reading on their biographies and accomplishments.



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