By any objective measure, our national economy is not in recovery, but rather is still in serious trouble. The latest July figures from the U.S. Department of Labor show that unemployment remains at a very high 9.5%, while in the construction industry the jobless rate continues to hover at or near 20% nationwide and many of the unemployed have been without a job for over 6 months. The skilled construction workers who have built this great country are growing increasingly desperate, and yet, politicians of both parties and the mainstream media are ignoring their suffering.

People like Andrew Fonger. Andrew is in his mid-30s, and lives and works in the Washington, DC area as a member of Local 10 of the International Union of Elevator Constructors. He is married and the father of a 1 year old daughter. While the media likes to say that Washington, D.C. is recession proof because lobbyists and lawyers are fully employed, try telling that to Andrew. He has been unemployed since January, and like millions of other Americans, Andrew is facing excruciatingly painful decisions. He and his wife have already had to eliminate any notion of putting money aside for their daughter's college education, because what little savings they have, combined with what Andrew collects from unemployment insurance goes exclusively to make the payments on their home and to meet the $1,100 per month payment required for Andrew to retain his health benefits under COBRA. And like far too many Americans these days, Andrew is facing the prospect that "when the savings are gone, the next thing is the house."

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Dushanbe, Tajikistan- The deadly June crisis is southern Kyrgyzstan highlights the extreme fragility in Central Asia's inherently flawed post-independence nation-state structures while the five republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, often collectively referred to as the "Stans," are being simultaneously courted by the U.S. military, Western energy firms, China, and the region's resurgent former colonial power, Russia. It is not to Russia's pleasing that these republics each seem to following their own unilateral, currently discordant, energy and security policies often in the name of regime preservation.

Central Asia's leaders, seeing and citing the devastating 1990s war in Tajikistan that pitted a rebellious coalition of the Islamic Renaissance Party (IRP) and aspiring democrats against an amalgam of communists and neo-communists, were desperate to avoid confrontations with both political Islamism and those wishing to institute a genuine parliamentary democracy. Seeking to cement post-Soviet identities that cast aside the massive Lenin statues in their midst (with a few exceptions that continue to salute to a non-existent Bolshevik future today), the then nouveau strongmen, former Sovietized apparatchiks and bureaucrats who had mostly inherited their posts of power either resurrected respective fathers of the nations as Manas in Kyrgyzstan, Ismoli Somoni in Tajikistan, and Tamerlane, or Amir Timur, in Uzbekistan. The others created personality cults from the comparatively mild one of Nursultan Nazarbayev in Kazakhstan to the megalomaniacal of the late Saparmurat Niyazov in Turkmenistan. Unfortunately for many Turkmen, Turkmenistan's stunted modern narrative has changed little under his successor Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov who has erected one of his own since assuming office at the end of 2006.

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New York Times editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal announced the appointment of Frank Bruni to the august position of op-ed page columnist this week. The selling point for Bruni, whose last job was as the paper's restaurant critic, is that he is the paper's first openly gay op-ed columnist. Otherwise, neither Rosenthal nor Bruni appears to be able to explain the rationale for the choice. Rosenthal told New York Magazine that he expected "a sharp, opinionated look at a big event of the last week, from a different or unexpected angle, or a small event that was really important but everyone seems to have missed, or something entirely different." Bruni told Women's Wear Daily, "the Sunday column should be very clearly keyed to, and should very obviously stem from, something that occurred in the previous six days." The fact that the above descriptions could apply pretty much to just about any columnist writing about almost anything indicates that neither one appears to have given the matter of Bruni's subject matter much thought.

If I might be so bold as to offer a suggestion -- or perhaps a caution -- I would respectfully propose that Bruni stay the heck away from politics. During the period he covered the Bush presidential campaign and the early years of that administration, Bruni demonstrated almost perfectly how not to cover a presidential race and a new presidential administration. Indeed, if I were teaching a course on political coverage, one could use Bruni's Times coverage of George W. Bush -- together with his campaign memoir -- as examples of what every young reporter should take heed to avoid.

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Much attention has been given in the last two weeks to the disclosure that former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger fathered a child with the family's housekeeper, and kept that information a secret from his now-estranged wife, Maria Shriver. Most of the focus in regard to this story has been about the impact of the disclosure on Schwarzenegger's family with Maria. One can only imagine how shocking it had to be, not only to Maria, but also to the children, to learn that all of this time both Schwarzenegger and the housekeeper kept the fact of the boy's parentage a secret from Schwarzenegger's family. There has also been attention placed on the fact that the child born of the housekeeper, Mildred Baena, is almost exactly the same age as Schwarzenegger's youngest son. These two boys grew up simultaneously, not knowing that they were related. What has not been given much attention in the media, however, are the financial implications of this situation as they concern child support and the question of whether Baena has relinquished large amounts of child support that her son is entitled to the benefit of.

California law provides that children are to share in the lifestyle of their parents. Appellate court decisions have addressed the fact that in the case of a parent who is an extraordinarily high earner, child support awards can often allow the other parent to enjoy a better lifestyle as a result. While some states, such as New York, put caps on the amount of child support that can be ordered payable by a parent, California does not. In a state like California, with its concentration of celebrities and high-tech entrepreneurs, child support awards in the thousands of dollars per month per child are not unheard of. In fact, it is these types of people that have given rise to the development of various California appellate court decisions over the years, upholding high child support orders entered against extremely wealthy fathers. Schwarzenegger would easily fit into that category.

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TO TERRY - In fact, according to certain Senators, Congress will never pay for government. This morning, Marco Rubio, the Senator from Florida, appeared on TV and said "Medicare is going broke ... any plan must not limit growth. We can't raise taxes with high unemployment." That's what the Republicans told us in 1993. Rather than listening to this growth nonsense, we cut spending and raised taxes without a single Republican vote to provide for eight years of the nation's strongest economy and a balanced budget.

Another political stance that limits governing is highlighting programs that are in surplus and screaming that they can go broke. They ignore the budget that is already broke; been running in the red for eleven years; no debate on paying for government; only debating programs that are paid for and will need to be paid for in the future. Mayors and Governors always pay for government each year. If the Mayor or Governor said "We must not limit growth," they would catch him with a net and put him away. According to CBO, at the end of this fiscal year, Medicare will have a surplus of $316 billion, and Social Security will have a surplus of $2.7 trillion. CBO says Medicare will go broke in 2024 and Social Security will go broke in 2036. Yet all the debate is about Medicare and Social Security going bankrupt today; debating "plans to pay down the debt," "failsafe provisions," which leaves future Congresses to pay; never paying for this year's government. Mention paying for this year's government, and the opposition immediately howls: "You are for big government." The politics of campaigning has really taken over the politics of governing, and the trouble is the media plays the same game. As long as this is all the public knows, nothing gets done. If I had Roger Ailes' job, we could really get this country moving.

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Traveling to Haiti last week, I was dismayed to discover an international blame game. Everyone seemed to blame someone else for slow progress in recovery from January's earthquake. Frustrations with the slow pace are understandable but the incessant finger pointing helps no one. Still, we found some bright spots among the ruins and rubble and cause for a small dose of hope .

How does the blame game work? The media and foreign governments blame the Haitian government for not moving fast enough to aid the more than one million displaced Haitian citizens. Many commentators fear aid will fuel corruption. Haitian leaders want foreign governments that pledged aid for Haiti to follow through on these commitments - including the US government. (While the US has done much, for weeks an aid package that forgives Haiti's debt and replenishes aid coffers has been stuck in Congress.) Haitian officials are concerned that they lack control over the many small groups -run by US churches or hospitals -that travel to Haiti for short tours. Haitian citizens are angry because they see little evidence of aid and wonder if those who raised money for Haiti after the earthquake will deliver on their promises. Reputable aid groups worry that they are burning through aid dollars renting vehicles when their cars and other materials are stuck in the port, awaiting release by Haitian Customs. Disputes over land ownership prevent breaking ground on new homes for the displaced and dispossessed. All of this leads to criticisms of the Haitian government for not cutting the red tape... and the blame game continues.

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As of this writing, a Libyan 'aid' ship that was on its way to challenge Israel's naval blockade of Gaza and further inflame the world against the Jewish state for keeping arms out of the hands of Hamas terrorists has now docked in Egypt. The ship is paid for by a charity run by Muammar Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi. When it comes to the Gaddafi family mob, anything with the word 'charity' in it must be taken with an Everest-sized helping of salt. This is, after all, a family that has brutalized Libya and plundered its wealth for four decades making it easy to give away money that was never theirs in the first place.

It should come as no surprise, however, that Gaddafi's 'charity' is directed against provoking and delegitimizing Israel. Godfather Muammar's hatred of Israel is obsessive and neurotic. In just the last year alone Gaddafi has accused Israel of instigating every current African conflict, being responsible for genocide in Sudan, and, at the UN general assembly in September, murdering John F. Kennedy. Last summer the tyrant called for Israel's embassies to be kicked out of all Africa. In March, 2009 his mission to the UN accused Israel of turning Gaza into a concentration camp and last December Gaddafi's Ambassador to the UN, Muhammad Shalgham, my next-door neighbor, showed images of decapitated and burned Palestinian adults at the Security Council, blaming the grizzly carnage on unprovoked Israeli aggression. His display, which flouted all rules of UN protocol, was condemned by the United States as a 'rhetorical display designed to inflame.'

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Although President Obama stated nothing new during his speech last Thursday about the 1967 borders with "mutually agreed land swaps" as a basis for a negotiated Israeli-Palestinian agreement, he put it in a manner that should give the Palestinians pause before they go to the United Nations General Assembly to seek statehood recognition. Moreover, in doing so he has marginalized the settlements problem, which has been a major stumbling block to resume the negotiations, while encouraging some key member states of the European Union to rethink their endorsement of a Palestinian state come September. The fury of Israeli and Jewish leaders over what the president said is entirely misguided, misplaced and disingenuous.

Every American administration since President Carter has supported the idea that the 1967 borders provide the baseline for negotiations. Furthermore, in every negotiation between Israel and the Palestinians since the Oslo Accords in 1993, both sides have agreed on the same principle: a land swap to accommodate the Palestinians for the land on which Israel's three major settlement blocs are situated. Indeed, every Israeli government, regardless of its political leanings has - and will continue - to insist on incorporating these blocs of settlements into Israel proper under any peace agreement. For most Palestinians and Israelis, this formulation has become a given. There will be other territorial disputes in connection with Ariel, for example, which is located deep in the West Bank, and Silwan near Jerusalem. But both sides know that any agreement would entail a land swap, albeit they will argue about the quality, contiguity and equivalence of the land to be swapped. That said, there is no question that these and many other even more intractable issues can be resolved if both parties are genuinely committed to peace.

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It's Network TV Upfront Week, and once again networks will reinforce their focus on traditional series programming and will de-emphasize bells and whistles -- such as their digital and value-added offerings. Three seasons ago, networks were focusing more on expanded service offerings including experiential marketing, promotional tie-ins, marketing programs, research capabilities and online extensions. Today, networks, advertisers, and agency middle-men are more focused on the traditional role of network advertising as a vehicle for reaching large audiences with 30-second commercial messages in quality content. While networks offer program sponsorship packages, billboards and a wide spectrum of marketing and research enhancements, these are secondary to the primary role of network television as the lead artillery -- spraying brand messages across a wide audience.

Jack Myers Media Business Report reports that over the past decade, broadcast network ad revenues increased 8.9% from $17.0 billion to $18.5 billion, tracking well below the rate of inflation. Over the next decade,Media Business Report projects traditional broadcast network commercial ad revenues will increase an average 2.1% annually, while digital revenues will grow almost 30% annually, representing an average annual combined growth rate of 6.0%. By 2020, digital revenues are projected to generate 26% of total broadcast network advertising, compared to only 4.1% of total network ad revenues in 2010. (Myers' full 2000-2020 forecasts in 55 media and marketing categories are available exclusively to Jack Myers Media Business Report subscribers.)

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Now that the extended 'trial' over "the James Ossuary" or "James Bone Box" in Israel is nearing its conclusion and all that remains to be announced is the verdict -- which in the present writer's mind is a foregone conclusion, no evaluation of data having had to take this long without basically a verdict of "unproven" as regards forgery being the outcome -- it is time to take stock of where we stand with regard to this "Box"; so that such a 'verdict' will not come as too much of a shock to those convinced of some suspiciousness connected with it and its sudden seemingly almost miraculous appearance or willy-nilly 'surfacing,' just when one might have expected it to.

I have always insisted that the appearance of this "Box" in 2002 was intimately connected with the publication of my 1,000-page blockbuster, James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls (Viking/Penguin/ Faber & Faber, 1997-98). That book put this "James the Brother of Jesus" 'on the map,' so to speak -- meaning the fact of his existence and his importance, as his 'brother's successor and closest living relative, to the question of "the Historical Jesus" (the last sentence of the Book being: "Who and whatever James was, so was 'Jesus'); not to mention his leadership of the "Early Church in Palestine" ("the Bishop of Bishops," as it were or, in the language of the Dead Sea Scrolls, "the Mebakker" or "Overseer") and the real "Leader" of so-called "Christianity" everywhere not "Peter."

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I recently received a message in my email: "The stunning decline of Barack Obama: 10 key reasons why the Obama presidency is in meltdown." My immediate reaction was: how can reasonably intelligent people have it so wrong? And I quickly worked out the answers to why each of the 10 enumerated reasons had the world backwards.

1.) The Obama presidency is out of touch with the American people. The charge made is a "let them eat cake" assertion which is based on irrelevant incidents like Michelle Obama's trip to Spain. The accurate facts are very different. Presidents do not/ cannot create jobs, but they can seek to establish the conditions which, over some reasonable period of time, can drive the large economy to renewed job growth. The conditions that existed when Obama took office inevitably and immediately put him, and his administration, in a deep hole. He had to stimulate. To do that he had to dig the debt hole even deeper. And he and the whole country had to hunker down to live through whatever time period, almost unknowable and unpredictable, necessary to reduce unemployment. When 10% of the working population is unemployed two things happen: [1] the employed begin to worry that they are also at risk and [2] everyone forgets that the 90% is still employed. The Obama doomsayers simply are jumping the gun on assessing the economy because they were never happy about having such a different guy in the job. While the economy is recovering slowly, it is recovering, and when it does, it will be clear he was always truly in touch.

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Budget cutting is serious business, and it is part of a wholesale partisan attack on the lives of those who do not vote Republican. The House has voted to cut Title X, the program that provides low-income women with family planning; $75 million of the $317 million eliminated goes to Planned Parenthood. And legislation was successfully proposed by Indiana Republican Mike Pence that would deny all federal funding to Planned Parenthood. Taken together, Planned Parenthood would lose 40% of its funding.

Defunding Planned Parenthood is part of an ideological war on the government programs that make it possible for politically invisible women to control their lives. For many women who lack access to basic health care, Planned Parenthood is their only source of access to contraception, cancer screening, screening for sexually transmitted diseases, adoption counseling -- and yes, as the conservatives claim, for abortion, though abortion is only 3% of its services. Cutting these programs energizes the right, but it ultimately increases both the number of abortions and the costs to the public from more unintended births. Without services from Title X-supported family planning centers, unintended pregnancy and abortion in the United States would be one-third higher, and they saved taxpayers $3.4 billion in 2008, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Like the attacks on collective bargaining in Wisconsin, they are more about ideological purity and electoral politics than about fiscal restraint.

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The May 4, New York Times introduced readers to David Barton, an amateur historian whose ideas about America being a "Christian Nation" founded by evangelicals are quite foreign to the readers of that publication. Described in the article as a "quirky history buff" and "self-taught historian," Barton has long been a powerful and influential figure with America's vast evangelical subculture. For many years he was co-chair of the Texas Republican party and his multimillion dollar media empire -- Wallbuilders -- churns out a steady supply of materials supporting his key message that America was founded as a Christian nation and needs to return to its roots to recover the favor it once received from God. Barton, who Glenn Beck describes as "an expert in historical and constitutional issues," is also a "professor" on Beck's new online university. Barton's formal education consists of a degree in religious education from Oral Roberts University.

Barton is a powerful symbol of an invigorated anti-intellectualism that has long flourished within American evangelicalism and has now taken over the Republican party. But, as historian Randall Stephens and I argue in our forthcoming book The Anointed: Evangelical Truth in a Secular Age Barton is far from unique. American evangelicals, Fox News, and now the Republican Party take their intellectual cues from a roster of remarkably similar populists who head media empires. These leaders, who we dub "The Anointed," wield an astonishing influence on America's main streets. But because this influence is felt primarily at the grass roots level -- and rarely discussed in the pages of the leading opinion journals -- it can seem invisible.

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An amazing intersection of events has been occurring since Saturday, January 8th, when the horrific shooting rampage of one mad man left six dead and 13 wounded at a political meet-and greet in Tucson, Arizona. One such event was watching our Commander in Chief as he struggled with his speech impediment in order to use words to comfort and strengthen a nation torn by violence, anger and bi-partisanship. The other event is the prayer going out for Gabrielle Gifford, a congresswoman who represents soft and moderate speech, calm versus angry persuasion, the capability to reach across the divide in Congress, and the ability to lead the different sides of her district to find compromise rather than anger-fueled victory over "the other guys."

Yes, I said speech impediment. The movie, The King's Speech, shows King George VI struggling with a stutter and being painstakingly coached to overcome it over incredible odds. I contend that President Obama has an equally strong impediment, that of allowing his body language to defeat his message. His head tilts up and to the left or right when he finishes a thought and that communicates a loftiness that sets him apart from us. This is accentuated by the President's stiff stance, holding himself slightly back from rather than in to his audience. And, perhaps most disturbing of all, our leader finishes most every sentence on a down beat as if he has run out of energy and hope. Finally, there is a flatness to his words that leaves them improperly fueled to travel the distance from his mouth to our hearts.

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The death of Osama bin Laden will not change the nature of the threat posed by al Qaeda and its affiliates in the short-term. In fact, bin Laden's death, coupled with the nationalist-driven - not Islamist-driven -Arab Spring, could lead bin Laden's followers to enhance efforts to attack Western targets in order to demonstrate that the global jihadist movement remains a potent force. However, as the largely muted reaction of the Arab world to bin Laden's death attests, the ideology of Al Qaeda is waning. The death of bin Laden offers a symbolic moment of opportunity for key players in the region. They should all now utilize this moment to re-assess and re-calibrate the means by which they pursue their interests, as well as their regional postures and relationships: from the United States and Israel to Pakistan and the nations of the Arab Spring, to Islamist groups like Hamas.

The importance of the symbolism of the death of bin Laden is perhaps most palpable in the United States, where Al Qaeda's mastermind orchestrated attacks that killed over 3,000 Americans. With any clear notion of "success" in Afghanistan becoming increasingly opaque, the death of bin Laden offers a chance for President Obama to begin to set in motion policies that he enunciated more than a year ago that would draw down the United States' military presence in the war-torn nation now that he has achieved the most critical objective for which the war was launched: decapitating the leadership and effectiveness of Al Qaeda and its affiliates. The trove of documents seized at Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabod is likely to lead to further intelligence and military advances. On the heels of such achievements, President Obama can confidently begin to withdraw American troops-but in doing so he must ensure that key components of stability for the territory remain in place. The United States should encourage dialogue between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the Taliban, even as it continues to track down the Al Qaeda leaders which the Taliban has aided and harbored. Key to any American withdrawal will be a negotiated agreement with the Taliban provided that the agreement insures that: 1) Al Qaeda will not be allowed to operate from Afghani soil 2) a basic level of human rights and shared dignity for all people of Afghanistan is maintained, and 3) the integrity, security and stability of the neighboring nuclear armed state Pakistan is preserved.

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On a family vacation from Wisconsin to Dauphin Island, Alabama, we stopped at Lincoln's home in Springfield, IL to take a tour. In the front parlor, there was a photograph of Honest Abe hanging on the wall. He was standing out in front of his house next to a young basswood tree. I asked the docent if the tree in the photograph was the same as the old basswood standing out in front of the house. He responded that he believed it was, so I went outside to investigate. Under the tree I found scads of basswood seeds all over the ground. I started picking them up and jamming them into my pocket. That was the germination of the project. The next three stops--Mark Twain's home in Hannibal, MO, Elvis's Graceland, and Faulkner's Rowan Oak in Oxford, MS--provided more seeds from trees that were connected to great Americans. It was while I standing in line at Graceland to pay my respects to Elvis at his grave that I had this powerful idea to go around the country gathering seeds from the trees of all my heroes, mostly writers, but also lots of boxers, musicians, and historical figures and locations. I would gather the seeds and grow them into an inspirational little grove of my own. That was the original idea, until a friend of mine suggested I write a book instead. That book, "Seeds," is the story of my serendipitous journey to find the trees that inspired famous American writers, from Faulkner to Kerouac, Welty to Wharton.

Here are some pictures of these wondrous trees:

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Over the past several years, pollsters have been working to understand the best approach to conducting survey research in a world where no single technology allows them to reach the entire public. Most reputable polling organizations have adapted their national telephone polls to call both landlines and cell phones in order to deal with the growing cell-phone-only population. Yet, these pollsters still must deal with the fact that response rates for telephone polls are generally under 25%, and adding cell phones to their samples have greatly increased the cost of polling.

At the same time, many firms have been developing technology with the aim of producing reliable and accurate opt-in Internet surveys. These surveys can generally be produced for half the cost of a telephone poll, but they diverge from traditional approaches to survey research because they do not rely on a probability sample. The proliferation of opt-in Internet surveys has generated some controversy within the survey research community (for example, here, here, here, and here). In 2010, the American Association of Public Opinion Researchers (AAPOR) issued a report warning against using opt-in Internet surveys to estimate population values, but also noting that significant evidence on this question was lacking. Indeed, many of the studies that AAPOR relied on when reaching their conclusions were based on outdated data.

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Developing a Personal Brand that's authentic, meaningful and sustainable, takes reflection, self-awareness and a lot of patience. In a world where we're all constantly in "doing" mode, taking time to reflect, be patient, and consider not just our picture, but the "bigger picture," might seem, to some an anathema. However, when our ability to see outside of our self is restricted, our creativity is diminished; imagination and creativity are essential to anyone who wishes to develop a strong Personal Brand. Furthermore, when we are trying to live in the future, or perhaps spend too much time in our past, we can't absorb being in the now. And in order to develop a Personal Brand that truly represents who we are now, it's essential we fully embrace who we are now. That means letting go of the past and to not crystal ball gaze into the future. In many ways, the old adage, "one day at a time" seems appropriate to use here.

My advice to anyone who's struggling to find enough time just to "do life", let alone develop their Personal Brand, is this: first, trust that you already have a Personal Brand -- it's what others say about you when you are not in the room. In essence, it's your reputation. We can't exactly control what others say about us. We can control our "Inner Brand", which includes our behaviors, thoughts, our level of E.Q. (Emotional Intelligence) and our self-image (how "we see" ourselves). These aspects of our Personal Brand underpin our attitudes, energy levels and our ability to engage and communicate effectively. And when we take responsibility for our "Inner Brand" and hone the characteristics I've set out, our reputation begins to mirror who we are from the inside out. Acknowledging that to achieve a meaningful Personal Brand is indeed a marathon, and not a sprint, is integral to any personal development endeavour you may encounter.

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Since Monday night's announcement that Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver have separated, there has been much speculation about how the couple's split will affect their four kids. The pair have revealed few details--"we are continuing to parent our four children together. They are the light and the center of both of our lives," they said in a joint statement--and except for a Tweet Tuesday from their 17-year-old son, Patrick, the kids have also been quiet. Still, the four children, ranging in age from 13 to 21, will surely have a lot to deal with, including a new living arrangement (Shriver reportedly moved out of the couple's Brentwood home a few weeks ago). So what will the next few days, weeks, and months have in store for ths kids? While we may not know for a while, we can be sure that their relationships with each other will undergo significant changes.

Indeed, while there is always plenty of talk about "his divorce" and "her divorce," and even more about how parents do and don't get along with each other after the breakup, there isn't much said about the children's relationship with each other when parents divorce and remarry. My interest in the young people grew as I interviewed 131 children--a number that included all the siblings in a family--every five years, for 25 years after their parents' breakups, as part of the study that eventually became the landmark 2001 book, The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce. Divorced parents would be very startled if they overheard what their children were saying. I was taken aback by the passion with which so many spoke of their siblings. "My brother saved my life" said one 16-year-old girl. "My sister and I are a family," her 14-year-old brother confided. "We rescue each other!"

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The surprises of 2011 will not end with the death of Osama bin Laden. They started when the "Arab Street" rose and rebelled, crushing all expectations that wagered on its deep slumber forcing all countries to return to the drawing table to draft policies that would take it seriously as a "public opinion," not merely as a "street" or a "herd" anymore. The phenomenon known today as the 'Arab Spring' was born completely independently from the doctrine of destruction embraced by Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. It caused great decline of that doctrine in the Arab mind because the generation of change opted for building as a doctrine -- not for destruction. This was further enhanced when Osama bin Laden was killed, earning President Barack Obama international recognition as a man of determination, resolve, and a man of action who must be reckoned with and seriously taken into every account. The fact that the uprising of the Arab people has coincided with the decline of al-Qaeda and the elimination of its infamous leader, as well as with the US president regaining his momentum and power of initiative, is yet another moment that carries the seeds for more surprises. The shape and the place of the potential surprises are not far from the priorities of the Americans, Russians, Chinese and Europeans, particularly in the Middle East and the Gulf region. Decision makers in those countries are studying the meaning of this moment and exploring how to exploit it and benefit from it on the long term. Washington, in that sense, is very preoccupied these days. The Obama administration wants to exploit the momentum of resolve and determination that the US president revived in the mind of the international community as a serious and capable man who must be seriously reckoned with. The world today will listen more carefully than it did when Barack Obama vacillated between hesitation and retreat, or when he seemed incapable of delivering on his pledges and promises.

With regard to Afghanistan, the death of Osama bin Laden may prove to be the spark needed to implement an American exit strategy. The US president, who is seeking a second term, does not want to remain weighed down by what is now known as "Obama's War" in Afghanistan. Striking a near fatal blow to al-Qaeda by liquidating its leader will no doubt help justify a withdrawal from Afghanistan and will give the case for an exit strategy a big boost.

 Pakistan will not become an "enemy" to the administration no matter how strong public criticism of Pakistan gets and how high are the voices demanding accountability. Pakistan is being accused of harboring bin Laden near a military zone, whether with prior knowledge or inadvertently. The fact of the matter is that while the relationship between the United States and Pakistan is complex, it is not frail. It is a strategic relationship that goes beyond the war against extremism and terrorism, especially at the hands of the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaeda.

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Republicans were elected in November to turn around the economy, but they seem to have an awful lot of time to stick it to gay people.

May 5 was just the latest example. Instead of just slashing K-12 education by $430 per student and cutting state universities about 15 percent (some will get hit harder than others), some crafty Republicans managed to sneak in a little crass homophobia into the education budget bill.

Universities that offer same-sex benefits will take an additional 5-percent cut. What is utterly fascinating is that these same Republicans who pushed for this legislation claim to be strict constitutionalists.

Well, boys and ... well, let's face it, it's mostly boys. Read your damn constitution. The universities of our fine state are autonomous. So if you keep screwing with them by ordering ridiculous reports to kill embryonic stem cell research, ordering them not to raise tuition and ordering them not to give benefits to folks you find icky, you might find yourselves with a mighty expensive lawsuit on your hands.

And Michigan taxpayers will be on the hook for your power trip.

Not that some lawmakers need any excuse to pull out the anti-gay card, but I couldn't help wonder if University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman's fiery indictment of homophobia at the university's commencement last weekend might have set them off. Gov. Rick Snyder gave the address there -- not that I would bet he had any problem with her speech, as he supports civil unions.

Coleman lauded U of M Student Body President Chris Armstrong, the subject of former Michigan Assistant Attorney General Andrew Shrivell's anti-gay campaign.

"But the biggest headlines for Chris came because of the fact that he is a gay man -- the first to lead the Student Assembly," Coleman said at graduation. "... When this generated criticism and bullying, he did not blink. He continued to hold his head high, as student body president and as a University of Michigan student and remained dedicated to promotingequality, tolerance and compassion."

This isn't the first time this year the Legislature has tried to slash away the gay. Republicans fought tooth and nail against partner benefits for some state employees, even though they were the result of years of negotiations between the state's Civil Service Commission and unions.

A constitutional amendment -- yes, altering our state constitution was deemed necessary, allegedly because the benefits would cost the state $6 million -- passed in the GOP-led Senate, but failed in the House. As a result, some angry Republicans want to do another constitutional amendment to get rid of the Civil Service Commission and probably collective bargaining rights. Bonus!

And let's not forget that we haven't been able to put an anti-bullying policy in place for years because Gary Glenn, the head of the American Family Association of Michigan, says it's just a trojan horse to push the gay agenda. And that's been enough to scare Republican lawmakers into doing nothing, even as more tragic incidents with kids keeping piling up.

Sen. Rick Jones (R-Grand Ledge) has finally taken up the issue, but there's no provision to help kids who are gay. That would upset Gary Glenn, who is quite fragile, too much.

Here's one final reality check. The majority of Americans now support gay marriage, according to a poll last month by CNN. By the time my 8-year-old daughter has kids of her own, this won't even be an issue.

So you can demonize "the gay" -- as some enlightened lawmakers call them -- all you want. But change has already come. You're way behind.

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With U.S. Senate ratification of the New START treaty on December 22, supporters of nuclear disarmament won an important victory. Signed by President Barack Obama and Russian President Dimitry Medvedev last April, the treaty commits the two nations to cut the number of their deployed strategic (i.e. long-range) nuclear warheads to 1550 each -- a reduction of 30 percent in the number of these weapons of mass destruction. By providing for both a cutback in nuclear weapons and an elaborate inspection system to enforce it, New START is the most important nuclear disarmament treaty for a generation.

Nevertheless, the difficult battle to secure Senate ratification indicates that making further progress on nuclear disarmament will not be easy. Treaty ratification requires a positive vote by two-thirds of the Senate and, to secure the necessary Republican support, Obama promised nearly $185 billion over the next decade for "modernizing" the U.S. nuclear weapons production complex and nuclear weapons delivery vehicles. Even with this enormous concession to nuclear enthusiasts -- a hefty "bribe," in the view of unhappy arms control and disarmament organizations -- Senator Jon Kyl, the Republican point man on the issue, continued to oppose New START and ultimately voted against it. So did most other Republican Senators, including Mitch McConnell (Senate Republican leader) and John McCain (the latest Republican presidential candidate). Leading candidates for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, including Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin, also opposed the treaty. As a result, New START squeaked through the Senate by a narrow margin. With six additional Republicans entering the Senate in January, treaty ratification will become much harder.

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I have been thinking about environmental toxins a lot lately. From the nuclear accident in Fukushima Japan to the 25th anniversary of the nuclear meltdown in Chernobyl to my own work as part of the Chicago Clean Power Coalition -- a group of 50 nonprofits working to clean up or shut down Chicago's deadly and dangerous coal-fired power plants -- I am becoming more and more aware that we are all constantly exposed to toxic chemicals and radiation. How much exposure endangers our health? The answer to that question depends on whom you ask.

I'm a wife and mother, so I ask that question in order to do what I can to protect my family. I am also a primary care physician and the director of the Chicago chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, a nonprofit dedicated to preventing what we cannot cure. If the levels of radiation emitted in the above-ground testing of nuclear weapons (now universally banned) could increase disease -- particularly cancer -- rates, shouldn't your physician know about this? If nuclear accidents in one country sent billowing clouds of radioactive waste half-way around the world and landed in the soil where a grazing cow was busy producing milk that your child would some day drink, shouldn't public health officials know about this risk? If many U.S. farmers applied the weed killer atrazine -- a proven endocrine disrupter -- to their land every spring, and the runoff ended up in drinking water all across our country and babies, children and adults drank water putting them at higher risk of subsequent infertility and prostate cancer, shouldn't the medical community be aware of this and take action to restrict the use of this widespread chemical?

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I have long brooded over the fact that Sarah Palin still grabs headlines over the most egregious comments. She wangs Michelle Obama for pushing for an end of obesity in the United States. She goes after Barbara Bush for being an elitist "blue-blood" for saying that Palin should stay in Alaska. She slams down moderate Republicans for agreeing to things like the stimulus legislation or the TARP program. She champions the Tea Party movement and supports such loopy candidates as Christine O'Donnell in Delaware and Sharron Angle in Nevada against her own party. She blames Katie Couric for her own interview inanities. She lambastes Senator Murkowski for daring to run against her handpicked candidate, Joe Miller, of Tea Party fame. She attacks Ben Bernacke for trying to reduce unemployment by expanding the money supply through actions by the Federal Reserve. She assails Obama for just about anything he does. But the trick she plays is to express her anger with a smile. Somehow this disguises the ugliness underneath. The trick has worn thin. Below the surface, she is a furious, even, at times, vicious individual, whose beatific expressions or fixed grins or "you betchas" can't disguise the nastiness and ignorance at work. But why does the media give her so much exposure? It bewilders me. Yet one curious result from the vast press coverage is that it has driven her unfavorable rating up to Paris Hilton levels among the American public. If she ever gains the Republican presidential nomination, she will bring ruin to the party. Maybe, after all, the free press is doing us a favor.

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For the last 7 weeks, I've been the target of several minor viruses. They've entered my body through the air, pushed me to exhaustion, forced me to sleep much longer, pummeled my head with a dull ache and sometimes, injected my entire body with low fever. I knock down something for the fever and pain, and carry on with my day. But I am not complaining. Infact, what I really feel is gratitude for being spared the excruciating new illness that's hit the Delhi region this quarter-Chikungunia.

Chikungunia, which means 'all bent up', strikes you secretly, till it explodes in your joints. You get a mild fever, maybe a rash and then, an unbearable pain in your joints. Old injuries are resurrected, and body parts you didn't even know about compete for attention. Like most North Indians, I knew about this disease as something brought about by the bite of a mosquito, Aedes aegypti, after it's bitten someone infected with the virus in the first place. It was something that people in the South of India usually suffered from! Delhi, in the North, is relatively dry and Chikungunia seemed distant. In the last month, every time I've gone out, even to a little bar with only a few peoples, some or the other says they're just about recovering from this miserable sickness. The media reports there is a rise, although it is not being called an epidemic. On November 1st of this year, for example, the Hindustan Times-one of India's leading newspapers- reported a possible thousand cases of Chikungunia in the previous 20 days in Delhi alone!

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The gala tribute on Monday night to the late designer, Alexander McQueen, at the Costume Institute Gala for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, hosted by Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, evokes memories for me both sad and unique. In 2004 I received a call from London from a woman named Isabelle Blow, who told me that she worked with fashion designer Lee Alexander McQueen, and that his Spring 2004 show would be based on a film with which I was intimately associated, They Shoot Horses, Don't They? A 1969 production of ABC's Palomar Pictures, of which I was Production V.P., you may recall that precedent-setting picture was a depression-era story of a dance marathon starring Jane Fonda, Michael Sarrazin (who died in Canada this month at the age of 70), Suzannah York (who also died last month), Gig Young, and my close buddy Red Buttons. Brilliantly directed by the late Sydney Pollack and produced by Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff, it was to be the theme of his unusual fashion show. I answered many questions she had and then sent her a collection of still photos from the film. She later called me to say that the show had been a grand success. A review said the powerful show was choreographed with models and professional dancers roving around a wooden marathon dance floor similar to the one we had built in Santa Monica for the film. "The clothes were, as always, magical: dilapidated dresses elaborately constructed from a patchwork of fabric; sorrowful chiffon dresses weighed down with tarnished sequins." On Monday, British model-singer Karen Elson wore a silver beaded dress which she had modeled in that fashion show seven years ago.

Of course we all know that McQueen's successor at the label, Sarah Burton, had received the commission of a lifetime this past week with the Kate wedding gown... and fulfilled it with grace and style. McQueen, who committed suicide last year at age 40 a few days after the death of his beloved mother, was a powerful and unusual figure, and I have followed his career with deep interest. He was a working-class kid, a hard-bitten commoner (his father was a cabbie and they lived in the projects, where, in that apartment, he began designing as a boy) who elevated himself into the rarified status of a Commander of the British Empire. A recent story said that "his rough demeanor and uncensored rudeness made him a dangerous and magnetic presence." Amazing accomplishment.

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Many, many years ago - okay, more than thirty years ago, I had a brief but interesting career as a disco singer. No need to go into all the twists and turns of that crazy part of my life now -- that'll have to wait for another blog. I'm bringing it up to mention that I had two talented, young, gay dancers who worked with me, and that, in a round-about way, is what this story is about. More specifically, how young gay people can often feel isolated, hopeless and alone, judged by hypocrites and intolerant people and therefore why what Dan Savage and friends are doing with the It Gets Better campaign is so important.

Back in those complicated 70s, there was a rich brew of alternatives entering the mainstream, and this stew wasn't limited solely to the music. It incorporated alternatives of all types. Obviously, some choices were easier for the status quo to accept than others, which is probably why some groups tended to stick together - remember the flower children? I fell into this group. Those were the days when alternatives to the strict mainstream lifestyle came out in droves - hippies, gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transsexuals, anti-establishment-intellectuals, -- an eclectic blend of sub-cultures had emerged from behind the scenes, with all their colors, choices of clothing, hairstyles, drug selections, and sexual preferences. I suppose many of us looked and acted like we had come from another planet to the previous generation, and they treated us that way too. In San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, cities I grew up and lived in, there was safety in numbers -- sort of. At least like-minded people gravitated together.

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The moment my friend Jesse sent me an early download of Tuareg musician Bombino, I fell in love. As I told him, I think I was Tuareg in a future life -- there's something about the scope of North African music, Gnawa and Tuareg to Malian blues and Nubian folk, that has dominated my music listening over the past few years. Thankfully Tinariwen pushed open a door few in America had acknowledged, thus beginning a swell of incredible Saharan artists to saunter through. Bombino's first international record, Agadez (Cumbancha), may be the best of this crop (though Tamikrest's newest, Toumastin, is giving it some heat). While lacking the textures of Tinariwen or Toumast, this is more appropriately to be seen as a one-man show, even considering that his backing band is tremendous. Given that the album has spent most of this week sitting atop the iTunes World Music charts, I'm not the only one feeling this way.

The nine-minute "Ivat Idounia Ayasahen" is the proper place to start. Bombino's animated guitar playing is enthralling. The predominant amount of this track is spent listening to him solo, a steady, easy rhythm creating a trance-like foundation indicative of many North African music forms. This combination -- a hypnotic percussion rhythm with a long history of ritual use along with a modern fascination for men like Jimi Hendrix and the electric guitar -- is what makes Tuareg music so hard to stop listening to. Long before the protests shaking up bordering countries like Egypt and Tunisia, Malian officials have fought wars with these indigenous nomads. Unromanticizing the situation: like Rom culture, Tuaregs are travelers as much (if not more so) by force than choice. Thus exists an old spirit to this music, with Bombino representing one of the most wizened. Suffering and hardship is known to produce beauty, and while he was a bit young to partake in the first revolution (in which Tinariwen members battled), his connection to the culture of resistance is strong and deep. Agadez is a spiritual and political masterpiece for his people.

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Twenty-one months ago almost to the day, three idealistic young Americans were enjoying a summer vacation hike in the safe and hospitable region of Iraqi Kurdistan when they wandered close to or across an unmarked mountain border and into the hands of Iranian forces. It is hard for any of us to appreciate the torment these individuals -- Shane Bauer, Josh Fattal and Sarah Shourd -- and their families have suffered since that fateful day. It is harder still to fathom what Iran expects to gain by continuing to hold the two men in the group captive, with almost no contact with their families, and by putting them on trial on May 11 on the unfounded charge of espionage. Sarah, who is Shane's fiancé, was freed on humanitarian grounds last September yet the judiciary has summoned her back for the trial even though a senior Iranian official, Mohammad Javad Larijani, has said publicly that she is incapable of spying.

Sarah's release after 410 days of solitary confinement was the right thing to do. Iran must do the right thing again by allowing her companions to rejoin their families. Shane and Josh have already been detained for far longer than the 444 days that 52 American citizens spent as hostages in Tehran when the U.S. embassy was stormed following the Iranian Islamic revolution in 1979. If Iran's intention in holding Shane and Josh is to show that it can still thumb its nose at America by depriving its citizens of their freedom, it has surely proven the point. And, if the intention is to engineer some sort of prisoner swap, there is no indication that the U.S. government is willing to play ball, given the broader strategic considerations at play in the tense U.S.-Iranian relationship.

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Recent news from Africa has been brutally grim. In last week's Nigerian presidential elections, angry mobs in Kaduna, a mostly Muslim city in Northern Nigeria, hacked to death hundreds of Christians -- a reaction to the reelection of President Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian from Southern Nigeria. In the Cote d'Ivoire Laurent Gbagbo lost a 2010 presidential election to Alassane Ouattara. Citing voter fraud, he refused to cede power to his opponent. Gbagbo's refusal to transfer power to Ouattara prompted an escalation of a long simmering civil war. Since November 2010 thousands of people have died, and many more, fearing for their lives, have fled their homes. On April 11, forces loyal to Ouattara stormed Gbagbo's presidential bunker and arrested the former history teacher. In the wake of Gbagbo's arrest, however, militias continue to skirmish in the streets of Abidjan, the economic capital of Cote d'Ivoire.

So it goes for the news from Africa. Framed by media reports, the image of Africa for Americans -- and others, of course -- consists of tales of unending political riots, cases of fraudulent elections, and scenes of drug-crazed teenage soldiers burning villages, amputating the hands and feet of their foes and raping women, both young and old. There are, as well, the horrifying documentary images of the genocidal conflicts in Rwanda, Congo, and more recently in the Darfur region of Sudan. Add to this lethal mixture of human misery, the social tragedy of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, widespread hunger and the sometimes fatal presence of such diseases as malaria and meningitis and you get the picture: a hopeless continent plagued by intractable problems, a place no one would want to live or visit.

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