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Today's Stories January 29, 2008 R. F. Blader A World Without Abortion: USA v. Romania Allan Nairn Bush's SOTU: Entitlement, Justice and the War of All Against All Ahmad Faruqui Musharraf's Post-Electoral Prospect Patrick Cockburn "The Americans Bring Us Only Destruction"     January 28, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Return to Fallujah Paul Craig Roberts The End of American Liberty Allan Nairn The Breaking of the Gaza Wall Eyad al-Sarraj / Sara Roy Ending the Stranglehold on Gaza Martha Rosenberg Obit for the "Front Page" City Corporate Crime Reporter How They Rip Us Off David Michael Green Kristolizing Iraq: What a Great Freakin' War Jennifer Van Bergen What's Left? Nancy Oden Survival Tips for Hard Times Divya Karnad Saving India's Sea Turtles James L. Secor Pissed About Pistorious: Why the Olympics Needs a Gimp Website of the Day Yellow Journalism?   January 26 / 27, 2008 Uri Avnery Worse Than a Crime JoAnn Wypijewski How the Clintons Lost It, Whatever the Outcome in S. Carolina Ralph Nader Ambition, Power and the Clintons Paul Craig Roberts How Bush Destroyed the Dollar Paul Watson I'm Proud to be a Pirate! John Ross Murder and Cover-Up in Mexico Fred Gardner Ross v. Raging Wire: Employer's Right to Fire Workers Held Sacred by California Supreme Court Allan Nairn Little Hands with Fever: Some Consequences of Poverty Death Joshua Frank Why Bush Wants to Legalize the Nuke Trade with Turkey Binoy Kampmark Société Générale and the Economic Meltdown James T. Phillips America's Sick Comedy: Bringing the War Home Stan Cox The Depressing Truth About Anti-Depressants Eamonn McCann Hillary's Lie: "I Brought Peace to Northern Ireland" Ron Jacobs The Horizons of History: What's at Stake in Bolivia Seth Sandronsky California's Health Care Crisis Ben Terrall The Future is Unwritten Poets' Basement Tripp, Gardner, Gibbons and Davies Website of the Weekend City of Immigrants     January 25, 2008 Douglas Valentine Operation Two-Fold: How the CIA Infiltrated the DEA Patrick Cockburn US Troops Will Be In Iraq for 10 More Years: an Interview with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari JoAnn Wypijewski Down to the Wire in South Carolina Heather Gray Are We Seeing a Racial Shift in the South? Conversations with South Carolina Voters Marjorie Cohn Senate Democrats Poised to Fold to Cheney on FISA Erica Rosenberg Environmentalists Out on a Limb: the Perils of Collaboration Alan Farago Jeb Bush Goes Nuclear Robert Weissman Reclaiming Economic Freedom Laura Carlsen Wild Cards: Mining the Hispanic Vote in Nevada Stephen Lendman Israeli Repression in the Hebron Website of the Day The FIX is In   January 24, 2008 JoAnn Wypijewski Obama as Anthologist of Uplift Paul Craig Roberts President Hillary Alexander Cockburn Hillary Wants to Talk About Dirty Legal Dealings? Remember Her Nursing Home Scam? Kathleen Christison One and Two State Solutions and the Myth of International Consensus Jeff Halper Power to the (Palestinian) People! Stanley Heller The Siege of Gaza is Broken George Wuerthner The Moronic Sport: ORVs on the Public Lands Patrick Cockburn Desperate Iraqi Farmers Turn to Opium Jeff Sher Just How "Good" is Your Health Insurance? Patrick Irelan Musharraf, the Steadfast Ally? Charles Modiano Restoring the Anti-War King Website of the Day An Illustrated History of Trepanation   January 23, 2008 David Rosen The Great Disappearing Act: the Presidential Candidates and the Politics of Sex David Isenberg Is It Really So Hard to Believe That Iran Stopped Its Nuclear Weapons Program? Farzana Versey Hillary's Harem Paul Craig Roberts The Empire That Must Be Obeyed Alan Farago Where Did All the Good Times Go? Allan Nairn Indonesian Intelligence Service Threatens to Kill Human Rights Activist Kenneth Couesbouc Another Turn of the Screw Niranjan Ramakrishnan How the West was Re-Sold Michael Donnelly Obama Strikes Back Norman Solomon The Power of Love Website of the Day Rafah Today   January 22, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts Farewell to Old Economic Nostrums JoAnn Wypijewski King Day in Columbia, South Carolina Al Giordano Divide and Conquer Politics: How the Clinton Campaign Armed a Black-Latino Time Bomb in Nevada Felice Pace Power Politics in the Klamath: Water, Dams and Salmon Paul Wolf Bolívar's Sword Robert Weissman Deregulation and the Financial Crisis Dave Lindorff The Bush Dollar Trap Marjorie Cohn Cheney Impeachment Gains Traction Richard Neville Keeping Shakespeare in a Box Don Fitz / Zaki Baruti St. Louis Mayor Booed Off MLK Platform Ben Terrall Cindy Sheehan and the Virtues of Divisiveness Sam Husseini Stoning Martin Luther King, Jr. Website of the Day Defend the Mapuche!     January 21, 2008 Kevin Alexander Gray Playing the Race Card Linn Washington, Jr. Deferring Dreams, Delusions of Democracy Pam Martens How Wall Street Blew Itself Up David Macaray Labor's Grim Dilemma: Do We Need a Labor Party? Uri Avnery Look Who's Talking Omar Barghouti Europe's Collusion in Israel's Slow Genocide Joe DeRaymond Protest and Trial in D.C. B.R. Gowani Why Islam Should Tolerate Images Shepherd Bliss The False U.S. Economy Jean-Guy Allard Philip Agee Versus the CIA Dan Bacher Leaping Steelhead! Website of the Day Destroyed By a Rising Flood January 19 / 20, 2008 Alexander Cockburn The Campaign in Black and White Saul Landau Good Time Charlie's War China Hand Endgame for Pakistan? Conn Hallinan Desert Mirage: What Was the Bombing of Syria Really About? Ron Jacobs No Retreat Dave Lindorff A Tax Rebate Won't Fix This Mess Andy Worthington Canada's Humiliating Double Standard on Torture Paul Armentano What's the Going Price for a Joint? More Than You Might Think Seth Sandronsky High Crimes and Economics Michael Donnelly Dodging Ecocide Patrick Irelan The Ordeal of Dr. Safdar Sarki Martha Rosenberg The Drug Industry Takes Another Hit Sherwood Ross Making the World Safe for Despots: Bush's Global Arms Trade David Michael Green So You Want to be My President, Eh? James Rothenberg Unimpeachable: Under House Protection Daniel Gross Starbucks Shortchanges Dr. King Peter N. Carroll In Memory of Milton Wolff Susie Day Croakin' on Hudson Paul Krassner Woody Allen Meets Tongue Fu Poets' Basement Wolff, Buknatski and Orloski Website of the Day Rocky Mountain Blues   January 18, 2008 Allan Nairn Killing Civilians, Carefully Ralph Nader When the Big Boys Get in Trouble, Who Pays the Ultimate Bill? Joanne Mariner Terrorism and Preventative Detention Alan Farago The Stimulus and the Meltdown P. Sainath Pity the Brahmins R.F. Blader Beyond Steinem's Feminism Andy Worthington A Letter from Guantánamo John Jonik Private Insurance is Bad for Your Health Brian McKenna Where Even Sharing is Prohibited: Notes from Inside a Michigan Women's Prison Daoud Kuttab This Time Next Year? Website of the Day Those South Carolina Voting Machines   January 17, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts Leader and Vassal Christopher Brauchli The FBI's Bills Come Due Robert Fantina Leadership, Bush and the New York Times Patrick Irelan Eternal War Paul A. Moore When the Rich Pay No Taxes Stephen Lendman Institutionalized Spying on Americans Beena Sarwar Bhutto and the "State Within a State" Walter Brasch Buzzwords in the Echo Chamber: Change and the Establishment Brenda Norrell Bush Legacy in Texas Sours Adam Federman End of the Left? Website of the Day Democrats for Romney   January 16, 2008 Jeffrey St. Clair Return of the Native Franklin Lamb The Bombing at Qarantina Julian Sanchez David Weigel Who Wrote Ron Paul's Newsletters? Sharon Smith Ron Paul and the Left: a Slippery Slope? Allan Nairn Economic Indicator: No Free Lunch, No Free Market Ayesha Ijaz Khan How the American Media Enables Bush's Iran Fixation Andy Worthington A Strategic Call to Close Guantánamo Richard Behan Nancy Pelosi, You Must Impeach! Website of the Day Obama the New JFK? He's Not That Bad!   January 15, 2008 Andrea Peacock Breach of Trust in America's Most Toxic Town: How the EPA is Rubbing Poison Into Libby's Wounds Wajahat Ali An Interview with Seymour Hersh on Iraq, Bush Foreign Policy and the Prospects of War with Iran Joe Bageant Getting Out the Bling Vote Ralph Nader The Candidate Taboos John Ross Zero Hour: NAFTA and Mexico's Agrarian Apocalypse Elaine Cassel Jose Padilla vs. John Yoo: Can a National Disgrace be Rectified? Peter Morici The Fed Needs More Than a New Communications Strategy Beena Sarwar Pakistan's Dirty Tricks Brigade Robert Weissman Big Business is Even More Unpopular Than You Thought Binoy Kampmark Going Tata in India Dave Zirin Dennis Brutus Smacks Down the Hall of Fame Website of the Day David Lynch on the iPhone   January 14, 2008 Ishmael Reed Ma and Pa Clinton Flog Uppity Black Man Roger Morris Burials in the Sind Uri Avnery The Hands of Esau Mike Whitney Bush's Voodoo Stimulus Package Allan Nairn General Suharto of Indonesia: One Small Man Leaves a Million Corpses William Blum Oh, By the Way, the Iraqis Don't Really Want Us Alan Farago A Subprime Wake Up Call David Macaray Are Labor Unions Ready for Prime Time? Eva Liddell Getting Drunk with Obama Zoe Blunt Road Kill: New Highway Blocked by Protesting Raccoons Website of the Day Doug and Andrea Peacock on Grizzlies   January 12 / 13, 2008 Andrew Cockburn How the New England Journal of Medicine Undercounted Iraqi Civilian Deaths Saul Landau 60 Years of Empire Corey D. B. Walker Barack Obama and the Crisis of the White Intellectual Col. Dan Smith Bush, Iran and the Magician of the Tarot Eric Toussaint The US Subprime Crisis Goes Global Ron Jacobs Television, Murder and Vietnam Fred Gardner The People vs. Christopher James Chakos Stan Cox Don't Take That Pill! Jacob G. Hornberger The Warfare State Ramzy Baroud The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Joseph Grosso The Anglosphere: a Special Relationship of Elites David Díaz-Arias Imagining An/Other Latin American Left Stacey Warde Before We Move On ... Dan Bacher Pumped to Extinction: the Decline of the Delta Smelt Michael Dickinson Georgie in Jesusland Website of Weekend CounterPunchers Protest Outside NYT Offices   January 11, 2008 Dave Lindorff Did Hillary Really Win New Hampshire? More Questions About Diebold Voting Machines Paul Craig Roberts No Escape from War and Unemployment Andy Worthington Six Years of Guantánamo Kenneth Couesbouc Banking on Thin Ice Jeff Ballinger Inside the Vienna Consensus Christopher Brauchli Lethal Injection, the Supremes and China Manuel Garcia, Jr. Paying No Attention to the Presidential Campaigns Andrew Silverstein Bush's Weepy Visit to Jerasulem Marwan Bishara Bush in the Middle East Robert Weissman The First Amendment Gone Wild Patrick Irelan Damn the Small Boats! Website of the Day Hillary and the Superdelegates: Or Why She Wins Even When She Loses     January 10, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Now Nader Claims He Didn't Endorse Edwards Bob Wing Marqueece Harris-Dawson Race Within the Race: Obama, the NH Vote and the Specter of Tom Bradley Michael Donnelly White Women Gone Wild? David Macaray Three Big Reasons for the Decline of Labor Unions China Hand Bush's Delusional Policy Pushes Pakistan to Brink of Catastrophe Ayesha Ijaz Khan Saudi Arabia and Pakistan: Brotherly, Friendly Countries? Rannie Amiri Obama, Man of Kansas or Kenya? Website of the Day Iranian Video of the Hormuz Incident   January 9, 2008 Cockburn / St. Clair The Empire Strikes Back Dave Lindorff The Bad News from New Hampshire: Death By Triangulation John Chuckman Pardon My Laughter: Watching the US Primaries from Canada James Bovard Stomping Freedom: Inside the Martial Law Act of 2006 Alan Farago As Florida Sinks: the View from the Titanic Russell Mokhiber Why Picket the New York Times in DC on Friday? William S. Lind Kicking the Can Down the Road in Iraq Peter Morici Beyond the Sophistry: Why the Trade Deficit Matters Josh Reubner Sudan vs. Israel: Double Standard on Divestment Mike Roselle The Pursuit of Happiness Website of the Day Bottles of Tears on the Wall: Steve Perry on NH   January 8, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts No Jobs for the New Economy (or the Old) Russell Mokhiber The Black Hillary: Obama is Just Another Political Sedative Robert Fantina The Gulf of Tonkin and the Strait of Hormuz Dave Zirin Butts on Parade Shamako Nobel I Am an Emcee: the Politics of Hip Hop John Ross Zapatista Women Encounter Themselves Brenda Norrell Apaches Defend Homeland from Homeland Security Laura Carlsen Why Bolivia Matters Patrick Irelan Remember the Maine! Evelyn J. Pringle The Holes in Bush's FDA Jonathan M. Feldman After Iowa and New Hampshire: a Strategy for Rebuilding the Peace Movement Michael Dickinson Playing Soldier Website of the Day Sean Hannity on the Run!   January 7, 2008 Chris Floyd There Will Be Blood: But No Justice for Iraq Atrocities John Blair Remove That Man! Creeping Fascism in Indiana Uri Avnery The Case of the White Bird Andy Worthington Who Are the Gitmo Saudis? Binoy Kampmark Needling the Convict: Lethal Injection and the Supreme Court David Macaray Women on Strike Ralph Nader Obamarama: the Politics of the Smooth Mood Michael Donnelly It's the War Vote(s), Stupid! Ron Jacobs Ron Paul's Run: Is Being Against the War Enough? Gideon Levy The Hostile President Dave Lindorff A Real 9/11 Cover-Up? Sibel Edmonds, Turkey and the Bomb Website of the Day Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea   January 5 / 6, 2008 Douglas Valentine Good Guys in Black Hoods Kevin Young The US Occupation and Popular Opinion in Iraq Richard Rhames Saddam Who? Saul Landau Bush Snatches Defeat from Victory Marc Lynch Why Bush's Iran Strategy is Failing Robert Fantina Iowa, Democrats and the Iraq War Donna Volatile Antiwar Soldier: an Interview with Jonathan Hutto, Sr. Jelle Bruinsma Norman Finkelstein in The Netherlands Bob Sutcliffe Remembering Andrew Glyn, Rebel Economist Harvey Wasserman Anti-Nuclear Renaissance Missy Beattie Why Obama Can't Save Us David Swanson Remembering the Separation of Powers Jacob Hornberger The Importance of the Padilla Case Shepherd Bliss Survival Tools from Kokopelli Farms Ron Jacobs Bleeding Kansas Poets' Basement Patti Smith, B.R. Gowani and Peter Buknatski Website of the Weekend Jimmy Dean Sausage Call Complaint   January 4, 2008 Cockburn / St. Clair A Good Night in Iowa Jonathan Cook War Crimes Airbrushed from History Paul Craig Roberts Thinking for Yourself is Now a Crime Stan Goff Ron Paul's Monkeywrench Dave Lindorff Clinton's Iowa Flop Exposes DLC Myths as Frauds Niranjan Ramakrishnan To Pindi Station Allan Nairn U.S. Elections Over Before They Began Joshua Frank The Failures of Sectarianism Peter Morici Economy on the Skids Mary McInnis Iowa Cocky-Us: How to be a Caucus Tease Website of the Day The Return of Obama Girl   January 3, 2008 Fatima Bhutto Farewell to Wadi Bua Pam Martens The Free Market Myth Dissolves into Chaos Joanne Mariner The Presidential Candidates and Torture Zoltan Grossman Remember the '80s: Social Movements Between Woodstock and the Web David Domke The Echoing Press and Huckabee Norman Solomon Edwards Reconsidered Nikolas Kozloff Return of the Faux Liberal Jacob G. Hornberger The Padilla Case and the Future of Habeas Corpus Martha Rosenberg Quit Picking on Huckabee's Son, Michael Vick Russell Means This Property is Condemned: a Notice to Those Occupying Lakotah Lands Website of the Day WolfQuest       Subscribe Online

January 29, 2008 "Juno" and "4 Months ... " A World Without Abortion: USA v. Romania By R. F. BLADER If you've ever experienced, first- or second-hand, a teen pregnancy, or a high school relationship, or a being a teenager, or being pregnant, or giving birth, or being a parent (to an infant or a teenager), or getting divorced, or living in small town, or being in high school, then you probably found "Juno," the "quirky," "feel-good," "little movie that could," released just in time for the recent holiday season, totally preposterous. And if major departures from reality don't bother you and you head to the movies in order to suspend disbelief, then the reality you'll be indulging is one where pregnancy isn't life-changing, teenagers are as sex-savvy as old prostitutes, in-jokes and pop culture references substitute for smarts and dreams, and abortion is superfluous. In the run-up to an election during which abortion could figure as one of the only issues where the two major political parties actually differ, this little piece of fundamentalism, shrink-wrapped in indie-rock, predicts rough times ahead for women. "Juno"'s acclaim rests largely on its pose as a smart tale told in authentic teen vernacular: you know, get pregnant, tell some people about it in the language that Snoop Dogg made up in jail, jam with yuppies, get a big stomach, give your baby away, snuggle with your boyfriend, have a slurpee. A.O. Scott of the New York Times attributed the public's (or, at least, his own) seduction by "Juno" to its "feminist" quality: "Despite what most products of the Hollywood comedy boys' club would have you believe, it is possible to possess both a uterus and a sense of humor." The bar is low when a young pregnant woman portrayed as having zero aspirations and few interests qualifies as a feminist character. Apart from the recent rise in teen birth rate stats, another happy accident conspired to make "Juno" feel relevant: on December 18, Britney Spears' 16 year-old sister Jamie Lynn announced her own unplanned pregnancy (sold to OK! for $1 million). "Juno" emerged as the wholesome counterpoint to the Spears family train wreck: a middle class girl who makes the difficult moral choice to provide an infertile, affluent mom with a white baby. Like the Spears story, everyone can comfortably voice an opinion about "Juno" without coming to grips with the uncomfortable, obvious reality that most teenagers who take home pregnancy tests in convenience store bathrooms value the opportunity to terminate the pregnancy. This is the most obvious criticism of "Juno:" it is not a feminist movie. Like every Republican presidential candidate (except Giuliani) and many other politicians on both sides of the aisle, Juno's creators willfully ignore the fact that abortion is a mainstream healthcare choice, experienced by nearly 50% of American women (and indirectly, often their boyfriends or husbands), and 52% of them are younger than 25. Most pregnant teenagers who end up getting abortions don't do so after days of intense soul-searching. The "choice" is obvious. They're busy searching for an abortion doctor. As Kate Aurthur pointed out in the New York Times back in 2004, ignoring the reality of underage pregnancy and choice is nothing new for Hollywood: "Unlike such once-taboo issues as date rape, gay relationships and teenage sex, abortion on television remains an aberration." Rather than depicting abortion, not adoption, as a precocious acknowledgement of parenthood's hardships, most films and television programs systematically avoid the issue. Critics have touched on the hypocrisy inherent in Hollywood's portrayals of unlikely miscarriages and adoptions and happy teen families, but fail to acknowledge the extent to which this hypocrisy hurts women. Lately, American movie-goers (at least those in the proximity of foreign cinema) have the rare opportunity to see a movie about an actual abortion. "4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days," by Romanian director Cristan Mungiu, has won many awards including the Palme D'Or at Cannes. But unlike "Juno," which claimed four Academy Award nominations, it is not in the running for an Oscar. "4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days" is a slice-of-life drama, a dark glimpse into one young woman's abortion experience in Ceau_escu's Romania. Surprisingly, the young college student named Gabita and her decision to abort are not the film's central drama. Instead, Mungiu depicts the coercion that both Gabita and her roommate, Otilia, engage in order to procure the procedure at a time when abortion was illegal. In its portrayal of the quest for an abortion and the attendant collateral damage, "4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days" is no barrel of laughs. It doesn't offer much in the way of in-jokes; even its nods to the irony of life behind the iron curtain fall flat. Where "4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days" outshines "Juno" is in its attention to the true, complicated interactions between men and women. Two scenes especially expose the screenplay's poignancy: first, when the abortionist grandstands about his risks--despite the fact that the illegality of the procedure is precisely his livelihood--and elicits the women's complicity in his abuse by exploiting every possible aspect of power differential between him and them; and, later, when Otilia picks a fight with her boyfriend to transfer her rage and humiliation onto a familiar situation. Middle-class, young women in America, for whom the abortion experience calls to mind the supportive environment of Planned Parenthood, won't recognize the rented hotel room, the briefcase of strange instruments sterilized in alcohol, the waiting to hemorrhage, but many older women in America experienced the abuse and chicanery of "back-alley" illegal abortion. As the W.H.O. showed in a comprehensive study last year, abortion rates are pretty consistent, regardless of its legal status. When abortion was illegal in America, young women weren't delighted by the opportunity to provide childless couples with kids; they were like Gabita and Otilia, scrambling for cash and phone numbers. Neither "4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days" nor "Juno" dramatizes the unplanned pregnancy as it's relevant to young American women, but "4 Months..." comes closer. Without knowing much about Gabita and Odilia, we might guess that, despite living in a dictatorship, they have aspirations. Women who are able to get safe, legal abortions acknowledge dreaming not only of education, and careers, and the slow transition to adult responsibility and financial independence, but also of having a family when they want to with the person they want to be with--even if their limited life experience precludes, in many cases, the full articulation of this possibility just as it permitted the disconnect between sexual impulses and their corresponding biological conclusion. They get abortions to vaguely acknowledge their right to establish the parameters of their sexual experiences and prioritize themselves and their wellbeing. For many young women, the decision to get an abortion will be the first one they make that responds to their needs, that puts them the center of their own lives. Why is abortion such a hot-button political issue in America? What unspoken gestures are made when a candidate declares himself pro- or anti-choice? Apologists on the left and right have begun to treat abortion as if it's passé, just some women's cause incomparable in importance to the war in Iraq or the widening class divide. The political candidates understand, however, that this issue communicates a symbolic pose, "traditional morality" vs. "progress." Just as many lower and middle-class Republicans defend the rights of the wealthy to hoard, men and women who have had positive experiences with abortion nevertheless often vote for anti-choice candidates aspirationally: voting Republican makes people feel, if just for a few seconds, rich and moral. In interviews, Jason Reitman, the film's director, expressed his intentions for "Juno" as being "completely apolitical." He failed. Perhaps, more than anything, the belief in "Juno" represents our current cultural predilection for denial. Maybe, we hope, a young woman can wittily act as a surrogate for a wealthy single mom and no one is any worse for the wear. Maybe teenagers don't need ready access to safe abortions, and women don't have anything better to do than be pregnant, and it doesn't make them any less "cool." The danger of "Juno" is the danger of all propaganda and political fantasy: it legitimates our denial. It provides a cultural reference for something that can't exist. Based on the composition of the Supreme Court and the cases coming before it, however, the denial of abortion may become a more pressing reality for many American women. In the hospital birth scene in "Juno," Juno's father woefully tells her, "One day you'll be here on your own terms." What the screenwriter (formerly an ironic stripper) failed to realize was that, according to the film's alternate universe, she already is. "4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days" spotlights much more compelling conceptions of choice: is Otilia "raped" by the abortionist, who demands sex along with cash, for performing her friend's abortion? How do you feel when a young woman, in the wake of trauma invoked by coerced sex, ditches her nice boyfriend at his mom's birthday party to discard her roommate's aborted fetus somewhere dogs might or might not find it? Where does your sympathy lie and how does it shift? While "Juno" represents our cultural wish for a woman who is young and witty and smart and submissive, "4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days" reminds us of a real world without abortion and what it feels like to be there. R.F. Blader can be reached at rfblader@gmail.com

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