Blogs,Reviews,Advise: ‘Without the help and support of the woman I love....

Blogs,Reviews,Advise: ‘Without the help and support of the woman I love....: by Dr. Jeffrey Lant Author’s program note. In 1936 the world was transfixed by a story so big, so engrossing, so incredible that only the...

‘Without the help and support of the woman I love.” Edward VIII and Mrs. Simpson, love and scandal.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Author’s program note. In 1936 the world was transfixed by a story so big, so engrossing, so incredible that only the Second Coming could have topped it. It was the story of Edward VIII, King of England, Emperor of India… and a twice- married American lady from Baltimore, Maryland — Mrs. Simpson. It was billed as history’s greatest love affair… but, as this article unfolds… you may very well draw a very different conclusion.
But let’s start by playing the tune I’ve selected to accompany this article…. “Exactly Like You”. Go to any search engine to find this number. It was written in 1930 by Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields. I swear by the rendition by Louis Armstrong. You won’t be able to get it out of your head; kind of like the king’s catastrophic obsession with his Wallis… for of all the women in the world who wanted him, he had to have her, the very worst choice imaginable.. to the consternation and disgust of the empire on which the sun never set.
The most important boy in the world.
When your great grandmother is Queen Victoria, ruler of half the world; when your grandfather is King Edward VII, called the Uncle of Europe, because his relations ruled over virtually everything; when your father is King George V and your mother is Queen Mary… your birth, life, and every single breath you take is an event… important, eagerly awaited, commented upon, chronicled. In short, it is life in the grandest fish bowl on Earth; for in return for unimaginable wealth, celestial status, and the adoration and veneration of untold millions… you give up any semblance of a personal life… any semblance of privacy. You belong not to yourself… but to your subjects, the people of England and of all the Dominions beyond the seas…
This was Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David, born in 1894, called David by his family and Your Royal Highness by everyone else. The world envied him… but his life was anything but enviable… his parents saw to that.
George (1865–1936) & Mary (1867-1953).
The argument for monarchy goes like this: in a turbulent, uncertain, unpredictable and therefore alarming world, a sovereign is eternal, stable, stalwart, an institution you can trust to be here tomorrow, because it was here yesterday and the day before that. A sovereign rises above the trivia of today, able to take the long view, high above the fray and the little concerns of little men. Having everything, wanting nothing, monarchs can be trusted with the concerns of the nation they exist to improve, to serve, to uplift and inspire.
This is all very well…. but where do you find such larger than life paragons? Certainly not in the lives of George and Mary, people frightened by their unceasing responsibilities and the constant burden of having to appear just so to a world which evaluated, and minutely too, every move they made, every action, every decision.
Most assuredly neither George nor Mary were such people… and therefore like so many people fearful of making a mistake (and being roundly criticized) they embraced rigid severity… and so sought to cover up their many inadequacies as people by a unceasingly stern and unapproachable demeanor. It looked good on ceremonial occasions… for then they were regal indeed… but life lived this way was tormenting to all concerned… especially for the two young princes Edward and Albert, future Edward VIII and George VI.
They were boys who needed love, tender care, affection… but were ignored by their colder than ice mother for whom a peck on the cheek was excessive… and constantly admonished by their father, a man who became king only because his elder brother died young thereby bequeathing the empire and his expected wife, Mary of Teck, to his younger brother Georgie, a man who rose far above his abilities, a man who knew nothing about human relations and thought that communication was nothing more than the business of barking orders and having them instantly complied with.
In such a world how could the little princes of Windsor emerge as anything other than flawed, wanting… and rebellious.
Prince of change.
All children go through a rebellious stage where “no!” is their favorite word. Do you want this? No! Do you want that? No! How about something else? No, again! But in the fullness of time even the most argumentative three year old comes out of this phase and starts growing up. But David of Windsor never did. Whatever was tried, true, traditional, standard… he wanted nothing to do with, wanted to change it, not slowly and unobtrusively but now in the most jarring and thoughtless of ways. He wanted what he wanted, when he wanted it… and as Prince of Wales from 1910… he was in a position to get it, especially as he came to understand how much the world loved and admired him.
Wobbly monarchy, high-flying adored prince.
World War I saw the demise of the great imperial dynasties of Europe, the Habsburgs of Austria, the Hohenzollerns of Germany, the Romanovs of Russia… all swept away. The only major dynasty left was in England, and it was headed by the uninspiring, unimaginative, fretful George V who was majesty in nothing but name. The dynasty needed youth… glamor… connection to the restive peoples of the empire. And for this role there was only one man available… David, now Prince of Wales… a man who shed glamor and allure on the Roaring Twenties. His world tours (from 1919) made him a world celebrity… and lonely.
He tried women, he tried booze, he tried drugs… but because he could have everything, nothing made him happy. Nothing that is except the thrills and freedoms of the Great Republic, particularly its greatest city, New York. Only there were there sufficient dissipations and indiscretions. Besides, just stepping foot in America enraged both his parents, and that made these trips delicious.
Then he met Wallis Warfield Simpson, a woman with a sordid past and two living husbands… a past that could outrage every convention and agitate the world he was destined to rule… a world that bored and annoyed him. Wallis offered him what he truly craved: submission for that was her secret… she gave the man everyone kow-towed to the gift of abasement…. the power to get the man to whom all knelt to kneel to her….
She, of course, despised him, but using him as he wanted her to use him would make her a world figure, maybe even Queen-Empress. She was ill-advised on this point, and so overplayed her cards. Instead of a boyish sovereign over whom she could rule, she got after his abdication in 1936 a semblance of a man whom she systematically and publicly humiliated for the rest of his life. He cried… he sobbed… he adored. It was the perfect relationship, exactly what he wanted. And, after all, isn’t that what love is for?
For as Louis Armstrong sings,
“I know why I’ve waited Know why I’ve been blue I’ve been waiting each day For someone exactly like you… You make me feel so grand I wanna give this world to you…”
… and he almost did.
Honi soit qui mal y pense.

New biography of Mitt Romney claims to deliver ‘The Real Romney’… but will anyone really care?

Last night, January 19, 2012, The Boston Globe, the biggest and most influential newspaper in New England, pulled out all the stops for two of their best and brightest reporters; Michael Kranish, deputy chief of the Washington bureau of The Boston Globe and Scott Helman, staff writer at The Boston Globe. The occasion was the release of their new biography of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, the likely Republican presidential nominee.
First, my compliments to The Boston Globe. The special reception before a panel on der Mittster was nicely done and gave us all the opportunity to meet the authors and chat with them. The helpers were all efficient, polite, unobtrusive. Perfect.
It looked like a long evening until….
I sought out Michael Kranish first; he seemed like the senior member of the team and I try to get what I need for my article out of the way as soon as possible, so that I can sit back and enjoy the event. I told Kranish I had three brief questions for him.
First, would Romney ever be president? His unpromising answer: “It’s possible. It could happen.” This was not the incisive, insightful comment I was looking for… and suggested the possibility of a very long evening in the making, one to be ditched as soon as I’d eaten more of their fine brie.
Question 2: will Mormonism be an issue in the campaign? “In some places it could be,” he answered. OMG! It was indeed going to be a very long evening.
But I said I wanted to ask him three questions… and it wasn’t over until it was over. I ventured my third query. “What was the most unexpected thing about Romney you discovered in your research”? Then the intriguing answer, “What happened at Stanford University” when he was a student there during the Vietnam War, the war that derailed his father’s presidential campaign. Ok, this was something promising… at last.
Of father brainwashed and campaign imploded.
Mitt Romney (born 1947) had as his dad a human dynamo called George Romney, celebrated as the rescuer of American Motors (which gave me my push button Rambler in high school), governor of Michigan, member of the Nixon cabinet; a man who rightly thought he had a superb shot at being president of the Great Republic… until…
… he went to Vietnam, where he got star treatment and massive misinformation about how the war was going, how we’d win, how the people loved us, and enough manure to fertilize Connecticut. He came back to America feeling like a fool; then shot himself through the head when he claimed the military had “brainwashed” him. His presidential campaign ended the minute the words were out of his mouth. Nobody wanted as president a man who could be controlled by the military or anyone else. And so George Romney’s career ended… providing his son with a lifetime of lessons about what not to do… including the vital necessity to avoid the media whenever possible.
On his way back from Vietnam, Pere Romney stopped to visit Mitt at Stanford… where this devoted son got the opportunity to talk to his father about Life, War, God… of winning, losing, what’s important and what isn’t. It’s the kind of conversation one has with a parent once in a lifetime… and Mitt took it all in and to heart. He would, he vowed, revenge what had happened to his father… being sure to derive all the proper lessons from this seminal event, including the absolute need in his life for God, the God of the Mormons…
God.
To understand Mitt Romney, you must appreciate the importance and influence of his Mormon faith. It has provided the sinews of his life while isolating him from other people; people who often disdained his religion, calling it a “cult” and worse. Mitt learned to be private, very private, about his religion…letting very few people into that side of himself. Privacy, particularly privacy about his faith, became an obsession… something that may have connected him with God… but most assuredly estranged him from his fellow men, the people he’d need if he was ever to run for president.
Money.
What further separated him from the run of mankind was money… he made awesome amounts of it, largely through what are called leveraged buy-outs. This is a practice whereby investors buy a company, with the intention of doing everything they can to make it as profitable as possible, as quickly as possible; so they can sell the whole or its parts, often for staggering return on investment. This almost always involves the firing of employees in an attempt to decrease expenses and increase efficiency. Here Mitt Romney was king; a paragon who knew the delights that come when making only millions in a day was “bad” compared to the brilliant days, and plenty of them, when you made tens, even hundreds of millions lickety-split. Such days did absolutely nothing to connect him with mere mortals… and presented a problem he has still not been able to solve. Every time he got richer, Mitt got more disconnected… and less electable.
So, here we’ve got a candidate with a perfect marriage, 5 sons made by Disney, nary a scandal to be had… richer that God Himself… super bright… the hardest worker on the planet… but a loser for all that, because he just cannot connect with people and their everyday concerns to save his life.
Thus as I roamed the thin crowd talking with people, who were very keen to be asked their opinion about Mitt and his prospects, the temperature never rose above “tepid.” Yes, right smack dab in the middle of Boston, capital of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that Mitt had reigned over as governor (2003-2007), he couldn’t have thrown off less heat. And so, the people whom he needed so desperately to make him president evinced absolutely no excitement at all, much less any abiding glow.
And you could see this puzzled authors Kranish and Helman because their unauthorized biography (without a single interview with Mitt), into which they had poured time, life and commitment could only go as far as its subject, and not an inch more. If he sailed into the White House, their book (which I made sure they both autographed) would have the legs most political books never do, but if the world was as lukewarm as the folks in their audience, their $30 book (praised though it was by the usual East Coast media suspects) was DOA…
That’s why they came back to this point several times: awkward and disconnected as Mitt was in public, he was in private something of a cut-up (of the wonk variety), a man who could tell a story, give a hug, engage… even (and this arrested my attention for sure) moon walk while singing tunes from the Grateful Dead, tunes like “There’s Whiskey In The Jug”, an odd favorite for a tea-totalling Mormon:
“Mush-a ring dum-a do dum-a da Whack for my daddy-o. Whack for my daddy-o There’s whiskey in the jar.”
But this, though it made me smile and nod my head in wonderment was not the highlight of the evening. That was the rapt attention and joy in Aime Joseph. You see Mr. Joseph is my driver, a Haitian by birth, obsessed with American politics, always quizzing me about political people and their measures. He dressed up for this event, and imbibed every word with the utmost focus and concentration. “We have nothing like this in Haiti,” he said as I gave him the present of a lifetime, an autographed copy of the book. And when he saw me about to drop it, he grabbed it from my hand, the better to ensure it did not fall; chiding me for lack of care with this valuable artifact.
And I saw so clearly what was the best part of all: the fact that this kind of forum, this kind of book, this kind of open dialogue and honest conversation still was foreign to most of the world… and the thing we should be most proud of, our gift to the world and our collective future.
Now, go to any search engine and find “Whiskey in the jug,” and imagine Mitt moon walking to it… If there’s enough whiskey in the jug, that should be no problem.
*** What do you think? I invite you to post your comments below.

Create Your Own Beautiful Music By Your Own Computer Devices

If you are reading this then you are probably looking to make your own music on your computer. However you may become stuck because when you do some research on this you normally find that you will need a lot of expensive equipment to make beats that sound good, and if you do not know anything about music production then you can run into a brick wall with this!
Of course if you do some searching you will occasionally find some software that claims to help you make beats online, although a lot of it is very low quality and if you want to make the sort of sounds that you hear in the charts you will either need to do the above or find a good piece of software which can cost a ton of money.
Well I have some good news there is a package that has been released called Dub Turbo and it gives you everything you need to make your own beats and pretty much any music that you want online.
The best thing about the software package is that the sounds are professionally mastered, this means they sound exactly like your favourite songs.
You also have thousands and thousands of sounds to pick from and once you have watched through the video tutorials you will be able to get going making your first beats in just 10 minutes!
You get more than enough sounds to keep you going for a very long time! Click here to learn more...

Billions and Billions of Reasons to Love Astronomy

Around 250 B.C., the greatest astronomer of the Alexandrian period, Aristarchus of Samos (c.310-230 B.C.),
postulated that in a circular orbit once a year, the sun and the fixed stars being stationary, the planets moving in circular orbits with the sun at the center, and the moon revolving around the Earth. Thus, in Aristarchus the heliocentric conception of the universe had reached its near completion formulation. No one until Copernicus more than 1750 years later described the celestial system as well and accurately as Aristarchus had done in his now lost treastise. (According to Plutarch, the head of the Stoic school of philosophy, Cleanthes, demanded that Aristarchus was indeed almost killed for his revolutionary thoughts).

Based upon these historical accounts, it is clear that a special chain of the Greek mathematician-astronomer-cosmologist philosophers consisting primarily of Philolaus, Heraclides, and Aristarchus had successively evolved a polemic concept of the universe which was in harmony with that of Copernicus over 1750 years later. Why is it then the the heliocentric concept of the universe with its spinning Earth did not evolve further after Aristarchus?
Why is it that the genuine knowledge of the celestial world had to be buried in the obscurity of the terrestial realm? Why is it that a theory so luminous had to remain in darkness and wait for centuries to be rediscovered?
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Eat Fast Food And Lose Weight Can Be a Reality if You Follow These Simple Tips

If you’re out and about and you want a meal fast, sometimes the only viable option is fast food.
Other times, you just feel plain lazy and you don’t want to cook. Either way, fast food seems like a sound option.
Deal is, eating out too much can really help you screw the pooch, so to say when it comes to your diet … there are healthy alternatives mixed in among all the fattening choices. Your best bet is to learn some common sense guidelines about what makes each item unhealthy and choose one of the healthy items.
It’ll also help if you study the menus of some of your favorite fast food restaurants. You’ll most likely be able to look up their nutrition facts online. Do that and you’ll know for certain how many calories are baked into your favorite fast food meals.
Now here’s your quick guide to eating healthy and keeping those unwanted pounds off while eating fast food …

Some Quick Guidelines:

1. Grilled Meats. Grilled meats are a much healthier way of cooking rather than deep fried, breaded meats. If the fast food place you’re visiting has the option of choosing crispy or fried chicken versus a grilled patty, choose the grilled one. If the place is like KFC, and the grilled meat isn’t really grilled, then just eat the deep fried, breaded meats and avoid the side carbs (biscuits, etc).
2. Skip the Fries. (Almost) Always. This one was SO HARD for me to get over because I so love the way fries taste. I imagine kicking the heroin habit is easier than this. But I’ve probably had about a handful of fries in the last 1.5-2 years so I’m doing good! Nothing but starchy carbs and trans fats here.
3. Healthier Sides. Some fast food places will offer alternatives to a side of fries. You may be able to opt for some healthy fruit or salad instead. Or you could do the healthiest side option–don’t get any!
4. Don’t Super Size. Less calories = less fat. And they only supersize the fries and the soda! What's up with that? I want a super sized cheeseburger man!
5. Diet Soda. I used to laugh in my sleeve at the fat guy who orders the big greasy meal and then orders a diet soda, as if it’ll make a difference. Well it does make a difference, but, not if your packing fries into your mouth too! Big sandwich, skip the fries or chips, and a diet soda can go a long way towards filling you up and helping you not eat as much … Water or unsweetened tea is a sensible choice too …

Examples Of Healthy Meals At Popular Fast Food Joints

Here’s a list of some healthy choices you can make at some of the most popular fast food restaurants:

1. Taco Bell. Taco Bell has come out with a “Fresco Style” menu that allows you to choose popular menu items in a lower calorie style. A menu item ordered fresco style will come back with a special healthier salsa and it’ll also lack cheese. (I personally don’t take this option since the only time I eat Taco Bell is when I’m blotto anyways, but it’s worth noting)
2. McDonalds. They now offer an extended list of “premium salads”. However, it’s still easy to get fooled into thinking something is healthy when it really isn’t. Make certain you use a low fat dressing on your salad (half a pack if you can) and opt for the grilled chicken. If you grab the ranch and crispy chicken, you may as well be ordering a Big Mac! A burger or two with no sides and a diet coke/unsweet tea will fill you up with less calories too.
3. Subway. As healthy as they claim to be, there’s still a boatload of empty bread carbs here. Try a salad, add some protein in there with some chicken, avoid those chips, you should be home and dry.
4. Wendy’s. My all-time favorite fast food joint. If you do order a value meal you can definitely opt out of the fries. You can substitute for a baked potato, mandarin oranges, and more. If you’re fasting, the Triple Baconator is the uber ultimate one burger per day — 1300 calories of fat and protein goodness. That’ll be it sir!
5. Burger King. Like the rest of the popular fast food chains, Burger King has followed suit and made changes. You can opt for healthier alternatives like salads, chicken, etc. You can also do the one big burger thing with their whoppers if you’re fasting.
6. K.F.C. Has actually got a GREAT menu item — the Double-down sandwich. Low carbs. High protein and only 500 calories. Fills you up and keeps the calories down. I bet you could lose 20lbs on an all Double-Down Diet.
7. Chipotle. Not really fast food, but an excellent restaurant and probably the best choice for eating healthy. Some whiny punks complain about oversized portions but if you order the right stuff, it’s good portion sizes of good food. Skip the extra 1500 cals of empty carbs that comes with the tortillas, get a bowl instead, fill it with meats, salsa, fajita peppers, mounds of guacamole and lettuce and you’re kickin’ serious Bootay. Use the Chipotle Fan Nutrition Calculator to see the different macro-nutrient and calorie profiles of your food combos and enjoy!

For all other restaurants, you can make an educated decision about the healthy items from the menu. If you’re unsure, use some common sense guidelines:

• Avoid empty carbs (fries, tortillas, chips, biscuits, etc)
• Layoff the transfats (deep fried foods, fries, etc)
• Avoid the sugar (no sodas, no sweet tea, no ice creams, etc)
• Try not to cram so much of it in your mouth a.k.a. watch your portion sizes

Follow the tips in this short article and you’re sure to lose weight while eating fast food.
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Save Time and Money With Magnetic Generators

Nobody wants to waste hard earned cash on anything that is not beneficial. This is because cold hard cash is a dynamic factor in anything that we may want to do. Right here and now electricity is extremely expensive and is hard to afford for most people. Furthermore, the delivery of the power to our homes and places of business are getting worse.
Many parts/places of the world cannot have an effective flowing economy because of the interruptions and voltage problems. A lot of time is also wasted. Interruptions for hours cost us much time and money. By virtue of this, it is a good idea to adopt a power system that will save our time, money and be effectual as a viable and reliable source of electricity.
All that you need to achieve all this? A magnetic power generator…

If you try it you will with certitude be able to clearly understand and realize how much you will save from the same usage of electricity, or more energy for a fraction of the cost. With a magnetic generator you will be able to save a ton of money vis-a-vis other sources of creating energy. For instance wind mill, and solar panels. Don't forget this source of energy is uninterrupted, which means you will save the time you used to waste when there is not electricity, or when there is problems with the distribution system (which costs you money).
You are going to face no more shortages because of this generator. Point of fact, many scientists now predict that magnetic power will be a full time energy source in our offices, houses and small shops in the mot to distant future.

The majority of the time and effort that maintenance technicians have to waste is also going to be spared as well because magnetic generators are low maintenance units.
To maintain a solar panel is expensive, make no bones about it... it also requires a large space for installation. Moreover, after installation its costs serious jack in a manner of speaking to repair…and even more so for low and average income families and earners.
Not just that but are not realistic for normal income earners....Reason being, you need to live at a strategic area...Areas like beaches or very open places where buildings are not close, since they are obstacles to the moving air. The central and main thing, and really the only thing we need to know is that magnetic generators are actually the only sensible and pragmatic answer to the now continuous energy and power requirements. 
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