Author: Brett

Book Review: A Royal Affair – Culture – International Herald Tribune

Brett

Nonfiction. A Royal Affair. George III and his Scandalous Siblings. By Stella Tillyard. Illustrated. 352 pages. $26.95; Random House. £20; Chatto and Windus.

It is natural enough to think of the American War of Independence not as a revolution but as a family quarrel. The colonists, like restive adolescents ready to leave home, resisted parental control.

The British, having paid for room and board, reacted with predictable outrage, and George III, to an unusual degree, tended to see all political strife as a family drama. In “A Royal Affair,” a portrait gallery of the king and his many siblings, Stella Tillyard argues that the domestic troubles of the royal family during George’s first 20 years go a long way toward explaining his inept handling of the American crisis.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/28/arts/28iht-bookven.4039451.html

Royally Hurt, at Home and Abroad

Brett

It is natural enough to think of the American War of Independence not as a revolution but as a family quarrel. The colonists, like restive adolescents ready to leave home, resisted parental control. The British, having paid for room and board, reacted with predictable outrage, and George III, to an unusual degree, tended to see all political strife as a family drama. In “A Royal Affair,” a portrait gallery of the king and his many siblings, Stella Tillyard argues that the domestic troubles of the royal family during George’s first 20 years goes a long way toward explaining his inept handling of the American crisis.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/27/books/27grim.2.html?scp=1&sq=stella%20tillyard&st=cse

Pentagon to Hold First Gay Pride Celebration

Brett

This year’s milestones for gay rights didn’t end with key influencers such as President Barack Obamaand Jay-Z endorsing marriage equality.

The U.S. Department of Defense has announced it will hold its first ever event commemorating lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender pride.

Details of the celebration are scant, but CNN reports senior Defense Department officials are scheduled to take part in the celebration.

“The Defense Department is planning an LGBT Pride Month event for later this month,” Pentagon spokeswoman Eileen Laniez said in a statement issued Thursday.

Unthinkable just a ago, when the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy prohibited gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military, the announcement comes weeks after Obama and Vice President Joe Biden threw their support behind gay marriage.

 

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/barack-obama-gay-marriage-pentagon-338294

Brandon Elizares, Gay Teen, Commits Suicide, Writing ‘I Couldn’t Make It. I Love You Guys’

Brett

Brandon Elizares, a 16-year-old from El Paso, Tex., took his own life early this month after being bullied and threatened at school because of his sexuality, KVIA-TV reports.

“My name is Brandon Joseph Elizares and I couldn’t make it,” his suicide note read, according to the station. “I love you guys with all of my heart.”

The El Paso Times reports Elizares committed suicide the day after he received a threatening text from a classmate.

“He worried about everyone else before himself,” his mother, Zachalyn Elizares, told the paper. “He would say, ‘It’s OK, it doesn’t bother me.’ My son had a right to live how he wanted to live.”

Brandon’s mother also said she believed the school did everything they could to control the bullying.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/14/brandon-elizares-gay-teen-commits-suicide-leaves-note_n_1598272.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

Michelle Obama Reveals How Her White House Garden Grows

Brett

Every so often, a flash of Michelle Obama’s humor comes through in her otherwise serious book about the White House garden and her campaign against childhood obesity, “American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America,” which goes on sale Tuesday.

Mrs. Obama will be making television appearances this week to promote the book; on Tuesday alone, she is scheduled to appear on “Good Morning America,” “The View” and “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/us/politics/michelle-obama-writes-american-grown.html

Michelle Obama: President Obama Tucks Me In Every Night

Brett

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/president-obama-tucks-michelle-night-michelle-article-1.1085098

He may be the leader of the free world, but he still takes a moment to tuck his wife in at bedtime.

First Lady Michelle Obama revealed that tidbit and other details from the couple’s personal life in a People magazine interview that hit newsstands Friday.

“We have a ritual where he tucks me in, because I’m usually in bed before anybody,” the First Lady spilled. “He’ll come and turn the lights out and give me a kiss, and we’ll talk. He’s like, Ready to be tucked? I’m like, Yes I am.'”

Obama has been promoting her new book “American Grown,” about the White House Kitchen Garden.

She served up a few other nuggests from behind the scene in People.

FLOTUS said she and her husband try to steal as much alone time as possible despite their busy schedules.

For instance, the First Family eats dinner together at 6:30 each evening.

Help for Gay and Lesbian Foster Children

Brett

http://www.pe.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20120525-inland-help-for-gay-and-lesbian-foster-children.ece

Anthony was kicked out of a Beaumont foster home because he’s gay. He endured anti-gay taunts from a roommate at a group foster facility.

Now, the 17-year-old says he is in a better place. He has lived with his new foster parents in Temecula for 15 months, and a gay man appointed by a juvenile-court judge as his advocate has become a confidant and friend who is helping Anthony open up about his problems and about issues involving his sexual orientation.

Riverside County’s Court Appointed Special Advocates program has become a state leader in assisting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered children who have been neglected, abused or abandoned and ended up in the foster care system, said Marissa Guerrero, program manager for California CASA, which provides assistance to the 44 CASA agencies in the state.

Judges appoint special advocate volunteers to represent the interests of some foster children in court and visit with them regularly.

Crowdfunding Via Customers is the New Startup Capital

Brett

Crowdfunding via customers is the new startup capital

When the JOBS Act was signed in April, the startup community gave itself a collective high five. Crowdfunding would enable startups to reach out to the whole world to get access to funding, not just a small cabal of investors living in a 20-mile radius of Menlo Park.

But hidden in the headlines was a much more powerful underlying trend. With the JOBS Act came the creation of an entirely new class of capital that could be far more valuable to startups: customer capital.

Meet the new investor class: Customers.

Instead of raising capital from VCs to build a product, entrepreneurs can skip the line and reach out to customers before the product is actually produced. It’s called a pre-order, but it has a twist. In this case, the pre-order is for a product that doesn’t actually exist yet.

We’ve all dealt with pre-orders before, whether it’s the new iPad or a blockbuster summer movie. But this time customers fund the idea of a product, with the hope that the object itself will someday follow. For example, the Pebble Watch raised $10 million on Kickstarter by crowdfunding from customers strictly through pre-orders. This is just the start.

How to Save on Your High School Prom

Brett

How To Save On Your High School Prom

I received a text from my mom the other day asking if I still wanted my high school prom dress. My first reply was “why?” Turned out our neighbor’s daughter was still on a prom dress hunt. I, of course, said yes and carried on with my day. However, that short conversation left me reminiscing on my 2007 high school prom:

I went all out. My parents agreed to pay for half my prom dress…but that’s it. I worked part time in high school and quite a few of those pay checks went into that one night. My dress alone cost my parents and I $500! Now that five years have gone by, I can clearly state “I wasted my money.” I could have had the same experience for a fraction of what I actually paid.

I went to your typical American high school in a Connecticut suburb, where it’s not unheard of to spend a crazy amount of mulah on prom. Here is the breakdown:

Dress: $500

Shoes: $120

Jewelry: $50

Airbrush Makeup: $100

Hair: $60

Mani/Pedi: $40

I paid for all but $250 myself (thanks Mom and Dad!) I smartly passed on the limo, and chose to drive my reliable little Ford, but $870 for a dress and heels I never wore again, makeup that was just as stunning as what my best friend could have done and hair I could have curled myself…just ridiculous.

Now, I don’t regret it since I did have a blast. I’m just passing along the wisdom I have gained over the years. Save your money, don’t waste it on prom. You’ll thank me when you have to buy your first set of college books!

How to Save Money at your High School Prom

Transgender Advocates Hail Argentina Law

Brett

BUENOS AIRES — Under the glare of rainbow-colored strobe lights, a disc jockey spun Grace Jones’s disco version of “La Vie en Rose” one night last week as couples clinked beer bottles to celebrate passage of a new law that Argentina’s transgender community describes as groundbreaking.

Argentina has put in place some of the most liberal rules on changing gender in the world, allowing people to alter their gender on official documents without first having to receive a psychiatric diagnosis or surgery.

The measure, which won unanimous support in the Senate this month, would also require public and private medical practitioners to provide free hormone therapy or gender reassignment surgery for those who want it — including those under the age of 18.

Argentina’s law goes well beyond those passed in Britain in 2004 and in Spain in 2007 that allow individuals to change their name and sex after receiving diagnoses of persistent gender dysphoria, a condition in which individuals feel trapped in the body of the wrong sex.

“There have been a lot of changes to the laws on gender all over the world, but Argentina is cutting edge,” said Harper Jean Tobin, the policy counsel for the National Center for Transgender Equality in Washington. “All the other laws have burdensome requirements with unwanted medical procedures forced on people or denied when they’re needed.”

The move comes two years after Argentina became the first country in Latin America to legalize gay marriage. It is the latest in a spate of liberal rulings on civil rights issues, including a law that decriminalizes abortion in rape cases and gives the terminally ill the right to die.