The How Not To Blog

Tips for Home Care Providers on Working with a Child with Autism

2012-01-24T21:09:00.000-08:00

NOTE BEFORE YOU READ

I sold a much shorter, clearer, and more blog-like blog on this topic to Tender Tree Home Care a little while back. Check http://www.tendertree.com/ to learn more about home care of all kinds. The "blog" you'll see below is completely different, much longer post, so it's probably worth it to check out Tender Tree's blog post first. Without further ado--here are a few tips for working with a child with autism derived from a combination of ABA training, Sunrise training, and experience living with an autistic child for 11 years.

Every child with an ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder) is a little bit different, so many kids operate well in the normal world, and others have much more violent behavioral problems. Ability problem areas range from simply avoiding eye contact to never speaking; not every child will smear feces on the walls, and not every child will flap his hands like he's trying to fly. Here are a few tips for home care providers new for helping out in a family with an autistic or ASD spectrum child.

1. Understand where your tolerance and the child's needs should meet

Many children with autism have behavioral quirks that may not be actually dangerous to the child's health or to your ability to do your job as a home care provider. Caretakers often make the mistake of assuming that because a behavior is abnormal for them, it results from autism, and the child should change it. For example, a little boy once enjoyed playing with a pink fairy wand. A caretaker insisted that he could not have this wand and actually developed a behavioral plan to remove it from him. The boy's interest in the wand was neither obsessive nor obstructing his normal therapy or schedule, or even affecting his interaction with other children; she simply did not find a pink wand gender-appropriate. You should think carefully about prioritizing behavior-modification: which is a bigger problem, an autistic boy's habit of screaming when asked to perform any tasks, or his odd interest in picking fluff off blankets? Because many behavior changes become battles for children with ASD, you should pick your fights carefully. A child will often respond better to you as a caretaker if he feels safe and realizes that you aren't out to take away every little comfort from his life.

2. Identify real problem behaviors and their sources

Real problem behaviors have many different sources, and autistic children have very different behavioral responses to life in general than other children do. It's funny how even after Dr. Bernard Rimland disproved Freud's 'unloving mother' theory of autism we tend to look for normal reasons for abnormal behavior; even very well-meaning new caretakers will sometimes assume the child simply received too little discipline, or too much scolding, or some other issue resulted from the child's conniving heart or parental weakness.

Look for three major sources of a problem behavior: physiology, resistance, or social reward. Many autistic children have heightened senses and experience the world differently from you, so it's no use scolding an autistic child to wear his shirt when he won't because the fabric actually hurts him. On the other hand, coddling a child who resists the shirt because he wants to disobey and control you will only end up hurting the child's family life in the long run. The autistic child may be resisting the shirt because a response you give rewards him: you may put him on time-out, and that escape from unwanted interaction may be exactly what he wants.

How do you know what behavior has what cause? You have to chart triggers of the cause, and you have to see in what situations the behavior stops. This will take a long time of getting to know the child, and watching the problem situation over and over again, but part of the diagnosis lies in the solution.

3. Find replacement behaviors for physiological or other comfort behaviors; ignore resistance

To use our shirt example a little more, if you find the child responds better to a different material, the problem may have been physiological. You can ask a doctor as well to evaluate the child. Some autistic children with horrible allergies experience intense internal pain or even hallucinations; the child may bang his head on the wall, or shriek every few minutes, or even show fear of the floor, and the problem might actually come from something a doctor can help with. The child may smear feces on the wall because he's constipated, or because he's reaching an age where his diaper makes him uncomfortable. Try to look for every possible physiological trigger for the behavior, and if you find none, check to see if you're simply rewarding the negative behavior.

Replace desire-based problem behaviors with behaviors that fulfill the same needs. A child may smear feces just to feel the goop against the wall; replace that behavior with finger paints, and the child can experience the same sensation without the yuck. You can teach a child who likes to throw to participate in a game of catch with you. These kinds of solutions may sound silly, but finding ways to channel a child's problem behaviors will save you a lot of frustration.

For resistant behavior, negative reinforcement like taking away a favorite toy or other discipline--you need to talk to your family to understand how they feel about spanking and other controversials--may work. "Normal" kids often respond well to negative reinforcement, but you have to remember that ASD kids live in a completely different world, and negative reinforcement might actually hurt rather than help the situation. If you use negative reinforcement, you must apply it directly after the problem behavior occurs. Not ten minutes later, not before as you see it coming, but directly after. This is the best way to ensure that the child connects the negative reinforcement with the behavior. This may have to happen over and over tens or hundreds of times before the child makes the connection.

You almost have to think like an autistic child in order to make sure you aren't encouraging the problem behavior: the smallest things may become rewards. Some autistic children will actually throw or break things in order to see your anger response. This may sound ridiculous, but because most autistic children have trouble interpreting social patterns in the world around them, they cling to any pattern of normalcy or control. If you had no idea how to communicate with anyone, and everyone behaved completely unpredictably all the time, you might also take comfort in the one truth that throwing the plate makes Nana scream. Much of the time, an autistic child might actually completely tune out your yelling or frustration; at other times, the child may not understand that a particular negative reinforcer has anything to do with the problem behavior. She may just tremble under the loss with no idea as to why it's happening.

The hands-down most-ABA-recommended way to deal with a reaction-seeking problem behavior? Ignoring it. Because autistic kids can be more detail-observant than the rest of us, this means no eye contact, not a word, and if possible no change at all in your body language. Kids who are looking to make you angry will increase the intensity of the behavior for a while to see if they can finally get that response. Don't crack. If you ignore it to the end, the child will realize the response gets them nothing they want, and they will find something else.

I hope your first experience helping an ASD child is a positive one, and that the child feels loved and accepted as you embark on this new phase of your professional home care life!

Homecare for Family Members with Handicaps: What to Pay, and How to Find Help

2012-01-12T17:19:00.001-08:00

When my cousin came over just before Christmas Eve, small talk brought up her new job working for a wealthy family member who became paralyzed in a diving accident. My cousin has to help him get dressed, eat, accompany him to the gym, and do everything else that you may have to do with your friend or family member with physical or neurological disabilities. We got around to talking about payment, and she explained she's taking a cut in pay because he's a relative.

It can be a hard question--what should you pay a caretaker who helps you with differently-abled family? How much more does it cost? Should it cost more? Many children with Down's syndrome have happier demeanors and easier "obedience ethic" than "normal" children do. On the other hand, spending a day with a stimming, high-energy autistic child has turned many a saintly caregiver into a rage-class sinner. Here are some considerations for paying a caregiver for a differently-abled family member.

1. Government aid

Families with mentally-affected family members sometimes receive government social security subsidies for care. Depending on your needs, the state you reside in, and other factors, once they've reached eighteen years of age the government may pay anywhere around $695 a month to supplement their care. This definitely factors in to any decisions the rest of us make about their care in the future. A caregiver in Hawaii can receive as much as $14.64 an hour from the government to help with home care for a young adult with cerebral palsy; you may want to pay a comparable or competitive rate even if you don't receive government money, just to attract good caregivers.

2. Volunteerism

Lower-income families not yet eligible for government aid and unable to pay government rates to their caregivers don't have to fear getting edged out of the home-care market by Uncle Sam; you can still attract good help for less. If you live near a college or university, you may take advantage of psychology or pre-med students looking for volunteer credit. "Miriam" posted an ad in the local student volunteer center asking for help with her child with autism. She trained volunteers to use the Sunshine program to play with and care for her son, held meetings every Sunday, and scheduled each volunteer for a few hours every week. The simple math reveals enough: twenty volunteers at two hours each every week equals forty hours of care, and even ten or fifteen volunteers can fill up a sizable chunk of your in-home needs.

If you don't live near a large student population, an e-mail out to your local church may even get you a long-term caregiver for ten or so hours each week who's just looking for room and board as payment. Don't feel overwhelmed, and don't give up your search--people can help you.

3. Training

This leads to the issue of expertise. It's often fairly easy to train caregivers for basic help, but if you want higher quality intensive therapy you will certainly have to pay more. An ABA therapist with a master's costs $100 an hour, but you can get good therapists working on their bachelor's for around $9.00. This is actually a criminally low rate--ABA therapists often receive much more training than non-therapeutic caregivers have, and non-therapeutic caregivers in Virginia can go for as much as $20 an hour. However, it can be tough to get even 30 hours a week of in-home therapy, and having therapists come in and out of your house may require more of your presence at home. You may need to mix and match in-home therapy and other in-home care. Many care.com special needs' experienced caregivers work for $10-$15 an hour.

Whatever your cost evaluations for in-home care, make sure you remain up-front with your caregiver about your health needs and pocketbook. When you post a special needs opening on care.com, make sure to list all the important needs and details so that you can get the right caregiver for your family. Don't be afraid to ask for free help from your church or community center, and remember that the rest of your family has needs also. Join a support group for families with differently-abled members for resources; many of us understand and sympathize with you. It's common for families with special needs to feel judged by their local community or co-workers, so finding a forum of similar families not only helps families share resources--it also allows you readier access to info about non-judgmental, experienced caregivers and friends. It's okay to ask for help if you have to stay home more while in-between caregivers or if you can't find a caregiver who meets your needs: that doesn't make you any less an educated or empowered person. Families with special needs face a lot of pressures from all different directions, and you have to feel comfortable with your own decisions to do the best for YOUR family, not some imagined ideal.

Blessings, and peace.

Book Review: M-1 Garand Assembly Guide (so where you can look to find out about modifying your M-1 Garand)

2011-12-23T09:46:00.000-08:00

Some people learn by reading; others learn by doing.

For the gun owners who lie in the latter category, a historic firearm becomes more than a relic to hang above their fireplaces while they sit under it and read of its exploits.

For those hands-on learners, historic guns become bygone battlefields for minds and fingers to explore--a way for you to connect with whatever past soldier first field-stripped that gun years ago.

Geared towards that hands-on historic gun collector, "The M-1 Garand Complete Assembly Guide" by Walt Kuleck aims to present a simple guide for someone with no Garand modification experience, according to its introduction.

Does the book meet that goal? The specific, detailed subject may frighten brand-new general gun enthusiasts into believing they will not understand Kuleck's book: not so.

In fact, the book simplifies Garand assembly for the new owner almost to the point of the ludicrous. The author wasn't satisfied just to write the caption "note the receiver" above an image of a receiver, for example; he also wrote it again two inches away on the image with a big dark arrow pointing to the indicated part, in case the reader, a consummate idiot, still does not note the receiver.

The clear, step-by-step images take the reader through disassembly from trigger guard to buttplate, and then back through assembly. The images makes the book: I only wish I had seen these pictures before interviewing Mr. Kuleck on Garand accuracy--it would have made researching the gun much easier.

Each set of basic directions includes safety features throughout that should also provide a solid aid to new Garand owners. "Always wear your safety goggles" brings back memories of high school robotics for me, but Kuleck's story about a gun exploding on his hand reminds the young and reckless that this isn't the science fair anymore.

Also for safety, Kuleck's book recommends a full read-through before an owner makes any modifications, and a final check with a certified armorer before the owner fires the finished gun. He illustrates, with images, the unsafe way to remove a trigger assembly--with a cocked hammer--and what used or welded gun parts could prove disastrous additions to a rebuilt Garand.

Despite the simple language and safety instructions geared towards beginners, long-time Garand owners may benefit even more than newbies as Kuleck, a Garand Collector's Associaton board member, builds on established knowledge with his experienced, trial-tested tips for the best techniques, the trickiest pitfalls big and small, and ideas for saving time.

Continue reading here: http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=48066

How to make an old gun (M-1 Garand) shoot like new. Okay, not really. How to make your historic M-1 Garand more accurate

2011-12-21T08:17:00.000-08:00

Image courtesy of army.mil
Reserve color guard honors World War II veterans at a football game Nov. 8, 2010 in WWII uniform, with M-1 Garands

Guns & Patriots asked Garand expert Dr. Walter J. Kuleck, a board-member of the Garand Collector’s Association and author of several authoritative gun manuals, what tweaks can give your Garand its best competition accuracy.

“First off, you need to make sure that the rifle is kept clean and lubricated with a high quality grease. If you don’t have a basic platform to start with—a clean, solidly assembled rifle--it really doesn’t matter what you do to it from there on,” said Kuleck, a doctor of psychology who spent many years as a Boeing engineer.

The former engineer said improving the accuracy of any rifle requires three critical points: the barrel, the fit of the stock, and what happens at the front end of the gun.

“If the barrel is rusted or pitted or defective in some way, you’re not going to get anywhere in terms of improving the accuracy,” he said.
The second critical accuracy point, the stock, may need adjustments to tighten its grip around the receiver, said Kuleck.

“The stock is held between the receiver and the trigger group. That is to say, when you field-strip a Garand, you swing down the trigger guard and remove the trigger group—that’s got the hammer, the trigger, the safety—the stock then comes off and you have the barrel of action, in other words the receiver,” he said.
“If that fit isn’t tight—in other words, if the receiver’s allowed to move around in the stock just a little bit—the accuracy is going to be materially affected, negatively,” he said.

When the Garand was standard military issue, finding a perfect stock for a rifle was easy for armories because they had so many Garands available, said Kuleck.

Today, when stock-fit decays, Garand owners can use glass reinforced resin or fiberglass bedding to tighten their aim, he said. “That enables you to get a perfect, lasting fit between the stock and the barrel receiver.”

Kuleck said the final focus area of the gun for accuracy enhancement lies on the front end of the gun: a study by the Marines showed that even just placing a penny on the top of the front end of the barrel by the sight would dramatically alter rifle accuracy.

“You would shift the place the bullets were hitting by feet at 600 yards,” he said.

The front end must always return to the same place with respect to the rifle--this means making sure that the gas cylinder does not bind on the barrel, because if it does, when the barrel heats up the cooler cylinder ring will bend the barrel, he said.

“On a service rifle, you want the front hand guard to rattle a little bit back and forth because as a rifle heats up, if it’s all jammed in there, it’s gonna have a similar effect—it’s gonna begin to warp as it gets hot. So on a match rifle, what you do is you secure the rear of the handguard to the metal piece that surrounds the stock, called the front-end ferrell,” he said.

Typically a gun-owner could secure the ferrell with glue, or drive screws in through the back and then glue it into place—while ensuring that the handguard does not have the freedom to touch the back of the gas cylinder, he said.

Tweaking those three critical points will help hone the inherent accuracy of the rifle, but a shooter must also find ways to reduce user error, Kuleck said.

“You can’t stop there. The interface—I hate that word, but some places it just works--between the shooter and the rifle is extremely important, and the two important elements that I’m talking about are the sights and the trigger,” he said.

Sights should enable the user to adjust placement with respect to the bulls-eye, so size matters: choose a sight that’s too big, and the shooter can’t tell where it is under the bulls-eye, while too small means hard to see through, said Kuleck.

Standardized Garand national match sights end up somewhat smaller than normal service rifle sights, and have a bit of a taper from back to front to reflect any glare forward rather than back towards the shooter’s eye, he said.

A smaller back sight aperture creates a sharper image, and for accuracy the aperture is adjustable so each click in the horizontal direction is one half minute of angle—half the normal adjustment for a battle rifle, said Kuleck.

“One minute of angle translates to one inch at a hundred yards, two inches at two hundred yards, three inches at three hundred yards, and so on,” he said.

The trigger forms the final accuracy-enhancing aspect of the gun/user interface, said Kuleck.

“If the trigger has a lot of what we call creep—in other words, you have to really move it a long way before it goes ‘bang’—rifle shooters don’t like that very much because it allows—it keeps you from discharging your rifle when you want to,” he said.

The weight and delay of pulling a single-stage four-pound trigger, for example, might cause a shooter to lose aim while the gun fires, said Kuleck.

To make a trigger pull more smoothly, Kuleck said owners can...

Can what? How can you make a trigger pull more smoothly? How not to not end a sentence. = P Keep reading here: http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=48058

Kim Jong Il is Dead--What Next? Clinton&Genba summit, persecuted Christians, and political analysis of life after his death

2011-12-20T14:01:00.000-08:00

Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton met Japan's Foreign Minister Dec. 19 to plan a strategy with regards to North Korea as humanitarians worldwide expressed hope--and fear--in the wake of Kim Jong Il's death.

"We share the recognition that it is important to make sure that the latest event would not negatively affect the peace and stability on the Korean peninsula," said Foreign Minister Koichiro Genba. "For this purpose we affirm to closely monitor the situation concerned and to coordinate closely with each other by sharing information."

Dictator Kim Jong Il died from working tirelessly for the North Korean people, said Ri Chung Hee, the same news anchor from the Korean Central News Agency who announced Kim's father's death.

"He died of a sudden illness on Dec. 17. We make this announcement with great sorrow," she said, dressed in black and weeping.

Genba said he hopes to see concrete efforts towards denuclearization of North Korea, and also expresses gratitude to the United States for raising the issue of North Korea's abduction of Japanese citizens during every North Korea/US dialogue, he said.

"Due to the most recent developments we are seeing an increasing bubble of interest and attention to how the process of dealing with the abduction issue develops in Japan," he said.

Clinton said the Obama administration is relying closely on the advice of other countries in the region in the aftermath of Kim's death. "We reiterate our hope for improved relations with the people of North Korea, and remain deeply concerned about their wellbeing."

Prof. Ronald G. Dimberg of the University of Virginia, who teaches the history of inter-Korean affairs, said without understanding Kim's successor, Kim Jong-un, it is difficult to tell whether possibilities for healthy US/North Korea relations have improved or not.

"No one knows much of anything about him, including the extent of his apprenticeship. We know that his father had several years of training before succeeding Kim Il-sung, but the same is clearly not the case with Kim Jong-un," he said.

Kim Jong-un received part of his education in Switzerland--more exposure to the outside world than most North Koreans, including most of his family members, could imagine, said Paul M. F. Estabrooks, Canadian senior communications specialist with the humanitarian advocacy group Open Doors International.

"No one knows for sure if that's a positive thing in his outlook on the world," he said.

Dimberg said the US should tread lightly. "Of utmost importance now is to stay alert and to do nothing to raise fears and concerns in Pyongyang. Remember the importance of the year 2012 for the DPRK, marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il-sung. That was to have been, and will be, a very special year for North Korea, but now for reasons unimagined originally."

Dr. Carl Moeller, president of ODI, said with increased government surveillance following Kim's death; some underground Christians in North Korea have become fearful they might face more suffering. "Though this brutal dictator who was responsible for so many atrocities has died, the future is still unknown."

North Korean prison camps hold an estimated 50,000 to 70,000 Christians, he said.

Todd Nettleton, spokesman for Voice of the Martyrs, another persecution advocacy group, said his contacts in North Korea do not expect much change in the government's attitude towards Christians following Kim Jong Il's death.

"North Korea doesn’t announce anything publicly until they are ready to deal with the situation and maintain control," he said. "So this public announcement means they think they are ready to deal with the situation and maintain control and power within the country."

However, officials have stepped up house raids on hidden Christians since the Oct. 2010 annunciation of Kim Jong-un as next leader, said "Simon," a Christian in North Korea whose last name was withheld for protection.

Continue reading here as "Simon" shares more of his inside view--also, the woman who stabbed herself to cry for Kim Jong Il's father http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=48268

U.S. Infantry Weapons in Combat: A book review, snapshots of soldiers and the weapons they loved

2011-12-16T09:28:00.000-08:00

Poster image courtesy of army.mil
Foreground:(left to right) a 1945 Army tank guard with a submachine gun, a Major with an M-1 carbine, and his radioman, with an M-1 rifle.

Step inside this book, and you slip into heavy boots in muddy foxholes, stiff fingers shivering as you field strip a frozen M-1 or clean your Browning Automatic Rifle with its .45 caliber brass brush. Look through the sights of the guns detailed in US Infantry Weapons in Combat, and you look into the soul of a bygone era.

The book, written by historic weapon enthusiast Mark G. Goodwin, consists of 65 interviews of American infantry soldiers who participated in World War II and the Korean War.

The author and publisher both have deep emotional histories with World War II weapons--especially the M-1 Garand: Scott A. Duff, the book's publisher and author of its foreword, believes that the M-1 won World War II.

Stories range from the lighthearted to the morose, from the soldier ready to return home to the young man hankering to stay on the battlefield, but they all hang on the common thread of historic guns.
The gun details make Goodwin's book riveting: "The first thing this reader must know about this book is that it is a gun book," according to the foreword by Duff.

The book shows the tension Korean War hero Jack Walentine felt 40 or 50 feet from the top of a ridge during a final charge, as he asked himself, "Did I shoot four, five, or six rounds?"

In another interview story, World War II vet Marion Throne’s M-1 clicked without firing, alerting German soldiers to his presence. "I couldn't believe I was so stupid to not tap the operating rod,” he said.

This is no cut-and-dry thesis of statistics quantifying the technological contribution of a certain gun to military achievements. Through the medium of guns, the soldiers interviewed paint vivid pictures of their personalities, American wartime culture, and war as a whole.

It's odd--and rather funny--to think that no one thought to write this book 20 years ago and make it required reading for some obscure college history class.

Modern warfare is all about guns, but most educational histories on American wars focus on strategic maneuvers, politics, or large-scale socioeconomic trends. Personal histories and war memoirs tend to focus on family stories and cultural clashes.

Yet as a trigger for starting to tell a war story, guns have a definite advantage both because of the intense detail with which infantrymen learned their weapons, and because of the emotional attachment soldiers had to the only thing between them and inflicted or inflicting death.

Infantrymen spent most of their time clutching a firearm; it's impossible to understand their thoughts and relationships with their enemies and friends without understanding their perceptions of their guns...

Continue reading here: http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=47833

Getting better at updatin' faster: MF Global CEO says it's not his fault, it's taxes!

2011-12-09T06:25:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don't know, MF Global failed around Halloween, costing tons of people millions of dollars.

Here's my story about the Congressional hearing.

Testifying Dec. 8 before the House Agriculture Committee, the former CEO of commodities brokerage MF Global blamed new tax laws, not his bets on European sovereign debt, nor the $1.2 billion in missing client funds for the company’s Halloween bankruptcy filing.

The company’s losses that forced the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing came from new tax regulations removing assets from the company, said Jon S. Corzine, former New Jersey governor and senator, who is an intimate member of both the Clinton and Obama political families.

“The lion’s share of the quarterly loss was a write-off of approximately $119.4 million that reflected a valuation adjustment against a deferred tax asset,” he said.

The company’s repurchase transaction derivatives, also called RTM’s, were used to facilitate its bets on high-yield debt issued by European governments and carried an asset, not a liability, he said.

“That asset had been created by years of non-RTM tax losses cumulated—mostly before I arrived at MF Global—in the firm’s United States and Japanese subsidiaries, which had allowed MF Global to recognize as an asset potential tax benefits in future years,” he said.

“Under applicable accounting rules, by the second quarter of MF Global’s 2011 fiscal year the firm was no longer permitted to recognize those tax benefits as assets, and therefore, with the advice and knowledge of its external auditor, it recognized a loss in that amount,” he said.

This bookkeeping adjustment, related to practices that predated his tenure, caused the firm’s downfall, he said.

Corzine said the company did not fail due to risky European investments, which he conceded were done at his initiative.

“In light of the attention that has been given to RTMs, and the press reports that attributed MF Global’s loss to RTMs involving European debt securities, it is important to make clear here that the loss was not related to these positions,” he said.

The fallen CEO’s testimony was preceded by appearances from Jill E. Sommers, who leads the MF Global investigation for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and James B. Kobak, Jr., counsel for the trustee appointed to execute the Securities Investor Protection Act liquidation of the firm.

Corzine was often confident and engaging during his testimony, but when he spoke about the missing $1.2 billion in client funds, he played as perplexed as the congressmen glaring at him under hot television lights.

“I was stunned when I was told on Sunday, Oct. 30, 2011 that MF Global could not account for many hundreds of millions of dollars of client money,” he said.

“I remain deeply concerned about the impact that the un-reconciled and frozen funds have had on MF Global’s customers and others,” he said.

Responding to questions from Rep. K. Michael Conaway (R.-Texas) about the missing funds, Corzine said that because of the turbulence in the days leading up to the bankruptcy, which came on the heels of his November 3 resignation, he only knows what is already in the public record.

“There were an extraordinary number of transactions during MF Global’s last few days, and I do not know, for example, whether there were operational errors at MF Global or elsewhere, or whether banks and counterparties have held onto funds that should rightfully have been returned to MF Global,” he said.

“I have not had access to my emails or any of the reconciliations,” he said.

Corzine said he hoped the situation will change as his attorney works to open company records to him before the end of the year.

The former CEO, who joined MF Global in March 2010, said he has no access to information on botched customer accounts.

“I simply do not know where the money is, or why the accounts have not been reconciled to date. I do not know which accounts are un-reconciled or whether the un-reconciled accounts were or were not subject to the segregation rules,” he said. Segregation rules regulate how a company can put a client at risk against its own proprietary trading.

Sommers said MF Global’s issues revolve around customer segregated accounts: as a futures commission merchant, also known as an FCM, the firm was permitted to invest funds in protected accounts, but under certain restrictions.

“While an FCM is permitted to invest customer funds, it is important to note that if an FCM does so, the value of the customer segregated account must remain intact at all times,” she said.

“In other words, when an FCM invests customer funds, that actual investment, or collateral equal in value to the investment, must remain in the customer segregated account at all times,” she said.

Continue reading here: http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=48036

And a little note...why do I label all the newsposts as American History?
To make a statement, my friend...to make a statement.

Rand Paul and the White House on Education--American Action Forum, vouchers, and how Dr. Paul Jr. wants to take away summer vacation = P

2011-12-07T12:15:00.000-08:00

Sen. Randal H. "Rand" Paul (R.-Ky.)

At a packed education forum Dec. 1 a Bluegrass Senator urged changes like merit-based teacher salaries and vouchers to guarantee students better value for parents’ taxes--without increasing education funding.
“Let’s figure out how to have competition in our schools—competition for better schools,” said Sen. Randal H. “Rand” Paul (R.-Ky.) to the American Action Forum.
“Let the students decide where to go; attach the money to the kids, and the money will go to the better schools, and the poorer schools will meet their demise,” he said.
Teachers should also receive competitive pay, without union interference, said Paul, who was joined at the forum by a panel of education experts including Zakiya Smith, Anne Neal, Jeff Selingo, and Andrew Gillen.
“Why not on occasion give a really good teacher $100,000? You’ve got to break up the idea that every teacher deserves $55,000, no more, no less—the idea that everyone’s going to contribute the same and we’re not going to reward some teachers and not re-hire some teachers,” he said.
John Stossel wrote about some 400 teachers in New York who had inappropriately touched students but could not be fired because of union agreements, said Paul. “You can’t do that. You have to change—we’ve got to break up the ideas of what we’ve been doing.”

Paul’s son tore a ligament in psychology class while the teacher sat with his feet up on the desk and let the kids play basketball every day; that teacher should not get the same pay as the teacher who works in and out of the classroom, calling parents and engaging with students to increase their test scores, he said.
Often parents cannot blame teachers for failing students, said Paul: a study by Malcolm Gladwell showed that the education gap between impoverished and well-off students widens during the summer.
“He comes to the conclusion that the only thing that he’s identified objectively through statistics that would work would be longer school-years,” he said.
Constitutionally, states, not the federal government, should manage education, he said. “There’s nothing in the Constitution that says anything about education. We’ve drifted from that.”
Increasing education funding will not fix the problem, he said.
“I think it doesn’t work. I mean, look at Washington, D.C., we spend what, $16,000--or is it $20,000--per pupil in Washington, so the school district that spends more money than any other school district in the country has arguably one of the worst educations in the country,” he said.
Annie Hsiao, director of Education Policy at the American Action Forum and major organizer of Paul’s talk, said funding for American college educations has also come to crisis.
“Based on 2009 numbers—the state of student loans right now--the default rate for student loans is 8.8 percent. Federal default rate is 13.8 percent,” she said.

“You do see a market increase in students being unable to pay back their student loans because in many cases they graduate—or in many cases they don’t graduate, half of students don’t graduate—and aren’t able to find employment because again they haven’t been equipped with the skills necessary,” she said.
Read the rest of the article here: http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=47970
Are the long titles getting to be too much? Maybe I'll cut back next week. = P

The State Department changes its response from "No M-1 Garands" to "Yes, maybe"--and I got to hear it first. = P

2011-12-06T12:40:00.000-08:00

Big, big how not to no-no. No putting smileys in titles. Absolutely not. It looks juvenile. Teenage. Distinctly unprofessional. Smileys are great for personal blogs, and even for news blogging within the text when the tone allows, but absolutely not for this article:

"The State Department announced Dec. 2 that it will re-consider its stance against allowing M-1 Garands into the United States if South Korea offers another sale.

“The Department will consider a new request from the Republic of Korea (ROK) to transfer its inventory of approximately 87,000 M-1 Garand rifles into the United States for sale on the commercial market,” a spokesperson at the U. S. Department of State said to Guns&Patriots on Dec. 2. “We have not yet received that request.”

“These M-1 Garand rifles date back as far as 1926 and remain a legacy of decades of U.S.-South Korean security partnership. The ROK intends to use the net proceeds of the sale, estimated to be between $2 million - $10 million depending on the condition of the rifles, to upgrade its Homeland Defense Mobilization Reserve components with more modern rifles,” said the spokesperson.

Sen. Jon Tester (D.-Mont.) said the new developments encourage him and he hopes the State Department will move forward quickly.

“For over a year, I have pushed the State Department to allow the importation of M1 Garands, so it’s encouraging to hear that folks at the State Department are open to making that happen. I look forward to the State Department and the Republic of Korea reaching an agreement soon so American collectors can start adding these historic rifles to their gun collections,” he said.

The Department of State made the decision to reconsider their ban in response to additional information received from ROK authorities, as well as in an effort to compromise between the competing sides for and against the importation, said the State Department spokesperson.

“The Department of State considered several important factors when reviewing the proposal for a limited shipment, including the close and enduring bilateral relationship with the ROK, the historic value of these firearms to collectors in the U.S., and the potential public safety, law enforcement, and cross-border transshipment implications attendant to the importation of these firearms,” said the spokesperson."
Continue reading here: http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=47906
Oh wow that link formatting is so ugly I almost couldn't do it. But this is thehownotto blog, after all!
Enjoy the rest of the article, and the awesome picture of John Garand (the M-1's inventor) that I cooked up out of thin National Park Service air.

Tester Introduces Defense Authorization Amendment to Prevent EPA from Banning Traditional Ammo and Tackle--(How Not to Link an Article on Your Blog). And I Make This Title Longer. Again.

2011-12-05T08:22:00.000-08:00

A Treasure State Democratic senator introduced an amendment to the Department of Defense Authorization Act Nov. 29 ensuring hunters and anglers can continue using traditional ammunition and fishing tackle.

“When it comes to our outdoor heritage, Montana’s hunters and anglers deserve common sense,” said Sen. Jon Tester (D.-Mont.), chairman of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus.
“It’s my job to make sure that Montana’s sportsmen can access and enjoy the Big Sky’s great outdoors without having to look over their shoulders,” he said.

The EPA previously decided not to restrict traditional ammunition and fishing tackle, but with that decision now in the courts, Tester’s measure would have enshrined protections for hunters and anglers in law, he said.

The American Sportfishing Association and the Congressional Sportsman’s Foundation also supported Tester’s efforts, Tester said, and the amendment would not affect current U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service safeguards aimed at protecting water fowl.

Christopher W. Cox, executive director of the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action, said...
Dun dun dun...want to know what he said? Click here!
This is how not to get your reader to click into your full article. Silly gimmicks often make readers feel like you're wasting their time. But anyway, click there to read the rest, if you dare, and find out what happened to Tester's amendment. Will the EPA win in the end?
I'm not a scorched-earth anti-environment person, btw. Just trying to establish dramatic tension with the evil EPA vs. ordinary Jon the Democrat so you'll click this link.
See how obnoxious that is? That's exactly how not to do it!

More Military History: Two Medal of Honor Recipients In The Same Battle Treated Differently By Historians

2011-11-30T12:25:00.000-08:00

This particular interview has great historiographic value, for Mr. Laplander compares historical treatment of two heroes in the same battle who received different citations. These men worked as an incredible team, saving each other, and when a gun jammed one man stood up in the middle of a hail of bullets to fix it, rather than giving up and staying down. They would not be stopped--but history treated them both differently.

So scroll around the podcast, I think Mr. Laplander and I come in around 40 or so. Play around until you hear a girl's voice--I'm the only lady on the crew.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=47659

History and modern uses of the M-1 Garand: The Gun that saved your Grandfather's Life

2011-11-28T06:02:00.000-08:00

Somewhere across America, a man sights towards a competition target 600 yards away, finger tensed on a trigger that wears his grandfather’s fingerprints.

The stock of the rifle bolstered against his shoulder may have born the snows of Northern Germany or Korea or the sweat and steam of South Pacific jungles.

Somewhere, an American is holding an M-1 Garand.

Read here: http://bit.ly/vJTX8r

Being a History Major Is Awesome: I Interview Laplander On the Military Historian Who Cursed Those Who Carried Him Off the Field Of Battle

2011-11-16T08:56:00.000-08:00

Wow, Long Title Galore.

Miles, the man in this podcast, became the biographer of the Lost Battalion, essentially, and his group of guys in World War II loved him. As a history major, I felt connected with a man unafraid to step into history himself and make a difference; yet I am awed by the historian who wanted others to become the center, not himself. This man was angry that he received the Medal of Honor without dying.

Listen to the rest of his story here--(Skip to 14:40 for Miles)
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=47306

Should I feel concerned about how short these posts have become? I hope not. This is the How Not To Blog. I should only be concerned with how not to post. However, research shows that shorter posts get better reads on blogs--around 300 to 500 words max. I am trying hard to make sure I'm not doing this right, but I fear I actually have the length correct for this one. But I lose points for rambling--rambling is never good in a blog--so there, we're back to How Not To do things.

The Only Gun Range in Manhattan: the risk it takes to run it, and what a super-liberal lady had to say

2011-11-15T08:14:00.000-08:00

Movies and TV shows depict the streets of New York riddled with gunfire and violence—but on a normal day in Manhattan’s Flatiron district, most of the shooting happens under the street and inside.

Above ground, “another round” means someone has just ordered drinks, but at the Westside Pistol and Rifle Range, another round means “reload": Westside Pistol and Rifle is the safe underground where gun owners can escape the scrutiny of New York’s anti-gun attitudes.

“It’s like a little oasis in New York City,” said Martin Vezzuto, a young pro-hunting New Yorker, upon an Oct. 19 visit to the range.

Westside is the only gun range in Manhattan, said Darren C. Leung, the range’s Chinese-American owner. He said the range is more than a business; it is his calling.

Read about the controversy, comradery, and conversation below--why would a super-liberal girl check out a gun range and enjoy it? And why would you attack a hunter with a dog? Crazy New York--read more here!
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=47233

Better Late Than Never: Wisconsin Allows Concealed Carry, and I Allow You to Know About It

2011-11-14T12:32:00.000-08:00

Oh my dear readers, I completely forgot to post this on Tuesday!
Dude. SO MANY GUNS in Wisconsin now, and so much fuss about the Governor. Can you imagine a third of Wisconsin's citizens armed? Also, what do studies say anyway? Read about pro-gun and anti-gun studies below.

Excerpt: "The response from Wisconsin citizens has been overwhelmingly positive, he said. “Contact the Wisconsin Department of Justice for details, but news reports have shown that 80,000 people downloaded applications for the permit yesterday." Wisconsin has a population of 5,654,774 according to the Census Bureau, so nearly 1.5 percent of Badgers have already applied for permits within the first day. If requests were to continue at that rate, within a month nearly a third of Wisconsin’s citizens will have applied for permits"
Read it all here.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=47300

In the beautiful state of Virginia, controversy is brewing as powerful 7-term state senator Ed Houck and a national anti-abortion PAC, the Susan B Anthony List--face off!

2011-11-04T08:43:00.000-07:00

Breaking news for all you Virginians and the rest of you who don't care about VA--things are about to get strange in VA. Why would a national organization go after a state senator? And how many abortions do we have in Virginia a year?

http://bit.ly/uptNmM

Read about it there, by yours truly.

Click please!

Gun Saint: A Review of a Book About a Catholic Who Shot A Lizard, Saved a Town, and May Become Patron Saint of HandGunners. It's like Boondock Saints All Over Again

2011-11-01T12:30:00.000-07:00

That, my friends, is how not to write a title. But seriously, things are getting crazy all up in St. Possenti's life, like a real-life Boondock Saint only without the cursing and weird symbolism! Read about the book Gun Saint here!

http://bit.ly/v4JZr6

"The Catholic Church celebrates patron saints ranging from the obvious to the obscure, from doctors to undertakers. Why not add a patron saint for responsible handgun heroes?

John M. Snyder, former Jesuit seminarian and gun rights activist, tells the story of that question with simplicity, detail, and persistence, beginning with the tale of the Passionist Patron Saint of Youth, who saved an 1860 Italian town from marauding rapists and thieves--by shooting a lizard."

Keep reading! There! http://bit.ly/v4JZr6

Toomey: Protect Conscience Rights: Keystone Senator Opposes HHS Contraceptive Regulation

2011-11-01T08:12:00.000-07:00

Read my article about "a Health and Human Services regulation that orders health care providers to cover, with no cost sharing, all contraceptives and sterilization techniques approved by the Food and Drug Administration..." Meanwhile, "a freshman senator from Pennsylvania announced Oct. 20 he will co-sponsor the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act to thwart this regulation which he said forces Catholic organizations to cover contraceptives against their faith."

Read all this breaking news here: http://bit.ly/uWpyRU

Land, the Old West, and How the Government Owns It All: Ted Poe's Idea to Sell America to Solve the National Debt

2011-10-28T17:33:00.000-07:00

Did you know the US government owns most of the land out West (over 80% of Nevada, for example)? Did you know a congressman thinks selling that land will help solve the national debt?

Did you know that I reported on this idea? It's a trip through American History, with grumpy old men like Jackson and stiff modern magazines like Bloomberg weighing in along the way. Check out the idea that Stephen Moore of Wall Street Journal told me privately was a 'pretty good idea'--and see what you think.

http://www.yaf.org/debt_land.aspx

It's dry fact up until the end. I hope you like dry facts up until the end.

My interview w/ Robert J. Laplander: on Military Hero Benjamin Kaufman and his Medal of Honor

2011-10-25T12:29:00.000-07:00

So, this guy basically charged a machine gun by himself, got blown in the arm, kept going, chuckin' grenades the whole way, and got to them with an empty pistol. He took a prisoner and fought the Germans with a shovel. Yes ladies and gentlemen, they had a machine gun, he had a shovel, and he took a prisoner.
BAMF. (Beast and Macho Fiend, of course)
Click at 41:38 to listen to me! Or just listen to the whole thing. It's all good stuff.

Apparently, Laplander told me afterwards, everyone was hungry and tired and frustrated that day, and they weren't progressing through the woods as hoped, and people were dying, and Kaufman just had enough. He didn't care about anything but his men anymore.

Somebody needs to make a movie about this MF-er (Manly Fighter).

And yes, I believe in taking back those letters people have made repugnant. FU should be Free Yourself, WTF should be Why This Freakiness, and so on and so forth. I'm taking back the alphabet!

Also, I noticed my Russian crew have kinda disappeared--used to have a whole bunch of people from beautiful Russia following along. Sorry it's been all news-focused and not so much random stuff recently. I'm a reporter, you know. But I will, I promise I will, be posting more research soon.

And that, my friends, is how not to stay on topic when introducing a media interview you did. = )

Edit 10/26/2011: About taking back the alphabet--please, please don't take me seriously.
Edit five seconds later: Well, take me a little seriously. Just not like, enough to scare you.

What the DC Protestors Are Really Saying--Occupy DC Interviews Oct 7

2011-10-22T12:23:00.001-07:00

October 7 footage, interviews by Alicia Powe and yours truly. Here's what they told me--they're not waiting around to be co-opted by the Democratic Party.

Why Clean Comedy is the Answer to All The World's Problems. Yes, All of Them.

2011-10-21T15:42:00.000-07:00

Brian Regan, comedian extroardinare, performed Oct. 20 to a crazy crowd--a crowd that included one guy who just kept shouting randomly until he left the theatre--and led me to believe that he can save the world.

This is nothing new.

As you all know, endorphins released by laughter increase life span. And even though scientists have found evidence of humor in some animals, no creature actively seeks out laughter the way human beings do. I would even posit that humor helped win World War II for the Allies, because comedy shows kept the soldiers going, fueled the war effort, and healed wounds after the conflict. So what? So laughter is a part of who we are. But I am not making some vacuous point that laughter makes us live longer or encourages us to live better lives or any such happy mumbo jumbo.

Laughter can save the world in two forms only: pure power, and pure innocence.

Let's sound the grim wake-up call about power: humor trumps logic in messaging. George Carland and other comedians win people's minds politically by making them laugh at the opposition. It used to frustrate me to no end when people I disagreed with used jokes to counter my logical arguments--and, without ever answering me, they won the support of those around them.

But laughter's manipulative messaging power can take any side and any form. That alone will save nothing.

Enter Brian Regan.

Much like the illustrious Jackie Chan, Regan focuses on the ordinary human being. He constantly makes fun of himself, and all of us, in a way that reminds us of our universal humanness: his hilarious comments on Mubarak's soldier riding a camel out into an angry mob did not excuse the dictatorship, but did turn the soldier into a human being for the audience--a feat that I could never accomplish with any amount of preaching about loving your enemies. Most importantly, Regan cuts out gratuitous violence, sex, and certain language, forcing himself to actually think rather than simply appealing to our easy instincts.

Why is that important?

I heard once that a study shows children laugh something on the order of several hundred times a day. Adults on average laugh fifteen. I posit that the loss of laughter rolls in with the loss of interest, the loss of sensation. Why do I say this?

Visit any video store and check out the adult comedy section. What's funny? Sex, Quinn Tarentino-style violence, and sex. Awkward cruelty in conversation, too, makes adults roar, but don't you dare forget sex.

Visit the children's section, and you find variety galore: puns, bloodless physical humor, universal awkwardness, and misunderstanding inhabit worlds ranging from the ridiculous to the every day schoolyard. The violence in shows like Tom and Jerry emphasizes optimism, a Peter Pan immortality--and even though pulverized and pounded cat and mouse never die, they often recognize a "too far," a meanness that makes them friends for a brief moment of apology. Brian Regan's comedy emphasizes that kind of humanizing sensitivity, where we laugh at everything from odd voices to pure stupidity.

We need that reminder of our common, embarrassing, silly humanity. We need it every day when we disagree or make the most important life choices. We need it in foreign policy so we see people, not ideologies or forces, as actors: when we think about Arab Spring, remembering humanity keeps us from only worshipping our favorite cause--democracy--and reveals human costs such as the increased religious persecution under the new democratic regime in Egypt. We need to see politicians as people when we think about the presidential debate, or we become so wrapped up in beating our opposition that we analyze candidates only in the light of electability, rather than paying attention to policy and character. When we learn to laugh like children, we learn to see people like human beings again, because we see their foolishness reflected in the little every day things that we do.

Is this absolutely absurd? Perhaps. Perhaps to alter our senses of humor we would have to alter all of society. I'm fine with that. But how? If we had more comedians like Brian Regan, would that change anything? Does supply ever create demand?

I don't know. But I do know that you are what you laugh at, and what you put into your heart will eventually escape. Laugh at the right stuff and save the world.

Part 4: The federal government paying for gun ranges? And can you have a gun at a beach?

2011-10-18T05:32:00.000-07:00

These are both questions answered below.

http://bit.ly/pEEIlK

Up there ^ Click! It will answer to all your wildest concerns! In all seriousness, this is the last part of the Gun Legislation series I wrote that they've been running over there at Human Events. I believe this is the only paper that has run articles detailing obscure gun legislation this way, so it should be at least marginally useful to you.

^_^ If not, well, this is the hownottoblog. Technically, I SHOULD include an excerpt to encourage you to read the link. But I won't.

How Not To Podcast Maybe? Me On Radio...Or in Podcasts

2011-10-17T18:41:00.000-07:00

Hear about laws stopping gun shows and keeping college girls from owning guns. Podcast with moi here!

http://bit.ly/r0MOll (Scroll to 34:00 to skip to me and the guns--otherwise, enjoy Dick Cheney)
And tomorrow we'll be putting up more gun legislation pieces for you, if you're into that kind of thing.

I know I am. So, you know what G&P thinks--what do you think about these laws?

It's a shame that I'm so bound in my "how not to" ways that I can't even figure out what I may or may not have done wrong in this podcast. See, I'm not even able to correctly analyze for you how not to. Wow. I'm really good at this "not" thing. XD

This Week's News Program...More Gun Legislation

2011-10-12T06:49:00.000-07:00

I ran another gun legislation piece in Guns and Patriots. Any gun control advocates concerned about the danger guns pose to our society and any gun rights advocates concerned about the danger gun control poses to our society--read this. This new legislation affects your cause!

This time, I've got legislation that will make gun control advocates scream and gun rights advocates cheer.

Gun Legislation Part III

Also, this week's legislation has some special endorsement from none other than your all-time favorite Dr. Ron Paul.

That is, by the way, not an endorsement, although I dearly, dearly love his non-conformist fire. I love him partly because everyone else on the left and the right hates him for his "real-person-ness."