Official Royal Wedding Portraits Revealed By Simon Perry and Kristin Boehm

Source: http://www.people.com/people/package/article/0,,20395222_20486243,00.html

April 30, 2011

As the new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were whisked by helicopter to a secret weekend destination, the palace released three official Royal Wedding photographs.


The images were taken by Hugo Burnand in the Throne Room of Buckingham Palace on Friday afternoon – shortly after Prince William made Kate Middleton his wife.

PHOTOS: All the Details of Catherine's Bridal Look!

Of course, there is a main image of the newlyweds. But even more fun, is an adorable one with the children of the bridal party including: The Hon. Margarita Armstrong-Jones, Miss Eliza Lopes, Miss Grace van Cutsem, Lady Louise Windsor, Master Tom Pettifer, Master William Lowther-Pinkerton.


The now-merged family is featured in entirety in the final shot, with everyone from Queen Elizabeth II to Carole Middleton.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with their family

Hugo Burnand/Clarence House/PA/Landov

Flanking William and Kate are as follows.
Front row (left to right): Miss Grace van Cutsem, Miss Eliza Lopes, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, HM The Queen, The Hon. Margarita Armstrong-Jones, Lady Louise Windsor, Master William Lowther-Pinkerton.


Back Row (left to right): Master Tom Pettifer, HRH The Duchess of Cornwall, HRH The Prince of Wales, HRH Prince Henry of Wales, Mr Michael Middleton, Mrs Michael Middleton, Mr James Middleton, Miss Philippa Middleton.


So very regal!

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with attendants

Hugo Burnand / Clarence House / PA / Landov

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

Hugo Burnand / Clarence House / PA / Landov

http://www.people.com/people/videos/0,,20485951,00.html

How Do You Explain This Certificate Mr. Obama?

DOCUMENT ALLEGEDLY OBTAINED IN KENYA SENT TO EVERY MEMBER OF CONGRESS

by Sharon Rondeau

(Sept. 5, 2010) — Lucas Daniel Smith has just completed a mailing to each member of Congress a copy of a document which he stated is a certified copy of the original birth certificate of Barack Hussein Obama II showing that Obama was born in Kenya, Africa. Each birth certificate copy was sent with a seven-page, individually-notarized letter by certified mail.  The project was completed on August 31, 2010.

Smith said that he obtained the document from the Coast Province General Hospital in Mombasa, Kenya in February 2009.  The  document became part of a lawsuit filed by Dr. Orly Taitz, Esq., in California which was denied a hearing in October 2009 by Judge David O. Carter.

Mr. Smith’s declaration to the court, taken under oath, is here.

A video produced by “On Second Thought” TV following one of the preliminary court hearings last summer depicts Mr. Smith discussing some of the details of the document is here.  A video which Mr. Smith produced himself showing close-ups of the document details is here.

In an interview with the Christian News Review on July 13, 2010, Mr. Smith described his background as a sociologist studying in Africa, how he obtained the document from Coast Province General Hospital, the cost, and the military and police presence there. A second interview with Steve Cooper of The Conservative Monster from August 18, 2010  can be found here.

The Post & Email had previously reported that the spelling of “Mombasa” had been “Mombassa” in 1961, but Mr. Smith has refuted that statement.  Indeed, this writer has performed a five-page search using the words “history of Mombasa, Kenya,” and found no evidence of its being spelled “Mombassa.”

Page 635 of the Encyclopedia Britannica (pictured below) utilized by Smith for his research on the history of Kenya also refers to the port city as “Mombasa.”  However, one website which has been following the Obama eligibility controversy incorrectly reports the spelling on the document as “Mombassa.”

Kenya obtained its independence from Great Britain in 1963.

The document which Mr. Smith has reported is a certified copy of the original birth certificate appears below:

Document allegedly obtained from the Coast Province General Hospital on February 19, 2009 by Lucas Smith

The Post & Email asked Mr. Smith a number of questions regarding his travels to Africa, how he obtained the document, and his decision to send it to every member of Congress, a project which was completed on August 31, 2010. Our questions are in bold.

1. Would you be willing to send The Post & Email anything that proves your travel to Kenya (or whatever country was your first destination in Africa) before you accessed the personnel at the Mombasa hospital (the stub of an airline ticket, hotel receipt, etc.)? Do you have anything that shows when you re-entered the U.S. from Kenya after you obtained the document?

I have a plethora of documentation which puts me in the following countries in February of 2009: Democratic Republic of the Congo, The People’s Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Kenya. I will provide this documentation in person to both Congress and attorneys. I will not distribute electronic copies of this documentation until the documentation has been reviewed by members of Congress or disclosed during Congressional investigations/hearings or entered in as evidence in eligibility litigation here in the United States or the United Kingdom.

2. How long were you in Kenya before you approached hospital personnel about obtaining Obama’s record?

Less than 10 days.

3. What convinces you that the document you have in your possession is a copy of his original hospital record? Is there any chance someone gave you a fake document and passed it off as real?

I have been analyzing Barack Obama’s Kenyan CPGH hospital birth certificate for more than one year. This document has withstood the test of time. It has never been discredited. On February 19, 2009 I personally entered Coast Province General Hospital under the guise that I was looking for my sister that had fallen ill while she was working Kenya. It wasn’t until I was inside of the hospital and face to face with administrative staff that I mentioned anything regarding my desire to procure (or purloin) a certified copy of Barack Obama’s original birth record. The significance of the guise was to eliminate any possibility that the hospital’s staff (seeing dollar signs) would be “waiting” for me with a forged or fake document.

4. How long did it take for hospital personnel to procure the document once you approached them about it (e.g., did it occur over a matter of weeks, or did you simply approach them one day, offer them money, and they got the document out of the files)?

On February 19th I personally entered Coast Province General Hospital in Mombasa, Kenya. While inside of the hospital I presented a member of the hospital’s administrative staff with $5000 US dollars, cash. I set the money down in front of them and told them that the money was theirs if they could bring me a certified copy of US President Barack Obama’s original hospital birth record. I stipulated that I was only allotting a small window of time for the staff member to fetch me the document. This member of the administrative staff returned, within the allotted time, with the certified copy of Obama’s original hospital birth record. I am not, at this time, disclosing to the public the specific time allotment. However, I can tell you that the time allotment was less than 45 minutes. The significance of the time allotment was to eliminate any possibility that the hospital’s staff (again seeing dollar signs) would have sufficient time to create a forged or fake document.

5. Since you have had the document since last summer, is there a reason why you chose to hold off on contacting Congress until now?

Going as far back as March of 2009 I have been contacting members of the United States Congress and other federal and state officials as well as attorneys. I actively contacted members of Congress and attorneys during March, April, May and June of 2009. I will use the euphemism of “unfavorable and unsuccessful” to effectively, and respectfully, articulate the responses that I received.

It was at that point, June 2009, that I ascertained that eBay was my only opportunity to garner publicity and bring Barack Obama’s Kenyan birth certificate to the attention of the whole world. I never had any intentions of selling the document. The world would have never known about Barack Obama’s original 1961 hospital birth record from the Protectorate of Kenya if it weren’t for the June – July 2009 eBay auctions.

The Lucas Daniel Smith 4th of July (2010) Letter to Congress is intended to serve as an official record of having informed all of Congress, each member, of Barack Obama’s Kenyan birth and the existence of the 2009 certified copy of Barack Obama’s 1961 Coast Province General Hospital Mombasa, British Protectorate of Kenya, birth record. The letter also directs their attention to a document that they themselves, i.e., US Congress, published in the 1990s which questioned the eligibility of individuals born abroad, of TWO US CITIZEN PARENTS, to hold the Office of President of the United States of America.

————————–

On September 1, 2010, Mr. Smith reported to The Post & Email that letters containing the document he obtained from Kenya have been sent by certified mail to all members of Congress, funded by a private donor.  The complete mailing, which is 3,945 pages long, is divided into eight links due to its size.

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

Link 4

Link 5

Link 6

Link 7

Link 8

The letter to Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa begins:

Lucas Daniel Smith
1626 5th Avenue SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52403
Lucas_d_Smith@live.com
319-804-0440

07.04.2010

United States Senator Charles Grassley
135 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3744

RE:  Barack Obama was born in Kenya.  I personally obtained from his birth hospital and now have in my possession a certified copy of his original birth record from the British Protectorate of Kenya.

Dear Senator Charles Grassley,

I am writing to you today regarding a matter of national security.

We may have spoken before.  This letter will, in part, serve as my official record of my having contacted you regarding the above referenced subject matter.

The President of the United States of America is not eligible to serve as our President.

President Barack Hussein Obama II is not a natural born citizen of the United States of America.  President Obama was born in Mombasa, British Protectorate of Kenya at the Coast Province General Hospital in 1961.

I, Lucas Smith, have proof of this.

Mr. Smith points out the following in regard to page 7 of the letter to members of the House of Representatives and Senate:

Senate Publication 103-21 (US Constitution) was sent to me almost 10 years ago from US Senator Charles Grassley. Last year, while in Africa, when I learned of Barack Obama’s Kenyan birth it was page 18 of this Senate published edition of the US Constitution that popped into the forefront my mind. Page 18 was instrumental in my decision to pursue this story of President Obama’s birth place and attempt to procure some sort of official Kenyan birth record of Mr. Barack Obama.

It was page 18 which contains the words of the late Johnny H. Killian:

This clause requires that in order to take oath of office a president must be 35, a resident within the United States for 14 years, and a natural-born citizen. This last requirement (natural-born citizen) raises the question of whether someone born to American parents outside of the United States would be eligible to hold the office (emphasis added by The Post & Email).

Mr. Johnny H. Killian advised Congress for more than 44 years on constitutional matters. As senior specialist in American public law at the Congressional Research Service, Mr. Killian was the person most often called upon when the constitutionality of a proposal was in question. Mr. Killian was also the editor of and major contributor to the 1972, 1982, 1992 and 2002 editions of “Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation,” nicknamed the Annotated, a seminal work on the judicial history of all constitutional amendments that is a standard text in U.S. law schools.”

More information on Johnny H. Killian can be found here.

Some have questioned the date format and other aspects of the document which Mr. Smith obtained, stating that it would have been written in the European format of day/month/year.  However, Smith has provided an envelope which he claims is from Mombasa from 1897 showing a month/day/year format:

Envelope which Mr. Smith claims is from Mombasa (British East Africa/East Africa Protectorate from 1897 and shows the date in month/day/year format

and made the following statement:

The stamps on the envelope are specifically from 1897.   Furthermore, and more importantly, the British ran out of their own stamps sometime in 1897 and overprinted these Zanzibar stamps with the wording of “British East Africa”.    A close look at the stamps on the envelope shows the “British East Africa” overprint.    The overprint on the far right stamp has the easiest overprint to make out.

Change of Status.—During this period of strain the change from a protectorate to a crown colony was effected (July 1920).  The new colony was named after Mount Kenya, the most commanding natural feature of the country.  The coast lands which formed part of the Sultanate of Zanzibar were not annexed but became the Kenya Protectorate.

What will the members of Congress do once all of the letters are received?  Can they continue to stonewall, insist that Obama has shown a valid birth certificate from Hawaii, and refuse to investigate?  What other document issued in the United States comes close to resembling the document which Smith procured?

No hospital in the United States has claimed that Obama was born there.  Only Governor Linda Lingle of Hawaii has stated that Obama was born at Kapiolani Medical Center, but a person formerly employed in the Hawaii Elections Office says that Obama “was not born in Hawaii” and that “the government there knows this.”

What if Dr. Fukino has been obfuscating and lying to keep the truth from the American people?

Can the judges continue to defend Obama’s right to keep his records hidden?  If Obama is a fraud and ineligible to serve as president, what should be done?

Edge City Celebrates Passover 2011

A History Lesson In 18 Minutes Flat Teaching Passover And The Art Of Matzo Baking

Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20160712103114/http://articles.philly.com/1987-04-05/living/26195821_1_matzo-passover-firstborn-sons

By David O'Reilly, Inquirer Staff Writer

Posted: April 05, 1987

"Take it off, Vicky," said Marsha Cooperson. "Only boys wear those." But 4-year-old Vicky Raskovich thought this lavender yarmulke was great.

Besides, all the boys were putting them on. And even though she was at the Lubavitcher Center in the Northeast - a visit to the Hasidic center has become something of a pre-Passover tradition for Philadelphia-area youngsters - she wouldn't take it off her head.

The Lubavitchers, however, are a decidedly unliberated group whose every action is governed by scrupulous adherence to ancient Jewish law. Men and women don't sit together at synagogue. Husbands and wives don't dance together, even on their wedding day. And besides, girls just don't wear yarmulkes. "Take it off," Cooperson said again.

"Why?" asked Vicky, who giggled and ducked as Cooperson reached for it. But Cooperson, a counselor at Paley Day Care Center, wasn't up for Talmudic debate. She reached over and lifted the yarmulke from the little girl's head and handed it to one of the small boys.

No rabbis scowled at Vicky, though. No one here expected these 4-year-olds - many of whose families are only casually observant Jews - to understand intricacies of Jewish law. With Passover approaching, however, the 39 preschoolers from the Paley center were sitting in the sanctuary one morning last week to learn how the most observant Jews prepare and bake matzo for Passover. And in a few minutes they were going to make their own.

In the last 12 years, thousands of youngsters have made the trek to 7622 Castor Ave., for a visit with the ultra-observant group and demonstrations of traditional matzo baking.

The children from the Northeast day-care center were just a few of the 3,200 youngsters, ranging in age from preschool to high school, expected to tour the Lubavitcher Center's makeshift bakery this year.

"Who knows the story of Pesach?" asked Dov Ber, 19, one of two rabbinical students demonstrating matzo baking at the Lubavitcher Center this year. Pesach is Hebrew for Passover, which begins sundown April 13. It is one of the most important holidays in the Jewish calendar and celebrates the time when, according to the Book of Exodus, an angel of death slew the firstborn sons of the Egyptians. The angel "passed over" the homes of Israelites who had daubed the blood of a lamb on their door posts, and their children were spared.

"Me! Meeeeeee!" shouted a dozen young voices.

"OK," said Ber. "Who was the Egyptian king who had the Jews enslaved?" The kids were instantly stumped. Their hands dropped, they frowned and scratched their heads and wondered until Andrew Maslyanko, 4, came up with an answer.

"He-Man?" he asked.

Ber blinked. He-Man is a blond, muscular television cartoon hero that (between commercials) slays evil monsters on Saturday mornings. And even if Andrew was thinking, perhaps, of Haman (the Persian villain of the recent holiday of Purim, another celebration of the Jews' deliverance from oppression), it was not the answer that Ber had in mind.

"It's very important you know this," he said. In Egypt, he said, there was a "mean, nasty guy named Paro (Hebrew for pharoah)," who had enslaved the Israelites and refused to let them leave Egypt despite the entreaties of their leader, Moses, and a succession of plagues brought down on Egypt.

After the deaths of the firstborn sons, however, the pharaoh relented, and the Israelites departed Egypt so quickly that the bread in their ovens did not have time to rise. Jews have traditionally eaten unleavened bread, or matzo, as part of the Passover observances.

Strictly observant Jews such as the Lubavitchers don't buy machine-made Passover matzo off supermarket shelves, however, and when the youngsters filed out of the sanctuary and into the bakery area, they were greeted by baker Shlomo Meltzer, 22, who explained why.

"The Jews left Egypt so quick their bread didn't have time to rise," he told them. "How quick? In 18 minutes," he said. "That's how long it takes for bread to rise." After 18 minutes, the flour-and-water mixture will begin to rise, Meltzer explained, and become chometz, or leavened bread. Because Jews are forbidden to have even a crumb of chometz in their homes during Passover, a kosher baker allows no more than 18 minutes to pass between the time the flour and water are mixed and the time it is baked.

"So we have to make it faster than 18 minutes," he told the children, who stood around him. In a corner was an old pizza oven, and behind them were 10 large wooden tables with rolling pins at every place. But first Meltzer directed their attention to three small "rooms," each partitioned by sheet plastic.

To be absolutely certain that even minute quantities of flour and water are not mixed beforehand, he explained, a baker here will store the flour in one room, water in another room, and will mix in a third room only as much dough as he needs for each batch.

"So when it's time for the flour he'll yell 'mael,' and his helpers will open the door and bring in the flour." And as he did this, Meltzer picked up a scoopful of flour and reached it through a hole in the plastic sheet on the right, and dumped it into a stainless-steel bowl in the middle "room." In a real kosher bakery, he said, workers handling the flour are careful not to let even perspiration touch the flour for fear that minute quantities will leaven and taint the mixture.

"And then the baker will yell 'wasser,' and other helpers will open the other door and bring in the water," he said, and he picked up a pitcher and passed it through a hole in the left plastic sheet, and poured it over the flour. (Ultra-observant bakers use water drawn from a well after sundown, because tradition says it is coldest then.)

"And as soon that happens he yells 'taig,' which means dough, and they start the timer for 18 minutes. And now everybody has to act fast," he said, as he squeezed and mixed the flour and water into dough.

"It's dropping on the floor!" shouted one little girl. Meltzer shrugged and assured them this was just a symbolic demonstration. "In a real bakery they clean it up right away," he said.

As the kids stood around the tables, Meltzer and Ber quickly broke off golf-ball-size pieces of dough and handed a piece to each child. The kids picked up their rolling pins and began flattening their dough blobs with some highly unorthodox rolling techniques.

Some allowed the dough to wrap around the pin, which they then rolled into cylinders of dough that didn't want to come off. Some used the rolling pin to hammer the dough. And one boy discovered that he could roll his pin from his palms all the way to his elbows and back again. Ari Silver, 4, had a dime-size dot of flour on the tip of his nose when he was done.

Their efforts had none of the rectangular perfection of machine-made matzo. Some were long, with edges as rugged as the coast of Maine; others were as thin and round as a crepe. But there was no time to admire their handiwork. The clock was ticking, and after about eight minutes, Meltzer and Ber began rounding up the kids' efforts.

First, Ber rolled a multitoothed perforator over each piece of dough; the perforations, he explained, allow air to escape during baking, and further inhibit leavening. Then Meltzer draped six pieces of rolled dough over a long stick and unrolled them flat on the oven floor. Within three minutes all 39 future matzot were baking, and it was time for another lesson about Passover.

Meltzer gathered the kids around him and held up a piece of bone. The bone - actually it was a chicken neck - was intended to represent the piece of bone that is a traditional part of a family's Seder, or Passover dinner.

"What kind of bone do we find on the Seder table?" he asked. Again the kids were stumped.

"Dog?" asked one voice.

"Lion?" asked another.

"Tiger?"

"Cow?"

"Dinosaur?"

No, said Meltzer, who explained that it represents a lamb bone, symbolic of the lambs whose blood "God commanded the Israelites to put where?" he asked. ''In the matzo!" exclaimed a young voice.

No, no, said Meltzer. "On the door post. So the angel of death would not kill the firstborn." He explained the other items that appear on a Seder table: the egg, the bitter herbs, the salt water symbolic of tears, the parsley, the charoses (a sweet compote) and the matzo.

And then, 15 minutes after the dough was formed, Ber declared the kids' matzot were done. The youngsters stood around the oven as he lifted the crisp wafers from the oven and laid them on a table. They were cool in a minute, and Meltzer instructed the children to take a matzo in their right hand.

He then led them in a blessing, and suddenly the room was filled with the sound of 19 kids eating - krk, crick, krk, crick - 19 matzot.

"Well, what did you learn here today?" a visitor asked, as the kids headed out to their bus.

"To make matzo," said Carl Balibar, 4.

"It's a beginning," said Meltzer.

AP declared Obama “Kenyan-Born” By John Carlton

Source: http://www.infowars.com/ap-declared-obama-kenyan-born/

October 16, 2009

What most people know is that the Associated Press (AP) is one of the largest, internationally recognized, syndicated news services. What most people don’t know that is in 2004, the AP was a “birther” news organization.

How so? Because in a syndicated report, published Sunday, June 27, 2004, by the Kenyan Standard Times, and which was, as of this report, available at

http://web.archive.org/web/20040627142700/eastandard.net/headlines/news26060403.htm

The AP reporter stated the following:

Kenyan-born US Senate hopeful, Barrack Obama, appeared set to take over the Illinois Senate seat after his main rival, Jack Ryan, dropped out of the race on Friday night amid a furor over lurid sex club allegations.

This report explains the context of the oft cited debate, between Obama and Keyes in the following Fall, in which Keyes faulted Obama for not being a “natural born citizen”, and in which Obama, by his quick retort, “So what? I am running for Illinois Senator, not the presidency”, self-admitted that he was not eligible for the office. Seeing that an AP reporter is too professional to submit a story which was not based on confirmed sources (ostensibly the Obama campaign in this case), the inference seems inescapable: Obama himself was putting out in 2004, that he was born in Kenya.

The difficulty in finding this gem of a story is hampered by Google, which is running flak for Obama: because if you search for “Kenyan-born US Senate” you wont find it, but if you search for the phrase without quotes you will find links which talk about it.

For those who believe what they see, here is the screen capture of the page from the Kenyan Sunday Standard, electronic edition, of June 27, 2004 — Just in case that page is scrubbed from the Web Archive:

Readers should take note that this AP story, was syndicated world-wide, so you should be able to find it in major newspapers, archived in libraries world-wide. If any reader does this, please let The Post & Email know, so that we can publish a follow up-story. You can scrub the net, but scrubbing libraries world-wide is not so easy.

[efoods]Hanen of Sentinel Blog Radio broke the public news of the existence of this AP story at on October 14, 2009 at 12:31 pm. However, The Post & Email can confirm that a professional investigator had uncovered this story months ago, and that certified and authenticated copies of this report, meeting Federal Rules of evidence, have already been prepared and archived at many locations nationwide.

It should be noted that on January 8, 2006, the Honolulu Advertiser also reported that Barack Hussein Obama was born outside the United States.

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2006/Jan/08/ln/FP601080334.html

A Chronology of Deceit

One can now ask an important question which has not yet been emphasized enough: “Just when did Obama begin to publically claim he was born in Hawaii?” This question is distinct from the question, “Just where in fact was Obama born?”, and from the other question, “What do official documents say about where he was born?”

Regarding his claims, we can summarize what is known:

1. As of Monday, Aug. 28, 2006, Obama’s Campaign was putting out that he was born in Hawaii. This is known from the introductory speech given by Prof. George A. O. Magoha, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nairobi, on the occasion of a speech given there by Senator Obama that day. (One presumes that the Vice-Chancellor was given notes from the Obama campaign, as is customary on such occasions)

2. From the newspaper reports above, it is clear that the Obama campaign was putting out that he was born in Kenya, or overseas, during the period of June 27, 2004, until January 8, 2006.

3. In October of 2004, during the ABC Chicago Affiliate’s broadcast of the Obama-Keyes debates, Obama openly admitted — he conceded — that he was not a natural born citizen. (C-Span aired the uncut version of the debates, which contained this exchange, in the second half of April, 2005)

4. It is known from a classmate of Obama at Harvard University, that while at Harvard, Obama at least on one occasion admitted that he was born in Kenya. (This friend went on record on a call in radio program in Idaho in early July, 2009)

If any reader can find a link which documents a claim to a birth location before Aug. 28th, 2006, which differs from this timeline or which supports it; please let The Post & Email know of it, by posting it in the comment section below.

In a follow up report, The Post & Email has published a brief analysis of the Google Newspaper archive, which shows that Obama’s story changed after June 27, 2004.

Finally, that the AP did cover this story, reprinted by the East African Standard, can be seen from the citation made to AP stories about it (Jack Ryan dropping out of the race), in the following contemporary news articles, which however are incomplete:

June 25, 2004 — http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,123716,00.html

June 26, 2004 — Bellview News Democrat

June 26, 2004 — AP Online Story by Michael Tarm

June 25, 2004 — AP Syndicated Story by Maura Kelly Lannan

(Second Source on June 26, 2009, which cites Associated Press Special Correspondent David Espo and reporter Dennis Conrad as contributors to this report)

(Third Source, The Ledger, print edition of June 26, 2009: partial republication)

5th Annual Man-O-Manischewitz Contest

Source: http://joyof.kosher.com/2011/04/06/5th-annual-man-o-manischewitz-contest/

April 6, 2011

Jamie Geller was one of the judges at the 5th Annual Man-O-Manischewitz Cook-off at which Stuart Davis, 45, from Cherry Hill, NJ with his Chicken and Egg Donburi (recipe can be found on the Manischewitz website) was crowned King of Kosher on Thursday March 31 2011. Davis received a grand prize worth $25,000 which includes: state of the art kitchen appliances, cash, over night stay in NYC, crystal trophy, and Manischewitz product.

Stuart was selected as a finalist through the “Online Voting” component that allowed consumers to have a say in the finalist selection process. The other four contestants were selected from thousands of entries.

Stuart is a father of three girls and one boy. Although cooking is his passion, this is the first contest he has ever entered! Stuart was a mortgage banker for 10 years and now teaches a class called “Digesting Hebrew” at Temple Beth Shalom in his hometown. Previously, he taught English in Japan (the inspiration for this dish) and speaks the language fluently. Entries were judged on appearance, taste, ease of preparation and originality & creativity.

The five contestants competed live in NYC at The JCC In Manhattan, in front of hundreds of guests and a prestigious panel of judges including Epicurious.com, FoodNetwork.com, Weight Watchers, Kosher Cookbook author Jamie Geller, the Culinary Arts Director at The JCC In Manhattan, spearheaded by legendary Chef Jacques Pepin.

The five finalists, selected from over thousands of entries, were challenged to prepare family-friendly recipes incorporating one of the Manischewitz All-Natural broth flavors including the new Vegetable Broth which joins the existing line of Beef, Chicken and Reduced-Sodium Chicken flavors. In addition, Mayor Bloomberg has proclaimed the date as “Man-O-Manischewitz” Cook-Off day!

“What a thrill and honor to be named the Manischewitz Cook-Off Champion.” said Stuart Davis, Grand Prize Winner. “I have loved Manischewitz products all my life and to think they have made me a “cooking champion” is a dream come true.”

The dishes prepared by the other contestants were: Moroccan Chicken Bowl by Naylet LaRochelle of Miami FL; Shallot Smothered Chicken by Dina Burcat, Baltimore MD; Simple Fisherman’s Stew by Suzanne Banfield, Basking Ridge NJ; and Golden Sweet Potato Tagine by Jeanette Nelson, Sophia WV.

To see more photos from the event, please go to our Facebook album.

Freedom in the kitchen: Manichewitz Cookoff winner likes to take traditional recipes and turn them upside down

Source: http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011104130301

Apr. 12, 2011

Steam rises as Stuart Davis of Cherry Hill, winner of the Manischewitz Cook-Off, prepares a pot of Chicken-and -Egg Donburi. Davis has adapted the Asian comfort food for a kosher kitchen. Davis developed a taste for Chicken-and-Egg Donburi while working in Japan as an English teacher. He says the dish is a big hit with kids. / JOHN ZIOMEK Courier-Post

Stuart Davis didn't even test the recipe he threw together just in time to beat the Man-O-Manischewitz Cookoff deadline on Dec. 31.

Things were crazy-busy for the married father of four, what with his daughter's bat mitzvah and all.

"I was confident enough that it would work," said Davis, 45.

Lucky for him, it did.

Just in time for Passover, the Cherry Hill resident recently took the grand prize in the cooking contest, beating out thousands of hopefuls with his version of Japanese comfort food he called Chicken-and-Egg Donburi. He used Manischewitz chicken stock and wasabi sauce to reinterpret the dish for the kosher kitchen.

"It was an easy dish to prepare," said Davis.

And yummy, too. A few weeks ago, he whipped up the dish alongside four other finalists in New York City, where he served it to discerning judges such as Jacques Pepin.

An amateur foodie, Davis entered the cooking contest at the insistence of a family friend.

Davis was forever riffing off world cuisines in his kosher kitchen, switching out this or that ingredient, playing with ideas and flavors he experienced while working in Japan as an English teacher.

The former mortgage broker does the same at Temple Beth Sholom, where he teaches a class for kids called "Digesting Hebrew," using food to teach the language.

Stuart Davis developed a taste for Chicken-and-Egg Donburi while working in Japan as an English teacher. He says the dish is a big hit with kids. / JOHN ZIOMEK/Courier-Post

With his glass trophy perched on the kitchen counter, Davis demonstrated the dish on a recent morning, cutting chicken breast into chunks before dumping it into a pan of simmering chicken stock, soy sauce, mirin, wasabi and sugar. As the chicken poached, he scrambled four eggs, cracking each and checking for blood spots before adding them to the bowl.

Stirred into the chicken, the eggs became a silky thickener for the poaching liquid. When the eggs were cooked, he poured the mixture over white rice and topped it all with chopped scallions, red bell pepper, and some pickled daikon radish.

The basic recipe gives him room to play; there are other ways he can prepare the chicken, other ingredients he can throw in.

Scallions and chicken simmer in broth made by Stuart Davis in his Cherry Hill kitchen. / JOHN ZIOMEK/Courier-Post

"Kids in Japan love this," said Davis. His kids -- ages 3, 6, 10 and 13 -- approve, too.

"If all your kids like it, then it's a winner," said Davis, with a laugh.

Davis' win is translating into professional cooking opportunities, and he's already been hired to cook privately during the 10-day Passover holiday.

Recently, he demonstrated his fresh take on Passover cooking at the Voorhees Town Center, where he prepared his own "East meets West" recipes: a chicken soup filled with Turkish-style meatballs and leeks; charoset with dates, almonds, wine, ginger, apples and raisins; a chicken tangine of apricots, prunes, cinnamon and ginger; quinoa pilaf; and a crustless quiche of broccoli, leeks, mushrooms and eggs.

"I like to take tradition and turn it upside down," said Davis. "Passover is the festival of freedom. You should feel liberated and try different things."

"One of the commandments is actually all who are hungry should come and eat, and invite those who are hungry," he said. "So why shouldn't you try other foods and embrace flavors from all over?"

Reach Kim Mulford at (856) 486-2448 or kmulford@camden.gannett.com

ABC cancels longtime soap operas By David Bauder

Source: http://www.yorkdispatch.com/breaking/ci_17852197

4/15/2011

NEW YORK - ABC canceled two of its three soap operas on Thursday, consigning "One Life to Live" and "All My Children" - and Susan Lucci, daytime's most famous actress - to television history.

The move leaves "General Hospital" as ABC's only daytime drama, one of only four that will remain on ABC, CBS and NBC's daytime schedule.

Soap operas have slowly been fading as a TV force, with many of the women who made up the target audience now in the work force. In place of the two canceled dramas, ABC will air shows about food and lifestyle transformations.

Brian Frons, head of ABC's daytime department, went to the California set of "All My Children" to deliver the news on Thursday, where a video link was also set up to the New York set of "One Life to Live." He said the shows were doing well creatively, but falling ratings indicated they had a bleak future.

"If you have a show in severe decline, you're trying to catch a falling knife," Frons said.

Daytime dramas have suffered recently as cable networks like TLC, Bravo and Oxygen aggressively seek viewers in those hours, he said. Soaps are popular with viewers from the post-World War II baby boom, but younger viewers are more interested in other programming, he said.

Both canceled shows were created by Agnes Nixon, one of daytime TV's most famous creative forces, and modeled after fictional Philadelphia-area towns. "One Life to Live" debuted on July 15, 1968, as a half-hour, expanding to an hour 10 years later. "All My Children" premiered on Jan. 5, 1970, expanding to an hour seven years later.

They were both known for incorporating social issues into their stories, with Lucci's character of Erica Kane the first regular TV character to undergo a legal abortion in 1973, said Carolyn Hinsey, author of "Afternoon Delight: Why Soaps Still Matter," due to be published next month.

Lucci became more famous for an offstage drama when she was nominated 18 years for a Daytime Emmy Award as best actress without winning, until she finally took home a trophy in 1999.

"It's been a fantastic journey," Lucci said.

"All My Children" was based in New York for many years until production was moved to Los Angeles in 2009. Two of its leading actors, David Canary and Thorsten Kaye, left the show because they wouldn't make the move.

"They weren't able to save the money they wanted to save, clearly," Hinsey said. Frons said the move did save money, but the show wasn't gaining viewers.

"One Life to Live" is the last soap opera produced in New York, once the thriving center of the industry. Two New York-based dramas on CBS, "Guiding Light" and "As the World Turns," went off the air within the past two years.

"All My Children" is averaging 2.5 million viewers a day, down 9 percent from the last TV season, and the median age of a typical viewer was nearly 57, the Nielsen Co. said. "One Life to Live" is at 2.6 million, its numbers off only slightly.

Hinsey said the schedule changes are risky for ABC stations, particularly as Regis Philbin and Oprah Winfrey are also leaving.

"Why would you drive millions of other people away from your lineup?" she asked. "If you want to save money, cut your costs, cut your sets. You can't be so cavalier with your daytime eyeballs that you let two, three, four million people disappear."

"All My Children" will go off the air in September, replaced by "The Chew," a live one-hour show about food and nutrition, featuring two cast members from "Iron Chef America" and nutrition expert Daphne Oz, Dr. Mehmet Oz's daughter. Frons described it as a cross between "The View" and a cooking show.

"One Life to Live" lasts until January. Its replacement is "The Revolution," made by the producers behind "The Biggest Loser," and will be a health and lifestyle show featuring fashion expert Tim Gunn. Each week the show will focus on the weight loss transformation of one woman.

Besides "General Hospital," ABC's decision will leave CBS' "The Young and the Restless" and "The Bold and the Beautiful" and NBC's "Days of Our Lives" as the only daytime dramas left on the air. Each appears to be in no imminent danger, Hinsey said.

Asked what message fans of "General Hospital" should take from Thursday's announcement, Frons said, "they should feel like they are fans of one of the most powerful franchises in television. It's in good creative shape, it's in good financial shape and they should ask as many of their friends to watch the show as possible."

Phlashback: Government Bailouts Inspired Taxed Enough Already (T.E.A.) Revolt

CNBC's Rick Santilli on February 19, 2009



Daniel Hannan's March 26, 2009 European Parliment speech



Mark Levin's Liberty And Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto



T.E.A. Party Tax Day - April 15, 2009

With a song in her heart By Gail T. Boatman

Source: http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/burlington_county_times_news/with-a-song-in-her-heart/article_e73862a8-d6ab-5875-b8e1-e1784a390cb6.html

April 13, 2011


Nancy Rokos/Staff Photographer
Sandra Messinger of Willingboro is the cantor at Adath Emanu-El in Mount Laurel. "I see my job as creating an atmosphere that encourages participation and shows everyone that there is joy in prayer."

Music has been a part of Sandra Messinger's life from the time she was a child growing up in Willingboro.

It led her to studies in jazz and opera in New York and Rome, and the potential for a career onstage. But something was lacking, she said during a recent interview, "and I didn't know what it was."

Surrounded by songs and piano playing in her music-loving family, Messinger began to study music and pick out basic chords and tunes on the piano when she was barely 4.

Later, in the performing arts department of the Willingboro public schools, her talent was developed and encouraged. She danced and sang, and played the flute and piccolo, which remain her favorite instruments.

Music performance was the focus of her classes at Glassboro State College, now Rowan University. After graduation, more music studies followed at the International Academy in Rome.

Messinger was encouraged to study opera but resisted at first, choosing jazz instead. Eventually, the beauty of opera and the star status that opera singers are accorded won her over.

"It was all about me. I admit I liked the adulation. I was the center of attention, the diva," the Willingboro woman said.

But when the applause stopped, the feeling that something was not quite right began to edge its way into her consciousness.

She soon would find a new way to express herself.

"Cantor Sandra Messinger at Adath Emanu-El" Nancy Rokos/Staff Photographer
"I've been here since I was 5," Messinger said. "I received my religious training here. It's my home.""

In 1997, Richard Levine, then head rabbi at Adath Emanu-El on Elbo Lane in Mount Laurel, needed a cantor and asked Messinger if she could fill in as needed. Since the congregation originated in Willingboro and had been her spiritual home for her entire life, she agreed. Three years later, she was performing cantor duties at
the temple full time.

"I've been here since I was 5," Messinger said. "I received my
religious training here. It's my home."

Still, the prospect was daunting.

"I was terrified," she said.

Messinger saw the cantor's role as very different from being onstage playing a character in an opera. Onstage, she could hide behind the person she was portraying. A cantor can't do that.

"It was very foreign to me. In an opera, you are the character. As cantor, it's you," she said.

Over time, with experience, she grew into the position and learned to deal with her new responsibility to lead the congregation in musical prayer.

"I see my job as creating an atmosphere that encourages participation and shows everyone that there is joy in prayer," she said.

Before the regular Friday night Sabbath services, Messinger selects the music that will be sung. She then confers with the rabbi, Stacy Offner, who approves her choices. She will do the same for next week's Passover observance.

Passover, which begins at sundown Monday, is the most family centered holiday for Jews, she said.

"It's about taking time to be a family," Messinger said

The most important part of the services for Messinger is the cantor's song, which follows the rabbi's sermon and affirms its central message.

Messinger likes to arrive at the synagogue early on Fridays to attend to administrative duties in her small office near the sanctuary. Then she checks on the music for that night and warms up.

During services, she wears business attire and a kippah, the wire and beaded skullcap she pins to the back of her long, dark hair. She also dons a tallit, or prayer shawl, which fulfills an Old Testament commandment that we should wrap ourselves while in the sanctuary.

In addition to her formal role during services, the cantor directs three choirs at the reform synagogue, which has about 500 families in its congregation.

Divided by age, the three choirs - youth, teen and adult - come to the music with different perspectives.

"I try to teach the youngest children about life and the holidays. I show them the calming, healing side of prayer," Messinger said.

The life lessons go deeper with the teens; for the adults, she
has a special message: Everyone can sing.

"Some people tell me they can't sing, but I tell them they are having trouble accessing their voice," Messinger said.

The cantor continues to study her art and spends several days every week in New York, where she meets with her voice coach.

Young people with old souls prefer records to CDs By Leanne Italie

Sarah McCarthy and her boyfriend, Jack Carroll, 19, of Bowie, Md., pose for a photograph at KA-CHUNK!! Records. McCarthy's love of music led her to visit the record store. Now she works there and dates a co-worker.

Source: http://www.gadsdentimes.com/article/20110403/WIRE/110409950/1086/NEWS?Title=Young-people-with-old-souls-prefer-records-to-CDs

April 3, 2011

NEW YORK — In most ways, Sarah McCarthy is your average high schooler. She has a job, college plans, but also a peculiar passion for a 16-year-old: She's a vinyl junkie.

That's right, analog. And none of that hipster new stuff or a USB-ready turntable from Urban Outfitters.

To this senior from Centreville, Md., there's nothing like the raw crackle, the depth of sound, her delicate hand on diamond-tipped stylus to spin from the dusty stash of records she found in the basement of her grandfather — yes, grandfather.

“He gave me his receiver and speaker system and told me to listen to it the way it was made to be listened to,” McCarthy said. “I've turned a lot of my friends on to it. They come over a lot to listen with me.”

At a time when parents feel positively prehistoric as they explain how to use plastic ice-cube trays or speak of phones with cords and dials, this teen knows what a record is.

Not only that, she knows the difference between a 45 and an LP. She met her boyfriend in a record shop and now works there!

Sure, she has an iPod, but she also has a vinyl collection of 250 records and counting. Sure, there's a broader '70s renaissance in the air, but buying bellbottoms doesn't touch the commitment of teens unearthing old turntables and records, then convincing friends to listen, too, like a pack of crazy little anthropologists.

“Listening to old music remastered to a newer format is almost comical,” Sarah said. “They weren't meant to be digitalized. Listening to Jimi Hendrix on my iPod doesn't capture his endlessly deep guitar solos quite like a 33 LP of ‘Blues' does.”

This girl's in love with vinyl, and she's not the only member of Generation Digital with an ear for analog.

“My dad always had these old records in the garage and I never got to use them until just recently, when my uncle let me have his old record player,” said 14-year-old Nick Spates, a Los Angeles eighth grader who plays guitar and piano.

What'd he find in his dad's two milk crates?

A lot of George Clinton — “He's a genius. I swear,” declared Nick. And Funkadelic. Of the band's Eddie Hazel: “'Maggot Brain' is like my favorite song ever. The original is a 10-minute guitar solo.” There was also “Spiral” by The Crusaders. “It has a lot of horns. I love horns.” And “Carmel” by Joe Sample, Hendrix on “Voodoo Child” and a trove of Stanley Clarke.

“My friends think it's cool,” Nick said.

“Before I had the vinyls I used to Google older musicians and see what songs they made, and I'd look for them on YouTube.

“We're all musicians and old music is like our favorite stuff in the world.”

Wayyyy back when, he said, the message of the music was “definitely more to benefit society and people's knowledge and what's going on in the world.” Now, he said, “It's more about what rappers have.”

Jeremy Robinson, co-owner of the plantation-size Ditch Records & CDs in Victoria, British Columbia, has up to 20,000 records in stock — half old and half new pressings from reissue labels and indie bands.

“Our vinyl sales have probably doubled in the last couple of years,” he said.

“The bulk of that has been young people, the iPod generation. They want to collect things, own things, which is the opposite of digital culture. They want to belong to the past.”

The uptick in interest over several years includes nostalgic “nerdy superfans” looking for a way around the more sanitized sound of digital, he said, but also savvy young people with Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Fleetwood Mac, Iron Maiden and a host of obscure post-punk music on their minds.

“The younger kids that come in the store know what they want,” Robinson said. “They usually want the best albums by the best classic bands.”

Matt Melvin, a 22-year-old college senior in Orlando, Fla., began taking vinyl seriously when he was 17 and still in high school.

His interest was fed by buddies in search of pressings from new artists but also his dad's collection of old staples like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Dylan.

“With vinyl, one is forced to slow down and take in an album as a whole piece of work as the artist intended,” he said.

Melvin's constantly on the hunt for exclusive, hard-to-find tracks like special B sides or limited-edition color pressings. The White Stripes, for example, released a series of singles on vinyl from their last album with acoustic and Spanish versions on B sides. A vinyl version of Radiohead's latest album can be ordered from its website.

But he's interested in older music, too.

“Going through the countless stacks of different record stores, my eyes usually get caught by old funk and jazz records that I would have otherwise had little exposure to had it not been for their eccentric and colorful cover art.”

While the recording industry dukes it out over downloads and mourns the CD, 2.5 million vinyl LPs were sold in 2009, up 33 percent from the year before. Vinyl sales are a blip among total revenue from U.S. music sales and licensing, but that's a healthy increase in its own right.

“Young people are leading the way back to analog through vinyl and turntables,” Melvin said. “I think young people are demanding a product that is more tangible, the thrill of hunting through a store for that perfect record, the simple satisfaction of turning that record over.”

Young people who listen and young people who mix.

Tina Turnbull, 28, travels the world as a DJ. Last year, she opened a weeklong DJ summer camp in Ojai, Calif., for tweens and teens, many who attend on scholarship. Coming up in the business at age 15, Turnbull carted around crates of vinyl to gigs. “Now I bring two records with me and my laptop. Technology has taken over.”

At Camp Spin-Off, she and a staff of working DJs try to bridge past and present through vinyl. “We use records. We teach them the fundamentals. Where they go from there is wherever they want.”

On the first day of camp, her charges watch a documentary tracing the birth of hip-hop, when the first DJs inspired break dancing and rap, and invented scratching and “beat-juggling” on vinyl. The movie takes them straight through to “turntablism,” the more recent explosion of using one or more turntables combined with one or more mixers to create original music.

Turnbull invites guest DJs young (Samantha Ronson will stop by in August) and older to share their expertise and memories of decades past with the 50 campers, ages 12 to 17.

“You have to learn the basics on turntables,” she said. “It kind of bums me that people who are learning how to DJ will never touch a record, but that's an opinionated thing.”

Sarah McCarthy, who like Nick plays guitar and piano, holds the same opinion. She doesn't have much use for the vinyl-to-MP3 converter her mother, Mary, gave her as a gift.

“It doesn't come from me,” mom said. “She's just kind of an old soul and always has been.”