vava

The Germans are usually calculated, and boring to watch. I'd much prefer a more exciting team win....

These are awesome Eloren, welcoming to Hye Forum!

Where to? Hope you're finger grew back

Not sure if you read correctly - there's no mention of Armenain Nazi party - it states "American Nazi Party". I'm supposing that you're referring to the passage that refers to the ATAA's choice of counsel. I don't mind that the Turks getting into the same boat as kid-diddlers & racists.

Just got this... Armenian National Committee of America Eastern Region 80 Bigelow Ave Watertown, MA 02472 ancaer@anca.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 29, 2005 Contact: Doug Geogerian Email: ancaer@anca.org MASSACHUSETTS LAWSUIT SEEKS TO BLOCK THE TEACHING OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE -- ANC-Massachusetts Condemns False "First Amendment" Effort to Force the Teaching of Genocide Denial to the Commonwealth's Public School Students WATERTOWN, MA - A Washington-based Turkish organization has enlisted the support of two teachers and a student in a lawsuit against the State of Massachusetts that would compel the inclusion of historically inaccurate Armenian Genocide denial materials in the state's education curriculum, reported the Armenian National Committee of Eastern Region (ANC-ER). In a brief filed with the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts, the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA), a lobbying group which works closely with the Turkish government in fighting against U.S. recognition of this crime against humanity, calls for the inclusion of their website in a list of educational sources provided to teachers, as part of a teacher's guide on genocide education provided by the State. The court document also calls for the addition of other websites, including that of the Embassy of the Republic of Turkey, which the ATAA had lobbied to include in the guide, but were disqualified because they denied the Armenian Genocide, in direct contravention of the Massachusetts statute requiring the teaching of the Armenian Genocide. According to an October 27th Wall Street Journal article, the ATAA lawyer, Harvey Silverglate, argues that the removal of the genocide denial sources violates First Amendment rights to free speech. "The Armenian National Committee will counteract this effort on the part of the ATAA to use the courts to legislate state curriculum for the purpose of denying genocide to public school students. We are confident that we will prevail," said Dikran Kaligian, chairman of the Armenian National Committee for the Eastern Region. The Massachusetts Genocide teaching guide was mandated to include the Armenian Genocide, following the August, 1998, unanimous passage of House Bill 3629 "An Act Relative to the Instruction of the Great Hunger Period in Ireland, the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust." ANC chapters throughout Massachusetts had worked with bill authors, State Senator Steve Tolman and House Member Warren Tolman in support of the measure, which stated that, "The Board of Education shall formulate recommendations on curricular materials on genocide and human rights issues, and guidelines for the teaching of such material." The law specifically calls for the teaching of "the period of the transatlantic slave trade and the middle passage, the great hunger period in Ireland, the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust and the Mussolini fascist regime and other recognized human rights violations and genocides." The ANC Massachusetts continued to work with the Massachusetts Board of Education, providing information on peer-reviewed, teacher tested resources for inclusion in the teaching guide. In June of 1999, the ANC-MA protested the proposed inclusion of genocide denial propaganda in the teaching guide that lobby groups, among them the ATAA, had pressured the Board of Education to add in its second version of the guide. In a letter to Massachusetts Governor Paul Cellucci, the chairmen of the state's four ANC's argued that inclusion of such websites "is directly counter to the intent of the law." The letter went on to note that, "careless intermingling of genocide denial with the documentary sources it aims to obscure, will only serve to confuse students and undermine academic integrity." In August of 1999, in a letter to the ATAA, made public as part of the lawsuit, the Board of Education argued that "since the legislative intent of the statute was to address the Armenian Genocide, and not to debate whether or not this occurred, the Board and Department of Education cannot knowingly include resources that call this into question." By October, 1999, the denial material was removed from the teacher's guide. In 2002, the ANC of Massachusetts again took action regarding the genocide curriculum, when a revised version which was up for review in May, proposed the removal of the Armenian Genocide from the curriculum, to be replaced with a more euphemistic and evasive reference to Armenian "slaughter." Community leaders again worked with Department of Education Commissioner David Driscoll to ensure that the proper terminology was maintained. According to the District Court of Massachusetts Clerk's Office, as of Friday, October 28th, the ATAA lawsuit had not yet officially been filed, although the attorney for the ATAA has provided several press interviews. ATAA lawyer Harvey Silverglate, who has made a career of First Amendment cases, has taken on a string of fringe causes and clients, including the American Nazi Party during the school-busing crisis in Boston. In 2000, he defended NAMBLA, an organization advocating sexual relations between men and underaged boys, in a case involving the 1997 assault and murder of a 10-year old child.

Sip - the reason you're confused, is 'cause you're all upside down. Maybe if your 'right' yourself, you'll be ablt to figure out your y.

Hope you take the happy hippo along with you for your birthday bash Happy birthday!

Now? As long as I can remember, I've aways been a guy. I'm pretty sure I can ask around and get some people to corroborate that for you You can't really trust 'people' today, so I guess to really know, you'd have to ask God. He is omniscient, and would definitely know. Sorry I'm being a bonehead - it's a tough day at work....

Well, i've never actually heard a reasonable 'argument' about God. As soon as folks start discussing God, it usually degenerates into an argument, and most of the time, it's quite unreasonable.

I think it's a matter of interpretation. A 500$ raise (on an semiannual basis) is the equivalent of a 1000$ annual raise. If the premise is that you're getting it every six months, therefore 2 raises a year, then: Looking at option 1, if you take the 500$ semi annual raise, and your salary is X, the chart shows your income at six month intervals (hence the annual salary of X dividedby 2) X/2 + 500 (X+500)/2 + 500 (X+1000)/2 + 500 (X+1500)/2 + 500 (X+2000)/2 + 500 (X+2500)/2 + 500 So the total after 3 years gives us: 3X + 6750$, which works out to an annual increase of 2250$, a whole 250$ higher than the 2000$ offered as option 2.

If she converted for love (of her husband) - then I wish her happiness. It doesn't make her less Armenian.

Boy what a hypocrit. He accuses Armenians of streching to assume certain conclusions, yet he blames Weems's heart-attack on Armenians? Give me a break. How can he purport that the DVD is 'the truth' when he admittedly hasn't even viewed it

Welcome to HF, lucas - humour is a healer, that's true

48,50 is the score - you can see every country's respective score to the right of each listing. As far as the USA in Iraq listing, I gues they don't really consider it Iraq now that USA has occupied the place.

Anahid jan, Chistn asats katak im anum. Arants isk heraver, chem galis! I'd be coming from the Great White North since I live in Canada. But since we're so close, I'll be waiting for that invitation

HAHAHA ROTFL!

I'm comin' over! It'll take me about 6 hours to drive to NJ from here - so i'll see you around supper time! (I'm hungry btw, so make lots!)

This is awesome. Way to go - thanks for the great pics Vasken!

Yeah - I was pretty surprised as well. But more importantly, the US has slipped almost 20 places, while the Turks (even with the Pahmuk & Dink incidents) have risen in the rankings. Perhaps Gams is right?

How very "bush" of you Peace through war. Yup, that's the ticket. Nice to see you back Stormig

The new World Press Index was published today by "Reporters sans frontières" Armenian ranks at # 102 well ahead of Azerbaijan (#141) but surprisingly behind Georgia (#99) and even Turkey (??) (#98) - I wonder of the recent arrest of Hrant Dink was taken into consideration? How bad can the press situation be in Armenia if we're ranking way behind countires in a virtual state of civil war like the Congo? Also of note both the USA & Canada have dropped in the rankings since last year's (2004) report while Turkey moved up from 113, and Armenian fell back from 83. You can see the report Here. Full ranking below: The ranking N° Country Note 1 Denmark 0,50 - Finland 0,50 - Iceland 0,50 - Ireland 0,50 - Netherlands 0,50 - Norway 0,50 - Switzerland 0,50 8 Slovakia 0,75 9 Czech Republic 1,00 - Slovenia 1,00 11 Estonia 1,50 12 Hungary 2,00 - New Zealand 2,00 - Sweden 2,00 - Trinidad and Tobago 2,00 16 Austria 2,50 - Latvia 2,50 18 Belgium 4,00 - Germany 4,00 - Greece 4,00 21 Canada 4,50 - Lithuania 4,50 23 Portugal 4,83 24 United Kingdom 5,17 25 Benin 5,50 - Cyprus 5,50 - Namibia 5,50 28 El Salvador 5,75 29 Cape Verde 6,00 30 France 6,25 31 Australia 6,50 - South Africa 6,50 33 Bosnia and Herzegovina 7,00 34 Jamaica 7,50 - Mauritius 7,50 - South Korea 7,50 37 Japan 8,00 - Mali 8,00 39 Hong-Kong 8,25 40 Spain 8,33 41 Costa Rica 8,50 42 Italy 8,67 43 Macedonia 8,75 44 United States of America (American territory) 9,50 45 Bolivia 9,67 46 Uruguay 9,75 47 Israel 10,00 48 Bulgaria 10,25 49 Mozambique 10,50 50 Chile 11,75 51 Dominican Republic 12,25 - Taiwan 12,25 53 Cyprus (North) 12,50 - Mongolia 12,50 - Poland 12,50 56 Croatia 12,83 57 Niger 13,00 58 Timor-Leste 13,50 59 Argentina 13,67 60 Botswana 14,00 - Fiji 14,00 62 Albania 14,17 63 Brazil 14,50 - Tonga 14,50 65 Serbia and Montenegro 14,83 66 Ghana 15,00 - Panama 15,00 68 Nicaragua 15,25 69 Paraguay 15,50 70 Romania 16,17 71 Congo 17,00 - Guinea-Bissau 17,00 - Seychelles 17,00 74 Moldova 17,50 - Tanzania 17,50 76 Angola 18,00 - Honduras 18,00 78 Burkina Faso 19,00 - Senegal 19,00 80 Uganda 19,25 81 Lesotho 19,50 82 Central African Republic 19,75 83 Cameroon 20,50 - Liberia 20,50 85 Kuwait 21,25 86 Guatemala 21,50 87 Ecuador 21,75 88 Comoros 22,00 89 Malawi 22,75 90 Burundi 23,00 - Cambodia 23,00 - Qatar 23,00 - Venezuela 23,00 - Zambia 23,00 95 Togo 23,75 96 Jordan 24,00 97 Madagascar 24,50 98 Turkey 25,00 99 Georgia 25,17 100 Kosovo 25,75 - United Arab Emirates 25,75 102 Armenia 26,00 - Gabon 26,00 - Guinea 26,00 - Indonesia 26,00 106 India 27,00 107 Thailand 28,00 108 Lebanon 28,25 109 Chad 30,00 - Kenya 30,00 111 Kyrgyzstan 32,00 112 Ukraine 32,50 113 Malaysia 33,00 - Tajikistan 33,00 115 Sri Lanka 33,25 116 Peru 33,33 117 Haiti 33,50 118 Swaziland 35,00 119 Kazakhstan 36,17 - Morocco 36,17 121 Djibouti 37,00 122 Rwanda 38,00 123 Bahrein 38,75 - Nigeria 38,75 125 Afghanistan 39,17 126 Sierra Leone 39,50 127 Mauritania 40,00 128 Colombia 40,17 129 Algeria 40,33 130 Gambia 41,00 131 Ethiopia 42,00 132 Palestinian Authority 42,50 133 Equatorial Guinea 44,00 - Sudan 44,00 135 Mexico 45,50 136 Yemen 46,25 137 United States of America (in Iraq) 48,50 138 Russia 48,67 139 Philippines 50,00 140 Singapore 50,67 141 Azerbaijan 51,00 142 Bhutan 51,50 143 Egypt 52,00 144 Côte d’Ivoire 52,25 145 Syria 55,00 146 Democratic Republic of Congo 57,33 147 Tunisia 57,50 148 Maldives 58,50 149 Somalia 59,00 150 Pakistan 60,75 151 Bangladesh 61,25 152 Belarus 61,33 153 Zimbabwe 64,25 154 Saudi Arabia 66,00 155 Laos 66,50 - Uzbekistan 66,50 157 Iraq 67,00 158 Vietnam 73,25 159 China 83,00 160 Nepal 86,75 161 Cuba 87,00 162 Libya 88,75 163 Burma 88,83 164 Iran 89,17 165 Turkmenistan 93,50 166 Eritrea 99,75 167 North Korea 109,00

Anahid Takouhi, I think you've picked the wrong person to preach "bible" teachings... Sip is a scientist/academic above all else. Sipan, all I can say is just go out and "do" - life is too short to protect your 'haves' and worry about your 'have-nots'. When you realise what you really have (in intangibles, mean) like education, upbringing, ethics, intelligence etc. than you'll know that you really don't have a lot to worry about. If you respect your own integrity, you'll always make-it.

Good grief! Now Ankara wants an apology?

And also very very small. I love NY - it's really one-of-kind....