Health Upgraders

A Focus on True Love and Joy during Lent and Easter
An Author Interview with Antoinette Bosco, Lent: An Uncommon Love Story
By Lisa M. Hendey

My favorite Lenten resources and devotions focus on the occasions for joy and the emphasis on love and service during this season of preparation for Easter and the glory of Jesus’ resurrection. This Lent, I’ve added a new resource to my devotional library. Lent: An Uncommon Love Story (Pauline Books and Media, January 2005, paperback, 128 pages) is a wonderful Lenten reflection by noted Catholic author Antoinette Bosco. This simple yet profound look at Lent focuses upon the story of Christ’s love for us. In moments of despair and pain, Bosco points her reader to the opportunity for a deepening relationship with God.

Bosco, mother of seven and prolific author, writes about transcending suffering from an informed perspective. In this book, she freely shares her own family’s sometimes tragic experiences, as well as her personal Lenten journey. In addition to Lent: An Uncommon Love Story, Bosco is also the author of the award winning children’s book The Jesus Garden: An Easter Legend (Pauline Books and Media, February 2004, hardcover, 44 pages).

As we enjoy the culmination of our Lenten devotions and enter into the glorious season of Easter, I took the opportunity to speak with Antoinette Bosco about her writing.

Q: Antoinette Bosco, author of the newly released Lent: An Uncommon Love Story, would you please start off by telling our readers a bit about yourself?

A: It is always difficult to say a few words about oneself because we become self-consciously nervous about putting too much in, or leaving something important out. I was very fortunate to be the daughter of Italian immigrants, who gave me my Catholic faith and my values at a very early age. I am the mother of seven, three deceased, was fortunate to have had a college education so I could support my children when I became a single parent in 1967. My work has always been in media, as a magazine writer, a book author, a reporter and an editor, both for the Catholic and secular press. Since I was very young, I also worked for social justice, even serving for many years as a Human Rights Commissioner on Long Island, N.Y. My son John and his wife Nancy were murdered by an 18-year old in 1993, and ever since then I have worked to end the death penalty in our country. My alma mater, the College of St. Rose in Albany, N.Y. awarded me an honorary doctoral degree in 1996; my book “Choosing Mercy, A Mother of Murder Victims Pleads to End the Death Penalty,” was give both a Christopher Award and a Pax Christi Award. To date I have written 14 books.

Q: I have to say that I was deeply touched by your book, Lent: An Uncommon Love Story – would you please tell our readers what message you were trying to convey through this book?

A: I was asked to write a book about Lent by Sister Madonna, the acquisitions editor at Pauline Books & Media, at the very time my son Sterling was hospitalized with a failing heart. He was a devout Catholic, and when I told him about the request, saying I just couldn’t write a book right now, he was the one who made me change my mind. We talked about how Lent is the time that assures us we are never alone in our sufferings, losses or hardships. We are there, in the desert with Jesus, who could have said “no” to his Father, knowing the pain, rejection and death that would be ahead for him. But Jesus said “Yes,” and then left the desert and worked full time for the next three years doing nothing but loving us. Jesus lived a love story for us that began in his Lenten days in the desert. The week I finished the book, my son Sterling died, but he left me with his affirmation that Lent is a love story that he wanted me to underscore.

Q: You shared so deeply and so personally in the book about your own Lenten journey that I came to feel a closeness to you through your words. I know that your family has endured many hardships, and that their cumulative effect makes you the person you are today. Is it difficult or cathartic to share your life’s challenges with such openness and sincerity?

A: I have written several books in which I share some of the difficult experiences of my lifelike the suicide of my youngest son Peter, who suffered from a bi-polar mental disorder and the murders of my beloved John and Nancy. But I wrote these books not as the sad story of my life, but as an affirmation of faith, which gives us strength, hope, vision, power, grace, empathy, compassion for others, and after a hard journey, the joy of Christ, who pioneered all the difficult paths we face so as to show us we have never been alone. The response I have received from people who have read my books or heard me speak has assured me any difficult I have faced in sharing my stories is worth it.

Q: What meaning does Lent hold for you at this stage in your life?

A: At this stage of my life, Lent is a very special time. I always remember the early days of my single parenting, when I worked day and night, little sleep, many hardships. I was angry at the Lord at times, and I remember crying one night that I live in Lent, that I am lost and locked in the desert. It was as if I heard a voice asking, “Then why do you stay?” Without a thought, spontaneously I whispered, “because I love my children.” And I was given to know that’s why Jesus stayed in the desert, because he loved his children. Every Lent, I focus on this incredible love of the Lord for us, and it helps me not get lost in the cutting paths I still must sometimes travel.

Q: I am also a major fan of your wonderful children’s book, The Jesus Garden: An Easter Legend, also published by Pauline Books and Media. Could you please share about the creation of this book?

A: “The Jesus Garden” is my surprise book. It contains stories that I wrote and told my children when they were small. A few years ago, after a lovely meeting with Sister Madonna, I thanked her by sending her a copy of these stories for her to enjoy. To my surprise, sometime later I got a call from the Pauline Sisters that they wanted to hire an artist and publish my stories as “an Easter fantasy.” I was delighted and my children were soaring. We love the book, which has just received a Silver Angel Award from Excellence in Media!

Q: I loved the book for your ability to make Christ’s passion, death and resurrection into something that was not “scary” for children, but rather a reflection of his great love for each of us as individuals. How can parents share with their children the true joy of the Easter message?

A: The best way that parents can share the true joy of the Easter message is to be joyful and believing themselves. There’s an old saying that “What you are shouts so loud I can’t hear what you say.” All parents should remember that.

Q: Do you have any future projects in the works?

A: Right now I am working very hard speaking mainly to young people in high school and college about the need for reform of our criminal justice system and the immorality of the death penalty. I’ve written 14 books in my years of being in the media, with a recent one that contains much of my life learning called “One Day he Beckoned, One Woman’s Story of the Difference Jesus Made,” (Ave Maria Press), followed by “Miracles Abound, When We Open Our Hearts to God,” (Twenty-Third Publications). With “Lent, An Uncommon Love Story,” I am taking a bit of a break, to catch my breath!

For more information on Lent, An Uncommon Love Story visit http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0819845140/catholicmomcom

For more information on The Jesus Garden: An Easter Legend visit http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0819839795/catholicmomcom

Lisa M. Hendey is a mother of two sons, webmaster of numerous web sites, including http://www.catholicmom.com and http://www.christiancoloring.com, and an avid reader of Catholic literature. Visit her at http://www.lisahendey.com for more information.

About the Author

Lisa M. Hendey is a mother of two sons, webmaster of numerous web sites, including http://www.catholicmom.com and http://www.christiancoloring.com, and an avid reader of Catholic literature. Visit her at http://www.lisahendey.com for more information.

Guess is one of the more recognizable brands in the world. It is also a brand that most encompasses the easy and fun style of the West Coast better than any other. Guess brand aesthetic mixes the laid-back posture of California with fun and brilliant colors to make a simple, cool, and chic item that can be enjoyed by assorted individuals all around the world. With the fun style of the brand, its no wonder Guess would get so popular and finally extend the apparel and accessories collection to include Guess eyeglasses.

Guess offers a wide range of different eyeglasses such as cat eye, square, oval and round. The assortment of rimlesseyeglasses have also earned attention for highbrow trendspotters as well. The unique vision and style aesthetic typicaly affiliated with the Guess brand name are a result of the Marciano brothers Moroccan heritage and Californian upbringing. There are a multitude of styles and patterns that adorn these eyeglasses, but unlike their competitors, Guess Eyeglasses do not get bogged down in overly gaudy sequins and other adornment. They let the eloquence of the frames speak for itself.

Irrespective of whether your search for eyeglasses has you looking for something casusal and cool, vintage or modern, Guess eyewear is able to meet and surpass your needs. Guess is devoted to supplying fun and chic eyewear to everyone that needs prescription glasses and sunglasses and does so in a way that invokes the chill spirit of the West coast. Both men and women can certainly rely on the Guess brand for casual and cutting edge fashions for years.

Although my dad had a receding hairline, I never thought hair loss would affect me. My hairline begun receding shortly before my 30th birthday. I was shocked and in denial that I was losing my hair. I was also starting to lose hair on the back of my head.

It was the first time in my life I felt old. I felt like the best years of my life were behind me. I even ceased seeing women. My love life was non-existent. There was one girl I had been seeing casually and even though I liked her, I just stopped returning her calls. I figured that I hadn’t found the woman of my dreams with a full head of hair so there was no way I was going to find someone with my growing bald spot. I was too dismayed to even try having a loving kinship.

Hair loss taken a toll on me tremendously, it changed me from a confident person to a dismayed loner. I was very persistent to address the issue and get the problem fixed. I started exploring various hair loss treatments that are accessible over the counter. Nothing that I got from the drug store worked and believe me, I tried them all. After that, I just stopped trying for a while. It was a real low point in my life. I even stopped going out with my friends, I was so gloomy.

Luckily, one night a acquaintance dragged me out of the house for a few drinks. He had noticed that I looked a little down and thought he knew why. He told me about the hair loss studio in the city. My friend had gone there for hair loss treatments and had been impressed with the results. I was even more impressed. He had no sign of hair loss, he had a full head of hair. He made me promise to give them a try and I agreed.

I could not have been happier with the hair loss studio recommended to me. Only after a few treatments, I had a full head of hair again. Hair Loss Studio did not just give me my hair back. They gave me my confidence back.

If you’re heading out there for the first time, you should be made aware how much trouble it’s going to be to find the best of the New York City hotels. Fortunately, with some advice from regular travelers, it becomes easy to find the best hotel deal to get on with enjoying your vacation or business trip. If you have your sights set on a luxury room, it’s going to be more expensive than more basic accommodation. Within these limits you’ll find all sorts of combinations, which match to a range of prices. The first move is a decision about the features you want. And so your initial list of all available hotels can be quickly chopped down to provide a more manageable list of the hotels supplying what you want. Are you content with a clean bed and a warm shower, or do luxuries like a Net connection or a kitchen suite sound like necessities to you?

You’ll also want to study a city map for your optimal New York City hotels. And if you plot all the places you intend to visit, you can easily check which of your possibles is best placed to make things easy for you. Striking a balance between access to clubland and a peaceful enough area to make for a quiet night’s sleep is key, for example, to a holiday you intend to spend shopping and clubbing. However, on a sightseeing holiday or one spent hillwalking, you’ll benefit from lodgings on the outskirts of the city.

It’s also wise to find out public opinion of your preferred hotel. We recommend that you examine several reviews in order to eliminate any bias. They’re commonplace on the internet.

Customer reviews are also excellent, as they provide you with information about what kind of thing goes on in the hotels in question. It’s well worth concentrating on mentions of comfort levels and, just as importantly, how well the accommodation comes through with the extras it boasts.

It can be simple to settle on a place that will guarantee you a great holiday by looking at the top New York City hotels. It’s just a question of uncovering a match between wallet and needs. When you use the entire system discussed in this article, it turns into something a whole lot more straightforward to handle.

Considering that bowling started centuries ago in ancient Egypt, it is hard to conceive that the sport is still going strong and trendier than ever. To get to the peak of your game you really must use the proper equipment and you should look fantastic too. No matter what size you are, you are certain to get equipment styles which you’ll feel great in.

The single most crucial item for a bowler is a bowling ball. First, you will need to pick out a ball which has the best possible weight, about 10 percent of your body weight is best. Naturally, you must buy a bowling ball designed for right handed or left handed bowling devotees. Lastly, it’s time to pick out design details. Would you like a metallic color? Flowers or sparkles? On the other hand, how about a ball with the logo of your favorite hockey team?

When you have selected a bowling ball you should get a fashionable bag to protect it when you aren’t bowling. You might opt for a classic leather or suede bag, they are also sold with different pockets for all your accessories, e.g. your cloth, wallet and so on.

The selection of bowling bags is tremendous. Bowling bags are becoming fashionable in their own right, making it on to the arms of the rich and famous season after season. Ensure you choose the best quality you can afford to avoid a painful disaster.

In addition to improving your game play, bowling footwear can be up-to-date and trendy too. The fit of your footwear is without a doubt the single most significant factor in purchasing bowling shoes. Opt for the comfortable option every time or you will find they are an irritation and even painful to compete in. Additionally, you may want a durable fabric if you will be wearing them for any length. Once you find shoes with a fit and material you like, pick out a color or pattern that ties in with your look.

When you are selecting clothes, style is unique to every bowler. Apparel that is restrictive or ill-fitting will impact on your bowling, so do ensure that the sizing is correct. Unless you have to purchase a uniform or team colors, when it comes to texture and design the world is your oyster. Shoes, clothing, bowling ball bags, and bowling balls will all have an effect on your game. When you have made the right decisions, you will improve your form and be fashionable at the same time…

Algebra is one of the most influential courses students study during their life. There are a lot of students who are doing algebra because they have difficulties being able to learn the subject area.

Although a lot of pupils are not actually sure of what is involved in algebra but it is not terrible as a lot of individuals think. Most fundamental algebra include finding least common multiple, factoring difference of cubes and reducing fractions.

When pupils are learning mathematics, particularly at college stage it is very critical for them to employ some preparation and also some continuity in learning mathematical concepts progressively. There are a lot of college maths courses at first stage that are based around establishing a sound path for the road into advanced mathematics as they enable learning the core skills that are required.

Who offers help?

For helping you in mastering algebra, there is a number of packages and these include programs such as algebra tutors. A tutor for algebra is also a surefire way to enhancing your algebra skills. The software systems are very good and will assist you with all aspects of algebra including radical inequalities, graphing non-linear inequalities , reducing fractions with same denominators and on master the basic and advanced topics of algebra.

If you are just beginning in the world of mathematics, it is a good idea to do one of the introductory stage courses as they will instruct you the very fundamentals and build on that so that you are able to get up to the more advanced stage of mathematics. The starting courses of study also teach you the science of algebra through the use of a significant number of different models and methods so this is an ideal starting point for the beginner to algebra.

Why Virtual Tutors are Not Ideal?

The only problem with maths courses of study is that they sometimes do not follow things in a very logical order and this especially is the case when you are a student at middle school. A lot of the students at school are actually very ill-prepared for learning algebra and they do not truly have no background knowledge in it.

Stroller pushchairs are a good way to make travel equally enjoyable for both you as well as your baby. If you possess one of these transport systems, you can easily carry your baby along on shopping trips, jogs and everyday activities. With the right kind of stroller you can even enjoy exotic vacations without compromising on comfort for you or your baby.

There are many stroller pushchairs available in the market today. But you have to know how to choose the right pushchair that will address all your needs. Firstly, if the pushchair will be used by both parents, then it is advisable to get one with handles that are height adjustable, so that either parent can use the vehicle without facing back problems.

Before you buy a stroller, remember that you can avoid purchasing two vehicles for your baby- a pram and a stroller – by getting one which can accommodate both a sleeping baby and a sitting child with just a few adjustments. With one of these, you will have a versatile travel system which will adapt to the changing postures of your growing baby over the years.

It is worthwhile to invest in a top quality stroller even if it is slightly more expensive than other lesser known ones. Make sure that the stroller has adequate safety harnesses to keep your baby secured firmly within the body of the vehicle. For a comfortable journey, it is also necessary for the stroller to have adjustable feet rest, so that as baby grows bigger and taller, the foot rest can be changed accordingly.

Purchasing an annuity for your retirement can be a good decision. Part of that decision is working with a broker that you can trust. Before finding that broker, familiarize yourself with a few basic points.

What is an annuity?

An annuity will provide a guaranteed income for a number of years. It takes a principal sum that has been paid into the annuity and invested and pays it back to the investor in regular payments over a number of years. An investor should realize that his or her money would be tied up for many years. There are penalties for taking payments before age 59.5. In some cases you are able to borrow against your annuity.

What are the different types?

Immediate and deferred annuities refer to how the lump sum is paid out. Fixed and variable annuities refer to how the annuity earns interest. Your broker will have detailed information about each.

How will my annuity be paid?

You have a few different options here, lump sum pay out, lifetime guaranteed income and systematic payments in a set schedule. There are deeper details for each of these as well, but you will establish how you want the pay outs to happen. Based on your retirement situation, annuities are a good investment.

What is the purpose of an annuity?

The purpose of an annuity is to help ensure a fixed and stable income for retirement or when someone stops working or is unable to work. Annuities work well for people who believe their tax bracket will be under 28% at retirement. The other point to remember is that an annuity is a good counterpart to life insurance. Both are important and have a place in your retirement portfolio.

Annuities are a good investment for retiring in Memphis, Tennessee. Talk with a broker to see if an annuity makes sense for your retirement. Tennessee has some of the best brokers in the country to help you make your decisions.

Though in many ways with the rise of the web it would seem an obvious gambit, before now the sale of loan portfolios had taken place across numerous marketplaces without a one-stop shop. Now they can be bought and sold using a technology made popular as a result of the rise of e-commerce — the web-based bidding approach patterned after eBay. Investors, banks, et cetera can acquire portfolio packages by parsing a national platform and finding packages at low cost. Selling loan portfolios in this format standardizes the data and opens up the market even for minor loan packages. The first rule for salesmen is to make sure and certain that your potential customers hjave heard of your product, and there is still no more effortless way to spread the word than through the power of online sales. Location and time have stopped being of significant importance and it’s possible to do business 24/7, which saves a substantial amount of money.

Before selling anything you need leads who might want to buy, and you must locate and contact these in numbers. This service offers, as a consequence, all the applicable data on hand to anyone who’s registered at a time of their asking — rendering selling loans less problematic and more streamlined.

Like so many areas of commerce, what information you can lay your hands on affects how well you will actually do. The more fully transparent your data regarding purchasable loan packages is, the greater your ability to avoid exposure and make the most from your investments will grow.

It is this level of access to information which creates the very real option to handle such transactions on your own instead of needing to pay parts of your returns to a third party to handle it. Both buyers and sellers are sure to profit from direct negotiation, with the information required to sell loans entirely on the table and in the open, exactly where it can empower both sides.

Simpler selection of what to invest in are obtained by keeping the portfolio standardized instead of fragmented. We therefore waste less time for both buyers and sellers by quickly identifying the optimum deal to suit you. Introduce to this open bidding and any and all transactions become far more likely to be finalized with, thanks to honest discussion, a strong likelihood of profit for all parties.

Web trading in any market, including loan packages, is able to take full advantage of the boundless possibilities of the web era. They say there’s no wiser way to buy than using the web — quite true, but the thing not that many people take into account is that this also implies there’s no smarter way to sell.

A month in the life of the drug war
by Kurt St. Angelo
@2005 Libertarian Writers’ Bureau

Near the end of my Libertarian campaign for Marion County Prosecutor in Indianapolis in 2002, I noted stories by news partners WTHR-TV Channel 13 (NBC) and the Indianapolis Star newspaper that supported my outspoken political position against the war on drugs. There were very few news stories, if any, which did not support my view.

It is my Libertarian view that the drug prohibition policies of Democrats and Republicans are ineffective, wasteful, hypocritical, and destructive. The policies are a leading – if not the leading – cause of crime in America, including violent crimes. As odd as this may seem, Americans overwhelmingly vote for policies that actually promote crime. For example …

The first notation I made was on October 31 when WTHR reported that two suspects were arrested for shooting an Anderson, Indiana police officer in the hand during an armed robbery of a drug store. The thieves stole tens of thousands of dollars in narcotics including hydrocodone and Oxycontin.

Suspect Jack Lankford, who looked to be in his forties, admitted to being a drug addict since he was 15 or 16. That the police wanted to know if the two suspects were tied to a string of drug store heists suggests that they recognize a causal relationship between addiction, prohibition and crime that leaders of both major parties have not been willing to admit.

On November 3, the Star reported that illegal drug exchanges between the elderly is both common and risky – because such illegal drug users are “out of the loop” of doctor protection. Three days later, the Star carried an article about how between 1997 and 2000, doctors prescribed medications to adults that potentially caused 3,750 serious injuries, birth defects and deaths in children under 2 years old. Statistically, this makes drug companies and doctors hundreds of times more dangerous to children than, say, marijuana dealers.

On November 4, Steve Johnson of WTHR presented a report about car theft. He interviewed inmate Shawn Jackson who admitted to stealing cars to support a drug habit. “Every time a thief takes a car in our state it drives up every drivers’ insurance,” Johnson said. Given this, wouldn’t we be smarter to give Jackson the freedom to get drugs cheaply so that he wouldn’t need to steal cars, or as many of them? That’s what we’ve done for decades at methadone treatment centers, with the goal of reducing theft.

On November 5, the Star reported that a woman pleaded guilty to selling her Oxycontin prescriptions. Like heroin and methadone, Oxycontin is an opiate. Some users crush the tablet and swallow, snort or inject the drug for rapid and intense heroin-like highs. Surely this abuse is not rare in the over 7 million OxyContin prescriptions legally filled in the U.S. each year.

On November 8, the Star carried an AP story about seven people charged in drug-weapons plots involving al-Qaida and a Colombian paramilitary group. Without drug prohibition, these groups would get only one-tenth the money for their opium and cocaine than they do today. Prohibition is the best funding mechanism ever devised for terrorists and drug cartels. Ending it, and allowing the free market to address the demand for drugs, is the only responsible alternative.

On November 13, the Star reported that a drug dealer received 25 years for his role in importing drugs to this state. (Contrast this with WTHR’s report on November 23 about a repeat child-molester named George Vance who recently served only nine months.) Despite the success of drug stings, the police cast doubt on whether they can cut the flow of drugs. “Unfortunately, drugs have such a grip that someone else will be (ready to sell them) because there is money to be made,” said the article’s quoted expert.

On November 15, the Star reported that the state police are keeping a list of people within the state who buy painkillers prescribed by doctors. Yet six days later, the paper announced that some of the most addictive prescription drugs on the market are not monitored at all in Indiana. This means that the state is no more protecting us from prescription drug abuse than from the illegal kind. And thanks to our misguided drug policies, only the black market offers medical privacy.

Also on November 15, the Star’s web site carried an interview with Lt. Randall West, 31-year police veteran and head of the Dangerous Drugs Section of the Indianapolis Police Department. Lt. West said almost exactly what I did during my Libertarian campaign for Prosecutor: that “(a)s long as there’s a profit in dealing drugs, we’re pretty much fighting an uphill battle.”

On November 19, the Star reported that one Indianapolis pharmacy filled 120 prescriptions of narcotic OxyContin for Colts’ owner Jim Irsay. The article said that in one 24-day period last spring, Irsay got 400 tablets of the narcotic. This quantity is almost a year’s supply for thousands of other chronic pain-sufferers who needlessly struggle to get their needs met through our present system.

The Libertarian solution to our present drug mess is to treat everyone as if they owned an NFL franchise. Return to people the freedom to treat their own conditions any way they choose – just like rich Americans can now – with strong doses of expert consultation from doctors, pharmacists, nutritionists, and other health professionals. We shouldn’t have to be rich and fly to a foreign country to get our drug needs met. Advancing freedom of choice and self-responsibility, as opposed to governmental control, will improve health, cut costs and save lives.

November 23 was also a big day in drug news. The Star reported 1) that Damen Lake, a felon caught in a high speed car chase, was a crack addict wanted for robbery, 2) that an Indianapolis drug distribution company was fined $350,000 by the DEA because “hundreds of thousands of dosage units of controlled substances, such as hydrocodone and Tylenol with codeine, were missing,” and 3) that a prominent Indianapolis plastic surgeon who supplied Irsay surrendered his federal permit to prescribe narcotics.

I have to hand it to the Indianapolis Star newspaper and WTHR television. Their reporters definitely give us enough information to make good political decisions. Almost without exception, their numerous drug stories in November 2002 factually demonstrate the Libertarian view that drug prohibition cannot succeed and that it does far more harm than good.

I suspect November 2002 is similar in drug news to that of today. I invite you to use your local media to chronicle the destructiveness of our drug policies in your community. If it weren’t for prohibition, there would be fewer drug store heists, car thefts, prescription abuses, car chases, murders, and acts of terrorism. There would be less bad news to report.

The solution is political. It means voting against the political parties that gave us our dysfunctional and destructive drug policies. The ultimate solution is to free everyone from others’ control. That is the meaning of liberty. What are we waiting for?

About the Author

Attorney, screenwriter and Libertarian Party activist in Indianapolis

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