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Greenberg, Quinlan, Rosner has just released a survey that indicates voters perceive Republicans once again as far and away better on national security issues than Democrats. Forty nine percent of those surveyed thought.... ...Republicans were better on national security while 35% thought Democrats better. When it came to combating terrorism, 48% thought Republicans superior to Democrats while 33% gave Democrats the advantage. This could blossom into a serious problem for the Obama-Biden ticket and down-ballot races -- or opportunity for Republicans -- by Nov. 4. The Greenberg poll, done for the think tank Third Way, echoes a recent NBC/Wall Street...

One of the most notable polling results at the time of the 2006 elections was that Democrats had closed the national-security gap versus Republicans who held a long and significant advantage in that area. That was short-lived. Unfortunately for Democrats, the gap has reopened. Democrats are regaining the reputation with voters as wimps. Greenberg, Quinlan, Rosner has just released a survey that indicates that voters perceive Republicans once again as far and away better on national security issues than Democrats. Forty nine percent of those surveyed thought Republicans were better on national security while 35 percent thought Democrats better. When...

Barack Obama: The first metrosexual candidate for President of the United States Feet and shoes take center place in Andy Martin's web-footed analysis of the left's effort to demonize Senator John McCain "Factually Correct, Not Politically Correct" AMERICA'S #1 POLITICAL BLOG ON THE 2008 CAMPAIGN ------------------------------------------------------------- We're not always first because we're #1; We're #1 because we are always first. ------------------------------------------------------------- BARACK OBAMA SHOULD STAY AWAY FROM SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN'S FEET, OR HE RISKS GETTING THE BOOT FROM THE AMERICAN PEOPLE COMMENTS BY KEITH OLBERMANN DO GET THE BOOT FROM ANDY MARTIN METROSEXUAL DEMOCRAT OBAMA SHOULD TREAD LIGHTLY ON MCCAIN'S...

Toby Keith Hits Back at Accusation Song Is Pro-Lynching Friday, August 08, 2008 Toby Keith hit back at a recent blog post that derided his 2003 song "Beer for My Horses" as a pro-lynching anthem. "The song was a hit and the words 'lynch' and 'racism' has never come up until this moron wrote this blog," he said, according to ContactMusic. The country singer, 47, was on "The Colbert Report" last month to perform "Beer for My Horses," the popular song that inspired a movie of the same name. Huffington Post blogger Max Blumenthal called the song an "ode to...

Jay and I have been bantering the 'Joe Horn' case, discussing various aspects of it and what it means to the greater society. Along the way, Jay mentioned the concept of 'duty to retreat'. The concept is based on the idea that when faced with an aggressor, a person has a moral duty to avoid confrontation, to give up ground and back away. That when a criminal gets it in his head that he wants to take something, we should just let him do so. That if he hurts someone, we should not try to prevent it. That the most...

Rupert Everett, a British film actor, stunned fans when he referred to soldiers as “wimps.” “In my book, unless you’ve taken a hard, hot one up your bum, you’re a wimp,” Everett insisted. The flagrantly gay actor conceded that most people wouldn’t see things his way. “Ordinary men don’t appreciate the risks we have to face on a routine basis,” he complained. “What’s getting your head blown off by a jihadi compared to a slow agonizing death from AIDS?” Everett also lamented the fact that “while soldiers get medals, our courage goes unrecognized. There are G.I. Joes to glorify militarism,...

Rupert Everett has apologised for calling soldiers "wimps" and suggesting they went into the Army to torture prisoners. The 49-year-old star of My Best Friend's Wedding - and the son of a retired Army major - had been quoted in a newspaper criticising soldiers for whining. He told The Sunday Telegraph: "The whole point of being in the Army is wanting to get killed, wanting to test yourself to the limits. He also said: "The whole point of being in the Army is going to war and getting yourself blown up. That and (urinating) on prisoners.

Honorable Sir, I just received a survey and request for a donation in the mail with your name on it from the Republican National Committee. THERE WAS NOT A SINGLE QUESTION IN THE SURVEY ABOUT OUR ENERGY SITUATION AND THE HISTORY OF DEMOCRATIC PARTY STONE WALLING AGAINST ENERGY PRODUCTION WITHIN UNITED STATES TERRITORIES FOR DECADES. The RPN and John McCain need to grab that issue like a dog grabs a bone and chew it right into the 2008 national elections. The survey I received from the RPN was one more piece of evidence that the Republican Party has completely misread...

Actor calls soldiers 'wimps,' says they go into the Army to torture prisoners Apparently, the actor has now apologized:Rupert Everett apologises for calling soldiers 'wimps' "The whole point of being in the Army is wanting to get killed, wanting to test yourself to the limits. Now you have to fly 15,000ft above the war zone to avoid getting hit. I don't think there is any point in having wars if that's how you're going to behave. It's pathetic. All this whining!" He went on to say: "The whole point of being in the Army is going to war and getting...

The husband of a 70-year-old grandmother who was killed by a bear in northern Quebec ... Conservation experts set traps after Friday evening's attack, but ... the bear was still at large in the wilds of northern Quebec. As she scouted a fishing hole for walleye, Ms. Lavoie became separated from her husband. Barely 10 minutes later, Mr. Lavoie felt something was amiss and went searching for his wife of 51 years. Metres away he came upon the nightmarish scene of her body being dragged into the forest by a bear. Mr. Lavoie chased the predator for nearly 200 metres...

In an amazing turn of events, the House of Representatives today voted AGAINST the supplemental funding for the war in Iraq!! The bill would have provided $166 billion in war funding, the largest single provision since the war started in 2003. In a move that no one expected, dozens of Republicans voted "present," which is the same as abstaining on the vote.

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - North Carolina's Republican Party on Thursday withdrew an advertisement critical of Democrat Barack Obama's links to a controversial preacher, Republican John McCain's campaign said. McCain senior adviser Charlie Black said he had been informed by the Republican National Committee's representative in North Carolina, that the state party had agreed to withdraw the ad. McCain, the Republicans' presumptive presidential nominee, had appealed to the state party to withdraw the ad, saying he wanted to run a respectful campaign. Obama has come under fire for attending a Chicago church for two decades where the Rev. Jeremiah Wright was...

A team of Italian and Chinese physicists on Wednesday renewed a controversial claim that they had detected the mysterious dark matter particles that astronomers say swaddle the galaxies in halos and direct the evolution of the universe. The team, called Dama, from “DArk MAtter,” and led by Rita Bernabei of the University of Rome, has maintained since 2000 that a yearly modulation in the rate of flashes in a detector nearly a mile underneath the Gran Sasso mountain in Italy is the result of the Earth’s passage through a “wind” of dark matter particles as it goes around the Sun....

Al Qaeda’s Ayman al-Zawahri declared the United Nations an enemy to Muslims and vowed attacks on Jews “wherever they may be found—as prescribed in the Quran.” Zawahiri called twin bomb attacks on U.N. buildings in Algiers which killed 41 people in December and the bombing of a U.N. building in Baghdad in 2003 which killed 22, “down payments on the debt of blood owed by these unbelievers.” UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon issued an urgent plea for mercy to al-Qaeda. “We’re not your enemy, really, we’re not,” Ban insisted. “Look, our Human Rights Commission just voted 32-0 to punish those...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan formally denounced on Thursday the Tennessee Republican Party's use of Barack Obama's full name in a recent news release questioning the Illinois senator's commitment to Israel. "The RNC rejects these kinds of campaign tactics," Duncan said in a statement. "We believe this election needs to be about the critical issues confronting our nation." The statement in question, which was released Monday, said the state party is joining a "growing chorus of Americans concerned about the future of the nation of Israel ... if Sen. Barack Hussein Obama is elected president of...

The Tennessee Republican Party has toned down a fiery press release that included a controversial photo of Barack Obama and blasted the candidate on his stance on Israel. The release was changed after a rebuke from the Republican National Committee. A GOP official told FOX News that the RNC privately chided the Tennessee Republican Party over the content of its online press release titled, “Anti-Semites for Obama,” which followed the endorsement of Obama by Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan. The statement cited Farrakhan, who has called Judaism a “gutter religion,” in claiming an Obama presidency would threaten relations between...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- A Colorado Springs elementary school is banning the game of tag on its playground -- after some children complained that they'd been chased or harassed against their will.Assistant Principal Cindy Fesgen of the Discovery Canyon Campus school said running games will be allowed, as long as students don't chase each other.Fesgen said two parents complained to her about the ban, but most parents and children didn't object. Two elementary schools in the nearby Falcon School District did away with tag and similar games in 2005 in favor of alternatives with less physical contact. Officials at Evans...

Girly men are perfect partners, say women By Aislinn Simpson Last Updated: 1:56am BST 08/08/2007 Women searching for the perfect partner avoid macho men in favour of feminine-looking types whom they see as more committed and better parents, research has found. Jools Oliver with husband Jamie Men with masculine features, such as a square jaw, larger nose or smaller eyes were perceived to be less faithful, more detached and worse fathers. Those with fuller lips and wide eyes were seen as being more caring, nurturing and less likely to stray. Psychologists from Durham and St Andrews Universities asked more than...

In accordance with the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s directive banning what it considers ethnically or racially hostile or abusive nicknames, mascots and imagery at championship events, Arkansas State University Chancellor Robert Potts announced that the school will be changing its team nickname. Formerly known as the “Indians,” the ASU teams will now be known as the “Weasels.” Potts said the decision to change the nickname was not an easy one. “We thought we were honoring Native Americans by naming our team the ‘Indians,’” Potts said. “We even had testimonials from local tribes endorsing our perception. But the lure of money...

Senate Democrats, who had announced an all-nighter Tuesday to reiterate their anti-war positions, packed it in shortly before midnight, surrendering to a greater desire for a few hours sleep. Only a handful of stalwart senators kept the Senate - technically - in session. We know that Senate Democrats don't have the staying power to win the war in Iraq, but can't they even make it through the night without some shuteye? "Harry, sweetheart," said Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, who led a group of Democrats in pleading with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for a delay in voting, "5:30 or...

WASHINGTON - Nervous Senate Republicans beseeched the White House without apparent success Wednesday for a quick change in course on Iraq as congressional Democrats insisted on high-profile votes calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops by spring. Prospects for a less-sweeping, bipartisan challenge to President Bush suffered a setback when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the leading proposal has "less teeth than a toothless tiger." Taken together, the events pointed toward a 10-day period of politically charged maneuvering in the Senate in which Democrats push for a withdrawal, the White House's allies resist and a small but growing...

ALAMEDA, Calif. (AP) -- The Oakland Raiders canceled the final week of their offseason training program Friday after complaints from the NFL players' union about the intensity of the practices. In a brief statement, coach Lane Kiffin said the players' union believes the Raiders' offseason program violated league rules on practice standards. "The union has complained about the high level of intensity, player aggressiveness and fast pace of our practices and, as a result, has taken away the final week of our offseason program," said Kiffin, the NFL's youngest and least experienced head coach.

First there was Salt Lake City, and now Virgian Tech. Trey Perkins, a 19 year old student who is now on fox News spewed his story about being in the same room as the gunman while he reloaded his weapons at least once. Did he get up and charge the gunman with reckless abandon to save his fellow students? NO When the SLC shooting took place, the local news broadcast a cell video of the shooter discharging his weapons. While the owner of the cell phone stood there and filmed the shooter, who coincidently had his back to the camera,...

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- UK Defense Minister Des Browne will attempt on Monday to defuse a row over the selling of stories by British sailors released by Iran after being held hostage. Browne is due to make a statement to MPs in the House of Commons, with opposition Conservatives saying he should resign if he loses the confidence of parliament and the military. Home Secretary John Reid on Sunday praised Browne for admitting that it had been a mistake to allow the sailors to sell their stories to newspapers. Prime Minister Tony Blair has rejected calls for officials to be...

On any given day, one isn't likely to find common cause with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He's a dangerous, lying, Holocaust-denying, Jew-hating cutthroat thug -- not to put too fine a point on it. But he was dead-on when he wondered why a once-great power such as Britain sends mothers of toddlers to fight its battles. Ahmadinejad characterized the release of 15 British sailors and marines, including one woman, seized at sea last month as a gift to Britain. In reality, the hostages were the West's gift to Ahmadinejad. When a pretender to sanity like Ahmadinejad gets to lecture the...

March 3, 2007 -- With his foes sitting just feet away, Gov. Spitzer yesterday launched an in-your-face offensive concerning his proposed health-care cuts, claiming that the current system benefits hospitals and administrators instead of patients. Defending his proposed cuts, Spitzer left no doubt about his eagerness to engage by issuing a taunting "special warm welcome to my friends" at the Greater New York Hospital Association and Local 1199, representing health-care workers, at a meeting of 1,000 civic and business leaders in Midtown.

(Sprague-WTNH) _ The bitter cold weather we're expecting tonight will give some students in Sprague an extended weekend, and students in Bridgeport and Ridgefield an extra hour to get ready for school. School officials in Sprague have canceled class on Friday. There's only one school in this district. It's the Sayles School at 25 Scotland Road in Baltic, a pre-K through 8th grade school. According to the Sprague superintendent's office, school was canceled because of the cold wind chill, and officials don't want children standing at the bus stop to be exposed to frost bite. St. Joseph's school in Baltic...

NANCY PELOSI’S carefully crafted introduction to the American people last week seemed to reinforce some stereotypes of the so-called mommy party. On the day she made history as the first woman to be elected speaker, she appeared on the House floor, surrounded by children and bedecked in pearls. ...But even as this nurturing image dominated the news, the swearing-in ceremony on Thursday was notable for another milestone in gender politics: the return of the Alpha Male Democrat.... The return of Democratic manliness was no accident; it was a carefully planned strategy. But now that the Macho Dems are walking the...

(Griswold-AP, Oct. 31, 2006 5:35 AM) _ Sightings of foxes have forced Griswold schools to keep children indoors. School officials Monday banned all outside activity, including recess, gym classes, walks and after-school programs outdoors. The ban will stay in force until officials and experts can offer assurances on outdoor safety. Community groups that use the campus also were alerted and athletic games are being scheduled at other schools. Griswold schools are one campus adjacent to a wooded area. A spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection says the agency will send trappers to the area to catch the foxes...

Summertime," goes that wonderful old song by the Gershwins, "and the livin' is easy." Well, it used to be, anyway. This past one seemed fraught with peril, as they usually do, these days, for parents. Allergies, skin cancer, air pollution, injuries, drownings, heat stroke, West Nile virus ... oh my. Gone are the golden afternoons of my own childhood, when I left the house without a hat, or sun screen, to noodle about on my bike (without a helmet) and play hide-and-seek in the bushes (without benefit of mosquito repellant or pedophile spray) and invariably stayed out until supper (which...

For 10 minutes, the talk show host grilled his guests about whether "George Bush's mental weakness is damaging America's credibility at home and abroad." For 10 minutes, the caption across the bottom of the television screen read, "IS BUSH AN 'IDIOT'?" But the host was no liberal media elitist. It was Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman turned MSNBC political pundit. And his answer to the captioned question was hardly "no." While other presidents have been called stupid, Scarborough said: "I think George Bush is in a league by himself. I don't think he has the intellectual depth as these...

On July 28, 2006, a Muslim entered the building of the Seattle Jewish Federation and shot every Jew he saw, murdering one woman and wounding five others. On the same day, Mel Gibson was arrested on DUI charges and while intoxicated let loose with anti-Semitic invective at the Jewish police officer who arrested him. Question: Which story has most troubled the Left? The answer is known to any American who can hear or read. So, the real question is: Why? Why has the shooting and murder of Jews elicited less angst from the Left than the anti-Semitic statements made by...

For the longest time, I have been one of those people who condemned the leftists in the media for putting the worst possible face on our war in Iraq. But I recently had an epiphany and came to the realization that it’s not just the usual suspects -- the New York Times, the Washington Post, the network anchors, CNN, the BBC -- who are entirely at fault. Fully doing its part to aid and abet our Islamic foes is the military brass holding down the cushy desk jobs at the Pentagon. There’s no denying the liberal bias of the so-called...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration was running several intelligence programs, including one major activity, that it kept secret from Congress until whistle-blowers told the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, the committee's chairman said on Sunday. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, a Michigan Republican who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, said on Fox News Sunday he had written a four-page to President George W. Bush in May warning him that the failure to disclose the intelligence activities to Congress may be a violation of the law. In doing so, he confirmed a story that first ran in Sunday editions of the New...

America's war on drugs is actually a Raid on Taxpayers. The war costs an estimated $70 billion a year to prosecute, and the drugs keep pouring in. But while the War on Drugs may have failed its official mission, it is a great success as a job-creation program. Thousands of drug agents, police, detectives, prosecutors, judges, anti-drug activists, prison guards and their support staffs can thank the program for their daily bread and health benefits. The American people are clearly not ready to decriminalize cocaine, heroine or other hard drugs, but they're well on their way to easing up on...

It's pretty pathetic when a Kennedy is too drunk to drive into the Potomac. After the visibly intoxicated Rep. Patrick Kennedy crashed his car into a police barrier near the Capitol just before 3 a.m. last Thursday morning, he explained to the police he was hurrying back to the Capitol for a vote, a procedure known on the Hill as "last call." It could have been a lot worse: Patrick's designated driver that night was Ted Kennedy. At some point in his scrolling list of excuses, Kennedy eventually claimed he was addicted to prescription drugs and checked himself into the...

European governments should shun the phrase "Islamic terrorism" in favour of "terrorists who abusively invoke Islam", say guidelines from EU officials.Backed by diplomats and civil servants from the 25 EU members, the officials are drafting a "non-emotive lexicon for discussing radicalisation" to be submitted to Tony Blair and other leaders in June. The Brussels officials hope the new lexicon, which would not be legally binding, would be adopted by governments and other EU institutions, such as the European Commission and European Parliament. An EU official said: "The basic idea behind it is to avoid the use of improper words that...

PHILADELPHIA -- Republicans in Washington are always willing to weigh in on the issues that are important to their conservative base -- Iraq, immigration, taxes, federal spending, the Medicare drug plan, the Dubai ports deal, you name it. But, lately, hardly anybody in the GOP camp seems eager to address the historic event that transpired this month out on the high plains and now threatens to roll eastward, to the U.S. Supreme Court. It is, of course, abortion. For the party of the elephant, the new South Dakota law -- which prohibits the procedure for every woman in the state,...

Borders and Waldenbooks stores will not stock the April-May issue of Free Inquiry magazine because it contains cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that provoked deadly protests among Muslims in several countries. "For us, the safety and security of our customers and employees is a top priority, and we believe that carrying this issue could challenge that priority," Borders Group Inc. spokeswoman Beth Bingham said Wednesday. The magazine, published by the Council for Secular Humanism in suburban Amherst, includes four of the drawings that originally appeared in a Danish newspaper in September, including one depicting Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban with...

53 Senators vote to raid the Social Security trust fund TownHall.com ^ | 3/17/06 | Tim Chapman Posted on 03/18/2006 3:04:56 PM PST by eeevil conservative 53 Senators vote to raid the Social Security trust fund Yesterday, Senators Jim DeMint and Mike Crapo introduced an amendment to prevent the current Social Security Surplus from continuing to be spent. 53 Senators voted against it. After the vote, DeMint issued the following statement: “Sadly, fifty-three senators turned their backs on America’s seniors,” Senator DeMint said. “There is simply no way to save Social Security if we don’t have the courage stop using...

OKLAHOMA CITY - Another day, another headline. The world moves on. Not I. I'm obsessing about those 12 cartoons, a world gone mad and an American media lost in self-righteous loser-ness. My own tribe surrendered without a fight, and we may pay for generations. Unless. -SNIP- In Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar," when the soothsayer warned, "Beware the Ides of March," Caesar brushed him off, saying: "He is a dreamer, let us leave him. Pass." Those rioting in the Middle East against the West dream of a world ruled by Islamic law. American newspapers have a duty not to ignore them or...

Former FEMA head Michael Brown complained to NBC's Brian Williams on his "Nightly News" show that he was "hung out to dry" by President Bush. "As one of the president's appointee," Brown said, "I realized that I would have to fall on my sword for the president...and I did, but I didn't realize that he would leave me on the battlefield." Brown said also that "he had wished he had told Americans that Katrina "was the worst disaster the country had ever faced" instead of relying on the "talking points" supplied.

With temperatures reaching 17 degrees below zero, organizers of the Polar Plunge Saturday were forced to call off the annual event — which raises money for the Special Olympics Wisconsin. “Due to the wind chill, the Madison Plunge has been cancelled,” officials posted on the Special Olympics Wisconsin website. The Polar Plunge was scheduled to have taken place in Lake Mendota at Olin/Turville Park Saturday, with the first plunges to commence at 11:30 a.m. Participants in the annual event are asked to raise money by collecting donations from family, friends and other sponsors, after which, on the day of the...

The Prime Minister has spoken out about the Mohammad cartoon controversy, saying she does not think it is a freedom of the press issue. Helen Clark says the New Zealand press is free, and politicians do not dictate what it can and cannot print. She says it is a question of judgement. She does not think the publication of the cartoons does anything to bring communities together in New Zealand or around the world. Helen Clark says the New Zealand government's position is very strongly in favour of respecting all religions and working to bring communities together, not drive them...

Senate Democrats have scrapped a "good-faith" agreement they made two months ago to allow the Judiciary Committee to vote today on the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. "This is a new low in our confirmation process," said Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican. "Not only because it is virtually unprecedented, but also because it reflects a breach of trust." According to Judiciary Committee rules, either party can stall a nomination in committee for only one week, meaning that Judge Alito's nomination will likely be approved by the panel during an executive committee meeting next Tuesday. The entire...

Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle WASHINGTON - Two leading moderate House Republicans told reporters Thursday that the House should elect a new majority leader to replace Rep. Tom DeLay. Chris Shays of Connecticut and Sherwood Boehlert of New York joined a handful of conservative Republicans who have said they want an election, which would have the effect of permanently removing DeLay from the leadership. One of them, Jeff Flake of Arizona, said Thursday that he "may represent the silent majority" that could gradually go public with the same sentiment. DeLay, R-Sugar Land, had to step aside as majority leader, the No....

For the past two years, the old-line media has been more than willing to help broadcast the allegations made by the anti-war crowd that "Bush lied, soldiers died." However, no matter how many times the likes of Michael Moore and Cindy Sheehan have made this allegation, they've never been able to make it stick. The only thing they've proven thus far is that they hold a twisted hatred of this country and feel consumed with resentment toward America's economic, military and political superiority. It turns out that it's not George Bush or Dick Cheney who has been lying to the...

I received the following email tonight. From: Kevin McLaughlin [mailto:ecampaign@gop.com] Sent: Thursday, November 10, 2005 9:09 PM To: rwjay@woh.rr.com Subject: Bookcast with Senator John McCain Dear Richard, On this Veterans Day, join us for a conversation with Senator John McCain as he shares the stories of heroes who have devoted their lives to serving others. In the latest BookCast on GOP.com, Senator McCain discusses his newest book, Character is Destiny: Inspiring Stories Every Young Person Should Know and Every Adult Should Remember. In Character is Destiny, we meet heroes like Pat Tillman, who left the riches and celebrity of the...

Leaders drop hotly debated ANWR drilling plan from omnibus budget billWASHINGTON - House leaders late Wednesday abandoned an attempt to push through a hotly contested plan to open an Alaskan wildlife refuge to oil drilling, fearing it would jeopardize approval of a sweeping budget bill Thursday. They also dropped from the budget document plans to allow states to authorize oil and gas drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts — regions currently under a drilling moratorium.

If there's one cure for a Supreme talk radio overdose of nomination boredom, it's an uncontrollable riot. But one in France? Can internal European issues engage American audiences? While there may have been some doubt last week, there's simply no question it's now become impossible to ignore. And it's a great way to recharge talk radio's long-drained topical batteries. Aren't the angles clear? --- Why does the American media insist on avoiding the words "muslim" or "Islam" in coverage? --- How can Europeans, quick to lambaste America over "slow" Katrina response times, explain France's inability to get a handle on...