FitSugar

Keep an Exercise Routine, Even When Visiting the In-laws

FitSugar — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:00:20 -0800

When you're away from home, it can be hard to stick to a normal fitness routine, but that doesn't have to mean giving it up altogether. When traveling this holiday season, use these helpful tips to ensure you'll be active well into the new year.

Pack your gym bag. If you pack your workout gear in your suitcase, you'll have no excuse not to exercise, and you'll be ready to work out regardless of where you're staying. Traveling with workout clothing also acts as a visual reminder to stay fit even when away from home.

Carry a workout on you. Depending on where you're staying, it may be hard to find a gym, and depending on the weather, exercising outdoors may not be an option. Always bring a workout that you can do indoors. Good options that are easy to pack are a jump rope, fitness DVD, or one of our printable home circuit workouts - I always pack resistance bands. If you forget, hit up the local library or video store and borrow a fitness DVD instead.

I have couple more suggestions, so keep reading.

Celebrity Trainer Harley Pasternak Dishes About Food

FitSugar — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 05:50:18 -0700

Harley Pasternak says that if you follow his 5 Factor diet, you will see results. First, eat five times a day: two meals and three snacks. Next, everything you eat should have five components: lean protein, low glycemic carbs, healthy fats, fiber, and a sugar-free beverage. And to keep it real, there's a cheat day once a week.

The in-demand trainer recently came out with a new book - the 5 Factor World Diet - that draws on lessons learned from constant travel. Harley selected 10 countries with the lowest obesity rates and highest life expectancies and studied what they eat, how they eat, and how they burn it off. Although busy bopping between clients, Harley took some time out of his day to talk all things food: what you should be eating, why fresh food isn't always better, and yes, even he has a cheat food.

To see the interview, read more.

FitSugar: Your latest book, The 5 Factor World Diet, is based on the insights you’ve gained while traveling. What are some healthy eating tips you’ve picked up from other countries?
Harley Pasternak: I saw a lot of fish - not beef - in the healthiest countries, and whole grains, vegetable, and whole soy - especially in Okinawa where everyone is 100 years old. In Sweden, sandwiches are made with one piece of bread, not two - it’s always always an open-faced sandwich. Physical activity is very much tied to meals too. In Italy they have something called a "pasa giatta," and when the meal ends they all get up and go for a walk together. And in other parts of the world they go grocery shopping every day, so you’re basically burning off half the meal to pick up ingredients, and when you’re preparing your food, you have more control over what you put into it.

FS: What advice do you have for people who can’t walk to pick up fresh food because the nearest market is 30 miles away?
HP: I’m a big fan of frozen food and canned food. I know that’s not what we’re used to hearing but frozen and canned food can be as healthy, if not healthier than fresh counterpart options. Fresh produce is not the end-all be-all - when I make smoothies I almost always use frozen fruits, and when I make soups I often use frozen vegetables. You can use canned beans and frozen vegetables for dips as well. Also, don’t be afraid of canned fish, canned salmon, canned tuna, and frozen seafood like shrimp cocktail. It’s another great way to get seafood into your diet, if you can't get fresh.

FS: What are some of your favorite meals from the 5 Factor World Diet?
HP: Gosh, there are so many. As I wrote the World Diet book, I was looking abroad for some good fiber recipes and fell in love with Japanese food like soba noodles. I also love the idea of ceviche. Going to Spain and learning to make ceviche was great. It's absolutely foolproof, even for someone who has no idea how to cook.

FS: What about snacks - especially when you’re on the go?
HP: Snacks - as should a meal - [should] have a lowfat protein and a fibrous carbohydrate. I tell my clients to grab some plain nonfat Greek yogurt and some frozen berries and mix that together. Soy snacks are great too: edamame, Soy Joy bars, and soy milk are all great. I often make a dip out of nonfat Greek yogurt and natural peanut butter for protein and calcium. It’s 1:2 ratio of peanut butter to yogurt and it’s delicious with apples or pears.

FS: Now that you’ve brought up fruit, one of our readers wants to know why there are no grapes or bananas on the 5-Factor Diet?
HP: No one is going to live a shorter life if they have bananas or grapes, however there are much, much healthier fruits. I try and tell my clients to choose those fruits over others. I tell my clients to stick to fruits that either have edible skin, edible seeds, or citrus - bananas do not have edible skin, nor do they have edible seeds really, nor is it citrus. Most of the fiber and nutrients that are in a fruit are in a fruit’s skin. A banana is just the densest piece of fruit that you can put in your body, and since it doesn’t have fiber, it won’t keep you full. It’s kind of a shame to have a fruit with no fiber.

Grapes are an exception to the rule because they have a special sugar in them called dextrose, which is the highest glycemic sugar that you can possibly put in your body. They actually make grape pills for diabetics so that they don’t become low.

FS: Are there any foods that you think people should avoid, even on their cheat days?
HP: Absolutely no, not at all. Life is short and you have to enjoy it, and you should indulge when it’s time to indulge. At some point, I think everyone should eat everything at least once.

FS: And what’s your cheat food?
HP: My cheat food? That’s easy, it’s chocolate chip cookies. I’m the biggest chocolate chip cookie freak in the world.

FS: And do you give yourself some cookies every week?
HP: At least every week.

To get a taste of Harley's diet, try his recipe for five-spice halibut. It's tasty and easy to make.

Dita Von Teese EXCLUSIVE: Ok.co.uk gets up close and personal with the burlesque goddess

kty — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 11:13:05 -0800

DITA Von Teese is a busy lady.

When the famous burlesque dancer isn't performing at the Crazy Horse or dancing in a martini glass she is coming up with new routines and keeping her to-die-for figure in shape.
Ok.co.uk snatched a precious moment with the curvy beauty to find out what she's been up to recently, how she keeps fit and what she likes to wear in bed...

Hi Dita, how are you and what have you been up to recently?

I've been great! I've been spending a lot of time at my Paris apartment, taking French lessons and learning to live as a Parisienne! But now I am getting set to go back to Los Angeles to prepare for my shows at The MGM Grand in Las Vegas at The Crazy Horse Paris there.

What are your naughty wardrobe must-haves?

Great fitting lingerie. I always buy sexy bras of good quality that fit me well and give a good shape, and I always buy the string and the bikini that match. I am also obsessed with the perfect vintage fully-fashioned back-seamed stockings, so much so that I have my own brand which are made precisely as they were in the 1940s.

You obviously have an incredible (and world famous!) figure, how do you stay in shape?

I mostly do pilates on a reformer, but I also do yoga and take ballet classes. For me, variety is the key to a successful workout regime. When I get bored, I don't want to go.

What are you most comfortable wearing?

Something uncomfortable!! Ha!

Do you ever take a day off and just throw on some jeans/jogging bottoms?

Kidding aside, yes, of course I have days "off", and I do like to be physically comfortable. I don't know why everyone thinks jeans are so easy and comfy... I can get dressed more quickly and comfortably- not to mention chicly - in a pretty 50's era cotton day dress with a single zip up the back!With jeans you have to squeeze into them, button, zip, etc then you have to find a shirt to wear with it, and finally some silly socks and trainers! I grab one of my vintage dresses, one quick zip up the back, and I slip on a pair of ballet flats or easy heels, and voila, I look nice and I got dressed quickly and easily and I'm off! I hate that "I don't want anyone to think I care but look at me in my carefully-planned disheveled look" thing! I don't actually spend hours getting ready on a day-to-day basis, and I'm certainly not about spending a fortune on or making the effort with something as unappealing to me as jeans. I look silly in jeans.

What do you wear to bed?

Either a little lace slip or nothing at all. I love being nude in very fine sheets. I keep a dressing gown next to the bed and that's what I slip in and out of to wear around the house.

Who is your style inspiration at the moment (that is current)?

My modern influences are designers like John Galliano and Jean Paul Gaultier, and I reference things from books I have and old films I see. I definitely see other celebrities who look lovely, but my inspirations go beyond "lovely" and into eccentric, over-the-top territory!

Which staple item of clothing should every girl have in their wardrobe?

The perfect black dress that shows a bit of cleavage, but not too much of anything else. There should be one focal point. If you find the perfect dress, you can wear it over and over in different ways, with a great statement brooch, or a pair of shoes and handbag in a vibrant color, with gloves or a hat. I have a few of these perfect black dresses that I wear over and over, but no one notices it's the same dress because I wear it with different accessories.

How can girls with a tight budget achieve the ‘Dita’ look?

It's actually fairly easy because the fact is, my look is derived from not having money to buy expensive clothes. That is the reason I began collecting vintage clothes! I could see parallels between my favorite designers and vintage styles, so I would shop for vintage. Nowadays I see so many modern made clothes of all price points, I think it's become quite easy to look chic on a budget. My number one rule these days is to buy timeless, good quality pieces that I can wear year after year rather than trying to buy lots and lots of clothes. I would suggest to save up for the day you see that perfect dress that you might have considered to be too expensive. I find that it's actually more economical than snatching up piles of clothes. Whenever I do that, I end up with a bunch of things I never wear.

What’s it like being in your giant martini glass for The Bath? It looks uncomfortable!

Nothing worth doing is easy, and nothing that looks effortless actually is. I'm really only in there for about 3 minutes, and onstage, I never feel any kind of pain or discomfort anyway! I've come offstage with scrapes and cuts, but never feel it until later on.

Every girl likes to feel sexy and confidence is obviously the key, but do you have any mantras or routines that help you to feel sexy even when you’re having an ‘off’ day?

Well, like any woman, I do have off days, and I guess I just do my best to get through it and try to do something that makes me feel better, like exercising or making more of an effort with my appearance, like wearing a favourite dress. And sometimes there's nothing to do but go to bed and count on tomorrow being another day!

You’ve said the reason your style evolved was because you didn’t feel comfortable or suit the ‘normal’ look, what are your tips for girls who want to look different?

The most important thing to remember is that there can be no real definition of beauty... that old saying that beauty is "in the eye of the beholder" is the truth. Being true to yourself and using what you've got it the best way, I'm really just a girl who is enhancing what she's got, and that's it! I think there is something to be said for the women of the world that achieved glamour rather than being born a natural beauty, look at women like Marene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth etc all these women that once looked very average but managed to undergo a reinvention to become the icons we still remember today. There is no real reason that anyone can't do that with enough ambition, even if it's not for the silver screen, but for yourself, in your own movie - the one called your life!

What would you say are rules for a first date or dating rules in general?

I don't really have rules for first dates, because you never know but I do try to reveal myself to a degree, for instance I never try to dress down to make my date think I'm "normal" or anything like that! I like to make a good impression, but I don't want to make a man think I'm something I'm not. I think he ought to know right away that I like to wear this much eyeliner and this much lipstick! I think when I was younger I thought about what others thought of me from time to time, but that's out the window now. Being different and taking the road less travelled is what made me successful.

You always look incredible on stage, but do you still get nervous before a routine?

Of course I do! There's a lot to think about, and nervous energy is part of what makes a good show. When I feel too much at ease, the show usually doesn't go the way I want it to. I never relax into it. I control my nerves very well, I just do what I need to do to be in the right frame of mind, I have a few little rules to help keep it that way, mostly related to being alone to think and prepare. The cardinal rule is to not let anyone interrupt my backstage alone time.

What would you say is the difference between stripping and burlesque?

The term "Burlesque" as we know it today comes from a type of risque variety show in America that one would go to see in the 1930's and 40's, and performing striptease - stripping - is the word to describe what the burlesque performers did onstage. It's not just my opinion, it's a fact. Nowadays we use the word "burlesque" to describe this retro-styled striptease that is seeing a big revival. Without the strip, it's not burlesque, that's for certain, and the greatest burlesque star that ever lived, Gypsy Rose Lee, called herself a stripper. 'Stripper' is not a bad word, and you aren't going to hear me tell you that there is a difference between burlesque and stripping, because I think that's awfully pretentious to go on and on about how burlesque isn't really stripping - it is! Burlesque-style striptease is where the modern pole dancing type strip originated from, and essentially, we're all related. Initially, I worked in strip clubs, as did most of us that were at the forefront of the burlesque revival in the early 1990s, and I'm not ashamed to say it. I believe that those years spent on strip club stages is part of what makes me good at what I do.

What was it like performing at Crazy Horse?

I have a very high regard and respect for The Crazy Horse, it's a historic place. When I was a teenager, I saw one little picture in Playboy of these beautiful nearly nude 'toy soldiers' lined up, and I was desperate to find out more about this mysterious place. There was no internet yet, and I couldn't find out anything about it. I didn't even have the name of it, just this image that was in my head for all those years. So years later, when I was finally in paris when I was in my early 20s, I kept asking people about these naked 'toy soldiers', and I finally saw the show, and I was amazed. I went to the show every night I was in Paris, and for the next decade I would go see the show every chance I got. I also befriended a Crazy Horse historian and so I would get to see all the archives and meet former dancers. A few years ago I did a photo shoot there, which is something they never allowed, in order to preserve the mystery of the place. Little by little, I became more involved, and I became the first guest star in the history of The Crazy, so that was exciting. Everyone who was anyone went there, since 1951, and for me, just to be in that theatre to see the same stage that all these stars went, from Marlene Dietrich, Mae West, Marilyn Monroe, John F Kennedy, Gypsy Rose Lee, Salvador Dali, the guest list is impressive, and well, I just think it's incredible to think that there was once a time when a show like this was revered like that. It's the art of nude, the glorification of the female form, absolute perfection. There is no show like it on earth, and the history and mystery of this place is amazing. I'm a big fan, and part of my driving force in performing there was to bring attention to this amazing show, and of course I liked the challenge in creating acts for it that are both true to their history and ideals, and at the same time true to mine, which is based in American style classic burlesque, which is what originally inspired the founder to create the Crazy Horse in Paris.

How do you come up with your routines?

Ah well, coming up with the ideas isn't the problem, it's following through that is. I have lots of ideas for shows but then I have to really take some time to think about whether I want to invest the money and time into the idea. It takes a lot of time, effort and money to build one new act, and I am my own financier! Sometimes it can become frustrating because I do build all these big new elaborate shows and I will still get asked to do one of my oldest, simplest shows, like the Martini glass! And when I come up with these opulent new acts, they don't fit on some stages, or it's too expensive to ship...so there are lots of factors that come into play when making a new act.

* Crazy Horse Paris with Dita Von Teese available on DVD nowInterview by Nikki Barr.

Rachael Ray Slims Down

FitSugar — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:00:19 -0800

With all the burgers, beers, and EVOO Rachael Ray downs, I've always wondered how she stays so fit - I'm sure constantly being on the go helps. Just this week, Rachael was in Miami hosting her Burger Bash as part of the Food Network's annual South Beach Wine and Food Festival (SBWFF). And while I wasn't as lucky as Yum to sample the fare, I did get to read all about Rachael's exercise secrets in People. That's a worthy replacement, right?

While at the SBWFF, Rachael shared she went into serious exercise mode after having a cyst removed from her throat last year. Post surgery, she started running 3.5 miles every day: "The gym used to be my adversary. But that has all changed. Now, I look forward to it every morning." And when she talks morning, she's not kidding! To allow for gym time before heading to the TV studio to film her talk show, Rachael is usually up before 6 a.m. and raring to go. She runs for 30 minutes before heading to the gym for an hour-long workout on the elliptical. I'd say the gal loves her cardio!

How much weight has she dropped? Learn the details when you read more.

She can't tell you for sure how much weight she's lost - Rachael doesn't count calories or weigh herself - but there's definite progress. She says that her body has changed, her mind is clearer, and she's dropped several dress sizes. She doesn't slack off either. Even while letting the good times roll at the SBWFF, Rachael made a point to work out at a local Miami gym.

Hitting the local gym is a great tip to have when traveling yourself - I also pack workout DVDs and a resistance band before hopping on a plane.

Millions of Unemployed Face Years Without Jobs

Roarman — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 08:42:41 -0800

Even as the American economy shows tentative signs of a rebound, the human toll of the recession continues to mount, with millions of Americans remaining out of work, out of savings and nearing the end of their unemployment benefits.

Economists fear that the nascent recovery will leave more people behind than in past recessions, failing to create jobs in sufficient numbers to absorb the record-setting ranks of the long-term unemployed.

Call them the new poor: people long accustomed to the comforts of middle-class life who are now relying on public assistance for the first time in their lives - potentially for years to come.

Yet the social safety net is already showing severe strains. Roughly 2.7 million jobless people will lose their unemployment check before the end of April unless Congress approves the Obama administration’s proposal to extend the payments, according to the Labor Department.

Here in Southern California, Jean Eisen has been without work since she lost her job selling beauty salon equipment more than two years ago. In the several months she has endured with neither a paycheck nor an unemployment check, she has relied on local food banks for her groceries.

She has learned to live without the prescription medications she is supposed to take for high blood pressure and cholesterol. She has become effusively religious - an unexpected turn for this onetime standup comic with X-rated material - finding in Christianity her only form of health insurance.

“I pray for healing,” says Ms. Eisen, 57. “When you’ve got nothing, you’ve got to go with what you know.”

Warm, outgoing and prone to the positive, Ms. Eisen has worked much of her life. Now, she is one of 6.3 million Americans who have been unemployed for six months or longer, the largest number since the government began keeping track in 1948. That is more than double the toll in the next-worst period, in the early 1980s.

Men have suffered the largest numbers of job losses in this recession. But Ms. Eisen has the unfortunate distinction of being among a group - women from 45 to 64 years of age - whose long-term unemployment rate has grown rapidly.

In 1983, after a deep recession, women in that range made up only 7 percent of those who had been out of work for six months or longer, according to the Labor Department. Last year, they made up 14 percent.

Twice, Ms. Eisen exhausted her unemployment benefits before her check was restored by a federal extension. Last week, her check ran out again. She and her husband now settle their bills with only his $1,595 monthly disability check. The rent on their apartment is $1,380.

“We’re looking at the very real possibility of being homeless,” she said.

Every downturn pushes some people out of the middle class before the economy resumes expanding. Most recover. Many prosper. But some economists worry that this time could be different. An unusual constellation of forces - some embedded in the modern-day economy, others unique to this wrenching recession - might make it especially difficult for those out of work to find their way back to their middle-class lives.

Labor experts say the economy needs 100,000 new jobs a month just to absorb entrants to the labor force. With more than 15 million people officially jobless, even a vigorous recovery is likely to leave an enormous number out of work for years.

Some labor experts note that severe economic downturns are generally followed by powerful expansions, suggesting that aggressive hiring will soon resume. But doubts remain about whether such hiring can last long enough to absorb anywhere close to the millions of unemployed.

A New Scarcity of Jobs

Some labor experts say the basic functioning of the American economy has changed in ways that make jobs scarce - particularly for older, less-educated people like Ms. Eisen, who has only a high school diploma.

Large companies are increasingly owned by institutional investors who crave swift profits, a feat often achieved by cutting payroll. The declining influence of unions has made it easier for employers to shift work to part-time and temporary employees. Factory work and even white-collar jobs have moved in recent years to low-cost countries in Asia and Latin America. Automation has helped manufacturing cut 5.6 million jobs since 2000 - the sort of jobs that once provided lower-skilled workers with middle-class paychecks.

“American business is about maximizing shareholder value,” said Allen Sinai, chief global economist at the research firm Decision Economics. “You basically don’t want workers. You hire less, and you try to find capital equipment to replace them.”

During periods of American economic expansion in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, the number of private-sector jobs increased about 3.5 percent a year, according to an analysis of Labor Department data by Lakshman Achuthan, managing director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute, a research firm. During expansions in the 1980s and ’90s, jobs grew just 2.4 percent annually. And during the last decade, job growth fell to 0.9 percent annually.

“The pace of job growth has been getting weaker in each expansion,” Mr. Achuthan said. “There is no indication that this pattern is about to change.”

Before 1990, it took an average of 21 months for the economy to regain the jobs shed during a recession, according to an analysis of Labor Department data by the National Employment Law Project and the Economic Policy Institute, a labor-oriented research group in Washington.

After the recessions in 1990 and in 2001, 31 and 46 months passed before employment returned to its previous peaks. The economy was growing, but companies remained conservative in their hiring.

Some 34 million people were hired into new and existing private-sector jobs in 2000, at the tail end of an expansion, according to Labor Department data. A year later, in the midst of recession, hiring had fallen off to 31.6 million. And as late as 2003, with the economy again growing, hiring in the private sector continued to slip, to 29.8 million.

It was a jobless recovery: Business was picking up, but it simply did not translate into more work. This time, hiring may be especially subdued, labor economists say.

Traditionally, three sectors have led the way out of recession: automobiles, home building and banking. But auto companies have been shrinking because strapped households have less buying power. Home building is limited by fears about a glut of foreclosed properties. Banking is expanding, but this seems largely a function of government support that is being withdrawn.

At the same time, the continued bite of the financial crisis has crimped the flow of money to small businesses and new ventures, which tend to be major sources of new jobs.

All of which helps explain why Ms. Eisen - who has never before struggled to find work - feels a familiar pain each time she scans job listings on her computer: There are positions in health care, most requiring experience she lacks. Office jobs demand familiarity with software she has never used. Jobs at fast food restaurants are mostly secured by young people and immigrants.

If, as Mr. Sinai expects, the economy again expands without adding many jobs, millions of people like Ms. Eisen will be dependent on an unemployment insurance already being severely tested.

“The system was ill prepared for the reality of long-term unemployment,” said Maurice Emsellem, a policy director for the National Employment Law Project. “Now, you add a severe recession, and you have created a crisis of historic proportions.”

Fewer Protections

Some poverty experts say the broader social safety net is not up to cushioning the impact of the worst downturn since the Great Depression. Social services are less extensive than during the last period of double-digit unemployment, in the early 1980s.

On average, only two-thirds of unemployed people received state-provided unemployment checks last year, according to the Labor Department. The rest either exhausted their benefits, fell short of requirements or did not apply.

“You have very large sets of people who have no social protections,” said Randy Albelda, an economist at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. “They are landing in this netherworld.”

When Ms. Eisen and her husband, Jeff, applied for food stamps, they were turned away for having too much monthly income. The cutoff was $1,570 a month - $25 less than her husband’s disability check.

Reforms in the mid-1990s imposed time limits on cash assistance for poor single mothers, a change predicated on the assumption that women would trade welfare checks for paychecks.

Yet as jobs have become harder to get, so has welfare: as of 2006, 44 states cut off anyone with a household income totaling 75 percent of the poverty level - then limited to $1,383 a month for a family of three - according to an analysis by Ms. Albelda.

“We have a work-based safety net without any work,” said Timothy M. Smeeding, director of the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “People with more education and skills will probably figure something out once the economy picks up. It’s the ones with less education and skills: that’s the new poor.”

Here in Orange County, the expanse of suburbia stretching south from Los Angeles, long-term unemployment reaches even those who once had six-figure salaries. A center of the national mortgage industry, the area prospered in the real estate boom and suffered with the bust.

Until she was laid off two years ago, Janine Booth, 41, brought home roughly $10,000 a month in commissions from her job selling electronics to retailers. A single mother of three, she has been living lately on $2,000 a month in child support and about $450 a week in unemployment insurance - a stream of checks that ran out last week.

For Ms. Booth, work has been a constant since her teenage years, when she cleaned houses under pressure from her mother to earn pocket money. Today, Ms. Booth pays her $1,500 monthly mortgage with help from her mother, who is herself living off savings after being laid off.

“I don’t want to take money from her,” Ms. Booth said. “I just want to find a job.”

Ms. Booth, with a résumé full of well-paid sales jobs, seems the sort of person who would have little difficulty getting work. Yet two years of looking have yielded little but anxiety.

She sends out dozens of résumés a week and rarely hears back. She responds to online ads, only to learn they are seeking operators for telephone sex lines or people willing to send mysterious packages from their homes.

She spends weekdays in a classroom in Anaheim, in a state-financed training program that is supposed to land her a job in medical administration. Even if she does find a job, she will be lucky if it pays $15 an hour.

“What is going to happen?” she asked plaintively. “I worry about my kids. I just don’t want them to think I’m a failure.”

On a recent weekend, she was running errands with her 18-year-old son when they stopped at an A.T.M. and he saw her checking account balance: $50.

“He says, ‘Is that all you have?’ ” she recalled. “ ‘Are we going to be O.K.?’ ”

Yes, she replied - and not only for his benefit.

“I have to keep telling myself it’s going to be O.K.,” she said. “Otherwise, I’d go into a deep depression.”

Last week, she made up fliers advertising her eagerness to clean houses - the same activity that provided her with spending money in high school, and now the only way she sees fit to provide for her kids. She plans to place the fliers on porches in some other neighborhood.

“I don’t want to clean my neighbors’ houses,” she said. “I know I’m going to come out of this. There’s no way I’m going to be homeless and poverty-stricken. But I am scared. I have a lot of sleepless nights.”

For the Eisens, poverty is already here. In the two years Ms. Eisen has been without work, they have exhausted their savings of about $24,000. Their credit card balances have grown to $15,000.

“I don’t know how we’re still indoors,” she said.

Her 1994 Dodge Caravan broke down in January, leaving her to ask for rides to an employment center.

She does not have the money to move to a cheaper apartment.

“You have to have money for first and last month’s rent, and to open utility accounts,” she said.

What she has is personality and presence - two traits that used to seem enough. She narrates her life in a stream of self-deprecating wisecracks, her punch lines tinged with desperation.

“See that,” she said, spotting a man dressed as the Statue of Liberty. Standing on a sidewalk, he waved at passing cars with a sign advertising a tax preparation business. “That will be me next week. Do you think this guy ever thought he’d be doing this?”

And yet, she would gladly do this. She would do nearly anything.

“There are no bad jobs now,” she says. “Any job is a good job.”

She has applied everywhere she can think of - at offices, at gas stations. Nothing.

“I’m being seen as a person who is no longer viable,” she said. “I’m chalking it up to my age and my weight. Blame it on your most prominent insecurity.”

Two Incomes, Then None

Ms. Eisen grew up poor, in Flatbush in Brooklyn. Her father was in maintenance. Her mother worked part time at a company that made window blinds.

She married Jeff when she was 19, and they soon moved to California, where he had grown up. He worked in sales for a chemical company. They rented an apartment in Buena Park, a growing spread of houses filling out former orange groves. She stayed home and took care of their daughter.

“I never asked him how much he earned,” Ms. Eisen said. “I was of the mentality that the husband took care of everything. But we never wanted.”

By the early 1980s, gas and rent strained their finances. So she took a job as a quality assurance clerk at a factory that made aircraft parts. It paid $13.50 an hour and had health insurance.

When the company moved to Mexico in the early 1990s, Ms. Eisen quickly found a job at a travel agency. When online booking killed that business, she got the job at the beauty salon equipment company. It paid $13.25 an hour, with an annual bonus - enough for presents under the Christmas tree.

But six years ago, her husband took a fall at work and then succumbed to various ailments - diabetes, liver disease, high blood pressure - leaving him confined to the couch. Not until 2008 did he secure his disability check.

And now they find themselves in this desert of joblessness, her paycheck replaced by a $702 unemployment check every other week. She received 14 weeks of benefits after she lost her job, and then a seven-week extension.

For most of October through December 2008, she received nothing, as she waited for another extension. The checks came again, then ran out in September 2009. They were restored by an extension right before Christmas.

Their daughter has back problems and is living on disability checks, making the church their ultimate safety net.

“I never thought I’d be in the position where I had to go to a food bank,” Ms. Eisen said. But there she is, standing in the parking lot of the Calvary Chapel church, chatting with a half-dozen women, all waiting to enter the Bread of Life Food Pantry.

When her name is called, she steps into a windowless alcove, where a smiling woman hands her three bags of groceries: carrots, potatoes, bread, cheese and a hunk of frozen meat.

“Haven’t we got a lot to be thankful for?” Ms. Eisen asks.

For one thing, no pinto beans.

“I’ve got 10 bags of pinto beans,” she says. “And I have no clue how to cook a pinto bean.”

Local job listings are just as mysterious. On a bulletin board at the county-financed ProPath Business and Career Services Center, many are written in jargon hinting of accounting or computers.

“Nothing I’m qualified for,” Ms. Eisen says. “When you can’t define what it is, that’s a pretty good indication.”

Her counselor has a couple of possibilities - a cashier at a supermarket and a night desk job at a motel.

“I’ll e-mail them,” Ms. Eisen promises. “I’ll tell them what a shining example of humanity I am.”

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/21/business/economy/21unemployed.html?sq=... New Poor&st=cse&scp=1&pagewanted=all

50 Cheap Date Ideas

PinkNC — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 07:17:05 -0800

Discount Dating

A lighter wallet is no excuse to turn date night into a luxury. Get out of your sweatpants, put down the cold pizza, and check out these 51 budget-friendly date ideas that will get you off the couch and into each other's pants.

Get on thin ice. Depending on the weather, head to an indoor or outdoor ice-skating rink - it's the perfect excuse to hold hands, "accidentally" fall on top of each other, and grab a cup of hot chocolate and cozy up to each other to keep warm.

Skip the pricey wine bar and grab a few beers at your local dive bar. Make sure you pick a place with a pool table or dartboard set up, and challenge him to a few games. Loser owes the winner a song on the jukebox.

He may hate to shop, but he'll end up thanking you if you drag him to a flea market. There's something for everyone and plenty of things you never knew existed - you might even discover he has a hobby or weird collection you didn't know about!

Settle in for a night of pampering: No pricey spa required. Use your empty wallets as an excuse to stay in - and up - all night. Run a bubble bath and then treat each other to full-body massages. Sleep in the next day.

Get an adrenaline rush at the roller-skating rink. As long as you don't mind being the oldest people there who aren't chaperoning their children, it's a great way to have fun and let loose with each other. Top it off with a bowl of ice cream when you get home.

Play house: Dress up in your most serious grownup outfit and leave your tiny apartment to visit some open houses. Spend the day arguing over where you would put the love seat, discussing the difference between eggshell and ecru paint, and giggling over strangers' hideous decorating choices.

Does he drive you up a wall sometimes? He probably feels the same way about you, so put on your sneakers and head to an indoor rock-climbing gym. Challenge him to a race to the top and relieve sore muscles with a hot shower together afterward. Just try not to gloat too much about beating him.

Celebrate the first snow of winter with a day of sledding. Pick a hilly spot in your town and use garbage can lids as makeshift sleds. Wear a bike helmet to up the dorky fun factor, and celebrate living through the experience with a cup of hot cocoa.

Spend the day picking fruit at a local farm, either one-on-one or with a few couples you know - the more the merrier. Once you've picked all the apples you can carry back to the car, get creative in the kitchen and think up some recipes with the fruit you picked. Judge each other's creations, Top Chef style.

Plan a trip. You might need to save up for awhile, but that doesn't mean you can't daydream. Plan your dream vacation with each other - it might be the incentive you need to start putting your loose change in the piggy bank.

Challenge your guy to a little friendly competition and surprise him by taking him to a rifle range. After each round, compare your targets - loser buys the next round of bullets; winner gets gloating privileges.

Spice up your movie-night routine by finding a drive-in movie theater. Stop at the supermarket on your way to load up on your favorite snacks, and bring blankets and pillows to make the car extra cozy. Let him pick the movie - you'll get points for being easygoing, even though you know you'll probably miss most of the movie.

The easiest way to booze it up on the cheap? Take a tour of a winery or brewery, and pick up some wine facts for your next dinner party while getting tipsy.

Dying to see a musical or play but can't afford the tickets? Call around to see if you can buy tickets to the dress rehearsal instead - you'll pay a fraction of the price for the same experience.

Wherever you live, chances are there are local bands dying for an audience. Check out MySpace for bands in your area and go to a show. Alternate with your guy on who gets to pick the band so that you both get a chance to enjoy your favorite music genres, and save cash on booze by bringing a flask.

Head to the bookstore and walk through the aisles together, showing each other your favorite books, bonding over the books you both hated, and flipping through a Kama Sutra book for ideas for later.

Bowl him over at the bowling alley. Psych him out by reminding him of how many gross people wore his shoes before him, and don't forget to program his sugary-sweet nickname ("Muffin Face") onto the computerized scoreboard instead of his real name.

Show him your rugged side and build something together. Ask him to help you build something like a coffee table or dresser for your place - he'll be psyched that you asked him, just as long as you can bite your tongue when the table he puts together falls apart the moment you set your cup of coffee down.

Appeal to his inner child (it shouldn't be too hard to tap into) and buy tickets for a carnival. Embrace the cheesiness - share cotton candy, let him try to win you a prize, and ride the Ferris wheel until you get nauseous. It's a great way to get to know each other if you've just started dating and will serve as a reminder of how much fun you can have together if you've been dating for awhile.

Keep up on the specials. For a break on your dinner bill, check out sites like Restaurant.com for the restaurant deals in your area. And check out the websites of your favorite bars - they might have drink specials on certain nights, like a free pizza with every drink.

Ask him about his fantasy cars and he'll probably talk your ear off. Head over to a local car dealership and test-drive the most expensive car they'll let you take out of the parking lot. Take turns at the wheel but resist the urge to nitpick each other's driving skills.

Indulge your sweet tooth with your sweetie - visit a chocolate or cookie factory. Do a quick Google search to see if there are any in your area and give one a call to see if it does tours. If it only does group tours, make it a group date and invite a few other couples.

Get spooked at a haunted house. Check out Hauntedhouse.com for listings in your state. Start off the night by watching a scary movie before you go, and then try not to laugh when he launches a foot into the air at every corner.

Get out those matching aprons and fire up the skillet for a night of cooking - for both of you. Learn how to cook each other's favorite meal and then do it together. Whether you end up with a delicious steak and tuna casserole for two or speed-dialing for Chinese takeout, you're guaranteed to enjoy the process.

Forget eating dinner parked in front of a Mad Men marathon until you and your boyfriend are tired of looking at each other. Invite another couple over that you don't know well for a potluck dinner. Ask them to bring the appetizer and dessert, and work on the main course with your guy. At least one of the dishes should come out edible, and you can bond with your new friends over your shared culinary failure.

Tap into your animal instincts by visiting a petting zoo. Bring some bread to feed the animals and spend a few hours debating him on why getting a pet monkey is a bad idea. When you get home, jump in the shower with him to scrub off the zoo smell.

Play 20 Questions. Whether you've been together for three weeks or three years, there are probably things you don't know about each other. Each of you should write down 20 questions about the other - make sure they're open-ended so you don't get boring one-word answers - and fire away. Take turns answering the questions and get to know each other a little better than you already do.

Take a pottery class together and decorate your apartment in misshapen vases and funky-looking coffee mugs. Resist the urge to make your guy recreate the scene from Ghost every time you walk into class.

Have pretentious conversations about art at a local show. You'll find them going on all year at community centers, schools, and libraries - you might even find a great piece of art to add to your home.

Take a hike. Spend the day hiking and taking pictures together. When you're ready to recover, add some extra romance to the evening - lie across the hood of the car and look at the stars.

If you're tired of a quiet dinner at home disintegrating into chips and dip on the couch with no conversation between the two of you except for requests to change the channel, grab a blanket and some food and have an indoor picnic. The best part of staying inside? No ants in your food - plus, you're free to get busy right then and there.

Take a class together. Sign up to learn something neither of you knows how to do. Community schools generally offer a lot of options for classes you can take in eight-week sessions, from cooking to karate.

Put on your walking shoes and head to the museum. Almost all museums have one day a week where you can get in for free or for a small suggested donation. Pick the exhibits you each want to see beforehand, and spend some time at each of them together.

Celebrate something special with a trip to a bed and breakfast. A one-night stay in the colder months won't break the bank, so you can put that extra cash toward a room with a hot tub or breakfast in bed. If you're in for a long car ride, grab a book on tape from the local library.

Look into the future: Go together for a psychic reading. Practice your poker faces and spend the rest of the night talking about how funny - or eerily accurate - the reading was.

Score major points and head to a baseball game with your guy. Tickets can be as cheap as $5 a person, but bring extra cash for some beer, hot dogs, and a giant foam finger.

Check the theater offerings at local colleges and high schools. Schools usually have a spring and a fall show, and it's a great way to see a version of your favorite plays and musicals for a fraction of the cost.

One man's junk is another couple's treasure. Grab your guy and see what you can dig up at local garage sales. Up your chances of scoring something great by going to the ritziest neighborhood in your area.

Rent bikes - a tandem one, if you're adventurous - and go for a long ride through the park. Pack a few sandwiches and plenty of water for a picnic, or just grab hot dogs from a stand when you're ready for a break.

See the stars without braving the cold by getting tickets to the planetarium. Sneak in a thin blanket and cozy up. For extra privacy, go during off-peak times - call ahead to see when those are.

Bummed that you can't afford a weeklong vacation with your man? Put things in perspective and volunteer together for a cause you both care about. TiVo Gossip Girl and sign up to work at a soup kitchen once a week, or cuddle up with lovable cats and dogs at your local animal shelter.

Want some quiet time? Exercise your creative talents by drawing each other. All you need are two pieces of paper, some art supplies, and a bottle of wine for a quiet, romantic night in. Go as artistic or as fun as you wish.

Get physical. Get free day passes to a gym whose membership you could never afford and have him spot you. Challenge him to a fitness competition, bribe him into taking a spin class with you, and take advantage of the gym's sauna or pool, if it has one.

You can knit holiday sweaters like nobody's business. Your man is a Guitar Hero rock star. It's great to have separate hobbies, but it's also fun to share. Pick a weekend to teach each other your hobbies, and serenade him with a guitar solo while he knits you a pair of mittens.

While you're waiting for your Netflix delivery, stop at your local library and rent a few old movies. Toss a coin to see whose pick you'll watch first, and promise not to interrupt with bored sighs, eye-rolling, or snoring sound effects during each other's choices.

Travel back in time and reminisce. If you or your guy still live close to where you grew up, give each other a tour of your childhoods. Grab a camera and take pictures of your all-grown-up selves as you visit each landmark.

Can't get away for a vacation? Sightsee in your own city. If you've lived in your area for a long time, chances are you never got around to seeing a lot of the tourist attractions. So grab your guy and pretend to be tourists for a weekend. Stop at a used bookstore or look online for travel guides for your city, put together an itinerary, and don't forget to take pictures!

Grab a cup of coffee and check out a local coffee shop's open mic night. You might luck out with a great show, or you may find a mixed bag of angsty guitar solos and bad poetry - either way, you'll have something to talk (or laugh) about on the way home.

You probably live within driving distance of a college or university. Log on to the school's website and check out the scheduled events - often, schools will open large events, like lectures and panels, to the public. Check back often - your guy's favorite movie director might be appearing at a screening at the school's drama department, or you might find a panel of your favorite authors speaking to the English majors.

Share a few laughs at a comedy club amateur night. Admission usually costs two drinks per person, and you're in for a hilarious night - whether you're laughing with the comedian or at him.
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Celeb Style: Victoria Beckham

FabSugar — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:57:09 -0800

Victoria Beckham arrived at London's Heathrow Airport sporting a travel style that's a happy medium between comfortable and luxe. To keep cozy, she wore a loose-fitting black sweater dress. For a snazzy finish, she opted for Wolford fan-patterned tights, ankle-strap pumps, and a burgundy croc Birkin. Of course, it wouldn't be Victoria without her diamond stud earrings and oversize sunnies.

Go to CelebStyle for lots more celebrity street style!

Challenge # 4 and my resolution re-visit

commonsense102 — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:12:28 -0800

Okay so my resolution was to stay on track, especially when challenged by holidays and vacations... well I am on vacation so my regular routine has changed. My regular routine is Zumba (60 minutes) on Sunday, Zumba (60 minutes) on Monday, Weights (30 min) on Tuesday, Cardio on Wed (45-60 minutes); Zumba or Cardio on Thursday mixed with Weights on Thursday; Cardio on Friday and Rest on Sat or sometimes Rest on Friday and Weights on Sat.
My goal has been to do something everyday in the name of fitness!
Vacation this week Friday AE Sports on Wii (30 minutes); Saturday (All day at airport); Sunday Paddling on a sea Kayak (30-40 minutes); Monday (50 sit ups anf 50 squats in room) Tuesday (estimated hour long moderate-to-hard hike); Wednesday (estimated mild-to-moderate hike, 60 minutes and/or paddling); Thursday body surfing; Friday snorkeling or kayak; Sat kayak; Sunday (travel day.)

I saw something a bit disturbing last week.

chenzhiwu — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:10:34 -0800

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Profiling: Sketching the Face of Jihadism

Grandpa — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:09:15 -0800

Profiling: Sketching the Face of Jihadism

By Scott Stewart

On Jan. 4, 2010, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) adopted new rules that would increase the screening of citizens from 14 countries who want to fly to the United States as well as travelers of all nationalities who are flying to the United States from one of the 14 countries. These countries are: Afghanistan, Algeria, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

Four of the countries - Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria - are on the U.S. government’s list of state sponsors of terrorism. The other 10 have been labeled “countries of interest” by the TSA and appear to have been added in response to jihadist attacks in recent years. Nigeria was almost certainly added to the list only as a result of the Christmas Day bombing attempt aboard a Detroit-bound U.S. airliner by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian man.

As reflected by the large number of chain e-mails that swirl around after every attack or attempted attack against the United States, the type of profiling program the TSA has instituted will be very popular in certain quarters. Conventional wisdom holds that such programs will be effective in protecting the flying public from terrorist attacks because profiling is easy to do. However, when one steps back and carefully examines the historical face of the jihadist threat, it becomes readily apparent that it is very difficult to create a one-size-fits-all profile of a jihadist operative. When focusing on a resourceful and adaptive adversary, the use of such profiles sets a security system up for failure by causing security personnel and the general public to focus on a threat that is defined too narrowly.

Sketching the face of jihadism is simply not as easy as it might seem.

The Historical Face of Terror

One popular chain e-mail that seemingly circulates after every attack or attempted attack notes that the attack was not conducted by Richard Simmons or the Tooth Fairy but by “Muslim male extremists between the ages of 17 and 40.” And when we set aside the Chechen “Black Widows”, the occasional female suicide bomber and people like Timothy McVeigh and Eric Rudolph, many terrorist attacks are indeed planned and orchestrated by male Muslim extremists between the ages of 17 and 40. The problem comes when you try to define what a male Muslim extremist between the ages of 17 and 40 looks like.

When we look back at the early jihadist attacks against the United States, we see that many perpetrators matched the stereotypical Muslim profile. In the killing of Rabbi Meir Kahane, the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing and the thwarted 1993 New York Landmarks Plot, we saw a large contingent of Egyptians, including Omar Abdul-Rahman (aka “the Blind Sheikh”), ElSayyid Nosair, Ibrahim Elgabrowny, Mahmud Abouhalima and several others. In fact, Egyptians played a significant role in the development of the jihadist ideology and have long constituted a very substantial portion of the international jihadist movement - and even of the core al Qaeda cadre. Because of this, it is quite surprising that Egypt does not appear on the TSA’s profile list.

Indeed, in addition to the Egyptians, in the early jihadist plots against the United States we also saw operatives who were Palestinian, Pakistani, Sudanese and Iraqi. However - and this is significant - in the New York Landmarks Plot we also saw a Puerto Rican convert to Islam named Victor Alvarez and an African-American Muslim named Clement Rodney Hampton-el. Alvarez and Hampton-el clearly did not fit the typical profile.

The Kuwait-born Pakistani citizen who was the bombmaker in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing is a man named Abdul Basit (widely known by his alias, Ramzi Yousef). After leaving the United States, Basit resettled in Manila and attempted to orchestrate an attack against U.S. airliners in Asia called Operation Bojinka. After an apartment fire in Manila caused Basit to flee the city, he moved to Islamabad, where he attempted to recruit new jihadist operatives to carry out the Bojinka plot. One of the men he recruited was a South African Muslim named Istaique Parker. After a few dry-run operations, Parker got cold feet, decided he did not want to embrace martyrdom and helped the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service special agents assigned to the U.S. Embassy orchestrate Basit’s arrest. A South African named Parker does not fit the typical terrorist profile.

The following individuals, among many others, were involved in jihadist activity but did not fit what most people would consider the typical jihadist profile:

* Richard Reid, the British citizen known as the “shoe bomber.”
* Jose Padilla, the American citizen known as the “dirty bomber.”
* Adam Gadahn, an al Qaeda spokesman who was born Adam Pearlman in California.
* John Walker Lindh, the so-called “American Taliban.”
* Jack Roche, the Australian known as “Jihad Jack.”
* The Duka brothers, ethnic Albanians involved in the Fort Dix plot.
* Daniel Boyd and his sons, American citizens plotting grassroots attacks inside the United States.
* Germaine Maurice Lindsay, the Jamaican-born suicide bomber involved in the July 7, 2005, London attacks.
* Nick Reilly, the British citizen who attempted to bomb a restaurant in Exeter in May 2008.
* David Headley, the U.S. citizen who helped plan the Mumbai attacks.

As reflected by the list above, jihadists come from many ethnicities and nationalities, and they can range from Americans named Daniel, Victor and John to a Macedonian nicknamed “Elvis,” a Tanzanian called “Foopie” (who smuggled explosives by bicycle) and an Indonesian named Zulkarnaen. There simply is not one ethnic or national profile that can be used to describe them all.

An Adaptive Opponent

One of the big reasons we’ve witnessed men with names like Richard and Jose used in jihadist plots is because jihadist planners are adaptive and innovative. They will adjust the operatives they select for a mission in order to circumvent new security measures. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, when security forces began to focus additional scrutiny on people with Muslim names, they dispatched Richard Reid on his shoe-bomb mission. And it worked - Reid was able to get his device by security and onto the plane. If he hadn’t fumbled the execution of the attack, it would have destroyed the aircraft. Moreover, when Khalid Sheikh Mohammed wanted to get an operative into the United States to conduct attacks following 9/11, he selected U.S. citizen Jose Padilla. Padilla successfully entered the country, and it was only Mohammed’s arrest and interrogation that alerted authorities to Padilla’s mission.

But their operational flexibility in fact predates the 9/11 attack. For example, some of the operatives initially selected for the 9/11 mission were Yemenis and could not obtain visas to the United States. Since Saudis were able to obtain visas much easier, al Qaeda simply shifted gears and decided to use Saudis instead of Yemenis.

Pakistan-based militant groups Lashkar-e-Taiba and Harkat-ul-Jihad e-Islami likewise sought to fool the Danish and Indian security services when they dispatched an American citizen named David Headley from Chicago to conduct pre-operational surveillance in Mumbai and Denmark. Headley, who was named Daood Gilani at his birth, legally changed his name to David Coleman Headley, anglicizing his first name and taking his mother’s maiden name. The name change and his American accent were apparently enough to throw intelligence agencies off his trail - in spite of his very aggressive surveillance activity.

Most recently, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) showed its cunning when it dispatched a Nigerian, Abdulmutallab, in the Christmas Day attack. Although STRATFOR was among the first to see the threat AQAP’s innovative devices posed to aviation security, there is no way we could have forecast that the group would conduct an attack originating out of Nigeria using a Nigerian citizen. A Saudi or Yemeni, certainly; a Somali or American citizen, maybe - but a Nigerian? AQAP’s use of such an operative was a total paradigm shift. (Perhaps this paradigm shift explains in part why U.S. officials chose not to act more aggressively on intelligence they had obtained on Abdulmutallab that could have prevented the attack.) The only reason Nigeria is on the list of 14 countries now is because of the Christmas Day incident, and there is no reason that jihadists couldn’t use a Muslim from Togo, Ghana, or Trinidad and Tobago instead of a Nigerian in their next attack.

Jihadist planners have now heard about the list of 14 countries and, demonstrating their adaptability, will undoubtedly try to use operatives who are not from one of those countries and choose flights that originate from other places as well. They may even follow the lead of Chechen militants and the Islamic State of Iraq by employing female suicide bombers. They will also likely instruct operatives to “lose” their passports so that they can obtain new documents that contain no traces of travel to one of the 14 countries on the list. Jihadists have frequently used this tactic to hide operatives’ travel to training camps in places like Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Moreover, jihadist groups have no lack of operatives from countries that are not on that list. Jihadists from all over the world have traveled to jihadist training camps, and in addition to the large number of Egyptian, Moroccan and Tunisian jihadists (countries not on the list), there are also Filipinos, Indonesians, Malaysians and, of course, Americans and Europeans. Frankly, there have been far more jihadist plots that have originated in the United Kingdom than there have been plots involving Nigerians, and yet Nigeria is on the list and the United Kingdom is not. Because of this, a British citizen (or an American, for that matter) who has been fighting with al Shabaab in Somalia could board a flight in Nairobi or Cairo and receive less scrutiny than an innocent Nigerian flying from the same airport.

In an environment where the potential threat is hard to identify, it is doubly important to profile individuals based on their behavior rather than their ethnicity or nationality - what we refer to as focusing on the “how” rather than the “who”. Instead of relying on pat profiles, security personnel should be encouraged to exercise their intelligence, intuition and common sense. A U.S. citizen named Robert who shows up at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi or Amman claiming to have lost his passport may be far more dangerous than some random Pakistani or Yemeni citizen, even though the American does not fit the profile requiring extra security checks.

The difficulty of creating a reliable and accurate physical profile of a jihadist, and the adaptability and ingenuity of the jihadist planners, means that any attempt at profiling is doomed to fail. In fact, profiling can prove counterproductive to good security by blinding people to real threats. They will dismiss potential malefactors who do not fit the specific profile they have been provided.

http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20100120_profiling_sketching_face_jihadis...