Charlotte Bacon's Newtown Girl Scout Troop's 10 Girls Now 5 As VP Joe Biden Set To Lead Gun Control Reform

Charlotte Bacon, 6, had a big personality, writes The Washington Post, in their pages honoring the Newtown Victims.

Charlotte had curly, dark red hair. She loved the color pink and going to school. She was so smart, Hagen said, that her parents were thinking about putting her in a special private school because they worried she wasn’t being challenged enough. “This girl was definitely going places,” her uncle said.

Charlotte also loved being a girl scout, and her mom was her troop leader.

“There were 10 girls in the group,” Hagen said. “Only five are left.”

Obama to Tap Biden to Oversee Gun-Control Efforts WSJ.com

President Obama will announce today that Vice President Joe Biden will lead the White House efforts to change gun policy in America. The announcement comes at a time that even NRA (National Rifle Association) supporters agree that there must be a change in policy.

One of the major facts to emerge in the last few days is how out of step the public face of the NRA, led by Wayne LaPierre, is with the views of NRA members. LaPierre has a reputation as being almost a cult leader of militia groups that argue Americans must have unlimited firepower to protect themselves against a federal government confiscation of all guns.

Salon writer Alan Berlow profiled the NRA and LaPierre in a three-part series this summer.

If Americans wake up one day to find out that they’re living in a Stalinist police state and that government agents have confiscated all their guns leaving them utterly defenseless, it won’t be because Wayne LaPierre didn’t warn us. LaPierre, the CEO of the National Rifle Association, has been issuing warnings along these lines for most of his 20 years as the public face of what is regularly described as the nation’s most powerful lobbying organization.

“The Second Amendment is not there to protect the interests of hunters, sports shooters and casual plinkers, although those are convenient spinoffs. The Second Amendment is there as a balance of power. It is literally a loaded gun in the hands of the people held to the heads of government.” ~ Fred Romero, NRA field representative for Southern California

The Secret World of Extreme Militias from 2010 TIME cover story.

Similar minds run on similar journalistic investigation paths. The reference to Charlotte’s girl scout troop caused me to update the current investigation the Vatican has going into girl scouts. This post by Max Lindenman on Patheos is so relevant today. Read Can A Mass Murder Mean A Church-World Truce?

Jack Long’s Splash Photography Project ‘Vessels and Blooms’ AOC Mavericks

Water mixed with thickeners, pigments and dyes produces these magnificent, enchanting images. The paint is suspended in air for a split second as Long uses an electronic flash to get the image capture just right. ‘Reality’ appears as a range of leaves, stems, petals and pots made of paint. In fact, we’re looking at a wondrous visual illusion. Simply superb!

Lilith Was A Hit at Dress for Success Philadelphia Holiday Fashion Event AOC GlamTribale

We had a marvelous time at the Dec. 5th Third Annual Holiday Trunk & Fashion Show to Benefit Dress for Success. The event was sponsored by Y.E.S! the volunteer branch of Dress for Success that works on fundraising, volunteering and networking opportunities to champion the mission of Dress for Success.

The current Philadelphia Executive Director of Dress for Success Cecilia Cardesa-Lusardi (front row right on end) was the very lucky recipient of one of the first necklaces I designed and made all by myself. Her guy said it was a birthday present, and we all agreed that our true goddess Lilith necklace suited this powerhouse perfectly. See the entire Lilith Collection at GlamTribale.

Yeah! Another excuse for having a martini — but not before sundown.Flowers should never drink alone.

Are you tired of tying fancy ribbons, twine or props of any creative kind around paperwhite and narcissus stems? Mother Nature rarely screws up but paperwhites and narcissus blooms in particular struggle not to flop over.

Armed with a few narcissus bulbs and a bottle of gin, Researchers at Cornell University’s Flower Bulb Research Program proved a few years ago that adding alcohol (ethanol) to the water will stunt the growth of narcissus bulb stems but not the blooms. The same holds true for paperwhites.Stems will be approximately one third shorter, preventing them from getting heavy and flopping over. The reason it works, according to Prof. William Miller, is probably “water stress.” The alcohol makes it more difficult for the plant to absorb water, reducing growth of stems and leafs without adversely affecting the size or longevity of the plants’ flowers. Tip via Gardenista.

Karen Elson & Carolyn Murphy As ‘Hothouse Flowers’ by Steven Klein for Vogus US January 2013 AOC Style