Just because English isn’t your first language doesn’t mean you should be unable to get into the best MBA programs out there. It’s possible to master the GMAT, scoring well enough to get into some of the top MBA programs, even if you are a non-native English speaker.

To do so, however, is going to require some hard work. You’re going to need to work harder than a native English speaker if you want to do well. You’ll need to be more committed about your studies, and you’re going to need to be more systematic, focusing your energies on those areas that are the weakest.

Here are the top 5 tips non-native English speakers can use when taking the GMAT:

1.     Know where you’re starting from. Download the official practice GMAT tests, and do a couple of mock GMAT exams. This will help you get an idea of where you’re at, and how much ground you need to cover. It will also help you know which areas to focus on.

2.     Master English Idioms. Idioms are conventional English constructions that don’t follow normal grammatical rules but must be used in a specific way. For example, the phrase “fascinated by” doesn’t follow normal grammatical rules, but it’s still the correct usage of the idiom. Get a list of common GMAT idioms and commit them to memory.

3.     Don’t focus only on the verbal section of the GMAT. While chances are pretty good that’s where you’re going to need the most help, you want to do well enough on the quantitative section of the GMAT so that your overall score doesn’t suffer. Don’t study the verbal component to the exclusion of the quantitative, even if you do focus most of your study energy in that area.

4.     Study to the test, not your everyday conversations with English speakers. The fact of the matter is that native English speakers often break the rules of the English language. Your casual conversations with native English speakers are going to take a very different form than the verbal component of the GMAT. Try to differentiate strongly between the two.

5.     When you’re taking the GMAT, focus on what you know, not intuition. You actually have one advantage over native English speakers. You haven’t had a lifetime of exposure to incorrect usage from various people in your life. Master the rules, memorize the idioms, and then go with what you know on the test, not with what you may feel.

Lite

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• See how your business is performing
• View critical revenue, gross margin, expense and profit data
• Look ahead 12 months into your business’ future
• Check leading indicators
• Set your own financial goals
• Know where you’ve been and where you’re going.

Use PRODUCT NAME Lite for 30 days before you’re charged. There’s no long-term commitment. Cancel within that 30-day period and you won’t be charged. No cancellation fee, no hassle, no problem.

Standard

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• Multiple user accounts, controlled by the owner
• COGS and gross margin detail
• Drill-down feature on P&L statements and Balance Sheets
• Line-of-business and consolidated views, including both goals and indices
• Analysis of staffing costs and contributions
• 12-month forecasting power
• 2 years of your business history

PRODUCT NAME Standard takes the essential features of the Lite version and makes them accessible in greater detail to more users. If you like PRODUCT NAME Lite, you’re going to be thrilled with Standard.

Is your business ready for a disaster?

The fact of the matter is even a small business can lose hundreds, if not thousands of dollars when disaster strikes. Whether it’s a dramatic and devastating occurrence like an earthquake or a frequent danger like a power outage, a disaster can literally cripple your core business.

Whether you’re operating in Fallujah, Iraq or Falls City, Nebraska, disaster recovery preparation is integral to your business’ success and longevity.

A Tale of Two Recoveries: Kobe, Japan

On January 17, 1995, the western portion of Japan was hit by a massive earthquake, registering a 7.2 magnitude on the Richter scale. This was the most destructive one to ever hit the region. The port city of Kobe found itself with 400,000 people homeless, 30,000 injured, and 5,250 dead. 88,000 buildings were destroyed.

On January 18, 1995, hundreds of thousands of people fled Kobe on bicycles, in cars and on foot.

This earthquake had a huge economic impact, felt halfway around the world. The $100 billion in damages caused shipping containers to gather at docks in California, as businesses looked for another port through which to ship their goods. Nearly a third of all Japanese trade passed through Kobe, which was also a significant relay port for Korea and China.

Kobe TI Semiconductor

There was one plant, in particular, that faces a serious disaster recovery issue. The Kobe Texas Instruments Semiconductor plant, located around 30 miles North of the city, was dramatically affected by the earthquake. The plant manufactured DRAM for Texas Instruments. The plant was a critical piece in Texas Instrument’s business process, and disruption of service at this plant would have a ripple effect on TI operations around the globe.

Within minutes of the earthquake, the manager at the Worldwide Command Center for Texas Instruments in Dallas was notified that communications to the plant were down. The Worldwide Command Center, along with the Dallas-based IS&S team would need to provide disaster recovery support for the Kobe plant.

The plant would need that support from Dallas. While there weren’t any injuries to plant personnel and there wasn’t any structural damage, there was an impact. Some of the production equipment had shifted, and computer processing support was interrupted.

By noon on the 17^th, a Kobe TI Recovery Team was formed. The team began forming and executing disaster recovery processes almost immediately.

The team identified an available surplus IBM 3090-600 processor set out from its home at the Miho computer center, where it was sitting idle after a Christmas upgrade. Computer center tapes and DASD were shipped to Miho, where they were loaded onto the surplus mainframe. Within 48 hours, the Dallas team produced a recovery script and began to run it.

By the third day, January 19, 1995, the Kobe operating system and data were loaded on the mainframe, and it arrived in Kobe. By the next day, all of the equipment at the Kobe plant had been recalibrated, and the plant was ready for the mainframe installation.

On the fifth day, the final tap backup was restored. The factory was in operation, and the recovery team began the process of restoring applications to the exact point they were interrupted. By doing so, they were able to capture every necessary data point they needed, and saved the plant more than $8 million in production that would have to have been scrapped.

Not everyone was as prepared for this disaster as Kobe TI Semiconductor, however.

The Hyogo Prefecture

The response of the governmental agencies in Kobe stand as a stark contrast to the response of Texas Instruments. Four hours passed before the governor of the region (known as the Hyogo Prefecture) asked for help from the Japanese Defense Forces, just around the time that the TI disaster recovery team was being assembled in Dallas.

It was five more hours before the JDF responded, and it was two days later before they arrived in full numbers in Kobe. This was at the time the new TI mainframe was receiving its mainframe software installation.

Teams of doctors were detained at the Kobe airport, on paperwork complications. 50,000 blankets, which were shipped to Kobe from the United States, were delayed for two days while waiting for permission. The same was true for other emergency supplies. 60 countries offered help to Japan, but only 20 of those offers were accepted.

Many companies, in most cases companies that were based in Japan, experienced a loss of production that lasted for weeks, and a loss of data that cost millions. More than 1,700 computer systems were affected by the Kobe earthquake, and while most of the computer equipment that was damaged was repaired or replaced within a matter of days, volumes of data were lost forever.

The Prime Minister of Japan admitted later that the horrific governmental response to the Kobe earthquake was due, primarily, to two factors: complex bureaucracy and a lack of planning.

HOW TO USE THIS EBOOK

The stories and information in this eBook are included for a singular purpose: to help you make sure your business is ready for a disaster. While many of the specific details may be vastly different from your small business, the guiding principles are the same.

Your business is in danger. You may not be located on a fault line. You may not have to worry about bullets zinging through your windows or IEDs exploding outside your door. But those dramatic situations belie the very real disasters faced by businesses.

A recent survey of businesses tallied the causes for activating a disaster recovery plan. There were over 600 cases of disaster recovery. Here are the most common causes:

• Power Outage 91 cases
• Hardware error 77 cases
• Fire 63 cases
• Flood 58 cases
• Earthquake 53 cases
• Hurricane 52 cases
• Software Error 44 cases
• Bombing 39 cases
• Snow or Wind Storm 38 cases
• Network Failure 23 cases
• Contamination 11 cases
• Burst Pipe 9 cases
• Forced Evacuation 7 cases
• HVAC Failure 7 cases

Here are some more disaster-recovery facts that may startle you:

• Each year, U.S. businesses lose more than $12 billion due to data loss.
• Nine out of Ten businesses that experience a prolonged and significant data loss file for bankruptcy within one year.
• 93% of companies that lost their data center for 10 days or more due to a disaster filed for bankruptcy within one year of the disaster. Half filed for bankruptcy immediately.
• Just one hour of downtime costs half of all companies more than $50,000.
• Most companies consider their survival at risk when they experience 72 hours or less of computer downtime.

Whether or not you’re operating in a hot spot, and whether or not you’re one of the world’s most dangerous companies, you are vulnerable. Prepare for disaster today so you can survive tomorrow.

CHAPTER ONE: DANGER ZONES

When you think about the hot spots in the world today, it’s easy to get caught up in the headlines. Reports of armed conflicts, suicide bombers and explosive roadside devices seem to make headlines every day. When you hear about such things, you probably don’t immediately think “disaster recovery.”

Still, disaster recovery is a top priority for companies operating in hot spots like Afghanistan and Iraq. After the physical security of their personnel and property, disaster recovery is a major concern. If a business is going to operate in those parts of the world, they must have an effective way to continue their business operations in the event that something unfortunate happens.

What are some of the major risks for companies operating in these danger zones? They can be summed up in three general categories: the physical safety of systems, the secure transmission of data and the risk of singular facilities. In addition, small businesses in particular run certain risks when they operate in hot spots around the world.

The physical safety of systems

When a company operates in a danger zone, they almost immediately become a target. Revolutionary forces in Iraq, for example, very often target U.S. and other Western companies doing business in Iraq.

In many ways, the war carried on by these revolutionaries isn’t a war only against the military occupying their country; it is an all-out battle against the principles of commerce and capitalism, represented by companies doing business in these countries.

There are a number of threats to the physical safety of systems for companies operating in danger zones. IEDs, for example, may target independent contractors as much as they might target soldiers.

Companies have faced other physical threats, too, ranging from rocket fire to targeting by snipers. These oppositional forces don’t only target the personnel of these companies operating in danger zones, either. They often target the facilities, as well as any mobile equipment that the company might be using.

The secure transmission of data

When you’re operating in a hot spot, you don’t only have to worry about snipers and bombs, however. You’re also vulnerable to cyber attacks.

While you may not usually associate hacking with terrorists, the fact of the matter is that many revolutionary organizations have utilized technology to try to disrupt companies operating in these danger zones. From cell phone hacking to denial of service attacks, companies operating in hot spots have faced many threats and problems along the way.

There have been specific recorded incidents of these kinds of attacks. One company, which provides contract personnel used in the rebuilding of Iraq’s oil facilities, was brought almost to a crawl in 2005 when an Al Qaeda group was able to capture one of their cell phones and utilize it for nefarious purposes.

Another company, which helps to coordinate relief efforts between private groups, such as the Red Cross, and the U.S. Military, found itself unable to locate three truckloads of emergency medical supplies after then convoy’s communication systems were disrupted. While the supplies were eventually recovered and the personnel safe, the situation was extremely tense while the company was powerless in communicating with their offsite crew.

These incidents barely scratch the surface. From cell phone service blocking devices to the infiltration of computer systems and destruction of valuable data,  companies operating in hot spots have seen more than their fair share of cyber terrorism and the nefarious use of technology.

The risk of singular facilities

Many of the companies that choose to operate in the world’s danger zones are startup companies or small contractors. As such, they many not initially have the capital needed to create a situation where they have redundant operations. When a company operates in a hot spot with singular facilities, they are particularly at risk.

Since 2003, it is estimated that more than 45 companies operating in Iraq have closed, primarily due to attacks from opposition forces. This number is not especially surprising, as a single well-placed attack can take out an entire business, leaving the business with little left to do than pack up and go home.

Companies know, when they first enter a hot spot, that there are some specific risks involved. They also known that, if they can make it through, the situation can become especially lucrative, as well.

Unfortunately, the majority of companies operating in hot spots possess only a singular facility. There is no redundancy built into their business processes, and there is no fallback position for them to take in the event that the worst happens.

Case study: Equipment Express

Equipment Express was a startup company founded by Jeffery Ake in his garage in Indiana. Ake traveled the world to promote the equipment he’d designed to bottle water. In 2005, Ake brought his company to Iraq to work on a project.

In April 2005, Ake was seen on Al Jazeera TV in captivity. Two captors held assault rifles above Ake’s head. He had been kidnapped. Tragically, Jeffrey Ake has not been seen since.

After Ake’s kidnapping, his company struggled. Without Ake at the helm, the company’s sales dried up. In just 18 months after he disappeared, Ake’s company was more than one million dollars in debt. The company was liquidated.

The dangers inherent in small business

Like many small businesses, Equipment Express rose and fell with its owner’s fate. When Ake went missing, the business had nothing in place that would allow them to recover.

Unfortunately, this isn’t a contingency most small businesses can plan for. When your company’s founder and owner goes off the map, it’s not likely that the company will last much longer.

Still, the fate of Jeffrey Ake’s idea managed to live on. In 2007 Teresa Mago, who had worked with Ake, and a partner, Jim Kyle, purchased the business’s assets for an undisclosed sum and launched a venture called Liquid Packaging Solutions. They hired most of Ake’s former staff and moved into a vacant plant in LaPorte, Indiana.

The new company teams with original equipment manufacturers to serve customers in the cosmetics, cleaning-chemicals, and food and beverage industries; sales are around $5 million. The start-up’s success is obviously bittersweet. “In the end,” Mago says, “Liquid Packaging Solutions was able to come about from the groundwork Jeff Ake laid.”

Planning for the worst-case scenario

In the process of thinking about disaster recovery, there are some important questions to ask. For example, any company entering a danger zone has to think about the following:

• What is the worst thing that can happen to a business operating in a danger zone?
• What are the real risks involved?
• What systems are mission critical?
• What happens to those systems in the event of a physical assault?
• Are those systems vulnerable to information attacks?
• In the event of a disaster, what data can be rebuilt manually?
• What data can never be replaced?
• Which systems or processes would most be vulnerable in a singular facility?
• What options are available for creating redundant systems or processes?
• If disaster strikes, how will the company proceed?
• Will a single disaster wipe out the entire company?

The real-world risk in hot spots are severe and total. An entire district or region can be destroyed almost overnight. In some cases, the destruction can be so widespread that there is no business left to recover. Even a pullback or an evacuation in a hot spot can eventually become a permanent withdrawal. Disaster recovery planning has to address each and every one of these aspects if it is to be effective.

One of the biggest challenges facing IT managers today is reducing capital expenditures in IT. It’s not the 1990s anymore; there is more and more pressure on IT management to justify their costs to a sometimes-apathetic senior management. Add to this the increasing familiarity that senior management have with IT issues in general, and you can find yourself being constantly pressured to get costs down, both in terms of lowering ongoing costs and reducing capital expenditures.

Fortunately, there are some ways you can help contain costs and reduce capital expenditures in IT:

Review Your Portfolio

Take a look at all of the applications used in your organization. Identify the ones that are underutilized, ones that are duplicative and ones that may be absent altogether. Create an extensive list of applications, users and owners across the entire organization. This portfolio review will help you to be able to prioritize capital expenditures going forward, and it will also identify places where the organization has multiple apps that perform essentially identical tasks.

Review and Renegotiate Contracts

For many organizations, contracts are a large portion of your IT budget. Maintenance and support services are necessary and important, but you need to get a handle on them. Figure out where they exist – even outside of the IT department – and identify places where you can leverage savings or save on licensing.

Once you know where your contracts are, you can begin to renegotiate. Create a situation where vendors can compete to lower costs while getting rid of overlapping applications at the same time. Consider lengthening contracts to give you cost savings.

Analyze and Prioritize Projects

Take a strategic look at projects. Use a consistent prioritization approach. Break down projects into strategic points that can benefit the organization in the immediate future, rather than the entire project implementation which can take years.

Part of this process involves determining where benefits can occur and how fast. The quicker you deliver benefits to the company, the lower the overall cost and the more justified the expenditures.

Manage Lifecycle

Older IT systems have higher costs in terms of maintenance and retaining inefficient hardware and software. Take a look at older systems, and analyze the true cost of keeping legacy equipment. In many cases, systems beyond their lifecycle serve only as something of a security blanket for a department. In many cases, the data in those systems can be retained offline through ERM or imaging. In other cases, the data can be converted to an SQL database with query tools. Getting rid of legacy equipment will get rid of operating costs, maintenance costs and may even save money on the electricity bill.

Analyze Return

As more and more IT projects come under closer scrutiny, linking those projects to specific organizational objectives and/or financial returns is important. Look at project goals, and define measurable outcomes. Find ways that new projects can actually ,save the company money free up organization resources or promote a company’s overall strategies. If a project can’t do these things, it should be reconsidered.

For a successful business meal, it’s not enough for you to show up in your Mercedes. One of the hallmarks of a successful CEO in the social setting is the ability to handle ordering and drinking wine. Believe it or not, some clients are watching to see how comfortable you are with wine, and will consider your ability to handle wine as a reflection of your character.

Here are a few things you can keep in mind that will be sure to impress at your next business meal:

Pay attention to your guests.

Ask whether your guests have any interest in wine. If the answer is distant or your guest seems uninterested, she probably doesn’t know or care much about wine. If she answers in a specific fashion, such as naming her favorite wine, express an interest in that wine and order it if it is available and appropriate for the meal.

Make the server your ally.

Ask for help in a subtle way. When you receive the wine list ask “is there anything of special interest I ought to know about?” or “have you tasted anything lately that’s distinctive?” Both of these statements imply that you know something about wine, and that you’re asking the server to fine-tune your selection process with his knowledge of the particular wine list.

Handle red wines carefully.

Expensive red wines should age at least six years. This rule applies especially to French Burgundy, Bordeaux and Rhone Valley wines, as well as Italian triple crown winners and Spanish Vega Sicilia Unico wines. Ask that older red wine be decanted, and ask for the larger red wine glasses. Both of these procedures add flavor to the wine.

Know how much to spend.

Wine is another part of the meal, not just a beverage. Don’t order the most expensive wine on the list or you may seem pretentious. Order wine that is priced about the equivalent of the full meal for a single person. If the average meal price is $100, then you’ll want to spend $100 for the wine to go with the meal. This demonstrates that you care about quality, but aren’t foolish with company money.

When you’re courting an important client or meeting with significant people in your business, make sure your car stands out as much as your knowledge about wine. Bring your Mercedes in to MYCLIENT for routine maintenance and to make sure it’s in top condition.

While traditions may seem near and dear to us, the fact of the matter remains that many traditions that we practice and celebrate have only been around a relatively short time, when you look at the whole of human history. For example, while there certainly are historical reasons for doing so, placing decorations on a fir tree at Christmas time has only been around for a few hundred years. So has giving gifts on Valentine’s Day, or passing out candy on Halloween. And, while the baby shower is an idea that’s been around for a long time, many of the traditions surrounding it are relatively new.

In times past, the focus of a baby shower really wasn’t the baby necessarily. It was largely about the new mother. It was a way for friends and family to help out a new mother by giving her some material items that she might need. More importantly, it was seen as a way for experienced mothers to provide new mothers with advice about a great number of subjects, including labor and delivery, the postpartum experience, breastfeeding, and even child rearing. Given this fact, it was typically common to only have a baby shower for the first time that a woman had a baby. After all, after the first, it was assumed that she would know what to expect during labor and whatnot.

In more recent times, the focus of a baby shower has become more about celebrating the baby. It is less a time of giving advice than it is a party. Friends and family gather to have a good time and to just celebrate the impending arrival. In some ways, the baby shower is as much for the baby as it is for the mother. As such, it has become more and more common for women to have a baby shower for their second and subsequent pregnancies.

Some etiquette experts recommend that the second and subsequent baby showers be limited to close friends and relatives, or to guests that did not attend the shower for the first baby.

Aromatherapy is an all-natural method of using essential oils to help treat a variety of conditions, as well as provide benefits to the mind, mood, and spirit. Aromatherapy has been used for a number of different purposes. You can even use aromatherapy during pregnancy to help to alleviate some of the common pregnancy difficulties, as well as help you to relax at a time when it is often very difficult to relax.

First of all, there are some things that you should keep in mind when using aromatherapy during pregnancy. First of all, you will want to make sure that you avoid certain essential oils that may be known to cause blood thinning or to cause cramps or contractions of the uterus. These sorts of essential oils would include basil, cinnamon, clary sage, cypress, fennel, jasmine, juniper, myrrh, parsley, peppermint, rosemary, and thyme. In addition, you might want to dilute your essential oils a little bit more than you otherwise would when using aromatherapy during pregnancy. Finally, essential oils should probably not be used during the first trimester of pregnancy, as this is the most critical time for your baby’s development.

Once you keep those safety considerations in mind, you can start considering which essential oils to use for aromatherapy during pregnancy. You might use eucalyptus, for example, which will act as an anti-inflammatory, and an analgesic. You might use Frankincense, which has sedative properties, to help you relax. You might use neroli, which has both anti-inflammatory properties and sedative properties. Mandarin is thought to help to relieve the retention of fluid in the legs, and can be massaged directly on the ankles. Petitgrain can be used to relax, but may also help if you are feeling a bit blue. In addition to these, there are dozens of other essential oils you can use during pregnancy. There are even aromatherapy mixtures, designed to be used for massage during pregnancy and aromatherapy spritzers that are designed for pregnancy as well.

Same sex marriage is one of the most controversial topics of our time. Whether it’s a national beauty pageant or whether it’s a particular state trying to decide for itself how to define marriage for its citizens, rarely a day goes by when same sex marriage doesn’t find its way into the headlines. Understanding the arguments for same sex marriage is the first step in really being able to get a handle on the issue.

On the one hand, you have people who believe that marriage should only be defined as being between a man and a woman. Often, these people support the idea of same sex partnerships or legal civil unions, suggesting that the term “marriage” be specifically reserved for an arrangement between one man and one woman. On the other hand, you have people who argue for marriage rights for all: that people be allowed to marry, even if it is two men or two women.

Yet, for all of the attention the issue has received, there seems to be little effort on each side of the argument to understand each others’ arguments and have an honest dialogue. Further complicating the matter is the fact that the issue seems to be tied into other political causes. To really grasp the arguments for same sex marriage, you need to be able to break away the ancillary concerns and the hype, and get down to the real basis for the argument. When you do, you’ll find that there are some rather compelling reasons for same sex marriage, even for those who are not directly impacted by the issue.

Here are the top 10 arguments for same sex marriage:

1. Equal Rights. The most common argument for same-sex marriage suggests that marriage is a right that should be enjoyed by any two consenting adults. The right to marry someone you love, and the right to make a commitment to that person is fundamental. In this way, the argument for same sex marriage echoes the civil rights argument from generations past. Proponents suggest that denying same sex couples the right to marry is akin to denying minorities or women the right to vote. Same sex partnerships or civil unions are not the same, and bring to mind the days of racial segregation when African Americans were forced to drink at a separate drinking fountain or sit in a special section of a restaurant. Refusing the right of same sex couples to marry is the same as refusing Hispanics or African Americans the right to marry.

2. Financial concerns. Same sex couples want to marry for the same sorts of reasons that men and women want to marry. One of those reasons is the financial security that comes with being marriage. Married couples enjoy specific financial benefits under the law, such as different tax rules, Social Security benefits, Medicare benefits, and the inheritance of property. In addition, there are issues like joint ownership that are not normally available to same sex couples that are currently only available to married couples. Some of these concerns can be address at an additional expense and through private legal means, but some of them can only be addressed through marriage. Some companies, recognizing that this is a serious issue for their employees, have already begun extending certain types of benefits to same sex couples, even though they aren’t legally married.

3. Legal concerns. Marriage doesn’t just provide benefits to the partners in a financial way. There are other specific legal matters that marriage provides benefits for. One of these is the issue of medical care. If one member of a same sex couple becomes ill, the other person may not even be allowed visitation rights because the law doesn’t consider them a spouse or family member. In addition, in the absence of a personal directive or living will, the partners may not be able to speak on behalf of one another when the other is incapacitated. Same sex couples should enjoy the same rights in this regard as heterosexual couples.

4. Marriage is about love. The fact of the matter is that most couples, whether they are a same sex couple or not, don’t get married for legal concerns. They don’t get married to get a tax benefit. They get married because they want to express their love and commitment to the other person. Marriage is a way for a person to say to their partner, “I love you so much that I want to be with you for the rest of my life. Through better or worse, for rich or for poor, in sickness and in health, I want to be with you.” Denying a couple the ability to express their love in this way is denying them the ultimate form of expression. A civil union doesn’t carry the same kind of social weight as marriage in this regard, and this is one of the main reason that many same sex couples don’t want to settle for a simple civil union. Same sex couples are capable of and deserving of the same love that heterosexual couples are.

5. Marriage encourages commitment. One of the most compelling arguments for same sex marriage is the idea that allowing same sex couples to marry actually strengthens the institution of marriage, rather than weakening it. Same sex couples who want to marry are looking for the same kinds of benefits that other couples are. They want, among other things, to be in a relationship of commitment. They want to express not only their love, but their monogamy and their dedication to one another. Just as marriage helps to reduce sexual promiscuity among heterosexual couples, so this kind of ultimate commitment helps to do the same for same sex couples. Just like marriage among heterosexual couples can help to curb a high-risk lifestyle, the same holds true for same sex couples. Allowing same sex marriage, then, helps to strengthen society and encourage monogamy, which is something that opponents of same sex marriage claim to support.

6. Marriage is an issue of religious freedom. The reality of things today is that marriage is a religious institution with specific civil consequences. Because both the religious world and the legal world are intertwined, there can be some rough waters to navigate here. The moment you begin to deny marriage to one couple, any couple is now at risk. While today it is only same sex couples that can’t marry, this line of reasoning suggests that one day only Protestant couples could be allowed to marry (or Muslim couples, or any particular religious permutation). In the same way that other religious have directly influenced the way that marriage came to be and what it came to mean to society, so same sex couples should have the right to marry and live in line with their own personal religious convictions. There are even religious institutions that specifically recognize same sex marriage, and that will perform private religious ceremonies to unite a same sex couple. Unfortunately, these ceremonies only carry a religious weight, and not a legal one.

7. Homosexuality is a legal and accepted lifestyle, and is likely caused biologically. Homosexuality was once considered a type of deviant behavior, engaged in only by moral reprobates. Research today suggests that homosexuality is not caused by reprobate behavior, but instead has a biological cause. This research suggests that sexuality is determined by a hormonal process, and that people don’t “choose” to be gay any more than straight people “choose” to be straight. Because homosexuality isn’t illegal and because it isn’t a choice, there is no reason that same sex couples should be denied access to the institution of marriage. Here again, discriminating against same sex couples becomes an issue of discriminating based on a physical characteristic – how their hormones fire – rather than on an ideological or behavioral basis.

8. Same sex marriage would increase the number of adoptions. Because same sex couples can’t procreate, allowing same sex marriage the same status as heterosexual marriage would help to address the adoption crisis. There are many children in need of adoption, and same sex couples can provide a stable and loving home for these children. While opponents may argue that children growing up in a same sex household will be adversely affected, there is no research to date that fully supports this theory. There is no reason to think that a child that grows up in a same sex household will be any worse or better off than a child that grows up in a traditional household with a man and a woman.

9. Same sex marriage does not hurt anyone. Marriage has always been, and remains to this day, a relationship between two parties. The two parties involved in marriage are the ones affected by the marriage. As an institution, marriage has a place in society. However, which two specific people marry doesn’t have an effect on the greater scale of things. Society isn’t hurt in the process of two people choosing to marry. In fact, there is a case to be made that marriage, as an institution, would be strengthened by allowing same sex marriage. More couples would be allowed to marry, and the institution would continue to be maintained. Divorce and infidelity are threats to the institution of marriage; allowing same sex couples the right to marry is not a threat to the institution.

10. There is no slippery slope. Allowing same sex marriage doesn’t necessarily mean that the next step is to allow polygamy, or to allow deviant forms of sexual behavior. Allowing same sex marriage is simply the logical extension and natural evolution of the institution. Marriage has long been the ultimate way for a couple to express their love and commitment to one another, and to legally sanction their relationship. It exists, in part, to help foster family values and to provide security and financial stability to those couples. Allowing same sex marriage doesn’t redefine marriage as an institution, and it doesn’t open Pandora’s Box. It merely takes marriage as it has been throughout the ages and recognizes the right of same sex couples to reap the benefits the way that heterosexual couples can.

It isn’t likely that this issue will be resolved any time soon. Because homosexuals are in the minority, and because there are still so many social taboos surrounding the issue, it has been an uphill battle. Many heterosexual people have little understanding, or interest, in the issue of same sex marriage. And, while many of them may believe that same sex marriage should be allowed, very few believe in the cause enough to make it a priority. So, the gay community is left with a relatively small number of supporters.

However, as the issue comes more and more to the fore, voices that support same sex marriage are being heard. Courts across the land are ruling in favor of same sex marriage rights. And while there are advances, there are also setbacks. Some states continue to pass or to try to pass amendments to their state constitutions that define marriage as being between a man and a woman. The battle rages on in a state by state basis, as there are no federal statutes that define marriage in a specific way. Many advocates of same sex marriage believe that the ultimate solution to the issue has to be at the federal level. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court tends to rule against same sex marriage rights, and the issue is such a hot button that few legislators are willing to take up the cause.

Still, the tide does seem to be turning. Most social analysts and experts expect that, within a few decades, the right to marry will be extended to same sex couples in the same way that it is enjoyed by heterosexual couples. Time will tell the tale, of course. In the meanwhile, many states find themselves in the situation where they are trying to define marriage for themselves, and to determine whether or not the state can sanction a marriage that isn’t between one man and one woman.

Like any other car, your Mercedes requires a certain amount of maintenance to keep everything running smoothly. Your Mercedes is an investment, and as such, you’ll want to take the best possible care of your investment. On top of that, regular service on your Mercedes maintains your warranty and keeps your car running in optimal condition.

Mercedes owners have a resource that most other car owners don’t have, when it comes to service: the Mercedes Flexible Service System. The Mercedes-Benz Flexible Service System provides the owner of a Mercedes vehicle with a service schedule that, rather than being arbitrarily tied to dates or mileage, is based on the customer’s driving style.

The Mercedes Flexible Service System, also known as “Active Service System” or “ASSYST” works like this. The system determines the number of days or the amount of miles before the next suggested maintenance on the Mercedes vehicle. It then displays that figure on the multifunction display. If you pass the service milestone, the system display lets you know by adding a wrench symbol, as well as the words, “Exceeded by” and the number of miles or days.

Every Mercedes model has a separate service sheet. The service sheet provides details about the specific services required for that specific limit of time or miles, for that vehicle. Each of the service sheets, in turn, has two groups of service. There is a smaller “Service A” and there is a more extensive “Service B.”

The Mercedes ASSYST system comes with several different configurations. At the bottom level is the basic ASSYST system, which you can get with our without a service scope display. There is also the ASSYST PLUS system, which offers additional features.

If you go to an Authorized Mercedes service center, you’ll find that the personnel are familiar with the ASSYST system. You can schedule a service appointment to get “Service B,” for example, and they’ll have access to the specific service sheets that tell them exactly what sort of maintenance you need at a that time.

For more information, or to have your Mercedes serviced, contact your local Authorized Mercedes service center at (CLIENT INFO DELETED).