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__label__cc	0.5331	0.4669	Ethio Helix ኢትዮ:ሒሊክስ A place to gather information on: Population genetics, Ethiopia, East Africa, Linguistics, News, History etc..... Maps and Figures Public Datasets/Resources Y TMRCA Calculator Improved resolution of E-M215 (aka E3b / E1b1b) A new paper has appeared with a a focus on Haplogroup E, and mostly focused on E-M215 and E-M35, with a moderate level of improvement in resolution from what we used to know. Basically, at first glance, the major novelty with respect to E-M215 is that all E-Z830 (x M123) lineages are united under a new mutation dubbed V1515, and that the former solo lineages of E-M35, i.e. E-V92 and E-V6, now have a home and are included within this unification. In addition, the above named unifying mutation, V1515, apparently has a bifurcated structure itself, with one younger branch having the sole representation in the Southern parts of Ethiopia and further South, and the more diverse (hence ancient) branch being represented in the Northern parts of Ethiopia and further North. New basal haplogroup E mutations were also apparently found. The paper is Open access , and I will analyze it further in the coming days , but I just wanted to plot the Eastern African E-M215 variant frequencies for now. UPDATE (6/26/15) - Added NAfrica E-M215 frequencies UPDATE (6/26/15) - Added new mutation rate The new fossil calibrated mutation rate has been added to the TMRCA Calulator, unfortunately 95% CI values have not been given (or at least I could not find where they have been given), in any event, central TMRCA estimates for this new mutation rate are a bit slower than mutation rates derived from the other ancient DNA calibrated sources, specifically, ~ 4% and 12% slower than Karmin (2015) and Fu (2014) respectively. UPDATE (6/27/15) - Comparison with YFull TMRCAs I have created a table for the TMRCA of the major nodes in E-M215, in order to compare with YFull’s estimates so that we can ‘fill in the gaps’ for the Nodes that have not been given estimates in Trombetta (2015). YFull uses a mutation rate that is almost exactly identical to Fu (2014)’s Ust-Ishim calibrated rates, so naturally some of the TMRCA’s would be closer to today than the Trombetta estimates, as pointed out above. TMRCA (KYA) YFull E-M215 E-Z827 E-V257 E-V1515 Labels: E1b1b, Haplogroup E, YDNA The African Scientist June 25, 2015 at 2:33 PM I don't think this study strengthens an East African origin of E-M35. I'd say it has made an East African origin a lot less likely, actually. This study has not only revealed that East African V42, V6 and M293 (previous studies described these as separate "basal" clades within M35) share a common East African ancestor, which they term E-V1515, but that all East African E-M35* paragroup samples now belong to this lineage. Here's the phylogeny to make it easier to follow: http://i60.tinypic.com/v3fuvk.png The most ancient split within M35 is E-V68 vs. the rest. E-V68 and its more successful descendent M78 are probably North African. The next to split off is V257 (ancestor of M81), which just like V68 is mainly North African. V68 and V257 both have some spillover into southern Europe. Finally comes Z830, which is the common ancestor of E-V1515 and E-M123. The origin of the latter lineage is unclear, as it's shared between West Asians and Ethiopians. But M123(xM34) has a notable presence only in Northern and Southern Egyptians, and wasn't found at all in the East African or West Asian samples... Pointing in the same direction, once again; toward North Africa. So if anything, this paper provides a very strong case for a North African origin of E-M35. The only thing East Africa has on the North is a very minor frequency of E-M215(xM35) (ancestor of M35). But E-M215 is very ancient, dated to 39 kya in this study, compared to 25 kya for all of E-M35. So from now on, I will advocate a North African origin for E-M35. I would like to see high resolution Omotic samples, though, it would be very interesting to see what their M35 lineages turn out to be. E-M215 as a whole still looks East African. Anyway, there are some interesting results for the East African samples, even within E-V1515, the only decisively East African subclade of M35. E-V1515, the most ancient split within V1515, was only found in the Tigre and Nara of Eritrea (Nara live close to the more demographically significant Tigre). Indicating a northern route for the spread of E-V1515, as was suggested by the authors. V42 seems Nilo-Saharan-centered, as it's mainly found in the Kunama and Nara, as well as the Beta Israel sample, which also has rather high A3b2. The large sample of Eritrean Sahos is almost 100% E, of which around 90% is E-V22, with some minor E-V6 (frequent in their Afar neighbors and linguistic cousins). The most common E lineage in Tigrinya speakers is V1785, at around 30%. V1785 is also the ancestor of E-V6, which is very frequent in Afars and present in Sahos. This study has found East African brother clades of SE African ("South Cushitic") E-M293, descended from a common E-V2881 ancestor. Interestingly, Oromos, along with Somalis from Kenya/Ethiopia/Somalia, are the only ones with a high frequency of this lineage, at around 20%. Note that in the Somalia sample, it's assigned to a subclade (V1792). This supports the shared ancestry between East and South Cushites that has been suggested by linguists. Also, the shared high V32/V2881 lineages of Somalis and Oromos indicates common ancestry, just as linguists have suggested a shared ancestor between Somali and Oromo within East Cushitic. Moving onto the non-V1515 lineages... M34 is conspicuously low/absent among the northern Horner samples from Eritrea, including the Tigrinya from Eritrea/Ethiopia. However, it's more frequent farther south, in the Ethiopian highlands. This is not consistent with the old suggestion that M34 is a recent or "Semitic" introduction, which was already made less probably when Plaster found M34 at high frequency in southern Ethiopian Omotics (the main source of M34 in the Ethiopian highlands?). Considering the presence of M123(xM34) in Egyptians mentioned above, it may turn out to be from an ancient migration from North Africa into the heart of the Ethiopian highlands. Great study overall, very informative. Lank June 25, 2015 at 5:42 PM That's my post from ABF: http://www.forumbiodiversity.com/showthread.php/44418-New-Paper-about-Phylogeny-of-hg-E?p=1197959&viewfull=1#post1197959 I would appreciate if you refer to the source (me) before copying my posts. And thanks to Ethio Helix for compiling the results. Vincent June 25, 2015 at 5:51 PM "The only thing East Africa has on the North is a very minor frequency of E-M215(xM35) (ancestor of M35)" False. It's all M281 there, and found also in Yemen and other Arabian countries. Di Cristofaro et al. (2013) instead has a Khorasanian M215. He didn't test for M281, but I compared this haplotype to M281 ones and they were totally different. Plus there are other unresolved P2/M215* in Russia (http://volgagermanbrit.us/documents/Y_SNP_Three_Populations.pdf; there are two P2+, M35- men in Vladivostok) @Lank, It was so indepth I felt like sharing it here too. The African Scientist's analysis is good, but I am of the opinion that we need more samples from SW Asia/Levant/Arabian Peninsula analysed with NGS. That will probably pull the place of origin of E-M215 and E-M96 itself towards that macro-region It's not false at all. E-M215 without the M35 mutation (in this study, those samples all belonged to V16/M281) is found in East Africa and not the North, just like I said. This study only reports it in 3 Ethiopians and 1 Yemeni. It's completely absent in the thousands of E-M215 samples in this study from Europe, West Asia (excluding the single Yemeni sample) and North Africa. Yemen is not exactly a reservoir of E-M215 diversity, so the most parsimonious explanation is that it's a relatively recent lineage arriving from Africa. I wonder when we'll get some proper Omotic M215 samples at this resolution. The Wolayta don't count as they have been heavily influenced by Cushites. Some years back, a mtDNA study reported a relatively high frequency of mtDNA L6, which was supposedly "rare" in Africa. A few years later, however, high frequencies of mtDNA L6 were found in a couple of remote Ethiopian groups. So let's test the region properly before imagining non-African origins for these erratic lineages in the Middle East. It's entirely false, since you said that "E-M215(xM35) (ancestor of M35)" is found there, while now you acknowledge the fact that it is all M281+, so no "ancestor of M35" found in northern East Africa. Further, there's another error. Going by Y-STRs, Yemeni M281 is the oldest. Plaster (2011) has 4 M281 samples from Ethiopia, they are all identical to each other. Since Ethiopia has the highest frequency of this haplogroups, its haplotypes represent the modal. The haplotypes of two Saudi Arabian M281 found in the M35 Phylogeny Project are almost identical to Ethiopian M281 haplotypes, but a Yemeni M281 haplotype in the same project shows even more differences. Therefore, Arabian Peninsula M281 is older than Ethiopian M281. You can see this on your own, the link to the project is here http://www.haplozone.net/e3b/project/cluster/83 and the link to the Plaster thesis is somewhere here on the blog. The ancestor I'm referring is E-M215, obviously not the modern M281 or M35 derivatives. I wasn't trying to say that modern lineages are the ancestors of their own ancient ancestor (dated to 39 kya in this study), lol. If you want to put so much stake in 1 Yemeni lineage, then that's up to you. I'll be awaiting more samples, particularly from southern Ethiopian Omotics. Oh, I put so much stake on 1 Yemeni lineage but you put a lot more on Ethiopian samples only because of your (and of a lot of other people around here) prejudices ("Yemen is not exactly a reservoir of E-M215 diversity") Lank June 26, 2015 at 5:00 AM I now see some of the data I requested was right in front of us. The Maale Omotics from Plaster have 3/69 E-M281, the highest frequency in the world! That's extremely interesting. Clearly, these distinct peoples (Omotics) are of great importance for understanding the origin of E-P2 as a whole (Maale also have a lot of E-M329). I am very curious about their M281 diversity, and how their unresolved M35 lineages relate to the other bransches. It shows how pointless it is to analyze stray E lineages in Eurasia, without extensive coverage of Y-DNA from different parts of East Africa. It's easy to imagine how e.g. Y-DNA M281 or mtDNA L6 could have reached Yemen, most recently with the slave trade. The minor M281 in Amharas and Oromos may very well derive from Omotic admixture. Maju July 7, 2015 at 7:26 AM I didn't pay much attention at first (too complicated to follow because of nomenclature, scatter of distribution maps, etc.) but, after some correspondence made me consider all the factors, it does seem like E1b-M35 could well have originated rather towards Egypt than towards Ethiopia (but Sudan/Nubia is still a good candidate IMO). What I find most interesting anyhow is that, if we dare to recalibrate the age estimates provided in fig. 1 so the D/E split fits the archaeologically documented OoA, which is c. 125-100 Ka BP, then E1b-M35 has a realistic age of 36-45 Ka BP, what fits very well with the early Upper Paleolithic and related Late Stone Age (LSA, as it's called in Africa). So it seems very plausible to me that E1b-M35 would be the main Y-DNA lineage associated with this prehistorical process (along with less important Asian lineages like J1, T, maybe even R1b, of more limited outreach). Ethio Helix June 26, 2015 at 11:40 PM @ Lank, "The most ancient split within M35 is E-V68 vs. the rest." - Not quite, M35 has 2 variants, Z827 and V68. The V68 node is dated to 20 KYA (BEAST), however the Z827 node is not given a date in the supplemental material, but the Z830 node is given a date of 20 KYA, which would by necessity make the Z827 node older than 20 KYA, though obviously not older than the age of the upstream M35 node of 25 KYA. "The next to split off is V257 (ancestor of M81), which just like V68 is mainly North African." - The 'next' to split off within Z827 is V257 from Z830, however the date of this split is not given, but like I pointed out above it must be between 20 and 25 KYA. The actual node TMRCA of E-V257 is not given. Also note the presence of E-V257* in the Borana, something which was actually observed in Trombetta (2011), curiously, the authors did not mention much about either E-V257/M81 or E-M123/34, it seems that they were more focused on cataloging which lineage was 'Subsaharan' African and which wasn't. "But M123(xM34) has a notable presence only in Northern and Southern Egyptians," That could be E-M4145 , see the comments in the previous Ethiopian Haplogroup blog post "So if anything, this paper provides a very strong case for a North African origin of E-M35." -Not according to the Bayseian phylogeoraphic probablities they report, by that metric, E-M35 has a 64% chance of being from East Africa and about 30% chance of being North African. You are better off saying the paper makes a strong case for E-Z827 being North African, the paper reports a ~70% chance of Z-827 being North African, but then it says E-Z830 has a 50% chance of being EA (40 % NA) so its all over the place. Unless E-M35 was Born in East Africa then travelled north giving birth to Z827 and V68 and then travelled back south giving birth to Z-830 and then back north in the form of E-M123 , in addition to a separate migration of E-M78 sublineages back down south from the E-V68 forefather, these probablities don't really make sense. I need to look into the software (Yu et al. 2010) but it looks to me like a frequency centroid approach that this software is taking and doesn't fully take into account many of the variables that need to be accounted for in determininig the orgin of a haplogroup. IMO, it is just more parsimonious to infer that E-M215/M35/Z827/Z830 were all born in East Africa, with 2 separate migrations, one resulting in V257 going North West and another with E-M123 going North East, ofcourse this is in addition to the separate Northern migration of E-V68, and the back migration of its sub-variants(V22,V32 & V12). "I would like to see high resolution Omotic samples, though, it would be very interesting to see what their M35 lineages turn out to be." -I can agree on this point, without the addition of diverse Omotic, in addition to south highland cushitic samples, this story can not be completed. Z827 being North African is rather significant. The only other branch of M35 in this paper's updated phylogeny, V68 (as well as its successful M78 descendent), also appears North African in origin. The slightly higher M35 probability still being in East Africa is most likely due to the presence of M215(xM35) (i.e. V16) in East Africa. But the M215 node is so old (~39 kya) that its origin (which is still highly ambiguous considering it's less than 10 kya removed from the TMRCA of all of P2), is not that important for finding the origin of M35 (TMRCA ~25 kya). The probability for Z830 being EA showing as slightly higher than NA is probably because one of Z830's descendent's, V1515, is only found in East Africa (and farther south), whereas the other branch, M123, is found in East Africa as well as North Africa, and beyond. But, as you rightly point out, Z830 is rather close in age to Z827, which is likely North African. By contrast, V1515, the definitively East African Z830 sublineage, is dated to 12 kya, just 60% of Z830's age, less than 50% of Z827's age. M123 is most likely North African, with M34 being the main sublineage that made it to West Asia and East Africa. This pattern strongly suggests a North African origin for Z830 as well, with V1515 being a relatively young lineage within Z830, or rather all of Z827. So IMO, the ancestor of M215 splits off from the rest of P2 ~48 kya, perhaps in the East African vicinity. M215 coalesces ~39 kya, with the ancestor of M35 migrating to North Africa at some point between 25-40 kya. In North Africa, the ancestors of Z827 and V68 diverge ~25 kya. In the next few thousands of years, still within North Africa, the ancestors of Z830 and V257 start diverging from one another. The ancestor of M78 also starts diverging from other V68 lineages, about 20 kya, in North Africa. At some point, the ancestor of V1515 makes it to East Africa, and V1515 coalesces there 12 kya. V12 and V22, which have TMRCA dates of ~8-12 kya, most likely arrive to East Africa fully formed (V12 mainly as V32). Minor V1083(xV22) survives among the Saho. I have some major doubts about Pagani's small sample of WGS Ethiopians having such high frequencies of M4145. This new study by Trombetta didn't find any M123(xM34) in East Africans, nor was it found in the high resolution data you reported from Plaster's thesis. Unfortunately, there is no age estimate for M34 or M123 in this paper. YFull estimates 15 kya for the TMRCA of M34. It would be nice to know the TMRCA of East African M34 lineages. If they turn out to be older than the other M35 lineages in the region (V1515/V12/V22), it's possible East African M34 lineages may be associated with the spread of Omotic languages, from a source around Egypt (Ehret's proto-Afroasiatics?). That would fit with the East African M34 being concentrated in the southern-central parts of the Horn. Ethio Helix June 27, 2015 at 4:51 PM I forgot about YFull, thanks for reminding me, I have used it in the past and it has reliable TMRCA estimates, I have updated the blog post to reflect YFull’s estimates for the major nodes. What we can see in strict temporal terms is that from the E-M35 trunk, E-Z827 branches off first, in fact very close in time to when the parental E-M35 node itself occurred, then ~ 5 KYA later E-V68 branches off, and another 5-7 KYA later, probably the ‘incubation’ stage, E-M78 branches off from E-V68. Meanwhile, E-Z830 branches off first from the E-Z827 branch only ~5 KYA after its formation, and another 5 KYA later E-V257 branches off from E-Z827. Within the E-Z830 branch it seems that E-M34 branches off first and then E-V1515 follows. So that is the actual temporal sequence of events. What does this tell us in spatial terms, Z827 likely occurred very close to where M35 occurred since they have practically the same TMRCA and that likely the only reason the Bayesian phylogeographic analysis is pointing to a high probability of Z827 occurring in North Africa is because of the high frequency of V257 (really M81) found in berbers, however, we can see here that V257 actually branched off after E-Z830 did. I tried accessing the Yu et al. 2010 paper but it was closed access, but I don’t think these phylogeographic probabilities are to be fully trusted, for instance it is saying that E-V13 has a 100% chance of being European and not only that, so does the node which unites it with V22 have a 64% chance of being European in origin , I just think that is nonsense. With respect to Afroasiatic, like I speculated well over 2 years ago when the new E-M35 substructure started to emerge, the major variants of E-M35 better overlap with Lionel Bender’s classification of Afroasiatic than it does with Christopher Ehret’s, more specifically Bender’s Macro-Cushitic sub-phylum, which includes Berber, Cushitic and Semitic parallels well with the E-Z827 family, whereas Egyptian matches with E-V68 and the independent Omotic branch would be matched well with isolated lineages like E-M329, E-M281, and possibly* the unclassified E-M35 variants found in the Maale. My E-M34 analysis, while showing comparable and greater TMRCA’s with non-Ethiopian E-M34 haplotypes overall, showed clearly that the E-M34 found in the Maale was much younger than those found anywhere else, including in the ‘Amhara’. This young age of M34 in the Maale does not correspond well with ancient status Omotic has within Afroasiatic. Finally, the reason I pointed out E-M4145 is not necessarily because I believe Pagani’s results, I have my doubts as well, but to show that those E-M123(xM34) egyptian haplotypes need to be tested for E-M4145 instead of automatically assuming some type of ‘ancestral’ relationship to E-M34. M329 and M281 are simply way too old to be associated with early Afroasiatics. It would be informative to analyze their "M35" lineages, though, within this updated phylogeny. Also to understand how their M34 and J lineages (interestingly, J(xJ1,J,2) was found in the Maale) relate to other Afroasiatic speakers. E-M329 and E-M281 would not be too old for Afroasiatic if* Afroasiatic would have originated in the same region that these lineages putatively arose, they would simply have been left behind (with omotic) and not taken part in the migration that took Afroasiatic (x Omotic) to other parts of Africa and the levant. How haplogroup J fits into all this is still a largely unexplored (but important) area, several STR based analysis I have done, see here , here and here, of haplogroup J in Ethiopia point to a TMRCA of ~ 15 KYA, so perhaps non-Afroasiatic speaking peoples bring J into Ethiopia at a very early stage, they mingle with pre-exisiting proto-Afroasiatic peoples within Ethiopia and continue to dissipate the phylum further outside of Ethiopia, this is pure speculation, however it can gain traction if ever J variants are found outside of Ethiopia that are downstream from Ethiopian J variants. Awale Abdi August 8, 2015 at 12:31 PM Why do you think J was seemingly lacking in South Cushites? South Cushites seem like they were mainly E-M293*, E-V32, E-V22 & T based on the uniparental data of South Cushitic speakers like the Iraqw and substantially South Cushitic admixed populations like the Maasai, Tutsi or Kikuyus; none of these groups have so far shown a hint of Haplogroup J from what I know yet J can be found all over the Horn; in East Cushites, Omotics and Ethio-Semites alike. It's rather puzzling... Ethio Helix August 11, 2015 at 4:24 PM That's a very good question. Firstly looking at the paper of this blog post, and even before this paper really, we have known that only a small portion of the diversity of E-M35 that is present Ethiopia, is only available further south from Ethiopia, namely as you mention E-M293 to a large extent and E-M78 ( in the forms of E-V32 and E-V22) to a smaller extent. The question then boils down to, if haplogroup J was already in the horn by the time these migrations further south occurred, why didn’t J participate. You could however really ask the same question about the other sublcades of E-M35 that did not participate in this migration further south. There are three options really, the first option is that J did not exist in the horn when these migrations started to occur, the second is that populations in which haplogroup J was prevalent in, were not the ones directly related with these southern migrations, and the last is that J really did take part, but later on drifted out of the southern Cushitic populations via bottlenecks and what not. To me, the second option is the most likely. For any more clarity, haplogroup J in Ethiopia has to be very closely studied, unfortunately the only sufficient data to date is from the plaster thesis. I have conducted ASD based TMRCA estimates on this rather low resolution YSTR data, and interestingly, haplogroup J is more diverse in omotic speakers (Shekecho, Gamo and Kefa) and central Semitic speakers (Gurage) than it is in Northern Ethiopian Semitic and Cushitic Speakers (Amhara/Tigray and Agew), whereas the J found in the Afar is of an even more extremely low diversity type. If J entered Ethiopia from the north, then it is certainly not reconcilable with my estimates, moreover, The TMRCAs found are also very ancient, certainly older than the putative migration of Cushitic or ancestral Cushitic speaking peoples to the south eastern parts of Africa, traditionally held at ~5KYA. Awale Abdi September 14, 2015 at 6:04 AM My apologies for the abysmally late reply. At any rate I for the most part find the second option most plausible as well based on what you've said about how Haplogroup J stands in Ethiopia / the Horn of Africa. The idea that J coincidentally drifted out of Southern Cushites is possible but I find that somewhat implausible and again; based on what you've said and what I already knew about the Haplogroup J diversity in the Horn; it's hard for me to stomach that it didn't exist in the region when South Cushites started departing around 2 to 4 kya. Thank you for the detailed reply and sorry for taking so long to reply myself. 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__label__wiki	0.629695	0.629695	To Know Christ and Make Him known Listen to a Sermon A Brief History of First Baptist Church by Neal Cadieu and Rev. G. Carl Lewis The Cartledge Creek Baptist Church dates its beginnings back to 1774. The church sponsored many other Richmond County Baptist churches including, on April 24, 1879 the Rockingham Baptist Church. By 1881 this church had its own building on a lot donated by Capt. William I. Everett, a member of the Rockingham Methodist Church. The property was on the corner of Greene and Randolph streets. The building was small, made of wood. Today that site is parking for the present church. As Rockingham grew with the construction of textile mills, the Rockingham Baptist also prospered. By Easter of 1909, the congregation was in a new brick church on the same lot. The church boasted a new pipe organ. Coming to this church January 1, 1913 was Rev. Bruce Benton. He served, with time out for World War One duty, until March 22, 1944, a total of 31 years. This has never been matched, although Rev. G. Carl Lewis came close with 27 years of service from 1949 to 1976. Ground breaking for the present sanctuary was Nov. 6, 1955. The church name had officially become First Baptist Church of Rockingham. Following Rev. Lewis was Dr. William W. Leathers. His 19 years of service took the church to new horizons. They included the first woman elected to the Board of Deacons, hiring Rev. Don Bearfield as Minister of Education and his wife, Melissa, as church organist, overseas Mission trips to impoverished countries such as Jamaica and a unique relationship with a church in England whereby the pastors exchanged pulpits. The Easter, Christmas and other musical programs presented by the Bearfields filled the sanctuary to standing room only. The church staff included full time Ministers of Music, Education and Youth. As Richmond County’s economy changed with the loss of textile and railroad jobs, and the subsequent loss of young people who moved to where there was work, church budgets and attendance were affected. First Baptist of Rockingham has not been an exception. However, it continues to offer services and programs for young and old, have a caring, helpful staff, and be able to fulfill budget requirements. First Baptist of Rockingham is ever-striving to love God and others more fully and seek ways to carry out its mission in this world. FBC Senior Pastors Rev. Trezevant Harrison served from October 31, 1880 to December 30, 1884. He was called from the First Baptist Church, Greensboro. During his ministry Mr. Harrison led the church to complete the church building which, in a short time, was paid for and a service of dedication held. In the early years the pastors served several churches and the pastorates were brief. Rev. J. W. Wildman came from a pastorate in Roanoke, Virginia, and served January 5, 1885 to November 22, 1885. Rev. B. H. Phillips had the shortest pastorate of any of the fifteen men who have held the position. His ministry began December 6, 1885 and was concluded, to the deep regret of the congregation, May 9, 1886. Rev. N. B. Cobb was pastor from September 26, 1886 to February 3, 1889. His ministry and influence were great in the church and in the larger community. He had great missionary zeal and led the church to establish a work which became the Roberdel Baptist Church. The longest of the early pastorates was that of Dr. Livingston Johnson, who served from March 17, 1889 to July 6, 1895. He was a man of vision and great ability. He became one of the leaders of Baptist work in the State, and ultimately served as Editor of the Biblical Recorder. Rev. Joseph G. Blalock was pastor from July 1, 1895 to April 16, 1899. These were years when the economy was depressed and social problems were outstanding, but there was some growth in membership and a slight increase in gifts. Rev. Charles L. Greaves served from July 2, 1889 to December 1, 1901. This was the first pastorate of a very able man who was remembered for his outstanding ability as a speaker. Rev. D. C. Britt served from November 24, 1901 to October 1, 1905. He stood firmly against social evils and demanded righteousness on the part of all members of the church. Rev. Evan D. Cameron, uncle of Governor and Senator Cameron Morrison, served briefly as pastor, October 1,1905 to June, 1906. He resigned to become President of the Baptist University of Oklahoma. During this pastorate, on January 2,1906, the church voted to begin a “full time” ministry, with the pastor serving this church only. Rev. Josiah Crudup, October 1, 1906 to April 28, 1912, led the church into new challenges, including the construction of a new sanctuary. This structure was built in 1908-1909, at a cost of $9,400.00 and was used until February 1957. In this period, under the leadership of Mrs. Claude Gore, a pipe organ was purchased. The longest pastorate was that of Dr. Bruce Benton, January 1, 1913 to March 31, 1945. (Dr. Benton’s retirement date was January 1, 1943, but he continued to serve until a new pastor arrived). There were the years of World War I, the Great Depression, the buying of property, planning for the future. The entire community continues to remember Dr. Benton with appreciation. Rev. Edwin F. Perry was pastor from April 2, 1944 to January 1, 1949. He had an outstanding ministry in leading the church to rapid growth, financial stewardship, and church building. His leadership led to clearing the property for future construction, building a pastorium, and the construction of the Education Building. He built strong foundations for the years ahead. Rev. G. Carl Lewis served from April 1, 1949 to September 1, 1976. In this period the church grew in mission emphasis and support, became stronger in organization ministries, paid off the indebtedness on the Educational Building, built the new Sanctuary, and purchased a pipe organ. Dr. William W. Leathers, III began his ministry in November 1976. Under his leadership the church enjoyed growth in membership, in stewardship, and in ministry. Indebtedness on the organ and church bus was paid, and the church found itself in the pleasant state of “free of debt.” Dr. Leathers resigned on Sunday, May 21, 1995 after 19 years of outstanding service and yet leaving a debt free church. After a two-year search, Rev. David M. Jordan was welcomed as church pastor on July 27, 1997. He continued many of Dr. Leathers’ programs, serving for five years before resigning in late 2002 to join a large Charlotte church. On February 8, 2004, Rev. T. David Phillips was installed as the new senior pastor. He remained until 2007. Dr. James Nelson accepted the position of senior pastor on June 28, 2009, serving until his retirement on May 30, 2018. © First Baptist Church 2019 Hosting by Frutke	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1889
__label__wiki	0.760834	0.760834	Thinking Film Since 1973 DocuChronicles Daredevils of the Red Circle and Other Cliffhangers FilmInt on the Underground Film Scratches Ay Caramba! Festival Reports About Film International Tuesday, July 8th, 2014 \| Posted by Film International Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia: Peckinpah the Dramatist By Christopher Sharrett. The label “master of violence” was long ago affixed to director Sam Peckinpah. Books on Peckinpah with titles like “Bloody Sam,” and studies comparing the director’s films to Kubrick’s icy-cold vision in A Clockwork Orange, insist that we separate uses of violence – an element of drama – from dramatic context. The situation is worsened as we are asked to consider Peckinpah’s “heirs,” like the repugnant, vacuous Tarantino, as offering new variations on the “blood ballets” that supposedly became Peckinpah’s stock-in-trade. It is true that Peckinpah broke new ground in portraying violence in cinema. He insisted, during his years in film and television, that Code-era cinema offered ridiculous delusions about human affairs, and avoided the horror and consequences of violence to the point that bloodletting was usually portrayed as trivial. The massacres that opened and closed his 1969 masterpiece The Wild Bunch sickened audiences, and the many unthinking critics of the day, with their massive carnage and their sense that once violence is unleashed there is no stopping it until all perish. His combination of slow motion and rapid cutting – borrowed from Eisenstein – captured the sense (experienced by Peckinpah in his lifetime) of the violent moment beginning and ending quickly, but also elongated, as if frozen in horrific time. Many accused Peckinpah of aestheticizing and “enjoying” violence simply because of the style used in its rendering. One has only to look at the final moments of The Wild Bunch to test such assertions. We see an endless number of the dead, both Mexican soldiers and the remains of the Bunch, blood, turning black, on the walls of the adobe compound where the battle took place. Women clad in black shawls move among the dead, praying as they look for their loved ones. Vultures, human and avian, descend on the village in search of carrion and abandoned money. The dark chords of Jerry Fielding’s score fill the soundtrack. It is a remarkably well-achieved moment, but are we meant to enjoy this? Did Peckinpah? Do we enjoy it in the same way that we enjoy, say, a piece of candy? There is a level of enjoyment to be sure, but of a fully human, meditative sense that evokes something close to grief, that allows us to enjoy Goya’s The Fourth of May, or Guernica, or the photographs of Robert Capa, or Resnais’s Nuit et Brouillard. Peckinpah reminds us of the need to think less of crass enjoyment – the sort that is the main criterion in the age of multiplex cinema – and more of enrichment and recreation, that is re-creation of one’s selfhood, of seeing and being. We enjoy his work since we (I must qualify “we” of course) admire its value as an utterly uncompromised vision. At every point of his work Peckinpah deprives violence of its traditional function as catharsis – he isn’t Shakespeare, but he displays an intelligence worthy of Shakespeare’s by undermining the ancient device. Pike Bishop’s sacrifice at the end of The Wild Bunch, to redeem a wasted life and fight Angel’s revolution for him, is rendered as too little too late, and a miscalculated, insane destruction of life, which gives the scene and film their tragedy. Pat Garrett’s murder of Billy at the end of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid is subverted in the ingenious montage/flash-forward behind the opening credits of the film, where Garrett’s assassination is portrayed as his suicide, a logical outcome to a violent, amoral life. Stransky’s pursuit of the Iron Cross – in Cross of Iron – is simply ludicrous, made especially so in the film’s coda by Steiner’s near-maniacal laughter as we see a Brecht quote, and pictures of starved children and other victims of wars past and present, including Vietnam. Peckinpah was always self-interrogating on the subject of violence, never more so than during the scene in Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia when Bennie shoots one of El Jefe‘s gunmen. He stands over the body, emptying another round into it. Then he asks: “Why? Because it feels so goddamn good!” The moment shows Warren Oates’s fine intelligence, and Peckinpah’s remarkable intelligence as he intervenes as dramatist. The “Why?” is posed entirely seriously, Bennie’s face tormented as he confronts a situation that seems profoundly absurd and at the dark heart of humanity. But in the phrase that follows Bennie dismisses his question, returning to what pleasures him – and what brings money. The moment is not only Peckinpah’s interrogation but his self-condemnation. Bennie’s violence is notable as a fantastical expression of rage, which figures heavily in the the fantastic cinema of the 1970s and 80s (e.g., Cronenberg, The Fury, etc.). Rage, signifying both frustration and intolerable pressure applied upon the subject by an impervious foe (society), takes violence into the realm of nightmare, madness, fantasy. Bennie’s (temporary) triumph over his enemies has nothing to do with Hawks’s male professionalism (the notion of being “good,” with those who are “no good” necessarily immoral), nor the “imperative” of Straw Dogs, where the math professor is suddenly master of all things, fusing his scientific knowledge with the will to power as he takes control of hearth and home, subduing the female in the process (“I’ll break your neck!”). On the contrary, Bennie’s assertions of violence precede his mental deterioration, and finally his own destruction. It is worth recalling that Sam Peckinpah mounted Katherine Anne Porter’s Noon Wine for television’s ABC Stage 67, a feat that I suggest would be impossible (at least with any of his sensitivity) for most of the postmodern cynics who make up the ranks of the current production industry, and who make some claim to Peckinpah. Noon Wine allowed Peckinpah to return to cinema after the “catastrophe” (read, studio destruction) of Major Dundee. This “master of violence” looked with a deeply-felt compassion at the aging process in many of his films, most notably Ride the High Country and The Wild Bunch. In Junior Bonner, he is able both to dismiss the family and show its absolute centrality to individual self-concept. Peckinpah was a conscientious artist, and an accomplished dramatist who gave himself precise moral responsibilities in attempting to realize a fully-achieved vision. It is worthwhile comparing a film such as The Wild Bunch to Django Unchained, or The Walking Dead, or any number of contemporary films, to see not only that Peckinpah’s lessons about violence and its consequences have long been forgotten, but that an interest in maintaining the fabric of drama has likewise been discarded. Is Django Unchained, for anyone with the benefit of a fairly good middle-class education and humane temperament, anything more than a pastiche of action cinema of the 1970s, and with a considerable degree of disrespect for the decade at that? Does it have anything like Peckinpah’s sympathetic interest in actual human beings? Does not a film such as Mandingo (1975) have far more to say than Django Unchained on the meaning of slavery, and with more commitment and integrity? Django Unchained, in fact, is too much a smug comedy to have any concern whatever for the real horrors of the slavocracy (or anything at all), yet current audiences seem to accept Tarantino’s rubbish, with only the occasional complaint about the use of the word “nigger.” The new cinema of evisceration (there are any number of better phrases, no doubt, that capture the barbarism of what now transpires in cinema, all of which are the consequence of the social decline of the 80s/90s/2000s) represents the awfulness of an American civilization that sanctions the invasion and destruction of nations; climate change, which will destroy the planet itself; neoliberal economic policies that destroy this nation and all other countries partaking of the system; and the unraveling of the remains of democracy, beginning with a war on the rights of women, racial minorities, and the electoral process. Sam Peckinpah, who would be appalled by the tendencies I have just adumbrated, now seems like a quaint fabulist, and a very tender-hearted one. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia: Some Sources I want to comment on Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974), Peckinpah’s most personal work, one of his three masterpieces of the 1970s (the others are Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid [1973], and Cross of Iron [1977] – I still see Straw Dogs [1971] an exercise, and one far too influenced by the crackpot ideas of screenwriter-turned-anthropologist Robert Ardrey, and The Getaway [1972] too marred by many things, especially the casting of Ali McGraw). We should be grateful to Twilight Time, an invaluable resource, for restoring this film and presenting it in a new Blu-ray release. I comment on this film since it displays Peckinpah’s profound humanism as he engages in self-assessment (which, unfortunately for him, would be a substitute for needed psychotherapy). One might be puzzled by the use of humanism when describing Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, often seen as an odd, grisly indulgence, but I use this term and precisely this, rather than “humane” or some variation. Peckinpah continues a commitment to traditional humanism – that is, a belief in the paramount importance of the human subject as the only source for understanding that which we value. The outlook was not uncommon in the best work of the Old Hollywood, especially those directors from Europe who brought with them philosophies of the human race unencumbered by the American Puritan heritage. Alfredo Garcia is also by far Peckinpah’s most experimental film; the clearest influence here is Buñuel – Peckinpah praised Los Olvidados in various locations, although overt surrealist cinema, especially L’Âge d’Or (1930), is also relevant as we understand the film as iconoclasm, and especially a self-inflicted trauma unveiling some core parts of his self-concept. Alfredo Garcia reminds us of Peckinpah’s place – at the time of the film’s making and certainly since – in the international cinema. When producer Dieter Schidor wanted to adapt Jean Genet’s Querelle de Brest for the cinema, the publisher Gallimard required him to produce for Genet a letter from a prominent filmmaker. Schidor heard somewhere that Genet admired Peckinpah. Peckinpah had a passing knowledge of Genet but never heard of Querelle (interesting, since his films, focused on criminal outsiders, the male group and repressed homoeroticism, have something in common with Genet, which the writer no doubt noted); he nevertheless supplied a letter. Querelle (1982) was the last film made by Rainer Fassbinder. The structure of Alfredo Garcia is profoundly modernist, a collage that must be called a nightmare journey through the world of capitalist patriarchy, with Peckinpah looking back into history, and at his own moment and his own mind. The film opens with an image that seems taken from Manet: we see a pond with wildfowl afloat, a young, very pregnant woman in a long white dress dipping her feet in the water. The serenity is broken by two caballeros with a strong note of the drugstore, clad in cowboy hats and too-noisy spurs, with six-guns and holsters noticeably Hollywood (but the film was shot in Mexico, with Peckinpah cared for by his friend and executive producer Helmut Dantine, who plays “Max” in the film). The men take the woman to the huge hacienda of El Jefe (the renowned actor/director Emilio Fernandez, who worked several times for Peckinpah). The camera studies the paintings on the walls of the don’s stateroom – they are of patriarchs dating to Mexico’s colonization by Spain. El Jefe demands of the young woman, who is his daughter, the name of the man who made her pregnant. She is tortured until she relinquishes the name, which provokes the porcine El Jefe’s command that is the title of the film. A question: why does the don wait until so late in her pregnancy to demand the name? Perhaps he tortured her throughout her pregnancy. But the more reasonable answer, as the film progresses, is that this moment (like much of the film) is presentational and highly stylized, even Brechtian, as we witness the grotesquerie of the world of the film. The sense of artifice is everywhere in Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, from the often casual editing to the equally casual acting, which sometimes looks like performance from the French nouvelle vague, although the film’s improvisations gives it a realist spontaneity. Peckinpah, like the other occasional Brechtian, Godard (in the 1960s), demolishes illusion so that ideas remain prominent. And the film has much in common with the Latin American Boom – it could be called Peckinpah’s The Autumn of the Patriarch, or Terra Nostra, especially since El Jefe seems the Primal Father policing the Primal Horde in a world outside of historical time. There is a radical cut after the daughter’s interrogation. We see men on horseback, in expensive automobiles, then, suddenly, an airplane appears, then shots of Mexico City, and finally the carport of a hotel, where dapper, American-looking men in suits snap their fingers to make a row of hookers get on their feet. The film’s modernism comes through first in its disjointed continuity. The men we see checking into a hotel are then suddenly still on the veranda. Peckinpah’s use of montage, especially during his signature scenes of violence, disorients us; here the disorientation is a constant, including at the level of plot. What is the relationship of the Anglo businessmen to El Jefe? How were they employed by him? The dismally corrupt officialdom of 1970s America suddenly jibes with an antique, eternal patriarchy. We are regularly thrown into mythic space as the film as fable becomes obvious. “Guantanamera” and the Fate of Art Eventually the hallucination takes us to Bennie (Warren Oates), a down-and-out piano player (why he is regularly referred to as a “bartender” escapes me) in an after-hours dive where he leads tourists in rousing choruses of “Guantanamera,” whose first verse reads in English: “I am a truthful man/from where the palm tree grows/but before dying I want/to let out the verses of my soul.” The verses speak of the desire to evoke “the soft green and flaming crimson.” This piece of once-omnipresent 1960s pop is actually both poignant and political, and might be read here as a clever epitaph gracefully inserted by Peckinpah into the film. Popularized by The Sandpipers, “Guantanamera” (“The Woman from Guantanamo”) was written by the great Cuban revolutionary hero Jose Marti, its proud status intricately tied to Cuban identity. In the last verse, Marti’s narrator pledges himself to the poor people of the earth, making the song popular in the repertoire of folk singer Pete Seeger. Guantanamo is known, of course, as a site of contention between the U.S. and Cuba from the Cold War to the present (right now it is a concentration camp fully expressive of U.S. contempt for human rights). Pete Seeger made the song an emblem of the U.S. protest movement, before it was transformed into pop. It is an energetic ballad, a song of solidarity at the time of the U.S. assault on Cuba and especially the Cuban Missile Crisis. But “Guantanamera,” is also a ballad about the sexes, and a deceitful man and his (supposedly) unreasonable woman. In Peckinpah, as with any distinguished artist, nothing is incidental or accidental. As with “La Golondrina,” (a theme of The Wild Bunch), the story of a swallow that has flown away and the one who prepares a home for it, Peckinpah makes use of a folk song from tradition, attracted both by its romanticism and radical potential, in other words expressive of Peckinpah’s sensibility. Bennie’s raucous version of “Guatanamera” becomes one symbol among many of the callous degradation of art in the Age of Nixon, that is, the current age, for which Nixon is a basic symbol. One of the most evocative, comprehensive scenes in the film shows the executive/gangster Max having a pedicure by two secretaries, his trousers off, as he reads an issue of Time magazine with a famous cover story on Nixon and Watergate. So much is contained in the quick scene: the gangster nature of capitalism; the subjugation of women; the irrelevance of modesty and other bourgeois manners (and the superego) when power holds sway; the kitsch nature of modern journalism, which spectacularizes the crimes of empire as it simultaneously makes a handy scapegoat out of capitalist agents (it was easy with Nixon). Fine art prints on the paneled walls of the American hoodlums’ offices suggest the rise of art as decoration, as a vaguely-observed camouflage for the barbarism of the capitalist state. This trope is obviously crucial to Peckinpah; Bennie’s abuse by the stronger-willed of the story allegorizes Peckinpah’s abuse by the film industry, self-serving perhaps, but heartfelt and honest. In Peckinpah biographies and documentary films, it is apparent that he was the younger boy left home with his mother; he filled his life with various literature, including Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade,” which, as he said, he simply remade over and over. He was the frail intellectual who later overcompensated with macho posturing, until he produced in himself a deadly and untreated mental pathology. By now we have heard many times that Bennie is supposed to be Peckinpah himself, or at least one manifestation of him. If we accept the premise (I do), the film becomes a kind of psycho-autobiography. There is a chilling aspect to this. Many years ago I interviewed the late actor/director Robert Culp relative to another project. Culp was Peckinpah’s best friend in Hollywood until the 1970s, when Peckinpah’s self-medicating with alcohol and cocaine could no longer be tolerated by Culp and other friends. Culp begged his friend to see a psychiatrist. Peckinpah eventually agreed, and arranged sessions with Culp’s own psychiatrist. But it was a sham. Peckinpah went only once. Years later the psychiatrist told Culp that Peckinpah had some deeply-rooted (aren’t they always?) problems that he could cope with only in fantasy. Whatever lay at the heart of these problems we can only know by looking at the “fantasy” of the director’s art, and in particular Alfredo Garcia, which indeed makes sense – with its refusal of continuity and most of the rules of the American film industry – only as a heaving-up of psychological distress, particularly a massive statement of self-loathing at various levels. And the contempt for Hollywood and American ideology becomes easily readable. Peckinpah’s chief collaborator in the project is of course Warren Oates, who by the 1970s was a more-than-credible character actor appearing in several Peckinpah films. He was known as a self-effacing man, and by no means a big-ticket actor with numerous neurotic demands. He becomes a vessel for his good friend Peckinpah, who in turn allows Oates the greatest latitude he ever enjoyed as actor (yes, that includes the nice performance in the otherwise execrable right-wing shoot-‘em-up, John Milius’s Dillinger [1973]). There is enough evidence (the omnipresent sunglasses, the mustache, the gravelly voice, the flashes of bad temper) to say that Oates is indeed “channeling” Peckinpah, but we should note the amount of hyperbole Peckinpah applies here as he gestures toward self-derision. Bennie is a caricature of Peckinpah, with his badly mismatched clothes, and affectations of a dandy: his white Palm Beach suit becomes nearly black with dirt over the course of the film, suggesting his moral and psychological descent prior to his literal and symbolic resurrection. In the initial scene at the piano bar, Bennie’s clothes recall Peckinpah’s love of Western/Native American gear, but here it is all reduced to kitsch; Bennie wears a brown jacket tastelessly embroidered with six-guns and sombreros. Most important is Bennie’s personality. Although he tends to bluster, occasionally in ways that seem macho to the point of incoherent lunacy (“Stop lookin’ at me with your fuckin’eyes!”), he is basically sheepish and frightened. He is belittled by the American hitmen in their posh office, who allow Bennie to join in the search for Alfredo. One hoodlum calls him a “loser.” Bennie screws up his courage, raises his head and says “Nobody loses all the time.” One already senses that this is a vainglorious remark, and foresees Bennie’s fate. After retrieving the head of Alfredo Garcia from a cemetery, he sits on a dilapidated hotel bed, now alone after Elita’s (Isela Vega) murder. As he loads his .45 semi-automatic, he goes through a range of emotions, from laughter at the insanity of the situation, to tears of self-pity and self-loathing, a remarkable performance by Oates. As he disintegrates, he talks to the decaying head in a fly-covered canvas bag, treating “Al” as a friendly rival (he was once Elita’s lover) who cuckolded him. The hero-as-madman is not a new construct, but rarely has it been achieved in the commercial cinema with such dignity. Although he is shot to pieces in the denouement, his demise happens after he has dispatched El Jefe and his henchmen, to the glee of the don’s wife and daughter; that Bennie is a skilled marksman seems one conceit that Peckinpah won’t relinquish – the original screenplay has Bennie as a “retired Army officer,” yet there is nothing of the army in his bearing. The skill with a gun is all fantasy (as it always is in cinema), but here it is Bennie/Peckinpah engaging in obliteration of his enemies that is obliteration of the self – the essence of violence. The Homosexual Text The reader will note that I call this subheading “The Homosexual Text” rather than “subtext,” the word usually applied when discussing gay sexuality in cinema, for example in Robin Wood’s analysis of Hawks. It is true that the gay element of a work is often “buried” because of censorship fears, denial, or personal anxiety; in the case of Hawks, the gay element seems exceedingly manifest today – thanks in part to Wood’s criticism. And there is the evidence of Joseph McBride’s interview with Hawks; as is fairly well known, the director bristled at the suggestion of gay themes, accusing audiences and critics (presumably this included McBride) of having “filthy minds” if they dared suggest such a thing of his work. I rest my case. Hawks, who in many ways pioneered the American male-oriented action cinema, makes clear above all that the only authentic affection, the only meaningful relationship of any sort, is that shared among men. The shooting matches between Montgomery Clift and John Ireland (described as “mutual masturbation” by Wood) in Red River (1948), and Hardy Kruger and Gerard Blain in Hatari! (1962), turn his obsessions into near-pornography. Peckinpah’s career was much less productive than that of Hawks, but on the subject of the homosocial/sexual undergirding of male-oriented action cinema, Peckinpah is by far the superior – because more probing, more self-interrogating – artist. The Wild Bunch pivots on the issue of Pike’s failed life, his lost love Aurora, and the “secret” that he shares with Thornton. The secret is involved with Pike’s self-assurance, his boastful line “being sure is my business.” As Pike settles down by a campfire, he recalls a painful moment of many years past at a brothel – the moment undercuts his self-proclaimed assurance. Thornton, at another campfire, has the same memory. Pinkerton detectives raid the brothel of long ago as Pike abandons his friend. The film cross-cuts gracefully, supplely. Pike’s face is embittered; Thornton’s is resigned – one senses that he would never betray his friend, even as he now pursues him. That the two men share the same memory at the same time suggests obsession, as if the memory of a personal betrayal never leaves them, yet affection endures (Thornton warns the ragtag bounty hunters in his charge that Pike is “the best”). One needn’t read against the grain to argue that the “secret” shared by the two men is a repressed gay love, simply because it is so transparent that the issue is centrally about their love – the genital aspect seems irrelevant. Robin Wood argued long ago that the obsession with the sex act is itself pathological. There are several scenes illustrative of the sexual politics of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, most crucially Garrett’s return, for a moment, to the domestic household, which is actually surrounded by the prototypical white picket fence. Garrett tentatively opens its gate and walks into his home. It isn’t a minute before Garrett, obviously uneasy, fabricates a row with his wife and creates a lie about his duties that permits him to leave. And there is no irony in Garrett finally assassinating his old friend Billy (who is half naked) in a darkened bedroom; Garrett annihilates what he cannot stand in himself, a point made, as I mentioned, in the film’s complex opening scene. Cross of Iron is involved to the point of tormented obsession with the sexual politics of the male group; the drama of its investigation is jarring. The aristocratic Stransky (Maximilian Schell), notable for his natty uniform and regular hair-combing, spots an officer caressing a young soldier. In a brilliantly directed sequence, Stransky chats amiably with the two men about the company of men being preferable to women “in any and all circumstances.” It is clear that the chat is an interrogation. When the two men smile and acquiesce, Stransky explodes with rage, telling the two men he will hang them if he catches them in the sex act. The moment becomes most problematical from a moral standpoint, since the two betray Steiner (James Coburn), who in turn kills them. Without pursuing the matter in depth, I will say that their death is another instance of Peckinpah turning the repressed loose only to tamp it down again. But it returns constantly in this film, as in Steiner leaving his hospital nurse (Senta Berger), who proposes marriage to him, to return to his platoon, even though he professes hatred for the Army, Nazism, and “all that the [leadership] stands for.” I suggest that none of these films partake of the flimsy cover of Hawks’s “it’s great to hang out with the guys.” The seriousness of purpose to Peckinpah’s study of male love, his denial of it, his constant return to it, is unmatched in the American cinema. Two issues have to be immediately discussed relative to the sexual politics of Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia. The first concerns the two gay gunsels, Sappensly (Robert Webber) and Johnny Quill (Gig Young). They have some indelible forbears, like Fante (Lee Van Cleef) and Mingo (Earl Holliman) in The Big Combo (1955), or the exceedingly more degraded Mr. Wint (Bruce Glover) and Mr. Kidd (Putter Smith) in Diamonds are Forever (1971) whose elimination by James Bond is made comical, and includes a kind of castration. Needless to say that the evil of the gay villain flows less from a criminal drive than his sexuality. We aren’t with the reptilian Sappensly and Quill that long, but they are not far from their sources – yet Peckinpah offers innovation. There is an especially unnerving moment when they meet Bennie in the bar. A prostitute touches Sappensly on the groin; he responds by striking her hard on the temple with a quick thrust of his elbow. She falls unconscious, the customers walking around her. The moment is stunning in its brutality, and unnerving in the length it goes to repeat the idea of the faggot as destroyer of the heterosexual world. The moment may make sense (and become digestible) if we read it as hypostatizing the director’s anxieties about sexual politics, especially the bizarre scene late in the film, when Bennie – now possessing Alfredo’s head – collides on the road with some peasants who know that Bennie has desecrated Alfredo’s grave – a tourist bus, and the two gangsters, appear out of nowhere. Sappensly and Quill proceed to mow down the peasants with pistols and a submachine gun. Quill is shot in the process. Sappensly notices his fallen comrade. He falls to his knees in tears as Bennie asks for his money. Sappensly, sobbing, draws his pistol, but is shot by Bennie. The wounded Sappensly ignores Bennie, and instead staggers, grieving, over to his dead partner, saying “Johnny… hey Johnny?” The moment is given full emotion, and not a bit of anti-gay derision. It is a remarkable first in the American cinema, as Peckinpah for a moment removes the two characters from their dramatic context, and elicits sympathy as one man realizes his lover is dead. But this director is the one who, after all, elicited sympathy for the demise of savage killers in The Wild Bunch. Sappensly and Johnny Quill, who have already connected themselves to The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (an important film to this director), remind us of the understated relationships between Steve Judd (Joel McCrea) and Gil Westrum (Randolph Scott) in Ride the High Country, or Pike and Thornton, already discussed. As mentioned, Bennie’s “partner” becomes the decapitated head of the man who cuckolded him. He drives about the dusty roads of Central Mexico with the bloody parcel as his front-seat passenger. He washes and “dresses” the head, at one point packing it in dry ice (“This’ll cool ya off, Al”). He often addresses it: “Let’s go, Al,” “Come on, Al.” He isn’t expressing humor; as he becomes increasingly deranged by the quest, he forms an intimacy with the head. The film could be said to turn Absurdist, but in so doing it reveals Peckinpah grappling with his ability to find valid relationships only with men, and remain loyal to men even as they “betray” him (I can’t help but think of Robert Culp). But it is so very instructive that the inability of Bennie/Peckinpah to come to terms with male relationships drives him insane. The romance of the film is, of course, with Elita, who is given a special dignity by Peckinpah. She warns Bennie of his fixations. In the early scene in the posh hotel, Bennie is belligerent (“You’re a no-good bitch”), but when they sit down together, he becomes sheepish. The scenes of the two of them on the road contain the most romantic moments in all of Peckinpah, even as Bennie and Elita enter the grueling rural poverty of Mexico (the scenes evoke Buñuel, and most assuredly take us outside the world of the tourist, although “branding” by the U.S. is a constant – rusty red metal chairs at a tumbledown roadside café are embossed with the Coca-Cola logo). Their squalid dwellings suggest the endurance tests Bennie/Peckinpah imposes on women (“You ought to wake up in Fresno, California… this place looks like a palace”). But the film is one of the very few action films of the era – certainly among Peckinpah’s work – suggesting the possibility of an authentic heterosexual relationship. The film puts one in mind of The Getaway, where the tacked-on happy ending seems of a piece with the dreadful Steve McQueen/Ali McGraw characters and their tough-guy-who-straightens-out-the-broad relationship. By contrast, Elita is the film’s prophet while also suggesting all that is good about Bennie, and the possibility of Bennie’s moral redemption. She is appalled by his plan to decapitate the corpse of Alfredo and take the head to the gangsters. Through tears, she reminds Bennie of the idea of desecration, to which he responds angrily, citing the church’s bizarre practices in culling relics from dead saints (“Well, Alfredo’s a saint… he’s the saint of our money”). Obviously Bennie’s notion of desecration is as narrow as that of the church, that is, as pragmatic ritual, while Elita, as we watch her in the world of the film, has a full sense of the spiritual. Unlike Bennie, her music comes easily, is never vulgar, and is not tied to money. Bennie is a fully middle-class American whose self has been all but obliterated by the drive for wealth. He can conceive of a relationship with Elita only when he sets his mind to acquiring a fortune fast. He is indeed too much the self-deprecating “loser” to start a life in the suburbs, but he is too shaped by a sense of American norms to think of success in any other terms. With the death of Elita occurs the spiritual death of Bennie; the increasing grimness and bizarrerie of the film, including his eventual physical execution, flow entirely from her removal from his life. In their final hotel room, Bennie opens the curtain on Elita’s shower, then sits on the floor and says “I love you.” Such a direct expression of affection is rare in Peckinpah’s cinema (the scene may constitute the only such expression), marvelously realized by Oates and Vega. It would seem that Bennie has reached a turning point even as his vision of the future is deformed; the two make their way to the cemetery where Alfredo’s body is interred. Elita accepts Bennie’s plan, since it contains the promise of eventual happiness. She is murdered and the two buried; Bennie is “resurrected,” perhaps by the magic of his acceptance of Elita, to fulfill an extraordinary mission that seems to nullify many contentions of genre cinema and patriarchal rule. By far the most controversial moment of the film is the waylaying of Bennie and Elita by two bikers, played by Kris Kristofferson and Donny Fritts. The bikers appear in the night, accosting Bennie and Elita at their campfire. The first biker (Kristofferson) takes Elita away, while the second biker (Frittes) holds a gun on Bennie. Bennie tries to rescue Elita, but she cautions him, saying “I’ve been here before, and you don’t know the way.” Elita’s life as a prostitute prepares her, so it seems, to survive the moment. Elita slaps the first biker, who in turn slaps her and tears off her blouse, then oddly walks away. Elita follows him. The first biker sits alone. Elita begins to seduce him. Many viewers have been appalled by the idea that Elita apparently wants to be raped. The accurate answer seems to flow from her line to Bennie “You don’t know the way,” that is, Bennie is inept not in sexual dynamics but entirely, with a tough-guy façade that conceals basic naiveté. Her “seduction” of the biker has many aspects. Is he impotent? Is Elita concerned to maintain his interest as long as possible, thus postponing her death? This seems plausible, but the moment must also be read in the context of the triad that haunts the film – Alfredo was Elita’s lover and Bennie’s rival. The sense of deformation that increases within the film is in evidence here, as the idea of a ménage, an unconventional sexual arrangement, finally explodes in Bennie’s mind. He kills both bikers, and with a sense that his body, his view of the world, have been violated. His shooting of the bikers might be read as an act of jealousy, as “Al” grows larger in his imagination both as rival and as companion – and emanation of himself. Bennie’s story is a station play, but one of degradation rather than exaltation, except for a brief moment just prior to the end. Bennie has a tragic dimension because he indeed doesn’t “know the way.” His is a very American story about the desire to recreate the self, but it is utterly bereft of any social context or sense of responsibility, as Elita regularly reminds him. Journey and Recovery The narrative framework of the film is one of the most basic in film history, indeed in the history of narrative. The myth of journey and recovery is foundational to stories of the hero performing a restorative act by bringing back a person or object symbolizing the unity of the community. The Searchers is a point of reference, but the concept reaches to the Grail myth and the origins of narrative drama. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia might be said to reduce the myth to its core, as the hero becomes ludicrous, his quest possessing no restorative function – on the contrary, Bennie’s story is one of disintegration, the signifiers of decay everywhere, beginning with the omnipresent flies on the bloody sack with its totemic “relic,” a grotesque talisman signifying the world it occupies. Rather than aid the community, Bennie helps in its destruction (the massacre of the Mexican poor by Sappensly and Quill). The journey of Ethan Edwards is seen by his community as essentially selfless, if driven too much by revenge. We know that Edwards’s quest is personal, born out of his love of Martha and profound racism. Films such as Apocalypse Now turn the myth ludicrous simply by overt citation of high-brow texts. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia exposes the quest narrative as repugnant, not only because of the talisman retrieved, but due also to its function in fulfillment of the male ego, portrayed as always already deranged. In this, the film seems outright analytical and materialist, depriving the myth of its idealist origins, and its key function in restoring the patriarchal order. Bennie’s Revolution The film concludes with revolutionary acts, the first being Bennie’s annihilation of Max and the other executive/gangsters in the office suite where Bennie was enlisted in the search for “Al.” The killings are an expression of rage – at the death of Elita, at his depraved Nixonized culture, and his own moral breakdown. He asks the hoodlums if he can keep the picnic basket in which he carries the bloody head, reminiscing about the time he and Elita sat by a tree and made their tentative future plans, one of the many improvisational moments of the film, the two people conveying awkwardness, fear of what is to come, and a genuine tenderness between man and woman so rare in American cinema. The final scene in El Jefe’s hacienda is extraordinary. It is the antique place we saw at the film’s opening, and the contrast with the paneled offices is once again jarring. As Bennie arrives with the decaying head, El Jefe enjoys raucous festivities after the baptism of his grandson (Alfredo’s child). The fete is not unlike the one at the end of The Wild Bunch, complete with fireworks. Bennie enters the stronghold and presents his prize to El Jefe, who in turn give him a satchel of money, telling him to “throw that (the head) to the pigs.” The dialogue becomes increasingly disjunctive, as Bennie says “Sixteen people are dead because of him…and you and me…and one of them was a damn good friend of mine!” At this point he draws a gun from the picnic basket and proceeds to shoot down El Jefe’s guards. Since they are all armed with Winchester rifles (again, taking us into the past), Bennie’s victory seems utterly fantastic. This is, again, a victory of the hero’s imagination, one that serves the narrative line particularly when Bennie, at the daughter’s command, executes El Jefe. An especially effective moment is the entry of El Jefe’s wife into the stateroom – her face has a modest smile of approval. Before he shoots El Jefe, Bennie makes another elliptical remark, hushed but foregrounded on the soundtrack: “The first time I saw him, he was dead.” He is no doubt referring to Alfredo, but what does this mean? He mourns the fact of meeting his sexual rival too late, or, more likely it seems to me, mourning an encounter with a dead man with whom he now feels empathy, and with whom he might have had an authentic relationship. Bennie kills the man who ordered the execution of the man he never knew, whose presence, one could say, is notable in its absence, but whose dramatic role is nevertheless palpable: Neither Bennie nor Alfredo has a say in the order of things. This isn’t Peckinpah bemoaning castration; rather, it is a deeply-felt concern for the health of the male psyche, for the ability of the male to form non-competitive friendships with other men. In The Chase (1965), Arthur Penn discusses the possibility of a triadic relationship beyond jealousy in the characters of Bubber, Anna, and Jake. That relationship is destroyed by the monstrous bourgeois society of that film. In Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, it is annihilated in its very conception, leaving behind what might be called the last male product of patriarchy, a madman. In the chaos following the shootings, Bennie, still carrying Alfredo’s head, turns to the daughter, handing her the locket that has been the only signifier of Alfredo’s life, his role as an active human being. Bennie says: “You take care of the boy and I’ll take care of the father.” Bennie enacts a radical gesture, destroying patriarchy and turning authority over to the female line, as the daughter holds her infant. Bennie will leave with the remains of the old order. But it is not to be, as Bennie is set upon by men firing Winchesters and machine guns – Bennie killed by past and present. His killers refuse to abandon the old order even as the Primal Father is no more. Bennie’s delusions don’t serve him, as the mythic aspect of the narrative returns us to history. The image freezes on the muzzle of a gun aimed at us, a reminder of the persistent, calcified rule of men, and yet… The end credits roll against a series of still images recalling moments of the film; some are rather abstract, like the back of Bennie’s dirty jacket, seen through a car window. The dark strings of Jerry Fielding’s final theme appear slowly on the soundtrack, then swell and change chords in an expression of what can only be called joy. We see the actors, so the moment might be a curtain call, but the effect is nowhere that vain. The mood is instead melancholic and elegiac, as we observe the magnificent images by cinematographer Alex Phillips, Jr. The elegy is for another civilization, which men like Peckinpah, by his own admission here, have destroyed. For Pete Seeger, whose voice, if not angelic, was transcendent, and utterly without guile. His was one of the greatest voices of American resistance. Christopher Sharrett is Professor of Communication and Film Studies at Seton Hall University and a regular contributor to Film International. He is sickened by the regular use of the Aria from the Goldberg Variations to signify madness and perversity, as in the grisly television series Hannibal, and the recent, ludicrous sci-fi blockbuster Snowpiercer. Bach’s masterpiece, which suggests anything but madness, is supposed to convey irony by its current use in the entertainment industry, suggesting that monsters too can have fine taste – a lesson for children, which we are constantly forced into being. Fassbinder, Rainer Werner (1983), Querelle: The Film Book, New York: Grove Press. Sharrett, Christopher (1999), “Peckinpah the Radical: The Politics of The Wild Bunch,” in Stephen Prince (ed.), Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch, New York and London: Cambridge University Press, pp. 67-109 Thurman, Tom (2004), “Sam Peckinpah’s West: Legacy of a Hollywood Renegade,” included on The Wild Bunch: The Original Director’s Cut (Warner DVD, 2006). Wood, Robin (2006), Howard Hawks, Detroit: Wayne State University Press. __(2008), Rio Bravo, London: British Film Institute. 8 Comments for “Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia: Peckinpah the Dramatist” This is a fascinating and exemplary article putting to shame many who claim to be film scholars these days. Will Dodson Certainly Tony Williams is correct. The essay is nearly as moving as the film itself. Gwendolyn Audrey Foster A brilliant, timely examination of the film, the man, and the myth. Among other things, you demonstrate that “the new cinema of evisceration” has little or nothing in common with Peckinpah. Those who practice it (Tarantino and his many copycats) generally use stylized violence for sick yucks — to distance us from empathy (and humanity). I could not even stand to watch all of Django Unchained, for the reasons you have outlined above; yet critics routinely (and unfairly) situate Peckinpah as the progenitor of the new cinema of evisceration. You carefully render a unique and well-grounded perspective of Peckinpah as both a humanist artist and a human being– an emotionally and psychologically complicated man — in this deeply felt personal work. Fascinating essay– significant on so many levels. Right on, Gwendolyn!.Like Steve Judd and Gil Westrum, Chris has described Tarantino and his supporters as the “red necked peckerwoods “and “gutter trash” they really are. The issue is whether they will come out front and defend their form of “family honor” as Billy Hammond (James Drury) says to the Elder (John Anderson) at the end of the film.rather than hiding behind cliches such as “the editorial board disagrees with this..” Robert K. Lightning Although I cannot quite agree with the assessment of Tarantino (I provide some provisional thoughts on the director in CineAction #79) this is a well-written, well-researched, heartfelt tribute to Peckinpah. Good analysis of his brand of screen violence. Chris, in revisiting this essay, it strikes me that you carefully articulate a unique perspective on homosocial/homosexual elements of the film (and the director) that perhaps go beyond ideas exemplified in the wonderful work of Eve Sedgwick and other bright voices in queer theory. I hope people take note of your exemplary and unique work here on the queer politics of the characters and the auteur, and are not too distracted by your equally important discussion of the politics and aesthetics of violence. Obviously there is far more than meets the eye here. Christopher Sharrett September 4, 2014 - 11:39 pm Will, Gwendolyn, Robert, Tony, Thanks for your comments and for reading. January 20, 2017 - 12:15 am No mention of the daughter telling Benny to kill her father? The young woman who took the part gave a rather haunting, stoic performance. A vague amateurish sense about her only seemed to heighten the poignancy. © 2019 Film International. All Rights Reserved. Log in - Designed by Gabfire Themes	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1893
__label__cc	0.509627	0.490373	Duplex Planet Mr. Duffy My friend Tom called me yesterday and told me about his recent days with his father, who's just entered a nursing home. He was telling me of the sudden shifts in subject his dad would make, usually introducing a topic that he was quite certain of, but that no one else was at all aware of. For example, that he was just on a long flight. These seeming leaps reminded me of something else I'd been thinking about lately: my tendency to fall asleep on the couch at night whilst watching a movie or late night program, and the peculiar juxtapostions which ensue. I'm certainly not alone in this tendency, and I must say, it's not an altogether pleasant way to fall asleep. The reason being, that so much additional energy goes into: 1) trying to not fall asleep, and 2) using extra reserves to futilely maintain the appearance of being awake. A common scenario finds my wife and me on the couch, and a movie in progress. Various factions of my psyche begin lobbying for control, with a deal generally being struck that decrees something like, "I'll just slouch down here a bit and rest my head on the back of the couch, but this is not to go to sleep, only to be a bit more comfortable." Yeah, right. I end up in a state of mixed inputs: the television, whatever my wife is saying, and dreaming. She catches on fast, but I try and cover by answering whatever she said, that I had in some way heard, but didn't in any way comprehend. It's always a failed attempt at covering up, but it's an automatic reflex. Other times something else happens, and this is what reminded me of what Tom was hearing from his father. I'll be in that same state of basically being asleep, and I'll say something. What I say won't make any sense –– "It rained on the wood chips" –– but the act of saying it, coupled with the immediate realization that it made no sense, has me instantly and totally awake. Another automatic reflex kicks in and I go into immediate spin control, trying to mix whatever I'd said into either the context of the movie that I'd lost touch with, or a conversation that I'd lost track of (also losing track of how long I may've been asleep, though it's usually only seconds –– like falling asleep at the wheel). I of course fail at coherence, but do spout forth all manner of Dadaist prose in my flailing. I don't know if that's exactly what's happening to Tom's father, or to anyone else in a similar condition of increasing frailty and decline. But it does strike me as a remarkable sort of precedent –– an early familiarity with a circumstance that may be encountered later in life. Tom's father's reactions to the knowledge that he slipped into something that no one else could follow, seem to be one of calm bemusement and acceptance. He makes no efforts to explain away whatever he may have gone off into. When he gets back from it, he just moves on. His family is often shaken by this once strong and gruff man becoming a mortally vulnerable surrealist. However, his bearing, no matter how far divergent from previous expectations, is truly blessed with the confidence and experience of age. Cheers, Mr. Duffy. (This originally was aired on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" in November of 1996. Mr. Duffy died in 1999.) posted by David Greenberger at 7:25 PM Name: David Greenberger Primarily Cats Neckties vs. Bowties Why Do We Celebrate Halloween? Tales of Summer Mortality, Aesthetics and a Smooth Shave The Man in the Bed	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1895
__label__cc	0.585677	0.414323	@UBGraduateSchoolofEducation on Facebook @UBGSE on Twitter @UBGSE on Instagram Our Role in UB 2020 UB Teach Combined Degree Program Administrative Certification (LIFTS) 6/25/19 Admission Alumni Ambassador Program Counseling, School and Educational Psychology Educational Leadership and Policy Learning and Instruction Research Centers, Institutes and Labs Student Research Symposium Data Analysis Lab Tuesday News Ticker Graduate School of Education (ed) > Tuesday News Ticker > Reducing bully abuse against individuals with disabilities Using multimedia and peer-to-peer prevention support for individuals with disabilities Amanda Nickerson, director of the Alberti Center for Bullying Abuse Prevention, and professor from the Department of Counseling, School and Educational Psychology, and Dan Albertson, associate professor from the Department of Library and Information Studies, have been awarded $175,000 from the New York State (NYS) Developmental Disabilities Planning Council (DDPC) for their collaborative research project, “Multimedia and Peer-to-Peer Prevention Support.” “I had a previous grant with the NYS DDPC to conduct a needs assessment and advise them on their strategic planning around the issue of bullying and individuals with disabilities,” Nickerson said. “One of the needs identified through that assessment was that there was no central place for resources and support for bullying and other forms of abuse for people with disabilities.” The goal of “Multimedia and Peer-to-Peer Prevention Support” is to create a website, resource repository and online peer-to-peer support for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities experiencing various forms of exploitation and abuse. High quality resources will be identified that will help individuals build personal capacity, provide/receive peer support and gain access to external support resources by teaming with GSE students who have a technological background assist with creating the technology. NYS DDPC solicited for proposals to develop and evaluate a central place for resources and support for bullying and other forms of abuse for people with disabilities. Nickerson had the expertise in bullying prevention, but she needed another person with background in website development, so she reached out to Albertson, and they collaborated to submit the proposal and work that led to the grant award. Significant goals of Albertson and Nickerson is to develop several products: collection of resources to provide information and support to people with disabilities, family members and staff project website with access to the collection of digital resources and other web content peer-to-peer forum for individuals to provide and share resources a mobile application to access the content and support forum online training resources and in-person presentations about the resources. “While bullying of youth has been described and discussed in the mainstream media for several years, little has been reported about individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities who may be involved in bullying,” said Nickerson. “We must consider research on bullying prevention that includes children and adults with disabilities.” Learn more about the Alberti Center for Bullying Abuse Prevention 5/17/18 School Overview MusicPlay for Infants and Toddlers gseinfo@buffalo.edu	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1897
__label__wiki	0.739204	0.739204	The Unbreakables (Part One) The breaking of records is often surrounded by controversy. We have a tendency to defend the past as somehow superior to the present. Which of baseball’s great records are unbreakable because a player was extraordinary? And which because the game has changed? What records are the most interesting to think about? The shortest outfield fence in baseball history was at White Stocking Park in Chicago, where the White Stockings played from 1878 until 1884. Down the left field line it was only 186 feet and to right field it was 196. Because it was so short the rule was that if you hit the ball over the fence in left you got a double instead of a home run. But in 1884 the White Stockings decided to make things exciting. They brought the left field fence even 6 feet closer and home runs were awarded if you cleared it. At that time only one player had hit more than 10 home runs in a season, but in 1884 4 White Stockings players hit over 20. Ned Williamson, The White Stockings' third baseman, was the new single season home run king, with 27. As you can imagine, people weren't too happy about this. It seemed Chicago was making a mockery of the single-season home run record. White Stocking Park was replaced by West Side Park the following year but the damage was done. Baseball's single season home run record was an absurd, unbreakable number, set by players who had had an unfair advantage. This should sound familiar to you... Thirty-five years went by and only 4 times did a batter hit 20 home runs in a season. The closest anyone came to Ned Williamson's 27 was when Buck Freeman hit 25 in 1899. The runner up that year, Bobby Wallace, had 12. In 1918 a pitcher by the name of Babe Ruth led the American League in home runs with 11, despite only playing in 95 games. The next year Ruth played 130 games and finally broke Williamson's record by hitting an amazing 29 home runs. The next year the league began the process of outlawing the spitball and other so-called "freak deliveries" and Ruth hit a ridiculous 54 home runs. This was the beginning of a new era. People are upset today because Barry Bonds hit 73 home runs while using a maple bat, a slingshot elbow protector, and probably an illegal muscle-building substance. But people were upset in 1961 when Roger Maris broke Ruth's record of 60 home runs, because he didn't break it within the 154 game season that Ruth had back in 1927. I say all this to put recent events in context. Baseball is always changing. Just this week, Cubs rookie Tyler Colvin was stabbed in the chest with the barrel of a shattered bat and there's already talk about outlawing maple bats. If that happens, given the perpetual short supply of Major League quality ash, we might start seeing new kinds of wood used for bats. Mets catcher Josh Thole, among others, have been experimenting with a bat that has an asymmetrical knob that claims to be a much smoother swing. So in the next few years we could start seeing some changes in bat material and shape, and who knows how either one could affect hitting stats. We tend to think of records as unbreakable. Maybe not unbreakable, but we see the kind of extraordinary season that Bonds had in 2001 or that Ichiro had in 2004 with 262 hits, or Randy Johnson in 2001 striking out 372 batters. These are unique players who seem almost designed to break these records, and it's hard to see how anyone else could do it. Who's going to strike out more batters than 6'10" Randy Johnson who throws 95 MPH with what looks like no effort? Someone would have to start 34 games and strike out 11 batters every time! It's crazy! Well, eventually, someone will do it. There are all kinds of pitchers out there who can strike out batters for a variety of reasons. It takes an extraordinary player to break a record, that's why it's a record! But extraordinary players do come along. You just don't know what they're going to look like until you see them. When records finally are broken, someone always gets upset. We tend to have a reverence for the past even though we don't always know the circumstances surrounding the old records, and it's easy to find fault with the present, and resist the change. Barry Bonds cheated. Mark McGwire cheated. Roger Maris had an unfair advantage and so did Ned Williamson. I guess what we really want is a fair fight. We want to see a home run derby with Williamson, Babe Ruth, Roger Maris, Sammy Sosa, McGwire, Bonds... and that can't happen, for obvious reasons. But we still have to know who's the best. I don't know why we all have this need to know who's the best, but we do. We spend so much time talking about it and thinking about it and writing about it. But we can't have these guys face off against each other so we're stuck looking at the numbers. And the numbers are hard to compare because baseball is always changing. Maris had more games, Williamson had a shorter fence, Cy Young pitched more often, and so on. So to some extent we can't compare the raw numbers. Yesterday Eric Seidman of Baseball Prospectus wrote an article about era-dependent records. He says no one's going to break Cy Young's 511 career win record, not because pitchers today aren't as good, but because nobody pitches as often as Young did, so we should ignore Young's numbers when we're talking about Bob Gibson, Nolan Ryan, or Roy Halladay. Seidman points out that Todd Helton's 59 doubles in 2000 are the single-season record in the Wild Card Era. It's fewer than the 67 doubles Earl Webb hit in 1931 but it's more than anyone else hit in the past 15 years. Basically he's saying you shouldn't talk about Webb and Helton in the same sentence. Webb holds the record in his era, Helton holds the record in his, but we can't compare them because the game has changed too much. I don't completely agree with all of Seidman's article, but I think this point is fair. He's tired of hearing people say that nobody will break the all-time wins record because it's not an interesting statement. Of course nobody will. It's like comparing a newspaper to a web site and saying The New York Times has a higher print circulation than Yahoo. It's true, but it's mostly irrelevant. So how do we have an interesting discussion about baseball records? First, let's break records down into four categories: 1) career totals, like Young's 511 wins 2) season totals, like Bonds' 73 home runs 3) streaks, like DiMaggio's 56 consecutive games with a hit 4) feats, like Fernando Tatis hitting two grand slams in the same inning Let's dispense with feats first. I'm going to say these are generally not very interesting because they're almost entirely based on luck. I don't think anyone would say Fernando Tatis is the greatest grand slam hitter ever because he hit two in an inning. Not many players have ever even come to the plate with the bases loaded twice in an inning, and I doubt that if he had the opportunity again, Tatis has any real ability to repeat. Other records that fall into this category are Johnny Vander Meer's back-to-back no-hitters and Ed Reulbach's 2 shutouts in the same day. These are things you didn't even know were "a thing" until someone did them, and you could make up others, like back-to-back perfect games, two unassisted triple plays in a game, or hitting for a double cycle: 2 singles, 2 doubles, 2 triples, and 2 home runs. These records are good trivia questions, but they're basically meaningless when it comes to player skill. They might be broken one day, they might not. It's not that interesting to speculate. So let's move on to streaks. These are slightly more credible that feats, but not much. They include Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hit streak, Orel Hershiser's 59 scoreless innings, and 8 consecutive games with a home run, set by Dale Long, Don Mattingly, and Ken Griffey, Jr. These streaks are accomplished within a short amount of time and involve a lot of luck. What I mean by luck is that these players don't show any ability to repeat the streaks. Outside of their 8 game HR streaks, Long, Mattingly, and Griffey's longest streaks were 2, 3, and 5 games respectively. DiMaggio's second longest hitting streak? 24 games. Cal Ripken's 2632 consecutive games were played over a period of 17 years, which means that streak was far less dependent on luck. In fact, I'd say this is among the most legitimate records in baseball. Outside of Barry Bonds' 73-HR season he never hit 50. Roger Maris, outside of his 61-HR season never hit 40. Jack Chesbro, outside of his 41-win season never won 30. These are isolated accomplishments that were not repeatable. They were flukes. Luck. Cal Ripken played every single game for 17 years, and it should be a very long time until anyone comes even close to threatening that record. Let's move on to single-season records now. As you can probably tell I have more respect for records which are achieved over a longer period of time, but a season isn't that long. As I said, Bonds and Maris were lucky to hit as many home runs as they did. But in this category we also have Rickey Henderson's 130 stolen bases in 1982. Now this is the record for the modern era and it does not appear to be lucky. Henderson led the league in stolen bases 9 out of 10 years in the 80s and stole over 100 three times. He appears to have had a real ability to steal an outrageous number of bases. Today managers seem to believe less and less in the stolen base. There are a lot of statistical studies that show that unless your success rate is extremely high, the chance of getting into scoring position isn't worth the risk of an out. In fact, with Henderson's 76% success rate in 1982 it's likely he cost the A's as many runs as he manufactured with his stolen bases. It appears this reasoning is beginning to sink in with managers, and stealing bases is becoming sort of a lost art. So it should be a very long time until this record is broken. The last time anyone stole even 80 bases was 1988 when Henderson stole 93 and Vince Coleman stole 81. In the 20 years before that Lou Brock stole 118, Coleman stole over 100 3 times, Ron LeFlore stole 97, Omar Moreno stole 96, and Tim Raines and Willie Wilson also broke 80. This shows what a great base-stealer Henderson was and how much the game has changed just in the past 20 years. Anyway, there are some other single season records to discuss, of course we have the career records too, and I also want to talk about the likelihood of a 50-50 Club, but I'm out of time for this week, so I'll pick up from here in Part 2. hexagram on September 24, 2010 17:19 It seems that you think interesting records are those that demonstrate the player’s abilities. So, if Bonds didn’t hit a lot of home runs in any other year, it isn’t interesting. What’s the relevance of the player to the record? A record is interesting if it is interesting in baseball terms, not in terms of the player. Hitting 73 is interesting (although it isn’t unbreakable). Now I take you very seriously, so if you say flukiness is an important variable, I’m listening. The distinction you may be looking for is flukiness of the accomplishment per se, not flukiness for the player. I give full credit to Denny McLain (and not for his record of longest jail sentence by an ex-major leaguer). I even give credit to Dale Long. His record suffers from the defects of all streak records, but it wouldn’t be more interesting if he hit in seven straight games a few times, too. I think we need a good conceptual framework here. Alex Reisner on September 30, 2010 15:23 OK, so I think I was a little careless with my choice of words. I don't want to turn this into a semantic discussion, but let me try to clear some things up. 1. First I say that some unbreakable records (like 511 wins) are uninteresting because they're from a different era. 2. Then I say feats are uninteresting because they require more luck than skill and hence are no fun to speculate about. 3. Then I say streaks are a little more "credible" than feats because they are less dependent on luck. So we have a few things here, which I may have conflated: * breakability * interest * credibility "Breakability" is pretty straightforward. I think we all understand that one. By "credibility" I'm talking about how much I think the player "deserves" to be a record-holder. To me this is directly related to the amount of luck inherent in his achievement. Whether a record is "interesting" is a complicated and, I think, subjective question that I didn't mean to raise, although I clearly did (I intended to have an interesting discussion about unbreakable records). Things that make a record is interesting to me: * The circumstances in which it was set, including the liveliness of the baseball that year, the height of the mound, the average number of starts for a pitcher, the equipment used, and a lot more, including the player himself. I think, for example, Bonds' 73 HR record is interesting because of the circumstances surrounding it. There's a lot to talk about. * You can speculate about who will break them. Feats and other fluky records are usually less interesting to speculate about because anyone who gets lucky can break them. I suppose Prince Fielder is more likely to hit two grand slams in an inning than David Eckstein, but we're talking about a difference in odds of maybe one-in-a-gazillion to one-in-a-gazillion-plus-one. I guess I don't understand how you can separate the record from the player. The 73 HR record exists because Barry Bonds set it. The career hits record exists because Pete Rose set it. I guess I'm accustomed to seeing records as stories. How is a record interesting in baseball or numerical terms alone?	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1899
__label__wiki	0.553162	0.553162	Bottomline \| Lessons in Leadership General Stanley McChrystal’s memoirs My Share of the Task is a must read for those interested in security and defence Pravin Sawhney Four months into his presidency when the US commander-in-chief, Barack Obama met his newly-appointed overall forces commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal on 19 May 2009 in the White House, the die had been cast. ‘The meeting was short, but cordial. The president offered no specific guidance but locked his eyes with mine and thanked me for accepting the responsibility,’ is how McChrystal summed it. The guidance that the general referred to was stating the mission of the war. McChrystal’s challenge was to fight successful battles with 61,000 strong ISAF force from 42 nations besides 57,000 US troops with an unstated mission. Based upon his interactions with defence secretary Bob Gates and Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, McChrystal concluded his mission to be ‘Defeat the Taliban, Secure the Population.’ It was six months into the fight on December 2 that Obama finally placed his cards on the table. He announced a 30,000 US troops surge for 18 months to commence withdrawal of US forces in July 2011. The still unstated but unambiguous mission was quit soon. For the Taliban and their mentor, the Pakistan Army, the US appetite for war was over. The Pakistan chief of army staff, General Ashfaq Kayani who was with McChrystal when his C-in-C conceded defeat to the Taliban, said that, ‘he felt we (ISAF and US forces) lacked the time to accomplish all that was necessary before support for our effort would fade. He (Kayani) particularly doubted our ability to create effective Afghan security forces to which we could later transfer control.’ McChrystal, however, was not to be part of US’ retreat from Afghanistan. Providence intervened and he was forced to hang his boots on 22 June 2011, 11 months after he had accepted the daunting challenge in Afghanistan. A journalist, Michael Hastings of the Rolling Stone magazine embedded with McChrystal’s command team heard their everyday frustrations, cursing and jeering of the White House and wrote it all in an article that took Washington by storm. McChrystal took responsibility for his team and resigned. Two years later, he wrote his memoirs, ‘My Share of the Task’, a book that everyone concerned with security policy and in the business of defence should read. Three issues in the book stand out. The first is that for success in war all stakeholders (strategic level) should be on the same page. Obama’s While House from the beginning was at sharp variance with the Pentagon and the State department. Two instances from the book demonstrate the grievous discord. On assuming command in June 2009, McChrystal in a lengthy briefing by Gates was given 60 days ‘to conduct a strategic assessment of the war to determine any necessary changes to the mission, strategy, or how our forces were organised.’ However, within days of his reaching Kabul on June 23, the National Security Advisor, Jim Jones met McChrystal with journalist Bob Woodward of the Washington Post in tow to tell him that the President would entertain request for any additional troops after evaluation was made of present forces by end-2009. While Gates has set the assessment deadline for middle August, Jones was talking of five months later in January 2010. Worse, the confidential assessment sent by McChrystal to the C-in-C on Gates’ asking was leaked to the Washington Post; showing McChrystal incapable of doing the task within allotted resources. Then, there was haggling for additional forces. While Gates and secretary of state Clinton argued for full 40,000 additional forces asked by McChrystal, President Obama in a surprise move reduced it to 30,000 strength with defeat (in the form of announced withdrawal deadline) written all over. The second issue concerns operations. Gates (counterpart of Indian defence minister, A.K. Antony) did not tell McChrystal to just do the operations, but gave guidelines to do them well. It was Gates’ idea that McChrystal consider setting up a three-star tri-service ISAF Joint Command (IJC) in Afghanistan, something that was not required in Iraq. The IJC was ‘to run the day-to-day operations of the war and directly supervise the five regional commands that divided the country among the capital, north, west, south and east. The secretary (Gates) was convinced we needed an intermediate level of war,’ writes McChrystal. Once McChrystal and his team understood issues in Afghanistan, it was clear to them that there were ‘5 Regional Wars — Not One Fight’, and hence the need for IJC to provide semblance of unity of command. The book provides details about whys and hows of operations and the complete involvement of the political, civilian and military leadership in operations at the Pentagon; something unthinkable in India. The third issue is about (military) leadership. ‘Leadership is not command. Some of the greatest leaders commanded nothing but respect,’ McChrystal writes. While there are numerous attributes of a leader, fundamentally it boils down to three qualities: take responsibility for the mistakes (even of your team, which McChrystal did); know your job; and have empathy for the people you work with. ‘Switch just two people – the battalion commander and command sergeant major — from the best battalion with those of the worst, and within 90 days the relative effectiveness of the battalions will have switched as well,’ he writes. Clearly, a lesson worth imbibing.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1903
__label__wiki	0.683459	0.683459	The Case for the 40-Minute Game Shawne Merriman Knocked Out Four Guys in One Game Courtesy of Abrams Books James Cameron and the Origins of The Terminator An exclusive excerpt from Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen, and Candy Stripe Nurses: Roger Corman, King of the B Movie by Chris Nashawaty on September 10, 2013 In the new illustrated oral history Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen, and Candy Stripe Nurses, Chris Nashawaty, a movie critic for Entertainment Weekly, chronicles the life and career of notorious B-movie producer Roger Corman through a collection of original interviews with the drive-in mogul’s many A-list alumni. While Corman may not be a household name to some, the actors and directors he helped break into the movie business are legendary. Jack Nicholson, Francis Ford Coppola, Sylvester Stallone, Martin Scorsese, Tommy Lee Jones, Ron Howard, Robert De Niro, Jonathan Demme, and Sandra Bullock all got their starts on Corman’s low-budget exploitation flicks. In this excerpt, future “King of the World” James Cameron, John Sayles, Gale Anne Hurd, and others recount making Corman’s 1980 Styrofoam-and–Scotch tape Star Wars rip-off, Battle Beyond the Stars, and Corman’s New World Pictures follow-up, 1981’s Galaxy of Terror. Caution: Tales of buxom spaceships, sexual assaults by giant worms, and severed maggot-covered arms lie ahead … JOHN SAYLES (writer, director; post-Corman credits include Matewan, Eight Men Out, and Lone Star): “By 1980, Star Wars had come out and The Empire Strikes Back was about to come out. Roger approached me about writing a screenplay that he described as ‘The Seven Samurai or The Magnificent Seven in space.’ He was calling it Battle Beyond the Stars. Roger liked those kinds of ideas. It was a good way to restage a Western like The Magnificent Seven with $1.99 cardboard sets. And obviously the genre was hot at the time. I think I wrote the script in three or four weeks. The rewrites weren’t so much about character. It was more like ‘It’s expensive to show the ship landing and taking off, so can you get rid of those transition scenes?’ What I remember very strikingly about Battle Beyond the Stars is that it was being cofinanced by a big studio, Orion. They were going to put up half the money — Roger was putting up a million and a half, and Orion was putting up a million and a half for foreign distribution rights. We rode over to Mike Medavoy’s office at Orion in Frances Doel’s little Volkswagen with Roger crammed into the backseat. At Orion, there was Mike with his cigar and a secretary who looked like Miss Universe. You could tell Roger was kind of having fun being there and looking around and seeing all the big-studio stuff he didn’t need to be successful. They shot Battle Beyond the Stars in an old lumberyard Roger bought in Venice to use as a soundstage. He was building his own studio lot. And you’ll notice that there’s not a lot of panning in that movie, because if you pan too far, you could see the lumber still stacked up. Roger had hired away some of the young kids who had worked on Star Wars. And that was also one of the first jobs that James Horner, the famous composer, did — back when he was ‘Jamie’ Horner. Roger recycled that score and some of those model shots in a couple of later movies. I think he was just trying to say, Why let it go to waste when it was good work? My only disappointment with the film was there was one character who I had written — Cayman, I think his name is — who was supposed to be a walking, talking lizard. And they just got a big guy with tattoos, because I think designing a full-body costume would have been too expensive. It’s definitely a cheesy look, but some of what I wrote into it, knowing that it was not going to be able to look like Star Wars, was that this was a trashy universe. One of the characters is a trucker, not some rocket scientist. He’s just driving this space rig. I tried to anticipate the low-budget look that it was gonna have. I thought they actually did a nice, imaginative job, like having the mother ship have breasts. I think that was James Cameron’s idea.” JAMES CAMERON (director; post-Corman credits include The Terminator, Aliens, and Titanic): “I had been sort of preparing myself for a career in visual effects by learning about mold-making and sculpting and matte camera and optical printing on little film projects in Orange County with some other eager wannabes. And we got a lead that there was a film being made up in Venice with visual effects for Roger Corman. I knew who Roger Corman was, and I knew the films he had made. So I trooped down there, and they had an opening for a modeler. I started off as the lowest man on the totem pole in the model shop. I was just happy to be on a film — I didn’t care that it was a pretty rinky-dink production. This was at the lumberyard, which was basically just an empty building with a floor that was flooded. Roger came through one day, and he kind of threw down a challenge to everyone in the model shop. Actually, he was kind of pissed off. We’re so many weeks away from shooting, and no one had even designed the main character ship for Battle Beyond the Stars. The main space ship had a female computer. It was kind of a HAL 9000, but female. He said, ‘I want a design in the next two days.’ So it sort of became a sort of design contest, and I thought, OK, it’s Roger Corman. He does girls-in-bamboo-cages movies. What is he selling? He sells tits! So I designed a kind of Amazon warrior spaceship — basically a spaceship with tits. It was a cool design. Roger came through and he looked at all of the designs, and he stopped at mine and he went: ‘This is it, this is exactly what I want.’ He said, ‘What is this?’ And I said, ‘This is a spaceship with tits.’ And he says, ‘Yes, that’s exactly what it is. You build it.’ So suddenly, I was the guy in the model shop that everyone hated.” GALE ANNE HURD (producer; post-Corman credits include The Terminator, Aliens, and The Walking Dead): “The first movie Roger sent me to the set of was Humanoids from the Deep. I put super-slime cellulose on the monsters right there with Rob Bottin. After that, Roger said, ‘I need someone to go down and check to see how preproduction is coming along on Battle Beyond the Stars. Can you go down to the lumberyard and see how the sets are coming along?’ I walked into the model shop, and this very tall, blond gentleman came up to me and said, ‘What can I do for you?’ And I said, ‘Can I tour the model department? I work for Roger.’ So he showed me around, and he had designed the spaceship exteriors and was building them, and they looked fantastic! I assumed he was the head of the model shop, but he wasn’t. He was Jim Cameron. I realized not one set was under construction. So I went back and I said, ‘Roger, I think we have to build twenty-five sets in a few weeks and not one of them has been designed, much less started construction.’ And he said, ‘What do you recommend?’ I said, ‘I know this sounds outrageous, but there’s a terrific artist who’s designed and built the spaceship. He knows what the exteriors look like. Would it make sense for him to design the interiors as well?’ And that’s how Jim moved over to run the art department on Battle Beyond the Stars. Under Roger Corman you could go from being a model builder to art director in twenty-four hours.” JAMES CAMERON: “So that’s how that happened? That’s probably true. Gale used to come in and hang around. She had her headlights on. She was an up-and-coming producer. She was interested in all of the effects processes, and we just kind of naturally gravitated to each other. At that point, it wasn’t even anything romantic. We were just so focused on our careers, I don’t think that a romantic relationship even occurred to us at that point. The problem was that the guy who I was replacing, his job was to design something like twenty-five sets. Well, he’d only made two, and they were going to start shooting in four days. It was a complete nightmare. No one knew what the hell they were doing, and I just took charge. Roger fired me two or three times. The first couple of times I got fired, they would just rehire me behind his back because nobody else could get the sets built. One day, Roger comes in and we were working on some set — I think it was a robot workshop — and he says, ‘This is just a shitty little set, why isn’t it done? Look at this, the paint is still wet!’ The mistake I had made was my crew was still there working on it. And I quickly realized that it didn’t really matter to Roger how good the set looked, it only mattered that it was done. So I arranged a system where I set up a spotter to look out for his white Lotus coming down the street, and we used walkie-talkies and I had a code, like ‘The Eagle has landed!’ And I drilled everybody and said, ‘When I blow this horn three times, no matter what you are doing, drop your tools and walk outside and get a cup of coffee. When you hear three blasts, it’s down tools, walk out now.’ So at six forty-five in the morning, the white Lotus is coming down Main Street in Venice, and somebody gets on the walkie-talkie and says, ‘The Eagle has landed!’ I grab the horn and blow it three times, and everyone walks out to get an egg sandwich, and Roger pulls in and walks around and there’s no one working on the set, and he goes, ‘Very good.’ And walks out. And that was it. I realized how you played that game.” SYBIL DANNING (actress; post-Corman credits include Chained Heat, Reform School Girls, and Grindhouse): “I think Battle Beyond the Stars was one of the first movies they made in Roger’s lumberyard studio, and it looked like it was just pulled up from the deep. Mushrooms were growing on the walls. But I didn’t care, because it was my first big movie in America. I remember there were a lot of fittings for my Valkyrie costume. They had to build a cast for my Styrofoam breast piece, and we always had problems with that when we were shooting. I guess my nipples would keep poking out a little. And we’d have to stop. After the third time, Roger said, ‘Glue her in!’ It was a pretty risqué outfit. When the movie came out on NBC, they actually had to fog out my entire chest.” BILL PAXTON (actor; post-Corman credits include Aliens, Apollo 13, and Big Love): “In the late seventies, I moved to New York for a few years and studied drama at NYU. When I came back out to L.A., I was doing odd jobs and things, and trying to get some acting work. I needed a job. I was living about a dozen blocks north of the lumberyard studio Roger bought in Venice. He had started doing these low-budget science fiction movies there. They had a couple of little stages. And my friend said, ‘Hey, I’m working out there for this young art director named Jim Cameron, and my God, he’s really something. I think I can get you on the night crew. Come down and I’ll introduce you to Jim.’ So I got down there at seven o’clock, and Jim says, ‘Phil tells me you’ve worked in the art department.’ I go, ‘Yeah.’ ‘And you’ve worked for Roger Corman?’ ‘Yeah.’ And he said, ‘Well, can you start right now?’ And I go, ‘You mean, right now?’ And he goes, ‘Yeah. Go paint that wall over there.’ And that’s how I met Jim Cameron.” JAMES CAMERON: “Bill came in, and we just called him ‘Wild Bill’ because he was big in gesture and speech, and he was obviously a natural performer. I knew he was trying to act as well, but I didn’t care about that — at least until a couple of years later and I was doing The Terminator, and I cast him in a small part as one of the punks who’s killed in the beginning of the film. When he first came in, I was right in the middle of building a set, and I said, ‘You, can you paint?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, baby!’ And I said, ‘Get over here and paint this wall.’ “ BILL PAXTON: “Well, I just remember the conversation was very succinct. I was pretty gung-ho. He coined a term called ‘kluging.’ It’s taking disparate things and making something out of it. So we were taking everything from, you know, photo tubes to industrial dishwashing racks to Winnebago molds and just putting them all together and creating these spaceship interiors. We’d spray them all down with paint, and then we’d trick them all out with set dressing. He was amazing.” JAMES CAMERON: “I was trying to emulate this look of Silent Running. Doug Trumbull had a lot of vacu-formed wall modules that he created on that film. I didn’t have access to that kind of equipment; I had to whip something up. So what I did was I got a bunch of these Styrofoam trays — McDonald’s breakfast trays of all different sizes — and put them into configurations and hot-glued them onto the walls in patterns. I just did it the super-cheapo way. We bought them in bulk. I had one rule, which was never unplug your glue gun. And I used to scream at people about it because they took twenty minutes to heat up, and if you just left it on all night, then you could just quickly glue things together. I developed this whole method for cutting foam-core and scoring it on the backside and bending it so it looked like formed metal and spraying it with automotive lacquer and metallic paint. It looked pretty good.” BILL PAXTON: “While we were making Galaxy of Terror, I had sold a little short I had made to Saturday Night Live, and Jim was very taken by that. And suddenly he looked at me as not just a guy painting sets but actually as a guy who had a similar ambition to his — to be a filmmaker. About halfway through the thing, I remember one night, Jim and I were kind of working side-by-side, and he started telling me about this screenplay he was writing. And I’ll never forget, he said, ‘It’s about a cyborg from the future that comes back to the present to kill the woman who’s going to give birth to a son who, in the future, is going to lead a revolution against the machines.’ And I was like, ‘Far out, what are you going to call it?’ He said, ‘I’m going to call it The Terminator.’ “ JAMES CAMERON: “I hit Roger up in the hall one day and said, ‘We’re falling behind on Galaxy of Terror and you’re not getting coverage, so why don’t you let me direct second unit?’ He said OK. And I kind of also became an alternate first-unit director because they fell so far behind that I had to do actual scenes with the actors. That was my first experience directing. I sort of thought maybe I should think about directing because I keep building these cool sets and these guys keep shooting them like idiots. I knew how it should be done, and I was watching these boneheads, thinking I can do better than this! So yeah, I was looking for an opportunity to direct. I wrote a couple of scenes where this guy cuts his arm off with a crystal and the crystal attacks him. But I didn’t write the infamous scene with the giant maggot raping that woman. Roger always had to have a rape scene in all of his films — it came from his biker films and women-in-prison films. I didn’t approve of it at all, but I wasn’t judgmental about it. Anyway, the whole maggot rape scene starts with this severed arm with these maggots on it, and one of them grows. I had to do a POV shot of the arm lying on the floor with maggots on it. So they bring me the arm, and they bring me the worms. I look in this container that they got from this pet store, and they’re mealworms that you use to feed lizards. And they didn’t do anything! So I sprinkled the worms on the arm and I stared at them and thought, Well, this doesn’t work. What are we going to do? So I said, ‘All right, get me some methylcellulose.’ I poured that over the arm, I poured the worms in the methylcellulose, I took a piece of zip cord and split it and stripped the ends, and I ran the zip cord around behind the set and I buried it under the dirt, and I put the leads in the methylcellulose, and I had a guy behind the set who was going to plug it into a junction box. I set up the camera, and I pointed it down at the arm. And meanwhile, unbeknownst to me, two guys have wandered up behind me, one of them I know who’s a sleazeball producer named Jeff Schechtman, and the other one is another sleazeball producer named Ovidio Assonitis who was going to produce Piranha II. So these guys are watching me, and what they see is me pointing a camera at an arm with a bunch of inert worms on it, and then I say, ‘Action,’ which is the cue for the guy to plug the zip cord in, and all the worms come to life! They’re writhing around trying to get out of this electrified methylcellulose, and then I’m shooting it. And then I say, ‘Cut,’ and the guy unplugs the zip cord, but you don’t see him because he’s behind the set wall. So what these two producers are seeing is that I say, ‘Action,’ and all of these worms start squirming around and I say, ‘Cut,’ and they stop. They can’t figure it out. And what I hear back later is they go off and talk and say, ‘If he’s that good with worms, I wonder what he can do with actors!’ And that’s how I got to direct Piranha II: The Spawning. Here I was, I’d gone through the Corman system like crap through a goose, and all of a sudden I was directing a movie and everyone hated me again.” GALE ANNE HURD: “When Jim and I were initially going to make The Terminator in 1983, Arnold Schwarzenegger became unavailable because Dino De Laurentiis went forward with Conan the Destroyer. So at that point Roger offered me the job of going down to Argentina and overseeing the movies he was making down there. But my heart was in The Terminator.” Chris Nashawaty is a movie critic at Entertainment Weekly. Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen, and Candy Stripe Nurses: Roger Corman, King of the B Movie is available for purchase now. Filed Under: Celebrities, James Cameron More Celebrities Asses of Fire: Why Kim Kardashian’s Magazine Shoot Failed to ‘Break the Internet’ November 13, 2014 Staring Into the Eternal Bliss of Lauren Conrad’s Wedding Exclusive September 18, 2014 Is the Rumored Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Martin Romance Great or Terrible for Jennifer Lawrence? August 18, 2014 No Country for Old Pervs: The Fall of the Houses of Terry Richardson and Dov Charney June 25, 2014 Justin Bieber Baptizes His Adolescent Racism Away June 9, 2014 See all Celebrities Blades of Glory October 28, 2015 Russell, the Creator October 28, 2015 30 for 30 Shorts: Every Day October 28, 2015 The 15 Biggest Plays in Baseball History October 27, 2015 The Laughs, Pathos, and Overwhelming Talent of Jan Hooks October 20, 2015 The Weight of the Interim Label by Bill Barnwell World Series Preview: Five Questions for Games Three and Four by Ben Lindbergh 50 Scenes That Do Not Appear in the ‘X-Files’ Revival by Brian Phillips Click here to watch ‘Jalen & Jacoby,’ Grantland Features, and video podcasts!	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1908
__label__wiki	0.666916	0.666916	Pausanias (geographer) Title: Pausanias (geographer) Subject: Giants (Greek mythology), Adrastus, Poseidon, Phoroneus, Phocus Collection: 2Nd-Century Writers, Ancient Greek Geographers, Ancient Greek Travel Writers, Roman-Era Geographers, Year of Birth Unknown, Year of Death Unknown Manuscript (1485), of Pausanias' Description of Greece at the Laurentian Library Pausanias (; Greek: Παυσανίας Pausanías; c. AD 110 – c. 180)[1] was a Greek traveler and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece (Ἑλλάδος περιήγησις Hellados Periegesis)[2] a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link between classical literature and modern archaeology. This is how Andrew Stewart assesses him:[3] A careful, pedestrian writer, he is interested not only in the grandiose or the exquisite but in unusual sights and obscure ritual. He is occasionally careless, or makes unwarranted inferences, and his guides or even his own notes sometimes mislead him; yet his honesty is unquestionable, and his value without par. Pausanias was probably a native of Lydia; he was certainly familiar with the western coast of Asia Minor, but his travels extended far beyond the limits of Ionia. Before visiting Greece, he had been to Antioch, Joppa and Jerusalem, and to the banks of the River Jordan. In Egypt, he had seen the pyramids, while at the temple of Ammon, he had been shown the hymn once sent to that shrine by Pindar. In Macedonia, he appears to have seen the alleged tomb of Orpheus in Libethra.[4] Crossing over to Italy, he had seen something of the cities of Campania and of the wonders of Rome. He was one of the first to write of seeing the ruins of Troy, Alexandria Troas, and Mycenae. Pausanias' Description of Greece is in ten books, each dedicated to some portion of Greece. He begins his tour in Attica, where the city of Athens and its demes dominate the discussion. Subsequent books describe Corinth (2nd book), Laconia (3rd), Messenia (4th), Elis (5th and 6th), Achaia (7th), Arcadia (8th), Boetia (9th), Phocis and Ozolian Locris (10th). He famously leaves out key portions of Greece such as Crete. The project is more than topographical; it is a cultural geography. Pausanias digresses from description of architectural and artistic objects to review the mythological and historical underpinnings of the society that produced them. As a Greek writing under the auspices of the Roman empire, he found himself in an awkward cultural space, between the glories of the Greek past he was so keen to describe and the realities of a Greece beholden to Rome as a dominating imperial force. His work bears the marks of his attempt to navigate that space and establish an identity for Roman Greece. He is not a naturalist by any means, though he does from time to time comment on the physical realities of the Greek landscape. He notices the pine trees on the sandy coast of Elis, the deer and the wild boars in the oak woods of Phelloe, and the crows amid the giant oak trees of Alalcomenae. It is mainly in the last section that Pausanias touches on the products of nature, such as the wild strawberries of Helicon, the date palms of Aulis, and the olive oil of Tithorea, as well as the tortoises of Arcadia and the "white blackbirds" of Cyllene. Pausanias is most at home in describing the religious art and architecture of Olympia and of Delphi. Yet, even in the most secluded regions of Greece, he is fascinated by all kinds of depictions of gods, holy relics, and many other sacred and mysterious objects. At Thebes he views the shields of those who died at the Battle of Leuctra, the ruins of the house of Pindar, and the statues of Hesiod, Arion, Thamyris, and Orpheus in the grove of the Muses on Helicon, as well as the portraits of Corinna at Tanagra and of Polybius in the cities of Arcadia. Pausanias has the instincts of an antiquary. As his editor Christian Habicht has said, In general he prefers the old to the new, the sacred to the profane; there is much more about classical than about contemporary Greek art, more about temples, altars and images of the gods, than about public buildings and statues of politicians. Some magnificent and dominating structures, such as the Stoa of King Attalus in the Athenian Agora (rebuilt by Homer Thompson) or the Exedra of Herodes Atticus at Olympia are not even mentioned.[5] Pausanias' Periegesis, unlike a Baedeker guide, stops for a brief excursus on a point of ancient ritual or to tell an apposite myth, in a genre that would not become popular again until the early 19th century. In the topographical part of his work, Pausanias is fond of digressions on the wonders of nature, the signs that herald the approach of an earthquake, the phenomena of the tides, the ice-bound seas of the north, and the noonday sun which at the summer solstice casts no shadow at Syene (Aswan). While he never doubts the existence of the gods and heroes, he sometimes criticizes the myths and legends relating to them. His descriptions of monuments of art are plain and unadorned. They bear the impression of reality, and their accuracy is confirmed by the extant remains. He is perfectly frank in his confessions of ignorance. When he quotes a book at second hand he takes pains to say so. The work left faint traces in the known Greek corpus. "It was not read," Habicht relates— "there is not a single mention of the author, not a single quotation from it, not a whisper before Stephanus Byzantius in the sixth century, and only two or three references to it throughout the Middle Ages."[6] We came perilously close to losing it altogether, in fact: the only manuscripts of Pausanias are three 15th-century copies, full of errors and lacunae, which all appear to depend on a single manuscript that survived to be copied. Niccolò Niccoli had this archetype in Florence in 1418; at his death in 1437 it went to the library of San Marco, Florence, then disappeared after 1500.[7] Until 20th century archaeologists found that Pausanias was a reliable guide to the sites they were excavating,[8] Pausanias was largely dismissed by 19th- and early 20th-century classicists of a purely literary bent, who followed the authoritative Wilamowitz in discrediting him, as a purveyor of literature quoted at second-hand, who, it was suggested, had not actually visited most of the places he described. Habicht 1985 describes an episode in which Wilamowitz was led astray by misreading Pausanias, in front of an august party of travellers, in 1873, and attributes to it Wilamowitz' lifelong antipathy and distrust of Pausanias. The experience of a century of archaeologists, however, has fully vindicated Pausanias. ^ Historical and Ethnological Society of Greece, Aristéa Papanicolaou Christensen, The Panathenaic Stadium – Its History Over the Centuries (2003), p. 162 ^ Also known in Latin as Graecae descriptio; see Pereira, Maria Helena Rocha (ed.), Graecae descriptio, B. G. Teubner, 1829. ^ One Hundred Greek Sculptors: Their Careers and Extant Works, introduction. ^ : Boeotia, 9.30.7Description of GreecePausanias, : "Going from Dium along the road to the mountain, and advancing twenty stades, you come to a pillar on the right surmounted by a stone urn, which according to the natives contains the bones of Orpheus." ^ Christian Habicht, "An Ancient Baedeker and His Critics: Pausanias' 'Guide to Greece'" Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 129.2 (June 1985:220–224) p. 220. ^ Habicht 1985:220. ^ Aubrey Diller, "The Manuscripts of Pausanias The Manuscripts of Pausanias" Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 88 (1957):169–188. ^ In this, Heinrich Schliemann was a maverick and forerunner: a close reading of Pausanias guided him to the royal tombs at Mycenae. Description of Greece, tr. W.H.S. Jones and H.A. Ormerod (1918) Description of Greece, Jones translation at Theoi Project Bibliography (in French) "The Oldest Guide-Book in the World", Charles Whibley in Macmillan's Magazine, Vol. LXXVII, Nov. 1897 to Apr. 1898, pp. 415–421. One Hundred Greek Sculptors, Their Careers and Extant WorksAndrew Stewart, Akujärvi, Johanna 2005, Researcher, Traveller, Narrator: Studies in Pausanias' Periegesis (Stockholm). ISBN 91-22-02134-5. Alcock, S.E., J.F. Cherry, and J. Elsner 2001, Pausanias: Travel and Memory in Roman Greece (Oxford). ISBN 0-19-517132-2. Arafat, Karim W. 1996, Pausanias' Greece: Ancient Artists and Roman Rulers (Cambridge). ISBN 0-521-60418-4. Frateantonio, Christa, Religion und Städtekonkurrenz: zum politischen und kulturellen Kontext von Pausanias' Periegese (Berlin; New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2007) (Millennium-Studien, 23). Habicht, Christian 1985, Pausanias' Guide to Ancient Greece (Berkeley). ISBN 0-520-06170-5. Hutton, William 2005, Describing Greece: Landscape and Literature in the Periegesis of Pausanias (Cambridge). ISBN 0-521-84720-6. Levi, Peter (tr.) 1984a, 1984b, Pausanias: Guide to Greece, 2 vols. (Penguin). Vol. 1 Central Greece ISBN 0-14-044225-1; vol. 2 Southern Greece ISBN 0-14-044226-X. Pirenne-Delforge, Vincia, Retour à la source. Pausanias et la religion grecque (Liège: Centre international d’Étude de la religion Grecque Ancienne, 2008) (Kernos Suppléments, 20). Pretzler, Maria. 2004, "Turning Travel into Text: Pausanias at work", Greece & Rome, Vol. 51, Issue 2, pp. 199–216. Pretzler, Maria. 2007, Pausanias. Travel Writing in Ancient Greece (London). ISBN 978-0-7156-3496-7. An audio recording of this WorldHeritage article Problems playing this file? See . Works written by or about Pausanias at Wikisource Quotations related to Pausanias (geographer) at Wikiquote Media related to at Wikimedia Commons Pausanias Description of Greece, tr. with a commentary by J.G. Frazer (1898) Volume 1 (also at the Internet Archive) Pausanias at the Perseus Project: Greek; English Ancient Greek travel writers Roman-era geographers 2nd-century writers Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1910
__label__cc	0.715386	0.284614	Publications - Games Research Lab Games Research Lab All publications below are peer reviewed and refereed, unless otherwise indicated. Click here for invited talks and presentations. Cai, S., Chiang, F., Sun, Y., Lin, C. & Lee, J. J. (under review). Applications of augmented reality-based natural interaction learning in magnetic field instruction. Heil, C.R., Wu, J.S., Lee, J. J., & Schmidt, T. (under review). A review of mobile language learning applications: Trends, challenges, and opportunities. Hwang, M., Turkay, S., Hoffman, D., & Kinzer, C. (under review). Did I really move that with my mind: Brain Computer Interface (BCI) as a game controller. Kern, R., Lee, J. (under review). FAtPIG: A Framework for Assessing the Potential Impact of (Serious) Gamification. Turkay, S., & Kinzer, C. K. (2015). The Effects of Avatar-Based Customization on Player Identification. Gamification: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications, 247. Wu, J. S., & Lee, J. J. (2015). Climate change games as tools for education and engagement. Nature Climate Change, 5(5), 413-418. (Impact Factor: 14.517) Homer, B. D., Kinzer, C. K., Plass, J. L., Letourneau, S. M., Hoffman, D., Bromley, M., … & Kornak, Y. (2014). Moved to learn: The effects of interactivity in a Kinect-based literacy game for beginning readers. Computers & Education,74, 37-49. Turkay, S., Hoffman, D., Kinzer, C. K., Chantes, P., & Vicari, C. (2014). Toward understanding the potential of games for learning: Learning theory, game design characteristics, and situating video games in classrooms. Computers In The Schools, 31(1/2), 2-22. doi:10.1080/07380569.2014.89087 Lee, J. J. (2013). Game mechanics to promote new understandings of identity and ethnic minorities. Digital Culture and Education, 5(2), 127-150. Lee, J. J., Ceyhan, P., Jordan-Cooley, W., & Sung, W. (2013). Greenify: A Real-World Action Game for Climate Change Education. Simulation and Gaming, 44(2). Lee, J. J., Matamoros, E., Kern, R., deLuna, C., Marks, J., Jordan-Cooley, W. (May 2013). Greenify: fostering sustainable communities via gamification. ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2013, Paris, France. Plass, J. L., Homer, B. D., Kinzer, C. K., Chang, Y. K., Frye, J., Kaczetow, W., … & Perlin, K. (2013). Metrics in simulations and games for learning. In Game Analytics (pp. 697-729). Springer London. Tsai, F. H., Kinzer, C., Hung, K. H., Chen, C. L. A., & Hsu, I. Y. (2013). The importance and use of targeted content knowledge with scaffolding aid in educational simulation games. Interactive Learning Environments, 21(2), 116-128. Jamalian, A., Mezei, J., Levitan, P., Garber, A. Hammer, J., & Kinzer. C. K. (2012). The Lit2Quit Mobile App: Evoking Game-based Physiological Effects that Mimic Smoking. In Martin, C., Ochsner, A., & Squire, K. (Eds.), Proceedings, GLS 8.0 Games + Learning + Society Conference (pp. 484-485). Madison, WI: ETC Press. Kinzer, C. K., Hoffman, D., Turkay, S., Gunbas, N., Chantes, P., Dvorkin, T., & Chaiwinij, A. (2012). The impact of choice and feedback on learning, motivation, and performance in an educational video game. In Proceedings of the Games, Learning, and Society Conference (Vol. 2, pp. 175-181). Pittsburgh, PA: ETC. Kinzer, C. K., Turkay, S., Hoffman, D., Gunbaş, N., Adinolf, S., Chantes, P. (2012) Exploring a new approach to visual asset design. Proceedings of the Games, Learning, and Society Conference: Vol 2. Kinzer, C. K., Turkay, S., Hoffman, D., Gunbaş, N., Chantes, P., Chaiwinij, A., & Dvorkin, T. (2012) Examining the Effects of Text and Images on Story Comprehension: An Eye Tracking Study of Reading in Games and Comics. Language Research Association 61st Yearbook. Lee, J. J., Ceyhan, P., Jordan-Cooley, W., & Sung, W. (2012). Greenify: real-world missions for climate change education. Games, Learning and Society (GLS) Conference, Madison, WI. Iliev-Piselli, M. M., Fadjo, C. L., & Lee, J. J. (2011, June). Bank-It: A mobile financial literacy game. In Proceedings of the 7th international conference on Games+ Learning+ Society Conference (pp. 260-262). ETC Press. Kinzer, C. K., Hoffman, D. L., Turkay, S., Gunbas, N., & Chantes, P. (2011). Exploring Motivation and Comprehension of a Narrative in a Video Game, Book and Comic Book Format. NRC Yearbook 60, Chicago: Literacy Research Association. Lee, J. J. & Hammer, J. (2011). Gamification in Education: What, How, Why Bother? Academic Exchange Quarterly, 15(2). Paek, S., Hoffman, D., Saravanos, A., Black, J., & Kinzer, C. (2011, May). The role of modality in virtual manipulative design. In CHI’11 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1747-1752). ACM. Hoadley, C., Xu, H., Lee, J. J., Rosson, M. (2010). Privacy as Information Access and Illusory Control: The Case of the Facebook News Feed Privacy Outcry. Journal of Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 9(1): 50-60. Schrier, K., & Gibson, D. (Eds.). (2010). Ethics and game design: Teaching values through play. Hershey, PA: IGI Global. Turkay, S., Kinzer, C., Hoffman, D., Gunbas, N. & Nagle, C. (2010). A Snapshot on Youths’ Activities on Online Gaming Forums: Internet and Informal Learning. In J. Herrington & C. Montgomerie (Eds.), Proceedings of EdMedia: World Conference on Educational Media and Technology 2010 (pp. 3987-3992). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE) Hung, K. H., Kinzer, C., Chen, C. L (2009). Motivational factors in educational MMORPGs: Some implications for education. Transactions on Edutainment III, pp. 93–104. Schrier, K., & Kinzer, C. K. (2009). Using digital games to develop ethical teachers. In D. Gibson & Y. Baek (Eds.), Digital simulations for improving education: Learning through artificial teaching environments (pp. 308-333). Hershey, PA: IGI Global. Hung, D., Jacobson, M., Voiklis, J., Kinzer, C. K., & Der-Thanq, V. C. (2007). Emergence of learning in computer-supported, large-scale collective dynamics: A research agenda. In C. Chinn, G. Erkens, & S. Puntambekar (Eds.), Computer supportive collaborative learning: mice, minds, and society. proceedings of the seventh international computer supported collaborative learning conference (pp. 326-335). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Lee, J. J., & Hoadley, C. (2007). Leveraging Identity to Make Learning Fun: Possible Selves and Experiential Learning in Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs). Innovate Journal of Online Education, 3(6). Lee, J. J., Hellar, D. B., & Hoadley, C. (2006). Gender, Gaming, and IT Careers. In E. M. Trauth (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Gender and Information Technology, Hershey, PA: Idea Group, Inc. Courses and Lab Open Hours Games Research Lab CMLTD: More Information The Games Research Lab is part of the CMLTD Program at Teachers College, Columbia University.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1913
__label__cc	0.524435	0.475565	Posted on May 2, 2014 by Peter Kirk I was sad to read this today: the Evangelical Alliance have discontinued the membership of Oasis Trust. The stated reason for this refers to “what has been perceived by some as a campaign to change the Church’s historic view on human sexuality”. Oasis UK, which was founded by Steve Chalke, has responded to this; see also Adrian Warnock’s blog post. This parting of ways brings back memories for me from many years ago. In 1986 I attended the Spring Harvest Christian conference for the first time, at Prestatyn in North Wales. Graham Kendrick led the worship, highlighting his “Make Way” Carnival of Praise (“Shine, Jesus, Shine!” was the theme song the next year). Among the Christian leaders prominent at the event were Clive Calver, then General Secretary of the Evangelical Alliance, and a young Baptist pastor Steve Chalke. Clive Calver enthused the crowds that week with his vision for evangelical Christians putting aside differences over secondary matters to work together for the Gospel. He approached me personally, while I was browsing the book sale area, and signed me up as a personal member of the Alliance. I was happy to accept its vision, and its Basis of Faith. After 28 years, I am still a member and still happy to accept the (slightly revised) Basis of Faith. I note some things which are omitted from this document: any statement that the Bible is inerrant, and any mention of sexuality or sexual ethics. Over the next few years Steve Chalke became a prominent figure in the British church, as he built up his now global Oasis network of community based projects. Among other projects, Oasis UK runs a number of Oasis Academies, Christian primary and secondary schools working within the state education system. Meanwhile Chalke has become a controversial figure among evangelicals. As I reported here in 2007, his infamous words about “cosmic child abuse”, taken out of context by his critics, led to a split in the Spring Harvest movement. In the last few months he has caused renewed controversy with an article Restoring Confidence in the Bible, in which he questions, but does not reject, the historical accuracy of parts of the Old Testament, for example writing concerning Numbers 15:32-36: Did God order this death or did Moses mishear him? The Evangelical Alliance raised concerns about the “cosmic child abuse” controversy, but allowed Chalke and Oasis to remain Alliance members. However, they seem to have taken more serious issue with his 2013 paper A MATTER OF INTEGRITY: The Church, sexuality, inclusion and an open conversation, in which he takes on the thorny issue of the church accepting people in homosexual relationships. He writes: Too often, those who seek to enter an exclusive, same-sex relationship have found themselves stigmatised and excluded by the Church. I have come to believe this is an injustice and out of step with God’s character as seen through Christ. He seeks to justify his position with a detailed study of the relevant Bible passages – not by rejecting them as no longer applicable, as a non-evangelical would. His exegesis is of course controversial and not convincing to all. Nevertheless, the article is an attempt from within the evangelical tradition to apply biblical principles to a pressing pastoral issue. As reported by Oasis, this article led to an on-going conversation with the Evangelical Alliance. At their request, we have made several changes to our online content and believed that we had reached a point where both parties could be satisfied that our relationship would continue. We are, therefore, disappointed by their announcement… However, it seems that the Evangelical Alliance Council has chosen this issue, and not the one of biblical authority or of the Atonement, as the grounds for declaring Oasis UK to be outside the evangelical family. It is extremely disappointing that this matter of sexual ethics has again been seen as more significant than central matters of the Christian faith. The Evangelical Alliance Basis of Faith says nothing about human sexuality, but it does include this, paragraph 4: WE BELIEVE IN… The dignity of all people, made male and female in God’s image to love, be holy and care for creation, yet corrupted by sin, which incurs divine wrath and judgement. Now I am sure that the drafters of this paragraph, with its very odd grammar, did not intend “to love”, with no explicit object, to include same sex relationships. But by expelling Oasis and rejecting Chalke’s call for “an open and generous acceptance of people with sexualities other than heterosexual”, the Alliance seems to be aligning itself with those in the church who stigmatise and exclude these people. Yet they too are among the “all people” whose dignity the Alliance professes to believe in – and all of us, not just them, are “yet corrupted by sin”. In writing this, I don’t want to reject those who sincerely interpret Scripture as prohibiting same sex relationships, as long as they avoid judgmental or hate-filled expressions of those beliefs. But I do not consider it appropriate for the Evangelical Alliance, as an umbrella body, to take a definite position on this matter. The Alliance also seems to be extending its belief in The divine inspiration and supreme authority of the Old and New Testament Scriptures, which are the written Word of God—fully trustworthy for faith and conduct to require its members to uphold a specific interpretation of those Scriptures, beyond what is specified elsewhere in the Basis of Faith. In its action today the Evangelical Alliance seems to have turned its back on Clive Calver’s vision of evangelical Christians putting aside differences over secondary matters to work together. Instead it has elevated one particular secondary matter to be a touchstone of evangelicalism. And it has done so in a way which plays into the hands of the popular press, with its anti-Christian agenda of portraying the church as obsessed with sexuality and intolerably homophobic. This is most unfortunate. Personally, I would not want to accept all of the positions that Steve Chalke has taken. But I would affirm his pastoral care for gay and lesbian people and his rejection of how the church has often stigmatised and excluded them. I would also affirm his right to explore, within the evangelical tradition, ways in which their full inclusion can be found compatible with biblical teaching. I would call on the Evangelical Alliance to reverse its decision and declare that acceptance of same sex relationships can be compatible with evangelicalism. Since moving to the USA nearly two years ago, I have become more and more uneasy with the label “evangelical”. In North America this has become too much identified with positions on biblical inerrancy which I have never accepted, as well as with certain intolerant positions on “culture wars”, among which strong opposition to same sex marriage is currently prominent. I thought I was happy being an evangelical as defined in the UK, by the Evangelical Alliance among others. But if that definition is now shifting towards the American one, if specific positions on moral issues are becoming a touchstone, if “evangelical” is coming to mean much the same as “fundamentalist”, then is there any room left for people like me within the evangelical fold? So, has the time come for me to join Oasis in parting company with the Evangelical Alliance? I hope not, but if things continue in the current direction this may be coming soon. The Evangelical Alliance concludes its statement as follows: The Evangelical Alliance council remain deeply respectful of the work and achievements of the Oasis Trust and have a strong desire to avoid any unseemly dispute and to speak well of each other. This at least is good. Let us indeed agree “to avoid any unseemly dispute and to speak well of each other”. This entry was posted in Evangelicalism, Sexuality and Marriage, Steve Chalke by Peter Kirk. Bookmark the permalink. 35 thoughts on “The Evangelical Alliance rejects Oasis, and me?” Richard on May 2, 2014 at 3:44 pm said: A fantastic piece, thank you. I whole heartedly share your position. It would seem to be an unfortunate president the EA has made, if I am to share Steve’s commitment to gracious and open minded discussion on the subject, must I renounce my identity as an “evangelical”? Phil Groom on May 2, 2014 at 4:26 pm said: As you’ll have no doubt realised, I’ve long since given up thinking of myself as an evangelical; even so, I have many friends who are evangelicals and owe a debt of gratitude to the movement for so much that I’ve gained from my evangelical upbringing; but this is a sad day for the EA, a development which — if it wins — seems to turn Christ’s church into something more akin to a shibboleth-gated community than to the Kingdom of God … and within that community, it seems that marriage is the new Corban… Giles on May 2, 2014 at 4:38 pm said: I know I’m always commenting, but I thought I should again (!) as your email alert arrived at the same time I was sending to Mathew Vines, the eloquent young man who is challenging the traditional interpretation of scripture on this matter. I think like others he strains too hard. The Levitical prohibitions aren’t binding and Paul doesn’t repeat them in the New Testament, he says. I think he’s wrong but here’s the rub. The Levitical prohibitions single out lying with a man “as with a woman”. When it condemns lying with a beast it doesn’t say “as with a woman” so that phrase is not just to clarify that sex is in view. Therefore it limits the scope of the prohibition. It doesn’t include egalitarian relationships of the David Jonathan type. Paul’s use of words meaning (roughly) strong and weak, underscores the Levitical objection. Against the patriarchal background the woman’s role is an inferior one. Then there’s Romans 1 where the Evangelical just misses the punch line due to chapter division. It’s at the start of chapter 2 “you then are without excuse!” chapter 1 is just the set up in which Paul paints a deliberately lurid and inaccurate portrait of pagan norms. Almost no one “abandoned” heterosexual relations, though bisexuality was common. That’s a problem for inspiration only if you see Romans 1 as didactic, rather than setting up the reader for the punchline. If however he is deliberately caricaturing then it’s irrelevant also if the reference to nature points to Genesis, or to Plato’s erroneous view that there are no gay animals. If painting an inaccurate (hyperbolic) portrait is Paul’s intent then it’s no scandal if he succeeds. And then, as I think you say elsewhere, why not take a stand on the remarriage of the divorced? If that’s left to conscience, why not this? To clarify, the fall guy in Paul’s joke is the Judaizing reader. It’s their fantasies of pagan norms that Paul plays up to in Romans 1 to set up the punchline that they (the Judaizers) are no better and should therefore refrain from judging. Peter Kirk on May 2, 2014 at 5:13 pm said: Thank you for the comments. A sad day indeed. Giles, I think I agree with you. As I have indeed suggested before, it seems hypocritical to reject same sex relationships while accepting divorce and remarriage – and eating shellfish! Phill on May 2, 2014 at 5:27 pm said: Thanks for blogging about this. I think this is the heart of the issue. I don’t see how same sex relationships can be seen as adiaphora. To my mind it is of a different order to something like baptism or church polity. I would say the only option for those who want to believe in the “divine inspiration and supreme authority…” as you quote, is to also say the same. Although the presenting issue may be sexuality, the issue at the heart is the doctrine of Scripture. Steve Chalke hasn’t just started a conversation about same-sex relationships, as far as I can tell, he has come out in support pretty much unequivocally. As we see from his methodology in the paper published earlier this year, it is moving further and further away from anything I would recognise as evangelical. At the end of the day, I think the EA made the right decision. Phill, thank you for saying explicitly what others imply by their actions, that same sex relationships are not adiaphora but “of a different order to something like baptism or church polity”. But what is the basis for this opinion? And would you say the same about remarriage after divorce, and take the same strong line against it that I would expect you to take if you are asked to celebrate a same sex marriage? (Don’t just rely on the Church of England’s policy against the latter, as that may change any day!) I agree with you that the real issue is the doctrine of Scripture. The question there is, who has moved, Chalke or the EA? The Basis of Faith never required a belief in inerrancy. But if it is true, as Adrian Warnock claims, that Chalke “said he did not believe God ever strikes people dead and that where the Bible said he does it was wrong”, then I would say that he has gone too far. However, I note that the EA did not base their actions on the doctrine of Scripture. Remarriage after divorce is indeed a contentious issue; however I believe it is significantly different to that of same-sex relationships. In particular, there is Jesus’ well-known exception clause in Matt 5:32 and 19:9 for sexual immorality; and in 1 Cor. 7 I believe Paul allows someone to remarry following abandonment by an unbelieving spouse. There is also the regulation of divorce in Deut 24:1-4, which Jesus refers to. I think this is fairly uncontroversial in evangelical circles, it’s the line Stott takes in “Issues Facing Christians Today” amongst other well-known evangelical scholars. In contrast to this, I can find nowhere in the Bible at all where same-sex relationships are commended, the only time it speaks of them it speaks negatively. Sex is only commended in terms of a heterosexual, lifelong relationship. As well as that there are a host of other reasons such as the constant New Testament refrain of desires which wage war against our flesh, sexual immorality, taking up our cross and so on. I also feel like many Christians buy into the assumption that one has to be in a romantic relationship to be a fulfilled human being (and therefore sexual self-expression is imperative in terms of individual identity), which I think is cultural rather than Biblical. I don’t want to get into a discussion on the specifics here because you could write a book on the topic, and many indeed have. Suffice it to say I do not find the case for changing the unbroken teaching of the church for 2000 years persuasive. Steve Chalke did say what Adrian Warnock said he did in his debate with Andrew Wilson over at Christianity Magazine. I don’t know if he has said the same elsewhere. As you say, the EA did not base their actions on Chalke’s understanding of Scripture, however I do believe the EA’s understanding of Scripture by good and necessary consequence entails a prohibition on same-sex relationships, consequently I think the EA were right to make this decision. Sorry if this isn’t very coherent, it’s getting late! Phill, I also don’t want to get into discussion of the exegetical issues. I agree with you that a biblical case can be made for divorce and remarriage under some circumstances, but I would see the same principles as allowing same sex relationships. See what I have written before about this, for example Hypocrisy and Gay Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage, and the older posts I linked to there. In my opinion, we should at least allow that Scripture can legitimately be interpreted in different ways on this matter, just as we do on baptism and church government as well as on remarriage after divorce. Thank you for the link to the debate. I don’t have time to listen to this now, but I will accept that Chalke said what you and Adrian say that he said. Pingback: We mustn’t let this fallout between the Evangelical Alliance and Steve Chalke cause more harm « God and Politics in the UK Phil Groom on May 3, 2014 at 4:30 am said: Seems to me that the EA could learn much from the following approach by the Dean of Durham, the Very Revd Michael Sadgrove; but are the EA open to learning or simply battening down the hatches? … I think we need to be more intelligent about thinking biblically in relation to equal marriage. It’s not enough to quote texts by themselves, as if they prove or disprove a particular position: what’s necessary is to understand the direction in which scripture is leading us in the way we reflect on human relationships. I was struck by a conversation the other day with a convinced evangelical who asked: why does the church come across as so hostile to equal marriage when it’s so clear from the Bible that covenanted monogamous lifelong commitment is always better than casual, promiscuous coupling? For the covenanted relationship is precisely how God marries himself to humanity. Shouldn’t the church positively welcome equal marriage as affirming this rich biblical insight into God’s nature and ours? And even if we aren’t sure, isn’t it better to risk a more generous way of reading biblical writings rather than a narrower, in the spirit of a text I come back to in so many controversial settings: ‘there is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus’ (Galatians 3.28). This is the kind of hermeneutical risk I see Jesus taking with Torah texts in the gospels. From: Equal Marriage: crossing the threshold Phill on May 3, 2014 at 4:39 am said: Ultimately the issue does come down to whether the Biblical case for the church’s traditional teaching on this is watertight or not. I would say that it is. There is also a problem with allowing a variety of views, in that this would not be helpful to pastoral practice: it would be immensely confusing to someone with same-sex attraction if on the one hand they are being told it’s fine, and on the other hand being told it’s not, by churches apparently both committed to the authority of Scripture. Anyway, what’s done is done. Hopefully the resulting conversation will be a positive thing. Those who think the church’s traditional teaching is ‘watertight’ or who think that Leviticus offers clear guidance on same-sex relationships might do well to reflect upon this analysis: Leviticus Defiled: The Perversion of Two Verses Thank you Phil, I have actually read that blog post and I stand by what I said. Peter Kirk on May 3, 2014 at 11:32 am said: Phil G, thank you for the Michael Sadgrove quote. I agree. Phill, I think we should always be very careful about saying that any specific teaching is watertight. There are so many approaches to biblical interpretation that it is almost impossible to say that any one result is definitely right or definitely wrong. The EA recognises this in its own Evangelical Relationships Commitment, appended to the Basis of Faith, when it writes: We call on each other, when speaking or writing of those issues of faith or practice that divide us, to acknowledge our own failings and the possibility that we ourselves may be mistaken, avoiding personal hostility and abuse, and speaking the truth in love and gentleness. There are of course certain issues on which we need to take a stand, even where they go beyond what can be definitively proved from the Bible, for example the doctrine of the Trinity. The EA has defined these central issues, for itself and its members, in its Basis of Faith, while also committing itself to “avoiding personal hostility and abuse, and speaking the truth in love and gentleness” with those who differ on them. But, as I pointed out before, there is no mention of sexual ethics in the Basis of Faith and no suggestion that a specific position on these matters is required of EA members. I understand the pastoral difficulties of allowing different positions in different churches. But surely this applies equally to matters like baptism on which EA members agree to differ. Anyway, whether the EA likes it or not, there will increasingly be churches in the UK which accept same sex relationships and marriage as well as those who continue to reject them. The EA cannot impose uniformity even if this is desirable. They can draw a line in the sand, but they can’t stop the tide coming in and washing the line away. Indeed they need to be careful not to be washed away themselves. I would predict that within 10-20 years the majority of churches, even of those now calling themselves evangelical, will be at least offering some kind of blessing to same sex married couples. It is not too late for the EA to change its position and accept this as an option for its members. But if it does not, it will soon become the preserve of a dwindling band of fundamentalist culture warriors – and God will raise up others to take the lead in his church. I was wondering whether ‘watertight’ was the correct word, but on reflection I still think it is. I have yet to see a pro-gay Biblical interpretation which does justice to the Biblical data. Most pro-gay Christians I have seen recently tend to make the argument that the Bible does condemn same-sex relationships, but that the Biblical writers were wrong. One of the points Andrew Wilson makes in the debate I linked to is that there is really no debate in academic circles. The “debate” on whether the Bible condemns homosexuality is happening in Christian popular culture, not in scholarly circles. I think this is because the debate is pretty much settled. Just because something is not in the basis of faith doesn’t mean an organisation can’t / shouldn’t have a position on it – the FIEC, for example, has a basis of faith with three additional statements clarifying their position on other issues such as women in ministry and sexuality. That seems to be a reasonable approach – I wouldn’t want to put sexuality in a basis of faith, in the same way that I wouldn’t want to include everything I thought was a sin in it. I would argue that sexual ethics is a different order of magnitude from baptism – I hope that my brothers and sisters who do not believe in infant baptism do not think I am leading people into sin when I baptise their children. Sexual ethics, however, are a much more serious business. I can’t think of any equivalent example where an umbrella organisation allows its members to make up their own consciences about particular sins (I guess the closest example would be divorce and remarriage, although we’ve talked about that already). “But if it does not, it will soon become the preserve of a dwindling band of fundamentalist culture warriors – and God will raise up others to take the lead in his church” We’ll see. It seems to me the ‘fundamentalist’ churches are doing pretty well at the moment. In my limited experience, churches which accept same-sex relationships change on other things too. Time will tell. I do understand where Phil is coming from. As I said I think pro gay exegesis strains too hard. But here’s where I pitch my tent and it’s based entirely on respect for the text. That phrase “as with a woman” or “on the couches of a woman” must mean something. And not just that sex is in view as it is absent from “thou shalt not lie with a beast.” Must it not therefore limit the scope of these passages and thus Paul if he is restating them. Then there’s David and Jonathan, a story I read assuming it was non sexual, as that was what I was told. But what do we make of “you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame and the shame of your mother’s nakedness”. Isn’t it redolent of sexual shame? Ok it’s not clear, but neither are the other texts. I don’t have an axe to grind. I’m not gay. Just trying to read the text. Tradition is largely against me but it’s not univocal. From the early mediaeval to the early modern period there were ceremonies of male life partnership performed in the church. That these were de facto marriages is shown by the fact that when they were outlawed in the C17th those who had been so joined were killed. But it’s done now. I am afraid you (Peter) no longer fit as a UK evangelical, and you already had problems with the US sort. But then you don’t need a party, you already have your identification at the top of this page. You are a follower of Jesus, not Paul or Apollos or the EA. Phill, like you I have yet to see a fully convincing “pro-gay Biblical interpretation”, and for that reason I am holding back from fully accepting Chalke’s position. But you are wrong to suggest that there is no scholarly debate here. I know many interpreters understand Romans 1 as a homophobic rant, the evangelicals among them using this to justify homophobia and the liberals using it as an argument to reject the Bible. But probably today’s greatest Bible scholar, N.T. Wright, in this article, clearly rejects the homophobic interpretation, while also rejecting some of the popular Christian understandings you refer to. I’m sure many Baptists would consider it a sin for a believer not to be baptised; many conservative evangelicals would consider it a sin for a woman to lead a church; and some would consider it a sin to drink alcohol. That doesn’t stop the Evangelical Alliance from including within its ranks people with different understandings of exactly what is a sin. Giles, thank you for bringing up David and Jonathan. We might also consider the centurion’s “boy”, pais (Matthew 8:6), who was “dear to him”, auto entimos (Luke 7:2). This sounds to me like a homosexual relationship. What did Jesus do? Did he order the boy to be stoned to death? No, he healed him. Indeed I am happy to be a non-party Christian. I just don’t want to be thrown out of a party for all the wrong reasons. Phill — Peter has beaten me to it but I’d echo his response to your observation that ‘The “debate” on whether the Bible condemns homosexuality is happening in Christian popular culture, not in scholarly circles.’ — there’s plenty of informed and scholarly debate and discussion: witness the analysis on Leviticus I pointed you towards earlier; then there’s the work of Linda Woodhead and the ongoing discussion by Bishop Alan Wilson. You’d also do well to visit the resources section of Accepting Evangelicals: Accepting Evangelicals: Resources. The debate is far from settled; and whilst there’s no denying that there are some who do simply say that the biblical writers got it wrong, you’re seriously mistaken if you think that’s the prevalent attitude amongst those of us who do believe that same sex relationships are acceptable. Scripture is not to be dismissed but it must be read both in its historical-sociological context and in the light of what we see God doing — and what I see God doing is blessing LGBTI people in exactly the same ways as straight people, which leaves me in much the same place as St Peter when he was praying on that rooftop many years ago: who am I to withhold blessing or acceptance from those whom God is blessing and accepting? Hi Giles, Peter and Phil G, This is turning into a debate, and it’s three against one which is a bit unfair! 🙂 I do not have the time to respond to all your points, much as I would love to. Peter, I am a little disturbed by your use of the language of ‘homophobia’. Perhaps I am over sensitive on this, but too many times recently those who hold to a traditional ethic on sexuality have been labelled homophobic. I think you are referring to people who prooftext, and on that I am with you – prooftexting is a bad way of reading the Bible. The article you linked to by N.T. Wright doesn’t indicate there is a scholarly debate on this – he seems to go along with the views of Gagnon (who I would agree with). Giles and Peter, the examples you cite (David and Jonathan; centurion’s boy) are disputable at the very best. Phil G – I was particularly meaning in evangelical academic circles. If you can point me to a peer-reviewed evangelical journal which has embraced same-sex relationships I will concede this. Linda Woodhead is hardly an example of an evangelical – does she even call herself Christian these days? I am aware of Accepting Evangelicals, as well as a few other groups; I don’t know whether they have really made inroads into academic circles though. The resources section of that website just seems to bear up my statement that these things are being done at a popular level – there are no links to journal articles or the like. I’d be careful about making comparisons with Acts 10. What are your criteria for God’s blessing? The prosperity gospel is going down a storm in Uganda, to the point where it’s incredibly difficult to lead a church which preaches anything different. The atheist and secularist movement seems to be growing in the UK at the moment, is that God’s blessing? Once again, I’m sorry for not being able to respond fully. 🙂 If it’s openly pro-LGBTI discussion in evangelical academic circles you’re looking for, Phill, then you’re not going to find it for the simple reason that anyone who is so minded won’t dare speak out for fear of receiving a similar response to that given to Steve Chalke. It’s the big taboo: the moment anyone speaks out for same-sex relationships, they’re excoriated and branded a heretic or worse. Phill on May 4, 2014 at 10:29 am said: Either that, or people know that a plausible case for same-sex relationships cannot be made from the Bible. The problem with the “fear of speaking out” argument is that it works with virtually anything. e.g.: you don’t find arguments against the divinity of the Son in evangelical academic circles. Clearly that’s because they’re afraid of speaking out and being branded a heretic. Phil and Phill, thank you for today’s comments. Sadly I don’t have time to get further into these issues today. Phil, thank you for the link to Accepting Evangelicals site, showing that there is indeed real debate going on. As Phill says, it would be good to see articles in recognised scholarly journals. Phill, your definition of scholarly debate as what can be found in peer-reviewed evangelical journals simply demonstrates the narrow-mindedness and isolationist tendency of so many evangelicals. There is a whole world out there, including a world of scholarly debate, which is for Christians to enter and shine the light of the gospel in. Instead you hide yourselves away in your bunkers, under your bushels, and won’t even read what anyone else writes unless it is in a journal with the label “evangelical”. I didn’t mean to use the word “homophobic” as a description of those who have a genuine conviction that homosexual relationships are wrong, while also showing genuine love and acceptance towards people in such relationships. Indeed in the past I have objected to this usage. I used the word as a description of how Paul’s words in Romans 1 are sometimes presented, both by anti-Christians in the LGBT community and by Christians seeking to justify hate speech and hateful attitudes towards gay and lesbian people. I would not call you homophobic, but there certainly are Christian homophobes out there. Peter Kirk on May 4, 2014 at 10:40 pm said: I can add the following to the previous comment: among the articles listed by Accepting Evangelicals, linked to by Phil G, is an article by Benny Hazlehurst, a founder of Accepting Evangelicals, which appeared in the peer-reviewed scholarly journal ANVIL. In this article the author discusses interpretations of the biblical passages supposedly relating to same sex relationships, and comes to a non-“traditional” conclusion. This appears alongside an article from another apparently evangelical author, Sean Doherty, presenting a different viewpoint. (I have not read these articles in detail.) So this is evidence that there is proper scholarly debate concerning this interpretation, to which evangelicals are contributing. But for one reason or another journals with the label “evangelical” are not the place to look for this debate. I certainly don’t hide myself away and refuse to read what anyone reads unless it is in an academic journal. However, I do think it is significant that there is no real scholarly debate about this. As Andrew Wilson commented in that debate, get the top 50 commentaries on 1 Corinthians and see what they say about what Paul meant about sexuality. Go to the Society of New Testament Studies and ask people whether they think Paul condoned same-sex sex. Thank you for the link to the Hazlehurst article on Anvil. At the least this does suggest Phil G was wrong on this, i.e. people are willing to speak out and it’s not just fear of being branded a heretic. The article itself seems to contribute nothing new to the debate, i.e. all the arguments are the same which the affirming camp have been making for many years. Anyway, I think my point has been made in this discussion, it’s time for me to draw stumps on my participation. Thank you everyone for being charitable in disagreement. Phill, don’t misrepresent Phil G. His comment that people “won’t dare speak out” applied only to “in evangelical academic circles”. ANVIL is not one of those circles. But it gives the lie to your claim that “there is no real scholarly debate about this”, unless you define “real” as “in evangelical journals”. Meanwhile I don’t have “the top 50 commentaries on 1 Corinthians”, but I do have one of them, by Fee, in which he refers to and footnotes various scholarly opinions on 6:9-10. Here he refers to the “male prostitute” understanding of malakoi as “the best guess” and that “one cannot be certain” about the meaning of arsenokoitai. Hardly the unambiguous endorsement of the traditional view from an evangelical scholar which might justify the EA’s action against Oasis. I do think it’s important for all to respect the strength of conviction on both sides. For some on “my” side it’s a simple matter of equality. They see no problem in forcing religious cake makers to bake cakes for gay weddings, or B and B owners to accommodate gay couples or insisting that NGOs commit to LGBT equality before getting funds. The typical African Christian by contrasts sees the West as having overturned scripture and 2,000 years of tradition and now demanding that they compromise their faith or starve. It’s an interesting exercise to make a scriptural case against slavery. I can do it now we all know it’s wrong. For example in Philemon Paul writes to the master of the escaped slave “if he has done you any wrong”. Which suggests he did no wrong in running away. But you can be sure Paul’s return of a runaway slave was cited as clear proof of the sin of those whose “underground railway” helped slaves escape Christian masters in the deep South. I guess I am saying we all stand where we have to and we must all seek to see the other side. Thank you, Giles. Yes, it’s important that we all understand how the other side is thinking, and avoid simplistic condemnation of others. The Evangelical Alliance has issued a new “Press Release: Members’ briefing” (Which is it? Is it for general publication, or for members?) Steve Clifford on Oasis’ discontinued membership of the Evangelical Alliance. This clarifies what the issue was. The Alliance Council tried to insist that Oasis make specific changes to its website. Oasis declined to make these changes. The Council concluded that a relationship between an organisation and one of its members in which the member was unwilling to comply with a reasonable request from the council, was untenable. The question that arises here is, was the Alliance’s request “reasonable”, or was it an attempt to censor member organisations’ websites? Can censorship ever be “reasonable”? Now I might consider such a request “reasonable” if the member was found to be publicly denying or rejecting the Alliance’s Basis of Faith. But no such charge has been made against Oasis or is suggested in this members’ briefing. Instead the Council has chosen to throw its weight around to impose uniformity on what should be considered a secondary matter. Interesting; and far from reasonable — unless, of course, the EA was offering to do the same in return and impartially host both sides of the debate on its website? Unlikely, methinks: this looks to be very much about control. Peter Kirk on May 7, 2014 at 9:26 am said: Thank you, Phil. Meanwhile Ian Paul speaks some sense on this issue, although he comes to a different conclusion from mine. I agree with him especially on this: Thirdly, although the question of sexuality was the presenting issue, it is clear that the root cause lies somewhere else. As Gillan Scott notes, this does not look like good PR for evangelicals, and in fact Chalke’s subsequent comments on the nature of the Bible might have been a better ‘fight’ to pick. But I think Ian Paul, like others, is too quick to reject as not even worthy of consideration the interpretations of the relevant New Testament passages favoured by Steve Chalke and others. The inspiration and authority of Scripture do not imply the infallibility of a particular interpretation of it. Peter Kirk on May 22, 2014 at 11:22 am said: As there has been no satisfactory response from the EA on this matter, I have now written to them resigning my membership. Phil Groom on May 22, 2014 at 12:42 pm said: Sad, but I think you’ve made the right decision: echoing Chalke, it’s a matter of integrity; and I don’t think the EA is showing integrity either with respect to its own basis of faith or to the true breadth of evangelicalism. Peter, I salute you. Peter Kirk on May 22, 2014 at 3:07 pm said: Pingback: Commonplace Holiness Blog	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1917
__label__cc	0.6374	0.3626	New director for VOA, and for VOA TV. "The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) is pleased to announce the appointment of Danforth W. Austin as the Director of the Voice of America (VOA). He will have the overall responsibility for the planning, organization, direction and policy application of all VOA broadcasting activities. Austin will replace David Jackson who will be returning to the private sector." Austin has served as CEO of Ottaway Newspapers, a subsidiary of Dow Jones, and has also served in a number of senior positions with the Wall Street Journal. The BBG also named Russell Hodge the director of VOA Television. BBG press release, 25 October 2006.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1920
__label__cc	0.739935	0.260065	The PE: S.B. COUNTY: County outlines groundwater project agreement Posted May 2, 2012 at 8:38 am BY IMRAN GHORI ighori@pe.com Published: 01 May 2012 07:30 PM San Bernardino County supervisors approved an agreement Tuesday spelling out the review process for a controversial proposal to draw water from ancient aquifers in the Mojave Desert. The agreement provides for county oversight of the $225 million project in the Cadiz Valley, about 40 miles east of Twentynine Palms, that would involve building 44 miles of pipeline to move surplus water from the Colorado Aqueduct to an underground basin the size of Rhode Island. The water rights under 34,000 acres belong to Cadiz Inc., which also wants to tap water from beneath nearby dry lake beds that it says would otherwise be lost to evaporation. The Cadiz project has been rejected and reworked since it was first proposed in 1997. Environmentalists say it would deplete ancient groundwater that feeds area springs and sustains local wildlife. One-third of the aquifer sits below the Mojave National Preserve. Cadiz estimates that about 2 million acre feet of water that flows downhill to dry lakes in the watershed is lost to evaporation. The project would collect 50,000 acre feet a year to local water agencies, including possibly some in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. “It is in essence by definition a conservation project,” said Scott Slater, president and general counsel for Cadiz. During the 31/2-hour hearing, environmentalists and residents in the Mojave Valley urged the county not to allow the project to go forward. They questioned Cadiz’s studies that natural recharge of the aquifers will make up for water that is pumped out. “The Cadiz project sets a terrible precedent as water, a public resource, is privatized and then sold back to the public,” said Victoria Fuller, a member of the National Parks Conservation Association. Filed under: Board of Supervisors - San Bernardino County, Business, County of San Bernardino, Environment, Finance, In the News	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1922
__label__wiki	0.942829	0.942829	From London to Dublin for happiness, love and drama August 22, 2016 August 22, 2016 Laura 0 Comments By Laura Lynott @Ly211 Irish actress Rebecca O’Mara who played the short-lived love interest of British TV bad boy Daniel Mays in BBC crime drama Line of Duty – has revealed how she moved back home to Ireland to find “happiness,” and incidentally an Irish man on Tinder. Rebecca O’Mara, 39, who grew up in Sandycove, Co Dublin, spent 12 years in London, bagging roles on stage and screen. She is the voice behind Caitlin, the only Irish lady engine on TV children’s favourite, Thomas and Friends – and she recently starred alongside bad boy Daniel Mays in Line of Duty – one of the most popular shows ever on the BBC. Rebecca played a teacher in the high octane police action drama earlier this year – and she became the envy of women across the UK and Ireland when she got to kiss Mays’ notorious character, cop killer Danny Waldron. “I met Daniel Mays in the first episode and he was in all sorts of trouble,” Rebecca said. Daniel Mays – very good at playing bad “I met him in a bar and we hit it off. There was always the possibility that he might have this life with this woman, my character, Rachel. “It was beautiful and tender because it’s a full on show but his character died at the end of the first episode – and that was a shocker because everyone thought he would be the lead of the series.” Rebecca said Mays’ character “fancied the pants off Rachel.” “They had a kiss, swapped numbers, he gets deeper in to trouble and she expects to go for another drink but by that time Danny is dead.” But though Mays has a reputation as a bad boy – he has played thug Jason in Mike Leigh’s All or Nothing and was thought to be the Devil in his role as DCI Jim Keats in another police TV show, Ashes to Ashes – Rebecca insists he is “lovely.” “I wanted to work with Daniel, as he’s one of my favourite actors and he’s a special human being, a lovely man. I knew it was something I wanted to do and it ended up being one of biggest shows in the UK. Rebecca in her latest play, Helen and I by Meadhbh McHugh. Photo: Matthew Thompson “I’d love to do more TV like that and something over here in Ireland – and there’s a lot of exciting filming going on in Ireland at the moment.” But Rebecca, who is currently rehearsing for Helen and I, a Druid theatre production to be staged in Galway next month – admits though she got “caught up” in London life – there really was no place like home in the end “London is a really full on place,” Rebecca said. “It’s really intense – it’s fine when you’re on top. “As an actor we have to do a balancing act of having one foot in each country but I saw an opportunity of a better life here in Ireland. “I had a place in Islington and sold up four years ago and now I live in Booterstown. I came back at a tough time in Ireland after the crash but I just knew we could do it, get back on our feet – and I loved being home.” She still works in the UK and has an agent in both countries – the perfect balance she insists. The actress says she loves returning to London to work but enjoys coming home too. Not long after she returned the actress – sister to Jason O’Mara – who lives in Hollywood and has just landed a top role as The Director in Marvel’s Agents of Shield, found she was being snapped up for coveted roles at the Abbey Theatre and earlier this year she starred as Desdemona in Othello – and she is currently in talks for another project. But there was one thing missing. After a long-period as a single career woman, she found Mr Right in the strangest of places, on dating app with a reputation for casual flings. “We met on Tinder,” Rebecca said of her and her composer boyfriend, Ciaran Hope. “I sort of think online dating is still viewed with a little bit of shame in Ireland. Rebecca and Ciaran Hope chilling on the beach “People are unsure about saying they met someone online, but so many people are doing it so why not say. “I’m delighted I did try it because I found a man it felt like I should have found anyway and online dating just helped me meet him. “Ciaran is a composer, he’s a Meath man. We have been together a year and I had been single a really long time. “It’s really hard to meet people in London and online dating just gave me options to go out and date and have fun and then I met the man I felt I had so much in common with.” Ironically, Ciaran had been involved in the movie business too – he had composed the soundtrack to The Letters, a 2014 drama exploring the lifelong friendship Mother Theresa shared with Father Celeste van Exem over a 50 year period. Ciaran had also lived away from Ireland in LA for 17 years – so he knew what it was like to come back home after so many years away. “When I stopped putting emphasis on finding a mate it became easy and then I met Ciaran,” she said. “He’s been in LA 17 years. He did all of that and like me, he decided to come home for happiness too, just like me. He’s from a very similar life and it’s absolutely lovely we found each other. “It’s an exciting time for us building a home back in Ireland after being away so long – it’s like we were meant to find each other.” The couple are both very holistic – they medidate and go for walks. Ciaran is a vegetarian and Rebecca feels it will be her next step. She practises yoga and jogs a little for fitness. The actress is also very careful about what she eats. “When I was younger I put my career first,” Rebecca said. “That was priority number one and I put it before me. “Then I had to take a step back because I wasn’t taking care of myself. I was drinking a lot, smoked a lot. I was caught up in that whole world in London. “I got to the point I was working a lot. I had to put the brakes on and say is this really what I want, what I want to be. “I had to assess things. I stopped drinking and smoking.” Rebecca and Ciaran and beach life Rebecca left London behind and now lives by the coast in Booterstown. She wouldn’t swap her life in Dublin for the fast lane in the UK again. “I’m happy here?” she said. Rebecca will appear as Lynn, a woman battling mental health issues and family dysfunction, in Helen and I at The Mick Lally Theatre in Galway from 9 – 18 September. For tickets, go to http://www.druid.ie/productions/helen-and-i ← Behind closed doors: My story of self harm Adjusting to life with fibromyalgia → Time limit is exhausted. Please reload CAPTCHA. 7 − = five Notice: It seems you have Javascript disabled in your Browser. In order to submit a comment to this post, please write this code along with your comment: 77ffd7a8cbd2d166b19483d7b4a44478	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1924
__label__cc	0.597585	0.402415	Living Out a Living Hope: Sermon on 1 Peter 1:6-25 The boy had a thousand miles yet to go. His whole world had been turned upside-down... when the guns came, and the bombs came. Like Fr. Balakian whom we met last week, the boy had to escape what sounded like sure death – though in the journey ahead, the boy was less sure of finding Fr. Balakian's “indestructible hope of salvation.” The boy missed his father. He missed his mother. He missed his little brother and his sisters. He and the others did their best to move only by night. During the day, the sun overhead was just too hot to be safe. And the soldiers might see them. Without shoes or supplies, they trudged through the bush, the grasslands, the desert, the swamps and rivers; braved crocodiles and lions and serpents; wandered through the territories of tribes who survived only by kidnapping the unwary; and the survivors withstood disease and deprivation as thousands fell before and behind them. But though the journey was filled with predators and soldiers and enemies, and though they could travel only by night, and though they seldom could settle anywhere for long, still the boy and thousands of other men, women, and especially children marched on. And he said: We roamed the desert for forty days from Sudan to Ethiopia with no food to eat and no water to drink. We still experienced God's grace and blessings as he sustained us through very dire circumstances. Despite our strenuous circumstances, we did experience God's marvelous grace in ways that were beyond measure. He protected us from several tribal groups that were all out to steal what little resources we had, and he protected us from others who were determined to kill us all. Though many of us were killed and we were constantly facing attack, God provided the rest of us with shelter, sometimes in a refugee camp or in the bush, and he graciously provided us with songs in the midst of our sorrows. Those are the words of my friend Jacob – who was that little boy walking the wilderness by night. You can learn a bit more about his story, and his ministry of Africa Sunrise Communities, in the upcoming month's church newsletter. Looking back on those first months after he fled the powers of death that came to his village, Jacob sees the link between his experiences and those of another group of men, women, and children who wandered through the desert and braved serpents and hostile tribes as they fled the powers of death in Egypt. The Israelites of the exodus generation, at least, had had plenty of time to prepare! And they prepared through a ritual called the Passover, a meal with an unblemished lamb sacrificed to save them by its blood (Exodus 12:5), whose meat they were to eat with their loins girded to go (Exodus 12:11). And when their deliverance came and they escaped the powers of death that were descending upon them, they praised their God for having redeemed them and led them (Exodus 15:13). In return, out in the desert, this God led them, established a covenant between him and them, and insisted on their holiness for the long journey to their destination: their inheritance, the land of promise. Sound familiar? It should – and not only from the pages of Exodus and Leviticus. It should sound familiar also because the Apostle Peter, whose letter we started reading together last week, sees his hearers – and us today – as on a similar journey. The journey begins, he says, with an unblemished Passover Lamb whose blood saves us. Only Peter says that the real deal is no mere livestock one might barter or trade for currency or favor: no, our ransom, our redemption, came “not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Peter 1:18-19). Our journey begins with nothing less than the death of Jesus, whose perfection takes the place of the lamb. And like the lamb's blood protected the Israelites from the Angel of Death, so Jesus' precious blood – more valuable and imperishable than silver or gold or cattle or any costly thing – is what redeems us. That word means 'bought back' or 'set free,' loosed from the chains of slavery and returned to original ownership. And that is exactly how our journey starts. Like the exodus people, we have been redeemed! (How we love to proclaim it!) And it's all thanks to the “precious blood of Christ.” But unlike the many Passover lambs sacrificed for each household in those days, the one perfect Passover Lamb for us all didn't stay dead. Peter tells us: “God … raised him from the dead and gave him glory” (1 Peter 1:21) – and because of this resurrection, our faith is made possible. Through Jesus, who was made manifest in our last days for our sake, Peter says, we are made able to believe in God in a new way. We have experienced his power, his goodness, for ourselves. Everything the old Passover and old Exodus foreshadowed, is precisely our journey. Peter explains that even the angels of God in heaven are curious about the mysteries that have been unfolding in and around us, and the prophets of old tried their very best to puzzle out the things we've experienced firsthand – but what they predicted from afar through the Spirit has been announced to us in the gospel by the same Spirit from heaven, because the ancient prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Micah, and all the rest – they were only serving us (1 Peter 1:10-12). Jesus Christ, foreknown before the foundation of the world, was finally made manifest for us, for our sake (1 Peter 1:20). It was for us that it finally happened – for you, these things over which prophets puzzled and angels yearned. That's what set off our new exodus journey. Things are different now. Before our redemption, we were in a bad place. Peter tells us that. We may have thought things were fine, but we see it now. Peter describes our past as a state of slavery to “the passions of your former ignorance” (1 Peter 1:14). At one time, we were ignorant – we didn't know God, didn't know the truth, had not yet tasted and seen for ourselves. We were wrapped up in our desires for things that just weren't good for us. Peter talks also about “the futile ways inherited from your fathers” (1 Peter 1:18). That's a bold way to talk in a world where tradition was everything! But it's the truth. My friend Jacob tells in his memoir about how, when the people of his tribe become believers, they are “set free from the tribal rituals and the powers of their evil spirits through Jesus Christ, who cleanses us from all our sins and makes us holy in God's sight,” giving them “fellowship with God rather than with our ancestral spirits and customs.” But the same is true for us. We, too, have plenty of customs – especially those of us who are Pennsylvania Dutch! And some of those customs are fine things! But when they become an encompassing way of life, they can weigh us down when the journey requires us to pack light. And not every custom or tradition is good. Especially those that entangle us with the spirits of the past. We may not have rituals geared around reverencing the literal spirits of our ancestors, but we do tend to cling to tradition – to the way things used to be, the music that once was, the influences that went before us. Again, not always and universally bad, but when it weighs us down for the journey or detracts from the sole glory of God in Christ, that's a problem. And whether we've inherited them or forged them on our own, some of our pre-Christian or extra-Christian or anti-Christian habits are indeed “futile ways” – they're pointless, they're fruitless, they're empty, they achieve nothing of value for us. Rely on them, cling to them, and you'll stumble and fall and be devoured. Now, Peter says, we've been “born again to a living hope” (1 Peter 1:3). We aren't the people we used to be – so it's silly to live like we are, to say the least! We have been re-begotten, born all over again, built from new stuff. Peter calls it being “born again, not of perishable seed but imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God,” which unlike all fleshly and mortal things “remains forever. And this, moreover, is the word that was evangelized to you” (1 Peter 1:23-25). The very gospel we heard, the good news about our redemption through the precious blood of Christ – that's the stuff we're made of now. If we're made out of gospel stuff now, how could we ever live the same? How could we ever go back to pointless paths handed down or to the passions of former ignorance? We're on a journey – not to refuge in Ethiopia or Kenya or America, not to the earthly land of Canaan, but to the greater promised land of the new creation, “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:4-5). There's no sense in trying to turn back the clock – not to go back to Egypt, or the war zone, or the futile ways we inherited. Only death lies that way. We must keep marching on toward our inheritance. We must stay sure and confident of the salvation that will be revealed. It's already ready, hidden behind the veil with Christ; all that remains is the unveiling. In the meantime, when it comes to living out our “living hope,” we can't afford to go without supplies – not outward clothes and tools and provisions, but the six spiritual supplies Peter sketches for our journey. First, as should come to no one's surprise, is hope itself. The entire Christian life is summed up in hope! But it's also our first supply. For Peter, what it means to be a believer, what it means to have an active relationship with God, means that “your faith and hope are in God” (1 Peter 1:21). Our hope is not in ourselves. Our hope is not in our inner strength. Our hope is not in our works. Our hope is not in what we earn. Our hope is not in the changing winds of political fortunes or in the economy getting a pick-me-up. Our hope is not in our family, or our hobbies, or in keeping busy, or in pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps, or in retirement or vacation or the lottery or anything else. Our hope is in God – period, full stop, end of sentence, no more need be said. To whatever extent your hope is anchored elsewhere, to that extent you're holding back from being a full believer. Peter insists: “Set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13) – a grace we've nibbled on here and now and found it amazingly satisfying, but which we'll find so much fuller on that day. That is where our hope must lie completely – we need to be all-in. To that end, Peter tells us, “gird up the loins of your mind and be sober-minded” – that's a description of what has to happen for us to set our hope fully on God's grace in Christ. Gird up your loins – that's what the Israelites had to do when they ate the Passover meal (Exodus 12:11). It means having the hem of your robe tucked into your belt so you're ready to run, ready to work. Today, we might just as well talk about rolling up the sleeves of your brain. Be equipped to think clearly; don't be distracted or weighed down when everything's on the line – because it is. Only by thinking clearly, only with conscious effort and reason, can we strip away our encumbrances and set our hope fully on the God who unveils himself as grace. And that hope is the first supply you need for this trip. The second supply Peter tells us to take on our journey is purity. He talks about “having purified your souls,” and about the importance of a “pure heart” (1 Peter 1:22). In today's culture, 'purity' can almost be a bad word at times. And we've played our part in giving purity a bad name. But to be pure is simply to be clean; purity is cleanliness – not necessarily in the modern hygienic sense, but in a deeper sense. A pure heart is what it takes to see God (Matthew 5:8; cf. Psalm 24:4). “Truly God is good to … those who are pure in heart” (Psalm 73:1), to anyone “who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully” (Psalm 24:4). That's what purity of heart and soul begins with – avoiding idolatry, even the subtle kind, and not entangling ourselves with deceit or falsehood of any sort – including the idolatrous untruthfulness that stems from ingratitude (Romans 1:21). But Proverbs asks us, “Who can say, 'I have made my heart pure; I am clean from my sin'?” (Proverbs 20:9). Perfect purity is not within our unaided reach – it's a gift of God's grace, but one we need to cultivate and maintain for our journey to a pure inheritance. As we go, we need to keep our hearts clean from compromise with untruth. That doesn't mean being a zealot or bigot or dogmatist; it means being loyal to God, avoiding the attitudes and actions in us that might be a stain in his sight. Speaking of which, the third supply Peter tells us to take on our journey is holiness. “Do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as the One who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy'” (1 Peter 1:14-16; cf. Leviticus 11:44-45). What does it mean to be holy? Literally, it means to be 'other'; it means to be abnormal; it means to be special and set apart and above what most things are. It means separation from ordinariness, but the emphasis is that what's holy is separated unto total devotion to God. God is holy because his transcendent power and goodness are totally distinct, separate, from this world we're used to. And we're holy when we're totally reserved for his purposes. “Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44). In Leviticus, that kind of language mainly revolved around the food laws (Leviticus 11) and occasionally social order, sacrifice, and spiritual devotion (Leviticus 19:1-8). For us, it relates to “all your conduct” (1 Peter 1:15). Living out our living hope for the journey means that, in everything we do, we should be totally reserved for God's purposes – not letting our own agendas get in the way. They run the risk of weighing us down when we're to be on the move. The fourth supply Peter tells us to take on our journey is – and this one may surprise you – fear. But when he says that, he doesn't mean fear of the danger on the journey – fear of crocodiles and pythons and lions, fear of blazing sun and hostile tribes. What Peter means is fear of God, as in, a healthy awe and reverence for a God who deserves our respect. Peter observes that God “judges impartially according to each one's deeds” – that's an intimidating thought – and urges us to “conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your temporary residence” (1 Peter 1:17). As in, during our journey, the way we behave should be one that reverences God, one that goes to pains to carefully behave in a way that pleases our Judge. Similarly, the fifth supply Peter tells us to take on our journey is obedience. And here we relate, not as subjects to a Judge, but as children to a Father. And that is exactly who God offers himself to us as: “Our Father, who art in heaven” (Matthew 6:9). Peter urges us to be “obedient children” (1 Peter 1:14). He notes that we “call on him” – our God and Judge – also “as Father” (1 Peter 1:17). God is the One who has re-begotten us (1 Peter 1:23). And the only way our souls will be purified is by “obedience to the truth” (1 Peter 1:22), which in this case is the true word of the gospel that is announced in our day (1 Peter 1:25). When we know the truth, it demands action in accordance with it. And fulfilling that action is obedience. Literally, obedience is submitting beneath what is heard, submitting to what God our Father says by complying with it. Obedience is not just an Old Testament thing. It's essential to our journey. If God is the one leading the way, then if we disobey, we run the risk of venturing off the path, slowing everybody around us down, and getting tangled up in danger – and if we desert the way altogether, we might lose faith and fall in the desert and fail to reach our destined inheritance. What God tells us – about money, about relationships, about hospitality, about honesty – all calls out for our obedience, for our own good in our journey. And then the sixth supply Peter tells us to take on our journey is love. That love is first and foremost for the One who made our journey possible: our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, slain as our Passover Lamb but raised again to be given glory. “Though you have not seen him,” Peter says, “you love him; though you do not now see him, you believe in him” (1 Peter 1:8). We don't presently see Jesus – though, Peter hints, one day we will, which is a mind-blowing thought, or at least it is to me. And yet we love him. We love him because, though we don't yet see him, we belong to him; we've experienced his grace; we know his love is shepherding us along our way, and we couldn't make it on our journey without him. So we love him. But our love is also, scarcely beneath our love for Jesus, also love for each other. Peter tells us that obedience to the truth aids us in purifying our souls, but the purpose is “for a sincere brotherly love.” What we're to do with a pure heart is to “love one another earnestly” (1 Peter 1:22). Maybe you could render that, “Give each other a love that's fully extended, a love that's stretched all the way out.” Brothers and sisters, we need to love each other – it's a command, and also a delight. Yes, I know – sometimes our brothers and sisters in Christ do less-than-lovable things, or have less-than-lovable habits and quirks. Sometimes, we and our fellow sojourners can be pretty prickly and not all that inspiring. Sometimes it's easier not to love one another – to just drop into each other's worlds temporarily with minimal investment. I know a woman who once told me that the reason she started attending a megachurch was so that she wouldn't have to be involved with anybody; nobody would know who she was, and nobody would love her enough to keep her accountable if she went missing. But that is not the life God commands of us. We're to give each other a love that's stretched all the way out – stretched out far enough to cover every sin, stretched out far enough to forgive every fault, stretched out far enough to lend any hand... stretched out with the outstretched arms of a crucified Savior. For this journey, you've got to love one another. Hope, purity, holiness, fear, obedience, love – six supplies for the journey. That may sound like a lot to bring – but considering the baggage we walk around with every day, it's actually packing quite efficiently! Don't pack all that other junk, handed down or acquired along the way – you're redeemed from that former ignorance and those futile ways. Instead, pack these six things. That's how we'll live out our living hope along the way. And I won't tell you that this journey is easy. Neither will Peter. The specific local Christian communities he was writing to had been enduring prejudice and marginalization for their faith. Peter acknowledges that they've been “grieved by various trials.” And so have we. There are few families affiliated with this congregation who haven't undergone one of various trials in the past couple years – and been, in many cases, quite grieved by it. That's natural. That's normal. That's our journey. But Peter reminds us, it's only “now for a little while.” And besides, they serve a needful purpose: to test and verify the “genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire” (1 Peter 1:6-7). The image is of a quality-test: gold being evaluated in its purity by how much heat it can stand. And if that goes for perishable gold, how much more for the imperishable life that's brought to life in us by faith? So our faith's quality is tested, evaluated, by fire in our various trials. But hard as that may be when you're the one passing through the fire, it's a good thing! It's good because, Peter says, “the tested genuineness of your faith … may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:7). Our trial-tested faith brings glory to Jesus – woohoo! – and it will be an honor to us – yeehaw! And so that brings us to one last supply for the journey: joy. In light of the final salvation that's ready to be revealed, Peter tells us that the faithful will “rejoice” in spite of their present temporary trials (1 Peter 1:6). And although our faith hasn't yet been made sight, we “believe in [Christ] and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory” (1 Peter 1:8). The word for 'rejoice' here – literally, it means a lot of jumping around and celebrating! In spite of our trials, in spite of the hiddenness of Jesus' glory from our view, yet by faith we anchor our hope in him and leap for joy! And that joy is our seventh supply to round out the bunch. It's a supply that lightens the whole load when you add it. And you can have it because, in Jesus, you “obtain the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:9). Though the journey is long and challenging, we go with joy, because like my friend Jacob said, God has “graciously provided us with songs in the midst of our sorrows.” And so, like Fr. Balakian, we may “remain excited by the indestructible hope of salvation.” Thanks be to God! May we all be supplied sevenfold for the journey of the redeemed, as we live out our living hope. Amen. Born Again to a Living Hope: Sermon on 1 Peter 1:1-5 His heart was pounding. The morning was still dark, save for the first touches of dawn coming over the snowy summit of distant Mount Ararat. The rain in Islahiye, a railway town on the Turkish side of the Syrian border, had been falling for fifteen hours by now. And Fr. Grigoris Balakian had only one thought on his mind: escape. Like the Prophet Ezekiel long before him, he was an exile far from home. An Armenian priest, rounded up and arrested in Constantinople and taken for a long march across Turkey, destined for the Syrian desert. The Reverend Father wasn't alone. They all were starved and dehydrated, and traumatized by the things they'd seen and heard. Scenes of massacre. Reports of death squads and eyeless bodies, cannibals and vultures. Fr. Balakian's blood had chilled when an eyewitness claimed the police soldiers were complicit. And he knew he had to escape. And so on that rained-out morning in April 1916, in the thick of the genocide against his people, Fr. Balakian prepared a disguise, crept off a train, threw aside his priestly overcoat under cover of darkness, knelt for a brief prayer, met up with two other escapees, and rushed into the forest, bound for the mountains and the life of a fugitive living under a false identity as a German engineer. And what gave Grigoris Balakian, vartabed in the Armenian Apostolic Church, the courage and determination to escape, for he and his compatriots to put themselves “in the good Lord's hands” and confidently walk for hours into the unknown? In his own words, “we banished every pessimistic thought and remained excited by the indestructible hope of salvation.” Hope is a powerful thing. And in hard times especially, you dare not lose it – or you might not make it through. Fr. Balakian knew that. And many centuries earlier, scattered throughout the very lands through which he and his friends had been made to march on their way down to Islahiye, a beleaguered network of local Christian communities in cities and villages were likewise struggling to hang on to hope. They were facing hard times – abused, robbed, harassed, mocked, socially excluded, hearing reports of violence against Christians, fearing no guarantee of the protection of law. And they weren't sure they could keep holding on to hope – maybe you know the feeling. Would their hope prove so indestructible as what Fr. Balakian would find? It was into a situation like that that a letter began making the rounds, village to village, through five provinces in what today we'd call Turkey. The letter carried the voice of none other than Simon Peter, a recent arrival in the empire's capital, with help from Paul's colleague Silvanus. And this letter from “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,” made its rounds through Christian communities scattered in “Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.” We don't know much about those who read it. Scholars can't agree whether they were mainly Jewish or mainly Gentile. Scholars can't agree whether they first met Peter during a missionary journey he took through those provinces decades earlier or whether they were deported there from Rome. But they didn't fit in. They were looked on as outsiders to the place they called home. And they were scared and suffering through fiery trials. And so Peter wrote to them, with a compassionate heart to feed Christ's frightened lambs. And he called them something strange. “Elect exiles,” maybe your Bible says (1 Peter 1:1). On the one hand, they were outcasts. They were foreigners. They didn't belong. Geographically or socially, they were far, far from the center of things. The word Peter uses here – it suggests people who are not permanent residents. They come, they settle for a little while, and they move along. They're in temporary housing, in other words. And that's who these believers are. The place where they find themselves, where they struggle to fit in and lay low, this whole society, is just temporary housing for them; they have no lasting place there. And it would be easy to conclude, as most of their neighbors surely did and as maybe some of them did, that they were unimportant. That they didn't matter. And yet Peter adds the word 'elect' – 'chosen.' The outsiders had been handpicked for rescue, for obedient living, for life-changing and world-changing things orchestrated by Father and Son and Holy Spirit (1 Peter 1:2). That's true of us, too, by the way. We have a lot to learn from Peter's letter. I admit, we live in a cozy place. A place where the professing Christians are many – so many, I have a hard time around here finding too many people who don't claim to be one! And that sounds very unlike what this letter's original audience was living through. But it still only masks the truth: we're in temporary housing. Relative to the larger society, we won't quite fit in – not if we take Jesus seriously. And in the grip of a big culture – big politics, big business, big media, big entertainment and all sorts of other industries and institutions and forces at work in the twenty-first century world – it would be easy for us to conclude that, because we're outside the mainstream and because we live in a seldom-considered, out-of-the-way place, that we're unimportant. But we, too, are God's elect – we're chosen, handpicked, by the Trinity for life-changing and world-changing things. And the same deep truths that Peter unpacks for Christian villagers then, he unpacks for believing villagers and town-dwellers now – whether we live in Pontus or Salisbury Township, Bithynia or Leacock, Galatia or East Earl. And the first deep truth he gets to is that God, “according to his great mercy, has caused us to be born again” (1 Peter 1:3). He uses a weird, rare word – literally, God has caused us to be re-begotten, to be conceived and born all over again. And Peter goes on to say that we've been “born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:23), which is the good news of Jesus. It's a strange-sounding thing to say. But what Peter is saying is a radical thing he first heard from his Master. 'Born again' – we use those words so flippantly, we're so comfortable with them, we miss what they mean. In the world where Peter lived, who you were – your character, your status, your identity – was in large part fixed at birth. There was no such thing as change, no such thing as reinventing yourself. Who you were born to be is who you were. Birth is destiny. And then along comes this strange group of outcasts who start talking about being born again – getting a new identity, totally restructured – not a fake identity, like the German soldier Fr. Balakian posed as, but a real new identity, a new self, a new life. A new self made of a new stuff – that's what Peter means when he talks about 'imperishable seed.' Jesus died for you – and his blood was sprinkled to seal a new covenant. And then he rose from the dead. That's the crux of the gospel – it's the living and abiding word of God – and it's the power through which we can be re-begotten. If you believe, if you trust, if you follow Jesus, if you've given your life to him and let him tear it down and give you a new one, that's exactly what's happened to you. That's what it means to be born again. You are not your past. You are not who you were. You are not what you've done. In being born again, all your old shame, all your past sins, belong to someone who no longer exists. What you were born to be the first time around – it doesn't matter. If you were born and raised into the farm life, into riches or poverty, into slavery or prejudice, into drugs or crime – whatever it was, you are re-begotten through the resurrection of Jesus, a Messiah who left the company of the dead behind and raced into an indestructible life. You are not who you were. You are forever new. What's more, Peter says, you are re-begotten, born again, to an inheritance. The word he used here is the same one Greek-speaking Jews used when they retold the story of their ancestors approaching the Promised Land, the fruitful place promised to their fathers where they could put down roots and live in peace, after all their listless wanderings. That was their inheritance, and all the generous bounty contained within it – sweet water, planted trees, walled cities, great treasure, all ready for inheriting. The Promised Land and all it holds – that was what they meant by their inheritance. And Peter turns to these rootless Christians, excluded and unwelcomed in their society, possibly already deported once and with the prospect of more sufferings to come, and he says: You have an inheritance, too. You have a homeland all your own, with all that's in it. Only it's not one patch of dirt in the Middle East. No, it's much better. Unlike your property here, it's imperishable – it won't wither, won't die out, won't collapse or shrivel. Unlike the stuff you're used to, it can't be contaminated, can't spoil, can't go bad, can't be corrupted or damaged or polluted. Unlike this world's lands and things, it can't be extinguished, can't be snuffed out, can't be stolen or supplanted. This inheritance is “imperishable and undefiled and unfading” – three words Peter uses that, among Greek thinkers, described the realm of the gods. And Peter says that's what their homeland is. It's the new creation, the pattern and quality of the new heaven and new earth; and already, it's safeguarded in God's heavenly storehouse, beyond the reach of earthly powers, where neither moth nor rust can destroy, nor thieves break in and steal (1 Peter 1:4; cf. Matthew 6:20). That's what we have waiting for us – what we'll find when it comes busting out of storage for us. It's on lay-away. You have an inheritance. No one will fight you for it. No one will steal it. No one will break it. No one will ruin it. It won't die, it won't fade, it won't get old. None of that is possible. No matter what happens to your land or house or property here, you have something divine waiting for you – a place you can really call 'home.' What's more, in the middle of our suffering, in the middle of our worldly exclusion, in the middle of our doubts and questions and anxieties and fears, Peter tells us that there's a rescue operation on the horizon – words that must have been music to Fr. Balakian's ears a century ago. It's a “salvation ready to be revealed in the last time,” Peter says. This big rescue, this big 'yes' to whom we are in Christ, is already set. God has no need of further planning. Unlike your pastor, he doesn't procrastinate! God has no need to work out further logistics. God has no need to gather supplies. This big rescue is ready. It's complete, finished. All that remains is implementation – or, as Peter says, unveiling. Like at a magic show, the real work of the trick is already done; all that has to happen is for the curtain the assistants are holding up to be dropped to the floor, revealing the astounding change that's already taken place. And the unveiling is scheduled for “the last time,” the final hour. All God asks of us is faith – faith to keep watching, faith not to turn around or leave the theater and miss the big reveal. Faith like a faith that makes a dangerous escape on an unknown forest road in the rain. Fr. Balakian himself said: “What saved me was not an unreserved belief in fate, but rather pure faith in providence. Therefore I had to walk with powerful faith toward final salvation.” So must we. And when we have that faith, we are protected by the power of God – that's what Peter says. Read it for yourself: We “by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:5). Our inheritance, our promised homeland, is securely stored in the heavens. But even better news is that you are just as securely safeguarded – watched over diligently and protected – as your inheritance. Keep living by faith, and the chance of missing it is zero. You have been chosen to be re-begotten into a new life with an inheritance waiting in store and a rescue operation that's in the wings – you are not neglected, not unseen. God has his eyes trained on you like a hawk, and nothing you go through goes unnoticed. And he will protect you for what's to come. And in the meantime, Peter says, we've been born again to “a living hope” (1 Peter 1:3). He doesn't say 'a dead hope,' one that's long since been crushed and defeated. He doesn't say 'an extinct hope,' one that came to pass but has gone by and is relevant no longer. He doesn't say 'an unborn hope,' one not even yet conceived, a hope in the future with no relation to now. He says 'a living hope' – alive and present here and now. Final salvation already exists, on the other side of the curtain, where we gaze in faith. And because of that, it totally changes the terrain, and totally changes who we are and how we live. Hope is a synonym for the Christian life. For the new identity you have as someone born again. You relate in faith, not to a passing society or a fleeting arrangement of the world, but to a God who has the final word – and has already whispered it behind the curtain. Our whole reborn existence is a living declaration of hope. Just like the Reverend Father Grigoris Balakian, whose escape from the train and life as a fugitive was possible because he “remained excited by the indestructible hope of salvation,” that's what your life is like. You must “walk with powerful faith toward final salvation.” You have every reason to be excited by an indestructible hope of salvation. Your whole life consists in exactly such a hope, right here, right now, alive and well and free. Peter's entire letter is going to unpack that for us, in so many different ways, as we'll see in the coming months. He'll teach us, as people who don't fit in, what it looks like when an “indestructible hope of salvation” is alive in us, here and now. In these few verses, he's just laid the groundwork. You may question your significance, you may feel excluded, you may wonder if there's a place for you anywhere, you may struggle to keep your head above the water, you may look around at all your fleeting things as they fall apart and become obsolete and you wonder if there's any real inheritance to be had or any hope to live for or any way to be free of who you've been. And the answer is yes. Through no effort of your own, no planning by you, God has “caused you to be re-begotten to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that's imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice,” in spite of any present trials! And with that ahead of us, as guaranteed by the living and abiding word of God through which our new life came, “blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” who took one look at us and had great mercy indeed (1 Peter 1:3-6). All praise and glory to God! “May grace and peace be multiplied to you” all. Amen. New River, New Garden: Sermon on Ezekiel 47-48 When I was a young lad, I remember some pretty good days. I remember, for instance, that my parents used to take me down across the Mason-Dixon Line, down just south of the Havre de Grace Marina at the lower stretches of the Susquehanna River before it feeds into the Chesapeake Bay. Dad – Randy – had a motorboat, a fine, reliable motorboat he knew how to handle like it shared his soul. Once or twice each summer, there we'd be, speeding atop the water, maybe on a day-trip, maybe camping on the islands. I can picture it now: beneath the ever-clouded heavens of blue and gold artistry, how we'd glide across the wide, glossy river, which gently flowed and rippled between the banks, with their lush, forested hills; their craggy, tree-spotted cliffs; their eerie graffiti eye surveying the river's flow; their high, outstretched bridges; their thin outposts of civilization. With the foliage and the soothing flow of such broad rivers, well, between that and this very land where we live – hey, it's no mistake they called our region the “Garden Spot of America” – well, they make me think of an old, old story. A story about another river and another... garden spot. I found this old, old story, you see, near the front of my Bible. There I read that “the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed” (Genesis 2:8). 'Eden' – it's a word that means 'delight.' A place on the primeval earth, as Genesis bids us imagine it, where God set up his home, his Holy of Holies, his palace, and gave it a garden courtyard. And in that holy place, he introduced his image, to till and work the land, to protect and expand the garden (Genesis 2:15). And this garden, we read, was full of life and beauty: “Out of the ground, the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food” (Genesis 2:9). Think of that – every tree! All the vegetation you can imagine, all the trees and all the bushes and all the flowers, with chirping birds and cute critters and all the rest. What's more, “the tree of life was in the midst of the garden” (Genesis 2:9). The hope of living forever in this beautiful garden, in total harmony with God and with nature, was assured by that tree, ready to sustain life. And how could this garden be so lush? Because there was a river flowing in from the heart of Eden proper, from the place where God himself, the Life-Giver, dwelled: “A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers,” the four mightiest rivers the ancient patriarchs could have dreamt of (Genesis 2:10-14). And with only one exception we weren't ready for, we had the free enjoyment of this whole green garden, to savor and taste and admire and simply be at peace (Genesis 2:16). It was idyllic. It was lively. It was spiritual – our home in the presence of God, in perfect balance with the world from which we were made. It was work without struggle, this steady and carefree tending to the garden. It was refreshing, it was relaxing; everything was so alive, so fresh, so healthful, so glory-soaked. In a word, it was paradise. It could have lasted. But it didn't. We refused to be satisfied with life in the garden – refused to live there on God's terms. We listened to the whispers of temptation, the ones that suggested greener pastures beyond what we could see. But there were no greener pastures – this garden was greenest. All the trees' fruit was ours to eat and savor, save one – so we chose to transgress for the sheer sake of transgression, chose our wisdom over God's. We thought we, the tenant gardeners, knew the garden better than the God who gave the growth (Genesis 3:1-7). Refusing to be satisfied, we became dissatisfied – with the garden, with each other, with the gaze of our loving God on our suddenly shameful vulnerability (Genesis 3:8-11). Our harmony with each other crumbled away into a chain of recriminations (Genesis 3:12-13). And it's no surprise the harmony between us and creation would follow suit: that there should be such a thing now as cursed and painful soil, a substitution of pain for pleasure, and a confrontation with the harsher side of the plant kingdom, these thorns and thistles (Genesis 3:17). The garden was good, very good, beyond very good; but we no longer were fit to tend it. “Therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life” (Genesis 3:23-24). It's really no surprise, then, that even the best gardens and best rivers we see around us fall short. Sure, in their better moments, they give us glimpses – dim reflections – of what was, what could have been, what should have been. But the blue-gray of the Susquehanna isn't perfect. It holds so much discarded refuse at its bottom. The “garden spot” around us isn't perfect. It's divvied up by developments. It doesn't always reliably yield what it could. It needs to be replenished and enriched from time to time. For our crops, we have to scrape them from the earth, wrest the growth from the clutches of a sometimes-unwilling patch of dirt. And through the land there flow the dull mud-hues of the Cocalico and other creeks. And those are the best-case scenarios. In Kenya, I saw the edges of the jungle – a reminder that this earth is not tame, but is filled with vibrant foliage and wrathful insects half the size of my fist. I danced from grass-tuft to grass-tuft on the wide open savannah in the eyes of a bemused herd of zebra. I wandered in and out from the presence of baboons, watched lions laze about in the moist heat and sticky blood and clouds of flies. But I also walked the streets, if they can be called that, of the Nairobi slums. And down the midst of the streets of the city, there flowed what I suppose you could call a river. Not of water, but of open sewage. Trash – bottlecaps, paper pulp, plastic bottles, discarded rubber tires – fills the 'river' and the 'land,' as goats and feral dogs roam sorrowfully between the rows of ramshackle shops and falling shingles. On the sides of the sewage ditch, some faint spots of green grow – certainly nothing “good for food” – and the rest of the ground is a firm and fruitless brown. But even that may hold more life than where a certain prophet named Ezekiel found himself. Out in the desert under the Middle Eastern sun. The only 'river' within reach was a product of human craftsmanship – a canal for transporting water from the mighty Euphrates to the smaller irrigation ditches carved through the hot soil, but a canal wide enough to sail down, if just barely. And Ezekiel's job, now that priesthood was no option, was borderline slave labor in hauling loads of silt from the canal, stopping it and the irrigation ditches from being clogged up with silt and debris and all manner of other things that would cut off the life-supply from Babylonian farmlands and garden plots. Ezekiel would be no stranger to cleaning out our church's downspout! And without this constant intervention, the water might be polluted; might not reach its destination. And what lay beyond it was often bare rock and desert and fruitless wilderness where we were never made to live. That, in fact, is the world we see around us – as much as the relative enjoyments of our “garden spot” and our forays to the wide rivers may obscure it from our sight. We live in a world of cursed ground. We live in a creation out of balance, and we out of balance with it. We live in a polluted place, often barren – and that was especially the experience of the ancient Israelites, who knew exactly what barren desert looked like. It's not enough for us to be the right people if we don't live in the right place, a life-giving and life-nurturing place, a place we can enjoy, a place for which we were made... a place we could have kept but abandoned through our pride and lust and greed. And so we keep fighting with creation, keep struggling to tend it, sometimes wage outright war against it... for our pride and lust and greed. And we spoil the earth. Cursed is the ground for our sake, and sometimes doubly cursed by our efforts, and far from home are we. It's a sad story, any story that opens in the garden and veers deep into dry desert. But that story is not done. Onto the scene walked a man, a man named Jesus. On these rocky, sin-cursed slopes, he set his beautiful feet, calling out to Zion the good news that their God really does reign, is coming to reign through him, that the kingdom is drawing near (Isaiah 52:7). He urged the people that God didn't want to curse them; he wanted to bless them, wanted to parent them, wanted them to live like it was that first week all over again. But human pride and lust and greed had built ways to profit from life far from the garden. And so the tenant laborers of the vineyard slew the Son of the Owner. On a lifeless tree between a dark sky and a cursed earth, they hung him 'til life left. But... he was the Life. He was the Vine. He was the Tree. And he there was no way he wouldn't flourish again. No mortal axe could thwart his fruitful bounty from sprouting anew forever in resurrection. Over the past couple months, we've been exploring – using the writings of the prophet Ezekiel as our lens – just what difference it makes that Jesus Christ is risen. Because Jesus Christ is risen, he lives as a New Shepherd over God's wayward, mistreated, rowdy flock; he judges between sheep and goats, weak and strong, and holds all accountable to keep peace while he feeds and leads us. Because Jesus Christ is risen, he transplants a new heart, soft and pliable to the will of God, in place of our stony and resistant heart of old. Because Jesus Christ is risen, he breathes a new Spirit down on our hopeless dry bones and bids us live again when all had been lost. Because Jesus Christ is risen, he binds two sticks in his hand, binds together nations, overcomes our fractured society with a new unity that only he can give. Because Jesus Christ is risen, he'll gain a new victory over all the collected forces of evil, even Gog and Magog, and share that new victory with us, to deliver us from evil forever. Because Jesus Christ is risen, he'll build a new temple in a new holy city – and as we saw last week, in some way, that temple Ezekiel saw is us – and it's an assurance that God will make his home in our midst and not leave; that God will set things right; that God has said he'd make us holy and will in fact do just that, for good. And yet for all that... how great is it really to have a new heart and a new Spirit, to live with a new unity under a new Shepherd, to enjoy a new victory and a new temple, if it's all still on cursed, lifeless ground? If the streams are still dry and polluted, if the crops still don't grow, if we have to see sewage ditches and garbage heaps, if the world isn't beautiful and isn't full of life and isn't yet where we belong... can all the rest really be where it ends? And so we come to the closing section of Ezekiel's vision, the last things he sees. A heavenly guide, you might remember, has been giving him a tour of this new temple, this rich representation of God's presence restored to the earth in our sanctified midst. In the heart of this temple, God has established his throne. And then Ezekiel sees his final sight of the temple: “He brought me back to the door of the temple, and behold, water was issuing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the temple faced east. The water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar. Then he brought me out by way of the north gate, and led me on the outside to the outer gate that faces east; and behold, the water was trickling out on the south side” (Ezekiel 47:1-2). Where's this water coming from? From the presence of God, somehow – and emerging from the temple as a thin stream. But not for long. “Going on eastward with a measuring line in his hand, the man measured a thousand cubits and then led me through the water, and it was ankle-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water, and it was knee-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water, and it was waist-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass through, for the water had risen. It was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be passed through. And he said to me: Son of man, have you seen this?” (Ezekiel 47:3-6). In other words: “Do you get it? Is it sinking in?” This thin trickle, in defiance of all physics, all geometry, all hydrodynamics, all the laws by which earthly things work, is, without any addition from precipitation, getting bigger and deeper and faster and stronger all at once: with no abatement of speed, the volume increases as it flows onward, multiplying like loaves and fishes in the Messiah's hand. This little trickle becomes a creek, becomes a brook, becomes a stream, becomes a mighty river, broadens like the Susquehanna. It's wider, faster, than the Cocalico Creek or the Chebar Canal. And no need to clean out the silt. But what will this river do? Ezekiel's going to find out. His guide, he says, “led me back to the bank of the river. As I went back, I saw on the bank of the river very many trees on one side and on the other” (Ezekiel 47:6-7). Those weren't there before! He didn't see those the first time; they're not a coincidence, they're an effect, an effect of the river miraculously enriching the soil. They sprang up faster than anything can grow, sprang up like creation all over again. That's what Ezekiel sees. And he doesn't just see one here or there. He sees fertility, sees vitality, seeping out through the land on either side of this river, so that the whole earth all around is chock-full of leafy trees and bushes and grass and flowers and all manner of beautiful things. And then his guide explains something: “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, and enters the sea; when the water flows into the sea, the water will be healed” (Ezekiel 47:8). Now, it sounds like just a geography lesson, but it's actually astonishing. The 'eastern region' means the mountainous eastern slopes beyond Jerusalem, which were notoriously devoid of precipitation. Dry as dry bones. And the 'Arabah' is the Jordan Rift Valley, which, along with the eastern slopes, were notorious for exceptional dryness, save for the Jordan River itself. So this river is going to flow over the dry mountains and water them, and into the Jordan Rift Valley and water it, and join forces or cross the Jordan River, and flow down... where? What sea? The Dead Sea. The most sterile place on earth, the lake where nothing can possibly live, where any fish, anything other than some exceptional bacteria, will inevitably die. This river that produces trees on its banks will flow through the driest places imaginable into the deadest places imaginable... and what happens? The water will be healed – healed of its saltiness, healed of its sterility, healed of its pollution, healed of its deadness. “And wherever the two rivers go, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be many fish. For this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may be healed; so everything will live wherever the river goes. … It will be fish of very many kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea” (Ezekiel 47:9-10). The Chebar Canal was wide enough to travel, but I doubt much lived in it. The Dead Sea certainly had nothing living in it. And yet because of this river, the Dead Sea will be a Sea of Life – will have biodiversity you can't even fathom! Every kind of fish that lives in the whole Mediterranean, and much more besides – it's there! And every swarming thing, every sort of life will flourish and thrive; there'll be no need to artificially stock these waters, no need to plant or sow on the riverbanks – it will teem with flora and fauna beyond our wildest dreams! If this is just a picture of the transformation of a valley in the Middle East, well, it may have made Ezekiel glad to hear it, but it wouldn't mean very much to us. But like we heard last week, the temple is a rich pointer to a reality beyond one spot on a map – and so is this river. As we keep listening to Ezekiel's guide, he tells us, “On the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing” (Ezekiel 47:12). These are no ordinary trees – these are super-trees, bearing fruit every month – not the summer months, not the spring months, but year-round fruit, unfazed by weather or climate, untouched by blight or rot, ungnawed by insects – in other words, perfect health. And every fruit will be fresh, every fruit will be edible, every fruit will be delicious and refreshing and good for sustaining life; and even the leaves have medicinal properties for the benefit of all who come near. These trees and this river, with all the fish and flowers and everything else, sounds like everything you could ever need! And if these lines sound familiar, there's a reason. How does the Bible's final chapter go? “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads” (Revelation 22:1-4). The trees Ezekiel sees – it's the tree of life. The beauty Ezekiel sees – it's growing out of uncursed ground. The river Ezekiel sees – it's “clear as crystal,” unpolluted, uncontaminated, never cloudy, never discolored. It brings life wherever it flows. Where this river flows from the throne of the Father and the Son, Eden sprouts all over again, and creation is made new – there's new life where once was dryness, and perfect blessing where once was a curse. In short, it's home. It's the home we were made for. It's a garden city – Ezekiel portrays an organized society arrayed around the temple precinct in this well-watered land (Ezekiel 47:13—48:34). John likewise sees it as a city, sees the river – not of filth, but of purity – flowing down the central street, sees all this civilization and natural beauty tied together in perfect balance. All society dwelling in a perfect paradise, organized in harmony in a pure creation, back in the garden – New Eden and New Jerusalem all in one, watered by the new river. No more flaming sword standing between us and the tree of life; nothing standing between us and healing, nothing standing between us and sustenance, nothing shielding our eyes from beauty. No more curse, no strife, nothing but wholeness in the presence of God. We'll bear his name on our foreheads, it says – in the Old Testament, that was the exclusive privilege of Israel's high priest, who alone could dare to enter the Holy of Holies, the hotspot of God's presence on earth. We each – you each – will be everything the high priest ever was, and more. We'll see our God face-to-face, as the whole garden-city will be a holy of holies. And those will be so much better than “pretty good days.” The river of his life-giving Spirit, which even now makes the water of life flow out of our hearts (John 7:38-39), will water all of creation and make it all the Garden Spot of God, resplendent with everything we lost and far more than we ever hoped to gain. And in this perfect world of satisfaction guaranteed, the name of it all will be: “The LORD is There” (Ezekiel 48:35). Does the resurrection of Jesus make a difference? Absolutely it does. It promises that here, where we live and where we die, home will yet be planted again – and in eternal health we'll gather at that ever-deeper, ever-broader river in his name, by his side... forever. “Let the one who thirsts come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price” (Revelation 22:17) – a free gift of grace for all whose robes are washed white in the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 7:14; 22:14). Hallelujah! What a home! What a hope! Hallelujah! Posted by JB at 1:40 PM No comments: New Temple: Homily on Ezekiel 40-46 The prophet was nearing his fiftieth birthday now. He could scarcely believe that he'd spent half his life in the lands of Babylon. He was older now than his hero Jeremiah had been when the letter came – we talked about that letter last Sunday. But Ezekiel thought now about the life he used to live, half a lifetime ago. How he'd dwelled in the land God had promised his ancestors – this day was, in fact, the anniversary of their crossing of the River Jordan. Ezekiel remembered his youthful adoration for the temple – his love of watching his father serve as a priest, his grandfather and uncles as priests, his yearning to serve as a priest himself. He recalled the day the Babylonians came and tore him screaming from Jerusalem – recalled the day he lost sight of the temple. He remembered the day the LORD came to him by the irrigation canal. He remembered the day he was given a vision of the temple one more time – and was horrified at the disgusting idolatry that filled its hallowed halls. And he remembered the day his neighbors heard the news of destruction. But it was just no temple any more. Ezekiel thought long and hard about it. And on this dry spring day when he thought his thoughts, he slipped away from the preparations for the Passover feast, scheduled to happen in a few days. Ezekiel slipped away, he found a secluded space out by the canal again, and he poured out his heart to his God. And then he felt it – an old familiar feeling, the sensation of being totally in the LORD's grasp. A dizziness descended, and adrenaline pounded through his veins, and before he knew it, he was... home (Ezekiel 40:1) – home in a grand divine vision. Home, not amidst smoldering ruins, not in a valley of dry bones, but home on a mountain that wasn't even there – a “very high mountain” he'd never seen before (Ezekiel 40:2). And thus begins the vision – one of the most perplexing passages in the whole Old Testament, and that's saying a lot! See, for all the rest of the book, Ezekiel stands with a mysterious “man whose appearance was like bronze, with a linen cord and a measuring reed in his hand” (Ezekiel 40:3) – in other words, a heavenly surveyor armed with measuring tape and a supersized yardstick. And the man takes him on a very detailed surveying tour of an unnamed city but especially the heart of the city, which is an exquisite temple complex, perfected in every way, bigger and better than Solomon's Temple, surrounded by a wall ten feet high and ten feet thick. Ezekiel goes on a tour inspecting this perfect temple, where God comes to dwell permanently; he receives detailed instructions, almost a new mini-Leviticus, to govern it; and the list of measurements, chambers, and all sorts of features is, to be totally honest, just exhausting. Go ahead, read it! And this really is a challenging passage to work with. Because, what exactly is this new temple? Is it the one the Jews will build when they return from their exile in Babylon? Well, Ezra and Nehemiah tell us all about that – and it doesn't measure up. Not even close. The half-hearted thing they build doesn't measure up at all – not even to Solomon's original, much less to this vision. Centuries later, Herod the Great expands the temple, tries to use this as a template – but still the Second Temple never comes close. And so a lot of people these days have made the guess that Ezekiel is seeing a literal Third Temple that will be built near the end by the people of Israel on the Temple Mount. That's popular among dispensationalist readers of the Bible today – this idea that it's a physical Jewish temple to be built within modern-day Jerusalem. But that doesn't actually add up either. The whole thing is just too big – not just the temple, but the description of districts around it. The Temple Mount is hardly the “very high mountain” Ezekiel sees – notice he avoids using the word 'Jerusalem' for this city he's seeing. The measurements of the temple in his vision aren't meant as a blueprint – there's no command to build, and most of the vertical measurements are just ignored, not to mention there's no mention of the materials its built out of. The activities of the temple include the Levitical priesthood and atoning sacrifices, both of which were abolished by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, according to the writer to the Hebrews. And Ezekiel narrates this vision right after the defeat of Gog, and when you compare that to Revelation, it doesn't leave much room for this temple to fit within history as we know it. All that suggests we should remember that the visions of the prophets were seldom straightforward – they don't peer through a window and see things other people will ever capture exactly on film. The visions of prophets are chock-full of symbols – and so is this mystery temple. It's meant to communicate a powerful message to Ezekiel, the dejected priest who never got to serve in the corrupted temple in Jerusalem that's now rubble; and it's meant to send that same message to the exiled Judeans who corrupted the First Temple. This is a vision of a temple that's kept pure – that's why there's so much emphasis on the priests stationed in each gate on guard duty. This vision is an elaborate way of picturing an alternate reality, a perfect temple where purity is actually taken seriously, where worship runs smoothly. This is the beautiful truth of which the real temple was only a shadow. And in this vision, Ezekiel beholds the glory of the LORD taking up permanent residence among the people – this is the sort of temple in which he could do that: “As the glory of the LORD entered the temple by the gate facing east, the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the temple. While the man was standing beside me, I heard one speaking to me out of the temple, and he said to me, 'Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of Israel forever, and the house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name...'” (Ezekiel 43:4-7). And he's told this message is to be told to the other exiles, “that they may be shamed of their iniquities” (Ezekiel 43:10). Ezekiel gets this vision on the tenth day of the first month in the Hebrew calendar – assuming he's using the same calendar, that's a few days before Passover. It's also the same day of the year that will eventually become Palm Sunday – the day Jesus enters Jerusalem as people hail him as king. According to the first three Gospels, it's the same day when Jesus goes to the Second Temple and announces God's judgment on it – the same day when he says that his own body is the real temple of God, which he'll tear down and raise up in three days (Matthew 21:12-14; 26:61). That's the day of Ezekiel's vision. And because the apostles recognize the church as Jesus' body on earth after the Ascension, they see the church itself as the earthly temple: “We are the temple of the living God” (2 Corinthians 6:16), that's what's written. There can be only one, and we're it. And then, when we read the end of the story, what comes after the final defeat of Gog and Magog? John repeats Ezekiel's promise that God would dwell among his people (Revelation 21:3), and then he sees the symbolic city with its gates and its walls, even bigger and grander than Ezekiel saw it, and yet “I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb” (Revelation 21:22), from whom flows the river that Ezekiel sees flowing from the temple in his vision – more on that part next Sunday. But this is what Ezekiel's glimpsing in a way that makes sense to him and his people. Which is why things are explained to him in terms from the old covenant, like continued atoning sacrifices and his type of priesthood, which are symbols pointing ahead to what Christ will bring. See, in a way, we are this new temple Ezekiel sees – though we're still under construction. And we are the priests who serve there. And the main point is this: All the pollution Ezekiel once saw in the temple will be done away with. This temple – the temple that we are – is bigger and more glorious than the one Solomon built, and we are made to dwell in God's holy city. More important than that, we are made to be the place where God sets up his throne. We are made to be filled with the glory of the LORD. And he has given us a promise, a promise that must have been sweet music to the exiles' ears: that he will “dwell in the midst of the house of Israel forever” (Ezekiel 43:7). His dwelling is here, in his church, and he will never leave us. One day, we'll see him face to face, and celebrate the feasts with him, the heavenly wedding banquet. Until then, his altar is still in his temple. Ezekiel's vision includes the altar. It also includes sacrifices, which the priesthood serving in this new temple will eat. Ezekiel beholds “the holy chambers, where the priests who approach the LORD shall eat the most holy offerings” (Ezekiel 42:13). He's told outright that “they shall eat the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering, and every devoted thing in Israel shall be theirs” (Ezekiel 44:19). In fact, the last thing Ezekiel sees in chapter 46, before what we'll talk about next week, is a tour of the kitchens where the sacred meals are prepared (Ezekiel 46:19-24). This morning, we approach the LORD at the altar of his new temple. And an offering is laid out unto God – the offering of the loaf and the cup, which Christ called his body and blood. But with thanksgiving to God, we will eat this offering, as the priests of the new temple. When we gather at this altar, when we eat these most holy offerings, be aware of this truth: that the glory of the LORD has committed to dwell in our midst forever, and bids us safeguard the purity of his beautiful temple – not a building, but a fellowship, where we worship our Father in spirit and in truth (cf. John 4:24). Thanks be to God. Amen. In the Meantime...: Sermon on Jeremiah 29 for Independence Day What do we do now? There's the question. If you've been here with us recently, we've been delving into the prophecies of Ezekiel, written from his exile in the lands of Babylonia to which he'd been carried away captive. And in his prophecies, he spoke of the many blessings that God would eventually bestow upon the people. He'd appoint them a new shepherd. He'd give them a new heart. He'd revive them, like dry bones come to life; he'd breathe his very own Spirit into them, so that they could live again. He'd restore them to where they belong and settle them in safety. And in the end, when the forces of evil empires all around the world finally gathered into one force to squelch their liberty, God himself would win the final fight and make everything okay for good. That's where we left off last week, with that prophecy – a prophecy about the mysterious “Gog, of the land of Magog” (Ezekiel 38:2). We surveyed the brokenness, the evil, the violence and injustice and dehumanizing bureaucracy in the world around us. And even though we're tempted to despair that it'll be with us forever, we learned from this prophecy that, in the end, it will have an expiration date – but we who belong to Christ will not. And so, knowing that these sufferings are not forever and that we will receive the plunder from those who have plundered us in this world-as-we-know it, we can endure with confidence. And it's all well and good to set our eyes on that distant day – or maybe, God willing, not so distant now – when these things will be made right. And it's good to take away the lesson about bearing patiently under the difficult things of this life. But is that all there is to do – to resist, to endure, to suffer? Or is there more? What do we do now? There, again, is the question. And I think, to answer it, we need to remember the story of where this prophet Ezekiel came from. Before he ever gave any prophecies, he was stolen from his home as a young man, dragged far from Jerusalem to a foreign land, where he and his people were made refugees and told to haul silt in the shadow of a pagan temple. In this unclean place, they wondered if it was even possible to worship their God, so far away from his holy land (Psalm 137:1-4). A number of Jewish prophets – or at least they said they were prophets – predicted it was only temporary, that God would destroy Babylon quickly, so they should be ready to run and rejoice. They maybe whispered that, when the time was right, they should be ready to help the Babylonian leaders on their way down – ready, in other words, to rise up. And so the people were torn – torn between believing these prophecies of a quick return, or surrendering to despair and languishing away in hopelessness. In the meantime, Judah was still there – as a client-state, under Nebuchadnezzar's thumb. And some of the other client states had been getting uppity and rebellious and had to be put down. The mighty king of Babylon had questions whether the puppet he'd installed on David's throne would be like them in this rebelliousness. And so Zedekiah sent a pair of ambassadors to the Babylonian court – Elasah and Gemariah – with plenty of tribute and plenty of assurances. But along with them, they brought copies of an open letter from a prophet back home, a message answering the deepest heartfelt questions of the Jewish exiles. Ezekiel was my age when he finally heard and read it, and it changed his life; his entire ministry was carried out in its light. See, the exiles wondered, “Should we be ready to run?” And to this, the letter of the Prophet Jeremiah had this resounding answer: “No!” And there were five basic things Jeremiah said to the people. First of all, they were to ignore the false prophets who were spreading false hope. “Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the LORD” (Jeremiah 29:8-9). These false prophets would, in fact, shortly be judged (Jeremiah 29:21-32). There is such a thing as false hope. And in this case, it was a hope that things would be easy and quick, instead of messy and slow. There are plenty of preachers who make the Christian life today out to be easy and quick – lots of blithe talk of “victorious living,” “your best life now,” and so forth – and, in fact, the preacher who first shared salvation with me said much the same thing. Thankfully, I didn't listen to that part! Because the truth is, that's a false prophecy. It's not easy; it's not quick. It's messy and slow – God's workings usually are, or at least seem so to us. So no, Jeremiah says, don't get ready to run. Second, Jeremiah does not want them to lose sight or to lose heart. Because, although the ready-to-run angle is a bad one, so is the moping-in-despair approach that seemed like the only other live option at the time. That's not right either, because just because life in Babylon isn't going to be over quickly, that doesn't mean it's a lost cause. God says through his prophet, “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. … I will gather you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile” (Jeremiah 29:10,14). So they shouldn't lose heart – God has not abandoned them there – or lose sight of the eventual promise. Third, Jeremiah encourages them to persist in prayer. They may wonder if prayer is even something they can do in Babylon, where they feel too far away to be heard – can they sing the LORD's songs there, after all (cf. Psalm 137:4)? But God is saying to them that they can and should pray; they should use this opportunity to reconnect with God, as a matter of fact. “I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD – plans for peace and not for evil, plans to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:11-13). He tells them outright, “pray to the LORD” (Jeremiah 29:7). Never give up on prayer. Never. Fourth, Jeremiah gives them some more radical advice. Their two options before had been a stark contrast. On the one hand, they could live a sparse life in their tents, ignoring all the concerns of this world and being ready to run, focused on staying unencumbered for their impending escape – think of all the apocalyptic cults who avoid education, jobs, marriage, stable living, because they're convinced the end is so nigh that there's no point to any of it. That was one option. Or, on the other hand, they could give up – they could resign themselves to a meaningless life in Babylon, abandoned by their God, and sit down and waste away in hopelessness. And then, too, they would live a sparse life in their tents, ignoring all the concerns of this world because they're too down to do otherwise. The result looks almost the same. But Jeremiah gives them radical advice. Listen to this: “Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives, and have sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there, and do not decrease” (Jeremiah 29:5-6). In other words, live as normal a life as you can. Yes, you've been uprooted; yes, you're living amidst pagan idols and mocking soldiers and every other depressing thing. Yes, you want to get out or give up. But no – no, take back normal. Do the normal things of life. Make a home, make it pretty, have a family, and keep holding on. But the fifth thing Jeremiah says, in the heart of his letter, is probably the most revolutionary idea there is. He writes, “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (Jeremiah 29:7). Think about what that means. There are other exiles living alongside them from other nations, and if there's one hope that all of them have, it's that Babylon will be destroyed. And that's the hope that the false prophets are stoking – they can't wait to see Babylon come to ruin, to downfall. Its destruction is their chance for freedom, after all. I mean, this is the city that oppresses them, the city that lords injustice over them. Why should they wish anything good on their new unwanted neighbors, their captors? Why should they want this society, to which they're aliens and treated as such, to prosper? And yet that's exactly what Jeremiah says, as a word from the LORD. It's not easy for them to hear, but he tells them to actively seek to make Babylon a success – to collaborate with their captors for the common good of all. They should pray for it – pray for the city, pray for the soldiers, pray for Nebuchadnezzar and his court. They should act kindly toward the Babylonians, not out of servile fear, but out of the will of God. They should try to make Babylon a better place, a more prosperous and peaceful place. The word Jeremiah uses – 'shalom' – it's a broad Hebrew word that suggests not only peace, but harmony and wellness. Comprehensive healthfulness and prosperity. That's what Jeremiah wants to see the exiles work toward and pray for – for Babylon. Because, as they say, a rising tide lifts all boats: since the Jews are here for the long haul, they should try to make Babylon a more healthy and prosperous society, because that will make them more healthy and prosperous, too. Yes, the big deliverance is on the distant horizon; but in the meantime, work for Babylon's benefit. It's a crazy and radical thought, one that set Ezekiel free for his prophetic ministry – once a vision of God made him see that it was true. We talked about that at the end of April. But the influence and impact of Jeremiah's letter didn't end there. No, those words have echoed throughout time. Hundreds of years later, when Jeremiah's LORD walked the soil of the promised land himself, it was advice too often forgotten for a people under Roman rule. And yet his apostles learned from him, the Crucified and Risen Teacher whose death and life set them free, and so they encouraged the early Jesus-followers to be a blessing so they could share the blessing; to “seek peace and pursue it;” to focus on doing good, yes, even to a society that would treat them as strangers, foreigners, aliens, exiles (1 Peter 3:9-17). And then fast-forward many more centuries – about 2300 years after Jeremiah wrote that letter on parchment and handed it to Elasah and Gemariah – and zoom across the ocean to lands yet unseen. In this land, there lived thirteen colonies, established under the distant rule of the British crown. Many – not all, but many – of those who lived in these places would have described themselves as Christians, as followers of Jesus, as heirs of the prophets like Ezekiel and Jeremiah. And they hadn't stopped reading Jeremiah's letter. Their preachers still turned back to this ancient note, with its advice for living in Babylon. But they didn't see it as out-of-date. There was one preacher, a 28-year-old pastor named Joseph Sewall – his dad Samuel was a repentant Salem witch-trial judge and one of the first abolitionists in colonial New England – and Joseph preached on this message. He didn't see it as limited to Babylon, but as good for all societies, all families – after all, he said, “Civil societies consist of particular families combined and associated.” He wanted to see families reformed, so that civil society itself, the society of Massachusetts where he lived, could be reformed. And here's more of what Joseph Sewall said: Now, every man is under strong obligations to seek the prosperity and the welfare of the community which he belongs to. God commanded his people of old to seek the peace of the city whither he had caused them to be carried away captives, and to pray unto the Lord for it, Jer. 29:7. … No man is born for himself alone, but also for his country. And it should be everyone's ambition to be a blessing to the public; and in nothing can we more truly promote the public weal than by endeavoring that true piety may flourish; that the kingdom of Christ which is righteousness, peace, and joy may be set up and established. True religion is the glory, the safety, the happiness of a people. So our lives aren't ours alone. They're God's, first and foremost, of course, but also with “strong obligations to seek the prosperity and the welfare of the community” where God has planted us. Our goal is to be a “blessing to the public,” to “promote the public weal,” the public common good. After all, if it was true in Babylon for a foreign people in exile, how much truer does it have to be here, in this nobler society? A few years later, a 25-year-old preacher named Thomas Foxcroft, grandson of a former governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, used this passage to encourage colonists to pray for the public good of their fellow neighbors in the New World – after all, he said, “God expects their intercessions, and the public has a just title to the benefit of them,” and in praying for the public good, “they,” the godly, “will consult their own peace and welfare,” because if God answers their prayers, “they will have their share in the public tranquility and prosperity: the prospect whereof should encourage 'em to prayer.” In 1748, an elderly New England pastor named Nathanael Eells pointed to this verse to argue that the influence of the godly is a support to “the peace and order of this world,” and “is no enemy to the public peace, to the well-ordering of the state, but a friend to them.” And twelve years later, Eells' successor in the pulpit of Slatington, Connecticut, one Rev. Joseph Fish, dealing with a fractured church and fractured town, offered these words against the partisan nonsense weighing his society down: A party spirit is a dangerous evil. … Should any plead, that the constitution is weak, the government bad, and the rulers tyrannical, all this won't legitimate a party spirit, nor justify its ruling, so long as there is a public common good, upon the securing of which the safety of individuals, under such a government, may be obtained. The holy religion that God has taught his people is of such a generous temper that it not only forbids their touching the public peace but requires them to seek and promote it, even under an idolatrous and tyrannical magistrate. Hear the direction and charge of the God of Israel to that people, in the Babylonish Captivity: And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace. All parties and sects, however they may differ in sentiments as to other matters, are hereby taught to be tender of the public safety of any state that gives them protection. … How unreasonable then, as well as hurtful, is the indulgence of a party spirit in a well-founded Christian government? These are the things people were hearing from the colonial pulpits – messages brought from Jeremiah's advice. The godly, the people of the church, are to be committed to the public good, to actively “seek and promote it” – if that holds true in Babylon, how much more in these thirteen colonies, they reasoned? That is the will of God: to settle down, to live peacefully, to work for the betterment and prosperity of the community where God has placed us – not to wall ourselves off from our neighbors, not to shun them, but, to the extent possible while worshipping God and following his ways, to be actively involved in promoting the public good for everyone – for Jew and Gentile, for black and white, for young and old, for rich and poor, for Christian and Muslim and all the rest, in a healthier and more prosperous society. Sixteen years after Joseph Fish preached against “party spirit,” there were parties in the colonies who had come to believe that King George III and his Parliament had plans for evil and not for peace; that their policies were so harmful to the public good and the welfare of colonial society that it had become intolerable. It had, in fact, become time to stop being “colonial society” and instead to become a confederation of “free and independent states” – not out of malice, but out of a concern for the public good. And so representatives from these thirteen states met together in Philadelphia, and 241 years ago today, they unanimously declared their independence. Two days later, they formally ratified an explanation of their decision. They felt it had become “necessary” for them to do it, in the name of “self-evident” truths – chiefly, the equality of people with respect to the “unalienable rights” with which we all are “endowed by [our] Creator,” such as “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” The role of a government, they said, is to “secure these rights” – governments are only instruments, and when they become a hindrance to the public good as measured by these unalienable rights, a society has not only the right but the “duty to throw off such government and to provide new guards for their future security.” The former government under King George didn't serve their public good – that was, in fact, the colonists' first complaint, that “he has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.” They had many other complaints as well. The king nullified their representative assemblies. The king tried to stop immigration into the colonies. He limited their free trade with the rest of the world. And much more. As the colonists saw it, the only way for them to “seek the welfare of the city,” to further the public welfare of the thirteen colonies, was to become free and independent of a king like that. And at the end, they “appeal[ed] to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of [their] intentions.” How he'll answer them on the last day, I won't profess to know. But as Americans celebrate Independence Day, it behooves us to ask, as Christians living in these United States yet looking forward to the day of Gog's defeat: What do we do in the meantime? We know that all kings and kingdoms are temporary – yes, even America, and even our Constitution and our vaunted independence. All these are subject to Christ's lordship, and we must never forget the difference. And yet Christ, the “Great God our King,” bids us to “seek the welfare of the city... and pray to the LORD on its behalf,” because in the betterment and health and harmony and beauty and success of our community, that's where we'll find ours, too, as we go through this life in the meantime (Jeremiah 29:7). That's true when America is an easy place for believers to get along. It's also true when America looks more like Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon, as I think it so often does these days. In either case, God calls us to seek the welfare of our community – to make it fare well, a better and healthier place, a place full of more shalom for all. This week, I want to challenge you to do that. Put aside any “party spirit” you might have – Joseph Fish would insist on no less! – and get out there with your neighbors. You have not been born for yourself alone, nor have you been born again for yourself alone, but to be “a blessing to the public,” as Joseph Sewall would say. Make this community healthy and beautiful, make it peaceful and prosperous, make it a “sweet land of liberty” indeed, in Jesus' name – for “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Corinthians 3:17). Amen. Living Out a Living Hope: Sermon on 1 Peter 1:6-25... Born Again to a Living Hope: Sermon on 1 Peter 1:1... In the Meantime...: Sermon on Jeremiah 29 for Inde...	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1926
__label__cc	0.734028	0.265972	Foreign Tourist Arrivals Drop By 10 Percent In 2016 17/03/2017 J&C Admin 2192 Views Tourism Asean Source: Vientiane Times The number of foreign tourists visiting Laos dropped for the first time in 2016 after several successive years of visitor growth, newly compiled statistics suggest. Laos registered average annual growth in foreign tourist arrivals of 10.7 percent on average over the past five years. But last year, just over 4.23 million foreign visitors came to the country – a drop of 10 percent compared to 2015, according to statistics supplied by the Tourism Development Department of the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism. Collectively, visitors from the other nine Asean member countries dropped by about 14 percent to just over 3 million people. Tourists from the Asia Pacific region dropped by 11 percent to just over 3.9 million people, and visitors from the Americas dropped by 3 percent to just 86,211 people. Visitors from Thailand and Vietnam, the main sources of foreign visitors to Laos, dropped significantly by more than 400,000 and 100,000 people respectively. An official in charge of the department’s analysis section gave several possible reasons for the downturn in visitor numbers. He explained that Thai authorities had been encouraging people to take tours in their homeland by offering special incentives. These included allowing Thai nationals who spend their vacation in the country to claim a reduction in their personal income tax corresponding to what they spent while on holiday. This was believed to have resulted in a decline in Thai visitors to Laos. “Thais who take holidays in their own country can use the receipts obtained for their expenses to claim a reduction in the tax they pay,” said the official, who asked not to be named. Additionally, the number of foreign tourists coming to Laos in previous years was boosted by Vietnamese workers entering the country on tourist visas. But governments within Asean, of which Laos is a member, have tightened measures to regulate foreign workers, which is believed to have discouraged Vietnamese workers from coming to Laos, thus contributing to a drop in the number of Vietnamese entering Laos on tourist visas. The increasing cost of living in Laos could also be a reason for the decline, the official said, adding that living costs in neighbouring countries like Thailand were lower than in Laos. He also observed that Laos needs to do more to attract tourists from Muslim countries such as by providing prayer rooms in public places along with promoting halal restaurants, saying that the absence of such facilities, especially in the provinces, could discourage Muslims from visiting Laos. Statistics suggest that visitors from Muslim-majority countries like Brunei and Indonesia dropped by 44 percent and 17 percent to just 484 and 5,010 visitors respectively in 2016. In addition, Lao tourist authorities need to do more to better promote tourism, such as by creating an official comprehensive website where all tourism-related information is available. This should include tourist attractions, transportation, accommodation and related costs, the official said, adding that the absence of such a website makes things difficult for visitors. “We also need to create an online tourism calendar so that people can check when and where a cultural event or festival will take place throughout the year as foreigners need to arrange their holidays in advance,” the official said. He added that the Tourism Development Department is seeking comments from other departments regarding the reasons for the drop in tourist numbers in order to seek common grounds and take steps to remedy the situation. Tour operators have occasionally commented that a lack of variety in tourist activities, underdeveloped facilities at tourist sites, and the absence of direct flights to many countries appear to discourage some people and are factors that should be addressed. However, the number of tourists from some regions has increased, although by a small amount. Visitors from Europe, and Africa and the Middle East, increased by 2 percent and 6 percent last year to 221,952 people and 11,263 people respectively. Can Tourism Boost Lao’s Economy? Death From Below In The World’s Most Bombed Country ← Young People Line Up For Startup Presentations Almost 9,000 Newly Registered Vehicles in Only Two Months → Nong Khai’s Aquarium – A Closeup Look At The Mekong River Fish 17/08/2011 J&C Admin Comments Off on Nong Khai’s Aquarium – A Closeup Look At The Mekong River Fish 20/03/2012 J&C Admin 2 Tree Top Explorer – A Great Adventure ! 06/07/2012 J&C Admin Comments Off on Tree Top Explorer – A Great Adventure !	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1928
__label__wiki	0.686617	0.686617	The Knutson Laboratory Research on Iron Metabolism Lab Director Now accepting applications for new PhD students Knutson Lab Group Photo Supak Jenkitkasemwong Supak received her B.S. in Biology at the Chulalongkorn University in Thailand in 2005. Supak joined the Knuston lab in summer 2007 and received her M.S. in Nutrition in summer 2009. Her thesis focused on the iron exporter ferroportin and its expression in response to copper deficiency and iron loading using cell culture and rodent models. Supak has continued her Ph.D. in Nutritional Sciences in the Knutson lab. Her research focuses on the physiologic role of ZIP14 in iron metabolism and structure-function analyses of Zip14. Supak received her Ph.D. degree in 2013. Wei Zhang Wei received his B.S. from China Agricultural University with a major in Food Quality and Safety in 2010. Due to his interest in molecular nutrition and his career goal of becoming a faculty member, he joined the Knutson lab in 2010 as a Ph.D. student in the Nutritional Science Doctoral Program. His research currently focuses on identifying mammalian iron transporters and studying iron transporters in the placenta. Richard Coffey Richard received his B.S. in Nutritional Science from the University of Florida in the spring of 2011. After graduation he joined the Knutson lab in pursuit of a PhD in Nutritional Science. His research interests include the mechanisms of pancreatic iron transport as well as the effects of iron deficiency and overload on the pancreatic expression of genes involved in diabetic pathology. Katie received her B.S. from Cornell University with a major in Animal Science in 2004 and a Master’s of Science in Nutrition and in Animal Science from North Carolina State University in 2007. Her thesis work focused on the nutritional influences on the development of urolithiasis in giraffe and goats. After working for the next year with amino acid supplementation in the newborn pig at NCSU, she joined the Animal Nutrition Center team at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in 2008. Katie is currently the Nutrition Laboratory Specialist in the Department of Animal Health. Her position includes laboratory analysis of feeds for quality control, and a wide diversity of nutritional research across species, based on practical concerns, including work with amphibians, aquatic species, and exotic browsing herbivores, both ruminant and monogastric. Katie joined the Knutson lab in August of 2012. She is a Ph.D. student in Nutritional Sciences, with research focusing on the development and mitigation of iron overload disorder in black rhinoceros held under human care. Lizzie Paulus Lizzie earned a B.A. in English, a B.A. in Film and Media Studies, and a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Florida in the spring of 2008; she then earned an MPhil in Film Studies at the University of Cambridge in the summer of 2009 and an MFA in Creative Writing, majoring in poetry, in the spring of 2013. She joined the Knutson Lab in the spring of 2014 as an MS student in Food Science and Human Nutrition. Her thesis research focuses on the effect of manganese status on the expression of metal-ion transporters in mouse liver and intestine. Undergraduate Volunteers Paridhie Patel Paridhie is an undergraduate student in the FSHN department with a major in nutritional sciences . She started volunteering in the Knutson lab , working with Chia-Yu, in May 2011 and will continue through her senior year. Paridhie is also a pre-dental student with plans to attend dental school in 2013. She is from Melbourne, Florida and her hobbies include tennis, basketball, traveling, cooking, playing piano, and going to the beach. Andrew Duarte Andrew is a 4th year undergraduate majoring in Applied Physiology and Kinesiology with specialization in exercise physiology. He started volunteering in the Knutson lab, working with Supak, in June 2011 and will continue through his senior year. Andrew is a pre-med student with plans to attend medical school in 2013. He is from Coral Springs, FL and his interests are working with animals, athletic training, and traveling. Lizzie Akselrud Lizzie is an undergraduate student in the FSHN department majoring in food science and human nutrition, as well as minoring in Russian. She started volunteering in the Knutson lab , working with Wei, in August 2012 and plans to continue through her senior year. Lizzie is a pre-med student, hoping to attend medical school in 2014. She is from Coral Springs, Florida and her hobbies include tennis, running, traveling and going to the beach. Hyeyoung Nam Hyeyoung received her M.S. in Food Chemistry from Kon-Kuk University in South Korea in 2003. She joined the Knutson lab in fall 2005 as a Ph.D. student in the Nutritional Science Doctoral Program. She received her Ph.D. degree in 2010. During her Ph.D., she became interested in diabetes research related to iron overload disorders. Currently, she is a research fellow, working with Dr. Donald McClain in the Endocrinology Department at the University of Utah. Ningning Zhao Ningning Zhao received his B.S. degree in sports science and M.Ed. degree in exercise biochemistry from Beijing Sport University in China. Due to his strong interests in molecular nutrition and iron metabolism, he joined Dr. Knutson’s lab in 2006 and received his Ph.D. degree in 2010. He is now working as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Caroline Enns at Oregon Health & Science University. Joeva Barrow (formerly Joeva Hepburn) Joeva graduated from the combined Master’s of Science and Dietetic Internship program in 2008 at the University of Florida. Her thesis work, under the guidance of Dr. Mitchell Knutson, focused on characterizing the use of a copper chaperone protein as a potential indicator for copper homeostasis. Joeva later became certified as a Registered Dietitian (RD) and is now currently working towards her Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Florida. Lin Zhang Lin received his B.S degree in biotechnology at the Anhui Normal University in China. After graduation, he spent 5 years in the State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering in Shanghai as a research assistant. Lin joined the Knutson lab in summer 2010 and has been doing research on the cellular iron metabolism in hepatocytes. Lin’s project is focused on identifying molecular mechanisms that hepatocytes use to take up iron from transferrin, the iron-transport protein in plasma. Lin received his Master’s degree in summer 2012. Chia-Yu Wang Chia-Yu received her B.S. from National Taiwan Normal University with double majors of Nutrition and Health Education. She worked with Dr. Hiromi Gunshin for two years at UMass Amherst and joined Knutson Lab in 2008. Her research interests include the mechanisms of iron acquisition by the liver and heart and the pathophysiology of iron cardiomyopathy. Chia-Yu received her Ph.D. degree in 2012. UF Food Science & Human Nutrition EWIC 2014 International BioIron Meeting – 2015 ILSI Future Leader awards bioiron East-to-West Iron Club ewic ilsi meeting publications Copyright © KnutsonLab.org	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1930
__label__cc	0.733646	0.266354	On the Job with J-School Graduates On the Job blog features the new careers and advice from recent graduates of the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications. If you would like to be featured, please email jschool@ku.edu. Hallie Holton Account Executive, Hillsboro Hops Graduation year: 2017 Biography: My name is Hallie and I am a 2017 J-School graduate. I grew up in Sammamish, Washington and now live in Portland, Oregon. I chose KU because I fell in love with Lawrence and for my love of college basketball. My love of sports is what eventually led me to my career today. Outside of work, I enjoy trying new restaurants, hiking and going to concerts. How did you get your current job? I’m an account executive for the Hillsboro Hops baseball team, a Single-A Short Season affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks. I grew up around baseball and always wanted to work in it in some capacity, but I wasn’t able to land anything in the industry after graduation. After working for a year at Pennington & Company in Lawrence, Kansas, I took a job with a collegiate summer league team in Rochester, New York. My experience there as an assistant general manager is what led me to pursue jobs in Minor League Baseball. I researched teams in areas that I could see myself moving to and contacted general managers. I had one strong ally in the Northwest League who was an advocate for me and helped connect me with different teams! What do you like best about your job? As a Single-A Short Season team, the best part about working at this level is the opportunity to have your hands in every aspect of the organization. Our front office staff is only about 15 employees, and so while my main and first focus as an account executive is ticket sales, I have other responsibilities as well. As an account executive, I am responsible for prospecting and landing new business clients for group outings, hospitality events or ticket packages. In addition to sales, I work in the ticketing office—organizing will call tickets for each game day—and help plan promotion nights during the season. Day-to-day, I do mostly out-bound sales. I work with clients via email, by appointment or over the phone. What I like most about my job is the variety of tasks that are included in my role. Selling is my priority, but unlike larger sports organizations, my role isn’t nearly as specialized—I have the freedom to do work outside of sales. How has the J-School prepared you for the workforce? The J-School prepared me for the workforce by providing me with a variety of courses within the Strategic Communications track. I feel like I know basic elements of design, research and data gathering tactics, to the structure and roles of an account management team. Being able to apply my knowledge in a variety of areas shows the versatility of the Strategic Communications emphasis. What advice would you give to journalism students? No opportunity is a wasted opportunity. Take initiative, get involved and work hard. Vanessa Gonzales Associate Account Executive, The Marketing Store Biography: Vanessa Gonzales is a new Chicago resident, working at The Marketing Store’s retail experience team for McDonald’s. Her previous advertising experience included account internships with Sullivan Higdon & Sink and Bernstein-Rein. How did you get your current job? I worked enough internships and class projects to give me the right kind of experience matched with lots of networking and internet-stalking (reaching out to strangers on LinkedIn). In addition, my exposure to McDonald's during my internship at Bernstein-Rein was a unique advantage in my interview. What do you like best about your job? I work on the retail experience team for McDonald's as an Associate Account Executive. I manage and build relationships with our clients, while leading creative teams to execute the right kind of messaging along the customer journey at McDonald’s. One day might include a tasting and photo shoot for a new menu item, and another day might be preparing for a client presentation. How has the J-School prepared you for the workforce? Working on group projects so heavily during my four years really prepared me for the tight timelines and the hustle and bustle of my career. In addition, building a strong foundation in writing and research was crucial as I continue to develop as a thinker and communicator when problem solving each day. What advice would you give to journalism students? Never settle and keep pushing for new opportunities or ways to capitalize on current ones. Take advantage of office hours and asking for feedback. When networking or going to office hours, come prepared and have a goal in mind. And most importantly, be clear in what you want when talking to people who can help get you to where you want. I think it's great to have certain mentors where you tell them you have no idea what you're doing (thanks, Dr. Chen!) and key people in your network where you are clearer with your goals. Ashleigh Lee Internal Communication Associate, Garmin Biography: I majored in journalism with emphasis on both news and information and strategic communications during my undergrad. I worked at the University Daily Kansas as a photographer and photo editor for most of my time at KU. After graduating, I moved to Kansas City and worked at a few different companies in various communication/client relations positions before coming to Garmin in September 2018. I am also getting my master's at the Edwards Campus in Integrated Marketing Communications–showing that KU Journalism is one of the best programs in the nation! How did you get your current job? I worked at DST at the time, and the company was going through layoffs, which led me to start looking on LinkedIn for other opportunities. Garmin was hiring for a brand-new position, and I knew that I would be a good fit thanks to my journalism background and experiences. What do you like best about your job? I work with the senior internal communications specialist on all internal and corporate messaging: digital displays, corporate handbooks, the internal blog and so much more for clients like HR, facilities, security, investor relations, etc. across all of our offices around the world. I enjoy getting to see all the different projects that our company does across all the offices. Every office has different needs and requests, and it's all about how you meet deadlines and balance everything. How has the J-School prepared you for the workforce? The J-School prepared me to tackle so many different types of projects and clients. No one thing will ever be the same, and the types of classes offered as an undergrad helped me understand that early on. What advice would you give to journalism students? Be flexible. Your post-grad path may not be what you envisioned, but it will all work out how it's supposed to. Vicky Díaz-Camacho Community Reporter, Kansas City PBS Biography: Vicky is a journalist born in Los Angeles and raised in El Paso, Texas, who is now based in Kansas City. She's dedicated to telling stories about culture, art and music. That interest sprouted from a fascination in listening to her grandfather's stories, specifically of fitting in, struggle and victory, and from poverty to the American dream. Her work has been featured in local, national and international news and arts publications such as NPR, KCUR, KNEON Magazine and Houzz. She focuses on cultural dialogue and its impact on art, design, music and policy. She is a trained copy editor and multimedia reporter. Her work has been used in multiple platforms and includes radio features, data blitzes, newscasts, breaking news online and in print. She's the community reporter at Kansas City's PBS magazine, Flatland. There she leads curiousKC, a community-powered reporting effort that invites Kansas Citians to ask questions and investigate with the journalist. Before that, she was the data journalist/research director at the Kansas City Business Journal, where she wrangled data to produce informative business coverage on topics ranging from minority homeownership to Kansas City barbecue. How did you get your current job? Patience and persistence. I had applied several times for other positions at Kansas City PBS that didn't align with my skills. Then I saw the opening for a community reporter and knew it was a potential fit. I'd already worked a few jobs in the journalism field that fit like oversized shoes and one that fit perfectly – that one was in public media. I'm grateful to the Kansas City PBS editor who met with me before the official interview. He believed in my work and helped make the case that I should be their community reporter. What do you like best about your job? In a nutshell, I connect with people, listen to them and report on issues they care about. I manage a publicly led question-and-answer effort Kansas City PBS calls curiousKC. I do lots of public engagement, active listening and keep my finger on the pulse of current events and local conversations. I'm on a quest to find what people – all voices – care about. I do meaningful local journalism. This job fits the public media mission I hold so dear, which is to create, communicate and curate content that "educates, inspires and entertains." My particular role flips journalism on its head and lets the audience and readers weigh in or fill in the blank. In effect, we work with the public to gain a better understanding of what they wonder or worry about. Some days I dig through government records or library archives, other days I'm interviewing research experts and booking interviews. My job is fueled by and made possible by the creative minds here in the newsroom. We get to make sense of information a number of different ways: data visualizations, videos, radio segments, historical timelines and the traditional article. At the end of the day, I get to produce informative pieces for the public knowledge, providing a service that not only engages but also edifies. How has the J-School prepared you for the workforce? I give credit to the professors who believed in me and challenged me. There's a colloquial word in Spanish that explains the kind of person I am: trucha. Looslely translated, that means "vigilant." But I can also be shy, so being in a new town at a new school in 2013 was difficult. All I needed was that spark. Shout out to Lisa McLendon, copy editing professor extraordinaire, who showed how I could channel my meticulous nature into a profession. A huge thanks to Pam Fine, who made me feel heard and valued and who pushed back and challenged me to do better work. My advisers (miss you Kevin and Kelli!) were also crucial to my development. When I doubted, they encouraged. They made sure to help me find support, even financial support through scholarships. And my first job when I moved to Lawrence was for the J-School career center, so I have to give it credit there because seeing the list of opportunities gave me hope. What advice would you give to journalism students? Journalism takes heart and you have it. Yes, you will feel drained, and at times, second guess what you're doing. You are not alone. Also, I must add a plug for self-care; it is so important. Take a mental health day after a long news cycle because what we do can be emotionally difficult. Take pride in the work you do – whether it is music journalism or breaking news. You're making a difference and shedding light on something perhaps others may not have. When you feel like you're drowned out or tired, recall the moments when you made a difference through your work. Think about 1 a.m. pizza or doughnuts in the newsroom, laugh-crying at how long production takes surrounded by dedicated, like-minded people. It wouldn't be the same without them, right? Your voice is unique because of your personal story and passion – and this is what makes this profession so special. Make new friends – people unlike you, people with different backgrounds – and take the time to simply listen. Ask for help. When you practice that in life, you'll do better at your job. Finally, remember to support fellow journalists along the way because we maximize our impact when we work together. Pa'lante, mi gente. Nathan Mize Owner, Drone Lawrence & Social Media Coordinator, Southwind Biography: I’m a fourth-generation Jayhawk from the great town of Atchison, Kansas. I’m extremely grateful that I knew I wanted to attend the University of Kansas at such a young age because it turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Growing up, I loved to write. I remember writing short stories in elementary and middle school, and feeling like it was the start of my creative journey, even though I didn't exactly know what that meant yet. Throughout high school, I was always enthralled with the world of social media and crafting my online presence. The first opportunity I had to work in the field of social media was running the accounts of my high school, Maur Hill-Mount Academy. While my only responsibilities were to update our followers on scores from sporting events, I knew that I wanted to be surrounded by social media in a professional setting during or after college. My junior year of college, I was hired as the social media editor for the University Daily Kansan, which was an experience I’ll forever be grateful for. It was at the UDK where I came up with the idea for Drone Lawrence, which originally started out as a creative outlet for my main passions of flying drones and editing. I never expected it to turn into a business, but luckily, I still love droning and see it as a hobby. I have multiple clients in the Lawrence area, and I’m continuing to grow the Drone Lawrence name. Thanks to this, I was able to land a social media coordinator position at Southwind in Lenexa, Kansas, in which I’ve been at since January. How did you get your current job? As far as Drone Lawrence goes, I created the business so it wasn’t too hard to get the job. But I got my job at Southwind through my online presence and past creative work. If I never created Drone Lawrence, I don’t think I would be in the position I am today at Southwind. What do you like best about your job? My work at Drone Lawrence mainly consists of meeting with clients, understanding their vision and then capturing the best possible shots for them. The editing process is the most fun for me, where I can take the aerial footage and make it stand out on social media. My work at Southwind consists of managing seven different 1-800-Got-Junk franchises social media accounts, as well as You Move Me Kansas City. What I love most about both of my jobs is the creative freedom I have. While there are certain guidelines that might need to be followed per request by the client, I always feel that I work best when I can create something in my own style. I am lucky to have found a job so early in life where I feel like my work is important. How has the J-School prepared you for the workforce? The J-School prepared me in ways that I didn’t even know until after I graduated. While the school curriculum itself is important for valuable skills in the workforce, the J-School gives you all the tools you need to go out there and do it yourself. The capstone campaigns class is a great example of this, as it combines everything you’ve learned the previous four years and throws you into a real-life situation with a real-life client. The J-School and college, in general, can provide you with many different tools in order to succeed in the workforce, but what really matters is how you use those tools and build upon them. What advice would you give to journalism students? It’s OK to not have everything figured out going into senior year and even right when you graduate. Everyone's path is different. Don’t settle for a job that you can easily get if you’re not doing the work you love. Keep building your portfolio and people will notice! Taylor Austin Public Relations Coordinator, State Fair of Texas Biography: I was born in Topeka, Kansas, but moved to Bentonville, Arkansas, when I was 13 years old. I loved Arkansas but decided to branch out and attend the University of Kansas to major in journalism on the strategic communication track and minor in business. As the first Austin to attend college and only knowing a handful of people in my class, I quickly got involved in my sorority, Panhellenic, Student Senate, and as many organizations as I could find time for. My internship senior year with Kansas Athletics was the most instrumental in developing me for my professional career. Working in athletics taught me how to thrive under pressure, be professional and produce a quality product. My superiors challenged me daily and really set me up for success. I definitely thought I’d continue to work in sports, but when I had the opportunity to join the team at the State Fair of Texas, it was a no-brainer. From being a nonprofit, to the entertainment and sports components of my job, it is more than I could have ever dreamed of for my first job. How did you get your current job? I applied for an internship with the State Fair of Texas, beginning the summer after I graduated. I interviewed via Skype and immediately fell in love with the public relations team. They called me back that day and offered me the internship! As one of seven public relations interns and six media relations coordinators, we were notified shortly after starting that there would be a full-time position opening at the end of the fair season, and we were welcome to apply. I threw my name in the hat, worked hard and learned as much as I could – I was determined to be a front-runner for the job. Come closing weekend of the fair, I was officially offered a job as a public relations coordinator. What do you like best about your job? The State Fair of Texas is a 24-day exhibition in the heart of Dallas. As one of the biggest fairs in the country and a nonprofit, our mission is to celebrate all things Texan by promoting agriculture education, and community involvement. As a public relations coordinator, I wear a variety of different hats, depending on the season. While we’re constantly writing and editing, we’re also looking for ways to best tell the story of the State Fair of Texas. Year-round, I also manage the Big Tex Scholarship Program – a program that has awarded more than $11.3 million since 1992. In addition, I have the opportunity to work with local, statewide, national and even international media leading up to and during the State Fair. In my two years with the fair, I’ve worked with Food Network, Travel Channel, ESPN GameDay and other big productions. My favorite part of my job is knowing I’m contributing to an organization that does so much to better the community and help families and friends create memories to last a lifetime. I feel so fortunate knowing I work somewhere that is so deeply rooted in Texas history and tradition. Every day at the fair is a fun day! How has the J-School prepared you for the workforce? The J-School prepared me in too many ways to share. At times, coursework in the J-School was challenging and rigorous, but it taught me how to prioritize effectively, think creatively and be a problem solver. The professors were nothing short of amazing. I appreciated how diverse each professor’s background was – it allowed me to learn from the best of the best in a variety of expertises. In addition, it taught me how to interact with different personalities and leadership styles. Oh, and how could I forget, I’m forever indebted to the J-School for hammering AP Style home because I live and breathe by that guide each day at my job. What advice would you give to journalism students? Take every opportunity you can to learn and grow in your professional career. Throughout college, I had multiple internships and jobs that taught me a variety of skills. I was able to learn what I liked and didn’t like, in addition to what I was really good at. Along the way, I met some of the most incredible people. Working in journalism is all about working with people. Take time to build relationships with your peers, professors, bosses, customers and clients. Remember that people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Finally, don’t be afraid to take an internship or something that may not be your “dream job” right after college. You never know where an opportunity may lead you or what other doors it may open for your future. Nick Couzin Weekend Sports Anchor/Reporter, KVRR News Biography: I came to KU via Chicago, knowing it was the right place for me. I was able to get involved with sports production jobs as soon as I stepped on campus like working the football and basketball games. That evolved into something way bigger and I eventually was able to create a brand alongside other fellow alums called "The Playmakers" and cover a variety of sports. Favorite memory from the J-School? This is really hard to choose from because there is so many. If I had to pick one, I'd go with covering the Final Four my last semester in the J-School. For me, it was the biggest reward I could receive for all the work I put in over my time as a Jayhawk and getting to where I want to be. Getting to be around other sportscasters who I looked up to and had the chance to talk and network with, I was on cloud nine. How did you get your current job? It didn't come easy. I spent four months sending out my reel to over a hundred different openings before I accepted my position as Weekend Sports Anchor/Reporter at KVRR News in Fargo, North Dakota. Looking back, it was my experiences as a Jayhawk that got me here. Professors like Cal Butcher, Max Utsler and Jerry Crawford afforded me opportunities to work with FOX Sports, interview prospects at Royals Training Camo, start my own sports show, anchor sports on KUJH and so many other opportunities I can name. Every opportunity I've had led to my full-time job with MidcoSN in Lawrence my senior year covering KU and high school sports. From there, I was afforded my shot and took it from there. How has the J-School prepared you for the workforce? Through all the opportunities the J-School allowed me to do. Being thrown into the fire so to say. It was the best way for me to learn; putting myself in the environment I wanted to be in and figure out how I could work effectively with in that. Interviewing coaches, co-hosting soccer and hockey broadcasts, covering NCAA Tournament games for volleyball and basketball–all of them helped me to be more comfortable in the current position I am now, covering two division one programs in North Dakota and at North Dakota State along with many other high schools in the area. What advice would you give to journalism students? Take advantage of the opportunities. It sounds easy, but if I was not presented with the experiences I had, I would have no idea what I was doing. You can only learn so much in the classroom. It's what you're able to take out of the classroom and put into a real world experience. That's when you know you've learned something. Biography: Vicky is a journalist born in L.A., raised in El Paso, Texas and who is now based in Kansas City. She's dedicated to telling stories about culture, art and music. That interest sprouted from a fascination in listening to her grandfather's stories, specifically of fitting in, struggle and victory, and from poverty to the American dream. Her work has been featured in local, national and international news and arts publications such as NPR, KCUR, KNEON Magazine and Houzz. She focuses on cultural dialogue and its impact on art, design, music and policy. She is a trained copy editor and multimedia reporter. Her work has been used in multiple platforms and includes radio features, data blitzes, newscasts, breaking news online and in print. She's the community reporter at Kansas City's PBS magazine, Flatland. There she leads curiousKC, a community-powered reporting effort that invites Kansas Citians to ask questions and investigate with the journalist. Before that, she was the data journalist/research director at the Kansas City Business Journal where she wrangled data to produce informative business coverage on topics ranging from minority homeownership to Kansas City barbecue. What do you like best about your job? In a nutshell, I connect with people, listen to them and report on issues they care about. I manage a publicly-led question-and-answer effort Kansas City PBS calls curiousKC. I do lots of public engagement, active listening and keep my finger on the pulse of current events and local conversations. I'm on a quest to find what people – all voices – care about. I do meaningful local journalism. This job fits the public media mission I hold so dear, which is to create, communicate and curate content that "educates, inspires and entertains." How has the J-School prepared you for the workforce? I give credit to the professors who believed in me and challenged me. There's a colloquial word in Spanish that explains the kind of person I am: trucha. Looslely translated, that means "vigilant." But I can also be shy, so being in a new town at a new school in 2013 was difficult. All I needed was that spark. Shout out to Lisa McLendon, copy editing professor extraordinaire, who showed how I could channel my meticulous nature into a profession. A huge thanks to Pam Fine who made me feel heard and valued, and who pushed back and challenged me to do better work. My advisers (miss you Kevin and Kelli!) were also crucial to my development. When I doubted, they encouraged. They made sure to help me find support, even financial support through scholarships. And my first job when I moved to Lawrence was for the J-School career center, so I have to give it credit there because seeing the list of opportunities gave me hope. Claudia Close Graduate Assistant, DePaul University Biography: I was born in Chicago, Illinois, but moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, where I grew up. It wasn't until high school that I realized being a journalist was my passion. I just really love telling people's stories. Once I graduated from The Meadows School, I spent my freshmen year at the University of San Diego. Despite the gorgeous weather and campus, it just wasn't the right fit for me. I began the transfer process and only applied to one school: KU. I visited and immediately fell in love and by that August, I found myself in Lawrence, Kansas, where I spent three amazing years studying journalism on the news & information track. I was part of KUJH-TV as a reporter and sports anchor for two years before I made the decision to get out of reporting and move into sports information. It was different in a lot of ways but also very similar. I worked with Kansas Athletics throughout my entire senior year and had the most amazing experience. I had always known I wanted to work in athletics in some capacity, but I was lucky enough to find my dream job when I did. I had the privilege of working with football, men's and women's basketball, baseball, softball -- whether it was doing something on the game operations side or writing features for the website. I am now a graduate assistant at DePaul University. I work in sports information in the Athletic Department and am the primary contact for men's and women's soccer. Favorite memory from the J-School? One of my favorite memories from the J-School was being a part of the Journalism 500: Royal Dozen, where we had the opportunity to fly down to Surprise, Arizona, for the Royals Spring Training and put together multimedia features on three minor league players. It was an amazing opportunity that our professors Max Utsler and Scott Reinardy offered, and I am so thankful for the experience. How did you get your current job? I spent about five months applying to everything I saw pop-up on job boards across the country and got rejected from almost all of them, except one around the end of June. To me, it was all about the hustle. The rejection just made me hungrier and more motivated to find that right fit for me. Along came a job posting on DePaul's website that I applied for immediately. I followed up a day or two later through email and had an interview later in the week. Thankfully, the interview process went smoothly, and I am now living in Lincoln Park back in Chicago knowing my dream had come full circle. What do you like best about your job? There are a lot of different components to my job. As the primary contact for women's soccer, I run each team's social media accounts, input the statistics for each game, make graphics for social media or the website, handle media requests post-game and throughout the season, write recaps, press releases and features and keep up the website during the off-season. I also help out during the men's and women's basketball seasons with social media, inputting stats and game operations. What I like the most is that I do something different every day. While it might be the same things on a regular basis during the season, there's nothing like the feeling of game day. I get to form connections with the coaching staff and players that help me be the best at my job I can be. How has the J-School prepared you for the workforce? The J-School prepared me for the workforce in so many ways. I use my hands-on experiences with cameras and graphic design tools as well as writing every single day. The career fairs helped me make connections that I still have to this day. The ethics class I took with Dr. Jerry Crawford is one of the best classes I have ever taken in my college career -- both on a learning scale as well as how to handle difficult conversations in the industry. What advice would you give to journalism students? Make connections with your professors and classmates. To this day, I still talk to a few of my professors, and they still give me advice. There are plenty Jayhawks who graduated from the J-School this last May who are now in Chicago, and we all get together. I like to think that wouldn't have happened if it weren't for the J-School. I had so many amazing opportunities and classes I was able to take that have provided me with information I use to this day. Also, do not be afraid to ask questions and speak your mind. There's always someone who is wondering or thinking the same thing, which creates incredible conversations, especially in this industry. I am so thankful for the experience I had in the J-School so take advantage of it during your years there. That saying "College is the best years of your life" is true and it truly goes by in the blink of an eye! Morgan Cormack News Producer, KCTV5 Biography: I was born in the Chicago area but moved to Overland Park, Kansas, during the third grade. When I was in eighth grade signing up for my high school electives at Blue Valley West, I was sitting down with my mom in our kitchen deciding what to take. She knew I was interested in media and writing, so she suggested I take Intro to Journalism and said, “Hey, even if you don’t like it, that’s OK.” But she was absolutely right in making me take it, and I’ve been hooked ever since. I owe her a lot for that. I was a newspaper editor in high school and switched to broadcast news during my college years. How did you get your current job? After walking at Commencement in May of 2016, I still had one more summer class to take – but was still actively searching for a job. I knew I didn’t want to be on TV, but knew I wanted to produce or edit. I got a call in early June 2016 from the KUJH news director at the time, Chris Bacon, asking if I wanted to move back to Kansas City, and that there was an opening for a morning show producer at KCTV5. I thought he was joking. I didn’t think I was able to get a job in a top 50 TV market at 22 years old, but I interviewed for the job and got an offer in mid-June. I began in August of that year. What do you like best about your job? Since then, I’ve been moved around to a couple of different shifts. Now I produce the 4 p.m. newscast Monday-Friday at KCTV5, and I really enjoy it. I write the show, talk with reporters throughout the day about their stories for my show, and help with some graphics. I like the fact that every day is different. When I go to the station in the morning, I never truly know what I’m in for. I believe that’s one of the fun things about news. Some days are much more stressful than others, but that’s part of the job. How has the J-School prepared you for the workforce? I produced for KUJH my senior year, and I use the skills I learned there every day at work. I still connect with alumni and former classmates in the field. The program taught me how to put myself out there and just go. The professors I had truly wanted to see me succeed, and they helped me do so, getting me to where I am now. What advice would you give to journalism students? Other graduates will tell you this, too, but I can’t stress it enough: get involved in and out of the classroom. I learned more about journalism and myself in my experiences outside of lectures than I did just sitting in class. There are so many opportunities at the J-School for you to learn and grow, and I wish I’d done even more than I did while I was there. Enjoy it all right now, because it goes by way too fast. And lastly, good luck. Reporter/Multimedia Journalist, WJCL News Biography: I grew up imitating newscasters, reconstructing NBA finals moments, and impersonating famous people. It technically wasn't the start of a career in media/journalism, but I was telling stories! I grew up in the Kansas City metro area and went on to the legendary Bishop Miege High School (Go Stags!) Then I wanted to go to college close to New York City because I figured it was the hub of television. But after visiting KU and the J-School, I immediately fell in love. During my time at the KU, I became involved with KJHK, Media Crossroads, KUJH, and Pi Kappa Alpha. The amazing opportunities given to me through these organizations allowed me to intern at Cumulus Media, KSNT News in Topeka, KCTV5 News in Kansas City, and CBS News in New York City. After graduating in May 2018, I made the decision to head down south to Savannah, Georgia, for my first reporting job. So far, I have loved the experience and the many things I have done so far. I have covered the midterm election, Hurricane Michael, and have worked on an investigation for seven months. It hasn't been easy, but it has been rewarding as I learn new things each day! How did you get your current job? Three things got me my job in Savannah: networking, starting earlier, and what many people refer to as "the hustle." I knew I had to network with people who knew other people at TV stations where I wanted to work. However, I had to apply myself early, tracking down the best possible options and avenues to start my career. I then had to "hustle," meaning I had to stay ahead of the curve and do things when nobody was looking to help me get where I want to be. What do you like best about your job? The fact that I get encounter new people and stories every day is unlike any profession in the world. We get to tell stories that otherwise would not get told and put truth out to the world. I love that we have the ability to tell stories. In my job, I pitch a story, newsgather, interview, shoot, write, edit and then go live later that night. How has the J-School prepared you for the workforce? The J-School prepared me in ways in that I didn't even know I needed preparation: being around like-minded journalists, instructors who cared for me, and learning endless information from the opportunities I had from my internships. However, a bulk of what I do I learned from working at KUJH and being in Dole at unreasonable hours. This is where Max Utsler, Chris Bacon, Chad Curtis, and Cal Butcher helped teach me things in the profession that I still use today. What advice would you give to journalism students? Take your craft seriously, but don't take yourself too serious. Enjoy each moment but realize what you have to do in order to get where you want to be. Learn as much as you can, enjoy college, and embrace the grind! Laura Vinci Account Supervisor, G&S Business Communications Biography: Laura has been making headlines for her clients for the last five years. Whether it’s getting a client quoted as the only thought leader in a syndicated wire story on breaking news from the Supreme Court, or inviting a New York Times reporter to get the scoop on a health epidemic, Laura exceeds public relations objectives for her clients across all industries. Most experienced supporting clients in the healthcare industry, Laura also works her magic for organizations in financial and professional services. Laura is a strong believer in the power of PR and comes to the table with strategic insights and a tireless work ethic. From rolling up her sleeves to pitch new media, to computing and analyzing quarterly metric dashboards and KPIs, she enjoys seeing her clients’ public relations campaigns through from start to finish – and ensures the “finish” not only elevates her clients but enhances their business impact in the marketplace. Outside the office, Laura is an active member of Kappa Kappa Gamma. If you’re looking for her, check out the city’s running paths, the streets of TriBeCa or any winery on the East Coast. How did you get your current job? During grad school, I started working in marketing and really enjoyed diving right into communications. My ice cream company client had a major event coming up and challenged me to think outside of the marketing box. So, I researched local food reporters and bloggers and invited them to the event. Turns out, that’s public relations. I was thankful for my time in marketing but realized my passion was in PR. I researched various communications organizations in New York and found NYWICI, a not-for-profit association of female communication professionals. Their website led me to an online job board which hosts open opportunities in marketing, advertising and PR. I discovered the PR company CooperKatz, applied and have been with the company for the last five years. (As a note, in August, we were acquired and changed our name to G&S Business Communications.) What do you like best about your job? Public relations is the business of connecting people (clients, brands, companies) with the media. As a PR professional, I spend my time immersed in the news and magazines to understand what reporters are covering, and what’s making headlines. I use this knowledge to insert my clients into the news cycle and I assist journalists by connecting them with my clients to give them the inside scoop. PR differs from marketing and advertising because it’s “earned” media, meaning that we are not paying for placements of our clients within the article text. Rather, the journalists are researching and writing their articles, and if I do my job right, my clients are included for the value they contribute to the story. My favorite part of my job is seeing the final story go to print. It’s a lot of behind-the-scenes hard work and strategy that creates just one article. And seeing the final result is what motivates me to get another headline. What advice would you give to journalism students? I was a strategic communications major yet I didn’t test the waters of PR while in school. I focused on marketing – and that still very much prepared me for the workforce. In college, we learned about the art of storytelling. What “tale” does it take to reach an audience with a specific message? I didn’t quite understand the “strategic” part of strategic communications until I had to put my degree to work. Each day, I’m problem solving for my clients. I’m constantly evaluating what messages they want to get out and where’s the best place to reach their target audiences. PR is one tactic in the communications toolkit, but a very specialized one. When done correctly, PR can inspire change and influence behaviors. Strategy is part of the job. How has the J-School prepared you for the workforce? Go out there and just do. The classroom is a phenomenal foundation, but real-life experience comes from jumping right in. Throughout my undergrad, I interned for the KU alumni association, a marketing firm, a clothing company, my sorority headquarters, an architecture firm and the Sunflower State Games. Each taught me things I enjoyed doing, and things I didn’t like as much. It took me working in marketing for almost two years to see that my knack was in something similar, but completely different. You won’t know until you try! Reach out to alumni at companies that interest you and ask for an informational interview. Learn and try new things! Meredith Emshoff Content Strategist, KAOH Media Biography: I am a 2018 J-School graduate working and living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as a content strategist for KAOH Media, a public relations firm. I started at KU as a news and information journalism student but switched to strategic communications after falling in love with Carol Holstead’s JOUR 300 class and graphic design. In my time at KU, I served as an orientation assistant for the University and was very involved with KJHK, our student-run radio station, where I had some of my greatest learning experiences. I spent my senior year working as the station’s social media director. How did you get your current job? I had a lot of great real-world experience upon graduation like internships, involvement in student organizations, leadership positions and part-time jobs that helped me build connections and become more “marketable.” I found my current job posting on an online job site and after a few rounds of interviews, I was hired. What do you like best about your job? On a day-to-day basis, I am busy creating, designing and deploying content for multiple brands. I work up editorial calendars for our clients, place and target ads on social, track the metrics and work on the ad budget. Most of our clients are renewable energy developers around the Midwest. I’ve always been super passionate about the environment and sustainability efforts, so the best part about my job is being excited about the work I’m doing. How has the J-School prepared you for the workforce? During my senior year, I took full advantage of the J-School tech workshops. In those workshops, I learned about so many helpful apps and tricks that I still use in the real world and have passed on to colleagues. I also have to mention Strategic Campaigns capstone class —without campaigns I honestly don’t think I would have gotten my current job. My campaigns group forced me to be our team’s creative director and during that semester, I learned so much and was able to create an awesome portfolio that impressed my current employer. What advice would you give to journalism students? Get involved outside of the classroom. A lot of my greatest learning moments happened when I put what I learned in class to action. There are opportunities on and off campus to learn and grow, and they will help set you up for success. Caroline Burkard Multimedia Journalist, WECT Biography: I was born and raised in the small town of De Soto, Kansas, about 20 minutes away from Kansas City. During freshmen year of high school, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life; I just knew I wanted to be in front of a camera and I loved writing. I put those two ideas together and came up with broadcast journalism my sophomore year. I graduated from St. James Academy and became a Jayhawk aiming to become a news anchor. But once I learned how much I love making connections with people and realizing that everyone has their own unique story, I decided I wanted to be a news reporter instead. I always dreamed of living in the Carolinas by the beach, and I was stubborn enough to make that happen. A few job offers later, I accepted a job in Wilmington, North Carolina, as a multimedia journalist. If I’m not running around the town gathering interviews and content for my next story, you can find me running on the beach or in a coffee shop reading and catching up on emails. How did you get your current job? I have family in Charlotte, North Carolina, and grew up visiting the Carolinas from a young age, creating a fixation on the beauty of the southern East Coast. Throughout my college career, I interned at the former Channel 6 News in Lawrence for a semester my junior year. Then, I accepted a part-time job that also gave me class credit with WIBW in Topeka as a morning producer and reporter my last semester of senior year. In late July, I finally accepted a position at WECT in Wilmington, North Carolina, as a reporter. I stuck with my intuition and can now say I’m living out my life-long dream. What do you like best about your job? When I first became a reporter, I loved putting stories together as if they were a puzzle for me. I pitch a story idea, gather my interviews, shoot b-roll, write my script, write a web story, and then go live for the evening news. However, after experiencing Hurricane Florence in September of 2018, my answer has changed. I can’t tell you how many stories I’ve done on hurricane survivors asking for help from the community. Anytime I do a story on someone calling out for help, and then I get calls and emails from viewers offering to help after seeing the story I produced, that’s when I know I did my job right. It’s one thing to produce a story, but to have an effect on someone who needs help and receives it because of you, that’s a feeling I’ll never forget. How has the J-School prepared you for the workforce? The J-School prepared me for the workload. Every day is a new challenge. There is a lot of multitasking going on. In school, I had to balance other class loads on top of journalism tasks. In my current job, I have to balance multiple stories in one day, creating VOSOTS and packages in one day and creating a web story on top of all that, and make the deadlines of course. Even on days I’m not sure I’ll make it, I somehow always do. What advice would you give to journalism students? Live your life outside your comfort zone. I believe doing things that scare you the most are the things you should do the most because you’ll learn so much about yourself. I created a whole new life in Wilmington. I didn’t know anyone, I didn’t know the city, I’d never lived outside of Kansas, I was on my own for the very first time in my life, and I was terrified. But I knew it was the best thing I could do for myself. The adjustment period was pretty hard but after a few months, Wilmington became home to me. Elizabeth Boeder Corporate Partnership Sales and Research Coordinator, Chicago White Sox Biography: I grew up in Savage, Minnesota, and came to KU on a complete whim. I absolutely found my home in Lawrence. While at KU, I majored in journalism/strategic communication track with a minor in business. I was involved in Greek life, Jayhawks Dream, and the Journalism Student Leadership Board. My favorite KU experiences include basketball games, my study abroad experience, and Strategic Campaigns. Early on in high school, I knew I wanted to be involved in sports business in some capacity. I saw an opportunity through strategic communications to follow that dream. Throughout college I had various internships at marketing agencies and nonprofit organizations helping plan events and learning the ropes of the industry. In my senior year of college, I got a taste of my dream job through an internship with the Kansas City Royals. A yearlong internship with the Royals prepared me for my current role with the Chicago White Sox. How did you get your current job? In college, I interned for a nonprofit organization planning a half-marathon. Throughout this internship, I was able to gain event planning experience as well as sponsorship experience through securing local sponsors for the race. My experience, along with amazing connections, helped me secure my internship with the Kansas City Royals. My internship with the Royals was what ultimately shaped my professional experience to get my current position in Chicago. A huge goal I had after my internship in Kansas City was to play up the skills I learned there and use connections to stay in professional sports. I was fortunate to have amazing connections from previous positions and the J-School to achieve that goal. What do you like best about your job? I love that my job is different every day. Sponsorship in sports is kind of like the team’s own advertising agency. My department is broken into two divisions: sales and activation. The sales team pitches the deals to companies, which can include signage, naming rights, community programs, experiences, tickets, etc., and once the contract is signed, the activation team makes sure that everything actually happens. I am fortunate to work with both sides of the department in my role. I utilize key research platforms such as Nielsen services to develop the best sales pitch possible, taking into account a company’s own marketing strategy and how it aligns with the White Sox. I also help the activation team work with the clients to deliver the most effective strategic partnership possible. How has the J-School prepared you for the workforce? The J-School prepared me in many different ways. I utilize skills I learned in my classes every single day. The two most helpful classes that I took in college for my current position were Research Methods and Strategic Campaigns. The networking sessions over homecoming weekend also really helped me learn how to network and build connections with alumni. What advice would you give to journalism students? Make connections with your classmates, your professors, and other J-School staff. They are there to help you! There are many opportunities that I wouldn’t have gotten in life without making connections with the right people. Find what you’re passionate about and talk to people about it. You never know if someone shares your passion or can connect you to someone in your dream industry. Enjoy every single second because it goes by fast. Good luck! News Reporter, KMOV St. Louis Biography: I am originally from Evanston, Illinois, but moved to Overland Park at a young age and loved growing up in the Kansas City area. I was born into a household that watched the news religiously every night, and I caught the journalism bug at a young age. Some of my fondest memories are sitting with my dad as a young kid, trying to understand what anchors and reporters were talking about on the 5 o’clock news. I knew someday I wanted to become one of them. After graduating high school at Notre Dame de Sion, I knew the University of Kansas was the obvious choice to fuel my career aspirations in journalism. I learned invaluable skills throughout my four years, and complemented the curriculum during the summer with internships at KMBC-Channel 9 in Kansas City and The Today Show in New York. After graduating in 2016, I packed up my belongings and moved to Davenport, Iowa, for my first reporting gig in the Quad Cities. I spent two years covering Iowa and Illinois before accepting an opportunity closer to home and one I couldn’t pass up at KMOV in St. Louis. In the last year, I’ve had the privilege of covering Hurricane Florence in North Carolina, the duck boat tragedy in Branson, Missouri, and interviewing former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. In news, every day brings a new challenge, but I feel extremely blessed to be living my dream. How did you get your current job? For me, persistence was key to landing my job in St. Louis. I expressed my interest in the position, knowledge of the Missouri area, and passion for journalism early on in the process. After sending my demo reel and resume, I followed up bi-weekly with the station to keep my interest in working there top of mind. Thankfully, they asked me to visit for an interview, and it worked out from there. What is your favorite J-School memory? I have many favorite memories from being in the J-School—I will never forget the hard work and dedication my peers and I put into making a successful KUJH newscast each week. I learned how a newsroom operates and what it would take to succeed in the real world. Multiple times throughout the semester I would visit Max Utsler in his Cardinals-decked office to ask for feedback on my stories. His critiques helped me grow as a journalist—I know that I can call him now, too, for advice. What advice would you give to journalism students? My advice for current journalism students would be to work hard and keep an end goal in mind. Whether it’s nailing a live shot, getting a great story or overcoming an obstacle in the field—all of those moments add up and will make you stronger in your career. In college, finding a job and pursuing your dream can seem overwhelming (I remember I was!) but if it is something you are truly passionate about, you won’t let it out of your sight. How has the J-School prepared you for the workforce? I would not be where I am today if it wasn’t for the outstanding J-School at KU. Each year, we built upon curriculum that prepared me for a career in this industry. I was able to take what we learned in the classroom and apply it toward ‘real-world’ experiences such as KUJH and internships during the summers. Still to this day, I’ll be working and remember advice given to me sitting in class at the Dole Center or Stauffer-Flint Hall. The professors I had in the J-School wanted to see me succeed and went out of their way to help me to do so. Ryan Brinker Public Information Officer, Kansas Department of Commerce Biography: I grew up in Topeka, Kansas, where I was raised by my terrific parents, Susan and Mike Brinker, along with my sister, Abby. I graduated from KU with degrees in journalism and political science. Growing up, even when I didn’t know what I wanted to do, I always knew for sure that I wanted to tell stories. In high school, I became interested in writing. I was convinced I would be an author. However, a friend suggested I look into journalism as a major in college because it had a more concrete career destination. Right from J101, I was hooked. How did you get your current job? In my last semester, I took a part-time job at WIBW-TV in Topeka as a technical media producer. Since I had spent most of my time at KU studying the video-production aspects of journalism, this seemed like the perfect job, so I accepted a full-time position after graduation. After a year, a friend pointed me to an opening at the Kansas Department of Commerce. The job caught my eye, specifically because the department was looking for someone to do in-house video production in addition to daily writing requirements. I knew the position would be tough to get so soon out of college, but I took a chance and was lucky enough to get the job. I couldn’t be happier with it. What is your favorite J-School memory? There are so many to choose from. I suppose if I had to pick one experience, it would be my time in Tien Tsung-Lee’s Campaigns class. Tien had high expectations (I’m sure he still does), but in the absolute best way. I was lucky enough to have the greatest team anyone could ever ask for. Every moment of that class is a cherished memory for me. Tien was instrumental in helping me get the job I have now, I owe him quite a lot (as I’ve told him). What advice would you give to journalism students? Please, please, please get involved. The classes taught in the J-School are terrific, but if you only go to class and do nothing else, you’re missing out on so much that the J-School has to offer. I learned way more in my time at KUJH-TV and my time doing A/V at the Dole Institute of Politics than any class could ever have taught me. Even more than that, there are opportunities everywhere! There are so many stories to tell. I used to go to businesses or charities and ask if they wanted me to write an article or shoot a video for them to share online. They never said no. It’s terrific practice, and people are always appreciative when you offer to tell about their experiences. Plus, you can keep these stories/videos as examples to show future employers. Bottom line: go to class and do your work, but after class, get out there and find some stories to tell! How has the J-School prepared you for the workforce? I use the skills I learned in J-School every day on the job. Lessons learned on ad campaigns, video production, interviewing, writing for print, writing for broadcast, everything. The J-School absolutely prepared me for a job in professional communications. Ashley Hocking Communications Specialist, University of Kansas School of Law Biography: I grew up in Lawrence, Kansas, so I have been a fan of the Jayhawks since I was born. I graduated from the University of Kansas with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a minor in global and international studies. Throughout college, I had a variety of different journalistic experiences. I interned at a creative branding agency in London, England for a summer, worked at the University Daily Kansan newspaper as a copy chief and photographer, interned and took pictures for the Lawrence Journal-World newspaper, produced the student-run television show Greek TV and worked behind the scenes at KUJH-TV for a semester. How did you get your current job? The Journalism School’s career and outreach coordinator, Steve Rottinghaus, tweeted about a job opening at KU Law. I applied for the job while I was on a plane headed to Iceland for a two-week vacation. The day after I got back from my trip, I did an interview and was hired. What do you like best about your job? I love that I get to do different things at my job every day. No two days are ever the same. I get the opportunity to use a variety of skills, such as writing, designing, copy editing, taking pictures and video, developing strategic communications plans, managing social media channels and making website updates. How did the J-School prepare you for the workforce? I took classes about writing, reporting, visual storytelling, copy editing, photojournalism, broadcast journalism, graphic design, video production, digital media and international strategic communications. The topics I learned about in my classes are directly relevant to what I do at my job. Lisa McLendon and Gerri Berendzen’s co-taught class, Digital Media Topics, was one of the most influential classes I took during my time in the J-School. I would highly recommend taking this course! What career advice do you have for journalism students? Try to figure out what you are passionate about early on. You can take classes and pursue internships in that field, which will be helpful post-graduation when you are searching for your first full-time job. Employers are looking for candidates with relevant experience, so make sure you have some under your belt! If you are able to, study abroad! In every job interview I’ve ever done, the potential employer has asked me about my experience doing a study abroad internship in London, England. Studying abroad is a great way to gain life experiences, diversify your resume and stand out from other candidates. Aliana Souder National Stylist Team, Trunk Club Biography: I am from St. Louis, Missouri, and majored in journalism/strategic communication and minored in business. I was originally in the business school with the intention to be a marketing major, so I took a few marketing classes in addition to my journalism studies to round out my marketing interests. I was a marketing intern for Allied Global Services in Lenexa for about a year and a half, starting my spring semester junior year and working there until I graduated. I intended to enter the marketing industry post-grad but realized that I missed the retail industry. I worked for Nordstrom as a seasonal sales associate for two years prior to my internship with Allied, so I am really excited to work for the company again. I have been visiting Chicago ever since I was a little girl, so this opportunity is a great fit. In addition to working for Trunk Club, I hope to do some freelance creative marketing. I am also helping my mom with her new business venture by handling the marketing and graphic design elements. How did you get your current job? I originally came across Trunk Club at the J-School Career Fair when I was a sophomore, I believe. I planned on applying for a summer internship at the Chicago headquarters but ended up getting an internship back home in St. Louis instead and never got the chance to apply. I did most of my post-grad job search on LinkedIn, which is where I saw the posting for the position in Chicago. They were kind enough to offer a video chat interview, so I didn’t have to travel to Chicago. After they offered me the position, I went to Chicago to check out the space, and I loved it so I accepted! What is your favorite J-School memory? My favorite memory is taking Campaigns with Dr. Chen. I had an incredible experience with this class and owe a lot to my fantastic team and professor. I was creative director for our agency, which allowed me to grow as a graphic designer. My team became extremely close with each other and Dr. Chen, creating a both personal and professional experience. Even though the class is intimidating, having the right professor can truly make or break your experience and I 250% recommend taking it with Dr. Chen if you get the privilege. What advice would you give to journalism students? Being a strategic communication major, so many doors are opened for you. My advice would be to keep an open mind to things you aren’t familiar with or may not necessarily enjoy and take advantage of everything you can achieve with this degree. At first, I did not enjoy graphic design and had very little interest in managing social media accounts from a business perspective. My marketing internship ended up being mostly those two things, and now I love them. I used to struggle with InDesign, and now it’s almost therapeutic for me, so it’s funny how things work out sometimes. How has the J-School prepared you for the workforce? The J-School taught me so many basic skills that allowed me to pick what I wanted to grow on. I learned to never underestimate myself or my abilities. The J-School has played a crucial role in helping me to figure out who I am, what I am good at, and what I can make a career out of. Maria Ernst Customer Success Coordinator, ShopperTrak Biography: I'm from Geneva, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, and grew up with a passion for storytelling. I graduated with a strategic communications degree, business minor, and Certificate of Professional Selling. During my time at KU, I was a member of Greek Life, competed in various professional selling competitions, and worked at the KU Endowment Association and Journalism School. How did you get your current job? I was an Engagement Services intern at ShopperTrak the summer after my sophomore and junior year and was offered a full-time position on the newly re-branded Customer Success team the last day of my internship. What is your favorite J-School memory? My last semester I took Campaigns with Professor David Johnston and Social Media in Strategic Communication with Dr. Hyunjin Seo. Both classes partnered with a client to deliver a strategic campaign, an incredibly challenging and rewarding task. A semester of late nights and early mornings turned into campaigns I was so proud to present. The time spent with my two groups are memories I'll never forget! What advice would you give to journalism students? Find mentors in your professors, advisers, managers, co-workers, and friends! The Journalism School is full of bright leaders that want to see you excel. Grow with your classmates and build your network early. Produce content you believe in. Seek truth and report it. Anna Meyer Editorial Assistant, Mansueto Ventures (Inc. and Fast Company) Graduation year: May 2018 Biography: I graduated with degrees in journalism and English. At its core, my love for writing comes from interviewing interesting people, conducting research and writing material that teaches others as much as it teaches myself. I used that passion to work with the women’s long -orm publication The Riveter magazine while I was a student. I went from a contributing writer as a freshman to the digital editor of the magazine as a senior, and I also landed bylines at Inc. magazine, Shine Text and Clover Letter by the time I graduated. When I’m not writing, I enjoy flexing my barista background by pulling the perfect espresso shot for myself in the morning, biking around trails in my neighborhood or planning for my next trip abroad. I pushed my limits by climbing the Thórsmörk mountain range last summer in Iceland, and it’s been one of my biggest accomplishments yet. How did you get your current job? J-School Associate Professor Carol Holstead encouraged me to apply for the 2017 American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) internship in New York City, and I ended up applying and being accepted to spend the summer after my junior year as an intern at Inc. magazine in New York City. That internship gave me valuable connections whom I reached out to after I graduated. When an entry-level position opened up at the magazine, my colleagues reached out to me directly to apply for it. To my delight, I was offered the job. What do you like best about your job? My job is with Mansueto Ventures, which owns business publications Inc. and Fast Company. I’m an editorial assistant, so my job is to assist executive management and senior editors in a variety of administrative tasks within the office. The best part? I still get opportunities to do reporting, write my own stories, and tackle other editorial projects as well. How did the J-School prepare you for the workforce? The J-School gave me the confidence to establish authority as a writer and taught me important skills that set me apart from other recent graduates. The professors within the school always believed in me, and their advice served me well outside of school. As a student, there is nothing more valuable than having successful mentors who push you to do your best. What career advice do you have for journalism students? Be curious, ask lots of questions and stay informed on what’s happening in the world around you. It’s also important to join student organizations, work off-campus jobs or find other ways to do work in your desired field. Once you do get involved, be sure to be friendly, helpful and a joy to work with to those around you. In the end, it is your network and your connections that you make during your time as a student that will help you land that first job after school. Good luck! Tiffany Littler Morning News Producer, KSNT News Biography: I was born and raised in Dodge City, Kansas, and lived there until 2006. Then I moved a few miles east to the tiny town of Ford. Since Ford is too small to have a school, I went to Bucklin, where I graduated high school in 2012 with a class of 15 people. I had taken a few tours of KU and knew that's where I wanted to go. My senior year of high school, I got offered a dance and cheer scholarship at Dodge City Community College, so I decided to go a year there and get some gen eds out of the way. I ended up staying another year and got my associate of general studies degree. That final year was when I decided I wanted to be in journalism. In 2014, I finally made my way to KU, and the rest is history. How did you get your current job? I started as an intern January 2017. When my internship was up, I told my news director I was interested in working for KSNT in Topeka, Kansas. Later that summer, I was offered the position of part-time breaking news producer. I updated the website, went to breaking news scenes, and provided VOSOTs to the evening and weekend newscasts. In March, I moved to full time. In June, I moved to the position of morning news producer. What is your favorite J-School memory? All of the opportunities I've gotten. I've worked with Fox Sports, Time Warner Sports (now Spectrum). I was a reporter a couple times for the Bill Self Fantasy Camp. I've gotten to anchor both sports and news for KUJH, as well as write for the Kansan. I also worked at KJHK for a semester. The opportunities the J-School gave me were endless. What advice would you give to journalism students? Don't slack off and think you can still pass. I had a low GPA and was actually out of the J-School for a short time. While I couldn't take any journalism classes until I brought my GPA up, I was still heavily involved. Another piece of advice is to try everything and be as involved as you can. The most important advice, however...have fun! Don't stress yourself out. You're only this young once, and you go to the greatest university out there. Enjoy it. How has the J-School prepared you for the workforce? I was given so many opportunities at KU and worked side by side with professionals. I got a lot of "real world" experience while still in school. Most professors genuinely care about you and want to help/see you succeed. The spring 2018 visiting professor, Dr. Janice Collins, helped me look over my contract at KSNT before I signed it. She explained things I didn't understand and encouraged me to be confident when negotiating parts of the contract. Shelby Poskochil Social Media Manager, Gossip Genie Biography: Shelby is a J-School graduate now currently working and living in Chicago, Illinois. She was born and raised in Pawnee City, Nebraska and selected the University of Kansas as her college of choice as a freshman in high school. Shelby developed a passion for journalism at a young age but did not know it was her career path until after her first semester at KU. After enrolling in a first-year seminar in the J-School, Shelby immediately switched her major to journalism with a strategic communication emphasis and never looked back. Living in the heart of downtown Chicago, Shelby spends many hours managing a variety of social media accounts and running her own beauty and lifestyle blog. How did you get your current job? I found my current job through a Facebook group for young college graduates looking for jobs in digital media. I knew that I wanted to work in digital media in a large metropolitan city, so I only applied for certain jobs in select cities. This made my job search more difficult, but so much more rewarding in the long run. Never settle when it comes to your career. I went through a few rounds of interviews and was ultimately hired on the spot. Walking down the hill on graduation, I had no idea what job I was going to land. It was an amazing feeling landing my first job out of college. What is your favorite J-School memory? My favorite J-School memory would have to be taking Strategic Campaigns with Professor David Johnston. You hear a lot about how campaigns is going to be a very difficult and stressful class; however, Professor Johnston did a great job at making it fun. We had a great client that semester and got to do a lot of interesting research surrounding college football. I loved my team and we had such a great time putting together our campaign. Presenting our final campaign was an amazing feeling, but the in-between moments are what made the class so great. How did the J-School prepare you for the workforce? The J-School taught me that working in a journalism career field is anything but easy, but so worth it. Working in journalism is tough, but the J-School makes sure every student has everything they need to be successful in their future careers. I learned everything from writing, designing, marketing, production, you name it. There is so much variety in our coursework that I am able to use what I have learned every day. What career advice do you have for journalism students? Build relationships with your professors! This is something that I learned very early on as a student in the J-School and I’m so glad that I did. Attend office hours, ask questions before and after class, and don’t be afraid to raise your hand. I was always the quiet one in class, so I understand how daunting it can be, but you won’t regret it. The professors in the J-School want to see you succeed and will help steer you in the direction of your post-college career. You never know when you’re going to need a letter of recommendation or a new door opened. Alana Flinn Account Manager, Americaneagle.com Inc. Biography: Alana Flinn is a J-School graduate now working and living in Chicago, Illinois. As a news & information major, Alana received 13 official job offers by May graduation, including positions as marketing manager, producer, digital coordinator, anchor, reporter. She planned to work in sports broadcast after an ESPN internship her junior year, but ultimately accepted a position as an account manager on the Sitefinity team at AmericanEagle.com Inc. Now living in Chicago, Alana has acclimated to a bustling downtown lifestyle and enjoys exploring the third biggest U.S. city when she isn’t working at her dream job. How did you get your current job? The company was recommended to me by a business owner who used AmericanEagle.com’s web development services. During my time at KUJH-TV, I was offered the opportunity to manage the website domain as well as its social media accounts. These development skills I gained helped me get an interview with AmericanEagle.com, and my communication experience demonstrated my ability to manage relationships between clients. When deciding your future career, keep in mind that you should pick your job based on two of three things: location, compensation and what the job is. The two factors that are most important to you will guide your decision. What is your favorite J-School memory? My favorite J-School memory is working side-by-side with lifelong friends in the newsroom. As a journalist, it’s tough to explain to many people iwhat you do and why you do it. However, being surrounded by likeminded people that want to fairly and accurately report the news with you is an incredible thing. I’m lucky enough to have made it through the newsroom with a wonderful class of humans that I now get to watch grow in their own careers. What advice would you give to journalism students? My advice to journalism students is to be open to a variety of experiences in order to find your true calling in this field. Throughout my four years of college, I anchored for KUJH-TV, wrote for the Daily Kansan, built infographics, created social media posts, managed website content, studied media law and explored every realm of possibility in the journalism field. I could have allowed myself to get boxed in to just anchoring or just writing for the Kansan, but I wanted to diversify and have equal amounts strategic communication experience to my reporting experience. Use your four years of college to explore every aspect of journalism and gain surface level knowledge on many facets. Discover what you love, what you’re good at, and practice how you plan to deploy these newfound passions. You can do this through internships, campus jobs, classwork and journalism student organizations. Be aware that many journalism jobs do not require newsroom experience (website development positions, social media management, marketing, etc.), but it is a great place to learn organizational management, the politics of managing your peers, and time management. How has the J-School prepared you for the workforce? The J-School prepared me through student organizations including KUJH-TV and the Kansan. In these environments, students are encouraged to hone their skills in functioning newsrooms. There, I gained the confidence to become a team leader, learned a new set of digital skills, and was encouraged to excel in any type of task I took on. I sat through the grammar courses, took the math classes and wrote countless essays throughout college, but the practical, hands-on experience and knowledge the student organizations provided prepared me for a successful career and future. Don’t let people tell you there are no jobs in journalism; As a 22-year-old straight out of J-School, I am proof that you can have the luxury of deciding between various job offers, salaries and locations. Anna Pankiewicz Account Executive, Octagon Biography: I'm from St. Joseph, Missouri, but I was raised a Jayhawk. When it came to choosing a college, the University of Kansas was my first choice. Being from Missouri, I received some grief for this, but it was easily the best decision I could have made. At KU, I was involved at the St. Lawrence Center and with SUA. I also interned with the School of Business, Kansas Athletics, the Kansas City Sports Commission and FC Kansas City. I loved having the opportunity to apply the skills I was learning in the classroom to practical experiences, and I loved working with and learning from so many great people. How did you get your current job? Throughout college, I held a variety of marketing/communications internships, and a few were within the sports industry. Octagon is a sports and entertainment agency, so my different experiences helped me to build a skillset that was a good match for this position. Steve Rottinghaus at the Career Center and Dan McCarthy, my advisor, were also great resources throughout my job search. What is your favorite J-School memory? My favorite J-School memory would have to be Campaigns. It was really rewarding to have a chance to use everything that we had learned in all of our classes over the years and see it come together into an impressive final product. I met new people and learned a lot about working as a team. It was a truly great feeling to present our ideas to the client and showcase what we had accomplished. What advice would you give to journalism students? My advice to current students would be to try to figure out what you're passionate about and find ways to learn more about it or gain experience within that. I love sports, so interning within that industry taught me more about it and prepared me to pursue a career in this after college. How has the J-School prepared you for the workforce? The variety within our coursework was great. There are elements of different classes that I use daily in my job. I think the J-School does a great job in helping us to be well-rounded individuals that can contribute in many ways to an organization. Lexi Brady Community Programs Coordinator, Sporting Kansas City Biography: I was born and raised in Lawrence, Kansas — once a Jayhawk always a Jayhawk. I graduated from the University of Kansas with bachelor's degress in journalism/strategic communication with a minor in business. Outside of work, I enjoy traveling, volunteering and being outdoors. I am passionate about helping others and caring for the people in my life. How did you get your current job? I started as an intern for Sporting Kansas City, and my entire senior year I was part-time commuting to Kansas City. I accepted the full-time position after graduation. What is your favorite J-School memory? My favorite J-School memory is being able to go outside on campus and study or sit there and enjoy being a student (it goes by fast!). What advice would you give to journalism students? My advice to J-School students is not to rush anything or take things too seriously. College goes by so quick, and the second it is over you want to go back! I had a lot of success balancing my internship and job with fun, and that was very important. How has the J-School prepared you for the workforce? The internship course that I took at KU was the most beneficial course I took. I learned what it took to work in the workforce and prepared myself for what comes next. I highly recommend taking this course with an internship. Joshua Kenneth Suos Associate, Digital Investment - Mindshare Biography: Just a kid with little to lose and so much to gain. How did you get your current job? I visited the company during an out-of-state ad crawl with the KU Ad Club and kept building relationships afterward. What is your favorite J-School memory? Presenting our final Strategic Campaigns presentation because that was the moment all of our hard work (throughout not only the class, but my time as a J-School student) had paid off. What advice would you give to journalism students? For any opportunity you’re presented with in life, the first best thing you’ll get out of it is that you’ll find what you want. The second best thing is that you’ll find what you don’t want. Everyone is on their own schedule. So just breathe. You're not late to anything; you're not early to anything. You're right on time. How has the J-School prepared you for the workforce? The J-School has help prepared me for the professional world by teaching me the value of having confidence in my strengths and abilities. On top of that, the J-School taught me how having a great work ethic pays off in the long run. Megan Doolittle Marketing Associate, Olsson Associates Biography: I was born and raised in Overland Park, Kansas, and raised a Jayhawk. My passion for my career runs in my family — my parents were both journalism majors and met working at the same radio station in Topeka. While at KU, I was involved in Greek life, The Big Event executive board, Journalism Student Ambassadors, and had multiple internships. I loved my time at KU and know the friends I made there will be life long. How did you get your current job? I found my job through a posting on Indeed. What is your favorite J-School memory? My favorite J-School memory is working with Hallmark's Kaleidoscope as our client for Strategic Campaigns, the strategic communication capstone. Over the semester, my team became super close, and we still get together when we can and Snapchat each other nearly every day! What advice would you give to journalism students? My advice would be to be open to different career paths. You can do nearly anything with a journalism degree if you have the skills and the right connections. During my time in the J-School, a lot of my fellow classmates aspired to work for an advertising agency, which is an amazing field full of opportunity and alumni. However, there are so many fields to go into that you may have never thought of! You can work in health care, higher education, AEC (architecture/engineering/construction), technology, media and more. I never expected to be in my current field, but I've learned so much and have met the greatest people! Alex McLoon Multimedia Journalist, KMTV Biography: I started working in studios and production sets at age 16 in high school for Niles Media Group. They pointed me in the direction of KUJH once I got to KU. That's where I started reporting on news and sports while hosting specials like the 2016 election and traveling to events like the NCAA Tournament. How did you get your current job? I started working at KUJH on campus as a freshman and connected with folks at KSNT in Topeka over time. KSNT brought me on my junior year, where I worked both full time and part time covering news and sports until graduation. I wanted to see what other opportunities were out there after graduating, and the position in Omaha opened up at KMTV. The J-School has allowed me to travel to multiple NCAA Tournaments for KU basketball (and Bill Self has led KU there year after year, so I have him to thank, too). Also, teachers like Cal Butcher helped me gain real-world experience by working for FOX Sports for Kansas City Chiefs games. It's the real-world experience that helped me stand out in the eyes of KMTV. When I asked my boss why I stood out to him, he said it was the experience that compares to those who graduate from Missouri or Syracuse. That's one of the highest compliments I've ever received. What is your favorite J-School memory? The camaraderie built with classmates and professors at KUJH and the J-School. I'm seeing friends who are working at places they dreamed of thanks to the efforts the J-School gives its students. I think the J-School cares so much for its students. What advice would you give to journalism students? Take advantage of the opportunities the J-School is providing you! You can only learn so much in the classroom. The experience and knowledge you gain put you ahead of the competition. How has the J-School prepared you for the workforce? I've learned how to write concisely and effectively, shoot compelling video, tell engaging stories, communicate efficiently while being personable and professional. Teachers like Chris Bacon, Max Utsler, Chad Curtis, Kerry Benson, and Cal Butcher have taught me how fun this field can be and how the world needs journalists. Jayla Scruggs Interactive Marketing Specialist, Capitol Federal Bank Biography: I am originally from Wichita, Kansas, and I came to KU with the intention of being an accounting major. Then after a few course accounting courses, I started looking into the J-School. After JOUR 101, I was sold. I knew the J-School would be a great fit for me. In May 2018, I graduated from the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications, and my emphasis was in strategic communication. During my last semester, I was offered a position at Capitol Federal Bank as an interactive marketing specialist. In January, I will begin working on my master's degree in mass communications. How did you get your current job? In January of 2018, I started at Capitol Federal as a marketing intern, then in February, I was offered a full-time position once I graduated. What is your favorite J-School memory? Hands down my favorite J-School memory would be the summer class I took with Kerry Benson. She was a firecracker from start to finish of the course. She also pushed her students to reach their full potential. Another J-School memory would be studying aboard. I did the Creativity and Culture in Rome last summer, and it was a life-changing experience. What advice would you give to journalism students? Utilize all the resources at your fingertips. Sign up for those Adobe sessions with Heather Lawrenz and anything else that is offered. Having those skills puts you ahead of those who don't have those skills. How has the J-School prepared you for the workforce? A few of the most impactful courses I took in the J-School were J304: Media Writing and J560: Message Development. They helped me improve my writing skills and also how to produce creative, well-established content. Hanna Melton Marketing Coordinator, Populous Biography: Hanna is a J-School graduate who is now working and living in Kansas City near the Country Club Plaza. As a strategic communication major, she never expected to be working with architects on a daily basis, but found herself accepting a marketing coordinator position at Populous just after graduation. Now she is creating proposals and helping with strategy for her designated markets every day. During the past two summers, Hanna interned at Bernstein-Rein and VML, which really helped her get her foot in the door to the real world. Outside of work, she loves spending time with her dog and her loved ones, exploring her new city, discovering new places to eat, and shopping way too much. How did you get your current job? I found the job on Indeed. I had also previously interviewed at Populous for an internship, so I knew people in the marketing department. They decided to interview me, and I got the job within a few days. Getting your first real job right when you graduate is such a great feeling! What is your favorite J-School memory? My favorite J-School memory is probably when Kerry Benson helped me (more like pushed me, hard) to get over my fear of public speaking, or when I became really good friends with my campaigns group. We still communicate to this day even though we have all gone separate ways. What advice would you give to journalism students? My advice to journalism students is to attend the events the J-school holds, such as the Career Fair at the Union. It really helped me find my career path and network with amazing people. Although I recommend working hard, the J-School also brought me some great friends. Become friends with people in your classes and make fun memories, because it goes by way too fast. How has the J-School prepared you for the workforce? The J-School provides wonderful professors and resources to help you succeed. I learned about a ton of job opportunities throughout my college career, which really helped me land internships and my current job. The professors at the J-School also helped me perfect my resume, which really has a huge impact on whether or not an employer considers you for a job. Marcea Say Client Engagement Specialist, Quest Diagnostics Biography: Originally born in Kansas City, I found a passion for journalism after watching "The Devil Wears Prada" and "13 Going on 30." I was fortunate enough to pursue this passion at KU, where I discovered my love for strategic communication. The transition from graduate to professional has been both fun and exhausting, but I've been able to manage it with the help of my pug named Bu$ter. How did you get your current job? One of my classmates who works for Insight Global notified Dr. Chen about the open position. She passed it on to me, and I went for it! What is your favorite J-School memory? There was a show in Media Crossroads called "LFK" that ran for about two seasons. We produced maybe two episodes the year I participated in it, but meeting other people who loved comedy and making videos as much as I did really helped me feel connected to the school and also helped me get more skilled in video editing. What advice would you give to journalism students? Get to know your classmates. Everyone has a story and as journalists, it’s our job to uncover them. There are so many beautiful people who walk through Stauffer-Flint every single day who have incredible ideas and who can help you become a more well-rounded person. How has the J-School prepared you for the workforce? Campaigns definitely taught me the value of accountability and confidence. The workforce is looking for people who are organized and who can get their work done efficiently. Thankfully, these are things Dr. Chen required for her students to survive. Corey Wogalter Business Development Rep, Zego Biography: I came to KU from Las Vegas, not knowing anyone. During my four years, I got involved in KJHK, Alpha Epsilon Pi, started my own music journalism blog, and met some of the best folks I've ever known. I now call Kansas City my home and bleed crimson and blue. How did you get your current job? I signed up for every job search website online. I still get countless emails from ZipRecruiter, LinkedIn, etc. Just apply for everything. Apply to 200 jobs a day. Get as many interviews as you can. Follow up with emails and calls. Be persistent. Make yourself seen. If you think you’re bothering them, you’re doing great. Don’t just knock on the door, kick that thing down. That’s how you’ll get hired. Passion is something they don’t teach in the classroom, and it’s the secret to being successful. Passion is the big secret in life. What is your favorite J-School memory? My favorite J-School memories come from getting to know some of my professors: Yvonnes Chen, Chuck Marsh, Jon Peters, Lisa McLendon, and many more. What advice would you give to journalism students? Professional advice: Get highly involved in jobs, internships, clubs and activities. It'll make finding a job a lot easier. Personal advice: See more concerts and write about them. How has the J-School prepared you for the workforce? The J-School does an amazing job preparing you for everything real life throws at you. Whether you're writing, designing, marketing, etc., the skills you learn in these classes are definitely in use. Plus, if you don't write with intelligence and vibrancy, people will hate reading your emails.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1931
__label__wiki	0.920698	0.920698	Music lives on at Strings after council OKs license Posted Thursday, March 14, 2019 2:06 pm By JACOB MARROCO The Johnston Town Council on Monday unanimously approved a zone change and entertainment license for Strings Bar and Grill after more than an hour of occasionally contentious testimony from both sides. The council held a show cause hearing during a special meeting on Nov. 27, during which it was revealed there was an error on the zoning form for Strings’ application for an entertainment and class BV full liquor license. Strings has operated at 183 George Waterman Road since late 2017 as a music-themed restaurant that features live performances. According to a December report in the Sun Rise, the Zoning Board approved the application but included a note saying the entertainment license was not passed. Solicitor Dylan Conley, of the law office of William Conley Jr., noted the mistake, and the show cause for an entertainment license had been continued for a couple meetings. “It appears what happened is that this council granted a license beyond its authority,” Conley said in November. “Effectively, what that means is that no license was granted.” The matter came back before the council on Monday night, and both sides pleaded their case regarding the zone change and license. The alteration, which was passed 5-0, changed the area from residential to a business zone. The change allowed for the entertainment license to be passed later in the night. “The application received unanimous approval from the Planning Board last week. I would also like to tell you that your Johnston future land use map indicates that this area should be zoned into commercial,” K. Joseph Shekarchi, who represents Strings, said. “We are being consistent with the town’s future land use map. That’s all we’re doing.” John Petrone, the lawyer representing resident Harry Constantino, argued that it was a spot zoning issue and didn’t want to see a “nightclub” in the area. He said his goal is to protect residents like Constantino’s parents, who are both over 90 years old, and others in the surrounding neighborhood. Petrone also said there has been “disinformation” disseminated throughout the process. “We still feel that this is not the right establishment for this area,” he argued. “It’s going to create a nightclub, which is far and away different than what has been there for 30 years. The music still continues to play, the loudness, the vibrations, the impact on the community.” Shekarchi fired back, saying that there has been no prejudice and “everyone knew” the matter was before planning and zoning. He also said the issue of spot zoning would fall on Petrone to prove, including bringing in an expert to support his claim. “It wasn’t hidden, it wasn’t false information,” Shekarchi said. “We’re not putting up Christmas trees over there. Everyone knew that Strings was over there. Everyone knows that this is the main impetus for this request. It’s not a secret to anyone in this town.” He also noted that, despite noise complaints from the Constantinos and nearby residents, there have been no official violations logged with the Johnston Police Department. “Numerous, numerous times, based on information received by my client and stated on the record several times, no one has refuted this, and there’s a fine Johnston police officer [Capt. Mark Vieira] here, to the best of my knowledge, there’s not been one violation,” Shekarchi said. “So if there’s a violation, a noise violation, let me hear about it.” Harry Constantino had a reason for why there may be complaints but no violations. He said that by the time the police officers arrive on scene, the sound level may be different than what was reported. He repeatedly said he has no issue with owners Frank and Dina Lombari and Stephanie Harris. He added that Frank has invited him to the restaurant on several occasions. He told the council that he does not care about what happens at Strings, as long as it doesn’t disturb his parents. “I don't care what [Frank] does inside those four walls,” Constantino said. “I told him, ‘I don't care if it’s Our Lady of Grace church choir, or stock car racing.’ I don't care what happens inside those four walls. All I care about is that my parents don’t hear it. That’s all I care about. So if we can find a way to do that, we’re good here.” Constantino continued, saying that he never wanted to put Strings out of business and wants to work toward a resolution. He suggested setting up equipment, playing music and seeing how loud it gets before it reaches his parents, as one example. He agreed with Petrone’s assertion that the business was “uncharacteristic” for the neighborhood. “If this is what the town wants going forward, that’s a different conversation, but in the meantime we’ve got to figure out how people can live,” Constantino said. “People can’t live next to a nightclub. You can’t raise your kids like that. [My parents] are up all night, and they haven’t complained about anything at any time in any way, shape or form.” Other members of the public were split on the impact Strings has on the surrounding area. Jeffrey Hetu said he has noticed the odor of marijuana from cars parked outside his house. John Pelzman, who said he has worked around music equipment for decades, told the council the decibel level wasn’t out of the ordinary.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1936
__label__cc	0.541808	0.458192	Hoboken Condos 2011 Sep 21st The Weekly Wednesday Wrap Up – Hoboken Condo Sales & Activity for the Week of September 21st Categories: Hoboken Condos Sports Fans Will Understand I just got a call offering us free tix to the Yankees at 1pm. So sorry this is the abbreviated version but I’ll fill in the rest of the details on the sales & dabos tonight. Couldn’t say no! Late Night Note: The Yankees won – it was a great game and the first time we’ve been to the new stadium (we were Mets fans before they built Citifield). Here is the full report: This Week’s Condo Sales & Activity: 329 active Hoboken condo units – vs. 321 last week 7 DABOs (Deposit Accepted By Owner i.e. under contract) vs. 5 dabos last week 16 sold vs. 5 sold 35 new listings vs. 49 20 price changes vs. 25 5 expired listings vs. 3 1 Bedroom & Studio Condos 7 new listings 5 price reductions 232 Park Ave #1 listed on 8/26 for $329.9k; reduced on 9/19 to $289.9k. 86 Monroe #4L listed on 6/23 for $329k; reduced on 9/16 to $319k. 80 Park #3A listed on 6/10 for $375k; reduced on 8/1 to $359k; reduced on 9/14 to $349k. 232 Park #6 listed on 8/26 for $369.9k; reduced on 9/19 to $289.9k. 565 1st #4 listed on 6/21 for $279.9k; reduced on 8/3 to $274.9k; reduced on 9/16 to $269.9k. 133 active 2 dabos 201 Washington ##304 listed on 5/23 for $249k; reduced on 6/18 to $229.9k. 77 River St. #21 listed on 8/10 for $379.9k. 608 Madison#2 listed on 6/8 for $309k; sold on 9/17 for $307.5k. 1001 Clinton #4E listed on 4/29 for $409k; reduced on 5/17 to $399k; reduced on 7/13 to $379k; sold on 9/16 for $365k. 512 Jefferson #4L listed on 7/20 for $369.5k; sold on 9/20 for $367k. 1216 Washington #3S listed on 5/26 for $365k; reduced on 7/14 to $349k; sold on 9/17 for $333.3k. 19 new listings 11 price reductions 2 Constitution Ct. #304 listed on 6/6 for $589k; reduced on 7/18 to $569k; reduced on 9/8 to $550k; reduced on 9/16 to $499.9k. 904 Jefferson #3J listed on 8/17 for $575k; reduced on 9/19 to $550k. 551 Observer Hgwy #8B listed on 8/2 for $375k; reduced on 9/16 to $350k. 2 Constitution Ct. #1111 listed on 7/28 for $525k; reduced on 9/21 to $500k. 700 1st #5D listed on 8/18 for $450k; reduced on 9/20 to $499.9k. 452 2nd St. #4 listed on 8/9 for $539k; reduced to 9/20 to $519k. 551 Observer Hgwy #10B listed on 6/21 for $400k; reduced on 9/18 to $389k. 624-626 Monroe #3A listed on 6/27 for $519.9k; reduced on 7/18 to $499.9k; reduced on 9/1 to $479.9k; reduced on 9/17 to $449.9k. 1500 Washington #3F listed on 8/31 for $669k; reduced on 9/21 to $659k. 257 12th St. #5A listed on 2/22 for $379k; reduced on 5/5 to $369.9k; reduced on 6/28 to $364k; reduced on 9/16 to $357k. 907 Garden #2 listed on 4/15 for $699k; reduced on 9/16 to $685k. 501-515 Adams #1F listed on 9/14 for $365k. 601 Monroe #5A listed on 5/13 for $328k; reduced on 9/7 to $275k. 123-125 Jackson #2B listed on 8/18 for $459.9k. 900-912 Jefferson #2G listed on 8/5 for $$550k. 313 1st #2A listed on 8/24 for $2,300k; reduced on 4/25 to $1,900k; sold on 9/19 for $1,700k. 601 Observer Hgwy #501 listed on 7/11 for $599k; sold on 9/21 for $575k. 113 Willow #2 listed on 7/13 for $749k; sold on 9/19 for $750k. 1500 Garden #7B listed on 8/21 for $700k; sold on 9/19 for $690k. 2 Constitution Ct. #514 listed on 3/22 for $589k; reduced on 7/12 to $550k; sold on 9/15 for $525k. 310 9th St. #B listed on 6/22 for $349.9k; sold on 9/19 for $340k. 719 Monroe #1 listed on 12/6 for $525k; reduced on 5/16 to $519k; sold on 9/19 for $495k. 1125 Maxwell #515 listed on 5/23 for $760k; reduced on 8/1 to $740k; sold on 9/16 for $735k. 3 Bedroom & Bigger Condos 551 Observer Hgwy #PHN listed on 8/20 for $743.7k; reduced on 9/19 to $717k. 456 9th St. #49 listed on 6/7 for $999k; reduced on 9/20 to $925k. 1028 Park listed on 9/16 for $1,187k; increased on 9/16 to $1,194k; increased again on 9/16 to $1,197.5k. 119 Garden #2 listed on 7/15 for $1,550k; reduced on 9/14 to $1,500k. 1 dabo 1425 Garden #5A/501 listed on 12/30 for $1,327.5k; reduced on 4/27 to $1,275.5k. 701-703 Monroe #4B listed on 7/11 for $549k; sold on 9/20 for $530k. Forde said at September 22nd, 2011 at 10:45 am As always I love your blog. Last night the City Council minority voted to close the Hospital. This means Hoboken Tax Payers will assume the 52 Million dollar hospital debt. In your opinion what affects could this have on real estate prices? Thanks and please keep up the great work! Lori Turoff said at September 22nd, 2011 at 11:18 am That is horrible news on so many levels! It cannot possibly help real estate prices. I am going to do some more research and will post more about it. Rich said at September 23rd, 2011 at 3:20 pm they did not vote to close the hospital last night. They voted not to throw another 5 million at the problem. Here is the problem as I understand it, the hospital has something like 34million in unpaid bills in just a few short years. There is an deal pending but not enough money to go around. Everyone needs to take a bit less, including the creditors. It sounds like to me the city counsel decided not to be the first one to bend over and offer up the tax payers money. I think cristie offered up the money, which still tax payer money but at least it is spread at a little more then if it came from our hoboken taxes. http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-transactions-and-valuation-issues/new-jersey-gov-chris-christie-pledges-5m-to-help-keep-hoboken-hospital-open.html Forde said at September 25th, 2011 at 2:29 pm Point being if Gov Christie hadn’t stepped in with funds and the creditors holding to their position it would likely have caused the Hospital to close triggering Hoboken’s 52 million bond guarantee. The people who voted against the 5 million had no expectation that another would step in with funds and had no plan of their own to prevent the Hospital from closing. Watching the way Beth Mason and Mike Russo “contribute” to Hoboken’s future is like watching children playing with lit fireworks. Sooner or later someone gets hurt. Craig said at September 28th, 2011 at 3:09 pm @Forde – there was no guarantee that the extra $5 million would seal the deal. So the council minority could have potentialy voted for the extra $5 million and then the deal could have still fallen apart anyway. Then the taxpayers are out the $52 million bond guarantee along with the extra $5 million on top of that – and then you’d be calling for their heads. In exchange for the extra $5 million, the council minority wanted certain guarantees, including that the creditors would sign off on the sale and the deal would be done. When they couldn’t get those guarantees, they declined to vote to toss $5 million into a crapshoot, and rightly so. There were other bidders that had what appeared to be competitive, if not superior offers to buy the hospital. I’d like to know why they were cut out – and why the details of the bidding process were not made public. When Hoboken gov’t financial transactions of this magnitude are made in secret, it leaves me suspicious that something is amiss. Want More Hoboken Real Estate News? Enter your Email to Receive Updates The Turoff Team Hoboken Best Homes kurume on The Hoboken Weekly Wednesday Wrap Up for the Week Ending 6/19/19 lori on The Hoboken Weekly Wednesday Wrap Up for the Week of March 20th T. Barbanel on The Hoboken Weekly Wednesday Wrap Up for the Week of March 20th Lori Turoff on Every Picture Tells a Story JC on Every Picture Tells a Story The Right Way to Use Zillow to Buy a Condo in Hoboken The Hoboken Weekly Wednesday Wrap Up for the Week Ending July 10th The June Hoboken Condo Sales Results The Hoboken Weekly Wednesday Wrap Up for the Week Ending July 3rd The Hoboken Weekly Wednesday Wrap Up for the Week Ending June 26th Copyright © 2008 Hoboken Real Estate News Login Sitemap	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1938
__label__wiki	0.513006	0.513006	Dansk Kriminalistforening Lokalafdelinger Formænd Dansk Selskab for International Strafferet og EU-ret Arresthuse i Danmark Former for medlemskab Indmeldelsesformular Afholdte møder Afholdte møder 2019 Nordisk Tidsskrift for Kriminalvidenskab Om tidsskriftet 105. årgang, 2018 104. årgang 2017 99. årgang, 2012 Gardes bog Øvrige nordiske foreninger Svensk kriminalistforening Norsk Kriminalistforening Islandsk Kriminalistforening Finsk Kriminalistforening April 2006 - 93. årgang Nr. 1 1. Mika Illman: Holocaust Denial and Other Forms of Public Denial of Known Genocides. The aim of this article is to discuss the matter of Holocaust denial and other forms of public denial of known genocides. The following question is presented: Should it be considered a criminal offence for someone to publicly state that the Nazi war crimes of the Second World War never took place and to argue that those who claim such actions occurred are liars and guilty of fraud? Or should such statements be protected under the right to freedom of speech? The analysis begins with an examination of the freedom of speech, which is guaranteed by the constitutions of Finland and various other nations, as well as by several international conventions on human rights. In part of my article, I scrutinize two separate cases tried by different international human rights organs. Following an analysis of this material and reflection on the problem as a whole, I draw the conclusion that the cases analysed suggest that the national legislator is allowed, to a certain extent, to criminalize statements of the kind in question, and thereby to limit freedom of speech in this respect. Different countries have taken different steps in their efforts to combat this kind of propaganda. German law includes some prohibitions specifically referring to Holocaust denial, whereas Swedish law, for example, simply applies the general prohibition against racial agitation to (also more general) statements of Holocaust denial. In my opinion, there is no reason why the general prohibition against racial agitation in the Finnish criminal code could not be applied in a similar manner. In fact, there is currently a case of this character pending in the Helsinki Court of Appeals. 2. Peter Lindström: Zero Tolerance Policing: Flip or Flop? Zero tolerance policing (ZTP) has now been on the criminological and political agenda for more than a decade. The meaning of this concept, i.e. taking firm police action against disorder and minor offences, was known as “aggressive policing” in the 1980s. In “Broken Windows” theory it is argued that intensified police initiatives against disorder will have an impact on serious crime. The astonishing decline in homicide and other serious offences in New York since the early 1990s has been taken as proof of the theory’s validity. This article reviews the literature on zero tolerance policing and investigates the relationship between ZTP and robbery, burglary, and car theft in Sweden. In line with the findings from several other studies, a negative relationship is noted between an index measuring zero tolerance policing and robbery, at least in Stockholm. The overall conclusion, however, is that ZTP is not a miracle medicine against serious offences. 3. Johannes Knutsson: Police Use of Firearms in Norway and Sweden. There seems to be an almost universal tendency to assume that police work is getting ever more dangerous and that the police, as a consequence, have to use their firearms more frequently. A special case is the occurrence of “cascading events”, i.e., incidents in which a single action triggers multiple, often serious, consequences. Trends in police officers’ use of firearms in Norway and Sweden during the last few decades are examined. Norway has an unarmed force while Sweden has a regularly armed police force. Norwegian police officers are trained in the use of firearms, but have to get authorisation from a chief of police before they may arm themselves. Their arms are either stored in police stations or are stowed unloaded in sealed bags in patrol cars. After an incident in which two officers were shot to death in Norway in 1998, the number of cases in which police draw firearms to threaten suspects tripled to about 60 incidents per year. However, incidents where police open fire have remained stable at about 2 to 3 cases per year for the entire Norwegian police force. The consequences of these shootings in terms of injured or killed civilians have also been stable at about one civilian injured per year. In 1999, two Swedish police officers were murdered with their own service weapons by three bank robbers. Yet this event seems to have had no effect on the frequency with which Swedish police officers draw their firearms. During an average year in Sweden, police officers fire their weapons in connection with about 25 incidents, injure civilians in about 7 incidents, and kill about one civilian. For both countries, the stability in the frequency of shootings is striking. 4. Nils Christie: Punishment or Mediation. Greenland is in the process of rapid modernization. This puts pressure on its old legal solutions. The question is raised as to whether it is possible within the current context to continue a tradition with at least some proximity to the old customs of the land. A commission for legal reform proposes the maintenance of strong reliance on lay judges. But at the same time, a call for greater punishment is receiving a prominent position in the proposed reforms. The article argues that this increased reliance on punishment is a mistake. Greenland already has a very high number of prisoners and the country ought to establish a system whereby restorative justice is initiated before conflicts reach the penal courts. A condition would, of course, be that the parties accept the idea to meet for mediation. Mediation ought to be attempted even in the most serious of cases. If the results of mediation were seen as unacceptable by the prosecution, and such cases came before the court, sensible judges would simply take the results of mediation into consideration when deciding the final sanction. Berit Johnsen & Birgitte Langset Storvik: Trends in the Use of Preventive Detention 2002-2005. In Norway, a new law on preventive detention took effect on January 1, 2002. The purpose of the law is to protect the public from offenders who are considered to be dangerous. In principle, there is no upper time limit to a sentence of preventive detention. However, when the court sentences a person to preventive detention, it has to set a time frame which cannot exceed 21 years. The court can prolong the sentence at a later date if it considers the convicted person still too dangerous for release. This study focuses on legal usage with respect to the new law on preventive detention. During the four years since the law came into effect, the courts have passed 100 sentences of preventive detention. Six of these sentences have been applied to women. The study shows that more sentences of preventive detention have been passed than one should expect. Preventive detention is primarily used to punish serious offences like murder and sexually related crimes. So far, 26 persons have been released or released on parole from preventive detention. According to current regulations, a person can be released on parole from preventive detention when he or she is no longer considered a danger to the public. In other words, persons serving preventive detention have to change during imprisonment. Legal practice sometimes differs from the regulations in this matter, and some prisoners have been released on parole based on a court ruling that the prison has nothing more to offer them in terms of possibilities for change. So far, two persons have had their sentences prolonged by two years. August 2006 - 93. årgang Nr. 2 Ragnheidur Bragadóttir: Sex Offences – Proposals for Amendments to the Icelandic Penal Code In recent years, provisions on sexual offences in Iceland’s penal law have been criticized by scholars and institutions working in the interests of women and children. Since the author of this article has conducted research on these offences, Iceland’s Minister of Justice asked her to author a bill suggesting new provisions on sexual offences in the Penal Code. The current article describes the changes she suggested to the provisions on rape, as well as those made in regard to other sexual offences against adults, sexual offences against children, and prostitution. The political context surrounding work on the bill is described, as is the unique method applied in its presentation - where the public was given an opportunity to comment on it prior to its submission to the Althing Fredrik Wersäll: Cooperative Penal Law within a Borderless Nordic Territory This article suggests that the Nordic countries create a common legal area for criminal justice. A case in another country should, when it comes to legal cooperation, be treated as a domestic case. The effect would be that all legal boundaries for cooperation and enforcement of decisions over the borders. Jussi Matikkala: Dolus Nordicus The Nordic countries have a history of intensive interaction, not least in the field of criminal law on both practical questions and theoretical matters. In 1960, an important meeting on Nordic criminal law was held in Reykjavik. One of the topics discussed was the relationship between intent and mistake of law. At that time, criminal intent was not yet defined in the criminal codes of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The current paper discusses the later development of the law on criminal intent in these countries, especially in Finland Niels Viltoft: Limits for Arrangements with the Prosecution The article is based on a presentation held at a meeting of the Danish Criminological Association (Dansk Kriminologisk Selskab) in May 2006. The subject of the meeting was “Limits for arrangements with the prosecution”. The Danish penal system does not allow plea bargaining. The question, however, is to what extent agreements aimed at a reduction in punishment can and should be entered into by the prosecution and the accused in order to secure a conviction. In the article, the fundamental legal problems in making agreements are analysed and discussed. It is concluded – to the extent that there are any advantages or necessities whatsoever in making agreements with the accused – that exact rules for the “reward” offered to the accused should be included in the penal code rather than being a secret arrangement between the prosecution and the accused. Henrik Tham: The Crime Victim, Crime Policy and Criminology The emergence of the crime victim has played a central role in the substantial changes witnessed in the field of Swedish crime policy over the past generation or so. These changes have involved both an expansion of penal justice controls and a questioning of traditional legal principles that have protected the rights of citizens vis-á-vis the state. They have also led to a shift in the way the perpetrators of crime are perceived, and this has in turn affected constructions of the crime victim. The crime-victim discourse also constitutes a challenge to traditional criminology in a number of important respects. These trends should be understood not only against the background of a general shift in perceptions of the victims of crime, but also as a means employed by the state and politicians to create legitimacy and consensus. Leif Petter Olaussen: Increasing Acceptance of the Prison Sentence among Norwegians Data from the Norwegian samples of the International Crime Victims Survey (ICVS) for 1989 and 2004 show that a majority of Norwegians do not recommend imprisonment for a thief who steals a TV. The data do, however, indicate that sentences to imprisonment were more acceptable to Norwegians in 2004 than in 1989. In both years, the proportion of different demographic groups (based on age, sex, education) recommending imprisonment was fairly equal, thus suggesting only minor differences in penal attitudes across sub-populations. However, women with high or medium education seem to be less punitive than men with equal education. In accordance with many other studies, this study finds no correlation between punitive attitudes and victimization for burglary or other serious thefts, and no correlation between punitive attitudes and assumed probability of house burglary coming year. It is argued that the lack of correlation only rejects a supposed connection between direct victimization and penal attitudes, but does not exclude that both direct and indirect exposure to crime may lead to more punitive attitudes. One explanation for the absence of a difference in penal attitudes between victims and non-victims may be that frequent indirect exposure to crime through the media has the same effect as direct exposure. The change in penal attitude towards imprisonment does not seem to be restricted to one or a few subgroups in the population, but is most pronounced for regions outside the most highly urbanized part of Norway and among younger people. Several possible explanations for this change are discussed: Higher exposure to crime, especially through the media; more incidences of dramatic and serious crimes where guns are used; media discussions of proposals for more severe punishments; and the parliament’s passing of several laws to that effect during the 1990s. Finally, connections between “immigrants” and serious crime in the media’s coverage of crime may also have influenced the attitudinal change which has taken place. Marie-Lisbet Amundsen: Inmates and Psychic Health This article refers to results obtained from a survey conducted during the spring of 2005. 216 inmates from four Norwegian prisons answered questions relating to the use of drugs, serious depression, anxiety and suicide, as well as problems relating to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The research shows, inter alia, that some time prior to their imprisonment, about 70% of the inmates were seriously depressed and 49% had considered suicide, whereas during imprisonment 47% reported one or more bouts of serious depression and 36% reported having considered suicide. 60% of the inmates acknowledged that the use of drugs had created problems for them with family and friends, and half reported that drugs had been the source of economic problems. Nearly half of the inmates felt that they could become violent when angry, though two-thirds indicated a willingness to take part in an anger management programme if one was offered to them. Finally, it should be noted that 29% of the inmates had great difficulties with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD). Hanns von Hofer: Is Violence Increasing or are the Definitions of Violence Expanding? An Empirical and Theoretical Analysis of Long-Term Trends in Violence Using Sweden as an example, the essay analyzes the long-term development of individual violence since the middle of the 19th century. Individual violence reached its lowest level in the years between World I and World War II. Since the mid-1960s, individual violence has increased again, without reaching the high levels of the 1850s. The author argues that the renewed increase is both real and conceptual. It is real in the sense that factual violence has increased (as, by way of example, homicide data from vital statistics clearly show). The increase is, however, also conceptual as demonstrated by the application and enforcement of wider social and legal definitions of what is considered violence. The author speculates that the underlying reasons for this expanded conceptualization are connected to three basic characteristics of modernization: (1) fewer deviations from expected normality, (2) increased standardization of life processes, and (3) greater intolerance for hardship and pain. These traits have decreased people’s tolerance for what is considered an acceptable use of force and thereby widened the range of behaviours likely to be perceived as criminal violence. December 2006 - 93. årgang Nr. 3 Minna Kimpimäki: National Interpretations of the Principle of Universality This article deals with the principle of universality and its different interpretations in the national legislations of the Nordic countries. No general rules regarding the exercise of criminal jurisdiction exist on the international level and in this situation states are allowed to define the scope of application of their criminal law as well as the criminal jurisdiction of their courts and other authorities. Therefore, the content and the scope of applications of the principle of universality have been defined differently in different state legislations. There have been substantial differences even between legislations of the Nordic countries. The relationship between the principle of universal jurisdiction and the principle of vicarious administration has been unclear, and even the basic structure of national rules of jurisdiction has been different in different countries. This situation has caused differences in determining when a state has the right or obligation to accept and exercise universal jurisdiction. The aim of this article is to point out different national understandings and interpretations concerning universal jurisdiction and to consider the effects of these differences in the context of combating international criminality. Lars Korsell: Economic and Organised Crime: A Criminal Justice Drama in Seven Acts Economic, or white-collar crime, and organised crime are discussed from a conflict perspective. The first conflict is between economic and organised crime, because they are often not stressed at the same time in criminal justice. There is also a conflict about what kinds of offences and criminal problems should be counted as economic crime. The businessman is often recognised as the offender, but couldn’t he also be the victim? An apparent conflict exists between our perception of the good guys - occupied with economic crime, and the bad guys - smuggling drugs and committing other organised criminality. Should different types of offences under the headings economic and organised crime be enforced by a single agency or by several? A classic conflict is between effectiveness and integrity; always an issue in the field of economic and organised crime. A final conflict is whether criminal justice responses to economic and organised crime are moving forward or backward. Heidi Mork Lomell: The Extent of Crime Policy in Public Space Public space is a fundamental target of crime policy initiatives. In recent years, new crime policy initiatives have clearly changed public space, most notably in their effects on marginalised groups’ rights to the city. In addition, public space is changing, most notably in that more and more public space is privately owned and policed. This is narrowing the reach of official crime policy initiatives. Both the changing nature of crime policy and the changing nature of public space have the same effects on marginalised people. The right to the city should become a major concern both in crime policy discourse and municipal politic´s. Stefan Holgersson, Rolf Granér & Peter Skoglund: Complaints against the Police In this article we argue that a narrowminded focus on lawful actions in efforts to eliminate bad behaviours on the part of police personnel have a negative effect on the attempt to reduce such problems. Since bad behaviour often fails to constitute outright illegality, it is difficult to tackle within the juridical forum. It seems to be easier and therefore more attractive to commanders to hand over such problems to departments of internal affairs to be processed externally, rather than to try to act to get rid of such matters within the organization via a more comprehensive approach designed to motivate police personnel to behave more appropriately. While definitely not the only reason for the current state of affairs, the present juridical system is an important factor. Reporting to Police: Seriousness of Acts and Social Distance The purpose of this article is to explain people’s varying tendencies to report criminal victimization to the police, utilizing data from the 2004 Norwegian ICVS-survey. The analysis is guided by two theoretical points of view. The first is derived from scholars in penal philosophy, who typically contend that proportionality between punishment and crime is an important part of widely held conceptions of justice. If this is true, people’s tendencies to report crime to the police should be positively correlated with the seriousness of criminal acts. The analysis confirms that crime seriousness is of great importance for decisions to report. The other hypotheses examined in the article were proposed by the American legal sociologist Donald Black, whose book, The Behavior of Law, contended that the use of law, or governmental social control, increases with increasing relational distance between people. First, he asserted that people are less likely to sue someone they know well than a stranger. Second, Black suggested that the use of law or formal control increases with urbanization because relational distance increases with city size. Third, he contended that law varies directly with social and economic ressources: people with more social and economic ressources are more likely than people with less social and economic ressources to bring lawsuits against others. None of Black’s hypotheses are confirmed by the Norwegian data. E-mail: sekretariat@kriminalistforeningen.dk Bankoplysninger: Danske Bank reg.nr. 9206 kontonr. 4429156734	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1941
__label__cc	0.681246	0.318754	Collection: Articles 3222 items matched search criteria. Listing items 2541 to 2560: A Simple Approach to the Design of a Shielded Gradient Probe for High-Resolution In-Vivo Spectroscopy Simple Calculation of the Velocity Profiles for Pulsatile Flow in a Blood Vessel Using Mathematica Simple Closed Paths Simple Evaluation of Franck-Condon Factors and Non-Condon Effects in the Morse Potential Simple Mathematical Expressions for Spectral Extinction and Scattering Properties of Small Size-parameter Particles, Including Examples for Soot and TiO2 A Simple Program for Computing Characteristic Polynomials with Mathematica A Simple Quantum Integro-Differential Solver (SQuIDS) A Simplified Model Describing Enhanced Growth Rates During Vapor Phase Selective Epitaxy Simplifying SAW calculations Simplifying Tensor Polynomials with Indices Simulating Evolution with Mathematica Simulating Experiences: Excursions in Programming. Catastrophes in Complex Systems Simulating Experiences: Excursions in Programming. Modelling Nature with Cellular Automata, Part 1: One-Dimensional CAs Simulating Experiences: Excursions in Programming. Percolation Clustering Simulating Experiences: Excursions in Programming. Spreading Phenomena Simulating Experiences: Excursions in Programming. The Game of Life Simulating multivariate g-and-h distributions Simulation and interpretation of 2D diffraction patterns from self-assembled nanostructured films at arbitrary angles of incidence: From grazing incidence (above the critical angle) to transmission perpendicular to the substrate Simulation of a Quantum Algorithm for Phase Estimation Simulation of Classical Queuing Systems with Mathematica Go to page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1945
__label__wiki	0.971396	0.971396	Archive: Sport \| Football Dominik Jůn In Sports news today: Czech tennis superstars keep their world rankings ahead of the BNP Paribas Open; FC Viktoria Plzeň’s victory against Sparta sees both it and Liberec eyeing Sparta’s top spot in the Gambrinus Liga; HC Oceláři Třinec have to face PSG Zlín for a fifth time in the ice hockey Extraliga playoffs and Sýkora’s hopes of celebrating in style his 1000th professional match end in disappointment. Jan Velinger In Sports News: In football, Sparta Prague slip against Hradec Kralové while defending league champions Viktoria Plzeň draw with Dukla; Viktoria Plzeň’s 3:1 loss against Schalke 04 ends glorious European competition run; midfielder Tomáš Rosický ends a two-year scoring drought in the Premier League; and in hockey, Sparta Prague are crowned season champions. Viktoria Plzeň loose best of 16 to German Schalke 04 Christian Falvey Viktoria Plzeň lost 3:1 to the German Bundesliga side Schalke 04 after overtime in the best of 16 in the UEFA Europe League. The Czech team has failed to advance to the quarterfinals. A late equalizer from Viktoria Plzeň came at the 88th minute, when Czech midfielder František Rajtoral exploited a clearance attempt by Schalke to force overtime. Ahead of the defeat, Viktoria Plzeň was the only Czech club in the European competition. In December, the club lost to AC Milan, dropping out of the Champions League. In this weeks sports news, spectator scuffles stop play in a weekend Gambrinus Liga match; Czech long-distance speed-skater Martina Sáblíková wins silver in Moscow; the Czech paralympic movement settles a long-running internal dispute and ice-hockey sensation Jaromír Jágr’s many millions. Czech soccer player David Bystroň, tests positive for doping Sarah Borufka Soccer player David Bystroň, who currently plays defense for FC Viktoria Plzeň, has tested positive for doping and has been banned from playing for two years. The disciplinary committee of UEFA, the European football association, announced its decision to disqualify him from playing on Thursday. The 30-year-old soccer player had been tested at a November Champion’s League match; the blood sample was analyzed in January. Allegedly, traces of methamphetamine were found in his blood. Deputy Sparta manager Lukáš Přibyl found dead in his office Sparta Prague’s deputy manager Lukáš Přibyl was found dead in the football club’s stadium on Thursday, the daily Právo writes on its website. According to the daily, police found the body of the 33-year-old man in his office on Thursday afternoon. He had a scalp laceration and bruises on his neck. Third-party violence cannot be ruled out, police said. Criminal investigators are currently at the scene of the incident. An autopsy will most likely reveal further details regarding the cause of his death, investigators said. Czech football coach Lavička announces departure from Sydney FC Daniela Lazarová Czech football coach Vítězslav Lavička will leave the Australian club Sydney FC in February, after the end of the season. At a news conference on Friday, the 48-year-old coach said he reached an amicable agreement with the club’s management. Mr Lavička said he wanted to return to the Czech Republic where his family had been living for the past year. As Sydney FC head coach, Vítěszlav Lavička won the Australian league title in 2010, his first season with the club. He said he had so far not received any offers from Czech football although he is reportedly being eyed by Slavia Prague. The Australian Open ended with mixed blessings for the Czech players, the happiest of whom was doubtless Radek Štěpánek. Unseeded Štěpánek and Leander Paes of India won the men’s doubles tournament, defeating the defending champions, the American Bryan twins, 7-6, 6-2. With that, Karviná native Štěpánek leapt forward 68 places in the rankings to world 23rd, two places behind his compatriot František Čermák. Starting with tennis - there was an extraordinary set of events in the men’s fourth round of the Australian Open, where the Czech seventh seed Tomas Berdych was booed off the Hisense Arena after an ill-tempered fourth-round victory over Nicolas Almagro. Chelsea FC’s Petr Čech voted world’s fifth best goalkeeper Jan Richter Chelsea FC and Czech international Petr Čech has been voted the world’s fifth best goalkeeper by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics. The 26-year old Čech, who won the poll in 2005, came in 3rd last year. In this year’s poll, Petr Čech finished fifth with 41 points after Iker Casillas from Real Madrid, Manuel Neuer from Bayern Munich, Victor Valdes from FC Barcelona and Gianluigi Buffon of Juventus.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1951
__label__cc	0.599765	0.400235	Officials Updates Businesswomen Everyday Women Global Women ACWF Customs to Celebrate Dragon Boat Festival June 7, 2019 Editor: Wei Xuanyi China's Dragon Boat Festival, or Duanwu, is just around the corner. Also called the Double Fifth Festival, the holiday, which falls on June 7 this year, is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar. It is one of the oldest festivals, not only in China but also throughout the world, with a history of more than 2,000 years. In 2006, the traditional festival was listed as part of China's national intangible cultural heritage. In 2008, it was recognized as a public holiday in the Chinese mainland. The Dragon Boat Festival commemorates the death of Qu Yuan, a Chu state official and poet who lived during the Warring States Period (475-221 BC) before the reunification of China under the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC). He was exiled after opposing his king's decision to ally with the neighboring state of Qin, and when Chu was finally conquered by Qin, he committed suicide by drowning in the Miluo River on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. The Chu people, who admired Qu Yuan for his loyalty and integrity, threw rice dumplings into the river to feed the fish so they would not eat the body of their poet hero. People then started dragon boat racing to scare off the fish. Since then, the fifth day of the fifth month on the lunar calendar is celebrated as the Dragon Boat Festival. The following are some customs for the festival. Dragon boat racing At the center of the festival are the dragon boat races. Competing teams drive their colorful dragon boats forward to the rhythm of the beating drums. These exciting races were inspired by the villagers' valiant attempts to rescue Qu Yuan from the Miluo River. This tradition has remained unbroken for centuries. Eating zongzi Most Chinese festivals are tied to a particular food, and the Dragon Boat Festival is no exception. A very popular dish during the Dragon Boat Festival is zongzi. This tasty dish consists of rice dumplings with meat, peanuts, egg yolks or other fillings wrapped in reed leaves. The tradition of zongzi is meant to remind us of village fishermen scattering rice across the water of the Miluo River in order to appease the river dragons and fish so that they would not devour Qu Yuan. Balancing eggs It is said that you will be lucky in the coming year if you can balance an egg upright during the Dragon Boat Festival. The egg balancing competition will be held at noon in many places. Hanging auspicious leaves The fifth lunar month is marked as a "poisonous" month in the Chinese farmer's calendar. This is because insects and pests are active during this summer month and people are more prone to catch infectious diseases. During the Dragon Boat Festival, Chinese put mugwort leaves and calamus on the doors or windows to repel insects, flies, fleas and moths from the house. Those leaves have curative properties and can prevent an epidemic. Wearing scented sachets On the Dragon Boat Festival, children normally wear scented sachets threaded with five-color silk string to ward off evil. A scented sachet is an ornament worn on the front of the dress. The sweet-smelling sachet contains cinnabar, realgar and aromatic herbs. It is usually wrapped in a silk cloth and sometimes embroidered with exquisite patterns. Multicolor silk threads are attached to the sachet as decorative tassels. In some areas of China, a scented sachet is also used as a token between young lovers. Hanging an image of Zhong Kui Zhong Kui is a famous exorcist. His picture, a fierce-looking male brandishing a magic sword, is hung in Chinese houses in order to scare away evil spirits and demons, especially during the Dragon Boat Festival. Tying five-color silk string According to folklore, tying five-color silk string around wrists, ankles and the neck protects children from evil. Five-color string holds a special significance in China, as it is thought to contain magical and healing properties. Children are not permitted to speak while their parents tie the five-color string for them, nor are they allowed to remove it until the specified time. Only after the first summer rainfall can the children throw the string into the river. This is thought to protect children from the plague and other diseases. Driving away the five poisonous pests According to Chinese custom, the "double fifth" is the hottest day of the month, when all the poisonous vapors are in the air, so every attempt is made to harmonize yin and yang so that danger and disease can be avoided. It is believed that five kinds of poisonous pests would harm children's health, including a snake, centipede, scorpion, lizard, toad and sometimes spider. People will cut colorful silk into patterns of these five pests or paint them on red paper, and then paste the silk or red paper on the doors or walls of the bedroom, each impaled by a needle. The five pests are also often embroidered on clothing, stamped on cakes, engraved on accessories and used for decorations. They are believed to have the power to drive away all pests and pestilence. (Source: China Daily) Shanghai Offers Public Activities for People to Learn National Intangible Cultural Heritagesxinhuanet.com2019-06-09Foreign Students Make Zongzi to Mark Dragon Boat Festivalchinadaily.com.cn2019-06-05A Glimpse of Folk Customs of Chinese Traditional Duanwu Festivalxinhuanet.com2019-05-30Women in E China Highlight Entrepreneurial Spirit2018-12-27Southern Villages Fuel Tourism Through Folk Customs2018-12-27 About\|Contact\|Advertising\|Copyright Touch\|PC Women’s Foreign Language Publications of China. Email: website@womenofchina.cn	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1953
__label__cc	0.503608	0.496392	"All human beings who breathe are a bit unnatural." Well, it turns that out my initial positive feeling after reading the first couple pages of Muriel Spark's The Ballad of Peckham Rye were short-lived and quickly replaced by indignation. This novel tries too hard to be some kind of bizarre satire but ends up as nothing more than an affectedly quaint and nonsensical farce without any substantial value. The characters are all flat; their motivations entirely incomprehensible. Muriel Spark can often be applauded for her sly wit, snappy dialogue and wildly humorous stories but none of these attributes are found here. I didn't laugh once. However, I will admit that some of the dialogue is slightly amusing in a droll way but rendered inconsequential since it is not supported by engaging characters or a credible story, which drifts around without any purpose. The only true redeemable quality here is the Penguin edition's snazzy cover-art. Feel free to admire the striking photograph from afar but I would not recommend venturing to read any of the written content inside. Let me try and attempt to describe the basic plot and perhaps, highlight some of its many absurdities. A Scottish man named Dougal Douglas arrives in the town of Peckham and gets two jobs working for rival textile factories as a consultant on the board of Human Resources to investigate and better understand the discontent amongst workers. The main problem is the increased absenteeism and slacking on the job. Dougal describes his field of research as the study of "industrial psychology" (84). In order to fully understand the situation, he decides to personally interact with the workers and establish relationships with them in order to derive a more thorough understanding of the labor unrest spreading in the small town. Spark alludes to the negative effects of capitalism but never fully engages with the issue. This ambiguous approach to narrative recurs throughout the rest of the novel where she cruelly teases the reader by introducing various ideas, characters or plot developments that seem important but contain no value and go nowhere. Dougal is also keen to point out to others that the two bumps on his head are the result of having his horns removed--of course, the implication that he is the devil incarnate. Unfortunately, Spark gives the reader no reason to care. The story could have potentially been a lot more interesting as an allegory but she decides to indulge in ridiculous inanity instead. Dougal makes friends with a young man named Humphrey who is a Marxist but referred to as a "union man" although has no affiliation with factory work. He is engaged to marry a teenager named Dixie who holds down two jobs because she wants to save money for the marriage. Unfortunately for her, she is left at the alter by Humphrey for reasons that are never explained. There is also a gang of young thugs lead by Trevor who want to run Dougal out of town and these two find themselves in physical confrontations on more than one occasion. Additionally, a wandering evangelist, a managerial typist, an old landlady with visions of her dead brother walking around the street and a woman working with Dougal to write an autobiography of her life growing up in Peckham all get mixed up in the baffling plot. Dougal is a strange character who is prone to to acts of impulsive behavior: dancing with a trash-can lid, having an emotional break-down at work for "losing his girl," getting into bar fights and his obsession with a tunnel excavation taking place in town. The wild story is all over the place and includes blackmail, violence and even murder but it's all pointless. It's almost as if Spark had a general idea of what she wanted to write about but couldn't figure out where to take the story, so instead of tossing it in the rough draft pile she decided to string a bunch of arbitrary plot threads together with the hope that utilizing ambiguity would somehow amount to something meaningful. Wrong. I want my time back Miss Spark, this novel was terrible. Labels: Muriel Spark	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1957
__label__wiki	0.585735	0.585735	MAP Lahore ChapterContact Us About MAP MAP Profile MAP President Marketing Review MR. SYED MASOOD HASHMI Marketing Association of Pakistan Recipient of Tamgha-e-Imtiaz, Syed Masood Hashmi is the Director and Chief Executive Officer of Orient Communications (Pvt) Limited, an affiliate company of McCann Worldgroup. He is the elder son of the late S.H. Hashmi, a pioneer of the advertising industry in Pakistan, a philanthropist and the recipient of Pride of Performance and Sitara-e-Imtiaz awards. Masood’s grandfather was a renowned religious scholar Maulana Syed Abdul Qudoos Hashmi. Born on 27th December, 1962, he is a graduate in Commerce from the University of Karachi. His professional qualifications include diplomas in Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations from the City College of Management Studies London, London Chamber of Commerce and International Advertising Association. He has also attended the Leadership Development Programme at the prestigious Columbia University, Graduate School of Business, New York, besides attending numerous advertising congresses and McCann Erickson Workshops all over the world. Masood Hashmi has over 29 years experience in advertising and public relations. He has contributed immensely to the field, holding prominent positions in major management, marketing and advertising associations. He has the distinction of being the youngest President of the Marketing Association of Pakistan (MAP), a position he held for 10 terms, and is also the recipient of the most coveted, Marketing Excellence Award. Previously Masood has managed Orient Advertising as Deputy Managing Director, and later as its Chief Executive. With him at the helm of affairs, Orient continued to grow from strength to strength. In addition to being the largest media buyer, both electronic and print, for 22 consecutive years, Orient won top quality and effectiveness awards. These include, among others, the coveted AME International Award in New York (1999), APNS Best Business Performance Awards for 22 consecutive years, Aurora Awards and several Pakistan Advertising Association Awards. Masood is a much sought after speaker and is invited to lecture at various professional & business forums and educational institutions. He is an Executive Member of the Board of Kharadar General Hospital and also works for The Health Foundation of Pakistan. He is also a member of the Board of Governors of the Institute of Business Management, composed of four colleges including CBM. He has held the position of the elected Head of the Arts Council of Pakistan, the country’s largest forum of performing and fine arts for 3 consecutive terms. He is the President of the Management Association of Pakistan. He has also held the position of President of the International Advertising Association (Pakistan Chapter) for 2 years. Marketing Review \| Gallery \| Contact Us Home \| About Map \| Become a Member \| News & Events Copyright © 2019 - Marketing Association of Pakistan Website Maintained by PLUMSMEDIA	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1958
__label__wiki	0.949514	0.949514	Lees-McRae ranked in final NCAA Statistics INDIANAPOLIS --- The Lees-McRae College women's soccer team is ranked 10th in the nation in scoring offense, and is listed in a total of nine individual and team categories in the final edition of the NCAA Division II statistics, announced NCAA officials Tuesday. Lees-McRae (14-6, 8-2 CC) posted one of the program's best seasons in school history, advancing to the semifinal round of the Conference Carolinas Tournament and recording the program's highest win total since the 2002 campaign. The Bobcats conclude the season ranked 10th in the nation in scoring offense (2.8), 37th in winning percentage (0.700), and 70th in goals against average (1.10). Freshman Kaitlyn Kerrigan (Lakewood Ranch, Fla.) posted an impressive rookie campaign for the Bobcats, concluding the season ranked 12th in the nation in assists per match (0.58) and 14th in total helpers (11). Junior forward Vickie Rich (Arlington Heights, Ill.) concludes the season ranked 53rd in total points (30), 55th in markers per match (1.5), 63rd in assists per contest (0.4), and 83rd in goals per match (0.55). Rookie MaryBeth Sullivan (Greensboro, N.C.) enjoyed a tremendous season as well, finishing the campaign with at least one goal in her last five matches to jump to 26th in total points (37). The all-Conference Carolinas First Team selection is also ranked 34th in markers per match (1.85), 35th in assists per contest (0.45), and 39th in goals per match (0.7). Freshman Katelyn Custer (Mooresville, N.C.) is also ranked, finishing the season ranked 72nd in assists per match (0.39), while senior goalkeeper Brittany Bolton (Roanoke, Va.) is listed 82nd in goals against average (1.14). Lees-McRae ends its season with a 14-6 overall record and an 8-2 mark in league play, while also positing the program's first top-four finish in the conference standings since 2003. The Lady Bobcats are expected to return 18 letter-winners from this season's squad, including all-conference first team selections Sullivan, Brooke Santerre (Port Republic, Md.), and Mary Dorn (Shallot, N.C.).	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1960
__label__cc	0.523272	0.476728	Women’s Tennis picked to finish 11th in Conference Carolinas Preseason Coaches’ Poll HIGH POINT, N.C. – The Lees-McRae College women's tennis team was selected to finish 11th in the Conference Carolinas Preseason Coaches' Poll Wednesday afternoon. Mackenzie Langmade, Jaden Acklin and Sandy Allen were named players to watch for the squad this coming season. Under the leadership of newly appointed Head Coach Lt. Col. Rodger Acklin, the Bobcats will look to take some steps forward after finishing last season 4-13 overall and 1-10 in conference action. One factor that could help LMC this spring will be its experience. Five of the six players currently on the roster have at least one collegiate season under their belt and two have two or more seasons. Lees-McRae will jump right into conference play when it opens its season Feb. 24 at Converse. That match is slated to get underway at 1 p.m. For more information of Lees-McRae Athletics, follow us on our social media sites on Twitter (@LMCBobcats), Facebook (Lees-McRae Athletics) and on Instagram (leesmcraeathletics) -LMC-	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1961
__label__cc	0.531058	0.468942	progressive forces unite for world socialist Revolution – Prachanda June 1, 2018 \| 6:33 am 284 Hits Chairman of Nepal Communist party Comrade Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” urge for socialist Revolution to world communist parties. Addressing the international seminar on Marxism and Socialism, chairman Prachand highlighted on the characteristic of socialism in the 21st century and urged all progressive forces to unite for world socialist Revolution. full speech of Chairman Prachand I, on behalf of myself and our party, would like to extend my hearty welcome to all the national and especially international participants on this august international seminar on Marxism and Socialism organized to commemorate bicentenary of Karl Marx. It was Marx who, in association with Engels, wrote communist manifesto where he depicted that history of entire human civilization is the class struggle between the oppressor and the oppressed with manifold gradation of social ranks. He also described that the modern society is made up of bourgeois and the proletariat. He developed dialectical materialism which explained that everything in the universe is natural which follows the laws of nature and therefore there is no existence of supernatural. Besides, everything in the universe is material where evolution is a continuous process. Beyond this, all is only man made concept which nowhere exists in the nature. These are the things which brought about a drastic shift in human beings to understand the reality of the supernatural force and the reason of their suffering which had been prevailing in the society for ages. In “The Capital”, a scientific analysis of capitalism, Marx has described extraction of surplus value is nothing other than exploitation of proletariats derived by the capitalist as their profit. He also pleaded for the value of labor which brought awareness among the proletariat to fight against exploitation. The major idea of class struggle described by Marx states that the society shall compulsorily be in antagonism as long as it is based on classes. Thus he invoked the working class to unite in the trade union to fight against the bourgeois or the exploiters. In this connection he said, “Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Working men of all countries, unite!” Struggling against the process of evolution, human beings have reached the present stage of society. Thus struggle against tyranny or obstacle of regressive forces is the right of humans. This opinion of him established the right of working class for revolution against the bourgeoisie. Marx, unlike utopian socialist, studied to understand and predict social, economic and material phenomena examining their historical trends by way of scientific method to derive probable outcomes and possible future developments and thus propounded scientific socialism. Marx and Engels stressed on the materialistic approach to understand development of human history and so the theory became popular as historical materialism. Marx said that the struggle between haves and have-nots continues until the Globe will have classless society. Our conditions (Matters) create conflict (Dialectics) and this conflict leads to the development of human history. It was Marx who for the first time put forward the theory of dialectical and historical materialism where he states that economic forces are the primary forces which drive human beings through history. It applies evolution of productive forces and class struggle to explain history. Marx has said that capitalism is only the passing phase in the development of society. Paris commune (March 28 to May 28, 1871) is an episode of the socialist movement where the rule of working class people was established for the first time in the history. The victory of working class to rule the society awakened the proletariats of the world to understand that they can win over the capitalists, tyrants or the exploiters. But absence of adept leadership, organizing capability, and continuation of conventional bureaucracy, the commune dilapidated within seventy days inventing discouragement-creep among the downtrodden people. However, the struggle of the proletariats in many parts of the capitalist regime did not stop. The struggle arose with a new enthusiasm. After about 56 years of the downfall of Paris commune that the great October revolution, under the dynamic leadership of Lenin, became successful to establish socialist regime in Russia. The October revolution brought about inundation of revolution in many countries of East Europe where socialist form of government i.e. the government of proletariats got established. This scenario could not limit within the boundary of physical map. The great October revolution awoke working class people across the Globe and the formation of communist parties existed steadily in all continents. The socialist countries have adopted individual model of socialism as their main political and economic structure on the basis of national characteristic. Socialist model of agrarian revolution was adopted in Cuba, Tanzania and some socialist countries of Asia. The socialist model adopted by Chinese revolutionaries under the leadership and guidance of Comrade Mao was a model of agrarian revolution. Unlike the revolution in Russia where industrial development had taken a pace and workers could be comparatively easily organized, China had no considerable number of factory workers to organize. Therefore Comrade Mao accelerated guerilla warfare to emancipate the serfs and agriculture workers which matched the peasant base of Chinese revolution. He created peasant based people’s liberation army which, under the leadership of CPC, took power in the country. Comrade Mao launched political, social and economic reforms and included citizens in the state affairs providing them respect and protection. He emphasized on political transformation inviting mass of people of working class to achieve sufficient result of their liberation. In this way communist government was established in China embracing agrarian model of socialism. The long and tough path travelled by socialism in China after Comrade Mao till date is a matter of comparative study to synthesize by the socialist and communist parties of the Globe. The model of Socialism applied in People’s Republic of China is the adaptation of socialism accompanied by Chinese characteristics which relies on scientific socialism reflecting people’s aspiration and fulfillment of development based on nation’s necessities. The development of China to grow as a second largest economic power despite largest human population in the world is only because of the application of socialism coinciding to their national characteristic. This has taught the communist movement in all the countries not to follow socialism of other country as stereo but to apply it on the basis of individual national realities or characteristic. The development of socialism as foreseen by Marx has become successful in some countries of Asia. Marxism being science cannot be a dogma. It demands changes with new realities globally and locally. We have observed that imperialism and capitalism have grown very strong in the vital and crucial sectors of military and economy. There has been a drastic reduction of number of countries with communist system. Communist parties all over the world should seriously analyze about the set back of the communist regimes It is a matter of grave concern why in many countries the communist system, supposedly controlled by and dedicated to work towards the liberation of poor and marginalized section of the society, has not been sustainable, has failed and is not in position to meet the expectation of these people. In many cases the system has collapsed and the countries have come to the old exploitative mode. It has been a matter of debate whether the scientific system of Marxism was run dogmatically by the rulers with power or whether the contemporary social and economic analysis at the time of Marx has become redundant to the new realities of 21st century. In the mean time, the imperialists and capitalists have learnt many lessons over the years and adjusted accordingly to survive and move forward. So, it is a high time that the communist movements around the world have to grasp the correct lessons from the negative examples of the past and move ahead on the basis of ground realities with the basic tenets of Marxism. Out of positive and negative learning and obvious weaknesses in the practice of Socialism in the 21st century, we have come to a conclusion that a thorough analysis on the original characteristics and ways of implementing it is a must to come up with a potential new model of socialism. We ought to continue conducting as a revolutionary character; not only during our struggles, revolution and war against the feudal set up, but also during the period we ourselves are in party and governmental power while maintaining a live relationship with the people and inspiring them for the communist ideal. We can, thus, develop a successful socialism model for the 21st century. For the 21st century peoples’ democracy (what we call Janabad) we are debating on the negative connotation of being in the government and continue ruling without bothering to obtain approval, and judgment of the people. We should rather advocate practice of peoples’ democracy by the government and within the communist party as well. The more we practice and develop peoples’ democracy by respecting the say and will of the people within the party and the government or power by empowering the people to have their live control, interference, monitoring and supervision in the party and the government, the more we strengthen peoples’ democracy within the party and the government. This, we believe, makes socialism more viable and explains the rationale of its necessity to practice it. For the communist movements this is the challenge of the 21st century to survive itself and conquer capitalism. In Nepal, we have our own experience of defending, experimenting and developing Marxism by revolutionary and communist movements, which are similar to some specific characteristics to Nepalese context and some of sovereign and international importance. In this context, Nepalese people under the leadership of communist parties waged both peaceful and armed struggles to liberate themselves from the age-old social, cultural, economic, religious, regional, and political exploitation. Armed and peaceful struggles were waged by the people in Nepal in the form of Peoples’ War and Peoples’ Movements. The positive political and social changes that have occurred in the country recently are due to the correct understanding of the leadership – the need of the 21st century. We have now achieved the federal system of governance, democracy, republicanism, and inclusive nature of the state. We have thwarted the feudalism and are on the way or poised towards achieving socialist set up of the governance of the Nepalese characters. Now, in the recently conducted local, state and national level elections, securing of near about 2/3rd of the popular votes of the people by the communist parties has confirmed the popularity and viability of the Nepalese political experiment on Socialism for the 21st century. Recently, a political history has been created in Nepal. Our two parties, with largest following in the country, CPN (Unified Marxist Leninist) and CPN (Maoist Center), have joined together to form a single largest political entity in the country, the Nepal Communist Party (NCP). The new party has Marxism-Leninism as guiding principle. And it recognizes and embraces the contribution of Mao towards realization of importance of socialism for the 21st century. The new party will work towards preparation of socialism with correct strategies for strengthening peoples’ democracy. The tactical line of the new party is peace, prosperity of the people and national self-dependence. It is a ‘dream come true’ for the majority of the people who have inclination towards left politics for a long time. They were simply divided and weakened so far which restricted the process of unleashing the forces of development in the country. It is believed that there will be political stability and good governance now onwards for the general prosperity of the people with faster and sustainable development of the country. The economic growth of Capitalist countries had been rapid till late 20th century but by the beginning of 21st century, the faster economic growth, especially of China and some other East Asian countries, has created alarming situation for North America and Europe. Some countries of Latin America have also had fast economic expansion. Social security, public education and health care have become fundamental entities of development of a country. In the political sector, protection and implementation of democratic values confirming human rights, periodic elections, multiparty democracy to test the support of the people have become the heart and soul of a democratic country. Many former oligarchic and autocratic countries have also started to follow democratic norms of rule or started to change themselves with some sort of liberal attitudes. The socialist countries in this modern ocean of new thinking should also change themselves from conventional socialist thinking to people’s yearning of 21st century. Realizing the political and social trends of the modern society, we have thus exercised socialism compatible to the modern era and to the ground reality of our country. Talking about the socialism, we should have to focus our attention. Firstly, on improvement of democracy inside and outside of the party for the general masses of people is fundamental. Secondly, since there is a tremendous changes in the human and infrastructure development in the modern history of mankind, the Marxists today have to analyze the political and economic development of the 21st century and have to be able to develop the ideological and political line accordingly. Thirdly, the science and technology has reached to newer height of its development and everybody is qualitatively effected from such development as never before in the history. Specially, the development of information technology has compressed the world as a small village with a rapid flow and extension of small information. That has created the objective situation in favor socialism than before. We must have to be very prompt to grasp the opportunity to develop and nourish the socialism both in ideological and practical terms. Lastly, it is contextual to mention that analysis of the positive and negative lessons of the history to synthesize the new model of socialism is the historical responsibility of Marxists all over the world. I thank you all once again for yours kind attention. *Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” – Chairperson. Nepal Communist Party. Presented at the International Seminar on Marxism and Socialism, Commemorating Bicentenary of Karl Marx. May 30, 2018, Kathmandu.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1974
__label__cc	0.55144	0.44856	Arizona Woman with Duchenne is a Rarity Among the Rare Duchenne muscular dystrophy affects an estimated 1 in 3,500 male births. But Elizabeth Heller is an outlier even among her rare friends. The Chicago-born Heller, who relocated to Tempe, Arizona, three years ago, is one of only a handful of women with Duchenne in the United States. According to the 2016 study, “Phenotypic contrasts of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy in women: Two case reports,” the disease strikes only 1 in 50 million female births. “I’m definitely in a somewhat unique position,” Heller said on the sidelines of the recent 2018 Annual PPMD Conference in Phoenix, which was organized by Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy. “There are about 10 of us in the whole country, and I don’t fit in any of the boxes at this conference. But I’ve also been so supported by this community.” Heller, 31, is what’s known in the muscular dystrophy world as a “manifesting carrier.” Essentially, this means that she manifests certain symptoms of the disease, such as mild muscular weakness or severe clinical complications. Elizabeth Heller, 31, of Tempe, Arizona, is one of the nation’s few women with Duchenne. (Photos by Larry Luxner) This is because the mutated gene responsible for Duchenne is located in the X chromosome. Girls have two X chromosomes, meaning that the body usually inactivates the chromosome that carries the mutation. The female will carry the mutation, but manifest little to no symptoms of the disease. However, if most cells in the body have the other, healthy, chromosome inactive, the female will not only carry the mutation but also have symptoms of the disease. In general, those who show signs of DMD before the age of 15 often develop more severe symptoms. “Generally speaking, your body will default to the correct one — but not always, for reasons we don’t totally understand,” Heller said while sitting on her specialized, $40,000 electric wheelchair. “For me, it’s something less than Duchenne. I still have reasonable heart function, but I haven’t been able to walk in about 10 years. So it profoundly impacts my life.” Heller received her Duchenne diagnosis in 1997, at the age of 11. “I started falling, and had trouble running. You know, when they make you run the mile in elementary school, I would struggle with that,” she said. “My pediatrician recognized that some of the ways I moved were classic DMD. So she sent my parents to a neurologist. They did a muscle biopsy and confirmed that it was DMD.” 20 years with Duchenne, and counting Heller, who proudly wears a nose ring she got on her 18th birthday, said life with Duchenne is a “constant struggle.” “I have about half of normal lung function, which is enough. I don’t need a ventilator or breathing assistance,” she said. “But I have to be very careful what I eat. I have to hire people to get me out of bed and get me to work. And I can’t use the bathroom or bathe independently.” To make matters worse, Heller said she gets no financial assistance at all. “Arizona doesn’t have much in the way of social support, and there is no Medicaid waiver here,” she said. “I’m married and have an income, so I don’t qualify for benefits.” Private insurance through Heller’s employer pays her prescription for Emflaza (deflazacort) — an FDA-approved corticosteroid sold by PTC Therapeutics that can cost anywhere from $35,000 to more than $100,000 per year, depending on the patient’s weight. Previously, she ordered it from European sources for $1,200 a year. “I’ve had to lower my dose a few times because the side effects are too brutal,” said Heller, who’s been on Emflaza since the age of 17. “Steroid rage is no joke. It makes you angry all the time. I’ve gained 30 pounds from the steroids. But when I lowered the dosage, I also noticed some loss of strength.” Elizabeth Heller Heller also takes Coenzyme Q10 — an anti-oxidant — as well as vitamin D, and is trying to get into BreatheDMD, Santhera’s expanded-access trial for Raxone (idebenone). Despite her disabilities, the young woman earned a master’s degree in geographic science and technology from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, N.C. She currently conducts spatial analysis and mapping for the Arizona Department of Water Resources. “My boss has been super supportive. I work from home one day a week; it’s helpful for me as a disabled person,” she said, adding that she and her husband — a music history professor at Arizona State University — specifically bought a house located on a bus line, which makes it easier for her to get to and from work. “I can’t pick up heavy things or reach really far, but I can function just fine in an office environment,” she said. “I’ve been disabled my whole adult life. I see other people doing all these things I want to do but can’t. But you don’t get to pick your battles. It’s really hard on my family and on my husband. He’s had to do so much.” That said, Heller considers herself lucky. The couple does not plan to have children because she’s reluctant to risk passing the disease on to future generations. “My two sisters and my mother have the same deletion — exon 46 to 52 — but with no effects,” she said. “My older sister has two sons, one with Duchenne and the other without. I haven’t done in-depth studies, because there was no reason to, but I’m going to start pursuing that now.” Tagged #PPMD2018, Emflaza (deflazacort), manifesting carrier, Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy, PTC Therapeutics, Raxone, Santhera. Previous: How Lyrica Has Affected My Relationship with Food Next:First Patient Enrolled in Phase 2 Trial of MNK-1411, Mallinckrodt’s Investigational Therapy for DMD Jerry Quintana says: I’m currently 71 yrs of age and I have OPMD (Oculopharyngeal Muscular Dystrophy) My symptoms started approx. 12 yrs ago. My initial symptom(s) was noted while playing golf; my ball distance was compromised, I felt tired with heavy legs & while teeing the ball, my upper torso felt weak while uprighting myself. My neck was in constant pain due to the tilting back of the head; particularly while driving. (my eyelids were drooping) I had eylid surgery 5 yrs ago & it has helped me tremendously. I know eventually I will have to redo. My swallowing is extremely challenging; slow eater (must chew food well) Currently walking, slow, with a cane. I tire easily . I live in La Quinta, CA (near Indian Wells) & I often commute to Paradise Valley, AZ to visit my sister. Yes, I’m still able to drive. Looking to participate in a MD forum. Yes, I feel for you, Ms Heller. Stay positive. Its a very challenging disease. Jerry Suzi Roe says: I am a manifesting carrrier of Duchenne. I am 72 years old. My diagnosis came in 2003 at the age of 57 years old. Until I reached that age I had no symptoms I was very active until that time. However, did have large calf muscles. My right leg is weaker than my right. The MD seems to have move more quickly this year. I use a rollator now. My sister had a son that died when he was 20 years old. I do get depressed sometimes because I can’t do want I could at one time. However, I thank God that it is me and not my son. I feel I just need to hang tough and be very thankful I am still alive. mary lawrence says: I have recently been officially diagnosed as a manifesting carrier. My brother and son had the illnesses and I highly suspect my mother had the same issue. Though I have had problems with certain activities such as walking up inclines and doing over head activity all through my life, it has been in the last 5 years (I am 66) that I have had a progressive loss of function when it comes to walking distances, walking up stairs, getting up from floor, fatigue etc. My left leg is actually around for the ride and my right arm is just as bad. I have learned to pace myself. Physical therapy and body massage are a God send. Insurance does not pay for therapeutic massage. My personal wish is that there would be more information on manifesting carriers and the disease process, treatment specific information, and more therapeutic massage acceptance as an actual treatment modality. I do wish that I could get more information on manifesting carrier	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1976
__label__cc	0.509069	0.490931	VFW Post 2557 – Madison, GA Oscar Thomason Post Online Membership Services VFW Washington Weekly – August 31, 2012 Author: admin September 4, 2012 0 Comments VFW Georgia News & Events 1. VFW Applauds White House Effort to Combat Suicide 2. VFW Active at Republican Convention 3. VA Increases Vets Retraining Assistance Program 4. Combating Veterans’ Homelessness 5. VFW Hears from Marine Corps Commandant 6. Army and NFL Discuss TBI 7. Five MIAs Return Home 1. VFW Applauds White House Effort to Combat Suicide: Today, the President signed an executive order designed to curb military and veteran suicide and improve the delivery of mental health resources to our nation’s heroes. The executive order, “Improving Access to Mental Health Services for Veterans, Service Members and Military Families,” which President Obama is scheduled to announce during a visit to Fort Bliss in Texas, includes nearly a dozen specific initiatives designed to improve mental health resources and intervention tools. National Commander John E. Hamilton, noted the VFW support for the president’s vision to prevent military suicides and improve mental health care delivery, but also expressed concerns about potential funding shortfalls to accomplish the president’s goals. Click here for the VFW’s Press release: http://www.vfw.org/News-and-Events/Articles/2012-Articles/VFW-Applauds-White-House-Efforts-to-Stop-Military-Suicide/ 2. VFW Active at Republican Convention: VFW Representatives attending the Republican National Convention (RNC) listened to key note speakers and spoke with delegates on critical issues like veterans mental and behavioral health, accurate claims processing and helping service members secure educational, employment and entrepreneurship opportunities. The VFW will also be represented at next week’s Democratic National Convention in Charlotte to ensure the voice of veterans, service members and their families remains a key priority during Campaign 2012. Leading both delegations will be VFW Legislative Director Ray Kelley. Stay informed throughout by reading blog postings at: www.vfwonthehill.org/ 3. VA Increases Vets Retraining Assistance Program: This week, VA announced that have filled 36,000 of the 45,000 job training openings available under the Veterans Retraining Assistance Program (VRAP) passed as a part of the VOW to Heroes Act. An additional 55,000 openings will be available October 1, 2012. VRAP provides up to $1,473 a month in GI Bill benefits for those taking full-time courses to learn the skills necessary to land a job. VFW was instrumental in getting the provision passed as a part of the comprehensive jobs bill and encourages veterans eligible to apply online. Click here for more information: http://www.benefits.va.gov/VOW/ 4. Combating Veterans’ Homelessness: Veterans’ homelessness is a national problem that is best solved at the local level. As such, the VA recently launched a new online ordering portal for communities and national partners to order free informational material and promotional items ranging from brochures and posters to wallet cards, drawstring bags and hygiene kits, among other items. Share the portal link with your VFW members and Posts and with others in your community to help spread the word. For more information or to place an order, go to http://www.va.gov/homeless/materials_center.asp. 5. VFW Hears from Marine Corps Commandant: This week, VFW attended a Press Club event where Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos spoke on a number of issues important to the Corps. Leading the list was the continuing success of combat operations in Afghanistan and the transfer of responsibilities over to Afghan national security forces. Following his remarks, Amos fielded questions from the audience on a variety of military quality-of-life and force readiness issues ranging from fiscal responsibility and budget constraints on the Marines Corps, to women serving in combat, suicide, and sexual assault. When asked about potential across-the-board cuts to the Defense budget, Amos said he believed the Marine Corps would be hit disproportionately hard, considering the size of the force and the value it delivers to the U.S. military. Amos also said that the greatest challenge for the Corps moving forward would be ensuring the force remains balanced through a period of fiscal austerity. To learn more about Amos’ remarks and to view C-SPAN’s full coverage of the event, click here: http://www.vfwonthehill.org/2012/08/vfw-hears-from-marine-commandant.html?m=1 6. Army and NFL Discuss TBI: Earlier this week, Army representatives hosted NFL leaders at West Point to discuss how they can affect positive change surrounding Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) and concussions. The military, alongside the NFL have continued conversations regarding the Soldier-Athlete commitment to education and awareness of these serious injuries. To watch the discussion, click here: http://www.dvidshub.net/webcast/2578#.UD5iiqCoz1l. 7. Five MIAs Return Home: The Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office recently announced the identification of remains belonging to one airmen and four soldiers who had been missing in action since World War II, Korea and Vietnam. Returned home are: * Army Air Forces 1st Lt. Harry W. Eck, of Minot Ward, N.D. On Sept. 13, 1944, Eck and eight other crewmembers were aboard a B-17G Flying Fortress that crashed near Neustaedt-on-the-Werra, Germany. Only one of the nine crewmen is known to have successfully parachuted out of the aircraft before in crashed. * Army Cpl. Kenneth R. Block, 22, of Ann Arbor, Mich. In late November 1950, Block and elements of the 31st Regimental Combat Team, known as “Task Force Faith,” were advancing along the eastern banks of the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea when they came under attack. On Dec. 3, Block and many other Americans would be listed as missing in action as a result of the heavy fighting. * Army Sgt. 1st Class William T. Brown, 24, of La Habra, Calif.; Sgt. 1st Class Donald M. Shue, 20, of Kannapolis, N.C.; and Sgt. 1st Class Gunther H. Wald, 25, of Palisades Park, N.J. On Nov. 3, 1969, the men and six Vietnamese soldiers were part of a Special Forces reconnaissance patrol that was ambushed while operating in Quang Tri Province near the Vietnam-Laos border. Read more about their recovery and identification at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/news/news_releases/. VFW: Sequestration Must End! Archives Select Month August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 April 2015 March 2014 January 2014 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 April 2012 March 2012 November 2011 September 2011 August 2011 April 2011 March 2011 August 2010 GA Veteran Resources GA American Legion GA AMVETS GA DAV GA PVA GA VA Hospitals GA Veterans Affairs VFW Auxiliary Website MyVFW Facebook GA VFW State News	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1978
__label__wiki	0.838047	0.838047	Senate approves budget deal, sends to Obama's desk Wednesday Dec 18, 2013 11:46 AM By Kasie Hunt and Carrie Dann , NBC News In the waning days of a year marked by the 16-day government shutdown, the Senate has voted to send a modest two-year budget agreement to President Barack Obama’s desk. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., thanks Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., for coming to an agreement on a budget. The final vote on the measure approving the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 was 64-36. It needed only 51 votes to pass; the legislation cleared its most difficult hurdle earlier this week in a 67-33 procedural vote, when 12 Republicans joined with all Democrats to advance it. The agreement -- brokered by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc. -- unwinds some of the most painful planned cuts of budget “sequestration” and makes modest changes to raise non-tax revenues. In a statement, the president thanked congressional leaders for working together on the bipartisan budget and urged passage of more "bills that fund our government and refrain from fighting old ideological battles." "All told, it’s a good first step away from the shortsighted, crisis-driven decision-making that has only served to act as a drag on our economy," he said of the measure. The president is expected to sign the legislation before he leaves on a holiday vacation on Friday. But the bill’s backers are already calling for a “technical correction” to change a part of the bill that would adversely affect disabled military veterans. That’s because the budget deal includes new limits on pensions for military retirees who are between the ages of 38 to 62 -- anyone who has served for more than 20 years in the military but hasn't yet reached retirement age. The legislation reduces their cost-of-living adjustments -- the percentage that their pension checks go up each year to keep pace with inflation -- by 1 percent. Critics have pointed out that the slower pension growth would apply to disabled veterans who are not able to work after their retirement from the armed services. Both Murray and Ryan support changing the language to ensure regular benefits for the disabled. Senators Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., talk about a provision in the Murray-Ryan budget that would cut certain benefits for retired military veterans. The “technical correction” would take the form of a separate stand-alone bill passed after the larger budget agreement has been approved. Technical corrections have historically been very common, especially for lengthy and complex legislation. But intense partisanship has made even these types of changes more difficult to move through Congress. The entire package of military pension cuts - not just those for the disabled - drew intense opposition from a number of senators, beginning last week. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., accused Senate leadership of trying to push the deal through so fast that they were leaving military retirees behind. "We're in a big hurry around here to show you how functional we are. Even when we're functional, we're dysfunctional," Graham said Tuesday.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1981
__label__wiki	0.7643	0.7643	I write dark fantasy, horror and SF as Nicholas Hallum. You can follow me on my Amazon Author page here, visit me on Twitter or Facebook, or you can sign up for early previews of new stories below. WILDERNESS OF MIRRORS is a sorcerous spy novel set during the War on Terror. The story moves between the 1960s, the 1980s and 2000s, as one man becomes a critical weapon in the djinn-driven arms race behind 9-11. His clandestine journey to unlock his terrible knowledge and understand his own complicity in this supernatural secret history drives forward a fast-paced spy narrative which recalls Tim Powers’ Declare and Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon. Look forward to WILDERNESS OF MIRRORS. Add on GoodReads The Monument After 9-11, one man is caught up in horrific events in Iraq which bring back memories of an arcane set of training rituals that stretched back to his childhood. A preview short story, excerpted from the forthcoming novel WILDERNESS OF MIRRORS. Read it here >> A chilling little Halloween story. Do you like The Twilight Zone? Then you just might want to enter Sanctuary! One neighborhood is lucky to be prepared when the world falls apart. A child narrates the story of how her neighbors found the strength to band together in unity against a self-destructive culture, and find the primeval instincts that might preserve the human race — becoming a bulwark of resistance to societal breakdown. But they’ve made some trade-offs…. What would you do to survive? The Cambridge Key In 1938, the British Crown anticipated war with the emerging fascist leader Adolf Hitler. The British Secret Service was desperate for code-breakers, and for a method to encode messages to Allied agents on the ground, deep in the heart of the continent. One agent was assigned to solicit the help of a set of secretive, brilliant Cambridge professors to find a solution to this dangerous puzzle. The cryptographic key these professors proposed was radical, and changed the course of the war effort (and English literature) forever…. How to Write and Read Great Fantastical Fiction Bestselling writer Nick Hallum delivers a “how to” manual on fiction techniques for writing fantasy and science-fiction in ways that can convince, enthrall and entrance your reader. Close analysis of fantastic, ghostly, and horrific work by expert writers such as Tim Powers, Toni Morrison, Michael Chabon, Bram Stoker, Tolkien, and many more. Tips on how to create your own horrific and fantastical works! How to Write & Read Great Fantastical Fiction Preview of Upcoming Novel Bestselling writer Nick Hallum is working on a new fantasy novel entitled Sea of Sand infused with stories derived from the sand-sailors who crossed the Saraha and inspired by the works and legacy of Ursula Le Guin. Find out more here. Readers can also sign up for early access to the novel. Coming soon! Bio – Nicholas Hallum (These are true things about Ned Hayes’ day job that he has incorporated into his alter-ego’s biography) Nicholas Hallum is the pseudonym for a writer born in Taipei, Taiwan in 1968. He has subsequently been a visitor or foreign resident in Hamburg, Germany; Barcelona, Spain; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Copenhagen, Denmark; London, England; Los Angeles, California; and at the United States Army and Air Force Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) near Seattle, Washington. At JBLM, he has taught classes to military personnel on base, and has also spent time at Yale University, in Washington D.C. and in New York City working on national security matters for both corporate and governmental interests. Mr. Hallum has worked closely with former NSA and CIA employees to define security protocols and secure operating environments, and his work has appeared in classified intelligence briefings. He has climbed both Mt. Rainier in Washington and Mt. Whitney in California. He now works, under his real name, in the high tech industry near Seattle Washington.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1982
__label__wiki	0.943541	0.943541	World News - Khatami labels US policy 'a joke' The former president of Iran, Mohammad Khatami, has branded US attempts to impose Western-style democracy in the Middle East as "a great joke". Mr Khatami was critical of the US-led military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, which he said had led to more Muslims supporting al-Qaeda. In a wide-ranging interview with the BBC, Mr Khatami, said he was committed to fighting extremism around the world. He also called on US and UK to leave Iraq in an effort to reduce violence. Mr Khatami, the most senior Iranian to visit the UK since 1979, served two terms as Iranian president from 1997 until 2005, when he was replaced by the current leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Speaking at Chatham House, a foreign policy think-tank in London, Mr Khatami said Iran was supporting efforts to build strong governments in Iraq and Afghanistan. ... Father jailed for US mutilation A man has been sentenced to 10 years in jail for the genital mutilation of his two-year-old daughter, in what is said to be first such case in the US. Khalid Adem, an Ethiopian immigrant, was found guilty of aggravated battery and cruelty to children by the court in the state of Georgia. Prosecutors said he used scissors to remove his daughter's clitoris in 2001. A US women's rights group described the verdict as a victory against female genital mutilation worldwide. Adem, 30, wept loudly as the jury's verdict was read in the town of Lawrenceville. During the trial, he denied the charges and said he found the practice to be reprehensible. The girl, who is now seven, had testified on videotape that her father "cut me on my private part". The daughter's mother had said she did not discover that the child was mutilated until nearly two years later. ... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6108516.stm Burmese outraged at lavish junta wedding Strings of diamonds, cascades of champagne and tens of millions of dollars worth of gifts would be considered ostentatious at any wedding. But in Burma - one of the poorest countries in Asia - people are said to be up in arms at the luxury on display in a video of the wedding laid on by the head of the junta, General Than Shwe, for his daughter. Recently posted on the internet, the leaked 10-minute clip has provided ammunition for opponents of the military regime, who claim that spending on the couple’s marriage in July was more than three times the state health budget. In the most opulent sequence, the camera zooms in on glittering jewelled clusters in the hair of the bride, Thandar Shwe, then pans down from her diamond ear-studs to at least six thick strings of what appear to be diamonds.... http://www.guardian.co.uk/burma/story/0,,1937727,00.html EU abandons Turkey-Cyprus talks The European Union has dropped plans to hold a last-ditch meeting with Turkish and Cypriot officials, to be hosted by Finland in Helsinki at the weekend. Finland said it was unable to get all sides around the table - but that it would keep trying for a breakthrough. The meeting was meant to avert a crisis in Turkey's bid for EU membership. The European Commission publishes a report next week that is expected to criticise Turkey for not opening its ports to traffic from Cyprus. Cyprus is a member of the EU, but Turkey does not recognise it. The island was divided in 1974, when Turkey invaded the north after a coup backed by supporters of a union with Greece. ... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6110126.stm Kyrgyz protesters call on president to resign Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Kyrgyzstan's capital on Thursday demanding the resignation of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev who they say has backtracked on promises of democratic reforms.About 15,000 people massed outside the Central Asian state's parliament, according to Reuters estimates, waving red opposition flags and chanting "Bakiyev, resign." Most had dispersed by the evening although another demonstration is planned for Friday. The Kyrgyz president said in a television interview he would not easily be toppled. "We have sufficient forces. The law enforcement agencies are in a determined mood, the military are saying, how much more of these (protests) can you have?" Bakiyev told Russia's Rossiya television station. ... http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2623946 US army names soldier kidnapped in Iraq A US soldier who was visiting his Iraqi wife when he was kidnapped has been named today by the US military as Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie.The 41-year-old was handcuffed and taken away by gunmen 10 days ago when visiting his wife and in-laws, Major General William Caldwell confirmed.He said the couple had married in February 2005, but that Mr Taayie, who is an interpreter with the US army, did not start his tour of duty in Iraq until a year ago.Gen Caldwell said there was "an ongoing dialogue" with his Mr Taayie's abductors to win his release. He did not say with whom, or at what level.The soldier's name first became known last week when his mother in law, Latifah Isfieh Nasser, said the family had put up a futile struggle to stop the abduction.... http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1937951,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1987
__label__wiki	0.836575	0.836575	2012 – Steve Williman The Ohio Basketball Coaches Association is proud to announce that Steve Williman of Liberty Benton High School is the recipient of the 2012 Paul Walker Award. The Paul Walker Award is presented annually by the OHSBCA to an active coaching member of the association who has made significant contributions to high school basketball. The award is named in honor of the late Paul Walker, the longtime coach of Middletown High School. At the time of his retirement, he had the most wins as a boy’s basketball coach in Ohio High School Basketball history with 695 wins. Steve is a 1975 graduate of Old Fort High School where he played basketball for legendary OHSBCA Hall of Fame coach Steve Smith. He received degrees from Owens Community College in 1978 and Findlay College in 1980. His coaching career began at Liberty Benton High School where he was an assistant coach in 1978 and 1979. Coach Williman’s first varsity coaching position was held at Old Fort High School from 1980-83. He was a graduate assistant at Bowling Green State University during the 1984 season under head coach John Weinert and coached at Galion High School from 1984-86. He returned to Liberty Benton in 1987 where he continues to coach. In 30 years as a head basketball coach , Williman has compiled a record of 491-197. Included in this record are fourteen 20 win seasons, 14 league titles, 21 Sectional (20 consecutive), 9 District, State Runner- up in 2007 and State Championship in 1995. They were AP Poll Champions in 2007, 2008, 2010 and set a Blanchard Valley Conference record with 42 consecutive league wins. Steve has been the recipient of Coach of the Year honors in the Blanchard Valley Conference 11 times, Districts 6 and 8 four times, and AP Division 3 State Coach of the Year in 2007. He was also the National Federation Coaches Association Ohio Coach of the year in 2000. Coach Williman received the Bob Arnzen Award in 2006 and has had the opportunity to coach in the Wendy’s Classic, Ohio-Kentucky and the Ohio North-South All Star Games. He was also elected to the Hancock County Sports Hall of Fame in 2005 and is a past president and director of the District 8 Coaches Association. Steve has been married for 30 years to Marty and they are the proud parents of two daughters. Ashlee is a graduate of Miami University and is employed in Vail , Colorado and Erica is a senior in the nursing program at the University of Toledo.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1988
__label__wiki	0.641346	0.641346	Civilian-military disconnect? Mary L. Dudziak has an interesting post titled "A Growing 'Civilian-Military' Gap, and its Consequences." She cites a revealing poll from Pew Research: "A smaller share of Americans currently serve in the U.S. Armed Forces than at any time since the peace-time era between World Wars I and II," according to a new report from the Pew Research Center< (hat tip New York Times). During the past decade, as the military has been engaged in the longest period of sustained conflict in the nation’s history, just one-half of one percent of American adults has served on active duty at any given time.1 As the size of the military shrinks, the connections between military personnel and the broader civilian population appear to be growing more distant. The data reveals is "a large generation gap." According to the report, "more than three-quarters (77%) of adults ages 50 and older said they had an immediate family member –a spouse, parent, sibling or child – who had served in the military." In contrast, for people under 50, "57% of those ages 30-49 say they have an immediate family member who served. And among those ages 18-29, the share is only one-third." Posted by Jeff Cox at 11/30/2011 01:56:00 PM No comments: Links to this post What's going on in Iran, again? Another curious explosion in Iran, this time in Isfahan, the center of Iranian nuclear weapons research. We've seen this before, of course. The Washington Post gives a rundown of the known incidents: A massive blast at a missile base operated by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps nearly two weeks ago was the latest in a series of mysterious incidents involving explosions at natural gas transport facilities, oil refineries and military bases — blasts that have caused dozens of deaths and damage to key infrastructure in the past two years. Iranian officials said the Nov. 12 blast at the missile base was an “accident,” and they ruled out any sabotage organized by the United States and its regional allies. The explosion on the Shahid Modarres base near the city of Malard was so powerful that it shook the capital, Tehran, about 30 miles to the east. Despite the official denial of foreign involvement in the latest blast, suspicions have been raised in Iran by what industry experts say is a fivefold increase in explosions at refineries and gas pipelines since 2010. Explaining the increased number of industrial incidents is proving to be a predicament for Iranian leaders, who do not want to appear vulnerable at a time when Israeli leaders have been debating military intervention against Iran over its controversial nuclear program. Hazing scandal hits Florida A & M Marching Band I can't believe that I was so taken with Thanksgiving that I missed this story, a story that is incredibly sad on so many levels: Robert Champion fell in love with music at about age 6 when he saw a marching band at a parade in downtown Atlanta. So mesmerized by the festivities, he came home, took out pots and pans and started banging away like a little drummer. His passion led him to marching bands from middle school through college. He was a drum major for the famed Marching 100 band of Florida A&M University, a group that has performed at Super Bowls, the Grammys and presidential inaugurations. The prestige brought along a "culture of hazing" and a secret world that played a role in Champion's death, his family said Monday. "It needs to stop. The whole purpose is to put this out there and let people know there has to be a change," Champion's mother, Pam, said at a news conference. On Nov. 19, after the school's football team lost its annual game with rival Bethune-Cookman, Champion collapsed on a bus parked outside an Orlando, Fla., hotel. The 26-year-old junior had been vomiting and complained he couldn't breathe shortly before he became unconscious. When authorities arrived about 9:45 p.m., Champion was unresponsive. He died at a nearby hospital. Posted by Jeff Cox at 11/28/2011 11:42:00 PM 1 comment: Links to this post The folly of the drug war (or "Why police care more about drugs than they care about you.") This piece by Radley Balko confirms my worst suspicions: As Jessica Shaver and I chat at a coffee shop in Chicago's north-side Andersonville neighborhood, a police car pulls into the parking lot across the street. Then another. Two cops get out, lean up against their cars, and appear to gaze across traffic into the store. At times, they seem to be looking directly at us. Shaver, who works as an eyebrow waxer at a nearby spa, appears nervous. "See what I mean? They follow me," says Shaver, 30. During several phone conversations Shaver told me that she thinks a small group of Chicago police officers are trying to intimidate her. These particular cops likely aren't following her; the barista tells me Chicago cops regularly stop in that particular parking lot to chat. But if Shaver is a bit paranoid, it's hard to blame her. A year and a half ago she was beaten by a neighborhood thug outside of a city bar. It took months of do-it-yourself sleuthing, a meeting with a city alderman and a public shaming in a community newspaper before the Chicago Police Department would pay any attention to her. About a year later, Shaver got more attention from cops than she ever could have wanted: A team of Chicago cops took down her door with a battering ram and raided her apartment, searching for drugs. News you can use. Or Not. Why do we have to turn off our electronic devices for takeoff and landing on airplanes? No one knows. Did we just outmaneuver China? If I'm going to bash Obama when he gets things wrong -- which, let's face it, is pretty often -- it's only fair that I give him credit when he gets something right. And it looks like he got something really right in the Far East. Walter Russell Mead: The cascade of statements, deployments, agreements and announcements from the United States and its regional associates in the last week has to be one of the most unpleasant shocks for China’s leadership — ever. The US is moving forces to Australia, Australia is selling uranium to India, Japan is stepping up military actions and coordinating more closely with the Philippines and Vietnam in the South China Sea, Myanmar is slipping out of China’s column and seeking to reintegrate itself into the region, Indonesia and the Philippines are deepening military ties with the the US: and all that in just one week. If that wasn’t enough, a critical mass of the region’s countries have agreed to work out a new trade group that does not include China, while the US, to applause, has proposed that China’s territorial disputes with its neighbors be settled at a forum like the East Asia Summit — rather than in the bilateral talks with its smaller, weaker neighbors that China prefers. Rarely has a great power been so provoked and affronted. Rarely have so many red lines been crossed. Rarely has so much face been lost, so fast. It was a surprise diplomatic attack, aimed at reversing a decade of chit chat about American decline and disinterest in Asia, aimed also at nipping the myth of “China’s inexorable rise” in the bud. New additions to the library Die Schlacht bei Adrianopel, by Ferdinand Runkel Geschichte des Untergangs der antiken Welt, by Otto Seeck. Yes, I just acquired two books that deal with the Battle of Adrianople. In German. Since I speak some German, this will be easier than the two books I got on the Battle of the Java Sea in Dutch, but this will still be a major project. Inexcusable (or "Obama's plan is to simply say ‘no’ to new energy production.") That is the only way to describe Obama's decision to delay a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada until after the 2012 elections: [T]he talk between Mr. Obama and Ms. Clinton put the pipeline plan in the ditch. About an hour before the State Department issued a press release Thursday afternoon, Ms. Clinton called John Baird, Canada’s minister of foreign affairs, and broke the news. The State Department, which has already spent 39 months reviewing the $7-billion project, concluded it will wait until the beginning of 2013 to render a decision on Keystone XL. First, it wants TransCanada to come up with an alternate route through Nebraska. The decision left Canada’s oil industry, which had viewed Keystone XL’s approval as a slam-dunk, alternately gasping and fuming. Keystone XL was a major element of Canada’s energy growth ambitions. The pipeline derailment raises questions about Canada’s trade relationship with the U.S., the world’s largest energy consumer. The timing of the decision also stung, coming just before an APEC meeting in Hawaii where Mr. Obama is scheduled to sit down with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Playing the Burma card I didn't even know there was a Burma card for the US to play in East Asia. Like most tyrannical, murderous regimes these days, the military junta that rules Burma is close to China. Could that be changing? Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will visit Burma next month, in a thawing of diplomatic ties between the United States and the Southeast Asian nation whose strong-arm government has outraged the West. The two-day trip, starting Dec. 1, would mark the first visit by a U.S. secretary of state in 50 years. President Obama made the announcement Friday shortly after he began a series of meetings here with Southeast Asian leaders about regional security, including disaster relief. Obama is the first U.S. president to participate in a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), whose chairmanship recently was awarded to Burma, also known as Myanmar. The main summit meetings will take place on Saturday. Burma’s military rulers, who have held power since a 1962 coup, have taken a hard anti-democratic line, cracking down on opposition leaders including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who had been under house arrest for years. But she was freed last year, and hundreds of other political prisoners have been released since then, suggesting that Burma might be signaling an opening to the West as a hedge in its relationship with China. Is Iran in the middle of a civil war? This past Monday I mentioned a rather odd explosion in Iran that was either at an ammunition depot or a missile base. As if walking right out of an old beer commercial, Michael Ledeen says, "How 'bout both?" This past weekend’s monster explosion at a Revolutionary Guards base outside Tehran has attracted the usual assortment of speculation and “informed information,” most of it sucked from the thumbs of pundits who feel they must write quickly. There is still a scarcity of hard information, but I’m reasonably confident that: –There were two explosions at the RG base at Bidganeh, one smaller, the other very large. –At almost the same time, there was an explosion at another military base in the west, in Luristan. The explosions seem to have been coordinated. –The area around Bigdaneh is a military zone, with various facilities including two air fields, thus questions like “was it a munitions depot or a missile base?” are best answered “yes. Both.” We are the XCIX percent Past Horizons is showcasing a project to study the DNA of ancient Romans. The article is titled "Roman DNA project gives voice to the silent majority:" A new project to carry out DNA analysis on a group of skeletons who were immigrants to Rome, has been created by Kristina Killgrove, a biological anthropologist from Vanderbilt University. Kristina has been raising money by Crowd-Funding in order to carry the project out and she has now exceeded the $6000 required to carry out the basic analysis of at least 20 individuals (the immigrants to Rome that she found through Sr/O isotope analysis). However, every additional contribution above the original target amount will help to test more samples. This project will be the first to study the DNA of immigrants to Rome and will help rewrite the history of everyday life there. Be careful what you wish for For years and years anti-Americanism was a major force in the politics of South Korea (in particular), the Philippines (where it combined with a temperamental volcano to drove out the century-old US military presence), New Zealand (which stupidly elected a leftist prime minister that dismantled their military) and Japan. Now, it seems, they miss us: Much is being made of China's unease at President Obama's initiative this week to raise the U.S. presence in the Pacific Rim. The real story is Asia's unease with China's expansionism. It wants America back. Beijing was taken by surprise at the U.S. president's newfound interest in making America a presence again in the Pacific. But in reality it was a sign that Asian states prefer a U.S.-centric Pacific over a China-centric one. Up until now, the only message being sent by this White House was of kowtowing, isolationism and weakness in the face of a supposedly inevitably rising China. The media made much of Beijing's discomfort at the new American assertiveness, as if there was something unnatural about it. "China uneasy over U.S. troop deal in Australia," blared the headline in the U.K. Guardian. But Beijing's discomfort is irrelevant — it's a tyranny and Asia's neighborhood bully. It's not the model of economic development many believe, as its growing imbalances show. Nor is it a particularly peaceful presence. Should Catholics be offended by Assassin's Creed now? Awhile back I complained about the Assassin's Creed franchise's treatment of the Catholic Church. Though I love all games in the series, I believe that Assassin's Creed 2 and Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, take too many gratuitous shots at the Catholic Church and the Catholic religion. Though the Renaissance popes were often villainous (such as the Borgias) that should not reflect on the religion itself or on individual Catholics. Now I've just gotten Assassin's Creed Revelations, which takes place largely in Ottoman Constantinople about 60 years after the fall of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) capital. I've just started the game. Interesting that so far in the game the Orthodox Christian Byzantines are resurrected as villains while the Muslim Ottomans are treated as heroes. In Assassin's Creed Brotherhood the corrupt Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia) and his son Cesare ruled Rome. Since as the assassin you are trying to liberate Rome, in that sense making them villains makes sense. In Assassin's Creed Revelations, even though Constantinople is the Ottoman capital, your goal is to liberate it from ... the Byzantines. Huh? It's like the designers of Assassin's Creed are determined to make Christians the enemy. Posted by Jeff Cox at 11/15/2011 03:05:00 PM 56 comments: Links to this post The Crimean War: A History, by Orlando Figes 1781: The Decisive Year of the Revolutionary War, by Robert L. Tonsetic Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, by Timothy Snyder I'm interested in seeing Bloodlands' coverage of Stalin's atrocities, which, though not nearly as systemic as Hitler's, were actually far worse. And it may come as a surprise to many to hear that the Crimean War was more than The Charge of the Light Brigade. Uh, giant crop circles? What the hell is China building in the desert? Why foreign policy matters In spite of my vehement disagreement with and general abhorrence of social conservatism, my disgust with their increasing economic ruthlessness and my mistreatment at the hands of several Republicans, I nevertheless remain a Republican and will in all likelihood do so for the foreseeable future. Why? Simply put, security issues. In general, Republican are far, far tougher on issues of crime, defense and foreign policy than their opponents. And, more than anything else, security issues are, going back to Hobbes and Locke, government's reason for existence. Roger L. Simon touches on this in his latest piece, "It's the Foreign Policy, Stupid:" “It’s the economy, stupid,” some dude named Carville once said. He was referring to what was the correct prescription for winning a presidential election — and it’s been gospel ever since. He’s probably right. Except when it comes to actually being president, it’s something else altogether. “It’s the foreign policy, stupid” — because day one of being POTUS, you, and basically you alone, determine the foreign policy of the United States of America and much of the future and present of humanity. And that’s not just because you wake up with an intelligence briefing that could make bald men lose their hair or because you are the Commander-in-Chief of the most powerful armed forces on Earth with all the life or death decisions that entails or because some unsmiling individual follows you around with the nuclear football, putting Armageddon in your hands. Why are we fighting the Lord's Resistance Army? Recently I came out in support of Obama's escalation of US involvement in fighting the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda. Nevertheless, I do no pretend to be fully versed in Obama's reasoning behind the move. Harvey Glickman provides some possible reasons: U.S. support for the anti-LRA war has not been an unmitigated success. The National Security Council authorized training and financial support for the December 2008 Operation Lightning Thunder, a joint Uganda-Congolese-South Sudan campaign. This resulted, however, in major casualties among Congolese civilians, with 200,000 people displaced and the LRA escaping to fight another day. Somewhat puzzling about the new U.S. deployment “to protect civilians” — as stated by the U.S. Embassy in Kampala on October 17, 2011 — is the fact that the Ugandan army announced that the Kony/LRA problem is no longer a threat in Uganda, but a regional problem. So, apparently the UPDF is joining the U.S. in an African regional conflict. Uganda has been a leader in the African Union’s battle against the al-Shabaab terrorists in Somalia, and suffered a retaliatory bombing in Kampala by them in July 2010. One of the most inexcusable acts ever perpetrated by Congress The ban on incandescent light bulbs. In recent years Congress has put forth several pieces of legislation that are flat-out designed to hurt the American people. Many such acts come from the environmental sphere. The prohibition of incandescent bulbs is one. Flat-out inexcusable. Stupid. Borderline malevolent. Cap-and-trade is another. Designed to lower our standard of living. Making everyday, logical actions in some way painful. That is not the behavior of a government with the best interests of its people at heart. Or even with consent of the governed. Posted by Jeff Cox at 11/14/2011 11:53:00 AM No comments: Links to this post What's going on in Iran? If you're like me (but, really, who is?) you follow events in Iran to determine if there's any hope for elimination of a self-styled enemy of the United States. Now we are hearing of an odd explosion: An Iranian exile group claimed Saturday that a blast near Tehran hit a missile base run by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, disputing the Iranian government’s account that it occurred at an ammunition depot. Former Mujahedin-e Khalq spokesman Alireza Jafarzadeh, citing what he called reliable sources inside Iran, said that the explosion hit the Modarres Garrison of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps west of Tehran. The group, also known as the MEK, has in the past disclosed the sites of several key Iranian nuclear installations as well as details of their operations. Jafarzadeh, now an author and commentator critical of Tehran’s clerical regime, said the Modarres Garrison belongs to the IGRC’s missile unit and the blasts “resulted from the explosion of IRGC missiles.” He did not say what triggered the explosion. NCAA's treatment of Ohio State is arbitrary and capricious Considering the, um, other major events in college football this week, it is not surprising the the new body slam the NCAA gave the Ohio State football program went relatively unnoticed. But it was a body slam nonetheless: Ohio State monitored Northeast Ohio booster Bobby DiGeronimo some. But not enough. Though Athletic Director Gene Smith and former football coach Jim Tressel took steps five and six years ago to keep DiGeronimo away from the program, the university's failure to do more will cost the football team at least five scholarships over three years and has brought a more serious "failure to monitor" charge from the NCAA. According to the NCAA report, Tressel once kicked DiGeronimo out of a locker he was hiding in while trying to listen to a pregame speech in 2001 or 2002. DiGeronimo called that report "baloney" and said "that's as low as I've heard," contending he had a pass to be in the locker room. Yet as late as 2011, the school was surprised and unaware DiGeronimo -- once embraced as a friend of the program, particularly under former coach John Cooper -- was still associating with players. Eventually, DiGeronimo gave money to some players at a 2011 charity event and overpaid others for work done at his company, according to the NCAA and Ohio State. The school filed its response to the NCAA, and Thursday made the new charges and sanctions public. DiGeronimo, however, disputes several of Ohio State's assertions, including the forcefulness of Ohio State's message. Syrian opposition trying to get army help? Jess Hill on Twitter links to an interesting Al Jazeera report on defectors from Syria's army meeting with members of the Syrian National Council, the umbrella group opposed to Bashar al-Assad. It's really just a short blurb, but an interesting one. Here it is: The Syrian National Council, a group of opposition figures based outside the country, met on Thursday with defected soldiers who belong to what is being called the Free Syrian Army, according to a statement posted by the Council on its Facebook page. The SNC "stands by" the defectors "who refused the regime's orders to fire at the unarmed demonstrators," the statement said. The Council delegation included members of executive office Samir Nashar and Farouk Taifor, who met with Colonel Riad al-Asad, a defected officer based in a Turkey refugee camp who has assumed a role as the face of the Free Syrian Army. Asad confirmed his support for the Council, "which reflects the demands of the Syrian people," the release said. The Syrian Army's recent crackdown in Homs makes me wonder if this is part of a new push by the National Council for more army defections. More true than you think SportsPickle's satirical "High School Gym Class Syllabus." The Jerry Sandusky Rape Case put in context by Terry Pluto, the amazing columnist for The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer. How dangerous is child rape for society? Some chilling statistics: According to the Department of Justice, about 3 percent of incarcerated men and 25 percent of women report being sexually abused as children. The state of Maryland found 1-in-3 women and 1-and-5 male inmates admitted being sexual abused as children. Based on a dozen years of weekly jail ministry in Akron, I'd guess at least 25 percent of males that I've encountered had some type of damaging sexual experience at a young age. Men hate to admit what happened to them as children. It does not excuse their crimes. But there is so much truth in the saying, "Hurt people hurt people." Read the whole thing. I originally called this post "The Penn State Rape Case," but I changed it because think that title is unfair to a great university like Penn State (not necessarily its administrators), its students and alumni. The biggest crime here was (allegedly) by Jerry Sandusky. Without his (alleged) actions, none of this would have happened. Meanwhile, in Syria otherwise known as "Not Happy Valley," things get worse and worse: Syrian troops on Monday routed government opponents in a neighborhood of Homs that had emerged in recent weeks as a center of armed resistance to the regime led by President Bashar al-Assad, dealing what appeared to be a serious setback to the protest movement and to an Arab League peace initiative designed to end the violence. Homs residents and human rights groups said security forces stormed the Bab al-Amr neighborhood in the small hours of the morning, concluding a six-day assault in which dozens were killed and scores injured, many of them in tank bombardments. Defected soldiers who had been defending the protest hot spot either fled to the surrounding countryside or were captured or killed, said residents and activists. Syrian troops combed through the neighborhood Monday detaining all the young men they encountered, and government supporters staged a noisy demonstration through the deserted streets. The assault came as Assad’s government braced for the potential fallout from its failure to abide by the terms of an Arab League-sponsored peace initiative agreed to last Wednesday. Under the deal, Syria was to withdraw troops from cities, allow peaceful protests and release detainees. And before anyone else asks ... No, I did not go to Penn State and have no affiliation with that school. I am a proud alum of The Ohio State University and its marching band (by far the finest in the land). And, yes, I do think that Jim Tressel and Ohio State have been royally screwed by the NCAA, an arrogant, hypocritical, two-faced organization that is beyond despicable. Much of my family comes from Pittsburgh, and some of them are Penn State graduates. So we have always paid attention to Penn State. Even though our schools are rivals, we have always had the highest respect for Penn State and Joe Paterno. When we went to Happy Valley in 2001 to see Ohio State play (and blow a 17-point lead to lose the game), we had a great time. Great ice cream. Fans were friendly and knowledgeable. They love football and know the game as well as anyone. Their respect for Joe Paterno was palpable, and his respect and love for them was obvious as well. The Penn State Blue Band was a first-rate marching band, and the Silks were an excellent dance team. They had something really special in Happy Valley. Now that is all gone. A few words on Mike McQueary I originally posted most of the following in response to comments concerning the conduct of Penn State Assistant Coach Mike McQueary made in response to my post In defense of Joe Paterno. But the issues facing McQueary are a bit different than those facing Paterno, so I think it deserves its own post and discussion. McQueary is taking an incredible amount of heat himself for his relative lack of action in the Jerry Sandusky case. That he did not immediately run into the shower and, apparently, beat the crap out of Sandusky to protect the boy very near the top of that criticism. And, indeed, McQueary bears far more "moral" culpability than Paterno does, because he witnessed the actual incident. Maybe legal culpability as well. That said, I'm going to play Devil's Advocate again. Keep in mind a few things. Posted by Jeff Cox at 11/09/2011 11:00:00 PM 3 comments: Links to this post In defense of Joe Paterno It is with shock and tremendous sadness that I am following the events coming out of State College, where Jerry Sandusky, a former assistant coach under Joe Paterno at Penn State, is charged with sexually assaulting at least 8 boys. The grand jury presentment can be found on the website of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette here. Be warned: it makes for very disturbing reading. In my decades of historical research, I've read about some of the most brutal atrocities in history, and this document made even me uncomfortable. The charges against Sandusky are so disgusting, so vile that it can and does easily become a case of guilty until proven innocent. For anyone associated with them. Before I continue, let me tell you three stories from my personal experience: Posted by Jeff Cox at 11/09/2011 12:31:00 AM 74 comments: Links to this post More on army control of Egypt No sooner does Barry Rubin do an article on how the last chance for civilization in the Middle East is the army than he writes another one, focusing on Egypt. He starts out: This is of tremendous importance. Only hours ago I wrote about how the Egyptian military felt forced by circumstances to play a bigger, longer political role in order to stem anarchy and prevent Egypt from becoming an Islamist state. Now there’s more evidence of that happening. In an editorial that reflects also the Obama administration’s position, the Washington Post explained that the army having political power is bad and civilian rule is good: The generals’ justification for their proposed decree will sound familiar to any student of the Mubarak regime: They claim to be protecting the country from Islamic fundamentalists, who appear likely to capture a plurality of seats in parliament. The armies are the last bastions of civilization Barry Rubin asks the question, Will Their Armies Save (Some) Arab States from Islamism? Nowhere in the world is Mao Zedong’s dictum that political power grows out of the barrel of a gun truer than in the Middle East. The armed forces have been the basis of power in the Arabic-speaking world and in Turkey, too. That’s why the nationalist dictatorships and traditionalist monarchies, which had seen so many coups and coup attempts in the 1950s and 1960s, had to find special ways to control the armed forces. They did so by special privileges, close intelligence watches, promoting officers on the basis of loyalty to the regime, and many other measures. One of these was the creation of elite, parallel military formations. Examples include the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Iraqi Republican Guard, the Saudi “White Army,” and others. Speaking of allies from Hell What's Turkey doing these days? I had always wondered why the Islamist regime agreed to host US missile defense installations. Now we know: to hamper it. In September 2011, America engaged Turkey in missile defense by providing Ankara with the same type of X-Band radar system that Israel was given in September 2008 by former U.S. President George W. Bush. The deployment of that radar system into Turkey, later this year, will be located in the eastern part of the country, close to the Iranian border. These radar systems are designed to alert technicians of incoming enemy missiles. The U.S. Joint Tactical Ground Station (JTAGS) in Europe is to be the data hub for all U.S. supported European and Middle Eastern radar systems, including those in Romania, and in a U.S. Aegis ship in the Mediterranean. However, the current U.S. agreement with Turkey has become problematic, according to Scheinmann. "The Turks are saying that what they get from the radar site in their country will not be shared with Israel. This is supposed to be a European-wide missile defense system, but, they have maintained their strong objection to anything Israeli. If there were an Iranian missile launched towards Israel, they would not allow the sharing of information from their radar to help Israel." What this means, Scheinmann explained, is that an incoming Iranian missile that would target Israel would probably go over Syria, south of the Turkish radar site. It would be easier for technicians to track the precise location of the missile in milliseconds because they would be seeing the side view of it from Turkey, rather than a frontal view from Israel. But Turkey is now planning to hinder such cooperation. This inhibits protection for Israel from Iran's ballistic missile arsenal. With a title like ... ... "The Ally From Hell," you know the article is about Pakistan. And this article, a joint venture by The Atlantic and National Journal, is a doozy. Most disturbing section: There is evidence to suggest that neither the Pakistani army, nor the SPD itself, considers jihadism the most immediate threat to the security of its nuclear weapons; indeed, General Kayani’s worry, as expressed to General Kidwai after Abbottabad, was focused on the United States. According to sources in Pakistan, General Kayani believes that the U.S. has designs on the Pakistani nuclear program, and that the Abbottabad raid suggested that the U.S. has developed the technical means to stage simultaneous raids on Pakistan’s nuclear facilities. In their conversations, General Kidwai assured General Kayani that the counterintelligence branch of the SPD remained focused on rooting out American and Indian spies from the Pakistani nuclear-weapons complex, and on foiling other American espionage methods. The Pakistani air force drills its pilots in ways of intercepting American spy planes; the Pakistani military assumes (correctly) that the U.S. devotes many resources to aerial and satellite surveillance of its nuclear sites. Like chocolate sauce and sauerkraut ... some things are just not meant to go together. Like, a dump and Hadrian's villa: The noble descendant of a 17th century pope is fighting a battle against government plans to dump Rome's garbage at a site near one of the western world's most celebrated archeological sites - Hadrian's Villa. Prince Urbano Barberini, whose bloodline is traced to some of Italy's most storied nobles families and individuals - including Maffeo Barberini, who became Pope Urban VIII in 1623 - says disposing of the capital's trash in a quarry near Hardian's Villa in Tivola could keep tourists at bay when the wind passes over the tons of garbage in the direction of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Who wants to bomb Iran? Or, given recent media reports, I suppose the better question is, "Who doesn't?" Because there seems to be a line forming to do just that. Israel (not surprising): Over the past several days, Hebrew media reports have been engaged in intense speculation regarding a possible imminent Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear sites. Defense Minister Ehud Barak appeared to have made a veiled reference to the issue again on Tuesday, when he told the Knesset that Israel may have to protect its vital interests alone, while other reports focused on comments by Interior Minister Eli Yishai, who stated this week that difficult decisions were “keeping him up at nights,” without elaborating further. Israel is believed to have a fully prepared plan to launch such a strike, which would likely involve at least several hundred aircraft. When Greeks and Turks agree ... given their history (Trojan War, Persian Wars, Alexander the Great, Seljuks v. Byzantines, Ottomans, etc.), it should perhaps give one pause. Yet that's what seems to be happening. Just after the Turkish government cleans out the top brass in its armed forces, the Greek government is now doing the same thing: In a surprise move, on Tuesday evening the defence minister replaced the country’s top brass. An extraordinary meeting of the Government Council of Foreign Affairs and Defence (Kysea), which comprises the prime minister and other key cabinet members, accepted Defence Minister Panos Beglitis' proposal that the following changes be made to army, navy and air force and the general staff: Sorry for the light posting Been extremely busy this week, but also completely engrossed with The Confederacy's Last Hurrah: Spring Hill, Franklin & Nashville, by Wiley Sword. I hope to have a big post on it this weekend. But ... but Obama said he was a "reformer." Michael Totten on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's latest gambit: The Syrian opposition is slowly arming itself—inspired, I presume, by the disposal of Moammar Qaddafi—and Bashar al-Assad is spooked. He thinks the West may want to gun for him next. And he says if the West does come after him that it will set off an “earthquake” in the region. “Syria is the hub now in this region,” he said. “It is the faultline, and if you play with the ground you will cause an earthquake. Any problem in Syria will burn the whole region.” In other words, he’ll set Lebanon and Israel on fire again. It’s what he does. And it’s why he needs to go. Against thug dictators, peaceful resistance usually doesn't work. The Line of the Night After last night's Catastrophe in Kansas City, a Twitter pal of mine had this to say: Jocelyn (@legalesque)11/1/11 1:05 AM Saw this on Facebook: the flight home for Philip Rivers is going to be longer than Kim Kardashian's marriage. The folly of the drug war (or "Why police care mor... Inexcusable (or "Obama's plan is to simply say ‘no... Should Catholics be offended by Assassin's Creed n... One of the most inexcusable acts ever perpetrated ... NCAA's treatment of Ohio State is arbitrary and ca...	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1991
__label__wiki	0.703918	0.703918	Paul Kohler has been selected by the Lib Dems as their candidate to be the next Wimbledon MP. The professor, who was brutally attacked in his home in 2014, led the campaign against the closure of Wimbledon Police station. He took the Mayor of London to court over the decision and the closure was halted, pending reconsideration by Sadiq Khan. “It is a privilege to have been selected to contest the next general election as the Lib Dem candidate for Wimbledon”, said Cllr Kohler. “My wife and I have lived in this constituency, where we raised our four daughters, for almost 30 years. I want to give something back to the community that has been so supportive to us. “People in Wimbledon deserve better than the current Conservative MP, who has repeatedly broken his election promise to oppose a hard Brexit by failing to vote to rule out a No Deal Brexit. Meanwhile Labour’s candidate is a Jeremy Corbyn cheerleader who shares his hostility to the EU. “There is huge appetite for change amongst the voters of Wimbledon who have had enough of both Tory mismanagement in government and Labour mismanagement on the council. I will stand up for our public services where our current Tory MP has failed to do so; I will fight to stop Brexit and keep Britain in the EU; and I will strive to give a voice to Wimbledon residents who demand better from their government and their MP.”	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1997
__label__wiki	0.53709	0.53709	SunTrust Chief Information Officer Tim Sullivan Announces Plans to Retire in 2012 ATLANTA, Aug. 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- SunTrust Banks (NYSE: STI) said today that Timothy E. Sullivan, the Company's Chief Information Officer since 2003, has announced his decision to retire in 2012. Commenting on Mr. Sullivan's decision, SunTrust President and Chief Executive Officer William H. Rogers, Jr., said, "Technology has continued to transform banking – and in some respects, consumers' banking behaviors – over the past eight years, and Tim Sullivan has been at the helm for every technology dollar invested, project team launched and product implementation completed at SunTrust during that time. Tim's commitment to our clients, shareholders and teammates has been evident throughout his career. We look forward to his continued leadership during the search for his successor and transition." Prior to joining SunTrust in 2003, Mr. Sullivan was Executive Vice President and Group Technology Executive at Wells Fargo. An executive with 31 years of technology and financial services industry experience, he previously served as Chief Information Officer at Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, and held a series of increasingly responsible technology and operations management positions, including Chief Information Officer at First Interstate Bank in Arizona. He serves on the Viewpointe Archive Services, LLC board of directors, and is Chairman of the Executive Board of BITS, a division of the Financial Services Roundtable. SunTrust will launch an external search for a successor. Mr. Sullivan will assist in the leadership transition after a successor is named. SunTrust Banks, Inc., headquartered in Atlanta, is one of the nation's largest banking organizations, serving a broad range of consumer, commercial, corporate and institutional clients. As of June 30, 2011, SunTrust had total assets of $172.2 billion and total deposits of $124.9 billion. The Company operates an extensive branch and ATM network throughout the high-growth Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states and a full array of technology-based, 24-hour delivery channels. The Company also serves clients in selected markets nationally. Its primary businesses include deposit, credit, trust and investment services. Through various subsidiaries the Company provides mortgage banking, insurance, brokerage, investment management, equipment leasing and investment banking services. SunTrust's Internet address is suntrust.com.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line1999
__label__wiki	0.667987	0.667987	INDUSTRY POLICY: Jobs for life: the Nucor approach by Anthony Cappello A job for life, pay averaging $US100,000 per year including productivity payments, and worker participation - that is how leading US steel maker, Nucor, operates. It has never had to downsize a worker for lack of work or because of structural change. Sixty Minutes recently reported on the company which is one of America's largest steel manufacturers with more than $3.5 billion in annual sales. In the report entitled "Jobs for Life: but pays cuts for all", Richard Carleton noted that while BHP and Telstra lay off staff in the thousands to remain competitive, Nucor refuses to sack staff when times turn tough. The reason for the success of Nucor is its philosophy which rewards its employees with a compensation program directly linked to productivity and a commitment to maintain opportunities for the people who are doing the job today. Nucor traces its origins to the car manufacturer Ransom E. Olds, who founded Oldsmobile and Reo Motor Cars. The company, through a series of transactions, became Nuclear Corporation of America (Nucor). However, in 1965 Nucor faced bankruptcy and began to restructure by appointing Ken Iverson and Sam Siegel as President and Vice-President. This new management led Nucor to build around its profitable operations, which were its steel joists operations in Florence, South Carolina, and Norfolk, Nebraska. Management then consolidated its two basic businesses. Vulcraft is a steel joists company which is America's largest producer of steel joists, and girders. Nucor produces steel sheets, bar angles, light structural carbon and alloy steel. Nucor is committed to locating its facilities in non-urban locations. In doing so, it has been able to establish strong ties to its local communities. Nucor have located in states that are committed to maintaining business growth. However, Nucor has a commitment to remain union free. Nucor has an organisational structure that is decentralised consisting of only five layers: Chairman, Vice-Chairman and President; Vice-President, General Manager; Department Manager; superisory, professional; and hourly employee. This allows a streamlined command of the business with each facility operating as an independent business. Lines of communication are also kept in an informal but efficient manner. Employee relations are based on four principles: 1. Management is obligated to manage Nucor in such a way that employees will have the opportunity to earn according to their productivity. 2. Employees should feel confident that if they do their jobs properly, they will have a job tomorrow. (Nucor has yet to lay off a single worker due to lack of work). 3. Employees have the right to be treated fairly and must believe that they will be. 4. Employees must have an avenue of appeal when they believe they are being treated unfairly. Another incentive of the Nucor philosophy is its performance-based Compensation for Goal Oriented People, where employees are covered under one of the following compensation plans: First, a Production Incentive Plan, where employees directly involved in manufacturing are paid weekly bonuses on the basis of production. Most Nucor employees are covered under this system. Second, the Department Manager Incentive Plan has department managers earning bonuses based on the return of their facility. Third, the Non-Production and Non-Departmental Incentive Plan is paid to those who do not fit in either of the above, including accountants, receptionists and clerks. This works by a portion of pre-tax earnings which are placed in a pool that is divided among the officers in bonuses that are 60% stock and 40% cash. Nucor's egalitarian approach aims to eliminate distinctions between management and hourly employees as much as possible. Senior executives do not enjoy company cars, corporate jets, executive dining rooms or executive parking places. All employees have the same holidays, vacation schedules and insurance program. This is all part of the commitment in fostering a teamwork approach this is a crucial component of Nucor's business. In today's climate of downsizing, Nucor remains strongly committed in not laying off employees when business is down and its success is measured by its 6,000 employees who keep Nucor a leader in the US steel industry.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2000
__label__wiki	0.738773	0.738773	Home Business Parent company of Smallbone of Devizes on brink of collapse Parent company of Smallbone of Devizes on brink of collapse The parent company of Smallbone of Devizes, the British maker of high-end kitchens whose customers have included Dustin Hoffman, Liz Hurley and Oprah Winfrey, is on the brink of collapsing into administration. Smallbone’s owner Canburg, a private company that also owns the Mark Wilkinson and Brookmans furniture brands, has filed a notice of intention to appoint the accountancy firm Grant Thornton as administrators. Several hundred jobs are said to be at risk, Sky News reported. With consumer spending weak and the housing market in London and the south-east faltering in the run-up to Brexit, furniture and home improvement has been one of the hardest hit retail sectors. In the past year the sofa maker Multiyork and the bed company Warren Evans have gone into administration, while home furnishings retailers including House of Fraser, Debenhams, Marks & Spencer, Carpetright and Homebase are closing stores and cutting jobs. Canburg is based in Devizes in Wiltshire and employed 275 people in 2016, most of them craftspeople. Smallbone has been making bespoke luxury kitchen furniture in its Wiltshire workshops since the 1970s, as well as cabinetry for the bedroom, dressing room, bathroom, library and wine room. It opened its first London showroom in 1981. The business was founded by Charlie Smallbone and Graham Clark, who initially bought cheap antique furniture, renovated it and sold it on to London dealers. They started building kitchen furniture to order after being given 100 kitchen dressers on credit in 1977 – an alternative to the fitted melamine kitchens that were on the market at the time. Sign up to the daily Business Today email or follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk Canburg’s brand Mark Wilkinson also makes furniture for the kitchen, bedroom, bathroom and study, while Brookmans specialises in minimalist kitchens and bathrooms. The news is a blow to the £2.5bn Business Growth Fund, the vehicle set up by Britain’s biggest high street lenders in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. It invested £8m in Canburg in September 2014 in return for a 20% stake. The last set of results filed to Companies House shows Canburg made a pretax profit of £1.88m in the year to 30 June 2016, up slightly from £1.8m the previous year. Turnover rose to £34.6m from £28.6m. Previous articleThomas Cook in new profits warning after ‘disappointing’ year Next articleMargaret Thatcher eligible to be scientist on new £50 note Is our world a simulation? Why some scientists say it’s more... Sri Lanka suicide bomber studied in Australia, minister says Varys May Have Left ‘Game of Thrones’ Fans With an Important... Lana Condor and Noah Centineo Met Up for a ‘TATBILB’ Reunion	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2003
__label__wiki	0.815114	0.815114	Presidencies of the United States A journey through presidential history from the beginning to the present day Episode Guide by President 01 – George Washington 02 – John Adams 03 – Thomas Jefferson 04 – James Madison 05 – James Monroe 06 – John Quincy Adams 07 – Andrew Jackson 08 – Martin Van Buren 09 – William Henry Harrison 10 – John Tyler 11 – James K Polk 12 – Zachary Taylor 13 – Millard Fillmore 14 – Franklin Pierce 15 – James Buchanan 16 – Abraham Lincoln 17 – Andrew Johnson 18 – Ulysses S Grant 19 – Rutherford B Hayes 20 – James A Garfield 21 – Chester A Arthur 22 – Grover Cleveland 23 – Benjamin Harrison 25 – William McKinley 26 – Theodore Roosevelt 27 – William Howard Taft 28 – Woodrow Wilson 29 – Warren G Harding 30 – Calvin Coolidge 31 – Herbert Hoover 32 – Franklin D Roosevelt 33 – Harry S Truman 34 – Dwight D Eisenhower 35 – John F Kennedy 36 – Lyndon B Johnson 37 – Richard M Nixon 38 – Gerald R Ford 39 – Jimmy Carter 40 – Ronald Reagan 41 – George H W Bush 42 – Bill Clinton 43 – George W Bush 44 – Barack Obama 45 – Donald Trump How to Support the Podcast 2.25 – Source Notes July 4, 2019 Uncategorizedpresidencies Special thanks to Alex for providing the intro quote for this episode! Adams, Abigail. “To Thomas Boylston Adams, 12 July 1801,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-03-02-0990. [Last Accessed: 9 Jun 2019] Adams, Abigail. “To Thomas Jefferson, 20 May 1804,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-03-02-1268. [Last Accessed: 16 Jun 2019] Adams, Abigail. “To Thomas Jefferson, 25 October 1804,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/99-01-02-0540. [Last Accessed: 16 Jun 2019] Adams, Abigail. “To James Madison, 1 August 1810,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-03-02-1838. [Last Accessed: 22 Jun 2019] Adams, John. “To Cotton Tufts, 26 December 1800,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-03-02-0827. [Last Accessed: 9 Jun 2019] Adams, John. “To Benjamin Stoddert, 31 March 1801,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-4900. [Last Accessed: 8 Jun 2019] Adams, John. “To Thomas Jefferson, 24 March 1801,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-33-02-0365. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 33, 17 February–30 April 1801, ed. Barbara B. Oberg. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006, p. 426.] [Last Accessed: 9 Jun 2019] Adams, John. “To William Cranch, 23 May 1801,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-03-02-0969. [Last Accessed: 23 Jun 2019] Adams, John. “To Benjamin Rush, 6 February 1805,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-5067. [Last Accessed: 20 Jun 2019] Adams, John. “To Mercy Otis Warren, 11 July 1807,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-5193. [Last Accessed: 20 Jun 2019] Adams, John. “To Benjamin Rush, 13 October 1811,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-5695. [Last Accessed: 22 Jun 2019] Adams, John. “To Thomas Jefferson, 1 January 1812,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-04-02-0296-0002. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, vol. 4, 18 June 1811 to 30 April 1812, ed. J. Jefferson Looney. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007, pp. 390–391.] [Last Accessed: 22 Jun 2019] Adams, John. “To Thomas Jefferson, 16 August 1813,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-6132. [Last Accessed: 22 Jun 2019] Adams, John. “To John Quincy Adams, 18 March 1815,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-03-02-2809. [Last Accessed: 22 Jun 2019] Adams, John. “To Thomas Jefferson, 20 October 1818,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-7017. [Last Accessed: 22 Jun 2019] Cappon, Lester J, ed. The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams. Chapel Hill, NC and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1987 [1959]. Chernow, Ron. Alexander Hamilton. New York: Penguin Press, 2004. Ellis, Joseph J. Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams. New York and London: W W Norton & Co, 2001 [1993]. Ferling, John. John Adams: A Life. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2010 [1992]. Holton, Woody. Abigail Adams. New York and London: Free Press, 2009. Jefferson, Thomas. “To John Adams, 8 March 1801,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-33-02-0171. Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 33, 17 February–30 April 1801, ed. Barbara B. Oberg. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006, p. 213.] [Last Accessed: 9 Jun 2019] Jefferson, Thomas. “To Abigail Smith Adams, 13 June 1804,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-03-02-1280. [Last Accessed: 16 Jun 2019] Landry, Jerry. The Presidencies of the United States. 2018-2019. http://presidencies.blubrry.com. Madison, James. “To John Quincy Adams, 16 October 1810,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/03-02-02-0735. [Original source: The Papers of James Madison, Presidential Series, vol. 2, 1 October 1809–2 November 1810, ed. J. C. A. Stagg, Jeanne Kerr Cross, and Susan Holbrook Perdue. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1992, pp. 582–583.] [Last Accessed: 22 Jun 2019] Malone, Dumas. Jefferson the President First Term, 1801-1805: Jefferson and His Time Volume Four. Boston: Little, Brown and Co, 1970. McCullough, David. John Adams. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001. Nagel, Paul C. John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, a Private Life. New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1997. Smith, Page. John Adams, Volume II 1784-1826. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co, 1962. Warren, Mercy Otis. “To John Adams, 28 July 1807,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-5198. [Last Accessed: 20 Jun 2019] Withey, Lynne. Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams. New York & London: Simon & Schuster, 2002 [1981]. Featured Image: “Benjamin Rush” by Charles Willson Peale [c. 1818], courtesy of Wikipedia 2.25 – Adams Post-Presidency July 4, 2019 02 - John AdamsAbigail Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Stoddert, Charles Francis Adams, Democratic-Republican Party, Federalists, James Madison, John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Louisa Catherine Adams, Mary Cranch, Richard Cranch, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, William Smithpresidencies Year(s) Discussed: 1801-1826 After leaving the presidency, John Adams searched for a path ahead. In the process, he dealt with emotions that had been building for years, rebuilt some bridges that had been burned in political battles, suffered numerous personal heartaches, and bore witness to a quarter century more of the nation’s history. Sources used for this episode can be found at http://presidencies.blubrry.com. Featured Image: “Portrait of John Adams” by Samuel Morse [c. 1816], courtesy of Wikipedia http://media.blubrry.com/presidencies/p/content.blubrry.com/presidencies/2_25-Adams_Post-Presidency.mp3 June 15, 2019 Uncategorizedpresidencies Special thanks to Shawn Warswick of the American History Podcast, Gary Girod of the French History Podcast, and Sam Hume of Pax Britannica for providing the intro quotes for this episode! Adams, Abigail Smith. “To Mary Smith Cranch, 8 December 1800,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-03-02-0807. [Last Accessed: 4 Jun 2019] Adams, Abigail Smith. “To Mary Smith Cranch, 15 January 1801,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-03-02-0856. [Last Accessed: 8 Jun 2019] Adams, Abigail Smith. “To Mary Smith Cranch, 7 February 1801,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-03-02-0885. [Last Accessed: 8 Jun 2019] Adams, John. “To Elbridge Gerry, 30 December 1800,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-4732. [Last Accessed: 24 May 2019] Adams, John. “To Thomas Boylston Adams, 17 December 1800,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-03-02-0817. [Last Accessed: 4 Jun 2019] Adams, John. “To John Jay, 19 December 1800,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-4718. [Last Accessed: 4 Jun 2019] Adams, John. “To Samuel Dexter, 2 January 1801,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-4742. [Last Accessed: 4 Jun 2019] Adams, John. “To Thomas Jefferson, 20 February 1801,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-33-02-0020. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 33, 17 February–30 April 1801, ed. Barbara B. Oberg. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006, pp. 23–24.] [Last Accessed: 8 Jun 2019] Adams, John. “To Christopher Gadsden, 16 April 1801,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-4907. [Last Accessed: 24 May 2019] Adams, Thomas Boylston. “To John Adams, 14 December 1800,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-03-02-0811. [Last Accessed: 4 Jun 2019] Brown, Ralph Adams. The Presidency of John Adams. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1989 [1975]. Burr, Aaron. “To Thomas Jefferson, 23 December 1800,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-32-02-0239. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 32, 1 June 1800 – 16 February 1801, ed. Barbara B. Oberg. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005, pp. 342–343.] [Last Accessed: 5 Jun 2019] Cassell, Frank A. Merchant Congressman in the Young Republic: Samuel Smith of Maryland, 1752-1839. Madison, WI; Milwaukee, WI; and London: University of Wisconsin Press, 1971. Cullen, Charles T, ed. The Papers of John Marshall, Volume IV: Correspondence and Papers, January 1799-October 1800. Chapel Hill, NC and Williamsburg, VA: University of North Carolina Press and Institute of Early American History and Culture, 1984. Cunningham, Noble E, Jr. “Election of 1800.” History of American Presidential Elections 1789-1968, Volume I. Arthur M Schlesinger, Jr, ed. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1971. 101-134. DeConde, Alexander. The Quasi-War: The Politics and Diplomacy of the Undeclared War with France, 1797-1801. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1966. Dexter, Samuel. “To John Adams, 3 December 1800,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-4702. [Last Accessed: 4 Jun 2019] Doyle, William. The Oxford History of the French Revolution. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989. Esdaile, Charles. Napoleon’s Wars: An International History. New York: Penguin, 2009 [2007]. Hall, Kermit L, etc, eds. The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. Hamilton, Alexander. “To Theodore Sedgwick, 10 May 1800,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-24-02-0387. [Original source: The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, vol. 24, November 1799 – June 1800, ed. Harold C. Syrett. New York: Columbia University Press, 1976, pp. 474–475.] [Last Accessed: 24 May 2019] Hamilton, Alexander. “To Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 16 December 1800,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-25-02-0131. [Original source: The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, vol. 25, July 1800 – April 1802, ed. Harold C. Syrett. New York: Columbia University Press, 1977, pp. 257–259.] [Last Accessed: 4 Jun 2019] Jay, John. “To John Adams, 2 January 1801,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-4745. [Last Accessed: 6 Jun 2019] Jefferson, Thomas. “To Thomas Mann Randolph, 12 December 1800,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-32-02-0202. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 32, 1 June 1800 – 16 February 1801, ed. Barbara B. Oberg. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005, p. 300.] [Last Accessed: 24 May 2019] Jefferson, Thomas. “To Aaron Burr, 15 December 1800,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-32-02-0208. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 32, 1 June 1800 – 16 February 1801, ed. Barbara B. Oberg. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005, pp. 306–307.] [Last Accessed: 5 Jun 2019] Jefferson, Thomas. “To James Monroe, 15 February 1801,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-32-02-0430. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 32, 1 June 1800 – 16 February 1801, ed. Barbara B. Oberg. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005, p. 594.] [Last Accessed: 8 Jun 2019] Jefferson, Thomas. “To John Wayles Eppes, 22 February 1801,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-33-02-0036. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 33, 17 February–30 April 1801, ed. Barbara B. Oberg. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006, pp. 37–38.] [Last Accessed: 4 Jun 2019] Ketcham, Ralph. James Madison: A Biography. Charlottesville, VA and London: University Press of Virginia, 1994 [1971]. Linden, Frank van der. The Turning Point: Jefferson’s Battle for the Presidency. Washington, DC: Robert B Luce Inc, 1962. Linklater, Andro. An Artist in Treason: The Extraordinary Double Life of General James Wilkinson. New York: Walker Publishing Co, 2009. Lomask, Milton. Aaron Burr: The Years from Princeton to Vice President 1756-1805. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1979. Schom, Alan. Napoleon Bonaparte. New York: HarperCollins, 1998 [1997]. Seale, William. The President’s House: A History, Volume One. Washington, DC: White House Historical Association, 1986. Sharp, James Roger. The Deadlocked Election of 1800: Jefferson, Burr, and the Union in the Balance. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2010. Smith, Jean Edward. John Marshall: Definer of a Nation. New York: Henry Holt & Co, 1996. Stahr, Walter. John Jay: Founding Father. New York: Hambledon & Continuum, 2006 [2005]. “THURSDAY,December 18 1800.” Senate Executive Journal. Library of Congress. https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hlaw:@field(DOCID+@lit(ej001636)) [Last Accessed: 4 Jun 2019] “TUESDAY,December 30, 1800.” Senate Executive Journal. Library of Congress. https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hlaw:@field(DOCID+@lit(ej001636)) [Last Accessed: 4 Jun 2019 US Senate. “President Pro Tempore.” https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/briefing/President_Pro_Tempore.htm [Last Accessed: 8 Jun 2019] “WEDNESDAY, December 31, 1800.” Senate Executive Journal. Library of Congress. https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hlaw:@field(DOCID+@lit(ej001666)) [Last Accessed: 4 Jun 2019] “WEDNESDAY,February 18, 1801.” Senate Executive Journal. Library of Congress. https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hlaw:@field(DOCID+@lit(ej001666)) [Last Accessed: 4 Jun 2019] White, Leonard D. The Federalists: A Study in Administrative History. New York: Macmillan Co, 1948. Featured Image: “Thomas McKean” by Charles Willson Peale [c. 1797], courtesy of Wikipedia 2.24 – The 36th Ballot June 15, 2019 02 - John AdamsAaron Burr, Abigail Adams, Albert Gallatin, Alexander Hamilton, Austria, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Democratic-Republican Party, Election of 1800, Federalists, Fisher Ames, France, James A Bayard, James Madison, James McHenry, James Monroe, John Adams, John Jay, John Marshall, John Quincy Adams, Napoleon Bonaparte, Oliver Wolcott Jr, Rufus King, Samuel Dexter, Samuel Smith, Spain, Theodore Sedgwick, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas McKean, Timothy Pickering, US House, US Senate, William Cranch, William R Davie, William Smithpresidencies The nation had little time to process the news that Adams was defeated in his bid for reelection as a constitutional crisis developed regarding who would succeed him to the post. Meanwhile, the outgoing president only had a few weeks remaining to secure the ratification of the Convention of Mortefontaine, get several federal judges confirmed including a new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and get a new Treasury Secretary in place. Sources used for this episode can be found at http://presidencies.blubrry.com. Featured Image: “Front View of the President’s House, in the City of Washington” [c.1807], courtesy of Wikipedia http://media.blubrry.com/presidencies/p/content.blubrry.com/presidencies/2_24-The_36th_Ballot.mp3 June 8, 2019 Uncategorizedpresidencies Special thanks to Steve Guerra of the History of the Papacy and Beyond the Big Screen podcasts for providing the intro quote for this episode! As mentioned in the episode, Steve will be joining other podcasters at the Intelligent Speech Conference in New York City on June 29th, 2019. It’s sure to be a great conference, so make your plans to check it out! Adams, Abigail. “To Mary Smith Cranch, 10 November 1800,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-03-02-0787. [Last Accessed: 15 May 2019] Adams, John. “To John Marshall, 30 August 1800,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-4553. [Last Accessed: 11 May 2019] Adams, John. “To Thomas Pinckney, 27 October 1800,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-4667. [Last Accessed: 13 May 2019] Adams, John. “To Abigail Smith Adams, 2 November 1800,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-03-02-0784. [Last Accessed: 11 May 2019] Adams, John. “To Abigail Smith Adams, 15 November 1800,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-03-02-0792. [Last Accessed: 15 May 2019] Adams, John. “Fourth Annual Address to Congress, 22 November 1800.” Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/200693. [Last Accessed: 19 May 2019] Buchanan, James. “Alfred Moore.” The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789-1995, Second Edition. Clare Cushman, ed. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Inc, 1995. p. 56-60. Ellis, Richard E. “Moore, Alfred.” The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. Kermit L Hall, ed. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. p. 560. Green, Constance McLaughlin. Washington: Village and Capital, 1800-1878. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1962. Jefferson, Thomas. “To Pierce Butler, 11 August 1800,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-32-02-0055. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 32, 1 June 1800 – 16 February 1801, ed. Barbara B. Oberg. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005, p. 91.] [Last Accessed: 23 May 2019] Pinckney, Thomas. “To John Adams, 16 September 1800,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-4592. [Last Accessed: 13 May 2019] Zahniser, Marvin R. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney: Founding Father. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1967. Featured Image: “Portrait of Aaron Burr” attributed to Gilbert Stuart [c. 1793 or 1794], courtesy of Wikipedia 2.23 – The Double-Edged Sword June 8, 2019 02 - John AdamsAbigail Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Democratic-Republican Party, Federalists, France, James Callendar, James McHenry, John Adams, John Marshall, Margaret Bayard Smith, Samuel Harrison Smith, Thomas Pinckney, US Supreme Court, Washington DCpresidencies As the new federal capital comes alive with government officials and newspaper publishers moving in to be on hand for the congressional session opening in November 1800, President Adams waits with the rest of the nation to learn the results of electors being chosen across the United States. His path to reelection however grows ever darker due to a dispute with his running mate’s brother and a pamphlet released by Alexander Hamilton. Sources used in this episode can be found at http://presidencies.blubrry.com. Featured Image: “General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney” by James Earl [c. 1795], courtesy of Wikipedia http://media.blubrry.com/presidencies/p/content.blubrry.com/presidencies/2_23-The_Double-Edged_Sword.mp3 V003 – Source Notes May 26, 2019 Uncategorizedpresidencies Special thanks to Jared Cohen for taking the time to speak with me for this interview and to Stephen Bedford of Simon and Schuster and Dan Keyserling, Jared’s scheduler, for all of your efforts in making arrangements for this interview to happen! Special thanks also to Les and Susan for your assistance in brainstorming questions! “Jared Cohen” by Esther Nisanova “Cover Image of Accidental Presidents” “Southern Chivalry – Argument versus Club’s” by John L Magee [c. 1856], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Southern_Chivalry.jpg “Death of Harrison, April 4 A.D. 1841” by Currier & Ives [c. 1841], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Death_of_Harrison,_April_4_A.D._1841.jpg “A Score for Tippecanoe and Tyler Too” by G. E. Blake [c. 1840], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tiptoo_crop.jpg “John Tyler” by George Peter Alexander Healy [c. 1864], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WHOportTyler.jpg “President John Tyler, half-length portrait, facing right”, courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Tyler.png “Theodore Roosevelt, full-length portrait, standing beside large globe, facing front, in the White House” by Rockwood Photo Co [c. 1903], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Teddy_Roosevelt_portrait.jpg “Grand National Republican Banner 1880” by Currier & Ives [c. 1880], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1880RepublicanPoster.png “Tennessee Gentleman” by Ralph E W Earl [c. 1828-1833], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tennessee_Gentleman_portrait_of_Andrew_Jackson_by_Ralph_E._W._Earl.jpg “Senator Henry S Foote while in office” by Mathew Brady [c. 1849], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henry_S._Foote_Brady_1849.jpg “President George W. Bush waves to a crowd of people who came to see him off on his visit to Latin America at his departure from El Paso” by Eric Draper [21 Mar 2002], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_Secret_Service_Agent.jpg “Charles Julius Guiteau”, courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charles_J_Guiteau.jpg “Jackson Assassination Attempt”, courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JacksonAssassinationAttempt.jpg “Official Portrait of Richard Cheney” [c. 2003], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Richard_Cheney_2005_official_portrait.jpg “Tyler Receiving the News of Harrison’s Death” [c. 1888], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tyler_receives_news.jpg “Photo Portrait of President Lyndon B Johnson in the Oval Office, leaning on a chair” by Arnold Newman [10 Mar 1964], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:37_Lyndon_Johnson_3x4.jpg “Awful Explosion of the ‘Peace-Maker’ on Board the U.S. Stem Frigate Princeton” by N Currier [c. 1844], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Explosion_aboard_USS_Princeton.jpg “Andrew Johnson” by Mathew Brady [c. 1875 or before], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Andrew_Johnson_photo_portrait_head_and_shoulders,_c1870-1880-Edit1.jpg “Lafayette S Foster” by Mathew Brady, [c. 1855-1865], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lafayette_S._Foster_-_Brady-Handy.jpg “Chester Alan Arthur” by Charles Milton Bell [c. 1882], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chester_Alan_Arthur.jpg “William Craig” [c. 1902], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Craig_in_1902.jpg “Harry S Truman” [c. 1947], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TRUMAN_58-766-06_CROPPED.jpg “Andrew Johnson Taking the Oath of Office” [c. 1866], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Johnson_inauguration.jpg “Andrew Johnson” by Eliphalet Frazer Andrews [c. 1880], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ajohnson.jpeg “Gideon Welles” by Mathew Brady and Levin Corbin Handy [c. 1855-1865], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gideon_Welles_cph.3b20114.jpg “Portrait of William H Seward”, courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_H._Seward_portrait_-_restoration.jpg “First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Lincoln” by Francis Bicknell Carpenter [c. 1864], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Emancipation_proclamation.jpg “Andrew Johnson” by William Brown Cooper [c. 1856], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Andrew_Johnson_by_William_Brown_Cooper.png “Jefferson Davis” by Mathew Brady [c. prior to 1861], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:President-Jefferson-Davis.jpg “The Senate as a Court of Impeachment for the Trial of Andrew Johnson” by Theodore R Davis [24 Feb 1868], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Andrew_Johnson_impeachment_trial.jpg “Alexander Hamilton Stephens”, courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alexander_Hamilton_Stephens.jpg “James Garfield” by Calvin Curtis [c. 1881], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/file:Jgarfield.jpeg “Assassination of President Garfield”, courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AssasinationPresGarfield.JPG “Chester A Arthur” by Ole Peter Hansen Balling [c. 1881], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chester_A._Arthur_by_Ole_Peter_Hansen_Balling.JPG “Roscoe Conkling”, courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RConkling.jpg “Thomas C Platt” by G. V. Buck [c. 1901], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_C._Platt_cph.3f06256.jpg “Chester Alan Arthur” by George Peter Alexander Healy [c. 1884], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chester_Alan_Arthur_by_George_Peter_Alexander_Healy.png “USS Atlanta” [c. 1884], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USS_Atlanta_1884.jpg “Portrait of Vice-President Alben Barkley” by the Hessler Studio, courtesy of Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alben_Barkley,_Vice-President.jpg “James F Byrnes” by Harris & Ewing [c. 1941-1942], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:James_F._Byrnes_cph.3c32232.jpg “President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Vice-President-elect Harry S. Truman, and Vice-President Henry Wallace in a car. President Roosevelt is returning to the Capitol from Union Station during a downpour of rain” by Abbie Rowe [10 Nov 1944], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roosevelt_Truman_Wallace.jpg “President Kennedy and Vice President Johnson prior to ceremony for the Workmens’ Compensation Commemorative Stamp, Washington, D. C., White House, South Lawn” by Abbie Rowe [31 Aug 1961], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:President_Kennedy_and_Vice_President_Johnson_prior_to_ceremony.jpg “Garret Augustus Hobart” [c. 1896], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Garret_Augustus_Hobart.jpg “Calvin Coolidge” by Notman Studio [c. 1919], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Calvin_Coolidge_cph.3g10777_(cropped).jpg “President Warren G Harding’s First Cabinet meeting” [c. 1921], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:President_Warren_G._Harding%27s_First_Cabinet_1921.jpg “Calvin Coolidge” [4 Dec 1923], courtesy of Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Calvin_Coolidge_photo_portrait_head_and_shoulders.jpg V003 – Interview with Jared Cohen, Accidental Presidents May 26, 2019 UncategorizedAbraham Lincoln, Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson, Chester A Arthur, Franklin D Roosevelt, Harry S Truman, James A Garfield, John F Kennedy, John Tyler, Lyndon B Johnson, Millard Fillmore, Theodore Roosevelt, William Henry Harrison, William McKinley, Zachary Taylorpresidencies In this episode, I talk with Jared Cohen, author of Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America, about the presidents who came to the office due to the untimely demise of their predecessor and how their becoming president altered the course of US history. In this wide-ranging discussion, we assess some of the successes and failures of these presidents as well as the history of how constitutional questions related to succession were answered and what questions still remain. Images used in this episode can be found at http://presidencies.blubrry.com. Featured Image: “Jared Cohen” by Esther Nisanova http://media.blubrry.com/presidencies/p/content.blubrry.com/presidencies/V003-Cohen_Interview.mp3 Special thanks to Niall Cooper of the Assassinations Podcast for providing the intro quote for this episode! Adams, John. “To John Marshall, 31 July 1800,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-4473. [Last Accessed: 24 Apr 2019] Egerton, Douglas R. Gabriel’s Rebellion: The Virginia Slave Conspiracies of 1800 & 1802. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1993. Ellsworth, Oliver. “To John Adams, 16 October 1800,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-4663. [Last Accessed: 4 May 2019] Hamilton, Alexander. “To Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 1 July 1800,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-25-02-0004. [Original source: The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, vol. 25, July 1800 – April 1802, ed. Harold C. Syrett. New York: Columbia University Press, 1977, pp. 4–5.] [Last Accessed: 24 Apr 2019] Hamilton, Alexander. “To Samuel Dexter, 2 July 1800,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-25-02-0005. [Original source: The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, vol. 25, July 1800 – April 1802, ed. Harold C. Syrett. New York: Columbia University Press, 1977, p. 6.] [Last Accessed: 23 Apr 2019] Hamilton, Alexander. “To John Adams, 1 August 1800,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-25-02-0036. [Original source: The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, vol. 25, July 1800 – April 1802, ed. Harold C. Syrett. New York: Columbia University Press, 1977, pp. 51–52.] [Last Accessed: 24 Apr 2019] Hamilton, Alexander. “To Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 3 August 1800,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-25-02-0039. [Original source: The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, vol. 25, July 1800 – April 1802, ed. Harold C. Syrett. New York: Columbia University Press, 1977, pp. 54–56.] [Last Accessed: 24 Apr 2019] Hill, Peter P. William Vans Murray, Federalist Diplomat: The Shaping of Peace with France 1797-1801. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1971. Lambert, Frank. The Barbary Wars: American Independence in the Atlantic World. New York: Hill and Wang, 2007 [2005]. Malone, Dumas. Jefferson and the Ordeal of Liberty: Jefferson and His Time, Volume Three. Boston: Little, Brown and Co, 1962. Monroe, James. “To Thomas Jefferson, 9 September 1800,” Founders Online, National Archives, version of January 18, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-32-02-0086. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 32, 1 June 1800 – 16 February 1801, ed. Barbara B. Oberg. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005, pp. 131–132.] [Last Accessed: 11 Apr 2019] The national intelligencer and Washington advertiser. (Washington City [D.C.]), 04 May 1801. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045242/1801-05-04/ed-1/seq-4/. [Last Accessed: 20 Apr 2019] Stone, Geoffrey R. Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime, From the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism. New York and London: W W Norton & Co, 2004. Toth, Michael C. Founding Federalist: The Life of Oliver Ellsworth. Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2018 [2011]. “Treaty of Alliance Between The United States and France; February 6, 1778.” The Avalon Project. Yale Law School, Lillian Goldman Law Library. http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fr1788-2.asp. [Last Accessed: 4 May 2019] “Treaty of Amity and Commerce Between The United States and France; February 6, 1778.” The Avalon Project. Yale Law School, Lillian Goldman Law Library. http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fr1788-1.asp [Last Accessed: 4 May 2019] Wolcott, Oliver, Jr. “To Alexander Hamilton, 7 July 1800,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-25-02-0018. Original source: The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, vol. 25, July 1800 – April 1802, ed. Harold C. Syrett. New York: Columbia University Press, 1977, pp. 15–17.] [Last Accessed: 24 Apr 2019] Featured Image: “The Signing of the Treaty of Mortefontaine, 30th September 1800” by Victor Adam, courtesy of Wikipedia 2.22 – Enter the Federal City May 19, 2019 02 - John AdamsAlexander Hamilton, Barbary States, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Fisher Ames, France, George Cabot, Great Britain, James Callender, James McHenry, James Monroe, John Adams, John Marshall, John Quincy Adams, Napoleon Bonaparte, Oliver Ellsworth, Oliver Wolcott Jr, Samuel Dexter, slavery, Talleyrand, Timothy Pickering, Washington DC, William Duane, William R Davie, William Vans Murraypresidencies As President Adams and the federal government transition to the new federal capital, the next presidential election looms, and both Federalist and Democratic-Republican leaders work on behalf of their favored candidates to meet challenges to their prospects. While Federalists cope with an internal debate over exactly which candidate to support, Democratic-Republicans in Virginia work to cover up the involvement of French agents in Gabriel’s Rebellion. All the while, the US commission to France scrambles to conclude their work with a treaty in time for Adams and the Federalists to claim credit for winning the peace. Source notes for this episode can be found at http://presidencies.blubrry.com. Featured Image: “A view of the Capitol of Washington before it was burnt down by the British” by William Russell Birch [c. 1800], courtesy of Wikipedia http://media.blubrry.com/presidencies/p/content.blubrry.com/presidencies/2_22-Enter_the_Federal_City.mp3 on Apple Podcastson Androidvia RSSMore Subscribe Options	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2009
__label__cc	0.654716	0.345284	The final push for the playoffs will be on in Week 17 of the 2014 NFL season. The end of the regular season also marks the end of office pick em pools. Get a NFL Pick Em Week 17 sheet for the final week of the year. The downloadable and printable sheet is available at no charge on Printablebrackets.net NFL Pick Em Week 17: Featured Games In 2010, the NFL decided that all games in the final week of the season would pit divisional opponents against each other. This was done in an effort to make the games more meaningful and to keep teams from resting their regular players for the postseason. The format remains in 2014. In addition, there is not a pre-determined Sunday night game prior to the season. The league takes the game with the most playoff implications and places it in the Sunday night slot in the days leading up to the final Sunday of the year. There is no Monday night game on the schedule in Week 17. Many rivalries will be revived on the NFL Pick Em Week 17 sheet. The New York Giants will host the Philadelphia Eagles, while the Dallas Cowboys will be on the road to face the Washington Redskins. In the NFC South, the Carolina Panthers will face the Atlanta Falcons, while the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will square off with the New Orleans Saints. In classic AFC matchups, the Pittsburgh Steelers will welcome the Cincinnati Bengals to the Steel City. The New York Jets will travel to Miami to meet the Dolphins, and the Baltimore Ravens will host the Cleveland Browns. There are three tentatively scheduled late Sunday games on the NFL Pick Em Week 17 sheet. The Denver Broncos will battle the Oakland Raiders. The San Francisco 49ers will collide with the Arizona Cardinals, and the St. Louis Rams will play the Seattle Seahawks. Download: NFL Pick Em Week 17	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2011
__label__wiki	0.605122	0.605122	€4.3 million invested in enterprise-based research partnerships Posted: 27 February, 2019 Minister of State for Training, Skills, Innovation, Research and Development, John Halligan TD, has today announced details of a €4.3 million investment in the Irish Research Council’s Enterprise Partnership Scheme. The Irish Research Council’s Enterprise Partnership Scheme supports collaborations between researchers and partner organisations. Over the coming months, a total of 53 researchers will take up positions at higher education institutions in collaboration with 48 partner organisations. The awards are two thirds funded by the Irish Research Council and one third funded by the partner organisations, which include national or international companies and not-for-profit organisations. To encourage involvement of diverse organisations, a waiver of the partner’s first year contribution was granted to not-for-profits involved in social innovation. Some partner organisations participating this year are the Football Association of Ireland, AIB, Fighting Blindness, Clúid Housing, Ludger Ltd., GreenLight Pharmaceuticals, Teleflex Medical Europe, Valitacell Ltd., Microwave Vision SA and Killruddery Arts, Culture, Ecology and Heritage amongst others. Examples of projects that will receive funding under the scheme include: Norah Storey, based at Waterford Institute of Technology, will undertake research with AIB, exploring what underpins the decision-making process in investment in low-carbon technologies. Dan Horan, based at University College Dublin, will undertake research in partnership with the Football Association of Ireland on injury surveillance in elite-level women’s football. Declan O’Loughlin, based at the National University of Ireland, Galway, will undertake research looking at improving clinical decision-making in early-stage breast cancer screening, with Microwave Vision SA. Eleanor Mc Mahon, studying at University College Dublin, will commence a research project in association with Clúid Housing, developing an analysis of housing supports for low-income Dublin households. The researchers will be based at their respective institutions for the duration of their studies and will work in close collaboration with the partner enterprises. Fellowships are awarded to postdoctoral researchers to undertake research for a period of two years and scholarships are awarded to postgraduate students to complete a masters or PhD research degree. Announcing details of the scheme, Minister of State for Training, Skills, Innovation, Research and Development, John Halligan TD today said: “The Irish Research Council’s Enterprise Partnership Scheme enables researchers to develop innovative research projects at their higher education institutions, whilst engaging with some of Ireland’s leading companies and organisations. Clearly this scheme is a win-win for both the researchers and their partner organisations, who get to tap into some of Ireland’s best research and innovation capacity.” Peter Brown, Director of the Irish Research Council said: “The Enterprise Partnership Scheme allows postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers to gain direct insights into a broad range of enterprises, whilst – at the same time – partner organisations gain direct access to some of Ireland’s pipeline of highly talented researchers. “Projects that have been greenlit today range from football and housing to climate change and breast cancer. It is because of schemes like this that a whole range of employers, from multinational companies and small enterprise to NGOs, can benefit from Ireland’s rich research pool.” Other Latest News Irish Research Council and European Southern Observatory partnership increases Irish astronomers’ access to resources and training Irish Research Council welcomes launch of the largest annual budget to-date for the European Research Council Researchers partner with NGOs to address global challenges	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2019
__label__wiki	0.634446	0.634446	#LoveIrishResearch Blog Irish Research Council highlights achievements and impact in 2018 Posted: 7 January, 2019 2018 was a remarkable year for Ireland, and indeed for the Irish Research Council. From the inaugural Laureate Awards to the success of the Researcher of the Year Awards, we had many highlights and contributed positively to the development of the research system in Ireland over the course of the year. With 2019 now upon us, we look back on the year that has been and reflect on how we have contributed to Irish research, culture and society. Some of our highlights have included: In March, we announced a €29.6 million investment in the new Laureate Awards Programme to support ground-breaking, frontier research in the life sciences, physical sciences and engineering, and the arts, humanities and social sciences. The scheme came as part of Ireland’s five-year strategy for science and technology, research and development, Innovation 2020. The first recipients of the Laureate awards will conduct research into topics ranging from age-related vision loss to sustainable food production. In June, Minister of State for Training, Skills, Innovation, Research and Development, John Halligan TD launched our new International Engagement Strategy. This new strategy aims to work collaboratively to position Ireland as a centre of excellence for higher education and research ‘post-Brexit’ and will seek to exploit Ireland’s already positive scientific and academic standing among the international community. In November, we co-hosted the inaugural UK – Ireland Research Funders’ Forum with Science Foundation Ireland in Dublin. The event provided the opportunity for Irish research funders to engage with statutory funders from the UK on research and innovation strategies and to discuss ways to deepen alliances. Rounding out the year was the announcement of the winners of the 2018 Researcher of the Year Awards. Now in their second year, the Researcher of the Year Awards recognise and commend the very best of our current awardees or alumni working in academia, industry, civic society or the public sector. Professor Anna Davies (Trinity College Dublin) was named as the Researcher of the Year, Dr Karen English (Maynooth University) as the Early-Career Researcher of the Year, and Dr Brian Egan (Senior Engineer at Wood) as the Alumnus of the Year. In addition to the Researcher of the Year Awards, we presented medals to four early-career researchers, recognising excellence in the 2018 postgraduate and postdoctoral funding calls. Some other highlights included our light projection show in Barnardo’s Square for Science Week 2018; becoming a strategic partner of RTÉ’s Brainstorm initiative; the announcement of a €22 million investment in early-career research under the Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship and Postdoctoral Fellowship programmes; and launching an Oireachtas shadowing scheme aimed at strengthening academics’ and politicians’ understanding of the role research plays in public policy formation. 2018 was a year of exciting progress and achievement for us and our funded researchers. The successes of this past year have provided us with excellent momentum as we commence 2019, and we look forward to continuing our mission of funding excellent research in Ireland. Other Latest Posts Culture and sexual risk: Gay male ‘sexual worlds’ in Ireland today Science for the Love of it So you want to write for RTÉ Brainstorm….	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2020
__label__cc	0.643077	0.356923	The common touch August 3, 2016 \| 8 Comments Lee Martin’s novel portrays good country people—and a hothead. . . . the old verities and truths of the heart, the old universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed . . . —William Faulkner’s Nobel Prize banquet speech Late One Night by Lee Martin. Dzanc Books, 313 pp. Ronnie Black is a real hothead—everyone knows it—and he’s unfaithful. When his estranged wife and three of her seven children die one night in a fire that engulfs their trailer home, suspicions point to Ronnie. The fire and a subsequent custody battle roil the small rural town, especially when the cause of the fire is ruled to be arson. Lee Martin’s new novel shines a light on human failings, such as gossip and lack of compassion, as well as on quiet daily heroism and the way mistakes and coincidences can combine to produce tragedy. Reading Late One Night, I was struck by Martin’s compassion for his characters. Especially for those who, despite themselves, end up doing wrong. Having read his nonfiction, including his fine memoirs From Our House (reviewed) and Such a Life (reviewed) and his helpful ongoing craft blog, “The Least You Need to Know,” it’s clear he’s one of them. One of those farm and working folk from the hinterlands, from America’s faded provincial towns and threadbare rural backwaters. One of them, that is, who left. Who took a different path, got out. Who got himself tons of education and made himself a writer, who turned himself into an artist. Whose subject, here, is so much them, those he left behind—yet hasn’t. The effect of Martin’s steady compassion grows throughout Late One Night until, as mysteries are revealed—as the true story of the fatal fire is finally told—the novel becomes deeply, surprisingly moving. Maybe it’s that his characters, in turn, finally express compassion for each other. That rings true or at least possible. These are broken people, many of them, or guiltily carrying burdens, and their effort to forgive others in the face of their own failures feels heroic. A murder mystery on the surface, Late One Night is really about forgiveness and the flickering hope of redemption. Martin’s feeling for ordinary people and the ones among them who go disastrously astray comes from deep inside the writer, I believe. But one can see in his technical choices how he expressed it, how he tried to make his readers feel it. Late One Night is written in close third-person that gives us omniscient access into someone’s inner thoughts and feelings—but he alternates this with a communal voice and point of view. For instance: No one said a word. Everyone was sitting at the cafeteria tables, where only moments before they’d been talking about crop prices, and Lord couldn’t we use some rain, and hell yes it was hot. Too hot for September. That was damn sure. . . . He’d left her stranded in Goldengate one night when they got in a snort and a holler because she wanted to buy a doll baby for their littlest girl and he said there wasn’t money enough for something like that. This has such an interesting effect, making the omniscient narrator, for one thing, possibly an outsider channeling a local, a local himself, or a chorus of locals. Of course this supports the private conversations and inner heartaches Martin makes us privy to. A character sums it up, speaking in utter simplicity to her lover late in the book: What I’ve decided is maybe we’re all that close to doing things we’d regret. The right chain of circumstances, and there we are. Her mate answers her in a reply to the entire town: We need to help one another. We need to forgive. That’s what I aim to do. In my heart of hearts, I hope you’ll do the same. Old truths, it’s true. But as the novel ends, with a snowfall reminiscent of James Joyce’s that famously closes his short story “The Dead,” Martin makes them live. Set within tragic circumstances, among ordinary lives that have become real to us, Late One Night makes the old verities new and touching. Lee Martin answered some questions by email. [Martin: “working my way toward knowing.”] Q. You’ve said the incident that led to Late One night was a disastrous rural trailer fire you read about. I understand you sometimes conduct research for your novels, and wonder how much research you did for this one beyond that initial newspaper account? I went to the site of the fire and looked at the ruins. I cataloged the small details, the ones like a child’s purple glove with a silver star on it. Those concrete details suggested lives to me and led me inside the characters I invented. Those details invited me to imagine those characters’ stories. Q. Why did that incident resonate for you? Put another way, how did it resonate as a possible novel? Is such an impulse or hunch different from the feeling that tells you something’s an essay? I took the fact from the news and started playing the “what if?” game. What if the husband were living outside the home at the time of the fire? What if the fire turned out to be the result of arson? What if small-town gossip began to cast suspicion on that husband? What if it wasn’t exactly clear if he was guilty? And where did guilt begin and end? And what about responsibility? Responsibility to family, to love, to everyone around us? In that way, the impulse to write a novel is similar for me to the one that leads me to an essay. Both begin with questions. Both begin with what I don’t know. Each becomes a way of working my way toward knowing, or else to a deepening of the questions, or perhaps a different set of questions. The difference is that with a novel I immediately see a dramatic frame upon which to hang a story. With an essay, I want to see what I think about something. There is no frame, and perhaps no story, as I begin to write, although one may emerge during the process. Q. Late One Night is a murder mystery, yet not a typical one, based as it is on a relatively small incident in a rural backwater and set among blue-collar people. I’m struck by your steady focus on this fatal arson and how it affected those whose lives are seldom chronicled. Was any writerly redress at work? What reaction have you gotten from such places, including from folks in your home region of southern Illinois? I want my work to come from the people and the places I know best, and that happens to be the blue-collar world of the rural Midwest. The people there are often overlooked in our contemporary culture. I want to tell their stories, and I want to honor their complexity and their dignity. Their lives are splendid and rich because they’re human, and if I can give a voice to them that people will listen to, then I’m glad. I bristle when readers dismiss characters because of their economic status, or because they think they make poor decisions. This is snobbery of the worst order. We all make poor decisions. We stumble along the way, and we do our best to regain our footing. Ronnie Black, in Late One Night makes a decision he’ll regret the rest of his life, but does that mean he’s incapable of love? Does it mean he doesn’t know what it is to protect his family? Does it mean we should stand in judgment of him? I do my best to understand the sources of my characters’ behaviors, and those behaviors are often tied to what it is to live a particular life in a particular place. My place, as I’ve said, is the rural Midwest. I hear from a number of folks there who enjoy my books. At the same time, I’m aware that I’ve stepped outside the custom of that culture to not speak of one’s troubles and secrets. Q. I’m familiar with your use and skill at the communal point of view from some of your essays where you do the same thing. I’m interested which came first—is this something fictional practice has brought to your nonfiction, or vice versa? What is your aim in using it? That’s a great question, Richard. I’m not really sure, but I think I may have tried expressing a communal voice first in nonfiction. I’m thinking of my essay published by Brevity, “Dumber Than.” Then, of course, I used it in my novel, The Bright Forever. When I use it, my aim is to give a voice to the community within which my main characters have their own voices. We’re always acting in accordance with a community or in resistance to it. I like to find the communal voice that represents the cultural norms of the place to give a texture to the voices of my characters. Q. Some of your novel’s chapters are very short, about three pages, while others are longer. This variation was striking in some cases. I wonder how you worked out chapter length? I often think a chapter should focus on a single dramatic event or a major shift in the character relationships. Sometimes it takes a number of pages to fully dramatize something, but sometimes I like to do a quick cut, the sound of which I hope will resonate in contrast to a longer chapter. Resonance can come from a variety of sources in a novel, but one of them is the sound the book makes from the length and arrangement of its chapters. Q. I’ve written a lot here about writing’s exciting and rewarding aspects. But writing has a heartbreaking side, as when you work for months or even years on something and conclude—or are persuaded—that it doesn’t work. How do you deal with or think about such setbacks or discouragement? I try to choose my material wisely. I want to be so excited about the work ahead of me that I can’t help but succeed. I rarely give up on a project, but the few times that I have, I’ve been able to let it go because the next exciting thing is calling to me. I’m still convinced that, should the time come, I’d be able to go back to those abandoned projects and make them work. [Martin guest lectures, Otterbein University.] Q. You must have known talented writers over the years who have quit, maybe while you were a student or among your own students. Why do you think some are able to continue writing, even in the face of steady rejection? Maybe this is a personal question, as I believe you’ve said it took you a long time before things clicked for you. When I was a student, there were others who were much more talented than I, but for whatever reasons they stopped. I’ve had my own students who should have gone on to stellar careers, but they stopped writing. It wouldn’t be fair of me to speculate on what it is that keeps some of us going while others surrender, though I suspect it has something to do with being extremely driven and with using disappointment for motivation and for a certain thickening of the skin that this writing business demands of us. Q. You publish both fiction and creative nonfiction, and teach both. Are there key differences in the genres writers must learn or distinctive leaps they must make? For instance, fiction’s “what if” quality seems to take a different mindset than is associated with nonfiction. By the same token, the emphasis on and creation of a reflective writer’s persona in nonfiction seems different than fiction’s omniscience or its creation of a first-person narrator. I do think there’s one major difference for those who write fiction and for those who write nonfiction. Usually the fiction writer who’s uncomfortable with nonfiction is the writer who can’t bear to put him or herself on the page. That writer can do amazing things with story and character, but that thinking, meaning-making voice doesn’t come naturally to him or her. The persona of the reflective writer is only comfortable in the guise of a first-person narrator in a piece of fiction—a person who doesn’t announce how similar or dissimilar he or she is from the writer. [See also my post “Lee Martin: the artist must risk failure.” ] Filed under: Author Interview, craft, technique, fiction, Persona, Voice, POV, REVIEW or retrospective, teaching, education Tagged as: James Joyce, Lee Martin, William Faulkner I wish I could add a new book to my stack right now. I loved Such a Life, and so did my students. And you have made Lee’s practices and philosophy come alive in multiple posts. This one caused me to think, as always. Thank you! I will be more alert to the communal point of view from now on, for example. Thanks, Shirley. When you get a chance, follow the link in the post to Lee’s Brevity essay that uses the communal voice. It’s all right there . . . This sounds like a very, very good book, Richard. And I appreciate from the interview the sense in which Lee Martin is a true inheritor of Faulkner. Still, from what he says and from the quotes from the novel, he reads like a gentler chronicler in some ways, and one whose lyricism has much the lighter touch. Faulkner, for all his virtues, could get maudlin and sentimental, and at least in the quotes you come up with, Martin reads clean of that. I feel that I would really, really like to read this book, of all the ones which have come across the websites I follow lately. By all means give it a try, Victoria. Not sure if Lee would agree with my implicit Faulkner comparison, except in the sense of that quote about the old truths: the fundamental things apply here. owen1936 says: Fascinating interview, Richard. You and Martin have great rapport. I just read the risk essay, too, and am about to download Such a Life. You are helping to bring me in from the cold. Never too late. Thanks, Dave. Such a Life has my highest recommendation! Daisy Hickman says: What a great interview, Richard! I especially liked the question about talented writers who abandon ship. So much to ponder there. A multitude of reasons come to mind. His response certainly points to one key possibility … the writer who simply isn’t driven to stay with the madness of writing and publishing and marketing. I can only speak for myself (and this is a close cousin to being driven), but there also must be a certain passion for the subject matter. Even rare and brilliant raw talent can’t dream this up. The artist who isn’t moved by his own inner world may simply fail to see the point of it all. “The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.” –Michelangelo I don’t know why I even asked him that, Daisy, but am glad you found it stimulating. I think he’d said he worked for 12 years till things clicked for him, and it just made me wonder about that long process. Maybe some give up before things click for them, even if others see them as talented. Lee Martin: artists must risk failure A new flash nonfiction manual Lie, steal, remake? Q&A: Lee Martin’s ‘Such a Life’	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2021
__label__cc	0.602805	0.397195	SACS is the oldest high school in South Africa, founded in September 1829. It is arguably the most magnificent setting at the foot of Table Mountain and Devils peak. The school prides itself on the balanced education it provides, the world-class facilities on offer, the fact that SACS men strive for excellence in all spheres of school life and that it places a strong emphasis on high moral values. Far from resting contentedly on its 188 year-old record of growth and excellence, SACS in the 1980s and early 90s, led the Open Schools’ Movement, making it possible, without the formal sanction of the Nationalist Government, for the integration of South African schools. Boys ‘of colour,’ Muslim and Christian, had been enrolled at SACS throughout the 19th century but, segregated for 85 odd years by the Cape School Board’s Act of 1905 and the subsequent blight of Apartheid, the school had the unusual satisfaction of re-opening its doors in 1992 to boys of all races. One of only four schools world-wide privileged enough to possess its own Rhodes Scholarship, SACS has attracted to itself pupils possessing the calibre, academically, culturally and in the sporting sphere to qualify for consideration for this, ‘our greatest prize.’ Headmaster's message Applications for places in 2019 open on in January 2018 Download our latest newsletter Click here An aerial view of SACS High School Take a tour of the SACS High School grounds	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2026
__label__cc	0.655663	0.344337	Tag: New York Review of Books Justice to J. D. Salinger Malcolm, Janet. “Justice to J.D. Salinger.” The New York Review of Books 21 June 2001. Web. 25 Nov. 2010. “When J.D. Salinger’s “Hapworth 16, 1924”—a very long and very strange story in the form of a letter from camp written by Seymour Glass when he was seven—appeared in The New Yorker in June 1965, it was greeted with unhappy, even embarrassed silence. It seemed to confirm the growing critical consensus that Salinger was going to hell in a handbasket. By the late Fifties, when the stories “Franny” and “Zooey” and “Raise High the Roof-Beam, Carpenters” were coming out in the magazine, Salinger was no longer the universally beloved author of The Catcher in the Rye; he was now the seriously annoying creator of the Glass family.” Continue reading “Justice to J. D. Salinger”	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2030
__label__wiki	0.76147	0.76147	In Brief: Rand Paul Is So Awesome That He'll Hang Out With a Traitor Rand Paul is a different kind of politician. He's the kind of presidential candidate who will meet with anyone. Are you a rancher who refuses to pay federal grazing fees that every other rancher has to pay? Did you invite a bunch of armed fucknuts, paranoiacs, and numbskulls to threaten an insurrection against the federal government, which could have killed everyone there with a single Hellfire missile? Are you a crazed racist hick who openly "ponders" if "the Negro" was better off in slavery? Even if you're all that in one, Rand Paul will meet with you and legitimize your bugfuck insanity, Cliven Bundy. Obviously, the next step will be for Paul to hang out with Klan members and Aryan Nation "soldiers," followed by a sympathetic jailhouse visit to Dylann Roof. Because that's just how fucking different Rand Paul is from your typical presidential candidate, bitches, and you can't handle his amazing awesomeness and don't you want legal pot? (Truth be told, earlier today, the Rude Pundit could not, for the life of him, remember whether or not Rand Paul was actually running for president. Not that it matters.) Post Today? People, it's been a day, as we used to say down south. Probably elsewhere, too. The Rude Pundit has a thing or two to say about the throbbing asshole who sharted his way into the presidential race today. He'll try to get to it tonight. In Brief: Photos That Make the Rude Pundit Want to Guzzle Raki Until He's Blind That's the police in Istanbul, Turkey, using water cannons, rubber bullets, and tear gas to disperse a gay pride parade that had marched into the central square. No one was exactly sure what pissed off the authorities, but, since it's Ramadan, the festivities probably made some tight-ass, fasting Muslim fundamentalists cranky. The party continued on other blocks, though. In the United States, you can bet that fuckholes like Mike Huckabee, Bryan Fischer, and Ted Cruz all wished they could hold the hoses at pride parades all over America, blowing the happy right off the celebrating faces. The Lesson of This Week: We're Sick of the Past It's rare that you get to feel like you live in a moment of real change. Oh, sure, there will be some documentary down the line that will proclaim that this decade "changed everything." That's kind of a bullshit thing. Every decade changes everything (see CNN's series on the 1960s and now the 1970s). Time works that way. In fact, the failure of some to recognize that everything changes is one of the only consistencies throughout the years. This week, the American people and the Supreme Court and President Obama declared the past done. Obviously, we need to learn from the past. But the idea is that you learn from it and then move forward. You don't pretend it didn't happen. And you sure as shit don't live in it. You live now, with an eye to the future. Otherwise we're damned to repeat. We didn't damn ourselves this week. Oh, no. Quite clearly, the zeitgeist of the nation is that we are fucking sick of those who want to try to drag us backwards. Fuck them. Fuck that. The easiest, most obvious example is the nearly blindingly fast pivot on the Confederate flag and other public displays of pride in the Americans who rebelled against the United States to defend slavery. From people finally admitting that they are ashamed of their slave-owning ancestors (or the ones who aided and abetted slavery) to the Mayor of New Orleans calling for the removal of the statue of Robert E. Lee from Lee Circle, we have quickly reached a point where anyone justifying their love of the Confederacy is seen as a racist asshole deserving of contempt. And the Supreme Court this week had bad news for Americans who want things to go backwards. No, sorry, go fuck yourself, it said, we're not going back to the savage healthcare system we had before the Affordable Care Act (which, yes, is not perfect, but is a helluva lot better than it was). And your religious beliefs from the past aren't worth two gerbil shits when it comes to recognition of the right of two consenting adults to marry. If the only thing you have to defend your goddamned mean dumbness is "That's the way it's always been done," then you have nothing. These next few days are going to be overloaded with overheated rhetoric from the right-wing commentariat, all trying desperately to drag us back into their cruel, racist, homophobic past. We will hear about how God wants things, as if that has jackshit to do with how we create our laws. We will hear about constitutional amendments, which is the only way to change what the Supreme Court did (and, yes, the Supreme Court is the final word on the Constitution as it exists today). We will hear hysteria and moaning from people who are watching as the past, their past, the past they have clung to and believed in and lived for is murdered right before their eyes by the vicissitudes of progress. They are becoming isolated, these past-clingers, and they have revealed themselves as, at best, useless or, at worst, destructive. Finally, let us exult, briefly, before we righteously criticize him again, that the transformative legacy of President Obama was affirmed this week. As he said in his interview with Marc Maron, which was released on Monday, you cannot deny that the country is a better place than it was before he took office. If you try, you are lying. We voted for the man, most of us twice, and, damn, some days it's good to feel proud of that. Let's enjoy that for a moment before we remember, oh, yeah, drone war and banker-coddling. The future is ahead, with all the hard work it takes to get there. Onward. The Supreme Court Victory for the ACA: Punching Scalia in the Balls What fucking country was Antonin Scalia talking about in his epically spit-flecked dissent on the Supreme Court's decision in King v. Burwell? The majority said, pretty clearly, "Yeah, you can go fuck yourself with your poorly-worded phrase" and allowed subsidies for people buying health insurance on the federal exchange. Why are they buying it on the federal exchange? Because they live in states where they have governors and/or legislatures who couldn't give a shit less about poor and middle class people. Scalia wrote, no doubt while Clarence Thomas was blowing him while Sammy Alito was rimming his asshole, "The Court predicts that making tax credits unavailable in States that do not set up their own Exchanges would cause disastrous economic consequences there. If that is so, however, wouldn’t one expect States to react by setting up their own Exchanges?" Big Tony Scalia ain't a dumb man; in fact, he is a regular at the cabal meetings where, pre-masked orgy, fat conservative fucksacks talk about how much they hate that Negro president - they look at Clarence Thomas, who laughs, laughs, laughs - and how they want to destroy anything he's touched. But this part of the dissent is Scalia living in fantasy America, where Republicans do the right thing to take care of the regular people. This ain't that America. This is the America where blithering, ignorant assholes decided that having the federal government pay for expanded Medicaid in full and then 90% of it was some kind of crazy socialist plot to keep the poors alive and voting Democratic. This is the America where Jesus-crammed-up-the-ass Republicans would rather spend time passing restrictions on abortion rights than worrying about shit like school funding. They forced their citizens onto the federal exchange because they don't give a horny rat's dick about them. And Scalia knows this. He was just fluffing the fucknuts, putting lipstick on a dead pig. The six-justice majority (so let's be clear - it wasn't even close) knew it, too. They knew that there was no way in hell that Republicans at the state or federal level would do anything but vile fuckery when it comes to the Affordable Care Act because they have so much of their empty agenda riding on its failure. So their decision essentially recognizes that, yeah, shit, of course the people who created the Affordable Care Act wanted the states to run exchanges and were shocked at all the Republicans who suddenly decided that the federal government controlling part of their state's economy was cool. And the majority went ahead, punched Scalia in the balls, and said, "You know what? You may want to force fist your beliefs into your citizens, but that's ideological rape, fuckers. Knock it off. Enough. We're done here. Assholes. Sheesh." (Put that in legalese and it's the essence of Roberts' decision.) The Rude Pundit had skin in this game. As he's mentioned before, his sister and her family (including delightful kids, one of whom has a pre-existing condition that requires expensive-ass treatment) are on a health insurance plan from the federal exchange because Louisiana is led by a power-hungry, skinny-necked loser. Scalia would have condemned the Rude Sis to poverty. Instead, she's an independent contractor and her husband started a small business, all because Obamacare freed them from the tyranny of health coverage through employment. Meanwhile, conservative spoogebuckets will spray their acid spooge, declaring the end of the nation and the beginning of another kind tyranny, just like such tyrannical countries like Germany and Japan, who know what tyranny actually looks like. Meanwhile, millions of people still fall into the savage gap between Obamacare and the Medicaid expansion that their states deny them. Meanwhile, for most of the nation, we have a status quo, and that is life under the Affordable Care Act. The least Republicans could do would be to move on and fuck up something else. But, you know, they won't. They want to make the United States into Scalia's cruel, divided country. That's the only way to victory. Goddamn Bobby Jindal This is from newly-announced presidential candidate Bobby Jindal's campaign website about how much being Hindu sucked cow balls: "Throughout high school, Bobby wrestled with the Lord and the work that He was doing in his life. He dug out his Bible and read it cover to cover. In high school, while watching a grainy film about the Crucifixion of Jesus, Bobby surrendered his life to Christ and has never looked back." There's pandering and then there's groveling like a scabby-kneed whore begging to get fucked in the ass for a couple of bucks and a hit of meth. Even Jesus rolled his eyes after reading that. By the way, that's from a section titled "Seven Things You Didn't Know About Bobby." Apparently, we didn't know that "two things are consistent in keeping the governor going: daily exercise… and daily chocolate chip cookies. Bobby starts each morning with a hard workout, and recovers with a recovery meal of chocolate, carbs and sugar. Bobby is a scientific anomaly; and scientists should probably study him." So you're a medical freak who turned your back on your non-white racial heritage, eh, Piyush, except when it's convenient? Well, that pretty much makes you a top-tier Republican candidate for vice-president. By the way, if you haven't checked it out, watch Jindal's creepy-ass announcement that looks like he and his wife are telling the kids about their impending divorce ("Daddy's gonna spend a lot of time away from home in Iowa. Maybe you'll get to go with Daddy"). Late Post Today The Rude Pundit is continuing to help others face down some dragons. Back late, late with more samurai rudeness. Quick One: Let's All Remember One Last Confederate Flag Pin The Rude Pundit isn't available for much punditry of a rude nature today, having to deal with things of a more personal, less political nature. However, in response to right-wing websites ululating in joy over the discovery of Clinton-Gore 1992 campaign buttons with the Confederate flag on them, let's all remember a more recent election and contemplate the meaning of this button in the context of who was running: It's real. The source is a website about presidential campaign buttons. That ain't a dog whistle. It's a goddamn foghorn. In Brief: A Glimpse of South Carolina in the Wake of the Call for the Confederate Flag to Be Shit-Canned Here's what the Rude Pundit imagines happened in South Carolina right when word leaked out that Gov. Nikki Haley would call for the removal of the Confederate flag from its padlocked place on a pole on the grounds of the capitol: 94.9% of the white people in the state breathed a sigh of relief. Even if they had never expressed it before, they hated that the flag was still there, mocking any attempts for the state to seem like it was progressing past its horrific racist past and its position as the birth canal of the Civil War. This doesn't mean that a good many of them won't tell others they think it's a tragedy and what about their pride in their ancestors who fought for states' rights and bullshit lie upon bullshit delusion. 'Cause, you know, they still have to fit in with their loudest friends. 5% of the white people in the state got enraged, thinking that Haley was giving in to the bleeding heart liberals that didn't understand that the flag stood for pride in their ancestors who fought for states' rights and bullshit lie upon bullshit delusion. In fact, Haley addressed them directly, saying, "Those South Carolinians view the flag as a symbol of respect, integrity, and duty. They also see it as a memorial, a way to honor ancestors who came to the service of their state during time of conflict. That is not hate. Nor is it racism." And that'd be awesome, except for the fact that it is racist and it is hate and their ancestors fought and many died for a racist, hateful cause. It's fucking perverse, like a gang honoring a fallen member for all the cops he killed. Believe it or not, sometimes your dead relatives are pieces of shit who only deserve contempt. A tenth of a percent of white people are angry at the niggers and nigger-lovers for desecrating their symbol and want to start a race war. But, you know, that's pretty much what those fucknuts were thinking before today. Most of the black people of the state are more than likely thinking, "That's a nice step. Now how about not shooting up or burning our churches?" Your Support of the Confederate Flag Makes You a Traitor Once a year, every April 12, on the steps of the capitol buildings in all the states that seceded from the United States, the Confederate flag should be burned. The ceremony should be attended by all the legislators, all the state's Supreme Court justices, and the governor. Then, when the embers are dying, a black man or woman, chosen by lottery, should be brought up to piss on the ashes. Every year. Just to remind anyone who supports it what the value of the garbage flag is. People who try to justify the display of the stars and bars of the Confederacy always try to say the same things: "It means something else to people" or "What about this symbol [usually something Muslim]? Should we ban that?" Well, sure. In that case, you could make a case to ban the cross because of all the times it was burned by KKK jerk-offs to intimidate black Americans. The difference, though, is that the Confederate flag exists as a symbol only because a group of traitors tried to break up the United States because they wanted to keep on owning slaves. That's it. You can say it means something different to you; you can say it means "Southern pride" or some such bullshit, but you are at best ignorant, at worst a liar, probably both. It speaks volumes about how much power we give fools in this nation that the Confederate flag would still be seen as a valid expression of anything other than hatred for black people. When you're white in the South, you are often tested by other whites. Do you think the South will rise again? What do you think about the Confederate flag? For most people, it's just a background thing that they don't notice until someone says, "Why the fuck is there a rebel flag on your hat?" You see it everywhere - on license plates, on t-shirts, on buildings, on motherfucking official government property, as if somehow, appeasing the fools is a noble goal. No. The noble goal is telling the fools to stop being foolish. Everything that "honors" anyone from the Confederacy, from the flag to the generals, should be wrecked. Antebellum matron Lindsey Graham declared that the Confederate flag is "part of who we are." In that case, you may as well hang a noose from a flagpole in front of the statehouse in Columbia and call it your heritage. It'd be less dishonest than the rebel flag that's padlocked in place now. Let's put this as clearly as possible: If you believe there is some good in the symbol of the Confederate flag, if you think that your nonsensical faith in your history is more important than what it means to the black people, then you are a traitor, like the traitorous bastards you're descended from. Dylan Roof is another traitor. He is your inheritance, Sons and Daughters of the Confederacy. His actions were because of you. Of Course It's the Guns. It's Always the Guns. We know, right? We know that, at the end of the discussion, after we've talked about racism and hatred and mental illness, what remains are the guns. No, you won't get rid of racism and homophobia and hatred and mental illness by taking the guns away, but nothing will ever get rid of that. Those aren't tangible things. Ideas can't be taken out of someone's hands, alive and warm or cold and dead, melted down, and eliminated. But guns can be. Guns amplify the racism and homophobia, foster hatred, and give an easy outlet to the mentally ill. The sad part is that we know this. We know it to be true. Even the vast majority of people who cling to the belief that only guns can stop guns understand the equation. Easy access to guns means more murder. But we are so afraid. Politicians are afraid of the NRA. Gun owners are afraid of government power. Everyone is told to be afraid of their neighbors, the black guy walking down the street, the Muslims in front of a mosque. And that fear has made us hold to our guns, if not in actuality then in support of mild laws and compromising politicians. Yet reality demonstrates again and again that, mostly, the fear is over nothing, over a lie. There's never a good guy with a gun around when you need one. And, no, more guns won't solve that. This post is absent of facts. It's absent of links. It's absent of stated context, although you know what the reference points are. They have become a mantra of places: Charleston, Newtown, Aurora, Orlando, Las Vegas, and many more already part of the chant and many more to be added. This blogger has grown weary of the depraved ignorance that has taken the place of rational discussion. He's long been amazed at how people who are wary of the motives of the government they elected don't have any suspicions of the organizations and corporations who only answer to the dollar. Very little surprises him anymore, not even this latest massacre. It is who we are. It is a price to pay for freedom, we are told. And yet, somehow, we are less and less free. Donald Trump: "You Call That Cocksucking? I Can Suck All the Cocks At Once." Donald Trump glided over to the lectern at the Trump Penis Substitute Tower in New York City yesterday and announced that not only was he running for President, he was going to suck all the cocks. Except, as is Trump's way, there was a twist. "I'm sure you've all seen Chris Christie and Ted Cruz suck all the cocks before," he sneered. "Well, I can do one better. I will not only suck all the cocks. I will suck them all at the same time." The bought and paid for audience gasped, as they had been prompted to do. Trump waved his hands to calm everyone down. "You may think that one man can't suck every cock in this election in a single blow job," he assured the crowd, "But this is Donald Trump we're talkin' about. I suck all the cocks for a living. Now...bring me the cocks." Even the bedraggled hobos who were promised a meal, a bottle, and a twenty for loitering around the scene for a little while were aghast as Trump began to cram cocks into his mouth. "When was the last time you saw a Chevrolet in Tokyo? It doesn’t exist, folks. They beat us all the time," Trump exclaimed, yanking on the cocks that were one-by-one inserted into his face. Shoving the cock of immigration into his hideously enlarged mouth, as if he had the jaw of a boa constrictor with particular tastes, Trump said, "It’s coming from more than Mexico. It’s coming from all over South and Latin America, and it’s coming probably— probably— from the Middle East. But we don’t know. Because we have no protection and we have no competence, we don’t know what’s happening. And it’s got to stop and it’s got to stop fast." By this point, the people who hadn't turned away in shame, which, truth be told, were mainly the media who know a ratings magnet when they see it, wondered how Trump could possibly be heard with all those cocks in his mouth. But they didn't know that Trump had something up his sleeve, or, actually, in his pants. Already bent over to give himself more leverage with the cocks, Donald Trump dropped his Hugo Boss slacks and exposed his ass. Then he turned his ass to the microphone and started to speak with his asshole: "Our enemies are getting stronger and stronger by the way, and we as a country are getting weaker. Even our nuclear arsenal doesn’t work. It came out recently they have equipment that is 30 years old. They don’t know if it worked. And I thought it was horrible when it was broadcast on television, because boy, does that send signals to Putin and all of the other people that look at us." Donald Trump's asshole was about as eloquent as Donald Trump's mouth and just as voluble. It would not shut up: "And that’s what’s happening. And it’s going to get worse, because remember, Obamacare really kicks in in ’16, 2016. Obama is going to be out playing golf. He might be on one of my courses. I would invite him, I actually would say. I have the best courses in the world, so I’d say, you what, if he wants to— I have one right next to the White House, right on the Potomac. If he’d like to play, that’s fine." Finally, after about a half hour or more of sucking cocks, a bunch of cocks, all the cocks, the cocks started to orgasm, filling Donald Trump with jizz until he was coughing and gagging on it, with jizz coming out of his nose like milk after laughter. His asshole said that Trump has "a total net worth of—net worth, not assets, not— a net worth, after all debt, after all expenses, the greatest assets— Trump Tower, 1290 Avenue of the Americas, Bank of America building in San Francisco, 40 Wall Street, sometimes referred to as the Trump building right opposite the New York— many other places all over the world. So the total is $8,737,540,00. Now I’m not doing that," we were assured, "I’m not doing that to brag, because you know what? I don’t have to brag. I don’t have to, believe it or not." Trump stood up, semen coated face and neck glistening, plucking hairs out of his mouth, muttering to an assistant, "You told me they'd all be shaved clean," and he gazed, glazed, at the cameras. "This is the challenge I give to my Republican opponents. It's not enough to suck all the dicks. We've seen that kind of leadership before in this party. Now we need a man who, as I just showed you, can suck them together because we don't have time for one dick here and one dick there." Then he walked off as members of the media ran up to him to lick his face clean and "Rockin' in the Free World" played. Review of The Silencing (Part 2): A Strange Lack of Actual Silencing (The Rude Pundit is reviewing The Silencing, which is not the title of a serial killer movie but is columnist/commentator Kirsten Powers' new book, subtitled, "How the Left Is Killing Free Speech.") As mentioned yesterday, the biggest problem of The Silencing is the incredible lack of anyone actually being silenced. Challenged, annoyed, harassed, insulted, debated, yeah, sure. But someone being denied the ability to speak or someone losing a job? Not so much. In fact, here's a list of a bunch of examples in the book where the end result is not silence: Page 29: Alec Baldwin tweets racist things about conservative pundit Michelle Malkin. Others tweet racism, too. Malkin did not lose her column. (Side note: Powers relies a great deal on things people tweet. If you rely on Twitter for examples of ugliness, you may as well just say, "Yeah, most of Twitter" and be done with it. Just because Twitchy and Huffington Post think tweets are important doesn't mean they are.) Page 31: Ed Schultz, Bill Maher, and Keith Olbermann said sexist things about S.E. Cupp and Sarah Palin. And we never heard from them again. Page 34: Chris Matthews and others say that people who oppose Obama are racist. Then Matthews had them all killed, as is his way. Page 36: Paul Krugman and others say that Rep. Paul Ryan was racist in what he said about "inner city" men and women. Page 39: Some feminists think women who are against abortion rights are not feminists. Some feminists believe there is a GOP War on Women. Page 46: Some blogs thought that National Journal editor Ron Fournier, late of AP, was unfair in his criticism of Barack Obama in 2008. Page 59: Some religious organizations wanted to opt out of requirements that they not discriminate against LGBT people if the organization wants government contracts. Liberal blogs thought that was discrimination. Page 107: The entire chapter is about how President Obama and his administration seek to discredit Fox "news," which, as we know, was totally taken off the air. (Really, was Powers under some kind of contractual obligation to defend Fox? Because there is a "doth protest too much" feel to this whole part.) Page 123: Media Matters says mean things about Fox. (Indeed, Powers seems to believe that David Brock is the King of Liberal Media, which, as far as the Rude Pundit has heard in his secret underground cabal meetings with every other lefty blogger, is not the case.) Page 142: Only Fox covered the story of killer abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, which would be totally true if it wasn't completely false. Page 154: Some women writers accused Mitt Romney of "mansplaining" things. Obviously, that's why Romney lost the 2012 election. You get the idea. Time and again, Powers' examples are ludicrous, like the worst whining of right-wing blogs and Newsbusters. She invokes Joseph McCarthy several times, but when she does, it's just shorthand for "people said shit that was unfair," not "someone lost everything because of their beliefs." To be fair, the section on college campuses does contain real, genuine, disturbing censorship by the left. Like Powers, the Rude Pundit found the treatment of Ayaan Hirsi Ali at Brandeis somewhat appalling. Even if he disagrees with her, an angry mob shouldn't determine who gets to speak. And he couldn't agree more that the UC-Santa Barbara incident where a professor tore up the signs of an anti-choice protester on campus is messed up. These are acts of silencing. Women being mean to Mitt Romney is not. Powers believes that liberals should"know better" than to attack people with language more befitting, one assumes, conservatives. But this grasping at every time liberals - the phrase that Powers coins and uses endlessly is "illiberal left," which is about as meaningless as it sounds - say something bad means that Powers ignores actual silencing that is done repeatedly by the right, aided and abetted by Fox "news." Remember the story of Shirley Sherrod? She was viciously attacked and hounded out of her job at the Department of Agriculture by right wing blogs and Fox for something she said, purely and simply and totally reported wrongly, as even Fox had to admit. Or how about how ACORN, an organization devoted to helping poor people, was destroyed by the same bad actors (with scumsucking piglet James O'Keefe) who put out lie after lie, all based on falsely represented speech. How many people lost their jobs? How many voices of advocates were silenced? There is this myth that conservatives like to tell, about intolerance on the left. To be sure, there are excesses. To be sure, speech codes and trigger warnings deserve examination and criticism. And there is a debate to be had over balancing religious freedom with non-discrimination, a debate that the Rude Pundit would be happy to have with Powers. But, looking at the history of speech in this country, including McCarthyism, the victims of genuine silencing are usually the ones who Powers tries to make the villains. Review of Kirsten Powers' The Silencing: How the Left Is Killing Free Speech (Part 1) Unlike many in Left Blogsylvania, the Rude Pundit respects Kirsten Powers, a self-proclaimed liberal (and she is, on many issues not related to abortion) and columnist who appears regularly on Fox "news," often as the designated liberal who is not Juan Williams. She is willing to go toe-to-toe with O'Reilly and Hannity, so, yeah, a measure of respect is due. We once got into an email back and forth a few years back over his mocking of Michelle Malkin and other conservatives for a terrible web show they did with Powers, a mock the Rude Pundit stands by to this day. But Powers was a passionate advocate for her side of an argument about the treatment of conservative women by the left. Unlike many in this punditry ballgame, Powers is sincere, and the Rude Pundit has found himself agreeing with her on several occasions. Hell, she used to write for the American Prospect. When he saw that Powers had published a new book, titled The Silencing: How the Left Is Killing Free Speech, he very much wanted to read it and reached out to Powers to get a copy. See, this here blog supports free speech in all its forms, whether it be rude, crude, vicious, or mundane. He despises when people are excoriated or, worse, lose their jobs because the left wants to scream them into, yes, silence. He defended Juan Williams when the commentator was fired from NPR. He has supported the free speech of truly appalling people and Don Imus. He's stood up for Ward Churchill and other liberal radicals who have been attacked for what they've spoken or written. And if he hasn't been pure about it, he has at least always recognized that free speech is an issue (and, yes, he realizes the First Amendment is about the government censoring speech, not businesses). So he was all ready to sink his teeth into The Silencing, even ignoring that the book was blurbed by Brit Hume, Charles Krauthammer, and George Will because Powers works at Fox. Of course, she has right-wing pals. And Powers starts promisingly enough, talking about a ridiculous incident where feminist (and decidedly liberal) writer Wendy Kaminer pissed off people at a Smith College alumnae gathering in New York City by using the word "nigger" to talk about how absurd the phrase "n-word" is when talking about Huckleberry Finn. Because the college president was there, student groups attacked her for "blithely sitting on a panel that turned into an 'explicit act of racial violence' and complained that Kaminer was allowed to speak 'uncensored.'" It's utter bullshit, of course. It's students, especially students whose voices have traditionally been silenced, learning all kinds of stuff about race and gender in their classes and anxious to try this shit out in the world. That's not meant as something reductive or demeaning; it's an appreciation for how you learn and grow while studying at college, how you find your voice that you'll use out in the world. Of course there are excesses. But the problem with Powers' book starts here, too. Because, see, no one was actually silenced. No one had their authority taken away, no one was banned, no one was fired. Free speech met free speech and then everyone went on with their lives. Indeed, Kaminer wrote a great Washington Post editorial on the whole issue. Smith's president apologized that people were upset by it. And we're done. Much of The Silencing is frustrating in this way. In the notes the Rude Pundit made on the side, time and again, he asked, "Who is being silenced?" For instance, Powers includes many incidents of conservatives being attacked by liberals. Black conservatives are called "Uncle Tom" or race traitor. (The Rude Pundit has done this - and he'd do it again.) Again, here, no one was silenced. Sure, people were being jerks to black conservatives; they were using impolite speech. Condoleezza Rica is mentioned as having been called "Aunt Jemima," which doesn't really make sense, but, still, no one can accuse anyone of having shut down Rice's ability to speak or work. And you'd think that Powers would make at least reference to right-wing attacks on black liberals, which are far more concerted, far more cruel, and far more demeaning. Then there's this: "Audience members at a 2002 gubernatorial debate threw Oreos at then-Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele, he told me." Steele, if you don't remember, is an African American who was once chaired the RNC. The problem is that the incident didn't happen. At best, one poorly timed snack cookie spilled from someone's bag and rolled towards Steele. Just because someone tells you something doesn't mean it happened that way. Well, hell. This has gone on longer than the Rude Pundit intended. He'll continue tomorrow with the good, the bad, and the ugly, and then he will show how the book could have been written. Dead Wrestler: Farewell to the American Dream Yesterday, among the announcements of so many deaths, only one hit the Rude Pundit where it hurt: right in the childhood. 'Cause, see, when he was a kid in the 1970s, living in a trailer park in Florida and an apartment complex in Louisiana, the Rude Dad, who was a trucker back then, the Rude Brother, and the young Rude Pundit loved professional wrestling. The Rude Bro, especially, was totally into it, buying wrestling magazines and constantly watching it on TV on every weekend. They could argue about the relative merits of Harley Race or "Cowboy" Bill Watts, whose side they were on in a match between "Superstar" Billy Graham (sadly, not the preacher) and Ted DiBiase, whether the Sheik's Camel Clutch was a more painful move than Pak Song's Claw. But one thing they could agree on: No one was greater than Dusty Rhodes, the American Dream, as he called himself. The Rude Pundit is not going to review the larger-than-life career of Dusty Rhodes, whose real name was Virgil Runnels, Jr. and who was beloved by everyone in his sport. You can find that elsewhere. This fan had given up on professional wrestling long before Rhodes made his justifiably famous "Hard Times" promo speech in 1985, where he explicitly linked himself with his working class fans and gave sympathy to people who lost jobs or couldn't pay the bills. No, for the Rude Pundit, one of the formative moments in his very young life was watching Dusty Rhodes face down his enemies who had once been his friends. You're gonna have to forgive the fog of decades here (and corrections will be made if necessary), but here we go: When Rhodes first started wrestling he was booked as someone who veered between bad guy and good guy. He was in a tag team partnership with Pak Song, a Korean wrestler who was, obviously, a bad guy (it was the 70s - Korea was as good a stand-in for Vietnam as any). They were managed by the evil Gary Hart. Yeah, it was a complicated, scripted soap opera, but, goddamn, it was compelling. In 1974, Rhodes and Pak Song were fighting against another tag team partnership when, in the middle of the match, Pak Song and Gary Hart turned against Rhodes and began to beat him (there was some reason, but the Rude Pundit can't remember). This was in Florida, and the Rude Pundit remembers watching on TV as Rhodes rose up to fight back against the other men, who ran away. It was a brilliant move, one that Rhodes had a hand in scripting, and it turned Rhodes into a permanent good guy, someone with a grudge and a cause - to destroy Gary Hart and Hart's wrestlers. Rhodes became a superstar after that, associating himself directly with his audience by using the nickname "The American Dream." It was an enthralling transformation for a kid to see, a tale of redemption and triumph in a squalid setting. Rhodes understood, as much as any wrestler, as much as any performer, as much as any popular artist, that part of the thrill for the fans is being a part of the rise of their hero. He offered hope in a time of real despair, with the obscene Vietnam War coming to its sad ending, with Nixon's crimes being revealed. The world was in chaos, yes, but in the middle of Florida in the 1970s, Dusty Rhodes showed us that we could come back, that our working class backgrounds made us noble, and that even a fat slob with a lisp and shaggy blonde hair could be a champion. Besides, he had a patented move called the "Bionic Elbow," which involved him leaping into the air and landing on his opponent with his elbow, and he eventually headlined matches at a sold-out Madison Square Garden. C'mon. If you think this is too over the top, you don't understand the passion that professional wrestling provokes in its fans. When the Rude Pundit got to go to live matches and see Dusty Rhodes (and Andre the Giant, once), it was the same thrill he had seeing Ian McKellen perform on stage. In fact, he believes that the extravagant theatricality of wrestling was what got him interested in plays that are directed at audiences of workers. The Rude Pundit can't comment on today's wrestling because, other than when someone like a Hulk Hogan surfaces in pop culture, he doesn't know much about it. But he loves talking to WWE fans because it provokes him to remember how much it meant to him. When we'd play fight, the Rude siblings would pretend to be various wrestlers. We would argue over who got to be Dusty Rhodes, who got to act, for a little while, like the American Dream. If we embody him, if we could do him justice, perhaps we too would deserve all his rewards which we, like him, would pass on to others. Final Note: Rude reader Dan B. knew Dusty Rhodes and had this to say about him: "He was larger than life but totally down to earth. A creative genius and a force of nature. But also, he was able to focus on the person he was with, co-worker or fan, and relate on a deeply personal level that always left an indelible impact for life in that individual. He was one of the biggest box office draws in the history of The Business, but his blue collar sensibilities never left him. 'I have wined and dined with Kings and Queens, but have slumbered in alleys eating pork and beans.' He was truly a plumber's son from Austin who never lost his love of The Common Man. This was what make him one of the most beloved babyfaces of all time. If he was your friend, you had a defender equaled by none. I loved him like a big brother and looked forward to the next time I would see him and be welcomed like the prodigal son. This is a huge loss for me and everyone who ever knew or met him. "The most important fact about Dusty is that his affection for the proletariat was totally authentic, not a 'work.' Patrons could sense that." Note to Comedians: Stop Whining About Political Correctness at Colleges This week, in a course the Rude Pundit is teaching this summer on Italian radical playwrights Dario Fo and Franca Rame, we read a short play titled "The Rape." It is a monologue told in present tense from the perspective of a woman who is kidnapped, raped, and tortured before being left on the side of a road. A harrowing piece, "The Rape" is all the more so because Rame herself, who performed it, was the very victim whose torment she is narrating. We discussed the monologue openly and sensitively, all appalled at the vivid descriptions, all admiring of the courage it took for Rame to perform it. The Rude Pundit constantly teaches things that might upset students. He regularly teaches the play Blasted by Sarah Kane, which might be called "artsy torture porn." He does this because the plays shake the students out of their complacency. They have to confront something that is not just words on a page but also bodies on a stage. He talks about religion, gender, race, and more. He doesn't fear his students; he didn't before he was tenured. He admires, supports, and appreciates them. Well, most of them. (By the way, he also teaches Shakespeare.) The only time he can remember a class discussion actually becoming something disturbing had nothing to do with these more graphic plays. Several years back, at another university, we were talking about A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, specifically the scene where Stanley rapes Blanche. A contingent of students believed that Blanche was "asking for it." A significant group of men and women said that, because she was flirting with Stanley and flaunting her (performed) femininity, she deserved to be raped. Some students vocally disagreed, but the pro-Stanley group held firm. What can you do in that situation if you're the professor? Dr. Rude Pundit could have shut the whole thing down, told the asking-for-it students that they were wrong and that such thoughts had no place in a classroom. He could have jumped into the fray, taken the side of the anti-rape students, and crushed the other side. Who learns shit in either of those cases? All students get from those approaches is that politically correct professors will silence you. Instead, this professor attempted to understand where they were coming from, not to validate their point of view (his aghast face probably had betrayed any attempt to pretend he was being objective), but to really figure out why they would say that. It came down to their limited comprehension of gender dynamics, of how Blanche was asserting power from her powerlessness, of how Stanley used the most brutal way possible to strip her power. The conversation was fascinating, and, while they could have been lying to please the teacher, more than a few had changed their minds by the end. (Let's not even get into a discussion here about how disturbed he was that several women in class were fine with Blanche being raped.) Students could have complained. They could have said that they felt unsafe. They could have said that the Rude Pundit had no business even entertaining the appalling opinion of part of the class. But they didn't. And you know why? Because the vast majority of students at the vast majority of campuses aren't concerned with political correctness, a term that seems to have come to mean, "Wait, you mean I can't do black voice, flit my hands gayly, and slap a female's ass?" for straight white men. Most students the Rude Pundit has taught, most students the Rude Pundits friends and colleagues have taught, most students period, across the nation, coast to coast, don't go to places where political correctness is considered beyond "Everyone is equal, and that actually means something. Now get over it." Jerry Seinfeld, whose Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee is a damn funny online show, has become a conservative hero this week for complaining about "creepy" political correctness on college campuses. Like Chris Rock before him, he refuses to perform at colleges because, as he told ESPN radio, kids on campuses "just want to use these words.‘That’s racist;’ ‘That’s sexist;’ ‘That’s prejudice.’ They don’t know what they’re talking about." Even if we accept this as true, that college students (and faculty) have knee-jerk reactions and are too ready to organize a protest through Facebook and march on a Seinfeld show, so what? Seinfeld and Rock and, yes, even Larry the Cable Guy are comedians, people who supposedly want to push the edge of what is acceptable. How about, instead of whining about it, you confront it? How about you bravely go into the campuses that might most have a problem with your "gay French king" joke (which, c'mon, a little easy) and you fuckin' put it out there? When speech police on the right censored Richard Pryor, he didn't bitch about it and only play to friendly audiences. He went out and became bigger than ever. When the actual police shut down Lenny Bruce, he went to his death fighting for his right to say, "Cocksucker" to adults in a club. He didn't just adjust his touring schedule. But here's what Seinfeld, et al would find out if they'd stop listening to the poor comedians who got a few people upset at some campus: people protest things. And then those people speak. And then everyone's life goes one. They'd also discover, maybe to their chagrin, that at most campuses around the United States, most students are fine with letting you speak and moving on. They want to try to pass their classes, work their jobs, pay their bills, and live their lives. (Note: The Rude Pundit has been reading Kirsten Powers' book The Silencing lately, and all this ludicrous alarmism needs to be separated from the cases where people are actually silenced, not merely inconvenienced by the voices of people who haven't been heard enough. No one is taking food out of the mouth of Seinfeld's kid.) (Note to the Note: He'll review Powers' book soon.) (Note not relating to the other Notes: This isn't about trigger warnings or other things. It's only about speech and political correctness. He'll deal with that stuff another time. Perhaps when he reviews The Silencing.) America's Obsession With Punishment: Who Cares If You're Guilty? If you haven't watched John Oliver's report on the punitive bail system in the United States on his HBO show, find it and do it. It reveals several things that should shock our consciences, like the fact that people plead guilty to crimes, even if they are innocent, because they can't afford bail and don't want to go to jail. Of course, that would presume an ability to still be shocked, as well as presuming we still have consciences. Would that were the only thing to be shocked about. Bear in mind, law and order fetishists who pleasure themselves to dashboard camera videos of police brutality, what the Rude Pundit is going to talk about here has to do with people, including minors, who have been accused of crimes but have not faced trial, let alone conviction, for often minor offenses. Let's focus in on Rikers Island in New York City, which is like the notorious Devil's Island but with less sharks and more prisoner beatings. This week, as you may have seen, 22 year-old Kalief Browder committed suicide at the home he shared with his mother in New York City. When he was almost 17, he was arrested, accused of stealing a backpack. After over two months in a Bronx jail, where he stayed because his family couldn't afford bail, he was indicted by a grand jury and sent to Rikers Island without bail because he had violated probation on a previous crime - taking a joyride in a delivery truck - he had plead guilty to. At 17, he was held at Rikers for three years, the last seventeen months almost all in solitary confinement. His trial kept being put off and put off. He was even offered a deal to take three and a half years in prison in exchange for a guilty plea. Prosecutors hope that being held without trial for a long period will entice accused people to take a plea in order to get out. No muss, no fuss, a win for the good guys, right? Browder wouldn't take the plea, so back to Rikers he went, where he was beaten by guards, beaten by inmates, attempted suicide several times, was denied meals and medical care, and was finally released when the prosecutor said they had no case. In other words, an innocent young man, a teenager, was imprisoned and tortured, and no one gave two shits about him. And his mind was destroyed by the experience. He couldn't function after all that time in solitary. He was paranoid and was hospitalized for a bit. Then, on Saturday, "Mr. Browder pushed an air-conditioning unit out of a second-floor window at his parents’ home, wrapped a cord around his neck and...pushed himself out of the opening feet-first." There have been no arrests made in Kalief Browder's death. This is what we are doing in this nation, where we have all the money in the world to keep trying to unfuck the fucked beyond fucked situation in Iraq. But actually fund the criminal justice system in a way that doesn't strand innocent people in jail just because they're poor? What are you? Some kind of bleeding heart pussy? According to a New York Times article from April, "As of late March, over 400 people had been locked up for more than two years without being convicted of a crime, according to city data that is to be released publicly for the first time. And there are currently a half-dozen people at Rikers who have been waiting on pending cases for more than six years." Imagine hearing about prisoners in Nigeria held without trial for six years. We'd be outraged. We might even start a hashtag protest. This state of affairs is mostly because of a backlog of cases from courts where trials move too slowly, there aren't enough judges or attorneys, and/or general incompetence reigns. By the way, the number of unconvicted people sitting in Rikers is actually down from a few years ago. And Mayor Bill de Blasio is trying to make "speedy trial" actually mean something. (Fun fact: New York's speedy trial statute has huge gaps that allow for many, many delays.) While they are staying at Rikers, these potentially innocent people live in a population with a 40% mental illness rate. Also, until very recently, Rikers' health care for prisoners was run by a company, Corizon Health, that "repeatedly failed to screen and supervise its employees, hiring doctors and mental health workers with serious disciplinary problems and criminal histories, including for murder and kidnapping." No one, however, will be going to jail for this. How we treat our convicted criminals in the United States is often appalling. How we treat people who haven't been convicted of any crimes ought to be criminal itself. David Brooks and the Myth of the Unreasonable Democrat (Updated) In today's New York Times (motto: "Our anti-Clinton boner is just getting hard"), David Brooks has a piece where he describes the problem with the campaign strategy of Hillary Clinton, which comes down to "She ain't sucking the dicks of the yahoos." In his column (if by "column," you mean, "a consistent stream of illogical and ahistorical thought worded in a way to hide a vast, dark emptiness of the soul"), Brooks fears that Clinton is making a mistake by "adopt[ing] left-leaning policy positions carefully designed to energize the Obama coalition." See, Clinton shouldn't veer left-er, Brooks says, because that'll make the mythical independents run away. And "If Clinton comes across as a stereotypical big-spending, big-government Democrat, she will pay a huge cost in the Upper Midwest and the Sun Belt," because, obviously, a whole lot of people in Alabama are just chomping at the bit to vote for Clinton, if only she keeps her liberal thoughts to herself. It's just a disaster waiting to happen, and Brooks flops on his fainting couch about what might happen if Clinton goes ahead with this strategy to appeal to voters who vote for her. It polarizes the country, which is just too darn polarized already: "Politics is broken today because those sorts of leaders have been replaced by highly polarizing, base-mobilizing politicians who hew to party orthodoxy." Polarized, damnit. Of course, it's all about getting shit done, and no-way, no-how would Clinton be able to. She'll miss out on a possible Shangri-La of legislative success: "If the next president hopes to pass any actual laws, he or she will have to create a bipartisan governing majority. That means building a center-out coalition, winning 60 reliable supporters in the Senate and some sort of majority in the House." Just look at all the leaders who succeeded recently. They all said they'd lead from the middle: "In 1992, Bill Clinton firmly grabbed the center. In 2000, George Bush ran as a uniter, not a divider. In 2008, Barack Obama ran as a One Nation candidate who vowed to transcend partisan divides." Now you, being a semi-rational person, actually understands what happened in the United States in the last, oh, hell, let's say decade and a half. You know that George W. Bush's "uniter" line was complete bullshit, that, after bumblefucking around for a few months, he got 9/11ed into a position where he could just do whatever the fuck he wanted, center or left be damned, using fear and lies and intimidation to ass-fuck the nation. But at least Democrats tried to work with him. To pretend in any way that Obama is responsible for the polarization of politics in his time in office is to deliberately obfuscate recent history because right-wing idiots will believe anything a conservative jacks off into their brains. Obama tried, desperately, to work with Republicans, who told him to shove it up his black ass. One of the main stories of the Obama administration is the concerted effort of the Republican party to break Americans apart, to shove them back to partisan divides, to wreck any chance at even a compromised unity. You want to praise Obama for trying to reach out? Then you have to put in how it demoralized his coalition of voters, leading to the 2010 and 2014 midterms debacle. If Obama had "pandered" to the base, he might still have had a chance to do more than a piecemeal version of his agenda. The fact of the matter is that Obama was the reasonable Democrat, and his opposition couldn't have given less of a shit. Back in 2011, Brooks was also warning Democrats not to play to the base, intimating that Obama might not win reelection if he did. Besides, that game is only for Republicans because only 15% of people at the time said they trusted the government: "If Obama were a Republican, he could win with this sort of strategy: Repeat your party’s most orthodox positions and then rip your opponent to shreds. Republicans can win a contest between an orthodox Republican and an orthodox Democrat because they have the trust in government issue on their side." Like now, this was nonsense because the actual Gallup poll said that 15% have a "Great Deal" of trust. Another 42% had a "Fair Amount" of trust. By the magic of the Rude Pundit's amazing adding abilities, that's 57% who have a good bit of trust in the government, a number that's stayed pretty fuckin' steady. In other words, David Brooks's assumptions were based on selectively picking numbers. Fuck that. Fuck the center. The center is a lie, filled with people who are pussies about saying what they really are - they're fucknuts who want to act like they are so independent when all they're really doing is licking the asses of rich Republicans or they're people who want to call themselves Democrat but were raised Republican and don't know what to do. So the Rude Pundit offers the opposite advice to Clinton: Fuck being reasonable. Look where that got you in 2008. Punch the yahoos in the balls and preach to the converted, who want to feel good about going to church. Update: Let's be honest here, too. Bernie Sanders is the real liberal in the race, whatever you think his chances are. Hillary Clinton has taken some positions on issues that are to the left of Republicans, which, of course, puts conservatives into a froth, even if her ideas are not particularly radical. Most of the things Clinton says (or that Sanders says, for that matter) are very popular positions among, you know, the majority of voters. Senator John Thune: "I Am a Total Twat" Here's what GOP Senator John Thune of the state of South Dakota, whose entire population couldn't fill Brooklyn, tweeted on the Twitter today: The six million people (generally a number of people you want to avoid saying is going to have something bad happen to) Thune is talking about are the Americans who have gotten insurance through the federal health insurance exchanges because their states are run by GOP cockknobs. They would have their subsidies and, thus, their insurance taken away if the Supreme Court decides a single sentence in the Affordable Care Act nullifies many other sentences and lives. Oh, and it was conservatives who came up with this fuckery as a Hail Mary pass to shitcan Obamacare. By the way, that 6 mill includes thousands of South Dakotans. 19,000 just this year, 88% of whom get subsidies on the federal exchange. Some fine representation you're electing, South Dakota. Fun with Campaign Websites: Did Ted Cruz Plagiarize His Campaign Logo? Here's the logo for Senator Ted Cruz's campaign for the Republican nomination for President: Let's focus in a little on that flame: It could be sharper, but, you know, for the sake of argument. Now, in that form, the Rude Pundit glanced at it and thought, "Huh. That looks familiar. Like the symbol for natural gas." It was time for a few precious seconds on the Google machine. Here's one of the flame symbols for natural gas: And for the sake of comparison, here's Cruz's flame with the color taken down a great deal (and, no, the Rude Pundit is no Photoshop expert): Huh. That's...interesting Of course, it could be a coincidence. You know, there are many three-curve symbols for fire. But most are certainly different enough not to be confused. Perhaps the truth here is that Cruz wants you to associate him with natural gas, a kind of pro-fossil fuel statement. Or maybe it's all unintentional and we should just laugh at gasbag Cruz and this ironic karmic comeuppance. But it is definitely just on the other side of "curious." Teenage Josh Duggar Fingered His 5 Year-Old Sister's Vagina Yeah, that harsh headline was necessary because we are now in the middle of a bullshit river when it comes to the juvenile crimes of Josh Duggar, the eldest son of the Duggar clan featured on 19 Kids and Counting (aka "That Show We'll Never See Again") and former leader at the Family Research Council (motto: "We don't know any Josh Duggar"). From ages 14-15, Josh Duggar fingered girls, including four out of five of his sisters, and it wasn't just "over their clothes while they were sleeping," as Josh's parents told Megyn Kelly last night on the Fox "news" program The Kelly Sneer. Daddy Duggar says this repeatedly: it was just touching a breast over clothes. The girls don't even remember it, he says. But then there's this from the police report: Josh "was reading to his 5 year old sister and as she was sitting on his lap, he had touched her breasts and vaginal area." Later on, Josh cornered the girl in the laundry room, and he "put his hand under her dress." Oh, and he fondled the breasts of a female family friend as she slept over. How much you wanna bet that the only reason Josh tearfully confessed to his parents was because he was afraid of being narced out by one of his sisters? The fucker was 15. He knew it was wrong to finger his very little sister's vagina. That's what he did. Let's not tiptoe around it or use code. Right now, like many other right-wing molestation apologists, conservative America's Idiot Queen, Sarah Palin, is squawking about progressive hypocrisy because of Lena Dunham. Yes, Lena Dunham. "I’m sickened that the media gives their chosen ones a pass for any behavior as long as they share their leftwing politics. Case in point, they suggest Lena Dunham's sexual assault on her sibling is cute," Palin grunts incoherently. You might ask, "The fuck?" Indeed, the fuck. In case you don't remember, Dunham was seven when she looked into her one year-old sister's vagina. She also said that she masturbated once when her sister was sleeping in the same bed as her and that she paid her sister to kiss her. Somehow, in her tiny brain tainted by too much alcohol and moose jerky, Palin equates an adolescent fondling his sleeping sisters with a prepubescent girl checking out her younger sister's hoo-hah. Oh, Bristol Palin chimed in, too, but who the fuck cares. Bonus fun with Alaskan dimwits: Palin says, flatly, " I’m not an apologist for any sexual predator," just before she dismisses Josh Duggar's actions as youthful "wrongdoing," and then says the real issue is that the police report was released and that the "media" is going "after the entire Duggar family for one member’s wrongdoing, while giving a total pass to perverted actions of someone like Lena Dunham." And because no Facebook post by Sarah Palin is ever complete without a moment of total monkeyfuck insanity, she jabbers, "Such obvious double standards applied to equally relevant stories underestimate the wisdom of the public, discredit the press, and spit on the graves of every American who fought and died for the press's freedom." Damn, that's the kind of leaping that'd make a parkour expert say, "How the fuck did you get there?" Of course it all gets back to the Duggars. These greedy Jesus-fellaters knew that they had a huge goddamned skeleton in the closet, but somehow they got it in their head that God wanted them to make a shit-ton of money by exploiting their children for profit. Then they took it further and got into political statements about how gay and lesbian couples were gonna destroy the nation. Meanwhile, the state trooper/family friend who decided against doing any investigation into Josh's multiple fingerings and fondlings was put in prison for extra-horrific child pornography because that's how shit rolls among the godly in Arkansas. Put aside how messed up the whole situation is. Put aside that Jim Bob Duggar should have just shut the fuck up about anything to do with sex and probably should have declined any public position at all. Put aside that the Duggar parents put Josh in some of kind of Jesus camp to learn that fingering a five year-old's vagina is wrong. Put aside that just because God forgave Josh, it doesn't mean the rest of us should. Instead, focus on the fact that Mama and Daddy Duggar thought everything was a-ok. Except... They told Megyn Kelly something that should demonstrate the lie that the entire show was. Michelle Duggar mentioned how they changed the behavior of the kids after Josh's confession: " I mean, there were a lot of things that changed in our understanding as parents with this first child, first son to come to this place in his life, we're like, there were things we learned even since then that I think, you know what, we don't let boys baby-sit. They don't play hide and seek together, the two don't go off and hide. There are just a lot of things we've put in place. You're not alone in a room with someone else. Always be out visible, and, you know, little ones don't sit on big boys' laps or people that you don't know or even family members, unless it's your daddy. So we just -- there's boundaries that we've learned --" Josh Duggar's actions fucked up his family. Things that would be considered normal in any other family, like two kids hiding during a game, were now sinister. Yet these manipulative fakers pretended to be paragons of family values. That's why the "press" is going after the Duggars. Blame yourselves, right-wingers. You paraded these assholes in front of us and then were shocked when they shit the nest. Edited: It's bullshit that the police report was released improperly. Your State Sucks: Louisiana Sucks Because It Doesn't Value Women Equally Oh, it's always bittersweet when you have to say that your one-time home state sucks. Considering that the Rude Pundit has blazed a trail of debauchery throughout the nation, there's a good chance he means your state. However, this time, and for a reason you might see coming, he's going back to where he came from, Louisiana, and telling you how the Pelican State, the Sportsman's Paradise, has failed women again. No, this time it's not the state's bullshit abortion rights restrictions, which don't go far enough for Gov. Bobby Jindal, soon to be a contestant on "Who Polls Lower Than George Pataki?" And, nope, it's not that the state's legislature watered down a bill to prevent domestic abusers from getting guns, allowing that sometimes a man will just beat a woman on the first date on a whim and that man should not be punished by losing his God-given right to a rifle. Louisiana sucks because a study by the National Women's Law Center placed the Bayou State at the bottom for wages for working mothers as compared to working fathers. Mothers who have jobs earn 58.2 cents for every dollar employed dads make. The nation as a whole did shitty: 70 mommy cents for every daddy dollar. Last year, the same group ranked Louisiana last for all women: 65.9 lady pennies for every gentleman's buck. So...huzzah for consistency? The comparison is men and women, fathers and mothers, in full-time jobs, so shut the fuck up with whatever "But moms..." you're thinking. By the way, second-to-last isn't even close, statistically speaking: New Mexico mothers make 62.7 cents for the pop dollar. The top of the chart is Washington, DC, with a still-low 90 cents. The Republicans who run Louisiana would claim until the end of time that they love mothers, they support mothers, mothers are the foundation of society, and other trite bullshit. But until legislators at all levels are willing to put up the money to prove their devotion to their moms, their words are as hollow as the 40% of the purses of the state's mothers. How Not to Be a Conservative Asshole About Caitlyn Jenner (Featuring Advice from a Conservative) When the former Bruce Jenner made her debut as Caitlyn Jenner with the release of the Vanity Fair cover photo and story, the reaction from the right was mostly as predictable as the yappy little dog barking next door at 7 a.m. (shut the fuck up, Piddles!) and about as meaningful. The Twitter responses ranged from "I'm gonna try to be funny about my assholery" to "I'm a total cockknob and don't care who knows." More in-depth fuckery is easy to find. Here's Matt Walsh in The Blaze (motto: "If Glenn Beck doesn't have an outlet, he will go on a seven-state killing spree"): "What [Jenner] most closely resembles is a mentally disordered man who is being manipulated by disingenuous liberals and self-obsessed gay activists. Far from having the appearance of a genuine woman, he reminds me of someone who is being abandoned to his delusions by a culture of narcissistic imbeciles...This is a bastardization of our humanity on a scale and to a degree that wouldn’t have even crossed the tortured minds of last century’s most prophetic social critics." There is a lot of vagina sand in those ellipses, as well as more overwriting than Harlan Ellison on a meth bender. Of course, one aspect of Jenner's life that interested some on the right is that, pre-transition, Bruce Jenner had proclaimed he was a Republican. Would Caitlyn also be GOP, as if somehow becoming a woman would make her change her political beliefs (which, quite frankly, is not a crazy assumption)? On Fox "news," two-fifths of The Five proclaimed that it was more brave for Jenner to say she's Republican than to make a gender change. And this is where a lonely conservative blogger on right-wing urinal Hot Air comes in. This morning, Amanda Munoz posted on how great Caitlyn Jenner would be for the Republican Party, and, whether or not you agree with her politics, it is a primo example on how conservatives should not be assholes about Jenner. Munoz welcomed Jenner: "It was refreshing to see the way in which she was overwhelmingly welcomed into this world." She continued, "With the momentum from this announcement and affiliation, Caitlyn inadvertently gave the Republican Party something it desperately needs more of – 'street cred,' simply put, an understanding sense of humanity. The party overall was to warm up to these 'differences' and use them as a broader tool to crush problems (not people) that really matter – like insurmountable national and student debt, ever-increasing national security threats and domestic encroachments on Constitutional liberties – Democrats would stand no chance." That's kind of amazing. And Hot Air, despite its insanity, is no fringe website. Obviously, the comment section is filled with love and support. No, please, it's just an unending stream of anger, transphobia, crank psychology, and stupidity. Munoz even made it onto Shakey the Deaf Clown's Masturbatorium of Hate, where Shakey the Deaf Clown jiggled his jangly jowls about how ludicrous Munoz was and offered some nutzoid psychoanalysis of his own: "We should not be celebrating this, we should not be lionizing this, we should not be encouraging this. These people have a very serious problem, and they need treatment. They need help, not encouragement." Also, according to Shakey, trans is the new gay, since the gays have won their battles. Or some shit like that. As for Caitlyn Jenner, she is a marketing genius, frankly. Not only did she put out a picture that probably confused the hell out of many a libido yesterday (although it shouldn't have), but she has a reality show where she gets to own her exploitation. In that way, as a good capitalist, Caitlyn Jenner, like her previous gender incarnation, represents what America is at this moment. In Brief: India Is Heat-Fucked How very fucked is India? Right now, in Kama Sutra terms, Climate is doing the pushcart on India on the back of a pissed-off tiger. The May heatwave, now extending into June, in the southern and western interior of the country has killed 17 million chickens, who, truth be told, had a mighty shitty life to begin with. Temperatures reached between 115 and 120 for days on end, and that's pretty much what slowly roasting is like. This is a double whammy to the Indian economy. With 10% of all the nation's chickens dead, the price of poultry has risen 35% and demand for food to feed the chickens has plunged, along with the already low price for corn and soybeans. Maybe capitalists will understand this to mean "not good." Let's put this in terms everyone can understand: The current heatwave in large chunks of India is now the fifth worst one in the world since records have been kept. Wanna guess when the rest of the top five occurred? Yeah, all in the last 17 years: 2003, 2010, 2006, and 1998. Since India already has over 2300 dead so far this year and number 4, 1998 in India, had just over 2500 deaths, well, we might have to narrow that time span to a dozen years. Heat waves have become so common in the late spring in India in the last two decades that it's pretty much now "the weather," as in the definition of "climate changed." Cities and towns are supposed to have plans in place to try to mitigate heat deaths, but, in a touchingly American-like refusal to react to what's happening in the world around them, most Indian local governments have no such Heat Action Plan. Luckily, a monsoon is approaching, arriving on the southern coast on June 4, it is predicted, which is a bit later than usual. That means a few million more dead chickens. And at least a few hundred more dead humans. Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, the floods that have wrecked much of east and central Texas have also ended the long drought in those regions. It would have been nice for that rain to have been spread out over the last few years instead of in one big gush, but, hey, climate change taketh and climate change giveth. The ways of climate change shall not be questioned because climate change doesn't give a shit about your opinion. Or your chickens. In Brief: Rand Paul Is So Awesome That He'll Hang ... In Brief: Photos That Make the Rude Pundit Want to... The Supreme Court Victory for the ACA: Punching Sc... Quick One: Let's All Remember One Last Confederate... In Brief: A Glimpse of South Carolina in the Wake ... Your Support of the Confederate Flag Makes You a T... Donald Trump: "You Call That Cocksucking? I Can Su... Review of The Silencing (Part 2): A Strange Lack o... Review of Kirsten Powers' The Silencing: How the L... Note to Comedians: Stop Whining About Political Co... America's Obsession With Punishment: Who Cares If ... David Brooks and the Myth of the Unreasonable Demo... Fun with Campaign Websites: Did Ted Cruz Plagiariz... Teenage Josh Duggar Fingered His 5 Year-Old Sister... Your State Sucks: Louisiana Sucks Because It Doesn... How Not to Be a Conservative Asshole About Caitlyn...	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2032
__label__cc	0.569087	0.430913	sethbartal.com Free Fall Book A Tale of Two Stories (2 Samuel 11-12; 1 Chronicles 20) Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the Lord, the son born to you will die.” (2 Samuel 12:13-14) Sin is serious, and it carries with it enormous consequences. A part of the human condition, however, is that we sin. Even the Apostle Paul admitted to a thorn in his flesh that brought him to his knees in failure time and time again. Due to our sin nature, there will still be moments when we sin, even when we strive to serve the Lord; David’s life was an example of this. His life was also an example of how we should handle the aftermath of sin in our lives. When confronted by Nathan the Prophet, David willingly admitted his transgression and sought forgiveness from the Lord . David’s acknowledgement of his sin didn’t, however, erase the consequences. He still suffered through the death of his new child, but his repentance was real, and God forgave him. David didn’t continue walking down the path of sinful indulgence; he moved forward. The consequences were real, but so was his repentant heart before the Lord. That’s why David was known as a man after God’s own heart. There will come times in your life when you give in to temptation. Unfortunately, it will happen. What’s really at stake is what you will do after. What story will your life tell? “I messed up, so I decided that all was lost and walked further down the path.” Or, “I messed up, and I sought forgiveness. With God’s help, I turned around and started heading the right direction.” Your life has the option of two different stories. One story relies on God’s strength to press on toward holiness; the other capitulates to a life away from what God has for you. Which story will you tell? Lord, I want my life to tell the story of redemption – of how You picked me up in the midst of my frailty and sin and helped me to move forward. Keep me from making excuses for continuing sin in my life, and help me to strive to be the person You want me to be. November 7, 2013 9:25 pm Seth Leave a Comment About Seth Seth is a pastor, author, and speaker who lives in Batesville, Indiana. He is married to Kari, and they have two daughters, Madelyn and Noelle. Seth is a pastor, author, and speaker who lives in Batesville, Indiana. He is married to Kari, and they have a daughter, Madelyn. “We’re Already the Most Over-Informed, Under-Reflective People in the History of Civilization.” — Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey March 11, 2019 12:24 pm Grateful for 3 wonderful kiddos! #ccthanks18 https://t.co/KmEllZsF6b November 20, 2018 11:27 pm adversity attributes of god bible blessing character choices courage direction encouragement eternity evangelism forgiveness glory gospel grace gratitude healing honesty hope humility jesus joseph journey joy leadership legacy love mistakes narcissism obedience parenting patience peace perseverance power prayer responsibility sin surrender temptation trust truth understanding wisdom worship Archives Select Month June 2014 (1) May 2014 (31) April 2014 (30) March 2014 (31) February 2014 (28) January 2014 (31) December 2013 (32) November 2013 (30) October 2013 (31) September 2013 (30) August 2013 (29) April 2013 (1) December 2012 (1) October 2012 (4) September 2012 (11) August 2012 (21) July 2012 (28) June 2012 (30) May 2012 (31) April 2012 (30) March 2012 (28) February 2012 (29) January 2012 (31) December 2011 (31) November 2011 (30) October 2011 (30) September 2011 (30) August 2011 (32) July 2011 (4) January 2011 (1) November 2010 (1) October 2010 (1) September 2010 (1) August 2010 (1) July 2010 (6) June 2010 (5) April 2010 (1) March 2010 (2) February 2010 (1) January 2010 (5) December 2009 (8) November 2009 (18) October 2009 (22) September 2009 (5) July 2009 (1) June 2009 (3) May 2009 (1) March 2009 (2) February 2009 (8) January 2009 (7) December 2008 (10) November 2008 (9) October 2008 (6) September 2008 (7) August 2008 (9) July 2008 (27) June 2008 (32) May 2008 (36) April 2008 (44) March 2008 (35) February 2008 (33) January 2008 (39) December 2007 (34) November 2007 (37) October 2007 (45) September 2007 (31) August 2007 (42) July 2007 (2) Categories Select Category ADVENTURE (43) Daily Devotional (323) Film and Television (7) God’s Narrative (995) Leadership (84) Music (3) New Testament (335) Old Testament (650) Quotes (16) Random Thoughts (3) Religion (1) Sermons (52) The Church (25) Travel (6) Trust (4) Uncategorized (96) © 2007–2019 Seth Bartal · Log in	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2033
__label__wiki	0.883735	0.883735	Philip Morris reacts to Ferrari sponsorship investigation in Australia. Philip Morris reacts to Ferrari sponsorship investigation. Mission Winnow’s sponsorship of Scuderia Ferrari was launched at last year’s Japanese GP, and represents a new scientific and technological push from Philip Morris in a bid to move its business away from reliance on tobacco products that had been made famous through its Marlboro brand. But the shape of the logo has prompted accusations that it is similar to Marlboro’s white-and-red chevron. Australian media reported earlier this week that Australia’s Department of Health and Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services were looking in to whether the Ferrari backing was in breach of tobacco advertising bans. The Australian Communications and Media Authority has also launched a separate investigation, after local television stations broadcast the 2018 Japanese Grand Prix with Mission Winnow on Ferrari’s cars. Philip Morris International Director of Global Communication Tommaso di Giovanni has told Motorsport.com that he is confident his company fully complies with tobacco advertising laws – and says it is discussing the matter with Australian GP chiefs. “The initiative and the symbols and logos used on the livery of the Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow and the website comply with the laws that apply to our activities in Australia and the State of Victoria,” said di Giovanni. He added: “We are aware of the debate on Mission Winnow in Australia and we are working with the organisers of the local grand prix to understand the concerns of the authorities and give them an answer. Mission Winnow does not advertise or promote our company’s products or product brands. Rather, it is designed to talk about our commitment to improving ourselves in everything we do. Mission Winnow is a window to the new Philip Morris International and our partners, to our commitment and the stimuli that drive us to improve and evolve. And to contribute to the progress of society.” – he explained. Not everyone is as happy with the Mission Winnow situation, and Melbourne surgeon and anti-smoking campaigner John Cunningham, who complained about the new branding to authorities, told The Age that he was clear about what was behind the situation. “This website actually makes it much clearer what they are trying to achieve, and what sort of business they are in,” Dr Cunningham said – “It has nothing to do with F1 cars, that’s for sure. Tobacco companies are finally admitting that their only means of financial survival is to get people addicted to nicotine, and they’re going to pour money into researching how to do that most effectively — not for the benefit of their addicted customers, but for the benefit of their profits and shareholders.” – he concluded. Feb 9, 2019 Scuderia Fans Video: copertura di Kimi Raikkonen nel documentario Drive to Survive di NetflixF1 Ferrari, Mattia Binotto: "Non siamo sorpresi dal passo di Charles Leclerc" Pirelli has announced the tyre compounds for the first two races of 2017 Ross Brawn: “The Bahrain GP proved we must address the performance gap between the top 3 teams and everybody else” 5 months ago NewsScuderia Ferrari538 http://scuderiafans.com/philip-morris-reacts-ferrari-sponsorship-investigation-australia	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2038
__label__wiki	0.551076	0.551076	Post New Item Profile Type Default Item Profile Vehicle Profile Rental Profile Job Profile Pet Profile Ticket Profile Within Distance 5 ml 10 ml 25 ml 50 ml 100 ml 250 ml 500 ml 1000 ml 2000 ml 5000 ml Sort By Most Recent Last Updated Item Name Rating Most Reviewed Most Recommended Most Viewed Most Commented Most Liked Event Date January February March April May June July August September October November December 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 1987 1986 1985 1984 1983 1982 1981 1980 1979 1978 1977 1976 1975 1974 1973 1972 1971 1970 1969 1968 1967 1966 1965 1964 1963 1962 1961 1960 1959 1958 1957 1956 1955 1954 1953 1952 1951 1950 1949 1948 1947 1946 1945 1944 1943 1942 1941 1940 1939 1938 1937 1936 1935 1934 1933 1932 1931 1930 1929 1928 1927 1926 1925 1924 1923 1922 1921 1920 January February March April May June July August September October November December 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 1987 1986 1985 1984 1983 1982 1981 1980 1979 1978 1977 1976 1975 1974 1973 1972 1971 1970 1969 1968 1967 1966 1965 1964 1963 1962 1961 1960 1959 1958 1957 1956 1955 1954 1953 1952 1951 1950 1949 1948 1947 1946 1945 1944 1943 1942 1941 1940 1939 1938 1937 1936 1935 1934 1933 1932 1931 1930 1929 1928 1927 1926 1925 1924 1923 1922 1921 1920 # Tickets Age Adult Baby Senior Young Job Type Full-time Part-time Internship Contractor Item Posting Packages Showing items posted in Netherlands location (x) There are no items that match your search criteria.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2040
__label__wiki	0.521789	0.521789	Kanye West’s claims his album cover has been banned in the US Posted by: AlexisJ \| October 18, 2010 Kanye West just loves filling up his Twitter with hyperbole, and his latest claim is that the album cover art for My Dark Fantasy has been banned in the United States. He uploaded the alleged proposed cover to TwitPic, adding the comment “banned in the USA!!!” to the image’s caption. The cover features a painting of Kanye posing with a naked, armless, winged female monster with a tail. While it has been reported that Kanye has been advised to change the artwork to appease US chain retailers, a source from Kanye’s label says that it’s untrue that the image has been banned, and that if he really insists on going with it, they will stand behind him. You can see the full image in question here, but be warned that it’s possibly NSFW, as there are boobs and a tail and some seriously weird art involved. Tagged: kanye new album, kanye twitter, kanye west, twitter One Response to “Kanye West’s claims his album cover has been banned in the US” REENIE THAT IS THE MOST REDICULOUS ALBUM COVER I’VE EVER SEEN! IT SHOULD BE BANNED, JUST FOR BEING STUPID LOOKING!	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2042
__label__wiki	0.963836	0.963836	APOCALYPTICA: 'Worlds Collide' North American Release Date Announced Finnish metal cellists APOCALYPTICA have issued the following update: "We are working hard on the pre-production for the forthcoming tour right now. It looks like we can provide a show the first time ALL of us are absolutely proud of. But we do not only work hard to bring you a great show to your city soon, we also setting up the releases for all remaining countries. "We know a lot of people waiting for news about USA and Canada. We are very happy to announce that we will release 'Worlds Collide' in USA and Canada on February 5, 2008. We will also have news about touring North and South America soon. We are sure we will provide dates for 2008 within the next weeks." APOCALYPTICA's new album "Worlds Collide", entered the Finnish chart at position No. 8. The CD has also landed on both the German and Swiss charts at No. 10. In Austria, the album opened at No. 13. "Worlds Collide" has been made available in standard and "deluxe" versions, the latter of which is described as "truly a work of art both in its artwork and its content." The "deluxe" edition contains two bonus tracks — "Ural" and "Dreamer" — as well as a DVD. The DVD contains the "I'm Not Jesus" video along with the "making of" footage, plus an interview from the listening session in Berlin and a photo gallery. "Worlds Collide" features guest appearances by Corey Taylor (SLIPKNOT, STONE SOUR), Till Lindemann (RAMMSTEIN), Cristina Scabbia (LACUNA COIL), Dave Lombardo (SLAYER), and Adam Gontier (THREE DAYS GRACE). A five-minute video interview with APOCALYPTICA has been posted online at this location (Real Media). As previously reported, APOCALYPTICA has launched an official YouTube channel featuring all of their official video clips. Check it out at this location. APOCALYPTICA's new video for the song "I'm Not Jesus", featuring a guest appearance by Corey Taylor (SLIPKNOT, STONE SOUR), can be viewed below. The clip was filmed in in Los Angeles with director Tony Petrossian (AVENGED SEVENFOLD, RISE AGAINST, SLIPKNOT).	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2046
__label__cc	0.502342	0.497658	Ex-HELLOWEEN Singer MICHAEL KISKE Talks Influences, Vocal Technique In New Video Interview Marko Osterholz of Rockvoice HQ recently conducted an interview with former HELLOWEEN and current UNISONIC vocalist Michael Kiske. You can now watch the chat below. In addition to Kiske, UNISONIC's current lineup includes Kai Hansen (GAMMA RAY, ex-HELLOWEEN), Dennis Ward (bass) and Kosta Zafiriou (drums) of Germany's PINK CREAM 69 and Swiss guitarist Mandy Meyer (who has previously played with ASIA, GOTTHARD and KROKUS). UNISONIC is: Michael Kiske (vocals) Mandy Meyer (guitar) Kai Hansen (guitar) Dennis Ward (bass) Kosta Zafiriou (drums) Having split with HELLOWEEN in late 1993, Kiske participated in various projects and released several solo albums but had not been part of a real group effort until now. While collaborating with Ward and Zafiriou on the PLACE VENDOME project five years ago, Kiske found two musical soulmates. They ended up recording two PLACE VENDOME albums before deciding to join forces in a new brand new band. Ward, who had previously produced a record for KROKUS, suggested Meyer as the perfect addition to the group in the vacant guitarist slot. Kiske, one of the finest and most unique voices in contemporary rock music, explains his motivation of becoming a part of a band again: "Since the PLACE VENDOME productions I was impressed by Dennis Ward's skills as a songwriter and producer. We were occasionally fooling around since then via email that we should do more together in the future, so the idea came up to do a new band. I was generally getting a bit tired of doing everything on my own for so many years, so it just felt like the right thing to do now. We can all only benefit from working together. No matter how good you are solo, four people will always be better than one, I think, if they manage to function together. And a real band is also a very good reason to finally go on tour again."	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2047
__label__wiki	0.948269	0.948269	Orioles DH Trumbo to start season on injured list SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) Baltimore Orioles designated hitter Mark Trumbo will start the season on the injured list. The 33-year-old Trumbo, who led the major leagues with 47 home runs in 2016, had surgery on his right knee last September. Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said Sunday that Trumbo hasn't played enough to be ready for opening day. "I want Mark to be healthy when he joins us," Hyde said. "I don't want a lesser version, and it's not fair to him." Right-handed pitcher Alex Cobb, who is scheduled to start the March 28 opener at Yankee Stadium, left Saturday night's game with right groin soreness. Hyde said he would make a decision on Cobb's availability over the next day or two. He suggested that right-hander Andrew Cashner would start the opener if Cobb was unavailable. More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP-Sports	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2048
__label__wiki	0.660305	0.660305	Schools in the parish This page will provide information regarding Schools in the Parish of St Brendan's Back to Parish Information Chanel College Conducted by the Marist Fathers Coolock Village Malahide Road Telephone number: 01-8480655 Fax number: 01-8486330 Email: chaneloffice@eircom.net website: www.chanelcollegeonline.com Chanel College was founded in 1955. It is a Catholic Secondary School under the trusteeship of the Marist Fathers. Our mission in Chanel College is to enable our students to reach their full potential so that they will make a positive difference in today's world. We strive to create a sense of community within the school and an informal but respectful atmosphere between students and staff members. In this pastoral environment, students are encouraged to take responsibility for themselves and for their learning. St. Peter Chanel (1803 - 1841) Chanel College is named after St. Peter Chanel who was born near Lyons, France on 12th July 1803. As a child, Peter Chanel found learning difficult and preferred to help his father on the farm. However, he eventually completed his education and decided to become a priest. He was ordained in 1827. Two ideals dominated Fr. Chanel's life: a deep devotion to Mary, the mother of God and a desire to become a missionary. He worried about his capability, as he was rarely successful in any job he was given to do. When he worked as a teacher, for example, he found it difficult to keep order in class and he was often criticised for being too weak. Fr. Peter Chanel volunteered to join the first group of eight Marist missionaries to the Pacific islands. The little group set sail from Le Havre, France on Christmas Eve 1836, knowing that they would probably never see their families and homeland again. Fr. Chanel's best friend since childhood, Fr. Claude Bret, died during the perilous sea journey and was buried at sea. Finally, after almost a year of travelling, Fr. Chanel and Brother Marie Nizier-Delorme arrived on the small Pacific island of Futuna. The local people, about nine hundred in all, were engaged in constant fighting. The missionaries found it very difficult to communicate with them as they did not speak their native language. Futuna's chief, Niuliki was friendly sometimes but more often he was hostile. He feared losing his hold over the people if they accepted the new religion. Fr. Chanel worked hard, enduring poor living conditions, hunger and intense heat without protest. His patience and kindness impressed the people and they began to call him "the man with the good heart". His success as a missionary was limited, however. After four years, he had only managed to convert about forty people to Christianity. The climax came in 1841 when the chief's eldest son, Meitala turned to Fr. Chanel for advice. Rumours began to spread that Meitala had asked to become a Christian. The chief was outraged and gave permission for the missionaries to be put to death. On the morning of 28th April 1841, Fr. Chanel was alone in his hut when a fierce-looking group of men arrived, dressed as warriors. They clubbed and hacked him to death. Peter Chanel's life and death as a Marist priest could be described as "the triumph of failure". Within months of his death, the people of Futuna begged for another priest to be sent to them. Two Marist priests replaced Fr.Chanel and with the help of Brother Nizier set about converting the island. Within three years, all the islanders had requested baptism. On 12th June 1954 (the Marion Year), Fr. Peter Chanel, the first martyr of Oceania, was canonised by Pope Pius XII. The goal of education is to get people to believe in their lives. Our mission in Chanel College is to enable students realise their potential in order to make a difference in today's world. The Marist Order was founded in 1836. Chanel College began in 1955 and celebrates it's 50th anniversary in 2005. It is a Catholic boys school, under the trusteeship of the Marist Fathers. It strives to create a sense of community within school and respectful, informal atmosphere between pupils and teachers. In this pastoral environment pupils are encouraged to take responsibility for their learning and for their personal lives. Telephone 000353-01-8480888/01-8480290 FAX 00353-01-8480163 St. Brendan's Drive, Malahide Rd., Electronic mail info@mercycoolock.ie website: http://www.mercycoolock.ie Mercy College was established in 1963 by the Mercy order. Over the years Mercy has provided an excellent education for girls from many parts of North Dublin. The overall educational philosophy of Mercy College is the full human development of the student. We strive to develop confident, articulate and caring young women. We pride ourselves on the results and achievements of our students. In recent years pupils have gone on to study Medicine, Engineering, Nursing, Law, Primary and Secondary Teaching, Accounting Science, Arts and a range of other disciplines. We have especially close links with Dublin City University through the North Dublin Access Program. However, we are equally proud of our strong pastoral care system and the sense of self-esteem developed in all the girls. Students and parents also get the benefit of our highly successful Home School Liaison scheme and parents can participate in a range of adult education classes. We foster a sense of care for others by involving students in community and charitable projects. Students of TY and LCVP get a taste of the working world and a chance to develop their entrepreneurial skills. In all, we strive to provide students with a happy and healthy experience in secondary school, one where each girl will fulfill her true potential. Scoil Chaitriona Scoil Chaitriona Infants, Measc Ave., Coolock, Dublin 5. Tel: 8480142 Fax: 8674131 e-mail: naiscoil@eircom.net website: http://www.scoilchaitriona.com Scoil Chaitriona Infants is under the patronage of the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin and is conducted in accordance with the religious and educational philosophy of the Sisters of Mercy. The school caters for girls and boys from Junior Infants to First Class. There is a Special Needs Class for children who are diagnosed with mild general learning disability. The curriculum is that which is laid down by the Department of Education and Science and comprises of English, Irish, Maths, Music, Physical Education; Social, Personal and Health Education; Social, Environmental and Scientific Education and Drama. Religious Education is also taught in the school. Facilities at the school include Computer Room, Art Room, P.E. Hall and Library. A meeting for the parents of new applicants is held each year in May and further details are available in the school's information booklet. The Sisters of Mercy, founded by Catherine McAuley, came to teach in Coolock / Artane in 1955. The Mercy Order had acquired Coolock House, the former house of their foundress. They used the house as a school while Scoil Chatriona as we know it now, was being built. This was an historic moment for the sisters. They were in fact returning to their roots, the house where the dream of Mercy was born. Many fine sisters have come and gone over the years. they answered the need in the spirit of Catherine McAuley. When the Primary School had got under way and was well established in the new building the sisters saw the need to a Secondary School. Once again part of Coolock House, where the sisters were now living, was used to set up Mercy College or Virgo Clemens as it was then known. Finally the new building was completed and another dream became a reality! The sisters continue to be involved in Coolock through education, visitation and the running of Mercy Centre (basement of Coolock House!) in the spirit of Catherine McAuley. The Feast of St. Ciaran, abbot Number of Visitors since September 2008: 264420 Parish Information Chanel College	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2049
__label__wiki	0.92523	0.92523	October 14 1909 -- A bit of history was made in California yesterday as the first woman has been called to serve on a jury. Before you start thinking that this is an important sign of emancipation, here's the problem -- it was all a mistake, and both the court and the woman called are in a tizzy. She initially refused to serve, then changed her tune and said that she would serve but would insist on the innocence of anyone she was called to judge. The court wants no woman jurors, and is trying to figure out how her name ended up in the pool. A month later she ended up being called for a trial, and was challenged by attorneys on the basis that she's a woman. The judge would not remove her on that basis alone, so one of the attorneys used up a peremptory challenge to remove her. As far as I know, that's the end of the story of the first woman juror in California. Wish You Were Here, from Dwig This very fancy Dwig card, which is embossed and surrounded with metallic inks, is from a series in which pretty girls figure prominently (natch) and messages are shown in mirror image. The high-class card makes you think it'll be a Tuck production, but there is no publisher credited. Just that little fellow with the smock displaying the Swiss cross, and an American flag in one hand and a beer stein in the other. The reverse does tell us that this is from Series 30, but that's it. No copyright on the card, but based on others in the mirror series it is from the 1907-1911 period. Labels: Wish You Were Here Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: George F. Kerr George F. Kerr was born on March 13, 1870, in Brooklyn, New York, according to a passenger list Ancestry.com. The 1900 U.S. Federal Census has his birth date as March 1870 and age 30. However, I believe the birth year is incorrect and is, in fact, 1871. The 1870 census was enumerated in early June and Kerr was not listed with his parents, John and Mary in Brooklyn. The first time Kerr appears in the census was 1880, which was enumerated in early June, and he was nine years old. Kerr was 39 in the 1910 census which was enumerated in late April. Similar results are in the 1920 and 1940 censuses. In the 1870 census, Kerr’s parents were in the household of William Schilling, his maternal grandfather. Kerr’s father was a bookbinder. They resided in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The 1880 census said Kerr, his parents and seven-year-old brother, Albert, were still part of the Schilling household. Their address was in Brooklyn at 104 South 3rd Street. Kerr’s early life and career were mentioned in The Illustrated American, October 14, 1898, and said in part: Mr. Kerr became an artist for the very good reason that he had to earn his living and naturally went to work to earn it in the most congenial manner. His father, a business man, died when he was ten years old, and he became a general utility, or devil, which ever you may like to call it, at a printer’s. Then he went and occupied a similar position at Tiffany’s jewelry store, subsequently doing some designing work for a firm of lithographers. Mr. Kerr studied at the Academy of Design and at the Art Students’ League, and has been through his novitiate on the World, the Herald, a newspaper syndicate, and is now working on the New York Sunday Journal. He thinks his partly illustrative work—such as picturing incidents in children’s fairy stories, for instance—is best for him. An early work by Kerr was a contest drawing submitted to and printed in The Press (New York, New York), March 23, 1890. Kerr won second prize. Regarding Kerr’s early newspaper days, the Herald Statesman (New York), October 23, 1953, said Mr. Kerr first illustrated feature stories for the old New York Herald and then became the first artist employed by William Randolph Hearst when the latter bought the New York American. For about 30 years he was the illustrator of the American Weekly, national Sunday supplement of the Hearst newspapers. He also did cartoons for editorials by Arthur Brisbane of the American. Kerr’s art gained much attention. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, January 17, 1892, praised his work in New York Herald. According to the Herald, February 17, 1894, Kerr had wash drawing in the Salmagundi Club’s Black and White exhibit. The New York, New York, Marriage Index, at Ancestry.com, said Kerr married “Marie L[ouise]. Steutlle” on June 1, 1893 in Brooklyn. The 1900 census said artist Kerr and his wife, Louise, had a son, Jerome, and two servants. Their home was in Brooklyn at 755 Ocean Avenue. In the 1905 New York state census, Kerr had a second son, Eric, and the house number was 473. in 1904 Kerr was a regular contributor to Haper’s Bazar. He illustrated stories in the July, August, September, November and December issues, and two covers (below). Haper’s Bazar 7/1904 Haper’s Bazar 10/1904 Kerr illustrated Curtis Dunham’s The Golden Goblin in 1906. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 30, 1906, praised Kerr and the book illustrations. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 19, 1907, reported Kerr’s divorce proceedings. In 1907 Kerr provided the art for Dunham’s The Amazing Adventures of Bobbie in Bugaboo Land. The book received a favorable review in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 22, 1907. The New York Sun, January 20, 1909, said Kerr’s divorce was finalized. Justice Carr in the Supreme Court, Brooklyn, yesterday granted Mrs. L.M. Kerr a decree of absolute divorce from George F. Kerr, the artist, of 743 Ocean avenue, the custody of her two children and $60 a week alimony. The suit had been pending since May, t907. Violet E. Mayho [sic], an artist’s model, was the corespondent in the case. Later in 1909, Kerr married Virginia Mayo in New Jersey according to the state’s marriage index at Ancestry.com. Caleb Lewis’s Almost Fairy Children, illustrated by Kerr, was published in 1909. According to the 1910 census, Kerr, his wife and mother resided in Brooklyn at 743 Ocean Avenue. Kerr was a self-employed magazine illustrator. Details of Kerr’s divorce were published in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 10, 1910. On September 20, 1911, Kerr and his wife returned from a trip to Cuba. American Art Annual, Volume 12 (1915) included Kerr in its listings, “KERR, George, Art Department, “N. Y. Journal,” New York, N. Y. I.—Member: SI 1913.” The same information was repeated in volume 14. In a 1971 issue of Films in Review, a profile of Walter Lantz said “When he was 15 Lantz got a job as copy-boy at William Randolph Hearst's ‘New York American’ and was soon made jack-of-all-jobs in its art department, the staff of which then included George Kerr and Willy Pogany. ‘They let me do an occasional lettering job,” Lantz says, “and gradually let me draw some of the characters in their comic strips.’” Mary Frances Blaisdell’s Bunny Rabbit’s Diary was published, with art by Kerr, in 1915. The 1920 census recorded Kerr, his wife and servant in Mamaroneck, New York at 11 Pryor Lane. Kerr was a self-employed illustrator. Kerr visited Cuba again in 1926. He returned to the port of New York City on July 20. The passenger list said his address was the Hotel Gramatan, Bronxville, New York. American Newspaper Comics (2012) said Kerr drew Frolics of Florabel, from May 2, 1926 to April 17, 1927. It was quickly followed by Kerr’s Florabel Flutter’s Abroad, which ran from May 8 to October 16, 1927. Both series were written by Berton Braley, Kerr has not yet been found in the 1930 census. Kerr had an entry in the Catalog of Copyright Entries, Part 4, Works of Art, Etc., 1939, New Series, Volume 34, Number 3, “Kerr, George F.* 7375; Radio funnies, the greatest comedy and drama of the air, ( C) 1 c. Aug. 18, 1939; G 33636.” In the 1940 census, Kerr’s home was in Yonkers, New York at 1 Bronxville Road. The artist and his wife lived alone. Kerr contributed comic book artwork to Dell in the 1940s. Kerr passed away October 21, 1953, in Yonkers. The Herald Statesman said Kerr died Wednesday at his home, 1 Bronxville Road, after a long illness. He was eighty-four and had been blind for the last few years. In the children’s book field, Mr. Kerr was known particularly for his illustrations of the work of Thornton Burgess in “Peter Rabbit” and “Mother Westwind.”…He did a number of unsigned “Raggedy Ann” comic story books for the Dell Publishing Company. Mr. Kerr was an honorary member of the Society of Illustrators in New York, having been one of the first in the organization early in the century when Charles Dana Gibson was president. He had been a member of the Artists and Writers Association and the Dutch Treat Club. He was an alumnus of Cooper Union. Field Guide to Wild American Pulp Artists Lambiek Comicloedia # posted by Alex Jay @ 8:00 AM 0 comments Magazine Cover Comics: Frolics of Florabel Here is the magazine cover comic Frolics of Florabel, which ran at the rate of one or two per month from May 2 1926 to April 17 1927. This is a rare one since it was distributed by Johnson Features, a not particularly successful syndicate which was one of those formed by William H. Johnson in the years after he left the Hearst fold. The syndicate offered a weekly magazine cover service (and probably the insides as well) and interspersed this running feature with various one-shot covers. Rare is the occasion that I compliment newspaper poetry, but Berton Braley was a cut above the norm. Not only was his verse actually funny on occasion, but he had a good sense of rhyme and meter. A less complimentary opinion I have to offer for the work of George F. Kerr on this feature, which offers bland and uninspired art. Kerr could do better, and usually did when he was working on Hearst material, which was his real bread and butter. Alex Jay will show you some much better Kerr work tomorrow. The Florabel character was soon revived in a second series in which her adventures going abroad are chronicled. We'll cover that series one of these days. Labels: Magazine Cover Comics Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: Donald F. Stewart Donald Farquharson Stewart was born on March 4, 1880, in Fletcher Ontario, Canada. The birthplace was found in Who’s Who in America, Volume 23 (1944). The birth date and full name were recorded on Stewart’s World War I draft card. The 1900 U.S. Federal Census had his birth as March 1900. A copyright catalog had the birth year 1880 and full name. However, Stewart’s World War II draft card had the year 1881 and Who’s Who had 1882 and said he attended high schools in Chatham, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan. In the 1900 census, Stewart, an artist, was the youngest of three siblings whose mother was a widow. Who’s Who said Stewart’s parents were John Grasic Stewart and Elizabeth Maitland who were identified as Scottish emigrants in the census. Stewart emigrated in 1898. The family resided at 194 Field Avenue in Detroit. Who’s Who said Stewart married Mary Etta Mclntyre on June 23, 1902. According to Who’s Who, Stewart was an artist and writer for American Boy Magazine from 1900 to 1903 and the Detroit Free Press from 1903 to 1906. Stewart produced The Adventures of Inventor Wheelz and His Wonderful Dummy for the Free Press from February 22 to March 15, 1903. Stewart’s Prohibition Cartoons was published in 1904. According to the 1905 New York state census, cartoonist Stewart, his wife and five-month-old daughter were Brooklyn residents at 520 Quincy Street. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, February 20, 1906, said Stewart was president of the Oliver W. Stewart Political League whose “aim is ‘the development and practice of the rule of civic righteousness.’” The Eagle, May 22, 1906 said “‘Cartoons’ was the subject for discussion at the meeting of the Oliver W. Stewart League, held last night in Hart’s Hall, Broadway and Gates avenue. Donald F. Stewart, the cartoonist, gave an interesting chalk talk on ‘The Making of a Cartoon.’” The Brooklyn Daily Standard Union, May 27, 1906, gave a lengthy description of Stewart’s talk. Cartoons Interest Bushwick’s Temperance Advocates. “The Making of a Cartoon” was the subject of a very interesting talk by Donald F. Stewart, cartoonist, formerly of the Detroit “Free Press,” at a meeting of the Oliver W. Stewart Political League, in Hart’s Hall, on Monday night. The league is composed of many persons of the Bushwick section of the borough, and is devoted to the spread of temperance and the downfall of the saloon, though not pledged to total abstinence. Illustrating his talk with pictures, drawing with crayon as he went along, Mr. Stewart gave some inside facts in a cartoonist’s busy life that make interesting reading. “The idea of a cartoon,” he said, “was inspired generally by something observed by the cartoonist in the editorials or news columns of his own paper. Sometimes, after having prepared a cartoon to fill the space set aside for his work, something important happens that calls for him to get up something entirely different In the space of twenty minutes. This happened when I was on the “Detroit Free Press,” after Senator Tillman had made a venomous attack on Booker T. Washington in a Detroit hall one night. Mr. Washington was expected to speak in the same hall the following night, and being human, though black, he was expected to reply to Tillman in much the same manner. “Anticipating such a result I had prepared a cartoon in advance showing the sable philosopher pouring the vials of his wrath on the Pitchfork Senator, with Tillman writhing on the ground, and Washington standing above him pouring out upon him the contents of an enormous bottle. Twenty minutes before the paper went to press copy came in from the reporters, wherein it was stated that Washington had declined to say anything about Tillman more than he knew Tillman to be as much of a gentleman as he hoped he was. Senator Tillman had the right of every American citizen to press his opinion; that he had the right to reserve his, and that he intended to exercise that right. “I was hustled out of my bed by a telephone message, and when I reached the office I was told to make another cartoon to suit the new conditions. The city editor, nervously puffing a big, black cigar, walked up and down my office, and I followed in his footsteps. Five, ten, fifteen minutes passed. Five minutes more and the paper would go to press without my cartoon. Suddenly a brilliant thought struck the city editor, and acting on that thought, the contents of the vials of wrath were changed into coals of fire. It was one of the very best cartoons I ever drew and I have an autograph letter from Booker T. Washington commending me for the inspiration.” Cartoonists, he said, were a jolly and a sad lot; generally a hard-worked man who had original ideas, but who must adapt himself to the policy of the paper, and to frequently draw what he himself does not believe. Who’s Who said Stewart contributed to the New York Globe from 1906 to 1907 then the Detroit News from 1907 to 1909. In 1909 he was the founder and manager of Stewart & Stewart Engraving & Electrotyping Company. The 1910 census recorded Stewart, his wife daughter and son in Detroit at 320 Garland. Stewart was a self-employed engraver. Who’s Who said Stewart was naturalized in 1912. Beginning in that year Stewart was editor and publisher of Day’s Work. On September 12, 1918, Stewart signed his World War I draft card. The editor and publisher of Day’s Work Publishing Company resided at 635 Cadillac Avenue in Detroit. He was described as tall, medium build with brown eyes and gray hair. Who’s Who said Stewart was associated with Boni & Liveright starting in 1918. Day’s Work published the Manual of American Citizenship in 1919. In the 1920 census, Stewart, a writer, was a lodger on Griswold Street in Detroit. Stewart returned to New York City. Who’s Who said Stewart was with the American Viewpoint Society, a department of Boni & Liveright, from 1923 to 1924. However, Stewart was the editor of We and Our Government, an American Viewpoint Society book, which was published in 1922. Beginning in 1924, Stewart was editor of the Loyal Order of Moose (L. O. O. M.) publications such as Mooseheart Magazine. Stewart was a New York City resident in the 1925 New York state census. The editor, his wife and daughter were at 395 Fort Washington Avenue in Manhattan. Five years later, Stewart’s Manhattan address was 105 Pinehurst Avenue. He was a newspaper editor. Stewart was a witness in the trial of Pennsylvania Senator James J. Davis who was accused of operating an illegal lottery. The Eagle, September 20, 1932, said “…On the witness stand throughout the legal duel was Donald F. Stewart, editor of the Moose Magazine. Stewart, a small, waspish man, with clipped, gray mustache, horn-rimmed spectacles and pink shirts, was the Government’s first witness yesterday….” After the 1930 census, Stewart moved to Washington, D.C. His home address in the 1940 census was 2440 16 Street. Stewart was a magazine editor. The same address was written on his World War II draft card which described Stewart as five feet eleven-and-a-half inches and 162 pounds. Stewart passed away October 30, 1945, in Aurora, Illinois, as reported in many newspapers including the Buffalo Evening News and Kingston Daily Freeman which said Donald F. Stewart, 63, publicity manager of the Loyal Order of Moose and editor of the Moose Magazine since 1924, died last night at Aurora, Ill. Stewart, who spent his lifelong career in newspaper, magazine and publishing work, was a native of Fletcher, Ontario. For several years he maintained a summer residence at Woodstock and was well known in this city and Ulster county. One daughter, Mrs. Dorothy Stewart Dean, survives. Funeral arrangements and place of burial were not announced in the story carried by The Associated Press. Desperately tryying to contact Allan Holtz regarding an article he wrote about my grandfather. Also have some artwork my grandfather and great grandfather did that I would like him to look at. Lynseyheron@gmail.com # posted by Unknown : 10/30/2018 11:32 AM Obscurity of the Day: Adventures of Inventor Wheelz and his Wonderful Dummy Groundbreaking comic strips can sometimes be found in the darndest places. Here we have a very early quasi-robot comic strip from 1903, long before the term 'robot' even existed. While others usually called them mechanical men in those days, cartoonist Donald F. Stewart more modestly called his a dummy. However, he's a wind-up mechanical man and that makes him a robot in my book. Stewart was a cartoonist for the Detroit Free Press, and as far as I can tell this is the only comic strip series he ever penned for the newspaper. The series ran for four episodes from February 22 to March 15 1903, the entire run of which are displayed above. The first episode gives the inventor the name Wheels, then switches to Wheelz for the balance of the series. There's an unfortunate repetitiveness to the strips, in which each week the dummy attracts the ire of a half-witted cop, and hijinks ensue. This is much like the later robot strip Percy - Brains He Has Nix, which usually followed the same formula.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2052
__label__cc	0.670803	0.329197	Review: Shinedown – Amaryllis Written by: Sion Smith Next to Nickelback (on whom my views are aired most eloquently elsewhere on this site) Shinedown are one of the most important bands in rock music today. Here’s why: Songs. That however, would be something of an anti-climax when it comes to an album review so I shall elaborate. With the release of Amaryllis, their fourth studio album after the extremely hard to follow Sound Of Madness, Shinedown have gone on to achieve what very – and I mean very – few bands are apparently able to do. They got better. The Sound of Madness was an extremely angry album. Fuelled seemingly by regret, aforementioned anger and feeling like they were standing alone in a self-made wilderness, it bled raw emotion from the speakers. If you could handle the messages contained therein, it was and still is a pretty damn essential piece of music to own. From there, a lesser band would have gone down, spent forever. A lesser band would maybe have attempted to recreate the success and gone down all the same but Shinedown – as is obvious if you’re listening properly – are a stronger and far more honest band than that. Consequently, Amaryllis has seemed to be an absolute eternity in the making but it’s been time well spent. Unlike Nickelback, who deliver exactly what you want and expect, Shinedown come from a different state of mind, delivering exactly what you need even though you didn’t know it. There are 12 tracks on this album and I challenge any man, woman or child to find a weak spot. Drop the needle anywhere and you’ll find a song that could be the first track on the album, a potential single or a song that quite plainly speaks to you with both fists holding tightly onto your shirt. This is one mature album. This is for people who have lived and paid the price. This is for people who have big life affirming black tattoos carved into their skin, not little children who swagger about their town with pathetic tattoos done by their friends. There is nothing here for people who do not wish to partake of life. You’ll simply be unable to connect with the feelings laid out for you to share by a formidable songwriting team. The just and true part of me hopes that Amaryllis is the almighty success it should be. The selfish part of me wants the rest of you to go to hell so it belongs only to me. Do not underestimate this band. Do not mention them in the same breath as others who play guitars and have long hair. Assume nothing. Send everybody out of the house. Turn out the lights, turn the dial up high and drown yourself in the most heart-warming, life-affirming train-wreck you have ever experienced. Here’s the deal… if you’ve split up from your partner and miss your kids, if your parents split up and you still don’t get it, if loved ones have died for no reason or you’ve feel like you’ve been mistreated and know you’re not the one who was wrong, Shinedown will touch your soul with an electric finger in such a way that life still seems like it’s worth getting involved with. This album is not for pretenders. This is a soundtrack for souls barrelling their way towards the end regardless of what comes their way. Every human emotion and feeling is touched on in a way that very few bands have the ability to anymore. Would I be miles away from the truth if I were to suggest Shinedown are akin to Journey circa the Escape album, only strapped to the front of a juggernaut? No. I think that would be a pretty good assessment of the situation. In an age in which we’re fed disposable garbage that we really can live without every single day, for Shinedown to come to the door and present an honest platter such as this restores my faith that there are still acts out there worth getting off your ass for and supporting at every available opportunity. I think they might even be the greatest songwriters on the face of the planet right now, but I am assuming nothing and taking it as it comes. Who says you’ve got to wait until the end of the year for a recap on its finest albums? Not us. Here are some of the best so far… James Blake – Assume Form Let’s take you back to January. It’s cold. Grey. The festivities are over. Good intentions have inevitably faded to sluggishness. Like […] Yes, there’s still a whole month before we say farewell to the year. But let’s be honest, nobody releases revolutionary music in December. So, in an attempt not to be influenced by other end of year lists, I’m getting in early with my best albums of 2018… Tune-Yards – I Can Feel You Creeping into […] Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury Nigel Havers is Serge. He has bought a painting. It’s a large canvas of ostensibly pure white. It cost him £200,000. It’s a bit pretentious. He’s very proud of it. Denis Lawson is his friend Marc. Marc thinks the painting is ridiculous and a waste of money, but he doesn’t immediately tell Serge. […] Author: Sion Smith My name is Sion Smith. I write about rock music, books and pop-culture – kind of like a rock n roll Nick Hornby or maybe Hank Moody with hair. Sion is pronounced as in Sean Connery/Shawn Michaels – take your pick. If you’re interested, it’s Welsh. I'm also the editor of Skin Deep, the biggest selling tattoo magazine in the UK and harbour designs on writing for Doctor Who – these two things are not related. Aside from that, I’m currently working on a TV screenplay called Fox On The Run and also contribute articles to The Void - which you know already because you're here. You can jump on the feed of my own blog at sionsmith.co.uk. Read more posts by Sion Smith Responses to Review: Shinedown – Amaryllis Album //	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2054
__label__wiki	0.964756	0.964756	Tag Archives: kejriwal India, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand Modi sweeps state elections in Uttar Pradesh in win for demonetisation March 17, 2017 Kevin Lees 1 Comment Narendra Modi is riding high after winning a key set of state elections this spring, including in the all-important state of Uttar Pradesh. (Facebook) If anyone had doubts, it’s clear now that Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has a clear grip on his country. When Modi swept to power in 2014 by capturing the biggest Indian parliamentary majority in three decades, he did so by unlocking key votes in Uttar Pradesh. Ultimately, Modi owed his 2014 majority to the state, which gave him and the Bharatiya Janata Party (the BJP, भारतीय जनता पार्टी) 73 of its 80 seats to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian parliament. Nevertheless, it was a surprise last weekend — even to Modi’s own supporters — when, after seven phases of voting between February 11 and March 8, officials reported that the BJP won over three-fourths of the seats in the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly. That’s a landslide, even in the context of a state where voters like to see-saw from one party to the next every five years. The BJP victory marked only the fourth time in history (and the first time since Indira Gandhi’s victory in 1980) that a single party won over 300 seats in the UP legislative assembly, and it bests the earlier BJP record (221 seats in 1991) by just over 90 seats. A referendum on demonitisation The victory in Uttar Pradesh, one of five state elections for which results were announced on March 11, amounts to a massive endorsement of Modi (less so of the BJP). Though the 2019 elections are over two years away, the victory will give Modi some comfort that he will win reelection. For now at least, the Uttar Pradesh victory shows just how far behind Modi the opposition forces have fallen. With over 200 million people, Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state in the country and, indeed, it’s home to more people than all but five countries worldwide. In some ways, Modi’s staggering victory in Uttar Pradesh this spring is even more spectacular than his 2014 breakthrough. After all, Modi was defending a three-year record as prime minister that hasn’t been perfect. Despite winning the biggest parliamentary majority since 1984, the protectionist wing of the BJP has slowed the pace of Modi’s economic reforms. It was only last November that Modi successfully completed a years-long push to reform the goods and sales tax — a landmark effort to harmonize state levies into a single national sales tax, thereby lowering the costs of doing business between Indian states. Those obstacles still exist, as evidenced by the truckers lined up at state borders for hours or days on end. For all the supposed benefits of the November 2016 demonetisation plan, its rollout was cumbersome, with the sudden removal of 500-rupee and 1,000-rupee bills from circulation in a country where 90% of all transactions are cash transactions, most of which involved the two ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes (equivalent, respectively, to $7.50 and $15.00 in the United States). Though Modi hoped the abrupt step would stem corruption and retard the flow of illicit ‘black money’ that’s evaded taxation, the move also inconvenienced everyday commerce and trade, as ordinary and poor Indians struggled to transition to the new system. So the state elections — in Uttar Pradesh as well as Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur and Goa — were referenda on Modi’s reform push, in general, and demonetisation, in particular. Modi passed the test, as voters gave his government the benefit of the doubt — and he did it on his own, with the help of his electoral guru, Amit Shah, a longtime aide to Modi during Modi’s years as chief minister in Gujarat and the engineer of the BJP’s victory in Uttar Pradesh in 2014 and, since 2014, the BJP party president. Manoj Sinha, railways minister and, since 2016, communication minister, could be the Modi acolyte chosen to serve as Uttar Pradesh’s new chief minister. (Facebook) So personalized was Modi’s campaign that the BJP didn’t even bother naming a candidate for chief minister. So the BJP won a three-fourths majority in India’s largest state without ever telling voters who it intended to serve as the state’s top executive. Speculation initially revolved around Rajnath Singh, the 65-year-old home secretary who once served as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh from 2000 to 2002 and who is himself a former BJP president. But But 57-year-old communications and railways minister Manoj Sinha, who was born in Ghazipur and represents the city in the Lok Sabha, is also a leading contender. Modi and Shah are expected to make a decision by Saturday. Continue reading Modi sweeps state elections in Uttar Pradesh in win for demonetisation → AAPakhilesh yadavamarinder singhamit shahbahujan samajbharatiya janata partyBJPCongressdemonetisationeconomic reformgoagoods and sales taxindiaindian national congresskejriwalmanipurmanoj sinhamayawatimodipunjabrahul gandhirajnath singhsamajwadi partySPstate electionsuttar pradeshuttarakhand Assam, India, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal Three lessons about the state of Indian politics from spring election season May 19, 2016 Kevin Lees Leave a comment Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa (left) and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi (right) both have reason to smile at India’s spring election season. (Facebook) For the better part of a week, exit polls showed that Tamil Nadu’s chief minister Jayalalithaa, both beloved and scandal-plagued, was in trouble of being rejected by voters. But when election officials announced the results Thursday for the May 16 state elections, her governing AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) instead won a resounding victory. It proved the staying power of one of India’s most enchanting regional leaders, despite her temporary, nine-month suspension as chief minister that followed a 2014 a conviction on corruption charges, and despite disastrous flooding late in 2015 that affected the Tamil capital of Chennai and that killed over 400 people throughout the state. None of those problems seemed to matter to Tamil voters, who returned the AIADMK to power, five years after Jayalalithaa returned to power at the state level and two years after she nearly routed both regional and national parties in India’s parliamentary elections. Despite the pollsters’ last-minute spook in Tamil Nadu, none of the results announced Thursday in spring elections across five states offered much of a surprise. But the voting, across five states, from India’s northern border with China down to its most southern tip, which incorporated, in aggregate, a population of over 225 million Indians, was as close to a ‘midterm’ vote as prime minister Narendra Modi will get. Regional parties are stronger than ever Mamata Banerjee won a second term as chief minister of West Bengal, despite her failure to stem corruption. (Facebook) In the spring’s two biggest prizes — West Bengal and Tamil Nadu — voters delivered resounding victories to regional leaders like Jayalalithaa and West Bengal’s chief minister Mamata Banerjee. RELATED: Banerjee eyes reelection in West Bengal state election results The resilience of regional parties, often more tied to personality or class patronage than to a set of policies or rigid ideology, shouldn’t have been a surprise. Following the spring voting, 15 Indian states are now governed by chief ministers from regional or left-wing third parties. Last year, Modi’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (the BJP, भारतीय जनता पार्टी) suffered humiliating setbacks both in Delhi and in Bihar, the former to clean-government guru Arvind Kejriwal in the latter to a regional party alliance headed by chief minister Nitish Kumar, one of a handful of politicians in the country with a better record on economic growth and development than Modi himself. Continue reading Three lessons about the state of Indian politics from spring election season → aam aadmi partyAAPAIADMKAITMCall india trinamool congressamit shahassambanerjeebharatiya janata partybiharBJPcommunist party of indiaCongressdelhiDMKdravidianGSTindiaindian national congressjayalalithaakarunanidhikejriwalkeralamk stalinmodinitish kumarrahul gandhisonowaltamil naduwest bengal JNU protests highlight failures of India’s Modi government February 23, 2016 Kevin Lees Leave a comment Protesters rally earlier this month at India’s Jawaharlal Nehru University. (Getty Images/Chandan Khanna) Nearly two years ago, when Indian voters swept Narendra Modi into power, it was all supposed to be about development. Modi, the former Gujarati first minister, led the Bharatiya Janata Party (the BJP, भारतीय जनता पार्टी) to a dizzying landslide on the promise that he would be the energetic 21st century CEO of India, Inc. He repeatedly emphasized that his administration would prioritize toilets over temples, that a Modi-led government would be far more interested in promoting economic growth, human development and policy reform than in policing the religious norms of the Hindu nationalists so influential in the BJP. But by the standards of Modi’s own 2014 campaign, he’s failing. His efforts to enact business-friendly land reform (essentially, giving the Indian government stronger rights to eminent domain) was curtailed by farmers, Rahul Gandhi and even opponents to Modi’s own right flank. An attempt to enact a Goods and Services Tax bill, which would harmonize a single tax rate across India’s state borders, is also flailing (for now) in the upper house of the Indian parliament. Officially, the economy grew in 2015 by 7.5%, but there’s reason to doubt those numbers. That makes the latest showdown between Modi and student protesters even more damning — a prosecution of student leader Kanhaiya Kumar and five other students at Delhi’s prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University for ‘sedition’ after the students led a series of protests against over the 2013 execution of a Kashmiri man charged with a 2001 attack on the Indian parliament. Continue reading JNU protests highlight failures of India’s Modi government → beef banbharatiya janata partybiharBJPDCTdelhiGSThindutvaJNUkanhaiya kumarkejriwalmaharashtramodinitish kumarrahul gandhi Nitish Kumar returns to front-line Indian politics That didn’t take long. Less than a year after his resignation in the wake of a strategic miscalculation, a break with India’s conservative, Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (the BJP, or भारतीय जनता पार्टी) over its decision to anoint Narendra Modi, then the chief minister of Gujarat, as its prime ministerial candidate in 2014, Nitish Kumar is back as the chief minister of Bihar state. It’s not every day that Patna, Bihar’s capital city, becomes the epicenter of Indian domestic politics. But the return of Kumar (pictured above) heralds the comeback of one of India’s most wily politicians, a potential national rival to Modi, and one of the most capable policymakers in India today. It’s no exaggeration to say that Kumar’s ‘Bihari model’ is in some ways superior to Modi’s ‘Gujarati model’ when you look at the development gains that Bihar state made under Kumar’s nearly decade-long tenure as chief minister from 2005 to 2014. Kumar’s return comes no less than nine months before regional elections are due in Bihar, one of India’s most important states that will now be shaped widely as a standoff between Kumar and Modi. With nearly 104 million people, it’s India’s third most populous state. Bordering Bangladesh on its far eastern corner, Bihar has a predominantly Hindi-speaking, Hindu-practicing population. But 16.5% of the population consists of practicing Muslims, making it an especially diverse state in terms of religion. Don’t underestimate how important the state is — and how important its further development could become. Bihar is home to more people than the entire country of The Philippines or Vietnam or Egypt, and it’s only at the beginning of what could be a longer trajectory of rising economic growth. For now, Kumar is taking a gentle stand with respect to Modi, pledging to work with India’s new prime minister for Bihar’s benefit. But Kumar will not be renewing a one-time alliance between the BJP and Kumar’s own party, the Janata Dal (United) (JD(U), जनता दल (यूनाइटेड)). Once a leading player in the BJP-dominated National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Kumar pulled the JD(U) out of its alliance with the BJP when it became clear that Modi would lead the alliance through the 2014 elections. That was a difficult proposition for Kumar, whose party attracts a significant share of votes among Bihar’s Muslim population. Modi’s reputation among Muslim Indians remains fraught, in no small part over Hindu reprisals for the burning of a train of Hindu pilgrims. Those riots, which took place in 2002 in the first months of Modi’s tenure as Gujarat’s chief minister, led to the deaths of nearly 1,000 Muslims. Critics argued that Kumar, instead, wanted to be the BJP-led alliance’s candidate in his own right, and observers point to long-standing antipathy between Modi and Kumar, as veteran writer Sankarshan Thakur writes in The Telegraph: The two men have duelled infamously on the national stage and the prickly needle between them became the sole cause of the collapse of the JDU-BJP alliance in Bihar and the crises that have dogged the state to this day. The Modi juggernaut had decimated Nitish in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and caused him to resign. Nitish has displayed a near-pathological aversion to Modi, refusing even to bring the Prime Minister’s name to his lip. His return as chief minister raises the charming prospect of the two men having to come face to face and engage as leader of nation and state. Bihar’s regional elections, due before November, will be the most important political test for Modi’s strength since his election last year. The BJP’s recent loss in regional elections in the National Capital Territory of Delhi to the anti-corruption Arvind Kejriwal must certainly give Kumar hope that he, too, can unlock the means to defeating Modi. For their part, the BJP, under the leadership of former Gujarati minister Amit Shah, will pull no punches in its attempt to wrest Bihar away from Kumar, giving it a key foothold in northeastern India. If Modi and the BJP succeed in Bihar, they will have a credible shot at winning 2016’s elections in West Bengal — the fourth-most populous state in India and, like Bihar, both much more Muslim and much poorer than the rest of India. Continue reading Nitish Kumar returns to front-line Indian politics → bharatiya janata partybiharBJPCongressdevelopmentgandhiINCindiajanata dal (united)JD(U)kejriwalkumarmanjhimodinitish kumarpatnarahul gandhiRJDyadav Kejriwal’s AAP looks for second chance in Delhi vote February 6, 2015 Kevin Lees 1 Comment Guest post by Devin Finn On February 7, when Delhiwallas go to the polls to vote for candidates for all 70 seats in the Vidhan Sabha (विधान सभा) — the union territory’s Legislative Assembly — the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP, आम आदमी की पार्टी, literally the ‘Common Man’ Party) has another opportunity to prove it knows how to remake politics. The AAP’s leader Arvind Kejriwal has promised to end corruption and improve the lives of the poor. Hanging in the balance are several fundamental political processes: ongoing efforts to chip away at corruption, an unprecedented movement to combat violence against women, and the possibility that an alternative vision of politics may find support among voters. Opinion polls indicate a tight race, with party leaders from both prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (the BJP, or भारतीय जनता पार्टी) and the AAP trading barbs and accusations of rules violations. After a rough 2014, AAP is attempting to concentrate strength in Delhi and demonstrate that it can govern. AAP has sought to contest as many seats as possible, build a widespread political movement in Delhi, and train and equip activists who can exploit social media to generate precise and effective messaging. Even if AAP loses, will politics be the same? RELATED: Meet Arvind Kejriwal, the rising anti-corruption star of Indian politics RELATED: Did Kejriwal err in resigning as Delhi’s chief minister? The AAP campaign labors in the shadow of its brief administration a year ago. In a serious upset in December 2013, Delhi voters elected Kejriwal by a considerable margin to his New Delhi constituency seat, and handed AAP the reins to the city, albeit dependent on outside support from the previous governing party, the Indian National Congress (भारतीय राष्ट्रीय कांग्रेस). After only 49 days, however, Kejriwal resigned: he had promised to do so on principle if lawmakers failed to pass the Jan Lokpal, a parliamentary bill that would mandate an independent ombudsman to curb corruption. Most Delhi voters and political analysts I conversed with during last spring’s election season asserted that Kejriwal’s resignation was no way to change politics. This was perhaps borne out by AAP’s electoral humiliation in the national vote in April and May 2014. Spreading itself thin, the fledgling party won just four seats out of over 400 it contested. Meanwhile, the BJP gained 51.9% of all seats and a comprehensive mandate. Still, it is those ’49 days’ that both haunts and enlivens the AAP campaign. Kejriwal has apologized to supporters for reneging on the opportunity to lead the Delhi government. While he lost significant political capital by staking his leadership on the bill, Kejriwal now knows that he must play the political game for real. He has tried to demonstrate that in less than just two months, the concrete initiatives that AAP put in motion were on the right track, including establishing an anti-corruption hotline and 5500 new auto rickshaw permits. Rahul Kanwal thinks this could be an asset: The poor actually liked those 49 chaotic days. That was when electricity and water bills had halved and the neighbourhood cop and bijliwala were too scared to ask for bribes. The day Kejriwal’s government fell is the day the ravenous agent of the state was back on the poor man’s door asking for his monthly hafta. While the #49DaysNostalgia lends an air of experience to today’s AAP effort, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, as Kejriwal likes to say. The question is whether voters are willing to support AAP after its two serious missteps in 2013 and 2014. At least three major issues are at stake. Continue reading Kejriwal’s AAP looks for second chance in Delhi vote → aam aadmi partyAAPbharatiya janata partyCongresscorruptiondelhidevin finnINCindian national congressjan lokpalkejriwalmodi Haryana, India, Maharashtra Four lessons as Modi wave extends to Maharashtra, Haryana October 21, 2014 Kevin Lees Leave a comment Voters in two of India’s largest states elected regional assemblies last week on October 15 — in Maharashtra and Haryana. In both cases, the conservative, Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (the BJP, भारतीय जनता पार्टी) will take power of state government for the first time in Indian history in what was the first major electoral test for prime minister Narendra Modi (pictured above), who swept to power nationally in May after promising to bring a new wave of economic prosperity, reform and good governance to India. In Maharashtra, India’s second-most populous state, with over 112 million people, and home to Mumbai, India’s sprawling financial and cultural center, the BJP won a plurality of the vote and the largest number of seats in the 288-member regional assembly, where it will form a coalition government with either its longtime ally, the far-right, Marathi nationalist Shiv Sena (शिवसेना) or a more intriguing option, the center-left Nationalist Congress Party (NCP, राष्ट्रवादी कॉँग्रस पक्ष), which unexpectedly offered to support a BJP government shortly after the results were announced on October 19: In Haryana, a state with just 25.4 million people, which forms much of the hinterland of New Delhi, the BJP won an outright majority of seats in the 90-member legislative assembly: There are at least four narratives about what happened in these two absolutely pivotal state elections, the first since India’s national election cycle in April and May. Keep in mind that, together, the two states have a population of 137 million, larger than Japan. The first narrative confirms the BJP’s political dominance in the honeymoon period of the Modi era. The second narrative is its direct analog, the post-independence nadir of the Nehru-Gandhi family and the chief opposition party, the Indian National Congress (Congress, भारतीय राष्ट्रीय कांग्रेस). The third narrative, with almost as much national importance as the first two, is the rift between the BJP and its longtime ally, Shiv Sena, and the possibility that Shiv Sena will be shut out of the next Maharashtra government. The fourth and final narrative has to do with India’s third parties, especially as the election relates to the anti-corruption Aam Aadmi Party (AAP, आम आदमी की पार्टी, Common Man Party), which didn’t even bother contesting the Haryana elections and may soon lose its one-time grip on Delhi’s government. Continue reading Four lessons as Modi wave extends to Maharashtra, Haryana → aam aadmi partyAAPamit shahbharatiya janata partyBJPCongressdelhifadnavisgadkariharyanaINCindiaindian national congressINLDjayalalithaakejriwalmaharashtramanohar lal khattarmarathimodimumbainationalist congress partyNCPprithviraj chavanpriyanka vadrarahul gandhiRSSshiv senasonia gandhithackerayvadra Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, India, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal A state-by-state overview of India’s election results May 19, 2014 Kevin Lees 2 Comments It quickly became clear early on Friday morning across India that Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (the BJP, भारतीय जनता पार्टी) were headed for a historical victory in India’s national elections, which took place across nine separate phases between April 7 and May 12. But to really understand the impact of the victory, it’s important to delve into the results on a state-by-state level. Where did the BJP massively exceed expectations? Where did it fall short? Where did regional leaders keep the ‘Modi wave’ at bay? Where did regional leaders fail? Each state tells us something about the future shape of India’s new political reality in New Delhi and about the future of state governance, which, after all, represents the most important level of government for most Indians, even in the Modi era. For the record, here are the final results: The BJP, together with its allies in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won 336 seats in the Lok Sabha (लोक सभा), the House of the People, the lower house of India’s parliament. It’s the largest mandate that any Indian party/coalition has won since 1984. The ruling Indian National Congress (Congress, भारतीय राष्ट्रीय कांग्रेस) and its allies in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) won just 58 seats. Not only did the Congress suffer the worst defeat of its history under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi, the great-grandson of India’s first post-independence prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, it’s the first time that a non-Congress party has won an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha. Regional parties and other third groups won an additional 149 seats. Continue reading A state-by-state overview of India’s election results → aam aadmi partyAAPAIADMKall india trinamool congressandhra pradesharunachal pradeshassambanerjeebharatiya janata partybiharBJDBJPchhattisgarhdelhigandhigujaratharyanaINCindiaindian national congressjammu and kashmirjayalalithaajharkhandkarnatakakejriwalkeralalok sabhamadhya pradeshmaharashtramamatamodinarendra modinitish kumarodishapatnaikpunjabrahul gandhirajasthansikkimtamil nadutelanganaTMCuttar pradesh India’s election results: Modi wave largest mandate since 1984 The results are now (largely) in for what will certainly be one of the biggest election dramas of the decade. Narendra Modi, Gujarat’s chief minister, has led the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (the BJP, भारतीय जनता पार्टी) to its best-ever victory. In India’s post-independence history, it’s the first time that the BJP — or any party — has won an absolute majority other than the Indian National Congress (Congress, भारतीय राष्ट्रीय कांग्रेस). RELATED: In-Depth: India’s elections Conversely, the Congress, the party of Indian independence and the party of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, has suffered its worst defeat in the history of independent India. After a decade of rule, party president Sonia Gandhi and her son, party vice president Rahul Gandhi, face a long wilderness in the Modi era. Here’s the latest on results, via NDTV: The BJP, by itself, will hold 284 seats, which gives it an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha (लोक सभा). Together with its allies in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), it will hold 340 seats. That represents the largest mandate that any governing coalition has won since 1984, when Congress won over 400 seats under Rajiv Gandhi, who was waging the fight after his mother, Indira Gandhi, was assassinated by her SIkh bodyguards in the wake of Sikh riots. It’s hard to describe just what a massive landslide this was, but this NDTV map of all 543 constituencies give you a good idea: Continue reading India’s election results: Modi wave largest mandate since 1984 → aam aadmi partyAAPall india trinamool congressamethibahujan samaj partybanerjeeBJPBSPCongressgandhigujaratINCindian national congressjayalalithaakejriwallok sabhamamatamanmohan singhmayawatimodinarendra modiNDArahul gandhisamajwadi partysonia gandhiTMC India, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal India Lok Sabha elections: Phase 9 Today marks the final phase of India’s election marathon. Voters in 41 constituencies will elect their members of the Lok Sabha (लोक सभा), the 545-seat lower house of the Indian parliament. After today’s voting, exit polls should give Indians (and the rest of us) the first indications of what the results might be, though they have been vastly wrong in the past. The official final results will be announced on Friday, May 16. In particular, it’s the biggest day of voting in two of India’s most populous states. Uttar Pradesh will elect 18 of its 80 seats today, and West Bengal will elect 17 of its 42 seats. In addition, Bihar will elect its final six legislators. In West Bengal, a state of 91 million Indians, chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s local All India Trinamool Congess (TMC, সর্বভারতীয় তৃণমূল কংগ্রেস) is set to win the biggest share of the vote after sweeping to power in the state’s 2011 elections and, in so doing, sweeping a 34-year communist government out of office in West Bengal. RELATED: Mamata-Modi spat takes center stage in West Bengal Nonetheless, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CP-I(M)) and the Left Front (বাম ফ্রন্ট) are expected to win a large share of the vote as well. That leaves India’s two national parties, the governing, secular Indian National Congress (Congress, भारतीय राष्ट्रीय कांग्रेस) of Rahul Gandhi and outgoing prime minister Manmohan Singh, and the conservative, Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (the BJP, भारतीय जनता पार्टी) of chief minister Narendra Modi, both unlikely to make many gains in West Bengal. Both Uttar Pradesh and Bihar will provide more fertile territory, especially for the BJP, which needs to win most of the 122 seats in those two states to have a chance at winning a majority government in the Lok Sabha. In what might be the most watched constituency in India, Modi is battling Arvind Kejriwal, the former chief minister of Delhi, in the city of Varanasi (formerly Benares). Lying on the shores of the Ganges River, the city is known as India’s holiest, and it’s in the heart of Uttar Pradesh. RELATED: Did Kejriwal err in resigning position as Delhi’s chief minister? Kejriwal emerged as one of the most popular politicians in the country after his showing in the December 2013 elections in the National Capital territory. His newly formed Aam Aadmi Party (AAP, आम आदमी की पार्टी, Common Man Party) took power for 49 days, instituting popular policies from water and power subsidies to hotlines for reporting bribery. Kejriwal resigned, however, in February, when the territorial legislature refused to enact his jan lokpal bill that would have instituted mechanisms for reducing corruption. Since leaving office, Kejriwal has led a national campaign for the AAP, hoping that he can recreate the same electoral magic nationally that he did six months ago. But there’s a general sense that Kejriwal made a mistake by resigning, and that his national campaign attempts to do too much in too little time. There’s a chance that it will backfire so much that the AAP might not even win a majority of Delhi’s seats to the Lok Sabha. But in Varanasi, Kejriwal has waged an electrifying fight against Modi, who chose to contest both the Varanasi constituency and in the Vadodara constituency in his home state of Gujarat. Continue reading India Lok Sabha elections: Phase 9 → all india trinamool congressbanerjeebiharindiakejriwalleft frontmamatamanmohan singhmodinarendra modirahul gandhisonia gandhiuttar pradeshvaranasiwest bengal Delhi, Haryana, India, Kerala April 10, 2014 Kevin Lees Leave a comment The first two phases of India’s national parliamentary elections seemed less like an appetizer than an amuse bouche. But after a slow start that saw voting in just 13 constituencies confined to seven relatively isolated states in India’s far northeast, the third phases gets underway today with a blast. Unlike the first two rounds, the April 10 phase, which will determine 91 out of 543 constituencies in the Lok Sabha (लोक सभा), will have a real impact in deciding India’s next government. Before going any further, here’s a map of India’s states for reference: Theoretically, today’s largest prize is the southern state of Kerala (pictured above), where all 20 constituencies will hold elections today in the tropical southwestern state of 33.4 million. But, by and large, it’s a race between the center-left and the far left. Continue reading India Lok Sabha elections: Phase 3 → aam aadmi partyAAPbharatiya janata partybiharbiju manata dalBJDBJPcommunist partyCongressCPMdelhigandhiharyanaINCindian national congressjanata dal (united)JD(U)kejriwalkeralaLDFleft democratic frontmadhya pradeshmaharashtramodinarendra modinitish kumarodisharahul gandhishivraj singh chouhanUDFunited democratic frontuttar pradesh Did Kejriwal err in resigning position as Delhi’s chief minister? Among the most anticipated races in India’s third election phase today will be in the National Capital Territory of Delhi, where Arvind Kejriwal hopes to make just as large a breakthrough in national politics as he did back in December in local politics. Kejriwal’s new anti-corruption party, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP, आम आदमी की पार्टी, Common Man Party) burst onto the national spotlight when it won 28 out of 70 seats in Delhi’s legislative assembly, largely by stealing seats from the 16-year government of chief minister Sheila Dikshit’s Indian National Congress (Congress, भारतीय राष्ट्रीय कांग्रेस). Though the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (the BJP, भारतीय जनता पार्टी) won 31 seats, Kejriwal won the begrudging support of the eight remaining Congress legislators to form a government that would ultimately last just 49 days. But following his resignation after a high-stakes fight over an anti-corruption bill, Kejriwal turned immediately to the national election campaign, with hopes of doing this spring what he managed to do in Delhi last December — energize voters both disenchanted by a decade of Congress rule and uncertain about a BJP-led government. There are signs, however, that Kejriwal may have made a mistake — instead of building on its Delhi gains, the AAP could fail to make any advances nationally and it could even find itself embarrassed on its home turf. Kejriwal’s record as chief minister No one will dispute that it was a very busy 49 days. Continue reading Did Kejriwal err in resigning position as Delhi’s chief minister? → aam aadmi partyAAPbharatiya janata partyBJPCongressdelhidikshitgandhiharyanaINCindian national congressjan lokpalkejriwalmodinarendra modiNCTrahul gandhivaranasi What exactly is the ‘Gujarat model’? And can Modi export it nationally? Narendra Modi’s strongest argument in his quest to become India’s next prime minister is the record of economic growth in Gujarat, where he has served as chief minister since 2001 — and the promise that Modi can unlock the same kind of growth nationally. There’s no doubt that Indian GDP growth has slowed — despite bouncing back from the 2008-09 global financial crisis with 10.5% growth in 2010 on the strength of a surge of investment in the developing world, India has struggled with much lower growth over the past three years. That’s one of the reasons that the governing center-left, governing Indian National Congress (Congress, or भारतीय राष्ट्रीय कांग्रेस) is so unpopular as it tries to win a third consecutive term in India’s April/May parliamentary elections. But what is the ‘Gujarat model’? Can Modi really claim that his government’s policies are responsible for the superior Gujarati economic performance? What’s more, even if Modi’s claims do hold up, is the Gujarat model so easily replicable that he will be able to implement nationally in the likely event that he becomes India’s next prime minister? Though Modi and his center-right, Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (the BJP, or भारतीय जनता पार्टी) lead polls in India’s election campaign, the answers to those questions will determine the success — or failure — of any future Modi-led government. Continue reading What exactly is the ‘Gujarat model’? And can Modi export it nationally? → 2G telecomaam aadmi partyAAPbharatiya janata partybiharBJPcoalgateCongresseconomygujaratgujarat modelINCindiaindian national congresskejriwalmanmohan singhmodiNDAnitish kumarrahul gandhisingh Is Priyanka Vadra the secret Gandhi family weapon for Congress? January 24, 2014 Kevin Lees Leave a comment All eyes have been on Rahul Gandhi, the somewhat reluctant warrior who’s leading the campaign for the governing Indian National Congress (INC / Congress) that hopes to win a third consecutive term in power in this spring’s parliamentary elections. But it’s his sister, Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra, who is getting all the buzz recently with word that Priyanka will step out of the shadows to take a fuller role in the election campaign this year, mostly as an advisor and manager for Rahul’s campaign, but also taking an increasingly visible role as well. As she steps closer to the heart of Congress’s campaign, it will be the third major Gandhi family member to figure prominently in the 2013 elections. Their Italian-born mother, Sonia Gandhi, has been Congress’s party leader since 1998, though when Congress won the 2004 national elections, Sonia declined to become prime minister, instead handing the top job to Manmohan Singh, who will step down this spring after a decade in office. Rahul is not technically the Congress’s prime ministerial candidate in 2013, but his role leading the campaign means that it’s more likely than not that he’ll become India’s next prime minister if the INC wins this spring. That outcome seems increasingly less certain. The latest CNN-IBN-Lokniti-CSDS poll shows that Congress and its allies, which together comprise the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) will win between 107 and 127 seats in the 545-member Lok Sabha (लोक सभा), the lower house of the Indian parliament — a loss of over 100 seats. Instead, the more conservative, Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, or भारतीय जनता पार्टी) would win, together with its own allies that form the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), between 211 and 231 seats, under the leadership of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. Modi, the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, has waged an aggressive campaign against Congress, on the basis that he can bring Gujarat’s high-growth economic approach to the rest of India. Modi, who is 20 years older than Rahul, routinely refers to his opponent as shehzada, or ‘prince,’ and there’s speculation that Congress’s leadership decided not to anoint Rahul as its official prime ministerial candidate to avoid a presidential-style showdown between the two leaders that Modi would almost certainly win, despite his flaws. Priyanka has campaigned before on behalf of her mother and broher in their constituencies in Uttar Pradesh. But neither she nor her brother, Rahul, have faced the rigors of leading a national campaign in the world’s largest democracy — especially against perhaps the most talented BJP politician in over a decade. Modi’s not without flaws, though, especially given doubts over his role in 2002 anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat. But there’s no disputing that Modi, if the elections were held today, has enough momentum to win. So who is Priyanka and how can she help turn things around for Congress? Continue reading Is Priyanka Vadra the secret Gandhi family weapon for Congress? → aam aadmi partyAAPbharatiya janata partyBJPCongressgandhi-nehruINCindiaindian national congresskejriwalmanmohan singhmodiNDApriyankarahul gandhirobert vadrasonia gandhiUPA Meet Arvind Kejriwal, the rising anti-corruption star of Indian politics January 10, 2014 Kevin Lees 2 Comments Yesterday, the new government of Delhi’s national capital territory launched a new anti-graft hotline that received nearly 4,000 calls on its first day. In what was supposed to be the year of Narendra Modi’s easy rise to India’s premiership, it’s another brash new leader who’s making headlines instead — and not just in India, but worldwide. It’s Arvind Kejriwal, the leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP, आम आदमी की पार्टी), literally the ‘Common Man’ Party, which emerged as the key player in Delhi’s December regional elections as an alternative to Modi’s conservative, Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (the BJP, भारतीय जनता पार्टी) and the governing center-left Indian National Congress (Congress, भारतीय राष्ट्रीय कांग्रेस) of Sonia Gandhi, the party’s leader; Rahul Gandhi, her son; and outgoing prime minister Manmohan Singh. Kejriwal, at age 45 one of India’s youngest chief ministers, took office on December 28, leading a minority government that, somewhat ironically, enjoys the outside support of the INC, which controlled Delhi’s government between 1998 and last December’s elections. Congress, which was running for a fourth consecutive term in power under chief minister Sheila Dikshit, was decimated — it not only lost its majority, but now holds just eight seats, after suffering from widespread corruption allegations. Kejriwal actually ran in Dikshit’s New Delhi constituency and defeated her by a margin of 53.5% to 22.2% (state BJP leader Vijender Gupta received just 21.7%). Though the BJP actually won the greatest number of seats (31 to the AAP’s 28), negotiations between the AAP and the BJP failed, and Kejriwal took up Congress’s somewhat surprising offer to back his government, thereby avoiding a new round of elections. Unlike other regional parties in India, the AAP managed to take power on a broad coalition of supporters, not on the basis of representing certain religious or class-based constituencies — it attracted Muslims and Hindus, rich and poor, Dalit and non-Dalit, and especially India’s educated younger generation. Kejriwal, a mechanical engineer by training and a former Indian Revenue Service official, started an NGO in 1999 called Parivartan, designed to provide tax assistance and other help to Delhi citizens. But it was as an anti-corruption official that Kejriwal first caught fire in the national spotlight, and under the mentorship of Anna Hazare, worked to demand what would eventually become the Right to Information Act (RTI) in 2005, which required government bodies to reply to citizen requests for information within 30 days or face penalties, and which relaxes many previous exemptions from disclosure under the Official Secrets Act and other legislation. RTI replaced the much weaker, toothless and exemption-ridden 2002 Freedom of Information Act. In 2011, Anna and Kejriwal succeeded in pushing the government to start the process for drafting a Jan Lokpal bill, an anti-corruption law that would create the Jan Lokpal, an independent citizen’s ombudsman commission that would have the ability to investigate corruption. Though India’s parliament pushed through a Lokpal Bill in December 2013, it’s much weaker than the proposed Jan Lokpal Bill — for example, it doesn’t protect whistleblowers, it doesn’t provide for any real punitive actions or the ability to prosecute corrupt bureaucrats, and it doesn’t provide investigative independence to India’s Central Bureau of Investigation. Kejriwal took the final leap into elective politics when he founded the AAP in November 2012 with the intention of contesting Delhi’s local elections. Having now swept to power in Delhi (literally on the image of a broom ‘sweeping’ corruption away), Kejriwal wasted no time in announcing a 50% cut in power rates and free water to Delhi residents within hours of taking power. He’s already working to implement the AAP’s anti-corruption agenda with the anti-graft hotline, and he’s pledged to introduce a Jan Lokpal bill specifically for Delhi soon. There’s good reason for Kejriwal to be in a hurry — with the AAP’s momentum spreading from Delhi to other parts of India, it could be in a position to make a splash in national politics with the upcoming elections for the Lok Sabha (लोक सभा), the lower house of India’s parliament, which are due before May 31. That gives Kejriwal some time to lay the foundation for what the AAP might be able to accomplish on a grander scale, a down payment on what a national anti-corruption party could enact. After a decade of rule under Singh’s Congress-led governments, Indian voters are weary with Congress . Its prime minister-in-waiting Rahul Gandhi seems unexciting and disinterested. Indians are displeased with Congress’s reform record and the state of India’s precarious economy. Meanwhile, the AAP has highlighted a growing disenchantment over bureaucratic corruption. Though Modi, the decade-long chief minister of Gujarat state, promises to lead a BJP government that will bring Gujarat’s high economic growth rates to the entire country, there are doubts both about the extent to which Modi’s ‘Gujarati model’ is responsible for his state’s growth and how (and whether) such a ‘Gujarati model’ could even be translated to a much more diverse national economy. Moreover, the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat continue to blemish Modi’s record. Though he recently spoke out for the first time disclaiming any role in the violence, the riots, which resulted in the death of over 1,000 Muslims, will continue to haunt Modi’s campaign and the notion that he can be a trustworthy prime minister for India’s religious minorities. So what damage might Kejriwal inflict on the status quo? Plenty. Continue reading Meet Arvind Kejriwal, the rising anti-corruption star of Indian politics → 2G telecomaam aadmi partyAAPanna hazareanti-corruptionbahujan samaj partybharatiya janata partyBJPBSPcorruptiondelhidikshitgujaratharyanaINCindiaindian national congressjan lokpaljanatakejriwallokpalmanmohan singhmodimuslimnarendra modirahul gandhisamajwadi partysinghsonia gandhi 14 in 14, India 14 in 2014: India parliamentary elections December 31, 2013 Kevin Lees 2 Comments 6. India parliamentary elections, expected in May. In the spring, the country of 1.24 billion people faces a decision — either award a third term to a listless, relatively corrupt center-left government with uninspiring leadership or take a chance on a controversial center-right government that promises economic transformation, but which could inflame India’s Muslim population. Before May 31, Indians must choose the entire membership of Lok Sabha (लोक सभा), the lower house of India’s parliament — it currently has 545 members, but can have up to a maximum of 552. On the left is the familiar Indian National Congress (Congress, or भारतीय राष्ट्रीय कांग्रेस). This is the party of Jawaharlal Nehru. And Indira Gandhi, his daughter. And Rajiv Gandhi, her son. And Sonia Gandhi, his Italian-born wife. And now Rahul Gandhi, their son. With 206 seats, Congress is the largest party in the Lok Sabha today, and it leads the United Progressive Alliance, which holds a total of 226 seats. After a decade in office, India’s first Sikh prime minister, economist Manmohan Singh, will step down no matter who wins the elections — and he’ll do so with an economy in the doldrums and a record of having achieved few of the economic and social reforms that Indians expected when he came to power in 2004. Though he pushed through reforms to liberalize India’s retail sector earlier this year and a law strengthening punishment for rape after the brutal gang rape and murder of a woman in Delhi in December 2012, Singh’s record as prime minister has been panned — much in contrast to his record as finance minister between 1991 and 1996. GDP growth is expected to rise in 2013 to around 5% after falling for three consecutive years — from 10.5% in 2010 to 6.3% in 2011 to just 3.2% in 2012. But that comes after the Indian rupee fell nearly 25% in value against the dollar throughout 2013 — and still remains around 13% lower than it was in January 2013. Sonia Gandhi, Congress’s party leader throughout Singh’s administration, is expected to continue in that role, with her and her son Rahul (pictured above) leading Congress’s campaign. But Rahul’s relatively lackluster performance on the campaign trail has led some commentators to wonder whether he really cares if Congress wins or loses in 2014. Rahul recently tried to create some distance between himself and Singh, but it remains to be seen whether Rahul has the political skill to become India’s next prime minister. On the right is the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (the BJP, भारतीय जनता पार्टी), which last held power between 1999 and 2004, when it lost a disastrous ‘India Shining’ campaign that seemed to disregard the majority of Indians who weren’t pocketing the gains of India’s economic boom at the time, despite GDP growth of around 8%. This time around, the BJP has embraced Narendra Modi, the thrice-elected chief minister of Gujarat, home to one of India’s strongest regional economies. He’s popular, not least of which because he’s seen as impervious to corruption, but he hasn’t explained yet how he would translate his Gujarati economic model to the entirety of India. What’s more, he’s plagued by his role in controversial anti-Muslim riots in 2002 that left over 1,000 Muslims dead. Modi’s role remains murky, but it was enough for the United States to deny Modi a visa in the 2000s. It’s a handicap for Modi’s national ambitions, in light of a population of 176 million Muslim Indians who largely mistrust Modi, who got his political start in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing, Hindu paramilitary group. Today, Modi seems like the odds-on favorite to become India’s prime minister, but he and the BJP face challenges. It’s no secret that former BJP leader and deputy prime minister LK Advani has clashed with Modi in the past, and that Modi’s rise to become the nominal head of the BJP remains controversial. What’s more, he starts the campaign with just 117 seats in the Lok Sabha. The second-largest member of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition, the Janata Dal (United) (जनता दल (यूनाइटेड)), a center-left party with 20 seats that controls India’s third-most populous state, Bihar, when that state’s chief minister Nitish Kumar pulled out of the NDA in June 2013 over differences with Modi. The BJP thrived in a set of state assembly elections in November and December 2013 in a wide swath of north-central India — it retained Madhya Pradesh (India’s sixth-most populous), retained Chhattisgarh and gained Rajasthan (India’s eight-largest). But it lost its sole foothold in India’s south when it lost control of the government of Karnataka in May 2013. There’s also no indication that the BJP can make inroads in India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, where it placed third in February 2012 state elections behind two UPA-friendly parties, the Samajwadi Party (समाजवादी पार्टी, Socialist Party), which holds 22 seats, and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP, बहुजन समाज पार्टी), which holds 21 seats. In West Bengal, India’s fourth-largest state (and one of its poorest), chief minister Mamata Banerjee has a lock on politics after her center-left All India Trinamool Congress (সর্বভারতীয় তৃণমূল কংগ্রেস) took power in 2011, defeating the even more communist Left Front (বাম ফ্রন্ট), which also has a strong influence in Kerala in India’s southwestern corner. Both parties belong to neither the UPA nor the NDA after Banerjee pulled her party out of the UPA in 2012. Yet another worry is the recent rise of the Aam Aadmi Party (आम आदमी की पार्टी), a new party that rose to prominence in Delhi’s state elections in December and that leads Delhi’s new minority government with outside support from Congress. Whether you think the Aam Aadmi Party marks a cynical brand of populism or an important moment in the fight against corruption in Indian government, its leader (and new Delhi chief minister) Arvind Kejriwal is a suddenly unexpected key player in India’s national elections. Taken together, it could mean Indians deliver more votes to third parties in 2014 to either Congress or the BJP — but whether they do so in a way that could actually transform Indian governance is less certain. Photo credit to AFP / Prakash Singh. NEXT: Colombia 14 in 14aam aadmi partyadvaniall india trinamool congressbahujan samaj partybanerjeebharatiya janata partybiharBJPchhattisgarhdelhigandhigujarathinduindiaindian national congressjanata dal (united)karnatakakejriwalleft frontlok sabhamadhya pradeshmanmohan singhmodinarendra modiNDAnitish kumarrahul gandhirajasthanRSSrupeesamajwadi partysonia gandhiUPAuttar pradeshwest bengal	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2057
__label__cc	0.642882	0.357118	Press Release Detail Home Media Corner Press Releases Press Release Detail Year End Review-2018: Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation Swachh Bharat Mission Start Date: December 19, 2018 End Date: December 31, 2019 The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) on 2nd October, 2014 to accelerate the efforts to achieve universal sanitation coverage in India and promote access to safe sanitation in India. The SBM aims at achieving an Open Defecation Free (ODF) nation by 2nd October, 2019,a befitting tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary.The SBM identifies behaviour change as the primary and fundamental tool for the achievement of ODF outcomes. As a result, rural sanitation coverage has increased significantly from 38.7%at the launch of SBM(G) in 2014 to 96.88%, as on 5thDecember 2018. SBM (G) at a glance IHHLs built (in crores) since 2ndOct 2014 % increase insanitation coverage since 2ndOct 2014 No. of ODF Districts ODF villages inNamamiGange ODF States/UTs No. of ODF Villages Making Swachhata Everyone’s Business The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation,besides its allocated charge of Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen), convenes and coordinates all activities and initiatives towards the achievement of a Swachh Bharat across sectors. To this end, the Ministry constantly works with all other Union Ministries, the State governments, local institutions, NGOs, faith organizations, media and the other stakeholders. This approach is based on the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s clarion call to make Swachhata everyone’s business, and not only that of sanitation departments. A host of special initiatives and projects have been undertaken by various Ministries and are coordinated by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation in this regard: Swachhata Pakhwada Launched in April 2016, Swachhata Pakhwada is inspired by the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision to engage all Union Ministries and Departments in Swachhata-related activities. The respective fortnightsplace intense focus on the issues and practices of Swachhata. An annual calendar is pre-circulated among the Ministries to help them plan for the Pakhwada activities. Swachhata Pakhwadayearbooks for the years 2016 and 2017 have been released by MDWS in 2018. NamamiGange The NamamiGangeProgramme is an initiative of Ministry of Water Resources (MOWR). As an inter-ministerial initiative, making villages on the bank of river Ganga ODF and interventions dealing with solid and liquid waste management (SLWM) are being implemented by MDWS. All 4470 villages located across 52 districts of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal have been declared ODF with active help of state governments. Now the Ministry has taken up 25 villages on the bank of River Ganga to transform them as Ganga Grams in coordination with NMCG. MDWS has sanctioned Rs. 67 Crore to five Ganga States to take up tree plantation and related preparatory activities on the revenue land in Ganga Bank villages. In 2018, 5 Ganga Gram Swachhata Sammelanswere organized by MDWS in four Ganga States to generate awareness about the Ganga Gram Swachhata concept. Swachhata Action Plan (SAP) A first of its kind, inter-ministerial programme for Swachhata, Swachhata Action Plan is led by all Union Ministries in order to ensure annual planning and implementation of sanitation related activities. All Union Ministries/Departments have begun work for its realization in a significant manner with appropriate budget provisions. A separate budget head 96 has been created for this by the Ministry of Finance. During the financial year 2017-18, 74 Ministries/Departments committed funds worth Rs. 18154.82 Cr. for their SAPs. For the year 2018-19, 72 Ministries/Departments have committed Rs. 17077.81 Cr. Swachh Iconic Places (SIP) Under the inspiration of Hon’ble Prime Minister, MDWS has undertaken a multi-stakeholder initiative focusing on cleanliness in 100 locations across the country, which are “iconic” due to their heritage, religious and/or cultural significance. The goal of the initiative is to improve the cleanliness conditions at these locationsto a distinctly higher level. This initiative is in partnership with Ministries of Housing and Urban Affairs, Tourism and Culture with MDWS as the nodal ministry. So far, in the first three phases, 30 iconic places have been identified. Mostof these SIPs have also received financial and technical support from PSUs and corporates. Satyagraha Se Swachhagraha campaign(3rd to 10th April, 2018) The Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation, in coordination with the Government of Bihar, organized a week long campaign“Satyagraha Se Swachhagraha” from 3rd to 10th April, 2018, in Bihar, culminating in East Champaran on 10th April, 2018, where over 20,000 Swachhagrahis came together and to “trigger” Bihar. The culminating event was addressed by the Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi. The Hon’ble Chief Minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar, Hon’ble Minister of Drinking Water and Sanitation,Sushri Uma Bharti, and otherUnion and State Ministers, MPs and MLAs attended the event. The Prime Minister have also felicitated the 10 best performingSwachhagrahis in an award giving ceremony. GOBARdhan scheme MDWS launched the Galvanising Organic Bio-Agro Resource dhan or “GOBARdhan” scheme on 30th April 2018, at Karnal, Haryana. The scheme is aimed at keeping villages clean while increasing the income of farmers and cattle owners by promoting local entrepreneurs to convert cattle dung, and other organic resources, to biogas and organic manure. Swachh Bharat Summer Internship 2018 MDWS, in association with the Ministry of Human Resource Development and the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, launched the ‘Swachh Bharat Summer Internship (SBSI) 2018’ aimed at engaging college students and NYKS youth with Swachhata work in villages during the summer vacation. The SBSI engaged lakhs of educated youth across the country, helped develop their skills and orientation for the sanitation sector and amplified the mass awareness aspect of Swachh Bharat Mission. As part of the internship, candidates were required to undertake 100 hours of sanitation related activities including shramdaan, creation of sanitation infrastructure, system building, behaviour change campaigns and other IEC initiatives in and around nearby villages.Over 3.8 lakh students registered for SBSI 2018. Swachhata Hi Seva (SHS), (15th September 2018 to 2nd October 2018) The Hon’ble Prime Minister launched the second edition of the Swachhata Hi Seva campaign on 15thSeptember 2018 through a video conference interaction with 17 locations, in order to re-intensify the people’s movement in the run up to 2nd October 2018. Post the launch, shramdaan activities were undertaken by dignitaries like Shri Amitabh Bachchan, Shri Ratan Tata, Sadguru, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Mata Amritanandmayi, and others. The campaign mobilised people between 15th September and 2nd October 2018 reigniting the “jan-andolan” for sanitation. Union Ministers, MLAs, MPs, iconic celebrities of India, sports stars, inter-faith leaders, corporates, etc., participated and appealed to others to join in this campaign towards swachhata. Mahatma Gandhi International Sanitation Convention (MGISC) (29th September to 2nd October 2018) The Mahatma Gandhi International Sanitation Convention (MGISC) brought together Ministers of sanitation and sector specialists from around the world. Approximately 200 delegates from 67 countries attended the Convention, which was inaugurated by Hon’ble President of India on 29th September 2018 at PravasiBhartiya Kendra, New Delhi. The participating countries shared sanitation success stories and best practices, along with learning from the experience of the Swachh Bharat Mission. The 4-day Convention included a field visit, Plenary sessions, Parallel Technical sessions and Ministerial Dialogues. A parallel exhibition of sanitation innovations was also organized. The MGISC culminated on October 2nd, 2018, with the launch of Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth year celebrations, as SBM entered its fifth and final year of implementation. The Hon’ble Prime Minister of India addressed the nation on 2nd October 2018 from the platform of the convention. Swajal Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation launched Swajal, a community demand driven, decentralized, single village, preferably solar powered, mini PWS programme for the 117 aspirational districts identified by NITI Aayog. Gram Panchayats in partnership with rural communities and State sectoral agencies would be involved in the execution of the scheme and also operate and maintain the scheme. The programme would also sustain ODF status. In order build the capacity of district level officials who are at the cutting edge level of implementation, Training of Trainers (ToTs) programmes were organized by MDWS. During the period of three months from September to November, ToTprogrammes were completed at five locations in Bhopal, Pune, Ranchi, Raipur and Guwahati, respectively. An exclusive ToTs module covering major aspects of Swajal was launched in a National Workshop held at Nainital, Uttarakhand, on 30th November 2018, along with a separate Integrated Management Information System (IMIS) to monitor the programme. The Hon’ble Vice President laid the foundation for the scheme at Jharkhand on 27.9.2018 and the first scheme was inaugurated at Hazaribagh, Jharkhand on World Toilet Day, 19th November, 2018. Visitors: 8825606 Page last updated on: 3/8/2017	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2061
__label__wiki	0.758761	0.758761	TBC Improv About - History In the latter half of 2009, Lauren Berning, Fernando Fresquez and Sacha Timaeus arrived in Edinburgh, Scotland. They each had hoped to become active in the Edinburgh improv scene, but finding little existed already, they soon set out to establish an improv comedy troupe of their very own: To Be Continued…! Starting workshops to entice other potential performers, their first inaugural show was held at the Pleasance Cabaret Bar in Edinburgh on 10th December 2009; a competition style show featuring members of the workshops as guest performers. The first half of 2010 saw more workshops and shows, with an increasing number of the guest performers featuring in various shows. After a successful run at the Free Edinburgh Fringe Festival with Improv Wins!, the troupe expanded, promoting regular workshop attendees and show players Peter Aitchison, Paul Connolly, Paddy Hare and Sam Irving to the main troupe. At the same time, Sacha departed to pursue other acting interests. The troupe continued to perform in Edinburgh at the start of 2011 with An Evening of Improv Comedy!, but now expanded out to other places such as Glasgow, St Andrews and Arran. Harry Gooch, a regular workshop attendee and guest performer since September 2010, officially joined To Be Continued… in March 2011. The new 7-person troupe made their debut at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August of that year with Absolute Improv!. The show ran for the whole of the Fringe and was a near sell-out, not a bad debut by any means! After the high of the Fringe debut, the troupe said good-bye to Fernando (who returned to his native Albuquerque) and Sam (who was moving to China for a year) in September 2011. On a happier note, the month also saw the arrival of new member Caroline Mathison. To Be Continued… continued teaching weekly workshops in Edinburgh in 2011, starting up classes in Glasgow too. In May 2011, the troupe ran the first of their 8-week improv courses, with graduates having the opportunity to perform during the Edinburgh Fringe. The troupe ploughed into 2012 full-steam ahead: regular monthly performances in Edinburgh; performances at several festivals (including the Glasgow Comedy Festival, Prague Fringe Festival, Buxton Festival Fringe and Barnstaple Fringe Theatrefest); 8-week improv courses and drop-in classes in Edinburgh and Glasgow meant the troupe were busier than ever. With the addition of Raymond Considine and return of Sam, the troupe decided to take on their biggest challenge yet: not 1 but 3 improv shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival! The Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2012 saw To Be Continued… returning with Absolute Improv! and debuting two new shows: Absolute Improv Stories! and Absolute Improv Stripping!. In Absolute Improv Stories! saw the troupe creating a improvise an entire children's story based upon the imagination of the young audience (an imagination, it turned out, which was unbounded and incredible). Absolute Improv Stripping! was a late-night offering where, if the performers made a mistake in a game, they would have to remove an item of clothing; the last one with the most articles at the end was the winner. Many talented guest performers from all over the world were invited to perform at and contributed greatly to this late-night performance. After the departure of Harry in September 2012, To Be Continued… continued their busy schedule of performances and workshops. After a well-earned break in December, the troupe got back to business in 2013, with performances, workshops and new troupe members Nicola Dove and Sabrina Martin making sure that the year should be another exciting one for Edinburgh's own improv comedy troupe! 2013 would prove to be the troupe's busiest year yet: well received return performances from both the Glasgow International Comedy Festival and Buxton Fringe Festival; debuts at the Oxford Fringe and Merchant City Festivals; more guest workshops and workshop courses than ever before. All of this culminated in the top highlight of the year: achieving the official "sold-out show" laurel from Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2013 for Absolute Improv. Though it was with sadness the troupe bid farewell to Paddy and Sabrina, the year ended on a high note with long-time friend of the troupe Mara Joy joining the troupe in November. The new year brought in new faces in the form of Will Naameh and Eric Geistfeld, along with debut performances at the Brighton Fringe and Holt Festivals. The group did manage to make appearances at old favourites Glasgow Comedy Festival and Buxton Fringe, as well as a return visit to the Prague Fringe! Although the troupe bid farewell to Lauren in September, it was not before the group managed to get a second sell-out run at the Edinburgh Fringe Absolute Improv! If the previous few years had focused on building To Be Continued…, 2015 was the year when building up the Scottish community as a whole was the focus. In March the group unveiled The TBC Improv Theatre - a central hub for watching, learning and performing improv theatre in Scotland. With the introduction of shows Improv Games and The Harold Improv Comedy Show, performers and new talent from across the Scottish scene and beyond joined TBC Improv Players for improvised comedy fun (Improv Games would also go on to have a very successful run at the PBH Free Fringe 2015). The TBC Improv Theatre also played host this year to the inaugural Scottish Improv Jam, where improvisers from several groups came together to raise money for the charity Missing People through the powerful joy of improvisational theatre. In addition to the theatre, March also saw the debut of new show Absolute Improv Musical - the groups first fully musical improv show - at the Glasgow International Comedy Festival. Along with new shows, new groups formed too: in Scotland, Smoky Monkeys and Improv Killed My Dog formed from the members of courses in Edinburgh and Glasgow respectively; while on the other side of the world a sister group founded by former member Lauren Berning, TBC HK began performing and teaching improv in Hong Kong and across Asia. The faces of the TBC Improv Players also changed in 2015, with long-time member Sam Irving departing for China (again) after the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (oh, side-note, Absolute Improv! was another Fringe sell-out this year), with new members Steph Brown and Gregor Davidson joining the TBC improv family. The final few months of 2015 were extremely busy for The TBC Improv Theatre, with new shows such as Open Improv Night and Smoky Monkeys A Re-Improvised History of the World, along with performances from noted groups and individuals such as Men With Coconuts, David Razowsky and Tray Full of Brownies, closing the year on a high note and solidifying the theatre as the place to go for improv in Scotland. To Be Continued… continued having fun entertaining and teaching improv throughout the country and the year in 2016. From performances at Glasgow's West End Festival, to Buxton Fringe and, of course, Edinburgh Fringe, the group had the chance to have improv comedy fun with familiar friends and new faces. Highlights of the year included a fourth official Edinburgh Fringe sell-out run with Absolute Improv!, along with an appearance on STV's The Late Show. Invited onto the late night chat show to discuss improv comedy, the scene in Scotland, and to perform some improv comedy with host Ewen Cameron, the appearance marked not only did this mark the group's TV debut, but helped to promote improv comedy performance to a wider audience, a huge goal for the group. The group did bid farewell to TBC Improv Players Steph and Eric in September, who departed for new and exciting opportunities in London and the United States respectively. While it's always sad to say goodbye to performers, there is a saying we have here: once a TBC Improv Player, always a TBC Improv Player! The TBC Improv Theatre continued to grow from strength to strength, with the biggest change coming in September when it moved to a new home: the basement theatre space of a new Edinburgh comedy venue Monkey Barrel Comedy. The new venue, along with a new regular slot of Sunday nights, helped to continue to promote the joy that is improv comedy and the wonderful talent performing in it throughout the rest of the year! The year that was 2017 was very much the year of The TBC Improv Theatre @ Monkey Barrel Comedy, debuting a new format that would see regular shows on the First, Second, Second-Last and Last Sundays of the month. With The TBC Improv Theatre providing more regular performance opportunities for Edinburgh based groups, many - including Smoky Monkeys and Tinderelllas - starting appearing at many other comedy nights, theatre performances, and having runs at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. This development of the improv scene was the reason for the theatre existing, and it was wonderful to see the success stories in 2017. Of course, To Be Continued… were still kept busy during the year performing and teaching improv. Perhaps the biggest highlight was achieving a 5th Edinburgh Fringe Sell-Out run, which also featured a returning Eric Geistfeld who joined the group for the month of August before departing back stateside. After performing regularly with the company for the previous two years and being an instrumental component of our music team (pun very much intended), June saw Jenny Laahs finally officially announced as a TBC Improv Player, as part of the TBC Improv Band. In additional, after years of using it as a moniker, the companay formally adpoted TBC Improv as its name, better reflecting what the company is about (mainly, improv!). ← Back to About © 2009-2019 To Be Continued… / TBC Improv Website designed, created and lovingly maintained by Paul McEwan	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2063
__label__wiki	0.561886	0.561886	Published in Roundup of Columnists The common view of the commentators in the Turkish press is that the ongoing power struggle between Prime Minister Erdoğan and the Hizmet movement of the Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen has reached a new stage and that it will be difficult to resurrect the alliance between the AKP and the “cemaat”. While those directly implicated in the fight, pro-AKP and pro-cemaat pundits, exchange attacks and insults, more detached observers note that the struggle is not about ideology or principles, with both parties sharing a similar, Muslim conservative agenda, but simply about who is going to control the state. They predict that the power struggle is going to continue and even become fiercer as Turkey enters into a crucial election cycle during the coming two years, opening for possible, new alliances that no one can quite imagine today. SELVİ: IT’S ALL ABOUT MAKING SURE THAT ERDOGAN IS NOT ELECTED PRESIDENT Abdülkadir Selvi in Yeni Şafak wonders why the representatives of the cemaat insist on tearing down the bridges between the movement and the AK Party, despite the fact that Prime Minister Erdoğan employs a positive language toward the sincere base of the movement. Prime Minister Erdoğan is the one person with whom the cemaat most easily can reach an agreement. In spite of this, the choice is made to seek confrontation instead of accommodation with Erdoğan. What is the meaning of such an aggressive campaign? The student prep classes are only one of the legs of a larger political project. The target is the presidential elections and the project is an AK Party without Erdoğan. “Erdoğan the sell-out”, “Pharaoh”, “You broke our hearts, at least don’t shred it to pieces, master” campaign has a specific strategic aim: to turn the base of the cemaat against the prime minister. That is why an attempt is being made to tear down the bridges of the heart. After first having created an “anti-Erdoğan” sentiment, the plan is to mobilize this sentiment behind a “common candidate” against Erdoğan. ÇALIŞLAR: WITH THREE APPROACHING ELECTIONS, THE AKP-HIZMET TENSIONS ARE SET TO DEEPEN FURTHER Oral Çalışlar in Radikal writes that the conflict between Erdoğan and the Hizmet Movement of Fethullah Gülen has arisen over an overriding question, how the spoils of power are going to be divided among the ruling conservatives. Unlike many others, I don’t believe that Erdoğan is going to encounter any problems being elected president. Instead, the crucial question is who is going to take over the ruling party after Erdoğan; and how is the internal power structure of the party going to be designed. There are possibly going to be efforts made to reach an understanding; indeed, the parties may even agree on certain points. However, the crisis that is triggered by the three approaching elections (municipal elections in March 2014, presidential elections in August 2014 and general elections in 2015) is inevitably going to deepen. The tug of war in the municipal elections may be used as an opportunity. Thereafter, the presidential election is going to present another opportunity for “using assets and sharing assets.” We may witness the birth of new “alliances” and “coalitions” that we cannot imagine today. We are heading into a period of turmoil about which perhaps no one can make any concrete predictions. The tension that I predict is going to continue to escalate is set to define Turkey’s economic, sociological, psychological, cultural parameters in every sense. ÇAKIR: FETHULLAH GÜLEN’S WORST STRATEGIC MISTAKE EVER LAID THE GROUND FOR THE CONFRONTATION Ruşen Çakır in Vatan reminds that the moment when the alliance between the Gülen cemaat and the government broke apart was February 7, 2012, when the MIT crisis (when a prosecutor tried to bring in the head of MIT, the National Intelligence Agency and three of his predecessors to interrogation) erupted. I see this as the biggest strategic mistake ever of Fethullah Gülen. At the time, I predicted that Gülen would do whatever it would take to repair the damage that had been caused by this strategic blunder. I thought so because the cemaat-AKP alliance against the military tutelage had been extremely successful, and it was in the interests of both parties that it endured; remaining in a state of confrontation with the government could impair the positions of the cadres of the cemaat within the state. Most seriously, there was a risk of losing those who like the cemaat (Gülen) and the AKP (Erdoğan) in equal measure. Why didn’t Gülen try to mend fences? The first answer could be that he in fact lacked the will to do it; or he may have thought that he wouldn’t be able to mend fences even if he were to try. Secondly, we may conclude that the affection of the alliance years between the parties was not so very sincere in the first place. Indeed, the anger and venom that the two parties have displayed against each other during the last days cannot have resulted solely from the discussion about the student prep classes. BAYDAR: IT’S A FIGHT TO ACQUIRE FULL CONTROL OF THE STATE Oya Baydar on the t24 news site argues that the reason why the AKP and the cemaat are at each others’ throats is that they are waging a battle about the control the state. Even if their methods and structures differ, the AKP and the cemaat share the same religious-ideological sources, have the same, Muslim-conservative worldview and both endeavor to raise pious, nationalist generations. When Erdoğan and the cadres of the AKP discovered that the cemaat had infiltrated the state more than they had assumed, that they had captured crucial posts, and when they became aware that the cemaat indeed did not hesitate to occasionally block their political agenda, the relation turned sour. Realizing that he had not paid sufficient attention to the cemaat’s entrenchment in vital state institutions as the judiciary, the police and even the military, Erdoğan has set about to block the cemaat’s ability to raise cadres and to become further entrenched in the state, in order to secure his own, full control the state. In short, what we are witnessing is a straightforward struggle to become the sole owner of the state. At least, the battle has had one advantage so far: as a result of it, the both versions of the Islamically coded Turkist conservatism has been forced to retreat a step. Now it’s time to rethink and organize the struggle for democracy and the rule of law. GÜRSEL:THE IRAN DEAL HAS SAVED TURKEY FROM TWO LOUSY ALTERNATIVES Kadri Gürsel in Milliyet comments on the effects that the interim deal with Iran regarding its nuclear program is going to have for Turkey. An Iran that would have become a nuclear power, even reached the nuclear threshold, would have caused Turkey’s geopolitical position to dramatically deteriorate. Those outcomes would both have introduced a historically unique asymmetrybetween the two countries, to the detriment of Turkey. Turkey would then have been left with two options, both of which would have had lousy consequences. Turkey would either have been forced to seek the protection of NATO’s shield, a dependency which in turn would have reduced its standing as a major regional actor in its own right; or it would have chosen an even worse alternative, seeking to balance Iran by acquiring its own nuclear capability, which would have wrecked all of its alliance relations and causes it to be perceived as a threat in the region. Thus, the nuclear deal protects Turkey from both of these outcomes; and it will also ensure an easing in the bilateral relations with Iran. More in this category: « What the Columnists Say What the Columnists Say »	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2068
__label__cc	0.638797	0.361203	GameStop Hate; Unwarranted! Editorial by: Kenneth Seward Jr. There has been a great deal of hate thrown at GameStop over the last couple of years. It seems that gamers/consumers all over the world have found fault with the company. It has gotten to the point where some have dedicated complete websites just to criticize this retail chain. I have never been one to just jump on a bandwagon of any kind, so I decided to look into the reasons behind all the hate. Before I comment on the silliness of all this GameStop hatred, I want to make a few things clear. The first is that United Front Gaming has no affiliation with GameStop (GS). Although I was once employed there and I love the Game Informer magazine, I don’t have an allegiance to the store. To me, it’s just a normal retail store. The way I feel about GS is the same way I feel about Best Buy, Target, Walmart, etc. So do not misconstrue my rant as blind favoritism for the company. I also want to point out that I am not “going against the grain” just for the sake of doing so. I find no joy in singling myself out. I merely want to bring balance to this lopsided argument. If at anytime while reading this editorial you feel as if I am doing anything other than that, feel free to reread this paragraph! Issue Number 1: GameStop Rips Off Publishers Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get down to business. I have found that one of the main reasons why GS has its own angry mob (complete with torch burning apps on their smartphones) is because of the used game market. Gamers feel as though GS is ripping off publishers and developers by reselling their games at slightly reduced prices. First, let me address this by saying that this idea is completely backwards. GameStop has a legal right to resell games. They are protected by The First Sale Doctrine: “The First Sale Doctrine… provides that an individual who knowingly purchases a copy of a copyrighted work from the copyright holder receives the right to sell, display or otherwise dispose of that particular copy, notwithstanding the interests of the copyright owner”. – U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Resource Manual 1847 In layman’s terms, once you have legal ownership of it (i.e. you paid for it) the copyright of that purchased product moves to you. The original owner loses their rights to that particular copy of the product. Any money gained from reselling it goes to the current owner in spite of the interests of the original owner. So, when I buy my game from GS (who got it from the copyright owner) I am free to do with it as I please as long as it isn’t infringing on the original owners rights at the beginning of the sale (it wasn’t stolen, its not an illegal copy, or was altered/modified). Now before some of the more instant haters try to dispute the above statements by citing software licensure laws or the “first sale regulations”, neither of these pertain to the resell of games by GS. When GS first receives a copy of a game, they obtain the rights to sell the ownership of that physical copy. They aren’t buying a license to use a product, and trying to illegally resell that. Nor are they initially underselling the games; they are selling the games at publisher determined prices. No laws are broken. Therefore, the publisher has no right to any money received from a second hand sell. If they have no legal right to that money there is no way GS is ripping them off. This should be the end of the argument, but there is more. Some people feel if used games were not available then more new copies would be sold. Another faulty argument. There are many reasons why a game may not sell well. Used games aren’t one of those reasons. Poor marketing, however, is; I’m looking at you EA. Dead Space is an example of a game that had a large amount of people playing used copies rather than new ones. Remember Mirror’s Edge? Truth be told, those games were not marketed well at all. Even EA’s own John Schappert, chief operating officer, also stated that poor marketing hurt their titles. A few pages in a gaming magazine just doesn’t cut it nowadays. Solid marketing is what drives the popularity and profit of big sellers like the Halo’s, Mario’s, COD’s, etc. Now you might argue that these games had big companies pushing them. To that comment I would say, then what about EA? It’s one of the largest publishers of video games in the world. Everyone and their mothers know about the EA Madden NFL titles. They should be able to market all of their titles as well as they do Madden. It’s a shame good games like Dead Space had to suffer because of this issue. I don’t want to get too far off subject here, but I just wanted to point out one of the many reasons why new games may not sell well. Blaming GameStop for the decline in sales of new games is really a stretch of the imagination. Not only that, you’ll have to lump in every other store that sales used items (including eBay and Amazon). Throw in the fact that every used title was once a new one, and you have less and less of an argument. Most new game sales are made within the first week of release. If your game has used copies available before the first week is out, then that’s your fault (publishers/developers) not GS’s. Though I believe I have thoroughly defended GS’s right to sell used games, this new complaint is too idiotic not to mention. While online I ran into a group of people who felt as though they should be getting more money for their used games. So, these people would rather go to places like Best Buy instead of GS, since they may receive more money for their game trade-ins. However, they also feel that GS’s profits from used games should be shared with publishers/developers. So they refuse to support GS retail chain, and take their business elsewhere. What I don’t get is…well, I don’t get any of it really. You can’t have it both ways. You want to trade in your games and get a good deal but you refuse to do it at GS because they are supposedly ripping off publishers/developers? Does it really make sense to then go to other used game retailers instead? They don’t share used profits either. No one does. If we pretend that GS is hurting publishers/developers with their used sales, then the same thing would apply to other stores that sell used titles. I get it. It only hurts the industry if you can’t get a good deal on used games right? Issue Number 2: Confusing Used for New Now, while I agree that GS’s used prices should be changed, it doesn’t make them evil if they don’t pay consumers well for their trade-ins. They are running a business. Going to a different store to get a better deal is one thing. Equating GS to a giant corporate pimp (or any of the other derogatory references found online) is just uncalled for. So are the random lawsuits concerning used games from GS. It seems that some people are confused about what the word “used” means when buying a game. This is probably because they ignore the signs presented to them. You know the ones; the sticker that says “used”, the placement of said item in a separate section of the store marked “used”, or the fact that it is has a distinguishable yellow used label as opposed to the new white one. Nope, none of these things told them what they were buying has already been opened and played. They just looked at the box and saw that it says that there is unlockable DLC included with purchase or some other free good. Ok fine. You missed the obvious. I guess they also missed the fact that consumers can bring back a used game within seven days if you are unsatisfied, or for no real reason all. I mean, you can beat a game, bring it back because you didn’t like it and ask for another. GS makes it their policy to explain that to each customer buying a used game. Even if the sales rep forgets to tell someone, it’s on the receipt that is issued with the purchase. If the customer missed all of these signs as well as the seven day limit (how long does it take to figure out you’re missing content?), then I have no sympathy for them. The ball was in their hands and they fumbled. What makes matters worse is that people have tried to take GS to court over this…. really? When are we going to learn to take responsibility for our actions and stop blaming others? Come on. Most of the time the “missing” content in question isn’t even critical; it’s a new color scheme for a gun or an extra map or two. Big deal! Issue Number 3: Opening New Games The second big reason why people stay up late blogging about their hate for GS has to do with GS’s policy on opening the cases of new games. GS doesn’t have glass cases to put their games behind, so they take a couple new games, remove their contents, and then place those boxes on the shelves. That way, if someone tries to steal a game, they’ll only get the box. Now, I understand how people can feel that they aren’t buying a new title because it has already been opened. But what I don’t understand is where all the hate over this issue is coming from. GS reps will normally pull an unopened game from behind the register, sell it to you, and then put the empty box back on the shelf for display. It only becomes a problem if it is the last copy, in which case you could just get the game from somewhere else. Again, nothing a reasonable person should hate them for. Issue Number 4: Bad Experiences The last reason I found was due to some bad experiences at GS. This group has a little more clout then the others…a little. Many people are upset about stores lending out new copies of games. Some stores allow their reps to check out new versions of games and bring them back to sell as new. When gamers get the game home, they see scratch marks and fingerprints on the disk; they paid the new price for a game that is technically used. This isn’t a company wide policy as GS strictly forbids it. However, there are some individual stores that break the rules. You have to lump that in with the “bad experience at a certain store” mind set and keep it moving. We’ve all had issues with retail chains. I can recall years ago, my parents buying a PC from Walmart (they weren’t up on proper computer shopping habits at the time). When we got it home and took it out of the box, the casing of the tower was cracked. My dad still wanted to try it out. Of course it didn’t work, so we took it back. Before we could leave the store with our new computer, I saw one of the store reps putting the computer we just returned back on the floor to sell. I was in disbelief so I walked over and noticed that they didn’t even put it in a new box. It was the same price that we paid for as well. This meant that we probably had bought a used computer without knowing it (same goes for the one we had just purchased). As long as the box looked new and there was no physical damage to the computer, it could take a while to realize it wasn’t a new product. As shady as that was, I didn’t go out my way to hate all Walmarts. It was a bad experience at one store. That’s all. At the end of the day, much of the complaining is not warranted. GS is just like other retail chains, they just make more money then the others when it comes to gaming. There are some bad reps that have made GS look bad as a whole. At the same time, they are no different from all of the other retail outlets that gamers “claim” are great. They are far from perfect though; this recent issue with the PC versions of Deus Ex wasn’t smart on GS’s part, at all. Other than that, it’s a case by case basis. Make your decision to shop or not to shop there and move on. Seriously!	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2069
__label__wiki	0.723371	0.723371	Mariners Are Going Dancing! Women’s Basketball Claims Skyline Title With 44-39 Win At Mount St. Mary #1 Mount St. Mary #2 Merchant Marine (22-3) 7 14 11 12 44 #1 Mount St. Mary (22-5) 13 6 8 12 39 Pts: Kaleigh D'Arcy - 13 Reb: Lauren Hunter - 15 Ast: Lauren Hunter - 3 Pts: 2 Players (#00, #30) - 14 Reb: Limonta, Elizabeth - 11 Postgame Photo Gallery NEWBURGH, N.Y. (Feb. 23, 2019) – The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy women's basketball team is heading to the NCAA National Championships! The #2-seed Mariners used a staunch defensive effort to defeat top-seeded Mount St. Mary on the road, 44-39, on Saturday up at the Knights' Kaplan Center Gym. USMMA improves to 22-3 on the season with the victory, while MSMC falls to 22-5. The 39 points was the lowest that Mount St. Mary scored all season, as the Mariners held the Knights to just 25.8-percent shooting on the day (16-for-62). Junior Kaleigh D'Arcy (White Plains, N.Y.) was chosen as the Skyline Tournament Most Outstanding Player for her efforts in the Mariners' two wins in the tourney. In the title game on Saturday, D'Arcy had a team-high 13 points and just missed out on a double-double with nine rebounds. Freshman Lauren Hunter (Tinley Park, Ill.) recorded a double-double with 11 points and a game-high 15 rebounds. Freshman Julia Dahlke (San Diego, Calif.) chipped in with nine points, while junior Shelby Peters (El Dorado Hills, Calif.) added six. Mount St. Mary had the momentum early, jumping out to a 12-4 lead 7.5 minutes into the game and holding a 13-7 advantage before the buzzer ended the first quarter. The Mariners used a 6-0 run early in the second to tie the score up at 15-15 at 7:25. The two teams traded leads the remainder of the quarter and Merchant Marine went into halftime with a 21-19 lead. The beginning of the third saw USMMA extend its advantage up to seven points twice, including at the five-minute mark when the Mariners held a 30-23 lead. The Knights fought back to within three points, 30-27 at 1:42, but Hunter made the final basket of the quarter to give Merchant Marine a 32-27 lead. The turning point of the game came early in the fourth quarter, when the Mariners held Mount St. Mary scoreless for over six minutes, building up a game-high 10-point lead, 37-27, into the closing minutes. With USMMA up nine, 40-31, with 2:36 to play, the Knights battled all the way back to within two points, 41-39, with just 24 seconds left. The Mariners scored two on a pair of free throws to go ahead by four with 22 ticks remaining. MSMC had two chances late, but missed both of its shots and Merchant Marine tacked on one more free throw with seven seconds left to close out the scoring. For the Knights, senior Kayla Cleare and sophomore Katie Smith both scored a game-high 14 points apiece. Cleare had a double-double with 10 rebounds, while senior Elizabeth Limonta brought down a team-best 11 boards. The Mariners, who have earned the Skyline's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, will find out their first round opponent this Monday, Feb. 25, at 2:30 p.m. when the NCAA announces the full field of 64 teams for the national championships. More information on the NCAA Tourney can be found at this link and will also be available on www.USMMASports.com early next week. Receive USMMA Women's Basketball News Right To Your E-Mail! If you would like to receive the latest news on the USMMA women's basketball team, including all press releases, send an e-mail to Assistant Athletic Director for Communications Joe Guster at gusterj@usmma.edu with the subject "Women's Basketball E-Mails." Follow USMMA Athletics On Social Media! Be sure to follow USMMA Athletics on social media to get up-to-the-minute updates on your favorite teams! Start following today on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube!	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2070
__label__wiki	0.549241	0.549241	Srinagar"Take A Trip to The Tribal Beauty" Dal Lake - This place is regarded as the summer capital of the state of Jammu and Kashmir and is the second largest lake in the state. It is popularly called as 'Srinagar's Jewel' or 'Jewel in the crown of Kashmir'. This place is also ideal for fishing along with water plant harvesting. During the winter season, the temperature at the destination reaches about -110 Celsius, which freezes the Dal Lake. It is divided intro four different sections that are connected through four causeways and can be reached easily from the city of Srinagar. It is an ideal site in the region for enjoying swimming, kayaking, houseboats, canoeing, angling, Shikara riding and water surfing. Shankaracharya Temple - The temple is constructed on an elevated octagonal plane, which can be easily reached by steps. Tourists can also witness a modern ceiling and Persian inscriptions inside the main temple. Shankaracharya Temple is said to be constructed around 200 BC by Jaluka, who was the son of Emperor Ashoka. It is located on the top of Shankaracharya Hill, known as Takht-e-Sulaiman, which is around 1,100 ft above the main city. From the top of this hill, visitors can have a beautiful view of the snow covered mountains of Pir Panjal mountain range. Mughal Gardens - Mughal Gardens is constructed to the east of Dal Lake and is situated close to the Srinagar city. It is second in size to the Shalimar Bagh in the Kashmir Valley and is known for its terraced lawns, fountains and flowerbeds. This garden is situated near Pari Mahal, Nishat Bagh, Shalimar Bagh, Naseem Bagh and Chashma Shahi. The best time to enjoy the beauty of this garden and surroundings is during the spring season. Nishat Bagh - It is also known for around 12 terraces, fountains, flowerbeds and huge lawns that attract travellers. Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan was impressed with the beauty of this garden and hoped that his father-in-law would gift this place to him. When he did not receive this place in gift, he ordered for the closure of the water supply to this garden. Nishat Bagh was constructed in 1633 by Abdul Hasan Asaf Khan, brother of Nur Jahan and father of Mumtaz Mahal. It is among the largest Mughal Gardens built in the region, which has some of the rare species of flowers and artefacts. The bagh is located on the banks of Dal Lake with Zabarwan Hills on the backdrop. Chashm-e-Shahi Gardens - Visitors can also see multiple flowers and fruits in this garden along with some of the rarest species of plants. The fresh water spring in the garden is said to have medicinal value that can cure many diseases. Chashm-e-Shahi Gardens was established in 1632, which extends with a length of 108 m and breadth of 38 m. This is the smallest among all the Mughal Gardens in Srinagar, which is also called as Royal Spring. It is situated close to the Nehru Memorial Park and has three different sections covering, fountains, waterfalls and an aqueduct. Indira Gandhi Tulip Garden - The garden covers approximately 90 acres of land and houses 1.3 million tulip bulbs that overlook the Dal Lake. It is situated in vicinity of Shalimar Garden, Nishat Garden, Chashm-e-Shahi Gardens and other Mughal Gardens. Indira Gandhi Tulip Garden is situated at the foothills of Zabarwan Mountains, which is near the banks of Dal Lake. This garden is around 8 km from Srinagar and is known for annual Tulip Festival that continues for 7 days. It is one of the spacious gardens in Srinagar and is known to have more than 70 varieties of coloured tulip flowers. Shalimar Gardens - It is further 300 km from the closest railhead in Jammu and is connected by road with both Jammu and Srinagar.It has been constructed as per the layout of the famous Chahar Bagh in Persia. This bagh covers an area of approximately 31 acres and is surrounded by chinar trees. It is also linked with the water of Dal Lake through a canal, measuring 1.6 km in length. Shalimar Bagh is situated at a distance of 15 km from Srinagar and around 25 km from the nearest airport in Badgam District. Shalimar Bagh is one of the beautiful gardens in Srinagar, which is regarded as the monument of love. It was built in 1616 by Mughal Emperor Jahangir for his wife, Nur Jahan. This garden houses four terraces, fountains and a canal. Nagin Lake - Water skiing facilities and fibreglass sailing boats are also available at this lake. There is a Nagin Club situated on the banks of this lake, which has a tea pavilion and a bar. The ideal time for travelling to this lake is from June to August. Nagin Lake is also called as the 'Jewel in the Ring', which is situated on the backdrop of the Dal Lake. There is a narrow causeway separating this Nagin Lake and the Dal Lake, where tourists can spot numerous houseboats and Shikaras. It is an isolated lake as compared to Dal Lake, which has less polluted and deep that is suitable for swimming. Amarnath Cave - The site is under close surveillance of Indian Paramilitary Forces and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). For visiting the holy premise of Amarnath temple, prior permission from the authorities is required. Amarnath Cave, one of the prime attractions of the destination, is located at an average altitude of 3,888 m above sea level. Believed to be 5,000 years old, the cave is considered as an integral part of ancient Hindu mythology and is dedicated to Lord Shiva. The cave is 60 feet in length, 15 ft in height and 30 ft in width. It is believed that at this site, Lord Shiva revealed the secrets of immortality to his wife, Goddess Parvati. The cave is famous for its enshrined ice stalagmite that resembles the Shivalingam. Hazratbal Mosque - The word ‘Hazrat’ means holy or majestic and the Kashmiri word ‘bal’ refers to a place or an enclosure. This shrine consists of a relic, which is believed to have a hair of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad. Hazratbal Mosque is known by several names like Asar-e-Sharif, Dargah Sharif and Madinat-us-Sani. This shrine is situated on the banks of Dal Lake and is opposite to Nishat Bagh. It is a white marble mosque which has large mountains in the backdrop. The mosque has been built with a fusion of Mughal and Kashmiri styles of architecture. Pari Mahal or Quntilon - There is a lawn along with a spring at this site that has different varieties of fruits and flowers and is located around 10 km from the city centre. Pari Mahal refers to the 'House of Fairies', which is also popularly known as 'Quntilon'. This monument is located above the Chashm-e-Shahi Gardens and was once a Buddhist monastery. It later became a school of astrology that got huge promotion by Dara Shikoh, the eldest son of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan. Wullar Lake - The important fish species in this lake are rosy barb, common carp and mosquito fish. Terrestrial birds like short-toed eagle, blue rock pigeon, golden oriole, alpine swift and sparrow hawk can also. Wullar Lake is considered to be the largest fresh water lake in India, which also serves as a natural reservoir in the region. This lake draws water from Jhelum River and is home to different species of birds. Situated amidst this lake are the remains of an island built by the king Zain-ul-abidin that attracts number of travellers. Some of the important streams like Erin, Aarah, Harbuji and Pohru flow into this lake. It is situated near the famous Nal Sarovar Bird Sanctuary and can be visited between the months of April and June. Manasbal Lake - Manasbal Lake is situated at around 30 km north of the main city of Srinagar, which is the summer capital of the state of Jammu & Kashmir. This lake is surrounded by villages like Jarokbal, Gratbal and Kondabal. It is regarded as one of the supreme gems of all Kashmir lakes, which is full of lotus. July and August is considered to be the ideal time to enjoy water skiing in the deep water of the lake. Dachigam Wildlife Sanctuary - Being a home to flora and fauna of the Himalayan range, the national park is divided into two sectors of Dachigam, including the lower and the upper Dachigam. A wide variety of vegetation is present in the sanctuary including grassland, rain forest, coniferous forest and broad leaved woodland. Dotted with bare rock faces and alpine pastures, the national park is a home to the most endangered species of red deer. Dachigam Wildlife Sanctuary is one of the most beautiful tourist attractions renowned for offering natural habitat to rare Kashmir stag Hangul and black and brown bears. Surrounded by mountains and beautiful flora, the sanctuary sprawls across an area of around 141 sq. km. Situated at an average altitude ranging from 5,500 to 14,000 ft above sea level, the sanctuary was declared as a National Park in 1951. Jama Masjid - There are two wide paths in the compound that portrays the ancient Mughal architectural style. It is commonly known as the Friday Mosque, which was built in 1398 and the present structure was restored in 1674.Jama Masjid is one of the oldest mosques in Srinagar, which has been destroyed and restored several times. It is considered to be a monument of Islamic architecture and has a building that does not have any topped dome. This mosque was constructed in 1674 with four spires tower, prayer halls, 370 pillars and many more. Each one of these pillars is made using a single piece of deodar trunk. Chinar Bagh - The park is restored in its original structure with three islands having musical fountains, swings and kiosks. Apart from this, the park also has an open air theatre, which is constructed for hosting cultural programs in the evenings. Camp fires, fishing and swimming competitions are organised for the travellers in this park. The park is constructed by Tourism Department at a cost of around 3 crore rupees. Being an abode of Britishers during their rule, the park is developed with an idea to present Kashmiri tradition and culture to the travellers. Charar-i-Sharif - Charar-i-Sharif is a holy shrine which is situated around 28 km from Srinagar. This shrine is more than 600 years old and is commonly known as Hazrat Sheikh Noor-ud-Din Wali. It was built for commemorating Sheikh Noor-ud-Din Noorani, who was a Sufi Muslim saint. The saint was born in 1377 and was called as Nund Rishi, who was a spiritual heir of a female saint, named Lal Ded. Jyeshtheswara temple - Some other researchers believe that this temple was built in 6th century by king Gopaditya and others believe that it was constructed by Jaluka, son of Emperor Ashoka. In 8th century, this temple was renovated and remodelled by King Lalitaditya Muktapida. Jyeshtheswara Temple holds various myths and beliefs as it is considered to be built by Pandavas during 5th century. Shupiyan - The site is popular for supplying apples to the markets all across India. Apart from this, Aharbal Waterfall, Rambi Ara, Jama Masjid, Kungwatan, Kowsernag, Lawahinthora Shahlatoo and Nagi Rai Nag at Sofannaman are the other prime attractions of the town. Besides, tourists visiting this town can also visit Sulphar Spring at Dhobijan, which is known for its medicinal properties. Shupiyan is one of the beautiful places located in the vicinity of Srinagar and is known as the ‘Apple Town of Kashmir’. Rainwari - Rainawari is a sacred site in Srinagar, which houses a gurudwara. It is surrounded by beautiful mountains and has cool and pleasant weather conditions. The gurudwara at this place was constructed by the sixth guru of Sikh, Guru Hargobind Sahib ji, who named it as Chatti Padshahi Gurudwara. Chatti Padshahi Gurudwara is located nearby Kathi Darwaza of Hari Parbat Fort. Hari Parbat Fort - Tourists have to seek special permission from this department for visiting the ancient fort. Sharika Devi Temple and Lal Mandi Square are situated in vicinity of this fort.Hari Parbat Fort is situated to the western side of the Dal Lake, which is an ancient Mughal Fort. This fort was built in 18th century by Atta Muhammad Khan, an Afghan governor. The surrounding walls of this fort were constructed by the Mughal Emperor Akbar in 1590. This place is currently maintained by the Archaeological Department of Jammu and Kashmir. Sri Pratap Singh Museum - This place is famous for its ancient brass model of Lokeshvara and a green stone structure of Lord Vishnu sitting on Garuda. A 5th century copper image of Buddha which has been carved in Gandhara architectural style. Some of the important items on display in the museum are paintings, ancient coins, Ladakhi handicrafts, shawls and arms. Sri Pratap Singh Museum holds historical importance, as it was the erstwhile summer place of the kings of the princely state of Kashmir. The museum was established in 1898, which houses some of the rare terracotta heads of 3rd century that were collected from the Buddhist site in Ushkur. It also has various moulded terracotta plaques dating back to 4th and 5th century from Harwan. Burzahom - This site is situated at around 10 km north-east of the city of Srinagar. It was excavated for about six seasons from 1961 to 1968, which yielded 10 human skeletons. These human skeletons were of several cultural stages including Neolithic, Neolithic-Megalithic and some other early historic cultures.Burzahom holds archaeological importance and is situated to the north-west of Shalimar Gardens. It is the first Neolithic site that was exposed in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The word Burzahom means 'place of birth' in the local language and is known to have ancient artefacts dating back to more than 5,000 years. The main archaeological materials collected from this site are animal skeletons, tools, pots, tools, arrowheads and implements of Neolithic age. Rozabal shrine - Recent claims state that this tomb belongs to Jesus Christ, who survived the crucifixion wounds and came to this place. His body has been buried as per the Jewish traditions and not according to the Islamic tradition. Natives also believe that this building has a burial tomb of a local Muslim saint, named Mir Sayyid Naseeruddin, who was buried according to the Islamic traditions. This tomb is currently maintained by a Board of Directors including Sunni Muslims.Roza BAL Shrine is situated in Khanyar District in Srinagar, which is being claimed by both Muslims and Christians. Muslims believe that this shrine is a tomb of a saint named Yuz Asaf, whereas several researchers believe that this Shrine has the holy body of Jesus Christ. This shrine is also known as Ziarati Hazrati Youza Asouph, which is still under controversy between Muslims and Christians. Kathi Darwaza - All these inscriptions are related to the Persian beliefs and culture that was practised by the Mughal rulers. Kathi Darwaza is one of the two gates of the Hari Parbat Fort or the Mughal Fort, which is situated near the Dal Lake. The second gate is known as Sangin Darwaza and Kathi Darwaza is the main entrance to the fort. It has a domed chamber in the centre along with two recesses on either side. Visitors can also see few Persian commemorative inscriptions on the walls and ceilings of this gate. Nasim Bagh - In 1586, this garden was constructed by the famous Mughal Emperor Akbar and it gives a beautiful view of Dal Lake. The Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan planted more than 1,200 trees in the garden in 1635. This site is open all round the year and can be best visited from April to June.Nasim Bagh or the Garden of Breezes is situated to the west of the Dal Lake. This bagh is one of the popular Mughal Gardens in the region, which has huge lawns and camping facilities for the visitors. The bagh is located on the banks of Jhelum River and is known for lakes and houseboats. Travellers can also find dry fruits and traditional Kashmiri handicrafts at this site. Tomb of Madin Sahib - Tomb of Madin Sahib is a unique tomb, which was built in the memory of Saint Madin Sahib. This tomb is located towards the north of Madin Sahib Mosque in Zadibal. It has the 15th century Kashmiri architectural style with the exterior walls ornamented with tiles. Dastgir Sahib Shrine - Dastgir Sahib Shrine, situated in Srinagar, is free from external disturbances. From many centuries, this shrine has been known for its communal harmony and syncretism. There are colourful panels in this shrine that have been carved for wrenching down the Aytal Kursi. Pilgrims visit this shrine and tie threads to the wooden ledge for fulfilling their wishes. Khanqah of Shah Hamdan - On the sixth day of Dul Hajj, which is the last month according to the Islamic Lunar Calendar, this shrine is crowded by several devotees. Prayers are offered on the death anniversary of the saint at this shrine. Khanqah of Shah Hamdan, popularly known as Shah-i-Hamdan Mosque, is also called as Khanqah-e-Molla. This shrine has been built along the Jhelum River by Sultan Sikander in 1400. He constructed this shrine in honour of Mir Syed Ali Hamdani, who popularised Islam in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. There is a wooden structure inside this shrine which is covered with carved roof and hanging bells. Interiors of this shrine are carved beautifully with historical inscriptions and religious sermons. Masjid of Akhund Mullah - It also has a stone lotus erected on the top of the podium, which has an inscription that dates back to 1649. There is a specially constructed prayer chamber inside this mosque that attracts number of devotees. Masjid of Akhund Mullah is a mosque within a mosque that has the main sanctuary in a courtyard. It is a small mosque which was constructed by Dara Shikoh, son of Shah Jahan, for honouring his tutor Akhun Mulla Shah. This mosque is located below the Makhdum Sahib Mosque and has been built using grey limestone. Sangin Darwaza - The best time to visit Sangin Darwaza would be during Harnavami, the birthday of Sharika Devi, in the month of Ashada (mid June to mid July) which is celebrated with great zeal at Sharika Devi Temple with night long singing of hymns in the praise of Goddess. Overlooking the Dal Lake and situated on Hari Parbat, this fort can be reached from two sides of the city. One entrance is from Rainawari through Kathi Darwaza while the other entrance is from Hawal through Sangin Darwaza. Sangin Darwaza is a huge arched gate built with stone in typical Mughal architectural style. Unlike Kathi Darwaza, Sangin Darwaza does not have any Persian inscriptions on the walls and ceiling. The other monuments found inside this fort that are worth visiting near Sangin Darwaza include the shrine of Akhun Mulla, Sharika Devi Temple, and Gurdwara Chatti Patshahi. One can also visit the shrine of Sheikh Hamza Makhdum located right outside the fort Makhdum Sahib Shrine - Makhdum Sahib Shrine is located to the south of Hari Parbat Hill, which is mainly a double storey mosque. It has been built in the name of Sufi Saint Makhdum Sahib or Hazrat Sultan. It is situated below the Hari Parbat Fort and has been constructed as per the archaeological values and ancient culture of the Mughals. This shrine is open all round the year and is visited by tourists and natives alike. Imambara Hassanabad - This graveyard was the resting place of people like Syed Mirza Shah, Baba Ali and Hab Saheb Mulla. There are around five main entry points to this shrine that are constructed specially for women followers. This shrine was constructed in 1857 in a shape of octagon. The architectural style of this shrine has been influenced by the Indo-Iranian construction skills. This shrine is located to the south-west of the main city and is surrounded by Hazratbal Mosque, Chatti Padshahi Gurudwara and Maa Sharda Devi Temple. There is also a Mughal graveyard named, 'Baba Mazar' situated near this shrine. Harwan Gardens - This garden does not have any central canal fountains or terraces and is known for its natural beauty. The canal inside this garden is called as Sarband, which is one of the old drinking water reservoirs that get water from the Dachigam Nallah. This garden is considered to be the starting point of Mahadev Mountain trek and is an ideal gateway to Dachigam Wildlife Sanctuary. It is situated at about 15 km from the main city of Srinagar and is different from other gardens in Srinagar. Khanqah of Khwaja Moinuddin Naqshbandi - Khanqah of Khwaja Moinuddin Naqshbandi is popularly known as Naqshband Shrine, which is located in the city of Srinagar. It holds an important religious significance, as the sacred hair of Prophet Muhammad was kept at this mosque before moving it the Hazratbal Mosque. It was built by Emperor Shah Jahan and is known for its Khatamband ceilings. Hotels of Srinagar Al Hamra Retreat, Srinagar Behind Shalimar Garden Pazzalpura Al Hamra Retreat, Srinagar offers comfy and reasonable keep for each business and leisure travelers who looking for some economical decisions.It is a professionally managed hotel in the heart of the city. This property i The Lalit Grand Palace, Srinagar Near Dal Lake The Lalit Grand Palace, Srinagar is situated on Gupkar Road in Srinagar. Royal Springs Golf Course (Approx. 2km) and Pani mandir (Approx. 5km) are the tourist destinations in the vicinity of the hotel. Other places of at 16,280.00 Avg/night Comrade Inn, Srinagar Comrade Inn, Srinagar is situated at Rajbagh in Srinagar. Tourist destinations like Masjid E Hamza (Approx. 0.5km) and Bhairav Mandir (Approx. 4km) are located in the vicinity of the hotel. More interesting places to be Paradise Hotel, Srinagar Paradise Hotel, Srinagar It is located at the foot of Shankaracharya Hills. Jamia Masjid Buchwara (Approx. 1km) and Shankaracharya Reserved Forest (Approx. 7km) are some nearby destinations from the hotel. Other places i Vivanta By Taj, Srinagar Budshah Chowk Vivanta By Taj, Srinagar Located at Brein in Srinagar, Vivanta By Taj lies in the proximity of tourist hotspots like Char Chinar, Dal Lake (Approx. 3km) and Nishat Mughal Gardens (Approx. 5km). The Mughal Gardens, Shalim New Mamta Hotel, Srinagar Opp.Temple New Mamta Hotel, Srinagar is Situated opposite Khonakhan Dalgate in Srinagar, Hotel New Mamta has tourist attractions like Chinar Bagh Park (Approx. 1km), Kashmir Golf Course (Approx. 2km) in the vicinity. Other places w Welcome Hotel, Srinagar Boulevard Road Welcome Hotel, Srinagar is situated in Boulevard Srinagar and is an ideal destination for frequent travelers. Some of the sight-seeing attractions at a close proximity from the hotel are Tangbagh (Approx. 0.5km) and Gous SunShine Hotel, Srinagar Boulevard Road Srinagar SunShine Hotel, Srinagar is Positioned at Boulevard Road in Srinagar, Hotel Sun Shine lies in the vicinity of Jamia Masjid Buchwara (Approx. 1km) and Royal Springs Golf Course (Approx. 4km). Guests can also visit Shankar Centre Point Hotel, Srinagar Bishamber Nagar Hotel Centre Point - Srinagar is a walking distance from Dal and Nigeen Lake. Hotel Centre Point- Srinagar is just 650 m from Dargah Hazratbal Mosque. It features a multi-cuisine restaurant. In a half-an-hour s drive fro Duke Hotel, Srinagar Boulavard Road Dal Lake Duke Hotel, Srinagar is Situated near Dal lake, Hotel Duke stands at a convenient location and is close to several tourist spots. The Rainwari (Approx. 8km) and Dal Lake (Approx. 9km) are prominent tourist destinations w New Green View Hotel, Srinagar Near Nehru Park Dal Lake New Green View Hotel, Srinagar is located close to the world-famous Dal Lake in Srinagar. The hotel offers free Wi-Fi and travel desk. Located at Ghat No.15 in Nehru Park.This property is created from fine interiors wit Broadway Hotel, Srinagar Mulana Azad Road Broadway Hotel, Srinagar offers comfy and reasonable keep for each business and leisure travelers who looking for some economical decisions.It is a professionally managed hotel in the heart of the city. This property is ShahenShah Palace Hotel, Srinagar ShahenShah Palace Hotel, Srinagar Located at Boulevard in Srinagar, this hotel lies in the proximity of tourist destinations like Boulevard Masjid (Approx. 0.5km), Tangbagh (Approx. 1km). Other hotspots like Chashmashahi Brown Palace Hotel, Srinagar Boulevard Srinagar Brown Palace Hotel, Srinagar offers comfy and reasonable keep for each business and leisure travelers who looking for some economical decisions.It is a professionally managed hotel in the heart of the city. This property Centaur Lake View Hotel, Srinagar Chashma Shahi Centaur Lake View Hotel, Srinagar is located at Chasmesahi in Srinagar. Royal Springs Golf Course (Approx. 0.5km), Shankaracharaya Temple (Approx. 8km) are the tourist destinations easily accessible from the hotel. Other Gulfam Hotel, Srinagar Behind G.B Panth Gulfam Hotel, Srinagar offers comfy and reasonable keep for each business and leisure travelers who looking for some economical decisions.It is a professionally managed hotel in the heart of the city. This property is cr Jamal Resorts, Srinagar JCI Complex Jamal Resorts, Srinagar Positioned at Nishat in Srinagar, Jamal Resorts is surrounded by popular tourist hotspots like Royal Springs Golf Course (Approx. 6km) and Nageen Lake (Approx. 9km). The other places worth seeing Heevan Resort, Srinagar Gupt Ganga Nishat Heevan Resort, Srinagar is Scenically positioned under the Zabarvan Mountains, Heevan Resort is a five minute drive close to the majestic Dal Lake. Situated close to the Royal Springs Golf Course, guests at Heevan Resort Peacock Houseboats, Srinagar Nagin Lake West Peacock Houseboats, Srinagar Located opposite Nagin Club in Srinagar, Peacock Houseboats has tourist attractions like Astaan Shareef Madin Sahib (Approx. 2km) and Nageen Lake (Approx. 6km) in its vicinity. Guests can als Malik Palace Hotel, Srinagar Malik Palace Hotel, Srinagar is to be found in the zone of, Boulevard Road and is easily accessible from various hot spots. Some of them are Dal Lake 11km (approx.), Nishat Bagh 11km (approx.), Shalimar Bagh 14km (approx [First]« Prev1 \| 2 \| 3 \| 4 \| 5 \| 6 \| 7 \| 8 \| 9 \| 10 \| 11 \| 12 \| 13 \| 14 \| Next » [Last] DESTINATIONS OF Jammu n Kashmir Events of Jammu n Kashmir Photos of Jammu n Kashmir	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2072
__label__cc	0.71355	0.28645	Henry Neal hneal@trilogygroup.net Henry Neal is an Associate Broker for The Trilogy Group responsible for marketing retail properties and listings of land and income properties as well providing site selection services for Legacy Academy Childcare Facilities. He has more than 30 years experience as a commercial real estate agent, specializing in the brokerage and development of retail properties. He has sold over $150 million dollars of undeveloped land and $30 million dollars of retail income properties. In the past few years, Henry has specialized in the purchase of bank owned retail income properties. He has also been active in the industrial properties market. He represents developers in assembling land in Kroger and Publix retail strips. Before joining Novak Development Corporation which later merged with Blass Properties, Inc. to become The Trilogy Group, he was the Vice President of Scott Hudgens Companies. He was in charge of marketing the peripheral land surrounding the 10 regional malls the company developed in Georgia. He continued those responsibilities as a Vice President for Wheeler/Kolb Management Companies under a management fee and commission agreement. Henry is active in the community through his involvement with St. David’s Episcopal church where he is a member of the men’s club. He is married with two children in college. Member of the Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors Member of the International Council of Shopping Centers Graduate of Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration Novak, CCIM Founding Member / Managing Partner lnovak@trilogygroup.net Leon Novak is responsible for the alliance relationships with financial partners and individual investors, as well as the overall leadership of the firm along with his two partners, David and Terry. Leon is also a founder and partner with Dimension Development Partners, LLC., a development arm of The Trilogy Group. He has been active in both the local and national real estate markets for the past 44 years and is known in the industry for being a pioneer and self-starter. Prior to The Trilogy Group, Leon was the principal broker for Novak & Associates, Inc., a full-service real estate brokerage firm he founded in 1973, which specialized in free-standing single-tenant and multi-tenant retail property brokerage. A year later he expanded the business by creating Novak Development Corporation with its primary focus being the development of retail properties. Leon who is actively involved in the community and the industry currently serves on the Board of Counselors for the Carter Center and is on the advisory board of BB&T Bank. 2000 recipient of the Silver Phoenix Award for qualifying for the Million Dollar Club of the Atlanta Board of Realtors for 25 years. Member of The Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM) Member of the International Council of Shopping Centers Graduate of the University of Georgia with a Bachelor of Business Administration Blass dblass@trilogygroup.net David Blass is one of the three managing partners of The Trilogy Group, LLC. His primary responsibility is the identification and acquisition of future development sites, quantifying marketable risks and overseeing final project development. David is also a founder and partner of Dimension Development Partners, LLC, a development arm of The Trilogy Group. He brings nearly 35 years of experience in the commercial real estate business including a strong background in retail leasing and tenant relations. Prior to The Trilogy Group, in 1993, David founded Blass Properties, Inc. a full service real estate company specializing in redeveloping and re-tenanting distressed shopping centers. During that time he converted more than one million square feet of underperforming retail assets into highly marketable centers. He also served as a preferred developer and real estate consultant for companies such as Rite Aid Drug Stores and IHOP. In 1996, he teamed up with his future partners subsequently merging their companies to form The Trilogy Group. David focuses specifically on the development of strip shopping centers and single tenant “Build to Suits” with nationally recognized tenants such as the IHOP, Sprint, VisionWorks, Panda Express, West Marine, Floor and Décor, Sleep Number, and Del Taco. David is an active member of the Atlanta community and serves as a board member of Alterman Properties, a privately held real estate company. Member of the Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors. Member of the International Council of Shopping Centers. Graduate of Georgia State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration majoring in Real Estate & Finance. tsullivan@trilogygroup.net Terry Sullivan is responsible for overseeing the development of the strategic direction for the company as well as providing management oversight for the day to day aspects of the business. Along with his two partners he is also responsible for the overall leadership of the firm. He has spent nearly 35 years in the commercial real estate industry and has received numerous awards for his performance as an outstanding producer in Retail Specialty. Prior to The Trilogy Group, Terry worked for CB Commercial Real Estate Services, Inc. for 16 years where he ascended the ranks to become Vice President of Retail Services. His responsibilities included developing market penetration strategies as well as all aspects of site acquisition for major retailers, banks, restaurants and other related uses for shopping centers and/or out parcel locations. He represented both developers and retailers. In 1996, Terry joined Novak Development Corporation as Executive Vice President which was later merged with Blass Properties, Inc. to form The Trilogy Group. Graduate of Ohio State University in Columbus with a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and Real Estate Marla C. Chaliff, CCIM mchaliff@trilogygroup.net Marla Chaliff is Senior Vice President of the Trilogy Group. She is also a founder and partner of Dimension Development Partners, LLC, a development arm of The Trilogy Group. Marla specializes in site selection, land development and market analysis. She has an extensive background representing national tenants throughout the country, with a particular emphasis on retail, restaurant chains, and the banking industry. This includes having been actively involved in banking mergers and acquisitions within the Atlanta market and the Southeast region. Marla’s area of expertise is in the land acquisition process. In her twenty-year tenure in the business, she has specialized in the acquisition of land, with a particular emphasis in assemblages, the purchase of land carve-outs and outparcels. She has relationships with all of the big box tenants and developers that offer these types of opportunities and has vast knowledge of the land purchase process. Marla consults with Sprint Corporate and numerous IHOP franchisees across the country in land acquisition, market analysis, and site development. She has managed both the site selection process and development for her corporate clients. She is experienced in restaurant development, with the construction of approximately 80 IHOP's. Marla also currently serves as a real estate consultant for the Del Taco restaurant chain and Heartland Dental in the Atlanta market. Marla has also worked closely with numerous financial institutions. She has represented clients on both the acquisition and sale of banking properties. She has recently been the exclusive broker for the sale of surplus former Wachovia sites. Her client list includes American Realty Capital, American Financial Realty Trust, Synovus, Habersham Bank, Community Bank of the West, and Bank of North Georgia. Member of the Georgia Chapter of CCIM Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors Top 10 Retail Producer Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors Phoenix Award Graduate of the University of Georgia julie@trilogygroup.net Julie Solomon is a Senior Vice President with The Trilogy Group in Atlanta, and has over 25 years of experience in commercial real estate, specializing in retail services. Julie’s foundation of success is built on providing clients with unparalleled market knowledge and integrity. She joined The Trilogy Group after owning her own business for 13 years. Julie is a recognized industry leader known for her creativity in finding sites. Julie has an extensive background in representing national tenants. She currently represents Best Buy, The Fresh Market, Cobb Theatres, SoulCycle, Bloomin Brands, Skechers, Sears, iFLY, Pinstripes, Advance Auto, Chipotle, The Vitamin Shoppe, Taco Mac, Zoës Kitchen, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Merlin Entertainment (LEGOLand). She is also known for creating lasting relationships which is exemplified by her tenure with Best Buy, whom she has represented for over 17 years as well as Toys R Us, with whom she shared an 18-year relationship. Due to her positive performance record in assisting clients with their strategic expansions, Julie has been instrumental in helping several retailers with their entry into the Atlanta marketplace including Home Depot Expo, IKEA, The Container Store, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Petsmart, ULTA, Linens N Things, American Family Insurance, Caribou Coffee, Zoës Kitchen and Einstein Bros. Bagels. Julie has a reputation for providing detailed, in-depth service to her clients and remains an invaluable resource throughout the transaction. She has completed multiple deals with Home Depot, Petsmart, OfficeMax, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Toys R Us, Linens N Things, Ulta and Goody’s. Julie began her career at Cushman & Wakefield, where she served as the Senior Director of the Retail Division. Prior to starting her own company, she worked at Merchants Resource Realty/Thomas Enterprises in charge of anchor leasing for their Southeast portfolio. Head of the SE/SC Region for the X-Team Retail Services Network Founding Member of the Real Estate Group of Atlanta Commercial Real Estate Licenses in Georgia & Alabama Bachelor of Business Administration-Emory University Director of Brokerage Services cevans@trilogygroup.net Chuck Evans joined The Trilogy Group in 2004 and was named Director of Brokerage Services in 2008. He oversees and is responsible for the growth of the company’s brokerage division, development of new business and focuses on providing comprehensive consulting services to meet clients’ specific needs. Specializing in site selection, land development and market analysis, Chuck represents regional and national retail tenants through helping to develop and implement strategic growth and disposition initiatives in the Southeast and, on occasion, nationally. For some clients, he acts as an outsourced real estate department providing a full range of services from market analysis, reporting and transaction negotiations to Real Estate Committee presentations. His client list includes retailers such as JCPenney, Five Below, Del Taco, West Marine, Floor and Décor, Garden Ridge, Main Event Entertainment, Pet Supplies Plus, Lowe’s Home Improvement Excess Properties, and Ashley Furniture HomeStore.Chuck has also completed multiple deals with Dick’s Sporting Goods, Michaels Arts & Crafts, Ulta Beauty and Kauffman Tire. Prior to joining The Trilogy Group, Chuck was a Vice President with The Staubach Company for nine years, where he represented major retail brands such as Disney Regional Entertainment, Brinker, Target, Sears and Athlete’s Foot. Licensed Agent with the Georgia Real Estate Commission Licensed Agent with the North Carolina Real Estate Commission Licensed Agent with the South Carolina Real Estate Commission Licensed Agent with the Alabama Real Estate Commission Graduate of The University of Alabama with a Bachelor of Science Shanahan Development Partner dshanahan@trilogygroup.net As the Development Partner for The Trilogy Group, David Shanahan oversees the management of critical functions key to the success of the overall business including due diligence, design, permitting, construction and tenant coordination. During his 35 plus years in real estate he has owned his own business for 10 years – Shanahan Development where he provided consulting and development services for a number of major clients in the northeast. He has worked for the Lincoln Property Company in Boston and for Home Depot as the North East Real Estate Manager. He was also the Vice President of Development for Dewberry Capital. David brings to the group a tremendous amount of experience in development. He has worked on projects ranging from high-rise complexes and downtown office buildings to power centers in excess of 500,000 square feet. During his tenure at Home Depot he was responsible for developing over 40 locations throughout the Northeast. He was also involved in the development of 18 Circuit City sites. He prides himself in the level of services the firm handles internally and the broad range of experience they are able to provide to clients. Graduate of Lafayette College As Senior Vice President for The Trilogy Group, Greg Craft specializes in tenant and landlord representation. During his more than 20years in the real estate industry, he has served as real estate manager for major corporations, including Ashland Oil/Super America, Boston Market, Payless ShoeSource and Donato’s Pizzeria Corp, a subsidiary of the McDonalds Corporation. His current and former clients include Advance Auto Parts, Sherwin Williams, Express Oil, Cracker Barrel Old Country Stores, The Krystal Company, Panda Express, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Einstein Brothers Bagels, Raising Cane’s, Hardee’s, Rita’s Water Ice, Donato’s Pizzeria Coroporation and Knockouts Haircuts for Men. Further, Greg also handles real estate development and certain aspects of property management for Rosenfield Restaurants throughout the Southeast including over 100,000 sq. ft. of small retail strip shopping centers. 1992 graduate of Eastern Kentucky University; B.A. in Paralegal Science with a minor in Business Administration Henry Neal is an Associate Broker for The Trilogy Group responsible for marketing retail properties and listings of land and income properties as well providing site selection services for Legacy Academy Childcare Facilities. He has more than 30 years experience as a commercial real estate agent, specializing in the brokerage and development of retail properties. He has sold over $150 million dollars of undeveloped land and $30 million dollars of retail income properties. In the past few years, Henry has specialized in the purchase of bank owned retail income properties. He has also been active in the industrial properties market. He represents developers in assembling land in Kroger and Publix retail strips. Before joining Novak Development Corporation which later merged with Blass Properties, Inc. to become The Trilogy Group, he was the Vice President of Scott Hudgens Companies. He was in charge of marketing the peripheral land surrounding the 10 regional malls the company developed in Georgia. He continued those responsibilities as a Vice President for Wheeler/Kolb Management Companies under a management fee and commission agreement. Henry is active in the community through his involvement with St. David’s Episcopal church where he is a member of the men’s club. He is married with two children in college. McLennan tmclennan@trilogygroup.net Tom McLennan is an Associate for The Trilogy Group who manages national tenant accounts; oversees procurement of new development properties and coordinates lease and development activities with the company’s Development Director. He has spent more than a decade in the commercial real estate business. Prior to becoming member of the Trilogy Group team he worked on site selection and development for Rite Aid Drug Pharmacies. Member of the North Buckhead Neighborhood Planning Unit Graduate of the University of Georgia with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Real Estate. tdozier@trilogygroup.net Taylor Dozier is a Vice President with The Trilogy Group specializing in tenant representation. He is responsible for site selection, market analysis and strategic growth initiatives for numerous retail clients. Taylor represents many retail and restaurant users including Chipotle, Bloomin’ Brands, Wendy’s, Lazy Dog Restaurants, Velvet Taco, Hattie B’s Hot Chicken, Snooze AM Eatery, by Chloe, Tropical Smoothie Café, Tin Drum Asian Kitchen, Pet People, Blink Fitness, Skechers, iFly, HIGH Country Outfitters, and Advance Auto Parts as well as concepts local to the Atlanta market. Taylor also represents landowners and landlords with leasing and disposition, with national clients such as Sears to local investors. Taylor brings over 13 years of experience in the Atlanta retail market. Previously, he worked with Sterling Organization and was responsible for the leasing and management of North DeKalb Mall in preparations for redevelopment. Taylor spent 7 years at Hendon Properties as a Development Associate in Atlanta working on acquisitions, site selection and various development process roles. At Hendon Taylor performed due diligence and underwriting of the Hull Storey portfolio, consisting of 13 mall properties in addition to various open air centers in major and secondary markets throughout the Southeast. Taylor performed market studies and site selection for national tenants for the purpose of shopping center development or redevelopment. He also served as tenant representative broker for Cracker Barrel Old Country Stores in Georgia. Throughout his career, Taylor has forged many meaningful relationships throughout the industry. He has a creative approach to site selection and puts his clients first. Taylor and his wife Katie live in Atlanta in Collier Hills with their young son, Hunt and newborn daughter, Bailey. The Lovett School Alumni Executive Board University of Virginia Club of Atlanta HIGH Museum Wine Auction Buckhead Coalition Diplomatic Leadership Corp Bachelor of Arts, University of Virginia	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2074
__label__cc	0.61321	0.38679	Las Vegas Tribune - http://www.lasvegastribune.com Las Vegas Round The Clock - http://www.lasvegasroundheclock.com The Women Film Critics Circle - http://www.wfcc.wordpress.comThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it."> kreatia@This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. "THE LAKE HOUSE" - WHERE TIME IS OF THE ESSENSE Can two lovers separated by time somehow find a way to cross the barrier, connect, and live happily ever after? In the world of Hollywood fantasy movies anything is possible, no matter how implausible or improbable. After all, we have seen the premise of people struggling to connect from different timeframes explored from various storyline angles dozens of times. “Back to the Future” and “Frequency”, are just a few film examples that ring a bell. Becoming emotionally invested in the characters’ quest to fulfill a longing and turn hope into a reality is what makes the effort work or not. My favorite romantic tale about time crossed lovers is the 1980 Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour vehicle, “Somewhere in Time” which just happens to have a few other things in common with The Lake House: the setting of Chicago and a supporting co-star, Christopher Plummer. But, that is where the similarities end. What’s different about The Lake House is the unique spin of a magical mailbox used as a plot device that acts as a conduit for the two principals to communicate with each other. As with all movies that delve into this territory, audiences must throw some reason and logic to the wind. The Lake House, as a romantic, “supernatural” fantasy depends on us doing just that. I have no problem with suspending belief, but being left confused is another thing. Without a doubt, The Lake House, an American remake of the 2000 Korean film “Il Mare”, is a sensitive and endearing romantic tale that had me absorbed into the romantic couple’s dilemma, but it loses ground by way of paradoxes and unexplained scenes. In the end I know I was not alone in feeling more confused than emotionally satisfied. Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves are re-united on screen for the first time since “Speed”, the film that turned them into stars. Bullock is Kate Forster, an isolated and lonely Chicago doctor and Reeves is Alex Wyler, a talented but frustrated architect who share more than a few things in common. Both have resided at the same lakeside glass house built on stilts on the outskirts of Chicago and somehow own the same shaggy female pooch named Jack. It is made obvious that the house holds a dear place in each of their hearts. Kate feels at home and at peace there, and for Alex it was his estranged father Simon (Christopher Plummer) a famous architect, who built the house as a gift for Alex’s mother in happier times. Each is also bonded by a past ridden with disappointments and something missing in their lives. Communication between the two start off when Kate relocates to a condo in the city and leaves behind a note in the mailbox outside the lakeside house asking the next tenant to kindly forward her mail to her new address. Enter Alex. When he is unable to deliver a letter to Kate because her condo complex is still under construction and won’t be completed for eighteen months, it appears that something unexplainable and strange is happening. After corresponding for a while, more facts come to light and both come to realize they are living two years apart, she in the present day 2006 and he in 2004. As the two exchange letters revealing more and more about themselves and what is going on in their lives they begin to fall in love. Eventually they realize that they have indeed met before, crossing paths, not once but twice, first at a train station and again at her birthday celebration during her involvement with Morgan, an attorney played by Dylan Walsh (of TV’s Nip/Tuck). The story unfolds by jumping back and forth from 2006 to 2004 in a non-linear fashion with subplots surrounding Alex and Kate that involve family, and other relationships. Anxious to reach out and touch one another Alex makes an attempt to find Kate in his time period while Kate waits for Alex to catch up in hers. In the meantime they are unaware that their actions are creating pieces that are slowing bridging the gap. However, one has to put their brain on hold to ignore the paradoxes, loopholes and plot discrepancies that ensue. The riddled with holes screenplay expects us to just go with the flow and accept everything as given. I can’t when certain things don’t make much sense. Hey, I am a fool for love. No one is more of a sucker for romance than me. And, if this review comes across as a total pan, let me add that the positive elements may bring me back for a second look. Visually speaking, the Chicago locations, architecture, and cinematography are pretty and set the mood. And most important, the stars, Keanu (yes, he CAN act) and Sandra do make a beautiful couple, have a nice chemistry and bring believable depth to their prospective roles. For these reasons the Lake House definitely warrants a visit. But don’t say I didn’t warn you about leaving your thinking cap at the door. You are here: Home Movie Reviews Judy Thorburn Movie Reviews The Lake House	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2079
__label__wiki	0.534012	0.534012	‘Death To America’: Iran Is Poised To Unleash Hordes Of Hezbollah Terrorists On U.S. Soil If the U.S. goes to war with Iran, we won’t just be fighting the Iranian military. In recent years, Hezbollah has grown into the most powerful terror organization that the world has ever seen. It is best known for causing all sorts of chaos in the Middle East, but today it has an extensive presence in Europe, Africa, Latin America and North America. Hezbollah has made billions selling drugs inside the United States, and at one point they had more than 70 used car dealers in this country through which they were laundering drug money. Of course the primary source of funding for Hezbollah is Iran. The terror organization was founded in 1985 with heavy support from Iran, and according to Wikipedia “most of its financial, training, weapons, explosives, political, diplomatic, and organizational aid” currently comes from the Iranians. In essence, Hezbollah is Iran’s terror arm, and so if we go to war with Iran we will find ourselves in a conflict with Hezbollah as well. Most Americans have no idea what a full-blown conflict with Hezbollah could look like. For a moment, just imagine thousands of extremely well-trained terrorists shooting up and blowing up soft targets all across America. The sheer panic that would cause would immediately paralyze our entire society. But Iran always knew that if Hezbollah started conducting terror attacks in the United States that we would blow them off the map. We made it exceedingly clear that we would hold Iran responsible for whatever Hezbollah did, and that prevented Hezbollah from hitting U.S. targets over the last couple of decades. However, if the U.S. and Iran get engaged in a full-blown war in the Middle East and missiles start flying all over the place, there won’t be any reason for Hezbollah to hold back any longer. And last Friday we literally came within 10 minutes of war with Iran. The following comes from Fox News… President Trump confirmed early Friday that he called off a retaliatory attack on Iran in response to the downing of a U.S. drone “10 minutes before the strike,” saying the number of expected casualties was not “proportionate” to what Tehran did. In a stunning tweet thread, the president said the U.S. was “cocked & loaded to retaliate” with plans to hit three sites, but he reversed course after asking military leaders about how many would be killed. Just because that attack was pulled back does not mean that the threat is over. In fact, Trump is threatening Iran with “obliteration like you’ve never seen before” if they don’t immediately come to the negotiating table and agree to end their nuclear weapons program… President Donald Trump warned the United States may launch a devastating military attack on Iran unless it comes to the negotiating table and drops its bid to develop nuclear weapons. “I’m not looking for war, and if there is, it’ll be obliteration like you’ve never seen before. But I’m not looking to do that. But you can’t have a nuclear weapon. You want to talk? Good. Otherwise you can have a bad economy for the next three years,” Trump said during an interview with NBC’s “Meet The Press” airing Sunday. Of course Iran isn’t going to do that. In fact, the Iranians seem to be ready to rumble. On Sunday, there was a chant of “death to America” by Iranian lawmakers on state radio… “America is the real terrorist in the world by spreading chaos in countries, giving advanced weapons to terrorist groups, causing insecurity, and still it says ‘Come, let’s negotiate’,” the parliament’s deputy speaker, Masoud Pezeshkian, said at the start of a session broadcast live on state radio. “Death to America,” chanted many lawmakers. The chants, often repeated since the 1979 Islamic revolution which toppled the U.S.-backed Shah, came weeks after Trump said in a U.S. television interview: “They (Iranians) haven’t screamed ‘death to America’ lately.” Unlike our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, if there is a war with Iran it won’t just be limited to the Middle East. Iran has an extremely sophisticated intelligence network of their own, and everyone agrees that they have many agents deeply embedded inside the United States. In fact, late last year two of them were arrested and charged with espionage… The U.S. has charged two alleged agents of Iran, accusing them of conducting covert surveillance of Israeli and Jewish facilities in the United States and collecting intelligence on Americans linked to a political organization that wants to see the current Iranian government overthrown. Earlier this week, Ahmadreza Doostdar, 38, a dual U.S.-Iranian citizen born in Long Beach, California, and Majid Ghorbani, 59, who has lived and worked in Costa Mesa, California, since he arrived in the United States in the mid-1990s, were charged with acting as illegal agents for Tehran. Ghorbani, who denies the charges, became a legal permanent resident of the United States in 2015. But without a doubt, Hezbollah is an even greater terror threat. If you are not that familiar with Hezbollah, here is a pretty good overview from the Heritage Foundation… Hezbollah regards terrorism not only as a useful tool for advancing its revolutionary agenda, but also as a religious duty as part of a “global jihad.” It helped to introduce and popularize the tactic of suicide bombings in Lebanon in the 1980s, developed a strong guerrilla force and a political apparatus in the 1990s, provoked a war with Israel in 2006, intervened in the Syrian civil war after 2011 at Iran’s direction, and has become a major destabilizing influence in the ongoing Arab–Israeli conflict. Hezbollah murdered more Americans than any other terrorist group before September 11, 2001. Despite al-Qaeda’s increased visibility since then, Hezbollah remains a bigger, better equipped, better organized, and potentially more dangerous terrorist organization, in part because it enjoys the support of the two chief state sponsors of terrorism in the world today: Iran and Syria. And as I stated earlier, today Hezbollah has become a global powerhouse. In fact, most Americans don’t realize that Hezbollah has been extremely active inside the United States for a very long time. About a decade ago, a DEA operation discovered that Hezbollah was bringing in “$1 billion a year from money laundering, criminal activities, and drug and weapons trade”, but that operation was ultimately shut down by the Obama administration. The following comes from Newsweek… Project Cassandra, a campaign launched by the Drug Enforcement Administration in 2008, found that the Iran-backed military and political organization collected $1 billion a year from money laundering, criminal activities, and drug and weapons trade, according to Politico. Over the following eight years, the agency found that Hezbollah was involved in cocaine shipments from Latin America to West Africa, as well as through Venezuela and Mexico to the United States. The Obama administration halted Project Cassandra as it was approaching the upper echelons of Hezbollah’s conspiracy in order to seal a nuclear deal with Iran, even though Hezbollah was still funneling cocaine into America. Officials at the U.S. Justice and Treasury departments delayed the project’s requests to conduct relevant investigations, prosecutions and arrests. Obama eventually helped strike the Iran deal with several other nations in 2015. And according to Politico, one of the things that the operation uncovered was the fact that a lot of drug money was being laundered by “buying American used cars and shipping them to Africa”… They followed cocaine shipments, some from Latin America to West Africa and on to Europe and the Middle East, and others through Venezuela and Mexico to the United States. They tracked the river of dirty cash as it was laundered by, among other tactics, buying American used cars and shipping them to Africa. And with the help of some key cooperating witnesses, the agents traced the conspiracy, they believed, to the innermost circle of Hezbollah and its state sponsors in Iran. As I noted earlier, at one point there were more than 70 used car dealers in the U.S. that were involved in this scheme. But thanks to Barack Obama, Project Cassandra was shut down before it could strike a decisive blow against Hezbollah’s financial networks in the United States, and we could end up paying a great price for that negligence. Right now, there is no terror organization in the entire world that is better armed than Hezbollah. As I noted last week, they have accumulated 150,000 missiles for use in a future war with Israel. And considering what a joke U.S. border security has become in recent years, it wouldn’t exactly be difficult to get weapons across our border. In fact, Hezbollah cells inside the United States are undoubtedly already very well armed and very well prepared for military operations inside the United States. We live in extremely ominous times, and one wrong move by the Trump administration could set off a chain of events that nobody is going to be able to control. As I close this article, let me leave you with this chilling warning from the Heritage Foundation… Covert Hezbollah cells could morph into other forms and launch terrorist operations inside the United States. Given Hezbollah’s close ties to Iran and past record of executing terrorist attacks on Tehran’s behalf, there is a real danger that Hezbollah terrorist cells could be activated inside the United States in the event of a conflict between Iran and the U.S. or Israel. Unfortunately, hardly anyone is talking about this. Everyone seems to assume that all of the death and destruction will happen on the other side of the world if we go to war with Iran, but that simply isn’t true. In the event of a full-blown war, the Iranians and Hezbollah would be determined to shed as much blood on U.S. soil as they possibly could, and that is not something that we should take lightly. About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News. From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites. If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so. The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time. 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__label__cc	0.653172	0.346828	Why Municipal Taxes keep rising. A lo... Home » Community News » Why Municipal Taxes ... Why Municipal Taxes keep rising. A look at Metro Vancouver Organizational Structure As usual, Globe 2014 was well planned and executed. However, the session organized by metro Vancouver titled: “The National Zero Waste Council: Advancing a Waste Prevention and Reduction Agenda in Canada” was disappointing and made me reflect on the sponsor of that session, Metro Vancouver, which keeps expanding its services and generously reward municipal politicians and its CEO at the taxpayers account. The cozy relationship between the CEO and the board, enabled him to run it as a privately owned corporation. On its website, you cannot find any information about its operational costs, or who works there and their remuneration as conventionally done by corporation owned by the taxpayers. METRO VANCOUVER is NOT the CITY OF VANCOUVER. It used to be called, Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD). For some mysterious reasons, CEO, Johnny Carline decided to change its name to Metro Vancouver. A member of the board could tell us how much money has been wasted to undertake this effort, but none of them would be available. They are away on a trip to discover how tourist destinations in Europe incinerate their garbage.  The most recent figures I could find about travel cost of an Honorable Board member was about David Cadman, an ex-Councilor at the City of Vancouver, who charged GVRD $8,358 in travel expenses in one year, over and above his benefits. Last figure I could find for the salary of the CEO was in 2006 in Georgia Straight. It was over $250,000 plus perks (http://www.straight.com/news/cadman-tops-list). Metro Vancouver is a utility company funded by municipal taxes to manage water supply, wastewater treatment and disposal, solid waste disposal, and air quality management for member cities, but over the years it has been expanding its activities in areas foreign to its purpose, such as 911 services (I am not joking). Upon winning a municipal election, councilors/mayors become qualified expert to set no the board of Metro Vancouver, although they do not have the technical or management expertise to qualify for corporate governance for such a huge, sophisticated engineering operation. They cannot be impartial because they have vested interest for a financial reward offered by the same CEO whom they are supposed to oversee his performance. If becoming a board member is part of their job, why would they get paid twice: Once from the city and from Metro Vancouver (http://www.metrovancouver.org/boards/remuneration/Pages/default.aspx) For example, the Chair of the Board, Greg Moore, is paid a salary of more than $90,000 a year from the City of Coquitlam. In addition, he gets another $90,000 as the Chair of Metro Vancouver board. If being the Chair is not part of his job as a mayor, he should not do it because he is hired FULL-TIME to serve his city. The law does not allow a mayor to moonlight in another job. If that is part of his job, why would he be paid another $90,000 + perks plus a fee for attending the meetings? Doesn’t this look like triple dipping? The same applies to other councilors on the board (http://www.metrovancouver.org/boards/remuneration/Pages/default.aspx). Because they are technically inept to evaluate the operation, they have to put their trust in the CEO whom they are supposed to oversee his performance. To get rid of ambiguity, Metro Vancouver should return to its old name Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD). Metro Vancouver should have a non-political professional board of directors qualified to oversee its operations. It will be held accountable to the member cities and makes operation of metro Vancouver becomes an arm’s length from the politicians. Like any corporation funded by taxpayers, Metro Vancouver should report on its website who works there and their remunerations, and where their money is spent. It is time to stop wasting our municipal taxes and get municipal politicians do their job and stop moonlighting at Metro Vancouver, I meant the GVRD. Why vote NO to an extra 0.5% sales tax increase (congestion tax) Please invite friends, neighbours, and colleagues Welcome to the New Era Club! webmaster 5 years, 12 months ago in Group Forums	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2081
__label__wiki	0.862799	0.862799	Ex-South Korean Leader Given 8 More Years admin \| July 20, 2018 \| Asia Pacific, Politics, World \| No Comments July 20, 2018 – Seoul Central District Court today sentenced former South Korean President Park Geun-hye to an additional eight years for abusing state funds and violating election laws. She now faces the prospect of more than three decades behind bars. She’s already serving a 24-year prison term over a massive corruption scandal that led to her removal from office last year. Seoul Central District Court today found her guilty of causing substantial losses to state coffers by unlawfully receiving about 3 billion won ($2.6 million) from chiefs of the National Intelligence Service during her presidency and sentenced her to six years in prison. However, she was found not guilty of bribery charges related to the money transfers. The court said it was unclear whether the spy chiefs sought or received favors in return. The court separately sentenced Park to two years in prison for breaking election laws by meddling in her party candidate’s nomination while attempting to win more spots for her loyalists ahead of the parliamentary elections in 2016. She didn’t appear in court. Park’s conservative party failed to gain a majority in the National Assembly after the parliamentary vote in April 2016. Analysts then said voters were frustrated over what they saw as Park’s heavy-handed and uncompromising leadership style and inability to tolerate dissent within her party, which triggered rifts between her loyalists and reformists. The party’s defeat loomed large months later in December when an opposition-controlled parliament suspended Park’s powers by passing a bill on her impeachment. Millions of protesters had poured onto the streets calling for Park’s ouster amid allegations that she colluded with a longtime confidant to take tens of millions of dollars from companies in bribes and extortion and allowed the friend to secretly manipulate state affairs. The court convicted Park on most of these charges when it sentenced her to 24 years in prison in April. The ruling marked a stunning fall from grace for the country’s first female leader who won the 2012 presidential election by more than a million votes. Park enjoyed overwhelming support from conservatives who remember her father, staunch anti-communist dictator Park Chung-hee, as a hero whose aggressive industrial policies lifted the nation from the devastation of the 1950-53 Korean War and rescued millions from poverty. Critics see the elder Park as a brutal dictator who tortured and executed dissidents. While Park’s prison term currently adds up to 32 years, this could change, and potentially get even longer, depending on rulings of appeals courts. Prosecutors appealed Park’s 24-year term on charges including bribery and abuse of state power and are now demanding 30 years in prison. The Seoul High Court will rule on the case on Aug. 24. Following her impeachment, Park was formally removed from office following a ruling by the country’s Constitutional Court in March last year and was arrested weeks later. Australia Urges Indonesia To Spare Smuggler Facing Execution Indians Declare US$500m In Black Money In Tax Crackdown Malaysia Finance Ministry Says 1MDB’s Cayman Islands Funds In Singapore Bank Account	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2082
__label__cc	0.724762	0.275238	Why Stop At Birth? Page 19 of 32 First ... 91617181920212229 ... Last Thread: Why Stop At Birth? March 14th, 2019, 01:37 PM #271 glorydaz TOL Subscriber Originally Posted by ok doser i would think there'd be a larger market for donor organs Yep, basically selling children. Originally Posted by Kit the Coyote Or banning sex altogether. Good luck with that one. The Following User Says Thank You to glorydaz For Your Post: JudgeRightly (March 14th, 2019) Originally Posted by JudgeRightly It's one thing to try to regulate people's thoughts. It's quite another to prohibit actions that harm other people. And people having sex harms other people? Or using contraceptives harms other people? Perhaps I'm missing your point. Sure. But abstinence until marriage (between a man and a woman only) is even better than an unmarried man and woman having sex and using contraceptives, because contraceptives only work most of the time to prevent pregnancy, whereas abstinence is guaranteed (barring rape) to prevent pregnancy. Since there's no way to enforce abstinence, I fail to see why contraceptives aren't better than nothing. In fact, not everyone who finds themselves with an unwanted pregnancy sees abortion as an option. I was a rubber baby myself (as my mom used to say). If people don't face consequences for their actions, then they'll continue doing those things that harm them. And? I still fail to see your point. We live in a world of sin, but reaping what you sew is a natural law, wouldn't you say? People live and learn or they don't learn. That has been the way from the beginning of time. I seriously doubt we can change that. JudgeRightly Originally Posted by glorydaz People having sex outside of marriage harms people, and causes problems for those who are conceived as a result. Since there's no way to enforce abstinence, I fail to see why contraceptives aren't better than nothing. If two unmarried people (male and female) are caught having sex outside of marriage (in other words, fornication), they should be forced to marry, and never be allowed to divorce. If it's homosexual, both are to be put to death, for homosexuality is an abomination. If it's adultery, both the adulterer and the adulteress should be put to death. In fact, not everyone who finds themselves with an unwanted pregnancy sees abortion as an option. I was a rubber baby myself (as my mom used to say). And? I still fail to see your point. We live in a world of sin, but reaping what you sew is a natural law, wouldn't you say? Sure, but a crime is still a crime, and should be punished swiftly and painfully. A criminal reaping what he sews may not be quick enough for him to be deterred from his activity. People live and learn or they don't learn. That has been the way from the beginning of time. I seriously doubt we can change that. And that's why that's not the goal. Not as many problems as people having sex within marriage, because it's harder to get a divorce than it is to just move out. You think that would be acceptable to ANYONE? I don't believe it would. John 8:7 So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. We aren't living among the Jews, JR. We are not God's chosen people, and the laws you're speaking of were for the Jews. I'm surprised you're attempting to inflict Moses' Law upon us. The only reason a person should be allowed to divorce is if one of them committed sexual immorality. People need to learn to solve problems within their marriage, rather than just give up. "When marriages fail and divorce becomes an epidemic, then people who would have never ended up getting a divorce, end up getting a divorce. When divorce is mainstream, you end up not with the worst, most impossible marriages failing, but you end up with literally 10s of millions of marriages failing, so that a family that has five kids may see seven to eight divorces among their kids. . . . This is becoming normal." -Bob Enyart, kgov.com/divorce (play the audio file) We need to return to what the Bible says. I recommend, if you have the time, that you listen to the show on that page. Yes, really. How many children are born out of wedlock each year? Compared to children who have both a father and a mother in their lives who are married, how do the children who are born out of wedlock fare in life, generally speaking? This ain't a popularity contest, GD. You know that... Never said we were. We are not God's chosen people, But society as a whole needs rules. What better rules to use than the one's God gave that apply to all people. and the laws you're speaking of were for the Jews. Not just the Jews. The laws against adultery, homosexuality, bestiality, theft, murder, all of these apply equally to everyone. No, not Moses' law upon us. God's law, on those whom the law was made for. Well, that may be your opinion, but it's ludicrous to even suggest it. A wife may be beaten? Is that your claim? Kids may be harmed in every way imaginable, is that your claim? That would be the ideal, but saying it, or demanding it, won't make it happen. Which, I might add, is the problem with LAW. Clearly that is an accurate observation, but demanding people stop doing what they're doing is a pipe dream. It would be nice if everyone walked according to the Spirit, but it's impossible to demand from people who don't. Which is the whole point, in a nut shell. Again, a legitimate observation, but so what? It isn't? And here I thought we were in some kind of competition with the world to see who could be more righteous. Which rules did He give to apply to "society as a whole"? He gave the moral law which held no punishment here on earth. The rest He gave to Israel....His chosen people. No, they do not. Do you see Paul demanding we stone adulterers? Or we put people to death for breaking some law like fornication? The Laws you're attempting to enforce are Moses' Law with it's punishments. If you were fair, you'd be claiming we could bring a clean lamb to offer as a sacrifice for those sins. But you don't. You only want to kill those who break the law. That's not my opinion. That's what the Bible says. The rule is, "you will not divorce your spouse." The ONLY exception is sexual immorality. Abandonment is a form of sexual immorality. A husband that does not love his wife by taking care of her and their children gives her grounds for divorce, because he has abandoned that which he promised to do. And yet, I'm going to continue to advocate good law, because the law is righteous, and was made for those who are wicked. That's what the law is for. To enforce righteous behavior, and to punish the wicked. And yet, we shouldn't stop demanding that righteous law be enforced simply because people don't walk according to the Spirit. I mean, look at Israel. They were utterly wicked, and God didn't say, "oh well, I should stop enforcing the law because they're so wicked." No, He gave them even more laws, because they couldn't keep the one's He gave. By restricting those who can get a divorce to ONLY those who are victims of sexual immorality, it forces couples to at least attempt to solve their problems and provides a stable environment for their children, even if they are unsuccessful at eliminating most of their problems. Which rules did He give to apply to "society as a whole"? He gave the moral law which held no punishment here on earth. This is just plain untrue. When is the last time you read through Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy? They contain plenty of laws that have earthly punishments, even for ones that do not only apply to Israel. The rest He gave to Israel....His chosen people. Which, clearly, do not apply to the world. No, they do not. Do you see Paul demanding we stone adulterers? No, I see him supporting the death penalty. Which means there are crimes that are worthy of being put to death if one commits them. Or we put people to death for breaking some law like fornication? That's a wicked punishment that not even GOD would enforce. God said it would be just to force fornicators (non-homosexual) to marry and never allow them to divorce. He did NOT command that they be put to death, and this is something that I have already stated. The Laws you're attempting to enforce are Moses' Law with it's punishments. If you were fair, you'd be claiming we could bring a clean lamb to offer as a sacrifice for those sins. This is a straw man, and something I already addressed, though you may have missed it. I said that those laws that apply to everyone should be enforced. The sacrificial laws, and all the symbolic ordinances were addressed only to Israel. Laws such as "do not covet," "you will have no other god's before Me," "you will will not take the name of the LORD in vain," are all laws against sin, not crime. Laws such as "do not murder," "do not steal," "do not commit adultery," "do not bear false witness," etc, are laws that apply to everyone. But you don't. You only want to kill those who break the law. Another straw man. No, I don't. There are three forms of punishment God authorized in the Bible. Death penalty, flogging/corporal punishment, and restitution. Me thinks thou doth protest too much. Your post is too long, and you're simply wrong wrong wrong. Where do you find this RULE, and where do you see it being enforced among the Gentile nations? Answer that and we can proceed further. Arthur Brain (March 14th, 2019) Arthur Brain Precariously balanced on top of a mineshaft What if someone's been caught having sex outside of marriage with multiple people, who are they going to be forced to marry, all of them? You're applying laws set to a people of the time, in far different circumstances as to now. People should only be able to divorce on account of sexual immorality of their spouse? I doubt there's many married couples who take the breakup of a marriage lightly and in some cases there's more than grounds enough for a person to want to be free from a relationship and pursue another that isn't linked to sex. Forcing people to marry and remain together with no possibility of separation is just legalism run amok. I would ask you to question some of these hardcore beliefs you adhere to but is there any real point? By that, I mean, do you actually think on these topics independently and arrive at your own conclusions? The Following User Says Thank You to Arthur Brain For Your Post: glorydaz (March 14th, 2019) Call me dense, but I can't, for the life of me, see how you came to this conclusion. March 15th, 2019, 10:00 AM #282 Originally Posted by Arthur Brain That wouldn't happen, because people wouldn't even think of doing it. And that's because the first time it happens, the punishment would be harsh enough to deter other people from doing it. You're applying laws set to a people of the time, in far different circumstances as to now. The law was made for man. Not just one nation. It was made for the wicked. Yes, SOME laws were given ONLY to Israel. That does not mean that ALL laws are only for Israel. People should only be able to divorce on account of sexual immorality of their spouse? Yes. You have an issue with God's law? I doubt there's many married couples who take the breakup of a marriage lightly and in some cases there's more than grounds enough for a person to want to be free from a relationship and pursue another that isn't linked to sex. When it's easy to have a divorce for whatever reason, divorces happen more often. God intended marriage to last for a lifetime. He did not intend for it to be broken at the drop of a hat or because a woman burnt her husband's toast. The rule is no divorce. Forcing people to marry and remain together with no possibility of separation is just legalism run amok. You're calling God a legalist, then, because that's the punishment given in the Bible BY GOD. I would ask you to question some of these hardcore beliefs you adhere to but is there any real point? By that, I mean, do you actually think on these topics independently and arrive at your own conclusions? What I believe or think about it is irrelevant. The rule given by God is no divorce. The only exception is for sexual immorality. ok doser TOL Legend You're applying laws set to a people of the time, in far different circumstances as to now.... in what way were the circumstances "far different"? The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to ok doser For Your Post: JudgeRightly (March 15th, 2019),Right Divider (March 15th, 2019) The Jews were God's chosen people...to whom the law was given....to whom God held them to account. Not so with the nations. Different circumstances. so the nations had no law - God expects them to be lawless? or does God expect them to just make up law as they go, willy-nilly? The Following User Says Thank You to ok doser For Your Post:	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2083
__label__wiki	0.960678	0.960678	Jennifer Yachnin, E&E News reporter Greenwire: Friday, June 16, 2017 A leading candidate to head the Bureau of Land Management has fought for ranchers in court. Kat McConnell/BLM/Flickr Karen Budd-Falen, a Wyoming-based property rights attorney and member of the Trump administration's transition team at the Interior Department, is in the running to take the helm of the Bureau of Land Management, according to sources in both the conservation movement and ranching industry. A White House spokeswoman declined to confirm that President Trump has decided on a nominee for the post. Sources familiar with the selection said it would be unlikely to be made official until after Trump's nominee for deputy secretary of the Interior, David Bernhardt, is confirmed. In the meantime, Utah state Rep. Mike Noel (R), who heavily promoted his own interest in the BLM post after the November elections, praised the potential selection of Budd-Falen. Karen Budd-Falen. Budd-Falen Law Offices, L.L.C. "If it's Karen, she'd do an outstanding job," Noel told E&E News. "She's a champion for our issues." Noel acknowledged that he had actively sought the post, including a one-on-one meeting with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke during his recent visit to the Beehive State, and said he would still like to serve the Trump administration in some capacity. "I'm still interested in doing what I can for the president or for the secretary in any way I can help," he said. "But it's not about me, it's about getting a job done, and Karen Budd-Falen is certainly well-qualified." A Wyoming native, Budd-Falen grew up as the fifth generation on her family ranch in Big Piney. She received her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Wyoming before going on to spend three years in the Interior Department during the Reagan administration. Budd-Falen did not return a request for comment this week. In an interview with The Aspen Times in 2007, Budd-Falen acknowledged she was at times impatient with her work at Interior, where she served as a special assistant to the assistant secretary for land and minerals management, and later at the Mountain States Legal Foundation. Those postings prompted her decision to open her own law firm with her husband, Frank Falen. "I like making decisions and then acting on it," Budd-Falen told the newspaper. "I'm really cause-oriented, I really believe in ranchers and farmers and what they do. That's the reason I went to law school. I don't love the law. To me, the law is the way I'm helping the people I love." Recent press releases on the Budd-Falen Law Offices website tout the Trump administration's review of dozens of national monuments, criticize the now-defunct Obama-era BLM Planning 2.0 rule and cheer Budd-Falen's appointment to the transition team. New ways to battle Budd-Falen is well-known in the West for her work representing ranchers and is seen by some observers as a hero of the Sagebrush Rebellion, which has pushed for major changes to federal land control since the 1970s. Mountain States Legal Foundation President William Perry Pendley said Budd-Falen's background, as well as her efforts representing ranchers, rural residents and local governments across the West, make her a strong candidate for the post. "She brings an understanding of how these policies affect people on the ground," he told E&E News. "It's not just some 30,000-mile-high attitude that we're going to do this or we're going to do that, and it will be good. She understands how these foolish policies affect people who work for a living and, frankly, the tiny communities that depend on them." In particular, Pendley pointed to Budd-Falen's work on a case representing rancher Harvey Frank Robbins, who once owned a property in Hot Springs County, Wyo. At the time Robbins bought the ranch in 1994, BLM had failed to record an easement on a road across the property it had struck with the previous owner. The road accessed a publicly owned area known as the Upper Rock Creek region. Robbins refused BLM's efforts to discuss a new right of way and faced what he saw as backlash for that decision in the form of citations for violations of grazing regulations, interference with cattle drives and even criminal charges after an altercation with a BLM employee, although a jury quickly declared Robbins not guilty in that case (Greenwire, Oct. 11, 2016). But Budd-Falen stepped in with a new way to push back against BLM, by suing the employees as individuals under an anti-racketeering law normally used against organized crime syndicates, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. At the time, Budd-Falen argued that the Fifth Amendment protects landowners against retaliation for excluding the government from their private property (Greenwire, Dec. 6, 2006). "You have lots of cases on First Amendment rights saying the federal government cannot retaliate against you for using your First Amendment rights, but there's never been a case that the federal government can't retaliate for using your Fifth Amendment rights," she told E&E News in late 2006. But while Budd-Falen claimed victory in the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court ultimately rejected her argument in 2007. "She did a very good job on that," Pendley said. "Regrettably, not all of the justices agreed with her." Watersheds case More recently, Budd-Falen gained attention for her work to stop the Western Watersheds Project by filing a case in Wyoming state court alleging the environmentalists trespassed on private land to collect water samples (Greenwire, Nov. 18, 2014). The case was settled in 2016 after two years of wrangling in court, with both sides ultimately claiming a victory. Under the settlement, Western Watersheds agreed to abstain from driving on private roads where federal rights of way are in doubt (Greenwire, Aug. 24, 2016). "We are very happy," Budd-Falen told the Casper Star-Tribune in September 2016. "The settlement gives the landowners even more than they could have gotten if Western Watersheds Project had allowed the case to go forward." But Western Watersheds then-interim Executive Director Greta Anderson told E&E News at the time that the agreement did not represent new restrictions. "Settling this case without paying a single dollar of damages and getting it off our dockets means we can go back to doing the important work of documenting the environmental abuses of cattle and sheep operations in Wyoming and around the West," Anderson said. 'What law gives you the right?' Budd-Falen is also known for her work with Catron County, N.M., which passed a series of ordinances in the early 1990s that sought to supersede federal authority on public lands, including ordering the arrest of federal agents who violated the civil or property rights of residents. Newspaper reports at the time state that Budd-Falen helped to draft the ordinances, and in 1994 the Chicago Tribune reported she was "assisting" Catron and other counties. "It's a real reaction to the federal government coming in without giving any notice or right to participate at all to county governments," Budd-Falen told the newspaper. She added: "The county and its citizens feel like they are good stewards of the environment, that they are as concerned about the environment as any environmental group in Santa Fe or New York City or anywhere else. If they didn't take care of the land, they wouldn't have anything to pass on to their children." Western Watersheds Montana Director and Public Policy Consultant Josh Osher warned that while Budd-Falen has not advocated for the outright disposal of the federal estate, her past work indicates "a bend toward private property over public lands." "She's really associated herself with the extreme fringe of a lot of the public lands movement," said Osher, who also raised concerns about her opposition to Endangered Species Act protections. He pointed to Budd-Falen's more recent appearances before groups like the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association. In 2011, she appeared at an event called "Sheriffs Stand Tall for the Constitution" along with sheriffs from Oregon and California. During the event, Budd-Falen encouraged attendees to challenge the federal government by asking what laws agencies are relying on for their decisions. "We can do anything that the law does not prohibit. And I gotta tell you, I think in Washington, they kinda got that swapped," she said. "And I think we have to start enforcing that. We have to start asking, what law gives you the right to stop my use? What law gives you the right to come into my county and all of a sudden start closing roads?" She later added: "You should be proud of what you do and proud of who you are, and you do not need a law to be able to manage your homes and manage your lives." During her remarks, Budd-Falen also hit on the Equal Access to Justice Act, of which she has been a vocal critic. That law permits plaintiffs to collect attorney's fees from the government in successful lawsuits against the government. The Wyoming attorney regularly touts figures on payments to environmental groups under the law, arguing that organizations are profiting off the fees. "She's an attorney, she knows exactly how this works," Osher said. "This is a law that allows the public and its representatives to make sure that the federal government follows the law." In the meantime, it remains to be seen whether Budd-Falen would fall in line with Zinke's vows to retain the federal estate, something he has often emphasized since his confirmation earlier this year. But the Wilderness Society's senior counsel, Nada Culver, warned that merely retaining federal lands falls short of BLM's multiple-use mission. "The concern would be that for all that the secretary has spoken about keeping public lands in public hands, he's also taken a lot of steps that would transfer control of public lands to a narrow set of interests: by, for instance, focusing public lands on oil and gas, or coal, to the exclusion of conservation and public enjoyment," Culver said. If nominated, Budd-Falen would need to represent not only the farming and ranching interests she does now, Culver said, but recreational users and others. "Taking on that responsibility and taking on that perspective ... conservation and wilderness and recreational and wildlife are really important aspects of managing public lands," she said. If tapped as the nominee and confirmed, Budd-Falen would replace BLM acting Director Mike Nedd. Nedd is the second acting director to serve following the departure of BLM Director Neil Kornze (E&E Daily, March 16). Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead (R) praised Budd-Falen generally, although he declined to speculate on the nomination before it is finalized. "That said, the governor believes Wyoming has a number of highly qualified people who, if appointed to key positions in the Department of the Interior or other federal agencies, would be a tremendous asset to the administration, the nation and Wyoming. Karen Budd-Falen is one of those," Mead spokesman David Bush told E&E News. Reporter Corbin Hiar contributed. https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060056171	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2085
__label__wiki	0.892111	0.892111	‘Hedwig’ Director Returns With Punks, Aliens, Nicole Kidman Over the course of his directing career, John Cameron Mitchell has demonstrated interest in, at various points: complex humanity, punk rock, and writhing sex parties. Naturally, his latest film combines all of three of those things — plus aliens and Nicole Kidman. In How to Talk to Girls at Parties, three British punkers in the late ‘70s stumble upon a house party full of horny, weirdly emotionless aliens — and one of the aliens surprisingly falls for one of the British lads. Cue: a narrative about rebels (i.e. the punks) raging against conformity (i.e. the aliens, who all wear the same neon latex bodysuit.) At one point, Nicole Kidman appears as the Cruella De Vil-haired Queen Boadicea, a domineering punk goddess whose name sounds like a B-side Milwaukee drag queen. (Fun fact: Mitchell also directed Kidman to an Oscar nomination, her first in eight years, via 2011’s Rabbit Hole.) Of course, this wouldn’t be a John Cameron Mitchell movie without the requisite shocking subject matter, so we can also expect — judging by the trailer — body mutilation, giant orgies involving apathetic moaning, and Elle Fanning vomiting into a dude’s mouth. Rabbit Hole, this is not. Speaking of Elle Fanning, the Maleficent star and younger sis of Dakota Fanning is a far cry from Sleeping Beauty in this movie, as she plays the star-crossed alien who falls for the British punk. The trailer hints that she moonlights as a punk singer at one point in the film, thus angering her alien elders who look down on any form of self-expression that doesn’t involve nauseatingly grotesque sex acts. How to Talk to Girls at Parties has earned not-so-great reviews since it debuted at Cannes last year, but we still think it could work as a post wake-and-bake, post-Sunday brunch conversation piece that we would watch with our besties before abandoning halfway through to take a nap. tags: dakota fanning, hedwig, how to talk to girls at parties, john cameron mitchell, nicole kidman	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2088
__label__cc	0.713522	0.286478	Collaborating to change the world’s diet – a report from the 50by40 Corporate Outreach Summit in Berlin May 2, 2018 February 13, 2019 ~ Tobias Leenaert ~ 19 Comments The 50by40 Corporate Outreach Summit, organized by ProVeg International and the Humane Society of the US, took place April 27-29 2018 in Berlin. I consider it a milestone for the vegan movement. In this post, I’ll briefly sum up some of the things I learned, or remembered, or that I just want to share. Participants at this conference were united by the “50by40” objective, which is the global ambition to reduce the production of animal products internationally by 50% by the year 2040. This goal is quite in line with (though slightly more ambitious than) the goals of organizations like Greenpeace, WWF and Compassion in World Farming, who have similar objectives. The summit was organized to get a big group of organizations in the vegan and animal rights movement together, and to build an international alliance to collaborate around achieving this goal. The motto of the conference was, “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together”. This conference was probably the most international vegan or animal rights conference I have ever attended, with people from over thirty different countries and six continents. Attendees were mostly staff members or core volunteers from organizations in their respective countries, with some academics thrown into the mix. While the groups present were mostly from the animal and vegan space (there were some environmental organizations, like Greenpeace, as well), the idea would be to create a broader platform in the future. There is a virtually unlimited number of players that could get behind the 50% reduction by 2040 objective, including health and environmental organizations, businesses and governments. To me, this conference was in many ways a testament to our growing up and maturing as a movement. The people who were there, and the content of our talks, testified to an increasing professionalism, a focus on institutional impact, the development of our skills and expertise, and even on a growing awareness of turning inward and mastering our own inner demons (I’ll get back to this). I started my own talk by telling the audience about an incident at a vegetarian conference in the (I think) eighties, where the vegetarian delegates got sick from eating undercooked beans and had to be carried off to the hospital. This little anecdote was meant to show how far we have come. There was a time when we couldn’t even get the food right at our own parties, and now some of us are showing the way to the Sodexos and Compasses and Aramark’s of this world! Which brings me to… This conference was indeed all about institutional change, about doing things with a big impact by reaching out to the right people. Some very impressive examples of this were given by Kristie Middleton and Ken Botts, both of HSUS. HSUS’ Forward Food program has by now trained 4000 culinary professionals, including people at some of the most prestigious schools. The program has helped switch over 350 million meals from animal-based to plant based, saving over 140 million animals. Ken Botts is responsible for the first all vegan cafeteria in the US (possibly in the world), in a place no other than the University of North Texas! Building on that success, HSUS is now working together with Aramark and Compass, and will later also collaborate with Sodexo. This collaboration and training is not just happening in the US; HSUS is connecting their US contacts at each of these caterers with key employees from these companies in other countries. The program went from just US to international in merely one year. Ken Botts knew that having one local success story would allow them to work their way up the chain. From Portugal and Nuno Alvim came another great example of institutional change. The Portuguese Vegetarian Society successfully lobbied for a law that makes a vegan option mandatory in all public cafeterias. Right now, fourteen percent of the meals consumed in hospitals, for instance, are plant based. And then, there is Brazil. As if the Brazilians’ success with the Meatless Monday program (through which millions and millions of vegan meals are offered annually) is not enough – shoutout to Guilherme Carvalho from the Brazilian Vegetarian Society – HSI (Humane Society International) has collaborated with a Bahia district public prosecutor to make sure that by 2019, the schools in four cities will be entirely plant based! Sandra Lopes from HSI Brazil told us that this collaboration will result in 23 million vegan meals a year, for 33.000 students, in 137 schools and daycare centers! There were other examples and testimonials by Kristin Höhlig, Katleen Haefele and Paula Rassman about Proveg Germany reaching out to food services and schools, as well as by Mercy For Animals’ Alan Darer and Charlie Huson from HSI UK. Most of these speakers explicitly mentioned that the word ‘vegan’ is still scary or unattractive for their institutional partners, and that you can’t approach them with an animal rights message. It’s better to talk about plant based, plant protein or conscious eating… Supermarkets and Restaurants Institutional change is obviously not just about reaching out to the big catering companies. Mahi Klosterhalfen from the Albert Schweitzer Foundation in Germany told us about their ranking system for supermarkets, and how it helps to increase companies’ ambition by creating healthy competition among them. Melanie Jaecques from EVA in Belgium provided interesting figures from large scale research about meat consumption in Belgium, and presented a graph showing how meat consumption in Belgium seems to be dropping significantly faster than in other European countries (one of the not so many Belgian things I can be proud of). Alison Rabschnuk from the Good Food Institute (US) talked about restaurant rankings. GFI’s observation is that there is tremendous opportunity in the out of home market to provide plant based foods. These efforts could be particularly rewarding as 33% of all sales in this market are realized by just the top one hundred restaurants. Alison emphasized that GFI is not mainly about making things easier for vegans (though that should be the eventual effect), but rather providing options for flexitarians. Actually, in their Good Food Scorecard, restaurants get extra points if they do not use words like vegan, vegetarian, or meatless (plant based is ok)! They recommend restaurants be as subtle as possible in their labeling. Some caveats We should not kid ourselves. The challenge is still enormous, and it’s not all rainbows and butterflies from here on. Leah Garces of Compassion in World Farming USA warned us about so-called false wins. More plant based food doesn’t necessarily mean less animal foods. Since their introduction of the vegan meatball, meat consumption in Ikea restaurants, for instance, has gone up. Reduction is not simple for companies. The most often heard objections from their side are that there is a lack of demand and that the products are still way too expensive. According to Leah, if we want to succeed, we’re going to have to be open to all kinds of solutions, including some we don’t like, like blended products (see this interview with Meatless’ Jos Hugense) While Nathalie Rolland (Maastricht University) can mainly see benefits in clean meat, Arianna Ferrari took the devil’s advocate position on this topic. She said we have a tendency to overestimate the environmental advantages of clean meat and that life cycle analysis studies show a more modest picture. Neither should we fetishize technological progress, which has a long history of failures. And, we shouldn’t lose sight of the dangers and downsides of monopolies, patents, issues of distributive justice and access to innovations. Arianna also had questions about animal suffering and clean meat. Is a biopsy necessarily cruelty free? Could clean meat perpetuate the asymmetry between humans and non-humans? Her arguments didn’t entirely convince me, but it is good to have someone take a critical position on this important topic. Rising in the East I was very impressed by the presence of so many people and groups from East Asia, and I was moved by what is going on in that far-away corner of the world. Frando Hakuryu and Haruko Kawano talked about their work with Vege Project in Japan, and Mavis Chang and Charlene Yeh spoke about the veg outreach of the Tse-Xin Organic Agriculture Foundation, who were hosts of a CEVA Vegan Advocacy training that Melanie Joy and I did in Taiwan recently. We also heard about Goal Blue in China, and we had heard of several other East Asian groups the night before the conference. Hazel Zhang impressed me with her for-profit Veg Planet in China, which already has about fifteen paid staff and reaches a lot of people. The movement in East Asia is young, but it’s moving and growing. It’s also inspiring to see that more and more American or European groups are realizing the importance of working there, and are lending their support. What happens in the East won’t stay in the East; it will affect the entire world. Who is the enemy? Sebastian Joy, CEO of ProVeg International, spoke about “collective impact” and what is necessary for a successful alliance: a backbone organization providing the coordination; a common agenda; shared measurements; mutually reinforcing activities; and open and continuous communication. Aaron Ross, who is coordinating the Open Wing Alliance (an international coalition working for better living conditions for chickens), talked about the challenges of working together within our movement. Vegans don’t seem to eat only plants, he said; they sometimes also end up eating themselves. Among the difficulties we have to overcome in working with other groups, Aaron mentioned logistics (coordination of resources and communication across the globe over many different time zones), ideology (what we define as vegan, what we accept from a company…), interpersonal differences (the chances of us not liking each other seems to increase over time), difficult personalities, or a lack of cohesion (too many cooks in the kitchen). In my own talk, I explained that we can work together with basically anyone and that maybe our biggest enemy is… bad vegan food (thanks for that answer, Eve!). However, Aaron Ross gave a deeper and more interesting answer to the question “who is the enemy?”. The enemy, he said, is within. The enemy is our ego that makes it difficult for us, sometimes, to share victories or to credit each other. Sometimes, said Aaron, we seem to care more about our reputation than about helping animals. Long time supporter and funder of the movement Ari Nessel gave the same answer to the enemy question. The enemy, as well as the solution, is us! In order to succeed, Ari said, it’s not enough to reach out; we also have to reach inside, and develop our heart and mind. Before and during the conference, Ari led several meditation sessions for participants. Even though I completely suck at meditation, I can see its usefulness for both personal and organizational development, and I’m really happy that he and other people are introducing this idea into our movement. We will, indeed, only be able to successfully work together on so huge an issue as ours if we become self-aware of our own less effective tendencies. And, more than that, maybe we can learn to see those who we think of as our enemies, as our allies. As people who, in the end, are in the same human boat. Other interesting talks were given by Jimmy Pierson from ProVeg UK, explaining a new “Peak Meat” campaign, Jasmijn De Boo from Proveg International showing how many acquisitions of veg companies by meat companies we’ve seen in the last year or so, and why that is not necessarily a problem. Researcher Helen Harwatt explained a new accreditation scheme for companies that would take into account health, environment and animals. Pablo Moleman and Alexandra Kirsch from ProVeg spoke about lobbying companies to remove small problematic ingredients from their products, which could save a lot of animals. Matthias Rohra, ProVeg’s COO, is a man who has made the jump from the profit sector (he used to work at Coca Cola) to the non profit. We were all happy to see quite a few more people like him in the audience. Indeed, having people on board who know from experience how to speak the language of businesspeople is crucially important. This conference felt like a beginning. A beginning of something new, something more powerful and stronger than we ever had before. I think that if the animals could see us, they would be proud and hopeful. And, I was glad to be part of this, and thank ProVeg and the Humane Society, and especially David Pedersen and Kristie Middleton, for making this possible. It seems we have decided to go far by going together… The vegan burger that isn’t vegan April 6, 2018 April 7, 2018 ~ Tobias Leenaert ~ 8 Comments The Luna Grill, a restaurant in San Diego, is serving the vegan Beyond Burger (yeay!). Only, they serve it with feta cheese, on a non vegan bun. At first sight, this is seems a bit of an absurdity, and one can easily understand tweeter Vanilla Bean’s frustration here: Apparently, at least some meat eaters share this idea: “Nonsensical as vegan replacements might seem to some, refusing to serve them in a vegan-friendly way is irrefutably more so” – writes The Independent. These reactions make some sense. And yet, I think both vegan Vanilla Bean, and The Independent’s meat-eating (we assume) journalist are revealing that they are starting out from the erroneous idea that vegan products are only for vegans. Of course, vegans love vegan products, and they will eat them and rave about them on social media and be their prime customers (at least if there’s no problematic mother company involved – see Why vegans shouldn’t boycott Daiya cheese). But, it’s actually not they in the first place who need vegan products. Nor are they the main customer segment, or the main people to be reached. Companies like Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods, or Hampton Creek – all of them largely mission driven enterprises – understand this. They want the non-vegans to turn to vegan products and have them eat more and more of them. If you can get non-vegans to eat your products, you have more impact and a bigger customer potential at the same time. Two vegan sausages with one stone, as they say. Of course, this Luna Grill restaurant could (probably) easily be more sympathetic to vegan requests and make their burger without that damn feta, and on a vegan bun (although I don’t encourage people to get too nervous about microingredients out of the house – heresy, I know). I do hope Luna Grill and all other non-vegan restaurants will be more forthcoming in the future, and I hope we will see more and more vegans requesting vegan products, so that there’s more and more menu options that are entirely vegan, and by default. Luna Grill here may offer shitty service to vegans, and may not be worth visiting. But that isn’t the point here. If we want non-vegans to taste, eat, buy… vegan products, and if we want these products to spread widely, we shouldn’t get nervous about them turning up in non-vegan dishes. Indeed, ever more frequently, we find vegan products, like Daiya cheese or Just Mayo, in non-vegan dishes – for allergy, price, or other reasons – and indeed, it would be our loss if that weren’t the case. It’s probably not all that different for meat substitutes. If we want these products to be appreciated as products in their own right, they will need to be integrated by enthusiastic non-vegans in non-vegan meals. The good thing is, of course, that eating these products, whenever they are encountered, helps people shift more and more in the right direction along the plant-based spectrum. And, in and of themselves, vegan patties obviously represent animals being spared, whether or not the patties are served on a vegan bun. Thus, we should welcome vegan products in non-vegan dishes, just as we should applaud non-vegans eating vegan products. It’s the fastest way forward to a vegan world. Eating Animals – a review of the documentary March 30, 2018 April 2, 2018 ~ Tobias Leenaert ~ 9 Comments I had the chance to see an early screening of Eating Animals, the documentary after the book by Jonathan Safran Foer. Apparently, Natalie Portman, who is the narrator of the documentary, turned vegan after reading Foer’s book. Together, they approached filmmaker Christopher Quinn, whose work they liked, and asked him to turn the book into a movie. Eating Animals will be out in theatres in North America in June, and later on Hulu; so, it seems that it could reach a pretty large audience. That would be well-deserved, as it is a beautiful movie. I think Eating Animals is one of the best food documentaries I’ve seen so far. As a seasoned vegan who is quite familiar with the issues, I had not expected to see or hear much that was new. But the documentary managed to surprise me, and offers more than just another catalogue of animal agriculture-related problems. For one thing, it gives us some history of how intensive animal farming came into existence and explains how corporations like Tyson came to be. And, it also tells us stories of people caring – in different ways – for and about animals. It tells these stories very well, and with a lot of heart. One of these is the story of veterinarian and scientist James Keen, who worked at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC), a huge livestock research facility in Nebraska, and became a whistle-blower after witnessing practices with animals he could not condone. Keen leaked the information to a journalist, which resulted in a long New York Times expose, which in turn led to a federal investigation, bills, and reforms. Eating Animals makes it very clear that all that Keen did he did at great expense to his own life and happiness. Keen had to move, and eventually saw his marriage break down under the pressure his whistle-blowing had created. It is hard not to admire the man for his courage and for following his conscience. There’s also the story of a contracted chicken farmer and his family. He testifies about how difficult that kind of life was, and how he felt a slave to the corporation that contracted him. We see him move through a huge barn of chickens, picking up the dead ones and showing to the camera the health problems they suffer from. While this man is or was instrumental in exploiting chickens, he was himself exploited. It is hard not to feel compassion towards him. Finally, there’s turkey farmer Frank Reese, who already featured in Foer’s book. Frank tells us a lot about turkeys. He talks about how breeding and selecting the traditional Thanksgiving turkeys for meat has made them “stupider”, and how his breed of turkeys is a lot smarter. Actually, his goal is to keep certain old breeds of turkeys alive. And, if you want to keep them in existence, they have to be part of the food chain, he says. Now, me and most other vegans will not agree to this, obviously. First of all, I do think that, if we deem this important, we can keep breeds alive without the animals necessarily having to have a certain economic or food value (apart from animals in sanctuaries, there probably will have to be some value, but this value can be in terms of companionship or aesthetics). Secondly, why would one insist on keeping certain breeds alive in the first place? The extinction of a species can obviously have negative ecological consequences, and it may somehow look sad when a species goes extinct (particularly if it’s humans’ fault), but to me it is the individual welfare that matters, not the value of the species. Which is why I don’t always understand well-meaning efforts to reintroduce certain species of wildlife in an area, unless this would increase overall happiness and well being. The eventual fate of Frank’s turkeys is the same as all other turkeys: they end up in the slaughterhouse. It seems undeniable, however, that these birds have a much better life than the average turkey, and very probably also a better life than many or most animals in the wild. To many vegans these may seem like “welfarist” non-arguments. Any of these vegans, however, would, any day, choose to be a turkey with Frank above being your average turkey, and one has to be blind not to appreciate the difference this kind of life makes. More philosophically, I have lately started to think more and more about the question of whether being killed by humans negates all the happiness of an animal’s life that came before that moment. I know this is vegan heresy (but, then, I’m some sort of vegan heretic), and I plan to explore this question more in depth in another post. I don’t know the man personally, but it seems clear that Frank Reese cares for his turkeys (though not enough not to kill them – vegans might quickly add). I had the chance to have a drink with the director after the screening of the movie, and he told me that Frank finds the whole transportation and slaughtering process horrible, and is a great proponent of developing more humane ways of slaughter. You may get the impression from all this that the movie advocates happy meat. Certainly, it is not as unequivocally vegan or abolitionist as say Earthlings or Forks over Knives, but at no time did I get the impression that people would come away with the idea that it’s just a matter of switching to better meat, and that this better meat can be found in every supermarket. Indeed, the director told me that Frank’s turkeys cost 150 dollars per bird. The way Frank Reese raises his turkeys is exceptional, which is one of the reasons why Foer picked him out. Also, the film includes several appearances by long time vegan activist Bruce Friedrich, presently CEO of the Good Food Institute. Bruce openly asks the question of whether we need to eat animals at all. The movie has some beautiful cinematography, with wonderful shots of agricultural landscapes and farms, and the scenes with Frank and his turkey’s are amazing – especially the final one. On the other hand, there’s a significant amount of graphic footage (most of it archival images) to swallow; so, be warned. I’ll finish with the beginning of the movie, which consists of a few harrowing lines spoken in Natalie Portman’s beautiful voice. I asked the director whose words they were, and he said they were his own, based on conversations he had had during his research into animal suffering. This is not an exact quote (I didn’t write it down), but it should be pretty close: If animals don’t dwell on the past or ponder the future, they have only the present. And, if their circumstances brought them to a present in which they suffer, then suffering is the totality of their existence. Animal liberation, human liberation: one struggle, one fight? An interview with Dr. Kristof Dhont March 5, 2018 March 31, 2018 ~ Tobias Leenaert ~ 1 Comment Animal advocates are often prone to compare the struggle for animal rights with other social justice issues. We love to explain the parallels between sexism and speciecism, or compare animal farming with slavery. To what extent are these issues connected, and if they are, how do we bring this up in a way that is convincing rather than alienating? Dr. Kristof Dhont I spoke about this topic with Dr Kristof Dhont, a lecturer at the University of Kent, UK. Kristof’s research focuses mainly on the role of personality and situational factors in human intergroup and human-animal relations. He investigates, among other topics, the psychological underpinnings and ideological roots of speciesism, and the motivations of eating and exploiting animals. In a recent paper published in the European Journal of Personality, Kristof and his colleagues investigated the common ideological roots of speciesism and ethnic prejudice. In this interview, we’ll look for those common roots, but we’ll also wonder about the implications for strategy and communication. We also talk about animal rights being mainly a liberal/leftist thing, and why the Christmas meal is possibly the worst time to bring up the plight of animals. Vegan Strategist: Kristof, what prompted you to do research on the common roots of attitudes towards animals and towards human groups? Can you tell us a bit more about this line of research? Kristof Dhont: My interest in the assumed interconnectedness of speciesism and prejudices towards human groups (such as racism and sexism) was triggered by slogans like “speciesism = racism = sexism” and pictures of chained animals next to pictures of chained human slaves. Influential philosophers like Peter Singer have written about the parallels between how members from disadvantaged groups are (or have been) treated and the way people treat and think about non-human animals. From numerous psychological studies, we already knew that people who dislike or express prejudice toward one outgroup (e.g. homosexuals) also tend to dislike a range of other social groups to which they don’t belong (e.g. Blacks, Latinos, poor people, immigrants, Muslims, Jews,… typically groups lower in status or power in a given context), a phenomenon termed “generalized prejudice”. Thus, for instance, people who endorse racist views are more likely to also endorse sexist views. This idea can be broadened to include attitudes towards animals. one struggle, one fight? And this is something you went on to test yourself? Yes, as a first step, my colleagues and I wanted to extend this idea by investigating whether those who express more negative and prejudiced views toward ethnic and religious outgroups would also more strongly endorse exploitative attitudes toward animals (speciesist attitudes). This is exactly what we found, first in a study conducted in Canada and subsequently also in a series of studies conducted in Belgium, the UK and the USA (1). People who expressed greater ethnic prejudice also expressed greater support for a range of practices of animal exploitation such as hunting, factory farming, meat consumption, animal testing, whaling and using animals for human entertainment in for instance circuses or rodeos. In a new set of studies conducted with my graduate student Alina Salmen, we also found consistent support for the links between speciesism and sexism. Recently, a team of researchers at the University of Oxford replicated these findings with a newly developed scale of speciesism. Do you have an idea as to why this connection would exist? That’s indeed what we wanted to find out, although we acknowledge that a variety of factors are involved, which we weren’t all able to study together. From the perspective of a psychological scientist, we looked specifically at the role of general ideological beliefs and motives. Our expectation was that desires for dominance and inequality between social groups would play an important role here. More specifically, people differ from each other in the degree to which they prefer a society characterised by a strong hierarchy and inequality between social groups, as opposed to a society characterised by more egalitarian intergroup relationships. This general social orientation or trait is known as social dominance orientation. Our studies showed that a desire for group-based dominance showed substantial associations with both ethnic prejudice and speciesism, and represents a key ideological factor explaining why ethnic prejudice is associated with speciesism. Related to preferences for hierarchical intergroup relations, also the belief that humans are meant to dominate over animals and the natural environment appeared to be important, not just as predictor of attitudes towards animals, but, for instance, also in predicting attitudes towards women. This shows that the way people think about animals (and about the status of animals) has implications for the way we think about human groups. Would you call what you are doing “intersectional” research? Perhaps it depends on how you would define intersectionality. This term seems to be used in different ways, and I haven’t used it in any of my own work yet. Historically, this concept originates from feminist and critical race theories arguing that it doesn’t make much sense to consider social categories such as gender, race, sexual orientation and class in isolation from each other to address discrimination, social inequality and disadvantage in society. Members of disadvantaged social groups often belong to multiple low-status groups (e.g. working-class Black women) and thus experience multiple dimensions of discrimination simultaneously. Not considering these different interwoven (or “intersecting”) statuses is by definition inadequate or at least incomplete according to intersectionality theory. This framework has largely been focusing on the viewpoint of those who experience the disadvantage and, although important, I haven’t done much work from the disadvantaged group perspective. On a broader level, intersectionality also refers to the idea that different systemic (and institutionalised) forms of oppression such as racism, sexism and homophobia are not just related to each other but are closely intertwined and thus dynamically interconnected. This is more what I have been focusing on in my research, but from a psychological perspective, investigating attitudes, beliefs and behaviour of people, rather than a sociological one. In this sense, I would say that our findings largely support the idea of intersectionality on the individual level. But note that, to date, the term “intersectionality” is still rarely used in mainstream psychological research (and outside specialised fields such as gender studies or ethnic and racial studies). Back to your findings then, which suggest that the slogans you referred to in the beginning are true to some extent. How helpful do you think these or similar (often more extreme) slogans are for changing people’s ideas about animals? From the viewpoint of a vegan or animal rights activist, these slogans make total sense and can also stimulate interesting debates and empirical research. Yet for most people it is rather unlikely that they will have the desired impact – perhaps even the contrary. First of all, slogans comparing animal exploitation or meat production to the exploitation of humans, for instance by referring to slavery, the holocaust, oppression of women, only make sense to people if they already accept the underlying presumption that the life or the suffering of human and non-human animals are of equal value. We know that many people and especially meat eaters disagree with this idea and value human life more than the life of an animal, especially of farm animals. For them, such slogans are perceived as irrational, and therefore further ignored at best. Thought-provoking, or alienating? I can think of at least three unintended, harmful consequences of using these comparisons. A first possible reaction is that people may not only feel being judged and criticised for eating meat, they may also think that you are calling them a Nazi, racist, sexist and so on, depending on the specific comparison. Rather than raising awareness about animal suffering, your audience will likely be offended and upset because of being accused of something which they (in the majority of cases) are certain that they are not. As a result, people will likely perceive the messenger (the organisation or movement) as more negative and hostile than before, and will be turned off. A second reaction is that the message comes across as an attempt to downplay or trivialize the severity of the atrocious historical events or social injustice you are using in the comparison. Needless to say, these are extremely sensitive issues and by mentioning for instance the holocaust or slavery you shift attention from the suffering of animals (a topic people care less about) to a topic they care very deeply about and people may find it repulsive that you use others’ suffering for your “own” cause. Is comparing human and animal slavery persuasive, or mostly offensive? Finally, imagine the possible reaction of someone who belongs to the minority or historically disadvantaged group that is directly or indirectly compared to animals. How do they feel when activists (most likely white middle class people) compare them – in a way – to animals? Rather than thinking that you value the life of an animal as much as you value human life, they may actually think that you find black people or Jews as no better than animals. There is thus a chance that they feel dehumanised or are perceived as less than human. We know from psychological research that people who feel dehumanised by a certain group will in turn show a strong negative reaction and reciprocal dehumanization toward that group. Again, not the reaction you were hoping for, but quite the opposite. Can we learn anything from interventions against racism to reduce speciesism or even reduce meat consumption? It is too early to make strong claims about what works and what doesn’t. There is simply not enough solid research that has addressed this question. One important consideration however, is that what helps to reduce speciesism or improve attitudes toward animals, will not necessarily affect meat consumption. Even though our findings show that people who strongly endorse speciesist beliefs also tend to consume more meat, we also know that people are very good in dissociating meat from animals. This means that many omnivores do care about animals to some extent, but paradoxically have no problem with eating meat. And there are many other motivational, social and external obstacles that prevent people to stop or reduce meat consumption (see the interview with Jared Piazza on this blog). Overall, however, I do think there is plenty to learn from research on prejudice reduction. I particularly see a lot of promise in interventions focusing on creating opportunities for positive and meaningful interactions between humans and farm animals. Extensive empirical evidence has confirmed that favourable contact between members of different religious or ethnic groups reduces prejudice and improves intergroup relations. Intergroup contact stimulates empathising and taking the perspective of the opposing group, which lead to better mutual understanding and more positive attitudes toward each other. There are good reasons and plenty of anecdotal evidence to expect that having personal contact with farm animals increases empathy toward them, which in turn increases opposition to animal exploitation. This is already possible by visiting farm sanctuaries. Of course, getting people to visit farm sanctuaries in the first place and letting them build a connection with animals, would be another challenge to overcome. Schools and youth or community organisations could play a meaningful role here to make this happen. Also, other intervention techniques that increase perspective taking, for instance through media, storytelling, virtual reality, or mental simulations, may work in similar ways. Note that such interventions do not actively try to convince people about what is right or wrong, but allow them to experience something and consequently make up their own minds, avoiding the problem of persuasion resistance. Another conclusion from your research is that people on the right/conservative side of the political spectrum on average more strongly support animal exploitation and typically consume more meat. Is there any way to make use of this finding in our animal advocacy? Obviously, you don’t need to be a scientist to know or notice that animal rights and vegetarianism/veganism receive more support by progressives/liberals than by conservatives. Many vegans or animal advocates consider themselves liberal or left-wing. By emphasising principles of equality and advocating for social change, animal rights seems to belong inherently in the left-wing corner. But labeling these topics as liberal or left-wing may also further increase the ideological divide between left- and right-leaning people and groups, and thus lead to even more political polarization on this topic. It is not because conservatives are less likely to support animal rights or less willing to reduce their meat consumption, that calling conservatives animal exploiters and liberals animal lovers will help the animals. Such messages may even encourage conservatives to eat more meat and take pride in it, if it’s seen as a conservative thing to do. And in the end, also the vast majority of liberals still eats meat. At the same time, many people on both sides of the political spectrum are against animal cruelty. How can we move away from the political polarization of animal rights and veganism? By being more mindful of the values of people across the political spectrum, and especially by being mindful of the values that conservatives find important. Framing the case for animal rights in terms of equality values (or egalitarianism) and social change/justice values will turn off conservatives, given that these are values that they find either not important or even in contradiction to their own values. Conservatives tend to resist social change and care deeply about family and cultural traditions, which in many cases involve meaty meals or other kinds of animal exploitation. It is hard to overestimate the importance of such traditions for people’s identity and moral framework. They bring family and community members together, are a source of intense gustatory pleasure, and ultimately provide a sense of social cohesion, stability and collective security. They are the social glue of the family or community. Bluntly criticizing some of the core aspects of these traditions – such as the meal – will likely come across as an attack on the values and traditions themselves, and will be met with resentment and defensiveness. Left-wing animal advocates likely consider such traditions as irrelevant and unimportant for their own moral choices, yet they should acknowledge the central role they play in many other people’s lives, particularly of conservatives. In this sense, perhaps one of the worst moments to start discussing veganism is during the Christmas or Thanksgiving meal. The real challenge here is taking animal exploitation out of the tradition without ending the traditions themselves, and providing adequate alternatives. Also important is that across the ideological spectrum, people are sensitive to suffering and harm, and value caring for those who are suffering. Compassion is thus not a partisan issue and appeals to people on both sides of the ideological spectrum. In sum, when it comes down to moral arguments, the most important idea behind animal ethics, the principle of “do no harm” resonates with the moral values of both liberals/progressives and conservatives. Further avoiding the emphasis on principles that are only valued by the left and being mindful of some moral principles valued by conservatives like traditions, could go a long way in avoiding the ideological polarisation of animal rights. (1) Dhont, Hodson, Costello, & MacInnis, 2014; Dhont, Hodson, & Leite, 2016 Want to make the world a better place? You may want to rethink your relationship with money. February 14, 2018 February 15, 2018 ~ Tobias Leenaert ~ 5 Comments Did you, like me, grow up thinking that money doesn’t make you happy and that there are much more important things in life? Were you raised with the idea that money is dirty, and something to avoid? That striving for it might make you a bad person? The result of such an upbringing – and way of thinking – may be that you are a nice and caring person, with less money than you could have had. And, that’s a pity, because you could have used that money to do good. Money: holy grail, or I’ve come to realize that it’s not just greedy people that may have a problematic relationship with money, but also people who I will call “do-gooders” (with all due respect, and for want of a better word). While the greedy people may live with the idea that money is the most wonderful thing in the world and want as much of it as they can get, the do-gooders will often avoid it as much as they can, believing it is a bad thing. They will see being rich as a vice and being relatively poor as a virtue (I know, this dichotomy of greedy bastards versus do-gooders is a bit too simplistic, but let’s keep it for the sake of the argument). You might be missing out At this point you may already be pulling up your nose, slightly disgusted at the fact that on this “non-profit” blog, I’m writing about making – or at least not shunning – money. This almost sounds like the text of a would-be financial guru who is telling you it’s your right to get rich, right? But, you having that feeling would exactly prove my point. Let me try to put you a bit at ease. First of all, I’m not talking about getting super wealthy here (more about what I mean later). Neither am I talking about making more money for your own sake (though I wouldn’t condemn that). Rather, I suggest that we learn to appreciate the value of money for the good things we can do with it. And no, I don’t believe donations or philanthro-capitalism will solve all the problems in the world, and I do think we need more systemic solutions. I believe there are quite a few problems with how a lot of money is made, the role it has in our society and the way people go after it. And, I believe that unbridled capitalism suffers from a lot of shortcomings. But, I also believe that more money in the hands of good, caring people is a good thing, and that the do-goodies shouldn’t leave the making of money to the greedy ones. My career without much money Because telling people in social movements that they might want to care more about money will, in the eyes of some, unavoidably make me look un-virtuous, let me add that my own twenty-year career as an animal rights advocate has been largely unpaid or for very small financial returns. I had the ability to do that, because my girlfriend owns the house we live in (thanks to her grandparents); so, we don’t have to pay rent, and we rent out part of it through AirBnb, which provides a bit of extra income. The fact, however, that I can do my activism unpaid doesn’t mean that I am against people making money from activism. If one can earn one’s keep doing something good, and, thus, have more time to do it, what would be the problem with that? 20.000 euros down the drain? Back to where we were. This is what I realized: because I never learned to take an interest in money, I missed out on opportunities to make a difference. My parents are quite ethical people who care about making the world a better place. But, in not teaching me to sufficiently value money and in giving me the impression I should shun it, they may have inadvertently reduced my chances of doing good. Let me illustrate this more concretely. I remember at one point – about twenty years ago – having about ten thousand euros in my bank account (back then it was in a different currency, but never mind that). Suppose I had had no need to touch that amount since then, and that it had just been sitting in my savings account. The average interest on a savings account in the past twenty years in Belgium has been about two percent. At that rate, after twenty years, that capital would have grown to about 14.500 €. If I had invested the initial 10.000 € in something (stocks or bonds, for instance) that would have offered me a higher interest rate (say a reasonable and realistic seven percent), my capital would have increased to about 36.000 €. That is a difference of more than 20.000 €. And, that’s just on this small initial sum. Note that present day interest is usually less than one percent, while inflation rates are at two percent; so, your money is quickly losing its value in a regular savings account. Einstein called compound interest the eighth wonder of the world. The problem was that I had no financial knowledge at all, and wasn’t motivated or stimulated to learn about it. Einstein famously called compound interest the eighth miracle of the world (check this page to learn a bit more), but I only really realized how it works this year, at age 44. It’s also only now that I realize a lot of the things we think about investing are incorrect clichés, and that when done properly and wisely, investing is not as risky as most people think it is. In fact, one line I read again and again is that we can’t afford not to invest. Maybe I’m particularly late and slow, but there must be many more people – do-gooders especially – like me (my guess is the “money = evil” attitude is more prevalent in Europe than in the US and other parts of the world). All the good you can do If today, you are still convinced that money is dirty and evil and you don’t want any of it, your reaction might be: 1. so what? and 2. investing like that is unethical anyway. I’ll respond briefly to these arguments, but I am under no illusion that I will convince the most anti-capitalist among readers. So be it. Regarding “so what?”: if you think rationally about this for a minute, you know that there is no doubt that money can be used to do good. You could do good with this money in several ways: – You could donate it to a non-profit. – You could invest it in a sustainable or compassionate startup. – You could even live on it yourself for a year or a couple of years (depending where you live), so that you don’t have to have some run of the mill paid job and have more time to volunteer. – You could start your own project with it. I think it’s clear that you are better off having this money than not having it. Unless of course, having made that money by investing would somehow be necessarily unethical (which is the second objection). There obviously are many unethical ways to make money. You can uncritically invest in stocks or funds where your money is used for bad things. But, that is not necessarily so, and many banks today offer sustainable investment options. These may not be entirely satisfactory to all of us, but it is possible to find ways to invest that are healthy and sound, or at least neutral. Moreover, apart from increasing your own returns, you also help these companies grow by helping them to raise capital. And, if you want, as a shareholder you can even participate and vote at their annual general meeting and help determine the course of the company. Some would argue that by participating in the stock market, one is contributing to a system that is fundamentally flawed and problematic. But, then, so is putting your money in a savings account – because that too is a way of investing in and contributing to systems you may fault – and with even less control, at that! Probably many of us have simplistic ideas about capitalism. This talk by Jonathan Haidt does a good job at illustrating that. Let’s look at some other objections to making money – all of which I held at some point, or still partly hold. “Money corrupts. People who are interested in money don’t end up caring about the world.” I don’t think there is any law of nature that dictates that money corrupts. It may also be that people who are greedy to begin with are the ones to acquire a lot of money, rather than the other way around. In any case, in this post, I’m not at all talking about the ruthless accumulation of wealth through all means possible. I’m simply talking about taking some interest in money and investing it in an ethical way, so that we have more means at our disposal to do good. Also, don’t forget about people who got really rich and because of that are returning a lot of their wealth to society and are investing it, for instance, in the animal rights movement or any other movement. Our movement is actually to a large extent funded by people who made a lot of money (hopefully in the nicest ways possible) and are donating it to a cause they care about. “Money is irrelevant.” Some people – often those who are interested in spirituality – would hold that money is not what makes the world go round and that it is actually irrelevant. It’s not about what you have, but what you are, etc. I’d say: try to tell that to poor people. Probably only those who are privileged enough can say things like this (even though there might be some grains of truth in these opinions here and there). “Money and the role it plays in our society is inherently problematic.” As long as we’re not enlightened and don’t have the means to freely provide each other with whatever we need, money is a convenient way to exchange goods and services. At the same time, I think it’s a pretty primitive one, and I can imagine societies and worlds in which we’re no longer using it. Too many things are determined by how much money we have, and shouldn’t be. Here’s a simple example: for a person with little money, it is much more difficult to ride a train in first class. Yet, she may have a higher need for it: she may need to focus, have concentration problems, suffer from panic attacks and have more need for quiet, or whatever. The fact that her level of wealth determines how she can travel does not seem optimal at all. If we want new systems, we’ll need money for that, too. Even if you loathe capitalism and want to throw it over, you’ll probably do it faster if you have money to help create a movement. There is an attempt in my country to create a new kind of bank (a bank of the people). To start it, they need… money. I think a good way to see it is that any new systems we are going to build will partly or largely be built with money from the old systems… My preliminary conclusions If I would have children (I don’t and won’t), I would try to teach them that money is not an end in itself, but that as a means to great ends, it can be extremely helpful. I would make sure they don’t grow up thinking that money, and making it, is bad or evil or corrupting. I would try to raise them with a desire to become people with integrity, who also value money for the good they can do with it. I would teach them some financial literacy, and warn them to not under- or over-estimate the risks involved in investing. Many do-gooders too might want to slightly rethink their relationship with money. It would be good if movements of do-gooders told their members and activists something about the importance of money. If young people start to invest wisely and sustainably at the age of say 22, after graduation, they can build up capital that can make an incredible difference in the world. I haven’t looked at any numbers, and don’t know if any are available, but my suspicion is that many activists, across movements, are people who are not exactly well off. What if we were better off, and had more means to spend on our movement and our own happiness? What if we didn’t leave the making of money to the greedy people only. Money, though often abused, or considered an end, is nothing more than a tool. It’s a tool just like marketing is a tool. We can choose to abstain from using these tools, and leave the using of them in the hands of people who will often be likely to abuse them, or we can wield them ourselves and do some good with it. PS: want to get more information on investing? The websites are endless, but I found this podcast really good. Thinking about disrupting meat eaters at a restaurant? Read this first. February 1, 2018 February 10, 2018 ~ Tobias Leenaert ~ 6 Comments Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) are the animal rights activists behind the attention-grabbing disruptions of meat eaters in restaurants. Their action in Rare Steakhouse in Melbourne Australia, on Jan. 30 2018, sure got a lot of headlines. Dozens of protesters went into the restaurant, chanting on megaphones and holding posters with pictures of suffering animals. Some vegans applaud these tactics and participate in them, others call them cringeworthy. Here are some thoughts. Activists disupting people’s meal at Rare Steakhouse in Melbourne Two reasons to start the revolution I can imagine that people take to these in-your-face tactics for two entirely different reasons. Reason number one could be that, with all the animal suffering and killing, vegans feel frustrated and want to speed things up. I sure can understand that people feel change is too slow. The other reason seems almost like the opposite of the first: we’ve seen a lot of news coverage in the last two years or so that testifies to the growing popularity of plant-based eating: vegan startups doing really great (sometimes with investments from the meat industry), new vegan products being sold out as soon as they show up, celebrities going vegan, spectacular-sounding growth in the number of vegans, and so on. I presume that information like this may embolden some vegans and lead them to think that the time is ripe for action of this sort. The revolution is upon us! My belief is that neither the ongoing suffering of the animals and our resultant frustration, nor the good news and our optimism, should inspire us, at this moment, to organize actions like restaurant disruptions. I’m not talking about direct action tactics in general. Indeed, I have no problem with these when they are well targeted (see below). But, I think in this case, the action is misguided and misdirected. “Don’t tell people they are wrong” In what follows, I’ll be paraphrasing a lot from a session at the Aspen Ideas Festival 2017, titled “To persuade others, pay attention to their values”. Panelists were Matthew Feinberg, professor of organizational behavior at the University of Toronto, and Rob Willer, professor of sociology and psychology at Stanford.* The session is worth listening to in its entirety, but at one point, the moderator asks the researchers if they can give some advice on what not to do when you want to change someone’s mind. The first thing Feinberg and Willer come up with, based on their extensive research, is: do not tell others that their values or their morals are wrong – unless you want to create an argument rather than persuade them. One’s moral values are so much part of one’s identity that to have them challenged very much constitutes a threat or reproach. People usually react defensively when threatened – in the moral domain, this is called “moral reactance”. I’ve previously written about one form that this reactance may take: do-gooder derogation, or the putting down of the one who does something good. The biggest problem with this is not that activists are ridiculed or judged negatively, but rather the fact that because of this reactance, people will be even less likely to change. (One tentative indication that this reactance took place in Melbourne may be found in the fact that the restaurant’s social media following has increased significantly as a result of this incident.) So, what do these guys suggest as a solution? They suggest trying to reframe the issue in terms of values that your audience cares about. I’ll write about that in another post. “Don’t engage in extreme behaviors” The second thing the panelists recommend that activists shouldn’t do is to engage in extreme behaviors. What the researchers found in terms of a lot of protests and other activism is that the more extreme the tactic is, the more likely it is to turn people off. Feinberg and Willer here identify a paradox: if you want attention for your cause, you need the media. But, the behavior that the media is most likely to pick up on is the extreme behavior that is most likely to turn off the average reader or viewer, who, as a result, will be less likely to support your cause. The researchers add that, interestingly, activists who are themselves involved in these extreme behaviors, when polled, indicate that they find these tactics effective, not just for getting people’s attention (which they are correct in), but also for persuading people – (which they are not correct in). (Side note: many vegans outside of DxE seem to believe, like me, that these tactics are not effective – and this difference of opinion within the vegan community seems to be, in and of itself, an interesting topic for the media.) On the Facebook page of Melbourne Cow Save – who I’m assuming co-organized the restaurant protest – we can read: “This action wasn’t about educating people about veganism. It was about taking non-violent direct action to end the exploitation and killing of all animals. It was to force animal rights into the public consciousness through non-violent direct action”. Yes, they were definitely able to get their message out there and get people talking. But is that necessarily a good thing? Getting an issue into public consciousness is not the same as changing that consciousness (and consequently, in the best case, the behavior). There certainly is value in raising awareness and helping to make a cause the topic of conversation, but if it is done in a way that mainly causes moral reactance, it’s probably far from ideal. Cows aren’t puppies I believe one of the mistakes DxE people are likely to make is to have too much confidence in the parallels between their cause and other social justice movements. They often refer to the non-violent civil disobedience and direct action organized by Martin Luther King or Gandhi, claiming – rightly, I think – that these tactics were instrumental in bringing about the desired change. While I do not deny that there may be important lessons to be drawn from other social justice movements, we need to be mindful of the fact that the animal movement is not in the same phase at this time as the civil rights movement was when people used these tactics to advocate for an end to racial discrimination. We need to keep in mind where our movement is in terms of the level of public support for our cause. I can imagine that this kind of direct action would go over much better, and have a bigger impact, if it were about something on which most people agreed with the protesters. An DxE activist is actually quoted as saying, “If they [the restaurant] were selling the bodies of dead puppies in that place and we disrupted it, we’d be hailed as heroes.” Well yes, probably, but whether vegans see a difference or not between cows and puppies, the audience at large does. It’s good to meet the audience where they’re at, and not expect them to have our values or adopt those values on the spot. For example, disrupting a restaurant where puppies are being eaten would be very effective in a Western country where most people share the value that dogs are companions, not food. However, in some parts of the world, eating dogs isn’t seen in the same way, and, therefore, a disruption would not be nearly as effective. Meanwhile, disrupting people eating beef in a country like India, where commonly held views on cows are very different from those in Western countries, may actually be effective. Let’s give people no excuse not to listen So, no, these activists, as the spokesperson realizes, will not be seen as heroes. The fact that this matters is not an ego concern, and undoubtedly, the protesters have no problem not being liked. Indeed, to some extent, they may actually welcome being considered a pain in the butt. But, we vegans are still a tiny group who can still use – indeed, require – much more support than we currently have. We need to do things that enlarge the support we get, rather than alienating potential allies. Even though things seem to be getting better, as vegans, we are still fighting an uphill battle against stigmatization, against people believing we are all kinds of things: crazy, angry, negative, preaching, never satisfied. We should not feed or confirm these perceptions (which are sometimes true, but most often not), and we should certainly not give people any excuse not to listen to us. Potential benefits Having said all this, let me try to be the most charitable I can be – of course, my heart is with these activists – and play the devil’s advocate for a moment. Let’s see if we can come up with arguments in favor of such restaurant disruptions and other radical tactics. Maybe such tactics make more moderate animal rights activists and other vegans seem more approachable and rational when compared to this so-called radical element (this is the so-called “radical flank effect”), and that could be a good thing. However, it’s equally possible that many people who still believe it’s acceptable to eat animal products will continue to equate the less radical parts with the radical part and, thus, consider all vegans as radical or extreme. It’s not true, and not right, but it’s all too human. One good thing I can see about DxE (and also about some other forms of street activism) is that it seems to attract and recruit a lot of activists. Vegans who until then had been passive, get fired up seeing DxE demos and become activists (see the explanation for the pull of this further down this post). And, being an activist (i.e., doing something more for the animals than just not eating them), is important. But, of course, if we have serious doubts about whether at least these DxE actions have a positive impact, more people participating in them wouldn’t necessarily be a good thing. If there is a discrepancy between actions that attract activists and those which are effective, then it seems to me we should see if we can attract new activists with these maybe not ideal actions, and then try to move them towards more effective forms of activism, maybe organized by the same group. I will also grant that there is a lot of uncertainty about what works, what works better and what doesn’t work. Often, it is not easy at all to measure the impact of certain forms of activism. Defenders of DxE tactics will say that even if people react very negatively to the protests at first, the protests might plant seeds, and these seeds may later sprout and change people’s minds. I consider that possible, though given the significant risk of alienating potential allies by these actions, the burden of proof that these actions are effective should be on DxE. Finally, I’m quite open to the idea that some day restaurant disruptions like this could be quite effective, even though I personally may never like how they feel. I can imagine that in a world where we have most people on our side, it can be helpful to give the laggards the feeling that they are, well… lagging. But, that time is not now. The warm glow of group solidarity One other advantage these actions can offer – although they are not the only type of action to do so – is to give activists energy and a sense of belonging, as well as increasing group cohesion. Let me bring in Feinberg and Willer one last time. When they’re asked about what people get from coming together with others that share their values, this is their answer – and I think it will speak to a lot of vegans: “You get a lot of things out of binding together with morally similar others and expressing moral judgments about the same things that you think are wrong and should be condemned, and finding togetherness and praising things you think are morally praiseworthy. You can develop a sense of morally-based group solidarity, which is a powerful thing. (…) It’s a great feeling when you join together with like-minded others and find yourself celebrating this commonality that goes all the way down to the depths of your convictions. People’s values are their deepest held beliefs, by definition. They’re willing to fight and die to defend their values. And so, when you can come together with other people and celebrate these values and share them, and discriminate between yourselves and those who don’t hold those values, that can be a powerfully transcending experience and generate strong feelings of trust within the group. It’s not strange and it’s not objectionable that people do that, that they are pulled to that sort of thing. It is, indeed, not wrong or objectionable to go for these feelings, and especially in a world where few people agree with us, it is normal that we seek out the confirmation of like minded-people. But we should be careful that the warm glow we get from doing activism does not blind us to the actual impact of our actions. We must be careful, in other words, not to confuse feeling good and doing good. Want to read more about vegan strategy and communication? Check out my book How to Create a Vegan World. * Even though I’m quoting from a podcast and obviously one person was always speaking at one time, I will quote as Feinberg and Willer, because I couldn’t distinguish between the voices on the podcast. Vegan advocacy: Unapologetic or pragmatic? January 28, 2018 February 10, 2018 ~ Tobias Leenaert ~ 2 Comments On Jan 28 2017, I did a Facebook live discussion with Casey Taft on the topic of vegan advocacy. Casey is the founder of Vegan Publishers, author of Motivational methods for vegan advocacy: A clinical psychology perspective, and is a professor of psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine. In terms of vegan advocacy, Casey feels that promoting a clear vegan end goal is the best way to bring about both reduction and cessation of animal use and that we should be careful not to promote the very thing (speciesism) that is the biggest contributor to our animal use in the first place. I, on the other hand, believe that while there’s a place for this approach, it is not what is most needed at this moment in time. I maintain that asking people to reduce their consumption of animal products is helpful to create a vegan world, and is not a betrayal of vegan principles or of the animals. This post is part summary, part observation of the discussion we had. Throughout the text I will link to related blogposts I wrote previously. A civil discussion across the aisles First of all, in spite of our different viewpoints, the discussion between Casey and me was friendly and civilized, and I found in Casey a respectful critic of my views. When I accepted Casey’s suggestion to talk, this for me was my first objective: to have a constructive discussion “across the aisles”. On the meta-level, I am very interested in how people with very different opinions can still have civil conversations (this is a bit like one of Sam Harris’s stated goals for his Waking Up podcast). Due to our different experiences, different upbringing, different genetic makeup, we are bound to experience the world differently and to have different opinions about many things. I believe one of the main conditions to create a better world is that we are able to discuss these differences. When we meet people who have different opinions, it is important to be charitable to each other, and to start with trusting that the other person has good intentions. So, I’m thankful that Casey and I were able to do that. Points of agreement Though our viewpoints are quite different, it isn’t that Casey and I are at loggerheads about every issue or aspect of vegan advocacy. Reading his book in preparation for our discussion, I found myself agreeing with quite a few things: obviously, the abolitionist aim, but also the idea that ultimately people need to see what we do to animals as an issue of social justice. I agree with him about the importance of respectful yet assertive conversation, and with reinforcing positive behavior rather than punishing undesirable behavior. I appreciate that he wants to build a bigger tent by including demographics that have largely been excluded from vegan advocacy. I share his stance against misanthropy. I agree that we don’t have enough research to say too many things with too high a degree of certainty. A pragmatic approach The main difference between our approaches is that Casey believes that we should never advocate for anything less than veganism, and that when we do that, we are betraying the animals, as well as our beliefs and that we may be actively undermining the case for veganism. I, on the other hand, believe that there is, so to speak, no moral obligation to always and everywhere present veganism as a moral obligation. If there’s any obligation, it is to do what works. It is important to emphasize that the strategy I suggest – on this blog, in my talks and most elaborately in my book How to Create a Vegan World – is not meant as the only strategy that should replace all others. Rather, it is a complementary, but – I think – necessary strategy. I believe that in this I differ from many “abolitionists” who believe there is only one right way to advocate for veganism, and who consider anything less than that as an aberration that is at the same time ineffective and unethical. It’s equally important to emphasize that I do believe in the same goal: the idea that we should stop using animals for human purposes and should minimize animal suffering. My view, very briefly, is that getting a lot of people to reduce is easier than getting a lot of vegans, and that, therefore, this is the fastest way to tip the system: a lot of reducers are what has been and is driving demand for plant-based products. A higher demand (coming from these reducers especially) obviously leads to a higher supply of good alternatives. Thanks to more alternatives, it becomes easier and easier for everyone to shift towards more plant based eating (see What vegan can learn from glutenfree) and to be open to animal rights arguments. I emphasize that, apart from trying to influence people’s attitude in the hope that people will change their behavior, we also need to help people change their behavior first (eating plant based to whatever degree, for whatever reason), so that they will more easily open their hearts and minds to the horrible situation animals are in. An example of this is also health conscious vegans who evolve into ethical vegans. Where you stand depends on where you sit. We are presently so invested in using animals, both on the individual and societal/economic levels, that it is very hard to start thinking differently about eating animals. (The shortest introduction to my views is this video.) If we agree that a critical mass of reducers is important, it is also important to see which arguments convince people to reduce their consumption of animal products. Health and environment seem to be effective arguments in this context; so, we should use them. Does pragmatism = betrayal? Now, Casey and others may agree that all of this may very well be true, but that for us vegans to advocate for reduction is to implicitly condone the eating of animals, and to downplay the social justice issue that is veganism or animal rights. One of the arguments that is often used to support this claim is to say that we wouldn’t be doing this in the case of humans. We wouldn’t advocate for a reduction of slavery, a reduction of domestic abuse, a regulation of child abuse; we would call for it to stop. This argument sounds very elegant at first sight, but I believe it is very much off the mark. I have written about this previously (see On comparing animal rights with other social justice issues and Slavery Free Mondays, but basically, comparing, for example, child abuse or wife-beating with eating animal products, is comparing something that 99 percent of the people abhor and agree to ban entirely with something that almost as many people not just condone but actually celebrate. Advocates of Casey’s view may then reply: but it doesn’t matter what people think about these issues; what matters is that we can compare human and non-human animals and that we are right to do so. Well, I believe that if we want to carve out a successful approach to stop people from doing something, we really do need to take into account where society is, not just where we are. Comparing eating animal products to beating one’s wife will often be ineffective, and people may feel very accused and morally reproached (alienating feelings usually will not lead to change). Moreover, if you really believe that these issues are (almost) identical, then what about this: what would you do if you saw a man beating up his wife, or a child, or if you were witnessing someone buying a slave? If you had the power, you’d stop it, right? So, given that these issues are allegedly comparable, are you then morally obligated to do the same when you see people buying meat in a supermarket, or preparing it in their kitchen? Should you grab the meat out of their hands, or physically prevent them from buying or cooking meat? I don’t think so. The analogy, as analogies go, may not be perfect, but I think this shows that even us vegans think about these situations and issues as different. Similarly, while I appreciate Casey’s experience and everything he does for both animals and domestic violence victims (and abusers), I believe it’s problematic to compare the treatment of domestic abusers with the treatment of non-vegans. For example, Casey writes that most of the abusers he treats are ordered by courts to see him, which is indicative of the difference in itself. I used to advocate like Casey does, from a “moral baseline” position. I changed my mind and my approach after years of advocating and campaigning. The main thing for me is not to be consistent with my ideology or theory, but to be consistent with results. If something gets good results, I will go for it. I will feel true to myself and my beliefs, even if, according to some, my approach is not in line with vegan orthodoxy (see also: Veganism: ideology versus results). Research on effectiveness Another point where I differ with Casey is in our opinions about the research that is being carried out by organizations like ACE (Animal Charity Evaluators), Faunalytics (formerly the Humane Research Council) and others. Casey has called their research pseudoscience and has written how their studies do not follow basic principles of science. While I do appreciate that, from his experience as a professor in clinical psychology with a lot of practical experience, Casey may bring a lot of interesting points to the table, I’m sure he too realizes that he’s not the only expert. I will not go into detail about the studies in question, but I’ll just make some general comments on this topic. Like I said, I agree that we have not been able to do enough research to state many things with a very high degree of certainty. Note that this doesn’t mean we don’t have anything at this point. Plus, there is also a lot we can derive from more general research in the fields such as psychology, marketing and sociology. There is also common sense, and our combined experiences – even though we have to be careful with all these sources of data and knowledge. In any case, I’m very happy that there is more and more money being granted to and invested in research. Casey seems to have a high distrust of the findings of the research (mainly done by the above mentioned groups) so far, one reason for that being – if I understood or interpreted him correctly – that the (preliminary) results often seem to point in the direction of support of incremental asks. Casey relies on theories and his own experience that according to him point in different directions, based on psychological theories and research, such as goal setting theory and the Transtheoretical Model (Stages of Change). He does not believe the findings of work in those areas suggest incremental asks are most effective, and that, in the case of Faunalytics and others, the data have been interpreted in a biased way to confirm the researchers’ original (incrementalist) views. Casey is mainly talking here about the Faunalytics study on former vegetarians and vegans. Che Green from Faunalytics has responded in the comment section on this article by Casey. I disagree with the conclusions Casey draws from the research – see What can we learn on research from ex-vegetarians? I think in all of this it is useful to ask: what is it that could change our minds? My impression is that some people – I’m not necessarily saying Casey here – will not accept any evidence, because accepting it runs counter to their theories. There is, in other words, no way to falsify one’s conclusions (which is indicative of an unscientific attitude). Personally, I don’t feel too much distrust towards the research done by groups like ACE and Faunalytics. Their studies were conducted with the specific aim to find out what works, and they have no interest whatsoever in fooling themselves. Even though we would be wise to remain critical (as with everything), I like to assume that people working on research in support of vegan advocacy would do their utmost best to avoid flawed methodologies and thus flawed results. Big groups and money I equally don’t share Casey’s distrust of “big groups”. It is definitely possible that big organizations go astray and sometimes are just raising money to fund their own continued existence, without doing all that much for the causes they advocate. However, there is obviously no reason to think that this is always or even usually the case. If a good organization is able to raise a lot of money, that is a good thing. Big organizations need funds to pay their staff and, therefore, need to fundraise. The more staff hours a group can devote to liberating animals, the more animals will be helped (no, it’s not going to be all done by volunteers). Money is a necessary resource not just to free up more working time, but also to do outreach. If we use money well, then the more money we can collect from people, companies and governments (often siphoning it away from other, more neutral or less noble, uses – see Money money money in our movement). Reconciling different views Casey and I finished our discussion by looking at what we can do to get along better and to reconcile these sometimes opposing viewpoints. Here are some ideas: I talked about what I started this post with: trust. We have to be able to trust that all of us have the same good intentions (even though none of us is entirely pure in their intentions – we are humans, not saints). (see also: Can abolitionists and pragmatists ever trust each other?) We also need to keep an open mind and be ready to change it. And, we need to practice what I call slow opinion. While some approaches are definitely better than others and not all strategies are created equal, as long as we don’t know entirely what works best, strategic pluralism and experimenting with different approaches is (to a certain extent) a good thing. It’s possible that different approaches can best be applied in different contexts. An “unapologetic” go vegan approach may be useful in one to one conversations where we see that the person is open-minded, while incremental, pragmatic approaches may do much better in the case of trying to create institutional change. Indeed, trying to change individuals (often done by individual advocates and grassroots groups) is quite different from advocating for institutional change (usually done by bigger, more professional groups). Similarly, approaching politicians with a health or environmental message will often be more effective than approaching them with an animal rights or “unapologetically” vegan message. Understanding these contextual differences may make us more tolerant of approaches that we usually don’t follow. (See also: Vegan activism: the difference between individuals and groups). What is effective is also very much a matter of the factor time. Things that may not work (or not work optimally) today, may very well work (or work much better) in ten or twenty years time. I believe right now is a time for a mainly pragmatic approach, and that as time goes by and people become less and less dependent on animal products, an unapologetic approach will be more and more productive. (see also: The right strategy at the right time) Again, despite our differences, I appreciate the work that Casey is doing, and I appreciate the fact that we had a constructive discussion. You can watch the whole discussion (70 minutes) here. Is clean meat the animals’ best hope? An interview with Paul Shapiro January 15, 2018 January 16, 2018 ~ Tobias Leenaert ~ 7 Comments I have known Paul Shapiro since he ran Compassion Over Killing in Washington DC, together with his wonderful three legged dog, George. From that position, Paul went on to be a Humane Society of the United States spokesperson and vice president for thirteen years. Just this month (Jan. 2018), Paul came out with his first book: Clean Meat. How Growing Meat without Animals will Revolutionize Dinner and the World. In it, Paul chronicles some of the key people, companies, and technologies behind clean meat, or the idea of creating animal products directly from animal cells, without live animals. Paul provides the reader with a fascinating inside view of the startups that have been popping up in our social media feeds in the last few years: companies like Memphis Meats, Hampton Creek, Modern Meadow, Clara Foods, Mosa Meats, Geltor, or Perfect Day, who are all hurrying to bring products to market that might just mean the beginning of the end of animal consumption. I talked with Paul about his hopes for clean meat, and asked for his answers to some common objections to the idea of eating meat without animals. Vegan Strategist: Paul, your book got me even more excited about the possibilities of clean meat (not to say clean milk and clean eggs). First of all: what are you most excited about? Paul Shapiro: I’m excited about it all, but, in all honesty, what would excite me the most would be a greater focus (in both plant-based meats and clean meats) on poultry and fish. The success of alternative milks and burgers is stellar, but even 100% displacement of those categories would affect less than 1% of farmed animals in the US. Statistically speaking, virtually all farmed animals are birds and fishes, so we need more replacement products for them. Fortunately, many of these startups are working on clean chicken, while Finless Foods is developing clean fish, too. What in your opinion is the most critical factor for clean meat to succeed? Not enough people buying this book! Just kidding. Seriously, there are key hurdles, from consumer acceptance to government regulation to technological barriers that could hinder the success of these start-ups. That said, every one of these companies is optimistic about overcoming such hurdles, and I outline why they feel that way in the book. One of these technological barriers is the serum that is used to make the animal cells grow. Traditionally, this has been bovine serum. How are the alternatives coming along? What we call acellular ag companies (those making milk, egg whites, leather, and gelatin) don’t need any bovine serum (or any other animal ingredients) at all. But the meat companies still use bovine serum for some meats, though not for others. They all know they can’t commercialize their products with that serum, both for financial and ethical reasons. The good news is that they’ve found non-animal alternatives to bovine serum that work (in fact, Memphis Meats’ Nick Genovese even published his serum-free recipe already), but the key is to find the most economical alternatives that will still cause the cells to grow into muscle quickly. Assuming we can get past the technological hurdles: how easy or hard will it be to get governmental approval to bring these products to market? That depends on the country and on the product. The path for the acellular ag companies seems a bit clearer, since there are already similar products on the market now. For instance, the rennet in nearly all hard cheeses sold in the US is produced through the same kind of synthetic biology which companies like Perfect Day, Geltor, and Clara Foods are using. There are some really smart people, like Pat Brown of Impossible Foods, who still think clean meat is an unfeasible and stupid idea. The organization Givewell, as late as 2015, was not recommending investing in or donating to clean meat. Could they be right? Sure, they could be right. I, of course, hope they’re not, and I also look at what experts in the meat industry think. Cargill has already invested in Memphis Meats. A major German poultry company just invested in SuperMeat. I presume they know what they’re doing. But there’s nothing inevitable or self-executing about the success of clean meat. Some people – vegans especially – will say that we already have enough plant-based alternatives, which are getting better and better, and that we don’t have any need for clean meat. If plant-based meats explode in popularity and make clean meat unnecessary, all of the clean meat companies will be thrilled, as would I. I love plant-based meats and tout them all the time. But many people profess to be wedded to actual animal meat. For them, clean meat could be a solution. The problem of factory farming is just so severe that you want multiple solutions. Just as with the problem of fossil fuels, you don’t want just one alternative, like wind. You also want solar, geothermal, and more. Similarly, plant-based meats are a great solution to the factory farming problem, but you also want other alternatives, including clean meat, and, of course, whole foods plant-based diets, too. There seems to be a big food trend in the direction of more authentic, more simple, more artisanal food. That doesn’t seem very compatible with clean meat, at first sight. The key isn’t to get people who like “natural foods” to eat clean meat; it’s to get mainstream meat-eaters (which is nearly everyone) to eat it. And really, the current way we produce meat is so unnatural that growing it seems like a naturally preferable option. I might also point out how technology has helped us on a lot of other food sustainability issues. Take vanilla as one example: only about 1% of vanilla that we eat is “natural” vanilla, which is grown in rainforests. The rest is produced synthetically, allowing us to have the same vanilla taste and scent we crave for much lower costs. What would you tell vegans who are critical of clean meat? Well, clean meat is meant, in the first place, for mainstream meat-eaters, meaning nearly everyone. Some vegans will be fine eating it, but the surveys show that the less meat you eat now, the less interest you have in eating clean meat. No one argues that clean meat is a panacea or that it addresses every single concern about meat. It is quite plausible though that it may spare billions of animals from torture and slaughter. All that said, sometimes as vegans we delude ourselves into thinking that the foods we eat don’t cause any animal suffering. For those who think that, I’d recommend becoming more familiar with commercial agriculture practices, including for the plant-based foods we vegans love. It seems that in the evolution towards a better world for animals, business and entrepreneurship are getting more and more important compared to activism/advocacy. What’s your take on that? I totally agree, and recommend this good essay by my friend Seth Goldman, executive chairman of Beyond Meat, on the topic. This is a big reason I wrote the book and am now moving away from conventional animal advocacy and toward food tech as a way to help animals. The animal advocacy movement can do a lot of good, yet I’ve increasingly come to the view that food technology is desperately needed to greatly accelerate the shift away from the factory farming of animals. Horses weren’t liberated from labor by humane sentiment; Henry Ford liberated them. Whales weren’t freed from harpoons by humane sentiment; kerosene helped render whale oil obsolete. Will clean meat and plant-based meats help do the same for farm animals? These questions are the driving factors for me to move my career more into the food tech space. And you’re not the only one. The stories of the “business activists” in your book are fascinating and inspiring. Yes. And it’s helpful to recall that these people are just people. They’re mere mortals like the rest of us. Many of them are young idealists who haven’t come to believe yet that they can’t change the world. And, as the saying goes, those who complain that they can’t change the world should get out of the way of those who are doing it. How do you feel about big meat companies getting involved in this? The faster meat companies become the purveyors of plant-based meats and clean meats, the faster animals will win. Fortunately, it’s already starting to happen. What would you say to people who bring up anti-capitalist arguments? I hear that argument and respect those who make it. But if animals must wait until the end of capitalism to be freed from factory farms, they’re going to be waiting a long time. Apparently Hampton Creek’s foie gras might be the first product to reach the market? Totally possible. It would be quite a story: the only foie gras that can be legally sold in California. It’d be quack-tastic! What can your average vegan or vegan advocate do in this story? How can they help? It’s a small but growing field! If you want to pursue a career in cellular ag, this page may be useful. If you’ve got an idea for a company and want advice about getting started, the Good Food Institute is the place to go. (It’s actually a great place to go for much more than that, too.) And, if you just want to be supportive, of course, touting the benefits of cellular ag and the start-ups profiled in the book on social media would helpful, too. They could use the support! To learn more about Paul’s fascinating book, go to www.cleanmeat.com. To know more about Paul, visit www.paul-shapiro.com Empathy means understanding that some people have less of it January 8, 2018 January 8, 2018 ~ Tobias Leenaert ~ 9 Comments When I was a young boy, my parents kept chickens in the garden. Not for the eggs, but for slaughter. We had about thirty per year. My father raised them, and at the end of their short lives brought them to a slaughterer, who finished the job. After that, they’d land in our freezer and later ended up on our plates. It was my parents’ way to eat “better” meat, healthier especially. From a young age, I empathized with these chickens. Now and then, there were weak or wounded ones among them. These often got pecked on by their fellows. I used to take care of them. I took a cardboard box, put straw, water and feed in it, and put it inside the house, next to the stove, where the animal would be warm, and hoped the chicken would get better. Sometimes they did, sometimes they didn’t. We also had a few goats. This wasn’t for cheese or anything, but because my brother had wanted them. I liked those goats. One night, I dreamed (or thought I dreamed) of a goat crying. I just slept on, thinking it wasn’t real. The next morning, I heard that one of the goats had fallen in the pond, and hadn’t been able to climb back out. I cried my eyes out after hearing that, and I still feel bad about it (maybe I could have realized it wasn’t a dream, I could have gotten up). Recently, I was sitting on a subway train, and a homeless or poor person was asking for money. In front of me were two women, each of them briefly looking at the man. On the one woman’s face, I saw (or thought I saw) indifference. On the other woman’s face, I saw empathy and compassion. I felt so much sympathy for the latter woman, and remember thinking: “You care, that’s so beautiful.” I was moved. But, my next thought was: who or what was it that made her into a caring person? Was it a decision she made herself? And, if so, what gave her the power to make that decision? Regarding the other woman (if my perception was correct), was it her own fault that she didn’t care or cared less? I felt that each one of these people was a product of their upbringing, their environment, their genes. Empathy for animals came to me from a very young age. I purposely wrote “came to me”. I didn’t look it up. I didn’t decide to have empathy for animals. I was six or something, and it was already there. Some people have less of it than I have, some have more. I don’t know why I had or have the amount of empathy I do (or for that matter, the amount of will or discipline to put that empathy into practise). Maybe everyone is born with empathy, but we need to be lucky to have people around us who cherish and nurture it, rather than telling us we don’t need to have it. I haven’t made up my mind about how much free will we have, but in any case, I believe that the control we have, about who we are, what we believe, and even what we do, is limited. I’m sure that empathy is, to some extent, teachable, and surely we can influence other people, help them to be better, through our educating efforts. But having empathy also means we need to understand that, maybe through no fault of their own, some people start out with less of it. How to veganize other people December 21, 2017 December 22, 2017 ~ Tobias Leenaert ~ 9 Comments Many vegans are looking for the ideal way to make other people go vegan. Often, they are targeting good friends, family, or even their significant other. And, not infrequently, they get quite frustrated when their attempts at making these people give up animal products do not result in any significant changes. Below, you’ll find some of my thoughts and tips on this topic. First, note that I don’t like to think in terms of “convincing” or “converting” others. This kind of language is, I think, not productive. It is not good for people to hear that we want to convert or convince them (people are very resistant to be convinced of something by others – see below). For this reason, it’s also better for us not to think about our efforts in those terms. In the end, we can’t make other people do anything. But we can influence them in the right direction and help them open their heart and minds. The term influencing too may bring up a connotation of manipulation or coercion, but in fact influencing is just a very normal thing that no one can avoid doing. Every single human is influencing other humans all the time, implicitly or explicitly, in a positive or negative direction. We shouldn’t be ashamed or wary of trying to influence people in a positive direction, assuming that the influencing is done with integrity, transparency and good intentions. So, here are some suggestions for effectively influencing other people to move towards veganism or more plant-based eating. ONE: Ask yourself if it’s worth it Some people will never be swayed to go vegan in their lifetime, or at least this would require a lot of time and energy. It is possible that this time and energy might be better spent elsewhere. More generally, we can wonder if spending a lot of resources on one-to-one interactions is interesting at all, given that we could also try to change institutions like schools and businesses and local governments. In general, going for institutional change will have much larger potential returns than going for individual change. Of course, some individuals might be very influential in that they have a large reach, or in that, exactly, they have decision power to change things within the institution that they work in. If your mom is the CEO of a big company, it’s more interesting to try to influence her than if she’s just self-employed and doesn’t have a big impact on other people. So, if you can, invest your time in people who are multipliers. TWO: Think and put yourself in their shoes Don’t use a one size fits all approach, but adapt your approach to the person or persons in front of you. Try to imagine what it is to be like them. Try to know what they appreciate and what might help them change their hearts and minds. Is it philosophical discussion? Is it good food? Is it just great conversation? Do they have fears about being unhealthy? Do they have allergies and need to have a really practical solution? Do they need to be shown that there are many good alternatives and that eating vegan is not inconvenient? THREE: Inform and help When vegans consider the tools at their disposal, they usually will think first and foremost of moral arguments, delivered in the form of a speech, a youtube video, pamphlet or documentary. You can use all of these, and they might be helpful. But consider that there are many more. We can give people many things, in many forms. We can use not only moral arguments (what happens to the animals…) but also other arguments (the environment, health, etc). Or, we can avoid arguments altogether and give them a good taste experience. We can hand them theoretical information (how many trees are cut for meat) or practical information (where to find a great restaurant). And, if you have the ability to make things easier for the person you want to influence by cooking for them or providing food for them, then do so. In any case, avoid information overload. It’s tempting to always give people more and more information, hoping that this next text, quote, video or photo will be the final drop that changes them. If people keep asking for more, by all means, give them what they want. But most people don’t. Don’t assume that an initial openness or request for information means that they will keep welcoming it, and that they’ll never get tired of it. If they see you as the person who, every time they are close to you, will go on and on about the same topic and can’t shut up about it, they’ll just avoid you. FOUR: Ask – but don’t ask for all or nothing It’s always good to give people a concrete suggestion or goal. Don’t present this goal, however, as something they have to do (for ethical or whatever reasons), but as something that it is good to do. And, know that this goal doesn’t always need to be veganism. While they may not be ready to go vegan, many people may be open to taking some steps. They may want to participate in Meatless Mondays, or Veganuary. Or, they may even be willing to go much further, like not eating animal products during the week, or whatever. Accept and appreciate these steps, because 1) they help reduce suffering in and of themselves, and 2) they may be steps towards more. Once the initial threshold has been crossed, things get so much easier. Moreover, it’s important to realize that we may not require everyone to go vegan at this stage, and that if only we had enough people who seriously reduce, the vegan world would be right around the corner. It’s just a matter of critical mass and reaching a tipping point. FIVE: Back off and be patient After you’ve given people enough information – that is as tailored as possible – it’s time to get out of the way and be patient. Patience means that you may have to wait months or even years. You may think that you or the animals can’t afford years, but that’s just how it goes. Here’s one hypothesis as to why it is important to back off in time and be patient. Most people are somehow like adolescents: they don’t want to be convinced of important things by others, but want to come to their own conclusions. They also don’t want to give the impression that that they have been convinced by you. Especially in situations where there is some kind of (friendly) competition between people (like with siblings, for instance) or where people are stubborn, it is important to give people a chance to change without it having to appear as if you were the one who changed them. People might not change because they don’t want to appear like that. So, how can we avoid it? If we keep talking and trying to convince them, they don’t have any space to “convert” without appearing as if it is due to us. If we, on the other hand, back off and lay low, chances are that after half a year or so, they feel confident that a change will be (or appear as) the result of their own independent thinking, rather than your talking into them. At this point, no more proselytizing is needed, but it is useful if you yourself are an example of a nice, friendly, patient, helpful vegan. Someone, in other words, whose example people want to follow. Trust that, at this point, people have the necessary information. You may give a nudge here and there, but as a whole, give people space to change. Do you have your own successful recipe for influencing people? Let me know in the comments. More about the art of influencing people in my book How to Create a Vegan World.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2089
__label__wiki	0.510257	0.510257	Have You Seen the Safety Warning Hidden Inside Your Cellphone? By wpadmin \| March 16, 2019 In this special edition of CBC Marketplace, originally aired March 2017, journalist Wendy Mesley investigates the safety of cellphones, focusing on a little-known warning from the manufacturer hidden within your cellphone manual that advises you to keep the device at a certain distance from your body to ensure you don’t exceed the federal safety limit for radiofrequency (RF) exposure. In the real-world, however, most people carry their phones close to their body, usually in a pocket. Many women even tuck their phone right into their bra which, by the way, is the absolute worst area for a woman to put it, as it could raise their risk of both heart problems and breast tumors, their two leading risks of death. What’s more, while the safe use information is provided by all cellphone manufacturers, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who has actually been able to find the message on their phone, without detailed instructions on where to locate it. What the Manufacturer’s Warning Says While the safe use warning may differ slightly from one phone to the next, the basics remain the same. Mesley reads the information from her iPhone: “To reduce exposure to RF energy, use a hands-free option, such as speakerphone … Carry iPhone at least 5 millimeters [mm] away from your body to ensure exposure levels remain at or below the as tested levels.” According to the report, “81 percent of Canadians have never seen the message in their phone or manual about carrying their phone 5 to 15 mm away from their body.” What’s more, few really understand what it all means. Is it dangerous to have the phone touching your body? Mesley sets out to discover what the warning means for consumers. The Berkeley Controversy Mesley visits Berkeley, California, where the city council passed a cellphone “Right to Know” ordinance,1 requiring cellphone retailers to put up signage informing customers that carrying their cellphone in their pocket or bra when the phone is on may result in RF exposure that exceeds federal safety guidelines. The ordinance was initially proposed in 2010 and passed in 2015. In response, the wireless industry (CTIA) sued Berkeley, claiming the ordinance violates free speech rights by forcing retailers to share this information. Considering the information in question is hidden in the manual of every cellphone sold, and is required by federal law, this legal wrangling sure makes it appear as though the manufacturers have hidden the warning on purpose, and really do not want consumers to find or know about it. Berkeley mayor Jesse Arreguin believes the lawsuit was launched to prevent other areas from following suit. If Berkeley can require cellphone retailers to post warnings, before you know it, the safety message might be required to be posted in every store across the nation. What You Need to Know About Your Phone’s SAR Value As noted by Mesley, whether your phone should be kept 5, 10 or 15 mm away from your body in order to prevent RF exposure exceeding federal safety limits has to do with how the phone was tested. In the film she brings three newly purchased cellphones to RF Exposure Lab in San Marcos, California, one of several labs across the U.S. that conducts specific absorption rate (SAR) testing for cellphones. SAR is a measure of how much RF energy your body will absorb from the device when held at a specific distance from your body (ranging from 5 to 15 mm, depending on the manufacturer). It’s important to realize that the SAR value is not an indication of overall safety. As explained by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC):2 “Many people mistakenly assume that using a cellphone with a lower reported SAR value necessarily decreases a user’s exposure to RF emissions, or is somehow ‘safer’ than using a cellphone with a high SAR value. While SAR values are an important tool in judging the maximum possible exposure to RF energy from a particular model of cellphone, a single SAR value does not provide sufficient information about the amount of RF exposure under typical usage conditions to reliably compare individual cellphone models. Rather, the SAR values collected by the FCC are intended only to ensure that the cellphone does not exceed the FCC’s maximum permissible exposure levels even when operating in conditions which result in the device’s highest possible — but not its typical — RF energy absorption for a user.” Why SAR Ratings Are Terribly Flawed In a nutshell, the phone is tested to assess how much RF energy is emitted when used under the worst of conditions. “We’re transmitting as if you were as far away from a base station as you can get and still make a call. This is the worst case it could ever get to be for a cellphone,” the lab technician explains. The testing itself was in fact devised long before cellphone usage became commonplace among toddlers and young children, whose skulls allow for far greater RF energy penetration. With the phone emitting at maximum power, a sensor is then used to measure the depth to which the RF energy is able to penetrate into the dummy head. All the SAR rating seeks to measure is the short-term thermal effect of the radiation on your body, defined in terms of how much power is absorbed (watts) per unit of tissue (kilogram). Different types of tissue, such as bone, brain, muscle and blood, all have differing levels of density and conductivity, which also affect the absorption rate. What this means is that a SAR rating is highly dependent on which part of your body is exposed to the radiation. In the U.S. and Canada, the SAR limit for mobile devices used by the public is 1.6 W/kg per 1 gram of head tissue. There are several major problems with using SAR as our safety guideline. For starters, the anthropomorphic mannequin (SAM) used to measure SAR is modeled after attributes of the heads of the top 10 percent of military recruits in 1989 — in other words, a 6-foot, 2-inch-tall, 220-pound male, which is larger than 97 percent of the American population. This means anyone smaller than SAM is more vulnerable to radiation penetration, especially children. According to Om P. Gandhi, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Utah:3 “RF exposure to a head smaller than SAM will absorb a relatively higher SAR. The SAR for a 10-year-old is up to 153 percent higher than the SAR for the SAM model. When electrical properties are considered, a child’s head’s absorption can be over two times greater, and absorption of the skull’s bone marrow can be 10 times greater than adults.” Secondly, the FCC uses SAM to determine safe levels of ionizing radiation, not noniodizing radiation. Because nonionizing forms of EMF have so much less energy than ionizing radiation, it had long been believed that nonionizing electromagnetic fields were harmless to humans and other biological systems. However, as discussed below, science has shown nonionizing radiation can indeed cause physiological damage. What’s more, the SAR of the radiation emitted by cellphones is only measured when the phone is actually on and in use, not when it’s sitting idle in your pocket (when it is still communicating with nearby cellphone towers and/or seeking the nearest Wi-Fi signal). Lastly, SAR standards haven’t been updated since 1996, despite the fact the cellphone technology has changed dramatically since then. Government Research Confirms Safety Concerns Mesley visits Devra Davis, Ph.D., who first became aware of the dangers of RF from cellphones and began speaking out about it in 2007. Since then, the scientific literature has doubled in size, and Davis is now more convinced of the dangers than ever. Among the more damning studies are two government-funded animal studies4 that reveal GSM and CDMA radiation has carcinogenic potential. The finalized report5 of these two studies — conducted by the National Toxicology Program (NTP), an interagency research program under the auspices of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences — was released November 1, 2018. While the preliminary report released in February 2018 significantly downplayed the findings,6 subsequent peer review upgraded the findings of risk. The NTP rates cancer risk based on four categories of evidence: “clear evidence” (highest), “some evidence,” “equivocal evidence,” and “no evidence” (lowest). According to the NTPs final report, the two studies, done on mice and rats of both sexes, found:7 Clear evidence for heart tumors (malignant schwannomas) in male rats. These types of tumors started developing around week 70, and are very similar to acoustic neuromas found in humans, a benign type of tumor that previous studies have linked to cellphone use. Some evidence of brain tumors (malignant gliomas) in male rats. Glial cell hyperplasias — indicative of precancerous lesions — began developing around week 58. Some evidence of adrenal gland tumors in male rats, both benign and malignant tumors and/or complex combined pheochromocytoma. Equivocal or unclear evidence of tumors in female rats and mice of both genders. The studies also found evidence of DNA damage and damage to heart tissue in exposed male and female rats, but not mice, as well as prostate, liver and pancreatic tumors in both rats and mice. While the NTP insists the exposure — nine hours a day for two years, which is the lifetime of a rodent — is far more extensive than that of heavy cellphone users, I would strongly disagree, seeing how many, especially the younger generation, have their cellphones turned on and near their body 24/7. Many are literally sleeping with their phone beneath their pillow. What’s more, cellphones are not the sole source of RF. Tablets, computers, smart TVs, wireless baby monitors and smart meters, just to name a few, are also sources of similarly harmful radiation. NTP Findings Reproduced at Power Levels Below FCC Limits Corroborating evidence was also published by the Ramazzini Institute just one month after the NTP released its preliminary report in February 2018. The Ramazzini study8 reproduces and clearly supports the NTP’s findings, showing a clear link between cellphone radiation and Schwann cell tumors (schwannomas)9,10,11 — but at a much lower power level than that used by NTP. While NTP used RF levels comparable to what’s emitted by 2G and 3G cellphones (near-field exposure), Ramazzini simulated exposure to cellphone towers (far-field exposure). Ramazzini’s rats were exposed to 1.8 GHz GSM radiation at electric field strengths of 5, 25 and 50 volts per meter12 for 19 hours a day, starting at birth until the rats died either from age or illness. To facilitate comparison, the researchers converted their measurements to watts per kilogram of body weight (W/kg), which is what the NTP used. Overall, the radiation dose administered in the Ramazzini study was up to 1,000 times lower than the NTP’s — and below the U.S. limits set by the FCC — yet the results are strikingly similar. As in the NTP studies, exposed male rats developed statistically higher rates of heart schwannomas than unexposed rats. They also found some evidence, although weaker, that RF exposure increased rates of glial tumors in the brains of female rats. Where Are All the Brain Tumors? To investigate whether brain tumors are something you need to be concerned with as a cellphone user, Mesley visits neuro-oncologist Dr. Jay Easaw in Edmonton, Canada, who shows her images of one of the worst brain tumors he’s ever seen, located on the side of the brain where the patient — a very heavy cellphone user — held his phone. Essaw has been part of the creation of a brain tumor registry, in the hopes of identifying causes. He believes we’ll see more studies showing a correlation between cellphone use and brain tumors as time goes on and heavy users since childhood start entering adulthood. “There’s no question that we’re seeing more young people coming into the clinic with brain tumors,” he says. “And the question is why.” Incidence of glioblastoma multiforme (the deadliest type of brain tumor) more than doubled in the U.K. between 1995 and 2015.13,14 According to the authors of the NTP analysis, this dramatic increase is likely due to “widespread environmental or lifestyle factors” — which would include cellphone usage. Mitochondrial Dysfunction, Not Brain Tumors, Is the Primary Hazard of Cellphone Radiation While brain tumors may indeed be a concern, in my view, it’s not the primary one. The evidence suggests the primary hazard of cellphone radiation is really systemic cellular and mitochondrial damage,15,16,17,18 which can contribute to any number of health problems and chronic diseases. While an estimated 80,000 U.S. men, women and children are diagnosed with a brain tumor each year,19 787,000 people die from heart disease.20 So, while the relative rarity of brain cancer may lead you to believe that cellphone use is safe, that’s only because you’re looking at a less prevalent outcome. The process of harm begins when low-frequency microwave radiation activates voltage-gated calcium channels (VGCCs),21 channels in the outer membrane of your cells. Once activated, the VGCCs open up, allowing an abnormal influx of calcium ions into the cell. This increased intracellular calcium and the accompanying increase in calcium signaling appears to be responsible for a majority of the damage that occurs. This is reviewed in more detail in my interview with professor Martin Pall below. For example, excess calcium activates nitric oxide, and while nitric oxide has many health benefits, massively excessive nitric oxide reacts with superoxide to produce peroxynitrites — extremely potent oxidant stressors.22 Peroxynitrites in turn modify tyrosine molecules in proteins to create nitrotyrosine and nitration of structural protein.23 Changes from nitration are visible in human biopsy of atherosclerosis, myocardial ischemia, inflammatory bowel disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and septic lung disease.24 Peroxynitrites can also cause single-strand DNA breaks.25 This pathway of oxidative destruction — triggered by low-frequency radiation emitted from mobile devices — may partially explain the unprecedented growth rate of chronic disease since 1990,26 and is a far greater concern than brain tumors. Download Interview Transcript Heart Problems, Neurological Disorders and Infertility Are Also Risks of EMF Exposure Cellphone radiation has also been shown to have a significant impact on neurological and mental health,27 contributing to and/or worsening anxiety, depression and dementia, for example, and all of these conditions are rampant and growing more prevalent, even if brain cancer cases are lagging. (This also makes sense as brain dysfunction will occur much faster than a tumor, which can take decades.) Research also suggests excessive EMF exposure is contributing to reproductive problems. For example, researchers have found prenatal exposure to power-frequency fields can nearly triple a pregnant woman’s risk of miscarriage.28 According to lead author and senior research scientist at Kaiser Permanente’s research division, Dr. De-Kun Li,29 “This study provides fresh evidence, directly from a human population, that magnetic field exposure in daily life could have adverse health impacts,” adding his findings “should bring attention to this potentially important environmental hazard to pregnant women.” According to Li, there are at least six other studies, in addition to two of his own, showing this link.30,31,32,33,34 EMF exposure may also play a significant role in testicular cancer and male infertility. Studies have linked low-level electromagnetic radiation exposure from cellphones to an 8 percent reduction in sperm motility and a 9 percent reduction in sperm viability.35,36 Wi-Fi equipped laptop computers have also been linked to decreased sperm motility and an increase in sperm DNA fragmentation after just four hours of use.37 Government Is Not Spearheading Public Safety Measures Again, the harms of RF are not related to heating of tissue but, rather, a result of a cascade of molecular events resulting in severe oxidative damage. As noted earlier, the evidence shows damage can occur even at levels far below the safety limit set for the U.S. and Canada. According to Mesley, more than 200 studies have been submitted to Health Canada showing harm from RF radiation at levels below the safety limit for which cellphones are tested. Health Canada claims many of these studies simply aren’t good enough to base a decision on, and that “the totality of the science does not support a link to harm.” According to Mesley, Health Canada has even stated that “Even if a small child were exposed to a cellphone 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, there would be no adverse health effects.” Rarely do absolute statements turn out to be accurate, and to unequivocally claim there are no health risks even for small children is taking a tremendous risk. As noted by Davis, “We should not insist on proof that we have made people sick before taking steps to protect others.” How to Limit Your RF Exposure While saying there’s no cause for concern, Health Canada still recommends replacing calls with texts, using hands-free devices and limiting use for children if you’re concerned about potential effects. The U.S. has taken an identical approach. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says that while any potential risk is “probably very small,” you can reduce your RF exposure by limiting the amount of time you spend on your cellphone and using the speaker or a headset to create more distance between the phone and your head.38 There’s no doubt in my mind that RF exposure from cellphones and other wireless devices is a significant hazard to your health that will damage your DNA and contribute to chronic disease and premature aging. It needs to be addressed if you’re concerned about your health, and that of your family. To protect yourself and your family from cellphone radiation and other sources of harmful electromagnetic fields, consider taking the following precautions: Avoid carrying your cellphone on your body unless in airplane mode and never sleep with it in your bedroom unless it is in airplane mode. Even in airplane mode it can emit signals, which is why I put my phone in a Faraday bag.39 When using your cellphone, use the speaker phone and hold the phone at least 3 feet away from you. Seek to radically decrease your time on the cellphone. Instead, use VoIP software phones that you can use while connected to the internet via a wired connection. Connect your desktop computer to the internet via a wired Ethernet connection and be sure to put your desktop in airplane mode. Also avoid wireless keyboards, trackballs, mice, game systems, printers and portable house phones. Opt for the wired versions. If you must use Wi-Fi, shut it off when not in use, especially at night when you are sleeping. Ideally, work toward hardwiring your house so you can eliminate Wi-Fi altogether. If you have a notebook without any Ethernet ports, a USB Ethernet adapter will allow you to connect to the internet with a wired connection. Shut off the electricity to your bedroom at night. This typically works to reduce electrical fields from the wires in your wall unless there is an adjoining room next to your bedroom. If that is the case you will need to use a meter to determine if you also need to turn off power in the adjacent room. Use a battery-powered alarm clock, ideally one without any light. I use a talking clock for the visually impaired.40 If you still use a microwave oven, consider replacing it with a steam convection oven, which will heat your food as quickly and far more safely. Avoid using “smart” appliances and thermostats that depend on wireless signaling. This would include all new “smart” TVs. They are called smart because they emit a Wi-Fi signal and, unlike your computer, you cannot shut the Wi-Fi signal off. Consider using a large computer monitor as your TV instead, as they don’t emit Wi-Fi. Refuse smart meters as long as you can, or add a shield to an existing smart meter, some of which have been shown to reduce radiation by 98 to 99 percent.41 Consider moving your baby’s bed into your room instead of using a wireless baby monitor. Alternatively, use a hard-wired monitor. Replace CFL bulbs with incandescent bulbs. Ideally remove all fluorescent lights from your house. Not only do they emit unhealthy light, but more importantly, they will actually transfer current to your body just being close to the bulbs. >>>>> Click Here <<<<< Category: Health Tags: Cellphone, Hidden, Inside, Safety, seen, warning ← New Eye Scan May Help Detect Alzheimer’s A final HealthNewsReview.org report card from 3,200+ systematic reviews of health care news stories & PR releases →	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2090
__label__wiki	0.760166	0.760166	The pain wasn't always so obvious. by REBECCA FLOWERS A gray-haired man in a green, water-wicking jacket bought The Valley News at the Circle K gas station in Hanover, New Hampshire, spraying his cash and coins on the counter. Peggy, the cashier, helped him sort his money. He asked, “I gave you two dollars?” “Uh-huh.” He put his knuckles to his forehead. “There’s something wrong with my head.” His hands were veined green like his jacket. He suddenly bent over the counter, cheeks scrunched and teeth clenched. “You okay?” Peggy asked. She stretched her arms toward him. “Bad toe,” he said, rotating his ankle. He took his paper and left. A regular. Peggy was scared about how he’d cringed. The pain wasn’t always so obvious. A girl with blue eyes and curly brown hair came into the Circle K complaining of a broken gas pump. When Peggy tried to fix it, her cash register stalled. Peggy called for Laura, her co-worker. Laura has popping blue eyes and hair pulled back painfully tight in a barrette. She’d been in the back, baking banana bread because the baker was out. The cash register made Peggy fall behind. Customers started to line up and Peggy had to run off to grab Laura. Peggy wanted to do her job well, to keep the customers happy. When Laura came out front, they rung up the customers until the store was empty. Around 4 pm, Peggy put up the plastic sign: “Next Register Please.” “I’m gonna take a short break,” she told Laura. “You working on bakery?” Laura nodded. Peggy takes frequent smoke breaks instead of a formal 15 minutes. She leaves by the side door and leans on the bannister around the cement wheelchair-accessible ramp. She tips her cigarette ash into the red mulch in the nearby planter. Sometimes she scratches circles off of a green lottery card, then puts it back in her pocket, hardly looking at it. She holds the cigarette between the fore and middle fingers of her left hand. She’s been smoking for thirty years. She doesn’t like the way people look down their noses at cigarettes in Hanover, a wealthy college town. After a minute or two, Peggy threw the stub into the plastic cigarette receptacle and went back inside. The Circle K has a certain rhythm. One minute the store is empty, then five people come in all at once, right when Peggy has to pee. Kids buy Zingers and Doritos and peanut butter cups. Road trippers pick up their Miller Lites. Regulars need their Marlboros. Peggy walks her wall of cigarettes, stacked like a kaleidoscope more vivid than the lollipops kitty-corned from the register. As she walks, her name tag flips back and forth between “Margaret,” and “Peggy,” Circle K sales associate. I think of her as Peggy because that’s the side it was flipped to on the day we met. “How long have you worked here?” I asked. “About a year,” she told me. She had worked in the U.S. Postal Service beforehand. “A big difference in pay,” she said. A friend who saw her would later tell me it looked like she had no teeth, but I disagree; they're there, just well-packed and smoke-stained. Peggy’s eyes are big and watery, her face finely lined like the creases in her gas station scrubs. Her red-brown hair grows down to the tops of her thighs. Laura has a habit of standing behind Peggy and brushing Peggy’s hair when things get slow. Once, Laura ran over to the CVS to buy a brush because Peggy didn’t get the chance to comb out the knots that day. Peggy hasn’t cut her hair in 13 years, since her son Jared was a baby. He would curl his fingers so tightly in her hair she would be too afraid of breaking them to take them out. Peggy had to get back behind the counter with another co-worker, Joseph, to help a customer. I waited for her by a little black table attached to the counter. A lottery ticket reader and pages of lottery tickets were stacked neatly on top of it: Mega Millions, Price 4, Lucky for Life. Peggy returned. “Is there anything else I can help you with?” she asked. She started cleaning out a coffee container claiming 100% Colombian premium coffee in the corner of the store by the bathroom. She gave me little fragments of her life as we talked, the smell of stale coffee wafting between us. She told me about her sweet, kind grandmother. She told me that she was an emancipated minor. She told me that she wished she had listened to her parents. She told me she’s a single mother now, with two sons. “I do the best I can to raise them,” she said. “Do you ever have fun?” I asked. “Don’t have the money,” she said. “The most fun I get is when a customer buys me a scratch ticket.” She’s never won. “But I guess it was fun to scratch the ticket.” She shrugged. Peggy works forty-plus hours a week and she still has trouble affording her car. She’s four months behind on rent. Her cable was just shut off. She’s waiting for her lights to get shut off. Peggy’s eyes reddened as she counted off her troubles. She held a roll of paper for the coupon machine, turning it over and over and playing with the loose end. She said she'd gone “to the state” for help. “They looked at me and said, ‘You are not 150% below poverty level.’” Tears were dripping down Peggy’s chin. She only reluctantly wiped them away. “If I was on the streets, that would be a different story,” she said. She has to work hard to get to sleep. She has to try not to think of her bills. It’s different for the Dartmouth students who come in here. They don’t know how to change a tire. They hand her their credit card right at the cash register even though the machine where they would swipe it is right next to them. They don’t even pay for their credit cards; their parents do. Customers often ask Peggy “how’s it going?” Sometimes she answers “good.” Sometimes she says nothing at all. When Peggy wrote out her family tree, she did it line by line in my notebook as the soundtrack from Dirty Dancing played over the radio. She was in a good mood today – or maybe it was just the bright red Circle K shirt that made her face light up. “Margaret Harrington,” she wrote her name at the top in long, squished letters that would fit in government boxes. Her great-grandparents were deceased. So were her grandparents. So was her father. As Peggy wrote the name of her brother, Edward Harrington, two years older, she asked, “Where is Yellowstone?” None of us at the counter remembered. “I’ll just put Midwest,” she said. “He sends me pictures. He tells me he just bought a new house. ‘Oh, you just bought a new house but you’ve got nothin’!’” As she wrote, a guy in a baseball cap and with fuzz on his chin showed Laura his empty leather wallet with a groan of pain. He asked for some cigarettes and paid with a credit card. “What do you do when your power’s off?” he asked Laura. “Buy a new generator,” Peggy murmured from her work. “I meant, what do you do for entertainment?” he asked. “Go to Dartmouth campus,” Laura suggested, but the guy didn’t agree. “I don’t want to be that guy just hanging out with the college kids,” he said. “Sounds like you need a dirty magazine,” said Peggy. The guy joked with Laura before taking his cigarettes and ducking out of the fluorescent-lit store, tucking his empty wallet into his pocket. Peggy handed my notebook back to me. Over the next several weeks, I gathered a sketchy timeline of Peggy’s life, filling the pages behind her family tree. She was born in Florida in 1967 – “the day the man walked on the moon,” she said as she threw out stale hot dogs from the hot dog roller. “Well, the year. I don’t know about the day.” The year was 1969. I didn't correct her. Her first memories were of a locked room. Her mother and biological father – she often made the distinction of “biological” – kept Peggy and her brother in there when they went to work. She and her brother would cry and try to break out. They quickly figured out how to pop the panes of the windows and squeeze their small bodies through. They grabbed at the branches of the big tree outside, finally free. Then one day Peggy fell and was knocked unconscious. The neighbors noticed. And then, so did the state. Peggy and her brother were removed from their parents’ care. Peggy’s grandmother – a small, petite blonde who liked to tell stories of her never-ending lines of drying diapers – fought for Peggy and her brother, and won them back from the state. She fostered them for two or three years before they went back to their mother. In the meantime, their parents got divorced. The timeline for Peggy is messy. Too much was happening at once. But she remembers that she saw her father for the last time when she was six. Three years later, Peggy’s mother married a farmer from New Hampshire,. Farm life consisted of 4 am wake-ups, cows that kicked, a growing family of younger half-siblings who Peggy said she helped raise, and step-siblings who Peggy said looked down on the rest of them as trash. Farm life also consisted of tobogganing down the slopes of the 300-acre farm, going swimming in the pool or the lakes with t-shirts and shorts on over their bathing suits, and one incident in which her step-father shot an albino porcupine before it could quill a blandly interested cows in the snout. In high school, Peggy encountered what she terms “debby downers” – people who said things like: “You live on a farm, you smell, you’re a pig, you’re a cow.” Peggy always thought: “Yeah, I make the milk you drink every day.” One girl took it too far. Then Peggy did, too. She pressed the girl’s head down into the bowl of the toilet. A teacher screamed outside the bathroom door while Peggy flushed. Peggy walked out, hands in pockets, saying, “What’s up? It’s okay. She’s in there crying.” In her teenage years, Peggy did something really rebellious: she and her friends decided to go to Bread and Puppets. The theater company, which is still active today, staged morality plays and protests against the U.S. wars, against capitalism, against global warming. Audiences chewed on rye sourdough bread as they watched – the founder, German immigrant Peter Schumann, said he thinks they have a better audience when they’re munching. Peggy remembers puppets everywhere, and thousands of people, and tents, almost like Woodstock. Everyone was listening to music, hanging out, and drinking. It was a sharp contrast to learning how to shoot on the farm. When Peggy was 16, she moved into her grandmother’s house. Her grandmother needed her. She suffered from poor circulation and she would sit in front of the TV in her chair until Peggy helped her up to bed at night. One day, Peggy came home and propped up her grandmother’s legs to slide lotion between her toes, like the doctor ordered. But when she lifted one of her grandmother’s feet she saw that it was black. Gangrene. Her grandmother didn’t want an ambulance, so Peggy helped carry her to the hospital, where they cut off the blackened leg. Five months later, the gangrene had taken her other foot, and they cut off that one, too. Peggy started working at Pizza Hut. But people kept trying to undermine her, she said. People, she said, who wanted her job. She switched to McDonald’s but fast food wasn’t her thing. “I was much better at waitressing,” she said. “Oh, I made good tips.” She lengthened the “o”s as she said it, the ghost of a young girl briefly visible behind her eyes. She got married, had a daughter. From then on, she would measure her life by the ages of her children. Peggy started taking classes in business and management at the Community College of Vermont, but then their apartment burned down and she had to move. The move made it too overwhelming to continue with classes. Then Peggy passed the Postal Service exam and became an equipment operator for the White River Junction Post Office. The years passed. She divorced and moved to White River Junction to be closer to their office. A year later, she became pregnant with her second child, Jared. She remembers her first child, Chris, a young man by then, videotaping the birth. “We want to remember this,” they told the nurse. “It’s pretty gross,” the nurse had protested. She thought filming was inappropriate. “Of course it’s gross, it’s a birthing!” Peggy said, laughing. After it was all over, Chris thought holding his baby brother in his arms was awesome. Meanwhile, after working for 14 years at the Post Office, Peggy got fed up with a female supervisor who, according to Peggy, had no personal skills. One day, Peggy just said, “I’m going home. I’ll come back tomorrow or I won’t.” She didn’t. She cashed in her retirement plan to pay medical bills. In the next few years, Peggy worked at Cumberland Farms, a bearings manufacturer, and Fujifilm. Nothing lasted long. Her son Chris had been working at the Circle K and told her to send in an application. So here she was, spending her afternoons working the counter, cleaning the bathrooms, and mopping the floors. “Once I saw a dead body,” Peggy said one day. She was 12 or 13, on a field trip. They stopped by a baseball field. The bathrooms were out of order, so a group of girls snuck into the woods behind the field to pee, and that’s when they saw him: the town drunk, passed out and baked in the sun. “He looked like a hairy gorilla,” Peggy said. The girls all screamed and ran out of the woods. Peggy imitated their crying and blubbering. “All I can remember is the hearse pulling up,” she said, “the word 'coroner' written on it.” The next time Peggy saw a dead body, she was 18. She took a trip with three girlfriends to Florida. They rented an apartment next to two convenience stores. One night Peggy and her friends saw an elderly couple staggering into the street. The woman sent the man into the first store, Peggy thinks for beer, but he came back empty-handed. So the woman beat him up. “I just remember a little white purse, just hitting him in the head with it,” Peggy said. The woman sent the man into the second convenience store, and he came out empty-handed yet again.So the woman pulled a gun out of her little white purse and shot the man right between the eyes. Peggy mimed her and her friends packing, taking imaginary shirts from imaginary shelves, and saying hysterically, “‘Gotta get our bus tickets for the morning!’” They left the next day. “Here I thought you were just boring old Margaret,” Laura said somewhere between staffing the counter and mopping the floor. “Yeah, rock on!” Peggy said as she turned to her, throwing up hand horns. “I don’t wanna grow up, I just want to be a Toys R Us kid!” Peggy said if she saw a dead body now, she would walk out calmly: “Okay, let’s call the cops.” “Why would you be so calm now?” I asked. “I’ve had my children. I’ve seen life,” she said. “I’ve seen my grandmother die.” We were sitting in Peggy's new 2018 Jeep Renegade. The new car smelled faintly of cigarette smoke and something fresh. It was impeccably clean and the seats and wheel covers were dotted with butterflies and roses. Peggy switched her Uber app to “online” and we waited. The Circle K parking lot was quiet at 6:30pm. Peggy’s phone lit up, a call to West Lebanon, from “Kenneth.” “Here we go,” Peggy said. We set off along the river, the light slanting through the trees. “I don’t like driving,” she told me. Some people drive like they’re in the city, she said. Kids cross the street and only turn to look for cars halfway. Sometimes the people at the crosswalks just keep coming. Peggy learned to drive on a Chevy Chevette, her friend Scott directing her through turns as she burned through gears and clutches. When she was ready to take her driver’s test, Peggy borrowed her grandmother’s car while she was in the hospital. Peggy passed, but when she got back her uncle yelled at her: “You stole your grandmother’s car! Give me the goddamn keys!” A few weeks ago, Peggy had been driving a new student to Molly’s, a restaurant on Main Street in Hanover, when her old Jeep had suddenly slowed to a stop. No warning. No apparent reason. It was embarrassing, Peggy said. For a while, Peggy had to catch the bus and rides with her son, Chris. One night she had to walk the 14 miles home by herself. In the dark the animals rustled in the woods by the side of the road. Peggy said she wasn’t scared; she doesn’t mind the animals. She worried about the cars. “The Domino’s drivers don’t slow down, they go--” she made a zooming noise. The next day her legs hurt. Since then, Peggy had somehow acquired a new Jeep with the help of her son, though the old one was still in the shop. Peggy pulled out the grey plastic shield in the visor to protect my eyes from the setting sun. We crossed a bridge over the Connecticut into White River Junction. Kenneth, the guy who had called Peggy’s Uber, was waiting behind the Coolidge Hotel, which had a clock tower with a triangular pane missing between the I and II on the clock face. Kenneth had white hair and was wearing a maroon sweater that looked like it was inside out, a white tag sticking up by his neck. “I thought I was gonna be in trouble,” Kenneth said. No cars had been available anywhere near him. He didn’t want to be stuck. He was a regular, Peggy told me later, along with a man who lived with him and helped run his lighting shop. According to Peggy, they were just friends. “You sell many lamps today?” she asked Kenneth. “No, I got nothin’ done.” He kept coughing every few minutes. “I know Illuminations is going out of business soon, a big sale over there. I don’t know if that will help you guys or not,” Peggy said. Kenneth didn’t respond. “So how long you been in the business?” she asked. “21 years. Now I have no money,” said Kenneth. He looked out the window at the cherry blossoms. “But it’s getting better as I get older.” Peggy dropped him off at a yellow house with black shutters on a steep uphill from the river. He handed her two dollar bills and made his way to the door. “He takes Uber a lot because he can’t afford a vehicle,” said Peggy as we drove away. She tries not to pry. “’Cause 30 years is a long time to be in the lamp business.” Back at the Circle K side door, Peggy hitched her foot up on the lower bars around the cement ramp. Her green and pink flannel shirt flapped slightly in the breeze as she smoked, her phone in her right hand with her Uber app still on. Every now and then thequiet was interrupted by the delivery guys carrying out stacks of black-clad pizza boxes from the Domino’s next door. Peggy said that last Friday there were a whole bunch of parties, a lot of Uber rides. She picked up some kids in suits and dresses at a camp past the Canoe Club. I told her it was probably a formal, like a prom that Greek houses have every term. “That’s weird,” she said. “Because when I was in high school there was only one prom a year.” She remembered going with her first boyfriend, and she had been the only freshman at the prom. Later, he joined the Marines but was discharged – “not honorably,” she said. Peggy found out he was seeing another girl. She decided she didn’t want to play that game. Peggy hasn’t had many men in her life. “I’ve had seven,” she said, the number rolling off her tongue like she had been thinking about it for a while. She only got married once, to a Frenchman, short and pudgy. They had a son. But she would work 40 hours a week and any overtime she could get. And the Frenchman would only work his 40 hours and be done. When I first met Peggy, she had told me that his laziness had been their main problem. Then she told me about other problems. “He’d stalk me through the house,” she said now. She would go to the bathroom and he would follow her in. She'd tell him to get out. She wanted to go grocery shopping and he would want to go, too. He would say she only had a half hour to go, he would time her. She took as long as she wanted. He thought she was cheating – all those hours driving back and forth from her job at the Post Office. One day she’d had enough of his craziness, his creepiness. She took her son and moved to White River Junction, right next to the Post Office, and filed for divorce. She hasn’t seen him since. She said she got out just in time. “He said that if I stayed any longer, he was going to kill me.” Peggy finished her cigarette and we got back in the car. She wanted to show me where she usually parked, under a tree behind Molly’s restaurant. “Did you love him?” I asked as we stopped at an intersection. “Yeah.” She sighed. “Yeah, I did. But I was losing my mind so that’s enough.” Soon after, Peggy met the man who would become the father of her second son. But he was seeing another woman while they were together, and he married her. “He chose her over me and his son,” said Peggy. “And that’s okay with me,” she said. She likes her single life, she told me. Neither of her sons know their fathers – not 14-year-old Jared who wants to be a chef, and not 24-year-old Chris who’s living with his wife in Canaan, New Hampshire. “Is that hard for them?” I asked. “Yeah, it is, for the youngest one,” she said. “He has a hard time grasping why.” We sat under the shade of the trees, waiting for another call. Her hands were folded one over the other on her butterfly-covered wheel. Peggy likes her job at the Circle K. “They let me run this ship,” she said. But she told me there’s not much going on there. The clients mostly fall into the categories of young and old. The young ones come in for Juuls and the older ones play the lottery like a casino. They all buy beer and cigarettes. They tell themselves they’re gonna try not to speed on the interstate even when they’re itching to get home. There are winners and losers. Laura and Peggy know one man as “Mr. B.” He’s hunched, wears a green puffed jacket, and shuffles in his shoes. He spends a half hour going back and forth between the cash register and a little table where he scratches off lottery numbers. He says something like “Give me four 21s” every few minutes, and Peggy tells him something like, “Okay, Mr. B, you have $8,” every few minutes after that. Mr. B walks with his Swiss army knife out, deployed in a shaking hand that he rests on one counter, then another. When Mr. B leaves, Peggy walks over to the table and clears the gold shavings from the tickets into her hands. A man in blue jeans and a blue shirt, both splattered with white paint like daubs on a sky, and one eye crossed in towards his nose, came in to play the lottery after Mr. B. He made multiple trips between the cash register and outside, the Circle K door opening and closing with a soft sound like the pressing of foam. He and Peggy spoke in a lingo of multi-plays, picks, and holes. Peggy told him that Mr. B just came in, but he didn’t win much. “He doesn’t need it,” said the guy in blue. “I don’t know about that,” murmured Peggy. One day, a scruffy guy came in and handed Peggy his lottery ticket. He knew he hadn’t won, he’d never won. But he asked Peggy for five more. “You know what?” he said. “Twenty bucks would make my day.” Sometimes the customers tell Peggy they’ll give her 10 percent if they win, they’ll take her out to dinner in France. “I’ve never seen it,” she said. But it’s the dream. Peggy has plans for that money. She’ll have a nice house. She’ll travel. She’ll sleep till noon, she says, neck back, eyes closed, and arms relaxed as though she’s basking in the summer sun. She’ll just have a good life. But then she straightens her neck again, and she hunches back over the cash register. She has to keep working.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2094
__label__wiki	0.844185	0.844185	Carey Family Crest / Carey Coat of Arms This surname CAREY is widely distributed throughout Ireland, but is most prevalent in Munster. It can be of English origin, brought over by settlers, or it can be of Irish origin. Descendants of the sept O'Ciardha, whose ancient territory was Carbury, barony in County Kildare, adopted Carey and Keary as anglicized forms of their name. Most of the European surnames were formed in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The process had started somewhat earlier and had continued in some places into the 19th century, but the norm is that in the tenth and eleventh centuries people did not have surnames, whereas by the fifteenth century most of the population had acquired a second name. The Registrar of births reported that in the last century that in Caherciveen Union, County Kerry, Carey was used interchangeably with Curran. When the sparse Irish population began to increase it became necessary to broaden the base of personal identification by moving from single names to a more definite nomenclature. The prefix MAC was given to the father's christian name, or O to that of a grandfather or even earlier ancestor. At first the coat of arms was a practical matter which served a function on the battlefield and in tournaments. With his helmet covering his face and armour encasing the knight from head to foot, the only means of identification for his followers, was the insignia painted on his shield and embroidered on his surcoat, the draped and flowing garment worn over the armour. Carey is the name of a family established for centuries in the parish of St. Martin, Guernsey. Their earliest traceable ancestor was Jean Careye, who lived at St. Martin in 1393, but the surname in the form Caree, was recorded there in 1288. This is probably the Norman name. The associated arms are recorded in Sir Bernard Burkes General Armory. Ulster King of Arms in 1884.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2096
__label__wiki	0.515276	0.515276	Convicted Felon Sends Heartfelt Thank You Note To The NRA By Elisabeth Parker on June 11, 2013 4:19 am · This ringing endorsement for the NRA comes from a guy who also once wrote, “In all probability I’ll commit murder, perhaps even mass murder.” Vintage revolver illustration from OpenClipArt.Org. “Thank You, NRA” Photoshop composite by Elisabeth Parker for Addicting Info. Last week Gary W. Bornman wrote a warm letter to his hometown newspaper, The Hartford Courant in Connecticut, thanking the NRA and pro-gun lawmakers for — once again — fending off legislation for stronger background checks for gun buyers. Back in May, the U.S. Senate voted down background checks for people purchasing guns 54-46, even though 83%-91% of voters support these measures, according to recent Gallup Polls. Unfortunately for the NRA, Bornman happens to be a convicted felon serving time at a federal super-maximum security prison in Colorado. With friends like that, who needs enemies? Here’s the letter: As a lifelong career criminal, although I no longer enjoy the right to keep and bear arms, I’d like to take a moment to express my appreciation to the National Rifle Association for nonetheless protecting my ability to easily obtain them through its opposition to universal background checks. Upon release in a few years from my current federal sentence on bank robbery and weapons charges, I fully anticipate being able to stop at a gun show on my way home to Connecticut — where new laws have made it nearly impossible for a felon to readily purchase guns or ammunition — in order to buy some with which to resume my criminal activities. And so, a heartfelt thank you to the NRA and all those members of Congress voting with them. I, along with tens of thousands of other criminals, couldn’t do what we do without you. Yes, you read that right. When Bornman is released from prison a few years down the road, he can’t wait to buy his next gun at a gun show — thanks to one of many loopholes in today’s gun safety laws — on his way home, so he can return to his life of crime. Aviva Shen from Think Progress reports: Bornman racked up 81 convictions over his life, leading one judge to declare, “It does not appear you can be rehabilitated, nor does it appear you can be deterred.” But wait, aren’t convicted felons barred from gun ownership? Felonies are one of many things that would turn up on a background check and supposedly prevent someone from purchasing a gun at a federally licensed dealer like their local Walmart. Unfortunately, you don’t need a background check to order guns online or buy them from a private dealer or at a gun show. Shen adds: As a result, many criminals, domestic violence offenders, and mentally ill people who are technically banned from buying or owning guns are able to get them without detection. Indeed, many infamous gunmen obtained their weapons because of the holes in the federal background check system. And just when you thought things couldn’t get any scarier, it turns out the above thank you note isn’t Bornman’s first foray into journalism. In a 1999 letter to the LA Times, Bornman advocated counseling for prisoners, and warned: In little more than 14 months, in all probability I’ll commit murder, perhaps even mass murder. That’s when I’m due to be released from federal prison where I’m serving a seven-year sentence for bank robbery. Having spent the better part of my life in and out of penal institutions, beginning at age 9 (I’m now 37), not only have I become institutionalized to the point where society is just an abstraction, but the very environment has engendered an intense hatred and resentment, which, when coupled with already existing emotional and psychological problems, wouldn’t appear to bode well for society. Unfortunately, the federal Bureau of Prisons doesn’t seem to think that my problems are all that serious–certainly not enough to warrant treatment. But Amy Pagnozi’s 2001 article for The Courant suggests that Bornman may be exaggerating how dangerous he is. According to Bornman’s public defender, Gary Weinberger, his client is something of a public crusader: [Bornman] “was actually pleased at the prospect of going into the federal system,” says Weinberger. He thought they’d be better able to meet his demands for intensive psychotherapy, without which he despaired of ever having a normal life. When they didn’t, he heightened his newspaper letter-writing campaign, writing articles filled with what Weinberger calls “grandiose exaggerations of his actual dangerousness” designed to provoke his keepers to provide the mental health care he believed he was owed. The prisoner’s then-71-year-old mother told Pagnozi, “With his mind, it seemed like everything started falling apart when he was young,” and later added, “I wanted him to get counseling for his mind, but I was all by myself without a husband; nobody would listen. The doctors told me, ‘Oh, he’ll be fine, don’t worry.'” Since Bornman’s been in the prison system for most of his life, it’s possible that he won’t even want to leave: The decades Gary Bornman spent campaigning to change the prison system were not altogether without effect. But it was he who did the conforming, becoming altogether unable to function on the outside. “No matter how much he rants and rails against the structure of prison, he just can’t deal with freedom,” says Weinberger. Regardless of whether Bornman’s “exaggerating his dangerousness” or not, let’s just hope none of us are around when he gets out of jail, buys a gun at a gun show, and decides what to do with it. Or at least keep tabs on his release date and stay away from all highways and transit routes between Colorado and Connecticut. Related articles from Addicting Info: NRA, InfoWars Attack Proposed Gun Insurance Bill In D.C. NRA’s Worst Fear: Bipartisan Agreement On Universal Background Checks Reached NRA Brags About Politicians In Their Pockets While Dismissing The ‘Connecticut Effect’ (AUDIO) PA Senator Reveals Background Checks Died Because GOP Doesn’t Want To Help Obama (VIDEO) NRA Blocked Crucial Evidence In Boston Marathon Bombing	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2099
__label__cc	0.673682	0.326318	Ayn Rand Was Wrong By Nathaniel Downes on June 21, 2013 2:10 pm · Recently at Target, I happened to notice a misplaced book. “Atlas Shrugged” was in the self-help section. I joked about how Ayn Rand needed all the help she could get, and a passer-by stopped and commented about how that book was amazing. I replied that it failed in that the underlying structure was impossible, therefore the core element of the story falls apart under any reasonable analysis. Simply put, Rand was wrong. For those of you who have not read the story, one of the key elements to it is that business leaders decide on withholding their services, in a kind of blackmail, in order to topple the government as people cry out for what only they can provide. A kind of libertarian paradise of no government would then erupt. So long as these businessmen were absent, conditions would collapse, so it was written. This is absolutely why the whole book is not only fiction, but a fairy tale. This could not happen, and I’ll explain to you why. For it to occur, a fundamental element of nature must be suspended. To wit: Nature abhors a vacuum. If a business were to withhold its services or products, another one would rise up to fill the void left in the market place. That is the nature of the business world, otherwise there would be no competitive advantage to a monopoly, to isolate out new entries into a market. For a business to intentionally seal itself out of the market, in a kind of “do it or else,” the market soundly tells them to bugger off and finds a replacement. Let’s use a real world example. At one time, all household and small business computers ran a single operating system. This software dominated the market, virtually no minicomputer or personal computer system made was sold without it. The company making this OS was the must-have-could-not-be-without end-all-be-all. Then, the CEO of this company misbehaved, he did not enable its use on a new machine, cutting off access in the same way in which those at Galt’s Gulch did. The company was Digital Research, the OS was CP/M, and the machine he did not put his OS onto, the IBM PC. IBM could have waited for DR to get its act together, possibly delaying themselves by months or years. Instead, they picked an upstart, a new company, and handed the keys of the kingdom to them. That company, Microsoft, and it’s OS, DOS. This is but one example out of many possibilities to use. Rand’s idea, that business leaders control through what they provide is absolute fiction. The customers control, the business only supplies to the customers. If the business does not supply, the customers will seek an alternative. If no alternative is there, an entrepreneur will step up to fill that need. That is what a free market is, and for all of Rand’s endorsement of it, she failed to grasp even the most basic structure by which it works. The real Atlas in the end is not these giants of industry like Miss Taggart, but the workers who themselves are consumers. The real Atlas would only shrug off these yolks as the blinders were removed. They purchase what is available, remove that and the demand remains. Something will step in to fill that demand as rapidly as it can, no matter the market. You find history rife with such, companies shutting down product lines in order to sell some other product, or to kill off a market which competed with their desires, only to have one step into that place. Ponder the auto industry a moment. When a company ends production of a popular model with high demand, aftermarket firms step in to continue the work, as demonstrated by the various kits based on the AC Cobra or Lamborghini Countach. Or when it is something more simple, like basic transportation, while the VW Bug was the low-cost basic transportation from decades past, today you would be more likely to find a Tata Nano or Kia Rio taking that same spot in the consumption pool, the original companies holding the spot abandoning the position. That is the market, niches to fill and when a company abandons its position in that niche, someone will come to fill it. Then there is the practicalities of Galt’s Gulch itself. It is described as self-sufficient, but how could it do that? Did Mr Galt build all of the roadways and pathways needed by himself? Of course not. In the real world, Galt’s Gulch is based on the town of Ouray, Colorado, which has had billions (adjusted) invested into it over the 120+ years of existence, from the million dollar highway of the 1920’s to the premiere water management system. The cost of the endeavor is staggering, especially then the support costs for these giants of industry who suddenly could go from being bank managers or auto executives to being able to build their own homes using only the resources they had available. How do she expect it to even work? Simply put, it was a farce. Those which espouse the philosophy of Ms. Rand have time and again proven themselves dangerous, for they believe that the business is the key to the market. This inversion of the nature of the market instead breeds corruption, and collapse, undermining the supports needed for the market to function. This is why when the focus is, instead, on the worker, which then expand the consumer base, the market works so much smoother. This is why in the 1950’s, we could support dozens of airlines, multiple automobile manufacturers, both fast food as well as mom and pop restaurants. Because the focus was on the consumer, the middle class worker. Until we stop believing in Rands delusional state, and start focusing on the true engine of our economy, the true master of our fate as it were, we shall never again achieve the greatness that we once had. Forget John Galt, embrace Rosie the Riveter! Author: Nathaniel DownesNathaniel Downes is the a native of New Hampshire, now living in Seattle Washington developing the next-generation superpowered MMORPG, City of Titans. Feel free to follow Nathaniel Downes on Facebook or Google Plus. He has just released his first book, available in Hardcover, Paperback, and Kindle.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2100
__label__cc	0.692431	0.307569	[View] Liu Ding's Store - Beijing Urs Meile 发起人：art-pa-pa　回复数：7 浏览数：2769 最后更新：2011/12/17 21:49:55 by uggonsale 威望: 20点 [楼主] art-pa-pa 2010-11-17 15:32:47 LIU DING《LIU DING'S STORE》 text source: Galerie Urs Meile Website Opening: 4.00 p.m. - 7.00 p.m., Saturday, November 13, 2010 Exhibition: November 13, 2010 - January 16, 2011 Gallery Opening Hours: Tuesday to Sunday 11 a.m. - 6.30 p.m. Liu Ding’s Store ‘Liu Ding’s Store’ employs a utilitarian economic model - a shop - to establish a platform for thinking and discussion centred around the creation of value. ‘Liu Ding’s Store’ was launched in the summer of 2008. Besides selling works online (www.liudingstore.com), ‘Liu Ding’s Store’ frequently makes appearances and sales in an assortment of contexts and situations, from social and cultural events to art exhibitions. ‘Liu Ding’s Store’ is an ongoing project that continues to develop new lines of work. Through different formats that include product pricing, promotion, marketing and circulation, it seeks to investigate, understand and discuss value - particularly the complex characteristics and essence of the subject of value in art - as well as the rules, mechanisms and politics behind the creation of value. In the meantime, it is an art practice that expresses the artist’s visions and imagination of politics. As of the present, ‘Liu Ding’s Store’ has developed four product lines: Take Home and Make Real the Priceless in Your Heart; the Utopian Future of Art, Our Reality; Conversations; and Friendship. Take Home and Make Real the Priceless in Your Heart is a series of unfinished landscape paintings custom-made in a factory in a large quantity according to the artist’s order. The artist has autographed each individual painting, which is thus granted a potential for value appreciation. Thanks to the artist’s signature, which also carries a symbolic value, these products are sold at a moderate price (only RMB 1500 each) that attracts many customers. As devised by the artist, such a game fully exposes the speculative nature of value. The Utopian Future of Art, Our Reality unites objects, products and artworks of differing values and categories based on themes invented by the artist. Each grouping of various items is offered for sale as a whole. Every item within each theme is priced equally, regardless of the differences in their functional, commercial, cultural and social values. In each themed collection of things, everything is equal. Their values are free of any hierarchical or quantitative distinction. This notion implies a radical political imagination. Conversations is a series of products featuring photographic documentation and sound recordings of non-public conversations the artist conducts with other practitioners in specific contexts. What carries value in this series is the actual experience of intellectual exchange, mutual inspiration and clashes of ideas. The artist boldly claims these experiences to be of value and prices them, calling for customers of an equally adventurous and forward-looking spirit. Friendship is the newest product in ‘Liu Ding’s Store’. What is for sale is an abstract psychological space, an environment and context made up of works and furniture designed by the artist. This context encourages people to gather and spend time together. Galerie Urs Meile in Beijing is pleased to present all four product lines from ‘Liu Ding’s Store’. For this project, Liu Ding will invite the renowned antique collector, Mr. Zhu Yeqing, to provide a selection of antique items from his collection to be a part of the Utopian Future of Art, Our Reality. The order underlying the creation of value in the antique business is a model in which objects are in a continuous cycle, existing as contextual references for each other; their values and prices are created and determined through such reciprocal referencing and support. Such a system actually transcends the pure material properties of an object and weaves social, artistic, cultural and economic values together to establish its selling price. This system is in sync with the spirit and order of the Utopian Future of Art, Our Reality. Mr. Zhu’s selection of antiques and the Utopian Future of Art, Our Reality are brought together in this exhibition to form contextual references and backing for each other. A practice of diverse directions and forms, ‘Liu Ding’s Store’ offers a critical contemplation and understanding of the art system. It touches upon the definition of art, the roles and power of artists, the definition of artworks, and the intellectual and economic value imbedded in the relationships and human networks of the art world. What the artist is concerned about in this project is not the revival of these old issues within contemporary society or an historical context, but how to raise these issues again through his own practice in order to initiate effective discussions. This art project, in conjunction with similar issues deriving from those of other artists, will thus generate practical examples for the construction of new forms of institutional critique. ‘Liu Ding’s Store’ has been presented in the following exhibitions and venues: ‘Far West’, Arnolfini Art Centre, Bristol, and Turner Contemporary, Margate, UK; ‘China: Destruction / Construction’, São Paulo Museum of Art, Brazil; the Chinese Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennale, Italy; the 5th Latin American Biennial of Visual Arts, Instituto Paranaense de Arte, Curitiba, Brazil; ‘PAWNSHOP’, The Shop, Beijing, China; the Second Moscow Biennale for Young Art, Russia; and “Museum on Paper”, Contemporary Art & Investment magazine, Issue No. 45, Sept 2010. ‘Liu Ding’s Store’ will also appear at ZKM Centre for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany and the Frye Art Museum, Seattle, USA. About Liu Ding Liu Ding was born in 1976. He currently lives and works in Beijing as an artist and curator. Liu Ding has participated in a number of major exhibitions such as the Second Guangzhou Triennial, the Fourth Seoul International Biennale of Media Art, and the Chinese Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009. His works have also been featured in many museums and galleries in China and abroad, including: Turner Contemporary, Margate, UK; Arnolfini Art Centre, Bristol, UK; Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria; Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway; São Paulo Museum of Art, Brazil; ZKM Centre for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany; Centre PasquArt, Biel-Bienne, Switzerland; Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation, Turin, Italy; Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea; the Luggage Store, San Francisco, USA; Iberia Centre for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China; Shanghai MOCA, Shanghai, China; and the Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China. [沙发:1楼] art-pa-pa 2010-11-17 15:33:23 [板凳:2楼] art-pa-pa 2010-11-17 15:35:44	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2110
__label__cc	0.610156	0.389844	Navigation Home About us Team Projects News Contact Global Ampersand Global Ampersand owns and operates the El Nido and Merced facilities, two biomass facilities that generate 12.5MW each. Both facilities are located in central California and Global Ampersand has entered into a long-term power purchase agreement with California’s Pacific Gas and Electric Company to sell 100% of its power. Aspen Power Plant Aspen Power plant is a 57MW facility which represents Texas’ first biomass electric generation plant. Aspen Power will interconnect to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) electric grid to sell its electricity under a long-term power purchase agreement. Aspen Power’s sister company, Angelina Fuels will provide the plant with about 1,500 tons of biomass per day from harvesting, sawmill and municipal cleanup activities in the local area. Akeida Capital provided a $14.1MM junior loan to provide capital to complete construction and commission this landmark project. Blue Lake Power Blue Lake Power owns and operates the Blue Lakes facility, a 12.5MW biomass plant that had previously been shut down in 1999. Blue Lake, located in Northern California, has entered into a long-term power purchase agreement with San Diego Gas and Electric to sell 100% of the electricity generated by the plant. Akeida provided a senior loan in order to complete refurbishment of the facility and enable it to be commissioned by providing the working capital necessary to do so and by expanding the plant’s fuel inventory. The Blue Lake facility also received a $2MM grant from the US Forestry Department as part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act stimulus package.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2112
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Learn about the league, how to start a league, how to support the league, and more. Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). -- MDA is a voluntary health agency supporting programs of worldwide research, comprehensive services, advocacy and far-reaching professional and public health education for muscular dystrophy and related diseases. The Association's programs are funded almost entirely by individual private contributors. My Cancer Genome -- My Cancer Genome is a freely available online personalized cancer medicine resource and decision-making tool developed at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center for physicians, patients, caregivers and researchers. National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, (NAMI) -- The mission of NAMI is to improve the quality of life for people with chronic mental illnesses and their families. NAMI provides support groups, informs and educates, reachs out to the community, advocate for improved services and research, and fight to eliminate stigma in mental illness. National Autism Association (NAA) -- The mission of the National Autism Association is to educate and empower families affected by autism and other neurological disorders, while advocating on behalf of those who cannot fight for their own rights. National Birth Defect Registry -- The National Birth Defect Registry, operated by the BDRC, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, is a research project that studies associations between birth defects and exposures to radiation, medication, alcohol, smoking, chemicals, pesticides, lead, mercury, dioxin and other environmental toxins. National Breast Cancer Foundation -- The mission of The National Breast Cancer Foundation is to save lives by increasing awareness of breast cancer through education and by providing mammograms for those in need. National Cervical Cancer Coalition (NCCC) -- grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to serving women with, or at risk for, cervical cancer and HPV disease. In 2011, NCCC merged with American Social Health Association, a nonprofit with a nearly 100-year history of educating and raising awareness on sexual health issues. National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) -- National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN), established by Congress in 2000, is a unique collaboration of academic and community-based service centers whose mission is to raise the standard of care and increase access to services for traumatized children and their families across the United States. National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease -- WomenHeart - National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease is the only patient-led national non-profit organization that educates and advocates for the 8 million American women living with heart disease. With 16,000 members and 50 local support groups, WomenHeart gives women heart patients and physicians a platform to spread the common message of early detection, accurate diagnosis and proper treatment so all women can lead healthier lives. National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) -- The NCCN was formed to create cancer-management strategies for large employers and third-party payers. Its mission is to integrate the experience of member cancer centers to ensure delivery of high-quality, cost-effective services to cancer patients across the country. National Eczema Association (NEA) -- The National Eczema Association (NEA) is a national, patient-oriented organization which is governed by a Board of directors and guided by a Scientific Advisory Committee comprised of physicians and scientists who donate their time and expertise to improves the health and quality of life for individuals with eczema through research, support and education. National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) -- The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) is a non-profit, tax-exempt (501c3) organization founded in 1973 and dedicated to educating the public and healthcare professionals about the causes, treatment and prevention of infectious diseases. National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) -- NORD is a unique federation of individuals and organizations working together to build a better world for people affected by rare diseases. National Ovarian Cancer Coalition (NOCC) -- NOCC is committed to raising awareness of ovarian cancer in communities across the country and to providing education, support and hope for women with ovarian cancer and their families. National Sleep Foundation (NSF) -- The NSF, established in 1990, is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to improving public health and safety by achieving understanding of sleep and sleep disorders, and by supporting sleep-related education, research, and advocacy. Natural Products Alert (NAPRALERT) -- NAPRALERT, provided by the University of Illinois, Chicago, is a relational database of all natural products, including ethnomedical information, pharmacological/biochemical information of extracts of organisms in vitro, in situ, in vivo, in humans (case reports, non-clinical trials) and clinical studies. NeedyMeds.org -- NeedyMeds.org is a 501(3)(c) non-profit with the mission of helping people who cannot afford medicine or healthcare costs. The information at NeedyMeds is available anonymously and free of charge. NIH Clinical Research Trials -- NIH Clinical Research Trials and You to help people learn more about clinical trials, why they matter, and how to participate. NIHSeniorHealth -- NIHSeniorHealth, developed by the National Institute on Aging and the National Library of Medicine both part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), provides the valuable resources of the NIH to great numbers of people over 60 who use the Internet to learn more about their health and aging. Noonan Syndrome Support Group -- The Noonan Syndrome Support Group is committed to providing support, current information, and understanding to those affected by Noonan syndrome. t is also our goal to raise the awareness of, and educate the medical community as to the complex nature of this syndrome and how it affects the lives of those who have it. OrganDonor.gov -- OrganDonor.gov provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources is an extensive resource for anyone intersted in organ donation. Ovarian Cancer National Alliance -- In September 1997, leaders from seven ovarian cancer groups joined forces to form the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance. Their goal is to establish a coordinated national effort to place ovarian cancer education, policy and research issues prominently on the agendas of national policy makers and women's health care leaders. PADRES Contra El Cáncer -- PADRES Contra El Cáncer, founded in 1985, brings together children, families, healthcare professionals and community leaders to promote a comprehensive understanding of childhood cancer and other blood disorders, as well as, effective methods for their treatment. Painted Turtle -- The Painted Turtle, a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization, is the sixth addition to Paul Newman’s family of Hole in the Wall Gang Camps for seriously ill children. It is also the only multi-disease camp and family care center of its kind on the West Coast. Through educational, therapeutic, safe, and just plain fun summer camp and year-round programs, The Painted Turtle provides a life-changing experience to children whose daily struggles often diminish both their desire to be well and their ability to lead a rich, productive life. Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN) -- The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, established in 1999, is the first national patient advocacy organization for the pancreatic cancer community. PanCAN works to focus national attention on the need to find a cure for pancreatic cancer. PanCAN also funds research grants for pancreatic cancer, as well as providing patient services. Parkinson Pipeline Project -- The Parkinson Pipeline Project is a grassroots group of advocates whose goal is to provide the patient perspective in the treatment development process. Through education, consultation, and participation with all stakeholders, including industry and the FDA, the Parkinson Pipeline Project hopes to increase clinical trial participation and accelerate approved treatment options. Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease (PFCD) -- The Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease is a national coalition of patients, providers, community organizations, business and labor groups, and health policy experts, committed to raising awareness of policies and practices that save lives and reduce health costs through more effective prevention and management of chronic disease. PatientINFORM.org -- PatientINFORM.org, scheduled to launch as a pilot project in Spring 2005, is a free, online service dedicated to disseminating original medical research directly to consumers. A collaborative effort of leading voluntary health organizations, scholarly and medical publishers, medical societies, and information professionals, patientINFORM will provide patients and their caregivers with online access to up-to-date, reliable research for specific diseases. PDtrials.org -- PDtrials.org is a resource for up-to-date information on Parkinson's disease clinical trials currently enrolling participants in the U.S. by symptom and location, as well as the latest news and views on what's happening in the world of Parkinson's trials. Ponseti International Association (PIA) -- The PIA is the global leader in training and educating healthcare providers on the treatment for congenital clubfoot. Prostate Cancer Foundation -- The Prostate Cancer Foundation (PDF) is the world's largest philanthropic source of support for prostate cancer research. The PCF has a single goal: To find better treatments and a cure for recurrent prostate cancer. Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research (PRIM&R) -- The PRIM&R is committed to the advancement of research programs and the consistent application of ethical precepts in medicine and research. Topics addressed include: the ethical and procedural issues surrounding the operation of Institutional Review Boards and Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees, the range of problems surrounding AIDS research and treatment, reproductive and other technologies and their effects on patient care, healthcare ethics committees, scientific integrity and conflict of interest, and the general questions surrounding academic/industrial relations. PubMed -- A National Library of Medicine's search service to access the 9 million citations in MEDLINE and Pre-MEDLINE (with links to participating on-line journals), and other related databases. Research America -- Research America, founded in 1989, is a not-for-profit, membership-supported, public education and advocacy alliance. Its mission is to make medical research a much higher national priority. ResearchMatch -- ResearchMatch has a simple goal – to bring together two groups of people who are looking for one another: (1) people who are trying to find research studies, and (2) researchers who are looking for people to participate in their studies. It is a free and secure registry that has been developed by major academic institutions across the country who want to involve you in the mission of helping today’s studies make a real difference for everyone’s health in the future. Rheumatoid Arthritis Support Network (RASN) -- The Rheumatoid Arthritis Support Network is dedicated to providing up-to-date information and resources for rheumatoid arthritis patients. Their goal is to help RA patients know their options, fully understand their diagnosis, and take steps to improve their symptoms and quality of life. Smile Train -- Smile Train is focused on solving a single problem: cleft lip and palate. Their mission is to provide free cleft surgery for millions of poor children in developing countries, and to provide free cleft-related training for doctors and medical professionals. Society for Clinical Trials -- The Society for Clinical Trials, created in 1978, is an international professional organization dedicated to the development and dissemination of knowledge about the design, conduct and analysis of government and industry-sponsored clinical trials and related health care research methodologies. Stand Up To Cancer -- Stand Up To Cancer is a charitable services fund of the Entertainment Industry Foundation, a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization. STOP CANCER -- STOP CANCER is committed to funding the most promising and innovative scientists in their early research of all forms of cancer prevention, treatment, cures and subsequent clinical applications. STOP CANCER works with National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers and other hospitals in the U.S. to carry out its mission. Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation -- The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, founded in 1982, is a global leader in the fight against breast cancer through its support of innovative research and community-based outreach programs. Tourette Syndrome Association, Inc. (TSA) -- The Tourette Syndrome Association, Inc., founded in 1972 in Bayside New York, TSA is the only national voluntary non-profit membership organization in this field. The mission of the TSA is to identify the cause of, find the cure for and control the effects of Tourette Syndrome. TrialsCentral -- The mission of TrialsCentral, launched in 2001, is to improve access to current and comprehensive clinical trials information to support informed health care decision-making. Funds to support the web site come from public and private groups, donations, and honoraria. Your Disease Risk -- Your Disease Risk is a source on prevention where you can find out your risk of developing five of the most important diseases in the United States and get personalized tips for preventing them. Voices of Meningitis -- Voices of Meningitis is a program of the National Association of School Nurses in collaboration with sanofi pasteur. The site includes video tributes that feature real people sharing their experiences with meningitis. These individuals are committed to raising awareness of this potentially devastating disease and making sure parents understand the importance of vaccination. WellnessWeb -- WellnessWeb is a collaboration of patients, healthcare professionals, and other caregivers. Access information about clinical trials, community health, drug dosages and compliance, treatment options and research, how to select a health care provider, reports on dozens of illnesses and conditions, tips about healthy lifestyles, complementary treatment alternatives and options, and many more topics. We Work For Health -- We Work For Health, presented by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) is a grassroots initiative that unites health consumers, biopharmaceutical company employees, vendors, suppliers and other business, academic and community partners to demonstrate how these diverse groups are vital to the socioeconomic climate and provide shared benefits and a better quality of life to all. Wig Buyers Guide -- The Wig Buyers Guide by ConsumerAffairs provides comparative reviews for people researching hair replacement systems. Wigs for Kids -- Wig for Kids is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that provides hair replacement systems to children who have lost their hair due to chemotherapy, radiation treatments, alopecia, burns, or other medical circumstances. Williams Syndrome Association -- The Williams Syndrome Association is dedicated to enriching the lives of individuals with characteristics of Williams syndrome. Women’s Bioethics Project (WBP) -- Women’s Bioethics Project (WBP), which concluded it's work June 11, 2011, was a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute dedicated to ensuring that women’s voices, health, and life experiences were brought to bear on ethical issues in health care and biotechnology. The Women's Bioethics Project focused on three main issue areas: neuroethics, women's health, and reproductive technologies. Young Survival Coalition (YSC) -- The YSC is the only international, non-profit network of breast cancer survivors and supporters dedicated to the concerns and issues that are unique to young women and breast cancer. Through action, advocacy and awareness, the YSC seeks to educate the medical, research, breast cancer and legislative communities and to persuade them to address breast cancer in women 40 and under. The YSC also serves as a point of contact for young women living with breast cancer. We welcome your suggestions and comments. If you are aware of a resource we should include, please submit it through Feedback.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2113
__label__wiki	0.927271	0.927271	A Walk Down the Royal Mile - Lawnmarket Leaving Castle Hill, our walk now takes us down to the Lawnmarket, which is the oldest part of the Old Town. The original settlement here developed both within the shadow and protection of the Castle. The Lawnmarket's name derives from "land market" where produce from the surrounding countryside was sold. A cloth market was also established here in 1477, one of 15 market sites chartered by James III within the city. This vibrant and colourful market continued to trade here until around the late 1700s. View eastwards down the Lawnmarket The Lawnmarket also boasts some of the best preserved examples of closes, courtyards and 'land' developments that remain within the city. The Ensign Ewart Pub Ensign Ewart Pub The Ensign Ewart Pub is the closest pub to the Castle. It claims to be the highest pub in the city centre and offers that after a hard night in the pub, going home is all "downhill". The pub takes its name from Charles Ewart, who single-handedly captured the standard of the famous French Invincibles at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. His grave is marked by a granite block a little further uphill on the Esplanade. The pub forms part of Milne's Court (1690) and it is believed that a pub existed on the site at least from, and probably before, that date. Ensign Ewart's Grave Milne's Court This courtyard was built in 1690 by Robert Mylne and refurbished in 1966 to 1970 by the University of Edinburgh as student accommodation. It is a good example of the tall tenements that were necessitated by the limited space available in the Old Town. James Court Following an earlier fire, James Court dates from around 1725 and is named after its builder James Brownhill. Many wealth and influential people lived here, including the writer James Boswell (who also brought Dr Samuel Johnston here) and David Hume (philosopher). The buildings were again destroyed by fire and replaced in 1857. Lady Stair's Close and Writer's Museum Writer's Museum Originally built in 1622 and bought by Lady Stair in 1719, this building currently houses a. Writers' Museum dedicated to the work of three of Scotland's most famous writers, Robert Burns, Robert Louis Stevenson and Sir Walter Scott. Gladstone's Land Gladstone's Land is an excellent example of an Old Town tenement. It was bought by Thomas Gledstanes, a wealth local cloth merchant, who extended it in 1620. He let out different parts of the six storey building to people from different social classes of the time. Having been condemned by the city authorities, the building was saved from demolition in 1934 and following restoration can now be visited as a National Trust property. Golden Hawk which marks out Gladstone's Land Wardrop's Court Check out this interesting pair of blue dragons over Wardrop's Court. The premises here were at one time occupied by the Incorporation of Baxters (bakers). Deacon Brodie's Tavern A real life cabinet-maker, William Brodie was elected a Deacon Councillor of the City of Edinburgh in 1781. By day he was an outwardly respectable citizen and pillar of society, but by "night he was a gambler, a thief, dissipated and licentious." To support his lavish lifestyle Brodie would copy the keys of his wealthy clients and return at night to rob them. He escaped to Amsterdam in the Netherlands after being recognised at the scene of one of his crimes only to be caught and returned to Scotland. He was hanged from the city's new gallows at the Tolbooth (which ironically it is said he had a hand in designing) on 1 October 1788. Such was the public interest in the case that it was said to have been attended by a crowd of over 25,000. However, the story does not end there. The story goes that Brodie bribed the hangman to ignore a metal collar he was wearing and that he had also inserted a flexible tube into his throat in an attempt to prevent the drop from being fatal. Immediately after the execution, Brodie's body was spirited away to a rendevouz with a French surgeon in the hope that it might be revived. Here however the plot thickens even further . While it is claimed that Brodie did indeed perish and that his body was buried in an unmarked grave in Buccleuch Parish Church, rumours however were later to circulate in the city that he had been seen alive and well and living in Europe. It is said that the story of Deacon Brodie may have served as the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's story, "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde". (However, more recently the author Ian Rankin has suggested that the genesis of that particular story lies in the tale of the notorious Edinburgh wizard, Major Thomas Weir.) Deacon Brodie's Tavern, at the corner of the Lawnmarket and Bank Street, is a virtual a stone's throw away from Brodie's Close where William Brodie inherited his father's business. Tall Lawnmarket tenements Continue to the High Street	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2115
__label__wiki	0.903051	0.903051	Corbyn ally criticises ‘irresponsible’ Watson Shaquille O’Neal says he ‘quadrupled’ his net worth after adopting an investment strategy he learned from Jeff Bezos In a recent Wall Street Journal interview, the former basketball star and current angel investor Shaquille O'Neal said he "probably quadrupled" his net worth after adopting an investment strategy similar to Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. O'Neal's personal investments include a 1999 investment in Google and a stake in Apple. He told The Wall Street Journal that he "heard Jeff Bezos say one time [that] he makes his investments based on if it's going to change people's lives," and "once I started doing that strategy, I think I probably quadrupled what I'm worth." There's nothing average about the former basketball star turned angel investor Shaquille O'Neal. So when he says he "probably quadrupled" his net worth using a simple investing strategy, it's worth paying attention to. In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, O'Neal said: "I heard Jeff Bezos say one time [that] he makes his investments based on if it's going to change people's lives," and "once I started doing that strategy, I think I probably quadrupled what I'm worth." That adds up. During his 19-year career in the NBA, O'Neal racked up about $300 million, which he has used to invest in everything from early stakes in Google and Apple to an empire of Vegas nightclubs and fast-food franchises like Five Guys, Auntie Anne's, and Papa John's, according to Money. Since retiring from the league in 2011, O'Neal has been an outlier in the trend of professional athletes that struggle with finances post-retirement. O'Neal took his earnings and reinvested them according to what he liked, he told The Wall Street Journal. Read more: More $10-plus billion companies have gone public in 2019 than at the height of the dot-com tech bubble. Here's how their businesses compare. "If something comes across my desk, and I don't believe in it, I don't even look at it," O'Neal told The Wall Street Journal. "Whenever I do business, it's not about the money." He said Google has been his best investment by far, but he most enjoys his investment in the Krispy Kreme doughnut chain. "I like donuts ... Krispy Kreme is a fabulous donut. I was introduced to it in college and have been in love with it ever since," O'Neal told The Wall Street Journal. SEE ALSO: Their last startup sold to VMware for $1.54 billion. Now, they're back with OneTrust, a privacy startup that's raised $200 million in its first-ever outside investment, valuing it at $1.3 billion. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: 5 things wrong with Apple's lightning cable Article by [author-name] (c) Finance - Read full story here. There’s a deepening divide among Google workers: Those who get free meals and those who don’t (GOOG, GOOGL) This tech exec quit his job so he could invest in ‘sexual wellness’ startups and he says cannabis investors showed him how to do it Stock futures flat after JPMorgan results; Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo eyed	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2117
__label__wiki	0.878044	0.878044	The Daily Agenda for Tuesday, January 5 TODAY’S AGENDA is brought to you by: From TWN (The Weekly News, Miami), October 21, 1987, page 44. TODAY IN HISTORY: ► Kinsey’s “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male” Published: 1948. The dry, scientific, statistics-laden Sexual Behavior in the Human Male was published by W.B. Saunders, a respected publisher of medical textbooks and journals who had no idea what they were getting into when they agreed to publish this book. Their experience was with a limited customer base where a run of 5,000 copies was considered a huge success. W.B. Saunders ended up publishing a quarter of a million copies during that first year instead. The only person who wasn’t surprised by the runaway success of what became known simply as “The Kinsey Report” was Alfred Kinsey himself. He and his colleagues had spent the previous nine years interviewing nearly 12,000 people across the country, asking them questions covering more than five hundred details of their intimate, sexual lives. When the book was finally published, America was emerging from the frugality that marked the Great Depression and World War II, full of economic and cultural vitality and itching to settle down in their Levittown houses and start making thousands of babies. The Kinsey Reports quickly entered popular culture along with Tiki-chic, bachelor pads, and a huge post-war baby boom. Sex was breaking out all over, and “Kinsey” became a popular code-word for anything risqué. It also introduced millions of Americans to the notion that gay people — and a lot of other people as well — were have gay sex. Now more than sixty years later, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (and its companion volume, 1953’s Sexual Behavior in the Human Female) are still the books that everyone loves — especially those who have never read them. They are also the books that social conservatives love to hate, blaming them for sparking the sexual revolution of the 1960’s. For more information about the book’s impact, you can check out our report, “According To The Kinsey Reports,” which was written on the occasion of the book’s sixtieth anniversary. ► “Male Hairdresser” Found Murdered in Miami: 1955. Miami’s five month-long newspaper-driven anti-gay witch hunt (see Aug 3, Aug 11, Aug 12, Aug 13 (twice that day), Aug 14, Aug 15, Aug 16, Aug 26, Aug 31, Sep 1, Sep 2, Sep 7, Sep 15, Sep 19, Oct 6, Oct 20, Nov 12, and Dec 16) seemed as though it might have been calming down as the new year began. But hopes in the beleaguered gay community that things might be getting back to normal were shattered when Miami Beach police were called to an apartment where a resident discovered that his roommate, 29-year-old William B. Bishop, had been murdered. The Miami News’ front page report was very nearly as hysterical as the phone call that Bishop’s roommate reportedly made to police when he discovered the body. According to The Miami News: Bishop’s nude body was trussed with handkerchiefs, a silk dressing gown sash and an electric wire cord, and he had been wounded. The exact cause of his death was unknown hours after one of the nearly hysterical roommates notified police at 8:10 a.m. Beach detectives and sheriff’s office homicide investigators found the body on the terrazzo floor of a jalousied porch in the apartment at 235 82nd St. Bishop shared the living quarters with two friends. “Edward Hedgepeth, left, and William H. Tower, roommates of slain William B. Bishop, are escorted to a telephone by Officer C.E. Hobson of Miami Beach. The two said they slept undisturbed while Bishop was dying on apartment porch. — Miami Daily News photo by Spencer. The Miami News didn’t identify Bishop as gay, but it may as well have. Not only was he identified as a “male beautician” in the headline, but his two room mates were also identified by name and professions: another hairdresser and a florist. The florist, William H. Tower, 22, told detectives that he went to bed at 6:30 p.m. the night before while the other roommate, Edward B. Hedgepeth, 27, went to bed at about 11 p.m. Neither of them heard anything unusual overnight. When Tower got up the next morning, he found Bishop’s body on the porch. Detectives apparently regarded the crime scene as quite a spectacle, and they invited reporters onto the porch to get a closer look at the body. The Miami News happily supplied the details: Bishop’s hands were tied behind him with a man’s handkerchief and the dressing gown sash, which were twisted together. The wrists and ankles were bound together with the electric extension cord, and a dish towel and another handkerchief were knotted around the face as a gag. … John Berdeaux, sheriff’s homicide investigator, said: “It looks to me like a sadistic murder.” The police also allowed reporters to go through the apartment as well, despite the fact that it was still the private residence for the two roommates: A desk in the apartment was littered with reading matter about homosexuals, including the book, “Strange Loves,” by Dr. LaForest Potter. The book was described on the jacket as a study in sexual abnormality.” Reporters also drew parallels to another unrelated murder which had occurred the summer before of a “Coral Gables schoolboy (who) was found dead in a tree near his home… The youth had been bound with rope to a pole held between forks in a tree.” After noting that that crime was still unsolved (in fact, investigators weren’t even sure whether that death was a murder or suicide), the reporters apparently ran out of anti-gay stereotypes to exploit, and so the article came to an end. The article ended, but south Florida’s gay community feared that their nightmare was about to repeat itself all over again. After all, it was the murder of a gay airline steward the previous summer (see Aug 3) that had served as the pretext for a wave of police harassment and arrests that would last more or less through December. The Brunswick Four: Adrienne Potts, Pat Murhpy, Sue Wells, Heather (Beyer) Elizabeth. ► The Brunswick Four Arrested in Toronto: 1974. It was amateur night at the Brunswick Tavern in Toronto, things were already getting off to a bad start for four friends. Adrienne Potts, Pat Murphy, Sue Wells and Heather (Beyer) Elizabeth were sitting at a table when a man joined them, uninvited. At first things were friendly, but it quickly turned sour when the man became belligerent and insulting. When the four rebuffed his sexual advances, he got angry, poured beer over Potts’s head, and left the table. The women complained to management, who promised that the man would be made to leave. With everyone in the tavern witnesses to the incident, Adrienne and Pat decided to make the best of things and take the stage to sing their rendition of “I Enjoy Being a Dyke,” a take-off from the Rodgers and Hammerstein Flower Drum Song tune “I Enjoy Being a Girl.” Their lyrics went: When I see a man who’s sexist And who does something I don’t like I just tell hem that he can fuck off I enjoy being a Dyke I’ve always been an uppity woman I refuse to run — I stand and strike Cuz I’m gay and I’m proud and I’m angry And I enjoy being a Dyke. Despite the crowd’s enthusiastic response, the manager became incensed and cut the microphone mid-song. He also demanded that all four women leave. With the support of other patrons, the women challenged the manager, especially when they noticed that the man who had started whole mess was still there. The women refused to leave until the tavern’s manager explained himself. He refused, and called the police. Eight officers quickly arrived, dragged the women out of the bar, and took them to the police station. The four were harassed, but not charged. Instead, they were forcibly thrown out of the Division 14 station. They returned to the tavern in search of witnesses, where they were met by policemen and bouncers. Three of the four were thrown into an unmarked car and taken back to the station. (Sue Wells was not taken in because there was no room in the car, even though she demanded to be taken with the others.) Back at the station, the three endured five hours of harassment. Officers’ remarks were of the crudest sort: “Did you ever put your finger in a Dyke?” one was heard asking another. The three were finally charged with creating a disturbance, and Elizabeth was given an additional charge of obstructing the police. Pat Murphy was also a member of Toronto Gay Action, which made sure there was plenty of publicity surrounding the arrest. The group became known as the Brunswick Four, and Judy Lamarsh, former Secretary of State for Canada, defended the women free of charge. Later that summer, Murphy and Elizabeth were acquitted (the obstruction charge against Elizabeth was dropped), and Potts was given three months probation after the judge ruled that she was responsible for the entire disturbance. After the trial, Potts, Murphy and Beyer compelled the Crown to charge the arresting officers with assault after collecting extensive evidence in the form of doctors’ notes and photographs of their bruising. But the police officers had exchanged hats and badge numbers before entering the tavern, which prevented the women from making positive identifications. Murphy, Potts and Beyer refused to participate in the trial, calling it a scam and a miscarriage of justice. The officers were acquitted and Murphy was sentenced to thirty days in jail for contempt of court for refusing to rise for a recess. Despite the unsatisfactory outcomes, the incident is regarded by many as Canada’s Stonewall for inspiring a more outspoken and confrontational gay rights movement in Canada. [Sources: “Uppity Women.” The Body Politic (March 1974): 1. Available online here. “Partial Win for Brunswick 4.” The Body Politic (July 1974): 6. Available online here. TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: ► Kay Lahusen: 1930. Her life partner, pioneering lesbian rights advocate Barbara Gittings (see Jul 31), was probably more famous, but Kay Lahusen was an equal partner in the couple’s active participation in the early gay rights movement. She had been raised in Cincinnati by her Christian Science grandparents, and she encountered her first crisis over her sexuality while still in high school when she fell in love with another girl and developed what she thought was “the world’s greatest friendship.” But that friendship also stirred feelings of love, desire, and sex, “just like straight people feel. I have to tell you, I had a breakdown over this revelation.” She went to bed and stayed there for two weeks. When her grandparents called a Christian Science practitioner to the house to pray over her, Lahusen decided that she had no choice but to figure out how to pull herself up and deal with the situation head-on. “I just decided that I was right and the world was wrong, and that there couldn’t be anything wrong with this kind of love.” After a difficult breakup with that same girlfriend in college, she moved to Boston to work in the Christian Science Monitor’s reference library, where she observed that “they filed homosexuality under ‘vice’.” In 1961, she read Voyage from Lesbos: The Psychoanalysis of a Female Homosexual by New York psychiatrist Richard Robertiello, she contacted the author and asked where she could learn more about other lesbians. He told her about the Daughters of Bilitis and gave her a copy of the group’s magazine The Ladder. “So I wrote to DOB in New York and who got my letter but Barbara.” Gittings, who had organized the first DOB chapter in the East Cost when she established the New York chapter, invited Lahusen to a DOB meeting. Barbara herself was out of town, but Kay met four others at that small get-together. A short time later, Kay met Barbara at a DOB picnic in Rhode Island. “When I met Barbara at the picnic, I thought she was a very interesting person. I was quite taken with her.” That meeting marked the start of a powerful lifelong personal and political partnership Photo of Lilli Vincenz, by Kay Lahusen, on the January 1966 cover of The Ladder Together, they established a much more politically active wing of the Daughters of Bilitis, and their strong push for visibility came to epitomize the East Coast approach to gay advocacy. When Barbara began editing The Ladder in 1962, she pushed the magazine into a much bolder direction. She quickly replaced the magazine’s hand-drawn covers with photos of real lesbians, photos which were often supplied by Kay — credited as “Kay Tobin” because, she said, “Lahusen is too hard to pronounce.” By then, Lahusen was becoming “the first gay photojournalist” by photographing an increasing number of gay rights pickets on the East Coast. Kay Lahusen, walking a picket line in front of Independence Hall in 1969, just a few days after the Stonewall rebellion. It was those pickets, including at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall (see Jul 4), the White House (see Apr 17 and May 29), the Civil Service Commission (see Jun 26), the Pentagon (see Jul 31) and the State Department (see Aug 28), which became a source of growing tension between the East and West Coast branches of the DOB. Lahusen and Gittings, along with other East Coast gay rights activists like Frank Kameny (see May 21) and Randolphe Wicker, believed that a more direct and confrontational approach was needed if anything was truly going to change, and they were increasingly frustrated by the cautious and accommodating approach advocated by West Coast leaders. When the national DOB became paralyzed over how to respond to a police raid on a lesbian bar in Philadelphia (see Mar 8), Lahusen and Gittings decided it was time to move on. After leaving DOB, they began working with other men and women on the East Coast through a host of other organizations, including the Homophile Action League, the East Coast Homophile Organization (ECHO), the North American Conference of Homophile Organizations (NACHO) and, after Stonewall, the Gay Activist Alliance (GAA). They also played key roles in the drive to get the American Psychiatric Association to drop homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. Kay’s activism continued into the 1980s when, after becoming a realtor, she organized a group of agents to march in New York’s Gay Pride Parade. Kay and Barbara remained together for 46 years, until Barbara’s death from breast cancer in 2007. Key currently lives in an assistance living facility in Pennsylvania. [Source: Eric Marcus. Making History: The Struggle for Gay and Lesbian Equal Rights, 1945-1990 : An Oral History (New York: HarperCollins, 1992).] ► Alvin Ailey, Jr.: 1931-1989. It can be justifiably said that Alvin Ailey single handedly elevated African-American dance from popular steps to modern art. It’s hard to imagine African-American modern dance without his Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, even though he was always proud of the fact that his dance company was integrated. Ailey combined modern dance with classical styles, bringing together a long, unbroken leg line (“a ballet bottom”) and a dramatically expressive upper torso (“a modern top”). “What I like is the line and technical range that classical ballet gives to the body. But I still want to project to the audience the expressiveness that only modern dance offers, especially for the inner kinds of things,” he once explained. His signature work, Revelations, drew on his memories of his early childhood in Texas, combining elements of blues, spirituals, and gospel music with a thoroughly modern choreography. His 1970 American Ballet Theatre commission, The River, had the ABT’s ballet company employing classical dance styles with the music of Duke Ellington. Ailey relative openness about his sexuality was the source of continued tensions between him and his mother. When he was dying of AIDS in 1989, he asked his doctor to announce that he had died of a blood disorder to spare his mother the social stigma of dying from AIDS. Considering the many barriers that Ailey smashed to smithereens during the course of his career in dance, his final act stands as a sad anomaly. And yet his work endures. His dance troupe carries on his legacy through performances, commissions and in providing higher education to dance students through The Ailey School. If you know of something that belongs on the agenda, please send it here. Don’t forget to include the basics: who, what, when, where, and URL (if available). And feel free to consider this your open thread for the day. What’s happening in your world? Tags: Daily Agenda	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2118
__label__cc	0.660525	0.339475	Memoria (PC) Review – September 8, 2013Posted in: Reviews After our recent preview of Memoria, we were lucky enough to get our hands on the full version. Rather than rehashing what I’ve said previously, I’ll try to focus this review on the additional material I’ve uncovered since getting the finished version. Everything in Memoria is depicted with gorgeous digital paintings. The setting is a classic fantasy world, filled with equal parts mystical wonderment and medieval squalor. The framing device of the story primarily follows a character named Geron through his deep and detailed world, but the meat of the visuals usually comes during the flashbacks to the secondary tale following an ancient princess through a variety of environments. These range from Tolkien-esque catacombs to dense, foggy forests, icy mountains, and ancient dragon-forged fortresses. I consider myself a connoisseur of dragons, and these meet with my approval. Far from simply beings static backgrounds, much work has been put into giving these settings life. Animals forage, children bathe, shepherds groom and shear their flock, and any number of background flavor elements keep the often-revisited areas from becoming too stagnant. In an adventure game that requires you to scour every speck of screen for something useful to solve the present problem, this is a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing because it keeps you interested in the world, but a curse because the art is so skillfully made that there is no seam, no telltale color shift, no sign at all what part of the world is providing you with a clue or a guide to what items you should be gathering. All you have is your keen intellect… and the space bar, which reveals all interactive elements in the scene. A handy tool that saved no end of frustration, and prevented me from having to sweep the mouse pointer endlessly. I respect that the massive ice statue is ONLY there for flavor. As I’ve said elsewhere, mechanically, this game is purely a classic point and click adventure. Aside from the hotspot highlighting space bar, this could easily be a King’s Quest game, save a few notable additions. The most notable is the spell system. Beside your normal items in your inventory is a section devoted to magic spells. These spells work as a sort reusable item in your inventory. Early on they are simple; activate or deactivate mystical items, break or repair fragile things. I don’t know if it was the novelty of having such an item, or just my own sluggish mind, but nine times out of ten if I was stuck on a puzzle it was because I hadn’t thought to use these. The situation becomes even more complex once the spells move on to showing you the presence of magic (functionally a second layer to the hotspot reveal) or sending visions to people in order to influence their actions. More important than the tools you are given to solve puzzles are the puzzles themselves, which naturally are the core of any good adventure game. I was impressed by the variety on display. Yes, many of them are what we’ve come to expect from adventure games. Fetch me this item from that person and I’ll give you this item for that purpose. Others, though, are either completely unique, or else I solved them in an utterly idiotic way. One puzzle requires you to navigate veritable maze of forest passages in search of someone. As an inexperienced tracker, you should be following footprints and such, but since it is difficult to tell the right way from the wrong, you are also given two different color berries in order to mark your path. It is up to you to develop the proper system to find your way to all necessary items and back again. I found it all the more challenging and rewarding when I finally reached freedom using my own guile rather than the canned solution the developers had in mind. Picture how you think this person should sound. She sounds like that. The primary difference between the preview and the finished product, from my point of view, was the presence of English dialog. Not that I have any problem with reading subtitles in theory, but in practice I found German to be a rather difficult language to ignore, and thus found myself distracted from key information more often than not. That said, I was worried that the English dubbing might have been low quality, since it was a later addition to the game. I shouldn’t have been. The characters’ voices are extremely well cast, and the dialog well read. The pompous master wizard, the feisty and spirited young prodigy, the melancholy fairy trapped in another form are all just as you’d imagine them. The odd line here or there sounds a bit off (I swear when Hilda says hello to me it sounds like text-to-speech) but other than that nothing about the English dialog sounds secondary or otherwise like an afterthought. And heck, if you really want German back, you’ve got your choice of voice and subtitle options right at the start screen of the game. The framing story of a young novice wizard trying to solve an ancient puzzle, wrapped around the ancient tale of a princess eager to arm herself for war is deep and intriguing. Deeper and more intriguing, however, is the world in which their story is told. This is a small part of a larger setting, and not the first piece of it to come along. While it is true that the plot of the game is self-contained enough to allow you to enjoy it without background, playing through it had the peculiar effect of making it feel as though I knew less and less about the story the further I went. Characters that are new to me are treated as old friends with established roles. These roles are quickly defined in dialog and then the story rolls on. If you pay close attention, read every word of dialog, and work through the handful of “don’t you remember” scenes the game gives you, you can cobble together what is needed to interpret the story, but after a while it felt like I was putting together a jigsaw puzzle with no end pieces. Thus for me the story was both a strength and weakness, depending on the moment. You can tell when the game is going to lay some story on you, because things get all cinematic like this. I’ll also suggest that fans of the developer pay close attention, because there is a reference to an earlier game that goes so far as to suggest a crossover. Daedalic continues their impressive track record of serving up well built and well produced adventure games to appeal to art lovers and puzzle lovers alike. 9.8 / 10: A visually exceptional game with complex and varied puzzles and high quality audio, Memoria is a masterpiece by any measure.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2119
__label__wiki	0.976406	0.976406	Mar 22 Alteria Woods: Pregnant Woman Killed By SWAT team: Did her boyfriend use her as a shield? Alteria Woods, 21, and four months pregnant, was shot and killed Sunday March 19, 2017 when a SWAT team raided a Gifford, Florida home. The sheriff alleges that her boyfriend, who authorities were after, used her as a human shield. Alteria Woods was 21 years old and four months pregnant. She was planning on starting a new life as a mother. What her friends and family couldn't imagine was her death at the hands of Indian River County Sheriff's deputies in Florida. But that's exactly what happened Sunday March 19, 2017 when Woods was gunned down in a hail of bullets at a Florida home during a SWAT raid. Officers descended on the home to capture Woods' boyfriend and his father, according to news reports. What isn't known is whether authorities knew that Woods was in the home. The sheriff has said that she was an innocent bystander in the bloody melee. What has shocked people who knew the couple was that law enforcement officials allege that Woods' boyfriend used her as a human shield when officers fired upon him. “Andrew Coffee IV cowardly was using her as protection,” Indian River County Sheriff Deryl Loar said, according to CBS News. Woods' family said they are not being provided straight answers in the case. “We don’t know what to do, no closure,” Arlene Cooper, Alteria’s aunt, told CBS. "I feel justice haven’t been done in this community, and something needs to be done,” Cooper said. Demonstrators took to the streets this week as activists called for calm among protesters. The Coffees appeared in court Monday with the elder's bond being set at $93,000. and the younger being held on $307,000 bond. Mar 22 15-year-old Chicago girl gang-raped on Facebook Live, police say Mar 20 Karlea Thomas: 31-year-old Atlanta mother found dead by her 11-year-daughter	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2125
__label__cc	0.624272	0.375728	HOME > HOME > Affiliates > Joint Graduate School Program RIKEN is now inviting non-Japanese doctoral candidates attending a Japanese or overseas graduate school that is participating in RIKEN’s joint graduate school program to conduct research at RIKEN under the supervision of RIKEN scientists as part of their work toward obtaining a PhD. Candidates accepted into the program will be designated as International Program Associates (IPAs). For more information about IPA, please see below. RIKEN Joint Graduate School Program & “International Program Associate (IPA)“ At CDB RIKEN CDB has now established agreements for joint graduate school program with Kobe University and Kyoto University. The objective of the program is to find and foster the development of young scientists who will in the future contribute to the advancement of science and technology by forming an international network of excellent research. Under the terms of the joint graduate school program, RIKEN may provide the IPA with a daily living allowance and cover the IPA’s housing costs for up to a maximum of three years. RIKEN CDB scientists with concurrent positions as visiting faculty at their collaborating university graduate schools will supervise and instruct the IPA. IPAs that complete this International Graduate School Program will be awarded a doctoral degree after approval of his/her thesis Applicants must satisfy all of the conditions below: 1) In principle, applicants must be a foreign national under the age of 35. 2) Applicants must have a master’s degree and a school education of a minimum of 16 years, or hold an academic qualification equivalent to a master’s degree awarded outside Japan, when they enroll to the graduate school. Openings for IPAs at CDB The graduate schools that have already signed an agreement with RIKEN CDB are listed below. Please visit the link for the graduate school of interest for more information and apply to become an IPA.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2129
__label__wiki	0.710404	0.710404	In solidarity with all migrants The Citizen’s Platform for Refugee Support aims to build concrete solidarity with all migrants. It denounces and fights against the current state of Belgian and European migration policies. The right to live in dignity belongs to everyone. The origins of the Citizen’s Platform for Refugee Support In 2014, 59.5 million people experienced forced displacement – either within their own country or to another country – because of persecution, conflict, violence or human rights violations. In Syria alone, repression followed by war has forced 4 million Syrians to flee to other countries,[1] and the internal displacement of 7.6 million (UNHCR statistics). What’s more, millions of other people around the world have fled from poverty and the consequences of climate change. Most of these people have found refuge in neighbouring countries. For example, Jordan, Turkey, Egypt and Lebanon have together received around 95% of Syrian refugees. However, only a minority of Syria’s refugees have reached Europe, where, according to the 1951 Refugee Convention, they can submit an asylum application. Since the beginning of this year, several hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers have reached Europe’s borders, where they wait to enter the territory of a EU member state. They have made challenging, and sometimes dangerous, journeys. They have crossed walls, seas and borders and have paid a high price in doing so, risking their lives, health, integrity and whatever was left of their belongings. Despite this, our country has not been willing to welcome these refugees. The preceding Belgian government, notably under the leadership of former Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration Maggie De Block, forced the closure of refugee reception centers with a total capacity of 5,000 places. Her current successor, Theo Francken, eliminated more than a thousand reception center places before July 2015, even while refugee populations fleeing war were already en route. Dozens and then hundreds of asylum seekers found themselves without accommodation and any assistance while they waited to be received by the Immigration Office. Amongst them, Syrians but also Iraqis, Afghans, Eritreans, etc. For these reasons, a citizen’s movement was created on 2nd September in Brussels. Several associations and an incalculable number of citizen volunteers came together to form the Citizen’s Platform for Refugee Support. A variety of responses were urgently organized – meals, healthcare, accommodation, activities, psychological support, education for all ages – at Park Maximilian, situated just in front of the Immigration Office. The park’s new inhabitants and volunteers experienced several difficult weeks with the daily expectation that the government would offer support to address this ‘crisis’. Solutions were gradually put in place, such as the opening of bed spaces in the WTC III building. Today, the camp has been dismantled. Despite all of the work the Platform has done, it does not wish to replace the Belgian State, which has a series of obligations towards asylum seekers in accordance with European and international law. Nevertheless, the spirit of solidarity that has been shown towards the forcibly displaced, as well as the flaws of Belgian immigration policy, remains. Our present and our future Going forward, the Platform aims to incorporate a long-term focus to its work on the basis of the amazing solidarity that has been shown towards asylum seekers and the unprecedented mobilization of citizens. It will seek to investigate the origins of this crisis and what changes will be necessary to ensure that it does not happen again. Convinced that only a sustainable and inclusive solution based on the respect of everyone’s human rights can be used to address the current situation, the Platform takes the following positions. To guide its actions and reflections, the Citizen’s Platform for Refugee Support will adhere to these principles: Migrants, which include Geneva Convention refugees, economic migrants and climate refugees, among others, are a source of wealth and not a cost, the latter of which of comes only through division and the exploitation of the oppressed. Belgium and Europe needs migrants for their demography as well as their economy. Arguments that are founded on division and the rejection of the other harm the wellbeing of us all. The current influx of migrants to Europe includes people who are candidates for protection under the Geneva Refugee Convention. It is therefore imperative that the Belgian State, at a minimum, lives up to its commitments under international law and takes into account the condemnations it has already received from the European Court of Human Rights and the European Commission. The Belgian State must also quickly devote more resources to the registration of asylum seekers and increase its short-term reception capacity, while also working in the long term to improve the overall quality of reception conditions. After many years, the European Union seems to have folded on its values by putting in place a series of heavy-handed security measures, such as the construction of walls and the closure of its borders. These responses have not been effective, and nor have they always been legal. But they have pushed away people who have had no other choice than to flee, and to put their lives and that of their children in danger while doing so. This is not the Europe that we want. The European Union must encourage solidarity between member states, and push forward the ideals of peace and democracy that form the foundation of the Treaty of the European Union,[2] and, in so doing, become a place of welcome for migrants. The Platform aims to be a place where people can meet and be together, where they can nurture ideas and initiatives that promote solidarity between citizens and migrants. The Platform will work to consolidate the efforts that have been done thus far by the different groups that compose it, including offering support to people during and after their asylum procedure through the provision of legal aid, translation and other services. The Platform will engage in awareness-raising activities and mobilize people around issues migration issues. To do this, it will create synergies with organizations already active in Belgium and elsewhere in Europe. In particular, we wish to salute the courage and give our full support to social workers in the reception centers, who come face to face with the misery and violence that are engendered by the inappropriate policies of our governments. Going forward, the Citizens’ Platform for Refugee Support wishes to open a debate on the following recommendations and disseminate its reflections on these issues to citizens as well as decision-makers: The creation of safe and legal migration channels, such as humanitarian corridors, humanitarian visas, or through the activation of the EU Temporary Protection Directive; A moratorium on the Dublin Regulation, which requires that an asylum application be examined by the first European country that the applicant arrives to, even if that country is incapable or unwilling to meet the basic needs of asylum seekers and to analyze their applications; Greater monitoring of the activities of Frontex, the EU’s border agency, and the redirection of its actions to support member state coast guards involved in search-and- rescue missions, assist member state border authorities with identifying and supporting vulnerable persons, such as minors, and accessing asylum procedures; The broadening of EU criteria for granting a protection status; Consideration of the recommendations put forth by undocumented migrant associations and collectives, such as the revision of conditions for long-stay in line with the rights and obligations of citizenship; The closure of immigration detention centers, which, along with being expensive for society to maintain, are not a solution for people who have committed no crime. [1] According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the number of Syrian refugees has surpassed 4 million. By the end of this year, this number will grow to 4.27 million. [2] Article 3.5 of the treaty states: “In its relations with the rest of the world, the Union affirms and promotes these values (…). It contributes to peace, security, sustainable global development, solidarity and mutual respect between people, to free and fair commerce, the elimination of poverty and the protection of human rights, in particular those of the child, in accordance to the strict respect and development of international law, and to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.” \| Contacts \| Plateforme Citoyenne de Soutien aux Réfugiés asbl - rue Washington 186, 1050 Bruxelles - BE04 5230 8077 7231 TRIOBEBB: \|	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2132
__label__cc	0.594592	0.405408	� Various Acts & Rules » Customs Tariff 2009-10 - PART-II - Chapter 98 - Project imports, Laboratory chemicals, passenger's baggage Customs Tariff 2009-10 - PART-II - Chapter 97 - Works of art, collectors' pieces and antiques Customs Tariff 2009-10 - PART-II - Chapter 96 - Miscellaneous manufactured articles Customs Tariff 2009-10 - PART-II - Chapter 95 - Toys, games and sports requisites; parts and accessories thereof Customs Tariff 2009-10 - PART-II - Chapter 94 - Furniture; bedding, mattresses, mattress supports Customs Tariff 2009-10 - PART-II - Chapter 93 - Arms and ammunition; parts and accessories thereof Customs Tariff 2009-10 - PART-II - Chapter 92 - Musical instruments; parts and accessories of such articles Customs Tariff 2009-10 - PART-II - Chapter 91 - Clocks and watches and parts thereof Customs Tariff 2009-10 - PART-II - Chapter 90 - Optical, photographic, cinematographic, measuring Customs Tariff 2009-10 - PART-II - Chapter 89 - Ships, boats and floating structures Customs Tariff 2009-10 - PART-II - Chapter 88 - Aircraft, spacecraft, and parts thereof � Income-Tax Act - Section No. 139C... Income-Tax Act - Section No. 139A... » Income-Tax Act - Section No. 139B September, 07th 2010 97[Scheme for submission of returns through Tax Return Preparers. 139B. (1) For the purpose of enabling any specified class or classes of persons in preparing and furnishing returns of income, the Board may, without prejudice to the provisions of section 139, frame a Scheme, by notification in the Official Gazette, providing that such persons may furnish their returns of income through a Tax Return Preparer authorised to act as such under the Scheme98. (2) Every Tax Return Preparer shall assist the persons furnishing the return of income in such manner as may be specified in the Scheme framed under this section and affix his signature on such return. (3) For the purposes of this section,� �� (a)�� Tax Return Preparer� means any individual, [not being a person referred to in clause (ii) or clause (iii) or clause (iv) of sub-section (2) of section 288 or an employee of the �specified class or classes of persons�], who has been authorised to act as a Tax Return Preparer under the Scheme framed under this section; �� (b)�� specified class or classes of persons� means any person, other than a company or a person, whose accounts are required to be audited under section 44AB or under any other law for the time being in force, who is required to furnish a return of income under this Act. (4) The Scheme framed by the Board under this section may provide for the following, namely:� �� (a)�� the manner in which and the period for which the Tax Return Preparers shall be authorised under sub-section (3); �� (b)�� the educational and other qualifications to be possessed, and the training and other conditions required to be fulfilled, by a person to act as a Tax Return Preparer; �� (c)�� the code of conduct for the Tax Return Preparers; �� (d)�� the duties and obligations of the Tax Return Preparers; �� (e)�� the circumstances under which the authorisation given to a Tax Return Preparer may be withdrawn; �� (f)�� any other matter which is required to be, or may be, specified by the Scheme for the purposes of this section. (5) The Scheme framed by the Board under this section shall be laid, as soon as may be after it is framed, before each House of Parliament, while it is in session, for a total period of thirty days which may be comprised in one session or in two or more successive sessions, and if, before the expiry of the session immediately following the session or the successive sessions aforesaid, both Houses agree in making any modification in the Scheme or both Houses agree that the Scheme should not be framed, the Scheme shall thereafter have effect only in such modified form or be of no effect, as the case may be; so, however, that any such modification or annulment shall be without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under that Scheme.] Binarysoft Technologies - We Bring IT. Offshore software outsourcing company. We use Global Delivery Model (GDM) and believe in Follow The Sun principle	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2134
__label__cc	0.520432	0.479568	Home \| China Hotel \| Beijing Flight \| Blog \| Contant Us China Visa during Tours Avoid Tourist Traps & Scams Chinese Currency Chinese Etiquette We will send you the latest and the most popular tour routes and the video shows about symbol attractions through email. If interested, please join us! Home > China Guide >> Macao Travel Guide The name of Macau is derived from the word Magao (A-Ma Temple), which were shrines dedicated to Mazu, a sacred sea goddess respected by Macau people. It was said that in the middle of sixteenth century when the Portuguese first set foot there, one of the officers asked a fisherman the name of the land. The man misunderstanding the officer's meaning, answered 'Magao' - the name of A-Ma Temple in front them. The word became the Portuguese name for the land and for nearly 400 years, the Portuguese ruled here prior to Macau's official return to the People's Republic of China on December 20, 1999 as a special administrative region. The land of Macau when compared with other Chinese metropolises unlike Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou is quite small covering an area of just 27.5 square kilometers. The total population Macau is 469,800 of which 95% are Chinese, the remainder being Portuguese and other westerners. The majority resides on the Macau Peninsular where you can find a variety of both Oriental and Western cultural and historical places of interest and all sorts of old buildings that are either European baroque or traditional Chinese in style. The blend of people, culture and history has influences on every aspect of life in the city. A wander around the Macau Peninsular will bring you into a world of antiques and fashion, traditional and modern, as well as tranquility and glitz. Most travelers who have been to Macau conclude that it is a location suited to both tourism and living as it is a beautiful city with clean streets, gardens and picturesque hilly landscapes. Sunshine, clear air, green lands and all sorts of delicious food all contribute to its many attractions. Wandering around is the best way to explore the city's numerous historical and cultural heritages. Popular sightseeing places that form part of a traveler's itinerary are spread all over the Macau Peninsular. Largo do Senado, the splendid main square with surrounding simple, elegant Portuguese and baroque style buildings is the busiest downtown area of the city. Clothing shops, curio markets, pharmacies, snack stalls and jewelry shops housed in the narrow alleyways that radiate from the square sell dazzling items. A northerly walk leads tourists to the featured attractions of the city Ruins of St. Paul's, a former screen wall of St. Paul's Church and the Monte Fort, one of the best- preserved forts in Macau. The Museum of Macau, to the right of the ruins, tells all stories on the city's past. Situated at the base of Penha Peninsula in the southwest part of the city is A-Ma Temple, built in the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644), which is dedicated to the sacred goddess A-Ma. During the festival seasons, thousands of devout prayers come to visit the temple. In the southern part of the Peninsular, the New Reclaimed Area and the Outer Harbor Area, compared with the more traditional central and western areas, is the newly-developed region on which the modern aspect of the city can be found. There are many luxurious hotels housing various gambling casinos and these venues are packed with people from all over the world when the night comes. Numerous museums in these two areas present the essence of Macau\'s culture and history including Macau Wine Museum, Grand Prix Museum?Macau Art Museum, etc.. The two outlying islands of Taipa and Coloane, connected to the Macau Peninsular by two bridges feature tranquil natural and beach sceneries and are good choice for a short break away from the bustling Macau Peninsular. Macau Jockey Club's horse racing attracts numerous gamblers from the nearby areas and Hac Sa Bay and Bamboo Bay are two breathtaking natural scenic areas with the best seaside bathing places in Macau. Macau is the paradise for gourmands with a wide range of delicious cuisines from all over the world including unparalleled Macau-style Portuguese cuisine, traditional Cantonese cuisine, exotic food from Italy, France, Brazil, India, Japan, and Korea... Everyone can find his own favorite! Moreover, the well-known Macau dim sum delicacies should never be missed. The Pastéis de Nata (a Portuguese-style egg tart) that originated on the outlying island of Coloane is the featured snack of the city and Margaret's Café & Nata offer the best. All kinds of dim sum ranging from almond cake, chicken cakes, cashew cookies, sesame crackers, egg and cheese rolls are served in the many Portuguese café and they are good choices for gifts of families or friends. Known as 'Oriental Las Vegas', the gambling industry in Macau is booming and has already become an important feature of Macau\'s economy. Surprisingly, tourists do not find the kind of razzmatazz in Macau's casinos as elsewhere; by contrast you can feel the expectations of gamblers from their polite manners and the peaceful atmosphere. Macau, a famous destination with prosperity and peace, fashion and history, oriental and western cultures, is deserving of a visit and a stay here is sure to revitalize the weary traveler. The Ruins of St. Paul's The Ruins of St. Paul's (also known as Sam Ba Sing Tzik) stands adjacent to the famous Mount Fortress and Macau Museum. The front facade and the grand stone stairs are the only remains of the greatest church in Macau. Read More... Macau Travel Guide The name of Macau is derived from the word Magao (A-Ma Temple), which were shrines dedicated to Mazu, a sacred sea goddess respected by Macau people. Read More...	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2139
__label__wiki	0.773753	0.773753	Highlights of the 2018–2019 Season in New England The New England choral community is as vigorous as ever, and many great performances are scheduled throughout the coming year. Listed below are just a few highlights for the season that starts in September 2018. Currently, about 450 performances are listed on the Choral Arts New England events calendar through June 2019; that number will probably double by the end of the year. See the online calendar for complete, up-to-date listings. The season includes several particularly noteworthy events. In November, CONCORA will perform Considering Matthew Shepard, Craig Hella Johnson's moving response to the brutal murder of a University of Wyoming student due to his sexual orientation (later in November, the Kearsage Chorale will perform the final movement of the work). In May, Andover Choral Society will perform (possibly premiere) a major work by Florence Price (1887-1953), who was the first African-American woman to have a composition played by a major orchestra. Price, who graduated from high school in Little Rock, Arkansas at age 14, attended New England Conservatory and composed over three hundred works in her lifetime. Later that month, the Manchester Choral Society will perform music of William Grant Still (1895–1978), who was the first African-American to conduct a major symphony orchestra in the United States, in a program that also includes living composer Kirke Mechem’s Songs of the Slave. Also in May, Bella Voce Women's Chorus of Vermont performs Robert De Cormier's They Called Her Moses, based on the lfe of Harriet Tubman (music about Tubman is also part of a May program by Cantilena in Arlington, Mass.). There are several commemorations of the centenary of the Armistice ending World War I (November 11, 1918), with thoughtful programs by Boston Cecilia in October, the Mendelssohn Choir of Connecticut in November, and the Rhode Island Philharmonic (with the Providence Singers), also in November. Celebrations continue of the centennary of Leonard Bernstein's birth with two full performances of his ambitious composition Mass (in October, in Hartford—paired with the Brahms Requiem—and in May, in Keene N.H.), and excerpts of Mass in November by the Heritage Chorale, as well as four performances of Chichester Psalms. Large-scale choral performances this season include Dvořák's Stabat Mater (Boston Symphony Orchestra), Anotonio Estévez's Cantata Criolla (Boston Symphony Orchestra), Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 2, "Lobgesang" (Greenwich Choral Society, Hartford Symphony), and Rachmaninoff's The Bells (Commonwealth Chorale, Portland Symphony), as well as J.S. Bach's B Minor Mass (Back Bay Chorale), Mahler's Symphony No. 2 (Boston Symphony Orchestra, Springfield Symphony Orchestra), and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 (Claflin Hll Symphony, Wellesley Symphony, Pioneer Valley Symphony, Mendelssohn Choir of Connecticut, Chorus of Westerly). Requiems remain popular, with the "regular" performances of Requiems by Mozart (6), Fauré (4), Brahms (3), Verdi (2), and Duruflé (1), but there are also Requiems by Herbert Howell and Bob Chilcott, and a "New England Requiem" by Scott Perkins. New works with New England themes are Ron Perera's Merrimack, commissioned by the New England Classical Singers, and Erich Stem's Arlington, commissioned by the Arlington-Belmont Chorale. A major new commission this year is James Kallembach's Audubon, a concert-length oratorio about the famous naturalist and frontiersman, written for Chorus pro Musica. This is a good year for J.S. Bach's Magnificat: there are seven performances, most during the pre-Christmas season. There are also performances of Magnificats by Imant Raminsh, Arvo Pärt, and Antonio Vivaldi. It also seems to be a good year for odes to British royalty, with several performances of music by Purcell and Handel in honor of Queen Anne and Queen Mary. More can be found in the lists below, on the choral calendar, and on the websites of the performers. Note: The following listing is an expanded version of that in the September 2018 printed newsletter. Premieres and choral commissions (by composer) Nell Shaw Cohen: Commission. Skylark Vocal Ensemble [MA], 4/4, 4/5, 4/6/19. Dan Forrest: Lux (Worcester premiere). Salisbury Singers [MA], 11/10/18. James Kallembach: Audubon. Chorus pro Musica [MA], 11/9/18. Jonathan Leshnoff: Hegyon Libi. Zamir Chorale of Boston [MA], 6/4/19 Ron Perera: Merrimack. New England Classical Singers (NECS) [MA], 3/3/19. Michael Schachter: Uriel (Boston premiere). Masterworks Chorale [MA], 11/10/18. Martin Sedek: Nature Has a Thousand Choirs. Worcester Chorus [MA], 10/28/18. Barry Singer: Missa brevis. Arlington-Belmont Chorale [MA], 3/10/19. Caroline Shaw: Seven Joys (Boston premiere). Back Bay Chorale [MA], 11/10/18. Erich Stem: Arlington. Arlington-Belmont Chorale [MA], 4/28/19. Thomas Stumpf: New work. Master Singers of Lexington [MA], 3/23/19. “Great” or especially interesting works Kim André Arnesen: The Wound in the Water. Providence Singers [RI], 5/18, 5/19/19. J.S. Bach: Cantatas: Himmelskönig, sei willkommen, BWV182; Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, BWV12; Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis, BWV21. CONCORA [CT], 11/11/18, J.S. Bach: Cantatas: BWV 4, “Christ lag in Todesbanden”; BWV 14, “Wär Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit”; BWV 20, “O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort”; BWV 60, “O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort”. Blanche Moyse Chorale [VT], 10/5, 10/7/18. J.S. Bach: Mass in B Minor. Back Bay Chorale [MA], 5/19/19. J.S. Bach: Christmas Oratorio. Boston Symphony Orchestra/Tanglewood Festival Chorus, 11/29, 11/30, 12/1/18. J.S. Bach: St. John Passion. Kent Singers [CT], 6/16/19. Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 9; J.S. Bach: Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring; Ralph Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending. Claflin Hill Symphony Orchestra/New World Chorale [MA], 4/27/19. Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 9. Wellesley Symphony Orchestra/New World Chorale [MA], 5/5/19. Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 9; Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt. Pioneer Valley Symphony Chorus [MA], 5/11/19. Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 9. Mendelssohn Choir of Connecticut [CT], 5/18/19. Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 9. Chorus of Westerly/New England Symphony Orchestra [MA], 5/19/19. Leonard Bernstein: Chichester Psalms; G.F. Handel: Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne; Henry Purcell: Ode for the Birthday of Queen Mary. Burlington Choral Society [VT], 11/17/18. Leonard Bernstein: Chichester Psalms. Portsmouth Pro Musica [NH], 12/7, 12/9/18. Leonard Bernstein: Chichester Psalms; Irving Fine: The Hour Glass; and works by Stephen Foster, Charles Ives, Ernst Bacon. The Spectrum Singers [MA], 3/2/19. Leonard Bernstein: Chichester Psalms. New England Classical Singers (NECS) [MA], 5/5/19. Leonard Bernstein: Mass: A Theater Piece; Johannes Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem. Hartford Chorale [CT], 10/18/18. Leonard Bernstein: Mass. Keene Chorale [NH], 5/9/19. Johannes Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem. Handel Society of Dartmouth College [NH], 11/13/18. Johannes Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem; Henry Purcell: Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary; Diana Syrse: La Muerte Sonriente. Chorus pro Musica [MA], 3/16/19. Johannes Brahms: Four Songs for Women’s Chorus with two Horns and Harp, op. 17. Blanche Moyse Chorale [VT], 5/15, 5/17/19. Benjamin Britten: The Beggar's Opera. Emmanuel Music [MA], 6/1, 6/2/19. Benjamin Britten: Hymn to St. Cecilia; G.F. Handel: Ode for St. Cecilia's Day. Emmanuel Music [MA], 9/22/18. Anton Bruckner: Mass in E minor; Igor Stravinsky: Mass; Giovanni Gabrieli: Jubilate Deo. Cantata Singers [MA], 5/17/19. Carson Cooman: Revelations of Divine Love (Metaphors from Sea And Sky). Nashoba Valley Chorale [MA], 1/19/19. Aaron Copland: In the Beginning; Benjamin Britten: The Ballad of Lady Barnard and Little Musgrove. Musica Sacra [MA], 3/16/19. Robert De Cormier: They Called Her Moses. Bella Voce Women's Chorus of Vermont [VT], 5/18, 5/19/19. Maurice Duruflé: Requiem; Benjamin Britten: Festival Te Deum; Rejoice in the Lamb. ChoralArt [ME], 3/31/19. Anton Dvořák: Stabat Mater. Boston Symphony Orchestra/Tanglewood Festival Chorus, 2/28, 3/1, 3/2/19. Antonio Estévez: Cantata Criolla. Boston Symphony Orchestra/Tanglewood Festival Chorus, 4/11, 4/12, 4/13/19. Gabriel Fauré: Requiem, Op. 48; George Butterworth: “On the Idle Hill of Summer”; Charles Ives: “In Flanders Field”; George M. Cohan: “Over There”; Irving Berlin: “God Bless America”. Mendelssohn Choir of Connecticut [CT], 11/10/18. Gabriel Faure: Requiem. Neponset Choral Society [MA], 12/8, 12/9/18. Gabriel Fauré: Requiem; J.S. Bach: Motet #1. Nashoba Valley Chorale [MA], 4/13/19. Gabriel Fauré: Requiem; Felix Mendelssohn: Psalm 42; Vom Himmel hoch. Concord Chorus [MA], 6/1/19. George Gershwin: Porgy & Bess, concert version; Italian opera excerpts. Stamford Symphony Orchestra/Greenwich Choral Society [CT], 2/9/19. Ola Gjeilo: Sunrise Mass; Craig Hella Johnson: Considering Matthew Shepard (final movement). Kearsarge Chorale [NH], 11/18/18. G.F. Handel: Esther. Monadnock Chorus [NH,MA], 5/11, 5/12/19. G.F. Handel: Israel in Egypt. Assabet Valley Mastersingers [MA], 11/10/18. G.F. Handel: Jephtha. Boston Baroque [MA], 3/8, 3/10/19. G.F. Handel: Samson. Sounds of Stow [MA], 11/18/18. John Harbison: Sacred Trilogy (The Flight Into Egypt, But Mary Stood, The Supper at Emmaus); J.S. Bach: Cantata BWV 140, “Sleepers, awake”. Cantata Singers [MA], 11/3/18. John Harbison: Abraham (U.S. premiere of re-orchestration); The Supper at Emmaus; J.S. Bach: Easter Oratorio. Emmanuel Music [MA], 4/27/19. F.J. Haydn: The Creation. Cantata Singers [MA], 3/22/19. F.J. Haydn: Harmoniemesse; Franz Schubert: Mass in G. Fine Arts Chorale [MA], 11/18/18. F.J. Haydn: Mass in B-Flat Major, Harmoniemesse. Handel and Haydn Society [MA], 1/25, 1/27/19. F.J. Haydn: Mass in B-flat Major, Harmoniemesse; Franz Shubert: Mass #5 in A Flat Major. Newton Community Chorus [MA], 1/29/19. F.J. Haydn: Theresienmesse; Te Deum No. 2 in C major. The Spectrum Singers [MA], 5/18/19. Craig Hella Johnson: Considering Matthew Shepard. CONCORA [CT], 11/3/18, 11/4/18, 11/11/18. James MacMillan: Seven Last Words from the Cross; Gregorio Allegri: Miserere (new edition). Boston Choral Ensemble [MA], 4/14/19. Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 2. Boston Symphony Orchestra/Tanglewood Festival Chorus, 10/25, 10/26, 10/27, 10/30/18. Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 2; W. A. Mozart: Ave Verum Corpus, K. 618. Springfield Symphony Orchestra and Chorus [MA], 4/27/19. Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 3, “What the Universe Tells Me.” New Haven Symphony Orchestra [CT], 5/2/19. Frank Martin: Mass for Double Choir; J.S. Bach: Lobet den Herrn; Hildegard von Bingen: O vis aeternitatis; Max Reger: Morgengesang. Chorus pro Musica [MA], 5/31/19. Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel: Hiob; Lobegesang; Oratorium nach Bildung der Bibel (“The Cholera Cantata”). Cappella Clausura [MA], 3/30, 3/31/19. Felix Mendelssohn: Elijah. Fairfield County Chorale [CT], 5/19/19. Felix Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 2, Op. 52, “Lobgesang”; Ralph Vaughan Williams: Toward the Unknown Region. Greenwich Choral Society [CT], 4/6/19. Felix Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 2, “Lobgesang”; Ralph Vaughan Williams: Dona Nobis Pacem. Hartford Chorale [CT], 4/12, 4/13, 4/14/19. Gian Carlo Menotti: The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore; R. Murray Schafer: A Medieval Bestiary. Metropolitan Chorale [MA], 5/4/19. Gian Carlo Menotti: The Unicorn, The Gorgon and The Manticore; Randall Thompson, Frostiana. Commonwealth Chorale [MA], 5/11/19. Henry Mollicone: Beatitude Mass: For the Homeless. Mystic River Chorale [CT], 1/20/19. Claudio Monteverdi: L'incoronazione di Poppea. Boston Baroque [MA], 4/26, 4/28/19. Claudio Monteverdi: Vespers of 1610. Oratorio Chorale [ME], 11/10, 11/11/18. W.A. Mozart: Great Mass In C minor, K. 427; Regina Coeli In C Major, K. 276. Salisbury Singers [MA], 11/10/18. W.A. Mozart: Great Mass in C minor. Con Brio [CT], 3/31/19. W.A. Mozart: Mass in C major, K 317 “Coronation”. Eastern Connecticut Symphony and Chorus [CT], 4/27/19. W.A. Mozart: Requiem. Cape Symphony/Musica Sacra [MA] 11/3, 11/4/18. W.A. Mozart: Requiem (Robert Levin completion). Michael Schachter: Uriel (Boston premiere). Masterworks Chorale [MA], 11/10/18. W.A. Mozart: Requiem; Gregorio Allegri: Miserere mei, Deus. Brattleboro Concert Choir [VT], 1/11, 1/12/19. W.A. Mozart: Requiem. Sounds of Stow [MA], 3/24/19. W.A. Mozart: Requiem; Ave Verum. Manchester Symphony Orchestra & Chorale [MA,CT], 4/27, 4/28/19. W.A. Mozart: Requiem; Masonic Funeral Music; Allegri: Miserere mei, Deus; J.S. Bach: Singet dem Herrn. Handel and Haydn Society [MA], 5/3, 5/5/19. Carl Orff: Carmina Burana; Adolphus Hailstork: I will lift up mine eyes. Fairfield County Chorale [CT], 11/3/18. Carl Orff: Carmina Burana; Antonin Dvořák: Te Deum. Symphony pro Musica/New World Chorale [MA], 3/16, 3/17/19. Carl Orff: Carmina Burana. New Haven Symphony Orchestra [CT], 11/8/18. Carl Orff: Carmina Burana. Mendelssohn Choir of Connecticut [CT], 3/31, 4/6/19. Arvo Pärt: Adam’s Lament; Magnificat; Antonio Vivaldi: Magnificat (RV 610); Gloria (RV 589). Coro Allegro [MA], 11/11/18. Florence Price: Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight. Andover Choral Society [MA], 5/4/19. Giacomo Puccini: Messa di Gloria; Johannes Brahms: Schicksalslied; Giuseppe Verdi: Messa da Requiem (selections). Andover Choral Society [MA], 1/27/19. Henry Purcell: Dido and Aeneas. Handel and Haydn Society [MA], 3/29, 3/31/19. Sergei Rachmaninoff: The Bells. Commonwealth Chorale [MA], 10/27/18. Sergei Rachmaninoff: The Bells. Portland Symphony/ChoralArt [ME], 5/12, 5/13/19. Sergei Rachmaninoff, Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, Op. 31. Coro Allegro [MA], 6/2/19. Sergei Rachmaninoff: Vespers. Boston Choral Ensemble [MA], 11/11/18. Sergei Rachmaninoff: Vespers. Back Bay Chorale [MA], 3/9/19. Maurice Ravel: Daphnis And Chloe Suite No. 2. Cape Symphony/Chatham Chorale [MA], 5/4, 5/5/19. Ottorino Respighi: Laud to the Nativity; Morten Lauridsen: Lux Aeterna. North Country Chorus [NH], 12/1/18. Gioachino Rossini: Petite Messe Solennelle. Oratorio Chorale [ME], 3/2, 3/3/19. John Rutter: Gloria; Henry Purcell: Funeral Music For Queen Mary; Randall Thompson: The Lord Is My Shepherd; Dominick Argento: “Sanctus” from The Masque of Angels; Ralph Vaughan Williams: O Clap Your Hands; Hubert Parry: I Was Glad; Charles Villiers Stanford: Beati Quorum Via; Steven Sametz: Munus (A Gift). Masterworks Chorale [MA], 3/3/19. John Rutter: Mass Of The Children. Bagaduce Chorale [ME], 12/14, 12/15, 12/16/18. Franz Schubert: Mass in G; Morten Lauridson: Lux Aeterna. Berkshire Lyric Chorus [MA], 5/26/19. William Grant Still: Those Who Wait; R. Nathaniel Dett: The Chariot Jubilee; Kirke Mechem: Songs of the Slave. Manchester Choral Society [NH], 5/18, 5/19/19. Igor Stravinsky: Mass. With works by Ildebrando Pizzetti and Charles Hubert Parry. Cantilena Chamber Choir [MA], 6/1/19. Igor Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms. Monadnock Chorus/Keene State Chorale [NH], 12/7/18. Joby Talbot: Path of Miracles. Boston Choral Ensemble [MA], 6/2/19. Ralph Vaughan Williams: Five Mystical Songs; G.F. Handel: Highlights from Parts 1 & 2 of Messiah. Chatham Chorale [MA], 10/27, 10/28/18. Giuseppe Verdi: Requiem. Metropolitan Chorale/Commonwealth Chorale [MA], 11/11/18. Giuseppe Verdi: Requiem. Worcester Chorus [MA], 3/31/19. Giuseppe Verdi: Stabat Mater. Eastern Connecticut Symphony and Chorus [CT], 11/17/18. J.S. Bach: Magnificat. Cantata BWV 191, “Gloria in excelsis Deo”. Rhode Island Civic Chorale & Orchestra [RI], 11/24/18, 11/25/18. J.S. Bach: Magnificat. “Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern” (BWV 1); “Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen” (BWV 51). Worcester Chorus [MA], 12/1/18. J.S. Bach: Magnificat. Acadia Choral Society [ME], 12/1/18, 12/2/18, 12/9/18. J.S. Bach: Magnificat. New England Classical Singers [MA], 12/2/18. J.S. Bach: Magnificat. Keene Chorale [NH], 12/9/18. J.S. Bach: Magnificat. Mendelssohn Choir of Connecticut [CT], 12/15/18. J.S. Bach: Magnificat. South Hadley Chorale [MA], 3/10/19. Ralph Vaughan Williams: Dona nobis pacem; Reena Esmail: White Key. Brattleboro Concert Choir [VT], 4/26, 4/27/19. Special programs (a few of many)—Chronological. Vermont Sings For Peace. Eleventh annual concert joining area choruses in song to raise money for social justice. Counterpoint [VT], 9/22/18. Music of the Sistine Chapel. Gregorio Allegri: Miserere; and music of Palestrina, Anerio, Josquin, and Morales. Music is accompanied by a showing of ceiling frescoes and tapestries. Cantilena Chamber Choir [MA], 10/14/18. Jeffrey Van: A Procession Winding Around Me (text by Walt Whitman); Herbert Howell: Requiem. Boston Cecilia [MA], 10/28/18. Psalms and Sonnets. Franz Schubert: Psalm 23; Felix Mendelssohn: Psalm 43; Jean Berger: Brazilian Psalm; Ralph Vaughan Williams: Sonnet 71; David Rakowski: Sonnet 22; George Shearing: Songs and Sonnets. Master Singers of Lexington [MA], 11/3/18. Dan Forrest: Lux (Worcester premiere); Bob Chilcott: Requiem. Salisbury Singers [MA], 11/10/18. Henry Purcell: Funeral Sentences and Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary; Jubilate Deo; Scott Perkins: A New England Requiem; Jubilate Deo; John Taverner: A Song for Athene. Crescendo [CT], 11/11/18. Leonard Bernstein: Mass (selections); West Side Story suite; selections from Peter Pan; selections from Candide. Heritage Chorale [MA], 11/18/18. Abbie Betinis: Jerusalem Luminosa; Emma Lou Diemer: Four Carols; Joan Szymko: The Peace of Wild Things; Frances McCollin: In the Bleak Midwinter; and others. Cantilena [MA], 12/2/18. Martin Luther King in This Time: A Concert of Spirituals. With the Baltimore Urban Choral Arts Society. Cantilena Chamber Choir [MA], 1/13/19. Passport to America. Peter Boyer: Ellis Island: the Dream of America; Igor Stravinsky: The Star Spangled Banner;Circus Polka: for A Young Elephant; Ernest Bloch: America, An Epic Rhapsody in Three Parts (Part 3); Franz Waxman: Sunset Boulevard Suite; Bright Sheng: Overture to Dream of the Red Chamber. Cape Symphony/Chatham Chorale [MA], 1/22, 1/23/19. James Primosch: Matins for solo oboe, chorus, and string orchestra; Arvo Pärt: Te Deum; Bela Bartók: Divertimento for Strings. Cantata Singers [MA], 1/25/19. Women Composers of Europe. Chamber music by Fanny Mendelssohn, Francesca Caccini, Pauline Viardot, Dora Pejačević, and Clara Schumann. Cantata Singers [MA], 2/8/19. American Folk Songs. Gwyneth Walker: River Songs; Aaron Copland: American Folk Songs; and folk song arrangements by Mack Wilberg. Assabet Valley Mastersingers [MA], 3/17/19. J.S. Bach: Singet dem Herrn; William Bolcom: Lady Liberty; Johannes Brahms: Five Songs, opus 104; Benjamin Britten: Two Part Songs; Michael Haydn: Te Deum; Thomas Stumpf: New work. Master Singers of Lexington [MA], 3/23/19. John Corigliano: Fern Hill; Jake Runestad: Hope of Loving; Eric Whitacre: Five Hebrew Love Songs; Tarik O’Regan: Triptych. Boston Cecilia [MA], 3/24/19. Voices of Freedom. A multicultural event featuring the Zamir Chorale of Boston, VOICES 21C, and the Boston Community Gospel Choir. Each group will separately perform songs from the Jewish, Muslim, and Christian cultures, respectively, and then join together to perform music that transcends the collective cultures. Zamir Chorale of Boston [MA], 3/24/19. City on the Hill: Early Hymns and Spirituals of New England. Songs by the religious groups who came to New England, from the Puritans to the anthem-singing Universalists of the 18th century, to the utopian Shakers, performed by voices, fiddle, flute, guitar and cello. Boston Camerata [MA], 4/5/19. Settings of Psalm 116 by Heinrich Schütz, Christoph Demantius, and Johann Hermann Schein, as well as Gregorian Chant and works by Benedictus Ducis and Orlando di Lasso and J.S. Bach; modern settings of the psalm Jonny Priano and others with contemporary poetry by Bruce McEver, Frances Roth and Juliet Mattila. Crescendo [CT], 4/7/19. Songs of the Lights: A Salute to Canada. Imant Raminsh: Magnificat; Ave verum corpus; folksong settings of Stephan Chatman and Donald Patriquin. ChoralArt [ME], 4/14/19. Women Composers of America. Chamber music of twentieth and twenty-first century American women composers, including Ruth Crawford Seeger, Amy Beach, Missy Mazzoli, Katharine Parker, and Libby Larson. Cantata Singers [MA], 4/26/19. Music and Art: American music inspired by pieces at the New Britain Museum of American Art, including the premiere of a commissioned work by Andrey Stolyarov, with music by Virgil Thomson, Norman Dinerstein, Michael Conley, Randall Thompson, and Gwyneth Walker. CONCORA [CT], 4/28/2019 What Binds Us Together: The Binding of Isaac Story in Music. Music by Carissimi, Britten, Aharon Harlap, Howard Franzen, and John Tavener. Oratorio Chorale [ME], 5/2, 5/4/19. Sheldon Rose: In the Garden of Shushan; Walter Robinson, arr. Kathleen McGuire: Harriet Tubman; Susan Borwick: And Ain't I a Woman! Margaret Dryburgh: The Captives' Hymn. Cantilena [MA], 5/4, 5/5/19. A Festival of Psalms. Antonio Vivaldi: In exitu Israel, RV 604; Niccola Porpora: Lauda Jerusalem; Arvo Pärt: Zwei slawische Psalmen; Anton Bruckner: Psalm 23, WAB 34; Johannes Brahms: Schaffe in mir, Gott, op. 29, No 2; Salamone Rossi: Haleluya. Haleli nafshi; Simon Sargon: Psalm 8; Louis Lewandowski: Halalujoy, halalu el b'kod'sho; Dave Brubeck: 23rd Psalm; Will Todd: Durham Jazz Psalms. Heritage Chorale [MA], 5/11/19. Premium or “special” Messiahs (alphabetical) Arcadia Players [MA], 12/21/18. Boston Baroque [MA], 12/7/18, 12/8/18. CONCORA [CT], 11/30/18. Handel and Haydn Society [MA], 11/30/18, 12/1/18, 12/2/18. Handel Society of Dartmouth College [NH], 5/18/19, 5/19/19. Hartford Chorale [CT], 12/1/18, 12/2/18. New Haven Symphony Orchestra [CT], 12/20/18. Providence Singers [RI], 12/15/18. Worcester Chorus [MA], 4/13/19. Effective date: Choral Arts New England newsletter	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2140
__label__wiki	0.905122	0.905122	+ Remove Canada filter Canada + Remove United Kingdom filter United Kingdom Cow with BSE older than previously thought Marty Heiberg (CIDRAP News) The Washington state cow announced by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Dec 23 to be a "presumptive positive" bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) case, was born in April 1997, before the August 1997 Food and Drug Administration ban on feeding ruminant-derived meat and bone meal supplements to cattle went into effect. USDA says first US BSE case poses little risk (CIDRAP News) Federal officials took pains to assure the public today that the risk of contamination in the US beef supply is very low following yesterday's announcement that the nation's first apparent case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, had turned up in Washington state. BSE expert says Japanese case implies larger outbreak (CIDRAP News) The recent finding of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in a 23-month-old bull in Japan suggests that Japan may have more cases of the disease than previously suspected, according to a University of Minnesota expert on the disease. Foot-and-mouth disease look-alike caused alarm at Mexican border (CIDRAP News) Mexico closed its border to livestock from the United States last week because of concern that a herd of US cattle bound for Mexico had foot-and-mouth disease, but the border was quickly reopened when the disease was found to be a relatively harmless look-alike. FAO says BSE finding in Canada proves surveillance is working (CIDRAP News) The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says the recent detection of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in a Canadian cow shows that active surveillance programs for BSE are working. "The identification of a single case of BSE is not a cause for panic," Andrew Speedy of the FAO's Animal Production and Health Division said in a news release from the agency's Rome headquarters. 'Mad cow disease' case confirmed in Alberta (CIDRAP News) Postmortem tests have confirmed that a cow from an Alberta farm had bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, Canadian officials announced today. The news marked the first known BSE case in North America since another Alberta case was found in 1993. SARS case count tops 6,000; deaths exceed 400 (CIDRAP News) The worldwide cumulative case count for SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) topped 6,000 today with the addition of 207 new cases, including 176 in China, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Twenty-six more SARS deaths were reported, bringing the global total to 417. New coronavirus confirmed as SARS pathogen (CIDRAP News) A previously unrecognized coronavirus that has been regarded for 3 weeks as the likely cause of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) has been confirmed as the pathogen, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced today. Paramyxovirus implicated in SARS as cases reach 264 (CIDRAP News) – As cases in the global outbreak of "severe acute respiratory syndrome" (SARS) climbed to 264 today, the World Health Organization (WHO) said there is evidence that the illness may be caused by a previously unknown member of the Paramyxovirus family, which causes measles, mumps, and canine distemper.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2141
__label__wiki	0.801499	0.801499	+ Remove H1N1 2009 Pandemic Influenza filter H1N1 2009 Pandemic Influenza WHO advisors address H1N1 response, flu vaccine issues (CIDRAP News) An advisory group of experts to the World Health Organization (WHO) welcomed findings from an independent review committee on the agency's 2009 H1N1 pandemic response and expressed concern about findings of narcolepsy in Europe possibly linked to a flu vaccine. WHO advisors stay course on H1N1 vaccine, Rotarix (CIDRAP News) The World Health Organization's (WHO's) vaccine advisory group recently agreed to keep in place its guidance on pandemic H1N1 vaccines and discussed contamination issues related to the Rotarix rotovirus vaccine. WHO picks pandemic strain for next seasonal flu vaccine (CIDRAP News) Given signs that the pandemic H1N1 virus will continue its dominance over other flu strains, the World Health Organization (WHO) today recommended adding the pandemic strain as the H1N1 component of the seasonal flu vaccine for the Northern Hemisphere's next flu season. WHO experts favor single-dose H1N1 vaccine regimen (CIDRAP News) An expert committee that advises the World Health Organization (WHO) today updated its guidance on pandemic H1N1 vaccines, recommending a single dose for most age-groups and advising that any of the forms are safe for pregnant women. H1N1 FLU BREAKING NEWS: Latest vaccine updates and delays, virus in Icelandic pig WHO picks novel H1N1 for 2010 southern hemisphere flu vaccine (CIDRAP News) The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended that seasonal influenza vaccines for use in the southern hemisphere next year contain the pandemic H1N1 virus instead of a current seasonal H1N1 strain, signaling that the pandemic strain is expected to push the older H1N1 strains aside. WHO says H1N1 vaccine process won't sacrifice safety (CIDRAP News) The World Health Organization (WHO) said today that the fast-tracking of vaccines for pandemic H1N1 influenza won't compromise safety, while acknowledging that clinical data will be limited when the first doses are administered. WHO says healthcare workers should get first H1N1 shots (CIDRAP News) The World Health Organization (WHO) recommended today that governments put healthcare workers first in line for pandemic H1N1 vaccine when it becomes available and that countries should choose other priority groups on the basis of their own situations. WHO to ask countries to ease novel H1N1 testing (CIDRAP News) The World Health Organization (WHO) said today it will soon advise most countries to ease the volume of testing for novel H1N1 influenza and said testing related to recent oseltamivir-resistant cases has so far turned up no additional cases.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2142
__label__cc	0.549184	0.450816	CIPS Members Eligible for Executive MBA Scholarships at the University of Fredericton Through a special academic partnership between CIPS and the University of Fredericton, the University is offering scholarships for its on-line Executive Master for Business Administration Degree (MBA) program. "As a self-employed practitioner, I am interested in the University of Fredericton Executive MBA because it provides a quality education at an affordable price," said former CIPS President John Boufford I.S.P. "The business topics make practitioners much more valuable to their clients and to employers." CIPS partnered with the University of Fredericton in April of 2007. The University of Fredericton is a new on-line university based in New Brunswick which offers an Executive MBA in Collaborative Leadership. The University of Fredericton is designated as Canada's newest university under "Section 3" of the Degree Granting Act of the Province of New Brunswick. The University of Fredericton's Executive MBA with a focus on collaborative leadership is designed to meet the needs of mid-career professionals seeking to expand their managerial knowledge and develop sound leadership skills. The Executive MBA prepares professionals for upper level positions, helping them develop their team leadership, and an understanding of how to manage the broad functions of business organizations. It can be a costly and disruptive process for skilled information professionals to get a business education to advance their careers. That's why the 100% online model has proven so popular. CIPS members may be eligible for $7,500 Executive Master of Business Administration scholarships. These scholarships are available for the semester beginning September 2008 at the University of Fredericton. The tuition amount, less the scholarship stipend for the Executive MBA Program is $17,000. Admission to the Executive MBA program requires an undergraduate degree with five years work experience (two years in management). Applicants will be asked to submit an official transcript, references and current resume. Students are able to complete the Executive MBA program in less than thirty months. Each course is seven weeks in duration and students can expect to dedicate approximately fifteen hours in their studies per week. Courses are delivered on-line with weekly faculty-lead synchronous sessions. The University of Fredericton also offers a Business Leadership Certificate Program. This program consists of three courses; each 14 weeks in duration is available also delivered on-line. The University of Fredericton is pleased to offer an $1100 Scholarship offer on the $3654 Leadership Certificate Program tuition for September 2008. Please contact Tracy Pugh, University Enrolment Manager at: (506) 454-6232 ext. 1, (toll free) 1-877-454-6232, or Tracy.Pugh@UniversityFredericton.ca for more information. These scholarships are available on a first-come, first-serve basis to eligible applicants. Applications are due by August 15, 2008; on-line orientation will take place August 25 to September 5, 2008. Those interested are encouraged to apply. Be a leader in your field, apply today! For more information, visit: http://www.universityfredericton.ca/.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2143
__label__cc	0.503184	0.496816	COHA Report: The EU and Mercosur – Can the EU Get its Foot in the Door of Mercosur, Latin America’s Most Dominant Market? April 27, 2007 May 15, 2007 coha With US foreign policy heavily focused on Iraq and the WTO Doha Round negotiations all but paralyzed, the European Union (EU) seems to be disregarding the wide open door to further regional integration and economic influence in Latin America that could be achieved through a free trade arrangement with Mercosur. Economists would argue that the factors of production and the respective natural endowments of both regions meet textbook standards for mutually beneficial trade. The Mercosur economies (Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Uruguay, Paraguay) hold a comparative advantage in producing agricultural goods due to the favorable climate and the abundance of arable land and (low-skilled) available labor. The European Union, on the other hand, has a comparative advantage in producing capital and skilled labor-intensive manufactured goods and services. The EU, with a GDP of 10,820 Billion Euro, represents the biggest extant market in the world economy. Mercosur is the biggest market in Latin America. The trade volume between the two markets increased by 170 percent in the last 15 years, from 19 Billion Euros in 1990 to 51 Billion in 2005. The EU is currently exporting four times more and importing 123 percent more than it did in 1990. For Mercosur, the European Union is its most important trading partner, accounting for 23% of its exports. However, notwithstanding the opportunity for both regions to yoke economic growth, the absolute trade volume between the two regions remains relatively diminutive as a consequence of market-access restrictions imposed on each other. The EU currently has free trade agreements with only two Latin American nations, Chile and Mexico, neither one a member of Mercosur. In the past, the strong opposition of sharply defined interest groups, in particular the European farmers, on several occasions impeded the establishment of a free trade agreement (FTA) with Mercosur. In 1999, the European Union initiated negotiations on a bilateral FTA with Mercosur. Talks were scheduled to be completed in October 2004, but the two sides failed to agree on each other’s final offer. Mercosur requested better access to European markets for its most important source of trade revenue and its prime venue for applying its comparative advantage: agricultural goods. The EU, meanwhile, wanted to increase its access to Mercosur’s manufacturing sector, in particular, its telecommunications, marine shipping and banking areas. In November of 2006, negotiations were re-launched in Rio de Janeiro, once again without significant progress being recorded. The EU’s External Trade Commissioner, Peter Mandelson, argued in December that it is more convenient “to concentrate” on a successful outcome for the WTO Doha negotiations while “keep[ing] different bilateral free trade options open, one of which is Mercosur.” His many critics insist that Mandelson is not adequately recognizing that the EU is currently missing a historic chance not only to gain more political and economic influence in Latin America, but also ending up with a good business deal as well. Several power brokers suggest that the EU should become more actively engaged in dialoguing with Mercosur before that now open door is effectively closed. WTO Doha Round Stalled First of all, the likely completion of the WTO Doha Round that Mandelson seems to focus on is not clearly in sight. Although key members of the World Trade Organization agreed at a meeting in New Delhi on April 13 to conclude the long-delayed “Development” Round by the end of this year, the different positions of the organization’s members have made such an agreement unlikely. The last meetings in Hong Kong and Geneva failed also because of the obvious unwillingness of the US and EU to increase at this time significant access to their agriculture sectors. It is questionable if anything will be different in upcoming negotiations, considering the formidable domestic political realities in the U.S. hindering any opening at this time, as well as existing current animosities among some of the major players; “We need new numbers from the U.S. on what they are ready to do to reduce their trade distorting agricultural subsidies,” said WTO Director Pascal Lamy in March, supporting claims of Brazilian foreign minister Celso Amorim, who urged the US to make bigger cuts in its farm subsidies to its agricultural sector. Another obstacle is based on the expiration of Bush’s Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) by the end of June. It has been widely speculated that the Democrat-controlled Congress may not readily renew the White House trade promotion authority, which allows the president to negotiate trade deals that allow Congress to only approve or reject without permitting any emendations in up-and-down votes. After its expiration, Congress will once again be able to amend or filibuster any agreement, further delaying the negotiation process. Therefore, with stalled WTO negotiations, Mercosur constitutes a promising alternative for the European Union. The EU would be wise to capitalize on its increasing bargaining power in bilateral negotiations since Mercosur’s economies—especially some of the smaller ones— are counting on the Doha negotiations to gain access to foreign markets. Competition at a Low The EU should also take into consideration that the foreign policy focus of its major competitor in the region, the United States, is tied to the war in Iraq. There are currently no major efforts by the US to advance negotiations for a free trade agreement of the Americas (FTAA). Moreover, the aforementioned expiration of President Bush’s trade promotion authority (TPA) in June will make prospective US trade partners, such as the Mercosur economies, more reluctant to negotiate with Washington. In general, the mood in Latin America is currently not in favour of the US-backed free trade agreement, in part because of the negative public opinion over the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and long simmering animosities between leftist regional leaders and the Bush administration. Under this White House, anti-Americanism has been rekindled across the region, highlighted by protests and riots throughout Latin America during President Bush’s far from successful six-day tour in March, as well as the rising influence of Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez and his regional supporters. The proposed EU-Mercosur integration seems to be in line with the trade and center-left political priorities of the Southern Cone’s trade bloc. President Lula of Brazil, Nestor Kirchner of Argentina, and Venezuela´s Chavez have all taken issue with US unilateralism. For President Bush, trade efforts in Latin America are currently limited to bilateral negotiations with smaller Latin American markets, such as Guatemala and Mercosur’s Uruguay, where the U.S. holds most of the cards, without having to make significant concessions. In particular, these small countries have a strong incentive to negotiate with the EU in an attempt to escape the present impasse with the U.S. Taking all this into consideration, the EU is currently more likely to obtain favorable terms now as opposed to the future, when the US could resurrect itself as a competitor, through shifting its focus back on trade policy while seeking political reconciliation with Latin America under a new, and more palatable, U.S. administration. Public Opinion Shift in Europe The biggest obstacle to reaching an agreement in the past has been the refusal of the EU to increase access to its own agricultural sector, in particular by means of cutting farm subsidies. With regards to cutting subsidies, France has always posed the most obdurate opposition to such an accommodation. The traditional need of its government to protect farmers from competition is no longer universally nor tenaciously shared in much of Europe. The collapse of the European Union Summit in Brussels in 2005, which led the EU into a deep internal crisis as a consequence of disputes over the allocation of subsidies, clearly spotlighted some noteworthy shift on this issue. Farm subsidies in the EU have been controversial for years, not only due to questions of transparency, but also because of its negative economic implications. The 90 billion-dollars now being spent annually by EU member nations to block cheaper food prices for European consumers through curbing competition from the developing nations, has ultimately prevented more competitive Latin American and African farmers from increasing their sales to the lucrative European market. These subsidies may, in fact, be unnecessary concessions which serve only to a minor part of the European workforce, although not one without considerable political clout. Opponents of the status quo claim that the existing subsidies should be used to initiate other land use programs, finance market transition payments and create institutions that encourage uncompetitive farmers to focus on other products or business models. Not only are governments subsidies responsible for nursing the illusion that EU farmers are still competitive in world markets, they also violate the Union’s democratic-precepts at a time when presently 40 percent of the organization’s budget is spent on farming subsidies while 5 percent of the population is employed in the agricultural sector, which accounts for only 2 percent of EU’s total output. In economic jargon, a trade agreement, like the one proposed with Mecosur, gives the EU the chance to allocate its resources more efficiently as well as harness its economic growth. From a political point of view, the EU has the chance to send a signal to its own citizens that the European Union is democratic and not blindly submissive to politically powerful, if not entirely germane voting blocs. It also can prove to Latin America that, unlike Washington, it is willing to make major concessions in favor of economic reality. Currently, only 1.8% of EU exports are earmarked for the Mercosur countries, hence leaving considerable space for growth. With Europe suffering a constant population decline and with its economic growth rather remaining modest (averaging 1.8 percent in the last 5 years), a necessity exists to secure expanding major markets for EU products. An agreement would almost immediately spark a strong surge in the current 50 billion Euro a year trade total between the two regions, triggering export growth for European manufactured goods, technology and service products. But this door is likely to close sooner than later for the EU. “In recent years, Latin America has been the centre of China’s attention” says Claudio M. Loser from the Centre for Hemispheric Policy in Miami. “Latin American countries offer large markets for China’s manufactured exports” he continued. In turn, China is very attractive to Latin America because of that Asian country’s almost never ending demand for agricultural goods and raw materials. The trade volume between the two grew from $200 Million in 1975 to $2.8 Billion in 1988 and to $49 Billion in 2005. If the EU remains sluggish in advancing its negotiations with Mercosur, Latin America’s demand for manufactured goods could be met by China instead of the EU. Furthermore, the EU’s comparative advantage in high-tech manufacturing and services is diminishing; the manufacturing sector has grown substantially over the last decade in Latin America. “The combined production of seven Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Venezuela) increased 93 percent between 1991 and 2000, rising from $27 billion to $52 billion” according to Derek Hill from the National Science Foundation. The recent wave of regional integration in Latin America is yielding a knowledge spillover from more technologically advanced countries like Brazil, further reducing the regional technology gap. Thus, the demand for manufactured goods from the EU is likely to decline in the future, which makes it almost urgent for the EU to use its market potential now or await its near demise. Beyond Economics A trade agreement would not only foster economic growth and allocate resources more efficiently, but also decrease administrative costs by rationalizing and simplifying the management of economic interchanges. A report introduced in the European Parliament in October 2005 estimated the cost of failing to have a free trade agreement in place in the short run at 5 Billion Euros per year. The proposed Mercosur agreement would also instutionalize the growing interest of the European business community in the region. A Mercosur/European Union Business Forum (MEBF) has been launched by the business communities of Mercosur and the EU. In its VI Plenary Conference in November of 2006, more than 140 business leaders gathered in Buenos Aires to advance a bi-regional agreement intended to foster competitiveness in both blocs and to encourage officials to resume negotiations towards an Association Agreement between the EU and Mercosur. Apart from the economic arguments, a trade relationship of equals would constitute an important step towards allowing some European countries, in particular Spain and Portugal, to consolidate historical and cultural ties to the region. The former prime minister of Portugal, Antonio Guterres, also emphasized the geo-strategic significance of a trade agreement: “Considering this strategic role, we must look to negotiate with an open spirit, in good faith, to achieve agreements with the countries of Mercosur (…) If the EU and Mercosur do not develop a firm relationship, integration toward the US will be inevitable, which will move Europe further away.” The integration of the two markets could spark conflict with the US, a the present time a major EU’s trading partner. EU exports to the US amounted to €108.6 billion in 2004 while EU imports from the US amounted to €93.0 billion. The political and economic consequences of the present US-EU relationship has to be taken into consideration in any cost-benefit analysis of an achieved EU-Mercosur Free Trade Agreement. As Washington is currently pushing for bilateral and regional trade accords throughout the hemisphere, EU-Mercosur negotiations will be recognized as an alternative road to leading away from U.S. influence. Moreover, recent policy actions of some Latin American leaders, such as the expropriations that have occurred in Bolivia and Venezuela, indicate a risk for Foreign Direct Investment which has to be taken into consideration. This is especially relevant, since one of the demands made by the Europeans is for increased access to telecommunication services and the banking sector, which require heavy physical investment. Sleeping Europe Despite strong opposition from the French side, with that country’s traditional strong protection of its farmers, the European Parliament voted with an overwhelming majority of 489 to 75 in favour of a free trade agreement with Mercosur in October of 2006. As a result, representatives from both regions met on November 7, 2006 and then again on April 20 of this year to discuss the possibility of establishing a free-trade mechanism between the two blocs, without reporting progress in the negotiations. Despite the strong majority vote in the European Parliament in favour of an agreement, it seems that only a few countries are currently advocating major EU concessions in order to reach an agreement. Spain, for example, recognizes the importance of compromise in order to continue the negotiations with Mercosur. “The EU is definitely the stronger party in the talks with Mercosur and should be more generous” Spain’s Secretary of State for Iberoamerica, Trinidad Jimenez, observed on November 26, 2006. On several occasions, the Spanish Foreign Minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, has urged all parties not to focus entirely on profit maximization. The door to Latin America is currently wide open. The EU has the chance to strengthen the economic and cultural ties between the two regions. A free trade agreement between them would involve 700 million people and constitute the largest common market in the world. The question is whether the EU is willing to make the concessions necessary to take advantage of this bonanza market. ← Guantanamo echoes U.S. ‘gunboat’ past COHA Report: What is Happening with Morales and his Vision for Bolivia? → The Canal Stuck in a Quagmire April 25, 2016 COHA Comments Off on The Canal Stuck in a Quagmire Income Inequality and Poverty: A Comparison of Brazil and Honduras July 1, 2015 COHA Comments Off on Income Inequality and Poverty: A Comparison of Brazil and Honduras Temer Clings to Reform Measures and Political Power August 14, 2017 COHA Comments Off on Temer Clings to Reform Measures and Political Power	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2145
__label__cc	0.681226	0.318774	What to Wear to the Mariinsky Orchestra Vladimir Putin pins a medal on Valery Gergiev. The Mariinsky Orchestra, under its celebrated conductor, Valery Gergiev, is about to embark on a concert tour of North America. That’s exciting news – but what makes this tour especially appealing is that, in several cities, the Russian orchestra will play an all-Stravinsky program, including The Rite of Spring. I’ve heard the Mariinsky (formerly Kirov) Orchestra on a number of occasions, and one of the things that’s always struck me about this ensemble is the distinctiveness each section brings to the collective sound. Whereas many North American orchestras strive for homogeneity, it seems that the Mariinsky cultivates and encourages the unique properties of each family of instruments. As a result, the brass is brassier, the reeds are reedier, the strings are stringier, etc. With this approach, the Rite should explode in vivid colour. Mark Oppenheimer Learns What He's Up Against Mark Oppenheimer is a religion columnist for the New York Times. But recently, he wrote an essay in the New Republic about his thoughts on children studying classical music and ballet. In so doing, he found himself in conflict with a religion he evidently didn’t know exists. And it’s a religion with an ugly side – self-righteous, condescending, and eager to enforce its beliefs with brute force. In his breezy piece, Oppenheimer questions the social importance of classical music and also ballet in the year 2013. He points out that none of his friends who studied a “classical” instrument are now involved with this art as adults. And he also questions the practical value of this kind of childhood education. Why Minneapolis Matters (Everywhere) The Minnesota Orchestra approaches a crossroad. As the September 30 deadline approaches for maestro Osmo Vänskä’s threatened resignation from Minnesota Orchestra – if the board and players can’t come to an agreement – the drawn-out dispute has become a hot topic of discussion and debate. (See here, here or here.) For the benefit of anyone who has spent the last year on the moon, the Minnesota Orchestra has been locked out since October, when the musicians rejected an offer from the board of directors for a 20- to 40-percent reduction in pay. It has turned into the ugliest union-management confrontation in recent orchestral history. Dover SQ Wins Big at Banff The Dovers, onstage at the Banff International String Quartet Competition. Here’s something I wrote for today’s Houston Chronicle. The Dover String Quartet, which recently graduated from Rice University's Shepherd School of Music, made a clean sweep at the Banff (Alberta) International String Quartet Competition on Sunday. The group walked away with the $25,000 first prize and also three special prizes. The Dover Quartet – comprising violinists Joel Link and Bryan Lee, violist Milena Pajaro-Van de Stadt and cellist Camden Shaw – started playing together in Philadelphia in 2008. Three years later, the four musicians, who are all in their 20s, moved to Houston to enroll in a special program at Rice. Eatock Daily I'm a composer based in Toronto – and this is my classical music blog, Eatock Daily. When I first started blogging, Eatock Daily was a place to re-post the articles I wrote for Toronto’s Globe and Mail and National Post newspapers, the Houston Chronicle, the Kansas City Star and other publications. But now I have stepped back from professional music journalism, and I'm spending more time composing. These days, my blog posts are rare. However, I do still occasionally post comments on musical topics, including works I've discovered, enjoyed, and wish to share with others. – CE Click here for an alphabetical list of blog entries.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2146
__label__cc	0.660321	0.339679	The winning hand in black jack. The age at which you can first legally consume a beer or other alcoholic beverage. The product of 7 and 3, two prime numbers. Add this number to the word Century and you can sell Real Estate in a gold jacket. It's a great age. It's hard to remember what it was like to be that young, facing graduation from college and a whole new world of opportunity. I would not have imagined that 5 years later I would give birth to a son who would someday be that age. But here it is. I now find myself the mother of an amazingly talented 21 year old son majoring in Art at Indiana University. How is it possible that the adorable child who loved to watch Jane Fonda exercise videos could now be old enough to live his own life? And how is a parent supposed to make that transition from being closely involved in all aspects of his life to being available only when called upon? How do you shift gears from telling them what to do to supporting them in their own decisions. It may take me 21 more years to figure that one out.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2149
__label__wiki	0.865516	0.865516	Murder in Versailles Sep 12, 2009 - by Marilyn Z. Tomlins - 1 Comment the Palace of Versailles It took the French government 14 years to bring American expatriate Barrie Taylor to justice for the 1993 murder of her lover's estranged wife. After three trials and three convictions in France for the murder, Taylor continues her fight to be allowed to live freely in the United States. by Marilyn Z. Tomlins Thursday, September 30, 1993. It was going to be a quiet day in Versailles, France's "City of Kings." Or so the cops at the local station house told themselves. The trains pulling in from nearby Paris would not be bringing hordes of day trippers to the chateau of Marie Antoinette, France's last queen, as they do at the height of summer. Not that the tourists brought crime to the town, but their coaches did snarl up traffic, and pickpockets were prone to try their luck in front of the palace. It was also a cool, rainy day and the town's street markets would not attract many shoppers. There would therefore be few rogue street vendors to round up. Boulevard de la République, a street lined with trees and elegant Belle Époque era townhouses, and only a few blocks from the magnificent chateau, was indeed quiet as a small white police automobile, its siren silent, drove up to Number 20, one of six three-storied brick and stone terraced houses. The automobile had four passengers; three uniformed cops and a young man. For the young man, Marc Pavageau, it was his second visit to the house in as many days. One of the cops knocked at the house’s front door; in France cops and firefighters know never to ring a doorbell, but always to knock in case there is a gas leak inside the property. On Marc’s previous visit the door had remained closed. Would it remain closed again? Marc's mother, Roxanne, an American who hailed from Washington D.C., separated from his father, Philippe, who was French, was missing. Roxanne Pavageau Or rather, two days previously, on Tuesday, September 28, Roxanne Pavageau had, on setting off for work, told him that she would not return until 5:30 p.m.; she would be having her hair done after work. She had not returned home at all. Home was in the small (Pop. 4,000) commune of Fourqueux, 9 miles (16 kilometers) from Versailles. And she was an English teacher at the private high-school – the Lycée International – in the town of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 1.8 miles (3 kms) away. (Versailles, Fourqueux and Saint-Germain-en-Laye are all in the prosperous Yvelines county (département), southwest of Paris, half-an-hour by road or rail from Paris.) The house in Versailles at Number 20 Boulevard de la République that Marc and the cops were visiting the young man knew well. It used to be his rented family-home but since his parents’ marriage had broken up, only his father had remained living there. He did not live there alone though: His lover, a woman named Barrie Taylor (43), lived with him. Like Marc’s mother, Taylor was American. Marc had been searching for his mother since dinner time that Tuesday. He had phoned friends in Paris to ask whether she was not perhaps with them. No, she was not, he had been told. None had heard from her either for a couple of days. First on Wednesday morning he had phoned the Lycée International but was told that his mother had not turned up yet; she had been there the previous day, yes. He had also phoned hospitals in the county but none had confirmed the arrival of an American woman. His father was on a business trip in New York, so it was unlikely he would know where his estranged wife would be. Marc had two siblings – Laurent (23) and Elizabeth (21) and both were studying in the United States, so they also would not know the whereabouts of their mother. Next, Marc had gone to the police. They had told him that in France the police did not consider someone who had not been in contact with family and friends for such a short period – 24 hours – as missing. (Today there is an exception to this rule; when a child or teenager disappears, the police issue an immediate nationwide alert to the media.) Thursday morning, officialdom not of any help, and Marc, desperate to find his mother, had set off for Versailles and his father’s house. It was unlikely that his mother would be there but he was looking everywhere. His mother and Taylor had met. The mistress had walked up to the estranged wife on the street one day and the two women had gone to a restaurant where they had finished off a bottle of wine over lunch. They had talked about Philippe; his faults but also his good points. As the door of his father’s house had remained closed, Marc had returned to the police. After having explained the family situation to the cops, and 48 hours having passed without any sign of life from Roxanne Pavageau, they had agreed to open a missing person’s file for her. They asked Marc to accompany them to his father’s house; they thought that that would be as good a place as any to start their search. Approaching the house, Marc pointed Taylor’s car out to the cops: it was parked outside on the street; as it had been on his previous visit. Taylor was obviously home. A chilling discovery: Having knocked at the front door, the cops and Marc waited. The cops knocked again. And again. They banged on the door. Only silence from behind it. Trained for all eventualities, the police officers peeped through the letter-box slot and looked down a corridor. It led to the house's back door. The door stood wide open. Beyond it was a small overgrown garden. Suddenly, a silhouette of a woman stepped from the garden into the corridor. Immediately, the cops banged against the door yet again. A second later the door swung open and there stood Taylor. As the police would later describe her, she wore brown slacks and a man's shirt and her face was covered in sweat and her hands were speckled with fresh soil. No, she said, she had no idea where Roxanne Pavageau could be, and yes, they could come in, but she was rather busy; she was gardening in the back. The cops asked if they could have a look around the house. Taylor did not appear to like the idea, but she allowed them and Marc in without a search warrant. There was no sign of the missing woman anywhere in the house. Next, the cops asked Taylor if they could have a look in the gardening shed and perhaps in the cellar as well. In France, properties always have a cellar; it's an old tradition from the days when no Frenchman’s home was without a stock of fine wines stored under the house. The cops and Marc did not have to inspect either the gardening shed or the basement. As was clear, Taylor had indeed been gardening. She'd been digging; a shovel lay on top of a heap of wet, fresh earth. She had already cleared a space of about 6.5 feet (2 meters) in length and 1.6 feet (50 centimeters) in depth. On top of stone steps that led down to the cellar, lay what she probably intended to bury. It was a package large enough to need two blue garbage bags to cover it. The package was secured with rope. The cops walked over to it. They motioned to Mark to step back, but the young man remained at their heels. Rolling back one of the bags, the search for Roxanne Pavageau was over. So was the life of the mother of three. Police photo of the garden where Roxanne Pavageau's body was to be buried. Marc had told several of those he had phoned over the previous two days: “If my mother is in that house her life is in danger.” He appeared to have been right. More cops, forensic experts, pathologists, a police psychologist and several photographers arrived at the house; already it was entered in the station house's log book as a crime scene. Taylor sat slumped in a chair in the living-room, scraggy red hair clung to her forehead; she was still sweating. Agitatedly she fiddled with her clothes, but not a sound came from her. As the police and Marc had seen, Roxanne Pavageau's head was bashed in; she was dressed only in underclothes and a green t-shirt, the t-shirt she had worn on setting off for work two days earlier. Her hands and feet were tied with electrical wire. Later, at the station house, Taylor uttered her first words of explanation for what had gone on at the house. "She came at me. She was out of control with rage. She had a hammer! She said she'd come to kill Philippe. Then, she wanted to kill me. It was her life or mine … so I hit her. It was legitimate defense. I didn't want to kill her!" That was all she said, all she said she could say; blank was her mind to anything else that concerned the previous 72 hours. Falling in love in the most romantic city in the world: Compiling Taylor's history was not all that easy; the police had to shift through the information she supplied, separating truth from untruth, while seeking confirmation from their colleagues in the United States. Taylor was born in Orange County, California, in March 1950 and she was educated at UCLA; she received her bachelor's degree in 1972. In 1982 she married a man named Leland Hewitt, a builder and real estate dealer 30 years her senior in Stinson Beach, north of San Francisco. He had passed away at his home in Topanga Canyon in 1991; his marriage to Taylor had ended in divorce in the 1980s. In an interview in 2000 with Carla Hall of the Los Angeles Times, Taylor said of Hewitt's death: "The fact that I wasn't there was something I will never, ever forgive myself for. I don't think I can find a man that I loved as much." So where was Taylor when Hewitt died? She was in Paris. She set off for Paris in 1989. She was 39. She rented a small room and started to learn French. She told those she met that she was a lawyer and had practiced law back home in the United States. She supplied various versions about where she had studied law; this she would also do when replying to police questions. She said she studied at Monterey College of Law – she did attend Monterey College of Law for two and half years and then she dropped out. She spoke of having followed various legal courses in England. "I don't represent myself out to be a lawyer, but I know how to do legal work," she defended her claims in the Los Angeles Times interview. She also claimed that she was a member of Amnesty International. However, between the time of her marriage in 1982 and her arrival in Paris in 1989, she worked at various jobs. She was the owner of a store in Boulder Creek, California; she helped out at a women's shelter, and once she was manager of a movie theatre in Santa Cruz Mountains. Then, in 1991 and already in Paris for almost two years, she inherited a small trust fund from Hewitt. But how did she support herself in the expensive French capital in those two years before she was able to draw money from the fund? The Champs-Elysees at night, an area considered "Pure Gold" for hookers. The French police said she was a hooker on Avenue des Champs-Elysées. She vehemently denied this; the police told her that they have a list of her regular clients. The Champs-Elysées's best kept secret is that it is pure gold as far as hookers are concerned. Police estimates show that there are between 200 and 300 hookers operating on the avenue. They are known as les marcheuses – walkers: Clad in $10,000 Yves Saint Laurent suits and clutching Prada purses, they walk up and down the avenue in their stiletto Versaces because if they stand still, they can be arrested for soliciting. For a young woman arriving in Paris with nothing but a rucksack full of expectations to live Hemingway and Fitzgerald's way in the most romantic city in the world and then finding that reality is living in one room over a smelly courtyard, to learn that it is possible to earn between $440 to $2,200 – ₤200/₤1,000: €300/€2,200 – from a client (police estimated figures) picked up on the Champs-Elysées, that certainly is a temptation. (Further police estimates show that a hooker can earn up to $7,000 – ₤3,500: €5,000 – a night on the avenue.) It was at the end of 1991 that Taylor met Pavageau. She met him either on the Champs-Elysées itself or in the avenue’s vicinity. According to her, they met because she had become lost looking for the Eiffel Tower. She was carrying a map of the city. A passerby – Pavageau – stopped to ask her whether she was looking for a specific place. She said the Eiffel Tower. He pointed to it. The tower at 1,063 feet (325 meters), the highest structure in Paris, looms over the city. He, also according to her, offered to drive her to the tower. And to buy her a drink; there is nothing more sexually exciting to a Frenchman than a young woman with a street map and a cute accent, and Pavageau was no exception. Taylor, then a hazel-eyed redhead and elegantly svelte – petite as the French say – at 5 foot 4 and 115 pounds (1.64 meters and 52 kilos) accepted both. A few months later, in April 1992, she moved into Pavageau’s Versailles house. Once living with him, Taylor’s life went up in comfort and social status by several notches. Versailles (Inhabitants: 89,000) is a bourgeois town; there, she could watch television on cold winter nights, dine by candlelight in the garden on warm summer evenings. She could take the fast suburban train to the capital to shop for designer purses at Galaries Lafayette department store. And never would she have to worry over where the money for the next month's rent was to come from. But, Taylor’s new life was not only love and luxuries. She had to deal with the Pavageau children. And the estranged wife. The Pavageau children had initially politely tolerated Taylor, but eventually they no longer did so. Marc would in March 2000 tell the Paris daily Le Figaro about his first meeting with his father’s concubine; in France the people still use the word “concubine” for a live-in lover. The meeting had taken place in the restaurant of one of Paris’ most expensive hotels, the five-star Royal Monceau. Said Marc: “She told me that she was a lawyer and that she had just recently lost her husband in an automobile accident. Lies. And never did we have such luxury as the Royal Monceau at home.” Taylor was dressed to the nines. Marc’s sibling, Elisabeth, would in the same article speak of a tête-à-tête she had had with Taylor. “She tried to put herself over as a substitute mother while she was degrading my mom. She told me, ‘Your mother, she’s the devil’. The expression on her face chilled my blood. The human instinct for survival came to the fore and I fled. I realized that she was a destroyer,” she said. As for the estranged wife: After Taylor and Roxanne had finished off the bottle of wine over lunch, whatever promise there had been that day that the two American women would behave in a thoroughly French way with the former wife and the new mistress becoming great friends, it was something that did not happen. The Pavageau divorce was problematic – there were arguments over possessions – and Taylor sided with her man. She was as outraged as he when Roxanne climbed through a window of the Versailles house to recuperate some silverware. And she backed him when he filed a complaint at the local station house for burglary. The incident had taken place in May 1993. Roxanne was then only four months from having her head bashed in. Roxanne: Roxanne Michele Foley met and fell in love with Philippe Pavageau in 1968 in Chicago. Both were students at the University of Chicago: Philippe was studying for a master’s degree in business administration and Roxanne was majoring in history. She had already passed not only the Foreign Service exam but had also undergone training for the Peace Corps in Hawaii after which she had taught English in Sarawak, Indonesia. The two – the all-American girl and the charming Frenchman - were married in Washington, D.C. According to what Ann Barbieri from Reston, Virginia, a friend of Roxanne’s from the time both were in their teens, told CrimeMagazine.com, the vivacious “Roxy” “felt a little bit of a fish out of water” once she settled in France, a Frenchman’s wife. Yet, determined to make a success of her marriage, she adapted. At first Roxanne did not work, but after the birth of Marc she started to teach at the school in Saint-Germaine-en-Laye. She would, in confiding in Ann about how her marriage was no longer happy, say that until she joined the school, she had not been able to remember laughing. Like her children she also believed, initially, that Taylor was a lawyer. When she and they found out that Taylor indeed was not, the latter was already living in what they still felt was “their” home. Said Ann of the state of mind her friend: “She missed the beautiful old house in Versailles where she’d lived with her family. When she’d finally left Philippe she’d taken nothing with her. At the time of her death, the questions of what belonged to whom were mostly final. She had been on a retreat the weekend before and felt absolved and supported in the choices she had made.” Roxanne had a new man in her life – an Englishman. Her broken marriage she had put behind her. Taylor starts to remember what had happened: Barrie Taylor At first, Taylor stuck to her claim of partial amnesia. French psychologists and neuroscientists accept amnesia, full or partial, as a genuine medical condition caused by a traumatic experience. They also recognize self-deception and shoehorning as genuine phenomena in murder cases. Taylor appeared to suffer, or rather take refuge, in all three. She was not a lawyer, yet she claimed to be: Self-deception. The explanation she was giving for her attack on Roxanne: Shoehorning – she was fitting her own version of the attack into police conclusions. As for her partial amnesia: Normally, memory returns, the French experts say. It may take a few hours, a few months, perhaps years to do so, but it is a condition that can be reversed. So, Taylor’s memory started to return. Gradually. She told the police that she could remember that Roxanne had come to the house looking for Pavageau wanting to kill him; her eyes wild, she held an “object” with which she was going to do the deed. The angry wife, on hearing that her soon-to-be ex was not at home, had then turned the “object” on her. “She held it above my head,” said Taylor. In self defense she had sprayed tear gas into Roxanne’s face; she always carried a small tear gas cylinder in her bag for self-defense – many working women who have to use public transport late at night do. Roxanne had sunk to the floor. Taylor remembered a few more details. She said that she had then run from the house to a nearby phone callbox and she dialed 17 (France’s nationwide emergency number) to summon the police, but before anyone could reply, she, frightened, hung up. Next, she had run to her car to go and fetch a friend. The friend – a man – had however refused to return to the house with her. She refused to name him; he was married and the father of three children, she said. That the “object” that Roxanne had threatened her with was a hammer, she remembered next. “She burst into the living room from the cellar. I don’t remember to have hit her, but I obviously did,” she said. Why obviously? Because on returning to the house, she said, she found Roxanne “dead in the corridor near the dining room.” But she emphasized yet again that she had acted in self defense only. Next, she remembered that she had gone shopping the next day; she went down to Paris to hand in camera films to be developed. And she remembered something else. So great had been the shock of having found a dead Roxanne in the house, that she suffered a miscarriage; she’d been pregnant with Pavageau’s baby. But there was no recall of undressing Roxanne's body, wrapping bin-liners around it, getting the body to the garden and digging a hole. Neither could she remember cleaning up the house to wash away the dead woman’s blood. Or what she had done with the hammer. Later, for the Los Angeles Times her memory would though serve up a few more details. She would recall returning to the house after her male friend had refused to accompany her. "I finally went in and as you go up the steps, I saw her lying on the floor. I just started crying,” she told Carla Hall. And she recalled that she had “apparently” had a shovel in her hand when the police turned up, and that she had covered Roxanne's face with a scarf – a silk scarf. On Saturday, October 2, another cold and rainy day in Versailles, Taylor, having been held for three days at the police station house, was driven to the local Palais de Justice (Court) and handed over to a juge d'instruction (investigating magistrate) – Judge Jean-Marie Charpier. He told her he was placing her under provisional incarceration as a murder suspect. She was booked into Versailles Prison on Rue de Paris, another leafy street, just a block from the Pavageau house. Under France's 1958 Code of Criminal Procedure, the case, until then classified as a police investigation, had become a judicial investigation. It would be Judge Charpier's task to decide whether there was sufficient evidence to successfully prosecute Taylor for the murder of Roxanne Pavageau. What Taylor might not have known was that it was there in Versailles, on June 17, 1938, on a square outside another of the town's prisons, Saint Pierre Prison, that France's last public execution by guillotine had taken place. A German-born robber, kidnapper and murderer, Eugène Weidmann, had been convicted for the murder of five people; one was the New York dancer, Jean de Koven. Weidmann's dawn beheading had turned into such a manifestation of hysterical excitement – women tried to dip their handkerchiefs into his blood – that the then French president, Albert Lebrun, had banned public guillotine executions. (France abolished capital punishment on October 9, 1981: The last person to be executed by guillotine was the Tunisian-born Hamida Djandoubi, convicted for the slaying of his girlfriend.) It was also in Versailles, and on the same square, that French serial-killer, Henri Désiré Landru, known as the Modern Bluebeard, was publicly executed in 1922 for having murdered 11 women. Should Judge Charpier find that he had sufficient evidence to successfully prosecute Taylor for voluntary “premeditated” homicide – classified as “assassination” in France - and court-appointed psychiatrists found her mentally fit to stand trial, she risked a life sentence. Premeditated is defined in Art. 132-72 of the French Penal Code as: Premeditation is the plan formed before the action to commit a particular serious or major offence. If found guilty of only voluntary but not premeditated murder, then, under Art. 122-5 she risked a 30-year imprisonment sentence. The article reads: The fact of voluntarily killing another constitutes murder. It is punished by 30 years imprisonment. However, if Taylor could prove beyond reasonable doubt that she struck down Roxanne Pavageau to defend herself against an unjustified attack and that her action was both necessary for legitimate defense and simultaneous with the attack against her, and there was no disproportion between her means of defense and the gravity of the attack against her, then, also under Art.122-5 of the French Penal Code, she would not be held responsible for her deed. She would in that case receive only a suspended sentence and her victim’s children could demand reparation from her. Behind bars: Taylor was transferred from Versailles Prison to Fresnes in the commune of Fresnes, 7 miles (11.2 kms) south of Paris. There, she would await her trial. It was a wait that promised to be a long one; French law is slow and an accused could wait three or four years for his or her case to come to court. Versailles Prison Versailles Prison – before its inauguration in 1860 the building had been a refuge for homeless women and their children – is not one of France’s major jails. Fresnes – with a capacity of 1444 inmates but holding 1651 (latest Ministry of Justice statistics) – is France’s second largest jail. It was inaugurated in 1898 when it was considered “revolutionary” because of its layout of long blocks instead of the traditional star-shape of prisons: the design of New York’s Riker’s Island was based on that of Fresnes. While Taylor’s lawyer, Maître Francis Triboulet (in France a lawyer is addressed as Maître), prepared her defense, she watched from her cell window how the days, weeks and months passed. Pavageau visited her, but such meetings were short and because of prison rules, impersonal: she was not allowed to touch him; she could not discuss her case with him, and when he brought her a parcel her guards would hand it over only after they had opened it to examine it for notes, a weapon or pills with which she could commit suicide. She was suicidal. On Wednesday, April 22, 1998, four years and seven months after Taylor’s arrest, Maître Triboulet successfully petitioned for her release on control order for health reasons. She weighed only 86 pounds (39 kilos) and by then she had tried to commit suicide several times. Under the terms of her control order she was to reside in Paris and report to the police twice a week. Her passport was confiscated. Dutifully, Taylor reported to the police twice weekly, but on Thursday, December 10, a little over seven months later, she failed to turn up. Instead, she went to the United States Consulate on Place de la Concorde and asked for a replacement passport. As she was to tell the Los Angeles Times, “When the embassy asked, ‘What happened to your passport – lost or stolen?’, I said, ‘It was taken by the police’.” Asked by the consulate clerk what she planned to do about that, she replied that she planned to take legal action against France. The Consulate did not verify whether she was being truthful. When, in January 1999, the Paris police finally got through the red-tape and reported to the Ministry of Interior that Taylor had made a runner, she was already back in the United States, a fact confirmed to the French government by the U.S. State Department. In a letter dated February 10, to explain her flight to the French Ministry of Interior, Taylor wrote, "Ms Pavageau lost her life after she broke into my home in a state of rage and tried to kill me. There was no murder. I defended my life.” She was living in Los Angeles and added that she was undergoing medical treatment there but that she would return to France for her trial. A month later, ignoring her letter, France issued an international order for her arrest. Immediately also, France requested her extradition from the U.S. State Department. Two years previously, on April 23, 1996, France and the United States had signed an extradition treaty. The French authorities knew that the United States government hardly ever extradited a national – France also did not like to do so – but they were not going to let Taylor get away with murder. "She was found in the house. The body was on the premises. She was digging a hole in the garden," said one of the investigating police officers. They had their "corpora delicti." Despite that Taylor had promised to return to France for her trial, she decided to fight extradition. She moved to Santa Cruz County. Next, she settled down in a condominium in Capitola close to Capitola Mall. To her aid came Professor Anthony D'Amato of Northwestern University. He prepared to appeal to the European Commission on Human Rights based in Strasbourg, France. He wanted France to drop the murder accusation against her. He claimed that her human rights had been violated by the French judiciary. Not only had she been held in prison too long but the conditions under which she had been held were appalling: The interpreter she was given was incompetent, and her medication for depression and anxiety had been taken away from her. She had also been repeatedly raped. The rape accusation she confirmed in the Los Angeles Times interview. She said she was raped in the showers by the other women; she was raped "with things." She also claimed that the French examining magistrate had refused to shake her hand. "I do not shake hands with assassins, and certainly not an American," Judge Charpier allegedly had told her. Taylor might also not have been aware that for security reasons in France a law official, even if only a patrol cop, never shakes the hand of anyone while on duty. Similarly, during interrogation, a suspect, witness or claimant always sits with his/her back right up against a wall, and never is he or she to sit or stand within touching distance of the interrogating law official. By the time that Prof. D’Amato had become involved with Taylor, Judge Charpier had already decided that he had gathered sufficient evidence to bring her successfully to trial for murder. Taylor, when informed by the State Department that her trial was imminent, refused to return to France. The trial opened without her. Therefore, on Friday, June 23, 2000, almost seven years since Roxanne Pavageau's death, a judge of the Court of Assizes of the county of Yvelines found Taylor guilty of murder in absentia. She was sentenced to 30 years in jail. The trial, attended by the three Pavageau children, as well as their father, lasted four days and the nine jurors needed only two hours to deliberate her culpability. The prosecution rejected the explanation Taylor had given the Versailles police on her arrest in 1998 that she hit Roxanne in self defense. "Roxanne Pavageau was hit 20 times at least, maybe 21 or 22 times. Maybe 25 times. That's not defending oneself. That's murder," a police officer remarked to journalists after the verdict had been given. Something that Professor D'Amato would tell U.S. journalists at the time might have been interpreted as his agreement. "She didn't just kill the lady, she butchered her. She struck her many times," he said. But he had found extenuating circumstances. He compared her action to that of a battered wife. "You want to make sure they're really dead," he said. "Barrie was totally appropriate in trying to defend herself, but then she went into overkill." Although the Versailles prosecution team had sentenced Taylor to 30 years, it had failed to establish what exactly had happened between the two American women on the day of the slaughter. It had though, through forensic tests, established that Roxanne had been sitting when most of the hammer blows hit her and that she had been drinking wine. Because of an abundance of blood residue in the house's dining room it was there that the attack had taken place. On Saturday, November 20, 2003, Taylor was surprised by the arrival of federal marshals at her Capitola Mall home. She was arrested and incarcerated in San Francisco’s Dublin Prison. There, in Dublin Prison, she would await her extradition to France where she would have to serve her 30-year sentence. She still had no intention of returning to France. Accordingly, she would go through four lawyers, and at times she would defend herself, in her fight to remain in the States. Her first extradition hearing was in September 2005 – two years later – when she appeared before Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Laporte in the United States District Court of the Northern District of California. On Friday, October 28, she heard that she had lost her fight; Judge Laporte issued the Certification of Extraditability and Order of Commitment (Extradition Order). But Taylor would fight on, and two months later, on Thursday, December 1, she filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus and a motion for stay of extradition pending resolution of her habeas petition. In her petition she raised the issue of her future treatment in France; she was certain she would not be treated humanely. On Friday, October 26, 2007, another two years having passed, Taylor, accompanied by U.S. marshals, arrived back in France. The California Court had denied her petition for writ of habeas corpus. She landed at Charles de Gaulle Airport at Roissy, north of Paris. French newspapers reported that she had tried to kill herself during the flight. Fleury-Merogis Prison Taylor was driven straight from Charles de Gaulle Airport to Fleury-Mérogis Prison in the commune of the same name, 16 miles (25 kms) south of Paris. She was to have a new trial. Maître Olivier Morice, the lawyer representing Roxanne Pavageau's three children (Marc had turned 33, Elizabeth 36, and Laurent 38) told journalists, "They (the children) are waiting for her to explain her crime." He added that the three would also like to know who this American woman really was; this woman who had claimed she was a lawyer, when she had in fact lived a “life of charm” in Paris. Before boarding the plane, Taylor had heard that she had also lost her case against France at the European Commission on Human Rights. Prof. D’Amato had told the commission: “Mrs. Taylor had lost her possessions, her income, and her health has deteriorated. She has lost five years of her life locked in prison.” No time was lost bringing Taylor to justice this second time. Her trial opened at the Versailles court on Monday, April 7, 2008 – a mere five months and one week after her return. Again present in Court were the three Pavageau siblings – all three married and parents. Their father was there too. Back in 2000 when the Los Angeles Times had interviewed Pavageau, all that he would say when the paper contacted him in Paris and asked for a comment was, "The very fact that seven years after the tragedy we're still talking about, is, in fact, a tragedy." He added that he would like to know, "Why did Roxanne come by again after having left that house two years before and what happened when Barrie and Roxanne were together to trigger such a tragedy?" In Court, Taylor gave an explanation why Roxanne had gone to the house. She had, she said, bumped into Roxanne who had just then stepped from the hairdressing salon where she had had her hair done. “I told her that I liked her hair. She took my compliment badly. She thought I was being ironic. Then I made some unnecessary sarcastic remarks. I told her that we – Philippe and I – are very happy with the silverware,” she said. Bursting into tears, she added that she would never be able to forgive herself for having provoked Roxanne in such a way. Roxanne, she said, had then “surprised her” by suddenly appearing in the hallway of the Pavageau house. “She had this ‘object’ in her hands. Her face was all red. Her mouth was distorted with anger. Never in my life had I seen someone in such a state,” she said. Summing up for the prosecution, Chief Prosecutor Anne-Marie Chapelle requested a 20-year sentence. "We still do not know exactly when, how and why Barrie Taylor killed Roxanne Pavageau," she said. She added that the autopsy had shown that Roxanne had not died instantly; it must have taken her at least an hour to breathe her final breath. Psychiatrists who had examined Taylor had diagnosed her as "hysterical and perverse" and "quick-tempered" and "capable of violent emotional unloading." Roxanne Pavageau, on the contrary, was described by friends subpoenaed by the prosecution as character witnesses – Ann Barbieri was one of them - as someone who had been "optimistic, positive and always wanted to help others." On Friday, April 11, another jury of nine found Taylor guilty of voluntary homicide. She was sentenced to 18 years in prison. She was driven back to Fleury-Mérogis Prison. After the trial, Maître Morice said to journalists that Roxanne’s children felt a great sense of relief that their mother's assassin had finally been judged, that she had been found guilty and that she would spend 18 years behind bars. The three had broken with their father. But Taylor is determined not to do her time: The 180-hectare Fleury-Mérogis is old-fashioned in that it is star-shaped. It is however “new” in that it was inaugurated in 1964 – the women’s wing dates from 1968 – and it is not only France’s largest prison in capacity (3,800 inmates) but also Europe’s largest in ground area. Taylor was to share her cell with two inmates. The cell measures 118 sq. ft. (11 sq. meters) and the bunks are superimposed. The cell has a toilet seat and a washbasin and she would have hot running water, something the male inmates do not have. Like all her inmates, she would be able to shop in the prison shop. She could have her hair done in the prison’s hairdressing salon. She could borrow books from the prison library. Her letters, both those she would be writing and those she was to receive, would not be censored; a 1983 law recognizes the right of unimpeded correspondence for convicted inmates as well as those still awaiting trial. She would be able to have her own radio. And she could watch television in her cell; the prison rented out sets to inmates at a small monthly fee. If she wished, she might work; inmates did sewing and embroidery, made and addressed envelopes, bound books, and made and repaired toys. But if she should prefer not to work, that was her right. She might however volunteer to help with the cleaning work and cooking. She could also study; 68 percent of her fellow female inmates would be foreign – Algerians, Angolans, Bolivians, Brazilians, Filipinos, Nigerians and South Africans – and would be studying the French language. "All women arrested at Paris's airports of Charles de Gaulle and Orly, either on smuggling charges or as illegal immigrants, end up here," one of the staff revealed to CrimeMagazine.com. And should the French Parliament pass a law the Minister of Justice had proposed, then she would in future receive a monthly benefit of €67 ($106 : ₤54). But no sooner had the bars of Fleury-Mérogis locked Barrie Taylor in, she dismissed her lawyer whom she found unsatisfactory, and she hired another. Having no intention of serving her sentence – not in France or the States or anywhere else - she was going to appeal. By French law it was her right to do so. Her appeal: On Monday, April 6 of this year (2009), a few days short of the first anniversary of Taylor’s second trial, her appeal opened in the Assize Court of Appeal in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris. Taylor entered the courtroom in a wheelchair. She was bone-thin and her red hair clung to her very pale face. When she spoke, and this was frequently because in France an accused has the right to interrupt the proceedings at any time to question a witness, a lawyer, or any member of the prosecution, even to address a juror or the prosecutor or the judge, her voice was hardly above a whisper. “Squeaky” was how those subpoenaed as prosecution witnesses described her voice. Immediately, Maître Eric Plouvier, Taylor’s “new” lawyer, demanded that his client’s 2007 extradition to France be annulled. The reason for his demand was that Taylor had not been informed of her right to have contested the extradition. He also wanted her released immediately; her physical condition, he claimed, was not “compatible” with detention. “If there exists a case where the rights of the accused and the extradition procedure were respected, then this case is surely it,” retorted Judge Philippe Courroye. Taylor in her many interruptions – these annoyed everyone in Court – repeated her claim that she had acted in self-defense only. “I remember that the victim came to my house, but I have no recollection of the act. I am innocent of the charge against me,” she said. Reminded by the judge of the lies that she had told about being a lawyer and a member of Amnesty International, she replied: “I studied law and it was easier for me to have introduced myself to people as a lawyer.” Crying, she denied claims that had been made by her mother, her brother and his son, and the sons of Hewitt (her ex-husband) at her two previous trials that she was violent and used to attack them. The Pavageau siblings’ lawyer – it was again Maître Morice – in his final argument spoke of how, when Roxanne’s body was found, it was not Pavageau who was the one who cried, but his brother, the murdered woman’s brother-in-law. The judge in his summary went through every lie Taylor had told – she had even lied about her age having falsified her passport to make her three years younger – and every version she had given of what had happened at the Pavageau house. He quoted what Ann Barbieri had said in the witness box about her departed friend: She had described Roxanne as “luminous.” He also said that Taylor’s own family had called her violent. At 9.30 pm on Wednesday, April 15, nine days later (the Court had adjourned for the Easter weekend) the nine jurors withdrew for deliberation. Five hours later, at 2.30 am, they returned; they unanimously agreed that Taylor had indeed killed Roxanne willfully. Taylor’s 18 years sentenced was increased to 20 years. Judge Courroye in giving the sentence described Taylor as “an inveterate liar” and “violent.” Taylor was given five days to decide whether to take her case to the Court of Cassation (Cour de Cassation), France’s supreme court of appeal, and a convicted felon’s final resort to have a ruling quashed (casser) or reduced. She decided that she would indeed take her case to the Court of Cassation. The Court, originally established in 1790 during the French Revolution to revise convictions pronounced by lower courts, sits from Monday to Thursday in the Palais de Justice complex on the Ȋle de la Cite, one of the two islands in the Seine in central Paris. The Court is made up of a presiding judge called “the president” (président) and a team of counselors (conseillers) and magistrates (magistrats). In 2008 the Court of Cassation heard 40 cases. Of these cases, the original ruling had stood for exactly half. Such a hearing is not a retrial because the felon’s guilt has already been established. The average wait for a case to be heard is 118 days. Should the “Quashing Court” as the Court of Cassation is nicknamed confirm Barrie Taylor’s 20 years (the sentence cannot be increased because she has already been judged) she could always again take her case to the European Commission on Human Rights. Meanwhile, the French Parliament has agreed on another proposal from the Minister of Justice: For France’s prisons to be refitted. All will be. The cost is expected to be €400 million ($632 million: ₤320 million). However, the refit is only to commence in 2012. Taylor, with a little bit of luck, might then be back in the United States. As she has already spent over 6 years and 4 months – from October 1993 to May 1998 and from October 2007 to today – in prison in France, as well as 4 years – from November 2003 to October 2007 – in prison in the United States, a total of 10 years and 4 months, she could be paroled by 2012. She would however, as a convicted felon, be forbidden under a European Union law of ever setting foot again in France and any of the union’s other 26 countries which includes the United Kingdom. But she could return to live happily ever after in California. Roxanne Pavageau, on the other hand, will remain dead. 1 comment on "Murder in Versailles" oposum72 Apr 7, 2014 · Log in or register to post comments After reading the very well investigated, and extremely capturing report, MARYLYN Z.TOMLINS wrote back in 2009 about the murder in Verailles, I must add my thoughts and impressions on this article! Well,not only has Marilyn done an extraoridinary resarch on what went on at the time in France, but also, she had the talent to wrap the story up, in a text, that really gives suspense to the reader! Eventhough, the story is very tragic, reading all those well researched details made it of a comparable suspense-level of good old Agatha Christie stories...only that this one is based on true facts...I also like, the fact, that Miss Tomlins teaches the reader between the lines,about typical French differences tfrom the U.S .law, such as, the accused person can interfare anytime, to be heard at a trial, ..or that French houses,almost all (built after 1902) have a cellar...and very true again: With the purpose of keeping good wine at a perfect tempersture!) It is also true, that the French still call a mistress, either "concubine", or "maitresse"...I have hardly ever read such a well researched article, and I'd like to "féliciter" Miss M. Tomlins for her profound, 100% authentic research!! Bravo! Amicalement! Caroline	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2150
__label__cc	0.670464	0.329536	Rules of Civility On the last night of twenty five year old Katey Kontent is in a second rate Greenwich Village jazz bar with her boardinghouse roommate stretching three dollars as far as it will go when Tinker G Title: Rules of Civility Author: Amor Towles On the last night of 1937, twenty five year old Katey Kontent is in a second rate Greenwich Village jazz bar with her boardinghouse roommate stretching three dollars as far as it will go when Tinker Grey, a handsome banker with royal blue eyes and a tempered smile, happens to sit at the neighboring table This chance encounter and its startling consequences propel Katey onOn the last night of 1937, twenty five year old Katey Kontent is in a second rate Greenwich Village jazz bar with her boardinghouse roommate stretching three dollars as far as it will go when Tinker Grey, a handsome banker with royal blue eyes and a tempered smile, happens to sit at the neighboring table This chance encounter and its startling consequences propel Katey on a yearlong journey from a Wall Street secretarial pool toward the upper echelons of New York society and the executive suites of Cond Nast rarefied environs where she will have little to rely upon other than a bracing wit and her own brand of cool nerve Wooed in turn by a shy, principled multi millionaire and an irrepressible Upper East Side ne er do well, befriended by a single minded widow who is a ahead of her time,and challenged by an imperious mentor, Katey experiences firsthand the poise secured by wealth and station and the failed aspirations that reside just below the surface Even as she waits for circumstances to bring Tinker back into her life, she begins to realize how our most promising choices inevitably lay the groundwork for our regrets. [PDF] Download î Rules of Civility \| by ✓ Amor Towles Amor Towles 419 Amor Towles Title: [PDF] Download î Rules of Civility \| by ✓ Amor Towles Posted by:Amor Towles 1 Blog on “Rules of Civility” Jeffrey Keeten says: ”She was indisputably a natural blonde. Her shoulder-length hair, which was sandy in summer, turned golden in the fall as if in sympathy with the wheat fields back home. She had fine features and blue eyes and pinpoint dimples so perfectly defined that it seemed like there must be a small steel cable fastened to the center of each inner cheek which grew taut when she smiled. True, she was only five foot five, but she knew how to dance in two-inch heels--and she knew how to kick them off as soo [...] The prologue to this novel takes place at an exhibition of photographs by Walker Evans in 1966. The author tells us that Evans had waited 25 years to show these photos to the public due to a concern for the subjects' privacy. The photos are taken with a hidden camera in the NYC subway car and "captured a certain naked humanity." Kate sees an old friend, Tinker Grey in two of these pictures. In one he's clean shaven, wearing a custom shirt and a cashmere coat. In a photo dated one year later he l [...] Elyse says: $1.99 Kindle Download special today! -- GREAT DEAL!!! (I spent more!) FANTASTIC.FABULOUS!!!!!! I LOVED THIS NOVEL TREMENDOUSLY!!!!This review is filled 'mostly' with quotes --as these are quotes I want to remembert without the context of the story itself there are NO SPOILERS. Special thanks Sara. We are buddy-reading this together having our own private book club discussionds much richness to a novel like this one. Whatever setbacks Katey's father faced in life, he said, "however daunting or d [...] Jeanette"Astute Crabbist" says: This is just delightful fun. It's a love letter, a limerick, a lollipop, a literary longing. Grab your shaker of martinis and your cocktail onions and take a ride with Katey Kontent through the streets of 1938 Manhattan. She's just a working girl trying to make it on her own, but with the right (or wrong?) friends, she manages to borrow a little glamourd a helping or two of trouble besides. The book is not without its flaws. I was only going to rate it four stars. After I read the epilogue and t [...] switterbug (Betsey) says: If a novel could win an award for best cinematography, this would take home the gold. Amor Towles's sophisticated retro-era novel of manners captures Manhattan 1938 with immaculate lucidity and a silvery focus on the gin and the jazz, the nightclubs and the streets, the pursuit of sensuality, and the arc of the self-made woman.The novel's preface opens in 1966, with a happily married couple attending a Walker Evans photography exhibition. An unlikely chance encounter stuns the woman, Katey--a pi [...] Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship says: Blargh, I'd been having such good luck with Choice finalists.I really should have put it down after page two, when the female, working-class narrator describes her roommate as follows:"Eve was one of those surprising beauties from the American Midwest.In New York it becomes so easy to assume that the city's most alluring women have flown in from Paris or Milan. But they're just a minority. A much larger covey hails from the stalwart states that begin with the letter I--like Iowa or Indiana or I [...] Dolors says: “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”The road not taken by Robert Frost.Katey Kontent stands on her balcony overlooking Central Park in 1966 and reflects on the journey of her life and the road she chose to walk more than twenty years ago. Vulnerable and voluptuous like Billie Holiday’s voice in “Autumn in New York”, Katey remembers the one and only genuine love of her life, the irresistible banker Tinker Grey. [...] This book was strange for me, at points, it was a 5, at other points a 1. There were passages (usually not parts of the narrative, but Katy's aphorisms - presumably the product of her middle-aged mind looking back) that moved me nearly to tears. These little nuggets are Katy's own "Rules of Civility" and they made the book worth reading. (E.g "Right choices are the means by which life crystallizes loss.").But those little tidbits are not the bulk of this quite plotty pacey novel, which is a fair [...] This is the rare example of a book that makes you appreciate the art of writing. It is indeed remarkable that this first time author has created a debut novel that succeeds in every way. Mr. Towles has crafted a true masterpiece. This stylish, elegant and deliberately anachronistic debut novel transports readers back to Manhattan in 1938, where authentic, human characters inhabit a playground that comes alive with the manners of a society on the verge of radical upheaval.This book is art deco, j [...] Thank you, Amor Towles, for writing such a lovely and sophisticated novel. Your book was a soothing tonic for this bruised and battered reader.Rules of Civility is the story of Katey Kontent in New York City. The novel opens at an art gallery in 1966, and then flashes back to 1937 after Katey sees a photo of her former lover, Tinker Grey. She thinks back to her single days and to the night she first met Tinker in '37. She remembers how getting to know him inadvertently set her on a path that cha [...] Immigrants or Trust Funds?“Rules of Civility” is a love story for a city. Specifically New York City during the last few years of the 1930’s. That’s not to say that Towles's characters aren’t fully realized. They are. In fact the dialog is outstanding. When a character opens their mouth you know immediately if they haunt the docks or Park Avenue. At one point the three principle protagonists are out larking and sneak into a Marx Brothers movie. Think of how exaggerated the accents and [...] I waffled between a one or two star rating, but I'm not feeling particularly generous today, so one star it is.Basically: upper-class middle-aged man tries to write as/about working-class young woman. And fails. I think I enjoyed about the first twenty pages of this one, and the rest just fell utterly flat. First of all, the main character (with the terrible name of Katey Kontent) was completely unconvincing and not at all compelling. It's rare that men can write convincingly in a female voice, [...] Margitte says: I don't want to say a lot about this book. I'm a bit tired this morning. Wanted to finish this book and denied myself a few hours of sleep.This is the story of Kate, Eve and Tinker in the New York of 1938, where it was possible to climb the social ladder with a few rules from the father of the American republic's, George Washington's Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior; a few well-positioned social connections; and and a whiff of intelligence. Everybody had a chance if you knew the rules. In 1 [...] New Year’s Eve 1937, Katey Kontent and Evelyn Ross meet handsome, well-heeled Tinker Grey at a bar and they see in 1938 together. They make resolutions for one anotherd one of those resolutions is to get “out of your ruts.” Well, this chance meeting shakes up all their lives and not a rut is left when 1938 whistles itself into history. With New York City as a delicious backdrop, Katey navigates both the heights of society and the working class world, and along the way she learns a lot abou [...] PorshaJo says: Rating 3.5There is a movie by Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris (awesome movie), that many say 'its a love letter to Paris'. A love letter to a particular time in history, the roaring 20s, where many literary and artistic people socialized. The Rules of Civility, I felt, was Towles love affair. His love affair with New York city, his love affair with the late 30s, and his love of literature.The story follows Katey Kontent (really?) who is twenty five, living in New York's Greenwich Village, moving [...] I enjoy character-driven novels. This one is made perfect by focusing on a specific time and place: 1938 in NYC. It's a year between the Great Depression and the beginning of WWII. Even the poised, reflective characters are carefree enough to hang out and drink, listen to jazz and have madcap adventures. Fun to eavesdrop on all that. There's a wonderful device used to demonstrate one person's character. At the beginning of the book, our narrator finds Tinker Grey's picture twice in a photographe [...] "If we only fell in love with people who were perfect for us, then there wouldn’t be so much fuss about love in the first place."I first came across this author when I read A Gentleman in Moscow, which I absolutely adored. Reading this was my chance to see if he was a one trick pony. Let me tell you- he is not!Amor Towles writes beautifully and evocatively of the late 1930s in New York. The book is an exploration of love, of choices made, of life fulfilled, of connections made and disguarded a [...] Chrissie says: In summary, I loved listening to this audiobook. Why? First of all, this book is a must for anyone who loves NYC. Secondly, almost every line refers to places and books and artists. There is a wonderful message. The author is a master of metaphor. Most every sentence implies more than the bare words. One example: Katey pronounces her surname Kon-TENT. Don't you see the difference between that and KON-tent? Think about it. The plot throws you a looper. The characters become real people .In the be [...] Sometimes you’re fortunate enough to read a book that can make you gasp, make you laugh, and bring a poignant tear to your eye, all at the same time… your throat literally swells with it. If you have read such a book then I’m sure you know what I mean. Rules of Civility was not just a book to me, but an experience which embodied all those feelings. If you’re wondering, Rules is written with the charm and imagination equal to that of A Gentleman in Moscow, but they are very different stor [...] Florence (Lefty) MacIntosh says: Entertaining - light but not fluffy - what it does best is capture the high drama of being a New Yorker during the late 30’s. A city where the upper class live large and lavish, hang out in jazz bars, frequent hotels like The Plaza & Essex House and generally fritter their lives away drinking & smoking up a storm. Katey Kontent, a social climber extraordinaire and her flaky friend Eve hobnob with rich elitists with names like (seriously) Tinker, Dicky & Bitsy… Throw in a bitter s [...] So much has been said about this book here and elsewhere that I'm not sure what else to add. I did love this book for many reasons: The sense of time and place, the wonderful use of language (love the use of metaphor), sparkling dialog and internal narration, and wonderful descriptions of New York City itself that raise its presence to another character.We have all lived through our twenties (or most of us through most of that decade). So much happens, so many decisions are made that impact our [...] It's really hard to put my finger on what made me like Rules of Civility so much. I'm partial to debut novels and their authors so when 4 to 5 star reviews started pouring in on GoodReads for this book, I quickly added it to my list. The setting of New York, the city would not normally make me clamor to read this book, but the 1938 New York that Rules of Civility depicts captured me right away. I can only believe this is due to Amor Towles ability as a writer. The story seems fairly simple. Two [...] BrokenTune says: —Oh stop, Eve said. It’s dreadful. What is it?—Virginia Woolf.—Ugh. Tinker brought home all these novels by women as if that’s what I needed to get me back on my feet. He’s surrounded my bed with them. It’s as if he’s planning to brick me in. Isn’t there anything else? Rules of Civility left me cold. I did not hate it, I did not like, I certainly did not love it as much as other people, including a lot of readers whose reviews I value, loved this book.I don't even know whether [...] Amor Towles has his own style of writing. He is like yoga for the brain. I will first say, it's amazing to me how Amor Towles can write from a women's perspective. I would think most men would find that painful. I'm just kidding. Rules of Civility is about two roommate's that meet a wealthy man on New Years night and how it changes the course of their lives. For a period of time.It was told from Katey's point of view and all of the characters were ones that grew, and you were able to connect wit [...] Rereading this wonderful book, just for fun and joy! Better the second time around. Just like watching a movie the second time, you get to see all those little details you missed the first time, and just wonder, how you didn't catch that! Read it again! Algernon says: What were you afraid of as a kid? What did you always want that your parents never gave you? If you could be anyone for a day, who would you be? If you could relive one year in your life, which one would you be? Strangers in the night, two girls and a young man, meet and try to discover each other through a little game of 'what if ' Sounds like my GR friend Dan and his Ongoing Security Question Quiz, or like that running gag inThe Way We Werewhen Robert Redford picks up the best of everything he [...] Update 4/23/2017I need to clarify a comment I made regarding the prison population in my community. Since they are people and they are part of the population and the facility is within our city limits, for census purposes they are counted as part of our population. After all, they do reside within our city limits. However, very few, if any, lived in the community or the surrounding area prior to their arrest and conviction. I assume that the prison population wherever it might be located is incl [...] Diane S ☔ says: 4 1/2 if I could. What a wonderful book, tones of Fitzgerald but so much better. The words are beautiful, the writing fantastic. Three people, Evie, Katy and Tinker have an profound influence on each other, their relationships and many many secrets. First book so I just have to wait patiently for his next. Such a great feel for the Jazz Age. Alena says: I cannot possibly write a review that reflects the intelligence and sophistication of this book. Integrating art, photography and literature into his portrait of 1938 New York, Amor Towles also tells a great story about the choices made by one young woman -- Kate/Katey/Katherine Kontent, and her friends.Kate is smart, funny, unpredictable and determined, all qualities that make a fine heroine. But she's also imperfect, which makes her infinitely more interesting. Likewise the characters that int [...] Hard for me to get too excited about this nostalgic tale. It is great on tone and atmosphere in the life it portrays for Manhattan social climbers in 1938. The story told by Katie in retrospect from middle-age strives strives to be wise about life’s choices and the power of friendship to guide such choices with true integrity. But the paradoxes of Katie’s character makes it hard for me to buy-in well on her plausibility.In her early 20’s, Katie moves from Brighton Beach to Manhattan, takes [...] Save Me, I'm Yours: Saving Our Children from Ritua... Photography & Zen Una Vida Cristiana Sin Nuestro Padre Dios Jack of Harts Adult Analysis and Childhood Sexual Abuse The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child: Volume 46 The Social Dimension: Employment Policy in the Eur... How philosophy shapes theology;: Problems in the p... O Outro e Quinceañera رنسانس ایتالیا Beach Bar Baby (رسائل الحكمة (الدروز فایده‌گرایی The Wrong House Demotion Programmed To Protect Casey, the Utterly Impossible Horse Io non sono ipocondriaca Overnight Flight Diving for Sunken Treasure (The Underseas Discover...	cc/2019-30/en_head_0009.json.gz/line2153

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