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__label__wiki	0.65882	0.65882	Kevin Smith Donating His Weinstein Film Residuals to Women’s Charity By James Sainte-Claire October 19, 2017 Instagram / Kevin Smith Kevin Smith seems like a pretty cool guy. I don’t know him, but I was obsessed with his movies when I was in high school. To a guy who is a pop culture junkie, a romantic and an extroverted outsider, they were really relatable films. They were also, in large part, produced or distributed by Miramax, the studio run at the time by disgraced executive and sexual predator Harvey Weinstein and his brother Bob, who is probably fine. Well, Kevin Smith, in keeping with his “pretty cool guy” image, seems really personally hurt that he profited because of Weinstein while Harvey was at peak “harassing and possibly raping actresses and also jerking off into the ficus.” So he’s going to do something, and that something is donating his residuals from the films Harvey Weinstein produced or distributed, according to Vulture. Well, apparently he said it on one of his podcasts, but I’m not a big enough fan to sit through the ten or fifteen hours of podcasts he does every week. I could barely even care about my podcast when I did one. “My entire career is tied up with the man,” Smith said of Weinstein on his podcast Hollywood Babble-On. “I just wanted to make some fucking movies, that’s it … And no fucking movie is worth all this. Like, my entire career, f**k it, take it. It’s wrapped up in something really fucking horrible.” Smith is really hard on himself, and he probably doesn’t deserve it. For starters, all the money he made for the Weinsteins was probably wiped out by Jersey Girl anyway. And, as Smith said, he didn’t know what Weinstein was up to. “I know it’s not my fault, but I didn’t fucking help,” Smith told his podcast audience. “Because I sat out there talking about this man like he was a hero, like he was my friend.” He added, “I didn’t know the man that they keep talking about in the press. Clearly he exists, but that man never showed himself to me.” The charity Smith is going to support with his residuals is Women in Film, a non-profit that promotes gender parity in film and filmmaking. Since Chasing Amy and Clerks were both distributed by Miramax and that Mallrats sequel isn’t happening, Smith is basically going to have to scrape by on residuals from Yoga Hosers, so let’s applaud him for his sacrifice. #harvey weinstein #kevin smith Kevin Smith Sheds Some Light On How Joss Whedon is a Dick We Now Know Why Harvey Weinstein’s Penis is So Deformed Harvey Weinstein Accused of Even More Rapes, Raising Questions of When He Had Time to Make Movies	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line834
__label__wiki	0.829393	0.829393	9Aug By thecanadianNo Comments Coronavirus, World News US Tops 5 Million Confirmed Virus Cases, To Europe’s Alarm ROME (AP) — With confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. hitting 5 million Sunday, by far the highest of any country, the failure of the most powerful nation in the world to contain the scourge has been met with astonishment and alarm in Europe. Perhaps nowhere outside the U.S. is America’s bungled virus response viewed with more consternation than in Italy, which was ground zero of Europe’s epidemic. Italians were unprepared when the outbreak exploded in February, and the country still has one of the world’s highest official death tolls at over 35,000. But after a strict nationwide, 10-week lockdown, vigilant tracing of new clusters and general acceptance of mask mandates and social distancing, Italy has become a model of virus containment. “Don’t they care about t... Coronavirus, National News, World News US Tops 5 Million Confirmed Coronavirus Cases, To Europe’s Alarm ROME (AP) — With confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. hitting 5 million Sunday, by far the highest of any country, the failure of the most powerful nation in the world to contain the scourge has been met with astonishment and alarm in Europe. Perhaps nowhere outside the U.S. is America’s bungled virus response viewed with more consternation than in Italy, which was ground zero of Europe’s epidemic. Italians were unprepared when the outbreak exploded in February, and the country still has one of the world’s highest official death tolls at 35,000. But after a strict nationwide, 10-week lockdown, vigilant tracing of new clusters and general acceptance of mask mandates and social distancing, Italy has become a model of virus containment. “Don’t they care about their ... Tear Gas, Clashes In Beirut Amid Fury Over Massive Blast BEIRUT (AP) — Security forces fired tear gas and clashed with stone-throwing demonstrators Saturday in Beirut, and a group of protesters stormed the foreign ministry amid mounting fury over this week’s explosion that devastated much of the city and killed nearly 160 people. Dozens were still missing and nearly 6,000 people injured. Activists who called for the protest set up symbolic nooses at Beirut’s Martyrs’ Square to hang politicians whose corruption and negligence they blame for Tuesday’s blast. The explosion was fueled by thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate that had been improperly stored at the city’s port for more than six years. Apparently set off by a fire, the blast was by far the biggest in Lebanon’s troubled history and caused an estimated $10 billion... National News, Politics, Technology, World News Trump Issues Order Banning TikTok In 45 Days – Unless It’s Sold President Donald Trump on Thursday issued executive orders that would ban the social media app TikTok and WeChat from operating in the US in 45 days if they are not sold by their Chinese-owned parent companies. The orders, which use similar language, do not state that a certain amount of money from the sale needs to be sent to the US Treasury Department, which the President has been insisting on for several days. The order regarding TikTok prohibits after 45 days “any transaction by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, with ByteDance Ltd.,” the Chinese company that owns the social media platform. The move turns up the pressure on negotiations over the popular video app’s future through a potential sale. The d... US Aid Begins Flowing To Lebanon In Wake Of Deadly Explosion WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States on Thursday began delivering aid to Lebanon in the aftermath of a massive deadly explosion, amid longstanding concerns about how officials can ensure that supplies get to those in need, and not to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah. The first C-17 transport aircraft with 11 pallets of food, water and medical supplies from the U.S. military’s Central Command arrived from Qatar and two more were expected in the next 24 hours. U.S. officials said the administration also plans to provide at least $15 million in disaster assistance. The officials were not authorized to discuss the matter ahead of a formal announcement and spoke on condition of anonymity. But the provision of assistance is complicated by the outsized role that Hezbollah plays... National News, World News Video Shows Beirut Explosion Interrupt Bride’s Wedding Day The happy couple was supposed to be celebrating their marriage. Dr. Israa Seblani and Ahmad Sbeih were on the streets of Beirut on Tuesday, with Seblani posing for photos in a dramatic, white wedding gown. It was a day like any other in the city’s Saifi Village, she said, with people out and about shopping and dining in restaurants. Then all of a sudden, there was a loud noise. Seconds later, an eardrum-shattering blast erupted behind her. That horrifying sound was the massive explosion rocked the Lebanese capital, leaving at least at least 135 dead and 5,000 injured. Mahmoud Nakib, the couple’s wedding photographer, captured the moment it all went down. “We were filming an outdoor photo session for the (Seblani) and (Sbeih), then we heard an explosion,” Nakib told ... Local News, World News Local Family’s Home Damaged In Massive Beirut Explosion BEIRUT, LEBANON - AUGUST 05: An aerial view of ruined structures at the port, damaged by an explosion a day earlier, on August 5, 2020 in Beirut, Lebanon. As of Wednesday, more than 100 people were confirmed dead, with thousands injured, when an explosion rocked the Lebanese capital. Officials said a waterfront warehouse storing explosive materials, reportedly 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate, was the cause of the blast. (Photo by Haytham El Achkar/Getty Images) SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – A Utah family’s home was damaged in the explosion that killed at least 135 people and injured thousands more in Beirut, Lebanon. “It’s a lovely part of the world,” said Salah Lababid... Survivors Mark 75th Anniversary Of World’s 1st Atomic Attack HIROSHIMA, Japan (AP) — The dwindling witnesses to the world’s first atomic bombing marked its 75th anniversary Thursday, with Hiroshima’s mayor and others noting as hypocritical the Japanese government’s refusal to sign a nuclear weapons ban treaty. Mayor Kazumi Matsui urged world leaders to more seriously commit to nuclear disarmament, pointing out Japan’s failures. “I ask the Japanese government to heed the appeal of the (bombing survivors) to sign, ratify and become a party to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons,” Matsui said in his peace declaration. “As the only nation to suffer a nuclear attack, Japan must persuade the global public to unite with the spirit of Hiroshima.” His speech highlights what survivors feel is the hypocrisy of Japan’s gover... Negligence Probed In Deadly Beirut Blast Amid Public Anger BEIRUT (AP) — Investigators probing the deadly blast that ripped across Beirut focused Wednesday on possible negligence in the storage of tons of a highly explosive fertilizer in a waterfront warehouse, while the government ordered the house arrest of several port officials. International aid flights began to arrive as Lebanon’s leaders struggled to deal with the widespread damage and shocking aftermath of Tuesday’s blast, which the Health Ministry said killed 135 people and injured about 5,000 others. Public anger mounted against the ruling elite that is being blamed for the chronic mismanagement and carelessness that led to the disaster. The Port of Beirut and customs office is notorious for being one of the most corrupt and lucrative institutions in Lebanon where... Ammonium Nitrate May Have Sparked Beirut Explosion. It Also Happened In Texas In 1947 Lebanon’s government has blamed a large quantity of poorly stored ammonium nitrate for the huge blast that rocked its capital, Beirut, killing scores of people and devastating swathes of the city. What is this chemical, and why did it explode? Ammonium nitrate is an industrial chemical commonly used around the world as an agricultural fertilizer, and in explosives for mining. It has also been used as a key component in improvised explosives, notably in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, in the 2002 bombings in Bali, Indonesia, and by far-right Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik in his 2011 shooting and bombing attack. In this case, according to Lebanese officials, about 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate had been stockpiled at a Beirut port warehouse, just a... What We Know About The Beirut Blast A massive explosion rocked the Lebanese capital of Beirut on Tuesday evening, leaving dozens dead and thousands injured. The blast has been linked to a large supply of confiscated and potentially unsecured explosive material, stored in a warehouse at the city’s port, close to populated areas. As world leaders and international organizations step in to offer assistance, local officials are also launching an investigation into the blast.Authorities were scrambling Wednesday to treat the wounded, search for survivors, and assess the full extent of the damage. Here’s what we know so far. The basics: What, where, when The explosion took place at 6:07 p.m. local time near Beirut’s port and central district, close to many highly-populated areas and tourist sites. Nearby ... President Trump: Massive Explosion In Beirut Was Likely An ‘Attack’ WASHINGTON, DC - AUGUST 03: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the James Brady Press Briefing¬†Room of the White House on August 3, 2020 in Washington, DC. With enhanced federal unemployment benefits now expired, Trump administration officials and Democratic Congressional leaders continue to negotiate on an extension of the unemployment benefits and an additional coronavirus economic stabilization and relief package.¬† (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said U.S. military generals have told him that they think the massive explosion that rocked Beirut on Tuesday, killing more than 70 people, w...	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line835
__label__wiki	0.947651	0.947651	Donald Trump commutes prison sentence of ally Roger Stone – SBS News The White House has confirmed the commuted sentence, saying Roger Stone is a victim of the Russia “hoax”. US President Donald Trump has called Roger Stone to inform his longtime political confidant that he would commute his sentence for crimes related to the Russia investigation, Stone told The Associated Press, just days before he was set to report to prison. The White House later confirmed the commuting of the sentence in a statement, saying Stone was a victim of the Russia “hoax.” The move, though short of a full pardon, is sure to alarm critics who have long railed against the president’s repeated interventions in the nation’s justice system. “The president told me he thought my trial has been unfair,” Stone told the AP in a phone call from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Stone said he expressed his gratitude and was popping champagne. Stone had been sentenced in February to three years and four months in prison for lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstructing the House investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election. He was set to report to prison by Tuesday. A commutation would not erase Stone’s felony convictions in the same way a pardon would, but it would protect him from serving prison time as a result. The action, which Trump had foreshadowed in recent days, reflects his lingering rage over the Russia investigation and is a testament to his conviction that he and his associates were mistreated by agents and prosecutors. His administration has been eager to rewrite the narrative of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, with Trump’s own Justice Department moving in May to dismiss the criminal case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Stone, for his part, had been open about his desire for a pardon or commutation, appealing for the president’s help in a series of Instagram posts in which he maintained that his life could be in jeopardy if imprisoned during a pandemic. He had recently sought to postpone his surrender date by months after getting a brief extension from the judge. Mr Trump had repeatedly publicly inserted himself into Stone’s case, including just before Stone’s sentencing, when he suggested in a tweet that Stone was being subjected to a different standard than several prominent Democrats. He railed that the conviction “should be thrown out” and called the Justice Department’s initial sentencing recommendation “horrible and very unfair.” “Cannot allow this miscarriage of justice!” he wrote. Stone, a larger-than-life political character who embraced his reputation as a dirty trickster, was the sixth Trump aide or adviser to have been convicted of charges brought as part of Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. A longtime Trump friend and informal adviser, Stone had boasted during the campaign that he was in contact with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange through a trusted intermediary and hinted at inside knowledge of WikiLeaks’ plans to release more than 19,000 emails hacked from the servers of the Democratic National Committee. But Stone denied any wrongdoing and consistently criticised the case against him as politically motivated. He did not take the stand during his trial, did not speak at his sentencing, and his lawyers did not call any witnesses in his defence. Trump also targeted those involved in the case. He retweeted a comment by Fox News commentator Andrew Napolitano that the jury appeared to have been biased against Trump, and called out Judge Amy Berman Jackson by name, saying “almost any judge in the country” would throw out the conviction. The tweets continued even after Trump earned a public rebuke from his own attorney general, William Barr, who said the president’s comments were “making it impossible” for him to do his job. Barr was so incensed that he told people he was considering resigning over the matter. Related Topics:AustraliaFeaturedSBS News	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line836
__label__wiki	0.701473	0.701473	Exclusive: Beverly Hills 90210 Producer Talks College Years, Slams New 90210 When I first contacted Beverly Hills 90210 writer-producer Larry Mollin, he immediately told me had nothing to do with the new 90210, saying in part, “it is diluting the legacy” of the original and pointing out “they are making decisions with characters that they hardly understand.” As loyal TDW readers might expect, that was music to my ears. And, thankfully, Mollin was happy to chat about his tenure with the original show, which included a whopping 128 episodes from 1993 to 1997, also known as seasons 4 through 7–“the college years.” If my interview with Charles Rosin, where we discussed “the early years,” was chapter one, consider this the next installment in the iconic show’s storied history. TeenDramaWhore: How did you first get involved with the show? Were you familiar with it previously? Larry Mollin: I had one teenage son and one moving on, so I knew they watched it. The season before that I had done the first season of Renegade and then I moved off. I was looking for a job and I had written a spec screenplay called Borderline Normal, which got made into a movie. A small movie, but it was quite good. It played on Lifetime. It was about children of divorce, about young people in crisis. I guess my agent must’ve got the script to Charles Rosin [Ed. Note: henceforth to be called Chuck] and all of a sudden I had an interview at 90210. Before that, I had done mostly drama, action drama. I had also done comedy, too. My background was theater. I had been a playwright and a theater director for years in Canada. I came here in ‘78. But I had mostly done CHiPs, Knight Rider–mostly action stuff–and did lots of pilots. I was a studio writer for years for different pilots. So then Chuck met me and really liked the script. He was looking for something different, because the show was going to college. It was going to start the year after the high school graduation. We hit it off and I had a deal there. And really quickly I became the main writer for the next 128 episodes. I was kind of the go-to guy. I wound up executive producing the show [my] last year and producing it when Chuck left after season 5. I pretty much ran it even though I didn’t have the title. Darren [Star] created it but he really wasn’t there to make it the hit. He left pretty quickly. Chuck Rosin was the guy who really gave his heart and soul to it the first couple of years and really, you know, put it on the map and it really reflected Chuck’s sensibility. And then the Wassermans, Steve and Jessica Wasserman [Ed. Note: also known as Jessica Klein] were his key. And then they had their own internal problems. They were a divorcing writing couple, which is not very productive, as you can imagine. So that was a disaster and then I came in in the midst of that so I became the go-to guy in season 4 and wrote with Chuck and wrote with the other influencer there, even though he didn’t have a big position, Chip Johannessen, who is now the executive on Dexter. Kind of a quirky guy. Chip and I wrote a lot of stuff together. So between Chip, Chuck and I, in season 4 and 5, we pretty much wrote everything. The Wassermans certainly brought a lot of heart to it and when they were together they had a wonderful sensibility but, unfortunately, I guess it’s hard to sit in a room when you hate each other. So that didn’t quite work out. They stayed on for a couple of years but you had to work around them. It wasn’t a good situation. Steve’s gone now, but Jessica’s around. She’s a good lady and tried to make it work but it didn’t quite happen. So that’s how I got on the show and on the show then we were basically trying to take this teen show and make it more, make it a bigger demographic. In those years, we turned it into the bigger hit that it was. Bigger demographic, more sophisticated. I come from a rock and roll background so I brought a lot more of a hipper thing, which kind of meshed with Chip. So we were able to put more of an edge than what had been happening. It became a hipper show, I think. Then we added The Peach Pit After Dark a little bit after that, maybe it was season 5. I can’t remember when we brought that in but it was different. But I created that whole college stuff. I created the KEG House. I remember that was a great day. Thinking, “Kappa Epsilon Gamma. KEG. Oh my god!” I was so thrilled to find something in an acronym that meant something that wasn’t a real fraternity. I couldn’t obviously use any Greek letters that were actual fraternities so that was a total miracle. I was so thrilled about that. We just had a ball. We always felt the show needed to have a certain level of immaturity to it and hijinks. Steve Sanders [Ian Ziering]–we all were Steve Sanderses a bit growing up and could bring in that level of it. And then we believed in romance. We believed in telling stories slowly, not rushing. Kisses were important. The storytelling of what we did worked. Plus, we knew the audience was watching so we were very, very careful not to break our own stories. Occasionally we screwed up. But for the most part, we really cared about the show. And this was, for the most part, before the Internet had really taken off. There were just hints of it. It was a dial-up world then. You had a sense of what the people were thinking but it wasn’t like today where you could really know. But we were really aware of our audience and cared. We were all in. We were doing 32 hours a year. No one ever did that again. After I produced the 32 at the end of college [season 7], no one ever did it again. It gave Chuck a heart attack after he left [after season 5]. It was hard, but it was great. TDW: For someone in your position, when you’re coming into a show in its 4th season, how did you familiarize yourself with the characters and the past storylines? Mollin: Well, you gotta do your research. You need to go back. You need to watch everything and you need to read everything and you gotta pay attention to what everyone’s saying. But the characters were well-drawn. I was a little bit older than everyone else so I kind of knew my way around TV writing. I had been doing it for 15-20 years by that point. But you had to go back and go over it, familiarize yourself with everything. There weren’t that many episodes–only maybe about 60 or 70 episodes at that point–so I could go through them kind of quickly in a couple of weeks, just to make sure I understood everything and wasn’t going to repeat stuff. And I could ask questions. I always had researchers then. But I loved the characters. And, like I said, I had teenagers then so I kind of knew what worked for them and what I thought was strong. It just suited me. It just suited what I was doing. It kind of combined a lot of the comedy and the drama. I was able to bring in some action stuff, like I did the whole action thing with Dylan [Luke Perry] in Mexico [Episode 5.18, Hazardous To Your Health]. We got a chance to do some things that were different for 90210, had a bigger scope. Chip and I did the two-hour in Palm Springs, P.S. I Love You [Episodes 5.31-32], with the whole action plot with Dylan on the tram. That was phenomenal what we pulled off. We had big production. And all the time we were doing that stuff, we were doing two shows at once. Another big show we did, we did the Rolling Stones at the Rose Bowl [Episode 5.12, Rock of Ages]. I’m in that show; I played the roadie, ‘cause I was a roadie so it was kind of funny. I just wanted to go back to my roots a bit. I was a roadie for Blood, Sweat and Tears. So we did that episode and the same day that we were filming it, we were doing the fire episode [Episode 5.13, Up in Flames] with the lesbian and Kelly [Jennie Garth] in the bathroom. That’s how ballsy we were, production-wise. We were so good at what we were doing, we were working so hard, we could do two shows at once. Those were really big episodes, good episodes, I think. I think the first two years of college were really sensational. We really stepped it out and expanded our thing. It was too bad that Shannen [Doherty, Brenda] left. It was unfortunate. But we found Tiffani [Amber Thiessen, Valerie], which worked well. TDW: That was actually my next question. You were there for some big casting changes. You had Shannen leave in season 4, Tiffani join in season 5, Gabrielle [Carteris, Andrea] leave later in season 5 and you had Luke leave in season 6. What do you remember about those times and having to adapt the show? Mollin: Oh, it was sad. The Shannen one, we wanted her to work. I mean, the writers loved Shannen. She’s a child of this business. You give her a script and she’ll just read it exactly like you wrote it. Never change a word, never ask a question. She had a photographic memory. She could be doing anything she wanted the night before and just come in and nail it–and the other kids hated that. She’s tough on the set. She’s just a child of the industry. It’s not really who she is. She’s just whoever she plays, in a lot of ways. She’s just a kind of unusual, very talented professional but hard to get along with. She just kind of pissed everyone off eventually and she pissed off the most important person, which was, you know, Tori [Spelling, Donna]. And not only that, she introduced Tori to a man who beat her. So that pretty much put the death card on her. So that was pretty much that. I think they were willing to go with her but, basically, what happened was, in the middle of a show, she cut her hair and totally screwed us up for continuity so everyone was pissed off at her. Like I said, not the writers so much, but the producer people. And the other kids were out to get her head, because she had pissed everybody off, and they basically went to the old man [Aaron Spelling] and said she had to go. He was happy to let her go because, like I said, she had introduced Tori to the guy who beat her. I’m not going to mention his name. So that was just the way business was done there. The old man was never the bad guy. He would let everyone else be the bad guy and then he’d get rid of her and then bring her back again [in Charmed]. But it was unfortunate she left, because we had all intention of keeping her there. And I always feel bad, because it was my idea to send her to England to get acting lessons [Episode 5.31-2, Mr. Walsh Goes To Washington], which kind of became a bad joke because she was a good actress. I never thought she was a bad actress. That whole storyline came out of something that I really loved. I loved Tennessee Williams and we went to the estate and got the whole Cat on a Hot Tin Roof thing [Episodes 4.27-30]. We had the Laura Kingman suicide [Episode 4.29, Truth and Consequences]. It was kind of out there but it was good, it was fun. It was well-done and Shannen was good in it. But it was a way to get rid of her. But we, obviously, always kept her alive in season 5, 6 [by mentioning her]. We always meant to keep her and, of course, that’s the big relationship. Our largest triangle–her, Dylan and Kelly–that’s the crown jewels, as far as we were concerned. We would never do anything to harm that so we always just kept it going. And that’s what’s so harmful to me. All these careful things we did, these new people [on the new 90210] are just indiscriminate. Whatever they can get the jolt with, they do. There’s no thinking. TDW: We’ll get to that later on, for sure. Mollin: So she left and Tiffani came in. We obviously had an exhaustive search to replace her. We looked at many people. We liked Tiffani and we thought, “Oh, this is cute. I think she’s Brian’s girlfriend. He’ll love this!” When we cast her, Brian [Austin Green, David] was so upset! Oh my god, he felt betrayed! We were totally shocked and had no idea. But, then, of course, we realized why: because other people would be kissing and feeling up his girlfriend! That’s what the guys do. That’s their free shot. Luke’s a wonderful man and Jason [Priestley, Brandon] is a wonderful man. But they are young guy actors on a show, which basically means they get to feel anybody up they want. And that’s just the way they are. I’ve got tons of outtakes of this stuff. That was just the fun of it. That’s just the way it was before sexual harassment became really a watch word in the industry. Young actresses just had to put up with that sht. I had seen that for years and years on shows. It was the way it went. Obviously if a girl didn’t like it, she could complain but most of them just put up with it and just expected it. The guys were just like that. But Tiffani came in and we just had fun with her character. Chuck and I created her character. I remember creating that one-hand pot-smoking/rolling thing [in Episode 5.01, What I Did On My Summer Vacation And Other Stories] and her character just took off. She was a total two-faced character and we really hadn’t had anyone like that on the show. We brought in the character and it totally helped lift the show up a bit for a while. Who was next? TDW: Gabrielle. She left later that season. Mollin: Well, Gabrielle, we asked her politely–she was the oldest–if she could just hold back. We didn’t want to do a baby. Did not want to. We certainly didn’t do the Hunter Tylo thing where [Melrose Place] asked her to get an abortion but, you know, we didn’t want to go down that road. But she got pregnant and was having the baby and there was nothing we could do. I actually used my whole personal story for it. Her premature baby and all that came out of my life. We gave it a good shot. I have to admit I was not in the room when Mark Damon Espinoza [Jesse] was cast. I was totally appalled that they cast this guy. He had ears as big as Botswana as far as I was concerned. I just could not believe it. I have no idea what happened in that room that day when they cast him. I just thought they totally blew it. To have a guy with a receding hairline– just everything I thought was wrong. And he was a nice man but it just was never going to happen. And rather than getting like an Esai Morales, someone who was really sexy and good–I just had no idea what he was thinking, the old man. He was always difficult with minority casting. He would always go ways we would never understand but we never wanted to get into it. So they cast him and they just didn’t really click. It didn’t really add to us. It took away a lot of the fun, to have to be in this grown-up stuff. We eventually just didn’t think it was going to work, and I don’t know who made the decision; I guess it was the old man. She was done. She was gone. We sent her off to Yale, as I remember [Episode 5.30, Hello Life, Goodbye Beverly Hills]. But she came back. She came back for Steve’s birthday party on the Queen Mary [Episode 6.31-2, You Say It’s Your Birthday]. I think we brought her back for that. I did that one with Steve Wasserman. That was a big show, too. That was a fun show. TDW: Yes. We also saw her again in seasons 8 and 10. Mollin: I never watched after season 7. What they did there was so appalling to me. Our thesis was always that we basically tried to write them as ordinary kids living extraordinary lives. But after I left, they were ordinary kids living ordinary lives! Like they couldn’t get jobs. What do you mean, they couldn’t get jobs? They went the wrong way. Brandon was supposed to have a great job! What the hell? They made them struggling. It was just wrong. Every choice they made was all wrong. They didn’t understand how to tell stories. Michael Braverman [the new writer-producer] was a disaster and Jason was supposed to take over and he didn’t take over. It lived on and it did its thing but it just became more of a Melrosian soap opera. They didn’t follow the thing that we had set up. These kids were supposed to be having great lives and that would’ve made the show fantastic. TDW: Well, let’s now go to Luke, because he left in season 6. Mollin: Luke, he was tired of it. All the kids hated the show by season 5, other than Tori. They all just hated it. Every day they would come in was just torture for them. We were making them do things, making them play these characters. Luke is a wonderful man and a good professional but he just wanted to go. We tried to really stack it up, and thank god we cast Rebecca Gayheart [Toni], who was just such a dear and so wonderful in that part. TDW: I have a question about that storyline. Chuck told me they had purposefully filmed Jack’s death in season 3 [Episode 3.21, Dead End] in such a way that it could turn out he was really alive. In season 10 we saw that happen [Episodes 10.18-20] but I’ve heard that it was supposed to happen in season 6 until Luke revealed he was leaving. So instead in season 6 we find out that there’s this guy Tony Marchette [Stanley Kamel] behind Jack’s death and Dylan sets off seeking vengeance. Mollin: I don’t remember the exact sequence of it. Josh Taylor [Jack] never came back when I was there but there was talk of that. Chuck had that FBI agent [Christine Pettit, played by Valerie Wildman] who he always liked. She was a friend of his and he liked to try and throw her work. So we always teased with that. We talked about that but we didn’t really know where to go with it at that point and Chuck was gone at that point. So once Luke was leaving, we wanted to have a big story and there’s nothing bigger than avenging the death of your father and we kind of went that way. That was a very good storyline in the sense that it was a good way to get to Dylan to leave [Episode 6.10, One Wedding And A Funeral]. It was really powerful. It was huge ratings for us. It might’ve been the biggest rating for a non-season finale show. It was big and we did it right. Everything went pretty well with that one. TDW: It was a phenomenal storyline and it still stands out today to fans as one of the saddest ones. Mollin: Yeah, it was great. The leading up to it was good. I was able to bring in a lot of my cop show background. We had a lot of tense stuff, stuff we had never done before so that was fun. And we had good actors. That gentleman who played Tony just died recently. TDW: Yes. He died in 2008. Mollin: He was excellent in that. But, yeah, that was fun. Luke left and we knew we were certainly going to miss him. We were floundering for guys after that a little bit and went through a bunch of different ones but I guess he came back [in Episode 9.08, You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello] and needed the money or whatever. He would’ve been too embarrassed to come back when I was there or any of the regular [writer-producers] from his time because we knew him so well and we’d know why he was coming back. He was just too proud a guy to come back when Chuck or me or the Wassermans were there. He wouldn’t have done it. TDW: What would you say were the biggest challenges you faced while doing the show? Mollin: The workload. Like I said, we were doing 32 hours a year when I was there so the biggest challenge is just trying to meet the audience’s expectations and beyond. To be true to the characters and just have each show have the template be satisfied. For us the template was–we used to kid about it. Let me see if I can remember it. It was emotion, passion, bonding, fun. If it had that, we felt pretty good about an episode. And then Chip and I added another 4, which was kind of the reverse. I have try to remember this now. Commotion, fashion, blonde-ing, sun. That was the reverse. It was a chance to really reflect on what was going on for us but be true to these characters. And we got a long game in them. We knew what our big rooting interests were, we knew who our big couples were and we were going to take our time to get to them. We obviously knew David and Donna were really, really important no matter who they were with at the time. It was always going to be when they would get back, because that’s what the audience wanted. The same thing with Dylan and Brenda or Dylan and Kelly or Brandon and Kelly. You had all that stuff there. We put people in between them and made you suffer and wait for them but we knew where our money was buttered on that stuff. It was just trying to get there and not jump the shark, not go for the cheap jolt. Don’t do anything indiscriminately because you have to deal with everything. There’s ramifications. You have to deal with the reality. We tried to keep emotional reality. That was really important to us. Whereas other shows like Melrose didn’t have emotional reality. We tried to keep that–and also keep time real. We stayed in the seasons. If you were watching the show in February, the show was about February. We were doing 32 but we tried to make that reality seem real and just have fun with it. TDW: Do you have favorite episodes or storylines that still stand out to you? Mollin: I have ones that didn’t work that I remember! TDW: That was going to be my next question! Mollin: I think Dylan losing his money [in season 4/5] was kind of a fun of storyline, Dylan getting fleeced. He had the half-sister [Erica, played then by Noley Thorton], and that whole thing, which ended up in Mexico, was pretty good. That storyline I really, really enjoyed that a lot. I enjoyed all the storylines that led to the Palm Springs thing, too [in the season 5 finale]. We had Kelly and the lesbian, Dylan and the stupid movie after rehab. And that episode ended with Brandon and Valerie [hooking up], which we knew was going to be a great season-ender. I think they were watching the Smurfs birthday party they had had as kids and I remember we had to get the rights to that. But that was a very cool episode. Chip left after that. TDW: So what do you look back on with regrets or what do you think you could’ve done better? Mollin: Interesting. Regrets would be Jamie [Ray] and having to fire him. TDW: That was going to be another question! Mollin: That was such a sad time. That came out of the season 5 finale, too [where Ray pushes Donna down the stairs.] We had this whole plan. He was going to go to rehab because he was an abused child. We were going to redeem him because we liked him. He was a wonderful kid. Jamie was a dear guy. We liked him. He was a great worker. But that episode happened and there was a lot of mail to the old man–“How can Donna be so stupid and be with this guy?”–so we came in to start the new season, which was right after since we only had like a week or two off because we were doing 32, and he goes “You have to get rid of him.” And we go, “What are you talking about?” He said, “You have to get rid of him. Everyone thinks Tori’s stupid.” There was no arguing with him. That was all he cared about. So we had to fire him. It was just devastating that I had to tell him that. We had just signed him for a million dollars, but he got to walk away with his money. But it was still devastating for him. We left him as being a beater, which stayed with him, unfortunately. People thought he was a beater. It was just terrible. I just always felt really bad about that. It just didn’t work out well. [Ed. Note: Walters was written out in 6.13 but had brief returns in 6.30 and 7.10] TDW: Do any other regrets stand out? Mollin: D’Shawn Hardell, who was played by Cress Williams. We loved having him there. We wrote an episode called Blind Spot [Episode 4.26] and the secondary plot has Tori in a little relationship with Cress Williams. I think they might even kiss. TDW: Donna was trying to make David jealous. Mollin: Yeah. Well, that was it for him. The old man brought us upstairs and said, “No, we have to get rid of him.” [Ed. Note: Williams does appear in 4 more episodes, 3 of which were in season 5.] Here’s another story about the old man: We had to create a new guy for Kelly and we hired a guy, paid him a bunch of money. His name was Dalton James. He played a character called Mark. He ran the TV station. TDW: Yep. It was season 7. Mollin: So we’re doing 32 episodes so we’re writing away and we have half the season written but we’ve only shot through episode 5. We get called in to the old man’s office. “We have a big problem.” I go, “What’s the problem?” Well, we knew that Jennie didn’t like him. So it’s me and Steve Wasserman, and he goes “I just found out that Dalton James is anti-Semitic.” We go, “What?! That fcking–” And he goes, “Well, we have to get rid of him.“ And we go, “Well, we’ve written another 10 episodes for him! We have this whole story!” And he goes, “Well, he’s anti-Semitic. I can’t have him here.” And we go, “You’re right!” and we get all pissed off and then we walk out to the elevator and Steve goes, “He’s a fcking liar.” He knew we were going to complain if it was just that Jennie wanted to get rid of him, so he made up a story that the guy was anti-Semitic so we’d be pissed off and write him out. And that’s the kind of guy he was. [Jennie] didn’t [complain regularly] and was a tireless and loyal cast member from the get-go to the end. So whatever she told him that set up him calling us upstairs into his office to kill off “Mark,” I have no idea. We were basically told no chemistry and he was an anti-Semite. The old man knew with the character suddenly gone we had a heap of rewriting to do in a very short time and figured we’d resist mightily. He took preemptive action, jacked us up so we swore we’d sent the sucker off to hell in a blink of an episode. I think in the elevator going down from the office we laughed, speculated that we’d been played but appreciated the old man’s artistry at it. With him, the ends justified the means and screw the actor’s or anyone else’s reputation. He played at the game hard. We had no evidence that Dalton James was anti-Semetic. Most likely wasn’t. TDW: The way Mark was written out–he and Brandon competed for the Dreyer fellowship and Kelly didn’t like his behavior and she said sayonara [Episode 7.14, Jobbed]. Mollin: “Next time your phone rings, bet someone it’s not me. You’ll be right every time.” TDW: Exactly. But really, you would’ve kept him? Mollin: Oh, yeah! We were going to keep him. Once that happened, we changed everything. But he was going to be one of our regular characters. We had hired him for 13 more but we got rid of him in the middle of the season. We planned to have him the whole year. We had written scripts for it so we had to go back and re-do everything to get rid of him. TDW: Well, getting rid of him paved the way for Brandon and Kelly’s reunion. Mollin: There was always that but we were going to have him in the middle of it and really save it for a little later. I just remember us going down there and being pissed off and going “We don’t care how long it takes to rewrite!” and then we realized he totally just lied about it. He was willing to throw the guy under the bus because he knew we’d resist. So that’s typical Spelling. He just manipulated us with something we’d want to hear. He knew the only way to get that reaction from us was to tell us the guy was anti-Semitic. It probably hung with the guy. I don’t know if he ever worked again. TDW: Another actor-character I’m curious about is Jason Wiles who played Colin in season 6. Mollin: That was fun. He did a good job for us, I thought. He was never going to be a long-term character for us so we kind of set him off on a stupid path a bit. At the end we maybe went off a little. We had a car chase [in Episode 6.32, You Say It’s Your Birthday]. It was not terribly out of place. It was fun having Kelly on cocaine for a while. I thought that was kind of good. It challenged all her relationships with her friends, thanks to the new guy in town. Brandon worried that she was becoming a cokewhore. And that was pretty good. We felt we had earned that. We built it up pretty good. That was another thing we believed in. We believed you had to earn emotion. You had to set your scenes up to earn the emotion. You can’t just all of a sudden indicate and tell it and then try to explain it. You have to set yourself up. We were really tough on ourselves on that. We wanted to make sure we earned our emotions. TDW: I am curious to know your personal preferences: Kelly and Dylan or Kelly and Brandon? Mollin: If I’m Kelly, I’m thinking you’re better off with Brandon. As a father I guess, I’m saying Kelly and Brandon. Dylan’s an addict; he’s always going to be an addict. Dylan’s the bad boy. Dylan’s going to want Kelly and Kelly’s going to want Dylan but Kelly’s going to be better off with Brandon. But Kelly’s always going to be fantasizing about Dylan. I think that’s just how it is. It’s your typical “girls want bad boys,” even though they’re bad for them. TDW: I wanted to ask about one of the famous lines from that triangle, “I choose me.” [Episode 5.30, Hello Life, Goodbye Beverly Hills] Mollin: Oh, god, yeah. That was Jessica, actually, who came up with that. That was a cop-out. That’s the “goodbye Andrea” episode, before the last of the season, and she had to choose between them. That was alright. That was kind of cute. That worked. I thought that worked well overall, because, again, we needed to sustain that. We didn’t want to kill the triangle. We wanted to keep making people wait for it. It’s an art. TDW: And you had Brandon keep the ring he proposed with and it came out again in season 6 [Episode 6.02, Buffalo Girls] and season 7 [Episodes 7.19-20, 7.24, 7.26., etc]. Mollin: Yes, that’s right. In one of those season 7 episodes, Jason plays the jeweler [Episode 7.20, With This Ring]. Phil Savath wrote that episode. That was good. He’s gone now, too. TDW: So you slowly put Brandon and Kelly back together and the ring was a big part of that. Mollin: Yeah, that was good. It was a good use of stuff from the past. We tried to really remember what we did and always use things. We tried to have stuff in there that were rewards for people who were loyal viewers. Little, little things that they would get. We always threw that in there. And for ourselves, too. We’d pull in little things from the past and it worked out nicely. We tried to be smart, too. We did a storyline that was just fun. Me and Chip, we created the character of Lucinda Nicholson [in season 4] . We tried to really have some fun. Her class stuff was really fun. We tried to make her this bizarre professor. It was a cool character. Dina Meyers, she was excellent. Those were interesting storylines, those first couple of years. And we loved the KEG stuff, all that kind of crazy, stupid stuff. TDW: I was in Los Angeles last January and I went to some of the locations, including the KEG house. Mollin: Oh, you went to Occidental College in Glendale? TDW: Yep. It was such a trip to be there. Mollin: That was perfect. It was really smart. Chuck and I went looking and we looked at Pepperdine, which is in Malibu, and Chuck said, “If we do that it’s just going to look like Malibu High. Let’s put it in Glendale.” And he was right. We always imagined it was in West L.A. but it was in Glendale. It had a California look without being too beach-y. TDW: It worked well. It was just interesting to see that the KEG House was actually somebody’s house a few blocks from the campus. Mollin: Yeah. That was fun. That fraternity stuff was great. Because we all were Steve and we all felt very close to his character. He didn’t have the biggest storylines but he always had the most fun. TDW: When you have the girls changing their hairstyles and the way they looked, how does that work? Did they need to come to you first? Mollin: Well, hopefully, they would run it by us first. But what typically would happen is that one would do it and then the other one would want the same thing. Every time that would happen. “Oh, she’s got the good hair. Why can’t I have that?” So you have to, basically, move it around. But they’d have to clear it with us because so much of it has to do with continuity. When you’re doing two [episodes] at a time, you had to be careful. They would run it by us and we had very good hair people and wardrobe people. We had the best of that. It was always tough, though. That’s why when Shannen did that one thing with cutting her hair in the middle of the show without asking anybody, that really screwed everybody up and kind of created the atmosphere that, when the push came to get rid of her, no one resisted. TDW: Tori seemed to have the most hair changes of anyone. Mollin: Well, you know, she was a special case. When you’d go to meet Mr. Spelling–that’s what how we referred to him–to tell him what the episodes were going to be about, the first thing he’d ask was “So…what’s Tori doing in this episode?” So then we always started with, “Well Donna is…”–even if she had a small part, we’d start with her in the pitch. Donna first. But it was endearing. He obviously loved his daughter. It was a wonderful for thing for him to be able to create this character. But we would tailor the pitches to begin with Donna, no matter what they were, even if she had one scene in the thing. But eventually she became a very good actress and a lovely person. Whereas all the kids kind of got jaded about the show, she always came in “Where’s the new script? I can’t wait to read it.” Lovely, lovely gal. A trooper. We had some great times with her. Really well-liked by everybody. She was a trooper. TDW: So at what point did you decide not to continue with the show? Mollin: Well, I never had a chance to continue. They came into my office and threw me out. TDW: I wasn’t sure what happened… Mollin: It was terrible. I was the only one standing at that point. Chuck was gone. The Wassermans had totally blown up, couldn’t even be in a room together anymore. I was the only executive producer left, doing 32 episodes with a weaker staff. I brought one guy down from Canada, who I used to work with from years back, who helped tremendously. The ratings were fine–maybe they were a tick under but they were certainly really good ratings. But Jason wanted to take over the show. He had some bright ideas. Again, the kids hated the show. To make them sign their contracts every year, the company had to make assurances to them. They didn’t want the Wassermans back because they had really pissed everyone off and they kind of painted me with the same brush. Jason said, “I want to take over. I want to have a whole new show” and that was it. They decided to have a whole new show. They brought in some guy [Braverman] and then fired him six weeks later. And in typical Spelling fashion, for all of us, Chuck, the Wassermans–not Chip, because he wasn’t running the show–but for anyone who ran a Spelling show, even Frank South at Melrose, never worked for FOX again. Spelling would always stop it. He was a motherfcker. He was a loving man who could be a motherfcker. He didn’t want you to have any success beyond him because that would mean he wasn’t successful. We all learned this but it was a shock to us. To come out and then never work for FOX again. TDW: When you say it was a struggle to keep the actors to stay on, what were they upset about and what made them stay on? ‘Cause, by the time we got to the series finale, there were 4 originals [Garth, Ziering, Spelling and Green] still there. Mollin: They stayed because something kicked in: the fact that they were getting paid pretty handsomely. They would never get that kind of money again, probably, most of them realized. Ian Ziering figured that out. Brian did. Brian was the youngest and he was a good kid. But they were all growing up and they hated it but they loved it. They understood it but at the same time it was hard for them. Like any actor on a long-running show, you love it and you hate it. All the actors look fondly back on it now, I’m sure. They all knew what a good opportunity it was. And we created a very good environment for them there. They had it pretty damn good but they had to work their asses off, just like I said. For 4 years, we did 32 hours a year. People do 13 a year now and that’s a season. 32 hours! And they were big shows. They weren’t small shows. TDW: Did you keep in touch with any of the cast? Mollin: Jason I talk to occasionally now. He probably cost me millions of dollars but we’ve become friends again. He’s a good man. He just didn’t think that he was putting someone out of a job. He just wanted to take over executive producer and then six months later he didn’t. Like I said, he hired this guy Michael Braverman and they had no idea what to do. They totally floundered. They cut the order down. They were fcked. They brought in this one guy that we had worked with, John Eisendrath, [and] with him they driveled it out til the end [of the series] and even repeated storylines, which was kind of annoying. TDW: Jason continued to have his name as producer even after his character left in season 9 [Episode 9.06, Brandon Leaves]. Mollin: Yeah, that was just a deal. He wasn’t producing. TDW: Talking about storyline repeats, in season 10 is when they did do the “Jack McKay is alive” storyline but they did it in such a way that it didn’t make sense with earlier things. Mollin: They were untrue to the saga. You had to know the saga. That was so hard about writing the show. The show was only in our heads. You had to be on the inside. And not a lot of people wrote the show. We just kept it with a couple of people writing because we were the only ones who understood all the different details of it. It was always fluid, because people were dropping in and out because it was hard to keep up. I remember the network was telling me I had to get more writers; I was writing too many episodes. I was like, “What? I’m just trying to get through this. We’re doing 32 hours. Give me a break here.” They didn’t understand. And, like I said, no one was able to do [32] after me. We were exhausted. Chuck had a heart attack. I took a year off. It was a lot of work but it was something we were proud of. And that’s why the new show diluting the legacy is so hurtful to us. TDW: Sticking with the old show for another minute–so you never kept up with it after you left? Mollin: I never watched after the start of the new season, the Hawaii episode [Episode 8.01-2, Aloha Beverly Hills]. I saw that and went, “Nope, that’s it for me. They don’t know what the fck they’re doing.” TDW: That is just so interesting to me. Chuck told me the same thing, that he didn’t keep up with the show after he left. Mollin: No, he didn’t. We’re all built with schadenfreude. You want it to do poorly after you leave. Everyone feels the same way. But I didn’t realize it was going to be that poor. I just got pissed off because they weren’t being respectful. I just stopped watching. TDW: I’m sure you know about the series finale, though. Mollin: I don’t know much. TDW: Well you know David and Donna married. Did that seem right? Mollin: Yes, that seems right. They should marry. That was always meant to be. That was the big relationship. The last episode I wrote had Donna losing her virginity in the college graduation episode [Episode 7.32, Graduation Day]. I always felt like one of those guys who built the pyramids and you bury yourself inside. You can’t survive after that. ‘Cause I finally did the thing you were never allowed to do: let Tori’s character have sex. TDW: And that ended up being your last episode! Mollin: You know, it’s funny. It was kind of endearing for many years. The old man, that’s how he controlled what he considered his daughter. Even though he couldn’t control her in real life because she’d be out there having sex with everybody, he was very concerned about keeping Donna a virgin. And we went with it because it was kind of good; we got lots of good stories out of it. We had lots of “almost”s and stuff. So, at the end, going into it, I went to him and said “Should she go to a priest? How should we play this thing?” and he said “No, just do it.” I always felt pretty good about that scene I wrote there. “How did I get so lucky?” “You waited.” It was kind of nice. It was sweet. TDW: I also wanted to talk about the DVDs. I’m not really sure how the decisions are made but I’m going to guess that you guys aren’t involved. Mollin: Chuck was involved–he did some commentary in the beginning. I haven’t seen any of them. TDW: We haven’t gotten extras since season 4. Mollin: Yeah, they didn’t want to put the money into it or they didn’t want to talk to us. They could’ve talked to me, certainly, but they never did. TDW: The fans are not happy. They’re upset that there’s no extras, there’s odd photoshopped cover art, there’s scenes missing, there’s songs changed. Mollin: Are songs changed after season 4? TDW: Yes. Songs are either changed or scenes with certain songs in them are cut. Mollin: Oh man. You see, what happened was this– and it hurt me with a lot of stuff I did before this. When we used to make music deals, we’d make them for 5 years because that was the life of the show. Then there was an afterlife when cable came in and things were running longer and longer. You had to start making your music deals in perpetuity. We didn’t start making our music deals in perpetuity until season 4 so all that stuff that Chuck had done from seasons 1-3, you had to redo. So whoever puts the DVD together has to go back to the music companies and make new deals. And they have you over a barrel, so a lot of people just strip out the music and redo it. TDW: Well, I can tell you–thanks to a really dedicated fan I know–some of the things that are missing are what we talked about. In Luke’s last episode, Nobody Knows Me by Lyle Lovett. Mollin: No! That’s out?! TDW: That’s out. Mollin: Oh my god! TDW: Some of Jamie’s performances are out. Mollin: No! Holy sht. Jamie’s performances are out? TDW: Some of them, not all. It’s peculiar in that way. Mollin: He must’ve had deals for some songs and then not others then. TDW: So this one dedicated fan has the DVDs but is also DVRing them on SoapNet but neither editions are perfect versions and they’re each missing different things. Mollin: So on SoapNet, you’re seeing it with the original music? TDW: For the most part, I think so. But some scenes are cut out. For instance, in the season 7 finale, Clare’s long goodbye scene with Steve on the beach? Mollin: Yeah, I wrote that. TDW: That’s not on SoapNet. Mollin: That sucks! TDW: So you guys are not consulted on cover art, asked to do extras, nothing. Mollin: No, nothing. But don’t forget, there’s nobody there anymore. Spelling Entertainment doesn’t exist. The old man died [in 2006] and all Paramount has is a piece of software to market. There’s residuals. They have to pay us our money when they run stuff or if they create something off our characters, they have to pay us character payments. But they couldn’t care less. The music stuff we had a lot of fun with, too, with the Peach Pit After Dark. I come from a rock and roll background so I was always bringing in stuff. We had The Flaming Lips [Episode 5.23, Love Hurts] and The Cramps [Episode 6.08, Gypsies, Cramps And Fleas]. Just stuff I really liked. Kind of odd stuff. And we got the Goo Goo Dolls [Episode 6.32, You say It’s Your Birthday]. Here’s something you can put in and Jason will have to live with it. Toward the end of “getting rid of Larry,” for the 2-hour final [in season 7] I was writing with Phil Savath. We had to have a group for the after-graduation party and I worked it around–this was like 1997–and I got the Spice Girls. I had the Spice Girls. And I go to Jason who is directing and I go, “I’ve worked this out. They’re fans of the show. We’re going to have the Spice Girls!” And he went, “I’m not doing the show.” So they wound up getting The Cardigans. Like did anyone know who The Cardigans are? Terrible misstep. It was going to be huge. Then he threw this [Roaring] 20s thing on me, which I never understood. I never understood what that meant. A 20s theme? I have no idea. At that point I realized I was dead. I liked the episode; I was happy with it but, again, J was trying to take over and insert his own style and stuff. So we didn’t use the Spice Girls, which would’ve just been goofy and campy and fun and made the show that much bigger. But instead we had something that was smaller and hipper at the moment but didn’t really last. I mean, does anyone know who The Cardigans are today? LoveFool? They were alright. It was one of the weaker groups we had. And, again, J was directing that and he wanted to insert his stuff and that 20s theme. I’ve never understood it. TDW: Well, another interesting episode he directed is The Time Has Come Today [Episode 4.25]. Mollin: Oh, yeah. I did a lot with Chuck on that one, too. That one was just so much fun. I did the story with that with Chuck. That was fantastic. I mean, it was goofy and indulgent in a certain way but we had fun with that. It reminds me of another odd one that we did, we went down the stupid road of reincarnation [Episodes 5.26-29] TDW: Yes! Well, I have to say, as a Kelly-Dylan fan, it’s fabulous to know that, in another life, they were together and that they were soulmates. Mollin: Well, that’s what we felt! We were writing it for you. What can be more meaningful than learning someone is your soulmate? We bought into it. Again, it was a little indulgent and we did the whole Western aspect [Episode 5.29, The Real McCoy] but it was pretty fun. You’re doing so many episodes, you kind have to push yourself to keep yourself interested. But The Time Has Come Today was fun and interesting. That actually came right after Brenda’s animal rights stuff [Episodes 4.22-24]. TDW: Yes. It did a wonderful job of both hitting the 1960s–the generation, what was going on then and the major events–and paralleling what was going on in Brenda’s life to a tee. The character relationships were just mirrored so well, especially the triangle. Mollin: Yeah. She had just been activist and it had blown up in her face. We were very happy with it. And, again, if the Internet had been around then, this show would’ve been so enormous. I don’t know if you remember, in the Rolling Stones episode–FOX had bought an Internet company. It was called Delphi. And I actually have Clare [Kathleen Robertson] and David online, doing flaming in a chat room. We had early Internet sht on that. TDW: Yes, you did. And then in the fire episode, that’s how all the lesbians ended up at the party. David and Clare posted the message in the wrong message board. Mollin: Exactly. So if the Internet had been full-blown when we were there, this show just would’ve been enormous. It might’ve been bad for the actors. It probably would’ve screwed them up even more and made them even bigger celebrities. But it was just so prime for that and it would’ve been enormous. We were just starting to get a bit of that. We tried to keep on the edge of stuff that was going on pretty good. It was a fun time. I guess I never had an experience that was quite like that, that intense for that a long of a time. TDW: What do you think is the show’s legacy? Mollin: It basically put FOX on the map in the drama world. Obviously The Simpsons put FOX on the map really but certainly we were the first long-running drama they had. But the legacy, it made teen drama important. It made teen drama something that everyone could watch. Parents could watch it with their kids, ‘cause the kids were real. Now they just try to make a jolt every two seconds. Nothing adds up. There’s no emotional reality. It just jumps the shark every two seconds. TDW: So did you watch any of the teen dramas that came after that? Dawson’s Creek, The O.C., One Tree Hill… Mollin: Dawson’s Creek I didn’t watch. It seemed to be alright. They told a story. They didn’t kill the storytelling by rushing it. O.C.–for us, we were always very defensive. All these shows would come out and they would say “Oh, we don’t want to be like 90210. We want to be good.” In fact, when I went for jobs after and they’d ask what I’ve done, I’d say “Well, I just did 128 episodes of this FOX hit show, 90210” and they’d go, “Oh. It’s too bad you didn’t do a good show.” Well, what was a good show? A show that was canceled after a year? That was the thing. You got painted with this terrible brush. I had a couple of shots after that in primetime but I basically moved to syndication and international stuff because I didn’t want the insecurity of getting canceled after four episodes anymore. But the other shows–O.C., I never really watched, to tell you the truth. They kind of made it just like 90210. They had a Peach Pit thing [with a diner]. It was fine. I didn’t really care that much. It didn’t affect me. They weren’t going to hire me. I tried at one point to get a job but they weren’t interested in hiring me. TDW: Let’s go to 2008 when you first heard they were going to do a new version of 90210. What was your reaction? Mollin: Well, I just figured it would suck because they weren’t bringing anybody in with any mandate, who would understand the characters they had to write. It was all just about the title Paramount had sold. The old man would’ve never had done that. For all his failings, he certainly was protective of the material. He never would’ve let somebody just jump over without having taken care of it. They just sold the title, basically, and didn’t care what people did with it. To Paramount, it was just a piece of software. I was concerned. I liked the idea of Rob Thomas at first, because I thought he was a good writer. I liked some of the earlier stuff he had did. But then he was off and, just reading what they were doing, I was like “Wait a second. Do they not have any idea what they’re doing?” I realized right away and I just went, “Oh my god.” Once they had that Rob Estes [Harry] was going to be the principal of the school, I was “Oh, this is fcked.” That should be the least important part. We would never be in school. That’s the worst thing to do. It’s the biggest mistake to set it even more in school. It was really stupid. And, you know, to have him involved in that, to have adults involved in that, that was really kind of lame. So I didn’t think it would be good but I did watch the first one. They didn’t know how to build or have anticipation. They didn’t know how to make a kiss important. At least Dawson’s Creek understood that. You don’t rush over these moments. You don’t just throw them out. ‘Cause then there’s nowhere to go. These are teenagers. It was just ridiculous, I thought. Jennie, she had her part and would do what they said. It’s not her fault. She was just playing the character but it had nothing to do with the character that we had set up. Then once they started making a decision about a child [Sammy] and who was the father, I just had to stop paying attention. It just irked me because they had no mandate to do these things. They had no equity. They were making decisions on this legacy, which, now, if we were ever going to pick it up again, we have to deal with. TDW: I want to make sure I have this right. Paramount essentially sold the title, the rights to the name, to The CW and their production company. Mollin: Yes. They had to make a little deal with Darren to pay for his characters, I guess. Every time you use one of the characters we created–like, if Valerie ends up on the show–you have to be paid. But otherwise, they just did what they wanted. TDW: And you know for a fact that no one from the original was asked to help. Mollin: Nope. In fact, Chuck tried to get a job there and they shot him down. They asked to see his daughter. They interviewed his daughter for a job and not him. She didn’t get it either and he was upset with that. But, no, there was nothing. They weren’t interested in what we had to say. They weren’t interested in anything. TDW: In a conversation we had before this interview, you said the new show was guilty of a “brand abuse” and “revisionist history.” Can you elaborate on that? Mollin: It is brand abuse. They basically took a brand and watered it down–by making it worse and not being true to it. They made the brand worse. Rather than people remembering our show–well, I don’t know if people are even paying that much attention to this show. It’s still on but it gets only a 2 rating or something. Like I said, we hope that if they use characters of ours that we get paid. That’s all we can do. It’s just embarrassing. Just when I hear what they’re doing–like that Jackie Taylor [Ann Gillespie] died–it just irks me. And it’s not that she couldn’t die, it’s just that these people have no right to make these decisions. Darren, I’m sure, just had to turn his back to it because I’m sure it’s hurtful for him. TDW: So you think if Aaron was alive, this wouldn’t be happing? Mollin: It would’ve been handled in a different way. He would’ve been on it and he would’ve been protective of it. Absolutely. I mean, he’s a good showman. He has his idiosyncrasies and he could be mean and powerful and cruel–and loving–but he cared about his material. He’s a great showman and we learned a tremendous amount from him about what it takes. I really value the time that I worked there. It was great working with these people. You really learn the business from old-time showmen, not corporate people, not people that went to college for whatever. People that understand that we’re entertainers. He would be very protective of that. TDW: Well, this year marks 10 years since the original ended and 20 years since it started. Has there been any talk of doing anything? Mollin: No, not that I know of. Because, again, there’s no Spelling Entertainment anymore. There’s no one to kind of harness that, that would care enough about it. TDW: Hypothetically, then, would you be interested in something, if the opportunity was presented? Mollin: Would I be? Sure. We had a wonderful time there. There was nothing better than being on a hit show. When it was a hit show, it was great. TDW: So you’d be up for a panel or something? Mollin: Yeah, sure. I think Chuck would be, too. We all want to protect our legacy in it. That’s why we do these things, so people get a little bit of our story right. TDW: Well, I’d like to see that happen. Mollin: I’d like to see it happen but, again, the brand abuse has hurt the show. It just makes it more ordinary. It was special the way it was. The show probably should’ve ended after college or, like I said, it should’ve gone to a different post-college life for them. Not this struggling, ordinary life that they wrote. They just totally missed the opportunity with where the show was supposed to go. But there was a decision to keep actors in place even though they were bored and they wanted something different. And they got something different. But it struggled for the next 3 years and the ratings went down and they finished the show off. I guess the last episode was alright. Were you satisfied with it? TDW: I was completely satisfied with it. I thought there was a payoff for Donna and David. I am a Kelly-Dylan fan to the core, so it was very rewarding to see them together in the end. But then, again, you have this new show that changed it but I like to pretend it doesn’t exist. Mollin: Oh, that was just ridiculous! For them to have done that–I just don’t know what they’re doing! He had a child he doesn’t care about?! That’s just so wrong. There’s nothing you can say. They’ve taken fictional characters and they’ve gone a different way with it. It’s not bad or good. It’s just unfortunate. They just never got the show. They just took it some other way. Plus there’s so much network interference, today, too. The writing is so difficult now for everyone that writes for network TV. There’s a billion notes. Every person in the world is a note-giver. TDW: And the original writer/producers [Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah], after Rob Thomas, aren’t even there anymore. Mollin: Oh, no. Once they opened their mouths, I knew they had no idea. I remember reading their early interviews and going, “Oh my god. There’s not a chance they’re going to get this right.” Again, people wanted the old show. They didn’t invest in the characters. The only thing people wanted to watch was when Kelly or Donna was there or when Brenda came. So they were all living on our work, on what we had built up so that kind of pisses you off. But it is the way it is. TDW: Well, you’ve provided a wonderful amount of information. It fascinates me, really. Mollin: Well, good. It’s nice to be sort of remembered. It’s something we’re all proud of. And it’s gone on. I’m not surprised that it’s popularity has increased or that its mystique has not diminished. It meant a lot to a whole generation of people–and their parents. A lot of mothers certainly watched with their kids. I’ll still meet, like, 60-year-old professors who have seen every episode because they watched with their daughters. TDW: And there really is a whole new legion of fans thanks to SoapNet. Well, thank you so much for your time! Mollin: No problem, Shari. It’s always great to talk to fans. Come back next week for another exclusive interview! TDW Interview Index Tags: 90210, Aloha Beverly Hills, Andrea, Ann Gillespie, Beverly Hills 90210, Blind Spot, Blood Sweat and Tears, Borderline Normal, Brandon, Brandon Leaves, Brenda, Brian Austin Green, Buffalo Girls, California, Canada, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Charles Rosin, Charmed, Chip Johannessen, CHiPs, Christine, Christine Pettit, Chuck Rosin, Clare, Colin, Cress Williams, D'Shawn, D'Shawn Hardell, Dalton James, Darren Star, David, Dawson's Creek, Dead End, Delphi, Dexter, Dina Meyers, Donna, Dylan, England, Erica, Esai Morales, FBI, FOX, Frank South, Gabe Sachs, Gabrielle Carteris, Glendale, Goo Goo Dolls, Graduation Day, Gypsies Cramps and Fleas, Harry, Hazardous To Your Health, Hello Life Goodbye Beverly Hills, Hunter Tylo, Ian Ziering, Jack, Jackie Taylor, Jamie Walters, Jason Priestley, Jason Wiles, Jeff Judah, Jennie Garth, Jesse, Jessica Klein, Jessica Wasserman, Jobbed, John Eisendrath, Josh Taylor, Kathleen Robertson, KEG, Kelly, Knight Rider, Larry Mollin, Laura Kingman, Lifetime, Los Angeles, Love Hurts, LoveFool, Lucinda, Lucinda Nicholson, Luke Perry, Lyle Lovett, Malibu, Mark, Mark Damon Espinoza, Melrose Place, Mexico, Michael Braverman, Mr. Walsh Goes To Washington, Nobody Knows Me, Noley Thorton, Occidental College, One Tree Hill, One Wedding and a Funeral, P.S. I Love You, Palm Springs, Paramount, Pepperdine, Phil Savath, Queen Mary, Ray, Rebecca Gayheart, Renegade, Roaring 20s, Rob Estes, Rob Thomas, Rolling Stones, Rose Bowl, Sammy, Shannen Doherty, Smurfs, SoapNet, Spelling Entertainment, Spice Girls, Stanley Kamel, Steve, Steve Sanders, Steve Wasserman, TDW, Tennessee Williams, The Cardigans, The Cramps, The CW, The Flaming Lips, The O.C, The Peach Pit, The Peach Pit After Dark, The Real McCoy, The Simpsons, The Time Has Come Today, Tiffani Amber Thiessen, Toni, Tony, Tony Marchette, Tori Spelling, Up in Flames, Valerie, Valerie Wildman, What I Did On My Summer Vacation And Other Stories, With This Ring, Yale, You Say Goodbye I Say Hello, You Say It's Your Birthday Exclusive: Christine Elise on Emily Valentine’s Pop Culture Legacy Christine Elise circa 1991 and today. Aside from Beverly Hills 90210’s main players, there’s one character that still gets a lot of attention today: Emily Valentine. Emily earned, let’s say, very colorful descriptions from viewers, including “stalker,” “crazy,” “fire-starter” and “freak” and sparked debates among fans that still occur today. Some even argue she’s the inspiration for Silver’s character on the new 90210. I recently spoke with Christine Elise, Emily’s portrayer, about the character’s genesis and legacy. TeenDramaWhore: You joined the show as potential love interests for Brandon (Jason Priestley) and Dylan (Luke Perry). Did you have any idea the character was going to become the ‘crazy girl’? Christine Elise: I was initially cast only for the first episode [ed. note: Episode 2.8, Wildfire] with the possibility of 9 more if things went well – whatever that means. I guess they did go well – because I came back. Initially – I was very excited to play Emily because I saw her much as I saw myself in high school – as a girl with a personal style different from the mainstream and one that some others mysteriously found threatening. I, too, was misunderstood & suffered many incorrect assumptions about what “kind” of girl I was. I appreciated the “you can’t judge a book by its cover” theme of that introductory episode. Later, as the shows progressed & it was revealed that Emily was nuts – I must confess to disappointment. I felt they had betrayed her by – ultimately – saying “you CAN judge a book by its cover.” It was pretty early in my career & a very big job for me. I really had invested myself in Emily & I had a hard time with the things they made her do & say. Still – in retrospect – that sense of betrayal might have informed my performance in ways I hadn’t intended. I played her – even in the nuttiest scenes – as someone I felt really bad for – not a cold & wicked villain. I think that might have saved her in the eyes of those fans of the show that related to her…and there were many. Even today, kids that felt disenfranchised either because they were gay, or punk or new in town or poorer than their peers – whatever the reason – they still come up to me & tell me Emily was their favorite character. I find that really gratifying. And I hope it is due in part to how I played her & the sympathy I felt for her that allows her fans to forgive her for being such a kook. Or maybe her fans are all crazy, too! Hahahah! TDW: In all seriousness, your storyline touched on the important issue of mental health. Do you think people forget or overlook that part and just focus on things like the now iconic gas-throwing float scene (Episode 2.16, My Desperate Valentine)? Elise: Well – let’s net get to taking ourselves too seriously <wink>. I don’t think her mental health was covered with the same attention as her nutty behavior but that is totally fair. After all – it was a soap opera not a PBS program. As it turned out – the cure was Prozac – so she was simply suffering from depression, I guess. Not to downplay the agony of suffering clinical depression – but she wasn’t, ultimately, portrayed as mentally ill in the traditional ways we use that term – despite the high drama of the early episodes. It might have been interesting to show how much pressure is on kids when they change schools etc – and that not all deal as successfully as the Minnesota Twins [Brandon and Brenda] – but I think Emily was brought in not so much to tell HER story as to provide an antagonist – or a catalyst for the stories of the main characters, you know? On a side note – I couldn’t help but notice that the only other high profile, blue collar character – Ray Pruitt [Jamie Walters in seasons 5 and 6]- also went nuts & threatened & even injured a main character. I wrote a Halloween episode once [ed. note: Episodes 6.8, Gypsies, Cramps and Fleas] that had Ray doing kooky stalkery stuff & I felt the same sympathy for him that I did for Emily. Maybe something in the lunches at West Beverly makes poor people go NUTZ!!! I will also say that the float scene defined Emily in a way I still find pretty surprising. I get asked two questions all the time: 1) What was it like kissing Jason Priestley? and 2) Why did you burn the float? and 3) Oh – and “Is Shannon [Doherty, Brenda] really a bitch?” I still haven’t developed a cute answer for any of these. Kissing on camera is embarrassing & awkward & nothing like kissing someone in real life. EMILY destroyed the float – not me (a detail overlooked by a shocking number of folks) and she did not ever burn it. And the last question is less interesting to me than “Was BRENDA a bitch?” – because I kinda think both Brenda and Kelly [Jennie Garth] were pretty awesome be-atchez despite being offered to the public as the heroines of the series. They both were pretty judge-y – especially considering the flaws in each of them that were revealed over the years. But if that leads to characters spitting dialogue like, “Have fun at the GYNOCOLOGIST, Emily!!!” [ed. note: quote is from Wildfire]- well then I am all for it!!!! Because that is some funny shit. TDW: I don’t know if you’ve watched the new 90210 at all, but one of the characters, Silver, had a storyline similar to yours. Most of the press said she was either the new Emily Valentine or she was pulling an Emily Valentine. How does it feel to know ‘pulling an Emily Valentine’ is part of the pop culture lexicon? Elise: I think it is tremendous! How many roles like that does your average actor get to play in a career? I knew she was the Pinky Tuscadero of 90210 [ed. note: reference to a Happy Days character] – but I had no idea the extent to which she impacted people….or how enduring that impact would be. There is a book called The Emily Valentine Poems and a band called Emily Valentine. Nylon magazine devoted their ICON column to Emily a few months ago which I found super flattering. There are several “We hate Emily” groups on Facebook. I think it is all great. I kinda felt the actress that plays Silver [ed. note: Jessica Stroup] was offended by the comparison to Emily. All I can guess is that she was NOT an outsider at school & identified more with the popular kids…hahahah. Or maybe she, too, is invested in her character & feels protective of her – as I did Emily. Clearly – she is no Emily fan. [ed. note: related article] But, you know – I wonder if I would have liked or hated Emily if another actress had played her – therefore robbing me of the protective impulses I had toward her. There is no way to know. I didn’t come at the role from the perspective of the audience but from the inside out. I still can’t watch the old episodes & really see the character objectively – or even purely as a fan of the show. I just cannot separate myself enough to make that judgment I can say that the show – and my performances – crack me up now. It seems so much, much campier in retrospect than it did while we were doing it. I was so sincere & working so hard back then – desperate to do a good job. Now – I watch & chuckle, with humor & nostalgia. TDW: Emily’s romance with Brandon was ill-fated. First Emily got ill in season two, then they reunited in season four but she was moving across the world and then when she came back in season five, he was with Kelly. Were you rooting for them? And did you get any flack from “Brelly” fans? Elise: Of course I rooted for them! It would have meant more work for ME! And that show was a lot of fun to work on. But, yes, I get a lot of flack from fans – mostly in online message boards that called me things like Emily Frankentine – and they mocked that Louise Brooks bob [ed. note: reference to a model] I had in the Kelly/fire episode [ed. note: Episode 5.13, Up in Flames] by calling me a “donkey in a Dutch boy wig.” Those kinda things actually hurt a lot more than you think they might. Sometimes they made me cry. You have no way to fight back or defend yourself – and people are incredibly nasty when they are hidden in anonymity. And though you KNOW you shouldn’t read it – it is nearly impossible to tear your eyes away. I mean, even Tina Fey addressed those online bullies at the Golden Globes when she named a few by their handles and suggested that they “suck it.” That was awesome & every actor with a computer knows exactly what she was talking about. Everyone has read mean stuff about themselves & taken it harder than they wanted to….even if they won’t admit it. I can also say, however, that nobody has ever sad anything mean to my face. I am not sure if that is because people that hate either Emily or me don’t approach me. I tend to think that the excitement of meeting someone you watched on TV over & over kinda trumps whatever bad feelings you might have about the character they played. I know it does for me when I see actors around whose shows I love. Also – though I tend to imagine my peers as the ones behind the cruel online posts – it is more likely random 10 year old girls who wouldn’t dream of confronting me in person to tell me my hair-do sucks. Hahahaah! Whatever the reason, I am relieved to report that, though I am approached all the time by 90210 fans – I have never had any of them be mean to me. WHEW!!! TDW: In your last appearance, during Up in Flames, Brandon and Emily share a kiss and retreat to her hotel room. Viewers don’t see what happens next but Brandon feels quite guilty about it. What do you think happened? Elise: I never really thought about it but if I had to guess – I would say nothing much more happened. Brandon was an enormously integrity-ridden character. I imagine he would feel all the guilt he seemed to over just the kiss. And as a chick – I gotta say – he SHOULD HAVE! A kiss is cheating!!! Does anybody think it is odd that none of the characters on the show thought it a sinister coincidence that Kelly was burned in a fire the very day firebug Emily showed up??? TDW: You co-wrote a couple of later episodes. How does that experience differ from the actor experience? Elise: Writing is fun. And writing on a serial like 90210 is easy-peasy. They hand you a pretty substantial outline of what is going to happen & you essentially just fill in the dialogue. I got to make a few personal touches, add some inside jokes etc – but, for the most part, I had to stay true to the structure they handed me. I would happily do it again. I am very grateful for the unique opportunities that show gave me. But – it is very different from acting because when you write an episode – you can go from start to finish & never walk on the set. You do it all from home & the occasional meeting with the writing staff. So – it is an almost solitary experience – where working on a set as an actor is a very social affair & you work with everyone (from the crew to the cast) to get stuff right. It is more of a collaboration – in almost every minute – than the writing is. If I could only do one – I would choose acting. I like the social elements of being on set. TDW: Without getting too personal, you dated one of your co-stars. How do you keep that separate from your work life and professional relationship? Elise: I am not sure what that question means. Do you mean – did I get jealous of KELLY??? Haha. No. Though many fans have a hard time separating the actors from the characters – I certainly do not. The entire cast & crew of that show was like a huge extended family. I never took any storylines personally. And both Jason & I were actors before we met & think of working on a set with the same casual attitude that other people approach their jobs. Work is work. There is never any confusion about that – nor does it complicate one’s life any more than any job with odd hours might. But – I will admit – sometimes it is a drag to watch your boyfriend kiss a new gal every week!!! But he had to watch me, too, so – it’s all just part of the deal…and you get over it pretty quickly. Christine and Jason during their multi-year relationship. TDW: Are you still in touch with any of the cast? Elise: Jason (and his wife, Naomi [Lowde-Preistley) and I are still very close. I see Tiffani [Amber Thiessen, Valerie] quite a bit, too. Beyond that – I only rarely run into the rest of the cast at auditions or – like – at Jason & Naomi’s wedding. TDW: You’ve taken a few small acting gigs in recent years but mostly focus on art. What kind of stuff do you and where can fans see your work? Elise: Photography has become quite a passion of mine & my stuff can be seen at www.MyPinUpArt.com. I have driven from Los Angeles to Boston & back more than half a dozen times. I like to photograph the decaying Americana along Route 66 and the little things that make each state unique. I hate that uniformity is the order of the day today. I hate that every mall in any city has the same stores. I hate Starbucks & McDonalds taking over where mom & pop shops used to rule. I hate how generic this country is becoming. So – I try to preserve some vintage beauty with my camera. Come back next Sunday for another exclusive interview! Tags: 90210, America, Beverly Hills 90210, Boston, Brandon, Brelly, Chrstine Elise, Dylan, Emily, Emily Frankentine, Emily Valentine, Golden Globes, Gypsies Cramps and Fleas, Happy Days, Jamie Walters, Jason Priestley, Jennie Garth, Jessica Stroup, Kelly, Los Agenles, Louise Brooks, Luke Perry, McDonalds, Minnesota, My Desperate Valentine, MyPinUpArt.com, Naomi Lowde-Priestley, Nylon, PBS, Pink Tuscadero, Pulling An Emily Valentine, Ray, Ray Pruitt, Route 66, Shannen Doherty, Silver, Starbucks, The Emily Valentine Poems, Tiffani Amber Thiessen, Tina Fey, Up in Flames, Valerie, Wildfire Categories : Beverly Hills 90210	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line843
__label__cc	0.54811	0.45189	The First Teaser Trailer For “Joker” Looks Very Good! by Farid-ul-Haq \| Posted on April 3, 2019 Joaquin Phoenix in “Joker” (Image: Screengrab) The first teaser trailer for Todd Phillip’s Joker solo-film has been released. Even though I’m not a fan of this iconic comic book character, the acting skills displayed by Joaquin Phoenix makes me want to watch this offering when it is released on October 4, 2019. I can’t take the Joker seriously as a character. He isn’t much of a threat if you really think about it. This fictional character continues to live because of some weird relationship he shares with Batman. It wouldn’t even take a second to end him otherwise. It is too much hype for someone who is nothing in the grand scheme of comic book universe-related things. Anyway, coming to the upcoming live-action film, Joker will serve as an origin story. Here’s the teaser trailer! This movie will explore the life of Arthur Frank before certain events transform him into the clown prince of crime. Comparisons with Heath Ledger’s take on the character have already begun online. Ledger won an Oscar for playing the character in The Dark Knight. Let’s see if Phoenix’s work is recognized by the Academy. I’m all for different live-action versions of this character depending on how an actor sees him. As long as you don’t say Jared Leto from The Suicide Squad was the best, I won’t argue with you. I still think Leto’s Joker being Tim Drake would have been cooler. For those wondering about the overall cinematic timeline of the DC Comics live-action films, well, this movie is going to be a standalone and won’t have an impact on what happens in the Wonder Woman sequel, Shazam, and others (as far as we know). I like Warner Bros.’ decision to not make everything connected like the MCU. It wasn’t without a lack of trying to replicate the MCU formula though. Ha! Along with Phoenix, the cast includes Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Bill Camp, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen as Thomas Wayne, Dante Pereira-Olson as young Bruce Wayne, and Douglas Hodge as Alfred Pennyworth. Are you looking forward to watching the Joker? Let us know. Author: Farid-ul-Haq Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies. Can "John Wick" Director Chad Stahelski Save The "Birds of Prey" Movie? "Scoob!" Movie Review: An Unnecessary Superhero Cash Grab? Geekiary News Briefs: Zoe Kravitz is Catwoman! Billy Porter is the Fairy Godmother! And More! "Nancy Drew And The Hidden Staircase" Gets Digital, Blu-ray & DVD Release Dates! Comics Movies Newsjoaquin phoenix Joker Warner Bros “Batman: Hush” Gets Digital, 4K UHD, And Blu-ray Release Dates! (Updated) I’m Positively Glee-ful About the Upcoming Flash/Supergirl Musical “Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous” Season 1 Review – Aimed at Kids But Still a Lot of Fun! Scooby-Doo to Hit the Stage in Mixed Media Theater Production Supporting The Upcoming "Hogwarts Legacy" Game Is Worth Excusing Transphobia? "DC Showcase – Batman: Death in the Family" Lets You Choose Jason Todd's Fate - Blu-ray Review	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line846
__label__wiki	0.837952	0.837952	Bananas may be allowed to grow on State Land after all Back in March this year, several illegal occupants of plots of former KTM land along the old Jurong Line along Sungei Ulu Pandan (just north of the Clementi Avenue 4) received notices of eviction from the Singapore Land Authority’s (SLA) (see Let the bananas grow on State Land). SLA had on acting on complaints made by residents in the area on the nuisance and potential fire hazard caused by the burning of branches and leaves by the occupants, found that the occupants had fenced up plots of State Land for private use, as well as erected make-shift structures that included an outdoor toilet. Stagnant water collected on the plots of land also raise a concern of mosquito breeding. All this made it necessary to evict the illegal occupants. The farms that received eviction orders are along a stretch of the former Jurong Rail Corridor which has been disused since the 1990s and returned to the State by the railway operator KTM. While the reasons cited by SLA were not in dispute, several of the individuals occupying the land did express hope that they would be allowed to continue, seeking the help of the Member of Parliament representing the area Ms Sim Ann, who also happens to be the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Law the SLA is under. A positive development that seemed to come out of this was that while in the past very limited discussion would have been possible, discussions conducted with the SLA through Ms Sim Ann seemed to be encouraging with several options explored to allow the use of the land for regulated farming that would benefit the wider community which would involve the granting of Temporary Occupancy Licenses. Possible location of a 50 x 25 metre plot of land which will be divided to smaller plots which occupants will pay a nominal fee annually for use (click to enlarge). Based on news that has filtered through this afternoon, it does seem that a somewhat positive outcome has emerged out of the discussion. While it does not seem to be entirely what the occupants had hoped for, it appears that a certain level of farming activities will be tolerated in the area on a 50 by 25 metre plot of land (see map) that will be divided into 30 parcels each measuring 8 by 4 metres for which a nominal annual fee for usage will be charged. The parcels would also be provided with potable water for their use. This would mean that the occupants of the farms in the area would be required to vacate the plots they occupy and move into the designated area – which I understand the majority are in support of as it would allow them to continue with their gardening activities. Tags: Clementi, Community Farms, Eviction of Farmers on State Land, Farming along Railway Land, Green Corridor, Jurong Railway Line, Singapore Land Authority, SLA, Sungei Ulu Pandan, Vegetable Farms Categories : Railway Land, Singapore Let the bananas grow on State Land There has been a fair bit of news on the Singapore Land Authority’s (SLA) eviction of farmers occupying land along Sungei Ulu Pandan just north of the Clementi Avenue 4 area. The issue first came to light when an impassioned letter, written by the son of one of the farmers was sent to SLA on 7 March to appeal the eviction, which was followed by a Straits Time report “Group told to clear out ‘farm’ on state land” published on 10 Mar 2012. The SLA has since clarified their position, stating the reasons behind the eviction of the farmers who have for several years illegally occupied what is State Land. Vegetable plots along a former rail corridor. An eviction notice has been posted on each of the farms occupying what is State Land along Sungei Ulu Pandan. The land in question lies along the Jurong Rail Corridor. The rail corridor was built in the mid 1960s to serve Jurong Industrial Estate and has been disused since the mid 1990s – after which the land was returned to the State by Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM). The writer of the letter, had written of what the farm had meant to his 71-year-old father who tended to it, which provided “much joy, personal well-being and an avenue for physical activity”. He also added that the space had also allowed his children an education beyond what the classrooms are able to provide. The farms being evicted are along a stretch of the former Jurong Rail Corridor which has been disused since the 1990s and returned to the State by the railway operator KTM. The SLA in exercising its right to evict the farmers – not least for the illegal occupation of State land, also cited several reasons beyond illegal occupation. These include the fencing up of the parcels of land involved, the erection of make-shift sheds and an outdoor toilet, as well as the collection of stagnant water which had a potential for mosquito breeding. It does appear that the SLA has acted on complaints made by residents in the area on the nuisance caused by the burning of branches and leaves which has affected the air quality in the area – as well as the act being a potential fire hazard. SLA position has also drawn support from some members of the public – one, Mr Tony Lee, in a letter to the Straits Times Forum published today, brought up an important consideration that “if such squatters are tolerated, more and more will occupy state land illegally”. Banana trees on State land - some of the younger generation have never seen bananas growing on trees. There isn’t any doubt about the validity of the concerns raised over the illegal use of land, or on the need to carry out the necessary enforcement on the SLA’s part. This episode does however, open a window of opportunity for the Authorities to look beyond the enforcement of the law (which is there for good reason) and take a step towards a gentler and more inclusive society that has very much been talked about of late. The signs are certainly encouraging based on a news report in today’s edition of the Straits Times (“Let’s talk, SLA tells farmers”, Grace Chua, The Straits Times, 14 Mar 2012). The report does indicate that the SLA has changed its tact slightly and has now opened a channel for discussion with farmers who willing to come forward by 20 March. A makeshift scarecrow at one of the farms? While in all probability the discussion would be on a possible extension to the deadline of 20 March imposed by the SLA for the clearance of illegally occupied State Land, I do hope that it goes far beyond that. While that the farms have been illegally set-up and fenced up and that there are public safety and health concerns associated with them is never in question, there is some scope to look into maintaining what is already there and extending access to them to the wider community in the interim (the SLA does note that there are no immediate plans for the use of the particular stretch of land). An idea mooted by a guide during one of the walks organised by the good people behind “We Support the Green Corridor” I attended a while ago, Ms Margie Hall of the Nature Society of Singapore, was that the Authorities grant temporary occupation licences to the farmers. This would not only allow the farmers – mostly retirees, a useful pursuit in their advanced years, it will also permit the use of land to be regulated. This will also allow concerns of residents and the Authorities to be managed and eliminated and its use opened up to the community. It is the community that would stand to gain most from this – allowing both young and old a space in their neighbourhood to which they would be able to escape the urban Singapore we have become to a calmer, gentler and greener Singapore – a Singapore from which we have all emerged from and a Singapore we have long forgotten of. SLA’s reply to Straits Times article “Group told to clear out ‘farm’ on state land” published on 10 Mar 2012: SLA makes available vacant State land, pending their development, for interim use by the community for recreational activities. Over the years, SLA has upgraded vacant State land for such uses. There are today 270 community use sites in various parts of Singapore for the community to use and enjoy. However, State land is a precious resource and must be maintained and managed responsibly. An important principle that we uphold without exception is that individuals or groups of them are not allowed to encroach and lay claim on State land for their private use. Where State land is allowed for community use, it is important that it does not cause disamenities for the neighbourhood, and does not adversely affect the land and the environment, such as causing ground contamination or mosquito breeding. In this case, some individuals have not only encroached on State land for their private purposes but several of them have also fenced up parcels of land as their “own” and padlocked them for their exclusive use. There are also illegally erected make-shift sheds and even an outdoor toilet (photos attached). During our inspection, we found several ponds with stagnant water which are potential mosquito breeding grounds if left unchecked. We have also received feedback of the burning of branches and leaves which affects the air quality for the residents nearby and are a potential fire hazard. In the interest of all residents living in the vicinity, SLA’s immediate priority is to stop the burning of leaves and commence vector control measures. We will also give those responsible for the encroachment a reasonable period of time to dismantle and remove the enclosed areas and illegally erected structures, failing which we will have to take action to remove them. The land is zoned as “Reserve” under the Master Plan 2008 and there are no immediate plans for the site at this point in time. In the interim, SLA will seek and consider the views of the grassroots organisations whether the land can be put to some form of community use for the enjoyment of the residents in the vicinity. However, any such use is interim and will have to cease when the land is required for future development. Tags: Clementi, Community Farms, Eviction of Farmers on State Land, Farming along Railway Land, Green Corridor, Jurong Railway Line, Singapore Land Authority, SLA, Sungei Ulu Pandan, Vegetable Farms, We Support the Green Corridor Categories : Railway Land, Reflections, Reminders of Yesterday, Singapore, Traditions Sembawang beyond the slumber Highlights of a heritage tour of Sembawang, “Sembawang Beyond the Slumber”, with a focus on the Sembawang that I was familiar with in the 1970s. This was conducted through the Sembawang Public Library on 27 March 2011. The two and a half hour tour included a visit to the last kampung mosque in Singapore, as well as to several other points of interest in Sembawang: The Sembawang of the 1970s was a place that I spent many a happy moment at. Back then, it was a place that, as with many of the coastal areas of Singapore, had the air of a sleepy part of Singapore where one could escape from the hustle and bustle of the urban world that I had in brought up in. The Mata Jetty at the end of Sembawang Road had then been the focal point of many of the seemingly long journeys to the northern most area of Singapore, dominated then (as it is now) by the huge shipyard around which life seemed in those northern part, to revolve around. The destination that first brought me in contact with the post Naval Base Sembawang of the 1970s, the Mata Jetty. The shipyard was to many who lived in the area, a source of sustenance, having provided a living to many who settled in the area since it started life as the repair dockyard of the largest Naval Base east of the Suez (said to have enough berthing space to take in the entire Royal Navy fleet at that time) over the 1920s culminating in the opening of the dockyard’s graving dock in 1938. Opened by the then Governor of Singapore, Sir Shenton Thomas on 14 February 1938, the King George VI dock (fondly referred to as KG6), was then the largest ever naval graving dock, one which is still very much in use today. The establishment of the dockyard had been a godsend, coming at the time when a slump in rubber prices meant that many who worked in the area which had depended very much on the rubber plantations introduced by Lim Nee Soon would have had an uncertain future. The dockyard attracted many from far and wide and was responsible for the establishment of the largest community of Malayalees in Singapore in the north. The announcement of the pullout of the British forces in 1968 had cast a shadow of doubt on the future for many who worked there as well as in many of the military bases around the island, coming at a time when a newly independent Singapore was struggling to find its feet, with the bases combined contributing to 20% of Singapore’s GNP. The establishment of a commercial shipyard on the site of the dockyard (the dockyard was transferred to the Singapore government for a token fee of $1) on 19 June 1968, had however, secured the future for many. The shipyard which was established on the site of the former naval dockyard brought much life to the areas around Sembawang in the 1970s. The Dockyard’s gates seen in the 1960s (source: http://www.singas.co.uk). By the time I started frequenting the jetty, the British had disappeared, and the ANZUK forces installed in place. By the time 1974 arrived, it was only the New Zealand Force SEA that was left with the withdrawal of the Australian Forces, and their presence didn’t go unnoticed in the area – with “The Strip” – a row of shop houses at Sembawang Village which contained several watering holes including the popular Nelson Bar being a popular hangout. Sembawang Village , established outside the Naval Base’s Sembawang Gate on Admiralty Road had several “makan stalls” including a row of Indian stalls that was popular for Mee Goreng as well as having hosted a bicycle shop that perhaps supplied the families of the many British, Australian and New Zealand military personnel that passed through the area, Cheap John’s which is still in the area – further down Sembawang Road close to Sembawang Shopping Centre. Sembawang Village grew on the outside of the Sembawang Gate of the former Naval Base, catering to many who lived on the base (Courtesy of Mr Derek Tait). “The Strip” around Sembawang Village, provided watering holes for the many foreign servicemen in the area, which included the popular Nelson Bar. “The Strip” seen in the 1970s (Source: ANZ Military Brats of Singapore). Sembawang Village was also where Cheap John’s – a popular bicycle shop started some 40 years ago, was located. The shop is still around, currently located further south along Sembawang Road close to Sembawang Shopping Centre (Source: ANZ Military Brats of Singapore). Cheap John’s at its current location is still very much a source of bicycles for Sembawang residents. Despite the presence of the foreign military personnel, it was probably the workers of the shipyard that were responsible for perhaps rousing Sembawang from its slumber in the 1970s, bringing much colour and life not just to the villages that provided housing to many of them, but also to the streets around. One of the sights that greeted the early morning scene along the narrow Canberra Road that wove its way past the old Canberra Gate (another of the former gates of the Naval Base), of which one concrete pillar remained close to a bus stop that always looked busy with the comings and goings of the many schoolchildren who attended the few schools along the road, and the extended Chong Pang Village which grew to the west of Canberra Road all the way to the marshy land on the banks of the Sungei Sembawang, was that of the convoy of bicycles, their riders in the colourful overalls marked with the seahorses that Sembawang Shipyard had adopted as its logo. Canberra Gate along Canberra Road in 1968 – near the junction with Sembawang Road. (Courtesy of Mr Derek Tait) A scene reminiscent of the Sembawang of the 1970s and 1980s – the stream of bicycles along a part of Canberra Road that has remained relatively unchanged. Along Canberra Road across from the area where Sembawang Mart is today, the sight of a Hindu temple set in a clearing would greet the traveller. That was what was the original Holy Tree Sri Balasubramaniar Temple built in the 1960s around an altar to Lord Murugan set up by a dockyard worker. It was at this temple where a annual festival which provided the area with much colour, Panguni Uthiram, involving a procession of a chariot and a kavadi procession, was first celebrated in the area in 1967, a tradition which continues till today, with the temple having moved to a new location in Yishun Industrial Park A in the 1990s. The old Holy Tree Sri Balasubramaniar Temple off Canberra Road (source: http://www.picas.nhb.gov.sg). The area still plays host to the annual Panguni Uthiram festival, which now takes a different route. The festival was first celebrated at the old temple in 1967. There were several other houses of worship which rose up prominently along some of the main roads of the area as well: the distinctive St. Andrew’s Church, built in 1963 to serve British Military personnel in the area along Admiralty Road close to what had been Sembawang Gate, which is still around; Masjid Naval Base which was close to the junction of Delhi Road and Canberra Road (since demolished); and the Church of Our Lady Star of the Sea (now in Yishun) at the corner where Canberra Road branched off from Sembawang Road. One that was in an obscure location – nestled in the wooded coastal kampung area to the east of what is today Sembawang Park, in the Malay Settlement, Kampong Tengah, established by the British to house Malay dockyard workers, the Masjid Petempatan Melayu, built from the 1960s right up to the 1970s when the bulk of it was completed, is also still around in a setting very much unchanged (except that the kampung around it has since deserted it), having been granted an extended lease of life on a temporary basis. What the future holds for the mosque, dubbed the “Last Kampung Mosque in Singapore”, no one really knows, as Mdm. Zaleha of the mosque’s management committee laments … Today, the mosque comes alive during the school holidays, with camps run by the mosque for Muslim schoolchildren being a popular activity. One of the participants of the walk thought that it would be a nice idea to set up a holiday campsite in the area for schoolchildren of other religions as well. Masjid Petempatan Melayu Sembawang – the last kampung mosque in a kampung setting. Mdm. Zaleha of the Mosque’s Management Committee speaking to two of the participants. Around the St. Andrew’s Church is the area dominated by the stately residences of the military personnel, many of which were built in the 1920s and 1930s as the Naval Base came up, both to the north of Admiralty Road all the way to the coast, and to the south towards Canberra Road. Many of the houses, referred to as “Black and White” houses for the way in which they are painted, are still there today, housing military personnel from the US Navy’s Logistics Base which now occupies part of what was the Stores Basin of the Naval Base just west of Sembawang Park. The former Stores Basin is also occupied in part by the Sembawang Wharves, run by the Port of Singapore Authority (PSA), established in the 1970s when it was vacated by the British. Sembawang Wharves had since been associated with timber, rubber and container imports, as well as being at one time one of the entry point for cars imported to Singapore. St. Andrew’s Church, built in 1963 for the British Military personnel and their families. Sembawang has a generous distribution of “Black and White” houses built in the 1920s and 1930s to house military personnel and their families. The Stores Basin seen in 1962 (source: http://www.singas.co.uk). Part of it is used as a US Navy Logistics Base and the rest is part of PSA’s northern gateway, Sembawang Wharves. In the cluster of Black and White houses south of the park, along Gibraltar Crescent, there is an interesting find – an entrance to a bunker engulfed by a Banyan Tree that has grown over it – a scene similar to that which greets a visitor at the ruins of the Ta Prohm temple complex in Siem Reap. Bunkers were commonly found nestled amongst the houses – most have been covered over now, including one at Gibraltar Crescent of which the only evidence left is a grass mound, as is one that used to greet the eye behind Beaulieu House. The entrance of a WWII bunker engulfed by a Banyan tree along Gibraltar Crescent. Another view of the bunker’s entrance. Speaking of Beaulieu House, it is one of a few buildings in the area with conservation status, having been granted that in 2005. Built as a seaside home of a wealthy plantation owner in the early 1900s, it was acquired by the British military as the Naval Base was being built, serving as a home for the engineers and later for senior naval officers and it is mentioned that from 1940 to 1942, an Admiral Geoffrey Layton, the Commander-in-Chief for Britain’s China station stayed at the house and the house was occupied by Senior Fleet Officers after the war. The URA’s write-up on the house mentions that the name was derived from a certain Admiral Beaulieu, a Chief of Staff of the Royal Navy, but makes no mention of whether he stayed there. Beaulieu House started life as a seaside home of a wealthy plantation owner, before being taken over by the British as the Naval Base was being constructed in the 1920s. Beaulieu House was included URA’s conservation list in 2005. Beaulieu House, overlooks what was referred to in the 1970s as the Mata Jetty, being located at the end of Mata Road, which took one past two Muslim graves at a bend under a tree close to the fence line of the former Stores Basin. The jetty brings with it many memories of the smell of rotting fish used as bait in square bamboo framed crab traps weighed down by lead weights wrapped at each of its four ends of the frame, tied to the jetty with nylon or raffia twine. What comes back as well to me are the burnt planks and the railing-less sides and end off which a car was driven off at high speed in 1975. The waters around the jetty were great for harvesting shrimps with butterfly nets while wading in the eel and puffer fish infested waters. The shrimps eyes stood out when a light was shone in the water and that enabled one with a quick hand to scoop them out with the net. These often ended up over an open fire which we often built on the beach – the smell of fresh seafood over the fire and the crackling sounds that accompanied them as they cooked are still fresh in my memory. Beaulieu House overlooks the Mata Jetty which was built in the 1940s and is today a popular jetty for fishing and crabbing. Other buildings in the area which have some form of conservation status include Old Admiralty House which has been gazetted as a National Monument in 2002, and the former Sembawang Fire Station which was given conservation status in 2007, both of which we did not visit due to physical limitations. Old Admiralty House on Old Nelson Road (just across Canberra Road from Sembawang MRT Station), a two-storey brick bungalow housed the Commodore, Malaya and Officer in Charge of His Majesty’s Naval Establishments in Singapore.Constructed in 1939, iIt was later used as was the official residence of the Commander-in-Chief, Far East Station from 1958 up until 1971, when it was named Admiralty House. The URA also provides some information on the former Sembawang Fire Station (which is now within the grounds of Sembawang Shipyard): “built in the 1930s, this two-storey concrete building is designed in a simplified Art Deco-Modern style and has an elegantly proportioned fire-hose tower. The building is a local landmark for both the Sembawang area and the Shipyard”. Admiralty House, built to house the Commodore Superintendent of the Dockyard and later used to house the Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Navy’s Far East Station was gazetted a National Monument in 2002. Another building with conservation status is the former Sembawang Fire Station built in the 1930s with its distinctive fire hose tower. The building is within the premises of Sembawang Shipyard. The last stop was perhaps the highlight for many, a visit to the site of the hot springs that has long been associated with the area. The hot springs, dubbed “Sembawang Hot Springs” was for much of my younger days, associated with the Seletaris bottling plant that came up in 1967 under a subsidiary of soft drink giant Fraser and Neave (F&N), Semangat Ayer Limited. The existence of the spring, based on a heritage guide published by the HDB and the National Heritage Board, had been known as far back as 1908 (which a book written by Song Ong Siang, “One Hundred Years of the Chinese in Singapore” puts as 1909), when a Municipal ranger called W. A. B. Goodall discovered it. The land owner, a certain Mr Seah Eng Keong proceeded to start bottling the water under the brand “Zombun” soon after, after he had established that it was safe to drink, establishing the Singapore Natural Mineral Hot Springs Company. F&N bought the company over in 1921 and bottled the water right up to the war under several brands which included “Zom”, “Salitaris”, “Singa Water” and “Vichy Water” until the Japanese Occupation, during which the Japanese built thermal baths in the area. This was destroyed during an allied bombing raid on Singapore in November 1942 which interrupted the flow of the spring water to the surface and on advise of a geologist after the war, F&N left the spring until flow was naturally restored in the 1960s. When Semangat Ayer’s bottling plant was established in 1967, there had actually been plans to build a spa in the area – but that never took off, and bottling continued until the 1980s, when the land on which the spring was on was acquired by the Government to build an airbase. That would have sounded the death knell for the hot spring and if not for an outcry from the local community, we might have seen the last of the only hot springs on mainland Singapore. A corridor was built in 2002 within the perimeter of the airbase along Gambas Avenue leading to a concrete base with standpipes which channel the spring water to taps, allowing the public use of the hot spring which is thought to have curative properties for several ailments. As several of the participants were to find out, the water which reported flows out at 65 degrees Celcius, does, based on its acrid smell, have some Sulphur content which is said to be useful for the treatment of skin problems. Sembawang Hot Springs was the source of Seletaris – a brand of mineral water bottled by F&N’s subsidiary, Semangat Ayer Limited up to the 1980s (source: http://www.picas.nhb.gov.sg). The visit to the hot springs brought back memories of another part of Sembawang that I was fond of, one that was accessible through a road Jalan Ulu Sembawang that lay at the back of what is now the Seletaris Condominium complex, developed by F&N on the site of part of what had been the Seletaris Bottling plant. A little stub of the road is still left, but no more than that. The road had once provided access to a vast area of farmland and fishing ponds – rising up onto a crest of a hilly area that overlooked what had seemed like rolling plains of vegetable farms. My father had in the 1970s and 1980s been fond of driving along the road just for that view … one that I remember as being one of the most picturesque in Singapore. The road lead to the Lorong Gambas and Mandai area which many who did National Service in the 1970s and 1980s would remember for the training areas they contained. Like much of what was around Sembawang, that is now lost, as is the large Chong Pang village that dominated much of the are south of the Naval Base which was demolished in 1989 after residents moved out in 1986 or so. Much of the area now occupied by the new Sembawang HDB estate. The plot of land where the heart of Chong Pang was, the roundabout near which the Sultan Theatre stood and where some of the best food in Singapore could be found, still lies empty, with plans to build a sports complex over the area. While that has gone, there are still many reminders that remain – particularly the areas on which the Black and White houses are located, the jetty and of course the old kampung mosque. There are also some reminders of the traditions that existed, the stream (albeit a smaller one) of bicycles heading down Canberra Road being one … and there is the most colourful one of all – the procession of kavadis that still make its way down once a year … on a different route, but one that reminds us of what Sembawang is all about, beyond that apparent slumber. The Ulu Sembawang area was very scenic with its rolling slopes of vegetable farms (source: http://www.picas.nhb.gov.sg).. The area was also home to several fishing ponds (source: http://www.picas.nhb.gov.sg). Tags: ANZUK Forces, Beaulieu House, Britsih Pullout, Bunker Engulfed by a Banyan Tree, Canberra Gate, Canberra Road, Cheap John's, Chong Pang Village, Church of Our Lady Star of the Sea, Coastal Villages, Crabbing, Dockyard, Fishing, Fishing Ponds, Gambas Avenue, Gibraltar Crescent, Graving Dock, Hindu Practices in Singapore, Hinduism, HM Dockyard, Holy Tree Sri Balasubramaniar Temple, Jalan Ulu Sembawang, Kampong Lobang Bom, Kampong Tanjong Irau, Kampong Tengah, Kampong Wak Hassan, Kavadi, KG6 Dock, King George VI Dock, Lim Nee Soon, Lorong Gambas, Malay Villages, Malayalee Community in Singapore, Masjid Naval Base, Masjid Petempatan Melayu Sembawang, Mata Jetty, Milk Pots, Naval Base Cinema, Naval Base Singapore, Naval Dockyard, Nelson Bar, NZ Force SEA, Old Admiralty House, Old Singapore, Panguni Uthiram, Rubber Plantations, Salitaris, Seletaris, Sembawang, Sembawang Beyond the Slumber, Sembawang End, Sembawang Fire Station, Sembawang Gate, Sembawang Hot Springs, Sembawang Park, Sembawang Road, Sembawang Shipyard, Sembawang Village, Singapore, St. Andrew's Community Church, Stores Basin, Sultan Theatre, Sungei Sembawang, The Strip, Ulu Sembawang, Vegetable Farms, Vichy Water, Yishun Industrial Park A, Zom, Zombun Categories : Architecture, Forgotten Buildings, Forgotten Places, From the backseat of a car, Growing Up, History, National Library Board, Reminders of Yesterday, Road Journeys, Sembawang, Sembawang Public Library, Ships, Shipyards, Significant Moments in Time, Singapore, Things I loved about Singapore, Traditions	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line848
__label__wiki	0.523435	0.523435	Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Extreme Measures (Review) Extreme Measures is the closest thing to a standalone story within this epic ten-part conclusion to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. All of the other episodes carry over plot threads and subplots that either develop existing narratives or set-up future twists. This is true even of the more self-contained chapters: When It Rains… and Tacking Into the Wind are something of a two-parter in the middle of the arc, but they pick up in the wake of The Changing Face of Evil; although The Dogs of War has a self-contained subplot focusing on the Ferengi, it deals with baggage from Extreme Measures while setting up What You Leave Behind. “Well, Miles. If you think it’ll make the episode go easier.” In contrast, Extreme Measures is practically a bottle show. With the exception of a short one-scene appearance from Garak, Extreme Measures is devoid of the recurring guest stars that populate this final run of episodes. Although Damar and Martok are mentioned, neither Casey Biggs nor J.G. Hertzler appear. Perhaps glad of a week off before his double duty on The Dogs of War, Jeffrey Combs is entirely absent. There is no guest appearance from Louise Fletcher, Marc Alaimo, James Darren, Barry Jenner or Salome Jens. Indeed, Extreme Measures is very precisely focused on the single story that it wants to tell. Most episodes in this final stretch of the final season have at least two or three plots running through them: Penumbra focuses on the loss of Worf, on Sisko’s retirement plans, on Damar’s growing unease; When It Rains… features the plotting of Dukat and Winn, the development of Damar’s rebellion, and the threat to the Alliance posed by Gowron; The Dogs of War witnesses Ferengi succession, the plan for the invasion of Cardassia, the implosion of Damar’s rebellion. Journey to the Centre of Sloan’s Mind. There is so much happening across these ten episodes that it feels strange that Extreme Measures can effectively call a timeout on these recurring plot threads. There are references to the Breen weapon and the Cardassian rebellion, to the ascension of Chancellor Martok and to Bashir’s lingering attraction to Ezri. However, Extreme Measures is an episode without a b-plot or a c-plot. The episode is driven entirely by its primary narrative, the story of how Julian Bashir and Miles O’Brien embark on one last adventure together. There is something surreal, and almost endearing, about the fact that Deep Space Nine feels comfortable taking time out from its most ambitious experiment with serialisation to make the journey to the centre of Sloan’s mind. “Julian, are you sure you haven’t been watching too much Star Trek: Voyager?” Filed under: Deep Space Nine \| Tagged: Arc, Bashir, bradley thompson, david weddle, friendship, O'BRIEN, section 31, sloan, star trek, star trek: deep space nine \| 4 Comments » Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Hard Time (Review) This February and March, we’re taking a look at the 1995 to 1996 season of Star Trek, including Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager. Check back daily Tuesday through Friday for the latest review. Hard Time is a fantastic (and vastly underrated) episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The episode tends to get overlooked in discussions about the fourth season of Deep Space Nine, perhaps owing to the high average quality of the season or the fact that it arrives in the middle of what is admittedly the season’s weakest run of episodes. However, in spite of all that, Hard Time is an exemplary piece of Deep Space Nine. It is certainly the best of the series’ “O’Brien must suffer” episodes, and a showcase for Star Trek veteran Colm Meaney. In its exploration of trauma and recovery, and cycles of violence, it taps into the heart of the show. Not phased in the slightest… That said, Hard Time arrives at a point where Deep Space Nine is nudging closer and closer to serialisation. The show has begun to embrace long-form storytelling, as evidenced by the ripple effect of the changes to the status quo in The Way of the Warrior and the way that little plot threads weave through the season. The show has not yet reached the point at which it can structure six- or ten-episode arcs, but it is getting close. Deep Space Nine is clearly moving towards what is (for Star Trek at least) a fairly novel style of television storytelling. As such, Hard Time is particularly striking for the fact that it is a purely episodic adventure. The episode puts Miles O’Brien through hell, having him struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder while trying to reintegrate into society. This is the kind of plot that feels more suited to a long-running mini-arc than Worf and Dax’s arguments about the relative merits of bladed weapons or Worf’s decision to move to the Defiant. Instead, O’Brien’s trauma is dealt with over the course of a single episode. Hard Time plays as a defence of the tradition television episode structure. Growing the beard… Filed under: Deep Space Nine \| Tagged: colm meaney, consequences, deep space nine, episodic storytelling, O'BRIEN, ptsd, serialisation, star trek, star trek: deep space nine, Television, trauma \| 15 Comments » Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Hippocratic Oath (Review) Posted on February 5, 2016 by Darren Hippocratic Oath represents a return to normality for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The Way of the Warrior was a feature-length war epic tasked with introducing a new regular character and a new status quo, while The Visitor was an intimate character study that stood quite apart from the show around it. With Hippocratic Oath, the show gets back to business as usual. It even has a classic a-story/b-story split with Bashir and O’Brien’s Gamma Quadrant hijinx juxtaposed with Worf learning his place on the station (and the show). This is not to suggest that Hippocratic Oath is a bland hour of Star Trek. Indeed, it is a tightly-constructed story that hits on some of the show’s core themes and most interesting dynamics. One of the problems with the third season of Deep Space Nine was the fact that it had a strong start but no idea on how to build from that. Hippocratic Oath seems to serve very much as a “business as usual” episode of the fourth season, helping to set a baseline of quality of the show going forward. Awkward bromantic moment… Filed under: Deep Space Nine \| Tagged: Bashir, bridge on the river kwai, Dominion, episodic, Guilt, Jem'Hadar, klingons, O'BRIEN, serialisation, soldier, star trek, star trek: deep space nine, the bridge on the river kwai, war, Worf \| 19 Comments » Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Shakaar (Review) This September and October, we’re taking a look at the jam-packed 1994 to 1995 season of Star Trek, including Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager. Check back daily for the latest review. There are really two versions of Shakaar. There is the episode that Shakaar very clearly wants to be. It’s intended to offer Kira a bit of closure, following on from the events of Life Support. It’s very clearly meant to explore Kira’s grieving process and to allow her to come to terms with the loss she suffered. After all, the episode opens establishing that Kira still mourns Bareil, while the episode closes with Kira extinguishing the memorial candle she lit for him. (Which does invite the audience to wonder if it was burning the whole time she was on Bajor.) Carrying a torch… As such, it makes sense to offer Kira an opportunity to get back to her roots – to suggest that Kira might secretly want to return to the relative simplicity of a rebel fighter resisting an oppressive government; fighting a war is a lot less complex than navigating the peace. Kira’s reunion with the Shakaar Resistance Cell is meant to offer her a way to escape into something comfortable, to avoid moving forward; because moving forward is tough and painful. Shakaar should be about Kira learning that she has to push forward. It should be a companion piece to Progress. The episode can’t quite manage this. Instead, we end up with an episode about how Kira gets swept off her feet by a dashing hunk of a man – an episode that leaves the viewer with the unfortunate implication that Kira only needed to find another weirdly paternal man to help her get past the death of the man she loved. Shakaar is an episode with a host of interesting ideas, but isn’t quite sure how to best bring those ideas to the screen. You Winn some, you lose some… Filed under: Deep Space Nine \| Tagged: Bajor, bajoran politics, bajoran resistance, church and state, deep space nine, ds9, duncan regehr, kai winn, Kira, Kira Nerys, Louise Fletcher, major kira, Nana Visitor, O'BRIEN, shakaar, shakaar resistance cell, Sisko, star trek, star trek: deep space nine, Winn \| 6 Comments » Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Visionary (Review) Posted on October 2, 2014 by Darren Visionary confirms that “O’Brien must suffer” is to become an annual tradition on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The second season of the show had made a good start with episodes like Whispers and – to a lesser extent – Armageddon Game, but Visionary confirms that this will really be O’Brien’s niche in the ensemble from this point on. Visionary sees O’Brien randomly jumping forward through time, inevitably glimpsing some horrible tragedy that must be avoided. (Boy, it sure is lucky that he started jumping at this point, isn’t it?) Visionary should feel contrived and convenient, hinging on a pretty flimsy plot hook. That said, the episode ultimately works quite well, even if it doesn’t stand out as a classic piece of Star Trek. Watching Visionary, there’s very much a sense that Visionary only really works as well as it does because Deep Space Nine has built up a larger mythology of characters and long-form plotting that can support what might otherwise be a fairly flimsy premise. “Why the hell doesn’t this ever happen to Julian?!” Filed under: Deep Space Nine \| Tagged: deep space nine, destiny, Dominion, ds9, future, klingons, O'BRIEN, o'brien must suffer, romulans, star trek: deep space nine, time travel, visionary, wormhole \| 5 Comments » Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – House of Quark (Review) Posted on September 3, 2014 by Darren The September and October, we’re taking a look at the jam-packed 1994 to 1995 season of Star Trek, including Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager. Check back daily for the latest review. House of Quark is a delightful episode that probably does a better job of setting the tone for the third season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine than The Search. As much as the Dominion were introduced as “a big deal” and clearly intended to change the show’s status quo, the third season does very little with them. There are a few mentions here and there, a late-season two-parter, two scattered episodes looking at aspects of the Dominion, and a series finalé, but they don’t drive the third season as much as one might expect, or as much as they drive the fifth through seventh seasons. In contrast, House of Quark is a decidedly irreverent look at the world of Star Trek, a decidedly cynical perspective on one of the franchise’s sacred cows – a downright subversive exploration of something that the franchise takes for granted. A knife story, there, Quark… Filed under: Deep Space Nine \| Tagged: deep space nine, Ferengi, house of quark, keiko, klingons, Marriage, O'BRIEN, romance, ronald d. moore, star trek: deep space nine \| 5 Comments » Star Trek: The Next Generation – The Icarus Factor (Review) This January and February, we’ll be finishing up our look at the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation and moving on to the third year of the show, both recently and lovingly remastered for high definition. Check back daily for the latest review. The Icarus Factor is a character-driven story. At least, it wants to be a character-driven story. The problem is that Star Trek: The Next Generation hasn’t reached the point where it can really do character-driven storytelling with a measure of consistence. (The fact that Picard confronting his future failures in Time Squared worked was more down to Patrick Stewart than the episode’s script.) The Icarus Factor is a story focusing on Riker as a character, and it suffers from the fact that Riker hasn’t really been well-defined to date. We’re repeatedly told that he’s ambitious and career-driven, but most his on-screen characterisation has fluctuated between reckless, jerkish and horny. So The Icarus Factor tries to compensate by giving Riker the most generic back story possible for a lead male character on a television show. This is the story of Riker’s daddy issues. Somehow, this image just sums up Riker as a character… Filed under: The Next Generation \| Tagged: Deanna Troi, Icarus Factor, Joe Menosky, Katherine Pulaski, Klingon, Miles O'Brien, O'BRIEN, patrick stewart, Riker, Star Trek Next Generation, Time Squared, Troi, William Riker, Worf \| 3 Comments » Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Tribunal (Review) Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is twenty years old this year. To celebrate, I’m taking a look at the first and second seasons. Check back daily for the latest review or retrospective. Tribunal is probably the weakest episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in quite some time, hampered by the fact that it never seems too ambitious and the fact that the episode ends because we’re three minutes away from the closing credits rather than because it feels like the story has been told. Tribunal is hardly the deepest or most sophisticated episode of the show’s second season, spending most of its time riffing on Kafka and Orwell, but it’s still solidly entertaining – a rare example of black comedy on Star Trek that works surprisingly well. I suspect the biggest problem with Tribunal is where it’s placed. The second season of Deep Space Nine has been hitting it out of the park since around Blood Oath, giving us the strongest run of episodes we’d see until the start of the fourth season. Indeed, had the show found its groove a little bit earlier, the second season of Deep Space Nine could have been on par with the third season of Star Trek: The Next Generation as “that season the show found its groove.” However, it remains an impressive run of episodes, a rallying of the show in the last third of the season, showing just what Deep Space Nine was capable of. Most of the episodes in that run felt very different from anything done on The Next Generation and most offered some major insight into how the world of Deep Space Nine works as distinct from the rest of the franchise. A broad cast of characters… Filed under: Deep Space Nine \| Tagged: Armageddon Game, Bajoran, Benjamin Sisko, Cardassia, Cardassian, crime, deep space nine, Kira Nerys, Miles O'Brien, O'BRIEN, Recreation, star trek iv the voyage home, Star Trek Next Generation, Star Trek Original Series, star trek vi: the undiscovered country, star trek: deep space nine, Star Trek:Deep Space Nine, StarTrek \| 2 Comments » Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Paradise (Review) In a really weird way, this second half of the second season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine really has its finger on the pulse of the nineties. Whispers tapped into pre-millennial anxiety, the sort of paranoia that fed into shows like The X-Files and would play itself out through the show’s admittedly underdeveloped “Changeling” arc. In a few episodes, The Maquis will play with the old “freedom fighter/terrorist” debate in a way that was only really possible in an America completely at peace, post-Cold War but pre-9/11. Paradise taps into some other anxieties. According to The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, writer Jim Trombetta was heavily influenced by the anti-technology philosophy of the Khmer Rouge, the infamous regime where even the stereotypical signs of learning and education (for example, wearing glasses) were justification for execution. However, whatever the inspiration, Paradise seems to tap into something decidedly more contemporary. “This is my boom stick!” Filed under: Deep Space Nine \| Tagged: Chellis Glendinning, deep space nine, Game, Luddite, Michael Ansara, O'BRIEN, Sisko, star trek, star trek: deep space nine, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, star trek: voyager, StarTrek, Ted Kaczynski, United States, Wild Oats Markets \| 2 Comments » Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Whispers (Review) You could make a credible argument that each of the first three Star Trek shows beautifully encapsulated their time and place. The original show was the very embodiment of the sixties zeitgeist, providing a channel for commentary and insight into counter-culture and the Vietnam War, and an outlet for various fixations and phobias. Star Trek: The Next Generation was a show that spoke to a version of America which was emerging from the Cold War, a clean and sterile morning for a new America. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was positioned somewhat strangely, as the idealism and enthusiasm of the early nineties gave way to paranoia and insecurity. If the hyperreal technicolour production values of the original Star Trek spoke to the energy and enthusiasm sixties, then the drab grey Orwellian design of Deep Space Nine was a reflection of the late nineties. Whispers is really the first time that the show has pushed its sense of paranoia to the fore, and it confirms that Deep Space Nine will be a show of its time, anchored in the nineties. It’s all a bit askew… Filed under: Deep Space Nine \| Tagged: Cold War, cynicism, deep space nine, games, Lance Parkin, Next Generation, O'BRIEN, Philip K. Dick, star trek, Star Trek Next Generation, star trek: deep space nine, star trek: the next generation, StarTrek, Ted Kaczynski, x-files \| 12 Comments »	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line849
__label__wiki	0.527848	0.527848	Millennial Democrats Dialectic for Democrats. Our side of the issues. MD DissectFake Millennial Op-Ed Check out TeraHemp.com! Scholarly Reference Contact MD The Difference of a Decade- Joy Reid’s Apology. Joy Reid, the popular host of MSNBC’s weekend show AM Joy, has recently been under fire. Newly uncovered blog posts published on her now-defunct blog, the Reid Report, took a mocking tone toward people in the LGBTQ community in the mid-to-late 2000s. The comments do not bear repeating, so we won’t repeat them; suffice it to say, they required a sincere apology. Her first reaction upon seeing the old posts was that her blog had been hacked and defaced, a suspicion that seems natural after all that’s taken place since 2016. This could not be proven, however, so she retracted the claim, responsibly admitting that she doesn’t really know what happened. She may have said those things. So Joy unreservedly made the apology. She explained that she grew up in a household that had conservative views on the LGBTQ community. A lot of us did. This does not excuse hurtful speech, but it identifies an individual’s upbringing as its point of origin. Her apology has been largely accepted, and she is being supported by many in the LGBT community. She also hosted a panel with LGBTQ activists about the blog posts and took accountability for them face to face. And she apologized for newly resurfaced tweets in which she made transphobic remarks that suggested conservative pundit Ann Coulter is a man. People of all ages are products of their environment. We are influenced by the times in which we grow up. The whole country has evolved regarding LGBTQ issues. Even Barack Obama evolved on the issue, going from supporting only Civil Unions in his early years to fully support same-sex marriage, and sending his Department of Justice in to help convince the Supreme Court to rule so. Five years ago gay marriage was still a long way off, and issues like bathrooms for transgender persons hadn’t fully made it onto the American radar. The general attitudes of society towards these people and their needs was negative for a long time. The state of affairs was a travesty, but it was also the way things were. Fortunately for everyone, that is changing more and more every year. People have at least started down the road to knowing better these days, and that clearly includes Joy Reid. She’s a strong leader, one of the left’s most powerful and recognizable voices. She has used that voice to help people. No way are we going to throw her under the bus over nasty remarks made years ago. We’ll stick up for those who have stuck up for us. We still remember what was done to Al Franken. The point to emphasize is that she has recognized her past comments as being insensitive and she has made clear that is not how she feels today. Millennial Democrats have been fortunate enough to grow up in a world where these sorts of issues are being worked on and improved. Things were very different for our parents and teachers in older generations of Americans, and that becomes truer the further back you go. In 2016, when the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states, Barack Obama spoke these words, hours after the high court’s decision was announced. “Progress on this journey often comes in small increments, sometimes two steps forward, one step back.” These kinds of things are going to come out over time, and we have to make sure that we don’t let the enemy split the left or pick off our leaders using them. We are all in this together, and we are going to make mistakes sometimes. Joy’s apology makes the point very well. “I have not been exempt from being dumb or cruel or hurtful to the very people I want to advocate for,” she said on Saturday. “I own that. For that, I am truly, truly sorry.” “I’m hoping, out of all of this, there’s an opportunity to talk about the ways in which hurtful speech really does imperil marginalized communities,” Reid said. We’ll be heading forward in that direction. themillennialdemocrats Culture, Millennial Op-Ed, Politics and Current Events 1 Comment April 30, 2018 April 30, 2018 3 Minutes The Choice Is Clear, Missouri- Re-Elect Senator Claire McCaskill! Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill is up for reelection, and the Republican Party of Missouri is in turmoil. McCaskill’s likely Republican opponent, state Attorney General Josh Hawley, has been embroiled in a worsening sexual scandal involving the Governor of Missouri, Eric Greitens. In February, Greitens was indicted for having allegedly forced a violent sexual encounter with a former lover. Then he made it clear he’d refuse to resign. His decision was not altered even after the release of an investigative report by a House investigatory committee. In response to that report, Hawley made a statement which was filled with high indignity and moral outrage. He called on Greitens to “resign immediately” and stated flatly that the conduct described in the report was “certainly impeachable.” Greitens fired back by seeking a restraining order against Hawley, and the two of them are now well into a worsening feud. But they used to be friends. Back in 2016, Hawley accepted a $50,000 campaign contribution from Greitens. In his capacity as Attorney General, he turned a blind eye to Greitens’ use of a charity donor list for over a year. He decided to investigate only when the Governor became a political liability. Even so, he gave the St. Louis Circuit Attorney less than four days to file charges. It’s very convenient for Josh Hawley to go after Greitens now that the former is making a Senate run and the other a political liability. This fact did not escape the notice of Claire McCaskill, who is one of the Senate’s brightest and toughest people. On Wednesday, she tweeted her opinion that the governor should resign, and it wasn’t long before someone else did too. “As soon as I called for his resignation, I anticipated Hawley would,” McCaskill said, and Hawley did. Eleven minutes later. Thursday morning, McCaskill held court with reporters just outside the U.S. Senate chamber, and she broke it down very well. “Listen, there’s one thing that’s very clear: Josh Hawley ran for office saying he was going to clean up public corruption,” she said. “This doesn’t sound like the guy who ran for office saying he was going to clean up public corruption. This sounds like somebody who’s hiding under his desk.” Hawley’s own record regarding women’s issues is far from admirable. In December he made a speech in which he blamed the sexual revolution for the rise in sex trafficking. Another sign of Hawley’s hypocrisy is that he and Greitens are directly connected by the donor list of Chicago-area businessman Richard Uihlein, whose donor list seems to create a pattern. Recently the super-PAC Club for Growth Action Missouri filed an FEC report showing that it has raised $2 million to help Hawley’s Senate bid. All of that money came from one donor, Richard Uihlein, who also donated to Eric Greitens. Another guy Uihlein donated a lot of money to was alleged sexual predator Roy Moore. As with ex-convict Don Blankenship’s run for Senate in West Virginia, this is a good example of a Republican race to the bottom. Scandals, allegations of sexual abuse, and endless coverups are the ties that bind the Republican leadership to the 45th president of America. America can do better, and the path ahead is clear. Vote a straight Democratic ticket, in 2018, 2020, and every other year. themillennialdemocrats Culture, Politics and Current Events Leave a comment April 28, 2018 2 Minutes Too Far Right- Why It’s Best When The GOP Nominates Their Worst. For the last several decades, Republican politicians have moved steadily further right, and never has this been so true as now. Candidates of heightening extremity dominate the GOP playing field. They are nominating the wrong candidates all over the country, such as ex-convict Don Blankenship in West Virginia. After the election of our 45th President, the strategy of many Republican politicians has depended a great deal on how deeply they can demonstrate their adherence to his destructive policies. This has backfired badly. The strategy of embracing Trump has torn a rift among Republicans. Radical candidates selected from the far-right have not endeared themselves to moderates, who are largely either voting Democratic or staying home on election day. A historic example of the effect that this is having was illustrated recently in Alabama, where Doug Jones became the first Democratic candidate to hold that office in decades. Nominating alleged sexual predator Roy Moore cost the GOP that Senate seat. In Tennessee, Bob Corker is retiring, and current GOP frontrunner Rep. Marsha Blackburn has made it a point to emphasize her far-right extremism. “I’m politically incorrect and proud of it,” she says in her announcement video. That is why former Gov. Phil Bredesen has a 10-point lead in the polls. And in Arizona, the notorious anti-immigrant former Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Kelli Ward may well defeat the mainstream Republican candidate, Martha McSally. This will give better odds to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema in the general election, to be held November 6th. In West Virginia, local Republicans are well down the road to hamstringing their own chances. They have only to vote for Don Blankenship as the Republican candidate for Senate in the 2018 Republican primary– and he’s polling stronger all the time. The aforementioned race is a terrible tangle, in which three leading figures-all of whom hate each other- are engaged in an ugly and intensifying contest, to see who will be the one to challenge the Democratic incumbent, our guy Joe Manchin. The three of them are 3rd District Congressman Evan Jenkins, state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, and former Massey Energy CEO, Don Blankenship. Jenkins and Morrisey are a couple of highly typical Republican candidates who have characterized their running of the race by attacking each other’s records and competing to see who is the most in line with Trump. Because the area they’re in swings so far to the right, both will be likely to give Manchin a hard race. But Blankenship should be different. He has very little chance to win a general election due to the particulars of his situation, i.e. he is the only candidate to have recently been in a federal prison. He served a year on charges stemming from the 2010 explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine that killed 29 men in Southern West Virginia. It was the deadliest U.S. mine disaster in four decades. The point to hammer home is this- Nominating Blankenship will hamstring the GOP’s chances to control that seat. These are all examples of a Republican race to the bottom, where the candidates are engaged in a contest, to see who can be the most extreme in emulating the Republican President. Blankenship, having been out of prison less than a year, is particularly a no-brainer, but these sorts of candidates and scandals are popping up everywhere. They make the Republicans look awful and cripple their chances. The clearest evidence for this is the Blue Wave sweeping the country. Politifact says that as of February 39 seats have been recaptured by the Democrats. All of this can only help the Democratic Party, as we fight to win back control of the Congress in the 2018 midterm elections. themillennialdemocrats Culture, Politics and Current Events 1 Comment April 23, 2018 April 23, 2018 2 Minutes Republicans DREAD The Blue Wave! Expect Them To Fight Dirty. 2018 is shaping up to be a historic year for the Democratic Party. We’ve got all the momentum in the world. The Blue Wave gets stronger every day. The Republicans just announced a budget of $250 million for the midterms, to try and stave it off. This is why now is the time for us to be very careful, and keep our eyes open for Republican dirty tricks. The Republicans have nothing else to offer. Right now, the primaries are going smooth, in spite of various attempts at disruption, but the closer we get to midterms, the more likely it’s going to be that they find ways to drop bombs on us. Remember the Brooks Brothers riot? In 2000, during the Bush-Gore recount, hundreds of paid GOP operatives led by prideful dirtbag Roger Stone caused a “near riot” outside a counting room in Miami-Dade County, forcing the canvassing board to shut down the count. That one’s a bit aged at this point, although still quite vivid for me; a little more recent an example might be made of the recall election for the governorship of Wisconsin, back in 2012. Voters across the state were receiving robocalls telling them that if they had already signed a petition to recall Scott Walker, they did not need to get out and vote. Those things are bad enough, but often this even gets personal; they will literally walk in your front door. One example involves Karl Rove‘s brief tenure in the Democratic Party. At age 19, he was the protege of Donald Segretti of Watergate fame- the guy who coined the term “ratfcking, as in, fcking a DemocRAT”. In the fall election season of 1970, a bespectacled and fresh-faced teenager turned up at the Chicago campaign headquarters of Alan Dixon, a Democrat running for state treasurer in Illinois. He had a few drinks and left- but not before stealing some of Dixon’s letterheaded stationery. It took some time to put it together, when 1,000 invitations on campaign stationery began circulating in Chicago’s red-light district and soup kitchens, promising “free beer, free food, girls and a good time for nothing” guaranteed for anyone who showed up at Dixon’s headquarters. Hundreds of the city’s heavy drinkers and homeless turned up at his reception, looking for booze and an orgy. The teenager who stole those letterheads was key GOP strategist Karl Rove, and the incident marked the beginning of a long and illustrious career of being the biggest scumbag he could be. Was Rove able to do this because he is a genius? Not quite. He simply knew that as Democrats, we are honor bound to take in everyone. We take people in, and we hold them dear, and we stand up for each other. This is our greatest strength. But, as with anything, it gives an opening to the opposition, people who are cutthroats and criminals of the highest order. People do what Rove did to the Dixon campaign back then all the time. They pretend to be our friends, hang out with us for a while, and then bail for no reason or on an extremely thin and shady pretense. Both during and after the election, anecdotally speaking, I can remember a number of different relationships that suddenly went south for no reason. I also recall a number of trusted people who suddenly switched sides during the election, at the worst possible time. Knowing what we do now about what the Russians and Republicans were doing, it seems very possible those incidents were part of a coordinated effort to spread rancor and distrust. They certainly were divisive at the time. You don’t stab your own people in the back. Another example manifested in the post-election days, a time when interest in politics is usually very low. In all the Facebook groups in our network, after the election was over, we all started getting hundreds and hundreds of new member requests, every day, from profiles that had thousands of group memberships, etc. One source, who has screened new member requests for several dozen pro-Democratic Party Facebook groups since before the election began, made the following statement, under the conditions of anonymity. “From mid-May 2017 to the end of July 2017, roughly 80% of the new member request were rabidly pro-Bernie Sanders supporters with profiles that appeared to be hijacked from the real owners or that were simply fake accounts. They seemed to have been created for the purpose of loading them up with pro-Sanders, anti-Democratic Party fake news to be spread by computer generation across Facebook.” People from as diverse a location as Brussels, Wales, Provo, Utah, and “General Location, Russia” have tried to hack the blog. I get emails on them from all over the world. This is nothing new, it’s an everyday event. My Sucuri plugin lets me know their IP addresses. It looks just like this: An example of a turd who tried to hack us. Then, we go to a place called WhatismyIPaddress.com, and take a look at where they’re from. It looks a lot like this: All of this is meant to illustrate that this is the time to be really careful. Stuff can come up until the very last minute that’s a total game changer. For an example that’s been in the news recently, look no further than the “November surprise” handed to the Republicans by James Comey in 2016. That did a lot to cost HRC the election. Safeguarding the Blue Wave is our lot. That’s what we’re here to do. We’ve got to build it, grow it, guide it, and stop jealous neighbors from poisoning its waters. So long as we do a good job at that, the Republicans can never hope to beat us. Hillary Clinton Nails It At Women Of the World Summit! Thank You, HRC. Hillary Clinton has still got it. Recently she gave a speech at Rutgers University. Her support for the cause was so strong that she all but spoke there for free. Public interest was so gigantic that it had to be moved to a larger venue in response to initial demand, that the 6,500 available tickets were snapped up in 30 minutes, and that at the time of the speech’s start time more than 3,000 people were on a waitlist hoping they might get in. This has been the strongest possible sign of the deep respect and love that Democrats hold dear for the Clintons. Center Democrats in their style have swept the country in a Blue Wave representative of all that we reject about Donald Trump. She is still the single greatest asset the DNC has to count on. This as compared to the consistent failures enjoyed by far-left splinter groups, such as the Bernie Sanders-inspired political action committee, Our Revolution. One by one, the candidates endorsed by the extreme socialists have lost all their elections and primaries. It is clear as day which branch of the party the people have chosen, and because of this, it will probably be a very long time before we mention these people again. They are not news, and we harbor no wish to help them stay relevant. Hillary spoke again at the Ida B. Wells Legacy Committee in Chicago, on April 13th. She was the keynote speaker at the Women of the World Summit meeting, which was designed to serve as a voice for New Yorkers in the aftermath of #MeToo. The panel-based event at Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater focused on a variety of crucial women’s issues, spanning from pay inequality to sexual misconduct to human trafficking. Afterwards, Tina Brown, the event founder, summed it up with a new career suggestion for the former presidential candidate. “That was amazing, like brain sex. You’ve found your next career, Hillary,” she said, implying a future talk show. “Brain Sex with Hillary Clinton.” At this event, HRC blew it out of the water every time she spoke, but she chose not to dominate the conversation, rather acting mostly as a guide and allowing the younger women to develop their own ideas. Wise elders know that they need to give their pupils firm guidance, but also plenty of room to grow; this Millennial Democrats contributor has been fortunate enough to have wonderful teachers. To our parents and mentors, the baby boomers, I will simply say thank you. And that is exactly what America is starting to say to Hillary Clinton, who has been a great teacher to us all. “We do have an election in November this year,” she said at the Ida B. Wells Legacy Committee. “There are lessons we can all take away. When you are confronting the potential loss of the values you care about: your freedom, your equality. Do not be quiet. Do not stop talking. Do not stop voting. Do not give in to those whose views are opposite of yours. Keep the conversation going to make sure strong men don’t send us back. We’re not going.” U.S. And Allies Strike Syria- The Importance Of Law. Great Britain and France joined the United States in launching strikes against targets at three sites in Syria in the early hours of Saturday morning, the latest chapter in a years-long civil war that has drawn in half a dozen countries. “I ordered the United States armed forces to launch precision strikes on targets associated with the chemical weapon capabilities of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad,” Trump said late Friday at the White House. The strikes were launched at 9 p.m. ET. It was nighttime. Photos showed missiles streaking over the night sky in Syria, and witnesses told CNN they heard explosions in Damascus, as Trump was making his address. The key thing to remember here is that in this case, it doesn’t matter who the President is. No U.S. President would have done anything else. Those strikes were earned, by the conduct of Assad. It’s important to realize we’ve got to stand by our nation, even if the current President isn’t competent. From a military and strategic perspective, the strikes were actually not a bad idea. The situation demanded an unequivocal response. They sent a message that chemical attacks on human beings will not be tolerated in our world. However, the rule of law dictates that the president take heed of the fact that Congress needed to authorize the strikes. The president does not have the power to do this on his own. This whole thing is about the importance of law. Respecting it, obeying it, maintaining the spirit of it. That is why chemical weapons are not allowed in the first place. That is why, when Assad gassed his own people the first time, in 2013, President Obama asked for a Congressional Resolution before hitting Syria. Obama canceled his planned airstrikes in 2013 because congressional leaders refused to call a vote on it- all the while ripping him to shreds for not acting. A few Republicans and more Democrats demanded Trump seek authority for future missile strikes from Congress, which under the Constitution and the 1973 War Powers Resolution is required to approve military action. Unbelievably, Susan Sarandon tweeted an article about Hillary calling to bomb Syrian airfields. As if to say, “see? Hillary and Trump are the same! A quick word as to the difference; HRC called for the air strike to prevent Assad from dropping sarin gas. Trump just randomly lashed out. The lack of attention to law paid by our President cast a disturbing light on the incident; also disturbing is that Trump tweeted out that he was going to do it. He, in essence, warned the Russians. France and the UK did not telegraph their intentions, for reasons of unsound military strategy. A number of tweets popped up, saying Russian troops moved out before the strikes happened. Why is a US president working with France and Britain, yet signaling to Russia our every move? One wonders what England has to say about that. Putin clearly has something on Trump, and it’s hard to think that this can all go on right alongside everything else without the two incidents crossing paths. Mike Pompeo was boasting last week that in February, U.S. troops “killed a couple hundred Russians“, after a company of them crossed over the Euphrates, but it’s troubling they felt strong enough to try. Putin knows his economy is roughly that of Italy’s; it makes you wonder, what he thinks his leverage is worth. Regarding Russia, the Pentagon’s fear, all along, has not been of their actual strength, but rather that Putin is getting old and sloppy and might be emboldened into making a fatal misstep. And when he started threatening to attack our bases, if we did fire any missiles, it started reminding me of the Cuban Missile Crisis in the 60’s. Millennials, this is how our parents must have felt, back in the day. Going forward, we’ll be keeping a close eye on this and reporting on how it develops. For all those who live in dark times such as these, the task is given to spread light around all we can, and to bear witness for future generations. This is the news, after all, and will soon be part of history. These are our times, and this is our battle. We will raise awareness, and stay alert. Just like Bert the Turtle. themillennialdemocrats Culture, Politics and Current Events, World Leave a comment April 15, 2018 April 15, 2018 3 Minutes Blue Wave, Red Trough- World Comes Down on Trump and GOP. Donald Trump and the Republican Party are both in full meltdown. Over the course of this chaotic week, we have seen just about everything go wrong for these people. It was not even five full days ago that the FBI raided the office, home and hotel room of Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s personal attorney. Since then, CNN Editor-at-Large Chris Cillizza has pointed out that there has been the staggering figure of twenty-six major headlines dealing with the Trump administration. With thanks to his assistance in compiling the list, we thought it was best left in the raw. FBI raids Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s office, seizes Stormy Daniels documents, bank records Sketch of man who Stormy Daniels says threatened her to be released Trump says US ‘cannot allow’ Syrian chemical weapons attacks Ethics office outlines concerns about EPA’s Scott Pruitt Stormy Daniels: I wouldn’t have signed nondisclosure pact if I knew Trump wasn’t signing Michael Cohen files motion to strike Stormy Daniels’ defamation claim Trump cancels South America trip to monitor Syria response Trump rages over Cohen raid on Twitter Search warrant reveals Mueller’s interest in Manafort’s actions during Trump campaign John Bolton pushes out Tom Bossert as homeland security adviser Stormy Daniels cooperating with federal investigators following Cohen raid ‘Apprentice’ contestant Summer Zervos presses her defamation case against President Trump NYT: Trump tried to end Mueller probe again in December Special counsel team met with Trump lawyers on day of Cohen raid Trump considering firing Rosenstein to check Mueller FBI raid targeted records of payments to porn star, ex-Playmate Trump taunts Russia, says US military response coming in Syria FBI sought Trump’s communications with his personal lawyer regarding Access Hollywood Trump attempts to cloud timing of potential Syria strike Trump insists that if he wanted to fire Mueller, it would be done White House is prepping an effort to undermine Rosenstein Trump’s lawyers pull back proposal for President to talk to Mueller Comey slams ‘the forest fire that is the Trump presidency’ in book, reports say Hearing scheduled regarding Michael Cohen raids Trump slams Comey as ‘weak and untruthful slime ball’ Trump pardons ex-Cheney aide Scooter Libby DOJ: Michael Cohen ‘under criminal investigation’ What a week. For the purposes of posterity, every one of these things should be kept an eye on, so that we might raise awareness about them. But in the here and now, it’s only necessary to look at the general trend. You don’t have time to examine each drop of water in a flood, nor is that necessary, in order to understand that it’s time to seek high ground. Nor have things been better for the other Republicans, which is good. Not in the history of America, have we seen a weaker and more morally bankrupt set of criminals stinking up the halls of our great government. But at least one of them will soon be gone! Paul Ryan, the highest-ranking member of the House of Representatives is the latest to join a flood of Republicans to decide against seeking re-election. He wasn’t even the only one to do so that day. GOP Representative Dennis Ross of Florida told his hometown paper that his fourth term in the House will be his last. This is all very ominous, for the GOP. A Blue Wave, and a Red undertow. In this world, there are few things certain, but one thing we can count on is being presented with bills to pay. For Donald Trump and the GOP, the check has bounced. As this was going to publishing, a determined Western coalition including the United States, Great Britain, and France launched strikes against targets at three sites in Syria in the early hours of Saturday morning, following a week of threats of retaliation for an alleged chemical weapons attack on civilians in the Damascus enclave of Douma. The world is teetering on the brink of war, this morning, and the worst people in the country are in charge of running it. Sleep well, America! themillennialdemocrats Books, Culture, Politics and Current Events, World Leave a comment April 14, 2018 3 Minutes Syrian War Heats Up- Thanks, GOP, For Obstructing President Obama. The Syrian Civil War has recently flared back up. A chemical attack in the suburb of Douma over the weekend killed at least 49 people. This has worsened relations between the United States and Russia, which are far from good already. Assad’s government is a sham. It only exists because Putin has forces there propping it up. Even still, the Kremlin has rejected the conclusion that Syria’s military was behind the chemical attack, asserting that it was staged by militants to falsely blame the government and justify an American strike against the Assad regime. Several weeks ago, on March 13th, top military officers who answer to Putin threatened to attack the U.S. military in Syria, if Trump orders our troops to defend the region. Russian Army General Valery Gerasimov warned on Tuesday that the U.S. was preparing to launch raids against Moscow’s ally, the Syrian government, as it attempted to clear out pockets of insurgents- some of which were once backed by the West- in the suburbs of the capital city of Damascus. Gerasimov, who acted as chief of Russia’s general staff and deputy defense minister, claimed that the U.S. would strike under the “false pretense” of a chemical weapon attack, and vowed to do us damage if we did. Syrian use of chemical weapons, of course, is what led to President Barack Obama drawing a “Red Line in the Sand” in the first place, back in 2013, but the Russians won’t even admit that Assad is using them. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in Moscow that they believe the United States is seeking to entrench itself in the country. “The U.S. is taking steps not to leave as President Trump said, and leave Syria for others, but to establish a foothold there for a very long time,” Mr. Lavrov said. Lavrov repeated the Russian claim that our very presence in Syria is illegal, and demanded American forces leave the country immediately. The scale of Russian lying, about this and every other matter, will be difficult for future generations to even conceive of. Regardless of whatever else is going on, and no matter who is in the White House, America is not going anywhere at the beck and call of Russia or any other power. That’s out. In America, the office of President is not absolute, which is why whatever Putin has on Trump did not prove to be enough to scare the rest of our great nation away. It is starting to look like we’re finally going to do something about Syria. The thing about it is that all this should have been done years ago, in 2013, when Assad used chemical weapons the first time. President Obama had an excellent plan to deal with it. He declared it a red line and asked Congress for an Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) He was refused by the Republicans. It was argued about for years, but ultimately the GOP-held Congress never took a full vote on an ISIS war authorization. There were various excuses given, but it is the opinion of Millennial Democrats that the Republicans didn’t want Obama to have a chance to take care of the problem. They wanted to be able to point backward and say well, Obama wouldn’t get tough on Syria, and look where we are. The concern going forward is that the Republicans will be able to set this narrative down as history. It’s important for us to raise awareness of the fact that the Republicans made this mess. They want to monopolize the concept of “war president”. It was the only good thing anyone ever had to say about George W. Bush, after all, and they like to think of themselves as hawkish and tough. Except that in holding up the resolution and halfheartedly approaching the situation, they gave Russia the opportunity of a lifetime. In the last analysis, allowing the Russians into Syria worked out very well for both them and the Republicans. The status quo of obstructing Obama had always included a policy of doing nothing. It must have been nice, lounging around the Congress all these years, goldbricking willfully on the taxpayer’s dollar. The real question now is whether or not that comfortable state of affairs will reassert itself. If Putin backs off, it might, but that’s seeming less and less likely. The Russian tyrant has been emboldened greatly by Trump’s weakness. There is no doubt that this has now become an extremely complex problem, but it’s got a simple solution. All we have to do is vote out the people who allowed it all. Vote the Republican party out of existence. Bring Democrats back in, and the best minds in the nation will solve the problem. Vote Democratic. This year, and every other year, until the end of time. themillennialdemocrats Culture, Politics and Current Events, World 1 Comment April 10, 2018 April 10, 2018 3 Minutes Bernie Attacks Obama For MLK’s 50th! Calls Democrats Failures. Bernie Sanders is at it again. This guy never quits. He’s like a zombie on the Walking Dead. This time, he has triggered a backlash by verbally savaging Barack Obama on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King. The senator for Vermont went after the first black US President as he branded the Democratic Party a “failure”. Here’s Bernie, speaking in Jackson, Mississippi. “The business model, if you like, of the Democratic Party for the last 15 years or so has been a failure,’ said the Vermont Senator. “People sometimes don’t see that because there was a charismatic individual named Barack Obama. He was obviously an extraordinary candidate, brilliant guy. But beyond that reality…” Sanders’ comments were immediately called out as being “patronizing” and “deplorable”, but he wasn’t finished yet. He then went on to say that Democrats had lost a record number of legislative seats. Unbelievable! Even the likes of Corey Lewandowski are waxing biblical about how many seats we’ve taken back from the GOP since Trump was elected. “The Democrats are highly motivated,” Lewandowski told the crowd at Dolphin Aviation. “They are winning elections in places where they shouldn’t. We’ve seen them win state House races in Wisconsin. We’ve seen them win big mayor’s races in New Hampshire. Fifty seats have already changed hands from the Republicans to the Democrats since Donald Trump was elected.” Politifact points out that as of February the actual number of recaptured seats was 39, but the trend is clear as day- to everyone except Bernie Sanders, the perpetual sour grape. He’s always there to run down anything we do and to make light of all our accomplishments. That’s what you do when you haven’t got anything of your own. Next time we need a post office renamed, Senator Sanders, we’ll give you a call. In reality, of course, it’s Bernie’s pets that can’t win an election, and why? Because his endorsement is like the kiss of death! Just in the first few post-election months, Sanders formally endorsed candidates in many different races. Keith Ellison for chair of the Democratic National Committee, James Thompson for U.S. Representative, Tom Perriello for the position of VA Governor, Heath Mello for Omaha Mayor, Steve Zimmer and Imelda Padilla for Los Angeles School Board, as well as Rob Quist for US Representative. Every candidate lost, and that trend has continued. Jon Ossoff of Georgia nearly won, and might have, if Sanders hadn’t waited until the last minute to endorse him, and had he not sneeringly referred to him as “no true progressive.” The guy was 29, and had never held office before. Just how much chance had he received, to make any progress? Bernie, you didn’t even vote until you were 40! And that was for yourself! In addition, a group created to continue the progress Sanders made in the 2016 primaries called “Our Revolution” endorsed 25 candidates that lost their 2017 elections and only endorsed 12 winning candidates, giving the group a 32 percent success rating. And yet he wants to point the finger, labeling us as unsuccessful. If that’s true, Bernie, then why have real Democrats kicked the can with your boys, all the way around the whole country? That fact always seems to get ignored, though, as do most facts in the wonky world of Bernieland. Bernie Sanders is not a Democrat. It all comes down to that. Everything he does makes perfect sense, once you’ve considered that he isn’t on our side. This attack on President Obama, who gave us the best eight years that anyone in the world could have, is certainly disgusting. But it’s hardly the first time. In 2016, the primary started out well enough. Both sides were respectful and willing to dialogue. Both agreed that they had more in common than not, and that the entire thing basically amounted to a quarrel between family. We had a passionate, issues-focused, ideologically driven primary. It exemplified all that is right with the American political system. Everything was going fine. Then Bernie started losing. April was the turning month. On the seventh, he reviled Hillary Clinton in a speech in Philadelphia, calling her “unqualified” to be President, a blatantly sexist and stupid thing to say. It drew him a monstrous backlash from across the country, and from that day forward things began to change. By July it was too late. His overzealous devotees rioted in the streets of Philadelphia, over a lot of nothing contained in criminally acquired documents dumped by the Russian mouthpiece Wikileaks, and the rift thus torn was permanent. It has continued to widen, ever since. So-called progressives have continued getting together all over the country, hijacking local chapters of the Democratic Party. They are attacking our candidates everywhere. There has never been a set of midterms so crucial. Everyone on every side knows this. The best chance we’ve got of getting rid of Donald Trump before 2020, except maybe for the 25th Amendment, is to turn the Congress blue. In spite of all this, there’s a certain element in the party that refuses to care, and insists instead on fighting their own people. When Bernie Sanders reviled Barack Obama the other day, he made it clear he’s still wanting to lead the charge. Not for ideological reasons, but because he’s a sore loser. We’ll never be able to please him and he won’t come to terms with us. Yesterday Paul Waldman wrote something in the Washington Post that sums the whole thing up perfectly. “No matter how much the party moves to the left — and it has moved a great deal in the last few years — there will never be a point where Sanders says, “I’m really pleased with where the Democratic Party is right now.” “Because once he said that, there would cease to be any need for Bernie Sanders to exist.” themillennialdemocrats Culture, Politics and Current Events 23 Comments April 6, 2018 April 6, 2018 4 Minutes From MLK to Saheed Vassell- Fifty Years of Police Brutality. Editor’s note- This is one of the most powerfully stated opinion editorial pieces ever published by Millennial Democrats. As always, the views of the writer are his own, and not necessarily reflective of the organization as a whole. But people need a place to tell their stories from their side. Hosting that is what we do, and thus, the mic is handed over. I was feeling fed up the other day when I wrote the Stephon Clark piece. That’s why I wrote it. But now tonight they gun down this guy Saheed Vassell on the streets of New York City, less than two weeks later? On the 50 year anniversary of Dr King’s murder? Now, I am really, truly angry. And I am not alone. How blatant can you get? How stupid can you be? How many actual people have to get ruined and butchered and slaughtered, before you people will say enough is enough? Somebody has to say it, even if you refuse. WE ARE TIRED OF GETTING SHOT. PERIOD. Do something to protect us, or face the consequences that soon everyone will fully realize that you can’t. The people who are supposed to be protecting us are becoming nothing more than the biggest, baddest gang of all. An American citizen has a duty to speak out against such a travesty. This is so crazy, man. I’m just going to let the words flow through me as they see fit, today. The time for a massive public outcry has come. I read this article closely. “Police Fatally Shoot a Brooklyn Man After Falsely Believing He Had a Gun.” How many more of these is it going to take? I must know fifty guys like that guy Saheed Vassell. It might have been me, but for a few twists of fate. Life is hard for them, and people are not always kind. People look at them as deserving of their fates somehow, as if a lifetime downtrodden by your own bad habits and mental illness is not enough. Nobody gets mad when they die. So I will. I will get mad enough for millions. The police and correctional guards- They were left alone, by Scott Walker, when he came for the pensions of state workers in Wisconsin. Teachers were to be destroyed, schools ravaged, but the police were left alone. They almost always are. People are afraid of them. They’ve become a domestic army, and ultimately, they take their orders from themselves. And they’re the ones who have got all the guns. When Hitler came to power in Germany, one of the very first government institutions he was able to twist and corrupt was that of the police. Why? Because he knew that half of them were all thugs and hatchetmen already. That’s why they got the job. They had nothing to offer the world except muscle and bone. Soon the worst started seizing key positions, the best lacked the conviction to stop them, and the rest was soon to follow. It could again. At any time. Maybe corruption and a thirst for slaughter are inherent in the position, but maybe not. Going without them should at least be tried. The trouble is that if we Democrats don’t want to end up like Social Democrats did back in Germany, we’ve got to be really careful. Because they know, that we know who they are. And that is very dangerous. It’s scary to even publish this. I know what the cost of freedom is. This is the 50th anniversary of Dr. King’s murder. Today. No one will ever convince me that it wasn’t either set up that way or fate. Random is out, in my opinion. The days of international police control are here, and guess what? There’s more chaos in the streets than ever, because of it! Nice! How long is it going to take this time, before people get fed up? You can already see the makings of Nazis in half of your neighbors, right? They don’t want to hear about what the Russians are doing, they don’t want to hear about what Trump is doing, they just want to be left alone. And jobs. Like Roseanne was saying. They want to be given jobs to do, where they can have all their needs taken care of, earn a scale of varied punishments or rewards, and have lots of less deserving others to abuse. That is the promise that one Trump voter makes to another. If you go to work on time and you vote Republican, then it’s You beat your wife, I’ll beat mine, and neither one of us will judge the other(at least, not publicly.) It’s a part of his right, part of living as a successful man. That is the nature of the Nazi. To acquiesce with a turned away glance, to refrain pointedly from speaking out. To condemn himself with silence and sleep. May all of us root out the inner Nazi in ourselves and destroy him! Annihilate him! Drag him out into the light to die in shame! At any rate, we had better do it to him, before he does it to us. You don’t want to be standing in the dock at Nuremberg. This has been an ugly rant, I think to myself, as I am writing it. I don’t like to levy such mass criticisms unless the need is utterly dire. Police aren’t inherently evil, just the opposite. But the spirit of “To Protect and Serve” is long gone, and most likely never to return. Vassell just hits close to home, for me, because I KNOW these guys, God damn it! I listen to their stories! I try and make sure they all eat lunch, I take care of them anytime that I am able. The same was done for me when I was young and poor and crazy. I got through it, though, and now I do my best to pass it forward and to be a good shepherd because that is what God commands us to be! Why is that so hard for others to understand? The people who are wearing those uniforms are people, too. But they have entire colleges, entire levels of training, between their souls and anything you could reach. They are systematically built up and made into monsters! And then they are sicced on the public, which is told, in effect, Do what you are told because if you don’t the police will come, and those people will kill you! Not all police are fascist pigs, of course, and the state of things obviously causes great dissonance to many officers. But the tendency for all too many, when things start to go bad, is to do what they’ve been taught and follow orders. How do we remove their influence from our society without letting ourselves become just like them? It’s hard to say. A new system, a new indoctrination? It’s all been done before. Is it the people, or the uniforms that are causing this corruption? Only one thing is certain- There’s no way to know if others can do better unless it is tried and the way things are now has become intolerable. There are certainly such things as humane re-education processes. They put us in them all the time, right? They call it counseling, or rehab, or what have you, but what it really amounts to, is a bunch of hoops you’ve got to jump through in order to claim a reward that is yours by birthright! If it’s good for the goose, it’s good for the gander. It’s all got to be tried. They’re people, there’s hope for the reform of anyone, but the American police today are all too often a bunch of good ol’ boys going deer hunting on the streets. That state of affairs is a sickening atrocity. And until people get so fed up they are ready to purge their systems, it will remain so. themillennialdemocrats Culture, Millennial Op-Ed, Politics and Current Events 7 Comments April 5, 2018 April 5, 2018 5 Minutes Pledges and Benefactions Charitable Donations Election Day 2020 – Donald Trump is Lying and GUILTY, See You Soon! #SecretServerGate- Before Iowa Caucus, USA Should Know What Putin, Trump, and Bernie Are Up To. ALERT!!! DonaldJTrump.com Is On A Server In Putin’s Backyard! HOURS LEFT TO TELL THE WORLD. BOMBSHELL BERNIE DISCOVERY!! Robert Mueller Should Have Spoken to JD Founder Zack Exley. Scholarly References The Plot To Hack America Russian Hackers- Know, and Protect CBD MD	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line850
__label__wiki	0.716418	0.716418	Home Latest News National Trust buys romantic landscape of Lorna Doone novel National Trust buys romantic landscape of Lorna Doone novel It is a place of wooded valleys, tumbling rivers and rugged moorland that was immortalised in the 19th-century novel Lorna Doone, a twisty tale of romance, murder and outlaws by RD Blackmore. The National Trust announced on Tuesday it had bought nine acres of land in Doone country, including farmhouses and cottages, and is hoping to encourage more visitors to explore this tucked-away area of Exmoor. Visitors will be able to take tea at the farmhouses, hike through the landscape to find spots featured in the novel and – as soon as restrictions are lifted – camp near a river that (in Blackmore’s words) glides “with a soft dark babble”. The announcement from the conservation charity was tinged with melancholy. It said it bought the nine acres on the border of Devon and Somerset shortly before the lockdown for GBP1.5m – and stressed this was likely to be its last acquisition for some time as it contemplates a loss in income of GBP200m this year because of the coronavirus crisis. But it argues its plans for the Doone land come at a time when its aim of providing nature, beauty and history for everyone is more relevant than ever. Set on 17th-century Exmoor around the banks of the Badgworthy Water river, Blackmore’s book tells the story of the Doone clan, nobles turned outlaws, and farmer’s son John Ridd, whose quest for revenge becomes complicated when he and Lorna begin an illicit relationship. Blackmore weaved real events, historical figures and local legends into his fiction and one of the joys of the book for fans is to try to work out which bits are real, which made up, and visiting Exmoor to try to pinpoint the locations in the book. The National Trust’s acquisition consists of two sites. The first is the Lorna Doone farmhouse in the picture-postcard village of Malmsmead, near Lynton. The farmhouse, which will be home to a refurbished tearoom called The Buttery, is close to a 17th-century bridge and ford. The farmhouse does not appear to feature in the book and may have been named after its publication in honour of it. But the idea is to use it to create a “gateway” to buildings and landscapes that Blackmore did depict, such as the Church of St Mary, where Blackmore’s grandfather was a rector and which the author borrowed for the marriage between Lorna and Ridd. South of the farmhouse is the second spot – the Cloud Farm campsite. People have camped on the banks of Badgworthy Water for years but the trust is planning to upgrade it and open a second cafe in the farmhouse. The campsite is close to the site of a medieval village believed to be the inspiration for the Doone clan’s hideaway. Rob Joules, the National Trust’s general manager for the north Devon coast and countryside, said one of the joys of the place was the feeling of a land where time has stood still. “It is like one of those places that time has forgot. It’s very remote and very beautiful. You see herons in the river, deer on the hillside. We’re hoping to get the campsite open in July. It’s pitch black at night, just the sound of the river and birdsong. It’s the perfect spot to get away from it all.” The area has wonderful flora and fauna too. Not far away is the trust’s Holnicote estate, where beavers were recently reintroduced. Further west is the Heddon Valley, one of the few homes for the rare high brown fritillary butterfly. There are ancient oaks and peregrine falcons. Money raised through the tearooms and campsite will be reinvested into conserving the land and its wildlife. Joules said: “By diversifying our income streams on this part of Exmoor we will be able to increase the funds we spend improving access, creating amazing outdoor experiences and space for nature to thrive.” Andrea Davis, a local county councillor and avid collector of Lorna Doone books, said the appeal of the story endured. “We’re very proud of the book here,” she said. “We get a stream of visitors who come to pick out the places mentioned in it. It’s a romantic story but there are some nasty little bits in it. I sometimes think we don’t make enough of Lorna Doone here so anything that brings more people in is to be welcomed.” The National Trust Previous articleAustralia has a problem with climate change denial. The message just isn’t getting through \| Greg Jericho Next articlePass the shiraz: how Australia’s wine industry can adapt to climate change \| Gabi Mocatta, Rebecca Harris and Tomas Remenyi New Zealand’s plan for action on seabirds is strong on rhetoric but light on... From our hotly contested Bird of the Year competition, to the constant updates from backyard bird watchers during lockdown, it's safe to say New... Amazon near tipping point of switching from rainforest to savannah – study - October 5, 2020 0 Much of the Amazon could be on the verge of losing its distinct nature and switching from a closed canopy rainforest to an open... Tesco urged to ditch meat company over alleged links to Amazon deforestation - August 5, 2020 0 Tesco has called on the UK government to order food companies to ensure all food sold in the UK is deforestation-free. The move comes... Carbon benefits of fast-growing trees have been clearly proven \| Letters The article based on the RSPB's recent report (Tree plantations 'do not help climate' as timber not used over long term, 11 March) is... 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__label__wiki	0.703435	0.703435	ITF 2021 Karen Marston January 14, 2021 0 Comments ITF 2021 Presenters We are excited to announce the 2021 presenter roster! These artists, pedagogues, ensembles, and researchers have been selected through a competitive, peer-reviewed application process, and will be featured at the 2021 Festival in recitals, lectures, and events of all kinds, focusing on a wide range of trombone-topics and musical styles. ITF presenters represent cutting-edge research and performance in the field, and bring a diversity of perspectives that truly makes the ITF a world-class event. Don’t miss these incredible events, at this year’s ITF! 20/59: Quartet Recital Jonathan Whitaker, University of Alabama Jeremy Crawford (tuba), University of Alabama Demondrae Thurman, Samford University; Indiana University Adam Johnson, University of Louisiana at Monroe 20/59 is a newly formed quartet dedicated to expanding the sonic concept of the low brass quartet (as well as the repertoire) by utilizing the entire spectrum of timbres within the low brass family. The members of the group are adept performers on a variety of instruments including alto, tenor, and bass trombones as well as tuba, euphonium, baritone, and bass trumpet. 20/59 seeks to perform a wide range of music including transcriptions, arrangements, and new compositions that exploit the full, stylistic potential of the low brass instruments. Threebone: Debut Album Branimir León & Sérgio Simões, Orquesta Filarmonica de Jalisco (Mexico) José León, Orquesta Sinfónica Sinaloa de las Artes (Mexico) Threebone was founded in Mexico by two brothers and one friend, with the goal of bringing together a wealth of performing experience at the highest level, and featuring styles from early to contemporary music, Classical and Jazz idioms, and Romantic to Latin music. The members of Threebone are also active orchestral musicians, performing in the Orquesta Sinfónica Sinaloa de las Artes (José), and the Jalisco Philharmonic Orquesta (Sérgio and Branimir). Their debut album will be released this year. Elysian Trombone Consort: Music by Composers of Color with Special Guest Tony Baker, University of North Texas Timothy Anderson, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music Chad Arnow, University of Dayton Brett Shuster, University of Louisville Nathan Siler, Eastern Kentucky University Formed in 2009, the Elysian Trombone Consort continues with its passion for new trombone chamber music. Now in its second decade as an ensemble, the group has premiered two dozen works. The consort has performed featured recitals at the following events: the International Trombone Festival, the International Women’s Brass Conference, the Ohio Music Education Association Professional Development Conference, the University of Louisville New Music Festival, the American Trombone Workshop, and the College Music Society National Convention. 3Basso Dr. Lucas Borges, Ohio University Dr. Joseph Brown, Appalachian State University Dr. Jason Smith (tuba), Ohio University 3Basso is an innovative chamber music ensemble created from the desire to play high-level chamber music using an unconventional set of instruments, two trombones, and a tuba. The group adapts a wide variety of compositions and arrangements to develop its repertoire while utilizing doubling techniques to expand its color pallet. At the heart of the group’s mission is the desire to encourage students of music at all levels to engage in chamber music, primarily middle and high school age students. The ensemble is active with performances and lectures, including the Ohio, West Virginia and North Carolina Music Education Conferences, as well as International Tuba and Euphonium Conference at University in Iowa. The Leon Brothers Experiment: Bellas Artes Street Branimir León, Orquesta Filarmonica de Jalisco (Mexico) The Leon Brothers Experiment It is a duet consisting of two Venezuelan trombonist/ brothers: Branimir Leon and Jose Leon. Their musical learning comes from the National System of Orchestras of Venezuela, where they studied with their father, Jose Leon. The Brothers Leon Experiment was born from the idea of merging the sound of trombone into different musical genres, such as classical music, jazz, bossa, Venezuelan music, latin music, among others; in order to spread the music with trombone in any corner of the world. Colla Voce Ensemble: New Compositions for Trombone Hugo Pinheiro, Composer Hugo Pinheiro, Amazon Philharmonic (Brazil) Amanda Aparicio (Soprano) Amazon State Choir (Brazil) Bradley Kerns, University of Kentucky Jacob Coleman (Piano), University of Kentucky Mike DeSousa, University of Kentucky David Seder, Yale University Hugo Pinheiro’s works for trombone have been performed and recorded on important festivals and concert halls in Brazil, United States and Russia. The works are considered modern, with a vivid and fresh approach, but at the same time listener friendly. Pieces for several trombone settings such as solo, solo with piano, trios, quartets, octets and more bring the versatility of the instrument through the eyes of a Brazilian classical composer. The Colla Voce ensemble has traveled to many places in USA and Brazil, always playing Brazilian music, arrangements and original compositions, including premieres of many Hugo Pinheiro’s works. Brian Hecht, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Brian Hecht joined the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra as Bass Trombone in September 2013. Prior to joining the Atlanta Symphony, Mr. Hecht held the bass trombone position with the United States Navy Band in Washington, DC. He has performed with other the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra (under the baton of Simon Rattle), San Francisco Symphony, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Naples Philharmonic, Washington National Opera, Lyric Opera of Baltimore, and the Kennedy Center Ballet. Perspectives: New Works for Trombone Jeremy Wilson, Vanderbilt University Trombonist Jeremy Wilson is currently Associate Professor of Trombone at Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music. Prior to coming to Vanderbilt, he was a member of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and its sister organization, the Vienna State Opera Orchestra. A native of Tennessee, Wilson returned to his home state in 2012 to fulfill his long-time passion for teaching and to devote more time to his young family. He still performs frequently as an orchestral musician, including with the Saito Kinen Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, and the Nashville Symphony. He recently released his debut solo album, Perspectives, and is especially interested in new music, having commissioned and premiered over 20 new works for trombone. Alejandro López Velarde, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México Praised by El Economista as “Mexican pride,” Alejandro’s goal as a musician is to inspire people from different communities through music and make a positive impact on their lives. Concerned about the lack of music for trombone in Mexico, his home country, he is currently collaborating with young Mexican composers to premiere and promote new works for this instrument. He has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player throughout Mexico, Europe and the US. Sencalar/Glassman Quintet Featuring Altin Sencalar & Chris Glassman “What immediately stands out is the absolute virtuosity Glassman and Sencalar exhibit in their playing. As a trombonist , it is difficult not to be in awe of the ease and beauty with which both players perform.”- International Trombone Association July Journal audio review The Sencalar/Glassman Quintet is comprised of co-leaders Altin Sencalar and Chris Glassman, who met during their graduate degree course work at Michigan State University. The Sencalar/Glassman Quintet has performed at the Detroit Jazz Festival, the University of North Texas, Ohio State University, and the Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival, as winners of Paul Carr’s Discovery Act. They will be featured as guest artists at the 2020 American Trombone Workshop as guest artists and were recently named Artists in Residence for the Jazz Institute at Brevard. Arkansas Trombone Collective Arkansas trombone/low brass professors, Bruce Faske, Cory Mixdorf, Alexandra Zacharella, Michael Underwood, Jamie Lipton, Geoff Durbin Seen Reed, Joseph Jefferson, Jason Hausback, Christopher Sharpe Comprised of new and veteran trombone professors from Arkansas and its neighbor, Missouri, the Arkansas Trombone Collective will commission several works as well as perform new arrangements by members of the ensemble. Trombones in Middle-earth: The Music of Howard Shore (Also featuring an original composition by Johan De Meij) Brad Jensen, Arranger and Organizer Johan De Meij, Conductor Brian Santero, Nathan Zgonc (Alto Trombone) Nikki Abissi, Tony Baker, Doug Farwell, David Jackson, Steve Lange, Bill Mann, Doug Warner, Colin Williams, Steve Wilson, Ko-ichiro Yamamoto (Tenor Trombone) George Curran, Oscar Diaz, Denson Paul Pollard, Jennifer Wharton (Bass Trombone) Nick Schwartz (Contrabass Trombone) Trombones in Middle-earth takes the beauty of these familiar orchestral scores, and translates them into the language and incredibly versatile range and color of the trombone choir. The trombone, with its wide range of tone and emotion, is perfectly suited to capturing the varied scope of Howard Shore’s iconic music. This brings a whole new dimension to an already great musical work, which, fans of the original music from the film trilogy, and classical trombone enthusiasts, who may be unfamiliar with the original orchestral work, will find equally appealing. The Insanity Brass Duo, consisting of low brass professors and S.E. Shires trombone artists Michael Wilkinson and Micah Everett, will demonstrate low brass doubling through a fun and variegated recital program for multiple instruments. The duo’s program for ITF 2021 requires the use of fourteen instruments, with Wilkinson performing on alto, tenor, bass, and contrabass trombones, euphonium, and cimbasso, and Everett performing on alto, tenor, and bass trombones, baritone horn, euphonium, and tuba. Their repertoire includes a variety of original works and arrangements for low brass from the past four centuries, from both classical and commercial genres. Insanity Brass Duo Micah Everett, University of Mississippi Michael Wilkinson, University of South Carolina Make More Noise: New music for Trombone Duo Chris Van Hof, Ball State University Evan Conroy, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra Evan Conroy and Chris Van Hof are long-time college buddies now living and working in Louisiana and Indiana respectively. They are musical omnivores, happy to perform, teach, and listen to music from all corners of the globe. But as trombonists they identified what seemed like an obvious hole related to repertoire diversity: the tenor/bass trombone duo. The repertoire for this combination was limited to a few (very good!) pieces that got lots of performances. To expand the palette of what is available for a tenor/bass duo to perform, they started the ensemble Make More Noise, and since 2018 have commissioned nine new works by diverse composers from all across the globe. SSG Felix Padilla, The US Army West Point Band SSG Kyle Peck, The United States Army Band “Pershing’s Own” Felix Padilla joined the West Point Band in the winter of 2019. The same year, he earned a Master of Music from the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied with James Markey. Prior to his time in Boston, Felix studied with Bradley Palmer at Columbus State University, where he received a Bachelor of Music in 2017. Other teachers include Toby Oft, Steve Lange, Norman Bolter, Mike Roylance, and Joseph Vascik. Coal Hill Quartet Dr. Tyrone Block, Southwestern Assemblies of God University Dr. Michelle Flowers, Texas Womens University Shawn Smith, Dallas-based private lesson instructor Dr. Noel Wallace, Hebron High School One of the primary goals of the Coal Hill Quartet is to use chamber music to provide an accessible way for the audience to approach world music. Their most recent project, “And Now for Something Completely Different” featured trombone quartet music from the British Isles. Their current program expands on that idea to features music from around the world including works by Gilberto Gagliardi, Murray Gold, Barry McKimm, Steven Verhelst, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and others. Works of Son Jarocho PiaBón, Orquesta Filarmónica de Boca del Río; Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa, Veracruz (Mexico) “Son Jarocho” is a musical genre which spread mainly in the Mexican state of Veracruz. It is combined with dance and sung poetry. The music has a harmonic rhythm, with syncopations and lyrical verses. The objective of this program is to disseminate traditional Mexican music, and promote the bass trombone as a solo instrument in diverse genres. The audience will be able to hear stories, and legends through this music since the recital, and trombonists will be given copies of the music, as part of this outreach project. Orchestral Transcriptions for Trombone and Piano Jaime Morales-Matos, Miami University (Ohio) Jaime Morales-Matos has wide-ranging experience as a trombonist, he have performed with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Columbus Symphony, Dayton Philharmonic, Lexington Philharmonic, the Casals Festival Orchestra, the Florida Music Festival Orchestra, and the New World Symphony in the United States, and with the Asturias, Granada and Galicia Symphony Orchestras in Spain. What Happens Next? Navigating Life After Music School Moderator: Dr. Emmy Rozanski, Alverno College Emmy Rozanski is an enthusiastic music educator and active freelance trombonist in the Milwaukee and Chicago areas. She is adjunct music faculty at Alverno College, a teaching artist for Sistema Ravinia, and low brass instructor at Highland Park High School. In the summers of 2018 and 2019 Emmy traveled to El Salvador as a teaching artist with MusAid, leading classes in technique and ensemble skills, as well as teaching private lessons. She is currently the principal trombone for the Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra (Skokie, IL) and regularly performs with a variety of ensembles throughout Wisconsin and Illinois. The Militant Trombone Moderator: GySgt Ken Ebo, United States Marine Corps Joined by a panel of Fleet Military Career Trombonists GySgt Ken Ebo is currently serving as the Music Placement Director for the US Marine Music Program in the Southwestern United States. He is the former head of the Instrumental Division at the Naval School of Music in Virginia Beach where he also served as trombone faculty and jazz improvisation instructor. Ken is an active clinician, performer, educator, and adjudicator with degrees from Indiana University and the University of South Carolina. The Adam Routine: A Call & Response Warmup and Fundamentals Session Exploring the Teachings of Trumpet Pedagogue William Adam, Adapted for Trombonists Dr. Jemmie Robertson, University of Florida Jemmie Robertson is Assistant Professor of Trombone at the University of Florida, plays Principal Trombone in the Gainesville Orchestra, and performs with the UF Faculty Brass Quintet. Jemmie is a founding member of the American Trombone Quartet, who were featured artists at the Lille Trombone Festival in Lille, France in April 2019 and released Premiere!, the ensemble’s debut recording, in July 2020. Collaboration and Accountability in Performance Success U.S. Army trombonists, Staff Sgts. Felix Padilla and Kyle Peck will go into how collaboration and accountability in college helped each of them win premiere military jobs. This session will benefit any trombonist who is looking for sound, innovative ways to collaborate with fellow trombone players on their journey towards success in the field. Body Mind Spirit: A Holistic Approach to Musical Preparation and Performance In this talk, Jeremy Wilson discusses the process by which he prepares and performs pieces of music. He calls it the Body, Mind, Spirit Process, and its implications can be profound and far-reaching for trombonists of all ages and skill levels. Jeremy will use real-life examples to explore how the Body, Mind, Spirit Process can be implemented in performance situations, auditions, and even in your practice or warmup session! 6-20-24, A Guide To Effectively Maximize Your Daily Practice & Goals Dr. Joseph L. Jefferson, Southeast Missouri State University Dr. Joseph L. Jefferson is the Asst. Professor of Trombone/Euphonium and Director of Jazz Studies at Southeast Missouri State University. As a soloist, chamber musician, educator, and adjudicator, Joseph maintains an active schedule in Classical, Jazz, and commercial musical settings. Dr. Jefferson has been a guest artist and presenter at the International Trombone Festival, International Horn Symposium, University of Nevada, Reno Jazz Festival, Texas A & M – Kingsville Trombone Day, University of Evansville Brass & Percussion Day, Mt. Hood Community College, Mineral Area College, and Three Rivers College. Get to the point! Effective and Economic Communication in teaching and learning Peter Freeman, The Trombone Place Pete Freeman is the principle trombone and President for the Massapequa Philharmonic Orchestra (Long Island, New York), a member of the Nassau Pops Symphony Orchestra, and has played with the South Shore Symphony and the Band of Long Island. He is a retired Band Director, having taught at the elementary, middle school and high school levels, and worked as a fine arts administrator. In addition to performing and teaching, Pete is a Past-President of Nassau (County) Music Educators Association and the Nassau County Chapter of the New York State Council of Administrators of Music Education. No Magic Bullet: Successfully Managing Performance Anxiety Joshua Bledsoe, Presidio Brass Joshua Bledsoe has garnered a reputation as a dynamic performer, engaging ensemble director, and inspired pedagogue. Known as a consummate chamber musician, he has toured the US extensively as a member of the internationally acclaimed ensemble, Presidio Brass, which has also afforded him the opportunity to present clinics and coachings at some of the most prestigious institutions in the country. During the summers, Joshua serves as principal trombone of the MIssouri Symphony Orchestra, a position which he has held since 2012. Conductor Check-Up: Effective Gesture for Passionate Musicianship Dr. Stuart Ivey, Taylor University Stuart Ivey is a conductor and educator who recently completed a Doctor of Arts degree at Ball State University with a primary emphasis in Wind Conducting and secondary emphasis in Trombone Performance. Prior education includes a Master of Music in Trombone Performance at the University of Missouri and a Bachelor of Music Education at Auburn University. Dr. Ivey studied conducting with Tom Caneva, Caroline Hand, and Rick Good and studied trombone with Chris Van Hof, Drew Leslie, Matt Wood, Rick Good, and Danny Hutson. What, how, and why! Dr. Jeannie Little, Montana State University Trombonist and conductor Dr. Jeannie Little joined the Montana State University School of Music in 2015 as Low Brass Professor and Director of the University Band. Jeannie earned her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Performance and Pedagogy at the Eastman School of Music, a Master’s degree in Music Performance from Northwestern University and a Bachelor’s degree in Music Performance from the Florida State University. As a soloist and clinician, Dr. Little is active presenting recitals and master classes throughout the country, with recent performances and clinics at the International Trombone Festival, the International Women’s Brass Conference, and the American Trombone Workshop. Keeping the Context: A 21st-Century Approach to Getting More From Your Practice Dr. Jason Sulliman, Troy University Dr. Jason Sulliman is Assistant Professor of Trombone at Troy University, Trombone Tutor for the North American Brass Band Summer School, and organizer for the International Trombone Hang. He earned his DM in Brass Pedagogy from Indiana University where he is also finishing a Master’s degree in Kinesiology. Dr. Sulliman has given hundreds of clinics, master classes, and presentations based on his research combining the disciplines of brass pedagogy, motor learning, and cognitive science in an effort to introduce a 21st-century approach to brass pedagogy. Musician health and Wellness: 4 Pillars to Sustainable Trombone Performance Austin Pancner, The Functional Musician Austin Pancner is the founder and CEO of The Functional Musician, an online coaching company helping classical musicians perform without pain holistically. During his graduate studies, after switching to bass trombone, he struggled through a three year injury cycle that led him down a path to create a health and wellness system that can help musicians overcome tension, pain, or injury and sustainably support their lifestyle and career path. As a health and wellness professional, he holds several accredited certifications from the National Academy of Sports Medicine, Precision Nutrition, and Functional Movement Systems. Lecture Recitals Bringing the Composer into the Room Dr. Andrew R Glendening, Northern Illinois University Andrew Glendening is the Director of the School of Music and Professor of Music at Northern Illinois University. Prior to becoming Director, Dr. Glendening was Dean of the School of Music at the University of Redlands, Chair of the Department of Music at Denison University and served on the faculties of Morehead State University and Northeastern Illinois University. A native of Logansport, Indiana, he earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Trombone Performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music before attending Indiana University, where he was awarded the school’s highest honor: The Performer’s Certificate. He also earned a Master of Music degree and was the first ever recipient of the Doctor of Music degree in Trombone Performance from the Indiana University School of Music. Reimagining the Vocalises of Mathilde Marchesi for Tenor and Bass Trombone Dr. Alexandra Zacharella, University of Arkansas-Fort Smith A native of New Jersey, Alexandra Zacharella is Director of Bands and Associate Professor of Low Brass at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith. Zacharella holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts in trombone performance from the University of Southern California, Thornton School of Music, with minors in conducting, music education and jazz studies; a Master of Music degree in Trombone Performance from The University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Music in Trombone Performance and Music Education from The University of Hartford, The Hartt School. Zacharella is an active low brass and wind ensemble clinician and has presented clinics and masterclasses in South Korea, Hong Kong, California, Michigan, Georgia, Arkansas, and Oklahoma Virtual or Physical: Managing Musical Events in a Changing Landscape Lauren Rudzinskas, International Women’s Brass Conference Jeff Dunn, Texas Trombone Institute Lauren Rudzinskas and Jeff Dunn discuss the skills, tools, and concepts necessary to manage and execute musical projects. Drawing on their experience creating, planning, and carrying out musical events and conferences, the presenters will provide ideas that can be transferred to a variety of platforms. Topics will include design and organizational tools, budgeting and funding, social media advertising, and American nonprofit creation and management. Trombone in the Hard Bop Era Dr. Emmett C. Goods, University of Rhode Island Dr. Emmett Goods is a Pittsburgh native who comes from a very rich musical background. He is a an alumnus of the Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts where under the tutelage of legendary drummer Roger Humphries he began to flourish as a young artist. After a short stint at the Berklee College of Music, it was under the direction of ythe legendary trombonist Steve Davis that Emmett earned a Bachelor’s degree in Jazz Studies from the Hartt School of Music. He earned his Masters of Music degree, also in Jazz studies, from Georgia State University and is completed a Doctor of Musical Arts in Trombone Performance at West Virginia University. Global Music, Small Ensembles: Using Chamber Music as an Entry to World Music Michelle Flowers, The Coal Hill Quartet Integrating music from other cultures is a vital part of creating a well-rounded musical environment and can teach tolerance and understanding, as well as culture and history to students. Small ensembles are a great way to begin this approach as it provides more one-on-one experience and allows a wider variety of music to be studied. Drawing on experience from our latest project, the Coal Hill Quartet will discuss how to use small ensembles and chamber groups to introduce students to world music. The Recruitment Reality No matter what career path they choose, almost every trombonist is required to recruit in some capacity. Whether it is as an educator, a performer building his/her private studio, or a group of musicians seeking students for an arts festival, learning more about which recruitment techniques are the most successful will benefit all. In this presentation, Rudzinskas and Dunn will use their unique perspectives to speak about recruitment. The Trombone Retreat Podcast Live at the ITF with special guest, Joseph Alessi Sebastian Vera and Nick Schwartz, Third Coast Trombone Retreat The Trombone Retreat, a podcast of the Third Coast Trombone Retreat, hosted by Sebastian Vera and Nick Schwartz has in-depth conversations with trombonists from all areas of our field. We talk with guests about what led to their path and success, the challenges, adversity and memorable moments along the way, and their views on the role of an artist in our current times. Our interviews encapsulate the silly and heartfelt aspects of our unique lives and seek to inspire and motivate musicians of all ages and backgrounds. In our first ever live podcast recording in front of an audience we are honored to interview Joseph Alessi on his beginnings before he was a household name in the trombone world, what traits and experiences led him to where he is today as well as what motivates and inspires him now. Hear all our interviews at tromboneretreat.com/podcast and subscribe anywhere you download your podcasts. See you in Columbus! CategoriesITF 2021, presenters Tagsconcerts, events, guests, lectures, new music, presenters, recitals	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line856
__label__wiki	0.876181	0.876181	Why Are Your Friends Calling Hot Guys Daddy? January 29, 2020 Article, Gay InterestGay, gay daddy, LGBT, older gay guys, sugar daddy, younger/older guystimalderman It’s a dilemma for some of us…do we fight against the “Daddy” label, or just give in and accept it? I think I garner more attention from younger guys these days than I ever did when I was on the scene…despite being a youngster who preferred to have liaisons with older guys. Even up to a week ago I received a message on Instagram from a younger…dare I say in his 30s…very good looking English guy, suggesting that if I was after a “sugar babe” to hit him up! I should point out that I don’t have the financial cred to be a Sugar Daddy…but I can’t say I wasn’t flattered! I was! I have spent the last 15 years fighting off the label of “Daddy”, but now find myself questioning why! I think the problem has always been the way gay Daddies are promoted – both in the media, and in movies. Usually older men who are financially independent, and have the money to fulfil the whims of the young guys in their company. However, a bit of reading on the subject dispels that myth. Yes, there are young guys out there who partner with older guys for financial reasons, but there are equally a number of guys who do it for less material reasons…they find the company of older men more stimulating than guys in their own peer group, often for intellectual reasons; they prefer the experiences of older guys, both sexually and emotionally; or they just prefer older guys…full stop. Having now come to the realisation that it’s not all about money, I’m thinking that…provided they are not after financial support (fuck knows it’s difficult enough to support ones self on a pension), I should embrace my inner Daddy. After all, aren’t the emotional and sexually experienced traits of older guys the reason I used to chase them! It’s my job to write about celebrities from 9 to 5, and when a hot male steps out, I’m the first to call him “Daddy.” Usually, I’ll chat my friend and co-worker Erin with links to photos of hot guys, with comments like this: “Doesn’t Kanye look like such a daddy in his Yeezys?” “Gerard Butler could literally ask me to tie his shoes and I’d do it.” “Ryan Gosling is an actual father but wow, what a daddy.” “Drake is such a dad.” She tends to agree, and often, we’ll debate over the exact qualifications of what gives a dude “Daddy” status. It’s a funny game that keeps us entertained. But where exactly does this term stem from? And why have empowered women suddenly picked it up as a phrase to toss around? From my perspective as a homosexual male, use of the term “daddy” in gay culture, where it’s specifically popular, boils down to your sexual preferences. “Bottoms,” the label for generally submissive types in bed, if they’re so inclined, call their dominant partners, labeled “tops,” “daddy.” It outlines the power dynamics of the sexual relationship and boils down to sex. Outside of gay culture, however, I’ve noticed pop culture has adopted the term too. Issa Rae’s lead character on Insecure throws the term around, and in 2017, “daddy” has seemingly morphed into “zaddy,” another version of the term that essentially has the same meaning. According to Urban Dictionary, guys considered “zaddy” basically have the “It” factor. They’re stylish. They’re perceived as cool. They have their s— together. And obviously they’re hot. Typically, they’re rich. Ty Dolla $ign has a song called “Zaddy” in which he boasts about women flocking to him for his wealth and his ability to provide them with a better, more opulent lifestyle. Zayn Malik often comes to mind when we think of “Zaddy” because fans have used the term to call him sexy on social media. The first letter of his name is “Z,” like, you know, “Zaddy,” so there’s that, too. As to why people pick up the slang word in instances when they’re not talking about the singer? I’m not so sure, and I’m not so sure it matters. It’s simply a way of labeling a man as attractive and automatically giving him the dominant role in the relationship. The term “dad” is also used popularly, and it essentially equates to the same as “zaddy” or “daddy.” But does the use of this term have anything to do with actual fathers? Not really. While some women may refer to their biological fathers as “daddy,” the use of the term in this particular instance has nothing to do with kinship. Most of my friends, at least, are uncomfortable with the term. “Ew, I’d never call a guy daddy. It reminds me of my dad,” friends tell me. Designer Rachel Antonoff created a white shirt labeled with “daddy” on the front for her fall collection. Why? “I had wanted to do a shirt that said, ‘No more daddy-daughter dance’ just because, from the perspective of it being really heteronormative,” she says. “Then we changed it to daddy-daughter dance, and then we just shortened it to ‘daddy.’ It sort of had a weird little journey that actually had nothing to do with current pop culture.” “On some level, there’s an element of creepy factor, like it’s just a gross word for some reason, and the idea of someone actually referring to their father as such, even though many people do, but it still is funny to me, which I think is part of why we were so amused by the idea of the daddy-daughter dance in the first place,” she added. “I think there’s an element of humor to it, to just tossing that word out there.” But still, where the hell does this term come from, and why is it so polarizing? A Reddit thread from two years ago proves that most of us have no idea why we’re using this, yet we still are. In the thread, a tweet Lorde shared about Kim Kardashian was referenced to try to offer an explanation. “I retweeted Kim’s amazing cover and wrote ‘MOM,’ which among the youthz is a compliment; it basically joking means ‘adopt me/be my second mom/I think of you as a mother figure you are so epic,” she wrote after a fan said that doing so wasn’t very feminist of her. One Redditor chimed in, “The same thing happens with ‘Dad.’ I’m not sure how much is serious, how much is delusional, and how much is it weird daddy issues. You will find a mix of all of these.” And that, indeed, is true. Why Are Your Friends Calling Hot Guys Daddy?, InStyle, 23 October 2017, by Jonathan Borge https://www.instyle.com/reviews-coverage/why-your-friends-are-calling-hot-guys-daddy Gay History: Outcry As Secret Gay Life Of Irish Hero Is ‘Proved’ January 29, 2020 Article, biography, Gay Interest, General Interest, History, PoliticalGay, gay Irish activists, gay martyrs, human rights activists, LGBT, miscarriages of justice, Roger Casementtimalderman Roger Casement’s notorious Black Diaries are genuine, claims writer English Photographer, (19th century). Medium: black and white photograph. Date: 19th Century. Roger Casement (1864-1916) Irish nationalist and revolutionary; Edward James Glave (1863-95) journalist and explorer; William Georges Parminter (d.1894); Herbert Ward (1863-1919) English sculptor; all of them travelled in Africa and especially the Congo and protested about human rights there; social justice; investigating human rights abuses; Provenance: Private Collection. Since his execution at Pentonville prison, London, 83 years ago next week, Sir Roger Casement has been at the centre of a historical controversy involving spies, treason and homosexuality. Now fresh evidence has been unearthed suggesting that Casement’s so-called Black Diaries, detailing the Irish nationalist leader’s promiscuous homosexual affairs, were in fact genuine. A Belfast-based writer has discovered a new letter, written only days before Casement died on the gallows, which he claims confirms the existence of a mysterious homosexual lover, alluded to in the Black Diaries as Millar. The revelation is bound to provoke outrage among nationalist historians, who regard the allegations as slurs conjured up by British intelligence during the Irish war of independence. The Casement controversy remains so powerful that Bertie Ahern, the Irish Prime Minister, ordered an investigation earlier this year into the authenticity of the diaries. The Millar letter was written by an MI5 agent to the Home Office four days before Casement was hanged for treason. It was uncovered in the Public Record Office at Kew in London earlier this year by Jeff Dudgeon, an Ulster gay activist who sued the British Government in the European Court of Human Rights 20 years ago over discrimination against gays in Northern Ireland. Dudgeon points out that in the Black Diaries of 1910-11, Casement allegedly makes a number of references to having sex with Millar. On 8 August, for instance, Casement is supposed to have written: ‘Leaving for Belfast. To sleep with Millar. In at once.’ Three days earlier Casement supposedly wrote: ‘Letter from Millar. Good on for Tuesday. Hurrah! Expecting!’ The diary entries also include references to the two men spending the night together on the day the Titanic sunk. The agent who wrote the Millar memo, Frank Hall, discovered that Millar was Joseph Millar Gordon, a 26-year-old employee of the Belfast Bank in Donegall Square. Hall tells his boss, Sir Ernley Blackwell, the chief legal adviser to the Home Office, that he was able to track Casement’s lover down via a motorbike which he bought for Millar for £25. Hall noted that Millar Gordon lived alone with his mother at Carnstroan, a large Victorian house in Myrtlefield Park in south Belfast. Four days after the memo’s postmark, Casement was hanged for his part in enlisting German military support for the 1916 Easter Rising. At least five members of the British war Cabinet, including Home Secretary Herbert Samuel, had known Casement personally when he worked for the Foreign Office. Casement had investigated allegations of slavery and human rights abuses in the Congo and Peru on behalf of the British Government. Dudgeon points out that the memo, which was only made available to the public at the end of 1998, was secret and would not have been used at the time in the propaganda campaign against the Irish republican icon. ‘Why would the British forge an internal MI5 memo? This letter puts flesh on the bones of the Millar referred to in the diaries. Nobody could have invented him, because he is so well documented. He was a living person from Belfast whom I believe definitely had a relationship with Casement,’ he said. Dudgeon denied that being a gay unionist has coloured his year-long research programme into the Casement diaries. ‘I came to this subject with an open mind. It has to be said that the diaries, as well as being an important part of Irish history, are also a vital part of gay history in the twentieth century. They are the only body of written evidence of intense gay sexual detail from this time.’ However, Angus Mitchell, author of the most recent book on Casement, insists the Black Diaries are forgeries. Mitchell, who published The Amazon Journal of Roger Casement in 1997, said: ‘You should remember that the diaries came out of the Home Office, too. The diaries are forgeries, of that I have no doubt. So what if there really was a Millar? There are hundreds of others referred to in the diaries who Casement describes and who can be traced as well. It proves nothing.’ Eoin Neeson, the author of a recent book on 300 years of republicanism, Birth of a Republic, claims: ‘No one who knew him believed the allegations and [they] are unanimous about his extremely high sense of moral integrity… The virtual impossibility of his practising the gross degeneracies at all, let alone with the frequency alleged, is demonstrable.’ Dudgeon, who is writing a book based on his research, promises to reveal more material which he claims will prove that subsequent Irish governments covered up evidence to support the authenticity of the diaries. Millar Gordon, the alleged lover, died in Dublin in 1956, three years before the diaries were first published. Irish Legal Heritage: Hanged by a comma Irish revolutionary Roger Casement, the ‘father of 20th-century human rights investigations’, was knighted in 1911 for his investigations into human rights abuses in the Congo and Peru while he worked a British Consul. An Irish Republican, Casement went to Germany in 1914 in an effort to secure German military support for Irish independence. However, suspicious of the Germans toying with him when they provided significantly fewer arms than they promised, Casement left for Ireland in April 1916 with the hope that he could convince Eoin McNeill to call off the Easter Rising. Casement travelled to Kerry in a German submarine, but had been suffering from malaria that he had contracted while working in the Congo and was too weak to travel further than a few miles from the coast. Three days before the beginning of the Easter Rising, Casement was arrested by the Royal Irish Constabulary at a site now known as Casement’s Fort near Tralee. Casement was brought to London where he was tried in the High Court for high treason, contrary to the Treason Act 1351. Since the crimes he was accused of had occurred in Germany, much of Casement’s case hinged on statutory interpretation of the Treason Act 1351, which had been translated from Norman French to state: ‘if a do man levy War against our Lord the King in his Realm, or be adherent to the King’s enemies in his Realm, giving to them aid and comfort in the Realm, or elsewhere, and thereof be probably attainted of open deed’. It was argued that this meant that the offence of treason included levying war against the king in his realm, or supporting the king’s enemies (located in the Realm, or elsewhere) by giving them ‘aid and comfort’ in the realm. However, the Court omitted the comma after ‘Realm, or elsewhere’, and interpreted the statute to include a third offence of giving aid and comfort to the King’s enemies outside Britain. As such, Casement was sentenced to death by hanging after being found guilty of ‘High treason by adhering to the King’s enemies elsewhere than in the King’s realm to wit, in the Empire of Germany, contrary to the Treason Act, 1351’. The article is from 1999. Outcry As Secret Gay Life Of Irish Hero Is ‘Proved’, The Guardian, 26 July 1999, by Henry McDonald https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/jul/25/henrymcdonald.theobserver Irish Legal Heritage: Hanged By A Comma, Irish Legal News, 10 September 2018, by Seosamh Gráinséir https://www.irishlegal.com/article/irish-legal-heritage-hanged-by-a-comma “Names” Poem, From The Gay Movie “Beautiful Something” January 28, 2020 Article, PoetryBeautiful Something, Gay, gay movies, LGBT, Names, Names poemtimalderman A “train-of-thought” poem that I found to be both appropriate, and quite beautiful in its emotive power right at the end of a riveting movie. Chemical names Burn names Names of fire and flights of snow Paint names Delicate names like the bones of the body Names that nobody has been able to figure out Names of spells Names of hexes Names called out to fill the yard, calling you inside again Calling you home Names called out across the water Names I’ve called you behind your back Names of flowers that open only once Shouted from rooftops Muffled by pillows Whispered in sleep We are not traders but the lights go out His voice on tape His name on the envelope The soft sound of a body falling off a bridge behind you The body hardly makes a sound All night I stretch my arms across him Rivers of blood The dark wood singing with all my skin and bone Please keep him safe His lips at my neck And I do believe his mouth is heaven His kisses falling all over me like stars Names of heat Names of light Names of collision in the dark on the side of a bus In the bark of a tree And a ball point pin* on jeans And hands on the back of matrix that then get lost Your name is like a song I sing to myself Your name is like a box where I keep my love Your name I can nest in the tree of love Your name like a boat in the sea of love For now we are in the sea of love Your name like a detergent in the washing machine Your name like two x’s like punched in i’s To mark the spot To hold the place To keep the treasure from becoming ever lost I’m saying your name in the grocery store I’m saying your name on a bridge at dawn Your name like an animal covered with frost A suit of fur A coat of mud A kick in the pants A lung full of glass The sail of winds that slap the waves in the hull of a boat That’s sinking to the sound of mermaids singing songs of love And the tug of a simple profound sadness when it sounds so far away We laugh, and it puts the world against us We laugh and our hearts turn red The river rises like a barn on fire It’s a bed of straw, darling It sure shit is Say hallelujah, say good night Say it over the canned music and your feet won’t stumble His face getting larger The rest blurring on every side And angels knocking on your head A flash in the sky Here is my hand, my heart, my throat, my wrist Here are the illuminated cities in the centre of me And here is the centre of me Which is a lake, which is a well that we can drink from I can’t go through with it I just don’t want to die anymore * could be “pen” Gay History: Roger Casement: Gay Irish Martyr or Victim of a British Forgery? January 28, 2020 Article, biography, Gay Interest, General Interest, History, PoliticalGay, gay martyrs, Irish martyrs, LGBT, miscarriage of justice, political gays, Roger Casementtimalderman A century since he was executed, the story of Irish rebel Sir Roger Casement remains controversial due to the Black Diaries – either a genuine chronicle of his sexual history or a forgery by British officials to discredit him. Two biographers have set out to settle Casement’s case once and for all Undated library file photo of Sir Roger Casement. Photograph: PA hanged man was never more popular. One hundred years ago, the British government executed Roger Casement for his participation in a rebellion in Ireland, the Easter Rising of 1916. This year, schoolchildren and tourists by the thousands have visited Casement’s gravesite in Dublin. It is part of a centennial pilgrimage in honour of the Rising, the pivotal event in modern Irish history, marked by headstones, prisons, and rebel redoubts now hard to imagine in jostling traffic. As the First World War raged across Europe, Irish men and women joined the Rising in an attempt to break from a United Kingdom that had bound Ireland for 115 years. In fighting to establish an Irish republic, they battled not just the British government; they also faced the prospect of a civil war against Irish Protestant unionists in the northern province of Ulster who had already spent three years arming themselves against the prospect of political domination by Ireland’s Catholic majority. In the aftermath of the Rising, the British government executed 16 rebel leaders, including Casement. He was hanged and buried on August 3 in the yard of Pentonville Prison in London, England, a land and sea away from his current resting place. Casement, the last man to be executed, was the first among traitors in the eyes of British officials. Many knew of Casement, an Irish Protestant born outside of Dublin, for his years of work as a Foreign Office official in Africa and South America. This was the Casement who had held a memorial service in a mission church in the Congo Free State in 1901 to commemorate the passing of Queen Victoria; the Casement who was knighted by Victoria’s grandson King George V in 1911 for his humanitarian campaigns on behalf of indigenous peoples on two continents; the Casement who retired from the Foreign Office in 1913 on a comfortable pension that financed his turn to rebellion. An undated portrait of Sir Roger Casement. Photograph: Courtesy National Library of Ireland Just over half a century ago, in 1965, Casement’s remains were reinterred, following a state funeral, in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin. This traitor to the British crown and martyr for the Republic of Ireland remains a memory in motion, stirred by an unforeseen combination of circumstances. The achievement of legal equality for gays in Ireland in 2015, together with the United Kingdom’s recent Brexit vote to leave the European Union, may occasion a new life after death for Casement — as the symbol of a united Ireland. It is the role he had hoped to play even as the trapdoor opened beneath his feet. Since his adolescence, Casement had been an Irish nationalist of the poetic variety. But his politics hardened after his experiences in the Congo Free State persuaded him that the Congolese and Irish peoples had suffered similar injustices, both having lost their lands to imperial conquest. Like many Irish nationalists, Casement turned to militancy in the years before the First World War, angered both by unionists arming themselves and London’s failure to act upon parliamentary legislation for “home rule,” which would have granted the Irish a measure of sovereign autonomy. In 1914, Casement crossed enemy lines into Germany. There, he attempted to recruit Irish prisoners of war to fight against their former British commanders and sought to secure arms from the Kaiser for a revolution in Ireland itself. Two years later — less than a week before the Rising began — Casement was arrested after coming ashore on the southwest coast of Ireland from a submarine bearing German weapons and ammunition. He was sent to London to be interrogated and tried for treason. As the government reasoned, how could any right-thinking person defend a sodomist? These days, Casement is chiefly known as the alleged author of the so-called Black Diaries, which are at the center of a long-standing controversy over his sexuality. As Casement awaited execution in London, supporters in the United Kingdom and the United States lobbied the British government to commute his sentence. In response, British officials began to circulate pages from diaries, purportedly written by Casement in 1903, 1910 and 1911, which chronicled in explicit terms his sexual relations with men. Among mundane daily entries are breathless, raunchy notes on Casement’s trysts and, often, the dimensions of his sexual partners. An excerpt from February 28, 1910, Brazil: “Deep screw to hilt … Rua do Hospicio, 3$ only fine room. Shut window. Lovely, young — 18 & glorious. Biggest since Lisbon July 1904 … Perfectly huge.” UK law forbade any sexual relations between men, so, the government reasoned, how could any right-thinking person defend a sodomist? The diaries served to weaken support for clemency for Casement. In the aftermath of his execution a decades-long debate over the authenticity of the diaries ensued. The leading participants in the debate are two biographers: Jeffrey Dudgeon, who believes that the diaries are genuine and that Casement was a homosexual, and Angus Mitchell, who thinks that the diaries were forged and that Casement’s sexual orientation remains an open question. The stakes of this debate were once greater than they are today. As the debate over the Black Diaries gathered momentum in the 1950s and reached a crisis point in the run-up to the repatriation of Casement’s remains to Ireland in the 1960s, Ireland was both more Catholic in its culture and less assured of its sovereign authority than it is today. The southern 26 counties of Ireland declared themselves the Republic of Ireland in 1949, but the British government continued to treat the Republic as a subordinate member of the Commonwealth, rather than a full-fledged European state, until 1968. In that year, responsibility for British relations with the Republic was assigned to the Western European Department of the newly amalgamated Foreign and Commonwealth Relations Office. Six of the counties of the province of Ulster have remained in the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland, riven by sectarian tension that the Republic and Britain have only ever brought to a stalemate. It is telling that the Irish government has been content to leave the diaries in the British National Archives rather than demand ownership and become accountable for their authenticity. Casement’s path to political redemption was laid by the Gay Liberation movement. Dudgeon is not just a biographer but a protagonist in one of the movement’s crucial battles. In 1981, he challenged Northern Ireland’s criminalisation of homosexual acts between consenting adult men in a case against the United Kingdom brought before the European Court of Human Rights. The court ruled that the law at issue violated the European Convention of Human Rights, and this decision prompted the British government in 1982 to issue an Order in Council that decriminalised homosexual acts between adult men in Northern Ireland; England, Wales, and Scotland had already passed similar laws. In 1993 the Irish parliament to the south also decriminalised male homosexuality in order to bring the Republic’s law into compliance with the European Convention of Human Rights. And in 2015, the Republic became the first country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage by popular vote. The broader campaign for LGBT rights in Ireland has kept Casement much in the news and proudly represented him as a national son and father. In their biographies, Dudgeon and Mitchell present two Casements, each with strengths and weaknesses. Dudgeon offers meticulous, well-documented detail, but his book, Roger Casement: The Black Diaries, is for insiders, reading at many points like the notes for a doctoral dissertation, without consistent chronological structure or contextual explanation for those unfamiliar with Irish history in general and Casement in particular. Mitchell likewise offers meticulous documentary evidence in Roger Casement, but within a comparatively fluid and clear narrative history that depends problematically upon his assertion that the British government, from the Cabinet to the National Archive, has pursued an insidious, sweeping policy of individual defamation over the past century. Were the Black Diaries forged? And if so, was it the work of the British government, seeking to destroy Casement for his betrayal and to deny Ireland a heroic martyr? It must be said that Dudgeon and Mitchell both magnify Casement out of proportion to his significance as a threat to the United Kingdom, a state that was attempting to survive a war on multiple fronts, with flagging morale at home, in 1916. The government had larger fish to fry than this man who never founded or led a political party, never engaged in assassination or led men into combat, and never wrote a popular manifesto or treatise. Moreover, as Dudgeon argues, it would have been a monumental, virtually impossible task in 1916 for officials and civil servants to forge diaries so comprehensive in their account of long-past events — when Casement was not under suspicion — that they could convince even Casement’s associates, who found themselves and their own interactions with Casement mentioned in the text. In a fascinating turn, Dudgeon offers the most successful refutation of forgery to date by systematically verifying the diaries’ contents, relentlessly revealing and cross-referencing new sources to pull together loose ends and flesh out identities from cryptic references and last names, such as that of Casement’s alleged boyfriend: “Millar.” Against the historical backdrop of a government marshalling limited resources in wartime, Dudgeon effectively charges that a forgery so verifiably true to life could not have been a forgery. He is probably correct. Yet to travel further down this historical rabbit hole risks missing what is most significant about Casement at present: his potential reinvention as a symbol of Irish unity in the future. Casement has been resuscitated by an extraordinary combination of developments in the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom, not just the relative toleration of homosexuality, but the lurch toward Brexit in a popular referendum that found 52% of UK voters in favour and 48% opposed. The decisive support for Brexit was located in England and Wales, while both Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU, the latter by 55.8% to 44.2%. The Republic of Ireland and the UK have long agreed that the political division of Ireland will continue until the majority of Northern Ireland’s citizens vote to sanction secession. Even as Northern Ireland has moved steadily toward a Catholic majority (most of whom support secession), there is still a sizeable minority of Catholics who prefer continued union with Britain in the name of economic and political stability. After the Brexit vote, the disparate communities of Northern Ireland — Protestants and Catholics of all political stripes — may find new common ground in, of all places, Europe. Northern Ireland, like the Republic, benefits substantially from its relationship with the EU, and nationalists and unionists alike are worried about the loss of EU subsidies and markets. Irish President Eamon de Valera speaking at the funeral of Irish nationalist Roger Casement at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin, 2nd March 1965. Photograph: Central Press/Getty Images In the days preceding his execution, Casement asked his family to bury his body near the home of relatives in County Antrim, in what is now Northern Ireland. This was the family that had taken young Roger in after an itinerant childhood and the deaths of his parents. “Take my body back with you and let it lie in the old churchyard in Murlough Bay,” he reportedly stated. Casement’s reinternment at Glasnevin Cemetery was, in fact, a compromise. In 1965 neither the Irish nor the UK governments wished to antagonise Ulster unionists with the burial of a republican martyr in their midst. Among the many tributes laid at Casement’s grave following his burial in Glasnevin was a sod of turf from the high headland over Murlough Bay. The transfer of Casement’s remains from Pentonville to Glasnevin was conceived by the Irish and UK governments as a symbolic gesture of goodwill that would set the political stage for the Anglo-Irish Free Trade Agreement of 1965. The governments turned to each other for economic support because France had frustrated their attempts to gain entrance into the European Economic Community (EEC), the predecessor organisation of the EU. When both countries joined the EEC in 1973, this trade agreement lapsed. Once more, then, with Brexit, Casement’s bones have been stirred by Anglo-Irish relations with Europe. In Ireland, the effects are likely to be much different this time around. In representing Casement as a man of contradictions, biographers have assessed him in the terms of conflicts in Irish society that persisted long after his death: the sectarian divide between Protestants and Catholics, the troubles between Ireland and Britain, and the discrimination against male homosexuals enforced by religion and law. As these conflicts dissipate, Casement will be recast in a new light. The portrait of a man of contradictions will give way to a composite picture in which the majority of the people of Ireland may see themselves. Should Ireland reunite, whether in the aftermath of Brexit or in a more distant time, the moment of reconciliation, of acceptance and forgiveness, may well occur over a grave at Murlough Bay. Roger Casement: Gay Irish Martyr or Victim of a British Forgery?, The Guardian, 29 September 2016, by Kevin Grant https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/sep/28/roger-casement-gay-irish-martyr-or-victim-of-a-british-forgery The Beatles Song Named For A Woman That Was About A Man January 27, 2020 Article, General Interest, Iconsashram, Beatles, John Lennon, Maharishi, Sexy Sadietimalderman The Beatles were famous for their beautiful, inspired love songs dedicated to women- “Michelle”, “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds”, “Eleanor Rigby”, “Julia”, “Lovely Rita”, “Lady Madonna”, “Dear Prudence”. Even other Beatles’ classics, not graced with titles using proper nouns: “She Loves You”, “She’s a Woman”, “Girl”; and of course “I Want to Hold Your Hand”, “Love Me Do”, “P.S. I Love You” et al were all written about and centered around different women who had touched the Beatles in different ways (sometimes literally). But which Beatles song sounds like it was written about a woman, but was in reality, written about a man? In 1968, the Beatles were on a quest, searching, just like many of us- to find “The Truth”. Yes, they were rich, famous, and materially successful beyond any of their wildest dreams. But they all- especially George and John- felt something was missing. The Beatles, in their search, came upon an interesting spiritual guide named Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. They traveled to his meditation camp in Rishikesh, India to study, meditate, and hopefully “become enlightened”. The fab four arrived and spent their days at the Maharishi’s retreat, with their respective wives, girlfriends, pals, and entourage. After a pleasant start, the Beatles’ spiritual revival stay at Rishikesh started to unravel. Ringo left first; after only ten days, he packed his bags and declared he’d had enough (Ringo’s excuse cited missing his children in London, plus the fact that his wife, Maureen, hated the prevalence of insects in their bungalow). Paul lasted a few days longer and departed, leaving John and George- the most sincerely hopeful to find “the answer” at the Ashram. George and John remained for several more weeks, each meditating several hours a day. But a rumor, supposedly started and spread by John’s friend “Magic Alex” Mardas, filtered through to the Beatles’ camp. (“Magic Alex” was a would-be-inventor and full-time hanger-on (i.e. parasite) of the Beatles and was accompanying the boys at the retreat). According to Magic Alex’s salacious rumor, the holy Maharishi had made an overt pass at one or more of the pretty girls studying there. (Different sources cite the anonymous girl as being either Mia Farrow, her sister Prudence Farrow, or another cute short-haired blonde bombshell at the camp). John Lennon- impulsive, quick-tempered, and trusting of his pal, Magic Alex- immediately rounded up his wife and friends and decided to leave. It was John who confronted the surprised guru, the Maharishi, and told him they were all hitting the road. “But why are you leaving?” Maharishi asked. “If you’re so cosmic, you’ll know!” Lennon spat. According to John, the Maharishi shot him a look of daggers at that point and John immediately knew he was a fake and a fraud. And, thus, John, George, their respective wives and their retinue peremptorily left India. Upon arriving back in England, John unwrapped the final song he had written while in India- a disillusioned, angry song called “Maharishi”. Lennon supposedly scratched out the original lyrics on a piece of wood at the London apple offices. (Ringo’s wife, Maureen, actually owned the piece of wood John carved the song on. She later sold the carved, seminal “Maharishi” song to a Beatles collector years later.) The original lyrics were incredibly cruel and vile, as Paul remembers John first playing the tune for him. “Who the f**k do you think you are?” was about the mildest of the original lyrics. John’s song referred to the Maharishi in the worst possible sexual epithets. It was George who advised John to tone the song down and change the title from “Maharishi” to “Sexy Sadie”. (For legal reasons, but also, George was not as upset or disillusioned as John. After initially leaving the camp with John, George returned to India for a few more weeks of meditation, peace, and quiet). When “Sexy Sadie” was recorded over four sessions in July and August of ’68, John spent much of the time cursing and sputtering about the whole Maharishi experience, still deeply hurt and disillusioned. “Sexy Sadie” was to appear in a few months on the Beatles’ legendary “White Album” later in 1968. The finished song is a very nice one, like most of John Lennon’s brilliant body of work. And to this day, I am sure many uneducated listeners assume “Sexy Sadie” was written about a sexy, unscrupulous woman who took the writer and other men for a ride and used them. The truth is that it was written as an angry, hostile “homage” to a short, bearded, gray-haired Indian guru. But why did John so wholeheartedly and immediately believe Magic Alex’s gossip and story about the Maharishi? After all, Paul, George, and John’s wife, Cynthia, were all to later state that the story was a hoax and was concocted entirely by the nefarious Magic Alex. And even if the alleged story was true, as Paul was to later say, the Maharishi made no claims to being some god with no carnal desires. “Don’t treat me like a god. I’m a meditation teacher” was Paul’s quote from the guru. “There was no deal that you mustn’t touch women. There wasn’t a vow of chastity involved”, Paul added. Maybe John just simply bought the malicious accusation, but Beatle scholars offer up a few different views. One is that John was just bored and tired of being the Maharishi’s disciple and wanted to return to England. As a bit of a stretch, others offer the theory that John even got Magic Alex to cook up the story so he’d have an excuse to blow the Ashram. But a more accurate and likely theory lies a bit deeper, under the radar screen at the time. Every day he was at the Maharishi’s camp, John would happily hop to the local post office branch, where he was receiving strange, mysterious letters and postcards from an odd Japanese performance artist named Yoko Ono. Lennon had met Yoko Ono previously, but these mailings fascinated and intrigued him. The feminine-scrawled mailings contained enigmatic lines of poetry like, “Look up at the sky and see my face” or “Take your thoughts and dig a hole and bury them.” These postcards and letters and their “messages” spellbound Lennon and captured his imagination. He may have been dying to get back to London to give this Yoko Ono a call and get together with her. And this is exactly what happened, almost as soon as John arrived back home. Cynthia Lennon, John’s wife of six years, was unceremoniously dumped and John cast his lot with Yoko. The Beatles were, after all, just four human beings. And human beings look for answers- and find them in many different places. Years later, Paul, George, and Ringo were all to publicly state their gratitude to the Maharishi for what he had given them, and all three were to indulge in the transcendental meditation he had taught them, throughout their lives. The three Beatles (but not John) were to have only kind words about their old friend and teacher, the Maharishi. And, ironically, it was in his beloved Yoko Ono that the earnestly searching John Lennon was to find his own particular “truth” in life. The Beatles Song Named For A Woman That Was About A Man, Today I Found Out, 15 November 2012, by Eddie Deezen http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/11/the-beatles-song-named-for-a-woman-that-was-about-a-man/ Gay History: The Hidden Queer History of Paper Dolls January 26, 2020 Article, Gay Interest, General Interest, HumourGay, gay paper dolls, LGBT, paper dollstimalderman Infinitely adaptable and easy to conceal, these toys were surprisingly appealing to gay men in the 1950s. Benjamin Frisch Paper dolls, a vital part of children’s lives and fashion culture for generations, have always been meant to be instructive: to teach young women and girls how to look and behave. But, from the start, they have been used in unexpected ways, by people they weren’t necessarily intended for. The first mass-produced paper doll was published in London in 1810 and called The History of Little Fanny. It was a morality play told in verse, about Fanny, a vain, well-to-do girl who has a tantrum when she isn’t allowed to wear her favorite dress and then sneaks away from home. She’s robbed of her clothes, and thus of her status, and becomes a beggar—the set came with a beggar outfit. She makes her way back up the social ladder, one paper costume at a time, until she is reunited with her family. The lesson of the book was supposed to be about the dangers of caring too much about clothes, about how obedience is the only thing standing between a woman and total ruin. But playing with Fanny must have demonstrated the exact opposite of that. It showed the fun of fashion and storytelling, the fun of paper dolls. This tension—between what paper dolls are meant to teach and the creative, playful, norm-breaking lessons they can teach instead—followed paper dolls into the 20th century. By the early 1900s, millions of sets of paper dolls were being sold each year by dozens of different publishers. You could buy them for a few cents at the five and dime, or cut them out of newspapers, comic books, magazines, and advertisements. There were paper dolls of—among other things—little girls, like the incredibly popular Betsy McCall, a perfect avatar of middle-class Eisenhower-era values; brand mascots like Minnie Mouse; and classic film stars like Judy Garland, Elizabeth Taylor, and Carmen Miranda. Because paper dolls were flat and printable, they were incredibly adaptable to all sorts of formats. There was even a vinyl record made for kids, where the sleeve featured paper dolls you could cut out and dress. One of the songs on the record, “The Paper Family,” by Anne Lloyd and Michael Stewart, has lyrics that describe how an American family ought to behave—as innocently and obediently as paper dolls. The conformity represented by paper dolls was easy to subvert, because it was so easy to ignore. The virtue of simple toys is that it’s simple to use them any way you please. Paper dolls came with a lot of outfits—often eight to 10 per figure—and if you wanted more, you could just draw one yourself or cut them out of an old catalog. With all these choices, you could mix everything up, you could pair a gown with a bandana, you could pair a nursing outfit with dungarees. In this way, paper dolls were kind of like a Lego kit, a modular toy that was infinitely adaptable. You could even experiment with cross-dressing your doll. Anything you wanted to do, you could do. And this playfulness, this freedom, this is what many queer people loved about paper dolls. In the world of paper doll publishing, the most famous gay player was Tom Tierney, who almost single-handedly kept paper dolls alive in the 1970s and ’80s—a low point for the popularity of the form. He created more than 400 paper doll books, including one of Pope John Paul II, and even some adult offerings, featuring drag queens, leather-clad bikers, and other atypical paper doll fare. But references to paper dolls show up all over gay culture. The most fascinating connection we came across while researching this episode of Decoder Ring is also the most mysterious. San Francisco had a gay bar—or, at least, a proto-gay bar—called the Paper Doll, sometimes known as the Paper Doll Club, which was in operation by 1945, perhaps even earlier than that, which was incredibly early for an openly gay space. We don’t know for sure where the name came from, but we have a theory, and it has to do with another paper doll with a queer connection: In the early 1940s, there was a hugely popular song called “Paper Doll,” written by Johnny S. Black and performed by the Mills Brothers. It’s almost totally forgotten now, but it sold more than 11 million copies in its day. (That’s about as many copies as the “Macarena,” the Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.,” or Britney Spears’ “…Baby One More Time.”) The song peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart in 1943 into 1944, so it would have been everywhere around the time the Paper Doll was opening. It seems likely that the song, at least in part, inspired the name of the club—because it has some pretty obvious queer subtext. Besides the oddness of a group of men singing about wanting a paper doll, one line refers to “flirty, flirty guys, with their flirty eyes.” More generally, the fragility of the paper doll makes them a ready metaphor for gay people in the 1950s and ’60s—and still for some people even today—whose existence was precarious, who were constantly in danger of being found out, losing their jobs and families, and having everything ripped away from them. But paper dolls also suggest something more hopeful—the possibility of transformation. And that transformation means that they are also a potent symbol for code-switching, of how changing outfits can change how you are perceived and act in different groups and situations. Out in the real world, you might wear the clothes of a lawyer or a sailor, but then when you’re around other gay people, say at the Paper Doll in San Francisco, you can shed that outfit and don something more authentically yourself. The Hidden Queer History of Paper Dolls, Slate, 27 August 2018, by Benjamin Frisch & Willa Paskin https://slate.com/culture/2018/08/the-hidden-gay-history-of-paper-dolls.html Gay History: A Gay Martyr Who Ignited A Global Revolution January 26, 2020 Article, biography, Gay Interest, General Interest, PoliticalGay, gay assassination, gay icon, gay martyr, gay politics, Harvey Milk, LGBTtimalderman Biography: Harvey Milk, Lillian Faderman, Yale University Press, €21.99, JP O’ Malley Sean Penn (left) won a best actor Oscar for his portrayal of Harvey Milk, California’s first openly gay elected politician, in the 2008 film ‘Milk’ On November 18, 1977, Harvey Milk distributed a secret tape recording to a select network of close friends: “To be played only in the event of my death by assassination,” the audio began: “If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door,” the statement concluded. Milk made the recordings shortly after becoming the first openly gay man to be elected to public-political office anywhere; when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Just one year later he was murdered by Dan White. White, a fellow supervisor on San Francisco’s governing body, killed Milk because he claimed the city was being turned into Sodom by men who insisted on flaunting their homosexuality in public. As historian and scholar of the LGBT movement, Lillian Faderman, explains in the concluding chapter of this concise, yet enormously insightful biography, Milk’s murder immortalised him forever: igniting a nationwide call to action from the LGBT community to demand equality, free from prejudice. At the last Gay Freedom Day rally he attended before his death, Milk proposed that gay people across America gather in the US capital. On October 14, 1979, the first March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights had 100,000 people in attendance. As Faderman notes, support for the LGBT movement grew in numbers over time: the second March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in 1987 drew 600,000 people; while the third in 1993 attracted close to a million. As of 2016, 43 states across the US have elected at least one LGBT person to their state legislature. And this historic progressive change spread further afield. Indeed, it’s possible to draw a line from Milk’s death, to Ireland’s progressive move in 2015 to enshrine marriage equality into law for same sex couples; and the subsequent appointment, two years later, of the country’s first openly gay Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar. A hopeful, moving, and uplifting read, Faderman’s book tells the story of a man that didn’t fit the typical criteria for a progressive political martyr. Primarily because Milk lacked consistency in his political allegiances: he could play the liberal-pot smoking hippie, just as he could champion right wing conservatism when it suited him. Faderman subtly hints that the circumstances of Milk’s personal life meant he never felt entirely comfortable in one firmly-rooted set of political ideals. Essentially because he was living a double life. Born in 1930, into a conservative Jewish family in Long Island, New York, Milk never came out to either of his parents. Both died knowing nothing of his sexual identity. As a Jew and homosexual, Milk always saw himself as an outsider who had to fight for social acceptance. He often used analogies of Jews being slaughtered in Nazi Germany. The Holocaust remained a pertinent metaphor in Milk’s speeches and editorials. Drawing lessons from European history, Milk claimed that calling any minority group pariahs, criminals, and demons would naturally only end in catastrophe. Milk lived much of his life in a peripatetic manner: oscillating between New York, Dallas, and California. He took jobs in teaching, acting, on Wall Street and in the navy too, where he briefly served in Korea. But it was in the Castro area of San Francisco where Milk finally laid down roots and began to interact with a burgeoning gay community. Then in his forties, Milk, along with his partner Scott Smith, opened Castro Camera: a gay camera photo development shop, which also served as a political constituency office, as well as a popular neighbourhood gay hangout spot too. Faderman continually stresses that Milk was often shunned by certain sections of the gay community in his own lifetime. Since the Stonewall Riots in New York’s Greenwich Village in 1969, a large proportion of the gay community across America had become synonymous with radical politics: seeking to overthrow existing social institutions. Milk, however, was no committed leftist. He simply sought for gay people to be accepted into mainstream society as it presently stood. Faderman points out that even martyrs have their flaws too: shortly before his death, the US Attorney General authorised that the FBI look into allegations that Milk had tried to divert funds from the Pride Foundation into his own pocket. We also read how Milk’s love life was mired in anguish, abandonment, heartache, and tragedy. One of his long-time partners, Jack Lira, hanged himself in 1977, leaving Milk a rather nasty suicide note. Faderman’s narrative mixes the personal and the political with great skill; subtly displaying how at a fundamental level, fighting for collective political rights is really just a human yearning for personal happiness, which usually has its roots in compassion. The book is an exemplary testament to how ordinary citizens – with hope in their hearts and relentless ambition – can swing the pendulum of history towards progress and freedom. A Gay Martyr Who Ignited A Global Revolution, Irish Independent News, 4 June 2018, https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/book-reviews/a-gay-martyr-who-ignited-a-global-revolution-36969547.html Gay History: Alan Turing: Gay Man who Saved the World yet Died in Disgrace January 25, 2020 Article, biography, Gay Interest, General Interest, PoliticalAlan Turing, decoders, enigma machine, Gay, gay martyrs, LGBTtimalderman What do you do to a homosexual mathematician whose code-breaking genius saved the world during World War II? Not figuratively, but actually saved the world from Nazi domination? You put him on trial, of course! You convict him of gross indecency. You force him to choose prison or chemical castration. You strip him of all dignity and hound him until in shame and despair he swallows a cyanide pill and dies. The story of Alan Turing is one of the most disgraceful episodes of modern civilization. A man who should have been a hero of the free world and idolized next to Einstein and Newton in the history books was instead hounded to death because of religion-inspired homophobia. In World War II, Alan Turing’s genius at breaking Nazi secret codes was so successful that the Allies could have sunk almost every single U-boat and convoy that left Germany. Turing’s work was so good it was like cheating at cards: if you win every hand, the other players will quickly figure out that the game is rigged. The Allies had to employ all sorts of tricks to hide their success; if you want a fascinating account, I highly recommend Neal Stephenson’s semi-fictional Cryptonomicon, the story of the rise of modern cryptography. Alan Turing literally saved the world from Nazi domination. Without his work, WWII would have ended very differently. The Nazi regime might have remained undefeated, still in control of Northern Europe and western Asia. The Japanese might have retained control of East Asia. Our world maps would look vastly different today. And even if we’d won the war, without Turing’s work it’s likely that millions more soldiers and civilians would have died in the fight. And Turing’s work didn’t end with cryptography. Today he’s best known as the inventor of the modern digital computer, the one who laid down the mathematical foundation for all computer science. His name is even enshrined in two of the most important computer-science concepts, the Turing machine and the Turing test. If Alan Turing hadn’t been homosexual, his name might be a household word like Einstein, Newton and Galileo. What home doesn’t have a computer? If you count the laptops, cell phones, digital TVs, iPods, digital cameras and microwave ovens in your home, I’ll bet you own more than a dozen computing devices. Every one of them works on the principles laid down by Alan Turing during WWII when he was trying to develop a computing machine to break the enemy’s codes even faster. Turing’s fall from grace came at the hands of the religious commi-bashing right, the British equivalent of America’s McCarthyism. In 1952 a gay lover helped an accomplice rob Turing’s house. During the police investigation, it came out that Turing was a homosexual. He was arrested and convicted of gross indecency, and given a choice of prison or chemical castration. Turing choose castration. On June 7, 1954, at just forty two years of age, Alan Mathison Turing killed himself by swallowing cyanide. One of the greatest minds in the history of humankind was lost forever, and one of the greatest heroes of World War II died in shame and disgrace. But the real shame is on the rest of us, not Alan Turing. In spite of his sexual orientation and consequent hardships he must have experienced, he remained a true patriot and mathematician. He put his mind to work to save the very society that persecuted him. It is possible that he changed history and saved more lives than any other single person in the twentieth century. On September 10, 2009, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown finally issued a public apology to Turing’s memory: Thousands of people have come together to demand justice for Alan Turing and recognition of the appalling way he was treated. While Turing was dealt with under the law of the time and we can’t put the clock back, his treatment was of course utterly unfair and I am pleased to have the chance to say how deeply sorry I and we all are for what happened to him … So on behalf of the British government, and all those who live freely thanks to Alan’s work I am very proud to say: we’re sorry, you deserved so much better. It is stories like Turing’s that keep me writing. It’s easy to have a live-and-let-live attitude toward the immoral “morality” of the Bible. It sounds nice to advocate tolerance and respect. But Alan Turing is dead, and the Bible is where it all started. Alan Turing: Gay Man who Saved the World yet Died in Disgrace, Church & State, 19 November 2010, by Craig A. James http://churchandstate.org.uk/2018/10/alan-turing-gay-man-who-saved-the-world-yet-died-in-disgrace/ No Speedo? Then Don’t Try To Go Swimming In France – Seriously! January 5, 2020 Article, General Interest, Humour, Travelogueapproved swimwear, France, Speedo, swimming in Francetimalderman A boy — wearing an approved swimsuit — jumps into the public swimming pool in Auxerre, France. Credit: Adeline Sire If you’ve traveled outside of the US this summer, a foreign language may not have necessarily been the biggest stress factor of the trip. Local customs are often what get us stumped. Take a trip to the local pool, for example. Seems like an easy and universal-enough activity to not have to jump through the daunting hoops of cultural differences, right? Wrong. It can be an uncomfortable experience. I am a native of the city of Auxerre, Burgundy, in France. It’s a lovely place of about 35,000 people, rich with medieval history. It’s small, but it boasts many remarkable historical monuments, including a cathedral and an abbey from the Middle Ages and some ancient churches and chapels. It sits in the middle of the Burgundian hills, known for their excellent wines. The city has another, more modern attraction that locals are proud of: its phenomenal public pool — or as it’s called there, the Nautical Stadium. It has four indoor heated pools with a jacuzzi, and three outside pools including an Olympic-sized one with a long, swirly slide. It is an extravagantly large — for its town — aquatic facility, built on the green banks of the river Yonne. People travel from surrounding towns and villages to spend the day there, sunbathe on its beautiful lawns and snack at its eatery, when they are not swimming. You pay a small fee to get a bracelet which gives you access to the facilities. There’s nothing tricky, except for the bathing suit rules. You see, in most French public pools, there are strict regulations about the kind of bathing suit you can wear, and therefore share with others, in the water. For illustration: (L) Not approved swimwear. (R) Approved swimwear. Credit: Adeline Sire Simply put, where hygiene is concerned, your swimsuit cannot be something you could be found wearing outside the pool. That means no trunks, Bermuda shorts, T-shirts or anything that is not strictly meant for swimming. Auxerre’s pool administrators say they do not want people to drag any dirt on, or under, their summer attire into the pool. So if you are going to join the masses of swimmers — all 2,000 of them on a busy summer day — you’ll have very little cloth covering your own birthday suit. Where else would you be told to wear something shorter and tighter, no matter your shape? Man, woman or child, you’ll have to wear some form of spandex, something tight, the kind Speedo makes. Something that often leaves nothing to the imagination — and it’s not to everyone’s liking. If you are caught entering the pool with biking shorts, running shorts or trunks, lifeguards — turned fashion police — will blow the whistle and send you back to the lobby where you will be asked to purchase proper attire. This is where convenient vending machines come in. In the Auxerre pool lobby, there are machines that vend soft drinks, sandwiches and espressos, and others that dispense anything needed for the pool, from ear plugs, soap, shampoo and goggles, to swimwear. A vending machine at the public pool in Auxerre, France, dispenses swimsuits. Credit: Adeline Sire A mannequin in swimming trunks with a big “forbidden” sign around its neck in the pool’s lobby is supposed to illustrate, for unsuspecting tourists, the kind of bathing suit that is acceptable. As a result, looking around, there is a certain repetitiveness to the swimsuit designs worn by men and boys. There are four different designs in all, perhaps because that is all that is available at the vending machine or at the inexpensive sports store in town. In the years since those regulations went into effect, I cannot remember hordes of disgruntled tourists getting outraged about this. But occasionally, one gets caught with his pants long (men more than women for obvious reasons) and is not happy about it. The French have just gotten used to this, but for some visitors, the fact that municipal administrators have the authority to get you dressed to their liking — or un-dressed as the case may be — is completely infuriating. That is one of those unavoidable cultural quirks travelers must contend with in France. As a resident of the United States, used to the uncompromising French swimsuit rules, it’s always disconcerting to me that anyone would be allowed to walk straight into an American public pool, from the street to the water, fully dressed, trunks over underwear, T-shirt over chest and sometimes with water shoes on. That could make me love the French “no clothes — just Speedos” rules even more. But perhaps there are no people on Earth prouder of their public pools than Icelanders. Iceland, where I just spent a few days, is rich with geothermal springs and big cities enjoy naturally heated outdoor pools. Because there are no chemicals in those pools, swimmers are expected to take a meticulous soap-and-scrub shower before entering the pool. We were told that the rules are strictly enforced everywhere, and so visitors oblige. The Blue Lagoon geothermal spa in Iceland. Credit: Adeline Sire This was my experience recently at the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa near Reykjavik, where a very polite young staff lady looked on and directed all female visitors to shower in the nude before letting them into the hot spring. No one seemed to object. But then again, people were not told what to wear. No Speedo? Then Don’t Try To Go Swimming In France – Seriously!, Pri, 1 September 2014, by Adeline Sire https://www.pri.org/stories/2014-09-01/no-speedo-then-dont-try-go-swimming-france-seriously Gay History: Leigh Bowery January 1, 2020 Article, biography, Gay Interest, General Interest, HIV/AIDSBoy George, Gay, gay eccentrics, Leigh Bowery, LGBT, performance art, Taboo Nightclubtimalderman Leigh Bowery and Boy George. “I will always remember the moment when a pretty faced, slightly chubby blonde boy turned up at the door of The Cha Cha Club wearing a rather hideous blue velvet cape. He told me his name was Leigh Bowery, followed by, “Graham sent me to you.” It was late October 1981. My friend Graham Parnham had met Leigh at Andrew Logan’s Alternative Miss World earlier that month. Leigh didn’t know anybody on the club scene in London so Graham had sent him along to my club telling him that I would look after him. “You’ll like him.” Graham had told me, “. . . he’s Australian and a bit bonkers.” Graham was right. I liked him immediately. Leigh had a generous spirit and sharp wit, was extremely polite and charming. I told him I’d be glad to let him in to the club so long as he promised me that he would never wear that velvet cape again. We laughed, the first of many laughs that we were to have. It would be two or three years before Leigh started creating looks and dressing in his extraordinary and very outrageous style. Back in 1982 and 83 he wanted to be a fashion designer and would create 1940s inspired pyjama suits for me, Trojan and himself. He’d make me dresses to wear to the club, shrewdly knowing that they would be photographed aplenty. He’d hand write labels with indelible laundry marker and stitch them into his creations. I would look forward to the Tuesday afternoons when Leigh would arrive with something new to wear out that night. The world quite rightly remembers Leigh Bowery as the brilliant and unique performance artist that he became. Though we remained friends throughout his life, for me there is a sweetness to remembering our close friendship of those early years and the extraordinary evolution of the pretty faced, slightly chubby blonde boy in the hideous blue velvet cape. We lost Graham to AIDS in the spring of 1994. We lost Leigh the same year, on New Year’s Eve.” — by Scarlett Cannon Sex, sin and sausages: the debauched brilliance of Leigh Bowery His shocking shows – featuring births, enemas and vomiting – thrilled and appalled. Two decades after his death, why is the influence of this 80s nightclub legend still so pervasive? ‘He was modern art on legs’ … Leigh Bowery in a jacket he customised. Photograph: Mark Baker/Photoshot/Getty Images e was painted naked and sprawling by Lucian Freud. He “gave birth” to his own wife on stage, using sausages as an umbilical cord. And he was the star turn in Taboo, perhaps the most debauched nightclub Britain has ever seen, hosting the revelry with his face painted blue, his nose and nipples pierced and his outfit as intimidatingly outlandish as possible. But there was much more to Leigh Bowery than sheer outrageousness – and his range, daring and influence are now starting to be appreciated by a new generation. Perhaps the most prominent sign of this reappraisal comes from Australian choreographer Andy Howitt, who is bringing Sunshine Boy, a new show about the nightlife legend, to the Edinburgh fringe this summer. “I was at the National Gallery in Melbourne and there was a big sculpture that said, ‘By Leigh Bowery from Sunshine’,” he says. “I was like, ‘That can’t be the Leigh Bowery from the 80s dance scene.’ It sparked me on a journey to find out about the man.” Bowery did indeed hail from Sunshine, a suburb of Melbourne with around 10,000 inhabitants. Howitt visited it and spoke to his family, as well as to those in London who had known him. “You have to remember his backstory,” says Howitt. “He only lived in London for 14 years. He sold up shop at 19 or 20 and went straight there and became the icon.” Howitt fed his findings into Sunshine Boy, telling the story of Bowery’s life through dance, spoken word passages, music and, naturally, those showstopping costumes. Howitt’s performance ranges from his childhood to the Taboo years and then to his death from Aids in 1994 at the age of 33. Umbilical sausages … Leigh Bowery ‘giving birth’ to his wife. Photograph: James Hill/Rex .Umbilical sausages … Leigh Bowery ‘giving birth’ to his wife. Photograph: James Hill/Rex As Sunshine Boy suggests, Bowery remains a larger-than-life persona in underground culture, even 24 years after his death. What made him so different from the other 80s club kids? Partly his looks, which still seem strikingly original. As the impresario of Taboo, he wore a different, jaw-dropping outfit every week. There was the shiny PVC mask and matching catsuit, with one larger leg as if in plaster. There was the polka dot suit worn with polka dot face. There were the lightbulbs he’d wear on either side of his face, the coloured drips that would cover his bald head, the merkin he’d place over his genitals. And then there was his wife, Nicola Bateman, worn naked and strapped upside-down to his chest. (Although Bowery described himself as gay, he married his longtime companion and sometime lover Bateman seven months before his death.) But Bowery’s creativity was not confined to clubs. He worked with the dancer and choreographer Michael Clark, creating costumes and co-starring in his performances. He appeared in the windows of the Anthony d’Offay Gallery, wearing a different outfit each day of the week. He fronted a band, Minty, and – perhaps most famously – modelled nude several times for Freud. On the back of the Freud connection, Bowery hit the mainstream from various directions. He appeared in a commercial for Pepe Jeans and guested on The Clothes Show on BBC One, taking tea in Harrods dressed in a succession of astonishing get-ups to the soundtrack of his hero, drag star Divine. Bowery also engaged in more conventional creative work. He was an art director on the 1991 video for Massive Attack’s Unfinished Sympathy, a stylist for Rifat Özbek, a costume designer for Culture Club (Boy George would co-write and star in a successful musical about Bowery). His career resists categorisation. Asked what he most deplored in others by the Guardian in 1993, Bowery replied: “The urge to categorise: if you label me, you negate me.” Perhaps Boy George came up with the most accurate description when he described Bowery as “modern art on legs”. He turned himself, his body and his image into an art object, one that walked among us as well as appeared on stages and in the windows of galleries. “People are always telling me about the time they saw him,” says Sue Tilley, Bowery’s friend and the author of Leigh Bowery: The Life and Times of an Icon. “It was probably only once, but he made such an impact they have never forgotten it.” DJ Princess Julia met Bowery in the early 80s, both part of a crowd that included the artist Cerith Wyn Evans, Boy George, Clark, and Bowery’s friend and frequent co-star Trojan. Julia says Bowery, who started off working at Burger King to make ends meet, quickly became a fixture on the scene: “He was very influential because he was very inventive. He was always coming up with ideas.” His looks, she says, were often inspired by what was happening in wider society. “The dot face, for example, was a comment on Kaposi’s sarcoma” – the cancer which caused the facial lesions that struck many Aids sufferers in the 80s. “His work was about things like body image or illnesses – and those things haven’t gone away. It confronts you and frightens you and makes you think. It’s very disruptive, to use a word of the moment.” There is a clear line from Bowery to the performers and punters exploring extreme looks today. Glyn Fussell is the founder of Sink the Pink, a playground for the artistic side of drag culture. He says that while the twentysomethings who come to the London club probably haven’t heard of Bowery, his influence is present. “You see it fashion, you see it in the underground, you see it in mainstream culture, in RuPaul’s Drag Race.” Howdy … Bowery at home in 1984. Photograph: Steve Pyke/Getty It is in fashion that Bowery’s influence is most explicit. Rick Owens’ “human backpack” collection in 2015 was a tribute to Bowery carrying Bateman like a papoose. Menswear designer Charles Jeffrey runs a club called Loverboy that stage shows verging on performance art, much like Bowery. And, with his floral gowns and matching face masks, Richard Quinn, the young London designer who had the Queen in attendance at his February show, has clearly been inspired by Bowery. For Gareth Pugh, Bowery is a consistent reference. The designer first learned about him in Fergus Greer’s 2002 book Leigh Bowery Looks: “If you go into any suburban art college you’ll always find that book in the fashion section.” Bowery is inspirational, he believes, becausehe “ created his own language. That’s the golden fleece for any fashion designer: to find something they can be known for 30 years down the line – and for it to be so iconic.” Of course, some elements of Bowery’s work haven’t aged so well, driven by his relentless desire to shock. One of his most infamous looks was called “Pakis from Outer Space”, inspired by the Asian communities near where Bowery lived in the East End and involving blue faces, bindis and nose rings. He made blouses out of material bearing swastikas, used rags stolen from Jewish artist Freud’s studio to make an image of Hitler and appeared, naked, in makeup similar to blackface, for a Minty publicity photo. This preoccupation with the extreme offended plenty of people. Clark stopped working with Bowery when he insisted on wearing a costume with “a cunt” written on it. Minty saw their residency at the Soho club Freedom cut short because of a show that involved Bowery “vomiting” vegetable soup into Bateman’s mouth. Perhaps Bowery’s work was radical satire, all part of a life lived without taboos. Shocking people – and perhaps waking them up – was the ultimate aim. Speaking about a show at an Aids benefit, in which he had an enema on stage that sprayed the front row, he said: “I was quite pleased with the hostile reaction. If I have to ask, ‘Is this idea too sick?’ I know I am on the right track.” “The idea,” says Pugh, “of wilfully doing things that get a rise out of people. He had this idea of something that is bereft of control, for good or for bad.” A ticket to the mainstream … one of Lucian Freud’s portraits of Bowery. Photograph: Bridgeman Images “I don’t think he was setting out with a racist heart,” says Fussell. “He was challenging the status quo. It was about challenging what he was seeing on the streets and making it hyper-realised.” Howitt’s 40-minute show will cover Bowery’s triumphs, disasters and premature death. Bowery found out he was HIV positive in 1988 and died six years later, not long before combination therapies greatly prolonged the lives of those with the disease. “A lot of people say that if he had survived another month, he would have been OK,” says Howitt. Tilley often finds herself wondering what Bowery might have achieved had he lived longer. “He had a lot of irons in the fire, but he died before anything properly happened,” she says. Bowery may, she muses, have gone “down the path of reality television”. After all, she concludes: “He would have been brilliant on Big Brother.” ‘Nothing Was Ever Out of Bounds’: Leigh Bowery’s Friends Remember the Legendary Performance Art Provocateur 25 Years After His Death Cerith Wyn Evans, Baillie Walsh, and Lou Stoppard reminisce about their late friend. Film still from Cerith Wyn Evans, DEGREES OF BLINDNESS (1988). Courtesy of the British Film Institute National Archive. Artist Cerith Wyn Evans and director Baillie Walsh met Leigh Bowery on the London club scene. To both, he became a collaborator and a close friend—a subject to film, a designer to call on for incredible garments, an artist to admire, a conspirator to talk with for endless hours on the phone. Sometimes he helped them, sometimes they helped him. Always, they recall, he pushed them—not necessarily forward, that would be too expected, but in a new, uncertain direction that was wide, warped, strange, sweeping, and beyond anything they’d planned. Walsh’s collaborations with Bowery include the music video to accompany Boy George’s 1991 song “Generations of Love,” Massive Attack’s “Unfinished Symphony” video from 1991, as well as “Unstitched” from 1990, which shows Bowery having his cheeks pierced and was regularly screened as a backdrop to Bowery’s performances. Wyn Evans’s works with Bowery include the early films Epiphany, from 1984, and Degrees of Blindness, from 1988. Here, they reflect on their late friend with Lou Stoppard. Cerith Wyn Evans: Baillie, do you remember he had a tattoo on his inner lip that read “mum?” It was facing inwards so that only his teeth or throat would read “mum.” I told him, If he pulled his lip down, to everyone else it read “wuw.” He said, “Yer – wooo!” Baillie Walsh: I’ve never talked about Leigh before. It was all too close at the time. CWE: For a while, it felt like there was a load of people who wanted a bit of it all. When someone died and there was too much attention or discussion, Leigh used to say, “Oh, they just want another slice of death pie, so they can look like they have been a part of something.” And knowing what we do know, that he was living and dealing with HIV, those comments mean more. BW: My relationship with Leigh was private, special, and personal. I didn’t want it to be public property. But now, 20 years have passed—longer, 23 years—I don’t get the same feeling. It’s nice to see how much I remember, together with Cerith, we can see if we can wheedle out some memories—and some laughs hopefully as Leigh was a-laugh-a-minute. I would like to remember more. What I loved about him was how he’d just turned everything on its head. He made you think in a different way. The idea of “fitting in” was abhorrent to him. I want to remember that. I often try to think in the way that Leigh pushed me to, and it’s nice to have a refresher course. Bustier with hand-sewn crystals by Leigh Bowery, early 1990s. Courtesy of Lorcan O’Neill. Lou Stoppard: One thing written a lot about Leigh Bowery is that his whole life was a performance, a work of art. Would you agree with that, having known him more intimately? CWE: Well, it’s yes and no. I always thought he was much more extreme in mufti, or daywear, than he was in the outfits that he wore at night. BW: That was much more disturbing, I agree. He looked like a child molester. CWE: There was a vulnerable side to him, which you saw if you were a close friend. He tended to keep his friends apart; he didn’t like the idea of us talking about him. We had to be kept compartmentalized. BW: He did love to cause trouble. He loved making stories up. He loved to lie. He would tell you someone had died. He once told me that Brad Branson was dead—he is now dead, so I can tell this story. He told me he was dead because Brad had slept with my boyfriend, John Maybury, so he thought I’d like to hear that. He told it to everybody. CWE: He absolutely adored lying. I remember him telling me a story about Les Child, who was a dancer with the Michael Clark Company, how he was going through hard times—the company had got dissolved, or was on a break, or something like that. He said, “Oh poor Les. He’s making sandwiches in a gay sauna in Soho.” And I said, “Oh you bitch.” I was laughing. It was obviously a total lie. But then two months later, I ran into Les in the street who said, “I’ve taken to making sandwiches in a gay sauna in Soho. I’ll spring back.” It was true! So you never knew. BW: Leigh loved to muddy the waters. You never knew what was true and what wasn’t. Still from Cerith Wyn Evans, EPIPHANY (1984). Courtesy of the British Film Institute National Archive. LS: Can you both recall when you first met him? BW: I can remember my first vision of Leigh. It was him and Trojan in Heaven nightclub in the “Pakis from Outer Space” blue look. Apart from the look, they seemed very shy and almost demure. It wasn’t an immediate friendship. It took time. Really, I got to know Leigh properly because I started working with him. I took him to Italy to be in a fashion show—and it was that thing of going away with people and becoming friends, him, Big Sue. He made papier-mâché head masks of himself with the drip look he used to do. So, he had 30 models come out as him. It was for a company called Calugi e Giannelli—really tacky, but we’d do anything for a fee in those days, and it meant going away with a crowd. It was over times like that that I got to know him as him. CWE: I met him around the same time at The Bell, a gay club in King’s Cross. We used to go on a Sunday night. I nearly fell over because Leigh and Trojan walked in, and Trojan was dressed as Sheba with really intense turquoise hands and face. That look—”Pakis from Outer Space”—was like Leigh’s collection at the time. I was a student at the Royal College, it would have been around 1983. I thought: “I’ve got to do something with these people, I wonder if they’ll be in a film.” I went up to them: “Oh hello, I’m a film student at the Royal College, would you ever consider making a film?” They said, “Yes all right then. We’re going to be in a film!” Leigh really took it seriously. Suitcases would arrive with makeup. Consummate professionals, from the word “go.” And they would do anything. The film was Epiphany. We shot the whole thing on tape on huge machines that had been given by the BBC to the Royal College. You had reels of two-inch video tape—the quality was insane. But these cameras were huge and so heavy, big pneumatic things with enormous cables that would almost move around on their own. We had three cameras on Leigh at all times. He said, “Which camera should I look at? The one with the red light?” And I said, “The red light is going to be on all of them; we’re recording everything, no takes.” He just loved that atmosphere—constantly being watched, reinventing himself, and rethinking his position. You know when you see the cliché of a model or David Hemmings pretending to be David Bailey—Give me this! Give me that!Leigh was like that. Going from look to look, posing and moving. It was just heavenly to witness. It was raw. There was a levity to it. But also, there was a sense of stagecraft and something studied—it was deeply sincere, however much of a laugh it was. The pain he went through and the discomfort to get the looks. It was an exuberant celebration on so many levels. BW: He never thought he had a look unless it was painful. If it was painful, it meant he was taking it further than anyone else would. One night, we went to Heaven when he was doing the “Mexican mask” look and wanted his profile to be as flat as possible so you didn’t get any nose. I had to take him out because he had a complete panic attack, which you rarely saw with Leigh. He was in proper, incredible pain. You couldn’t unzip the mask because it was so tight. His voice was muffled, and his face was squashed: “Get me out of this!” I took him and Nicola Bateman back to my flat, and I got pliers and scissors to try to undo the zip. I couldn’t get them into it because it was so tight against the skin. Somehow in the end, he got out of it. CWE: There would be bruises. He would be cut to shreds after a night out. BW: Each time he went out, he wanted to push it further, getting more and more ambitious. There were some looks he would test out and never do again. He would always gauge the response. If he was just laughed at then that was a disaster. There had to be something more thought-provoking than that. It had to be challenging. LS: What did he want people to feel? Disgusted? Scared? BW: Both of those things. He liked laughter too—but not just laughter. CWE: He was physically so very strong, and often he’d be on insanely high shoes. He was so massive. One of the things he liked doing at Taboo was kicking the ceiling lights out—bang! Glass in everyone’s drinks. BW: His behavior at times was so extreme. He would pogo around the dance floor—he was such a large being, so it was really intimidating, especially as he was dressed in such a way, with the merkin on and something covering his face. But it was never aggression in a typical sense. CWE: Never angry. BW: No, I don’t think I ever saw Leigh angry. LS: Was he a private person in some ways? Is that part of the reason he performed so much with his own identity, in order to keep certain things hidden? BW: Well he kept his HIV status from me. CWE: Me too. BW: That was obviously very private. But I never felt that Leigh kept secrets much from me, which was why I was so surprised when I did find out that he was HIV positive. That was such a massive thing, especially at that time, because there was nothing you could do. CWE: Fear and paranoia was everywhere. BW: We were all watching hundreds of people die around us. When you watched someone die, you were not only very sad you were also terrified—Is that going to be me next? I think Leigh felt that very strongly. I think Leigh didn’t want to be labelled as someone with AIDS. Leigh was much more important, much more than that. And I think that if he had announced that, and if it had gone out into the world, he wouldn’t have been given the freedom to be other than that. CWE: You look back and think: “Why didn’t I see it?” It was so obvious. We formed a band for a while, me, Leigh and Angus Cook, who was my boyfriend at the time. We didn’t play any music. We were called Magpie Shmagpie. Sue Tilley took the press photographs, which we did on the stairs of the sexual health clinic on Dean Street: all of us coming out of the door, posing with jackets on our shoulders—Leigh’s idea, obviously. BW: He would talk about it hypothetically: “What if? What am I going to do if I’ve got AIDS?” But everyone was saying the same thing. We lived in fear. CWE: I remember him on his deathbed saying: “I didn’t even bloody lose any weight.” LS: I’ve heard he started rumors when he knew he was dying that he was going off to live in a different country. CWE: He’d say he was going to Papua New Guinea to research anthropological tribe masks. After he died, we went to Patisserie Valerie and spent about 200 quid on cream cakes and had champagne. Sue Tilley said no one was allowed to cry. LS: I wonder what he would do if he was alive now. Because to play with your identity is easier now than ever, with all these different platforms. CWE: So many years have passed—it’s a different world. The implications of what Leigh started off doing, and his ways of communicating about things, have become so mainstream, in a way. BW: Leigh would have morphed into something else. There were so many different stages he went through during my friendship with him: he started in the clubs with no idea of entering the art world; he wasn’t creating art; he was creating attention for himself. Then that ambition changed when he got the gig with Anthony d’Offay gallery, and then later he met Lucian Freud through you, Cerith. CWE: We sort of thought, “Oh it’ll be fun to mess things up for Lucian—we’ll introduce you to Leigh and then you’ll have to paint sequins!” BW: I feel that Lucian’s work did change after he met Leigh. Part of Leigh’s thrill was always challenging his friends, and of course he did that to Lucian. I think you can see Leigh’s influence in those pictures. CWE: Absolutely you can. Lucian was hugely affected by Leigh’s death. He was so so close to him, he really looked up to him. BW: I love the fact that Lucian still looked up to him even after they found a stolen picture of his in Leigh’s flat. Leigh was stealing 50 pound notes every day when he went in there. CWE: Lucian would think that that was just wonderful. He would think it was the most noble thing to do! BW: They deserved each other. These two really strange characters coming together—it was a match made in heaven. LS: Baillie, talk to me about working with Leigh on your films. BW: My favorite project was the “Generations of Love” video with everyone in the street. Leigh just loved being a hooker on the street. CWE: With the blonde wig and the “Come to Bed” t-shirt. BW: Leigh was the one who got me thinking: “Oh, it’s a pop video, but I can make a porn video.” It was Leigh’s influence on me that kind of pushed me the whole time. He was a great doer, always with massive enthusiasm. It was a great collaboration. We just did it. He loved getting everyone in character and in dress. He’d be pushing Sue: “Get your tits out!” He got everyone—Rachel Auburn, Les Child, Michael Costiff, Talulah—in their costumes and their appropriate looks. Les Child fought every step of the way because Leigh was trying to cover his face in Vaseline. I would say that that was our most successful collaboration. His influence pushed me to a place that I thought was really interesting for a pop video. CWE: That video is sort of sad also in a funny way. It’s mournful. There’s a melancholy at the heart of it, this idea of generations of love. BW: I think the last project we did together was the Massive Attack video. That shoot was the first and only argument I ever had with him, and I don’t think he ever really forgave me. He’d made a dress for Shara Nelson, and we needed to find some way to cover up the earpiece that we needed her to wear. The collar wasn’t high enough, so he suggested a wig. She looked ghastly in, but of course Leigh loved it because it was so wrong. It got very awkward in front of the band. Leigh was determined, and I had to finally put my foot down. Leigh never really wanted to be told what to do. We were never quite the same after that trip to LA. Before that, we’d been two hours on the phone to each other everyday for seven years. But then also our lives were changing. Leigh was working with Lucian—his interests were changing. Our common interests were drifting. CWE: He’d never do what he was asked to. At that time, I did some pop videos for The Fall. And we also did a play together at Riverside Studios where he played a Chicago mafia boss. Leigh would improvise lines, and every night he would stretch his lines by quite a few minutes by writing some “new material.” I can remember him coming on doing dances or singing songs, and then going into his lines. Mark E Smith would be grumbling and laughing. One thing that has always stuck with me and has been a barometer for me ever since: Leigh would look at something and say, “Yer, it was all right. But where’s the poison?” Almost like a kind of homeopathic thing; you would need this poisonous kernel, so that it could be transformative, something in it that was deeply subversive and could dissolve hierarchies. BW: Exactly. As much as he did work for me, I also did a lot of work for him. He would engage you as the magician’s helper. One of my strongest memories of him is when he did the AIDS benefit at the Fridge. It was his first ‘douche’ show. He comes out dancing with a corset and a merkin. I think it was to ‘Nothing Compares to You’. He’d rehearsed it so he’d lie back on a plinth, open his legs, and squirt a fountain of water from his arse. But he hadn’t rehearsed it with a corset. So, when the time came, he couldn’t lean back. So he goes to the front of the stage and bends over to squirt over the white table cloths. Of course, he was very nervous so the water wasn’t completely clean. He’s squirting shit all over the front row of an AIDS benefit. For the second part of the piece, he put a great big skirt on that I had to get under (as I was the back of the horse, if you will). I’m meant to get him onto my shoulders so he could be ten feet tall waving in this giant skirt. I get under and it’s covered in shit, slipping around everywhere. But it’s show business—not a choice! He was properly freaked out after that show; he knew that he had pushed the poison to the limit as people were horrified. And it did cause a scandal. He’d shat on the front tables at an AIDS benefit! That was Leigh when he really did think for a minute that he’d pushed it too far. There was fear—and it was rare that you saw Leigh with fear. CWE: If you did that now, you’d probably go to prison. Anything that was inappropriate—Leigh was like a magnet. Everything inappropriate was good. Everything appropriate was bad. It was pretty clear cut. He was really an anarchist. BW: That’s why John Waters’s films so influenced Leigh. Divine in Female Trouble was a benchmark for Leigh in so many ways. LS: Was it ever tiring being friends with someone who was that unrelenting in their commitment to subversion? CWE: No. Because he was also so sweet and gentle. Like Baillie described—I was one of the people on the other end of the phone for an hour or two a day. We’d sit there watching television and he’d be like—What is Lorraine Kelly wearing? LS: Did you ever feel embarrassed by him? CWE: I can remember being on holiday in Cornwall with Leigh. Sue Tilley drove Leigh down; she couldn’t get into the car because Leigh had made a frock to wear in pink dayglo. It was like a Molly Goddard dress but the size of a flat—with all this tulle bunched into the car, the entire car was full. As soon as he arrived, he ran into the sea, and it soaked up so much seawater he nearly drowned. It was completely hysterical. I can remember this one dreadful situation: Leigh would do anything to embarrass Sue in public—it was one of his absolutely favorite things to do. So, we were alone in this grand Catholic church. And this lone nun was walking towards us in her habit. Sue was going, “Leigh, no. No. No.” Sue—she’s a big girl—and she’s trying to hide behind the column in the church. And Leigh is going at this 90-year-old woman in her habit, “Oi! My friend wants to eat you out!” The nun just shuffled away. “Bless you my child.” The strange thing is it never wore you out. He was like quicksilver, also. In the next moment, it would be a completely different thing—he’d be helping you make a pea soup. He thought it was hilarious that you had to buy a huge sack of peas to make a small bowl of pea soup. BW: I was never embarrassed by Leigh because Leigh was never embarrassed. The joke was never on Leigh; he was making the joke, so there was never painful embarrassment. CWE: But there would be times when he would be vulnerable. He’d open up on the phone and say, “Oh, I don’t know what I’m doing.” He wasn’t always high octane. BW: Leigh really led a life on the telephone. Cerith was part of that. I was part of that. Sue was part of that. A lot of our lives were spent on the phone—hours and hours a day. That’s not high octane or a performance. That’s a proper relationship. CWE: You’d talk about things in the news… BW: …or sometimes there was just silence. And you’d hear a sewing machine going. LS: The construction of his garments was incredible. People often talk about how great he was at making looks, but perhaps not enough focus is put on just how skilled he was at making clothes. CWE: He was very fastidious about the idea of learning techniques. He really looked up to Mr. Pearl, who had this career in Paris making amazing corsets. Berwick Street market was an Aladdin’s cave, where you could get the sequin fabrics and needles and threads—he would refer to that as the Stitch Bitch Trail. LS: He’s often remembered in terms of the Club Kids. What do you make of that? CWE: I don’t think he actually liked the whole New York Club Kids thing. He went there, he was adored there. But the people that he really liked were the ones from Jackie 60 and Mother and Blacklips Performance Cult. He liked the drag queens who were politicized. BW: He liked the ones who were incredibly smart. He loved intelligence. CWE: He liked revolutionary people. Political people. BW: The Club Kids thing was an early part of his history, but his ambitions moved way beyond that. Leigh, above everything else, was incredibly intelligent, a thing that shines through for me. He had many stages. He created this persona from nowhere. And he trod unknown ground and was still reinventing every day. CWE: And he was constantly looking for ways to undermine his reputation for what he’d become known as. LS: Are there any particular days with him that stand out? BW: It was his birthday, and I really wanted to fuck him over. So I thought: “I’m going to get him a cat. It’s a wicked present to give someone.” I called all the pet shops, and there was a kitten in Camden Town. So I went to the pet shop, and it had sold! I thought: “Fuck it, I’ve failed.” And as I was walking down to St Martin’s Lane through Cecil Court, there was a homeless person with a cat, saying: “Do you want a cat?” I was so shocked I said, “No,” and walked up the street. But then I thought: “Of course you fucking do.” So, I went back and bought the cat, a fully-grown black cat. It was so extraordinary and immediately friendly and affectionate. I went home and put it in a stereo box, wrapped it up and went over to Leigh’s flat. Leigh unwrapped it, saw the box and thought that I had bought him a stereo. He was saying, “Oh that’s great.” Then he opened it, and the cat jumped out. He was completely horrified at first. But then he was a great father to the cat. Leigh adored Angus. CWE: He named him Angus, which was the name of my boyfriend at the time. He did it to punish him. BW: The cat was always sleeping in amongst fabric. CWE: The flat was pretty amazing. Before Trojan died, it had Star Trek wallpaper. And after he died, Leigh decided that he wanted to change it. And as he was peeling off the wallpaper, he found one of Trojan’s hairs, from when Trojan and Leigh had put up the wallpaper. Leigh said he freaked out and didn’t know what to do. “I just ate it,” he said. He just had to ingest it. LS: Tell me about his wedding; he married Nicola Bateman. CWE: That was quite late on. I was his best man. BW: The wedding was one of the secrets that I didn’t know about. Cerith was privy to that. But that was another of those “What else didn’t I know?” moments. CWE: Leigh was in Minty [his band] at that time. He was also very scared at that point, and I imagine was probably showing symptoms of HIV/AIDS. He got married so that if the worst happened, at least Nicola would have a roof over her head. He was in a furious mood all day. He had this blond wig on and a coat that he’d bought on Brick Lane that was very nice, black, heavy, silk satin—an Orthodox Jewish man’s coat. Nicola just kept saying things like, “Oh darling, this is the happiest day of any woman’s life.” She was dressed in blue and had a blue garter—everything was her “something blue.” She’d really gone for things as if it was the Royal Wedding. Her sister was the bridesmaid and was dressed in a bizarre 1960s pop-art Paco Rabanne dress; her hair was big and bouffant and had black and white make up, mod shoes and big Perspex earrings. After the wedding, Leigh said he had to go to a Minty rehearsal: “Nicola you have the money, make sure that you spend it all on a wedding breakfast.” We went to the Angus Steak House on Leicester Square, the three of us there looking like complete freaks. We had steak and chips and a salad. After, Nicola’s sister and I went to a party at the Architectural Association, where I was teaching at the time—I actually got Leigh in to teach there too—and she won a prize for best fancy dress. BW: How long before he died did they have the wedding? CWE: A couple of months. It was the summer, I think, and he died in winter. BW: On New Year’s. So very Leigh to ruin New Year’s. So sick, because every New Year’s you think of Leigh. Film still from Baillie Walsh’s UNSTITCHED (1990). Courtesy of the artist. LS: Tell me about getting him in to teach at the Architectural Association. CWE: I was teaching a foundation course, which I’d got into because someone had asked me to come show my films and give a talk to some students. I’d asked to see the students’ work and ended up doing these tutorials and got on well with the students. Someone was having a baby and went on maternity leave—so all of sudden I was running the foundation department at the Architectural Association, despite having never studied architecture and actually being rather suspicious of architects. I ended up teaching there for seven years. I’d try and get them to look at things around buildings: dance, fashion, the body, do plans for zoning in department stores, or map Selfridges on top of the British museum so the Assyrian department would be in the same place as the shoe department—stuff like that. It was about opening people’s minds up, to stop them just thinking about making fabulous houses on golf courses in the Mediterranean. I thought Leigh would be perfect to come in, do it for a term and see how it went. I had a bit of a budget, so we hired ten sewing machines. He suggested we have to make a pair of gloves, as that was really, really difficult. So, we did a glove making workshop—every student had to make a pair to fit their own hand, and Leigh was there to help. The students were just over the moon—they loved him. On his first day, he had been so nervous. I remember he had on this pair of trousers that Jean Paul Gaultier had given him. They were green stretch satin, the weirdest thing. They had obviously worn out so many on the bottom that they had the overlocked stitching to hold them together, over and over and over again to keep the whole thing together. I can remember looking at him; he was covered in makeup—very, very heavy foundation. BW: It would be orange. CWE: And lots of rouging on the cheeks. Sometimes he’d wear one of his chemotherapy wigs, which he would have gotten from a charity shop and then cut so you could see all the netting on the scalp. But he was so tall. I thought: ‘You’re huge today, four inches taller than normal.’ I couldn’t work it out. He lifted the trousers up. And inside his trainers was a pair of trannie stilettos. BW: He loved height. He wanted to be the biggest man in the room. CWE: He was so nervous though. BW: But the nervousness was endearing, wasn’t it? CWE: Absolutely. By the end of the day he knew the names of their brothers and sisters, where they came from, all of that. He’d see them two months later and be like, “So, is Mathilda still doing the veterinary college thing?” BW: There was always a boy he really fancied. CWE: One time, Pearl came in, and we showed them a VHS cassette of a Christian Lacroix couture show. The students had never seen a fashion show. Pearl was there whispering away about couture and handcraft with his 16-inch waist. Leigh thought the show was genius and flawless. All the students were really getting into it. So, the project developed so that at the end of Leigh’s term we were going to do a fashion show, where the models were going to be the students and they were going to make outfits, couture outfits, based on a building. A very bright boy from Bulgaria chose a Bruce Goff strange kind of desert range house from the early 1960s. There was a very privileged Iranian woman who didn’t have a portfolio and would use a brand-new giant Chanel shopping bag to carry her work. Leigh was of course like, ‘She’s a genius; she’s incredible.’ She decided that for the fashion show, she wanted to come as the Taj Mahal. So Leigh helped her make a papier-mâché dome helmet, which she decided she was going to cover in fusilli pasta, glued on and sprayed silver. Now, the Taj Mahal has a lake down the front of it, so she got some Perspex manufacturer to make these two narrow strips which went down the front with blue colored water inside and model trees glued down the side. The fashion show was very well attended—Vivienne Westwood, Rifat Özbek, Jasper Conran, and people from Vogue came. Leigh was the compere. And for that role, he decided to sport his head coming out of a toilet bowl with brown latex filled with rice krispies all down his front—like a brown shitty head coming out of a toilet—with a see-through corset, a huge skirt and black eye makeup. He had a clipboard with notes about each student and spoke in a voice as if it was a couture show: “And the next model that we have is…” I remember in one bit he said, “Dana has come at the Taj Ma Hole, oh sorry Mahal.” People were roaring with laughter. It was off-the-charts mental what people were wearing, but the students were genuinely moved. LS: The breadth of the things you both worked with him on is quite something: films, teaching, performances. CWE: Well, he was a very creative person, so nothing was ever out of bounds. BW: It’s been lovely reminiscing and remembering. The tragedy is that he’s not here, because he would be pushing boundaries like no one else I’ve ever known and making me, certainly, and probably everyone else question everything. Video-still from Charles Atlas, Teach, 1992-98Still of video by Vilma Gold Four things you never knew about Leigh Bowery The club scene icon’s best friend Sue Tilley shares some little-told stories from her life with the founder of Taboo Leigh Bowery 20 Images Dressed in looks dripping in colour, with overdrawn lips and exaggerated silhouettes distorting his form beyond recognition, Leigh Bowery is the Christian boy who became an icon of club-kid history, inspiring everyone from Alexander McQueen (who once went to see his band Minty before their Soho residency was shut down for obscenity) to Gareth Pugh. More than 20 years after his death, Bowery’s long-term best friend, biographer and party companion Sue Tilley, was joined by a group of enthusiasts at the Café Royal this week for a talk as part of A Curious Invitation’s Icons of Fashion series, to tell his story from a more intimate perspectiv, from exploits in London to checking into the hospital under the name John Waters and watching his bands Minty and Raw Sewage (once named the Quality Street Rappers). Here are four things we learned about the icon. HIS DIY DESIGNS HAVE ENDED UP IN THE LOUIS VUITTON ARCHIVES “His goal was to be a fashion designer,” explained Tilley. “But he wouldn’t really fit in. He wrote in his diary in 1981: ‘Fashion, where all girls have clear skin, blue eyes, blonde-blown wavy hair and a size 10 figure, and all the men have clear skin, moustaches, short waved blonde hair and masculine physical appearance, STINKS.” For the most part, Bowery decided to use his own body as a canvas for self-expression, but he did make clothes for a few friends and Boy George (who was a big fan). According to Tilley, “Boy George was terrified of him and was thrilled that Leigh Bowery was making clothes for him – he was obsessed to the point of writing musicals about him and everything!” Now many of the creations Sue received are in the hands of Louis Vuitton menswear designer Kim Jones, also a big Bowery fan. “He buys his clothes off me or I swap them for Louis Vuitton bags,” chuckled Tilley, “because to be honest, he’ll look after them a hundred times better than me, put it in the vaults at Louis Vuitton, and I’d rather that than having them in a box getting tatty.” “Fashion, where all girls have clear skin, blue eyes, blonde-blown wavy hair and a size 10 figure… STINKS” – Leigh Bowery HE FELT THE TIME WAS RIGHT FOR TABOO TO END Taboo, Bowery’s iconic club night founded in January 1985, served as a meeting point for all types of people inspired by freedom of expression and absolute disregard for the traditional. The club staged its last hurrah in 1986, after asserting itself as the pinnacle of London nightlife. Tilley explained the story behind its closure. “Someone sold a big story to the papers about it being a den of vice and drugs. I never saw drugs or people on heroin or whatever, but perhaps I wasn’t looking in the right place. So this was the story, and the club had no choice but to shut it down.” But Bowery believed the time was right. “He then realised it was actually a good thing – it’s much better when something is shut down at its pinnacle when it’s still really good than when it’s died down and there’s three people from the suburbs in there. And then they asked him if he wanted to open it again and he went, “No. It’s best that it stopped when it did.” The original club kids: Boy George and Leigh Bowery at Taboovia pinterest.com HIS BODY PERFORMANCE ART HAD ACCIDENTAL BEGINNINGS Although Bowery is perhaps best known for birthing his friend and wife Nicola Bateman, who came out of the performer’s ‘vagina’ with sausages for an umbilical cord, his first venture into the performing arts didn’t quite go as planned. “His first performance was at a crypt in a church that was run by the neo-naturists, a bunch of people who just walked around half-naked, the most famous one probably being Grayson Perry,” Tilley remembered. “Everyone was standing round. He went round and stripped off naked, and in the process he caught his nipple that he’d just had pierced. It started bleeding and there was blood pouring down his chest… So he put on a doctor’s coat and pretended to inject (co-performer) Trojan with various syringes, Trojan then threw lighter fuel to the floor and set fire to it, while Leigh pissed into a glass, then Trojan drank half the piss and used the rest to douse the flames. I don’t think he’d be allowed to do that nowadays because of health and safety – but everything went then. Things got a little more professional after this, but bodily fluids still played a big part in Leigh’s repertoire.” “Leigh pissed into a glass, then Trojan drank half the piss and used the rest to douse the flames. I don’t think he’d be allowed to do that nowadays because of health and safety” – Sue Tilley LUCIAN FREUD WAS OBSESSED WITH HIS LEGS Many unfamiliar with the 80s club kids will know Bowery as one of artist Lucian Freud’s sitters. The 1990 portrait Freud painted of him, “Leigh Bowery (seated)”, was hailed by many as a masterpiece. Tilley, who also sat for the artist, explained how the two met during one of Bowery’s performances in a room with a two-way mirror. “Leigh dressed in a different outfit everyday, and he’d walk around this space like a sort of caged animal – he was very gymnastic as well, so he did a lot of high kicks and spinning on the floor. And there were musical traffic sounds and different smells coming. People used to come to the gallery for two hours – some of them were there every day to watch him. That was proper validation, because it was ‘proper art’ and it was accepted. One member of the crowd that came to see him was an old artist called Lucian Freud – because some of our friends worked for Lucian Freud they had mentioned Leigh, and he was curious and wanted to see what he was like, since he had a lot of interest in the world. He came along and was absolutely thrilled by him – especially by his calves. He said “It’s amazing! His calves go straight into his feet!” so he decided he wanted to paint him. This was a real turning point for Leigh.” The AIDS Memorial – Leigh Bowery Sex, sin and sausages: the debauched brilliance of Leigh Bowery, The Guardian. 13 August 2018, by Lauren Cochrane https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/aug/13/sex-sin-and-sausages-the-debauched-brilliance-of-leigh-bowery Nothing Was Ever Out of Bounds’: Leigh Bowery’s Friends Remember the Legendary Performance Art Provocateur 25 Years After His Death, Art Net, 1 July 2019, by Lou Stoppard https://news.artnet.com/art-world/leigh-bowery-reminiscence-1588573 Four things you never knew about Leigh Bowery Dazed Digital, 28 May 2015, by TextBiju Belinky https://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/24888/1/four-things-you-never-knew-about-leigh-bowery	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line862
__label__cc	0.690401	0.309599	North and Mid Wales Trunk Road Agent and South Wales Trunk Road Agent manage the process of recovering claims for third party damage to Welsh Government property. Our teams also collate information and co-ordinate the management of the process of defending claims against the Welsh Government. The Welsh Ministers are the highway authority for all trunk roads and motorways in Wales. In addition the Welsh Ministers are the owner of assets such as structures, land and property. The Welsh Ministers have a statutory duty to maintain the highway and its assets and will seek to recover costs for any damage to its roads, motorways and assets from the third party deemed liable. The Welsh Government will investigate all claims of damage and will be the data controller for the personal data received. It is necessary for us to collect this information in order for us to comply with our legal obligations in investigating and administering our claim, being the Highways Act 1980 and the Government of Wales Act 2006 respectively. For information about how we process personal data relating to third party claims, please refer to our privacy policy.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line866
__label__wiki	0.572271	0.572271	21 May New Jersey Meadowlands Commission Deploys TransCore’s Adaptive Signal Control System Will be the fourth largest deployment of adaptive signal technology in the country WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Intelligent Transportation Society of America Annual Meeting – TransCore was selected, through an open public bidding process, by the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission (NJMC) to deploy the SCATS adaptive traffic control system, encompassing more than 128 intersections throughout the 30-square miles of the Hackensack Meadowlands District. The $3 million contract was predominantly funded by the Commission’s Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery or TIGER II grant to implement the Meadowlands Adaptive Signal System for Traffic Reduction (MASSTR) program. The four-phased program will be complete by December 31, 2013. MASSTR is the result of an evaluation of the existing signalized intersections in the region and the applicability of alternative adaptive signal control systems to support fluctuating traffic patterns in the district. The NJMC ultimately determined there was a lack of coordination across traffic signals and a need to upgrade dated technology. Adding to the complexity, these traffic signals are under the jurisdiction of multiple agencies, including the New Jersey Department of Transportation, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, Bergen County, Hudson County, municipal authority and private owners. To meet the overall traffic needs of this economically critical corridor, the NJMC determined that the most cost-effective and immediate solution to reduce congestion was the upgrade and coordination of the regions signal system, and the deployment of the adaptive traffic control system known as SCATS or the Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System. SCATS was originally developed for Sydney Australia by the Roads and Transport Authority. The system operates in real-time to adjust signal timing in response to changes in traffic demand while providing immediate and historical traffic information for traffic engineers. The Meadowlands is one of the busiest commerce corridors in the nation, and the ability to transport people and goods safely and efficiently is vital to the success of its economy and residents’ quality of life. The area is home to hundreds of warehouses, distribution centers and manufacturing facilities as well as the Meadowlands Sports Complex. The local, state and federal roadways that run through the Meadowlands also provide easy access to Manhattan, Newark Liberty International Airport and Port Newark. By deploying an intelligent transportation system with adaptive capabilities provides immediate response to traffic patterns as they occur, reducing choke points in the roadway network while simultaneously reducing vehicle emissions, fuel consumption, and travel times. The adaptive nature of the system provides the greatest efficiency in areas of highly variable traffic demand such as Super Bowl XLVIII, which will take place in New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium in February of 2014. Effective management of special event traffic is one of the key benefits of this type of adaptive signal control technology. SCATS is currently one of the most widely used adaptive traffic control systems around the world controlling more than 30,000 intersections globally and more than 1,000 intersections in the United States. Atlanta’s Cobb County recently doubled their use of the system and the San Jose and southern Bay Area agencies have made extensive deployments of the technology to combat growing congestion in Silicon Valley. Over 350 new SCATS signals are slated for deployment across the country in the next 12 months. “This will be the largest deployment of SCATS in the Northeast,” explained Bob Ball, TransCore’s managing director for the Northeast. “Because the area crosses over different corridors with varying issues and objectives, SCATS flexibility and configurability allows for such an all-encompassing installation.” What makes SCATS adaptive system so popular is because corridors can be configured differently versus using traditional time-based signal controls. Other systems lack this level of configurability or flexibility. SCATS also operates with an open architecture for communications, controllers and detection, allowing authorities to utilize various manufacturers’ equipment. SCATS specific capabilities include: True real-time, cycle-by-cycle 100 percent adaptive control capabilities; Capable of being monitored from up to 30 workstations at the same time with eight varying access levels; Capable of being easily expanded; Has more than 30 years of proven field adaptive operations experience; Operates in adaptive mode 24/7, 365 days a year without manual intervention; Provides real-time and historical detection monitoring and alarm features; Has been field integrated with Ethernet IP communications; Easy to monitor and use by operational, engineering and maintenance staff and includes city-wide, corridor, and intersection graphical displays; Capable of identifying system malfunctions and abnormalities and generate alarms for operators or maintenance personnel; Automatically records timing and detection information for 365 days for historical analysis; Provides pre-emption and transit priority features. About TransCore TransCore’s 75-year heritage supporting the transportation industry spans the development of RFID transportation applications at Los Alamos National Labs to implementation of the nation’s first electronic toll collection system. The breadth of the company’s expertise includes traffic management systems, intelligent transportation systems (ITS), systems integration, design consulting, operations, maintenance, RFID manufacturing, and extensive Web-based logistics systems. TransCore has installations in 46 countries and a vast portfolio of intellectual property. In 2012, Engineering News-Record (ENR) ranked TransCore No. 140 out of the Top 500 Design Firms. TransCore is a U.S. owned and operated company with headquarters in Harrisburg, Pa. TransCore operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Roper Industries, a Standard and Poor’s S&P 500 Index company. For more information, visit www.transcore.com. About the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission The New Jersey Meadowlands Commission is the planning and zoning agency for the 30.4-square-mile Meadowlands District, which includes parts of 14 towns in Bergen and Hudson counties. The Commission’s objectives include promoting economic growth and development, including the redevelopment of brownfields, and environmental preservation and enhancement. Through its renewable energy initiatives the NJMC has shown that economic growth and environmental protection are not mutually exclusive goals and can go hand-in-hand to improve the economy and quality of life of New Jersey residents. For more information, visit www.njmeadowlands.gov.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line867
__label__wiki	0.516871	0.516871	The West Georgian Gun Control on Campus By Erin / February 13, 2013 Photo credit Gun and Game School shootings have occurred in the United States for many years. With the recent shooting massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the argument for better gun control in the country is at an all-time high. One of the suggestions being brought up is that college students should be allowed to carry weapons on campus. However, I feel that not allowing students to carry weapons on them is the best choice at this moment. People want to feel protected, and that is fine. Nevertheless, there are other problems going on around campuses that have a bigger effect than weapons. For example, most criminal offenses that occur at UWG deal with alcohol and drugs. Firearm crimes, on the other hand, are extremely low compared to other offenses. During 2009-2011, there were only four weapon violations on campus. The campus has a zero tolerance policy with weapons. “A lot of times there will be knives, and stuff like that,” said Chief Thomas J. Mackel, Chief of Police at UWG, “It’s very rare to get weapons violations on campus.” If students are allowed to carry weapons, that affects everybody on campus. There is a huge responsibility that comes with owning a weapon. “There are some assumptions on that, one, because you carry a gun permit, you know how to use it,” said Mackel. “Some people do, because they go out and practice, but are they trained to react that quickly?” Students’ behavior and habits are additional reasons to take into account. Some people are instantly ready to fight if something happens to them. If an altercation happens, and somebody has a weapon, depending on that person, people could get seriously hurt. Chief Mackel suggested that problems such as student drinking on campus could impact what actions are taken place in an altercation. “The numbers of exchanges we have to deal with are, usually, large alcohol consumption and fights, poor judgments, things of that nature,” said Mackel. “Do people getting angry mean they are crazy? No, but it shows how short a temper they might have.” Chief Mackel also believes the risk of allowing students to carry guns is, currently, not worth taking. “Those are the type of situations we normally run into on campus. Maybe we wouldn’t have a Virginia Tech, where we lost 33 people. On the other hand, we could have multiple occurrences of a person here, or a person there, getting shot. We don’t know, but we aren’t willing to take a risk on that.” Weapon or no weapon, there is only so much a person can do during a shooting. Amid the chaos, finding safety should be everybody’s top priority. The police should be given their space to locate the shooter. In an emergency situation on campus, there are warning sirens that will go off to alert everybody. The police also send out email and text warnings to students through the Wolf Alert system. However, there is no campus lockdown. Everything would have to be locked manually, and the police think that would endanger more people. “One of the things we always run into is, can we have a lockdown? We can’t have one,” saidMackel, citing the risk for other school employees. “Our custodians and faculty members need to protect themselves just like everybody else.” Currently, a bill that would for guns to be carried on college campuses has been filed in Georgia’s House of Representatives. As I stated before, allowing students to carry guns is not the best choice right now. Allowing students to have firearms on campus could cause other problems on a regular basis. Everybody does not react the same way to a situation. So that will not necessarily make anyone safer. In a real crisis, students and faculty should be searching for safety. For the time being, it is better to work with the laws we have, and wait to see if any safer alternatives are created out of the gun debate. Georgia Counties Prepare for Hand Tally of Presidential Race By Associated Press / November 13, 2020 Biden and Trump Face Off in Final Debate By Reilly Robbins / October 30, 2020 UWG College Democrats Gear up For the Upcoming Election By Lily Head / October 2, 2020 Citations issued for Underage Drinking in Adamson Square By Reilly Robbins / September 25, 2020 WOMEN IN POLITICS: THE LAST ONE HUNDRED YEARS By Madeline Wilbanks / September 25, 2020 Grand Slam Tennis Club hits UWG Movies You Have to See This Week Check out our friends in the Mass Communications Department	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line871
__label__cc	0.591957	0.408043	TWWB News Preview and Download music The World Will Burn 6 SONGS FOR THE NEW ALBUM ARE FINISHED AND READY FOR MIXING and a VIDEO IS ON THE WAY We have written and recorded all of the songs for the new album, with 6 of them completed. We continue to refine and improve the remaining songs but should have them how we want them in a week or so. Our designer is working on the cover, we have chosen a name, and we will be announcing more details soon. Check back and tell your friends. We are excited about this project and think you will love it more than SEVERITY! We are also proud to announce that we have partnered with talented video producer Ryan Pierson to film a video to the song "THE MORE THINGS CHANGE". So far, we have been amazed by his vision and artistry. He has been extremely adaptable, considering we live on different continents! Stay tuned...	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line872
__label__cc	0.701406	0.298594	A Place on the Bookshelf Why Representation Matters in Children's Lit Sailaja N. Joshi, CEO + Founder of Bharat Babies Sailaja N. Joshi, CEO and Founder of Bharat Babies with her eldest child. Photo courtesy of Jess Benjamin for Scout Somerville In 2013, when Bharat Babies was just an idea, there were 5x more books about dogs and trucks, then there were about all children of color. This might not seem like a big deal. After all, kids love books about dogs and trucks. So, what is the big deal? The big deal is, for children of color, their stories, their voices and their existence has been, for a large part, virtually obsolete in the children’s book industry. Over the past twenty-five years, less than 11% of all children’s books written featured some form of multicultural content. In 2014, that number “jumped” to 14%, in part to the efforts of nonprofits like We Need Diverse Books. Rudine Sims Bishop speaks to the importance of diverse children’s literature, using the metaphor of sliding glass doors, windows, and mirrors. Books can serve as windows, opening the reader up to worlds they never knew. They can be like glass doors, sliding open and allowing the reader inside. But most importantly, they can be mirrors. They can reflect our experience and our lived realities. And when we’re able to see that, it helps to affirm our very existence. It helps to bring value to our lives. And when that existence is absent, the message is clear. Children, all children, deserve to have a place on the bookshelf. They deserve to take up space and have their identities seen and heard. Over the past three years, Bharat Babies has worked tirelessly to help bridge the diversity gap in children’s lit. Starting with the stories of the founder’s heritage, the stories of India, the company has bootstrapped the funding to produce nine books over the past three years. From board books, illustrated books, early readers and digital media, the company has helped South Asian children around the world see themselves. Their current crowdfunding campaign is looking to raise funds to double their current collection. This means more board books, illustrated books, and early readers. It means books in multiple Indian languages so children can stay connected to their mother tongue. But more importantly, it helps to further bridge the diversity gap in children’s literature. It helps to ensure that diverse stories are told through and with communities of color. It means that children of color can see themselves and know, that they matter. Supporting their crowdfunding campaign is a small first step in ensuring that every child can have a place on the bookshelf. — Published on December 15, 2017 Community, Growing up, Sailaja was a voracious reader. From Leo the Lop to Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Amelia Bedelia, she loved every book she read. If you were to ask her today what her favorite book is, she'd likely say either the Harry Potter series OR The Tao of Pooh. It really depends on the day. Sailaja has been a passionate volunteer in the Hindu Youth community for over twenty years and is an accomplished academic with degrees from Northeastern University, Harvard University, and Simmons College. She has also worked with multiple startups, helping them to refine their brand identity and develop their marketing communications. Her unique set of skills and experience help to her to drive Bharat Babies forward. Her ambition is to have Bharat Babies be an active participant in the field of multicultural children’s literature, moving forward with the belief that we need diverse kids lit for a diverse world. When she's not working to change the face of children's publishing, she can be founded hanging with her two adorable children at the park or at circus class (really, that's a thing). Social Impact Heroes: How Former Miss Universe Corinna Tsopei Fields and SHARE are meeting the needs of at-risk, or disadvantaged children and teens by Yitzi Weiner Sailaja Joshi of ‘Mango & Marigold Press’: “Don’t compare yourself to someone else’s highlight reel” by Ben Ari Well-Being// August 13, 2018 19 Must-Read Books to Help Kids Understand Their Emotional and Mental Health by Chantal McCulligh	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line874
__label__wiki	0.591458	0.591458	Urban buyers drive up prices in cottage country due to COVID-19 pandemic Published Monday, November 30, 2020 8:16PM EST Last Updated Friday, December 4, 2020 8:24AM EST TORONTO -- If you want to buy a cottage, farmhouse or chalet outside the Greater Toronto Area, you’ll have to pay more for the solitude so many people are craving during the pandemic. The average price of a recreational property in Canada has surged 11.5 per cent in the first nine months of this year and is expected to go up another eight per cent next year. “More and more people will be not just be living in cottage country, but also working in cottage country," said Phil Soper the President and CEO of Royal LePage Real Estate Services. While recreational properties have been in demand over the past few years, the pandemic has made more buyers consider a recreational property and there are three specific groups that are driving demand. “There are young families, retirees and a whole swath of knowledge workers who with today's technology can work from home," Soper said. People who want to leave cities are not just flocking to waterfront cottages they are buying farmhouses, chalets, cabins and settling in small towns. Soper says that in the past people moving to rural areas would traditionally be concerned about their water supply and sceptic system. He says now the most pressing thing buyers want to know is how fast the internet is. “Connectivity, and not just the availability, but also the strength and the size of the pipeline so they can carry on video calls (as well as do other office activities),” Soper said. It's not clear how long employees may be working remotely, but the survey found Canada’s recreational properties could rise another eight per cent next year. In Ontario, that number is projected to be slightly higher as Royal LePage is forecasting a 10 per cent increase in the price of recreational properties in 2021.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line876
__label__wiki	0.954995	0.954995	Gwen Stefani Says She and Blake Shelton Had a Lot of 'Healing to Do' Before Deciding to Get Married Gwen Stefani says getting engaged didn't come without "a lot to consider." While appearing virtually as a guest on the Today show on Thursday morning, the 51-year-old singer, who became engaged to her fiancé Blake Shelton in October, spoke candidly about her engagement and detailed the behind-the-scenes thought processes that she and her soon-to-be-husband had to go through before deciding to take that next step in their relationship. Asked by Hoda Kotb if she was "gun shy" about getting engaged to Shelton, 44, after both stars had previously gone through their own respective divorces — Stefani from Gavin Rossdale and Shelton from Miranda Lambert — the "Let Me Reintroduce Myself" crooner told the Today co-host, "I think there was a lot to consider when you have so many people involved. Children, and their hearts, and everybody in my family [and] his family, we all went through a lot together." "So I think in a romantic way, when you fall in love so hard and so unexpectedly — and so late in your life — you think 'I want to marry you!' That's the first romantic reaction, like, 'Let's get married,'" she continued. "So we always talked about it, of course, and I think that as the years were going by, it didn't need to happen. There was a lot of healing to do." Then, detailing that their relationship and Shelton's proposal "was just natural," Stefani added: "It's funny because he basically had the ring and it was right around my birthday. I was getting a little bit anxious … cause I started having a little insecurity and so it was right on time." Shelton proposed to Stefani at his ranch in Tishomingo, Oklahoma, where they spent the majority of the lockdown period together amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic with her kids. They announced their engagement on Instagram on Oct. 27. A source previously told PEOPLE that the couple is "ready to get married" after falling in love on the set of The Voice in 2015. "This won't be a long engagement. There is a reason why Blake proposed now. They are both ready to get married," the source said. "They don't want a huge wedding. They want their family and close friends to attend and that's it." Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. After news of their engagement, another insider also told PEOPLE that Shelton asked Stefani's three sons — Kingston, 14, Zuma, 12, and Apollo, 6 — for permission before he proposed. "Blake told her boys that he wanted to propose and asked their permission," the insider said. "Her family very much approves of him. He's an amazing partner and a great extra dad to the boys. Gwen is ecstatic. The proposal was a surprise." During her chat on Today, Stefani also spoke about her love for Shelton further after co-host Carson Daly asked what she attributes their love to. "What don't I love about Blake and what don't we all love about Blake?" she began. "He's just such a good guy, he's one of the most generous human beings and down to earth [people] — it all sounds generic — but it's just so true." "He's so gifted and so unique and talented and he really is my best friend," she continued. "And I feel just so excited that I have someone in my life that now I have a chance at happiness for a long time to come and it's just a blessing, the whole thing, and it is a miracle." Stefani added: "It's weird how things happen and you just don't see things that are right around the corner after such devastation." The Today co-hosts also presented Stefani with a gift during the morning broadcast — a pair of wedding cowbells — which Kotb, 56, playfully told the musician she would find "cute." Tags: Blake Shelton, Couples, Gwen Ste C2C Festival Postponed Over Coronavirus Pandemic, Travel Policies BBC ‘to offer Eamonn and Ruth their own show’ after This Morning ‘axe’ claims BTS: Jungkook's Blonde Hair Wows Fans During the Group's Golden Disc Awards Performance Elvis Presley: Quentin Tarantino Is 'Ashamed' of This Era of Elvis' Career Joe Rogan Stood up for Adele and Her Weight Loss Previous This Is How The Kardashians Really Feel About Kim And Kanye Next Lady GaGa and Jennifer Lopez to Perform at Joe Biden’s Inauguration 5 Things to Know About Former Model Katie Price	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line877
__label__wiki	0.876087	0.876087	Players like Mac Jones are how the Alabama machine keeps rolling ·Columnist Plenty of people discouraged Mac Jones from ever going to Alabama. After all, the Crimson Tide already had a quarterback named Jalen Hurts a year ahead of him and another named Tua Tagovailoa in their 2017 recruiting class. Why go to Tuscaloosa when you aren’t even the top QB they are bringing in? Plenty of people encouraged Mac Jones to leave Alabama. After all, halfway through his third season on campus the Jacksonville, Florida, native had attempted a grand total of 33 passes. Oh, and Nick Saban had signed a five-star recruit from California, Bryce Young, that many thought would be the Day 1 starter for the 2020 season. Why stay in Tuscaloosa when you are never going to be anything but a backup/insurance policy? That was never how Mac Jones saw it though. That isn’t how a lot of Alabama players see it. And that’s why you keep seeing Alabama do things like it did on Friday — mauling Notre Dame, 31-14, in a playoff semifinal to advance to their eight national championship game in the last 12 years. Jones threw for 297 yards and four touchdowns Friday. He’s now tossed 36 on the season, while completing more than 77% of his passes. He’s a Heisman finalist and one game from engineering a perfect, national title season. The above paragraph would have been mind-boggling to many a couple years ago, when he was entrenched on the bench. Not even Jones may be willing to acknowledge it all. “I’m not very athletic,” Jones said after completing 25 of 30 passes against the Irish. “I just try to get the ball to the right people.” He was asked if he was preparing a speech for the Heisman ceremony. “That’s a rat-poison question,” Jones said, brushing aside anything but team goals. Landon Dickerson and Mac Jones (10) of the Alabama Crimson Tide pose with the Leishman Trophy after defeating Notre Dame in the Rose Bowl at AT&T Stadium on Jan. 1. (Tom Pennington/Getty Images) Jones may not be the obvious poster boy for the machine that Saban has built at Alabama — certainly not before the parade of powerful running backs (such as Najee Harris, who hurdled his way to 125 yards against the Irish) or gifted wide receivers (such as DeVonta Smith, who hauled in three touchdowns) or road-grating offensive lineman (such as Alex Leatherwood, who kept collapsing parts of the Notre Dame defense) … and we haven’t even got to the defense. Yet he is them and they are him, all part of what — in this era of transfer portals and opt-outs and instant gratification — makes Alabama so unmovable at the top of the sport. Jones went there on a dare and then dared to stay, in part because Saban isn’t just looking for the most talented players, but the most talented players who might be able to handle being surrounded by equally talented, if not even more talented players. The Venn diagram on that is smaller than you’d think. It could be mega-recruits who are willing to wait and work for their turn such as Harris, a five-star who got just 55 carries as a freshman but is now nearly untackleable; or Smith, who got on the field in just six games as a freshman but has now caught a SEC-record 20 touchdowns on the season and is up for the Heisman too; or Leatherwood, who once saw only garbage-time snaps but is now an Outland finalist and possible first-round pick. Or it may be somebody like Jones, who never knew if his season of glory would ever arrive, but decided it was worth the effort anyway. Early on, Jones’ father came up with a way for Mac to define himself as he fought for practice reps, let alone championship trophies. Mac was a “first-string quarterback just waiting his turn.” That’s it. So just keep going. Sure, he could have stuck with his commitment to Kentucky and likely started earlier in his career, and certainly he could have transferred to lots of schools and played right away, but Jones didn’t choose Alabama because it would be easy. He chose it because it would be hard. And he didn’t stay at Alabama because a starting job was promised to him, but because he’d have to earn it and keep earning it. The pressure for playing time never eases. Hurts won the Tide a national championship only to be benched in favor of Tagovailoa, who then won another. Jones eventually filled in for an injured Tua last season and now may join the other two in bringing his own title back to campus. On and on it spins. In a different era, back when scholarship numbers could hover around 150 or more at the biggest programs, and thus playing time was ever harder to earn, Michigan’s Bo Schembechler tried to maintain motivation by declaring that “those that stay will be champions.” Alabama QB Mac Jones (10) throws a pass under pressure from the rush by Notre Dame in the second half of the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1. (AP) The concept was an easier sell then. It’s nearly impossible now. The transfer market is relentless. And Schembechler was talking about Big Ten crowns, not national ones which are about the only standard at Alabama these days. Yet Saban has managed to pull it off, an old-school concept seeking old-school souls in this very cutting-edge time for college football. Here, when everyone wants something now, patience is a prerequisite inside the Tide football building. Jones has embraced it and eventually seized his moment. So did Harris and Smith and Leatherwood and all the others. They are, in their own way, as maniacal of competitors as Saban, who against Notre Dame got an unsportsmanlike conduct flag while up 24 points with just over three minutes left in the game and earlier nearly broke a non-working ESPN headset during a halftime interview. He never stops. Neither do the guys who play for him. Or the ones who are still hoping to play for him. Mac Jones was one of those guys and now he is one game from everything — quarterbacking an unbeaten, national champion while putting up video game stats and turning NFL scouting heads. Maybe no one saw this coming but him. But then again, if you spend your time caring about what anyone else thinks, you won’t last long at Alabama. Hammon shows it’s past time for women to lead in men’s sports Packers may have lost top linemen Bakhtiari to ACL injury Check the Tape: Allen critiques today’s sack celebrations Tulsa, Mississippi State brawl after bowl game	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line882
__label__wiki	0.766199	0.766199	Bills take out a lot of frustration, blow out Bill Belichick and the Patriots to make a statement The New England Patriots didn’t take any pity on the Buffalo Bills over the past two decades when they were beating the snot out of them. Nor should they have. There were some rough days for the Bills. New England won 35 of 40 over Buffalo before this season, and many of them were not even close. The worst of the blowouts came in 2007, when the Patriots scored and scored and scored in a 56-10 thrashing. When you looked at the standings, the Bills had little to play for Monday night outside of getting the No. 2 seed in the AFC. They had a division title clinched and couldn’t get a bye as Kansas City secured the No. 1 spot. Yet, there was plenty to play for. The Bills have taken over the AFC East and they wanted to drive that point home on Monday night. The Bills blasted the Patriots 38-9, finishing a season sweep. Buffalo couldn’t drastically change its playoff positioning, but clearly it wanted to make a point. A lot of frustration was taken out on the Patriots and Bill Belichick. About 20 years’ worth. Bills obliterate the Patriots The Bills scored three times in the second quarter. Zach Moss got in on a run, blocking tight end Lee Smith caught a touchdown pass and then Stefon Diggs got behind the defense and ran 50 yards for another score. It was clear that the Bills were the better team early on and the Patriots couldn’t keep up. New England ran the ball well, and Cam Newton had a great touchdown run in the second quarter, but Newton had just 34 yards passing at the half. The Bills led 24-9. The Patriots weren’t going to come back. The Bills weren’t going to let up. The Patriots were getting blown out 31-9 in the third quarter when they benched Newton and brought in Jarrett Stidham. Usually this century, when the Patriots made a quarterback change against the Bills it’s because they were up by four touchdowns and wanted to get Tom Brady some rest. The Bills kept going after that. Allen kept throwing. Diggs caught his third touchdown in the fourth quarter. Then the Bills pulled Allen, who had 320 yards and four touchdowns, with about 12 minutes left and let Matt Barkley finish it out. That had to feel good. They’ll also probably get some laughs when they see the highlight of a frustrated Belichick throwing the sideline phone after a bad challenge. The Patriots are guaranteed their first losing season since 2000, when Brady was a relatively unknown rookie deep on the bench. After being crushed by Belichick and the Patriots for a long time, sometimes in embarrassing fashion, it seemed like the Bills took some extra delight in rubbing it in. Buffalo Bills wide receiver Stefon Diggs crosses the goal line for one of his three touchdowns. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola) A new king of the AFC East Things change fast in the NFL. The Bills aren’t guaranteed to win the AFC East again next season. Maybe the Miami Dolphins take a leap. Perhaps the Patriots bounce back in a big way. One of the reasons the Patriots’ streak of division titles was so impressive was that the NFL isn’t set up for continued success by any team. However, the Bills look like a team that could make things difficult on the Patriots for a while. Allen had his first big game against a Belichick defense. He has had a true breakout season. Buffalo has drafted well and is smart in free agency. It took a long, long time, but someone in the AFC East other than the Patriots seemingly has it figured out. And the Bills did it at the exact moment the Patriots finally fell apart. New England has multiple things to fix in the offseason. Buffalo’s talent has been coming together for a couple years. The Bills needed to get over a mental hurdle by beating the Patriots. That had to happen for them to take the AFC East title away from New England. They accomplished that. And then some. More NFL from Yahoo Sports: Winners and losers: Chiefs look like a beatable No. 1 seed Paylor: Rams’ Goff is a $134M game manager Robinson: Lawrence big enough to alter Jags’ London plans Thamel: Expect more college coaches to get NFL looks	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line883
__label__wiki	0.927252	0.927252	Moment cage fighter lunges at neighbour after stabbing ex-girlfriend to death after sex life row Ellen Manning Watch: Jailed cage fighter lunges at neighbour with knife after killing ex-girlfriend This horrifying footage shows a former professional cage fighter launch a vicious attack on a concerned neighbour after stabbing his ex-girlfriend to death in front of her 13-year-old daughter. Andrew Wadsworth, 37, stabbed his ex Melissa Belshaw with a large kitchen knife in her own home before turning on her neighbour Gerard Bristow in the street as he came to her aid. The cocaine and alcohol-fuelled 37-year-old, who has been jailed for life, went on to deliver a roundhouse kick to a police officer who tried to arrest him, as well as punching another in the face in a police cell. He will serve a minimum of 32 years behind bars. Manchester Crown Court heard the former cage fighter launched the attack two months after he had been released from prison on licence after becoming obsessed by his ex-girlfriend’s sex life. He subjected the 32-year-old to a prolonged attack with a large kitchen knife in her bedroom in Billinge, Wigan, on the afternoon of May 20. Andrew Wadsworth had become obsessed with ex-girlfriend Melissa Belshaw's sex life. (PA) A passer-by rescued Ms Belshaw’s terrified daughter by smashing into the locked house with a hammer but Wadsworth then went out on to the street where he repeatedly stabbed concerned neighbour Gerard Bristow. The court heard Wadsworth came close to killing Bristow, who suffered wounds to his chest and head, a partially severed right ear and a punctured lung, leaving him with nerve damage that means he is unable to exercise and play sport. Read more: Money-obsessed pensioner shot dead estranged wife over £10k divorce settlement He then delivered a roundhouse kick to a police constable’s head at the scene where he was arrested, and later punched another officer in the face in a police cell. Wadsworth, of Cranfield Road, Wigan, was found guilty by the jury of murder and attempted murder, and pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to two assaults on police officers. He was cleared of making a threat to kill against Ms Belshaw’s daughter. Wadsworth was found guilty at Manchester Crown Court. (PA) He admitted stabbing his former girlfriend but relied on a partial defence to murder of a loss of control following what he claimed was a string of shock revelations about her sex life. Sentencing him to life imprisonment, Mrs Justice Yip said: “At trial, you painted a very negative picture of Ms Belshaw as you set out to shift responsibility away from you and to blame her for what happened. Some of the things you claimed were demonstrably false. “Your character assassination undoubtedly went beyond anything that was justified. You had degraded her in her life and you continued to do so after her death. “She may have made some mistakes in her life but at the time of her death she was pursuing her dream of having her own beauty salon. She was still only young and was seeking to turn her life around. Sadly, she made a fatal mistake in becoming involved with you and you took her future away.” The court heard Wadsworth had come out of prison on licence in November 2017 after receiving a five-year jail sentence in 2010 for two offences of robbery involving imitation firearms and a 10-year custodial term in 2011 for aggravated burglary and causing grievous bodily harm with intent. He started seeing Ms Belshaw from March 2018 but was recalled to prison in January 2019 after testing positive for cocaine, released again on licence on March 4, 2020 following a Parole Board hearing. He was sent to live at an approved hostel but was allowed to move to his mother’s address just a fortnight later because of the COVID-19 pandemic. During sentencing, Mrs Justice Yip commended the bravery of van driver Kevin Moores, 40, who pulled Ms Belshaw’s daughter to safety after she courageously rang police and then helped 46-year-old Bristow. Watch: The COVID dos and don’ts of Christmas this year	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line884
__label__wiki	0.8321	0.8321	4 arrested after gunpoint robbery, assault in Langford Adam Chan Associate Digital Producer, CTV News Vancouver Island Police say the four suspects, who were wearing disguises, were tracked to an apartment building in Victoria. VICTORIA -- Police have arrested four individuals who allegedly robbed a man at gunpoint, assaulted him and tried to set his belongings on fire on Thursday morning. The incident took place near the intersection of Highlands Road and Watkiss Way in View Royal around 6:40 a.m. The victim told investigators that the four suspects wore disguises and assaulted him with a weapon before brandishing a long gun and threatening him with it. The four individuals then robbed the man of several items before trying to set his remaining belongings on fire, say police. The man was eventually taken to hospital for treatment of his injuries and is expected to make a full recovery. Despite the suspects wearing disguises, the victim told police that he believed he’d be able to identify the individuals because they were known to him. Later that day, West Shore RCMP investigators tracked the suspects to an apartment building in Victoria and alerted the Victoria Police Department of their investigation. Victoria police officers then attended to the apartment building, located near the 600-block of Admirals Road, and arrested the four suspects without incident. After the suspects were taken into custody, West Shore Mounties executed a search warrant on the apartment and located the firearm that they believe was used in the robbery, as well as other evidence related to the investigation. All four suspects are now in West Shore RCMP custody. Two of the suspects have been identified as Ryan Walker, 32, and Robert Rose, 33. The other two suspects are youth and cannot be identified, though police say one individual was a 17-year-old male and the other was a 16-year-old female. Each suspect is facing charges of robbery with a firearm, assault with a weapon, arson and committing an indictable offence while disguised. The four remain in police custody and are expected to appear in court Friday. Victoria armed robbery suspects arrested, knives seized Oak Bay business owner tackles armed robber	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line888
__label__cc	0.68921	0.31079	Unable to Login Please contact the Client Services Group at Portfolio Holdings Treasury Board Wire Instructions Pool Characteristics SNAP Fund Portfolio The SNAP Fund Portfolio is organized and operated in a manner and in accordance with investment objectives and policies intended to earn the highest income consistent with preserving principal and maintaining liquidity, to maintain a stable $1.00 net asset value (“NAV”). Principal Investment Strategies The SNAP Fund Portfolio (the "Portfolio") invests exclusively in investments authorized under Virginia law for counties, cities, towns, political subdivisions and public bodies of the Commonwealth of Virginia as those terms are used in Section 2.2-4500 through 2.2-4510 of the Code of Virginia of 1950, as it may be amended from time to time. These authorized investments include the following high-quality, short-term money market instruments: U.S. Government and Federal agency obligations, and repurchase agreements involving these obligations Bankers’ acceptances Negotiable certificates of deposit Corporate obligations Obligations of U.S. municipalities Government money market mutual funds that invest exclusively in these types of obligations The Portfolio is designed to maintain a dollar-weighted average maturity of no more than 60 days and a dollar-weighted average life (final maturity, adjusted for demand features but not interest rate adjustments) of no more than 120 days. In addition, it only buys investments that have either a final or effective maturity (or, for repurchase agreements, a remaining term) of 397 days or less. The Investment Manager may adjust exposure to interest rate risk, typically seeking to protect against possible rises in interest rates and to preserve yield when interest rates appear likely to fall. Purchase and Sale of Portfolio Shares Minimum Initial Investment No minimum. Minimum Account Balance No minimum. Minimum Holding Period 1 day. For more information about investing in the SNAP Fund Portfolio, please visit the How to Invest page. The SNAP Fund Portfolio is not registered as an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940 (15 U.S.C. Sec. 80a-1 et seq.) and, accordingly, is not subject to the provisions of the Investment Company Act of 1940 and the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder including rules relating to registered money market mutual funds. Individual Portfolios The Program provides Investors with the option of investing all or a portion of their proceeds in one or more fixed rate investments including fixed income securities and structured investment products, held in Individual Portfolios outside of the SNAP Fund Portfolio. By using an Individual Portfolio a Participant may invest in longer-term investments in a manner that the Investment Manager will coordinate with the Issuer. Individual Portfolios will be managed by the Investment Manager in accordance with specific instructions from the Investor. Individual Portfolios established as structured investment products will be subject to separate agreements between the Participant and investment counterparty. Individual Portfolios are designed to complement investment in the SNAP Fund Portfolio by providing specific investments for surplus funds or for a portion of the proceeds of a debt issue where liquidity is not needed or where specific expenditures are to be funded. For proceeds of debt issues, an Individual Portfolio may be appropriate for Participants with relatively lengthy project drawdown schedules, or for Participants that wish to match expected construction draws more closely with investment maturities to fix earnings on some or all of their funds. Individual Portfolios may also be appropriate for the investment of debt service reserve funds and certain funds subject to investment yield restrictions. The Investment Manager will assist each Investor in evaluating the possible use of an Individual Portfolio. For further information, call the Investment Manager at 1-800-570-SNAP (1-800-570-7627). In order to establish an Individual Portfolio, the Investor must first establish an account with the SNAP Program. The Custodian will hold assets in an Individual Portfolio in a separate account in the Investor’s name. Individual Portfolios are not under the management or supervision of the Treasury Board. Investment Policies for Individual Portfolios Assets in an Individual Portfolio may be invested in those investments that are legal investments for the Investor under applicable Virginia law for counties, cities, towns, political subdivisions and public bodies of the Commonwealth of Virginia as those terms are used in Chapter 45, Title 2.2 of the Code of Virginia of 1950, as it may be amended from time to time and the Investor’s investment policy or are permitted under the terms of related debt issue documents, if any. Individual Portfolios are not governed by the investment policy of the SNAP Program. An Investor should discuss the characteristics of specific investments in an Individual Portfolio with the Investment Manager. Opening an Individual Portfolio Before an Issuer’s funds are invested in an Individual Portfolio, the Issuer must first join the SNAP Program or become an Investor. An Investor may then open an Individual Portfolio. Investors interested in structured investment products should consult their bond counsel and the Investment Manager on the process appropriate for structuring the investment product and competitively selecting the counterparty. Investors should contact a Relationship Manager directly at 1-800-570-SNAP (1-800-570-7627) regarding investments in an Individual Portfolio. Please enter your color in the box below for the top navigation bar and side navigation bar. Make sure there are no extra spaces in the box below: #0A4D91 Please enter your color in the box below for the login button and top left icon. Please make sure there are no extra spaces in the box: #F5EEDA Please enter your font style below in the box. *Make sure there are no extra spaces in the box and do not delete the box: Poppins, sans-serif On October 27, 2016, the SNAP Fund (“SNAP Fund” or “Fund”) was established as a local government investment pool. The Fund invests in securities permitted by Code of Virginia §2.2‐4500 et seq. and may hold deposits subject to Code of Virginia § 2.2‐4400 et seq. Additional information on the Fund’s investment policies can be found in the SNAP Information Statement. This information is for institutional investor use only, not for further distribution to retail investors, and does not represent an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any fund or other security. Investors should consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses before investing in the Virginia State Non‐Arbitrage Program (“SNAP®” or the “Program”). This and other information about the Program is available in the SNAP® Information Statement, which should be read carefully before investing. A copy of the SNAP® Information Statement may be obtained by calling 1‐800‐570‐SNAP (7627) or is available on the Program’s website at www.vasnap.com. While the SNAP® Fund Portfolio seeks to maintain a stable net asset value of $1.00 per share, it is possible to lose money investing in the Program. An investment in the Program is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency. Shares of the SNAP® Fund Portfolio are distributed by PFM Fund Distributors, Inc., member Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) (www.finra.org) and Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) (www.sipc.org). PFM Fund Distributors, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of PFM Asset Management LLC.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line889
__label__cc	0.705386	0.294614	Torbay Food Alliance remains open over the Christmas period for anyone in need Anyone finding themselves in need of a food parcel over the coming weeks can contact The Food Alliance via the Torbay Community Helpline. Help is just a call away and those in need can call the helpline on 01803 446022 or by using the online form Councillor Steve Darling, Leader of Torbay Council, said: “Many of our residents have been helped and supported by this service and I would like to say a big thank you to all the volunteers involved in this project. We want to make sure we can support those who are most at need during the Christmas period. This time of year can be a hard time financially but in the midst of a pandemic we all need to be supporting those who may be struggling to put food on the table for themselves and their families.” Councillor Jackie Stockman, Cabinet Member for Adults and Public Health for Torbay Council, said: “The Torbay Food Alliance, working in partnership with Torbay Council, is made up of community and voluntary sector organisations working together in Torbay. The alliance was set up as a direct response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, with a common goal: to ensure that no-one in Torbay goes hungry during this crisis. This is especially true over the festive season.” This week and next week, beginning Monday 21 and 28 December, the Torbay Community Helpline will be operating on reduced hours: Monday-Thursday, from 10am until 2pm. From Monday 4 January, the helpline will return to its regular hours of Monday-Friday 10am-6pm and Saturday 9:30am-12:30pm. To find out more about the help on offer, or to volunteer your time to support this scheme please visit: https://www.torbayfoodalliance.org/	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line893
__label__wiki	0.724464	0.724464	A Set of Scenes On October 5, 2011 By Dan CoxIn essay, video games Even after my own post on why games are not stories, I guess I should have expected that others would agree with me too. It’s not that I felt I was in the minority on this claim — which I do indeed think — but more that I thought that many others would simply not bother to think about the problem or just say that games can tell stories or that games can be stories in that people can play through a narrative. What I did not expect was support from an author who is arguing my point but from what I feel is the wrong angle. Over on CVG is an interview with Christopher Fowler where he asks the question of “[W]here can a game take a book?” only to then suggest that more books should be games because “Hollywood’s cowardice [of avoiding one-off books, epic tales] can become gaming’s unique strength.” He goes on to talk about how important Greek tragedies are to the process of making a story, the “the hero/ine has a flaw they can’t see, and that flaw gets exploited by enemies.” Yet, he concludes on the same point I did: “[H]ow could a book ever become a game?” because “you [don’t] really get the one thing you most wanted – freedom to participate and choose your course of action, not truly.” We both agree that giving the player narrative options, the ability to change the course of the story or invent their own,fundamentally breaks the story telling process. You cannot tell a singular story to someone who can mutate the plot flow at any time. The very presence of the player is antithetical to the purposed narrative experience with valid paths — “more openings you have, the less powerful the tale is.” However, his solution to the problem was to remove the player completely from control and just give over the story to the character, “Games started embracing their stories and acknowledging [that the player has no real power or choices]. By doing this they opened up an incredible new vista for players. If you tell a story well, and then fill it with kick-ass action, you can have both a great time and enjoy a satisfying adventure.” So, the way to move more books into games is to make it so that the player does not really matter? That every decision made by the player has been predetermined and the only real choice is that of a movie watcher, pause or continue watching (playing)? I don’t agree with that. I may not be happy about the ability of players to utter transform the experience of playing New Vegas, for example. I’m not thrilled with the idea that the player can dictate the plot and even what the story is about. I’m not happy about that. But it does not means that developers should abandon making narrative pieces for players just to make more “kick-ass action” and linear pipelines for the player to walk down. It’s not about making the game look pretty. Just ask reviewers of Rage about that. The most base level of making a game is to make it a set of scenes. The player transitions between these states like moving from scene to scene within a slide show. Press a button for the next slide, press a button for the previous slide. It is a narrative only is so much that the player reads or experiences the story as a transitional function on the part of the character that they are watching. The interaction is minimal or, if it exists at all, does not really matter. This, as a game, is the worst form of story-telling. This is making a book into a game by just adding a set of buttons for the player to press to get the next story beat for them to consume. This is not what the best games allow for a player to experience. It should be more. The reason that making a book into a game is so hard is that the player should have some input on how the story turns out and that means accounting for branching paths, basically writing multiple stories and adding all the necessary animations and video for those options. This is a great deal of work and why many games turn into just a singular story where the main choice presented is how quickly the player can learn some techniques or master some variation of timing. It’s the later that I think Christopher Fowler is talking about. He wants the player to have choice in battle but not story, to tie the player’s hand to the mechanics and limit the total depth that the player can achieve when working on the narrative as well. Then there is the paragraph of “a Hollywood maxim that says the best movies come from short stories. Well, of course they do! A movie is two hours, tops. A game can go the distance to reflect the entire novel, with all of its loyalties and betrayals, eccentric minor characters, twists and turns of plot.” What? I don’t disagree that short stories are the best at adapting to movies, they are the epitome of telling a story in a condensed form. However, thinking that players will experience the “loyalties and betrayals” of even the protagonist is stretching it in the thought that people will “play” that situation and still understand it. People would be watching a movie or maybe even a series of cut-scenes that show these things. If you divorce what the player is watching and what the player is doing, it introduces a dissonance that many of the first games tried and failed — you have a movie and a game, two seperate things. The most troubling quote of the entire piece is this: “[t]here was never a moment when we didn’t think if this as a direct reflection of the novel.” We are talking about the game War of the Worlds. The same game where he says that “the first big shock is how much more faithful it is to HG Wells than either of the two movies.” Yet, he also says that “we upped the ante” by “setting the story in 1953” and instead of Martians, it’s “faceless alien[s] with one simple aim, total extermination of the indigenous race.” That is exactly like the story, right? Maybe the developers changed the story in the same way that a player might, exchanging one branching path of the story for another more interesting one. Dissociation and Death Why is everyone writing about role-playing games?	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line894
__label__wiki	0.759636	0.759636	Last edited by Tetilar 1 edition of The first annual report of the Brighton County Borough Asylum, Haywards Heath found in the catalog. The first annual report of the Brighton County Borough Asylum, Haywards Heath being the 46th annual report since the opening of the asylum, for the year 1904 by Brighton County Borough Asylum Published 1905 by printed by C. Clarke, "Mid-Sussex Times" Offices in Haywards Heath . Brighton County Borough Asylum, Psychiatric Hospitals Contributions Reeves, E. J., Purvey, George, Walker, Edward B. C., Little, E. R. D., Urmson, G. Harold, Cook, E. Marriott Pagination 48 pages, 3 unnumbered folded leaves ; Haywards Heath Town Council, Haywards Heath, United Kingdom. likes. Welcome to Haywards Heath Town Council's page. Members of the public are most welcome to Followers: Check Court House Clinics Haywards Heath in Haywards Heath, FRANKLYNN SUITE, THE PRIORY, FRANKLYNN ROAD on Cylex and find ☎ , contact info, ⌚ opening on: FRANKLYNN SUITE, THE PRIORY, FRANKLYNN ROAD, Haywards Heath, RH16 3LB, West Sussex England. Check West Sussex County Council in Haywards Heath, 34 Boltro Rd on Cylex and find ☎ , contact info, ⌚ opening on: 34 Boltro Rd, Haywards Heath, RH16 1BN, West Sussex England. Haywards Heath, West Sussex - area map. Find out more more about the Mid Sussex town of Haywards Heath in our Haywards Heath guide. Tweets by @SussexInfo. Horsham guide. Horsham guide and tourist information. Sports guide. Sports and fitness clubs in Sussex. Arundel guide. Short Girls Start living, start losing The speeches of the Right Honourable Richard Lalor Sheil, M.P Zero-degree murder Life til thirty Hospital bulletin. Department of Labors enforcement of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) Cadences of the heart Trade Warriors The white order American civil procedure The original writings & correspondence of the two Richard Hakluyts Use With Care The first annual report of the Brighton County Borough Asylum, Haywards Heath by Brighton County Borough Asylum Download PDF EPUB FB2 The two remaining partners, East Sussex County Council and Brighton Borough Council, could not agree about their future relationship and after an arbitrator's award East Sussex withdrew to establish its county asylum at Hellingly; the Haywards Heath establishment became the Brighton County Borough Asylum in October The county of Sussex opened its own asylum accommodation inbeing the last of the south-eastern counties to comply with the county asylums act of and having been under pressure by the commissioners in lunacy. A site was chosen at Hurst House Farm, to Haywards Heath book south east of the town of Haywards Heath and overlooking the South Downs. With the passing of the County Asylums Act inthe counties of England and Wales were required to provide accommodation for their pauper lunatics. It took nine years for the Sussex county to begin planning there asylum, being the last county in the country to do so, due to the political wrangling between the East and West division. The asylum’s first medical superintendent was Dr Lockhart Robertson, who would have been one of the most prominent Haywards Heath book in early Haywards Heath. Robertson was a progressive, promoting the use of non-restraint and using therapeutic methods such as vapour baths to treat depression. A descriptive notice of the Sussex Lunatic Asylum, Haywards Heath (opened 25th July, ) [electronic resource] by Robertson, C. Lockhart (Charles Lockhart), ; University of. With the building of Graylingwell Hospital in Chichester it became East Sussex County Lunatic Asylum in and when Hellingly was constructed in it became Brighton Borough Asylum then Mental Hospital. In its name was Haywards Heath book once more to St Francis Hospital. With the passing of the County Asylums Act inthe counties of England and Wales were required to provide accommodation The first annual report of the Brighton County Borough Asylum their pauper lunatics. The East Sussex County constructed their own Asylum after they ended their joint ownership of the First Sussex County Asylum, St Francis, in Haywards Heath. St Francis was subsequently owned and operated by the Brighton Borough Authority. Concurrently, the West Sussex County constructed a similar complex at Graylingwell Farm in Chichester. Haywards Heath is a town and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, within the historic county of Sussex, lies 36 miles (58 km) south of London, 14 miles (23 km) north of Brighton, 13 miles (21 km) south of Gatwick Airport and 31 miles (50 km) east northeast of the county town of towns include Burgess Hill to the southwest, Horsham to the northwest Country: England. The original county asylums list was first compiled by Dr. Jeremy Taylor for his definitive publication Hospital And Asylum Architecture then updated by both Simon Cornwell and Peter Cracknell. We have since modified this list to what we believe to be the true ‘County Asylum’ list for England and Wales. Rail – Haywards Heath has 1 railway station and is served by trains on the Brighton Line. Brief History Haywards Heath is a relatively modern Haywards Heath book as a settlement. There have been dwellings scattered around the area since Medieval times, including Borde Hill House. Haywards Heath book Re: Sussex Lunatic Asylum «Reply #6 on: Friday 30 September 05 BST (UK)» Many thanks to Haywards Heath book, Andrea, Deborah and Jan, You are right Andrea, the death was registered at Lewes, in the sub district of Ditchling, when I applied for the certificate I was hoping that other family names would appear, no luck there. Report - Whittingham Lunatic Asylum Asylums and Hospitals: 0: Report - Cherry Knowle Lunatic Asylum - ages ago - Asylums and Hospitals: 0: Report - Lincolnshire County Pauper Lunatic Asylum, Lincoln: Asylums and Hospitals: 2: Report - St Marys Gateshead Borough Lunatic Asylum: Asylums. Sixty-second annual report of the County & City of Worcester Lunatic Asylum, Powick, for theand financial statements. The sixth annual report of the Brighton County Borough Asylum, Haywards Heath. Brighton RSCH and Haywards Heath Perrymount Road. NHS Staff Brighton Royal Sussex County Hospital No returns in this box Patcham Black Lion Pyecombe Garage Hassocks Stone Pound Maximum return fare in this box £ Hassocks Friars Oak Burgess Hill Chanctonbury Road. Brighton Asylum is comprised of 3 attractions The Tunnel, Brighton Asylum, and The Bleeding Grounds. Brighton Asylum is the ultimate Halloween destination. Experience our award winning escape rooms, Horror Museum, Axe Throwing, free Instagram/Snapchat worthy photo ops, amazing outdoor entertainment, and so much more. of staff ID. Issued and accepted between Brighton RSCH and Haywards Heath Perrymount Road. NHS Staff Brighton Royal Sussex County Hospital Preston Circus No returns in this box Patcham Black Lion Pyecombe Garage Hassocks Stone Pound Maximum return fare in this box £ Hassocks. Haywards Heath is now one of the most important towns in West Sussex. Together with its near neighbour Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath is the economic powerhouse of Mid Sussex, growing at a steady rate and providing jobs for many people all over West Sussex - although good road and railway connections mean that many of Haywards Heath's 25, residents commute to Gatwick and London. Mid Sussex Times Middy, Haywards Heath, United Kingdom. K likes. Newspaper and website for the Mid Sussex district ( ) We are part of the Followers: K. Victorian Asylum Building - Haywards Heath, Sussex - July Visited here with CR Explore who gave me the tip off about this place. Somehow during my years of exploring I've yet to make it to a Hospital/Asylum, so its nice to at least tick it off. Haywards Heath is a town and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, within the historic county of Sussex, lies 36 miles (58 km) south of London, 14 miles (23 km) north of Brighton, 13 miles (21 km) south of Gatwick Airport and 31 miles (50 km) east northeast of the county town of towns include Burgess Hill to the southwest, Horsham to the northwest. Haywards Heath to Brighton timetable. Check out the next trains departing from Haywards Heath to Brighton for Thursday 14th May For the full train timetable, or. Haywards Heath railway station opened on 12 July and served as the southern terminus of the line until the completion of Brighton station on 21 September. The position of Haywards Heath, and its place on both this railway and near the main road (A23) between London and Brighton, enables it to function as a commuter town, with many residents working in London, Brighton, Crawley and Gatwick. Burgess Hill is a town and civil parish located in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England, close to the border with East Sussex, on the edge of the South Downs National d 39 mi (63 km) south of London, 10 mi (16 km) north of Brighton and Hove, and 29 mi (47 km) east-northeast of the county town of Chichester, it occupies an area of sq mi ( km 2) and had a population Country: England. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. The CQC makes that sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and we encourage care services to improve. We are registered with the CQC to provide services from. Haywards Heath railway station is a major station on the Brighton Main Line. Some of the train services divide at Haywards Heath before continuing their journey to the south, or join other services before continuing north. Road. Haywards Heath is primarily served by the A road, which runs around the south side of the town. This is the new. Our Haywards Heath Centre is located at 22 Sussex RoadHaywards HeathWest SussexRH16 4EA Tel: SMS E-mail: [email protected] Parking Information: There is a car park on site with disabled spaces at the front the building. Alternative pay and display parking can be found at:Franklynn Road, Haywards Heath, RH16 4DHGower Road, Haywards Heath, RH16 4PW. There are 5 ways to get from Brighton to Haywards Heath by train, bus, taxi, car or towncar. Select an option below to see step-by-step directions and to compare ticket. London Road (Brighton) to Haywards Heath timetable Check out the next trains departing from London Road (Brighton) to Haywards Heath for Monday 30th Dec For the full train timetable, or to search for a later time or date, click here. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Sweet Bells Jangled Out of Tune: A History of the Sussex Lunatic Asylum (s Hospital, Haywards Heath) at Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users/5(9). The and bus services run between the Princess Royal Hospital and Royal Sussex County Hospital. These services are free to patients carrying an appointment letter for the date of travel. By train. Brighton Station is the nearest station. From the station, you can catch a bus or get a taxi to the hospital. Brighton Asylum Legend. Brighton’s industrial complex, a series of old and decrepit warehouses, was used for housing mentally unstable and psychologically damaged individuals back in the mid ’s. Many of these patients were quite violent, and often needed to be isolated for staff and patient protection. Haywards Heath is referenced in English Civil War records when early in December the High Sheriff of Sussex (Sir Edward Ford) advanced with Royalist troops towards Lewes in East Sussex from Chichester in West Sussex. He was intercepted in Haywards Heath by local Parliamentarians and defeated. Haywards Heath as a settlement is a relatively modern development. Rome2rio makes travelling from Haywards Heath to Sunbury-on-Thames easy. Rome2rio is a door-to-door travel information and booking engine, helping you get to and from any location in the world. Find all the transport options for your trip from Haywards Heath to Sunbury-on-Thames right here. With the scale OS Landranger Brighton & Lewes, Haywards Heath Map you can be sure of finding all the best walks, routes and places of interest around this stunning part of England.5/5(3). Manley J () Hampshire County Lunatic Asylum, Medical Superintendent's Annual Report. 48M94/A9/2. Hampshire Record Office, Hampshire. Mason GH () Hampshire County Lunatic Asylum, Chaplain's Annual Report. 48M94/A9/3. Hampshire Record Office, Hampshire. Metropolitan Commissioners in Lunacy () Report to the Lord Chancellor House of Author: Diane Carpenter. A Haywards Heath perspective on news, sport, what's on, lifestyle and more, from your local paper the Mid Sussex Times. SPS Leaflet and Magazine Distribution are expanding into Sussex. We are covering Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill along with all the surrounding areas. We are now expanding further into Brighton & Hove and Shoreham too. If you have an important message that you need to get out to your potential customers then look no further than our leaflet and flyer distribution services in Brighton & Hove. The Sussex County Hospital (now the Royal Sussex County Hospital) was founded in at Brighton whilst the Sussex County Mental Asylum (later 'St. Francis Hospital' and now the Princess Royal Hospital) was founded in in the centre of county at Haywards Heath. Sussex's first medical school, the Brighton and Sussex Medical School, was set Status: Historic county (current), Ceremonial county (until. The return distance between Brighton to Haywards Heath is 23 Mi. You can also try a different route while coming back by adding multiple destinations. Check map from Brighton to Haywards Heath for clear directions. Along with it, estimate Travel time from Brighton to Haywards Heath to calculate the time you will spend travelling. Two arrested after Haywards Heath police chase Two men in their 20s have pdf arrested pdf Sussex after their car crashed while it was being followed by police. Police were following the car after being called to reports of a burglary at WHSmith in South Road, Haywards Heath, in .Haywards Heath is a town in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, within the historic county of Sussex, lies download pdf miles (58 km) south of London, 14 miles (23 km) north of Brighton, 13 miles (21 km) south of Gatwick Airport and 31 miles (50 km) east northeast of the county town of towns include Burgess Hill to the southwest, Horsham to the northwest, Crawley .With ViaMichelin you can book your accommodation for Haywards Heath at no additional cost. Whether you ebook to ebook a stay in Haywards Heath or simply stop off on your Brighton - Haywards Heath route, you can book the accommodation of your choice (hotel, gîte, B&B, campsite, apartment). This free service is offered in partnership with Booking. atheizm.com - The first annual report of the Brighton County Borough Asylum, Haywards Heath book © 2020	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line897
__label__wiki	0.871678	0.871678	NFL Power Rankings: Ranking the remaining playoff QBs, with legends young and old in the field The difference in playoff quarterbacks between the AFC and NFC is obvious. There are great quarterbacks still alive in the postseason in both conferences. There are multiple quarterbacks in the field who will be in the Hall of Fame someday. It’s just that one group has more experience. A lot more experience. The average age of the NFC starting quarterbacks for the divisional round is a little less than 37 years old, and that’s with Jared Goff bringing the average way down. A game between Tom Brady and Drew Brees will be the first time two 40-year-old quarterbacks square off in the playoffs. The AFC’s average age among its four remaining quarterbacks is 24.5 years old. All four were first-round draft picks, two have won MVP awards, one has a Super Bowl championship already, and each of them has led at least one playoff win. The NFL’s future is in good hands. Tom Brady has been in the playoffs many times, but this is the first time on the NFC side of the bracket. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images) It’s hard to pick among the eight quarterbacks remaining in the postseason. They’re all accomplished. But we’ll try to put them in order, based on which quarterback you’d choose for the rest of the playoffs: 8. Jared Goff, Los Angeles Rams Goff’s thumb injury assured him of the final spot among the eight starting quarterbacks still playing. Goff downplayed the injury after last week’s game but he looked like he was less than 100 percent. That’s understandable after he had surgery on a broken thumb after Week 16. Even when healthy, Goff has been up and down. He’s the biggest question among the eight quarterbacks, by far. 7. Baker Mayfield, Cleveland Browns Mayfield has been on a roll. Mayfield has thrown one interception since Oct. 25. He has 19 touchdowns and two interceptions over his past 11 games, including the wild-card playoff win over the Steelers. Mayfield had a good rookie season, poor second season and has answered a lot of questions with a strong third season. He doesn’t have the track record of success of some other quarterbacks ahead of him on this list, but his recent play has been very good. 6. Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints Brees missed time with 11 broken ribs, and looked bad in his first game back. Since then he has mostly been the same efficient Brees we’re used to seeing. Over the past three games he is completing more than 70 percent of his passes. He has five touchdowns and no interceptions over the past two games, including the wild-card win over the Bears. This could be Brees’ final season, and he’s finishing it pretty well. 5. Lamar Jackson, Baltimore Ravens It will always be hard to rank Jackson. He’s great, but different than most other quarterbacks. Jackson was fantastic in a wild-card win over the Titans, rushing for 136 yards with several big plays. He also threw for just 179 yards with no touchdowns, one interception and a 74.8 passer rating. He can take over a game, but a dip in passing efficiency this season pushed him down a bit. 4. Tom Brady, Tampa Bay Buccaneers Brady wasn’t perfect this season, but his faults were overstated. He had 4,633 yards and 40 touchdowns this regular season with his highest passer rating since 2017. Brady followed that up with 381 yards and two touchdowns against a good Washington defense in the wild-card round. More than anything, there aren’t many quarterbacks in NFL history you’d trust in a clutch spot more than Brady, even at age 43. What a story it would be if Brady wins a championship with Tampa Bay after 20 years with the Patriots. 3. Josh Allen, Buffalo Bills Imagine a year or more ago seeing Allen on a list of playoff quarterbacks at No. 3, ahead of guys like Brady, Jackson and Brees ... and wondering if he might be too low. Allen’s breakout has been remarkable. He has harnessed all of his physical skills, and the inclusion of Stefon Diggs in the offense has unlocked a new level not just for Allen but the Bills as a whole. Allen’s fine game against the Colts in the wild-card round should answer questions about whether he can do it in the playoffs, too. It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone if Allen keeps his hot streak going through a Super Bowl title. 2. Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers Rodgers will win MVP and he deserves it. If you want him in the No. 1 spot, that’s justified. It seems like more of a 1A and 1B ranking (and we can probably include Allen as a 1C). Rodgers has been shredding defenses lately and doing so in an effortless manner. He has waited a long time for a playoff path like this, with the NFC going through Green Bay. We’re going to see the best of Rodgers this month as he chases a second Super Bowl that has eluded him for a decade. 1. Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs Rodgers had a better individual season, passing Mahomes in the MVP race with a scorching hot December. It’s even fair to argue Allen had a better season than Mahomes. But if you were picking one quarterback for the rest of the playoffs, wouldn’t Mahomes be the pick? He has been the most consistently great quarterback in the NFL since taking the starting job in 2018, and his playoff comebacks en route to a Super Bowl last season proves he is just as great in the clutch. Rodgers and Allen were great this season. Brees and Brady have had all-time great careers. Jackson has unique skills that no other quarterback in the NFL can match. You can make a great argument for any of them topping this list. But anyone picking Mahomes probably won’t regret it. No quarterback has ever had a start to an NFL career like Mahomes, and he’s the biggest reason the Chiefs are the favorites to take home another title. Thamel: Saban reinforces GOAT status with 7th national title Biggest plays from Alabama’s CFP win over Ohio State Early odds for 2021: Bama, Clemson remain at the top Tide fans flout COVID-19 regulations, pack bars, streets	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line899
__label__wiki	0.84941	0.84941	Probation for teenage boy who had underaged sex, impregnated 15-year-old girl Wan Ting Koh The Singapore State Courts. (PHOTO: Dhany Osman / Yahoo News Singapore) SINGAPORE — An 18-year-old boy who had underaged sex with a schoolmate and later impregnated her was given 15 months’ probation on Monday (4 January). The boy, who was 17 at the time of offences, initiated sex with the 15-year-old girl after entering into a relationship with her. The victim eventually gave birth to a baby, who was put up for adoption. Both the boy and the victim cannot be named due to a gag order to protect the victim’s identity. As part of his probation terms, the boy will have to serve 60 hours of community service and his parents were also placed on a $5,000 bond to ensure his good behaviour. He will also have to abide by a time curfew. The boy told the court that he will not be returning to school and work as a promoter. He earlier pleaded guilty to two counts of sexually penetrating a minor under 16. Both came to be acquainted in late February 2019 while studying in the same school. A month later, they began dating. “During the early days of this relationship, the accused would ask the victim if she wanted to have sexual intercourse with him, and the victim would decline. After getting rejected, the accused would express his disappointment towards the victim,” said Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Kor Zhen Hong. However, the girl relented two months into the relationship. While at West Mall some time in May 2019, the boy asked the girl if she wanted to have sex with him. “The victim decided to agree to the accused’s request, as she did not wish to reject him anymore,” said DPP Kor. The two then had protected sex at a staircase at the mall. The victim was then around 15 years old. In December, the duo had unprotected sex again at the boy’s house. Five months later, the victim’s mother noticed something amiss when she realised that her daughter had not been using sanitary pads and that her tummy was bigger than before. She brought the victim to a hospital where the girl’s pregnancy was revealed. The hospital later informed the police of the underage pregnancy. The victim gave birth to the child, who was put up for adoption as neither family wanted to care for the baby. The gender of the baby was not revealed in court documents. For sexually penetrating a minor under 16, the boy could have been jailed up to 10 years, or fined, or both. Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore More Singapore stories: COVID-19 situation in Singapore has stabilised through 'enormous effort and sacrifice': PM Lee Sengkang MP He Ting Ru welcomes new baby son, thanks WP members for their help COVID-19: Tighter measures for air crew following 2 positive cases in 2 days	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line900
__label__wiki	0.747425	0.747425	2013/2014 Season (59th year), Art at the Institute (ART@TI) 20th Century Modern Ukrainian Art Date: October 28, 2013Author: Ukrainian Institute NYC The Ukrainian Institute of America was pleased to present the 20th Century Modern Ukrainian Art Exhibit. The exhibition opened on September 28, 2013 at the Ukrainian Institute of America and was on display until November 13, 2013. This exhibit features works by Archipenko, Andreenko, Burliuk, Gritchenko, Hnizdovsky, Hutsaliuk, Olenska-Petryshyn, and Solovij. Opening reception took place on October 29, 2013, from 6 to 8 p.m. Mykhailo ANDREENKO-NECHYTAILO (1894 – 1982) Mykhailo Andreenko-Nechytailo was born in 1894 in Odessa, Ukraine. He studied at the art school of the Society for the Promotion of the Arts in Saint Petersburg with N. Rerikh, A. Rylov, and I. Bilibin. In 1914–16 he exhibited the composition Black Dome and his first cubist works in Saint Petersburg and participated in an international graphics exhibition in Leipzig. From 1917–24 he devoted most of his time to designing stage sets for various theaters—in Saint Petersburg, Odessa, Prague, Paris, and for the Royal Opera in Bucharest. In 1923, Andreenko-Nechytailo moved to Paris, where he worked on films such as Casanova and Sheherazade and continued to paint in the cubist-constructivist style. In the 1930s Andreenko-Nechytailo produced a series of surrealist paintings. He switched to neorealism in the 1940s and painted a number of portraits as well as a series the cityscapes. Andreenko-Nechytailo`s work is characterized by a precision of composition that harmonizes subtly with color. His stage sets are remarkable for their laconic quality and architectural schematism, and his costume designs, for their richness. He died in 1982 in Paris, France. Yuriy SOLOVIJ (1921-2008) A graduate of the Lviv Arts and Crafts School (1944) and a postwar refugee in Germany and then the United States, Solovij experimented with several styles (postimpressionism, expressionism, abstract expressionism). He used mixed media in unusual combinations and was preoccupied with the themes of birth and death. His later works deal with the universality of pain in human life. Some of his characteristic works are Motherhood (1947), Astral (1948), Crucifixion (1950, 1969), and the series ‘1,000 Heads.’ Solo exhibitions of his works were held in New York (1959, 1965, 1970, 1972, 2000), Chicago (1960, 1972, 1980), Toronto (1963, 1972, 1973), Munich (1971), and Winnipeg (1973). His art criticism were published in the émigré press and separately as Pro rechi bil’shi nizh zori (About Things Greater than Stars, 1978). Alexander ARCHIPENKO (1887-1964) Archipenko was a Ukrainian avant-garde artist, sculptor, and graphic artist. He was born in Kyiv and attended the Kyiv Art School. A year later moved to Moscow where he participated in exhibitions with symbolists such as Kazimir Malevich and Mikhail Vrubel, and first was exposed to the work of artists from Paris such as Degas, Renoir, Cezanne, Gaugin, van Gogh and Matisse. Archipenko moved to Paris in 1908 and was a resident of La Ruche, a neighborhood of émigré Eastern European painters. During World War I, the artist sought exile in Nice, and then moved to Germany in 1921. He finally settled in the US where he lived until his death. In art, Archipenko departed from the neo-classical sculpture of his time, using faceted planes and negative space to create a new way of looking at the human figure, showing a number of views of the subject simultaneously. He is known for introducing sculptural voids, and for his inventive mixing of genres throughout his career: devising ‘sculpto-paintings’, and later experimenting with materials such as clear acrylic and terra cotta. Jacques HNIZDOVSKY (1915-1985) Hnizdovsky was a Ukrainian-American painter, printmaker, sculptor, ex libris designer, book illustrator, and art historian. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and Zagreb, and produced hundreds of paintings, as well as over 300 prints after his move to the United States in 1949. He was inspired by woodblock printing in Japan as well as the woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer. Hnizdovsky’s woodcuts frequently depict plants and animals, and the primary reason for this, in the beginning, after his arrival in the United States, was the lack of funds to pay for a human model. But what was first a substitute for the human form later became his primary subject matter. He was well known in the botanical gardens and zoos in New York, where he would find subjects willing to pose for no cost. The sheep from the Bronx Zoo went on to be the print Hnizdovsky was best known for, and it illustrated the poster for his very successful exhibition at the Lumley Cazalet Gallery in London. Arcadia OLENSKA-PETRYSHYN (1934-1996) Olenska-Petryshyn was a notable Ukrainian-American artist and critic. She was born in Galicia, Ukraine. An émigré to the US since 1950, she completed her studies at the University of Chicago. Most of her work consists of lithographs, graphics and oils. Her early works were abstract, then she depicted human figures with expressionless faces, recently she has been producing paintings of cacti and prints of plants and trees. Her paintings were displayed in the United States, Canada, Brussels, China and Ukraine. David BURLIUK (1882 – 1967) Burliuk was a one-eyed Ukrainian, avant-garde artist (Futurist and Neo-Primitivist), book illustrator, publicist, and author associated with Russian Futurism. From 1898 to 1904, Burliuk studied at the art schools in Kasan and in Odessa, as well as at the Royal Academy in Munich. His exuberant, extroverted character was recognized by Anton Azhbe, his professor at the Munich Acade- my, who called Burliuk a “wonderful wild steppe horse.” In 1909 Burliuk painted a portrait of his future wife, Marussia, on a back- ground of flowers and rocks on the Crimean coast. Many times thereafter he would set the image of his wife to canvas. Without question two dreams possessed his heart all his life: the face of his wife and the portrait of his homeland – first Ukraine and then his adopted country, the United States. From 1918 to 1922 he traveled to the USA via Siberia, Japan, and Canada. Burliuk died on Long Island, NY. “Art at the Institute” is sponsored by the Ukrainian Institute of America. 20th Century Modern ArtAndreenko-NechytailoArchipenkoArt at the InstituteBurliukHnizdovskyModern Ukrainian ArtOlenska-PetryshynSolovij Previous Previous post: Jazz Age at the Ukrainian Institute Next Next post: First-ever English translation of Shevchenko’s complete Kobzar presented at the Ukrainian Institute of America	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line901
__label__wiki	0.681893	0.681893	Alice Adams Newton Booth Tarkington Publisher: WSBLD Alice Adams is a 1921 novel by Booth Tarkington that received the 1922 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel. It was adapted as a film in 1923 by Rowland V. Lee and, more famously, in 1935 by George Stevens. The narrative centers on the character of a young woman (the eponymous Alice Adams) who aspires to climb the social ladder and win the affections of a wealthy young man named Arthur Russell. The story is set in a lower-middle-class household in an unnamed town in the Midwest shortly after World War I. This is the page of Newton Booth Tarkington on 24symbols. Here you can see and read his/her books. Social Value Investing - A... William B. Eimicke, Howard W.... Social Value Investing presents a new way to approach some of society’s most difficult and intractable challenges. Although many of our world’s problems may seem too great and too complex to solve — inequality, climate change, affordable housing, corruption, healthcare, food insecurity — solutions to these challenges do exist, and will be found through new partnerships bringing together leaders from the public, private, and philanthropic sectors.In their new book, Howard W. Buffett and William B. Eimicke present a five-point management framework for developing and measuring the success of such partnerships. Inspired by value investing — one of history’s most successful investment paradigms — this framework provides tools to maximize collaborative efficiency and positive social impact, so that major public programs can deliver innovative, inclusive, and long-lasting solutions. It also offers practical insights for any private sector CEO, public sector administrator, or nonprofit manager hoping to build successful cross-sector collaborations.Social Value Investing tells the compelling stories of cross-sector partnerships from around the world — Central Park and the High Line in New York City, community-led economic development in Afghanistan, and improved public services in cities across Brazil. Drawing on lessons and observations from a broad selections of collaborations, this book combines real life stories with detailed analysis, resulting in a blueprint for effective, sustainable partnerships that serve the public interest. Readers also gain access to original, academic case material and professionally produced video documentaries for every major partnerships profiled — bringing to life the people and stories in a way that few other business or management books have done. Omar Al-Bashir and Africa's... Paul Moorcraft President Omar al-Bashir is Africa's and arguably Arabia's most controversial leader. In power since 1989, he is the first sitting head of state to be issued with an arrest warrant, for war crimes, by International Criminal Court.He has been a central personality in Islamic and African politics, as well as a love-to-hate figure for the US in the 'war on terror'.For military history readers, Al-Bashir is a field marshal who has fought possibly the world's longest conflict. Modern Sudan has been embroiled in war since 1955.No proper biography has been written on him before. Nor has there been a comprehensive military history of Sudan. The book briefly covers the military background until independence. Then it dissects the long north-south civil war until Bashir's Islamist military coup in 1989. Thereafter it narrates the wars in the east, south, west (in Darfur), International political and military intervention is also factored in.The author draws on in-depth one-on-one interviews with Bashir himself and his family and close political, military and intelligence colleagues. The Primacy of the Political - A... Dick Howard The conflict between politics and antipolitics has replayed throughout Western history and philosophical thought. From the beginning, Plato's quest for absolute certainty led him to denounce democracy, an anti-political position challenged by Aristotle. In his wide-ranging narrative, Dick Howard puts this dilemma into fresh perspective, proving our contemporary political problems are not as unique as we think.Howard begins with democracy in ancient Greece and the rise and fall of republican politics in Rome. In the wake of Rome's collapse, political thought searched for a new medium, and the conflict between politics and antipolitics reemerged through the contrasting theories of Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas. During the Renaissance and Reformation, the emergence of the modern individual again transformed the terrain of the political. Even so, politics vs. antipolitics dominated the period, frustrating even Machiavelli, who sought to reconceptualize the nature of political thought. Hobbes and Locke, theorists of the social contract, then reenacted the conflict, which Rousseau sought (in vain) to overcome. Adam Smith and the growth of modern economic liberalism, the radicalism of the French revolution, and the conservative reaction of Edmund Burke subsequently marked the triumph of antipolitics, while the American Revolution momentarily offered the potential for a renewal of politics. Taken together, these historical examples, viewed through the prism of philosophy, reveal the roots of today's political climate and the trajectory of battles yet to come. Smoke and Mirrors - The Politics... E. Melanie Dupuis Who gets to breathe clean air? Who benefits from the cheaper products produced with dirty air? The answers, as the contributors to Smoke and Mirrors tell us, are sometimes as gray as the air itself. From the coal factory chimneys in Manchester in the late nineteenth century to the smog hanging over Los Angeles in the late twentieth century, air pollution has long been one of the greatest threats to our environment. In this important collection of original essays, the leading environmental scientists and social scientists examine the politics of air pollution policies and help us to understand the ways these policies have led to, idiosyncratic, effective, ineffective, and even disastrous choices about what we choose to put into and take out of the air. Offering historical, contemporary and cross-national perspectives, this volume provides a refreshing new approach to understanding how air pollution policies have evolved over time. Populating the Novel - Literary... Emily Steinlight From the teeming streets of Dickens’s London to the households of domestic fiction, nineteenth-century British writers constructed worlds crammed beyond capacity with human life. In Populating the Novel, Emily Steinlight contends that rather than simply reflecting demographic growth, such pervasive literary crowding contributed to a seismic shift in British political thought. She shows how the nineteenth-century novel in particular claimed a new cultural role as it took on the task of narrating human aggregation at a moment when the Malthusian specter of surplus population suddenly and quite unexpectedly became a central premise of modern politics.In readings of novels by Mary Shelley, Elizabeth Gaskell, Charles Dickens, Mary Braddon, Thomas Hardy, and Joseph Conrad that link fiction and biopolitics, Steinlight brings the crowds that pervade nineteenth-century fiction into the foreground. In so doing, she transforms the subject and political stakes of the Victorian novel, dislodging the longstanding idea that its central category is the individual by demonstrating how fiction is altered by its emerging concern with population. By overpopulating narrative space and imagining the human species perpetually in excess of the existing social order, she shows, fiction made it necessary to radically reimagine life in the aggregate. Political Contingency - Studying... Ian Shapiro, Sonu Bedi History is replete with instances of what might, or might not, have been. By calling something contingent, at a minimum we are saying that it did not have to be as it is. Things could have been otherwise, and they would have been otherwise if something had happened differently. This collection of original essays examines the significance of contingency in the study of politics. That is, how to study unexpected, accidental, or unknowable political phenomena in a systematic fashion. Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated. Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait. Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans. How might history be different had these events not happened? How should social scientists interpret the significance of these events and can such unexpected outcomes be accounted for in a systematic way or by theoretical models? Can these unpredictable events be predicted for? Political Contingency addresses these and other related questions, providing theoretical and historical perspectives on the topic, empirical case studies, and the methodological challenges that the fact of contingency poses for the study of politics.Contributors: Sonu Bedi, Traci Burch, Jennifer L. Hochschild, Gregory A. Huber, Courtney Jung, David R. Mayhew, Philip Pettit, Andreas Schedler, Mark R. Shulman, Robert G. Shulman, Ian Shapiro, Susan Stokes, Elisabeth Jean Wood, and David Wootton	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line903
__label__cc	0.630332	0.369668	Why You Should Retire in Tennessee by Charles Moss on December 18th, 2018 Tennesse offers retirees a quaint region with plenty of entertainment options. If you’re thinking about moving to Tennessee but aren’t fully convinced yet, allow us to help you make your decision easier. Tennessee is home to great music, beautiful scenery, and thriving cities with plenty of entertainment. The Volunteer State has plenty of fine arts and history museums highlighting the state’s rich history and culture. And its natural attractions are considered some of the best in the southeast according to outdoor enthusiasts. But there are plenty other reasons Tennessee is one of the best places to retire. If you’re living on a budget, every one of Tennessee’s major major metro areas offers below-average living costs, according to the Council for Community and Economic Research. This includes health care, which is typically the biggest financial concern for active adults. And when it comes to state income tax, there is none. That’s right. So any salaries, wages, Social Security benefits, IRA distributions, and pension income are not taxed on a state level. And in 2016, Tennessee stopped imposing its inheritance tax, while there is no longer an estate tax in the state, either. Though it tends to vary throughout the state at times, Tennessee’s climate is generally considered to be moderate with four distinct seasons, In Autumn, you’ll experience plenty of scenic fall foliage. In the winter, temperatures will get colder and you might even see some snow. Spring brings about warmer temperatures with all sorts of local flowers and plants blooming. Summer is when it gets the hottest and most humid, with temperatures sometimes getting as high as in the 90s. If you're a fan of the four seasons but want to avoid a frigid winter, Tennessee is a good option. Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga has some of the most breathtaking views in the state. Speaking of the weather, because Tennessee offers a generally mild climate it means taking advantage of all the wonderful outdoor recreational options the state has to offer. From hiking, mountain biking, camping, whitewater kayaking, and scenic driving, Tennessee offers an abundance of opportunities to do all of this throughout the state. Go hiking and sightseeing on Chattanooga’s Lookout Mountain. Visit the Great Smoky Mountains National Park with more than 800 miles of trails just south of Gatlinburg. And go whitewater rafting on the Ocoee River. Other places to visit are Big South Fork, Cherokee National Forest, the Appalachian Trail, Natchez Trace, and Mud Island. For more info, read our guide to Tennessee’s outdoor recreation options. Graceland is a religious experience for many. There’s so much to do in Tennessee, it’s impossible to include everything here. Tennessee’s most popular attractions include the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Tennessee Aquarium, the Jack Daniels Distillery, Graceland, and Beale Street. When it comes to history, Tennessee is known for its historic preservation of Civil War battlefields such as Shiloh, Lookout Mountain, the Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park, and Stones River. For sports fans, Tennessee has three professional sports teams, the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies, the Nashville Predators of the NHL, and the NFL’s Tennessee Titans. It’s also got a few minor league teams such as the Memphis Redbirds, Jackson Diamond Jaxx, the Nashville Sounds, the Tennessee Smokies, and the Chattanooga Lookouts. And you know, it’s also Vols Nation, where the UT Volunteers rule the college football landscape. For more Tennessee entertainment options, click here. Tennessee has plenty of world-class active adult communities, such as Rarity Bay in Vonore, Reid Hill Commons in Franklin, and Cottage Grove at Twelve Stones Grove in Goodlettsville. For more communities in Tennessee, check out our Tennessee 55+ communities page. Grove at Twelve Stones Grove Knoxville Area Memphis Area Rarity Bay Reid Hill Commons	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line904
__label__wiki	0.932506	0.932506	HomeAbout UsFact Sheets Air Force Fact Sheets This database holds fact sheets on Air Force weapons, organizations, inventory, careers and equipment. Air Force fact sheets contain up to date information and statistics. If a fact sheet is not listed, please contact the Air Force News desk at afbiographies.dma@mail.mil. Fact Sheet Alphabetical List Fact Sheet Search Select a Category Organizations Aircraft Close Air Support Space Special Topics Weapons Transport Aircraft RPAs/UASs Special Ops Aircraft Fighters Bombers Tankers Helicopters Training Aircraft Special Mission Recon & Surveillance Major Commands Other Organizations Air Force Careers Non-operational systems Air Traffic Control - 1C1X1 Air traffic controllers, or ATCs, direct the movement of aircraft into and out of military airfields all over the world and track aircraft by radar and give voice instructions by radio. Air University Air University provides the full spectrum of Air Force education from pre-commissioning to all levels of professional military education, including degree granting and professional continuing education for officers, enlisted and civilian personnel throughout their careers. Airborne Battle Management - 1A4X1 Tomorrow's battles will be won not just with superior firepower, but with superior battlefield information. Air battle managers are trained to manage this valuable information as Airborne Warning Command and Control Systems operators. Aircraft Loadmaster - 1A2X1 Mission Loadmasters perform their duties during extensive trips to all areas of the world. They are responsible for supervising the loading and unloading of cargo, vehicles and people on a variety of aircraft. A loadmaster's duties include mathematically preplanning the correct placement of the load on the airplane, providing passenger comfort and AN/ASQ-236 Radar Pod MissionThe AN/ASQ-236 Radar Pod contains synthetic aperture radar that provides detailed maps for surveillance, coordinate generation and bomb impact assessment purposes. This technology provides Combat Air Forces with the ability to precisely geo-locate points of interest and conduct surveillance activities day or night, in adverse weather Army and Air Force Exchange Service "The Army & Air Force Exchange Service (the Exchange) has an enduring mission to provide quality merchandise and services to its customers at competitively low prices and to generate earnings which provide a dividend to support morale, welfare and recreation programs."ORGANIZATIONThe Exchange is a joint non-appropriated fund instrumentality of the MissionCarrying the largest conventional payload of both guided and unguided weapons in the Air Force inventory, the multi-mission B-1 is the backbone of America's long-range bomber force. It can rapidly deliver massive quantities of precision and non-precision weapons against any adversary, anywhere in the world, at any time.FeaturesThe B-1B's B-2 Spirit MissionThe B-2 Spirit is a multi-role bomber capable of delivering both conventional and nuclear munitions. A dramatic leap forward in technology, the bomber represents a major milestone in the U.S. bomber modernization program. The B-2 brings massive firepower to bear, in a short time, anywhere on the globe through previously impenetrable B-52H Stratofortress The B-52H Stratofortress is a long-range, heavy bomber that can perform a variety of missions. The bomber is capable of flying at high subsonic speeds at altitudes of up to 50,000 feet (15,166.6 meters). It can carry nuclear or precision guided conventional ordnance with worldwide precision navigation capability. BQM-167A Air Force Subscale Aerial Target Mission The BQM-167A is a high-performance, remotely-controlled subscale aerial target used to provide a threat-representative target drone to support the Air-to-Air Weapon System Evaluation Program and other Air Force and Department of Defense air-to-air test and evaluation programs. Features The BQM-167A, manufactured by Composite Engineering C-130 Hercules MissionThe C-130 Hercules primarily performs the tactical portion of the airlift mission. The aircraft is capable of operating from rough, dirt strips and is the prime transport for airdropping troops and equipment into hostile areas. The C-130 operates throughout the U.S. Air Force, serving with Air Mobility Command, Air Force Special Operations C-145A Mission The C-145A’s primary role is aircrew training for U.S. Special Operations Command’s Aviation Foreign Internal Defense mission to assess, train, advise and assist foreign aviation forces in airpower employment, sustainment and force integration. These mission sets are conducted by Air Force Special Operations Command’s Combat Aviation C-146A Wolfhound Mission The C-146A Wolfhound’s primary mission is to provide U.S. Special Operations Command flexible, responsive and operational movement of small teams needed in support of Theater Special Operations Commands. Airlift missions are conducted by Air Force Special Operations Command aircrews to prepared and semi-prepared airfields around the MissionThe C-17 Globemaster III is the most flexible cargo aircraft to enter the airlift force. The C-17 is capable of rapid strategic delivery of troops and all types of cargo to main operating bases or directly to forward bases in the deployment area. The aircraft can perform tactical airlift and airdrop missions and can transport litters and The C-20 was retired Aug. 30, 2017.Mission The C-20 is a twin-engine, turbofan aircraft acquired to fill the airlift mission for high-ranking government and Department of Defense officials. The 89th Airlift Wing, Joint Base Andrews, Md., operates five C-20Bs for worldwide special air missions. The 86th Airlift Wing, Ramstein Air Base, Germany, CV-22 Osprey MQ-1B Predator Sniper Pod Officer AFSC Classifications Enlisted AFSC Classifications	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line908
__label__wiki	0.859527	0.859527	WLDS What’s On Your Mind About WLDS-WEAI WLDS Schedule WEAI Schedule Weather Advisory EEOE Statement ALL STARS LET’S EAT! FAB FRIDAY’S Salvation Army Virtual Red Kettle Well-Known Jacksonville Resident Has Racial Slurs Yelled At Him While Delivering the Mail By Benjamin Cox on June 11, 2020 at 12:44pm Mick Walls drives the lane at a charity basketball game at The Bowl in 2016. Walls was first team All Conference in 1994 and a part of the Crimson squad that won the 2-A Regional Title that year. A Jacksonville Mail Carrier and well-known member of the Jacksonville community was recently accosted by individuals with racial slurs while on the job. Mick Walls, a star basketball player while at JHS in the mid-1990s, a former assistant basketball coach at MacMurray College, and a current member of the U.S. Postal Service said that 2 vehicles shouted racial slurs at him from vehicles on Monday afternoon while he was delivering mail in the southern part of Jacksonville. “It was just a normal day for me really. I was walking east on East Superior Avenue and crossed the street to head west in the 200 block of East Superior when a red truck pulled up right at the intersection of South Clay and East Superior. They cracked the window and yelled out the n-word at me. I just ignored it and kept on delivering the mail. It’s the norm for me, to have people walk by and just shout things at me or yelling hey. It’s not the first time someone has yelled the word at me, won’t be the last. I didn’t really think anything of it. About 20 or 30 minutes later, they came back around again on the corner of Goltra and East Superior and said it again. Then, I said to myself that they are taunting me, trying to rile me up. Literally, I saw a rock in a ditch and grabbed it and put it in my bag just in case. Then, I never saw them again.” Walls said a second vehicle got even more brazen and hateful with their taunts. “I’m still doing my route and I get around to Hardin Avenue. I’m in the 1000 block of Hardin getting ready to cross over Michigan. I’m at the house on the corner and there is a stop sign there. A white car pulls up and I didn’t think anything of it. They slowed down a little bit as I’m about to get in the mail truck and they just yell out ‘F-you people! F-Black Lives Matter! I hope they kill all of you!’ I’ve been with the postal service for the last two and a half years but as far as the magnitude of people yelling stuff like this, it’s a first.” Walls says it hasn’t been the first time he’s encountered racism on the job. Walls said he has spoken with the Jacksonville Police Department and the Civil Rights Division of the Springfield FBI about the description of the vehicles and possible criminal charges. He says that if authorities find out if it was juveniles doing the taunting in the incident, he wants to talk to them and that if it’s adults, they need to go to jail. Walls says that a similar event that happened to a 14 year old boy in Community Park on Tuesday evening, to his knowledge, isn’t connected to what happened to him on Monday afternoon. A red truck called the boy a sexual slur while he was jogging in the park alone. Walls says he and his fiancee have been happy with all the support they have received from the community after hearing about he incident. “This incident kind of makes it all real with what’s going on right now. However, I feel good about all the comments from everyone. I didn’t expect them to go like this. It just shows that there are people out here that care. They really try to understand and that’s a start. The love and support has been awesome. That’s why I always say that I’d be the first person to defend Jacksonville, and I know there are bad groups of people everywhere you go. You can’t blame the whole town for that.” Walls hopes that it helps keep conversation moving forward about labeling, profiling, and judgment. He hopes that his story helps people understand that racism is present in the community and that it can be stopped. Search WLDS © 2021 WLDS-WEAI	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line916
__label__wiki	0.556463	0.556463	Please upgrade your browser. Rudolf Steiner Archive & e.Lib Three Streams in the Evolution of Mankind Rudolf Steiner Archive & e.Lib Document [Prev] [Next] [Top] [Search] [Index] [Print] [Home] [Map] Version 3.0.1 [ Lecture: S-3574: 11th October, 1918 \| Dornach \| GA0184 \| DavyC ] Text Size: -A +A [ Buy from: Verlag \| Amazon ] Highlight Words Keywords Schmidt Number: S-3574 On-line since: 31st July, 2011 LECTURE FOUR You have come to know from the most diverse aspects that the evolution of modern man passed through a decisive moment in the fifteenth century, when the fifth post-Atlantean culture-epoch began. As we are well aware, this epoch received its special character from the entry of mankind into the development of the Consciousness Soul, [Sometimes translated “Spiritual Soul.”] whereas in the previous epoch, the Graeco-Roman, human evolution ran its course pre-eminently in the sphere of the Intellectual or Mind Soul. Now it is important that such a truth as this — that with the fifteenth century the age of the Consciousness Soul began — shall be taken not merely theoretically and in the abstract but with all possible earnestness in life, so that we have the will constantly to ask ourselves: What must be our attitude of soul, what must we do to this attitude of soul, in order to do full justice to the fact that we are living in the epoch of the development of the Consciousness Soul? The main point is that through this epoch of the Consciousness Soul mankind receives the impulse to strive consciously for certain conceptions that were not striven for consciously in earlier epochs. We know that among the many more or less important things with a bearing on this circumstance, we find the most important event ever enacted in earthly life — the Event of Golgotha. For we have often emphasised that the Event of Golgotha entered human evolution in such a way that its significance could not at first be grasped by the human soul in full consciousness; fully conscious comprehension can come only little by little. We have often emphasised that, by reason of forces well known to us, the inclination is always arising in man to lag behind in his evolution on the one hand, and on the other hand to overshoot his mark. Thus in cultural history we see numerous endeavours to retain the unconscious realisation of the Event of Golgotha, while applying to it as little as possible the development of consciousness that mankind is going through. Quite recently, in the sphere of a religious community, we have witnessed a struggle between the endeavour to maintain as far as possible only the traditional and unconscious relation to the Mystery of Golgotha, while Roman Catholic modernism has tried — though certainly with inadequate means — to claim equal validity for its endeavour to press on to a more conscious understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha. Opposition to the spiritual-scientific approach to the Mystery of Golgotha represents simply the striving of those who wish to keep the Mystery of Golgotha as much as possible in the unconscious regions of man's soul. If we wish to approach fruitfully the comprehension particularly necessary for the development of the Consciousness Soul, we must above all try to enlighten ourselves from the most varied aspects concerning man's own being — not by discussion but by getting our bearings from the facts. Let us therefore consider our epoch as much as possible in accordance with the facts; let us first pay attention to those facts which in the epoch of the Consciousness Soul are of special importance for its development. In these times, in the epoch of the Consciousness Soul, the scientific age is spoken of with great pride, even with real arrogance. In a certain sense those who speak thus have right on their side, for most educated people to-day are living in the scientific stream of the age. For it does not matter whether we think as modern botanists do about plants, zoologists about animals, anthropologists about man; nor does it matter how much we learn from anthropology, botany or zoology; what does matter is whether people form their thoughts about the world so that these are in line with scientific thinking. This line is followed to-day by most people who have any kind of schooling and are therefore not illiterate or nearly so. Thus the people whom we have to consider pursue a scientific kind of thinking, but that does not hinder many of them from diligently attending church to hear the sermon, or from being what is called religious, pious. Now just ask yourselves to what extent this religious piety is still working in the general life of men, even when they believe themselves to be pious or believe they should be. The religious feelings developed in any particular religious faith have extraordinarily little power to work into thoughts about the world. Everywhere to-day in external life, in the widest circles, thinking takes a scientific direction. Nowadays for most people religion is more or less a side line. One can indeed say that this modern epoch of the Consciousness Soul is proud even to arrogance of its scientific achievements and of the scientific kind of thinking that goes with it. And it adopts an attitude of condescension towards earlier ages. Just think with what feelings, what narrow-minded, self-satisfied feelings, the thoroughly modern man looks back on his forebears when referring to their belief in ghosts. There is no need to object to the assertion that our ancestors had this belief! They certainly had it. To-day we will take the statement — our ancestors believed in ghosts, but we are so clever that we no longer believe in them — and pay attention not so much to the idea it expresses as to the feeling it arouses in us — the feeling we have when we see how the present age passes judgment on our stupid ancestors who believed in ghosts and is sure that in this scientific age we have at last left all that behind. The statement that our forebears believed in ghosts is in itself a half-truth, and on that account extraordinarily dangerous; for half-truths are often more harmful than downright falsities, because a downright falsity can be easily detected, whereas half-truths haunt the world themselves like ghosts. It is indeed true that if we go back to the time before and after the Mystery of Golgotha, or further back to the third post-Atlantean culture-epoch, we find that people for the most part believed in ghosts, in demons, as I mentioned recently in the case of the great Tertullian. This is indeed so. But there is a still earlier epoch when men also talked of ghosts, but not in the sense that ghosts were believed in during the epochs just described. In the second and in the first post-Atlantean culture-epochs they spoke of ghosts, but they were conscious that the ghosts were visualised by their own minds, and were pictures of the spiritual world existing behind them. Thus for a long period men had conceptions of ghosts, but with the knowledge that behind these ghosts, seen as pictures, there was a spiritual world. In their conceptual world, with its ghostlike visualisations, they formed an image of the spiritual world. But then men more or less forgot the spiritual world, or perhaps we might say it disappeared from their vision; there remained mere pictures which were looked upon as realities, and from this there arose the superstition about ghosts which is the debased form of those earlier beliefs. Thus it may be said that the men of old developed their consciousness in such a way that they brought to development just those forces that were bestowed upon consciousness, and they instinctively limited themselves to having in their conceptions nothing but ghosts. In ancient times they pictured the Gods as ghosts, and later took the ghosts to be realities. Not that the ghosts were false: what was false was the attitude of men towards them. The fact that our forefathers conceived of ghosts, and that all such notions are superstition — this is taken for granted by modern man in his judgment on the people of former ages; he pats himself on the back and thinks he is very clever. He does not get as far as recognising that through ghosts, in still older times, people formed their conception of the spiritual world; for to-day it is not the spiritual world that interests people but the world of nature. The ability of modern men to form conceptions about nature makes them feel infinitely superior to their forefathers. But the age of the Consciousness Soul asks of us something different from what our forefathers could do; we must be clear what it is that we actually have in our outlook on nature. Now as strictly modern, self-satisfied men, enlightened, clever men, out of our consciousness we form conceptions about nature. But when we take this whole world of conceptions about nature and test it, test it without prejudice — well, then we find that we have the conceptions, certainly, but with these conceptions we are unable to lay hold of nature. There are, as people say, limits to our knowledge of nature. I have often cited a present-day philosopher, little known by his writings, who has said openly many things that others have not said, because they have not gone so deeply into the matter. I am speaking of Richard Wahle, who has written two big books and all manner of small ones. One of the larger books, published in the eighties, was called The Whole of Philosophy and its End, and a few years ago he wrote The Mechanism of the Human Spirit. This Richard Wahle might be called a spokesman of the men of to-day; in fact we could say that as Richard Wahle thinks, so do all those who find their way about in life through natural science. They think as he does, but he carries things to their logical conclusion, and so in him we have the strange and flagrant case of a Professor of Philosophy who wrote a large tome about the end of philosophy — a tome in which he sought to prove, out of the scientific method of thinking, that there ought to be no such thing as philosophy. In his book, The Mechanism of the Human Spirit, this Professor of Philosophy, this philosophical author, expresses himself about his fellow-philosophers in the most singular way. This is approximately what he says. — Philosophers and philosophy resemble a restaurant in which formerly there used to be cooks and waiters preparing unappetising food and handing it to their patrons; now the cooks and waiters stand about with absolutely nothing to do. Thus, this cook, or waiter, or philosopher, says that formerly philosophy was to be compared with a restaurant where indigestible foods were concocted and served by cooks and waiters — the colleagues of our professor — and that now things have come to such a pass that not even indigestible foods are cooked any longer by the philosopher-cooks, and the cooks and waiters just stand around. Naturally, since our author is a cook, waiter, or philosopher of this kind, he must appear to himself as standing quite uselessly around. In his two books, then, he has set himself, as he thinks, a final task: henceforth there should be no more philosophers, he is to be the last. This is the deeper meaning of his books. He is to be the last philosopher, for he has set himself this task ... now how is this to be explained? Richard Wahle as waiter or cook among other waiters and cooks who have formerly concocted indigestible food, and now have nothing whatever to do except with other cooks and waiters to concoct a poison which will be the end of them all — this is an extraordinarily interesting spectacle! When we accustom ourselves to studying symptomatically the development of history, we find this to be a symptom of the times which is worthy of our attention. For this philosopher is quick-witted and deeply imbued with the problems of scientific thinking. Now I am quite convinced that the majority of you, on taking up these books, would very soon put them down again; for they are written in the learned language of modern philosophers and this language has a terminology unintelligible to those who are not versed in it — they first have to learn it. Nevertheless, whoever can cope with this language knows, or can know, that concealed in these books there is an immense amount of ingenuity of the kind that is possible to-day, and that in their painfully roundabout style there lies a kind of prophetic knowledge — though this should certainly be cultivated in a way quite different from his. However, we might perhaps say that this characteristic passion of his, to get to work on concocting the poison I spoke of for the other cooks and waiters, bears witness to the inner activity of this knowledge; otherwise, as an established Professor of Philosophy, he would never have said: Man has no more wisdom than an animal and is differentiated from the animal only by the fact that the animal lacks the mental capacity to seek after wisdom; man does indeed seek after wisdom and is therefore rational because he has a foreshadowing of something he is unable to acquire. These words are symptomatic of important knowledge — knowledge of a more or less negative character, knowledge about present-day natural science. This natural science is meant to treat of nature; it is meant in a certain sense to bring home nature to modern consciousness in a conceptual way. If, however, we look around at these conceptions, which to-day are formed about nature in the most learned way, we find, curiously enough, that human consciousness is merely inventing ghosts; but whereas the people of old invented ghosts to represent the Gods, to-day they are invented to represent the facts of nature. For what modern men conceive as natural science is related to nature as a ghost is related to reality. It was indeed divined by Richard Wahle that the age of the Consciousness Soul had come to this conclusion: We are not after all so superior to our forefathers; they used the forces of consciousness and formed conceptions of ghosts; we too form conceptions of ghosts. The only difference is that they had more beautiful ghosts than those invented by scientific thinkers, which, to speak the truth, are a horrible weaving in abstract concepts. But they are ghosts, just as the ghosts pictured by our forefathers were ghosts. And these ghosts of natural science are related to reality, this ghostly natural science itself is related to reality, in the same way as the ghosts of old were related to divine reality. Now it behoves this age of the Consciousness Soul to realise that this is so — that living in conceptions is really living with ghosts. In this age of the Consciousness Soul it is extraordinarily important for man to face this significant fact. The men of old did not live in the age of the Consciousness Soul; hence they had no need to be aware that they were forming conceptions of ghosts. Our natural scientists also form conceptions of ghosts, but in this age of the Consciousness Soul it is our task to know that we also are forming conceptions of ghosts — not conceptions of nature but only of ghosts of nature. And as our forefathers were preceded by their own remote forefathers, who took ghosts to be images of divine activity, images of super-sensible intelligence and not real in themselves, so by virtue of this age of the Consciousness Soul we have once more to rise again to a recognition of the truth: to recognise that our scientific ghosts have not the reality ascribed to them by modern scientists, but are only pointers to a reality which is to be sought through them. If we are deceived by the ghostly nature of natural science, we can never come to any clear knowledge of man. With our ghostly conceptions we are still able to perceive nature, for nature appears before our eyes in her true form; as to man himself, in the age of the Consciousness Soul we have to experience him consciously. It will not do to apply merely ghostly conceptions to man, for then we turn ourselves into ghosts. This has indeed happened to a very large extent. The theory of evolution, Goethe's theory of evolution, is not wrong; it takes the right direction because it wishes to grasp man in his reality. The materialistic theory of evolution, with its Darwinian colouring, talks of man's descent from the animals. The truth, however, is this — there is something in us which originates in the animals, or at least has a common origin with the animals, yet this is not what we are as human beings; it is the ghost that natural science takes for man. Science turns man also into a ghost because it knows him only as a ghostly phenomenon, and then it asks: Whence comes this ghost? When we reach the point of recognising that it is not man but only his ghost that can be dealt with in the manner of modern science, then in this sphere we shall reach the truth. You will surely be ready to admit that you would never have come here had you sent only Homunculus, the ghost, which is the conception of yourselves forced upon you by natural science. And if only the Homunculi who represent you in your consciousness were here, I should not be able to speak to them! You carry real human beings here with you, but not in your consciousness. The age of the Consciousness Soul, however, has to raise into consciousness the real man. From Homunculus he must rise to man. If this were not to come about, man would get to the point of experiencing the polaric opposite of his ghostly being. The men of old did conceive of themselves as ghosts, it is true, but they could also receive the reality because atavistic forces were still active in them, whereas into the men of to-day there can enter only what comes through the Consciousness Soul; and when in the Consciousness Soul man has only the ghost of himself, moral spiritual impulses cannot get through. And when you perceive the accompanying phenomena of a ghostly natural science, then you find that this modern age, with its ghostly natural science, will never allow that impulses for moral action come down from the spiritual world. The moral impulses with which men work to-day are of primeval origin, springing from times when atavistic forces were still strong; for people to-day, when impulses for action arise, will not ask the spirit, they will only ask nature: What is the nature of man? What kind of driving forces are there in human nature? It is terrible how in these days men are willing only to question nature — and of nature they can know only its ghost. Hence the reality becomes oppressively active in the unconscious, demanding entrance into consciousness, for we live in the epoch of the Consciousness Soul. Thus I have made clear to you something important in the situation we are facing to-day. I have led you to see how it is that men form ghostly conceptions of nature, while scientific experimenters are found on all sides. ... Then a man in his reality appears before them, and the scientists study him. But the ghostly concepts of natural science are inadequate for this; hence the scientists are observers not of man, but only of his ghost — psycho-analysts. Psycho-analysis is the unmistakable child of a ghostly natural science; thus I always speak of psycho-analysis as working with inadequate means. At this point we may ask: How has this situation come about? It has come about through the pattern of events which has taken shape in earthly evolution, causing a quite definite relation between the primeval evolution of man and the two side-streams, the Ahrimanic and the Luciferic. I have shown you the normal evolution from diverse aspects, and then the two side-streams — the Luciferic flowing into earthly life in the Lemurian period, the Ahrimanic in the Atlantean. Thus they are within human evolution, these three streams, and all that happens in the evolution of mankind is under their influence. As a consequence of all that goes with these streams, human evolution as a whole came to an important crossroads in a certain definite year. During this year the three streams flowed together into a critical conjunction which was concealed only by a confusion in outer conditions, so that only the confusion was seen but not what was actually happening. This critical point occurred about 666 years after the Mystery of Golgotha. At that time — 666 years after the birth of Christ — something was due to happen and could have happened, but did not happen. The reason why it did not happen you will now hear. In the year 666 there could have come — visibly for ordinary people, particularly for men of the West — an important being who would not have entered the physical plane, but would have made himself very clearly perceptible to mankind even in an external way, so that they would have become his victims. Had this being appeared in the form he intended, we should not be writing 1918 to-day but 1918 minus 666, or 1252; for this being would have inspired men in such a way that they would have regulated their chronology accordingly. Had he been able to appear according to plan, this being would have brought about something very strange. Now the matter is like this: 333 years earlier, or 333 years after Christ, we have exactly the middle of the fourth post-Atlantean epoch; the middle, that is, of the Graeco-Latin epoch. Now you can do this sum: it begins with 747 B.C. and ends with 1413; this makes 2,160 years, as it should. Take half 2,160 years and you get 1,080 years, so that 1,080 years since 747 B.C. had gone past by the middle of the post-Atlantean epoch. Take away 747 and you have 333, so that the year 333 of our era was the middle of the Graeco-Roman epoch. It was not before the Mystery of Golgotha, this mid-point, but after. It signifies the highest possible reality but not an external reality, because in external reality the two other streams flow in. If, however, evolution had proceeded in a straight line, without the side-streams flowing in, then 747 would have been the true centre and it would have been the zenith of the epoch of the Intellectual or Mind Soul. The Intellectual or Mind Soul would then have reached its highest degree of external development: But it did not come about like that, because in a certain sense the serpent was already at work, having planned to apply in 666 — 333 years later — a quite definite procedure to human evolution. The intention of this being, the Sorat, the Beast — who had fully developed the Consciousness Soul, whereas man had reached only the age of the Intellectual or Mind Soul — was to bestow prematurely on men all the soul-spiritual achievements unobtainable through the Intellectual or Mind Soul, and within reach only of the Consciousness Soul. In effect, the culture-epoch of the Consciousness Soul was to come prematurely to man. According to world conditions, 666 was the most favourable point of time for this; the Sorat would then have been able to exercise such influence upon the earth that he could have said: “I am now teaching men everything they will ever be able to gain through the Consciousness Soul. Little by little I am pouring into man now, in the epoch of the Intellectual or Mind Soul, all that the other gods, whom I oppose, wish to give him only in the next culture-epoch.” An unjustified mingling of the Intellectual or Mind Soul with the Consciousness Soul was the object in view. It would hardly have been possible to bring the content of the Consciousness Soul into the Intellectual or Mind Soul in the case of every man, for naturally men were at various stages of evolution; but in the case of a great number the attempt might have met with success, in the following way. When this being had reached his aim, a number of geniuses would have arisen, particularly among educated people in the West. For geniuses they would have been — just think of the middle of the epoch which began in 1413; when you add half a culture-epoch — 1,080 years — to 1413, you get 2493. The knowledge that in the normal way men will have in 2493 would have sprouted up in 666, not indeed in men as they then were by nature, but through prophetic imagination inspired with the forces of genius, and would have revealed itself to unsuspecting Western peoples. Remarkable phenomena were planned. If you consider the scientific ideals of to-day and hear people describing the wonderful progress made in recent decades ... just think what sort of picture these people could form of humanity in 2493, when in 1918 they are already so clever! People would not have built machines and so on, would not have made experiments, would not have gone the slow way ... with the forces of genius they would have foreseen everything and would also have created much. This year 666 was intended to deluge humanity with a knowledge and a culture which the primal gods had intended for men only during the third millennium. It cannot be conceived — need not be conceived — into what situation the so-called civilised world would have come if it had been deluged with this wisdom in the year 666! With their lack of self-discipline people would have come utterly to grief. For go to your history books and see what they say about man's unbalanced mood of soul in 666, and you will get some idea of how people would then have behaved if in this way genius had come among them. They have indeed brought things to a wonderful pass in what they have developed up to the year 1914 ... whatever would have become of them had they been deluged with all this wisdom of the Beast? It was nevertheless planned by certain higher spirits, particularly by a being of Ahrimanic nature who was to lead these spirits, that this being should appear, even if not on the physical plane — but he was to appear. This had to be prevented. However many people there are who believe that nothing of this kind that can be given to mankind should be withheld, it had to be prevented, because it did not belong to human evolution in the spiritual sense. It could be prevented by the establishing of balance. Now, consider: 333 was the mid-point of the fourth post-Atlantean epoch; 333 years after that brings us to 666, when the Ahrimanic powers in all their strength would have brought to a climax the whole pride of materialism, but through the forces of genius. A state of balance could be maintained only by the appearance 333 years earlier — that is, at the beginning of our era — of that Being who threw into the balance His own substance, and prevented that being of whom I have spoken from appearing 333 years after 333. There you have one side of the scales — from 333 to 666 is 333 years. Here you have the other side bringing about equilibrium — from 333 back to the Mystery of Golgotha. Thus a state of balance was brought about. Thereby something has been enacted behind the scenes of external profane history. Something that could have happened was prevented by an actual event — which, however, as I have lately explained, can be grasped only with super-sensible forces, because for earthly evolution the whole proceeding was of super-sensible significance. What, then, was meant to happen from 666 on, if the Mystery of Golgotha had not occurred and the Beast of that time had been able to intervene in the evolution of mankind; what could have happened? You will be able to form some idea of what might have happened if you think over what I have just been describing. Men were hurrying on towards the fifteenth century; if the Beast had gone on stirring up mischief among men from 666 until the fifteenth century, he would by then have gained complete control of what was approaching. What was approaching was the grasping of the world through a ghost-like natural science — and with that the unleashing of human instincts. Because the Consciousness Soul was to grasp man as a mere ghost, the real man lagged behind; he did not understand himself. And in the age of the Consciousness Soul man can become man only by becoming conscious of what he is; otherwise he remains an animal, lags behind in his human evolution. But the aim of the being who hoped to intervene in 666 was to make himself God. He said: “Men will come who no longer direct their gaze to the Spirit — the Spirit will not interest them. I shall see to it (and this he actually brought about) that in the year 869 a Council will be held in Constantinople at which the Spirit will be abolished. Men will no longer be interested in the Spirit; they will turn their attention to nature and form ghostlike concepts of nature. Then I shall do something that men will not notice, because they will not recognise themselves as real men, only as ghosts. I shall get complete control of the Consciousness Soul. I shall lead men astray about their own nature; I shall let them go on grasping only the ghost of themselves and I shall pour all the wisdom of the Consciousness Soul into their Intellectual or Mind Soul. Then I have them — then I shall have caught them.” What would that signify? If man is to evolve at all normally, with no further intervention from this being, he will have to progress to Spirit-Self, Life-Spirit, Spirit-Man; and of this possibility he would have been absolutely deprived. He would have remained at the stage of the Consciousness Soul; he would have been able to receive what the earth could give him but never to go on to the Jupiter, Venus and Vulcan evolutions. If he succeeds in acquiring the content of the Consciousness Soul in the proper epoch through his primal forces, then, because of the evolution he will have gone through in the normal way, the predisposition will be in him to rise to Spirit-Self and so on. But that was to be prevented. He was to receive the Consciousness Soul with its content into the Intellectual or Mind Soul as an inoculation. Then he would have remained at the stage of the Consciousness Soul, and he would have been an automaton in face of the knowledge that from the sixth epoch onwards would have been poured into him. But then it would have been all over with him: he would have developed no further. He would have drawn this knowledge into his Consciousness Soul, would have placed it all with the utmost egoism at the service of the Consciousness Soul. That was the intention of the being who wanted to appear in 666 — to cut off the possibility of all future earthly evolution. After the evolutions of Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth had run their course, evolution was to be finished; man would have gone no further along the path on which those Beings of the higher Hierarchies wished to accompany him who from the beginning have taken his normal human evolution in hand. This could be prevented only by this balance, this state of equilibrium, flowing into the world-evolution of man; by the fact that Christ intervened, through the Mystery of Golgotha, at the point in time which lay as far behind the middle of the fourth post-Atlantean epoch as the point of time when the Beast wished to intervene lay ahead. You see what connections are concealed behind the maya of externally apparent facts. In the epoch of the Consciousness Soul the essential thing is for men to be enlightened about such matters — to become conscious of them. Just think — we are involved in what could be brought about only through the Beast being put in chains by Christ Jesus, as an Epistle expresses it. It is a most remarkable fact that in this Epistle of Barnabas [See Excluded Books of the New Testament (published by Eveleigh Nash and Grayson, London). The relevant passage occurs in Section 4 (p. 214) of The Epistle of Barnabas, translated by Bishop Lightfoot. In the Introduction to this collection of early Christian documents, J. Armitage Robinson, D.D., refers to four books (of which The Epistle of Barnabas is one) as being “so near to the possibility of being included in the Canon of the New Testament that they are actually found in one or other of two of our earliest manuscripts of the whole Greek Bible.” The text of The Epistle of Barnabas is included at the end of the Sinaitic Codex (fourth century).], looked upon as genuine in many early editions of the New Testament but judged as apocryphal by the Western Church, there is an indication of this most important fact of Christ holding the Beast in balance. Certain circles knew very well what needed to be withheld from Western man if an increasing knowledge of the Christ Mysteries was to be prevented from passing into the Consciousness Soul. If you take what I have said to-day, you will not be surprised that the writer of the Apocalypse speaks of this rather heatedly. What I have said to-day from the temporal aspect you can easily connect with what I have said about the Beast of 666 from other aspects — these matters are always given light from various directions. You know we have to do this. The writer of the Apocalypse expresses himself with a certain vehemence in the passage where he speaks of the appearance of the Beast, and he uses approximately these words: The number of the Beast is 666 and it is the number of a man. Or, put better: It is the number of the man, the man who struggles against saying “Not I, but Christ in me.” These things must become ever more conscious for men, since men have now entered upon the epoch of the Consciousness Soul. If you will only take the facts as they come before you to-day! Do not just criticise them pedantically; take them as a challenge to real activity — but consider how it would be if you were to speak of such things to the clever people of to-day in the way we have just been doing. Suppose you were to sit down with one of these very clever people, a shining light in some sphere or other, and you told him about a matter of this sort — imagine what sort of opinion he would form! But take in real earnest the picture you must make for yourselves, and you will have to say: We have certainly entered the age of human evolution in which one meets with the least understanding when speaking of the spiritual knowledge most suited to this particular age. I might say that never have two parties in the world understood each other so little as do the spiritual and the non-spiritual to-day. Those who are spiritual can certainly understand the non-spiritual; that is not particularly difficult; but the non-spiritual defend themselves with all the weapons they have — especially with their tongues — against any understanding of the spiritual. Now these facts should not astonish us, for other things too are out of harmony to-day, and our age is the age of great disharmonies, great discrepancies, with opposing sides coming into direct conflict. If nowadays some article on the matters that are lectured about here comes into the hands of a man who is numbered among the “clever” folk, he will say: “It is remarkable to find all this appearing in our time; it is quite out of keeping with the present day.” For he considers that his own outlook is the only one suited to the limes; anything else he regards as out of place. To-morrow and the day after we shall be discussing how all this, if it does not harmonise with the sense-world, is nevertheless in harmony with the super-sensible. There are other things, however, in these days which are out of harmony — you need only bring a serious study of life to bear on some of the descriptive accounts, reflective accounts, which tell you how in this twentieth century mankind has come such a wonderfully long way in humane feeling and understanding between peoples! From the beginning of the century you will find high-sounding articles — whole books — on these lines, written with unction and heavily sugared, so that a properly progressive man of to-day could take in this picture of his times as though he were tasting honey. There are indeed such descriptions, innumerable descriptions, of how splendidly far mankind has progressed! Well — compare all this with the last four years, ask whether it is all sweet harmony. All this springs from the fear men have at the entry into the Consciousness Soul. For if we are really to enter into the epoch of the Consciousness Soul, many truths about human evolution will have to emerge. In the most important matters to-day so much folly is shown just because men are full of fear; because everyone should be speaking with conscious awareness, and that is just what they do not want to do. [Prev] [Next] [Top] [Search] [Index] [Print] [Home] [Map] [ Make Corrections \| Help ] Last Modified: 06-Jan-2021 The Rudolf Steiner Archive is maintained by: The e.Librarian: elibrarian@elib.com Please upgrade your browser.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line917
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__label__wiki	0.624375	0.624375	Tag Archives: “tea party” movement Partial book review: ‘Wingnuts’ This book sucks ass, as does its author. I did my best, but I was able to get only to page 18. Trying to buck the criticism that those of us on the left never expose ourselves to views on the right (and vice-versa), I recently bought a copy of John Avlon’s Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe Is Hijacking America. I like and I often use the term “wingnut” myself, and I bought Avlon’s book even though he (incorrectly) redefines the term “wingnut” to include those on either far side of the political ideology spectrum. (Actually, the commonly accepted meaning of the term “wingnut” is an individual who is to the far right, and the term “moonbat” would be applied to one on the far left.) Despite the fact that I disagree with Avlon’s retooling of the vernacular to suit his own purposes, and despite the fact that his book puts Keith Olbermann on its cover with Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin — a strikingly false equivalency — I bought his book at full cover price. Can you say “buyer’s remorse”? After several pages of reading Avlon’s false equivalencies — for instance, he implies that what he calls “Bush Derangement Syndrome” was/is anything like what he calls “Obama Derangement Syndrome,” which we have been witnessing for some time now* — I finally had to literally toss Avlon’s book aside when, on page 18, I read Avlon refer to the democratically elected Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as “Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez.” I mean, as U.S. Sen. Al Franken has put it, you are entitled to your own opinions, but not to your own facts. Hugo Chavez has been elected and re-elected by a strong majority of Venezuela’s voters and he has the support of a strong majority of the people of Venezuela. Chavez has been clamping down on his right-wing political opposition (who did, after all, illegally and treasonously attempt to overthrow him in 2002), and Venezuela needs to be monitored for human rights abuses (just as every nation does, and nothing has gone on in Venezuela under Chavez’s watch that has even approached what happened at the Abu Ghraib House of Horrors or at the Guantanamo Bay Concentration Camp during the eight long nightmarish years of rule by the unelected Bush regime). But Hugo Chavez is far away from having earned the title of “dictator.” To call Chavez a “dictator” isn’t just against my belief that a nation’s government should work for the benefit of the most number of the nation’s people instead of for the benefit of the minority plutocrats and corporatocrats, as Chavez believes, but it is blatantly factually incorrect, and I can’t handle “non-fiction” books containing such glaring factual errors. Nor does Avlon bother to explain why he uses the term “dictator” — he just throws it out there for no other apparent reason than that the members of the Bush regime (and George W. Bush, never having been legitimately elected, having started a bogus war that has cost thousands upon thousands of lives and billions upon billions of dollars, having shit and pissed all over the U.S. Constitution, and having left the nation in much, much worse shape than he got it, certainly comes closer to the dictionary definition of “dictator” than does Chavez ) and their allies at FOX “News” falsely called Chavez a “dictator” for several years. (To the right wing you are a “dictator,” you see, if you refuse to kiss U.S. corporate ass and refuse to surrender your nation’s natural resources and other wealth to U.S. corporations; that you have been democratically elected by your people is irrelevant to the democracy-hating, election-stealing right wing.) But Avlon already demonstrates, before he calls Hugo Chavez a “dictator,” that he’s no more than a smug pretty boy who is posing as an expert on politics. About all that he points to, in the 18 pages that I was able to stomach, in order to exemplify the far left or the far right are some examples of some political figure, usually George W. Bush or Barack Obama, being compared to Adolf Hitler. Ooooo! Insightful! However, while skimming through his book, I noted that apparently anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan is a “wingnut”** for having stood up against the Bush regime’s bogus Vietraq War that killed her son — a war that the majority of Americans now acknowledge, fucking finally, was a bogus war. Hmmm… A woman’s young son is killed for non-existent weapons of mass destruction, Dick Cheney’s Halliburton profits obscenely in that bogus war (as do the BushCheneyCorp’s other oily subsidiaries), and because she has the gall to protest her son’s pointless death, that makes Sheehan a “wingnut,” according to Avlon, who, I take it, hasn’t had a loved one killed in the Vietraq War or ever even been in harm’s way himself. Overall, Avlon reminds me of a lazy, mediocre parent or teacher who witnesses two children fighting, and, because he doesn’t want to bother to try to figure out what they’re fighting about — and whether one child might actually be in the right and the other child might actually be in the wrong — he labels both fighting children as equally guilty. There. Done with it. Why bother to unravel the facts? And why take sides? Except that the real world is so much more complex than that, and our crumbling democracy didn’t really need another book put out there to tell people that instead of closely examining the facts and taking a principled stand on important issues based upon the facts, they need to just join the mushy middle, because obviously there’s no difference between the impassioned right and the impassioned left (or, as Avlon calls everyone who isn’t a milquetoast, apolitical, apathetic sleepwalker, the “wingnuts”). To give just one of many possible demonstrations of how Avlon shills a false equivalency between the right and the left, right now, as I type this sentence, a book incredibly titled The Manchurian President: Barack Obama’s Ties to Communists, Socialists and Other Anti-American Extremists incredibly is No. 13 — thirteen — on amazon.com’s top 100-selling books list. When does a moonbat title like that ever get that far on any of the mainstream best-selling books lists? Further, I know that many of us on the left had at least some fear of possible retribution for our outspokenness against the unelected, mass-murdering Bush regime — the Bush regime was, after all, engaging in the illegal surveillance of American citizens in the name of “national security,” and the Abu Ghraib House of Horrors and the Guantanamo Bay Concentration Camp certainly demonstrated for us where the Bush regime stood on human rights — yet here is a book out calling President Obama a “Manchurian president,” and I don’t sense that the wingnuts (the right-wing kind) have any real fear of retribution from the Obama administration for their publishing, promoting or purchasing a book thus titled. And that’s because historically, dictators and tyrants — the kind who, unlike Hugo Chavez, actually steal elections, rule against the wishes of the majority of the ruled, and who actually torture and murder their political opponents — predominantly have been right-wingers, not left-wingers. (The right-wing Chilean Augusto Pinochet, for example, was a dictator.) The wingnuts (my definition of the term, not Avlon’s) attack Obama unreservedly because they know that those on the left only rarely use what I might call, a la Dick Cheney, the “enhanced” tactics used by those on the right against their political opponents. Paradoxically, if Obama truly were the tyrant the wingnuts say he is, they probably wouldn’t be calling him a “tyrant” or a “Manchurian president” or the like — because if he truly were that, he just might retaliate against them. As far as “Obama Derangement Syndrome” is concerned, it’s far more virulent and widespread than “Bush Derangement Syndrome” ever was. Not only did anti-Bush books not sell nearly as well as anti-Obama books sell today, but there was no “tea-party”-like “movement” formed by the left in response to Bush. The closest thing to the left’s “tea party” that I can think of is MoveOn.org, which, compared to the den of vipers that comprise the tea party, is a den of garter snakes. And while the minimum that we factually can say about the 2000 presidential election is that George W. Bush was made president in late 2000 under circumstances that were shady at best, and that in November 2000 he captured only 47.9 percent of the popular vote to Democrat Al Gore’s 48.4 percent, and that he was “re”-elected by only 50.7 percent of the popular vote in 2004, Barack Obama won 52.9 percent of the popular vote in November 2008, a better showing at the polls than “President” Bush ever had, yet far more people have questioned Obama’s presidential legitimacy than questioned Bush’s, even though Bush’s presidential legitimacy was much, much more questionable than Obama’s ever has been. If you are a right-wing white guy from an oily, rich family, you can “win” the White House without having won the most number of votes (by “winning” the pivotal state of which your brother conveniently is governor, with a little help from that state’s top elections official who also sat on that state’s committee to elect you, and with a lot of help from the recount-quashing U.S. Supreme Court). And that kind of shit is perfectly OK. But if you’re a black guy, you’re considered illegitimate even if you did better in your presidential election than the last white guy did in his two presidential elections. (But nooooo, racism is dead in the United States of Amnesia!) For Avlon to make the false equivalency between the far left and the far right — to lump everyone who feels strongly about politics together as “wingnuts” — isn’t only grossly inaccurate, but it’s dangerous to our already endangered, dumbed-down democracy. If you want to read a real book that’s worth your money, read Susan Jacoby’s The Age of American Unreason, now available in paperback. Pay close attention to her chapter on “junk thought” — a term that describes John Avlon’s book to a “T”. Avlon defines “Obama Derangement Syndrome” as “Pathological hatred of President Obama, posing as patriotism,” and “Bush Derangement Syndrome” more or less as a visceral aversion to George W. Bush, of which I myself have been afflicted. On page 189, Avlon quotes Sheehan as — gasp! — having called George W. Bush a “bigger terrorist than Osama bin Laden.” Actually, it’s a fucking fact that Bush is reponsible for the unnecessary deaths of tens of thousands of people, including tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians and more than 4,000 of our troops, in his bogus Vietraq War — which is far more people than Osama bin Laden is responsible for having slaughtered on September 11, 2001, which was fewer than 3,000 people. And if we can call bin Laden a terrorist for having masterminded the slaughter of so many innocents, why can’t we call Bush & Co. terrorists for having masterminded the slaughter of so many more innocents? Why the fucking double standard? Tagged as "Bush Derangement Syndrome", "Obama Derangement Syndrome", "tea party" movement, "The Age of American Unreason", "The Manchurian President", "Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe Is Hijacking America", Abu Ghraib, Adolf Hitler, Augusto Pinochet, Barack Obama, book review, Cindy Sheehan, Dick Cheney, dictator, dictatorship, George W. Bush, Glenn Beck, Guantanamo Bay, Hugo Chavez, John Avlon, junk thought, Keith Olbermann, left wing, moonbat, moonbats, MoveOn.org, right wing, Sarah Palin, Susan Jacoby, wingnut, wingnuts, wingnuttery Assorted shit Majority of Americans trust the ‘community organizer’ on nukes According to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll that was taken within the past few days, a whopping 70 percent of the 1,000-plus Americans polled believe that the U.S. Senate should ratify the nuclear arms nonproliferation treaty that U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev recently signed. Only 28 percent in the poll — I think that you could safely label most of them as the tea-baggin’ kind — said that the Senate should not ratify the treaty. (Of course, I surmise that at least some 0f those 28 percent believe that the treaty doesn’t go far enough in eliminating nuclear arms, which is why they oppose its ratification.) The same poll also asked which is more preferable: “the elimination of all nuclear arms in the world — or for a few major countries, including the United States, to have enough nuclear arms so [that] no country would dare attack them.” A full 50 percent said that the elimination of all nuclear arms is preferable, 49 percent said that a few major nations should be able to have nukes, and only 1 percent weren’t sure. (However, almost three-fourths of the poll’s respondents stated that they believe that the total elimination of nukes is impossible.) I think it’s important to know what public opinion actually is when hearing the minority tea-baggin’ wingnuts bark that President Obama is out of touch with the majority of Americans on nuclear arms policy. Catholick church still refuses contrition on child sex abuse This is priceless: The Associated Press reports today that The Vatican [today] responded to allegations it long concealed clerical sex abuse by making it clear for the first time that bishops and clerics worldwide should report such crimes to police if they are required to by law. Key word there: “if.” Not because it’s the right thing to do — but if it’s required by law. And the language leaves plenty of wiggle room to let sexually abusive priests and other Catholick officials off the hook, because the church can claim that it had no knowledge that a crime definitely had been committed — and that a merely suspected crime doesn’t have to be reported to police. Oh, well. At least it’s nice to hear the Vatican actually admit that it is actually accountable to someone instead of only to some non-existent “God.” Don’t sing hallefuckinglujah yet, though. The Vatican still isn’t done blaming the child sex abuse that has riddled the Catholick church on others. The Associated Press also reports today: Santiago, Chile – The Vatican’s second-highest authority says the sex scandals haunting the Roman Catholic Church are linked to homosexuality and not celibacy among priests. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s secretary of state, made the comments during a news conference [today] in Chile, where one of the church’s highest-profile pedophile cases involves a priest having sex with young girls. “Many psychologists and psychiatrists have demonstrated that there is no relation between celibacy and pedophilia. But many others have demonstrated, I have been told recently, that there is a relation between homosexuality and pedophilia. That is true,” said Bertone. “That is the problem.” His comments drew angry reactions from Chile’s gay rights advocates. “Neither Bertone nor the Vatican has the moral authority to give lessons on sexuality,” said Rolando Jimenez, president of the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation in Chile. Jimenez also said no reputable study exists to support the cardinal’s claims. “This is a perverse strategy by the Vatican to shirk its own ethical and legal responsibility by making a spurious and disgusting connection,” he said. At least one of the highest-profile pedophiles in the Chilean church victimized young girls, including a teenager who became pregnant…. I am one of millions of gay men around the world who aren’t willing to be burned at the stake by the Catholick church for its own institutional sins. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: FUCK THE CATHOLICK CHURCH. Its demise is long, long overdue. Like the ‘tea-partiers’ need help with that… I love this AP news story from today (so here it is in full [with my comments in brackets]): Albany, N.Y. – Opponents of the fiscally conservative tea party movement say they plan to infiltrate and dismantle the political group by trying to make its members appear to be racist, homophobic and moronic. [Um, “fiscally conservative”? The vast majority of these “tea-partying” dipshits didn’t make a fucking peep when the unelected Bush regime sank hundreds of billions of taxpayers’ dollars into Vietraq for Dick Cheney’s war-profiteering Halliburton and the other war-profiteering subsidiaries of BushCheneyCorp.] Jason Levin, creator of crashtheteaparty.org, said [today] the group has 65 leaders in major cities across the country who are trying to recruit members to infiltrate tea party events for April 15 — tax filing day, when tea party groups across the country are planning to gather and protest high taxes. “Every time we have someone on camera saying that Barack Obama isn’t an American citizen, we want someone sitting next to him saying, ‘That’s right, he’s an alien from outer space!'” Levin said. Tea party members said the backlash comes from ignorance. “They can’t actually debate our message and that’s their problem,” said Bob MacGuffie, a Connecticut organizer for Right Principles, a tea party group that also has members in New York and New Jersey. The tea party movement generally unites on the fiscally conservative principles of small government, lower taxes and less spending. Beyond that the ideology of the people involved tends to vary dramatically. Levin says they want to exaggerate the group’s least appealing qualities, further distance the tea party from mainstream America and damage the public’s opinion of them. “Do I think every member of the tea party is a homophobe, racist or a moron? No, absolutely not,” Levin said. “Do I think most of them are homophobes, racists or morons? Absolutely.” The site manifesto says they want to dismantle the tea party by nonviolent means. “We have already sat quietly in their meetings, and observed their rallies,” the site said. Another tea party organizer said the attempt to destroy the movement was evidence its message is resonating. “We’ve been ignored, we’ve been ridiculed. Well, now they’re coming after us,” said Judy Pepenella, a co-coordinator for the New York State Tea Party. “Gandhi’s quote is one we understand: ‘First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win.'” Oh, my, where to begin? Gandhi, himself a victim of racism, would have supported the “tea party” “movement”? Really? And do the “tea party” fucktards really need any help in appearing to be “racist, homophobic and moronic”? Aren’t they doing that well enough on their own? If the “tea party” dipshits need to tell themselves that the planned infiltration of their April 15 protests by sane Americans is because the latter “can’t actually debate [the “tea party” dipshits’] message,” let them. We opponents of the “tea party” not only can debate the “tea party’s” “message” — a huge part of which is of racism, white supremacism, xenophobia, militarism, jingoism, homophobia, misogyny, patriarchy and “Christo”fascism — but we do. All the time. And our goal, for the record, is to prevent the creeping fascism that the “tea party” dipshits represent. They wrap themselves in the American flag and in the Shroud of Turin when their real goal is to unravel years of progress made by liberated women and by historically oppressed minority groups and to impose their Taliban-like “Christo”fascism on every American. My only problem with the infiltration of the tea party protests is that I’d like to know which wingnuts are for real and which ones are only acting… In some if not many if not most cases, it might be nearly impossible to distinguish between the two… Tagged as "tea party", "tea party" movement, April 15, Barack Obama, Catholic church, child sex abuse, crashtheteaparty.org, fascism, fuck the Catholic church, Gandhi, homosexuality, Jason Levin, nuclear arms policy, nuclear policy, nukes, pedophilia, President Barack Obama, President Dmitry Medvedev, Vatican Steele: It’s hard out here for a pimp Associated Press photo Repugnican National Committee head Michael Steele (pictured above) says that more is expected of him and President Barack Obama than would be expected of them if they were white. (That quote, to me, is the real news story, but the headline of the news article is “Michael Steele: I’m Not Going Anywhere.”) I agree with Steele, but it’s even worse than the fact that more is expected of black men than is expected of white men, as evidenced by the nation’s low, low expectations for George W. Bush but its much, much higher expectations for Obama. What is worse is that whack shit that happens to Obama never would happen to a white president, such as a dipshit U.S. representative yelling out “You lie!” during a nationally televised presidential address to Congress… ¡iCaramba! I don’t think that I’d buy an iPad if someone gave me the money to buy one. Since I wouldn’t want to use even a laptop — give this old-schooler a desktop, thank you! — I can’t see that I’d like an iPad, and I hate the idea that we’re all to go out and buy the latest iWhatever in order to be cool. (A bunch of people all doing the same thing, like iLemmings headed for an iCliff — how is that cool?) I feel vindicated by this review of the iPad, which concludes: The iPad will not replace your smartphone. Unless you can’t type, it won’t replace your laptop. If you love books, you could argue it’s a great e-book reader, but let’s see what your wrists say after a few days. [The word is that the iPad is too heavy.] The Kindle is a better e-reader. Frankly, we’re not sure what need the iPad fills, other than the desire to be cool by owning a device that is in a class all its own. Oh, snap! Of course, I don’t even own (or want to own) a simple cell phone, but still… Gallup Poll: ‘Tea-baggers’ are vocal minority It just wouldn’t be a “tea party” without the misspelled signs… Reuters photo (Denver, Colorado, March 31) …and all of the stupid white people… Associated Press photo (Omaha, Nebraska, April 1) A recent Gallup Poll indicates that fewer than one in three Americans supports the “tea party,” Politico reports today. Politico reports: The survey of 1,033 adults polled nationwide shows that 28 percent said they are a “supporter” of the [“tea party” “movement”], while 26 percent said they are an “opponent”…. Thirty-eight percent said they neither back nor oppose the movement and 8 percent had no opinion…. The poll was conducted March 26-28 and has a margin of error of 4 percentage points. So of the 28 percent, I wonder, how many are die-hard fans of the “tea party” — such as who would actually attend a local “tea party” gathering — and how many are Repugnicans who just don’t mind having the “tea-baggers” on their side, since their party can use all the help that it can get? (Assuming, of course, that the “tea-party” douche bags are helping the Repugnican Party…) So apparently, for roughly every “tea party” supporter there is a “tea party” detractor, but what’s up with the 46 percent polled who didn’t take a stance? And does that mean that for all of the fighting between the right and the left, roughly half of the nation doesn’t even give a shit? How can one remain neutral on a train that is about to come off of its tracks and careen down the ravine? Tagged as "tea party", "tea party" movement, Barack Obama, e-book reader, e-reader, George W. Bush, iPad, Kindle, laptop, Michael Steele, Politics, President Barack Obama, President Obama, Racism, Republican Party Book says ‘zombies’ follow voodoo prez If regular zombies want braaaains! — braaaaaains! — then what do “Obama zombies” want? “Chaaaaange! — chaaaaaaaange!”? Today I noted for the first time on amazon.com’s top-100-selling books list this wonderful little title: Hey, at least the wingnuts are starting to get a little creative! All of these wingnut books that make references to the Founding fucking Fathers — who surely intended that we be the right-wing, white supremacist, fascist nation that the likes of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin-Quayle want us to be — have grown beyond stale. So now, albeit a little late, the wingnuts have hopped upon the zombie bandwagon. I love the subtitle of the new wingnut book: “How the Liberal Machine Brainwashed My Generation.” (The book, by the way, is endorsed by luminaries Ann Cunter and Michelle Malkin, so I think that you can consider the source…) Hmmm. Let’s see. Apparently the “liberal machine” isn’t all that efficient if this member of Generation Y (the author, I mean) somehow wasn’t successfully brainwashed. (I mean, presumably, if his brainwashing were successful, he wouldn’t have written this book. [Presuming that he even actually wrote it…]) Further, I live in California, one of the bluest of the blue states, and I just haven’t seen any “Obama zombies.” I never saw any “Obama zombies.” Of course, I wasn’t looking for any, that’s true; after I put so much time, money and energy into trying to get John Kerry elected in 2004, only to watch Kerry concede even while Ohio was still looking awfully fishy, I decided that I wasn’t going to work nearly as hard for the Democratic Party in 2008. (And I didn’t — my main goal for 2008 was to make sure that Barack Obama and not Billary Clinton got the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, calculating that Obama is the more liberal of the two and that he had a better shot at beating the Repugnican candidate. Once Obama got his party’s nomination, my donations to him dwindled.) But if “Obama zombies” were so pervasive as to justify an entire book on the topic, wouldn’t I have spotted at least a few of them? (The person I recall being the most jazzed up about Obama actually is a baby boomer, not a member of Generation Y, the presumed “brainwashed” and “zombified” generation that this book discusses.) Look, if you want to talk about zombies, the “Deaniacs” — the supporters of Howard Dean’s bid for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination — were fucking zombies. They even called themselves “Deaniacs.” Proudly. And I saw them. Everywhere. While attendance at my monthly John Kerry Meetups was low — oh, maybe around a dozen or so people, before he finally won the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination — hundreds of people would attend the local Howard Dean Meetups, I heard. And when Dean lost the nomination, the Deaniacs still wouldn’t let it go, but morphed their organization, Dean for America, into Democracy for America (whose meetings I’ve attended in the past, after Kerry lost the 2004 presidential election). Now, these were fanatics. If memory serves, thousands of the Deaniacs descended upon the poor state of Iowa, at their own expense, to campaign on Dean’s behalf in that state’s caucuses, the first event of the 2004 Democratic Party presidential primary season, all of them wearing bright orange knit caps. My guess is that Iowans were not impressed by, but were quite put off by, the sea of orange-headed zombies for Dean, and that that largely if not primarily accounts for why Dean came in at No. 3 in the caucuses, dealing a crushing blow to his campaign, which had wanted all of us to just coronate him already. (Kerry’s campaign had been on life support before he won the Iowa caucuses; in the few months right before he won the Iowa caucuses, I couldn’t even get 10 people to a Kerry Meeup. I tell you, Lazarus had nothing on Kerry.) I’m sure that there were some fanatics for Obama, but they weren’t nearly as fanatical or as numerous as were the Dean lemmings. And I’m sure that they’re not that fanatic now, now that things haven’t been, as Sarah Palin-Quayle might put it, all that hope-y and change-y. So this book by this Jason Mattera guy, whoever he is, about left-wing “zombies” is hardly timely. The true zombies were around for Howard Dean, not for Obama, and whatever little bit of zombiism might have existed for Obama faded months ago. So it’s bullshit to assert that there is this entire “generation” that has been “brainwashed” by Team Obama. There is a generation of young people for whom (in no certain order) racism, white supremacism, “Christo”fascism, xenophobia, sexism, misogyny, patriarchy, homophobia, militarism, jingoism, American exceptionalism, etc. — the platform of the Repugnican Party, whether it’s spoken or just understood — don’t appeal. Call them “brainwashed” “zombies” if you like; I call them “enlightened” and “evolved.” They are the nation’s future, while the Repugnican Party now represents only the old dead hand of the past, the stupid white man’s death throes. (Really, a black man in the White House pretty much is the stake in the heart of the racist and white supremacist Repugnican Party and its “tea-partying” allies, is it not?) As far as goes some national march into the abyss, which the Repugnicans and the “tea party” dipshits keep talking about, I just don’t see that, either. Socialism? It took Obama more than a year to get health-care reform passed. And what finally got passed needs a lot more improvement. Our stormtroopers remain in the Middle East, and speaking of our stormtroopers, we are told that letting the gay ones serve without discrimination still needs some “study.” The economy remains in the shitter more than a year after “socialist” Obama took the reins. It might be status quo lite these days, but it’s still the status quo. Socialism? If so, it’s creeping at narcoleptic snail’s pace. The nation was much closer to the abyss when the members of the BushCheneyCorp stole office in 2000, allowed 9/11 to happen, and then, using 9/11 as their Reichstag fire, launched their Vietraq War and went about shitting and pissing all over the Constitution, using their “war on terror” as an excuse for doing what they’d wanted to do all along anyway. Um, we won’t be seeing another Abu Ghraib House of Horrors under Obama, yet it’s Obama whom the wingnuts call dangerous to human rights. And if we do have zombies among us today, um, they would be members of the “tea party,” not Obama supporters. I don’t see Obama supporters all frenzied up and spewing forth spittle and epithets at Repugnican lawmakers. No, that would be the “tea party” dipshits doing so to Democratic lawmakers. Indeed, the recent convergence of the “tea party” fucktards on Capitol Hill in an apparent attempt to intimidate lawmakers from voting for health-care reform: That was right out of a zombie movie, with the zombies attacking Capitol Hill. Liberals are almost never that organized. Getting the “tea party” fascists whipped up and marching in lockstep is about as hard as getting a Repugnican to support a tax cut, but getting liberals to protest is like herding retarded, blind and deaf cats on crack. If the wingnuts want to view their detractors as “brainwashed” “zombies,” I suppose that’s fine. We progressives see the wingnuts, perhaps especially the “tea party” dipshits, as even more so brainwashed and zombified. Because they are. What else can you call it when someone fights against what actually would help him or her — like health care taken out of the greedy grubbies of the corporatocrats? Or combatting global warming? Or relative peace instead of perpetual war? You have to be pretty fucking brainwashed to vote against your own best interests. And when you start spitting on lawmakers, calling them offensive names and throwing bricks through their office windows, and doing so in mindless unison, you’re acting an awful lot like a zombie. Hey, I feel a book coming on… Actually, that’s the little joke that I tell about the panhandlers in my neighborhood in Sacramento, whose numbers increased dramatically each year that the unelected, plutocratic BushCheneyCorp was in office, further enriching the already filthy rich and further impoverishing the already impoverished: I likened the panhandlers to zombies, demanding not “braaaaains!” but “chaaaange!” Tagged as "Obama zombies", "tea party" movement, Deaniacs, fanatics, Glenn Beck, Howard Dean, Iowa, Iowa caucuses, Jason Mattera, John Kerry, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin-Quayle, zombie, zombies Um, can we call them racist NOW? “Tea party” fascists — who look all-white or nearly all-white to me — photographed on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., today, where they called Democratic lawmakers, among other things, “nigger” and “faggot.” Defenders of the “tea party” fucktards have insisted that the “tea party” “movement” is not motivated by racism. Yet McClatchy Newspapers boldly reports this today: Washington, D.C. — Demonstrators outside the U.S. Capitol, angry over the proposed health care bill, shouted “nigger” [today] at U.S. Rep. John Lewis , a Georgia congressman and civil-rights icon who was nearly beaten to death during an Alabama march in the 1960s. The protesters also shouted obscenities at other members of the Congressional Black Caucus, lawmakers said. “They were shouting, sort of harassing,” Lewis said. “But, it’s okay, I’ve faced this before. It reminded me of the 60s. It was a lot of downright hate and anger and people being downright mean.” Lewis said he was leaving the Cannon office building across from the Capitol when protesters shouted, “Kill the bill, kill the bill!” “I said, ‘I’m for the bill, I support the bill, I’m voting for the bill,'” Lewis said. A colleague who was accompanying Lewis said people in the crowd responded by saying, “Kill the bill, then the ‘n-word.'” “It surprised me that people are so mean and we can’t engage in a civil dialogue and debate,” Lewis said. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver , D- Mo. , said he was a few yards behind Lewis and distinctly heard “nigger.” “It was a chorus,” Cleaver said. “In a way, I feel sorry for those people who are doing this nasty stuff — they’re being whipped up. I decided I wouldn’t be angry with any of them.” Protestors also used a slur as they confronted Rep. Barney Frank , D- Mass., an openly gay member of Congress. A writer for The Huffington Post said the crowd called Frank a “faggot.” Frank told the Boston Globe that the incident happened as he was walking from the Longworth office building to the Rayburn office building, both a short distance from the Capitol. Frank said the crowd consisted of a couple of hundred of people and that they referred to him as “homo.” “I’m disappointed with the unwillingness to be civil,” Frank told the Globe. “I was, I guess, surprised by the rancor. What it means is obviously the health care bill is proxy for a lot of other sentiments, some of which are perfectly reasonable, but some of which are not.” “People out there today, on the whole, were really hateful,” Frank said. “The leaders of this movement have a responsibility to speak out more.” Thousands of demonstrators gathered outside the Capitol [today] as the House Democratic leadership worked to gather enough votes to enact a health care overhaul proposal that has become the centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s domestic agenda. Most were affiliated with so-called tea party organizations that originally sprang up during last summer’s protests of the health care proposals. Heated debate has surrounded what role race plays in the motivations of the tea party demonstrators. During protests last summer, demonstrators displayed a poster depicting Obama as an African witch doctor complete with headdress, above the words “OBAMACARE coming to a clinic near you.” Former President Jimmy Carter asserted in September that racism was a major factor behind the hostility that Obama’s proposals had faced. The claim brought angry rebuttals from Republicans…. House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D- S.C., said [today’s] ugliness underscored for him that the health care overhaul isn’t the only motivation for many protesters. “I heard people saying things today I’ve not heard since March 15th, 1960, when I was marching to try and get off the back of the bus,” Clyburn said. “This is incredible, shocking to me.” He added, “A lot of us have said for a long time that none of this is about health care at all. It’s about extending a basic fundamental right to people who are less powerful.” “Nigger” and “faggot.” Nice. (Kudos to McClatchy, by the way, for not shying away from using the words “nigger” and “faggot” and instead referring only to “an epithet” or using the God-awful term “the n-word.” The ugliness of the “tea-baggers” needs to be reported in all of its ugliness, and not whitewashed.) Clearly, for most of the “tea party” fascists it’s not about health care nearly as much as it about their fear that historically oppressed groups are gaining more political power, that the stupid white man is losing political power in a rapidly diversifying nation that still struggles to achieve liberty and justice for all — not just for certain groups that historically have enjoyed an unfair, un-American political advantage over historically oppressed minority groups. It sounds like the “tea-bagging” fascists want a civil war. I’ve said it before and I’ve said it again: if it’s a rematch of the Civil War that they want, then by all means, let’s give it to them. This faggot, for one, is willing to die for the rights of all of us faggots and niggers and the many other historically oppressed minority groups given such epithets by the tyrants of the dwindling majority. Tagged as "N word", "nigger", "Obamacare", "tea party" movement, Barack Obama, Barney Frank, bigotry, Civil War, Congressional Black Caucus, fascism, Hatred, health care reform, Homophobia, ignorance, James Clyburn, John Lewis, McClatchy Newspapers, President Barack Obama, Racism Assorted shit (Under the Sea Edition!) Free Willy (before he kills again!) Associated Press photos So today’s big news story is that a 40-year-old female trainer at SeaWorld in Orlando, Fla., was attacked and killed by a killer whale in front of a horrified audience. (She is pictured above in 2005.) What part of killer whale don’t people get? Ever seen what the orcas do to seals? Anyway, the bottom line is that cetaceans belong in the ocean. They don’t belong in aquariums or theme parks. Their captivity should be illegal. Not (just) because of today’s event in Orlando, but because it’s fucking cruel to take a creature that needs the wide open ocean and put it in a fucking fish tank. Corporations shouldn’t be allowed to profit obscenely from what amounts to animal cruelty. You should watch the Oscar-nominated documentary “The Cove,” in which the trainer who trained the dolphins for the television show “Flipper” states that all that he can conclude from his years of working with dolphins is that cetaceans should not be held in captivity. SeaWorld and others who keep cetaceans in captivity suck. P.S. I hope that the killer whale involved in today’s incident is not killed, but is released back into the wild, if it would survive in the wild. The killer whale should not be given the death sentence when it never fucking should have been in captivity anyway. What’s long and hard and full 0f — women? The U.S. Navy plans to allow women to serve on submarines, The Associated Press reported yesterday. Fuck; I’d assumed that women already were serving on subs. Why haven’t they been? “The thinking was that the close quarters aboard subs would make coed service difficult to manage,” the AP notes. Sounds like the anti-gay “argument.” (Can’t let those homos be around other males in such close quarters!) I seriously hope that those who serve in the U.S. military are far more evolved than are the stupid old white men who make all of the decisions for the military. No one should be having sex while they’re on duty anyway. Male or female, straight or gay or bisexual — it doesn’t matter. You draw a line between on-duty activity and off-duty activity. And, arguments about how gay male couples reportedly historically were quite the effective warriors aside, those working closely together in the U.S. military probably shouldn’t be sexually involved with each other anyway, regardless of their biological gender or sexual orientation. So what’s the big fuss? It’s more about antiquated, Victorian views on sexuality (Sex BAD!) than it is about anything else. One day the U.S. military will be like it’s portrayed in the grisly sci-fi movie “Starship Troopers,” in which males and females even shower together because no one gives a fuck. Schwarzenegger: ‘Tea party’ will terminate (Come on, now. I couldn’t get three ocean-related items on the same day…) Repugnican California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger might need to get checked out for Tourette’s Syndrome, because he just can’t shut up lately. In this case, though, it’s a good thing. Already having blasted his fellow Repugnicans for opposing the Obama administration’s economic stimuli and desire for health-care reform, Schwarzenegger now says that the “tea party” “movement” will “twinkle and disappear” after the nation’s economy recovers from having been raped up the ass by the unelected Bush regime with ground glass as lube (OK, so that last part is a wild paraphrase…). Schwarzenegger also remarked on how long it takes to turn the Titanic back around: “Well, to give you an example, in 2008 we passed redistricting reform [in California]. Do you see any effect of it today in California? Absolutely not. It’s two years later and we still see no effect because the district lines will be drawn in 2010 now and they would have an effect maybe in 2012, a little effect. In 2014, then you will see more effect. You don’t go and have changes like that and have an effect from one day to the next…. “It doesn’t happen. Sometimes those things take a long time…. “To move government, to move this big thing, it’s like the Titanic…. “I think that the most important thing, no matter what state you’re in, or if you’re in charge of the federal government … is creating jobs and bringing the economy back. That’s the most important thing right now.” Exactly. BushCheneyCorp didn’t destroy the nation overnight, and so the nation isn’t going to recover overnight. That’s in stark contrast to the what Tea Party Princess/Queen Sarah Palin-Quayle and her fucktarded illk are saying, that the state of the nation is all Barack Obama’s fault because he’s been president for a whole year now… A co-worker of mine today posited that Schwarzenegger, who will be termed out of office in less than a year, is angling for a post in the Obama administration. It’s a plausible explanation. It’s that — or Tourette’s… I’m Aiken for more gay celebs to help their tribe I took a lot of shit for having said recently that flaming figure skater Johnny Weir (pictured above apparently making air quotes at a press conference today in Vancouver) should just come out of the closet already. I took a lot of shit from (presumedly straight) women, too. But you know, straight women get to love men without any stigma, so I guess that I don’t need to hear any lectures from them about what it’s like to be a gay man. Sorry, but no, not sorry. And people still don’t get the idea of privacy. Again: we don’t need the details of Weir’s sex life. I never asked for them and I don’t want them. And I’m perfectly OK without seeing a leaked Johnny Weir same-sex sex tape. But how about being of service to other non-heterosexuals by being proudly out? What’s wrong with using one’s status as a public figure to do some good in the world, to give others the courage and the inspiration to be who they are instead of being ashamed of it and/or trying to hide it? Gay singer Clay Aiken (of “American Idol” fame), along with newly out lesbian actress Meredith Baxter (most known for her role of the mother in “Family Ties”), is scheduled to speak at a gay-rights event in Raleigh, N.C., this weekend. It doesn’t have to be one extreme or the other — that you stay in the closet or that you become the “poster boy” for the gay-rights movement. Aiken doesn’t seem interested in becoming such a “poster boy,” but nonetheless he can find the time to make a pro-gay public appearance. Good for him. It is a sad statement on the selfishness of Americans, and how much Americans are OK with the suppression of the truth (such as the truth of one’s sexual orientation, which there is no reason to suppress unless indeed it is shameful to be non-heterosexual), that I took so much shit for suggesting that Johnny Weir do some good for his tribe. We’re all in this together, and no fag is an island. Tagged as "Flipper", "tea party", "tea party" movement, "The Cove", animal cruelty, Arnold Schwarzenegger, cetaceans, civil rights, Clay Aiken, closet, dolphins, equal rights, Florida, Gay rights, human rights, Johnny Weir, killer whale, killer whales, Meredith Baxter, Navy, non-heterosexuality, Obama administration, orca, orcas, Orlando, out, Republican Party, Schwarzenegger, SeaWorld, shame, submarine, submarines, U.S. military, U.S. Navy, whales Dumbfuck Nation The recent “National Tea Party Convention” has inspired me to pick up again Susan Jacoby’s book The Age of American Unreason, which is about the threat that rampant intentional ignorance and anti-intellectualism poses to the continued existence of our democracy and our nation. I started to read Jacoby’s book when it came out in 2008 but then I put it down. I’ve picked it up again, as now it seems timelier than ever. I liken our national situation to this: A horribly incompetent surgeon seriously botched our surgery. So we pick a new surgeon. However, the damage that the first surgeon caused is so serious that the second surgeon can’t fix it overnight. Impatient and frustrated, we think that it’s a swell idea to return to the first surgeon. After all, a whole year has passed since we last saw him! That is how bright it is for us to turn the reins of power back to the Repugnican Party, which “Tea Party” Queen Sarah Palin-Quayle tells us we should do. (It’s funny how she states that the “tea party” isn’t about any one person, when clearly she would love to be their leader.) I understand that people are frustrated, angry and confused. But it is precisely when we are frustrated, angry and confused that we need to think, and to not act stupidly — because acting stupidly in a time of crisis will only worsen our crisis. This excerpt from a Los Angeles Times article on the recent “tea party” convention in Nashville, Tenn., sums up the “tea party” crowd pretty well, I think: Ask Gail Hathaway, a warm 61-year-old retired nurse from Vonore, Tenn., what she wants out of the “tea party” movement, and she returns the quizzical look of someone worried she’s been asked a trick question. “What do I want? Well, I want it all to stop,” she said late Thursday night from the floor of the National Tea Party Convention, an event billed as the first major conference for the conservative movement currently reshaping America’s political landscape. “Our way of life is under attack. I truly believe they are trying to destroy this country. It’s just hard to say who ‘they’ is.” That is it, in a nutshell: The world is changing rapidly, and the “tea party” crowd wants it to stop. The United States as a whole no longer resembles the cozy little lily-white town of Mayberry, N.C. (if it ever really did), and the “tea party” crowd wants to bring Mayberry back. Only you can’t bring Mayberry back, even if doing so were a good idea (which it isn’t), and no one is “trying to destroy this country.” Not even the “Islamofascists,” who just want the United States to get the fuck out of the Middle East and who want to be left the fuck alone, which sounds fairly reasonable to me, as we wouldn’t want a Middle Eastern military presence in our nation, would we? Not even the home-grown wingnuts — with the exception of the rapturous “end-timers,” I suppose, who want World War III to occur because they are “saved” — are “trying to destroy this country.” It is true that the wingnuts’ fucktardation, unchecked, would result in the destruction of the nation — already the wingnuts’ fucktardation has brought the United States to the brink of extinction, when their usurper “war” “president” ran the show for eight endless years — but do I think that they want to destroy the nation? Probably not, although it seems clear that Sarah Palin-Quayle wants WW III to happen. She suggested today that President Barack Obama could win re-election in 2012 if he were to declare war on Iran. (Hey, she was the running mate of John “Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran” McCainosaurus, after all.) Now, never mind that just yesterday at the Wingnut Super Bowl in Nashville, Palin-Quayle accused the Obama administration of “generational theft” by running the federal budget deficit up even more than the BushCheneyCorp did; today, Palin-Quayle suggests that we launch a war on Iran. Because that would not be “generational theft,” to launch another major war in the Middle East when you are still reeling from the record federal budget deficit that the previous Repugnican “president” left you and when things have been crumbling here at home for some years now. As I’ve said before, the wingnuts are fine with running up a deficit as long as we are using that money to kill innocent people in the Middle East in their “Christian” crusade against Islam; but if we want to spend any money on Americans here at home, that is “socialist” “generational theft.” How would Jesus budget? Would he prioritize things like health care? Education? Food? Shelter? Environmental protection? No! He would launch a war on Iran! “Our way of life is under attack. I truly believe they are trying to destroy this country,” the “tea bagger” told the L.A. Times, admitting that she couldn’t even identify “they.” No, it’s that things are changing. Rapidly. Science and the Internet, the free flow of information, haven’t been very kind to the ignorant and fear-based “Christianity,” the brand of “Christianity” that the wingnuts follow. Because the wingnuts feel like they are under attack doesn’t mean that anyone is actually attacking them. It’s what you call “paranoia.” Millions and millions of other Americans don’t look, believe and act just like the wingnuts do. In their insecurity, if everyone is not on the same page with them, the wingnuts become unhinged and unglued. Rather than examine their own ignorance and their own misguided beliefs, the wingnuts lash out at those others who aren’t carbon copies of themselves. And rather than change with the times, the wingnuts would rather destroy those whose differ from them, and that is a long hit list: non-whites, feminists, non-“Christians,” non-heterosexuals, non-right-wingers, foreigners, et. al., et. al. If I want to marry my boyfriend of two-plus years here in Northern California, it’s because I want to marry my boyfriend. (I take the American principles of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” and “liberty and justice for all” seriously, you see, and unlike the wingnuts believe, I don’t believe that these things are for only those who look like me and who agree with me.) If I want to marry my boyfriend, it’s not because I am “attacking” the “way of life” of some “tea-bagging” “Christo”fascist wingnut in Idaho who opposes same-sex marriage. If I want to marry my boyfriend, it has nothing to do with the wingnuts, whom history is leaving behind. (Funny that they should rally around a wingnutty book series called Left Behind when they are the ones who are being left behind, like the dinosaurs that they don’t believe in were left behind.) The root of fear is ignorance, but the wingnuts embrace their ignorance. In her rant at the Wingnut Super Bowl yesterday, “Tea Party” Queen Sarah Palin-Quayle said that “we need a commander in chief, not a professor of law standing at the lectern.” That “clever” line is to meant to glorify stupidity and brute force and to denigrate intelligence. George W. “Mission Accomplished” Bush was a great commander in chief? Yeah, I want a dumbfuck in charge of the nuclear codes. I want my nation’s leader to be as dumb as humanly possible. Palin-Quayle panders to the dumbfucks. She assures them that their dumbfuckery is not only OK, but that their dumbfuckery is a sign that they’re great Christians and that they’re great patriots. She has the “tea party” set worshipping a fucktarded golden calf. We sane Americans underestimate, I believe, how dangerous individuals like Sarah Palin-Quayle and her “tea-partying” ilk are. In the last decade alone, they stole at least one presidential election, oversaw the largest terrorist attack ever on our nation’s soil, launched at least one bogus war, just allowed one of the nation’s worst natural disasters ever to kill thousands of Americans, and in all of this created a record federal budget deficit — but they blame the current state of the nation on Barack Hussein Obama. The “tea party” “movement’s” Cult of Dumbfuckery appeals to the millions of Americans who never read books (except perhaps for Glenn Beck’s) and who get their “news” from FOX. The “tea party” “movement” tells people that it’s not only OK to be ignorant, but that it’s good to be ignorant. This is some pretty fucking scary shit, folks. If anyone bothered to read books anymore, they might recall the ruling totalitarian party’s credo in George Orwell’s chilling novel 1984: WAR IS PEACE FREEDOM IS SLAVERY IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH That is Sarah Palin-Quayle’s and the “tea party” “movement’s” “vision” statement in a nutshell. If we allow their “vision” to rule the nation again, we won’t have a nation any longer. Tagged as "Christo"fascists, "generational theft", "Islamofascists", "liberty and justice for all", "National Tea Party Convention", "tea party", "tea party" movement, "The Age of American Unreason", 1984, fascism, fear, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, George Orwell, ignorance, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH, Iran, John McCain, liberty and the pursuit of happiness", Life, Mayberry, Nashville, Republican Party, Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin-Quayle, Socialism, socialist, Susan Jacoby, Tennessee, WAR IS PEACE, Wingnut Super Bowl, winguttery, World War III Time for another ‘revolution,’ Sarah? No, time for another civil war! A snarling Sarah Palin-Quayle appears as the keynote speaker at the Wingnut Super Bowl in Nashville, Tenn., today. She apparently has called for a “revolution” against the nation’s first democratically elected White House administration since the Clinton administration, and while the Bush regime’s having run up the federal budget deficit to a record level was perfectly OK, the Obama administration’s spending on people instead of on the Perpetual War Machine Palin-Quayle dubbed “generational theft.” Because clearly, the party and the ideology that denies the problem of global warming and that stokes the fires of anti-American hatred in the Middle East by killing thousands upon thousands of innocent people there cares so much about future generations. Queen Wingnut Sarah Palin-Quayle told the “tea party” fanatics at their national convention today that “America is ready for another revolution” and that the “tea party” “movement” “is about the people.” Oh, except that the majority of the people elected Barack Obama, and not her and John McCainosaurus, in November 2008 — radical right-wing Repugnican Tom Tancredo’s complaint that we didn’t first have to pass a “civics literacy test” notwithstanding. So apparently we, the majority of the people of the United States of America (53 percent of us) who voted for Barack Obama, aren’t really “the people.” Only those who agree with Sarah Fucking Palin-Quayle and her “tea-partying” ilk are “the people.” This comparison of the “tea party” “movement” to the American Revolution is uber bullshit. What we are seeing is not a replay of the events that led up to the American Revolution, but a replay of the events that led up to the American Civil War. See, I don’t view the wingnuts as “the people,” and they don’t view me and my kind — sane Americans who truly want liberty and justice for all, not just for certain demographics — as “the people.” These are what you call irrefuckingconcilable differences, and they are the stuff that civil wars are made of. And I’m ready for another civil war. Bring it on, bitches! Bring! It! On! The wingnuts lost the November 2008 election fairly and squarely. They can’t fucking deal with it, so they’re claiming that they’re now under the “oppressive,” “socialist” Obama administration — against which they must “revolt.” Sarah Palin-Quayle’s calling for a “revolution” — when the majority of Americans voted for Barack Obama, does that not smell like treason? The “tea party” nutjobs are not victims. They simply lost the fucking 2008 presidential election, and they lost it by a margin too large for them to be able to steal it, like they stole the 2000 presidential election and quite possibly the 2004 election as well. It’s called a “democracy,” fucktards. Get over it, sore losermen. Palin-Quayle also sneered to her adoring all-white crowd: “How’s that hope-y, change-y stuff workin’ out for you?” Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Except that her party, the Repugnican Party, is the party that put our nation in its mess now. It is as though “President” George W. Bush never were behind the wheel (like a drunk) at the White House from January 2001 to January 2009. But if we can act as though the wingnuts are poor oppressed people like the American colonists were poor oppressed people under the British monarchy, I suppose that we also can just pretend that the time period from January 2001 to January 2009 never fucking happened, and that Barack Obama picked up right where Bill Clinton left off. That’s how detached from reality Sarah Palin-Quayle and her mouth-breathing followers are. Most Americans who voted for Barack Obama in November 2008 — those Americans who have some idea as to what reality is and who thus never would attend a “tea party” function — did not expect him to reverse the severe damage that the unelected Bush regime caused from January 2001 to January 2009 overnight. Most Americans are willing to give the president whom they actually elected this time the time to fix the nation’s dire problems, and they are not willing to participate in the “revolution” that Sarah Fucking Palin-Quayle speaks of. Palin-Quayle’s “vision” we already lived under for eight long nightmarish years, from January 2001 to January 2009. Most Americans want the wingnuts to shut the fuck up and to stop putting their IEDs along the nation’s long, hard road to recovery. Doing everything possible to interfere with the nation’s recovery, and indeed, hoping that the current, actually-elected White House administration fails — again, I am catching a whiff of treason. I am willing to defend my president — and “my president” is a phrase that I was unable to use from January 2001 through January 2009, since BushCheneyCorp blatantly stole the White House in late 2000, and since you cannot be “re”-elected if you never legitimately were elected in the first place — to my death. Barack Obama is not perfect, and I certainly have been critical of him — mainly for being too timid to advance the progressive agenda — but he is our democratically elected president, our first democratically elected president since Bill Clinton, and I will allow the wingnuts to again take the White House that does not belong to them over my dead body. Millions of my fellow Americans agree with me, Sarah Palin-Quayle, so fuck your “revolution” and ask yourself if you and your FUCKING RETARDED supporters really can win a rematch of the Civil War. Tagged as "tea party", "tea party" movement, American Civil War, American Revolution, Civil War, democracy, Republican Party, Revolution, Sarah Palin, Tom Tancredo, traitors, treason Sarah Palin-Quayle, grand dragoness “Tea party” convention headliner Repugnican Sarah Palin-Quayle greets adoring supporters in an excellent PhotoShop job. President-wannabe Sarah Palin-Quayle wrote this in a public relations — er, opinion — piece for USA Today before fellow radical-right Repugnican Tom Tancredo, a former U.S. representative from Colorado and former presidential hopeful who has used or at least tried to use xenophobic, anti-Latin-American-immigrant sentiment for personal political gain, opened the “National Tea Party Convention” in Nashville, Tenn., on Thursday: Their vision is what drew me to the Tea Party movement. They believe in the same principles that guided my work in public service — whether I was working on the PTA and city council or serving as a mayor, commissioner or governor. I look forward to meeting some of these great Americans this weekend. Probably at least in part because she’s no longer in public office, having quit her job as governor of Alaska before she served even one full term, Palin-Quayle apparently thought it sufficiently safe to appear at the Wingnut Super Bowl in Nashville today. Other Repugnican elected officials who are still in office decided not to appear the “tea party” convention, afraid that some wingnut might say some really whack shit at the convention that would reflect poorly upon them. Or maybe the Repugnican National Committee made that decision for them. In any case, some really whack shit was said at the convention, right off. This is what Tancredo (who, like fellow wingnuts Samuel Alito and Antonin Scalia [both U.S. Supreme Court “justices”], is an Italian American; now that their families got to immigrate to the U.S., we should hermetically seal our borders, you see) said in his opening speech for the convention on Thursday: “…And then, something really odd happened, mostly because I think [that] we do not have a civics literacy test before people can vote in this country. [Big applause from his audience.] People who could not even spell the word “vote” or say it in English [more big applause] put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House — [his] name is Barack Hussein Obama.” [More applause.] You can watch the clip on Rachel Maddow’s show here. So Tancredo, who is able to say whatever he wants to say because his political career is dead anyway — really, you can’t be a one-trick hater-pony like he is and get anywhere — has bashed the 53 percent of Americans who voted for Barack Obama in 2008. He has alleged that because of low intellect and ignorance and/or a language barrier, Obama is our president. That’s pretty fucking funny, since wingnuts are notorious for being fucktards. Like this one: (I should note that I Googled “get a brain morans,” and from what I can tell, the viral images of the white-trash fucktard with that sign apparently are authentic images of an authentic wingnut.*) And, as I noted waaaaay back in 2002, the same fucktarded haters who call for a “civics literacy test” (actually, “civics test” is just fine; there is no need to add the word “literacy” in there) for those from other nations (usually from nations within Latin America, since their skin usually is brown) or even for fellow American citizens (that is, black Americans) could not pass the same fucking civics test that immigrants must pass to become an American citizen. (Seriously — see how many of the questions you can answer correctly yourself!) Knowing his background, Tancredo’s hateful remarks yesterday most likely were aimed, at least primarily, at those from Latin America who want a better life, but his remarks are reminding those who know their U.S. history of the literacy tests that once were used to prevent black Americans from voting. Notes Wikipedia: As used by the states, the literacy test gained infamy as a means for denying suffrage to African Americans. Adopted by a number of Southern states, the literacy test was applied in a patently unfair manner, as it was used to disenfranchise many literate Southern blacks while allowing many illiterate Southern whites to vote. The literacy test, combined with other discriminatory requirements, effectively disenfranchised the vast majority of African Americans in the South from the 1890s until the 1960s. Southern states abandoned the literacy test only when forced to by federal legislation in the 1960s…. Since the passage of the civil rights legislation of the 1960s, black registration in the South has increased dramatically. So Repugnican former Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi in 2002 publicly mused that the nation would have been a lot better off had segregationist Strom Thurmond been elected president in 1948, and now, Repugnican former Rep. Tom Tancredo muses that he sures misses the good old days of the literacy tests. And, as I have noted before, calling Obama a “Muslim” or insinuating that he is a Muslim by stating his middle name of Hussein, is simply code for “nigger,” as is “socialist.” (“Committed socialist idealogue,” then, would mean “biiiiig nigger.”) And the name Hussein, of course, is associated with former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, which is meant to associate Barack Obama with the “evildoers” of the Middle East. We whiteys are to be just as afraid of the niggers here as we are to be afraid of the sand niggers who hate us for our freedom, you see.) But when you say that the “tea party” “movement” is all about (or at least largely about) white supremacism, the wingnuts crow that you’re wrong. But listen to the “tea party” convention crowd’s reaction to Tancredo’s racist, xenophobic clarion call for a “civics literacy test”; the crowd eats it up. After Rachel Maddow shows the clip, she quips, “Although to be fair, it was sort of hard to tell exactly what the sounds coming from the crowd meant; they were sort of, a little bit muffled by the — you know, the white hoods.” Yup. The “white hoods” joke is appropriate, but I believe that Maddow was kidding; it is clear from the clip that Tancredo had a doting audience, clapping and laughing and whooping in response to his comments. So when Sarah Palin-Quayle, the keynote speaker of this weekend’s “National Tea Party Convention” in Nashville, gushes about the “tea party” “movement,” as she did in USA Today — Later this week I’ll head to Nashville, where I’ll have the honor of speaking with members of the “tea party” movement. I look forward to meeting many Americans who share a commitment to limited government, common sense and personal responsibility…. — it’s bullshit. Things like “common sense” and “personal responsibility” and “limited government” are the “tea party” “movement’s” stated raison d’être (hey, look, this American who cast his vote for Barack Obama not only can spell the word “vote,” but he can mix it up with a foreign language sometimes, too!), and those things sure sound good — but the “tea party” actually is about white supremacism and patriarchy and misogyny and “Christo”fascism/theocracy and militarism (to spend any of our tax dollars on people instead of on war profiteers is deemed “socialist”) and xenophobia and jingoism and homophobia and ignorance and fear. The “tea party” is comprised mostly of stupid, backasswards white men who can’t get over the fact that rapidly changing demographics in the United States of America are making it more and more impossible for the stupid white man to have the political control of the nation that he used to have. There are some fucktarded white women, like Palin-Quayle, who support these fucktarded white men, but the “tea party” “movement” irrefutably is stupid-white-male driven. The “tea party” “movement” represents a small slice of the American electorate, and even that small slice is melting just like the polar ice caps are melting. Just as the “tea party” fucktards deny that the ice caps are melting, they seem to be in denial that their existence is endangered, too. They have become the dinosaurs that they don’t believe in. So you have the “National Tea Party Convention’s” opening act, Tom Tancredo, call for a “civics literacy test,” and you have Palin-Quayle gushing about how great the “tea party” “movement” is before she goes to Nashville to be the keynote speaker at their first national convention. How can we not associate Palin-Quayle with the rest of what has gone on at the Wingnut Super Bowl this weekend when she herself has chosen to associate herself with it? Well, Scalia’s father was an immigrant from Sicily and his mother was born in the U.S. to Italian immigrants. (Sicily, Italy — close enough…) Alito’s father was an immigrant from Italy. Wikipedia says of Tancredo, “Both sets of his grandparents emigrated from Italy.” So it was OK to let all of these Italians and Sicilians into the United States, you see, but we need to keep the Latin Americans, especially the brown-skinned ones, out. *I cannot vouch for the authenticity of this image, however: Tagged as "Christo"fascism, "National Tea Party Convention", "tea party", "tea party" movement, Antonin Scalia, Barack Obama, immigration, jingoism, KKK, Ku Klux Klan, literacy test, literacy tests, militarism, Misogyny, Nashville, Palin, Patriarchy, Politics, President Barack Obama, President Obama, Rachel Maddow, Racism, radical right, Republican National Committee, Republican Party, Samuel Alito, Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin-Quayle, stupid white men, Tennessee, Tom Tancredo, white supremacism, white supremacists, Wingnut Super Bowl, wingnuttery, xenophobia The tea stain needs to be removed A wingnut wears a “National Tea Party Convention” T-shirt at a KKK rally — er, at the “National Tea Party Convention” — today in Nashville, Tenn. Politico unsurprisingly remarks of the convention that the “roughly 600 attendees … came primarily from the South and were largely white and older.” A recent poll shows that almost a quarter of those who identify themselves as Repugnicans want their state to secede from the Union. I say to them: Don’t let the red, white and blue door hit your treasonous, free-loading asses on your way out, bitches! “‘Tea Party’ Movement: Who Are They and What Do They Want?” asks the Christian Science Monitor. You can read the article if you please, but there’s no need. I can answer those two questions. Handily. Who are the “tea baggers”? The “tea party” “movement” is not a “movement” and it’s nothing new. The “tea party” douche bags are the same people who dubbed the Gore-Lieberman team “Sore Loserman” when Democrat Al Gore won the popular vote in 2000 but the White House went to loser Repugnican George W. Bush anyway. These assbites were the losers of the 2000 election, but they called the other side — the winners — the losers. The sore losers. They threw such a tantrum to have their guy installed in the White House, even though he’d lost the election, that there was no national outcry, as there should have been, when the radical-right-tilted U.S. Supreme Court, in its infamous 5-4 vote, installed Gee Dubya as “president.” The “tea baggers” are, in two words, sore losers. OK, three words: sore fucking losers. Not only can they not accept it when they lose elections, but they’re white supremacists, too. Look at the news coverage of “tea parties” and the Repugnican National Convention and the “National Tea Party Convention” (which is going on as I type this sentence) and other wingnut gatherings. They look just like Ku Klux Klan gatherings sans the burning cross. You see a sea of lily-white faces. I’m a blue-eyed white guy, and these Stepford “patriots” give me the fucking creeps. What do the “tea baggers” want? They want nothing short of the democratically elected President Barack Obama removed from office, whether it’s done bloodlessly or not, although most of them probably prefer blood (as long as it’s not their own, of course). They hate Obama doubly because he is a Democrat and he is black. To them he’s like a black Bill Clinton, for fuck’s sake. The “tea baggers” can’t come right out in “polite” company and call Obama a nigger, so they use code for “nigger,” such as that he is a “Muslim” or a “socialist” or that he isn’t a U.S. citizen or that he actually is on the side of the “terrorists.” Or they even say, with a straight face, that Obama is the “racist.” (That kills me: white supremacists calling their victims “racist.”) These “tea baggers” proclaim themselves “patriots,” yet they would, if they c0uld, shit and piss upon the will of the majority of the American voters (53 percent of the American voters voted for Barack Obama to only 46 percent for Repugnican John McCainosaurus) and put their own stupid white man (or maybe Sarah Palin-Quayle, who is a stupid white man in a woman’s body) in the White House.** “No, they wouldn’t do that,” you protest? Oh, really? They already did — in 2000! The majority of the “tea baggers” also want to impose a Taliban-style “Christian” patriarchy and theocracy on the entire nation. They want to completely reverse all of the gains made by women, by non-whites, by non-“Christians” and by non-heterosexuals. They want the return of the “good old days,” when stupid, rich, white, “Christian,” presumedly heterosexual men ran the show. You know, the “good old days,” when an uppity Negro never could have been elected as president of the United States. They’re fucktarded traitors, the progeny of the fucktarded traitors whom we blue-staters failed to polish off in the Civil War, that’s who they are. They succeed as far as they do only because too many non-“tea baggers” naively believe that the treasonous “tea-bagging” fascists can be reasoned with, that we really can have some fucking “bipartisan” national Kumbaya. No, the “tea baggers” cannot be reasoned with, and no, there will be no Kumbafuckingya. The “tea baggers” are our national stain that persists even after the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement. You cannot reason with a stain. You can only remove it. This past week Politico reported: A new poll of self-identified Republicans released Tuesday shows a large slice of the GOP believes President Barack Obama is a “socialist” who was not born in this country, should be impeached, wants the terrorists to win and only won the 2008 election because ACORN “stole” it for him. The survey of 2003 self-identified Republicans, who typically trend much more conservative than voters who “lean” Republican, was conducted by Research 2000 for the liberal blog Daily Kos. According to the poll, 63 percent of Republicans believe Obama is a socialist; 39 percent think Obama should be impeached; 24 percent said Obama wants “the terrorists to win”; and 31 percent agreed with the statement that Obama is “a racist who hates white people.” [Never mind that he is half-white himself, that his mother was white and that he was raised by white people…] Those numbers are just a portion of the results from the poll that paints the GOP as much more socially conservative — and in some cases conspiratorial — than most analysts would be willing to grant. According to the survey, 36 percent of respondents do not believe the president was born in this country, and 21 percent think the liberal advocacy group ACORN stole the election for Obama. Meanwhile, nearly a quarter of the Republicans polled, 23 percent, want their state to secede from the union. Those polled also showed strong opposition to the expansion of gay rights. Fifty-five percent said gays should not be allowed to serve openly in the military, while 77 percent opposed gay couples getting married and 68 percent believe gay couples should not receive “any state or federal benefits.” In addition, 73 percent said openly gay men and women should not be allowed to teach in public schools…. Fifty-one percent of those polled believe sex education should not be taught in schools; 77 percent want creationism taught in schools; 31 percent want contraception outlawed; and 34 percent believe birth control is “abortion.” Those polled showed excitement for this fall’s midterm election, as 83 percent said they plan to vote. Among those surveyed, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is the favorite candidate for the 2012 presidential election…. Asked whether they thought Palin is more qualified than Obama to serve as president, 53 percent said yes. *This is what the wingnuts attempted to do in Venezuela in April 2002: forcibly replace the democratically elected brown-skinned socialist President Hugo Chavez with their own unelected right-wing light-skinned “president,” against the will of the majority of the people of Venezuela. The right-wing traitors in Venezuela failed because the people rose up against them and they returned Chavez to power within three days. This is why the wingnuts demonize Chavez: he survived a U.S.-backed right-wing coup attempt that few, if any, democratically elected progressive Latin American leaders before him survived. Tagged as "National Tea Party Convention", "tea baggers", "tea party", "tea party" movement, 2000 presidential election, 2008 presidential election, Al Gore, Barack Obama, blue states, civil rights movement, Civil War, Democratic Party, election stealing, George W. Bush, Hugo Chavez, John McCain, John McCainosaurus, Ku Klux Klan, national stain, Politics, President Barack Obama, Racism, Red states, Republican Party, traitors, treason, U.S. Supreme Court, white supremacism, white supremacists, wingnuts, wingnuttery	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line923
__label__wiki	0.853533	0.853533	The Vodacom Foundation Our Trustees Our History Reports Education Health Safety and Security Volunteering and Donations Fact Sheet About the Vodacom Foundation The Vodacom Foundation Trustees provide governance and oversight on the operations of the Foundation, and ensure that projects deliver on what they were designed to achieve. The Vodacom Foundation Advisory Board comprises of executive and independent Board members. The independent Board members are distinguished personalities in South Africa who are drawn from different backgrounds. This enables the Foundation to be linked to different sectors of the society in pursuit of its goals. This involves the approval of the budget, monitoring the spend and ensuring that the projects are aligned to the strategy. DR BRIGALIA BAM MR MPHO MAKWANA DR TILL STREICHERT MR NKATEKO NYOKA Brigalia Bam was born in 1933 in the former Transkei, in the Eastern Cape. Although Bam trained and worked as a teacher, she received further training in South Africa and abroad in the fields of social work, communication and management. She is a qualified social worker with a post-graduate degree from the University of Chicago. Bam has held various posts throughout the world. She was the Africa Regional Secretary and Co-ordinator of the Women’s Workers' Programme for the International Food and Allied Workers Association based in Geneva. She has co-ordinated the World Young Men’s Christian Associations International Training Institute and Programme, as well as its affiliate, the Development for Human Rights. She was also Executive Programme Secretary for the Women’s Department of the World Council of Churches. Between 1997 and 1998, Bam served as General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches from 1994 to 1999. In South Africa, she was a founding member of the Women’s Development Foundation and became the Foundations President in 1998. She has been a board member of the Matla Trust as well as the South African Broadcasting Corporation. Since 1999, Brigalia Bam has become a familiar personality to South Africans as the Chairperson of the Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa, contributing her accumulated experience to the well-managed electoral process for which our country has become known. Her steely leadership and wise counsel has seen our country through many difficult times. She is a great asset to South Africa. Mpho is an accomplished business leader with diverse experience spanning a period of more than 25 years in executive and C-Suite roles in the public and private sectors. He is currently an Independent Non-Executive Chairman of JSE-listed ArcelorMittal South Africa Limited and also serves as an Independent Non-Executive Director on the boards of JSE listed companies such as Adcock Ingram Holdings Ltd (AIHLF.PK), Nedbank Group Ltd (NDBKF.PK), Nedbank Ltd and Sephaku Holdings Limited (SEPJ.J). He further serves as Chairman of Epitome Investments (Pty) Ltd, New Nishati Investments (Pty) Ltd, Information Technology Alliance (ITNA) (Pty) Ltd and the Boardroom Alliance (Pty) Ltd - which holds the sub-Saharan trading license for Executive Search firm Heidrick & Struggles. Non-Executive Director BioTherm Energy (PTY) Ltd; one of South Africa's foremost renewable energy companies. He also volunteers as a Member of the Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital Fund's Fund Raising Committee and is a Trustee on the Board of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund. In April 2016 he was one 14 trustees appointed by HE The President of the Republic of SA to serve as a Trustee on the Board of Trustees of BRAND SA. During the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Mpho led the team that kept the lights on; firstly as Interim Chairman & CEO (3rdQ 2009) and as Chairman of Eskom Holdings Limited SOC from 10 June 2010 until his term as Director concluded on 27 June 2011, after serving on that board for nine years. Qualifications: Bachelor of Administration (B.Admin) University of Zululand, B.Admin (University of Pretoria), EDP, Kellogg School of Management and Post. Grad Diploma, Retailing Management, University of Stirling. DR Till was appointed as the Chief Financial Officer of Vodacom Group in August 2015, having previously held the role of Executive Director Finance: Vodacom South Africa, from February 2014. Prior to joining Vodacom, Till was the CFO at Vodafone Romania and held a number of senior finance and commercial roles in Romania, including Director of Channel Marketing, Logistics and Sales Operations, Director of Financial Planning, Reporting and Finance Operations. DR Till started his career working for the CEO of T-Mobile Germany before undertaking various senior roles at T-Mobile UK. He has also served as a strategy consultant at The Boston Consulting Group. Nkateko Nyoka joined the Vodacom Group in 2007 as Chief Officer: Regulatory Affairs and Stakeholders Relations. His responsibilities has since been expanded to encompass, Legal, Regulatory, Risk and Stakeholder Relations. His current position is Chief Officer: Legal, Regulatory, Risk and Stakeholder Relations Vodacom Group Limited. Prior to joining Vodacom, Nkateko held several positions at MTN (Pty) SA Ltd, including Group Executive for Corporate Services where his responsibilities included Legal and Regulatory as well as the MTN SA Foundation. He has also been Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) from 2001 - 2003 where he played a vital role in facilitating competition enabling environment in South Africa’s communications sector. Nkateko holds Masters Degrees in Law and Public Administration from Harvard University as well as a Bachelors of Laws (LL.B) and Baccalareus Procurationis (B.Proc) from the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. HEALTH EDUCATION SAFETY AND SECURITY VOLUNTEERING AND DONATIONS © 2016 Vodacom Group.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line926
__label__wiki	0.987764	0.987764	Sports Top Stories Hall of Fame Knuckleballer Phil Niekro Dies At 81 By Bill Galluccio Dec 27, 2020 Hall of Fame pitcher Phil Niekro passed away at the age of 81 following a lengthy battle with cancer. Niekro played in the Major Leagues until he was 48-years-old, notching 318 wins in 24 seasons. Niekro was known for his nasty knuckleball, which left hitters baffled in the box. Niekro amassed 3,342 strikeouts and was one of the most reliable and durable pitchers in Major League history. He ranks fourth all-time with 5,404 innings pitched and had 245 complete games. He managed to win 121 games after he turned 40, which is a Major League record. Niekro was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1997. "We are heartbroken on the passing of our treasured friend, Phil Niekro," the Braves said in a statement. "Knucksie was woven into the Braves fabric, first in Milwaukee and then in Atlanta. Phil baffled batters on the field and later was always the first to join in our community activities. It was during those community and fan activities where he would communicate with fans as if they were long lost friends." Niekro is the seventh Hall of Famer to die this year, including Lou Brock, Whitey Ford, Bob Gibson, Al Kaline, Joe Morgan, and Tom Seaver.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line928
__label__cc	0.535664	0.464336	911th Engineer Company Homer McElvoy, an Arlington Co. Firefighter, talking to a member of the 911th Engineer Company during a rescue exercise near the Memorial Tunnel in Gallagher, W.Va., 13 June 2006, conducted by the Center for National Response. Urban search and rescue Fort Belvoir, Virginia The 911th Technical Rescue Engineer Company, formerly the MDW (Military District of Washington) Engineer Company, is the only technical rescue company in the Department of Defense. It specializes in urban search and rescue (USAR).[1][2] The 911th Technical Rescue Engineering Company is stationed at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and is best known for its response to The Pentagon following the September 11 attacks in 2001. The First Sergeant and Company Commander moved the company to the disaster site without waiting for orders and spent 10 days engaged in search and rescue operations.[3] The unit was re-designated as the 911th United States Army Technical Rescue Engineer Company on 11 September 2006, in memory of its historic role in the subsequent recovery effort.[4] Its sister company is the 554th Engineer Company (Vertical Construction) located in Fort Stewart, GA. The 554th Engineer Company is currently tasked with technical rescue response under the Defense CBRNE Response Force, however it is a temporary task and on order the vertical construction mission will be resumed. The 911th Technical Rescue Engineer Company is assigned to the 12th Aviation Battalion, Army Air Operations Group, Military District of Washington.[5] The company is modeled after a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Urban Search and Rescue Heavy Task Force.[6] The company is mine rescue and technical rescue certified and specializes in trench, structural collapse, ropes, and confined space disciplines. It regularly trains with local, state, and federal first responders.[7] The company was on standby during the 2009 Presidential Inauguration.[2] In 2012 the company was equipped with heavy transport and dump trucks.[8] Unlike other conventional military units, prospective candidates must pass through a screening process in which they must be interviewed by unit leadership as well as pass a modified physical evaluation and extensive background questionnaire.[citation needed] The unit has never deployed overseas. ^ Lopez, C. Todd. "Military plays security support role for inauguration". U.S. Army. Retrieved 18 April 2013. ^ a b Lopez, C. Todd. "US Army Prepped for Inaugural Contingencies" (Blog). The Tension. Retrieved 18 April 2013. ^ http://www.hqbn.belvoir.army.mil/history-battalion.asp ^ Mani, Tom (5 October 2006). "MDW engineer company redesignated as 911th". Pentagram. Archived from the original on 14 January 2014. Retrieved 18 April 2013. ^ "Military District of Washington Organizational Structure". United States Army. Retrieved 25 June 2013. ^ "New commander at 911th takes charge". United States Army. Retrieved 30 June 2013. ^ "'Capital Shield' tests Army's first responders in nation's capital". United States Army. Retrieved 30 June 2013. ^ Creech, Justin. "New equipment modernizes 911th Engineer Company". Belvoir Eagle. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 18 April 2013. US Army Corps of Engineers Structural Specialist Program 911 heritage day	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line929
__label__cc	0.733535	0.266465	Fundraising for Research What's our story? What is Acrodysostosis? Research, updates, and information People and families kimberley stanley The boy with the best laugh in the world My name is Peter Murphy and I grew up in a small town called Carver which is located near Cape Cod, Massachusetts. I met my wife Susan in 2005 at the biotechnology company in Cambridge where we both worked. She grew up in Marshfield, MA but moved to Carver when she was in high school. Despite knowing my father, who was the boy’s gym teacher and playing basketball with my younger sister we didn’t really know each other. I introduced myself one day at our company’s fitness center and we started dating a few months later. She tells people we met years later so people don’t think we’re a high school couple! We got engaged on Valentine’s Day in Aruba in February 2007 – I wasn’t sure she’d say yes because she’s a very strong and independent woman, but I guess I wore her down! We bought a house in a small town called Shirley located about 40 miles northwest of Boston and got married two months later in October 2007. We spent the next few years working, traveling and enjoying life as a couple. We found out we were pregnant with our first child right before our company’s Christmas party in early January 2011. A few observant friends knew right away when they noticed Susan wasn’t drinking at the party! When I found out we were having a son I was elated. I couldn’t wait to teach him to play baseball and do all the things a father dreams of with a son. We decided to name him Donovan after Susan’s father Donald, who sadly passed away before Susan was even born. We would call him Donnie which was her father’s nickname. At the time we had no idea how different our story would be. Donovan at less than a week old, in July 2011. Complications before birth Everything with my wife Susan’s pregnancy was “normal” up until 28 weeks when she had an ultrasound showing Donnie was extremely growth restricted. They did some additional monitoring for the next two weeks and the next ultrasound at 30 weeks showed irregular blood flow profile, which set off the first off many alarms. They did not allow my wife to leave the hospital and would transfer her to Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston that day. Because we were convinced things would be OK, we hadn’t packed an emergency bag to keep with us. I had to drive home to pack some things for Susan, having a panic attack in the process not knowing what would happen to my unborn son. When Susan arrived at the hospital the doctors said things looked a little better but would continue to monitor things with ultrasounds twice a day. Something was definitely wrong; one ultrasound would look not so good, the next one better, the next one a little different. They determined that the blood flow across the placenta was extremely irregular so they’d need to deliver him via emergency C-section. Donovan was born at 30 weeks and 6 days on July 14, 2011. He was only 2 lbs 4 oz (1024 g). The staff said he should have been about 3.5 lbs for that gestational age so he was significantly smaller than he should have been. “All we could do was hold him” The next few months would be crazy to say the least. Susan would arrive at the hospital in the late morning (her maternity leave couldn’t be delayed for a preemie, so she was out of work) and I would head over after work. We’d stay by his incubator/bedside for hours, doing whatever we could for him while the NICU nurses did the lion’s share. It took a few days before we were allowed to hold him. For many weeks, holding him is all we could do and we were thankful. After a few weeks we could change his diaper and help with little things but mostly we just stayed there and talked to him. As the weeks went by, Donnie wasn’t growing as much as he should have and he struggled with his oxygen saturation. He’d have many “spells” or desaturations that were alarming because prolonged lack of O2 can cause brain damage. Because of these spells, he wasn’t allowed to feed orally because he was at risk for aspiration. At this point he was fed from a tube going into his stomach from his nose (NG for nasal gastric). We hated this because the tape used to secure the tube to his face tore his skin apart. Unexpected meetings One night we attended a training class on infant CPR in the hospital, something we’d need to complete in order to take him home. During the class my wife’s appendix ruptured and she needed emergency surgery to remove it; good thing we were in a hospital. My mind wandered to the possibly losing my wife while my son was in the NICU. I think I lost a year of my life with the stress from that night but Susan’s surgery went well. After she went into surgery around midnight I went to the NICU to see Donovan since I had nowhere else to go. That night I got to meet Karen – the night nurse who always insisted on taking care of him. We had heard the stories of the nurse who took care of him at night from the day staff. If Karen was assigned to another baby, she would switch so she could take care of Donovan because she loved him. If it wasn’t for the appendix issue, I never would have met and thanked her for all she did, so at least some good came out of that night. Donovan has had many nurses and therapists in his life and we’re profoundly grateful to all of them. “We owed him that” The time went by at the Brigham & Women’s NICU for about two and a half months and then he was transferred to Children’s Hospital of Boston in early October. There he would undergo additional testing for his breathing and feeding issues. Donovan and his mom, Susan in the ICU. After about a month of evaluation and many tests, we were faced with a choice: we could bring him home with a tracheostomy and feeding tube, or he would need to stay in a rehabilitation facility on high-flow oxygen until his breathing issues were resolved. The thought of cutting a hole in our baby’s throat was horrifying but we had no idea how long his issues would last. We wanted him home and trusted in the expertise of the team at Children’s so we opted for the surgeries. The days immediately following his surgery were very scary. He developed some type of infection and his O2 levels were crashing. We couldn’t understand – these surgeries were supposed to help him and now we were afraid we’d lose him. I remember eating breakfast in a diner with Susan one morning and I finally broke down. I didn’t want him to die in a hospital. If he was going to die, I wanted to bring him home first. We owed him that. After crying snot into my pancakes for a few minutes I composed myself and Susan reassured me he’d be ok. Concentrating on getting Donovan home Despite swelling up like a balloon from the antibiotics and looking completely unrecognizable, he did get better. He stayed at Children’s for about another month and was then transferred to a local rehab hospital. That month felt the longest for us because he wasn’t receiving the same level of 1:1 care as in the NICUs and honestly, we were very concerned for his safety without having a nurse by his bedside at all times. I won’t mention the facility or any details but it did motivate us to do learn everything we needed to and get signed off on all of his care ASAP so we could get him home. At that point we were very weary of hospitals so one night I made pics of us going on vacation to far off lands as a way to amuse myself! Our family's "trip" to Egypt! Finding our new normal Donovan finally came home on December 28 2012. It was very scary at first because the medical supply company messed up all of our supplies, and we then had to acclimate to having nurses who we’d never met taking care of Donovan while we slept. We also had to develop a “home routine” for his care which took a little while, but it was much better than being in the hospital. I’m very grateful for our employer who allowed us both to bank vacation time and take large chunks when he first came home. After my vacation time was used up, I was very fortunate to take a leave of absence from work for his care. We were delusional that the trache would come out in a few months and things would be “normal” after that. Not quite. Finally home: Donovan hanging out in August 2012 I was able to return to work in January 2013 and we managed the chaos as best we could. We had home nursing but we used that for nights. Donovan received tube feeds every three hours and needed 24/7 monitoring and suction. I managed his care during the weekdays while we had nurses almost every night so we could sleep. “To see him playing in the sand and waves was amazing” His trache was removed after 2 long years. I never thought it would have taken that long. The stoma (the hole in his throat) stayed open for a while but was finally closed in March 2015. That was a huge milestone because it allowed us to take Donnie to the beach for the first time that summer. Before this, we couldn’t risk him getting sand in his throat with no way to remove it. We were blessed with a healthy daughter, Emerson Rose in May 2014, and in July 2015 we got to take our first family vacation at the beach in Rhode Island. It was far from a vacation with the amount of work involved with taking our circus on the road but to finally see him playing in the sand and in the waves was amazing. Despite having his trache removed and throat closed, Donovan still struggles to this day with breathing issues. He is prone to croup which is very scary. He also has a habit of getting sick when I’m visiting friends or traveling for work which really stresses out Susan and leads to some very interesting phone calls. Awaiting anesthesia for a bronchoscopy to check the status of his throat in March 2013. Getting ready to eat on his own Donovan’s feeding was more of a project. After he received his trache and G-Tube surgery, any interest he had in oral feeding prior to that was gone. It took a very long time until he was ready to eat on his own. For years we struggled with epic vomiting issues and overnight tube feedings, but through tireless work along with dedication from our nanny and home nurses, he started eating around four years old. It took a while to build him up until he was taking all of his calories and then his medications by mouth, but he finally got his “Mic-Key Button” removed in January 2018. Long-sought answers lead to more questions Donovan’s “AcroD” diagnosis took quite a long time, but in another regard it came rather quick. For years we had been focused on his other medical needs and issues as they were more immediate. We always knew there was a genetic component that summed up his general condition because being a preemie did not explain some of his other physical features. For years we had been consumed with trying to get him enough calories to he would be able to grow. With his tube-feeding and vomiting, it was a constant struggle to get him to take in enough calories. But now he was eating like a champ but still wasn’t growing. Despite being at Children’s for six years or more, his specialists there did not have many answers for us and full genome genetic testing had been rejected by our insurance. We were recommended to Dr Christina Jacobsen, who specializes in Orthopedics but had related interests in endocrinology and genetics. She had recently seen another patient with Acrodysostosis a few months before, so when she met us she recognized what it may be. The test came back positive for Acrodysostosis Type 1 (PRKAR1A mutation) and an additional blood test confirmed resistance to growth hormone. It seemed very surreal to be searching for answers for years and then have this doctor recognize it immediately – well done Dr J! It felt good to finally have a diagnosis, but in other ways it made us worry more knowing that what he has can’t be treated. What will his future hold? Will he be able to live an independent life? What will happen to him as Susan and I grow old? I’m sure many other AcroD families struggle with these same thoughts but that doesn’t make it any easier. Currently there are no plans by Donovan’s specialists to do anything new or different regarding his care, but hopefully having this diagnosis will give them other things to consider. Currently we don’t know what his potential will be but through his medical treatments, speech therapy, PT, OT and ABA therapy we’re pushing him to become the best little man he can be. Settling into school life Donnie is currently in first grade in a sub-separate classroom due to his developmental delays and behavior issues. He loves school and because of his flaming red hair and personality, he’s pretty well known to staff and students at all levels. Donovan's school picture, taken in September 2017 He performs some activities around grade level like writing and comprehension, but struggles in some other areas. Our goal is to keep supporting him and push towards a goal of having him integrated with other students in a few years. Early reports form his teachers is that he’s doing well and spending more time in the regular class which is a great sign. He is non-verbal so communication is challenging but he does use an AAC device at school and at home that has helped (Proloquo2Go on an iPad). Being able to actively communicate and eliminating the behavioral outbursts will be key to getting him into a class with his peers full time. It is amazing to see him interact with his friends despite not being able to speak directly to them. He does use his AAC but it does seem like they understand some of his vocal approximations and mannerisms. We haven’t had much time to assimilate to the AcroD community yet since he was just diagnosed a few months ago, but we hope our story will inspire others as we learn to navigate these new waters. We don’t know what the future holds for Donovan. He’s faced more challenges than any child ever should during his seven years. He’s a strong little boy so we’re very confident he’ll continue to persevere, take on all the challenges he faces and keeps improving on his milestones. We’re hoping with a little luck and a whole lot of work, he’ll be just fine. Donovan and his little sister, Emerson ready to jump into the pool! Here are some other things about Donovan… He is a very happy and affectionate boy. He loves to snuggle with mom and dad and give lots of hugs to his friends at school. He loves his sister Emerson (4) but they do get on each other’s nerves at times – to be expected ☺ He loves his two cats Tek and Trot (named after former Red Sox players). Sometimes he gets a little rough but has gotten much better over the years. Because of his tracheostomy we never heard it for years, but he has the best laugh I could ever imagine. Also, he has a sick sense of humor because he thinks it’s funny to fart on his parents. I’ve told Susan that this is evidence that guys just think farts are funny and there’s no other explanation needed. He loves to watch baseball with his dad. He’s never seen a real game in person but taking him to see the Red Sox is a future goal for us. I tell people he wanted to be rushed to Boston so he could be born right down the street from Fenway Park. He does participate in a special baseball program called the Miracle League. His first few games were rough but he got better each week. The people who organize this league are so supportive and amazing to give kids and families an opportunity to play a sport and be part of a team. He loves long rides in my truck. Every time we start merging onto a highway he just screams and laughs. We take him on train rides as well – he just loves to see the world. He enjoys swimming (with Puddle Jumpers) and listening to Jimmy Buffett music by our pool just like his dad. The pool was scary when he had the trache but now that his throat is closed he enjoys kicking all around and getting tossed in. Winters tend to be long and frustrating in New England so this makes for some great family time during the summer. The Murphy family: Georgia, Susan, Peter and Donovan at the Miracle League game with the 2013 Red Sox World Series Trophy. "Acrodysostosis doesn't stop me dancing" The resilience of a survivor Musical Maddie! ©2018 by Acrodysostosis Support and Research Charity Registration 1182818	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line934
__label__wiki	0.920283	0.920283	Dozens of civilians killed in Syria air strikes on Homs Government air strikes in towns of Talbiseh and Zaafaraneh in Homs leave at least 27 people, including children, dead. The Syrian conflict, which began as a peaceful protest in 2011, has led to at least 250,000 deaths [EPA] At least 27 people, including six children, were killed when government warplanes targeted several areas in Homs province, including the towns of Talbiseh and Zaafaraneh, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Wednesday. The death toll is still expected to rise, the observatory added, because several others have been severely injured. Some bodies remained under the rubble. In another development, government helicopters dropped at least 26 barrel bombs on Western Ghouta outside of the capital Damascus, with no death toll reported yet, the observatory said. Russia authorises use of troops Russia’s upper house of parliament has granted President Vladimir Putin authorisation to deploy the country’s air force to Syria, according to the head of presidential administration. Sergey Ivanov said on Wednesday that the Federation Council backed Putin’s request for approval unanimously. “The operation’s military goal is exclusively air support of the Syrian armed forces in their fight against ISIL,” he said, referring to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group fighting against President Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian conflict, which began as a peaceful protest in 2011, has led to at least 250,000 deaths, according to the United Nations. More than half of Syria’s prewar population of 22.4 million has been internally displaced or fled abroad. Highest number of Syria air strikes recorded in July Syria conducts 6,673 air raids, highest since start of uprising in 2011, killing 791 civilians, monitoring group says. From: Inside Syria Syria conflict: Will US expand air strikes? UN says crisis is biggest humanitarian emergency of our time as the number of refugees tops three million.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line935
__label__cc	0.63792	0.36208	Home / Publications / Copyright and the Digital Economy (ALRC Report 122) / 7. Third Parties / Safe harbours 7.58 The exceptions recommended in this Report are not intended to replace the safe harbour scheme in pt V div 2AA of the Copyright Act. The purpose of the safe harbour scheme, as Robert Xavier explained, is to give carriage service providers ‘some protection from the otherwise unavoidable risk of liability for inadvertently hosting or communicating infringing material on behalf of their users’.[51] 7.59 This chapter is not about third parties facilitating or authorising copyright infringement, for example, by hosting user generated content that infringes copyright or by providing a digital locker that some customers might use to illegally share pirated music with strangers. A safe harbour may provide appropriate protection from secondary liability, where such protection is warranted and subject to conditions.[52] The scope of this protection is being reviewed, and is outside the Terms of Reference for this Inquiry. 7.60 Instead, the focus of this chapter is on third parties facilitating uses of copyright material that, if performed by the end user, would be covered by an exception—for example, by providing a digital locker that some customers might use to store legally obtained music for private use. 7.61 Although a safe harbour may protect third parties from both types of potential copyright infringement, in the ALRC’s view, the Act should also provide for exceptions to copyright for some types of third party activities, and that fair use is best suited for these purposes. 7.62 Some stakeholders suggested that the safe harbour scheme was either sufficient for, or the preferred method of dealing with, third party facilitators.[53] However, the ALRC agrees with those who suggested that suitable exceptions and a safe harbour scheme were both necessary.[54] The safe harbour scheme does not provide an absolute defence to infringement, and it places certain obligations on service providers, such as an obligation to remove infringing content when given notice.[55] 7.63 In the ALRC’s view, third parties should not need to rely on a safe harbour scheme to make fair use of copyright material, although they may need to rely on the safe harbour scheme for unfair uses.[56] The safe harbour scheme may be necessary for other activities, but not for fair use or otherwise non-infringing activity. In fact, some third party fair uses will be highly productive and transformative, and should therefore be encouraged, rather than merely tolerated. R Xavier, Submission 531. See also Australian Government Attorney-General’s Department, Revising the Scope of the Copyright ‘Safe Harbour Scheme’, Consultation Paper (2011). See, eg, Telstra Corporation Limited, Submission 602; Google, Submission 600: ‘online service providers provide a wide range of services, and host a diverse range of content, which may involve copies that would not be covered by a fair use provision. This may include hosted user generated content (for example, videos on YouTube or ‘memes’ shared on a social network like Google Plus) which contains content which would not be covered by a fair use provision. … Google believes that the expansion of the existing safe harbours to online service providers is an important reform in the interests of the Australian digital economy.’ Law Institute of Victoria, Submission 198: ‘If an operator is purely hosting a cloud based digital locker service—that is, providing a cloud based facility for customers to store digital content—this of itself should not trigger any liability for copyright infringement. In the LIV’s opinion, the hosting of such a service should be exempted from liability, and consider that this is most appropriately dealt with under the safe harbour provisions.’ For example, Telstra Corporation Limited, Submission 602. See Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) s 116AH. The fact that a particular third party use is not fair use does not imply that that use should not be protected by a safe harbour scheme.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line936
__label__cc	0.635116	0.364884	AJC Applauds South Dakota Executive Order Banning Boycotts of Israel January 14, 2020 — Pierre, South Dakota AJC commends South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem for signing an executive order prohibiting state offices from doing business with companies that boycott Israel. The executive order requires vendors seeking contracts with state agencies, authorities, commissions, departments, or institutions of the State of South Dakota to not engage with companies that participate in boycotts of Israel. This order applies to companies, or contractors, with more than five employees who enter into a contract with South Dakota that involves the expenditure of $100,000 or more. South Dakota is the latest state to take concrete action against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement which seeks to delegitimize and demonize Israel. Other states that have passed similar measures include Alabama, California, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Texas. South Dakota is the 28th state to have enacted an anti-BDS executive order or legislation. “Governor Noem has taken bold action to combat the insidious BDS movement that encourages punitive actions solely against Israel,” said Laurence Bolotin, Director of the AJC Chicago Region, which covers South Dakota. “BDS proponents do not advance peace at all. Peace only will be achieved in direct bilateral negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.” More BDS News AJC Commends Governor Mike Parson for Signing Anti-BDS Bill into Law Read the Press Release Don’t Blame Israel for Racial Injustice in America Read AJC's Analysis	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line938
__label__wiki	0.915721	0.915721	Top Songs & Albums Steve Cole ... read moreThe title of Steve Cole's third recording, NY LA, may trip on the East Coast-meets-West Coast hipness factor of his fresh and crackling brand of smooth sax jazz, but the soul in his music definitely has more than a few touches of the R&B/blues influence of his hometown, Chicago. The saxman's... Ny La photo by David Goldman Active: 1990s-2000s The title of Steve Cole's third recording, NY LA, may trip on the East Coast-meets-West Coast hipness factor of his fresh and crackling brand of smooth sax jazz, but the soul in his music definitely has more than a few touches of the R&B/blues influence of his hometown, Chicago. The saxman's trademark sound is a sizzling mix of modern funk textures and neo-soul sensibilities mixed with quick, catchy hooks and feisty horn textures on the choruses. He's primarily a tenor player, but keeps the listener interested with tracks that cater to his skills on alto and soprano as well. His rise to genre stardom perfectly paralleled smooth jazz's tendency in the latter '90s and beyond to embrace the old and new R&B grooves. The son of a semi-pro clarinet and sax player, Cole trained classically, first on the clarinet before switching to the sax in high school. He continued his musical studies at Northwestern University and was among the winners of the annual Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Young Artists competition. Even while earning a degree in economics and later an M.B.A., he switched his musical focus to his truer loves, R&B and jazz, and became a staple on Chicago's club scene. He's kept great company over the years, starting with Junior Wells and pianist Bob Mamet. Cole's smooth jazz breakthrough was his several-year side gig with Brian Culbertson, which led to his working with the keyboardist (also a Windy City native) on tracks that evolved into Stay Awhile, one of smooth jazz's biggest sensations of 1998. The success of his debut and its three hit radio singles also ensured Cole's success at the 2000 Oasis Smooth Jazz Awards, where he won the Prism Award for Best New Artist. In between Stay Awhile and 2002's Between Us (also produced by Culbertson), Cole kept busy playing with his own band and as a sideman with Dave Koz, Marc Antoine and Peter White (on a U.K. tour), Rick Braun, and Larry Carlton. Between Us featured the hit singles "Got It Going On" and "From the Start," as well as a snazzy cover of TLC's "Waterfalls." Cole's most enduring relationship is the one with Culbertson, and his sax graces three of the keyboardist's hit recordings. Culbertson helms some tracks on NY LA, but Cole expands beyond his usual sonic edges by also working with fellow saxman David Mann and the tandem Sonic Soul, who introduce vocals to the Cole mix for the first time. NY LA was recorded in both cities with top sidemen like bassist Will Lee, guitarist Paul Jackson, Jr., percussionist Lenny Castro, and former Miles Davis keyboardist Darren Johnson. Rather than simply repeat the creative ideas of Cole's first two hits, the album effortlessly bridges the gap between instrumental virtuosity, seamless ensemble playing, and a high-caliber creative chemistry that runs the stylistic gamut. Cole subsequently released two albums during the 2000s: Spin in 2005 and True in 2006. In 2011, Cole delivered the orchestral covers album Moonlight, featuring songs by James Taylor, Burt Bacharach, Sarah McLachlan, Paul McCartney, and others. The contemporary funk and smooth jazz-oriented Pulse followed two years later. In 2016, Cole released his eighth studio album, Turn It Up, featuring the single, "Mirage." ~ Jonathan Widran~ Rovi Boney James Kirk Whalum Dave Koz Brian Culbertson Jazz Lounge Dinner 18 tracks • 56511 followers Top 2016: Smooth Jazz 26 tracks • 2 followers Top Smooth Jazz 2016	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line939
__label__wiki	0.604562	0.604562	AML and risk Employment, immigration and health & safety Environment, planning and natural resources Infrastructure and projects Overseas investment Private client and trusts Renewable energy and carbon trading Rural and agribusiness The Worst Case Scenario: Investment Risk When making new investments many people look through rose-coloured glasses, but it is essential to consider the risks. An example of a worst case scenario is the recent Court of Appeal decision of Station Properties Ltd (in receivership and liquidation) v Kumar. The defendants entered into agreements to buy apartments in the belief that they would never be required to settle the purchases. In May 2006, Mr and Mrs Kumar, Mr Selwyn and Mr and Mrs Donaldson entered into arrangements to partly fund the development of a complex to be built in Queenstown by Station Properties. They each signed agreements to purchase individual apartments. The developer’s plan was to sell the whole complex after it was constructed, at which time it would cancel the individual apartment agreements. The parties who had agreed to buy the apartments would receive a fee of one percent of the purchase price and a share of the profits made on the development. The parties did not anticipate a significant downturn in the property market over the following years. Construction was completed, but Station Properties was unable to sell the complex in its entirety. In 2008, Station Properties began calling on the purchasers to settle in accordance with the agreements. At that stage, the finished apartments were worth substantially less than what the purchasers had agreed to buy them for. The purchasers refused to settle. In 2010, Station Properties was in receivership and its receivers cancelled the agreements and sued for damages. The High Court held that because Station Properties had not obtained a practical certificate of completion for the complex, it was not entitled to require settlement and was not awarded damages. The Court of Appeal was satisfied the purchasers had each repudiated the agreements by making it clear they had no intention of meeting their obligation to settle the apartment purchases at the prices agreed in 2006. The purchasers argued that Station Properties was in material breach of the contracts due to not meeting the requirements for practical completion, failure to pay the agreed one per cent fee and failure to provide furniture for each apartment. On that basis the purchasers felt they were justified in repudiating their agreements. The Court of Appeal disagreed. By the time the dispute reached the Court of Appeal, a certificate of practical completion had been issued – but incorrectly by the quantity surveyors rather than the architects. However the Court was satisfied this issue could have easily been remedied because practical completion had in fact been achieved. Other breaches by Station Properties were relatively minor and could have been remedied before or upon settlement. The Court of Appeal was satisfied that when the purchasers repudiated the agreements, Station Properties was ready, willing and able to transfer the completed apartments to the purchasers in exchange for payment of the purchase price. The purchasers never expected to buy the apartments themselves. However the Court of Appeal held that they were contractually required to do so, and that Station Properties was entitled to compensation from the purchasers for their failure to settle. The next time you are entering into a contract take the time to consider what you are agreeing to. While contracting parties may expect or hope for a particular outcome, things do not always happen as intended. [1] Station Properties Ltd (in receivership and liquidation) v Kumar and others [2013] NZCA 70, 20 March 2013 Prepared by Lesley Brook. PDF version: The Worst Case Scenario : Investment Risk Auckland +64 9 338 8300 Christchurch +64 3 379 0037 Dunedin +64 3 477 3973 Queenstown +64 3 450 0700 lawyers@al.nz	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line940
__label__cc	0.683471	0.316529	By John F. Weeks How much do economists really know? In most cases, they claim to have profound knowledge but in fact understand little and obscure almost everything. This book exposes the myths of mainstream economics and explains why current policies fail to serve the interests of the vast majority of people in the United States, Europe and elsewhere. Instead, they serve the few, increasing inequality and poverty. Download Flyer Recommend to Librarian e-Inspection Copy Today’s ‘doctrine of choice’ assures adults that they are competent to make serious personal decisions about healthcare, education and retirement plans. At the same time, most people are convinced that they are so ignorant of economics that they are not capable of holding an informed opinion, and that economic issues must be left to experts. The so-called experts of the mainstream economics profession claim to have profound, inaccessible knowledge; in fact they understand little and obscure almost everything. Understanding the economy is not simple, but it is no more complicated than understanding the political system sufficiently to cast a vote. In straightforward language, John F. Weeks exposes the myths of mainstream economics and explains why current economic policies fail to serve the vast majority of people in the United States, Europe and elsewhere. He demonstrates that austerity policies have little theoretical basis and achieve nothing but inequality and misery. He goes on to explain how the current deficit and debt ‘crises’ in the United States and Europe are ideologically manufactured, unnecessary and simple to overcome. Drawing on examples from around the world, this book provides a bold alternative to the economics of the 1%. Their failure to serve the interests of the many results from their devoted service to the few. “Weeks shows how professional economists conceal the real workings of the capitalist economic system in the interests of the rich and powerful. They foster ignorance to flog a theory – a professional fraud – that justifies reaction. Frustration grips the page. […]Weeks’ ‘Economics of the 1%’ is a powerful indictment of the state of the contemporary economics profession.” —“Marx & Philosophy Review of Books” ‘In clear and straightforward language, [Weeks] unpacks the assumptions of mainstream economics in a bid to show how modern economists have inculcated in non-economists the erroneous belief that such theories are inspired by reality.’ —Ioana Negru, ‘Times Higher Education’ “John F. Weeks has performed a big and important service. The economic dogma that sired the financial crash of 2008–9 and the longest recession for a century remains the dominant ideology, for lack of the coup de grace to consign it to oblivion. John F. Weeks sets about this task with a forthrightness and zeal akin to the biblical destruction of false prophets. This book should be read by all who seek the restoration of sanity in economics from the corrupting clutches of perhaps the biggest austerity hoax ever perpetrated.” —Michael Meacher, British Labour MP for Oldham West and Royton “Weeks’s dry and sarcastic style complements, and lightens, his deep analysis of the economic assumptions which many consider rational. […] his work has already played an extremely useful role helping us see and better understand some of the core economic truths we thought we knew.” —Steve Rushton, Occupy.com “Why do economic policies seem so impenetrable and confusing to most? Weeks provides a clear explanation for how the layperson can decipher them. Every concerned voter should read this book to be economically literate.” —Peter Welch, US Congressman from Vermont and Chief Deputy Whip of the House of Representatives Democratic Caucus “The recent crisis has exposed the weaknesses of not only the business models of the capitalist world but also the flaws in mainstream economic thought. John F. Weeks’ polemic on the ‘Economics of the 1%’ explores these intellectual blind alleys and takes no prisoners. Pointing out holes in the mainstream logic, Weeks aligns himself with the tradition(s) of Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes and Thorstein Veblen, and with such contemporaries as James K. Galbraith, Ha-Joon Chang and Paul Krugman. And Weeks is right. We have to replace ‘fakeconomics’ with proper economic analysis to combat the social inequalities that have grown disproportionately and dangerously in recent decades.” —László Andor, Economist and Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, European Commission “With barely concealed rage, excoriating analysis and unswerving clarity, Weeks dissects and exposes the myths and lies of the free-market propaganda upon which our current economic system is built. Eminently readable, ‘Economics of the 1%’ is a tour de force – a clarion call for a common-sense economics that serves us all, not just the rich and powerful.” —Caroline Lucas, British MP for Brighton Pavilion and Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales John F. Weeks is professor emeritus of economics at SOAS, University of London, and has advised numerous governments and international organizations over the past forty years. No series for this title. Preface: Doctor Bob’s Third Law; Introduction: Economic Ignorance; Chapter 1: Fakeconomics and Economics; Chapter 2: Market Worship; Chapter 3: Finance and Criminality; Chapter 4: Selling Market Myths; Chapter 5: Riches, “Sovereignty” and “Free Trade”; Chapter 6: Lies about Government; Chapter 7: Deficit Disorders and Debt Delirium; Chapter 8: Governments Cause Inflation?; Chapter 9: Institutionalized Misery: Austerity in Practice; Chapter 10: Economics of the 99%	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line943
__label__wiki	0.959615	0.959615	Angela Merkel sees Twitter’s cancelling of Donald Trump as ‘problematic’ Jan 12th 2021 7:42AM German Chancellor Angela Merkel considers US President Donald Trump's eviction from Twitter by the company "problematic", her spokesman said. Twitter permanently suspended Mr Trump from the microblogging platform on Friday, citing a "risk of further incitement of violence" in the wake of the storming of the US Capitol by supporters of the outgoing president. Asked about Twitter's decision, Mrs Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said the operators of social media platforms "bear great responsibility for political communication not being poisoned by hatred, by lies and by incitement to violence". He said it is right not to "stand back" when such content is posted, for example by flagging it. Angela Merkel in the UK LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM: Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair (R) leads Angela Merkel (L), Germany's opposition party leader, to a meeting at No.10 Downing Street in London 02 February 2005. AFP PHOTO Adrian DENNIS / WPA POOL (Photo credit should read ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images) LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM: Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair (R) greets Angela Merkel (L), Germany's opposition party leader, at No.10 Downing Street in London 02 February 2005. AFP PHOTO Adrian DENNIS / WPA POOL (Photo credit should read ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images) The German Chancellor Angela Merkel , and the French President Emmanuel Macron are seen during a joint press conference at the chancellery in Berlin, as part of Macron first official visit as President to Germany, on Monday, May 15, 2017. (Photo by Omer Messinger) * Please Use Credit from Credit Field * LONDON - NOVEMBER 24: British Prime Minister Tony Blair greets his German counterpart Chancellor Angela Merkel on the steps of number 10 Downing Street, November 24, 2005 in London. (Photo by Bruno Vincent/Getty Images) London, UNITED KINGDOM: Britain's Prime minister Tony Blair greets German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the steps of No.10 Downing street in London , 03 November 2006. Tony Blair was to press German Chancellor Angela Merkel Friday to use her country's influence to do more about climate change, his spokesman said ahead of talks between the two. AFP PHOTO / ODD ANDERSEN (Photo credit should read ODD ANDERSEN/AFP via Getty Images) LONDON - NOVEMBER 3: British Prime Minister Tony Blair, right, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, give a news conference inside the State Dining Rooms at Blair's London residence 10 Downing Street, for a meeting ahead of a press conference on November 3, 2006, London, United Kingdom. German chancellor, Angela Merkel is under pressure to take up the drive to reach an international agreement to tackle climate change. (Photo by Richard Lewis-pool/Getty Images) German Chancellor-Angela Merkel (R) meets with Britains Prime Minister-Gordon Brown (L) in 10 Downing Street, 22 August 2007. Ahead of talks at Brown's Downing Street office in London, the pair said "urgent action" was needed to tackle diseases like HIV/AIDS and cut child and maternal mortality rates in developing countries. AFP PHOTO/SHAUN CURRY (Photo credit should read SHAUN CURRY/AFP via Getty Images) LONDON - AUGUST 22: Prime Minister Gordon Brown meets with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at 10 Downing Street on August 22, 2007 in London, England. They are to attend the England v Germany friendly football match following their Downing Street meeting. (Photo by Cate Gillon/Getty Images) LONDON - AUGUST 22: German Chancellor Angela Merkel talks to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown prior to the international friendly match between England and Germany at Wembley stadium on August 22, 2007 in London, England. (Photo by Martin Rose/Bongarts/Getty Images) LONDON - JANUARY 29: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown hosts a meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy (L) and German Chancellor Angela Merkel (R) at Downing St on January 29, 2008 in London, England. The Prime Minister is hosting the meeting in Downing Street to discuss financial markets and the global economy. (Photo by Kirsty Wigglesworth-Pool/Getty Images) LONDON - JANUARY 29: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown addresses the media as French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi look on during a press conference for the European Union Summit at the Foreign Office on January 29, 2008 in London, England. European leaders are attending a financial summit hosted by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. (Photo by Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images) French president Nicolas Sarkozy, German chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Italy's caretaker Premier Romano Prodi, (left to right), in Downing Street, London. (Photo by Fiona Hanson - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images) German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L) addresses a press conference with Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 10 Downing Street in London, on October 30, 2008. German Chancellor Angela Merkel held talks with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Thursday on how to respond jointly to the global financial crisis. The talks came two days after a visit by Brown to Paris to discuss Europe's response to the crisis with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, current holder of the rotating European Union (EU) presidency. AFP PHOTO/Shaun Curry/WPA POOL (Photo credit should read SHAUN CURRY/AFP via Getty Images) Britain's Queen Elizabeth II (R) meets German Chancellor Angela Merkel at Buckingham Palace in London, on October 30, 2008. German Chancellor Angela Merkel will hold talks dominated by the global financial crisis with Prime Minister Gordon Brown. AFP PHOTO/Anthony Devlin/ POOL (Photo credit should read Anthony Devlin/AFP via Getty Images) LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 14: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown (R) and wife Sarah Brown (L) greet German Chancellor Angela Merkel (2nd L) and her husband Joachim Sauer before a meeting at number 10 Downing Street on March 14, 2009 in London, England. Talks are expected to focus on the current economic crisis ahead of the G20 summit of the world's leading economies hosted in London in April. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 14: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown (2nd L) and wife Sarah Brown (L) greet German Chancellor Angela Merkel (2nd R) and her husband Joachim Sauer before a meeting at number 10 Downing Street on March 14, 2009 in London, England. Talks are expected to focus on the current economic crisis ahead of the G20 summit of the world's leading economies hosted in London in April. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L), Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (2nd L) and US President Barack Obama (2nd R) prepare to pose for a family photo during the G20 summit at the ExCel centre, in east London, on April 2, 2009. World leaders meet Thursday for a crunch summit of the Group of 20 richest nations aimed at fixing the crisis-wracked global economy. AFP PHOTO/Dominique Faget (Photo credit should read DOMINIQUE FAGET/AFP via Getty Images) US President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel attend at G20 dinner held at 10 Downing Street, London. (Photo by Steve Parsons - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images) German Chancellor Angela Merkel with Britain's Queen Elizabeth II during a reception at Buckingham Palace for world leaders attending the G20 summit in London. (Photo by John Stillwell - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images) British prime minister Gordon Brown (R) and German Chancellor Angela Merkel walk around the garden at Chequers, Buckinghamshire, the prime minister's official country residence, on April 1, 2010. The Council of the Royal Society will on Thursday award German Chancellor Merkel with the Society�s highest international honour, the King Charles II medal, at the Royal Societe in London, in recognition of her outstanding contribution to science and science-based policy making, in Germany, Europe, and on the wider international stage. AFP PHOTO/Dan Kitwood/WPA POOL (Photo credit should read Dan Kitwood/AFP via Getty Images) LONDON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 07: British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel speak to the press ahead of a bilateral meeting at 10 Downing Street on November 7, 2012 in London, England. Prime Minister Cameron and Chancellor Merkel are holding talks over increasing the EU's seven year budget, with the Prime Minister urging the Chancellor to stick to an agreement made in 2010 to freeze or cut it. (Photo by Dan Kitwood-WPA Pool/Getty Images) German Chancellor Angela Merkel (R) is greeted by British Prime Minister David Cameron as she arrives for a meeting at number 10, Downing Street, central London on November 7, 2012. AFP PHOTO / LEON NEAL (Photo credit should read LEON NEAL/AFP via Getty Images) British Prime Minister David Cameron (L) speaks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at Cameron's country residence in Chequers, outside London on October 31, 2010. The leaders of Britain and Germany were due to discuss the security alert over two plane bombs as well as the recent wrangle over the EU budget during informal talks outside London today, officials said. AFP PHOTO / POOL / Steve Parsons (Photo credit should read Steve Parsons/AFP via Getty Images) German chancellor Angela Merkel (L) speaks to Borussia Dortmund's Head Coach Jurgen Klopp (R) after the UEFA Champions League final football match between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich at Wembley Stadium in London on May 25, 2013, Bayern Munich won the game 2-1 AFP PHOTO / GLYN KIRK (Photo credit should read GLYN KIRK/AFP via Getty Images) IOC president Jacques Rogge, UEFA president Michel Platini, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the president of the german football association Wolfgang Niersbach watch during the UEFA Champions League final football match between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich at Wembley Stadium in London on May 25, 2013. Bayern Munich won the game 2-1. AFP PHOTO / OLIVER LANG (Photo credit should read OLIVER LANG/AFP via Getty Images) LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 25: German Chancellor Angela Merkel (3.L) and President of the German Footall Association Wolfgang Niersbach (L) offer their commiserations to head Coach Jurgen Klopp (2.L) of Borussia Dortmund after losing the UEFA Champions League Final at Wembley Stadium on May 25, 2013 in London, United Kingdom (Photo by Boris Streubel/Getty Images) LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 27: German Chancellor Angela Merkel is welcomed by Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron to 10 Downing Street on February 27, 2014 in London, England. The German Chancellor is due to address a joint session of parliament today where she will make the case for British people to remain members of the European Union. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) Labour leader Ed Miliband meets with German Chancellor, Angela Merkel in central London, after she addressed Members of both Houses of Parliament in the Royal Gallery of the House of Lords in London. (Photo by Stefan Rousseau/PA Images via Getty Images) German Chancellor Angela Merkel addresses both Houses of Parliament in the Royal Gallery of the Palace of Westminster on February 27, 2014 in London. German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Britain Thursday to stay in the EU but played down David Cameron's hopes that her visit to London would bring major reforms. The British premier rolled out the red carpet in his bid to woo fellow conservative Merkel, who gave a speech to both houses of parliament and was due to have tea with the queen. AFP PHOTO/POOL/MARK LARGE (Photo credit should read MARK LARGE/AFP via Getty Images) British Prime Minister David Cameron (R) reacts as he talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel during their meeting at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence, near Ellesborough, northwest of London, on October 9, 2015. AFP PHOTO / JUSTIN TALLIS (Photo credit should read JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images) British Prime Minister David Cameron (L) walks through the rose garden as he talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a meeting at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence, near Ellesborough, northwest of London, on October 9, 2015. AFP PHOTO / JUSTIN TALLIS (Photo credit should read JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images) LONDON, ENGLAND - JANUARY 07: German Chancellor Angela Merkel is welcomed by Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron to 10 Downing Street on January 7, 2015 in London, England. The two leaders are expected to discuss a range of issues including the crisis in Ukraine, the European economy and Germany's year-long presidency of the G7 group of nations ahead of the G7 summit, being held in the Bavarian Alps in June. (Photo by Rob Stothard/Getty Images) LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 10: Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May (L) and German Chancellor Angela Merkel take part in the family photo during the Western Balkans Summit 2018 at Lancaster House on July 10, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Leon Neal - WPA Pool/Getty Images) Prime Minister Theresa May during a press conference with German chancellor Angela Merkel and Polish Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki (unseen) during the second day of Western Balkans summit at Lancaster House, London. (Photo by Stefan Rousseau/PA Images via Getty Images) German Chancellor Angela Merkel poses outside 10 Downing Street, central London on December 3, 2019, ahead of the NATO alliance summit. - NATO leaders gather Tuesday for a summit to mark the alliance's 70th anniversary but with leaders feuding and name-calling over money and strategy, the mood is far from festive. (Photo by DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS / various sources / AFP) (Photo by DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP via Getty Images) LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 03: (----EDITORIAL USE ONLY MANDATORY CREDIT - "TURKISH PRESIDENCY / MURAT CETINMUHURDAR / HANDOUT" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS----) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (2nd R) meets with French President Emmanuel Macron (L), German Chancellor Angela Merkel (R) and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson (2nd L) during the Quartet Syria Summit in London, United Kingdom on December 03, 2019. (Photo by Turkish Presidency / Murat Cetinmuhurdar / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) Britain's Princess Anne, Princess Royal (L) speaks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel (R) at Buckingham Palace in central London on December 3, 2019, during a reception hosted by Britain's Queen Elizabeth II ahead of the NATO alliance summit. - NATO leaders gather Tuesday for a summit to mark the alliance's 70th anniversary but with leaders feuding and name-calling over money and strategy, the mood is far from festive. (Photo by Yui Mok / POOL / AFP) (Photo by YUI MOK/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 03: Prince Charles, Prince of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall talk to Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel at a reception for NATO leaders hosted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace on December 3, 2019 in London, England. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II hosted the reception at Buckingham Palace for NATO Leaders to mark 70 years of the NATO Alliance. (Photo by Yui Mok - WPA Pool/Getty Images) LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 03: Queen Elizabeth II, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister Boris Johnson join other Nato leaders for a group photograph at a reception for NATO leaders hosted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace on December 3, 2019 in London, England. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II hosted the reception at Buckingham Palace for NATO Leaders to mark 70 years of the NATO Alliance. (Photo by Yui Mok - WPA Pool/Getty Images) Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel (R) looks at US President Donald Trump (R) walking past her during a family photo as part of the NATO summit at the Grove hotel in Watford, northeast of London on December 4, 2019. (Photo by CHRISTIAN HARTMANN / POOL / AFP) (Photo by CHRISTIAN HARTMANN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) Nato heads of government (front row L-R): Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg applaud as they pose with US President Donald Trump (middle row L-R) France's President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, and (top row L-R) Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg, Lithuania's Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis and Portugal's Prime Minister Antonio Costa at the NATO summit at the Grove hotel in Watford, northeast of London on December 4, 2019. (Photo by Adrian DENNIS / AFP) (Photo by ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images) German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L) and US President Donald Trump speak during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the NATO summit at the Grove hotel in Watford, northeast of London on December 4, 2019. (Photo by Nicholas Kamm / AFP) (Photo by NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images) But Mr Seibert also said that the freedom of opinion is a fundamental right of "elementary significance". "This fundamental right can be intervened in, but according to the law and within the framework defined by legislators — not according to a decision by the management of social media platforms," he told reporters in Berlin. "Seen from this angle, the Chancellor considers it problematic that the accounts of the US president have now been permanently blocked." Facebook on Thursday suspended Mr Trump's account through to January 20, the day of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration, and possibly indefinitely. Mrs Merkel herself does not have a Twitter account, although Mr Seibert does and many German government ministers do. Read Full Story Click here to comment	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line944
__label__cc	0.573672	0.426328	Message from the Interim Dean Bachelor’s Completion Programs Department of Biology and Chemistry Department of Engineering and Computer Science Department of Global Studies, Sociology, and TESOL Department of Mathematics, Physics, and Statistics Department of Modern Languages Scholarships and Discounts Richter Scholars Research Fellowship Fellowship Project Completion Support Academic Programs and Initiatives General Campus Resources Diana Pavlac Glyer, Ph.D. Professor, Honors College Phone: (626) 815-6000, Ext. 3486 Email: dglyer@apu.edu Office Location: John and Marilyn Duke Academic Complex, Room 629 Diana Glyer, Ph.D., is intrigued by the creative process, particularly the way that creativity thrives within small groups and creative clusters. She is an award-winning writer whose books focus on C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the Inklings. Her latest book is Bandersnatch: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the Creative Collaboration of the Inklings (Black Squirrel Books, 2015). She is best known for The Company They Keep: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community (Kent State University Press, 2008). Ph.D., English (Language, Literacy, and Rhetoric), University of Illinois at Chicago M.S., Education (Curriculum and Instruction), Northern Illinois University B.A., English and Fine Arts, Bowling Green State University B.S., English and Art Education, Bowling Green State University Composition and Rhetoric ENGL 110 – Freshman Writing Seminar ENGL 111 – Introduction to Literature ENGL 324 – World Literature to the Renaissance ENGL 487 – Literary Movements ENGL 488 – Significant Authors ENGL 496 – Senior Seminar: Ethics in the Professions Full Curriculum Vitae (PDF)	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line945
__label__wiki	0.955834	0.955834	Charts Awards Industry ARIA Top 50 Singles ARIA Top 50 Albums Winners & Nominees Telstra ARIA Music Teacher Award ARIA Hall Of Fame Labelling Code ISRC Information News 30 November 2017 Aussie artists receive Grammy nominations Local acts recognised alongside the likes of Jay-Z and Kendrick Lamar. Several Australian artists were among those who received nods when the nominations for the 60th Grammy Awards were announced in the US this week. After winning Best Female Artist at the 2017 ARIA Awards for ‘The Greatest’, Sia has taken out another Grammy nomination. Her track ‘Never Give Up’, which featured in the hit Australian film Lion, has been nominated for Best Song Written For Visual Media. Nominated for three ARIAs in 2017, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, along with director Andrew Dominik, have been nominated for Best Music Film for the documentary One More Time With Feeling. Sydney dance trio Mansionair landed in the Best Dance Recording category as featured artists on Seattle act Odesza’s ‘Line Of Sight’, along with hip hop artist WYNNE. Songwriters Ben Fielding & Brooke Ligertwood received a nomination in the Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song section for the Hillsong Worship track ‘What A Beautiful Name’. Rapper Jay-Z leads the 2018 Grammy nominations with eight for his album 4:44. Kendrick Lamar has taken out seven nominations on the back of the album Damn. 2017 ARIAs guest Lorde has been nominated for Album Of The Year for her second album Melodrama. The 60th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony will be held on January 28, 2018 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Charts News The Weeknd, Harry Styles, Tones And I and AC/DC dominate the 2020 End Of Year ARIA Charts Barry Gibb, Morgan Wallen, Passenger, Olivia Rodrigo could hit this week's ARIA Charts Mood by 24kGoldn hits eleventh week at #1 on the ARIA Singles Chart Mood 24kGoldn Feat. Iann Dior WITHOUT YOU The Kid Laroi Head & Heart Joel Corry & MNEK Levitating Dua Lipa Positions Ariana Grande Contact Us About Us FAQ © 2020 Australian Recording Industry Association. All Rights Reserved. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with prior written permission of the Australian Recording Industry Association. Website by Chook	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line946
__label__cc	0.659577	0.340423	The Ultimate Dimension By: Thich Nhat Hanh Categories: Health & Wellness, Alternative & Complementary Medicine Peace and Freedom in the Here and Now Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Gabra Zackman In troubled times there is an urgency to understand ourselves and our world. We have so many questions, and they tug at us night and day, consciously and unconsciously. In this important volume, Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh - one of the most revered spiritual leaders in the world today - reveals an art of living in mindfulness that helps us answer life's deepest questions and experience the happiness and freedom we desire. By heidi monro on 31-08-18 Healing Oneself Healing the World Narrated by: Thich Nhat Hanh These 2013 recordings by Thich Nhat Hanh are from Magnolia Grove Monastery in Batesville, Mississippi during a 6-day retreat in 2013 with the theme Healing Ourselves, Healing the World. The program has been digitally remastered and has 12 hours of wonderful material. Enlightening By MR DAVID NICOLL on 05-09-18 Body and Mind Are One A Training in Mindfulness When your body and mind work together as one, you are fully and naturally present in the moment. This is the essence of mindfulness practice - allowing us to touch the wonders of life in the here and now. Body and Mind Are One is at once a practical teaching series covering fundamental Buddhist principles for a joyful life and a living transmission of insight from beloved Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, who has practiced, shared, and lived this profound wisdom for over seven decades. By Lard on 25-06-15 Happiness, Love, and Liberation Insights and Teachings from Buddhist Psychology Look deeply into the nature of the mind and you will find the seeds of true happiness and freedom. This was the Buddha's great realization - and it is a discovery that you, too, can make in any moment. With Happiness, Love, and Liberation, you will join Thich Nhat Hanh for seven sessions of advanced teachings and rare insights discovered throughout his seven-decade inquiry into the truths of Buddhist psychology. Understanding the Roots of Suffering - the First Step Toward Freedom. This is a wonderful and beautiful book By Brother Yonten on 19-06-18 Classic Dharma Talks Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk whose lifelong efforts to generate peace and reconciliation moved Martin Luther King, Jr. to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967. Thay (pronounced Tie), as his followers call him, has written numerous books, travels extensively to offer teachings on the art of mindful living, and has been instrumental in introducing Buddhist concepts to the west. brilliant dharma talks By Alex on 31-12-15 Living Without Stress or Fear Essential Teachings on the True Source of Happiness Narrated by: uncredited A life without stress or fear may seem like an impossible dream-yet Thich Nhat Hanh has spent a lifetime proving not only is it possible, but it is also within our grasp. On Living Without Stress or Fear, this treasured Zen master shares a message of hope: that we can, through the practice of mindfulness, find freedom from the grip of emotions like anxiety, anger and despair "Suffering persists because we nourish the feelings that cause it," reveals Thich Nhat Hanh. In the here, and in the now By A. O. Shillingford on 18-10-11 Touching the Eternal A Retreat on the Heart of Spiritual Surrender Through the centuries, countless people from around the world have been coming to India, thirsty in their search for truth. Considered to be the birthplace of spirituality, India has produced more great mystics and spiritual teachers than any other country. What more fitting place for Eckhart to speak of the eternal Now? During this seven-day retreat, Eckhart speaks with humble authenticity, wisdom and humor on a wide range of subjects. Always Amazing. .. Eckhart Tolle. By d bailey on 28-02-15 By: Thich Nhat Hanh, Sister Chan Khong Buddhism teaches that the present moment contains the seeds of all poosibilites for out lives- freedom from suffering; true comapssion for other; and a calm, spacious mind that welcomes change.Originally recorded at a week-long retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh, The Present Moment shares the essential Buddhist practices designed to "touch the energy of mindfulness" that we carry within us... The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation Narrated by: René Ruiz In The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching, Thich Nhat Hanh introduces us to the core teachings of Buddhism and shows us that the Buddha's teachings are accessible and applicable to our daily lives. With poetry and clarity, Nhat Hanh imparts comforting wisdom about the nature of suffering and its role in creating compassion, love, and joy - all qualities of enlightenment. Excellent overview The Miracle of Mindfulness The Classic Guide to Meditation by the World's Most Revered Master Narrated by: John Sackville In this beautifully written book, Buddhist monk and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Thich Nhat Hanh explains how to acquire the skills of mindfulness. Once we have these skills, we can slow our lives down and discover how to live in the moment - even simple acts like washing the dishes or drinking a cup of tea may be transformed into acts of meditation. Thich Nhat Hanh's gentle anecdotes and practical exercises help us to arrive at greater self-understanding and peacefulness, whether we are beginners or advanced. Timeless Wisdom Living from a Place of Surrender The Untethered Soul in Action By: Michael A. Singer Narrated by: Michael A. Singer In 2017, Sounds True launched the first-ever online course with Michael A. Singer, the best-selling author of The Untethered Soul and The Surrender Experiment. The program features eight profound and inspiring all-new sessions drawn from Singer’s 50 years as a spiritual teacher (and a highly successful business entrepreneur). Living from a Place of Surrender brings you the same perspective-shifting, spiritually liberating teaching sessions for letting go of stress and fear and aligning with the flow of life in the moment. Prepare to be ridiculed By Beth on 12-04-20 The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying By: Sogyal Rinpoche Narrated by: John Cleese, Susan Skipper, Peri Eagleton, and others Sogyal Rinpoche presents a radically new vision of living and dying. He shows how to go beyond our fear and denial of death to discover what it is in us that survives death and is changeless. Rinpoche explains simple yet powerful practices that listeners can use to transform their, prepare for death, and help the dying. By jeremyshaw991 on 06-04-11 Essential Meditations with Eckhart Tolle Guided Sessions and Practical Teachings We tend to think of meditation as a formal practice we block time out for each day. But what if every moment of your life was your meditation? For Eckhart Tolle, meditation shouldn't be approached as a chore or a means to an end. Rather, meditation is something that you live. "The aim of meditation," states Eckhart, "is that it eventually becomes your normal state of consciousness." Essential Meditations with Eckhart Tolle points the way toward this quiet, constant state of Presence - where practice gives way to the realization of your innermost identity. Essential Pointing to Freedom By stoad74 on 04-07-20 Discovering the Magic of the Present Moment By: Thich Nhat Hanh, Sherab Chodzin Kohn - translator Narrated by: Lloyd James This moment is the gateway to enlightenment. It is the only moment we have to be joyful, mindful, and awake. The key is to be there for yourself - to learn to be fully present in your life. This, Thich Nhat Hanh explains, is the heart of Buddhist practice. In this introduction to the practice of presence, the beloved Buddhist teacher provides indispensable insight on the essentials of Buddhist thought and offers a range of simple, everyday practices for cultivating mindfulness. Very soothing and reassuring By Malin on 29-01-20 How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path By: Jack Kornfield Narrated by: Jack Kornfield When does enlightenment come? At the end of the spiritual journey? Or the beginning? In After the Ecstasy, the Laundry, Jack Kornfield brings into focus the truth about satori, the awakened state of consciousness, and enlightenment practices today. The result is this extraordinary look at the hard work we all must do - the laundry - no matter how often we experience ecstatic states of consciousness through meditation and other disciplines. Another wonderful offering from Jack Kornfield. By Genevieve on 05-02-17 Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice By: Shunryu Suzuki Narrated by: Peter Coyote In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few. So begins this most beloved of all American Zen works. Seldom has such a small handful of words provided a teaching as rich as this famous opening line of Shunryu Suzuki's classic. In a single stroke, the simple sentence cuts through the pervasive tendency students have of getting so close to Zen as to completely miss what it's all about. An instant teaching in the first minutes. And that's just the beginning. Inspirational Selections from a New Earth In A New Earth, renowned spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle describes how our current ego-based state of consciousness operates. The purpose of this book is to bring about a shift in consciousness, or in his words, an awakening. An essential part of this awakening is the recognition of the ego, and our attachment to things, the past, and enemies. In Oneness with All Life, Eckhart Tolle has picked the essential phrases and paragraphs - the gems of the book - that he feels are most important and reorganized them so listeners can focus on the most powerful ideas. For Those Who Serve Practical Guidance for Being of Benefit to Others For Those Who Serve offers an in-depth exploration of the spiritual aspects of service and a life devoted to the well-being of others. Under the tutelage of Eckhart Tolle, you will learn how to align with the present moment just as it is brings forth the inspiration, insight, and wisdom necessary to give aid and comfort in any situation. By Will on 28-07-20 The teachings of Buddhism describe two realities: the "historical dimension" of time, space, and form, and the "ultimate dimension": an infinite realm beyond birth and death, the realm of complete freedom, peace, and joy, the ground of being called "nirvana". On The Ultimate Dimension, you are invited to sit beside Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh for an advanced dharma retreat that opens the doorway to this sublime experience of being. With him, you will plant the seeds for a daily practice to transform the way you relate to life's difficulties, and begin to unfold your natural state of happiness and wisdom: your Buddha nature. ©2004 Thich Nhat Hanh What listeners say about The Ultimate Dimension Ros Gunwhy Poor Listening Experience The wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh is not in question. The listening experience is, however, extremely poor. Background noise, and the sounds of coughing and chairs moving in the audience completely spoils the quality of this audio. The message of peacefulness and mindfulness is spoilt by the additional noise which makes the author's voice difficult to hear clearly. One of thay's more advanced teachings really enjoyed it but will take a few listens to soak up the full benefit of the teachings Brother Yonten A wonderful introduction This is a wonderful introduction to two of the foundation Sutras in the Mahayana stream of Buddhism. a joy to listen to have bought others by him all of the same standard jeanvers His voice is a little hard to understand but I still like it. You get used to it and if you have problems sleeping it's not a bad book to put on and fall asleep too...his words are simple and to the point and soothing at the same time. Enjoy. cosmic nobody I have always liked Thich Nhat Hanh, but this book was a little different. I'm listening slowly and the talk moves very slowly, but that's okay for the practice he describes. The surprising thing was, he made me laugh out loud- in a good way. Charming, loving, and tender. It will be a while before I finish this book, but I can tell already I will listen to it more than once. TNH's message is not overly complicated, and can get a bit repetitive. I believe the reason for this is that it is his intention that we really hear what he has to say. I enjoyed this book immensly - and if I can practice only a small part of what he teaches, I can see it having a profound impact on my life and happiness. I heartily recommend this book, for both the committed searchers, and those only ready to stick a toe in the water. Always a fine teacher, Nhat Hanh can be listened to many times over with something fresh to contemplate nearly every time. His firm, benevolent calmness always reassures me. Katrina A Radam a wonderful surprise This is my first listen to Thich Nhat Hanh and I was pleasantly surprised. Although I had to slow down and really be present in listening to this master, in doing so, I was transformed from the knowing to the being. It is an honor to be able to hear his teachings in his voice. Deeply calming and soothing lecture series Simple yet very enlightening! The sign of a true teacher. A jem in my book. A repeat of his other books He is such a beautiful loving man, and so much understanding and love comes out of his words, yet I found it just like a repeat of his other books, there was nothing new that he had said, so I did not get anything out of the book. I was kind of disappointed in the cost vs. the fact it was repeated knowledge, and he is also hard to understand at times, I have to turn my volume up all the way just to hear him. I am sure someone else might need to hear his words so don't pass it up just because I feel this way. If you have read his other books you will understand what I am talking about. Hilda Hursh Beautiful and inspiring It takes more than one listen to fully absorb the content. It is a great synthesis of Thich’s teachings. Erica C. Wonderful insight for those who know the basics A deeper understanding into the sutras. It's very good for those who have a foundation in Thay's teachings. If you don't know the basics of mindfulness, you may have questions for clarification and further understanding. I would suggest starting with The Art of Living. I will enjoy listening to this again. thank you for this wonderful learning opprotunity. my practice and mindfulness have been strengenthed immeasurably.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line948
__label__wiki	0.746242	0.746242	Home»Reviews»THE VOICE OF THE POET THE VOICE OF THE POET Elizabeth Bishop by J.D. McClatchy [Ed.] \| Read by Elizabeth Bishop Poetry & Drama • 1 hr. • Unabridged • © 2000 The Voice of the Poet series, produced in installments over a three-year period, is gleaned from Yale library's extensive archive of poetry read at the university over the years. Each program provides a survey of each poet's work at both its strongest and most characteristic; cumulatively, the series reveals the lifeblood of poetry: a human voice making experience into art. Not surprisingly, some of the poets read their work better than others. Elizabeth Bishop is, by far, the least accomplished reader. Although she does seem to improve slightly in a later recording, her reading generally lacks expression. The series itself could not have been put together with more care. A sixty-minute cassette presents the poet reading his or her own work--each includes some never-before-released recordings of the author. Included also is a booklet with a ten-page insightful introduction by noted poet and critic J.D, McClatchy, the text for the twenty or so career-spanning poems read by the poet, and a brief reading list. Beyond the content is the stunning design of the individual packages. Overall, The Voice of the Poet series should stand as a benchmark for other audio poetry programs. P.B.J. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 01] Retail pak • Random House Audio • 2000 CS ISBN 0375409645 $15.95 • One cassettes More reviews by J.D. McClatchy [Ed.] More reviews read by Elizabeth Bishop	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line949
__label__wiki	0.810463	0.810463	Sera Trimble’s Rise to the Top of the Ranks of Stunt-Driving Death defying for a living Basem Wasefwriter Richard Pardonphotographer Sera Trimble isn't trying to scare me, but she does. By stomping a Lamborghini Huracán Spyder's V-10 and flinging the wheel, she kicks out the tail abruptly in a plume of dust. I'm scoping her technique from the passenger seat before directing her in a video shoot, and despite the raucous, pebble-launching powerslides in a $300,000 car on a dirt road, the petite driver remains eerily calm. Trimble, it turns out, is one of the last humans on Earth to warrant concern. As one of Hollywood's most sought-after stunt drivers, her skill set has navigated her through a labyrinth of peculiar automotive scenarios. She's jumped a '72 Chevelle, drifted an Infiniti on polished concrete within inches of actors, steered, accelerated, and braked from the footwell of a Subaru while a dog "drove," dodged explosions in a Camaro, maneuvered a Kia while wearing a hamster suit, and launched a Porsche 928 onto a dock that collapsed into a lake. The drifting-a-Lambo-on-a-dirt-road thing? Essentially a nonevent. This particular driver embodies every automotive-obsessed personality trait you'd expect, despite the usual stereotypes associated with XX chromosomes. Case in point: She outfitted her Los Angeles home with a Gulf-liveried kitchen and a Martini Racing-themed bedroom and is more likely to chitchat about weight distribution and suspension mods than shopping or fashion. But in the grand scheme of things, the car bug took some time to mature. She was born 80 miles north of Seattle in the tiny town of Sedro-Woolley an unspecified number of years ago. (Like many a Hollywood player, she prefers not to disclose her age.) A deep-seated automotive iconography is embedded in her psyche, including an irrational attraction to '66 Sting Rays, a warm spot for the Jaguar E-type hearse from "Harold And Maude," and a self-proclaimed giggle reflex triggered by big-bore muscle cars. But the serious signs didn't manifest until later. Her first car, a Nissan Pulsar NX with seafoam green paint, was simply an escape vehicle from her parents and a way to make a few bucks in high school by delivering pizzas. After two years at art school and a job at Blockbuster, she valet parked cars at a Seattle hotel. Spoiler alert: True love, no matter how circuitous its path, eventually wins. "I drove everything," she recalls, "then I started having feelings about everything." Darting between parking structure pillars revealed handling quirks, and opinions of cars were quickly polarized. That black-on-black Land Rover Discovery she coveted? Its lazy turning radius burst the bubble. The Mercedes-Benz S-Class? Surprisingly nice lumbar support. Any Dodge Neon? Don't get her started. "If you say, 'I think there's a better way we could do this,' no matter who it offends, you live with someone being pissed off and not putting someone in the hospital. " And then, the fate-shifting moment: Director Doug Taub, in town shooting a Lincoln commercial, happened to spot Trimble as she whipped cars around at the valet. "Have you ever thought about driving for a living?" he asked her. "What do you mean?" she answered, pointing to the valet stand. "Look at all these cars I drive for a living." Based on her facile maneuvering (and perhaps aided by her quick wit), Taub offered her a gig as a production assistant so she could dip her toes in the precision-driving business. Sensing an opportunity for change (and admitting to herself that her art education wasn't doing her any good as a valet anyway), she paid a friend $40 to cover for her on a Saturday. "When I think back," she recalls, "that $40 was the best possible career investment I've had to this day. I'm glad he covered that shift because it was totally life-changing." As with any rise, Hollywood or otherwise, success was anything but overnight. She kept in touch with the crew she worked with, and nearly a year later in summer 2007 she moved to Los Angeles and started working as a runner on commercials. Although fixed on her goal of being a driver, she methodically learned how a set worked: who was in charge, who (in her words) kissed whose ass, and how the puzzle pieces of hierarchy fit together. More crucially, she observed what made an exceptional driver, why top drivers demand respect, who hires them, how they save the production money, and why they never seem to complain. Before long she met acclaimed stunt driver Brent Fletcher, who heard she wanted to drive. "I don't want to sleep with anyone to do it," she announced, when asked about her aspirations. "I've only been in L.A. for a few months, but I'm beginning to understand that that's an actual way people get work here. I want to get hired one day because I'm really good at what I do. I don't want to hook up with some producer, and he gives me two jobs as a stunt driver, and everyone thinks I'm an effing joke." Leveling with Fletcher laid the foundation for a career-long friendship and mentorship. "When I knew that driving was all I wanted to do," she remembers, "I never wanted to be on set and have an excuse that I couldn't do what I was there to do." That meant investing heavily in driver training, diverting much of her earnings into instruction over the next several years. She attended schools from virtually every major automaker—BMW, Jaguar, Mercedes-AMG—as well as every conceivable type of course—Skip Barber, Bridgestone Winter Driving, Team O'Neil, and Dirtfish rally schools. The pressure of stunt driving can be immense, and the expectations — especially for a woman — are often crushingly anachronistic. For instance, the common request for Ken Block-like maneuvers must be tempered by a realistic portrait of the vehicle and conditions in question. In other words, a director who thinks a Chevy Cruze can pirouette in a cloud of smoke might need to rearrange his or her expectations. "The fact of the matter is if you seriously, seriously hurt someone, you have to live with that forever," Trimble says. "If you say, 'I think there's a better way we could do this,' no matter who it offends, you live with someone being pissed off at you and not putting someone in the hospital." Also unsurprising is the tendency for some directors to be naturally biased against female drivers. If told a certain maneuver can't happen, some directors "don't want to hear it. They look at me like I'm a hack, like I'm a girl, obviously I don't know how to drive, I can't make it work, and I've wasted their whole day." On Preferred make of stunt car: "Any car with brakes. You really take brakes for granted, they boil over, and you almost go over the mountain or into a helicopter or camera-car crane. " Ensuring she can deliver on her promise of automotive acrobatics requires vigilant attention to detail and exhaustive spatial awareness, often without the luxury of advanced preparation or in-depth rehearsal. Drifting the Infiniti around those actors on polished concrete was particularly stressful. Grip levels changed constantly because fresh rubber was laid down with each take, which could dramatically alter the car's handling characteristics. Upping the X factor was the repositioning of actors and lights between takes, requiring on-the-fly recalibrations of turn-in and apex points. Some 17 takes later, the director was eventually satisfied and called, "Wrap!" Trimble recalls the aftermath: "I was so mentally exhausted, when I got home I couldn't even feed myself. My brain just turned off because I had to focus so hard and couldn't change anything." Maintaining a routine is essential when it comes to prolonged concentration. If Trimble takes a bathroom break and someone has reset her seating position because the car had to be moved, her whole world has changed. One of her favorite examples concerns a stuntman who's about to leap through a plate-glass window and fall 20 stories. The stunt involves a detonating charge to break the window, but the stuntman senses that something isn't quite right. There's a small chance the charge will detonate at his head, so he asks for it to be repositioned by a foot. Stunt coordinator Andy Armstrong, aware of the importance of the stuntman's opinion, stops everything. The helicopter lands, the crew resets, and they start over. The stunt then goes off without a hitch. "Every human has things they like to focus on, and sometimes they're super crucial in moments like that," Trimble explains. "I love the idea, and I will always think of that moment where this big thing is about to happen, and it's like, 'How does this feel? Does everything feel good? Are you comfortable with this?' Because that stuntman's ability to move something one foot completely changed his energy." Once that sense of rightness is established, there are countless degrees of subtlety involved with precision driving. Although she once rated her brake-pedal effort on a scale of 1 to 10, trading notes with fellow stunt driver and racer Tanner Foust inspired her to increase the resolution of her stopping effort, expanding it to a scale from 1 to 100. That exacting level of control can make it difficult to stomach rogue external forces, like ham-fisted Uber drivers. Even though she essentially operates as an aerobatic pilot in two dimensions, her fortitude flies out the window when she's a passenger. "I've gotten ill in taxicabs more than probably anyone who exists," she confesses. "During one trip to Thailand I puked on every moving form of conveyance." When the stakes can be life or death, Trimble's preferences for stunt cars get improbably binary. When asked what carmaker makes her stunt-driver heart go pitter-patter, her response is simple: "Any car with brakes. You really take brakes for granted until driving on a mountainside, they boil over, and you almost go over the mountain or into a helicopter or camera-car crane." She adds, "Any day I'm on the set and my car stops when I want it to stop, it's a good day." As for her personal automotive tastes, her garage reveals some rather varied proclivities. Her fleet includes a Porsche Macan S, an air-cooled 911 Carrera, a Ford Focus ST, and a meticulously restored '68 Dodge Charger that speaks volumes to her eye for detail. After enlisting fellow '68 Charger enthusiast and owner Mike Musto (host of "The House of Muscle" on Motor Trend on Demand), the two embarked on a two-year quest to find her ideal black-on-red steed. Although she started searching for a 440 (the inspiration behind her Instagram handle, @Trims440), her so-called Mopar mentor led her through a journey that involved a seemingly Sisyphean process of sharing listings of prospective cars, to which he invariably responded, "Sera, this one's a big sack of shit." When your prepurchase inspection involves a list of 36 detailed questions (and your undercarriage viewing process is "like, a 3,500-point inspection"), the wheat separates from the chaff fairly quickly. The search eventually led her to a 572-cubic-inch-powered Charger in Indiana. "I was like, '700 lb-ft of torque? Of course I need 700 lb-ft of torque. And 768 horsepower? Of course I need 768 horsepower.' It's like an Indy cylinder head with these crazy headers I can fit my calves into. Holy headers, Batman." Based on her car collection alone, Hollywood appears to have been very good to Trimble. But she plays down the lavish array with the fact that she lacks overhead such as kids, adding that her specialized focus on driving makes her a rare breed in an industry where most stunt people are well-rounded in the fields of weaponry, martial arts, and all manner of physical badassery. "Since I'm technically more 'useless overall,'" she says, "I would be less likely to be brought along on movies for that reason. The fact I survive on a living wage at all baffles me, especially considering the amount of amazing talent out there." Follow Sera on Instagram @trims440 For someone who drives for a living, Trimble has little affinity for nonprofessional motoring, save the occasional jaunt up Angeles Crest Highway with friends or the Robin's Rally, an annual on- and off-road shred she does with a small group of air-cooled Porsche driving buds. As for real racing, she is surprisingly nonplussed by the lure of competition. "I have no personal need to take corners away from people," she explains. "I have more fun at slow speeds being super technical than I do going as fast as I can." As for my Lamborghini video shoot, after my initial ride-along I climb out and shoot car to car with a cameraman, calling instructions through a walkie-talkie for Trimble to execute. She tells me when things don't feel right, and I adjust the shot as required. But when she's on, she's on, coaxing the Lambo with precise authority, driving with balletlike grace as the gray machine cuts an elegant arc through the desert. I know she has reached that "just right" state when she executes a perfect high-speed drift in the dirt, nailing a satisfying yaw angle while staying completely in control. It is at that moment that Trimble once again proves her mettle, allowing me to finally let go and enjoy her performance.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line953
__label__wiki	0.873768	0.873768	Home Airports Dublin Airport (DUB) Dublin Airport welcomes SAS expansion Dublin Airport (DUB) SAS (Scandinavian Airlines System) Dublin Airport welcomes SAS expansion Dublin Airport welcomes the announcement from SAS – Scandinavian Airlines that it is to significantly expand its services at Dublin Airport next year. The airline’s overall capacity to and from Dublin will increase by 11% next year. Seat capacity on the Dublin-Stockholm service is expanding by 9%; Dublin-Oslo will expand by 16% and Dublin-Copenhagen will increase by 9%. SAS is one of Dublin Airport’s oldest customers. The airline started services in Dublin on April 1, 1966 and has carried more than 4.5 million passengers on its three routes between Dublin, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Oslo since then. SAS is a member of the Star Alliance group which comprises 27 airlines worldwide. “We’re delighted to see SAS continuing to grow its business at Dublin Airport,” said Dublin Airport Managing Director Vincent Harrison. “SAS is one of our oldest European customers and its decision to significantly expand capacity on all three of its existing routes from Dublin is good news for business and leisure travellers. The expanded routes will offer additional choice and connectivity between Ireland and Sweden, Denmark and Norway and will have major benefits for Irish tourism, as Scandinavia is a growing market for visitors to Ireland.” More than 21.4 million passengers have travelled through Dublin Airport in the first nine months of the year, a 12% increase when compared to the same period last year. During the first nine months of the year Dublin Airport has welcomed an extra 2.3 million passengers. Dublin Airport has direct flights to over 180 destinations in 40 countries on four continents. Previous articleLOT orders 10 Boeing 737s, including the most modern Boeing 737 MAX 8s Next articleIberia joins Japan Airlines, British Airways and Finnair in joint business on flights between Europe and Japan SAS Traffic figures November 2020: -86% Scandinavian SAS sees full-year financial results significantly impacted by the coronavirus Cathay Pacific axes Brussels and six other loss-making intercontinental destinations	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line954
__label__wiki	0.704348	0.704348	Indus Valley civilization may have arisen without a river Kalibangan is sited on the topographically higher margins of the palaeochannel. Credit: S. Gupta (Imperial College London) History texts teach that the Indus Valley society, one of the earliest known human civilizations, arose along the banks of the Sutlej River. But a new study published in Nature Communications suggests the river may have shifted away from the area 3,000 years before humans built their cities, writes Jonathan Amos at the BBC. What's different: Other ancient civilizations, like Egypt and Mesopotamia, were built and flourished along rivers with consistent water. The authors of this study believe that in contrast, the Indus Valley civilizations depended on seasonal floods from monsoon rains. What's there: The Indus Valley archaeological sites include Mohenjo-daro and Harappa. Although the sites were discovered later, the civilization appears to have been larger and more widespread than contemporary societies in Mesopotamia and Egypt scattered along and throughout what appears to be a massive, ancient riverbed. What they did: The researchers used satellite imagery to map the course of the Sutlej River through time, and determined that the Sutlej indeed formed the riverbed the civilization flourished along. However, when they dated the sediments in the channel left by the river, they found it hadn't run through that region for over 8,000 years. A benefit? It's possible the absence of the river helped the fledgling civilization. "Some of their sites were actually built in the palaeo-channel itself and that makes no sense if there was a big raging Himalayan river there at the time because these people would have been wiped out" by devastating, seasonal floods, study author Rajiv Sinha told the BBC. Not so fast: Rita Wright, an anthropologist who was not involved in the study, tells the BBC that it's important to keep in mind that the Indus civilization was large and sprawling, and this only examines one region of it.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line955
__label__wiki	0.701277	0.701277	Home/Language/English/Linear Earthwork, Tribal Boundary and Ritual Beheading: Aves Ditch from the Iron Age to the Early Middle Ages Linear Earthwork, Tribal Boundary and Ritual Beheading: Aves Ditch from the Iron Age to the Early Middle Ages Eberhard W. Sauer with contributions by Paul Booth, Patrick Erwin, Peter Hacking, Birgitta Hoffmann, Stephanie Knight and Mark Robinson 111pp. Includes 16 tables, 43 figures, maps, plans, drawings and photographs Aves Ditch is one of the best-preserved and yet most enigmatic of the ancient monuments in Oxfordshire, and it has remained a landmark to the present day. Lined by a straight row of trees, it can be seen over a fair distance. It runs virtually dead straight over no less than 4.2 km from north of Kirtlington to the modern parish boundary between Upper Heyford and Middleton Stoney. For over three centuries scholars have wondered whether it is of pre-Roman, Roman or Anglo-Saxon origin, whether it was a roador a linear earthwork and, in the latter case, what function it may have served. Notwithstanding this centuries-old debate and it being easily accessible just 15 to 22 km north of Oxford, it is also one of the least known of the county's visible archaeological features and is seldom referred to in popular or scholarly work on the history or archaeology of the region. Previously unpublished excavations of the 1930s and further work in the 1990s have contributed much to solving this enigma, and the presentbook provides the final report on these excavations.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line957
__label__wiki	0.843576	0.843576	ERROR: type should be string, got "https://www.barrons.com/articles/its-really-hard-to-figure-out-if-you-qualify-for-a-pass-through-tax-exemption-51553338816\nIt’s Really Hard to Figure Out if You Qualify for a Pass-Through Tax Exemption\nDan Weil\nMarch 23, 2019 7:00 am ET\nPhotograph by Annie Spratt\nThe new tax law (the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017) offers a 20% deduction for pass-through income. That can include money you’ve earned from sole proprietorships, partnerships, S corporations, and limited liability companies (LLCs).\nBut not everyone qualifies, and many experts say the rules are hard to understand.\n“It’s quite an experiment which adds all kinds of complexities,” says Steven Rosenthal, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center with 25 years of experience as a tax attorney, most recently at Ropes and Gray. “What qualifies for the deduction is arbitrary. It’s hard to apply in situations close to the line.”\nTwo categories in particular are tough to interpret: the rules for skill- or reputation-based businesses, and the rules for landlords.\nIf you’re in a service business\nCongress denied the pass-through deduction for high-income owners of many service businesses, including health, law, accounting, brokerage, performing arts, athletics, and consulting.\nCongress also nixed the deduction for owners of other business whose principal asset is the reputation or skill of the employees or owners. Ultimately, the Treasury Department narrowed this extra exclusion, applying it only to businesses that earn endorsement, licensing, or appearance fees based on their owners and employees’ reputation or skill.\nBut Congress didn’t exclude all service businesses from the tax benefit, including architecture and engineering firms. This has led to some confusion among experts. “The businesses of architects and engineers clearly are based on the skill and reputations of the employees,” says Rosenthal. “I can’t figure out why they are still favored.”\nIn addition, the loosening of the Treasury’s restriction on reputation/skill businesses may extend the tax benefit to other businesses, such as professional gamblers, Rosenthal notes. That seems in conflict with the tax law’s elimination of gamblers’ ability to deduct losses as a trade or business. “There’s an arbitrariness in picking winners and losers,” he says.\nA final caveat: business owners who are filing singly and earning taxable income of more than $157,000 a year are also not eligible to take the full deduction.\nIf you’re a landlord\nTony Nitti, a partner at accounting/business consulting firm RubinBrown in Aspen, Col., says the biggest unknown regarding the pass-through deduction is what to do about rental property. Owners are only allowed to take the deduction in a business carried on with regularity. But it’s unclear when a rental meets that standard, he says.\nThe Treasury clarified the situation somewhat with a safe-harbor notice allowing the owner to qualify if the property they own requires 250 hours of rental services, such as arranging repairs, annually. But this excludes any property leased on a triple-net basis, where tenants pay taxes, insurance, and maintenance costs for the property they rent.\nUnfortunately for those seeking the tax benefit, “that’s generally how big landlords structure their leases,” Nitti says. “So does the landlord get the 20% deduction? We don’t have the answer.”\nThe new tax law (the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017) offers a 20% deduction for pass-through income."	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line958
__label__wiki	0.803818	0.803818	#IWD2018♀ + #WB4G! Verónica José Restored Hope & an Entrepreneurial Spirit to Angola After the Civil War Features Sweet Spot Events Features Features Living Lola Odele: The Wounds We Don't Talk About E.B. Ayo: We Need to Create a Simple Industrialised Production Process to Get a Better Economy Why is the Ugandan Government Scared of Opposition? Firecracker Toyeen: The One Time I was De-badged as a Prefect Women in Business For Good Women in Business for Good is a series designed to showcase women in the social innovative space, working for the collective advancement of their people. Find out more about the other amazing women featured in this series HERE. Next in the series is the story of how Verónica José is working to financially empower women in Angola through KixiCredito. Verónica José‘s story is written by Martins Chambassuco for Expansão Verónica José has an impressive resumé and considerable experience in social activism. During the past two decades, she has transformed the lives of thousands of Angolans through micro financing projects in some of the poorest and most remote parts of the nation. Already some 20,000 people, mostly women, have benefited. Back in 1991, when she was just 19 years old and armed with only a degree in accounting and auditing, José ventured into the depths of Angola’s civil war zone. Millions had fled Luanda seeking safety, and José came across village after village of women—all the men and boys were off fighting. At the time, she was working for the non-governmental organization Development Workshop (DW), and her mission was to provide microcredit loans to the communities left behind. The idea was to give women tools to help them turn their informal activities into businesses in order to help them put food on the table. In 1995, DW conducted an informal survey that resulted in a programme to help women launch commercial ventures; this first microcredit programme was sponsored by the French Embassy. “People were sceptical,” said José. “They thought the money would be lost because the women wouldn’t repay it.” Experience revealed the contrary, however, and the group has grown from 15 to 60 women. Thanks to these positive outcomes, DW was able to obtain more funding, this time from the British government. This led to the formation of the Sustainable Subsistence Programme (SSP), which was supported by three NGOs: DW, Care International and Save the Children. In 1999, a Zimbabwean specialist came on board to train microfinance programme managers; Verónica José was the first to complete the training. “Those were difficult days,” acknowledged the activist and entrepreneur. They didn’t know the people involved, so it was risky. “During that phase, the project expanded beyond the Roque Santeiro market in downtown Luanda, and we developed more informal markets in the suburban areas,” she said. At the end of 2000, the Sustainable Subsistence Programme arrived in Huambo, thanks to Verónica’s determination. Located about 600 km southeast of Luanda, it was in a war zone. Her father pleaded with her not go; the city was destroyed and had no infrastructure. To deter her, family and friends warned that in the southern region of the country, people didn’t have a business culture and that she was wasting her time. “I knew that it would be a challenging situation, especially because I’m a woman,” she said. But she also knew that people in Huambo needed the help of Kixi Crédito, so she ignored their advice, left her two young children with her parents and set off to do her job. Kixi Crédito is an institution that grants microcredit—a maximum of one million kwanzas, the equivalent of 3.9 EUR—to people who want to start or develop a business, even an informal business. Funds are distributed and repayment periods are defined according to the client’s capacity to manage their business. “We have two types of clients, individuals and groups,” said José. The client must commit to repay the loan and have the capacity to develop the business and improve the life of the community. “In the case of a group, say one made up of three members, they must all guarantee the loan. This means that if one of them can’t repay his or her share, the others repay it for him or her. This brings a sense of unity to the community.” Looking back, she said that Huambo “was the greatest adventure of my life.” There was a lot of tension, but the most important thing was that communities there proved capable of running businesses and making the best use of the funding. The repayment rate reached 90 percent. After three years in Huambo, José returned to Luanda with a portfolio of more than 15,000 clients. She was then promoted to credit operations assistant, and 10 years ago, she became manager of human resources. The team has grown, as has the number of branches. Despite her important job in administration, she misses direct contact with clients and the challenges of those early days. “That is my essence, my DNA,” she said. “In Angola, there was no institution geared to microfinance. We were the first to believe in people, to assert ourselves in what has become an increasingly competitive market.” Related Topics:international women's dayInternational Women's Day 2018Kixi CréditoMartins ChambassucoPress For ProgressSpark NewsVerónica JoséWomen in Business For Good Must Watch Trailer! Dr. Seuss’ “The Grinch” who Stole Christmas is Back ? #WaitingForRyn! WATCH Trailer for Yvonne Nelson’s Pregnancy Documentary on BN TV Women in Businesses For Good” aims to reveal impactful innovations designed by women, and their potential to be scaled up or replicated elsewhere. We are certain that you will find these stories inspiring, and we encourage you to share them (#WB4G) and bring women’s creativity and initiatives to tackle global problems. Adesunmbo Adeoye delivered so much ‘More’ at the 7th Inspiring Change Conference Debbie Larry-Izamoje: Content Marketing Mistakes Not To Make On International Women’s Day Babajide Sanwo-Olu schools us on How to celebrate International Women’s Month	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line962
__label__wiki	0.989298	0.989298	Lewis: Looking for offense Updated 2:45 p.m. INDIANAPOLIS - Marvin Lewis doesn't see a likely scenario where the Bengals will be without both wide receivers Chad Ocho Cinco and T.J. Houshmandzadeh this season. "I don't think that scenario would exist," he said. Lewis made the remarks Friday at the NFL scouting combine, where he also said the club is going to focus on offense in the free-agency period that begins Feb. 27. After addressing the local media, Lewis spoke to the national pool at Lucas Oil Stadium and said that quarterback Carson Palmer "is wearing me out every day" on the phone. "Because he wants to win very badly," he said. "We've got to get more people around him. For awhile we knew how to win. We forgot that a little bit. We've got to get that edge back." In three interviews that lasted nearly an hour, Lewis ranged from T.J. to the 3-4 and why the Bengals are sticking with the 4-3. Although agent Drew Rosenhaus has been shopping Ocho Cinco, Ocho Cinco told Bengals.com last month that he would show up for voluntary workouts after not attending last year. "Yeah, I've talked to him," said Lewis when asked if he'll see that commitment. "I don't get into Chad's moods. That's personal to Chad, our conversations. I do know he wants to have a better, more productive, healthy season than he did last year, and get back to the guy he was in '03, '04, '05, and make big plays, and make big catches and really be our bell cow, be a leader for us in every single way." If the Bengals lose Houshmandzadeh, Lewis indicated they'd keep Ocho Cinco because he said it is unlikely the team would be without both of them On the decision to put the franchise tag on kicker Shayne Graham instead of Houshmandzadeh: "It's a hard decision. I think where things are it solidifies that spot and now we have an opportunity to go out and compete for T.J. and Stacy (Andrews) and on down the line." Lewis says the Bengals have enough salary cap room to keep both Ocho Cinco and Houshmandzadeh, but he clearly is hoping he gets the Houshmandzadeh that came to the voluntary workouts before 2007. "The other side of the T.J. thing is he's in a situation being tentative," Lewis said. "Hopefully we can get him signed to a longer- term contract that will allow him to go back and be the committed guy he'd been to in prior years." "The relationship with T.J. is great. Hopefully we'll get him back and signed," said Lewis, who then expounded on the "tentative" comment. "We want our guys to have a commitment to be there in the offseason. That's important to me. It's helpful to our team as far as winning games. That was the biggest turnaround in our club in '03, '04, was the commitment of our players to be there and be on the same page with each other. Obviously the relationship with the quarterback is important when you play that spot. It's an important part of what we do. We've had a lot of cap allocation in our skilled spots on offense, so you need to reap the benefits of that." Make no mistake. Lewis knows how much Houshmandzadeh means. "T.J. means so much to me as well as the football team," he said. "He's a big part of my extension downstairs and even though half the time I'm chewing his butt about something, he understands where the envelope stops and when it's time to go back to being a good leader, and the tough guy that he is all the time. He's a good extension for Carson. T.J. has a great disposition about him. He is the guy that can probably reach everybody in the locker room and there is probably an air of respect about him." Lewis ticked off the number of holes on offense and said the Bengals had to focus on filling them with either their own free agents or others. "We've got some good young players (on defense) and we've got the draft upcoming, so I don't see where we go out and that's going to be a fit for us defensively," he said. "We have more apparent needs offensively, whether it be at tackle, center, running back, and obviously with T.J. in his situation." But Lewis said if the club lost Houshmandzadeh, it wouldn't necessarily replace him with a veteran receiver and stressed the need to develop younger plays more quickly and specifically talked about second-round pick Jerome Simpson's rookie year last season in which he caught one ball. "We've got to do a better job of that," Lewis said. "You'd like to have depth, but at some point we've got to find these young guys a niche so we can determine those things." Lewis sounded as if the Bengals are about as close to signing right tackle Stacy Andrews as they have been at any point in their torrid, off-again, on-again relationship over the past two years in an effort to get a long-term deal and said Andrews is hoping to stick around. But there is no deal yet and with the prospect of him going on the market, Lewis wouldn't discuss Andrews' recovery from reconstructive knee surgery. "Stacy would like to get something finished up and done and it's his hope that it gets done quicker than later," Lewis said. Although various reports have the Bengals with anywhere from $25 to $28 million to spend, Lewis said the accurate number isn't public and that such items as incentives can't be rolled into next year because there is no salary cap in 2010 and will take up some money. He also threw out a reminder of some cap space left over by last year's release of right tackle Willie Anderson and running back Rudi Johnson. "As we have been every year since I've been in Cincinnati," Lewis said, "we'll be at or over the cap. But you can't spill over into next year." Don't look for backup quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick to sign before Feb. 27. Lewis said when they spoke after the season, Fitzpatrick said he was looking for a team that could start him while mentoring a young quarterback. But if it didn't work out that way, he'd like to come back. Talking to a Pittsburgh reporter, Lewis grew nostalgic for the 3-4 defense and while he's never ruled it out, he's buoyed by last year's No. 12 finish under first-year defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer. But he also admitted that the Bengals are still seeking "our Peter Boulware." Asked why he's never gone 3-4 in Cincinnati, Lewis said, "Next question." But he admitted the biggest blow in his six years was the career-ending broken neck of David Pollack. The man that made Lewis' 4-3 Super Bowl defense in Baltimore go was Boulware, a college defensive end that didn't have great NFL size but turned into a superb third-down rusher while playing SAM linebacker on other downs. "That's why we drafted him," said Lewis, noting Pollack's three sacks of Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger in his only season. "He was our Carson Palmer of the defense. He was our energy, our passion." "So we try again this year," Lewis said of his search for a Boulware clone. Asked if Wake Forest linebacker Aaron Curry is that guy, Lewis asked, "Who? Who's he? He's not a player on our team." But while Curry is seen as a top five player, is he a pass rusher after getting only 2.5 sacks last season? "We've got to find a rusher, plain and simple," Lewis said. "You've got to put people out there that give you 10-plus sacks. The team that sacks the quarterback the most doesn't necessarily win all the games. But pressure creates turnovers and turnovers create wins. With a five-man rush there's a lot of things you can create." But there is no move to the 3-4. Not now. "I wouldn't make the transition right now because we'd be starting over," Lewis said. "It's a possibility, but the things we built and the fits in the running game and the things the guys understand right now, I would prefer probably to continue that way, knowing that what we taught these guys to some of the things that incorporated that." Lewis also said that the agent for running back Cedric Benson, Eugene Parker, feels it is to his client's advantage to take him to free agency.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line963
__label__wiki	0.938644	0.938644	Instant gratification is making us perpetually impatient By Christopher Muther Globe Staff,November 2, 2016, 10:27 a.m. Zack Dillahunty, here in a Newbury Street meeting spot, uses an iPhone app called Grindr to instantly find potential dates in his area. Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff/Globe Staff Melissa Francis has no patience for waiting — for anything. When the 26-year-old Allston barista talks about slow Internet connections, she can barely hide her disdain. Waiting a couple of extra seconds for a page to load feels like an eternity. “I’m not proud of it, but I yell at my computer when it’s slow,” Francis said. The demand for instant results is seeping into every corner of our lives, and not just virtually. Retailers are jumping into same-day delivery services. Smartphone apps eliminate the wait for a cab, a date, or a table at a hot restaurant. Movies and TV shows begin streaming in seconds. But experts caution that instant gratification comes at a price: It’s making us less patient. The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project sums up a recent study about people under the age of 35 and the dangers of their hyperconnected lives with what sounds like a prescription drug warning: “Negative effects include a need for instant gratification and loss of patience.” It’s not just Gen Y, of course. Anyone who’s growled in frustration while a website loads or while on hold with a doctor’s office knows tolerance for delay is in short supply. But impatience may be most pronounced among the young, wired nearly from birth. “Most of my generation has grown up not having to wait for anything,” said Zack Dillahunty, 23, who finds dates using the Grindr app on his iPhone. Retailers, smelling profit in impatience, recently began a battle for same-day delivery supremacy, with Walmart and eBay challenging Amazon in the category. In Boston, one city where Amazon same-day delivery is available, shoppers can place an order by 11 a.m. and, for an $8.99 fee plus 99 cents per item, have it that day. Walmart launched Walmart-To-Go last year, charging $10 for same-day delivery, though it’s not yet available here. We’ve come to expect things so quickly that researchers found people can’t wait more than a few seconds for a video to load. Ramesh Sitaraman, a computer science professor at UMass Amherst, examined the viewing habits of 6.7 million internet users in a study released last fall. How long were subjects willing to be patient? Two seconds. “After that they started abandoning,” Sitaraman said. “After five seconds, the abandonment rate is 25 percent. When you get to 10 seconds, half are gone.” The results offer a glimpse into the future, he says. As Internet speeds increase, people will be even less willing to wait for that cute puppy video. Sitaraman, who spent years developing the study, worries someday people will be too impatient to conduct studies on patience. “The need for instant gratification is not new, but our expectation of ‘instant’ has become faster, and as a result, our patience is thinner,” said Narayan Janakiraman, an assistant marketing professor at the University of Texas, Arlington. Janakiraman conducted a 2011 study called “The Psychology of Decisions to Abandon Waits for Service.” Subjects were made to wait for downloads and kept on hold as they waited for help from a call center. As predicted, many test subjects who were forced to wait abandoned the process. “It’s why you have people at Disney World paying for a pass so they don’t have to wait in line,” he added. “You have people who don’t mind paying for things like same-day delivery.” Cambridge grad student Valla Fatemi has yet to try same-day delivery, but he relies on Amazon Prime, a $79-a-year membership that offers shoppers benefits such as free two-day shipping. “The two-day shipping is huge,” Fatemi said. “It’s gotten me in the mode of expecting things at my door pretty quickly.” Nor will he wait for movies. “It used to be you had to wait to download a movie,” he said. “If I want to watch a movie now, and it’s not on Netflix or on-demand, then I’m not going to put any more effort into finding it.” Others seem to feel the same. Netflix has 33 million members who stream videos, compared with only 8 million who get DVDs by mail. Meanwhile, Cambridge start-up the Happy Cloud is building its business by helping zealous video gamers download games in minutes rather than hours. Darrell Worthy, an assistant professor of psychology at Texas A&M University who studies decision making and motivation, has found evidence of what some already feared: We’re becoming more focused on quick fun — such as a game of Angry Birds on the iPhone — than on reading books or magazines. That echoes the Pew study. Researchers found the rapid pace of technology can lead to more nimble thinking, but that “trends are leading to a future in which most people are shallow consumers of information.” “A lot of things that are really valuable take time,” Worthy said. “But immediate gratification is the default response. It’s difficult to overcome those urges and be patient and wait for things to come over time.” A prime example? Saving money. The US Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis found that Americans’ personal saving rates — the percentage of disposable income saved — averaged 3.6 percent in December 2012. In December 1982, Americans saved 9.7 percent. There are a variety of reasons, from high unemployment to stagnant wages, but our growing focus on immediacy may also play a role. “We’re not wired to think about the long-term anymore,” says Phil Fremont-Smith of ImpulseSave, a Cambridge company that encourages individuals to save through an app that tracks spending and sends congratulatory messages when members cut costs. In that way, a long-term goal earns immediate feedback. “It’s instant gratification that we’re giving them,” Fremont-Smith said. “People have a need for immediacy that they don’t normally see when they’re saving money.” Whatever the negatives, Worthy of Texas A&M says there is still value to be found in impatience. “From a business perspective, there’s nothing wrong with companies selling more and faster,” he said. “People have always been impatient, and sometimes that impatience helps move things faster.” Christopher Muther can be reached at muther@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @Chris_Muther	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line964
__label__wiki	0.588898	0.588898	BETTER YOUR BONE HEALTH By Michael Lasalandra BIDMC Correspondent As we age, our bones thin out and become brittle, a condition known as osteoporosis. There are a number of ways to help prevent this condition, which can lead to broken bones and a myriad of serious health problems sometimes associated with them. One of the most effective preventative strategies is simply to take regular walks. “Weight-bearing exercise, in which your bones and muscles work against gravity, helps build and maintain bone mass,” says Dr. Tamara D. Rozental, orthopaedic surgeon at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. These are exercises in which the feet and legs bear your weight. “That’s where walking comes in,” she says. “It’s probably the easiest. Running and stair-climbing are also good, as is strength training with weights and weight machines that you find at a gym or health club. But walking for 20 to 30 minutes three times a week is just fine. It works.’’ Swimming and bicycling, by contrast, aren’t as effective in helping to prevent brittle bones. Dr. Rozental notes that bone is living tissue that responds to weight-bearing exercise by becoming stronger. It becomes stronger and denser as it is put under modest stress. “Bone remodels in response to stress,” she says. “It is constantly being broken down and reformed.” In the case of osteoporosis, more bone is being broken down than is being formed, she notes. “With a sedentary lifestyle, bone thins,” she says. “Stress is necessary to stimulate the cells to form and remodel new bone.” There are other preventative strategies, such as taking Vitamin D and calcium supplements. And there are a number of prescription drugs, known as antiresorptive medications, which are also approved for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis. But exercise is often an easy first-line strategy for prevention of brittle bones. Risk factors for osteoporosis include post-menopause, older age, a family history of the disease, being small and thin and using immunosuppressive medication. In general, women have a much higher risk than men. Of the estimated 10 million Americans with osteoporosis, eight million are women, according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation. Fractures can also be life threatening. An average of 24 percent of hip fracture patients aged 50 and over die in the year following their fracture, the foundation says. A study of nurses showed that those who walked four hours per week gave them a 41 percent reduced risk of hip fractures, compared to those who walked less than an hour a week. When walking, you’re carrying your body weight on your hips and legs, so those are the bones most being strengthened. And with walking, there is less chance of falling — something that is more likely to occur with strenuous exercises, such as running or racquet sports, for example. There are other good things about walking, Dr. Rozental notes. “It’s good for the heart, for weight loss and for mood,” she says. “And it’s free and can be done just about anywhere.” Want to get started? Join the BIDMC Walking Club and get a cool membership wristband, tips, a FREE pedometer app, and more. Above content provided by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. For advice about your medical care, consult your doctor. This Summer’s Coolest New Outdoor Dining Spots Eight Fun Takeout Ideas near Boston-Area Beaches	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line965
__label__cc	0.536513	0.463487	Mark A. Kasten Email: mark.kasten@bipc.com REACH OUT ON LINKEDIN How Mark Helps Clients Mark represents corporations and individuals in government investigations, antitrust matters, and white-collar litigation. Mark has represented companies and individuals in all phases of litigation, including discovery, motion practice, and at trial. Mark also has defended clients in regulatory matters, including in investigations by the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and state attorneys general. Mark also maintains a significant appellate litigation practice, which includes the representation of private entities and nonprofit organizations before federal circuit courts of appeal as well as state intermediate and supreme courts. As part of his pro bono practice, Mark has represented indigent criminal defendants in federal prosecutions and undocumented immigrants seeking asylum in the United States. Mark received a 2021 Best Lawyers: Ones To Watch recognition for Criminal Defense: White-Collar. Mark lives in the Bella Vista section of Philadelphia with his wife, his son and his terrier. Outside the office, Mark enjoys spending time with his family, running and volunteering in his neighborhood. Representation of a dental supply and distribution company in antitrust litigation matters throughout the country, including in a three-week price-fixing trial in the Eastern District of New York, in pretrial hearings in the Eastern District of Texas, and litigation before the FTC. Representation of non-profit healthcare company in an investigation by the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware and the Delaware Department of Justice. Representation of an energy company in a grand jury investigation led by the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General. Representation of a labor union official in a prosecution by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Representation of not-for-profit health system in litigation arising from failed purchase of two hospitals. Representation of large accounting firms in investigations by the PCAOB and SEC. Design and implementation of risk-based compliance programs – including antitrust, non-retaliation, anti-bribery, and internal investigation policies – for companies in various industry sectors. WHITE COLLAR DEFENSE, COMPLIANCE & INVESTIGATIONS CRIMINAL DEFENSE & GOVERNMENT ENFORCEMENT Villanova University School of Law, J.D., 2013 Villanova University, B.A., 2008, honors, English, Philosophy U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Public Interest Law Center, Board Member Young Friends of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Board Member Bella Vista Neighbors Association, Executive Board Member	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line967
__label__wiki	0.993276	0.993276	City star up for top award BRUMMIE star Mike Skinner, aka The Streets, will battle it out with Natasha Bedingfield and Keane for best song of 2004 after being nominated for the Ivor Novello Awards. Birmingham Live West Heath-born Skinner is up for Dry Your Eyes, Keane for the hit ballad Everybody's Changing and rising star Bedingfield for These Words. Band Aid 20's Do They Know It's Christmas? is in the running for two prestigious Ivors, the awards which celebrate their 50th anniversary this year. The Streets also have a second nomination with Blinded By The Lights in the running for Best Contemporary Song. It is up against Take Me Out, the track by awardwinning Glasgow rockers Franz Ferdinand, and For Lovers, sung by Wolfman and Pete Doherty, the troubled former singer of The Libertines. Meanwhile Brit Award winner Skinner has become the latest celebrity to lend his name to a long-running campaign against alleged animal cruelty in the fast-food trade. He has written to KFC bosses calling for improvements to be made in conditions for chickens raised for its restaurants. Fellow singers Justin Hawkins, from The Darkness, Sir Paul McCartney and Chrissie Hynde have already written to the company as part of the campaign, which is backed by welfare group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). A KFC spokesman said: "We are committed to poultry welfare and all our suppliers are regularly audited and meet or exceed UK and EU regulations on quality and welfare. New rules for dog walkers amid ongoing lockdown restrictions RSPCA West MidlandsRSPCA welcomes latest guidance from UK Government	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line968
__label__cc	0.71752	0.28248	Screening age too high for many diagnosed with colorectal cancer News, 25 January 2016 Many young people are missing out on vital screening for colorectal cancer because they’re not over 50 years of age, meaning they often present at advanced stages of the disease. In a recent analysis of US data, 1 in 7 colorectal patients was younger than 50 years old, the recommended age to begin screening. Younger patients were more likely to be diagnosed with advanced stage disease. However, despite the late diagnosis, these patients often receive more aggressive therapy and lived longer without a cancer recurrence, suggesting some compensation for their later diagnosis. Although traditionally regarded as a disease of the elderly, the number of cases seen cases in younger individuals is increasing. To assess the treatment patterns and outcomes of these patients, a team led by Samantha Hendren, MD, MPH, of the University of Michigan, conducted a population-based retrospective study of the nationally representative Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results registry, looking specifically at information on patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer in the United States from 1998 to 2011. In total, 258,024 patient records were analysed, of which 37,847 (nearly 15%) of patients were younger than 50 years old, the age at which screening begins in the US. Young colorectal patients were more likely to be diagnosed with regional or distant disease, which are both more dangerous than localised disease. Among colorectal cancer patients with distant metastasis, those who were younger were more likely to receive surgical therapy for their primary tumour (72% versus 63% of older patients). Also, radiation therapy was used more often in younger than in older rectal cancer patients (53% versus 48%). Overall, colorectal cancer patients who were younger than 50 years old lived slightly longer without a cancer recurrence, even though they tended to have more advanced disease when they were diagnosed. The 5-year cancer-specific survival for younger patients was 95.1% versus 91.9% for patients 50 and older for localised disease, 76% versus 70.3% for regional disease, and 21.3% versus 14.1% for distant disease, respectively. “This study is really a wake-up call to the medical community that a relatively large number of colorectal cancers are occurring in people under 50,” said Dr Hendren. “In a practical sense, this means that we should look out for warning signs of colorectal cancer such as anaemia, a dramatic change in the size or frequency of bowel movements, and dark blood or blood mixed with the stool in bowel movements.” “Also, people with a positive family history for colorectal cancer (in first-degree relatives such as parents or siblings) and some others who are at higher risk should begin screening earlier than 50. This is already recommended, but we don’t think this is happening consistently, and this is something we need to optimise.” In the UK, test kits for faecal occult blood (FOB) screening are sent to patients in England, Northern Ireland and Wales every two years from age 60-74 and from 50-74 in Scotland. Pilots of the more sensitive faecal immunochemical test (FIT) may lead to it replacing the guaiac FOB (gFOB) test. Flexible sigmoidoscopy screening involves an invitation for a one-off sigmoidoscopy at the age of 55. Pilots began in 2013 and it is currently being introduced in England. Pilots offering it to 60-year-olds have started in Scotland. An added benefit of this screening, as well as diagnosing cancer earlier, is the prevention of cancer by identification and removal of adenomas. Overall 5-year survival rate is around 50% in the UK, but when detected at the earliest stage (Dukes A) this rises to about 93%. Currently fewer than 9% of cases in the UK are diagnosed at this stage. A similar percentage is diagnosed with late stage disease (Dukes D) with 5-year survival of less than 7%. The results of the study were published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. #colorectal cancer Comment Submitted NHS makes a stand against fake coronavirus news New GP information resource on managing constipation Hurried appointments are leaving GPs stressed and dissatisfied	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line969
__label__wiki	0.768842	0.768842	MP Julian Lewis to raise students’ college funding petition in House of Commons Brockenhurst College > News > MP Julian Lewis to raise students’ college funding petition in House of Commons Posted on: 23rd November 2018 New Forest East MP Julian Lewis will formally present a petition calling for increased college funding on the floor of the House of Commons on 29th November. It comes after a group of A Level Politics students from Brockenhurst College started the petition that calls on the Government to ‘increase college funding to sustainable levels’. The document, which has reached over 63,500 signatures, highlights how government funding has been cut by almost 30% in real terms over the last ten years, while school sixth forms have been less affected. A recent report from the Institute of Fiscal Studies described 16-18 college education as ‘the biggest loser from education spending changes over the last 25 years’. Nine students made the journey to Westminster last month to raise their concerns with Dr Lewis who agreed to support their cause. At 10,000 signatures, the Government provided a response that stated: ‘the Government is funding priorities in FE including new T Levels and looking at the needs of colleges ahead of the Spending Review’. Politics student Charlotte Jones, who started the petition, said: “The inequality between pre-16 funding in secondary schools and that received for 16-18 funding in colleges has been a long-term issue, which we hope as many people as possible will help us to resolve by supporting our petition.” She added: “All we want is equality, and I think that’s fair to ask.” Julian Lewis MP said: “I look forward to presenting the petition on the floor of the Houses of Parliament, drawing attention to the very large number of people who have signed the online petition, which could lead to a parliamentary debate on this very important subject.” You can find the petition online at https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/229744	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line970
__label__wiki	0.659517	0.659517	Do you Doop? The Union prepare for the 2011 season The passion level for sports in Philadelphia is unprecedented. A kind of Brotherly Love that exudes off of us like sweat pouring off of Patrick Ewing. That passion does not stop at the four major sports. In 2010 the Philadelphia Union joined the city and became the MLS’s sixteenth team upon their expansion into the league. The team plays their home matches along the Delaware River at a brand new, beautiful PPL Park located in Chester, PA. In order to trace the history of professional soccer in Philadelphia and how the U came to be you have to look at the history of the Sons of Ben. This will uncover what real passion is all about. As rumors circulated around the city in 2007 of a potential deal between the MLS and investors in Philadelphia regarding a soccer team in Philly the Sons of Ben were born. Opening day is just a little over month a way. It is a great day where every team has a "chance" and every fan base believes it could be their year. As Phillies Phans, we might be about to witness the greatest team in the franchises long history. As phans of this great team, we have to sit back and appreciate that we are in the greatest era of Phillies baseball. I expect the Phillies to be just as good if not a little better than advertised. Here are my predictions for the 20011 season. BLN's 2011 Best Athlete in Philadelphia: #16 Asante Samuel Game changer, swagger, bigger than the game, champion, ball hawk, can all describe #16 on our list. Asante Samuel, although highly criticized, is one of the premier playmaking defensive backs in all of football. In three seasons with the Eagles Samuel has recorded a staggering 20 interceptions. Since 2006 nobody has more interceptions in football than Samuel with 36 INT’s. At 5’10 185 pounds Samuel is not known for his hitting or his eagerness to tackle. Regardless you cannot deny the impact he has on defense for the Philadelphia Eagles. With an injury riddled and inexperienced secondary the Eagles sorely missed Samuel in the four games he missed in 2010 due to a concussion and a knee injury. In week 11 at Chicago, Bears QB Jay Cutler had a field day throwing for 4 touchdowns without having to worry about keeping an eye out for #22. After Samuel the Eagles are very thin at cornerback and it showed. Hamels debuts strong, Phillies win, yes baseball is back! It’s only game 1 of Grapefruit League action but the beginning of Spring Training officially. The truth remains that the Phillies won 5-4 today vs. the hated Yankees and it feels good! After beating Florida State Thursday 8-0 the Phightins played their first real game this afternoon at George Steinbrenner Field. Cole Hamels made his spring debut with a strong outing. Hamels allowed an unearned run over two innings allowing two hits. He threw a total of 33 pitches in all. Hamels in exceptional shape again this spring is off to a great start. It only took a few days in camp as a National for the Phillies former right fielder to talk about his old team. During Cliff Lee’s press conference, he mentioned how Werth was not happy that he decided to join the team. But it was ultimately Werth’s decision to take the money and run south to Washington. You can’t blame a player when you are dealing with that much money, it is a business and he was out to get the most money he could. Werth stated that he felt the team made a mistake when they traded Lee after the 2009 season; he felt that if they would have originally kept Lee, it would have made it easier to resign him. BLN's 2011 Best Athlete in Philadelphia: #17 Danny Briere During the Flyers historic postseason run to the Stanley Cup Finals last season, many players raised their play to a different level. The player who best fits that description is Flyers Forward Danny Briere. Prior to last season’s postseason run, there were many Flyers fans, including myself, who never thought Briere lived up to his contract or his ability. But he was a dominate player during the postseason, setting the Flyers playoff record for most points in a postseason with 30 (12 goals, 18 assist). He has taken the momentum he gained from the post season and has had an impressive season thus far. When the all-star team was originally announced this season, Briere was not on the list and was seen as the major “snub” of this season’s team. But after some injuries Briere found himself on the team and even scored a goal during the game. He currently leads the team in goals with 28 and is third on the team in points with 51. His playmaking ability and great skating earns him a spot at #17 on our rankings. Sixers stay hot with 117-94 win over the Wizards Momentum going into the All-Star break is a great thing, but it means nothing if you can’t get that energy back when play resumes. The Sixers proved that they are still on a roll tonight at the Wells Fargo Center as they defeated the lowly Washington Wizards 117-94. It could have been an easy letdown game but the Sixers clamped down in the 2nd half en route to the easy victory. The Sixers have now won 8 of their last 11 games. The Sixers continue to get better and better as the season progresses. It has a lot to do with the faith the Sixers have in their head coach and the trust Collins puts on his young point guard Jrue Holiday. The 20-year old point guard is playing with remarkable poise. The point guard position has often been compared to the quarterback in football. They are the player who has to run the team’s offense and has more responsibility than anyone on the court. Mid-way through last season the 76ers put the massive responsibility on the shoulders of a 19-year old. After the 2008-09 season, the Sixers decided to part ways with their former point guard Andre Miller who was one of the most underrated PG’s in the NBA. He was a key part of the team that almost shocked the Magic in the first round of the playoffs. Last season the team took a huge step backwards in the standings, most of the blame was placed on first year head coach Eddie Jordan, but I think Millers’ absence was an overlooked reason. With the 17th pick in the 2009 draft, the team selected Jrue Holiday as there point guard of the future. Since being drafted Holiday has steadily improved, his impressive play so far this season has him earned a spot at #18 on our rankings. BLN's 2011 Best Athlete in Philadelphia. #19 David Akers It takes offense, defense, and special teams to win in the National Football League. So often the latter is forgotten and put off to the side as unimportant. That is until your kicker misses the game winning field goal with 3 seconds to play. That was the case in the 2010 season for the Eagles when David Akers missed two key field goals in the playoffs en route to a 5 point loss for the Birds to the Green Bay Packers. Flyers continue the "We Run New York" theme with 4-2 win over Rangers The 2009 World Series was a damaging to the psyche type of loss. Not only does it hurt to be so close to a championship but to have it all taken away by a lousy team from up north just plain sucks. With a 4-2 win today for the Flyers over the New York Rangers the Flyers did what every Philly phan revels in no matter what the sport, they beat New York! There is just something about a win over any New York team that just feels so sweet. It wasn’t a Broad Street Bullie beat down we would have liked but nonetheless it was another “We Run New York” statement win.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line972
__label__wiki	0.993148	0.993148	Ireland fly specialist lawyer to Japan in bid to keep Aki’s World Cup alive The Connacht centre was sent off for a high tackle on UJ Seuteni in Ireland’s 47-5 win over Samoa on Saturday. Published: 13 October 2019 - 4.28am By Press Association Published: 13 October 2019 - 4.28am Ireland are flying a specialist lawyer into Japan in a bid to keep Bundee Aki’s World Cup alive. Connacht centre Aki faces a disciplinary hearing in Tokyo on Monday night, following his red card in Ireland’s 47-5 win over Samoa that booked Joe Schmidt’s men a World Cup quarter-final. Aki was sent off for a high tackle on UJ Seuteni in Fukuoka, and the 29-year-old could be hit with a suspension that could end his World Cup. Ireland hope Bundee Aki, pictured, will be cleared to play again at the World Cup (Adam Davy/PA) But the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) has confirmed that William Fry partner Derek Hegarty is en route to Japan, to act for the union in any eventual hearing. Defence coach Andy Farrell said Ireland are still awaiting referee Nic Berry’s official match report, but admitted his personal sympathy for any player who is sent off. “I feel sorry for everyone who gets a red card,” said Farrell. “I don’t know anyone in world rugby who wants to do anything like that on a pitch. “I’ll keep my powder dry until after the process; we haven’t had the referee’s report yet, so we’ll wait until after that. “We believe there will be a hearing in the next 36 hours, so we’ll see how that goes. “Reaction stuff is very tough to judge, you can slow everything down and everyone has a comment. “I’d like to think there’s a bit of feel in and around the whole situation.” Ireland boss Schmidt said Aki was “devastated” to have been sent off against his fatherland Samoa in Saturday’s seven-try win in Fukuoka. Samoa head coach Steve Jackson immediately pledged to make any possible representation to World Rugby, in the hope Aki would not receive any further punishment than his red card. “I'd like to think there's a bit of feel in and around the whole situation” - Andy Farrell World Rugby confirmed Aki’s hearing will take place on Monday in a short statement. “The player will attend a hearing before an independent judicial committee chaired by Adam Casselden SC (Australia), joined by former international coach Frank Hadden (Scotland and former referee Valeriu Toma (Romania),” read the statement. “The hearing will take place in Tokyo at 1930 on Monday, October 14.” Previous red cards have been met with three-match suspensions at this World Cup however, and Aki might suffer the same fate – which would rule him out of any further action at the tournament. Former Terenure scrum-half Hegarty heads up the sports division at Dublin firm William Fry, who advised the IRFU on its bid to host World Cup 2023. Schmidt said he would be “pretty disappointed” if Aki’s red card turned into a suspension for him to miss the remainder of the World Cup. While assistant coach Farrell remained fairly tight-lipped on views on Aki, the former dual-code rugby international admitted Ireland were delighted to have reached the World Cup’s knockout phase. “It’s all about moving onto the next round, which we’re pretty pleased with, to get a chance to go for a quarter-final,” said Farrell. “We’re pretty pleased with how we dealt with and managed the game against Samoa. It was tricky enough conditions. “I don’t think watching on TV at home you’d have been able to tell, but it was very blustery out there and I thought we managed the conditions pretty well. “We played a good bit of territory in the first-half and got a good bit of reward of that. “It was tough playing against the wind in the second-half, but then we managed to stay in the Samoa 22 for a good while. “So overall we’re very pleased to be sat here with a win.” TAGS Rugby Union Rugby World Cup Ireland Rugby	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line973
__label__wiki	0.918488	0.918488	Hogan announces $30 million COVID relief to entertainment, music venues; 23 Baltimore organizations to receive funds Blast’s season canceled due to COVID restrictions, leaving Baltimore without pro indoor soccer for first time in 40 years Proposed Baltimore museum would focus on culture and history of African nations By Mary Carole McCauley The Baltimore Sun \| A young girl plays the djembe at a workshop conducted by Esther Armstrong, who was inspired by that experience to start planning a new children's museum in Baltimore. (Sankofa Children's Museum of Africa) (HANDOUT) A new museum aimed at educating local schoolchildren and members of the public about the culture and customs of African nations could open this summer in Park Heights. Museum founder Esther Armstrong said Tuesday that Sankofa Children’s Museum of African Cultures will be a “hands on” institution aimed at children in the third, fourth and fifth grades who will dress up in native clothing, sample native foods and play native musical instruments while learning the histories of nations as different as Kenya, Zimbabwe and Ghana. “I came up with the idea for this museum in 2016,” said Armstrong, who has been operating her boutique, the Sankofa African & World Bazaar in Charles Village, since 1994. “As customers have come in and out of the shop I've come to realize that there is a basic lack of knowledge about Africa. A lot of kids and even adults think that Africa is a country instead of a continent. You try to be respectful and correct them without making people feel bad.” Philanthropists Eddie and Sylvia Brown donate $3.5 million to the Baltimore Museum of Art The Baltimore Museum of Art announced Friday that it is receiving a $3.5 million donation to endow the position of the organization’s chief curator from the philanthropists Eddie and Sylvia Brown. Three years ago, a customer asked for Armstrong’s help in putting together a series of workshops for Baltimore students in connection with Black History Month. About 150 youngsters attended events spread over five days in February, 2016 that included dressing up in traditional garb and storytelling sessions. [Most read] Eastern Shore superintendent files racial discrimination complaint against school board, escalating long-standing tensions » “The children were hungry for information and they were so joyful,” she said. “I told my husband, ‘We shouldn’t be doing this for just one week a year.” Over the next 30 months, Armstrong and her husband, Jim Clemmer, organized a non-profit corporation. They assembled a board of directors and obtained $50,000 in start-up funds from a generous donor. They settled on an as-yet undisclosed location in the Park Heights neighborhood (the lease has not yet been signed) and began to plan programming. Armstrong said that her museum’s mission complements and does not compete with the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture, which focuses exclusively on the lives of black people living in the Free State. In contrast, Armstrong’s museum will confine itself to life in Africa. Half of her museum will explore the history of the continent as a whole, while the second half will examine one nation in depth on a rotating basis. She will start with her native Ghana, the country with which she is most familiar, and plans to eventually cover all 54. Armstrong hopes to enlist experts from the national embassies located in Washington. “We will need their help representing their countries the way they want to be represented,” Armstrong said. “We’ll be visiting the embassies whether they’re ready for us or not.” Armstrong hopes to open her new museum around Juneteenth Day, the holiday commemorating the ending of slavery in the U.S. around June 19, 1865. In the beginning, at least, the museum will be staffed by volunteers. Preliminary plans call for it to be open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. Daytime hours will be reserved for school visits while the museum will be open to the public on weekdays after 4 p.m. and all day on Saturdays. Admission will be charged, though specific fees are still being determined. “There’s an identity crisis in Baltimore,” Armstrong said. Latest Arts Things to do in Baltimore and online Jan. 15-21 “We are trying to plant seeds in the community so these children will know who they are. The stories they get from TV are not always positive. Who wants to identify with a culture of poverty and drug wars? We should give our children the rest of the story so they're not embarrassed to call themselves Africans.” Howard County to move on to Phase 1B of COVID-19 vaccination plan on Jan. 25	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line975
__label__wiki	0.510299	0.510299	Violence & Justice Disparities Palliative Care Poised to Expand Amid Health Reform By Claudia Boyd-Barrett • Dec 16, 2014 Cleo and Robert Boyd of Santa Rosa said they have benefited enormously from an outpatient palliative care program offered by health-care network Sutter Health. Robert Boyd, 89, suffers from several chronic diseases, but the program has helped him stay out of the hospital. Photo courtesy of Sutter Health. Cleo Boyd of Santa Rosa was close to despair in early 2013. Her husband, Robert Boyd, 89, was constantly in and out of the hospital, receiving emergency treatment for complications related to a heart problem, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and other long-term health issues. When he came home, Cleo Boyd, 92, wasn’t always sure how to best take care of him. “He would hardly get home before he was back in,” she said. “I really didn’t know what I was going to do. I was trying to be positive, and tell myself it’s going to be OK, but I didn’t really believe it.” Then, in March of that year following two particularly serious hospital visits, staff referred the couple to an outpatient palliative care program called Advanced Illness Management offered by northern California health-care network Sutter Health. The program provided home-care visits by a nurse, social worker, and physical and occupational therapists to the Boyds’shousehold, who assessed the couple’s needs and found ways to make it easier for them to manage Robert Boyd’s health problems at home. The result is that Robert Boyd has stayed out of the hospital almost entirely, except for one visit because of a problem with his defibrillator. Everything else has been managed from his home. Palliative care — a multidisciplinary approach to helping people with serious, chronic and life-threatening illnesses better manage their conditions and improve their quality of life — is commonly provided to patients in the hospital, with about half of acute-care hospitals in the state offering the service, according to The California HealthCare Foundation. But a growing number of palliative care programs, including the one at Sutter Health, are being expanded to chronically ill patients in community clinics and at home, spurred by federal and state health reforms, said Judy Thomas, Executive Director of the Coalition for Compassionate Care of California, a statewide collaborative of health-care organizations and individuals supportive of palliative care. “It’s really about quality of life, it’s not about medical treatment,” she said. “As people are living longer, there’s more and more people living with complex medical conditions, and our (current) health-care system is not designed to provide them with the best care.” California bill expands services Legislation signed by Governor Brown in September will further expand access to palliative care services. The bill, which takes effect Jan. 1, requires the Department of Health Care Services to define standards for palliative care under Medi-Cal, the state’s health insurance program for the poor. The department must work with Medi-Cal managed care plans to increase access to these services. In an email, department spokesman Anthony Cava said the work will be done over the next several months, and new palliative care options will be phased in based on health plan capacity and the availability of palliative care teams. The agency believes that the cost of providing palliative care will be offset by a reduction in hospital and nursing home stays, he said. Health care reform is likely to continue to encourage the expansion of palliative care programs. The Affordable Care Act seeks to gradually shift the health-care system away from the traditional fee-for-service payment model by offering financial incentives to hospitals and clinicians that can improve patient health while reducing costs. Palliative care fits into that approach. Home visits reduce hospitalizations When the palliative care nurse came to the Boyd’s house, Cleo Boyd learned how to handle her husband’s medical equipment, and monitor his blood pressure, oxygen levels and weight. Meanwhile, a social worker, Catherine Arnold, connected Robert Boyd to services he was entitled to through the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs, including 16 hours a week of in-home caregiver support such as cooking and cleaning, meals on wheels, and vision care for his failing eyesight. Once Robert Boyd’s condition stabilized, Sutter health-care workers continued to check on the couple by phone, sending a nurse to visit them whenever necessary. The Boyds could also call for help or advice when they needed it. Providing palliative care to patients after they leave the hospital or when a serious illness is diagnosed helps prevent unnecessary hospital visits, reduces patient and caregiver stress and saves money in the long run because patients need less emergency medical care, Thomas said. The services provided under a palliative care program can vary. However, it generally involves care on multiple levels, from pain management and symptom relief, to counseling, social work services, end-of-life planning and spiritual support. Typically the work is carried out by a team of professionals from different disciplines such as doctors, nurses, social workers, therapists, dietitians, pharmacists and chaplains. The goal is to go beyond medical treatment of the disease and tend to the physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs of patients and their families so they can live the best life possible, even if there is no hope of a cure and their condition is likely to worsen over time. Challenges remain There are 189 community-based palliative care programs in the state, a recent survey by The California HealthCare Foundation found. Most of these programs are clinic-based, although 65 involve home-based services, and another 39 provide services across different settings, which could include clinics, nursing homes and patient homes. The programs are spread across 36 counties. Health-care providers that offer community-based palliative care say they have seen dramatic reductions in emergency-room visits and hospital stays among those they serve. Betsy Gornet, who heads the advanced illness management department at Sutter Health, said the program has seen a 60 percent reduction in hospitalizations among patients enrolled, and a 33 percent decrease in emergency room visits. At Sharp HealthCare in San Diego, an in-home palliative care program launched in 2007 has reduced hospitalizations and emergency-room visits among the 1,200 patients served annually, said Suzi Johnson, director of hospice and palliative care programs. “The traditional mindset is, ‘If I get sick, I go to the hospital,’” she said. “That worked 50 years ago … It doesn’t work so well now because people are living to be older and they’re living with chronic illness. We teach people that you never have to go to the hospital with a chronic illness, assuming we can help teach you how to manage your chronic illness.” Nevertheless, challenges remain. Medicare currently does not cover palliative care, said Kathleen Kerr a health-care consultant for the California HealthCare Foundation. There is also a shortage of qualified palliative care professionals, Thomas said. “The funding for palliative care is not there yet from a federal level, but I think it will come over time because of the demographics of our population,” Johnson said. “It’s a very solid solution to an aging population that needs more supportive, home-based, coordinated care.” by Claudia Boyd-Barrett, California Health Report <h1>Palliative Care Poised to Expand Amid Health Reform</h1> <p class="byline">by Claudia Boyd-Barrett, California Health Report <br />December 16, 2014</p> <p>Cleo Boyd of Santa Rosa was close to despair in early 2013.</p> <p>Her husband, Robert Boyd, 89, was constantly in and out of the hospital, receiving emergency treatment for complications related to a heart problem, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and other long-term health issues. When he came home, Cleo Boyd, 92, wasn’t always sure how to best take care of him.</p> <p>“He would hardly get home before he was back in,” she said. “I really didn’t know what I was going to do. I was trying to be positive, and tell myself it’s going to be OK, but I didn’t really believe it.”</p> <p>Then, in March of that year following two particularly serious hospital visits, staff referred the couple to an outpatient palliative care program called <a href="http://www.sutterhealth.org/quality/focus/advanced-illness-management.html">Advanced Illness Management</a> offered by northern California health-care network Sutter Health. The program provided home-care visits by a nurse, social worker, and physical and occupational therapists to the Boyds’shousehold, who assessed the couple’s needs and found ways to make it easier for them to manage Robert Boyd’s health problems at home.</p> <p>The result is that Robert Boyd has stayed out of the hospital almost entirely, except for one visit because of a problem with his defibrillator. Everything else has been managed from his home.</p> <p>Palliative care — a multidisciplinary approach to helping people with serious, chronic and life-threatening illnesses better manage their conditions and improve their quality of life — is commonly provided to patients in the hospital, with about half of acute-care hospitals in the state offering the service, according to The California HealthCare Foundation.</p> <p>But a growing number of palliative care programs, including the one at Sutter Health, are being expanded to chronically ill patients in community clinics and at home, spurred by federal and state health reforms, said Judy Thomas, Executive Director of the <a href="http://coalitionccc.org/">Coalition for Compassionate Care of California</a>, a statewide collaborative of health-care organizations and individuals supportive of palliative care.</p> <p>“It’s really about quality of life, it’s not about medical treatment,” she said. “As people are living longer, there’s more and more people living with complex medical conditions, and our (current) health-care system is not designed to provide them with the best care.”</p> <p><strong>California bill expands services</strong></p> <p><a href="http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140SB1004">Legislation</a> signed by Governor Brown in September will further expand access to palliative care services. The bill, which takes effect Jan. 1, requires the Department of Health Care Services to define standards for palliative care under Medi-Cal, the state’s health insurance program for the poor. The department must work with Medi-Cal managed care plans to increase access to these services.</p> <p>In an email, department spokesman Anthony Cava said the work will be done over the next several months, and new palliative care options will be phased in based on health plan capacity and the availability of palliative care teams. The agency believes that the cost of providing palliative care will be offset by a reduction in hospital and nursing home stays, he said.</p> <p>Health care reform is likely to continue to encourage the expansion of palliative care programs. The Affordable Care Act seeks to gradually shift the health-care system away from the traditional fee-for-service payment model by offering financial incentives to hospitals and clinicians that can improve patient health while reducing costs. Palliative care fits into that approach.</p> <p><strong>Home visits reduce hospitalizations </strong></p> <p>When the palliative care nurse came to the Boyd’s house, Cleo Boyd learned how to handle her husband’s medical equipment, and monitor his blood pressure, oxygen levels and weight.</p> <p>Meanwhile, a social worker, Catherine Arnold, connected Robert Boyd to services he was entitled to through the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs, including 16 hours a week of in-home caregiver support such as cooking and cleaning, meals on wheels, and vision care for his failing eyesight.</p> <p>Once Robert Boyd’s condition stabilized, Sutter health-care workers continued to check on the couple by phone, sending a nurse to visit them whenever necessary. The Boyds could also call for help or advice when they needed it.</p> <p>Providing palliative care to patients after they leave the hospital or when a serious illness is diagnosed helps prevent unnecessary hospital visits, reduces patient and caregiver stress and saves money in the long run because patients need less emergency medical care, Thomas said.</p> <p>The services provided under a palliative care program can vary. However, it generally involves care on multiple levels, from pain management and symptom relief, to counseling, social work services, end-of-life planning and spiritual support. Typically the work is carried out by a team of professionals from different disciplines such as doctors, nurses, social workers, therapists, dietitians, pharmacists and chaplains.</p> <p>The goal is to go beyond medical treatment of the disease and tend to the physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs of patients and their families so they can live the best life possible, even if there is no hope of a cure and their condition is likely to worsen over time.</p> <p><strong>Challenges remain</strong></p> <p>There are 189 community-based palliative care programs in the state, a recent survey by The California HealthCare Foundation found. Most of these programs are clinic-based, although 65 involve home-based services, and another 39 provide services across different settings, which could include clinics, nursing homes and patient homes. The programs are spread across 36 counties.</p> <p>Health-care providers that offer community-based palliative care say they have seen dramatic reductions in emergency-room visits and hospital stays among those they serve. Betsy Gornet, who heads the advanced illness management department at Sutter Health, said the program has seen a 60 percent reduction in hospitalizations among patients enrolled, and a 33 percent decrease in emergency room visits.</p> <p>At Sharp HealthCare in San Diego, an <a href="http://www.sharp.com/hospice/transitions-advanced-illness-management-program.cfm">in-home palliative care program</a> launched in 2007 has reduced hospitalizations and emergency-room visits among the 1,200 patients served annually, said Suzi Johnson, director of hospice and palliative care programs.</p> <p>“The traditional mindset is, ‘If I get sick, I go to the hospital,’” she said. “That worked 50 years ago … It doesn’t work so well now because people are living to be older and they’re living with chronic illness. We teach people that you never have to go to the hospital with a chronic illness, assuming we can help teach you how to manage your chronic illness.”</p> <p>Nevertheless, challenges remain. Medicare currently does not cover palliative care, said Kathleen Kerr a health-care consultant for the California HealthCare Foundation. There is also a shortage of qualified palliative care professionals, Thomas said.</p> <p>“The funding for palliative care is not there yet from a federal level, but I think it will come over time because of the demographics of our population,” Johnson said. “It’s a very solid solution to an aging population that needs more supportive, home-based, coordinated care.”</p> This <a target="_blank" href="https://www.calhealthreport.org/2014/12/16/palliative-care-poised-expand-amid-health-reform/">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://www.calhealthreport.org">California Health Report</a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons license. Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. Can Chef-Made Meals Serve as Medicine? State’s Low-Income Insurance Aims to Find Out How a Retired Catholic School Principal Became a Cannabis Dispenser Why Has the Cost of Insulin Skyrocketed? Officials Seek Answers Despite Medicare, Low-Income Seniors Feel the Pain of Rising Medical Costs © 2021 California Health Report	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line976
__label__cc	0.660646	0.339354	Get Your FREE Quote Now! bucks clean oven The History Of coffee It is said that coffee is the second global trade that is widely circulated after the oil trade, and it is the oldest popular drink in the world and is made from roasted coffee seeds that grow in more than 70 countries around the world. The different is the way it is prepared and the different properties of the coffee bean. Sometimes the differences are in the taste, aroma, and texture, as is the case between a cup of French coffee and a cup of Turkish coffee. The history of coffee from the Arab countries to the far west Coffee moved north towards the Hijaz and entered the traditions of the peoples who lived there, and then it reached Cairo and from there it moved to Istanbul, which was a major empire through merchants from the Levant, and from Turkey, coffee traveled to London in 1652 and from there to all countries of the world. It is mentioned that the origin of the name coffee is that the word was originally referring to a type of wine, and the Arabic dictionaries derived its origin from the verb Qaha, which symbolizes "not feeling hungry", referring to the drink's reputation for suppressing appetite. Popular types of coffee served in cafes: Concentrated espresso Concentrated espresso is the basis and the most important type of every espresso drink and it can be served in all cafes where it is made using an espresso machine. Double espresso (doppio) Double espresso (nicknamed "Doppio") is two cups of double espresso in one cup as it contains a concentrated dose of caffeine, so those who are sick with liver or who cannot tolerate caffeine should not drink it at all. This type is offered in all designated cafes. To offer different types of coffee. The center moquito The concentrated macchiato is similar to the espresso counterpart, but with milk and served with a gentle froth that all coffee lover influences and consists of one shot of espresso in a small cup with a piece of steamed milk dessert and foam on top. Koblong Moquito Similar to the previous type but with two layers of intense espresso. The Ristretto A ristretto is an espresso form made with the same amount of coffee but half the amount of water. The end result is a more concentrated, darker espresso extract. It is an espresso drink, but diluted with boiling water, which is used by espresso lovers who, at the same time, cannot stand an intense espresso shot. Latte Cafe It is an espresso drink with steamed milk and an attractive foam on top of the coffee. A cappuccino is similar to a caffe latte. However, the main difference between latte and cappuccino is that the cappuccino has more foam and chocolate on top of the cup. Piccolato Latte Piccolato Latte is a café latte made in an espresso cup. This means it has a very strong espresso taste but is submerged thanks to the steamed ground milk and the foam inside. Mocha is a mixture between cappuccino and hot chocolate. It is made by adding chocolate powder with espresso and then adding steamed milk and foam. It is the simple coffee dessert that is consumed in the summer. It consists of one large cup of vanilla ice cream with the addition of one or two layers of espresso. Turkish coffee is easy to make, although there are some types that include additives such as cinnamon and cloves. The ingredients are water, coffee and sugar, to taste. But Turkish coffee is completely dependent on the type of coffee seeds that are used, as the roasting of the seeds and the additives that are placed when promoting this type of coffee is what makes it famous. There are different types of Arabic coffee, but the traditional version includes cardamom or "cardamom." The density of coffee depends on the taste in general, as some prefer it heavy and others prefer it light, smooth or plain. To prepare the coffee for which the Kingdom is famous, it is added to the main ingredients of coffee and water. Sugar is 1/4 spoonful of saffron As for the popular coffee in the UAE, it is green coffee that has not been roasted and has a pleasant taste to the people of the Emirates and coffee lovers from all Arab and foreign countries. The benefits and harm of coffee There are a number of damages to coffee, such as an increase in anxiety and nervousness, as well as an increase in diuresis, and with the passage of time it is possible that the caffeine in coffee becomes addictive, in addition to causing a number of damages such as an increase in blood pressure. He explains that what many people do not know about coffee is that it does not increase the concentration in the body in the morning, as some think, and that eating a cup of it increases the feeling of depression in the event of irregular intake. They help reduce the risk of cancer especially in the head and neck area. Reduces the incidence of brain tumors. It has great effectiveness in reducing Parkinson's. Eliminate diabetes and liver cancer. Reduces the risk of developing type 2 diabetes It reduces the risk of stroke, so it must be taken care when drinking coffee that the rates of consumption are acceptable so as not to harm the body. history of coffe Collection Of Home Solutions HP12 3HE Email : buckscleanoven@info.co.uk © 2023 by Bucks Clean Oven. Proudly created with Bucks Clean Oven Free Booking	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line978
__label__cc	0.658349	0.341651	#dubai#trade#brazil#Brazilian Business Council of Dubai Brazilian Business Council established in Dubai \|Mar 16\| 2 min read The Brazilian Business Council of Dubai has been set up with the support of the Embassy of Brazil to the UAE and the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The organisation will offer Brazilian companies a platform to network with each other and work closely to bolster their presence in the country. State-owned Banco do Brasil, the largest Brazilian and Latin American bank by assets, is among the organisations that have become members of the association. Dr. Michel Alaby, Secretary General and CEO, Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, said: “Brazil and the UAE enjoy extremely cordial business relations which have continued to flourish over the years with approximately 45 Brazilian companies operating in Dubai. With increasing presence of Brazilian companies in the emirate, there was a need for organisations such as the Brazilian Business Council of Dubai to offer assistance to them in expanding their horizon in Dubai and the region." Follow @BusinessRevME	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line981
__label__wiki	0.935242	0.935242	How Telfar's 'Bushwick Birkin' Became Gen-Z's First It-Bag By BoF Team January 10, 2020 19:17 The Brooklyn-based brand's 'Shopping' bag isn't expensive, but it is exclusive. Here’s what the industry can learn from its success. Telfar "Shopping" Bag campaign featuring Oyinda and shot by June Canedo \| Source: Courtesy Hello BoF Professionals, your exclusive 'This Week in Fashion' briefing is ready, with members-only analysis on the key topic of the week and a digest of the week's top news. This week, New York magazine’s The Cut published an article on the success of the Telfar "Shopping" bag, a rectangular, vegan-leather pocketbook embossed with a cushy-looking “T” emblem. Priced between $150 and $257, depending on the size, it may not carry a luxury price tag, but the Shopping bag has become a bonafide status symbol with the cool kids. The bag is so coveted within a community of young creative people living and working in the trendiest parts of Brooklyn that some of its carriers even call it the “Bushwick Birkin,” named after the neighbourhood where designer Telfar Clemens’ own studio is located and Hermès' incredibly famous — and incredibly expensive — top-handle tote. Clemens, whose non-binary fashion line was featured at influential trade show Pitti Uomo on Thursday, was able to scale his Shopping Bag business in 2017 after winning the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund. (He used what was left of his $400,000 earnings after taxes to pay for production.) And since then, it has become something of a phenomenon, stocked at important stores like Dover Street Market. By 2019, the brand's sales had more than doubled to $1.6 million, up from $100,000 just three years earlier. By 2019, the brand's sales had more than doubled to $1.6 million, up from $100,000 just three years earlier, in no small part due to the success of the Shopping bag. Last season, Clemens — who works with Luca Benini's Milan-based Slam Jam — moved his fashion show to Paris during the women’s season, telling BoF that while New York Fashion Week is a great marketing platform, Paris was better for commerce. At the same time, he threw a party in New York, less for the trade and more for the creative community surrounding him that has helped to fuel the brand’s growth. But Telfar is anything but an overnight success. Clemens began his line 15 years ago and remained largely under the radar until around 2016. Over the years, he has continued to play the game of fashion on his own terms — valuing his longtime collaborators and a close-knit community over fortune or fame — which is perhaps why his approach offers unique lessons to an industry full of legacy brands struggling to curry favour with young consumers. So, what can the success of the “Bushwick Birkin,” Gen Z’s first It-bag, teach fashion? Original design matters. It’s nearly impossible to create fashion that does not reference the past in some way, but many of the industry's most successful products still feel new. Telfar's Shopping Bag has a distinct design, from its bouncy vegan leather to its dual handles: a top handle paired with a long shoulder strap. It’s clearly not a knockoff of another designer’s work. Nor is it derivative of a more expensive style. This is important in a middle market where consumers can buy good-looking knockoffs at Zara and watered-down versions of luxury designs often end up in the bargain bin. Standing for something matters. Clemens has described his brand as “genderless, democratic and transformative." Its DNA is rooted in inclusivity, designed for a group of creative people who have often felt marginalised by society because of their gender, race or socioeconomic background. The power of this message and the sense of community that accompanies it have imbued his Shopping bag with the kind of meaning that resonates with young consumers who are looking for something to belong to, not just something to buy. Telfar’s Shopping bag challenges all labels to strive for originality in an era when it can feel like a risk. Exclusivity still matters. Although inclusivity is critical to the Telfar brand and its Shopping bag is accessibly priced, the product still has an important exclusivity factor: it's desirable, in part, because of the select group of people who have adopted it. If you wear a Telfar bag, you are in the know, you belong to a contingent of cool kids who are, by definition, limited in numbers and way ahead of the mainstream. Playing the long game matters. Success in fashion is, in part, about conviction. Telfar may have launched in 2004, but few in the industry paid attention in those early years. Yet Clemens and his team kept at it, working and growing on his own terms, taking the “long-term view,” as a seasoned luxury executive would say. At this point, Clemens could have made dozens of different styles of bags, but instead he has focused on one, prescribing to the notion that repetition is what makes reputation. Perhaps Hermès and Telfar aren’t so different. THE NEWS IN BRIEF FASHION, BUSINESS AND THE ECONOMY Firefighters work through the night to fight wildfires in Australia \| Source: Kate Geraghty/The SMH/Fairfax Media via Getty Images Australia’s wildfires serve as a rallying cry for fashion. The disaster has increased the pressure on brands to show they care about climate change, offering a grim picture of the potential future for retail if nothing is done. The current blazes have burnt 6.3 million hectares of land, and key fashion players including Gucci and Saint Laurent have made sizable donations. But the situation also requires the industry to take a long and critical look at its own practises. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are stepping back as “senior members” of the royal family. The news that the couple are to step back and become “financially independent” presents one of the biggest influencers this year — Markle was listed as fashion’s most powerful dresser of 2019 by Lyst — with a host of new opportunities. Black Frame closes its doors. Fashion PR is increasingly diverging along data-driven and creative lines. For Black Frame Founder Brian Phillips, closing the business will allow him to focus on the latter. The 15-year-old agency that represents brands like Opening Ceremony and Rodarte will shut down at the end of February to help clients transition through fashion month and find new representation. Nike signs multi-year kit deal with Liverpool FC. The sportswear giant will replace New Balance as the Premier League football club's kit supplier. Liverpool were taken to court by New Balance last year after it was alleged the club was looking to switch to Nike, however the club successfully argued that New Balance could not match Nike's offer with respect to marketing and distribution. Off-White backer adds Ambush brand to its portfolio. New Guards Group has major ambitions to grow the jewellery-focused label from Yoon Ahn and Verbal. Ambush counts Kanye West and Rihanna as fans and has collaborated with the likes of Nike, Rimowa, Sacai, Converse and Gentle Monster. New Guards Group plans to add new categories to the Japanese brand and will move a significant part of the ready-to-wear production to Italy. French underwear start-up Le Slip faces boycott threat after blackface video surfaces. The brand said it “severely sanctioned” two employees who attended a New Year’s Eve party where guests wore racist costumes. In the videos, one guest is wearing blackface and another is dressed as a gorilla, prompting calls to stop buying from the brand which coalesced around the hashtag #boycottleslipfrancais. 2019 ends on a positive note for luxury. Luxury investment throughout 2019 often felt like a game of musical chairs, but the year ended on a high with an overall yearly gain of 44 percent for the Savigny Luxury Index. Prada was December’s top gainer, posting an impressive share price increase of 13 percent, pursuant to the agreement of a beauty licence deal with L’Oréal. Fast Retailing cuts outlook after Asia strife hits Uniqlo sales. The company was impacted by Hong Kong protests and a South Korean consumer boycott. Annual operating profit was forecast to fall 5 percent to 245 billion yen ($2.24 billion), against a previously expected rise to 275.0 billion yen for the year to the end of August. Sign from the In Goop Health Summit \| Source: Getty Images Goop has a new retail partner. The skincare brand founded by Gwyneth Paltrow will enter select Sephora stores next month. Up until now, Goop was only available at its own stores, on Goop.com and at some independent beauty shops. Despite having faced its fair share of criticism in the past, Goop says its revenue doubled in 2018 from 2017. And as of December 2019, it said sales from its stores were up more than 200 percent year over year. Procter & Gamble acquires Billie. The firm purchased the direct-to-consumer women’s grooming brand for an undisclosed amount. P&G’s female grooming portfolio includes Venus and Braun, and the company said the addition of Billie will strengthen its appeal with Millenial and Gen-Z consumers due to the new brand's body-positive marketing. Christoph Honnefelder \| Source: Courtesy Coty names Kylie Cosmetics CEO. Following its recent deal with Coty, Kylie Cosmetics has a new chief executive. Christoph Honnefelder will assume the role “in the near future,” according to a statement from Coty. He joins the company from beauty retailer Douglas, where he was executive vice president for assortment and purchasing. Avon chief executive steps down as Natura deal closes. Natura Executive Chairman Roberto Marques will take over Jan Zijderveld as head of the US cosmetics maker. Natura, which also owns Aesop and The Body Shop, agreed to buy Avon in 2019 through a share swap that valued the over 130-year old company's equity at around $2 billion. Lululemon appoints first chief brand officer. Lululemon has announced that Nikki Neuburger will serve as its first ever chief brand officer. Effective January 20, Neuburger will report to Chief Executive Calvin McDonald. She was previously global head of marketing for Uber Eats and also spent 14 years at Nike, where her final role was global vice president of Nike Running. Alibaba praised for ad recognising same-sex couples. Depictions of the LGBTQIA+ community in Chinese media are rare, but that hasn't stopped the advert from being circulated widely on social media. Alibaba has supported China's gay community in the past. In 2017, the company teamed up with gay dating app Blued and flew 10 couples to Los Angeles for a week-long trip. Alibaba undercuts Amazon to woo wary European brands. China's e-commerce giant is targeting key markets such as Spain with reduced monthly fees and commission for vendors, according to sources familiar with the matter. AliExpress has approached well-known brands including Mango and Benetton to appear on the site with limited success. BoF Professional is your competitive advantage in a fast-changing fashion industry. Missed some BoF Professional exclusive features? Click here to browse the archive.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line982
__label__wiki	0.505461	0.505461	Watch The 700 Club Now! www.hispraise.com/reed The Resurrection of Isaiah Reed CBN.com – LIFE OF CRIME Isaiah was brought up in church. By the time he was seven, Isaiah got saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. As a boy, he got caught up in gangs and was later involved in a drive-by shooting. Rather than go to a juvenile home, Isaiah was sent to the military. There, Isaiah got involved in the black market and learned how to make fast money. After his service time was up, Isaiah took his organizational skills and the discipline he learned in the military to run a prostitution ring. He became enormously successful: money to burn, expensive cars, and worldwide travel. Drug dealing came along with the territory. Deep down, Isaiah was not completely happy. He wanted the respect from his parents but his lifestyle caused his mother shame. His father disowned him and reminded Isaiah that worldly lifestyles result in death. His parents continued to pray for him. On August 13, 1986, Isaiah was dealing drugs with some Columbians. As he got in the car to finalize the deal, one of the dealers pulled out a 38 automatic and fired a bullet in Isaiah’s head. He grabbed the end of the barrel and the next bullet went through his face throughout all the upper part of his mouth and throat and into the back of his spine. Then they pulled out their knives, stabbed Isaiah 16 times in his upper body, then threw him out of the car in the alley with the money in his pocket. His wife, Carol, was on her way to Texas and felt like something had happened to Isaiah. Isaiah’s mother knew in her spirit that something was happening to her son. As he lay in the alley with blood pouring out of him, Isaiah could hear his father say, “You’re going to end up in an alley in a puddle of blood by yourself.” He thought to himself, “I’m too young to die! I’m really not all that bad!” God was calling on him to change. When Isaiah’s mother got the call that her son bled to death on the street and was dead, she said, “I have heard your report. But I got a report right here. Let me read you my report card.” She began to pray. Isaiah was already on the autopsy table and was cut open but his vital signs began registering. Mrs. Reed then told them to let the “real” doctor work on him and that her son would be alive when she arrived at the hospital. Doctors met her with more news: they couldn’t remove the bullets out of his head and that he would be a vegetable for the rest of his life. She asked everyone to leave the room so she could pray. Isaiah, with the bullet still in his head, later walked out of the hospital on his own power. Even despite God’s goodness, Isaiah continued to live in sin for three years after God raised him from the dead. On December 27, 1989, while doing drugs in a room with his friends in Hawaii, one lady friend got hysterical. Isaiah just wanted her to be quiet and felt like punching her. Instead, he asked if he could pray for her. Isaiah’s friends were stunned. Isaiah prayed for the girl, and he felt the Holy Spirit in the room. He told the Lord, “If you’re real, come into my life or else I’ll kill everyone in this room.” Isaiah watched as the Holy Spirit knocked down everyone in the room. “We were crying and repenting,” says Isaiah. They even got sober. “I never touched drugs again,” he says. Immediately after accepting the Lord, police burst into the room (they had been under surveillance). He was in prison for four months and released. Two years later during his trial, the judge ordered him to serve 20 years. Isaiah accepted his sentence. One day the Lord told him to get his education. Miraculously, he was transferred from cleaning toilets into the prison education department. Isaiah got his GED and got an Associate Degree in Computer Science. Three years after he was incarcerated, Isaiah was released. He immediately went to work as the associate pastor at his church. He started his ministry in 1990.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line995
__label__cc	0.698271	0.301729	Advisory and Transaction Services Industries-and-Specialties U.S. MarketFlash \| Fed Cuts Rates to Zero as COVID-19 Weighs on Markets 5 minute read time Interest rates cut to zero: The Federal Reserve cut short-term interest rates by 100 basis points (bps) yesterday to a target range of 0% to 0.25%. Quantitative easing to keep the cost of credit down: The Fed announced asset purchases of $500 billion in Treasury securities and $200 billion in mortgage-backed securities starting today. Domestic liquidity support to keep credit flowing: The Fed cut the discount rate that it charges banks for short-term loans during times of strain by 150 bps to 0.25%. Bank reserve requirements were cut to zero. Global liquidity support: To ensure that dollar-based transactions outside the U.S. can be completed, including loan payments, U.S. dollar swap lines were adjusted with four foreign central banks. Increased government spending: The House of Representatives passed a bill negotiated with the Trump administration late last week to address the immediate impacts of the pandemic-induced crisis on citizens. The Senate is still reviewing this legislation but is expected to pass it. Additional fiscal action is expected to address industry-specific issues and the broader economy during the coming weeks. CBRE will conduct a Flash Call on March 18 at 11 a.m. EDT to discuss COVID-19’s potential impacts on the commercial real estate industry. To register for the call, go here. Rapidly Evolving Conditions The Fed responded on Sunday to the deteriorating economic outlook and market disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic. Emergency moves included cutting short-term interest rates to a target range of 0% to 0.25%, restarting purchases of government and mortgage-backed securities (quantitative easing) and ensuring the availability of dollars to foreign central banks (including Canada, the U.K., the European Union and Switzerland) via enhanced swap lines. In addition, the Fed encouraged financial institutions to use intraday credit facilities and capital and liquidity buffers—built up after the Global Financial Crisis—to aid prudent lending to households and businesses during this time of economic strain. Reserve requirements were also cut to zero, substantially boosting commercial banks’ ability to lend. The Fed’s actions are on a par with those enacted during the financial crisis and have been more rapidly deployed. Implications for CRE Lending to commercial real estate has notably tightened in the past seven days. Prior to the crisis, lending markets had been deep and liquid. But as conditions worsened, spreads widened and some lenders and borrowers paused their activity. These measures are helpful, but it is unlikely that real estate lending conditions will ease until the extent of the virus outbreak is clearer and relatively under control. The COVID-19 outbreak is a serious shock to the U.S. economy as it affects both supply and demand. There will be a sharp drop in economic activity in Q2, including a drop in the values of commercial and residential real estate. As early as Q3 2020, as the virus begins to peak, activity and values will begin to stabilize. A recovery is expected to be underway by Q4, but the impact on the economy and corresponding property values in some sectors will last well into 2021. Hotels: Additional travel bans imposed by the private and public sectors are severely limiting travel and, by extension, demand for hotels. CBRE forecasts that the hotel sector will suffer a 20% drop in revenue this year, with additional downward revisions likely. Effects from less-favorable economic dynamics will last for months after the spread of the virus slows. Industrial: Simultaneous supply and demand shocks—supply-chain disruptions and less demand due to an economic slowdown—will impact industrial properties. This will be counterbalanced by more people shopping for goods online, which likely will bolster demand for last-mile distribution space. Retail: Bans on various gatherings and restrictions on retail sites, including food & beverage establishments, have already materially lowered consumption, especially in high-traffic properties like malls. Some retailers have announced voluntary temporary closures, but government directives may force more. Though some retailers, such as grocers and pharmacies, are having trouble keeping up with brisk demand, weaker economic activity will negatively impact overall retail fundamentals. This will compound difficulties for certain retailers that are already struggling. When the virus eases, pent-up demand should provide a strong surge in activity. Office: Slowing economic growth will put leasing on hold, pushing up vacancy. This is particularly true for travel and oil & gas industries. Some pent-up demand likely will materialize later in the year. Longer term, the crisis will accelerate the trend toward workplace fluidity. For more details, see CBRE’s Real Estate 2030 Research Report. Multifamily: Overall, structural shifts in demand remain favorable for the sector. However, issues of affordability and reduced household formation will weigh on demand in the next six months. Tenants will gain the upper hand in lease negotiations. During the near term, supply issues are hampering construction of new units and, in some cases, adding costs to new development. The U.S. economy and commercial property market fundamentals were on firm footing coming into this unprecedented period. As more aggressive measures are taken to slow COVID-19’s spread, economic impacts will increase. This will result in negative GDP growth during the second quarter. CBRE has lowered its estimate of full-year growth to 1.3%, with risks biased to the downside. Property values and activity will take a short-term hit, but there is no reason to think that the effects on values will last long. The government’s next fiscal response will range in the hundreds of billions of dollars to address businesses particularly affected by the crisis, such as airlines and small businesses, as well as additional measures to shore up the consumer. Policymakers retain a wide range of options and will act aggressively, especially because this is an election year. For this reason, the most extreme impacts on commercial real estate likely will be somewhat short-lived. Richard Barkham, Ph.D. Global Chief Economist & Head of Americas Research Spencer Levy Chairman, Americas Research & Senior Economic Advisor Darin Mellott Director of Research, Americas Explore Related Research on the U.S. Research Homepage VIEW MORE RESEARCH	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line997
__label__cc	0.636677	0.363323	Bleeding Red: Effort is there, but not the results for Runnin’ Utes Written by Dwayne Vance You know that you need to eat much more spinach When you come up short in sight of the finish Life is not always unicorns and mermaids Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades COMMENTARY — I vividly remember the last time I watched the annual Days of ’47 Pioneer Day Parade in person. My family would customarily set up camp in Liberty Park, where we could watch the runners in the marathon cross the finish line before the floats streamed into the park for the home stretch of the parade. One of the marathon runners literally collapsed in the intersection less than half a block away from the finish line. I can only imagine the hours, and likely years, of training that runner had endured, not to mention the lion’s share of the race that had already been completed before he went down. However, in spite of an otherwise monumental effort, he just couldn’t make it to the finish line, came up short and was carted away in an ambulance. That is pretty much the storyline experienced by Utah’s teams this past week — in spite of otherwise monumental efforts, they just couldn’t make it to the finish line, came up short, and returned home with nothing but losses to show for their efforts. Let’s start with the Runnin’ Utes, who went 0 for 2 in the Beaver State last week. Utah started their journey in the picturesque town of Corvallis to take on Oregon State. The Runnin’ Utes out-shot the Beavers from the field 51.1 percent to 47.5, yet still lost. When Utah senior Brandon Taylor fouled Oregon State freshman Stephen Thompson, Jr., on a long shot barely across midcourt with one second left on the clock, it was easy to forget which player was the seasoned veteran and which player was still earning his wings in his first collegiate season. Nevertheless, the loss does not lay at the feet of Taylor alone, but rather this was a true team loss as the game never should have come down to a last-second shot anyway. Utah head coach Larry Krystkowiak talks to his players. File photo from Dec. 19, 2015. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson) The Runnin’ Utes had a 10-point lead with 7:44 left in the game, but from then on, Oregon State slowly whittled the lead down (not unlike a Beaver gnawing into the trunk of a tree). During a horrific 3-minute stretch with less than 5 minutes left to play, Utah was scoreless while missing three shots (including a lay-up) and committing five turnovers, resulting in a 4-point lead disappearing into a 3-point deficit. That was pretty much the beginning of the end, as the wheels came off and the Runnin’ Utes went down with the finish line in sight. Utah did not fare any better in Eugene. Similar to the previous game, the Runnin’ Utes out-shot the Ducks from the field 50 percent to 43 percent, as well as from the 3-point line (43-33), and even outrebounded Oregon 30-28, but still lost by double digits. Utah had played well for the first part of the game and was within a single point of Oregon when Jakob Poeltl went to the bench in foul trouble with 2:57 left to play in the first half. The Ducks immediately stretched the lead to 8 (their biggest lead of the half), and took a 6-point lead into the locker room at halftime. Brandon Taylor and the Runnin’ Utes have suffered too many turnovers lately. The Runnin’ Utes never really recovered. Oregon had a double-digit lead for the vast majority of the second half and eventually won by 10 points. Utah is simply a different team when Poeltl gets into foul trouble and has to spend time on the bench, as well as be more tentative when he returns to the floor. There was a significant common denominator in both games — double-digit turnovers by the Runnin’ Utes (12 against the Beavers, and 14 against the Ducks). Oregon State had a 6-point advantage over Utah in points off of turnovers (which more than accounted for the 2-point margin of victory), and similarly, Oregon enjoyed a 14-point advantage in points off of turnovers (which, again, more than accounted for the 10-point margin of victory). If the Runnin’ Utes are going to make any noise in the Pac-12 Tournament or the Big Dance, they are going to have to learn how to take better care of the ball. They might have to make some defensive adjustments as well. Oregon State’s Gary Payton II scored 20 against Utah and Oregon’s Dillon Brooks torched the Runnin’ Utes for 30. “We didn’t have an answer for Dillon Brooks,” Utah Coach Larry Krystkowiak explained after the Oregon loss. “That was a huge difference in the game. If we get a chance to play him again this year, we’re going to have to get back to the drawing board and come up with a different plan as to how we’re going to defend it because he’s hurt us.” The Runnin’ Utes return to the friendly confines of the Huntsman Center this week, with five of their last seven conference games at home. Utah hosts Washington on The Hill on Wednesday with a 7 p.m. tip on ESPN2. Washington State then comes to town for a 3 p.m. Valentine’s Day matinee on Sunday, which will be televised on the Pac-12 Network. The Red Rocks didn’t fare much better than the Runnin’ Utes on the road last week. Utah had its first conference road meet of the season against a very good UCLA squad. The Bruins were ranked fifth in the nation going into last Saturday’s meet, and the Red Rocks were right on their heels at No. 7. Utah led throughout the entire meet, with the highest team scores on the vault, bars and beam. The Red Rocks were still clinging to a narrow lead when the Bruins’ Sadiqua Bynum took the floor for the final routine of the meet. Bynum needed a 9.925 just to tie Utah, and she delivered a 9.950 to give UCLA the narrowest of victories at 197.100 to 197.075. Even though they came up short of the win, the Red Rocks’ 197.075 points represented their highest road score of the season and was second only to Utah’s 197.150 score at home against Arizona the previous meet. Additionally, Red Rocks Samantha Partyka and Breanna Hughes were one and two in the all-around results. In fact, UCLA had to score its season high in order to barely edge out Utah on the Bruins’ home floor. Next up for Utah is another home meet against Washington on Saturday at 7 p.m., which will be televised on the Pac-12 Network.Here’s hoping both the Runnin’ Utes and the Red Rocks can turn great efforts into actual wins on The Hill this week. Bleeding Red is a sports column written by Dwayne Vance. The opinions expressed do not necessarily represent those of St. George News. Dwayne has dabbled in sports media over the years, but has always kept his day job as an attorney (at least for the time being). Having never made it past the West Jordan High School football team as an athlete, Dwayne has more than made up for his lack of playing experience as an avid fan. As a proud graduate of the University of Utah, there is no doubt where his allegiance lies (notwithstanding his law degree from the school down south, to this very day Dwayne stubbornly maintains that he is not aware of any collegiate sports affiliation with the J. Reuben Clark School of Law). Dwayne is lucky enough to be married to Cheryl and has one son and two daughters. Synchronous fireworks in St. George, Parowan, Panguitch, Kanab and Beaver to mark statehood anniversary Cedar City 2019 New Year's Eve arson case once again rejected by appeals court Ironman Group announces St. George will host two championship triathlons in 2021 Posted in Sports, Top Sports Stories, UtahTagged Runnin' Utes, sports, utah, Utah basketball	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line999
__label__cc	0.609136	0.390864	Region 9 Hardball Show: Fantastic finish to regular season, a look ahead to the state playoff ‘pods’ Written by Andy Griffin ST. GEORGE — There were three sweeps in the last week of the regular season — but that doesn’t mean the games were boring as we saw some big hits, some huge pitching performances and some fantastic finishes to close out the regular season. Andy Griffin talks to players and coaches and brings you highlights from the last week of the 2016 regular season. We’ll also hand out our player of the week award and take a look at the final standings. And of course, we’ll get into the playoffs, which begin on Saturday with “pods” in Draper, Stansbury Park, Cedar City and St. George. Thanks so much for watching the show, which is brought to you by Stapley Pharmacy, Robert J. Debry & Associates and Bakston Freight Systems. 3A Playoff pods — Saturday, May 14 @Pine View Pine View (16-6) vs. Morgan (6-14), 10 a.m.* Juab (8-10) vs. Grantsville (14-7), 12:30 p.m. Losers meet at approx. 3 p.m. Winners meet at approx. 5 p.m. @Juan Diego Juan Diego (15-5) vs. Cedar (11-12), 10 a.m.** Park City (11-10) vs. Carbon (10-11), 12:30 p.m. @Canyon View Canyon View (16-5) vs. Union (6-15), 10 a.m. Desert Hills (12-12) vs. Logan (13-10), 12:30 p.m.* @Stansbury Stansbury (15-6) vs. Richfield (11-10), 10 a.m. Bear River (14-7) vs. Dixie (14-6), 12:30 p.m. 3A Playoffs resume May 19 (Thursday) at 11 a.m. 3A Championship game May 21 (Saturday) at 11:30 a.m. * To be broadcast on ESPNRadio 97.7 FM ** To be broadcast on 590-KSUB in Cedar City Be sure to check back every week throughout the playoffs as we’ll have highlights and interviews as the teams race for the state championship. Andy Griffin has been in sports media since 1989 and has covered BYU, Utah State and the Utah Jazz as well as all sports in southern Utah. A journalism graduate of USU, Andy has carried on a dual career as both a sports writer and a sports broadcaster and has been heard around the country. He has also been published in USA Today, Sport magazine, The Sporting News, Fairways magazine, the Los Angeles Times and locally in the Deseret News, the Salt Lake Tribune and the Spectrum. Andy was “The Voice of Region 9 sports,” for many years. He also hosted a daily sports talk show for three years called AG in the a.m. Andy has been married to his college sweetheart Shelly for 28 years and has five children ages 13 to 25. Region 9 girls basketball recap: Desert Hills, Pine View, Dixie, Cedar win region openers Region 9 basketball preview: Canyon View Region 9 basketball preview: Crimson Cliffs Posted in Canyon View, Cedar City, Desert Hills, Dixie High, Hurricane, Pine View, Snow Canyon, Sports, Top Sports StoriesTagged canyon view, cedar city, Desert hills, Dixie, Pine View, prep sports, region 9, sports	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line1000
__label__wiki	0.89815	0.89815	Problems aplenty for listless Australia Cricket Sports News 22/06/2018 22/06/2018 BhaRaTiYakheLLeave a Comment on Problems aplenty for listless Australia • Last updated on Fri, 22 Jun, 2018, 02:25 AM Australia have been very ordinary in the five-match series so far – and the 4-0 scoreline in England’s favour is a true reflection of their slump in the format © Getty England’s six-wicket victory over Australia at Emirates Riverside in Chester-le-Street consigned the men from Down Under to a ninth defeat from the last ten meetings between these two teams. Australia have now lost 15 of their last 17 completed ODI matches and are, at four-nil down with one to play, overwhelming favourites to be whitewashed on Sunday in Manchester. The series has been a complete mismatch. However, amidst all the English triumphalism, it should be remembered that this Australian team is shorn of six of its first-choice players. Steve Smith and David Warner, their best two batsmen, are suspended, all-rounder Mitchell Marsh, the player who balances the side, is injured and so are Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazelwood, three bowlers who would get in most ODI teams around the world. They are significant losses. But even so, just what was Australia’s plan for this tour? Was it, as captain Tim Paine said following the hammering in Trent Bridge, to experiment ahead of the 2019 World Cup? Or was it to get players used to their roles ahead of next year’s tournament? It hasn’t been clear and either way, there have been some strange calls in both the selection and tactics. Scattergun batting order Australia’s batting has been so poor that they have failed to bat out their 50 overs in three of the four matches, but aside from the batsmen’s lack of form, it has felt at times like they have been trying to fit square pegs into round holes. They started the series with Aaron Finch opening but then moved him into the middle order for the second and third matches before moving him back to open in Durham. Glenn Maxwell has batted at six which has looked one spot too low given he has scored most of his runs for Australia at number five and has a better strike-rate and average there than one position below. Meanwhile, Marcus Stonis has batted at four, despite averaging 47 at number six; his only ODI hundred has come from number seven. D’Arcy Short, an explosive T20 player, was given an ODI debut at Cardiff at the top of the order, played two matches and then was discarded for Alex Carey, the spare wicket-keeper, at Chester-le-Street. Carey then came in below bowler-who-can-bat Ashton Agar. It has all felt a bit as if Australia have been making it up on the hoof. Although constrained by the players at their disposal, Australia’s tactics have been found wanting on this tour in a number of areas. In particular, they have been too timid with the bat against the new ball in three out of the four matches – Trent Bridge was the exception – which has meant England’s bowlers have hardly been under any pressure. Today was a case in point. They scored 61 without loss off the first 10 overs while England amassed 76 runs in their first batting powerplay. The intent throughout was markedly different – Joe Root bowled 10 overs for 44 for goodness sake – and while Australia’s 310 may look a decent score, it was well below par on a flat pitch and with a quick outfield. That timidity has been the way of things in many areas. The crazy decision to bowl first at Trent Bridge after winning the toss was a defensive move. Billy Stanlake was used as a wicket-taking weapon at times, notably in the first match at the Oval, but on few other occasions did Australia use their bowlers in an attacking fashion. Placing Finch and Maxwell in the middle order, opening the bowling today with the gentle Michael Neser rather than the pace of Jhye Richardson, not picking a leg-spinner (see below), all of these things have been conservative. The brains trust may point to the absences of Smith and Warner, and Hazelwood, Starc and Cummins, and say that it’s a lot easier to play aggressive cricket with better batsmen and bowlers. With a large number of players also feeling their way into international cricket, it’s probably tough for them to come in and play with wanton abandon straight away. That’s fair enough but it has been a surprise to see an Australian side be so defensive tactically. They cannot play this way next year and win the Wolrd Cup. Where’s the wrist-spinner? Remarkably, Australia didn’t go for a wrist-spinner for this tour, despite the selectors saying they want to pick one for next year’s World Cup. If that is the case, it might have made sense to select a leggie for this trip. Adam Zampa, Mitchell Swepson or Cameron Boyce were options, although admittedly none of them have been pulling up trees of late. Swepson is joining the party for the one-off T20I. The decision is all the more strange given the important role that wrist-spinners, who can turn the ball both ways, now play in the modern game with the ability to take wickets a priority over run saving. Four of the top five wicket-takers in the past 12 months in ODI cricket are wrist-spinners and, according to statistical group CricViz, finger spin in the last year averages 37.87 while wrist spin averages 27.77. Leg-spinner Adil Rashid has been England’s most incisive bowler since the last World Cup with 103 wickets in 64 matches. England have shown a recent vulnerability against leg-spin too. New Zealander Ish Sodhi took ten wickets in four ODIs against them earlier this year and they will have a big test against Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal in the upcoming series against India. With the English batsmen in such good form, the orthodox left-arm finger spin of Ashton Agar and off-spin of Nathan Lyon has been ineffectual – taking just four wickets in the series, three of which came today in Durham. How Australia could do with a leggie. No variety in the fast-bowling department As well as the lack of a wrist-spinner, Australia’s pace attack has offered little variety, littered as it is with right-arm medium fast bowlers. Only Billy Stanlake, at 6ft 8in and capable of bowling seriously quick, offers a real point of difference. Andrew Tye, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Michael Neser – all decent bowlers but much of a muchness. Without Starc, the tourists don’t have a left-arm seamer either and his importance to this team cannot be overstated. He has taken 58 wickets at 24.68 in his last 31 matches for Australia. Although CricViz stats show that averages and strike rates for left-arm and right-arm seamers have been broadly similar in the past 12 months in all ODI cricket, Australia’s bowlers perform markedly worse without a left-arm bowler in their attack. In the past two years when they haven’t selected a left-arm pacer, they have conceded more than six runs an over 57% of the time. When they have picked one in the same period, that figure is reduced to 23% although that is skewed slightly by the brilliance of Starc who has played most of those games. Nevertheless, the difference is marked and England recognise the value of a left-arm option, too. Their faith in David Willey, despite his recent relative lack of wickets, is in part because of the variety of angle and swing he challenges the batsmen with. Australia do have a left-arm seamer currently in England but James Faulkner – Man of the Match in the 2015 World Cup final – is preparing for his upcoming T20 stint with Lancashire. He has not played for Australia since last year’s tour to India and although his form had tailed off somewhat since 2015, he still averaged 31.75 with an economy rate of less than six in 2017. In Starc’s absence, he might have been worth a call-up. Captaincy Conundrum Australia’s chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns made it clear when announcing this squad that Paine’s appointment as ODI captain was for this tour only and would be reviewed following the series. Paine saw it as a chance to resurrect a one-day career that had stalled since his last appearance in the green and gold back in 2011. Paine is here, however, mainly because he’s a safe pair of hands both behind the stumps and in terms of leadership. He has spoken well about cleaning up Australia’s act after the ball-tampering episode in Cape Town and Australia have ruffled few feathers on this trip. There’s no doubt that he’s a stand-up bloke and a very good player but Paine is probably not even Australia’s best limited overs keeper on this tour. South Australia’s Alex Carey who played in Durham is a better one-day batsman than Paine and probably Australia’s long-term white ball keeper. Carey has only played two ODIs to date but he scores at a strike-rate of 137 in T20 cricket and was the second leading run scorer in last season’s Big Bash. Paine, meanwhile, has scores of 12, 15, 5 and 3 in the series and is quite obviously a less explosive batsman than Carey. With next year’s World Cup in mind, it would have made sense for Carey to have played the whole of this series to get experience of English conditions with Finch being named as captain. As it is, Australia have put their short-term needs for stability and recovery after Cape Town ahead of their long-term World Cup planning. Bright spots? The batting of Shaun Marsh, with two centuries to his name, after returning to the side has been a positive and Finch’s century at the top of the order in Durham was a reminder of his strengths against the new ball. In the bowling department, Stanlake and Jhye Richardson have had their moments but they have been fleeting. Apart from that, there’s not been much else positive to come out of this tour. It’s rather been a wasted opportunity. Rai is not telling the truth: BCCI secretary, Choudhary Dominant England thump Australia again to go 4-0 up Serie A Roundup: Napoli receive a warmer welcome at the San Siro Karthik in line to replace Wriddhiman for Afghanistan Test Boxing Gloves Buy Online India 28/07/2018 28/07/2018 BhaRaTiYakheL	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line1005
__label__cc	0.5809	0.4191	Nationality of the Antichrist PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 65 WHAT IS THE NATIONALITY OF THE ANTICHRIST?Part 4April 26, 2002Please Read Updates 62, 63, and 64 Before Reading 65Micah 5:1-3[1] Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops: he hath laid siege against us: they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek. [2] But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. [3] Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel.These three verses, previously exposited in detail in Parts 1 through 3, were written more than 700 years before the birth of Christ. And yet they present Bethlehem as Christ’s birthplace, Christ’s rejection as ruler over Israel, Christ’s last Passover in Jerusalem, the daughter of troops, Christ’s beatings above the neck by the troops of Pontius Pilate, Herod, and the High Priest, Christ’s rejection as judge of Israel, the Father’s siege against Israel because of Israel’s rejection of the Son, which has lasted some 2000 years, Christ’s temporary rejection of Israel, Christ’s return as Messiah after Israel’s travail, and the return of those Christ calls brethren. Micah 5:4 deals with what happens after Christ returns for 1000 Years to rule an eternal kingdom that phases into the final heaven age when the present earth and heavens pass away.Micah 5:4[4] And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God; and they shall abide: for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth.The Scriptures that follow graphically portray the prediction and fulfillment of this verse so precisely that no comment on my part is necessary for them to be understood by the reader. The context of the three verses preceding it leave little doubt as to whom it refers, or the time of its occurrence as the millennium.Luke 1:30-33[30] And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. [31] And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. [32] He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: [33] And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.Philippians 2:8-11[8] And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. [9] Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: [10] That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; [11] And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.Matthew 28:18[18] And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.Colossians 2:9,10[9] For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. [10] And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:Daniel 7:13-15[13] I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. [14] And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.Revelation 11:15[15] And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 65A It appears that Israel is continuing to put into effect the old Yigal Allon “peace with security” plan he introduced in 1968, but which was never put into effect until March 29, 2002. I am convinced that Benjamin Netanyahu almost put in a modified version of it during his administration, but political pressures at that time kept him from initiating it. This current “Operation Defensive Shield” is a modified version of the original Yigal Allon plan to secure the borders of Israel from terrorists and/or militant attacks and/or exploits from within the West Bank. SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 65B April 29, 2002Please review Special Prophecy Update Number 65A in our Archives at the top of the page. The Israel incursion into autonomous Palestinian areas, which began on March 29th, has been a rousing success. It has been, and still is, a modified version of the old 1968 Yigal Allon Plan now labeled as “Operation Defensive Shield.” More than 1500 Palestinians have been arrested, with more than 30 of them being found on Israel’s most wanted terrorist list, and some 200 militants have been killed. Large caches of death-dealing weapons were confiscated and numerous bomb-producing labs were destroyed. Additionally, intelligence gained allowed some planned terrorist human-bomb attacks to be foiled. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and a large majority of the Israeli population, are convinced that, during the last 32 days, the IDF has dealt the three leading terrorist groups in Israel a blow so devastating that it will take them a long time to recover, and it is Israel’s intention to insure they are never able to do so. Israel has been, and is continuing, to build a confining buffer zone that will give its population a mindset of “peace and safety” in a literal separation of themselves from the Palestinian militants. After reading Special Prophecy Update Number 65A, this quote from Reuter’s News and Analysis, issued April 29th, shows that the process of “Operation Defensive Shield” is alive and still functioning: “Israel has pulled troops back from most West Bank cities, WHICH REMAIN ENCIRCLED.” This is all part of a modified version of the old Yigal Allon Plan of 1968. This new version is called “Operation Defensive Shield” by the IDF. It is what I introduced in 2001, in our first Prophecy Update of that year, as what might be used to eventually bring in a mindset of “peace and safety” under what amounted to a “false peace.” This new version of the 1968 Plan was thoroughly outlined in previous Prophecy Updates (See Prophecy Archives in Menu). Its purpose is to either force the PA to negotiate a peace with Israel, or to have Israel force a non-negotiated peace on them by encirclement. Israel is determined to have a “peace with security” one way or the other: either by free, diplomatic, political negotiations, or by a peace they forcibly impose in building a strong defensive shield between themselves and the Palestinians. This is what Yassar Arafat, the terrorist groups, and their sponsoring Arab countries are now facing. The ball is now in their end of the court. These next few weeks may reveal their decision. Will it be a negotiated false peace that lulls Israel into a false sense of security? Or will it be a forced false peace, imposed against Islamic will, that produces the same result? In either case, I believe it is coming before the end of this year. It will end when a vicious, well coordinated, Jihad blitzkrieg from the north occurs, with this attack being followed some 3 and ½ years later by the Battle of Armageddon. Only one-third of the Israeli population will make it into the Israeli war contingency plan evacuation zone in the Negev, Jerusalem will fall, and the remaining Israeli remnant will be confined for some 3 and ½ prophetic years in a zone that was called a wilderness in biblical times. I Thessalonians 5:3,4[3] For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. [4] But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Zechariah 13:8 to 14:2[8] And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. [9] And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God. [1] Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. [2] For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Revelation 12:6[6] And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. Revelation 16:15,16[15] Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. [16] And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. Revelation 3:3[3] Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 65DMay 2, 2002Special Prophecy Update Number 65C should have been dated as May 1, 2002. Yesterday’s statements by Shtayyeh, the Palestinian spokesman, directly correlate with the 7 steps of a modified 1968 Yigal Allon Plan for the creation of a buffer zone between the Israelis and the Palestinians, which I listed in Special Prophecy Update 65A. He stated: “Sharon has followed a checklist of destruction. He has destroyed both our infrastructure and our superstructure.” The “checklist” that Sharon followed, and continues to follow, is basically the listing of the 7 steps on 65A. The IDF appears to have successfully reached Step 5 of the modified buffer zone plan of 1968, now renamed “Operation Defensive Shield.” And, if continued, it will close on a new PA State, formed not by an agreement based on political negotiations, but by an enforced iron shield placed around it by the IDF. This is the creation of a “forced peace,” which I first made reference to in Prophecy Update Number 1 in 2001. Whether by negotiations or by force, we are approaching a time when the Israelis actually think they can say we have “peace with security” for the first time since the temple was destroyed. When this becomes their mindset then the following most familiar Scripture, issued by a believing Jew concerning his own people that he said were in unbelief, will be fulfilled. The Greek word, translated “safety” in this Scripture, literally means “security.” The IDF currently appears to be actively carrying out Step 5 in Operation Defensive Shield. This News Analysis by Los Angeles Times Staff Writer Mary Curtis from Ramallah, dated May 2, 2002, in a single statement sums up the present situation within the autonomous PA territory as she writes: “Arafat’s security forces are in disarray. Israel forces encircle every important West Bank town, and no longer hesitate to enter Palestinian controlled areas to hunt down militants.” (See Step 5 of 65A). She went on to say: “The Palestinian economy is shattered and many of the trappings of statehood are gone. Some Palestinian analysts fear that the destruction the Israeli army inflicted by its month-long sweep through the West Bank is so profound, and demoralization so widespread, that Arafat will be unable to rebuild the Palestinian Authority, which was created under the 1993 Oslo Agreement.” The Israelis want the effects of Operation Defensive Shield to produce speedy negotiations with the Palestinians. The words spoken yesterday by Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, in regards to the operation, echoed this sentiment for the desired effects of it when he stated its success “depends on the speed in which we’ll enter the political negotiations. Otherwise, we’ll return to where we were before we began the operation.” We will probably be late in issuing Prophecy Update Number 66 at the routinely scheduled time. WHAT IS THE NATIONALITY OF THE ANTICHRIST?Part 5May 3, 2003Please read Updates 62,63,64, and 65 before reading 66Micah 5:1-4 [1] Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops: he hath laid siege against us: they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek. [2] But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. [3] Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel. [4] And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God; and they shall abide: for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth. These verses, exposited in Parts 1 through 4, were written more than 700 years before the birth of Christ. And yet they present: Bethlehem as His birthplace, His rejection as ruler over Israel, His last Passover in the daughter of troops Jerusalem, His head beatings by the troops of Pontius Pilate, Herod, and the High Priest, His rejection as the judge of Israel, His Father’s siege against Israel because of their rejection of the Son (which has lasted some 2000 years), Christ’s temporary rejection of Israel, His Second Advent as Messiah after Israel’s travail of 1260 days in the Negev Wilderness, at which time His brethren will return with Him to the nation of Israel, and the first 1000 years of His eternal kingdom, which phases into the final heaven age when the present earth and heavens pass away. [5] And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men. Now, in verse 5, we find that “this man” will himself “be the peace” because He personally brings it in by Himself when he returns to be “great unto the ends of the earth” for 1000 years. “This man” who brings “the peace” of a thousand years is, of course, Jesus Christ. He is the primary contextual subject from verses 1 through 5. What happens to motivate His return to bring in the millennial reign is the movement of the Assyrian into the land of Israel. It is the final defeat and destruction of “the Assyrian” that will mark Christ’s Second Advent, and the beginning of His millennial reign. When Micah wrote his prophecies the Assyrians had already driven into the northern Kingdom of Israel, and all that remained of Israel proper was its southern Kingdom of Judah. So what were the borders of the land of Assyria when Micah wrote the fifth chapter of his book? The borders of the Assyrian territory stretched northward from roughly where Ramallah is located in the West Bank to the present day southern border of Turkey, and eastward to the Mediterranean Sea to establish its western limits, then westward across the Euphrates River to the Tigris River north of modern Baghdad in Iraq. Technically, I suppose one might be able to say this future “Assyrian” might come out of southern Turkey, northern Iraq, or Lebanon, but since modern day Syria occupies some 85% of the area covered by the Assyrian empire at the time of Micah’s writings, I am persuaded the Assyrian antichrist will come out of Syria. The possible argument that Micah 5:5 was fulfilled during the old Assyrian invasion of Micah’s day, is thwarted by the context pattern of the four verses before it all still being unfulfilled at the time they were written, and then being linked contextually to verse 5 by “this man,” and “the peace.” Additionally, this argument is smashed by the verse that follows it. [6] And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders. From the time of Micah’s writings to the present day, Israel has never “wasted the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof.” I will exposit specifically on both these locations in Prophecy Update Number 67, Lord willing. The “Assyrian” of Micah 5:5 is not a European, an American, a Russian, an Eskimo, an Aborigine, an Ethiopian, or a platypus. He is an Assyrian, who becomes chief prince of the land where descendants of Meshech and Tubal were dwelling when Ezekiel wrote his prophecies. I will elaborate on this in future updates, Lord willing. The expression involving “seven shepherds and eight principal men is, without question, an oft used Hebrew idiom. It was the Hebrew manner of expressing “more than enough.” Seven is the Hebrew word for “complete,” implying “enough,” and when “eight” is added to it, the expression means “more than enough.” When the Assyrian comes into Israel, and treads within its borders north of Beersheba for 1260 days, then Jesus will return to restore peace for 1000 years on this planet. Christ’s Second Advent is accompanied by some 5/6 of the Assyrian’s armies being destroyed by the brightness of His coming. His destruction of the Assyrian and his false prophet will make whatever force Israel is able to muster up in the Negev for the battle of Armageddon “more than enough.” When the Assyrian sets on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, as the willful King of the North preparing to launch his final attack on Israel at the battle of Armageddon, he will be beyond all help by men and Satan. I Thessalonians 5:3,4 [3] For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. [4] But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. [14] Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord God; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it? [15] And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army: [16] And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes. Zechariah 13:8,9 [8] And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. [9] And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God. [6] And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. [45] And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. II Thessalonians 2:8 [8] And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: [19] And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. [20] And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. [21] And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. Ezekiel 38:22 to 39:2 [22] And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. [23] Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord. [1] Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: [2] And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel: Micah 5:5,6 [5] And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men. [6] And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders. WHEN A CHURCH SAYS IT HAS SECURITY AND SAFETY IN CHRIST IT MEANS THAT THE LOCAL BODY THINKS OR BELIEVES IT DOES. WHEN THE IDF RECRUITS, IN THE OATH THEY ONCE TOOK AT MASADA, SAID IT WOULD NOT FALL AGAIN, THEY BELIEVED IT TO BE TRUE. WHAT WE SAY, TRULY BELIEVING IT, IS WHAT WE ACTUALLY THINK OR BELIEVE. IT DOES NOT MATTER WHETHER IT IS, OR IS NOT THE TRUTH, WE SAY WHAT WE BELIEVE TO BE THE TRUTH. WHEN ISRAEL TRULY BELIEVES IT HAS PEACE AND SAFETY (SECURITY) THEY WILL THEN BE ATTACKED FROM THE NORTH BY THE ISLAMIC FORCES OF THE ANTICHRIST. FORGET ABOUT A SIGNED PIECE OF PAPER FOR PEACE. IT IS NOT THE PIECE OF PAPER THAT MARKS THE TIME OF THE ATTACK. IT IS WHEN ISRAEL ACTUALLY BELIEVES IT HAS A FORM OF SECURITY IT CAN TRUST. I HAVE WARNED ABOUT A “FORCED PEACE” IN ISRAEL FOR THE LAST TWO YEARS. THE YIGAL ALLON PLAN OF 1968 IS THE BASIS FOR THE MODIFIED VERSION THAT WAS INITIATED ON MARCH 29TH BY ARIEL SHARON. IF THE PLAN IS NOT HALTED ISRAEL WILL EVENTUALLY SHUT UP THE PALESTINIAN STATE WITHIN A BUFFER ZONE. IT WILL BE VERY INTERESTING TO SEE THE NEW PEACE PROPOSAL PRESENTED TO THE UNITED STATES BY ARIEL SHARON WHEN HE VISITS PRESIDENT BUSH THIS WEEK. ANY TYPE OF SIGNED PEACE TREATY MUST LEAD ISRAEL TO THINK IT HAS SECURITY FROM TERRORIST ATTACKS, AND THIS BUFFER ZONE WOULD DO JUST THAT IN THEIR MANNER OF THINKING. IT WILL LULL THEM INTO A SENSE OF SECURITY FROM TERRORIST ATTACKS FROM THE WEST BANK AND GAZA. THEN AN ATTACK FROM THE NORTH WILL END THEIR SAFETY (SECURITY). THE ANTICHRIST WILL KNOW THEY BELIEVE THEMSELVES TO BE AT PEACE WITHIN WHEN HE ATTACKS FROM WITHOUT. Ezekiel 38:14,15 [14] Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord God; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it? [15] And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army: Part 6May 10, 2002 Please review Prophecy Updates 62, 63, 64, 65 and 66 before reading 67. I have established, in previous updates, that “this man” of verse 5 is “the peace” himself because he ends the earthly reign of “the Assyrian” at the battle of Armageddon, and then brings in “the peace” that lasts for 1000 years on this present planet. It is only Jesus Christ himself who has the power to bring such a thing to pass. I believe verse 6 to be one of the most interesting verses in the Scriptures that have yet to be fulfilled. Why am I so certain it has never been fulfilled? Because Israel has not wasted the land of Assyria with the sword, or the land of Nimrod in its entrances thereof, since Micah wrote these prophecies! At the time he wrote the borders of the expanding Assyrian Empire covered all of modern day Israel north of Ramallah, all of modern Syria, all of modern Lebanon, and all of modern Iraq north of Baghdad. The historical settling of this area between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers after the flood in Noah’s day is of great value in the interpretation of Micah 5:6. Genesis 10:1,6,8,22 [1] Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood. [6] And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan. [8] And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. [22] The children of Shem; Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram. Assyria apparently derived its name from Asshur, the son of Shem. Later in time Asshur was worshipped as the chief God of the Assyrians. Asshur went into the northern area of the fertile plain lying between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, and his descendants that settled it were eventually called Assyrians. It is certain that Israel never wasted this area. Nimrod was the grandson of Ham through Cush. He founded a great kingdom between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, south of the area of Asshur’s descendants, that extended south to the Persian Gulf. The “entrances” into it from the east, which is the direction the Israelis would come to “waste” it, were the shallow sections of the Euphrates River that could be waded to gain entrance. The Euphrates was, and is, perhaps the greatest carrier of top water silt on this planet. The rapid descent gradient of its waters in the steep mountains of Turkey was able to sustain an enormous quantity of erosion debris cut off the mountain slopes, but when the water came onto the flat plains of modern day Iraq its speed was abruptly lowered, and the silt deposition rapidly built up lees across the Euphrates, making it possible for some areas to be waded. The long series of dams currently stretching from Turkey, through Syria, and into Iraq have helped to regulate the flow and silt deposition of the Euphrates, but at the time of Micah’s writings there would have been a plurality of wading entrances into the land of Nimrod across the Euphrates. Now, why have I gone into such detail as to the locations of Assyria and the land of Nimrod? Because when Israel comes up out of the Negev at the battle of Armageddon, after having been confined there by the Assyrian for 1260 days, it will conquer a specified amount of territory to its north and east. Malachi 4:1 [1] For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. Zechariah 12:6-9 [6] In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem. [7] The Lord also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah. [8] In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them. [9] And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. [9] And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one. Israel will claim all the land from the River of Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea to the Euphrates River, with a northern latitudinal border extending to Hamath (Hama) in Syria, and a southern border extending to Kadesh in the Sinai. And all this is not by accident, but by design and promise, for it was God’s ancient land grant promise to Abraham and to Israel. Its periphery is laid out in Genesis and Ezekiel. Its northern limits were to extend to the latitude of Hamath (Hama) in Syria, and its southern limits to the latitude of Kadesh. Its longitudinal limits to the west were to extend to the Mediterranean Sea and the River of Egypt, and its eastern longitudinal limits were to extend to the “entrances thereof” of the Euphrates River. This is the area of Micah 5:6 that Israel will “waste,” and then claim for a thousand years. [18] In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: [17] And the border from the sea shall be Hazar-enan, the border of Damascus, and the north northward, and the border of Hamath. And this is the north side. [19] And the south side southward, from Tamar even to the waters of strife in Kadesh, the river to the great sea. And this is the south side southward. After Christ has himself, by himself, defeated the Assyrian at the battle of Armageddon to bring in “the peace” of a thousand years, then Israel will roar north out of the Negev to mop up what is left of a demoralized army that is fleeing north. Israel will take Jerusalem back, then drive north, northeast, and east to claim all the land west of the Euphrates River. Isaiah 66:15,16 [15] For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. [16] For by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh: and the slain of the Lord shall be many. Zechariah 14:12-14 [12] And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. [13] And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour. [14] And Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the heathen round about shall be gathered together, gold, and silver, and apparel, in great abundance. [6] In that day, saith the Lord, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted; [7] And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the Lord shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever. A LIKELY ANSWER TO A QUESTION I HAVE PONDERED WITH GREAT CURIOSITY FOR MANY YEARS! Paul, as a Hebrew of the Hebrews, was so concerned about the salvation of his own people that at one point he wished himself to be accursed from Christ if that would set them free from their unbelief. Romans 9:2,3 [2] That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. [3] For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: There is no question that he recognized the Jews as being in unbelief before God as a nation. [32] For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. So it is easy to understand that the “they” of Paul’s day in the following verses refers primarily to the Jews as a nation in unbelief, while the “ye” (plural) refers to those that made up the local body to whom it was written, the “brethren” in the church at Thessalonica. Of course, I freely acknowledge that the “they” of verse 3 could legitimately be applied to all the children of darkness today, but I believe Paul’s main reference is to the unbelief he struggled against throughout his ministry, the unbelief of the Jews. I always believe what the Scripture says is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. However, many times when I am sure I am interpreting it correctly, I still have difficulty in understanding HOW it will be fulfilled by God. I am certain that Israel will reach a point in time when it will “say,” that is, “they” will actually believe, that they truly have “peace and safety.” But one thing that has perplexed me for years is HOW God will bring such a situation to exist. I knew he would, but had no idea HOW he would do it. Why was I so baffled as to HOW he would do it? Simply this – For some 2000 years the Jews, as a nation, have never known “peace and safety” collectively on a worldwide basis. And collectively, as a nation in their homeland, they have never had anything except the opposite of “peace and safety” for some 54 years. The most important aspect of verse 3 is that by saying they do, it actually means they truly think they have “peace and safety.” For 54 years every Israeli Prime Minister has repeatedly stated during all of his or her administration, “WE MUST HAVE PEACE WITH SECURITY.” But it has never happened! I believe what began on March 29th in Israel is the answer to the question of HOW that I have pondered over for so long. Israel will finally truly believe it has a “peace and safety situation” for the first time in its modern day history. The reason for their fully believing they have it is a simple one – they will create it themselves by building what they believe is a zone of safety between themselves and the Palestinians. I began to warn about this “forced” peace plan in our first prophecy update of 2001, and have repeatedly referred to it in every increasing detail in numerous prophecy updates in our archives ever since. The “forced” peace on the Palestinians will be produced by a “buffer zone” of safety between themselves and the Palestinians. The Israelis will build the zone. It will probably vary in width from 3 to 10 miles, and will completely enclose the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Israeli coastal patrol boats will provide the defensive shield in the waters of the Gaza Strip. There will be an interwoven series of high barbed wire and chain linked electronic fences, which will be interspersed by electronic and high tech detection devices along its entire periphery enclosure. All roads passing through it will be constantly and closely monitored by border guard checkpoints. This defensive shield will provide what Israelis believe will finally give them a “peace with security (safety).” This is the only way they would ever “say” we have a “peace with security” and truly believe it. As a whole, Israel has no confidence in its God. Most of the population is either secular or so non-practicing that it is tantamount to being secular. I have spent a fair amount of time talking to young men and women in the IDF. The majority said they do not believe there is a God. Israel is very much like it was before it was carried into Assyrian, and then Babylonian captivity. They had lost confidence in their God’s ability to deliver them. They had confidence in their own ability to defend themselves and in their alliances with other nations. Today’s generation has confidence in itself and in its alliance with the United States to protect it from harm. Operation Defensive Shield is a revised version of the Yigal Allon Plan of 1968. It began on March 29, 2002 and is still continuing. It will eventually culminate with a defensive buffer zone shield having been created between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Let’s be realistic about the Middle East. Think about all the bitter hatred that has been built up between the Palestinians and the Israelis. The Palestinians have instilled it in their children from birth. There is no way under heaven the Israelis could ever believe they had an environ of “peace and safety” unless they mechanically created it themselves. Once this has been accomplished they can negotiate a peace in which they feel secure, but not before it is in place. This is what is now occurring in Israel. Believing they have real “peace and safety” is what will cause them to be taken by surprise when a lightning Jihad blitzkrieg from the north fulfills these words: “then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child.” They will be concentrating so heavily on their internal security and safety that they will lower their guard on the external danger that lurks to their north and northeast. We are on the verge of a peace in which Israel finally believes it has safety in the security of a buffer zone that will surround the Palestinians. Once sufficient time has passed for Israel to say and believe “we finally have peace and safety,” then an attack by Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Iran from the north through the northeast, with the logistical support of six other Arab nations, will drive Israel into the Negev, where it will remain for more than three years, returning after the battle of Armageddon to claim the Abrahamic land grant promise God made to Israel as the seed of Abraham in Genesis 15:18. I Thessalonians 5:3 [3] For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. I BELIEVE THE BEGINNING OF THE FULFILLMENT OF THIS PROPHETIC SERIES OF EVENTS IS NOW COMING INTO VIEW ON TODAY’S MIDDLE EAST HORIZON. THEY – THEM – THEY = ISRAEL IN UNBELIEF SHALL SAY = THEY SAY WHAT THEY TRULY BELIEVE PEACE AND SAFETY = WHAT THEY THINK THEY HAVE SUDDEN DESTRUCTION = A JIHAD FROM THE NORTH TRAVAIL = SUDDEN AND CONTINUING BIRTH PAINS SHALL NOT ESCAPE = HORROR OF THE TRIBULATION WHEN ISRAEL ACTUALLY CONVINCES ITSELF IT HAS PEACE AND SAFETY, A SHORT TIME THEREAFTER THE SERIES OF EVENTS WILL BEGIN TO UNFOLD. Three intertwined events have become significant in the Middle East when correlated together. Together they indicate a process that will eventually lead to the creation of a false peace in which Israel will actually believe it has a peace with security, that is, a time when peace and safety from terror can be experienced. Event Number One – Israel allowed 13 known high profile Arab terrorists to be exiled to foreign destinations, knowing full well that the likelihood of them being tried, sentenced, and punished for their murderous brutality toward Israeli civilians was not a likely possibility. Additionally, Israel gave safe passage to 26 Arab terrorist underlings to the Gaza Strip, the headquarters of Hamas, the main terrorist group in Israel. Israel did this fully aware that upon arrival they would be received as heroes, and quartered in the best hotels in Gaza. Israel now believes she has shattered the power of the terrorist groups in the West Bank by the implementation of a revised Yigal Allon Plan of 1968. Israel began putting the plan into effect on March 29th and on May 11th seemed to be completing its West Bank terrorist cleanup by an intrusion into Tulkarm in which two Hamas militants, one the wife of a senior Hamas official, were arrested. The Gaza Strip is so small that Israel believes she can build a buffer zone around it such that terrorist groups within it can be kept out of Israel proper. So the wiping out of the terrorist groups in Gaza has never ranked high in Israel’s priority for having a “peace with security.” The great sprawling territory, known as the West Bank, with its many hiding places and a karst limestone cave structure, had to be purged of its terrorist groups before any sort of a negotiated peace could even be considered. The key word in any peace plan must be “containment,” that is, the containment of terrorist activities again Israel. Event Number Two – The withdrawal of the IDF surrounding, and poised to strike into, the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the Hamas suicide bombing that killed 15 Israelis last Tuesday. The Palestinians have been crying, moaning, and whining since March 29th that if the Israelis would stop retaliating for the terrorist attacks, then they would negotiate for peace. This Gaza withdrawal may be Israel saying to the Palestinians, “This is what you asked for, now let’s see if you mean what you say!” It is also interesting that Israel is also pulling back out of all the autonomous Palestinian areas to its February positions. Again, the Palestinians have been screaming out over all the news media they would begin negotiations if the Israelis would pull out of their autonomous zones. Israel’s current action may be saying to them, did you mean what you say, or is this some more of the phony propaganda you have put out for 54 years? Some 60,000 peace activists rallied in Tel Aviv to call for an Israeli pullout from the West Bank and Gaza to defuse conflict with the PA. This was the largest show of force by Israel’s peace camp since the start of the Palestinian uprising some 20 months ago. For the Palestinians it may be the final ultimatum of Israel, saying simply this: Negotiate now, or we will force a peace on you in which we will determine how much we give you, and will then fence you in that area to provide ourselves with a peace that gives us security from your terrorist attacks. Event Number Three – The three rulers of Syria, Egypt, and Jordan met in Egypt, along with representatives from Saudi Arabia, to discuss the Israeli and Palestinian Conflict. They all agreed that some sort of negotiated peace must be reached in the Middle East. The presence of Bashar Assad, the ruler of Syria, was extremely significant in that his country, along with Iran and Iraq, can control terrorist activity in Israel. It may well be that the Middle East countries, providing the weapons and financial support for terrorist activity, are about to start to reign in the terrorist groups with the promise of a future Jihad again Israel after they have been lulled into a false sense of internal security. Since our first Prophecy Updates in 2001 I have repeatedly cried out: WATCH THE TERRORISTS. When you see their activities in Israel slowly decline, and finally cease, then Katie, bar the door, for after a short period of no internal terrorist activity you will see a vicious, lightning Jihad launched again Israel from the north. SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 67C Israeli forces staged a trio of pre-dawn raids into West Bank villages Tuesday, killing two Palestinian intelligence officers and arresting 13 suspected militants, according to the IDF. (From The Israel Daily issued by The Associated Press, 14 May 2002) On May 14th the IDF entered the small town of Halhul, about 6 miles north of Hebron, where they killed the local intelligence chief Khaled Abu Kharan and his deputy Ahmed Zamaran, and then arrested 3 others suspected of terrorist activities. The IDF also entered two small villages in the West Bank near the town of Tulkharm, where they arrested a dozen suspected militants. This trio of events attests to the further implementation of the modified Yigal Allon Plan of 1968, which is now being carried out by Israel under the name “Operation Defensive Shield.” These three events are visible evidence of Steps 5 and 6 in the plan I said Israel would follow, under its Operation Defensive Shield, in Special Prophecy Update Number 65A (See Archives at top of this update). The noose is slowly tightening on any terrorists militants left in the West Bank, and a “buffer zone” is being created bit by bit to surround it. The Gaza Strip is not as big a problem as the West Bank because of its very limited dry land border, which can be “buffer zoned” and patrolled with a much greater efficiency. The Gaza coastal border can be constantly surveyed visually and with radar by Israeli Naval units. This quote from the Israel Daily News further confirms that Steps 5 and 6 are now in progress: “Israel’s army last week completed a broad sweep through the West Bank that was aimed at rooting out militants, but continues to make brief, targeted incursions in pursuit of suspected militants.” Even if the PA comes to Israel for a negotiated rather than a totally “forced” peace, you may rest assured that Israel will still create Allon’s defensive buffer zone between themselves and the Palestinians. Without it the Israelis could not believe they had a true condition of “peace and safety.” During the last 20 months there has been more Arab diplomatic capital hopping between Syria, Lebanon, Iran, and Iraq than I have observed since the period before the 1967 Middle East War. I cannot recall a time in their history when more was being done, in so many governmental areas from military to commercial endeavors, to cooperate and coordinate in all sorts of activities between them. I am very confident that some of this increased cooperation involves the planning of a future Jihad after Israel believes it finally has secured an environ of “peace and safety.” Please review Prophecy Updates 62, 63, 64, 65, 66 and 67 before reading 68. Prophecy Update Number 67 closed by stating the following: “Israel will claim all the land from the River of Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea to the Euphrates River, with a northern latitudinal border extending to Hamath (Hama) in Syria, and a southern border extending to Kadesh in the Sinai. And all this is not by accident, but by design and promise, for it was God’s ancient land grant promise to Abraham and to Israel. Its periphery is laid out in Genesis and Ezekiel. Its northern limits were to extend to the latitude of Hamath (Hama) in Syria, and its southern limits to the latitude of Kadesh. Its longitudinal limits to the west were to extend to the Mediterranean Sea and to the River of Egypt, and its eastern longitudinal limits were to extend to the “entrances thereof” of the Euphrates River. This is the area of Micah 5:6 that Israel will “waste” and then claim for a thousand years. After Christ has himself (all by himself) defeated the Assyrian at the battle of Armageddon to being in “the peace” of a thousand years, then Israel will roar north out of the Negev to mop up what is left of a demoralized army that is fleeing north. Israel will first recover Jerusalem, then drive north, northeast, and east to claim all the land west of the Euphrates River.” [7] And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men. Just as man had no control over the elements of God that were responsible for the sudden arrival of moisture over a wide area of land, neither would man have any control over the sudden arrival of Israel spreading across the vast tract of land God had said He would one day give to Israel. She will exist as the most important nation on this planet in the midst of all the Gentile nations. [8] And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep: who, if he go through, both treadeth down, and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver. When Israel’s Lion of Judah, the Messiah Jesus Christ, returns to free her from the bondage of the Assyrian, she will be the most powerful nation on this planet. All the other nations left on the earth will fear her for some 1000 years because of the awareness of the Second Advent of Christ, and His reigning on the throne of David in Jerusalem. Israel will be a Lion nation in the midst of sheep nations. The temple will be rebuilt after the Second Advent and then Christ, the Messianic Glory of God, will enter it to begin a reign that lasts forever: First, an earthly reign of 1000 years, which then laps over into a heavenly reign that lasts forever. [4] And the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east. [5] So the spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court; and, behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house. [6] And I heard him speaking unto me out of the house; and the man stood by me. [7] And he said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and my holy name, shall the house of Israel no more defile, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoredom, nor by the carcases of their kings in their high places. [9] Thine hand shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries, and all thine enemies shall be cut off. Israel will be the most powerful and feared nation that has ever existed on this earth. For some 1000 years no nation or nations shall dare to stand against her because of her God. All the Gentile nations will be required to send representatives to Jerusalem each year at the Feast of Tabernacles to worship the Messiah. If they fail to do so God will cause famine and plague in their land until they submit to His will. [16] And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. [17] And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. [18] And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. [19] This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. THE POLITICAL FALLOUT ON THE PA AND TERRORIST GROUPS CAUSED BY OPERATION DEFENSIVE SHIELD! In Prophecy Update Number 1, our first of 2001, it was stated: “Eventually there will be some form of peace between the Palestinians and Israelis. It may be a ‘forced’ peace, but the end result will be an enclosed Palestinian State within the borders of Israel.” Operation Defensive Shield, launched on March 29, 2002, and still continuing precisely as was outlined in Update 65A and pictured in 65C, was the beginning of a revised Yigal Allon Plan of 1968 that is the start of an overall plan to ‘force’ peace on the Palestinians. In Prophecy Update Number 3 it was stated: “I believe these terrorist groups will soon realize that if they really want to slaughter Jews by the hundreds of thousands, and drive the rest into the Negev, they will have to lull Israel into a brief period of false peace. When this happens an agreement will be reached between the Palestinians and the State of Israel. So my advice to those who want to get a feel of when the false peace will come is this: WATCH the terrorist groups. When their actions drop to zero, and stay there for a while, you may rest assured it has been as a result of meetings behind closed doors between the leaders of the aforementioned nations (Syria, Iran, Iraq, Libya, and Sudan) and the terrorist groups they sponsor (Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hizbullah, and the splinter groups off Arafat’s Fatah).” The recent killing, arresting, and scattering of the terrorists in the West Bank, which is still continuing under Steps 5 and 6 in the Operation Defensive Shield Plan I outlined in Update 65A, has already so severely damaged the terrorist infrastructure in this area that it will never completely recover. So what are the political ramifications of all this? The terrorist groups and the Palestinian Authority have been forced into a position from which they are desperately trying to wiggle out! The promise of elections, which may or may not ever come to fruition, has driven them both into a political struggle for power in the Palestinian Authority, and both are going to have to make compromises they would never have made if Ariel Sharon had not launched Operation Defensive Shield. The terrorist groups, which are influenced strongly by Hamas, must politically move away from their extreme terrorism position in order to present themselves as a viable group with which Ariel Sharon would be willing to negotiate. Arafat’s PA social infrastructure was in a despicable state before Operation Defensive Shield. Now it is in chaos. Hamas has broad support among young Palestinians because of its fundamentalist Islamic message, and wide support among both young and old because of its many social welfare programs. Their establishment of many clinics and schools do indeed shine very bright in contrast to Arafat’s corrupt system, which has spent most of the billions it received in non-civilian related activities. The advent of Operation Defensive Shield has, and will continue to cause, an even more confusing political upheaval among the Palestinians, terrorists, and all the Islamic nations of the Middle East. It is impossible to be certain of what will happen on a day to day basis, especially with operations by splinter Fatah groups such as the Al Aqasa Brigades and the Tanzim. But, believe it or not, this is the storm before the calm, and that calm will be the false peace of I Thessalonians 5:3,4. I expect the false peace to come in before the arrival of 2003. However, the mindset of Israel must be a sure belief that, after some 54 years, they have an environ of “peace and safety,” and that condition will arrive after 2003 begins. How long after? I don’t know for sure! But it will only be a short period of time, and when it does occur then a surprise Jihad will be launched against them by 10 Arab nations, and the final 1260 days of the tribulation period will begin. When they think they have “peace with security” the one who leads the attack will know it, and the woman Israel will be driven in her war contingency evacuation zone, which is the Negev wilderness south of Beersheva. Please review Prophecy Updates 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67 and 68 before reading 69. The event that will cause all nations to be under the hand of the authority of Israel is the Second Advent of her Messiah and, to a large extent, the devastating destruction He causes in the crust of the earth will result in the destruction of most of Israel’s enemies. [16] And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. [17] And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. [18] And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. Ezekiel 38:18-20 + 39:2 [18] And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord God, that my fury shall come up in my face. [19] For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; [20] So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground. [2] And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel: Although the Lord will do most of the destroying of the armies of the Gentiles, He will allow Israel to come out, mop up, and take over the land he promised to them through Abraham. The setting of the following Scriptures refer to the time during the final battle of Armageddon up to the Second Advent, and into the early stage of Christ’s millennial reign. Zechariah 12:6-9 + 14:11 [6] In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem. [7] The Lord also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah. [8] In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them. [9] And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. [11] And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited. Zechariah 14:5,9 + Revelation 11:15 [5] And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee. [9] And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one. [15] And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. I have been away conducting a series of lectures in Louisiana since May 19th. The events of this week are tightening the will of Israel’s resolve to being in their own “forced” peace by the pushing of Operation Defensive Shield to a planned conclusion. We introduced this “forced” peace plan in skeleton form in our first prophecy update of 2001, then put sinew on the bones in numerous updates that followed, covering it with skin and identifiable features in Special Prophecy Update Number 65A, and finally producing a diagram of it in 65C. Each terrorist attack is being followed by an Israeli incursion into the cities and camps they previously began to enter on March 29th when Operation Defensive Shield began. This is a constant repeating of Steps 5 and 6 in the plan outlined in 65A. They intend, as outlined in 65A, to keep going in again and again to scatter, kill, or arrest the terrorist cell members, each time drawing their security zone tighter and tighter around individual areas, cities, and camps. There have been four suicide bombings in Israel this week. Five have been killed in the attacks, three in Netanya, and two in Rishon Lelzion. The Al Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade, which is an offshoot splinter group of Arafat’s parent terrorist group Fatah, claimed responsibility for the bombings. Arafat has no control over this splinter group. The recent attacks are a far cry from those experienced during the 29 days prior to the launching of Operation Defensive Shield, when some 129 Israelis were killed. The goal of this 20 month old Palestinian uprising, and its associated terrorist activity, was to weaken the Israeli civilian population’s resolve through a chain of deadly attacks, with this leading to a deterioration of their need for “security” before “peace.” They hoped it would eventually bring the international community of nations into the settlement, which, because of their strong support of the cause of the Palestinians, would get them back ALL the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. But it has backfired! Israel now believes it MUST being in its OWN security through the old Yigal Allon Buffer Zone Plan of 1968. This week Operation Defensive Shield incursions, in response to the four terrorist attacks, have been made into Gaza, Tulkarem and its refugee camp, Nablus, Dura, Itbaka, and the Qalandyah refugee camp south of Ramallah. The security zones encircling Palestinian cities and refugee camps are becoming stronger and more efficient. The terrorist attacks are becoming less efficient due to the killing, arresting, and scattering of some of the most experienced leaders. Ariel Sharon’s office announced yesterday that 32 terrorist attacks had been foiled due to implementation of Operation Defensive Shield. One thing appears certain, Israel is not about to “say” it has “peace and safety” until it has created a buffer zone between the two conflicting parties. The final peace between the two may eventually be negotiated, but not until Israel has built a secure buffer zone of safety between themselves and the Palestinian territory. Both the Palestinians, most of the terrorist groups, and their sponsoring Islamic nations, are finally beginning to realize that the longer they wait to negotiate, the stronger, the tighter, and the more confining will be the area of their new State. The longer they wait, the greater the number of Israeli settlements will be that are brought into security, and the less the size of the area the Israelis will give up to the Palestinians. The final settlement is likely to look very much like the area enclosed by the security buffer zone shown on Update 65C. The Attack Into the Land Where They Shall Dwell Safely! Paul had a deep burden especially for his own people, the nation of Israel, which is quite evident in Romans, chapters 9 through 11. He bluntly stated in 11:32 – “For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.” Of course, the “they” and “them” in verse three could be applied to all who are in unbelief when the tribulation period begins, but he makes reference primarily to the nation of Israel. It always puzzled me how Israel could ever actually believe it had “Peace and safety” after some 2000 years of being persecuted, prosecuted, tortured, hated, and slaughtered to the count of six million by the Nazi regime. Furthermore, the last 54 years in Israel, and the remark heard over and over again from every new Prime Minister being consistently “We MUST have peace WITH security,” was certainly not conducive to causing one to believe it would ever be a reality, especially since the conduct of the Palestinians has clearly shown their word is completely worthless. I tried over and over again to imagine a set of circumstances under which they could finally trust the Palestinians and the Islamic nations. I finally did what I always do when I cannot imagine how an event will come to pass, and just said, well, maybe one day I will see how God intends to do this thing. When the Yigal Allon Defensive Buffer Zone came out in 1968, I simply shrugged it off as one of the many plans to protect the Israeli people, and when it was not implemented it never came to mind until 2001 when I first presented a “forced” peace plan the Israelis could impose on the Palestinians, and even then I did not realize it was the old Yigal Allon Plan of 1968. In fact, I did not recognize it in the present day form until March of this year. At that point I was certain what Israel was putting into effect was a revised version of the 1968 Plan, which they eventually began to call Operation Defensive Shield in April. In Prophecy Update 65A I laid out a prediction of what Israel would do to “force” a peace on the Palestinians, such that in Israeli minds they would be sure to the extent they could actually “say” we have “Peace and safety.” So far it has followed the seven steps I outlined to the letter. In all essence, I suppose I should have realized what now is evident: The only way Israel could ever believe it had a true condition of “peace and safety” would be if it was installed and operated by its own forces. I believe the present day activity described in 65A, and pictured in 65C, will lead Israel to believe it finally has real “Peace and safety” between itself and the Palestinians. Once Israel is satisfied with its internal security and safety then the antichrist, knowing they feel secure and, as such, will make it possible for a surprise Jihad blitzkrieg from the north by the forces of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Iran to be successful, will began a highly coordinated attack that eventually drives Israel into the Negev Wilderness, where Israelis will remain for some 1260 prophetic days [42 prophetic months or 3 and ½ prophetic years or time, times, and the dividing of times (1 yr + 2 yrs + ½ yr = 3 and ½ years)]. [2] But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. [25] And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 70A AND THE PLAN PLAYED ON AND ON AND ON AND ON! There is no doubt left in my mind as to what Israel has done, is doing, and will do to finally create its own sweet aroma of a time of “peace and safety.” I am now certain that they have revived the old Yigal Allon Buffer Zone Plan of 1968, added a few new wrinkles, and are now in the process of fully implementing it with a new name of OPERATION DEFENSIVE SHIELD. I am certain to some it must seem that I have ridden this horse into the ground since I first referred to it as a “forced peace” in the first prophecy update of 2001. But this operation is extremely important in what will eventually bring a false peace to the land of the Bible, which is something many believers have been very anxious to see arrive on the prophetic scene. At first I was not certain this would be the process that caused fulfillment of the false peace prophecy, but when Ariel Sharon launched his IDF Operation Defensive Shield into the West Bank on March 29th my confidence soared. By April 7th, when we issued Prophecy Update Number 62A, I had gained sufficient confidence to made some predictions based on what I remembered from the original plan of 1968, and wrote: “The IDF entered Ramallah on March 29th, Qalkilaya on April 1st, and Jenin and Nablus on April 3rd. Soon they will have accomplished their objectives and withdraw from the Palestinian cities, but do not be surprised if they form a ring on roads around them to tightly monitor all traffic that goes in and out, and they might maintain it longer if they go on to initiate the “forced peace” plan they have discussed, yet never implemented.” I apologize for constantly hammering away on this “forced” peace through all the Special Prophecy Updates issued up to the present time, but I am not riding a dead horse, and it is very much alive and running. Finally, I became certain of what Israel was planning, and in Special Prophecy Update Number 65A I outlined, in meticulous detail, future actions that Israel would carry out until it was satisfied a “peace and safety” condition existed that satisfied its requirements for security of the Jewish people. I have discussed in detail what Israel must have in order for it to satisfy its longing hunger for a “peace with security.” It has amazed me how they have followed, and are still following, the seven steps of Update 65A, which have as a final objective the diagrammatic picture in 65C. Please read Special Prophecy Update Number 65A and survey 65C, then consider the following account of what has happened since Operation Defensive Shield began on March 29th. From March 29th to April 5th Ramallah, Qalkilaya, Turkarem, Beit Jalla, Nablus, Jenin, Tubas, Bethleham, and Hebron were invaded by the IDF. In each locale terrorists were arrested, killed, or scattered. Since that time Ramallah, Qalkilaya, Jenin, Turkarem, and Nablus have experienced a series of repetitive out again, in again, gone again visits by the IDF, and on each visit terrorists were arrested, killed, or scattered. The same pattern has been followed by the IDF in Hebron, Bethlehem, and their environs, but to a lesser extent. From April 6th to May 31st, while the aforementioned pattern was continuing, the IDF began the same in and out cycle in Yatta, Dura, Arabe, Ashar refugee camp, Selat-Hartia, Balaa, Rijah refugee camp, Burij refugee camp, Netzarim, Qaulancliya, Bani Naim, Shawara, Dehishe refugee camp, Halhoul, Gaza City, and Furik. Why have I ridden this mule across seven deserts and through eight rivers? Because it is the most important factor presently functioning inside Israel to fulfill a final prophecy of the long awaited false peace in Israel. I am now confident that a pattern of arresting, killing, or scattering terrorists, then pulling back to await internal intelligence information, then going back in to arrest, kill, or scatter terrorists, if continued long enough with bull dog tenacity, will give Israel a growing awareness of peace with security. Israel is now actively engaged in repeating Steps 5 and 6 over and over again. Please allow me to quote Step 7 as it was written in Special Prophecy Update Number 65A on April 27, 2002. “Step 7 – Once Steps 5 & 6 have been successfully completed to the degree that a “peace with security” is believed to have been accomplished, then complete what has been envisioned since Step 1. While Steps 1 through 6 are being accomplished, be in the act of building a “zone of security” that encircles the entire West Bank. This “defensive shield” would take in as many fringe Jewish settlements in the West Bank as deemed possible to afford “peace and security” according to their location. Many of the Jewish settlements in the interior of the West Bank would have to be abandoned. My guess is that between 50 and 70 per cent can be kept inside the “zone of security.” The zone would be widest on the eastern side of the West Bank and would extend from the foothills of the Samarian Mountains to the Jordan River. It would be the narrowest on the western side of the West Bank. I suspect it might be as much as 12 miles wide in some places on the eastern side, and less than 2 miles wide in places on the western side.” Please keep in mind that I am very pro-Israel, and truly believe God gave all the land from Dan to Beersheva to Israel and that it has every right to keep it, when I tell you that Israel has, in a very cunning manner, already grabbed 42% of the West Bank for illegal settlement activity. The Palestinians are going to get back a lot less of the West Bank than they are demanding. Pray tell me who will stop Israel from continuing through Step 7. Once they get the Palestinians boxed into their little surrounded state, the only ones they can throw rocks at are each other. All the roads in and our of the rows of barbed wire fences, radar and electronic high tech detection devices, will be monitored so tightly a terrorist field mouse couldn’t get in or out. And if an occasional katushya rocket flew the coup periodically, the retribution by the Israeli Air Force would be a 50 fold payback, such that the practice would soon cease. All Air traffic would have to clear through an Air Port immediately on the Israeli side of the buffer zone. It really doesn’t matter whether you or I think this will bring an internal “peace with security,” it only matters that the Israelis believe it will. Lord willing in our next Update, I’ll discuss the Jewish settlement problem and how it fits into the prophetic mix. THE RAW ROPE OF OPERATION DEFENSIVE SHIELD IS A DAILY TIGHTENING NOOSE ON THE NECKS OF ALL WHO THREATEN ISRAEL’S CONSTANT QUEST FOR ITS DREAM OF INTERNAL PEACE AND SAFETY. This international news article from MSNBC, describing events of yesterday in Israel, gives living proof to what I have placed before you in update after update since 2001, especially since update number 65A. “Israel Conducts New Incursions Into West Bank Troops move in an out of Nablus, Bethlehem MSNBC NEWS SERVICES June 1 – As new peace diplomacy quietly continued, Israeli troops searched for Palestinians militants in four separate cities and villages in wide-ranging West Bank operations Saturday, making arrests and encountering little resistance. The almost daily Israeli forays into Palestinian territory have come to resemble police operations – but ones carried out with tanks and armored carriers. In the latest raid, Israeli troops searched house to house for a second day Saturday in the balata refugee camp, a militant stronghold next to Nablus in the northern West Bank. Soldiers rounded up Palestinian men ages 15 to 45 on Friday, and after checking identity papers, put about 100 in trucks and drive to a nearby military base, according to some Palestinian witnesses. The soldiers also patrolled the deserted streets or Nablus, which was under curfew, and made arrests Saturday in a residential area near Al-Najah University where many students live. Troops also entered the nearby town for Talmoun, about 10 miles northeast of Nablus, using small explosives to break down the the doors of some houses, Palestinians said. The army said seven suspects were arrested early Saturday. Soldiers in armored vehicles also entered Bethlehem’s Dheihseh refugee camp before dawn and arrested one suspect before leaving several hours later. The raid marked the third time in a week the army has gone into biblical Bethlehem, just south of Jerusalem. In several recent Palestinian suicide bombings, the attacker has come from the Bethlehem area. Israel troops also briefly went into the town of Tulkarem during the night. Israeli army spokesman Brig. Ron Kitrey told Army Radio troops were trying to pre-empt suicide bombings in Israel.” How ironic that Israel is now setting in place what will cause it to produce a scenario that will fulfill I Thessalonians 5:3,4, for when they believe they can honestly say “Peace with security” then, after a short period of false peace with internal security, a sudden external surprise Jihad will be launched against them from the north by 10 Islamic nations, and they shall not escape the last 1260 days of the Tribulation Period. Revelation 17:12,13 [12] And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. [13] These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. [8] And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. JEWISH SETTLEMENTS IN THE WEST BANK AND GAZA A FACTOR IN OPERATION DEFENSIVE SHIELD CAUSING ISRAEL TO BEING IN A “FORCED” PEACE The Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have been a national project that began shortly after the war of 1967, in which Israel took the West Bank from the Jordanians and the Gaza Strip from the Egyptians. It has existed as an officially recognized government program for more than 30 years. Its confiscations of land and settlement construction have been real and pursued without letup under every Prime Minister that has held the office since 1967. But since 1993, when you ask a government official about a new settlement suddenly springing up in a new place, he or she will quickly tell you it is not “new,” but rather “old” because it is based on an “old” decision made before 1993, which was the year of the Oslo Peace Accords. In the past several months the Israelis have set up some 36 to 40 “new” settlements based on “old” decisions. The Washington Post reports that the West Bank landscape is “dotted with more water towers, more electrical generators and more moveable homes inhabited by small clusters of armed Jewish settlers under Israeli army guard.” According to the Washington Post the formal number of designated settlements in the West Bank has stayed at about 120 since the 1993 Oslo Agreement. So the Israeli government officials say: “See, we are not increasing the number of our settlements,” and on paper that is true. But they do not tell you the 120 have been spreading horizontally like army ants, and that the Israeli population has increased by more than 70,000 in the West Bank since 1993. Please bear in mind that I am pro-Israel and believe they have every right to do what they are doing. I am simply telling you what is going on in order to show one of the factors involved that leaves Israel no option other than to put a “forced” peace on the Palestinians to protect its settlement citizens, as well as all its citizenry. A Washington Post article of May 31st stated the following: “Such settlement activity is one of the roots of Palestinian frustration with the peace talks that followed the Oslo Accords, Palestinian analysts say. The creation of settlements required the confiscation of private and communal land and a permanent stationing of Israeli troops to protect settlers from hostile Palestinians, which in turn led to checkpoints and more friction with the Palestinians. Bypass roads built to segregate Israeli and Palestinian travelers also have meant more confiscations and further division of territory set aside for Palestinian rule under the Oslo Agreements. This has helped turn Palestinian controlled areas into an archipelago of unconnected islands. Since conquering the West Bank, Israel has claimed large tracts for settlements and state land preserves. About 200,000 Israelis live among 2,000,000 Palestinians in the West Bank, in addition to 175,000 who live on the West Bank territory annexed to the Jerusalem municipality after 1967. In the Gaza Strip, a sandy coastal area, 1,000,000 Palestinians are squeezed on about 60 percent of the land, while 3,000 Jewish pioneers have settled on the rest in heavily guarded communities. Sharon has vowed never to withdraw from any of the West Bank or Gaza Strip settlements, whether close to the Israeli border or deep inside the territories. He has spent the better part of his political career pushing their construction, citing the Jew’s biblical roots in what is now called the West Bank.” I believe his launching of Operation Defensive Shield will finally result in a containment buffer zone very similar to what I drew up and presented diagrammatically in Special Prophecy Update Number 65C. This will allow Israel to keep about 70 percent of her existing settlements outside the buffer zone. And the effectiveness of the buffer zone from internal terrorist attacks will allow all Israel outside the zone to say they have a time of “peace and safety.” Brian Whitaker in Jerusalem, writing for The Guardian, on May 15th wrote: “Israel has secretly grabbed 42 percent of Palestinian land in the West Bank for illegal settlement activity, according to a new report. Although the many built-up Jewish settlements cover only 1.7 percent of the West Bank, the Israeli authorities have used a variety of ruses since they occupied the territory in 1967 to assign vast areas of extra land to the settlers. Full details of the seizures have been made public for the first time by the Israeli human rights organization, B’Tselem. In theory the documentary evidence has always been open for public inspection, but B’Tselem fought a year-long legal battle to get it released. B’Tselem found that municipal boundaries allocated to the settlements extend far beyond the built-up areas and account for 6.8 percent of the West Bank. BUT LAND ASSIGNED TO SETTLERS’ REGIONAL COUNCILS ADDS A FURTHER 35.1 PERCENT. In truth, a genuine lasting peace cannot come in the Middle East until Christ returns. The only type of peace that can occur at the present time is the “forced” false peace now being installed by Operation Defensive Shield, which will eventually lead to an external Jihad by many Arab nations from the north assisted by an internal breakout Jihad on the part of the Palestinians living inside the buffer zone. The King of the North – The Antichrist [41] He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. The initial attack into the glorious land of Israel will be from the north, from Syria and Lebanon, and the first of many countries that will fall before the antichrist will be Israel. There will be a lightning surprise Jihad blitzkrieg launched by Lebanon, Syria, Iran, and Iraq, with logistical support from Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, and Sudan, and direct internal attack by a new Palestinian state inside Israel. These are the ten toes of Daniel’s great statue, the ten horns of his fourth beast, and the ten horns on both of John’s beasts. [42] And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. [7] After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns. [1] And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. [3] So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. Many of the countries of Daniel’s day were named for their first descendants as they related to Abraham. Edom was associated with the descendants of his grandson Esau, with Ammon and Moab being associated with the two sons of his nephew Lot. In Daniel’s day these three countries were to the immediate east, northeast, and southeast of Israel. If you will check all maps from B.C. 500 to 700, you will discover that all three of these countries would be entirely engulfed by modern day Jordan. So why would Jordan escape his wrath? Its geographical position would have no military, political, or financial value to him, and the occupants of Jordan will certainly not attack him, so he will bypass Jordan on his way to conquer the Suez Canal, which will have all three of these values abundantly. Jordan will not be a part of the initial Jihad, but after Israel is driven into the Negev it will be 100% in the antichrist’s camp. Because Egypt and Jordan made peace with Israel they are out of favor with what I call the big three, which are Syria, Iraq, and Iran. And because Saudi Arabia plays footsies with the United States, it also falls into the non-favored category. The Arab world simply doesn’t trust Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia enough to include them in the secret planning that will go into the Jihad, and they will be as surprised as Israel when it is launched. Jordan and Saudi Arabia will support the antichrist after he conquers Egypt, and will to do so for the remainder of the tribulation period. Lord willing, I will continue with Daniel 11:42 in Prophecy Update Number 71. [42] He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 71A June 8, 2002 WHEN ISRAEL IS SUDDENLY VISIOUSLY ATTACKED IN A SURPRISE LIGHTNING JIHAD BLITZKRIEG FROM ITS NORTH, WHY DOESN’T THE U.S. ATTACK THE ISLAMIC GROUP OF NATIONS THAT ARE ATTACKING HER? This is a question I have been asked over and over again for a long time. I was asked again on e-mail recently, and this time, rather than answering the query privately, I decided to make it a prophecy update, so that that in future I could just attach this update to any new query and save myself repeating it again. The one thing that I learned in the National Security Agency which has been, is, and always will be the motivating factor in any decision made by any country, including the United States, may be simply stated in two words: NATIONAL INTEREST. Many will cry out and say, not so, we did it for humanitarian reasons, we did it to secure justice, we did it out of compassion, we did it out of love, we did it because we love freedom, we did it because we are a great nation: and on and on shall come statements from every realm of society, from “bleeding” liberal hearts to the “hardened” hearts of the extreme right, all giving different reasons as to why this country did something. But the truth of the matter is that, in the end, we always did it for what amounted to NATIONAL INTEREST. The United States has quick response attack naval and marine forces in position at all times to put down a banana republic type of minor conflict on short notice. But in order to conduct a successful operation again a Jihad the magnitude of the coming attack of many nations against Israel, we would require some time to get enough regular ground troops in place to have a real hope of victory. It took us a very long time to get enough men and equipment into the Middle East to insure success in our victory against Iraq. The Scriptures indicate that 10 Islamic nations will be led by the Antichrist, and that they will quickly take Jerusalem and drive Israel into the Negev. When Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Iran come pouring southward on both sides of the Samarian mountains, and the Palestinians break out in all directions internally from within the enclosed buffer zone, chaos will reign supreme from Dan to Beersheva. There will be so much inner mingling of the attack forces of Israel and those of the enemy with the fleeing civilian population that air strikes would kill as many on one side as the other. Since the U.S. is fully aware of the Israel War Contingency Plan to evacuate as much of the population as possible to the Negev if overrun from the north, it will set in shock and indecision until it is too late to do anything except help to evacuate some of the coastal population from Tel Aviv to Haifa into the Negev, and to air lift supplies into the Negev. The aircraft of the Islamic nations will be under orders not to fire on western power’s aircraft unless fired upon, because the one thing they will not want is for the U.S. to get actively engaged with them in an all out war. Once Israel has evacuated as much of its population into the Negev as possible, and the U.S. sees that the Arabs are not going past Beersheva, we will accept the status quo as best for all. Why? Because it will satisfy our NATIONAL INTEREST! How? Israel will be safe and we will still be able to receive Arab Oil shipments. Revelation 12:5,6 [5] And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all NATIONS with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. [6] And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that THEY should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. NATIONS in verse 5 is the precedent to THEY in verse 6. This is the beginning of the final 1260 days that lead up to the final battle of Armageddon, and at this time only 10 Arab nations are involved, so nations such as the U.S., Great Britain, Australia, and Canada will air lift all sorts of supplies into the Negev for Israel, and the Arab nations won’t do a thing to stop it because they will not want to be involved in a world war at this time. [14] And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. Seventy percent of the total Jewish population of Israel exists in the narrow coastal strip from Tel Aviv to Haifa. The western powers (symbolized as uncircumcised Philistines) will air lift many from this area into the Negev, flying first toward the west over the Mediterranean, then southeast over the Sinai into the Negev. After 1260 days Israel will storm north, northeast, and east out of the Negev, driving deep into Syria, and across all of Jordan to the Euphrates River, and will thus claim the Abrahamic Land Grant given to Abraham. (See Prophecy Update Number 67) [14] But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them. (See Prophecy Update Number 71) [6] And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders. (See Prophecy Update Number 67) Down through the last 200 years we have built up a picture of an antichrist who rises slowly to power over a moderate period of time, then signs a peace treaty that lasts for 3 and ½ years, only to break it at that time to start the final 1260 days of the tribulation period. I agree that he attacks Israel to begin the final 1260 days of the tribulation period, but am persuaded what is pictured before the attack is largely manufactured on misinterpretation of Daniel 9:27, an error of early 1800. The rise of antichrist will be quick, as will be the events that follow his appearance. So I am saying that whenever he comes on the scene it will not be a long, drawn out affair from his appearance until his demise. In Prophecy Updates Numbers 55, 56, 57, and 58 I outlined the view that was held by most theologians before 1830, which is the belief I hold today. In Chapter 38 of Ezekiel, in verses 2 through 6, it identifies the groupings of those peoples who will initially attack Israel from the north. But in verse 13 it identifies groupings of peoples that will not attack Israel at this time. [13] Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil? The closest thing to which I can relate their two questions in today’s modern vernacular is what we would identify as being a “diplomatic protest.” You may check all reference sources available today as to the location of the descendants of Sheba and Dedan in 600 B.C., when this prophecy was written, and you will find they are almost unanimous that it represents modern day Saudi Arabia. I believe Saudi Arabia will be as surprised as the United States when Israel is attacked. I also believe Egypt, who is attacked by the antichrist after he drives Israel into the Negev, will also be shocked by his attack on Israel, and then on themselves. The descendants of Tarshish were sea faring men. According to most historians they first established colonies along the coasts of the Mediterranean, then along the coasts of western and northern France, and finally along the coasts of Denmark and Sweden. As such they could represent what we call Europe, and all the western nations, which were established out of European nations, could be “the young lions thereof.” So I expect the only part that the United States will play in this war will be to violently diplomatically protest, protest, protest, and then protest some more. I believe we will air lift many into the Negev to satisfy our NATIONAL INTEREST vested in our large Jewish population, and will continue to air lift all sorts of supplies into them for a long time. I believe we will not attack in order to prevent a massive outcry of American motherhood in a fantastic body bag count, which is not in the NATIONAL INTEREST, and the loss of Arab oil would most assuredly not be in our NATIONAL INTEREST. One day, when I kept banishing around this term we identified as NATIONAL INTEREST in the agency, I was asked, would you define NATIONAL INTEREST. Now, this is not the agency definition, it is mine! NATIONAL INTEREST IS WHAT WILL ALLOW A PARTY TO STAY IN OFFICE OR TO GET IN OFFICE. IT WAS NOT THAT WAY IN THE BEGINNING, BUT THAT’S THE WAY IT IS NOW, AND IT WILL STAY THAT WAY UNTIL JESUS RETURNS. OPERATION DEFENSIVE SHIELD (YIGAL ALLON 1968) THE PATTERN OF PROPHECY UPDATE 65A CONTINUES WITH PLANNED ISRAELI INCURSIONS INTO P.A. CITIES (1) Go Into City – Arrest, Kill, and/or Scatter Terrorists (2) Go Out of City – Tighten Security Ring Around City (3) Keep Repeating (1) & (2) Until Terrorist Activity Is Nil (4) Build a Security Buffer Zone Inside the Green Line in Such a Way That the Palestinian Villages Are Separated From Israeli Settlements Sufficiently to Insure Security and Peace for the Settlements In Prophecy Update 70B I gave a daily listing from March 29th to June 1st of how (1) through (3) was being carried out in many cities across the West Bank. A daily listing of cities where this procedure was practiced from June 1st to 8th follows: June 1st – Nablus, Tamoun, and Bethlehem June 2nd – Nablus June 3rd – Ain Beit Refugee Camp and Qalqilya June 4th – Beit Ummar and Hebron June 5th – Jenin June 6th – Ramallah and Beituniya June 7th – Tulkarem and Jenin June 8th – Karmei Tsur I will not be surprised if Ariel Sharon formally asks President Bush to assist in funding a buffer zone security system of fenced protection to help provide the security Israelis are demanding before they return to peace negotiations. The depth, height, and length of such a buffer zone, with all its high tech electronic and radar detection units, would be enormous. The Prime Minister and our President are scheduled to meet tomorrow, and I am curious if he will ask for funding for such a structure at that time. The Palestinians say they will not negotiate until Israel pulls its troops out of their cities, and then will stop negotiations if they don’t stay out during the process of negotiation. The Israelis say they will not negotiate until all terrorist attacks on its people completely cease, and then will stop negotiations if they start up again during the negotiations. Since Iran, Iraq, and Syria control the finances of the terrorist groups, it will be interesting to see if they call them off until a false peace can be brought it. Iran, Iraq, Syria, and the Palestinians all know full well that the final objective of Operation Defensive Shield will eventually lock the Palestinians into an area so tightly encircled that only an ant could squirm out of it. It cannot eliminate all terrorist acts, but fully implemented I believe it could eliminate some 95 percent of them. I believe these four Islamic Powers know this and, because of this knowledge, will eventually call off the ones they sponsor long enough to deceive Israel. But, one way or the other, Israel is headed for a false peace in which it actually thinks it has “peace and safety” to the extent it will “say” so! THE ISLAMICS ARE GETTING WISE TO WHAT ISRAEL IS DOING TO BRING IN A FORCED PEACE SETTLEMENT ON THE WEST BANK AND GAZA THROUGH OPERATION DEFENSIVE SHIELD. THEY NOW SEE THE PURPOSE AS LEADING TO A PHYSICAL SEPARATION BETWEEN THE PALESTINIANS AND ISRAELIS, WHICH THEY ARE NOW CALLING APARTHEID. THE PLAN BEHIND OPERATION DEFENSIVE SHIELD IS NOW BECOMING A DAY BY DAY STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE BY THE IDF. The following article by Dr. Azmi Bishara, a member of the Israeli Knesset, titled “Tales of Apartheid,” was published by AMIN last Thursday. The following quotes leave no doubt that the objectives of Operation Defensive Shield are now clearly visible to the Arab World. Dr. Bishara states that Israel wants “to wreck havoc on the Palestinians and destroy the human and material infrastructure of their resistance, and to tighten its security grip on Palestinian areas and gather intelligence by interrogating detainees.” He then went on to say: “More important, Israel wants to set down new rules for UNILATERAL SEPARATION between itself and the Palestinians, A SYSTEM that has ALL the hallmarks of APARTHEID.” He further stated: “Israel has established a modus operandi for operating an apartheid system that can answer its continually changing needs. It is besieging and locking off Palestinian areas at will. It keeps its troops ready to deploy in Palestinian towns at short notice.” He went on to say that this operation is now “in full swing, and what we have is a new apartheid system that is reshaping Israel’s entire political culture, and is spilling over from the ghettos and cantons of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip into Israel’s own fabric.” Also, last Wednesday, in AMIN, an article by Khalid Amayreh, makes it plain to me that the Arabs have recognized what Israel has in mind in OPERATION DEFENSIVE SHIELD. What has amazed me is that it took them more than two months to figure it out, and that they still have not recognized it as a revision of the old Israeli Allon Plan of 1968. Amayreh titled his article as “Standard Operating Procedures.” I think a better title would be STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES UNDER THE REVISED YIGAL ALLON PLAN OF 1968. He writes: “Israeli tanks once again rolled into several Palestinian population centers this week. Tanks were deployed in Nablus, the largest town in the West Bank, as well as Tulkarm, Qalqilya, Hebron, and Bethlehem, in a show of force that coincided with raids by the Israeli army on a number of refugee camps including Askar, Balata, Ein Beit Al-Ma’a near Nablus, Nur-Shams near the city of Tulkarm, and Dheishe, Ayda, and Azza near Bethlehem. In Nablus, the Israeli army arrested Essam Abu Bakr, secretary-general of Fatah, along with more than 300 Palestinians who were taken to the notorious Ofer internment center. At Balata refugee camp, the Israeli army rounded up the entire male population between the ages of 13 to 60, taking the men to the Howwara detention camp. The number of detainees was in the hundreds, possibly as high as 1000. The Balata camp suffered more than just the rounding up of its male population. Israeli soldiers, using explosives, demolished scores of homes by the blasting of holes in the connecting walls. An IDF spokesman said the army was carrying out a ‘routine operation’ at Balata.” The Palestinians and their Islamic brethren are now beginning to recognize the implications of a defensive buffer zone, which is the final objective of Operation Defensive Shield. How will this affect their willingness to negotiate with Israel for a false peace arrangement? In the short haul, it will make them anxious to get A deal rather than NO deal at all! And, in order to get this deal they will have to temporarily call off terrorist attacks in Israel. Will they call them off, with a promise of a future allied Jihad against Israel as the sugar stick? I am inclined to think they will, but considering the volatility of the Middle East, I am by no means certain! But of one thing I am certain – a false peace is in the near future, whether it comes in the form of a “forced” peace, a “negotiated” peace, or a combination of both. It will be a “false” peace, which will eventually be terminated by a vicious lightning Jihad attack from the north by confederated Islamic nations that were once a part of the southern flank of the old Roman Empire. [23] Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. [24] And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. [25] And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. (Fourth Beast = Old Roman Empire) (Ten Horns = Islamic Nations) (Eleventh King = The Antichrist) (The Saints = Israel) (Time = 1 Year + Times = 2 Years + Dividing of Times = ½ year) (Total = 3 & ½ Prophetic Years of 360 days = 1260 prophetic days) [6] And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. (1260 prophetic days) [12] And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. [13] These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. (Ten Horns = Ten Islamic Kings of Daniel) (The Beast = Eleventh King of Daniel = The Antichrist) I believe the four horns directly involved in the attack from the north will be Syria, Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon. One horn that will internally attack Israel will be made of the Palestinians. The other five horns, which will provide logistical support, will most likely be Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Sudan. At its maximum extent the Roman Empire extended its rule into parts of the territory now occupied by all these nations. I am fully aware of a danger of the loss of all credibility suffered by so many preachers of the past in predicting what the timing of end time events would be, but I have, for the last 35 years, believed that this attack from the north by 10 Islamic nations would occur before the dawning of 2008, and everything I have observed in the Middle East, particularly in the last three years, has convinced me the attack will occur at some point in the next six years. So, in the lyrics of a recent popular tune, “THAT’S MY STORY, AND I’M STICKING TO IT.” SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 71D THE OBJECTIVE OF OPERATION DEFENSIVE SHIELD IS FINALLY PICKED UP BY AN AUSTRALIAN NEWSPAPER FROM NEWS INTERACTIVE – THE ADVERTISER! Finally, after numerous Prophecy Updates informing you that the ultimate objective of OPERATION DEFENSIVE SHIELD was to build a buffer zone wall around the entire West Bank as first advocated by the Yigal Allon Plan of 1968, an Australian newspaper, The Advertiser, has picked up Israel’s initial firm announcement of its intent to build it. If you want to see the steps Israel has taken, is taking, and will continue to take in conjunction with its building, then look back in our archives to Prophecy Update Number 65A. If you want to see what it will enclose, then look back at Prophecy Update Number 65C. It is interesting that this came about AFTER Ariel Sharon’s meeting with President Bush. I am certain that part of their nonpublic meetings involved the discussion of the building of this buffer zone, and suspect that it also involved a request for the U.S. to pay for part of it. The following article is quoted from the Australian Interactive News Network as reported by The Advertiser Newspaper! BEGIN QUOTE OF ARTICLE BREAKING NEWS – ISRAEL TO BUILD WALL – June 11th JERUSALEM: Israel will start building a controversial wall the length of the border of the West Bank in the next few days, a defense ministry spokesman told AFP. The construction will start in the next few days before the end of this week or at the start of next week. The Defense Ministry announced last month that the 350 kilometer defensive barrier (214 miles) along the Green Line would cost more than 200 million dollars, and that it would be finished within six months. The project is being pursued with the aim of ‘preventing the infiltration from the West Bank into Israeli territory by the terrorists, vehicles, and explosives,’ according to the Defense Ministry. The continuous barrier will be made up of a combination of fences and ditches, as well as walls in tense areas, and will all be under the watchful eye of sophisticated surveillance. Similar fences sit on Israel’s borders with Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. Construction already started April 15th on creating buffer zones solely around Jerusalem, which Israel claims in its entirety as its capital, but for the West Bank as a whole it had not yet begun. Most of the new barrier will be in the sectors of Umm el-Fahm-Me Ami, north of the cities of Jenin, Qalqilya, and Tulkarem in the northwest area of the West Bank, and around all of greater Jerusalem, according to Israeli officials. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon himself last February 21st floated the idea of “security zones” to buffer Israel from attacks after a wave of deadly suicide bombings by militant groups. END QUOTE OF ARTICLE I suspect that the final cost of the barrier will end up being closer to 600 million by the time it is completed, and if they make it as deep and encircling as I think they eventually will, it may cost up to 900 million. When it is completed, for the first time in some 54 years, “They shall say, Peace and safety.” After a short period of having what they say they have, “then sudden destruction shall come upon them, as travail upon a woman with child.” “And they shall not escape” the travail of the great tribulation period. Two thirds of them will perish and one third will escape into the Negev, where they will survive the final 1260 days of the tribulation period. [9] And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God. SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 71E SQUEEZING THE GEESE THAT LAY THE GOLDEN EGGS TO PROVIDE FOR TERRORIST ACTIVITIES! OPERATION DEFENSIVE SHIELD IS MAKING THE ARAB NATIONS THAT PAY THE TERRORISTS VERY UNEASY! For a long time the golden eggs of many of the Islamic nations have kept terrorism alive, thriving, and well! The price of these golden eggs had the long-range objective of getting the rotten Palestinian eggs out of Arab nests, where they were scattered in the 1948 and 1967 wars. It is a statistical fact that millions of Palestinian rotten eggs now reside in refugee camps in many of those Islamic nations that sponsor terrorism, and it is no secret they would love to dump them back into the West Bank. But if the West Bank is completely surrounded by a buffer zone of protection, then the chance of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia ever getting rid of refugees is about as likely as a 30 degree Celsius temperature being reported at the South Pole. OPERATION DEFENSIVE SHIELD’S FINAL OBJECTIVE HAS ALWAYS BEEN TO BUILD A PROTECTIVE BUFFER ZONE AROUND THE WEST BANK AND GAZA STRIP, AND THIS IS SHAKING UP THE ISLAMIC NATIONS! President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and President Bush had a genuine falling out last week over the need to IMMEDIATELY begin negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians. Upon Mubarak’s return to Egypt, he immediately phoned Prince Saud al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia, and thereafter a sudden trip, not previously scheduled, was announced as a delegation peace trip led by the Saudi Prince. This trip is being made to get President Bush to back away from promises he made to Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon after Mubarak’s visit. President Bush promised to delay an international peace conference. He also promised that America would not set up a schedule for ending Israeli incursions into the West Bank and Gaza Strip to arrest, kill, and/or scatter terrorists. President Mubarak also quickly called Syrian President Bashar Assad on Monday to discuss the results of his U.S. meeting. Immediately thereafter, Tishrin, an official Syrian Newspaper, called on President Bush to “cooperate with the Arab States to restart the peace process by putting suitable pressure on Israeli leaders.” Although most news commentators and their many Middle East analysts think that OPERATION DEFENSIVE SHIELD will be a failure, I DO NOT! I know that you cannot have zero percent activity with the plan, but it can jolly well reduce it drastically. Please allow me to illustrate the terrorist bombing patterns in Israel for the last seven plus years. From 1994 to 2001 the number of terrorist bombings ranged from 1 to as many as 4 per year. There were 14 bombings in 2001. So far this year, up to June 12th, there have been 24 bombings. There were 11 bombings in March (almost ½ of the total). On March 29th Israel launched Operation Defensive Shield. There were 4 bombings in both April and May. There have been 2 in June up to the 12th. As Operation Defensive Shield continues to operate the number of bombings will erratically decrease. Once the number drops to less than 4 per year the nations that sponsor terrorism will no longer recognize it as an effective weapon to cause Israel to give back 100 percent of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Islamic nations are getting very nervous! If President Bush continues to let Israel carry out Operation Defensive Shield until their buffer zone wall is completed, then getting the millions of Palestinian refugees back into the West Bank will not have to be negotiated by the Israelis. This is the main reason that I expect them to call off the terrorists soon for a period of false peace. I suspect they will probably call them off before this year ends. The longer they wait to do it, the less of the West Bank the Palestinians are going to get in negotiations. If you think that buffer zone is going to be built ALONG the Green Line, I have some terrific swampland in South America I would love to sell you! The buffer zone in most areas will be built INSIDE the Green Line to take in as many Israeli settlements as they think they can provide protection. I suspect they will try to build it to take in some 70 percent of their settlements. June 14, 2002The King of the North – The Antichrist In Prophecy Update Number 71 we exposited on verse 41. We begin this Update with Israel having already lost some 2/3 of its population while being driven into the Negev wilderness by 10 Arab nations led by the antichrist. Once he has driven Israel into the Negev and secured the northern periphery of it to stop a breakout from it, he will leave Israel trapped in it and proceed to his most important military objective, the Suez Canal. There is no more important zone in the entire Middle East from a military, political, and economic standpoint than the narrow strip of water known as the Suez Canal. World shipping passes through it from the south into the Mediterranean Sea on its way to European ports, and to the ports of the northern Atlantic. It carries southward through its banks the shipping commerce that services the ports of the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal, the Andaman Sea, the Gulf of Siam, the South China Sea, and the vast Pacific Ocean. The sudden lightning Jihad strike from the north will catch the western world by complete surprise. The short period of false peace in the Middle East, following a period of no peace since 70 A.D. for the Jewish nation, will lull Israel and those nations that are friendly to her into a false sense of security. Furthermore, I am convinced that the lengthy chain of worldwide earthquake activity will begin at this time with the occurrence of the first earthquake in the book of Revelation, found in 6:12, and that the worldwide activity will continue until the last earthquake of Revelation, found in conjunction with Armageddon in 16:16-18. Revelation 6:12 + 16:16-18 [12] And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; [16] And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. [17] And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. [18] And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. This surge of worldwide earthquake activity, acting with the element of surprise, and pushing an already weak economy over the edge, will cause the western world and Europe to be more concerned with their own national interest of survival, than in the survival of Israel. Besides, I assure you that, immediately upon the antichrist’s conquest of the Suez Canal, the plans will already have been laid to instantly announce that the status quo of the Suez Canal operations will remain unchanged, and that all nations will have free access through it. I have always believed that the 10 toes of Daniel’s statue and the 10 horns of his fourth beast are the same as the 10 horns found in Chapters 13 and 17 of Revelation. There is no question in my mind that in the last days of this age the 10 horns were to arise out of the southern flank of the area dominated by the fourth beast of Daniel, which represented the Roman Empire of John’s time. The Roman Empire, at its maximum expansion, extended into parts of all the nations that I believe will be involved in the support of the antichrist when he drives Israel into the Negev, and then takes over the Suez Canal. I believe those 10 nations will be Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan, and the Palestinians. Daniel 2:32,33 [32] This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, [33] His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. [23] Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. [24] And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. These 10 Islamic nations will be the nucleus of the antichrist’s kingdom, with the Suez Canal as its focal point. One could not find a better geopolitical location for a capital of this area than the great city of Cairo. In Prophecy Update Number 73, which, Lord willing, we will issue as a regular update next Friday, I will lay out some particulars of his stay in Cairo. Among those particulars will be an exposition concerning the identity of the three kings he is said to subdue in Daniel 7:24, and the role of the two nations said to be “at his steps” in Daniel 11:43. [43] But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps. MSNBC – REUTERS NEWS SERVICE – JUNE 13, 2002 BEGIN QUOTE EXTRACTS WEST BANK FENCE PLAN ALARMS PALESTINIANS The Galilee hills of Israel meet those of the West Bank in a harmony so natural the only sign of a frontier is a dusty military checkpoint with its gate firmly shut. But a visible dividing line will soon appear on the horizon as Israel constructs a fence it hopes will keep Palestinian suicide bombers out of the Jewish state. Construction teams have already begun hauling tractors and digging equipment to break ground on the fence next to the Salem checkpoint, probably early next week, as part of a plan to set up what Israel calls “security zones.” There will be obstacles. In some places fences, some places ditches and some places patrols to make it difficult for terrorists to infiltrate into our cities, said an Israeli official familiar with the project. A fence will make it almost impossible to cross by foot into Israel as many laborers and construction workers do before dawn every morning, darting behind olive and almond trees to avoid being seen by soldiers guarding against infiltrators. Many are worried they will be separated from relatives living in Arab villages in Israel only a stone’s throw from the West Bank, and Palestinian land owners are concerned their land will be expropriated to build the fence. But in the nearby city of Afula, which has been hit by several Palestinian suicide bombings and shooting attacks, the prospect of a fence is a welcome relief. ‘It will make it harder for terrorists to reach us,’ Yossi, the owner of a falafel restaurant, said. The fence is part of a plan by Israel to set up barricades, buffer zones, observation equipment, and obstacle courses to divide Israel from the West Bank after the most devastating wave of Palestinian bombings the country has ever seen. Avi Dichter, the head of Israel’s Shin Bet security service, recently told a parliamentary committee that militants in the Gaza Strip, which is completely sealed off from Israel by a fence, had failed to carry out any suicide bombings. This view finally convinced the government to step up its fence building plans, which, according to Israeli media, will MORE OR LESS follow the pre-1967 lines which divided Israel from the Jordanian-held West Bank. The fence is likely to be electrified with a dirt track alongside that soldiers and trackers will patrol. END QUOTE EXTRACTS I strongly suspect that in the area of dense Jewish settlements inside the West Bank the fence will be placed well inside the Green Line to allow for a safety margin of protection for the Jewish settlers. Don’t be surprised if the Israelis keep large chunks of the fringes of the West Bank to preserve up to 70 percent of their settlements. The sooner the Palestinians and terrorist sponsoring nations decide to call off the terrorists and negotiate, the more land they will get. “MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE RANCH” The vicious suicide bombings, twenty-four this year up to June 14th, along with the large scale OPERATION DEFENSIVE SHIELD counter offensive by the IDF involving the arresting, killing, and/or scattering of many Palestinian terrorists, have been of such intensity that other events in the Middle East have taken a silent back seat to them. However, they are of great significance in the surprise launching of a future lightning Jihad blitzkrieg by four Islamic nations coming out of Syria, assisted logistically by six others. Prophecy Update Number 1, issued early in 2001, had the following heading: SIGNIFICANT WORLD AND MID-EAST EVENTS From which the following quotes are taken: “The beginnings of a pattern of military activity between Syria, Iran and Iraq are now emerging in the Middle East. Iraq recently conducted maneuvers on the Syria border, reportedly by prior agreement with Syria’s new President, Bashar Assad. Bashar then made a trip to Iran to hold talks with Iranian President Mohammad Khatami. The talks were described as ‘a strategic dialogue.’ Eventually there will be some form of peace between the Palestinians and Israel. It may be a ‘forced’ peace, but the end result will be an enclosed Palestinian State within the borders of Israel. This will create an impossible situation for Israel. There is no worse military position than to have an enemy within while being attacked from without. I believe it is quite likely that, by the time the year 2003 rolls around, there will have been numerous meetings behind closed doors between the leaders of Iran, Syria, Libya, Sudan, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon, Iraq, and the Palestinians. I believe these meetings will eventually result in a consolidated plan to lure Israel into a sense of false security. And, after a short period of false peace, a vicious surprise attack will be launched against Israel from the borders of Syria and Lebanon.” Throughout the rest of 2001 through February of 2002, Bashar Assad jumped rapidly like a Texas jackrabbit from one Islamic capital to another, and the exchange of the foreign ministers between Islamic capitals for diplomatic discussions of all types pictured ants scurrying back and forth between sugar grains. If Assad wasn’t visiting with foreign leaders in their capitals, then they were visiting with him in Damascus. The latest significant occurrence, in all this unification of the Arab nations in purpose, is the Syrian rail length that Iraq is using to smuggle in military hardware. According to an article by Michael Evans, Defense Editor of World News, dated June 10th, “Saddam Hussein is using a railway network linked with Syria for a smuggling operation that is supplying Baghdad with a vast range of military equipment and parts for weapons of mass destruction, intelligence sources say. Begin Article Quote “The link between Monsul, in northern Iraq, and Aleppo, the second largest city in Syria, was opened in August 2000. Freight transported by rail from Syria to Iraq is covered by the oil-for-food program authorized by the United Nations under which Baghdad is allow to sell a limited amount of oil to raise money for food, medicine, and humanitarian purposes. However, intelligence reports disclose that Iraq is using the link to import a range of weaponry, including tanks sold by Bulgaria to Syria some years ago and allegedly diverted by Damascus to Baghdad, and air-defense equipment, Scud missile guidance systems and surface-to-air missiles, originally bought by Syria from the Czech Republic. Improved relations between Syria and Iraq are causing concern because of the perceived risk of banned military or duel-use systems reaching Baghdad under cover. Some intelligence reports have given warning that Syria has become the main channel for smuggling arms to Iraq through the port of Tartus, from where they are transported along the Aleppo-to-Mosul railway line. In Iraq, the same line connects with Baghdad and Basra. To add to western intelligence concerns, another railway line, LINKING IRAN, IRAQ, AND SYRIA, is UNDER construction and could be open NEXT year. THE NEW LINE WILL RUN FROM TEHRAN TO KHORRAMSHAR, ONE OF THE BIGGEST PORTS IN IRAN, TO BAGHDAD AND AL-QAIM, A TOWN ON THE IRAQ-SYRIAN BORDER, THEN ON TO ALBUKAMAL IN SYRIA AND FINALLY DAMASCUS.” END QUOTE I have warned in numerous updates that the surprise Jihad from the north will be preceded by a long period of bringing Iranian and Iraqi troops under cover into the Palmyra fold valleys of the Palmyra Range in southwestern Syria. Many of them will come in boxcars, and will be dropped off in small groups in the northeastern zone of the Palmyra hills. Unless a satellite is flying on a northeast to southwest or southwest to northeast path over the Palmyra Hills, it cannot pick up what is in the valleys. And, during certain late summer to early winter months, the buildup of hydroscopic impurities in the valley bottoms make it impossible for airborne radar to see what is there because of anomalous propagation. It would be possible for several divisions of Iranian and Iraq troops to slowly be smuggled into these valleys and concealed in a year’s time. In Prophecy Updates 71 and 72, Parts 1 and 2 (See Prophecy Archives at top of page), we exposited fully on the entrance of the antichrist into Israel from the north, his conquest of Israel north of Beersheva, his driving of Israel into the Negev, his by-passing Jordan because of a lack of strategic value, the absolute necessity of his conquest of the Suez Canal, and his preparation to enter Egypt for a strategic base of his future activities during the next three plus years. The antichrist is to be a tactical military genius. That being the case, he will follow the only logical way to conquer Egypt. Just what is Egypt geographically? It is bordered on the west by Libya, on the north by the Mediterranean Sea, on the south by Sudan, and on the east by the western border of the Gaza Strip, the Negev, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Red Sea. However, in reality, that is not Egypt. Egypt, population wise, consists of the narrow strip of coastline (up to three miles inland) touching the Mediterranean Sea, the Suez Canal, the Gulf of Suez, and the Red Sea, plus its major population distribution along and 20 miles either side of the Nile River and its northern delta. The antichrist will lead a Jihad coalition of 10 Islamic nations, two of which will be Libya and ancient Ethiopia, which now exists as Sudan along the southern border of Egypt. He will not want either of these nations to share in land acquisition rewards from the conquest of Egypt, but he will use them to make his victory much easier. He will instruct Libya to mass its troops along its northern coastal border with Egypt, and the Sudan to mass its troops where the Nile River enters Egypt from the south. This will force Egypt to move some of its troops to these areas in a defensive mode, and, as a result, the antichrist will take Cairo in less than a day. His troops will move rapidly west along the northern coastline, south along the eastern coastline, and down the Nile River to the Sudanese border. This will complete his conquest of Egypt. All the rest of it has less than one percent of the population, and is virtual wasteland. In his initial conquests only 10 Islamic nations will be involved. As you may discover in volumes of previous Prophecy Updates, these 10 have been tentatively identified as being made up of the Palestinians, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Sudan. Those directly involved in the initial Jihad onslaught from the north will be Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Iran, with the Palestinians attacking internally out of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Sudan will be more involved in the strategic and logistical positional support than in actual combat. However, after quick successes against Israel and Egypt, all the other Islamic nations will immediately jump on his bandwagon, and suddenly all the aspirations of Mohammed, and the Biblical prophecies of a final evil empire, will be fulfilled. After all the Islamic nations climb on board it will cover as far to the west from Cairo as Daniel’s fourth beast conquered, that is to Morocco, and as far to the east as his second and third beast conquered, that is to India. I am persuaded it will include the 10 already mentioned, plus Egypt, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates. During the three plus years of antichrist’s reign, most of Europe will come under his control or strong influence, and in the final battle of Armageddon, which closes his reign, all the nations of Europe, Africa, Eurasia, Asia, and the Middle East will join him in a final massive attack again Israel in the Negev. The antichrist’s empire will be an empire that dominates the known world in the days the prophets wrote from Isaiah and Micah in 700 B.C. to John in A.D. 95. They wrote to the people of their day and we are meant to understand it the light of how they perceived it. There is no question that God knew the world as we know it today, but I am convinced He meant for us, in the prophecies relating to the extent of the antichrist’s empire, to interpret it as meaning the world as the prophets knew it. So, as regards the size of his empire, when they used expressions like “the whole world, all the earth, wherever men dwell, etc.,” it does not refer to the earth as we know it today, but to the earth as it was known by the writers. These same expressions, when used as pertaining to such things as the Great Commission found in Matthew 28:18-20, do mean the earth as we know it today by implication of the directive. The believing world today waits for an antichrist that will dominate the whole world as we know it today and, quite frankly, they could be right. I am prepared for that! But I am also prepared for an antichrist that dominates the aforementioned areas I have outlined. There is a distinct possibility of this eventuality. So watch the Middle East, and if such an empire does arise, then don’t set on your duff waiting for an antichrist to arise out of Europe that will dominate all the world as we know it today. If I am correct in what I believe as to the size and dominion of his empire, then it will shatter end time teachings that arose in the early nineteenth century, and eventually solidified in the twentieth century. In any case, I am convinced that the next six years will settle the question as to the correct interpretation. In Prophecy Update Number 74, Part 4, Lord willing, I will try to outline his activities during his stay of some 3 and ½ years in his Cairo command center, and what causes him to head back to Jerusalem when his time on earth is drawing to a close. From what I have stated in this update, and previous updates, you should be able to surmise what I believe about the following Scriptures. They outline the antichrist’s reign from his initial attack to his final demise. For better or for worst, I believe his initial attack will be launched before the year 2008. I do not believe that most of the world has any idea of the horror that is soon to be unleashed in the Middle East. [24] And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. [25] And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. (In Daniel’s day “the saints of the most High” represented the faithful of Israel. A time equaled 1 year, times 2 years, and half a time ½ year, which, in prophetic years of 360 days, equaled 3 and ½ years, or 42 months, or 1260 days.) [16] And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. ]19] And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. [20] And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. [21] And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. Daniel 7:11-14 + Revelation 14:14-20 [11] I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame. [12] As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time. [13] I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. [14] And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. [14] And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. [15] And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. [16] And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped. [17] And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. [18] And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. [19] And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. [20] And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. USE OF THE HYPERBOLE IN PROPHECY THE WORD HYPERBOLE COMES FROM THE GREEK – IT MEANS “TO DELIBERATELY THROW OUTSIDE OR INSIDE A MARKED LINE FOR EFFECT, MAKING THE AREA LARGER OR SMALLER THAN IT ACTUALLY IS, EXAGGERATION FOR EFFECT, NOT MEANT TO BE TAKEN LITERALLY, EXAGGERATING OR DIMISHING BEYOND THE FACT, EXCEEDING THE TRUTH.” IT IS USED AT TIMES IN PROPHECY TO IDENTIFY A SMALL AREA AS ONE THAT IS MUCH LARGER. IT IS NOT A LIE BECAUSE THE HEARER OR READER IS ACQUAINTED WITH THE USE OF HYPERBOLE AS AN EXAGGERATED STATEMENT. THE EXPRESSIONS “THE WHOLE EARTH, ALL THE WORLD, WHERESOEVER MEN SHALL DWELL ON THE EARTH, ETC. ARE, AT TIMES, NOT REFERRING TO THE ENTIRE SURFACE OF THE EARTH FROM POLE TO POLE AND AROUND ITS EQUATOR. I BELIEVE THIS HAS CAUSED MANY TO EXAGGERATE THE SIZE AND STRENGTH OF THE FINAL EMPIRE OF ANTICHRIST. WE KNOW THAT NONE OF THE FOLLOWING EMPIRES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT EVER DOMINATED WHAT WE IDENTIFY AS THE WORLD OF TODAY. Daniel 8:5,21,22 [5] And as I was considering, behold, an he goat came from the west ON THE FACE OF THE WHOLE EARTH, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. [21] And the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king. [22] Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power. Daniel 2:32-34,38,39 [32] This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, [33] His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. [34] Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. [38] And WHERESOEVER THE CHILDREN OF MEN DWELL, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler OVER THEM ALL. Thou art this head of gold. [39] And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule OVER ALL THE EARTH. Daniel 7:3,23-27,11-14 [3] And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. [23] Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour THE WHOLE EARTH, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. [24] And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. [25] And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. [26] But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. [27] And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom UNDER THE WHOLE HEAVEN, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. [11] I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame. [12] As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time. [13] I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. [14] And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. (Please note that his millennial empire of Christ will take in everything “UNDER THE WHOLE HEAVEN.” This expression would include the earth as we know it today.) I BELIEVE THE SCRIPTURES WHICH FOLLOW CONTAIN HYPERBOLE THAT MEAN THE KNOWN WORLD OF JOHN’S DAY, NOT ALL THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT TODAY. Revelation 13:1,2,5-12,16,17 [1] And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. [2] And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. [5] And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. [6] And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. [7] And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over ALL kindreds, and tongues, and nations. [8] And ALL THAT DWELL UPON THE EARTH shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. [9] If any man have an ear, let him hear. [10] He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. [11] And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. [12] And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth THE EARTH AND THEM WHICH DWELL THEREIN to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. [16] And he causeth ALL, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: [17] And that NO man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. [12] And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. [13] These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. [14] These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful. [15] And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. [16] And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. [17] For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. [18] And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over THE KINGS OF THE EARTH. AS INDICATED PREVIOUSLY, SCRIPTURES THAT USE THE HEAVENS TO DESCRIBE THE AREA OF THE EARTH INTENDED TO BE CONVEYED TO US, MEAN THE WHOLE EARTH AS WE PRESENTLY KNOW IT. THESE THREE SCRIPTURES WHICH FOLLOW ARE OF THAT TYPE: Daniel 7:27 + Matthew 24:31 + Mark 13:27 [27] And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom UNDER THE WHOLE HEAVEN, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. [31] And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, FROM ONE END OF HEAVEN TO THE OTHER. [27] And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the UTTER-MOST PART OF THE EARTH TO THE UTTER-MOST PART OF HEAVEN. BUT THE FOLLOWING FOUR SCRIPTURES MEAN THE WORLD AS IT WAS KNOWN WHEN JOHN WROTE THE BOOK OF REVELATION. Romans 1:8 + Colossians 1:5,6 + Acts 19:27 + 24:5 [8] First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE WORLD. [5] For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel; [6] Which is come unto you, as it is IN ALL THE WORLD; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth: [27] So that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at nought; but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom ALL ASIA AND THE WORLD WORSHIPPETH. [5] For we have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes: Revelation 12:9,17 [9] And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth THE WHOLE WORLD: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. [17] And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. [44] And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule OVER ALL THE EARTH. [40] And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. [41] And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be DIVIDED; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. [42] And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be PARTLY strong, and PARTLY broken. [43] And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall MINGLE themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not CLEAVE one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. [44] And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. The conclusions that I draw from all these Scriptures is as follows: (1) The Antichrist will only dominate the known world of John’s day. (2) His empire will be weak because of a composition of nations that don’t hold together well. (3) When an expression is used referring to the size of his empire in the book of Revelation it is used as a hyperbole, and does not refer to all the world as we know it today. (4) I do not believe the mark of the beast will be put on residents of the western world. (5) I do believe it will be put on in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Russia, and parts of Asia. The antichrist will certainly have influence in the nations of the western world, but he will not dominate them. I am certainly prepared to be wrong in my belief in the size of his empire and in the degree of his domination. In other words, I know the popular teachings of many men and women on this subject, and I am prepared for their antichrist, but are they prepared for mine? Most of the believing world is prepared for an antichrist that arises in Europe and dominates the entire world as we know it today. The area of the size of his empire, as it is taught today, arose in the early 19th century, and was solidified by most writers in the 20th century. If I am correct about the size and dominion of his empire (See Prophecy Update Number 73 in Archives), then many are going to be shocked when he finally shows up on the scene. In any case, I am persuaded we are going to find out the literal answer, as to its size, before 2008. So I am prepared for an empire that dominates the known world of today or one that only extends over the area occupied by the four beasts of Daniel. In any case, WATCH THE MIDDLE EAST for the answer – I believe we will know within the next six years. The Final Addition – The Jordan Valley Buffer Zone Yesterday, the cabinet of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon approved the final nail in the buffer zone that I predicted would be built in Prophecy Update Number 65A to bring in the “forced” peace I first outlined in Prophecy Update Number 1 of the year 2001. Now, for the first time, it is official, and the buffer zone that I pictured in Prophecy Update Number 65C, could be in place as early as the winter season of 2003 & 2004. The buffer zone includes a 10-mile section around the city of Jerusalem. The buffer zone section between the foothills of the Samarian Mountains and the Jordan River will consist of a series of obstacles, rather than the high fence in the northern, western, and southern zones of the West Bank. The first section of the high fenced zone should be completed in April or May of 2003. The only member of the cabinet voting against it was Foreign Minister Shimon Peres in a 25 to 1 vote. He objected because he said it amounted to carving up the West Bank into enclaves and incorporating more than 20 percent of it into Israel, which he said would cause Israel to have diplomatic difficulties. You may remember that I told you Israel might take up to 30 percent of the West Bank by putting the Buffer Zone inside the territory the Palestinians want for their new state. The building of this buffer zone, whether it is, or is not, ever completed, is definitely having a real effect on the Palestinians, the terrorist groups, and the Arab countries that sponsor them. It is forcing them to made a decision: Do we want an autonomous Palestinian State inside the State of Israel, or do we want a Palestinian population inside the West Bank governed by the State of Israel? It is up to them! They have long demanded that Israel completely withdraw from ALL the West Bank and ALL of the Old City of Jerusalem, and then they would grant them peace. Well, they are not going to get that wish! When Ehud Barak offered them most of the Old City and 95 percent of the West Bank they should have taken it without reservations, but they did not! Last week our forever shifty friend, Yassar Arafat, said he was now, in the interest of peace, willing to accept what Ehud Barak and President Clinton offered him before the peace talks broke down in Egypt. IT IS TOO LATE, YASSAR! If the Palestinians, the terrorists, and the Islamic nations that sponsor them, want a truly autonomous Palestinian State inside Israel, then they are going to have to work together to do these four things: (1) Announce that all terrorist activity will cease. (2) Get the terrorist groups to hold off for a while. (3) Come to the negotiating table and get as much as they can of what lies inside the Green Line of the West Bank. (4) Drop the demand that all Palestinian refugees be allowed to return to their homeland, and settle for a percentage. This will being in the “forced” false peace that the Bible indicates will come before Israel is suddenly attacked from the north to begin the last 3 and ½ years of what is known as the tribulation period. In order to successfully launch such an attack from the north they must have an autonomous partner inside Israel to launch outward in all directions against the IDF. PEACE AND SAFETY – HOW COULD IT EVER BE? WHEN THEY SHALL SAY, PEACE AND SAFETY; My spiritual man does not doubt the Word of God, and whatever it says, he accepts without reservation. What it says, he believes, even though he may not have any idea how it could come to pass. My carnal man is quite the opposite. He questions everything. As I have pointed out in previous Prophecy Updates, my spiritual man was certain that a time would come in Israel when the Jews would believe, and in so doing, actually say: We have a “peace with security.” In fact every historical leader of Israel that held the office of Prime Minister since 1948 has constantly repeated this phrase. In the Scriptures the word “safety” literally means “security.” But my spiritual man had no idea how it would come to pass. I have lived among the descendants of the man Israel, and the descendants of Ishmael, the six sons of Keturah by Abraham, and the two sons of Lot, and am very familiar with their attitudes toward each other. Because of this, and knowing that Israel would never believe it truly had a condition of “peace and safety” based on promises made to her by the Palestinians, I could not imagine how the condition would ever come to exist in the Middle East. I knew it would happen because God said so, but HOW was beyond my understanding. I kept asking myself, HOW WILL Israel ever have confidence in ANY agreement it makes with the Palestinians enough to actually say, we now have “peace and safety.” Now I think I know “how” they can both believe it, and confidently say it. They can only do this if they believe they brought it in themselves and can maintain it by themselves. That is what began on March 29th with the launching of Operation Defensive Shield and what will culminate with the completion of the buffer zone around the West Bank late next year. If they believe they brought in “peace and safety” by their own power and ingenuity, and believe they can maintain it by the same ingredients, then they will TRULY believe, and say, we finally have a peace with safety. All future negotiations with the Palestinians and other surrounding Islamic countries will be carried out on this basis. The long awaited speech of President Bush gave a green light to Israel to proceed along its present path. With the strongest nation in the world backing Israel, and the IDF operations cleaning out the terrorist elements in the West Bank, a “forced” false peace will come to the land of Israel. The sooner the Palestinians and other Islamic nations meet the Israeli conditions for peace, the more of the West Bank they are going to receive. I have been stating repeatedly that I expected this “forced” false peace to come in before the dawning of 2003. I still believe it will. Timing is always the most difficult part of prophecy and, because of this, I am well aware that I could be wrong. But I am certain we are on the way toward the false peace, which the Bible indicates will precede the last 3 and ½ years of the Tribulation Period. After this “forced” false peace is brought in, and Israel’s confidence in what it has done, and is able to maintain, grows, then the Islamic nations and the Palestinians will sense the Israelis are sleeping in their military alertness, and will launch a lightning Jihad from the north. The one leading it will know they think they have peace, and this will be their downfall. A 70 YEAR OLD FROG IN A 21ST CENTURY PUNCH BOWL Had I been born in the 18th or early 19th century, I would have been accepted as a pillar of orthodoxy in prophetic teaching. In that time period most, and if not most, then many, believed the following: (1) That God himself would do the destroying of the earth by His mighty power, not by man’s scientific expertise. (2) That the “he” in Daniel 9:27 refers not to the antichrist, but to Messiah the Prince, Jesus Christ, and that Jesus has already fulfilled the first part of Daniel’s 70th week. (3) That the empire of antichrist would only affect the areas that were conquered by Daniel’s Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman Empires in his seventh chapter. In other words, the known world at the time of Daniel and John’s writings in Revelation. (4) That the first resurrection, what is commonly referred to today as the “rapture,” would occur on the blowing of the seventh trumpet in the book of Revelation, which they believed to correspond to the “last trump” in First Corinthians. Others believed it would not occur until the final vial of wrath was poured out at the end of the Tribulation Period. (5) That the antichrist would come out of Syria and the countries backing him would come out of the southern flank of the old Roman Empire, and would stretch from Morocco to Iran, which today are Islamic nations. Since I believe all five of these things, I am about as popular as a frog would be when found floating in a punch bowl at the high school prom. To some I am a heretic, lunatic, or renegade. I much prefer to be referred to as a goofy, antiquated, 70 year old frog floating around in a 21st century punch bowl of modern day prophetic teachings. But regardless of what I am, I honestly believe we are quite likely to find out, probably within the next six years, who is right about their interpretation of prophetic scriptures and who is wrong. So, since I have already presented my case on these subjects, which may be found in our Prophecy or Birth Pang Archives, with one exception, that being the 7th Trumpet Rapture, you may as well know what the old frog believes about this subject. Paul, writing to the church at Corinth, indicated he was going to unveil a mystery of the Old Testament that a lot of the Prophets wrote about, but whose writings were to be made clearer to later generations. Isaiah wrote about it terms that we, now having the New Testament, are able to comprehend more fully. Isaiah 26:19 + I Corinthians 15:51,52 + I Thessalonians 4:16,17 [19] Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. [51] Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, [52] In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. [16] For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: [17] Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Paul “showed” or “clarified” the “mystery,” but John tells us when it will be finished. I Corinthians 15:51 + Revelation 10:7 + I Corinthians 15:52 [51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, [7] But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the pro-phets. [52] In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. PAUL “SHOWED” THE MYSTERY – JOHN FINISHED IT! [7] But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets. WHEN THE 7TH TRUMPET BLOWS THE SAVED WILL BE CAUGHT UP TO HEAVEN FOR JUDGMENT BY CHRIST, AND ALL THAT MAKE UP HIS SPIRITUAL REALM WILL STRETCH FROM ONE END OF HEAVEN TO THE OTHER. [15] And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. [18] And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth. While the nations on earth are angry because of the seven vials of wrath that are being poured out following the blowing of the seventh trumpet, the time of the dead, who have suddenly been resurrected for judgment before Christ, occurs in this heavenly scene of Revelation 11:18. While the saved are being judged for rewards in heaven, God’s seven vials of wrath are destroying those who are responsible for the destruction of morality on the earth. However you interpret this scripture it paints a heavenly scene where the resurrected dead are being judged for rewards in heaven, and it follows the blowing of the 7th trumpet. It has to be what Paul outlined in II Corinthians as describing Christ judging all the saved after the rapture. II Corinthians 5:2,3,10 [2] For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: [3] If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. [10] For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. In Revelation 9:13 we read that the sixth trumpet has sounded, so we know that the next trumpet to sound will be the seventh in a series of seven. [13] And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, In the first verse of the following chapter we are introduced to a mighty angel from heaven with tremendous authority from heaven. He is an archangel and may well be the seventh angel who blows the final trumpet in a series of seven. [1] And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: He has direct authority from God to speak for Him, and to give an oath in his name. He then tells the reader that the earthly church age of the Gentiles is about to end. [5] And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, [6] And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer: I cannot tell for sure in the Greek of verse seven whether he is referring to himself, or is merely telling us what will happen when the seventh angel blows his trumpet. But, in either case, in this verse we are definitely informed that: (1) The seventh angel has a voice. (2) The seventh angel is soon to blow his trumpet. (3) When he blows it the mystery surrounding the rapture of the saved, spoken in the Old and New Testaments by the prophets, will be finished. Revelation10:7 I believe the voice of the archangel and the trump that is blown in II Thessalonians 4:16 is the same as found in Revelation 10:7 and 11:15. [16] For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: [15] And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. I also believe that the last trump of I Corinthians 15:52 is the last in a series of seven that is sounded in Revelation 11:15. I Corinthians 15:52 [53] In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. And I am convinced that the dead in this verse are the dead in Christ who are resurrected to stand before Christ’s judgment seat in heaven to be judged for rewards and/or the lack of them. [18] And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth. I do not anticipate going through the vials of God’s wrath that follow the blowing of the seventh trumpet. [1] And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. [9] For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, For a long time I kept silent on what I believed on the five things presented at the beginning of this Prophecy Update, and went merrily around the world presenting lectures on the geological upheavals the Bible indicated would occur during the last 3 and ½ years of the Tribulation Period, and the Five Signs of His Coming, and The Antichrist, and From Now to Armageddon. It was possible for me to do this series of four different lectures without telling people what I really believed on the five subjects at the beginning of this Prophecy Update. As long as I did this I could present what I believed would happen during the last 3 and ½ years of the Tribulation Period, the signs that would precede it, and what would happen during the blowing of the first six trumpets. In other words, I could present what I was convinced God’s children would soon experience. I was prince charming to many attending the lectures. I truly believe I did was I was supposed to do. I did not lie to people. I just did not address directly the five subjects. Well, old prince charming has done what he was supposed to do and, since passing age 67, is now completing at age 70 what he believes he is supposed to finish. In so doing he has been changed from a fast moving young prince into an old frog in a punch bowl. I know that I must face Christ at His judgment seat, and I would much rather appear there as an old frog who told God’s people what he knew in his heart what was about to happen to them, rather than as a charming young prince who told them just what they wanted to hear. WALLS FOR THE PALESTINIANS – NONE FOR ISRAEL! In 2003 the Israelis will begin to say “we have peace and safety” and actually believe it, even though they have no walls around their cities. But it appears that all the Palestinian cities will be surrounded by a wall by early 2004, with Israelis living outside it. And the surrounding Islamic nations and the antichrist will know all about the situation, such that when they launch their surprise Jihad into the land of Israel, the Palestinians will come out from behind their buffer zone wall to attack the un-walled cities and villages of the Israelis from all internal directions, while the external Islamic nations are attacking Israel’s villages from the north. Does all this sound familiar? [10] Thus saith the Lord God; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought: [11] And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of UNWALLED villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling WITHOUT WALLS, and having neither bars nor gates, [12] To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon THE PEOPLE THAT ARE GATHERED OUT OF THE NATIONS , which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land. [14] Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord God; IN THAT DAY WHEN MY PEOPLE OF ISRAEL DWELLETH SAFELY, SHALT THOU NOT KNOW IT? [15] And thou shalt come from thy place OUT OF THE NORTH PARTS, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army: [16] And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes. [17] Thus saith the Lord God; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them? I JUST KNEW I HAD HEARD ALL THAT BEFORE! We closed Prophecy Update Number 73 with the antichrist in full control of Egypt in verse 43, after having driven the woman Israel into the Negev Wilderness, where she will remain for 3 and ½ prophetic years, or 1260 days. The woman will be made up of 1/3 of the Israel population (1.7 to 1.9 million) surviving his initial drive to Beersheva. While Israel is boxed in the Negev for 3 and ½ years, the city of Cairo will be his capital, and the center of his empire. He would be a fool to return to his home in Syria. Cairo is the midpoint of an Islamic world that stretches far to the east from Morocco to India, with a long shoreline extending along the entire southern coastline of the Mediterranean Sea to the southern coastline of the Black Sea, along both sides of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, and eventually to the coastline of India. The political, economic, and military position of Cairo will meet all his requirements and he will rule his empire from Cairo. His influence in Europe, Africa, Eurasia, and Asia will be extremely strong, and by the end of his 3 and ½ years in Cairo, all of this area will politically be in his pocket. It is in this area that I believe the mark of the beast will be readily accepted, particularly in all the Islamic countries. It is also in this area that I believe the most horrific events of the Tribulation Period will occur. I believe he will have influence in the western hemisphere, but I do not believe he will rule it (See Prophecy Update 73 and Special Prophecy Update Number 73A). After 3 and ½ years of dominating the nations of Europe and the eastern hemisphere, he will receive news out of the north and out of the east that troubles him. [44] But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. This was written in 600 B.C. Every time a great leader would arise in the east, his country would be identified as the one the antichrist would go forth to destroy with great fury, and to carry away many. Genghis Khan, the great Mongol ruler of one of the greatest empires in history, was believed to be the object in the east that was going to trouble the antichrist in A.D. 1200 to 1227. Attila, king of the Huns, from A.D. 441 to 450 claimed domination from the Alps and the Baltic to the Caspian Sea. He was labeled the Scourge of God, and was looked upon as being the source of bad news from the north that would trouble the antichrist. With the advent of the rise of the two great powers, the Soviet Union in the north, and China in the east, it was only natural that expositors would pick them as the culprits causing the bad news from the north and east. Now, it is supposed to be Russia and China. I do not doubt that both Russia and China will be among the nations that attack Israel at the final battle of Armageddon, but I do not believe one has to go all the way to Russia and China to find the source of the news that is troubling the antichrist. Get an atlas with a map that has Cairo, Russia, and China on it and consider how far away the antichrist will be from Russia and China. Now consider this: the population of Russia is 150 million plus, and the population of China is 1 billion, 300 million plus. Now, look again at this scripture. If he proceeds forth from Cairo with great fury to attack China and Russia, that’s quite a few folks “to destroy, and to make away many.” I do not believe you have to look thousands of miles to the east, and thousands of miles to the north, to find the source of the news that troubles the antichrist. Just look directly east of the city of Cairo and you will see the Negev Wilderness where he left the children of Israel some three years before, and then look to the north and you will see that portion of the Mediterranean Sea extending to the southern shores of Turkey. Those are the two locations from which the bad news will radiate. Some three years before the antichrist heavily fortified the zone along the northern border of the Negev north of Beersheva in order to prevent a breakout by the Israelis. But the narrow zone that is marked today by the Gaza Strip begins to look vulnerable to him because of the news he hears from the north and the east. The U.S. Navy has a frequent publication titled TRANSITIONS – All the Ships at Sea. It gives the location of the fleet on a specific date. You will discover from it that a U.S. carrier, and fighter attack squadron are routinely kept in the Mediterranean between Egypt and Turkey, and that at times it may consist of cruisers, destroyers, attack submarines, frigates, and support ships. In a recent mission in this area there were some 15,000 sailors and marines on these ships. During the last 25 years there have been some 18 episodes of U.S. marines conducting joint exercises with the IDF in the Negev. What the antichrist hears is that the U.S. and the IDF may be planning to cut off his rear flank back to his home country by conducting a military operation in the Gaza Strip. With the marines conducting an amphibious landing on the south of the Gaza Strip, and the IDF driving northwest to join them, they would do what no military commander wants to happen, that is, have his rear flank cut off from direct access to his major source of land supplies. The Scripture does not say whether what he hears is true or untrue, merely that what he hears troubles him. I would imagine it is only a rumor, but apparently he believes it enough to take the appropriate response. He heads for the city of Jerusalem, super reinforcing the Gaza Strip on his way, and sets himself up to issue a call for all nations to come and help him do what he could not do to Israel some 3 and ½ years before. He calls for all the nations of Europe, Eurasia, Asia, and Africa to come and help him to “go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many” Israelis in the Negev Wilderness. Daniel 11:44,45 [44] But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. [45] And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. Lord willing, in Prophecy Update Number 75, I will exposit word for word on verse 45. As a young man I developed an interest in certain historical eras of time, especially the period of time associated with the castles of ancient England. In December of 1961, after I had traveled for some three years from north to south and east to west across England, the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society published my lengthy discourse on “Forecasting Rain Stratus in the Midlands of England.” During those three years I examined most of the ancient castle earthworks found standing after the rampage of Cromwell across England. England is the land of very old books, and the meticulous maintenance of these books is carried out rigorously at Oxford and Cambridge Universities. So if you really want to know for sure when a particular Biblical interpretation first came into print, these two institutions should be the place to begin your research. From my earliest days I had an avid interest in all publications that interpreted Biblical passages concerning the second coming of Christ. When I first began lecturing in churches, seminaries, universities, and colleges in 1978, I had no idea that my travels would take me to more than 700 of these institutions, and that I would be in the immediate vicinity of most of the major colleges and universities in the U.S. The vast majority of our institutions of higher learning began as small institutions under the control of a church or churches. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, most of them individually broke away from their sponsoring churches to become the independent centers of higher secular learning today. The majority of books in colleges and universities in early years were religious books, but after they lost the influence of the sponsoring churches they gradually became more and more secular in their teaching and accredited degrees, so they had to decide what to do with their very large volume of religious books. Some were sold, some thrown away, and some placed in specially created archives. I know I am a sixth generation Missionary Baptist because of the material I collected from just such an archive in Kalamazoo College in Michigan. Its archives documented that Henry McElmurry, of whom I am a direct descendant, was the missionary-pastor of three of our early churches in southeastern Missouri from 1834 to 1839. Some of the books in the archives of these colleges are so old and fragile, that they have a designated person to open the pages for you to prevent the book being damaged. So why have I labored on so long about old books. I wanted to know when various teachings were published concerning when the Lord would come, particularly in reference to what is called the tribulation period, a period of time that ends with the battle of Armageddon. So, as I traveled, I went to these archives and searched for this information. All of the old books I examined were quite definite that the tribulation period would close with the battle of Armageddon. But the time of the beginning of the tribulation, how long it was to last once it started, and when the first resurrection occurred in reference to it, was quite another matter. The first resurrection, which has taken on the popular title “the rapture,” has been one of the most vigorously debated theological subjects in the Word of God for some 215 years. So, because it still is, I intend to present as accurate a documented history as I am able from my research. I will attempt to show when several beliefs concerning this much debated subject first appeared on the scene in published books. When Johannes Gutenberg invented the first process of printing from separately cast metal types, used for moveable type, the era of book publishing was soon to begin. By 1450 he had a press in Germany financed by Johann Fust. In 1455 Fust had the first printed Bible in history well under way. Slowly the publishing of books by press immerged. Many of the first books published were interpretative expositions of Biblical scriptures, and among those were expositions of scriptures about the first resurrection. After the 1611 KJV was published, expositions on Christ’s second coming started appearing in books based on the interpretation of passages found in it. The first publication that taught a rapture before the blowing of the seventh trumpet in the book of Revelation was published in 1788. The teaching appeared in a book written by a well-known Baptist preacher of the eighteenth century, Morgan Edwards. It was titled “Two Academic Exercises on Subjects Bearing the Following Titles: Millennial and Last Novelties.” The book was published by Dodson and Lang, Second Street between Market and Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In my archive search to discover the first printings of various positions held on the time of Christ’s coming in relation to the end of the tribulation period, I had only found two published positions prior to the War of 1812. The vast majority of all the publications put Christ’s coming at the end of the tribulation period, and a definite minority placed it at the blowing of the seventh trumpet, just before God’s wrath is poured out on the earth in seven vials. However, Morgan, for the first time in history since books began to be published, taught that a rapture of the saved would occur 3 and ½ years before the end of the tribulation period. There is no record of any book historically published prior to 1788, as far as I have been able to discover, that taught a rapture prior to the last 3 and ½ years before the final battle of Armageddon in the tribulation period. Dr. Thomas Chalmers, a Presbyterian minister of the Church of Scotland, and the man who first introduced what is known as the “Gap Theory,” had an assistant named Edward Irving. In 1827 Reverend Irving began to teach that Christ would first come for His saints, and then after a period of tribulation, He would come to destroy antichrist and to reign. In 1830 in Port Glasgow, Scotland, a 15-year-old young lady, named Margaret MacDonald, announced that she had received a prophetic vision from God concerning the coming of Christ. Her revelation may be found in a book by Robert Norton entitled “The Restoration of Apostles and Prophets” in the Catholic Apostolic Church, (London, 1861). In his book he declared that from her vision it could be seen that Christians would be taken out before the time of tribulation. J.N. Darby, a leader among the early Plymouth Brethren, was known to have visited her during the time Margaret was having her visions. The teaching of a 7-year tribulation period came after these visions. The idea of the tribulation period consisting of two 3 and ½ year periods was developed after John Darby began preaching the Pre-Tribulation Rapture Theory. Prior to that time you will find no publication was ever printed that showed two boxes joined together to form a 7 year period, with the first box representing a period of 3 and ½ years of peace, and the second box representing a period of 3 and ½ years of tribulation. The 7-year theory was developed by proponents of the new Pre-Tribulation Rapture Theory. It was developed by letting the “he” in Daniel 9:27 refer to the antichrist rather than to Christ (See Prophecy Updates 55, 56, 57 and 58). Before 1788 they taught that the “he” of Daniel 9:27 was Christ, but in view of the new revelation in 1788, it eventually became necessary to justify it, and by 1832 a series of new Scripture combinations began to appear, and they were used to teach what came to be known as the Pre-Tribulation Rapture Position. It was the joining of the “70th Week of Daniel” prophecy with the Pre-Tribulation Rapture Theory that launched the new teaching under a wind filled sail. J.N. Darby taught that the rapture precedes the last 7 years of the prophecy of 490 years found in Daniel 9:24-27. In Volume 3, page 424, of Darby’s letters, he wrote: “Let it be remembered now that we have no date for the rapture of the church – that the dates BEGIN with a week of Daniel 9, and half a week when the sacrifice is made to cease. But this does not affect the general testimony of Matthew 24, which may begin the week, and be carried on among the Gentiles during the great tribulation at Jerusalem.” J.N. Darby visited America seven times between 1862 and 1877. Cyrus I. Scofield, minister of a Congregational church, became a student of all the writings of J.N. Darby, and then forever popularized his Pre-Tribulation Rapture position by placing it in the Scofield Reference Bible notes of his 1909 publication. Most of the Bible teachers of Scofield’s day did not accept his new found position, but it was so appealing to religious groups that it spread across the country like wildfire as an exciting new revelation, which taught God’s children would never go into the tribulation period. By the time I was saved in 1944, you were often considered a heretic if you believed anything other than a rapture 7 years prior to the end of the tribulation period. When I wrote my last two books, Tribulation Triad and Birth Pangs from the Bottomless Pit in the late seventies, I was what was known as a “Mid-Tribber.” In the early eighties I changed my position on when the first resurrection occurs in relation to the end of the tribulation period. You may find what I have believed since that time in Special Prophecy Update Number 73D from our Prophecy Archives. Could the Mid-Tribulation Rapture Position be correct? Yes, if God chose to wait some 1788 years after Christ’s birth before letting it first appear in a printed book exposition of Biblical scriptures by a man named Morgan Edwards. Could the Pre-Tribulation Rapture Position be correct? Yes, if God chose to wait some 1830 years after the birth of His Son before letting it first appear in a printed form. To my knowledge, there was never a printed book prior to 1788, which explained the scriptures found in the Bible about Christ’s coming, that advocated a Pre or Mid Tribulation Rapture. I have read the letters of the early church fathers to see if any such teaching was clearly spelled out in their writings on a Pre-Tribulation rapture. And, in so doing, I have searched hoping to find such a reference, but have not found any reference in context that justified such a position. If you think I didn’t want to find such a reference, you are quite wrong. To not agree with the Pre-Tribulation position only gains you unpopularity with most of the brethren and, being carnal in the flesh, and desiring their acceptance, I certainly hoped to find such a position issued prior to 1788, but found none of which I could honestly state: Yes! This teaches a Pre-Tribulation rapture. Could I be wrong in the position I hold? Certainly! And I will continue to search for the prophetic truth on this subject. I have not changed what I was taught as a youth concerning the doctrines on salvation, baptism, the local church, and its two ordinances, but I have changed my mind about the position of the Lord’s coming in reference to the battle of Armageddon and, quite frankly, will change my mind again if I find a better case than the one you find in Prophecy Update 73D. Any man who is not willing to change his position on the time of Christ’s coming, in relation to the end of the tribulation period, makes it a doctrinal position. There is only one doctrine concerning Christ’s coming – HE IS COMING. When he comes, in relation to the events stated as occurring in the tribulation period, is a matter of opinion, not a matter of doctrine. So how do all these different positions affect me? They don’t! In our work we have “first of the weekers,” middle of the weekers,” “last of the weekers,” “seventh trumpers,” “split rapturers,” “triple rapturers,” and “progressive rapturers.” It would be ridiculous for me to make what my brethren believe about the rapture a test of fellowship. The doctrine of Christ’s coming is that He is coming. If you don’t believe that you are a heretic, and I don’t want your fellowship. I have a very simple Biblical principle that I follow to be ready when he does come. I know I will be taken because I am saved. So I daily attempt to be faithful to Him in one of His new testament churches, in order that I will be prepared to stand before His judgment seat whenever He comes. I do not believe we have a full week of seven years left to fulfill in Daniel’s 70 weeks of 490 years (See Prophecy Updates 55, 56, 57 and 58 in our Prophecy Archives). I am persuaded Christ is coming on the blowing of the 7th trumpet in Revelation 10:7, 11:15, and 11:18, but I live my life like it could be today. I am “watching” daily for that time, whenever it is. I have been told that one cannot do such a thing. Well, just hide and watch me! If it does occur 7 years before the battle of Armageddon, then I will be caught “watching” for His coming (See Prophecy Update Number 73D). The material contained in this Prophecy Update has been taken from many old books I have perused in the U.S. and overseas during my many years of travel, but a large portion of it came from the research of John L. Bray, a Baptist Minister who was born in 1921 in Macon, Georgia, and was ordained as pastor of a Baptist church in Jacksonville, Florida at the age of 18. He was educated at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, John B. Stetson University in Deland, Florida, and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky and, if he is still living, would be some 81 years in age. By 1990 he had spent 30 years as a pastor of Southern Baptist Churches, and completed 21 years as a full time evangelist. I am indebted to him for the numerous extractions I took from his writings in compiling this update. RETURN OF AN 18TH CENTURY ALBATROSS! In Special Prophecy Update Number 74A, titled “Historical Rapture Teachings,” I gave a lengthy discourse that outlined the long search I have made to discover the truth as to when various teachings on “the rapture” first came into print. In this long period of invading the musty shelves of ancient religious book archives, I was not only trying to discover rapture teachings, but also books that discussed things concerning the antichrist. The thing I was most interested in was WHERE the ancient books taught he would arise. As I perused through many old books, a pattern began to evolve as to HOW the most popular teachings of today probably came into being, and it is a most interesting and revealing series of events that manifest it. The Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815 with the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo and the signing of the Treaty of Paris. Before the rise of Napoleon in 1803, I could not find a single book that had the antichrist coming out of Europe. I AM NOT saying that such a book does not exist. In fact, I rather suspect that one, or several, do exist, but I could not locate them. All the books that I encountered brought the antichrist out of the old Syrian Empire that was one of the four divisions made when the vast Empire of Alexander the Great was partitioned. The majority made the false prophet of Revelation 13:12 represent the Pope of Rome. It was also apparent to some that the antichrist’s empire was connected with Islam because the conquest of the entire Iberian peninsula (Spain and Portugal) by their forces in the eighth century, and the fact Islam was not driven out completely until 1492, when Christian forces drove them out, made it easy for the people of 1803 to believe the antichrist would come out of the old Syrian Empire, which was at that time, and is even to the present day, of the Islamic faith. This natural fear across Europe of an Islamic antichrist, where most of the books were being published following 1455, is easy to understand. In addition to the Iberian penetration into Europe, part of which was still in place in 1455, there was an Islamic invasion of Europe going on when books began to be printed. In 1453 Constantinople fell to the great Muhammad II. The followers of Islam continued to drive into southeastern Europe under Suleyman I, and reached the gates of Vienna in 1529. During the 1700’s and 1800’s their decaying Ottoman empire fought against Russia, and Greece won its independence. So how did the focus shift to Europe as the designated place of the antichrist’s rise to power? When the old Islamic Ottoman Empire let the Young Turk movement lead them to join with Germany in World War I, and were soundly defeated along with Germany, in a war dominated by great battles in Europe, then the antichrist watchers begin to look toward Europe. But most Bible teachers continued to bring the antichrist out of the old Syrian (Seleucid) Dynasty until World War II. The rise of Hitler in Europe, and Mussolini in Italy, gave rise to many new books saying that the antichrist would rise out of Europe, and the false prophet would be the Pope of Rome. Millions of books were thrown in trashcans when the Axis powers were crushed to powder. But because two great wars had engulfed mankind in chaos, and both involved Germany and Italy, the fear of a third German uprising made what happened next inevitable. The end of World War II left Europe in shambles, so the Marshal Plan was implemented to assure their economic growth. Six nations decided to link together to promote a more rapid economic growth. In 1957, the countries of West Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxemburg signed the Treaty of Rome, and the European Common Market officially came into existence. It was a foregone conclusion that they would grow in number and reach 10 in a short period of time. It was at this time that a very well known book was written about them. It was probably one of the first books in religious book history written by a dynamic writer with a very readable style, and an exciting manner of expression. Up until World War II religious books were written by old stick-in-the-mud writers like myself, whose style of writing was designed to persuade their peers, rather than to gain the attention of the masses. But this well known book sold like wildfire, weaving its way into countless numbers of Sunday School classes, and into millions of sermons proclaimed from pulpits across the world. Today’s younger generation of preachers have no idea what a fantastic impact the book had on prophetic teachings. The writer indicated the European Common Market, or as it came to be called, “The Six,” would grow to 10 in number and, when this happened, the antichrist would arise in Europe and gradually take control of the entire world, as we know it today. He taught that these 10 European Common nations were the 10 toes of Daniel’s great statue, the 10 horns of Daniel’s fourth beast, and the 10 horns on each of John’s two beasts in the book of Revelation. Well, if that was the correct interpretation, then at the present time the statue has 15 toes, and each of the three beasts has 15 horns. We were also told that West Germany was a part of the old Roman Empire. Not even a bad historian will tell you that. In fact Germanic tribes eventually conquered Rome. Because of the rise in power of the Soviet Union at the same time “The Six” were used to gain prophetic attention, we were given a revised interpretation of the word “chief” in Ezekiel 38:2,3 and 39:1. We were advised it meant “Russian,” and that “Gog” would be a Russian prince. There is no way under heaven the Hebrew word “rosh,” translated as “chief” in Ezekiel, could legitimately mean “Russian.” Because this Hebrew word, when uttered, has the “R” sound of “Russia,” it was used as proof that it meant Gog would be a Russian prince. That is absurd. You might as well say that since the “A” in Artic proves Gog will come from his place out of the north, and that this distant northern place is the North Pole where Santa Claus lives. I agree that Magog is most likely what we call Russia today, but in all three of the previously listed Scriptures it clearly states that Gog is “the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.” The primary cluster of the descendants of Meshech and Tubal, when Ezekiel wrote, was centered in what we call Lebanon and Syria today. I make my case concerning the word “rosh” and the location of Meshech and Tubal in Prophecy Updates 27, 28, and 29. Before the Civil War most expositors taught that there was only one war in the last days of this present age, the war of Gog and Magog, which was to last for 3 and ½ years and end with the final battle of this age, the battle of Armageddon. However, in order to justify the antichrist coming out of Europe, another war was added out of which he was supposed to arise BEFORE the tribulation period. Please forgive this diversion. I will now return to the European events that gradually led to what most expositors now believe, that the antichrist will come out of Europe. Napoleon was supposed to the antichrist. Kaiser Wilhelm II was supposed to be the antichrist. Hitler was supposed to be the antichrist. Stalin was supposed to be the antichrist. But I do not believe we should ever have changed the teaching he was to come out of the area that we identify as Lebanon and Syria, and since Lebanon is a country on paper only, having been taken over by the 35,000 Syrian troops occupying it, and is now called “greater” Syria by the Syrians, I believe one could simply say that antichrist would come out of Syria (See Prophecy Updates 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, and 69 in our Archives at the top of this Prophecy Update). The Napoleonic Wars across Europe introduced modern man to new killing machines for battlefield destruction. World War I accelerated the process, and mass destruction by many more new destructive inventions produced even more widespread battlefield destruction, also allowing the destruction to begin to spread away from the local battlefields to civilian populations. World War II produced a fantastic arsenal of machines and weapons that terrorized on both land and sea, producing the massive worldwide destruction so well documented on TV. So, it was only natural that, after the Napoleonic Wars, there would be a gradual change in Biblical teaching as to HOW the Biblical prophecies of horrific events would be fulfilled in the tribulation period. Before 1803 prophetic expositors taught that the events of the tribulation period were God’s unleashing of his power in the form of natural catastrophes in the earth and the heavens. I am convinced they were right. This viewpoint persisted as the majority teaching until World War II. But after the first two drops of A-bombs, it rapidly became a minority viewpoint, and prophetic teaching of the destruction was matched to the new, and still developing, killing technology and scientific expertise of man. I also believe prophetic expositors have make a great mistake in expanding the antichrist’s empire since it was first described in the book of Daniel (See Special Prophecy Update Number 73A). As men spread north, south, east, and west across the earth, we expanded the size of the antichrist’s empire to the world we know today. Did God intend for us to do that? Possibly, but I seriously doubt it. I do not believe it will exceed the territory taken by the Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans in the age of their maximum expansions. In very recent times a series of new fictional books have arrived on the scene, and many more will follow. The 10 most popular of them, by the time you read this prophecy update, will have had more than 36 million copies taken off the shelves, and will continue to sell like hotcakes. The market is being flooded with them, and new follow up series will soon inundate it. All have teachings contrary to those prior to the Napoleonic Wars. They have a 7-year tribulation period, the first part being a 3 and ½ time of peace, and the second 3 and ½ year period filled with tribulation. They all have the saved caught up to be with the Lord when the 7-year period begins, thereby escaping any part of the tribulation period. I must confess that I don’t have any surveys to back up what I am going to say next. So make your own guess on the answer to this question. How many saved men and women on this earth believe they will be taken out before tribulation begins? My guess is more than 90 percent of them. If that turns out to be incorrect, then it may help to understand the two scriptures that follow. Bearing in mind that the Koine Greek word translated “fables” is “muthous,” which means “fictional tales,” and that most of this last generation is convinced he is coming the hour the 7-week tribulation period begins, please consider the verses that follow. II Timothy 4:3,4 [2] For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; [4] And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. Is that the case? I DON’T KNOW! I know I am saved, so I know I will be taken if He comes 7 years before the battle of Armageddon. If He comes during the tribulation period I know I will be taken. If He comes at the end of the tribulation period I know I will be taken. The most important thing for me, as a believer, is to be living for Him from now until He comes. We will be giving our opinions on when He will come right up until He comes, but IT IS NOT AN OPINION that HE IS COMING, and that we should be living for Him FROM NOW UNTIL HE COMES. I ALSO BELIEVE THAT THE DAY WILL COME WHEN THE KING OF THE SOUTH, ISRAEL, WILL PUSH AGAINST THE KING OF THE NORTH, SYRIA, AND I BELIEVE IT IS LIKELY TO HAPPEN BETWEEN 2004 AND 2006. WHEN IT HAPPENS I EXPECT ISRAEL TO BE DRIVEN SOUTH INTO THE NEGEV. [40] And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. [41] He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be over-thrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. THE INTERNATIONAL JUSTIFICATION BLAME GAME! WE DID IT BECAUSE THEY ATTACKED US FIRST! The age of so-called civilized warfare really began in the era of the Napoleonic Wars of 1803 to 1815. And, with the passage of time, it has become increasingly important for the two countries involved in a conflict to convince the rest of the world the other is the culprit who started the conflict. Every time Hitler, in his early conquests, marched his troops into countries to take them over in bloodless battles, he always had an excuse to justify his attacks. Finally, when he came to his planned conquest of the Poles, he could not really find what even remotely seemed like a justifiable reason. So he manufactured one. He had his own SS troops dress up in Polish uniforms and attack a German border outpost. Then the SS put dead Polish bodies in the immediate vicinity of the outpost and had photographers and reporters in to verify their story. Using this farce as justification for his actions, he attacked Poland in September of 1939, and World War II began. Some interesting developments, involving Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and the terrorist groups, particularly Hizbollah, have been occurring along the northern border of Israel with Lebanon. I do not believe what I am now observing in that area will lead to an immediate war, but I suspect it may well do so in the not too distant future. And, if I am correct in my assumptions, it could give Syria justification for attacking Israel in the eyes of most of the international world. President Bush has demanded that Syria cut it’s backing for the Hizbollah terrorists that operate along the southern border of Lebanon, and that it expel the other Palestinian terrorist groups it currently has operating out of Syria. Damascus now hosts 10 Palestinian terrorist groups, which include the extremist groups Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. In response to the demands of President Bush, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said: “Syria supports the Lebanese national resistance, including Hizbollah, in resisting Israeli occupation and liberating land.” Concerning the demand that the other terrorist groups in Syria be removed, he said: “Their work is limited to political and media activities, and their offices in Damascus provide political representation to the 400,000 Palestinians who look to attain their rights and return to their land.” Israel has repeatedly warned Syria that if Hizbollah continued its border attacks on Israeli civilians and troops on its northern border, they would start hitting targets in Syria in retaliation. Bashar has responded by saying that Syria would defend itself against any Israeli action. He said: “If the Israeli government involves itself in waging aggression on the territory of Syria, then Syria will defend itself.” So far Israel’s policy against recent Hizbollah attacks has shown remarkable restraint, probably because of not wanting to open a second front of conflict to the one they now have going in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Even though seven Israeli soldiers were killed by a Hizbollah terrorist team that penetrated the border fence, Israel has held back from violent retaliation. And now Bashar al-Assad has joined with Iran to provide heavier rockets for the Hizbollah arsenal of terror. Israeli officials have watched Hizbollah deploy thousands of new missiles and rockets that are aimed at Israeli civilian population centers. Once Israel has completed its long buffer zone fence around the West Bank, and beefed up the one it already has around the Gaza Strip, it will become confident it has finally achieved the impossible, it will say it has “peace and safety.” And all the time that it was tied up internally in so doing, Syria, Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon will have been slowly slipping troops in position for a lightning Jihad from the north. Israel’s preoccupation with its internal safety is going to cause them to slack off in their gaze on what is going on externally. During the time that Alexander’s great empire had been divided into four sections, the Syrian section (Seleucid) held Israel some of the time, and the Egyptian section (Ptolemy) held it when they took it from the Syrians. Israel was at times a part of the Egyptian section, at times a part of the Syrian section, and at times a part of both. Daniel lists a very long series of battles between the king of the north (Syria) and the king of the South (Egypt). Most of Daniel’s prophecies about these two kingdoms were fulfilled by their many kings from Daniel 11:4 through 35, but there remains one war yet to be fulfilled, and I believe it is the aforementioned Jihad that begins in Daniel 11:40. Since Israel was once part of the section occupied by Ptolemy, I am persuaded that Israel is the king of the south and Syria is the king of the north in Daniel 11:40-45. I suspect that after Israel has lulled itself into a false sense of peace and safety by it’s military might, it will have gained even more confidence in its great ability to take care of any Islamic intrusion. It may well be that Syria will get Hizbollah to kick up a storm of activity along the northern border by launching a massive missile and rocket attack across the border into the populations of northern Israel. Syria will do this knowing that Israel will cross the border into Lebanon and hit Syrian targets from the air. But this time Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Iran will be waiting for it, and six other Islamic nations will be poised to supply logistical support. The Islamic nations can cry out while they head south: “We were attacked first, we are justified in this response to the Israeli invasion of our sovereign territory.” This will cause a hesitation by the western world at first and, by the time it wakes up, Jerusalem will have fallen, and Israel will be fleeing into the Negev. [40] And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. First comes a time when Israel actually believes it can maintain “peace and safety.” Then a time of false “peace and safety” sets in for a brief period. Then a border incident! Then a response! Then a Jihad, and the last 1260 days of the tribulation period are under way. Command Post of the Antichrist WHEN NO ONE CAN HELP THE ANTICHRIST! We began this series on the antichrist in Prophecy Update Number 71 with Daniel 11:41, and we exposited on 11:42-44 in Prophecy Updates 72, 73, and 74. Then, in Special Prophecy Updates Numbers 74C and 74D, we covered the two kings of the north and south in Daniel 11:40. In this update we will continue in Daniel 11:45. He has returned from Egypt to Israel to set in his command post on the Jerusalem Temple Mount and direct a final attack upon the remnant of Israel in the Negev Wilderness. The inspired word for “tabernacles” is “ohel,” which always means “tents.” The “ohel” in the wilderness was a “tabernacle” that was a huge tent. These tents house the many millions that will have come to Israel for the final onslaught against the small Jewish remnant in the Negev, which the Scripture identifies as the battle of Armageddon. He will issue a call to all the nations of Europe, Eurasia, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa to come and join him in this great battle, and the demonic frog spirits of the father, son, and unholy false prophet will influence them to come to this final battle of Armageddon. [13] And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. [14] For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. [15] Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. [16] And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. The inspired word for “palace” is appeden, and it appears only once in this particular form throughout the Bible. At the time this Scripture was written all the great kings carried portable command post buildings with them when they went forth to conquer. They included a royal throne, on which the king would set issuing the commands to his troops in the field. This is what an “appeden” is – a portable command post from which the king issues battle directives to his troops in the field. The king of the north, the antichrist, will set his command post on the glorious holy mountain, which is Mount Moriah, the center hill of the three hills of eastern Jerusalem. This Mount lies between the Mediterranean and Dead Seas. His millions of troops will blanket all of Israel north of Beersheva, with the heaviest concentrations filling the two valleys that join at the Tel of Megiddo, the Plain of Esdraelon and the Jezreel Valley. Most of the incoming troops will disembark at the port of Haifa, then proceed southeastward down the Esdraelon-Jezreel Valley into the Jordan Valley, and hence southward to Jerusalem and the border of the northern Negev. Millions will stand in place and await the command of antichrist to start the attack on the small remnant of Israel in the Negev. One would be inclined to think that the antichrist, with millions of troops behind him, would be absolutely unstoppable, and that God’s chosen people, the nation of Israel, would be killed to the last man by this massive onslaught. That is what makes the last part of this verse so strange, as Daniel states: “yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.” I remember that several years ago, an old friend of mine, Dr. I.K. Cross, who was presenting a message at the annual Pastors and Missionaries Conference in Texarkana, delivered a sermon titled “We’re Gonna Win.” And the crux of his message made clear that the reason we were going to win was because of what Christ had already done, was doing, and would do in the future. It is Jesus Christ, returning to the earth with all his power, that will use His earth, atmosphere, and universe to forever destroy the antichrist, his false prophet, and his vast army. I believe the following Scriptures attest to that fact: [16] And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. [17] And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. [18] And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. [19] And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. [20] And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. [21] And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great. Zechariah 14:12 [12] And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. [1] For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. [2] But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. [3] And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts. [16] And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. [17] And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; [18] That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. [19] And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. [20] And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. [21] And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL AND THE 7TH TRUMPET We began our expositional series on the antichrist of Daniel in Prophecy Update 71, and then continued the discourse through Prophecy Update Number 75. We closed Number 75 by giving several Scriptures to show how the antichrist “shall come to his end,” and why “none shall help him.” Please review Number 75 in our Prophecy Archives before reading this Update. The KJV translators supplied the Biblical chapter and verse divisions. It is a continuous narrative from Daniel 11:45 to 12:1. With that in mind, please consider the following verses. Daniel 11:45 to 12:1 [45] And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. [1] And at THAT time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. The antichrist will sit in his command post on the Holy Temple Mount in Jerusalem and issue the command for his millions of troops to attack the remnant of Israel in the Negev. It is “at that time” that Michael stands up for Israel, and the last trump, the 7th trump of Revelation, sounds to announce the arrival of the 7 vials of God’s wrath. This is when the first resurrection, the rapture of the saved, occurs (See Prophecy Update Number 73D in our Prophecy Archives). Those “written in the book” are from “a book of remembrance” found in Malachi 3:16 to 4:3, with 3:16-18 telling the saved they will return to earth, and 4:1-3 advising them what shape the physical earth would be in at the time of their return. [16] Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. [17] And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. [18] Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. [1] For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. [2] But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. [3] And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts. When the antichrist returns to sit on the Temple Mount, as the abomination of desolation, the sixth trumpet will blow to begin the second woe. The second woe will end with a great quake that drastically affects Jerusalem. It will cause a reverential fear to sweep across the Israeli remnant in the wilderness, and they will begin to turn to Christ and give glory to his name. [13] And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven. [14] The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly. The three woes are the blowing of the fifth, sixth, and seventh trumpets. [14] The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly. [15] And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. After the rapture of the saved in Revelation 11:15 they are then judged for rewards in heaven in verse 18 while the seven vials of God’s wrath are being poured out on the earth. While all of the saved are being judged in heaven for rewards, Michael is standing up for the remnant in the Negev, and the vials are being poured out on the antichrist and his followers. I suspect this time of absolute terror will last more than one month, but less than two. Believers will not be on this earth when it occurs. When Michael stands up, the 7th trumpet sounds, and the saved are delivered up to heaven to be judged for rewards. While they are being judged in heaven, what is happening on the earth in Matthew 24:21,22 corresponds to what is described as the time of trouble that occurs after Michael stands up. [21] For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. [22] And except those days should be shortened, there should NO FLESH be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened. By God’s grace He has elected to bring a small Jewish nation through this brief period. It will consist of Israelis that shall come through this terrible time, still alive in the flesh, to begin to rule over the physical section of Christ’s kingdom during His reign of a thousand years. THE POSSIBILITY OF A “FORCED” PEACE, IN WHICH IT WOULD BE POSSIBLE FOR ISRAEL TO CARVE OUT FOR ITSELF LARGE CHUCKS OF THE WEST BANK, IS NOW APPARENT TO THE PALESTINIANS AND ALL ISLAMIC NATIONS. IT IS STIRRING THEM TO ACTION TO FORCE ISRAEL BACK TO THE NEGOTIATING TABLE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE IN ORDER TO RECOVER AS MUCH WEST BANK TERRITORY AS POSSIBLE. OTHERWISE, THE PALESTINIANS WILL FIND THEMSELVES BEHIND TWO BUFFER ZONES, ONE AROUND GAZA, AND THE OTHER AROUND THE WEST BANK, AND THEY WILL BE TOLD THAT IS ALL THEY ARE GOING TO GET. THEY WILL LOSE BETWEEN 20 AND 30 PERCENT OF ALL THE WEST BANK TERRITORY IF THIS WALL IS COMPLETED, AND ISRAEL WILL SAVE MORE THAN 50 PERCENT OF ITS SETTLEMENTS NOW INSIDE THE GREEN LINE, WHICH MARKS THE 1967 BOUNDRY BETWEEN JORDAN AND ISRAEL. (SEE PROPHECY UPDATE 65A AND 65C) A Flurry of Coming and Going Between Nations In less than a week three Israeli government officials have made visits to Egypt, Parliamentary Speaker Abraham Burg, Israeli Transport Minister Ephraim Sneh, and Israeli Defense Minister Benjamim Ben-Eliezer. Egypt has traditionally played key roles in all mediations between the Israelis and Palestinians. This is at least an indication Israel might be interested in negotiations. Abraham Burg said fresh Egyptian efforts to resolve the Middle East conflict could lead to a new round of peace talks. The Defense Minister’s meeting with Hosni Mubarak will also lead toward possible future meetings to resolve differences Egypt has with Israel on Yassar Arafat staying or going. During the last several days Prince Abdullah Iba Abdul Aziz, of Saudi Arabia, has been involved in a flurry of activity that links directly with a solution to the Middle East conflict. His contacts by phone, or by visit, included the following dignitaries: President George Bush King Sheikh Ibn Isa Al Klalifa of Bahrain United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan Additionally, he sent letters to: The Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Zayed Iban Sultan Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates President Bashar Al Assad of Syria And, during this same time period, Prince Saud Al Faisal of Saudi Arabia held talks with the leaders of: After visiting these Islamic countries, Prince Saud then went to Egypt and met with President Hosni Mubarak, where a review of the telephone conversation between U.S. President George Bush and Prince Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz was conducted. He then headed to Damascus where President Bashar Al Assad received him to discuss ways of bringing peace to the Middle East. He then immediately flew to Annan, where Jordan’s King Abdullah II received him, and they discussed the latest methods to employ in pushing the peace process forward, and to start negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis. As a result of all this flurry of activity, the Arab nations have come up with a plan that calls for recognition of a Palestinian State, followed by the negotiation of its borders. What they want first is international recognition of a Palestinian State, followed by a two-year period to work out the final borders. All this is an attempt to block Israel from making intrusions inside the “green line” of the 1967 borders with its new buffer zone. I assure you that Israel intends to put most of its settlements, now inside the “green line,” on the outside of a new “green line” they will create with their buffer zone and wall. Israel will attempt to claim quite a chunk of the West Bank now lying just inside the “green line.” The Arab nations want their plan to be on the table for the current attempt to revive Mid-east peacemaking by talks between diplomats from the United States, the United Nations, Europe, and Russia, with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan in attendance. These are the basics of the Arab Plan, which was worked out in conjunction with the Palestinians, during all the aforementioned flurry of political activity: (1) Palestinian elections for a new leader and parliament in January as part of a broader reform effort, (2) Shortly after the balloting, the Palestinians would seek United Nations recognition for a state based on the borders that existed before the 1967 Middle East war. (3) If the United Nations recognized a Palestinian State, the Israelis and Palestinians could then begin negotiations on final borders. There would be a one-year deadline to negotiate an agreement, followed by a second year to implement the deal. Since Israel is in the driver’s seat, with the United States riding in the back seat, I am of the opinion that Israel will have no part of this without several changes. The United States will veto any attempts by the Security Council to send U.N. troops into Israel to force it to comply with this plan. So, regardless of what the rest of the world decides, this thing will only be settled when the Palestinians give in on four issues: (1) No State recognition until ALL terrorist activities cease. (2) Only a limited number of Palestinian refugees will be allowed to return to the West Bank and Gaza Strip from the Islamic nations to which they scattered in the last three wars. (3) Only the southern flank of the Mount of Olives and the extreme southeastern section of Jerusalem can be used by the Palestinians as their capital. (4) Some of the land inside the “green line,” where many Jewish settlements now exist, must be ceded to Israel. The latest terrorist attack on a bus outside a Jewish settlement near Nablus will strengthen, rather than weaken, the resolve of Israel to continue demanding these four issues be met as a part of any negotiated settlement. This latest terrorist attack will also make it more difficult for Europe, Russia, and the U.N. to put pressure on the U.S. to steer Israel into a settlement that favors the Palestinians. Sooner or later the Islamic countries, that sponsor and control the terrorist groups from outside the land of Israel, are going to see the futility of continuing all these terrorist activities. When they finally realize that these terrorist activities will never bring to fruition their desire to eliminate the presence of Israel in the Holy Land, then they will call off their dogs to allow Israel to enjoy a brief period of false peace. Then a vicious Jihad will be launched again Israel from the north as soon as it has been lulled into a false sense of security. THE NATIONS BEGIN TO ALLIGN THEMSELVES The IDF is now combing the hills of the West Bank in a massive manhunt for the Palestinian terrorists who viciously attacked an unarmed civilian bus outside the West Bank Jewish settlement of Emmanuel. These ungodly Islamic maniacs, dressed in IDF uniforms, blew the bus off the road with a bomb, then machine gunned and grenaded the passengers. The IDF had been able to prevent such attacks since June 20th, but you cannot completely eliminate such attacks as long as leaks exist in the dike. This was inside the West Bank. Once the buffer zone wall is finally completed is will be 100 times harder to carry out such a vicious massacre. Three Palestinian terrorist groups quickly rushed to claim credit for the Islamic act of horror: Hamas, the radical Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. Had this attack not occurred, the three members of the quartet that met on the same day in New York, Europe, Russia, and the United Nations, would have put even more pressure on member number four, the United States, to put greater pressure on the nation of Israel to cave in to Islamic demands that would deal a death blow to the Israelis. Europe and Russia, along with a vast majority of the United Nations, are lining up more and more with the Palestinians because it serves their national interests to do so. There is nothing that Israel possesses which can benefit the national interests of these three world entities. This world is not based on morality, it is based on national interest. This is a lesson I learned well while serving as a USAF-NSA analyst in the Washington D.C. complex. Europe is one of three massive industrial complexes on this planet, and Russia would love to be a part of that complex. An industrial complex needs some kind of fuel to drive its machines that produce the finished product in a manufactured profit revenue item. The Islamic nations have something Europe and Russia can use – oil. Israel has nothing they need. Because of their national interests, Europe, Russia, and the U.N. told the U.S. that they would continue to deal with the habitual liar Yassar Arafat as the legitimate Palestinian leader, and they flatly refused to endorse President Bush’s demand that he be replaced. In a joint statement, these three quartet members nudged the United States to step up its demands to Israel. They called on Israel “to take concrete steps to support the emergence of a viable Palestinian state.” All the nations of the known world of John’s day are now lining up against Israel and Jerusalem. Eventually a false peace will arrive in the Middle East. It will be followed by a vicious Jihad attack from the north against Israel by 10 nations. It will meet with success initially. Israel will be driven into the Negev south of Beersheva, and the antichrist will possess the land from Dan to Beersheva for some three and one-half years. During that time all the nations of the known world in John’s day will join with the antichrist. Near the end of the three and one-half years they will all gather together in Israel to attack the remnant of Israel in the Negev to close this present age with the battle of Armageddon. But they will be chopped into pieces by God in the greatest geological upheaval ever known to mankind. Zechariah 12:2,3,9 [2] Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. [3] And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. [9] And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. [3] Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. [4] And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. [5] And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee. [16] And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. [17] And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. [18] And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. [19] And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. HOW LARGE IS THE ANTICHRIST’S EMPIRE? (Please Read Special Prophecy Update Number 73A) To many preachers, pastors, teachers, and Bible expositors this is a very simple question! And they seem startled that I would even pose such a stupid question. The answer that I normally receive runs something like this: Brother, when God’s Word says “the whole world” it means “the whole world,” and when it says “all the earth” it means “all the earth.” What’s the matter with you, don’t you believe God’s Holy Book? When God gave His Word, to the writers of the Old and New Testaments, expressions like “the whole world, all the earth, and wherever men dwell,” meant the known world of that day. So how can we be so all fired certain that we have been given God’s authority to enlarge its definition with the passage of time? Of course, there is no question that God, who made earth, knew its size from the beginning, but where did we get the authority to change the meaning of the way He meant to be understood in the minds of those to whom he initially wrote it? For better or for worse, I believe modern day expositors have made a serious mistake in expanding the size of the antichrist’s empire as world exploration kept increasing the size of the earth. In Special Prophecy Update Number 73A, titled “Use of the Hyperbole in Prophecy,” I laid out a case to prove my point linguistically as to how God uses expressions throughout His Word that some think mean the whole world as we know it today, but it reality do not by His use of the hyperbole. As each new continent, each new land mass, each new island, and each new ice burg was located by exploration, we changed the original meaning of the Scriptures to fit the ever expanding size of the world. I do not believe we were justified in doing this, and that because we have done it, we have expanded the antichrist’s empire into one that rules all men from Pole to Pole and around a 360-degree girth of longitude. We are now looking for an antichrist that will rule all the men on this present earth. As a result of this looking for such a man, we are not going to recognize the true antichrist when he does come on the scene. He will not dominate all the world as we know it today. He will dominate the world that was in existence through the period of Daniel’s four beasts. [2] And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. John is looking back some 700 years in time to Daniel’s four beasts, of which three, in Daniel’s day, were still future. John is writing in the days of Daniel’s fourth beast. The first beast of Daniel, the Babylonian Lion Empire, was crushed by the Medo-Persian Bear Empire, which was conquered by the Macedonian Leopard Empire, only to suffer the same fate by Daniel’s fourth Roman Empire beast. The last evil empire on this planet will be that of the antichrist. His empire will take in all the territory covered during the expansions of the four beast empires. When the antichrist first attacks Israel he will lead 10 Islamic nations, which were all occupied at times by the old Roman Empire. I believe the most likely candidates are Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Sudan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and the PA. After the antichrist conquers Egypt (Daniel 11:43,44), then Jordan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and all the other Islamic nations to the borders of India, will quickly accept him as their ruler. Within months Europe will come under his dominating influence. I fully expect him to rule all the land occupied by the four beasts during their maximum expansions, but I do not believe he will dominate the western hemisphere nations. I realize that this Prophecy Update, coupled with the Special Prophecy Update Number 73A, does not provide concrete proof that all I have stated, concerning the size of the antichrist’s empire, is unquestionably correct. However, Lord willing, the Special Prophecy Updates we will release this week, from now until next Friday, will be giving you some additional prophetic scriptures that limit the size of antichrist’s empire. I will not be sending out our usual e-mail notification when we issue a new update on the web site, so check it daily for new updates while I am doing a prophecy meeting in St. Louis, Missouri. (Please read Prophecy Updates 73A and 77) Revelation 6:1,2 [1] And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. [2] And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer. Most expositors identify the rider of this white horse as being the antichrist. He is identified as a crowned ruler who goes to conquer on this present planet. Does he conquer all the nations of the earth as we know them today? [3] And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. [4] And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword. Most expositors associate this rider with shedding blood across the earth in a great war by the sword given him. Will he kill with his sword across the entire face of the earth as we know it today? [5] And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. [6] And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. Most expositors associate this rider with a great famine in which a day’s wages will only purchase enough for a very small loaf of wheat bread or three very small loaves of barley bread. Will he spread this famine and great hunger to all the 200+ nations on the surface of this present earth? Revelation 6:7,8a [7] And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. [8] And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. Most expositors associate this rider with death produced by any deadly infectious disorder, which always runs rampant in the wake of war and famine. Will this plague of death infest the present earth from one end to the other? The rider who kills with his sword, the rider who kills with hunger, and the rider who kills with the death of disease, are all supposed to be riding their horses in full stride during the reign of the antichrist as he leads them on his conquering steed. So how much of the earth does the antichrist conquer and directly affect with his misery? Revelation 6:8b [8] And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth. The context demands that “them” has to refer to the four riders in the verses immediately preceding it, and it even identifies the last three specifically by the words sword, hunger, and death. The inspired koine Greek word translated “earth” means just what it says, and one-fourth means one-fourth of the earth. Some expositors have tried to say that it means one-fourth of today’s total world population. That is absolutely not true! The word translated “earth” is “ges.” In the KJV it is translated as “country” twice, as “earth” 188 times, as “ground” 18 times, as “land” 42 times, and as “world” once. I believe “the beasts of the earth” in Revelation 6:8 are the same as the “beasts” in Daniel 7:12. [12] As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time. So, for better, or for worst, I do not believe the antichrist will rule over the whole earth as we know it today. I believe the one-fourth over which he will rule will include all Islamic nations in North Africa, the Middle East, and as far to the east as India. It will eventually include many European countries. The people in this area will be more than willing to take the mark of the beast. (Please Read Prophecy Updates 73A, 77, and 77A) Have you ever really looked behind all the teachings that inform us of a great worldwide empire of an antichrist that dominates the more than 200 nations on this present day earth? Have you really looked at the Scriptures that tell you what countries and areas on this planet he actually conquers? For instance, most expositors tell us that the willful king of the north in Daniel 11:36-45 is the antichrist. If that is the case, then we are given an account of his conquering from the time he first attacks the nation of Israel in verse 41 until the end of his life in verse 45. So what area does he conquer during this time period? Daniel 11:41-45 [41] He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. [42] He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. [43] But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps. [44] But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. [45] And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. Don’t read between the lines! Here is what it says – He comes into Israel (the land from Dan to Beersheva) and conquers it. He bypasses Jordan (Ammon, Edom, and Moab). He then goes to Egypt and conquers it. Later he returns to Jerusalem and then comes to his end. I do not question that many other countries of North Africa and the Middle East will be on his side in this initial attack. Nor do I doubt that after this 10-nation attack all the Islamic nations will join his ranks. And I am confident that as he operates out of his Cairo Command Center for three and one-half years he will eventually gain control of most of Europe, and large chunks of Eurasia. But I am convinced this will be the maximum extent of his end time empire. He will rule the known world that existed when John wrote the book of Revelation. I have spent a large portion of my life in the Middle East, the Far East, North Africa, and Europe. I have discussed the Bible with people living in these areas. I have never met a follower of Islam in these areas who ever heard that the mark of the beast was 666. Nor have I encountered an Islamic that knew anything about the man we call the antichrist. With the exception of jolly ole England, and where American bases exist on the European continent, I could not find anyone who knew anything about the book of Revelation. I realize there are a few who do, but the Catholics, both Orthodox and Roman, do not teach Revelation to their flocks. Even the unbelievers in the United States can tell you about 666 and other end time prophecies. It would be extremely difficult to get the population of the western world to accept a mark on their right hand or forehead. But it would be no problem in North Africa, the Middle East, Eurasia, and the European continent. Daniel’s description of the 10 nations that make up the initial attacking force does not seem to offer the characteristics many expositors give to a great 200+ nation empire ruled completely by the antichrist. [42] And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. [43] And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. It is rather ironic that we are told the “they,” who make up the 10 toes of the statue, actually “mingle” themselves with the seed of men (mankind). This may refer to an intermarrying between the seed of Ishmael, Moab, Edom, Moab, and the six sons of the woman Keturah by Abraham. What is ironic is that the word in Hebrew translated as “mingled” is “Arab.” By and large, to a great extent, the Jewish people have maintained the integrity of the line of Jacob, the grandson of Abraham. However, the other lines of Abraham have mingled within themselves and, at times, have mingled to some extent with the seed of Ham, Shem, and Japheth. I do not see a great 200+ nation empire covering the globe. I see an Islamic Arab empire ruled by an antichrist that extends his rule outward into Europe, Eurasia, and central Africa. He will most assuredly do everything that is written concerning his actions in the book of Revelation, but he will do it in the area the people of John’s day identified as “the whole world.” As the “known” world grew steadily in size we kept on expanding the vastness of the final empire of the antichrist. I do not believe we were justified in so doing. (Please Read Prophecy Updates 73A, 77, 77A, and 77B) Please consider the following information extracted from the Cruden’s Complete Concordance to Both the Old and the New Testaments by Alexander Cruden, A.M.. as edited by A.D. Adams, M.A., C.H. Irwin, M.A., D.D., and S.A. Waters, as it relates to the use of the word “WORLD” in the Scriptures. “To the Eastern people of earliest times “the world” was very small, including little more than Mesopotamia, Caanan, Arabia, and parts of Egypt. During Old Testament times it remained much the same, extending a little to the east, as the nations there grew to power; and other parts of Asia and Africa became somewhat known to the adventurous. Few knew more than the rumors of Italy and even Greece. In the time of Christ “the world” really meant the Roman Empire, with parts of Africa and Asia under its sway. All outside of this was vague. In Bible language “world” is frequently used for the inhabitants of the world.” When we read the book of Revelation we should be acutely aware it was written to the seven churches that were in Asia. If we interpret the size of the antichrist’s empire in the light of the size the churches of Asia considered the world to be at that time, I believe we will arrive at a better understanding of its actual size when it does appear in our day and time. I do not believe we have been justified in continually increasing the size of it as we gradually discovered the three-fourths of the world that was not known in John’s day. I believe the antichrist’s empire will only cover the known world of John’s day, which is about one-fourth of the total landmass we now classify as “the world.” Without taking all this into account it is very easy to understand how someone could read the following Scriptures in Revelation, and then conclude it meant all the world from Pole to Pole and from zero degrees longitude to zero degrees longitude. [7] And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over ALL kindreds, and tongues, and nations. [8] And ALL that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. [11] And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. [12] And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth THE EARTH and THEM WHICH DWELL THEREIN to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. [16] And he causeth ALL, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: All these Scriptures have yet to be fulfilled, so it would seem perfectly obvious to many that it is talking about ALL the world and ALL its inhabitants as we know it today. But suppose Daniel’s prophecies had not yet been fulfilled that deal with his four beasts, and you were waiting for them to be fulfilled. How would you interpret the Scriptures that follow? [37] Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. [38] And WHERESOEVER THE CHILDREN OF MEN DWELL, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee RULER OVER THEM ALL. Thou art this head of gold. You would naturally believe he meant all the humans on this present earth, but he did not. The Babylonian empire did this in the known world when Daniel wrote to the people of 600 B.C. The same will be true of the antichrist’s empire. He will do this in the known world of A.D. 95. [39] And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear RULE OVER ALL THE EARTH. Alexander’s Macedonian empire did not rule over all of the present day earth. Neither will the antichrist’s empire. He will rule what was the known world in A.D. 95. [23] Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall DEVOUR THE WHOLE EARTH, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. The Roman Empire did not devour the whole earth as we know it today. Neither will the antichrist’s empire. He will devour the whole world as it was known in John’s day. I am prepared to recognize an antichrist that rises out of the European continent and dominates the entire world as we know it today and, if that is what happens, I will not be caught asleep. But if I am correct in what I believe, then I fear many are going to be shocked when the real antichrist arrives on the scene. I am confident antichrist will arise in Syria and rule over the known world of A.D. 95. Ten Toes of Daniel’s Statue The 10 Toes of Daniel’s Great Statue I do not question that in the final battle of Armageddon the descendants of Ham, Shem, and Japheth will be combatants against the nation of Israel. But I have always contended, along with the Bible expositors of the 18th and 19th centuries, that the antichrist’s initial attack would be primarily the descendants of Abraham. They are the mingled seed of his oldest son Ishmael with the seed of the six sons he sired by Keturah, as well as some of the other offspring of his own father Terah. The empire of the antichrist will be an Islamic empire that eventually takes into it many European nations. And, in the final great battle of Armageddon, all those nations that made up the world as it was known in A.D. 95 will come against Israel, such that Japheth, Ham, and Shem’s descendants will also be involved. [41] And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. [42] And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. [43] And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. These toes will consist primarily of Terah’s descendants (See the following diagram). HAM SHEM JAPHETH MOSES JESUS MOHAMMED JEWISH CHRISTIAN ISLAMIC FAITH FAITH FAITH IN GOD IN GOD IN ALLAH John 14:6 [6] Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. HAVE YOU BEEN SHOWN THE MYSTERY? [51] Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed (I Corinthians 15:51) ARE YOU READY FOR THE MYSTERY TO BE FINISHED? (Revelation 10:7) ARE YOU READY FOR THE VOICE & TRUMP OF ANGEL 7? (I Thessalonians 4:16) ARE YOU READY FOR HIS KINGDOMS ON THE 7TH TRUMP? (Revelation 11:15) ARE YOU READY FOR THE LAST TRUMP IN A SERIES OF 7? ARE YOU READY TO BE JUDGED AFTER THE 7TH TRUMPET? HIS 7 VIALS OF WRATH COME ON THEM AS WE ARE JUDGED? (I Thessalonians 5:9) HIS WRATH IS ON EARTH WHILE HE JUDGES US IN HEAVEN! THE SAVED WILL THEN RETURN TO EARTH AFTER HE HAS JUDGED THEN FOR REWARDS IN HEAVEN. AS HE DESCENDS TO EARTH HIS ANGELS, WITH A SOUND OF A GREAT TRUMPET, WILL BE GATHERING TOGETHER ALL THE SAVED FROM ONE END OF HEAVEN TO THE OTHER, AND THEY WILL DESCEND BEHIND HIM TO BE WITH HIM FOR A THOUSAND YEARS ON THIS PRESENT EARTH. [29] Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: [30] And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. [31] And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. [4] And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. [5] And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee. [14] And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, The following article from the Jerusalem Post imparts the significance of the assassination of Hamas Leader Salah Shehadadeh. The loss of his leadership and expertise in the brutal art of massive acts of mega-terrorism against the Israelis will be sorely missed by his peers. That is the major reason for the unusually loud cry of war crime accusations by the Palestinians, not for the innocent women and children who were killed. It might seem on the surface that this will further inflame the Middle East situation, but it will not. You will see more killings on both sides, but the Palestinians, Syria, Iran, and Iraq are seeing the terrorist’s infrastructure lose its organized effectiveness, and as each new Israeli attack further weakens this effectiveness, you will hear the Arabs scream louder and louder. Sooner or later it will become apparent to them that they must call off their terrorist dogs long enough for Israel to be lulled into a false sense of security. The longer they wait, the less of the West Bank they will receive in any negotiated settlement. I believe they will be persuaded to call them off before the dawn of 2003. All the Islamic nations and all the terrorist groups, in varying degrees of desire, want to see Israel driven out of the land and destroyed. Finally, they are beginning to realize there is only one way that can happen. They must catch Israel napping in a sense of false security, and they must have a well coordinated surprise attack plan involving several Islamic nations working together for a common cause. All of the preceding comments represent the opinions of http://www.tribulationperiod.com and do not reflect the opinions of the Jerusalem Post or the writer of the following article. THIS ARTICLE IS BEING SENT TO A LIMITED AUDIENCE AS A NON-PROFITABLE INFORMATIONAL SERVICE. IT IS FROM THE JERUSALEM POST. ‘Shehadeh was planning mega-attack’ David Rudge Hamas military wing leader Salah Shehadeh was planning a mega-terror attack with a truck loaded with one ton of explosives aimed at killing hundreds of Israelis, Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said yesterday. Ben-Eliezer said Shehadeh, who was killed in an IAF raid on his home in Gaza City early Tuesday morning along with 16 other people, mostly civilians, was the biggest of the terrorist leaders. “Since the beginning of the intifada until now, there was nobody bigger, stronger, or more brutal than him. Hundreds of people were killed and thousands wounded [because of Shehadeh],” Ben-Eliezer told members of the Labor Party central committee. He said Israel had been actively tracking Shehadeh for the past six months, but on as many as eight occasions, the cabinet together with the IDF had deferred assassination missions because “I didn’t receive a clear answer as to whether he was alone or with his wife and daughter.” “In most of the cases I deferred it because of the element of doubt that his family, one of his wives and his daughter, might be with him,” said Ben-Eliezer. He said there was information that Shehadeh was planning a mega-attack, but still the operation was deferred at least twice last week on one occasion when planes were already in the air because his daughter was said to be with him. “I say to those who are asking what happened: We knew that this man was planning a terror attack, perhaps the biggest ever against Israel. We call it in Hebrew a ‘mega-terror attack’ a truck loaded with one ton of explosives the aim of which was to jolt the nation and kill hundreds of people,” said Ben-Eliezer. He said that on Monday the inner security cabinet had received assurances that Shehadeh was alone with two of his henchmen and approval for the strike was given. The outcome, however, was not as expected. Shehadeh and his right-hand man were killed, along with his wife and daughter and 13 other people, nine of them children, who were apparently in adjacent buildings which were badly damaged by the blast from the one-ton bomb which destroyed Shehadeh’s home. Ben-Eliezer stressed that in the war imposed on Israel mistakes could happen and he expressed deep regrets over the civilian casualties. He insisted he didn’t know there were civilians within reach of the missile when he approved the strike. “We put off the operation [to strike Shehadah] eight times because I didn’t get a clear answer whether he was alone or whether his daughter or wife were with him,” Ben-Eliezer said, adding that on Tuesday, “we had a green light that he was alone with two murderers.” UNITED NATIONS RESOLUTION TO CONDEMN THIS ATTACK The United States is holding firm in the U.N. Security Council (where they have a veto power) on key points in a proposed resolution condemning the attack in the preceding article. They are demanding that such a resolution also contain statements condemning by name the three terrorist groups of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade. The U.S. is also demanding that there must be an improvement of the security situation as a condition of any call for a withdrawal of the Israeli occupying forces from Palestinian cities, and a cessation of all violence, military actions, and acts of terror. This action by the U.S. will keep pressure on the Palestinians and terrorist sponsoring Islamic nations to temporarily call off these three groups the U.S. is demanding be specifically named in the resolution. This appendage to the preceding article is the opinion of http://www.tribulationperiod.com and is not intended to reflect the opinion of the Jerusalem Post or the writer of its printed article. WATCH OUT FOR SYRIA LEADING THE AXIS OF EVIL! Several international newspapers have recently been printed under the banner “Improving Syria-Iraq Relations Worry the West!” There is good reason for this concern, not only because of increasing cooperation between Syria and Iraq, but because of a growing bond between the other nations of this coalition that President Bush labeled “The Axis of Evil.” Kim Yong-nan, President of North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly Presidium and the Number 2 man in the Pyongyang hierarchy, recently came to the Syrian capital to hold extensive talks with President Bashar Assad. The collapse of the Soviet Union, the chief ally of both Syria and North Korea, has caused both nations to search for diabolical national and international partners to compensate for the loss of the power block energy of Moscow. Chief among the nations replacing the communist power void are Iraq and Iran. Damascus has, in the past two years, established strong political, economic, and security ties with both countries. Over the last few months Syria has been exchanging visits and promoting cooperation with Cuba, Iraq, Sudan, Iran, and Lebanon in order to confront what Bashar Assad, the Syrian President, called the “tyrannical policies” of the Bush administration. Just before North Korea’s Number 2 man arrived in Damascus, Assad hosted Ayatollah Mohmoud Haslemi Shahroudi, head of the judiciary in the Iranian Islamic Republic, and one of the most prominent conservatives opposed to any democratic reforms in Iran. He is opposed to moderates who seek reform under Khatami in Iran. During the last two years, since border controls between Syria and Iraq were eased, trade is booming. Syria exports to Iraq were close to a billion dollars last year, and oil analysts say that Syria is importing about 150,000 barrels a day of Iraqi oil in violation of United Nations sanctions. Lebanon, for all practical purposes, is a geographical country on paper only, having been taken over by the Hezbollah in its south, and by 35,000 Syrian troops stationed within it. Syria has long called Lebanon “greater Syria.” Nassil Lahoud, Head of the Democratic Renewal Movement in Lebanon, marked its founding by calling for a strategic partnership with Syria, and denouncing any political action against Iraq and the Palestinian Authority. The Hezbollah in southern Lebanon is continuously building a massive arsenal with a steady stream of arms from Iran and Syria, according to the Director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. President Bashar Assad is also procuring military equipment spare parts for Iraq from eastern Europe, according to Dennis Ross. Ross further asserts that Iran is pushing Hezbollah to cooperate more with Hamas in the war against Israel and to continue the suicide bombings. Recent efforts by the Palestinian Authority appeared to be making headway until the Hamas leadership received explicit orders from “outside,” with considerable Iranian pressure, to persist with the suicide bombings. The same was true for the Islamic Jihad, whose leader, Ramadan Shallah, resides in Damascus, and who was equally insistent that the bombings must continue. Not only has Syria been expanding its influence throughout the lslamic world, it has also been expanding strong economic ties with Europe. Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shara’s visit to Spain last week was accompanied by a hand carried letter from President Bashar Assad to Spanish King Carlos I. The message related to conditions in the European and Middle East Regions and bilateral relations between Syria and Spain. The last two years have seen rapidly growing economic and political ties develop between the Islamic nations and Europe. Israel is steadily declining politically and economically in the eyes of Europe, and an acceleration of anti-Jewish sentiment has been steadily spreading across Europe. The greatest majority of believers in Lebanon (greater Syria) are Maronite Catholics. Last month’s gathering of Maronite Catholic personages in Los Angeles appears to have boosted attempts to form a new, largely pro-Syrian, front. The Qaisar Mouawad, who visited Cardinal Nasrallah Butros Sfier, told reporters they discussed the Christian’s role in the region, and the need for them to evolve with the Arab and Muslim groups in their environment. In the coming months you will see developing religious ties grow stronger between the Vatican and Islam. You will see more sympathy for the Palestinians and less for the Israelis. And you will see stronger and stronger political and economic bonds develop between the European and Arab nations. Parts of this information have been accumulated over the past week from a wide variety of middle east newspapers and some international news releases, among which were the Daily Star of Lebanon, Arabic News, The Times of India, and the Financial Times. SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 78DJuly 31, 2002“COME INTO MY PARLOR, SAID THE SPIDER TO THE FLY”In September of 2001, the highest level meeting that had been held between the European Union and Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, was held in Brussels. The two sides discussed proposals for a trade and cooperation agreement. The Iranian Foreign Minister, Kamal Kharrazi, headed the Iranian delegation. Mr. Kharrazi’s visit occurred almost in conjunction with the Twin Towers terrorist attack, at a time when the United States regarded Iran as a sponsor of international terrorism, and when the U.S. Congress had just completed the renewing of sanctions against Iran for five years. The European Union, in stark contrast, felt that engagement with Iran might bring about a positive development, and was willing to discuss improving trade. Earlier this year (2002) our President, George Bush, included Iran in his “axis of evil.” Europe’s interest in Iran is MONEY, which fits perfectly in the evil of motivation generated solely by the greed of national interest. I Timothy 6:10a – “For the love of money is the root of all evil.” Iran stands to gain much better access for its exports to Europe, when the trade and cooperation agreement they discussed is signed and ratified. Mr. Kharrazi praised what he called the E.U.’s “pragmatic approach.” He denied that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons and took the opportunity to blame Israel, which Iran does not recognize, for all of the violence in the Middle East. If you think that Iran is not frantically trying to develop nuclear weapons, then I have a Platinum Timex watch I would love to sell you. In February of 2002, a senior European Union official, Chris Patten, the E.U. external affairs commissioner, criticized the United States for an “absolutist and simplistic” foreign policy. He said in an interview with Britain’s Guardian newspaper that European governments should speak up before the U.S. went into “unilateralist overdrive.” He went on to say that the European policy of “constructive dialogue’ with Iran was more likely to bring results than the American approach which consisted of “more rhetoric than substance.” That is the same thing that British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain said his “constructive dialogue” had done when he came back to England with his famed “Peace in our times” treaty he had obtained from Hitler in 1938. The U.S. policy contrasts sharply with that of the European Union. Mr. Patten told the newspaper America’s policy undermined the E.U.’s efforts toward Iran and North Korea. He said “There is more to be said for trying to engage and to draw these societies into the international community than to cut them off.” He also questioned whether an “axis of evil” actually existed. In June of 2001 a second meeting in Brussels prompted Iran to say that: “a window of opportunity in relations with the European Union had opened.” During an ongoing visit to Tehran in July, of delegations from the European Union and Russia, the United States received yet another negative answer from the two groups, when they sided with Iran and rejected the U.S. idea of including Iran in an “axis of evil.” This week the European Union foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said he has had constructive talks with senior officials in Tehran as a part of a visit aimed at improving relations. European and Iranian newsmen are saying that Mr. Solana’s visit to Tehran is a new part of European efforts towards engagement with Iran – In contrast to Washington’s strategy of trying to isolate the Iranian Islamic republic. Dancing with the Devil often does produce an engagement that leads to a one-sided marriage. At the news conference, after meeting Iran’s foreign minister, Mr. Solana credited the reforms of President Mohammad Khatami for improving dialogue between Europe and Tehran, happily pointing out the growing improvement in relations between the E.U. and Iran. During this week he also had talks with President Khatami, and the chairman of the Iran’s Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, Hohsen Mirdamadi. In the months to come you will see Europe, Russia, and China pulling away from the United States position of support for Israel, while growing constantly in support for the Palestinians and the Islamic nations. When Syria eventually leads ten Islamic nations against Israel, these three will surely line up in support for Islam. They will not participate in the initial attack, but will be very vocal in their support for justifying Syria and the other nations in their attack. I am very confident this attack will occur well before 2008, and that the next 5 years are going to contain the most sudden, rapidly changing, dynamic, series of events that this old planet has ever seen. SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 78EAugust 1, 2002 THE MODERATES ARE PUTTING PRESSURE ON TERRORIST GROUPS AND THE ISLAMIC NATIONS THAT SPONSOR THEM TO STOP THE ATTACKS SO THAT THE U.S. PEACE PLAN CAN BE GIVEN A CHANGE TO BRING WHAT WILL AMOUNT TO A FALSE PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST. From the very first prophecy update in 2001 I have repeatedly cried out: “WATCH THE TERRORISTS,” and clearly stated that they are the key to a false peace coming to the Middle East. When the nations that supply and control them decide it is the best way to lull Israel into a false sense of security, then they will temporarily call them off by promising a Jihad that will eventually follow the false peace, a time of slaughter that will satisfy the bloodthirsty vengeance that is ingrained in them. This false peace, the bloodletting that follows, the driving of Israel into the Negev, and the Lord’s restoring of Israel after he defeats its enemies, is found in the Scriptures which follow: Zechariah 13:8[8] And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. Zechariah 14:1,2[1] Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. [2] For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Zechariah 13:9[9] And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God. The information following is quoted from an article in the Israel Daily this week by the Associated Press, entitled “Arabs Support United States Peace Proposals.” All the aforementioned conclusions, and Scriptures listed to support them, do not reflect the views of the Associated Press or the Israel Daily, but are those ofhttp://www.tribulationperiod.com. The following article is distributed to a limited audience as an informational service only, without any connotation of profit.BEGINNING OF QUOTED ARTICLE Washington (AP) – Not long ago, moderate Arabs played the princes of pristine, washing their hands of the Israel-Palestine mess and ignoring American entreaties to get involved. Nowadays, they are the ones stepping out and making the eager phone calls. Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Thursday, August 1st, has his third Washington meeting scheduled with President Bush this year, hard on the heels of the foreign ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan showing up with bouquets for a U.S. peace plan they once would have trashed. The King, who is enthusiastic about Bush’s vision of a Palestinian state in three years, will be pressing him to outline a timetable.What has changed, Arab leaders say, is that their countries are facing restive populations fired up by the Palestinian cause – something rare before the internet and satellite broadcasting. They cannot afford to ignore the problem.“We are seeing a new approach in Arab politics,” Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher said after meeting Bush earlier this month. He recalled when Arabs preferred to leave the nitty-gritty to the United States and to step in only at the final, smoother stages of a Palestinian-Israeli peace. “Before Arabs sort of demanded all or nothing and did not do much and usually got nothing,” Muasher said, “But this time it is different.”Abdullah’s third visit in six months is as many as he made in all of 2000, when the peace process began to unravel. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s late 1990’s maximum was once a year – he has been in D.C. twice so far in 2002. Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Abdullah had never made an official trip to the U.S., deigning to meet President Clinton only on the sidelines of a U.N. conference in New York. In April, he went to Bush’s Texas ranch.A few years ago, the best the United States could expect for initiatives was qualified moral support. Now, Egypt and Jordan have promised personnel to retrain Palestinian security to U.S. specifications. Saudi Arabia has offered an unqualified Arab peace with Israel much more attractive than the peaceful non-recognition that it once offered and that would have perpetuated the Jewish state’s pariah status.The rhetoric also has toughened. Until recently, the moderates tended to evade comment about suicide bombings, condemning “all forms of any extremism” and regretting “all civilian” deaths. Now, the condemnation is unqualified. “We understand that suicide bombings have to stop and …we are doing something about it,” Muasher said. They are also now matching their longstanding demands for American toughness with the Jewish State with a new willingness to speak uncomfortable truths to the Palestinians. “As much as there are American responsibilities to curb Israeli actions, there is also an Arab responsibility,” the Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal recently acknowledged.What makes the Arab eagerness striking is that Bush’s current offer is much narrower than the last plan a president stopped for lack of Arab support in 2000. Then, Clinton coaxed Israel into offering over 90 of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, along with a state in Jerusalem, and a willingness to discuss the return of the Palestinian Refugees. Palestinian leader Yassar Arafat turned down the offer – he wanted sovereignty over Jerusalem holy places and a right of unfettered return for refugees – and Clinton and his subordinates made pleading visits to Arab capitals. The entreaties were met with regrets, with Jordan a reluctant exception. The region collapsed into violence soon after. By contrast, Bush is offering a “provisional state” for three years in areas Palestinians controlled before the September 2000 outbreak of violence (less than half of what Clinton proposed), and with no immediate stake in Jerusalem. Bush refers only briefly to refugees in his plan and wants Arafat out of the picture, a demand that Clinton never made. Arab leaders acknowledge that Bush’s plan is less than they would like – but it is all they have. “We have found a way to work together while we don’t agree on all issues,” Muasher said. It is a conversion driven by self-interest. “The intifada has come into Arab living rooms via satellite TV,” said David Makovsky, a Washington Institute Near East Policy analyst – “Regimes are now waking up to the domestic consequences.”Jordan’s King Abdullah and Egypt’s Mubarak have confronted several pro-Palestinian riots and increased political challenges to their moderate politics. In Saudi Arabia, the regime has been unsettled by substantive support the Palestinian uprising has received in the mosques and in the fund-raisings. Shibley Telhami, a Bookings Institution scholar analyst of relationships between the Palestinians and the Arab nations, says Arab leaders are making a strategic decision in supporting Bush’s narrower approach. “It affects stability,” he said. “They can’t control the flow of information, and their publics care about this issue.” Bush’s interim plan, if it works, at least would buy quiet and perhaps get the sides to negotiate a permanent peace. END OF MATERIAL QUOTED FROM ARTICLE All of these actions by the moderate Islamic nations will extend into the politics of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Libya. I believe these nations, into which these actions proceed, are beginning to realize the only way they can get Israel out of the land from Dan to Beersheva is by a surprise Jihad, and that the only way this can ever happen is for them to call off the terrorist groups temporarily to lull Israel into a false sense of “peace and safety.” The suicide bombings and shootings will continue for awhile to leave Israel a bitter memory of what could happen again if they do not eventually grant the Palestinians statehood, but I believe that before the year 2003 dawns the terrorist groups will have been temporarily called off by their sponsoring nations.The Jerusalem Temple WILL THE TEMPLE BE REBUILT IN JERUSALEM? I long ago lost count of the number of men and women who have reminded me that the temple MUST be rebuilt before Jesus returns. A majority of believers are certain that it must be rebuilt because antichrist must set in it “showing himself that he is God.” As a young man I believed that it would be rebuilt before Jesus returned. But as I studied the Greek language in Seminary, I began to say it would probably be rebuilt. I now do not believe it will be rebuilt until the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ. Why? Much of what follows is quoted primarily from the “New Testament Greek-English Dictionary of the Complete Bible Library,” Volumes 13 and 14. In the New Testament the word “hieron,” translated as “temple,” is found ONLY in the Gospels, in Acts, and in I Corinthians 9:13, where Paul’s ONLY use of the word appears as “temple.” I Corinthians 9:13 – Jerusalem’s Literal Stone Temple [13] Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple (hieron)? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar? “Hieron” refers to the entire temple including its precincts and the temple hill or, in a limited sense, any portion of the temple, such as the court of the women (Luke 2:37) where Jesus stood before the altar after his triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Mark 11:11), the court of the Gentiles out of which Jesus drove the money changers (John 2:15), or the temple proper where the veil separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies (Matthew 27:52). “Hieron” is ONLY used in a literal sense in the entire New Testament. This is in very sharp contrast to its closely related term “naos,” which is used both literally and figuratively in the New Testament. It is used figuratively at times to refer to the human body or a local church body. I Corinthians 6:19 – The Human Body – Naos [19] What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? I Corinthians 3:16,17 – The Local Church Body – Naos [16] Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? [17] If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. (All the “ye’s” in this verse are plural, and the “in” of verse 16 may be translated with equal validity as being “among” you, because “you” is plural.) Now, let’s take a look at the word “naos,” translated as “temple” in the New Testament. “Naos” denotes the “dwelling place of a god.” Consequently, the “naos” was the inner “sanctuary” of a temple where the image of the God was placed, or where he dwelled. It is frequently translated as “temple,” but the association with the word “sanctuary” should not be overlooked. The following verses contain ALL the uses of the word translated “temple” in the writings of the Apostle Paul. TEMPLE – HIERON – I CORINTHIANS 9:13 [13] Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar? (This is absolutely referring literally to the great temple of stone in the city of Jerusalem) TEMPLE – NAOS – I CORINTHIANS 6:19 (This is absolutely referring to the body of someone who has experienced the new birth as figuratively being a temple) TEMPLE – NAOS – I CORINTHIANS 3:16,17 TEMPLE – NAOS – II CORINTHIANS 6:16 [16] And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (All the “ye’s” and the “them” and “they” are plural, and the two “in’s” may be translated as “among”) TEMPLE – NAOS – EPHESIANS 2:21,22 [21] In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: [22] In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. (The “ye” in verse 22 is plural) It is perfectly obvious in the verses in the two books of Corinthians and Ephesians that Paul was not referring to the literal temple in Jerusalem, and it is also equally obvious he knew the distinction between “hieron” and “naos.” That is why his ONLY other use of the word “naos,” occurring in I Thessalonians 2:4, is so puzzling. I am convinced that if he meant the literal stone temple in Jerusalem, then he would have used the word “hieron.” TEMPLE – NAOS – II THESSALONIANS 2:4 [4] Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. The precise meaning of “naos” in this verse is uncertain. I believe Paul pictures the antichrist sitting on the temple mount in a sinful body of flesh, with his inner soul and spirit claiming he is God to prove it to himself, and to show the world he is God. This would parallel his use of the word “naos” in I Corinthians 6:19. In any case, I Thessalonians 2:4 falls far short of proving that the temple must be rebuilt before Jesus comes. The companion Old Testament Scripture often used to link with I Thessalonians 2:2 to prove the temple must be rebuilt is Daniel 11:45. However, the word translated “palace” is “appeden.” It is never translated as “temple” in the entire Bible. So it means, in the context of this verse, that antichrist returns to Jerusalem just before the battle of Armageddon, and puts up a command post palace pavilion on the temple mount, from which he plans to sit and direct the final battle. The tents (tabernacles – ohel) are the tents of all the troops from Europe, Eurasia, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa which have poured into Israel in answer to his call, and he will direct their final attack against Israel in the Negev from his “appeden” on the temple mount. I have heard about the rebuilding of this temple for some 54 years. For better or for worst, I do not believe the temple will be rebuilt until Jesus returns. SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 79AAugust 4, 2002NUCLEAR DEVELOPMENT IN THE MIDDLE EAST The same thing that happened when Israel developed its first nuclear weapon is about to happen in Iran. Because France owed Israel a favor for its cooperation in the 1956 Suez recovery campaign, it succumbed to an Israeli request for a nuclear reactor. The United States, at that time, did not want Israel to have the atomic bomb, because we wanted to keep the Middle East nuclear free. So we pleaded with France not to build a reactor for Israel. Both Israel and France swore that the reactor would only be used for the generation of commercial electrical power in Israel. We knew they were both lying, and they knew they were both lying, and so did all the nations on the earth, but there was nothing we could do at that time. So, in 1957, France began to build an atomic reactor in the Negev at Dimona. It was completed in 1960, and the French went home, leaving the Israelis with a 24-megawatt reactor. The dust of the French boots was still on the floor of the reactor building when Israel jacked it up to 150 megawatts to produce its first atomic bomb. Their first atomic bomb was completed in 1964. I will not discuss where, or how, it was tested. I have heard numerous commentators mention that the preemptive strike by Israel was completely out of character in the 1967 War. I have heard many different reasons given for its decision to do so. The reason for its “strike first” decision was a very valid one. High altitude over-flights by the Egyptians in May of 1967 caused the preemptive strike in June. The Israelis were afraid of a three pronged air strike on its nuclear facility at Dimona in the Negev. In 1968 about 200 tons of German yellowcake (crude uranium) came into Israel off a Liberian tanker, and in 1969 the Israelis developed their first hydrogen bomb. I will not discuss how, or where, it was tested. In 1973 Israel was caught napping on Yom Kipper by her Arab neighbors, and was completely surprised, and temporarily in rapid retreat in the Golan and Sinai. However, they did not use their nuclear weapons because the established national policy is never to launch a nuclear weapon unless one is first launched against them.Israel now has some 300 nuclear warheads, and an unknown number of chemical and biological warheads. The majority of them are mounted on Jericho missiles in the Negev wilderness. The Israelis currently have three German built submarines patrolling the waters of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, and they have been modified to conduct subsurface atomic tipped missile launches. The Iranians, Iraqis, and Syrians are well aware of everything I have discussed in this article. They know what Israel is capable of launching against them, but they also know they will not launch unless they are first launched against. The only real advantage the Islamic nations possess is in numbers of fighting bodies. That is why the next war is going to be a “grunt” war fought with high tech conventional weapons. So I am not overly concerned about Iran getting nuclear weapons. Terrorist groups may get “dirty” nuclear weapons, but their ability to launch them by missiles is non-existent. However, I am very hopeful that somebody will get rid of our ole buddy Saddam. He is a madman and would sacrifice millions of his own people to get in a solid nuclear lick at Israel. That is precisely why Israel knocked out his nuclear production potential by an air strike against his development site. I believe it will be quite a while before he has both the weapon and the ability to launch it by missile. I believe Iran will soon develop its first atomic bomb, but I do not think it would dare launch one against Israel because of the response it knows it would receive in return. They already have the ability to mount and to deliver it on their new missile. The vast superiority of the Israeli and the U.S. nuclear, chemical, and biological arsenal, and their ability to put in accurately on the target, will cause this next war to be a “grunt” war, not a nuclear, chemical, or biological horror. SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 79BAugust 5, 2002THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE AXIS OF EVIL! In Prophecy Update Number 78B the growing ties between Iran and the European Union were discussed, and in Prophecy Update 79A the growth of the Iran nuclear treat was outlined and analyzed. This update is more or less a continuation of Prophecy Update Number 78B. What follows is mostly from the August 2, 2002 issue of the International Edition of The Jerusalem Post, and was written by Michael Rubin. European foreign ministers, whose main national and personal interest is fed by greed, recently agreed to fast-track a new trade pack with Iran. European Union officials, such as External Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten, all lobbied hard for the deal, arguing, “There is more to be said for attempting to engage and to draw these societies into the international community that to cut them off,” which was a slap at the identification of Iran as one of the members of the “axis of evil” by U.S. President Bush. However, it took less than a week for the European Union to have egg on its face when Copenhagen TV2 reported that four Iranian intelligence agents had sought asylum in Denmark. The four arrived with diplomatic passports traveling on flights from Ankara and Frankfurt. During their debriefings, the Iranian intelligence agents confessed to Denmark’s Police Surveillance Agency of Iran’s master plan to assassinate the US-based Reza Pahlavi, son of the late shah and leading opposition figure, along with London-based journalist Ali Nourizadeh, plus an unnamed manager of an Iranian opposition site on the internet. Such threats are certainly no exaggeration, having the evidence of several such assignations being carried out in the past in Europe. Many European officials like to work under the illusion that the Republic of Islamic Iran is moderating, but that is not the case at the present time. It will take an internal uprising by the general public to overthrow the present Islamic Cleric regime, and that is unlikely in the near future. The proponents of critical dialogue with Iran base their optimism upon the lofty rhetoric of officials such as Iranian President Khatami, often labeled a reformer by the Western press. Much of what Khatami says does sound good, but he is like chameleon in that he changes the color of his rhetoric to match the political beliefs of the audience he is addressing at the moment. For instance, Khatami, addressing the Italian Parliament in 1999, in the stronghold of Roman Catholicism, declared: “Tolerance and exchange of views are the fruits of cultural richness, creativity, high-mindedness, and harmony. One MUST recognize this opportunity.” But, like Chairman Yassar Arafat, he changes from white to black, depending on his audience. Khatami reserves his conciliatory tone for gullible foreign diplomats, parliamentarians, and academics, and peaceniks. He speaks with a far different voice in Farsi to his domestic audience. In a televised address in October 24, for example, he declared: “In the Koran, God commanded to kill the wicked and those who do not see the rights of the oppressed… If we abide by human laws, we should mobilize all the Islamic world for a sharp confrontation with the Zionist regime… If we abide by the Koran, all of us should mobilize to kill.” The latest State Department’s annual Patterns of Global Terrorism labels Iran as “the most active supporter of terrorism.” Following the Karine-A shipment of weaponry, worth millions of dollars, from Iran to the Palestinian Authority, there is no question that Iran is actively bankrolling Palestinian terrorist groups. On June 8th, three days after an Islamic Jihad-claimed bombing killed 17 on a public bus near Megiddo junction in Israel, the Iranian government announced a seventy percent increase in allocations for the group. U.S. intelligence officials reported in April that Iran’s annual contribution to a Lebanese based Hizbullah now exceeds 100 million dollars. Iran continues to host terrorist mastermind Imad Mughniyeh, director of Hizbullah special operations and chief suspect in a series of car bombings, kidnappings, and highjackings that resulted in several hundred deaths in the 1980’s. While the European Union continues to curiously insist that Hizbullah is not a terror group, Mughniyeh is chief suspect in the 1994 bombing of the Jewish Center in Buenos Aires that killed 92 persons. From all accounts, the Islamic Republic of Iran is the leading contributor to terrorist groups on the surface of this earth. Its good to know Iran is using the proceeds of European trade so well.Most of the contents of this article were taken directly from an article written in the International Jerusalem Post by Michael Ruben in the edition dated August 2, 2002. COORDINATION MEETINGS FOR FUTURE JIHAD! In Special Prophecy Update Number 78E I indicated that the moderates, primarily Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan would be putting pressure on the terrorist sponsoring Islamic nations to temporarily call off their terrorist groups in Israel for a short period of time. They can call off the terrorists for a while if they promise them a Jihad that would eventually follow the period of false peace. Such a false peace, with no terrorist activity in the country, would lull Israel into a false sense of security, and let a blitzkrieg Jihad attack be successful. The promise of a Jihad is the only thing that would cause all the terrorist groups to stop their suicide bombings and shootings. The promise of a massive shedding of Israeli blood on an unprecedented scale in a Jihad is the only thing that would temporarily satisfy the bloodthirsty vengeance that is ingrained in them, and give them a willingness to hold off for a period of time. The visits of Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal and Omani Foreign Minister Youssef bin Alawi in Tehran were advertised as being “to examine ways of bolstering cooperation with the Islamic Republic in all fields as well as discussing all the latest regional and international developments,” according to Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi, who went on to say, “views were exchanged over the necessity of employing massive capacities of the Islamic countries to halt Israeli crimes. The major thrust of the meeting was described as “maintaining Islamic unity and strengthening it as the key to stop the Israeli expansionism and the regime’s continued plots to escalate crisis and tensions in the region.” The meetings were stressed as presenting a common will existing between the Islamic Republic of Iran and littoral states of the Persian Gulf to “deepen their relations and strengthen fraternity and friendship. Now, after all this Arab rhetoric, let’s get down to the good ole nitty-gritty. Saudi Arabia is on much, much better terms with Iran than Egypt and Jordan, who are looked upon as traitors because they made peace with Israel. And as the birthplace of the Prophet Mohammad, and the center of the Islamic faith, it was the logical choice of the three to talk to Iran about calling off the terrorists until a false peace can be brought in, and then maintained for a period of time. It will be interesting not to be told what came out of these meetings, but to see if Iran, at this time, was willing to go along with it. As I have stated from the very first Prophecy Update we ever issued on our web pages, WATCH THE TERRORISTS. When you see them back off, it will be because of external pressure from Iran and Syria. The suicide and hand planted bombings, as well as many small arm shootouts will continue for awhile. It is when they cease that one can look upon this occurrence as being the calm before the storm. I know they must eventually cease because Scriptures in I Thessalonians 5:3,4 and the 38th chapter of Ezekiel indicate it will be so. The timing of fulfillment is always the most difficult aspect of interpretation, but I still believe the terrorist attacks will end before the dawning of 2003. SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 79DAugust 9, 2002PREPARING FOR THE JUSTIFICATION BLAME GAME!YOU HIT ME FIRST YOU BIG BULLY! In Prophecy Update Number 74D we covered what the title of 79D means when applied to the situation along the border zone of northern Israel with Syria and Lebanon. Events of the last two weeks indicate that Syria may be making long range plans for what I indicated would eventually precede a 10 nation push into Israel from the north. Such a push is not in the immediate future, but this week seems to be setting the groundwork for its eventual occurrence. At the start of this month, while marking Syrian Army Day, President Bashar Assad said Israel alone was responsible for the stalemate in the Middle East peace process, and his top general announced the country was strengthening its military to defend against Israel. In a statement released last week in three top military publications Assad said: “The Israeli governments, especially the current one, through their active eagerness for bloodshed and their desire to swallow Arab lands and expand, are solely responsible for foiling all efforts that aim at achieving peace and stability in the region.” Assad, who took office in July 2000 after the death of his father, outlined the basis of a just, comprehensive peace as being the complete withdrawal of Israel from the Golan Heights strategic plateau, plus the creation of an independent Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital. But, in view of the current Israeli policies, Assad said Syria had decided to remain in the state of “full alertness and preparedness.” Syrian Armed Forces Chief-of-Staff General Hassan Turkmany wrote in a Syrian daily last week that he intended to continue to bolster Syria’s defenses. He said Syrian forces were powerful enough to face challenges, and in decidedly a reference to Israel, said would “inflict a bitter defeat on any aggressor and foil his expansionist plans.” Meanwhile, last week in Lebanon, which also celebrated Army Day, and where Syria has some 35,000 troops stationed, plus a Hizbullah army of terrorists stationed in its southern quarter, President Emile Lahoud said Israel’s “terrorist” policy is to blame for instability in the Middle East. I do not believe that the events of Daniel 11:40,41 are in the very near future, but I do believe them likely to occur before 2007. I believe that Israel is pictured as the king of the south, and Syria as the king of the north. Prophecy Update 74D gives my reason for this belief.Daniel 11:40,41 [40] And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. [41] He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. The following material is being placed on many of my newer website pages in order to provide you more information about the Great Tribulation Period!!! The Final 1335 Days Of The Age Of The Gentiles The information in the first section of this page is from: www.TribulationPeriod.com Event 1 – Israel is attacked 1335 days before the end of the Tribulation Period. Event 2 – Some 30 days later the two witnesses begin their testimony in Israel when Jerusalem falls. Event 3 – Some 45 days later the IDF is driven south to Beersheba and the United Nations brokers a truce or hudna is agreed to by Islam and Israel. Event 4 – Israel remains surrounded in the Negev Wilderness for some 1260 days after the truce agreement. Event 5 – Some 45 days before the end of the Age of the Gentiles the two witnesses will be killed by the Antichrist after having testified for 42 months (1260 days). The Antichrist will declare himself to be God on the Temple Mount – This is the abomination “that maketh desolate.” Event 6 – Three and one half days later three events occur in rapid succession. They all three occur on the same day. #1 – The two witnesses ascend up to heaven through the clouds. #2 – A great earthquake occurs in the same hour the two witnesses depart. #3 – The last trump (7th) Trump sounds and all of the saved are caught up. Event 7 – All of the saved are judged in heaven while the seven vials of God’s wrath are poured out on unbelievers. Event 8 – Christ returns with all the saved some 1335 days after the initial attack of Islamic forces against Israel. Israel will be attacked to start the last 1335 days of Israel’s Travail Jerusalem will fall 30 days after the initial attack The two witnesses will testify for 1260 days after the fall of Jerusalem A truce or hudna will be declared at Beersheba 45 days after Jerusalem falls Israel will remain in the Negev for 1260 days after the truce or hudna Antichrist will kill the two witnesses and declare himself to be God on the Temple Mount making himself the “abomination that maketh desolate.” Three and one-half days later three events occur in rapid succession on the same day: (1) The two witnesses ascend into heaven, (2) A great earthquake occurs, and (3) The seventh trump sounds and all the saved are caught up, including the sealed 144,000. A composite of the Hebrew words for Joel 2:30: And I will show a token, a sign and wonder in the visible arch of the sky where the clouds move and throughout all the earth, in the fields, in the country, in the wilderness and it will have the appearance of blood, along with a burning, hot flaming fire, with columns of cloudy dust, smoke and vapor. A composite of the Hebrew words for Joel 2:31: The brilliant sun, from the rising of the sun in the east to the sun rays in the arch ways of the sky, will be changed into darkness, as if it were night and the moon will take on the appearance of blood before the great and noble, fearful and terrible day in which Jehovah, the self-Existing One, the Eternal Lord shall come. A composite of the Greek words for Acts 2:19: And I will bring forth a rare event so extraordinary, it will inspire wonder, for it will be in the elevated area of the sky and a token of these events, will be throughout the entire regions under the surface of the soil, of all the land of the world, for it will be a visible wonder of flowing substance like blood, of flashes of lightening and fire, with a mist of smoke. A composite of the Greek words for Acts 2:20: The rising of the sun in the east and the rays of daily light will become as an outlining shadow and the bright shining moon, will appear to be a blood red color, before that mighty and visible day in which the One in supreme authority will come. The following information and links are being placed on most of the new pages on my Websites, in order to help you become aware of the impending Great Tribulation Period, the Wrath of God and the beginning of the Millennial Reign. The vast majority of humanity has no concept of these events. At least you will be able to better understand what is occurring, when you see these events begin to happen… The Heaven Age.1278 1288. The Coming Millennial Age.1288 Last update on this list was on June 12, 2018, with Sermon #2363…I will not add any more to this list sermons. I have many things to do and cannot devote any time to this list.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line1007
__label__wiki	0.676967	0.676967	Stanton, Yankees targeting September return from knee injury by: MIKE FITZPATRICK, Associated Press Posted: Aug 16, 2019 / 12:43 AM GMT-0500 / Updated: Aug 16, 2019 / 01:32 AM GMT-0500 FILE – In this Saturday, March 30, 2019 file photo, New York Yankees right fielder Giancarlo Stanton waits for the pitch against the Baltimore Orioles during the fourth inning of a baseball game in New York. Giancarlo Stanton wants to return from his knee injury in time to fine-tune that powerful swing for October. Sidelined nearly all season, the New York Yankees slugger is hitting indoors and throwing as he rehabs from a sprained right knee that’s been slow to heal since he got hurt June 25. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File) NEW YORK (AP) — Giancarlo Stanton wants to return from his knee injury in time to fine-tune that powerful swing for October. Sidelined nearly all season, the New York Yankees slugger is hitting indoors and throwing as he rehabs from a sprained right knee that’s been slow to heal since he got hurt June 25. The next step will be jogging and running outside before ramping up baseball activities. General manager Brian Cashman originally targeted August but now says the AL East leaders hope to get Stanton back sometime in September. “Once I start moving around, just see how it bounces back. But I do want to have a few weeks of at-bats before October, for sure,” Stanton said Thursday in his first comments to reporters in a while. “I want to be out there for a couple weeks, just the game routine and having whatever amount of at-bats I can.” The 2017 NL MVP said he’s confident he’ll return to health this season but has no particular date in mind. “I’m doing everything I can to get there, so that’s what this process is and that’s what I’m working for,” he explained. “The deadline is when my knee is ready to play major league games,” Stanton added. “So if something happens to that, then I can always get at-bats, non-big league at-bats, but by close to big league pitching, to catch me up if need be. But that is the deadline — not any rush past when my knee is ready.” Stanton strained his left biceps on March 31 in his third game of the season, strained a shoulder and calf during his rehabilitation and returned June 18. He quickly went down again and is batting .290 with one home run and seven RBIs in nine games this year. The outfielder and designated hitter was transferred to the 60-day injured list Sunday. “It’s been brutal on my side, but it’s been really good to see the team playing so well. I mean, that’s what’s really kept it not so bad for me is just to watch everyone bringing together wins in all different type of ways, not one hero every night,” Stanton said. “That’s what I’ve been focusing on. Not poor me, all this stuff. I’m just watching how good we’ve been playing and just, what strategy for me to come file in. Not to just be back playing, but to get another little boost to what we’ve already been doing really well.” Despite a cavalcade of injuries to All-Stars and other accomplished players, the streaking Yankees began the day tied for the best record in the majors with the Los Angeles Dodgers at 81-41. Pointed toward the playoffs, New York held a 10-game lead in the AL East with 40 to play. “I’m definitely glad to be hitting and moving around. Still got a lot of work to do, but I’m definitely glad for that,” Stanton said. “Just waiting on this knee to be full go and then we’ll be ready.”	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line1009
__label__wiki	0.776027	0.776027	Greg Caffrey I believe that what is most interesting about every composer is their unique perspective, the collation of their experiences and how this informs their art.I have come to see my music as an amalgam of all my experiences, not as the grafting of one experience on the other, but as the natural subconscious fusion of disparate elements of my art. The Irish composer Greg Caffrey read music at Queen’s University Belfast where he studied composition under Piers Hellawell and James Clarke. He was awarded a B.Mus. in 1995 and completed a PhD in 2002. He has won a number of awards and scholarships that include the Hamilton Harty Scholarship, MayTurtle Award and an award from the Harrison Foundation. He was a finalist in the ISME- IVME 2nd International Composition Contest in Brussels in 2008, in the Taukay Edizioni Musicali International Composition Prize in 2012 and in the Musica Domani International Composition Prize (USA). He took first prize at the Concorso Counterpoint, Italy in May 2012. His compositions have been performed in Britain, Ireland, France, Germany, Austria, Argentina, Italy, Belgium, Holland, Sweden, Czech Republic, Estonia, U.S. Bangkok, China and Brazil, receiving critical acclaim. His music has been recorded on the Meridian, Naturalstudio, Cactus, CMC, Diatribe, Edition 7 and RTÉ lyric fm record labels. The formation of his own ensemble, “Greg Caffrey Circle”, in 2000, allowed him to release an album of his own compositions entitled “Child’s Play”. His latest album, “Ogden Caffrey – First Construction in Nylon”, is a collection of his music for guitar performed by Australian guitarist Craig Ogden. Classical Guitar Magazine described the album as “contemporary music at its very best”. He has received commissions from many performers and ensembles at home and abroad as well as from BBC Radio 3, RTÉ and The Ulster Orchestra. His music has been represented at important international festivals: Musica Nova Festival in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Zwischen den Horizonten, Germany, Forfest Festival, Czech Republic and the 45th Parallele, Valence, France among others. More recently he has been responsible for the artistic directorship of Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble, Northern Ireland’s only ensemble entirely devoted to contemporary and 20th Century music repertoire. Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble is a charitable not for profit organization that seeks to promote Irish new music at home and abroad. http://www.hardrainensemble.com Greg Caffrey is represented by the Contemporary Music Centre, Dublin and is a member of the Association of Irish Composers. http://www.gregcaffrey.com Greg Caffrey on his new work for string quartet Music and Musings - Galway, 23 November Hard Rain Soloist Ensemble perform at the Tempered Festival View performances from the concert Greg Caffrey on his recent residency at the Centre Culturel Irlandais borne back ceaselessly into the past 3 movements on the work of William Scott Vigour, Rigour, Jigger Pulled down out of the Young Breath-giving Air	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line1010
__label__cc	0.526564	0.473436	PEDRO RESPONDS: "I’m in a difficult situation at Barcelona.” As you would have seen HERE this morning, Chelsea have been linked with a £22m move to sign Pedro Rodriguez from Barcelona. In response ... Latest, Rumours https://www.chelseadaft.org/2015/07/pedro-responds-im-in-difficult.html As you would have seen HERE this morning, Chelsea have been linked with a £22m move to sign Pedro Rodriguez from Barcelona. In response to these reports, Pedro has admitted he is thinking about his future. He stated that he had not spoken with Jose Mourinho and that he didn't want to say anything else because it would be a lack of respect to Barcelona. He then added: “I don’t want to think about the future. I want to rest, be calm and to start the season on Wednesday. What comes after that, we will see. Both the club and I decided to reduce the clause and it’s true there are offers. I’m in a difficult situation at Barcelona.” Although denying any reports of speaking with Jose Mourinho, his comments are more than encouraging. You can understand that he doesn't want to say anything to upset Barcelona but he is giving a clear indication that he IS considering a move away from the Nou Camp. What do you people think? Is Pedro someone you would like to see at Chelsea? Do you think we will sign him?	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line1015
__label__wiki	0.995542	0.995542	News . Feature Stories . Jiménez shows he’s a heavyweight contender Jiménez shows he’s a heavyweight contender Printmaking alum notches high-profile solo show, Art in America cover “Toy Puncher” by Clotilde Jiménez (more photos below) By Michael C. Butz Clotilde Jiménez had quite a summer. A solo exhibition of new work, The Contest, opened in July at Mariane Ibrahim Gallery in Chicago following a months-long delay due to COVID-19. The show received critical praise and was met with as much fanfare as social-gathering restrictions allowed. A small afterparty for collectors and artists drew renowned fabric sculptor and performance artist Nick Cave, with whom Jiménez discussed his work and developed a friendship. Jiménez considered The Contest—which, with 15 pieces, sold out—a success. “It was everything I wanted, basically, but the Great Gatsby party that happens at the solo show of an artist,” he says. “It was just digital and more private.” Media attention around the show culminated with a feature in Art in America. Editors chose his “Pose No. 12” for the cover of the September/October issue. “They told me there was a list of big-name artists and they chose my work over theirs,” Jiménez says. “I was surprised, humbled and honored.” Jiménez graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2013 with a BFA in Printmaking but these days works in a variety of media. He employed large-scale collages and bronze sculpture in The Contest, a deeply personal series centered on his relationship with his father, a bodybuilder and boxer. The work in the show negotiated the intersections of race, sexuality and what Jiménez describes as “Black male masculinity”—complex issues expressed through layers and intricate constructions. “I believe the medium, it has a language in itself,” he says. “I speak most of the languages, and sometimes it’s difficult to express certain things—you can’t do it all in every language. I would like to, and I’m trying to work my way up to that, but sometimes you have to switch.” Still, Jiménez often references printmaking. “It hasn't really left my practice. I use it more as a thinking space,” he says. “I don't think I'd be making the work I'm making if I didn't study printmaking.” He credits CIA Printmaking chair Maggie Denk-Leigh with fostering his development. To this day, while working in his Mexico City studio, he thinks about questions she posed during critiques or guidance she gave him. “She said that sometimes in the work, there are opportunities to do something special. Maybe there's a border, or maybe there's a space, and you can use that space for color or shape, and it's an opportunity to do something special,” he says. “And I think about that in my work. ‘I could paint this in this way, or I can actually do something clever here.’” Jiménez was born in Hawaii but arrived at CIA by way of Philadelphia. He grew up in a poor neighborhood, he says, and he described his teenage self as “not focused, lazy, depressed and cynical.” He attended Charter High School for Architecture + Design, a now shuttered school that offered opportunities to at-risk kids with creative ambitions. He admits to earning mostly Cs and Ds, and his expectations for getting into CIA weren’t high. “I applied to one school just to make my mom happy. If I get in, I get in. If I don't, I don’t,” he says. “I got in by the grace of God.” Once at CIA, his approach didn’t immediately change. He says he spent his first three years “wasting everyone’s time” and considered himself the worst student at the college. “I think people knew maybe I had something, but I just wasn't motivated,” he says. “That's what happens when you’re broke, you come from a certain life, you feel alone, you're dealing with everything—trying to negotiate class, gender, race—and you're a young adult.” Along the way, Denk-Leigh connected Jiménez with 2008 CIA grad Darius Steward, who became a brother-like mentor. Through their conversations about art, life and education, Jiménez developed convictions and started to take his work and education more seriously. At the end of his third year at CIA, he decided he’d stay on for five. “I told Maggie, ‘I’m not graduating next year. I’m going to take an extra year, do everything I should’ve done in my (third) year, and I'm going to knock it out of the park in my fifth year—and that's what I did,” he says. “In my fourth year, I came back as a new student.” Denk-Leigh says Jiménez’s turning point came when he embraced depicting his personal narrative in his work and developed a way to communicate it to viewers. He began to emulate visiting artists to CIA and alumni with whom he connected, and he threw himself into his work, she says. Those efforts led to a “wonderful” BFA review and helped set his current career trajectory. She isn’t surprised by his success. “He was pretty thoughtful in what he was going to try to accomplish, and I’d say that’s where he is (today). He mapped it out, digested it, knew what his obstacles and challenges would be,” Denk-Leigh says. “He aggressively sought out a path to achieve (his goals). I think when he turned the corner, when he committed to his work, he was on solid ground going forward.” What’s next for Jiménez? A return to printmaking. He has a residency scheduled for later this year or early next at Idem Paris, a fine art printmaking studio in France, where he aims to make an edition of prints that’s “something special.” “I’m excited about that because I haven’t touched printmaking in a long time,” he says. “I’m excited to translate the work I'm already doing, which already has traces of printmaking, at least the ideas, into the actual medium—and, this time, not to be a student but do it myself.”	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line1018
__label__cc	0.590604	0.409396	Tag Archive for: Energy intensity U.S. Defense Department Surpasses Water Conservation Goal, Misses Energy Targets Several laws, executive orders, and directives guide the department’s conservation plans, but wartime operations can throw a wrench in the system. https://i2.wp.com/www.circleofblue.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/IandE_logo.jpg?fit=93%2C93&ssl=1 93 93 Brett Walton https://www.circleofblue.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Circle-of-Blue-Water-Speaks-600x139.png Brett Walton2011-08-25 14:56:322012-03-21 11:18:47U.S. Defense Department Surpasses Water Conservation Goal, Misses Energy Targets China to Cap Energy Use by 2015 in National Low-Carbon Plan The energy target will be the highlight of a document to come later this year, as well as a cornerstone of China's efforts to curb soaring greenhouse gas emissions, which currently stand at a quarter of the global total. Cutting coal consumption will inevitably also cut water use, as coal is China's largest industrial user of water. https://i2.wp.com/www.circleofblue.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/china-flag-e1313061075988.jpg?fit=119%2C119&ssl=1 119 119 Nadya Ivanova https://www.circleofblue.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Circle-of-Blue-Water-Speaks-600x139.png Nadya Ivanova2011-08-05 15:43:202015-11-24 11:48:17China to Cap Energy Use by 2015 in National Low-Carbon Plan The Stream, March 30: Water and Cities More than a billion people around the world will face severe… https://www.circleofblue.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Circle-of-Blue-Water-Speaks-600x139.png 0 0 Nadya Ivanova https://www.circleofblue.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Circle-of-Blue-Water-Speaks-600x139.png Nadya Ivanova2011-03-29 19:56:042011-03-30 07:17:34The Stream, March 30: Water and Cities The Stream, March 4: Water + Energy With just a few days before China unveils its development plan… https://www.circleofblue.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Circle-of-Blue-Water-Speaks-600x139.png 0 0 Nadya Ivanova https://www.circleofblue.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Circle-of-Blue-Water-Speaks-600x139.png Nadya Ivanova2011-03-04 10:42:322011-03-04 10:42:32The Stream, March 4: Water + Energy Giving Our Choke Point The Heimlich Maneuver In the U.S. a fifth of all energy may be consumed by water, and the biggest use of water – 42% by some estimates – is for energy. https://i1.wp.com/www.circleofblue.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/monopoly.jpg?fit=237%2C195&ssl=1 195 237 Circle of Blue https://www.circleofblue.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Circle-of-Blue-Water-Speaks-600x139.png Circle of Blue2010-11-01 15:36:202016-02-18 14:47:30Giving Our Choke Point The Heimlich Maneuver The Stream, January 15, 2021: Former Michigan Governor Charged Years After Flint Water Crisis Flint Residents Unimpressed by Snyder Charges Linked to Lead Poisoning The Stream, January 14, 2021: Enbridge Defies Order From Michigan Governor To Stop Line 5 Operations Four International Water Stories to Watch in 2021 The Stream, January 13, 2020: Study Finds High Concentrations of PFAS In Water Across China Subscribe: Weekly Waternews Company \| Organization Please also subscribe me to the daily Stream Daily Stream Please also subscribe me to the Federal Water Tap Make an impact this #GivingNewsDay For a limited time, NewsMatch will match your gift, dollar for dollar Journalism with this kind of impact is free to consume but costly to produce. Support fact-based journalism with your tax-deductible donation You have the power to inform the world's most important decisions with your tax-deductible donation	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line1019
__label__wiki	0.775247	0.775247	Never Hear the End of It Sony/BMG Review By Robin Hawkins “What do Tim Horton’s and Sloan have in common?” an editor asked, when I had inquired about Sloan’s popularity in Canada. The answer: “No one gives a shit about either of them in the US.” Coming from the States, I can say that this is fairly true. After all, how many Americans can sing along with “One thing I know about the rest of my life/I know that I’ll be living it in Canada”? Prior to the review, I was only vaguely familiar with Sloan’s work, so I went head-first into Never Hear the End of It with unbiased ears. At 30 tracks long, Never Hear the End of It is a lot to digest at once especially for a new Sloan listener. It flows seamlessly, akin to Side B of Abbey Road, and features a relatively fair balance of all four songwriters in the group. Apart from the occasional ballad here and there, the album is straight-forward rock; chock full of handclaps and big background vocals. Upon the first few listens, Chris Murphy’s tracks stand out the most. Murphy’s “Someone I Can Be True With” is a humorous depiction of his ideal woman, beaming that she’d be “Someone to watch Gremlins 2 with/And someone to not watch ‘The View’ with.” And perhaps the most memorable lyrics on the album are from Murphy’s “Set in Motion,” a catchy, tongue-in-cheek rocker about an eager director planning a movie based on his life. However, the true gems on this album are Patrick Pentland’s “I Understand” and “Ill Placed Trust.” The former is an epic pop number with soaring harmonies, bells and horns, while the paranoid, “Ill Placed Trust” is not only the heaviest rocker on the album, but dangerously infectious. Anyone, anywhere, would have to be deaf to not have “Ill Placed Trust” and its annihilating dual guitar and bass solo stuck in their heads for days. Although it might seem that Never Hear the End of It would be a bit much for newcomers to Sloan, it perfectly showcases the extent of their talents for breezy pop perfection. Recognised in the US or not, Never Hear the End of It is one of the best pop-rock releases of 2006. Never Hear the End of It, Robin Hawkins, Sloan,	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line1020
__label__wiki	0.778749	0.778749	Search for... Click to execute search Home/Mayor and Council/Celebrating 2017/Legacy Projects Current site: Celebrating 2017 Time To Celebrate Message From The Mayor City Signature Events Mayor's Awards Stories of Sandwich National Initiatives Community Creates Other Community Initiatives Calling All Centenarians! 125 Windsor Moments City of Windsor Birthday The City of Windsor has some exciting new legacy projects underway in 2017 that will dramatically change the landscape of our City. While many of these are not directly linked to our heritage milestone celebrations in 2017, they are an important part of our community's story today, and well into the future. Improvement of Accessibility on the Dieppe River Walk Generous funding from the Canada 150 Community Infrastructure Program (CIP 150) through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario will allow for upgrades and accessibility enhancements on the Dieppe River Walk - constructed in 1959 along the Detroit River. The Detroit River is the only internationally designated heritage waterway, so named for the key role the river played in European exploration and settlement in the region and its strategic importance during the War of 1812, which contributed to the development of the country. Canada's performance in WWII is a source of national pride, and Dieppe Park, the centre piece of the Central Waterfront, is named in honour of those who served. Improvement of Willistead Manor Generous funding from the Canada 150 Community Infrastructure Program (CIP 150) through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario will allow for additional work identified in the 2003 building condition assessment to be completed for the preservation and continued functionality of Windsor's historic Willistead Manor. This 36-room mansion sits within a 15-acre park. Built in 1906, the Manor was briefly the home of Edward Chandler Walker and his wife, Mary. Today, this cultural gem in the City of Windsor is a perfect location for weddings, receptions, meetings and other special events. The 2003 report made recommendations for repairs, restorations and/or upgrades to maintain the integrity of the buildings. Since 2003, additional repairs have been identified, and the proposed project includes, but is not limited to window restoration; masonry re-pointing and crack repairs; repair of stucco; replacement of various aged mechanical equipment, such as heat pumps, water heaters; replacement or upgrades to the electrical distribution system and lighting; replacement of deteriorating pavement at entrances; site drainage; accessibility improvements and parking lot maintenance. Expansion of Gino and Liz Marcus Community Complex Generous funding from the Canada 150 Community Infrastructure Program (CIP 150) through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario will allow for the creation of a family change room at the Gino and Liz Marcus Community Complex - a neighbourhood community centre to improve accessibility to active living programs in the neighbourhood, which - in this case - also promotes acceptance of cultural diversity. Engaged, active and tolerant citizens help shape a bright future for Canada. Expansion and Rehabilitation of Windsor LOOP Cycling Network Multi-Use Trail Generous funding from the Canada 150 Community Infrastructure Program (CIP 150) through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario will allow for completion of a project that includes separated bicycle lanes, cycle tracks, multi-use trail and sharrows at the Cabana Road cycling facilities, all of which forms 5.3km of the 12.4km (7.7miles) remaining gap in the 42.5km circular loop around the perimeter of the City of Windsor, known as The Windsor LOOP. Windsor's New City Hall is intended to be an efficient, practical, functional, customer-service-oriented facility. The layout will be designed to benefit the public and stakeholders for ease of use and customer service. Working closely with City administration and other stakeholders, award winning architects Moriyama & Teshima and Windsor's Architecttura Inc. took all the prerequisites (location, direction, size and height) and added in some environmental potential and a few economically responsible aesthetics to ensure this new building will be as beautiful as it will be practical and cost effective. Hiram Walker Sculpture Hiram Walker was one of Windsor's most significant contributors. He was head of a family with a name so deeply entrenched in Windsor that it touches on facets of architecture, history, industry, neighbourhoods and pop culture. He was a true early industrialist who built his distillery, Hiram Walker & Sons Ltd. on the Windsor banks of the Detroit River. He created the world famous Canadian Club Whisky, and was a charitable man who donated money across the Windsor, Walkerville and Detroit areas. Mr. Walker established the neighbourhood that would become known as Walkerville and commissioned leading architects to construct impressive public and private buildings still visible today. He was involved, directly or indirectly, with a long list of regional assets that includes the Windsor Airport (formerly Walkerville Airport), Windsor Regional Metropolitan Hospital, Willistead Manor and a network of train lines throughout Southwestern Ontario. Artist/sculptor Mark Williams has designed, and is in the process of sculpting, an 8-foot bronze sculpture that is intended to be installed and unveiled in 2017 to commemorate this man's impact and influence on Windsor's history. Chief Tecumseh and General Brock Sculpture Artist/sculptor Mark Williams is hard at work completing large-scale bronze sculptures depicting Chief Tecumseh and General Brock to commemorate the War of 1812 and the Battle of Fort Detroit. When the project is complete and the statues are unveiled, Windsor will have two heroes of Canada – a First Nations chief and a British general, who came together – recreated in bronze and on display for the public for generations to come. The Great Canadian Flag Project The Great Canadian Flag Project, originally founded in 2014, is an endowment fund managed by the Windsor Essex Community Foundation for the purpose of designing, erecting and providing funds for the maintenance of a Canadian flag and pole at the foot of Ouellette Avenue in Dieppe Gardens in Windsor, Ontario. Once complete, the proposed flag would measure 60 feet by 30 feet and attach to a flagpole rising 150 feet out of the ground. The organizing committed continues to work toward their goal of seeing the flag fly in 2017 as part of our community's heritage celebrations. MasterCard Memorial Cup Remembrance Garden The 2017 MasterCard Memorial Cup Host Organizing Committee launched its Memorial Cup Remembrance Garden legacy project with a tulip bulb planting at the WFCU Centre in 2016. A mix of red and white tulips, along with a special Canadian Celebration Bulb created for Canada’s 150th anniversary were planted at the roundabout on Mickey Renaud Way. The tulips will be in-bloom in time for the event in May of 2017. The tulips represent an appreciation for the Canadian-led liberation of the Netherlands, for which the Dutch gifted over 100,000 tulip bulbs to the citizens of Canada. They also symbolize the relationship between Canadian and Dutch forces, who fought together in Afghanistan. Ontario 150 Windsor 125 Hiram Walker Wikipedia Chief Tecumseh Wikipedia General Brock Wikipedia Great Canadian Flag Project City of Windsor Twitter City of Windsor Facebook City of Windsor RSS City of Windsor Youtube City of Windsor flickr Culture Map Museum Windsor snapd Windsor 211211 Services	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line1022
__label__cc	0.572582	0.427418	Home » Blog » colorado » Colorado’s National Forests And Parks Colorado’s National Forests And Parks As the premier guest ranch of the west, C Lazy U is passionate about helping our guests learn, enjoy, and be inspired by nature. Tucked in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, C Lazy U is the ideal location to explore the beauty of Colorado’s wilderness and enjoy nearby National Parks and Forests. As part of our mission to educate and preserve the authenticity of Colorado and the greater American West, we’re examining the history and importance of National Parks and Forests. What Is A National Forest? A “National Forest” is a classification used to manage and protect American Forests and Grasslands. National Forests offer excellent recreation activities, like hiking, camping, fishing, hunting, and mountain biking. Is A National Forest Different Than A National Park? National Parks exist primarily for conservation, while National Forests can be used for a variety of purposes, including timber, grazing, wildlife, and more. While harvesting timber may seem counter-intuitive for protecting a National Forest, this practice is an important part of forest management. Who Created National Parks And Forests? Before the 19th century, public lands weren’t well-maintained, leading to illegal logging and over-harvesting of timber. To help conserve these lands, America’s first National Park, Yellowstone National Park, was named in 1872. As the need for regulated forest management became more important, President Benjamin Harrison created the National Forest System through the Land Revision Act of 1891. This act transformed public land into the first National Parks in the West, and during his presidency, Harrison would add over 12 million acres of land to forest Reserves. How Many National Parks And Forests Are In Colorado? Of the 422 National Parks and 154 National Forests in the US, Colorado is home to 4 National Parks and 11 National Forests. These include: Colorado National Parks Colorado National Forests Arapaho National Forest Grand Mesa National Forest Gunnison National Forest Rio Grande National Forest Roosevelt National Forest Routt National Forest San Isabel National Forest Uncompahgre National Forest White River National Forest National Parks & Forests Near C Lazy U Ranch C Lazy U is just a stone’s throw away from the Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) and the Arapaho & Roosevelt and National Forests. The proximity makes it easy for guests to go off-ranch to explore legendary hiking trails and scenic views. Since the ranch is on the border of RMNP, we share the same wildlife. With so many acres to explore on foot, horseback, ski, bike, or snowshoe, you can find Colorado wildlife in C Lazy U’s own backyard. If you’re lucky, you may see antelope, deer, foxes, and even moose and elk while on the property. “Didn't want to leave...” We had a wonderful experience after a few minor adjustments. Let me begin with the great things about C Lazy U! It was a wonderful week. The ranch is warm, welcoming and truly a lot of fun. The horseback riding and the wranglers were superb! The horses are extremely well cared for and the riding trails are fabulous.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line1023
__label__cc	0.529941	0.470059	Case Profile page permalink Case Name EEOC v. MUSEUM OF MODERN ART EE-NY-0109 Docket / Court 1:97-cv-09571-LAK-MHD ( S.D.N.Y. ) State/Territory New York Case Type(s) Disability Rights-Pub. Accom. Special Collection EEOC Study -- in sample Attorney Organization EEOC In December 1997, the New York District Office of the EEOC filed this suit against the Museum of Modern Art in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York alleging discrimination in violation of Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Specifically, the defendant ... read more > In December 1997, the New York District Office of the EEOC filed this suit against the Museum of Modern Art in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York alleging discrimination in violation of Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Specifically, the defendant failed to hire the charging party, a former employee who was deaf, as a temporary sales associate because of his disability. In August 1998, the defendant filed a motion for summary judgment. After the motion's denial in February 1999, the parties participated in an unsuccessful settlement conference. The case went to trial by jury a month later in March. The trial lasted for four days, and in late March 1999, the jury produced a verdict for the defendant. The EEOC appealed the decision in May 1999 but dismissed the appeal a few months later in July. Michele Marxkors - 06/27/2007 compress summary - click to show/hide ALL - Issues and Causes of Action click to show/hide detail Discrimination-area Discrimination-basis Disability (inc. reasonable accommodations) EEOC-centric Direct Suit on Merits Disparate Treatment Plaintiff Type EEOC Plaintiff Causes of Action Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 12111 et seq. Defendant(s) Museum of Modern Art Plaintiff Description Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, on behalf of one or more workers. Indexed Lawyer Organizations EEOC Class action status sought No Class action status granted No Filed Pro Se No Prevailing Party Defendant Public Int. Lawyer Yes Nature of Relief None Source of Relief None Filed 12/31/1997 Case Closing Year 1999 Case Ongoing No Court Docket(s) U.S. Court of Appeals 07/26/1999 99-6137 EE-NY-0109-9001.pdf \| Detail S.D.N.Y. 07/28/1999 1:97-cv-09571-LAK-MHD	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line1024
__label__wiki	0.500515	0.500515	good offices statutory license copyright technology copyright education copyright forum about kcc kcc introduction kcc character collective management organizations Laws And CHAPTER 11.PENALTY PROVISIONS Article 136 (Penalty Provisions) (1) Any person who falls under any of the following subparagraphs may be punished by imprisonment with labor up to five years or by a fine up to 50 million won, or may be punished by both: <Amended by Act No. 11110, Dec. 2, 2011> 1. A person who infringes on author’s economic right or other property rights protected pursuant to this Act (excluding the rights under Article 93) by means of reproduction, performance, public transmission, exhibition, distribution, rental, or production of derivative works; 2. A person who violates the court order under Article 129-3 (1) without justifiable grounds. (2) Any person who falls under any of the following subparagraphs shall be punished by imprisonment with labor for up to three years or by a fine up to 30 million won, or may be punishable by both: <Amended by Act No. 9625, Apr. 22, 2009; Act No. 10807, Jun. 30, 2011; Act No. 11110, Dec. 2, 2011> 1. A person who defames the honor of author or performer by infringing on author's or performer's moral rights; 2. A person who files for false registration pursuant to Articles 53 and 54 (including cases applied mutatis mutandis pursuant to Articles 90 and 98) deceitfully; 3. A person who infringes on the right of a database producer protected pursuant to Article 93 by means of reproduction, distribution, broadcasting or interactive transmission; 3-2. A person who violates Article 103-3 (4); 3-3. A person who violates Article 104-2 (1) or (2) for his/her own business or for profit; 3-4. A person who violates Article 104-3 (1) for his/her own business or for profit: Provided, That a person who, by negligence, has not known that such act causes or conceals the infringement of copyright or other rights protected pursuant to this Act shall be excluded herefrom; 3-5. A person who commits an act falling under subparagraph 1 or 2 of Article 104-4; 3-6. A person who violates Article 104-5; 4. A person who commits an act deemed an infringement pursuant to Article 124 (1); 5. and 6. Deleted. <by Act No. 10807, Jun. 30, 2011> (1) Any person who falls under any of the following subparagraphs shall be punished by imprisonment with labor up to one year or by a fine up to ten million won: <Amended by Act No. 9625, Apr. 22, 2009; Act No. 11110, Dec. 2, 2011> 1. A person who makes a work public under the real name or pseudonym of a person other than the author; 2. A person who publicly performs or publicly transmits a performance, or distributes copies of performance under the real name or pseudonym of a person other than the performer; 3. A person who violates Article 14 (2); 3-2. A person who conducts an act falling under subparagraph 3 of Article 104-4; 4. A person who operates copyright trust service without obtaining permission pursuant to Article 105 (1); 6. A person who obstructs the business of an online service provider by making a demand by intention for the suspension or resumption of a reproduction or interactive transmission under Article 103 (1) or (3), upon knowing that he/she had no legitimate authority; 7. A person who violates Article 55-2 (including cases applied mutatis mutandis pursuant to Articles 90 and 98). (2) A person who attempts to commit a crime under paragraph (1) 3-3 shall be punished. <Newly Inserted by Act No. 11110, Dec. 2, 2011> Any person who falls under any of the following subparagraphs shall be punished by a fine up to five million won: 2. A person who fails to indicate the sources, in violation of Article 37 (including the cases applied mutatis mutandis pursuant to Articles 87 and 94); 3. A person who fails to the holder of author's economic right, in violation of Article 58 (3) (including cases applied mutatis mutandis under Articles 63-2, 88 and 96); 4. A person who fails to notify the author, in violation of Article 58-2 (2) (including cases applied mutatis mutandis under Articles 63-2, 88 and 96); 5. A person who engages in a copyright agency or brokerage service without reporting pursuant to Article 105 (1), or who continues the services after receipt of an order to close the services pursuant to Article 109 (2). Article 139 (Confiscation) Among copies made by infringing on copyright or other rights protected pursuant to this Act and tools and materials mainly used to produce such copies, which are owned by the infringing person, printer, distributor or public performer shall be confiscated. <This Article Wholly Amended by Act No. 10807, Jun. 30, 2011> Article 140 (Complaint) The crimes under this Chapter shall be prosecuted only when the injured party has made a complaint: Provided, That in cases falling under any of the following subparagraphs, the same shall not apply: 1. Where an act falling under Article 136 (1) 1 or 136 (2) 3 and 4 (in cases falling under Article 124 (1) 3, the act shall not be punishable against the explicit opinion of the victim) has been committed habitually for profit-making; 2. Cases falling under Article 136 (2) 2 and 3-2 through 3-7, Article 137 (1) 1 through 4, 6 and 7, and subparagraph 5 of Article 138; 3. Deleted <by Act No. 11110, Dec. 2, 2011> Article 141 (Joint Penal Provisions) If a representative of a legal person, or an agent, employee or other employed persons of a legal person or an individual has committed a crime as prescribed under this Chapter with respect to the affairs of the legal person or the individual, the fine prescribed under the relevant Articles shall be imposed on such a legal person or an individual in addition to the punishment of the offender: Provided, That where a legal person or an individual has not neglected to pay reasonable attention to and supervise the relevant affairs in order to prevent such an offense, the same shall not apply. <Amended by Act No. 9625, Apr. 22, 2009> Article 142 (Administrative Fine) (1) A person who has failed to take necessary measures pursuant to Article 104 (1) shall be punished by an administrative fine not exceeding 30 million won. (2) A person who falls under any of the following subparagraphs shall be punished by an administrative fine not exceeding ten million won: <Amended by Act No. 9625, Apr. 22, 2009; Act No. 11110, Dec. 2, 2011; Act No. 14083, Mar. 22, 2016> 1. A person who fails to comply with the order of the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism under Article 103-3 (2); 2. A person who fails to perform his/her duty pursuant to Article 106; 3. A person who uses the title of the Korea Copyright Commission, in violation of Article 112 (4); 3-2. A person who uses the title of the Korea Copyright Protection Agency, in violation of Article 122-2 (5); 4. A person who fails to execute orders given by the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism pursuant to Article 133-2 (1), (2) and (4); 5. A person who fails to give notice pursuant to Article 133-2 (3), to post notice pursuant to paragraph (5) of the same Article, to give notice pursuant to paragraph (6) of the same Article. (3) An administrative fine pursuant to paragraphs (1) and (2) shall be imposed and collected by the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, as prescribed by Presidential Decree. (4) and (5) Deleted.<by Act No. 9625, Apr. 22, 2009> Copyright © Korea copyright commission 1/5F, 19, Chungui-ro, Jinju-si, Gyeongsangnam-do, Korea	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line1027
__label__wiki	0.835888	0.835888	CPC STATEMENT ON FEDERAL GOVERNMENT PUBLIC CHARGE RULE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Carlyn Cowen, Chief Policy and Public Affairs Officer (ccowen@cpc-nyc.org \| 919-637-6866) Federal rule will significantly expand the public charge determination on immigration test, penalizing use of public benefits and limiting immigration. New York, NY -- The Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC) condemns the finalized public charge rule announced by the Federal government today as a systematic attack on low-income, immigrant families, and communities of color. “As the nation’s largest social services nonprofit for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, CPC understands that this rule will be devastating for generations to come. CPC believes that immigrants should not have to choose between staying in this country and getting access to food, housing, and healthcare. The public charge rule is one of the widest-reaching attacks in a series of anti-immigrant laws and policies to come out of this Federal Administration,” said Wayne Ho, President & CEO of the Chinese-American Planning Council. The rule targets four public benefits that keep families from falling into crisis. These benefits prevent health emergencies, make housing affordable, and provide the nutrition needed for healthy, productive lives. Immigrant families could finally achieve legal permanent residency, but under this rule, they would face nutritional, health, housing, or economic ruin because they were stripped of the same benefits that supported generations of immigrant families before them. “This rule is designed to target immigrants that are people of color, low-income, limited English proficient, or are people with disabilities; and to force families to make an impossible choice between health, stability, and security for themselves and their loved ones or legal status in this country,” said Carlyn Cowen, Chief Policy and Public Affairs Officer at the Chinese-American Planning Council. Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) are the fastest growing racial group, both nationally and in New York State. In New York City, AAPIs make up 15% of the total population, and 96% of AAPI children struggling with poverty live with an immigrant parent, meaning that even U.S. born children can bear the brunt of a policy meant to punish and exclude foreign-born immigrants. Nationwide, 2.8 million AAPI immigrants live in families that receive one or more of the four public-benefit programs included in this rule, and up to 870,000 more are potentially eligible but under-enrolled. “Since the rule was proposed, community members have come to us attempting to disenroll from benefits or shred previous application forms for fear that it would hurt their immigration status,” said Amy Torres, Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Chinese-American Planning Council. “Immigrants who have spent years building a life in the U.S. are entitled to the benefits they have contributed tax dollars toward. No family should be forced to choose between following a cruel, xenophobic rule and meeting their most basic human needs.” Public charge tests have not always been part of U.S. immigration history. The origin of “public charge” was a precursor to the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, a hateful and destructive policy whose impacts on generations of Chinese Americans can still be felt today. CPC stands firmly opposed to this proposal, which is a reflection of some of the most shameful and destructive immigration policies in our nation’s history. CPC will continue working to fight back against this rule, and to ensure that our community members have all of the information and resources needed to make the best decisions for themselves and their families. About CPC The Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC) is the nation's largest Asian American social services organization. Founded in 1965, CPC aims to promote the social and economic empowerment of Chinese American, immigrant, and low-income communities of New York City. CPC Brooklyn Senior Services Hosts Art Exhibit By Steve Mei CPC Employment Services Hosts Second Open House for Census Bureau Jobs By Jacklyn Chan CPC Brooklyn Community Services Celebrates Lunar New Year - Year of the Pig	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line1029
__label__wiki	0.950637	0.950637	KATHIE OBRADOVICH Iowa religious liberty bill is a neon 'unwelcome' sign The Des Moines Register Conservative state senators took a novel approach this week to promote their bill on religious liberty: They argued that former President Bill Clinton and the late Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy were champions of the idea. Sen. Dennis Guth, R-Klemme, even read part of a speech that Clinton gave when he signed the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law in 1993: “What this law basically says is that the government should be held to a very high level of proof before it interferes with someone's free exercise of religion,” Clinton said in 1993. “This judgment is shared by the people of the United States as well as by the Congress. We believe strongly that we can never, we can never be too vigilant in this work.” The Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or RFRA, states that the government “shall not substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion” unless it shows a compelling interest. The government would also have to show that it is using the least restrictive means possible. Guth and other Republican senators want to enact a similar law in Iowa. Democratic Sen. Rob Hogg of Cedar Rapids, who opposed the bill, quoted the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia about why it would be a bad idea to create broad religious exemptions to the law: “The mere possession of religious convictions which contradict the relevant concerns of a political society does not relieve the citizen from the discharge of political responsibilities,” Scalia wrote in Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith. What a difference 25 years makes. In the early 1990s, the concern driving liberal support of religious freedom legislation was the desire to allow people to use controlled substances — hallucinogens such as peyote — in religious ceremonies. Back then, the U.S. Supreme Court thought it was a bad idea to open the door to religious excuse for use of illegal drugs. These days, the fighting issues for conservatives are health care and discrimination, particularly against gays and lesbians. The first people to testify at this week’s subcommittee hearing on Senate Study Bill 3171 were Betty and Dick Odgaard of Grimes. They said they were forced to shut down their wedding venue business after refusing to serve a same-sex couple. They said they were acting on their religious belief that marriage is a holy sacrament between a man and a woman. “If this law had been in place for us, we might have had a chance,” Betty Odgaard said. Pro tip: If you want to persuade people your bill won’t discriminate, don’t invite people who want to discriminate to be the first ones to testify in the bill’s favor. Guth, during debate in the Senate Local Government Committee on Wednesday, said if a woman were denied contraceptives by a pharmacist who objected to them on religious grounds, she would have to file a lawsuit. So would an interracial couple who couldn’t rent an apartment because the landlord objected to their marriage on religious grounds. In other words, private citizens and businesses whose religious beliefs justify bigotry would have a fighting chance to discriminate and the remedy for people who want to defend their civil rights would be an expensive and time-consuming lawsuit. Something else has changed in the last quarter-century since Bill and Ted’s RFRA was a ticket to an excellent peyote adventure. Corporations, athletic associations and other groups that want nothing to do with such a law have learned to wield their economic clout to reinforce their positions. When then-Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed similar legislation in March 2015, boycotts cost Indianapolis about a dozen conventions and about $60 million in revenue, according to the Indianapolis Star. The panic caused Indiana lawmakers and Pence to amend their law to specify that it would not allow businesses to discriminate. Pence's fumbling pinches GOP 2016 field Indianapolis, which also has a non-discrimination ordinance, recovered and broke tourism records that year. That does not change the fact that Iowa’s version of RFRA, which lacks the non-discrimination language, could hurt our state’s economy. When North Carolina lawmakers decided to dictate which bathrooms that transgender people could use, the NBA pulled its All-Star Game and about $100 million in associated economic impact out of Charlotte. The NCAA also moved seven major championship games out of North Carolina. Iowa is scheduled to host the first and second round of the men’s NCAA basketball tournament next year. The NCAA could pull out if Iowa enacts this legislation, Hogg said. Top Iowa and national employers are registered as opposing the bill, including the Principal Financial Group, Association of Business and Industry, Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook, Wellmark, the Greater Des Moines Partnership and Iowa Chamber Alliance. A spokesman for Principal said the legislation would make it difficult to recruit employees. Religious freedom is vitally important, which is why it’s enshrined in the First Amendment. Guth and other lawmakers backing this bill have not offered a single example of an Iowa church or other religious institution that has been forced by an Iowa court to violate its religious principles in the face of a civil rights complaint. This proposed legislation may have most of the same words as the federal law that Clinton signed 25 years ago. But it means something entirely different today to LGBT people, people with physical disabilities and racial and ethnic minorities who live with discrimination every day. Today, it’s a neon sign that says “Iowa doesn’t welcome people like us.”	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line1031
__label__wiki	0.866688	0.866688	US to block goods from Chinese company over rights abuses Ben Fox Washington – The U.S. said Wednesday it would block imports from a major Chinese producer of cotton goods because of its reliance on workers detained as part of a crackdown on ethnic minorities in China’s northwest. Customs and Border Protection issued an order halting shipments from the state-controlled Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. Any U.S. company seeking to import goods from the company would have to prove they were not made with the forced labor of Uighurs and other ethnic minorities subjected to the crackdown. In July, the U.S. Treasury added XPCC to a sanctions list that prohibits Americans from conducting any financial transactions with the company. It is the sixth enterprise from the Uighur region whose goods have been blocked by Customs in recent months. Still, the new order represents an escalation of U.S. efforts to pressure China over its campaign in Xinjiang, where authorities have imprisoned more than 1 million people in brutal conditions as part an effort to force ethnically and culturally distinct minorities to assimilate into the dominate Han Chinese culture. XPCC controls about a third of cotton production in the Uighur region and about 6% of all cotton globally, according to the Worker Rights Consortium, a nongovernmental organization. “CBP’s action is a body-blow to every brand that intends to continue sourcing cotton from the Uighur Region,” Scott Nova, the group’s executive director, said in a statement. U.S. officials, in announcing the trade measure, did not name any companies that have imported goods produced by XPCC. “China’s systemic abuse of forced labor in the Xinjiang region should disturb every American business and consumer,” acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan said. “Forced labor is a human rights violation that hurts vulnerable workers and introduces unfair competition into global supply chains.” The Trump administration action comes as Congress considers legislation that would declare all goods produced in Xinjiang as presumptively the product of forced labor and therefore barred from being imported into the United States. The legislation passed the House of Representatives with overwhelming bipartisan support in September but still must clear the Senate. The administration is also considering a blanket ban, said acting Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli. Some companies and business groups oppose a region-wide ban, arguing it would harm legitimate producers and manufacturers because there is no effective way to inspect and audit suppliers. The region is a source of tomatoes and electronic goods as well as cotton and textiles. China has disputed the widespread and consistent reports of abuse and mistreatment of the Uighurs and other minorities, defending the campaign as an effort to crack down on extremism and claiming the vast network of detention camps are for vocational and language training.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line1032
__label__wiki	0.76466	0.76466	Beware Donald Trump's Electoral Cleansing Is U.S. President actually using a calculated strategy that COVID-19 is not an equal-opportunity killer? U.S. President Donald Trump listens to a reporter's question during an event on protecting seniors with diabetes, in the Rose Garden at the White House on May 26, 2020 in Washington, DC. The United States is closing in on 100,000 deaths in less than four months caused by the coronavirus. (Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images) On May 26, as the U.S. coronavirus death toll passed 100,000, former Bush speechwriter and NeverTrumper David Frum appeared on a cable news show and made a stunning pronouncement about Donald Trump and his handling of the pandemic. If correct, Frum didn’t merely echo all the armchair psychiatry we’ve heard about Trump—that he’s a compulsive con artist, a sociopath, or a malignant narcissist—but rather, that the president is engaged in something that can best be described as calculated murder for electoral advantage. First, Frum said the incessant drumbeat from Trump and his circle about reopening the economy is not just an obvious attempt to change the subject from the COVID-19 deaths and focus on his perceived strength, but an effort to lay the groundwork, should he lose the election, for a “stab in the back” narrative to delegitimize the winner. The stab in the back legend derives from Germany’s loss of World War I. General Erich Ludendorff and the general staff knew the war was lost as early as August 8, 1918, and Ludendorff appealed to the Kaiser several times for armistice talks. But once these were set for November, the general staff absconded from all participation, saddling civilians with the responsibility, and onus, for submitting to the Allies. It was a neat trick: the military, and all the militaristic elements in Germany who cheered on the war, then claimed the boys at the front were stabbed in the back by “the November criminals,” that is, they said, the politicians, abetted by Jews, socialists, and anyone who had doubts about the conflict. "The virus strikes urban areas, minorities, nursing homes, and industries like meat-packing plants more severely, so Trump and his retinue figure that they can 'take the punch' of 100,000 to 200,000 deaths, because they may fall disproportionately on people who don’t vote Republican." The army leadership’s own bungled 1918 offensive, which threw away Germany’s last reserves, and even the fact that they were the ones who asked for terms from the Allies, was deftly erased. The stab-in-the-back legend was key to poisoning the Weimar Republic and propelling the rise of Hitler. Trump, in Frum’s telling, is concocting his own stab in the back myth. The Trump fairy tale will claim that if it wasn’t for all those egg-headed scientists and worthless governors, the economy already would have recovered by November, and he would have sailed to victory. Scientists, governors, and treacherous Democrats will be the new November criminals who hamstrung the economy and sank Trump’s reelection. As a kind of preemptive victimization narrative, this complements Trump’s— and other Republicans’—relentless braying about mail-in and absentee voting being election fraud. Some Republicans are going to extraordinary lengths to prevent voting by any means except in person. Both the stab in the back myth and the election fraud myth—which Trump has already used to excuse his three million popular vote loss to Hillary Clinton in 2016—are methods to inoculate himself against defeat and reinforce the notion that the winning candidate is illegitimate. This is significant in two ways. Trump may hope to head off any soul-searching by the Republican establishment as to whether turning the party into a Jonestown cult was a good idea. Preventing an after-action critique will both ensure the GOP remains a pseudo-populist authoritarian movement and guarantee future roles for Trump as a revered elder statesman, as well as for Don, Jr., Eric, and the rest of his spawn and inner circle. Should Trump lose, he also will claim that his victorious opponent was illegitimate, because “shutting down the economy” was tantamount to election fraud. Given that Trump already said in 2016 that he would not necessarily accept the results of the election if he lost, the election fraud charge is par for his usual behavior. It could make a post-election America as ungovernable as the Weimar Republic. In an even more startling allegation, Frum further described how despite the headwinds, Republicans will still try to win. COVID-19 is not, in Frum’s words, “an equal-opportunity killer.” The virus strikes urban areas, minorities, nursing homes, and industries like meat-packing plants more severely, so Trump and his retinue figure that they can “take the punch” of 100,000 to 200,000 deaths, because they may fall disproportionately on people who don’t vote Republican. On the other hand, as long as the economy reopens, typical Trump voters will disproportionately be the beneficiaries, and accordingly will reward him at the polls. Frum called this a “calculated decision” to prioritize the economy over human life. Put the way he did, this sounds more like calculated genocide, much like Stalin’s sacrifice of Ukrainian peasants for the sake of his five-year economic plan. How plausible is it? At least based on what Trump says, the president, engaged as he is in a mutually reinforcing relationship with his violence-fantasizing base, revels in death. Just the other day, he re-tweeted to his followers that the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat. Following the first disturbances in Minneapolis, he daydreamed on Twitter about mass shooting. Whatever his own physical cowardice, his entire rhetoric, from “fire and fury” to “super-duper missiles,” is drenched in violence. Is this just play-acting? Is Frum luridly speculating? We already have seen evidence of his jeopardizing lives for blatantly political purposes in the deliberate maldistribution of medical protective equipment to areas representing his supporters rather than regions in deeper need. He has used federal personnel to confiscate shipments of equipment that was appropriately authorized by state governments that desperately had to have it. How many already have died because of these actions? In truth, all of his actions, when judged by their clearly foreseeable consequences rather than the mainstream media’s intimation of ham-fisted good faith, take on a darker interpretation. In American law and in what passes for American “common sense,” there is far too much insistence upon the convoluted hunt for an elusive “motive” that is detached from the act itself, as if we still believed in Cartesian mind-body dualism. But an action usually lays bare the motive for all to see: every criminal may have a catalogue of self-justifying “motives” (meaning excuses) for his behavior, but his crimes reify his true motives, and suffice to judge him. "In truth, all of his actions, when judged by their clearly foreseeable consequences rather than the mainstream media’s intimation of ham-fisted good faith, take on a darker interpretation." Has Trump’s record of handling the pandemic simply constituted bungling and stupidity? Granted, in the face of a new disease with no vaccine, it would be difficult for even the best-qualified epidemiologist always to make the right decision. On the other hand, the president’s every action invariably has been wrong, and not just a little bit wrong: Dismissing early intelligence reports, delaying life-saving measures, censoring or suppressing guidance manuals, firing scientists trying to do their job, touting patently phony or dangerous “cures,” deriding masks, and doing his worst to foment division and hatred at a time when social trust is most needed. The stupidest leader imaginable randomly might have gotten something right; Trump has a one hundred-percent perfect record of failure. In his lust for chaos and destruction, did the president devise these malfeasances on his own? Was there some individual or cabal of White House advisers who suggested them? Did his great friend Vladimir Putin whisper them in his ear during one of their discussions? It is for future historians to unearth whether it is high treason or “mere” electoral calculation, but there is no question that since mid-January, every one of Trump’s actions on coronavirus has served to sabotage an effective response that would have saved tens of thousands of lives. The “calculated” strategy Frum has proposed, that Trump and his coterie are deliberately letting COVID-19 burn through the country in a way that has a greater negative effect on Democrats, may—at least for now—be based on fact. The virus established itself first in areas that are international travel and trade hubs, like New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle, then spread quickly in those densely populated areas. These areas are heavily Democratic. That said, the highest rates of increase now are in predominantly rural Red states. This spread is exacerbated by Republican governors and legislatures who act like Trump Mini-Me’s, compounding every destructive pronouncement from Washington. And now that mask-wearing and social distancing are at the top of the culture-wars agenda, Trump’s base is gleefully behaving like suicide bombers, as the ludicrous scenes from Lake of the Ozarks and the Alabama shore make evident. What’s more, however much the death rates are disproportionate among minorities, the Republicans’ most reliable base of support for decades has been the elderly. Fifty-eight percent of those over 65 said they voted for Trump in 2016. But according to polling in early May, there is now an 18-percent drop in support from that group. That may erode further: seniors are among those most vulnerable to the virus, a condition compounded by the fact that Republicans are doing their utmost to force them to vote in person. Of course, pundits can, as usual, callously game out political winners and losers, as if this were an ordinary election, but Frum’s warning remains shocking. We can only hope against expectation that it will not be absorbed and debased into the conventional wisdom of horse race politics, so that by Labor Day, the media might report, in their serious, grown-up, and “objective” but non-judgmental voices, whether Trump’s electoral culling strategy is a loser, or a stroke of political genius—of “throwing away the rule book.” What has happened will submit to posterity’s judgment regardless of what we or the pundits think. It’s been roughly 100 days since the serious onset of the pandemic, yielding 100,000 deaths: 1,000 deaths per day, double the daily rate of the Civil War, the bloodiest war in US history when Americans died on both sides. Most Americans haven’t yet fully grasped the implications. But the ongoing protests, ostensibly about a longstanding abuse unrelated to coronavirus, may tell us that a growing number of people subliminally sense that they face a far more existential threat than losing their jobs or the inconvenience of social distancing. Police brutality was the spark, but the tinder is the half-conscious awareness that lives are expendable, not just in ones or twos, but in tens of thousands. Many of the greatest crimes in history miscarried for their perpetrators, at least in terms of their stated objective, which usually was political power. But what if the actual motive was embodied in the deed itself: death and destruction for its own sake? Mike Lofgren is a former congressional staff member who served on both the House and Senate budget committees. His books include: "The Deep State: The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government" (2016) and "The Party is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class Got Shafted" (2013). Our work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. Feel free to republish and share widely. Impeached Twice, Trump's Presidency Was a Climate Disaster Donald Trump, Election 2020, Coronavirus, Pandemic, Vote Suppression, Pandemic	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line1033
__label__wiki	0.553782	0.553782	https://www.concordia.ca/content/shared/en/news/main/stories/2020/10/15/concordia-psychology-phd-kathleen-kennedy-turner-receives-the-prix-releve-etoile-for-september.html Concordia psychology PhD Kathleen Kennedy-Turner receives the Prix Relève Étoile for September The Fonds de Recherche du Québec recognizes outstanding graduate research every month By Alexander Hackett Kathleen Kennedy-Turner Kathleen Kennedy-Turner (PhD 20), a graduate in psychology at Concordia, has been awarded the Prix Relève étoile Paul-Gérin-Lajoie for September by the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Société et Culture. The FRQSC awards the prize once a month to promote exceptional research by graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. They recognized Kennedy-Turner for her article "Prevention of Criminal Offending: The Intervening and Protective Effects of Education for Aggressive Youth," which was published in The British Journal of Criminology. "This award is important to me because it is not usual for a psychology student to publish outside of the psychology domain," she says. "It's published in a criminology journal, and for this article in particular to be recognized makes me proud of my work and accomplishments. The award will help me expand my network and give me the opportunity to talk about my work with the public." From natural sciences to psych Her research focuses on the role that education plays in the trajectory from childhood to criminal behaviour in adulthood. "In my work, I examine factors like aggression and neighbourhood disadvantage in childhood, and how they can predict both educational attainment and criminal charges directly and indirectly through the effects they have on education," she explains. Formerly a student in the natural sciences, Kennedy-Turner decided to switch to psychology and subsequently worked as a childcare worker in youth protection centres. That’s where she gained the field experience that still inspires her research today. The winning article is the first of two studies that make up her dissertation. So, what's next for the researcher? "I am progressing with research related to my doctoral thesis. But in my forthcoming research I will also be examining the role that the stress response system plays in the development of adverse life outcomes," she continues. "My second study is under review now. And although many things are uncertain because of the pandemic, for the next two years I will be completing a postdoc fellowship at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique’s Centre Urbanisation Culture Société. I will also keep my part-time work as an educator at Batshaw Youth and Family Centres." Asked if the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted her research at all, Kennedy-Turner says, "Thankfully, for now it has not. I secured a postdoc and funding for a position in Montreal, so I don’t need to move. It could, however, hinder data collection, but we are actively trying to find ways around this. Beyond the postdoc I will try to secure work as a researcher to continue writing and publishing." Read the cited article: "Prevention of Criminal Offending: The Intervening and Protective Effects of Education for Aggressive Youth.” Find out more about Concordia’s Department of Psychology. awards research psychology accolades Concordia PhD student is recognized for her work on parental grief and photographic remembrance	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line1034
__label__wiki	0.870471	0.870471	Jeff Jacobs: UConn pays for a 2020 exit from the AAC Jeff Jacobs July 26, 2019 Updated: July 26, 2019 11:32 a.m. 1of2Connecticut athletic director David Benedict holds a news conference in his office at the University of Connecticut, Saturday, Jan. 19, 2019, in Storrs, Conn. Benedict says the school has not ruled out eliminating some sports to close a more than $40 million gap in its athletic budget. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)Photo: Jessica Hill / Associated Press 2of2In this Feb. 13, 2017, file photo, American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco, left, talks with UConn athletic director David Benedict, right, before an NCAA college basketball game between UConn and South Carolina in Storrs.Photo: Jessica Hill / Associated Press The exit cost was more than folks in Connecticut initially expected, certainly more than UConn wanted to pay and less than the American Athletic Conference wanted to receive. In the end, UConn and athletic director David Benedict had to close their eyes and rip off that Band-Aid known as Tulane and Tulsa. The price tag: $17 million. Matters became official on Friday. UConn will leave the AAC in time to compete in the Big East for the 2020-2021 season. With no football in the Big East, UConn, as expected, also announced it will pursue a future course as an FBS independent. The most intriguing part on this day, however, was not in the letters. It was in the numbers. When UConn made its intentions known to leave the American in June, it was immediately reinforced that league bylaws demanded a 27-month exit notification and $10 million fee. The 27 months is key. That wouldn’t have been a two-year commitment to remain in the American. That would have meant three. Connecticut sports fans, excited and itching badly to return to its Big East home, would have been waiting until 2022-2023. That would have been more than a temporary buzz kill. That would have led to growing anger and disappointment among the school’s fanbase and growing resentment among the American schools toward UConn. AAC commissioner Mike Aresco also knew that such potential ugliness is best ended sooner than later. He said that in Newport at the AAC football media day earlier this month. Something had to give in negotiations. And UConn, without much leverage, did. More than it wanted. If the exit would have been negotiated for next July and the fee for, oh, $12.5 million, UConn’s victory would have been overwhelming not only in emotion but in negotiation. Such early optimism evaporated when word began to slide out that it could cost north of $15 million. On Thursday, we no longer needed to find out how far north. UConn getting out in one year is quicker than some schools did in national conference realignment. West Virginia did pay the Big East $20 million after a lawsuit enabled WVU to leave in one year. Of course, the Big 12, which paid $9 million of it, is a Power Five conference. Is UConn happy with paying $17 million? Of course not. Like we said, the leverage did not reside in Storrs. Yes, it will sting the first two years, but what UConn did work out was a good arrangement to pay it off. In that context, an athletic department already squirting red ink of $40 million annual at last count, made it palatable. The AAC already is holding in escrow this past year’s year-end distribution of approximately $5.1 million to UConn. The AAC will hold next year’s distribution, too. There’s no way of knowing an exact figure. Some of it depends on how successful the league is, especially in football. If the AAC lands a spot in a New Year’s Six bowl, as it has the last few years, and Geno Auriemma gets the UConn women into the Final Four (a direct $500,000 bonus), that will mean a payout in the $5 million to $6 million range. The hope is UConn is around the $11 million mark by next year. UConn negotiated the balance and each year for the following six years the school would give the AAC about $1 million. That’s tenable. With the move, the school also looks at saving upward of $2 million a year in travel and believes there will be at least a $2 million increase in revenue related to men’s basketball. If those figures reach fruition, the entire $17 million exit and $3.5 million Big East entry fees would be covered in five years. If you can get your money back in five years and you’re planning to play elite hoops until the Final Four is decided in the Book of Revelation, it’s a sound business decision. Here’s where the faith comes in. If UConn fans want to be as fiscally satisfied as they are basketball elated with the move, Randy Edsall needs to win football games. And, vitally important, Benedict must annually get attractive teams on an independent schedule. That will determine if UConn is perpetually UMass or can rise closer to a BYU. It also will frame an argument whether football should stay, drop to FCS, or go entirely. Those words are not delivered lightly. Said Benedict, “While I can’t start talking about specific teams we’re talking to and looking to put on our schedule — you need to have contracts done — I’m very optimistic in our ability to put together very competitive and attractive schedules.” In the next two years, UConn has home-and-home with Illinois and Indiana. In 2021, UConn has Purdue at home and a big payday at Clemson. There is the completion of the Purdue series and ones against North Carolina State, Duke and Boston College in succeeding years. Tennessee is down the road. They are starting points. While Benedict eschews specifics, there are whispers of some attractive Power Five schools, ACC, SEC, as soon as 2020. The proof, of course, will be in the scheduling pudding. College fans cheer for and against the laundry more than the players between the lines. Some really good AAC football and basketball teams came into the Rent, XL Center and Gampel Pavilion in recent years and did little more than create a blip. Villanova comes into the XL Center, good grief, it’s crazy. Beyond initially notifying some AAC schools that UConn was leaving after news unexpectedly leaked, there was no contact between Benedict and any of the American members. The negotiation was with the commissioner’s office. While so far apart at one point that UConn feared the league was negotiating the school into staying for three years, both sides maintained it remained fairly amicable. UConn simply didn’t have the money to write the bigger check Aresco wanted. The move to the Big East isn’t a Power Five goldmine. The move is to get UConn where it feels it needs to be. To help close the negotiating gap, UConn agreed to make a “best effort” to play games, four home-and-homes, against AAC teams during the exiting period. Say, two series each for the men and women against Temple and Memphis with the men and USF with the women. Who knows which schools are willing to enter a difficult environment like Gampel? We’ll see how it goes. There are a few other factors to consider. While reports centered on a $7 million average payout a year from the AAC from a new 12-year, $1-billion media deal, the first-year payout is around $5 million and builds from there. There also was the cost assumed by the schools for producing ESPN+ broadcasts. The substantial weight for UConn would have in men’s and women’s basketball. SNY has done a high-level job with the women and there would have been expectations to maintain quality. UConn fans don’t want dime-store hoops broadcasts. Eventually, UConn would have needed to produce 75 total games a year across its athletic teams. If 15-20 were men’s and women’s basketball that might be $15,000-$20,000 a game, the school could have been looking at $300,000-$400,000 fairly quickly. Factor in more than 50 other events, at $3,000 to $5,000, that’s at least $500,000 a year. In immediate glow of June’s Big East announcement, UConn sold 3,000 basketball season tickets. Confirmation of the exit should provide more momentum. “I think we’ll see another spike in the next week,” Benedict said. In the meantime, the UConn AD will work the phones constantly for football opponents and a television deal. SNY has been a strong partner and will be there for football if needed. Still, a national outlet would be the No. 1 choice. There’s no denying $17 million is a big gulp and there is great pressure to make this all work. jeff.jacobs@hearstmediact.com; @jeffjacobs123 Follow Jeff on: jeffjacobs123 Jeff Jacobs is a 10-time Connecticut Sports Writer of the Year and four times has been honored by the Associated Press Sports Editors as one of the top 10 columnists in the country. Jeff’s passion for local sports runs the gamut from high school athletics to UConn basketball — he has covered all four UConn men’s championships and 10 of the 11 women’s titles. He’s also covered multiple Olympics, World Series and Super Bowls. Along the way, he has demonstrated a zeal for the big scoop and a finely honed ability to convey essential human tales that resonate far beyond the sports world. Jeff Jacobs: Denying spring football, basketball tournament memories, CIAC ignores the possibilities Jeff Jacobs: Sacred Heart finds hidden gem close to home in Tyler Thomas Jeff Jacobs: One game at a time, Darien’s Spencer Knight and Team USA rolled to gold	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line1039
__label__wiki	0.968789	0.968789	'Breeding grounds for this virus': Health experts warn large protests heighten risk of coronavirus spread Ken Alltucker and Karen Weintraub USA TODAY Public health officials warn new cases of COVID-19 probably will emerge after mass gatherings fueled by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and racial unrest in cities across America. Health experts fear carriers of coronavirus, which causes the disease, with no symptoms could unwittingly infect others at protests where social distancing is simply not taking place. The merits of the protesters' cause "doesn’t prevent them from getting the virus,” said Bradley Pollock, chairman of the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of California, Davis. At least one protester in Tampa, Florida, is known to have COVID-19. Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan, who expressed dismay last week about Floyd's death, tweeted Monday that five of his officers were exposed to the protester, whom he did not identify. Protesting – especially without a mask – can put people at higher risk for infection, said Dr. Michael Mina, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. "There's no doubt in my mind that these can become breeding grounds for this virus," he said during a Monday media availability. "I would not be surprised to see in the next couple of weeks that we see increases that may be linked to protests." Viral photos: A photo page of striking moments from the week’s protests. As businesses re-open, it will be difficult to figure out whether someone caught the virus at a protest or in some other encounter, Mina said. Hopefully, the fact that protests are taking place out of doors, will dilute the virus and reduce disease transmission, he said. Wearing a mask will help reduce infections, though it won't completely eliminate risk. "If there's a floridly positive person who is coughing and spending a whole day around a lot of other people, that person might very well get other people sick despite having a mask on," Mina added, but "there's a good chance that even homemade masks will actually do quite a bit to help people not get infected and not transmit." There is historical precedent to suggest that viruses can be spread by large public gatherings. In September 1918, people in Philadelphia held a parade to celebrate the return of soldiers from World War I. The gathering of 200,000 people, crammed shoulder to shoulder, reignited a deadly flu epidemic, leading to massive closures and thousands of deaths, records show. Yet, there's a public health cost to not protesting the status quo, said Dr. Hillary Babcock, an infectious disease specialist at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and immediate past president of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. "Systemic racism also causes large public health impacts and public health risks for large portions of our population," Babcock said. She disagreed with calls for protesters to stay home to avoid fueling the outbreak. "I don't think using public health as a reason to discourage protests after these events is really appropriate," Babcock said. "It's a little disingenuous to say that the health risk from protesting is somehow bigger than the health risk at Lake of Ozarks (where people gathered for fun over Memorial Day weekend) or the practices that brought us to this point in the first place." At least one reveler at the lake party tested positive for COVID-19, according to the Camden County Health Department. Others were advised to monitor for symptoms. Babcock said it is possible to minimize the risks of protesting, with masks, social distancing and asking sick people to stay home. Arresting people and putting them into close contact with others increases risk, Babcock said, as does spraying protesters with pepper spray, which causes violent coughing and can potentially spread the virus. Timeline: George Floyd protests: How did we get here? Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency room physician and former Baltimore health commissioner, said there is risk of longer-term effects in communities disproportionately affected by COVID-19. Wen was Baltimore's health commissioner when protests erupted following the 2015 death of Freddie Gray. The death triggered civil unrest in communities already burdened with deep-seated inequities, she said. "When over a dozen pharmacies burned down and closed and stores were looted, it was community members themselves who were affected the most," Wen said. While protests over the past week following Floyd's death have highlighted police-community relations, demonstrators are also calling attention to social justice issues, including health disparities. "The same communities that are already the most affected are potentially going to have an increase in the number of cases as a result of people gathering," Wen said. Melanie Campbell, president of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, said anger in the black community has been building for years. Floyd's death spurred them to take to the streets, even as the coronavirus has taken a disproportionate toll on African Americans. "Black people are risking their lives protesting in the middle of a pandemic that’s killing black folks. That’s real," she said. "There is no convenient time to fight back." Meanwhile, state and local public health agencies plan to monitor for new COVID-19 cases. Any large gathering during a pandemic is a concern, said John C. Welch, director of partnerships and operations for the Massachusetts Covid Response project. Partners in Health, a Boston-based nonprofit, handles Massachusetts’ contact tracing of individuals infected with or exposed to the virus. Following such a large gathering, potential cases need to be monitored over two weeks, the virus’s incubation period. “The epidemic curve should guide the response and the phased reopening of society," Welch said. "Until the epidemic is declared over, social distancing and wearing masks should remain the new normal." Peter Pitts, president and co-founder of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, a nonpartisan research and educational organization, said he worries COVID-19 will take advantage of people gathering to protest police violence. "Social distancing and social conflict are a very potent negative combination when it comes to spreading a virus," he said. "The timing is highly unfortunate." Public health concerns, which are usually complicated, can easily be drowned out by other "sexier" stories, he said, citing the recent SpaceX launch. But the virus "doesn't cease to be a real threat because of other threats happening simultaneously," he said. "That means we have to twice as smart and twice as dedicated and twice as focused." Resource/How to help list	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line1042
__label__wiki	0.640658	0.640658	County presents findings from courthouse feasibility study to the public County contracted TreanorHL to complete the study at the old Kmart building, which is the same company the school district used for its facilities upgrade study Joshua Carney jcarney@craigdailypress.com A rendering of the possible Moffat County Courthouse utilizing the old Kmart building. Courtesy Photo / TreanorHL Roughly six months after Moffat County commissioners approved an $80,800 bid from TreanorHL to conduct a feasibility study for a new county courthouse, the county has a better idea of what the future project might cost. According to a Tuesday morning presentation from Roy Tipton from the Office of Development Services, the 94,602-square-foot Kmart building would cost roughly $25.28 million to fully renovate into a new county courthouse. If the county continued to renovate, upgrade and add onto the current courthouse, the price tag would sit around $45.51 million. Commissioners have speculated that if Chief Judge Michael O’Hara ordered the county to build a new courthouse from the ground up down the line, that price could be an additional $10 million to $15 million more. According to the study, county departments would need roughly 59,625 square feet, while the 14th Judicial District would need 42,369 square feet in a remodel or new building. The study of the current courthouse and a possible new location at the old Kmart building was needed due to the current courthouse failing to comply with building codes and the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to Lennie Gillam, the county’s facilities director. Tipton added that significant security issues abound with the current courthouse, which has created unsafe situations for law enforcement officers and potential jurors. Added pressure from the 14th Judicial District to correct these issues led to the need for the study, which was funded by an $80,000 grant from the Underfunded Courthouse Facility Fund, $20,000 from the Department of Local Affairs and $20,000 from the county. Due to the pressure from the state judicial branch, Moffat County has to look into ways to improve the courthouse, or move into a new and improved building. “When I say State Judicial is pushing us on this, they are; they’re full upstairs,” Tipton said during his presentation. “There are a number of deficiencies in this building that have been known for a long time. The real serious, life-threatening deficiencies are in safety.” Safety is the main area of concern when it comes to the current courthouse. In-custody transportation is the No. 1 concern at the courthouse, which was built in 1917 and remodeled in 1962, according to Tipton. “The deputies have to bring inmates up a narrow set of stairs, all the way from the bottom to the top floor,” Tipton said. “It’s unsecured up there, and there’s no waiting area or holding for the inmates; it’s just not safe.” The county’s current budget is roughly $20 million for the project, according to Tipton. The courthouse at the Kmart building potentially could be financed through old bonds that were used to fund the Public Safety Center. According to a previous Craig Press report, Tipton had originally floated the idea to commissioners in October 2019. Those bonds Tipton references will be retired in 2023 and 2025, which would free up revenue that could be applied to improvements at the courthouse or for use at the Kmart building. “These revenues were approved by the voters for capital projects, so another ballot question would not have to take place,” Tipton said. According to Tipton’s research regarding construction costs, FCI out of Grand Junction is charging $252 per square foot, while the average cost of construction per square foot in Denver is roughly $200. Therefore the county is hoping for somewhere in the middle when it comes to negotiating construction costs should they pursue the Kmart building. County commissioners will hold a discussion Tuesday, Sept. 15, at the next county commissioners’ meeting regarding the study’s findings and what the county should do next in terms of the recommendations from TreanorHL. Local business owners looking forward to possible 5-Star State Certification Program coming to Moffat County As the 5-Star Program State Certification Program gains steam in Colorado in order to help businesses, some local business owners are high on the idea in Moffat County. Primary goal of Office of Just Transition’s Action Plan is helping communities transition to prosperous futures Crime Briefs: Man runs into protected party in Walmart, refuses to leave Rio Blanco secures water right for dam-and-reservoir project	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line1044
__label__wiki	0.997905	0.997905	Horace Grant fumes at Michael Jordan's 'lie' in 'The Last Dance' about him being a 'snitch' Steve Gardner / USA TODAY Calling out what he felt were several cinematic liberties taken in "The Last Dance," former Chicago Bulls power forward Horace Grant saved his strongest criticism for the documentary's central figure, Michael Jordan. Appearing on ESPN 1000 radio in Chicago, Grant called Jordan's allegation that he was the one who leaked locker room details to journalist Sam Smith "a downright, outright, completely lie." Grant acknowledged a friendship with Smith, who wrote the best-selling book, "The Jordan Rules." However, he denied being one of Smith's inside sources. "I would never put anything personal out there," Grant said. "My point is, he said that I was the snitch, but yet and still after 35 years he brings up his rookie year going into one of his teammate's rooms and seeing coke, and weed and women. "My point is: Why the hell did he want to bring that up? What's that got to do with anything? I mean, if you want to call somebody a snitch, that's a damn snitch right there." Grant was a major part of the Bulls teams that won three consecutive NBA titles from 1991-1993 before he left Chicago as a free agent in 1994 to sign with the Orlando Magic. He wasn't the only former teammate to have issues with how they were portrayed in "The Last Dance." For example, Grant says Jordan didn't always get away with bullying and harassing other team members. "It wasn't real -- because a lot of things [Jordan] said to some of his teammates, that his teammates went back at him. But all of that was kind of edited out of the documentary, if you want to call it a documentary," Grant said. He said Jordan's involvement in the production of the 10-part series calls the objectivity of director Jason Hehir into question. "When that so-called documentary is about one person, basically, and he has the last word on what's going to be put out there ... it's not a documentary," Grant said.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line1046
__label__wiki	0.788563	0.788563	Suicide on the Capitol Luna Uprety, Staff Reporter\|April 27, 2015 While tourists from all over the country visited Washington D.C. for the annual Cherry Blossom festival on Saturday, a gunman committed suicide on the West Front of the Capitol Hill. It was confirmed on the scene that the gunman had died from a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head. The man was identified as 22 year old Leo P. Thornton from Lincolnwood, Illinois. It is suspected that his main intention was to send a message to Congress. Right before he shot himself, around 1:30pm, witnesses said that he had a sign attached to his hand that read, “Tax the one percent.” A rolling suitcase was also found near the man, and the bomb squad immediately arrived on the scene to investigate. However, the squad did not find a bomb, nor did they find other weapons that would threaten people’s lives. The gunman claimed no alliance to terrorist groups, nor have any terrorist groups claimed credit for orchestrating the attack. Although there was chatter about what was going on, no signs of panic was shown by the tourists or residents in the area. People were only curious as to what was occurring and why everything had been blocked off. Workers in buildings were told to remain inside, while tourists outside were told to take cover and not come near the West Front of the Capitol building. The Capitol and visitor center was also on lockdown starting around 1:15pm while the investigation was ongoing, but was lifted approximately at 3:00 pm. Many tourists were disappointed, as they were eager to get a closer look at the Capitol building. However, as the investigation finished, the Capitol was reopened and the Cherry Blossom Festival went on as planned. Lawmakers were not present in the building during the incident as they are currently on leave for spring recess. This isn’t the first incident that has occurred in the nation’s Capital. In 2013 a woman tried to breach the barrier at the White House, which led to a wild car chase. Another incident recently occurred where a man from Florida landed his one man plane on the lawn of the White House.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line1047
__label__wiki	0.890894	0.890894	By Frank Scheck Liz Brown, Ron Fletcher, Frank Scheck, and David Sterritt Beausoleil: L'Amour Ou La Folie (Rhino): Beausoleil, led by fiddler and vocalist Michael Doucet, has been the leading Cajun band in the world for more than two decades; their rock-and-roll approach has expanded the music's fan base without overly alienating traditionalists. Their latest release, one of their best, is a swinging mixture of 14 original and traditional numbers, featuring such guests stars as Richard Thompson on guitar and Tex-Mex star Augie Myers on piano. English translations of the French lyrics are provided, assuming you can stop moving long enough to read them. - Frank Scheck Van Morrison - The Healing Game (Polydor): The Celtic bard is back again with his best album in years. This sounds like vintage Van - moody, melodic hymns that hark back to his roots in rhythm and blues. "Here I am again.... Back where I belong," he croons in the radio single, "The Healing Game." Yet sprinkled throughout these 10 songs are delightful surprises: The ethereal Uilleann pipes; a melancholy sax solo; lots of harmonica and piano; burning background vocals; and (no kidding) a touch of mellow, finger-snapping 1950s doo-wop. There's a lot of repetition within and at the end of songs (Morrison's trademark), epitomized in the lovely "This Weight." As always, his poetry comes from the heart. And best of all, of course, is his voice - thick, rich, and honest. - Liz Brown Luscious Jackson - Fever In Fever Out (Capitol): The title of Luscious Jackson's first album, "Natural Ingredients," more aptly describes their latest release, "Fever In Fever Out," a nuanced, intimate collection of confessions and questions. The ingredients - hip-hop wed to folk, funk, and jazz topped with a defining dose of disco; candid, often-caustic lyrics; and no small measure of resolve - are recognizable enough. The songs, nonetheless, do not remain the same. The four women who once stared defiantly into the many faces of New York City have now turned their gaze inward, crafting in the process a textured, often plangent music that captures and conveys myriad blues. Time spent in New Orleans with producer Daniel Lanois (U2, Peter Gabriel) begins to explain the alternating witching-hour murkiness and pre-dawn clarity on such tracks as "Mood Swing" and "Faith." "Fever In Fever Out" sounds a distinct, soulful voice that will move hips as well as hearts. - Ron Fletcher Joe Lovano: Celebrating Sinatra (Blue Note): One of the most acclaimed tenor sax players in jazz salutes the Chairman of the Board in this collection of 13 numbers, including such standards as "Chicago," "All the Way," "I've Got You Under My Skin," and "One For My Baby." Manny Albam's swinging orchestrations are sometimes traditional, sometimes deconstructionist, but always inventive, and Lovano's sax darts around the melodies in thrilling fashion. Lovano plays here with a large ensemble, which includes such luminaries as Al Foster (drums) and George Mraz (bass); his wife Judi provides soprano vocals on several numbers. Murray Perahia plays Handel & Scatlatti (Sony Classical): Look through the Sony discography of this fine pianist and you'll see lots of classical and romantic repertoire but nothing from the baroque era. He remedies that gap in this warm and sensitive recording of works by two towering 18th-century masters, distinguished by an exorbitantly rich tone and above all a sense of melody that never quits. Fans of old war horses can enjoy Handel's famous "Harmonious Blacksmith" variations at the end of Suite No. 5, but all the selections - including three more by Handel and seven Scarlatti sonatas - are well worth hearing. - David Sterritt Top Picks: ‘Fever Breaks,’ ‘There Is No Other,’ and more 'The Music Shop' celebrates the resilience of ordinary people and the healing power of music 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows': Better than 2014 movie?	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line1049
__label__wiki	0.933522	0.933522	You are here: Home / News Archive / MPs criticise government’s tactics on UN convention MPs criticise government’s tactics on UN convention By guest on 16th April 2009 Category: News Archive MPs and peers have criticised the government’s approach to ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The parliamentary joint committee on human rights attacked the “wish-list” approach to the convention taken by government departments seeking to protect existing policies. The government wants to make reservations – or opt out of parts of the convention – in four areas: education, immigration, defence and benefits. MPs and peers on the committee had already criticised the government’s failure to hold a consultation on the proposed reservations. In their new report, they said that most of the evidence they received had related to the article on the right to education. The government has said it wants to clarify that the UK’s education system should include both mainstream and special schools. But the report said the government risked sending “a confused message” to disabled people about its commitment to an inclusive education system, although it accepted there might be a need for a reservation because of the convention’s own “lack of clarity” around inclusive education. The committee repeated its call for the government to remove the exemption of service in the armed forces from its proposed equality bill and then reconsider the need for a reservation in that area in the convention. (The government later confirmed that the exemption had remained in the bill.) And it called on the government to abandon its proposed reservation on immigration, which it said was “both unnecessary and inconsistent with the object and purpose of the convention”. The committee agreed that the government’s reservation on benefits was necessary, but only until it introduced a way to review those who are appointed to collect benefits on behalf of disabled people. The joint committee concluded: “If the government cannot be persuaded that reservations or interpretative declarations are unnecessary, ratification should take priority over lengthy and futile discussions which would only serve to delay the participation of the United Kingdom in this important international agreement.” But it criticised the government’s approach as “unduly cautious”. The United Nations Convention Campaign Coalition, an alliance of 31 disability organisations, again called on the government to ratify the convention in full. Rosemary Bolinger, a trustee of Scope, a coalition member, said: “Today’s report from the joint committee echoes our concerns that the government’s proposed opt-outs are unnecessary, vague and in some cases in conflict with the spirit of the convention. “Every day thousands of disabled people are being denied basic rights such as equal educational opportunities, equal access to life-saving medical treatment and access to justice. “We call on the government to demonstrate its commitment to disabled people’s human rights and set an example to the international community by ratifying the convention in its entirety.” Jonathan Shaw, minister for disabled people, said: “As we move towards ratification, the government will consider the views that the committee has expressed, and will respond to the committee’s specific recommendations in due course.” ‘Muddled’ blue badge reforms ‘are to blame for renewal delays’ UN debate will be reminder of true inclusive education IDS breaks pledge on PIP waiting-times, as tens of thousands still queue for months	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line1054
__label__wiki	0.507282	0.507282	Influenza is a seasonal viral infection that is caused by infection with one of two viruses – Influenza A or Influenza B. In the UK it usually peaks during the winter months with the season starting a few weeks after the children return to school in September. Although vaccines are available to help prevent infection with Influenza there are many different sub-types of the virus and therefore predicting which particular virus is going to cause most infections in a particular year is difficult. This is because the virus is made up of two major proteins; the H protein and the N protein. This is how the different strains of influenza are named, according to the types of H & N proteins that are present on the virus surface. Slight variations in the protein give rise to different types of influenza such as H1N1 or H3N2 . There are many different combinations of these 2 proteins and any vaccine that is produced has to be specific to a particular virus. Bird flu (also known as Avian Influenza) is a form of Influenza virus that affects the bird (avian) population. It is not currently considered a threat to human populations. The H7N9 avian virus gave rise to human cases in spring 2013 in China. Although control measures have largely regulated the spread of this virus there have been approximately 800 laboratory confirmed cases since the initial outbreak in 2013, however, very few cases have been reported in children and sustained human to human transmission appears to be rare. Swine flu arises from the H1N1 variant of the influenza virus (although there are other variants such as H3N2) and was responsible for the pandemic declared by the World health organisation between March 2009 & August 2010. This particular virus appeared to have more gastrointestinal affects compared with standard seasonal influenza. Influenza A virus appears to have a peak transmission from infected patients at 1 – 2 days after the onset of symptoms. In contrast, Influenza B virus appears to peak in terms of transmission at 2 days before the onset of symptoms to 2 days after. In 2015 influenza infections peaked over the months of January to February with a rapid fall in the spring months. Influenza is transmitted by secretion droplets such as through coughing, sneezing or by direct touch. Vaccination in children may help to prevent acquiring the disease and passing it onto others (see section on nasal spray vaccination below). Each year the nasal flu spray protects against four of the flu strains which are most likely to be around. It prevents 50% – 60% of flu cases. The vaccine contains gelatine, used as a stabiliser. The gelatine comes from pigs, but very sensitive scientific tests have shown that no DNA from pigs can be detected in the nasal flu spray. This may however be important for some parents. (Link to vaccine information) . The vaccine also contains sucrose, potassium and monosodium glutamate. There is no thiomersal (mercury). Patients with severe egg anaphylaxis are contraindicated to receiving the vaccine but the amount of ovalbumin (egg protein) is so small that those with mild egg allergy can receive the vaccine safely at their GP surgeries. Giving your child a vaccination can be a difficult decision for some parents, we hope that by supplying you with the information we can help you make an informed choice. Treatment for Influenza is largely supportive (paracetamol, ibuprofen and fluids) although anti-viral agents such as Oseltamivir (Tamiflu) have been used during the early stages of the disease in some children. This drug is not without it’s own side effects and it’s effectiveness is subject to debate. More About Influenza:	cc/2021-04/en_head_0002.json.gz/line1055

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