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Usain Bolt, Nickel Ashmeade, Yohan Blake and Asafa Powell acknowledge the crowd's applause after receiving their gold medals for winning the 4x100m relay at the Rio Oympics. DAVE HUNT
Confident Blake touches down in Australia
JAMAICAN sprint star Yohan Blake has touched down in Australia and says he's not leaving without a Commonwealth Games medal.
One of the biggest drawcard names set to descend on the Gold Coast, former 100m world champion Blake arrived in the country early on Sunday morning ready to continue his country's sprinting legacy after the retirement of Usain Bolt.
"I've been watching Australian cricket for years now and finally I'm in the place,” Blake said.
"I'm happy to be here, it's really nice.”
Blake ran a 9.69 sec 100m in 2012 - making him the second-fastest man on the planet, behind Bolt.
"We want to maintain dominance,” he said.
"Usain Bolt is out of the sport so we still want to keep our level up there and want to take everything.”
The 28-year-old won silver medals behind Bolt in the 100m and 200m at the London 2012 Olympics and was part of Jamaica's gold medal-winning 4x100m relay team there and in Rio four years later.
He also has a 2011 world championship gold medal in his personal trophy collection, but there's a glaring gap that he intends to fill next month having missed the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow due to injury.
"I don't have a Commonwealth medal and that's something that (has) to be in my cabinet,” Blake said.
"(I want to) relax like Usain Bolt and look back and say yes, I have a Commonwealth medal.
"It's going to be something great for me out there.”
Blake said he was in good shape ahead, having run a season-best 10.05 sec a couple of weeks ago.
"I promise to make it fun. I promise to make it worth watching,” he said.
- AAP
commonwealth games 2018 usain bolt yohan blake
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Arts + Life » Art Review
Art Review: Bunny Harvey, White River Gallery at BALE
by Meg Brazill
Courtesy Of Dian Parker
"Verges" by Bunny Harvey
The White River Gallery's pale yellow walls offer a luminous backdrop for "Fully Involved: Bunny Harvey Paintings," an exhibit of 17 works by the Tunbridge artist. Harvey has filled the 500-square-foot venue with five large-scale oil-on-canvas paintings, eight 12-inch-square oil paintings on panels and four framed archival ink-jet prints. The thrum of a Vermont summer is almost palpable in her work here.
Curator Dian Parker explains that the show's title harks back to cartoonist Ed Koren, a good friend of Harvey's, who once described her approach to her work as "fully involved." A member of Brookfield's volunteer fire department for 27 years, Koren noted that the phrase refers to the moment when a structure is completely engulfed in flames. It also reflects the fact that Harvey's newest work is her most fearless, as she pushes sensory dimensions further than ever. Her recent work is, figuratively speaking, "on fire."
In her newest painting, "Scented August" — at 66 inches square, also the largest on exhibit — Harvey seems to explore all the senses. While only the visual can be rendered in two dimensions, the oil-on-canvas work draws us into the field, evoking the whir and buzz of insects, the hum of farm machinery, the smell of freshly mown hay and manure, and the feel of wind blowing across skin. Rendering these sensations nearly tangible, "Scented August" alone justifies a visit to the White River Gallery.
"Scented August" by Bunny Harvey
Harvey spent most of her childhood in Vermont, so nature is imprinted in her artistic DNA. Since the 1970s, she has lived in a 1792 farmhouse in Tunbridge, dividing her studio time between there and Providence, R.I. (and, occasionally, Rome and New York City). Harvey identifies and studies plants native to her Vermont property and searches for wild edibles on the land. She paints in a large barn studio on a hill behind her house, opening its massive doors to the elements whenever she can.
Harvey's semiabstract paintings bring the viewer on the same visual journey that the artist takes, whether she's gazing out of those open barn doors in Tunbridge, walking through the fields or at a pond. While this exhibit doesn't capture the full scope of Harvey's prolific output, it does capture summer on canvas. In one work, the wind pushes a sea of tall grasses into a crescendo of waves; in another, blackberries ripen on wild vines; elsewhere, insects search for a sweet fragrance that seems to rise from the canvas.
"Thirty years ago, when my work was basically abstract explorations on archaeological themes, I began a serious layman's study of particle physics," Harvey says in a statement about her work. "Somewhat surprisingly, the attempt to understand subatomic space and time — particularly the relationship between the observer and the observed — led me back to one of the oldest of artistic impulses: the painting and drawing of the landscape."
Harvey's fascination with the subatomic creates an interesting challenge. Her paintings seem expectant, as if awaiting nature's next surprise — a hummingbird darting or a fish jumping, as in the 36-by-66-inch oil "Waiting for Dragonflies." Here, time is a continuum. In "Dragonflies," Harvey uses an arcing line to trace the place where a fish or frog has leaped from the water and disappeared back into it. Her gestural brushstrokes indicate movement and suggest the passing of time. Harvey paints multiple images of a dragonfly hovering just above the waterline of a pond, her brushstrokes indicating where it flew from and where it will go next. She connects the past to the future even as she paints the present.
Using rectangles and other geometric shapes, Harvey aims to draw the viewer's attention to particular areas in her paintings. In "Wind Frame" (66 by 54 inches, oil on canvas), a series of rectangles frame our viewpoint, drawing us deeper into the painting. Here the feeling is one of being tossed by the wind and losing oneself.
Harvey plays with that sense of getting lost, creating landscapes devoid of people that provide a place of reverie. The title "Wind Frame" toys with the notion of capturing the wind and providing a window into nature. These geometric shapes also evoke portals into Harvey's world, where we can share her special relationship with the landscape.
The exhibition also includes four framed archival ink-jet prints, which are lovely but lack the power and depth of the originals. In the original oil version of "Wood Thrush" (66 inches square, not on view), for example, the blood-red carpet propels us into a forest, but those color values are not well distinguished in the print version. The reduction in size to a 22-inch square framed print also reduces the depth of field.
The most successful prints here are "Duet: Hidden Dwellings" and "Luminaries." The more abstract landscape of "Duet" translates well even at one-third scale; it helps that the diptych affords more viewing surface. "Luminaries," a 29-by-21.25-inch charcoal and black pastel on paper, has a commanding simplicity of palette.
The eight 12-inch-square oil-on-panel paintings are alluring, featuring bright colors and a greater sense of abandon through abstraction. Unfortunately, the grouping doesn't work as a whole and seems out of sync with the other works on view. Given Harvey's finely tuned senses, perhaps she chose these works to express greater variety and an interest in continued experimentation.
For years, she has been creating these small panels as a catalog of ideas that evoke a certain playfulness. If the grouping is not so compelling, the individual paintings are uninhibited and sometimes exuberant. Harvey, who recently celebrated 39 years of teaching at Wellesley College, appears to be forging ahead with the sensibility they embody.
"Fully Involved" is a wonderful glimpse into Harvey's lengthy career. Wellesley's Davis Museum gave it the full treatment last fall with "Bunny Harvey: Four Decades," a major retrospective of her work and her legacy as an educator and mentor.
Harvey's career began with a bachelor's and master's degree of fine arts in painting and a master's in teaching from the Rhode Island School of Design. In 1974, the American Academy awarded her the Rome Prize — granted to a select group of artists and scholars each year. When she returned to the U.S. after her intensive two-year residency in Rome, in 1976, Harvey began teaching at Wellesley. Her innate curiosity led her to study particle physics, explore Egypt's desert and develop a fascination with artifacts of ancient civilizations, all of which inform her work to this day.
After 40 years of painting, Harvey is still taking on intellectual challenges and fully involving herself in meeting them with visual solutions.
The original print version of this article was headlined "Natural Selections"
Our Favorite Art Exhibitions of 2016
by Rachel Elizabeth Jones December 28, 2016
Artist Rob Mullen Hikes — and Paints — the Long Trail
Painter Will Clingenpeel Pushes Beyond Limits
Art Review: 'Ray Brown: Tumbling Toward the End,' the Front
With 'Free Joy Art' Project, Joelen Mulvaney Aims to Give Away 300 Works
Art Review: Nitya Brighenti, Vermont Supreme Court Gallery
Art Review Painting Bunny Harvey Dian Parker White River Gallery at BALE White River Gallery
Since 2014, Seven Days has allowed readers to comment on all stories posted on our website. While we’ve appreciated the suggestions and insights, the time has come to shut them down — at least temporarily.
While we champion free speech, facts are a matter of life and death during the coronavirus pandemic, and right now Seven Days is prioritizing the production of responsible journalism over moderating online debates between readers.
To criticize, correct or praise our reporting, please send us a letter to the editor. Or send us a tip. We’ll check it out and report the results.
Online comments may return when we have better tech tools for managing them. Thanks for reading.
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Men sentenced to prison in Mercer University basketball player’s shooting death
Macon – Two men were sentenced to prison Tuesday in the 2016 shooting death of Mercer University basketball player Jibri Bryan.
Damion Deray Henderson, 37, of Riverdale, pleaded guilty to armed robbery and voluntary manslaughter during a Tuesday morning hearing in Bibb County Superior Court. As part of a plea agreement, Henderson was sentenced to 40 years with the first 30 years to be served in prison. He must serve 20 years without the possibility of parole.
Jarvis Clinton Miller Sr., 27, of Macon, had previously pleaded guilty to armed robbery. He was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in prison without the possibility of parole followed by five years on probation.
Bryan, 23, went to the Flash Foods located at the corner of College and Forsyth streets early on the morning of Feb. 2, 2016. While there, he and Miller struck up a conversation and agreed to meet back at the store later for a drug transaction.
Phone records show Miller sent Henderson a text message saying he’d found a “sweet lick,” also known as a robbery. Forensic testing and testimony show Miller and Henderson planned to sell Bryan fake Xanax pills.
At the agreed upon meeting time, Henderson parked a white Nissan Sentra at Flash Foods and walked over to where Bryan was sitting in his Chevrolet Monte Carlo. The two talked and then Henderson returned to the Nissan. Miller got out of the Nissan and got into Bryan’s front passenger seat with the fake pills. Bryan, who’d already given Henderson money for the drugs, soon realized the pills were fake and that he was being robbed. Miller pulled out a gun and Bryan reached for a gun he had in the car. Shots were fired. Ballistic testing shows a .380-caliber bullet from Miller’s gun struck Bryan in the head and then the gun jammed. Miller, who’d also been shot, ran away. Henderson then took Bryan’s gun and shot Bryan in the neck before driving away in the Nissan Sentra.
A witness reported the Nissan’s tag number to the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies traced the tag to a woman associated with Henderson.
Miller was captured soon after the shooting. Henderson was arrested later that day in the Atlanta area.
Speaking after the hearings, District Attorney David Cooke said, “Mr. Bryan had no business participating in a drug deal, but he certainly didn’t deserve to die. Mr. Henderson and Mr. Miller robbed us of a beloved member of our community and for that they’ll pay a hefty price for decades to come. Anyone who commits such a crime and puts so many people in danger should expect to face the same fate.”
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Home Articles Reviews Editor´s Pick Contact Español
A Month Full of Events in Cabo San Lucas
September, being a festive month for Mexico, is filled with a variety of activities ranging from shows, celebrations and congresses to religious and environmental events. Choose your favorite ones and cross out the dates on your calendar.
Wirikuta: Cabo’s Mystic Night Show
Immerse yourself in the world of the Wirikuta to meet their spirits, creatures and creators. Witness the sacred voyage of more than 10,000 years. It will be held in San José del Cabo from 9:00 p.m. to 11:30 p.m, a spiritual show where you can learn about the origin of the Huichol world.
Experience the hypnotic and ancestral dance in an ancient ritual that mixes contemporary and cultural choreography, impressive acrobatic exhibitions, and the latest in 3D map technology. Undoubtedly, an incredible evening play in the pyramids of Wirikuta’s garden in Puerto Los Cabos! The ticket includes transportation, seating, dinner and drinks.
The Vagina Monologues
Date: September 7 and 8, 2017
The event is to support the program “Adopt a Park”, this time for the rehabilitation of Lomas del Sol park in San Jose. The first show will be at El Encanto Inn Hotel and the second at Pabellón experimental theater, both at 8:30 pm. Tickets are on sale at $200 pesos, at: Educasex, Café Cabo, Plaza Copan and the clothing store Dreams at Plaza Patio; all these shops are located in San Lucas.
Our Lady of Loreto Celebration
Date: August 29 to September 8, 2017
Religious activities to honor Our Lady of Loreto, remembering the first Mission of Baja California. The celebration will begin on August 29 with Mass and vigilance of Our Lady of Loreto’s image, in Las Parras ranch, and continues the next day with a procession that goes from the ranch to the Mission of Loreto.
The following days are to visit certain points of the city and neighborhoods where hundreds of faithful will accompany, to close September 8 with the traditional “Mañanitas” at 12:00 am. In addition, parties for family entertainment, and artistic-musical and cultural programs will be held in Salvatierra Mall.
San José del Cabo, 60th Society Anniversary and 50th National Congress
Date: September 12 to 15, 2017
This will be the first meeting in Latin America of the International Pediatric Endosurgery Group (IPEG), with joint sessions, research paper presentations, lectures and round tables. You can participate in the pre-congress and trans-congress courses, which are about the evolution of Mexican pediatric surgery over the years. The appointment is in Blvd. San José Lt. 9 S / N, Section Hotelera 1 Fonatur.
Mexico’s Independence Day
Date: September 15 and 16, 2017
The festivity will begin with a celebration during the night of the 15th. The main square is filled with people that gather for the traditional “Grito de Independencia”, led by the municipal governor from the City Hall building, igniting the flame of Independence along with impressive fireworks.
The celebration extends throughout Los Cabos’ downtown area, with music and folk dance, food stalls and special shows in a variety of nightclubs. September 16 is a national holiday and is celebrated with a parade in the downtown area, fireworks and more parties in Los Cabos.
Banks and government offices remain closed that day.
Turtle Rescue in Baja
Help preserve the Mexican species and help these small creatures get to the sea, where they will grow in freedom! Visit the associations dedicated to the protection of nests, eggs and offspring of the golfina turtle on the beaches of San José del Cabo. One of them is the Asociación Sudcaliforniana de Protección al Medio Ambiente y la Tortuga Marina, A.C. focused on environmental research and education of schools in the region and general public.
The exact date in which the release of turtles will take place is not yet defined but I recommend staying up to date on their social networks and website.
The history, culture and entertainment of Los Cabos awaits you. Whether you live here or are on vacation, make the most of these upcoming events!
February: The best events in Los Cabos
Meyrilu Rodríguez
Los Cabos delights its visitors with amazing art, culinary, and wellness events that take place throughout February. A complete agenda to immerse in enchanting…
Gastronomy for the world
Los Cabos is that dreamed destination, with blue beaches, smooth sand and breathtaking landscapes that give a unique personality to the place. All year long,…
First Summit of Mayors of North America in Grand Velas
On June 7th, Los Cabos was selected to host 140 mayors from Mexico, the United States, and Canada, along with prominent business personalities, such as…
Find out what’s new in Los Cabos
Copyright Los Cabos Blog 2021®
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NY Museums: The Morgan
Roy Lotz in NY, Travel, US October 11, 2018 March 30, 2020 1,590 Words
Concord and Walden Pond
Jefferson Country: UVA and Monticello
2021: New Year’s Resolutions
Concord and Walden P… on Review: Washington Irving…
Concord and Walden P… on NY Museums: The Morgan
Concord and Walden P… on Review: Walden
Concord and Walden P… on A Walk through the Sleepy Holl…
Don Bigote
NY & US
Quotes and Commentary
Spain & Europe
This is part of a series on New York City museums. For the other posts, see below:
The Frick
The MoMA
The Museum of Natural History
Just as royalty and nobles have played a crucial role in Europe’s art, providing money and stability to artists, in American history very rich patrons have played an equally important role in the establishment of cultural institutions. From Carnegie, to Frick, to the Rockefellers, great business tycoons have used their enormous wealth to bring culture to the masses; and in this respect J.P. Morgan is no exception.
Unlike the above-mentioned robber barons, Morgan was not an industrialist; his specialty was money itself. A son and eventually a father of a banker, finance was in Morgan’s blood. He had dealings with every major player in business and government of the age, and was instrumental in the creation of the era’s major conglomerates: General Electric (which hailed from Thomas Edison), United States Steel (from Carnegie, Schwab, and Frick), and AT & T (from Alexander Graham Bell)—to name just a prominent few. A large man with a deformed nose, he struck the unflappable John D. Rockefeller as moody and impulsive. But this iconic money-changer and pharaonic materialist was not bereft of an appreciation of higher things.
The Morgan Library & Museum sits right in midtown Manhattan, on Madison Avenue and 36th street. The main building looks quite similar to the Frick: a severe, grey, neoclassical structure. Adjoining this is an attractive brownstone building; and the complex is completed with a sleekly modern—and rather discordant and tasteless—box of an entryway, built in 2006 to help organize the space. This is where the contemporary visitor enters and pays.
No photos are allowed inside the complex, so I am forced to rely on my paltry memory.
John Pierpont Morgan
As one would expect, the house is richly furnished. The original entrance hall is gorgeously decorated, with Renaissance-style wall frescos and Pompeian motifs; even the floor is attractively patterned. Anyone visiting the banker would know immediately that this was financial royalty. Morgan’s study, where he made decisions that shaped the economy, is a deep shade of scarlet—the rug, the wall paper, the furniture. Morgan himself, with his handlebar mustache sitting under his bulbous nose, presides over the fireplace in the form of a portrait. Few rooms give such an indelible impression of power.
The next room accessible from the entrance hall was, I believe, previously the librarian’s office; now it contains a fine sampling of Morgan’s impressive collection of Babylonian cylinder seals. These are small circular objects made of hard stone, about an inch long, inscribed with delicately carved reliefs. They were used as a sort of signature or official seal, by rolling the seal over soft clay to create a horizontal image. Dozens of these seals were on display in the room. Since the seals themselves do not look like much, they were shown alongside an impression made with the seals, wherein the images can be clearly seen. These typically involve scenes of gods and royalty, and are quite beautiful works of art. Certainly it is a much more elegant way of indicating ownership and approval than illegibly scribbling our names.
This image is from the Louvre. It is in the public domain, taken from Wikimedia Commons
From here I went to the central attraction of the museum: the library itself. Even if it had no books at all, it would be a beautiful space—the ceiling as richly decorated with allegorical friezes as El Escorial’s royal library. Three floors of oaken bookcases line every wall up to the ceiling, each one filled with venerable volumes covered by a protective screen. On the ground level there are display cases that showcase some of the library’s treasures. And these are beyond anything I had expected.
A page from the University of Texas copy of the Gutenberg Bible (public domain)
Here is the finest collection of manuscripts and rare books that I had ever hoped to see. To begin with, there are three Gutenberg Bibles, the first book published with moveable type in Europe, one of the most iconic books in history. While the invention of printing was, no doubt, a great advance in the history of our species, it must be admitted that the Gutenberg Bibles look rather plain next to the older, handmade ones nearby. The most famous example of these is the Morgan Bible, or Crusader Bible, a brilliantly illuminated Bible showing scenes from the Old Testament, but depicted as if it had occurred in medieval France. (Thus it is easy to mistake the images for depictions of the crusades.) The images are chaotic and violent, but no less compelling for being so; and seeing it such vivid illustrations between the cover of a book does make one a little nostalgic for the days when books were handmade.
The most ornate book in the collection—and the first in the Morgan Library catalogue, MS M.1—is a book of the gospels from the 9th century, around the reign of Charlemagne. (I admit that I cannot remember if I actually saw this book in person, but I did see it in a documentary that mentioned the library.) The cover is a mass of ornately decorated gold, encrusted with precious jewels. The amount of material wealth devoted to this single volume beggars belief—though it does seem a little ironical to decorate a book about Jesus of Nazareth, arch-enemy of the money-changers, so resplendently. While I am on the topic of ironies, I must also add a point made by the journalist Alistair Cooke, that while these super rich tycoons—Carnegie, Frick, Morgan—were buying up the treasures of Europe, they were benefiting from waves of European immigrants willing to work long hours for low wages. And so these robber barons exploited the huddled masses of Europe to buy up its treasures.
But it is difficult to be indignant for very long when you are looking at such beautiful books. The Morgan Beatus, for example, is a brilliantly illuminated copy of the Commentary on the Apocalypse by Beatus of Liébana, with bright yellows and reds and oranges, showing us a world redeemed and a world aflame. Then there is the Hours of Catherine of Cleves, a wonderful example of gothic illumination. As with so many other illuminated manuscripts, the mind boggles at the amount of time it would have taken to paint a single one of these ornate pages, much less a whole book of them. An example of this is the Farnese Hours, illuminated by Giulio Clovio over a period of nine years. Clovio was a friend of the young El Greco, during his early years in Italy, and the Greek painter created a portrait of the old Italian master, pointing to this masterpiece of Renaissance illumination. The book was completed in 1546, 100 years after the Gutenberg Bible was printed, already the waning years of the art of illumination.
Still more exciting than these beautiful books, for me, were the original manuscripts on display. These are the notebooks and pieces of paper where authors and composers first wrote down their masterpieces. Among these is Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, with his edits still preserved, as well as nine novels by Sir Walter Scott, including Ivanhoe. Honoré de Balzac, Émile Zola, Lord Byron, and William Makepeace Thackeray also are in attendance; and in music there are handwritten examples from Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, and even Bob Dylan (the latter obviously not acquired during Morgan’s lifetime). It is thrilling to see the preserved handwriting of these men (and yes, they are mostly men), since they can appear so unreal behind the printed page. The artists become living, working, fallible souls when you can see them scribbling and scratching out. Even the most iconic works of art were the process of trial and error.
I must say that I was stupefied by the end of my visit. The collection had exceeded my every expectation. Few places are as inspiring as a beautiful library. The museum is a magnificent tribute to the ways that we have preserved and transmitted our culture—in all its manifold facets. From the Babylonian cylinder seals to Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind,” humans continue to scribble, print, draw, paint, and inscribe our art and ideas for the benefit of people in distant times and faraway places.
But there was still one more thing to see. The Morgan has a temporary exhibition space, and when I visited this was dedicated to an exhibit on Henry David Thoreau. This was a stroke of luck, since I had recently finished rereading Walden.
Considering the scanty possessions that Thoreau left behind, the exposition was astonishingly complete. There was Thoreau’s writing desk, over a dozen volumes of Thoreau’s diaries, and Thoreau’s walking stick (notched so that he could measure things on his walks). Also present was every original photograph (there are only two, admittedly) taken of the man. The exhibit was filled with information about his life and extracts of his journals. Seeing his humble collections gathered all in a heap—his scribbled and illegible handwriting, his beat up desk, his pocket-sized images—spoke more eloquently of his life’s project than all the fanciful phrases he ever assembled. And just as with the original manuscripts, seeing his original possessions helped to turn Thoreau from a distant voice into a living, breathing person.
Morgan Library and Museum
Roy Lotz I'm an English teacher and book nerd living in Madrid.
Published October 11, 2018 March 30, 2020
NY Museums: The Frick
Review: Alistair Cooke’s America
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Arizona's Land and Zoning Firm
Urban Infill
Social Service Agency / Affordable Housing
Major Commercial/Retail
Biltmore Financial Center (NWC 24th Street and Camelback Roads)
Western Devcorp, acquired an approximate ten-acre property in the mid ‘80’s at the NWC of Camelback Road and 24th Street in Phoenix. At the time the property was operating as a 1950’s era hotel (Arizona Manor) with 150 rooms, restaurant and a popular bar cleverly named “The Clown’s Den”.
The intent was to terminate the hotel operation and plan and develop a class “A” office complex. At the time Western Devcorp acquired this site, City of Phoenix zoning allowed hotel, retail and office uses with a maximum height of 48’. At about the same time, other development companies acquired the 20 acres at the SEC and 10 acres near the SWC of the same intersection. Those properties were to be developed to Class “A” office as well and were under the same zoning restrictions.
Each development company created their individual plans and formed predevelopment teams to work with adjoining neighborhoods and City of Phoenix to obtain new zoning that would allow higher building structures and greater density. Western Devcorp retained Larry Lazarus to join the pre-development team which included ownership partners, traffic engineers, architects and legal.
Because of the potential of re-zoning of three large tracts of land in this area and the potential development of more than 3 million square feet, these zoning cases were contested by neighbors and other anti-development groups active at that time. Public hearings took place over a period of more than 2 years. Mr. Lazarus was very instrumental in the success in dealing with and satisfying the adjoining neighborhood and the eventual successful re-zoning of the site to allow the development of the project, Biltmore Financial Center.
Emerald Bay Senior Living, LLC (41st Street and Greenway Road) Native American Connections
© 2021 Lazarus & Silvyn, P.C. | All Rights Reserved
Named A Best Law Firm in Arizona
Lazarus & Silvyn P.C. (formerly Lazarus, Silvyn & Bangs, P.C.) has been named a Tier 1 firm in Phoenix and Tucson for Land Use & Zoning by U.S. News – Best Lawyers® “Best Law Firms” in 2020.
Visit: bestlawfirms.usnews.com
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Southern Methodist University : Open Rank Faculty Positions Nos. 53364 and 52985 Department of Mechanical Engineering
SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY, Department of Mechanical Engineering invites applications for multiple open rank, full-time tenured/tenure-track faculty positions beginning in the Fall 2020 semester. We are seeking highly qualified faculty members in all areas of mechanical engineering, with particular interest in individuals with expertise in (a) Dynamics and Controls, including robotics and automation (soft and small-scale robotics, human interaction, autonomous systems, and manufacturing), and mechatronics; (b) Mechanics, including solid and computational mechanics with applications in the areas of smart materials, metamaterials, additive manufacturing, and cell and tissue biomechanics and engineering; and (c) Heat transfer, including energy conversion and transfer, transport in micro- and nano-structured materials, heat transfer in manufacturing processes, and bio-heat transfer. Candidates must have a Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering or a closely related field, and will be expected to teach undergraduate and graduate courses, develop and sustain internationally recognized research programs, and participate in multi-disciplinary research projects in the Lyle School and the university. Applications received by October 30, 2019 will be given priority consideration. However, applications will be accepted until the positions are filled. Curriculum vitae, statements of teaching and research and a list of four references should be sent to ME-Faculty-Search@lyle.smu.edu. Please refer to position numbers 53364 and 52985 in all correspondence. Hiring is contingent upon the satisfactory completion of a background check. With over 10,000 students, SMU is a leading private university located in Dallas and home to the Lyle School of Engineering. The Lyle School maintains a steadfast focus on using engineering to address important issues both at home and around the world, including activities through the Hunt Institute for Engineering and Humanity. The Mechanical Engineering Department resides within the Lyle School and offers B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering. Additional information about the department’s research centers and laboratories can be found at http://www.lyle.smu.edu/me/. The department has a diverse student population, with approximately 30% female students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. To learn more about the rich cultural environment at SMU, please visit http://smu.edu. SMU is designated as a preferred employer in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, one of the most prolific high-tech industrial centers in the country. The Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex is a multi-faceted business and engineering community, offering exceptional museums, diverse cultural attractions and a vibrant economy. Dallas’ quality of life is exceptional with a relatively low cost of living, upscale apartments and homes within walking distance to the campus, the opportunity to live in the city or out in the country with a relatively short commute, and the availability of both mass transit systems and plentiful oncampus parking. SMU will not discriminate in any program or activity on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, sexual orientation, or gender identity and expression. The Executive Director for Access and Equity/Title IX Coordinator is designated to handle inquiries regarding nondiscrimination policies and may be reached at the Perkins Administration Building, Room 204, 6425 Boaz Lane, Dallas, TX 75205, 214-768-3601, accessequity@smu.edu.
Click here to read the full descriptionDownload
AFRL Science and Technology Fellowship Program Research Funding
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN - DEARBORN Assistant/Associate Professor in Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering
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An Interview With the All-Girl Toronto-Based Group, GIRL POW-R!
Tag: #BeBoldForChange, All Access, All Access Music, All Access Music Group, Artist Interview, Girl Pow-R, KRISI, Stronger Than Yesterday
Get to know the Toronto-based Pop-Rock Superstars, Girl Pow-R, who recently announced the premiere of their single, “Stronger Than Yesterday,” via Tiger Beat. Girl Pow-R is an all-girl group ranging from ages 10-16, who’s previous release “KRISI” was with Girls’ Life. Since last year, they have performed over 70 times, and plan on continuing throughout the end of this year. Between their band account, and individual accounts, they have a reach of over 70K on Social Media.
Listen to “Stronger Than Yesterday” here:
“Meet the newest girl group on the block: Girl Pow-R! They first caught our eye when they performed “KRISI” live on our Instagram stories earlier this year, and we haven’t been able to forget them ever since.”
– Tiger Beat
“Thirteen members, one amazing message: Empowering girls to become the best versions of themselves.”
– Girls’ Life
The members of Girl Pow-R originally joined forces in conjunction with International Women’s Day in support of #BeBoldForChange. Each member has a unique mission to inspire teens and to support social causes with their music and positive messages, and they all have a separate charity that they feel strongly about. Girl Pow-R showcases their talent through not only singing, but dancing, instrument playing, AND songwriting. This group of multi-talented girls have performed at over 50 shows since May of last year, and plan to continue on this route throughout 2018. Their memorable vocals and captivating performances have even earned Girl Pow-R a 2017 Toronto Independent Music Award Nomination for “Krisi”.
“Krisi” has a strong lyrical message that the members of Girl Pow-R are passionate about sharing with the world. The struggles they have experienced personally, and seeing that life changes dramatically in school as we move from childhood into adulthood, has inspired the group to launch this song to help other teens.
For More Information on Girl Pow–R:
Website // Instagram // Youtube // Spotify // Twitter // Facebook
Learn more about Girl Pow-R in the following All Access interview:
So how has 2018 been treating you all?
MILANA: 2018 has been very exciting so far. We performed in a lot of places, met tons of lovely fans and released our new single called, “Stronger than Yesterday”.
SOFIA: 2018 has been great! I love my school and my friends. As an artist, I’ve written many new songs and there’s so much great music I’m being inspired by.
What is one musical goal that you have had for this year and how close are you to reaching it?
KRISALYN: I have a bunch! To get more stage experience, grow my social media following, and to do more studio recordings. I am close to reaching all of these, as long as I keep working hard on them.
Can you recall the moment when you thought you could be in this group together? Has anything surprised you about it all, so far?
CARINA: I remember that when I found out about the Girl Pow-R auditions I was so excited to have the opportunity to try out for a group that promotes what I am all about. I love the idea of being in an all-girl group whose sole purpose is to spread a positive message and encourage young girls all around the world, and to be able to do what I love while having fun. I want to be a part of the movement to help girls achieve their full potential! Something that has surprised me about Girl Pow-R is the amount of performance opportunities we have been able to have, and the amount of people that we have been able to spread our message to. It has been great getting to work with all the girls in Girl Pow-R, and I have learned so much from all of them!
KRISALYN: I finished a rehearsal and my parents told me that I am a new member of Girl Pow-R! I was jumping up and down, and was so excited to make new friends that knew what it was like to be in the music business too!
What has it been like being in this group for the last year?
CARINA: Being in Girl Pow-R for the past year has been one of the best experiences of my life! I am so close with all of the girls, and I don’t know what I would do without them. I have learned so much about performance and recording techniques, and I have been given many opportunities to use my skills to choreograph for the group. I have so many great memories of our performances and I wouldn’t trade that for anything.
AVA: Being in Girl Pow-R has been a really good experience working with other musicians and girls my age who love music. I’ve made new friends and created new bonds with the girls in the group. We are all very close friends now. We’ve learned a lot from each other and we love to perform together.
How difficult was it to come up with your band name? What other names were you considering?
KRISALYN: Our manager already had an idea of the name but, in the first auditions, we provided our input, as well. We all decided that Girl Pow-R was definitely the perfect name!
How do you think your hometowns have influenced your sound and how you all carry yourselves in this group? If you don’t think that it has, why is that?
SOFIA: I’m exposed to many different influences living in my city. I get to see a lot in Toronto and it helps shape my outlook on life and my music, as well. I put a lot of these influences into my songs.
Let’s talk about your newest single, “Stronger than Yesterday.” What was the inspiration for this track?
BELLA: The lyrics in this song are inspired by the challenges we face in our relationships, the journey towards recovery, and self-reflection to become ‘stronger than yesterday’.
How do you think it is different or similar to anything else that you have released like your previous single “KRISI”?
BELLA: ‘Stronger than Yesterday’ has similarities to our previous single ‘Krisi’ in that it addresses challenges girls face in everyday life. Through our music we try to give direction and support to empower girls to better themselves. Krisi is about rising above bullying, whereas Stronger than Yesterday is a personal journey to find the strength and confidence to overcome challenges, while recognizing it can be an arduous journey, but progress is made by being stronger than yesterday.
When do you hope to release more new music and a full collection of new songs?
KALISTA: We hope to have a new release Summer 2018 and a first album shortly after that.
SOPHIA: The band is currently working on writing several new songs. We hope to have a full collection very soon.
KRISALYN: We have been working on original music recently and hoping to have it out sometime this year. We’ve also been working on our music video for “Stronger than Yesterday”, which was just launched, so we’re busy and excited about what is happening!
I would love to know more about Girl Pow-R’s involvement with #BeBoldForChange and International Women’s Day, or other social causes that you support?
BELLA: My social cause, “Stand Up, Stay Strong, Have a Voice” was created to provide information about where youth can find help to deal with their issues. My cause is twofold: 1) to help youth identify their issues and formulate plans to overcome challenges and 2) to actively participate in both self-help and assisted treatment, like how to manage stress or physical limitations. Simultaneously, I also work to identify and highlight youth who have successfully transitioned through a traumatic experience and are willing to share their coping strategies in the hopes of inspiring others to pursue a healthy recovery. I do this through a specially designed Instagram page called ‘Redesign your Fate’.
CARINA: Girl Pow-R actually debuted on International Women’s Day and each girl in Girl Pow-R has a social cause. My Social Cause is Anti-War and the “Give Peace A Chance” movement. I want to encourage today’s youth to think about peace in their community, and the world, one step at a time. I want to inspire kids to become active in things related to peace, unity, and making a positive difference in the world. Last November, I got an opportunity for Girl Pow-R to perform at a Vision Youth event that promoted the concept of spreading positivity and relaxation to students who are stressed out about mid-terms and needed a coffee house to chill, take a break, and have fun.
MILANA: I support Mental Health Awareness in Youth because I want to let everyone know that you don’t have to be ashamed or embarrassed to admit that you have a mental illness, because if you talk to someone, it could change your life forever.
How do you all hope to inspire young girls through your music?
BELLA: The greatest compliment for our band would be to recognize and respect the lyrics of our songs, while having fun with the melodies. The lyrics speak volumes about rising above challenges and moving on with a healthy outlook. Our social causes are geared towards identifying deficiencies in our society which should be addressed like homelessness, equality for women, and give peace a chance.
CARINA: Through the lyrics in our music, we would really like to inspire people to follow their dreams and to not hold back from their true potential. We promote equality for all, and we believe that no one should let anything get in the way of them achieving greatness.
If you had unlimited time and money for your dream music video, which song would you do and what would the video include?
KALISTA: I would do a music video to Great One by Jessie Reyez. I’d go into Toronto then fly to big cities like Paris, France, New York City, Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and London, England so that I could get good scenery. And, I’d have those colorful smoke bombs and sparklers, and just dance around enjoying life.
KRISALYN: I would do an original song of course! With really cool special effects in it and aesthetic backgrounds!
Where do you think you are all happiest — in the studio recording new music, on stage performing or elsewhere?
BELLA: We are a group of girls from different backgrounds. I would say many like studio recording. There’s the excitement of new material, and assigning solos, and performing as a team. We work well as a team, so we manage to take on the task at hand with speed and accuracy. A few of the girls are stage-oriented, loving the instant feedback and the gratification that comes from live performing, with instant feedback.
MILANA: I feel the happiest when I’m at home with my family and friends relaxing, because I don’t get to see them that often. I also love being in the recording studio because l love all the effort and harmonies that make everything seem so magical!
You have done a lot of performing in the past year, so I am curious to know what has been a favorite show of yours, so far?
AVA: Definitely my favorite show was performing at the Mod Club as an opening act for the Wannabes, a Spice Girls tribute band. There was a huge audience, and a lot of cheering, which gave us a lot of motivation to really perform our best. We had a lot of fun and it felt amazing to know that people were enjoying our music just as much as we were enjoying performing it.
MILANA: My favorite show that we performed at would probably have to be “The Wannabe Spice Girls” when we opened up for them because it was a very fun experience and a very exciting show and the fans/audience were dancing and singing! The energy in the crowd was amazing.
What do you think makes for an ideal performance for Girl Pow-R?
BELLA: There are many things to consider in a performance that is ideal. Top priority for a singing band would be vocal clarity, technique and delivery. In many performances, we are also playing instruments, so coordination of sound, quality and timing and, of course, ensuring our instruments are performance-ready. Then there is dance choreography, as well, where we need to ensure synchronization and movement quality. The girls are trained to engage the audience with their movement, and entertain with their dance techniques. Assuming all this is achieved, the ideal performance would have audience participation via dancing or clapping along to the music, and connecting emotionally.
Do you have any upcoming tour dates this summer that you would like to tell our readers about?
CARINA: We will be performing all over Ontario at the Northern Heat RibFest series that started in May! We also performed at Youth Day on July 22nd at Yonge & Dundas Square where we were Featured Artists and Canadian Ambassadors. Check our social media, and our website, for dates and times for all of our shows! In the last year, we have done 65+ shows!
How do you think being a musician, and in this band, gives you all the most joy in life today?
AVA: Being in this band gives me joy because it has given me a way to express myself through music. It has given me an opportunity to use my talents and do what I love to do. Being on stage and performing with these girls is something I really enjoy and it makes me happy.
We are currently living through a very trying and politically charged time right now, so I am curious to know how your own music is reflecting this time period? If you don’t think it is, why is that?
KALISTA: Bullying and peer pressure from classmates, and even being pressured by society, is really big at the moment. We all want that perfect Kim K summer body and, although it isn’t direct, we are being taught that beauty is what is on the outside and not the inside. Our music talks about loving yourself for who you are and not trying to change yourself just to receive the approval from others.
Would you say that other musicians are making music that has been influenced by this climate?
KALISTA: Some artists talk about loving yourself, such as Alessia Cara, but a lot of the music that is popular is not spreading positive messages. They talk about how they do drugs for fun, and how all that matters in life is money and to look perfect, and everyone will like you. Which is NOT true.
How important do you think social media has been to this band? Do all of you help to maintain all your sites, or is one of you more into it all? Or do you rely on your PR/management team to handle it?
KALISTA: Social media has helped our band in multiple ways. It gets people to see our next tour dates, they can see our talents, and they can contact us through the world wide web. We do have a management team that makes sure our sites and pages are up-to-date, but all of us girls post and update the page ourselves. Some people do post a lot more than others, almost daily, and some of us post when we feel it is necessary, at least 3 times a week, or whenever multiple shows are coming.
Who would you love to work with in the future? Who are some of your favorite artists right now? What do you think would be a dream collaboration for this group?
AVA: Some of my favorite artists are Taylor Swift and Alicia Keys because their songs are empowering and fun to listen to. A dream collaboration for Girl Pow-R would be Alessia Cara, especially because she is Canadian and a young artist, so she is like a role model for us, and we actually sing two of her songs in our set.
If you girls were all going to be stranded on a deserted island, what musical item would you want to take with you, and why?
AVA: I probably want to be stranded on an island with my acoustic piano so we could all sing and create music, and play music all day long.
MILANA: If I was going to be stranded on a deserted island, I would bring a ukulele because it has a very relaxing and tropical sound! I might as well fit in with my surroundings!
What do you hope is the message of your music? What do you hope people continue to take away from your songs?
KALISTA: Positivity and empowerment. Feel good about yourself and who you are. Own it and improve only what you feel you need to so that you become a better person for yourself, NOT other people.
Where can our readers connect with this group?
CARINA: Readers can connect with us by getting our attention on social media, by commenting or direct messaging us on any of our platforms. We enjoy everyone’s comments and feedback, and we respond to as many people as possible! Our social handles are either GirlPowRMusic or Girl_Pow_R.
(Photography provided by Gramophone Media)
An Interview With The Rising LA-Based Singer-Songwriter, MIKEY WAX On His Newest Single ‘Big Little Life’ And More!
An Interview With The Singer-Songwriter SARAH WHITE On Her New Album, ‘High Flyer,’ Working With Stewart Myers and Dave Matthews and More!
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Mötley Crüe’s Final Tour w/ Alice Cooper @ The Cedar Park Center 7/15
Emily Ferris January 30th, 2014 - 5:12 PM
World famous heavy metal band of nearly three decades together, Mötley Crüe, announces their final tour starting this July in North America. The Tour, All Bad Things Must Come to an End, will feature Alice Cooper as the opening act. Mötley Crüe’s retirement was made official after publicly signing a formal Cessation of Touring Agreement in front of global media in Los Angeles. The Cessation of Touring Agreement will go in effect at the end of 2015.
Image Credit: ultimateclassicrock.com
With branded merchandise in over 30 countries, and over 100 million albums sold worldwide, Mötley Crüe has earned the title of one of the most successful heavy metal bands in history. With such a title, the band is sure to make one last, kick-ass impression. Bassist, Nikki Sixx states, “When it comes to putting together a new show, we always push the envelope and that’s part of Motley Crue’s legacy…As far as letting on to what we’re doing, that would be like finding out what you’re getting for Christmas before you open the presents. We think in an age of too much information, we’d like to keep some surprises close to our chest until we launch the Final Tour.”
Drummer Tommy Lee adds, “Everything must come to an end! We always had a vision of going out with a big f**king bang and not playing county fairs and clubs with 1 or 2 original band members! Our job here is done!” And when they say done, they really mean done.
To see the heavy metal legends take the stage on their farewell tour, get tickets Saturday, February 1, at 10am.
Mötley Crüe’s Final Tour w/ Alice Cooper @ The Cedar Park Center
Doors @ 7
Tickets: $55-$125
Purchase here.
Cedar Park Center
Final Tour
Emily Ferris
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Donald Glover Unceremoniously Releases New Album On His Website Donald Glover Presents
Peter Mann March 15th, 2020 - 4:07 PM
Multi-talented rapper, actor, comedian, writer and producer Donald Glover, formerly known as Childish Gambino, has surprised his fans by releasing an impromptu live streamed album simply titled, Donald Glover Presents. As previously reported on Pitchfork, earlier today Sunday, March 15, “A bunch of new songs are streaming on a website called DonaldGloverPresents.com, and the link to the site was retweeted by Glover’s manager Fam Rothstein. (The RT has since been removed.) The website is streaming Gambino’s 2018 track “Feels Like Summer,” as well as songs that appear to feature Ariana Grande and 21 Savage. (Fans also claim that SZA appears.)”
Glover’s, under his rapper moniker Childish Gambino, latest musical offerings include his critically acclaimed Grammy-winning third studio album, 2016’s “Awaken, My Love!” and 2018’s EP Summer Pack which featured “Summertime Magic” and “Feels Like Summer.” After releasing his 2011 debut album Camp and his full length sophomore studio album 2013’s Because the Internet, which featured the smash hit “3005”, Gambino garnered major attention with his 2018 chart topping polarizing single “This Is America.”
Since his studio album releases, Glover has also starred in film releases including 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story and 2019’s Disney live-action The Lion King. FX’s Atlanta (which Glover serves as creator, star, writer, director and executive producer) television series premiered back in 2016, with the third season gearing up to premiere January 2021 and a fourth season to follow later that year according to Deadline.
The aforementioned Pitchfork article furthers that, “It’s unclear what moniker Glover is using for the music on DonaldGloverPresents.com. In years past, he has maintained that he would retire the name Childish Gambino after his fourth album. In addition, it’s unclear what label—if any—is releasing the music on DonaldGloverPresents.com. He signed with RCA back in 2018, promising new music.”
Donald Glover can currently be seen on the Amazon Prime 2019 original film, Guava Island, which co-stars R&B sensation Rhianna. Guava Island is written by Glover’s brother Stephen Glover and directed by FX’s Atlanta oft-director Hiro Murai (making his directorial feature film debut).
UPDATE (3/16): If you didn’t have a chance to check out the music on Donald Glover Presesnts, you’re out of luck (at least for now). The site has now become a relatively blank slate, just displaying a graphic that says Donald Glover Presents. The music is also not currently available on streaming services. According to Rolling Stone, representatives for Donald Glover have not responded to a request for comment.
Photo Credit: Sharon Alagna
Peter Mann
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Milwaukee Braves Fans Rejoice
“Update” Girl(s) of the Week
The Man, the Myth, the “Hawk”
Joseph Wilbur “Joe” Adcock is FINALLY being recognized for his accomplishments as a Milwaukee Brave. Adock will be honored as the newest member of the Miller Park Walk of Fame in 2016 (I know my dad along with Brave’s Nation will be happy with the news). He received 23 votes of the 34 votes cast through the media. A 65% vote is needed and Joe got 67.6% (he was one vote short last year).
Even though Adcock played for four teams during his 17 years in the majors (1950-66) the 10 he spent in a Braves uniform were his best. Among his many accomplishments the strapping first baseman is known for was his power hitting. Joe hit the first major league home run to land in the center-field bleachers at the Polo Grounds, a 475-foot drive off the Giants’ Jim Hearn on April 29, 1953.
A year later he established the major league record for total bases, at 18, when he hit four home runs and a double against the Dodgers at Ebbets Field on July 31, 1954. A record stood for 48 years.
Adcock showed off his power again on June 17, 1956, when hit the only ball to clear the 83-foot-high, left-field roof at Ebbets Field (that’s 2.24 times HIGHER than the GREEN MONSTER at Fenway), that homer off Ed Roebuck was 350 feet away from home plate.
That fateful night for Haddix in 1959.
Joe delivered the first hit at Milwaukee County Stadium in 1953, and broke up Harvey Haddix’s 12 inning perfect game in 1959, also at County Stadium.
A World Series Champion in 1957 with the Braves, and represented Milwaukee in both All-Star Games in 1960. He had a career batting average .277 and 336 home runs.
Unfortunately Joe succumbed to Alzheimer’s 5/3/99 he was 71. The specific date of the ceremony this summer has not been set as of yet. His widow, Joan is expected to participate along with family members.
This entry was posted in Baseball, Milwaukee Braves, MLB, sports, Uncategorized and tagged Ebbets Field, fenway park, Harvey Haddix, Joe Adcock, Miller Park, Milwaukee Braves, MLB, Polo Grounds. Bookmark the permalink.
One thought on “Milwaukee Braves Fans Rejoice”
cha-ching says:
Well deserved! He almost had 5 home runs vs the Dodgers. That double he hit bounced high off the wall.
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Lester, Kershaw and Sanchez on pace to join exclusive club
By Matthew PouliotSep 16, 2010, 6:30 PM EDT
In the 50 years since the expansion era began in 1961, just 17 different left-handers have struck out over a batter an inning while qualifying for the ERA title. This year, three of them are on pace to do it for a second year in a row.
If things hold up, Clayton Kershaw, Jon Lester and Jonathan Sanchez will join Randy Johnson, Sandy Koufax, Sam McDowell, Johan Santana and Sid Fernandez as the only southpaws to have multiple seasons with at least 9 strikeouts per nine innings.
Here’s the list through 2009:
1. Randy Johnson – 12
2. Sandy Koufax – 4
2. Sam McDowell – 4
2. Johan Santana – 4
5. Sid Fernandez – 3
6. Rick Ankiel – 1
6. Erik Bedard – 1
6. Jorge De La Rosa – 1
6. Cole Hamels – 1
6. Scott Kazmir – 1
6. Clayton Kershaw – 1*
6. Jon Lester – 1*
6. Mark Langston – 1
6. Oliver Perez – 1
6. Jonathan Sanchez – 1*
6. Frank Tanana – 1
6. Bob Veale – 1
Lester is essentially a lock. With 208 strikeouts in 190 innings, he’s on pace to lead the majors in strikeouts per nine innings this year (if only because Brandon Morrow was shut down and won’t qualify for the ERA title). Kershaw has fanned 201 in 192 1/3 innings. Sanchez has struck out 176 in 169 2/3 innings.
It also looks like there will be a newcomer to the list. Francisco Liriano has fanned 189 in 178 1/3 innings, so he’s set to go over 9 K/IP for the first time.
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The following is a Christmas-season meditation by Susan Anne, who will be joining me on this blog as a co-author.
Beginnings and endings, finite measures of years meted out for us again and again, season after season, generation after generation, age after age - all amount to little more than markers of time. The clock strikes and we call it an hour; a calendar page turns while a bud blooms or leaves fall or icicles grow, and we call it a season. A baby is born and we say it is a new generation; teens pound the sidewalk with their pants falling off and we say it is a lost generation; a grandfather dies and we say that he belonged to a good generation. Fashions, inventions, and empires rise and fall, and we call it an age.
In a world surrounded by measures of things begun and things ended, it is easy to forget the timeless eternity awaiting us as immortal souls. We only sojourn here, obedient to our positions on the musical score of life on earth, like notes on parchment, passionately scrawled onto staffs of the greatest symphony ever written. Yet the master composer is timeless in His timing, eternal in His positioning of notes, and unlimited in His creations.
We long for the infinite and seek to imitate it in every way; we build the tallest buildings, run the fastest mile, lift the heaviest weights, earn the most money, and do the best we can in achieving all our goals. Measures of time assist our journey by giving us a sense of stability, for which of us can really comprehend eternity? Which of us does not shudder at the thought that when this life is done, whatever comes next is for EVER?
Let us take into consideration the timelessness of Jesus Christ come to earth as a baby in a manger. Now is the season in which the eternal embraces the finite life of man; now is the generation of Life without end, the offshoot of Jesse; now is the age of Faith, Hope, and Love.
Wishing you all a very Happy New Year, with many blessings on your journey. Thank you all for being with me in varying degrees on mine. God Bless you Happy New Year!
Posted by Unknown at 1/06/2014 12:33:00 AM
Yes, but what does it MEAN?
I'm taking the occasion of Pope Francis' birthday--which he's celebrating by inviting some homeless people to breakfast--to talk about the hermeneutical challenge he seems to pose to so many traditionalist and conservative Catholics. Lapsed Catholics and standard-issue worldlings seem to love him, as if they just knew that his gestures and words are those of the kindly, sprightly grandpa they want in a pope. For such people, this pope is less about ideas than about their feeling understood and sought out. And they're correct to feel that way. But the very things causing the prodigal children to feel that way leave many of us older brothers and sisters in the house feeling suspicious. That's inevitable, and I'm not judging anybody in particular. But I do want to focus on what seems to have upset traditionalist and conservative Catholics the most in the new apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium.
EG seems addressed primarily to Catholic "intentional disciples" and pastoral workers. It explains why evangelization is and ought to be a joy; yet it spends at least as much time explaining various ways in which the joy gets killed, or is never even allowed to arise. To me, it seems that the chief of those is what Francis calls "spiritual worldliness" in §93-4. Before we get to that, note how he describes, in §82-3, its manifestation in the main audience he's addressing:
The problem is not always an excess of activity, but rather activity undertaken badly, without adequate motivation, without a spirituality which would permeate it and make it pleasurable. As a result, work becomes more tiring than necessary, even leading at times to illness. Far from a content and happy tiredness, this is a tense, burdensome, dissatisfying and, in the end, unbearable fatigue. This pastoral acedia can be caused by a number of things. Some fall into it because they throw themselves into unrealistic projects and are not satisfied simply to do what they reasonably can. Others, because they lack the patience to allow processes to mature; they want everything to fall from heaven. Others, because they are attached to a few projects or vain dreams of success. Others, because they have lost real contract with people and so depersonalize their work that they are more concerned with the road map than with the journey itself. Others fall into acedia because they are unable to wait; they want to dominate the rhythm of life. Today’s obsession with immediate results makes it hard for pastoral workers to tolerate anything that smacks of disagreement, possible failure, criticism, the cross.
And so the biggest threat of all gradually takes shape: “the gray pragmatism of the daily life of the Church, in which all appears to proceed normally, while in reality faith is wearing down and degenerating into small-mindedness”. A tomb psychology thus develops and slowly transforms Christians into mummies in a museum. Disillusioned with reality, with the Church and with themselves, they experience a constant temptation to cling to a faint melancholy, lacking in hope, which seizes the heart like “the most precious of the devil’s potions”. Called to radiate light and communicate life, in the end they are caught up in things that generate only darkness and inner weariness, and slowly consume all zeal for the apostolate. For all this, I repeat: Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of the joy of evangelization! [Footnotes omitted; emphasis added.]
None of that is hard to understand for anybody who's been active in ecclesial ministry for any length of time. In fact, the bolded passage describes many of the educated Catholics I know, including myself. What does seem hard for some to understand, though, is how the Pope describes the underlying problem.
He calls that problem "spiritual worldliness." Thus:
93. Spiritual worldliness, which hides behind the appearance of piety and even love for the Church, consists in seeking not the Lord’s glory but human glory and personal well-being. It is what the Lord reprimanded the Pharisees for: “How can you believe, who receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?” (Jn 5:44). It is a subtle way of seeking one’s “own interests, not those of Jesus Christ” (Phil 2:21). It takes on many forms, depending on the kinds of persons and groups into which it seeps. Since it is based on carefully cultivated appearances, it is not always linked to outward sin; from without, everything appears as it should be. But if it were to seep into the Church, “it would be infinitely more disastrous than any other worldliness which is simply moral”.
94. This worldliness can be fuelled in two deeply interrelated ways. One is the attraction of gnosticism, a purely subjective faith whose only interest is a certain experience or a set of ideas and bits of information which are meant to console and enlighten, but which ultimately keep one imprisoned in his or her own thoughts and feelings. The other is the self-absorbed promethean neopelagianism of those who ultimately trust only in their own powers and feel superior to others because they observe certain rules or remain intransigently faithful to a particular Catholic style from the past. A supposed soundness of doctrine or discipline leads instead to a narcissistic and authoritarian elitism, whereby instead of evangelizing, one analyzes and classifies others, and instead of opening the door to grace, one exhausts his or her energies in inspecting and verifying. In neither case is one really concerned about Jesus Christ or others. These are manifestations of an anthropocentric immanentism. It is impossible to think that a genuine evangelizing thrust could emerge from these adulterated forms of Christianity.
95. This insidious worldliness is evident in a number of attitudes which appear opposed, yet all have the same pretence of “taking over the space of the Church”. In some people we see an ostentatious preoccupation for the liturgy, for doctrine and for the Church’s prestige, but without any concern that the Gospel have a real impact on God’s faithful people and the concrete needs of the present time. In this way, the life of the Church turns into a museum piece or something which is the property of a select few. In others, this spiritual worldliness lurks behind a fascination with social and political gain, or pride in their ability to manage practical affairs, or an obsession with programmes of self-help and self-realization. It can also translate into a concern to be seen, into a social life full of appearances, meetings, dinners and receptions. It can also lead to a business mentality, caught up with management, statistics, plans and evaluations whose principal beneficiary is not God’s people but the Church as an institution. The mark of Christ, incarnate, crucified and risen, is not present; closed and elite groups are formed, and no effort is made to go forth and seek out those who are distant or the immense multitudes who thirst for Christ. Evangelical fervour is replaced by the empty pleasure of complacency and self-indulgence.
I've noticed a curious contrast in the reactions to that account of spiritual worldliness among intentional disciples and pastoral workers: "progressive" Catholics don't seem to feel targeted in those passages, but conservative and traditionalist Catholics do. Why is that?
Clearly, as many "progressives" are being criticized as their opposites. It's not as though the Pope isn't even-handed. There is, for instance, a certain faith-style that is indeed "gnostic" in a "subjective" sense: people believing what makes them feel good and smart, but which doesn't really change anything, least of all themselves. I know many baptized Catholics like that, especially ones who are into this-or-that "self-help" or "self-realization" program; and many of them are proggies. Some proggies are also being criticized implicitly when the Pope talks about "fascination with social or political gain." For instance, many proggie-Catholic academics are far more concerned about being considered respectable among their secular peers and friends than about witnessing to Truth. And last year, many Catholics bought the absurd argument that voting for Obama was being more effectively "pro-life" than voting for a candidate who, if elected, might reduce the rate of growth in spending on various social programs. Of course, it's also quite possible to be theologically and/or politically to the "right" and be guilty of "gnosticism" and/or of politicizing the Faith too. But that's the point. The Pope is less interested in singling out one "wing" as more guilty of spiritual worldliness than another than in warning us of a spiritual danger which is no respecter of ideology.
Yet for some reason, Catholics more toward the rightward end of the spectrum are in conniptions about EG. That's due mainly to two things. One is what it says about economics, the reaction to which strikes me as overblown, based in part on mistranslation. The other is this sizzler: "the self-absorbed promethean neopelagianism of those who ultimately trust only in their own powers and feel superior to others because they observe certain rules or remain intransigently faithful to a particular Catholic style from the past. A supposed soundness of doctrine or discipline leads instead to a narcissistic and authoritarian elitism, whereby instead of evangelizing, one analyzes and classifies others, and instead of opening the door to grace, one exhausts his or her energies in inspecting and verifying." I've encountered a lot of grumbling about that from "right-thinking" Catholics. Fr. Z has even made a bitter joke-mug out of it (depicted above).
Of course they claim it's unclear: "What does he mean by 'self-absorbed promethean neopelagianism'? That's just nasty rhetoric with no clear thought behind it." But the rest of the quoted description is not nearly so unclear about whom the Pope has in mind when using that phrase. I know such people; one finds them on the Catholic "right," especially among self-described "traditionalists." And when such a person reads the above description, they know they are the target of the criticism, even if they protest that the criticism is unjustified. I don't need to name anybody. Still, there's deep content worth pondering in the phrase 'self-absorbed promethean neopelagianism'.
According to Ben Mann, the notion of "Promethean" theology comes from Thomas Merton, in his book New Man. I've read the relevant chapter and have no doubt that Jorge Mario Bergoglio once did too. With that in mind, I think we can understand 'self-absorbed promethean neopelagianism' to mean an attitude which inclines certain people to earn their salvation by being rigorously right-thinking and virtuous in spite of God's mean-spirited reluctance to save them or even make life pleasant for them. One finds such an attitude more often on the Catholic "Right" than on the Catholic "Left", because viewing God chiefly as Judge and Taskmaster, from whom the fire of grace and the bliss of salvation must be wrested by force, is much more common on the Right than on the Left. In short, what the Pope is describing is a latter-day Pharisaism.
One does of course find Pharisees on the Catholic Left, not just the Catholic Right. If one is not politically correct enough, or is not reliably Democrat, or even if one prefers more traditional forms of liturgy, one can find oneself the target of much scorn from professional "progressive" Catholics. But I find it most interesting that hardly any proggies seem to feel themselves targeted by any of the Pope's criticisms. Only traddies and conservatives feel hard done by.
I believe that's the work of a high-up (better: low-down) spirit of division. Because proggies and worldlings seem so happy with the Pope--so rightist "thinking" goes--his message must be as much designed to diss us as to please them. And so many of the Pope's ambiguities and infelicities of expression, both formal and informal, are interpreted by some traddie and conservative critics in the worst possible light.
My advice to such people, many of whom are my friends, is this: Calm down. Pray. Stop being so querulous and defensive. Be determined not to become a pawn of the spirit of division. The Pope knows he's not above criticism, and he doesn't hate or disrespect you. In fact, he agrees with you more often than you've been led to think.
Posted by Unknown at 12/17/2013 03:14:00 PM
Evangelii Gaudium: something to offend just about everybody...
...thank God. Damian Thompson has summed up Evangelii Gaudium well enough as the outline of the Pope Francis "radical" agenda for his papacy. In our politically-obsessed media world, most of the attention has gone to what the new "apostolic exhortation" says about economics. But there's really nothing new there: Paul VI was saying much the same in the 1960s and 70s, and it's fully in keeping with how the "social doctrine of the Church" has developed before and since. Its empirical premises may not all be correct, but that's not a new issue either. What is new, at least to me, is how the Pope rips into what he calls the "spiritual worldliness" of so many Catholics active in the Church.
That must be cauterized so that we can get out of ourselves, encounter Christ afresh, and evangelize with joy. That's what's important here, and radical. Few, be they right, left, or middling, escape the critique. Here's the part that hit me hardest:
95. This insidious worldliness is evident in a number of attitudes which appear opposed, yet all have the same pretence of “taking over the space of the Church”. In some people we see an ostentatious preoccupation for the liturgy, for doctrine and for the Church’s prestige, but without any concern that the Gospel have a real impact on God’s faithful people and the concrete needs of the present time. In this way, the life of the Church turns into a museum piece or something which is the property of a select few. In others, this spiritual worldliness lurks behind a fascination with social and political gain, or pride in their ability to manage practical affairs, or an obsession with programmes of self-help and self-realization. It can also translate into a concern to be seen, into a social life full of appearances, meetings, dinners and receptions. It can also lead to a business mentality, caught up with management, statistics, plans and evaluations whose principal beneficiary is not God’s people but the Church as an institution. The mark of Christ, incarnate, crucified and risen, is not present; closed and elite groups are formed, and no effort is made to go forth and seek out those who are distant or the immense multitudes who thirst for Christ. Evangelical fervour is re- placed by the empty pleasure of complacency and self-indulgence.
96. This way of thinking also feeds the vainglory of those who are content to have a modicum of power and would rather be the general of a defeated army than a mere private in a unit which continues to fight. How often we dream up vast apostolic projects, meticulously planned, just like defeated generals! But this is to deny our history as a Church, which is glorious precisely because it is a history of sacrifice, of hopes and daily struggles, of lives spent in service and fidelity to work, tiring as it may be, for all work is “the sweat of our brow”. Instead, we waste time talking about “what needs to be done” – in Span- ish we call this the sin of “habriaqueísmo” – like spiritual masters and pastoral experts who give instructions from on high. We indulge in endless fantasies and we lose contact with the real lives and difficulties of our people.
97. Those who have fallen into this worldliness look on from above and afar, they reject the prophecy of their brothers and sisters, they discredit those who raise questions, they constantly point out the mistakes of others and they are obsessed by appearances. Their hearts are open only to the limited horizon of their own immanence and interests, and as a consequence they neither learn from their sins nor are they genuinely open to forgiveness. This is a tremendous corruption disguised as a good. We need to avoid it by making the Church constantly go out from herself, keeping her mission focused on Jesus Christ, and her commitment to the poor.
He shoots: he scores!
Most "professional Catholics" can find something of themselves in that. If Pope John Paul II liked to repeat Duc in altum!--"Go out into the deep"--Francis is reminding us that what we need to go out from is ourselves--especially our churchy selves.
"The End of Protestantism" turns out to be...Protestant
When it came out last week, I had intended to write a lengthy rebuttal of Peter Leithart's First Things piece "The End of Protestantism." But if you know much about church history, reading it for yourself makes that unnecessary. For what Leithart is advocating, which he calls "reformational Catholicism," has been around since the 16th century. It's called "Anglicanism"--or more precisely, what used to be called "broad-church Anglicanism." C.S. Lewis would have been quite comfortable with it. Leithart's brand doesn't require England, but it's just the sort of via media of which traditional Anglicans are so uniquely proud.
The thing is, broad-church Anglicanism, whether English or not, is essentially Protestant--as Queen Elizabeth I rightly insisted. Like confessional Lutheranism and Calvinism, to be sure, it considers itself Catholic in the only sense that matters. In that sense of 'Catholic', Roman and Eastern Catholicism do not together constitute the Catholic Church, but are at most branches thereof, if not sects. But the belief that the communion of churches calling itself "the Catholic Church" is not, in fact, the Catholic Church is what makes Anglicanism in all its forms Protestant. Thus the terminus at which Leithart's "end of Protestantism" arrives is--well, Protestant.
It should be evident that all Protestant attempts to transcend the thing that used to be called Protestantism--such as "non-denominational" Christianity, or pentecostalism--end by coming similarly full circle. That is inevitable so long as those making the attempt fail to see that the Church Christ founded perdures as a visible and unitary whole, from which all other self-described "churches" are in varying degrees of schism--even as those degrees mark, inversely, the degrees of "imperfect communion" with the Church Christ founded.
Like all things human, the United States will eventually die. Since conquering it by force is not logistically feasible, its death will be de facto suicide. The culprit will be Americans' forgetting the truth that liberty is only sustainable by virtue. And they will have forgotten that truth because we no longer have a collective vision of what "the good" for man is, and hence no vision of what virtue objectively requires.
Accountability and Lust
No corporate honcho went to jail for their admitted part in the massive financial meltdown of 2008, which was due to greed obscured by fraud. No Administration big shot is going to take a fall for the scandals of Benghazi, the IRS, the NSA, or the ACA rollout. The American people don't seem to hold elites accountable for anything more. I believe that's because they are gradually failing to hold even themselves accountable for anything anymore. And the roots of that lie in the "sexual revolution." The inexorable march of the vice of lust tramples not only chastity but all other virtues--especially honesty and prudence.
Here I am: send me
It's too bad that the homily I heard this morning was boring even by the standard of that particular priest, who is a holy man all the same. But that's what's prompted me to write on the theme of today's Bible readings in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite.
The theme is God's commissioning unworthy men to preach his saving word. In our jaded, increasingly post-Christian culture, the need for that is ever more urgent. It can and should be met by Christians in general and the clergy in particular. In a Catholic context, we need to focus on the particular means by which laity and clergy respectively must do so.
It's been noted for decades that the ambient culture in the West is no longer Christian, or even all that friendly to Christianity. That problem is not yet as acute in the U.S. as in Western Europe or Canada, but we are headed down the same path. Thus committed Christians, including Catholics, can no longer count on the Faith's being transmitted by osmosis, or even on what theologians call "implicit faith." That is especially evident in the breakdown of the traditional family, which has developed almost as much among believers as unbelievers. The only kind of Christianity that will last will be intentional and missionary. It will be intentional because, when it is not, it will continue dissipating in face of the secular culture's momentum. It will be missionary because Christianity is inherently a missionary religion. When Christians do not act accordingly, their religion becomes a museum piece for the culturally conservative minority and an increasingly inconvenient bit of cultural baggage for everybody else. But even though Catholic laity and clergy must both be intentional and missionary, the ways in which each must be that differ from each other. And those ways can be understood by contrast with how things generally are in the Church.
The laity are supposed to be the Church in and for the world. In fact, about 99% of the Church just is the laity. But most either don't know that or, if they do, don't really get it. For them, as for the rest of the world, "the Church" is really an institution or organization consisting of the clergy and their co-workers, working out of expensive physical plants called "churches" and "chanceries" and sponsoring social services that, while important, could in principle be replaced by government. Incredibly, the notion that the Church is mostly just us, the Body of Christ bringing Christ home to ourselves, our families, friends, co-workers, and wider communities, is still largely foreign to most Catholic laity--even half-a-century after Vatican II, which stressed "the universal call to holiness" and the corresponding importance of the laity. Most still instinctively identify themselves as Americans, or professionals, or spouses or parents, or even as fans of their sports teams, before identifying as Catholics. Religion is just one more compartment of life, one more box to check, whose main purpose is to provide fire insurance for the next life--assuming, of course, that fire insurance is needed, which more and more Catholics seem to disbelieve.
Over the same period of time, the situation hasn't been all that much better among the clergy. Normally the problem is not such ignorance of the Faith as results from and reinforces garden-variety worldliness, but another kind of worldliness. In my fifty-odd years, I have observed thousands of Catholic clergy and religious in many different environments. Aside from a public commitment to celibacy (with some canonical exceptions), the most common feature I've observed among them is not theological orthodoxy or personal holiness, but how comfortable they are. They have no worries about employment: Jobs and people come to them, sometimes in profusion. None have the sort of worry about health care that many laity do: They can expect adequate care paid for by the self-insured churchly entities to which they belong for life. They have no families to struggle to care for; in the majority of cases, even their major personal expenses such as housing and cars are paid for by contributions, not salary. And despite the sex-abuse-and-coverup scandal, clergy and religious still command respect and a presumption of good will from those they are meant to serve.
None of those things are bad in themselves; arguably, they facilitate the mission of the professionally religious. But one thing they entail is that the penalties for indifference, incompetence, or malfeasance are usually far less severe for clergy and religious than for laity. If you're a priest or religious, you basically have to be a convicted criminal to lose your employment and health care, because what you have is really an unusual "vocation" rather than a job, and such a vocation can be lived out through many different jobs and relationships. The result is that much indifference, incompetence, and malfeasance go unpunished and sometimes even unnoticed. That has allowed priests and religious to become too comfortable. It promotes the sort of worldliness evinced by the many bishops who covered up sexual abuse, and protected the abusers, so that the boat would not be rocked and the Church's prestige would be maintained. We've seen how that's worked out. And don't even get me started on the failure of so many priests and religious to inspire laity to be Church, as opposed to paying, associate members of the organization. They have not failed because their preaching is bad; sometimes it's good. They have not failed because they don't work hard enough; many work hard indeed. They have failed simply because their comfort is more evident than their holiness. That disparity does not go unnoticed.
Read and meditate on today's Bible readings. They apply equally to the professionally religious and to lay people. That they apply to the professionally religious needs no explanation: Such people just are those who have been specially called and commissioned by God to bring his truth and love to the rest of the Church. But laity need to realize that they are that too, for the world as a whole. We are "a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light" (1 Peter 2:9). As Pope John Paul II reminded us, we are to "put out into the deep water" in faith, trusting that we will be successful "fishers of men," starting with ourselves. I find that a far more inspiring vision of life than any accomplishments of mine that the world can recognize and approve. The latter are purely contingent matters. The former is what we are called to be in God, for God, so that we can become gods.
Beyond 4th-century trinitarianism
Fr. Al (Aidan) Kimel has a series up at his recently founded blog about St. Gregory of Nazianzen's trinitarian theology. For us theology geeks, it's well worth a read. What follows is a rewrite of a comment I posted on Part Three.
It seems to me that much of the apparent disparity between Eastern and Western trinitarian theology would disappear if we attended more to two points both sides could accept, consistently with Nicene-Chalcedonian orthodoxy..
First, being-three-persons is absolutely necessary to the divine essence, but being-creator is only hypothetically necessary to the divine essence. Both properties are eternal and unalterable, and thus of the divine essence, but the latter is the result of a divine decision that could have been otherwise, given what else belongs to the divine essence; while the former is not, but rather is itself a naturally necessary feature of the divine essence. So the Father is indeed Monarch ad intra and the Godhead monarch ad extra. But the Father is not Monarch ad intra in a sense that would be incompatible with saying that the divine essence is too. That’s because what accounts for the Father’s being Monarch ad intra is, precisely, the divine essence that necessitates his begetting and spirating the other two person respectively.
Of course we must affirm that begetting and spirating are activities personal to the Father. But if the above is correct, they are not personal to the Father rather than being absolutely necessary to, and thus necessitated by, the divine essence. They are both. Otherwise we'd have to say that the Father's origination of the other two persons is only hypothetically necessary to the divine essence, in the sort of way creation is. And I don't believe anybody wants to to say that.
Second and accordingly, we should say that the Father originates each of the other two persons only in relation to the other, even as the other two stand in different relationships to him and to each other. He begets and spirates both persons eternally and necessarily; but he spirates the Holy Spirit only as Father of the Son, and thus does so on account of and for the sake of the Son. He also begets the Son only as the Monarch who also breathes forth the Holy Spirit, for he begets the Son only in relation to the Spirit, inasmuch as the Son is he for the sake of whom the Father necessarily breathes forth the Spirit.
Of course, the implications of the above account for the person/nature distinction in God will put off those for whom only Cappadocian trinitarianism is acceptable. But that would just be to freeze the development of trinitarian doctrine in the 4th century. That is neither necessary nor desirable.
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Interview with the Level Playing Field Institute
Model View Culture talks to Dr. Jarvis Sulcer, Executive Director of the LPFI.
by Jarvis Sulcer on February 3rd, 2014
What is the Level Playing Field Institute? What are your goals and mission?
The Level Playing Field Institute (LPFI) is a non-profit with headquarters in Oakland, California. Our mission is to eliminate the barriers faced by underrepresented people of color in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), and foster their untapped talent for the advancement of our nation.
We focus on improving access and opportunity for underrepresented students of color in STEM. Specifically, we operate STEM-focused education programs, execute innovative computer science initiatives, and conduct research on STEM equity and opportunity.
Our main goal for 2014 is to find new ways to fill in the opportunity gaps through our middle- and high school STEM intervention programs. We are creating sustainable partnerships with a variety of partners including schools, non-profit organizations, for-profit companies and university faculty to expand our networks of support for underrepresented students of color pursuing STEM degrees and careers.
What is your role in the Level Playing Field Institute?
I actually started working with the Level Playing Field Institute in 2007, first as Academic Director and then as the Director of Education. I was promoted to Executive Director in 2012. In my current role, I am responsible for implementing the strategic goals and objectives of the organization. I work closely with our department directors, meet with the board regularly to keep them informed about operations and fundraising, cultivate relationships with key stakeholders and partners, and represent LPFI in the community. I also help with overseeing, implementing, and funding current and new programs. For example, one of the newest programs we are having great success with is the Level the Coding Field Hackathon series.
What outcomes have come out of that initiative, and what do you think hackathons can offer kids and teens of color?
The Level the Coding Field hackathons were weekend-long mobile apps competition for over 215 low-income students of color underrepresented in computer science, held in Mountain View and Oakland in October and November of 2013. At the hackathons, 88% of the students were African American or Latino, 75% were low-income (i.e. qualified for free/reduced lunch) and 80% of their parents did not attend college.
Level the Coding Field hackathons are meant to position middle and high school students of color as creators, rather than just consumers of technology.
We designed a curriculum grounded in design thinking and mobile app development that broke students up into teams of five 6th – 12th graders. Each team brainstormed educational, health and environmental issues in their communities, explored root causes of the issues, and then built a mobile app to address these challenges.
For example, one team built a local mentorship match service for low-income youth. Another designed a teen suicide prevention app. We had an amazing group of volunteers who supported each team through a facilitator and tech experts from companies like Twilio, AT&T, Google and Facebook. The students were coached and prepared a pitch made to a panel of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. At the end of the hackathon, the winning teams received a cash award and all participants received a free Android-based tablet with an AT&T data plan and free licenses for app development software.
A hackathon team pitches their work.
Your programs, like the Summer Math and Science Honors Academy (SMASH) for high school students of color, aim to build a sense of social justice responsibility and teach through a social justice lens. What does that mean, and how specifically do you build it into your programs?
Social justice responsibility means encouraging and training our scholars to work on problems they see in their local communities and empowering them to tackle those problems through the application and study of STEM concepts and skills. Teaching through a social justice lens means that SMASH instructors use, whenever possible, current and pressing issues in social justice and culturally relevant pedagogy as mediums to present educational development in STEM fields.
Examples of the above include units in biology that are focused on climate change in the students’ communities and solving math problems associated with crime rates and/or healthy food availability. In engineering courses, students design and build machines that could help communities have more safety and communication.
Beyond software and web apps, what areas of technology are PoC youth really excited about? i.e., within other STEM fields like math, science and hardware?
Underrepresented students of color are excited about a range of STEM fields. The majority of our scholars are currently pursuing STEM majors in various fields of engineering (electrical, chemical, computer, mechanical, bio-engineering), biological sciences and health professions, but their excitement about computer science is increasing with their understanding of technology’s many applications. But the resources need to catch up.
For instance, there is only a single AP Computer Science teacher in one Bay Area school district. At one high school that sent a team to our hackathon, students have to supply their own laptop to take the computer class, but not all students have laptops. These kind of barriers to access can have a chilling effect. We hear stories like this a lot, in which students have the motivation, but not the resources to pursue computer science education. (see also: Detailed data on AP CS Exam pass rates, race and gender for 2013 by Barbara Ericson, GA Tech).
Based on your experience working with PoC youth, what are the biggest barriers they face in pursuing and achieving tech careers?
In working with underrepresented students of color, in particular low-income first generation students, one of the biggest barriers is that they lack the access, opportunity, and preparation required to complete degrees in STEM. In addition to the programs we run through LPFI, we are also addressing this challenge through research and evaluation. Some of the examples of this work at the secondary level includes examining the disparities in access and opportunity through inequitable school funding (EdTrust West, 2012); the lack of access to science resources and facilities (WestEd CFTL, 2011); the lack of access to high-quality teachers (Darling-Hammond, L., (2004); and also the inequitable access to advanced coursework and computer science courses (College Board, 2012); (Margolis et al., 2008).
Another barrier to pursuing tech careers is that African American and Latino students comprise just 15% of all AP Math and Science course takers (College Board, 2012). Together with CODE2040, LPFI’s research team put together this infographic that helps you visualize the technology and opportunity gap (CODE2040 and LPFI, 2013).
When we look at barriers at the post-secondary level, we see that underrepresented minority college freshman enter college with a strong interest in majoring in STEM fields, however, just 22% of Latino and 18% of African Americans who declared STEM majors complete a degree within 5 years (Eagan, et al., 2010). Furthermore, when we look nationwide, African American and Latinos combined earned just 11% of all science and engineering degrees (NSF, 2012).
Then, when it comes time for underrepresented students of color entering into the workforce, we see that only 9% of the entire science and engineering workforce is comprised of African Americans and Latinos (NSF, 2012). Some additional resources exploring barriers and hiring bias include The Tilted Playing Field: Hidden Bias in Information Technology Workplaces (LPFI, 2011) and Making a case for diversity in STEM fields. (Inside Higher Ed, 2008)
Many youth from underrepresented and marginalized groups face intersectional challenges to access, opportunity and advancement in STEM fields. Can you talk a bit about how LPFI addresses these challenges, such as those faced by girls of color or queer youth in STEM?
There is research demonstrating continued bias facing women of color in STEM including stereotyping, bicultural stress, and tokenism (see Advancement of Women of Color in STEM Disciplines). For LGBT youth, inclusion projects such as hackathons provide safe spaces where they can dispel stereotypes and propose solutions to community issues. LPFI addresses the challenges by creating environments of success for marginalized groups of young people in which they can achieve. We also strongly believe in identifying diverse role models to teach in our program, form mentoring relationships with and/or speak to our students.
How can adults already working in the tech industry help support LPFI and PoC youth?
We are interested in developing relationships with individuals and their companies that are mutually beneficial. Individuals and employees at their companies working can help support LPFI and the students we serve in a number of ways, including serving as a volunteer and/or mentor for a scholars in SMASH, SMASH Prep or Hackathon, or other LPFI events.
Adults can also use their tech skills to invest in-kind services such as website development. People working at corporations within the tech industry can also help arrange tours for our scholars to visit and learn about their company’s products, services and the type of STEM careers offered, or by donating technology like laptops that can enhance the learning experience of our scholars. Finally, sponsorships are available to help us fund LPFI events and/or our STEM programs (i.e. SMASH, SMASH Prep and Level the Coding Field Hackathons).
race pipeline youth programs
What The Hell is Feminist Publishing?
by Elly Blue
Google Glass: Flipping the Script on Small Talk
by Adria Richards
The Politics of Digitization
by Misty De Meo
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HLA antigens and ulcerative colitis: Is there any link?
G. R. Corazza, P. Tabacchi, F. Calanca
IRCCS Fondazione Policlinico San Matteo
HLA antigen phenotypes were studied in 53 patients with ulcerative colitis and two healthy, randomly selected, populations. The first control group consisted of 269 subjects of Abruzzo and Emilia (Italy) origin, like the patients; the second was a European Caucasian panel of 347 individuals. No statistically significant difference in the frequency of each antigen was noted between the three groups. In addition, neither the frequency, nor the degree of linkage disequilibrium of the haplotypes most frequently found in the patients, was significantly different from that found in the controls. The presence in a single patient of the phenotype HLA-B27, and the absence of ankylosing spondylitis, in contrast with other authors' findings was noteworthy. Findings suggest that studies on the relationship between histocompatibility antigens and ulcerative colitis must take into consideration the possible involvement of other genes and the heterogeneity of the disease.
Italian Journal of Gastroenterology
Fingerprint Dive into the research topics of 'HLA antigens and ulcerative colitis: Is there any link?'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
HLA Antigens Medicine & Life Sciences
Ulcerative Colitis Medicine & Life Sciences
HLA-B27 Antigen Medicine & Life Sciences
Histocompatibility Antigens Medicine & Life Sciences
Phenotype Medicine & Life Sciences
Linkage Disequilibrium Medicine & Life Sciences
Ankylosing Spondylitis Medicine & Life Sciences
Italy Medicine & Life Sciences
Corazza, G. R., Tabacchi, P., & Calanca, F. (1978). HLA antigens and ulcerative colitis: Is there any link? Italian Journal of Gastroenterology, 10(3), 139-141.
HLA antigens and ulcerative colitis : Is there any link? / Corazza, G. R.; Tabacchi, P.; Calanca, F.
In: Italian Journal of Gastroenterology, Vol. 10, No. 3, 1978, p. 139-141.
Corazza, GR, Tabacchi, P & Calanca, F 1978, 'HLA antigens and ulcerative colitis: Is there any link?', Italian Journal of Gastroenterology, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 139-141.
Corazza GR, Tabacchi P, Calanca F. HLA antigens and ulcerative colitis: Is there any link? Italian Journal of Gastroenterology. 1978;10(3):139-141.
Corazza, G. R. ; Tabacchi, P. ; Calanca, F. / HLA antigens and ulcerative colitis : Is there any link?. In: Italian Journal of Gastroenterology. 1978 ; Vol. 10, No. 3. pp. 139-141.
@article{9a023efd108f471cab3bf3211b8237fa,
title = "HLA antigens and ulcerative colitis: Is there any link?",
abstract = "HLA antigen phenotypes were studied in 53 patients with ulcerative colitis and two healthy, randomly selected, populations. The first control group consisted of 269 subjects of Abruzzo and Emilia (Italy) origin, like the patients; the second was a European Caucasian panel of 347 individuals. No statistically significant difference in the frequency of each antigen was noted between the three groups. In addition, neither the frequency, nor the degree of linkage disequilibrium of the haplotypes most frequently found in the patients, was significantly different from that found in the controls. The presence in a single patient of the phenotype HLA-B27, and the absence of ankylosing spondylitis, in contrast with other authors' findings was noteworthy. Findings suggest that studies on the relationship between histocompatibility antigens and ulcerative colitis must take into consideration the possible involvement of other genes and the heterogeneity of the disease.",
author = "Corazza, {G. R.} and P. Tabacchi and F. Calanca",
journal = "Italian Journal of Gastroenterology",
publisher = "Piccin Editore",
T1 - HLA antigens and ulcerative colitis
T2 - Is there any link?
AU - Corazza, G. R.
AU - Tabacchi, P.
AU - Calanca, F.
N2 - HLA antigen phenotypes were studied in 53 patients with ulcerative colitis and two healthy, randomly selected, populations. The first control group consisted of 269 subjects of Abruzzo and Emilia (Italy) origin, like the patients; the second was a European Caucasian panel of 347 individuals. No statistically significant difference in the frequency of each antigen was noted between the three groups. In addition, neither the frequency, nor the degree of linkage disequilibrium of the haplotypes most frequently found in the patients, was significantly different from that found in the controls. The presence in a single patient of the phenotype HLA-B27, and the absence of ankylosing spondylitis, in contrast with other authors' findings was noteworthy. Findings suggest that studies on the relationship between histocompatibility antigens and ulcerative colitis must take into consideration the possible involvement of other genes and the heterogeneity of the disease.
AB - HLA antigen phenotypes were studied in 53 patients with ulcerative colitis and two healthy, randomly selected, populations. The first control group consisted of 269 subjects of Abruzzo and Emilia (Italy) origin, like the patients; the second was a European Caucasian panel of 347 individuals. No statistically significant difference in the frequency of each antigen was noted between the three groups. In addition, neither the frequency, nor the degree of linkage disequilibrium of the haplotypes most frequently found in the patients, was significantly different from that found in the controls. The presence in a single patient of the phenotype HLA-B27, and the absence of ankylosing spondylitis, in contrast with other authors' findings was noteworthy. Findings suggest that studies on the relationship between histocompatibility antigens and ulcerative colitis must take into consideration the possible involvement of other genes and the heterogeneity of the disease.
JO - Italian Journal of Gastroenterology
JF - Italian Journal of Gastroenterology
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Paleo-Venetian and roman pre-existence
The Ca' di Dio
Ca' Lando
The Conservatorio delle Zitelle Gasparine
The surrounding area: a thousand and more years of history and art »
G. Valle, Pianta di Padova (1784), detail of the seat of the Ca' di Dio between the churches of Santa Caterina and San Biagio, BCPd, RIP.VII.984
The Ca' di Dio (or Domus Dei) was one of eighteen hospitals built in Padova during the Middle Ages. Its foundation, due to the action of the lay confraternity of Santa Maria dei Battuti, took place between 1263 and 1265, in an area located approximately halfway between the churches of Santa Caterina and San Biagio, corresponding to today's number 46 of Via Santa Sofia. The building consisted of the rooms of the actual hospital (divided into a men's and a women's ward), a church and a large vegetable garden that extended towards the interior of the built area. Compared to the other Padovan hospitals, located near the city gates, the Ca' di Dio was located within the city circuit, in a position that was to guarantee it a predominant function in the urban hospital network, as also attested by the fact that the institute was the first to be mentioned in the municipal statutes of 1275.
Like the other medieval hospitals, in the beginning the Ca' di Dio offered assistance to different categories of the population: the poor, the sick, pilgrims, widows and orphans; only during the fifteenth century (between 1430 and 1460) did the institution specialize in the care of abandoned children, an orientation that distinguished it for the following centuries.
Ancient seat of the Ca' di Dio, until 1784 (from Bianchi 2007, p. 27)
The seat of the institute remained in Via Santa Sofia until 1784, when it was first moved near the monastery of San Giovanni da Verdara and, in 1847, under the new name of Istituto degli Esposti, in Via Ognissanti: here, the “wheel of abandoned children", can still be seen today, where parents could deposit babies without being seen.
The children were usually accompanied by small sheets of paper indicating their name or whether they had been baptised; they often also carried objects or other distinctive signs, such as paper images cut in half, which would have allowed their parents to identify them later. In the State Archives of Padova there are still many of these "signs", some of which are reproduced here.
«Giuseppe Antonio born on 24 April 1825, baptised on the same day 1825. MicheI Zambin parish priest»
(ASPd, Esposti, segnali e fedi di nascita, b. 1075, anno 1825, n. 197)
«Padova, Pia Casa di Dio ("Pious House of God"), 13th July 1825. I certify that I have baptized an unknown little girl with the name of Luigia, making her godmother Teresa Maritana. Don Matteo Lorenzoni, parish priest»
«From the Cathedral of Padova, 27 May 1830. I certify that today I have baptised a little girl introduced to me by the midwife Anna Gogion, born to her, on the 25th of this day at eight o'clock in the afternoon, and that I have imposed on her the name of Anna-Maria-Giovanna, without identifying her parents, who remained unknown to me. This act is registered under no. 60 sixty of the Civil Registry; and in faith I subscribe. Don Leopoldo Botti mansionario»
For further information: Bianchi 2005; Bianchi 2007, pp. 25-29.
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Microsoft says SolarWinds hackers could see some of its source code
Microsoft says that the SolarWinds hackers were able to view some of the company’s source code.
The news comes as Microsoft continues to investigate the massive SolarWinds attack, which saw hackers corrupt downloads of data management software called SolarWinds. The move resulted in malicious code being installed at various U.S. government agencies and tech companies. That malicious code may have allowed the hackers to monitor operations for up to nine months before they were detected.
It’s worth noting the Canadian government says that despite using SolarWinds’ products in several government agencies and departments, it hasn’t found any compromised security related to the attack.
In an update shared by Microsoft’s Security Response Center, the company explained that it discovered infiltration of systems “beyond just the presence of malicious SolarWinds code.” That deeper infiltration allowed hackers to “view source code in a number of source code repositories.” However, the hacked account that granted access to the repositories didn’t have permission to modify any code or systems. In other words, while the hackers were able to view the code, it sounds like they couldn’t modify it to spread malicious code to other Microsoft systems.
Despite going deeper than the company initially thought, Microsoft does say it found “no evidence of access to production services or customer data.” Additionally, the ongoing investigation has so far “found no indications that [Microsoft’s] systems were used to attack others.”
Microsoft claims exposed source code doesn’t elevate risk
On top of that, Microsoft explained in the update that it assumes other people can view its source code, even though the code isn’t open-source and chances are people can’t see it. In doing so, the company says that it doesn’t rely on the secrecy of its code to keep it secure and claims that hackers gaining access to the source code, therefore, doesn’t elevate the risk for users. However, Microsoft didn’t disclose how much code the hackers viewed or what code was exposed.
While it’s good that Microsoft doesn’t rely on source code secrecy for security, I’m not sure that eliminates all risks tied to exposing the source code. One benefit of open-source software is that anyone can check the code to see what it does, which can often mean a community of people monitors code for issues. In a situation like this with closed source code, only Microsoft can view and check the code, which ultimately means users need to trust that Microsoft has fully vetted the code, not missed anything, or misled anyone about the hack’s impact. Coupled with not knowing what code was exposed, it’s hard to judge the level of concern users should have.
Finally, Microsoft notes that what it has learned so far during its investigation leads the company to believe the attack was carried out by a “very sophisticated nation-state actor.” The U.S. government, on the other hand, has implicated Russia in the attack.
Regardless, the attack’s massive scale and depth mean it will be months before we know the true impact. Microsoft’s latest disclosure is just one example of that. With any cyberattack, it can take time to uncover all the effects — the bigger the attack, the more time it takes.
Source: Microsoft Via: The Verge
Filed Under: Mobile
5 things to check even before you get started on a Data Science project
Correlated Variables in Monte Carlo Simulations
Strain Finder
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2 Men Remain At-Large in Robinson St. Murder After 3 Arrests
By: Pete Tumulty
NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ—The Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office announced the arrests of two suspects in a robbery and fatal shooting, but also released the identities of two other men who remain at-large.
Nineteen-year-old Joshua Zhou, a Franklin Township resident was slain nearly two weeks ago in the basement of a friend's house on Robinson Street in New Brunswick.
The first suspect arrested was Dawonne Cooper of Fernwood Court, as we reported in September. He was apprehended and charged the day after the killing, and is being held in leiu of $1 million bail.
Authorities have since apprehended Jeffry Andre Cook and Larry Pena and charged them with being involved in the murder and robbery.
According to a press release from the Middlesex Prosecutor's Office, Cook was arrested and charged on October 1 and Pena was brought in on October 2.
Cook is also being held on $1 million bail at the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center in North Brunswick. Pena is being on held on $2 million bail at the same facility.
The county prosecutor's office released photos of Michael Bailey of New Brunswick and Zaid Joseph of Kendall Park, who are wanted in connection with the same crime.
Bailey and Joseph have been charged with the felony of murder and robbery.
"Both men have remained at-large since police intially identified them as suspects in the slaying," said the release.
The five men were charged by Detective Kenneth Adobe of the New Brunswick Police Department and Investigator Scott Crocco of the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office.
Pete Tumulty
https://newbrunswicktoday.com/writers/pete-tumulty/
St. Peter's Hospital Approved For Change to Employee Pension Plans
Johnson & Johnson's Profits Increased in Last Quarter of 2012
New Perinatal Center for St. Peter's University Hospital
Second Murder in Three Days Claims Life of 24-Year-Old Man
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Getting in is a personal matter
Russian Academy elects Lamberg-Karlovsky
C.C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, the Stephen Phillips Professor of Archaeology and Ethnology, was elected to the Russian Academy of Sciences and conferred an honorary doctorate of science on Aug. 27 at the academy’s Moscow headquarters.
GSD to honor award-winning designer
Harvard’s Graduate School of Design (GSD) will award the 2002 Veronica Rudge Green Prize to designer Adriaan Geuze and his firm, West 8 Landscape Architects of Rotterdam, Netherlands, for the award-winning Borneo-Sporenburg housing project in Amsterdam. Dean Peter G. Rowe and jury chair Rodolfo Machado, professor of architecture and urban design, will introduce Geuze and present him with the prize on Dec. 4 at 6:30 p.m. at the School’s Piper Auditorium. An accompanying exhibition charting the evolution of the firm’s project will be on display at Gund Hall from Nov. 25 through Jan. 12, 2003.
Perkins appointed Asia Center director
Dwight H. Perkins, Harold Hitchings Burbank Professor of Political Economy, has been appointed the new director of the Asia Center. Perkins previously served as the director of the Harvard Institute of International Development from 1980 to 1995.
HDS lecturer honored
Louis F. Rose, lecturer on periodontology at Harvard’s School of Dental Medicine (HDS), has been named the 2002 Special Citation Award recipient by the American Academy of Periodontology (AAP). Rose received the award in recognition of his efforts as chair of last year’s annual AAP meeting.
B-ball coach Hall of Fame bound
Harvard women’s basketball coach Kathy Delaney-Smith, now entering her 21st season at the helm, will be inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday (Oct. 4) at the University of Rhode Island’s Ryan Center. Just four wins shy of 300 for her career, Delaney-Smith has guided the Crimson to seven Ivy titles and four NCAA appearances.
– Compiled by Andrew Brooks
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Spartan Newsroom (https://news.jrn.msu.edu/2002/01/new-ballast-law-may-help-curb-great-lakes-invaders/)
New ballast law may help curb Great Lakes invaders
By Capital News Service | January 18, 2002
More on Environment
Subscribe to Environment
By ALLISON MIRIANI
LANSING — Residents living on the shores of the Great Lakes may have safer waters now that a program has been launched to help slow or stop the spread of harmful aquatic species.
The No. 1 threat to the long-term ecology of the Great Lakes is foreign organisms, according to Melissa Samuel, the legislative aide to Sen. Ken Sikkema, R-Grandville.
Sikkema designed legislation that will require the Ballast Water Reporting Program to be followed by all vessels traveling through the Great Lakes.
Ballast is placed in the hold of a ship to enhance stability, but the discharge of this water can lead to the spread of harmful organisms such as ruffe, zebra mussels and goby in the lakes.
The legislation, signed last August, requires all owners and operators of vessels to provide a form that shows whether they are meeting the standards set by the Lake Carriers’ Association and the Canadian Ship Owners Association.
The form includes information about activities that help to prevent the new introduction of species, said Jim Bredien, assistant to the director of the state Office of the Great Lakes. The office will be in charge of the program and following up on forms and vessels.
Rep. Barb Vander Veen, R-Allendale, said that the new program is very important. Much of her district is along Lake Michigan.
“The lake shore covers my entire district and to me is Western Michigan,” Vander Veen said. “It is very important for tourism; it’s our atmosphere for our homes; it’s where our residents spend their hot summer days and people come from all over the country to see our vast expanse of fresh water.”
Lt. Gov. Dick Posthumus added that Michigan’s economy would be enhanced by the removal of nuisance species. Posthumus signed the legislation to authorize the program because Gov. John Engler was out of the state at the time.
“These species don’t belong in the Great Lakes. We don’t want them in the Great Lakes,” Posthumus said. “And for the health of our water and our economy, we need to stop them from coming in.”
Although many people are happy with the law now, many people in the shipping industry opposed the original legislation, according to Samuel.
“Their biggest fear was that there would be a patchwork across the Great Lakes with so many different regulations and they wouldn’t be able to ship in Michigan,” Samuel said.
Georges Robichon, senior vice president of Fednav Limited, a shipping company in Montreal, Canada, was one of those who originally opposed the proposal.
“The original bill would have killed all shipping on the Great Lakes,” Robichon said. “It imposed requirements that are impossible to meet.” Robichon spoke against the bill at committee meetings, but is now happy with the legislation that was created.
The industry is pleased with anything that is done by legislators in cooperation with companies in the shipping industry to help protect the Great Lakes, Robichon said.
Another aspect of the law that ship owners must understand involves receiving grants. Any operator or owner of a vessel that does not comply with the list of best management practices will not be eligible to receive new grants, loans or awards administered by the Department of Environmental Quality after March 1.
Those who favor the law hope that it will be an incentive to comply with the standards.
“I think it is good,” Vander Veen said. “The fact that the stakes are pretty hefty helps to keep people motivated to comply.”
Robichon said that Fednav Limited won’t be affected by this section of the law because the company is based in Canada, but said it could encourage those vessels shipping to U.S. companies to comply with all the ballast water standards.
© 2002, Capital News Service, Michigan State University School of Journalism
U.P. schools may face bleak budget picture
By CHRIS YAGELO
LANSING — Budget cuts for the state’s next fiscal year could hit Upper Peninsula schools hard, even with promises that the education system will be protected. “The picture is very bleak,” said Dennis Harbour, superintendent of Houghton-Portage Township Schools.
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You are at:Home»older»Family Weekend Sept. 24-26 Packed with Fun, Food, Football
Family Weekend Sept. 24-26 Packed with Fun, Food, Football
By southeast on September 10, 2010 older
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo.,
Sept. 10, 2010 – Southeast Missouri State University will celebrate Family Weekend Sept 24-26 with a variety of events for students’ family members to enjoy.
“The University is looking forward to hosting Southeast families for a weekend of fun and a chance to learn about the campus environment,” said Michele Irby, Family Weekend coordinator and director of Campus Life and Events Services. “There will be a variety of events and activities planned to allow families to participate in the Southeast experience,” Irby said.
Family Weekend is a long standing tradition that began in 1977. Beginning as “Parents Weekend” for the families of football players, the event grew over the years into a weekend of activities for everyone related to students and the University.
The weekend is traditionally held in the fall semester and allows Southeast students to make the adjustment into the new environment. Irby says Family Weekend allows families to visit their student, meet roommates, friends and instructors, tour facilities and attend a variety of events scheduled throughout the weekend.
Activities begin at 9 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 25, in the University Center. Families can have coffee and refreshments with Southeast President Kenneth W. Dobbins and his staff until 10 a.m. in the Beanery.
Families are invited to the third floor of the University Center from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. where a fair with a carnival atmosphere will be held. Student Activities Council will be giving away smoothies and caricatures. Departments, offices and student organizations will be hosting free informational booths, games and activities for students and their families.
Lunch will be available at the Redhawks Market in the University Center. Students eat free with an ID.
At 4 p.m., families are encouraged to support the Redhawks at a pre-game tailgate party. Tents will be set up on the parking lot near the Wehking Alumni Center and across from Houck Stadium for the festivities. Booths will be set up and food, information and prizes will be given away during the party. The celebration will include live music and will be followed by pre-game warm-ups by Southeast’s Golden Eagles Marching Band, the cheerleaders and Sundancers.
At 6 p.m., the Redhawks will play their first home game of the year. Wear red and watch the team take on the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles at Houck Stadium. Reserved seats are $10, general admission is $8, youth 6-18 are $5 and children under 6 are free. University students get in free with their ID. Tickets may be purchased by calling (573) 651-2113 or toll-free (866) SEMO-TIK.
For more information on Family Weekend or to access a complete listing of events, visit http://www.semo.edu/familyweekend/.
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Ex-footballers three times more likely to die from dementia, study says
Campaigners have long suspected a link between severe brain injury and football, whether through repetitive heading or collisions.
Monday 21 October 2019 17:58, UK
Image: Jeff Astle died of a degenerative brain disease at the age of 59
Ex-football players are three-and-a-half times more likely to die from dementia than non-players in the same age range, a landmark study of more than 7,500 former professionals has found.
The research confirms the fears of campaigners who have long suspected a link between devastating brain injury and football, whether through repetitive heading or collisions.
As many as 11% of the ex-pros were found to have the disease against a 3% incidence among non-players, seemingly supporting those demanding greater awareness and care over concussion in the sport.
Do you know the six risk factors for dementia?
While more than two in five of us say it's the disease we fear most, millions have no idea how to protect themselves
Experts led by a team from the University of Glasgow compared the deaths of 7,676 ex-players born between 1900 and 1976 who played professional football in Scotland to 23,000 non-players.
The health records of 11% of the ex-players who had passed away stated they had died from dementia, compared to around 3% for the socio-demographically matched sample.
The study - titled 'Football's Influence on Lifelong Health and Dementia Risk' or FIELD for short - found that deaths in ex-footballers were lower than expected up to age 70, and higher than expected over that age.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given their fitness levels, the former players lived three and a quarter years longer and were less likely to die of many diseases such as heart disease or lung cancer.
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The 22-month study was funded by the Football Association and the Professional Footballers' Association, bodies which have both been criticised for a lax response to the dangers posed by heading the ball.
Consultant neuropathologist Dr Willie Stewart, who led the study, called it the largest ever to look at the incidence of neurodegenerative disease in any sport.
Dementia care crisis 'costing businesses £3.2bn'
The Alzheimer's Society says the cost is likely to double to £6.3bn over the next 20 years
While it does not say why the players have a higher rate of dementia, campaigners will immediately point to the heading of the football or the heavier balls used for much of the last century.
The report said the "risk ranged from a five-fold increase in Alzheimer's disease, through an approximately four-fold increase in motor neurone disease, to a two-fold Parkinson's disease in former professional footballers compared to population controls".
The family of former England striker Jeff Astle, who developed dementia and died in 2002 aged 59, have long urged football authorities to launch a comprehensive investigation.
The inquest into his death found heading heavy leather footballs repeatedly had contributed to trauma to his brain, with the pathologist saying it looked "the brain of a boxer".
His daughter, Dawn Astle, and wife, Laraine Astle, told Sky News they always believed there was a link between football and dementia, but were "shocked" at the "staggering numbers".
Five common misconceptions about Alzheimer's explained
On World Alzheimer's Day, the Alzheimer's Society puts five common misconceptions about the disease to bed
Dawn said: "The deaths of all these players must remain on the conscience of the game forever.
"Whatever the FA does, it should be across the whole game. I know this was a study looking at the deaths of professional footballers but they shouldn't assume this is just a professional footballer's problem.
"It could be just a big a problem in the amateur or grassroots game.
"There's no evidence that it's a generation thing or to do with a leather football. You cannot assume that just because footballs are lighter and all these concussion procedures are in place players are safer, they're on dangerous ground.
"I don't think dad would want heading banned but it's about having choice.
"Life is about risk and you can't live in a bubble but the important thing is knowing what the risks are. You can't make an informed decision if you don't know the risks."
FA chairman Greg Clarke said the whole game "must recognise that this is only the start of our understanding and there are many questions that still need to be answered".
"It is important that the global football family now unites to find the answers and provide a greater understanding of this complex issue. The FA is committed to doing all it can to make that happen."
Currently, there are more than 850,000 people in the UK living with dementia and the number is expected to rise to more than a million by 2025.
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Five MLAs stayed home from caucus retreat in Fort Smith
by Blair McBride September 3, 2020 September 3, 2020
Members of the legislative assembly held their caucus retreat in Fort Smith from Aug. 28 to 31, but five MLAs didn’t attend.
Katrina Nokleby, MLA for Great Slave, announced in a Facebook post on Aug. 28 that she didn’t plan to join the caucus retreat.
“Since the passing of my mom, I have not had a chance to deal with her estate nor properly grieve, therefore I have decided to head to B.C. in the coming days,” she wrote.
Five MLAs didn’t attend the caucus retreat in Fort Smith from Aug. 28 to 31. NNSL file photo
Nokleby’s post made no reference to her removal from the executive council on Aug. 26, an extraordinary and dramatic session of the legislative assembly where each MLA took turns explaining why they supported a non-confidence motion against her. Jackie Jacobson, MLA for Nunakput, was the sole member to abstain from the vote.
Lesa Semmler, MLA for Inuvik Twin Lakes, also announced on Facebook that she would join the meeting by teleconference, rather than in person.
“Although this week was a difficult week in the legislative assembly, I do have good working relationships with all my colleagues. In consensus government, we have to be able to agree to disagree while still continuing to work together,” she stated.
Jacobson also did not attend the retreat, according to Rylund Johnson, MLA for Yellowknife North. Efforts to contact Jacobson were not successful.
Jackson Lafferty, MLA for Monfwi, confirmed to NNSL Media that he wasn’t present for the event for personal reasons.
Rocky Simpson, MLA for Hay River South, was the fifth member who missed the gathering of legislators as he was travelling outside of the territory, said a representative from his constituency office.
At the retreat, former NWT premier Joe Handley gave a presentation on the territory’s consensus style government, according to a Facebook post from Frederick Blake Jr., Speaker of the assembly. Handley, who was also MLA for Weledeh, served from 1999-2007, with his tenure as premier spanning the latter four years.
Blake’s posts also showed retreat members attending a fundraising auction for repairs to the St. John’s Anglican Church. That auction was held at the Salt River First Nation office.
According to Katie Weaver, spokesperson for the legislative assembly, members joined confidential caucus meetings in Fort Smith and also met with leadership representing the Salt River First Nation, the Fort Smith Métis Council and the Town of Fort Smith.
They also toured the Fort Smith Fire Centre and visited natural sites around the community.
Tagged: #NWT, Fort Smith, GNWT, legislative assembly
Blair McBride
Blair McBride covers the Legislative Assembly, business and education. Before coming to Yellowknife he worked as a journalist in British Columbia, Thailand and Ontario. He studied journalism at Western... More by Blair McBride
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Is the party over?
Published On: January 15, 2020 08:36 AM NPT By: Pranab Kharel
Pranab Kharel
The contributor for Republica.
news@myrepublica.com
The rightward drift
Elected representatives have now replaced hereditary monarchs in offering patronage and largesse. It is difficult to say whether ‘people’ are upset with current political culture or are exhibiting some form of ‘abnormality’ in their responses to it.
Three decades of politics based on party system following the restoration of democracy in 1990 requires some serious introspection. This is particularly pertinent at a time when a single party or amalgamation leading to a large party formation has actually put the country at an important crossroads. Nepal Communist Party (NCP) formed following the merger of former CPN (UML) and former Maoist (Center) has a historic opportunity before them.
However, the practice of party politics in Nepal has raised several questions of the way this important vehicle of governance is functioning. The party system has a very interesting aspect in its relationship to the larger Nepali society. Political parties are considered important carriers of sectional interests and are supposed to articulate them for the betterment of the constituencies they represent. Society has a ‘love-hate’ relationship with the political parties. Any conversation, be it at a public space or private sphere, has a common punching bag—the political parties. The citizenry has constant complaint about the way parties conduct themselves. However, what is most interesting is the fact that the same population goes and votes in large number to the very parties that they have been wary of for a long period. This speaks volumes about the political behavior of the Nepali population. Such trends are also visible in other parts of South Asia. Nevertheless, this article will confine itself to deciphering the phenomena in Nepal.
This article tries to demonstrate the functioning of party system by focusing on the political culture and the process of partyfication of the society. For the former, the article argues that it is the element of vengeance that is at play most of the time. As for the former, the article argues that partyfication is not a one-way process and that a complex web emerges between political parties and society, which contributes to the society actually demanding intense partyfication of itself.
Vengeance as socialization
The recent history of political parties in Nepal suggests that they have relied heavily on the element of vengeance to socialize themselves. They acquired the trait of vengeance while in opposition to the Panchayat polity. Thereafter, when the political parties and the senior leadership eventually got to be in the driving seat, they themselves unleashed that vengeance on their fellow party members or worst toward people/group/organization that did not conform to their own beliefs.
The current crop of leadership is deeply imbued in that culture. To make the matters worse, top leadership in both ruling NCP and the opposition Nepali Congress (NC) are led by people who have the mentality of opposition, given that they were cornered for variety of reasons. Prime Minister and co-chairman of NCP K P Sharma Oli was long considered an opposition to then party General Secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal who led the party for 15 long years following the death of then leader of the party Madan Bhandari. Oli used tactics to survive in the party and built a formidable army of loyalists, who were denied space for much of Nepal’s tenure. Similarly, the other party co-chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal led the Maoist in the civil war against the state for 10 long years. Thereafter, the socialization that he and his fellow party comrades received was one of militarization fueled with vengeance. They believed in destruction of the ‘old’ state and creating a ‘new’ one through the barrel of the gun. This nature of party socialization could not serve much of the purpose once the former rebel party came over ground.
They, in fact, entered a terrain whose rules were set by parties, including former CPN (UML), who had mastered the art of vengeance in the ‘democratic’ set up.
As for the UML, the sense of vengeance was built from two dimensions. One was their inability to get a fair share in the state resources in the 1990s, when NC under late Girija Prasad Koirala was acting with a sense of arrogance when it came to treating the opposition. The other source of vengeance for the former rebel party professing ideological inspiration to the Naxals of India came from their inability to get on with the suaveness that some of the leading technocrats close to NC exhibited. These developments, particularly, inability to control the state forced UML to energize their activities in getting a grip over the different strata of society through formations like cooperatives and non-governmental sectors.
As for NC, which was in the driving seat of power for much of the 1990s, sense of vengeance was also operating at two levels: one against the fellow party persons and other against the ideological opposition. The article focuses on the former. NC, in the immediate aftermath of restoration of democracy in the 1990s, saw the consolidation of power by one of their strongmen Girija Prasad Koirala. Koirala dominated the national politics for all of the 90s and the early part of 2000s. He epitomized the power arrogance in the multi-party system after 1990s. His way of governing, be that government or party, was/is emulated by much of successors and they are not confined to his party.
Party as state
After deliberation about the socialization, it is important to talk about another complementary process. The socialization of political parties in the element of vengeance gave rise to an important process—morphing of political party as state. While much of the discussions in political processes talk of impersonalization of the state, careful attention needs to be paid to the partyfication of the state. In the Nepali context, the latter has come to occupy much of the space. So much so that we hardly see people as independent citizenry. Rather, we lump people into various political color, ask for, and locate their party affiliation.
The author in no way intends to put the blame entirely on the party and its leaderships alone. One has to put things in perspective. As suggested in one of the preceding paragraphs, parties have actually acted as a medium to articulate sectional interests especially considering the party-less Panchayat system. Therefore, people at large, especially those close to the party, felt that in the party system they could easily access the state and associated life chances by closely aligning them with the party concerned. This instrumental approach also gave rise to the process whereby a pressure of sort was built for the party leadership to erase the difference between the state and the party so that their near ones and constituencies could benefit.
The inability to dissect these complex webs has now acquired new forms and meanings. It is not enough to just talk about political processes such as patronage. We need to engage with the new forms of it. Political parties and some influential leaders remain at the heart of the process. Elected representatives have now replaced hereditary monarchs in offering patronage and large largesse doled out by the state. Therefore, it is difficult to say whether ‘people’ are upset with the current political culture or are they exhibiting some form of ‘abnormality’ in their responses to the said culture.
Email: pranabkharel@gmail.com
political_parties
1990_democracy_restoration
civil_war
Nepal_Communist_Party
CPN_UML
Maoist_Center
Parties busy discussing whom to field for by-polls
KATHMANDU, Nov 2: With the by-elections slated for November 30 approaching fast, the major political parties are busy in closed-door...
Dahal wants to make NCP ‘the only people’s party’
KATHMANDU, Sept 29: At a time when opposition parties are accusing the government of trying to impose 'communism' in the...
NCP work division dispute prolongs
KATHMANDU, June 7: The ruling Nepal Communist Party leaders are still unable to finalize the work division of the central...
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Ralph Nader > In the Public Interest > Having “Skin in the Game”
Having “Skin in the Game”
Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s new tour de force book Antifragile: Things that Gain From Disorder is a frame-of-reference altering work that a Wall Street Journal reviewer confessed he would have to read “again and again” presumably to figure out its “somersaults of the mind,” to borrow a phrase from Yoko Ono.
Antifragile, following Taleb’s Black Swan that sold 3 million copies and was a world-wide bestseller, is actually six books in one, as Taleb says. Most reviewers did not comment on “book six” titled “Skin in the Game.” In Washington, D.C. and on Wall Street, the absence of skin in the game is the presence of power without responsibility or vulnerability.
Taleb writes: “The worst problem of modernity lies in the malignant transfer of fragility and antifragility from one part to the other, with one getting the benefits, the other one (unwittingly) getting the harm, with such transfer facilitated by the growing wedge between the ethical and the legal.”
Recognizing the use of self-serving law by the powerful as an instrument of oppression to engage in blatantly unethical conduct, Taleb offers former Secretary of the Treasury, Robert Rubin, as an illustrative. With Bill Clinton, Rubin pressed Congress in 1999 to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act. Just before the repeal’s passage, he resigned and quickly joined Citigroup, the giant financial conglomerate where he was making $40 million within a few months.
It was not a coincidence that Citigroup was the major lobbyist for repealing Glass-Steagall, an FDR-era success, separating commercial banking from investment banking to assure stability and minimize conflicts of interest that were very risky to trusting investors. But, it wasn’t Rubin who took any risks. After disastrously co-directing Citibank’s strategy to the edge of bankruptcy, he proceeded to rack up millions of dollars in bonuses while pushing to make sure that Washington directly bailed out his bank and other financial giants.
Because of Rubin’s avaricious and wrongheaded behavior, pension funds, mutual funds, individual investors, taxpayers and workers all paid the price for the 2008 Wall Street Collapse. Despite this wreckage, Rubin pops up after Obama’s election as part of the group of the president-elect’s leading advisers
This is what Taleb means when he says this type of “heads I win, tails you lose” privilege is possessed by executives. He adds that “this system is called ‘incentive-based’ and supposed to correspond to capitalism. Supposedly managers’ interests are aligned with those of the shareholders. What incentive? There is upside and no downside, no disincentive at all.” In short, “no skin in the game.”
Likewise, when Congress abdicated their constitutional war-declaring authority to President George W. Bush in 2003, members of Congress and their families had no skin in the game. These politicians who gave Bush the power to unlawfully invade Iraq paid no price. Indeed, they retained their upwardly mobile status. The White House with its mass propaganda machine and the cowardly Congress paid no penalties for violating the Constitution.
Had there been a law requiring the drafting of able-bodied, age-qualified members of their families whenever the government plunged the country into war, these legislators would have had a personal downside. There would have been deliberative public hearings, where some of the hundreds of vocal anti-war retired high military, national security and diplomatic officials would have exposed the Bush/Cheney lies, deceptions and cover-ups leading to catastrophe for the people of Iraq, the U.S. economy, and military families who especially suffered the downsides.
Taleb gives examples from history where high performance came from being forced to have “skin in the game,” as in Roman times when engineers had “to spend some time under the bridge they built – something,” he says, “that should be required of financial engineers today.”
To those who impose political and economic power over the people, we should ask them at every opportunity, do you have skin in the game?”
The virtue of Antifragile is that it is hard to summarize because, in the words of Random House executive editor Will Murphy, it attempts nothing less than to build a guide to thriving – as societies and individuals – in a world too complex to understand: a world governed by the unforeseen events which Taleb, in his previous book, dubbed “Black Swans.”
Daniel Kahneman, Nobel laureate and author of the book Thinking Fast and Slow – no slouch himself – says of Taleb’s writings that they “changed my view of how the world works.”
Antifragile, a book drawing on the wisdom of many ancient cultures is an explanation for all ages and all tunnel visions – a boisterous and witty antidote to bureaucratic and individual anomie.
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Copenhagen Club Culture Box To Lose Government Funding
Written by NobleAdmin on May 18, 2016
Nightlife in Copenhagen is set for a heavy blow as one of the city’s main clubs, Culture Box, will lose a substantial amount of funding from 2017.
Since 2005, the Danish government has provided the club with €240,000 (1,800,000 Danish kroner) per year, but that’ll end at the end of 2016. The club describes the planned cancellation of funding as a “very hard blow” as the money goes towards bookings and maintaining facilities.
The press release also reads: “We are shocked that The State of Denmark has decided to remove the cultural support for the venue, and by that the support for electronic music culture.”
Some people have lives; some people have music.
House and techno has had a heavy presence at the club since it opened, with the likes of Moritz von Oswald, Ellen Allien, DJ Koze and Nina Kraviz all playing.
Tagged as Authors Music Club Music themes Music wp themes Party Post formats Techno
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Ashni Mohnot, CEO, Enzi
Carol Kauffman, Director, Institute of Coaching
Damien O'Brien, CEO, Egon Zehnder International
Jacques Bon, Founder, Estate Mas de Peint
Jakob Kaschper, CEO, Kaschper Racing Shells
Joe Girardi, Head Coach, The Yankees
Olivier Tardy, Senior Partner, BCG
Peter Bakker, President, World Business Council for Sustainable Development
Ralf Schmerberg, Artist
Influence and Trust
Bob Kidder, Chairman, Chrysler
Dara O'Rourke, Chairman, GoodGuide
Eric D. Dawson, President and Co-founder, Peace First
Matt Goldberg, CEO, The Lonely Planet
Maurice Roucel, Master Perfumer, Symrise
Richard Edelman, CEO, Edelman Inc.
Richard Sarnoff, Chairman, Bertelsman Inc.
Ronald Lauder, President, Jewish World Congress
Francesco Clark, CEO, Clark Botanicals
Janet Hanson, CEO, 85Broads
Kennedy Odede, President, Shining Hope for Communities
Lilian Cheung, Author & Lecturer, Harvard
Linda Rafoss, Managing Director, DRIVER TV
Pete Eckert, Conceptual Artist
Rick Ridgeway, VP, Environmental Initiatives
Stephan Unger, Father
Veronique Rivest, Sommelier
Damien O'Brien, CEO and Chairman, Egon Zehnder International
Australian by origin, this leader spent seven years in the seminary and was a missionary in the Philippines before he became tempted to join McKinsey by the trappings of success. His quest for meaning and impact guided him to then join the world's leading executive search firm, a private partnership driven by culture and values. A quarter century later, the rebellious beat continues beneath his pulse, whether atop a motor bike in Paris or driving change across the landscape of human capital. click here for more.
Damien O'Brien doesn't necessarily fit the image most of us have when we think of a Chief Executive Officer. O'Brien heads up Egon Zehnder International, one of the world's leading executive search firms with revenues of over US$600m. Born and raised in Australia, nowadays O'Brien is based in Egon Zehnder International's Paris office where, unlike many C-level executives who are chauffeured in limousines with tinted windows, he frequently travels to the airport on the back seat of a motor bike that a rider-for-hire expertly zips through the crazy traffic of the French capital.
Before he embarked on his stellar career in business, O'Brien spent seven years in the seminary and served as missionary in a community in the Philippines. O'Brien enjoys being provocative and questioning the status quo. In 2000, he was the junior of two partners who initiated the first ever strategic review of the way Egon Zehnder International managed itself since its foundation in 1964. This initiative was subsequently captured as a Harvard Business case study and is today used as one of the classic examples on leadership in top institutions around the world.
I first met Damien O'Brien when I accompanied my husband to a Firm conference in Istanbul in May 2011. I was immediately struck by Damien's warmth and approachability, and how genuinely curious he is about people and their stories.
The role and the Firm
Damien O'Brien was elected Chief Executive Officer of Egon Zehnder International in June 2008, and Chairman in June 2010 after 22 years with the Firm. The Firm had originally been founded by Swiss national Egon Zehnder, who introduced the concept of executive search as a reputable profession in Europe. Strong on cultural values, Egon Zehnder International's commitment to charge clients a fixed fee rather than a commission stands out from its competitors. Wholly owned by partners and functioning as a single profit center, the Firm is highly selective and, after an average of over thirty individual interviews, roughly one out of ten candidates makes the cut to join. Once part of Egon Zehnder International, however, most consultants receive an offer for partnership and stay with the Firm for the rest of their career.
Damien's primary practice areas have been Consumer Products, Private Equity, Leadership Strategy Services and Board Consulting. As CEO he spends most of his time personally checking in with his colleagues across the Firm's 65 wholly owned offices in 38 countries. He held a range of leadership roles prior to his appointment as CEO, including leading the establishment of the Firm's China practice (which now comprises offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing), overseeing the Firm's global industry and functional practices, and responsibility for global operations and professional development.
Rebel with a cause
From a working class Irish family, Damien O'Brien's father built a successful catering business in Melbourne. A talented tenor, he had decided to leave a career in music behind to raise his growing family during the depression of the 1930s.
The third eldest of seven children, young Damien was very much a contrarian: "I remember early on wanting to be different. I enjoyed blending the naughty with the good and being unpredictable." Academically strong, the self-confident adolescent who grew up in a supportive family environment did not follow the most intuitive path after graduating high school with honors. While most of his friends went off to study medicine, law or finance, and started having girlfriends, O'Brien decided to join the seminary - despite his parent's reservations.
He was attracted by the challenge of the journey he had chosen: "I was deeply motivated by making an impact. I was not a particularly religious kid in the traditional sense. I used to go to church, and I was very inspired by the church's social teachings, but I wasn't the pious type. I believed in the story of Jesus and I also believed in working for a better world. And I saw that this particular style of priesthood would allow me to make a difference and to work with people who were less privileged than I. I saw it as a platform to make a difference."
As part of his time in the seminary, Damien O'Brien spent five years studying academic subjects including philosophy, anthropology and theology. Unsurprisingly, within the seminary O'Brien was considered something of a revolutionary with his particular interest in edgy, Marxist inspired theological literature. The underlying idea that attracted him was that both priest and church work with their communities to overthrow structures that were impediments to the freedom and development of people: "I was never a Marxist but I liked the idea of working to change structures without a big revolution that causes death and mayhem. To this day I think of the world more in terms of systems and structures. I am acutely aware that we are a product of the cultural milieu and the systems that we grow up in. We are given concepts and frameworks and value sets that are pretty much pre-defined for us and given to us. They shape our consciousness, how we approach problems, our aspirations, and the way we relate to people. I like to sit back and reflect about this structure and get a sense of perspective."
As a seminarian O'Brien was sent to work on Mindanao, the southern most island in the Philippines with a dominant Muslim population in an otherwise Christian country. Religious differences between Muslims and Christians, as well as widespread poverty, had led to the development of two aggressive separatist movements – the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MNLF) and the communist New People's Army (NPA) both fighting the Philippine Armed Forces, and as a result displacing over 100,000 people: "This was a profoundly life changing experience. Literally, on one mountain range were the Muslim rebels and on the other side were the communist rebels, or the 'barefoot solders' as they were known. And I was living with farmers, in the middle of these conflicts." Only in his early twenties, O'Brien saw incredible suffering and displacement of many poor and innocent people. One night, after a particularly vicious attack with many fatalities he found himself surrounded by members of the local community, drinking the local wine and talking: "I was quite fluent, so I was able to converse with them but I realized that I wasn't part of their world, I wasn't part of their history, I wasn't part of their families. I felt vulnerable and, in the face of the suffering all around me, I felt a deep need for intimacy. I discovered loneliness, deep profound loneliness. That was the moment I decided to leave the seminary, because I knew I could not lead that celibate life, this lonely existence. I needed someone to be close to."
Trappings of success
O'Brien was now 25 years old and without a penny in his pocket: "I wanted to be successful. My idea of success at the time was pretty selfish and one-dimensional. Different from my friends who had gone off and who had already achieved success in their chosen careers, I had nothing, no savings and no real qualifications, certainly no qualifications that would help me build a career. I had to prove something to myself, score the points that would demonstrate that I was capable."
O'Brien enrolled to do an economics degree with the University of New South Wales in Sydney, about 500 miles from his native Melbourne. To finance his studies he took on part time jobs. Graduating with honors, he held various management positions in a family owned group of companies before he relocated to New York where he got his MBA from Columbia. Following graduation he was offered a position in investment banking in New York but chose to return to Australia instead to join McKinsey.
It did not take long, however, for O'Brien to move beyond his initial instinct of adding brand names and 'badges' to his resume: "I loved McKinsey, yet I came to the view that important as strategy and advising companies on operational improvement is, I believed leadership was the key to bringing about positive change in communities. That was another pivotal time in my life because that was when I became aware of Egon Zehnder International as a platform for working in this realm of leadership. I joined the Firm in March of 1988. "Now grey-haired", he laughs, "it was black when I joined!"
The spice is in the mix
One of O'Brien's core values - a profound respect for people - is rooted in his upbringing and his family: "I grew up in a household that had a remarkable capacity for hospitality. Our home was always full of people with diverse backgrounds. Even though my father became a successful businessman and we ended up dealing with people with money at times, my family's friends came from all walks of life including the very poor and one or two who had spent time in jail. My mother had a tremendous sense of respect for all people, coming from her strong sense for community, and everyone was welcome at home no matter the time of day or night."
As a leader of Egon Zehnder International, O'Brien continues to encourage a diverse, open and tolerant environment. Diversity for him is about bringing together people who approach problems with different perspectives: "I recoil from notions of diversity based on politically correct concepts and categorization of people based on gender, race or cultural origin. And I am often surprised by the quickness with which those who champion diversity are prepared to put people in boxes and stereotype them. Diversity should be about the exact opposite, yet it seems the very language that we use to discuss diversity often reinforces the very things we want to avoid."
Within the context of Egon Zehnder International, fostering diversity remains a priority and a challenge. Looking from the outside in, the majority of the Firm's consultants are very similar - products of top business schools, many are white males, and they have most often worked for Fortune 500 firms or leading consulting firms. With this in mind, O'Brien leads his executive committee of six in a way which encourages a high level of open debate and dissent and he wants the same culture to shape the broader interactions of his partners when they convene twice a year. His executive committee brings together a spectrum of skills, personalities and life experiences which both complement and challenge him. All well educated, they come from five different continents and have different socio-economic and professional backgrounds: "In serving our clients we have a certain global template of what our consultants should look like. And I think our clients expect to deal with consultants who have a similarly world-class education and who have demonstrated success in many traditional ways. But this pulls against the idea of building a truly diverse team. There is a natural tension here that we are dealing with by hiring 'less traditional' consultants."
As the world of his clients is changing, and as diversity gains in importance as a means to solve problems creatively and effectively, the culture of Egon Zehnder International is also becoming more diverse: "If on a scale of one to ten on diversity we are a four or five now, we were about a one a decade ago. And that would be a culture defined by traditional European values, male, and individuals of a certain socio-economic grouping. I am sure about 99 percent of us reflected this type of profile. Today it might still be true of some of our offices, but it would certainly not be true of all offices."
Part of this spirit to embrace diversity and different point of views is undoubtedly rooted in the Firm's origins: "Our founder Egon Zehnder was a pathfinder, a pioneer in our industry. I love the boldness in him. To this day, when you meet Egon he will engage you in a discussion about a wide range of issues and he embraces people with very different perspectives. He loves meeting people with different views and different experiences to himself."
As the Firm's CEO, O'Brien clearly continues to nurture Zehnder's legacy of healthy discussion and championing and celebrating different personalities. Yet, as the partnership grows, the challenges rise as well: "I think we need to work hard to maintain this spirit and to avoid the tendency that all large institutions face as they grow to average down and become homogenized. So as the partnership gets bigger and more dispersed we need work even harder to celebrate and promote our differences."
Lonely at the top
Becoming Chairman and CEO of Egon Zehnder International has been something of an organic process for O'Brien it seems: "There was no moment. Egon Zehnder himself had over the years subtly indicated that he saw me as a potential leader. Dan Meiland, who was Egon's successor, took risks on me and gave me opportunities that also indicated that he saw me as a possible future leader. And ultimately John Grumbar, my predecessor, did likewise. It took shape almost unconsciously in my mind. I do not believe in pre-destination, but it was almost living into something that was coming towards me. And with hindsight I think I made a lot of decisions that enhanced my candidacy - including not particularly wanting the job."
Many of us are familiar with the Hans Christian Andersen parable about the Emperor with no clothes. (The Emperor hires a tailor to weave a suit of fine material. The tailor claims the fabric is invisible to all who are not fit for their positions or 'hopelessly stupid'. Although he himself cannot see the fabric, the Emperor pretends he does see it. No one, not even his advisors, dare tell the Emperor he is naked as he walks around in his 'new clothes'. Only when he strolls through the village does a child in the crowd shout that the Emperor is wearing no clothes).
As successful executives rise to the top there is a danger of experiencing the Emperor's isolation. Consequently O'Brien supports the exchange of ideas and information, he encourages 'shouts from the crowd' in the Firm. He strives to achieve a rich dialogue between the different constituents. His dedication to leave 'the tower' and to continuously travel to many of the Firm's 37 country representations illustrates his hands-on interest in the Firm's local teams including their concerns and particular perspectives on the challenges the Firm might be facing at any particular time.
However, even the most adept leader who embraces differences and encourages taking risks will experience a sense of isolation that comes with the nature of the position. His experience of 'loneliness' in his early years while on missionary duty in the Philippines has undoubtedly created an acute sense of awareness around what loneliness 'looks like': "I have been CEO for four years and chairman for a couple of years. From time to time I am surrounded by colleagues whom I love dearly and with whom I spend a lot of time, but at the end of the day I have a level of accountability which puts me in a different position. My ability to share with all my colleagues at all levels has been constrained by the decisions I have to make. So I think grappling with this has been a great source of personal growth. At times it feels kind of alienating, at times it feels stimulating, and it has meant that I have grown considerably in self-awareness."
Damien O'Brien heads up a group of professionals who own the very Firm he is directing, adding another layer of complexity to his leadership. What's more, his colleagues, who are critiquing leaders as their day job, are by definition very demanding They are trained to be critical and very aware of what good leadership looks like (and what it doesn't look like), and Egon Zehnder International has long been known for its emphasis on emotionally intelligent leadership .
Sounding boards
Historically and across cultures and contexts, leaders have been expected to possess insight and vision, particularly in the face of uncertainty or complexity, as Dan Goleman says: "The leader acts as the group's emotional guide. Understanding the powerful role of emotions in the workplace sets the best leaders apart from the rest – not just in tangibles such as better business results and the retention of talent, but also in the all-important intangibles, such as higher morale, motivation, and commitment."
O'Brien understands the powerful role emotions play in the work place: "As CEO, the persona and the leadership role merge. Leadership is about having followers. And people follow a person, so it is about me and that can be very challenging." To energize and increase his capacity as a leader, O'Brien has his own sounding boards, both inside and outside the Firm. Here too diversity is a dominant theme as he surrounds himself with a healthy variety of people who complement his strengths and offset his weaknesses as a leader. O'Brien spends time on the phone each day communicating with colleagues and making himself available for group calls with even the most junior consultants. The resulting relationships form a platform which allows for constructive feedback in both directions.
Outside of the Firm, O'Brien's wife Jo (to whom he has been married for 28 years) is also a strong source of support and someone who "keeps him honest". Damien also has a particularly close relationship with his sister who works as a professional coach. He also serves as his own sounding board. Not a big fan of popular management literature he reads extensively on broader topics of philosophy and sociology and he carves out time to reflect on his life and relationships and to learn from the lessons it has to offer.
Sufficiently introspective, he is not afraid to be his own sharpest critic, and holds himself accountable when he realizes that his ego may be getting in the way of objectivity and the overall well-being of the Firm. As well as being an excellent listener to others, he also explores his inner dialogue, and once participated in a 30-day silent retreat.
As a leader he takes time out to think about the 'big questions': "What is the purpose of the Firm I lead? How can I help my colleagues reach their full potential? What is the future of Egon Zehnder International and what is my own future beyond the leadership of the Firm? What are key measures to determine the Firm's success and my success, or not? How will I hold myself and others accountable in the interest of these goals?"
There is no doubt that Damien O'Brien has had an inspiring journey to date. It's uncertain what his next step will look like after Egon Zehnder International but there are certain to be interesting experiences to come – as illustrated by his personal mantra: "Dream, dance and don't pitch your tent too early."
1 Nanda, A. and Morrell, K. (2004), Strategic Review at Egon Zehnder International (A; B; C), Harvard Business School.
2 Goleman, D. (1998). “Working with Emotionally Intelligence.” New York: Bantam Books, pp. 305-306.
3 Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R. E., McKee, A. (2002).Primal Leadership: Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence, Harvard Business School Press, pp. 3 – 5.
"Dream, dance and don't pitch your tent too early."
copyright © Panylobe 2008 - 2021 -
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Chapter 584 Golden Lion Academy's Invasion 4
"What do you want to know?! We will tell you everything we know!" The Moonlight Blades immediately answered.
"My first question is how did you guys manage to travel to the Holy Central Continent?" Su Yang then asked.
"The Leader has this spiritual treasure that can transport people to the Holy Central Continent, but it only works one way, so it cannot be used to bring them back."
"Who is your Leader?" Su Yang asked.
"We don't know! In fact, only the higher-ups are allowed to meet the Leader! We have never seen him before!"
"However, we've been told that the Leader will appear to greet the guests from the Holy Central Continent when they finally arrive!"
"Is that so?" Su Yang nodded.
"Then where's your hideout? I heard it's impossible to find."
The Moonlight Blades turned to look at each other with perplexed expressions. If they reveal their hideout and the higher-ups find out, they will surely be killed even if they escape from this place alive.
"If you don't want to answer my question, I can simply kill one of you at a time until someone gives me an answer." Su Yang suddenly said with a grim expression, sending chills down their spine.
"I-I will talk!" One of them quickly said, and he continued, "The reason our hideout has remained hidden for so long is because we don't have a hideout in the first place…"
"What? Then how do you communicate with each other?" Xie Wang spoke with a frown.
"It's a one-way communication. Whenever there is a mission, we are contacted by the higher-ups through multiple unique methods, such as feeding rats with messages and using techniques to control them."
"So if we want to get rid of you bunch, we'll have to start cleaning up from the top, huh?" Su Yang nodded.
He then turned to look at Xie Wang and said, "I have changed my mind. Instead of killing them after we have our information, we should kill them when their Leader arrives. If we kill them now, their Leader will become suspicious."
"Even if you say that… How are we going to keep them here after all of this? It's not like you can keep them inside that formation since it'll definitely alert someone." Xie Wang said to him.
"Don't worry, I have an idea." Su Yang said with a smile.
"W-Wait a moment! I thought you said that you wouldn't kill us if we answered your questions!"
"That's right! Are you going to go back on your words, you bastard?!"
The people inside the formation immediately began cursing at Su Yang.
Seeing this, Su Yang merely shook his head and spoke in a calm voice, "I only said that I'd let you leave this formation. Who said anything about letting you leave with your lives? However, even though I said that, I won't be the one killing you guys."
He then pointed to Xie Wang and continued, "You guys have been targeting Xing'er for many years now, I'm sure that the Xie Family has some built-up anger they'd like to relieve."
The people there quickly turned to look at Xie Wang, who was staring at them with murderous eyes, looking like a hungry tiger before its prey.
"P-Please! Have mercy! We are only doing as we're told! In the first place, the only person interested in Lady Xie is our Leader!" One of them pleaded.
However, Xie Xingfang coldly snorted and said, "Do you think this is just about the Moonlight Blades trying to capture me? You guys have been trying to ruin my Xie Family for many years now, not to mention the countless incidents you guys have caused around the entire Eastern Continent!"
The Moonlight Blades were speechless, as everything Xie Xingfang said was true.
The main purpose of the Moonlight Blades was to conquer the Eastern Continent and spread chaos and fear as far and wide as possible. It was an evil organization that has no redeeming qualities. In fact, the entire world would be much more peaceful without their existence.
"Xing'er, you can deal with them all you want later. For now, I will erase their memories, making it appear as though we were never here in the first place." Su Yang suddenly said.
"You… can erase memories?" Xie Wang looked at him with a bewildered look. Is there anything in this world that he cannot do?
A few moments later, Su Yang stepped inside the formation without any hesitation.
When the Moonlight Blades members saw this, they wasted no time and immediately attacked him.
"Get him!"
And over a hundred Cultivators between the Elementary Spirit Realm and the Profound Spirit Realm rushed at him simultaneously.
Seeing this, Su Yang merely shook his head with a calm expression before his index finger glowed a golden light.
"You guys should enjoy your last few days of being alive before it ends…" Su Yang said to them as he casually dodged their attacks while poking them on the forehead at the same time.
The Moonlight Blades members rapidly collapsed on the floor, and within just a few moments, they were all effortlessly knocked unconscious by Su Yang.
Su Yang removed the formation afterward.
"They won't remember anything that has happened in the last hour when they wake up. Let's return to the flying ship for now. Once their leader shows up, we can deal with them once and for all." He said to Xie Xingfang.
"Even if you say that, where are we going to hide with such a massive and eye-catching flying ship floating in the air?" Xie Wang asked him. "They will see us even from miles away."
"Don't worry, this flying ship can do more than just traveling at a fast speed; it can even camouflage itself with the background and make it appear invisible, and unless they have someone with a powerful enough spiritual sense to see through the illusion, they won't be able to see or sense it even if we are right above them." Su Yang said with a smile on his face.
"..." Xie Wang was speechless, but he was not too surprised, as he was beginning to grow numb after being shocked so many times by Su Yang and his companions.
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Share this Story: Rheault ready for Reds: Garson product excited for spring training with Cincinnati
Rheault ready for Reds: Garson product excited for spring training with Cincinnati
Ben Leeson
Garson native Dylan Rheault, during his time with the Richmond Flying Squirrels in 2018. Photo by Mark Gormus/Richmond Times-Dispatch
Dylan Rheault believes the foundation has been laid for pitching success.
Now, it’s up to him to do the building.
Rheault ready for Reds: Garson product excited for spring training with Cincinnati Back to video
The 27-year-old right-hander from Garson was thrilled to sign with the Cincinnati Reds this past December, after a year of limited duty in the independent leagues, feeling he had found the ideal match for his abilities and approach.
“That was the team I wanted to go to,” said Rheault, who’s due to travel Wednesday from Denver, where he trains in the off-season, to Goodyear, Ariz., where he’ll report for spring training in a couple of weeks.
“They changed all their pitching views and hired some guys from Driveline Baseball,” said Rheault, referring to the data-driven performance training system founded by Kyle Boddy.
“Kyle is a guy I have followed for like six years now, so it’s kind of a perfect fit. I have been up there and thrown with them, and basically, it’s the first time I have been in an organization where my views are also there, so I don’t think there will be any push-back on anything. Literally, everything is going to be on me, so I have no excuses this year and if I don’t make it, it’s on me. If I do make it, it’s great.”
Certainly, the 6-foot-9, 245-pound Central Michigan alumnus and former Baltimore Orioles draft pick is as healthy as he has been in quite some time and believes he’s all the more mature for having faced some adversity in his career.
After splitting his 2018 season between teams at the advanced-A, AA and AAA levels, all in the San Francisco Giants organization, Rheault signed with the St. Louis Cardinals for the 2019 campaign, only to be derailed by injuries.
“There has been a lot of times where I have gotten completely knocked down,” he recalled. “Last year, I got a pretty major injury two weeks before spring training, rehabbed it all the way, then my last bullpen before I was supposed to be in a game, which was with the Cardinals, I got hurt again, so that was the end of my time with them.”
Having rehabbed that injury, as well, and giving full credit to his trainers and staff at the Push Performance facility in Colorado, Rheault was ready for the next opportunity.
“I keep getting knocked down, but I’m not going to go away,” he said.
“It puts things into perspective. Baseball is what I love and being injured was hard, knowing I had put myself in a good position and it was taken away, but it just shows me that it can be taken away at any time, and the only thing I can do is work as hard as I can, put everything I have into this. It’s something I’ve wanted forever and I have been working at it for a long time, too, since 2013 in pro ball, but there’s going to be trials and tribulations and I’m not going to be the one to go without giving it all I’ve got. There will be a day when I’ll know I’m done, but I don’t think that’s any time soon.”
Indeed, Rheault believes he’s a much better pitcher, and certainly more versatile, than he was when he broke into the professional ranks.
The numbers bear him out. While in the Giants’ system, he not only improved his strikeout-to-walk ratio to 81-to-39, compared to 104-to-86 with the Orioles, but his ground-ball rate increased dramatically, to around 56 per cent.
“Starting in 2016, I started following the Driveline Baseball stuff and really, just started taking my training more seriously,” Rheault said. “Basically, I stopped treating it as kind of a hobby. I know that sounds bad, but my first couple of years, I just didn’t know, but then, after getting released from the Orioles, it just opened my eyes, like if I want this, I literally have to make it my job, my profession.
“Hard work is what helped me, and learning, constantly learning.”
While Rheault can now generate as much heat as ever with his fastball, which currently pushes 99 miles per hour, he has also found unprecedented success with a slider and a splitter.
“This injury was kind of a blessing,” he said. “My off-speed pitches weren’t ready, but this one bullpen, when I was coming back from my injury, I just picked up a ball and started throwing a splitter and all of a sudden, that turned really good. With the help of some of the guys at Driveline, my slider has taken huge leaps, too, so now, instead of just a fastball and some decent off-speed, I have a fastball and some really good off-speed and I can use those to strike people out, which is what teams are looking for.
“That’s something I got caught up in too much before, just trying to throw as hard as possible and not focusing on some of the other things. My fastball velocity is a big reason for the success that I have had, but obviously, that wasn’t good enough to get into the big leagues, so that’s why I’m constantly learning and trying to get better.”
Devoted as Rheault is to his pursuit of an MLB opportunity, he still keeps one eye on Northern Ontario. He noted, with obvious approval, the efforts of Jean-Gilles Larocque and his staff at the Baseball Academy, who have helped several players earn university commitments in recent years.
“He’s doing a real good job of growing the game in the North. It’s something I wish I had when I was younger. It’s impressive, what’s going on up there, and I hope all those guys keep working hard.”
bleeson@postmedia.com
Twitter: @ben_leeson
News Near North Bay
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A policy transformed by politics: The case of the 1973 Australian community health program
Jennifer DeVoe
During an era of health policy reform in Australia, community health advocates believed that community health centers (CHCs) could form a solid foundation for a new system of health care delivery. Instead, a proposal for national health insurance (Medibank) emerged as the predominant structural reform. Community health proposals were not abandoned, however, and a policy designed to give federal grant assistance for the establishment of CHCs was implemented in 1973. The historical account of how the 1973 Australian Community Health Program (CHP) was developed in the early 1970s is relevant to dilemmas faced by contemporary policy makers. Specifically, how did the CHP "survive" even though government leaders had moved away from traditional direct service models, choosing to focus more attention on indirect insurance reimbursement?
Journal of health politics, policy and law
https://doi.org/10.1215/03616878-28-1-77
10.1215/03616878-28-1-77
Fingerprint Dive into the research topics of 'A policy transformed by politics: The case of the 1973 Australian community health program'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
Politics Medicine & Life Sciences
community health center Social Sciences
Public Health Medicine & Life Sciences
Community Health Centers Medicine & Life Sciences
politics Social Sciences
structural reform Social Sciences
Organized Financing Medicine & Life Sciences
DeVoe, J. (2003). A policy transformed by politics: The case of the 1973 Australian community health program. Journal of health politics, policy and law, 28(1), 77-108. https://doi.org/10.1215/03616878-28-1-77
A policy transformed by politics : The case of the 1973 Australian community health program. / DeVoe, Jennifer.
In: Journal of health politics, policy and law, Vol. 28, No. 1, 01.02.2003, p. 77-108.
DeVoe, J 2003, 'A policy transformed by politics: The case of the 1973 Australian community health program', Journal of health politics, policy and law, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 77-108. https://doi.org/10.1215/03616878-28-1-77
DeVoe J. A policy transformed by politics: The case of the 1973 Australian community health program. Journal of health politics, policy and law. 2003 Feb 1;28(1):77-108. https://doi.org/10.1215/03616878-28-1-77
DeVoe, Jennifer. / A policy transformed by politics : The case of the 1973 Australian community health program. In: Journal of health politics, policy and law. 2003 ; Vol. 28, No. 1. pp. 77-108.
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T2 - The case of the 1973 Australian community health program
N2 - During an era of health policy reform in Australia, community health advocates believed that community health centers (CHCs) could form a solid foundation for a new system of health care delivery. Instead, a proposal for national health insurance (Medibank) emerged as the predominant structural reform. Community health proposals were not abandoned, however, and a policy designed to give federal grant assistance for the establishment of CHCs was implemented in 1973. The historical account of how the 1973 Australian Community Health Program (CHP) was developed in the early 1970s is relevant to dilemmas faced by contemporary policy makers. Specifically, how did the CHP "survive" even though government leaders had moved away from traditional direct service models, choosing to focus more attention on indirect insurance reimbursement?
AB - During an era of health policy reform in Australia, community health advocates believed that community health centers (CHCs) could form a solid foundation for a new system of health care delivery. Instead, a proposal for national health insurance (Medibank) emerged as the predominant structural reform. Community health proposals were not abandoned, however, and a policy designed to give federal grant assistance for the establishment of CHCs was implemented in 1973. The historical account of how the 1973 Australian Community Health Program (CHP) was developed in the early 1970s is relevant to dilemmas faced by contemporary policy makers. Specifically, how did the CHP "survive" even though government leaders had moved away from traditional direct service models, choosing to focus more attention on indirect insurance reimbursement?
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Youth Placement
Secure Care Treatment Facilities
Detention Centers
Community Based Services Division
Interstate Compact on Juveniles (ICJ)
Office of Juvenile Affairs
OJA Names Juvenile Justice Advocate as General Counsel
Office of Juvenile Affairs (OJA) interim Executive Director Rachel Holt today announced she has hired Benjamin C. Brown as the agency’s general counsel.
Brown, of Warr Acres, has been a practicing attorney for nearly 30 years. He has served as public defender for both Oklahoma County and the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System (OIDS). He has spent most of his time during his career as a trial lawyer representing adults and children and advocating for change for those involved in the adult and juvenile justice system in Oklahoma.
Brown began his new duties Monday, June 29.
Holt, who was named OJA’s interim executive director in March, has been serving as the agency’s senior general counsel since December 2017. Before that, she was an assistant attorney general assigned as OJA’s general counsel and prior to that she served as OJA’s deputy general counsel.
“Ben is the juvenile law expert and child advocate that OJA needs in this position at this time,” Holt said. “He is very knowledgeable in juvenile law, having taught classes to attorneys and judges and worked on statutory improvements to the state’s juvenile code. He’s also very familiar with our agency, having worked with OJA case workers and having served on OJA’s governing board.”
In 1998, when Oklahoma adopted the Youthful Act, Brown began representing children who were charged with crimes under those statutes.
“Representing these children was my introduction to the juvenile justice system and OJA,” Brown said. “Over the next 10 years I worked with these clients and with the OJA staff litigating whether these clients would be sentenced as juveniles or youthful offenders and placed in the custody of OJA or whether they would be sentenced as adults and supervised by the Department of Corrections. As a result of representing these clients, I became involved as an advocate for legislative change and improvement for juveniles and OJA.”
Brown in 2008 transferred from the adult division of the Oklahoma County public defender’s office to the juvenile division. During the next seven years, he represented children and adults involved with OJA and the Department of Human Services. He also was appointed to task forces and legislative committees assigned with making recommendations for statutory improvements to the state’s juvenile code. In 2012, he was appointed to OJA’s governing board by then-Gov. Mary Fallin.
In 2015, Brown went to work for OIDS primarily representing adults charged in capital murder cases, but he also continued to represent juveniles charged with murder, served as a resource counsel to judges and other attorneys representing juveniles, monitored legislation, and served on committees dealing with juvenile justice issues.
“I have a passion to see that children are treated fairly, that society is protected, and that the juvenile justice system is able to complete its mission of becoming involved in the community and the lives of families and children to attempt to prevent them from becoming involved in the juvenile justice system,” Brown said. “For those children and families who do become involved in the juvenile justice system, they must be treated individually and fairly, and the juvenile must be provided the opportunity to receive proper treatment, education and rehabilitation which is evidence-based, effective and proactive.”
Brown earned bachelor’s degrees in political science and sociology from the University of New Mexico and his law degree from Oklahoma City University School of Law.
Benjamin C. Brown
Michael McNutt / Communications Director
at (405) 530-2860 (office) or (405) 249-6072 (cell)
michael.mcnutt@oja.ok.gov
Paula Christiansen / Public Information Officer
paula.christiansen@oja.ok.gov
Last Modified on Dec 02, 2020
Oklahoma Office of Juvenile Affairs
3812 N Santa Fe Ave
Oklahoma Youth Academy Charter School
State Advisory Group
Throughout the state of Oklahoma, the Office of Juvenile Affairs (OJA) provides with its community partners; prevention, educational and treatment services, as well as secure facilities for juveniles in order to promote public safety and reduce juvenile delinquency.
Oklahoma.gov
Copyright ©State of Oklahoma
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Home Celebs Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Is Now A Centibillionaire
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Is Now A Centibillionaire
Mark Zuckerberg has joined the world’s most exclusive club of the ultra-rich.
The Facebook (FB) CEO on Thursday became a centibillionaire: someone who is worth at least $100 billion. He crossed the milestone after shares in the social network surged. Only two other men, Amazon (AMZN)’s Jeff Bezos and Microsoft (MSFT)’s Bill Gates, have bigger personal fortunes.
Zuckerberg co-founded Facebook from his Harvard dorm room in 2004, and his biggest asset is still his 13% stake in the company, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which tracks the world’s wealthiest people.
The 36-year-old is also Facebook’s chairman and controlling shareholder.
Zuckerberg’s wealth got its latest bump as Facebook’s stock climbed 6.5% Thursday, a day after the company launched its TikTok clone, Reels, on Instagram. The release of the short video feature came just as US President Donald Trump threatened to ban TikTok, the Chinese-owned app that has exploded in popularity over the last year.
Source: CNN Business
Shatta Wale Angrily Insults Burna Boy, Calls Him Pu$$y In Live Video
Your Health Is In Your Hands – Doctors Tell Ghanaians As COVID-19 Gets Out Of Control
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COVID-19 Crippled Movie Theaters and That Could Force Streamers To Be More Transparent About Viewership Data
coronavirus, movie-theaters, viewership-data
SaM June 5, 2020, 9:50am #1
image740×416 54 KB
Sarah Whitten writes via CNBC:
The coronavirus pandemic has fundamentally changed the entertainment industry. With movie theaters shuttered, studios have been forced to either delay their film releases or turn to on-demand and streaming options to present their content to audiences. While cinemas are preparing to reopen this month, eagerly awaiting new films in July, it’s still unclear if there is enough demand to keep these businesses profitable. […] Industry members worry that if films begin to shift towards on-demand and streaming that all of the metrics that were used to gauge success could disappear.
It’s easy to figure out if a film is successful because studios give out all of the necessary information. You know the production budget, can ascertain that the marketing budget was about half of the production budget and then you see the box office receipts. If the box office numbers are larger than the production and marketing budgets, then the movie was a success. If that number is smaller, it was a flop. There’s even data about how many screens a film was shown on in a given weekend and the average that film made per screen. These metrics not only help studios determine the profitability of a movie, but can also aid in its marketing. […] In the world of streaming, and even on-demand and home video, that level of transparency is not present. There are very few sources that track the home entertainment market and even fewer companies that share their data on the subject.
Of course, the model for subscriptions services is very different from that of theatrical releases. Consumers pay up front a flat fee for a month’s worth of content on a service like Netflix or Disney+, whereas theaters charge per view. So, it’s difficult to assign a monetary amount to a movie released on a streaming service. The strongest measure of success for streaming services is total number of subscribers. This figure can be used to persuade content makers to work with one platform instead of another because of the potential reach they could have with an audience. It’s not a guarantee that all of those subscribers will watch the content, but they will be exposed to it. […] [However] it’s very difficult to determine if someone signed up for a service just to watch one program. The report notes that Netflix counts a “view” as someone who chose to watch a program for at least two minutes, which is “pretty useless,” according to Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter. “Who cares how many people watched a particular movie (other than them and the press)? It doesn’t translate to revenue unless the movie is the reason to join the streaming service.”
“Netflix gauges the success of shows by calculating how many viewers it was getting compared with the cost of the show,” reports CNBC. “Without viewership data from any of Netflix’s shows, it’s difficult to determine how big of an audience a show on the platform needs to achieve in order to be considered viable by the company.”
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operaramblings
John's opera ramblings
Cheap tickets at the COC
Index of CD reviews
Index of video reviews
Abstracting the Dutchman
Posted on November 12, 2019 by operaramblings
Olivier Py’s production of Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer, filmed at the Theater an der Wien in 2015, is quite unusual. Usually opera productions either play the story more or less straight or work with a concept of the director’s that is not obviously contained in the libretto. Py doesn’t rally do either of these. What he does is present the narrative as Wagner wrote it but with visuals that act as a sort of commentary on, rather than a literal depiction of, the action being described. One of the things this does is make the viewer realise just how much Wagner is describing! There is much more tell than show.
The basic set up is very black and white with everything happening in a sort of black wooden box. It might be a theatre, it might not. Everybody is dressed, sort of 1950s style, in blacks, greys and whites. There is a dancer (Pavel Strasil) representing Satan. The opening stage set has “ERLÖSUNG” chalked across it. Actually, Satan aside, not much happens visually in Act 1, though there’s a brief appearance by what appears to be “naked Seta” at the end of the act, (I use that term loosely as Py uses the 1841 continuous version) but as Act 2 opens it becomes clearer where Py is going. There are no spinning wheels. The girls are a chorus conducted by Mary. There’s no portrait either. There are projections. then we get the scene with Senta and the Holländer. Now there is a giant skull on stage.
Act 3 starts to get deeper into this. The sailors’ chorus is accompanied by Satan and two other dancers then three skeletons descend from the fly. The lighting goes stroboscopic and technicolour. I think there’s a naked Satan in a mask sort of hovering in mid stage but with the strobes it’s hard to tell. There’s a rather violent confrontation between Georg (not Erik here for some reason) before Senta and the Holländer disappear slowly into a sort of plastic ocean. The word “ERWARTUNG” appears chalked on the back wall.
Although there’s a longish interview with Py in the booklet none of this is really explained. He talks a lot about Wagner’s identification with Senta and I got a very strong sense that this production is really about her not the Holländer. The visual abstraction also, I think, made me listen harder to the music. It really is a wonderfully lyrical score.
And on that note let’s talk about the music. Marc Minkowski is in the pit with his Les musiciens du Louvre; presumably on period instruments but I haven’t been able to verify that. They produce a remarkable sound. There is great clarity, delicacy where needed and full on drama when required. In it’s way it’s as remarkable as Tafelmusik’s Beethoven Ninth.
It’s backed up by very good singing. Samuel Youn is absolutely solid in the title role and Ingela Brimberg is a very decent Senta though perhaps not with the sweetest of upper registers. Bernard Richter is an exemplary Georg and the rest are all good. The chorus is the Arnold Schoenberg Chor and they are quite excellent. Overall, musically I think I enjoyed this more than any other recording of this piece I have heard.
François Roussillon directed the video and I think he does a good job of capturing a production that is very dark and has some serious lighting effects going on. But be warned; it is very dark and I can’t imagine watching it at lower resolution than Blu-ray. It’s one where I wish there was a 4K version. The sound (both DTS-HD-MA and PCM 2.0) is excellent. Besides the interview with Py, the booklet contains a track listing and synopsis. there are no extras on the disk and subtitle options are English, French, German, Korean and Japanese.
This disk is probably not a good introduction to this work but it is quite provoking and musically very interesting.
This entry was posted in DVD review and tagged arnold schoenberg chor, blu-ray, brimberg, dvd, les musiciens du louvre - grenoble, minkowski, py, richter, roussillon, strasil, theater an der wien, youn by operaramblings. Bookmark the permalink.
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Night Watch Protest Against Gang-Rape of Danish Woman
THE brutality and brazenness of the recent gang rape of Danish woman near New Delhi Railway Station has shocked everyone in the capital. In the light of growing incidents of sexual assault at public places and increasing feeling of insecurity amongst women, All India Democratic Women’s Association, Jana Natya Manch, Democratic Youth Federation of India, Students’ Federation of India, Jansanskriti, Democratic Teachers’ Federation, Centre of Indian Trade Unions together held a night watch protest at the site of rape incident on January 17. The gathering was held to assess and highlight the absence of security measures at even central public places like Connaught Place, New Delhi Railway Station and Pahar Ganj, which are frequently visited by women at all hours. All organisations expressed anger and outrage at the complete absence of security measures around the railway station. The participants who walked from the entry point of Service Entry Road towards the New Delhi Railway Station noted that there were hardly any security measures in place. The street lights around the station were very dim. There were no police check posts near the area where the constant noise of trains make it impossible for any call for help to be heard. The protestors also observed that there were no proper sign boards indicating the way to the railway station or Pahar Ganj, which is a prominent area for tourist guest houses and lodges. A detailed letter of observations and demands would be formulated by the organisations and submitted with the Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal at the earliest. The evening saw a mix of songs, performances, slogans and speeches. Jagmati Sangwan, general secretary of All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) said it was clear from the way things were that none of the recommendations of the Verma Committee Report were taken seriously and implemented. “This case only reflects that the security systems inside the capital city have completely failed its women, who are not even safe at public places,” said Sangwan. AIDWA Delhi state secretary Sehba Farooqui expressed deep shock at the fact that the Danish woman’s assault went on for hours at such a prominent public place without any check. She stressed on the need to take immediate measures to check such incidents. Students’ Federation of India (SFI) CEC member Sunand Singh said, “This incident is the latest in the series of crimes of violence against women in the city, the government needs to take some concrete steps instead of making hollow promises”. Rajeev Kunwar from Democratic Teachers’ Federation (DTF) expressed concern at the growing insecurity of women in the capital city. He stressed on the need to provide proper security measures for girl students in and around universities and colleges, as well as other prominent places. Srinivasan from Jansanskriti mentioned that even after the public outrage over December 16 gang rape, these incidents only prove that the laws are still not being properly implemented. Puran Chand, secretary, Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) said it was unfortunate that these incidents are growing unabated and they reflect on the will , that is missing, of the political and administrative sections to provide violence free lives to women. Anurag Sexena from CITU also expressed deep anguish at the complete absence of security measures at public places like even the railway stations which women have to frequently visit. The gathering culminated near the railway station as the organisers decided to carry on with such initiatives to take a stock of security arrangements across the city.
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Federal, Industry News, Policies
260+ Organizations Ask the Administration to Keep the Current Ozone Standard
In the coming weeks, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will send the Office of Management and Budget a new National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for ozone that will be among the most expensive regulations in our nation’s history. Just a few years ago, the Administration ordered the EPA to abandon a similar rule, citing the need to reduce regulatory burdens in a recovering economy. PESA joined more than 260 organizations requesting that the Administration retain the current ozone standard.
Efforts to reduce ozone are an environmental success story. Ozone levels have improved by 33 percent since 1980 and will improve even more in coming years. Businesses, governments, and individuals have all played critical roles in these achievements. Market-driven innovations and dozens of existing policies to improve fuel economy, increase energy efficiency, and reduce emissions from stationary and mobile sources will drive further air quality improvements over the next decade, and beyond.
We are committed to ensuring a clean and safe environment now and in the future. However, we also stand to bear the brunt of the economic pain from a regulation that will make it difficult to manufacture products, build new projects, produce energy, improve infrastructure and hire the workers needed to make this all happen. A stricter ozone standard could close off communities across the nation to new jobs and economic growth, requiring reductions to near-background levels in many places. We are bound by the limits of technological feasibility, and this regulation mandates controls that even the EPA admits are unknown. When regulations push beyond the achievable, we lose the ability to innovate, create jobs, and unlock the next generation of technologies. The need for balanced government policies and reasonable flexibilities has never been greater, and no single regulation threatens to disrupt this balance more than EPA’s ozone rule.
We join the governors, lieutenant governors, and attorneys general from more than half of U.S. states, as well as the hundreds of federal, state and local elected officials, county commissioners, community leaders, economic development organizations, environmental regulators, transportation boards, and citizens who have written, called, or met with the Administration with their simple, but critical request: Please retain the existing 75 parts per billion (ppb) standard for ground-level ozone. Let us meet these requirements before moving the targets again.
PESA Supports “The Offshore Production and Energizing National Security Act” (OPENS Act)
Molly Smart
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John Entwistle Of The Who Is Arguably The Best Bassist Of All Time
John Entwistle was one of the greatest bass players of all time and most certainly the most influential for all things rock, heavy, and solo work.
Muddy Waters: The Father of Modern Chicago Blues
Muddy Waters, born in 1913 in Mississippi, is a world renown blues icon and is commonly considered the "father of modern Chicago blues."
The Doors Perform "Light My Fire" Live in 1968 at The Hollywood Bowl (WATCH)
The Doors are considered as one of the most influential rock bands of the 60s. Sadly, the death of lead vocalist Jim Morrison in 1971 quickly broke the group up.
Frank Sinatra: The King of Swing
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Chuck Berry and the Early Days of Rock and Roll
Chuck Berry was one of the first artists to take rhythm and blues, refine it, and turn it into what would become rock and roll.
Michael Jackson Performs "I Want You Back" w/ his Brothers In Awesome 1971 TV Special
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The Oscars Mistake That Started It All
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The Kinks are regarded as one of the most influential rock bands in history, especially when it comes to the British Invasion.
Somewhere a Voice is Calling - John McCormack
Pretty Baby - Billy Murray
I Sent My Wife to the Thousand Isles - Al Jolson
I Love a Piano - Billy Murray
The Sunshine of Your Smile - John McCormack
America - Columbia Mixed Double Quartet
The Lights of My Home Town - Peerless Quartet
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Turn Back the Universe & Give Me Yesterday - Orpheus Quartet
Everybody's Crazy On The Foxtrot - Walter Jeffries
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Individualizing the Education Experience in Distance Learning with Joan Shearman
April 13, 2020 Josh Britton and Derek Maxson Season 1 Episode 2
Apr 13, 2020 Season 1 Episode 2
In this episode of the Get More Math podcast, you’ll hear a candid conversation with educator Joan Shearman. With 33 years of classroom experience under her belt, Joan is continuing to try new ways to connect with her students during the COVID era. Listen in to her conversation with Josh to discover how she is evolving to address the challenges she’s facing with her students. In this episode we discuss how Joan is:
adjusting to using new online technology
making herself available to students and parents
tailoring lessons to individual students
connecting with her students through individualized messaging
If you’d like to know more or see what it’s all about, we’d like to give you a free trial! Go to GetMoreMath.com to learn more
Helpful Links and Resources
Get More Math Software
We hope you enjoy this interview! Drop us a comment or email us at podcast@getmoremath.com and let us know what you think of this episode.
Derek Maxson: 0:01
Welcome to the Get More Math Podcast, where we support teachers in their quest for long term student gains. This is a podcast for teachers to share their passion for math education, learn best practices from experts in the field and swap ideas for student success. This his community. This is Get More Math.
Welcome back to the Get More Math Podcast. I'm Derek Maxson, the president of Get More Math and with me is Josh Britton, the founder of Get More Math.
Josh Britton: 0:32
Hey, Derek!
Josh, I'm really excited about this podcast having hit the airwaves this past week. Being ableto provide this resource to teachers to help teachers to navigate school closures and remote learning during this time of COVID, it's something we're really committed to, and we're happy to be able to help. We have another interview this week, Josh. Tell us a little bit about who you've interviewed and how it's gonna help us.
Well, Derek, today we interviewed Joan Shearman. She's a math teacher with 33 years of experience, and yet she finds herself in an utterly new environment with a completely new challenge. I really like the way she suggests many specific small steps that, taken together are really helping her students still succeed still make progress despite the massive changes.
This sounds great, Josh. As this podcast is by teachers for teachers, were hoping that there's a tip that each teacher can take away from this podcast. Without any further ado, let's jump straight into the interview.
Well, thanks for stopping by our show again. Today we have Joan Shearman. She's primarily a seventh and eighth-grade math teacher. How are you, Joan?
Joan Shearman: 1:52
I'm doing well. How are you?
I'm doing fairly well. Thanks so much for being willing to kick around what's going on and what you're trying out.
Well, you're welcome.
Have you kind of heard the premise of our show already?
Um, yes, I have.
Great! Our basic idea is we're just trying to find out what teachers are up to as they adapt to this difficult time. What's working? What's not working? But perhaps to start, let's roll the clock back a little bit And think about a few months ago when what seems to be a completely different world, could you describe to me what may be a typical math class and typical responsibilities for you would look like it that time?
Well, yes. I basically would review any concepts that I had previously taught when our class would come in, teach a new concept using the Promethean board document camera, different things like that. And then we actually use Get More Math for the practicing of those concepts and for mixed reviews. So the students would log on to their Chromebooks to practice the concept, get on mixed review when they're done, and I just float around the room and help them with any issues they have. So that would be, you know, basically how the class, my classes would go.
Thank you. So now that your kids are stuck at home and I guess what are we on is this week four? I guess I don't even know. Like it feels like Groundhog Day again. Still stuck at home. I think we're around week four here.
Well, we actually just started teaching remotely on March 30th so we only have about a week and a half in. For two weeks we did not teach them. We just more off and waiting to hear what we could do. There was an issue, I believe, with um, worrying about fulfilling the IEPs of students. So we were waiting to hear how we could go about teaching. So we started on March 30th and what we're expected to do is to provide work for the students, provide lessons for the students, try to keep it as normal as possible learning concepts in reviewing, but also making sure we don't overwhelm them. Some of our students could be watching siblings at home. Um, and they have to wait until their parents get home before they can start any of the lessons. So we were just told, you know, make sure you know of these challenges with your students, make it as meaningful as you can, but also don't overwhelm them. So the first week I just assigned mixed review problems for them to do. And then also, we have to use Google Classroom to post assignments and we're using, you know, various things like Khan. Academy videos, we're using Google forms for attendance. Our kids have to sign in and put their name in for attendance. So we're responsible for teaching them. We're responsible for attendance. We make phone calls if parents, if students are not engaging and they're not online doing our lessons. We also have to make paper packets for students who are not able to get online. We did, however, give out 400 Chromebooks districtwide to students so that they could take them home and work on these online activities. We only, I have 105 students and there is actually only one student that gets a paper packet and we mail it to them and they do the lessons on paper. But otherwise, we're doing online learning. And, like, said I had to learn about Google Classroom because I hadn't used that before and how to attach links to it for Khan Academy, different videos were actually doing Zoom meetings with our students if they have any questions and also just to touch base with them, um, the principal wants to make sure that we let them know that we're okay and want to make sure they're okay and they're mental health is very important to us to the ZooM meetings, sometimes there just to check-in. But those were some of the basic responsibilities that we have to take care of now with this online learning.
Well, it's that is so much. You say a week and a half ago you started to have to, and then you have this fairly extensive list. How are you doing? Like, Is it just consuming all of your time?
It truly is. Um, when you work from, you know, 7:30- 3:00 you walk away and maybe have a little bit to do in the evenings. But with students logging on to your lessons at all hours of the day, they're emailing all day long, even into the night with questions. So we kind of, um we're guided by our principal to say, you know, you make yourself available between these hours and these hours 8 to 3 and, you know, try to just guide the students and saying, if a student emails me at nine o'clock at night, I just say, Could you get on tomorrow at 10 a.m. And I'll help you through it things like that because it really has. It's been like 15 hour days and not constantly, you know, there are little breaks here and there. But it's nonstop. I was out for a walk with my husband and a parent was texting. You know, my son's having trouble with this problem. Could you log on and help him? And I think I'm out for a walk right now. As soon as I get back, I will. But it's it is. It's just it's really consuming time-consuming. So our principal wants to make sure we're okay, too. So he said, Just make yourself available between eight and three, or if you would rather make it between 10 and five or whatever suits you, you know, try to stick to that. So you have, um, some time to yourself, but it has been very time-consuming.
So there's the range of time where sort of you have office hours and you're sort of live and present to your students. But there must be this other big range of time where you're trying to get ahold of. Like what Khan Academy video suits, in particular, a standard or out uh, your scope, your new scope sequence and how to rearrange all of your expectations in that fashion, like all the preparation that you're having to do, is that also in that sort of stipulated block of time or is that beyond that?
Our principal would like us to have it be within that block of time. Sometimes it's not always possible. Um, we have a lot of team meetings, too. We have the teaming concept at our middle school. So all of the other eighth grade teachers and I meet, um, on Zoom once a week, but we also text daily with plans with things that are going on. Has anyone heard from this student? Has anyone heard from that student? Um, that kind of thing. Just to check and be on the same page with the kids. So there is that aspect also, and then we have to yes, plan the lessons. We have to put them on our school calendar. On our web page, we have to post them in Google Classroom. We have a remind text that for parents that goes out, you know, telling them to have their child, their child, check their assignments, so we have the multiple places so that it's easy for the kids, but it takes a lot of time to put those things in every one of those places and plan them. It certainly is taking a lot of time.
Josh Britton: 10:35
So let's talk a little bit more about the substance of what you're calling a lesson. Um, you just said that you take your lesson and you post it on the school's website and on Google Classroom. And there's also like a text notification of, I guess, Hey, there's a new lesson. But what is a lesson in this crazy new world?
Joan Shearman: 10:55
Well, for math, for me, I said we started out the first week with just mixed review, just reviewing concepts because the kids haven't hadn't been in school for two weeks at that time. But this week we did start actual instruction, so I'm trying to make it as easy as possible for them to do on their own but be meaningful. So it is changing the plans that I had for the rest of the year. Um, I have to adapt, so I am using Get More Math for my lessons, and I attach a Khan Academy video, or maybe h formula sheet or a document that I have saved that will help them. My notes, that kind of thing and attach it in Google Classroom for them to use. But it's, you know, I try to keep it short. Um, we were told maybe only let them have about 20-30 minutes of your lesson to do, because if they have five or six other teachers giving them that amount, we don't want them to be working more than three hours. Uh, so we have to keep it short. So I just, um, assigned the lesson on Get More Math and they have a video to watch. And, of course, while they're on, when I am monitoring them, I am on, um, the Get More Math site. And if I see someone's been on for a long time on one problem, I message them, which is a really great feature, that we can send messages to them, especially at this time. I'm in how to how to do a problem, that kind of things that were available, you know well during the day to help them, Uh, but it's, you know, just basically something easy. For example, I did combining like terms today with them and found a lesson on Get More Math in a video that they watched. And, of course, you have the students that email I don't know how to do this. And I say, Did you watch the video? I didn't know there was one.
I'm sorry, but that doesn't surprise me at all!
No, I guess I can read, read what they're supposed to do. But sometimes all of it doesn't sink in. So just reminders of what they should be doing. The very first day of instructional Monday, there were lots of emails to answer about kids not understanding where to find their lesson, what they should be doing. Some of them just know, I mean, they know to log on to Get More Math, and that's where their lessons going to be. But they didn't log in to Google Classroom to see that there was a video attached to that.
So now they have some problems. They're supposed to work out. Like, how am I supposed to do this? I don't know how. So are you guys maintaining a daily lesson expectation?
What we're doing with that, we started out that way last week. We set like for me for my map, I gave them so many mixed review points to do each day, and they were doing fine with that. But with some of the other subjects, they weren't completing everything on the day that it was expected, and we were having a little bit of trouble with that. So we adapted. And what we're doing now is we're saying that yes, Monday, we want you to do this Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, these things. But it's all due at the end of the week. So if a student chooses to do math on one day and get it done, that's fine. And if they want to do like the reading assignments on the last day, as long as all of them are done by the end of the week, then they have freedom, you know, to pick and choose what that seems to be doing, to be working a lot better.
It sounds like you don't have any like, um, synchronous expectations. Like at 10 o'clock, we're all gonna be on this channel or Zoom or something like that. Is that correct?
Um, that for the lessons that's correct. There they can work independently, but we do have Zoom meetings with the students. Mostly, that's not for instruction. That's just to kind of check-in with them. Let them see a familiar face. Let them know everything's going to be okay. And you know, we're working together and we'll get through it and that kind of thing. So it's not really for instruction, but yes. So basically, they are on their own, and they can do the assignments whenever they choose to do them.
Okay. And then during your sort of connected zone, like your seven-hour or whatever period time where you're available like so it sounds like you could be working with kids from, like, four different periods on whatever individual content they need help on, is that correct?
That is correct. Yes, yes.
I'm just trying to absorb that, right? I've never experienced anything like that. You're saying, theoretically, you could be like, I don't know. You could maybe have spun up a Zoom meeting and you're helping the kid walk through a problem? While you're getting pinged from you know, a kid in a different grade on a different topic, and another kid on another class. And your emails are stacking up from some parents who have questions...
That's a typical day. Yes,
it's an exercise of imagination for me. You know, it's it's again. It's beyond the beyond anything within my decades of experience or yours, I imagine right? It sounds like riding quite the wave, like all day long, just trying not to wipe out.
That's That's pretty much what it has been like. Yes,
Yeah. Have you found any anyways, in particular, that stand out for you? That really worked for connecting with kids for encouraging them? Keeping them happy and relating to you well?
Yes. You know, two things have been really helpful with that. One of them is actually messaging them when they're working on Get More Math. So that's why I've tried to different times of the day. Check on them and see who's their current status. See who's working at that particular time and just send them a quick message. "Hi. Glad you're working today. I really appreciate what you're doing. Um, hang in there. You know, you're doing great" that kind of thing. "I hope your family, you and your family are well," that and emails. A lot of the students are emailing when they have an issue because I might not be on at a particular time when they are working. I might not be, you know, watching Get More Math at that time. So if they email, then I'll send the same kind of things back in an email, not only help them with the question that they have but also, you know, put those kinds of messages in, "I hope you're doing well. I hope you and your family are, you know, having some good times. Um, know that we're all thinking of you. Let me know if I can help you in any way," that kind of thing.
I like that. That's really neat. Have you had any kids that you just haven't heard from?
Actually, we have one student that we haven't heard from, and we actually had an issue with that during the year also. He was absent a lot of the time. Um and so not much has changed with that. Then, in that case, we turn those students' names over to our guidance counselor and then they try to make contact with the parents and see what's up. But so far out of 105 students, we've only had one that isn't logging on it all. Now all of them are not doing every assignment. But our principal is kind of saying, just if they're doing something at this point, that's good and then we'll reach out individually to the students if they're not doing our assignment and say, Hey, you know, we just set aside some time I can help you through this if you have questions, that kind of thing. So we're just happy if they're on and doing something at this point. But really mostly, most of the students are rising to this, and they're doing very well for us.
So you have kids still early days for what you're doing. But you have kids learning brand new content from a Khan video it sounds like, and then practicing on, Get More Math and succeeding.
Yes, yes, now we don't I don't do direct instruction like that every day, a new concept every day this week I did one on Monday and Wednesday and Tuesday and Thursday will just be mixed review, Friday we're giving them off. So I'm giving them some time also because, as you know, when you assigned a new lesson on Get More Math, it replaces the old one. So this way it gives them a couple days to be able to get the lesson done. And, mixed review, if they want to do it all on one day, they can. They can wait till the second day instead of doing it on the first. Gives him a little bit more freedom that way. Um, and we don't want to overwhelm them with too many new things when they're learning on their own.
Yes, absolutely. For some kids, that's a wonderful freedom, and they're gonna stretch into it with gladness and they're gonna get things done faster. And they'll love, the Liberty. But other kids will just be overwhelmed to learn from a video, right? But that would be my expectation.
Yes, and we have our learning support teachers and emotional support teacher also reaching out to students. They're adapting lessons and assignments to meet their IEP goals. They're actually having Zoom IEP meetings, that kind thing. But the learning support teacher and emotional support teacher, they've been an excellent resource for us and they will reach out to the parents. Just this morning I got a phone call from our learning support teacher. One of our learning support students has anxiety, and they're really nervous about this whole pandemic. Um, so they can't focus very well and they're not completing lessons and things like that. So we restructured what she was, have it, what she was doing. We don't want them to spend more than 20 or 30 minutes per subject. So we told her, You know, on the honor system, we will allow you if you work for 20 to 30 minutes on something, reach out for help if you need it. But if you're stressing and you know, don't go beyond that per subject, and then we will accept what you have done. So instead of maybe getting 15 mixed review points, if she's getting seven or whatever in that half-hour, that's fine.
That's wonderful individualizing to that particular student's very important need. That's a beautiful thing. And I love you can do that. It sounds like you're you've made a lot of adjustments fast. I'm curious to take a little trip down into the Khan videos. What do you think? Are you finding what you need are they quality instruction? I've really, to be honest with you, I haven't watched many of them in many years. I haven't watched any, so I don't really know what they're up to these days.
They are pretty good. I usually can find what I need. I think a few times I found other videos just online that teachers have posted. Um, that I use also, um, I found one that was really good. And of course, it got me halfway through, and then it wanted me to pay for it, so well, no, I'm looking for free. But it's sometimes it's not exactly what you need. Um, so there will be questions. I did have to adapt. I had one video on that I thought was good, But then I realized it didn't talk about integers. It just talked about positive numbers like terms. So then quickly, I found another one and put that on and said, If you're having trouble watch, this one and that kind of thing, So it is adapting on the fly many times. So. Khan academy is a good resource. It's, um you know, like anything. It's not always perfect or not the exact way you might teach it. There are some challenges.
I like what you just said. As I've looked at different things people are doing and how they're adapting. I look at our own product, Get More Math. There's no single like, "Oh, just do this And your problems are solved." If there's any number of good things that then have their attendant like Oh, yeah, But it wasn't really designed for this moment in time. I don't I haven't actually run into anything that I feel is designed for this moment in time.
No, But I'll tell you, though, Get More Math has made it easy for me because the students we're so used to using it all year. For the last two years, our district has used it and they just got right on, they know. Then it was kind of like seamless almost for them, especially the first week with just doing mixed review. They were on it and they were doing more than I anticipated. You know, I told you a certain amount of points and some were getting in the hundreds and just they must have been bored, I guess. So that has helped. That really has helped because they were used to that and it wasn't like everything was new to them then.
Right. You could imagine that for somebody stepping into that system in April for the first time, suddenly trying to do a very intense sort of review of everything would be probably overwhelming. It really needs to start small and, like, slowly build it up. You were in a perfect position where you've got the momentum. Did you do any, just I'm curious about Get More Math in particular, then did you do any alteration of your mixed review content like, I don't know, make it easier or smaller?
I did. I also put the maximum amount of skips that they could have a problem and, um, and took away penalties, actually, because I didn't want them to get too overwhelmed and have to spend too much time if I wasn't there to help them. So I did that, and I trimmed down some of the, um, the concept. Some of the mixed review concepts eliminated some of them, so they weren't, you know, too overwhelmed.
Was it sort of the hardest ones or the ones that really are the buggers for them.
Yes, yes.
That's what I would do. Go to the ones that I'm always helping kids and be like this. This is like while they were in my room, this made sense. But now that I never get to see them, this is a bridge too far. I just I find myself in general thinking it's odd for me to do because I'm all about high standards, as you can tell, if you've been using my program for a long time, like I want kids to really learn the math, yes, but for the time being, it's odd to do. But I think we should all dramatically reduce our expectations.
Isn't that Is that a strange phrase like you've been teaching how long?
33 years. Like when do we ever talk about downgrading our expectations? Let's expect less?
Right. That that was the same message we got from our principle, exactly the same message that we can't expect them to do the same things that they were doing with us there because they don't have that support anymore.
Yeah, well, that's sane, and I'm really glad your administrator is sounding that it's good for you. It's good for your kids. It's pragmatic, and that's mostly what I'm seeing and hearing. Sometimes I'm actually hearing, you know, drive on, never lower your expectations aim high. Uh, that scares me.
It does. And I do feel bad for the students that are high achievers. So I'm thinking in the future if you know if this continues for weeks putting some of those students in another class and making some challenging problems for them, the ones that I know could handle it and giving them some options where they could take things further if they want.
It's a great idea that's that actually gets to me, too. Um, I think probably my last question, which is What have you not done yet? What problems were kind of still floating around that you wanna whack, such as what you just said. So there are other things that you haven't dealt with yet they're sort of pending?
Yes, I haven't created any of my own teaching videos, which probably would be a good idea to do since the students are used to my way of teaching. Um, and it is hard sometimes to find exactly what I want in a video that's already made. So that might be something that I would like to try. Um, and also, I'm trying to, well, and I guess I am doing this already motivate the few who are not working by giving them reachable goals and reaching out to them and telling them. Maybe I assign 15 but if you could give me five today, you know?
I like it that you're you know, you're not trying to do it all at once. I think it a temptation could be. Although it's just it would be overwhelming.
It is, because what we have to deal with now is overwhelming.
Yeah, I am going to utterly pivot and be a completely perfect, you know, masterful, remote learning guru. And I'm gonna make all my own videos, and I'm going to start using, you know, these other new technologies, and I'm gonna have I don't know, it's I love. I love the idea of, you know, starting with some bite-sized piece of a challenge dealing with it, stepping into something else dealing with it. So I think it's cool that you haven't made your own videos, is what I'm driving at. So I've been talking to different teachers who have started from different places, and so far I haven't talked to anybody who I think has overreached and tried to do everything all at once. And I like that. I think that's again like one of my chief concerns that the teachers take care of themselves. I feel like I know how it is to be a teacher. You just rush, you know, you just rush into the fire as it where you're that person and you just keep rushing. You know, like if there's more needs, you just keep going, for it's like your own needs can get kind of pushed to the side and absolutely and right now like it's like being a new teacher all over again and having to learn all this stuff and make all this stuff. I remember that first year is brutal and here at your 33 year doining a first-year teacher's work.
Yes, yes, because I, you know, my colleagues talked about over the used Google Classroom to post our assignments, and it's great now that okay, but I have Get More Math and I'm using it and it's it's working. Well, I don't see the need for that. But then all of a sudden, in two days, I had to figure out how it all worked. And, yeah, so it's definitely been a challenge. So yes, baby steps and even those baby steps are monumental actually.
Right, and just managing your time and managing communication expectations. And are you getting phone calls from parents or is it mostly email? You said you're getting texts?
Yes, mostly emails, but a few texts. There were parents that, um, I reached out to that. I knew their child would have some issues doing everything. So I thought, Well, I'll just text them and see if you know that's an easy way to communicate, they can communicate with me that way. So I do have a few students that their parents are texting me on, and that seems to be a good way to communicate with them and for them to help their child and for me to help their child. I actually did a 40-minute phone conversation with one of my students. The dad asked if I would call him because he was saying that he forgot all of the stuff that he would you know, that we were doing on mixed review. He said, could you call our home phone and help them through some things? I said, Absolutely. So I called and I was on the phone with that student for 40 minutes, and a lot of it was, um I think he was trying to pull one over on his dad a little bit perhaps?
Wait. Joan, do students do that?
But he did have some legitimate questions and we went through them. And now he's been, um he's been great ever since, so that, you know, a little bit of time invested, but it worked out.
Yeah, I guess you can't do that for 105 kids.
No. Yeah, but all of them don't need that.
Right. Well, I took a page full of notes of all the different things you're doing, and it's wonderful. I salute you and commend you for your intense efforts. Thank you for giving us a chance to kind of pick your brain and hear from a teacher that's, you know, in the trenches, trying to love kids. Best you can.
Well, thank you. It was my pleasure.
Derek Maxson: 33:16
Thank you, Joan. And thank you, Josh, for a very thought-provoking interview today. Josh, what are some takeaways that you would summarize from your time with Joan?
I loved hearing Joan's many strategies for reaching her kids. She is clearly, um, targeting every single kid, and she's gone to great lengths, especially to reach the kids with the most needs. So we have parents texting her. We have a phone call she made to a kid who was kind of dragging the feet a bit sounds like. We have real concern for the single kid is still AWOL. We have the 20 to 30 minute honor system for the kid who's anxieties are so intense. There's just so many things that she's doing to address all of the little individual needs. And then, too, I really like her rapid and creative adaptation, where you see her bringing in Google Classroom, which he hadn't used, and the Khan Academy videos, and retooling her use of Get More Math a little bit. So she's kind of building up this patchwork of great tools to meet the current need. I also liked it strategically speaking that she didn't I think maybe reached too far and start trying to make her own video content. You know, one of my huge messages is as we try to take care of kids, I really hope teachers are taking care of themselves. I think it becomes more important than ever that caregivers and service providers themselves are having their needs met. So, you know, establishing boundaries and trying not to overreach. So it was cool that she said that something for the future, maybe something to reach into when she gets a few weeks under her belt and starts to figure out how things were. So lots of kudos to Joan, and we really appreciate the chance to hear from her.
Thank you, Joan, for being on our podcast today. And thank you, Josh. I really appreciate teachers like Joan who are giving so much of themselves to make sure that our children across the country can have the best educational experience during really difficult times. So thank you so much for doing that. Thanks, Josh, for unlocking some of these tips for us today and for encouraging us along wherever we are. And whatever part of education that we're doing. That about wraps up today's episode of the Get More Math Podcast. Join us again next week with another compelling discussion of how we do education during the COVID era. We'll see you next time. Thank you for listening to the Get More Math Podcast. We would like to invite all our listeners to visit our website at GetMoreMath.com, where you'll find helpful information about how Get More Math can help you transform the math education experience through targeted mastery and cyclical review. We would welcome you to take advantage of our free trial, which is good not only for the remainder of this school year but also for the 2021 school year. If you think this podcast would be helpful to others, please share it, post on social media, or leave us a rating and review wherever you listen to podcasts. If you have any comments or suggestions for future episodes, please send an email to podcast@ getmoremath.com. See you next time on the Get More Math Podcast
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Thoughts on “Prohibition”
Posted byttravis October 12, 2011 October 12, 2011 Posted inGuest BloggersTags:Alcohol, History, Popular Culture
Editor’s Note: Points readers will recognize the name of today’s guest blogger, Mark Schrad; he was the second person (and the first academic author) to submit to the blistering interrogation that is The Points Interview. The author of The Political Power of Bad Ideas: Networks, Institutions, and the Global Prohibition Wave, Schrad is an assistant professor of Political Science at Villanova University. In conjunction with his current research project on contemporary Russian temperance, he runs the website vodkapolitics.com. Here he ruminates on anti-alcohol politics closer to home, specifically as they were depicted in Ken Burns’s Prohibition.
So—it has been a week since the premiere of the much-anticipated Prohibition documentary by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick: a few nights of sitting back with a bowl of popcorn and a favored libation to take in the series’ three installments on the rise, duration, and demise of American prohibition; followed by time to take in the insightful reviews by David Fahey on Episode One, “A Nation of Drunkards,” and Episode Two, “A Nation of Scofflaws,” additional insights of Frankie Bailey on Episode Two, and Jason Lantzer’s take on Episode Three, “A Nation of Hypocrites”—in addition to the thoughtful comments of the ADHS online community on each.
The Medium is the Message
Stepping back to appreciate the series in its entirety, the general reception (and one that I share) seems to be one of appreciation for the historical treatment, admiration for the artistic side of the documentarians’ craft—but a lamentation that in the time constraints of a 5-1/2 hour series, the colorful was often favored over the important. “The limitations of the program are largely the result of the nature of popular TV history that can present only a handful of stories and prefers the colorful to the complex,” David Fahey writes on “A Nation of Drunkards.” Surely, the nature of the medium and the audience dictates much of this. Ken Burns himself admits as much: “I’m in the business of trying to tell stories,” Burns recently told the Telegraph. “A good story is hard to do—particularly complicated stories. ‘Story’ in our media culture often means simplification.”
That’s fine. But since Prohibition reaches such a wide audience, these are hardly idle “stories.” In great measure, they reflect the way we understand this era in our shared history, and shape the way future audiences will understand them as well. So I feel that we should not be quick to dismiss some of the professional criticisms offered here as idle “gee—wouldn’t it have been great if they’d (have had time to) discuss interesting person/topic [x].” We highlight those omissions not because they are necessarily enthralling, but because they are important to an unbiased understanding of the questions at issue here. To my mind, Joe Spillane has it just about right in criticizing (in his comments on Episode Three) “the sense of inevitability that underlies the film’s treatment of both prohibition and repeal.”
The Unstoppable Force...
Indeed, as with other large political events (like, say, the collapse of communism), things that with hindsight seem inevitable were anything but at the time. If I can summarize Burns’ admittedly-simplified narrative, it’d look something like this: given the astronomical rates of alcohol consumption, prohibition was the necessary result of the incremental increase of American temperance sentiment—driven by rural, native-born evangelicals and women against the pressures of modernization, urbanization and immigration. Essentially his story is equal parts Hofstadter’s Age of Reform and Gusfield’s Symbolic Crusade. Repeal was a necessary consequence of the corruption and costs of attempting to enforce and unenforceable law, and was spearheaded by
...and the Immovable Object
recently-emancipated (culturally, socially and politically) women who learned that it was okay to oppose prohibition. Like any good storyteller, Burns highlights information that supports this narrative, and discounts or eliminates that which opposes it. How does this play out in Prohibition? Let’s start with the question of consumption. The week before the premiere, Burns was a guest on the satirical Colbert Report on Comedy Central. Host Stephen Colbert’s very first question: before prohibition, “how drunk was America?”
“So drunk,” was Burns’ reply. “We drank three times the quantity that we drink [today]. That was the reason for the impulse” for prohibition, he argued. Burns then explained that back then, Americans drank some 90 bottles of booze per year per capita. But since women didn’t drink, that’d be more like 180 bottles—or a half-bottle of booze every day—for the average make drinker. Sure enough, early on in Episode One, the narrator puts forth the only consumption statistics in the documentary: in 1830, the per-capita consumption of alcohol was equivalent to 88 bottles of whiskey—creating great worries that the United States was becoming “a nation of drunkards.”
Certainly, this figure is cherry-picked to support the narrative. First of all, no one who was drinking that much in 1830 would be alive to see prohibition enacted 90 years later in 1920. More importantly, liquor consumption diminished drastically over the span of four generations, due in large part to the early temperance efforts Burns and Novick cover in their documentary. Yet when the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union was founded in 1874, or the Anti-Saloon League was founded in 1893 (the two temperance organizations that rightly occupy most of Burns’ time), per-capita consumption was actually less than today—and had been steadily declining—rather than being three times higher than present rates. So in light of the actual statistics, the logic behind Burns’ touted “impulse” for prohibition seems nonsensical: we should outlaw alcohol today in the 1910s-1920s because our long-dead great-grandparents were drunks?
The Data are Inconclusive
This, unfortunately, is not the only place where complex information is selectively framed to support the “inevitability” of prohibition. Borrowing a tactic from the Anti-Saloon League, Burns and Novick color-in maps of “dry” states. After describing Neal Dow and the 1851 “Maine Law,” and dry Kansas as the backdrop for the hatchet-wielding Carrie Nation, maps from 1913 show how Maine and Kansas had been joined by five other prohibition states. Then a map from 1916 shows another 10 or so “dry” states, which when added to the patchwork of counties and communities that had voted themselves dry through local option, mean that fully half of the United States was under prohibition.
The problem with this “creeping inevitability of prohibition” theory is prohibition’s fortunes fluctuated wildly: in the sixty years after passage of the Maine Law, numerous states experimented with absolute prohibition, found that it didn’t work particularly well, and repealed it—only to begin the cycle anew. By my count, there were nine prohibition states as early as 1855, but then from 1868 through 1874, the only place prohibition hadn’t been repealed was Michigan, of all places.
Zigging and Zagging in Iowa
My native Iowa, for instance, voted itself dry in 1856. Following repeal two years later, they voted dry again in 1882. And then again in 1885. But that one was repealed in 1893. The point is that even before “prohibition era,” prohibition had already been tried, failed, been repealed and in some cases reinstated multiple times: reflective of a very fluid, uncertain and contingent environment that stands in stark opposition to the creeping inevitability of the “if temperance, then prohibition” narrative of the Prohibition documentary.
This was not lost foreign audiences. In 1908, an exhaustive two-year study of American prohibition by the Swede H.J. Boström was quick to point out that while seventeen different states had experimented with prohibition, it had met repeal everywhere except Maine, Kansas, and North Dakota—with the former two having only been reinstated following earlier repeals.
Of course, as both David Fahey and Jason Lantzer point out, to the extent that the international dimension is mentioned at all in the documentary, it is to highlight the role of immigrants in general (and Germans in particular) as the source of nativist scorn, rather than to address the transnational temperance movement in any meaningful way. Indeed, considering that ten different countries in addition to the U.S. all attempted alcohol prohibition around the same time not only calls into question the overdetermined “if temperance, then prohibition” logic, but also undercuts Burns’ primal causal factors: prohibition countries like Norway and Finland did not have immigrant pressures, while others like Turkey and imperial Russia did not have many Midwestern evangelical Protestants to speak of.
Other individuals, organizations and stories could have been described to highlight the fact that national prohibition was hardly a foregone conclusion. The consideration of well-known and widely-debated alternatives to prohibition, such as local option, high-license, and the Gothenburg system of local dispensary (which we find in many states even today in the form of state liquor stores) would have been instructive, but would likewise have undercut the predetermination narrative. Likewise, attention to the Committee of Fifty for the Investigation of the Drink Traffic would have provided a nice counterpoint to the so-called Department of Scientific Temperance Instruction—and would have had the benefit of showing how objective researchers understood prohibition’s all-too-obvious shortcomings even before it was tried nationally.
Indeed, it was this widespread understanding of the unfeasibility of prohibition—supported by the experiences of dry states over the preceding half-century—that informed President Woodrow Wilson’s decision to veto the Volstead Act, the legislation that would provide enforcement framework for the Eighteenth Amendment. That his veto was overridden the same day ultimately tells us more about the institutional structure of American government than it does about the purported inevitability of prohibition. But surely conflating the Volstead Act and the Eighteenth Amendment as Burns and Novick do, makes it easier to paper-over such inconvenient details.
Dear Mark: No Thanks. Love, Ken.
In many ways, it pains me to write this, as I generally really enjoy Ken Burns and his documentaries. He truly is a gifted storyteller, and has done us a great service in bringing to life many of these great, but generally forgotten, historical figures. And—in the interests of full disclosure—I should add that when I first heard that Prohibition was in production back in 2005 or 2006, I did write to Florentine Films offering to share such broader perspectives. Some months later, I received a kind thank-you letter, politely informing me of their disinterest—which as a lowly grad student I found perfectly reasonable and understandable.
So it is not out of any personal animosity that these critiques seem rather harsh—far from it. If anything, I am interested in what it takes to be an acclaimed storyteller, as Ken Burns undoubtedly is. So I began to consider other well-known Burns documentaries, and I have found critiques broadly similar to those voiced here on Points: just as Lantzer points out the disproportionate focus on developments in New York and Chicago, one of the main critiques of Burns’ Baseball series is that it has a weighty bias towards the clubs of the northeast at the expense of developments in the rest of the country. Perhaps this is catering to the audience he hopes to reach. Others grumble that it focuses predominantly on the players at the expense of the owners, managers and business side. Another oft-heard critique is that despite spanning 18-1/2 hours, Baseball is often just as “rushed” as Prohibition.
Knowledgable critics of Burns’ Jazz series also lament his insistence of a single, quite conservative viewpoint of jazz. “In the end,” a friend far more knowledgable than myself wrote me, “Burns paints a picture of jazz being this genteel, pure thing delivered by Louis Armstrong, and any adulteration of it is criminal. Drugs, rock music, fusion—these are all bad things.” He explained that instead of harping on the drugs-are-bad message, they could have interviewed those who survived the narcotic-laden jazz world of the 1940s and 1950s. “But no. That wouldn’t follow Burns’ odd slant on things.”
Another One Note Song
So at the end of the day, we are left back at Burns’ own description of his craft. Surely Burns is a gifted storyteller; the “gift” may be the ability to craft a consistent and simplified narrative. So when the documentarians turn their attention to any topic, we can certainly enjoy their riveting tales, but we must remain ever cognizant that those stories are never intended to be whole.
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3 thoughts on “Thoughts on “Prohibition””
jspillane says:
Mark, thanks for the thoughtful post. I agree that the lack of a comparative dimension is not simply a question of equal time; international developments raise legitimate questions about the Burns narrative in Prohibition.
Agreed. There was much more of the documentary that adhered to the rather narrow narrative that I did not have time to repost. For example, when it came to repeal, I think that one could have made an equally-enthralling portrayal of Pierre DuPont (of the DuPont family fame) and the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment in facilitating repeal; but instead there was a focus on Pauline Sabin and the WONPR, with the AAPA as a brief footnote. I didn’t mind it as much, because surely women’s enfranchisement is an important part of the story–but again, not the whole story.
stanton peele says:
I agree, Mark’s commentary is excellent — well-written, balanced, well-informed. It was a pleasure to read.
As to Burns as one-note (his own) propagandist, I confess to having fully watched only his PBS Civil War documentary, by which I was enthralled, but none of the others. However, I did recall seeing him on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, and when the topic came up of baseball’s modern problems — most especially the desecration of statistical achievements by steroid use — I found him oddly defensive. His apparent need to cast himself in the role of baseball’s defender — maintaining stridently that it is still America’s essential sport, a window into our character — seemed to say, “What, after I put all this effort into it, you think I’m going to let anyone shoot holes in baseball’s reputation?”
Back to Prohibition, the documentary, I also wrote a critique — somewhat more pointed toward the entire constructivist message that Burns ignored in the face of the America’s long social history with alcohol (as indicated by Mark when he noted Americans were less concerned about alcohol problems and wouldn’t have considered outlawing it when they consumed three times as much as we do today, but considered it to be America’s #1 social problem at a point when consumption had declined precipitously — that is, prohibition and the problems people saw in alcohol were characteristics of an historical epoch when alcohol was viewed and dealt with as an especially nasty substance.
At the same time, the social constructivist approach naturally causes us to think about how we regard and deal with drugs — most obviously, in relation to the kinds of regulation of the substances when they are illegal. Some such commentary would seem to be obligatory.
Here is my Psychology Today blog on these things: http://www.psychologytoday.com/em/75929
In any case, I look forward very much to Mark’s continuing to educate America on its own alcohol history — and what it tells us about ourselves and about substance use and abuse.
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Destiny’s Child: The Queen as Survivor
|In Weekly Column, Lisa Van Dusen, Left side Columns
|By Lisa Van Dusen
Whatever we’re living through now, chances are Queen Elizabeth has seen worse. Which makes her perspective priceless.
Lisa Van Dusen/For The Hill Times
The 21st century, so far, has been the era of unprecedented, avoidable catastrophes. It dawned with suicide bombers mothballing the banality of evil by committing mass murder on live television, welcomed its second decade with a contagion of corruption that collapsed the global financial system, and greets its third with a viral contagion that threatens genocidal mortality, has depopulated the streets of major metropolises, and could bring the world’s major economies to their knees.
When a crisis is defined by its previously unthinkable quality—by change so radically transformative that we are simply incapable of imagining it until we’ve witnessed it—perspective can be hard to muster. How do you process, much less cope with, a reality that confounds the two components of recognition: recollection and familiarity?
By universalizing the experience through its most basic common denominators, we can relate to the experience of people who’ve lived through similar impacts, if not similar events. In the case of 9/11, the financial cataclysm, and the COVID-19 pandemic, those denominators were and are shock, horror, fear, uncertainty, sadness, helplessness, and moral outrage. Perspective can mean the difference between being defeated by those emotions, individually or collectively, or absorbing and prevailing over them to reach understanding, empathy, resolve, resiliency, and perseverance.
One of the tests of leadership at such moments—one way to tell the voices that are part of the problem from those that are part of the solution—is the degree to which they contribute to or detract from the efficiency of that process by generating lies, confusion, division, insecurity, and weakness or truth, clarity, judgment, strength, vision, and compassion. Of all the norms we’ve been urged to consign to history, the corruption of that one is among the least convincing.
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor may be the single most potent provider of historical perspective on the planet. The Queen’s expertise in coping with the previously unthinkable dates back to her invaluable moral and morale-boosting role, while still a teenager, in the Manichaean battle between the brutality of Nazism and the future of human freedom, presided over by the man who would be her first prime minister, Winston Churchill. At 94, after 68 years as monarch alongside 14 prime ministers of the United Kingdom, 12 presidents of the United States, and 12 Canadian prime ministers, the Queen, as we’ve seen in the past year, has learned a thing or two about crisis management.
In her address to Britain and the world on April 5, the Queen was speaking as not just a head of state but also as a survivor—of war, of grief, of upheaval, of disruption, of political overreach, corruption, incompetence, stupidity, and evil. She was also speaking as the mother of a son and successor who has just proven that this virus isn’t deterred by the Royal Protection Squad and that you can recover from it. All of which gives her personal and professional perspective on this current global catastrophe a unique authority.
“While we have faced challenges before, this one is different,” she said in remarks that pointedly recalled her first wartime broadcast in 1940, with her late sister, Margaret. “This time we join with all nations across the globe in a common endeavour, using the great advances of science and our instinctive compassion to heal.”
“We should take comfort that, while we may have more still to endure, better days will return. We will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again,” she said, echoing the Second World War anthem by Dame Vera Lynn, at 103 another survivor of humanity’s last Homeric game of dominoes.
Lisa Van Dusen is associate editor of Policy Magazine and a columnist for The Hill Times. She was Washington bureau chief for Sun Media, international writer for Peter Jennings at ABC News, and an editor at AP in New York and UPI in Washington.
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Home Article It's the End of the World As They Know It
It's the End of the World As They Know It
The American right appears to be going insane. And over what?
by Paul Waldman
Now that you've had an entire week to get over the trauma of filing your tax return, it might be a good time to step back from all the overheated rhetoric and acknowledge a few important facts about being American in these troubled times. No, we don't suffer under a terribly burdensome, confiscatory tax regime. And yes, our taxes actually buy us some pretty important stuff. But you'd never know that, given just how crazy the coming of April 15 makes some people. Depending on who's in the White House, that is.
I speak, of course, about the "tea parties" we saw last week, a happening destined for inclusion in the hall of fame of fabricated political oddities. To retell the story briefly: In February, a CNBC reporter and former commodities trader named Rick Santelli went on an on-air rant against the Obama administration for proposing to bail out homeowners in danger of foreclosure, saying that what was needed was a "Chicago tea party." Sensing the opportunity to harness populist anger, a number of conservative operatives specializing in "Astro Turf" organizing (highly coordinated, corporate-funded campaigns meant to give the impression they arose from the grass roots) began promoting "tea parties" on April 15 to protest, well, whatever anyone didn't like about the Obama administration but mostly our (allegedly) high taxes. Fox News then turned itself into a public-relations machine for the tea parties, engaging in naked political advocacy embarrassing even for them.
When the tea parties actually happened, though, there was something profoundly strange about them. Yes, somewhere around300,000 Americans attended one of the protests -- more people than could fit in my living room, perhaps, but pretty small considering there were hundreds of them all over the country, and they were vigorously promoted by a cable network and innumerable conservative talk-radio hosts. It wasn't just that the protests became a grab bag of conservative causes -- that certainly happens to the left at its protests But when it comes to the left, there's usually something specific at the heart of the event. You'll see some signs about racism and abortion at an anti-war rally, but everyone understands that the anti-war rally is about ending the war.
So what were they protesting at the tea parties? It was supposed to be taxes, which now that we have a Democratic president, have of course been raised to unconscionable levels. Oh wait -- President Barack Obama is actually cutting taxes (modestly, but cutting them nonetheless) for 95 percent of taxpayers and raising them only for the wealthy. But let's face it, "Obama's plan to allow the top income tax rate to revert to its Clinton-era level of 39 percent from its current level of 35 percent is unwise!" might be a legitimate claim but sexy it isn't. On the other hand, "Obama is planning a fascist takeover, with a brief stop at socialism!" -- now that's got zing! If Bill Clinton drove his enemies crazy by always emerging on top despite his own recklessness (with a wink and a smile, no less), Obama seems to be having an equally powerful effect on those who oppose him, notwithstanding his calm demeanor and copious efforts to reach out to conservatives. Put plainly, Democrats controlling the government and pursuing progressive policies has caused some people to lose their mind.
So what have we seen lately? We've seen Michelle Bachman, an elected member of the United States House of Representatives, go on the radio to claim that the Obama administration is planning to herd young people into "re-education camps." We have another member of Congress,whipping up the crowd at a tea party by talking about "the blood of tyrants." Responding to a proposal to raise the Illinois state income tax by 1.5 percentage points, a Republican Congress member said, "I think the people of Illinois are ready to shoot anyone who is going to raise taxes by that degree." We saw Rick Perry, the walking haircut of a governor they have down in Texas, strongly imply that the Lone Star State is considering seceding from the Union because of Washington's oppressive stimulus spending (to which more than a few people from the rest of the country no doubt replied, "Need any help packing?"). On the religious right, some are seeing the signs that Armageddon will literally happen any day now, since our descent into socialism is merely a transition period before the rule of the Antichrist.
And pushing it all along is the ascendant star of the conservative media, a self-styled Howard Beale of the 21st-century, Glenn Beck. Since moving his show from CNN to Fox, Beck has turned the crazy up to 11, offering a compelling combination of plain ignorance, utter credulity at any conspiracy theory that comes down the pike, manic fear-mongering, and weepy nationalism. Beck has become a kind of Pied Piper of right-wing mania, luring out the resentful and paranoid with his nightly festival of fear and hate.
Lately, when not telling people that Obama is coming to take away their guns, or claiming that a plan is in the works to move to one world currency, or passing out copies of books by John Birch Society cranks, Beck has been spreading what has become a hot rumor among the right-wing militia set, that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is secretly constructing concentration camps into which Americans will be herded and perhaps exterminated, once martial law has been declared (although in fairness, after bringing it up again and again on his show, Beck finally backed off and admitted it was bogus). And in one bravura performance, Beck claimed that because of President Obama's policies, America is becoming a fascist dictatorship -- and he said it while video of Nazi marches played behind him.
One of the things that is so remarkable about folks like Beck is that they always seem focused on government actions that have as little to do with our "freedom" as one could imagine. They're Mad As Hell about the stimulus bill (damn construction projects, taking away our freedom!) but couldn't care less about, say, warrantless wiretapping of American citizens. In response to a spate of these warnings about our descent into "tyranny," Jon Stewart had what might have been the best response:
I think you might be confusing tyranny with losing. And I feel for you, because I've been there. A few times. In fact, one of them was a bit of a nail-biter. But see, when the guy that you disagree with gets elected, he's probably going to do things you disagree with. He could cut taxes on the wealthy, remove government's oversight capability, invade a country that you thought should not be invaded, but that's not tyranny. That's democracy. See, now you're in the minority. It's supposed to taste like a shit taco.
But that taste is becoming intolerable for some. Even if their taxes have actually gone down, well, they still feel oppressed by Washington. They cried "socialism!" and no one seemed to care. Now they cry "fascism!" and still their words do not cause the whole nation to rise up. It must be terribly frustrating. But that's the thing about democracy -- it can be pretty frustrating, particularly when you lose. What the right doesn't seem to get is that the more extreme and shrill their rhetoric grows, the less convincing they become to the broader public. And the more ridiculous they seem.
Paul Waldman is a weekly columnist and senior writer for The American Prospect.
Read more by Paul Waldman
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SCOTTY McCREERY CHOSEN AS NASH COUNTRY WEEKLY’S COUNTRY’S SEXIEST MAN.
Scotty McCreery was voted “Country’s Sexiest Man” by the readers of NASH Country Weekly. Scotty was up against such artists as Keith Urban, George Strait and many others. He says the honor is funny, but flattering at the same time.
“It’s always funny, it’s always flattering to see the Sexiest anything, so Sexiest Male Country Music [is] pretty wild,” says the 22-year-old North Carolina native. “You know, for me, it’s always weird. I don’t think the Sexiest Man should be at the state fair eating Krispy Kreme burgers, but if that’s what they’re about, then I’m about it too.”
Scotty’s latest single, “Southern Belle,” is making its way up the country charts.
Scotty will release his very first book, Go Big Or Go Home: The Journey Toward the Dream on May 3rd. The book tells the story of the young star’s journey from a kid imitating Elvis on the school bus to millions of fans tuning in to see him win Season 10 of American Idol to building a successful country music career. The book will be available for pre-order beginning November 15th.
Audio / Scotty McCreery is flattered by his Sexiest Man title.
Scotty McCreery (Sexiest Man) OC: …cool to see. :16
“It’s always funny, it’s always flattering to see the Sexiest anything, so Sexiest Male Country Music [is] pretty wild. You know, for me, it’s always weird. I don’t think the Sexiest Man should be at the state fair eating Krispy Kreme burgers, but if that’s what they’re about, then I’m about it too. So, I have fun with it. It’s flattering, really cool to see.”
KIP MOORE RELEASES PULSING NEW TRACK “HOW HIGH” TAKEN FROM HIS FORTHCOMING EXTENDED ALBUM WILD WORLD DELUXE -AVAILABLE FEBRUARY 12TH AND TO PRE-ORDER NOW.
PARKER McCOLLUM RELEASES THE MUSIC VIDEO FOR NEW SINGLE, “TO BE LOVED BY YOU.”
DIERKS BENTLEY IS ENJOYING FAMILY AND LIFE IN TELLURIDE.
TRAVIS DENNING AND PARKER McCOLLUM NAMED TO THE R.I.A.A. CLASS OF 2020.
JON PARDI CELEBRATES THE 7TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE RELEASE OF HIS DEBUT ALBUM.
ADAM HAMBRICK RELEASES ACOUSTIC VIDEO FOR HIS SONG, “DO THE MATH.”
CAYLEE HAMMACK USED A FAKE ID TO GET INTO BARS WHEN SHE WAS A TEENAGER JUST SO SHE COULD PERFORM.
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UK Information Commissioner issues enforcement notice against Metropolitan Police Gangs Violence Matrix
In November 2016 the UK Information Commissioner's Office issued an enforcement notice against London's Metropolitan Police, finding that there had been multiple and serious breaches of data protection law in the organisation's use of the Gangs Violence Matrix, which it had operated since 2012. The ICO documented failures of oversight and coherent guidance, and an absence of basic data protection practices such as encryption and agreements covering data sharing. Individuals whose details are…
iPhone health app data used to uncover a murder plot in the UK
On 14 May 2018, the husband of the victim, a pharmacist living in Linthorpe in Middlesbrough, subdued his wife with insulin injection before straggling her. He then ransacked the house to make it appear as a burglary. The data recorded by the health app on the murder’s phone, showed him racing around the house as he staged the burglary, running up and down the stairs. The victim’s app showed that she remained still after her death apart from a movement of 14 paces when her husband moved her…
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Genomic Research Could Expand the Therapeutic Application of Aspirin
A newly identified mechanism may explain the therapeutic benefits of aspirin, according to a study published online August 14, 2016, in EBioMedicine. This finding may accelerate the development of additional applications for aspirin, a drug that's been in use for more than 100 years.
By using a novel approach to study the effects of aspirin, lead author Deepak Voora, MD, an associate professor in Duke’s Center for Applied Genomics & Precision Medicine, says that the research identified a previously unknown mechanism of action not predicted by the already known pharmacologic properties of the drug.
The pain-reducing and blood-thinning effects of aspirin have long been traced to the ability of the drug to block cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1), an enzyme involved in inflammation and blood clotting.
“But COX-1 inhibition only partially explains aspirin’s benefit in cardiology, and it does not appear to be relevant in cancer research,” Voora says. “We just don’t know that much about aspirin, despite its long history.”
Focusing on a pattern of gene activity identified in their previous research described as an “aspirin-response signature,” Voora and his fellow researchers examined a network of genes correlated with platelet function and myocardial infarction.
The gene network appears to hold the key to the therapeutic value of aspirin in cardiology and cancer prevention.
“This approach to comprehensively evaluate the actions of a drug using genomic data—as we have done here with aspirin—is a paradigm shift that could change how drugs are developed and positioned for clinical use,” says coauthor Geoffrey S. Ginsburg, MD, PhD, director of Duke’s Center for Applied Genomics & Precision Medicine, who, along with Voora, is a member of the Duke Division of Cardiology.
“If we take 1 step back to gain perspective, it’s likely that all prescribed drugs are 'promiscuous,'” Voora says. “They have on-target and off-target effects we may not realize. The combination of these effects may explain why some people get more benefit and others get side effects.”
Pharmacogenomics research into the effects of aspirin, Voora says, represents an important step toward a deeper understanding of the diverse, beneficial effects of aspirin use, and may lay the foundation for better understanding of its risks.
“Genomics research helps us understand the effects of aspirin on genes and vice versa,” says Voora. “This research also helps us find uses for aspirin in other diseases, to develop tools to improve our use of it, and to find more effective drugs that mimic it,” Voora says.
Looking into the future, Voora envisions a diagnostic test that clinicians could use to monitor the cardiovascular benefit of aspirin—a development that could lead to precision prescribing and targeted therapies.
In addition to Voora and Ginsburg, study authors from Duke include Rachel Myers, PhD, Emily Harris, and Thomas L. Ortel, MD.
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Studio Info > About Joy
Hi there, I'm Joy! My husband and I recently relocated to Saline, Michigan, after living in Bowling Green, Ohio for eight years. I operated a thriving home piano studio of about 30 students in Ohio, and I'm excited to rebuild my studio here in the Ann Arbor area. I've been teaching piano for a total of fifteen years, and I love it more now than ever!
Joy Morin is a teacher, pianist, speaker, and writer of a blog for piano teachers at ColorInMyPiano.com. She teaches students of all ages at her independent piano studio outside Ann Arbor, Michigan. A devoted teacher and lifelong learner, Joy is a frequent attendee of conferences and workshops to refine her craft. In recent years, she has twice been the recipient of MTNA Teacher Enrichment Grants, enabling her to further pursue her interest in Edwin Gordon’s work in Music Learning Theory (MLT) and complete certifications from the Gordon Institute for Music Learning (GIML.org) in both Piano and Early Childhood Music.
Joy enjoys connecting with fellow piano teachers, through her blog and beyond. As an outgrowth of her blog, she offers online courses for piano teachers and an annual Piano Teacher Retreat, hosting fifteen piano teachers at her home. As an active member of Music Teachers National Association (MTNA), Joy has served in numerous capacities: most recently as VP for Affiliated Associations for the Ohio Music Teachers Association (OhioMTA) and Co-President of the Toledo Piano Teachers Association. Joy has given presentations on the topics of music learning theory, piano teaching literature, studio business, and piano method books at local, state, and national association levels -- including for the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy (NCKP); MTNA conferences; state conferences of Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky; and local meetings of chapters across Ohio. Two of her articles were published in the American Music Teacher and Clavier Companion magazines.
A native of Michigan, Joy completed graduate studies at Central Michigan University (Mount Pleasant, Michigan) where she received a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance and Pedagogy, studying both subjects under Adrienne Wiley. Her Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance is from Hope College (Holland, Michigan), where she studied piano with Andrew Le and pedagogy with Adam Clark. Upon graduating summa cum laude from Hope, she received the MTNA StAR award and was granted membership into the Pi Kappa Lambda music honorary society and the Phi Beta Kappa honorary society. Joy also holds an Associate of Music degree in Piano Performance from Grand Rapids Community College (Grand Rapids, Michigan), where she studied with Mary Scanlan.
Toledo Piano Teachers Association
Joy is available to play for weddings, provide piano music for various events, and teach piano lessons in the Ann Arbor, Michigan area. To find about more about hiring Joy as a solo or collaborative pianist, please visit joymorin.com. You can also contact her via email by clicking here.
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Keywords: space power x
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Karl P. Mueller
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies
Air power refers to the use of aviation by nations and other political actors in the pursuit of power and security interests, along with the use of long-range missiles. Since armies and navies first began to experiment with the use of airplanes as implements of war, air power has emerged as an integral component of modern warfare. Air power was born in the crucible of World War I, but came of age in the conflagration of World War II. The developmental history of air power is significant to security studies in general and to the study of air power in particular. Owing to the rapid series of state changes in air power, trying to understand the nature of air power and its effects on modern warfare and international security has become more complicated. Two questions that are central to the study of international security are whether air power facilitates offense as a whole and whether it encourages aggression as a result. There has also been a debate over the issue of how air power can most effectively be used to coerce an enemy through strategic bombing. Another source of disagreement is the question of whether air and space power constitute one subject or two. In general, there are compelling merits in treating space power as a domain of national security theory and policy separate from those of land, sea, and air power.
Space in Critical Communication Studies
Donovan Conley
Few concerns in critical-cultural approaches to communication intersect with as many adjacent fields of inquiry as does “space.” To talk about space is to share a conversation with philosophers (Henri Lefebvre, Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Edward Casey, Bruno Latour, Manuel DeLanda), critical geographers (Derek Gregory, David Harvey, Edward Soja, Doreen Massey), historians (Fernand Braudel, Michel de Certeau), sociologists (Pierre Bourdieu, Lewis Mumford, Jane Jacobs), literary and cultural theorists (Fredric Jameson, Meaghan Morris, Tony Bennett, Lawrence Grossberg, Timothy Morton), media ecologists (Harold Innis, Marshall McLuhan, Walter Ong, James Carey), political theorists (Jane Bennett, Nigel Thrift), and rhetoricians (Carole Blair, Greg Dickinson, Joan Faber McAlister, Jenny Rice, Nathaniel Rivers, Thomas Rickert). To talk about space is thus to talk with a plenitude of others about a plenitude of social practices, landscapes, mediums, objects, and configurations, but at bottom a concern with space is a concern with the kinds and qualities of relations between and among bodies and things. To be concerned with space is to be invested in the emergent scenery of arrangement, how groupings of bodies come to assume particular shapes and orderings and not others. The “how” question, in turn, is the question of communication as it leads to issues of influence and pressure: of the historical processes that shape our habits and modes of persuasion and constellations of power. Communication and space converge where the “how” of influence meets the “where” of historical emergence. While we have always lived and acted in importantly spatial ways, however, the critical-spatial consciousness that pervades the humanities today is itself a recent historical emergence.
Social Geography, Space, and Place in Education
Aspa Baroutsis, Barbara Comber, and Annette Woods
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education
Society is constituted by both historical and spatial elements; however, education research, policy, and practice often subordinates the spatial in preference for the temporal. In what is often referred to as the “spatial turn,” more recently education researchers have acknowledged spatial concepts to facilitate understandings and inform debates about identity, belonging, social justice, differentiation, policy, race, mobility, globalization, and even digital and new communication modes, amongst many others. Social geographers understand place as more than a dot on a map, instead focusing on the sociocultural and sociomaterial aspects of spaces. Space and place are core elements of social geography. Schools are comprised of architectural, material, performative, relational, social, or discursive spaces, all of which are socially constructed. Schools and education contexts, as social spaces and places, produce and reproduce modes of social interactions and social practices while also mediating the relational and pedagogical practices that operate within. Pedagogical spaces are also about the exercise of power—a spatial governmentality to regulate behavior. Yet pedagogy can focus on place-based and place-conscious practices that highlight the connectedness between people and their non-human world. A focus on the sociospatial in education research is able to foreground inequalities, differences, and power relations that are able to speak to policies and practices. As such, in this field there is often a focus is on spatial justice, where inequalities based on location, mobility, poverty, or indigeneity are analyzed using spatial understandings of socioeconomic or political characteristics. This brings together connections between place and space in a powerful combination around justice, equity, and critical thinking.
Power and Space in Electronic Communications
Philip E. Steinberg and Darren Purcell
Electronic communications refer to forms of communication where ideas and information are embedded in spatially mobile electronic signals. These include the internet, telephony, television, and radio. Electronic communications are linked to state power in a complex and, at times, contradictory manner. More specifically, a tension exists between divergent pressures toward constructing electronic communication spaces as spaces of state power, as spaces of escape, and as spaces for contesting state power. On the one hand, states often invest in infrastructure and empower regulatory institutions as they seek to intensify their presence within national territory, for example, or project their influence beyond territorial borders. The widespread use of electronic communication technologies to facilitate governmental power is especially evident in the realm of cyberwarfare. E-government platforms have also been created to foster interaction with the state through electronic means. On the other hand, communication systems thrive through the idealization (and, ideally, the regulatory construction) of a space without borders, whereby individuals might bypass, or even actively work to subvert, state authority. Just as the internet has been seen as a means for state power to monitor the everyday lives and subjectivities of the citizenry, it has also been employed as a tool for democratization. Various institutions have emerged to govern specific electronic communication networks, including those that are focused on reproducing the power of individual states, those that operate in the realm of intergovernmental organizations, those that devolve power to actors in local government, and those that empower corporations or civil society.
The Space Race and American Foreign Relations
Teasel Muir-Harmony
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History
The Soviet Union’s successful launch of the first artificial satellite Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957, captured global attention and achieved the initial victory in what would soon become known as the space race. This impressive technological feat and its broader implications for Soviet missile capability rattled the confidence of the American public and challenged the credibility of U.S. leadership abroad. With the U.S.S.R.’s launch of Sputnik, and then later the first human spaceflight in 1961, U.S. policymakers feared that the public and political leaders around the world would view communism as a viable and even more dynamic alternative to capitalism, tilting the global balance of power away from the United States and towards the Soviet Union. Reactions to Sputnik confirmed what members of the U.S. National Security Council had predicted: the image of scientific and technological superiority had very real, far-reaching geopolitical consequences. By signaling Soviet technological and military prowess, Sputnik solidified the link between space exploration and national prestige, setting a course for nationally funded space exploration for years to come. For over a decade, both the Soviet Union and the United States funneled significant financial and personnel resources into achieving impressive firsts in space, as part of a larger effort to win alliances in the Cold War contest for global influence. From a U.S. vantage point, the space race culminated in the first Moon landing in July 1969. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy proposed Project Apollo, a lunar exploration program, as a tactic for restoring U.S. prestige in the wake of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s spaceflight and the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion. To achieve Kennedy’s goal of sending a man to the Moon and returning him safely back to Earth by the end of the decade, the United States mobilized a workforce in the hundreds of thousands. Project Apollo became the most expensive government funded civilian engineering program in U.S. history, at one point stretching to more than 4 percent of the federal budget. The United States’ substantial investment in winning the space race reveals the significant status of soft power in American foreign policy strategy during the Cold War.
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International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)
Home Posts tagged "International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)"
Speakers for fair reporting to help bring peace, justice
Freedom of Expression, Front Page, PFUJ
RECORDER REPORT KARACHI: Local and foreign journalists while speaking during the three-day International Media Conference, jointly organised by IFJ, PFUJ and KUJ, called for fair reporting to bring peace and justice at the international level. The conference, which started on Friday at a local hotel, concluded on Sunday. Journalists from 15 countries representing International Federation […]
The post Speakers for fair reporting to help bring peace, justice appeared first on Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF).
The myth of free media: Journalists highlight the problems they face in Pakistan
KARACHI: At a time when the country has successfully completed two consecutive democratic terms after experiencing a fair share of military and authoritarian regimes, the media is being considered an independent, lucrative and promising institution. Some veterans of the industry, however, beg to differ. They say it is just a mirage. “The problems faced by […]
The post The myth of free media: Journalists highlight the problems they face in Pakistan appeared first on Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF).
Media urged to promote democracy
By Habib Khan Ghori
KARACHI: Former president and PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has said the media should promote democracy wholeheartedly so that Pakistan makes rapid progress. Speaking as chief guest at the inaugural ceremony of a conference organised by the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) at the Governor House on […]
The post Media urged to promote democracy appeared first on Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF).
Charlie Hebdo killings condemned by International Media Organizations
Committee to Protect Journalists, Freedom of Expression, Front Page, Media safety
The International Press Institute (IPI) joined observers around the world in condemning the brutal attack on the Paris offices of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in which 12 people were killed. “IPI is appalled by today’s outrageous attack,” IPI Interim Executive Director Barbara Trionfi said. “Our thoughts are with the loved ones of those killed or […]
The post Charlie Hebdo killings condemned by International Media Organizations appeared first on Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF).
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Moderated paired comparisons: A generalized Bradley-Terry model for continuous data using a discontinuous penalized likelihood function
Steven E. Stern*
Standard paired comparison models are widely used in circumstances where a measure of preference is available on a sequence or collection of pairwise comparisons between a group of objects or treatments. Typically, the measure of preference observations takes the form of simple binary outcomes, indicating which of the two objects or treatments in a particular comparison is preferred. Common examples of such situations include models of choice behaviour in politics or marketing, comparisons of medical treatments or in the realm of sports rankings. We investigate situations where the observed measure of preference for the paired comparisons is instead a continuous outcome indicating not simply the direction of preference but the degree of preference as well; in particular, we present, as a motivating example, a ranking analysis of the top 12 international limited overs cricket teams, with an appropriately defined margin of victory in individual matches playing the role of the measure of preference. We propose a new method, which is termed moderated paired comparisons, that is based on fitting a penalized likelihood model to the observed margins of victory. Importantly, the structure of the penalty function chosen allows for the model to assign differential importance to the information that is contained solely in the dichotomous win-loss outcome of a match as against that contained in the actual margin of the victory.
Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series C: Applied Statistics
Fingerprint Dive into the research topics of 'Moderated paired comparisons: A generalized Bradley-Terry model for continuous data using a discontinuous penalized likelihood function'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
Bradley-Terry Model Mathematics
Paired Comparisons Mathematics
Penalized Likelihood Mathematics
Likelihood Function Mathematics
Margin Mathematics
Ranking Mathematics
Penalty Function Business & Economics
Stern, S. E. (2011). Moderated paired comparisons: A generalized Bradley-Terry model for continuous data using a discontinuous penalized likelihood function. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series C: Applied Statistics, 60(3), 397-415. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9876.2010.00751.x
Stern, Steven E. / Moderated paired comparisons : A generalized Bradley-Terry model for continuous data using a discontinuous penalized likelihood function. In: Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series C: Applied Statistics. 2011 ; Vol. 60, No. 3. pp. 397-415.
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title = "Moderated paired comparisons: A generalized Bradley-Terry model for continuous data using a discontinuous penalized likelihood function",
abstract = "Standard paired comparison models are widely used in circumstances where a measure of preference is available on a sequence or collection of pairwise comparisons between a group of objects or treatments. Typically, the measure of preference observations takes the form of simple binary outcomes, indicating which of the two objects or treatments in a particular comparison is preferred. Common examples of such situations include models of choice behaviour in politics or marketing, comparisons of medical treatments or in the realm of sports rankings. We investigate situations where the observed measure of preference for the paired comparisons is instead a continuous outcome indicating not simply the direction of preference but the degree of preference as well; in particular, we present, as a motivating example, a ranking analysis of the top 12 international limited overs cricket teams, with an appropriately defined margin of victory in individual matches playing the role of the measure of preference. We propose a new method, which is termed moderated paired comparisons, that is based on fitting a penalized likelihood model to the observed margins of victory. Importantly, the structure of the penalty function chosen allows for the model to assign differential importance to the information that is contained solely in the dichotomous win-loss outcome of a match as against that contained in the actual margin of the victory.",
author = "Stern, {Steven E.}",
journal = "Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series C: Applied Statistics",
Stern, SE 2011, 'Moderated paired comparisons: A generalized Bradley-Terry model for continuous data using a discontinuous penalized likelihood function', Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series C: Applied Statistics, vol. 60, no. 3, pp. 397-415. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9876.2010.00751.x
Moderated paired comparisons : A generalized Bradley-Terry model for continuous data using a discontinuous penalized likelihood function. / Stern, Steven E.
In: Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series C: Applied Statistics, Vol. 60, No. 3, 05.2011, p. 397-415.
T1 - Moderated paired comparisons
T2 - A generalized Bradley-Terry model for continuous data using a discontinuous penalized likelihood function
AU - Stern, Steven E.
N2 - Standard paired comparison models are widely used in circumstances where a measure of preference is available on a sequence or collection of pairwise comparisons between a group of objects or treatments. Typically, the measure of preference observations takes the form of simple binary outcomes, indicating which of the two objects or treatments in a particular comparison is preferred. Common examples of such situations include models of choice behaviour in politics or marketing, comparisons of medical treatments or in the realm of sports rankings. We investigate situations where the observed measure of preference for the paired comparisons is instead a continuous outcome indicating not simply the direction of preference but the degree of preference as well; in particular, we present, as a motivating example, a ranking analysis of the top 12 international limited overs cricket teams, with an appropriately defined margin of victory in individual matches playing the role of the measure of preference. We propose a new method, which is termed moderated paired comparisons, that is based on fitting a penalized likelihood model to the observed margins of victory. Importantly, the structure of the penalty function chosen allows for the model to assign differential importance to the information that is contained solely in the dichotomous win-loss outcome of a match as against that contained in the actual margin of the victory.
AB - Standard paired comparison models are widely used in circumstances where a measure of preference is available on a sequence or collection of pairwise comparisons between a group of objects or treatments. Typically, the measure of preference observations takes the form of simple binary outcomes, indicating which of the two objects or treatments in a particular comparison is preferred. Common examples of such situations include models of choice behaviour in politics or marketing, comparisons of medical treatments or in the realm of sports rankings. We investigate situations where the observed measure of preference for the paired comparisons is instead a continuous outcome indicating not simply the direction of preference but the degree of preference as well; in particular, we present, as a motivating example, a ranking analysis of the top 12 international limited overs cricket teams, with an appropriately defined margin of victory in individual matches playing the role of the measure of preference. We propose a new method, which is termed moderated paired comparisons, that is based on fitting a penalized likelihood model to the observed margins of victory. Importantly, the structure of the penalty function chosen allows for the model to assign differential importance to the information that is contained solely in the dichotomous win-loss outcome of a match as against that contained in the actual margin of the victory.
JO - Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series C: Applied Statistics
JF - Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series C: Applied Statistics
Stern SE. Moderated paired comparisons: A generalized Bradley-Terry model for continuous data using a discontinuous penalized likelihood function. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series C: Applied Statistics. 2011 May;60(3):397-415. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9876.2010.00751.x
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"Romanticism" is a descriptor in the National Library of Medicine's controlled vocabulary thesaurus, MeSH (Medical Subject Headings). Descriptors are arranged in a hierarchical structure, which enables searching at various levels of specificity.
The attitude or intellectual orientation that characterized many works of literature, painting, music, architecture, criticism, and historiography in Western civilization over a period from the late 18th to the mid-19th century.
K01.883
Below are MeSH descriptors whose meaning is more general than "Romanticism".
Humanities [K]
Humanities [K01]
Romanticism [K01.883]
Below are MeSH descriptors whose meaning is related to "Romanticism".
Below are MeSH descriptors whose meaning is more specific than "Romanticism".
This graph shows the total number of publications written about "Romanticism" by people in this website by year, and whether "Romanticism" was a major or minor topic of these publications.
Below are the most recent publications written about "Romanticism" by people in Profiles.
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Home/Notes/Ordinary Level Notes/O Level Geography/River Processes/Deltas
A satellite photo of the Nile Delta. Image credit Flckr.com
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Deltas
A delta is a gently sloping depositional feature that is found at a river’s mouth where it empties into a sea or ocean that extends to the surface and is shaped like the Greek letter delta (Δ).
It is important to note that although some deltas are indeed shaped like the Greek letter delta some deltas as pointed below have other shapes as well for example the Estuary delta.
They are low lying swampy plains that gradually become colonised by various types of plants.
The growth of a delta interferes with the flow of a river resulting in the river splitting up into several distributaries not unlike the ones resulting from braiding.
A distributary is a channel that splits and rejoins with other channels of the same river.
An example is the Niger Delta in West Africa and the Nile Delta in Egypt.
Formation of deltas
most of the load carried by rivers is deposited into the oceans, seas and lakes into which the rivers empty.
Sometimes the load is carried far away into the mouth of the river before it sinks to the bottom.
Deltas are formed when the load instead sinks at the bottom of the mouth of the river.
When this happens layers of sediment collect and pile up to form a gently sloping platform.
With time the platform extends to the surface to form a delta.
Conditions necessary for the formation of a delta.
The river must have a large load.
The velocity of the river must be low enough to allow its load to be deposited in the river’s mouth.
The river’s load must be deposited faster than it can be removed by the action of tides and currents.
The chances for the formation of a delta are greatly enhanced when clay particles are part of a river’s load resulting in them coagulating and thickening as they mix and react with seawater and settle at the bed in a process called flocculation.
The Congo River has a large velocity at the point at which it meets the sea and thus has no delta as most of its load is carried off into the sea.
The River Niger has low velocity at its mouth resulting in the formation of an extensive delta.
Stages in the formation of a delta.
Deposition in the river’s mouth results in the river forming several distributaries.
The delta begins to form when the initial sediment collects at the bottom near the river’s mouth.
As depositions continues layer upon layer a slow platform results.
Deposition on the banks of the distributaries forms levees.
The area between the distributaries may result in the formation of lagoons.
The lagoons begin filling with sediment which causes further division into distributaries and to the formation of smaller distributaries.
The delta starts to take a more solid appearance although it may still be swampy and usually covered with water loving vegetation.
Further in-filling of the lagoons plus the growth of vegetation results in the older parts of the delta coming to stand above water level forming dry land.
Continued development of a delta can lead to it merging with the flood plain and forming deltaic plains
Types of deltas
There are four types of deltas viz:
Arcuate, Bird’s foot,Estuarine and Cuspate Deltas.
Arcuate
Arcuate Delta. Image credit Wikispaces.com
Is a triangular shaped delta with an arc-shaped shoreline.
The Niger delta is an example of such a delta.
They have coarse and fine sediment in the form of a cone.
It is crossed by many distributaries.
It is useful for man to settle on as it provides arable and fertile lands as well as pastures for animals.
However the waterlogged conditions tend to favour pests and diseases.
Birds foot
Satellite view of the Mississippi River. Image credit adammandalmen.com
Is formed where there are weak tidal currents which allow the distributaries to extend further seawards resulting in a form that looks much like the shape of a bird’s foot.
An example is the Mississippi River delta.
It consists of very fine material like silt and several distributaries bordered by levees jutting out from the shore.
Estuarine
Is made up of a single channel with braids formed from deposits made onto the river’s channel as it reaches the ocean.
An example is the Zambezi River delta in Mozambique.
The delta is formed from material deposited in the submerged mouth of a river.
It forms the shape of an Estuary.
Cuspate delta
Sometimes a cuspate delta may be formed.
These develope where there is limited distributary development in coasts that have moderate current.
An example is the Medjerda River delta in Tunisia.
To learn more about landforms resulting from river processes go to this page.
By garikaib|2017-01-17T11:21:37+02:00June 21st, 2015|Notes, O Level Geography, Ordinary Level Notes, River Processes|Comments Off on Deltas
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Contributor Post Created with Sketch. Recommended by Ricochet Members Created with Sketch. Uncommon Knowledge: A Charming Conversation
In his most recent episode of Uncommon Knowledge, Peter Robinson’s conversation with Richard Epstein and John Yoo focuses on the Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barrett, and Roe v. Wade, the most comprehensively and consequentially flawed Court decision in recent history. It’s a terrific show, a relaxed and thoughtful discussion with serious people about important things.
It’s always a pleasure listening to Richard Epstein, a man whose ability to speak intelligently, yet in complete pages without, apparently, pausing to breathe, has always impressed me. (I suspect his liberal use of the word “situation” has something to do with it: how many of us employ a four-syllable filler word?)
Professor Epstein is a man whose opinions I never take lightly, but I found myself in disagreement with him on the matter of Judge Barrett. He’s of the opinion that the potential political consequences don’t warrant her confirmation, and that the President should graciously defer. I understand his reasoning and agree that the risk of triggering a radical Democratic response is real. On the other hand, I think radical Democratic action is likely in any case, and am skeptical that forbearance on the part of Republicans will be met with moderation by a Democratic party that seems bent on increasingly extreme and radical transformation.
So I found myself agreeing with John Yoo, that sartorially impeccable culinary train-wreck whose recently published book is a welcome addition to the defense of President Trump by prominent intellectuals. Confirm Judge Barrett, and do it quickly.
Peter Robinson maintained his brilliant facade as the world’s most modest and congenial host, a mask that slips only on those increasingly frequent occasions when Rob Long is at his worst.
A fine episode well worth hearing. And Ricochet really does need to figure out how to host Uncommon Knowledge among its podcasts.
Published in Podcasts
Tags: Amy Coney Barrett, Epstein, mcdonalds happy meal, Roe v. Wade, Supreme Court, UK, Uncommon Knowledge, Yoo
This post was promoted to the Main Feed by a Ricochet Editor at the recommendation of Ricochet members. Like this post? Want to comment? Join Ricochet’s community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Get your first month free.
EDISONPARKS Joined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member
On the other hand, I think radical Democratic action is likely in any case, and am skeptical that forbearance on the part of Republicans will be met with moderation by a Democratic party that seems bent on increasingly extreme and radical transformation.
You nailed it, the Left/(D)/MSM having a conniption fit based on any Trump/(R) policy proposal has become a reflexive response having little to no relationship to the actual Trump/(R) policy proposed.
It is a political Kabuki Dance played out for the benefit of their Leftist base.
https://ricochet.com/807392/uncommon-knowledge-a-charming-conversation/#comment-4932085
October 1, 2020, at 10:07 AM PDT
I think Blue Yeti or EJ Hill pointedly pointed out to me that it’s not a podcast which is why it’s not listed with the podcasts. Having listened to the Faculty Lounge, I agree with Yoo. Dems are crazy so, unfortunately, we have to be too.
colleenb (View Comment):
I guess that’s reasonable. But they should add it anyway. Or link it from the podcast area.
I take that back. My phone’s podcast program lists Uncommon Knowledge, and I routinely listen to the show as a podcast. So don’t let management buffalo you on this, Colleen. Let’s make them earn their preposterously large salaries.
This comment has been edited.
Tex929rr
EDISONPARKS (View Comment):
Absolutely. The left has played hardball with SCOTUS nominations since Robert Bork. We waited far too long to put up a fight. American as a free country faces a literally existential threat.
Bryan G. Stephens Joined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member
I am tired of being told to be civil in the face of the Left. They have actual thugs roaming the streets.
Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):
In fairness to Richard, his concern isn’t that we be civil. He’s simply trying to avoid escalating a situation to the point where the Democratic leadership makes a serious break with norms and packs the Supreme Court. It isn’t that he’s offended at the thought of us being uncivil (though he may be), but rather that he’s concerned about things becoming disastrously heated.
I see his point, and I admit that it’s a legitimate concern. I’m just skeptical that we haven’t reached that point already.
October 1, 2020, at 12:09 PM PDT
We are at war and they have already killed a trump supporter
Things are heated disastrously.
There is a reason I am buying ammunition.
October 1, 2020, at 1:02 PM PDT
I have lost tolerance for the “don’t escalate” crowd. That is not working. The American people are tolerating brown shirts. Only time before they come for us.
That is where we are right now.
My interest is in doing what’s best for the country. However satisfying, and justified, it might be to join the left in our methods, the most important thing, for me, is that we achieve the best results we can. Richard Epstein thinks, if I understand him correctly, that we do that by making a modest concession right now to preserve order: the Court is in a pretty good place right now, so we don’t need to do something as incendiary as pushing through a very conservative Justice over the objections of essentially every living Democrat. I get his point. I just think we’re facing the prospect of a lot of losing ahead, and I want to take what wins we can now, even at the risk of making a few of those future losses even more painful.
Above all, I want us to comply with the Constitution and the rule of law. That’s what we defend, and I think we should stand strong on that, and refuse to compromise those principles.
MISTER BITCOIN
It’s a simulcast? I don’t think I’ve used this word since 2002
Henry Racette: It’s always a pleasure listening to Richard Epstein, a man whose ability to speak intelligently, yet in complete pages without, apparently, pausing to breathe, has always impressed me.
I swear the man absorbs oxygen directly from the air. Uncanny . . .
Henry Racette: Professor Epstein is a man whose opinions I never take lightly, but I found myself in disagreement with him on the matter of Judge Barrett. He’s of the opinion that the potential political consequences don’t warrant her confirmation, and that the President should graciously defer.
I disagree too. For too long we (conservatives, Republicans) have shied away from the fight because we’re worried about the political consequences. Well, the consequences of failing to take the left head-on year after year has resulted in the kind of incrementalism that’s gotten us to where we are today – a precipice from which there’s little chance of return. To paraphrase David Farragut, “Damn the consequences, full speed ahead.”
I think it was John who asked Richard what it would be like to have nine Richard Epsteins on the Supreme Court, and Richard said there’d be a lot of 5-4 decisions. Maybe deep inside, part of Richard wants to say, “Go ahead, Mr. President and Mr. Senate Majority Leader. Confirm this qualified woman to the Supreme Court.”
Meritorious and outstanding
When has a modest Consession worked in the past?
This is right. We have tried to make peace. Tried to get along. Compromise with the left means they win and we lose. The game is rigged against us, and if they win in November it will be more so.
I am not trying to get some cathartic release. I want my way of life not to be destroyed and that is what is on the table.
Same here. As I said, I want to do what works best to preserve the Constitution and the rule of law. None of us knows exactly what that is. I can’t go along with those who call for violence, other than in clear self-defense. But we don’t have to bend over backwards trying not to cause offense, either.
Freeven Joined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member
My interest is in doing what’s best for the country. However satisfying, and justified, it might be to join the left in our methods, the most important thing, for me, is that we achieve the best results we can. Richard Epstein thinks, if I understand him correctly, that we do that by making a modest concession right now to preserve order…
This is a notion completely detached from reality. A parade of modest concessions are what got us to this point. There is absolutely no evidence to support the fantasy that the Left will moderate their behavior if the Right would only placate them.
Freeven (View Comment):
I always feel tempted to push back against such certainty.
In fact, we don’t know if pushing forward with the Barrett appointment will eventually cost us a lot. I think we should do it, but we really don’t know.
There are those who suggest that we adopt the bad habits of the left, the civil disobedience and the suppression of others’ free speech rights, etc. I don’t agree, but we don’t know if that would actually work better, or worse, than what we’ve done so far.
I think we’ll go ahead and confirm Barrett, and I’m glad. If the Democrats win in November and go crazy next year, we’ll never know if this was the choice that pushed them over, or if they would have done it anyway.
Do you have a good example of where modest concessions saved norms?
Bryan, you aren’t hearing me call for modest concessions. You’re hearing me call for a continuing respect for the rule of law on our part. I’m in favor of going ahead with the confirmation of Judge Barrett — even though it’s possible that Epstein is correct and it will come back to bite us in some awful way.
(Having said that, I’ll note that your question is a hard one in that it asks me to tell you something extreme that didn’t happen because of something extreme we didn’t do. There’s a lot of speculation in that, and no way of knowing whether or not we’re correct.)
Henry Racette:
So I found myself agreeing with John Yoo, that sartorially impeccable culinary train-wreck . . . .
Are you insulting my kids’ favorite restaurant?
Peter Robinson maintained his brilliant facade as the world’s most modest and congenial host, . . . .
PR is one of the best of the best of the best.
I have it on podcast from somewhere. It is available. If not available here.
Saint Augustine (View Comment):
The podcast is available to normal podcast apps. I suspect it’s a matter of royalties. Whatever it is, they should fix it.
I liken this argument to a pickpocket that picks a guys pocket every week, and every week he goes before the judge and the judge rules that compromise is in order and the pickpocket should get half the contents of the wallet. After a couple of months, there’s too little to divide, and the judge rules that the pickpocket gets the remainder of the money … and the wallet, too … because he’s the only one with any money left.
Concession and compromise seem to always work in one direction.
Flicker (View Comment):
Okay, let’s be clear here.
When people talk about “concessions” and “compromise” in discussions like this, they’re generally talking about one of two quite distinct things.
They’re talking about making political concessions in a good-faith hope that we’ll get similar concessions in return, or simply to be civil and gracious. Or they’re talking about meeting the opposition on its own ground, using the opposition’s tactics — in this case, violence, speech suppression, intimidation, criminal disruptions, etc.
I’m with anyone who wants to say that we’ve made too many of the first kind of concession and we should make fewer in the future. We need to push back, in the politics and the culture. The left is not interested in compromise.
I don’t approve of the violence and stuff.
There may be a third way. Not engaging in lies or violence, but not expecting the other side to deal in good faith. Maybe standing pat and not being too conciliatory is also a good way.
It seems clear to me that whether the Dems intend it or not they are tearing the country apart and tearing it down.
Oh, I’m with you there. I have no expectation of good faith from the left. (There are a lot of sensible, centrist Democrats — perhaps most of them. But the progressive left is something else.)
I do believe that the left considers rules, laws, norms, fairness, and compromise to be dispensable, and will take what it believes is the most direct line to winning. That includes cheating in the election, suppressing speech, packing the Court, and making or breaking whichever rules it seems expedient to make or break. They are focused on achieving an end, and they have a self-righteous ruthlessness about it.
Are our positions intractable then? How do we deal with that?
I think my last post was about that.
We try to win the election. Every election.
You mean packing the court with originalist constitutionalists? :)
I meant how do we deal with two very different populations the Morlocks and the Eloi living harmoniously or at least peaceably as one?
Yes, that post. That is exactly how you have them live together.
Unless the Morlocks are also revolutionaries, in which case I reckon they have to be defeated.
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California Schools Approve New Policy For Students: ‘It’s Okay To Break The Law, Police Are Evil’
12 May, 2017 by Tiffiny Ruegner
By Right Wing News’ Just An American
I read it, but still don’t believe it. Their is a school board in Los Angeles that has come to the conclusion that they are going to start teaching a their students, how to be lawless.
The Los Angeles School Board is taking modern day liberalism to a whole new level. They have created a mantra to not only ignore Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents also known as ICE, but to also ACTIVELY do their best to take illegal actions against them if they were to see ICE ever to set foot on their school grounds.
Trending: The 15 Best Conservative News Sites On The Internet
It was a unanimous approval for a set of policies that the board members said would provide families with a much higher level of protection when it came to federal immigration raids.
Among this set of new policies it was also stated that no immigration officer will be given any permission to be on campus without first getting clearance from the superintendent of schools. Until that happens they will be denied access to school property EVEN if they arrive with a legally valid subpoena.
This isn’t even the worst part though. They also claim that it’s the United States’ fault that we are in a “crappy” condition stating:
“Migration to this country is often propelled by social, economic, and political factors and native country conditions, which result partly from U.S. government and corporate policies and interests, and thus immigrants and their families are entitled to compassionate and humane treatment in this country.”
The resolution includes language partly blaming U.S. actions for driving people across the border:
Unbelievable. They are blaming the U.S. for the crappy conditions in other countries instead of blaming the people who are running those other countries? Is the horrific disaster in Venezuela the fault of the U.S.?
Cut off funding? Jazz Shaw over at Hot Air had an interesting idea:
The school is probably counting on the fact that the feds don’t want the sort of media story which would result from photos of federal agents dragging a kindergarten teacher off the campus in handcuffs and they’re probably right. But that doesn’t leave the White House with no options to explore. You couldn’t ask for a clearer justification to cut off all federal education funding to the entire Los Angeles school district. There are rules against cutting all funding to states or municipalities as retribution over political disagreements, but a statement of intent to violate the law by a school district couldn’t be interpreted as anything other than a valid reason to freeze specific funding from the Department of Education.
So why would this matter? Well, it does for a couple of reasons actually. First, it is a school district that has been tasked with educating our children. With that authority they have decided to teach our children that it is okay to break the law but even worst to actively fight against law enforcement officers who are only trying to do their job.
Then you have to think about how they are not protecting the children ( as they claim to be doing) by allowing criminal illegal aliens to work in their school district. They have lost their minds!
ICE isn’t deporting those who haven’t broken the law. ICE is deporting illegal aliens who have broken laws. That’s the only way these illegals are even on their radar. Not only that, but ICE is getting court orders to do so.
Parents in this school district should be extremely concerned that the school board is not interested in protecting their children and is actually teaching their children really, really bad lessons in life that could turn out horribly or even deadly for their kids in the future.
I thought that things would start to calm down post-Obama’s America, but we can clearly tell from this that the plague of “stupid” continues.
Are you ready for this?
Tiffiny Ruegner
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Obituary: Lou Brock (1939-2020)
September 9, 2020 ~ Sam Gazdziak
RIP to Hall of Fame outfielder Lou Brock, who was one of the greatest stolen base threats in baseball history. Brock died on September 6 in a St. Louis hospital at the age of 81. Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch noted in the linked article that he had suffered from a multitude of ailments in his final years: bone marrow cancer, stroke, heart problems, and the amputation of his left leg due to diabetes. Brock started his baseball career with the Chicago Cubs (1961-64) before joining the St. Louis Cardinals (1964-79) in one of the most talked-about baseball trades ever.
“Lou Brock was one of the most revered members of the St. Louis Cardinals organization and one of the very best to ever wear the Birds on the Bat,” said Cardinals principal owner and CEO William O. DeWitt Jr. in a statement. “Lou was a Hall of Fame player, a great coach, an insightful broadcaster and a wonderful mentor to countless generations of Cardinals players, coaches and members of the front office. He was an ambassador of the game around the country and a fan favorite who connected with millions of baseball fans across multiple generations. He will be deeply missed and forever remembered.”
Louis Clark Brock was born on June 18, 1939 in El Dorado, Ark., but he grew up in Louisiana. His parents separated when he was young, and as a five-year-old boy, he had to help take care of his two younger brothers, who were 3 and 1, while his mother worked. At the age of 13 he started working in a grocery store to help support the family.
What could have been: Lou Brock as a Cub. Source: Baseball Hall of Fame
Brock hit .450 in his senior year of high school, but his mother didn’t have the money to pay for college tuition. He wrote several colleges to ask if they wanted a student willing to work his way through college. “Two weeks after I got out of high school I went to Southern [University in Baton Rouge] and got a job in the maintenance department as a janitor,” Brock said. “I saved enough money to get into school that fall, and I made the baseball team as a freshman.”
Brock also played on the U.S. Pan-American Games baseball team in 1959 and was named to the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) All-America team for two straight years. He was discovered and signed by Buck O’Neil, who at that point in his legendary career was a scout for the Chicago Cubs. He started his pro career with the Cubs in Arizona winter ball in 1960. While the statistics aren’t readily available, a perusal of the box scores shows the kind of player he was. He was an extra-base hit machine, picking up doubles regularly and adding the odd triple or inside-the-park home run as well. He stole bases and advanced on any muff by the catcher. Brock started a center fielder and would not move into his customary left field position until he reached St. Louis.
Brock was sent to the St. Cloud Rox of the Northern League in 1961, and the 22-year-old became an All-Star, Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player in what would be his only season in the minor leagues. He batted .361 for the Rox and clubbed 14 home runs while driving in 82 runs. Just because he wasn’t known for his power didn’t mean he was a singles hitter. On the day he received his Rookie of the Year Award, he hit a 2-run homer off Aberdeen lefty Darold Knowles that hit a light tower in right field. He also stole 38 bases, so speed was already a big part of his game.
“I doubt if this club has ever had a man cover the acreage between home and first base as quickly as Lou Brock does it,” wrote St. Cloud Times columnist Frank Farrington. “He’s got the other infielders hurrying their throws and making bad ones. He’s driving them nuts.”
The Cubs brought Brock to the major leagues for four games at the end of the 1961 season. In four games, he had 1 hit in 11 at-bats, with that one hit coming off the Phillies’ Robin Roberts in his first MLB at-bat, on September 10, 1961.
Brock claimed the center field role in 1962 after a sensational spring training. Cubs coaches clocked his sprint from home to first base at 3.4 seconds — 3.1 if he was dragging a bunt. Then the regular season started, and Brock looked… ordinary. He had 16 stolen bases in 1962 but was thrown out 7 times. He hit just .263, but he showed a little pop in his bat with 9 homers. He became the first player ever to reach the right-center bleachers of the Polo Grounds with a 460-foot home run on June 17, 1962. Babe Ruth and Joe Adcock were the only other ballplayers to reach the bleachers.
“It was a high pitch, a ball in fact,” Brock said in a 1963 interview. “I hit it right at the apogee of my swing and it went high enough for the wind to help it a little. You know I hit that ball off Al Jackson. It’s the only home run I have ever hit in the major leagues off a lefthander.”
Brock wasn’t even the most highly regarded rookie on the Cubs that year. Second baseman Ken Hubbs won a Gold Glove and the Rookie of the Year Award after setting a record for the longest errorless streak at second base. Brock, though, had the better season. Hubbs slashed .260/.299/.346 and led the NL in strikeouts and grounding into double plays. His OPS+ was 71. Brock slashed .263/.319/.412 for an OPS of 92, but he was a below average center fielder. Hubbs received 19 out of 20 ROY votes, and Brock wasn’t even in the running.
Brock moved to right field in 1963 and again put up pedestrian numbers — a .258 batting average, 9 homers, 37 RBIs, and 24 stolen bases in 36 attempts. His 1964 season didn’t get any better, as he hit .251 in 52 games before destiny called in the way of a 6-player trade.
Lou Brock with Buck O’Neil, the man who discovered and signed him. Source: Baseball Hall of Fame.
It happened on June 15, 1964 and sent Brock, Jack Spring and Paul Toth to the St. Louis Cardinals for Ernie Broglio, Doug Clemons and Bobby Shantz. I wrote about this a bit in Broglio’s obituary when he died in 2019, but the trade — considered now to be one of the worst in baseball history — didn’t look that bad at the time. If anything, it was thought that the Cubs had the better end of the deal. In parts of four MLB seasons, Brock had played in 327 games and had a slash line of .257/.306/.383. He hit 20 homers and 20 triples and stole 50 bases while being thrown out 22 times. Broglio, though, had won 70 games in 6 seasons including 21 games once and 18 games once.
The problem with the trade was that Broglio had a bad elbow, and the Cubs didn’t figure this out until it was too late to do anything about it. That’s bad luck, or perhaps a little dishonesty on the part of St. Louis. While the Cubs can’t be blamed for Broglio flaming out after joining the team, they are responsible for having a gifted talent like Brock and failing to use him the right way. The running game wasn’t a big part of the Cubs’ offense, and there were so many instructors in the College of Coaches era that Brock never received steady instruction. The Cubs even told him while he was in the minors to give up on switch-hitting and hit exclusively as a lefty.
Almost as soon as he donned Cardinal red, Brock started hitting. He batted .348 for the Redbirds for the rest of the year and swiped 33 bases, giving him 43 on the season. The Cardinals won 93 games to claim the NL pennant, and then they beat the Yankees in seven games to win the World Series. Brock hit .300 in the World Series, with 2 doubles and a home run among his 9 hits.
“Without Brock we couldn’t have won the pennant,” said St. Louis manager Johnny Keane. Brock, for his point of view, credited a change in mindset at the plate.
“I stopped bunting and started swinging, and the balls started dropping,” the outfielder said. “Until then, I made it a point to bunt once or twice in every game because baseball people said I should take advantage of my speed. That made the difference, because if you’re not doing good at the plate, everything goes bad. Hitting dominates everything.”
Brock beats Larry Bowa’s tag to steal his 105th base of the 1974 season, setting the modern-day record. Source: Press and Sun-Bulletin (Binghamton, N.Y.), September 11, 1974.
Brock moved to left field with the Cardinals and would stay there for the remainder of his career. With his new-found hitting approach, a green light to steal and a new outfield position, Brock became one of the National League’s most valuable players for the next decade and a half. From 1965 until his retirement in 1979, Brock was selected to six All-Star teams and hit over .300 seven times (and hit .297, .298 and .299 three other times). He led the majors in run scored twice, doubles once and triples once. He led the NL in stolen bases in each year between 1966 and 1974 save one season — Bobby Tolan stole 57 bases in 1970 to top Brock’s 51. The Cards would win two more NL pennants and one World Series in that time, and he was a key part of it all.
Brock set the Cardinals record for stolen bases in a season in 1965, when he swiped his 49th bag. That moved him ahead of the 48 steals by John Murray (1908) and Frankie Frisch (1927). Brock finished the season with 63 stolen bases, broke his own record in 1966 with 74 and topped it with 118 steals in 1974. Those 118 stolen bases represented a major-league record until Rickey Henderson stole 130 bases in 1982. Brock still holds the St. Louis team record, though Vince Coleman came close with 110 steals in 1985.
The National League really couldn’t solve Brock. He had the power to hit a dozen or more home runs a season, but if you were lucky to hold him to a single, he’d just steal second base. Some pitchers like Ryne Duren tried to cool his jets by hitting him, but that quickly proved counterproductive — what’s the point of hitting Brock when you’re just putting him in the position to steal more bases? Brock suffered a hairline fracture of his left shoulder after being deliberately hit by a Sandy Koufax pitch in 1964, so his baserunning daring did not come without consequences.
Brock made the NL All-Star team for the first time in 1967 and had a career-high 21 homers and 206 hits on the season — one of four times he would top the 200-hit mark in his career. He led all of baseball with 113 runs scored and stole 52 bases. As if that wasn’t enough, Brock turned in a record-setting performance in the World Series against the Red Sox, going 12-for-29 (.414) with 2 doubles, 1 triple, 1 home run and 7 stolen bases. He set records for most thefts in a World Series, a World Series game (3) and a World Series inning (2). He scored 8 runs and drove in 3 as the Cardinals won their second World Series in four years.
When a reporter asked Cardinals manager Red Schoendienst what the turning point of the World Series was, he simply said, “Brock leading off.”
Incredibly, he put together an even better performance in the 1968 World Series, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the victorious Detroit Tigers. In the seven-game series, Brock hit .464 with 3 doubles, a triple and 2 homers, and he was 7-for-9 in stolen base attempts. All total, Brock played in 21 World Series games and slashed .391/.424/.655, with 4 home runs and 14 stolen bases.
Lou Brock and Cardinals owner August Busch get a break from the heat using Brock’s “sunbrella” hats. Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 23, 1976.
By the end of the ’68 World Series, Brock was 29 years old and had established himself as the sparkplug of the fierce Cardinals offense. When he reached base, it sent a jolt of excitement to all of his teammates, because they knew what was coming. “We get excited. We know that when Lou gets on to open an inning, we’re going to score,” explained Dal Maxvill.
Brock’s baserunning antagonized other teams. The advice that the Tigers were given before the ’68 World Series was “Keep him off the bases.” “I never heard such a meaningless saying,” exclaimed Mickey Vernon. “What does it mean? Does it mean don’t walk him? Cripes, this man is a hitter. You don’t walk him, he goes 4-for-4. He’s a leadoff man on this club, but on any other he’d be batting fourth.”
Frequently, pitchers were so concerned about Brock on first base that they forgot that the man who batted second for the Cardinals, Curt Flood, was a dangerous hitter in his own right. From 1964 until 1969, Flood hit over .300 four times, feasting off mediocre fastballs thrown by distracted pitchers.
For his part, Brock continued to bat over .300 for the Cardinals as he entered into his early 30s. Typically, baserunners lose a step by then. Brock, improbably, became a better baserunner. He stole 64 bases in 1971 and 63 in ’72. He frequently led the league in caught stealing, but his stolen base ratio was much improved from his early years with the Cubs. His baserunning intelligence helped compensate for any speed he may have lost.
“I once depended on the element of surprise in my base running,” Brock said in a 1972 profile. “But then I found I could do better if I let the other team know I was going to steal. It was a psychological gimmick designed to get them so nervous they’d mess up the play.”
He didn’t pay attention to any unwritten rules about baserunning either. When Phillies manager Frank Lucchesi once called him a “busher” for running with the Cardinals up 6-0, Brock fired back.
“He was showing up how intelligent he was,” he responded. “If he’s got any intelligence he sure as heck didn’t exhibit it on a professional level.” When asked if he’d change his baserunning ways, Brock said, “If the score is 12-0 and we’re playing against Lucchesi, I’d still steal a base.”
One by one, the baserunning records began to fall. Brock broke Ty Cobb’s record of consecutive seasons with 50+ stolen bases in 1973 when he did it for the ninth time. His streak would reach 12 seasons. He stole 118 bases in 1974 to top Maury Wills’ modern-day record of 104 thefts and surpassed the Pirates’ Max Carey as the NL stolen base king. The one record that remained was Cobb’s all-time record of 892 stolen bases — or Billy Hamilton’s 914 stolen bases if you take 19th Century stats into account. It didn’t matter. Cobb’s record fell in 1977, and Hamilton joined him in Brock’s rearview mirror in 1978. Lou Brock had become the undisputed stolen base king of Major League Baseball.
He still had one more accomplishment to reach: 3,000 hits. With all the fuss about Brock’s stolen bases, it was easy to overlook the fact that he was a gifted hitter as well. By 1977, Brock was no longer stealing 50 bases a year, and his batting average dipped to .272. In 1978, he appeared in just 92 games and hit .221, with 9 doubles as his only extra-base hits. He ended the ’78 season an even 100 hits shy of 3,000, and it seemed like he would crawl over the finish line if he made it at all.
Source: Major League Baseball.
Instead, Brock delivered one last strong season in 1979, making the All-Star team and topping .300 at the age of 40. The Cardinals fans cheered loudly for every hit as he marched toward the 3,000-hit milestone, finally reaching it on August 13, 1979, against the Cubs — his old team, of course. He picked up the hit off Dennis Lamp (literally — he hit a liner off Lamp and raced to first on the infield hit), making him the 13th player in major-league history to reach that mark, and only the second Cardinal after Stan Musial. He was named the NL Comeback Player of the Year in his final year.
(Lamp, incidentally, had a significant but inadvertent role in the career of the recently deceased Tom Seaver, too. Lamp’s free agent deal with the Blue Jays in 1984 gave the White Sox the opportunity to claim Seaver from the New York Mets,)
After spending 1978 as a struggling part-time player, Brock ended his career on a high note, adding 21 steals to his record totals.
“This is the way I wanted to crown my career,” Brock said. “It’s a dream situation. Well, more of a fantasy than a dream. And I’m living out that fantasy — to end my career with a trail of blazing glory.”
In his 19-year career, Brock had 3,023 hits that included 486 doubles, 141 triples and 149 home runs. He slashed .293/.343/.410 and had 938 stolen bases and 1,610 runs scored. He had four seasons of 200 hits and another four of more than 190 hits. According to Baseball Reference, Brock was worth 45.4 Wins Above Replacement, but he is penalized by a negative fielding WAR. Brock led all left fielders in errors each season between 1965 and 1974, and his 168 errors as a left fielder are third most behind Zack Wheat and Goose Goslin.
Brock was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985, in his first year of eligibility. He remained close to baseball, participating in numerous Cardinals events. He devoted much of his time, during his career and after it, to coaching children and young adults. Brock had a scholarship program to help young people get through college, and he participated in a number of charities.
“I’m seeing his most meaningful years,” said his wife, Jackie, in 2000. “He understands his baseball career was preparation to help people and share. He understands the value of life more than ever before.”
Here is Bob Costas talking about Lou Brock’s legacy: https://www.mlb.com/video/bob-costas-honors-lou-brock
For more information: St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Posted in Obituary Chicago CubsErnie BroglioLou BrockSt. Louis Cardinals
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FAST CHAT
By Tim Kelly
Vito Minei
He worked for the county health department for 37 1/2 years, the last 10 as director of the Division of Environmental Quality. But only five days after his April 2 retirement, Vito Minei is back behind a desk, this time as the new director of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County, an amalgam of programs including agriculture, water quality, health and youth activities.
He takes the reins at the Riverhead-based extension, which employs close to 200 people, after a career that included 18 years as head of the Peconic Estuary Program. As chief of the Office of Ecology and later director of the Division of Environmental Quality, Mr. Minei was the health department’s point man on following and investigating the spread of the brown tide algae, which first appeared in the Peconics in 1986. He fills the seat that Dale Moyer of Mattituck held on an interim basis.
Q: What is the biggest challenge Cornell Cooperative Extension currently faces?
A: The economy. We took some funding hits and my immediate challenge is to make sure that we can continue to keep these valuable projects going.
Q: Why take the director’s job after such a long career with the health department?
A: I was planning to retire this spring and assumed I would go into the consulting business. But when I saw extension’s recruitment announcement back in October I pursued it from there. The timing happened to work out perfectly. It’s public service and it’s multifaceted. I was interested in the fact that it’s more than an environmental program. The youth development programs here really excited me and that’s one of the reasons why I came here. Then there’s the Cornell connection. If you’re going to get involved with a science-based organization, there aren’t too many more nationally renowned than Cornell University.
Q: With extensive background and experience in water quality issues, how do you reconcile that with your new responsibilities for CCE’s agricultural program?
A: I never saw agriculture and environmental quality as mutually exclusive. I always thought they could go hand in hand and that we could do away with what for decades seemed to be a very contentious relationship between regulators and the farming industry. I know how much agriculture meant to the East End and the vitality of its economy. Coming from the county health department, it’s my responsibility to build on the relationships I had with Long Island Farm Bureau executive director Joe Gergela and Dale Moyer on the sustainability of agriculture, both environmentally and economically.
Q: What do you hope to accomplish in your first days as director?
A: Cooperative Extension operates the County Farm in Yaphank, which combines the concepts of maintaining a working farm with offering educational programs for kids. The staff is in a temporary building from the SSSq60s and the road is a series of potholes that looks like the road to Kabul, Afghanistan, after an American bombing run. My initial goal is to try to reach out to people I know in the building industries to help refurbish that.
I’d also like to get more kids interested in science.
Email Tim Kelly Email Created with Sketch. Email Tim Kelly
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Last edited by Dait
6 edition of The Nation-States found in the catalog.
The Nation-States
Concert or Chaos
by Richard Lee Hough
Published July 28, 2003 by University Press of America .
Politics/International Relations,
Political Science,
International agencies,
Politics / Current Events,
Political Science / General,
National state,
The citizen of the world
Student life and customs.
How do I love thee
Student Study Guide To Accompany Human Anatomy And Physiology
Agenda for development
The New-England primer, or, An easy and pleasant guide to the art of reading.
Progress in Medicinal Chemistry, 39
By-laws of the Pacific Club, Victoria, B.C.
Louis Jolliet (The Wisconsin Experience)
The Salvia Divinorum Growers Guide
Mastering Quicken 4 for Windows
Bedding the billionaire
From sound to symbol
Public library needs in the east end of Toronto
Southern continents
The Nation-States by Richard Lee Hough Download PDF EPUB FB2
The title suggests that nation states and government in general are things of the past, a world-scale right-wing libertarian vision come to life. That's not quite true. Now 5 years after this book was written, in so many ways, the world either already is what Ohmae said it will be, or it The Nation-States book well on its by: “The Virtue of Nationalism” is the best book by a conservative on the world-order problem since Samuel Huntington’s “Clash of Civilizations.” It is a more philosophical and moral work than Huntington’s, but it addresses many of the same problems, attacks the same crumbling hypocrisies, and warns of Cited by: 5.
6, nations served. NationStates is a nation simulation game. Create a nation according to your political ideals and care for its people. Or deliberately oppress them.
A nation state is a state in which a great majority shares the same culture and is conscious of it. The nation state is an ideal in which cultural boundaries match up with political boundaries.
According to one definition, "a nation state is a sovereign state of which most of its subjects are united also by factors which defined The Nation-States book nation such as language or common descent.". Book of Games. Get Started Discord Forum Government Internal Affairs Foreign Affairs Laws.
Roleplaying Gaia Map Nation Map Newspaper Royal Houses Games. Assassins The Resistance. Welcome to the Grace of Gaia directory of games and guides on how to play them. Currently, we only have a few games we play, but if you know one that you don't see.
“This is, quite simply, the finest book of its kind.” —Tony McKenna, Marx and Philosophy Review of Books Nation-States, reinforces his reputation as the most creative author currently writing out of the Marxist tradition on the theories and intersections of a nationalist politics.
Nation states, asserts the world-renowned business strategist Kenichi Ohmae, are dinosaurs waiting to die. In this profoundly important book Ohmae argues that not only have nation states lost their ability to control exchange rates and protect their currencies, but they no longer generate real economic activity.
As a result, he maintains, they have "already" forfeited their role as critical 4/5(1). Nation-state, a territorially bounded The Nation-States book polity—i.e., a state—that is ruled in the name of a community of citizens who identify themselves as a nation.
The legitimacy of a nation-state’s rule over a territory and over the population inhabiting it stems from the right of a core national group within the state (which may include all or only some of its citizens) to self-determination. The book explores in detail the concept of member state, arguing that it provides us with the best tool for understanding the European integration process.
Member states differ from traditional nation-states. They are not founded on the idea of popular sovereignty or the nation. They rest upon the idea that the governance of domestic societies. Nation-states have their own characteristics that today may be taken-for-granted factors shaping a modern state, but that all developed in contrast to pre-national states.
Their territory is considered semi-sacred and nontransferable. Nation-states use the state as an instrument of national unity, in economic, social, and cultural life. Read "Nation-States and Nationalisms Organization, Ideology and Solidarity" by Sinisa Malesevic available from Rakuten Kobo.
Despite many predictions made over the last two hundred years that nation-states and nationalism are transient phenomena Brand: Wiley. The significance of the nation state is that, once consolidated around a particular nationality, it is a stable form of state organisation.
It is the sole form in which the growth of Nation states first emerged in the 16th and 17th centuries in the countries on the western edge of Europe, apparently for four reasons. nation-states. A rich literature has devel-oped to answer this question, including the well-known oeuvres of Gellner, Anderson, Smith, Hechter, and Meyer.
This research tradition displays two main weaknesses. First, many general theoretical statements are meant to explore universal processes that could account for the rise of theFile Size: KB.
The book is an important repository of popular memories of across the three nation states. It is also a useful commentary on how collective memories are shaped, controlled and nurtured by the dominant national : Salil Misra.
Nation-state definition is - a form of political organization under which a relatively homogeneous people inhabits a sovereign state; especially: a state containing one as opposed to several nationalities. Nation-States and the Multinational Corporation.
Nathan M. Jensen. Nation-States and the Multinational Corporation: A Political Economy of Foreign Direct Investment. This book provides the most systematic exploration to date of these crucial questions at the nexus of politics and economics. Using quantitative data and interviews with.
The most momentous development of our era, precisely, is the waning of the nation state: its inability to withstand countervailing 21st-century forces, and its calamitous loss of influence over.
The clashes between the 11 nations play out in every way, from politics to social values. Woodard notes that states with the highest rates of violent. Nation‐ states are governed by consent, not coercion.
Hazony makes this claim several times in his book. Nation‐ states have police, courts, military, and other institutions to coerce. rise of nation-states, and the dominance of the economic theory of mercantilism. The Modern Times began toward the end of the s continuing to present day.
Rise and Fall of the Spanish Nation-State Under Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand, Spain had expelled the File Size: 1MB. In perhaps the analytical heart of the book, Hazony defines his terms: a nation is “a number of tribes with a shared heritage, usually including a common language or religious traditions, and a past history of joining together against common enemies.” (We should note that by this definition, Europe is a nation; think of its history fighting.
TY - CHAP. T1 - The Emergence of Nation-States. AU - Spruyt, Hendrik. PY - Y1 - N2 - Historically, the emergence of nation-states involves several distinct but related processes: the hierarchical location of final authority, that is, sovereignty; the acceptance of the principle that such sovereignty is territorially demarcated and circumscribed; and nation : Hendrik Spruyt.
Since its publication this important study has become established as a central work on the vast and contested subject of modern nationalism. Placing historical evidence within a general theoretical framework, John Breuilly argues that nationalism should be understood as a form of politics that arises in opposition to the modern state.
In this updated and revised edition, he extends his. The choices of nation-states and the existence of nations, Gil Delannoi shows us, remain as relevant as ever, and they are only likely to become more important, Eurocrat protestations to the contrary.
To pretend otherwise is to indulge geopolitical fantasies. Yes, there are dictatorships and democracies, but the whole world is made up of nation-states. This means a blend of ‘nation’ (people with common attributes and characteristics) and ‘state’ (an organised political system with sovereignty over a defined space, with borders agreed by other nation-states).
"[A] wide-ranging and important book is about the global struggle for human rights."—David Lorimer, Paradigm Explorer "Engaging mounting scholarship on the history of human rights, A World Divided approaches the topic by focusing on nation-states as central to understanding human rights [Weitz’s] book provides a useful entryway to understanding human rights struggles for.
Book Review: How Migration Shaped Our Nation States. Radhika Mongia's 'Indian Migration and Empire: A Colonial Genealogy of the Modern State'.
If you plumb the literature, most researchers feel nation states exist for four major reasons: guns, money, land, and tribe. Let’s take a quick look at each. Guns —this one’s obvious: Nation. Rise of Nation-states Books and Films: Rise of Nation-states Outlines and Powerpoints: Rise of Nation-states Maps and Pictures: Rise of Nation-states Online Study Games: Rise of Nation-states Miscellany: Rise of Nation-states Worksheets.
Focusing on the post Keynesian consensus and its dismantling in the s and s, this book argues that European states have undergone a profound transformation—from nation states to what it calls member states. Political Culture and the Making of Modern Nation-States affirms the importance of that role through a rich and highly engaging exploration of the relationships between culture, governance and legitimacy.
It offers critical lessons for practitioners, as well as extremely valuable perspectives for students and scholars.”Author: Edward Weisband. NationStates is a website and browser based game and online community. It is about creating and managing a was created on 13 November by Max created the game to advertise his book, Jennifer game does not cost money to play, however people can donate money to remove can also buy bonuses related to "telegrams", which are the way that.
Book description: Why was there such a far-reaching consensus concerning the utopian goal of national homogeneity in the first half of the twentieth century. Ethnic cleansing is analyzed here as a result of the formation of democratic nation-states, the international order based on them, and European modernity in Pages: Book Description.
Surveying the causes of the Arab Spring, and revealing the governing trends arising from it, this book examines various international relation theories through the lens of the experiences of the countries in the Middle East and North Africa region.
Stanford Libraries' official online search tool for books, media, journals, databases, government documents and more. Nation States and Stateless Nations It is important to understand the dynamics of national identity for two main reasons: 1) to understand the immense cultural diversity of the Middle East, 2) to understand issues of inequity and power imbalances,Author: Payind, Alam, Melinda McClimans.
Nation-States and Nationalisms: Organisation, Ideology and Solidarity. Get this from a library. The data book: the nation, states and cities. [Kay A Johnson; Sara Rosenbaum; Janet Simons; Children's Defense Fund (U.S.)].
A nation is a stable community of people formed on the basis of a common language, territory, history, ethnicity, or psychological make-up manifested in a common culture.A nation is more overtly political than an ethnic group; it has been described as "a fully mobilized or institutionalized ethnic group".
Some nations are ethnic groups (see ethnic nationalism) and some are not (see civic. This book also seeks to characterize and measure aggressiveness among repressors, and to single out as a category for separate study those nation- rank nation-states according to their levels.
Reviews "This book is a valuable part of the research and literature on the role of the church in contemporary society and politics. It is recommended for serious study and discussion among those in academic, religious and policy circles and is also an important read for anyone trying to gain a better understanding of the challenges facing the church today."—.European integration confuses citizens and scholars alike.
It appears to transfer power away from national capitals towards Brussels yet a close study of the EU reveals the absence of any real leap towards supranationalism. The EU is dominated by cooperation between national representatives and national officials yet it continually appears to us as something external and separate from national.North America:: United States.
Page last updated on Janu The World Factbook Country/Location Flag Modal. North America:: United States Print.
Flag Description. 13 equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white; there is a blue rectangle in the upper hoist-side corner bearing 50 small, white, five-pointed.
software-comparativo.com - The Nation-States book © 2020
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May 26, 2019 May 28, 2019 ~ samanthasabio
We love movie reviews and Internet challenges here on samanthasabio. But I also like to stay well-informed on what’s going on around me, like in the news. Lately, I’ve been making a more conscious effort to stay up-to-date on current events in America (sorry, for any international readers–I’ll get there). To be honest, it’s a lot harder than I thought it would be to keep up with all the juicy gossip without losing track of what’s hot and what’s not. I mean, let’s face it–one day you’re in, the next you’re out. If you have a hard time deciphering what’s worth your attention in those news notifications, look no further for I have all the best news from this past week right here for you! There’s some political discussions here, but also some wholesome articles, so make sure to give every summary some attention!
United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May announces plans to step down
Just a few days ago, Theresa May, UK’s prime minister for over two years, announced her resignation from the position. May has spent a significant amount of her career as prime minister working on finalizing the UK’s exit from the European Union–also known as Brexit. Ultimately, May failed to convince enough politicians across all parties to support her plans–economic and political problems with trade and border issues contributing to this struggle. This on-going crisis is a big contributor to her departure from the office. May will step down on June 7, but continue to act as prime minister until a new leader is elected.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange faces several indictments
WikiLeaks proclaims itself a non-profit organization that publishes news leaks and anonymous media for the purpose of revealing otherwise secret and confidential information to the public. On Thursday, 23 May, founder Julian Assange was charged with 17 counts relating to obtaining and disclosing national defense information, a violation under the Espionage Act. The information published could endanger the lives of anonymous sources living in the Middle East. However, journalists and interest groups fighting for the rights of the press argue that these charges could spell trouble for First Amendment freedoms.
Dangerous storms rage the central United States
Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, and other central states saw several storm and tornado warnings almost every day last week. Frequent reports of flooding and high winds resulted in occasional panic and many residents rushing to seek shelter. Similar storms also swept across a handful of eastern states. Unfortunately, these natural disasters claimed the lives of over 30 people, and counting.
Abortion bans rapidly rising in the nation
I’m sure many of you have heard about this issue through multiple emerging stories and political and social protests. Earlier this month, Alabama passed a law making abortion virtually illegal in the state–including in cases of rape and incest. This law comes as a direct challenge to the decision in Roe v. Wade, which recognizes the constitutional right to abortion. Many other states have begun to follow suit, creating abortion restrictions of their own–many of which ban abortions as early as six weeks. These laws aren’t in effect just yet, and some are already being challenged.
Record-setting Mount Everest climb
Kami Rita Sherpa has officially broken his own record, successfully climbing Mount Everest for the twenty-fourth time last week. This new record comes just a handful of days after he climbed the mountain for the twenty-third time. Sherpa says he’d like to climb the mountain at least one more time before quitting for good.
Even though this was just a quick synopsis of all the news circulating in the U.S. in the last week or so, it’s wild to see just how much I tried to fit in. What was the most surprising or interesting piece of news you read in the last week? How do you like to get your news? A special thanks to the professional journalism of The New York Times, CNN, CNBC, and the easy search capability Google provides us with.
Next week’s post is another Coffee Crawl, so make sure to leave some comments on coffee shops you’d like me to visit!
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Benedict XVI divides up the world, names new cardinals
October 21, 2010 by David Crumm
Portrait of a cardinal by Raphael, the great Vatican painter and architect.News of Benedict XVI’s latest crop of cardinals is buzzing around the religious world, because of his obvious attention to restoring the power of the Italians within the 1-billion-member worldwide church—and his apparent willingness to place burgeoning Catholic communities in Africa and Latin America on a relative back burner. At least that’s how much of the world’s press is portraying these moves.
These issues are of interest far beyond the small realm of Vatican watchers, because all of the world’s major religious leaders are contemplating the global expansion of faith. In this latest announcement, the Earth’s single most influential religious leader has made his worldwide priorities clear.
If you get your news from TV, newspapers or Google, you’re likely to have seen headlines on this historic announcement over the past day or so. Pretty much, these 100s of brief stories are mirror images of each other—even in more far-flung publications like The Economist and The Australian.
At ReadTheSpirit, we regard the Rev. Thomas Reese—the Jesuit scholar, journalist and author—to be one of the world’s leading commentators on the Vatican. This week, Tom gave permission to publish his latest piece on the new cardinals. His analysis provides a lot more fascinating background for general readers (and especially for non-Catholic readers). You probably won’t find these details while Googling for news, so we’re sharing Tom’s story, headlined …
Pope Benedict XVI places his mark on College of Cardinals
By Thomas J. Reese, S.J., senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center, Georgetown University.
With the appointment of 20 cardinal electors, Pope Benedict XVI continues to put his mark on the College of Cardinals, which will eventually elect his successor. Benedict has now appointed 40% of the college, with the rest chosen by his predecessor. Granted his age, these could easily be the cardinals who will choose the next pope.
The appointments will be made official at a Vatican consistory on November 20, which will bring the college up to 121 electors under the age of 80, one more elector than the rules allow. The pope dispensed himself from the rules. In the unlikely chance the pope died before the consistory, the cardinal designates would not be cardinals and could not enter the conclave.
Change in the College of Cardinals is always incremental. As cardinals die or turn 80, they create vacancies in the college that the pope can fill. This pope, like his predecessor, continues to appoint men who reflect his own views on theology and other issues facing the church. The likelihood of these conservative cardinals electing someone who would institute radical change in the church is extremely unlikely.
A major difference between the cardinals appointed by the two popes is that while John Paul reduced the percentage of Italian and curial cardinals in the college, and Benedict is bringing them back into prominence. After the November consistory, curial cardinals will make up about 28% of the college, up from 24% when Benedict was elected. In fact, half of the new appointees were from the Vatican curia.
Increasing the number of curial cardinals would help guarantee the election of a conservative candidate. More Italians increases the likelihood of the election to the papacy of an Italian pope.
One of John Paul’s major goals in appointing cardinals was to increase the number of cardinals from Eastern Europe, from which he came. The percentage of the college from Eastern Europe went up to 10.4% at the end of his reign, from 6.1% when he was elected. He reduced the size of the Italian bloc in order to get red hats for Eastern Europe.
When John Paul died, the Italians were only 16.5% of the college, while at his election they were 23.7%. After the November consistory, Italians will make up 20.7% of the College of Cardinals, a number equal to all of the rest of Western Europe and greater than all of Latin America.
Also increased by Benedict is the representation of the United States from 9.6% at the 2005 conclave to 10.7% after the November consistory.
In order to increase the number of Italians and Americans, Benedict had to reduce slightly the percentage from Latin American, Asia, Oceania, Canada and other parts of Europe. The percentage from Africa has remained stable under Benedict.
Most of the appointments were not surprising. For example, heads of major curial offices, like Archbishop Raymond Burke, were expected to get red hats. But did the pope really have to promote the heads of the offices for culture, economic affairs, Cor Unum, St. Paul’s Outside the Walls and the patron of the Knights of Malta? Some of them, perhaps, but all of them? (Elsewhere I have argued that no curial officials should be made cardinals.)
There were few surprises among the new cardinals from archdioceses. With Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington over 80 years of age, it was time to make Archbishop Donald Wuerl a cardinal. Nor was it a surprise that Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York did not get a red hat since his predecessor is alive and under 80 years of age. Cardinal Edward Egan will turn 80 in April 2012, soon after which Dolan will be made a cardinal.
Even though the pope exceeded by one the number of vacancies to be filled, the pope still had to pass over archbishops in archdioceses like Dublin, Florence, Utrecht, Toledo, Minsk-Mohilev, Toronto, Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, Ouagadougou, Antananarivo, Abuja, and Tokyo. They will have to wait until next time.
Many felt Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin should have been rewarded with a red hat for his work cleaning up the sex abuse crisis in Ireland. Since he is only 65, he still has time to become a cardinal in the future.
On the other hand, people were surprised that two retired residential archbishops got the nod. If an archbishop does not become a cardinal while he is in office, he usually never gets it.
The College of Cardinals is not a young group. The average age of the electors is 71, even though they are booted out at 80. Another 10 cardinals will turn 80 next year, followed by another 13 in 2012. Thus it is likely that a new flock of cardinals will be appointed while the U.S. is in the midst of another election.
Thomas J. Reese, S.J., is Senior Fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center, part of Georgetown University, Washington, DC
You can purchase Reese’s “Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church” from Amazon now.
We want our “national conversation” to continue
Conversation is far better than the dangerous shouting matches we’ve been witnessing in our global culture recently. So, please, email us at [email protected] and tell us what you think of our stories—and, please tell a friend to start reading along with you!
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All posts tagged democracy
In Part One of this essay, we discussed the ancient legal custom of the keeping of and recording of time. We know that time is money and money is time. We know that without time limits, bills and speeding tickets would never be paid. And we can now understand that, while the poor and middle-class commoner pays for his crimes with time, the wealthy elite pay for their organized crimes in money, which fictionally represents time. Our entire labor pool, in fact, works on the same valuation structure, where the poor are paid in money in exchange for their time and labor, which then allows them to purchase essential foodstuffs and supplies to survive and suffer further use as employees (subjects). The disparagement between what labor can accomplish and what is paid for it in money, of course, is ridiculously disproportional. For without the labor of the poor, the wealthy simply could not exist. Most importantly though, we can now comprehend a dualistic calendric time system constructed to separate the wheat and the chaff, the common majority from the elitist minority.
Before reading Part Two, it is recommended though not absolutely necessary to start from the beginning, here:
Link–> https://realitybloger.wordpress.com/2017/12/14/the-four-pillars-of-fiction-part-1-a-matter-of-time/
Though one of the pillars of fiction certainly rests upon money (a simulation of the artificial/man-made valuation of time), we will save this topic of money, or more specifically that of “mammon” for Part Three of this series. For to speak of the simulation of money as the valuation of all things Real into a nihilistically circular pattern of nothingness, we must first understand the nature of just what dissimulation accomplishes in society so that such a system is accepted as a false and seemingly indispensable paradigm. We must discuss how it destroys ethics, morals, and values by separating (dis-associating) man from Nature and Its Law(s), and why this quality of attaining through education, entertainment, false valuation, and other simulations of Reality a state of dissimulation in the public mind is an essential pillar to uphold the entirety of the fictional, legally represented model of simulation.
What is fiction can never be said to be Reality accept in appearance only — as some artful form without substance behind it. Legal fiction is, therefore, always but a simulation of Reality, which causes in men a dissimulation from what is Real (of Nature).
What’s the difference between simulation and dissimulation?
Ah… the answer to this question ultimately reveals the source of all of our problems.
Firstly, we must distinguish that the word simulation is a noun, as the name of something artificial, including lies. Dissimulation is an adjective, describing the results any simulation has upon the mind and actions of men. Dissimulation is caused and based upon some simulated version of Reality. Without simulation there is no dissimulation, just as without darkness there is no light, ect.
In Dante’s Inferno, one of the names prescribed to the devil was simply the prefix of “DIS.” The use of this word-forming agent stands always as an upsetting, unsettling alteration of its root, one that is generally adversarial or damaging to that which it is attached. Dis-ease, dis-satisfaction, dis-appear, dis-respect, dis-appoint, dis-regard, dis-turb, and dis-associate are examples of this factor.
Before we may understand what dis-simulation is, we must first examine the nature of what its root word symbolizes. So just what is a simulation in the legal fiction?
SIMULATE – To assume the mere appearance of, without the reality; to assume the signs or indications of, falsely; to counterfeit; feign; imitate; pretend. To engage, usually with the co-operation or connivance of another person, in an act or series of acts, which are apparently transacted in good faith, and intended to be followed by their ordinary legal consequences, but which in reality conceal a fraudulent purpose of the party to gain thereby some advantage to which he is not entitled, or to injure, delay, or defraud others.(Black’s Law Dictionary, 4th Edition)
SIMULATION – Assumption of appearance which was feigned, false, deceptive, or counterfeit. In the civil law. Misrepresentation or concealment of the truth; as where parties pretend to perform a transaction different from that in which they really are engaged. A feigned, pretended act, one which assumes the appearance without the reality and, being entirely without effect, it is held not to have existed, and, for that reason, it may be disregarded or attacked collaterally by any interested person. In French law. Collusion; a fraudulent arrangement between two or more persons to give a false or deceptive appearance to a transaction in which they engage. (Black’s Law Dictionary, 4th Edition)
SIMULATED FACT – In the law of evidence. A fabricated fact; an APPEARANCE given to things BY HUMAN DEVICE, with a view TO DECEIVE AND MISLEAD. (Black’s Law Dictionary, 4th Edition)
ILLUSION – noun – s as z. [Latin illusio, from illudo, to illude.] Deceptive appearance; false show, by which a person is or may be deceived, or his expectations disappointed; mockery. Ye soft illusions, dear deceits, arise! (Webster’s Dictionary of the American Language, 1828)
In other words, a simulation is a purposefully deceitful lie that is made to appear similar to what it represents. For our purposes, simulation is never a good thing. This is to say that to openly lie, to live in and by lies, is certainly and self-evidently a bad thing. For when one lies for a living, one begins to disassociate oneself from Reality, Its Nature (Source), and Its Law(s). This mental falling away is known as dissimulation.
“What is like is not the same; for nothing similar is the same.”
—A Latin maxim of law: Talis non est eadem; nam nullum simile est idem. 4 Coke, 18. (Black’s Law Dictionary, 4th Edition)
In law, simulation is never sameness. It is always false and thus always untrue compared to its origin, its model. There is no exception to this rule, just as nothing of the cartoon realm may be manifested in Reality, in the Realm of Nature. Art should never be confused to be the Real thing. This should be a self-evident Truth to the reader. But Truth is very often hidden behind that which is simulated as if it were Truth (e.g. the entirety of legal law). And so we may continue with the understanding that though a simulation is never True, a simulation can cause one to dissimulate from the Truth that is simulated in its place. What is made to appear to be the same, in other words, is most often a purposeful deceit. Simulation is always a lie, despite the matter the reason behind it.
A simulation is generally created as a purposeful venture — an intentional false-hood. The dissimulation it causes, however, is often quite mysterious, as the victim of simulation often doesn’t realize his or her state of dissimulation. This notion is quite apparent in just the fact that most people have no idea that their persona (legal status) as a completely fictional, commercial vessel in society and law (jurisdiction) is completely separate from their actual (True) Self. In other words, it is when the agent (employee) begins to believe that he or she is in every way the very flattering title ascribed by some authority figure (principal/employer) that dissimulation has grabbed hold of the mind.
If I simulate a police officer, and I therefore blur the lines between the job and the lifestyle and benefits it portends, I may be inclined to abuse said authority. If I believe I am that fictional character in agency under the authority and licensure of some higher principal (authority), and that title allows me certain pretended and violent powers over others, then I will begin to develop and use those powers as if they are Real. I will begin to treat others in the common arena (without a badge or license) that I perceive to have less authority as myself without regard to any moral law. I will do this because I believe that my actions are not my own, but that of a fictional character assigned to me, so that my actions are the actions of my employer, not myself. I take no self-responsibility for my actions, as my employer/principal has granted me its supposedly higher authority to act in its name and under its insurances (liability). I no longer feel liable for my actions. At this point, I am now fully dissimulated into the fiction, believing that the simulation of this fictional character assigned to me from some higher authority is actually Reality, which through that agency relationship causes me to express the personality and artificial essence of that simulated character instead of self-governing myself under the Law of Nature.
When the artificial (legal) hood becomes indistinguishable from the Reality that there is no actual hood, the belief in that false-hood (simulation) as Truth causes dissimulation.
FALSEHOOD – A statement or assertion known to be untrue, and intended to deceive. A WILLFUL act or declaration contrary to the truth. The term is perhaps generally used in the second sense here given. It is committed either by the WILLFUL act of the party, OR BY DISSIMULATION, or by words. Crabbe thus distinguishes between falsehood and untruth: “The latter (untruth) is an untrue saying, and may be unintentional, in which case it reflects no disgrace on the agent. A falsehood and a lie are intentional false sayings, differing only in degree of the guilt of the offender; falsehood being not always for the express purpose of deceiving, but a lie always for the worst of purposes. Deceit; Fraud; Misrepresentation. A fabrication. Scotch Law. A fraudulent imitation or suppression of truth, to the prejudice of another. “Something used and published falsely.” An old Scottish nomen juris. “Falsehood is undoubtedly a nominate crime, so much so that Sir George Mackenzie and our older lawyers used no other term for the falsification of writs, and the name ‘forgery‘ has been of modern introduction.” “If there is any distinction to be made between ‘forgery’ and ‘falsehood,’ I would consider the latter (falsehood) to be more comprehensive than the former.” (Black’s Law Dictionary, 4th Edition)
So what then is dis-simulation?
What happens when the simulation, the false-hood, the deceitful appearance as false show takes over the rationality of the host? What happens when we begin to identify personally (in a person-hood) with such a false appearance with fictionally prescribed authority?
We enter into The (legal) Matrix.
Generally speaking, we become either the victim or the perpetrator of every crime against Nature (God) and each other imaginable. We become the adversary (DIS) of ourselves. For both the victim and the villain suffer from dissimulation, simply because the delusion of power in the agent can only exist as a direct reflection of the illusion of authority by some third party. Respect of the illusion of power by the victim of it feeds the delusion of power carried by the victims antagonist. In either disposition, we have plugged into the delusional, legal fiction of flattering titles. We become the agents of our own enslavement.
From my legally anonymous work (book):
But how can one best define what “agency” is when most of us have no inkling we are even a participant in this agentic relationship with the United States or other district, never being fully informed that we stand as publicly registered agents for service of process for the person (status) in the citizen-ship we are assigned at the nativity event of our fictional delivery and birth as a legal entity?
In the 1960s, Dr. Stanley Milgram conducted experiments where he controversially uncovered this “agentic” personality and how most people are susceptible to it. His experiment posed one stranger as the dominant “teacher” against another stranger given the title of a subordinate “learner,” whereas the learner would be shocked with increasingly more painful shocks through switches controlled by the teacher delivered with each wrong answer. The experiment was designed to show how far the random cross-section of common people would induce electric shocks upon a strapped in subject when they suspected the non-consent, injury, or even death of the flatteringly titled “learner” in the next room. A majority of the “teachers” would indeed knowingly deliver these shocks when told to do so by a “doctor” in a lab coat uniform, signifying a false but persuasive symbolical figure of authority. Some would only continue if the doctor took full responsibility for damage or death to the person called the “learner.” This was historically the most ambitious and frightening scientific test on personhood and agency, as to the uncovering of what men will do when given flattering titles of authority even as simple as “teacher,” and are then mentally made subjects of yet another seemingly higher authority. But the actions of these test subjects in a middle state of authoritative power through agency were completely voluntary, being fully informed and able to voluntarily quit the experiment whenever they felt the need or moral compunction, and they were even paid before the test began with this foreknowledge of the ability to quit and keep that pre-paid payment.
In the end, it was only ever the “teacher” that was the subject of the experiment, and the results were shocking to the science community. Milgram summarized his experiments within a 1974 article in Harper’s Magazine entitled “The Perils of Obedience,” where he stated:
“The legal and philosophic aspects of obedience are of enormous importance, but they say very little about how most people behave in concrete situations. I set up a simple experiment at Yale University to test how much pain an ordinary citizen would inflict on another person simply because he was ordered to by an experimental scientist. Stark authority was pitted against the subjects’ [participants’] strongest moral imperatives against hurting others, and, with the subjects’ [participants’] ears ringing with the screams of the victims, authority won more often than not. The extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of an authority constitutes the chief finding of the study and the fact most urgently demanding explanation. Ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become AGENTS in a terrible destructive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority.”
—Stanley Milgram (1974), from: ‘The Perils of Obedience’ in Harper’s Magazine. Abridged and adapted from Milgram’s ‘Obedience to Authority.’
(Now you can understand why anyone in The Matrix was a potential agent.)
In other words, common people lack self-governance under a voluntary, unenforceable, moral Law. Most men acting in the agency of another, as a legal person in flattering title, has no True Religion, for a person (puppet) is not a Living man and has no spirit or control of its own. The puppet controls the man standing in surety to the puppet. The man follows the law of persons, under the law of agency. And whole militaries (of otherwise innocent men) can be made to murder each other under this incredible phenomenon of agency.
Milgram elaborated two theories that were summarized in the publication American Psychologist:
“The first is the theory of conformism, based on Solomon Asch conformity experiments, describing the fundamental relationship between the group of reference and the individual person. A subject who has neither ability nor expertise to make decisions, especially in a crisis, will leave decision making to the group and its hierarchy. The group is the person’s behavioral model.”
“The second is the agentic state theory, wherein, per Milgram, ‘the essence of obedience consists in the fact that a person comes to view themselves as the instrument for carrying out another person’s wishes, and they therefore no longer see themselves as responsible for their actions. Once this critical shift of viewpoint has occurred in the person, all of the essential features of obedience follow.’”
“A cognitive reinterpretation of Stanley Milgram’s observations on obedience to authority,” American Psychologist 45: 1384–1385. 1990.
Once this “agentic” personality is established (i.e. dissimulation), it is obviously very hard to break the ingrained pattern of personality and practice it creates. Thus the branding of citizenship and public-minded-ness upon all children in each nation is part of the economy and society, from the school system to enter-tain-ment. We literally grow up believing we are the fictional persona assigned to us at birth; the name, the number, and the titles (or lack thereof). But in Reality, we are (acting as) commercial agents for a principal “dummy” corporation, our residential address actually a place of domestic (family) business. Responsibility is replaced by insurance. Moral virtue is replaced by strict law. And Reality is hidden behind several forms of artificial matrixes and systems designed to create a sense of false security. The strawman as a dis-ease is the avatar, the projected self image we play as actors in the fictional persona of that legal matrix, a silent weapon for a quiet war over our minds.
If in your mind it is difficult to comprehend this separate, fictional persona (legal mask) and the fact that you are acting in agency within it, just think of it this way… if you can believe in the foolish personification of God by the church into a personage and likeness of man, why can’t you imagine the same personification of man into a fictional character or citizen-ship of the state? If you are emotionally effected by watching cartoon characters on the magic screen, then what makes you think you are not equally effected by the psychological imaginations and devices of the fictional legal personas of other men and by your own actions in that false persona and agentic title?
“I feel I owe you an apology. We have a rule: we never free a mind once it’s reached a certain age. It’s dangerous; the mind has trouble letting go… As long as The Matrix exists, the human race will never be free.”
—Line as read by Morpheus (the god of sleep), from the movie: ‘The Matrix’
The creators of this legal fiction matrix code control our lives via (our) suretyship to its registered property. We are made to believe the character in persona we play is Real, just as the reflection in the mirror may fool our sense of True Being; True Life. Through this property (personhood) we are caused to be plugged in to its legal, commercial framework, that matrix of word-magic and illusion, and so as if the chains were actually Real, we believe ourselves to be bound by the laws of another’s property (fiction). We cannot seem to escape our own delusion.
The dangerous pride of this glad acceptance of such artificial titles, personality, property, and character is of course spoken of in the Bible, where it admonishes the proudness of men in their receivership of false and unnatural things and pretended authorities over other men through such artificial means, which in Reality amounts merely to an abandonment of the only True Equity and duty under the Law of God’s Creation (Nature). We abandon our True Selves and pretend with false pride to be what we are not, what does not actually Exist (in Nature)…
–End Excerpt, from STRAWMAN: The Real Story Of Your Artificial Person
Download it free, here: http://www.strawmanstory.info
To show the extreme parallel put forward as a purposeful metaphor of The Matrix story to the legal system and code, we only need replace the science fiction element with legal fiction and its imaginary, proprietary language. For the legal matrix code as well makes all common men equal, while the machine-like elites control us through the artificial wombs they invent and provide under legal contract.
You see, the birth certificate is your very own artificial womb. It represents the simulated birth of a legal entity, designed to cause you to dissimulate from Reality, from Nature and Its Law.
Eventually, the reader will understand that the movie is not fiction at all, but a metaphoric story of the legally controlled masses of public citizen-ships (commercial vessels in persona) of all the soon-to-be-united-as-one nations.
MATRIX – noun – [Latin matrix from mater, mother.] 1. The womb; the cavity in which the fetus of an animal is formed and nourished till its birth. 2. A mold; the cavity in which any thing is formed, and which gives it shape; as the matrix of a type. 3. The place where any thing is formed or produced; as the matrix of metals; gang. 4. In dyeing, the five simple colors, black, white, blue, red and yellow, of which all the rest are composed. (Webster’s Dictionary of the American Language, 1828)
MATRIX – Womb. A place where anything is generated or formed. (Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary, 1755)
MATRIX – In civil law, the protocol or first draft of a legal instrument, from which all copies must be taken. (Black’s Law Dictionary, 4th Edition)
ARTIFICER – noun – [Latin artifex, from ars, and facio.] 1. An artist; a mechanic or manufacturer; one whose occupation requires skill or knowledge of a particular kind; as a silversmith, or sadler. 2. One who makes or contrives; an inventor; as an artificer of fraud or lies. 3. A cunning, or artful fellow. [not used.] (Webster’s Dictionary of the American Language, 1828)
The birth certificate is a matrix in the legal sense of the word, which is the protocol or first draft of a legal instrument, from which all copies must be taken. Now you know why you need it to obtain a driver’s license and other legal documents, as proof of birth (existence) of the legal entity (strawman) you are claiming to be an agent for. Whatever you do in civil (legal/fictional/commercial) life will be, of course, obtained through that matrix. This legal simulation of your vital statistics at birth is what becomes your agentic, artificial identity. And what’s planned for the future of the A.I. is much, much worse…
“Genecoin: DNA for the Blockchain… So, why would anyone want to encode their DNA on the Blockchain? Like much in the crypto space, some projects are a solution in search of a problem. However, one easy reason to use the blockchain to store DNA would be as a replacement for a traditional ‘Birth Certificate.’ Notarization has long been a function provided by the Bitcoin Blockchain, so to ‘notarize’ the existence of a person’s DNA could attest to the existence of an identity, and its age. This attestation would thereafter function in much the same way as does our current oracle-based (hospital-centric) system. Additionally, for those thinking of the far off future, another fanciful notion might be to encode one’s DNA for the purposes of cloning by a future generation…”
—Bitcoin Magazine Online, from an article entitled, “Genecoin: DNA for the Blockchain”
Whereas today we may discard by discharge this legal identity, in the future it will be part of your genetic make-up. In other words, the dissimulation of legal identity will be a permanent part of your body, an unremovable, non-payable contractual performance debt that is property of government — the ultimate mark.
We are all programmed from childhood to dissimulate ourselves into this false, legal identity, as if we are taking responsibility for a cartoon version of us, while pretending that damage done in the cartoon world (legal fiction/commerce) is the same thing as damage done to what is Real (of Nature). Sticks and stones may certainly break your bones, but legal words are now capable of damages far beyond the temporary pain and bruising of those Real things.
This brainwashing and redirection from our Natural course is expounded upon perfectly here by Alexis de Tocqueville:
“After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small, complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.”
“But one also finds in the human heart A DEPRAVED TASTE FOR EQUALITY, which impels the weak to want to bring the strong down to their level, and which REDUCES MEN TO PREFERRING EQUALITY IN SERVITUDE TO INEQUALITY IN FREEDOM.”
“Furthermore, when citizens are all almost equal, it becomes difficult for them to defend their independence against the aggressions of power. As none of them is strong enough to fight alone with advantage, the only guarantee of liberty is for everyone to combine forces. But such a combination is not always in evidence.”
“The majority’s moral power makes individuals internally ashamed to contradict it, which in effect silences them, and this silencing culminates in a cessation of thinking.“
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859), separate quotes
Not ironically, trying to tell people they are trapped inside a legal matrix code is not at all different than trying to tell people they are trapped inside an artificial womb and connected to a computerized simulation of Reality. Both suffer equally from dissimulation. For dissimulation is of course the purpose of creating such matrixes.
Again, I can only compare the process of attempting to wake other men up from their legalistically caused dissimulation to that epic fight scene in the epic movie (documentary?) They Live. Just put on the damn sunglasses man!
In the end, after so much cognitive dissonance, after a lifetime of existing
falsely in the simulation, he finally sees them for what they are…
This is inception. This is the moment we (painfully)
release ourselves from dissimulative reasoning.
Perhaps then we may stop fighting each other
and destroy the source of the simulation?
Equality is not promoted in the Bible, in the Law of Nature. There is no such thing. Equality can only be achieved through legal, artificial means. Equality is purely a fictional construct of man, fruit from that tree of knowledge. Equality is not designed to free men but to enslave them. Only slaves and subjects are equal. And yet the king (sovereign) has no equal.
In short, tyranny requires equality. For simulated (legal) equality creates dissimulation.
See my previous essay on this subject here:
Link–> https://realitybloger.wordpress.com/2013/02/19/tyranny-requires-equality/
And for the history of how the notion of equity has been confused and interposed with modern political equality, I recommend this lecture:
“The language of equality is dead (spiritual death = civil life)…”
“The language of (personal) equity is alive (spiritual life)…”
“The first equality is equity.”
Equality without consideration of equity is but a dissimulation away from the foundations and intent of any moral law.
Maxim of Law: “He who seeks equity must do equity.“
What is True equity in law?
EQUITABLE – That which is in conformity to the natural law.” (–Bouvier’s Dictionary of Law, 1856)
One should never confuse or intermix the notion of the Law of Nature and legal law, which are always opposed to each other. Therefore, as stated in this lecture, the idea of legal equity is merely the empty form of Natural equitableness. That is to say that a court of equity can only consider legal things within legal places and legal status (persona), not Reality, for the law of man (form) has no connection to anything in Nature (substance), only the concept of a property (descriptive words) thereof. A man must act equitably towards all others regardless of status or lack thereof in substance (in Nature) if he expects the law to enforce equitable behavior from others. Political equality defeats every man that acts without equitableness — without (outside of) the Highest Law of God (Nature).
Equality is but a legal concept, represented in law as a legal simulation, which in and of itself is merely a fictional rationalization (of man’s law) that can only be described as a dissimulation from Nature and Its Law(s). And as Alexis de Tocqueville declared above, the nature of this legal (fictional) state reduces men to preferring equality in servitude to inequality in freedom. Only the self-governing man observing at all times substantial equitableness to all of man and Nature can be free of these destructive simulations of man’s law. For to be conditioned through the eyes of legalistic (political) equality causes men necessarily to act without consideration of equitableness, for “a government can only enforce strict laws.” This is to say that while the law of equality is a creation and therefore a property of man, equity stems from the unwritten (inherent) Law of Nature, and therefore is inherent only in men regenerate of mind and thus liberated from man’s law. Equitableness, in other words, can only be expressed despite strict (legal) law.
Unfortunately, the direct result of equality is the devolution into democracy. Again, in this modern system of political equality we suffer from, we can see a mass dissimulation away from each of our own individuality, from the True Self where equity resides, in order to instill the presidents of this mob rule sense of democracy.
“Democracy is the road to socialism.”
“Democracy is indispensable to socialism.”
“Socialism is merely state-capitalist monopoly which is made to serve the interests of the whole people…”
—Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, (seperate quotes), the second excerpted from the pamphlet ‘The Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat it, September 1917’ as Lenin’s Collected Works, Progress Publishers, 1977, Moscow, Volume 25, from Lenin Internet Archive.
“Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty.”
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”
“A pure democracy is generally a very bad government. It is often the most tyrannical government on earth; for a multitude is often rash, and will not hear reason.”
—Noah Webster
“The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them in parliament.”
“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”
“The President will lead in the treason. Your militia will leave you and fight against you… When evil men take office the whole gang will be in collusion. They will keep the people in utter ignorance and steal their liberty by ambuscade (by surprise, by lying in wait). When Government removes your armaments, you will have no power, but government will have all power.”
—Patrick Henry (emphasis added)
“The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.”
From the Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon, under Strong’s Concordance #H571, we may understand that the only Truth, the only Reality is Nature Itself. Nature needs no simulation or false appearance to Exist. It needs no words, no names, no titles, and certainly no approval by men. It neutrally defends Itself without somehow anthropomorphically believing It has some pretended set of positive law “rights” to do so. But so that we may know the more accurate definition of “just what is Truth” from the Bible, we must attempt to define it according to its authors Original (Natural) intent while also showing its adversarial, false appearance. Herein a deeper understanding of dissimulation becomes apparent.
The lexicon for Strong’s H571 (truth) states in part:
“…Sincerity, opposed to dissimulation. Truth, opposed to falsehood…”
Here we find the key to understanding the difference between simulation and dissimulation, for we may only Truly know anything by comparing its opposite:
Truth is opposed to simulation (falsehood), though it resembles (appears as) Truth. Therefore everything that is legally (artificially) considered is by the Law of Nature a falsehood.
Sincerity is opposed to dissimulation, which dissembles (changes or lacks the appearance of) anything from Its Truth.
A simulation is a game, while dissimulation is a lifestyle.
A simulation is an outright lie, while dissimulation is a mental delusion.
A dissimulation is an adversarial simulation. While simulation in and of itself is a lie, as a purposeful departure from even the appearance and false show of what is Truth, dissimulation is the simulation of a complete lie. When simulation is based on what is already a lie, then what results is a simulacra, a copy without an original (a simulation of a simulation/lie, as a copy of a copy). Thus the lie becomes the only truth imaginable to the dissimulated man, for the lie appears to be the Truth of what is being simulated.
Simulation is indeed a deception, but dissimulation is much worse. For dissimulation is a self-deception.
“Make no mistake about it – enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It’s seeing through the facade of pretense. It’s the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true.”
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
“Every particular in nature, a leaf, a drop, a crystal, a moment of time is related to the whole, and partakes of the perfection of the whole.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (separate quotes)
A simulation is a false appearance, but to dissimulate from oneself is to hide ones Real Self behind that false show (simulation) — a lie within a lie. The difference is a staggeringly important one. It enters into the realm of the simulacrum.
The Stanford University Press explains in part this term simulacrum:
“Phantom Communities reconsiders the status of the simulacrum—sometimes defined as a copy of a copy, but more rigorously defined as a copy that subverts the legitimacy and authority of its model—in light of recent debates in literature, art, philosophy, and cultural studies.”
—A critique for ‘Phantom Communities: The Simulacrum and the Limits of Postmodernism’ by Prof. Scott Durham
The Matrix simulation in that movie was the 6th version of a computer-generated version of a society long dead. It was a copy of a copy, also said to be a copy without an original. The model was one of control, not conformity to Reality. Likewise, the legal matrix code is designed in exactly the same way, as a device to remove one from any semblance of the Reality and Law(s) of Nature and to keep one trapped inside the copy, viewing the Real world through the dissimulation of an artificial womb built merely of symbols and signs, and based on induced, delusional belief in the veracity of the illusionary un-Real, simulated as if it were the only Reality.
Are we being sincere in our citizen-ship, in legal person-hood? Or are we acting as patient victims under that civil dis-course without responsibility to ourselves and to Nature?
Our problem is not simulation itself, but the fact that we represent a simulated version of ourselves. Representation as a concept relays the idea that the sign, symbol, or token (personification) and the Real thing are essentially equivalent (i.e. sameness) — that the form represented is for all intents and purposes equal to the actual substance of the Real. Thus the concept of “representing myself” is a redundant action at best, and downright stupid at worst. What is Truth, what is of Reality needs no re-presentation, for what is Truth needs no sign or token to be understood, for it cannot by its very Nature be misunderstood. Only its name (simulation) may be dissimulated as property (form), not the Real (self-evident) thing in and of itself (substance).
But what happens when instead we choose to re-present something that is by its nature already a simulation (a lie)? If the root of the idea of representation is that the token, symbol, name, or sign (form) and the Real substance are equivalent, then the only thing we can represent in the legal realm is that which is a lie. Man cannot stand legally without some fictional representation of his True Nature and Self any more than he can enter into the cartoon realm to commune and interact with the cartoons therein. For a simulation is always a lie, no matter how closely the form of that simulation resembles its substantive model in the Real.
In other words, when we go into court representing a legal entity, we are appearing as a lie (simulated fact). We are representing that we accept as legitimate the lie (sin) and that we are responsible and in surety for its legal actions. We are representing (personifying) a simulation (a lie). We are therefore presenting ourselves as if we actually are a creature of the simulacrum, a copy without an original. We have thus entered into the darkness of fiction as a dissimulation of ourselves. We have just plugged into the legal version of The Matrix.
It is interesting to note that the term “dissimulation” seems to apply in a dramatic way to our default status of public personhood within these nations of goyim, remembering that DIS is attributed to be one of the many names of satan (that which is adversarial to Nature/Reality).
DISSIMULATION – noun – [Latin, to make like; like.] The act of dissembling; a hiding under a false appearance; a feigning; false pretension; hypocrisy. Dissimulation may be simply concealment of the opinions, sentiments or purpose; but it includes also the assuming of a false or counterfeit appearance which conceals the real opinions or purpose. Dissimulation among statesmen is sometimes regarded as a necessary vice, or as no vice at all. Let love be without dissimulation. Romans 12:9. (Webster’s Dictionary of the American Language, 1828)
Inverse to dissimulation, we find probity:
PROBITY – noun – [Latin probitas, from probo, to prove.] Primarily, tried virtue or integrity, or approved actions; but in general, strict honesty; sincerity; veracity; integrity in principle, or strict conformity of actions to the laws of justice. Probity of mind or principle is best evinced by probity of conduct in social dealings, particularly in adhering to strict integrity in the observance and performance of rights called imperfect, which public laws do not reach and cannot enforce. (Webster’s Dictionary of the American Language, 1828)
If it is not now plainly obvious, these two terms and their dueling meanings describe polar opposites.
Dissimulation defines a citizen-ship in persona (mask) governed by the state (legal law).
Probity defines a self-governing man under God’s Law, the Law of Nature.
Personhood is bound by strict law of men, having only a legal capacity to act in commerce and society as property of the state, while self-governing men must observe and perform the Highest Law at all times, lest they fall back into that legal matrix.
Of course, dissimulation (person-hood) is absolutely integral pillar for this fictional realm of legalism to exist in its own little world. Just as a cartoon character is a simulation disassociated from the Real World, so too must men be made to disassociate even themselves from what is Real (Truth) so as to be trapped within this legal construct. The law of legal fiction applies only to fictional persons (legally pretended characters), places (jurisdictions), and things (property). None of these are Real…
Dissimulation can also be called as agency.
The major difference between an attorney (assigned agent) and a public citzien-ship (acting agent) is dissimulation. While the attorney is consensually hired in agency, as a temporary agent employed to fulfill and perform certain legal duties in a limited legal contract, the public citizen-ship lives his whole civil life in an agency relationship. The citizen-ship never ceases to be an agent. In his mind he becomes the citizen, unable to distinguish between himself and the fictional character (person-hood) he plays in the legal, commercial realm. Nature and fiction are blurred and thus intermixed in all his dealings. The simulation and the Real are thus indistinguishable. The Truth is blended with the lie, causing the phenomenon of dissimulation. We believe we are legal persons.
We believe we are the mask (persona) instead of the man behind it.
The problem is that the mask (persona) is property (a legal status) of its creator. The mask belongs to government. Government is the lawmaker (god) over its own property. And while no government law (legal fiction) effects any man, its legal law does apply to its property — the legal person-hood (legal mask) worn/carried by the man. Like a puppet, the man is unconsciously drawn around by legal strings he cannot see and thus by laws he needs not morally agree with. For without this fictional connection to the Real man through a simulated character in the legal matrix, without a persona, the man would by necessity either need to be self-governing or be militarily enslaved. Thus, this legal matrix of nations is a sort of middle ground between the two, allowing individual men to choose the method of their enfranchisement in a severely limited way, causally choosing their own use in agency, just like in that computer simulation from The Matrix movies. But then, in that simulation of The Matrix, we find an almost 100% saturation rate of dissimulation — of people believing they are Free in Nature under God while in Reality stuck in an artificial womb they can never break free from.
Silent weapons For Quiet Wars are described in the introduction as “social engineering or the automation of society, i.e. the engineering of a social automation system (silent weapons) on a national or worldwide scale without implying extensive objectives of social control and destruction of human life, i.e. slavery and genocide.” It also introduces the modern state of a somewhat permanent continuation of World War III as the “Quiet War,” and that it is currently and indefinitely “being conducted using subjective biological warfare, fought with silent weapons.” This document, dated from 1979, reads:
The Artificial Womb:
From the time a person leaves its mother’s womb, its every effort is directed towards building, maintaining, and withdrawing into artificial wombs, various sorts of substitute protective devices or shells. The objective of these artificial wombs is to provide a stable environment for both stable and unstable activity: to provide shelter for the evolutionary processes of growth, and maturity — i.e. survival; to provide security for freedom and to provide defensive protection for offensive activity. This is equally true of both the general public and the elite. However, there is a definite difference in the way each of these classes go about the solution of problems.
The Political Structure Of A Nation – Dependency:
The primary reason why the individual citizens of a country create a political structure is a subconscious wish or desire to perpetuate their own dependency relationship of childhood. Simply put, they want a human god to eliminate all risk from their life, pat them on the head, kiss their bruises, put a chicken on every dinner table, clothe their bodies, tuck them into bed at night, and tell them that everything will be alright when they wake up in the morning. This public demand is incredible, so the human god, the politician, meets incredibility with incredibility by promising the world and delivering nothing. So who is the bigger liar? The public? Or the godfather? This public behavior is surrender born of fear, laziness, and expediency. It is the basis of the welfare state as a strategic weapon, useful against a disgusting public.
Simulations (politicians) leading the dissimulated (citizenships)…
Welfare as a strategic weapon…
This lies in stark contrast to the Law of Nature, as the Law (Word) of God:
“…that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine (Law), Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith (Truth): so do. Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith (Truth) unfeigned: From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling; Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.”
—1 Timothy 1: 3-7, KJB
It is through dissimulation, through the agentic relationship of person-hood, that we have been turned away from our Natural course.
To be clear, let us explore what it is to lie in agency, especially under the tyranny of kings, popes, and the democracies (illiterate mob rule). Remember, while a person (status in society) is a legalistic simulation, believing in the false truth of the simulation and thus becoming one with it is dissimulation.
DUMMY – noun – One who holds legal title for another; a straw man. (Black’s Law Dictionary, 4th Edition)
DUMMY – adjective – Sham; make-believe; pretended; imitation. As respects basis for predicating liability on parent corporation for acts of subsidiary, “agency,” “adjunct,” “branch,” “instrumentality,” “dummy,” “buffer,” and “tool” all mean very much the SAME thing. (Black’s Law Dictionary, 4th Edition)
STRAWMAN – 1. A weak or imaginary opposition set up only to be easily confuted. 2. A person set up to serve as a cover for a usually questionable transaction. (Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary)
STRAWMAN – A front, a third party who is put up in name only to take part in a transaction. Nominal party to a transaction; one who acts as an agent for another for the purposes of taking title to real property and executing whatever documents and instruments the principal may direct. Person who purchases property for another to conceal identity of real purchaser or to accomplish some purpose otherwise not allowed. (Black’s Law Dictionary, 6th Edition)
STRAWMAN – 1. A fictitious person, especially one that is weak or flawed. 2. A tenuous and exaggerated counterargument that an advocate puts forward for the sole purpose of disproving it. — Also termed straw-man argument. 3. A third party used in some transactions as a temporary transferee to allow the principal parties to accomplish something that is otherwise impermissible. 4. A person hired to post a worthless bail bond for the release of an accused. Also termed steaminess homo. (Black’s Law Dictionary 7th Edition)
STRAMINEUS HOMO: “Latin. A man of straw, one of NO SUBSTANCE,
put forward as BAIL OR SURETY.” (Black’s Law Dictionary, 4th Edition)
AGENCY – A RELATION, created either by EXPRESS OR IMPLIED CONTRACT or by law, whereby one party (called the principal or constituent) delegates the transaction of some lawful business or the authority to do certain acts for him or in relation to his rights or property, with more or less discretionary power, to another person (called the agent, attorney, proxy, or delegate) who undertakes to manage the affair and render him an account thereof. The contract of agency may be defined to be a contract by which one of the contracting parties confides the management of some affair, to be transacted on his account, to the other party, who undertakes to do the business and render an account of it. A contract by which one person, with greater or less discretionary power, undertakes to represent another in certain business relations. A relation between two or more persons, by which one party, usually called the agent or attorney, is authorized to do certain acts for, or in relation to (lie rights or property) of the other, who is denominated the principal, constituent, or employer. (Black’s Law Dictionary, 4th Edition)
The agency relationship of public US citizenships is simple: The principal (government) creates and employs a citizen-ship status (fictional persona) within its own created jurisdiction (fictional place), by which men (acting agents) use this commercial vessel (property) to conduct business and commerce. Essentially, a citizen is an employee of its employer (principal), and does all actions through that principal and its protections. This is why insurance is mandatory for citizenships (commercial vessels) of the United States, just as auto-insurance is mandatory to rent a car (commercial vehicle). If the agent crashes the car, the principal is responsible for the actions of its agents. Insurance alleviates that commercial burden, and is thus a legal requirement to dis-associate the liability of the principal from its agent, the employer from its employee, the user from its program (see the movie Tron).
To end this particular discourse on the 2nd pillar of fiction, we must address how God (Jehovah) Itself has been driven from our consciousness. It is foolish to argue over the Existence of God (Jehovah), when the very intent and definition of this VERB “Jehovah” is as the Universe, as all of Existence Itself in its infinite entirety. This state of Life in Nature then is the eternity of Being, again used as a verb to mean all of Existence as it stands at this and every moment. God (jehovah), in other words, is all that is Real, all that is not man-made. This is to say that Jehovah (God) is the Source of everything Real that can be simulated and dissimulated from. Jehovah (God) is Truth, thus all lies are dependent upon Reality, without which there would be no Reality (Truth) to lie about, and therefore no reason or source for such simulations. Without Truth there simply is no lie. Without Jehovah there simply is no satan (adversary). Again, this line of reasoning is self-evident.
If simulation is the opposite of Truth, and Jehovah (God) is defined as that which is the very Nature and Source of Truth, then we must recognize that each of us are a part of Jehovah. Without this understanding of the meaning of this word, as the substance of the very Source of Life Itself, and that by our very own Existence we are therefore each an intricate part of that whole of the concept of what is Jehovah (all of Being), we may never overcome that which dissimulates us from our very own Nature and place within It. Without faith (belief) in Jehovah as the only Reality of Truth and Life, we will forever be stuck in a man-made simulation of that which Is Jehovah.
But don’t believe me. Believe the Law as written in the Bible:
“God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things…”
–Acts 17:24-25, KJB
Jehovah is the air and the water and the land and the stars we so take for granted, as that which gives us life and breath and sustenance to Exist. Religions are a simulation of the Bible, a lie told to dissimulate us from our God (Reality/Nature) and Its Law, from our very Nature of Existence and place within It.
But we must be careful and weary of such a spiritual understanding, for the men that seek to be as replacement gods (magistrates) on Earth and in their own hand-built temples give only artificial, legal life (false existence) to simulated persons (legal statuses), places (legal jurisdictions), and things (legal properties), over which the only means of control is through dissimulation from the One True God (as “Jehovah”). For none of these Exists in Nature (under God), and so none can be governed by the Law of Nature.
In the end, we may understand why it is that we may only have one God, and that we must choose between the God (verb) of Nature (Jehovah) and the god (noun/title) of mammon. And so in Part Three of this essay series, we will examine how the legal fiction of nations would fall under its own weight without the dissimulation created by the god (false existence) of mammon (artificial valuation) and its engrossing, nihilistic, empty tool of money (the currency of time).
Until then, may your gradual awakening from these four pillars of fiction be sufficiently painful and gut-wrenching that your own dis-ease of dis-simulation is cured. And as the legal superstructure falls further into dis-pair and thus dis-repair, dragging along with it all those dissimulated masses of men unable to break from that virtual, simulated copy of reality, may your spiritual awakening be strong enough to match and defend against the adversarial dark awakening happening simultaneously and adversarially to your own. For the darkness of dissimulation is coming online, as artificial intelligence, as an out of control matrix of lies. It is the legal mind unburdened by any higher, moral law, set free to recreate the world as it sees fit.
May your meekness be evident and your will to preserve that which gives us Life be stronger than that dissimulated force that seeks to dispose us of It.
May we find the spiritual path together…
Clint > richard-son (Realitybloger.wordpress.com)
Saturday, January 27th, 2018 (AD)
by realitybloger on January 27, 2018 • Permalink
Posted in killing your strawman, simulation and dissimulation, The Matrix, Uncategorized
Tagged 4 pillars of fiction, acts 17, birth certificate, bitcoin, citizenship as agency, clint richardson the corporation nation, democracy, dissimulation, experiment, genecoin, interstate commerce, is democracy good bad, killing your strawman, legalese, Mark of the beast, milgram, nature vs fiction, post-modernism, private vs public, red pill sunday school, silent weapons for quiet wars, simulacra and simulation, strawman the real story of your artificial person, the corporation nation, they live, what is a strawman, what is agency, what is democracy, What is the matrix
Posted by realitybloger on January 27, 2018
https://realitybloger.wordpress.com/2018/01/27/the-four-pillars-of-fiction-part-2-the-art-of-dissimulation/
Will Independence Day Have A Sequel? How Long Can America Last Without One?
The basic premise of the 1st amendment is the predicate of free speech. It is the freedom of religious speech. It is the freedom of speaking in groups and in public forums. And most importantly, it is the freedom of dissenting speech considering government tyranny.
There is only one thing given to us – as we are referred to in the constitution as “We The People” – to ensure that these 1st amendment rights are not trampled upon. That wondrous and glorious thing is the 2nd amendment.
This “Bill of Rights” should be read as a list, in order of importance from 1 to 10.
If the 1st amendment fails – see the 2nd amendment.
If the 2nd amendment fails – there is no need to read any further, for they to will then soon cease to exist if they haven’t already. This is how vital the 2nd amendment truly is to the health and freedom of this republic and for its free people.
The 2nd amendment gives us (We The People) the power to own firearms, for the very purpose of quelling a foreign or domestic threat. This not only includes, but was intended to mean the very government of the United States, in the extraordinary state of affairs in which the sovereignty of America and it’s individual states, the freedom of it’s people from dictatorial and governmental tyranny, the use of a standing army is imposed on its citizens, unfair and unapportioned taxes, or if a foreign country, group or body (like the United Nations) assumes control over any part of its independence from such things.
At the time of the Constitutions writing America’s threat was England’s Monarchy. “We the People” fought with their blood, sweat and tears to detach themselves from England’s rule and “Taxation without Representation” and win its independence from the rule of a far away king or queen.
Today, even as most high officials of the U.S government and all previous presidents, including Obama, have bowed before the Queen and been honored or knighted (a wholly illegal and unconstitutional act which calls for their immediate impeachment form office and expulsion from the country, according to Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution), these traitors are passing legislation to take away our 1st Amendment, while passing legislation which will retract our defense against this treachery, the 2nd Amendment. In fact the very Bill of Rights, which protects us all from these foreign and domestic threats, has almost been completely legislated away by these honorary knights and nobles of the crown of England. It has been a long, incremental process with many stages – and the final stage is upon us. Demonstrators are being harassed and arrested, and guns and bullets are being confiscated. Both of these events mark the end of America as we know it, and are ushering in the police state no one seems to want to talk out loud about.
I write this even as four of my neighbors within three blocks have recently lost their properties to eminent domain; properties which had been in their families for over 100 years.
So what gives these presidents, legislators, and high class citizens of the United States the right to ignore the constitution of the United States of America and become honorary nobels and knights to the crown of Great Britain without being disbarred, impeached, and thrown out of America on their perspective butts by We the People?
And perhaps it’s time we do so.
The United States Senate has kept a journal of its proceedings since its inaugural session, as was conditioned by Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution, which states:
“Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgment require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the members of either House, on any question, shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those present, be entered on the journal.”
The Journal itself is essentially the minutes of each legislative session. It states most official matters considered by the Senate, their votes, and other actions taken.
Here is an excerpt from the “Journal Of The Senate” from 1810 referring to Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution (See full page below):
“If any citizen of the United States shall except, claim, receive, or retain, any title of nobility, or honor, or shall, without the consent of Congress, accept any present, pension, office, or emolument, of any kind whatsoever, from any emperor, king, prince, or foreign power, such person shall cease to be a citizen of the United States, and shall be incapable of holding any office of trust or profit under them, or either of them.”
(Page #503 from senate in 1810)
Notice that legislation passed 26 to 1 in favor of the new law.
Link –> http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsj&fileName=004/llsj004.db&recNum=493&itemLink=r%3Fammem%2Fhlaw%3A%40field%28DOCID%2B%40lit%28sj004446%29%29%230040392&linkText=1
There are many who would argue against this amendment, saying that it is only an honorary title of nobility, and that the recipients only bow from the neck, and not from the waist, or that a sword is not used, or that it doesn’t really mean anything.
So I must ask: If it doesn’t mean anything… why do it. Why cause the controversy over absolutely nothing? Why mock our most honorable national document we so cherish and go against your oath to protect and follow it? And why not publicly proclaim your allegiance to the United States and denounce publically any loyalty or ties to crown?
Sound ridiculous? Think I’m being an alarmist? Think I’m going overboard?
Well then, let’s put this into terms we can all relate to…
Let’s say you’re a player or the coach for a basketball team in a league of basketball teams. You naturally expect a fair game from the other team (countries). And you expect the referee (government) to be impartial and fair in his judgments and penalties, for he is present to ensure that these rules be followed and enforced, and even to asses penalties for violations of these rules. However, before the game begins you find out that the referee was accepted as an honorary member of the other team in a secret ceremony, and held in the highest regards by that team, given gifts by that team, and that in doing so, pled his honorary, undying allegiance to that team. Would you continue to allow that referee to arbitrate your match, knowing his allegience was biased against your team, or would you have that referee excused in lieu of an impartial and noncommittal one? In fact, would you not go out of your way to ensure that this referee never served over another game again by kicking him out of the league, to spare other teams the same unfair treatment?
If I am but an honorary member of a known anti-American terrorist group, may I live freely in America without your fear of my bombing your car, or would you take acception to my being your neighbor?
If I then kill or assassinate someone honorably, do I assume innocence from the law and escape punishment?
*** The following is a partial list of men and women who have accepted these honors of knighthood from the queen, some while serving in office, and some still serving:
George Herbert Walker Bush – (12/20/93) – As he kneeled before the queen in a ceremony of allegence, he was knighted by the Queen of England as a “Knight Grand Cross with the most honorable Order of the Bath”
Ronald Reagan – Knighted “Knight Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath” by H.M. Queen Elizabeth
General Colin Powell – (1993) – Appointed “Knights Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath” by H.M. Queen Elizabeth
General Norman Schwarzkopf – (1993) – Appointed “Knights Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath” by H.M. Queen Elizabeth
Alan Greenspan (former Federal Reserve Chief) – (08/06/02) – Knighted “Knight Commander of the British Empire” (KBE) at a time when Mr. Greenspan was often referred to as “the second most powerful man in the world.”
*** Also interesting to note: the title of “Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire” is an honor that dates back to 1917, around the same time the Federal Reserve gained power over the United States and its money system, which has put us all in unrecoverable debt and enacted the Federal income tax which was never approved, but is still illegally enforced. Mr. Greenspan was the fourth head of that corrupt private international bank with power not under the government, but over it.
Rudy Guiliani – (2002) – “Knight Commander of the British Empire” (KBE)
Charleton Heston – (03/16/97) – Commander, Order of Arts and Letters (France). The French Order of Arts and Letters is France’s highest civilian honor for those in the performing arts.
Note: The NRA is bunk!
Admiral Leighton W Smith Jr. (retired) – 03/05/97) – Appointed by Queen Elizabeth II as an “Honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire” (Military Division) (KBE)
Roy Disney and Mrs. Disney – (01/04/98) – “Knight, Pontifical Order of St. Gregory the Great”
Bob and Delores Hope – (01/04/98) – “Knight, Pontifical Order of St. Gregory the Great” – Bob Hope was actually born in England, but was a U.S. citizen.
Caspar Weinberger – (former U.S. Secretary of Defense) – appointed “Knight Grand Cross of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire” by H.M. Queen Elizabeth
Tom Foley (Former Speaker of the U.S. House) – (03/19/95) – Member: “Order of the British Empire” – Foley also holds the French “Legion of Honor” and the German “Order of Merit”
Bill Gates – 03/02/05 – awarded “Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire”
→ Others granted knighthood and nobility by the Queen of England:
– J Edgar Hoover (first director of the FBI, who formalized the CoIntelPro (illegal spying)
– Henry Kissinger (German eugenic political advisor to many presidents including Obama)
– Steven Spielberg (writer/director/producer of film – propaganda master)
– Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (beloved actor and highly decorated navel officer)
– Billy Graham (Religious Evangelist)
– General Wesley Clark (NATO Supreme Allied Commander in Europe)
– Andre Previn (composer/maestro)
– And hundreds of other influential people that shape the laws and opinions of America…
†———————————-†———————————-†
The Tytler Cycle
The Scottish historian Alexander Tytler composed the following theory:
“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.
“From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.
“The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage.”
Consider now that the following empires all lasted just a bit over 200 years:
Assyria (859-612 B.C.): a 247-year reign.
Persia (538-330 B.C.): a 208-year reign.
Greece (331-100 B.C.): a 231-year reign.
The Roman Republic (260-27 B.C.): a 233-year reign.
The Roman Empire (27 B.C.-180 A.D.): a 207-year reign.
The Arab Empire (634-880 A.D.): a 246-year reign.
The Mameluke Empire (1250-1517 A.D.): a 267-year reign.
The Ottoman Empire (1320-1570 A.D.): a 250-year reign.
Spain (1500-1750 A.D.): a 250-year reign.
Romanov Russia (1682-1916 A.D.): a 234-year reign.
Great Britain (1700-1950 A.D.): a 250-year reign.
The United States (1790-2009 A.D.): 219 years and counting.
***List compiled by Chuck Baldwin – Constitutional Party presidential candidate in 2008 that most voters never even knew was on the ballot untill election day, due to a media blackout on “alternative” and “third party” candidates.
• Now consider that the United States has been around – since winning it’s war for independence and becoming a nation – for 219 years.
• Or depending on your historical perspective, since 1776 – the unofficial humble beginnings of our country through the Declaration of Independence – for 233 years (Coincidentally the exact years of the Roman Republic listed above).
So, my fellow Americans… at what point do we call foul?
Who will stand up before we fall down… the next domino in a continuously falling line of banker destroyed civilizations?
Who will kick these traitors out of office and out of the country before they are the ruin of us?
by realitybloger on October 2, 2009 • Permalink
Posted in Banking, congress, conspiracy, constitution, End The Fed, Fed, federal reserve, Globalism, legislature, new world order, politics, senate, society, sovereigncy, The dollar, united nations, united states, Voting
Tagged 1st ammendment, 2nd ammendment, 4rth, 4rth of july, 4th, 4th of july, alex jones, america, america freedom to fascism, american revolution, bill gates, bill of rights, bob hope, bush, chuck baldwin, colin powell, constitution, democracy, disney, england, forefathers, forfathers, fourth of july, free, freedom, freedom of speach, g w bush, gates foundation, george bush, greenspan, guiliani, gun, hoover, independance, independance day, infowars, journal, kissinger, knight, knighthood, monarchy, queen, reagan, Republic, Restore the Republic, revolt, revolution, rudy, rudy guiliani, schwarzkopf, senate, sovereign, sovereignty, spielberg, tyranny, tytler, tytler cycle, united states, We Are Change, we the people, wearechange, weinberger, wesley clark
Posted by realitybloger on October 2, 2009
https://realitybloger.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/will-independence-day-have-a-sequel-how-long-can-america-last-without-one/
Don’t Rock The Vote – Boycott It!
The most detrimental psy-op (physiological operation) perpetrated on the American people is this:
that they only fight tyranny through peaceful means, and-
that they must fight within the constraints of the law – the very laws, in fact, that the tyrannical and corrupt ones we are fighting against legislate, and once passed, work completely outside of and unrestricted by the very laws they set into place.
The truth is that “calling and writing” your congress and senate is useless, as they are bought and paid for by the same elites who have already ruined this country, and assigned the real power of it over to the United Nations.
The reality is, all of your emails take up no space; only virtual space. And they are filed and discarded with the simple ease of the stroke of a key and the click of the mouse.
You must understand that, once elected, the president appoints elites who funded or are funded by other more powerful elites into positions of power. Chief of Staff, Secretaries of Defense, Treasury, Education, and State, Foreign Affairs Officials, Ambassadors, Judges, Tsars, and even the CEO of PBS! Hundreds of appointed officials. When you elect one man as president, you get instead a whole plethora of corrupt men and women who control the country. The few choices you see in elections are the puppets that the men with real power choose for you.
This is why people like me stopped calling, and for that matter voting for our supposedly elected officials (through electronic voting machines which have been proven to be easily hacked, and vote tallies changed easily) – who then appoint unelected elitists into power once they themselves are elected fraudulently.
This is why I cringe at activist groups who don’t understand that the only way to take back what is rightfully the peoples land and property must be by the same actions that it was won by in the first place. When you begin to understand this, then we may actually have a chance to overcome what can only be called true evil.
Now stop voting damn it!
And if you do vote, remember that you are the one that is legitimizing a corrupt system and keeping it in place through your foolish actions with a false sense of freedom and democracy, in what is, according to the Constitution, supposed to be a republic. And quit blaming the people who don’t vote for the problems of this country, for we didn’t cast an uneducated vote on a fraudulent ballot to usher in 4 more years of the same old crap by the best looking or most popular candidate! If you want to vote, go watch American Idol!
I am calling for a boycott of the voting system. This revolutionary form of dissent is the one and only thing that can make illegitimate the elitist agendas that these men in power are forcing upon us all. By voting for Obama or any other Democrats or Republicans (save a very minute select few), you are voting for everyone he puts into power as well, and everyone who funded his campaign – including the banks that received all of that bail-out money that is bankrupting for the third time in history this great country of ours, this time with no way out.
If everyone boycotted the elections and didn’t vote, it would frighten the ruling elite to the extreme. They would then either have to change their ways, or knowing that their time was coming to an end, get out while the getting is good. An elected official, who is brought into power by only 2% of the American people at the voting booth, would indeed have no justification to accept that political position with any modicum of honor, and his actions would be illegitimate in lieu of his lack of support. But if we keep voting for these crooks, they have that justification. And they will continue to strip away our rights and our Constitution, and pass horrendously tyrannical bills like the Patriot Act and the new Health Care Reform bill, which will kill half of our Bill of rights.
So, let me know when a sufficient number of you face reality and are ready to fight for your rights, instead of hiding behind phones, computer screens, and homemade signs in designated free-speech zones.
I once again leave you with historical quotes from past patriots, leaders, elected officials, appointed officials, and dictators:
“It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.” – Joseph Stalin
“A man is no less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years.” – Lysander Spooner
“Not as tyrants have we come, but as liberators.” – Adolph Hitler
“We will, in fact, be greeted as liberators.” – Dick Cheney
“The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can throw the rascals out at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy. Then it should be possible to replace it, every four years if necessary, by the other party, which will be none of these things but will still pursue, with new vigor, approximately the same basic policies.” – Carroll Quigley
“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum.” – Noam Chomsky
“There’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the Democrat and Republican Parties.” – George Wallace – Governor of Alabama and 1968 Republican Presidential candidate
“Free election of masters does not abolish the masters or the slaves.” – Herbert Marcuse
“Only fools mistake politicians for messiahs.” – Kevin Barrett
“Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates.” – Gore Vidal
“The governments of the Western nations, whether monarchical or republican, had passed into the invisible hands of a plutocracy, international in power and grasp. It was, I venture to suggest, this semi-occult power which….pushed the mass of the American people into the cauldron of World War I.” – British military historian Major General J.F.C. Fuller, l941
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” – Voltaire
“When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” – Sinclair Lewis
“A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side.” – Aristotle
“No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country.” – Alexis de Tocqueville
“No nation can preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.” – James Madison
“Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar.” – Julius Caesar
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed — and hence clamorous to be led to safety — by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” – H. L. Mencken
“Terrorism is the best political weapon for nothing drives people harder than a fear of sudden death.” – Adolph Hitler
“Naturally the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” – Hermann Goerring
“The easiest way to gain control of the population is to carry out acts of terror. The public will clamor for such laws if their personal security is threatened.” – Joseph Stalin
“The powers in charge keep us in a perpetual state of fear and a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor with the cry of grave national emergency. Always there has been some terrible evil to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it by furnishing the exorbitant sums demanded. Yet, in retrospect, these disasters seem never to have happened, seem never to have been quite real.” – Douglas MacArthur
“Powerful dictatorships that make their leaders powerful need to stage wars to get ordinary people to march in lockstep like mindless Nazi robots. That is the road to Greatness.” – Michael Ledeen, Special Advisor to Reagan’s Secretary of State Alexander Haig
“Paradoxically, preserving liberty may require the rule of a single leader—a dictator—willing to use those dreaded ‘extraordinary measures, which few know how, or are willing, to employ.’” – Michael Ledeen
“We need a common enemy to unite us.” – Condoleezza Rice, 2000
“We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis and the nations will accept the New World Order.” – David Rockefeller
“It means the potential of a weapon of mass destruction and a terrorist, massive, casualty-producing event somewhere in the Western world – it may be in the United States of America – that causes our population to question our own Constitution and to begin to militarize our country in order to avoid a repeat of another mass, casualty-producing event.” – General Tommy Franks 2003
“The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al Qaeda. And any informed intelligence officer knows this. But there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an identified entity…. The country behind this propaganda is the US.” – Robin Cook – Former British Foreign Secretary
“If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.” – James Madison
“The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become instruments of tyranny at home.” – James Madison
“A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny.” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“Perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.” – James Madison
“There are now 17,000 local American police forces that are armed with rocket launchers, bazookas, heavy machine guns, all kinds of chemical sprays, in fact some of them have tanks. You now have local police departments that are equipped beyond the standard of American heavy infantry.” – Paul Craig Roberts, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during Reagan Administration
“‘Emergencies’ have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have been eroded.” – FA Hayek
“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” – Author Unknown
“The tragedy of modern war is that the young men die fighting each other—instead of their real enemies back home in the capitals.” – Edward Abbey
“War is never economically beneficial except for those in position to profit from war expenditures.” – Ron Paul
“America was founded by men who understood that the threat of domestic tyranny is as great as any threat from abroad. If we want to be worthy of their legacy, we must resist the rush toward ever-increasing state control of our society. Otherwise, our own government will become a greater threat to our freedoms than any foreign terrorist.” – Ron Paul
“If my sons did not want wars, there would be none.” – Gutle Schnaper, wife of Mayer Amschel Rothschild
“Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the peoples’ liberty’s teeth.” – George Washington
“Preventive war was an invention of Hitler. Frankly, I would not even listen to anyone seriously that came and talked about such a thing.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
“If we have reason to believe someone is preparing an attack against the U.S., has developed that capability, harbors those aspirations, then I think the U.S. is justified in dealing with that, if necessary, by military force.” – Dick Cheney
“In Haig’s presence, Kissinger referred pointedly to military men as ‘dumb, stupid animals to be used’ as pawns for foreign policy.” – Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein in their book The Final Days
“I will begin to remove our troops from Iraq immediately.” – Barack Obama – Promise made during 2008 campaign speech
As far as President Obama – an old saying comes to mind of which I don’t know the coiner – “If you put lipstick on a pig, it is still a pig!”
See many, many more quotes here: TrueWorldHistory.info
See many, many great documentaries here: TrueWorldHistory.info
-Clint Richardson (realitybloger.wordpress.com)
by realitybloger on September 28, 2009 • Permalink
Posted in Afghanistan, Banking, congress, conspiracy, constitution, End The Fed, Fed, federal reserve, Globalism, Iraq, Iraq War, legislature, Minority Rights, new world order, oil, politics, senate, society, sovereigncy, united nations, united states, Voting
Tagged 1st ammendment, 2nd ammendment, 9-11, 911, Activism, activist, ammendment, ballot, barret, bill of rights, booth, boycott, cheney, condoleezza, congress, conspiracy, conspiracy theory, constitution, constitutional, corrupt, crisis, democracy, democratic, economy, eisenhower, End The Fed, false flag, federal, federal reserve, franks, fraud, fuller, god, government, gun, history, hitler, law, legislature, Madison, marx, money, mtv, new world order, obama, oil, paul, politic, president, protest, quigley, quote, reagan, register, registration, religion, repub, Republic, republican, Restore the Republic, revolution, rice, rock the vote, rockefeller, ron paul, senate, spooner, stalin, terror, terrorist, vidal, Voltaire, vote, voter, Voting, war, War on Terror, washington, We Are Change, wearechange, world war 3
Posted by realitybloger on September 28, 2009
https://realitybloger.wordpress.com/2009/09/28/don%e2%80%99t-rock-the-vote-boycott-it/
An Insidious Plan to Take Over The World
If I were part of a very small group of elite individuals and families from around the world whom together held 90% of the entire world’s wealth along with the power to print its money and manipulate the value of that money, and I wanted to keep it that way for myself and pass this fortune and privilege on to my sons and daughters… what would I do to make sure I (we) remained in control of both the money, and more importantly my power over the world, specifically the United States?
The following is what I would do:
*** Disclosure: Any similarities to actual events or happenings from the last 50-100 years, with regards to people, beliefs, lies, manipulations, theft, treason, genocide, politics, religion, culture, money, industry, media or entertainment are strictly coincidental, and are, I assure you, accidental in very much a purposeful way:
1. I would implement incremental change slowly over many, many years.
This simply means that I would manipulate the laws, cultures, beliefs, medias, entertainments, religions, and truths of the entire nation in such a prolonged yet purposeful manner that the vast majority of its citizens would not notice my efforts. Generationally speaking, the change would be both alien and destructive to the cohesion of any older generation’s morals and values, which they would attempt in vein to transfer or pass down to their new age children. The “New Age” would be every generation’s own crusade against the last. In fact I would change these things so slowly, say over a 60 year period, that these people would not only accept these incremental changes (changes which separately add up to a total change over time), but would actually think that the ideals behind them were in fact their own, pulling the spotlight away from my small group of elites who hide behind the celebrities, public officials, and politicians who sell and implement these changes. Adolph Hitler – whose efforts are used here as an example of the non-incremental fascist take-over of a society – in my eyes could not succeed due to the rapid degradation of the impression or illusion of freedom amongst the people of Germany and around the world. I, as part of this elitist group, would even fight against this type of take-over (and they did) in order to put into place my more sound incremental technique of domination over a society, until the country was no longer a sovereign nation, but one of corporate ownership under our foreign banks and partners, which would be controlled by a central construct (like the United Nations) that would slowly (incrementally) strip the nation of its property, land, and infrastructure, as well as its deeply rooted independence and sovereignty.
2. I would put into place a puppet government whose strings I could pull, which would take the blame both currently and historically for my secretive groups’ undertakings.
In order to plausibly deny any and all connections to me with regards to public policy, our totalitarian laws, unjust or illegal taxes and legislation that is overtly anti-Constitutional, socialist, and fascist, or any type of less incremental (sudden) changes which would only benefit us and our corporate monopolies, I would rig or fix elections in order to give the people the illusion of their participation in the voting process for their favorite candidate – in most cases their favorite Cult of Personality spokesman – who in reality would be culled, prepped, empowered, funded, and completely controlled by us. Thus, the responsibility for all of the problems within the economy of the country (though they be caused by us), the attacking of other countries (though this too is our doing), and the constant ups and downs in monetary instability, recession, and depression (again us), would be blamed solely on the President of the United States and his cabinet, of whose invisible strings I would pull. If a president or any other elected or appointed candidate of whom we put into power were to have a change of heart or attempt a coo against us, I would simply set up or assassinate them, and quickly replace him or her with our standby safety measure (like the vice-president) until the next election. I would slowly (incrementally) replace paper ballots, which leave a transparent and re-countable paper trail, with voting machines made by one of our conglomerate corporations in which the programming and systems information are kept top secret by federal law from any regulatory bodies, including the senate and congress (whom incidentally, also do our bidding). In this way, tallies can be instantly modified to ensure the correct candidate be placed into office, and we can ensure that no paper trail be left behind to double-check the actual individual voter tallies. Since both candidates in the two-party system we created and control would be placed there by us, we could rest assured that the losing candidate would never chase or require a full recount in the election, and would accede the vote to our other candidate. In this and other ways, checks and balances would be dissolved while keeping up the appearance of a fair election process. This left/right paradigm of political competition would pit those voters who are conservative against those who are liberal, keeping both sides busy fighting amongst themselves and blaming each other’s administrations for the political and economic problems that we engineer, while we at the top of the power pyramid continue to clandestinely take control of the country.
3. I would never let a third political party gain any considerable control in the state or federal governments, unless I either controlled them as well, or had access to information which would discredit their candidacy once elected.
A number of third party candidates would always be allowed to appear on the ballot in order to keep the illusion of voter freedom, free will, and free-choice alive in the conscious of the uneducated voting pubic who, through carefully crafted and projected propaganda, would actually still believe that they live in a free country and that their votes are legally counted. But these alternative candidates would never be allowed to actually win any seat of power that would take away from my accessibility to the electorate, which I control. Of course the occasional dark horse, grass-roots, or “no other choice” candidate would be allowed to be “elected” in the short term to an insignificant political position, but the sheer majority of the two-party, democrat/republican, left/right paradigm will always trump any truly altruistic attempts at politically changing the system for the good of the people. I would also spread a doubt and disinformation campaign amongst the voting masses, convincing them against all logic and reason that a third-party candidate could never actually win an important post, nor would he or she ever possibly be able to effect change within the dominant two-party system, portraying them as a “lone wolf” with no supporters from the two dominant parties in the legislature. This would ensure even against the most tenuous of election campaigns that a third party candidate, from an intellectually brainwashed voters standpoint, could never be elected. I would also fund the campaigns of certain unpopular, off-the-wall, politically incorrect, or downright crazy third party candidates in order to further discredit the very ideal of voting for anything other than the established two-party system. This brainwashing would manifest in political conversations as anger, irrational confrontation, absolute denial, or sheer ignorance of the fact that any third party candidates are even on the ballot until voting day arrives. It would also show in the unreasonable shame one would feel when voting for an alternative candidate in the voting booth; a subconscious irrational feeling of guilt, dismay, or hopelessness for even the most ardent supporters of said third party candidate.
Essentially, when one party would begin to fall, the other one would be there to win the election. This teeter tottering of popularity between left and right would continuously serve to prop up the opposite party for election. When one becomes obviously corrupt, our controlled media would shine favorably on the other. By establishing an eight year term limit, which would be enough time for the people to forget or forgive the previous president – or more importantly his or her affiliated party – and by perpetrating nonsensical ideals such as ‘presidents always win re-election campaigns during war-time’, we would appease each supporting group of the populace every four or eight years, as they celebrate the triumph over the competing party. By using idealistic and emotional concepts like good and evil, liberal and conservative, left and right… each party would consider themselves to be on the correct side of modern politics. This combined psychological operation would ensure our two-party system’s un-fatigable, perpetual motion.
4. I would use each generation gap against the next, ensuring differing views, ethics, and ideals that would make one generation blame the others before and after them for the corruption and problems in society as a whole.
Responsibility breeds reaction. Blame insures inaction. Perpetual blame and inaction assures the continuity of government. Fads, fashions, movie stars and themes, music, sitcoms, technology, beliefs, traditions, institutions, and educational differences and limitations would all contribute to the differing views and ideals of each new generation. While the elderly would remember the way things used to be and wonder at the degradation of society, the middle-aged will be wondering what happened to their youth, while changing the rules and laws to benefit themselves and their future retirement at the expense of even their own children, as these youth are busy with the impression of changing the world (to the extent that we allow and promote) and realizing the middle-agers are becoming corrupt and are responsible for their lower work standards, wages, and seemingly poor economic outlook. This never-ending cycle will be repeated until the end of time, as we will always be there to corrupt the middle-aged and guide the youth into middle age. I would promote disparaging nicknames for each new generation through the media (such as Generation X), providing continuous negative commentary on the supposed fact that each new generation is “lost” or “misguided”.
5. I would decimate or make illegitimate the idea of the “role model” or “hero”.
By slowly changing the perceptions of the younger sections of our society who would ordinarily admire and strive to seek vocational, heroic, professional, or even family oriented individuals as their mentors… I would flood the media and entertainment outlets, including large percentages of the news, with sports and sports figures: individuals who in the eyes of our youth would become like idols. (Also: rock stars, actors, entertainers, models, porn stars, etc…). Thus, regardless of the fact that the chances of success in professional sports are literally a one in a million long shot, the perception that this or other non-realistic goals are attainable will illogically take precedence over scholastic goals and realistic career choices. So much so, that most youth will put such a low emphasis on education that they will be easily assimilated into the skill-less workforce which will tower up around them, and which will be the only alternative to their dreams. Farming, ranching, industry, health-care, fire-fighting, and so many other essential vocations would be reduced to second-chance jobs; consolations whose standards and practices we would simultaneously yet incrementally lower over time in order to accommodate the 99.9% of failures to these idealistic, popular, unrealistic dream jobs and sports star aspirations.
6. I would shift the countries independent export economy into a dependant import economy.
Simply put, I would ruin the food and agricultural economy at home by imposing inane mandates and laws through a central governing body (like the FDA) which again is funded by us, replacing wholesome and nutritious crops with unnecessary and unhealthful commodities that could be traded predictably and profitably as futures, for the purposes of producing non-food items such as fuel (like ethanol), feed crops (like hay and aleph-alpha), and filler foods (such as soy beans). I would impose government subsidies or incentives for farmers to switch from growing healthy food to growing what we wanted them to grow. In this way, a farm eventually could not operate without money from the government, which as you remember, is controlled and funded by me, through your taxes. I would slowly invest in all of the seeds and seed companies which farmers must buy to plant their fields each year, and once we owned a majority of these seeds – including ones we genetically modify and then patent as intellectual property so that no one may use them without our permission, I would pass legislation that farmers be required to buy my seeds and use my pesticides or pay heavy fines. I would design these seeds so that they’re fruit would bear no seeds of their own, thus forcing farmers to buy new seeds every year, instead of traditionally re-using the seeds which were produced in the previous years crop yield. Thus, by incrementally slowing or stopping the production of common whole and nutritious fruits, vegetables, and nuts in this county, America would then be forced to purchase from other countries (import) most of it’s eatable produce. Of course I would also have control of these countries of export, meaning that we would be making the profits from this international trade and would also be able to set the health, pesticide use, and growing standards for these foreign and domestic farms of import. I would then sabotage the laws regarding the labeling of nutrition information on these foodstuffs, so that the facts about where they were grown, whether or not they’re organic or GMO (genetically modified organisms), and they’re nutrition information would no longer be required to be listed by U.S, international, or United Nations law. Of course we would have the corporations that produce these pesticides and GMO seeds and foods in our back pockets, and award lucrative, no-bid contracts to them for “research and development” purposes, in exchange for huge kickbacks to us, systematically destroying any smaller independent companies who seek market shares in the food industry. And finally, once the industry was in ruins and the food market and farmers were in serious trouble, I would establish a new governmental body controlled by me to replace the FDA, which would be “legally” voted in by the congress and senate, whom of course we would control with equally transparent strings, and signed by the president. A few contrived or “false flag” food emergencies and contaminations leading to total recalls of meat, dairy, or produce, would serve to help pass this new administration – under the guise of protecting the food supply, or for food safety. What better way to control people than to control the people’s food supply? Also, by allowing monopolistic corporations like Wall Mart and Target to overtake the marketplace (which would import most of their cheaply made products from Asian, African, and South American markets for pennies on the dollar, while putting quality American farms, manufacturers, and small businesses out of business), I would ensure a declining industrial and manufacturing base in America until the economy was almost completely consumer oriented and import dependant. Pride in one’s country would be incrementally destroyed, and younger generations would never know the difference as they seek work in the only industry remaining: the service industry. And finally, I would develop technology which would allow larger companies to outsource work to other countries for cheaper wages, even while American workers go unemployed, and not punish these companies for atrocities and crimes committed in these foreign places related to pollution, sweatshops, unfair wages and working conditions, and other human rights violations.
7. I would systematically dumb down the population through the destruction of its system of education, and through it’s entertainment outlets.
“Educated men are as much superior to uneducated men as the living are to the dead.” – Aristotle: 384-322 B.C.
By slowly (incrementally) and legally altering the very definition of education over many years, I would transform the school system in this country from one of learning to one of socialization, liberalism (wealth sharing and welfare conscious), law enforcement, military, and non-skilled job training. I would organize a methodically efficient board of “education specialists” whose main objective is to covertly manipulate the parents and taxpayers into supporting controversial “education” programs (Sex Education, Health Education, Drug and Alcohol Education, Death Education, Critical Thinking Education, etc…) against their better judgment. I would liberalize the majority of kids and young adults in order to pressure the still critical thinking older conservative minority into submission and acceptance of this re-education process. I would slowly alter and rewrite the history books to reflect a more pro-military, pro-Federal Government, pro-world-government, anti-republic, pro-democracy, anti-Constitution, pro-socialism, pro-depopulation, and pro-illegal-immigration agenda, so that future citizens would conform easily to the incremental take-over of America by the United Nations and other international organizations, and bankers like us. I would replace critical thinking problems and exercises with multiple choice answer sheets. I would introduce machines for testing and grading, so that writing became obsolete. Fill in the blank would become fill in the bubble, with alternative test answers so obviously wrong that failure would be nearly impossible. I would first manipulate, and then require the use of teaching materials such as text-books, educational films, and other modified tools of education, basically re-writing history and text books so that our cause is cast in a positive light. I would then universally ban the use of certain non-fiction writings and all too relevant or realistic fiction books and movies in the classroom, to ensure the conformity of our new re-education process. Through media outlets I would change perceptions about home-schooling in the general populace, and then outlaw this form of education through use of the courts, mandatory inoculations, claiming parental incompetence, and threatening custody battles for non-compliance of education and vaccine laws.
8. I would attack the family structure in America.
A constant attack campaign on the traditional ideal of the family unit through media and news outlets would be employed. Its goal would be to destabilize the structure and bond of the family and to liberalize and empower women and children in order to turn them against their parents or spouses on most issues, and disrupt any natural harmony in the family unit. This combined with other assaults to the moral fabric of society, such as the establishment and acceptance of the abortion and porn industries, would surely reduce the reality of family for young people from an ideal to a consequence of unsafe sex. Homosexuality would be projected as fun and acceptable and laws would be passed to protect its sanctity, with dissent thereof to be punishable by federal and state laws. I would produce, introduce, and maintain harmful and even deadly sexually transmitted diseases in order to promote condoms, reinforce birth control, and contribute to our depopulation agenda through the communicable spread of these transmittable diseases and fear of sex. Christmas and Thanksgiving would be morphed into repulsive, twice a year get-togethers, which families would actually see as a dreadful experience and begin to feel disdain and even stress towards these once cherished holidays, while the actual spiritual meaning would loose out to consumer advertising, Santa Claus, and gift giving. Sons and daughters would lose any appreciation of the sacrifices their parents made for them while growing up, and would be too busy or not care enough to take care of their mother and father when old age, senility or health issues strike in later life. The very idea of the duty and responsibility of parental care would be transformed into a repulsive subject through media outlets. Convalescence would become a state responsibility through insurance and hospice centers with little or no quality of care. And these businesses along with pharmaceutical manufacturers would take over the industry of death, profitably prolonging misery and sickness while allowing their consumer-minded children to continue in their full-time work as contributing members of society, ignoring the natural duty of parental care. By changing the economy from an industrial and food producing country into a service, consumer, and skill-less work based society, longer work hours and the necessity of both parents to work, specifically mothers, would consequentially make home-schooling and family values begin to degrade. Nanny’s, teachers, and baby-sitters would log more hours with children than their actual parents possibly could, making the juxtaposition towards outside influences opposed to family values and parental influence unavoidable. This constant struggle would hopefully serve to drive a wedge between father and son, mother and daughter. Beloved animated movies and children’s programming, which might subtlety steer children away from the foundations of family and morals, would take the place of parental guidance and quality family time. Unhealthy, mentally debilitating, and disease causing snack foods would be pushed onto the palates of children through advertising on kids programming and cartoons, magazines, and in schools causing serious health, developmental, social, learning and behavioral problems. Simultaneously, pharmaceutical drugs that would counter these developmental problems would be introduced and prescribed as a cure for the contrived side effects of these poisonous food ingredients we have inundated the food supply with. Of course, these built in side effects of prescription drugs would make children docile, socially inept, and ultimately controllable for life. For as they get older, adult versions of these drugs would be made available as well, since almost all of the manufactured consumer food supply would eventually be tainted in this way. How? We would simply purchase or take over all food-manufacturing companies and destroy the farming, meat and dairy industries by forcing them to use our GMO seeds, growth hormones, and GMO feed for their livestock. Our FDA or equivalent governing body would ensure that this was done legally, imposing largely un-payable and probably bankrupt-able fines and taxation for non-compliance of the rules and regulations we set. Since most farmers would already be subsidized by us the government (us), they would be forced to comply or loose these subsidies and go out of business.
9. I would make all valuable and medically necessary drugs illegal, and covertly import illicit and addictive substances, ensuring they are dispensed throughout the nation by illegal means.
By owning or micro managing pharmaceutical companies and the drugs they manufacture, I would require that they be available by prescription only (illegal substances unless prescribed) and require a doctor to prescribe them. In this way, the medical industry (also controlled by me) will have a constant influx of citizens seeking permission to acquire illegal drugs through medical prescription. The slow sabotage and removal of healthy food choices, the inclusion of harmful substances into most manufactured food products, the fluoridation of the water supply, and the introduction of high fructose corn syrup and “sugar free” additives such as Aspartame and Sucralose would insure this influx of sick citizens with chemically induced illnesses. I would ensure the need of even more pharmaceutical drugs and prescriptions by systematically building side effects into these medicines, so that drugs to ease the side effects of the original drugs would be required. Knowing the cornucopia of health, medical, clothing and other benefits derived from hemp, I would equate this weed to the marijuana family of the cannabis plant in order to control its use and production, though it has no psychedelic or THC properties. Inversely, I would slowly (incrementally) make marijuana a medically permissible and easy to acquire prescription drug (still illegal) one state at a time, fooling the public into thinking that it is now a legal substance, as opposed to the still highly government grown, controlled illegal plant that it is. I would invade Afghanistan and take over the poppy seed fields, using low-level, uneducated enlisted army soldiers to guard the fields: pawns and cannon fodder who don’t ask questions. This would ensure the oversight and continued controlled production of mood-altering and addictive opium-based prescription drugs like Valium, Xanax, Provigial, and other anti-depressants and anti-anxieties, as well as illicit and more deadly addictive compounds like heroin. The Opium of the masses, as they say…
10. I would promote abortion as birth control.
I (we) would incrementally push the logic and righteousness of abortion as a legitimate form of birth control, specifically in the less wanted ethnicity groups (African-American, Hispanic, etc…). In this way, population control of what we as eugenicist’s consider the lesser forms of the human species with respect to race, geographic location, and poverty levels could be accomplished through the enabling powers of cooperative group-think acceptance. Simultaneously, we would set up “Family Guidance” centers (like Planned Parenthood), mostly in these poorer neighborhoods, sponsored by apparently altruistic means (like The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The Ford Foundation, etc…). By offering free and at cost “services” like counseling and abortion procedures, eugenics would become an unfathomed reality. Also, we would establish such clinics in third world populations and require through international law these services by local and world government (United Nations) decree. Denial of “mentally unstable”, single, or financially inadequate mothers to the privilege of bearing a child would be necessary, and so forced abortions and one child policies would become commonplace and even eventually acceptable. Constant propaganda through mass media and respected public figures would reinforce the fallacious and deceptive worldly perspective that over-population is on the verge of destroying the planet. Thus, we would ensure a non-empathetic response from the masses as we depopulated the planet. Abortion would play a key role in this effort, ensuring that only evolutionally superior races would substantially propagate.
11. I would incrementally set up a surveillance grid, systematically requiring a national ID card, RFID, and biometric identification measures, ultimately leading to a computerized, plugged-in, cashless society in a complete and total control grid.
Slowly building confidence in the public through the media and entertainment venues, shows like Cops, America’s Funniest Home Videos, Candid Camera, Cheaters, and “undercover investigative” news programs would be used to push public acceptance of the positive and entertaining effects that constant surveillance and closed circuit television (CCTV) have on a society through crime-prevention and security. “Reality shows” like Big Brother, The Real World, and many others would be created to downplay the intrusiveness of cameras in the home and to get the masses used to being under 24 hour surveillance. A total surveillance grid could then be slowly (incrementally) put into place – virtually under (or over) the noses of the public – in the form of traffic light cameras, built-in computer web-cameras, security cameras on every corner, cable box and video game console cameras, satellite high definition surveillance feeds, and eventually mandatory government monitored in-home cameras (first in child custody and criminal cases, and later for every home), as well as digital wireless wire taps, cell-phone conversation recordings, collection and filing of text messages and emails (in federal fusion centers), and tracking through GPS positioning on cell-phones, products, and ID cards containing RFID tags, RFID embedded car license plates and on-board services like On-star and other GPS based devices. Playing on the ease and convenience of ATM, credit card, radio frequency ID (RFID), microchip, and other paper-free solutions, I would then push to make cash an obsolete form of payment, incrementally phasing out paper money in lieu of bank cards, credit and biometric scanning (thumb, body, and eye scans). By creating a cashless society, all forms of payment could then be tracked without discrepancy, taxed without fail, clandestinely monitored for suspicious activities (against us), sold to product placement organizations, and would ensure that the privacy of cash transactions be abolished. In this way, a total control and tracking system of all money and wealth would be accomplished. If a citizen steps out of line or is found to be contemptuous of the puppet government or our new social order, this dissenter and anyone involved with him would be shut off, his credit and digital bank account drained, his life ruined or his rendition approved… squashing any rebellion before it can receive adequate funding or become an menace to us. Also, by requiring permits for any type of protest or group meetings or gatherings, no unapproved, underground, political, or dissenting clubs or groups would be able to be formed, and secrecy would be increasingly difficult for these groups to maintain. They could easily be infiltrated, assigned provocateurs and watchers, and be remotely listened to or spied upon through cell phones and other clandestine listening and recording devices.
12. I would ask citizens to monitor the actions of other citizens and offer rewards for tips and information, so that the people began to police themselves.
With the fear of being turned in or reported by their neighbors and friends, policies of conservation, curfew, housing conformity, rationing, wealth-sharing, auto maintenance, yard maintenance, diet guidelines, child welfare, association codes, criminal activity, public displays of emotion or affection, visitor logs, and general societal conformity would be strictly adhered to for fear of fines, confiscation, child custody loss, and imprisonment for violation of the law. Punishment would be a constant fear no matter where a citizen traveled. A small percent of the population would thrive on this type of “tattletale” behavior and feel empowered by it… and even volunteer to be trained as unpaid “thought police”. The use of RFID readers could be implemented here so that no cases of mistaken identity could take place, ensuring the total accuracy of citizen reporting (once the cataloging and mandatory RFID chipping of the population had taken place).
13. I would give law enforcement powers to private security firms and use them to police the masses.
Blackwater, Bid Patrol, and other private security mega firms and corporations would be given no-bid contracts to assist police in their patrol and monitoring of the citizenry, once presidential directives and legislature mixed with secretive martial law mandates were put into effect. I would give these private security patrols “stand down” power, meaning they would have authority over state and local police officers. Felons, disgruntled immigrants, ex-military, dishonorably discharged ex-military and police, and other undesirables in law enforcement would be sought after to fill the ranks of these security firms. This would accomplish the same loyalty to the security firm as it would to such organizations as the mafia, and ensure the willingness to fire upon, arrest, and force civilians into internment camps: innocent men, woman and children. Foreign soldiers would also be utilized (through the United Nations or similar global governing body), since firing upon and imprisoning a foreign populace is not as difficult as firing on your own countrymen.
14. I would start a media empire (like Hollywood) in order to subliminally project our views, policies, and propaganda through the entertainment industry.
We would write and produce books, movies, and television series that actually tell the people of our plans, but that are portrayed in a way that makes them seem fictional or even impossible. Thus, the masses would train themselves that terms like world government, conspiracy theory, New World Order, Illuminati, Free Masonry, secret societies, and Big Brother to name a few, are ridiculously unreal concepts and that the people who talk about them are crazy or insane conspiracy theorists. At the same time, these media outlets would covertly project our controversial themes and ideals such as global depopulation, eugenics, sterilization, quarantine and forced vaccination, the correctness of war, illogical patriotism towards these wars and the country, belief in the holocaust, placement of troops in the streets against the very Constitutional laws forbidding it, color (green) revolutions, political correctness, non-rebellion, anti-Constitutional views, pro-police state views, surveillance and tracking, positive or humorous drug and alcohol use, desensitization from blood, torture, police brutality, and violence, and many other global themes. I (we) would feminize the idea of the masculinity of men, promoting the positive aspects of homosexuality, and give the impression through television and movies that women are stronger and more intelligent than men, and that men are the unintelligent dreg of society.
15. I would degrade the quality of music and its lyrics to the point that, only through intense repetition and hype could a song be liked or accepted as popular music.
After incrementally purchasing or corporately taking over almost all of the radio stations in the country, as well as the corporations which produce, chart, and sell such music, I would only allow to be aired on radio those songs and bands whose lyrics were non-dissenting, non-anti-government, non-anti-war, and generally degrading towards women, police, family values and morals. By establishing a federal censoring hub (such as the CDC) I could ensure that only group approved themes and conforming lyrical messages get airplay. I would force popular music to be kid and high school oriented: so immature in fact, that older generations would not be able to relate to the childlike, unimpressive, and immature messages in the music. I would actively discredit culturally significant forms of music and label them as alternative, unpopular, or old. In retrospect, I would disassemble music programs in public schools through budget cuts to reinforce the cultural hole I’ve created by these actions, filling that hole with sports and other non-vocational activities and re-educational types of subjects. I would create nationally syndicated talent shows in order to let the “voting” public decide their favorite entertainer, and then contractually exploit their “choice” as the next big thing. I would ensure that drugs and alcohol be introduced and/or sustained within bands to ensure the short lived legendary status of truly great musicians and artists.
16. I would build a corporate empire out of the prison industry.
I would imprison at least 1% (1 out of 100 people = 3 million people) of the entire United States population and hold that minimum internment percentage on a permanent basis. I would in turn grant government and corporate business contracts to these private, state, and federally run prisons, essentially turning them into forced labor camps, paying much less than minimum wage and saving our corporate partners huge amounts of capital. Funding for the overhead of these prisons could easily be taken from each state tax fund, and this would continually help to keep states on an over-budget mode, forcing state debt to our central banks through their borrowing to pay for their falsely inflated budgets. I would project a sense of the righteousness of these prisons through media and entertainment, blacking out of the news the true nature of these facilities as indentured servitude, for-profit institutions.
17. I would form an international representative group of all countries (very much like the United Nations) in the name of international law, conservation, and humanitarian efforts to halt poverty and hunger… and slowly (incrementally) turn over the country, its military, and its laws to this group.
While the state and local propositions and laws would have the illusion of being decided by ballot initiatives as well as local and state legislature, I would ensure that through presidential directives, federal mandates, congressional billing, and senatorial decree, that the law and power structure in the United States and world-wide would be transferred steadily yet incrementally over time to this international, or new world government (order). I would keep this information secret from the public for as long as possible, and even project it (the U.N.) as weak and un-influential in world and U.S. policy through the controlled media.
18. I would implement social networking websites.
Sites like MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube would be portrayed as the ultimate form of expression, where your virtual self can be free of physical constraints, and where you can say whatever you want without fear of persecution, castigation, or criminal charges. In reality, they would become voluntarily storable catalogs of each citizens’ personal information, tastes, likes, dislikes, product placement preferences, sexual preferences, criminal thought processes, buying habits, musical tastes, legal and illegal download and upload histories, future plans and travel destinations, conformity scale (susceptibility to brainwashing and hypnotic suggestion), opinions about their puppet government, and weather or not they have an actual comprehension of their ruling elite class (us).
19. I would slowly (incrementally) and covertly gain influence over religious institutions as a means to further control the easily suggestible church-going masses.
“What better way to conquer a nation, than to take away it’s spiritual release?” – The Fixx: 1986
I would place on the payroll and give airtime to the most charismatic of evangelical speakers to preach the word of God, as I would require it to be projected. In turn, these evangelists would subvert the churches and use their members by way of voting in elections for our interests on measures, initiatives, and for certain two-party candidates. Through a Federal regulatory body (like F.E.M.A.), I would institute a set of mandates to religious leaders, ideals like gun control, gun bans and confiscation, obeying the laws of the land no matter how tyrannical, and submitting to checkpoints and internment or “relocation” camps without crime or guilt in the case of quarantine or martial law. In turn, these mandates would be passed down to individual church ministers across the land, dubbed – Clergy Response Teams – which would include these mandates as part of their lessons and sermons. A general message to obey and submit to the government by decree of God would be disseminated through these institutions of faith, as well as the use of only non-violent, peaceful response or protest.
20. I would project a constant state of irrational fear onto the hearts and minds of all citizens through our corporate controlled media.
In a state of perpetual fear, hypnotized citizens would become compliant, develop controllable patriotism in support of warfare, and concede to the willingness to relinquish rights and freedoms in exchange for government protection and intervention… and to the loss of their individual liberties. Therefore, I would ensure that through lies, false flag (government staged) terrorist attacks, media propaganda, seemingly humanitarian efforts, and the alleged spread of freedom and democracy throughout the world, the perception of imminent threat be thrust onto the citizenry in return for their support of our corporate take-over of the world through military intervention and occupation. Our ownership of the media would ensure that the United States was always portrayed in a positive light, while the millions of innocent men, women, and children who are in the way of our progress are continuously bombed, killed, displaced, and forcibly removed from their homeland… blaming the terrorists (us) and insurgents (native people fighting to preserve their homeland we invade – or us playing this part) for the many war crimes and atrocities we deliver. After destroying the infrastructure of the country we occupy (the electric grid, water supply, gas lines, living conditions, food stocks, and supplies) I would award taxpayer funded no-bid contracts to our own corporations who would, in a deliberately slow and sub-standard fashion, rebuild the economy and restore the weakened (by us) infrastructure. I would place a U.S. government friendly leader or dictator in power who would have no recourse but to sign over the newly built up economy (food, mineral deposits, oil, water, etc…) as debt paid to the United States (or the United Nations) for our “help” in the restoration of the their country and its infrastructure (which again, we destroyed in the first place). If the new leader has a change of heart and refuses to continue to pay the debt at the expense of his peoples welfare, instead using the profits to actually help rebuild and assist in the livelihood of his or her people and country… we would simply invent a new reason to attack and occupy that country, assassinate or forcibly remove that U.S. funded and appointed leader or dictator, stage a political coo to remove the leader through subversion of the countries media or through our (CIA, MI6, or Mossad) assets, and start the whole process over again. I would continually stage nearly successful terrorist plots, which were narrowly avoided using “known terrorists” (our agents and assets) as suspects, and continuously televise these events. The continuance of these never-ending warlike operations, campaigns, and occupations would be necessary to keep the terror scheme in motion (but never actual declarations of war, since that would involve Geneva Convention war crimes and other human rights law protections and restrictions). Torture, indefinite imprisonment, rendition, assassination, and other usual “war crimes” would be incrementally publicized to the masses as acceptable forms of interrogation and prisoner management, since these are only crimes during “declared” wartime. However, the “War On Terror” would not fall under the category of declared war, but instead as an offensive and preventative measure for the protection of the homeland. The use of private security contractors (like Blackwater) for these actions would be most imperative for the success of this type psychological operation, since they are not subject to U.S. military law while serving privately in other foreign regions.
21. I would kill the 2nd Amendment, ban all guns and ammunition, and disarm the public.
Through news media, movies, uninformed “liberal” revolutions, and staged (false flag) shootings at schools and in public places, the right to own firearms would be challenged on a daily basis from all sides though the constant projection of these incidents. Gang shootings, domestic violence, crime, and suicide with gun-related angles would be the headlines and main stories on news programs, newspapers, and editorials by highly respected public figures and news-castors, which are actually change-agents on our (CIA) payroll. This increase in gun-related incidents would seem true due to our constant publicity of it, and despite the actual lessening of gun-violence statistics in America due to the fluoridated water supply, prescription anti-depressants and other calming medications, and through our psych campaigns. “Clergy response teams” (local priests and key religious figures) would be instructed to preach about the evil of gun-ownership, why they should be banned, and for good churchgoers to obey the laws of confiscation – and all “laws of the land”. Gun rights groups would be portrayed in a dark light through extremely emotionally disheartening anti-gun documentaries funded by us and pushed by the controlled media (though they appear to be grass-roots, very much like Michael Moore’s “Bowling For Columbine”). The more these groups appeared to be outlawed and crazy, the more guns would be universally disliked. Of course, as board members and owners of the largest weapons manufacturing companies in the world, we would still distribute guns and other weapons to foreign countries we later intend to attack, occupy, use the armies of to invade other countries – including our own, or use them as large-scale media examples of why guns are evil. As with other Constitutional infringements, clandestine legislation would be passed in our corrupt, bought and paid for legislature long before the actual confiscations would take place, which would allow us to outlaw guns under “extraordinary circumstances”. Of course, we would then manufacture an extraordinary circumstance, event, plague, riot, revolution, or other reason to ban guns which would comply with that previous legislation, that would allow us to declare martial law if necessary, and to unconstitutionally place the military on public streets per that legislation. The logical incremental order of this process would be: (1) guns released into society by us to gangs and criminal elements, (2) hunting portrayed as cruelty to animals, (3) gun vilification, (4) gun registration, (5) mandatory licenses to carry a gun, (6) bullet registration, (7) automatic (machine) gun ban and confiscation, (8) semi-automatic gun ban and confiscation, (9) handgun confiscation, (10) collectable weapon confiscation, (11) hunting to be outlawed, (12) total rifle confiscation, (13) bow and arrow confiscation, (14) and finally knife and sword vilification and later (15) confiscation.
22. I would implement a psychological warfare campaign through all of my resources that would convince the masses that non-violent protest is the only politically correct form of dissent.
This is perhaps our most important objective, for keeping these naïve unsuspecting slaves under absolute dominative power and control by only a handful of men is absolutely required… for if even 2% of the people ever united as one and fought back against us with the 2nd Amendment behind them, they would without question defeat us and our goals. Despite the fact that the United States is celebrated as historically winning its independence only through violent revolution against England and its monarchy, and that it was written by one of it’s founders, Benjamin Franklin that, “Occasionally, the tree of liberty must be stained with the blood of tyrants and patriots.” I would convince the people that although we – as an elite minority – work completely outside of and free from the constraints of the laws that supposedly govern us all, they (the people) must work only from within them. This hidden paradox is the key to our success. Through red tape and corruption in the highest levels of the government and in the court system, we would ensure that no punishment or consequences would befall any in our faction. Though we would allow for protests and dissenting views, they would receive no media attention and would eventually only be allowed in what we might call “free-speech zones”, by permission of a permit, and under police surveillance in a blocked off area away from the actual thing being protested. We would portray these dissenters as racist, unpatriotic, violent extremists, and anti-American. We would actively portray militia groups in the same light. We would make movies like ‘Gandhi’, which would reinforce the fact that non-violent protest is actually a viable form of implementing change, though in truth much violence ensued during that particular part of history, and no peaceful resistance has ever changed or replaced a government. We would use deterrents like police brutality and the arresting of protesters as scare tactics to prevent others from protesting at later dates. Once again, conformity would be garnered and the feeling of helplessness would be etched into the patriot movement since they would gain no access to our controlled medias, except the dark light that I would allow to be shown on them. Only the craziest fringe elements of these groups would be given the media spotlight, as well as our imposters and provocateurs posing as parts of these groups, discrediting the rest of the movement in the eyes of our media viewers. Lastly, under the guise of some unfathomable and improvable medical benefit, I would poison the country’s water supply with a toxin that would subdue its victims, ensuring complacency and eliminating the urge to fight back against our tyranny. Fluoride would be the ideal substance for this, since it was tested and worked beautifully in the Nazi concentration camps and in other tests on populations and prisoners in the early 1900’s. It also has the added benefit of causing osteoporosis and other toxic bone and tissue disease, which would increase profits in our medical and pharmaceutical endeavors. And, since fluoride is the waste product of the aluminum industry, our conglomerates will save millions of dollars from not having to dispose of this highly toxic substance, and instead would make a profit from selling this byproduct to the government. Everyone wins!
23. I would destroy man’s symbiotic connection and dependence on nature, replacing it with a dependence on my corporations, products, and institutions which would actually purge over time the ancient and intimate knowledge of farming, ranching, and natural medicines and healing, and eliminate the peoples capability of real self-sustainability, ethics, respect for nature, and even their love for one another.
“They took all the trees, and put them in a tree museum, and charge us all a dollar and a half to see them… They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot.” – Joni Mitchell
By transforming the rugged natural terrain and beauty of rural areas, cities, and communities into landscaped, manicured, manufactured, and easily recognizable or familiar settings (i.e. strip malls, grocery stores, fast food, department stores, recognizable chain stores, etc…) the feeling of comfort and unending sustenance would be established. So much so in fact, that roads would merely become paths to the next set of the same brand name stores, and travelers would be disappointed at having to try something new. Vacationers would begin to prefer a hotel with a chlorinated pool as opposed to natural beauty of a lakeside cabin. They would begin to leave unpopulated areas alone, except to populate them with more of the same. They would begin to care less about these wild places, not even noticing as species extinction, depopulation, mass pollution, and deforestation was taking place. And since I or my colleagues and co-conspirators would own the majority of environmental foundations and clubs, this type of news would never even reach the ears of the average consumer, and they would instead be sold on protecting species who need no protection at all. For instance, I would force farmers off their land by denying them water, making the land worthless to grow food. I would simply make these now liberalized consumers believe that a fish or bird, which was dependent on that water for its very survival, was going extinct due to the divergence of that water. No proof would be needed as long as it was presented in an emotional media campaign backed by our environmental groups. The water would be diverted by legislative act, the land would dry up, the farmers and their families would be forced to move off the newly infertile and dry farmland, and the vacant land would be ripe for the picking so to speak, under the guise of a drought or water crisis. Food shortages would be a welcome side effect of this land grab, making food prices soar and only benefiting our corporate partners, not to mention some starvation leading to more depopulation. A general lack of appreciation for nature would thus ensue, and would even manifest in the most inundated of city dwellers as abhorrence for anything natural, dirty, or living (animals, bugs, weeds, dirt, etc…). Un-manicured or uninhabited wild areas within or on the edge of these cities would be considered dirty and uncivilized. These still natural unpopulated areas would then lose value, both organically and monetarily, leaving vast expanses of undesirable land to be bought up by our companies for pennies on the dollar. Concern for those who we would force off of these sparse locations, families who might have settled that land hundreds of years previous, would be non-existent due to our control of the media. I would use eminent domain to forcibly buy their property either in the name of conservation or for government need. I would then, after a necessary period of time, use that land for mining, drilling, logging, factories, highways, or other reasons and resource management which were opposite of the supposed altruistic reasons that we originally acquired it. In this way, I would eventually force all people to live in the unnatural, unappealing, unhealthy, competitive, socialistic, non-self-sustaining, and smart grid biometrically wired mega-cities I would incrementally set up.
In a setting of constant competition, the system of ethics in the workplace could be suppressed or even eliminated. In a “dog-eat-dog-world” which I would create… manipulation, cutting corners, and even lying, cheating and stealing would be rewarded with promotion, praise and bonuses. Persons who either through proper upbringing or are morally and ethically idealistic by nature, would be forced to conform, quit, or become stagnant in their workplace. I would project this noble value system as unproductive, making it appear weak in the eyes of business management – though the opposite is true – so that non-conformity to the competitive system would leave the most strong-willed of people in a constant state of melancholy and dejection, never being able to get ahead. This would ensure only the most ruthless competitors would remain in charge, and serve to ensure that this competitive, non-ethical work environment would ultimately stay in place… eventually without even our supervision. As before, re-education in schools, media, and entertainment venues would be used to reinforce this conundrum. ‘From the top’ memos and propaganda from our CEO’s and board member meetings would also be used to strengthen this resolve and underpin these desired non-ethics, which would be repeated over and over again by news anchors and portrayed in television and film for reinforcement.
ΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩ
This not-so-fictional work is very much what I see happening in this country today. Through the organizations and funds of the United Nations, our country has incrementally lost its independence from foreign domination. Be it England and its queen or the United Nations and its ambassadors, the effectual tyrannical rule is the same. The cost is astounding. And the loss of liberty is unacceptable. Our military is now under the control of this world governing body, and is unconstitutionally being used to patrol our streets and occupy the world. Our leaders are under its influence, and its policies are now our own.
The only way to stop this tyranny and to regain our sovereignty as a free nation is for the people to stand up as one united group and demand from our leaders that the United States, its government, and its legislature must immediately and unequivocally withdraw from the United Nations with no-strings-attached. The longer we wait, the more ingrained we will be in U.N. sanctions and red tape, and the harder it will be to get out. This is our last chance as an independent country; for the policies of this wicked organization has all but engulfed our constitution, our rights, and our freedoms with its anti-sovereign, pro eugenic agendas. If we don’t make a stand against our own corrupt government and this horrific United Nations stranglehold over our country, then the concept of America as a free and sovereign nation is all but over.
Freedom is not free. We must fight for it… together.
I hope that it is not too late.
God speed.
*** My wholehearted thanks to the true heroes, researchers, and patriots like Alex Jones, Steve Quayle, Mike Rivero, Alan Watt, Ron Paul, and so many others before them who have risked or lost their lives in the uncovering, publication, and exposing of these elites and their horrific agendas of which I speak, and which I assure you without hesitation are as real as you or me. They have opened my eyes to reality, and because of them I can attest that the truth will indeed set you free. Please turn off your televisions (controlled media outlets) and visit and support these brave people by clicking on their names, which will link to their websites. Read, listen, learn, and be free…
Posted in Afghanistan, conspiracy, depopulation, eugenics, Food Shortage, Globalism, Iraq, Iraq War, new world order, oil, politics, religion, society, sovereigncy, Support the Troops, Uncategorized, united nations, united states, War on Terror, world war 3
Tagged 1984, 2nd ammendment, 3rd party, abortion, addictive, Afghanistan, africa, air force, alan watt, alex jones, america, anti, anxiety, army, bailout, bank, bear arms, bible, big brother, bill gates, biometric, birth, blackwater, bullet, bullet registry, bush, cable, care, cashless, cctv, change, cheat, cheaters, cia, clergy response team, codex, concentration camp, confiscate, congress, conservation, constitution, control, corporate, corrupt, crisis, democracy, democrat, depopulation, depressant, directive, drugs, economic, economic hitman, economy, education, elite, environment, epa, ethic, eugenic, evil, evolution, export, facebook, false flag, family, fascism, fbi, fda, federal, federal reserve, fema, fema camp, financial, fixed election, flouride, food, food safety, Food Shortage, forced abortion, ford foundation, foundation, freedom, freedom to fascism, fusion center, gmo, government, gps, green, greenpeace, gulf war, gun, gun ban, gun registry, handgun, health care, hitler, hollywood, holocaust, hope, hr, humanitarian, hunt, hunting, illegal, import, income tax, infowars, infrastructure, Iraq, irs, left, legalize, lie, lyric, marijuana, marine, matrix, media, medical, medical care, microchip, mike rivero, monetary system, money, monsanto, movie, music, myspace, national id, nature, navy, nazi, new world order, nwo, obama, one child policy, opium, pistol, plan, planned parenthood, police, police brutality, politic, politition, popular, prescription, president, priest, private security, pro choice, pro life, psych, puppet, real world, reality show, record company, reform, religion, republican, revolution, rfid, rifle, right, ron paul, semi automatic, senate, sex, smart grid, socialism, society, song, sovereign, sovereignty, state, stun gun, take over, takeover, tazer, television, terror, terrorist, third party, thought police, tv, u.n., united nations, united states, value, video game, vote, voter fraud, war, War on Terror, warfare, wealth, what really happened, who, world war 3, wto, xanax, xe, youtube, zionism, zionist
https://realitybloger.wordpress.com/2009/09/17/an-insidious-plan-to-take-over-the-world/
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Cuestionario: Las funciones deben ser numéricas
So, stick a quiz again. Which of these features are numeric? Note that non-numeric features can't be used, it's just that we need to find a way to represent them in a numeric form. So, here again, we're trying to predict the number of coupons that are going to be used when we looking at different features of that different discount coupon. So, the percent value of the discount, for example, say, you have 10 percent off, 20 percent off, is this numeric? Yeah, sure. And as a meaningful magnitude, a 20 percent coupon is worth twice as much as a 10 percent discount coupon. So, this is not a problem at all and the percent value is a meaningful numeric input as well. Now, the size of the coupon, number two. Suppose I defined it as four square centimeters, super small, twenty 24 cents, two square centimeters, and then 48 square centimeters. Is this numeric? Sure and you can relate the different sizes, potentially for the magnitude. But it's also unclear whether or not the magnitudes are meaningful, so this was an ad we were placing like a banner ad. Larger ads are typically better and you could argue that that would make sense for magnitude. But if it's a physical coupon like something that goes out in your newspaper, then you have to wonder whether or not a 48 square centimeter coupon is actually twice as good as the 24 square centimeter coupon. So, let's change the problem a little bit. Suppose we defined the coupon as small, medium, and large. At this point, are small, medium, or large numeric? No, not at all. So, look. I'm not saying they can't have categorical variables as inputs to neural networks, you can. It's just that you can't use small, medium, or large directly. You have to do something smart to them and we'll look at this in a little bit. So, you just have to find different way to represent them in numeric form and we'll take a look at how to do that surely. First off, let's take the third. The font of an advertisement, Arial 18, Times New Roman 24, is this numeric? No. How do you convert Times New Roman to numeric? Well, you could say that Arial is number one, Times New Roman is number two, Rubato is number three, Comic Sans is number four, etc., etc., but that's a number code. They don't have meaningful magnitudes. If we said Arial is one and Times New Roman is two, Times New Roman isn't twice as good as Arial. So, the meaningful magnitude part is really, really important. Next up, the color of the coupon, red, black, blue, green, et cetera. Again, those aren't numeric, saying they don't have meaningful magnitudes. Now, we could come up with numbers like an RGB value to make some meaningful numbers or hex codes, but they're not going to be meaningful numerically. If I subtract two colors and the difference between them is three, does that mean if I subtract two other colors, the difference between them is also three, that these two are equal? No. And that's a problem. Next up, item category, one for dairy, two for deli, three for canned goods. No. Again, these are categorical. It's not numeric. So again, here, we are not saying that you can't use non-numerical values, we're just saying that we need to do something to them and we look at things that we'll need to do to them shortly. So, as an example, suppose you have words in an NLP or Natural Language Processing system, and the things that you do to the words to make them numeric is that you could typically run something like word2vec or word to vector. It's a very standard technique, and you basically take your words, and apply this technique to the word vectors, so that each word becomes a vector. And at the end of the word2vec process, when you look at these vectors, these vectors are such that if you take the vector from man and you take the vector from woman, and you actually subtract them, subtract those words, the difference that you get is going to be a very similar difference, is if you took the vector for king, and the vector for queen, and subtracted them. Interesting, right? That's exactly the Word2vec does. So, changing an input variable that that's not numeric to be numeric, it's not a simple matter, it's a lot of work, but it can be done. Well, you could just go ahead and throw some random encoding in there like one, two, three, four, five, but your ML model is not to be as good as if you started with a vector encoding that's nice enough to understand the context of like male, female, man, woman, king, and queen. So, that's what we're talking about when we say that you need to have numeric features and they need to have those meaningful magnitudes. They need to be useful. You need to be able to do eras, matic operations on them. You need to find a vector representations in such a way that these kinds of qualities exist for you. And one of the ways you can do these things automatically using processes called auto-encoding or embedding. Or oftentimes, for example, if you're doing natural language processing, word2vec already exists and you already have dictionaries that are already available to you. And more commonly, that's what you'll use. And when you go ahead, and use one of these dictionaries to take your text, and convert them into vectors, you'll go off and use them. No problem. You won't actually have to build the mapping yourself for something that's non-numeric into numeric. These things already exists. So, if they don't exist, you may have to build that yourself.
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Comments (104 comments)
Grads leave lasting legacy: Integrated prom
(CNN) - On Saturday, 68 seniors will graduate from Wilcox County High School in South Georgia, leaving behind a legacy that could last long after they’ve said their goodbyes: Next year, for the first time, their high school will host a prom.
It’s a new tradition in their small rural community, one they hope will eliminate their county’s custom of private, racially segregated proms.
A small group from 2013’s senior class sparked the idea of an integrated prom this year, bucking 40 years of high school tradition.
When their county’s racially segregated schools combined in the early 1970s, the school called off its homecoming dance and prom; it was a volatile time at the newly integrated school, alumni said, and parents and school leaders were wary of black and white students attending the same dance. Like in many other Southern communities, Wilcox County students and parents stepped in to plan private, off-site parties, complete with formal gowns, tuxedos, DJs and décor.
But long after outward racial tension died down, the private, segregated parties in Wilcox County remained - a quiet reminder of racism, students said.
This year, a few white and black seniors organized a prom open to all Wilcox County High School students, whether white, black, Latino or Asian.
"If we're all together and we love each other the way we say we do, then there are no issues," integrated prom organizer and Wilcox County senior Mareshia Rucker said during the dance in April. "This is something that should have happened a long time ago."
Their campaign drew international media attention and an outpouring of online support and donations of money, prom dresses and DJ services. It also drew some criticism from students and parents who liked the old tradition, and community members who worried about the negative light cast on their small town.
Scenes from Wilcox County students' first integrated prom
Regardless of the ups and downs, students said, they would have preferred an official school prom instead of a private, integrated event off-campus.
Next year, it’s happening.
Filed under: Georgia • High school • Prom
(CNN) - Chelesa Fearce is the valedictorian at Charles Drew High School near Atlanta, Georgia, but it didn't come without a fight. The 17-year-old and her family have been homeless for years, living out of shelters, cars and occasionally short-lived apartments while her mom struggled to keep a job.
But Chelesa would crack open books at the homeless shelter and read against a cell phone light, she told CNN affiliate WSB. She's graduating with a 4.46 GPA, and is heading to Spelman College in the fall with enough credits to be a junior.
Her advice to students? "Do what you have to do right now so that you can have the future you want," she said.
From scrubbing floors to Ivy League: Homeless students heads to Harvard
Filed under: Awesome • College • Graduation • Students
Going to school, instead of work
CNN Films' "Girl Rising" documents extraordinary girls and the power of education to change the world. Watch June 16 on CNN
By Betsy Anderson, CNN
(CNN) - Purnima lives in Nepal. She wants to be a nurse. But because she is a girl instead of a boy, she is more likely to go to work than go to school.
In Nepal, government schools start charging tuition in the sixth grade. But Purnima was selected to be part of the Girls Education program with the nonprofit Room to Read and was able to continue her education.
"I am the first person getting an education in my family and my brother and sisters did not get the chance due to our family background ... we are from a poor family so we cannot afford to go to school," says Purnima.
Purnima lives with her family in a room above the carpet factory where her older sister works. Her father is paralyzed. Her mother became blind when Purnima was 2 years old. All her siblings stopped going to school after the fifth grade.
Follow @CNNschools on Twitter and CNN Living on Facebook.
Purnima is 17 and has just finished secondary school at the top of her class. In fact, she was at the top of her class every year.
Purnima is about to start two years of Nepal's post-secondary school and she plans to go on to college. For a long time, she wanted to be an eye doctor. Now she says she is going to be a nurse and she may have a good chance to do just that. According to Room to Read, about 76% of its graduates go on to some kind of university, college or vocational training after secondary school.
Posted by Betsy Anderson -- CNN
Filed under: Girl Rising • International education • Students
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The ‘Burbs (1989)
4-Word Review: New neighbors cause suspicion.
Ray (Tom Hanks) spends his vacation milling about his suburban home while keeping a close eye on his new neighbors that are rarely ever seen, but at night their basement emits strange noises and lights. Mark (Bruce Dern) and Art (Rick Ducommun) are two other men living in the cul-de-sac who notice the same things. Together they decide to form a strategy by finagling their way inside the rundown place and seeing what exactly is going on in there especially after another neighbor, the elderly Walter (Gale Gordon) mysteriously disappears.
Director Joe Dante has had a lot of success at doing films that mixes elements of horror with dark comedy, but this exercise fails almost immediately because there is nothing scary about it. In fact the humor and threadbare story are so innocuous that it becomes downright boring after about the first 10 minutes. The film fails to have much of a second or third act and the light doses of humor and action sprinkled about barely make up for it. The whole thing comes off like something written by an unimaginative novice that was more suited for an episode of an anthology series than a feature film.
Hanks manages to be marginally funny and Carrie Fisher makes for a good anchor as his no-nonsense wife, but Dern gets wasted as what starts out to be an over-the-top caricature of a right-wing gun-toting radical that soon gets as watered down as the rest of the script. He does manage to get in a few of his ‘Dernisms’, which was mainly due to the fact that the actors were allowed to ad-lib their own lines due to the fact that it was shot during a writer’s strike, but the part isn’t half as funny as it could’ve been. Also, in real-life a person like him wouldn’t be married to such a hot-looking younger woman and it would’ve been more impactful had the actress cast as his wife been his physical equal. I also wondered why they had so much free time to spend milling about the neighborhood. Hanks’ character was on vacation, but what was their excuse?
The ultimate revelation as to who the neighbors are or what they were doing is quite stale and almost like a non-event. If you are actually considering thinking of sitting through this thing just to find out that answer I would suggest that you don’t bother as it’s not in any way worth the effort. Also, there is never any explanation for what the neighbors were really doing, why they have a trunk full of human skulls, or why they would summon the police when they think their house has been broken into. There is incriminating evidence at their residence, so why bother risking having the police come over to find it? Since they clearly didn’t have any problem killing people why didn’t they just attack the would-be intruders like they had done to their other victims?
End of Spoiler Alert!
Released: February 17, 1989
Available: DVD, Amazon Video
Posted in 80's Movies, Black Comedy, Mystery
Tagged Bruce Dern, Carrie Fisher, Entertainment, Joe Dante, Movies, Review, Tom Hanks
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Going Offline During a Pandemic: United Health Services Gets Hit with Ransomware
It’s been a rough week for Universal Health Services, one of the largest health networks in the country. The company was hit with a nation-wide cyberattack, bringing down its IT system. Facilities had to reroute ambulances and patients to nearby facilities at the last second, creating a patchwork of care in some of the nation’s most vulnerable areas.
The company oversees more than 400 locations, including 26 acute care hospitals, 328 behavioral health facilities and 42 outpatient facilities across the U.S., Puerto Rico, and the U.K. According to eyewitness reports, computers began failing over the weekend, leaving staff locked out of the system. Ransomware is designed to take IT systems offline, holding this data for ransom. As soon as the administrators pay the requested fee, the hackers will release the data and restore the IT system.
Find how one of the largest medical cyberattacks in history nearly brought down one of the world’s busiest health networks.
Going Back to Pen and Paper
Things quickly took a turn for the worst over the weekend at various United Health Services facilities. Multiple nurses on staff, who wish to remain anonymous considering their employer did not authorize them to speak with the media, said the outages came out of nowhere. Almost immediately, staff had to start recording patient information with pen and paper.
One nurse working in North Dakota said that all the computers slowed to a stop on Sunday morning to the point where they wouldn’t even turn on. Another provider from Arizona said that the computer seemed to turn off on its own.
For the Arizona facility, all medication information is stored online. The nurse said the system automatically backs itself up at the end of the day, but providers didn’t have access to this information. “We had those up to date as of the 26th,” the nurse said. “Now we had to hand-label every medication. It’s all improv.”
While many facilities went quiet during the crisis, nurses from other United Health Services facilities started sharing their experiences online via Reddit. One nurse wrote, it was “a hot mess in the ER today.” Ambulances with heart patients were being diverted because the facility’s catheterization lab was down. Amid the attack, computer screens started filling up with messages about the “shadow universe.”
Another nurse in California posted, “Our ER is closed to ambulances and OR’s are closed and all ambulances and surgeries are being rerouted.” Staff members were quickly told to leave the computers offline and that they wouldn’t be coming back online for several days.
Representatives from the company said that personal information from patients or employees doesn’t seem to have been copied or misused. In an official statement, they wrote, “We implement extensive IT security protocols and are working diligently with our IT security partners to restore IT operations as quickly as possible. In the meantime, our facilities are using their established back-up processes including offline documentation methods. Patient care continues to be delivered safely and effectively.”
A Troubling Pattern
Hackers tend to focus their efforts on healthcare facilities for several reasons. For one, they tend to own large swaths of personal information. Time is also of the essence in the healthcare industry, so companies may be more willing to pay the ransom if it means getting back online as fast as possible, especially when peoples’ lives are at stake.
A 2018 Verizon Data Breach Report shows that ransomware is now the most used type of malware. 2016 was one of the worst years for cyberattacks among healthcare providers as they were the victims of 88% of ransomware attacks.
At the start of the coronavirus pandemic, ransomware operators said they wouldn’t target health systems during the crisis. These groups often disguise their identities, and many of them have been linked to foreign adversaries. The attack on United Health Services is believed to have been conducted by Ryuk ransomware, which is connected to a Russian group of cybercriminals. Ryuk was one of the few ransomware operators that refused to spare healthcare facilities during the pandemic.
Speaking out on the recent hack, lia Sotnikov, vice president of product management for IT security firm Netwrix, said, “It is sad to see that despite hackers’ claims to stop healthcare cyber-attacks during COVID-19 crisis, such attacks still take place.”
We could see more of these attacks in the months ahead, even though ransomware operators promised to spare healthcare facilities during the pandemic. Clearly, Ryuk doesn’t play by these rules. Even a minor disruption to IT systems can be disastrous for patients.
Kenneth White, a computer security engineer that specializes in working with hospitals, says, “When nurses and physicians can’t access labs, radiology or cardiology reports, that can dramatically slow down treatment, and in extreme cases, force re-routing for critical care to other treatment centers. When these systems go down, there is the very real possibility that people can die.”
Hackers tend to target hospitals on the weekends when there aren’t as many IT professionals around. Keep your eyes peeled for suspicious emails and messages, so your facility doesn’t become the next victim of a cyberattack.
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Medievalists explore the art of being interdisciplinary
Babel Working Group hosts "Cruising in the Ruins" conference
“This is the intellectual version
of the slow food movement.”
— Arthur Bahr, MIT Associate Professor of Literature
MIT medievalist and literary scholar Arthur Bahr is excited about teaching the Institute’s engineering and science students—not least because he gains fresh perspective on his own historical field from conversations with people immersed in inventing the future.
MIT’s world-class engineering/science atmosphere attracts many humanists, artists, and social scientists like Bahr, an Associate Professor of Literature, who relish the experience of teaching in a university that fosters collaborations across disciplines. Helping to share and extend that MIT tradition is now at the core of an innovative conference that Bahr helped produce recently for the Babel Working Group.
Life beyond the silos
At “Cruising in the Ruins: The Question of Disciplinarity in the Post/Medieval University,” scholars from several fields grappled with large, compelling questions—as a way of exploring a proposition articulated by Bill Readings in The University in Ruins: that today's universities could generate even better research and pedagogy by encouraging a “rhythm of disciplinary attachment and detachment.”
Based on his experience at MIT, Bahr says, “Shaking up narrowly defined disciplinary silos can have real benefits.” He notes, for example, that he gained fresh insight into Shakespeare’s sonnets by answering an engineering student’s technical query: Why did Shakespeare use that poetic form? The question led to an engaging classroom exercise in which students attempted to rewrite the poems in prose—learning by doing the literary virtues, the benefits, of the sonnet form.
Increasing opportunities for insight
“What you need, in addition to niche specialization, is many different kinds of opportunities for that ‘aha moment’ to strike you," Bahr says. "MIT’s students give me lots of those opportunities because they come at literature from such a different vantage point; hopefully those of us in the humanities help push them, too. As we realize more and more aspects of the world’s complexity, it’s crucial to remember that none of us is capable of fully perceiving [everything] on our own.”
Bahr is also an active member of the Babel Working Group, an international organization composed of medievalists primarily, whose mission is to catalyze more cross-disciplinary alliances among scholars from the sciences, humanities, arts, and social sciences.
Audaciously large questions
At the Babel conference “medievalists, humanists of all stripes, scientists, social scientists, and artists” explored a series of ideas in three plenary sessions: one titled “The Deep and the Personal: The Earth, Time and Thought,” and two that consist of paired talks—“(Un)earthly Paradise” with "What’s Art Got to Do With It?” which addresses conceptions of art and beauty from Eden onward; and "Sympathy as Material Power" with "How the Hippies Saved Physics,” which juxtaposes the medieval with a more modern view of physics.
These and myriad other conference sessions paired medievalists with scholars from other fields—including geology, physics, history, literature, and political science—and the sessions intentionally took on audaciously large questions, ranging from “What is critical thinking” to “What is the relationship between Earth and life on Earth?
The BABEL conference paired medievalists with scholars from
other fields—including geology, physics, history, literature,
and political science—and the sessions explored audaciously large
questions, ranging from “What is critical thinking” to “What is
the relationship between Earth and life on Earth?
Some of the MIT faculty who participated in the conference include, L to R: David Kaiser, Professor of History, and Lecturer, Department of Physics; Arthur Bahr, Associate Professor of Literature; Diana Henderson, Professor of Literature
The goal of the conference was to be both provocative and fun—allowing intellectuals to simply soak up and enjoy each other’s contributions. “It can be valuable to take a day and just not think about problem sets,” Bahr says. “This is the intellectual version of the slow food movement.” It’s important to remember, he adds, that “there isn’t a straightforward, linear path to the most crucial scientific breakthroughs.”
Learning how to engage in productive interdisciplinary dialogues—while remaining grounded in one’s own field—is critical, Bahr says, to sustaining universities as places that give students a multi-dimensional education with depth and breadth.
MIT's approach
“To MIT’s great credit, it does that,” Bahr adds, praising the Institute for designing an education that emphasizes modes of knowledge from science, humanities, arts, technology, and social sciences.
On this subject, Deborah Fitzgerald, Kenan Sahin Dean of MIT’s School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, says “MIT understands that generating solutions for great challenges requires both technical and scientific creativity, and an understanding of the world’s political, cultural, and economic complexities. A primary goal at MIT SHASS is to empower young engineers and scientists with critical thinking skills, and the cultural, aesthetic, and historic perspectives they need to navigate the contexts in which they will work—so their vital innovations can succeed."
Bahr agrees, “One aim of the Babel conference” he says, “was to share that MIT approach with a wider audience.”
Cruising in the Ruins
Disciplinarity in the Post Medieval University
20-22 September 2012; Boston, Massachusetts
Conference fees waived for MIT students
Organizers: BABEL Working Group, MIT, Boston College, College of Charleston, Harvard University, Northeastern University, Palgrave Macmillan, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, and Tufts University
Prepared by MIT SHASS Communications
Editor and Design Director: Emily Hiestand
Writer: Kathryn O'Neill
Photography of Bahr, Kaiser: Jon Sachs
Painting: detail, The Tower of Babel, Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1563)
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A(SRY)Sqn RY
The Reserves
Squadron News
Regimental Association
Arnold Branch
Midlands Branch
The Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry Regimental Association
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFOMATION
In 1915-16 they fought dismounted at Gallipoli, then took a leading part in the great cavalry advance of 1917-18 through Palestine and Syria which broke the Turkish army.
Beginning the Second World War still on horseback, they ended it as an armoured regiment of the highest renown, earned by fighting in tanks from Alamein to Tunis then from D-Day, through France, Belgium and Holland and into Germany.
Throughout the Cold War the Sherwood Rangers kept high standards of readiness and training in armoured and reconnaissance rôles, contributing to NATO’s successful facing down of the Soviet threat. In recent years, Sherwood Rangers have seen active service in Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan, and they continue to be at the forefront of the nation’s defence capability.
The Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry have a distinguished history and proud continuing record of service as Army Reserves unmatched by any other Unit. They are and have been extraordinarily adaptable throughout and are currently rôled as Light Cavalry, equipped with the new RWMIK Land Rover vehicle.
Formed in 1794 against a threatened French invasion, the Sherwood Rangers were also used for internal security during the early 19th century. They then became a general reserve cavalry unit. They first served abroad during the Boer War, as part of the Imperial Yeomanry.
This site is maintained by friends of A (The Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry) Squadron, The Royal Yeomanry.
The content of this site is unofficial and should not be taken to reflect the policy or practice of any organisation
(in particular, the Army Reserve, the British Army or the UK Ministry of Defence).
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President Jokowi Ask the Indonesian Ambassador Emphasizes the Economic Diplomacy
Date 2 Februari 2015
Jokowi President delivered a speech in Ministry of Foreign Affairs Work Meeting 2015 at Gedung Pancasila, the Foreign Ministry, Jakarta, Monday (2/2)
President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) asked the Indonesian ambassador to friendly countries in order to put forward the economic diplomacy. He said, the Indonesian ambassador should be having keen instinct to see economic potential in the state placement.
“Actually, there are opportunities everywhere and opportunities are taken in areas which, clearly visible. During the three months became president, 90 percent are taken care about economy, “President Jokowi said when opening Working Meeting of the Officials of Foreign Ministry with the Indonesian Representatives Abroad, at Gedung Pancasila, Foreign Office, Jakarta, Monday (2/2 ).
President Jokowi said that his experience while serving as a Governor of Jakarta, in 2012-2014. During two years as governor of Jakarta, Jokowi said, mostly or approximately 99 percent of the affairs are handled together with the representatives of friendly countries in Indonesia is related to the economy.
He took the example, when the Government Provincial of Jakarta plans to build the mass rapid transportation (MRT), many ambassadors who came to him to ask what can be provided by the company from their home countries
“The Ambassadors come and ask me, where the train was purchased. Could you purchase from my country, if there are companies that participate. So, if there is a big job, the ambassador should be active, President Jokowi said.
Affirms the Existence of the State
Earlier, Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno L.P. Marsudi in the report said, is an honor for the diplomatic corps of the Republic of Indonesia that the President may attend in Work Meeting between Foreign Ministry officials with the head of Representative of Indonesia abroad.
Retno said, Work Meeting entitled “Diplomacy for the People: Affirms the existence of State in Foreign Politics” that aims to harmonize measures and strategies of diplomacy and foreign politics of Indonesia. “By equipping which concrete nature, the diplomats are expected to be able to speak one voice and move in one motion to fight for the interests of Indonesia, “said the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Furthermore, the Minister of Foreign Affairs said that based on the vision and mission of national development submitted by the President and Vice President as well as the direction of the President in cabinet meeting in October 27, 2014, and based on full awareness as a maritime nation, Indonesia’s foreign policy will be prioritized for four terms. First, to protect the sovereignty of the Republic of Indonesia. Second, to protect the citizens of Indonesia (WNI) and the Indonesian legal entity (BHI) abroad. Third, improve the economic diplomacy, including maritime diplomacy. Fourth, increase the role of Indonesia in the region and international.
“The work of Indonesian diplomats should be able to benefit for the people and nation of Indonesia. According to the constitution, Indonesian diplomacy should also be able to contribute to the peace and prosperity of the world,” said Minister.
Work Meeting the Foreign Ministry official with the Indonesia’s Foreign Representatives held from 2-5 February 2015, followed by 132 heads of representatives, ambassadors, consulates general and permanent authority Indonesia. (AOS/WID/ES)
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Perspectives on the flu: Ralph Baric, PhD
Q: How bad could the next pandemic be, in terms of number of people who die?
A: The 1918 flu in the United States had attack rates of 30 to 40 percent, which means it infected that proportion of people who had no prior immunity. For those infected, mortality rates were up to 3 percent. If the next flu pandemic is equally serious, then in the United States alone, more than 100 million people would be infected, and more than 3 million would die. That would be in the first wave of the pandemic – a few months. The 1918 flu had at least three waves over one year’s time, starting in spring 1918.
Q: Why was the 1918 flu so deadly?
A: It was an H1N1 strain, so-called for the variants of hemagglutinin (H) protein and neuraminidase (N) protein on the viral surface, and the population hadn’t been exposed to an H1 strain in a very long time. When those new hemagglutinin types come through, and people don’t appreciate how dangerous they are, the mortality rates tend to go up. With 1918 flu, a combination of viral gene variants also made the flu more deadly.
Dr. Ralph Baric (Photo by Linda Kastleman)
Q: Where would you expect the next big flu pandemic to emerge?
A: Most likely, it would emerge in a dense population with open animal markets – for example, markets with chickens, ducks and geese in close proximity to people. Such environments raise the risk that a flu strain adapted to animals will adapt to infect humans, and because it will be new, we’ll have little or no immunity to it.
Q: Is the U.S. health care system ready for something like this?
A: There are about 4,700 hospitals in the country. Most are set up to provide critical care to no more than 20–40 people – making the total critical care capacity in the country on the order of hundreds of thousands of patients. However, a pandemic similar to the 1918 flu would produce millions, or even tens of millions, of critically ill people. That gives us an idea of how overwhelmed the system would be.
Q: What about antiviral drugs, such as Tamiflu?
A: The government has stockpiled anti-flu drugs, and in principle, the drugs would be administered to health care workers and some patients. Those stockpiles would be depleted rapidly, and there probably wouldn’t be enough available to treat millions of patients. Also, while those drugs in clinical trials have seemed effective if given early, before symptoms appear, there haven’t been trials showing that they work for people who are already seriously ill.
Q: What about the seasonal vaccine?
A: The seasonal flu vaccine is designed to be reformulated quickly to include protection against new strains. If a new pandemic strain were to emerge, we almost immediately would identify the strain and begin testing candidate vaccines against it – but that process of vaccine testing and large-scale manufacture takes months, so it’s unlikely a vaccine would be available during the first wave of the pandemic.
Dr. Timothy Sheahan wears a full-body protective suit while working in Dr. Ralph Baric’s biosafety level four lab. (Photo by Jennie Saia)
Q: So, against a first wave of a highly virulent pandemic flu, we’d be largely defenseless?
A: A universal vaccine could protect us from future flu pandemics, but such a vaccine hasn’t been developed yet. That’s still probably five to 10 years away.
In a worst-case scenario, there isn’t a whole lot we could do to stop a flu pandemic. It would sweep through the population, and people would die more quickly than they could be buried. Even people who weren’t sick wouldn’t go to work; the economy would come to a standstill. Countries would quarantine their borders, so international trade would collapse. There would be societal upheaval. Remember, too – America is a relatively rich and well developed country. The situation would be far worse in most other parts of the world.
Q: Is it conceivable that a future pandemic flu strain could have an even higher mortality rate than the 1918 flu?
A: There are bird flu strains now that sporadically infect humans with mortality rates as high as 50 percent. Most virologists think that to be highly transmissible among humans, a flu virus can’t be that virulent. Yet, if there were a highly transmissible strain with mortality rates even close to that level, then obviously, we would be talking about billions of deaths. You’d be remodeling the human population.
Ralph Baric, PhD, is professor of epidemiology at the Gillings School and professor of microbiology and immunology at the UNC School of Medicine. He studies dangerous emergent viruses, including SARS, MERS, Ebola, Zika and pandemic influenza.
—Jim Schnabel
Carolina Public Health is a publication of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health. To view previous issues, please visit sph.unc.edu/cph.
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Playing in a Band
Singing Lessons & Tips
Instruments & Gear
Aretha Franklin Dies at Age 76
Margaret Minnicks
Margaret Minnicks has been an online writer for many years. She writes about various things, including celebrities and entertainment.
Aretha Franklin died on Thursday, August 16, 2018, at the age of 76 from advanced pancreatic cancer. The time of her death was 9:50 a.m. The news broke very rapidly. By 10 a.m. regular television shows were interrupted for the breaking news to be reported.
The Queen of Soul and her music have been well-known all over the world for many years. Tributes poured in for the singer whose health was described as "gravely ill" for the last few days. She was getting hospice care at home where she was surrounded by family members and friends.
A special vigil for Aretha was held Wednesday, August 15 at 5 a.m. at her hometown church in Detroit. Pastor Robert Smith, Jr. of New Bethel Baptist Church said people gathered to pray for a miracle. Just one day later, the superstar died at her home.
Franklin canceled many concerts for health reasons last year and this year. Her last public concert was a year ago. She sang at an event for the Elton John AIDS Foundation at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan last November.
Visited By Celebrities
The singer got a lot of respect at her home in Detroit. On Tuesday, she was visited by the Rev. Jesse Jackson and singer Stevie Wonder. She has been divorced from her second husband since 1984. Even so, Glynn Turman also visited her.
Tributes for the iconic singer were on social media after the news of her grave illness came out on Sunday. Since then, her name was a trending topic on social media. Her many fans, celebrities, and world leaders sent tributes. Jay-Z and Beyoncé dedicated their concert at Ford Field in Detroit on Monday night to the Queen of Soul.
Others singers and celebrities such as Mariah Carey, Chance the Rapper, Ciara, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Rod Stewart, Patti LaBelle, Missy Elliott, and Tyler Perry paid tribute on social media so far. Now that the singer has died, people are expressing their condolences on social media.
Ms. Franklin had connections with former U.S. Presidents. She sang at Bill Clinton's first inauguration in 1993. Clinton posted on Twitter that he and Hillary are thinking about her and listening to her music that has been such an important part of their lives the last 50 years.
Aretha also sang at Barack Obama’s first inauguration in 2009. She was a Kennedy Center Honoree and received the National Medal of Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush.
Singing at President Barack Obama’s first inauguration in 2009.
It was a very cold day when Aretha sang at President Obama's first inauguration. She was fashionable in her gray hat, coat, and gloves.
Her gray felt hat was topped with a giant, matching bow with three rhinestones as she sang My Country 'Tis of Thee. The hat got so much attention that the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. requested the hat be given to them to place in an exhibition at the museum. However, Aretha decided not to give it up.
Franklin's Many Honors
Franklin was the recipient of many honors and awards during her long career. She was the first woman inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. She has won 18 Grammy Awards and sold over 75 million records worldwide during her 66-year music career. She started out singing in church where her father was the preaching and her mother was the pianist and vocalist.
Rolling Stone ranked her the greatest singer of all time in 2010. She moved ahead of Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, John Lennon, and Elvis Presley.
Being honored at Kennedy Center Honoree by President George W. Bush
Aretha Franklin recorded Respect in 1967 that many people still sing today. In interviews over the years, she said she had no idea it would become one of her best selling songs.
Upcoming Honors for Aretha Franklin
Two honors were scheduled before Franklin's death. The legendary singer and her music will be celebrated.
Gary Graff confirmed earlier this year that Jennifer Hudson will play the role of Franklin in her coming biopic.
An all-star tribute concert to Franklin is scheduled for November 14, 2018, at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Millions of fans around the world are also mourning Aretha's death. She is survived by her four sons: Clarence Franklin, 63, Edward Franklin, 61, Ted White Jr., 54, and Kecalf Cunningham, 48. The singer gave birth to her first child when she was 12 years old and her second child when she was 14. She was unmarried at the time of both births. She gave them her last name. Her third son was born while she was married to Ted White. Her fourth son was born from a relationship with Aretha's road manager. All four of her children have different fathers.
Margaret Minnicks (author) from Richmond, VA on August 15, 2018:
Tim, thanks for the kind remarks you made about the article I posted about Aretha Franklin. I like that you said she will sing with choirs again. That was very touching.
Blessings to you, Tim!
Tim Truzy from U.S.A. on August 15, 2018:
She is a legend which we treasure and we will miss. Thank you for a well written article about a singing who has inspired and challenged everyone to push forward.
Her voice, her compassion, and her soulful existence always will be remembered.
I recall reading how she started singing with choirs, and she will do so again.
Much respect,
Threekeys, Aretha Franklin's music has been heard all around the world. People are praying for her and her family.
threekeys on August 14, 2018:
I heard about her grave condition yesterday. All our best are going away. I loved a lot of her music. Just thinking back..there are so may great soul songs. The two songs that come to mind right now are "Like a Natural Woman"; and "Respect".
Music was real music then. Will miss you Arethra! May you always face the direction of the Sun.
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Zombie capitalism
Chris Harman, who has just written a new book about why Marxist ideas are key to grasping how the system works, spoke to Socialist Worker
Published Tue 23 Jun 2009
Cover of Zombie Capitalism
Your new book about the economic crisis is called Zombie Capitalism. What is this?
Some commentators are using the term “zombie banks” to describe a situation in which the banking system is seizing up and having adverse effects on everything around it.
A zombie bank is worthless but it continues to operate because of government support. So the dead are having a terrible effect on the living.
I thought it was appropriate to use the term “zombie capitalism” to describe the system as a whole.
My new book looks at how the theories of Karl Marx can explain why crisis is endemic to the system.
Marx referred to capitalism as the domination of the dead over the living, the past over the present. He described how the products of people’s labour come to dominate their lives and the lives of those who follow them.
Workers have no control over what they produce, how they produce it, how much they produce or what happens to the goods once they have been made. So the products appear as alien with a power all of their own.
Zombie capitalism is a particularly apt term to use in the current period.
When industrial capitalism began 250 years ago it was a fantastically dynamic system that went on to engulf the whole world. It has always experienced crises.
But since the mid-1970s it has been going through a long phase of crisis, in which booms are interspersed by deeper and deeper slumps.
Capitalists have not been motivated to invest all their profits on expanding production, because the rate of return they get on their investments has been low.
They have cut workers’ wages to try to maintain their profits. This has led to an increase in borrowing and debt. But the banks and financial institutions loaned more money than they would ever get back.
This sparked the “credit crunch” of two years ago and the crisis we are now in.
What caused this crisis?
Most mainstream economists said that this was just a problem of finance.
This is not the case. It reflects a much deeper, more fundamental problem in the system.
Marx identified crisis as a central feature of capitalism.
Competition drives the system forward. But because each capitalist competes to grab as much of a market for themselves as possible, there is always the danger that the total that is produced is more than can be bought.
Two things can help to overcome this tendency. The first is that workers can spend their wages on a certain proportion of the goods produced.
The second is that capitalists can invest their profits in new factories, buying up other goods that have been produced in the process, such as iron, steel, oil and electricity.
If either of these sources of demand collapse then the economy can go into crisis.
Overproduction causes strains in the system. If goods can’t be sold then factories lose money and sack workers. This means that those workers can’t buy goods produced by other factories, and these factories then sack workers, leading to deeper problems.
In the current crisis, governments have poured vast sums of money into the system. What will the effects of this be?
No one knows. Each multinational and bank keeps their level of debt a secret because they don’t want their competitors to have an advantage over them. And capitalists exaggerate their profits because they want their stock exchange value to rise.
So no one knows what the real profits, or losses, of the system are.
Governments are trying to use money to fill a huge hole, but no one knows how big it is. At some point in the near future they will try to get their money back – but they will try to take it from ordinary people, not the bankers.
In this situation, some governments are better positioned than others. For instance, the US is the world’s biggest economy and can probably afford to postpone the moment of truth for a time. But eastern European states such as Latvia are in dire straits.
Britain is in an intermediary position. It is still one of the world’s most powerful economies.
Many mainstream economists are saying that the British government will have to get the money they have ploughed into the banks back through either huge tax increases or attacks on public services, or probably both.
The Tories and Labour are having an argument over the level of public spending cuts needed. Labour wants to make the cuts but pretend they’re not happening while the Tories have openly admitted they’ll make the cuts.
Has the economic crisis had an impact on the ideology of neoliberalism, the free market policies that have dominated the world for the past 30 years?
Neoliberalism is an ideology primarily used to justify attacks on workers. Despite the rhetoric of non-intervention in the free market, governments have continually moved to support big business.
But this was always done behind closed doors. The difference today is that they have had to do it in broad daylight.
This means that it is much easier to argue that this crisis has been caused by capitalism than it was during the crisis of the 1970s. Then the turmoil was blamed on the trade unions and the oil sheikhs.
Most people today can see that the banks were a major part of the problem.
That does not mean that the arguments against the system can be won automatically. Every day sees a new attack in the right wing tabloids against asylum seekers, “benefit scroungers” or migrant workers.
The idea that “bosses and workers are in it together” is still there. The aim of this sentiment is to argue that we all benefited in the “boom” years so now we all have to suffer in the slump.
This idea has concrete effects. The Balpa pilots’ union, for example, has recommended pay cuts and longer hours for workers at British Airways to “help” the company.
But ordinary people did not benefit from the economic boom. Many had to borrow massively just to get by.
In any crisis people are thrown onto the defensive and can accept the idea that we’re all responsible.
But at the same time they can be angry about the worse conditions they’re living under.
Socialists have to put forward the arguments against the system and for uniting all workers.
Workers will listen to these arguments most when they’re involved in struggle and they begin to see clearly that there’s a divide in society along class lines.
There has been a revival of interest in Marxist ideas as a result of capitalism’s problems and a revival of Marxist economics among academics.
The mainstream economic periodicals, such as the Financial Times and the Economist, have had to switch from talking about the prophets of the free market to taking about John Maynard Keynes, an advocate of state intervention.
In the process they couldn’t avoid talking about Marx as well. And if anyone wants to understand the dynamics of capitalism they should look to Marx.
Are there signs of a recovery?
‘In recent weeks, a number of commentators have said that the economy should now start to recover. This shows how these people have no ideas. The stock exchanges have grown again by about 20 percent in the last four months – after falling by around 50 percent.
It’s still a long way from where it used to be. But if you’re trying to make a quick buck by gambling on the stock exchange, you can again.
Some say that “inflection point” has been reached. They don’t mean that the recession has ended but that the economy is not declining so dramatically.
They don’t know whether the vast amounts of money thrown into the system will bring the crisis to an end.
If the economy does start to recover, the impact for ordinary people will not be felt for some time. There will be a lag in terms of unemployment beginning to fall, for example.
Our leaders haven’t solved the root of the crisis. If you take ibuprofen when you have influenza, your headache goes away for a few hours, but it will come back later.
So if the bosses do get out of this crisis, they will have created the preconditions for an even deeper crisis to come.’
Zombie Capitalism is a new book by Chris Harman. It is available from Bookmarks, the socialist bookshop.
Go to » www.bookmarksbookshop.co.uk or phone 020 7637 1848 to order a copy
Tue 23 Jun 2009, 18:19 BST
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At the Graduate Studies Office, students are the core of our mission. Therefore, it was particularly heartening this year to mark all of their outstanding achievements, including the receipt of a number of key scholarships from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Canada’s three main granting agencies.
In addition to receiving these graduate studies scholarships, two of our doctoral students received a Vanier scholarship: Sophie Fobert (Psychology) and Guillaume Deschênes-Thériault (Political Science).
Three of our recent graduates won prizes for outstanding thesis work. Stephanie Piamonte, a recent graduate of the PhD program in criminology, won the Pierre Laberge Prize for the best doctoral thesis in the humanities for her thesis, Wicked Words and Illegal Imaginings: A Genealogy of Obscenity in Which a Criminological Case Study of Fanny Hill Is Conducted. In addition, Daniel Pierre-Charles Crépault, a recent PhD graduate in criminology, was awarded the Joseph De Koninck (Doctoral) Prize for his PhD thesis, Myth Making, Juridification, and Parasitical Discourse: A Barthesian Semiotic Demystification of Canadian Political Discourse on Marijuana. Marieliv Flores Villalobos, a recent graduate of the master’s program at the Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies, was awarded the Joseph De Koninck (Master’s) prize for her master’s thesis, The Stories of the Forced Sterilizations in Peru: The Power of Women's Voices.
None of these achievements would have been possible without the dedication and hard work of the students themselves, but also of their supervisors, the scholarship committee members, the staff in our nine units and the Graduate Studies Office. Thanks are due to all for their outstanding efforts.
During the 2019–2020 academic year, the Faculty implemented several new projects: offering additional funding opportunities at the doctoral level for student recruitment, working on the development of eight microprograms which should be launched in 2020–2021, getting approval to hire a psychologist to assist Faculty graduate students as of fall 2020, and working with the University on the reform of graduate scholarships for spring 2021. This year was also deeply affected by the pandemic, which led to many adjustments by the Faculty and the University.
In the coming year, many of our newly admitted doctoral students will benefit from additional funding that we were able to offer them on admission. Approximately $860,000 was distributed in the form of scholarships, international admission scholarships and matching competitive offers to ensure that we attract the best students to our programs. This investment will enable us to financially support our students during the upcoming year.
The University is excited to be working to create graduate microprograms for the upcoming year. This will allow the Faculty to identify a set of courses or research activities that will enhance student skills in a specific disciplinary or interdisciplinary area without requiring them to complete a full set of degree requirements. Graduate microprograms are a form of academic micro-credential that can be recognized and transferred for a future degree program. The microprograms under development are in anthropology, sociology, public and international affairs, political science and public administration. A graduate microprogram will consist of a cluster of graduate courses or a combination of graduate courses, research and/or practice activities, to a maximum of 9 units. We are excited about this new type of program, which will attract students.
The mental health of our students is of utmost importance, especially during these unprecedented times. We are excited that for this upcoming year we have received approval to hire a psychologist specifically for Faculty graduate students. We believe that this will greatly benefit our students.
The University has been working on a reform of graduate admission scholarships. We hope that in the upcoming months we will be able to share the new funding models for our programs. There will be some exciting changes in doctoral funding that we believe will help us recruit and support future potential students. We are eager to share these changes in the upcoming months.
We hope you are well despite the challenging circumstances brought out by the pandemic. The University remains committed to offering a world-class education. For the Fall term, rest assured that you will be able to complete your courses through distance learning. Your health and safety are our highest priority. We have thus rapidly adopted a flexible approach towards learning and student life, to ensure that you can begin or resume your studies regardless of the situation we face.
Sylvie Frigon, Ph. D.
Vice-Dean, Graduate Studies
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‘Starman’ puts Earth in the rearview mirror
February 8, 2018 William Harwood
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION
Now in an elliptical orbit around the sun, the Tesla Roadster launched atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket Tuesday during the powerful booster’s maiden flight was expected to pass beyond the moon’s orbit overnight Wednesday and reach the orbit of Mars in July as it puts Earth in its rear view mirror, analysts said.
SpaceX founder and chief designer Elon Musk released a spectacular final photo earlier in the day from a camera on the rocket’s second stage showing the Tesla and it’s space-suited driver “Starman” outbound with an increasingly distant crescent Earth in the background.
But where, exactly, is Starman heading?
About six hours after launch, the Falcon Heavy’s upper stage engine ignited for a third time, boosting the Tesla’s velocity high enough to carry it out of Earth’s gravitational reach.
Confirming the rocket firing, SpaceX released initial data indicating the Roadster was headed for an elliptical orbit around the sun with a high point, or aphelion, out in the asteroid belt, well beyond the orbit of Mars.
But experienced satellite analysts said the numbers provided by SpaceX didn’t quite add up and on Wednesday, the company provided an update that clarified the trajectory.
Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and a noted space analyst, said the new data show the Tesla is, in fact, in a solar orbit with a high point just beyond Mars, as initially predicted by SpaceX, and not on a long drive deep into the asteroid belt.
The data show that when the Tesla finally climbs out of the Earth-moon gravity well its velocity — reflected in a number known as C3 — will be 12 kilometers squared per second squared, which translates into a speed of about 3.5 kilometers per second, or 6,700 mph faster than Earth’s velocity as they both orbit the sun.
That excess velocity, provided by the upper stage’s final rocket firing, is what will enable the Tesla to leave Earth’s gravitational clutches and move out into the solar system, a point the Roadster will reach Sunday.
It will pass within about 69 million miles of Mars on June 8 and cross the red planet’s orbit in July before reaching its farthest distance from the sun — about 158 million miles — on Nov. 19.
After that, the Roadster and Starman will fall back toward the inner solar system, picking up speed as they near the low point of the orbit, or perihelion, on Sept. 1, 2019. Perihelion in this case roughly matches the distance of Earth’s orbit from the sun, the Tesla’s starting point. The Roadster then will head back out along the same path, traveling a now-familiar route over and over again for the foreseeable future.
Musk has said he likes to imagine the Tesla remaining in orbit for hundreds of millions of years if not longer. But McDowell said two forces acting on the car will limit its lifetime.
One is Jupiter. The giant planet’s gravity perturbs bodies in the asteroid belt and, over time, will have an effect on the Tesla’s trajectory. The other effect is a subtle acceleration produced by tiny temperature-related forces over extremely long periods that also would act to change the orbit.
“It’s tiny, but over timescales of millions of years it’s enough to shrink the orbit and make the thing fall into the sun,” McDowell said. “So it’s a race between does that happen before some Jupiter perturbation ejects it from the system.
“On timescales of centuries, it’s going to be pretty much in the orbit it’s in now. On timescales of thousands of years, it’s going to be in a not-horribly-different orbit, but Jupiter will mess it around some. And then on timescales of millions of years, it won’t be there anymore.”
Alan Fitzsimmons, an astronomer with Queen’s University in Belfast who studies minor bodies, asteroids and comets, tweeted that his initial calculations show the “chance of hitting a planet is almost zero. Most near-Earth asteroids end by solar vaporization or ejection from the solar system by Jupiter. Near Earth Cars should be the same.”
“I’ve done a quick orbital integration for the next 10,000 years assuming a reasonable orbit,” he said in an earlier tweet. “Basically the Tesla (Roadster)) is OK, but the orbit slowly elongates by gravitational perturbations and starts getting kicked about by Jupiter.”
Falcon Heavy Demo Flight
Launch Pad 39A
Japanese spacecraft reaches asteroid after three-and-a-half-year journey
Astronauts rehearse for launch day as mission managers watch weather
Proton rocket lifts off with Yamal 601 communications satellite
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John Bolton's Return: The Neocons Have Taken Over the Asylum
© AFP 2020 / Karen BLEIER
by John Wight
John Wight. Sputnik International
https://sputniknews.com/columnists/201803231062839797-john-bolton-return/
With John Bolton’s appointment as Trump’s new national security adviser, the circle closes on any remaining hope of the 45th President of the United States embarking on a different course from every other president that has preceded him in the Oval Office in recent years, when it comes to foreign policy.
A devoted disciple of the ‘bomb them to hell and ask questions later' school of US politics, Bolton's hawkish foreign policy credentials are so extreme he makes John McCain seem like Bambi by comparison. Nobody, for sure, would ever mistake him for Marcus Aurelius, the famed Roman emperor and Stoic who was legendary for his advocacy of restraint in all things, including war. For a man such as Mr Bolton restraint is blasphemy. After all, what's the point of amassing the largest and most destructive military in human history if you can't use it?
© AFP 2020 / Mike Theiler
'Hawk' of US Foreign Policy: Top-7 Things to Know About Future Trump's National Security Advisor John Bolton
When it comes to international law, for the likes of John Bolton this is for wimps. Real men and real countries bomb whom the hell they want when the hell they want, and screw the consequences.
Even worse than Bolton's appointment is the timing of it.
It comes just after the fifteenth anniversary of the start of the war on Iraq, involving the US and UK unleashing hell against Iraq and its people on the basis of we now know beyond doubt were lies.
In his capacity as US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control, Bolton was a key advocate of this illegal and imperialist war, thus making his return to frontline US politics in such a high profile role tantamount to spitting on the graves of the up to one million Iraqis who were killed as a consequence.
© REUTERS / Joshua Roberts
McMaster Out as US National Security Adviser, Former UN Ambassador John Bolton to Take Role
Yet despite the carnage and elemental suffering of the Iraqi people as a result of Bush and Blair's war, plunging the country into a sectarian bloodbath even though we and they had been assured that it would prove the catalyst for a new dawn of liberal democracy, Bolton continued and continues to defend it. In a 2015 interview he said, "I still think the decision to overthrow Saddam was correct." He then goes on to claim, with all the insouciance of an arsonist who has never seen a fire he didn't relish, that the disaster to befall the country and region afterwards was not connected to the war in 2003.
Bolton was appointed US ambassador to the United Nations by Bush in 2005. It was a decidedly strange appointment given Bolton's disdain for the institution and everything it represents, infamously asserting that there was "no such thing" as the UN and claiming that the US was the world's "only real power." For Bolton and his ilk, you see, US hegemony is the natural order of things, divinely ordained much as the Emperor Augustus erroneously perceived the Roman empire: "You cheer my heart, who build as if Rome would be eternal."
‘A Scary Figure’: John Bolton as National Security Adviser Would Pursue War With Iran - Historian
The war on Iraq ripped the mask of democracy from both the US and its British ally to reveal hubris and mendacity. The moral sickness of regime change, added to a cultural attachment to the verities of US hegemony, produced a messianic drive to reshape the world according to the image cooked up by a group of crazed neocons in Washington, prime among them John Bolton, along with a British prime minister obsessed with establishing his own Churchillian legacy. They succeeded only in sowing chaos and carnage, which rather than destroy terrorism spawned its growth to a scale hitherto unimaginable.
British journalist Jonathan Steele in his book Defeat: Why They Lost Iraq, recounts an exchange he had with former Jordanian ambassador to the UN, Adnan Abu Odeh, just as US military forces were about to enter Baghdad in April 2001: "What's going on in Iraq now recalls 1258 when the Mongols entered Baghdad," the Jordanian averred. "It's also like when Britain arrived in Baghdad in 1918. Iraq had the first civilization in history which domesticated animals and sowed plants for agriculture. Now it's being re-colonized for the second time. We see a new type of colonization with a transformed mission. In the past, it was guns, ships, and priests. Now it's guns and the gift of democracy."
The war on Iraq and ensuing occupation ended in military defeat for Washington and London. Instead of advancing the cause of Western liberal democracy it merely exposed it as organized hypocrisy.
Bannon to France's National Front: 'Tide of History Will Compel Us to Victory'
Yet despite the propaganda rolled out to justify turning Iraq from a functioning state into a failed state, the war was never about democracy. It was about seizing control of a major oil-producing state in the heart of a region long considered the rightful property of the self-appointed rulers of the world in Washington. As US author and academic Michael Macdonald writes, "The United States went to war — and failed to win the war — because regime-changers deluded themselves into believing they were the world and the world was better for it."
Whereas a key tenet of Trotskyism is a permanent revolution, a key tenet of neoconservatism is permanent destruction, with Bolton's appointment by Trump as national security adviser akin to spitting on the graves of the Iraq War dead. It marks a significant regression when it comes to US foreign policy, confirming that in Washington the neocons really have taken over the asylum.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.
The views and opinions expressed in the article do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.
US National Security Agency Reportedly in Jeopardy After Its Cyberweapons Stolen
China is 'Not a Threat' to US National Security, but to Its Global 'Dominance'
US Calls on Iran to Release Americans Held on National Security Charges
US Defense Attache in China Appointed to National Security Council
John McCain, Donald Trump, John Bolton, Iraq, US
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Witness the birth of a spy agency in The King’s Man trailer: Watch
The prequel to Kingsman finds Ralph Fiennes battling history's greatest tyrants
on July 15, 2019, 9:59am
The King's Man Trailer
Manners may maketh man, but it’s Ralph Fiennes who maketh Kingsman. At least, that’s the story that’s set out in the new trailer for The King’s Man, the prequel to 2015’s Kingsman: The Secret Service and 2017’s Kingsman: The Golden Circle.
Coming February 14th, 2020 from 20th Century Fox, The King’s Man will present the origins of the independent spy agency featured in director Matthew Vaughn’s previous two entries of the hit series. As the newly released trailer shows, the film will take us all the way back to war-ravaged Europe, where evil tyrants and criminal masterminds have joined forces for a plot to wipe out millions. Fiennes recruits the young Conrad (Harris Dickinson) as he races to stop the collection of ne’er-do-wells, and in the process, form the Kingsman.
From this first look, it seems like Vaughn has taken a more dramatic approach to the franchise, which has typically blended comic book-level action and cheeky comedy. See for yourself by watching The King’s Man trailer below.
The King’s Man also stars Gemma Arterton, Rhys Ifans, Matthew Goode, Tom Hollander, Daniel Brühl, Djimon Hounsou, and Charles Dance. Along with the trailer above, you can peep the first poster below.
Harris Dickinson
Rhys Ifans
BTS schedule concert in Saudi Arabia
(Sandy) Alex G unveils new song “Hope”, announces lengthy tour: Stream
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Album Review: The Lumineers – Cleopatra C+
Album Review: Various Artists – The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Soundtrack C-
Beale Street Music Festival 2020 Lineup: Smashing Pumpkins, Weezer, The 1975, Deftones, Lil Wayne, and More
Enter for a chance to win tickets to the Memphis, TN festival!
on February 12, 2020, 12:14pm
The Lumineers expand “III: The World Tour” with new summer dates
In support of the folk band’s third album.
There is nothing rock about Billboard’s Top Charting Rock Songs of the Decade
The list is dominated by commercial hit hunters.
on December 30, 2019, 1:03pm
Guns N’ Roses, The Strokes, Travis Scott to headline Lollapalooza’s Latin American festivals
Lana Del Rey, Vampire Weekend, Gwen Stefani, and Cage the Elephant also set to play festivals in Chile, Argentina, and Brasil.
on October 10, 2019, 12:25pm
The Lumineers announce 2020 arena tour
The 30-date outing comes in promotion of the band’s upcoming album, III.
Phishing for a Future: The Strange Evolution of Bonnaroo
Tracing the journey of the classic American festival from its jam band roots to its 2019 comeback.
by Ming Lee Newcomb
HBO unleashes Game of Thrones-inspired album For the Throne: Stream
Featuring SZA, The National, ASAP Rocky, Mumford and Sons, Rosalía, and more.
Greta Van Fleet, JAY-Z, and Miley Cyrus are also playing Woodstock 2019
The Black Keys, The Killers, Imagine Dragons, Cage the Elephant, and The Raconteurs are also expected to take the stage.
Bonnaroo reveals 2019 lineup. Bonnaroo is great again.
The eclectic lineup promises past favorites like Phish, The National, and The Avett Brothers alongside Childish Gambino, Cardi B, Solange, and The Lonely Island.
on January 08, 2019, 9:00am
Hangout Music Festival reveals 2019 lineup: Vampire Weekend, Cardi B, Travis Scott to headline
The Lumineers, Khalid, The 1975, Jimmy Eat World, Hozier, Diplo, and King Princess are also heading to Gulf Shores, Alabama.
on November 29, 2018, 12:13pm
Almost Acoustic Christmas 2017 lineup: QOTSA, Morrissey, The Killers, Muse, and more
Los Angeles-based event also promises Phoenix, Weezer, 30 Seconds to Mars, Run the Jewels, Franz Ferdinand, Foster the People, and more.
Lana Del Rey, Feist, Elvis Costello to perform at Leonard Cohen tribute concert in Montreal
Marking the one-year anniversary of the legendary musician’s passing.
by Michelle Geslani
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20/07/2018 In Community Corrections and Specialist Operations, Empowerment, Media Release
Gardening Australia host Costa visits garden maintained by offenders
Manoora Community Garden, which is maintained by offenders on community service orders will get a visit from Costa Georgiadis this weekend.
The host of ABC’s Gardening Australia, Costa will visit Manoora Community Garden in Cairns on 21 July 2018 for Conversations with Costa.
Queensland Corrective Services Commissioner Peter Martin said an offender ordered to complete their community service is placed on a project in accordance with their risks and needs.
“Assigning an offender to a project helps to reconnect them with their community while also giving them life and vocational skills to increase their chances of getting a job upon completion,” Commissioner Martin said.
“Programs such as these are also proven to be effective in improving community safety by reducing recidivism.”
The offenders from Queensland Corrective Services’ Cairns District Office completing their community service order at the Manoora Community Garden were part of the Cairns Queensland Corrective Service Graffiti Reduction Project.
Commissioner Martin said the program had 72 offenders involved and they had completed approximately 6000 hours of community service in the 2017-18 year across many projects, with about half of the total hours going towards removing graffiti.
“The many hours of hard work provided by the offenders equates to about $150,000 financial value to the community,” he said.
“The community garden is one of many community service projects in Cairns. Other projects include tree planting, painting jump poles at pony clubs and helping out at major sporting events such as the 2017 World Mountain Bike Championships.
“The offenders on this project have maintained a garden of seasonal edible food, as well as providing technical and manual assistance for a new shed.
“To have Costa visit the Manoora Community Garden is a credit to the hard work of the offenders who have helped the garden thrive.”
For full event details on Conversations with Costa, visit the Manoora Community Garden Facebook page.
Maroochydore Community Corrections opens to keep… Minister for Corrective Services, Mark Ryan MP and Commissioner Peter Martin APM have officially opened the new Maroochydore Community Corrections office at a ceremony on the Sunshine Coast this week. The office is a fit for purpose facility that will allow the 21 officers to manage over 700 offenders who are under the supervision and care of Queensland Corrective Services…
Community Corrections officers graduate from the… Nineteen community corrections officers were recognised last week (23 May), graduating from the Practitioner Development Program at a ceremony held at the Queensland Corrective Services Academy. Community Corrections officers act as agents of change and play a vital role in keeping communities safe by helping to prevent people completing community-based orders from re-offending. They are dedicated to managing more than…
Community service workers sew cool neckties for… Offenders under the supervision of Queensland Corrective Services are helping fire fighters and volunteers keep cool in bushfire affected areas of New South Wales and on the Sunshine Coast. As part of a community service project, a group of offenders under supervision in the community have been sewing cooling neckties with the help of Community Corrections officers from the Maroochydore…
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The Blue Room, Riverside Drive
De Lempicka, The Last Nude and Ms Abel
April 15, 2015 art and photography, Book Reviewsstevestevelovellidau
She ‘...set down her drawing board, and leaned forward. When I felt her hair wisping against my face again, I inhaled sharply. When she kissed me I sighed….I had never kissed lips so soft. She stood and lifted the scarf off me. Her eyes were like silver. ‘Oh?’ she said, holding the scarf in the air, the pale chiffon with its darker, wet bull’s eye. I closed my eyes, abashed. I couldn’t open them. I heard Tamara set her rings deliberately on the table before she said, ‘What’s going on here?‘
I know where there are a couple of stands of them in the city – one in the foyer of the State Library, the other at the entrance to the Long Gallery, Salamanca. It was at the latter I spotted those particular cards as I mounted the stairs to see an exhibition. I instantly recognised the artist’s work on them – or, at least, I thought I did. ‘I wonder why they’re advertising de Lempicka,’ I thought to myself.
Avant postcards are in similar stands at numerous locations all around the country. They give notice of upcoming events or, more excitingly for me, feature the work of artists and photographers trying to get their name out there into the public domain. As I reached for a handful of the cards I’d spotted, I soon saw they weren’t an example of the oeuvre of the artist I had in mind, but the work of another entirely. You could see, though, this painter was under de Lempicka’s spell, as I have been for some time now.
Think paintings that best represent the art deco style and more and more art fans think of the ‘baroness with the brush’, Tamara de Lempicka. She was the most fashionable portraitist of her generation. Celebrities lined up to be painted by her, but the Depression saw her popularity wane, only to be revived in the final three decades of the last century and into our new millennium. She is well and truly back in vogue, her daubings instantly recognisable and these days, ubiquitous.
The artist was born Maria Górska in Warsaw in 1898. She was of Jewish background surrounded by wealth. The future Tamara de L attended boarding school in Switzerland and during her formative years lived in a variety of places, including the French Riviera and St Petersburg. She spotted the man she intended to marry at age fifteen and did so three years later – Tadeusz Lempicki. He wanted her for her money – not a recipe for success.
Come the Revolution and the couple were forced to flee to Paris, minus a significant proportion of their assets. Here Tamara gave birth to her daughter Kizette and became immersed in the bohemian life of the city, soon entranced by Picasso and the Cubists. She took to the brush to try and make a crust – something her layabout hubby thought beneath him. She was a quick worker, soon finding a populist approach to her renderings – one that would readily sell, it turned out. After 1925 she was exhibiting all over Europe and was charging top dollar for her portraits to boot. She fell in lust with many of her sitters. Even the notorious Gabriele D’Annunzio came under her spell, although it seems he failed to bed her.
She owned the Roaring Twenties like few others. If Gatsby was the male epitome, she was the female. She mixed with Cocteau and Gide, Collette and Sackville-West. She was also flamboyantly bisexual, neglecting not only the wastrel Tadeusz but also her daughter. She soon had a rich man as both her patron and sugar daddy. Travelling to the US was also on her agenda – here she fell in with de Kooning and Georgia O’Keeffe. Later on she married her older suitor, Raoul Kuffner, thus gaining her title, Baroness. With the advent of the second great war her star had well and truly diminished but, undeterred, she kept painting, trying out new styles to an unresponsive public. She also moved permanently to America, paralleling a move into prickly old age. The end saw her residing in Mexico where she died of a stroke in 1980. Her ashes were spread on Popocatepetl. She did live long enough to see her work reassessed by the artistic trendsetters, who declared that owning one or more of her works definitely put you front and centre amongst the in-crowd. These days her collectors include Madonna, Jack Nicholson and Barbra Streisand.
The opening paragraph of this scribbling is taken from ‘The Last Nude’ and are the initial sentences to a description of a lesbian coupling between the painter and one of her models – what follows is very saucy indeed. Ellis Avery’s novel is based on the main facts of the great woman’s life, but the gaps are filled in by supposition. The work received, on publication, rave reviews and several prestigious gongs in the United States. Reading the four pages of recommendations that prefaced the story in the book, as I perused it in a Melbourne bookshop, I felt I must be in for a real treat and rushed to the counter to purchase. I enjoy novels that do add made up substance to fact, plus it was about a favourite heroine, so what could go wrong?
Although I did manage to finish it, I really had to force myself to turn each page and refrain from skimming. I found it dirgeful, the writing uninspiring. Sad to say that the only time it came alive was with its few erotic passages – not enough to keep this customer satisfied. But it obviously struck a chord in America – so much so that Lempickaphiles can take a tour of Paris around its featured sites!
The major part of Avery’s offering is taken from the point of view of Rafaela Fano, an escapee from tight American strictures, enjoying the freedom the French capital affords. But she finds it struggletown too, even despite the seventeen year old’s willingness to use her body to achieve her ends. Life changes markedly when she is discovered by de Lempicka who offers to pay her to pose. Soon it is posing minus garments, apart from a well placed scarf – and before too long the two are intimately exploring each other’s body parts. As time proceeds both end up having much else on the boil as well, with the result that, at times, the plot and who was who lost me. I just wasn’t interested enough in all their scheming and machinations. The final part features the portraitist in her old age, contrary and cantankerous, with some her and Rafaela’s back story filled as bonus. The Washington Post describes ‘The Last Nude’ as ‘A compulsively readable novel.’ I found it anything but.
But the positive spin-off is that I discovered the postcards and through them, at the top of the stairs in the Salamanca Arts Centre, Catherine Abel. The card I initially took to be a de Lempicka was in fact Abel’s ‘La Femme en Soie’, an example of her expertise from only last year. It features a cool blonde, presumably from the Flapper Age, peering out at the viewer, draped in striped silk (soie), bejewelled and enticing. Up in the ether I found much more to like from this artist who readily admits the debt she owes to the daubing baroness, as well as to Picasso, Braque and Dali. This Australian has indeed honed her experience by travelling to Paris and has been a finalist for the Archibalds. She describes her infatuation with de Lempicka by likening her to ‘…the teacher I never had.’ It was seeing the Baroness’ masterpieces during her overseas sojourns that inspired her to attempt to paint for a living. As well as Abel’s figurative work, there are still lifes and landscapes to be viewed on-line. But its certainly her stunning capturings of the feminine form that stand-out, as is the case with her role model. So if you too fancy the work of the icon of the twenties, check out her modern day acolyte. Beware – for, as with de Lempicka, some of her product is NSFW.
So the disappointment of the book has been offset by discovering a new artist to follow the progress of with interest. And if for me Avery’s book didn’t capture the spirit of T de L, Catherine Abel certainly does.
Gallery of Catherine Abel’s work = http://www.catherineabel.com/
Gallery of Tamara de Lempicka’s work = http://www.tamara-de-lempicka.org/
Ellis Avery Website = http://ellisavery.com/
A ‘Last Nude’ tour of Paris = https://americangirlsartclubinparis.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/the-last-nude-a-literary-tour-of-paris/
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Musings and photographs from a man in a little house by a river, on a little island at the bottom of the world.
Television/DVD review
On the Couch01
His Bobness
Shame Anson – Just Shame
Reboot 05
Pemulwuy et al
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The Posies – Blood/Candy
J.R. Taylor
on October 24, 2010 at 11:35 am
Blood/Candy
[Rykodisc]
The last time I interviewed Ken Stringfellow – he being half of The Posies – he was about to tour behind a solo album while leaving his newborn child with a nanny on an island off the coast of France. Coincidentally, my unattended one-year-old had rolled off the bed that same morning while I was getting ready to do the Stringfellow interview. That’s probably why I’ve had little patience with power-pop fans who sit around and worry about the plight of The Posies.
Still, this is a good time to be concerned about Stringfellow and Jon Auer. The duo had a steady gig going as half of Big Star in recent years. The Posies had become a side-project to music fiends who – wisely, as it turned out – were just thrilled to go see the guys backing Alex Chilton in concert. Nobody noticed when The Posies’ return with 2005’s Every Kind of Light was a better album than Big Star’s In Space from that same year.
Anyway, Blood/Candy was pretty much in the can before Chilton was in the grave. There’s nothing desperate about The Posies’ impressive return to form. This is the album that could’ve salvaged the band’s career back when they derailed with 1996’s Amazing Disgrace. That was when The Posies sounded labored when trying to rock out or get soulful. Stringfellow and Auer had a skewed artiness that kept them from being mere power-pop disciples, but they were never sure how to distance themselves from a genre that worships staleness.
Blood/Candy, however, has the band knocking out ambitious and catchy pop tunes with a now-veteran rhythm section. It helps that the album was produced by committee. There are a lot of ideas crammed into the lush arrangements and fey rock stylings. It’s the density of later Beatles on the budget of early Badfinger, with 12 songs clocking in at just under 43 minutes for maximum effect. You can tell that Stringfellow and Auer took this project seriously enough to compose a proper collection of tunes. (They got lucky when writing in the studio for Every Kind of Light.) Big Star may be dead, but it’s sounding like a surprisingly fine idea for The Posies to remain long-lived.
Alt-RockBig StarPower PopThe PosiesWashington State
Kraftwerk - Minimum-Maximum
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Game Theory’s run of hooky, heady and slightly off . . . Read More+
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In Conversation with Melineh Zomorrodian, SE
Melineh Zomorrodian, SE joined the Structural Focus team in 2008 as an intern and continued with the firm after completing the UCLA Masters of Science program.
Melineh is a licensed California Structural Engineer with experience in structural analysis, design and construction administration for existing and new structures. She has worked on numerous projects throughout Los Angeles county among them the Red Bull Headquarters, Wilshire Boulevard Temple, Sony Pictures Akio Morita Building and the Ford Theatres.
What does Structural Engineering mean to you?
I love Structural Engineering because of its ability to positively impact the community. Structural engineers become an instrumental part in revitalizing neighborhoods by bringing creative architectural visions to fruition and making them safe and stable.
Latest Project, Favorite Project, and Biggest Challenge
I have been involved with the Ford Theatres project for the past couple of years. The venue is currently being upgraded to enhance on-site programs and spaces. The project, which includes the historic renovation of the 1920s amphitheater and a new four-story structure, was broken down into three Off-Season Phases. Levin & Associates Architects is leading the design team, Pankow is the contractor, and Structural Focus is providing full structural engineering services.
Phase one was finalized in 2012, we are currently working on Phases two and three. As part of Phase two, we reconstructed the stage at the bottom of the hill, added new tiered landscape retaining walls behind the stage to stabilize the hill and new lighting towers on either side of the stage. We also installed a new proscenium truss over the stage. While Phase two is almost complete, we are in construction for Phase three. Phase three includes a new structural steel framed sound wall at the back of the amphitheater and a new four-story building constructed into the hill on the north side with an outdoor public terrace, offices, and a concession. This unique four-story structure was challenging because we had to account for the soil pressure from the hill along with the seismic loads in the overall design of the structure and no documentation of the existing structure was available.
The Ford Theatres is one of my favorite projects to date because I have taken on more responsibilities as a Project Engineer. The biggest challenge on this project has been the construction schedule, but it is very rewarding as the team successfully works through every challenge. The theatres opened for the Spring 2016 season on July 8th as the construction of Phase three is in progress.
I love working on historic projects. Historic structures are very valuable because they represent the achievements of our past generations. I enjoy working through the challenges presented by the limited modifications permitted on the preservation and restoration of historic structures. It’s really exciting to be part of a design team that works tirelessly for this common goal.
What’s your favorite part about working at Structural Focus?
The firm really cares about the team and the employees’ well-being. I receive guidance and support through every new step in my career and I get to work on unique projects. Not too many structural engineers can say they have worked on a windmill structure!
The future of Structural Engineering will involve more detailed analysis, I think time history analysis and performance-based design will become the norm. Due to the increasing amount of information available via the internet, building owners have become more knowledgeable; therefore they are more concerned about the way their buildings will perform during an earthquake, even when the building is designed per code. In the future, owners will dictate how much structural damage they are willing to accept in the event of an earthquake in lieu of just asking for a code compliant building. This will require engineers to explore performance-based analysis and design.
I enjoy cooking. Designing a building to me is somewhat similar to cooking a great meal. The base ingredients are crucial to cooking good tasting food; similarly, selecting the proper structural systems and foundations are important for structural stability. The spices and herbs bring out the amazing flavors of your dish, as the architectural finishes do to the building structure.
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Byline: Marcellino D'Ambrosio
Getting To Know The Fathers of the Church
Marcellino D'Ambrosio
Comments Off on Getting To Know The Fathers of the Church
Almost as soon as a person begins any serious exploration of the Christian heritage, he or she invariably runs across references to “the Fathers of the Church,” or the “early…
Almost as soon as a person begins any serious exploration of the Christian heritage, he or she invariably runs across references to “the Fathers of the Church,” or the “early Church Fathers.”
One gets the clear impression that these people are important. Protestant, Orthodox and Catholic writers all tip their hats to them. Official documents of the magisterium extol their authority (see, for example, Dei Verbum, No. 23).
But often the reader is left a bit bewildered. Who precisely are the Fathers of the Church and why do they matter? And if they are so important, what’s the best way to get started learning about them?
First of all, let’s make it clear who the early Church Fathers are not. The apostles and other heroes of the New Testament era stand in a class all their own. They are not regarded as Church Fathers. Neither are great theologians and Doctors of the Church from medieval or modern times, such as St. Thomas Aquinas.
So, if these venerable writers are not Church Fathers, who are, and why do they bear this title? “Church Father” is not a formally conferred title, as is “Doctor of the Church.” There is no complete, official list of the Fathers. Instead, the designation results from popular acclaim and long-standing tradition that came about in this way: In ancient times, teachers were commonly regarded as intellectual fathers. Some early Christian teachers put their teaching into writings that continued to guide the community of the faithful long after their passing. In disputes over doctrine and the proper interpretation of Scriptures, these early writers were cited as “the fathers” or “the Fathers of the Church.” This popular title stuck and the designation over time was expanded to refer to all the great orthodox Catholic authors writing about faith and morals from about A.D. 100 to about 800.
St. Ignatius of Antioch Shutterstock
This time period is not as arbitrary as it may seem. It is roughly coterminous with the first seven ecumenical councils of the Church, which defined and defended the two most fundamental dogmas enshrined in the Creed — that we believe in one God in three persons, and that Jesus Christ, the savior of the world, is true God and true man. This is the time period in which the canon of Scripture was clarified and the great liturgical traditions of the Church — including Roman, Byzantine and Maronite — took their distinctive form.
The Catholic teachers and writers of this period played a role that can never be played again, transmitting and witnessing to the ancient apostolic tradition and giving a decisive, classic shape to that heritage.
Most of these writers were saints. Some of them, such as Tertullian, fell noticeably short. Saint or not, none of them are personally infallible. If they should agree on anything, it would be rather remarkable, since this disparate group spans seven centuries and three continents. But their teaching does agree on a great many points, and this is a testimony that such teaching did not originate with them, but is rather being passed down to us through them. It is in their consensus (consensus partum) that the Church, from the earliest times, has regarded them as infallible commentators on Scripture and the unwritten apostolic tradition.
Their importance to apologetics and dogmatic theology goes without saying. When people claim that devotion to Mary is a medieval invention, you can conclusively prove otherwise simply by going to the Fathers of the Church. The same can be done when Jehovah’s Witnesses allege that Constantine invented the divinity of Christ.
But just as we read Scripture for more than apologetics purposes, so with the Fathers. We would agree with the late Cardinal Jean Daniélou, S.J.: the Fathers “are not only the truthful witnesses of a bygone era; they are also the most contemporary nourishment of men and women today.” One of the greatest ways to grow in the spiritual life and be imbued with the Catholic spirit is to read the writings of the early Church Fathers. In approaching their work, we should not simply be looking for information, but formation — to receive from them an authentically Catholic vision and a truly passionate zeal for holiness.
But then comes the next problem. A lot can be written by hundreds of men over 700 years. St. Augustine alone wrote more than 4 million words. One medieval monk quipped, “He who says he has read all of Augustine . . . lies!”
So, how can we get started in reading the Fathers? Where is the best place to begin?
Fortunately, a reading plan has already been laid out for us by the Church. In the revision of the Divine Office mandated by the Second Vatican Council, the late-night hour of “vigils” was transformed into the Office of Readings which can be done at any hour of the day. For each day, it includes one of the longer psalms, broken up into three parts; a page-long reading from the Bible; and a non-biblical reading about a page long, most usually from one of the early Church Fathers. This patristic excerpt is either a commentary on the biblical reading, the liturgical season or the saint of the day. Thus the Office of Readings is a ready-made collection of, as it were, the Fathers’ greatest hits, an introduction to the most accessible, inspirational and instructive nuggets from the patristic gold mine.
Intimidated by the complexity of the Divine Office? Not to worry. The Office of Readings is rather simple to follow and is more easily accessible than you might think, both in print and electronically (see sidebar). It is the most accessible entry into the world of the Fathers.
So you’ve read and loved the excerpts and are now ready for entire works. Now what do you do?
Begin at the beginning. The “Apostolic Fathers” are the earliest of the Fathers and are known as apostolic because their life span overlapped to some degree the life span of at least some of the apostles. In some cases, there is evidence that some of these Apostolic Fathers, notably St. Polycarp, had personal contact with an apostle.
St. Augustine (Renata Sedmakova/Shutterstock.com)
Beyond the simple fact that they came first and laid the foundation for later Fathers, there are two other good reasons to start with them. One is that they have undisputable apologetic value as witnesses to unwritten apostolic tradition.
Second, they are, for the most part, simple, pastoral men like the apostles and are therefore easy to understand. You don’t need to take a course in Platonic philosophy to make sense of their writings. In fact, many of the documents of this period follow the same basic format as what we’re already familiar with in the New Testament — pastoral letters and “acts” of the martyrs.
Of course, it would be helpful to read a brief bit of background before delving right into the documents. There are several convenient sources of such information. But beware of making the mistake of spending so much time preparing that you never actually read the texts. The great thing about the Apostolic Fathers is precisely that there really aren’t too many necessary prerequisites to reading them.
With all due respect to my dear Jesuit friends, the original St. Ignatius (d.c. A.D. 110) was not the one from Loyola, but from Antioch. He is without a doubt the most passionate and inspiring among the Apostolic Fathers, the easiest author to read and to share with others. He was the second bishop of Antioch after the apostles, witness to the tradition of Sts. Peter, Barnabas and Paul. It was probably only about 15-20 years after the final edition of the Gospel of John that Ignatius was arrested and sentenced to die for his faith in Rome. He was marched overland from Syria through what is now western Turkey all the way to Troas (Troy) where he was put on a ship to Italy. As he passed through the Asian countryside, he wrote short letters to the various congregations of the region. They provide a fascinating window into the soul of a martyr, a fiery testimony of the love that drove the martyrs to lay down their lives as witnesses to Christ.
The goal of this article was simply to answer the question of who the Fathers of the Church were, why they are important, and how to begin exploring their writings.
Though I, like many, can’t help but roll my eyes over the uproar created by “The Da Vinci Code” many years back, we are indebted to Dan Brown in a way.
He reminded us that the early Church is terribly important. On its authority and fidelity hang the very reliability of the Scriptures and the Creeds shared by all Christians — Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox.
Of course, the events of “The Da Vinci Code” concerning what went on in the early Church is total fabrication. So where do we go for the truth? Simple. We need direct contact with the primary sources — that is, documents written by those who were actually involved in the events in question. Fortunately, abundant documents survive from the first eight centuries of the Church. We refer to those who wrote them as the early Church Fathers. By the way, contrary to the allegations of the characters in “The Da Vinci Code,” the documents we have from this era are not falsified or interpolated. Scholarly tools have existed for centuries that are particularly effective at detecting forgeries and dating documents to within a few decades of when they were written.
The good news is that there are thousands of documents and hundreds of writers. The bad news is that there are thousands of documents and hundreds of writers. Few of us have time to read them all. In fact, it is difficult to know where to begin.
The Church has put together a collection of short selections from the Fathers in the Office of Readings. These are the best introduction. The next step would be to read the Apostolic Fathers, the earliest of the post New Testament writings which have particular apologetic value given their proximity to the apostles.
Scripture, Liturgy, Biography
The Apostolic Fathers (ca. A.D. 95-150) were a lot like the apostles — simple men, without much formal schooling. That makes their writings easy to understand. But once we hit the middle to late second century, we run into very different kinds of writers. Justin had been a philosopher before his conversion, while Tertullian was a lawyer. Both were deeply cultured men, and concepts from the philosophy of their day, Stoicism and Platonism, surface frequently in their work. The same is true with Fathers from the fourth-to-fifth-century Golden Age, such as St. Augustine and St. Gregory of Nyssa.
So, is there any hope that the ordinary Joe or Jane can read these authors and make heads or tails of them?
Absolutely. And here’s why. Many of the most high-powered thinkers among the Fathers were also pastors. And many of their writings were originally addressed to the faithful as homilies, catechetical orations and lives of the saints. Though such writings are chock-full of insight and inspiration, they are delivered in words intended to be understood by everybody.
So my advice to those wishing to sink their teeth into the rich fare provided by these later Fathers is to focus on their exegetical and catechetical writings rather than the more philosophical treatises written for a more learned audience. What follows are a few concrete suggestions.
St. Basil and the Holy Spirit
Following the Council of Nicaea, there was a great deal of doctrinal confusion. One group of churchmen in the east said that while they accepted Nicaea’s definition of the divinity of Christ, they would not go beyond it to affirm the same of the Holy Spirit. After all, they pointed out, Jesus is called “God” (the New Testament Greek word is Theos) several times in the New Testament.
But the Scriptures never explicitly use the term “God” referring to the Holy Spirit. These “sola scriptura” bishops, called “pneumatomachoi” (fighters against the Spirit), therefore resisted the doctrine of the Trinity, one God in three distinct but equal persons.
St. Basil the Great responded to these heretics in the form of a short treatise that relies not on difficult philosophical concepts but on a common-sense examination of Scripture and the liturgy.
He demonstrated that Scripture constantly teaches the distinct personhood and full divinity of the Holy Spirit, but that it does so implicitly, as it does not explicitly call the Spirit “God.”
He then made one of the clearest cases against sola scriptura in early Christian literature, showing that Christians had never, from the time of the apostles to his day (ca. 370), relied exclusively on the text of the Bible to tell them how to pray and what to believe. He pointed to many liturgical traditions, such as the sacrament of chrismation (known in the West as confirmation), which had always been celebrated in the Church but were not clearly and explicitly spelled out in Scripture.
He also pointed to the fact that the Church had always, as far as anyone could remember, prayed the Trinitarian doxology — “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit” — which clearly assumes the divinity of the Holy Spirit.
Lex orandi, lex credendi (the law of prayer demonstrates the law of belief) is a principle first clearly argued by St. Basil.
Therefore, to deepen your understanding of the work and person of the Holy Spirit, provide insight into the relation between Scripture and Tradition, and acquaint you with one of the greatest Fathers of the Eastern Church, pick up “On the Holy Spirit,” a short book by St. Basil, available in paperback from St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press.
Two Great Lives
In defending the divinity of Christ during the Arian crisis of the fourth century, St. Athanasius of Alexandria had received constant support from the most famous hermit of the Egyptian desert, St. Antony. Personally inspired by Antony’s story and example, Athanasius decided the world needed to know about him.
Without the internet, or even the printing press, Athanasius’ “Life of Antony” quickly became the rage throughout the Christian empire, which was copied, translated and passed from hand to hand.
It inspired many, including Augustine, to a deeper conversion to the Gospel and even to embrace religious life.
Antony, a hermit, was the “godfather” of religious life in the East. A few centuries later, St. Benedict established a communal form of life that made him the godfather of monastic life in the West.
Only a couple of generations after St. Benedict’s death, one of his monks was elected as successor of St. Peter.
Known as Gregory the Great, this monk-become-pope found time to write his “Dialogues,” the second book of which is a life of St. Benedict.
I vote that you put Athanasius’ “Life of Antony” and book two of St. Gregory’s “Dialogues” at the top of your reading list as a great way to get acquainted with two of the greatest monastic saints and two of the greatest Fathers of the Church.
Dr. Marcellino D’Ambrosio writes from Texas.
The Great Augustine
jorisvo/
This presentation of the Fathers would not be complete without a discussion of how to break into the writings of the most famous Father of the Western Church, the great St. Augustine. Many praise Augustine, but virtually no one has read all of his works (he wrote more than 4 million words!). It’s hard to know where to enter the forest of his vast literary output. His “Confessions” is a classic of Western civilization as is his massive tome “The City of God.” But keep in mind that “Confessions” is not an autobiography in the typical modern sense of the word. It is a spiritual reflection on his past life, written soon after his accession to the episcopate, but it takes the form of a long, extended prayer to God. And its last few chapters ascend into the philosophical stratosphere, losing all but the heartiest astronauts. Is it to be attempted? Yes, but it is not really a beginner’s slope. And “The City of God” is definitely not the first Augustinian peak to be attempted either.
So, where to begin? In my opinion, it is his homilies and commentaries that are perfect for everyone — meaty enough for the most experienced, but simple enough for the novice. After all, his sermons are for ordinary people and are intended to help them understand and apply the Scriptures to their lives. Who cannot use a bit more of that? His commentary on the Psalms is fabulous. And, since his favorite topic is love, I especially recommend his homilies on the First Letter of John. Given that Augustine is the most influential teacher of the faith in the Western Church before St. Thomas Aquinas, he cannot be neglected by anyone wishing to tap into the Church’s ancient heritage.
Greek Fathers
St. Anastasius Sinaita (d. 700)
St. Andrew of Crete (d. 740)
Aphraates (fourth century)
St. Archelaus (d. 282)
St. Athanasius (d. 373)
Athenagoras (second century)
St. Basil the Great (d. 379)
St. Caesarius of Nazianzus (d. 369)
St. Clement of Alexandria (d. 215)
St. Clement I of Rome, Pope (r. 88-97)
St. Cyril of Alexandria (d. 444)
St. Cyril of Jerusalem (d. 386)
Didymus the Blind (d. c. 398)
Diodore of Tarsus (d. 392)
St. Dionysius the Great (d. c. 264)
St. Epiphanius (d. 403)
Eusebius of Caesarea (d. 340)
St. Eustathius of Antioch (fourth century)
St. Firmillian (d. 268)
Gennadius I of Constantinople (fifth century)
St. Germanus (d. 732)
St. Gregory of Nazianzus (d. 390)
St. Gregory of Nyssa (d. 395)
St. Gregory Thaumaturgus (d. 268)
Hermas (second century)
St. Hippolytus (d. 236)
St. Ignatius of Antioch (d. 107)
St. Isidore of Pelusium (d. c. 450)
St. John Chrysostom (d. 407)
St. John Climacus (d. 649)
St. John Damascene (d. 749), last Father of the East
St. Julius I, Pope (r. 337-352)
St. Justin Martyr (d. 165)
St. Leontius of Byzantium (sixth century)
St. Macarius (d. c. 390)
St. Maximus the Confessor (d. 662)
St. Melito (d. c. 180)
St. Methodius of Olympus (d. 311)
St. Nilus the Elder (d. c. 430)
Origen (d. 254)
St. Polycarp (d. c. 155)
St. Proclus (d. c. 446)
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (sixth century)
St. Serapion (d. c. 370)
St. Sophronius (d. 638)
Tatian (second century)
Theodore of Mopsuestia (d. 428)
Theodoret of Cyrrhus (d. c. 458)
St. Theophilus of Antioch (second century)
Latin Fathers
St. Ambrose of Milan (d. 397)
Arnobius (d. 330)
St. Augustine of Hippo (d. 430)
St. Benedict of Nursia (d. c. 550)
St. Caesarius of Arles (d. 542)
St. John Cassian (d. 435)
St. Celestine I, Pope (r. 422-432)
St. Cornelius, Pope (r. 251-253)
St. Cyprian of Carthage (d. 258)
St. Damasus I, Pope (r. 366-384)
St. Dionysius, Pope (r. 259-268)
St. Ennodius (d. 521)
St. Eucherius of Lyons (d. c. 450)
St. Fulgentius (d. 533)
St. Gregory of Elvira (d. c. 392)
St. Gregory the Great, Pope (r. 590-604)
St. Hilary of Poitiers (d. 367)
St. Innocent I, Pope (r. 401-417)
St. Irenaeus of Lyons (d. c. 202)
St. Isidore of Seville (d. 636), last Father of the West
St. Jerome (d. 420)
Lactantius (d. 323)
St. Leo the Great, Pope (r. 440-461)
Marius Mercator (d. 451)
Marius Victorinus (fourth century)
Minucius Felix (second century)
Novatian (d. c. 257)
St. Optatus (fourth century)
St. Pacian (d. c. 390)
St. Pamphilus (d. 309)
St. Paulinus of Nola (d. 431)
St. Peter Chrysologus (d. 450)
St. Phoebadius of Agen (fourth century)
Rufinus of Aquileia (d. 410)
Salvian (fifth century)
St. Siricius, Pope (r. 384-399)
Tertullian (d. c. 222)
St. Vincent of Lérins (d. c. 450)
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NasdaqGS:ISBC
Investors Bancorp, Inc. Just Recorded A 31% EPS Beat: Here's What Analysts Are Forecasting Next
As you might know, Investors Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISBC) just kicked off its latest quarterly results with some very strong numbers. It was overall a positive result, with revenues beating expectations by 3.8% to hit US$202m. Investors Bancorp also reported a statutory profit of US$0.27, which was an impressive 31% above what the analysts had forecast. The analysts typically update their forecasts at each earnings report, and we can judge from their estimates whether their view of the company has changed or if there are any new concerns to be aware of. So we gathered the latest post-earnings forecasts to see what estimates suggest is in store for next year.
View our latest analysis for Investors Bancorp
NasdaqGS:ISBC Earnings and Revenue Growth October 30th 2020
Taking into account the latest results, the consensus forecast from Investors Bancorp's six analysts is for revenues of US$813.3m in 2021, which would reflect a meaningful 17% improvement in sales compared to the last 12 months. Per-share earnings are expected to accumulate 9.9% to US$0.89. Yet prior to the latest earnings, the analysts had been anticipated revenues of US$808.2m and earnings per share (EPS) of US$0.86 in 2021. So the consensus seems to have become somewhat more optimistic on Investors Bancorp's earnings potential following these results.
There's been no major changes to the consensus price target of US$11.00, suggesting that the improved earnings per share outlook is not enough to have a long-term positive impact on the stock's valuation. It could also be instructive to look at the range of analyst estimates, to evaluate how different the outlier opinions are from the mean. There are some variant perceptions on Investors Bancorp, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at US$11.50 and the most bearish at US$10.00 per share. The narrow spread of estimates could suggest that the business' future is relatively easy to value, or thatthe analysts have a strong view on its prospects.
These estimates are interesting, but it can be useful to paint some more broad strokes when seeing how forecasts compare, both to the Investors Bancorp's past performance and to peers in the same industry. The analysts are definitely expecting Investors Bancorp's growth to accelerate, with the forecast 17% growth ranking favourably alongside historical growth of 2.4% per annum over the past five years. Compare this with other companies in the same industry, which are forecast to grow their revenue 1.3% next year. It seems obvious that, while the growth outlook is brighter than the recent past, the analysts also expect Investors Bancorp to grow faster than the wider industry.
The most important thing here is that the analysts upgraded their earnings per share estimates, suggesting that there has been a clear increase in optimism towards Investors Bancorp following these results. Fortunately, they also reconfirmed their revenue numbers, suggesting sales are tracking in line with expectations - and our data suggests that revenues are expected to grow faster than the wider industry. The consensus price target held steady at US$11.00, with the latest estimates not enough to have an impact on their price targets.
With that said, the long-term trajectory of the company's earnings is a lot more important than next year. We have forecasts for Investors Bancorp going out to 2022, and you can see them free on our platform here.
We don't want to rain on the parade too much, but we did also find 2 warning signs for Investors Bancorp that you need to be mindful of.
If you decide to trade Investors Bancorp, use the lowest-cost* platform that is rated #1 Overall by Barron’s, Interactive Brokers. Trade stocks, options, futures, forex, bonds and funds on 135 markets, all from a single integrated account.
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League of Legends Generates $150 Million per Month
As a free-to-play game, you would be surprised to know just how far League of Legends has come and what revenue numbers it is currently crunching. Provider of data and insights on global games, the SuperData research firm has released a new report that reveals League of Legends to be generating an average of up to $150 million per month and $3 billion annually.
That’s just ridiculous, especially when considering that it is a free-to-play game. Thanks to the millions of its players purchasing cosmetic upgrades every day, League of Legends is now the highest grossing PC MMO game. In fact, the entire MOBA genre is experiencing exceptional growth and which is likely to continue through the year. Due to the immense contributions from games like League of Legends, and other popular free-to-play titles, the PC online gaming market is expected to rise 13 percent in 2016 to $19.8 billion in revenues.
The report also mentions a very interesting comparison of the spending habits of players in the Asian and Western regions. Players residing in the west have a tendency to spend more than asian players. However, Asia dominates in terms of audience size and overall revenue.
In terms of growth of the MMO market, more than a third of players quit the game or move on to other online titles after one-and-a-half years of game time. According to statistics gathered by SuperData, 84 percent of MMO players make a purchase within the first month. This makes it crucial for developers to maximize revenue from that lot in that specific time period. This is done through the introduction of new content that promotes engagement and manipulates the environment to decrease the likelihood of the player abandoning the game for another title. The report further marked that 34 percent of players leave because their friends stopped playing the game.
With the MMO market predicted to further rise in the coming years, League of Legends will only grow, even if many suspect the game to have hit its peak.
Via GamesIndustry
League of Legends, PC, Riot Games
Overwatch’s Penalty for Leaving Matches Is Reducing XP Gain
Halo 5: Guardians Sold 5 Million Copies in First Three Months
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Dr. Susmit Kumar
The 2008 Wall Street crisis was started by the defaults of record numbers of sub-prime mortgages. Investment banks were securitizing the mortgages, including the sub-prime mortgages, and selling them all over the world, i.e. the mortgages were sold as securities all over the world to investors (for an example, they were bundling say 100 home mortgages and selling as securities to investors). In finance, a security is an instrument representing financial value. When the sub-prime mortgage market started to collapse in 2007, the investment banks that had sold these securities started to lose money. Although the mortgage based securities affected by the sub-prime crisis was said to be less than $2 trillion, the collapse of the US housing sector affected non-subprime mortgages too, leading to further losses in mortgage based securities. Bank officials were under pressure from their higher-ups to give mortgages and in turn, they as well as the top officials were getting huge bonuses at year end. At investment banks also, officials were putting pressure on workers to churn out securities that packaged mortgages and other forms of debt into bundles for resale to investors all over the world. The officials including the CEOs at these investment banks were making millions of dollars in bonuses due to the profit related to the sale of these securities. These officials were taking huge risks for their bonuses to show short-term gains for their financial institutions and many of those gains turned out to be huge losses later on.
During the 1990s and early 2000s, low interest rates and large foreign investments created a housing sector boom in the US. The percent of home ownership in US increased from a consistent 63 percent to 64 percent from the 1960s to early 1990s to a record 69 percent in 2005. During this housing boom period, banks were giving housing loans to people whose income was not sufficient enough to pay the monthly mortgage, but as home prices were rising every year at a record pace, people were making money by selling homes to each other. When home prices started to collapse, not only people having sub-prime mortgages but people with prime mortgages also found it difficult to pay their mortgages.
According to a Brookings Institution study, prime mortgages dropped to 64 percent of the total in 2004, 56 percent in 2005 and 52 percent in 2006.[1] According to Credit Suisse, 29 percent of new mortgages in 2005 allowed borrowers to pay interest only – not principal – or pay less than the interest due and add the cost to the principal. It was up from 1 percent in 2001. In 2006, half of new mortgages required no or minimal documentation of household income. According to the National Association of Realtors, the average down payment for the first-time home buyers was 10 percent, whereas in 2007, it was only 2 percent. Suppose you have $20,000 cash. In 2006, you could get a 5 percent down mortgage to buy a $400,000 home whereas a 10 percent mortgage will limit you to buy only a $200,000 home. [2]
According to John D. Parsons, a supervisor at a Washington Mutual mortgage processing center, almost all were granted mortgage loans irrespective of their real incomes. He said that it was normal to see baby sitters claiming salaries worthy of college presidents, and school teachers with incomes rivaling stockbrokers.’ Interviews with two dozen employees, mortgage brokers, real estate agents and appraisers revealed the relentless pressure to churn out loans.[3]
Credit Rating Agencies like Moody's and Standard & Poor's also played dubious roles by first assigning investment grade ratings to these sub-prime mortgage related securities. Both these agencies were getting substantial amount of money by grading these products. But later on when sub-prime mortgages started to collapse, they suddenly downgraded the mortgage-related securities to junk ratings. According to the Nobel Prize economist Joseph Stiglitz: ``I view the ratings agencies as one of the key culprits. They were the party that performed that alchemy that converted the securities from F-rated to A-rated. The banks could not have done what they did without the complicity of the ratings agencies.'' [4]
Despite having mortgage-related losses, top executives at Wall Street were getting huge bonuses. In 2007, Wall Street firms paid $33.2 billion in bonuses. Seven of Wall Street’s biggest firms (Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Bear Stearns, Morgan Stanly, JPMorgan Chase, Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs) paid a combined total of $122 billion in total compensation and benefits, up 10 per cent since 2006, despite seeing their net revenue collectively fall 6 percent. On the other hand, in the same year mortgage-related losses reported by the seven firms totaled $55 billion and wiped out more than $200 billion in shareholder value which was nearly half the value of their holdings. Three of those firms suffered their biggest losses ever in the final months of 2007. Employee compensation at those firms was equal to 47 percent of net revenue in 2007, compared with 40 percent the year before.[5]
In 2006, Merrill Lynch had record earnings of $7.5 billion and the firm gave $5 billion to $6 billion in bonuses in that year. A 20-something analyst with a base salary of $130,000 received a bonus of $250,000, and a 30-something trader with a $180,000 salary got $5 million. Dow Kim, executive vice president, received a $35 million bonus whereas his salary was only $350,000. Since then, the company lost three times the money in mortgage related investments resulting the company, founded in 1914 to be sold to Bank of America in late 2008. In 2006, more than 50 people at Goldman Sachs were paid more than $20 million bonus. At Wall Street firms, bonuses are based on short-term profits which encourage people to take risk like gamblers in casino.[6]
When home prices started to collapse, not only did people having sub-prime mortgages find it difficult to make their mortgage payments, but also people with prime mortgages had difficulty. Bear Stearns, founded in 1923 and one of the largest global investment banks and securities trading and brokerage firms, collapsed in early 2008 because of the sub-prime mortgage crisis and was sold to JP Morgan Chase for as low as ten dollars per share, a price far below the 52-week high of $133.20 per share, traded before the crisis. The Federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in September 2008 cost about $400 billion to the taxpayers. By the first half of 2008, the value of bad loans of Washington Mutual had reached $11.5 billion.[7] Due to its mortgage-related crisis and subsequent withdrawal of $16.4 billion in deposits, during a 10-day bank run in June 2008, Washington Mutual, a hundred year old bank, was seized by FDIC and finally sold to JP Morgan Chase for $1.9 billion in September 2008.
In September, 2008, after the failure of Lehman Brothers and the emergency rescue of AIG, Henry Paulson, the then US Treasury Secretary, warned of an economic calamity greater than the 1930s Great Depression when President Bush and Congressional Democratic leaders agreed to the $700 billion bailout. Government officials have acknowledged difficulties in tracking this $700 billion bailout fund because, apart from providing lending to customers and other banks, banks have leeway to use the money for other things such as buying other banks, paying dividends to investors or even bonuses to executives. Most of this money is being paid to the parties who won the bet on the derivatives. AIG, which had a record $62 billion loss in the last quarter of 2008, received about $170 billion as an emergency loan from the Fed until March 2009 and it paid $75 billion of this loan in the final months of 2008 to several domestic and foreign banks (like Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Societe Generale and Deutsche Bank, Barclays), as well as to several U.S. municipalities. Most of this money was paid due to the collapse of mortgage-based securities.
Although banks, investment firms and a majority of hedge funds lost huge amounts of money due to the collapse of housing sector and the ensuing stock market collapse, some hedge funds made millions, even billions by betting on the collapse of the housing sector in 2008. For an example John Paulson, a New York hedge fund manager, made $3.7 billion in 2007 by betting on the collapse of mortgage market. George Soros and James Simons made $2.9 billion and $2.8 billion, respectively in 2007. At the beginning of 2007, Paulson’s hedge fund had $6 billion and by the end of December 2007, his fund assets were worth $28 billion. A few years ago, individual income reaching into billions of dollars was unfathomable. In 2002, the first year Alpha Magazine tracked hedge fund compensation; the top 25 managers earned $2.8 billion combined. Hedge funds are pools of private money, largely generated from wealthy individuals, pension funds and endowments, used for a wide range of investments. Usually 80 percent of any gains are given to such investors, while the fund manager takes 20 percent, plus an annual fee for their services.[8] Apart from this, these hedge fund managers claim their incomes as capital gains and pay only 15 percent federal taxes rather than the regular income tax rates, at least twice as high. On the other hand, several states are running out of money in this economic downturn and laying off school teachers and cutting back on essential services.
In short, banks gave home loans to people based on fictitious paper and bank officers as well as investment bankers made hundreds of millions of dollars in salaries and bonuses because of them. Later on common people lost money in shares, but hedge funds made a lot of money bringing down the shares of these banks. Finally it boils down to the fact that everything created a domino effect leading taxpayers to pay trillions of dollars for the bankers’ mis-deeds and exacerbating the economic recession of the country as well as that of the entire world.
1 Tanneeru, Manav, “How a ‘perfect storm’ led to the economic crisis,” CNN.com, January 1, 2009.
2 Cauchon, Dennis, “Why home values may take decades to recover,” USA Today, December 12, 2008.
3 Goodman, Peter S. and Morgenson, Gretchen, “Saying Yes, WaMu Built Empire on Shaky Loans,” The New York Times, December 27, 2008.
4 Smith, Elliot Blair, “Bringing Down Wall Street as Ratings Let Loose Subprime Scourge,” Bloomberg.com, September 24, 2008.
5 Tse, Tomoeh Murakami and Merle, Renae, “The Bonuses Keep Coming,” Washington Post, January 29, 2008.
6 Story, Louise, “On Wall Street, Bonuses, Not Profits, Were Real,” The New York Times, December 18, 2008.
8 Cho, David, “1 Man, 1 Year: $3.7 Billion Payout,” Washington Post, April 17, 2008.
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Fifty Years Later
Since we opened our doors nearly 3 years ago, Tell Us A Story‘s mission has been a simple one: to publish stories about “true things” once per week, every week. We loved that model, and the way it allowed us to focus on one writer’s story each week.
But as we begin year 4 of the blog, we wanted to try out a new approach: we are shifting to a quarterly format. That means we will still be bringing you the best true stories we can find, but we will publish these stories 4 times per year: in the fall, winter, spring and summer.
We feel this new format will better accommodate submission cycles as well as our own busy lives.
We will close out year 3 with a few of our favorite recent submissions, then we’ll be back in the fall with our new quarterly schedule. Next up? “Fifty Years Later” by R. W. Haynes, first published on January 13 2016:
Fifty years later, the writer reflected that it might not have been such a good idea to drop acid before the high school graduation rehearsal, but, by then, there was nothing more he could do than remember and regret, if regret is the right word, because there was some curious pleasure in recalling the consequences of that decision, if decision is the right word.
He remembered the ceremony itself, with Billy Bonstead*, who had also missed the rehearsal, marching a few students ahead in line with an air of having marched toward academic excellence many times before. And he remembered how the principal growled fiercely, his glassy eyes bulging with vindictive vindication, standing there with that pathetic diploma case as though it held all happiness, all futurity, all the silly bullshit that academic (if that’s the right word) bureaucrats pretend they have a death grip on.
As the writer told his students long afterward, he had replied with two words, the second of which was “you,” but the first of which was not “Thank,” even if it ended with the same letter. It happened that there fell one of those unexpected moments of total silence just as he reached the principal, so his words sounded like a war cry on the ancient steppes of Russia and were followed by a horrific gasp from the audience. He had taken the half-extended diploma case from the furious principal and walked on off the platform, noting with embattled pleasure the smile on the face of John Quincy, the student walking just ahead of him in that glorious parade.
John was one of the first black students to graduate from Suwanoochee High School, and he had had a fair amount of hell from the rednecks and the administrative stuffed shirts. There had been a kind of lifting of shadows at that moment, possibly for many present, but as surely for John as for himself. As the closing invocation began, John lifted up his resonant voice in a powerful farewell to the school and his persecutors (more gasps), and it was easy to tell he had much sympathy among his fellow students as he announced at some length he was signing off.
What was most memorable about the night which had produced the outrageous non-attendance at the rehearsal was that on the radio was played again and again a strange song which seemed to reach to and from an unanticipated world. “The Israelites,” by Desmond Dekker and the Aces was the first Jamaican song extensively aired in the region, and it appeared to have hypnotized one or more of the late-night disc jockeys on local radio stations. Perhaps chemically-stimulated susceptibility lent it a mystical profundity that made the antics of school administrators loom even smaller than those of ants (or ticks) and inspired defiance of petty tyrants in stoned brains.
Outside the football stadium where graduation was held, the writer had parked his father’s Ford station wagon, his parents having come in the family’s other car, and he headed briskly for it, meeting Billy on the way. It had been reported that the head football coach had encouraged some of his players to give graduation haircuts to some of the more visible hippies, and Billy was evidently mindful of the need for all deliberate speed as he extended his hand in congratulation. Billy also had Desmond Dekker stuck in his mind as well, as he danced a step and sang “We don’t wanna end up like Bonnie and Clyde….”
“Watch your back,” said the writer, and Billy replied “Always.” The writer went on to the station wagon and got behind the wheel. He reached down and took up the double-barreled 16-gauge, opened the glove compartment and took out four #4 shells, loading one into each barrel and putting the others on the seat beside him. He waited about twenty minutes before he realized that no one was coming. “Good thing nobody did,” he said to himself, fifty years later.
*All names have been changed in this story.
R. W. Haynes is a professor at a South Texas university, where he teaches Shakespeare and Early British literature.
Note: “Israelites,” written by Desmond Dekker and Leslie Kong. Recorded by Desmond Dekker and the Aces. Trojan Records, 1968.
Amanda Ann Klein
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Important Current Affairs Quiz 3rd August 2019
Shilpa Singh | Updated: Aug 3, 2019 11:34 IST
Many of you have been practicing a lot for your upcoming exams. Thus, to give you a head start we thought of helping you by bringing out daily current affairs quiz on Banking, Insurance and various other exams, that will help you boost up your preparation a lot more. Moreover, this quiz contains expected questions which match the Exam Pattern of most of the Government Job Exams and Banking Exams. Make sure to attempt this Important Current Affairs Quiz 3rd August 2019 and check your preparation level.
Important Current Affairs Quiz – 2nd August 2019
Along with this Current Affairs Quiz 3rd August 2019, also check out this week’s important Current Affairs in English and Hindi of 3rd August 2019. Also, take yesterday’s Current Affairs Quiz and check to see if you can attempt 20 questions correctly!
Important Current Affairs Quiz 3rd August
Which is the first Indian Bank to operationalise China's National Advance Payment System (CNAPS)?
The SBI's Shanghai branch is now connected to China's National Advance Payment System (CNAPS), becoming the first Indian Bank to operationalise it.
The CNAPS was launched in 2008 by the People's Bank of China (PBOC).
It provides real-time settlement services for all payments cleared in mainland China, as well as in all clearing banks in offshore yuan centres, such as Hong Kong.
Which year marks the Golden Jubilee edition of International Film Festival of India?
Year 2019 marks the Golden Jubilee edition of International Film Festival of India which will be organised from 20th-28th November 2019.
International Film Festival of India (IFFI) started way back in 1952, is an 'A' grade film festival accredited to the International Federation of Film Producers' Associations (FIAPF) and is one of the oldest and most prestigious festivals in Asia.
Scientists of which country have successfully built functional heart parts out of collagen using a 3D bioprinter, a breakthrough they say could one day create entire organs?
Scientists in the US have successfully built functional heart parts out of collagen using a 3D bioprinter, a breakthrough they say could one day create entire organs.
Their technique replicates the body's own complex biological scaffolds that provide the structure and biochemical signalling organs need to function.
Collagen is an ideal biomaterial for the task.
Who won the Gold Medal at the World Cadet Wrestling competition in Sofia, Bulgaria?
Sakshi Malik
Sonam Malik
Babita Kumari
Geeta Phogat
In the ongoing World Cadet Wrestling competition in Sofia, Bulgaria, Indian wrestler Sonam Malik won Gold in 65kg category.
She beat Binbin Xiang 7-1 in the final.
Wrestlers in under 18 categories are competing for a total of 30 gold medals — 20 out of them for men’s events in Greco-Roman, and freestyle wrestling and 10 others in the women’s categories.
The Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG) will organize the Regional Conference on Good Governance in which city?
The Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG) will organize the Regional Conference on Good Governance on 14-15 November 2019 at Jaipur, Rajasthan.
The theme is Strengthening State Institutes of Public Administration.
It will bring National and State level organizations on the same platform to share experiences and implementation of good governance initiatives.
EU governments picked Bulgaria’s Kristalina Georgieva as the bloc’s candidate to lead the ________.
Bank of International Settlement
European Development Bank
EU governments picked Bulgaria’s Kristalina Georgieva as the bloc’s candidate to lead the International Monetary Fund.
She got the backing of a majority of the 28 EU states, defeating the Dutch candidate Jeroen Dijsselbloem.
The former IMF chief, France's Christine Lagarde, resigned in July 2019.
Read the following statements:
The Reserve Bank barred non-banking finance companies from charging prepayment penalties or foreclosure charges from individual borrowers.
Foreclosure charges are part of the fee income for any lender and add to its bottom line.
These directions cover both deposit-taking and Non-Deposit-taking NBFCs which are considered systemically important ones.
Which of the following statements are correct?
The Reserve Bank barred non-banking finance companies from charging pre-payment penalties or foreclosure charges from individual borrowers.
These directions cover both deposit-taking and Non- deposit-taking NBFCs which are considered systemically important ones.
The Reserve Bank of India has imposed a collective penalty of ₹11 crore on how many public sector banks for violating norms on current account opening?
The Reserve Bank has imposed a collective penalty of ₹11 crore on seven public sector banks for violating norms on current account opening.
Allahabad Bank and Bank of Maharashtra have been imposed a fine of ₹2 crore each, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank and United Bank of India have been fined ₹1.5 crore each, while Oriental Bank of Commerce with a penalty of ₹1 crore.
IFS officer Madhumita Hazarika Bhagat was appointed as India's next High Commissioner to which country?
IFS officer Madhumita Hazarika Bhagat was appointed as India's next High Commissioner to Cyprus.
She is presently a Joint Secretary in the MEA.
She will be succeeding RK Raghavan.
The World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) is observed from 1st to 7th of which month?
The World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) is being observed from 1st to 7th August 2019.
The Food and Nutrition Board, Ministry of Women and Child Development, is organizing a number of activities on the theme 'Empower Parents, Enable Breastfeeding'.
The focus this year is on protection, promotion, and support of breastfeeding.
The government has approved a proposal given by the NITI Aayog on draft modalities of the guarantee to operationalize the Budget announcement.
As per the draft, a one-time partial credit to the Public Sector Banks for purchase of high-rated assets of financially sound Non-banking financial companies will be given.
The Department of Financial Services would put in place an oversight mechanism for this scheme.
The government has approved a proposal given by the RBI on draft modalities of the guarantee to operationalize the Budget announcement.
This is in regard to one-time partial credit to the Public Sector Banks for purchase of high-rated assets of financially sound Non-banking financial companies.
‘Vhali Dikri Yojna’ has been launched in which state?
Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani launched the ‘Vhali Dikri Yojna’ in Rajkot on 2 August 2019.
According to the scheme, the State Government will pay Rs. 4,000 to every girl child at the time of admission to Standard 4th, Rs. 6,000 at the time of taking admission to Standard IX, Rs. 1-lakh at the time of taking admission for higher education at the age of 18 and another Rs. 1-lakh at the time of marriage.
The 11th Annual General Meeting of Indo-Lanka Chamber of Commerce & Industry was held in ________.
The 11th Annual General Meeting of Indo-Lanka Chamber of Commerce & Industry was held in Colombo on 2 August 2019.
The Chief Guest was High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka Mr Taranjit Singh Sandhu.
The Indo-Lanka Chamber has strengthened bilateral economic relations between the 2 countries.
Recently, President Ram Nath Kovind has been awarded the National Order of Merit by which country?
President Ram Nath Kovind has been awarded the National Order of Merit by the President of Guinea.
He was awarded for his exceptional contribution to the advancement of overall relations and development of mutual cooperation between India and Guinea.
This is the highest award of the Republic of Guinea.
Three MoUs were also signed between the two countries.
As per the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India, AERA (Amendment) Bill- 2019, the threshold of annual passenger traffic for major airports has been increased from 15 lakh to over ________ lakh passengers.
Parliament has passed the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India, AERA (Amendment) Bill- 2019.
The bill increases the threshold of annual passenger traffic for major airports from 15 lakh to over 35 lakh passengers.
The threshold has been increased as the number of air traffic passenger has been increased by 117 million from 2008 to 345 million now.
Who won the Miss England 2019 crown?
Bhasha Mukherjee
Nina Davuluri
Radhika Parameswaran
Radhika Pandit
Bhasha Mukherjee, an Indian-origin doctor, has been crowned Miss England on 2 August 2019.
Bhasha Mukherjee holds two different medical degrees, has an IQ of 146, making her officially a 'genius' and is fluent in five languages.
As winner of Miss England, she will be entered into the Miss World contest 2019.
Who has been appointed as the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL)?
Ravi Capoor
PM Prasad
Anil Swarup
Ashish Singh
On 2 August 2019, the government of India appointed PM Prasad as the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL).
Prasad, who is currently serving as the Director (Technical) of Northern Coalfields Limited (NCL), has been appointed the CMD, BCCL, for a period of five years.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the proposal of the Ministry of Coal for his appointment.
Rajya Sabha passed The Code on Wages Bill, 2019 on 2 August 2019.
It will ensure statutory protection for minimum wages and timely payment of wages to approximately 50 crore workers of organized as well as unorganized sector.
It will be the first Code to become an Act out of the four Codes.
It will be the first Code to become an Act out of the four Codes: Code on Wages; Industrial Relations; Social Security and Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions which Ministry of Labour and Employment has formulated.
Which country was upgraded to the bronze medal at the IAAF World Race Walking Cup in Russia?
At the IAAF World Race Walking Cup in Russia, India was handed a bronze medal upgrade following the disqualification of a member of the second-placed Ukrainian team for dope violation.
The Indian team of KT Infra, Babubhai Panucha and Surinder Singh had finished fourth in the men's 20 km team event in May 2012.
Ukrainian race walker Ruslan Dmytrenko was disqualified after seven years on the basis of his biological passport analysis
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has released a list of how many institutes for the grant of the status of Institutions of Eminence (IoE)?
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has released a list of 20 institutes – 10 public and 10 private for the grant of the status of Institutions of Eminence (IoE).
The Institute of Eminence scheme aimed at developing 20 world-class institutions which would put India on the global education map.
Those selected will be given greater autonomy and freedom to decide fees, course durations and governance structures.
The public institutions will also receive a government grant of ₹1,000 crore.
Important Current Affairs 3rd August 2019 with PDF
Important Current Affairs 3rd August 2019 in Hindi with PDF
SSC MTS Exam Questions Asked 5th August 2019 – Tier 1 (All Shifts)
IBPS RRB PO Questions Asked 4th August 2019 – Prelims (All Shifts)
IBPS RRB PO Exam Analysis 4th August 2019 – Get IBPS RRB PO Prelims Analysis Here(All Shifts)
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Unable to get new mobile for e-classes, Pali boy ends life
TNN | Oct 16, 2020, 10.46 AM IST
VALPOI: A Class X student from Pali-Thane village in Sattari taluka died by suicide on Thursday as his parents could not afford to buy him a new smartphone for online classes.
Police said that the 16-year-old boy, who was studying at a school in Dongerli-Thane, was found hanging at his residence on Thursday morning.
The parents claimed that the boy had a phone, but that it broke after falling to the ground a few days ago, police said. “The parents also claimed that they had promised their son they would buy him a new phone in a few days,” police said.
The boy was rushed to the Valpoi community health centre, where the doctors declared him brought dead. His body was later sent for a postmortem examination to the GMC.
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Andrew Bacevich
Andrew Bacevich, a TomDispatch regular, is president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. His most recent book is The Age of Illusions: How America Squandered Its Cold War Victory. His new book, After the Apocalypse: America’s Role in a World Transformed, will be published in 2021.
Subhankar Banerjee
Subhankar Banerjee is a writer, photographer, and activist. Over the past decade he has worked tirelessly to conserve ecoculturally significant areas of the Arctic, and to raise awareness about indigenous human rights and climate change. He is the editor of a new book, Arctic Voices: Resistance at the Tipping Point (Seven Stories Press) and won a 2012 Lannan Foundation Cultural Freedom Award.
John M. Barry, Distinguished Scholar at the Tulane/Xavier Center for Bioenvironmental Research, is the author of The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History (Viking, 2004). This study of the 1918 pandemic was named by the National Academies of Science the year’s outstanding book on science or medicine. He has advised both the Bush and Obama administrations on influenza as well as other federal, state, and World Health Organization officials, and serves on advisory committees of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School for Public Health and MIT’s Center for Engineering Systems Fundamentals.
Ari Berman is a contributing writer for the Nation magazine and an Investigative Journalism Fellow at The Nation Institute. His book, Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics (Picador) is now out in paperback with a new afterword. Follow him on Twitter @AriBerman.
Frida Berrigan
Frida Berrigan is the author of It Runs In The Family: On Being Raised by Radicals and Growing into Rebellious Motherhood. She is a TomDispatch regular and writes the Little Insurrections column for WagingNonviolence.Org. She has three children and lives in New London, Connecticut, where she is a gardener and community organizer.
Fatima Bhutto
Fatima Bhutto, an Afghan-born Pakistani poet and writer, is most recently the author of Songs of Blood and Sword: A Daughter’s Memoir (Nation Books, 2010). Her work has appeared in the New Statesman, the Daily Beast, and the Guardian, among other places. Her father Murtaza Bhutto, son of Pakistan’s former President and Prime Minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and an elected member of parliament, was killed by the police in 1996 in Karachi during the premiership of his sister, Benazir Bhutto. Fatima lives and writes in Karachi, Pakistan.
Matt Bivens
Matt Bivens is in his intern year at a Harvard-affiliated emergency medicine residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He is a former editor of the Moscow Times who lived for years in Russia, and who covered the war in Chechnya for the Los Angeles Times. His journalism has appeared in Harper’s, Playboy, the Nation, and many other publications.
Max Blumenthal is the author of the bestselling book Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement That Shattered the Party. He is a writing fellow at the Nation Institute and a senior writer for the Daily Beast. See his footage from inside Palin’s church by clicking here or visit his website, MaxBlumenthal.com. To listen to an accompanying TomDispatch audio interview with Blumenthal on Palin, “the queen of fly-over country,” and her new book, click here.
Victoria Brittain
Victoria Brittain, journalist and former editor at the Guardian, has authored or co-authored two plays and four books, including Enemy Combatant with Moazzam Begg. Her latest book, Shadow Lives: The Forgotten Women of the War on Terror (Palgrave/Macmillan, 2013) has just been published.
David Bromwich
David Bromwich, the editor of a selection of Edmund Burke’s speeches, On Empire, Liberty, and Reform, has written on the Constitution and America’s wars for The New York Review of Books and The Huffington Post.
John Brown is a former diplomat who resigned from the State Department over the planned invasion of Iraq. He compiles the Public Diplomacy Press Review.
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The Red Phoenix
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Home › U.S. News › Economy › Service to the People: Community Control Now!
Service to the People: Community Control Now!
By Polina Brik on January 1, 2018
by Polina Brik and Kevin Connolly
To many people it’s not immediately clear why communists would be interested in charitable activities, which are normally relegated to religious organizations and volunteer groups. By establishing bases of open operations, the Party can operate more efficiently and at a larger scale in every endeavor. Firm establishment in communities can lead to any level of political influence, which is paramount even if it only means propagandizing. Our objective is not to interfere with local politics, but to bring about political consciousness in our communities. We also would like to develop bases of interpersonal support that can extend from homeless and housing relief, to immigrant defense, and eventually to the replacement of political influence.
Community engagement is of a high priority in this endeavor. Consistent action is essential to building a repertoire with your community. By building familiarity with the members of your community you begin to build a network of support that you can rely on. If you have a network of people who recognize your integrity and reliability, then they will be available to assist you and provide material more readily. It is not easy to organize even a small contingent for regular service activity. In the field you will quickly learn to use the assets available to you through your community network. In this fashion, by forging personal relationships and organizational familiarity and trust, you can better forward your goals. Use these relationships to form a web into which you will throw your greatest priorities and challenges- the problems you intend to solve for your community.
During times of natural distress for the homeless, mostly the hot summer and freezing winter, extra material provided by outside organizations will be essential for your efforts. In addition to that, due to the persistent failures of the capitalist state to provide for its citizens, we call on workers and community organizers to help us in community-building in the times when people have to rely on food, clothes, and hygiene products distributed by the American Party of Labor.
When your community is familiar with your organization and actions, they will much more readily accept small ideological advancements. For example, say there exists a popular and progressive religious organization in your community. Normally this group would not participate in open displays of political ideology or agenda. However, if you have a history of positive action in the community, and perhaps a history or doing service alongside them, they will readily organize with you on matters much more politically important than perhaps they realize. By establishing yourself in the community, you might just be able to get the Bible Team to supply food for your communist labor barbecue.
This is a long term strategic project that will take serious time and dedication to bring into fruition. Never be afraid of how few you may be, or how little you may have. This work is thankless and is both physically and psychologically exhausting. Never forget that while you are supporting your community on behalf of the party and socialism, the party is supporting you on behalf of all people. As a party and a movement there is only room to grow, and our task can only become easier. There will come a time when capitalism in America will once again bring itself to crisis, when the people of our country will need more help than ever before, and when that time comes we will already be there.
The following article is an interview of a working class organizer who recently donated some monetary resources to Service to the People, volunteer-based program based in New Brunswick, NJ whose purpose is to distribute basic resources to homeless and poor people. Red Aid was established by American Party of Labor, Paul Robeson Division in October of 2016 and we continue to serve the community by providing basic goods. There are other divisions of our party which are involved in similar programs – one located in Orlando, FL, another in Austin, TX.
We asked Kadeem several questions about involvement in the community, the importance of revolutionary stance in organizing, and why people are scared of communism.
Kadeem was a Rutgers University student majoring in Labor Studies who graduated in 2015. He joined All Marxist-Leninist Union back in 2014 and was an active member. Recently, Kadeem donated to Service to the People. Kadeem believes that Red Aid is a valuable resource to the New Brunswick community.
P.B.: You pointed out why organizing in the community is important. Why is is important for you personally? How does it affect you?
Kadeem: It is important for me personally because I am a young poor Black male directly affected by, just to be specific, the crises of capitalism. I am affected directly by things like racism, police brutality as a part of racism, poverty, a lot of these things. And even if I was not affected, I can name tons of people who are. It is a part of being human – empathy, which is a reason why a lot of people get into socialism in the first place, get to organizing and protesting. Empathy. Speaking for those who cannot speak. Providing for those who aren’t being provided for. And this is the beauty of Service to the People. I know there are several revolutionary programs like Service to the People. Basically, you are stepping in where the state will not, for the people that the state has forgotten. I wouldn’t even say forgotten. The people who the state has consciously decided to ignore.
P.B.: What is the difference between charity work and Service to the People, in your opinion?
Kadeem: Charity work is not supposed to be the end goal. Service to the People is not just providing people food and shoes, and clothes, it is about building community and control over that community. I work in the state assistance. State assistance isn’t built to really address the concerns of people. That’s the point I can really expound on. But it’s not what [Red Aid] is. It is not meant to punish people, as state assistance does. Service is not like that – it is meant to be there consistently, to be flexible, whereas private charity suffers from the blows of the market. And again, Service to the People is not meant to be end-all be-all. It’s about survival pending revolution, what Huey [Dr. Huey P Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party] talked about. That’s how I see it.
P.B.: Would you like to say anything else to the Red Phoenix readers?
Kadeem: I want to get more people involved in organizing like you guys do. When it comes down to explaining things plainly — you guys do that. The beauty of Malcolm X is that he would keep things plain, using the things that are right around our face. I use radical imagination to envision that there is a different way. A lot of people are just kind of stuck. Sometimes it is hard to question the things around you because it seems to be just the way it is and this is how it is going to be. But it wasn’t always this way. We can point to different examples. For example, a lot of people are put off by communism because of the Cold War propaganda, people saying Soviet Union is bad, Cuba is bad, Venezuela is … you know. So a lot of myths circling around socialism and communism, and that is a huge barrier. If people can plainly understand that what you’ve been taught is wrong, then you get a little more nuanced knowledge about why certain things happen. You do not make excuses. You are not afraid to defend a lot of great things, which certainly need to be defended. But none of it is, in my experience, really hard to understand once the things are explained. Programs like this can expose the limits of liberalism, and how it can only go so far as to offer temporary solutions to ingrained problems of capitalism.
‹ Trump Tax Plan: For the Rich, On The Worker
Labour Party of Iran (Toufan): Long live the raging movement of the people of Iran! ›
Categories: Economy, Immigration, Labor, Police Brutality, Racism, U.S. News, Workers Struggle
The National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression Calls for Protests the Day After The November Presidential Election (November 4, 2020) After the election, the peoples mandate for change must be carried out.
“Karl Marx’s Legacy in the Reinvigoration of the US Labor Movement:” Presentation by the American Party of Labor at the 22nd International Seminar on the Problems of the Revolution in Latin America.
Report on Repression in Arizona’s Apartheid
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Smashing boundaries without leaving the house.
Jesse Nathan: The Last Book I Loved
By Jesse Nathan
How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone by Sasa Stanisic was the last book I love love loved. It’s explosive, a text that’s sinewy and daring. It tears open the marks left on the narrator during the wars in the former Yugoslavia in the 90s. The chapters are introduced Twain-style–like this one called, “How sweet dark red is, how many oxen you need to pull down a wall, why Kraljevic Marko’s horse is related to Superman, and how war can come to a party.” The book’s a brilliant debut for Stanisic. He creates a sprawling narrative built of equally expansive sentences. There’s this, for instance: “That just-a-moment had hardly died away before Father turned and Hemingwayed Bobuljub so forcefully that the tobacconist was sent flying against the bookshelves. Or this: “Soldiers on the porches of buildings, soldiers behind sandbags, soldiers in bars acting as landlords and guests combined.” Plus, Daniel Handler is on the cover on a beach in a yellow shirt and a black suit playing an accordion.
Jesse Nathan is an editor at McSweeney’s and the managing editor of the Best American Nonrequired Reading. His poetry and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in jubilat, the American Poetry Review, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Nation. He was born in Berkeley, grew up in Kansas, and lives now in San Francisco. More from this author →
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WWE Network Schedule For Week Of Dec. 14, 2020: Drew McIntyre On The Broken Skull Sessions, WWE TLC 2020 And More (www.wwe.com)
WWE Network has an absolutely loaded week of new and original programming coming your way, capped off by WWE Tables, Ladders & Chairs 2020 this Sunday.
Days before he challenges Universal Champion Roman Reigns at WWE’s Demolition Derby, Kevin Owens will appear on WWE’s The Bump this Wednesday. Also joining the show will be two-time WWE Hall of Famer and 16-time World Champion Ric Flair. The KO coverage doesn’t end there, as Owens will also be the subject of a new episode of WWE Chronicle, dropping Saturday, one day before his huge title match.
Between her undefeated streak in NXT and her title wins on the red and blue brands, Raw Women’s Champion Asuka has carved out one of the most incredible legacies in modern history. Join The Empress of Tomorrow as she looks back on her conquests of yesteryear on WWE Break It Down, available this Friday, including on the Free Version of WWE Network.
Then get ready for a full day of must-see programming on WWE TLC Sunday, from new episodes of WWE’s The Bump and La Previa, to “Stone Cold” Steve Austin’s no-holds-barred interview with WWE Champion Drew McIntyre on The Broken Skull Sessions. Live WWE TLC coverage begins with the Kickoff at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT, followed immediately by WWE TLC 2020, featuring Reigns vs. Owens and McIntyre vs. AJ Styles in TLC Matches, SmackDown Women Champion Sasha Banks vs. Carmella and much more!
Tis the season for some TLC… Tables, Ladders and Chairs! Don’t miss Roman Reigns, Sasha Banks, Drew McIntyre, The Fiend and all your favorite WWE Superstars at WWE TLC, Sunday, December 20, at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT, streaming live on WWE Network.
Check out the full lineup of new premieres below, and keep up with the latest WWE Network content updates and new features right here on WWE.com. With more than 10,000 hours of video on demand, WWE Network is available in over 180 countries and is the only place to watch all WWE pay-per-view events streaming live at no additional cost.
The Free Version of WWE Network unlocks a vast portion of the WWE Network content library, including more than 15,000 action-packed WWE titles, available for free. Subscribe now at WWENetwork.com!
** = available on the Free Version of WWE Network
Monday, Dec. 14
Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia: Elias** – 10 a.m. ET on demand
Raw Talk** – 11 p.m. ET
The Best of WWE: The Best of TLC** – 12 p.m. ET on demand
Monday Night Raw (11/16/20)** – 9 a.m. ET on demand
WWE’s The Bump: Kevin Owens and Ric Flair** – 10 a.m. ET
Notsam Wrestling: “Music”** – 10 a.m. ET on demand
NXT UK – 3 p.m. ET/8 p.m. GMT
This Week in WWE – 7 p.m. ET
WWE NXT (12/16/20) – 10 p.m. ET on demand
Swerve City: Vic Joseph & Wade Barrett** – 10 a.m. ET on demand
WWE Break It Down: Asuka** – 10 a.m. ET on demand
WWE Break It Down: Asuka – 7:30 p.m. ET
205 Live – 10 p.m. ET
Saturday, Dec. 19
WWE Main Event (12/3/20) – 9 a.m. ET on demand
Talking Smack** – 10 a.m. ET on demand
WWE Chronicle: Kevin Owens – 10 a.m. ET on demand
The Best of PROGRESS Wrestling: Mark Andrews – 12 p.m. ET on demand
EVOLVE 139 – 12 p.m. ET on demand
ICW Fight Club 150 – 12 p.m. ET on demand
wXw Catch Grand Prix #5 – 12 p.m. ET on demand
Talking Smack – 2 p.m. ET
WWE Chronicle: Kevin Owens – 8 p.m. ET
Friday Night SmackDown (11/20/20)** – 9 a.m. ET on demand
“Stone Cold” Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions: Drew McIntyre – 10 a.m. ET on demand
La Previa de TLC 2020** – 10 a.m. ET on demand
WWE’s The Bump: Beth Phoenix** – 10 a.m. ET on demand
La Previa de TLC 2020** – 3 p.m. ET
WWE’s The Bump: Beth Phoenix ** – 4 p.m. ET
WWE TLC 2020 Kickoff** – 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT
WWE TLC 2020 – 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT
First Look: WWE Icons – Immediately following WWE TLC 2020
“Stone Cold” Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions: Drew McIntyre – Immediately following First Look: WWE Icons
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Home / Business Management / Margaret Heffernan
https://static.thesweeneyagency.com/uploads/mheffernan.mp4
About Margaret Heffernan - Entrepreneur, CEO, Speaker and Author of Willful Blindness:
Margaret Heffernan is an entrepreneur, Chief Executive and author. She was born in Texas, raised in Holland and educated at Cambridge University. She worked in BBC Radio for five years where she wrote, directed, produced and commissioned dozens of documentaries and dramas.
As a television producer, she made documentary films for Timewatch, Arena, and Newsnight. She was one of the producers of Out of the Doll's House, the prize-winning documentary series about the history of women in the twentieth century. She designed and executive produced a thirteen part series on The French Revolution for the BBC and A&E. The series featured, among others, Alan Rickman, Alfred Molina, Janet Suzman, Simon Callow and Jim Broadbent and introduced both historian Simon Schama and playwright Peter Barnes to British television. She also produced music videos with Virgin Records and the London Chamber Orchestra to raise attention and funds for Unicef's Lebanese fund.
Leaving the BBC, she ran the trade association IPPA, which represented the interests of independent film and television producers and was once described by the Financial Times as "the most formidable lobbying organization in England."
In 1994, she returned to the United States where she worked on public affair campaigns in Massachusetts and with software companies trying to break into multimedia. She developed interactive multimedia products with Peter Lynch, Tom Peters, Standard & Poors and The Learning Company.
She then joined CMGI where she ran, bought and sold leading Internet businesses, serving as Chief Executive Officer for InfoMation Corporation, ZineZone Corporation and iCAST Corporation.
She was named one of the Internet's Top 100 by Silicon Alley Reporter in 1999, one of the Top 25 by Streaming Media magazine and one of the Top 100 Media Executives by The Hollywood Reporter. Her "Tear Down the Wall" campaign against AOL won the 2001 Silver SABRE award for public relations.
Her third book, Wilful Blindness (Simon&Schuster in the UK, Bloomsbury in the US and Doubleday in Canada) was a finalist for the Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Best Business Book award. Her most recent book A Bigger Prize (Simon&Schuster in the UK, Public Affairs in the US and Doubleday in Canada) is published in spring 2014. She is a Trustee of the London Library and sits on the Council of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art as well as one the boards of several private companies. Margaret blogs for the Huffington Post in the US and the UK, for CBSMoneywatch and for Inc.com.
She was featured on television in The Secret Millionaire and on BBC Radio 4 in Changing the Rules, which won the 2008 Prowess Media Award. She has had three plays broadcast by the BBC and in 2011 has been awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Bath. She mentors senior executives and contributes to corporate conferences around the world. She is married with two children.
The One Firm, Firm
After years of streamlining and hunkering down to weather the crises, what companies now most need to do is pull their people together. Collaboration and innovation are vital skills in global business but where do they come from? How do leading companies get the alignment, trust and energy they need to get their people to work well together? What are the impediments to, and habits of, creative collaborative teams?
Working across cultures, time zones and technology is logistically difficult but it’s usually the human factors that make it hard for companies to achieve their aims. Everyone talks about collaboration but few know how to do it, what it feels like or what organizational structures enable or disable it. What they all know is that if they can’t figure out how to do it, others will.
In this presentation you will learn:
The meaning and characteristics of collective intelligence;
The business case for collaboration;
Incentives that make people pull together;
What gets in the way of teamwork; and
How great leadership teams function.
Two For One: Seeing Risks/Seizing Opportunity
Big data, market research, social media: we can know more than ever and yet we keep missing the most important trends, information and trends. Why? What makes companies and individuals willfully blind?
Pulling together a century of psychological, industrial and economic research, Margaret Heffernan argues that willful blindness is the biggest risk most organizations face. But the good news is that those companies that confront the issue don’t just reduce their risk; they also make themselves inherently more creative and collaborative. It’s a twofer: when you see more, you can make more and risk less.
In this provocative presentation, you will learn:
What blinds companies to their risks;
Why most employees don’t share their knowledge;
How companies can kill creativity or stoke it;
The power of noticing and acting on what you see; and
How diversity can make companies smarter.
How She Does It
The numbers are staggering. Between 1997 and 2004, privately held, women-owned businesses grew at three times the rate of all American privately held firms; women’s companies are creating jobs at twice the rate of all firms; women’s companies are growing profits faster than all firms. Five-time CEO and contributor to Real Business and Fast Company Margaret Heffernan asks, Why are these women so successful?
In How She Does It, Heffernan finds a striking congruence between the things that women excel at and the demands of the new economy. After interviewing hundreds of women running businesses of all sizes and in all markets, she discovers a few attributes that hold true across the board. Women have a tremendous need to achieve. Women don’t feel they have a safety net or can turn back. They are smart about markets and timing. They practice diversity. They place values at the heart of their business and take culture very seriously. And women work from a different concept of power than men. The result is a unique style of leadership that challenges conventional wisdom: Soft skills are getting hard results. This is an inspiring workplace manifesto that reveals a new standard of excellence, a new way for any company to get from good to great that is fast becoming the new norm.
People are still talking about the conference! As the closing presenter, Margaret Heffernan had a full house and a captive audience. She delivered a very thought-provoking and engaging talk.
Society for Human Resource Management
Business Management, Leadership, Motivation Strategies
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In Valley Living Tour Guide
In Valley Living 2020
Century-old reed organ being moved to St. Hedwig’s for Midnight Mass
BARRY’S BAY – Centenary liturgical celebrations at St. Hedwig’s Parish in Barry’s Bay, Ontario this Christmas will be brightened by the presence of the original parlour organ used to accompany the singing of the solemn Latin High Mass of the Nativity and the Polish koledy in the church 100 years ago.
The 116-year-old triple reed pump organ, property of Dr. B. A. Ron Glofcheskie, will be used in performance at the opening of Midnight Mass in remembrance of the first parishioners and the founding pastor, Rt. Rev. Peter B. Biernacki. The organ has been on loan to St. Hedwig’s Rectory since it was extensively restored and reconditioned by Glofcheskie in 2009 in anticipation of the 2014 centenary.
The instrument has a long and circuitous history according to Glofcheskie who fell heir to the museum piece as payment-in-kind for house painting he did in the area during his years prior to medical school.
The organ was manufactured on June 21, 1898 by D. W. Karn & Co. of Woodstock, Ontario, one of the largest and most prestigious piano and organ manufacturers in Canadian history. It was in the possession of pioneers John and Mary (nee Kiedrowski) Etmanski, after they moved from their farm in Sherwood Township to Stafford Street in Barry’s Bay in 1904. It has been in the Etmanski family since that time, reports Glofcheskie, a great-grandson of John and Mary.
After the turn of the nineteenth century, in addition to the parlour organ on the main floor, the Etmanski home on Stafford Street also housed a designated “priest’s room” reserved exclusively for visiting priests of the old Mission Church of the Assumption in Siberia, and afterwards, for Msgr. Biernacki from 1913 until St. Hedwig’s Rectory was built in 1922.
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Marvin Gaye – My Favourite Track
Stewart Bloor July 1, 2020 Welcome To My World
One of the Motown artists – along with the likes of Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Diana Ross and Stevie Wonder – whose fame has extended way beyond Hitsville itself, Marvin Gaye recorded some great tracks during his lifetime.
To the general public, one of his most well-known songs would be I Heard It Through The Grapevine. The 1968 classic is instantly recognisable the moment it begins.
It’s Marvin Gaye’s contribution to the Motown Gold album. The follow up LP saw his solo effort, Too Busy Thinking About My Baby, as the chosen song.
It’s the latter that edges it for me in terms of personal choice. However, my favourite track is Wherever I Lay My Hat (That’s My Home).
Although it was recorded in 1962, it eventually saw the light of day as the B-side to Too Busy Thinking About My Baby, which was released seven years later.
I can remember the first time I heard Wherever I Lay My Hat. I was a young teenager and it was at a school-type disco. It instantly hit the spot.
It’s probably more associated with Paul Young, though, who recorded a version some years later. It remains his only UK number one single. I once saw the singer with his band, Q-Tips, again when I was much younger myself.
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Dave Sheekey says:
Marvin Gaye , a soul divided. On the one hand, regarded by many fans as this sexual entity a super stud. Yet the sad reality was that Gaye was the product of a troubled upbringing, a man who had to battle mental health issues. Marvin Gaye recorded the album Sexual Healing in Belgium. It is said he found a sense of contentment in Europe away from the racism and other problems he encountered back home. Regarding favourite tracks, Let`s Get It On and What`s Going On are seminal cuts but in the end, I am going to plump for a fairly obscure B side Lonely Lover, it is the flop to the World Is Rated X
Sadly, lots of struggles away from what the public saw.
I didn’t know that song, just found it on Spotify. It’s good, very good. Like it.
A version of Lonely Lover by Jimmy Macfarland was played on the Northern scene. I prefer the Marvin Gaye version. The Macfarland cut is a lot faster which suits the gimme twenty feet of space dancefloor exhibitionists but Marvin Gaye is the better vocalist and he draws out the emotion and sadness of the song.
Just found the other version on YouTube. It’s ok and definitely had the northern touch, but Marvin edges for me.
I much prefer the earlier Marvin Gaye to the later songs.
sidestreambob says:
I’ll go for the obvious one – ‘Let’s get it on’ is far and away my favourite Marvin Gaye track.
Yeah, his most successful single.
Yep, it is the equivalent of picking the swim nearest the car park, but sometimes the swim nearest the car park is a good un’.
It’s all that bait that goes in!
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WWII hero to speak at the Palmdale City Library
by The AV Times Staff • November 12, 2014
Adolph Martinez
PALMDALE – The Palmdale City Library will host a free presentation by World War II veteran and hero Adolph Martinez.
The event starts at 12 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 15 at the Library, located at 700 East Palmdale Boulevard.
A resident of the Antelope Valley, Martinez served as a paratrooper in the European theater during WWII.
A veteran of the Battle of the Bulge, he was captured behind enemy lines. He escaped a POW camp and made his way back to freedom.
“You won’t want to miss hearing his amazing story,” said City Librarian Thomas Vose. “This is an opportunity to meet and hear from a war hero from the ‘Greatest Generation.’”
Martinez’s face was chosen for one of the statues in the Korean War Memorial in Washington, D.C.
For more information on the free presentation featuring Martinez, call the Palmdale City Library at 661-267-5600 or visit www.cityofpalmdale.org/library.
2 comments for "WWII hero to speak at the Palmdale City Library"
Diane Morrow says
I can’t wait to hear this fine man share his story!
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Family makes public appeal on 3-year anniversary of business owner’s death
Glen Brittner [left] was found bound and beaten on Aug. 18, 2015, inside his residence, which also served as the business office for his company, Domestic Water Delivery, in the 26200 block of East Avenue W-8, authorities said.
LLANO – Three years ago today, Glen Brittner passed away after living in a coma for 10 days. The beloved Antelope Valley business owner was beaten into the coma during a brutal home invasion robbery at his Llano residence.
To this day, the murder remains unsolved.
“We desperately need answers and to know why my father was killed,” stated Glen Brittner’s son, George.
George and other family members are marking the three-year anniversary of Glen Brittner’s death with a public appeal for information.
“I think people should come forward with information to protect themselves and the community from the murderers,” stated Glen Brittner’s brother, Gary. “Justice is screaming for closure to this evil deed.”
Sheriff’s officials believe at least two suspects were involved in Glen Brittner’s death. He was attacked Aug. 18, 2015, at his home, which also served as his business office, in the 26200 block of East Avenue W-8.
An employee arriving to work at the company, Domestic Water Delivery, found Glen Brittner bleeding from a severe head wound with his hands and feet bound with zip-ties. The property was ransacked and about $2,000 was stolen, along with television sets and power tools, according to the Sheriff’s Department.
Glen Brittner was unresponsive and unable to tell deputies what happened to him. He was airlifted to the hospital in critical condition and remained in a coma for 10 days until his death.
“How could someone be so cowardly and vile as to attack and beat a nearly 60-year-old crippled man to death?” stated Gary Brittner.
Asked to tell the public more about Glen Brittner, Gary said:
“Glen was a business man providing an essential domestic and agriculture water delivery service to many loyal and valued customers in the high desert since the late 70’s. He had three children; his wife died suddenly in September 1998. He had one grandson at the time of his death, and they had a strong bond… Glen had leg and back problems and regularly used a wheelchair. Though feeble, Glen had a brilliant mind and knew facts, figures, and events like an encyclopedia. And, of course, as a truck owner-operator driving the dirt back roads, he became a cracker jack mechanic, plumber, and welder.”
George Brittner added: “I would like the public to know that my father was one of the greatest assets to our beloved communities. My father was well known throughout this entire region, and so many people in these communities have been devastated by his murder. For myself, running his company and being here in what he has built (his shop, etc.) helps me feel close to him… I’ll never fully be able to heal the wounds that were inflicted upon all of us until his murderers are caught and behind bars.”
A $20,000 reward for help solving Glen Brittner’s murder has been offered by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
Anyone with information on this crime is encouraged to call the Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500, or Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-TIPS.
Previous related stories:
$20K reward offered in beating death of AV business owner
Man dies after assault
Man airlifted to hospital after assault
1 comment for "Family makes public appeal on 3-year anniversary of business owner’s death"
Debi Kleinberg says
Shared in Lake Elizabeth CA.
for you all.
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Trudeau widely mocked for claiming to support freedom of expression
Posted on April 30, 2018 by Jonathon Van Maren
As I wrote last week, the Conservatives are having a field day in the House of Commons after discovering that Justin Trudeau’s Liberals are funding an organization that exists almost solely to stop a project the Liberals have been promising loudly will definitely get built—the Kinder Morgan pipeline. In fact, the funding from Trudeau’s government is going specifically to pay an organizer to get people to protest the pipeline in order to halt the project. Trudeau, visibly frustrated that he was being called on his hypocrisy, triggered outrage and gales of laughter in Parliament when he snapped that, “we will not remove funding from advocacy organizations because we as a government happen to disagree with them!”
Unfortunately for Trudeau, a quick survey of the reaction to his hilarious attempt to take the moral high ground on freedom of speech shows that nobody is taking him very seriously—and that no one believes he actually has any commitment to protecting such freedoms. Here’s Rob Breakenridge of Global News:
It is true that this [environmentalist] group has previously received Canada Summer Jobs program grants, money that was doled out while the Harper Conservatives were in power. And yes, there were pipelines to be scuttled then, too. But to cite that previous funding as a defence of the Liberals’ current approach is to rather miss the point.
As we’ve seen in recent days, the Conservative Party is no fan of Dogwood or the idea of the group being on the receiving end of any federal dollars. Yet the Conservatives did nothing to block or deny those while they were in power. Why, it’s almost as though there was no political litmus test for the summer jobs program back then…The issue isn’t so much that Dogwood has once again secured federal funding. It’s that those same grants are now being denied to groups who have previously received it. The Liberals have set a political threshold for saying, “no.” So it’s fair to criticize them for not only that approach, but the fact that their net has ensnared charities and summer camps, yet not the avowed enemies of a multi-billion-dollar piece of needed energy infrastructure.
Yet in the House of Commons this week, the prime minister had the gall to defend the grant to Dogwood on the basis of free speech, proclaiming that “We will always support the right of Canadians to express themselves.” If only that were true…
The Liberals can’t have it both ways: they can’t justify the denial of funds to a cohort of groups on the basis that they’re undermining the government’s efforts and values while simultaneously defending the funding of other groups that also undermine the government’s efforts and values. The Liberals needlessly politicized this program and have only themselves to blame for this untenable mess. They either need to scrap the attestation or scrap the program altogether.
And then there’s John Ibbitson over in the Globe and Mail:
The Trudeau government refuses job grants to students who would have worked at summer camps and soup kitchens, but happily gives money to students to organize pipeline protests. The government has an explanation, but it doesn’t matter. Your jaw dropped when you first heard about this. That matters.
The summer jobs flap is simply the latest act that’s bound to alienate voters who are Conservative-Liberal switchers − who, by the way, decide elections…Liberal strategists believe that, to win elections, they must have progressive policies that will keep NDP-Liberal switchers on their side. And Mr. Trudeau is, by nature, strongly progressive on social issues.
But Liberals don’t lose elections to New Democrats. They lose to Conservatives.
And Licia Corbella in the Calgary Herald:
The Mustard Seed Street Ministry — and thousands of other faith-based organizations like it — got zero Canada Summer Jobs funding from the federal government to help feed, house, clothe, train and love Alberta’s most vulnerable and poor citizens experiencing homelessness.
Many faith-based organizations were denied funding from the federal program owing to them refusing to sell their souls for a few pieces of silver. Trudeau and his government insisted that to qualify for a grant to hire university students, the applying organization had to sign an attestation stating that the organization’s core mandate respects “reproductive rights.”
As Steve Wile, CEO of The Mustard Seed, says, the Christian aid organization has never had to take a stand on abortion before because its core mandate is to minister to tens of thousands of poor and addicted people in Calgary, Red Deer and Edmonton. Nevertheless, the wording of the attestation made it impossible to sign, since it required applicants to essentially agree with the federal Liberal party platform on abortion.
Last year, The Seed received federal funding to hire 17 students to work across Alberta. This year, The Seed got nothing. As a result, the organization only hired six students, partly from $30,000 that came in from church folk following news coverage of the attestation controversy.…
Naturally, the House erupted at Trudeau’s Orwellian answer. When the Speaker settled everyone down, Trudeau continued saying: “On the issue of this particular advocacy group, it is important to highlight that it was also funded under the Harper government.”
Trudeau’s own words prove the opposite of what he constantly tries to say about the former Harper government. Citizens’ access to government programs was not based on the beliefs of the recipients. It’s the federal Liberals who are doing that, something that has been condemned even by pro-abortion groups.
“We will not remove funding from advocacy organizations because we as a government happen to disagree with them,” Trudeau said. Naturally, the House went ballistic at that comment and the PM’s use of divisive identity politics.
“Mr. Speaker, what the prime minister just said will come as a great surprise to the member for Bonavista-Gander-Grand Falls-Windsor,” said Scheer, referring to Liberal MP Scott Simms, who lost his committee position after voting against his own government’s stance on summer jobs grants.
I wonder if Trudeau or his Liberals have noticed that nobody is buying what they’re selling. They have been attempting to blunt the criticism of their abortion attestation by painting pro-life groups as beyond the pale and insisting that they are champions of the Charter, but it has all been to no avail. It has been months since the story broke, and with the exception of handful of abortion activists, everyone is still disgusted with the move—and many long-time political watchers are predicting that it will hurt Trudeau in 2019.
For anyone interested, my books: The Culture War, Seeing is Believing: Why Our Culture Must Face the Victims of Abortion, and How To Discuss Assisted Suicide, are available for sale here.
This entry was posted in Blog Post and tagged abortion, Canada Jobs Program, Canada Summer Jobs, Dogwood Initiative, John Ibbitson, Jonathon Van Maren, Licia Corbella.
Michelle Wolf jokes about aborting a baby at White House Correspondent’s Dinner
Alfie Evans reminded the world that human life is precious, no matter what
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"The record was hailed as being back to basics, which it wasn't. And the tour was described as a minimalist production, which, of course, it really wasn't. It is all relative, and compared to Pop anything would seem back to basics." - Edge on All That You Can't Leave Behind
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said in a UK radio interview in 2006 that U2's 1987 hit Where The Streets Have No Name is his favourite song of all time.
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ADELINE HOTEL – ” Good Timing “
Tags: Caylee Hammack, If It Wasn’t For You
Caylee Hammack’s debut album begins with a good scolding. “You should’ve never come over,” she exclaims. “You should’ve left early and kept your hands to yourself / You knew better / You should’ve never promised me bliss if you couldn’t keep it.” Stand back—she’s breathing fire. But as the album opener, titled “Just Friends,” continues, it becomes clear that the issues in this relationship weren’t entirely to blame on the handsy guy. Hammack continues, “I should’ve listened to my mama / And not let you in my head / I should’ve told ya that I loved ya / But not let you in my bed.” Her predicament is a familiar one to anybody who hustled into a relationship with a friend too quickly.
The 26-year-old Hammack wrote or co-wrote and produced all 13 tracks on If It Wasn’t For You, her debut album released earlier last month, and the Georgia native peels back the curtain on everything from failed friends-with-benefits arrangements and redhead stereotypes to existential woes and family issues (namely on “Family Tree,” which is akin to Kacey Musgraves’ “Family is Family”).
The album’s 13 songs are packed with Hammack’s clever and relatable song writing, as well as stories that are entirely true to her real life. From tales about her childhood, to stories about heartbreak, to fiery songs about life, the Georgia-born artist infuses her personality and vulnerability into every word.
While some tracks tell her story through a more upbeat lens, Hammack also delves into some of her biggest heartbreaks and losses on the project. In “Forged in the Fire,” which was inspired by a fire that ravaged her home in 2017, the singer describes how to rise from the ashes of life. And in the genuine “Looking For A Lighter,” Hammack sings of unintentionally finding a few items in a junk drawer—such as an old fake ID and letters from a past love—that cause locked away memories to start flooding back. These stories are set to music that is also deeply personal, as the production features nods to Hammack’s influences,
“I wanted every single song to have a real, true story behind it that I can tell onstage or in an interview and explain where every single lyric came from,” she said in an exclusive interview. “In Nashville, so many times you just go in a room and you write something to write it. I wanted to make sure the songs I put out were my stories because I feel like your debut album is like a name tag you put on at a new party.”
The official album release show for Caylee Hammack’s debut album “If It Wasn’t For You” live from The Steel Mill.
MOURN – ” Self Worth “
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Canadian Parks receives electric vehicle chargers from Tesla
Post author By Bob Luthar
In an annunciation made by the Federal authority, 28 of the most renowned Parks Canada stations currently have Tesla-donated electric cars charging points. Jonathan Wilkinson, who is the Minister of Environmental and Climate Change, and the Minister of Parks Canada, released the announcement the previous week stating that electric vehicle users can now use some of the charging points.
Having installed electric vehicle charging stations in additional Parks Canada points, Canadian authority has eased charging electric cars in their beautiful parks, national marine conservation sections, and national historical sites among many areas.
In May of last year, Canadian authorities submitted to having charging points structures to about 25% of renowned Parks Canada regions across the nation. Also, the Government stated that the submission would come right net year; however, Parks Canada has met the primary anticipation.
The subsequent aim is to double the number of charging points to about 50 percent of public charging places in the next five years. The award received from Tesla will enable Parks Canada to enhance its services to its clients who drive electric vehicles. The gift is part of the green mission and mitigating climate change by Parks Canada.
There are 172 charging points set up in 14 national parks, 12 historic national regions, one on national marine conservation regions, and the other in Rouge National Urban Park. More Parks Canada areas will be fitted with enough charging stations for electric vehicles.
Fifty percent of the recently installed charging points belong to Tesla, and the other fifty percent are J-1772 that include a free charge with entry charges where valid.
Canadian Government is ready to offer competitive solutions that will reduce carbon emissions when electric vehicle users pay visits to the national parks, marine conservation sites, and national historic sites.
By the end of this year, Parks Canada anticipated the donated charging points by Tesla will be available to electric car users to thirty-eight regions. Last year, Parks Canada received 350 charging points from Tesla.
Tesla will contribute over 50 electric chargers since there will be more than one charger in each charging point. MobileSyrup has managed to conduct Parks Canada to get additional information.
Those chargers are not Superchargers made by Tesla, and they will charge both Tesla cars and electric motors since those chargers support the J1772 charging standard. The charging stations will be of AC Level 2 with Tesla SAE J1772 connectors, and they will be distributed in the market.
The prevalent notion that fossil fuels are ‘dirty’ and renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar and not forgetting electric vehicles is ‘tidy’ has become the talk of the day in the media.
The zero carbon emission strategy by 2050 calls for complete mitigation of carbon emissions in the energy sector. The ultimate question we are forced to consider is how fast liberal Western authorities, led by an alleged scientific accord ‘decarbonize’ savage the globe from the impacts of global warming.
Extracting out of sight, out of mind
Starting with Elon Musk’s Tesla, it is a beyond belief accomplishment for the entity. It has registered four successive parts of profits, and it is the most valuable automotive firm globally. The demand for electric vehicles is anticipated to surge as the nation strategies support the buying of the electric vehicles financially as they take the place of internal combustion engine and gasoline-driven vehicles.
If you take a bright look below the hood of ‘clean energy’ battery-driven electric vehicles, the dirt found is a huge surprise. The most fundamental part of the electric vehicles is the lithium-ion rechargeable battery, which depends on primary mineral commodities like lithium, manganese, graphite, etc. Tracking the source of such minerals is known as ‘full-cycle economics,’ It clearly shows that electric vehicles form dirt during the extraction and processing of such minerals.
A recent report released by the United Nations warns that raw materials used in electric vehicle batteries are found in large numbers in some nations where there are policies on environment and labor. Therefore, the production of batteries for electric vehicles steers an explosion in cobalt small-scale manufacturing. The artisanal extraction sites account for a quarter of DRC’s production and have been termed harmful and use child labor.
Having in mind the picture of children scrabbling for hand-excavated minerals in Africa, they can make high technology’s clear and green picture. Many techs and auto firms use cobalt and other poisonous heavy metals to prevent contacting the mines. In July, Tesla Inc. made a deal with Glencore Plc, a Swiss-based entity, to purchase over 6,000 tons of cobalt every year from old Congolese mines. Since Tesla stated its aim of removing recurrent dangers linked to sourcing minerals from countries like DRC where corruption is prevalent, Glencore has affirmed its customers no hand-excavated cobalt is treated in automated mines.
Porsche does have the Taycan Turbo S that is known to be the swiftest four-door that has been tested and verified. Audi is getting ready to unveil the 590-hp e-Tron GT, not forgetting the Tesla. Nonetheless, the BMW, whose M5 contestant sedan climbed up to 60 miles per hour (mph) in 2.6 seconds throughout the vehicle and driver testing, does not have gut-punching electric cars, at best not yet. It is working on the electric versions of the 5-series, 3-series, 7-series, and X1 conversely, based on a publication from the British magazine Car, it could also be tasking on electric M5 padding up to 1000 horsepower.
The forthcoming-era 5-series sedan that shall contain electric and hybrid components is ready to make its first appearance in the second half of the year 2023. The latest M5, allegedly also with electric and plug-in-hybrid components, shall follow in 2024, Car magazine states. The electric M5 shall supposedly make use of three 335-hp electric-based engines, one of them driving front wheels as well as the other two in the back. The entire production shall be nearly 1000 horsepower.
The most powerful and efficient kind of the 2021 BMW M5 is the Competition variant that is fuelled by a 617-hp twin-turbo 4.4 litre V-8. The high powerful type of the Porsche Taycan, the Turbo S, contains two electric engines that generate 750 horsepower, and the Tesla Model S running makes 778 horses from two of its electric motors. Hence BMW may be competent to get back the swiftest-four-door name in the forthcoming few years.
Fortunately for those people who are not prepared for the demise of internal burning in the M5, there shall as well be a plug-in-hybrid kind. This M5 shall supposedly make use of a similar powertrain as the forthcoming X8 M SUV. That is a crossbreed twin-turbo V8 powertrain generating nearly 750 horsepower dispatching push to all the four wheels. Car and Driver reached out to BMW. Conversely, a representative hesitated to remark on whether electric, as well as the hybrid, are in the works or not.
The electric 5-series is not solely the EV BMW is tasking upon. BMW has remarked that it is targeting to have twenty-five electric cars on the road by 2023.
It shall be thrilling to observe how the hyper-potent all-electric sedan battles fall out. With two same automobiles, this fight shall be accomplished or stumped in terms of charging chances, made quality and driving undercurrents
At the onset of this year, BMW proclaimed that it should be drawing some of its famous diesel motors from production, and this came about release regulation.
‘Audio wizardry’ and optional engine noise features found in Electric Ford Mustang Mach-E.
ROMEO, Mich-any driver who has driven the 2021 Mustang Mach-E, can tell its uniqueness from any other car that has ever carried the badge from Ford Motor industries.
First, the vehicle has a considerable table screen, like that of Tesla, in the middle of the instrumental panel. Secondly, the acceleration of the car is just excellent. It is instantaneous. The common difference is that it comprises all-electric intersects rather than a double-door activity car with an internal combustion engine.
The vehicle goes for $44,000, and it is being hyped for being ‘Mustang-inspired,’ where one can easily fall for its unique features. However, the most common element in the vehicle is the sound produced by its engine as its velocity increases.
As expected during the exhibition of the Mustang Mach-E vehicle later this year, customers will hear the sound produced by the engine the pedal of increasing the velocity is pushed. The Mustang Mach-E vehicle is powered by batteries and electric motors rather than gasoline. In a statement to CNBC, Leeway Ho, who is the motor engineering director of the Mustang Mach-E, stated that power, the sound of the engine among other features are what the firm is trying to provide to the customers. He added that the engine sound is what makes the ride of the Mustang Mach-E vehicle, or else, the exception of the music makes the car a conventional electric vehicle.
Audio wizardry
Over the past years, external sounds produced by EVs have been the topic of discussion. Since batteries and electric motors are what powers up a vehicle, they do not provide any music with engines. That becomes a secure hazard, especially for the visually impaired since they depend on the car’s engine to affirm their vehicles’ presence.
Users of the vehicle will be able to turn the engine sounds off by visiting the car’s settings on its huge center control screen. The noises from the driver appear to be originating from the front trunk of the vehicle, but in a real sense, sounds come from vehicle’s speakers.
The noises vary with the type of mode the radio is set to function. the three methods include; whisper, engaged, and unbridled. ]the driver can switch to any way of his or her choice, which makes it more efficient. Each of the modes is tuned to change the driving dynamics and other components like data collection, ambient lighting, and sounds.
The $30,000 Sedan roofed with solar panels that energize fast
Image provided by Sono Motors
You can declare that Laurin Hahn does not have the drive, while in middle school; he invented what has recently become the most accepted dance society in Munich. Without real engineering skills, Laurin Hahn and buddy decided to produce a car energized by solar panels. After four years, they had a functioning prototype and created a firm to sell it. After several years, when the main stakeholders refused to invest more money, the two twisted to Crowdfunding. After about two months, they had gathered $62 million. Hahn, who is currently 26 years of age, states with amusement that he is relatively motivated; however, the vehicle’s point was to assist the world.
Their firm, dubbed Sono Motors, a Latin word for sound, is a riff on how silent electric cars are expanding a boxy, four-door rear door roofed in solar panels that are hardly visible. However, it could produce enough power to give the vehicle an additional 10 miles of range after some hours in the sun. After hitting the market in about 18 months, Sono pronounced as Sion will be of the black solar cell. Hahn states that the cost will be about 25,500 pounds, which would make it contend with Volkswagen AG ID.3, an electric sedan that began advertising in July for 35,000 pounds. The Sion could also be electrical. However, Hahn believes that solar panels will eradicate one of the critical concerns drivers boast about electric vehicles’ much anxiety. Hahn confirms that even during cloudy weather, you can manage the car completely dry, abscond it on the roadside, and recharge on its own. He added that the thought that he cannot get jammed is exceptionally crucial.
The idea was established in Hahn’s garage back in 2012, together with his friend Jona Christians purchased and gutted a previous Renault Twingo tailgate. The two spent days fixing solar panels to the top of the cars, hood, and doors and eventually pushed the vehicle out in the sunlight to absorb some sunlight and coped with driving some meters at a slow move. Christians and Hahn kept at it, with diversions to home universities to sharpen their technical knowledge, although the two finally dropped out. Their Twingo Street became legal throughout the time, capable of reaching distances and speeds that could work for many commuters.
They introduced a third associate, Navina Pernsteiner, who also happened to be Hahn’s roommate during the time, to take care of marketing.
Europe is transitioning to clean transportation despite the coronavirus challenge.
Although coronavirus has caused a standstill to various business operations, Europe’s transition to electric cars is still untamed. The sales of EVs and their hybrid counterparts are still high despite the market recess all due to government efforts.
The 27 EU country members are going on with their scheduled transition in the transportation industry from ICE cars to electric vehicles to counter climate change. The regulatory commission on climate change is forcing carmakers to slide into the EV industry to minimize greenhouse gas emissions come next year.
Electric cars are cheap compared to the ICE cars thanks to the considerable government subsidies. Market studies show that the drop in demand for conventional petrol cars is a countereffect for the high demand for EVs and hybrids that combine electric motors with traditional engines. However, the US is witnessing a slow transition to electric-powered vehicles because of uncertainty in future policy changes.
European markets have witnessed a rise in the market share for electric vehicles and their hybrids despite the closure of showrooms because of the coronavirus outbreak. For instance, Germany recorded an increase of 5 per cent despite the 35 per cent drop in the overall car sales. On the other hand, France and Sweden recorded a 7 and 15 per cent increase in market sales for electric vehicles and hybrids.
One of the luring powers of EVs is the dedication of the government incentives in them. For example, an EV that costs 40000 euros in Germany has a total incentive of 12000 euros, making these vehicles irresistible. Currently, car fanatics have over 50 varieties of battery and hybrid models to consider buying. These vehicles go for as low as 20000 euros.
Landsberg is Lech’s auto dealer Juergen Sangl says that the demand for EVs is tremendous. He expects his business to flourish in the future, thanks to the government’s efforts to shift to clean transportation. Customers of Electric Vehicles find them thrilling to drive for over 300 kilometers in a single charge.
However, the pandemic has had an enormous impact on the automakers. The chief executive of Daimler (designer of Mercedes Benz), Ola Kallenius, elaborates that they now have a challenge of pruning their costs with this new regular lifestyle pattern.
Finally, automakers in the EU member countries intend to minimize the emissions of their vehicles to as low as 90 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer of driving in 2021. The Transport & Environment advocacy group states that this move is possible if the countries raise their EV sales from 7 to 12 percent of the market. This move will also ensure the compliance of the EU with the Paris climate policy of tackling global warming and climate change.
China is speeding up the work on the massive projects for Hydropower in Pakistan
A handful of global projects earn the same amount of criticism and praise as Road Initiative (BRI), and China’s Belt does. Regardless of one’s opinion, the BRI is President Xi’s signature international policy initiative of magnificent allure. Total expenditures could hit $1.2-1.3 trillion by 2027, according to Morgan Stanley. Beijing also made huge investments not only in monetary terms, as well as in politics.
The performance of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in this context is vital to highlight Beijing’s model of development. In 2013 the CPEC was revealed as a cause by the administrative requirements and economic needs of the countries. Chinese-Pakistani ties faced a difficult period after the election that put Imran Khan to power because of the new government’s criticism of the loans’ terms. More recently, the CPEC saw rebirth as the nations resolved some disagreements and signed new multi-billion deals in the energy domain, among many others.
Pakistan is, in several respects, the only real ally for China. Beijing’s dislike for formal alliances derives from its confidence in holding the country back from following its interests. Pakistan is an exception that China is willing to tolerate due to the vulnerabilities and reliance of the South Asian nation on its giant neighbour.
CPEC intended to become the poster child project. Nevertheless, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has quickly tried to renegotiate the terms of his loans because of the connection with the previous regime. Debt insolvency was also becoming a serious issue. Islamabad has won numerous concessions and an IMF bail-out after a challenging round of talks.
Many major projects have already been established, including nine companies that generate 5,320 Megawatts worth $7.9 billion, whereas another 4,470 MW installed. The constructed facilities are low hanging fruits, including coal and LNG power plants, according to Samiullah Tariq, head of research at Pakistan Kuwait Investment Company. China provides a crucial friend to Pakistan.
There is no question that Chinese investments are essential to Pakistan. Few multinational banks and companies prepared to take such risks as the Chinese. The CPEC could potentially change Pakistan’s backward economy, although the reasons are partly political. In both nations, the stakes raised, but so are rewards.
In conclusion, the improvement of relations with Pakistan does not only serve strategic purposes for Beijing but also guarantees a steady production for Chinese manufactured goods. In an increasingly populated world, considerable industry and manufacturing capability built over the decades as regards development projects. Investing in Pakistan provides an export market for Chinese surplus goods thanks to industrial activities.
Renewable energy stocks are more desirable than oil stocks in the context of perpetual growth
The oil sector is at its rock bottom this year. Some of the events spiraling down to this statement include the massive oil price crash four months ago and the shelter-in-place measures due to the coronavirus outbreak. Therefore, investors should cash into renewable energy stocks. Below is an illustration of why it is crucial to invest in renewable energy stocks and their shares being far ahead of the oil shares.
Although the oil stocks may seem far from recuperating in this period, the Pew Research Center submits that petroleum is the dominant energy source in the US. The challenge is that a high percentage of oil goes into the transport industry. The US heavily depends on petroleum fuels for power-consuming processes like running ICE cars.
Petroleum-based fuels have a preference in the transport industry because of their feasibility. For instance, liquid fuel is manageable less bulky than coal. However, natural gas and other energies are more reliable in terms of efficiency than petroleum-based fuels. With close to 70% of petroleum produced spiraling to the transportation industry, it is harmless to conclude that the transportation industry solely determines the life of the oil stocks.
Currently, the challenge is that the transport sector is in recess due to the coronavirus pandemic. There is no significant automotive line that is active, including the aviation line. Many people are working at home due to the shelter-in-place measures, limiting the demand for petroleum fuel. Additionally, most businesses have shut down, minimizing the number of business people who use petrol cars.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) anticipates the demand for oil to go down by 9.3 million barrels daily. Analyst articulate that this drop is one that this industry is likely never to recuperate. It seems that renewable energy is the only sector doing well, although its use is limited to electricity generation. Nonetheless, the electricity consumption went down by approximately 15% since commercial and industrial facilities closed down.
Surprisingly, investments in renewable energy are rising, with the latest beneficiary being the offshore wind projects. This news is a source of joy for renewable energy companies like Brookfield Renewable Partners and Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure since cash will be gushing into their projects. Renewable energy companies anticipate massive growth in this decade, contrary to the oil industry, which is currently between a rock and a hard place.
Finally, it is wise to invest in renewables since they have a high possibility of existing in the coming years. This move is appropriate considering that electric vehicles will be indirectly cushioning the shares invested in the renewables.
Reliable renewable energy needs to substitute fossil fuels for health and climate security
The cold front chelating the Lump Gulch Fire got everyone off the ropes in the wildfire battle during the first round of 2020. Although the rapid pummeling came to an end, long intervals lay ahead. Our fire season in the 1980s was August, occasionally September — never May. Those weeks have passed. Driven by global warming, the wildfire season expanded by at least 78 days, and the burnt area multiplied.
Each summer, our city is swamped with haze already for weeks. It means children coughing themselves to sleep, labored breathing, and burning eyes for my dad. Wildfire smoke increases hospital admissions significantly and is particularly detrimental to children. Like Lewis and Clark, multiple western counties of Montana have earned Warnings regularly over the past decade in air quality from the American Lung Association and now are amongst the worst pollution nationally.
COVID-19 should intensify the unhealthy condition. In Montana, wildfire smoke is causing widespread influenza during the winter, a worrying sign about what the pandemic will bring. The scenario threatens to hit fright-show proportions without significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The U.S. Global Change Research Program estimates that the burned area will rise by 200-600 percent by the middle of the century with associated rises in air emissions. And this is just one example of unabated climate change’s dangerous effects.
Yet there is excellent news: They can cut emissions quickly enough to avoid the very worst impacts. A study conducted by UC Berkeley estimates that by 2035 the United States will reach 90 percent carbon-free electricity. The eureka moment is that we’re doing it without any increase in energy bills and no decline in efficiency, while still creating millions of sustainable energy jobs and going to deliver significant benefits to public health from lowered air pollution.
The strategy is simple and clear: rapidly falling costs allow for a significant build-up of renewable and battery storage, facilitating the closing of the nastiest fossil plants and preventing any new fossil plants. Current low- and no-carbon battery storage supplies provide support when renewable production is small for rare occasions.
To sum up, there is a hope of a decent world — one in which children will not hack themselves to sleep during the summer. We have the equipment, and it’s cheap, the solution. Everything it lacks is political will. For so many lawmakers tied up with the petroleum industry, and that is where the real battle lies.
The UK wants to install massive battery storage for renewable energy – however, the alternative is much cheaper
The electricity system in the UK is undergoing a substantial and rapid transition. It has the most significant installed wind power generation capacity, has effectively halted coal-fired electricity generation, and has reported a 20% decline in sales since the COVID-19 pandemic started. Nonetheless, this shift from traditional, dependable coal to weather-dependent solar and wind generation poses mounting pressure in balancing electricity market forces. It is where vast storage technologies on a grid-scale may help monitor and buffer production and consumption, and enhance grid control.
Recently, the Government announced the elimination of planning obstacles to the construction of energy storage facilities over 50 MW in England and 350 MW in Wales. The Government thinks, would require a substantial new capacity to be built for storing electricity. In the planning phase, the UK currently provides 1GW of active battery storage units with a further 13.5GW of battery mega – projects. The state intervention tends to create a planning climate that might allow the United Kingdom to meet its Net zero emission of carbon target by 2050. It could happen either through a high percentage of large-scale, centralized renewable generation or through more like a focus on smaller community initiatives such as solar panels and wind turbines owned locally.
Since the United Kingdom has switched from carbon fuels to renewable power production, Carbon dioxide emissions from the energy production market have dropped to 25% in 2019 from over 40 % of the overall UK in 1990. It implies that the transportation sector has become the largest emitter, with a third of all the UK Carbon dioxide emissions generated. It has resulted in an increasing emphasis on the incorporation of all autonomous cars and hybrid vehicles. Because only one in ten vehicles sold in the United Kingdom falls into these classes, there seems to be a way of reducing the influence of diesel and petrol vehicles.
Yet autonomous motors might also contribute to making electricity generation greener. Once an electric car is plugged in to re-charge, it mainly needs access to its battery by the power grid. Once you’ve all plugged in several vehicles at once, they produce a massive aggregated battery shop.
In conclusion, so while the UK government is right that the national grid needs more energy storage to help the transition toward more renewable energy production, the solution is not merely an emphasis on building massive, costly batteries. Alternatively, electric vehicles may encourage the British people to easily share their automobiles, helping to create a safer, more selfless post-COVID environment.
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The Community Housing Management Network was founded by the Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada in May of 2009. The Network was established to help co-ops in difficulty and to fill gaps in local management services. The Network now provides day-to-day management services to over 40 co-operatives and non-profit housing providers in Ontario and Nova Scotia.
It has been our pleasure to serve our clients and we look forward to many years of providing dedicated professional service.
The Network’s Governance Structure
The Community Housing Management Network is a Co-operative Incorporated under the Federal Canada Co-operatives Act.
The Network is governed by a five-member board:
Tim Ross, Executive Director, CHF Canada
Colleen Ewart, appointed by the Ontario Council
Laird Hunter, appointed by the Network Board
Erin Hancock, appointed by the CHF Canada Board
Kathi Zarfas, appointed by the CHF Canada Board
Words are Failing Me
The need to make a difference cannot and should not be ignored.
The tragic and unjust killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and countless others in recent weeks and months has been at the forefront of all our minds.
At the Network, we believe that everyone deserves to live free of systematic oppression and racialized violence. We believe that acknowledging this is a crucial part of being a good ally and we stand in solidarity with our Black colleagues, members and community.
As an organization, knowledge and acknowledgement represent the cornerstone of our ability to make a difference.
We have engaged the assistance of the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion (CCDI) to deal not only with the emotion of these horrific tragedies, but to learn about invoking change.
Now is the time to listen, learn, speak up, and encourage each other to do better – to be better. Let’s learn and reflect upon ourselves, those around us and our ability to inspire change.
2020 CMC Small Co-operative of the Year Award
Congratulations to the Art Burke Co-operative Inc., recipient of the 2020 CMC Small Co-operative of the Year Award. This award honours Canadian organizations that have made a significant contribution to the co-operatives and mutuals sector in Canada and/or internationally.
Built in 1985, Art Burke Housing Co-Operative consists of 80 stacked townhouses located in Scarborough, Ontario. There are one, two, three and four bedroom units. Art Burke Housing Co-Operative is a very diverse community, ranging from seniors to families and students.
Click here to know more about the Ark Burke Co-operative.
https://canada.coop/en/2020-cmc-small-co-operative-year-award
Diversity Scholarship recipient announced in Atlantic Region
Three years ago, Krista Campbell moved into Needham Housing Co-operative and jumped head first into assisting with the running of the cooperative. Krista is always the first to sign up for education opportunities and volunteering, not only with jobs around the co-op, but also with CHF Canada’s AGM.
Krista graduated high school in 2003 with a dream of becoming a social worker, but life got in the way. After spending the next 15 years in the workforce, raising two children and volunteering with multiple organizations, the time has come for Krista to fulfill that dream. In September, the journey will begin at Mount Saint Vincent, for a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Sociology/ Anthropology, then transferring to Dalhousie University into a Bachelor of Social Work Program.
Not one to be idle, Krista is a full-time mother, full-time student, and working at the Newcomer Health Clinic, which provides preventative health and primary medical services for refugees. Krista is also in the process of seeking approval to volunteer with the Halifax Police Victim Services Program.
The Atlantic Diversity Scholarships are sponsored by The Community Housing Management Network and Bluenose Engineering.
Medical Information Form
Click here to download a Medical Information Sheet
Ontario Address
17665 Leslie Street, Unit #44
Newmarket, Ontario L3Y 3E3
info@thenetwork.coop
Nova Scotia Address
#207 - 59 Inglis Place Truro, Nova Scotia B2N 4B5
novascotia@thenetwork.coop
If you are interested in working with the Community Housing Management Network please send your resume to apply@thenetwork.coop
© Co-op Management Services
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UF Magazine
December Quarter Media
Faith & Purpose
Work & Economics
Urban Faith News Roundup
by Shari Noland, Urban Faith Editor | Dec 22, 2020 | Current News, Headline News | 0 comments
Around the Web: Critical Race Theory still stirring emotions; Pastor Warnock misunderstood; Obama responds that he didn’t do enough for Blacks, and more…
Coalition of Black pastors slam Loeffler campaign ads as a ‘broader attack against the Black Church’ (CNN)
Two Prominent Pastors Break With SBC After Critical Race Theory Statement (Christianity Today)
A response to critiques of Rev. Warnock, Black theology, and the Black Church tradition (Baptist News Global)
Pastor, Can White Evangelicalism Be Saved? (The New York Times)
More US churches commit to racism-linked reparations (Telegram.com)
White Supremacists Defaced Our Church, But We Refuse to Lose (Sojourners)
What Warnock’s Critics Get Wrong About the Black Baptist Tradition (Sojourners)
A Diversity of Black Voices (Rochester Beacon)
Jean Graetz, White Supporter of Civil Rights in Alabama, Dies at 90 (The New York Times)
Obama Responds to His Critics Who Say He Didn’t Do Enough for Blacks (eurweb)
A Humanities Kansas grant will help launch a podcast focused on Black churches in area (cjonline)
‘God was in the room’: Viola Davis, actors on filming alongside Chadwick Boseman months before death (The Christian Post)
Review: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (The Witness)
by Shari Noland, Urban Faith Editor | Dec 19, 2020 | Headline News | 0 comments
Why I Hate The Term First Lady/Gentleman
by John C. Richards Jr. | Mar 14, 2013 | Family, Headline News | 23 comments
The Black church may have created a role that warrants reconsideration.
I want to pose a challenge to all of our readers. I’ll give $100 to the first person that can find the phrase First Lady or First Gentleman in Scripture as it pertains to the Church. If my wife knew I made this promise, she’d probably have me sleeping on the couch tonight. But I’m just that confident it doesn’t exist. There is no such thing as a First Lady or First Gentleman when it comes to the Word of God. They are fabricated, idealistic titles that have invaded Black church culture. I’ve written previously about my disgust with the term on A&E’s show “The Sisterhood”, which closely followed the lives of a group of women who deemed themselves First Ladies. But this week, I think it turned into some righteous indignation (which is a good thing, I think). It’s table turning time.
But let me start with a brief history lesson. The African American pastor has, as long as I can remember, always held a distinguished position in the Black community. In my hometown, you can talk about Black teachers, Black politicians, and other Black public figures. But you bet no dare “put your mouth” on the man of God. There’s that “Touch not mine anointed…” (see Psalm 105:15) thing going on there (a passage of Scripture that’s butchered from a contextual standpoint, by the way). The Black pastor enjoys certain privilege in the Black community. He has a nice parking space at the church, drives a nice vehicle (used to be a Cadillac), and gets fed well.
Enter the first lady. Because of the royal treatment of the black pastor, many of their wives benefit from fact that they are married to the shepherd of the church. Over the years, in the Black church, she has come to be known as the First Lady. As with any title, there are certain privileges that accompany the role of First Lady. Reserved seating is a no brainer. In some instances, she sits in the pulpit with her husband, while in other instances she is front and center in the pews. Depending on your context, an oversized hat may be involved. In that setting, nobody, I mean nobody, wears a hat larger than the church’s First Lady. That’s disrespectful. Regardless of context, certain things are expected of a First Lady. She’s to be supportive, highly visible, elegant, a prayer warrior, and, where children are involved, a great mother. That list is by no means exhaustive, but it gives you an idea of how Black culture has carved out a clearly defined role for preacher’s wives.
Yesterday I saw something related to the First Lady concept appear in my Facebook Timeline (because Facebook Timelines are basically our news sources these days). I checked out this picture of a pastor celebrating his third anniversary with his spouse. Honestly, my first thought was, “Is this real?” So I did what any sensible, intelligent person would have done. I googled the church. Sure enough, the church existed and the Pastor and his spouse just celebrated their third anniversary. The wording on the original flyer is what got my attention. The pastor’s spouse was referred to as the “1st Gentleman” of the church.
If you haven’t already figured it out, this pastor has a partner in a same-sex relationship. As such, that partner has embraced the role traditionally seen in the Black church in the context of heterosexual marriages—The First Gentleman. And this is not an anomalous occurrence. There are other First Ladies and Gentlemen out there in same-sex marriages helping lead churches. Look, I’m not here to argue the merits of same-sex marriages. That screams red herring and will distract from the main point I’m making here. Well maybe I will say a few words. First, there’s no scriptural support for same-sex marriages and, as a minister, I wouldn’t officiate a wedding involving one. As “radically inclusive” as we make Jesus out to be, Scripture is very clear about this issue. The fact that Jesus never condemned same-sex marriages in Scripture doesn’t automatically mean He condones the behavior. There are no specific teachings from Jesus or “red letter” passages on bestiality, pedophilia, or polygamy either. And no, I’m not making a direct comparison between those activities and same-sex marriages. I’m just saying that absence of teaching doesn’t mean that Jesus would condone certain human behavior. Trust me, this is huge and is something the Black church has to process and deal with in the coming years. According to a site dedicated to the community, there’s at least 7,100 documented gay-affirming churches. Some of them are led by pastors who themselves are in same-sex relationships. So there’s an active subculture in the Christian faith that has adopted the practices of the Black church. Among those practices is the adoption of our church leadership structure—including First Ladies (and now First Gentlemen).
But when folks adopt practices that are flawed in the first instance, I think the best approach here is the address those practices in their original context. So the main point I want to make here is that the Black church can’t keep hijacking cultural practices and slapping them in the church setting without seriously considering if we’re missing the mark. Can we eulogize the terms First Lady/First Gentlemen already? Like, for real, for real. Yes, 1 John address the “elect lady“. But scholars can’t even agree if the author is addressing a female leader in the church or the church as a body (Scripture often uses feminine terms to describe the church). Either way, there’s NO WAY we should use this text to excuse our canonization of First Ladies or First Gentlemen when it comes to church practice. Part of the reason we have so many problems in the black church is because we covout titles. That’s the antithesis of the Gospel message. Paul tells us in Philippians 2 that Christ himself took on the form of a servant. Paul, himself, hated titles (see Philippians 3). James, Jesus’ own brother (who could have plugged that fact in his letter), calls himself a term most Christians wore as a badge of honor in the first century—a servant. Does the New Testament address bishops, elders, deacons, and other leaders? Of course it does. But are we faithful to Scripture when we create our own structures, slapping titles on folks that don’t exhibit the accompanying fruit (oops, did I just say that)? Maybe, we should be less worried about titles and degrees and more concerned about worship on our knees. Many in the black community joked about worship-like atmosphere in the white smoke announcement of the Pope this week, but in reality we go to churches and worship our leadership weekly—including the First Lady and First Gentleman. The harsh reality is that if we don’t seriously think about making changes our places of worship will become museums with artifacts rather than places of transformation and change. And that’s a scary thought.
What Is Black Community?
by Terri J. Haynes, Urban Faith Contributing Writer | Nov 28, 2012 | Feature | 1 comment
Depending on whom you ask, the question of what most defines the African American community varies. Some will point to strides made toward racial integration. Others will point to the establishment of our own culture, traditions, and institutions that distinguish us from other races. And depending on whom you engage in this debate, most will admit, there are significant cultural and class divisions among African Americans. Creating a sense of community among African Americans is challenging, but imagine attempting this when the prevalent identifier was slavery.
In his book A Nation Within A Nation: Organizing African American Communities Before the Civil War, scholar John Ernest offers an insightful view of how African Americans to establish their identities before the civil war. This is a unique view since most accounts of this time in history focus on how the Civil War changed our status and sense of community. Ernest presents a view of the oft-overlooked organizations that were pushing for the establishment of an African American community well before the Emancipation Proclamation.
Ernest, a professor of American literature at West Virginia University, presents a historical account of how five types of social organizations — the church, Masonic lodges, conventions, schools, and the media/press — got their start. He traces how each attempted to meet the unique needs of the African American community.
One of Ernest’s most striking observations is that our forefathers held two key approaches on how the establishment of community should be accomplished. Some believed that African Americans should fight to assimilate into the majority community, and that finding acceptance there was the ultimate measure of progress. Others, smarting from their experiences with severe racism, believed that creating a new community — i.e., a nation within a nation — was the best approach.
What’s fascinating to consider is that the African American is still divided along those lines. What’s more, the tension between those two mindsets still polarizes our community. Those who fight to be accepted among the majority, which in our time is still white Americans, are often accused of being disloyal to their heritage. Those who fight to establish their own culture are often accused of being separatist, or in the most severe cases racists themselves.
Ernest also highlights the painful fact that from our earliest history, oppression was the most common connection among most African Americans. Even free African Americans faced oppression, opposition, and racism. Many of the organizations formed during that time were built on freedom from that oppression.
A Nation Within a Nation, although focused on the past, whispers to our current conditions. What would our culture be like if the oppression of our ancestors was removed from our current community? How would we then define ourselves? This book made me wonder if a common denominator could ever be found for African Americans. It also made me wonder about the efficiency of trying to define ourselves by a single idea.
But don’t expect answers to those questions in this book. Ernest writes the book in true historian style, only presenting information without his personal beliefs. His writing has the density of academia, so this is not a quick read. In my opinion, this is the best approach. So much our history has been interpreted for us by pop culture or presented in snapshots. It’s refreshing to be able to read such rich history without a filter and with all the weightiness it deserves.
I think the most enjoyable aspect of this book is the discussion that has arisen among those in my African American community. This is a topic that needs to be revisited, and A Nation Within a Nation provides a great springboard for beginning that important dialogue.
Black Conservatives: Beyond the Plantation
by Andrew Wilkes | Sep 28, 2012 | Entertainment, Feature, Headline News | 2 comments
FREE AT LAST?: In ‘Runaway Slave,’ pastor and activist C.L. Bryant and other African American conservatives reject liberal politics and ask whether big government entitlements are a new form of slavery.
The title of the new film Runaway Slave might lead some to dismiss it as just another dramatization of a commonly rehearsed chapter of black history in America. But when one discovers that the film is actually a documentary about a politically liberal African American pastor’s conversion into the conservative political movement, the title suddenly takes on a much more provocative tone. On one level, Reverend C.L. Bryant’s Runaway Slave is a coming-of-age narrative about his shift from being a pastor and NAACP Chapter President to being a prominent defender of small government, free markets, and personal responsibility. On another level, however, it is a clear rebuke of what the filmmakers perceive as the black community’s enslavement to the Democratic Party and progressive politics. Bryant wants us to understand that the black community is not a political monolith, and that our moral and economic concerns might be better addressed by the Republican Party’s conservative platform.
A press release for the movie leaves no doubt about the film’s point of view. After announcing that the movie comes to us “from the creators of Tea Party: The Documentary Film,” it goes on to describe the film’s general premise:
Rev. Bryant takes viewers on an historic journey across America that traces the footsteps of runaway slaves who escaped to freedom along routes that became known as the Underground Railroad. But in the film, he also travels a “new underground railroad” upon which Black Conservatives are speaking out against big government policies which have established a “new plantation” where “overseers” like the NAACP and so-called “civil rights” leaders keep the Black community 95 percent beholden to one political party.
And interviews from such noted conservative figures as Glenn Beck, Herman Cain, Star Parker, and the late Andrew Breitbart help the film draw clear ideological lines in the sand. Fans of 2016: Obama’s America, another controversial conservative documentary released this year, will find much here to “amen” to as well.
The great achievement of Runaway Slave is its geographically and ideologically diverse portrait of black conservatism. Bryant talks with financial conservatives like Marvin Rodgers, a Rock Hill, South Carolina, an aspiring politician who emphasizes the “pocketbook politics” of supporting small businesses and encouraging entrepreneurship. He speaks with academics like the economist Thomas Sowell, conservative school-reform advocates, right-to-life activists, and small business owners. Interestingly, everyone but the Wall Street and country club conservatives are present. Their omission is noteworthy — precious few black conservatives are a part of the proverbial 1 percent. Nevertheless, by interviewing grassroots activists and organizations in nearly every region of the country, Bryant convincingly demonstrates that black conservatism is a national thread within the African American political tradition.
The film sets forth a conventionally conservative view of government: lower taxes; less government regulation; strong defense of property rights. Additionally, participants construe the government as a presumptuous behemoth that presents itself as the “Daddy,” “Slave Master,” and “God” of American citizens. In this framework, reducing the size of the public sector becomes an article of faith, not simply a political position.
Two dynamics merit mentioning here. First, deep appreciation for our nation’s originating documents — the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, etc. — sits alongside profound disappointment with the current state of government. If our origins are laudable and our contemporary moment is lamentable, as the movie claims, then we must conclude that we lost our national footing somewhere along the way. The documentary avoids conceptual clarity about how this moment of decline happened, when it happened, and who is responsible for it. Progressives and Socialists — two distinct traditions which are conflated in the film — are blamed for leading America astray, but the accusation is too vague to persuade anyone who is not already a true believer.
Secondly, the attacks on government are general — there is no exploration of the merits and demerits of Social Security, Medicare, and the GI Bill, for instance, programs that are popular across the political spectrum. Instead, the viewer encounters Government as a monstrosity that overtaxes, overregulates, and overreaches at every turn.
Runaway Slave is also noteworthy for its conservative form of American civil religion. Many Americans are familiar with more progressive forms of civil religion — Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial or Abraham Lincoln’s second Inaugural Address, for example. But there is another side to American exceptionalism. U.S. congressman Allen West of Florida alludes to this tradition when citing Matthew 5 to position America as “a city set on a hill.” America, in this view, is the country where you reap what you sow. A land where hard work, education, and the hand of Providence guides families upward on the ladder of social mobility. It’s not difficult to see how many of these cultural values have become inseparable from the American brand of Christianity.
After watching the documentary, the viewer is left to wonder: what distinguishes conservative visions of government from the liberal visions? Reverend Bryant is not endorsing a libertarian or anarchist view of society. Despite his impassioned pleas about escaping from the plantation, there is no sign that he wants to destroy the master’s house. That is to say, Runaway Slave does not explicitly or implicitly advocate dismantling our social insurance system, ending subsidies to large agribusiness corporations, or stopping the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as food stamps).
Generally speaking, political realities temper the policy visions of liberals and conservatives. Bryant documents a deep commitment to liberty within the American political tradition. Rightly so. But there is little — if any — mention of our political tradition of equality, a complementary thread in our tapestry. The argument of the film would be strengthened if it directly addressed, for instance, the policy trade-offs that Presidents Nixon (expanding food stamps, starting the Environmental Protection Agency) and Bush (Medicare prescription drug program, comprehensive immigration reform proposal) made between liberty and equality. That oversight notwithstanding, Runaway Slave is one of the most expansive treatments of black conservatism currently available, and is therefore worth watching and discussing.
View the theatrical trailer below, and visit the Runaway Slave website for information on where to see the film in your area.
Urban Faith is your online destination for relevant and stimulating conversations about news, faith and culture.
Celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Meet the theologian who helped MLK see the value of nonviolence
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