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__label__cc	0.540955	0.459045	D+Q Office Reads: Hello 2016! Ever say to yourself "hey, what the heck is the D+Q office reading right now"? We got you covered. Here is #5 in the series... Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh (Penguin Press) Killing and Dying by Adrian Tomine (Drawn & Quarterly) The Eileen in Moshfegh's EILEEN is a real piece of work. Obsessive and mean, she hates herself as much as she does others. Of course, she comes by this naturally, her father's a pathetic, widowed, housebound alcoholic ex-cop, who keeps his relationships distant and his gun close. Only ever reaching out to snatch a bottle of gin from her hands, his disdain for his youngest daughter is only matched by her's for him. When twenty-something Eileen isn't fantasizing about killing her father -or herself- she busies herself mentally tearing down her co-workers at the boys reformatory she works at. Perhaps unsurprisingly, she has more tolerance for the boys than for the warden and the guards (and even, almost, affection for one). "There's nothing I detest more than men with happy childhoods", she says. Her obsession with one guard (who she sometimes stalks at night after the movies and a little shoplifting) peters out once a new woman starts working at the reformatory and Eileen's attention turns her way. Moshfegh's EILEEN delivers with mood and character. It's about how place affects identity. Taking place in some nowhere place that reminded me of where I spent my childhood years: in an old house on a highway between two towns, where I was most lonely and self-absorbed. Eileen herself is completely fascinating and Moshfegh's writing is remarkable in that she's able to make this character - as nasty and obsessive as she is - relatable. One of the best books I've read in awhile. Funny and dark. Big rec from me. I was, of course, already pretty familiar with KILLING AND DYING but, earlier this month, it was my turn to host the D+Q Graphic Novel Club and Tomine's latest was my choice so it was time for a close read. Real cool times, it was the biggest turn-out yet for our book club and we all talked about the short story vs. the novel, and how well the stories in K+D adhere to the form. We also spent a lot of time discussing favourites in the collection, with a lot of attention focused on the book's centerpiece, its namesake story. I was relieved to find out was considered a heartbreaker to all the non-dads in the room as well. Oh, and he's going to be here too, with Leanne Shapton. Friday, February 5th at the Rialto Hall. Tickets are $5 or free with a purchase of the book at 211 Bernard Ouest or online. Doors at 6pm, event at 7pm. Adrian and Leanne will be presenting, answering questions and signing. It would awesome to see you there. —Jason Grimmer, Librairie D+Q marketing director The Big Green Tent by Lyudmila Ulitskaya (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) THE BIG GREEN TENT (more like Big Green Hat, amirite?) is a novel about people: it starts by following three bosom buddies—a poet, and pianist, and a photographer, loners until they find each other—bound by a love for Russian literature, as they begin to turn from boys to men, in a county full of turmoil (Stalin has just died). They are shaped intellectually by their english teacher, who takes them on walking tours of Moscow, to famous literary sites, and generally just supports them in a truly wonderful way. I fell in love with the book in these first six chapters, which act as the groundwork for the novel, these three characters supporting the vast web spun around them by the unbearably talented Lyudmila Ulitskaya. After this base is built, the book branches out, still following the three friends, now men, but exploring the characters around them, almost manically, so that by the end you're acquainted with family, friends, lovers, acquaintances, strangers, as if Ulitskaya were attempting to create a portrait of an entire nation spanning almost a full century, a century ruled by the KGB and inhabited by dissidents, academics, doctors, wives, children, prisoners, peasants. Ambitious, I know. But somehow, no matter how small the character, Ulitskaya weaves them back in, creating full portraits of a colossal cast, writing them so richly that you're able to keep it all straight, no matter how slight the connection. It's a six hundred page book and I am certainly coming no where close to summing it up. And maybe I'll take back what I said in my first sentence: it's certainly about people, but maybe it's more about stories. Written from real life, this is a world Ulitskaya has inhabited, and the richness of the stories her characters tell is captivating beyond anything I can write here. I adored this book. I immediately started rereading it the second I finished because I hated the idea of being done with it. You should all read it. And then call me because I want to talk about it. Damn. Bonus: In case you read the first twenty pages of Rachel Kushner's The Flamethrowers a year ago and then got distracted and then got it confused with that other book you started at the same time and hated, I would recommend trying it again. I'm working on this boy now and I can't believe I waited so long. What a treat it is <3 - Tracy Hurren, managing editor Playing the Whore by Melissa Gira Grant (Verso Books) A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James (Riverhead) Much like the rest of the office, I read an obscene amount over the break and by golly it was glorious. Something that I read after impulsively partaking in Verso Books’ holiday sale was PLAYING THE WHORE by Melissa Gira Grant, a deceptively slim book that serves to brush the ground clean of our warped and truly awful worldwide policies and intuitions on sex work and sex workers. I was shocked at the misconceptions and unknowingly crappy beliefs I still held about sex work, despite my assumption that I was a 100% sex positive person before reading this book (news flash, I can always still be better!). While I struggled, at times, with the writing style, I thought Gira Grant had some of the most well constructed comments I have ever read on sex work positivity, clearly framed and consistently well articulated. I highly recommend it for use in discussion when your friends say, “Stripping/prostitution/etc is messed up, man!” Oy. Two thumbs up, and as a bonus, I feel more ready for Chester Brown’s upcoming events! Another incredible book I read, not pictured above (but you know it’s probably under my cat’s butt): AN BRIEF HISTORY OF SEVEN KILLINGS by Marlon James. Librairie D+Q store staffer and fantasy dreamgirl Helen and I were basically in an informal two-person book club over this epic tome, one that is as sweeping as they come. Never have I read a book with so many people doing so many bad things where I still felt such huge loss when they bit it. James is a master at relatable-unlikeable, at people that are not quite anti-heroes because they’re not quite heroes. And I feel like normally a book with only one female protagonist in a absolute crew of angry men is not my jam, but damn is Nina Burgess a compelling character, a consummate survivor who knows that part of surviving is constant reinvention. I loved this book; it perfectly and subtly captures the cascading effects of colonialism in a way that is engaging and emotionally cathartic. - Marcela Huerta, production assistant Popkiss by Michael White (Bloomsbury) POPKISS is Michael White's loving obsessive look at the obscure British record label Sarah Records from the mid-80s that either created obsessive devotion or bile-spewing revulsion from those exposed to the music it published. Sarah was the brainchild of two young Brits who both came out of the British post-punk indie pop movement and the Zine scene that surrounded it. Fiercely independent and anti-corporate in every sense, the label ran out of a small flat in Bristol for many years, it received few reviews from the British music press and when it did, the reviews were more concerned about their feelings against what the music and labeled represented than what was actually on the vinyl. White writes the kind of tribute that every small arts business deserves. There are always those who align themselves with these truly underground entities and find their identities within its creations. It's a beautiful thing. You've likely never heard a note of this music (there were 150 releases by the end) but it really doesn't matter. The people who needed to hear it found it and it changed their lives. Michael White is one of those people and this is his glorious paean to the most beautiful thing he ever witnessed. —Tom Devlin, executive editor Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood (McClelland & Stewart) I read a bunch of books over the winter holidays. "Gobbled them up" might be more accurate: I read so fast and so slavishly that I just remember the feeling of the reading. While I was in Toronto visiting family I picked up this edition of CAT'S EYE by Margaret Atwood. I talked nonstop about Elena Ferrante's intimate depictions of female friendships for months on end, and finally some wise soul suggested I might also enjoy CAT'S EYE. And I did. The book follows a middle aged woman returning to the toronto where she grew up for a retrospective of her painting career in a reputable gallery. Everywhere she goes, she is reminded of incidents from her childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood; her struggles to come to terms with her own femininity and her relationship with her childhood best frenemy Cordelia are so realistic as to be painful. Her relationships with men are fraught - she envies them the freedom to be without concern of outside criticism. The breadth of the feminist experience and of women's alienation from 1970s feminism is devastatingly described. And the anxieties of motherhood... all of it is captured in effortlessly engaging prose. A great read when you're trying to figure out what to read after you're finished with the Neapolitan Novels. —Julia Pohl-Miranda, marketing director The Sad Passions by Veronica Gonzalez Peña (Semiotext(e)) I am reading THE SAD PASSIONS by Veronica Gonzalez Pena. It's one of those reads I purchased awhile ago and only just found the time to pick off my way too tall book pile. It tells the story from the perspective of six different women in one family, but is centered around Claudia, a mother of four (also known as four of the women from whom we read from), whose challenges with mental illness comes to take its toll on all members of the family. I read about the book a couple of months ago, and in this reading, the text told me it would be one of the "saddest books to ever read" which of course made me real excited. Sad stories are usually the best kind, or is it just me? The book is beautifully written and tender, while simultaneously raw with loss and the rippling affect of madness. I've only just begun and am very excited to see the rest through. Highly recommended for girls who like pink and gray books and pink and gray feelings. —Sruti Islam, marketing assistant Never Goodnight by Coco Moodysson (HarperCollins) Crickets No. 5 by Sammy Harkham (self-published) You might recognize this comic from its popular 2013 film adaption We Are the Best!, but even if you have seen the movie, you should give this book a read. Originally published in Swedish in 2008, NEVER GOODNIGHT is a coming-of-age memoir by Coco Moodysson, who with her two best friends Klara and Matilda, decides to start a punk band. Sure, they're only eleven or twelve years old, have no clue how to play music, or even own instruments, but that doesn't stop them from sticking it to the man. Practicing drums on pots and pans and begging for money in the streets to buy a guitar are only a few schemes by which the trio finally get to play a show (in a youth center where they get booed off stage no less). I really liked the movie adaptation, but enjoyed Moodysson's crude drawings and punk DIY attitude even more, which complimented the story so well it had me grinning throughout. Next is Sammy Harkham's CRICKETS No. 5. Harkham's Summersaulting was one of the first comics I read as an adult, and it has left a huge impression on me to this day. Until then, I had no knowledge of comics (aside from a few Mafaldas I had as a kid), and was immediately struck by the cinematic quality of the work. I’ve been following Harkham's career since, and am always amazed by his ability to create complex atmospheres through pacing, lighting, and composition (there's a particular scene in Crickets 5 where he uses moving lighting inside a car to emphasis the mounting tension of a fighting couple which just floors me). In terms of story, this latest installment of Crickets is anything but pleasant, continuing the Blood of the Virgin storyline with the same exceptionally unsympathetic and angry characters, and cringe-worthy sex scenes that will make anyone uncomfortable. This will likely lead certain readers to dismiss the work as smut, but also serves as a parallel for the main character's obsession with exploitation films and B movies. What makes Crickets so interesting to me is the fact that these awful scenes are presented in tandem to scenes of beauty or everyday life, making for one complex and bleak take on life. As one of the main characters says in the opening page: "It's annoying. Even at its best, life is just really annoying." —Marie-Jade Menni, production assistant The First Bad Man by Miranda July (Simon & Schuster) I was hooked early on in this novel: “she gave me a betrayed look, because she's a working mom, feminism, etc. I gave her the same look back, because I’m a woman in a senior position, she’s taking advantage, feminism, etc.” And that really may be the most straightforward line in this delightfully funny and just plain weird-in the best way possible-novel. The first part of the book is pretty direct, we meet Cheryl whose a bit of an oddball in love with a man who she feels she is her destiny. She is pretty lonely, lives alone, no close friends, has a standard job at a non-profit until her bosses ask her to take in their 20-something daughter. And oh god, does all hell break loose after that! Miranda’s prose is just plain a live wire of emotion. It’s dark, funny, erotic, funny, feminist, funny, unsettling, maternal. And, for as odd as the second part of the book is, Miranda’s approach is so unpretentious that in a way it all works and makes sense. Totally bananas in that you feel every emotion known to man in the course of reading the book. —Peggy Burns, publisher	cc/2021-04/en_head_0052.json.gz/line0
__label__wiki	0.674751	0.674751	AHF News 10/20/2018 - The 1956 Hungarian Revolution Remembrance at the New York Consulate At the remembrance AHF Co-President Gyula Elemér Balogh, and President of the Amerikaiak a Magyarokért Alapítvány in Hungary received the Order of Merit Officers Cross award signed by the President of the Republic of Hungary. Mr. Balogh in his acceptance speech of his award for service thanked President Áder and Dr. Vizi E Szilveszter President of the Friends of Hungary Foundation and Past President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences who recommended him, and sadly remembered being 12 years old when the 1956 Revolution took place and being unable to help the Hungarians from the US. This left a lifelong impression on him and he vowed to help Hungary whenever he could. Five AHF Board members were present at the 1956 Remembrance: Zsuzsanna Dreisziger Stricz, Dr. Judit Kerekes, Nagy Akos, Dr. Imre Nemeth who flew in from Washington DC for the event, and Mr. Balogh. There were moving tributes to the 1956 martyrs. Mr. Balogh mentioned standing up for Hungarian minorities while a student at Columbia University by serving as a spokesman for the Committee for Human Rights in Romania at demonstrations against the Romanian Dictator, and walking the floors of Congress with fellow Committee members to stop most favored nation status for Romania. He was President of the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America from 2005-2008 and the Kossuth House in Washington DC. He was in Hungary in October 2006 when the MSZP party in power shot at their own countrymen at demonstrations, and stood up on the podium at a counter demonstration and vowed again that he would come back and help Hungary. Continuing his ancestors' more than 100 years of service to Hungary, at his father Dr. Elemer Balogh's request, he returned to Hungary in 2009 and started the Amerikai Magyar Klub and the Amerikaiak a Magyarokért Alapítvány (Americans for Hungarians Foundation), whose past 9 years of achievements can be seen on the AMKL.org web site. "The Spirit of 1956" - A National Memorial to the Fallen Heroes of the Hungarian Revolution 1956 Hungarian Revolution Portal - About 1956 The 1956 Hungarian Revolution - Freedom Fighters, Time's "Man of Year" 1956 Hungarian Revolution in Photos Join and Support Us Online! 12/06/2017 - AHF writes letter to US Department of State to express its deep concern over the its Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor's (DRL) intent to take active measures to intervene in Hungary's political environment. AHF, founded 110 years ago, has long supported positive bilateral relations between the United States and Hungary as a means of advancing U.S. strategic interests in Central and Eastern Europe and feels such public criticism jeopardizes those interests. 01/24/2017 - AHF submits letter to President Trump on improving American-Hungarian relations and urging his Administration to adopt a new approach to our bilateral relations with Hungary. The letter noted, "misunderstandings have resulted in flawed and self-defeating policies that tend to foster disillusionment with the U.S. among Hungarians and thereby damage U.S. strategic interests." 02/08/2017 - AHF continues its outreach to the new administration, submits letter to Secretary of State Tillerson urging the United States to adopt a new approach to bilateral relations with Hungary. The letter urges the administration to "advance U.S. strategic interests and goals in the region as well as promote American values and hold out its accomplishments in a manner that will inspire positive reforms, including the treatment of Hungarian minorities in Hungary’s neighboring countries. [read more] 10/10/14 - AHF submits letter to President Obama: "...although we believe that vigilance is necessary to preclude backsliding when it comes to democracy, we are justifiably puzzled and deeply concerned that you lumped Hungary in with Egypt and some of the worst dictatorships of the world in assessing the state of civil society freedoms. We... respectfully call upon you to retract that part of your statement that unjustifiably places Hungary in the same category with Egypt and other such repressive countries. Doing so would help alleviate the concern, confusion and disbelief found in our community about the United States views of Hungary, a democratic ally. It would also serve to advance the goals of the United States in the region." [read more] 10/22/14 - AHF submits letter to US Asst. Secretary of State Victoria Nuland: "The appearance of selective enforcement and the use of anti-corruption measuresas a “big gun” for political purposes that are unrelated to corruption, coupled with the other issues noted in this letter merely befuddle and alienate the Hungarian people and undermine U.S. goals...Corruption cannot, must not be tolerated. It needs to be eradicated wherever found. If not halted, it will undermine democracy and the free market system. We, therefore, support U.S. anti-corruption initiatives. However, in order to be effective, selective prosecution should be meticulously avoided." [read more] 5/18/2016 - AHF and PAC address Bill Clinton's Hungary remarks: The Presidents of the American Hungarian Federation and the Polish American Congress issue a joint statement objecting to the collective characterization by former President Bill Clinton of the Hungarian and Polish people as tired of democracy and desirous of “authoritarian dictatorship.” [read more] 11/14/14 - AHF meets with National Security Council and State Department Officials - On Friday, November 14, 2014, Frank Koszorus, Jr., President of the American Hungarian Federation, and Paul Kamenar and Imre Nemeth, members of the Federation's International Relations Committee, met with Nathaniel Dean, Director for Central and North European Affairs at the National Security Council, Thomas O. Melia, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, and Ivan Weinstein, Desk Officer for Hungary at the Department of State. [read more] 1/20/2015 - Politics.hu publishes Op-Ed by AHF President, Frank Koszorus, "What is the endgame for U.S.-Hungarian relations? "In a Tweet on January 12, 2015, US Embassy Charge d’Affaires Andre Goodfriend quoted Stephen I, the first king of Hungary (975–1038), who urged his son Emeric to welcome foreigners.The Tweet...clearly made in response to the Hungarian Prime Minister's recent policy statement... that Hungary and Europeshould, with the exception of political asylum, curb economic immigration. [read more] 02/06/2012 - American Hungarian Federation slams "unmerited criticism directed at Hungary." The Federation said opposition forces were waging “a political campaign to negate the voting public’s clear and overwhelming choice of [the centre-right] government in the 2010 internationally recognized free and fair elections. The Federation’s concern is not with the legitimate political debate surrounding any changes to the constitution but rather with the insinuations that the process itself was somehow not democratic," its statement said. [read more] 1/15/2015 - Federation leaders meet with new US Ambassador to Hungary Colleen Bell and Hungarian Desk Officer Ivan Weinstein. The meeting took place at the State Department and was intended to review American / Hungarian bilateral relations with Ambassador Bell as she prepares to take up her post in Budapest shortly. [read more] 12/17/14 - AHF Meets with Kathy Kavalec, Director, U.S. Department of State, Office of Russian Affairs: On December 17, AHF met with Kathy Kavalec, Director, U.S. Department of State, Office of Russian Affairs, to discuss Russia's policies and activities in Central Europe, including Hungary, and U.S. response thereto. "Our Federation believes that good bilateral relations between the United States and Hungary and a strong and united NATO are in the interest of both countries and necessary to meet the formidable challenges posed by Russia in the region," said the Federation's president Frank Koszorus, Jr. "Winning instead of alienating public opinion is critical to advance these goals," he added. Amerikai levél Orbánékról - erről nem beszélhettek a diplomaták: A legnagyobb amerikai magyar szervezet, az Amerikai Magyar Szövetség fordult levélben Victoria Nuland helyettes külügyi államtitkárhoz. [tovább] 5/9/2014 - AHF Submits Letter to Secretary of State John Kerry expressing concern that the US Embassy's public (as opposed to private) statement about Hungary's history concerning the treacherous year of 1944 may have the unintended consequence of alienating Hungarians at a time when NATO needs to be unified and resolute in confronting the challenges posed by Ukraine and Russia. [more] 5/11/2012 - Budapest’s Central European University hosted a one-day conference to mark the 90th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Hungary and the United States on May 9th. The conference, co-organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the US Embassy in Budapest, was opened by Hungarian Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi and US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Bay Fang. [more] 1/11/2011 - MTI "Objektív véleményalkotásra szólít fel az Amerikai Magyar Szövetség médiaügyben." [tovább] 01/04/11 - AHF Issues its First Statement on Hungarian Media Law: "A Rush to Judgment: The Reaction to the Hungarian Media Law." [more] 1/12/2011 - AMSZ: "a negatív sajtójelentések hamis képet festenek Magyarországról" [tovább] 01/04/11 - Hungarian Media Law: In view of all the critical media play, moderate weekly Heti Válasz broadens discussion on Hungarian media law by adding another perspective. The Hungarian National Media and Infocommunications Authority releases English version of Media Law. It is available for download. [read more] 6/22/2010 - AHF editorial, "Fidesz sweep means moment of truth for American policymakers." AHF President Frank Koszorus continues call for even-handedness in US foreign policy: "The President's ability to connect with the people of Central and Eastern Europe will also help determine whether he will succeed or fail in shoring up NATO. An early indicator will be how Washington reacts to the new government in Hungary, following the landslide victory of Viktor Orbán and his center-right party, Fidesz..." [read the full article] 5/11/2010 - "Meggyőzni Washingtont..." American Hungarian Federation president calls for even-handedness in media coverage on Hungary in Heti Válasz interview following Fidesz's landslide victory in recently held parliamentary elections. "Miben tudna segíteni az amerikai magyar emigráció az óhazának, amikor a jobbközép győzelmét ismét fanyalogva fogadja az amerikai sajtó?" [tovább] 6/11/2008 - Sen. Schumer suggests return of Russia's hegemony in Central and East Europe... AHF (and Central and East European Coalition) sends letter and calls on community to express its concern. On June 3, 2008, Senator Schumer (D-NY) published an article in The Wall Street Journal entitled "Russia Can Be Part of the Answer on Iran." In this article, Sen. Schumer suggests that stronger economic sanctions would help deter Iran from developing nuclear weapons. The effectiveness of the sanctions, according to Sen. Schumer, will require Russia's cooperation. [read more] UPDATE: 7/25/2008 - American Hungarian Federation Participates in CEEC Meeting with Senator Schumer: Discusses Russia "Hegemony" statement. 1/11/2013 - AHF again responds to Senator Ben Cardin, Co-Chair of the US Helsinki Commission. In his December 20, 2012 statement, the Senator was unfairly critical of Hungary. "...we are concerned that (1) your assertions concerning Hungary omit relevant facts; and (2) your statement fails to raise the discrimination and intolerant policies toward ethnic Hungarians in some of the countries bordering Hungary. The statement therefore leaves the impression... of bias, which could result in cynicism toward the Helsinki Commission and its valuable and necessary work." [read more] 7/22/2010 - AHF reacts to The Washington Post Editorial: "...the editorial, 'Hungary's Strongest Leader Targets the Media,' [July 19], seems to equate the prevailing sentiment in Hungary in support for minority rights and the new passport law with extremism. Nothing is farther from the truth." AHF letters reminded editors about the current extremism [see Slovak Language Law] in neighboring countries and explained that the legacy of Trianon continues to affect the lives of millions of ethnic Hungarians today. The letters also pointed out the fact that dual citizenship is a common and globally accepted practice even in those same countries that would discriminate against an ethnic Hungarian exercising his rights. AHF feels The Post missed the point and mixed unrelated issues. However, we appreciate the fact the The Post's editorial included a link to AHF's page on the Treaty of Trianon. Letters included those from members Frank Koszorus, Jr., AHF President; Bryan Dawson, AHF Executive Chairman; and Geza Cseri, former Science and Technology Advisor to the Allied Supreme Commanders of NATO. The Post published a Letter to Editor from Geza Jeszenszky, former Ambassador to the United States and Foreign Minister. All four letters appear in that order below: Based on erroneous assumptions and a casual understanding of the challenges confronting Hungarians, the editorial, "Hungary's strongest leader targets the media," [July 19], seems to equate the prevailing sentiment in Hungary in support for minority rights and the new passport law with extremism. Nothing is farther from the truth. Consequently, the editorial appears biased and falls short of the high standard The Post sets for itself. Dual citizenship is not uncommon in Europe and elsewhere. Romania, for example, grants dual citizenship to ethnic Romanians living in Moldova. Remembering the Treaty of Trianon, which transferred over three million ethnic Hungarians to foreign rule, is neither polarizing nor a concern of only the right, as the editorial also suggests. Rather it is an issue today because some of Hungary's neighbors discriminate against their Hungarian minorities. Slovakia, which adopted a language law prohibiting the use of Hungarian in public, or Romania, which refuses to re-establish a former Hungarian university, are examples. If these countries respected minority rights, Trianon would be relegated to the history books. Perhaps next time The Post will examine the facts a little more closely. Frank Koszorus, Jr. President, American Hungarian Federation I was confused by the editorial, "Hungary's strongest leader targets the media," [July 19]. The merits (or lack thereof) of government media controls has little or nothing to do with passports or citizenship which are matters of national identity, not nationalism. Dual-citizenship is a common practice throughout the world as is autonomy and respect for local, historic communities. Is the U.S. nationalist for allowing Americans to live abroad and keep their passports? Is the US extreme for accepting dual citizenship with Britain, France or Mexico? Is Hungary extreme for accepting dual citizenship for ethnic Slovaks living in Hungary? Slovakia accepts dual citizenship for some, but will not extend the same rights to ethnic Hungarians who have lived in their own communities for over 1,100 years. As such, it is clearly discriminatory. Unfortunately, the law to rescind Slovak citizenship for ethnic Hungarians who exercise their right to apply for Hungarian citizenship on Saturday, July 17, 2010. Is the concern for the basic human rights of an ethnic minority an extremist, extreme right-wing position? Are Catalonians extreme for wanting to speak Catalan with the postman in Catalonia? How about speaking French in Quebec? Spanish in Miami? Italian in Switzerland? Slovakia, under a truly nationalist government that include Jan Slota who called Hungarians, “the cancer of the Slovak nation,” passed a law making it illegal to converse in Hungarian with a Hungarian postman in a post office in an 1100-year old Hungarian village. For the 40 years of communist rule, it was taboo to discuss topics such as Trianon and asserting rights for ethnic minorities as to not disturb the “socialist brotherhood of nations.” Does the Post long for the brotherhood’s return? As the link you provided explained so well, any objective observer would see Trianon as a huge miscarriage of justice that continues to affect the lives of millions today. It is not a right-wing, extremist issue, it is an issue of human and minority rights that should transcend the political spectrum. The firm re-establishment of democracy in Hungary allows for a full examination of these topics, however uncomfortable for the West who bears the responsibility for creating these minorities and ethnic strife in the first place. Bryan Dawson As a 40+ years subscriber to The Post, and a member of the American Hungarian Federation, I would like to response to your Editorial: "Hungary's strongest leader targets the media," [July 19], is based on erroneous assumptions and little understanding of Hungary’s history and psychic. Equating Hungary’s support for Hungarian minorities and of the granting of dual citizenship as being chauvinistic and catering to extremism is further from the truth. Granting dual citizenship is a common practice. The neighboring countries Romania, Slovakia, Czech Republic grant dual citizenship to their ethnic brothers living in neighboring countries. One example is Romania granting dual citizenship to ethnic Romanians living in Moldova. The fact that The Post never raised this issue before regarding the named countries why now when it comes to Hungary? Am I wrong if I detect a bias attitude in this? When it comes to the Treaty of Trianon, you are telling to the Hungarians to forget it. How can you forget that your arms and legs are cut off, and millions of your brothers are under foreign rule, because that is what happened at Trianon. The Treaty unjustly, with malice, deprived Hungary of 65% of her inhabitants and 72% of her territory, an area as large as Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio or Kentucky combined. The dismemberment also created 16 million ethnic minorities, including millions of Hungarians. This treaty totally altered the political balance of Central Europe which then led to the Balkanization of the area and created the political and economy hardships and turmoil to the country and the area. There are no extremists on this issue since practically the whole nation laments the injustice of Trianon. If there is revisionalism in Hungary, it is fueled by Slovakia, Romania, Ukraine and Serbia because of their oppressive and discriminatory policies. Slovakia, by the Benes Decrees and its language law prohibiting the use of Hungarian in public, or Romania, which refuses to re-establish a Hungarian university, or the continuous physical beatings of ethnic Hungarians by the Serbs in Voivodina are examples. I hope that in the future, The Post will be more mindful of the facts and reality. Geza Cseri Mc Lean VA President, CIC, Inc. and former Science and Technology Advisor to the Allied Supreme Commanders of NATO An unfair portrayal of Hungarian politics - 7/24/2010 [see original Letter to the Editor] The July 19 editorial "Hungary's rightward lunge" was as inaccurate as it was unfair. It also revealed a superficial understanding of Hungary and Fidesz, the party that just won a landslide victory in the parliamentary elections this spring. A few examples: In 2002, Hungary's prime minister, Viktor Orbán, did not cater to "Hungary's extreme right," as the editorial stated, but successfully opposed it and helped oust its representatives from parliament by defeating them during the elections. Although Washington did not welcome Hungary's decision to purchase fourth-generation Swedish-British Gripen fighter planes rather than used American F-16s, it did not make Mr. Orbán persona non grata and a pariah, as the editorial suggested. In March 2002, President George W. Bush telephoned Mr. Orbán and invited him to visit the United States following the elections, which looked like an almost certain victory for Mr. Orbán's Fidesz Party. As a staunch friend of the United States and an appreciative reader of The Post, I hope that the editorial policy relating to Hungary will be more balanced and factual in the future. Géza Jeszenszky, Budapest The writer was Hungary's ambassador to the United States from 1998 to 2002. April 29, 2003 - US Senate Testimony: "NATO Enlargement: Promoting Western Values, Strengthening the Alliance." Calling attention to minority protections. before the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. March 25, 2009 - US Senate Reception on the Occasion of the Policy Reception in Honor of NATO and Its Enlargement - : Remarks of Frank Koszorus, Jr. April 2009 - CEEC statement on NATO Enlargement and Supporting the Open Door Policy. July 2007 - Hungary's Accession to NATO: An expanded report by Frank Koszorus, Jr. October - November 1997: The Debate on NATO Enlargement: Hearings Before the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Testimony of Frank Koszorus, Jr., President, AHFDC. An interesting exchange with Sen. John Kerry. June 20, 1996 - U.S. Policy Toward NATO Enlargement: Hearing before the Committee on International Relations, United States House of Representatives 104th Congress, Second Session: Testimony of Frank Koszorus, Jr., President, AHFDC. June 2007 - Hudson Institute Panel: Enduring Strains of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe March 29, 2004 - On the Occasion of NATO Expansion, Corcoran Gallery of Art. AHF Remarks by Frank Koszorus, Jr.: NATO Enlargement and Minority Rights October 24, 2003 - AHF Memorandum on Romanian President Iliescu Visit Key Dates in Hungarian-American Diplomatic Relations: Diplomatic relations between Hungary and the United States were formally established in 1922, although unofficial contacts have been present ever since the War of Independence. Colonel Commandant Michael Kováts, a Hungarian nobleman is regarded as the founder of the American Cavalry, and was one of the first heroes to lay down his life for American independence near Charleston, South Carolina. Friendly relations between the two nations were further enhanced through Lajos Kossuth’s visit to the United States in 1851 – whose bust is one of the few foreign nationals present in the Capitol Rotunda. Kossuth was the second foreign national – after the Marquis de LaFayette – ever to be given the honor of speaking before a joint session of Congress.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0052.json.gz/line5
__label__wiki	0.841586	0.841586	Abhay refuses to go topless By IANS-CT / March 23, 2011 Mumbai, Feb 26 (Calcutta Tube) Bollywood actor Abhay Deol was asked to take off his shirt for a scene in Zoya Akhtar’s next film ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’, but he firmly refused to do so. The reason — he has hair on his chest. Zoya had asked him and Hrithik Roshan, who also plays a lead role in the film, to go topless in a scene. Hrithik obliged but Abhay refused to bare his chest, a source said. ‘Abhay refused to take off his shirt as he doesn’t prefer to shave his chest hair,’ the source told IANS. ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’ is a fun-filled road film shot largely across Spain and apart from Hrithik and Abhay, also seen in pivotal roles will be Farhan Akhtar, Katrina Kaif and Kalki Koechlin. The film is scheduled to hit theatres June 24. ‘Tanu Weds Manu’ is an honest film: Anand Rai Arunoday to get lean and thin for new film	cc/2021-04/en_head_0052.json.gz/line8
__label__wiki	0.619807	0.619807	Native-born Americans lost jobs, but Asians, Indians did not Washington, Oct 30 (IANS) With the exception of Asian Americans, native-born Americans lost more than a million jobs while foreign-born workers gained hundreds of thousands of jobs as the country emerged from a painful recession, according to a new report. In April, May and June this year, compared with the same period last year, foreign-born workers gained 656,000 jobs, while native-born workers lost 1.2 million jobs, according to an analysis of economic trends issued Friday by the Pew Hispanic Centre. But Asian Americans, including Indians, had a different experience. In their case, employment of the native born increased by 208,000 from the second quarter of 2009 to the second quarter of 2010, and employment of immigrants decreased by 102,000. The unemployment rate for native-born Asians fell from 9.9 percent to 8.7 percent; for foreign-born Asians, it increased from 6.7 percent to 7 percent. ‘There is a substantial difference in how the economic recovery is working out for the native-born and the foreign-born,’ said Rakesh Kochhar, associate director of the centre and co-author of the new report. ‘Only the immigrant experience has been a positive one,’ he said. ‘The native-born experience – the best that can be said is, ‘They bled less than in the last year’.’ Key findings foreign born and native born: * The foreign-born working-age population (ages 16 and older) in the US increased by 709,000 from the second quarter of 2009 to the second quarter of 2010. That marks a reversal from the preceding year, when the foreign-born working-age population shrank by 95,000. * The construction sector was a leading source of job losses in the recession, and it remains a leading source of unemployment for native-born workers during the recovery. Of the 1.2 million jobs lost by native-born workers from the second quarter of 2009 to the second quarter of 2010, 645,000 jobs were lost in construction alone. * Median weekly earnings of both native-born and foreign-born workers inched up 1.0 percent from 2008 to 2009 — from $651 to $657 for the native born and from $544 to $550 for immigrants, in 2010 prices. * In the recovery from 2009 to 2010, median weekly wages of foreign-born workers fell to $525, a loss of 4.5 percent. The wages of native-born workers were virtually unchanged, standing at $653 in the second quarter of 2010. (Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in) Banks gets restraining order against stalker New Zealand to host Indian spice festival	cc/2021-04/en_head_0052.json.gz/line9
__label__wiki	0.764121	0.764121	Sen. Hutchison vows to help Cruz prepare to fill her seat Jul 31st - 5:35 pm Posted by Allison Sandza in Decision 2012 Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison says she will help Ted Cruz get elected to fill her seat in Washington. She announced her retirement almost two years ago. “I’d like to congratulate both Ted Cruz and David Dewhurst on a hard fought primary. “In the coming months, I will do everything I can to support the election of Ted Cruz to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate and be available to him for any questions that will prepare him for the issues he will face. “It is more important than ever that we have leaders who are committed to get our country back on track – focused on cutting spending and creating jobs to grow our economy.” Perry: Dewhurst and I will stand together Gov. Perry isn’t turning his back on Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst following his runoff loss to Ted Cruz. In a statement Perry said he is proud to call Dewhurst his friend. "I congratulate Ted Cruz on a hard-fought victory and a well-executed campaign. Ted is a force to be reckoned with: an excellent candidate and a great conservative communicator. I call on all conservative Texans to rally behind Ted Cruz in November so we can remake the U.S. Senate in the image of Texas for the good of all Americans. “Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst fought a valiant fight. I’m proud to call David my friend. He and I will stand shoulder to shoulder once again in the spring, fighting for Texas — the most conservative state in America. "Texas is as rock-hard conservative as ever. Texans in true Texas fashion decided what is right for Texas. It is my expectation and prayer that their choice will be right for America." Dewhurst wasn’t the governor’s only endorsement, at least two of the candidates Perry backed were successful. Roger Williams beat Wes Riddle for the Republican nomination in Congressional district 25 and Railroad Commissioner Barry Smitherman held on to his party’s nomination. Mayor Julián Castro to keynote Democratic National Convention Jul 31st - 3:17 am In the same fashion which catapulted President Obama to national prominence in 2004, Mayor Julián Castro will deliver this year’s keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in September. Castro will be the first Latino keynote speaker at the DNC. "Two conventions ago, the keynote speaker was a guy named Barack Obama. I remember watching his speech in 2004 and being inspired," Castro said in his announcement video. At 37 years old, Castro is the youngest mayor of a Top 50 American city. His twin brother, Joaquin, is a state rep and is running for Congress in San Antonio. He keynoted the Texas Democratic convention in June and was a guest in First Lady Michelle Obama’s box at the State of the Union earlier this year. "Julián Castro has worked tirelessly to move San Antonio forward by building its economy from the middle out, not the top down, by putting the city on a path to being a leader in the new energy economy and making innovative investments in education to prepare San Antonio’s students for the jobs of the future,” Democratic Convention Chair, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said on the DNC website. “That’s the same vision forward for the middle class the President has.” The Democratic National Convention starts Sept. 4 in Charlotte, North Carolina. You can watch Castro’s announcement video below. Poll show mixed numbers in US Senate race on eve of runoff Election Day Jul 30th - 10:09 am Posted by Allison Sandza in [...] After more than a year of campaigning, and mudslinging, Tuesday is Election Day, and a couple new polls show mixed numbers for one of the biggest races to watch. A survey from Public Policy Polling shows Ted Cruz ahead of Dewhurst, 52 to 42 percent. Just two weeks earlier, PPP found them five points apart. Sunday’s poll specifically shows Cruz leading among Republicans who cast ballots during early voting, 55 to 40. He also leads, 49 to 44, among people who say they have yet to vote. Dewhurst leads with seniors by a big margin, 56 to 39, but younger voters strongly prefer Cruz by a 60 to 33 margin. While Public Policy Polling is a Democratic-leaning survey organization, their polls in this Republican race have been pretty accurate. Their poll right before the primary proved to be within a few points of the actual outcome. The Dewhurst campaign, however, is countering with a poll of their own which they say shows the numbers in their favor. They’re citing an internal poll, conducted by the Texas-based group Baselice & Associates during early voting on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of last week. It shows Dewhurst leading Cruz 48 percent to 43 percent. The poll, paid for by the Dewhurst campaign, was released by the National Journal. YNN confirmed the numbers with the polling group. Cruz campaigned with some big names over the weekend. Sarah Palin, Jim DeMint and Rick Santorum all traveled to Texas to stump with him. Dewhurst has the backing of many top Texas officials. Governor Perry will campaign with him all day today. State Comptroller Susan Combs formally endorsed Dewhurst last week. Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples announced his support for the lieutenant governor Sunday. Perry appoints new leadership at Health and Human Services Commission Jul 30th - 6:40 am Posted by Allison Sandza in Gov. Rick Perry Gov. Perry announced Austin anesthesiologist and former state senator, Dr. Kyle Janek, will replace Tom Suehs as executive commissioner of Texas Health and Human Services. Perry also appointed Chris Traylor to serve as chief deputy commissioner. "Texas, like the rest of the country, is headed into a period of the most significant changes in health care in our history,” Gov. Perry said in a press release. “This new leadership team, with Kyle and Chris at the helm, combines unparalleled experience and expertise to ensure Texans continue to have access to the health care they need while implementing fiscal policies that are mindful that it’s taxpayer money they are spending.” Janek is currently the director of anesthesia services at Lakeway Regional Medical Center. He served in the Texas House and Senate from 1995 to 2008. He graduated from Texas A&M before heading to the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Traylor has been commissioner of the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services since 2010. Grady Yarbrough out with new ad Jul 26th - 12:12 pm Posted by Sarah Grady in Decision 2012 Grady Yarbrough, a democratic candidate for US Senate, has produced a new TV and radio commercial. In a post on his Facebook page, Yarbrough said the ad could be seen on television stations across the state from July 24 – 30, at 5p and 6p. Yarbrough became the surprise runoff candidate in May, after he came in second to the more well-known Paul Sadler. It is not clear how Yarbrough is paying for his television and radio ads; he hasn’t reported recent contributions to the Federal Election Commission. The Dallas Morning News reports that Grady would self-finance ads for the runoff campaign. Capital Tonight did call Yarbrough for comment tonight, but he couldn’t be reached. Here is the ad: Cruz-Santorum campaign event set for Saturday morning A big name in Tea Party politics will roll into Southlake, Texas Saturday morning. We now know where and when Rick Santorum will join U.S. Senate Republican runoff candidate Ted Cruz for a rally. The event will take place Saturday morning at 11:30 at the Ranch of the Lonesome Dove. The event comes less than 24 hours after a rally in The Woodlands with Sarah Palin, Sen. Jim DeMint and many Tea Party leaders from across the state. Santorum endorsed Cruz May 24 on Glenn Beck’s radio show. New PAC aims to mobilize Hispanic democrats Two Mexican-American State Representatives are hoping to mobilize hispanic voters, in Texas. According to the State Ethics commission, the "One Texas PAC" was created on July 2. Democratic Representatives Trey Martinez Fisher and Ana Hernandez Luna unveiled it, today. The PAC will focus on mobilizing Hispanic voters in Texas House districts where they can impact election outcomes. While the Hispanic population in Texas is growing, a disproportionately low number are voting. The ultimate goal, organizers say, is to add more Hispanic Democrats to the Texas legislature. Martinez Fisher, who is the chairman of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, told the Associated Press "I want to talk to people because I believe if they understand what we stand for, they will realize there are people fighting for them." Martinez Fisher has also pledged to match the first $50,000 dollars in contributions. Senators vote on dueling tax bills Jul 25th - 5:21 pm Posted by Capital Tonight Staff in [...] It was a day for dueling tax votes on Capitol Hill; and in today’s battle, the Democrats reigned victorious. Democrats in the US Senate voted Wednesday to extend tax cuts for middle class Americans. The so-called Bush-era tax cuts are set to expire by the end of the year. The measure passed today extends the cuts for all but the wealthiest Americans. It is unlikely, however, that the bill will become law. It is expected to fail in the Republican controlled House of Representatives. Meanwhile, a Republican supported measure to extend all of the so-called Bush Era tax cuts died on the floor. That measure would have cut taxes for all Americans, including the nation’s richest. President Obama released this statement, calling on House Republicans to pass the legislation: "With the Senate’s vote, the House Republicans are now the only people left in Washington holding hostage the middle-class tax cuts for 98% of Americans and nearly every small business owner. The last thing a typical middle class family can afford is a $2,200 tax hike at the beginning of next year. It’s time for House Republicans to drop their demand for another $1 trillion giveaway to the wealthiest Americans and give our families and small businesses the financial security and certainty that they need. Our economy isn’t built from the top-down, it’s built from a strong and growing middle class, and that’s who we should be fighting for." Today’s votes were split down party lines, with both Texas senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn voting in favor of the Republican backed bill; and against the Obama administration supported legislation. Here are statements released today by their offices: Sen. John Cornyn Statement: “Two years ago, President Obama and a majority of Senate Democrats supported an effort that made sure working families and small businesses wouldn’t be hit with higher taxes. “Their refusal to join this effort today, in a more sluggish economy, is nothing short of baffling. “Republicans will continue to push for an extension of all current tax rates, protecting Texas families, farms, and small businesses from the largest tax increase in American history.” Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison Statement: “The tax increase bill Democrats put forward would hike taxes on nearly a million small businesses at a time when our economy remains weak. “The Democrats’ tax plan will increase the death tax from its current rate of 35% up to 55%, taking more of the American people’s hard earned money away from their families. “It is telling that Democrats voted against an extension of current tax rates even though doing so would provide the stability companies need to hire new workers and offer protection to families from new taxes, at a time of continued economic uncertainty.” SCOTUS to hear UT affirmative action case in October The date has been set for the University of Texas to defend its admissions policy in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. The court will again examine affirmative action in Fisher v. University of Texas, with oral arguments on October 10. Abigail Fisher, a white student, sued UT after she was denied admission. Fisher says the school violated her constitutional right to equal protection. UT’s admissions policy takes into account a student’s race and ethnicity, but also admits about two-thirds of UT freshman based on high school class rank. The SCOTUS decision could change how race is used in college admissions nationwide.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0052.json.gz/line10
__label__cc	0.720199	0.279801	Archbishop Hebda gives national tribute to MLK, prays h... Raissa Maritain: Philosopher, Poet, Mystic The Mystery of the Passion of Charles Peguy After the collapse of my entire Christian community I wanted to understand my roots. Starting with house church, I found something that clearly the global Christian community is missing – personal, small, intimate fellowship. I intend to maintain an active involvement in house church life until I’m dead. However, other, more pressing questions emerged. What happened after the Apostles died? How did we get our Bible in the first place? And what was Christ’s intention when he told Peter he’d build an unbreakable church on Peter’s back? 50 books, hundreds of essays and audio recordings later, the answer to all 3 questions was surprisingly the same: Catholicism. Not the weird, creepy, “Roman Catholicism” you’re picturing in your head right now – but a real, universal, Church. Catholicism happened after the Apostles died. Catholicism gave us our Bible and Catholicism is, without question, the Church that Jesus Christ founded as the full and complete expression of Christianity on earth. Throughout most of my life I’ve been content to live a life of simple faith: give me Jesus, that is all I need. What I realized is that, inadvertently, I had also greatly simplified my Lord. I love Him more than anything but I know very little about Him. His parents, His culture, His language, the fullness of His life. Every word that falls from His mouth is dripping with divine authority and beauty and power: He IS God and nothing God made is simple. Everything is imprinted with His wonderful, loving good, and very complex, divine hand. I made it my mission to spend the rest of my life earnestly seeking to know everything about my Lord. Few if any of the people currently reading this have ever spoken, at length, with a Catholic priest or lay apologist about what Catholics ACTUALLY believe and why. We’ve been satisfied with our short little 80s anti-Catholic tracts or content in not really knowing anything at all about them. This is similar what happened to my father: he was repeatedly lied about and maligned until the truth was no longer interesting. As such, I will seek to let the Catholics speak for themselves, including very little of my own narrative. It seems only fair – let them defend themselves and let me give you my reasons. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, JRR Tolkien, Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia, Thomas Sowell, John Paul II – I couldn’t hold a candle to these giants – their voices echoing through time like a cannonball and they all share 2 things in common: they are powerful defenders of the Faith and they’re all Catholic (Lewis was Anglican but functionally Catholic in just about every way). Would I really dare say these men are all wrong? And that’s the micro-list of great Catholic Christian minds through the centuries. I’m afraid I had no choice but to let them speak. And yes, we’ll even talk about the bad stuff! Lastly, i believe truth is eternal. It is discoverable by man in the natural order, and is revealed by God in the supernatural order. To know the truth is man’s vocation. To preach the truth is the Church’s mission. God is a god of order who permits chaos. Everything He does is ordered, is reasonable and is guided by love. If God exists, and if he cares for us, it is quite believable that God will give us guidance in every moment of confusion throughout history, leading His Church into all truth. How odd it would be if God never gave his friends the guidance they ask for. This idea of truth, order and guidance provides the basis for this essay. As my dad always said: “God doesn’t do random”. The theory goes like this: Just a few centuries after Christ’s death, around the time the Roman Empire converted to Christianity, the true Faith suffered a catastrophic falling-away. The simple truths of the gospel became so obscured by worldliness and pagan idolatry kicking off the Dark Ages of Catholicism that Christianity required a complete reboot. This idea of a Great Apostasy is one of the cornerstones of American Protestantism, along with Mormonism, the Jehovahs Witnesses, and even Islam. Countless millions today profess a faith built on the assumption that the early Church quickly became broken beyond repair, requiring some new prophet or reformer to restore the pure teaching of Jesus and the apostles. This theory is popular… but it’s also fiction. – Rod Bennett, The Apostasy that Wasn’t This can’t be the God I know? Jesus founds an “unbreakable” Church only to have it instantly fall into disarray and apostasy for 1500 years until Luther and Calvin would set it straight in the Reformation? What if every other accusation about Catholic history, from the Inquisitions to the Salem Witch Trials, could be pulled apart and dismantled so easily? Had I ever bothered checking sources and interviewing reliable witnesses when it came to accusations against the Catholic Church? I will quote extensively from these men throughout this essay to show a pattern of Catholic belief immediately preceding the death of the Apostles. My first step on this journey was to get familiar with them. I only ask you watch a video or two and read an article or two, as the Spirit leads https://chnetwork.org/answers-to-questions/church-history/ https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/athanasius-and-the-myth-of-the-great-apostasy https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/does-christs-church-need-to-be-restored https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/how-to-answer-the-charge-catholicism-is-pagan How ironic – the first Christian Emperor would legalize Christianity allowing it to finally flourish out in the open – developing a real structure and finally forming the Biblical canon (more on that in a bit). The Apostasy That Wasn't: The Extraordinary Story of the Unbreakable Early Church by Rod Bennett Four Witnesses: The Early Church in Her Own Words The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church by Jimmy Akin The 1500 Year Gap Ok so what happened after that? What were the “dark ages”? The “middle ages”? To be sure, what happened next were monks and Jesuits and an explosion of art, literature, music, universities, scholastic achievements, agriculture, the first clock, the first mathematical design for airplanes, champagne, the protection and production of Bibles, hospitals (many of which were destroyed during the Reformation), geology, seismology, archaeology, astronomy and laws and, well…everything. This is the 1st of many topics that require much more than a few essays and articles, but for now this will suffice. https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/secrets-of-the-spanish-inquisition-revealed https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/cadavers-calvin-and-anti-catholicism https://www.catholic.com/audio/cot/correcting-john-macarthur-on-church-history https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/saint-and-scourge https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/did-the-church-chain-up-the-bible https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/renaissance-the How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization by Thomas E. Woods Jr. Bearing False Witness: Debunking Centuries of Anti-Catholic History by Rodney Stark (not Catholic) Seven Lies about Catholic History by Diane Moczar Forty Anti-Catholic Lies By Dr. Gerard Verschuuren The Real Story of Catholic History: Answering Twenty Centuries of Anti-Catholic Myths by Steve Weidenkopf Timeless: A History of the Catholic Church Questions: Who was Luther? Who was Calvin? Are the men who founded what would become modern day evangelicalism really men I can trust and respect? Why does Protestantism ignore the ugly sides of their lives and actions? Was the ENTIRE Catholic Church, AROUND THE WORLD, truly broken beyond repair? Sadly, this topic, in order to be fair, requires MUCH book reading. Attempting to “sum up” a 500 year revolution is infantile and mostly unhelpful. My only hope here is to spur questions. All I ever knew about this was based on children’s books and Christian comic book tracts. Sadly, a huge symptom of the protestant world has been to ignore, modify or skip over history. I’m 4 of 7 books (tomes really) into this and it’s truly heartbreaking. Nevertheless, lets proceed. Again, I only ask you watch a video or two and read an article or two, as the Spirit leads https://chnetwork.org/answers-to-questions/the-reformation/ Only one – nearly everywhere around the world where Protestantism overtook Catholicism, secularism eventually dominated. How is it possible that Rome would fall to Christianity but America, founded on fundamentalist puritanism, would start Christian and turn into Rome? I had to humbly admit, not to know my past is to be ignorant of God’s saving work in history. https://www.firstthings.com/article/2020/01/puritanism-then-and-now The Reformation 500 Years Later: 12 Things You Need to Know by Benjamin Wiker Rebel in the Ranks by Brad Gregory The Unintended Reformation Questions: Is salvation really as simple as praying a prayer and “poof” your free will is gone and you can never lose your place in heaven? Why are there so many verses in the New Testament that say the opposite? Why was Paul afraid he’d be “disqualified” if he didn’t run like a runner to win the race? Why was he also at times unsure of his own justification? Do our actions play no role whatsoever in the sanctification of our souls? What does it mean to “work out my salvation with fear and trembling”? The Bible sometimes refers to our redemption as an accomplished fact (Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:13) and sometimes as a future event (Rom. 8:23; Eph. 1:14, 4:30). It does the same thing with forgiveness, speaking of it as past (Eph. 1:7, 4:32; Col. 1:14, 3:13) and as ongoing (Matt. 6:12; Jas. 5:15; 1 John 1:19). Protestantism sometimes speak of justification as something occurring in the past and sanctification as something that is ongoing, but these also have more than one dimension. Thus Scripture sometimes speaks of justification, or the reception of righteousness from God, as past (Rom. 5:12; I Cor. 6:11) and as something ongoing or in the future (Rom. 2:13, 3:20; Gal. 5:5). Similarly, it speaks of sanctification sometimes as an accomplished fact (l Cor. 6:11; Heb. 10:10) and sometimes as something still happening (l Thess. 4:1, 3, 5:23; Heb. 2:11, 10:14). how we’re saved By believing in Christ (Jn 3:16; Acts 16:31 ) By repentance (Acts 2:38; 2 Pet 3:9) By baptism (Jn 3:5; 1 Pet 3:21; Titus 3:5) By eating his flesh and drinking his blood (Jn 6) By the work of the Spirit (Jn 3:5; 2 Cor 3:6) By declaring with our mouths (Lk 12:8; Rom 10:9) By coming to a knowledge of the fruth (1 Tim 2:4; Heb 10:26) By works (Rom 2:6-7; James 2:24) By grace (Acts 15:11; Eph 2:8) By his blood (Rom 5:9; Heb 10:22 By his righteousness (Rom 5:17; 2 Pet 1:1 ) By keeping the commandments (Matt 19: 17) By our words (Matt 12:37) By great acts of service (Mt. 10:42) By persevering to the end (Matt 24:13) By standing firm (Matt 10:22) By feeding the hungry, clothing the sick and visiting the sick or imprisoned (Mt. 25:35-37) So which is it? All I was ever told was that I had to ask Jesus into my heart (Jesus never gave that command) and that placing my faith in Jesus Christ would “save” me (that is in the Bible) but the Bible clearly teaches much much more than that. So… which is it? Do we throw away all the other verses, do we try and “interpret” them to all mean basically then same thing (that’s impossible) or do we accept the FULL understanding of the scriptures teachings on it? What I have found in Catholicism is not a “saved by works” theology, but a complete theology that incorporates all of the Bible, including the Old Testament, and all of Jesus’s words into a clear and rich theology of salvation through grace alone by Christ Alone. https://chnetwork.org/answers-to-questions/salvation-2/ https://www.catholic.com/tract/assurance-of-salvation https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2012/01/21/who-can-be-saved/ Questions: What really happens to Christians who live committed lives of faith but commit a grievous sin? Why did Jesus often allude to “paying back a debt”? What did Paul mean when he said that some men would be saved but “only as one a passing through a fire”? Is Purgatory some sort of holding station? Nothing imperfect can enter into heaven and Jesus clearly stated that we must be perfect as He is perfect. How is this achieved? What did Christians practice and believe on this matter after the apostles died? https://www.catholic.com/tract/purgatory https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/purgation-station https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/did-jesus-believe-in-purgatory https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/purgatory-where-is-that-in-the-bible Extra Credit: https://www.thecatholicthing.org/?s=purgatory Paul prays for Onesiphorus – who is dead. “ 16 May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain; 17 when he arrived in Rome, he eagerly[a] searched for me and found me 18 —may the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day! And you know very well how much service he rendered in Ephesus.” Even protestant scholars agree: http://www.ncregister.com/blog/darmstrong/st.-paul-prayed-for-onesiphorus-who-was-dead Reward, Merit & Salvation Outside the Church Questions: Clearly our works have something to do with our Christian life no? What is a reward and how will that change base on how I live? What is the Church’s role in God’s salvation story? What did the early Church believe and practice after the Apostles died? https://www.catholic.com/tract/reward-and-merit https://www.catholic.com/tract/salvation-outside-the-church https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/what-no-salvation-outside-the-church-means From Greater Minds PURGATORY may exist whether he likes it or not… It may be obvious to us that [a person] is already utterly sinless, at one with the saints. It may be evident to us that [he] is already utterly selfless, filled only with God and forgetful of the very meaning of gain. But if the cosmic power holds that there are still some strange finishing touches, beyond our fancy, to put to his perfection, then certainly there will be some cosmic provision for that mysterious completion of the seemingly complete. The stars are not clean in His sight and His angels He chargeth with folly; and if [God] should decide….there is room for improvement, we can but admit that omniscience can heal the defect that we cannot even see. – G.K. Chesterton Our souls demand Purgatory, don’t they? Would it not break the heart if God said to us, “It is true, my son, that your breath smells and your rags drip with mud and slime, but we are charitable here and no one will upbraid you with these things, nor draw away from you. Enter into the joy”? Should we not reply, “With submission, sir, and if there is no objection, I’d rather be cleaned first.” “It may hurt, you know” — “Even so, sir.” I assume that the process of purification will normally involve suffering. Partly from tradition; partly because most real good that has been done me in this life has involved it… My favourite image on this matter comes from the dentist’s chair. I hope that when the tooth of life is drawn and I am “coming round,” a voice will say, “Rinse your mouth out with this.” This will be Purgatory. The rinsing may take longer than I can now imagine. The taste of this may be more fiery and astringent than my present sensibility could endure. “Make no mistake,” He says, “if you let me, I will make you perfect. The moment you put yourself in My hands, that is what you are in for. Nothing less, or other, than that. You have free will, and if you choose, you can push Me away. But if you do not push Me away, understand that I am going to see this job through. Whatever suffering it may cost you in your earthly life, whatever inconceivable purification it may cost you after death, whatever it costs Me, I will never rest, nor let you rest, until you are literally perfect — until My Father can say without reservation that He is well pleased with you, as He said He was well pleased with me. This I can do and will do. But I will not do anything less. – CS Lewis on Purgatory Scripture & Tradition Questions: Why do protestants mock traditions when they have so many of their own (weddings, holidays, baby dedications, etc.)? If the world could not contain the books about Jesus’ works – well, who kept track of all those stories? To borrow a phrase: Tradition is the Democracy of the Dead. Claiming “the Bible says” was never enough. People need to see, intellectually, WHY Gods ways have worked all these centuries, so what did Christianity believe in and practiced after the apostles died? Have I ever truly taken into account the dates and times and places and societies in which each of the books of the Bible were written? Specifically the New Testament? Wouldn’t the language, culture, and current church and societal issues provide vital context to the writings of the Apostles? What did Christians do before the Bible was compiled? For that matter, when and how was the Bible compiled? Most importantly how do we defend against things like abortion, euthanasia, masturbation and other practices not specifically forbade in Scripture? Read Questions for Bible Christians https://chnetwork.org/answers-to-questions/scripture-and-tradition/ https://shop.catholic.com/blog/tradition-in-the-early-church/ https://www.catholic.com/tract/apostolic-tradition https://www.catholic.com/tract/the-old-testament-canon https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/the-real-bible-church https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/how-to-defend-the-deuterocanonicals https://www.catholic.com/tract/scripture-and-tradition https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/what-word-of-god-means https://www.catholicconvert.com/blog/2019/09/17/differences-between-catholic-and-protestant-approaches-to-the-bible/ First, Protestantism has always claimed that the Bible is the sole rule of faith, the only standard for apprehending God’s saving truth. They cite 2 Timothy 3:16-17 in particular to buttress their claim: “All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” John Henry Newman responds in Inspiration that if “this passage proved anything, it would prove too much, viz., that the Scriptures of the New Testament were not necessary for a rule of faith” Why? Because the only Scripture both written and codified at the time of St Paul’s writing to Timothy were the Old Testament books. A good number of the New Testament books had not been written in Timothy’s boyhood (2 Tim. 3:14-15), and none had been placed in the New Testament canon. This further illustrates that the Bible not only requires an infallible Church to interpret it accurately, but the same Church to authoritatively determine which books belong in the Bible as divinely inspired writings and which, whatever edifying counsel they might otherwise provide, do not. Paul would tell Timothy in 1 Tim 3:15 that the Church (not the Bible) is “the pillar and foundation of the truth” – this is a powerful insight as the Church came before the Bible. Secondly, the “Word of God” as its most often referred to, isn’t the Bible (which wouldn’t be compiled for 4 more centuries). The New Testament hadn’t even been written yet when John 1 spoke of the Word (Jesus) made flesh (which we were to consume as nourishment in John 6). This is the most puzzling stance in the Evangelical world to me. John isn’t talking about The Bible, John is talking about Jesus Christ, the living SPEAKING Word of God. Jesus is not the Bible right? Heb 4:12 tell us: “Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” I always thought that was talking about the Bible, but Heb 4:13 continues: “And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.” So let’s combine those verses “The word of God is living and active…and before him no creature is hidden”. Is the Bible a male? The sword that pierced Mary’s heart was Jesus (as predicted to her face by Simeon), and in Revelations, a sword is coming out of Jesus’ mouth – HE is the Word that his sharper then any double edged sword – it could not be more plain. And the Catholic Church has been preaching that for 2000 years. The Bible never even talks about itself. Jesus never told his disciples to write down anything he said. Most of them didn’t for that matter. And it was only 400 years later that Catholic men with exclusively Catholic doctrine would meet in council after council putting together the Scripture. If Catholics are wrong why did God choose them to compile the Holy Scripture? And more importantly, how did Christianity survive for 400 years without a compiled book called “The Bible”? No Christian in AD 245 talked the way I did for most of my life. So back to some previous questions: how did the Church then even read any holy Scripture if most of the known world was illiterate? And why would God wait 1600 years to show us how to make a printing press so that everyone could eventually have their own copy? The Catholic Church in her own words The Catholic Church teaches that even though they were tasked with choosing, protecting and interpreting Scripture, in a great paradox, they’re also subject to it, and it’s all laid out in the Catechism of the Catholic Church in what is perhaps the most beautiful write up on Scripture that I’ve ever read: http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p1s1c2a3.htm Final question How can a religion so focused on a book (even THE Book) survive an a-literate culture? https://www.firstthings.com/article/2017/10/reading-is-believing Where We Got The Bible: Our Debt to the Catholic Church by Henry G. Graham The Bible Is a Catholic Book Why Catholic Bibles Are Bigger by Gary Michuta Questions: Jesus said “my yoke is easy and my burden is light”, but the last 10 years have felt anything but hard and heavy – what did Jesus mean by this? Wouldn’t Christ, in His great love for us, leave us more than a book and thousands of denominations, in order for us share in His divine nature? Catholic convert Scott Hahn sums it up nicely, to quote from the book on the right: The most solemn, majestic, and beautiful gifts that Jesus Christ gave to the world are His sacraments. He endowed them with unprecedented and unparalleled power to change lives, save souls, and share Gods very life. The sacraments are the ordinary means by which God directs the course of each human life and all of world history. The Church celebrates seven sacraments: baptism, Eucharist, confirmation, matrimony, holy orders, confession, and anointing of the sick. Each was established by Jesus for the sake of salvation. When Jesus spoke of the sacraments, He made clear that they were essential: Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God (Jn 3:5) . . . unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you have no life in you (Jn 6: 53). God’s covenants with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David became the driving forces in history. When Jesus came to fulfill all these covenants, He established a new covenant, with greater power than ever before. Christians are Gods children now. Joined to Christ by baptism, we can already share in the eternal life of the Trinity, a life we hope to know fully in heaven. But heaven is with us, even now, in the sacraments. Questions: Where does the Bible say baptism is symbolic? Why was Jesus baptized? Why was John baptizing before Jesus’ public ministry? Why was Jesus baptizing before his death and resurrection? If it’s a matter of choice or a symbolic act, why was baptizing part of the final instructions Jesus gave to His disciples before his ascension? Why throughout Acts was baptism ALWAYS introduced after a conversion? What did it mean when “whole households were baptized”? Why doesn’t the Bible specifically forbade infant baptism? Why would God allow erroneous baptisms for over a thousand years if they weren’t necessary? Baptismal Grace https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/baptism https://www.catholic.com/tract/baptismal-grace https://www.catholic.com/tract/infant-baptism https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/infant-baptism https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/to-explain-infant-baptism-you-must-explain-original-sin Necessity of Baptism https://www.catholic.com/tract/the-necessity-of-baptism https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/baptism-saves-you Questions: If confession isn’t necessary, why would God allow this practice for over a thousands years until the Reformation attempted to do away with it? Why was there no argument against this practice before the Reformation? Why would God allow it to continue today in the largest Christian denomination on earth? Why don’t evangelicals have ANY kind of arrangement for confessions, when the Bible makes it very clear they need to be done to another person? If a child steals, the parent will require that the child give it back, require that the child apologize AND the child most certainly NEEDS to hear forgiveness from the parent – why is this arrangement crucial in the earthly family but not in our relationship to our Father? How can we learn true humility by only privately confessing to God and not to a man? https://www.catholic.com/tract/confession https://www.catholic.com/tract/the-forgiveness-of-sins https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/how-to-talk-about-confession https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/sackcloth-and-ashes https://www.catholic.com/qa/penance-is-not-punishment https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/god-chooses-to-uses-human-intermediaries https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2019/12/29/the-god-of-justice-and-of-mercy/ Acts of contrition have been a part of God’s plan for mankind from the very beginning. They were not supposed to go away after Christ’s death on the cross. From the first few interactions with mankind, both in Adam and in his son Cain, we see an unwillingness to admit sin. God asked both Adam and Cane what they had done, even though he knew! We all know how important it is to say I’m sorry inside of a healthy relationship. Why would we be excluded from this in our relationship with God? Volumes have been written on the power, beauty, necessity, and Biblical history of confession, it could not be said the same about the opposite could it? There are no volumes being written on why confession is unnecessary and unbiblical. Go and sin no more! Christ told the apostles to follow his example: “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you” (John 20:21). Just as the apostles were to carry Christ’s message to the whole world, so they were to carry his forgiveness: “Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matt. 18:18). This power was understood as coming from God: “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:18). …there is the gain in self-knowledge: most of [us] have never really faced the facts about ourselves until we uttered them aloud in plain words, calling a spade a spade. I certainly feel I have profited enormously by the practice [of confession]. – CS Lewis …What matters in the confessional is the moral guilt and not the material details. But the material details are everything in medicine, even for the most respectable and responsible physician, let alone all the anarchical quacks who have been let loose to hear confessions in the name of Psychoanalysis or Hypnotic Cures. But though we all know the old and obvious answers, what I find startling is this: that our critic does not see the new and obvious situation. What in the world is the sense of his coming with his prunes and prisms into the sort of society that surrounds us to-day? If a girl must not mention sin to a man in a corner of a church, it is apparently the only place nowadays in which she may not do so. She may sit side by side with him on a jury and discuss the details of the foulest and most perverted wickedness in the world, perhaps with a man’s life hanging on the minuteness of the detail. She may read in novels and newspapers sins she has never heard of, let alone sins she is likely to commit or confess. She must not whisper to an impersonal presence behind a grating the most abstract allusion to the things that she hears shouted and cat-called in all the theatrical art and social conversation of the day. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle must know as well as I do that modesty of that sort is not being regarded at all by the modern world; and that nobody dreams of attempting to safeguard it so strictly as it is safeguarded in Catholic conversation and Catholic confessions. We can say of Rome and Purity what Swinburne said, in another sense, about Rome and Liberty–“Who is against but all her men, and who is beside her but Thou?” And yet the critic has the impudence to accuse us of the neglect of what all but we are neglecting; simply because that charge was used against us a century ago, and anything used against us can be used over and over again, until it drops to pieces. The old stick of the old grandmother is still good enough to beat the old dog with, though if the old grandmother could rise from the dead, she would think the dog the only decent object in the landscape. Questions: Jesus said “I will be with you always, even to the end of the age – so where IS He?” If communion is just a symbol, why would Paul, in 1 Cor, mention illness and death as being a direct result of partaking in the bread and blood unworthily? Why would God allow such a confusion for over a thousand years before The Reformation came along and tried to change it? If Jesus said “This IS my body, this IS my blood” why would we try and change it to anything else? If we preach that asking Jesus into your heart REALLY means he comes into your heart, why is it so outrageous to think that He is IN the bread and wine? He said the latter, not the former afterall. What are we missing by simply making it an every now and then remembrance? Only modernists and nationalists seek to take all the supernatural out of the New Testament. Why would we accept Jesus’s miracles of walking on water or feeding the 5000 or driving out demons but not a miracle in the bread and the wine? Do we not CRAVE a touch of supernatural? Is it not built into us? Accusations of cannibalism were leveled against the church in the 1st and 2nd centuries – why would that be the case if the 1st and 2nd Century churches only practiced symbolism in The Eucharist? https://chnetwork.org/answers-to-questions/eucharist/ https://www.catholic.com/tract/christ-in-the-eucharist https://www.catholic.com/tract/the-real-presence https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/the-eucharist-as-center-of-the-church https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/heres-why-you-can-be-absolutely-sure-that-paul-believed-in-the-eucharist The Greek word used for “authority” is most enlightening: exousia. It means, literally, “from the being of.” Jesus speaks with the very exousia of God, and therefore, his words effect what they say. He says, “Lazarus, come out!” and the dead man comes out of the tomb. He rebukes the wind and says to the sea, “Be still!” and there is calm. And the night before he dies, he takes bread and says, “This is my body.” And what he says is. “I am the Bread of Life”. – Bishop Robert Barron He teaches us to pray for “our daily bread”. The Greek word for “daily” was Epiousios (ἐπιούσιος) which was a new word, translated literally as ‘supersubstantial’ or ‘superessential’. If Jesus spoke so much of feeding us and being bread and asking us to eat His flesh (translated literally as ‘chew’ or ‘gnaw’) then is it quite believable that for 2000 years the largest Christian denomination would take that seriously as well as symbolically and experience a true miracle every day in the Eucharist. They receive Jesus under the appearances of bread and wine at Mass, a reality hinted at in St. Matthew’s infancy narrative, for our Lord is born in Bethlehem (Matt. 2:1, 5-6), which means “house of bread.” In addition, his Blessed Mother “laid him in a manger” (Luke 2:7; see also 2:12), which normally serves as a place from which animals feed, but here indicates, as Scripture later affirms, that Jesus would serve as genuine consumptive sustenance for his followers (see John 6:51-58). I lose nothing accepting this. I keep all the beauty of the symbolism I’ve cherished and I gain the real presence of my Lord and the nourishment He promised along with the touch of supernatural that my soul has been so desperately longing for. As to Transubstantiation, it is less easy to talk currently about that; but I would gently suggest that, to most ordinary outsiders with any common sense, there would be a considerable practical difference between Jehovah pervading the universe and Jesus Christ coming into the room...If I am to answer the question, “How would Christ solve modern problems if He were on earth today?”, I must answer it plainly; and for those of my faith there is only one answer. Christ is on earth today; alive on a thousand altars. Out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament ...there you will find romance, glory, honour, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves on earth, and more than that: Death. By the divine paradox, that which ends life, and demands the surrender of all, and yet by the taste – or foretaste – of which alone can what you seek in your earthly relationships (love, faithfulness, joy) be maintained, or take on that complexion of reality, of eternal endurance, which every man’s heart desires. - JRR Tolkien Way too many books on this subject, but Dr. Brant Pitre is an amazing professor of Jewish history and specializes in teaching the Jewish Roots of the Christian faith. I’ll refer to him later, but for now, this is a wonderful overview of the Jewish understanding of the Passover meal, the manna from heaven and what it would have been like to hear Jesus refer to Himself as “the bread of life”. Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist by Brant Pitre The Sacrifice of the Mass And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead. For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday); and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He taught them these things, which we have submitted to you also for your consideration. – Justin Martyr to Emperor Marcus Aurelius in First Apology, 155 AD This was incredible. Less than 60 years after the death of John we have a clear, historical example of what a church service was like in 155 AD, and it’s letter for letter the Catholic Mass celebrated today in 2020. Questions: What is the Mass? Why would God allow a phony version of a church service to exist for over a thousand years before correcting it in the Reformation? Why do a majority of Christians on earth still do it the wrong way? https://www.catholic.com/tract/the-sacrifice-of-the-mass https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/the-mass-is-profoundly-biblical https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/the-continuity-of-the-mass Jewish Roots of the Mass To properly understand the eucharistic faith and practice of Christianity, one has to go back not only to the New Testament, but also to the Old Testament and ancient Jewish practice and belief. http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/catechesis/catechetical-sunday/eucharist/upload/catsun-2011-doc-pitre-roots.pdf https://www.catholic.com/tract/confirmation https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/scripture-confirms-it Bishop, Priest, Deacon http://jimmyakin.com/library/the-office-of-new-testament-priest https://www.catholic.com/tract/bishop-priest-and-deacon https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/the-three-fold-ministry https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/priests-share-in-the-mediatorship-of-christ https://www.catholic.com/tract/anointing-of-the-sick Mary, the Saints & Questions: Did God just randomly select a teenage girl to impregnate and then discard to history? Would God really come into the world through a sinner’s unclean body? If someone came into my home and refused to speak to my mother how would I feel? How might God feel that we don’t speak to His mother or even honor her? How much must He love His own mother? Could it be that Mary was the daughter of God, the mother of Jesus and the spouse of the Holy Spirit? Would God not have a special place in heaven for this woman? Is she not mentioned numerous times in Revelations? Could her last recorded words tell us something about her role in the Salvation story (“do whatever he tells you”)? Could I know Jesus more, and love Him more by knowing and loving His mother? Why would God allow his mother to be “worshipped” for over a thousand years before correcting this error in the Reformation? Why do protestants overlook Martin Luther’s own deep devotion to Mary? What must it have been like to hear “Hail Mary, full of grace” from an angel? Where is grace in the old testament? Singular Vessel of Devotion Mary by her maternity is a vessel of honor, but not a mere vessel, and not a vessel long ago, to be discarded, but here and now, irreducibly and still the way to the Christ child. https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2019/12/23/singular-vessel-of-devotion/ Why is Mary So Important for Catholics? Just as Mary never pointed to herself but only to Him, so all the doctrines about Mary are ways of praising not just Mary but Him. We love Mary for one reason: because we love Jesus. The more we love Jesus, the more we love Mary. https://catholicexchange.com/why-is-mary-more-central-for-catholics-than-protestants We value most what is rare – diamonds, gold, etc. Is there anything more rare than Mary? Mary: Ever Virgin https://www.catholic.com/tract/mary-ever-virgin https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/the-case-for-marys-perpetual-virginity Mary: Without Sin https://www.catholic.com/tract/immaculate-conception-and-assumption https://www.catholic.com/tract/mary-full-of-grace https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/how-to-defend-the-immaculate-conception https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/the-immaculate-daughter-of-zion https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2018/12/mary-conceived-without-sin-pray-for-us https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/mary-the-ark-of-the-new-covenant https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/is-marys-queenship-biblical https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/the-assumption-of-mary-in-history https://chnetwork.org/answers-to-questions/mary-2/ There is no controversy between Christians which needs to be so delicately touched as this [concerning Mary]. The Roman Catholic beliefs on that subject are held not only with the ordinary fervour that attaches to all sincere religious belief, but (very naturally) with the peculiar and, as it were, chivalrous sensibility that a man feels when the honour of his mother or his beloved is at stake. It is very difficult so to dissent from them that you will not appear to them a cad as well as a heretic. And contrariwise, the opposed Protestant beliefs on this subject call forth feelings which go down to the very roots of all Monotheism whatever. To radical Protestants it seems that the distinction between Creator and creature (however holy) is imperiled: that Polytheism is risen again. Hence it is hard so to dissent from them that you will not appear worse than a heretic — a Pagan. The honour given to Mary as the Mother of God is, among a thousand other things, a very perfect example of the truth to which I have recurred more than once: that even what we may call the Protestant truths were only saved by the Catholic authority. Among these is the very necessary truth of the subordination of Mary to Christ, as being after all the subordination of the creature to the Creator. Nothing amuses Catholics more than the suggestion, in so much of the old Protestant propaganda, that they are to be freed from the superstition called Mariolatry, like people freed from the burden of daylight. All the spontaneous spirituality, as distinct from the necessary doctrinal orthodoxy, is on the side of the extension and even excess of this cult. If Catholics had been left to their private judgment, to their personal religious experience, to their sense of the essential spirit of Christ and Christianity, to any of the liberal or latitudinarian tests of truth, they would long ago have exalted our Lady to a height of superhuman supremacy and splendour that might really have imperilled the pure monotheism in the core of the creed. Over whole tracts of popular opinion she might have been a goddess more universal than Isis. It is the authority of Rome that has prevented such Catholics from indulging in such Mariolatry; the strict definition that distinguished between a perfect woman and a divine Man…If the world wanted what is called a noncontroversial aspect of Christianity, it would probably select Christmas. Yet it is obviously bound up with what is supposed to be a controversial aspect (I could never at any stage of my opinions imagine why): the respect paid to the Blessed Virgin. When I was a boy, a more Puritan generation objected to a statue upon my parish church representing the Virgin and Child. After much controversy, they compromised by taking away the Child. One would think that this was even more corrupted with Mariolatry, unless the mother was counted less dangerous when deprived of a sort of weapon. But the practical difficulty is also a parable. You cannot chip away the statue of a newborn child at all. Similarly, you cannot suspend the idea of a newborn child in the void or think of him without thinking of his mother. You cannot visit the child without visiting the mother; you cannot in common human life approach the child except through the mother. If we are to think of Christ in this aspect at all, the other idea follows as it is followed in history. We must leave Christ out of Christmas, or Christmas out of Christ, or we must admit, if only as we admit it in an old picture, that those holy heads are too near together for the haloes not to mingle and cross. NOTE: I’ve included only one book on the historical roots of Mary, the rest are books on Jesus. To echo Peter Kreeft’s thoughts, I have noticed that the great Christian minds through history who love Mary have written the most exquisite prose on the Lord Jesus Christ, perhaps ever. I’m halfway through these books and know more about my Lord and love Him more than I ever have in my life. Truly to love the mother of Jesus is a gateway to loving Jesus more. This is all I want in my life, to love Him perfectly. Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Mary Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives by Pope Benedict XVI Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week - From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection by Romano Guardini by Fulton Sheen To Know Christ Jesus by Frank Sheed Private Revelation & Miracles Questions: I know miracles exist but I never talk about it – why? Where are the celebrations of miracles in Protestantism? Where are they through Evangelical history? Where are the verified and revered stories of healings and signs and wonders? Are these only relegated to the charismatics? Big tent revivals? Did they all supposedly end with the death of the last Apostle? Where is that in the Bible? https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2019/12/27/a-religion-abounding-in-revelations/ https://www.catholic.com/tract/private-revelation https://www.catholic.com/tract/do-miracles-still-occur Intercession of the Saints Questions: the heresy of the Sadducees was that they did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. Jesus reminded them that God was the God of the living and the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – meaning those men are alive. When we die, our bodies cease to function, but we are very much alive according to Jesus no? So does death cut us off from the body of Christ? Where is that in the Bible? Doesn’t being in Heaven with Jesus, now made perfect, mean that we’re home and alive and very much apart of his mystical body? Nowhere does the Bible teach that death separates us from the body of believers on earth. Doesn’t the Apostle Paul care about me and my life here on earth? Or Luke, or David or any of the Biblical heroes? They have perfect knowledge now and exist outside of time, meaning they would have all the time in the universe to intercede for me as friends no? Can they not pray for me? Am I not allowed to speak to them? Wouldn’t they be able to pray more perfectly for me? Wouldn’t they be able to understand all things with perfect knowledge now and come to the throne with intercession for me? If I can ask my earthly friends for intercession, why not my heavenly friends? Why would God allow a deviant practice of “praying to the dead” for over a thousand years if it’s useless? Why is there no mention of any disagreement over this practice before the Reformation? Bless the Lord, you priests of the Lord; sing praise to him and highly exalt him forever. Bless the Lord, you servants of the Lord; Bless the Lord, spirits and souls of the righteous; Bless the Lord, you who are holy and humble in heart; Who are these “spirits and souls of the righteous”? Isn’t Daniel very clearly speaking to them? 11 May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us[a] to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. Who could these saints be but our brothers and sisters in heaven? They have an inheritance – we have not yet received it. https://chnetwork.org/answers-to-questions/the-saints/ https://www.catholic.com/tract/the-intercession-of-the-saints https://www.catholic.com/tract/praying-to-the-saints https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/the-bible-supports-praying-to-the-saints Hail Marys raise a doctrinal question: whether it is lawful to address devotions to any creature, however holy. My own view would be that a salute to any saint (or angel) cannot in itself be wrong any more than taking off one’s hat to a friend. What are angels? What do they do? What is their role in history, both in heaven and on earth? Why do I rarely talk or even think about them? https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/guardian-angel https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/the-science-of-angels Morality & Ethics Questions: If Catholics are supposedly so heretical in their beliefs and so unbiblical in their practices, why do they continually fall on the historical Christian side of morality? Why won’t they bend, as so many other denominations are bending? How could they get morality right, but theology wrong? As nearly every protestant denomination continues compromising on values – will we not eventually have a choice to make: compromise, go underground or become Catholic? Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood (and initially against abortion) was actually the founder of birth control. Up until the 1930s all of Christendom was clear on birth control – God designed it and it’s called ovulation. Margaret believed that it was cruel to force women to bare dozens of children that she could not feed and thus, through compassion, begged churches across the country to change their view. Catholics would not, but the protestants were easy fodder – and what did we get? The Sexual Revolution – with it’s fatherless homes, abortion, divorce, pornography and trafficking. What we found out was contraception TRULY only benefits the man. The Catholic Church has been consistent on morality, even where the Bible was technically silent at times. Perhaps the most powerful , prophetic writing on this matter came in the 20th Century with the magnificent and truly prophetic Humanae Vitae: Read Humanae Vitae Many of us making the journey into the Church were excited by the strength of Catholic moral teaching. Others of us thought, “It’s the 21st century, for crying out loud! How can the Church continue to insist on such old-fashioned ethical notions?” What is the basis for Catholic moral teaching? https://chnetwork.org/answers-to-questions/catholic-moral-teaching/ https://www.catholic.com/tract/birth-control https://www.catholic.com/tract/contraception-and-sterilization https://www.catholic.com/tract/abortion https://www.catholic.com/tract/early-teachings-on-homosexuality https://www.catholic.com/tract/the-permanence-of-matrimony There is perhaps no greater example of Protestant and Catholic differences than on morality, specifically their deviation in the 20th century. It’s no small exaggeration to say that Protestantism, by and large, showed it’s true colors during the sexual revolution. With no traditions or interpreters to help extrapolate theology from the Bible on sexuality (Jesus never talks about abortion or masturbation) Protestantism was left nearly defenseless in what will be known as the bloodiest revolution in history – The Sexual Revolution. R. Marie Griffith’s book Moral Combat lays it all bare in a devastating (and well documented) history of American Christianity and the Sexual Revolution. Moral Combat How Sex Divided American Christians and Fractured American Politics by R. Marie Griffith The Church & the Papacy Questions: Shouldn’t the ENTIRE Church, across space and time, be the judge of Christianity? What preserves the faith over time and keeps us in touch with our roots? How did all of the thousands of protestant denominations form? How does each one decide its leadership? Doesn’t the leadership at each church effectively serve as a mini-magisterium ‐ settling disputes among laity? Wasn’t Billy Graham effectively a “pope” for evangelicals? Where are the successors to Caesar? Or any of the emperor’s that have reigned through the centuries? Where are the successors to even Billy Graham? Why would Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter which meant the “little rock”? Did God ever change someone’s name without an important reason? Pope Francis, for all of his flaws, is the true successor in an unbroken line all the way back to Peter. Only a Divine institution could maintain this. Or to put it more eloquently: The Catholic Church is an institution I bound to hold divine – but for unbelievers a proof of its divinity might be found in the fact that no merely human institution conducted with such knavish imbecility would have lasted a fortnight. – Hilaire Belloc How Do We Know It’s the True Church? Some groups split over women’s ordination; others split over whether women should wear hats to church. Some split over doctrinal issues; others split over moral issues. Whatever the issue and whatever the split, the basic problem is one of authority. If Christians have a sincere disagreement, who decides? https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/how-do-we-know-its-the-true-church What is the Catholic vision of the Church? Is the Catholic Church arrogant for believing herself to be the Church founded by Christ and His Apostles? For many of us, the journey to Catholicism began when we became captivated by a vision of Christ’s Church that we had never seen before. Prayerfully consider 1 or 2 videos and 1 or 2 articles https://chnetwork.org/answers-to-questions/church-2/ As converts to Catholicism, the Church’s teachings on the office and authority of the pope were a considerable hurdle. What is the Catholic teaching on the pope and how can it be supported from Scripture and history? Prayerfully consider 1 or 2 videos and 1 or 2 articles https://chnetwork.org/answers-to-questions/the-pope/ https://www.catholic.com/tract/apostolic-succession https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/apostolic-succession Authority of the Pope https://www.catholic.com/tract/the-authority-of-the-pope-part-i https://www.catholic.com/tract/the-authority-of-the-pope-part-ii https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/defending-the-papacy https://www.tfp.org/lets-not-confuse-papal-infallibility-with-impeccability/ Origins of Peter as Pope https://www.catholic.com/tract/origins-of-peter-as-pope http://www.catholiclane.com/old-testament-roots-of-peter-and-the-keys/ Peter’s Primacy & Successors https://www.catholic.com/tract/peters-primacy https://www.catholic.com/tract/peters-successors The world will more and more find itself in a position in which even politicians and practical men will find themselves saying, “If the Pope had not existed, it would be necessary to invent him.”It is not at all impossible that they may really try to invent him.” The truth is that multitudes of them would already accept the Pope if he were not called the Pope. I firmly believe that it would be quite possible, in this and many other matters, to play a sort of pious practical joke on large numbers of heretics and heathens. I fancy it would be quite feasible to describe in accurate but abstract terms the general idea of an office or obligation, which would exactly correspond to the position of the Papacy in history, and which would be accepted on ethical and social ground by numbers of Protestants and free-thinkers; until they discovered with a reaction of rage and astonishment that they had been entrapped into accepting the international arbitration of the Pope. Suppose somebody were to advance the old idea as if it were a new idea; suppose he were to say; “I propose that there be erected in some central city in the more civilised part of our civilization the seat of a permanent official to represent peace and the basis of agreement among all the surrounding nations; let him be by the nature of his post set apart from them all and yet sworn to consider the rights and wrongs of all; Let him be put there as a judge to expound an ethical law and system of social relations; let him be of a certain type and training different from that which encourages the ordinary ambitions of military glory or even the ordinary attachments of tribal tradition; let him be protected by a special sentiment from the pressure of kings and princes; let him be sworn in a special manner to the consideration of men as men. There are not a few already, and there will soon be many more, who would be perfectly capable of proposing such an ideal international institution on their own account; there are also many who would really, in their innocence, suppose that it had never been attempted before. Observations & Ruminations 1. Evangelicalism is dying The Protestantism I have known has, over generations, surrendered its dogmatic, theological, and metaphysical substance in favor of mere morality – fit only to pronounce on questions of goodness or morality, not truth or reality. The Christ that much of Protestantism proposes is a Christ that came to instruct us to “love our neighbor” but not to initiate us into such arcane mysteries as the inner life of the Trinity or analogy of created being to God as uncreated Being. The injunction to be good is nearly all that’s left. Christianity cannot survive as mere morality; our view of what kinds of actions are good for us can only be known if we have first determined to what purpose or end we – as a specific kind of being – are ordered. Evangelicalism has failed to define this using Scripture alone, leaving its defenses on morality and Christian philosophy vulnerable to any new interpretation or idea. Paul knew this when he wrote the Ephesians: “14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man, 17 and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fulness of God. 20 Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.” We are by nature born for the contemplation of truth, goodness, and beauty, and by way of these three “transcendentals” we are summoned to our fulfillment in the contemplation of God. Christianity proposes that man finds his true end only in the contemplative enjoyment, the everlasting friendship, of God. Every last bit of our morality depends upon this conclusion about our purpose and destiny. As Christians lose sight of this, the morality may well stay in place for a while. But, then again, it might not. Our vision of what we are has been shifting altering, often entirely unnoticed. This is the essence of Catholic thought and life and it is sorely missing in Evangelicalism. By treating as superfluous dogma what was, in reality, the essential truth of Christianity, Protestantism lost first the purpose of its moral dimension and then it fundamentally altered the content of its morality. George Barna’s numbers have made this all sadly clear. Francis Schaffer and John Dickerson have both written about it’s inevitable downfall without being able to see the forest for the trees. Could I suggest that this happened, in large part, because Protestants have made Scripture and NOT the Church, the pillar and foundation of the truth as Paul defined it in 1 Tim 3:15? Either the Holy Spirit has failed at His job of making the Scripture clear, or He has been doing His job, for 2000 years, THROUGH the Catholic Church, with whom Jesus entrusted the deposit of Faith and Christian thought. What’s becoming clear is that we are nearing 3 choices as Evangelicals: compromise morally, go underground and attempt to “start over” (again) OR…become Catholic. Here’s one of many issues demonstrating the lack of depth in Evangelical Christianity (written by a Baptist no less): https://www.firstthings.com/article/2016/11/the-sentimentality-trap The Beauty of Celibacy Jesus himself said that it was better not to marry, and of course Paul agreed with him. So where in the Protestant world is any support or appreciation for the celibate life? https://www.catholic.com/tract/celibacy-and-the-priesthood https://www.firstthings.com/article/2014/01/celibacy-as-political-resistance https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/resources/apologetics/priestly-celibacy/the-case-for-priestly-celibacy Calendar and the Rhythm of the Church Sunday is sacrosanct (or should be) and the chronological measure of life is now made, not just by clock-time and calendar-time, but by sacred time: the rhythms of the liturgical year, its seasons and feasts. And while the liturgical year repeats itself annually, its celebrations of those chapter-headings under “God’s story” gives time, like history, a direction: Time and history are going somewhere, history is not just one damn thing after another, and the “end” or goal of history is the Wedding Feast of the Lamb in the New Jerusalem. Celebrations! Holidays! Feast! Honoring Saints! Why do we celebrate the 4th of July with big Pomp and Circumstance, or even days honoring our founding fathers but not our forefathers and brothers and sisters in the faith that have gone before us? Why not make a rousing celebration out of Easter the way the Catholics do with all of their bells and organs? https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2019/12/08/the-primacy-of-jesus-and-the-churchs-liturgical-year/ https://www.patheos.com/blogs/elflandletters/2013/10/05/a-life-of-rhythm-the-church-calendar-and-the-divine-hours/ First, where is the silence in Protestant prayer? How can we hear God without silence? Second, I’ve NEVER met anyone who prays as much as my father, except for maybe my mother and this is largely what separated them and isolated them in the Evangelical community – their pious living and how HARD it is to achieve that kind of life, but when I looked into history guess what? I found my parents there – in the saints and in their radical devotion to prayer. Repetitious or “rote” prayers however were always frowned up. So even though we could sing the same worship chorus a hundred times in a row, speaking and praying to God through music, when it came to prayer, only expository prayer was acceptable – but is that Biblical? https://www.catholic.com/bible-navigator/repetitious-prayer https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=264 On The Feminine Where is the rich, thorough and satisfying doctrine in Evangelicalism on the sexes? Why is there SO much constant bickering over “roles”? It’s exhausting. Half the saints are women (as far as I can tell) and after a fully year of deep study I’ve concluded empirically that only Catholicism has a true and satisfying answer for the sexes. Too much to cover here, but these articles are brilliant: https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2019/08/09/catholicism-masculine-and-feminine/ https://www.firstthings.com/article/1999/12/the-holy-feminine https://www.catholic.com/tract/women-and-the-priesthood On The Development of Christian Doctrine The Church is a body, a body starts as a baby and grows into a man, ergo doctrines can develop and grow over time even if not specifically named or thoroughly drawn out in Scripture. https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2017/11/four-ideas-about-development On Judaism Salvation is from the Jews. This leads to some interesting questions: when Jesus resurrected did he truly intend to do away with ALL sacred practices and liturgies? Can’t a knowledge of Judaism inform us of our own faith as children of the Jews? Where is the Evangelical theology on the Old Testament? I have never in my life found a better and more clear picture of Christianity than when viewing it through the eyes of Catholicism’s window into the Old Testament. I have referenced Brant Pitre quite a bit already, but here’s a wonderful article illustrating this even more: https://www.thesacredpage.com/2008/08/resurrection-of-lost-ark-and-assumption.html?m=1 Plenty more here if interested https://www.thesacredpage.com/search?q=Jewish+roots The Church as Culture by Robert Louis Wilken https://www.firstthings.com/article/2004/04/the-church-as-culture by David Warren https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2019/06/07/something-old-something-new/ The Catholic Church is the largest denomination on the face of the earth, and, simultaneously the most despised people group on the face of the earth. They are called idolaters, superstitious, mystics, anti-Christ, demonic and/or uninformed on biblical things. If those accusations were true how have they managed to stand firm on abortion and human sexuality? Or human life in general? Sure a broken clock may be right twice a day, but this hardly seems the proper analogy no? If they really were guilty of all of these things there is no way they could have held their ground on the deepest parts of morality. Or produced geniuses like Thomas Sowell, Clarence Thomas, Larry Elder, Walter Williams. How could such brilliant and courageous men like these, all bucking the African American narrative, believe in such silly things but still produce such fine, biblical works of financial and social philosophy? Even bigger why are there so many Catholics sitting as supreme court justices but there’s never been a single evangelical? I kept asking myself – do I want to be considered with the least and most despised? Yes. Do I also want to stand on the shoulders of men like these? Absolutely. The answer to both these questions plants me firmly in the Catholic Church. Without the purview of history and Christianity from Christ to today, we are left staggering forward, falling for every new idea or suddenly compromising little beliefs to the whims of society and the ever-changing mind of the cultural Elite. This cannot be said of Catholicism. It continues stubbornly refusing to bend on abortion, gay rights, marriage, suicide, Christianity, sacraments, everything. You can look back through every Church Council and find nothing new was decided, things were only clarified, and they only needed to be clarified because before then they did not need to be clarified! Councils were only ever called when confusion arose, not to create some new doctrine, but to more clearly state was had always been Believed by the church fathers. Catholics know their history, we do not. The devil has hijacked Christian history so that we would forget or completely ignore our past all together and he’s done this for a reason. He has even hijacked academics to ignore how we got to where we are today in western civilization. All the social justice and liberal issues attracting young “Christians” today are answered in the charity of the Catholic Church So even if we do believe some of these things, that may go against Protestant ideals, what do we do then? Only the Catholic Church has a clear 2000 year old order to make our life and God’s requirements feasible and achievable. We cannot do them apart from his church or his order. Might I suggest that God’s order, His Church, His sacraments, are designed to ease this terrible burden of agonizing through the narrow gate? The gift in Catholicism is that revelation comes to us complete. There is a theory of humanity, society, good and evil, all wrapped up. For this reason, there is a great line in the Divine Office where the celebrant prays: “May the Church rely only on your gifts.” Knowledge serves Love by removing doubt. Doubt is the root of fear, which saps our courage. How in the world can we think we are able to sustain the courage necessary to face the problems of today, when we lack intellectual Courage? The history of our people has been preserved for two Millennia by the Catholic church, with meticulous records on every subject, just as the Jews did before them. Christ very clearly told Peter that the gates of hell would never Prevail against his church. This was the first time the word church was ever uttered in the New Testament and is maybe the most powerful statement. This in no way implies that people inside the Catholic Church are better than those in other denominations or never walk away from their faith. To the contrary, as long as the seeds can fall on rocky soil or be choked out by weeds, it doesn’t matter what denomination you belong to. The question is not which institution reaches more people for Christ or has better people, but which one was founded by Jesus Christ and is a permanent unbreakable Institution? Beyond all these things, I’ve found that at the core of Catholicism is Jesus Christ. Everywhere I looked I found him. From the structure of every Cathedral forcing your eyes to the alter where I can see him hanging on the cross, just above the Eucharist, to the saints joining me in radical friendship, whose lives and courage would turn my eyes once again to my Lord, to His mother who beckons me over and over again to “do whatever He tells you”. I’ve found the answer to every New Testament verse that had vexed me all my adult life. I found the rhythm and order that had so often alluded me throughout my life. I found the pillar and foundation that Paul spoke of in 1 Tim 3:15 – the pillar and foundation that had been turned to dust in my previous church. I found that beautiful bridge between Faith and Reason, a bridge that I was sure existed but had been so elusive in the void Evangelical intellectual life. I found the prayers and songs that had finally matched my own convictions on the “us” and “we” so often lacking in Evangelicalism. In the Sacraments, I found an ease to the burden of righteous living and finally a real understanding of Christ’s promise of an easy yoke and a light burden. I found a true path towards humility, one that didn’t require constant self-deprecation or vocalizing my wretchedness. I found a universe at the end of the tunnel I’d been living in – one that let me keep everything I’d ever known – a universe of light and truth and stories and joy and laughter and understanding and grace and humanity and divinity and paradox all bound up in the God I’ve worshiped from my youth. Most importantly, I found Jesus. If I’m honest, I had been looking for Him for quite some time. Knowing He was truly HERE, like He promised He would be, but not always sure I was looking in the right place. I’ve spent a well over a year clinging to my faith and giving God all of my mind and will, roaming time and space in search of His greater plan. It’s here. I’m safe. I’m free. I’m going home. For the Curious and Complacent by Fr. Paul D. Scalia https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2019/08/25/for-the-curious-and-complacent/ Time Is Short, Eternity Is Long by St. John Henry Newman https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2019/10/13/time-is-short-eternity-is-long/ Manifesto of Faith by Gerard Cardinal Muller https://manifestooffaith.com/media/manifesto-of-faith.pdf	cc/2021-04/en_head_0052.json.gz/line11
__label__wiki	0.596228	0.596228	Home » 7. Do Remnants of the Maya Language Appear in the Book of Mormon? 7. Do Remnants of the Maya Language Appear in the Book of Mormon? I believe that remnants of the Maya language exist in the Book of Mormon. For example, one of those remnants is the use of the term “hah.” In Maya, this term denotes “associated with water in some way.” Those who have vacationed in Cancun may have seen such Maya places as Xel-Ha, Zazil-Ha, Misol-Ha, etc., all meaning places in proximity to water. Similar terms are found in the Book of Mormon, such as the cities of Moronihah and Nephihah, which appear from the text to be close to, or adjacent to, water. The Meaning of “Nah” Another Maya expression found in the Book of Mormon is the term “nah.” In Maya, the term “nah” conveys a variety of similar meanings, such as lord, number one, the chief, the head, the leader, the best, the biggest, etc. It is somewhat akin to the Spanish term “jefe.” In its description of the final Nephite battle of AD 385, the Book of Mormon lists those who led cohorts of ten thousand and were subsequently killed in this battle. After addressing the ten thousand of his group and those of Moroni, his son, Mormon next listed a man named Gidgiddonah, who fell in the midst with his ten thousand (see Mormon 6:13; emphasis added). The facts that his name ends in “nah” and that he was the first captain mentioned after Mormon and his son lead me to believe that this man was Mormon’s chief captain, his number one commander. We must remember, however, that over twenty different dialects of Maya are spoken and that the languages vary within these dialects. The term “nah” is not used the same in all of the dialects. In addition, in some of the dialects, two meanings of the term are possible. In Yucatecan Maya, the term “nah” also means house. Use of “Nah” in the Book of Mormon I then began to peruse the Book of Mormon for other possible names ending in nah and discovered the following references: “And they were inspired by the Zoramites and the Amalekites, who were their chief captains and leaders, and by Zerahemnah, who was their chief captain, or their chief leader and commander.” (Alma 43:44; emphasis added) “Now the high priest’s name was Giddonah.” (Alma 30:23; emphasis added) Alma, during one of his missionary journeys, encountered a man by the name of Antionah, “who was a chief ruler among them.” (Alma 12:20; emphasis added) “And one of the king’s servants said unto him, Rabbanah, which is, being interpreted, powerful or great king.” (Alma 18:13; emphasis added) One of the cities mentioned as being destroyed during the catastrophic events of the crucifixion is named Gadiomnah. Although an interpretation of this name is not given, as with those personal names already mentioned, analysts could assume that this city was the major city in this locale, possibly the “county seat,” so to speak. Apparently, the term “nah” is used to convey a “head” status in more than personal or city names. Consider, for example, the weights and measures of gold among the Nephites: Now the reckoning is thus—a senine of gold, a seon of gold, a shum of gold, and a limnah of gold. (Alma 11:5; emphasis added) And a limnah of gold was the value of them all. (Alma 11:10; emphasis added) Not every use of “nah” in the Book of Mormon appears in a context indicating a “head” status, but enough instances of this phenomenon occur to suggest a direct association among events, history, and language in the Book of Mormon and comparable events among the Maya—relationships few people, if anyone, knew about in 1830 when the Book of Mormon was first published. The Military Status of Moroni Some analysts may believe that Moroni was the second in command during the war of AD 385 around the hill Cumorah. But a close look at Mormon 6:12 shows that Moroni was a newcomer to the Nephite army. The ten thousand people whom he led were not his people, as was the case of the other twenty-two captains of ten thousand. The ten thousand troops whom Moroni led belonged to his father: “And we also beheld the ten thousand of my people who were led by my son Moroni.” A reading of Mormon 6:10–15 will show that all the ten thousand people led by the other twenty-one captains were “their people,” whereas the ten thousand Moroni led belonged to his father. This was probably Moroni’s first battle, and that is why Gidgiddonah was probably the second in command to Mormon and not Moroni. Moroni probably may have been called to the battle because his father expected to be killed and because Mormon was preparing to turn the record he was working on over to his son for completion.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0052.json.gz/line12
__label__wiki	0.867076	0.867076	Welcome to Detailsinn.com Learn Science, GK and more... Home >> General Knowledge >> Rabindranath Tagore - Composer of the national anthem of India and Bangladesh Rabindranath Tagore - Composer of the national anthem of India and Bangladesh SJRANJAN Rabindranath Tagore was a bengali poet, who won nobel price in literature in the year 1913. He is the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. He is the composer of Indian national anthem as well. Early Life and Family Rabindranath Tagore born in calcutta,India on May 7th 1861. His father Debendranath Tagore, a Hindu philosopher. His mother name is Sarada Devi. He is the youngest of thirteen children to his parent. He lost his mother in his early age itself. He grown up in the hands of servents as his father travels all the time. He was not interested in the studies but in writing and bengali poetry. Rabindranath Tagore married Mrinalini Devi on 1883 and the couple got five children. Rabindranath Tagore was well known for his poems. He wrote poem when he was eight years old. He released his first set of poems at his sixteenth age. He is the composer of Indian national anthem "Jana Gana Mana". He is the composer of Bangladesh's national anthem as well. Rabindranath Tagore set foot in more than 30 countries including United States, United Kingdom, etc... He helped other poets to translate his poems into several languages. Apart from poems tagore wrote several novels, essays, stories, dramas,etc... Tagore composed 2230 songs. Most of his creations were on Bengali language. Rabindranath Tagore died on 7th August, 1941 due to illness. Kaviarasu Kannadasan - One of the greatest Tamil writer Kannadasan was one of the greatest and most important writers in the T... Yuri Gagarin - First Human in outer space Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first person into outer spa... Dennis Anthony Tito - First space tourist Dennis Anthony Tito is the first person who explored the space as tour... Charles Babbage - The father of modern computing Charles Babbage, who originated the concept of a programmable computer... Dr.Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan - Second President of India Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was the second president of India who served ... Tirumala Sri Venkateswara Temple - Tirupati George Washington - First President of United States of America Nian - Story behind Chinese New Year Celebration Terms and Conditions \| Privacy Policy \| Jobs Follow Us : Twitter Facebook Google Plus YouTube CopyRights 2011 - 2021. All Rights Reserved . Powered by SJRANJAN.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0052.json.gz/line17
__label__wiki	0.684439	0.684439	Icefall by Stephanie Gunn Published: October 2018 by Twelfth Planet Press Format reviewed: E-book (epub) Genres: Science fiction Reading Challenges: Australian Women Writers Challenge 2018, SciFiMonth Available: Publisher (electronic only) ~ Amazon (AU, CA, UK, US) ~ Kobo Disclaimer: I was provided with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. The author is a friend. I have done my best to give an unbiased review. The Mountain on the planet of Icefall holds the mystery to a lost colony and an irresistible, fatal allure to the climbers of the universe. Maggie is determined to be the first to make the summit. Aisha, injured in a climbing incident herself, has always supported her wife, trusting Maggie would always return from her adventures. But no one ever returns from the Mountain. I’ve read some fantastic books this year. Icefall is up there with the best of them. It blends hard science fiction with spirituality, then packs the cast full of diverse women and puts some compelling relationships at the heart of it all. The story is told in first person from Aisha’s point of view. She is the descendent of Tibetan Sherpas and a former priestess of the Order of New Earth, trained to revere the mountains of the galaxy. When the story starts, she’s not in a good way. Having lost her hand in a climbing accident means not only can she never climb solo again, but she was cast out of the order for no longer being able-bodied. She suffers from cerebral storms due to a failed operation and she’s unable to connect to the virtual world that has now become commonplace for society. She’s shut out from so much, left with her wife Maggie as her sole lifeline. Maggie claims to be descended from George Mallory, the first person to ever climb Mount Everest. She’s one of the universe’s most respected climbers, having conquered mountains which have killed many other climbers. Now, she’s driven to be the first person to reach the summit of The Mountain. Maggie felt like a bit of an enigma to me for much of the story, remaining as inscrutable as the mountain she seeks to climb. Communication isn’t her strong suit, and she makes changes to the spaceship she shares with Aisha without consultation–even going so far as to tinker with Aisha’s own bot. While this had me feeling some outrage on Aisha’s part, Aisha herself doesn’t seem to feel much resentment. Instead, she sees Maggie more like a force of nature, knowing that to try and change or tame her would be to destroy an essential part of who she is. Aisha might be the priestess and the descendent of Sherpas, but the story inverts the trope of the mystical Native guide, with Maggie as the one who is always leading the way, knowing what to do and keeping the faith. This could leave Aisha feeling like a very passive character. And indeed, she spends a lot of time watching Maggie prepare and make her climb. However, I was never left with the sense of passivity. Aisha has her own battle to fight, albeit a much more internal battle. She must come to terms with her losses and forge her own way forward. Respect for nature is a primary theme of the novella and The Mountain has a strong presence throughout, functioning as its own character. It moves in its own mysterious ways, claiming lives under strange circumstances. There are some hints towards scientific explanations–indeed, I’d consider the novella as tending towards hard science fiction–but there’s a sense these are as much the will of The Mountain as rational, impersonal physics. It blends the scientific and the spiritual in a way that I adored. I also very much appreciated the feminist underpinnings of the book. It not only gives a lot of information about the process of mountain climbing, but also delves into key historical figures. The ship’s AI is programmed to look like George Mallory and is thus the only major male-presenting character in the book. The ship itself is named after Wanda Rutkiewicz, the first woman ever to summit K2. There’s also a significant mountain named after Alison Hargreaves, and the story touches on her climb of the Eiger while heavily pregnant. Icefall was one of the most compelling stories I’ve read this year, hooking me in and not letting me go. Already, it’s calling me to return and reread. Posted in Book ReviewsTagged LGBTQIA, Novella, Review, Sci-fi, SciFiMonth, Speculative Fiction Loose-leaf Links #70	cc/2021-04/en_head_0052.json.gz/line19
__label__cc	0.669429	0.330571	Posted Tuesday, April 28, 2015 by Taylor The Ongoing Concept will release "Handmade" on June 16th Idaho’s The Ongoing Concept has released a video announcing their new album "Handmade" this morning. As evidenced in the time-lapsed video, the forthcoming album’s title "Handmade" is more than a moniker and brings the term “DIY” to a whole new level. In addition to recording the album entirely in their house, making their own videos and album artwork, the band went as far as to build their own instruments for this album. Dawson Scholz (guitarist/vocalist) espouses on the idea, “well, I don’t want to give the idea that we were dirt-poor growing up but we always were inclined to build the redneck versions of things we needed. I built our guitar cabs years ago and people always comment on them. So not too long ago, we were sitting around and just had the idea to really build our new album from the ground up including our instruments.” This process was undoubtedly long and challenging. In the case of the drums alone, steps included setting axe to pine trees, drying the wood of sap and moisture over long arduous hours, shaping, sanding, and attaching the pieces together, to drilling and installing the hardware to the finished drum. In the case of the guitars different pickups and electronics were soldered on and off to match the tonal aspects of each individual song. Composed of Dawson as well as his two brothers Kyle Scholz (vocals/keyboards), Parker Scholz (drums) and childhood friend TJ Nichols (bass), The Ongoing Concept is definitely not afraid to stick out. Their 2013 debut album Saloon on Solid State Records (Underoath, Fit For A King) both won plenty of fans and plenty of puzzled head-scratching alike. The songs combined the technical dexterity of bands like The Chariot with strong elements of punk melodicism and utilized unexpected instruments and styles throughout. As highly critical online outlet Metal Sucks summed up “The dusty mine-town barroom conceit isn’t fleeting or kitschy either – ragtime piano, seedy banjo plucking and barbershop crooning have all been smoothly integrated without ever feeling forced or secondary to the screamo.” On the genesis of their sound Dawson divulged “we’re just not afraid to look weird. That’s really it, some bands may say we play heavy music and that’s supposed to be guitar, bass and drums. I look around our music space and see a trombone, a piano, a harmonica and I think, I wonder what we could do with that?” The sense of rambunctiousness and passion extends to The Ongoing Concept’s live shows. Touring steadily over the last few years, the band has hit the country and Europe with such artists as Hawthorne Heights, War Of Ages, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and Brent Walsh (of I The Mighty). Expect more announcements regarding Handmade as well as new tour dates for summer shortly.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0052.json.gz/line23
__label__wiki	0.962438	0.962438	José C. Feliciano José C. Feliciano was born in Yauco, Puerto Rico and was reared on the near west side of Cleveland. He has been a Partner in the Litigation Group in the Cleveland office of the national law firm of Baker & Hostetler LLP since 1987. Prior thereto, he made history by serving as the first Hispanic public official in the history of the City of Cleveland by serving as the city’s chief prosecuting attorney. The culmination of his public career was Mr. Feliciano’s selection as a White House Fellow by President Ronald Reagan in 1984. Earlier in his career, he was a Cuyahoga County Public Defender and was an attorney for the Legal Aid Society. He has also been an adjunct professor at John Carroll University. He holds a B.A. from John Carroll University, a J.D. from the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, and an M.B.A. from Cleveland State University. A member of the American College of Trial Lawyers, Mr. Feliciano has more than 37 years of experience in complex commercial and employment litigation. His trial experience has included business litigation, products liability, construction, shareholders’ derivative suits, contracts, eminent domain, and commercial and personal torts. Mr. Feliciano was elected to the American College of Trial Lawyers in 1995, he has been consistently listed in the Who’s Who in American Law, and he is consistently recognized as an Ohio Super Lawyer and listed in The Super Lawyer in Business for Corporate Counsel and Fortune 1000 Decision Makers. Mr. Feliciano is deeply committed to advancing the Hispanic community in Northeast Ohio. He is the founder and Chairman of the Hispanic Roundtable. He is also the former Chairman of the Hispanic Leadership Development Program and founder of the Hispanic Community Forum, for which he also served as President. Additionally, Mr. Feliciano was a founder of the Ohio Hispanic Bar Association and served as its Vice President. He is a past general counsel for the Spanish American Committee. In his role as Chairman of the Hispanic Roundtable, Mr. Feliciano hosted a monthly talk show on El Sol Television, produced by El Sol De Cleveland Hispanic newspaper. Mr. Feliciano and his guests discussed topics relevant to the Hispanic business and professional community of Northeastern Ohio. He wrote a regular column on legal issues in El Sol newspaper and has written book reviews for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Today, he is an aperiodic columnist for La Prensa newspaper. Mr. Feliciano has a long history of other community involvement, including service on the board of the following organizations: Cuyahoga County Transition Group (Executive Committee), John Carroll University (Vice Chairman), St. John Hospital, United Way Services, Greater Cleveland Roundtable, Ohio Motorist Association (AAA), Case Western Reserve University Visiting Committee (Chairman), Cleveland-Marshall Law School Visiting Committee, Cleveland Ballet, The Cleveland Children’s Museum, New Cleveland Campaign, Spanish-American Committee, National Conferences of Christians and Jews, Cleveland Council on World Affairs, and WVIZ (Public Television). Mr. Feliciano currently sits on the following boards: Hispanic Roundtable (Chairman and Founder), Greater Cleveland Partnership, Global Cleveland, Midwest Coalition on Immigration (Twelve State Initiative of the Chicago Council of Global Affairs), Commission on Economic Inclusion (Executive Committee), and MWV Pinnacle Capital Fund Advisory Board. Mr. Feliciano has been equally involved in the Bar. He is a past president of the Cleveland Bar Association. Mr. Feliciano served on the Board of Governors of the American Bar Association from 2001 through 2004, and since 1998 he has been elected on a nationwide level to the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association, the congress of the legal profession. In addition, he has chaired the Section of Dispute Resolution of the American Bar Association (1996-1997) and has represented the American Bar Association to the National Conference of Commission on Uniform State Laws. More recently, he has served on the A.B.A.’s Standing Committee on Federal Judiciary (2006-2010) which reviews all nominees to federal judgeship, including the United States Supreme Court, and reports to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Justice Department, and the White House. He currently sits on the A.B.A.’s Standing Committee for an Independent Judiciary. Mr. Feliciano was honored by the American Bar Association in 2005 with the “Spirit of Excellence” award, given by its Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession. In 2008 he was named Chairman of the Advisory Group for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. Mr. Feliciano has received a number of awards and honors for his professional accomplishments. He was initially recognized for his public service in 1983 when, as a prosecutor for the City of Cleveland, he was awarded the Ernest J. Bohn Public Administrator’s Award, Public Administrator of the Year in Cuyahoga County. Cleveland State University granted its Distinguished Alumni Award in Law and Business to Mr. Feliciano in 1990, and the Cleveland State University Nance College of Business elected him into its Hall of Fame in 2010. He was also recognized by the Cleveland-Marshall Law Alumni Association as an Alumnus of the Year in 1998. ORT granted Mr. Feliciano its Jurisprudence Award in 2009 and Crain’s Cleveland Business listed him in its “Who’s Who in Business” in Cleveland in 2010. In recognition of his community service, the U.S. Jaycees selected Mr. Feliciano as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Men in America in 1984, an award received by, among others, John and Robert Kennedy, Henry Kissinger, and Elvis Presley. The American Nationalities Movement granted Mr. Feliciano its civic achievement award in 1990, and the Ohio Commission on Spanish Speaking Affairs recognized Mr. Feliciano in 1996 as a Distinguished Hispanic Ohioan. Nueves Horizontes Newspaper recognized him as its Hispanic of the Year in 2000. The Federal Bar Association granted him its Boots Fisher Civic Achievement Award in the same year, when he also received the Hispanic Political Action Committee Civic Award. Most recently, he is a recipient of the John Carroll University’s Alumni Association Alumni Metal (2012). Mr. Feliciano, who resides in Chagrin Falls, has been married for 37 years to his wife Molly, with whom he has three children: José Jr. (33), Rebecca (30), and Marisa (27). He has a grandson: Ciarán (3 months).	cc/2021-04/en_head_0052.json.gz/line24
__label__wiki	0.978064	0.978064	Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy dies from coronavirus at 75 LAS VEGAS — Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy, the duo whose extraordinary magic tricks astonished millions until Horn was critically injured in 2003 by one of the act’s famed white tigers, has died. He was 75. Horn died of complications from the coronavirus on Friday in a Las Vegas hospital, according to a statement released by publicist Dave Kirvin. “Today, the world has lost one of the greats of magic, but I have lost my best friend,” Siegfried Fischbacher said in the statement. “From the moment we met, I knew Roy and I, together, would change the world. There could be no Siegfried without Roy, and no Roy without Siegfried.” He was injured in October 2003 when a tiger named Montecore attacked him on stage at the Mirage hotel-casino in Las Vegas. He had severe neck injuries, lost a lot of blood and later suffered a stroke. He underwent lengthy rehabilitation, but the attack ended the long-running Las Vegas Strip production. The darker-haired of the flashy duo, Horn was credited with the idea of introducing an exotic animal — his pet cheetah — to the magic act. “Roy was a fighter his whole life including during these final days,” Fischbacher said. “I give my heartfelt appreciation to the team of doctors, nurses and staff at Mountain View Hospital who worked heroically against this insidious virus that ultimately took Roy’s life.” The two became an institution in Las Vegas, where their magic and artistry consistently attracted sellout crowds. The pair performed six shows a week, 44 weeks per year. They returned to the stage in February 2009 for what was billed as their one and only comeback performance, to raise funds for the new Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas. The brief performance, which included Montecore, became the basis of an episode of the ABC television show “20/20.” Horn and Siegfried Fischbacher, both natives of Germany, had first teamed up in 1957 and made their Las Vegas debut a decade later. Siegfried & Roy began performing at the Mirage in 1990. When they signed a lifetime contract with the Mirage in 2001, it was estimated they had performed 5,000 shows at the casino for 10 million fans since 1990 and had grossed more than $1 billion. That comes on top of thousands of shows at other venues in earlier years. “Throughout the history of Las Vegas, no artists have meant more to the development of Las Vegas’ global reputation as the entertainment capital of the world than Siegfried and Roy,” Terry Lanni, chairman of MGM Mirage, the casino’s parent company, said after the attack. The pair gained international recognition for helping to save rare white tigers and white lions from extinction. Their $10 million compound was home to dozens of rare animals over the years. The white lions and white tigers were the result of a preservation program that began in the 1980s. “The good news is that the white tigers and white lions are going into the 21st century,” Horn said in a 1999 interview with The Associated Press. “The bad news is that if we don’t do something about the tigers in the wild, they will disappear.” Siegfried & Roy’s show, incorporating animal antics and magic tricks, included about 20 white tigers and lions, the number varying depending on the night. The show also had other exotic animals, including an elephant. “Their show is so fast-paced the viewer has time only to gasp before the next dazzlement,” an Associated Press reviewer wrote in 1989 when they brought their act to New York. “A white car drives on stage — as Liberace used to do — bringing a mother white tiger and three cubs. Roy rides an elephant, which disappears, then reappears. At the end, a 650-pound white tiger climbs atop a globe. With Roy on his back, they’re pulled into the air.” “It’s a Las Vegas show and it’s nonstop entertainment. New Yorkers aren’t too sophisticated for this.” A later spectacular developed for the Mirage opened with a flashy “Star Wars” scenario and Horn and Fischbacher arriving in their own mini space capsules. Another segment had Horn sitting atop a 30-foot (9.1-meter) pyramid that was “destroyed” by an explosion and fire, leaving him levitated high above the stage. It was halfway during a performance Oct. 3, 2003, when Horn was alone on stage with the tiger that it suddenly lunged at him. Horn, who had turned 59 that day, had never been injured during a show before, “not a scratch, not by an animal,” Bernie Yuman, the pair’s longtime manager, said at the time. He said he thought Montecore, a 7-year-old male, got distracted by something in the audience and Horn was trying to calm him. Horn himself said later that he fainted and the tiger was trying to help him by dragging him offstage, though animal experts disputed that possibility. An investigation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture explored a variety of theories but was unable to reach a conclusion on what caused the tiger to attack. In its final report, the USDA also said the show’s producers had failed to protect the audience because there was no barrier separating the exotic animals from the crowd. In October 2006, three years after the attack, Horn and Fischbacher attended their induction into the Las Vegas Walk of Stars. Horn’s speech was sluggish at times and he walked a bit slow, but he called the event “a deeply emotional experience.” Born in Nordenham, Germany, Horn met Fischbacher on a cruise ship in 1957. Fischbacher performed the magic tricks, while Horn became his assistant, eventually suggesting using the cheetah in the act. They honed their animal-magic show in small clubs in Germany and Switzerland in the mid-1960s. Their break came in a Monte Carlo casino when an agent in the audience invited them to Las Vegas. The pair made their debut at the Tropicana hotel-casino in the late 1960s. The illusionists became popular in the 1970s, receiving their first star billing in 1978 as headliners of the Stardust’s “Lido de Paris.” Their show “Beyond Belief” opened in 1981 at the Frontier and played to thousands over seven years. When Horn and Fischbacher became U.S. citizens in 1988, an elated Horn said, “Being an American means all the things we believe in.” Horn once hand-fed a white lion cub born prematurely, starting with an eyedropper. But when a cub was donated to a zoo, Horn said he was heartbroken. “When you love something, the hardest thing is to let it go,” he said. “But this is what Siegfried and Roy do. We live our dreams, and we fulfill our destiny.” Funeral service will be private, with an expected public memorial. Read more about Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy dies from coronavirus at 75 This post was shared via Orange County Register’s RSS Feed Posted in author, Business, Coronavirus, Coto De Caza, Dana Point, Entertainment, Faith and Values, Food, Foothill Ranch, Fullerton, Home, Irvine, Ladera Ranch, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, las-vegas, Life, Mission Viejo, Mission Viejo Hospital, Newport, Newport Beach, News, Obituaries, Orange, RSM, San Clemente	cc/2021-04/en_head_0052.json.gz/line28
__label__cc	0.617655	0.382345	BLOG // LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS Art Inside Berlin Notebook Billed Into Silence: Money and the Miseducation of Women Bluestocking Notebook Construction Sites of Los Angeles Cultural Omnivore Dear Television Dialogue Diary CrossBorder Intellectual Public Plato Problems Conversational Nietzsche Press People Quick Criticism Longterms Drinking with the Ghost Letter from Brussels Reckless Reader Standing with Standing Rock The China Blog The Korea Blog Blarb Top Leaderboard Blarb Left Sidebar1 Blarb Left Sidebar 2 Blarb Right Sidebar 1 Art Inside: Fieldnotes By Annie Buckley 04/04/2017 12/19/2017 “It’s crazy how art can actually make you feel something.” I smile and nod. It is crazy, isn’t it? And yet sometimes — in the flurry of making and discussing, marketing and analyzing — we forget that primal aspect of art. But not here, never here: on the inside, where art is a lifeline like nowhere else. When I hear this comment, I am sitting with a group of men at a small table, one of multiple clustered around the large gymnasium. We are in a prison, one of four where I created and now oversee what has become an expansive and collaborative art program with 20 teaching artists facilitating multiple weekly classes in four prisons. At this table, we are looking at the men’s artwork and talking about their progress. One of the men, Shaun (all names are changed), has been with our program since the beginning and has taken nearly all of our classes. He recalls that when he started, one of our teaching artists looked at his colorful psychedelic drawings and said, “You’re an artist, man, you have to own it!” Shaun beams as he recalls this and proceeds to help the newer students look at one another’s art and express what they see. There is something unique about being inside a prison when you don’t have to be there. I have been writing professionally for 10 years, and yet have never experienced the kind of writer’s block I did when reflecting on this experience and preparing to write about it. How to explain? Why? Because art can actually make you feel something. Being granted the unique opportunity to get to know and work with people that manage to survive and find hope in such a traumatic situation, one fraught with pain and guilt, is special. The artists and writers I work with have often been forgotten by society, and even by those that know them. And when they’re considered by a majority of people, it is often in judgment, and with a singular focus on crime. When I first started going to the prison, I was surprised at how the incarcerated people I met would say things like, “We are not all bad and evil people.” Of course not, I thought. But that is often how they are perceived — maybe that’s easier than acknowledging complexity. One of the most incredible souls I know, Gregory Boyle SJ, founder of Homeboy Industries, puts it this way: “How would you like to be known only by the worst thing you ever did?” It kind of puts things in perspective, doesn’t it? We are all flawed. We are all guilty of something. It really isn’t any of my business what it is that any of the artists in our program are guilty of; what matters to me, and to the teaching artists and participants that I have the chance to work with, is the present and the art that exists, simply and wholly, in that moment — on paper or in conversation — What do you see? What do you think it means? How does it make you feel? I began this work about four years ago as part of the Community-based Art initiative that grew out of my service learning class at California State University, San Bernardino, where I am on the faculty. I didn’t set out to bring art to people that are incarcerated and I don’t think I ever could have imagined that it would have had the impact that it has had — on me, on our teaching team, and on the hundreds of participants in our classes each week — when I started. But when this new student shared his insight with such infectious enthusiasm, I couldn’t help but smile. Art can make us feel — and grow and thrive and connect. I have always been interested in the way that art touches and bridges people, and in the parallel need to break down barriers in access to art, but in recent years, I feel more and more that this connectivity is all that really matters. That’s one thing I like so much about my work in prisons: the experience inherently has the gift of immediately breaking down the hierarchies and extenuating circumstances that can complicate our relationship to art. It’s as if, when we walk through those multiple metal gates, each slamming shut behind us, cell phones and internet left behind on the outside, a button is reset. On the inside, as it’s often referred to by those in the system, art is a means to liberation. That’s true outside, too; I know from my experience as an artist and teacher that art can save lives. But to see its impact, over and over and in such a clear and unfiltered way, is uplifting and inspirational. On the day that I hear the comment, half under breath, in awe, that art can make you feel things, I am there in my capacity as a mentor and guide. I invited faculty members from three universities, including ours, to serve as mentors to our participants. Most of what goes on in our multidisciplinary and collaborative program is more similar to what happens in art classes on the outside than it is different. Just as on a campus, the participants in our advising groups are a bit nervous and also kind of excited; they want to know how to succeed, how to graduate from this yearlong certificate program in which they are enrolled, and how they are doing. We go over the classes and check off what each has taken. They ask questions. We clarify. But there are differences from a college campus, too: the participants are dressed in uniform, and they each wear their label as an incarcerated person on their back. They have to get a pass to attend. The biggest differences are subtler and more profound. It’s like art class anywhere, but with all the meaningful stuff — the expression and communication, the sharing and making and interpreting, the breakthroughs and the struggles — amplified and thrown into sharp relief. I take a brief break from my group to visit the music class, where the peer facilitators have asked to talk with me and want to show me how their classes have progressed. In that area of the gym, men are seated in three clusters practicing guitar, each led by a mentor. These three men approached me about nine months ago, asking if we could bring music alongside our art and creative writing classes. I said that I didn’t have a music teacher, and they offered to teach the class. So we talked and planned and now here they are, teaching peers. I pause and look around the vast gym. Behind me, one of my university students leads a painting class in Spanish; she is assisted by one of our peer leaders, a young man who has been with our program since we started and took nearly every class before he asked to help teach. Next to them, an alumna from my program, assisted by a current university student brand new to our team, facilitates a printmaking class where the men look at art throughout time, learn the vocabulary of the discipline, and experience the magic of seeing an image revealed by utilizing the approaches to printmaking that our teachers have come up with using the limited materials allowed inside. Nearby, a group of men in a circle stretch themselves into Tree and Warrior poses, led by a new volunteer yoga teacher and one of our teaching artists. All around us, the cement walls are lined with murals. I have watched these evolve over the past four years. When I return to my group, Shaun has engaged the newer artists in an animated discussion about their work. I ask him if he brought any of his pieces and he pulls several colorful drawings and collages out of his brown paper portfolio and lays them carefully on the table. We survey them for a while. The newest student looks at one bright compilation of shapes and imagery for a while and says admiringly, “Man, when I look at yours, I automatically see joy and wonder.” About “Art Inside”: This project and my reflection on it are possible with deepest gratitude to the artists and writers that let me and our team into their lives and worlds while in such difficult circumstances. I am equally grateful to the institutions that support programs such as ours and all the staff that work with rehabilitative programs in prisons. The state of California recently reinstated Arts-in-Corrections, a unique collaboration between the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and the California Arts Council. Our university-based program began in 2013 with volunteers and internal grants and received an Arts-in-Corrections Demonstration Contract in 2016 that allowed us to continue and to grow. In addition to writing about the projects and people that I know, I will be writing about arts programs that I visit. I have sought and received permission from CDCR and the California Arts Council to document these projects. Because I have changed the names of the participants to protect their privacy, I will also change the names of all teaching artists, staff, and volunteers whenever feasible. Thank you to Peter Merts for allowing the use of his photographs of Arts-in-Corrections in this series. Images by Peter Merts © 2019 Los Angeles Review of Books. All rights reserved.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0052.json.gz/line30
__label__cc	0.586866	0.413134	Here is a list of links that I recommend and a brief description of each link for your consideration. AMAZINGFACTS.ORG Amazing Facts is a worldwide multifaceted TV radio online Bible school sole winning ministry committed to proclaiming the gospel and the three angels messages of Revelation 14. They believe in the imminent return of Jesus Christ and in doing their part to lift him up to the entire world. An excellent site for Present Day Truth. AMAZINGHEALTH.ORG They have a wonderful format in health related articles and media selection, natural remedies and health recipes. ItIsWritten.com It Is Written is a deeply spiritual ministry passionate about communicating the Gospel to the world. It Is Written seeks to impact lives for Christ in four ways - through the weekly telecast, the Internet, a worldwide evangelistic ministry and Christian Living and Faith Sharing resources. Dedicated to sharing insights from God's Word with people around the world. Founded in 1956 by George Vanderman. BibleInfo.com A great source for Bible Answers. BibleInfo.com helps people around the world discover what the Bible says about life's questions. Here you will find counsel, direction, encouragement and help - all from God's Word. Furthermore, most of BibleInfo.com features are available in a multilingual format. Maranathamedia.com Maranatha Media has nearly 700 books in their database and over 250 Bible studies, over 300 Charts and over 200 Audio sermons and seminars. Currently there are over 1700 resources available for download. You will find Maranatha Media to contain the largest collection of Adventist books and Bible studies available free on the web. This is a very nice Bible text search site, and it has many Bible translations and other nice features. libertymagazine.org The God-given right of religious liberty is best exercised when church and state are separate. Government is God's agency to protect individual rights and to conduct civil affairs; in exercising these responsibilities, officials are entitled to respect and cooperation. Religious liberty entails freedom of conscience: to worship or not to worship; to profess, practice and promulgate religious beliefs or to change them. In exercising these rights, however, one must respect the equivalent rights of all others. Attempts to unite church and state are opposed to the interests of each, subversive of human rights and potentially persecuting in character; to oppose union, lawfully and honorably, is not only the citizen's duty but the essence of the Golden Rule to treat others as one wishes to be treated. wallbuilders.com WallBuilders is an organization dedicated to presenting America's forgotten history and heroes, with an emphasis on the moral, religious, and constitutional foundation on which America was built a foundation which, in recent years, has been seriously attacked and undermined. In accord with what was so accurately stated by George Washington, we believe that "the propitious [favorable] smiles of heaven can never be expected on a nation which disregards the eternal rules of order and right which heaven itself has ordained." www.signstimes.com Signs of the Times invites readers to live as Christians in modern North American society and offers news, tips, and articles to help them do so. Published by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, this monthly four-color magazine emphasizes Christs Second Advent and the prophecies and signs that indicate the nearness of this event, which Scripture calls the Christian's blessed hope. The current magazine resulted from the merger of Signs of the Times and another magazine called These Times. Before the merge, These Times served the United States east of the Mississippi River in the same capacity as Signs did west of that river. The first issue of the merged Signs of the Times came out in April 1984. www.SabbathTruth.com Everthing you wanted to know about the Sabbath. www.whitehorsemedia.com White Horse Media is a Christian media ministry based in Priest River, Idaho. Our name was carefully chosen for many reasons and is based upon the book of Revelation’s unique description of Jesus Christ triumphantly riding “a white horse” when He returns to planet Earth at His Second Coming. Steve Wohlberg is the Speaker/Director for White Horse Media. By the grace of God we are now “revealing His light in darkness” through radio, television, books, CDs, DVDs, public seminars, and the World Wide Web. We trust daily in the guidance and leadership of the One who promised, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20). http://www.amazingdiscoveries.org/ Amazing Discoveries™ is committed to exposing deception in the spiritual realm and restoring the truth about God and His Word through the proclamation of the three angels’ messages. In 1992 we met scientist and speaker Professor Walter J. Veith. After hearing his life story and his passion for truth, we invited him to hold his first public campaign in Canada. Over 1200 people attended his fascinating presentations on science and religion. In 1993, we formed Amazing Discoveries™ to be able to continue hosting public seminars in North America and to spread the three angels’ messages far and wide. Our website offers thousands of pages of in-depth Bible study on everything from Christian living to end-time deceptions. Other helpful resources include Bible study guides are also available for personal Bible study, and an audio library. Facts Of Faiths highly recommends the head speaker Professor Walter Veith and the Amazing Discoveries organization. http://www.westsideministriessda.org Westside Ministries Seventh-day Adventist Church located at 1528 Lucerne Ave, Indianapolis, IN. 46241. I am a member of this church. The sermons given there are very good and in Present Truth. They are a growing, warm and loving church. Your always welcome to come and visit and worship with us. http://www.unboundbible.org Is a collection of searchable Bibles consisting of: 10 English versions including the NASB Greek and Hebrew Versions (the original Bible languages) 4 ancient versions, 42 versions in other languages http://www.onlinebible.net Powerful, comprehensive Bible research software. Multiple translations, commentaries and more to aid you in studying the scriptures. Unicode support added for displaying foreign languages.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0052.json.gz/line37
__label__wiki	0.527854	0.527854	Saturday, Jul 21, 2018 UFC FN 134: Anthony Smith Says “Something Just Clicked” After Moving up to LHW Anthony Smith (photo via Twitter / @lionheartsmith) After moving up to light-heavyweight and taking out Rashad Evans, it certainly sounds like Anthony Smith’s days as a middleweight are behind him. Smith moved up to light-heavyweight last month at UFC 225, and proceeded to finish Evans in the opening round. Since then, “Lionheart” agreed to step in on short notice to fight “Shogun” Rua tomorrow, in the headliner of UFC FN 134. In a recent article at UFC.com, the veteran fighter reported the following, while discussing how he felt competing at 205. “Something just clicked,” Smith said. “I think that not cutting down to 185 completely changed everything. And I didn’t realize how much it was actually going to change until I was about to fight. I think I finally found out what adrenalin felt like for the first time. (Laughs) I felt hyper-aggressive and overly confident.” And while discussing how he believes his bout with Rua will go, and the fact he’s fighting a second former champ in such a short period of time, Smith said this: “…I’m a hundred percent confident that I’m gonna get Shogun out of there on Sunday. But I’m in a position where when I wake up Monday, I will have beaten two of my idols in a two-month span. That’s absolutely crazy to me. When I think about Shogun, I think about watching that guy fight and thinking I want everything that guy has. I want to be that guy. I’m not a big fan of individuals, but if I had to name five guys that I was a fan of, Shogun and Rashad would be in that top five. It’s just crazy to me that I’m in this position.” UFC FN 134 will take place in Hamburg, Germany. Tags: Anthony Smith, UFC, UFC FN 134 posted by FCF Staff @ 8:00 am	cc/2021-04/en_head_0052.json.gz/line39
__label__wiki	0.742797	0.742797	Home » Government and Politics » State Agencies » Alabama Ethics Commission Alabama Ethics Commission James L. Sumner, Alabama Ethics Commission The Alabama Ethics Commission, established by the legislature in 1973, is the state agency responsible for monitoring the ethical behavior of approximately 200,000 public officials and employees at the municipal, county, and state levels. The legislation creating the commission stated that the operation of a truly democratic government requires that public officials be independent and impartial. Therefore, no public office should be used for private gain. Like many other states, Alabama passed into law campaign finance and ethics reforms as a result of the Watergate scandal in the early 1970s, which led to the resignation of Pres. Richard Nixon in 1974. The episode opened a floodgate of reform legislation at both the state and federal levels, including the establishment of the Federal Elections Commission in 1975 and passage of the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, the federal ethics act. In addition, state ethics laws and election reforms were adopted and revised across the country. Alabama adopted its first ethics law in 1973. Although it has been revised several times, most significantly in 1995, it stands as a strong deterrent to the use of public office or employment for personal gain. James Sumner The Ethics Commission, headquartered in Montgomery, is comprised of five members who are nominated jointly by the governor, lieutenant governor, and speaker of the House of Representatives and are confirmed by the state Senate. Members serve five-year staggered terms, thereby losing one member each year as the newest member is confirmed. Throughout its history, the commission has been served by 36 private citizens who have—no matter their political affiliations or personal allegiances—fairly, equitably, impartially, and in an absolutely nonpartisan manner, determined the outcome of the issue at hand. These commissioners have come from all walks of life: business, labor, religion, law, medicine, education, and other professional and civic endeavors. They have oftentimes undertaken their task in the face of great adversity and have provided great service to the Ethics Commission and to the citizens of Alabama that far exceeds the compensation of $50 per bimonthly meeting. The agency's functions fall generally into five main areas. The commission issues advisory opinions to public officials and employees and receives complaints of wrongdoing and conducts investigations into those complaints. It also receives and files some 32,000 statements of economic interest, which outline in great detail public officials' and employees' financial interests, family relationships, business connections, property holdings, consulting arrangements, and debts. In addition, the commission registers lobbyists and principals (a person or business hiring a lobbyist) and receives quarterly reports on their activities. Finally, it conducts educational seminars for political candidates, public officials, and employees on matters of ethics in government service. In carrying out these functions, the commission renders on an annual basis, an average of 67 formal advisory opinions and 104 informal advisory opinions interpreting the ethics law. The commission receives roughly 275 to 300 complaints each year and conducts investigations as necessary to resolve the complaints. Approximately 575 lobbyists register with the commission each year, representing about 725 principals. The commission has also conducted more than 700 seminars throughout the state over the past 10 years that have been attended by more than 35,000 public officials and employees. These programs have been conducted for the governor's cabinet and staff, the legislature, and the judicial branch, as well as newly elected sheriffs, probate judges, county commissioners, and municipal officials. The revised 1995 Ethics Law provided the agency with major new tools to perform its duties and increase its effectiveness. Among the improvements were a revolving-door provision that bars public officials from leaving office and becoming lobbyists within two years of serving, the authority to initiate its own investigations, and protections for whistle-blowers. The law also established a system for fines and restitution for minor violations among other provisions and is much more workable and understandable than its previous version, which makes the commission's job much easier. As a result of the 1995 revisions, the state of Alabama has made considerable progress in promoting ethics in government and public service. In the fall of 2004, the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington, D.C.-based government watchdog group, ranked the commission eighth in the nation for its work in providing information to the public about legislators' private income and assets and conflict of interest and financial disclosure laws. This was no small feat, and it is one in which the commission took great pride, as half of the states received failing grades and 11 states received barely passing grades. The commission viewed this national recognition as a strong validation of the state's Ethics Law. Over the 30-plus-year history of the Ethics Commission, countless public officials and employees have run afoul of the Ethics Law. These individuals have ranged from governors, legislators, and cabinet officials to sheriffs, circuit clerks, county commissioners, and mayors, to rank-and-file city, county, and state employees. For example, former governor Guy Hunt was convicted and removed from office in 1993 for using $200,000 from his 1987 inaugural fund for his personal use. Although the verdict was upheld in state and federal appeals, the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles pardoned Hunt based on its belief that he was innocent. Former state treasurer Melba Till Allen was convicted in 1978 for using her public office to obtain bank loans for a personal business venture. She also failed to report the loans on her ethics financial disclosure forms and was sentenced to three years in prison. Former Public Service Commission president Juanita McDaniel was convicted in 1980 for filing false expense requests and sentenced to seven months in prison. Both Alabama State Industrial Relations Director Dottie Cieszynski and Mayor Joe Smitherman of Selma were fined for using state vehicles for personal use, and Cieszynski was also cited for having state employees carry out her personal errands. Former chairman of the Birmingham Water Board, Horace Parker, was convicted in 1998 for arranging a water main upgrade on the street on which he lived to improve the water pressure for his lawn sprinkler system. Parker also voted as a member of the Water Board to approve the work. After more than 30 years, unethical behavior has not been eliminated, but the Ethics Law has made a real difference in how government officials and state employees have conducted themselves serving the citizens of Alabama. Most public officials and employees realize today that they cannot use their public office or position for their personal gain or the gain of their family. The commission's budget is less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the state's General Fund Budget. The annual cost of operating the Commission for the 200,000 covered public officials and employees is approximately $940,000 or about $4.70 per individual. The cost per citizen is only $0.21. Alabama Ethics Law, Section 36-25-1, et seq. Code of Alabama 1975. St. Paul, Minn.: West Group Publishing. Stephens, William T. "The Alabama Ethics Cases." Cumberland Law Review 10 (Fall 1979): 317. Sumner, James L., Jr., and Hugh R. Evans III. "The Alabama Ethics Law for Lawyers." The Alabama Lawyer 59 (March 1998): 101. Sumner, James L., Jr. "The Alabama Ethics Law: A Retrospective." The Alabama Lawyer 60 (July 1999): 264. ———. "Double-Dipping and the Ethics Law." Alabama School Boards 25 (July/August 2004): 6. Published: May 28, 2008 \| &nbspLast updated: September 25, 2017	cc/2021-04/en_head_0052.json.gz/line41
__label__cc	0.616856	0.383144	Our History Books Yorkshire Corners Currently known as the Village of Delevan. Articles Categorized as Civil War Veterans from Machias, Franklinville, Ischua, Yorkshire, Farmersville, and Lyndon The Town of Yorkshire, including the current Town of Machias, and a portion of the Town of Farmersville, was formed from the Town of Ischua in 1820. In 1821, the area of the Town of Farmersville was set off creating the current Town of Farmersville. In 1827, that portion of the Town of Yorkshire encompassing the current Town of Machias was removed. In 1844 a portion of the Town of Freedom was annexed to Yorkshire. In 1847, a portion of the Town of Yorkshire was annexed to Machias, leaving the Town of Yorkshire as it is today. Historical Advisory Committee This site is maintained by the Cattaraugus County Historical Advisory Committee and the Dept. of Economic Development, Planning & Tourism.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0052.json.gz/line42
__label__wiki	0.544625	0.544625	Former Blue Jays manager John Gibbons interviews with Pirates Monday, October 11, 2010 / by John Perrotto / / Pittsburgh Pirates / 0 comments By John Perrotto John Gibbons’ career winning percentage in the major leagues is exactly .500. How ironic then that he would interview Monday for the vacant manager’s job with the Pittsburgh Pirates, a team that hasn’t reached .500 in 18 years, an all-time streak of futility in major North American professional team sports. Gibbons, the Kansas City Royals’ bench coach, became the third person to interview for the job held the last three seasons by John Russell. Gibbons managed the Toronto Blue Jays for three full seasons (2005-07) and parts of 2004 and 2008, compiling a 305-305 record. It was would be quite ironic if Gibbons landed the job. The Blue Jays fired him at PNC Park on June 20, 2008 just hours before the start of a three-game interleague series against the Pirates. Gibbons, 48, has spent the last two seasons with the Royals. Gibbons was the New York Mets’ first-round draft pick in 1980 from MacArthur High School in San Antonio but played just 18 major leagues as a catcher for them in 1984 and 1986, hitting .220 with one home run and two RBIs. Gibbons, though, got to stay with the Mets as a bullpen catcher during the 1986 postseason when they went on to beat the Boston Red Sox in the World Series. The Pirates previously interviewed former Cleveland Indians manager Eric Wedge and recent fired Arizona Diamondbacks third base coach Bo Porter. John Perrotto is a contributor to Inside Pittsburgh Sports. He is the editor-in-chief of BaseballProspectus.com John Perrotto Pirates Insider John Perrotto is a contributor to Inside Pittsburgh Sports, covering the Pittsburgh Pirates, MLB. John has covered the Pirates for over 20+ seasons and is an exclusive member of the Baseball Writers' Association of America. @JPerrotto View All Posts	cc/2021-04/en_head_0052.json.gz/line54

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