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A Brief History Of Contact Lenses
With all the crazy technology we see today, you probably haven’t thought much about the small wonder that helps you see all that cool tech: your contact lenses!
The concept of the contact lens was conceived over 500 years ago! But it didn’t really become what it is today until the 20th century. Let’s learn a little bit more about the history of these amazing devices.
Contact Lenses Have Come A Long Way
Before technological advances made contact lenses possible, thinkers like Leonardo da Vinci and René Descartes experimented with water’s refractive power. In 1508, da Vinci speculated that vision could be altered when the eye was in direct contact with water. In 1636 Descartes tried placing a glass tube filled with liquid in direct contact with the cornea. There was just one problem… this made blinking impossible!
Technological Advances Put Contacts On The Map
In 1827, Sir John Herschel introduced the idea that taking a mold of the cornea would help produce lenses that could correct vision. Unfortunately, technology hadn’t quite caught up to Herschel’s vision! It wouldn’t be until the early 20th century that his theory could be tested.
Progress was made in the 1880s when glass production technologies made thin lenses possible for the first time. In 1888, Dr. Adolf Fick constructed and fitted the first successful contact lens. These lenses were thick and heavy, however, and they covered the entire eye. Because the lens was made entirely of glass, these scleral lenses didn’t allow enough oxygen to reach the eye, essentially suffocating them. After a few hours, wearing these contacts became painful.
In the 1920s and 30s, advances in materials allowed Herschel’s theory to become a reality; contact lenses were conformed to the shape of the eye for the first time and new plastics made lightweight lenses possible.
Even though contact lenses had advanced significantly by the early 20th century, all contact lenses were still scleral lenses, meaning they covered the whole eye. Finally in 1948, an optical technician named Kevin Touhy introduced the corneal lens, the smaller contact lens we see most often today.
Contact Lenses Keep Getting Better And Better
[iframe https://www.youtube.com/embed/TCFFrGb7_hI?rel=0 620 349]
Contact lens technology has progressed immensely since its inception and continues to do so. We strive for excellence and innovation so that your contact lenses can benefit YOU. So, keep an eye out! There are exciting things in the future of contact lenses.
Our patients make our job worthwhile!
Top image by Flickr user Lee Haywood used under Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 4.0 license. Image cropped and modified from original.
Posted On: April 13, 2016 @ 8:44pm
Keep Your Glasses Looking Like New Look Out For Seasonal Allergies!
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A united vision for a fair world
Sep 25, 2018 | IN THE NEWS, LATEST | 0 comments
Liberation Foods has joined over 250 organisations around the world to launch a Fair Trade Charter. The document was published today and sets out a vision to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
The charter aims to support the Fair Trade movement by raising awareness among consumers. Giving people the option to buy Fair Trade will help drive recognition and encourage more support. We’re very proud to have our products in three national supermarkets: Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose. The inclusion in such major stores, shows there is already an appetite and interest in fair trade products in the UK. We hope this will increase as more people learn about the benefits of fair trade.
The charter also hopes to encourage Fair Trade organisations to work together by connecting their ideas and strategies with the common goals of the movement. At Liberation, we love to hear what other brands are up to and keep in regular contact with the likes of Divine Chocolate, Ethical Superstore and Essential Trading. But there’s always room for more collaboration and we would love the charter to help us build new relationships.
Liberation has worked with smallholder farmers in South America, Africa and Asia for more than ten years. In this time, we have enabled peanut and cashew farmers and Brazil nut gathers to sell their crops internationally at a fair price. Find out more on our about page. We’re proud of how far we’ve come, but with some many organisations around the world uniting to support a vision for the future, we’re excited to collaborate further and see what else we can achieve.
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Chris Hardie
looking for a better way
About Chris Hardie
Signature Blog Posts
June 1, 2003 September 8, 2008
The assignment given for my New Testament course was to "write a biblical parable."
What I came up with is obviously not a parable in the traditional sense, but I like to think of it as the parable of parables; it is the story of a common theme that runs throughout the literature of the biblical time and that represents a fundamental (or at least well-established) part about how our society tends to work. In that sense it is a story that evokes a deeper meaning from itself when examined closely in relation to our own lives, as does a parable in its purer form.
Once there was a boy born of no great noticeable lineage. When he grew up, he found that he was deeply disturbed by the problems of the world around him and that he was going to devote his life to changing things radically. He found that he was a good speaker and had a knack for communicating with people in direct, powerful ways. He learned a lot about the problems he was facing and he lived and dined among those who contributed to them.
He began to talk, in public and in private, about the problems and about the fundamental causes and possible solutions. He would sometimes end up with large groups of people gathered around him as he talked. Though he had many followers who believed in his cause, he only had a few that he considered his true friends and true believers. Besides, it was becoming dangerous for him and his followers to talk about the problems any more because there were many who opposed his views or said that he had no right in the first place to address the problems because of who he was. After a while, his following and support got so large that it seemed he was actually making a difference. People were actually beginning to catch on to what he was saying, and at the same time becoming less accepting of those who caused the problems or who had oppressed their existence. Finally, his enemies decided that his words were too dangerous because they addressed deeply buried problems that, to face, would shake the very foundations of the world built on top of them.
He was tried and convicted by the attitudes of his time and by the prejudices of his enemies, and so they plotted to kill him as punishment. They did so, quietly and quite normally with the typical sort of lynching. He died, and in a fairly short time, the mission and movement that he had created did not have enough forward motion to sustain itself, and it died fairly soon thereafter.
This is the story of Jesus Christ. This is the story of Martin Luther King, Jr. This is the story of the poor and homeless person who fights daily to find a home and raise a family. This is the story of Medgar Evers, of Malcom X, of any man and woman that has ever stood up for what they believed in because they could do no other. This is the story and the song of the suffering servant.
June 1, 2003 September 8, 2008 activism, culture, justice, valuesLeave a comment
Deep generalist, currently focused on: software engineering, writing, the open web. I create WordPress things at Automattic. More about me.
Life in Indiana
Lisa Burkhardt and Steve Hayes Jr. on outdoor education at the Playscape
Debriefing the past
Communication, data and collaboration: Megan Sanders on Forward Wayne County
Should we pay people to live here?
Is Richmond a welcoming community?
“The moment we begin to fear the opinions of others and hesitate to tell the truth that is in us, and from motives of policy are silent when we should speak, the divine floods of light and life no longer flow into our souls.”
What kind of updates do you want?
Email about new posts
Monthly summaries and occasional updates
Speaking Requests
Ethics Statement & Comment Guidelines
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He made two cherubim of gold; he made them of hammered work at the two ends of the mercy seat; one cherub at the one end and one cherub at the other end; he made the cherubim of one piece with the mercy seat at the two ends. The cherubim had their wings spread upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings, with their faces toward each other; the faces of the cherubim were toward the mercy seat. Share Your Faith Products Canvas Art
Jacob lived in the land of his father's sojournings, in the land of Canaan. These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him. Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. ... Bible Scripture Verse Art
He also made two capitals of molten bronze to set on the tops of the pillars; the height of the one capital was five cubits and the height of the other capital was five cubits. There were nets of network and twisted threads of chainwork for the capitals which were on the top of the pillars; seven for the one capital and seven for the other capital. So he made the pillars, and two rows around on the one network to cover the capitals which were on the top of the pomegranates; and so he did for the other capital. The capitals which were on the top of the pillars in the porch were of lily design, four cubits. There were capitals on the two pillars, even above and close to the rounded projection which was beside the network; and the pomegranates numbered two hundred in rows around both capitals. Thus he set up the pillars at the porch of the nave; and he set up the right pillar and named it Jachin, and he set up the left pillar and named it Boaz. On the top of the pillars was lily design. So the work of the pillars was finished. Christian Art and Gifts
"You shall take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel, six of their names on the one stone and the names of the remaining six on the other stone, according to their birth. "As a jeweler engraves a signet, you shall engrave the two stones according to the names of the sons of Israel; you shall set them in filigree settings of gold.read more.
© Kim Jones and Salvaged Living, 2019. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Hunt & Host with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. Please only use one picture with a link back unless individual permission is given otherwise by Salvaged Living. Full disclosure here. Share Your Faith Products Canvas Art
Now when the wall had been built and I had set up the doors, and the gatekeepers, the singers, and the Levites had been appointed, I gave my brother Hanani and Hananiah the governor of the castle charge over Jerusalem, for he was a more faithful and God-fearing man than many. And I said to them, “Let not the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun is hot. And while they are still standing guard, let them shut and bar the doors. Appoint guards from among the inhabitants of Jerusalem, some at their guard posts and some in front of their own homes.” The city was wide and large, but the people within it were few, and no houses had been rebuilt. Then my God put it into my heart to assemble the nobles and the officials and the people to be enrolled by genealogy. And I found the book of the genealogy of those who came up at the first, and I found written in it: ...
Throughout history, many artists have acknowledged God’s sovereignty and position as the ultimate Creator depicting in their work the accounts and truths which God has given to his people through the Bible. Virtually every biblical account has been visually portrayed at least once and usually many times throughout history and across cultures. In museums, galleries, churches, cathedrals, and homes around the world, such works of art are helping people gain a deeper understanding of the Scriptures.
So he made two doors of olive wood, and he carved on them carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold; and he spread the gold on the cherubim and on the palm trees. So also he made for the entrance of the nave four-sided doorposts of olive wood and two doors of cypress wood; the two leaves of the one door turned on pivots, and the two leaves of the other door turned on pivots. He carved on it cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers; and he overlaid them with gold evenly applied on the engraved work. Share Your Faith Products Canvas Art
"You shall have no other gods before Me. "You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. "You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,read more. Christian Canvas Art
From the very first verse of Scripture, God reveals himself as the Creator, an Artist. Everything within the universe is a magnificent element of the Great Artist’s masterpiece. As works of art created in God’s own image (Gen 1:27), people are endowed with the ability to create as well. We can choose to join the Master Artist by being artists ourselves. Share Your Faith Products Canvas Art
In the four hundred and eightieth year after the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build the house of the Lord. The house that King Solomon built for the Lord was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high. The vestibule in front of the nave of the house was twenty cubits long, equal to the width of the house, and ten cubits deep in front of the house. And he made for the house windows with recessed frames. He also built a structure against the wall of the house, running around the walls of the house, both the nave and the inner sanctuary. And he made side chambers all around. ... Bible Scripture Verse Art
This verse is a reminder for me that all I need is Christ. When I feel helpless or weak, I don’t primarily need a practical solution or answer. I need God’s grace. God’s grace is sufficient. It is all I need. His strength shines brightly when I am weak and depending on Him. I don’t need my life to be in perfect order or all to be going well in the world around me. All I need is Christ. Christian Canvas Art
2 Chronicles 2:14 - The son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father [was] a man of Tyre, skilful to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone, and in timber, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen, and in crimson; also to grave any manner of graving, and to find out every device which shall be put to him, with thy cunning men, and with the cunning men of my lord David thy father. Bible Scripture Verse Art
"Now her sister Oholibah saw this, yet she was more corrupt in her lust than she, and her harlotries were more than the harlotries of her sister. "She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and officials, the ones near, magnificently dressed, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men. "I saw that she had defiled herself; they both took the same way.read more.
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father. We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, ... Share Your Faith Products Canvas Art
He made 300 shields of beaten gold, using three hundred shekels of gold on each shield, and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon. Moreover, the king made a great throne of ivory and overlaid it with pure gold. There were six steps to the throne and a footstool in gold attached to the throne, and arms on each side of the seat, and two lions standing beside the arms. Twelve lions were standing there on the six steps on the one side and on the other; nothing like it was made for any other kingdom. All King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; silver was not considered valuable in the days of Solomon. Share Your Faith Products Canvas Art
King Solomon was king over all Israel, and these were his high officials: Azariah the son of Zadok was the priest; Elihoreph and Ahijah the sons of Shisha were secretaries; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder; Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was in command of the army; Zadok and Abiathar were priests; Azariah the son of Nathan was over the officers; Zabud the son of Nathan was priest and king's friend; ... Christian Canvas Art
For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. ... Share Your Faith Products Canvas Art
1 Then the LORD said to Moses, 2 “See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 3 and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills— 4 to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, 5 to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of crafts. 6 Moreover, I have appointed Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, to help him. Also I have given ability to all the skilled workers to make everything I have commanded you: Bible Scripture Verse Art
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U.S. Congresswoman Rebukes Americans for Lack of Outrage Over Abortion: ‘May God Forgive Us’
By Heather Clark on April 26, 2013 No Comment
Washington, D.C. — A United States Congresswoman rebuked Barack Obama, state government officials and the American public at large on Wednesday for their lack of outrage over the ongoing practice of abortion, especially in light of the trial of “House of Horrors” abortionist Kermit Gosnell.
“My heart breaks that our country has reached a point where we are all not outraged by a practice that ends a beating heart and takes the lives of the most vulnerable in our society,” Representative Diane Black of Tennessee declared on the House floor as the speaker’s gavel pounded to tell her that time was up. “May God forgive us.”
She noted the many entities responsible for allowing innocent blood to be shed in America, specifically those who kept silent about the murder of newborn babies at Gosnell’s abortion facility, Women’s Medical Society in Philadelphia.
“Gosnell didn’t act alone,” Black asserted. “He had a host of silent co-conspirators who referred women to his practice knowing full well of the horrors that went on behind those closed doors. And, meanwhile, the state boards gave Gosnell a free pass for 17 years by failing to inspect his clinic.”
“And when asked about Gosnell’s crime, our president tells us he has ‘no comment,'” she lamented with irritation in her voice. “Where is your outrage, Mr. President? Are you too busy preparing your remarks for tomorrow night’s [Planned Parenthood] fundraising gala?”
As previously reported, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters last week that Obama could not take a position on the Gosnell matter because he cannot comment on legal proceedings.
“I’ll say two things,” Carney said. “One, the president is aware of this. Two, the president does not and cannot take a position on an ongoing trial, so I won’t as well.”
Days later, Obama appeared on NBC’s Today Show and was likewise asked to comment on the situation. He responded just as Carney did that he could not make a statement on “an active trial.”
“What I can say is this,” Obama replied. “I think President Clinton said it pretty well when he said abortion should be safe, legal and rare.”
“If an individual carrying out an abortion, operating a clinic or doing anything else is violating medical ethics [or] violating the law, then they should be prosecuted,” he added.
But Black was very vocal in her opposition to Gosnell’s abortion practice on Wednesday. She outlined that she was “outraged and deeply saddened by the heartbreaking story of the [abortionist],” identifying him as “the man currently on trial for the murder of eight people, seven of which were newborns who were killed after surviving late-term botched abortions in his ‘House of Horrors’ clinic.”
Like Black, a number of other federal Congressmen also recently spoke out against Gosnell and the abortion industry in general during a special Congressional session organized to expose the notorious abortionist.
“The astounding reality is that Dr. Gosnell’s methods of killing babies who survive abortions are commonly used in clinics across the nation,” declared Representative Roger Williams of Texas. “Similar deadly actions have taken the lives of over 1 million unborn children each year in the United States.”
“This is a violent act that is unjustifiable,” he continued. “I am a firm believer that every human being is created in God’s own image. Every life is precious, and we have an obligation to protect life at every stage. It’s time we get rid of this gruesome procedure once and for all.”
U.S. Congresswoman Rebukes Americans for Lack of Outrage Over Abortion: ‘May God Forgive Us’ added by Heather Clark on April 26, 2013
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DCTH - Delcath Systems, Inc.
Market Cap 1.298M
Earnings Date Sep 12, 2019 - Sep 16, 2019
GlobeNewswire•yesterday
Delcath Systems Closes $20 Million Private Placement
Delcath Systems, Inc. (“Delcath,” the “Company”, “we”, “our” or “us” (DCTH) has closed on its previously announced private placement with gross proceeds of $20 million at a combined price of $1,000 per Unit. Each Unit consists of one preferred share initially convertible into 16,667 shares of common stock at an initial conversion price of $0.06 per share and a common stock purchase warrant. Each whole warrant entitles the holder to purchase one share of common stock at an initial exercise price of $0.06 for a period of five years from the date of the Company’s anticipated reverse stock split.
GlobeNewswire•7 days ago
Delcath Systems Announces $20 Million Private Placement
Delcath Systems, Inc. (“Delcath,” the “Company”, “we”, “our” or “us”) (DCTH) today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement for gross proceeds of approximately $20 million at a combined price of $1,000 per Unit. Each Unit consists of one preferred share initially convertible into 16,667 shares of common stock at an initial conversion price of $0.06 per share and a common stock purchase warrant. Each whole warrant entitles the holder to purchase one share of common stock at an initial exercise price of $0.06 for a period of five years from the date of the Company’s anticipated reverse stock split.
Results of Single Center Prospective Study on Delcath’s PHP Therapy Presented at ECIO 2019
Delcath Systems, Inc. (DCTH), an interventional oncology company focused on the treatment of primary and metastatic cancers of the liver, announces that results from a prospective phase 2 study conducted by Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) in the Netherlands on the use of the Delcath Hepatic CHEMOSAT® Delivery System to treat patients with metastatic ocular melanoma with liver metastases were presented at the European Conference on Interventional Oncology (ECIO) annual meeting.
Delcath Joins the Ocular Melanoma Community in Recognizing Rare Disease Day
Delcath Systems, Inc. (DCTH), an interventional oncology company focused on the treatment of primary and metastatic cancers of the liver, highlights the experiences of patients with ocular melanoma as part of Rare Disease Day®—a global awareness campaign observed each year on February 28th. Delcath sponsors a global Registration clinical trial for Patients with Hepatic Dominant Ocular Melanoma called The FOCUS Trial. “Rare Disease Day is an opportunity for the global healthcare community to recognize the unmet medical needs among patients suffering from orphan diseases,” said Jennifer K. Simpson, Ph.D., MSN, CRNP President and CEO of Delcath.
Delcath Announces Health Authority Approval for CHEMOSAT in Brazil
Delcath Systems, Inc. (DCTH), an interventional oncology company focused on the treatment of primary and metastatic cancers of the liver, announces that the Company has received medical device approval for the CHEMOSAT® Hepatic Delivery System (CHEMOSAT) from the national health authority in Brazil. The approval of CHEMOSAT as a Class 3 medical device was issued by the Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária (ANVISA), and permits the marketing and utilization of CHEMOSAT under the same percutaneous intra-arterial administration of melphalan hydrochloride to the liver with subsequent extracorporeal filtration of blood indication, as in Europe. To develop Brazilian market access for CHEMOSAT, Delcath intends to align with a local strategic partner.
Delcath Announces Acceptance of Abstract for Oral Presentation at ECIO 2019
Delcath Systems, Inc. (DCTH), an interventional oncology company focused on the treatment of primary and metastatic cancers of the liver, announces an abstract from a prospective phase 2 study conducted in the Netherlands of the use of the Delcath Hepatic CHEMOSAT® Delivery System to treat patients with metastatic ocular melanoma with liver metastases, has been accepted for oral presentation and as a poster at the European Conference on Interventional Oncology (ECIO) annual meeting. The abstract, Percutaneous hepatic perfusion with melphalan in patients with unresectable liver metastases from ocular melanoma using the Delcath System's second-generation hemofiltration system: a prospective phase II study, will be presented by T.S. Meijer and M.C. Burgmans, et al of the Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands.
Delcath Announces Commercial Licensing Agreement for CHEMOSAT®
Upfront and Milestone Payments Provide Additional Resources to Advance Clinical Development in the U.S. NEW YORK, Dec. 26, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Delcath Systems, Inc. (DCTH), an interventional oncology company focused on the treatment of primary and metastatic liver cancers, announces that the company has entered into a definitive licensing agreement for CHEMOSAT® commercialization in Europe with medac Gesellschaft für klinische Spezialpräparate mbH (medac), a privately held, multi-national pharmaceutical company based in Hamburg area, Germany. Founded in 1970, medac specializes in the treatment and diagnosis of oncological, urological and autoimmune diseases.
Delcath Announces 4th Independent Safety Review of Registration Trial Data for Metastatic Ocular Melanoma: Recommended Continuation with no Trial Modification
Delcath Systems, Inc. (DCTH), an interventional oncology company focused on the treatment of primary and metastatic cancers of the liver, announces that the independent Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) of the Registration trial for Patients with Hepatic Dominant Ocular Melanoma (The FOCUS Trial) completed another pre-specified review of safety data for treated patients in the trial. In July, the Company announced that it has amended the protocol for the FOCUS trial, which is now enrolling as a single-arm, multi-center open label study. Safety data collected have not been modified as a result of the amendment, and safety data from both the randomized and single-arm protocols will be pooled in any analyses submitted to the Food & Drug Administration as part of a New Drug Application.
Delcath Announces Third Quarter Fiscal 2018 Financial Results
NEW YORK, Nov. 13, 2018 -- Delcath Systems, Inc. (OTCQB: DCTH), an interventional oncology company focused on the treatment of primary and metastatic liver cancers, announces.
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Sam Sidders
Castle Greeting Cards
Furstenburg On The Rhine Greeting Card
by Sam Sidders
Similar Designs More from Sam Sidders
greeting cards castle rhine germany ruin
paintings castle rhine germany ruin
Warren Thompson
Very beautiful painting...amazing sky.
"Furstenburg On The Rhine" by Sam Sidders 040520-WC �2004 S&E Enterprises, Gage, OK. 73843
About Sam Sidders
Sam is a native of rural northwest Oklahoma and still makes his home there. His work reflects not only his country roots, but also his travels through out the USA and Europe. His interest in art developed at an early age, but he didn't pursue it until after his graduation from high school in 1963. While serving in the Armed Forces, during the late 1960's, he spent a couple of years living in what was then "West" Germany and while there he took advantage of every opportunity to visit many parts of Western Europe, sketching and painting the people and landscapes of that part of the world. Many of his recent works were influenced by a return visit to Germany in 2003. After completion of his military service, Sam studied art at...
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Mel Gibson's Dad again says holocaust exaggerated
Postby Goethe » 1 decade 5 years ago (Thu Feb 19, 2004 12:45 pm)
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/co ... 02,00.html
Holocaust exaggerated: Gibson dad
From correspondents in New York
A WEEK before the United States release of Mel Gibson's controversial movie, The Passion of the Christ, the filmmaker's father has repeated claims the Holocaust was exaggerated.
Hutton Gibson's comments, made in a telephone interview with New York radio talk show host Steve Feuerstein, come at an awkward time for the actor-director who has been trying to deflect criticism from Jewish groups that his film might inflame anti-Semitic sentiment.
In his interview on WSNR radio's Speak Your Piece, to be broadcast on Monday, Hutton Gibson, argued that many European Jews counted as death camp victims of the Nazi regime had in fact fled to countries like Australia and the United States.
"It's all - maybe not all fiction - but most of it is," he said, adding that the gas chambers and crematoria at camps like Auschwitz would not have been capable of exterminating so many people.
"Do you know what it takes to get rid of a dead body? To cremate it?" he said. "It takes a litre of petrol and 20 minutes. Now, six million of them? They (the Germans) did not have the gas to do it. That's why they lost the war."
Gibson's father caused a furore last year when he made similar remarks in a New York Times article.
In a television interview with Diane Sawyer this week, Mel Gibson accused the Times of taking advantage of his father, and he warned Sawyer against broaching the subject again.
"He's my father. Gotta leave it alone Diane. Gotta leave it alone," Gibson said, while offering his own perspective on the Holocaust.
"Do I believe that there were concentration camps where defenceless and innocent Jews died cruelly under the Nazi regime? Of course I do; absolutely," he said. "It was an atrocity of monumental proportion."
During his lengthy radio interview, Hutton Gibson, 85, said Jews were out to create "one world religion and one world government" and outlined a conspiracy theory involving Jewish bankers, the US Federal Reserve and the Vatican, among others.
The Passion, which gets its US release on February 25, purports to be a faithful and graphic account of Christ's last 12 hours on earth.
Jewish leaders who have attended advance screenings have voiced concerns that its portrayal of the Jews' role in Christ's execution could stir up anti-Semitic feeling.
code yellow
Postby code yellow » 1 decade 5 years ago (Fri Feb 20, 2004 11:24 pm)
God bless Mel Gibson's father.How many other peolpe in America have been able to voice his opinion in open media.I hope he doesn't get any trouble from the jewish mafia le...I mean the jewish defense league.
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CDC: Property Worth Millions Unaccounted For - nothing new to the CDC - more theft
Thread starter muffin
http://www.thenewamerican.com/index...2-cdc-property-worth-millions-unaccounted-for
CDC: Property Worth Millions Unaccounted For Written by Raven Clabough
If one needs further proof of the ineptness of government agencies, one need look no further than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which reportedly lost millions of dollars worth of property in 2007. The CDC, while it does not dispute the claim, asserts that it has since located 99 percent of the lost property.
House Republicans Joe Barton of Texas and Greg Walden of Oregon requested that the Inspector General audit the CDC for its inventories after accusations arose that $22 million of its property had been lost or stolen. The audit of the $350 million in equipment belonging to the Centers was carried out in 2007.
Fox News reports, The report was released this week by the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services, the parent agency of the CDC. In 2007, the auditors checked on 200 randomly sampled items and found 15 were lost or not inventoried.
The Associated Press adds, The [government audit] says among the more than $8 million in property unaccounted for were a $1.8 million hard disk drive and a $978,000 video conferencing system.
CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden indicates that the CDC does not contest the reports conclusions and claims to have implemented a better management system that has helped to account for all of CDCs property this year. Frieden adds that 99 percent of the lost property was accounted for in 2009. Fox News adds,
The agency still hasnt explained what happened to the 15 pieces of missing equipment from 2007, auditors said. But a CDC spokeswoman on Wednesday said all but four of the items including the two most expensive ones have since been accounted for.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention faced similar issues in 1995. After being audited, the agency discovered that it could not account for over $5 million in property.
According to Fox News, while the CDC gets high marks for how well it does at its core mission of promoting health and investigating outbreaks of illness, it lacks incentive to maintain inventory on its property.
-->>>>Tom Schatz of Citizens Against Government Waste responded to the reports conclusions:
Its just a good thing they havent lost any diseases. There are a lot of agencies that do their job well, but they dont manage the little things very well. The Defense Department is notorious for losing all kinds of equipment, but they do a pretty good job defending the country.
The CDC was also under scrutiny in 1999 after Congress discovered that $23 million approved for research on chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) was spent on other things, and that the CDC attempted to falsify information about the spending. CDC researcher William Reeves reportedly revealed the misappropriation of the funds, prompting an audit by the Inspector General.
The 1999 report found that CDCs various centers, divisions and branches are able to arbitrarily charge indirect costs to some or all of their programs, with no assurance that those charges will be reasonable and consistent.
The most recent audit is unique to the Centers for Disease Control, as it is the only Health and Human Services agency to undergo such an investigation. Other HHS agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration, have not been subject to such audits.Photo: CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden
1999 CDC Spent $23 Million of CFS funds on other things - (For those that don't know)
Audit Shows CDC Misled Congress About Funds By Valerie Strauss
Friday, May 28, 1999; Page A33
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta spent much of the $23 million approved by Congress for research on chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) in recent years on other things and gave false information to Congress about the program, according to a new audit.
The episode has angered some lawmakers, especially Rep. John Edward Porter (R-Ill.), and prompted efforts within the CDC to establish new accounting controls to fix deficiencies identified by auditors. But questions are being raised by Porter and others about whether those efforts by the government's premier health agency are enough.
"I'm concerned about lying to Congress, lying to people who make the policies of the country," said Porter, who added that he is still discussing with new CDC Director Jeffrey P. Koplan steps he wants taken to rectify the problem. "We have not agreed and the matter remains open."
In response to the inspector general, June Gibbs Brown, Koplan wrote on April 21 that "the funds that were not expended for CFS were spent in extremely important disease areas, such as measles, poliomyelitis and human papillomavirus.
"While CDC is not legally prohibited from spending funds budgeted for CFS on other programs, we acknowledge the importance of complying with the intent of Congress and providing information to Congress," Koplan wrote.
The May audit, conducted by the Office of Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services, was undertaken after revelations were made last year by a CDC researcher, William Reeves. CDC is part of HHS.
Reeves, who as chief of the viral exanthems and herpesvirus branch of the CDC is directly responsible for the agency's chronic fatigue syndrome research program, reported last summer that millions of dollars Congress had given for research on the syndrome were being used to support research in other, unrelated diseases.
Congress allocated about $23 million from 1995 to 1998 for research into the syndrome, a debilitating disease characterized by profound fatigue and lack of stamina. Though the director of the CDC is allowed to transfer money from one research program to another, lower-level employees are not allowed to do so.
In his report to Congress, Reeves said that Brian Mahy, the CDC's division director and his immediate supervisor, had moved funds out of chronic fatigue syndrome research. Reeves said Mahy asked him to verify that $1.2 million in question had been used for chronic fatigue syndrome laboratory work--even though it was not true.
Reeves also reported that the former acting director of the CDC, Claire Broome, had told a congressional panel headed by Porter that the CDC had allocated $5.8 million for chronic fatigue syndrome for 1998 and that $3.4 million would directly support research in Reeves's branch. But, he said, his entire 1998 branch allocation from Mahy was $2.5 million. Reeves said he did not believe Broome knew she was given inaccurate information at the time.
Koplan and Mahy declined to be interviewed.
CDC spokeswoman Barbara Reynolds said: "CDC requested the audit from HHS when these [Reeves's] points were made apparent to them. And we believe the audit served its intended purpose. It did give us a sense of the scope of the problem and gave us corrective actions." She said she could not discuss whether disciplinary action was being taken against any CDC employee over the audit's findings.
The audit concluded that during fiscal years 1995 through 1998, of nearly $23 million, $9.8 million, or 43 percent, was incurred for chronic fatigue syndrome purposes.
Auditors said "we could not accept" $8.8 million, or 39 percent, because it was spent for activities unrelated to CFS. They could not "determine the applicability" of another $4.1 million, or 18 percent, of indirect costs because there was not sufficient documentation.
"We determined that CDC does not have adequate controls to ensure that direct costs charged at the program level are based upon the actual efforts of the involved personnel and the actual use of other resources," the audit said. "Lacking such controls, the Division Director [Mahy], who generally justified the transfer of CFS costs to ensure that other division programs were sufficiently funded, was able to transfer unrelated costs to the CFS program without appropriate analysis, documentation or justification."
The auditors also found that "CDC's various centers, divisions and branches are able to arbitrarily charge indirect costs to some or all of their programs, with no assurance that those charges will be reasonable and consistent."
CDC chief Koplan said the CDC would share a spending plan on chronic fatigue syndrome with the CFS Coordinating Committee, Congress and others; implement a training program for staff responsible for budget and accounting; and establish an internal review sought by the auditors.
But Porter, noting that lying to Congress is illegal, and others said that was not enough.
"I won't be relieved until I see what the agency does in terms of both restoring the money that was misspent and making sure the research is back on track because it has been derailed for five years," said Kim Kenney, executive director of the Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome Association of America. "And I want disciplinary action against the people responsible for such gross mismanagement of funds." Reeves, too, questioned whether a training program for managers was the answer. ((Right Bill. YOU needed training in how to spend viral money on psychobabble "studies"))"People doing these jobs are senior executives," he said. "Their entire job is to know the rules. . . . If one is doing this kind of thing on purpose, certainly a training and certification program is not going to fix it." Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company
Daughters High School Graduation
Upstate SC, USA
There just has to be joke in here somewhere!!!
I bet they did find it! At "Dave's Pawn Shop" on Main St.!! They might have even found a large centrifuge at the local Meth Lab (the one behind the police station)
Good one August!
I do believe that is is way past time that Congress cut the CDC's budget to the bone.
It is NOT just about their games with CFS and the damage done to us, but all the other waste, fraud and abuse by the CDC. I really have seen very little of value coming from them except the one in a blue moon recall and hunt for food or contaminants that cause illness. That's about all I have seen from them.
Also so not a fan of the push on Swine Flu and the vaccines. Ditto for the faked out West Nile and SARS that went no where. No where because they were just marketing schemes to get more funding - nothing more.
So not a fan of the CDC as a whole. Time to cut their budget and put in massive, strangling oversight. Being down in Atlanta isn't a good thing for a Federal org of that size.
*GG*
muffin said:
I am not a fan either, and I think Millions of Americans might have the appetite for this? Look at the recent elections!
PS If they are not going to help us and do their job, then why keep them around?!
And of course all the misappropriation documented in Osler's Web- which amounted to most of the CDC's "CFS" budget from 1985-1995 was NEVER INVESTIGATED. Noone was ever prosecuted or even disciplined for ANY of the misappropriation, even that documented in the investigation above re 1996-1999 funds (except for CDC director Koplan for making those offensive remarks, above, but he didn't have any role in the misappropriation).
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Turkmenistan's State Of Perpetual Mobilization
To watch Turkmen state television is to know no citizens love their president and enjoy regaling him with spectacles more than those of Turkmenistan.
Every month, thousands of people assemble at stadiums or parade grounds to participate in carefully choreographed festivals that celebrate their country and its leader, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov.
The official calendar lists 24 national celebrations, ranging from the "Day of Turkmen Workers of Culture and Art" to "Turkmen Melon Day." But there are scores of other mandatory events, such as the "Day Of Neighborliness," which also must be observed in every town and village. In some months, state newspapers have announced as many as 64 occasions to be celebrated during a four-week period.
Government employees and students � the two most frequently drafted groups for the celebrations � are left with little free time of their own.
"For the past seven to eight years, because of the mass events and festivals, people who work for the government have forgotten what having time of your own on weekends and holidays is like," says one Turkmen, who identifies himself only as Arslan. "For example, every weekend there is an event, from national bike-riding day to a visit by the president. On such days people wake up at six in the morning [and participate] until around 11 in the evening, when the president leaves again. Everyone has to be on his feet outside, no matter whether it is hot or cold. There is no way for people to keep busy with things they like, such as reading books or relaxing."
Once a person is selected to participate by an office or school committee, the only way to escape a celebration is through a medical exemption. Otherwise, one goes straight into days or weeks of rehearsals in which thousands of people are drilled simultaneously to perform synchronized steps. The steps may range from dance moves to holding up colored cards simultaneously with thousands of other people.
Strict Rules
During the rehearsals � and the performance itself � the rules are strict. No water bottles. No food. No talking to those around you.
One student, who only gives her first name, Humay, is a veteran of such rituals.
"I have participated in many of these events," she says. "Generally speaking, they are all unnecessary and no one wants to take part. For example, when there was an independence day celebration [on October 27], it usually was organized in the evening, so we were taken every evening for rehearsals, several days in advance, and had to spend all day out in the cold, just sitting there hungry and thirsty."
The ban on drinking can have dire consequences, especially for children. One student, who gives her name only as Bahar, remembers contracting dysentery after she and her schoolmates quenched their thirst from a public fountain in Ashgabat.
"It used to be extremely difficult in summer times, because we were not given drinking water," she says. "I remember a situation when I was in the fourth grade and we were standing for so many hours without water that when it was over we ran to the nearest public fountain and drank the [unclean] water directly from the pool."
Often participants have to wear clothes that are inappropriate for the weather as they take part in pageants wearing national costumes.
Women may stand in colorful summer dresses in the middle of Turkmenistan's harsh winter and afterward fall seriously ill. Men may wear rustic winter coats and sheepskin hats in the heat of summer and sometimes collapse from dehydration. They must constantly smile at the cameras and an audience of citizens who, themselves, are required to attend.
Such mass celebrations are not new to Turkmenistan. They were fostered by authoritarian President Saparmurat Niyazov � Berdymukhammedov's predecessor � who continued the tradition of Soviet state spectacles after the country's independence from Moscow in 1991.
Niyazov used the celebrations to help create a personality cult that also included mandatory school study of "Rukhnama," his book of personal musings.
But correspondents in Turkmenistan say Berdymukhammedov, who came to power upon Niyazov's death in 2006, favors still more frequent and elaborate public celebrations than his predecessor.
State-run media declared in 2012 that Turkmenistan had entered a new "era of supreme happiness" in the wake of Berdymukhammedov's landslide reelection � and public celebrations are key to supporting that message.
"There has to be this constant show of success, of prosperity, and of enjoyment of being the nation that you are," says John MacCloud, an expert on Central Asia at the London-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting. "You need intense political pressure to maintain that kind of narrative of a state that is not only wonderful but getting better. We saw it under Stalin in the 1930s, where oppression was matched with these joyous stories and mass ecstasy, and we see the same attempt in North Korea, and we saw it to an extent in [Nicolae] Ceausescu's Romania."
But if the mass celebrations serve the Turkmen government's purpose, they place a heavy burden on the population.
Not only do Turkmen citizens lose their private time to the events, they also must pay out of their own pockets for the costumes many of the celebrations require. Teachers order students to bring money from home for clothes and accoutrements, then turn the money over to state ministries responsible for supplying the goods.
At times, the expenses go far beyond a new three-piece suit for boys or a new national dress for girls � purchases already burdensome for poorer families. They can also include buying a tree sapling or a new bicycle � the choice essentially depends on whether the parade one is drafted for is to celebrate National Tree Day or National Bicycling Day.
Source: RF/ERL
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@fullertontfxc
2013 Titan Indoor Track and Field Season in Review
2013 Full Season Statistics
For the Titans' Indoor Track and Field program, the 2013 season was certainly one people can feel good about, as the squad managed to break four school records, one meet record, and boasted 18 top-four finishes in just four meets.
FullertonTitans.com now takes a look back at the 2013 Titans:
Sprinters and Hurdlers
Ashley Sims, Katie Wilson, Deena Pierce were the clear leaders of this productive group, as the three combined to break three school-best marks.
Sims collected two top-four finishes in the 55-meter dash, including a first place finish at the Run for the Dream Invitational, after recording a school-record breaking time of 7.11. She also ran a team-best time of 7.68 in the 60-meter dash at the NAU Invitational and a team-best mark of 24.91 in the 200-meter dash, also at the NAU Invitational.
Wilson broke a school record of her own, placing second in the 600-meter dash, while posting a time of 1:25.06 at the Run for the Dream Invitational. She also recorded a team-best time of 55.61 in the 400-meter dash at the Husky Classic.
Pierce broke the school record in the 55-meter hurdles, as she recorded a time of 8.12 and placed second at the Run for the Dream Invitational. She also recorded a team-best mark in the 60-meter hurdle, with a time of 8.86 at the NAU Invitational.
The 4x400 relay team produced its best finish of the season at the NAU Invitational, as the group of Wilson, Morgan Thompson, Sims, and Tenia Sebastian led the Titans to a first place finish with a time of 3:51.46.
Distance Runners
The Titans saw success with this group as well with Lexie Bravo breaking the school record in the 5000-meter in her very first time running the event, recording a time of 18:02.99 at the Husky Classic.
Katie Bathgate and Lauren McIntyre both broke previous meet records in the 3000-meter at the Run for the Dream Invitational, as they recorded times of 10:11.23 and 10:14.94 respectively.
Ana Valdovinos ran a team-best time of 5:13:07 in the mile run at the Husky Classic, while Tijerra Lynch recorded a team-best mark of 2:27.15 in the 800-meter run at the Run for the Dream Invitational to round out the top performances in the group.
Throwers, Jumpers, and Pole Vault
Jasmyne Davis, Amanda Mercado, and Kara Kalmar led this group, as Davis recorded team-bests in both the triple (39-00.25) and the long jump (17-02.25) at the Husky Classic.
Mercado managed to record team-bests in the weight throw and shot put. She recorded a toss of 38-04.75 in the shot put and placed ninth at the Run for the Dream Invitational, while she finished seventh in the weight throw at the NAU Invitational with a toss of 46-09.50.
Kalmar represented the Titans in the pole vault, and recorded a season best leap of 10-11.75, while placing seventh at the Run for the Dream Invitational.
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Contact us jolearon_822t8is9 2016-07-03T22:02:48+00:00
Jole Aron – jole@geekosis.com / @jolearon on Twitter
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Alex Farto aka VHILS
Portuguese artist Alexandre Farto (b. 1987) has been interacting visually with the urban environment under the name of Vhils since his days as a prolific graffiti writer in the early- to mid-2000s.
His groundbreaking bas-relief carving technique – which forms the basis of the Scratching the Surface project and was first presented to the public at the VSP group exhibition in Lisbon in 2007 and at the Cans Festival in London the following year –, has been hailed as one of the most compelling approaches to art created in the streets in the last decade.
This striking form of visual poetry, showcased around the world in both indoor and outdoor settings, has been described as brutal and complex, yet imbued with a simplicity that speaks to the core of human emotions. An ongoing reflection on identity, on life in contemporary urban societies and their saturated environments, it explores themes such as the struggle between the aspirations of the individual and the demands of everyday life, or the erosion of cultural uniqueness in the face of the dominant model of globalised development and the increasingly uniform reality it has been imposing around the world. It speaks of effacement but also of resistance, of destruction yet also of beauty in this overwhelming setting, exploring the connections and contrasts, similarities and differences, between global and local realities.
Vhils grew up in Seixal, an industrialised suburb across the river from Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, and was deeply influenced by the transformations brought on by the intensive urban development the country underwent in the 1980s and 1990s. He was particularly inspired by the way city walls absorb the social and historical changes that take place around them. Applying his original methods of creative destruction, Vhils digs into the surface layers of our material culture like a contemporary urban archaeologist, exposing what lies beyond the superficiality of things, making visible the invisible and restoring meaning and beauty to the discarded dimensions buried beneath.
Since 2005, he has presented his work in over 30 countries around the world in solo and group exhibitions, site-specific art interventions, artistic events and projects in various contexts – from working with communities in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, to collaborations with reputed art institutions such as the EDP Foundation (Lisbon), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Barbican Centre (London), CAFA Art Museum (Beijing), or the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (San Diego), among others. An avid experimentalist, Vhils has been developing his personal aesthetics in a plurality of media besides his signature carving technique: from stencil painting to metal etching, from pyrotechnic explosions and video to sculptural installations. He has also directed several music videos, short films, and one stage production.
His unique approach and artwork have been garnering critical acclaim around the globe.
Click here for a video on Alexandro Farto
Follow Vhils on Instagram
Visit Alex Farto’s Website
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Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh
a game by Sierra
Editor Rating: 7/10, based on 1 review
Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh is the second in the popular series of horror-related games by Sierra. This "sequel" of sorts doesn't have any relation to its predecessor beyond the title and genre. The stories differ greatly, and this game has completely different characters than the first.
In Phantasmagoria 2, you are Curtis Craig, a normal guy with a steady girlfriend and a cramped apartment, and, oh yeah, a slight history of mental problems. Throughout the game, you will need to work on your relationships and resolve your mental issues by interacting with your coworkers and your pet rat, Blob. You'll also have the help of your psychiatrist, Dr. Harburg. If you're good enough at working through your problems, you may come face to face with the strange force that created the schizophrenic man you've become.
You'll play Phantasmagoria 2 mostly from the third-person perspective, watching videos of Curtis as you help him to interact with his surroundings. The typical point-and-click controls are easy to learn and use, and any items you'll need to manipulate will be highlighted for you. The one and only place where the controls were not intuitive -- and it was a problem -- was in the final chapter, when I had to right-click on a certain area to proceed (and you never use the right-click feature anywhere else in the game). Eventually, I mistakenly right-clicked and got through the "trap." But Sierra should have given me a better clue earlier on that I might need to click the right mouse button on some game objects. The best control feature was the "instant resurrection:" in certain tricky spots, you'll have the option to try the scene again without reloading your saved game.
The puzzles in Phantasmagoria 2 weren't, for the most part, really puzzles, but seemed more like tasks with video rewards. Some of these tasks were tedious, and a great many were also fairly obvious. In most cases, you know what you're trying to do, and you just need to figure out the sequence of events that will get you through the task at hand. For example, you need the wallet from under the sofa ... you have a granola bar and Blob, your rat friend. Hmmm. Maybe if I throw Blob under the sofa, he'll grab the wallet and I can tempt him with the food to get him to bring it to me. This is okay, but why can't I move the sofa or crouch down to get the wallet? This is one problem with the gameplay; there are many such tasks that have only one solution, and it isn't always what common sense might dictate.
While most of the game's storyline flowed pretty well (for a story centered around a schizophrenic), there were times when I said to myself, "Huh?" The worst of these times concerned the ending sequence that seemed to come out of left field. I won't give away the story's conclusion, but suffice it to say that I didn't expect what happened, and it only made a tiny bit of sense upon reflection. But also, there were so many hallucination scenes, dream sequences and flashbacks that I never really knew where I was or what was happening in the big picture of the storyline. I just kept clicking, hoping that clarity would eventually form out of the chaos.
The majority of the story is told through the use of videos that you watch (and don't interact with). Usually, these videos will be the "reward" for a correctly-performed sequence of events or the correct solution to a puzzle. I was able to skip through videos I had already seen and also replay any videos I missed by using the nice video playback feature.
I found the video quality to be slightly grainy at times, but otherwise fine. One disappointment was the blackout that occasionally happened while a video was loading. It kind of pulled me out of the game when my screen went black and I lost touch with the action. One thing I liked, though, was that the still scenes usually had some kind of motion going on. For instance, when talking to Dr. Harburg, she would now and then straighten her hair, adding to the realism of the scene. The acting itself was well done overall, but occasionally bordered on the melodramatic.
The sound effects in Phantasmagoria 2 were well recorded and added realism to the scenes: the water cooler bubbled, the telephone rang, the computer beeped when I got new e-mail. Everything you would expect, but it's funny how many games leave out the little things that make for a believable environment. The music fit in nicely, but never got in the way. Usually it enhanced the feel of different areas: e.g. in the S&M bar the music was loud and rowdy, while in the restaurant it was more subdued.
The CD booklet explains game controls, options and some strategies, but no story is mentioned and nothing else of real value presents itself (unless you need tech support). I would have liked at least a rundown of the characters and a short background on Curtis.
Parental Warning
This is a graphically violent game. It is suggested for ages seventeen and older and includes an option for "less intensity," where you can make the real gore only accessible by password. Still, though, it's violent; much of the violence is shown during hallucinations or dreams, and therefore seems slightly less real than it would otherwise. Many of the violent scenes seem to have been added for pure shock value alone, having little to do with the game action or story.
486 DX4-100, 12 MB RAM, SVGA video card, 16 MB hard drive space, sound card with DAC, 4X CD-ROM drive, Windows 95, mouse
Recommended P-75, 16 MB RAM
Reviewed on: P-120, 16 MB RAM, 4X CD-ROM drive, Diamond Stealth 64 video card
Overall, Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh was an entertaining game, although not one of the more challenging. I would recommend it only to those with a strong stomach, a love of the macabre, and some time to kill -- but it might not be enough of a "game" for the experienced gamer.
Download Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh
Other Games by Sierra
Starsiege
Homeworld 2
Mission Force Cyberstorm
Download Return to Castle Wolfenstein
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Convert Your Points Into Free Steam Game 35MM
Post-apocalyptic story about two travelers who set out on a long journey in the wasteland, left by people after the global epidemic. The disaster destroyed much of the world's population, the infrastructure went wrong and the common life remained only in memories. The times when a human has adapted the environment for himself have end and now, in order to survive, he will have to adapt to changes. You will have to play the character whose path runs through the deserted towns and cities in Russia, fields and forests of a vast country and even a secret underground facility. Who are we, where are we from and where do we go – we will be lucky to know it only at the end!
Batman: Arkham City GOTY Edition
Battleborn Firstborn Pack
Mars or Die!
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Posted on 25 March 2015 by Advocate
A New Feminism
The month of March has been Women’s History Month in the United States since 1981. It was officialized in the context of second-wave feminism, particularly after the growing importance of Women’s History Week over the previous decade. Much like the so-called Black History Month and Hispanic Heritage Month, in February and September/October respectively, the United States government, in conjunction with civic organizations, tends to use Women’s History Month not as part of the repertoire of an emancipatory project, but rather as a tool for reinforcing dominant ideologies and mores.
Womanhood is not a homogenous social caste, nor should it be treated as such, and the rise of third-wave feminism partially developed as a realization of this. Yet, the prevailing order, acquiescent to the fractional “victories” of first and second-wave feminism, seems to be sufficiently happy with the status of women today. And why wouldn’t the elite feel as such? There are myriad examples of women in positions of not only influence, but of power as well. We need only look as far as Hillary Rodham Clinton, former United States Secretary of State, Senator, and likely Democratic presidential candidate, Melissa Mayer, the CEO of Yahoo!, Ursula Burns, the CEO of Xerox, or the media mogul Oprah Winfrey. Are these women feminists? No doubt they are, with the exception of Mayer who has denounced feminism, stating that she doesn’t “have sort of the militant drive” that the term engenders. But on the surface, she along with the others mentioned above are feminists in the sense that they are in favor of equal rights between men and women. This is of course the most superficial definition of feminism – the believed social parity between the sexes (gender parity is a different problem) – one which on the surface, most people, at least those who aren’t out and out patriarchal chauvinists, can endorse.
It is this definition of feminism that allows for the persistence of structural sexism and misogyny in society. Very much like the question of race and class, the question of sex (in addition to the larger problem of gender) is far from a satisfactory solution in the United States. Are the aforementioned elite women oppressed under capitalism in this country? They most certainly are, Burns and Winfrey doubly so as they are of African descent, but they are also part of the problem in the struggle for women’s liberation. Feminism, as a core discursive and analytic category, is also an obstacle to the liberation of women, particularly if womanhood is presented as a monolithic social category with little to no differentiation. Of course certain individuals who describe themselves as feminists push against this notion, yet their work is a drop in the proverbial bucket. The fact remains that for the most popular swaths of the population in the United States, feminism simply means equality between man and woman. Equality, either de facto or de jure, is not sufficient for women’s liberation, it is merely a reformist measure enacted to bring (certain) women into the fold, into the corridors of power and prestige. On the other hand, women’s liberation endeavors to emancipate women from their decidedly subservient and subsidiary position to the man.
The terminology of Women’s liberation was undoubtedly more popular during the 1960s and 1970s, even if amongst a minority of people involved in the wider feminist movement. Today it is nearly nonexistent within popular parlance, and is also the case to a degree in academic as well as activist communities. Women’s liberation in sum is the destruction of all social fetters which restrain women in such a manner that benefit men. Furthermore, the ideology of women’s liberation does not assume that all women are, or should be equal. In fact they aren’t and they shouldn’t be. Similar to the idea that the best method of remedying racial disparities is to institute some sort of “Black capitalism,” the current manifestations of feminism do not seek to unshackle women, rather the proponents of such ideas seek to ingratiate themselves and women in general within the predetermined and predefined structures of the capitalist socio-political structure in which we all live. This is more than a semantic or lexical variance, it is a question of program, strategy, and tactics. Women’s liberation, therefore, is a distinct and divergent social project from that of feminism. If feminism is for (what is now only superficial) equality, women’s liberation is for the drastic reorganization of sexual and gender relations with attendant concern to intersecting problems around race and class. The White working-class man is of more value to the project of emancipating women than any of the previously mentioned women. This isn’t to say that women “need” men for their emancipation through any sort of inferiority, but rather that certain women alongside certain men, those from the most oppressed sectors of our society (blue-collar workers, the working poor, migrant laborers, sections of the middle-class), are the only ones who through joint struggle can smash patriarchy rather than inserting a few token individuals into the existent matrix of power. The wholesale destruction of patriarchy, as opposed to mitigating its social ramifications, entails coming up against those that consider themselves as feminists. This is a battle of ideas that cannot solely be waged in the academy. It must be contested in the public sphere if there is to ever be hope of liberating not just women, but men and gender nonconforming people from the encumbrances, oppression, and ostracization inherent of social relation in the United States.
The failure of feminism in popular culture is evinced in numerous ways. The 2012 documentary Invisible War is a prime example. The film is about the incredibly high rates of sexual abuse and rape in the military and the culture that disavows its existence or tries to cover it up. While well researched, shot, and certainly worth watching, the film does nothing to interrogate the essential issues at the center of an imperialist military apparatus. Rather, it presents the instances of rape, sexual abuse, and sexism more generally as something that must be rectified if the United States military is to function. It does in fact function quite well and giving women “equality” in the US armed forces does nothing to advance the cause for liberation. Women cannot currently serve in the Special Forces (Navy SEALs, Army Rangers, Delta Force, Green Beret’s, Marine Force Recon, Joint Special Operations Command, and etcetera), feminists would, and have called for them to be able to do so. Certainly it is historically proven that women are as equally effective in combat as men (Spetsnaz, Israeli Defense Forces, and Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces being some of many examples), and certain feminists support such measures in the interest of “equality.” Yet, such support is predicated on the notion that criticizing the wider implementation of the military complex should not go beyond sexual equality at home or in the barracks. The 2014 CNN documentary film, Lady of Valor (a companion of sorts to the 2013 book Warrior Princess), which chronicles the sexual/gender transition of Kristen Beck, a former Navy SEAL (previously known as Christopher). The overall theme of this film is an exploration of Beck’s transition and how certain segments of the population denigrated her after transitioning. When Beck coldly discusses killing Afghanis and Iraqis it isn’t so much of a concern, though when she experiences virtual and real-life hate, it is presented as a problem that needs redress immediately. Of course transphobia and transphobic violence need to be addressed, but to do so in a way that glorifies and cements the place of imperialist ventures is all that popular feminism in the United States seems to be able to muster.
The problem of feminism is not restricted to the confines of the United States either. Emma Watson’s 20 September speech in 2014 is case in point. The United Nations’ “HeForShe” campaign is the ultimate manifestation of this sort of liberal feminism that is increasingly being popularized to the detriment of most women, all in the quest for some opaquely defined conception of equality. Not only does the very title of the initiative obliquely position women as lesser than men, she likens previous forms of struggle for women’s rights as tantamount to “man-hating.” Militant variations of feminism from the 1960’s through today are the social movements that have come the closest (they are still very far from success) to toppling the patriarchal system that is seemingly natural throughout the United States and the world at large. It is only through such “man-hating,” and by that Watson (and Mayer for that matter) means militancy, that misogyny as culture, as politics, and as social reality will be sacrificed upon the altar of liberatory “progress.”
The UN’s co-optation of International Women’s Day since 1975 is another example of the failure of the feminist drive for equality at the expense of liberation. Originally celebrated by New York socialists in 1909, the holiday became an official day for working women on the heels of the triumphant Bolshevik Revolution some ten years after. At the insistence of Alexandra Kollontai and Vladimir Lenin, International Women’s Day became a holiday across successive communist and workers’ states in the twentieth century. Originally called International Working Women’s Day, the original militancy of the celebration in the quest for women’s liberation has been stripped of its class and political content in the contemporary era. Like the advocates of feminism at the UN, many of those in the United States simply posit that women should be equal. Equal to what or to whom? Equal to what end? Women’s liberation, while not a panacea in and of itself to patriarchal cultures or thinking, is a sounder basis from which to continue the project of emancipation. Indeed, if the old maxim that the “last shall be first, and the first last” is to come to pass, something greater than feminist “equality” needs to motivate our struggles.
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Home » Environment » Noam Chomsky: The Doomsday Clock Is on the Verge of Striking 12
Noam Chomsky: The Doomsday Clock Is on the Verge of Striking 12
Jun 13, 2016 by Casey Coates Danson
Nuclear weapons, climate change, and the prospects for survival.
By Noam Chomsky / TomDispatch VIA ALTERNET
This piece originally appeared on TomDispatch.
He hadn’t been in office three months when he went to Prague, capital of the Czech Republic, and delivered remarks on the world’s nuclear dilemma. They proved to be of a sort that might normally have come from an antinuclear activist or someone in the then just-budding climate change movement, not the president of the United States. While calling for the use of new forms of energy, Barack Obama spoke with rare presidential eloquence of the dangers of a planet in which nuclear weapons were spreading and of how that spread, if unchecked, would make their use “inevitable.” He called for a “world without nuclear weapons” and said bluntly, “As a nuclear power, as the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon, the United States has a moral responsibility to act.” He even promised to take “concrete steps” to begin to build just such a world without such weapons.
Seven years later, the record of America’s first and possibly only abolitionist president is in. The U.S. nuclear arsenal — at 4,571 warheads (far below the almost 19,000 in existence in 1991 when the Soviet Union imploded) — remains large enough to destroy several Earth-sized planets. According to the Federation of American Scientists, the latest Pentagon figures on that arsenal indicate that “the Obama administration has reduced the U.S. stockpile less than any other post-Cold War administration, and that the number of warheads dismantled in 2015 was [the] lowest since President Obama took office.” To put that in perspective, Obama has done significantly less than George W. Bush when it comes to drawing down the existing American arsenal.
At the same time, our abolitionist president is now presiding over the so-called modernization of that same arsenal, a massive three-decade project now estimated to cost at least a trillion dollars — before, of course, the usual cost overruns set in. In the process, new weapons systems will be produced, the first “smart” nukes created (think: “precision” weapons with far more minimal “yields,” which means first-use battlefield nukes), and god knows what else.
He does have one antinuclear success, his agreement with Iran ensuring that country will not produce such a weapon. Still, such a dismal record from a president seemingly determined to set the U.S. on the abolitionist path tells us something about the nuclear dilemma and the grip the national security state has on his thinking (and assumedly that of any future president).
It’s no small horror that, on this planet of ours, humanity continues to foster two apocalyptic forces, each of which — one in a relative instant and the other over many decades — could cripple or destroy human life as we know it. That should be sobering indeed for all of us. It’s the subject that Noam Chomsky takes up in this essay from his remarkable new book, Who Rules the World?-Tom Engelhardt
The Doomsday Clock
Nuclear Weapons, Climate Change, and the Prospects for Survival
By Noam Chomsky
[This essay is excerpted from Noam Chomsky’s new book, Who Rules the World? (Metropolitan Books).]
In January 2015, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists advanced its famous Doomsday Clock to three minutes before midnight, a threat level that had not been reached for 30 years. The Bulletin’s statement explaining this advance toward catastrophe invoked the two major threats to survival: nuclear weapons and “unchecked climate change.” The call condemned world leaders, who “have failed to act with the speed or on the scale required to protect citizens from potential catastrophe,” endangering “every person on Earth [by] failing to perform their most important duty — ensuring and preserving the health and vitality of human civilization.”
Since then, there has been good reason to consider moving the hands even closer to doomsday.
As 2015 ended, world leaders met in Paris to address the severe problem of “unchecked climate change.” Hardly a day passes without new evidence of how severe the crisis is. To pick almost at random, shortly before the opening of the Paris conference, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab released a study that both surprised and alarmed scientists who have been studying Arctic ice. The study showed that a huge Greenland glacier, Zachariae Isstrom, “broke loose from a glaciologically stable position in 2012 and entered a phase of accelerated retreat,” an unexpected and ominous development. The glacier “holds enough water to raise global sea level by more than 18 inches (46 centimeters) if it were to melt completely. And now it’s on a crash diet, losing 5 billion tons of mass every year. All that ice is crumbling into the North Atlantic Ocean.”
Yet there was little expectation that world leaders in Paris would “act with the speed or on the scale required to protect citizens from potential catastrophe.” And even if by some miracle they had, it would have been of limited value, for reasons that should be deeply disturbing.
When the agreement was approved in Paris, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who hosted the talks, announced that it is “legally binding.” That may be the hope, but there are more than a few obstacles that are worthy of careful attention.
In all of the extensive media coverage of the Paris conference, perhaps the most important sentences were these, buried near the end of a long New York Times analysis: “Traditionally, negotiators have sought to forge a legally binding treaty that needed ratification by the governments of the participating countries to have force. There is no way to get that in this case, because of the United States. A treaty would be dead on arrival on Capitol Hill without the required two-thirds majority vote in the Republican-controlled Senate. So the voluntary plans are taking the place of mandatory, top-down targets.” And voluntary plans are a guarantee of failure.
“Because of the United States.” More precisely, because of the Republican Party, which by now is becoming a real danger to decent human survival.
The conclusions are underscored in another Times piece on the Paris agreement. At the end of a long story lauding the achievement, the article notes that the system created at the conference “depends heavily on the views of the future world leaders who will carry out those policies. In the United States, every Republican candidate running for president in 2016 has publicly questioned or denied the science of climate change, and has voiced opposition to Mr. Obama’s climate change policies. In the Senate, Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, who has led the charge against Mr. Obama’s climate change agenda, said, ‘Before his international partners pop the champagne, they should remember that this is an unattainable deal based on a domestic energy plan that is likely illegal, that half the states have sued to halt, and that Congress has already voted to reject.’”
Both parties have moved to the right during the neoliberal period of the past generation. Mainstream Democrats are now pretty much what used to be called “moderate Republicans.” Meanwhile, the Republican Party has largely drifted off the spectrum, becoming what respected conservative political analyst Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein call a “radical insurgency” that has virtually abandoned normal parliamentary politics. With the rightward drift, the Republican Party’s dedication to wealth and privilege has become so extreme that its actual policies could not attract voters, so it has had to seek a new popular base, mobilized on other grounds: evangelical Christians who await the Second Coming, nativists who fear that “they” are taking our country away from us, unreconstructed racists, people with real grievances who gravely mistake their causes, and others like them who are easy prey to demagogues and can readily become a radical insurgency.
In recent years, the Republican establishment had managed to suppress the voices of the base that it has mobilized. But no longer. By the end of 2015 the establishment was expressing considerable dismay and desperation over its inability to do so, as the Republican base and its choices fell out of control.
Republican elected officials and contenders for the next presidential election expressed open contempt for the Paris deliberations, refusing to even attend the proceedings. The three candidates who led in the polls at the time — Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and Ben Carson — adopted the stand of the largely evangelical base: humans have no impact on global warming, if it is happening at all.
The other candidates reject government action to deal with the matter. Immediately after Obama spoke in Paris, pledging that the United States would be in the vanguard seeking global action, the Republican-dominated Congress voted to scuttle his recent Environmental Protection Agency rules to cut carbon emissions. As the press reported, this was “a provocative message to more than 100 [world] leaders that the American president does not have the full support of his government on climate policy” — a bit of an understatement. Meanwhile Lamar Smith, Republican head of the House’s Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, carried forward his jihad against government scientists who dare to report the facts.
The message is clear. American citizens face an enormous responsibility right at home.
A companion story in the New York Times reports that “two-thirds of Americans support the United States joining a binding international agreement to curb growth of greenhouse gas emissions.” And by a five-to-three margin, Americans regard the climate as more important than the economy. But it doesn’t matter. Public opinion is dismissed. That fact, once again, sends a strong message to Americans. It is their task to cure the dysfunctional political system, in which popular opinion is a marginal factor. The disparity between public opinion and policy, in this case, has significant implications for the fate of the world.
We should, of course, have no illusions about a past “golden age.” Nevertheless, the developments just reviewed constitute significant changes. The undermining of functioning democracy is one of the contributions of the neoliberal assault on the world’s population in the past generation. And this is not happening just in the U.S.; in Europe the impact may be even worse.
The Black Swan We Can Never See
Let us turn to the other (and traditional) concern of the atomic scientists who adjust the Doomsday Clock: nuclear weapons. The current threat of nuclear war amply justifies their January 2015 decision to advance the clock two minutes toward midnight. What has happened since reveals the growing threat even more clearly, a matter that elicits insufficient concern, in my opinion.
The last time the Doomsday Clock reached three minutes before midnight was in 1983, at the time of the Able Archer exercises of the Reagan administration; these exercises simulated attacks on the Soviet Union to test their defense systems. Recently released Russian archives reveal that the Russians were deeply concerned by the operations and were preparing to respond, which would have meant, simply: The End.
We have learned more about these rash and reckless exercises, and about how close the world was to disaster, from U.S. military and intelligence analyst Melvin Goodman, who was CIA division chief and senior analyst at the Office of Soviet Affairs at the time. “In addition to the Able Archer mobilization exercise that alarmed the Kremlin,” Goodman writes, “the Reagan administration authorized unusually aggressive military exercises near the Soviet border that, in some cases, violated Soviet territorial sovereignty. The Pentagon’s risky measures included sending U.S. strategic bombers over the North Pole to test Soviet radar, and naval exercises in wartime approaches to the USSR where U.S. warships had previously not entered. Additional secret operations simulated surprise naval attacks on Soviet targets.”
We now know that the world was saved from likely nuclear destruction in those frightening days by the decision of a Russian officer, Stanislav Petrov, not to transmit to higher authorities the report of automated detection systems that the USSR was under missile attack. Accordingly, Petrov takes his place alongside Russian submarine commander Vasili Arkhipov, who, at a dangerous moment of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, refused to authorize the launching of nuclear torpedoes when the subs were under attack by U.S. destroyers enforcing a quarantine.
Other recently revealed examples enrich the already frightening record. Nuclear security expert Bruce Blair reports that “the closest the U.S. came to an inadvertent strategic launch decision by the President happened in 1979, when a NORAD early warning training tape depicting a full-scale Soviet strategic strike inadvertently coursed through the actual early warning network. National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski was called twice in the night and told the U.S. was under attack, and he was just picking up the phone to persuade President Carter that a full-scale response needed to be authorized right away, when a third call told him it was a false alarm.”
This newly revealed example brings to mind a critical incident of 1995, when the trajectory of a U.S.-Norwegian rocket carrying scientific equipment resembled the path of a nuclear missile. This elicited Russian concerns that quickly reached President Boris Yeltsin, who had to decide whether to launch a nuclear strike.
Blair adds other examples from his own experience. In one case, at the time of the 1967 Middle East war, “a carrier nuclear-aircraft crew was sent an actual attack order instead of an exercise/training nuclear order.” A few years later, in the early 1970s, the Strategic Air Command in Omaha “retransmitted an exercise… launch order as an actual real-world launch order.” In both cases code checks had failed; human intervention prevented the launch. “But you get the drift here,” Blair adds. “It just wasn’t that rare for these kinds of snafus to occur.”
Blair made these comments in reaction to a report by airman John Bordne that has only recently been cleared by the U.S. Air Force. Bordne was serving on the U.S. military base in Okinawa in October 1962, at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis and a moment of serious tensions in Asia as well. The U.S. nuclear alert system had been raised to DEFCON 2, one level below DEFCON 1, when nuclear missiles can be launched immediately. At the peak of the crisis, on October 28th, a missile crew received authorization to launch its nuclear missiles, in error. They decided not to, averting likely nuclear war and joining Petrov and Arkhipov in the pantheon of men who decided to disobey protocol and thereby saved the world.
As Blair observed, such incidents are not uncommon. One recent expert study found dozens of false alarms every year during the period reviewed, 1977 to 1983; the study concluded that the range is 43 to 255 per year. The author of the study, Seth Baum, summarizes with appropriate words: “Nuclear war is the black swan we can never see, except in that brief moment when it is killing us. We delay eliminating the risk at our own peril. Now is the time to address the threat, because now we are still alive.”
These reports, like those in Eric Schlosser’s book Command and Control, keep mostly to U.S. systems. The Russian ones are doubtless much more error-prone. That is not to mention the extreme danger posed by the systems of others, notably Pakistan.
“A War Is No Longer Unthinkable”
Sometimes the threat has not been accident, but adventurism, as in the case of Able Archer. The most extreme case was the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, when the threat of disaster was all too real. The way it was handled is shocking; so is the manner in which it is commonly interpreted.
With this grim record in mind, it is useful to look at strategic debates and planning. One chilling case is the Clinton-era 1995 STRATCOM study “Essentials of Post-Cold War Deterrence.” The study calls for retaining the right of first strike, even against nonnuclear states. It explains that nuclear weapons are constantly used, in the sense that they “cast a shadow over any crisis or conflict.” It also urges a “national persona” of irrationality and vindictiveness to intimidate the world.
Current doctrine is explored in the lead article in the journal International Security, one of the most authoritative in the domain of strategic doctrine. The authors explain that the United States is committed to “strategic primacy” — that is, insulation from retaliatory strike. This is the logic behind Obama’s “new triad” (strengthening submarine and land-based missiles and the bomber force), along with missile defense to counter a retaliatory strike. The concern raised by the authors is that the U.S. demand for strategic primacy might induce China to react by abandoning its “no first use” policy and by expanding its limited deterrent. The authors think that they will not, but the prospect remains uncertain. Clearly the doctrine enhances the dangers in a tense and conflicted region.
The same is true of NATO expansion to the east in violation of verbal promises made to Mikhail Gorbachev when the USSR was collapsing and he agreed to allow a unified Germany to become part of NATO — quite a remarkable concession when one thinks about the history of the century. Expansion to East Germany took place at once. In the following years, NATO expanded to Russia’s borders; there are now substantial threats even to incorporate Ukraine, in Russia’s geostrategic heartland. One can imagine how the United States would react if the Warsaw Pact were still alive, most of Latin America had joined, and now Mexico and Canada were applying for membership.
Aside from that, Russia understands as well as China (and U.S. strategists, for that matter) that the U.S. missile defense systems near Russia’s borders are, in effect, a first-strike weapon, aimed to establish strategic primacy — immunity from retaliation. Perhaps their mission is utterly unfeasible, as some specialists argue. But the targets can never be confident of that. And Russia’s militant reactions are quite naturally interpreted by NATO as a threat to the West.
One prominent British Ukraine scholar poses what he calls a “fateful geographical paradox”: that NATO “exists to manage the risks created by its existence.”
The threats are very real right now. Fortunately, the shooting down of a Russian plane by a Turkish F-16 in November 2015 did not lead to an international incident, but it might have, particularly given the circumstances. The plane was on a bombing mission in Syria. It passed for a mere 17 seconds through a fringe of Turkish territory that protrudes into Syria, and evidently was heading for Syria, where it crashed. Shooting it down appears to have been a needlessly reckless and provocative act, and an act with consequences.
In reaction, Russia announced that its bombers will henceforth be accompanied by jet fighters and that it is deploying sophisticated anti-aircraft missile systems in Syria. Russia also ordered its missile cruiser Moskva, with its long-range air defense system, to move closer to shore, so that it may be “ready to destroy any aerial target posing a potential danger to our aircraft,” Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced. All of this sets the stage for confrontations that could be lethal.
Tensions are also constant at NATO-Russian borders, including military maneuvers on both sides. Shortly after the Doomsday Clock was moved ominously close to midnight, the national press reported that “U.S. military combat vehicles paraded Wednesday through an Estonian city that juts into Russia, a symbolic act that highlighted the stakes for both sides amid the worst tensions between the West and Russia since the Cold War.” Shortly before, a Russian warplane came within seconds of colliding with a Danish civilian airliner. Both sides are practicing rapid mobilization and redeployment of forces to the Russia-NATO border, and “both believe a war is no longer unthinkable.”
Prospects for Survival
If that is so, both sides are beyond insanity, since a war might well destroy everything. It has been recognized for decades that a first strike by a major power might destroy the attacker, even without retaliation, simply from the effects of nuclear winter.
But that is today’s world. And not just today’s — that is what we have been living with for 70 years. The reasoning throughout is remarkable. As we have seen, security for the population is typically not a leading concern of policymakers. That has been true from the earliest days of the nuclear age, when in the centers of policy formation there were no efforts — apparently not even expressed thoughts — to eliminate the one serious potential threat to the United States, as might have been possible. And so matters continue to the present, in ways just briefly sampled.
That is the world we have been living in, and live in today. Nuclear weapons pose a constant danger of instant destruction, but at least we know in principle how to alleviate the threat, even to eliminate it, an obligation undertaken (and disregarded) by the nuclear powers that have signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The threat of global warming is not instantaneous, though it is dire in the longer term and might escalate suddenly. That we have the capacity to deal with it is not entirely clear, but there can be no doubt that the longer the delay, the more extreme the calamity.
Prospects for decent long-term survival are not high unless there is a significant change of course. A large share of the responsibility is in our hands — the opportunities as well.
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Edmon Low Library
Explore OSU's library resources, special collections, university archives and more. Need a quiet place to study? This is the perfect place for you.
Visit the library website 405-744-9775libraryhelp@okstate.edu
Our traditions have connected more than 240,000 alumni around the globe.
While the Edmon Low Library building has only been here since 1953, OSU has had a library since the institution began. For several years the Library collection was housed in various homes and office of the University faculty. It wasn't until 1894 that the Library found its first official home in Old Central, where the Library shared a single room with the English department. Seven years later, Williams Hall was completed and the Library moved to a room on the first floor. Its 1,610 square feet seemed spacious at the time. Williams Hall was one of the first structures on campus to have electricity, so students could now study in the evening. In 1921, the first building devoted solely to the Library was completed. It was simply called the Library Building.
President Henry G. Bennett came to campus in 1928 and developed a Twenty-Five Year Plan for campus development. The plan called for the campus to center around a new Library. President Bennett worked closely with then Library Director Edmon Low to make the plans for the new Library a reality. In 1953, the Edmon Low Library, with its elegant Georgian style, opened and quickly became a focal point for campus pride.
Today, under the guidance of Dean of Libraries Sheila Grant Johnson, the OSU Library is building a reputation for embracing new technology while maintaining a foundation of quality service and is a member of the prestigious Association for Research Libraries.. The Creative Studios, located on the first floor, currently house high-powered Macs and PCs loaded with the popular Adobe software, a green screen-equipped recording studio, data visualization space, room-scale virtual reality and 3D printers. The Studios are also home to the Tech to Go Desk, with a constantly evolving list of checkout equipment. The building offers six floors of study space with 25 group study rooms available by reservation. The Library operates 24/5 during the fall and spring semesters.
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When I was at college, there used to be a butcher’s on North Street, just near the bottom of Coltsgate Hill. We never shopped there of course, because we were either in digs (for the second year) or college accommodation and had all our meals provided. But the butcher’s was particularly notable when, in 1979 it put up a handwritten sign saying: “You’ve read the book, you’ve heard the song, you’ve seen the film – now try the pie!” The film it was referring to was Watership Down and they were selling rabbit. The song was the undoubtedly beautiful, but somewhat saccharine-sweet ‘Bright Eyes’, sung by Art Garfunkel, which seemed to be at number one forever. It was also quite possibly (though probably not really) one of the reasons why I’d completely overlooked Bright Eyes the band, until 2005 when I heard one of the tracks from the “I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning” album played on the radio late one night whilst on my way back from a gig. The song was ‘We Are Nowhere and It’s Now’ and it struck me straight away because it started with a short mandolin instrumental. That was followed by the brilliant opening line of, “If you hate the taste of wine, why do you drink it ’til you’re blind?” The voice had a fragile strength that cracked in places either due to emotion or weakness (it didn’t matter which – it worked) and then I heard a voice that I recognised from somewhere, singing harmonies. I later found out that it was Emmylou Harris. The song was the perfect, gentle accompaniment to my late night drive home. I bought the album.
All the elements I had instantly loved in that one song, were spread across the whole album; some of the most beautiful, atmospheric songs I’d heard in a long time with lyrics that captured perfectly the romance of the ordinary. ‘Old Soul Song’ in particular with the lines, “Grey light, new day leaks through the window” and “all the way home you held your camera like a bible” is typical of how Conor Oberst (he is ‘Bright Eyes’) manages to sing about a violent demonstration with crowds, barricades and police in such a seemingly gentle way. ‘At The Bottom of Everything’ kicks the album off with a perfect acoustic ‘driving song’. Musically, the colour palette is huge, ranging from just guitar and voice to songs with brass and electric guitars – everything we were always trying to achieve with The Rogues. However, there wasn’t much light and shade in our playing on St Patrick’s night that year I’m afraid, more like fast and furious, but it was probably one of the best gigs we’ve ever played. It was at Snafu in Rotherham town centre, and people were actually queuing up to get in so it was absolutely packed all night with very drunken people and a fabulous party atmosphere.
James continued to dazzle us with his football skills. He had some great games, mostly for the Rotherham United under 9s, but sometimes playing for the under 10s, getting ‘Man of the Match’ a few times and scoring plenty of goals, but still getting it in the neck throughout almost every game from the coach for reasons we could never fathom out. We tried to console ourselves with the thought that it was perhaps because they expected him to be brilliant every second of every game and not make the mistakes that everyone else seemed to be allowed to make. I have to say, it never seemed to bother James at all; he just got on the pitch and did his best every time. Whilst football was obviously his first love, James was keen to involve himself in many other areas. He still went to gymnastics and was happy to run cross country for school. He also wanted a Les Paul guitar for his ninth birthday (he got the Epiphone version!) and played that through his first amplifier; occasionally putting it down to play with his Power Rangers figures. His birthday party was at the mini ice rink at the side of the bowling alley in Kimberworth, so he was into anything and everything really.
Tracey and I visited quite a few ancient sites over the year: Avebury again (a particularly note-worthy visit to the West Kennet Long Barrow; the burial chambers so often have a peace and tranquility to them but this time we were totally alone), a few days in Aberdeenshire scouring the landscape for stones and circles, a weekend in Hereford and an exciting week, tramping around the ancient sites in the heat of Malta. We had such a fabulous, timeless time wherever we went, talking constantly, getting into scrapes (the bulls at Drumtrodden in Scotland were particularly… interesting!) and drinking coffee in little, forgotten towns after numerous early starts where I would try and photographically capture the often magical atmosphere at the stones. Perhaps the words of Bright Eyes sum up our days, “All day it seems, we’ve been in between a past and present…we are nowhere and it’s now.”
This entry was posted in Recent Posts and tagged Avebury, Bright Eyes, Conor Oberst, Drumtrodden, Epiphone, Guitar, I'm Wide Awake It's Morning, Les Paul, live music, music, Rotherham, Rotherham United FC, Snafu, soundtrack, St Patrick's Day, The Rogues, Watership Down, West Kennet Long Barrow. Bookmark the permalink.
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Bestinvest welcomes clarity of “RDR2” which will enable investors to better assess the value of services provided by different XO providers
Bestinvest has welcomed the publication today of the long awaited FCA policy statement (PS13/1) covering payments to investment platform services from providers. The policy will see a move away from platform costs that are funded by payments from product providers to one where there will be a clear distinction between fund charges and platform costs. The revised regime will take effect from 6 April 2014 on new business, with existing investments to migrate across by 6 April 2016.
Peter Hall, Chief Executive of Bestinvest, commented:
“The statement today is very much in line with our expectations and we are strongly supportive of it. We welcome the transparency it heralds for investors, enabling them to better assess the value of the services they are receiving from brokers and platforms independently from the underlying fund charges.
Unlike many firms operating in the execution-only space, Bestinvest also has a substantial advisory and discretionary investment management business. In these latter areas, which account for half of our business, we have been operating on an explicit fee basis for some time and well ahead of RDR so we are entirely comfortable with a move to fee based model throughout our services.
We have undertaken considerable work in recent months in preparation for a potential new fee structure in the non-advised part of our business which will be based around commission-free ‘clean’ share classes and explicit platform charges.
We are encouraged that the FCA has flagged that where a business has previously been able to negotiate a rebate from a fund provider, the move to clean share classes should not be used as a reason by the funds industry to increase their fees. We have always sought to use our scale to get
attractive terms for our investors and will of course seek to access as low cost clean share classes as possible on those funds which are rated highly by our research team. Our ratings will however never be driven by price negotiations but based on rigorous and impartial research.
Although the FCA has indicated an 11 month timeline for firms to migrate to the new fee model, our intention will be to transition ahead of this. It is too early to guide on the exact timescale as across the industry this will be dependent on third-party administrators, where there is already pressure arising from the move to in specie transfers, and the speed at which fund groups can implement new share classes. In the meantime we will continue to ensure that it is cheaper to invest through ourselves than to go direct through a combination of discounts and rebates.”
Hall concluded: “We strongly believe RDR presents a significant opportunity for Bestinvest as we are well positioned to support those investors who have parted company with their previous adviser or been impacted by the retreat of banks in the advice space. Since the start of the year we have seen strong momentum in our non-advised business, with more than 25,000 people using our Free Investment Report Service & Tool. The range of services on offer for so-called ‘DIY’ investors differs enormously and are differentiated by much more than cost alone. We will continue to focus on providing non-advised clients with help in planning and managing their investments through access to rigorous research combined with powerful functionality at great value for money as we transition to the new fee model.”
The value of your investments and the income from them can go down as well as up, and you can get back less than you originally invested. Past performance or any yields quoted should not be considered reliable indicators of future returns.
About Bestinvest:
Founded in 1986, Bestinvest was a pioneer of helping clients reduce the costs of investing through discounting commissions. Today Bestinvest has grown into a leading private client adviser which helps over 50,000 investors. Bestinvest offers a range of services including guidance, investment advice, financial planning and discretionary portfolio management all of which are underpinned by a commitment to rigorous investment research. Through its low cost Select service, Bestinvest offers execution-only investors a Self-Invested Personal Pension Plan (SIPP), Individual Savings Account (ISA), Junior ISA (JISA) and Investment Account with access to more than 2,000 funds as well as investment trusts, shares and Exchange Traded Funds. Bestinvest has won numerous awards including ‘Self-Select ISA Provider of the Year 2011’ and ‘UK Wealth Manager of the Year 2011’ as voted by readers of the Investors Chronicle and Financial Times and Investment Adviser of the Year 2012 at the Professional Adviser Awards. Headquartered in Mayfair, London, Bestinvest has 14 regional offices with 200 staff servicing clients with over £4 billion of assets.
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You are here: Home / Churchwide Representative
Churchwide Representative
The Rev. Dr. M. Wyvetta Bullock
Assistant to the Presiding Bishop
Executive for Administration
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Wyvetta has served as Assistant to the Presiding Bishop/Executive for Administration, in the Office of the Presiding Bishop since 2007. Prior to serving in this position she served as Executive for Leadership Development and Executive Director for the Division for Congregational Ministries.
Wyvetta is an ELCA pastor. She received her Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry in Preaching from Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC). Wyvetta received the Distinguished Alumni Award from LSTC in 2003. In 2004 she was conferred with the Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Grand View College, Des Moines, Iowa.
Wyvetta serves as a pastoral associate at Bethel Lutheran Church, Chicago, Illinois. Wyvetta serves on the Board of Directors of Augusta Victoria Hospital, Jerusalem.
Wyvetta is a contributing author to two books: The Evangelizing Church: A Lutheran Contribution, Called Out of Our Comfort Zones, Augsburg Fortress Publishers, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Spring 2005; and The Missional Church & Denominations: Helping Congregations Develop a Missional Identity, The Challenge of Developing Missional Denominational Agencies and the Implications for Leadership, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2008.
Wyvetta served as project manager for The ELCA Rostered Women of Color Project: “God’s Faithfulness on the Journey,” published February 2018. This resource is a composition of the stories of rostered women of color in the ELCA and is available at www.elca.org/rwoc.
Wyvetta and her husband, Neil, have two children: David and Karen Ann.
Sacred Shift
Tentative Agenda
Nominations & Resolutions
First Call Meeting Registration
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ITAR: The International Traffic in Arms Regulations
The International Traffic in Arms Regulations, or ITAR, is a group of regulations by the United States government that are in place in order to control the import and export of different defense-related services and articles that are found on the United States Munitions List.
ITAR includes the provisions seen in Title 22 Chapter I Subchapter M in the Code of Federal Regulations, called the Arms Export Control Act. The purpose of this division is to help safeguard United States national security while furthering foreign policy objectives set by the United States.
The regulations found in ITAR in practice says that material and information that relates to military related technologies or defense can only be shared with United States person unless the Department of States gives authorization or an exemption for certain circumstances is used.
ITAR was put into law during the Cold War in 1976 with the intent of implementing control over unilateral arms export reflecting those imposed placed by on Eastern Bloc countries
Since then, the United States government has dramatically enforced certain activity, particularly when the United States Department of state took control of satellite export regulations. Since 1999, they have published 29 different instances of Consent Agreements, while only 12 had been published in the 22 years before.
A United States person or organization can potentially face large fines by providing foreign persons with ITAR protected services, defense articles, or technical data. ITAR Is not applicable to information that is related to general mathematical, scientific, or engineering principles found in colleges or schools along with information that is legitimately available in the public domain.
ITAR is also not applicable to basic system descriptions or general market information. However it is important to be cautious in these areas as there have been circumstances where professors have breached the regulations due to foreign graduate students.
Since 1999, the United States government has significantly increased enforcement against individuals and organizations responsible for a breach of ITAR. For example, a $100 million penalty was given to ITT due to their unauthorized Retransfer of certain night vision technology in 2007.
In most of these cases, the penalty against a corporate entity includes a compliance component that is mandatory. It requires the entity to use funds for compliance measures, such as appointing many Internal Special Compliance Officers. Penalties can also make a party submit to external audit. On a far extreme, a party can be debarred from any future exporting for a given period of time.
The United States government also has a policy that imposes a positive obligation on American companies saying that they must fully disclose any ITAR breaches to the government. Not doing so may significantly increase the penalties applied by the government.
The Public Health Crisis that is Gun Violence – The Violence Policy Center on the Importance of Gun Control
Your Guide to Types Guns
All You Need to Know About Gun Laws
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A defense of low-interaction games, and why I hate the term “multi-player solitaire”
“Tabletop Players” icon by Delapouite (modified), CC BY 3.0
My least-favorite term in board gaming is “multi-player solitaire” (MPS). Gamers will usually sneer this when they come across a game that has low player interaction. Each player plays their own game with little interference from others. The challenge is to optimize your performance versus everyone else.
So-called MPS games usually have some interaction. It’s subtle, and sometimes it only emerges once players have experience with the game. But to exaggerate and call them “solitaire” is inaccurate enough that it makes me question credibility.
Look, hyperbole has its place. It gets attention. It’s fun. But it has a way of obscuring meaning. There are only so many times you can cry wolf before the villagers begin to ignore you.
Also, there are many kinds of interaction in gaming. High interaction, where one player can attack and take things from another player, is a perfectly valid approach. Low interaction, where players are restrained from directly influencing another player, is also valid. Each will result in a distinctive game experience. But calling a game MPS when it has low interaction displays a certain amount of ignorance and closed-mindedness.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with having a preference for high-interaction games and eschewing low-interaction games. That’s totally understandable! But I’ve seen gamers (and sometimes reviewers) who feel that low-interaction games are objectively lacking, and aren’t really games unless attacking is allowed.
Of course, these folks tend to prefer high-interaction games. And again, there’s nothing wrong with that. But it’s the extra step, the claim that games they don’t prefer are invalid, that pushes my buttons.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with low-interaction games. Games don’t need high interaction in order to be proper games. It’s okay to play a game where you can’t directly attack someone. It may not be to your taste, but those games still have a place in our hobby, even if you don’t like them.
And of course, I have a horse in this race. I personally prefer low-interaction games, and my most recent game The Networks is a low-interaction game. It is to my benefit to try to make it clear that low-interaction games belong in the gaming landscape, even if they don’t necessarily belong in your collection, depending on your taste.
With all that said, let’s go through some games that people claim are multi-player solitaire, but are really not.
Race for the Galaxy: First one I can think of. And when you first learn the game, it truly is MPS, because you’re so focused on learning the system, you can’t really pay attention to what other players are doing.
This is a great example of a game where the better you know it, the more interaction there is. Once you get a sense of the different rhythms of the game, you can start anticipating other players’ actions and leech off of what they’re trying to do.
This is a tremendous source of fun in the game. It’s always an awesome moment in the first few turns when no one picks Explore because they thought someone else would.
Is the extremely low interaction for new players a fault of the game? I’d say it’s a minor one. Race for the Galaxy has a difficult heuristic tree to climb (similar to a palm tree in my Board Game Design 101 seminar). It gets away with this because once you get to the first few branches, you find a lot more to climb.
7 Wonders: Here’s another game that gets dinged for not having direct interaction. And yes, it’s true, there’s no way you can directly influence a player who is not your immediate neighbors (I’m talking about the base game here, not the expansions that let you withdraw from military evaluation).
But this drawback ties into the game’s greatest strength: it is a game that plays 7 players, takes about 45 minutes to play, and has some strategic depth. This is a niche that no game outside the polarizing genre of social deduction had claimed (and social deduction was just starting to become a phenomenon when this game first came out).
If the base game had allowed players to directly influence players who were not their neighbors, it would lose its incredible ability to scale to high player counts and still deliver a consistent experience in a proper amount of time. From this perspective, the low player interaction is most definitely a feature, not a bug.
Also, like above, 7 Wonders does reveal the need for increased interaction as you get better in the game. If you notice a player two seats to your left is collecting Science and you have Science in your hand, you may want to consider using that card to build a Wonder, depriving them of the card permanently.
Are there things it could have done differently regarding player interaction? Tough to say, because the game’s perceived flaws are so tightly coupled to its award-winning strengths. But I think one thing that messes with new players is the idea that the game has a “military” element which doesn’t really attack players. Moreover, the game adopts the trappings of a Civ-style game, but that Civ-style direct interaction is missing. So new players must adjust to what the game delivers against what it promises. Happily, most players seem to enjoy the game.
Notre Dame: This is an older Stefan Feld game, but I chose it because it’s probably the one that has the lowest amount of interaction, and is therefore most likely to be considered MPS.
There are only a few ways to interact with players: through the draft, through the Carriage tiles, and in Notre Dame. Otherwise, players are following their own scripts, with very little interaction from other players.
Is this a bad thing? If one player has shot out to a big lead, perhaps. The game wisely obscures points by recording them on chips instead of a central track, which mitigates this feeling somewhat. But if one player is doing well, it’s tough to slow them down.
I know a few people get frustrated when playing games like this. Some feel that a direct way to attack a leader is the best way to to mitigate a runaway leader. This approach leads to metagaming and table talk (“Don’t attack me, attack her, she’s in the lead!”), which some people feel is the center of any good game, but others (myself included) feel distracts from the game. High interaction can be just as polarizing as low interaction!
Take It Easy: This is an important one to put in the list. The other three games are not MPS, despite what their detractors say. They have player-to-player interaction, just not a whole lot of it.
Take It Easy (and similar games in its family, like Cities and Karuba) is genuinely and honestly an MPS game. There is literally no player interaction. Nothing you do ever affects another player in the game. The only thing you’re doing that binds you to the other players is the fact that you’re all working on the same puzzle.
And here’s the thing: it’s an excellent game. While some gamers hurl MPS as an epithet, it turns out that multi-player solitaire can be extremely fun. Take It Easy doesn’t require player interaction; all it needs is the players to be working on the same set of tiles.
This lack of player interaction opens doors. I’ve heard of conventions that ask attendees to bring as many copies of Take It Easy as they can, and then they hold 100-person games. There aren’t many other games that allow that sort of experience. And it’s something MPS can do that no other style can.
It also makes the game approachable. Take It Easy can be taught in a few seconds, and new players seem to really enjoy it. It’s a great little filler game.
Are there drawbacks to true MPS? Sure. Many people will want to interact with the game leader to make sure they don’t get too far ahead, of course. And interacting with the game state is fun for a while, but MPS games seem to be best when they’re brief. Take It Easy is only about 20 minutes long. I don’t know how well a 2-hour MPS game would be, but it would have to provide an extremely immersive experience to be engaging.
Let’s explore one more little nook here: cooperative games. How much interaction can they be said have? It really depends on your group. I’ve written about competitive imbalance here before, and I still believe that a co-op needs a well-balanced group to be enjoyable. Everyone should be playing at the same level of competitiveness, be it highly competitive or not at all competitive. If there’s a mix, you get the commonly-derided “alpha player” issue, and the less-commonly-derided-but-still-problematic “beta player” issue.
And I still believe: for most co-ops, this is a problem with the game group and not a fundamental problem with the game’s design or its genre. So if you feel that co-ops are broken because one player tends to take over, I would suggest you look at the composition of your game group, and see if there are more optimal arrangements of players. The magic circle can be a delicate thing, and for a co-op, players should all be on the same page about how much they’re expected to contribute and listen to other players’ contributions.
But I hope this little diatribe has shed some light on low-interaction games. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, and whether you agree or disagree. But these kinds of games are very close to my heart. So if you ever see me twitch when someone dismisses a low-interaction game as “multi-player solitaire,” you now know why!
8 Comments to “A defense of low-interaction games, and why I hate the term “multi-player solitaire””
pdowen3 says:
Gil, I think I agree with you for the most part. I consider drafting games like The Networks and 7 Wonders to be sufficiently interactive from the standpoint that if someone is clearly winning (and that’s more obvious in TN than it is in 7W), players can pay attention and take measures to mitigate that lead.
I think that’s the crux of the problem in a minimally interactive game – that even if the game doesn’t have a positive feedback (“runaway leader”) problem, there’s little or no opportunity to counteract the currently winning player and keep everybody else in the game. (I have to admit that my current WIP, “East India Company,” might have this problem even though it has some interactive mechanics.)
I will admit to not even considering Karuba based on the description of play because it sounds like a competition in optimization – not even a race – and so it sounds like an exercise in seeing who can solve the same puzzle the best. But your ultimate point is completely valid – low interactivity doesn’t make it an inherently bad game. It just makes it a game that I personally probably wouldn’t enjoy as much. If someone else finds it fun (as you clearly find “Take it Easy” to be), then it’s a fun game for them, and that suffices for the game to be “valid.”
Gil Hova says:
Yes, as I said in my piece, a drawback of low-interaction games is you can’t attack the leader. But any sort of genre is going to have limitations. Nothing is perfect; that’s just the way of the world. Movies have no flavor. Books don’t have much of a soundtrack.
So games with high interaction can lead to metagaming and table talk. Games with low interaction don’t allow players to rein in the leader. Party games have no strategy. Social deduction games are tough for people who have a hard time reading subtle body language and vocal cues. Dexterity games are terrible for people with slow reflexes and shaky hands. These can all be flaws if you’re not into those kinds of games, but if you are, it’s easy to overlook them.
It all depends on who the audience for the game is, and how well the game appeals to the audience. My point is, low-interaction games have a huge audience, and I enjoy them personally. I don’t think their “faults” make them any less of a game; they’re just inherent to the form.
Happy Doggie says:
I really don’t like “bash the leader” as game balancing mechanism. I much prefer having some hidden scoring so that the losers have some hope of winning right up to the end.
Chad Krizan says:
I guess I’ve never equated the term “multi-player solitaire” to being a bad term. I tend to like these sorts of games, so to me it’s just a descriptive phrase for a game. Yes, sometimes the definition does get stretched, but I just take the term to mean “low to no interaction between players”.
I get what you’re saying though about it technically not describing a game well, or being stretched too far, as in the case of RftG, which has quite a bit of player interaction, and guessing/double-guessing the actions the other players will choose. As with anything, people just have different scales as to what they consider to be highly interactive vs. low interaction.
Quibble Games (@QuibbleGames) says:
Personally, I don’t love games with direct attacking and high interaction because it leads to politics. But I also don’t love low interaction games because I feel detached from the other players at the table and the competitive excitement is dulled for me. For me, the best solution is two-sided games: either 2 player only games, or multiplayer games where the players are split across two teams. If you ask me, there are not enough team vs. team games in board games (other than the vast number of social deduction games of course). Currently I’m very excited to try Captain Sonar.
Of course, your main point, that all different types of games are valid is well taken. I’m merely expressing my own personal preference.
Bill Grant (@wpgrant) says:
There are definitely people who say “Multi-Person Solitaire” who are saying it to be negative. But I don’t think think it is necessarily said in a negative way, in much the same way that someone saying “Ameritrash” is not necessarily suggesting the game is bad.
I do think that correcting someone about how a game is not solitaire by explaining what strategies can be employed to influence other players is a good way to address a false claim. For example using the example of 7 Wonders one might say “While there isn’t a lot of direct interaction are you aware that you should be considering which cards you are letting your neighbor get?”. If they acknowledge awareness at least you gave a reason for them to reconsider the moniker, and they weren’t aware then hopefully you’ve shared some of the experiences they were missing.
Ori Avtalion says:
Karuba has slight interaction, as it’s a race to the temples and you get more points if you’re first.
I like MPS games, as board games are also about having a good time with others. Can be compared to other non-interactive-yet-social activities such as going to see a movie in a public theater where it’s impolite to speak”.
MPS games make me think of most Olympic sports, in which individuals perform a solitaire task and compare their results later. I never understood the appeal. Specifically televised bowling or darts tournaments.
Kat Dersch says:
I think the issue is people’s desire for labels and the unlimited creativity of game designers. Multi-Player Solitaire is an oxymoron so no game could in the strictest sense ever be multi-player solitaire but players want a term for the freedom of making actions without others putting limits on them so they use the two terms multi-player to connote its not just a single player and solitaire to indicate the factors affecting the player. It’s an attempt to name a new concept with the limited words they know they can attached to it, not the other way around. Maybe someone else will come up with a better name and will catch on but as the artist you don’t really get to control how people except in your own marketing materials.
Heck I lay out huge tiles in different spots in a room and ask questions making kids run around and find a tile matching their answer and call it a tile laying game all I want and people will scratch their heads and make up a new term for this game (if it were to become popular). The game designer gets to make up the games they want with all the (ideally) new and exciting mechanics they want, the marketer then takes it and describes it in the way that best sells the game (ideally their words actually describe it in a way that means people aren’t disappointed when they get home and try to play it on those notions) and the game players collectively choose to take it and describe it the most overly simplified manner to those they play it with.
The funny thing as a game player I actually hate the terms. I want a good theme and a set of rules and mechanics that enhances the theme and makes sense, and a rule book that doesn’t make me want to call up everyone responsible for writing and scream at them. The wrong mechanic on a game makes for a boring game, and the right mechanic no matter how I feel about the mechanic in isolation makes for a great game.
My feeling on MPS in isolation is I hate it, I play board games with people I care about so the interaction is fun but heck interactions comes in all forms. What the term MPS forgets is gaming isn’t a vacuum if you like the people near you your going to be engaging with them through game no matter how much the game impedes or helps it along and if I like them the opposite can be true. I still want to play The Networks (but not ready to own it without a play through) because of the game has the earmarks of a great game. If I stuck to only mechanics I liked I’d have a shelf that kind of ran together with quite a few meh games and maybe one or two I loved, instead I end up with a lot more games I love some meh and some awful games.
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Heddy's Library
Blogging about literature, films and other things I enjoy.
Weekly “I’ve been”.. April 4th – 10th
Avenue of Mysteries – John Irving
January and February Recap
Preparing for the Oscars: Brooklyn, The Big Short and The Martian
BellaSmall on The Grapes of Wrath – Jo…
86Margarito on The Grapes of Wrath – Jo…
January and February… on If/Then – the Norwegian…
January and February… on Preparing for the Oscars: Brid…
January and February… on The Revenant (2015) – Fi…
Cult films
Monthly Reads
Weekly "I've been"..
I’ve finally watched all the nominees for Best Picture in this year’s Oscar Awards, with Brooklyn and The Big Short being my two latest watches. I thought I’d write some short opinions on those two and The Martian. For my thoughts on the rest of the nominees, I made one blog post about The Revenant and one where I discuss Bridge of Spies, Mad Max, Room and Spotlight over here.
Brooklyn – Watched February 22nd
The Big Short – Watched February 23rd
The Martian – Watched November 6th 2015
Click on the title of the film to read more about them on IMDB, as I will not go into much detail about the premises or plot of the films!
Brooklyn – John Crowley
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Emory Cohen, Domhnall Gleeson
I found Brooklyn to be a really beautiful and quite understated, in a good way. Saoirse Ronan does a great job, and the film definitively made me tear up a few times. You get to care about the characters, and even though it’s not a very fast-moving drama-filled picture, it’s not in any ways boring either. I also have to commend Julie Walters in her role, I hardly recognized her at first! Domhnall Gleeson makes yet another appearance in one of 2016’s nominated films, and though his role here isn’t the biggest, he is surely one of the actors you should keep an eye on in the year to come!
My only issue with Brooklyn is that it just wasn’t memorable enough. It has so many strong points, especially when it comes to the acting and the visuals, but even though the story is touching it didn’t really stick with me, and it’s only been two days since I saw it. For it to be a contender for Best Picture it would have needed some more originality, to make it stand out more. But it’s a recommended watch all the same!
The Big Short – Adam McKay
Starring: Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling
Right. I’ll straight out say it, I didn’t care much for The Big Short. Reading on IMDB it seems like most people loved it, so I’m obviously not speaking for the majority here. The issue for me that it tackles such complicated topics, and it’s constantly doing quirky things to try to explain them, which just made my head spin. There’s a lot of breaking the forth wall in this film, cutting to scenes where models and celebrities explain advanced economics, combined with some meta moments where actors break character to tell you that “this didn’t really happen” or “this was a tad different in reality”. The concept of that is quite exciting, and The Big Short is in no way lacking originality, but for me it just didn’t work. The cuts and editing were too irregular, and while they were going for the very “cool” style and also poking some fun, it just felt too silly at times.
Christian Bale is nominated for his role, and though I wasn’t a fan of the film I think he did a fine job. One of the big surprises for me was also Steve Carell, I think his portrayal was absolutely fantastic, and equal with Bale’s. One of many this year that could have been nominated, but wasnt.
The Martian – Ridley Scott
Starring: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig
Ah, The Martian. It’s been a while since I saw this, but it’s still quite strong in my mind. Let me start of by saying: I really enjoyed The Martian, I thought it was a really good film, it was exciting, funny and emotional at times. I left the movie theatre with my expectations met.
I don’t however, think it deserves a nomination for Best Picture OR for Best Actor in a Leading Role. It’s just not that much of an achievement, even though I enjoyed it. The thing is, and it’s gonna sound harsh: I felt most of the work that was done in this film, both with the production and acting could have been done by most capable actors, directors, producers et cetera. I didn’t leave the movie thinking “Wow, how did Matt Damon pull that off” or “Boy, only Ridley Scott could have made something like that”. It wasn’t outstanding in any way, even though it’s a good film. Would I rather watch this again than The Big Short? Yes. But I still think it shouldn’t have gotten as many nominations as it has. Sadly.
But if you haven’t seen it, go ahead! I do recommend it 🙂
Having now watched all of the nominees my favourites are still The Revenant and Spotlight! There are still some films missing from the other big categories, but as of now I’ve seen most of the actors and actresses nominated for both lead and supporting, especially after I see The Danish Girl this Saturday.
If you have any thoughts on the Best Picture category for this years Academy Awards, please leave a comment below 🙂
February 24, 2016 Hedvig Academy Awards, Brooklyn, Christian Bale, culture, Film reviews, films, Matt Damon, Oscars 2016, reviews, Saoirse Ronan, Steve Carell, The Big Short, The Martian Leave a comment
Preparing for the Oscars: Bridge of Spies, Mad Max, Room and Spotlight
The Oscars are quickly approaching, and I’m trying go watch as many nominated films as possible before the ceremony, especially those nominated for Best Picture. I’ve managed to see quite a few so far, but it’s difficult to get to all of them before the 28th as several of the films aren’t released in Norway until March, and I really want to see them in the best quality possible. So far when it comes to the Best Picture nominees I’ve seen:
Bridge of Spies – Watched January 23rd
Mad Max: Fury Road – Watched January 17th
The Revenant – Watched January 24th – Review here
Room – Watched February 1st
Spotlight – Watched February 5th
I’m only missing Brooklyn and The Big Short, which I’ll hopefully get to see soon! I thought I’d just share a few thoughts about the latest films I’ve seen which I haven’t already written about.
Bridge of Spies – Steven Spielberg
Starring: Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance
Horrible poster aside, I liked this film much more than I thought I would. It looks very standard Spielberg: family friendly, good side and bad side without nuances, polished.. and in a lot of ways it does present itself with a lot of that classic formula, but it’s still a good film with very solid acting. There’s also a lot of well written dialogue, which I always appreciate. Tom Hanks does a fine job as usual, but the film’s strongest point by far is the subtle yet brilliant Mark Rylance, who is a strong contender for best actor in a supporting role.
Very well deserved nominations for best supporting actor and best original screenplay, and quite justified that it doesn’t have any directing or editing nominations, as it didn’t really stand out in those departments. Not a strong contender for best picture in my opinion though. Still, a film worth watching.
Mad Max: Fury Road – George Miller
Starring: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult
With it being nominated in 10 Oscar categories, I was quite intrigued before watching Mad Max, it doesn’t appear to be my type of film at all, but I ended up enjoying it quite a lot. Still, 10 nominations is a slight overkill in my book, but it’s interesting seeing the Academy paying more attention to different types of films and genres, it’s quite rare seeing a full on action movie receiving so much Oscar-buzz. Anyway, Mad Max: Fury Road is a breath of fresh air in it’s genre, keeping in balance, combining old cliches and finding its own path as it goes along. It’s also a great film visually, both in terms of camerawork, editing and effects, and deserves a lot of recognition there. All in all a very good movie, but not quite best picture for me.
Room – Lenny Abrahamson
Starring: Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay
A beautiful film in my opinion, about a emotional traumatizing case, yet it doesn’t become “emotional porn” to put it in those terms. It’s not without flaws, the pacing of the film could perhaps be a bit different, but the acting is so strong, and the story it self very well written. It’s interesting to follow a story that takes us beyond the happy ending, and explores what happens afterwards, both on the outside and inside the characters. I really appreciated how the characters in this film are shown as extremely human, and everyone’s reactions to a near unthinkable situation I found very realistic. Brie Larson seems to be one of the strongest contenders for the female in a lead category, which I fully support, but I cannot understand how Jacob Tremblay isn’t nominated! He isn’t just great for a kid actor, he’s absolutely phenomenal no matter who he is compared to. Several of his scenes had me tearing up. In my opinion he is absolutely robbed of a nomination.
With its strong acting and great storytelling, Room is a good contender for the best picture, although it doesn’t quite reach up to the greatness of The Revenant and Spotlight in my book.
Spotlight – Tom McCarthy
Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery and Stanley Tucci.
I saw this only yesterday, and I was so so pleased with it! Spotlight is a film I hadn’t heard that much about, there hasn’t been a lot of promo or trailers around in Norway for it, don’t know about the rest of the world? As a result I didn’t know much of the premise of the story at all, which I find is a good starting point for every film you see, the less you know beforehand the better.
Dealing with a very important, yet touchy subject, I felt Spotlight never borders on the verge of tasteless. The strong highlights of this film are its dialogue (there’s a lot, and it’s fast so pay attention), the strong cast who all do a great job and the way everything flows together; the tempo and rhythm of the film is so perfect and fitting, and it’s all done in a very subtle way. Very good editing! Mark Ruffalo’s acting is also a very strong point and he received a well deserved nomination. I would have liked Tucci to receive a nod as well, his performance reminds me of Rylance in Bridge of Spies, subtle yet very moving. Anyway, as pointed out, all the actors do a great job, from the leads to the smaller ones who only have a scene or two. A film I’d recommend to everyone, and which made me conflicted after watching, I’m now very torn between Spotlight and The Revenant as for which should win best picture. They’re both great films, and very different as well! Hopefully they will both take home their fair share of awards.
From the films I have seen so far The Revenant is still one of my favourites, but now with strong competition from Spotlight. It’s also quite interesting to see the differences in the films nominated for best picture this year, from the “standard Oscar film” Bridge of Spies to the hardcore action movie Mad Max: Fury Road.
Hopefully I’ll get to see Brooklyn and The Big Short soon. I will also write more about films nominated in other categories before the big ceremony February 28th, and a blog post about the films I think should have nominated (more) as well.
February 6, 2016 Hedvig Academy Awards, bridge of spies, films, mad max, mad max : fury road, movies, Oscars 2016, Room, spotlight 4 Comments
The Revenant (2015) – Film Review
© 2015 – Twentieth Century Fox. Image used under fair use.
Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu
Written by Mark L. Smith and Alejandro González Iñárritu
Imdb summary: A frontiersman on a fur trading expedition in the 1820s fights for survival after being mauled by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team.
Last Sunday night my boyfriend and I watched “The Revenant” at the movies, and before I say anything else I just have to say: This is definitively a film where you choose the cinematic experience, DO NOT download some low quality DVD-rip and watch it on your computer. If you want to see as many Oscar-nominated films as possible before the ceremony, this is the one you choose, it would be a sin to not watch this in the best quality and surroundings as possible. I simply have to gush over the stunning visuals before I move on to the story itself.
As you have probably gathered, this is simply a beautiful visual experience. Watching “The Revenant” was almost like watching a very high quality nature documentary and feature film combined, the film takes its time to let you enjoy the beautiful scenery. The film was shot using almost exclusively using natural light, which absolutely paid off, even though it made the filming period a lot longer (only so much light during the day) as the beautiful snowy scenes really came into their own in the wonderful cold and bright winter sun. When watching you get the feel that the surroundings and setting is as much part of the story as the events that are unfolding there, and cinematographer Lubezki treats them with great respect. An Oscar nomination well deserved! The same can be said for editor Stephen Mirrione, who seamlessly sews it all together, adding to the sense that story and setting are one.
“The Revenant” is a stunning visual experience
One of the most talked about scenes in the film is the bear-attack, and again I’m full of praise. For the past few years no matter how far we’ve come regarding CGI, it just doesn’t look 100% right when you have something or someone computer made interacting with a real human character in the same scene, especially when it’s a close interaction like touching and fighting. This is not the case with “The Revenant”. I have no idea how they did it, but that attack scene looks completely real. It’s worth the talk, it’s worth the hype, it’s worth the praise! I know it’s CGI, but something inside me is still a little convinced they just let a bear loose on DiCaprio, and that he willingly let them. I mean, if you let a bear almost kill you, you have to win that Oscar!
When saying that the plot it self is the weakest part of the whole film, it’s by no means an insult to the story, just again a proof of how amazing the visuals and acting are. They are the strongest points, but the story is also gripping, intense and never leaves you bored. Before watching a film that’s over 150 minutes long you’re always a bit apprehensive, and lately it seems like almost all big new releases have to be around this playtime, and frankly, in most cases 120 is enough. I was never bored for a minute though, even though the film is by no means action-packed throughout or moving high-speed through everything. It takes its time, but does so beautifully. I know there are divided views about the plot, and I can understand some of the reservations some have, because yes: a lot of the happenings in “The Revenant” are quite far fetched, and even though it’s inspired by true events there is a lot elements, some quite unrealistic, added to the film. I don’t mind myself, but I understand that people enjoy storytelling in different ways, and that type of realism is more important in some camps than other. My own justification of the “far-fetchedness” of it all is that this film sets out to tell the ultimate survival story, and I’ll accept a bit of difference in the physical laws in our own world and in this epic movie world. Though, the characters could maybe have tried just a tad harder to stay away from the water when it’s freezing around them and there’s nowhere to dry their clothes.. But details, details.
I quickly mentioned that the acting is great in this film, and I truly believe that this if finally DiCaprio’s time to win that Oscar statuette. Although his actual spoken dialogue is scarce, he does so much through, and of course, acting is so much more than just speaking lines. I truly felt his anger, hurt, pain and emotions, and above all, I truly felt cold. I am yet to see all the nominees for Best Actor this year, but so far Leo is my bet and hope! Tom Hardy also does a brilliant job as John Fitzgerald, the unsympathetic antagonist, and does not represent him as a one-note character, though we may not like him that much it’s also possible to understand his actions throughout the film. Also a nomination well deserved, though Hardy is in my opinion rivaled by Mark Rylance’s great performance in “Bridge of Spies”.
In conclusion, The Revenant is truly one of, if not the greatest films of 2015, especially in the visual department. It’s a truly epic story of survival that at times may require some suspension of disbelief, but its few weak points are saved by the brilliant actors and the always present stunning cinematography. It’s definitively a film worth seeing, and worthy of a true cinematic experience.
January 26, 2016 Hedvig Academy Awards, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Emmanuel Lubezki, Film, film review, Leonardo DiCaprio, movies, Oscars 2015, Stephen Mirrione, The Revenant, Tom Hardy 3 Comments
So bad they’re good – B-movies galore
Recently my boyfriend and I have been watching a lot of so-called B-movies. Something just got into the both of us after watching Army of Darkness a few weeks back, and since that we decided to just continue on that path for a little while. We’ve watched a lot of old sci-fi and/or horror movies that are often referred to as b-movies, a lot of them in the category “so bad it’s good” and some “so bad it’s just bad”. And some are just plain good films.
I thought I’d make a quick list of the films we have watched so far, but I’m sure it will expand in the future. We have a lot of titles remaining to be seen! I will only post my short opinion here, and mostly won’t include a summary or description, as some of these will have their own blog-post dedicated to a full review later. If you want to find out more about the plot or information about the film, click on the title and it will lead you to the film’s IMDB-page.
I would also love some tips on what to check out next based on the things we have seen, so if you have any ideas, please leave a comment 🙂
Army of Darkness (1992) – First thoughts: Oh my god, it’s Miss Honey! That is WEIRD! Otherwise, loved it as I loved the other Evil Dead-films. They increase in silliness with each film, but in a good way. THE series to watch if you want a comedy-horror film.
Young Frankenstein (1974) – This was a really fun film! Basically, it’s about a younger family member of the original Frankenstein, tired of always being compared to his infamous relative and determined not to follow in his footsteps, but end up doing EXACTLY so. Just in a more comical and absurd way. Gene Wilder is funny as always in the title role, but this films TRUE star is Marty Feldman as Igor.
Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964) – The title of this film is just.. Well.. What can you say? I was a bit let down by this, as it’s actually a bit more serious than the title leads you to believe. I was expecting something completely stupid, goofy and laughable, but unfortunately it was mostly stupid and boring. There’s a cute monkey though, so you have that.
The War of the Worlds (1953) – Actually a bit unsure if this is considered a b-movie or not. I thought it would be before watching it, but it was a lot more high-budget and high-tech than I expected. The set and effects are quite impressive, but unfortunately the film itself is quite dull. I think it would have been more interesting had they stayed closer to the original story. Quite a forgettable film.
Barbarella (1968) – The “classic” Barbarella. I’m actually not even sure what to think of this film. It’s just SO weird. Good weird or bad weird? I can’t decide! I certainly laughed at parts, but it also felt longer than the 98 minutes it took to watch it. It is “the ultimate b-movie” for a lot of people, and certainly the sexiest. I don’t think I’ll be tempted to re-watch it any time soon though.
Dracula (1958) – Christopher Lee! Peter Cushing! I loved this, and it also surprised me a lot. It actually changes quite a lot from the original Dracula-story, but it stays true to its spirit, and Cushing is BRILLIANT as Van Helsing! One of my favourites of the films we saw! Will have to check out some of the sequels (there are A LOT)!
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) – This was quite forgettable I’m afraid. It’s a standard monster-movie, but what’s cool about The Beast is that it’s basically almost like Godzilla, but this came first by a year! The plot revolves around a frozen dinosaur waking up to life, he’s pissed and wants to rampage a city. Sound cool, but turned out quite boring. The last five minutes are the highlight of the whole film.
Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988) – I.LOVE.THIS! They are clowns. They come from outer space. And they just wanna kill people! With popcorn guns, cotton candy and pies! How can you not love it? This movie embraces the “so bad it’s good”-idea to the fullest, I even think the acting is bad on purpose. Or they went out of their way to find bad actors (sorry). Anyway, IT’S THE BEST, YOU HAVE TO SEE IT!
Forbidden Planet (1956) – This turned out to be something completely different from what I expected, but I quite liked it. The plot surprised me, mostly in a good way. It’s not a goofy movie as one might think from the poster, although it has its goofy moments, it’s actually takes almost a philosophical approach to its themes. A recommended watch!
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959) – Decided to watch this as we liked Dracula so much, and here we have the brilliant trio of Fisher (director), Lee and Cushing again. This wasn’t quite as good as Dracula, but it was an okay watch, and my first old Sherlock-movie. Big surprise in the film: Lee plays a good guy! What is this!? Nice to see for a change though, and although the film itself wasn’t that interesting, the actors are great.
Leprechaun (1993) – Watched this in hope that it would be kind of like Killer Klowns; completely ridiculous and hilarious, but our hopes were not met. The concept of an evil murderous leprechaun seeking vengeance for his stolen gold sounds cool, but it turned out too stupid and without the fun-stupid parts. And this film has 6 sequels! I don’t think I’ll be watching any of them, although the title Leprechaun 4: In Space (Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood is another good one) sound awfully tempting.
As mentioned, I’d love to hear what your favourites in the genre are, I’m always looking for what to explore next 🙂
October 19, 2015 Hedvig 000 Fathoms, army of darkness, b-films, b-movies, bad movies, barbarella, cult, cult films, cult movies, dracula, evil dead, films, forbidden planet, horror, killer klowns from outer space, leprechaun, movies, old movies, robinson crusoe on mars, sci-fi, sherlock holmes, The Beast from 20, the hound of the baskervilles, the war of the worlds, young frankenstein 1 Comment
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"A Gentleman in Moscow" var så nydelig at den fortjener å stå i fint selskap ❤ Denne perlen anbefales på det sterkeste! Anmeldelse av boka via link i bio.
Men dette er hva som faktisk skal leses i påska! Hashtag sakprosahumør 💛📚
Bøker kan fint fungere som påskepynt 💛🐥🐇
Denne boka altså! For et mesterverk! Så langt en av mine beste leseopplevelser i år, som jeg virkelig anbefaler videre. Den er i norsk oversettelse som kom i januar, under tittelen "Heftige bånd". Grundigere anmeldelse på bloggen, link i bio 📚❤
Goodreads – Latest reads
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The Fight Against Poor Sanitation and Corruption
According to him, no amount of punitive actions would solve the challenges of poor sanitation, environmental degradation and endemic corruption in the Ghanaian society except and unless citizens, particularly Christians decided to have a change of attitude.
Bishop Fianu who was speaking at the diocesan launch of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference project dubbed, ‘A Clean Environment in a Corruption-free Society’ on Wednesday 12th December 2018 at the St. Cecilia Parish in Ho, charged faithful to impact society with their faith through self-sacrifice, love and service.
“As Christians, we should let our faith impact our public life. We should witness to Gospel values in our public life,” he stated.
The programme which is under the auspices of the Diocesan Good Governance, Justice and Peace Commission, according to its chairman, Rev. Fr. Clemence Ashiara will adopt effective and pragmatic strategies to address poor sanitation, the abuse of the environment and endemic corruption; and as well enhance the capacity of the priests and lay faithful to engage and support the local authorities in the search for accountability and development.
Outlining some strategies to achieve the objective of the project, Bishop Fianu entreated individuals and households to keep clean at least 50 metres radius around their homes, churches and institutions.
He urged the faithful to wary the dangerous effects of poor sanitation especially open defecation on the individual’s health and the environment and thus, advised that homes and institutions should construct places of convenience in their premises.
He also proposed the celebration of the ‘Abor’ (Garden) Day in the schools, for children to be groomed for planting and nurturing trees in the surroundings.
“We must educate ourselves about the negative effects of e-waste and to seek appropriate ways of disposing them” the bishop added.
On his part, the Deputy Volta Regional Minister, Mr. Maxwell Blagodzi who represented the minister at the launch, lauded the bottom-up approach of diocese to tackle the poor sanitation and corruption menace, which he noted has caused the country to lose both financial and human resources needed to propel rapid socioeconomic development.
He emphasized that the fight against corruption should not be left in the hands of only those in leadership positions, but rather, “followers must understand that they wield a great power in the fight against corruption".
The deputy minister also added corruption should not only be seen as the use of public funds for private but also a total deviation from acceptable ways and principles of religious beliefs and the national law.
An official from the Regional Environmental Health Department, Madam Stella Kumedzro, underscored the need for everyone to good personal and environmental hygiene in order to prevent diseases and also save the country the over 290 million dollars it loses annually as a result of poor sanitary practices.
She disclosed that Ghana’s sanitation record worldwide was very poor as it is among the ten countries with poor sanitation and ranked the 7th dirtiest country globally.
In the Volta region, madam Kumedzro stated that, only 414 communities, representing only 15 per cent of over 3000 communities were open defecation free, and called for a concerted effort to tackle it.
Mr. Joseph Nkrumah, Regional Manager of the Ghana Water Company said the environmental degradation has reduces the quality of raw water and increases the cost of treatment by the company, and thus backed the project which will ensure the protection of the environment, including water bodies.
A Senior Programme Officer at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Mr. Derick Logo, called for a fine balance between economic gains and environmental management so as to ensure a good and sustainable environment for posterity.
Present at the ceremony was the Vicar General, Very Rev. William Horlu and a host of priests, religious and lay faithful from parishes within the Ho deanery as wells other stakeholders.
(C) DEPSOCOM
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2nd Circuit Court rules in favor of Chevron in next round of shakedown suit
Jazz ShawPosted at 8:01 pm on August 8, 2016
The long saga of the attempted Chevron Shakedown by corrupt agencies in Ecuador and their environmentalist allies in the United States hit another milestone today. You may recall that more than two years ago a judge ruled against the groups attempting to pick Chevron’s pockets to the tune of nine billion dollars, finding that they had engaged in outright fraud during a RICO case brought against them by the energy giant. The court further determined that they could not collect on the massive judgement they obtained in Ecuador. (Not surprising given the mountain of evidence presented in court which showed that the judge in the that country was basically on the payroll of the plaintiffs.) The would-be billionaires, led by Manhattan attorney Steven Donziger, appealed the finding and this week, after a long and winding legal road, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that the RICO ruling stands, the original case was based on fraud and the plaintiffs can go whistle for their supper. (ABC News)
Ecuadorean plaintiffs cannot collect a $9 billion judgment in the U.S. against energy company Chevron for rainforest damage, a federal appeals court ruled Monday, upholding a judge’s finding that the judgment was obtained through bribery, coercion and fraud.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan had the authority after a trial to rule in March 2014 as he did. It noted, however, that Kaplan’s decision doesn’t invalidate the Ecuadorean judgment and doesn’t stop the enforcement of the judgment outside the U.S.
A U.S. spokeswoman for the Ecuadoreans, Karen Hinton, said they were shocked and called it a “sad day for the U.S. justice system.”
“As disappointed as we are, this ruling will not deter the Ecuadoreans, their lawyers and their supporters from aggressively seeking justice in Canada and in other countries where litigation is underway to seize Chevron assets,” she said.
You can read the full ruling via the Wall Street Journal. If you haven’t been keeping up with this, feel free to catch up with our coverage of this case dating back several years. Unfortunately, this won’t be the end of the road for this tale of racketeering. As indicated in the ABC News article, the plaintiffs have already seen the writing on the wall and are attempting to move their suit to a more friendly climate which might not pay as much attention to the fraud aspect of it. As we previously reported, Canada’s courts have been under fire for considering taking up the fraudulent case, but given the power of environmental groups in that nation there’s no telling how it will shake out in the end.
All of this should serve as a lesson to other major corporations. It’s common practice for these types of indignant groups to threaten a massive lawsuit against large corporations in the hopes that they will simply write them a big check to avoid the long term hassle and potential bad publicity of a messy lawsuit. Sadly, that strategy works all too often and it’s become something of a cottage industry among environmentalists. But for the past few years Chevron has declared that they were fed up with it and fought back. Since the RICO finding, most of the “investors” who bankrolled Donziger’s efforts in exchange for a promise of a cut of the shakedown profits have bailed out and surrendered their shares to Chevron.
But for now, the drama will continue to play out. Not, however, in the United States.
Tags: Canada Chevron Chevron Shakedown Court of Appeals fraud
The media is teaching us a lot about views on racism this year
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Native American Heritage Trail
Du Bois in Great Barrington
Hiking Trails - CT & MA
8:00 pm Becket, MA–MARK MORRIS DANCE GRO... @ Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival
Becket, MA–MARK MORRIS DANCE GRO... @ Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival
Hailed as “the most successful and influential choreographer alive, and indisputably the most musical” (The New York Times), Mark Morris is celebrated for deep, witty, poetic dance and an unwavering commitment to live music. “A[...]
8:15 pm Becket, MA–UMANOOVE/DIDY VELDMAN... @ Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival
Becket, MA–UMANOOVE/DIDY VELDMAN... @ Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival
Dutch choreographer Didy Veldman launched her company Umanoove in 2016 with The Happiness Project, a choreographic investigation of western society’s endless search for fulfillment. The London-based company makes their U.S. debut with this intricate, physical,[...]
6:15 pm BECKET, MA–FREE OUTDOOR “INSIDE/... @ Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival
BECKET, MA–FREE OUTDOOR “INSIDE/... @ Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival
Bring family and friends of all ages to the Inside/Out series, offering free outdoor performances by emerging and established dance companies and presentations by dancers of The School at Jacob’s Pillow every Wednesday through Saturday[...]
6:30 pm Lenox, MA–Mass Audubon: Evening ...
Lenox, MA–Mass Audubon: Evening ...
Location: Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary, Lenox MA Audience: All (suitable for children 3 & up) Members: Adult $6.00, Child $3.00 Nonmembers: Adult $8.00, Child $4.00 Visit our beaver ponds with a naturalist, and search for[...]
7:00 pm Sharon, CT–Beauty and The Beast ... @ Sharon Playhouse
Sharon, CT–Beauty and The Beast ... @ Sharon Playhouse
also Saturday, July 20, 21,25, 27, aug 1, 3 at 2 PM and Sunday, July21, 28 aug 4 at 3PM Beauty and the Beast is the classic story that tells of Belle, a young woman in[...]
8:00 pm Gt. Barrington, MA–Tom Paxton & ... @ The Guthrie Center
Gt. Barrington, MA–Tom Paxton & ... @ The Guthrie Center
Winner of a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for a career going back to the Greenwich Village folk revival of the early 1960s, when, as a pioneer singer-songwriter, he moved the genre beyond its traditions, Tom[...]
8:00 pm Lenox, MA–Boston Symphony Orches... @ Tanglewood (Boston Symphony Orchestra)
Lenox, MA–Boston Symphony Orches... @ Tanglewood (Boston Symphony Orchestra)
Andris Nelsons conducts Jolas, Saint-Saëns, Debussy and Ravel featuring cellist Gautier Capuçon Betsy JOLAS A Little Summer Suite SAINT-SAËNS Cello Concerto No. 1 DEBUSSY La Mer RAVEL La Valse At UnderScore Friday performances, patrons will[...]
A national heritage area has a distinctive history and geography, nationally important resources, and a story of broad interest to tell.
The United States Congress officially designates national heritage areas and funds them through the National Park Service budget. There are 49 designated heritage areas. Though the National Park Service provides technical expertise, the work and success of national heritage areas lies squarely with the citizens of the area. Heritage areas may be developed around a common theme or industry that influenced the culture and history of the region.
Click here to download a full size PDF map of the Heritage Area (653K)
The Mount – Edith Wharton’s Estate – Lenox, Mass
The Mount – Edith Wharton’s Estate – Lenox, Mass The Mount was the home of Pulitzer-prize winning author Edith Wharton, who designed the house and gardens with the same intelligence and sensitivity that distinguishes her writing. Edith Wharton created her gardens as architectural compositions, divided into rooms, and planned in concert with the house and […]
Friends of Du Bois Homesite – Gt. Barrington, Mass
Friends of the Du Bois Homesite is a community-based organization that supports the restoration, maintenance, stewardship and awareness of the W.E.B. Du Bois Boyhood Homesite, a National Historic Landmark, as a public memorial to the Great Barrington native who became a leading scholar and activist in the civil rights movement in the United States and […]
Norfolk Historical Society & Museum – Norfolk, Conn
The Museum is housed in the old Norfolk Academy, built in 1840, later used as the Town Hall and Jail, and located on the Norfolk Village Green. Since 1960, the Norfolk Historical Society has been preserving our town’s unique history and caring for our rich collection of artifacts and documents. Come see a wonderful display […]
Hancock Shaker Village – Hancock, Mass
About The Museum—The Village today consists of 18 historic buildings set amongst farm, field, meadow and woodland, and a collection of 22,200 objects. The Hancock Shaker Village is a designated National Historic Landmark. National Historic Landmarks are nationally significant historic places designated by the Secretary of the Interior because they possess exceptional value or quality […]
Great Mountain Forest – Norfolk & Falls Village, Conn
The Great Mountain Forest (GMF) encompasses approximately 6,042 acres of contiguous forestland in the towns of Norfolk and Falls Village, Connecticut, in the northwest corner of Litchfield County, Connecticut. The mission is to engage in and support scientific research and education projects involving trees, forests, and other natural resources. Year-Round Public Access Recreational Uses – […]
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Watch Now: Live at Five Fox 13 TV Schedule
Matt McDonald
Matt McDonald is a weekend anchor and reporter for Fox 13. A graduate of Oregon State University’s engineering program, his path to journalism has been a long one, including a year living abroad in Shanghai, China.
Returning to the states in 2001, he spent some stereotypical time trying to figure out what to do with his life. That didn’t last long before his wife, Brenda, said “get a job.” Stints in marketing, film production and an internship on the reality show “The Apprentice” followed, though barely qualifying as work.
Ready to return to college for a second degree in broadcast journalism, Matt landed a job running the audio board at the launch of KOHD, an ABC affiliate in Bend, Oregon. Six months later Matt started his first year as a reporter, culminating with a Society of Professional Journalists award as the “best new reporter” in Oregon and Southwest Washington.
With his professional passion on track, Matt soon started life’s other great adventure…parenting. The father of two kids and a husband for more than 15 years, Brenda, fill life with both big and little lessons. Matt can be found on his days off hanging with the family, creating “Dad’s Big Adventure” (usually a hike, bike or fishing excursion) or, on rare occasions of truly free time, he likes to golf, though he doesn’t play very well.
‘Foxtail’ seeds posing greater danger for dogs
SALT LAKE CITY — Veterinarians across Utah are seeing a spike in cases of animals needing treatment after getting ‘foxtail’ seeds embedded in their bodies. “We’ve pulled them out of their tonsils before, we’ve had them perforate the esophagus. If they were to enter into the windpipe, they could get into the lungs,” said Dr. Eric Belnap, a veterinarian at Sugar House Animal Hospital. Belnap attributes the increase this year to the wet spring, leading to more of the foxtails […]
Olympia Hills development back on the table
HERRIMAN, Utah — Olympia Hills, the planned community proposed just west of Herriman that was shot down by then-Mayor Ben McAdams, is back for round two. Developers recently submitted new plans cutting down the number of housing units. “I think you have to do high density very attractively,” said Doug Young, the manager for the Olympia Hills development. The original plans called for around 8,700 housing units — a mix of apartments, townhomes, condos and houses. The new plan cuts […]
Better Business Bureau warns of unethical private parking enforcement in SLC
SALT LAKE CITY — A string of complaints has prompted the Better Business Bureau to warn consumers about a local company called Parking Solutions. Several people claim they have had their cars booted in the lot next to Zupas and Jamba Juice near 600 East and 400 South. “He raced up there and blocked my car horizontally with his car and then he took a boot out and booted my car,” said Jennifer Davis of Salt Lake City. Davis said […]
Utah woman says she had uncomfortable date with murder suspect
SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah woman who went on a date with Ayool Ajayi, the man accused of killing University of Utah student Mackenzie Lueck, says she ended it after one uncomfortable date. “I met him on Bumble, the online dating app,” said the woman speaking with Fox 13 News on the condition of anonymity. The online meeting was last year. After chatting through the app, the two decided to meet for lunch where things took an uncomfortable turn. […]
McCluskey family to file Title IX lawsuit; attorney says suit is designed to improve safety
SALT LAKE CITY — On Thursday morning, Matt and Jill McCluskey, the parents of slain University of Utah student Lauren McCluskey, are expected to file a Title IX lawsuit in federal court. “This is a lawsuit designed to encourage universities to create a safer environment,” said James W. McConkie, an attorney for the McCluskey family. Virtually every school that receives some type of federal funding is required to meet Title IX standards. “Ultimately, Title IX has express provisions that says […]
Neighbors concerned about future Sandy development
SANDY, Utah —At Tuesday night’s meeting, the Sandy City Council approved a master plan to redevelop the area surrounding Rio Tinto stadium. “If you get multiple housing options in this area/neighborhood, and you have small businesses and institutional businesses both, it will re-invent itself over and over,” a consultant working on the master plan told city councilors. Sitting in the crowd at the council meeting was Michael John Carter. He’s lived in Tiny Wood Village, a mobile home park practically […]
MacKenzie Lueck: What Salt Lake City Police are saying, and aren’t
As the search for missing University of Utah student MacKenzie Lueck stretches past a week, Salt Lake City Police are trying to answer a number of questions.
Seniors left without hot water for nearly a week
MURRAY, Utah — A senior living community in Murray has been without hot water for at least six days. “We just kept being told it will be on tomorrow, it will on tomorrow. Then every day that goes by, it’s a week and a day and it’s still not on,” said the relative of a resident speaking to Fox 13 News on the condition of anonymity. Olympus Ranch is at 971 East 5600 South in Murray. The company that manages […]
Kearns football players suspended for Pride flag burning, ‘all gays die’ Snapchat video
KEARNS, Utah — Two students have been indefinitely suspended from the Kearns High football team for a social media post showing a Pride flag being burned and threatening LGBTQ people. A player posted a video on Snapchat last week where someone lights an LGBTQ Pride flag on fire and laughs. Someone in the video is heard saying “all gays die.” Granite School District officials are determining the proper punishment, which could include community service or school suspension for the student […]
Teen creates art to help pay for her own medical care
SALT LAKE CITY — A 19-year-old artist from Ogden is using her own work to help pay for her medical care. “That’s kind of what I try to do — I try to make other people happy,” Ebony Myers said about why she draws. Her works of art, for the last three weeks, have been made while laying in a hospital bed at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City. “The medicine, the pain, not my bed. I don’t really feel […]
Utah man suspected of shooting 2 men in California, including off-duty deputy
ALHAMBRA, Calif. — A Utah man was taken into custody Tuesday morning in connection with the shooting of a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy, KTLA reports. Rhett Mckenzie Nelson, 30, of St. George, is accused of walking into a Jack in the Box restaurant in Alhambra Monday around 6 p.m., shooting Deputy Joseph Solano, 50, in the head with a handgun one time and fleeing. Solano was off-duty and in plain clothes at the time. He is hospitalized in critical […]
Family recounts rescue after car lands upside down in the Logan River
LOGAN, Utah — “I remember the water coming up inside the cab,” Jed Al-Mari recalled. On Thursday, he was driving back from Bear Lake, coming down Logan Canyon in his truck. His wife, Kathleen, was in the passenger seat. Behind them, his grandkids Ridge, 13, and Darby, 11, were buckled in. The canyon had recently been paved and it was raining, bringing oil up to the surface. “There’s nothing you can do. You can feel the whole truck going and […]
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Closed Captioning Info
History of KSTU
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The Black Country
Farley Park, 1983
The visit of the 45th American President to the UK has inspired a great deal of dissent and protest, a particularly novel one being the Trump Baby Balloon – which recalls the spirit of civil protest that animated much of the early community arts movement. In the 1970s, Jubilee had a silkscreen press in its base at Farley Park Lodge in Greets Green, West Bromwich. Apart from being used on projects and promotion of community events, the silkscreen proved popular with local activists, who queued up to make posters and t-shirts for various campaigns. This picture shows John Smith (and his sister), who was involved with a Nicaragua solidarity group in the early 80s.
Cathy Mackerras was one of the original members of a sister organisation to Jubilee Arts. She recalls some of their influences. “Back then I was a student at Birmingham University, where Clive Barker was a lecturer. He had been involved with Arnold Wesker’s Centre 42 project and with Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop and taught on my course. But my knowledge also came from France. As part of my studies, I had an exchange in Paris, where I learned about the legacy of the maisons de la culture in provincial cities, created by the Minister of Culture Andre Malraux. People were calling this kind of arts work out there with the community, cultural action or cultural animation. After I graduated spent three months working with community projects in Montpellier, where theatre was being made with diverse groups of people, from Peugeot workers to immigrants to the unemployed.’ Coming back to the Midlands, inspired by these experiences of seeing ‘arts and culture in the hands of the workers’, she was soon to become one of the founder members of Telford Community Arts. In this period, founder members of Jubilee had also studied these Drama and English courses at Birmingham.
Other groups in the Midlands, starting out in the early 70s – apart from Jubilee in Sandwell – were Saltley Print and Media, Banner Theatre, Trinity Arts over in Brum. There was also WELD (Westminster Endeavour for Learning and Development), based at a school in Wandsworth who undertook arts projects. The design and publishing group Sidelines, which involved Birmingham photographers Derek Bishton, John Reardon and Brian Homer, ran a community photography project at WELD.
You can find some background information on this period here on François Matarasso’s website.
You’ll find an interview with another member of Telford Community Arts here at: communityartsunwrapped.com
About the Archive Project
Contact – add to archive
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FIFACOINSBUY.COM(IGXE Internet Game Exchange Hongkong Limited addressed at FLAT/RM 1601 CHOW TAI FOOK CTR NO.580A-F NATHAN ROAD MONG KOK KL) and its affiliated companies (collectively, the "Company") respect your privacy rights and recognize the importance of protecting the Personal Information (as defined below) provided by you to us. This Privacy Policy describes how the Company collects, stores, and uses the Personal Information you provide to us through the Company's web sites and through telephone or e-mail communications you may have with us. This Privacy Policy also describes the choices available to you regarding the Company's use of the Personal Information you provide to us, and the actions you can take to access this information and request that the Company correct or delete it.
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Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
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The Office of Minority and Women Inclusion (OMWI) oversees our organization's diversity practices, including employee recruitment, community partnerships and vendor contracts. We believe diversity strengthens our organization and enriches the work we do.
2018 Office of Minority and Women Inclusion Report to Congress
Learn more about the Bank’s successes and challenges in meeting the requirements of section 342 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. View past reports: 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012 2011.
Our organization is guided by a diverse team of senior leaders, boards of directors and advisory councils. Fifty percent of our official staff are women. Throughout our history, the Kansas City Fed has maintained a rich tradition of women who've made significant contributions to our organization.
Diversity Strategy
Read the Kansas City Fed's Diversity Strategy.
As a part of the nation’s central bank, the mission of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City is to formulate monetary policy, protect the banking system, and ensure a safe and efficient payments system for an overall stable, healthy economy.
To accomplish this mission, we must hire and retain highly talented and creative individuals.
To attract the best employees, I believe workplace diversity and equal employment opportunities must be among the Kansas City Fed’s top priorities. Our organization’s strategic planning emphasizes this as essential to carrying out our mission.
We are committed to building a diverse workplace, and are continually striving to achieve this goal. As such, we provide equal employment opportunities regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation or genetic information.
All employees, regardless of what makes them unique, have the opportunity to succeed at the Kansas City Fed.
Esther L. George
OMWI at the Kansas City Fed
Meet our Director
Tammy Edwards oversees the Office of Minority & Women Inclusion and the Bank's Community Development and Strategic Stakeholder Engagement programs.
Meet other official staff members, whose work includes supporting OMWI efforts, and contact us.
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The Kansas City Fed's Student Board of Directors program gives students the opportunity to learn about the Federal Reserve.
Learn more about our diversity programs and practices in this 2012 letter to the Congressional Hispanic Congress.
Additional diversity information
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Section 342 of this act outlines the requirements of the Office of Minority and Women Inclusion.
We use competitive solicitation processes for goods and services. Learn more about becoming one of our diverse regional suppliers and access our self-registration tool. The Bank was named 2016 Champion of Diversity by the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce.
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Consumer Protection Bill, 2018: A Paradigm Shift?
[Chirali Jain is a BBA LLB (Hons) student at National Law University, Jodhpur]
On 20 December 2018, the Lok Sabha passed the Consumer Protection Bill, 2018 (the “Bill”) which is an attempt to replace the entire Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (the “1986 Act”). The question is whether there was a need to replace the entire legislation? What were the insurmountable obstacles that led to a three decades old legislation needing to be replaced? Will such a new legislation be successful in resolving such difficulties? These questions are sought to be addressed by examining the Bill closely.
The sole purpose of the 1986 Act was to protect the interest of the consumers. It was a shift from caveat emptor to caveat venditor. It was neither punitive nor preventive in nature, but compensatory. The intention behind the legislation was to provide simple, speedy and inexpensive redressal to the consumers. But a change or shift in the consumers’ mindset, the advent of new technology, and delay before the Consumer Courts have hinder the effect or purpose sought to be achieved by the 1986 Act. This led to an urgent need on part of the Government to enforce laws that could effectively check consumer frauds and provide necessary amendments in the various provisions of the Act so as to introduce a more successful mechanism.
Thus, in order to address the shortcomings in the 1986 Act, the Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha this year. The Bill takes into account a rapid changes in consumer market place, deals with misleading advertisements and, most importantly, online and teleshopping. The Bill was referred to a Standing Committee for necessary changes and was approved by the Lok Sabha recently.
The Key highlights of the Bill are:
1. It establishes a Central Consumer Protection Authority (the “CCPA”) which acts a national level regulator. It shall deal with rights of consumers as a class, and with matters that are prejudicial to the interest of the public and the consumers. The CCPA will possess the powers of search and seizure, and headed by the Director General, will play an investigative role. Any unfair trade practice or misleading advertisement shall be construed more severely than before.
If the CCPA has conducted an investigation and there is sufficient evidence to demonstrate violation or any prejudice caused to consumer rights or adoption of any unfair means, it may pass any such order within its powers that may be necessary, including (a) recalling of goods or withdrawal of services which are dangerous, hazardous or unsafe; (b) reimbursement of the prices of goods or services so recalled to purchasers of such goods or services; and (c) discontinuation of practices which are unfair and prejudicial to consumers’ interest. It also has powers to issue directions or penalize manufacturers or celebrity endorsers against any false or misleading advertisements or claims.
2. The Bill contains provisions with respect to misleading advertisements which it defines in clause 2(28). Any person indulging in misleading advertisement can be imposed a penalty of Rs. 10 lakhs according to the directions of CCPA. It has attained a status of a punishable offence along with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 5 years and penalty of 50 lakhs.
3. There is a special provision for liability of endorsers. Endorsement is defined in clause 2(18) as any message, verbal statement, demonstration, depiction of name, signature or any other identifiable characteristic of an individual or depiction of name or seal of any institution which makes the consumer believe that it reflects the opinion, finding or experience of the person making such endorsement is fraudulent shall be liable. However, no liability will be attracted by the endorser if it has exercised due diligence and verified the claims made in the advertisements.
4. Chapter IV of the Bill deals with product liability, a much needed clause in the 1986 Act. It means the responsibility of a product manufacturer or product seller, of any product or service, to compensate for any harm caused to a consumer by such defective product manufactured or sold or by deficiency in services relating thereto. But it will not include any harm caused on account of breach of warranty conditions or any commercial or economic loss. The product liability claim can be brought by a complainant against a product manufacturer, service provider as well as a seller exercising substantial control over designing, testing or modifying the product.
5. The Bill seeks to expand the definition of “deficiency” according to clause 2(11) and include acts of negligence or omission or commission and deliberate withholding of relevant information which causes loss or injury to the consumer.
6. The 1986 Act lacks the provision of “unfair contract” which has been incorporated by the new Bill. It is a contract between a manufacturer or a trader and a consumer which leads to causing significant changes in the rights of the consumer. The Bill identifies six types of unfair contracts; (a) requiring manifestly excessive security deposits, (b) imposing any disproportionate penalty on the consumer for the breach of contract, (c) refusing to accept early repayment of debts on payment of applicable penalty, (d) entitling a party to the contract to terminate such contract unilaterally, without reasonable cause, (e) permitting one party to assign the contract to the detriment of the other party who is a consumer, without his consent, (f) imposing on the consumer any unreasonable charge, obligation or condition which puts such consumer at a disadvantage.
7. The dispute can be referred to mediation as an alternative dispute redressal mechanism. There is also a provision for setting up a Consumer Mediation Cell. If the parties at any step want to settle their disputes through mediation, the court or the National Commission shall have the power to direct the parties by giving their written consent to resort to mediation.
8. Presently, the pecuniary jurisdiction of the District Consumer Forum is Rs. 20 lakhs and Rs. 1 crore for the State Commission, but according to the current market trends the Bill seeks to raises the pecuniary jurisdiction. Now the District Commission shall deal with cases up to Rs. 1 crore, the State Commission with cases up to Rs. 10 crores and the National Commission with cases exceeding the value of Rs. 10 crores.
Apart from the abovementioned provisions, various other provisions have been introduced in the Bill that were absent in the 1986 Act. Thus, in totality, the Bill is an attempt to overcome all the shortcomings of the Act to provide speedy justice and protect the interest of the consumers in a better manner possible. However, certain provisions in the Bill need to be addressed before it takes effect as legislation.
The first such issue relates to the composition of the Commissions under the Bill. The Commission will be headed by a President and will comprise of other members; however, the power of deciding the qualifications of these president has been vested with the Central Government whereas in the existing 1986 Act the Commission shall be headed by a person qualified to be a judge and prescribed minimum qualifications for it as well. The Bill provides only for non-judicial members as a part of the Commission and this would violate the doctrine of separation of powers between the executive and the judiciary. As these Commissions shall be adjudicating bodies, having only non-judicial members would take away the essence of this function.
Secondly, with respect to appointment of members of the Commission, according to the Bill, the Central Government shall notify the method of such appointment. These Commissions are intended to be quasi-judicial bodies. This raises an issue of concern about allowing the executive to appoint the members of the Commission as it would affect the independent functioning of the Commission. Under the 1986 Act, such appointments are carried out by a selection committee which comprises of a judicial member necessarily. There may be situations where the Government might be a party to the dispute itself and the when the dispute does before the Commission, the member appointed by the Government ends up adjudicating.
Apart from the inconsistencies mentioned above, the Bill is a gallant attempt to achieve the said objective of protecting the interest of the consumers but these issues raised above need to be resolved in order to maintain the balance between the executive and judiciary and protect the basic structure of the Indian Constitution.
– Chirali Jain
Dr Vikram Aurora says:
Does this law also pertain to the Doctor & Patients, and related litigations of negligence ?
Naren says:
A very well written note, Chirali. Just wanted to inquire a few things.
On the product liability aspect, you mention that product liability is covered in Chap IV of the bill. I am looking at the text of the bill available on prsindia.org. The text seems to reflect product liability in Chap VI of the bill. I am not sure if I am looking at the wrong version of the bill. But please do confirm the chapter reference.
Further, you have mentioned that product liability will not include any harm caused on account of breach warranty condition. Sections 84 and 85 of the bill dealing with liability of product manufacturer and product service provider seem to indicate that liability under a product liability action will include cases where product / service does not conform to express warranty.
Just wanted to be sure that I am not missing anything.
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Reality Change II: “Hope for the best, Prepare for the Worst.”
“Federal military commanders have the authority, in extraordinary emergency circumstances where prior authorization by the President is impossible and duly constituted local authorities are unable to control the situation, to engage temporarily in activities that are necessary to quell large-scale, unexpected civil disturbances.”
– ‘Defense Support of Civilian Law Enforcement Agencies’
“Don’t trust the banks. Most are bankrupt. Don’t put your gold and silver coins in the safe deposit box. Keep them at home and keep them secret. Don’t keep more cash in the bank than is necessary to cover about a month’s worth of bills. This is a flashing red alert. Many tens of thousands of people who have their trust in the government system (U.S. currency) are headed dead ahead into impoverishment.”
– Bob Livingston, Personal Liberty Digest
Not a pretty picture.
The above nebulous language introduced in recently amended regulations in the US code of military operations on domestic soil conveniently skipped over what these “activities” would be in order to quell civil disturbances. What it does do is give the US military carte blanche to do as they please in such a scenario which won’t exactly reassure American citizens that they are safe. Indeed, it suggests that the only “unexpected” thing here is just what the US military has planned in the face of the inevitable break down in social “order.” And when we factor in all kinds of natural disasters on the horizon you can understand why so many folks are leaving cities with high density populations and even leaving the country completely.
Not all of the disaster events in the last post will occur but since the main points on this list was first compiled in 2011, we are already seeing some of these scenarios playing out. And who knows? They may all arrive within a year… It really is a case of “Hope for the best and prepare for the worst,” as some bright spark once said …
Returning to our Machiavellian friend and insider Zbigniew Brzezinski, this man has had his finger on the pulse between pathocrat and the global public for several decades. Driven by an irrational and all-consuming hatred of Russia, Brzezinski is a master tactician and highly astute at deciphering the many possible futures currently jostling for supremacy. If he is worried about the scope and depth of changes taking place, then you can be fairly certain he’ll telegraph his concerns to the pathocratic faithful so that contingencies can be updated.
Posted in Activism, Earth / Climate Change, Economics / Economic Collapse, Environment / Nature, Establishment / Elite, Psychology, Psychopathy, Social Engineering, Spirituality / Esoterica, Technocracy and tagged alternative economics, Authoritarianism, Brzezinski, civil liberties, community, creativity, eco-villages, ecology, Elite, Federal Emergency Management Authority (FEMA), Homeland Security, IRS, law, Martial law, off-grid, permaculture, Police State, preppers, psychopaths, self-defence, SMART Society, sustainability, terrorism, Verstappen, weapons on June 9, 2015 by M.K. Styllinski. 6 Comments
Occult Zionism VII: Hexagrams and Comets
“The Israeli national talisman is the hexagram which is called the Magen or “Star of David” and is supposed to be the ancient symbol of Israel. However, such an occult symbol is nowhere mentioned in the Bible. It was ‘bequeathed’ to rabbinic leaders in the 14th century by the Hermeticist, King Charles IV of Bohemia and formally adopted as ‘the Star of David’ in 1898 at the Second Zionist Congress in Switzerland.”
– Michael Hoffman, Judaism Discovered
The Star of David; David’s Shield or Magen Dawld
If you have have read through much of this series, you might see a certain divergence occurring within Saturn Worship toward cults of Sun/fire and moon worship. In fact, by the time the Silver Age had ended and the Bronze Age of man had begun, history had delineated a clear distinction between fire worship and other residues of Saturn Worship. Sun Cults and Saturn cults had begun to form, each descending further and further into their negative associations. Thus it could be said that early Christianity emerged from the Egyptian myths of the Fire/Sun cults whilst Islam and Judaism had their roots in Saturn, moon rituals. Each were birthed from the same Star-God which gradually diverged over the centuries. The Egyptian Sun cult was the basis for Christianity, with the Jesus myth as “saviour” and “the light of the world”; cyclic rebirth dominating and battling the “Satan” of Saturnine cults. One can see clear freemasonic, Establishment distinctions of a ruling “priesthood” derived from the super-ancient origins of Saturn as our original brown dwarf star-sun.
Whether it is the Roman Sun god of Apollo, the 18th Century fire worship of the Illuminists or the Arabian followers of Saturnine Ishtar and Israelite cult of Baal or the Elohim, all of these descendants are now fully “satanic” in the sense that the Light was Luciferian – a “Black Sun” which became contoured toward the worship of darkness as an end in itself. Their New World International Order was one of a ruling EL-ite warring amongst themselves yet moving collectively toward what they denote as the next New Age of Man – the Synthetic Age (or “Synthesis”) and their return as the original overshadowing “gods.” Which is why we have such a seemingly bizarre sharing of cultural iconography in the two religio-occult affiliations within the 3EM and the fractal replications on the sun/moon theme. It doesn’t matter if it is the Western Hermetic tradition or the Hassidic cult of Chabad Lubavitch, each seeks to enforce the same totalitarian doctrines upon humanity and their respective inversions of a cosmic spirituality, way beyond the mixtus orbis of duality.
And one particular icon has remained a shared focus of power throughout.
The Star of David (or David’s Shield) is more accurately a hexagram. Dispensing with the mythology of King David, it is unquestionably an extremely ancient symbol dating back many thousands of years. If we keep in mind the Four Ages of Man and the probability that a global culture distributed cultural icons between different peoples – hence the similarity of cultural disjecta membra – it means the hexagram represented something common to all, with Saturn/Moon worship and the accoutrements of magical inversion arriving later. It has been present in most cultures as far back as 3,000 B.C. including the Sumerian tablets and as a template design of Stone Henge, thus it was never a uniquely Jewish symbol.
The hexagram-hexagon star symbolism occurs throughout Vedic literature and is known as Shaktona. In the Hindu religion it plays a vital part in their iconography of the gods being found right across the Near and Far East; the Indian and African continents. It is also a common symbol in Buddhism, Islam, Jainsim, Japanese Shintoism and the Chinese “Book of Changes” or Yi Ching. It can be seen in European and North American Churches, Christian iconography and the Catholic Church, as well as the Great Seal on the US dollar bill. The symbolism of the star even crops up in the brewery tradition!
“The Star of David in the oldest surviving complete copy of the Masoretic text, the Leningrad Codex, dated 1008.” (wikipedia, public domain)
The hexagram star has a very long history indeed but its association with Israel amounts to a clever mix of public relations and a tradition of ritual invocation. During the Second World War Jews were made to where the yellow star as a badge of death. When the war ended it became a symbol of Jewish resurrection and life. Yet, the Nazi use of the symbol – whilst abhorrent – was more accurate because of its ancient association to Saturn worship and death which was both the end desire of the Nazis and a pointed link to the tribe as a chosen people of Saturn rather than of G-d.
The question is, do most Jewish people realise the source of their emblem?
The magick associated with the six-pointed star and its hexagram were constantly found in talismans and amulets, largely for protection a key feature of the Talmud’s Jewish hijacking of the Medieval Arabic Cabala into the popular usage of the Kabbalah. The design appears in much of the Medieval Arabian traditions and was known as “Solomon’s Seal” which was mostly engraved on drinking cups and serving dishes. Jewish occultists saw the opportunity for another industry to form and began selling the seal as a from of magickal protection. King Solomon was likely another propaganda creation but the character’s mythology of occult nastiness provided centuries of inspiration for the Kabbalah and Western Hermeticism in general.
Nevertheless, despite King Solomon as the alleged builder of the first Temple in Jerusalem, King of Israel and a black magick practitioner (an interesting red flag in itself) the Talmud lauds Solomon as one of the 48 prophets, as does the Koran. Although mentioned in the Talmud and Midrash, Medieval Jewish mysticism incorporated the idea of Solomon’s magic rings into Kabbalah merchandizing ensuring the mythos of Solomon – and the concentration of magick that surrounded him – would reign supreme.
Solomon’s rings bestowed all kinds of occult feats of magical daring-do, giving further protective power to the Jewish tribe in the face of intermittent persecution and by extension, conferring the same powers onto those who bought the sales pitch. When set in a circle the six pointed star and hexagram is thought to act as a primary tool for the invocation of elementals and demonic entities. After all, in common magical parlance we: “… cast a spell on someone” or more accurately, “place a hex” upon them, the latter word derives from the divinatory “hexagram.” It is thus found in every kind of esotericism, white / black magick and New Age philosophy from Wicca to Raelianism; Theosophy to Martinism and of course, the Jewish Kabbalah.
German-born Israeli philosopher and historian Professor Gershom Scholem who wrote about these “amulets and protective charms” within Judaism were: “… found side by side with the invocation of demons, incantations…and even sexual magic and necromancy…”. The professor further states that these demons and devils were apparently under the rule of the Talmud and submitted to the Torah and thus: “… there were also good-natured devils who are prepared to help and do favors to men. This is supposed to be particularly true of those demons ruled by Ashmedai (Asmodeus) who accept the Torah and are considered ‘Jewish demons.’ Their existence is mentioned by the Hasidei Ashkenaz as well as in the Zohar.” [1]
The pentacle (left) The six-pointed star (right) (wikipedia) Notice the bull of Taurus-baal in the centre surrounded by planetary glyphs.
It is from the depictions of the seal of Solomon upon which the hexagram or “Star of David”, was eventually modelled to become the the symbol of Judaism in the modern period and placed on the flag of Israel. It was precisely because of its Medieval use and symbol of magick and its Saturnine origins that it was chosen as the emblem. In 1354, King of Bohemia Charles IV prescribed for the Jews of Prague a red flag with both David’s shield and Solomon’s seal, while the red flag with which the Jews met King Matthias of Hungary in the 15th century showed two pentagrams with two golden stars. Thus Israel’s magick and Saturn worship became synonymous with the State of Israel. [2]
Saturn’s star has never been an exclusively Jewish symbol. No Jewish authority knows exactly when and where Jews chose to make the six-pointed star or hexagram their own, although the 14th century was one of the first references Although Jews were happy to stick with the 7 candles of the Menorah as their emblem, and which could be said to be the true symbol of Judaism, “modern” references cite the formal blessing of the star as “‘bequeathed’ to rabbinic leaders in the 14th century by the Hermeticist, King Charles IV of Bohemia.” (See quote above) Yet, the the six-sided hexagram really took off as the Jewish emblem care of the Talmud and Lurianic Kabbalah in 17th Century Germany, kicking off the long tradition of German-Jewish freemasonry and Rosicrucianism. According to a variety of sources, it was the Viennese Jesuits at the behest of freemason German Emperor Ferdinand III who offered the hexagram as a mark of honour for the Jews of Prague for their assistance in the Thirty Years War.
Despite strong opposition to the hexagram star from many Rabbis due to is obvious pagan roots, the symbol spread within the Jewish communities most notably with the rise of the ambitious and Talmudic follower Mayer Amschel Bauer. He pointedly advertised his allegiance to Ashkenazi Jews and occult Zionism by changing his family name to “Rothschild” (‘Red Shield’) and incorporating the star of David hexagram into his family coat of arms. As he started up his financial brokering business in Frankfurt, it is said that the red shield emblazoned with the hexagram hung over the door. (This was not unnatural since the hexagram was hung outside synagogues and during Jewish festivals not long after its introduction – See House of Rothschild). Heavily funded by the Rothschilds, by 1897 the six-pointed star had become the insignia of Zionism; the iconic emblem of Israel and the international symbol of Jewish people everywhere.
Sefer_raziel_segulotSample page of Sefer Raziel HaMalakh, a medieval work of Jewish mysticism (wikpedia, public domain)
The hexagram contains a six, within a six, within a six: 666. Rather than a microchip or bar-code so often attributed to the Mark of the Beast, perhaps it is the six-pointed star of a hexagram that is the culprit considering its dark history? It is rather alarming with all that we know up to this point about the authoritarianism of basic Judaism, the dark occult roots of the Talmud, and the input of Ashkenazi-Khazar Jews, we then discover that the Biblical warnings of the number of the beast (666) can be seen as the current Hexagram flying defiantly or brazenly on the Israeli flag. This is further evidence that Israel and the Jewish people have been led astray by a Kabbalistic magickal working overlaid onto the original Saturn King.
Keep in mind that we also have Cassiel for whom the Gnostics called “an angel of matter”, who appropriated the melancholy and darkness of the Saturn star. He is of particular importance within the Kabbalah, being one of the seven archangels of Sephiroth acting as intermediaries between “God” and physical life. Cassiel controls the moon, karma, time and presides over the death of Kings. The angel rules over the ancient Hebrew, ‘Shabbathai’ (Saturn) and Satur-day’s “Holy Sabbath.” Magic spells using his name are cast to create destruction, to scatter crowds, to cause a person to wander aimlessly, or to fall from a position of power. [3]
The archangel Azrael or more accurately “Azriel”, is often identified with the Archangel of Death in Hebrew, Sikhism lore, as well as Islam. The Qur’an never uses this name, rather referring to Malak al-Maut (which translates directly as Angel of Death). Also spelled Izrail, Azrin, Izrael, Azriel, Azrail, Ezraeil, Azraille, Azryel, Ozryel, or Azraa-eel, the Chambers English dictionary uses the spelling Azrael. The name literally means “One Whom God Helps” [4] in an adaptive form of Hebrew.
Azrael = Israel? Is it the shadow of Saturn as death over Israel or its protector? If protection, for what? Divine providence or a collective ritual sacrifice? There are hints that the latter may be the chilling reality.
Qafsiel amulet from the 15th century (wikipedia)
Chapter 8 of the Book of Enoch (of John Dee’s Enochian Magick fame) assigns certain teachings to specific fallen angels:
“And Azâzêl taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all colouring tinctures. … And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they were led astray, and became corrupt in all their ways. Semjâzâ taught enchantments, and root-cuttings, Armârôs the resolving of enchantments, Barâqîjâl, (taught) astrology, Kôkabêl the constellations, Ezêqêêl the knowledge of the clouds, , and Sariêl the course of the moon. And as men perished, they cried, and their cry went up to heaven …” [5]
But we are straying off the path somewhat a much more important facet of the six-pointed star and its origins needs to be told.
Saturn’s north polar vortex seen in (infrared) (animation) (wikipedia) Notice the obvious shape of a hexagram and an “All-Seeing-Eye” of Horus in the centre …
There are increasing numbers of academics in the last few decades who have been building on Immanuel Velikosvkys’ work of cyclic catastrophe, along with the importance of cometary swarms and the validity of an “Electric Universe”. Bill Napier, Victor Clube, Jim McCannery, Laura Knight-Jadczyk have all posited the idea that the role of the planets, Gods and certain Biblical narratives were scattered mythologising of pre-history cataclysmic earth changes heralded by electrically-charged comets. Put another way, star images were originally used to represent comets, and the names of planets were assigned to these fiery harbingers of change and later transferred back to planets, including people and events which formed our dominant myths.
And myths of course, can be used politically.
What is even more extraordinary is that we now have visual confirmation of such a relationship. On October 29th 2006 the infrared mapping spectrometer on NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captured a clear six-sided hexagram (and thus the six pointed star) encircling the north pole of Saturn at around 78 degrees north latitude. Although discovered by NASA’s Voyager excursions in the early 1980’s, these photos, as NASA states that: “…that this is an unusually long-lived feature on Saturn.” [6] | Saturn – North polar hexagon and vortex as well as rings (2 April 2014) (Wikipedia)
Similarly, it is clear that human sacrifice was undoubtedly associated with Saturn and its offshoots as it moved further away from the original custodial teachings. The root source of the names of the Babylonian ‘gods’ may have originally been names of comets/comet fragments. These meteors and comet swarms heralded catastrophic change which then became seared into the consciousness of the population of the time. These messenger comets were assigned certain “divine” names in accordance with the qualities and the effects of their arrival. Saturn is thus seen as a giant progenitor comet who burned a powerful presence into the psyche of humanity of the Age, to become a star-God with assigned psycho-spiritual attributes, most notably its massive size and brilliance which prompted ancient man to describe it as a second sun.
There are other possibilities in different cultures such as the presence of solar eclipses. For instance, in Mesoamerican mythology there is a “Black Sun” symbolised by the god Quetzalcoatl or the Plumed Serpent and his relationship to the Underworld. For the Aztecs there were indeed two suns: the young Day Sun and the ancient Dark Sun, the latter of which came about from the passage of total eclipses symbolised by the rebirth archetype of a butterfly.
Historian and metaphysician Laura Knight-Jadczyk explains the nature of ancient images, motif and myth which has given rise to “‘torches’, ‘bearded stars’ and ‘smoking stars’, ‘long-haired stars’ or ‘a great star scattering its flame in fire’, and … representations of Venus as a flaming serpent or dragon in the sky…” [7] How confusing it all becomes when planets are associated with these descriptions. Could it be that changes related to the Saturn brown dwarf sun, were deeply connected to the arrival of comets?
She offers the following table to make sense of the chronology and attributions:
9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
Babylonian Divine name (very old, cannot be precisely dated)
Babylonian scientific name and late association with planets
Divine names used at the time of Plato, c. 430 BCE
Scientific names used in Greece after 200 BCE
Names of Roman gods attached to planets after 100 BCE
Ninib
Kaimanu
Star of Chronos
Mulu-babbar
Star of Zeus
Sal-bat-a-ni
Star of Ares
Dili-pat
Star of Aphrodite
Bu-utu
Star of Hermes
From Comets and the Horns of Moses By Laura Knight-Jadczyk (Kindle Edition – 2013) ref: paragraph: 2.514
Knight-Jadczyk draws our attention to the time of Plato where ‘Star of____’ was still being used and representative of the: “…brilliant nature of the comets that had evoked these names. But by 200 BCE, the term ‘Star of’ had been dropped, and by 100 BCE, probably no one even remembered that the names had once belonged to comets.” [8]
She also presents some fascinating research on interpretations of the Saturn-King star-Comet as adopting various roles through time including Jerusalem temple worship of Salim, or the ‘city of the temple of the god Šulmânu’ and Saturn as Ningirsu or Ninurta as protector of the Babylonian city of Lagas. Similar to Moses’ parting of the seas and consistent with tsunamis and floods after commentary bombardment: “… the cometary Saturn as Ninurta/Ningursu was hailed as ‘he who restrains the raging water’ and was credited with having ended the flood by ‘building a wall of stones.’” The pattern of catastrophe, and the consequent reconstruction and re-location becomes: “… conflated with the gods who had originally been the cause of the destruction.” [9]
Comet 17P/Holmes with blue Ionised Tail 2007| Image from Ivan Eder
Insipired by the work of Assyriologist Hildegard Lewy, Knight-Jadcyzk goes on to describe the mythology of comets and Gods in great detail from Sumerian Ninurta epic to Phoenician legends. What is more interesting in the context of Saturn and comets is the “… well-known tendency of Greek writers to depict the ancient gods as human beings to whom divine honors were accorded after their death. A similar tendency is traceable in the Bible. …” [10] As time marches on, the mythological legends in popular culture transforms past deities into human beings thereby incorporating them into their national folklore. This tendency is a repetition of how the “Star of Kronos” is transformed into the planet Saturn, not least the descent into child sacrifice which appears to be a consistent presence. It was not simply as a form of idolatrous worship and the wish for a better harvest and community cohesion for instance, it was largely based on a deep generational legacy of fear in the face of massive earth changes as a result of later cometary impact and cataclysm.
Quoting Lewy:
If, in consequence of a war, pestilence, or other public calamity, Saturn’s congregation was threatened with catastrophe, it was customary that the ruler of the respective community sacrificed his most beloved child to that planet. This custom, in turn, is explained by the legend that Saturn himself sacrificed his son on an altar when pestilence threatened his congregation. In fact, child-sacrifices appear to have been so typical a trait of the cult of the planet Saturn that still in the Middle Ages this star was known as the “children-devouring planet”. [11]
Laura Knight-Jadczyk’s Secret History of the World (Volume I) reiterates the likelihood that the original god of the peoples of Palestine and early Hebrews was a Saturn-God who demanded human sacrifice. She notes the similarities between the story of Jepthah’s daughter as a variation of the near-sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham discussed previously and almost identical to a Vedic story of Manu.
She explains further that:
These acts were based on what was called sraddha, which is related to the words fides, credo, ‘faith’, ‘believe’ and so on. The word sraddha was, according to Dumezil and Levi, too hastily understood as ‘faith’ in the Christian sense. Correctly understood, it means something like the trust a workman has in his tools and techniques as acts of magic! It is, therefore, part of a ‘covenant’, wherein the sacrificer knows how to perform a prescribed sacrifice correctly, and who also knows that if he performs the sacrifice correctly, it must produce its effect. In short, it is an act that is designed to gain control over the forces of life that reside in the god with whom one has made the covenant. Such gods as make covenants have a tendency to get out of control if the sacrifices are not performed correctly, which can certainly describe our ‘comet gods’.
Mediaeval Arabic sources include legendary memories of the pre-Islamic Arabian religions, as practiced in the Near East before the Turks extinguished the last remnants of the ancient Semitic religions. Ad-Dimisqui … devotes a full chapter of his Cosmography to this star – or comet, as we should say – worship. He notes that a temple of Saturn ‘was built in the form of a hexagon, black [was] the color of the stone work and the curtains’. In the cuneiform sources, Saturn is known as the ‘black’ or ‘dark’ star. Al-Masudi … suggests that, in the opinion of the worshippers of the stars, the Kaaba at Mecca used to be a shrine of Saturn, referring to the presence of the sacred black stone within the sanctuary. The name of the stone-idol was Hagar al-aswad. It appears that the Black Stone was worshipped in the Kaaba in pre-Mohammedan times. It was called Hubal then, a name that has the meaning of ‘He who violently deprives the mother of her children’.
There is a well-known legend about Mohammed’s grandfather, Abd al-Muttalib, who was reported to have vowed to sacrifice one of his sons to Hubal if he would be blessed with ten sons. … In short, the god worshipped in the Kaaba accepted or even demanded, child sacrifice and such sacrifices were a trait of the worship of Saturn; thus, the Kaaba is also a sanctuary of Saturn. [12] [Emphasis mine]
The cube within the Star-Hexagram| © infrakshun
A leather bound cube called “Tefillin” in Aramaic (“Totafot” in Hebrew) and sourced from the Jewish Ashkenazi tradition. The cube contains scrolls of verses from the Torah. | Deuteronomy 11:13-21 Ve-haya Im Shamoa states: “God’s assurance of reward for observance of the Torah’s precepts and warning of retribution for disobedience. […] tie them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be “totafot” between your eyes.”
And on the other hand, we have Islam’s most esteemed religious structure, the black cube of the Kaaba set with a black stone. in Mina, Mecca:
The Kaaba in the Masjid el Haram, Mecca, 2010 | Mosquée Masjid el Haram à la Mecque (wikipedia)
“The ‘Kabballah’ of Jewish mysticism/Masonry comes from Kabba-Allah or “Cube-God” around which people gather and ceremonially walk in circles.” – Jordan Maxwell
According to Knight-Jadcyzk there are consistent relationships between wells, water (by inference the moon?) with the worship of Saturn which connects to “… the water miracles and words of power of Mithraism and Moses” with a further relationship to the Arabic legends which passed into the occultism of the Seal of Solomon myth.
She explains:
The six-pointed star, or hexagram, was believed by the Arabs to have given Solomon command over the whole Earth and over spirits, good and evil. There is a story in the Arabian Nights about a ghost who, having rebelled against King Solomon, was imprisoned in a bottle. The container was eventually found by a fisherman, and was sealed by a lead plug bearing ‘the seal of our lord, Solomon’. Exactly as Ninurta-Šulmânu confined the hostile spirits of the flood in the shaft of a well which was sealed by a stone, so Solomon by means of the six-pointed star emblem of Saturn, could confine a rebellious spirit to a bottle. Another tale is that the great god, by entrusting to Solomon the ring bearing his emblem, delegated part of his power to the king he had chosen to rule in his name over the inhabited Earth. Interestingly, the name Solomon is a diminutive of Šalmân, ‘little Šalmân’, implying that ‘great Šalmân’ was the god who chose Solomon.
So, just as the image of the god Hubal stood over the well in the Kaaba, connecting the sanctuary with the nether waters, so was Yahweh enthroned above the opening to the nether waters in the temple at Jerusalem. However, before Yahweh had the job of holding back the flood, the Eben Šetîįâ apparently held the position with the weighty sigil … of Saturn inscribed thereon. Both stony gods were wont to receive offerings of sacrificial blood and incense and, apparently, this was still going on in Jerusalem as late as 333 CE, as reported by the Itinerarium Burdigalense, which is the oldest known Christian itinerary that tells of the writer’s journey to the Holy Land. …What is so interesting about it all is the fact that this central element of Israelite worship was considered by the writers of the Old Testament to be objectionable and so it was redacted completely from the Old Testament, even if it was not removed from the customs and beliefs of the people. [13] [Emphasis mine]
As well as celestial bodies, the parallel worship of stones seems to have taken place among the same peoples. Falling meteorites or ‘stars fallen from the air’ was described by the Phoenician Sanchuniathon (also known as Sancuniates) whose lost works have survived via partial paraphrase and summary of a Greek translation by Philo of Byblos, according to the Christian bishop Eusebius of Caesarea. The essence of the Gods were thought to reside within the stones thus giving rise to the idea of scared stones to be worshipped. The Hağar al-aswad, the black stone in the Kaaba in Mecca, is one example of a possible meteorite that was revered in a sanctuary dedicated to the ‘Black Planet’, Saturn.
Therefore, we may suppose that the stone was thought to be a piece of the ‘Black Planet’, a part of the body of the great god, which therefore deserved the same veneration as the great Comet Saturn itself. This connects us back to the issue of the sealing of the nether waters in the well – waters that were undoubtedly released during some cometary cataclysm in the past – and, after the danger had passed, it was thought that one or another of the parts of the body of the god that may have fallen to Earth, could be assumed to be capable of stopping floods or bringing rain or preventing famine, and so on. [14]
Having a “piece of the god in the form of a meteorite” designated an immediate form of veneration without the need of a craven image. Knight-Jadczyk reinforces the clear link between such stone veneration and the presence of wells. It seems that some “holy” stones have been placed at certain locations in or besides wells as an act of mystical allegiance to the god in question but also as a ritual to manage/appease the gods creating these inundations and floods as they wreaked their “vengeance” upon the earth. Once the catastrophe passed the stones and wells lost, these locations were replaced with statues a symbolic reflection of the god in question. In this sense, she believes that in many cases the old religion of Saturn worship hadn’t been broken; the new regime was the old regime only camouflaged. She offers evidence “… that the legends surrounding the temple in Jerusalem and its divine founder are identical to the stories told about other centers of the Saturn cult …” along with a tradition of human sacrifice at the site and therefore Saturn worship. Most intriguingly: “… the temple of Solomon story was originally created to propagate the worship of the comet-god Saturn, and the six-pointed shield of David or Seal of Solomon is, in fact, a representation of their favored deity: Saturn in his comet incarnation and later, in the astral version of the religion connected to the planet then named Saturn, a dark lord indeed.” [15]
The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon’, oil on canvas painting by Edward Poynter, 1890 | Source: Edward Poynter – Art Gallery of New South Wales (wikipedia)
Remember that the supposed Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem (also known as the First Temple) was/is a large part of Jewish Kabbalah and freemasonic lore and pretty much the same “keep busy” activity to deflect and obfuscate the core truths within esoteric wisdom and Saturn Worship. The Holy Temple in ancient Jerusalem, the seat of ritual sacrifice on Temple Mount, was destroyed by after the Siege of Jerusalem of 587 B.C. The Jews then slowly assimilated the mix of ancient comet religions and the astral religions from the ancient Near East. The Sumero-Akkadian-Assyro-Babylonian religion influenced Achaemenid-era Zoroastrianism and Judaism, and together with Egyptian and Greek traditions, in turn, strongly influenced Christianity, Mandeanism and Islam – all sourced from Comet-Gods and the disjecta membra of catastrophism. And it is here perhaps that we may see a turning point in the evolution of tribal Judaism and occult Zionism which may still continue to practice Satan/Saturn worship.
It all started in Babylon after the Jewish King Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem and when: “… the idea took hold that Yahweh was just a certain part of the body of the cosmic Saturn who had come to represent the whole universe”. [16] As the Jews assimilated all and every aspect of ancient comet-nature religions into blood sacrifice and Mosaic Law, Yahweh/Jehovah as but one aspect of a Universal God had now come the monotheistic enforcer which had appropriated all the later unsavoury Saturnine influences which have eventually surfaced in the religio-occult and political ideology of Zionists. The Saturn God of pre-history, perhaps a super-ancient comet, was not a universal God of Creativity but the source of earthly totalitarianism, where satanic rituals were performed to invoke power manifesting under a diverse set of mystical accoutrements.
The idea that minor deities are part of the supreme god’s body, and thus executors of his will, implicitly suggests a universal supreme god. It is taken for granted in the Septuagint [The ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament Jewish scriptures] that El Elion, the Most High, assigned different peoples to different gods, and Yahweh was one of the lower deities assigned to the Jews.… It was assumed that when a nation gained ascendency over other nations, its national god also assumed rule over the other gods of those people and places. Conversely, it might also be thought that a people wishing to gain control over the whole world might claim that their god is the sole universal god, as the authors of the Septuagint actually did. In their view, since the Jews had conquered Jerusalem in their re-writing of history, their god Yawheh was now conceived of as the supreme deity and other gods were just supposed to carry out his wishes, including the now demoted Šalim. Curiously, this replacement did not deprive Šalim of any of his characteristics; the name of the city was never changed. Extra-biblical evidence shows that such things as the Eben Šetîįâ and the related cycle of legends were still going as late as medieval times and must have featured as well-known ritual in the temple at Jerusalem throughout its existence. In spite of the Jews’ aversion to representations of the deity, they used a stone with the six-pointed star graven into it – the symbol of the Black Comet, Saturn – as an image of their faith. Throughout the Middle Ages, the Jews were known as ‘the people of Saturn’ to astrologically-minded people who thought in terms of ‘planetary influences’ on the lives of individuals and peoples; they just didn’t know how accurate the appellation actually was, nor was it exclusive to the Jews. [17] [Emphasis mine]
This brings us back to the beginning and the origins of the six-pointed star or Mâgên Dâwîd. Central to the idea of Saturn/Moon worship, ritual sacrifice and present Establishment designs is the idea of cyclic cosmic catastrophe and the transmogrification of comets and stars into Kings, Stones and certain mythical narratives. These terrifying events burned themselves into the collective consciousness which were then identified in certain symbols such as the star of David, the focus and intention of which can be used for good or for ill. In combination with electro-plasma and electrophonic interactions could be “… perceived by humans as the ‘speech’ of the gods, and a dramatic electrical exchange at that scale would likely produce equally dramatic sound effects, including roaring that might sound like a cosmic bull.” [18] (strange humming and other anomalous sounds have been recorded over the last decade) A slow process of cultural adaption to spellbinding rulers and leaders reinventing these myths into their own religious doctrines saw the slow amalgamation of earthly gods like Baal and Moloch into a Primary God – complete with the same debased rituals and secret orders though covertly integrated, in true ponerological form.
The crescent moon and star pentegram symbol which pre-dates Islam by several thousand years. | © infrakshun
The origins of the hexagram star or “Mâgên Dâwîd” may be the iconic encapsulation of cataclysms heralded by the fiery power of comets. Knight-Jadczyk cites the work of Assyriologist Hildegard Lewy’s comparisons between Judaism and Islam in this context:
In modern times, we find that Muslim mosques are topped by a crescent moon while Jewish synagogues are topped by the six-pointed star that is usually referred to as the Mâgên Dâwîd (Mogen David) or ‘the shield of David’ AKA the ‘Seal of Solomon’. Both stars and the symbol for the Moon are found in Mithraism … and other ancient cults. Lewy notes that the same symbol of the Mâgên Dâwîd is found on two Old Assyrian seal impressions on cuneiform tablets now residing in the Louvre. On the first of the tablets, the Mâgên Dâwîd is in front of a god who is carrying in two hands something that looks like a Menora, or seven-branched candlestick. There is no evidence for the practice of the Jewish religion in the Old Assyrian period so we might speculate that both objects represent a comet … and its effects, possibly one with 7 tails or one that broke into seven pieces.
On the second tablet, the Mâgên Dâwîd is placed with the lunar crescent and the solar disc. So, we have a star, a sun, and the Moon which, again, suggests to me that the ‘star’ is a comet since stars, per se, would not ordinarily be presented as equivalent luminaries with the Moon and Sun, nor would planets. There would really have been no reason for the ancient astronomers to have singled out any of the fixed stars that blanket the sky unless there was something truly unusual about its behavior. Even the slow-traveling planets would not have excited much attention. But rapidly traveling comets with a dramatic appearance would definitely have been something that excited both attention and the necessity for recording same. Otherwise, a ‘star’ symbol on a tablet or monument or seal would have been just one of ‘billions and billions’ with nothing in particular to identify it or set it apart. The ancient astronomers were recording things they saw and a star that was as big and bright as the Sun and/or the Moon would be represented in this way. Again, these same elements are present in the Mithraic iconography. [19]
Such specific symbols might not only represent three planets known to the ancients: Jupiter, Mars and Saturn but could have all have been: “… names applied to a single, reappearing comet that rapidly changed form due to disintegration. The same could have originally been true of Mercury and Venus.” [20]All of the mythology appears to point to the cyclic return of comets heralding massive earth changes and molding culture and consciousness with their arrival and departure. Thus much of the Bible lore of the Temple of Solomon and the kingdom of Israel ruled by King David were actually historicized comet legends mixed in with a multitude of other narratives designed to propagandise and control:
One of the clues to this earlier layer of tradition is that Solomon was engaged in the practice of offering sacrifices on ‘high places’, which was the normal practice of celestial religions: the top of a mountain or hill (or Ziggurat) was the place to worship or confer with such gods. Of course, with the understanding that these gods were actually comets and not planets, the ‘worship’ on mountains and hills could have originated as astronomical observation points utilized as a sort of ‘early warning’ system. […]
In respect of Jerusalem, the alleged city of the Jews, it is recorded in the Old Testament that this land was ‘given’ to the Jews by Yahweh. One would then assume that he was the tutelary deity who had Palestine in his gift. But that actually turns out not to be the case, unless, of course, Yahweh was just another name for Saturn because the god who apparently ‘owned’ Jerusalem can be inferred from the name of the city as Ur-sa-li-im-mu … which means that a god named Šalim was considered to be the creator and protector of Jerusalem. The city is even mentioned in one of the Amarna letters …. as Bît Šulmâni, or ‘city of the temple of the god Šulmânu’. That is, the god Šalim or Šulmânu was the principal deity of Jerusalem, which was edited out of the ancient texts used during the writing of the Old Testament, as Russell Gmirkin proposes. … The Assyrians identified him with their god, Ninurta who was, effectively, Saturn (though in comet form, certainly, not planetary). One bit of evidence that it was a comet is that the Assyrian astronomers and astrologers referred to Saturn as ‘the nocturnal sun’, or an object shining as bright as the sun in the night sky, a characteristic of a Giant Comet, for sure! [21]
The two faces of the god Janus / Apollo (sun and moon) and the Babylonian Nimrod otherwise known as Ninurta – both interpretations of King Saturn. There are endless cycles of names which lead back to the ultimate source.
Šalim, or the Šulmânu God during the time of King David’s “conquest of Israel” could have been the Saturn God-King that was worshipped down through the centuries, and via the Assyrians and their totalitarian impositions, it was absorbed by the religiously authoritarian followers of the tribal god Yahweh, who formed a cultic centre at Babylonian Jerusalem. The Levite Priesthood and the dark half of the Saturnine Talmud would set the course of history. She states: “It was members of this cult that later utilized many ancient texts to literally create the false history of Israel and it was in those stories that the names were forever inscribed in the minds of the people and could not be erased, nor changed, leaving testimony to the truth.” [22]
This brings us back to the source of the Babylonian Temple:
A very ancient temple in the environs of Jerusalem is known to have been built by the Hyksos … but it was never a temple of Yahweh until extremely late, if it was ever a temple of Yahweh at all. It may very well be that the first temple of Yahweh was actually the one built by the small number of individuals who were sent to Palestine from Babylonian ‘captivity’ by Cyrus. The archaeological record shows that no more than 25% of the population was actually deported, and when descendants of this select group were sent back to establish an outpost of the Persian empire to guard the trade routes, they refused to integrate with the people of the land – the descendants of the 75% of people that had not been deported. That suggests strongly that the Yahweh cult had actually grown up and refined itself in Babylon and was not, actually, the religion of the ancient Hebrews resident in Palestine. However, even now it is uncertain what god was actually worshipped in the new temple, considering some later evidence that we will get to shortly. It is entirely possible that Herod’s alleged temple was the first, truly Jewish – as in, exclusive worship of Yahweh-Jehovah – temple ever built, and it was built based on myth and legend that a former temple of Yahweh had existed since the time of Solomon. [23]
What a tangled web we weave.
(More on Laura Knight-Jadczyk’s extraordinary work can be found at www.cassiopaea.org/ and further books at: www.redpillpress.com/)
So, we see from this that Saturn may have either been one big comet or set against the background of massive cometary bombardment. Saturn worship wasn’t simply a case of a descent into black magick from day one. It was bound up with earth changes, cataclysm and cometary bombardment, in turn, segregating and facilitating an elite generation of “priests” and their accompanying religio-occult traditions which camouflaged essential psychopathy.
So, we have a large-scale cultural-tribal mythology from Arabia to Indo-Europe, which may have taken Saturn as a comet and metaphorically shattered an all encompassing reality into separate pieces, reflecting these core truths but adapted to the particular belief system and its subsequent evolution. Eclipses, black shrines, black cubes, star-shapes, All seeing eyes and all manner of “sacred” geometric symbolism was like a form of spiritual back-engineering, codified into forms of rituals including invocation and divination. This would depend on what quality of consciousness within the tribe or ruling elite had tapped into; whether fire/Sun or Earth/Moon worship – it was all from the Saturn’s entry into humanity’s consciousness in pre-history and the following companion stars.
The descent into literal black arts and blood sacrifice was a subversion which saw Saturn becoming the “devourer of children”, and something that populations through history embraced and took as an reality of appeasement. Similarly, it was Yahweh as a “lower god” and that was originally just one of many in “… the body of the cosmic Saturn” and who became metastasized into a topological metaphor of monstrous proportions and a consistent element of ancient Israelite worship. This continued into the Middle Ages with Jews being labelled as the “Children of Saturn.” One thinks perhaps it wasn’t due to their famous acts of altruism not least, since the Levites set about re-writing history centuries before.
If the King David myth and other narratives were epic characterisations of a very ancient residue of cometary change then it is true enough to say it was not, at origin, a formation of a magickal working. That arrived later, as it became associated with the distortion of perennial symbols and ritual blood sacrifice and still later appropriated for world Jewry – for their ultimate sacrifice, by and for the very same psychopaths.
The Mâgên Dâwîd is an ancient template symbol that is not evil in the same way that a gun is not evil. However, it can be transformed from an inert piece of metal to a weapon of death when supplied with the ammunition of specific kinds of knowledge. So too, some invocational designs with certain esoteric formulae can facilitate material effects in the wrong hands. Communication with the Gods through the circuits of symbols has always been around. The question of who or what one contacts is a bit more problematical.
Our history attests to Priesthoods of Grand Masters of the black and white magical arts from East and West who think they are in control and unlocking the Secrets of the Ages. Yet they are deluded. The comets come and go, as they have always done and will underscore such delusion with a natural “invocation” of their own. Our human-cosmic connection goes far beyond symbols in matter since the communication we need is etched into our very DNA and the growth – or atrophy – of the soul. That needs only the water of humility to begin the journey, a laughable anathema to psychopaths in power.
In the next post we will turn to the possibility that the same ancient Babylonian and later Thelemic Magick can be discerned in the events of the 9/11 attacks and how the dark cults of Saturn worship are still alive and well and performing acts of weaponised sacrifice.
[1] p. 184; Gershom Gerhard Scholem, (1977) Kabbalah (Library of Jewish Knowledge)
[2]http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Star_of_David
[3]Gaster, (1998), The Wisdom of the Chaldeans,pp. 17-18,Holmes Pub Grou Llc, ISBN 1-55818-399-X
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azrael
[5]The Book of Enoch, by R.H. Charles, [1917], at sacred-texts.com: http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/boe/boe011.htm
[6] http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/
[7] paragraph 2.513; Knight-Jadczyk, Laura, (2013) Comets and the Horns of Moses (kindle edition)
[8] Ibid. paragraph 2.514
[9] Ibid. paragraph 2.1012
[10] Ibid, paragraph 2.1026 quoting Lewy, Hildegard (1950) ‘Origin and Significance of the Magen Dawld’.
[11] Ibid. paragraph 2.1028
[12] Ibid. paragraphs 2.1029-2.1031
[13] Ibid. paragraphs 2.1038 – 2.1039
[18] Ibid. paragraph 2.991
[19] ibid. paragraphs 2.993 – 2.994
[21] Ibid. paragraphs 2.1000 and 2.1008
[22] Ibid. 2.1010
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Occult Zionism V: The Saturn King
“And God hath put a girdle about his loins (the rings of Saturn), and the name of the girdle is Death”
– The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky — Vol. 2 Theosophical University Press Online Edition Vol. 2, Page 235.
Originally drawn from the Greek mythology of Hesiod and Ovid, the Ages of Man are split into four stages of evolution which have been simplified for our purposes. They have been embellished with conjecture from esoteric sources and with inspiration from Troy D. McLachlan’s kindle book The Saturn Death Cult: The link between Planetary catastrophes, ancient mythology and occult ritual (2011) which is part analyses and as he mentions, part “intuition,”as will be this exploration. He has based his observations on Immanuel Velikovsky‘s work (Worlds in Collison) and studies on the Electric Universe theories. It will serve as a useful framework upon which to hang our focus on Saturn and its relationship to mythology and cyclic cataclysms. It will also give us our bearings in relation to the rise of a ruling Pathocracy and the very real probability that we are living through the beginning of yet another cycle of earth changes – a veritable “re-set” in response to the psychopathy of Occult Zionism currently making the most waves in Establishment control.
So what were these ages that Hesiod and Ovid so usefully summarised?
Saturn during the equinox (wikipedia public domain)
Golden Age – The rule of Saturn and the “Chronian Age of Atlantis”; the forgotten epoch of Pre-Adamic Humanity; the time of the Olympian Gods, where human life remained connected to their overseers. Peace and harmony prevailed, food was abundant. (Perhaps 3-D reality and a fourth density reality were conjoined?) There was a “Spirit-Reality” manifesting as para-physicality which afforded human DNA a cleaner conduit to higher dimensions. This is the starting line for a period of cataclysmic upheavals and the foundational imprinting of most of our Earth-Cosmos myths and motifs. Planets, comets, climate and Earth changes interacted as titanic clashes of power, via the elements of earth, fire, air and water. It was to also to mark the beginning of Saturn’s inauguration of Linear Time. This age ended with the “Great Deluge” that destroyed Atlantis as described in many myths, the most famous of which is The Flood and Noah’s Ark.
Silver Age – The rule of the Sun and the rise of the priesthood elite and Custodians of ancient science and knowledge drawn from Atlantis and Mu. It was the time of the ancient temple builders, the formation of priestly royalty and their mysteries translated and perceived as magic. The planets Venus, Mars and Jupiter (Zeus) took over from Saturn’s rule. Periodic earth changes still occurred and the independence of humanity proceeded, carving out their own destiny away from their God Creators. It was the time of the megalithic builders who held the knowledge of Earth, sound, and light to be replaced by the pyramid builders and the rise of materialist hierarchy. Humanity was losing its spiritual origins in order to explore its habitat.
[It is around here that the “Stone Age” begins in conventional academia which includes the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods. Needless to say, orthodox academia within archaeology, anthropology and history have yet to incorporate a multi-disciplinary approach regarding pre-history].
Bronze Age – Tribal wars and warrior kings. Individuality and leaders personified Heroic deeds and conquest. Armies and armour forged from Copper, Iron and alloys. Trading in minerals, grains and gold flourished. Agriculture and the seeds of capitalism were about to explode into reality. Earth changes and the human-cosmic connection began to fade in favour of idolatry and the deification of tribal gods. It was the age of ritual sacrifice and the distortion of perennial truths manifesting as new magick. Ritual and blood sacrifice was transferred to the Art of War and codified by scribes as latter-day civil servants justifying rape, torture and death as the Will of the Gods. Life was no more than a harsh ritual of appeasement which spread into all avenues of life. Ancient Babylonia became the epitome of excess and corruption of truth. There were many spokes in the wheel of Knowledge as Power, and included the control of money which ensured a steady trade in weapons, drugs and slavery to extend Empires and maintain hierarchical rule. Now it was authority of Kings, armies and nation building which reinforced the domination of the physical realm those that worshipped it. The Gods finally morphed into a retributive and vengeful God of Authoritarianism displacing Goddess Cultures and Nature religions that still contained tentative links to ancient wisdom.
Iron Age – It seems as if God had forsaken humanity but it was only a cyclic learning curve with experimentation in pathocratic Empire building. This is the onset of the Dark Ages and a primary descent right up to our present state of affairs. We have the original ancient priesthood sects incarnated as the 3EM: Liberal, Conservative and Zionist Establishment, members of which inhabit a smaller global occult fraternity for whom the ultimate God is Saturn/Satan and its connection to blood sacrifice practised in pre-history through to ancient Babylon. Occult Zionism and Western forms of existential Satanism now inform our current socio-cultural and political systems. Asymmetric warfare, corporatism, debt slavery, poverty and ecological degradation are the end-products of an exact same patterns of Saturn/Satan Worship and the required ritual sacrifice camouflaged with public relations and honed propaganda. Populations began to be conditioned from birth to see it as normal. Revolutions and the “clash of cvillisations” were carefully stage-managed attempts to move the mass mind toward the global alchemical imperative where the mandate of heaven was subverted toward establishing a world order made for pathocrats at the expense of the human population. The Iron Age is the apotheosis of evil.
The Four Ages of Man. After: Ambrosius Francken (1619) Published by: Theodoor Galle. Print made by: Hieronymus Wierix (wikipedia)
We might posit a 5th Synthetic-Crystal Age as growing out of the Iron Age. “Synthetic” with reference to artificial systems based on polymer, plastic, alloy and the rise of hardware, software, robotics, cybernetics, artificial intelligence, virtuality, synthetic systems, biotechnology and nanotechnology. “Crystal” with reference – symbolic or otherwise – to aligned liquid crystal and the re-discovery and re-emergence of crystal generators for sound, light and vibration as applied to warfare. This marks the feedback loop to the same lust for power and innovation which saw the both the rise and fall of the Atlantean global civilisation. The 5th Age promises the arrival of a form of techno-sorcery harking back to the repeating Atlantean cycle. Consequently, we are in the midst of massive climate and Earth changes manifesting across all physical and non-physical densities and dimensions. Earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, disrupted weather systems, tsunamis, comet and meteor strikes, electrical and geomagnetic anomalies are all playing there part as a prelude to cataclysmic change. On a more esoteric level, it is here that a strange convergence of cyclic time care of a more fluid Saturn return (structure/order/Time) and the influence of Pluto (power/transformation) may once again appear and inaugurate a reality split(s). None of us will know within which reality we may find ourselves as this transition completes. You might say this will signify the arrival of a Cosmic Wave of trans-dimensional change taking us back to a higher turn of the spiral or sending us collectively into a new plug hole to do it all again…
The journey towards the mythical paradise of the Golden Age began in about 60,000 B.C. Prior to this was the time of primordial man otherwise known as the “Purple Dawn”, a dim and distant Dream-time, the faintest echoes of which were recorded and passed down in the oral and written traditions of ancient peoples across the Earth. What passed for a Sun during these times was the purple haze of the brown dwarf star Saturn in the north, Mars in the middle and the Earth in the south. These made up the polar configuration. (The purple colour was due to the radiation frequencies reflecting back from Saturn’s plasma sheath). Oceans were lower and thus geography radically different to today’s land masses. The environment was warm, humid and light. The electrical influence of Saturn meant lower gravity and thus huge animals and insects were able to survive.
McLachlan describes the extraordinary events which began to take place:
“As this polar configuration of Earth and brown dwarf star drifted through space, it would have done so in an upwardly spiralling motion. Unbeknown to an observer from Earth, the brown dwarf star’s protective plasma sheath, which blocked out all reference to outside stars, would have slowly started to spiral towards the Sun’s own protective plasma sheath, the heliosphere – with disastrous consequences.” [1]
From contact with Earth and the Brown Star would come the first cataclysmic upheavals manifesting as: “… a sudden and very bright flaring of its polar star into a fully-fledged sun” and was effectively “… a short-circuiting event between the two separate plasma sheaths as they brushed together with the lesser brown dwarf star experiencing a tremendous nova-like destructive surge of discharging electrical activity before swinging away from the Sun and back into interstellar space.” [2]
The brown dwarf star became a polar sun – a massive “flare up” of light bathing the Earth in a radiance much greater than the purple haze of yesteryear. This inevitably changed the biosphere just as the centuries rolled by with Saturn inching closer to the Sun heliosphere, and its final capture would mark the end of the Golden Age. The result of Saturn’s contact with the Sun’s heliosphere was, over time, followed by the birth of Venus which appeared to come directly from Saturn itself as a “mighty black spiral coming from the orbs centre and winding itself around the now brightly lit orb.” To ancient man this was a frightening expression of chaos from their Sun-God and might have given rise to the fiery serpent/dragon images filtered down through the ages.
Modern day Venus reflected in the Pacific Ocean (wikipedia)
The “Evening Star” of Venus eventually followed a cyclic pattern of electrical activity manifesting as an eight-pointed star-burst set against the background of Saturn. As you can imagine, the Venus and Saturn partnership and their electrical outbursts continued to produce the foundation for centuries of layered, mythical symbolism through man’s imagination, one of the most powerful of which was the All-Seeing Eye most notably elevated and refined by the Egyptians as Ra/Osiris/Horus all the way through to the Greek Kronos and Roman Latin “Saturn.” It’s cause was the planet Mars as an appropriate blood-red warrior King intent on bringing forth inter-planetary warfare between its father Saturn and Mother Venus. Seen as a:
“…dark pupil in the All-Seeing Eye that was Saturn, made close approaches to Earth along the length of the visible yet translucent plasma current joining the string of planets. Looming large it would bombard the Earth with its martian rocks and thunderbolts before re-ascending to its position under Venus which would itself flare and stream light in awesome displays of cosmic lightening and beauty.” [3]
Image credit: Troy D. McLachlan at saturndeathcult.com
Climate and earth changes saw an increase electro-plasma energy (or Birkeland currents) between Saturn and the Earth along with aurora borealis-type activity at the Earth’s poles. From Saturn’s initial flaring of light and its polar position, massive changes were set in motion disrupting the gravitational pull and increasing the global presence of water over the northern hemisphere and the onset of huge deluges. The Golden Age of Saturn’s brown dwarf light and the electrical/meteorological phenomena which accompanied it saw the gradual formation of an ephemeral stairway of light stretching up to the heavens all the way to heaven, the fabled Axis Mundi and the illusion of a ladder reaching toward Saturn, later to be interpreted through ancient pictograms and petroglyphs as well as Jacob’s Ladder, and the phallic/serpent symbolism of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life.
The entry of the Golden Age was defined not only by a general period of material plenty and peace but by the concept of linear Time and intermittent cycles of catastrophic change. This Age also saw the gradual arrival of concentric bands of star debris otherwise known as Saturn’s seven rings and the equalisation of Saturn’s plasma sheath with the Sun’s heliosphere, allowing brighter stars to be seen from Earth. As the rings became clearer and more visible from the effects of the Sun’s radiance, other celestial bodies could be discerned orbiting Saturn. As sunshine penetrated further into the Earths various spheres, cycles of day and night, dawn and dusk began to take shape along with the calculation of Time. As McLachlan states: “The Saturnian system was now established.” [4]
Saturn (wikipedia, public domain)
Of all the planets to be worshiped down through the ages, Saturn is the Big ritual father of them all. The sixth and outermost planet from the Sun and the second largest, Saturn reigned over the Earth in the “Golden Age”, associated with life and death, scarcity and abundance, material forms, social order, authority and conformity; a Divine order of creation and destruction on Earth. The massive rings of Saturn that surround its mammoth presence are said by astrologers to symbolise the ever-present limitations to which humanity must adapt, but seldom do, hence the rise and fall of empires and civilisations over which the planet presides.
Known as Kronos by the ancient Greeks and Chronus/Chronos by the Romans, Saturn was seen as the God of agriculture in Roman mythology – Saturnus – from which it takes its name. This was a planet that has been traditionally connected with child and animal sacrifice as an act of appeasement against cataclysmic upheaval.
The Roman Saturnalia was an annual event held at the The Temple of Saturn (Templum Saturn) in the Roman forum on December 17th of the Julian Calender with general revelry continuing for several days. It was a ritual that fell within the Winter Solstice and which continued well into the 3rd and 4th Centuries. The cultural echoes of this celebration can be seen in our current Christian customs of Christmas “Christ-Mass” and the New Year. With the exception of the pre-Hellenic peoples, Kronos was perhaps not revered with the same importance. The Greek equivalent of this Bacchanalian period was called Kronia with harvest festival celebrations held at Attica which incorporated the city of Athens. The Temple of Saturn was thought to date around 497 BC. The centre of a huge number of animal sacrifices, the sex of the animal had to correspond to the sex of the god or goddess to whom it was offered. White animals were sacrificed to the gods of the upper world whereas black animals to the underworld. Along with various foodstuffs and plants, Cattle, sheep, pigs, goats and sometimes dogs were all considered sacrificial fare.[5]
The Astrological glyph for Saturn
In astrology, Saturn traditionally rules the earth element and is associated with the earth and zodiac sign of Capricorn the Goat. The glyph is shaped like a scythe – “crescent below the cross” reflecting the connections to Death, the Grim Reaper, Satan and the Goat of Mendes, since its subversion to an exclusively negative expression embraces the worship of primal matter and absolutism of the material world. Appropriately enough, Saturn was depicted as an old man holding a scythe to reflect the Roman agricultural roots as the ancient Italian Corn God known as the Sower. [6] So, it was both scythe and sickle, the cultivation of the land (sheaves of wheat) and separating the wheat from the chaff – soul harvesting for the esotericists. Saturn ruled over the fertility of the land and by extension, the first seeds of consciousness struggling up through the earth and thus the suffering of physicality, birth and the path to aging and death.
Agriculture, seasons and Nature’s cycles were personified in Saturn and were sourced from a very ancient development of Saturn/Chronus Chronology: the concept of linear Time. As the youngest of the legendary Twelve Titans and the son of Uranus (Sky/Father) and Gaia (Earth/Mother) he was advised by Mother Earth to castrate his unbending nature of his Father leading to the separation of Heaven and Earth. (The ritual of circumcision in some Arabic cultures and Judaism enters here). Kronos’ sickle was fashioned by Gaia for her son to carry his task. This shearing and cutting of life and perception of reality(?) was intimately connected with the dark associations of the moon as cosmic foetus which nourishes itself on Earth’s organic life, thus the crescent shape of the scythe/sickle reflected the ebb and flow of lunar influence: creativity, regeneration/decay and the dark transformation of shadows in the underworld. The inhabitants of the night (Nyx) came into being from the blood of Uranus which flowed from the act. According to both Greek and Roman mythology they were known as the horrific Furies (Erinyes) vengeful female spirits, drawn from the land and sea who would administer justice against those who had wronged the Gods. [7]
This turmoil initiated by Saturn’s emasculation of Uranus meant that the very notion of linear Time was introduced to Earth life by Saturn, now King of the Earthly matter and its cycles and thereby the very longevity and limitations of life processes. All was cut down and limited to more a microcosmic sphere of perception and practice. Saturn then took the now departed Uranus’ sister Rhea the Goddess of Necessity as his lover and who birthed Vesta, Ceres, Juno, Pluto and Neptune and Jupiter, all of whom Saturn promptly devoured to make sure they had no chance to usurp his throne.
However, one son escaped his pre-emptive action. Jupiter (Zeus) was hidden by Rhea by switching the child for a stone covered in clothes. Jupiter became a rival to Saturn and forced him to release his sisters and brothers from deep inside his body. With some teamwork the siblings then brought an end to King Saturn’s reign. It was then that Prometheus would seal the downfall of Zeus and the Olympian Gods’ power by igniting humanity with its own fire of independence and self-rule. In other words, it was the precusor to the Biblical Fall and the Lucifer as “Bringer of Light.”
Francisco Goya’s ” the madness of fear from the absurdities ” The Grim reaper during war and another of Saturn’s motifs.
Saturn devouring his Son (1823) by Francisco Goya
Whether the latter part of this myth denotes the final overthrow of Saturn worship or the perennial resistance of the transformative elements of Pluto’s Air, Neptune’s water and Death: the escape of soul consciousness from Saturn’s prison of matter – is a moot point. There are many other variations on a theme as you might imagine. But the overriding constant is the notion of separation, a fall and entirely different creation of the concept of Time. Such a process of prodigal return cannot take place without the imposition of Time and its destructive and constructive attributes. No longer is there a pre-Adamic state where Heaven and Earth were connected. Spirit flowed into matter and the Creative Universe began to experience life – through us. Life was no longer multi-dimensional but temporal; the soul was encased in a physical body which had a sell-by date, an exhaustion of energy. Time became the “devourer” of all things. And so, old age can be the result of accumulated wisdom and alchemical transformation of the indwelling soul, or an inner degeneration of spirit which flows further into primal matter and away from its original source.
To put another way, we might suppose that the “Light” that Kronos/Satan/Saturn and his son Lucifer/Prometheus/and the various interpretations of the Egyptian Isis/Osiris Gods all seem to be fragmented variations and offshoots of the same Saturnine lineage of humanity’s fall and which begins the indirect path back to God through the experience of matter and the underworld; the friction needed to create the fire within.
The old man of Saturn/Cronus devouring one of his children, by Peter Paul Rubens (1636) (wikipedia,)
The warring of Saturn, Mars, Venus and the Sun mythology can be traced back to the electric universe theory, cometary bombardment, earthquakes and great Floods, the immense power of which shaped the consciousness of humanity.
Troy D. McLachlan describes this pivotal process which saw the end of the Golden Age:
During Saturn’s initial flare up due to its first contact with the Sun’s heliosphere, part of the ensuing chaos that enveloped Saturn had seen two filaments of discharged material escape into space only to be captured by the Sun. There, for an unspecified time, they orbited their new star until such a time as when Saturn itself eventually became captured by the Sun.
These filaments were primarily composed of Saturn’s discharged particles of water, the remainder having being retained by Saturn to form that planet’s distinctive rings. In what caused the end of the Golden Age one of these frozen watery filaments collided with the Earth as the Saturnian string of planets was being captured by the Sun. This precipitated a deluge of water from space that lasted weeks.
The Axis Mundi, Earth’s fabled ladder to heaven, was irreparably damaged by this collision and a decidedly sick, blotchy and dimming Saturn was clearly starting to drift apart from its former system of planets. Severed from their electrical chain-like links to their original sun, the planets Venus and Mars ran amok. Those on Earth watched horrified as Venus took on comet-like aspects, turning into a Medusa and threatening the Earth with massive inter-planetary lightening displays as it swooped by on its way to finding its new orbit. [8]
It is hard to imagine the depth of all-encompassing change which gradually took place over thousands of years: The disappearance of the Axis Mundi, massive flooding, the electrical warring of Mars and Venus, the waning of Saturn’s dominance at the celestial north, and the challenge from the entry of an initially hidden Planet Jupiter; the return of cometary swarms and meteor bombardments – all of which set the seal for powerful myths in the consciousness of humanity. King Saturn was drifting away with its faithful rings and nine orbiting satellites and the Sun moved into its dominant position.
As the cycles of catastrophe continued characterised by physical Earth changes and planetary “warfare” it was to end with the Biblical mythology of the Great Flood and the onset of the Ice Age heralding the end of the Golden Age. It was during this epoch that the global civilisations of Atlantis and Mu were destroyed by floods and folded into the Earth by earthquakes of terrible ferocity, effectively re-forming the continents. New lands appeared whilst others disappeared entirely. Oral traditions held onto to the folklore and myths as best they could.
So, onwards to the Silver Age which saw the rise of Priesthoods and custodians of the Golden Age and their attempts to safeguard the traditions which warned new generations of cyclic catastrophe. New religions formed in praise of the old gods. They were accompanied by temples and built over monuments – remnants of ancient technology left over from pre-history interaction with “Olympian” Gods”. Custodial mystery schools were networked across the world and Knowledge accessed and maintained. With the introduction of writing, this allowed the elect to preserve the warnings of periodic cataclysmic change for posterity. The residues of Megalithic cultures and the techno-spirituality of Earth, sound, light and stone was also “switched off.” Many of these temples, monuments, city structures and strange archaeological anomalies would eventually be seen as the remains of “primitive” pagan worship rather than the disjecta membra of ancient science.
Archaic technology was eroded and finally lost as a pathological mind-set continued to acquire, suppress and invert wisdom and knowledge for their own individualistic ends. As a legacy of Kronos, a linear perception of Time, an emphasis on duality and cyclic rhythms took over, formalised by calendars and systems of weights and measurements. Separation and fragmentation was gaining ground.
At the same time, the purity of the message became lost as Custodianism morphed into eventual Elitism and secret fraternities bent on power rather than protection and prevention.
“The Great Flood” By Bonaventura Peeters (late 1600’s)
The Silver Age saw the inception of various hierarchical cults, secret societies and the accompanying seeds of psychopathy which thrived on camouflage and deceit. The foundation of conquest and predation was being laid for dominance far into the future. New forms of materialism based on gold gradually began to take over as did the concept of local, national and international commerce and banking; the inception of slavery by debt.
The prominence of hallucinogenic plants, herbalism and healing properties of the Earth as Gaia was a product of a belief that God resided in all things and where heaven was Nature was a “physical” expression of her material processes which had their reflection at a higher frequency. Known in the occult and esotercism as elemental energies under earth, fire, air and water, they were seen as a natural part of Earthly life, unseen but present to the higher senses, a neutral expression of a holonic energy matrix though certain qualitative differences aligned to their respective elemental colouring. Thus they could be invoked for good or for ill, and formed a part of white and black magick practices. These foci of para-physical energy forms would be clothed in cultural motifs in later folklore and given names such as fairies, nixies, sprites, dwarves, elves etc. Human DNA was inextricably enmeshed in Nature and her hyper-dimensional qualities, which could be accessed for a library of knowledge dependent on one’s quality of consciousness. Hence the presence of the ancient shamans who worked on behalf of communities to commune with Nature and her Gods.
But it was to be the beginning of a slow separation from Nature and by default, the conduit to the “heavens.” Authority of the Star-Gods grounded in the equilibrium of Nature was steadily eroded into the God of Economics and authoritarian rule. The memories and fears of planetary upheavals were transposed to a progressive descent along the ladder of spiritual evolution.
Yet, what a great game from which to learn our lessons?
Egypt and Sumeria with their ancient traditions of slave-race totalitarianism were the starting point of this new global financial bondage led by early merchant bankers. This ancient form of capitalism was tied to a similar cycle of psychopathic predation which inevitably imploded into its own psycho-social footprint. It would come to a significant climax in the lands that would become the Talmud’s Babylonia and the myth of the Tower of Babel. (We briefly looked at this myth in the context of Elite transhumanism and its inversion of the universal topological metaphor).
As we recall, the aftermath of such a monumental collapse saw widespread panic, famine and desolation. Such was the power of this event which has echoed through time, it may have also been accompanied by a return of meteorological-electrical changes and cometary bombardment. Comets are carriers of various interplanetary diseases since there is a correlation with plague and pestilence during their appearance. [9] The Tower of Babel, like Sodom and Gomorrah, may be personifications of all these catastrophic planetary and cometary events.
The Tower of Babel by Marten van Valckenborch (1595)
As one language became many, a diversified humanity was fragmented and separated as mass exodus ensued. Concepts of global finance was scattered to the four winds and the vacuum created was an open invitation to tribalism. The origins of humanity become further confused and authenticity blurred in favour of idolatry and tribal segregation. The Priesthood elite went underground whilst the seeds of psychopathy rose to power, facilitating spell-binders and schizoidal leaders herding humanity into clusters of authoritarian followers. Materialistic beliefs divorced from ancient wisdom would stake their claim to a new reality. New forms of slavery and feudalism came into being.
The Bronze Age was war, tyranny and tribal bloodshed unparalleled in humanity’s history. The presence of iconic art and literature vied with rivers of blood. This was the time of the archetypal Hero or Warrior King; the age of independence where individuals personified nations and collective aspirations – the age of the demi-god. As hierarchy, individuality and tyrannical rule was being expressed, the agricultural revolution emerged and thus a change in humanity’s diet, body and consciousness which would see the whole world re-shaped away from living in balance with Nature and her knowledge. The hunter-gather lifestyle of clustered nomadic communities was giving way to more permanent concentrations of people thus the formation of cities. It was to be the next phase in the disconnection of the world of matter to the world of Spirit. Slavery of the body was moving slowly toward a prison of the mind. With the change away from clusters of hunter-gatherers and the imposition of abnormal agricultural practices, mass migration and inter-species mixing in the animal and also the human kingdom, adaptation to the these radical changes produced new forms of problematic parasitical microorganisms which n negatively altered brain and intestinal chemistry. It was to be the gradual introduction of auto-immune disease which would slowly reduce the physical nature and quality of consciousness of humanity. This meant that receivership capability of higher energies beyond the five senses was irrevocably destroyed with each passing generation. “Heaven” became merely a dream, but hell became all too real.
Electric Volcano image credit: © unknown
The friction between masculine God of Mars and the feminine Goddess of Venus was reflected in the dominator/patriarchal seeds for monotheism as opposed to Pantheistic, matriarchal Goddess religions. Deep ecological knowledge about Earth as sentient consciousness expressed through the diversity of Nature and humanity still held sway. The conflict of Mars and Venus was a perfect metaphor for what was occurring on Earth and vice-versa. It is in the Bronze Age that the crystallisation of mystery schools with distorted teachings and tyrannical ancestry bestowed their “wisdom” upon the people. Planetary events, the cyclic manifestation of comets and meteors and the idea of redemptive sacrifice were debased into human rituals as a by-product of the negative half of the Creator Gods of pre-history. Physical re-enactment came through a corrupted version of Atlantean magick and its workings of psycho-spiritual power released through Tantric techniques, sound invocations, talismans and “sacred” geometry.
Troy D. McLachlan offers a concise synopsis of how Saturn’s mythology was reduced to crude rituals which were to facilitate the development of human psychopathy:
Old-man Saturn takes young Venus as a bride in the myths, so on Earth the king takes a virginal (read ‘child’) priestess of Aphrodite (Venus) and has sex with her.
Mars is the warrior god born of Venus who rebels against Saturn and ultimately ascends to heaven to have sex with his mother, so warrior-kings find themselves doing the same thing in defiance of their fathers (check out King David’s son Absalom in the Bible).
Saturn, under his Greek identity as the god Kronos, devours his own children,… so human kings have reportedly done the same with human children, possibly even their own as the occasion demands. (see the suspected antics of one Caligula)
Jupiter/Zeus determines to take Saturn/Kronos’ crown by gutting him to release his previously devoured sisters and brothers from Saturn’s bowels. Zeus then promptly marries his sister Hera. Naturally, earthly kings follow suit and end up marrying and having sex with their sisters – moronic inbreed heirs ensue and today we can see the legacy of this policy within our various political elites. [10]
Saturn and Earth in comparable size (wikipedia)
This was to be the ancient precursor of the kind of mind control and sexual ritual abuse so prevalent in the occult establishment of today. It was an ancient science of alchemy distorted out of all recognition. One could say that it was based on the extraction of energy via the manipulation of endocrine chemicals or physical “circuits;” a stimulation of Kundalini energy parallel to the invocation of “spirits” for whom a certain pay off would be demanded…Esoteric treatises describe overshadowing “demonic” entities offering suitable enticements for such energic harvesting. Saturn and the moon were their ancient icons for sacrifice – a complete inversion of the alchemical heritage of the human mechanism designed for ascension. Yet, it is the nature of such contracts, that practitioners of the occult seldom realise their Faustian bargain until too late. Nonetheless, the foundation for “downloading” entities into willing vessels continued apace.
Elite dynasties had serious delusions of grandeur, thinking themselves as direct bloodlines to demi-gods and thus with a Divine right to rule over the masses. Custodial knowledge was about retaining power rather than protecting essential spiritual truths in order for careful dissemination; to educate and inform communities through their spiritual agencies. Instead of co-creation, cooperation and respect for the power of Nature and the cosmological significance of “As above, So Below” which Hermeticism would purloin as its maxim, the Earth became a playground of ritual sacrifice and slavery at almost every level of consciousness, from the Latin American Aztecs, Incas and Mayans to West African tribes, Tibet and Chinese sects to the Phoenicians and Israelites. Saturn became Satan where a harvesting scythe reaped the energy of fear, violence, sex and death as a primary source of sustenance for Dark entities and to which the Priesthood Magicians were ritually bound.
Someone – or something – was laughing all the way to the energy bank.
The results of endless Iron Age “revolutions” has been to dull the senses, dim the light of the soul and impede human potential for creativity and cooperation. Most of all, we are only just now waking up to who it is that has farmed and carefully sheared us of our self-knowledge over thousands of years: humanoids – conscienceless beings who embody Saturn and the moon – the dark half of God. They are evil made manifest; the vampires of the lower emotions and werewolves of instinct, pushing us to confront our own lies and denials.
Which brings us back to the Babylonian roots of Occult Zionism.
[1] Online edited version of The Saturn Death Cult: The link between Planetary catastrophes, ancient mythology and occult ritual (2011) By Troy D. McLachlan can be found at: saturndeathcult.com See also: Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection (The Secret History of the World Book 3) (2014) by Pierre Lescaudron and Laura Knight-Jadczyk.
[5] The Roman Military Research Society | http://www.romanarmy.net/sacrifices.shtml
[6] The Pimlico Dictionary Of Classical Mythologies By Arthur Cotterall published by Random House (2012)
[7] Iliad iii.278ff; xix.260ff See also: p.191; Antigone By Sophocles, Oxford University Press 2003.
[8] op.cit. McLachlan.
[9] op.cit. Lescaudron (p.87; Chapter 21: “Comets: Cycles and Origins.”)
[10] op.cit. McLachlan.
Posted in Earth / Climate Change, Environment / Nature, Establishment / Elite, Mind Control, Occult, Psychology, Psychopathy, Religion, Social Engineering, Spirituality / Esoterica, War, Zionism and tagged Ancient Egypt, ancient technology, ancient wsdom, Atlantis, Axis Mundi, Babylon, Babylonia, Bronze Age, Brown Star, cataclysm, catastrophism, Christianity, Chronos, comets, cosmology, earthquakes, electric universe, Elite, Empire, evil, four ages of man, God, Golden Age, Greek Myths, hierarchy, Iron Age, Isis, Judaism, Jupiter, Kronos, Lemuria, Lucifer, Mars, megalithic builders, mythology, Neptune, Occult-Zionism, Olympian Gods, Osiris, pre-history, Priesthood, Prometheus, ritual sacrifice, Roman Empire, Saturn, Saturn Death Cult, Silver Age, slavery, Sun, Talmud, The Bible, Time, Tower of Babel, tribalism, Venus, volcanoes, weapons, Yahweh on April 26, 2015 by M.K. Styllinski. 2 Comments
Occult Zionism I
“Gentile souls are of a completely different and inferior order. They are totally evil, with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.” …If every simple cell in a Jewish body entails divinity, is a part of God, then every strand of DNA is a part of God. Therefore, something is special about Jewish DNA…
Chabad Lubavitch Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburgh quoting the founder of the Chabad movement Shneur Zalman of Liadi – Jewish Week – April 26, 1996.
“…in addition to a series of scurrilous sexual allegations against Jesus, the Talmud states that his punishment in hell is to be immersed in boiling excrement – a statement not exactly calculated to endear the Talmud to devout Christians.”
– Israel Shahak, Jewish History, Jewish Religion The Weight of Three Thousand Years
(Note: Before tackling this post, it might be a good idea to read: The Z Factor series; Religious Authoritarians and World Revolution.)
Zionism is both anti-Jewish, and anti-Christian. It is an atheistic repudiation of every characteristic of the Christian principle and the more down-to-earth Jewish principles of altruism which exist in every moderate religious affiliation to truth. Zionism breathed life into what came to be known as Nazism since it was founded on the very same tenets of racism and supremacy. Ironically, it was Adolf Hitler funded and supported by Zionists who took the battle against Talmudic teachings and political deception of Zionism; an inverted and distorted version of a truth. Finally, it was Hitler’s despotism and Anglo-American desire for war which provided a further layer of propaganda for the true instigators of chaos. It is in this sense that Jews and the rest of humanity have been had. There is no doubt that Zionism is at the forefront of covert operations to continue and extend this chaos culminating in their prophesied World War III. For Occult Zionists this is both a political and ideological drive. Global in its ambitions it extends far beyond the remit of Israeli nationalism. Accordingly, this relatively modern incarnation of Ashkenazi supremacy represents the best tool for psychopaths to create periodic revolutions, with monotheistic religions as the fail-safe mechanism to make sure that humanity keeps to the rule book.
Conversely, – and the point has to be hammered home – it is an absurdity to think that there is a strictly Jewish conspiracy when Judaism itself was merely the instrument to control the mass mind over centuries, with an extremely effective Middle Eastern imperialism taking precedence. It’s also true to say that Judaism itself has been hijacked from its very inception, as we will see. The inculcated psychology of Jewish victimhood and its historic propaganda was necessary for the fulfillment of psychopathic conquest. Ethnocentrism, race supremacy, blood and soil, and the institution of atheist totalitarian regimes under Communism, Nazism, corporatism and the neo-liberal economics of our present age – occult Zionism lies behind these major pathologies in some form of another. It is therefore hugely simplistic to make ordinary Jews culpable for what is after all, a very long unbroken exercise in social engineering. No wonder common traits in Jewish psychology display both a creative genius and a variety of neuroses in equal measure as the result of the distillation of a cognitive elite predicated on being “chosen.”
It is this cultural victimhood that is based on the reality of persecution yet, has morphed into a veritable industry that insulates the Jewish tribe and by default, Zionism from criticism from within and without. It has become a very effective vicious circle. Modern day Jews ARE victims but the tragedy is that the propaganda which has been created by Zionism prevents them from seeing the real nature of this bias which increasingly defines Jewish meaning. It points to a profound truth about their place in the world: that Establishment Zionists are using Jews for a specific purpose – to be the primary tools for pathocratic world vision. So, the authoritarian followers within Judaism and Judaic cults such as Chabad Lubavitch have been specially chosen not to act as inherently spiritual beings destined to preside over gentiles and inaugurate a new theocratic Eden for all – as if that weren’t bad enough – but chosen as the most convenient tribe to transform the world into Chaos from which a global Pathocracy can emerge. It is in this way that it is not about any race or religion it is purely about a psychopathic elite.
By that token, it is evident from a spiritual perspective that the Palestinians have taken on the mantle of a collective sacrifice to wake up humankind, a tragic irony in light of the millions killed by the Nazis. It makes it all the more bizarre since there is no such thing as a Jewish race as many scholars are now discovering. Archaeology, history and anthropological finds of the last 200 years have shown us that Jewish peoples come from wide genetic variants of a Semitic base. The dominant band of Jews currently ensconced in Zionism and many nodes of power are the Rothschild-led Ashkenazis with their origins in Khazria who are, essentially, not Jewish at all. It appears that the Ashkenazi heritage is currently micro-managing the destiny of Jews, those whom have come up through the complex gene pool that makes up the Jewish tribe.
The foot soldiers of Zionism and their associated mythology of Israel – even vast tracts of biblical Judaism – is a deception against not just humanity but the religion of Judaism and its followers, most of whom the militant Zionists intend to sacrifice as a “final solution;” the practice run of which was seen in the partly Wall St. funded Third Reich. It is for this reason: to condone the legitimacy of the State of Israel requires a very different set assumptions compared to other nation states. This is what makes the very existence of modern Israel, in its present form, extremely problematic as it means condoning the invasion of Palestine in 1948 and the subsequent ethnic cleansing of Palestinian inhabitants. It means the acceptance of the Jews as the chosen people of “G-d” and therefore their exclusive right to possess Palestine “because it said so in the Torah,” – a truism that is repeated through the hammer of Christian Zionism with the Bible as the anvil of choice. It means this religious covenant gives them an absolute right to do as they please because of this much trumpeted special status. Zionists have taken these assumptions and perceived successes (deception, ethnic cleansing, massacres, blatant human rights abuses) as proof positive that God is on their side, thus affirming that the authoritarian way of Yahweh is the only way. So, it is little wonder that the peace process never gets off the ground since Zionists have no wish for peace; Yahweh has decreed, by blood and carnage, that such a covenant remains unchanged despite the inconvenient truth that Palestinians and Semitic groups were on the land for around 1,500 years or more.
Soldier and Girl by British graffiti artist Banksy found on the West Bank Wall
Due to the habitual lies and disinformation flooding our consciousness on this issue, it becomes impossible to speak about these taboos in general, let alone to many Jewish people. The institutions set up to police these lies are just too strong, too ingrained. To say that this will induce cognitive dissonance within most Jewish people is probably an understatement but wilful blindness to the voluminous evidence cannot be held at bay any longer. After all, most of the heroic dissent comes, as it should, from Jews themselves, most notably some of our well-known Jewish scholars alive today among them: Norman Finkelstein, Israel Shamir, Gilad Atzmon, Israel Shahak, Mordechai Vanunu and Eduard Hodos to name but a handful who have taken the courageous step to stand against the Zionist-MOSSAD machine. Of course, to the Zionist and Israeli lobbyists these are “self-hating” crypto-Jews who have sold out. But they are nothing of the kind. By cutting through the propaganda and mythos surrounding Jewish culture they enable us to elevate ourselves away from a perception bias and group-think; to see not only the way the Zionist Establishment have progressively de-humanised Palestinians and occupied their land, but paved the way for a more courageous responsibility regarding the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and our relationship to its continuance.
We are ALL responsible for the rise of psychopathy in our midst and its hijacking of our social and cultural heritage, whether we are Jewish, Muslim, Christian or followers of the Human Potential movement. Psychopaths occur in every societal domain, race, nation and culture. Judaism and Zionism does have an exceptional part to play in this vast deception but it is not the root source. Jews are rather the victim of a manipulation through time as the designated fall-guys for what is a Grand Plan of control which applies to everyone, now and in the future. The psychopaths goal is to replace normal human beings by a careful centuries old “pogram” for all. We are slap-bang in the middle of a World Revolution borne of the same unbroken stream of psychopathic currents which have comprised totalitarian regimes of every shade; behind all of these upheavals have been Talmudic agents, and in the modern age revisionist Zionism rooted firmly in a branch of “Jewish” freemasonry working in unison with the two other arms of the Three Establishment Model (3EM) the liberal Anglo-American set and the Conservative factions overseen by a small global occult body. And it is the occult faction of the Zionist Establishment with higher members of MOSSAD who I believe are causing the most chaos in the world today; a small number of black magicians who apply a modern form of techno-sorcery drawing on a mix of Crowleyian/Thelemic Babylonian and Talmudic black magick to hold the world to ransom.
One major strand – and it is only a strand – of this managed chaos to a singular “order” is Judaism – the authority of the Torah and Talmud – the belief that the Messiah will come to unite the Jewish people in the land of Israel. Alarmingly, its occult foundation is as influential as it was when it emerged out of Levitical authority during the Jewish “captivity” in Babylon. To understand how Talmudic black magicians of MOSSAD are currently invoking their “demons” on the world stage we need to discover why the Talmud is so important to the occult-Zionist Establishment.
The Talmud set (wikipedia)
The Babylonian Talmud is a large collection of ancient mystical writings which forms the basis of Rabbinical and Jewish doctrine today. In amongst these 73 tomes is an amalgamation of ancient Jewish mystical writings influenced by the “Oral Torah” (Mishnah) and later fused in and around the 5th Century with the works of the Zohar or Midrash ha-Zohar the foundation to the Kabbalah. The latter is said to be the esoteric form of of the Talmud known as the Midrash, and thus plays a hugely important part in freemasonry today. It is split into two sections: the Mishnah: a compendium of the Torah’s oral tradition which dates from 200 CE and the Gemara: explanatory notes on the Mishnah, Kabbalah and the Hebrew Bible. With these respective commentaries are the Halakhah, covering legal and ritual matters and the Aggadah, which is concerned with theological and ethical discourse. Strict observation of Halakhah rules is mandatory for Orthodox Jews.
This in turn, is divided into six major sections, called sedarim (plural of seder, “order”). This is the sequence of the sedarim in the Soncino Talmud:
Seder Zeraim (seeds)
Seder Moed (festivals)
Seder Nashim (women)
Seder Nezikin (damages)
Seder Kodashim (sacrifices)
Seder Tohoroth (cleanness)
Each Seder contains between seven and twelve tractates, or books as follows: Sanhedrin, Berakoth, Shabbath, Yebamoth, Kethuboth, Nedarim, Nazir, Sotah, Gittin, Baba Kamma, Baba Mezi’a, Baba Bathra, Abodah Zarah, Horayoth, Niddah, and Tohorot. [1]
(Confused? That’s the idea).
Written in Rabbinic Hebrew or “Tannaitic” and Aramaic, the Talmud as a whole is more than 6,200 pages long offering teachings from thousands of rabbis on topics as diverse as ethics, esoteric philosophy, law, social etiquette, sexuality, and many other opinions all couched in sometimes extremely obscure and often non-sensical dictums which some have likened to Zen koans and others as meaningless word salad.
First page of the first tractate of the talmud daf beis of maseches brachos. (wikipedia)
There are in fact, two editions of the Talmud; one composed by Babylonian Levite priests and one by Jews who lived in ancient Jerusalem. Between 530 BC and 70 AD saw the rise of the Babylonian Empire and the rule of the Jewish Levite priests. After the destruction of the first Temple in A.D. 70 by the Romans led by General Titus, this marked the beginning of the Second Temple period in Jewish history when the bulk of the Babylonian Talmud or “Bavli” was created.
A bit of history is order to place the BT in context.
Babylon plays an enormous part in the development of Judaism. The story of the Babylonian Jews begins with their exile in the 6 B.C. The well known biblical and Chaldean and Jewish King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon (588-7 B.C.) was attempting to increase his rule in the area between Egypt, Phoenicia and Canaan. After annexing Western provinces of Syria, he went on to attack Jerusalem in 597 BC capturing the city, or what was left of it. Thereafter, he apparently deported large numbers of the Jewish population to Babylon, many of whose origins were from Judea. Despite the trauma, the Jewish tribes were allowed to retain their autonomy and religious identity. After the Babylonian Empire fell to King Cyrus in 53 B.C. many Jews returned to Palestine, which wasn’t necessarily a good move since Palestine had been ravaged by war. This may have been a factor for those who decided to stay. Those that made Babylon their home flourished, particularly in business and local politics while retaining their Jewish beliefs.
Nebuchadnezzar II inscribed on coin of the period
Back in Jerusalem in 132 AD a Jewish rebellion took place against the building of a new temple on the remains of the second temple (See Temple Mount) but was put down by the Romans. This caused a new influx of Jews to Babylon enriching Jewish life both in terms of population and political influence reaching about 150,000. Though many could have returned to Palestine, a cognitive elite of Jewish intellectuals stayed on, going from strength to strength. Is this not similar to what happened in America in relation to the manufactured state of Israel? Such parallels from ancient history to the present day is noted by historian Max Dimont:
“When history presented the Jews of Babylon with a passport to return to a reconstituted Palestine, they declined the invitation, just as American Jews declined a similar invitation to return to a reconstituted Israel. By this refusal, the Babylonian Jews created the Diaspora. By their refusal, the American Jews perpetuated the Diaspora. In Babylonia, Diaspora Judaism slowly gained intellectual ascendancy over Palestinian Judaism. In the 20th Century history placed the scepter of Diaspora Judaism in the willing hands of the American Jews.” [2]
Babylonia and the Jews do seem to reflect what we find in modern United States: intrinsic adaptability yet remaining culturally separated from the dominant culture; networked nepotism and strong business connections, rapid and accumulated wealth within small groups and inter-marrying within their own families. Israel is not and has never been the final refuge of a landless people. The Diaspora remains yet there is a strong draw from Zionists for Diaspora Jews to return to the homeland. This is not to fuse with the soul of Judaism however, but to be used as sacrificial bait on an altar of idolatry – a Grand Ritual for and by the Zionist elite.
It was probable that the sources for the Talmud were drawn from Jewish centres of Mesopotamia, now known as Iraq, which is an important point to remember for its modern relationship to occult Zionist ritual. It is also the source of black magick practices care of the Levite priests of the day and their obsession with Kabbalistic invocation. The Levite priests proved to have an enduring legacy.
Recent studies have placed the Levites along the Ashkenazi lineage and thus Khazar origins. [3] This will become important to remember as we proceed. The priests were said to have been drawn from one of the twelve tribes of Israel (Levi) and who were part of the emergence of the Pharisees. They were originally landless tribe priests with their origins in Judah and whose allegiance and authority came from the Jehovah (Yahweh) on Mount Sinai. In effect, they were the true authoritarians and progenitors of the harshest doctrines of Mosaic Law and thus the true fathers of Judaism. Their nomadic lifestyles meant they were able to indoctrinate many with the idea of Jehovah’s war of conquest where a New Jewish theocracy was the only way in which to manifest God on Earth. The Levites set themselves up as “divine” Judges over the Jewish people.
Detail from A Levite Priest holds up Holy Hands – James Tissot (1836-1902)
Compassion and love was inimical to Levitical judgement and in accordance with the bloody authority of Jehovah. As such they represent the ideological ancestors of Zio-Conservatism, Christian Fundamentalism and Jewish sects of Chabad Lubavitch today. Indeed, it is the Levite priests and their Talmudic law which gave rise to the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible and of the Jewish Torah named Deuteronomy. It was here that much of the seeds of slavery, war, genocide and revolution found their way into the Middle East and eventually Western societies. With the corralling of the Judahites and the imposition of a black magick infused Talmudism, A supposed oral Torah and Mosaic authoritarianism became the pathogen of psychopathy which infected the destiny of nations, perhaps more than any other socio-cultural and economic phenomenon.
The Levites set about compiling this apparently “secret” oral teaching of the Torah after the Assyrian conquest of Judah. By 621 B.C. Deuteronomy had been written and was socially engineering the masses from the Temple in Jerusalem. It was designed to create the maximum amount of fear for maximum control. And that is precisely what it did and in ways that would reverberate through time.
Author and Journalist Douglas Reed’s Controversy of Zion (1956) describes the Babylon Talmud’s genesis and its defining quality under the Levite priests and their Old Testament wrath:
“Deuteronomy is to formal Judaism and Zionism what the Communist Manifesto was to the destructive revolution of our century. It is the basis of the Torah (“the Law”) contained in the Pentateuch, which itself forms the raw material of the Talmud, which again gave birth to those “commentaries” which together constitute the Judaic “law”.
Therefore Deuteronomy is also the basis of the political programme, of worldly dominion over nations despoiled and enslaved, which has been largely realized in the West during this Twentieth Century. Deuteronomy is of direct relevancy to the events of our day, and much of the confusion surrounding them disperses if they are studied in its light.
It was read, in 621 BC, to so small an audience in so small a place that its great effects for the whole world, through the following centuries into our time, are by contrast the more striking.
Before Deuteronomy was compiled only the “oral tradition” of what God said to Moses existed. The Levites claimed to be the consecrated guardians of this tradition and the tribes people had to take their word for it (their pretensions in this respect chiefly caused the anger of the Israelite “prophets”). If anything had been written down before Deuteronomy was read, such manuscripts were fragmentary and in priestly keeping, and as little known to the primitive tribesmen as the Greek poets to Kentucky hills folk today.
That Deuteronomy was different from anything that had been known or understood before is implicit in its name, which means “Second Law”. Deuteronomy, in fact, was Levitical Judaism, first revealed; the Israelites (as already shown) “were not Jews” and had never known this “Law”.
Deuteronomy stood the earlier tradition on its head, if it was in harmony with the moral commandments. However, the Levites were within their self-granted right in making any changes they chose, for they held that
they were divinely authorized to amend the Law, as orally revealed by God to Moses […]
For that matter, they also claimed that Moses had received at Sinai a secret oral Torah, which must never be committed to writing. In view of the later inclusion of the Old Testament in one volume with the Christian New Testament, and the average Gentile’s assumption that he thus has before his eyes the whole of “the Mosaic Law”, this qualification is of permanent interest. [4]
The legacy of the Levites as the foreunners of our present day Zionists is never clearer. They both draw their aspiritual inspiration and action from other than what we consider to be the message of love, compassion and knowledge. Indeed, it is obvious that Mosaic Law became something very far from anything resembling “spiritual” under these priestly elect. The Pharisees, from which the Levites hailed had a less than impeccable pedigree. The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia describes the Pharisees’ contribution in these terms:
“The Jewish religion as it is today traces its descent, without a break, through all the centuries, from the Pharisees. Their leading ideas and methods found expression in a literature of enormous extent, of which a very great deal is still in existence. The Talmud is the largest and most important single member of that literature, and round it are gathered a number of Midrashim, partly legal (Halachic) and partly works of edification (Haggadic). This literature, in its oldest elements, goes back to a time before the beginning of the Common Era, and comes down into the Middle Ages. Through it all run the lines of thought which were first drawn by the Pharisees…” [5]
And according to Talmudic rabbis today, Talmudism seamlessly transformed from this Levite Talmdism with roots in Jehovah and Mosaic Law into Medieval Rabbinsim and to Modern Rabbinsim, thus modern Judaism as “the spirit of ancient Pharisee survives unaltered.” [6] Even more importantly, the Levite priests drawn from the Pharisees were the object of Jesus Christ’s wrath – an extremely rare occurrence for this “man of righteousness”. What was it that caused him to lose his temper when confronted with the actions of this authority? Possibly because Jesus knew very well that the blood and soil of Jehovah/Yahweh was nothing remotely to do with his message and rather they were a priestly order for a different “God” entirely. Jesus thought of the Levite priests as “Hypocrites, Vipers, Serpents” (Mt. 12:34, 23:33). He could not have been clearer in his description when he said: “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (John 8:44 (4) And he went further, viewing the council of priests as impostors: “Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie” (Rev 3:9)
Gustave Doré: Dispute between Jesus and the Pharisees
Jesus knew exactly who these people were and was not having any of it. He knew that the Levite priests were using the temple to run their financial cartels, acting exactly like their father Jehovah who encouraged war, murder, rape and pillage in the name of God, where truth was non-existent and lies were the primary currency of their exchange. If you had the individual associated with the mythology of Christ condemning such people he must have had a pretty good reason to do so. It is here that we see the exact similarities to modern-day highly placed Zionists who are continuing the same tradition.
In exploring the roots of Jewish influence and separatism Reed highlighted the role of Levites and the lineage of the Pharisees sect. The narrative of a chosen people was carefully nurtured by the Pharisees who occupied “the second place in the pedigree of the sect which has brought about such large events in our time.”
Reed continues:
“The name ‘Pharisee’, according to the Judaist authorities, means ‘one who separates himself’, or keeps away from persons or things impure in order to attain the degree of holiness and righteousness required in those who would commune with God. The Pharisees formed a league or brotherhood of their own, admitting to their inmost councils only those who, in the presence of three members, pledged themselves to the strict observance of Levitical purity. They were the earliest specialists in secret conspiracy, as a political science.” [7]
It is this political cunning that defines Levitical machinations and the engineering of Jewish destiny. Does it not remind us of Zionist geopolitics and lobbying financed by the House of Rothschild?
Reed goes further:
“Deuteronomy is above all a complete political programme: the story of the planet, created by Jehovah for this “special people”, is to be completed by their triumph and the ruination of all others. The rewards offered to the faithful are exclusively material: slaughter, slaves, women, booty, territory, empire. The only condition laid down for these rewards is observance of “the statutes and judgments”, which primarily command the destruction of others. The only guilt defined lies is non-observance of these laws. Intolerance is specified as observance; tolerance as non-observance, and therefore as guilt. The punishments prescribed are of this world and of the flesh, not of the spirit. Moral behaviour, if ever demanded, is required only towards co-religionists and “strangers” are excluded from it.” [8]
It was this hierarchical power base that allowed the ponerisation of what was essentially a vengeance-based ruse for land conquest with various Semitic peoples “chosen” as bait. No wonder Jesus threw out some of these priests from the Temple – he could SEE what they were and what this meant for his own message of self-knowledge and the development of conscience. What the Levite priests were proposing was an anti-Christian rule of law, according to some Jewish scholars based in part on elements from the Platonic political system which was adopted as early as 142-63 BC. This law decreed: “… that every phase of human conduct be subject to religious sanctions which are in fact to be manipulated by the ruler …” [9] which appears to be forerunner of distinctly Zio-Conservative, Machiavellian tactics. The Levitical rule did not derive from the more moderate source of the Torah but was bastardised by their scribes who had taken the revisions and liberal expansions directly from the priests claiming it was the original doctrine orally bestowed on Mount Sinai. How could anyone argue?
One man did however, and saw it for what it was: a tactic to reintroduce pathocratic rule as a replacement to spiritual integration. Jesus Christ admonished the priests and warned people to have nothing to do with these manipulations when he said: “By the traditions of your elders you make void the Word of God.” (St Matthew 15). The Old Testament fury was re-engineering love and compassion into hatred, fear and separatism care of the Talmud. As Douglas Reed mentions, the difference between the Torah and Talmud is a crucial distinction in the evolution of Biblical theology and practice:
If not different, then why should not the anti-Christian Talmud be added to the Christian Bible? If that were done the entire work would extend along several shelves of a library, and the New Testament would be a tiny pamphlet, lost among and excommunicated by the Talmudic mass, the teaching of which is thus summarized by the Talmudic scholar Drach: ‘The precepts of justice, of equity, of charity towards one’s neighbours, are not only not applicable with regard to the Christian, but constitute a crime in anyone who would act differently … The Talmud expressly forbids one to save a non-Jew from death … to restore lost goods, etc., to him, to have pity on him’. The theological decision about the ‘equal divine authority’ of the Torah seems to have introduced an element of confusion into the Christian lesson from which Christianity itself in the end might not recover. The Talmudic precepts just quoted are not essentially different in nature from those included in Deuteronomy when that ‘second Law’ was made public a thousand years before the Palestinian Talmud was completed; they are merely given a specifically anti-Christian application.” [10]
The Babylonian Talmud and the priests graduated to a mix of superstitious occultism and the inclusion of blood sacrifice and bizarre rituals which Jesus understandably didn’t want to have anything to do with. (More on this later in the series). They were the prefect nemesis, using Divine law to cover their ambition for power. The message of “Love your enemies” was after all, supplanted by the Pharisaic Law of “hate your enemies”, so it didn’t take long before the template of spiritual dispensation to be rapidly eclipsed.
Over centuries the Talmud became the de facto barbed-wire fence around the Jewish tribe, or as Reed States: “‘the fence around the Law’; the outer tribal stockade around the inner tribal stockade.” The Talmud had already “laid down the rules and regulations not only for the Babylonian Jews but for the whole of Judaism” and where “…The Jews throughout the world recognized the academies in Babylonia as the authoritative centre of Judaism, and regarded any laws they passed as binding.” The Talmud essentially took the place of the Torah, just as the Torah earlier had replaced the “oral traditions”. [11]
Babylonian Talmud (wikipedia)
As practiced by Jews for the last 1000 years or so, the Halakhah legal system of classical Judaism is maintained to this day as Orthodox Judaism and is based almost exclusively on the Talmud. Due to the impossible ( and intentional) complexity of the legal dialogue within these volumes, a progressive codification – even dilution – of the core Talmudic tracts has taken place, thus it has been easier to cover up their controversial nature. It is this almost impenetrable complexity that defines the Talmud. Ever increasing complexity is the bane of our present culture since it allows secrecy, double-speak and paramoralistic discourse to flourish. We see complexity in the evolution of economics, corporations and government as it diffuses responsibility and personal accountability in favour of hierarchical rule thus encouraging obedience and blindness to the moral dimension. Though modern Jewish translators mostly rabbis with probable bias, have diluted and/or omitted passages from the original, it is no understatement to say that these tombs of Jewish mysticism are chock full of mystifying maxims, anecdotes, koans and general advice of such a bizarre nature it has taxed secular Jews and Rabbis alike, often tying themselves up in knots in order to place some of the teachings into something close to resembling a coherent and accessible narrative.
Indeed, the Talmud is so incomprehensible in parts that even one of the most devoutly Jewish authors – Herman Wouk in his 1961 book This is My God had to share his frustrations:
“Talmudic political judgment often shows the bitterness of a people trodden by wave after wave of oppressors.” […] “Since the Talmud reports the sayings of hundreds of savants over many centuries, it abounds in contradictory maxims, in conflicting metaphysical guesses, in baffling switches from cynicism to poetry, from misanthropy to charity, from dislike of women to praise for them …. In a word, one can say almost anything about this recording of the talk of wise men through seven centuries, and then find a passage to support it.” [12]
“Portae Lucis by Joseph Gikatilla (1248 -1325) Augsburg, 1516 The book is a Latin translation by Paulus Ricius of Gikatilla’s most influential kabbalistic work” (wikipedia)
It could be said that the Kabbalah has some alchemical allusions to cryptic codes and thereby some measure of profundity – in places. However, the vast majority of Talmudic discourse can hardly be said to fall into the same category. For instance, the most minute and seemingly inconsequential minutiae of Jewish lives are placed under a prurient microscope, from toilet habits to medicinal remedies.
The 1939 edition of Hebraic Literature, Translations from the Talmud, Midrashim, and Kabbala by M. K Harris offers a few examples:
“One who eats an ant is flogged five times forty stripes save one.”
“Demons … have wings like angels … [and] they know the future.”
“For night-blindedness, let a man take a hair-rope and bind one end of it to his own leg and the other to a dog’s, then let the children clatter a potsherd after him, and call out, “Old man! Dog! Fool! Cock! …”
“The bald-headed, and dwarfed, and the blear-eyed are ineligible for the priesthood.”
“Only kings … eat roast meat with mustard.”
“It is not right for a man to sleep in the daytime any longer than a horse sleeps. And how long is the sleep of a horse? Sixty respirations.” [13]
Author Michael Hoffman also provides numerous examples and a detailed analysis in his Judaism Re-Discovered (2008). His research unveils everything from Kabbalistic Magick to ritual murder and many other less dramatic but no less distasteful instructions that seldom sees the light of day, yet remain a vital part of some sects of Orthodox Judaism and Chabad Lubavitch. Though Hoffman’s rendering of Judaism and Talmudic lore is very much in keeping with a kind of Christian, school-teacher puritanism that one might have imagined had disappeared a long time ago, he does offer an extraordinarily comprehensive analysis of the Talmud’s secrets (and if you can stand the lack of proper formatting and shocked Christian proselytising throughout). Hoffman provides further examples of inscrutable Talmudic “wisdom,” the worst of which indicates the cruder aspects of Kabbalistic black magick and bizarre forms of legalise:
Eating dates makes one ineligible to render legal decisions. (BT Kethuboth 10b).
The medicinal value of the excrement of a white dog: to heal the disease of pleurisy (“catarrh”) a Jew should “take the excrement of a white dog and knead it with balsam, but if he can possibly avoid it he should not eat the dog’s excrement as it loosens the limbs.” (BT Gittin 69b).
Epilepsy is caused by standing naked in front of a lamp, or sexual relations with the light on. (BT Pesahim 112b).
Not burying cut fingernails causes miscarriages. (BT Moed Katan 18a).
Everyone has two kidneys, one of which inspires good deeds; the other, bad deeds. (BT Berakoth 61a).
After seven years, hyenas turn into bats. After even longer periods, they turn into thorns and demons. (BT Baba Kamma 16a).
Bad-temper is caused by birth on Monday; riches and sexual promiscuity caused by birth on Tuesday; those who desecrate the Sabbath by being born thereon will die on the Sabbath. (BT Shabbatb, 156a).
Solar eclipses caused by improperly mourning the death of particular Rabbis; Lunar eclipses caused by raising small cattle in Israel. (BT Sukkah 29a).
It is forbidden for dogs, women or palm trees to pass between two men, nor may others walk between dogs, women or palm trees. Special dangers are involved if the women are menstruating or sitting at a crossroads. (BT Pesahim, 111a).
Demonic danger is involved when one drinks water on the evenings of Wednesdays and Sabbaths. (BT Pesahim 112a).
Improper occupations: ass and doctors, butchers, etc., with some camel drivers, sailor, controversy concerning shopkeepers, sailors.(BTKiddushin 82a).
Sixteen million Israelite children were wrapped in scrolls and burned alive by the Romans at Bethar. (BT Gittin 58a).
Four billion Israelites were killed by the Romans in one city, the city of Bethar. (Some rabbis say “only” forty million were killed there). (BT Gittin 57b).
Zimri engaged Cozbi in sexual relations 424 times in one day. Also her womb was one-and½ feet wide. (BT Sanhedrin 82b).
Obed-Edom’s wife and eight daughters-in-law all give birth to six children at a time (BT Berakoth 63b).
Those who suffer extreme poverty, are afflicted with bowel diseases, suffer persecution by the Romans or have a bad wife, will not go to hell (BT Pesahim 113b).
He who stays unmarried, doesn’t wear phylacteries, or doesn’t wear shoes, cannot go to heaven (BT Pesahim 113b).
Women cannot conceive before they reach twelve years and a day, according to the Rabbis. When asked how it was possible that a gentile girl had conceived at age six, the Rabbi replied that gentiles are not human. (BT Niddah 45a). [14]
Apart from the consistent obsession with sex and toilet habits (which would explain a lot of the reasons behind the rise of Freudian psychoanalysis – more on this later) the above bar-room brawl trivia which seems to litter more solemn passages in the Talmud, it is the themes of Jewish supremacy, hatred of those outside the Jewish tradition (Gentiles) and their inherent inferiority that appear to be most common. What is apparent at the outset of perusing the Talmud is that the non-Jew is treated with the utmost contempt. There is no tolerance or compassion, only ways to deceive, out do, slander, abuse and even murder the “the other” or “the Goyim” (cattle). Quite simply, non-Jews are viewed as animals, a belief that has continued to be held by many in Israel – especially within military and right-wing groupings to this day. As we can see, anti-Christian abuse also forms the backbone of the Talmud and thus much of Judaism:
“If a ‘goy’ (Gentile) hits a Jew he must be killed.” (Sanhedrin 58b)
“If a Jew finds an object lost by a ‘goy’ it does not have to be returned.” (Baba Mezia 24a)
“If a Jew murders a ‘goy’ there will be no death penalty.” (Sanhedrin 57a)
What a Jew steals from a ‘goy’ he may keep.” (Sanhedrin 57a)
“Jews may use subterfuges to circumvent a ‘goy.’” (Baba Kamma 113a)
“All children of the ‘goyim’ (Gentiles) are animals.” (Yebamoth 98a)
“Girls born of the ‘goyim’ are in a state of ‘niddah’ (menstrual uncleanness!) from birth.” (Abodah Zarah 36b)
“The ‘goyim’ are not humans. They are beasts.” (Baba Mezia 114b)
“If you eat with a ‘goy’ it is the same as eating with a dog.” (Tosapoth, Jebamoth 94b)
“Even the best of the ‘goyim’ should all be killed.” (Soferim 15)
“Sexual intercourse between the ‘goyim’ is like intercourse between animals.” (Sanhedrin 74b)
“When it comes to a Gentile in peace times, one may harm him indirectly, for instance, by removing a ladder after he had fallen into a crevice.” (Shulkan Arukh, Yoreh De ‘ah, 158, Hebrew Edition only)
“Yashu’ [derogatory for ‘Jesus’] is in Hell being boiled in hot excrement.” (Gittin 57a)
“Yashu (Jesus) was sexually immoral and worshipped a brick.” (Sanhedrin 107b)
“Yashu (Jesus) was cut off from the Jewish people for his wickedness and refused to repent.” (Sotah 47a)
“Miriam the hairdresser had sex with many men.” (Shabbath 104b, Hebrew Edition only)
“She who was the descendant of princes and governors (the virgin Mary) played the harlot with carpenters.” (Sanhedrin 106a)
“Christians who reject the Talmud will go to hell and be punished there for all generations.”(Rosh Hashanah 17a)
A gentile who strikes a Jew deserves death. Striking a Jew is in God’s eyes an assault on the Divine Presence. (BT Sanhedrin 58b).
All the blessings which gentiles enjoy come to them only because of God’s regard for Israel. (BT Yebamoth 63a).
A Jew need not pay a gentile the wages owed him for work (BT Sanhedrin 57a).
If an ox of an Israelite gores an ox of a Canaanite there is no liability; but if an ox of a Canaanite gores an ox of an Israelite…the payment is to be in full. (BT Baba Kamma 37b).
The deeds of Israel are righteous, but the gentiles are capable only of sin. (BT Baba Bathra 10b).
Wine touched by a gentile renders has been defiled and is unfit for use by the Jews. (BT Abodah Zarah 72b).
Thieves of unknown ethnic background broke into a Jew’s building and touched his wine. Since he did not know who touched the wine, he was unsure whether or not the thieves had been gentiles and whether or not it had been defiled by a gentile’s touch. The rabbis ruled that since the majority of thieves in that city were Jews, the wine was undefiled. (BT Abodah Zarah 70a).
A sly rabbi debates God and through trickery defeats Him. God admits the rabbi won the debate. (BT Baba Mezia 59b). [15] [16]
It seems that sex and their perverse corollaries are used as a means for pleasure, authority and retribution. The Abodah Zarah 17a states: “…that there is not a whore in the world that the Talmudic sage Rabbi Eleazar has not had sex with and yet, in Hagigah 27a declares that no rabbi can ever go to hell.” [17] All of this is rounded off with a Levitical totalitarianism in that “…whosoever disobeys the rabbis deserves death and will be punished by being boiled in hot excrement in hell” (BT Erubin 21b). (So, at least you have the same punishment bestowed upon Jesus, if that’s any consolation).
18th Century portrait of Moshe ben Maimon (“Maimonides”)
The contempt of Gentiles stems from the brainwashing of Jews in ancient times in the much the same way it occurs today. Though many modern liberal American Jews are unaware of the root belief, race supremacy lies at its heart, with fears of racial amalgamation with gentiles still a driving force in marriage and relationships, since maintaining the “purity” of the Judaic nation is paramount. The segregationist laws forbids the adoption of Gentile customs even when they are derived from the Bible: “The Yid should be distinguished from the goyim [slang for Gentile]…Firstly, the basic halacha is that any of the practices that goyim have for their worship are forbidden to the Yiddin. Furthermore, even if the Torah sanctions this worship, Yiddin may not engage in it, if this practice was subsequently adopted by the goyim.” [18]
Since non-Jews are not considered neighbours (‘You shall not exploit your neighbor’ is written, and it is not written ‘a gentile’ (BT Baba Kamma 113a) distrust, suspicion, subterfuge, lies and hatred of non-Jews is the formal doctrine of Maimonides and Jewish law the final solution of which is murder if necessary. The former Gush Emunim leader Rabbi Israel Ariel summed up this belief when he stated: ‘A Jew who killed a non-Jew is exempt from human judgment and has not violated the religious prohibition of murder.” [19] Though the ultra-right wing Gush Emunin movement has thankfully dissolved, its common beliefs have not, concentrated as they are within the Zionist Establishment and MOSSAD. It also offers a possible reason why so many in the Israeli military see Palestinian lives as worth nothing more than animals and how easy it is for many Israelis to rationalise their active or passive support for the occupied territories and genocidal bombing campaigns such as we saw most recently in Gaza, in 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2014.
The seeds of usury were also sown in the tracts of the Talmud. Zionists have used this tradition and financial acumen to great effect in order to circumnavigate economic laws and forge new socio-economic systems which benefit their political aspirations. Loss of prestige and power within Gentile society inevitably leads a denial of their objectives so strenuous efforts have been been made to monopolise and extend financial architecture, (Federal Reserve, Bank of England, deregulation etc.) all of which stemmed from the innovation of the House of Rothschild. Zionism and a Greater Israel is nothing without the money to make it happen. Which is why our present tax and debt-based economic frameworks are essentially legalised systems of theft which is encouraged according to Talmudic law:
Whoever returns a lost article to a gentile is under the curse of God. (BT Sanhedrin 76a).
Property of gentiles is like the desert; whoever among the Jews gets there first, owns it. (BT Baba Bathra 54b).
If a gentile loses something, a Jew may keep it, even if he knows the owner. (BT Baba Kamma 113b).
If the majority of people in an area are gentiles, a Jew may just keep the lost article. If the majority are Jews, an effort must be made to find the owner. (BT Baba Mezia 24a).
A gentile must pay wages to a Jew, but a Jew does not have to pay wages to a gentile. (BT Sanhedrin 57a).
The gentiles are outside the protection of the law and God has “exposed their money to Israel.” (BT Baba Kamma 37b). [20]
In the next post we will continue our look at the Babylonian Talmud with help from the late Israel Shahak.
[1] ‘Structure of the Talmud Files’ Caroline A Valentine, http://www.come-and-hear.com/structure.html
[2] p.47; Jews, God, and History by Max Isaac Dimont ( 1964) Signet Classics; 2nd edition (2004) ISBN-10: 0451529405
[4] R. Travers Herford, writing for The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, s.v. Pharisees, Volume 8, page 474, available at http://www.come-and-hear.com/uje/uje_474.html
[5] Behar DM, Thomas MG, Skorecki K et al. (October 2003). “Multiple origins of Ashkenazi Levites: Y chromosome evidence for both Near Eastern and European ancestries”. American Journal of Human Genetics 73 (4): 768–779. doi:10.1086/378506. PMC 1180600. PMID 13680527.
[6] The Pharisees: The Sociological Background of Their Faith, page xxi, available at http://www.come-and-hear.com/talmud/finkelstein.html#xxi
[7] p.14; The Controversy of Zion By Douglas Reed (1956) New edition published by Bridger House Publishers (1 Feb. 2012) ISBN-10: 0984473378.
[9] op.cit Shahak; p.13.
[12] p.181; This Is My God Paperback By Herman Wouk (1961) reprint Edition published 1992 by Back Bay Books.
[13] Hebraic literature; translations from the Talmud, Midrashim and Kabbala, with special introduction by Maurice H. Harris, D.D. [Édition de luxe] 2012.
[14] collated by Brother Nathanael Kapner at http://www.realjewnews.com/?p=156
[15] Jewish History, Jewish Religion The Weight of Three Thousand Years (1994) By Israel Shahak. Pluto Press; First Edition edition (December 1, 1994) ISBN-10: 074530818X. p.75; Chapter 5, “The Laws Against Non-Jews.”
[16] p. 658.5 / 2342; Judaism Discovered (2008) by Michael Hoffman (kindle edition)
[17] Ibid; 684.3 / 2342
Posted in Establishment / Elite, Mind Control, Occult, Psychopathy, Religion, Social Engineering, Spirituality / Esoterica, War, Zionism and tagged art, Ashkenazi, Babylon, Babylonian Talmud, Black Magick, Blood and Soil, Chabad Lubavitch, Christianity, cognitive elite, Communism, Deuteronomy, Elite, ethnocentrism, gentiles, God, Gush Emunin, House of Rothschild, Israel, Israel-Palestine Conflict, Jehovah, Jerusalem, Jesus Christ, Jewish diaspora, Jewish theocracy, jews, Judah, Judaism, Kabbalah, King Nebuchadnezzar, Levite priests, Maimonides, Nazism, New World Order, Occult-Zionism, Orthodox Judaism, Palestine, Palestinians, pathocracy, Pharisees, psychopaths, Rabbincal law, race, Shahak, Talmud, The Bible, Torah, Wall Street, World War III, Yahweh, Zio-Conservatism, Zionists on April 11, 2015 by M.K. Styllinski. Leave a comment
World State Policies IV: Common Purpose
In tracing Corporatist-Collectivist thinking since the 1950s, it has become clear that its proponents have been very busy making sure their interests are fulfilled far from public scrutiny and if they are discovered, their agencies are cloaked in double-speak and “pro-active” corporate jargon to avoid suspicion. Common Purpose is a quasi-political, semi-secret UK organisation which appears to fall under this category and like so many of its affiliated organisations it relies on public ignorance to successfully carry out its mandate. Spawned from the Liberal, Anglo-American corner of the Three Establishment Model (3EM) (the others being Zionist and Conservative) it is closely associated with Fabianism, New Age beliefs, humanism, technocracy, green living and vertical collectivism.
The organisation has been tailored to infiltrate British public and private industry at the local and national level in order to head-hunt potential candidates for leadership and thus fulfil World State policies and the emergence of inverted totalitarianism. No doubt, there is much guffawing and scoffing at such an idea. Yet, this has been the nature of social engineering programs for a very considerable time. Future leaders are groomed with a pre-disposition for authoritarianism via a fusion of Marxist and Conservative appeal. As such, movers and shakers are found within both labour and conservative ranks.
It has taken over fifteen years for the British public to even hear its name thanks to its highly secretive nature. The fact that anyone knows it exists at all is largely due to the work of Brian Gerrish a former Royal Navy Lieutenant * who, since his retirement now works full time to expose the objectives of the organisation. He discovered Common Purpose (CP) when he was involved in initiatives to help people find jobs whereby council support was withdrawn due it seems to the projects stepping on CP objectives. When Gerrish tried to continue alone without council support it quickly led to a threatening situation:
“When we started to explore why we were being threatened we were absolutely staggered to find a very strange organisation called Common Purpose operating in the city. And we were absolutely amazed that there were so many people involved but they were not declaring themselves …”'[Common Purpose] was operating throughout the structure of the city, in the city council, in the government offices, in the police, in the judiciary. Essentially we discovered what is effectively, at best, a quasi secret society which doesn’t declare itself to ordinary people.’ [1]
Common Purpose has increasingly come under fire thanks to the work of Gerrish and other concerned members of the public. The accusations have been rather unsuccessfully fielded by the board trustee member Sir David bell who dismisses the concerns as unfounded. The charges are numerous and include:
Undue secrecy and zero transparency.
A pervasive, undemocratic influence with social engineering at its core.
Change based around principles of collectivism or its sub-category of New Age glossed “communitarianism”.
Masquerading as an ‘educational charity’ when it is in fact a political organisation.
Many of its activities are funded by tax payers money.
Undue and unaccountable influence in all societal domains.
One of its core principles is to eventually merge the private and public sectors by deceitful means.
To bypass democratic accountability and replace current legitimately elected or chosen posts in favour of CP graduates who have unfair advantage.
Working to affect change so that Britain is irrevocably changed towards EU-directives and Fabian beliefs by stealth.
Closely associated with Bilderberg beliefs and associated pet projects such as Agenda 21, technocratic SMART-city initiatives which includes merging sustainable development frameworks without due consultation and beyond civic consultation. In other words, collectivist, World State policies.
At first glance, rather like most political think tanks and organisations that we have looked at on this blog so far, CP has taken the mask of an educational charity founded in 1989 registered in the UK under number 1023384. According to its website: “… to date, more than 30,000 people have participated in our leadership development courses internationally. The idea spread and Common Purpose programmes are currently run in France, Germany, Ghana, India, Sweden, Turkey, Ireland, Hungary and South Africa.”
It ostensibly provides leadership and networking development training for potential high flyers within the police, judiciary, civil service, social services, education, media and politics. Remaining true to the “scientific technique” and philosophy of the Fabians and humanist education it has become a well-placed organisation of “change agents” at the heart of the British Establishment.
commonpurpose.org.uk states further:
“… the advancement of education for the public benefit and in particular but without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing to educate men and women an young people of school age, from a broad range of geographical, political, ethnic, institutional, social and economic backgrounds in constitutional, civic, economic and social studies with special emphasis on civil and social awareness and responsibility in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.”
The statement sounds as bland and innocuous as we’ve come to expect from such Euro-led outfits.
Evidence suggests that the notorious Tavistock Institute had a part to play in the formation of Common Purpose training courses. The CP concept was started there, fine-tuned at Oxford University and then ‘exported’ to the US joining together with Harvard’s Advanced and General Management Programmes which:
“… brings together members of the executive committee, heads of business units and functional areas, as well as leaders of governmental agencies and non-profit organizations.” (www.exed.hbs.edu/programs) GMP follows exactly the same formula as CP and “is designed primarily for executives with recently acquired or significantly expanded general management responsibilities, and for senior functional managers who need a broader perspective on company operations or who will soon become business-unit, division, or regional leaders.” [2]
On his website literature Brian Gerrish states: “It was then re-imported to UK via Julia Middleton Chief Executive of CP, who was miraculously given £500,000 to start CP programmes throughout UK.” A former editor for Marxism Today, civic society campaigner, co-founder of think-tank Demos and Deputy Chair of the Media Standards Trust Board, Middleton has been its CEO since its inception but it is unlikely that she was the sole creator of such a complex social engineering program. She had a bit of help from Stephen Heintz who acted as President of CP. Once his job was done he assumed his position as President of … surprise, surprise…the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Demos is also an Establishment arm advocating Fabian-driven principles akin to Council on Foreign Relations and the Bilderberg group. In a BBC News report by Catrin Nye from September 30 2011, entitled: ‘Is the internet rewriting history?’ the think-tank recently warned against the dangers of free speech and “conspiracy theories” which “rewrite history” on the internet. DEMOS was founded in 1993 by another former Marxism Today editor Martin Jacques, and Geoff Mulgan in response to what they saw as a crisis in British politics and the social fabric. It remains a key link to CP as a whole.
In fact, CP likes to say that there is no CEO, which begs the question: Where does CP get its directives?
Delving a bit deeper into the roots of CP we find that the board of the Media Standards Trust are Sir David Bell who sits on various other influential media boards, Goldman Sacs member Charles Manby and Anthony Salz of another usual suspect: NM Rothschild. CP observes the same rules of secrecy observed by the Trilateral Commission, Bilderbergers, Council on Foreign Relations and the Royal Institute of International Affairs. This convention is defined as the “Chatham House Rule” where members must not reveal the details of individuals who attend nor the subjects under discussion. This camouflage is maintained by the Common Purpose Charitable Trust (CPCT) who carries out its activities through the subsidiary charities of: Common Purpose International, Common Purpose UK and its trading arm Civilia Ltd.
Improving society so that it is more “efficient” is underpinned by the use of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, elements of the Delphi Technique and strains of political correctness across all issues which, alongside a lack of transparency, are extremely difficult to counter without appearing reactionary and “old school.” Common Purpose is modernising society for a “New Order” which – if we are to read their benign messages on their websites – is all for our benefit. So much so, that it must be carried out with minimal participation from the public – unless of course you are ambitious, well-placed and harbour a mind-set that is amenable to CP aims.
Clearly, to re-engineer society you need the funds to do it which is why CP charges considerable sums for their candidates whom they head-hunt and entice with promises of advancement should they decide to embark on this particular gravy train. Blog journalist Ken Craggs’ tells us: “Over 120,000 leaders have contributed to or participated in a Common Purpose programme and this grows by at least 3,000 people each year. Common Purpose charge substantial figures for their courses. Matrix costs £3,950 plus VAT, a course for a high-flying leader can be as much as £9,950 plus VAT.” [3]The key motivation behind these training courses appears to be to groom potential leaders according to Common purpose principles so that when they are placed in suitable positions by virtue of being CP “graduates” they will carry out their allotted tasks.
So, what are these principles?
The usual elitist beliefs to which the reader will by now be accustomed such as reducing national sovereignty, the erosion of national identity, the destruction of democracy, undermining of traditional beliefs and values in order to replace them with one world, technocratic and collectivist visions. More elitism by those who consider they know best. Which is why such people use Orwellian double-speak and NLP to “train” its members towards a singular view so that they think and act according to their own objectives. Key issues such as education, immigration, European policy, NHS, climate change and local and regional councils are similarly changed by indoctrinated CP agents, most of whom probably consider they are working for the greater good. Thus, multiculturalism and progressive modalities are applied to funnel critical thinking on these complex issues into beliefs which always conform to the much anticipated technocratic World State. Once this vast network is embedded in every sector of society – which is well on the way to being realised – the Establishment can sleep in their beds safe in the knowledge that their dutiful minions are carrying out their wishes. Such a program starts early and compliance is rewarded with career advancement. Conversely, signs of independent thinking and questioning is met with closed doors and a rapid descent.
Common Purpose shows signs of being a cult along the lines of Scientology according to website www.eutruth.org.uk/. For example, while using psychology and mind games to seduce and entrain would-be graduates, a classification is used: – ‘Suns’ (people of established power and influence), as ‘Stars’ (those of rapid but unpredictable rise to power and influence), and ‘Moons’ (those individuals whose power is diminishing). Those who will not help Common Purpose, or who challenge it, are called ‘Black Holes’.
For an avowed educational charity it appears to benefit everyone but those in most need. CP has been receiving money from local authorities and government agencies for training which has been paid for by the tax payer. As mentioned, these training courses do not come cheap. This unlawful allocation of money spent on CP training has nothing to do with benefiting communities but everything to do with increasing the CP agenda outside the democratic process.
The organisation is clearly political and is thus in breach of the Charity Commission rules which states: “An organisation will not be charitable if its purposes are political.” Yet, local councils and authorities CP operates outside the law but actively seeks to influence law enforcement, the judiciary and the politicians across all parties. In fact, all CP members who should be acting as public servants breach the seven principles of Public Life as set out by the Committee. If we are suspicious about the rising surveillance state and the easy purloining of our bio-metric data then we should also be concerned about the Common Purpose penchant for secrecy and data collection. Indeed, CP has been reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office for alleged breaches of data protection law:
“Leadership training charity Common Purpose has been reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office for alleged breaches of data protection law.
The Northwest Regional Development Agency, which made the complaint, has also apologised to a person whose name it inadvertently passed on to Common Purpose after he made a request under the Freedom of Information Act about its dealings with the charity.
The name was then included by Common Purpose in a list of previous FOI requests about the charity that it distributed to public authorities receiving new requests. The charity said it distributed the list to illustrate the high number of FOI requests being made about it and to help authorities decide whether to treat new requests as vexatious.” [4]
Common Purpose revealed the name of a legitimate enquirer under the Freedom of Information Act in an apparent fit of pique. And it wonders why so many inquiries arrive at its door? No action was taken.
The idea of acting beyond and outside established authority is ironically a large part of Fabian, Marxist and Common Purpose ideology. CEO Julia Middleton’s book Beyond Authority (1982) conforms to the ethos of change through Fabian or Marxist gradualism. As Brian Gerrish informs us, it is a text book for CP’s leadership philosophy, with some interesting tit-bits on the kind of manipulation that is required to make sure CP agendas are listened to and acted upon. On one occasion we read in the book that some helpful UK Parliamentary peers took her aside and told her all that was required was a: “… small committed and coordinated group of people producing pressure from the outside. Two or three determined fifth columnists on the inside. And the stamina from both groups to keep on and on and on putting them on the agenda until they eventually had to be discussed …”
Another passage in the book reveals:
‘I spoke to a friend recently who described how she had set someone up. Using all her charm and flattery, she had drawn him in and then installed him as a convenient useful idiot … My friend’s intention was to get him to produce a report which she knew full well would be a perfect smokescreen for her own activities …’
‘Have I ever done this? Yes … it was certainly useful to produce the distraction of creating a sub-committee, led by someone who did not really understand the big picture, to look into an issue in depth, with no timetable, so we could get on with what we saw as important issues.’ ” [5]
There is the evidence that CP routinely flouts British laws in favour of their own authority. The webmaster of Stop Common Purpose.org had this to say on the legal concept of Ultra Vire, latin for ‘Beyond the powers.’:
A Common Purpose quote: “People who lead beyond their authority can produce change beyond their direct circle of control”.
Leading beyond authority can mean acting ultra vires. Ultra vires a legal concept. It is Latin for ‘beyond the powers’. It can apply to any body which has rules, such as a charity or a local authority. An ultra vires act is one that is outside the specified and/or implied constitutional objects and powers of the body in question. It is ‘beyond the powers’ and therefore illegal.
Also, what are the implications of ‘leading beyond authority’ for services which require a hierarchical management structure to ensure discipline and cohesion, like the armed forces and police which can be manipulated from within for political purposes? ” [6]
Meshed with other Establishment think-tanks, NGOs and government agencies the symptoms of CP influence has been plain to see over the last fifteen years which has directly led to cultural disintegration; constant surveillance; the rise of Orwellian double-speak; House repossessions; Rapidly falling incomes; widening gap between the rich and the poor; high unemployment; unregulated immigration; social fragmentation; destructive policies within the NHS, rampant political correctness; trenchant bureaucracy in line with SMART technology; erosion of the middle class and economic enslavement. Is it all down to CP training? Unlikely. But as one factor in a many-headed hydra of social engineering, it is potentially significant.
Like the New Group of World Servers triangulating their occult influence throughout corridors of power, so too we have the same mind-set targeting business and politics with the same goals this time through programs such as the Global Leader Experience (GLE) which is designed for university students in order to: “… develop … leadership skills to help influence the future of the world, as well as establish a genuinely global network.” [7] All packaged carefully along CP lines of course. And what better examples of “leadership do we have waiting in the wings? CP’s Corporate partners such as:
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
International Red Cross
London Fire Brigade
Brunswick Group LLP
They even have programmes for new African leader so that a Round Table tradition can continue with well-placed nodes at their disposal.
Common Purpose is effectively the United Kingdom equivalent of organisations tied into SMART growth and Agenda 21 over in the US which are ideologically, exactly the same but appealing to young business leaders. (See UN Agenda 21 and Land Grab)We have discussed how capitalism, communism and Zionism have been embraced by the 3EM. Communitarianism is a further belief that cements the building blocks of inverted totalitarianism of the past and forms the local and national strategies of Common Purpose. Also known as the “Third Way” It can lie at the centre of many beliefs but is most at home in socialist, Neo-Conservative, Green and New Age activism as the primary tools of the Liberal Establishment ideologues.
Alaskan Journalist Niki Raapana summed up the belief succinctly by stating: “Communitarianism is a Dictatorship of the Community. Unlike communism, which established a Dictatorship of the Proletariat, communitarianism is the more advanced stage of human social evolution.” [8] And it seems CP requires the full compliance of every corner of society to achieve its communitarian ends, without any public interference. In order that a comprehensive network of what amounts to “soft” social control has been implemented with the same happy, smiling faces of mediocrity. Nothing wrong with communitarianism but it depends entirely on who is initiating such a new social divergence and whether this plan is genuinely benevolent. And so far, it is easy to discern that it is not.
As we know, the best of intentions can just as easily lead to the highest expression of evil when the concept of social evolution is gravely misunderstood by allowing psychopathy to distort and co-opt the benign. As journalist James Corbett recently asked:
“Even if Common Purpose by itself were the most benign organization imaginable, though, it is difficult to justify the secretive nature of this public charity which receives funding and support from various public agencies. The question once again becomes: to what extent is the public comfortable having an organization of questionable aims and means training the next generation of world leaders in secretive seminars, largely at taxpayer’s expense. And, to the extent that the public is uncomfortable with the influence that groups like this have over the political and business world, what precisely can they do about it?”
The first step is to dispense with the kind of secrecy favoured by CP and introduce genuine transparency partnered with the kind of organisations and board members which historically advocate the same rather than institutional protection.Until that time, to suggest that Common Purpose is just a non-political charity is not only false it is a blatant deception.
We’ll leave the last word on Common Purpose from Brian Gerrish:
Common Purpose promotes the ’empowerment of individuals’, except where individuals challenge the activities of CP, and public spending on CP. These people are branded vexatious, extremist, right wing or mentally unsound. Mrs Julia Middleton, the Chief Executive of Common Purpose, praises the work of German bankers. Deutsche Bank is, of course, a major power behind Common Purpose. Mrs Middleton, earning circa £80,000 p.a. from her charity, is also very happy to promote the term ‘Useful Idiots’ in her book ‘Beyond Authority’. Are we, the General Public the USEFUL IDIOTS, or are the Elite Common Purpose Graduates? You decide.
* Brain Gerrish has done great work in outing the methods of Common Purpose. However, it always pays to be careful about certain whistleblowers and Gerrish falls into this category for a number of reasons. He is staunchly conservative and is on a rather right wing and identified with his mission, as he sees it, to purge Britain of communism and Marxism. This is hardly an objective view rather a very simplistic one. He also has a military background hailing from the Navy no less, who have a particular tradition for military intelligence shills and PSYOPS. Gerrish may well be one of those sent out to counter elite factions. i.e. Pan-European Synarchy blowing the whistle on the Liberal arm of the 3EM. It does not mean common purpose is suddenly smelling of roses, only that Gerrish may have an agenda of his own which is not all that it seems. Anyone that excludes too much information in favour of a pushing a narrow belief needs to be watched closely. Always keep the bigger picture.
[1] http://www.cpexposed.com/
[2] http://www.exed.hbs.edu/programs/gmp/
[3] ‘Leaders with a Common Purpose’ By Ken Craggs, May 20th, 2011.
[4]‘Charity reported over data protection issues’ by Paul Jump Third Sector, January 20, 2009.
[5] op.cit Gerrish
[6]http://www.stopcp.com/
[7] http://commonpurpose.org/leadership/programmes/students/global-leader-experiences/london/
[8] ‘Niki Raapana talks to herself about communitarianism’ October 2010 | http://nikiraapana.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/niki-raapana-talks-to-herself-about.html
[9] The Corbett Report – Charity or Change Agent February 5 2013. | https://www.corbettreport.com/common-purpose-charity-or-change-agent/
Posted in Corporatism, Economics / Economic Collapse, Establishment / Elite, Psychology, Social Engineering, Technocracy and tagged charities, Collectivism, Common Purpose, Communism, Communitarianism, community, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), cultism, Cultural Marxism, Demos, Elite, Eurocrats, Europe, Fabianism, inverted totalitarianism, Media Standards Trust, NGOs, one world government, political correctness, Rockefellers, Rothschilds, scientific technique, think-tanks, World State on January 29, 2015 by M.K. Styllinski. 3 Comments
The Sex Establishment II: The Sandusky and Savile Show
Jerry Sandusky paedophile and pimp
In order to understand why it is that factions within our current social and political systems enjoy abusing children within an organised global network, we need to explore the various factors which have made this possible and easily it has been able to function in plain sight for so long. Much of this has to do with widespread denial stemming from a belief that such things are merely the stuff of conspiracy theorists and therefore no self-respecting, rational person would concern himself with such tabloid nonsense. This has proved to be a reoccurring mistake as one quickly understands with a bit of basic intellectual leg-work. But truth about this matters is unpleasant at best, and at worst, offers a glimpse into a veritable abyss of evil, happily piggy-backing our normalcy bias. And it is this confrontation with the shadow which easily sends us back into that habitual denial that pretends all is well, now that the authorities have caught those nasty men. Sadly, this is a standard formula which appears to work very well indeed since it never addresses the core perpetrators, only the minions and handlers who can afford to be thrown to the public coliseum of spectacle.
Perhaps the most scandalous cases at the time of writing in both the United States and Britain were that of American football coach Jerry Sandusky and the late British “philanthropis, television and radio personality Jimmy Savile, both apparent paragons of virtue and highly respected within their communities.
Each individual offers a clear and direct glimpse into the nature of organised child rape networks.
Sandusky was a successful assistant coach and sports author at Pennsylvania State University before being charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault, criminal intent to commit indecent assault, unlawful contact with minors, corruption of minors and endangering welfare of children in June, 2012. The coach was also the founder of Second Mile, a non-profit charity for underprivileged and at-risk youth and named as one of President George H.W. Bush’s “Points of Light.” [1] This organisation was rumoured to be the “perfect cover” for a network of child molestation where Sandusky is alleged to have been “pimping out boys to rich (Penn. State) Donors.”
According to Pittsburg radio personality Mark Madden who had been trying to blow the whistle on the coach for years: “Jerry Sandusky was told by those running the show at Penn State football that Sandusky had to retire after allegations made in 1998 that the defensive coordinator was guilty of ‘improper conduct with an underage male’ leading to his actual retirement in 1999. Madden further commented: “When Sandusky quit, everybody knew; not just at Penn State. It was a very poorly kept secret around college football, in general. That is why he never coached in college football again and retired at the relatively young age of 55, young for a coach.” [2]
Head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions and responsible for Jerry Sandusky, Joe Paterno was fired for his role in systematically covering up the scandal in 2011. Before he died of lung cancer in January 2012, Paterno asked prominent Washington criminal defence lawyer J. Sedgwick Sollers to represent him in the sex abuse case. Sollers once represented President George H.W. Bush in the Iran-Contra affair and was oiled in the art of defending the indefensible. [2] The same old pattern of denial and lost chances were apparent with the Sandusky case as with so many others, so why did it take ten years of common-knowledge abuse before one boy stepped forward? [4]
Another disturbing feature of this case and consistent with the cover-up of networks is the mysterious disappearance of Ray Gricar, the Centre County, Pa., District Attorney who went missing in April 2005. He chose not to prosecute Sandusky back in 1998, despite allegations of the abuse of children in the coach’s care. The circumstances of his disappearance are more than suspicious. Only Gricar’s abandoned car and a laptop recovered months later in a river without a hard drive, were ever found. According to a New York Times report from September 2011: “A small but strident minority believes Gricar did not want to tackle a case that involved a hometown icon. Others who knew and worked with Gricar say he was a meticulous, independent and tough-minded prosecutor who was unbowed by Penn State, its football program and political pressure in general.” [5] Disappearances of individuals connected to the possible exposure of abuse networks are extremely common as we will see over the course of this research.
Exactly the same protection and secrecy was afforded to another set of child molesters this time in the Boy Scouts of America. Despite a blacklist meant to protect boys from sexual predators, The Los Angeles Times reported that BSA internal documents called the “perversion files” revealed that:
“… more than 1,200 files dating from 1970 to 1991 found more than 125 cases across the country in which men allegedly continued to molest Scouts after the organization was first presented with detailed allegations of abusive behavior. Predators slipped back into the program by falsifying personal information or skirting the registration process. Others were able to jump from troop to troop around the country thanks to clerical errors, computer glitches or the Scouts’ failure to check the blacklist.
In at least 50 cases, the Scouts expelled suspected abusers, only to discover they had re-entered the organization and were accused of molesting again. In other cases, officials failed to document reports of abuse in the first place, letting offenders stay in the program until new allegations came to light.” [6]
The report showed that the only reason that confidential documents came to light in recent years was due to lawsuits by former Scouts, “accusing the group of failing to detect abuses, exclude known pedophiles or turn in offenders to authorities.” The Boy Scouts of America have continually fought in court to keep the records from public view for reasons of confidentiality, victim protection and to prevent anyone being falsely accused. However, rather like the Catholic Church, the refusal to release names of child molesters has more to do with protecting the Boy Scout image than the needs of victims.
Jimmy Savile – sexual psychopath
Over in the United Kingdom a similar story of incredulity on first hearing allegations that the once, much-loved DJ, TV personality Sir Jimmy Savile was in fact, “one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders.” A number of celebrities have since been arrested and a handful charged with sexual offences under Scotland Yard’s Operation Yew-Tree which believes that Savile was part of a network of abusers across the UK. (Judging on past performances and what we know about these “operations” let’s hope that the innocent public are far from the trawling net of the police and the organised nature of these rings which is focused at the Establishment level.)
Since then, the decision to drop a Savile investigation by the BBC’s flagship current affairs program Newsnight right before allegations broke came under fire for incompetence and institutional apathy regarding the entertainer’s “darker side.” Yet, if this is so, then it seems corruption and a culture of silence also dominated the BBC and related institutions. This is as much a problem as the presence of individual and collective paedophiles and child molesters. A cover-up can be a process of fear and self-censoring, laziness and work load. It was just too much hassle to rock the Savile gravy train.
Yet, Savile was merely yet another psychopathic node in widespread child rape ring which is endemic in politics since it is a primary tool of manipulation through blackmail. The abuse, rape and murder of children at the hands of the Establishment has been going on for years as the video: Savile and the 9th Circle.
Questions remain as to why so many so-called journalists and programme-makers seemingly had no knowledge of Savile’s abuse. Another answer is the naivety of how sexual predators work their magic and rely on our projection of conscience onto their behaviour so that they can continue to operate in plain sight. We all censor what we would rather not wish to believe and that is the greatest protection for any predator. The three monkey maxim of: “Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil” is the unspoken rule within the institution it seems, as scores of other employees have been placed under the spotlight for potential sexual abuse allegations, the investigations of which are still on going at the time of writing. How fitting that the BBC – our so called media outlet that is meant to inform the public – actually serves as a potent symbol of wilful blindness in the external world and within its own backyard thus propagating the same.
Expect lots of celebrities to be charged with predatory sexual behaviour against young women, which though repellent, is a very far cry from the kind of Establishment-linked depravity that Savile was up to. There lies the cover and in concert with the discourse of denial and the three monkeys, proves extremely effective.
Journalist Jenny McCartney commenting on the Savile case offers this commentary of just how programmed we have become in defending the indefensible based on our own inculcated paralogical discourse:
Adults who speak out to name paedophiles in “respectable” circles can be made to feel as if they have transgressed some understood code of silence. In 2008 a shocked Pat Cleary went public about the paedophilia of her former husband, Roger Took, a respected art historian and travel writer, after it emerged that he had molested her granddaughters, participated in online discussions about the torture, rape and murder of young children abroad, and possessed 102 “Level 5” photographs involving children, the most cruel and depraved kind. Some of Took’s friends and colleagues attacked her for speaking out: they could not put the image of the highly cultivated man they knew together with such horrific crimes. After his conviction, one of his female friends wrote reprovingly to Cleary: “We have no right to judge and to destroy a person’s life when he wants to live a different life.” Took killed himself in July last year while on probation. [7]
It is true that there are those characteropaths and psychopaths who can cause the most enormous damage to the fabric of society with exponential effects across generations. The point of including some of these examples from around the world was to show they all have one thing in common: the art of deception as a finely honed but instinctual process emerging in daily life from all social classes but with a frequent occurrence from those who are considered “pillars of the community” where trust is willingly given.
Sandusky, Savile, and the legion of other individuals are merely reflecting the much deeper, systematic and organised networks which nestle so easily in the channels of our societies. Until we truly see the source of these aberrations as symptoms of a much deeper cancer in the very authoritarian institutions which overshadow us, it will not only continue but fully prosper – it has no reason not to. When we begin to see that many of those with psychopathological tendencies insinuate themselves into even minor positions of power and where no limitations and restrictions set down by conscience exist then we can begin to see how easy it is for them to dupe us.
The number of descent people attempting to do their jobs with honesty and integrity, to fight against the tide of an essentially anti-human set of societal constructs is by far the greater everyday interaction. For such predation to be effective the very constructs of “normalised” society must make them vulnerable. The ripple effect of these psychological grenades continues and shapes our destinies in subtle ways. Confusion and misrepresentation of the problem is acute.
Child advocate Andrew Vachss describes it in this way:
The standard movie-of-the-week model is a young child from a loving, caring home on her way to school, and she’s abducted by strangers and ends up somebody’s sex slave in a whole ring. In reality, a vast majority of sexually exploited youth in America, when they are sexually exploited by strangers, were put in a position where that exploitation could take place with virtual immunity because of home conditions.
You cannot compare the guy in a ski mask who jumps out of the back of a van and grabs a kid on the way to school to the predatory pimp who ‘befriends’ a kid who has run away from home because of incest.
Grabbing street kids, grabbing runaway kids, grabbing disaffected kids, grabbing kids who have been thrown away more than run away—it’s not uncommon at all.[8] [Emphasis mine]
We’ll take a deeper look at the social engineering of our relationship to sex and sexuality in contemporary society and which allowed the Establishment psychopath to prey on the public with even greater impunity.
[1] Founded in 1990, The Points of Light Foundation offers a variety of programs, products, and services to help support volunteer-based organizations and connect volunteers to volunteer opportunities. The name came from came from the “thousand points of light” theme used frequently by U.S. President George H. W. Bush during a State of the Union address.
[2] ‘Penn State Scandal: Rumor Claims Sandusky “Pimped Out” Boys to Rich Donors’ By Zac Wassink, Yahoo! Contributor Network Thursday, Nov 10, 2011.
[3] ‘Paterno contacts criminal defense lawyer, source tells NBC News’ Open Channel /NBC News, October 11 2011.
[4] ‘A Patriot-News Special Report: Who knew what about Jerry Sandusky’? There were many missed chances to investigate as early as 1995. PennLive.com, November 11, 2011.
[5] ‘Questions on Sandusky Are Wrapped in a 2005 Mystery’ By Ken Belson, The New York Times, November 8, 2011.
[6] ‘Boy Scout files reveal repeat child abuse by sexual predators’ By Jason Felch and Kim Christensen, Los Angeles Times, August 5, 2012.
[7] ‘Jimmy Savile: People suspected. Nobody talked. Why?’ Jenny McCartney, The Telegraph, November 5 2012.
[8] op. cit. Vachss.
Posted in Psychology and tagged BBC, Elite, Establishment, George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Savile, media, networks, paedophile, paedophilia, Pennsylvania State University, philanthropy, psychopath, Ray Gricar, sexual abuse allegations, sexual psychopath on February 13, 2014 by M.K. Styllinski. Leave a comment
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Managing migration
Tongzhou (The Economist) – Yuan Quan has beaten the odds as a young woman from a small mountainous city in Hubei, a province in central China. She earned one of the few spots available to non-local students at a prestigious university in Beijing and has been living in the capital for 14 years, working as a television director. But the pension she will one day receive is tied to the lower costs of living in her home town, so she stands to get much less than Beijing-born colleagues. She cannot get the same cheap healthcare. If she has a child, she would have to pay far more than locals for education.
The discrimination routinely endured by less-skilled internal migrants is the subject of much debate in China. But the disadvantages suffered by those like Ms Yuan, who are well educated, are given less attention. Recent changes in the system of household registration, known as hukou, aim to remedy the plight of the highly skilled. But only a lucky few will benefit.
Everyone in China has a hukou document which registers where they were born and which gives them rights to education and health services in that location at subsidised prices. The government has long used this system to control migration flows, especially of labourers from villages looking for work in cities. Because cheap health and education in cities are only provided to people with local hukou, the system acts as a brake on migration. Young workers eager for relatively well-paid city jobs are undeterred, but they usually leave children and older relatives behind. The government is happy with this: it fears the creation of potentially restive slums.
Local authorities do worry a bit, however, about the impact this has on people like Ms Yuan. They are seen as vital contributors to the more innovative, services-driven economy the country wants to create. But the system is causing big problems for such people. Zhang Wenxia, from the central province of Hunan, works at a logistics company in Beijing. She says she is thinking of moving back to her home town because that would boost her child’s chances of getting into a good university (the entrance exam must be taken in the province of one’s hukou). Gu Zi, from Jiangxi province in the south, wants to continue running her recording studio in the capital. But she says she may send her daughter abroad to finish schooling because of the complexities of hukou requirements for university admission. To make it easier for white-collar workers to move around the country without worrying about extra welfare costs, the government earlier this year allowed 62 cities and districts to set new rules including, in many, a points system which scores applicants by such criteria as education, wages and taxes paid. Points can also be given for good citizenship, such as donating blood. Those who score above a certain level (which varies by city) can be given local hukou.
Ms Yuan may one day be lucky: her neighbourhood, Tongzhou district in Beijing, is being allowed to try a points system. That is rare. Giant cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai and the southern city of Guangzhou, have been told by the national government not to allow much reform because they are big enough already and it wants smaller cities to grow faster. Hukou is still seen as useful for regulating the pace.
In Guangzhou applicants for hukou under the points system must have been making social-security contributions in the city for at least four years, have no criminal record and have complied with the country’s family-planning rules, which allow most couples to have only one or sometimes two children. Only 60 points are needed, which means those with degrees should be a shoo-in (see chart). But since 2011 Guangzhou, with 9m migrants, has limited the offer to 3,000 people a year.
This may not bode well for migrants in Tongzhou, who make up about half of the district’s 1.3m residents. They, and others like them in the capital, are often jokingly known as beipiao, or “northern drifters”, because their lack of local hukou means they are commonly regarded as only semi-settled in Beijing, the “northern capital”. If Tongzhou is as strict as Guangzhou, as is likely, only a few hundred a year will benefit from the reform.
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You are here: Home / India / Business Presence Issues
a. How the Use of One or More Independent Contractors and Individuals Creates a Permanent Establishment in Country and the Ramifications
A permanent establishment in India is a fixed place of business, wholly or partly carried out by a foreign enterprise operating in India. A permanent establishment is said to have been established in India if a foreign company carries on business in India through a branch, sales office etc., or through an agent (other than an independent agent) who habitually exercises an authority to conclude contracts, or regularly delivers goods or merchandise, or habitually secures orders in India, on behalf of the non-resident principal.
Further, the Supreme Court of India has laid down certain tests to determine whether a permanent establishment is created, all of which must be satisfied in order for a foreign entity to have a tax exposure in India. These are:
that the local entity must carry on its business from a fixed place in India (Fixed Place Test), however, activities of a preparatory or auxiliary character or provision of support services from such fixed place
would not result in the creation of a “permanent establishment”;
that the local entity should be an “agent” of the foreign entity, having powers to enter into contracts which would bind the foreign entity (Agency Test); and
that the employees of the local entity provide services to and are under the direct supervision and control
of the foreign entity through a fixed place of business in India (Services Test).
The Supreme Court in 2007 dealt with an issue on the nature of services performed by employees of a multinational enterprise rendering services in their overseas group companies and whether their services can constitute a Permanent Establishment (the “PE”). The Court held that when the nature of services is such that the parent company has control over the employees rendering services in the group companies with respect to payrolls and other terms of employment, such services will constitute a PE. Further, if the employees are only rendering specific services in the overseas group company following which they are repatriated to the parent company they are not employees of the overseas group company. Even if the group company exercises control over the activities of the employees, they still continue to be employees of the parent entity and thus a service PE will be established. Where the employees are monitoring the activities of the group company to ensure compliance with requirements of the parent company and there is no involvement in the day-to-day management in any specific services to be undertaken, such activities will not constitute a PE.8
Though, this is the general position on PE, the position may significantly differ based on the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (the “DTAA”) entered into between India and the foreign country. For instance, in the Indo-United States of America DTAA, there is a specific exception with reference to instances where technical or consultancy services provided are ancillary and subsidiary to the primary services for which royalties are received by a company; or making available technical knowledge, experience, skill, know-how, or processes, or consist of the development and transfer of a technical plan or technical design.
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Death threats, despair and deportations: Three years on the front lines of Europe’s migration crisis
Posted 11:11 am, June 20, 2018, by CNN Wires
Refugee children in Athens call for safe routes out of Greece during a demonstration in June 2017.
(CNN) – On World Refugee Day, 25.4 million people find themselves forcibly displaced and living in another country, more than double the population of Belgium.
Countries around the world, not least the United States, are grappling with what is becoming the norm: an increasing number of people fleeing their homes because of conflict, persecution, poverty or climate change.
In Europe, almost three years on from what became known as the refugee crisis, tens of thousands are stranded in camps, living hand to mouth on the streets of cities or under the constant threat of deportation.
In many cases volunteers have stepped in to fill the gaps left by states. CNN spoke to seven people across Europe, some of whom have given up partners, children and a stable life to support refugees, and to some of those they’ve helped.
The interviews have been edited for length and clarity.
‘We were getting endless death threats’
Philippa Kempson has lived on the Greek island of Lesbos with her husband, Eric, and daughter Elleni since 2000. In early 2015, they began helping migrants and refugees arriving on the island’s shores — and haven’t stopped since.
It was impossible not to be involved. When you’re driving your child to school and you see children on the beach, you have to stop. There’s always been refugees on the island, but first we thought, maybe we’re not allowed to help, but when it started to become women and children, you couldn’t go past them, you couldn’t not stop. We were on our own doing this for months
We were having deaths nearly every day; there were people who had drowned and washed up on the beach, people with hypothermia. On October 28, 2015, we lost a boat with over 300 people on it. Only 242 were recovered alive. That morning we’d already lost two children — they had come in with hypothermia and died on the shore.
Now we’re getting more children arriving on the boats. Young boys, 14 or 15, are being sent on their own from Turkey. The parents don’t want them to get caught up in conflict so they’re sending the kids on their own.
The hotspot camp of Moria is made up of children these days… The official capacity is 3,000, but there are close to 8,000 people in this camp.
The treatment of people is out-and-out deliberate to stop people from coming. Well, it’s not working out… People are dying daily. We’ve got children dying in Europe because we don’t want to help people fleeing war — it makes no sense to me.
We had to send my daughter away (to the UK) at the end of 2015 because we were getting endless threats, death threats, some from the local community, some from further afield… People are convinced that if we weren’t here to help, the refugees wouldn’t come.
My daughter was 17 by then and it was impossible to keep her safe. Sending her away is the hardest thing we’ve ever done. We came to Greece for a quiet life and to be able to be a family… Now we live with locked gates and cameras.
Sayed, 18, from Afghanistan, arrived in Lesbos 11 months ago and now helps out at a warehouse run by Kempson distributing clothes and hygiene products to other refugees. He’s waiting for news on his asylum claim.
When I came, I thought, maybe I can find my future. Now I don’t think so. I have Philippa but I have nothing else.
You cannot relax your mind for one night. I worry all the time. My mind is so bad; I think I need a doctor for my mind.
I want to leave here because it’s not good for me… Maybe some people are kind but they treat us all the same. I am not a killer, I am not bad, I don’t want anything from these people.
If I could leave, I wouldn’t stay here for one more minute.
‘It felt like I died inside’
Anders Boklund runs several refugee homes for unaccompanied minors in the city of Gothenburg, Sweden. He used to be a social worker before starting to manage refugee homes in 2010.
The initial years of the refugee crisis, 2014-15, gave me hope. We were going in the right direction. We were taking responsibility.
But now, the way politics has gone, I am becoming more cynical. We went from everyone saying that this was an important issue — the Swedish Prime Minister saying we all had to open our hearts — to now, where you can’t even say in politics that you are pro-migration because that means political suicide. Now it’s a competition of who can present the harshest immigration policies.
It’s sad. Nothing good will come out of this. It’s turning into a competition. Everyone was afraid of the right-wing populists. Now, their policies are the ones that Social Democrats and other parties are in favor of.
Most of the (child refugees) are getting negative decisions. Most of them cannot prove that they are under 18, so they are getting tried as adults.
When they are 18 they leave our care, and they are the responsibility of the migration board. But none of them want to live with the migration services, so they turn out homeless, with drug problems, social unrest between the groups; what you can expect really, given what they’ve endured. And that is used by the populists.
This downward spiral has to stop… If we continue like this — with no one wanting to take responsibility — it is going to be a tremendous tragedy.
Barat left Pakistan for Sweden in 2015 when he was 16. After waiting three years for a final decision on his asylum claim, he was deported to Afghanistan and now works as a fruit seller back in his home city of Quetta, Pakistan.
I was extremely happy and full of hope (when I came to Sweden). I hoped for a better future without war.
I believed that (the Swedish authorities) would help us after listening to my life story and all of my problems. They just wanted to show that they were nice. They wanted to show the world that they were the nicest, but they weren’t unfortunately.
The first rejection was the worst. It felt like I died inside; all my feelings, all my hope died. I started to cut myself. I became completely sick both physically and mentally.
(When I was deported to Afghanistan) It felt like I was going back to hell where I would be killed by terrorists.
I am scared still as I take huge risks just going to town and to work. I don’t know when I might be killed in an explosion or an attack… What plans can you have in a country where death waits for you everywhere?
‘People are losing heart’
Cecelia Bittner, comes from New York but has volunteered with Refugee Community Kitchen since early 2016, serving hot meals to migrants and refugees in Calais and Paris, France.
I came (to Calais) just for two weeks in February 2016… and I’m still here. I had fallen in love with a cheese farmer in West Wales and I was living there. Then my British visa lapsed and I was waiting for a new one.
(After two weeks in Calais) I called the Welsh farmer and I said, I’m not coming back.
The Calais “Jungle” was a unique place. (The camp was cleared by authorities in October 2016.) It’s like a festival in horrible conditions, but with the same sense of solidarity. My job was to go door to door around the tents and ask how many people needed food. People just kept inviting me in and feeding me tea. People just tried to give back whenever they could.
I saw grown men completely terrified, shuttled around, completely powerless with no idea what’s going to happen to them.
They’ve (the authorities) always had this idea that if they make it horrible enough, people will leave. But a lot of these people have been through infinitely worse conditions. They’ve watched tons of people die around them across the Sahara, across the ocean.
It’s wearing on people. We’ve had multiple suicide attempts at aid distribution points recently. People are losing heart.
People are dying all the time on the borders throughout Europe… Our response right now is telling and will be remembered. Trump and the French state, (President Emmanuel) Macron, they’re on the wrong side of history; people will look back on this the same way as they look back on World War II and they will be horrified.
READ MORE: Life after the Calais Jungle: One story’s happy ending
‘People in distress are political game’
Ruben Neugebauer is one of the founders of Sea-Watch, a search-and-rescue organization working in the Mediterranean since 2015.
I had good luck to be born in Germany, in one of the richest countries in the world… I was born in 1989, when the Berlin Wall was breaking away, and raised in a time when the border was open.
One particular moment struck me. It was in July 2015, we were on the rescue boat Sea-Watch 2, and there were more than 1,000 people in distress. One girl, a 16-year-old, died after being rescued. Not by drowning, she died of exhaustion… We tried to reanimate her and we failed.
After she died, we were on the deck, sitting there, some of us crying. We were flying the ship’s flag at half-mast, the only thing you can do in that moment.
When we started, there were people saying “we cannot let people die” and organizations like ours were praised for saving lives. Now, with populists on the rise in Europe, everything has changed. Right now, people in distress are political game for them in a way that it wouldn’t have been possible three years ago. They’re gambling with human life, and Europe doesn’t take responsibility.
READ MORE: A migrant ship’s fate symbolizes a divided Europe
‘A deep and solid bond’
Bernadette Koopmann has been mentoring the Mohammadi family since their arrival in the German town of Altena in 2015. Her role as mentor evolved into a bond of friendship — she was with them when their youngest daughter was born and cried with them on learning that their refugee status was rejected last year.
The experience has enriched my life. When I gave the language course, I caught myself thinking, I can’t do it, I’m too busy… but I always had and still feel a sense of joy when helping them. They left their war torn country and came here. I feel at peace when I offer my help to them.
One difficulty is to manage all our emotions… The administrative courts are overwhelmed in Germany with the complaints of asylum rejections — the rejection status of my family and the subsequent appeal has not changed since 2017. They are still waiting. That makes the family depressed and it is difficult for me as well. For them it is the battle of daily uncertainty: Are we going to be deported?
There are reports on television showing deportations… They ask: do we need to leave again? That makes me sad too. I have built a deep and solid bond with this family.
READ MORE: Through Germany’s open door: What life is really like for refugees
‘Our mission is to save lives in the mountains’
Simone Bobbio is a volunteer rescuer in the Italian Alps. Usually, he and the other volunteers rescue skiers or hikers, but since last September, more migrants have been attempting to cross through the mountains into France from Italy — and some don’t make it.
Our first migrant rescue mission took place on September 27, 2017, when a migrant was found along the paths towards France with a broken thigh bone.
Around 88% of the people we rescue every year are practicing leisure or sports activities. The rest are living or working in mountain areas. In the case of migrants we were faced with people risking their lives — one dead body was in fact found last April when the snow melted — while trying to escape towards France in search of better living conditions.
For us and for those we normally rescue, mountains are the environment we love, a passion that justifies the objective risks we encounter when we practice mountain activities. For the migrants they represent one of the dangerous barriers separating them from their life aspirations.
In a hostile environment like the mountains, conditions are difficult for everybody and life is fragile so everybody has the responsibility to help others because anyone could find himself in need.
No matter our political and social views, our mission is to save lives in the mountains.
READ MORE: Snow may hide dead migrants on Alps route
‘Go back to where you came from’
Nina Kaye wanted to start hosting refugees after her two adult sons moved out, leaving her and her husband, Timothy, alone. They couldn’t find an organization that did that, so in 2015 they set one up themselves called Refugees at Home in Epsom outside London, England.
Perhaps I wanted to help because my own mother was a refugee from Austria. She had to travel on her own to Stockholm when she was 13 — so I’m the product of a refugee.
We’ve always been aware of the plight of what’s going on with refugees… and we’ve always thought: there but for the grace of God go any of us. They’re people just like you and me.
We’ve encountered the hostile environment that (UK Prime Minister) Theresa May started — and has now admitted. And I think it is getting harder (for refugees). It’s like going into a brick wall with the Home Office — there’s just no response at all.
Habib, one person who stayed with us, had been put into accommodation that was beyond disgusting. He was told: if you don’t like what we’re offering you can go back to where you came from. It makes me so angry that people are treated this way.
We can’t make a difference to the whole crisis, but if we can help one person for one night, that’s better than nothing.
Trump issues vague threat to begin deporting ‘millions’ of undocumented immigrants next week
Pence: Border facility conditions are unacceptable
Dominican tourism minister calls spate of deaths ‘exaggerated’
Shocking image of drowned man, 2-year-old daughter underscores grim reality of migrant crisis
Trump delays ICE raids two weeks to see if Congress can ‘work out a solution’
ICE set to begin immigration raids in 10 cities on Sunday
Woman on honeymoon becomes 10th U.S. tourist to die after Dominican Republic vacation
Catholic priests group meets with Poplar Bluffs man fearing deportation
Vietnam veteran reunites with refugee family 40 years after sponsoring them
Beyond the 50 states: Exploring America’s empire
Sandy Hook parents score a win in growing fight against hoaxers
Delta allows passengers to Dominican Republic to cancel their flights
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KingReaxSanamLuang
15 OCTOBER 2016 - BANGKOK, THAILAND: Darkened and closed go-go bars on Soi Cowboy in Bangkok. Thailand's infamous nightlife has been cancelled out of respect for the late Bhumibol Adulyadej, the King of Thailand. King Bhumibol Adulyadej died Oct. 13, 2016. He was 88. His death comes after a period of failing health. With the king's death, the world's longest-reigning monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who ascended to the British throne in 1952. Bhumibol Adulyadej, was born in Cambridge, MA, on 5 December 1927. He was the ninth monarch of Thailand from the Chakri Dynasty and is known as Rama IX. He became King on June 9, 1946 and served as King of Thailand for 70 years, 126 days. He was, at the time of his death, the world's longest-serving head of state and the longest-reigning monarch in Thai history. PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ
KingReaxSanamLuang053.jpg
101516 Bangkok Bhumibol Adulyadej Funeral KingDeath Monarchy Mourning Reverance Sex Tourism Soi Cowboy Thailand Tourism
The Death of Bhumibol Adulyadej, the Late King of Thailand, Thailand (All)
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Trader Joe’s, Lower Greenville, and the new Dallas
E veryone I talked to yesterday — and I talked to a lot of people in the real estate and grocery businesses — had the same reaction to the news that Trader Joe’s would open its first Dallas store on Lower Greenville. Shock. Surprise. Incredulity, even.
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that reaction was our problem. We were surprised because we expected something else to happen because we’re used to something else happening. Big-time, desirable national retailers don’t open in our neighborhood. They open in the Park Cities or Preston Hollow or Far North Dallas. But not here. We have crime. We have people who don’t look like TV commercials. We aren’t demographically perfect.
But that’s not true any more. John Hetzel of Madison Partners, the developer bringing in Trader Joe’s, said he couldn’t speak for the retailer about why they picked that site. But, he said, “when we pitched them on the property, we told them it had the type of clientèle they were going for. These are the same people who love and support the Whole Foods in Lakewood. My guess? What retailer wouldn’t want to be between Lakewood and the M Streets?”
In other words, we’re not in East Dallas anymore. Not the East Dallas, anyway, that those of us of a certain age know, the East Dallas that we have defended over the past 20 years from those who said it was irrelevant and obsolete — the media, the downtown elite, City Hall, and the real estate wise guys. We’re in the new East Dallas, the post-modern, urban, with-it place to be. And it feels kind of good.
After the jump, how this happened, what it means, and the winners and losers in Trader Joe’s arrival:
Is Trader Joe’s decision to open its first Dallas store on Lower Greenville really that big a deal? After all, it’s only a grocery store with cheap wine. The answer is yes. Retailers don’t get much better than Trader Joe’s, which has a cult-like following among both consumers and retail analysts. They’re the kind of company that cities woo and shoppers start Facebook campaigns to attract. Consider just one fact: One of the selling points for the wets in last year’s wet-dry referendum was that the city couldn’t get top retailers like Trader Joe’s and Costco as long as its most desirable neighborhoods, like Far North Dallas, were dry.
But Trader Joe’s isn’t opening in Far North Dallas, is it?
This decision says, with an emphasis that can’t be emphasized enough, that our neighborhood is no longer the city’s funky step-child. We’re as desirable as anywhere else — and, in this case, a little more desirable. Trader Joe’s could have opened anywhere, and they chose us. That’s going to take some getting used to.
Darrell Hernandez, an executive vice president with United Commercial Realty who has worked on a variety of Dallas and suburban developments, predicted this would happen when the news broke this summer that Mi Cocina was replacing Matt’s in the Lakewood Shopping Center. He said Mi Cocina would be the first of many big names moving into the neighborhood, as retailers and restaurants that weren’t dollar stores realized we had the demographics and the numbers they were looking for. I didn’t believe him. I guess I was wrong.
Now, answering 10 questions about the deal:
1. Why did Trader Joe’s decide on a new store instead of going into the old Whole Foods up the street? Because they wanted to. And, yes, it’s that simple, said one commercial real estate type. Forget any conspiracy theories about the Whole Foods site and owner Mitch Rasansky; Trader Joe’s is infamous for doing exactly what it wants to do and not explaining its motives. It liked the Arcadia Theater site and wanted a new building, so it will move there.
2. When we will know what the store looks like? Pretty much after it’s built. Trader Joe’s is so secretive that Hetzel said he couldn’t discuss any design plans — or even how long the deal took to develop. Madison will build the store for the retailer, and the retailer will lease the building.
3. Will there be enough parking? More than enough, says Hetzel. City code calls for 75 spaces for a 15,000-square-foot building, and Hetzel said there will be two overflow lots on Sears and Bell behind the store. Which, from the way he described the parking, makes it seem like the store will front on Greenville Avenue. The other thing to note about parking? That Trader Joe’s will attract customers throughout the day, spreading out the impact of the extra traffic. That’s the opposite of the bars, which crowd their business into three or four hours at night.
4. Will the food truck park, part of the pre-Trader Joe’s plan for the location, remain? Hetzel said yes, that Madison Partners is committed to the park and will work it into the new site plan.
5. What happens if Trader Joe’s eventually wants to expand? The company has, in other locations, opened bigger stores, and 15,000 square feet is even smaller than the old Whole Foods, which was a small store. City councilwoman Angela Hunt, whose district includes Lower Greenville, said zoning would probably not be a problem if Trader Joe’s wanted to go bigger, and Hetzel said parking would not be a problem, either.
6. What does this mean for the Whole Foods site? No one is quite sure. Walmart was tipped as the new tenant, but that deal was delayed — and may have fallen through. If, in fact, Walmart is the new tenant, the world’s biggest and most powerful retailer almost certainly won’t be scared off by Trader Joe’s and something could still happen. If the new tenant is someone else, they could well be re-considering their options, and the store will remain empty for a while.
7. Is this the beginning of the end of the old bar-happy, drunken college student Lower Greenville? Hunt thinks so, and she could be right. Modern urban development theory, as Hernandez noted, says that once you have a quality anchor, other quality tenants will follow. If it worked in Times Square, why won’t it work here?
8. Who are the losers in this deal? Because, yes, there are losers. The biggest is the Lakewood Whole Foods, which will have real competition for the first time in the 20-plus years it has been in the neighborhood. I would imagine there was much consternation in the various Whole Foods offices when this was announced. The two retailers go head to head in a variety of areas, including the very lucrative categories of vitamins and health care products. The other loser could be Sunflower, the natural grocer on Henderson, which has never really seemed to develop a following.
9. Who are the winners? Hunt, for one. She now has a pro-business credit on her agenda, should she decide to run for mayor in three years. And, if I may be completely partisan, it’s a credit that the men who run the city and are supposed to be so pro-business have not been able to accomplish. The Lower Greenville neighborhoods are winners too, because they get a quality tenant that closes before bedtime, something they have lusted after for 20 years. The other winner? How about Oak Cliff, which has followed the East Dallas formula for redevelopment and could reap the same benefits?
10. And what about that cheap wine? It’s Two-buck Chuck, the nickname for the Charles Shaw wines sold only at Trader Joe’s. They’re called Two-buck Chuck because the wines cost $1.99 in Trader Joe’s California stores, even though the price varies depending on where in the country the wine is sold. Here, it will probably be $2.99. In this, it almost doesn’t matter if Two-buck Chuck is any good (quality varies considerably). What matters is that Trader Joe’s presence, combined with the arrival of the Houston-based Spec’s liquor store chain and the rumored arrival of Total Wine and More, a major national chain, will start a wine price war that will be bloody for retailers and wonderful for consumers. How bloody? The wine people I talked to expect at least one local chain to go away, and maybe two. How wonderful? Those of us who like quality $10 wine will be very excited.
By Jeff Siegel|2011-12-30T07:43:52-05:00December 30th, 2011|Business, Business & Development, News|22 Comments
About the Author: Jeff Siegel
JEFF SIEGEL writes a monthly opinion column about neighborhood issues. He also blogs about wine. Email him at jsiegel@advocatemag.com or follow twitter.com/wine_curmudgeon.
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Justia › US Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › Courts of Appeals › Eighth Circuit › 1969 › National Compressor Corporation, Appellee, v. Chester P. Carrow, Harold D. Mcgee, Rayburn Roy Willia...
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National Compressor Corporation, Appellee, v. Chester P. Carrow, Harold D. Mcgee, Rayburn Roy Williams, Frank Spradling, John Hemphill, Jr., and Missouri-pacific Railroad Company, Appellant.national Compressor Corporation, Appellee, v. Chester P. Carrow, Harold D. Mcgee, Appellants,rayburn Roy Williams, Frank Spradling, Appellant,john Hemphill, Jr., and Missouri-pacific Railroad Company, 417 F.2d 97 (8th Cir. 1969)
US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit - 417 F.2d 97 (8th Cir. 1969)
Charles P. Lippert, St. Louis, Mo., for Missouri Pac. R. Co., James A. Hesse, St. Louis, Mo., on the brief.
Morton K. Lange, St. Louis, Mo., for Chester P. Carrow, Harold D. McGee and Frank Spradling, Leo C. DeVoto, Jr., St. Louis, Mo., and E. L. McClintock, Jr., Flat River, Mo., on the brief.
John L. Davidson, Jr., of Greenfield, Davidson & Mandelstamm, St. Louis, Mo., for appellee, Jerome R. Mandelstamm, St. Louis, Mo., on the brief.
Before VAN OOSTERHOUT, Chief Judge, and LAY and HEANEY, Circuit Judges.
VAN OOSTERHOUT, Chief Judge.
In this case National Compressor Corporation, on the basis of tort liability, obtained a judgment upon a jury verdict against the defendants Williams, Carrow, McGee, Spradling and Missouri Pacific Railroad Company1 for $12,000 for the negligent destruction by fire of a compressor in which plaintiff asserted ownership. Jurisdiction, based upon diversity of citizenship, is established. Defendant Williams has not appealed. The remaining defendants above-named have taken this timely appeal from the judgment and from the denial of their motions for judgment n. o. v. and for a new trial. The defendants, other than Williams, will be referred to herein as appellants.
The Missouri Pacific Railroad by a written instrument dated April 21, 1966, entitled "Bill of Sale" in consideration of $1.00 and services to be performed did sell, transfer and deliver to the buyer, Carrow and McGee, "all of the Seller's rights, title and interest in and to the following goods and chattels" located on the seller's premises at DeSoto, Missouri. Five buildings are then described. The second paragraph of the bill of sale provides:
"Upon completion of the removal of the aforesaid property from Seller's premises, Seller hereby agrees that the following described property shall thereafter be the property of the Buyer hereunder, provided Buyer removes same from Seller's premises within the time hereinafter set forth:"
A number of items are then described including the compressor involved in this litigation.
The third paragraph reads:
"The Buyer shall, and by accepting this Bill of Sale agrees to (1) come upon Seller's premises only when and where authorized by Seller, and take all precautions to assure safety and compliance with Seller's rules and requirements while on or about Seller's premises, and (2) at Buyer's sole cost, risk and responsibility, as promptly as possible, and in no event more than 90 days following the date hereof, time being of the essence thereof,
"(a) remove all said goods and chattels, and appurtenances, and
(b) remove all debris from and leave Seller's premises in a clean and neat condition to the satisfaction of Seller;
and if Buyer shall fail to do so, Seller may resell same free of any claim of Buyer and accomplish such removal and cleanup for account of Buyer."
In the final paragraph, the Buyer agrees to assume and discharge and indemnify and save harmless the Seller from all liability for "loss or destruction of or damage to property whatsoever to whomsoever belonging, in any manner growing out of or connected with the dismantling and/or removal of the aforesaid goods and chattels, * * *" regardless of whether such damage be caused or contributed to by the negligence of the Seller.
On April 22, 1966, Carrow and McGee in writing sold the compressor to Samuel M. Davis, to be removed at purchaser's expense within 90 days, for $6,500 which sum was paid. Davis on April 25, 1966, sold the compressor to plaintiff for $12,000 which sum was paid. On May 3, 1966, Earl E. Knox Company submitted a purchase order to plaintiff for the compressor "price as inspected good condition $27,500." No money was paid. After the fire, Knox notified plaintiff it was cancelling the order as the compressor was not in good condition. Plaintiff accepted the cancellation.
Before the demolition work was commenced, Carrow and McGee entered into a written contract with Spradling and Hemphill under which the latter for a valuable consideration agreed to do the demolition work and to indemnify the railroad and Carrow and McGee against all damages claims arising out of the demolition and removal operation.
Labor difficulties developed which brought about a delay in the demolition work. The railroad became concerned about such delay and the likelihood that the demolition and removal work would not be completed within the agreed ninety-day period. Howard Davis, who was in charge of the project for the railroad, suggested to Carrow, McGee and Spradling that the defendant Williams might be interested in completing the demolition work and arranged for them to meet with Williams. Williams agreed to do the work for $1,000. The contract was oral. Williams testified, "I wouldn't be responsible for anything that happened." This statement is not contradicted by any evidence. After the fire, Williams was paid the agreed $1,000 by Spradling with money provided by McGee.
Williams with his employees and equipment proceeded with the performance of his agreement to do the demolition and removal work. A pile of timbers and debris one hundred and fifty feet by one hundred feet, reaching a height of thirty-five feet, was assembled. Williams set fire to the debris pile about 2 p. m. on July 12, 1966. The DeSoto fire department, under arrangements made by Williams, was at the scene with two fire trucks and six or eight men who put at least four hoses in use to control the fire. Superintendent Davis was present with enough railroad employees to man seven water hoses. McGee had been notified of the contemplated fire by Williams or Davis, or both, about a week before the fire and he told them to protect the machinery. He said, "If you can burn without hurting them, go ahead."
About 4 p. m. the fire appeared to be pretty well burned out and under control and all of the workers because of the heat went to the main building. Shortly thereafter a fire was discovered in the building containing the compressor. Attempts to extinguish the fire were unsuccessful. The compressor was damaged to the extent that its removal cost would exceed its salvage value.
There is evidence that Superintendent Davis came on the job site frequently and that he talked to Williams two or three times a day, giving him orders and directions.
Appellants as a basis for reversal assert the court committed prejudicial error in the following respects:
1. The rejection of appellants' contentions made in motions for directed verdict at the close of all the evidence and in motions for judgments n. o. v.
(a) That the record conclusively shows that plaintiff did not have title to the compressor at the time of the fire.
(b) That there is no evidence of negligence proximately causing the damage to the compressor on the part of any appellant and that defendant Williams was an independent contractor for whose negligence the appellants were not responsible.
2. In failing to hold that plaintiff had agreed to hold defendant Williams harmless and that plaintiff is thereby estopped from seeking recovery from the appellants as alleged principals of Williams.
We reject appellants' contention that plaintiff did not have title or sufficient interest in the compressor to give it standing to bring this action. This issue turns upon the interest acquired by Carrow and McGee by the bill of sale from the Missouri Pacific Railroad. It is undisputed that Carrow and McGee conveyed and delivered their full interest in the compressor to Davis for a valuable consideration and that Davis in turn transferred his full interest to the plaintiff for value received. By such transfers, plaintiff acquired all interest in the compressor, acquired by Carrow and McGee from the railroad.
The bill of sale before us in the present case comes within the scope of the Missouri Commercial Code and therefore the provisions of the Missouri Code govern. Section 400.2-102, V.A. M.S., provides, "Unless the context otherwise requires, this article applies to transactions in goods." Section 400.2-105, V.A.M.S., defines goods as "all things (including especially manufactured goods) which are movable at the time of identification to the contract for sale * * *." The compressor fits the foregoing statutory definitions.
Appellants urge that under common law and under the Missouri Commercial Code, § 400.2-401 V.A.M.S., the title passes to the buyer in any manner and on any conditions explicitly agreed upon by the parties, and that the parties by their contract evidenced by the bill of sale agreed the title to the compressor did not pass until the work which the buyer had agreed to do was completed and that such performance had not been met at the time of the fire.
We are satisfied that the contract does not explicitly provide for the time of passage of title. The contract is ambiguous in this respect and grave doubt exists whether upon a consideration of the contract as a whole, in the light of the surrounding circumstances and the practical interpretation placed thereon by the parties as evidenced by the removal of the buyers of much of the machinery prior to the fire and to the completion of the work, the parties intended to defer passage of title until the work had been fully performed. For the reasons hereinafter stated, we find it unnecessary to resolve the issue of when title passed. Section 400.2-722 provides:
"Who can sue third parties for injury to goods.
Where a third party so deals with goods which have been identified to a contract for sale as to cause actionable injury to a party to that contract
(a) a right of action against the third party is in either party to the contract for sale who has title to or a security interest or a special property or an insurable interest in the goods; and if the goods have been destroyed or converted a right of action is also in the party who either bore the risk of loss under the contract for sale or has since the injury assumed that risk as against the other; * * *."
Section 400.2-501 reads:
"Insurable interest in goods — manner of identification of goods
(1) The buyer obtains a special property and an insurable interest in goods by identification of existing goods as goods to which the contract refers even though the goods so identified are noncomforming and he has an option to return or reject them. Such identification can be made at any time and in any manner explicitly agreed to by the parties. In the absence of explicit agreement identification occurs
(a) when the contract is made if it is for the sale of goods already existing and identified; * *."
It is entirely clear that the compressor here involved as described in the bill of sale constitutes goods already existing and identified within the meaning of § 400.2-501 and hence as a minimum Carrow and McGee obtained a special property and insurable interest in the compressor by the bill of sale. Upon the basis of such special or insurable interest, plaintiff is a person authorized to bring suit for the injury of the compressor under § 400.2-722.
Appellants further contention that plaintiff had no interest in the compressor at the time of the fire because they had contracted to sell the compressor to Earl E. Knox Company lacks merit. The Knox purchase order was subject to "inspected good condition." Neither the inspection nor payment was made before the fire. Knox cancelled after the fire. Plaintiff accepted the cancellation. Thus plaintiff had a right to sue under § 400.2-722(a) as a party who has "since the injury assumed the risk (risk of loss) against the other." Further, if the contract was not legally cancelled, it would have a right to sue by reason of having a security interest in the unpaid purchase price.
None of the parties to this appeal question the fact that Williams' action in setting the huge fire and his failure to take adequate precaution against its spread is actionable. Appellants predicate their assertion of non-liability upon their contention that Williams was an independent contractor and hence was not an agent of any of the appellants, and that consequently respondeat superior liability does not exist on the part of any of the appellants. Such defense was raised by motions for acquittal and renewed by motions for judgment n. o. v.
While as pointed out by the appellants the Missouri courts have in a few instances determined that an independent contractor relationship was established as a matter of law, the question of the nature of the relationship ordinarily is a factual question to be determined upon the peculiar facts of each case. Jokisch v. Life & Casualty Ins. Co., Mo.App., 424 S.W.2d 111, 113-115; Barkley v. Mitchell, Mo.App., 411 S.W.2d 817, 823; Price v. Seidler, Mo., 408 S.W.2d 815, 821; Gardner v. Simmons, Mo., 370 S.W.2d 359, 362.
In Price v. Seidler, supra, the Missouri Supreme Court states the controlling law as follows:
"The usual application of the doctrine arises where one is sued because of the acts of another, who may be an independent contractor or may simply be an agent or servant. The determination of the status of the controversial party is ordinarily a question of fact for the jury to determine. Gardner v. Simmons et al., Mo., 370 S.W.2d 359. One highly material factor, and probably the ultimate test in most cases, is the right of the employer to control the work of the employee, and particularly the details or physical conduct. * * *" 408 S.W.2d 815, 821.
In our present case, there is ample evidence to support a factual finding that the appellants retained a right to control the demolition work. The work obligations originally assumed by Carrow and McGee were later assumed by Spradling and Hemphill and ultimately by Williams. All except Williams by written contract agreed to indemnify the railroad against all damage claims arising out of their work. The contract, as shown by the provisions previously set out, permitted entry on the railroad premises only when and where authorized and required compliance with the railroad rules. Williams testified that Superintendent Davis discussed the work with him on the job site two or three times a day and gave him directions. It also appears that all appellants were given advance notice of the contemplated fire. It is apparent that all parties realized that the proposed extensive fire was dangerous. Williams procured the presence of two city fire engines and Superintendent Davis was present at the scene of the fire with seven fire hoses operated by railroad men. A jury could well infer that the railroad had reserved a right to control such a hazardous operation upon their premises and that Superintendent Davis was on the premises at the time of the fire for the purpose of supervising and controlling the operation. The record reflects that Williams was not financially responsible and that he had disclaimed responsibility for anything that happened. There is little to show that he had developed any expertise in handling a fire of this size. The jury could well infer that the appellants did not entrust such a dangerous operation exclusively to Williams without reserving a right of control.
No objection was made to the instructions submitting the issue of Williams' relationship to the appellants to the jury. The court committed no error in overruling the motions for directed verdict and for judgment n. o. v.2
Lastly, appellants assert that plaintiff has released Williams from liability and that since appellants' liability is predicated upon respondeat superior liability for Williams' acts, the release of Williams releases all appellants. We do not consider the release issue to be properly before us for review. Release is an affirmative defense. Rule 8(c), Fed. R. Civ. P., requires such defense to be pleaded. Luria Brothers & Co. v. United States, 177 Ct. Cl. 676, 369 F.2d 701-710; Seaboard Surety Co. v. Harbison, 7 Cir., 304 F.2d 247, 251.
The release defense was not pleaded nor was it made a ground of the motions for acquittal. The briefs and the appendix point to no request for an instruction upon the release issue, nor to any exception taken to the failure to instruct upon release. Thus the release issue cannot fairly be said to have been tried by consent.
Ordinarily issues not properly presented or raised in the trial court cannot be considered upon appeal. Ralston Purina Co. v. Parsons Feed & Farm Supply, 8 Cir., 364 F.2d 57, 59, 60; Ford v. Boeger, 8 Cir., 362 F.2d 999, 1006, 1007.
In any event, there is no substantial evidence to support a finding that plaintiff released Williams. Williams made the conclusory statement that his attorney told him that there was an agreement for release and later testified, "He said he had an agreement. That's all I know, sir." No release was produced or offered in evidence at the trial nor is there any proof as to the contents of the asserted release or the consideration, if any, therefor.
John Hemphill, Jr., was made a party defendant but the action against him was dismissed by plaintiff
We need not in view of this holding reach the additional issue raised by the plaintiff that the appellants were responsible for their own negligent action in setting and permitting the huge fire apart from any respondeat superior liability. The pleadings are broad enough to raise the issue of individual negligence on the part of the appellants and such issue is raised in plaintiff's brief
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Justia › US Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › Courts of Appeals › Sixth Circuit › 1986 › Squier Distributing Company, Petitioner, Cross-respondent, v. Local 7, International Brotherhood of...
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Squier Distributing Company, Petitioner, Cross-respondent, v. Local 7, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs,warehousemen and Helpers of America and Nationallabor Relations Board, Respondent,cross-petitioner, 801 F.2d 238 (6th Cir. 1986)
US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit - 801 F.2d 238 (6th Cir. 1986)
Argued July 29, 1986. Decided Sept. 15, 1986
William P. Marks, Dresser, Marks, Svendsen, Oster, & Bird, Sturgis, Mich., Craig W. Lange, Riley & Roumell, Detroit, Mich., George Roumell, Jr. (argued), for petitioner, cross-respondent.
Elliott Moore, Robert Bell (argued), Deputy Associate Gen. Counsel, N.L.R.B., Washington, D.C., Linda Dreeben, Sandra Elligers, Bernard Gottfried, Director N.L.R.B., Detroit, Mich., for respondent, cross-petitioner.
Before KEITH and MARTIN, Circuit Judges, and RUBIN,* Chief District Judge.
BOYCE F. MARTIN, Jr., Circuit Judge.
This case is before the Court on the Squier Distributing Company's petition to review and the National Labor Relations Board's cross-application to enforce an order of the Board issued against the company on September 30, 1985. 276 N.L.R.B. No. 133. For the reasons that follow, we conclude that the Board's order should be enforced.
Squier Distributing Company is a wholesale distributor of alcoholic beverages based in Sturgis, Michigan. From December, 1980, through April, 1982, the company had ten employees, including a bookkeeper/clerk, a managerial assistant, and eight drivers/salesmen. Larry El Henicky became the company's general manager on December 1, 1980, as part of an agreement whereby all of the company's stock was to be transferred to him after he completed the one-year residence requirement to be eligible under Michigan law to operate an alcoholic beverage distributorship. Michigan reissues alcoholic beverage distribution licenses once a year on May 1. In order to avoid the seventeen-month delay before the license reissue could be effected and because his brother, Robert El Henicky, was a Michigan resident, Larry El Henicky transferred the stock into his brother's name. As part of this arrangement, Robert became company president on June 1, 1981, with responsibility for managing the office and maintaining good relations with its customers. Larry assumed the position of vice-president in charge of overall operations.
Seven months later, the arrangement ended abruptly because of a disagreement between the two brothers concerning Robert's supposed promise to invest in the company. Robert was relieved of his duties on December 31, 1981, but retained his title as president with the power to approve or veto major capital investments until May 1, 1982, when the license could be issued to Larry. At a meeting in January, 1982, Larry explained to the employees that Robert was no longer involved in the day-to-day operations of the company. He also emphasized at that meeting and others that the company was in poor shape financially, and expenses should be kept to a minimum.
Squier's bookkeeper, Sharon Roberts, began working for the company in 1977. In early January 1982 Larry told her to stop making journal entries for amounts due to the company from sales of crushed glass to the Owens-Illinois Glass Company. Instead, contrary to past procedure, Larry told her to give him cash for the checks, which he put into his pocket. On one occasion, when Roberts asked Larry why he was doing this, Larry remarked that it was the "boss' skim."
On January 27, Sharon Roberts called Robert El Henicky to express her concern about this change in procedure. Robert suggested that she set up a meeting of all the employees of Squier in her home. At this meeting, held on February 21, Sharon Roberts told the employees about Larry's actions. On that occasion Robert El Henicky expressed his fear that, as president of the company, he might be held responsible for Larry's actions. The other employees discussed their fear for their jobs if the company failed financially or if Larry lost the Michigan liquor license. The employees also discussed how best to protect their jobs, and considered petitioning to join a union.
As a result of this meeting and because of the brewing dispute between the brothers, Sharon Roberts gave an affidavit to the local sheriff on March 11 telling him the names of the other employees who had been required to cash checks for Larry El Henicky. By that time, the cashed checks amounted to almost $10,000. Robert El Henicky also gave an affidavit stating that to his knowledge, funds were being diverted from the company. After a second employees' meeting held on March 14, three other employees whom Larry had requested to cash checks gave statements to the sheriff regarding their experiences. The employees again expressed concern about the fate of the company, and of their jobs.
Without further investigation, on April 5, Larry El Henicky was arrested by the sheriff's deputies at the company's office on charges of embezzlement. He was released later that day and was directed to appear for a pretrial hearing on April 13. Following this appearance all charges against Larry El Henicky were dropped. Without further ado, three of the four employees who gave statements to the sheriff, Michael Fisher, Bernard Kuhl, and Lonnie Rowe, were discharged by Larry on Friday, April 16. Sharon Roberts was discharged when she returned to the office after a two-week vacation on Monday, April 19. No reasons were given to any of the employees as to why they were discharged.
The National Labor Relations Board, affirming the administrative law judge, concluded on these facts that the company had violated section 8(a) (1) of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 158(a) (1), by discharging these employees for participating in concerted activity for the purpose of mutual aid and protection. The Board issued a cease and desist order, and required the company to offer the four employes reinstatement and backpay.
Section 8(a) (1) of the Act provides that an employer is guilty of an unfair labor practice if he "interferes with, restrains, or coerces employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed in Section 7." Section 7 guarantees to employees the right to engage in "concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection." The protection provided by section 7 includes "protect [ion] ... from retaliation by their employers when they seek to improve working conditions through resort to administrative and judicial forums." Eastex, Inc. v. NLRB, 437 U.S. 556, 566, 98 S. Ct. 2505, 2512, 57 L. Ed. 2d 428 (1978).
The Eastex Court went on to state:
It is true, of course, that some concerted activity bears a less immediate relationship to employees' interest as employees than other such activity. We may assume at some point the relationship becomes so attenuated that an activity cannot fairly be deemed to come within the "mutual aid or protection" clause.
Id. at 567, 98 S. Ct. at 2513.
The question here, therefore, is whether the employees' actions in this case were sufficiently related to their "interest as employees" to come within the mutual aid or protection clause of section 7. The Board's decision that the employees' actions were protected is entitled to great weight so long as its factual findings are supported by substantial evidence found in the record as a whole and the Board's legal conclusions do not represent "an unreasonable or unprincipled construction of the statute." Ford Motor Co. v. NLRB, 441 U.S. 488, 497, 99 S. Ct. 1842, 1849, 60 L. Ed. 2d 420 (1978). Accord Bonanno Linen Service, Inc. v. NLRB, 454 U.S. 404, 413, 102 S. Ct. 720, 725, 70 L. Ed. 2d 656 (1982). Where there is substantial evidence in the record to support the Board's factual determinations, we "may not 'displace the Board's choice between two fairly conflicting views, even though the court would justifiably have made a different choice had the matter been before it de novo.' " NLRB v. Walton Mfg. Co., 369 U.S. 404, 405, 82 S. Ct. 853, 854, 7 L. Ed. 2d 829 (1962), quoting Universal Camera Corp. v. NLRB, 340 U.S. 474, 488, 71 S. Ct. 456, 465, 95 L. Ed. 456 (1951).
An example of one recognized area of protected activity under section 7 is employee complaints to government agencies. In Ambulance Services of New Bedford, 229 N.L.R.B. 106, 109, enf'd, 564 F.2d 88 (1st Cir. 1977), an employee who filed a criminal complaint against his employer for issuing dishonored paychecks was held to be engaged in protected activity. Similarly, employee complaints to the U.S. Coast Guard about the unsafe operation of a ship were held protected in Socony Oil Co. v. NLRB, 357 F.2d 662, 663 (2d Cir. 1966). See also Walls Mfg. Co. v. NLRB, 321 F.2d 753, 754 (D.C. Cir.), cert. denied, 375 U.S. 923, 84 S. Ct. 265, 11 L. Ed. 2d 166 (1963) (employee letter to state health department complaining about unsanitary restroom held protected).
The company cites to us several Board cases to support its contention that the employees' actions in this case were not sufficiently related to their jobs to fall within the "mutual aid or protection" clause. In Damon House, Inc., 270 N.L.R.B. 143, 145 (1984), drug and alcohol abuse counselors were discharged for attacking their employer's ethics and his policies' impact on patient care. The letter, sent by the employees to the board of directors, parents of patients, and various state and local officials, was primarily concerned with the effects on the patients; only one paragraph of the letter even mentioned job-related concerns. The employees in this case, in contrast, were concerned with retaining their jobs during what they believed to be a financial crisis in the company.
The employees' actions in Autumn Manor, Inc., 268 N.L.R.B. 239, 242-43 (1983), were also held to be unprotected because they were concerned only with the condition of the patients in their facility. While the situation in Good Samaritan Hospital & Health Center, 265 N.L.R.B. 618 (1982), was closer to the facts in this case, the employees in Good Samaritan accused their employer of mismanagement of public funds. In both these cases the concern exhibited by the employees was not for the retention of their jobs but for other laudable, but unprotected, goals.
The administrative law judge in this case credited the employees' testimony that they gave their statements to the sheriff out of fear of losing their jobs. The employees' overriding concern was clearly for their job security, and not for the efficacy of managerial decisions made by Larry El Henicky. At the same meetings which resulted in the statements given to the sheriff, the employees considered joining a union in order to protect their jobs. We believe that this documented motivation brings the employees' actions in this case within the ambit of the "mutual aid or protection" clause. Compare NLRB v. Sheraton Puerto Rico Corp., 651 F.2d 49 (1st Cir. 1981) (employees' attempt to have supervisor removed primarily managerial decision not protected by the Act).
We conclude that the Board's decision that the employees acted in good faith and out of concern for their job security is supported by substantial evidence. The company contends that we must also examine the means of protest employed in order to determine if the action taken in this particular case is protected under the Act. The only case addressing this contention in our Circuit, Hagopian & Sons, Inc. v. NLRB, 395 F.2d 947, 951-53 (6th Cir. 1968), stated in dicta that concerted activity was not protected by the Act if it was "unlawful," " violent," "insubordinate," or "indefensible." The Board did not mention the means of the protest in its opinion, apparently following the theory that if the employees have a right to engage in the activity, the means can take almost any form. See Abilities & Goodwill, Inc. v. NLRB, 612 F.2d 6, 9 (6th Cir. 1979).
We decline to adopt the per se rule impliedly supported by the Board. The question whether employees' protests should be protected by the Act involves the balancing of sensitive competing interests, and the employees' method of protest is relevant as one factor affecting this balance. See NLRB v. Local 1229, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (Jefferson Standard Broadcasting), 346 U.S. 464, 74 S. Ct. 172, 98 L. Ed. 195 (1953). In this case, however, the employees' decision to give statements to the sheriff was a reasonable means by which to protect their job security. The employees did not make the decision to arrest their supervisor, nor did they libel him. Instead, they merely registered the facts with the appropriate governmental body. Under these circumstances, the employees' chosen means of protest appears to us reasonable.
The evidence is essentially uncontradicted that the four employees were discharged as a direct result of their statements to the sheriff regarding Larry El Henicky's alleged embezzlement of company funds. Only the employees who gave statements were fired. At the hearing before the administrative law judge, Larry admitted that he had fired the employees for failing to come forward and explain their actions. We agree with the Board that this is tantamount to firing the employees for their participation in protected activity. NLRB v. Washington Aluminum Co., 370 U.S. 9, 14-17, 82 S. Ct. 1099, 1102--04, 8 L. Ed. 2d 298 (1962). Furthermore, because of this admission this case is not a "mixed motive" case requiring analysis under Wright Line, Inc., 251 N.L.R.B. 1083 (1980), enf'd on other grounds, 662 F.2d 899 (1st Cir. 1981), cert. denied, 455 U.S. 989, 102 S. Ct. 1612, 71 L. Ed. 2d 848 (1982).
We therefore conclude that the four employees in this case were discharged for engaging in activity protected under the Act, and affirm the Board's finding of an unfair labor practice.
The order of the Board shall be enforced.
The Honorable Carl B. Rubin, Chief United States District Judge for the Southern District of Ohio, sitting by designation
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Justia › US Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › Courts of Appeals › Ninth Circuit › 1990 › United States of America, Plaintiff-appellee, v. Ramon Ceja-hernandez, Defendant-appellant
United States of America, Plaintiff-appellee, v. Ramon Ceja-hernandez, Defendant-appellant, 895 F.2d 544 (9th Cir. 1990)
Submitted Jan. 8, 1990. *Decided Jan. 30, 1990
Michael W. Lynch, Yakima, Wash., for defendant-appellant.
Robert S. Linnell, Asst. U.S. Atty., Yakima, Wash., for plaintiff-appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington.
Before BROWNING, POOLE and BEEZER, Circuit Judges.
Ceja-Hernandez pled guilty to being an illegal alien in the United States after deportation. His presentence report gave him a total offense level of six and a criminal history rating of VI resulting in a sentencing range of twelve to eighteen months. The district court departed upward and sentenced Ceja-Hernandez to twenty-four months. Ceja-Hernandez appeals his sentence.
We review the legality of a criminal sentence de novo. United States v. Cervantes-Lucatero, 889 F.2d 916, 917 (9th Cir. 1989). The district court may depart from the guidelines range where there are circumstances not adequately considered by the Sentencing Commission. 18 U.S.C. § 3553(b); Id. at 917. At sentencing the district court justified its departure on the grounds Ceja-Hernandez would be immediately deported following release so that the court could not impose a fine or a program of supervised release.1 When setting the offense level for entry after deportation, the Sentencing Commission would certainly have been aware of the practice of promptly deporting aliens after they serve such sentences. See 8 C.F.R. Sec. 287.3; 8 U.S.C. § 1251(a) (2).2 We find the court's grounds for departure "indicates dissatisfaction with the guidelines rather than a reasoned judgment that particular characteristics of the offense ... have not been accounted for." Id. at 918 (quoting United States v. Nuno-Para, 877 F.2d 1409, 1414 (9th Cir. 1989)).
The government argues the Sentencing Commission determined the offense level for entry after deportation at a time when aliens entered in search of agricultural work. They argue such aliens now come into the country to engage in illegal drug activity and conclude this shift justifies an upward departure. We have already disapproved this argument. Id. at 917-18.
Finally the government argues the court might have decided Ceja-Hernandez unlawfully entered the United States to pursue drug-related activity thus justifying departure under U.S.S.G. Sec. 5K2.9. However the court did not rely on this factor and neither may we. Id. at 919. We further note there is no evidence in the record before us supporting the government's contention Ceja-Hernandez committed the offense of entry after deportation "in order to facilitate or conceal the commission of another offense" as would be required for departure under U.S.S.G. Sec. 5K2.9.
VACATED and REMANDED.
The panel finds this case appropriate for submission without oral argument pursuant to Ninth Circuit Rule 34-4 and Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)
The district court stated:
[T]his Court has no quarrel with the work of the Commission. The Court simply feels that because there is not a recognition in these cases of immediate deportation, which effectively prevents the imposition of a fine and which, perhaps more importantly, effectively prevents any kind of supervised program upon release. This court would be naive to believe you're not going to be back here promptly, and finds that a departure is warranted.
Within 24 hours after an alien is transferred from prison to immigration authorities, 8 C.F.R. Sec. 287.3 provides that "the alien's case shall be presented ... for a determination as to whether there is prima facie evidence that the arrested alien is in the United States in violation of law and for issuance of an order to show cause" why the alien should not be deported; 8 U.S.C. § 1251(a) (2) provides that " [a]ny alien in the United States ... shall, upon order of the Attorney General, be deported who ... entered the United States without inspection ... or is in the United States in violation of this chapter or in violation of any other law of the United States."
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Justia › US Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › Courts of Appeals › D.C. Circuit › 1990 › Unpublished Dispositionsharon S. Williams, Appellant, v. National Railroad Passenger Corporation
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Unpublished Dispositionsharon S. Williams, Appellant, v. National Railroad Passenger Corporation, 901 F.2d 1131 (D.C. Cir. 1990)
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit - 901 F.2d 1131 (D.C. Cir. 1990)
Before SILBERMAN, STEPHEN H. WILLIAMS and CLARENCE THOMAS, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM
This case occasions no need for a published opinion. See D.C. Cir. Rule 14(c). We affirm the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of National Railroad Passenger Corporation for the reasons stated in the attached memorandum.
ORDERED and ADJUDGED that the decision of the district court is affirmed.
The Clerk is directed to withhold issuance of the mandate herein until seven days after disposition of any timely peittion for rehearing. See D.C. Cir. Rule 15.
We affirm the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of NRPC. Appellant acknowledges that the claims in her original complaint do not survive Patterson v. McLean Credit Union, 109 S. Ct. 2363 (1989). Brief for Appellant at 2. At oral argument, counsel for appellant abandoned the retaliation claim which formed the basis of her amended complaint. We therefore need not address that issue. Finally, even assuming the February 1988 change in duties is properly before us (appellant appears to have raised the claim for the first time in response to defendant's supplementary motion for summary judgment following Patterson), such an allegation plainly falls short of what is required under Patterson. Whatever the outer contours of the "new and distinct relation" test announced in Patterson, the refusal to increase an employee's pay when that employee is assigned additional duties which do not alter the basic relationship between the employer and employee (not even altering the non-supervisory character of her job) clearly falls outside Sec. 1981. See Patterson, 109 S. Ct. at 2377 (citing Hishon v. King & Spalding, 467 U.S. 69 (1984)).
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Justia › US Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › Courts of Appeals › First Circuit › 1992 › American Title Insurance Company, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. East West Financial Corporation, et al.,...
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American Title Insurance Company, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. East West Financial Corporation, et al., Defendants, Appellees.american Title Insurance Company, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. East West Financial Corporation, Defendant, Appellee.bay Loan & Investment Bank, Defendant, Appellant, 959 F.2d 345 (1st Cir. 1992)
US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit - 959 F.2d 345 (1st Cir. 1992)
Heard Feb. 7, 1992. Decided March 18, 1992. Rehearing Denied April 13, 1992
Max Wistow with whom Stephen P. Sheehan and Wistow & Barylick, Inc., Providence, R.I., were on brief, for American Title Ins. Co.
Howard E. Walker with whom Michael J. McGovern and Hinckley, Allen, Snyder & Comen, Providence, R.I., were on brief, for Bay Loan & Inv. Bank.
Kevin F. McHugh with whom Louis F. Robbio and Robbio & Nottie, Ltd., Providence, R.I., were on brief, for East West Financial Corp.
Before TORRUELLA, Circuit Judge, ALDRICH and BOWNES, Senior Circuit Judges.
BOWNES, Senior Circuit Judge.
All parties appeal from the judgment issued after a bench trial by the district court. Plaintiff American Title Insurance Company ("American Title") filed suit under 28 U.S.C. §§ 2201 and 2202 seeking a declaratory judgment that American Title was not liable under lender title insurance policies issued to defendant East West Financial Corporation ("East West") and defendant Bay Loan & Investment Bank ("Bay Loan"). East West and Bay Loan counterclaimed for breach of contract and bad faith refusal to pay under the policies. The district court granted declaratory judgment in favor of East West and Bay Loan. It found that while American Title's insurance policies covered East West and Bay Loan East West's and Bay Loan's damages claims were premature and dismissed them without prejudice. The district court also dismissed their counterclaim for bad faith refusal to pay under the insurance policies.
Standard of Review
In bench trials appellate review of facts is governed by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 52(a).1 It states in pertinent part:Findings of fact, whether based on oral or documentary evidence, shall not be set aside unless clearly erroneous, and due regard shall be given to the opportunity of the trial court to judge of the credibility of the witnesses.... It will be sufficient if the findings of fact and conclusions of law ... appear in an opinion or memorandum of decision filed by the court.
(Emphasis added). See also Langton v. Johnston, 928 F.2d 1206, 1218 (1st Cir. 1991); Cumpiano v. Banco Santander Puerto Rico, 902 F.2d 148, 152 (1st Cir. 1990); Jackson v. Harvard Univ., 900 F.2d 464, 466 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 111 S. Ct. 137, 112 L. Ed. 2d 104 (1990). We will defer to the trier of facts unless "we form a strong, unyielding belief that a mistake has been made." Cumpiano, 902 F.2d at 152. " 'Where there are two permissible views of the evidence, the factfinder's choice between them can not be clearly erroneous.' " Id. (quoting Anderson v. City of Bessemer City, 470 U.S. 564, 573-74, 105 S. Ct. 1504, 1511, 84 L. Ed. 2d 518 (1985)).
We likewise review mixed questions of law and fact for clear error. LoVuolo v. Gunning, 925 F.2d 22, 25 (1st Cir. 1991); Langton, 928 F.2d at 1218. Legal error, however, is reviewable de novo. LoVuolo, 925 F.2d at 25; Cumpiano, 902 F.2d at 153. In diversity actions we do not defer to the district court's finding of local law but rather give plenary review. Salve Regina College v. Russell, --- U.S. ----, 111 S. Ct. 1217, 1221, 113 L. Ed. 2d 190 (1991).
We read the facts in light of the standard of review and in favor of the prevailing party. This case involves an unusual type of real estate--the motel condominium--but not so unusual a business transaction--the get-rich quick scheme. Buyers were promised a deal where no money down was required; guaranteed they could not lose money; and assured that they would receive a five percent return on the initial purchase price in five years. Many took "this deal of a lifetime" and all learned that the deal was too good to be true.
Dean Street Development Company ("Dean Street"), a real estate development operation, would purchase already existing operating motels located in Rhode Island. Dean Street invariably used purchase money mortgages to finance each motel purchase. It would then condominimize the motel, selling market title in each separate unit with shared interest in the common areas.
To procure purchasers of these units, Dean Street promised potential buyers that they did not have to make a down payment. Dean Street wired money for the down payment into the buyers' bank accounts prior to closing. At the closing the buyer would return the down payment to Dean Street, receive a credit toward the purchase price, and execute a note in favor of East West, an originator and servicer of mortgage loans. Usually the buyer would also execute a second mortgage in favor of Dean Street which would later be forgiven without repayment. The closings were held at the law office of George Marderosian in Providence, Rhode Island. Marderosian, an authorized agent of American Title, also acted as attorney for the buyer and seller and as settlement agent. Prior to the transaction the buyers signed a document consenting to the apparent conflict of interest by Marderosian at the closing. After the transaction the buyers would lease back the unit to a subsidiary of Dean Street which would rent out the unit. From those rentals Dean Street was supposed to pay the buyers' mortgage payments.
At each closing, a form called a "HUD 1," a document usually reserved for residential closings, was filled out by Marderosian. In the section of the document where prior mortgages that are to be discharged are usually itemized, Marderosian placed an asterisk referring the reader to the bottom of the page. On the bottom of the page the document read: "All mortgage indebtedness paid outside closing prior to or immediately subsequent to recording." After each closing, Marderosian would present East West with the completed HUD 1, a mortgage deed and note, and a title policy that Marderosian issued as an agent of American Title. These title policies were "clean"; that is, they indicated that title was free of any liens or encumbrances. East West, after accumulating several sets of these documents, would send them to Bay Loan. Bay Loan would review the documents and was free to either approve or reject each loan. If the loan was denied the closing would be voided and title returned to Dean Street. If the loan was approved, the funds would be wired to East West. East West would then distribute the money to either Marderosian or, in some cases other parties. In at least one instance the money went to Dean Street directly.
By the spring of 1989, two years after the first deal was consummated, it became clear that several of the motels were still encumbered by prior liens not listed in the title insurance policies.2 For example, Bay Loan held outstanding mortgages on thirty-three units in the Charlestown Inn. A prior senior mortgagee foreclosed on its mortgage on October 24, 1989, wiping out Bay Loan's outstanding mortgages. In another project, the Hillside Motel Condominium, Bay Loan held outstanding mortgages on all thirty-six units. A prior senior mortgagee foreclosed on the property and Bay Loan bought the property at the foreclosure sale on September 25, 1989. In the Sandpiper Motel Condominium project Bay Loan held outstanding mortgages on thirty-seven of the thirty-nine units. A prior mortgagee foreclosed on the property on July 25, 1989, wiping out Bay Loan's mortgages. And finally at the Sand Castle Motel condominium project, Bay Loan held outstanding mortgages on all twenty-four units. Again a prior senior mortgagee foreclosed, wiping out Bay Loan's security interest.
After discovering the defects in title, Bay Loan filed a notice of claim with American Title under the title policies. American Title in response, on July 26, 1989, filed a complaint against East West and Bay Loan in district court seeking declaratory judgment pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 2201 and 2202, seeking relief from liability on the title policies. It advanced several rationales for relief: (1) Marderosian did not have actual or apparent authority to issue the policies; (2) Bay Loan had "created, suffered or assumed" the risk of defective title and therefore was not covered by the policy; (3) Bay Loan's mortgages were uninsurable or void as a matter of law because of alleged securities law violations; and (4) the policies lacked consideration.
East West and Bay Loan counterclaimed alleging: (1) that American Title had breached its contract under the title policies and that they were entitled to payment; and (2) that American Title in bad faith refused to pay under the policy.3 The district court held a seven-day bench trial. In its opinion dated April 10, 1991, the district court held that American Title was liable under the title insurance policies. On American Title's claim that Marderosian lacked actual or apparent authority, the court found that Marderosian lacked actual authority to issue " 'clean' title insurance policies for properties that were subject to existing mortgages" under the express terms of his agency agreement with American Title.
The court held, however, that Marderosian did have apparent authority. Finding that Marderosian had apparent authority, the court held that American Title was bound by the acts of its agent, Marderosian.
As to whether Bay Loan and East West "created, suffered or assumed" the risk, the court held that only if the insured intentionally established a defect or lien through its misconduct could the insurer avoid liability on the policy. The court found that "Bay Loan's actions totally lacked the intent necessary to fall within the 'created or suffered' policy exclusion." The district court similarly found little merit in American Title's other two liability defenses, that the bank had aided and abetted security fraud and that the policies lacked consideration.
The district court also dismissed without prejudice Bay Loan's and East West's claims for damages, finding them premature. Finally, the court dismissed their claim against American Title for bad faith refusal to pay on the insurance policies. The court reasoned that because "American Title raised a successful defense based on Bay Loan's inability to presently prove its losses," American Title did not act in bad faith by filing suit.
American Title appeals the district court's findings of liability under the policies. Bay Loan appeals the dismissal of its claim for damages and bad faith refusal to pay under the title insurance policies. We reverse and remand.
The only issue that American Title raises on this appeal that we address is whether Marderosian had apparent authority to issue and deliver title insurance policies that failed to show existing mortgage liens against the properties. As part of that claim, American Title argues that the court improperly placed the burden of proof on the principal, American Title, rather than the third parties attempting to bind the principal, East West and Bay Loan. The district court ruled that:
American Title clearly held George Marderosian out to the world as its agent. Having clothed Marderosian with a general authority to act on its behalf, American Title has a heavy burden in proving that third parties should be charged with knowledge of specific restrictions written into the agency contract. American Title has not met this burden.
A district court sitting in a diversity jurisdiction case must follow state substantive law. Erie R. Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64, 78, 58 S. Ct. 817, 822, 82 L. Ed. 1188 (1938); Moores v. Greenberg, 834 F.2d 1105, 1107 (1st Cir. 1987). The district court is to apply the substantive law, including choice of law rules, of the state in which it sits. Klaxon Co. v. Stentor Elec. Mfg. Co., 313 U.S. 487, 496, 61 S. Ct. 1020, 1021-22, 85 L. Ed. 1477 (1941). When the highest court of that state has not spoken on the question at issue, we are obligated to determine how "the state's highest tribunal would resolve matters." Moores, 834 F.2d at 1107. "We look to 'such sources as analogous state court decisions, adjudications in cases elsewhere, and public policy imperatives.' " Ryan v. Royal Ins. Co. of America, 916 F.2d 731, 734-35 (1st Cir. 1990) (quoting Kathios v. General Motors Corp., 862 F.2d 944, 949 (1st Cir. 1988)).
Burden of proof is substantive in nature and therefore is governed by state law. Palmer v. Hoffman, 318 U.S. 109, 117, 63 S. Ct. 477, 482, 87 L. Ed. 645 (1943); Sampson v. Channell, 110 F.2d 754, 758 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 310 U.S. 650, 60 S. Ct. 1099, 84 L. Ed. 1415 (1940); see also Wynfield Inns v. Edward LeRoux Group, Inc., 896 F.2d 483, 491 (11th Cir. 1990) ("The burden of proof is a substantive issue and is therefore controlled by state law in diversity cases."); 1A James W. Moore et al. Moore's Federal Practice p 0.314 at 3149 (1991).
The district court placed the burden of proof on American Title to prove that Marderosian did not have apparent authority to issue title insurance policies that did not disclose prior encumbrances. Reading Rhode Island law, however, we find that it is Bay Loan and East West who had the burden of proving that Marderosian had apparent authority. See Inleasing Corp. v. Jessup, 475 A.2d 989, 995 (R.I.1984) (A third party "must show that [the principal's] attorney could bind his client to the $1 million amount."); H.W. Ellis, Inc. v. Alofsin, 87 R.I. 252, 140 A.2d 131, 131-32 (1958) (third party "had the burden of proof on the issue of the authority of the [agent] to make such a contract."); Goodman v. Zitserman, 47 R.I. 466, 134 A. 4, 5 (1926) ("the duty of establishing [party's] agency to collect at the time of payment rested upon [third party]"). See also Moreau v. James River-Otis, Inc., 767 F.2d 6, 10 (1st Cir. 1985) (under Maine law "[t]he burden of proving apparent authority rests on the party asserting that the act was authorized") (footnote omitted); Ferro Concrete Constr. Co. v. United States, 112 F.2d 488, 491 (1st Cir.) ("A party who seeks to charge a principal for the contracts made by his agent must prove that agent's authority; and it is not for the principal to disprove it.") (citation omitted), cert. denied, 311 U.S. 697, 61 S. Ct. 136, 85 L. Ed. 452 (1940).
Because we find that the district court improperly placed the burden of proof on American Title as a matter of law, we need not address the merits of American Title's claim that Marderosian did not have the apparent authority to issue "clean" title insurance policies when there were prior encumbrances or other liens on the property.4 The district court's error in placing the burden of proof on American Title to prove lack of apparent authority could not help but influence its analysis of the facts and their application to the appropriate state law principles of agency. The question of apparent authority is a threshold issue which either opens the door to the other issues or slams it shut. In light of such an error we cannot properly review the district court's findings as to the merits of the agency claim.
Because we find that the district court erred as matter of law in allocating the burden of proof on whether Marderosian had apparent authority to act for American Title, we need not reach the other issues raised by both parties on appeal. All the issues are dependent on the assumption that Marderosian had the apparent authority to issue the title policies, an issue that still remains in dispute in light of this opinion.
We remand this case for a total new trial on the merits in light of the holding of this opinion.
Reversed and Remanded.
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 52 was amended, effective December 1, 1991. The relevant portion of Rule 52(a), however, was unchanged by the amendment
There appears to be some confusion as to how many of the 176 title insurance policies that Marderosian issued involving Dean Street's condominium complexes are at issue in this case. In its amended complaint, American Title sought a declaration that it had no liability as to all 176 policies. Some of those policies, however, were not issued to East West but rather to Homeowner Financial Corporation, another originator/servicer of mortgages. Homeowner subsequently sold the mortgages that were the subject of those policies to Bay Loan. The district court limited its ruling to the four projects in which East West was involved
In its answer, Bay Loan also alleged counterclaims of negligence and tortious interference of contract. They were not pursued or proved at trial and were dismissed by the district court
While Bay Loan in its brief concedes that Marderosian lacked actual authorization, East West still clings to the contention that Marderosian had actual authority to issue the title policies without exceptions. The written agency agreement between Marderosian and American Title, however, strictly forbade such a practice. It states in pertinent part: "In preparing American's binders and policies, Attorney will show as exceptions to coverage all matters disclosed by the opinion, such taxes, restrictions, conditions, easements and limitations ... and any other matters which constitute a lien or charge against the property...." We, in agreement with the district court, find that Marderosian lacked actual authority
of First Circuit opinions.
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Justia › US Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › Courts of Appeals › Ninth Circuit › 1997 › United States of America, Plaintiff-appellee, v. Robert Ray Buker, Defendant-appellant
United States of America, Plaintiff-appellee, v. Robert Ray Buker, Defendant-appellant, 120 F.3d 269 (9th Cir. 1997)
July 24, 1997. Submitted July 22, 1997**
Before: HUG, Chief Judge, KOZINSKI and LEAVY, Circuit Judges.
MEMORANDUM*
Robert Ray Buker appeals pro se the district court's denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2255. He argues on appeal that the district court: (1) erred by consolidating his 18 U.S.C. § 4244 hearing with his sentencing hearing; (2) erroneously concluded it lacked jurisdiction to adjust his sentence under Rule 35(a) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure; (3) erred in failing to examine the merits of his ineffective assistance of counsel claim; and (4) erred in failing to consider new evidence presented to the court for the first time on habeas and to address the question of the nonconstitutional sentencing errors he alleges occurred during his sentencing hearing. We affirm.
Pursuant to a plea agreement with the government, Buker plead nolo contendere to charges of conspiracy to produce an unregistered destructive device designed to detonate remotely by means of radio transmission, unlawfully producing a pipe bomb, and attempting to destroy the Oregon State University Computer Center by means of a pipe bomb. He requested and was granted a § 4244 hearing to determine whether he was suffering a mental illness such that he should be committed for treatment in lieu of being sentenced to imprisonment. At the hearing, the district court found Buker was indeed suffering from mental illness, but it found his condition was not sufficiently severe to mandate he be committed rather than imprisoned and sentenced him to a total of twenty-five years imprisonment.
Buker appealed his sentence, arguing that once the district court found he suffered from mental illness, it was required to order him committed rather than imprisoned. We rejected this argument and upheld Buker's sentence in United States v. Buker, 902 F.2d 769 (9th Cir. 1990).
Buker then filed a Motion for Reduction of Sentence under Rule 35(b) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. The district court denied this motion, and Buker did not appeal that decision. Buker subsequently filed pro se this § 2255 petition and motion under Rule 35(a) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. The district court denied Buker's Rule 35(a) motion on jurisdictional grounds and denied his § 2255 petition on the merits. Buker timely appealed.
The district court's decision regarding a § 2255 petition is reviewed de novo. United States v. Harris, 108 F.3d 1107, 1108 (9th Cir. 1997).
Buker first argues that the district court violated his due process rights when, allegedly without notice, it consolidated his sentencing hearing with his § 4244 hearing, affording his counsel inadequate time to prepare for the sentencing hearing. Contrary to the government's argument, Buker need not show cause and prejudice for his failure to raise this argument on direct appeal because it is a constitutional claim. See English v. United States, 42 F.3d 473, 481 (9th Cir. 1994) ( § 2255 claims involving constitutional error are waived for failure to raise them on direct appeal only if (1) there is a specific procedural rule requiring the defendant to raise the issue on direct appeal or (2) the failure to raise the issue was a deliberate bypass of direct review)
Nevertheless, the claim is clearly unmeritorious. Buker had notice the § 4244 and sentencing hearings would be held together well in advance--the district court had months before scheduled them both for the same day. It was Buker's counsel at the change of plea hearing who recommended the court schedule the § 4244 hearing "either prior to or at the time of [the sentencing hearing]." Further, it is clear that Buker's counsel understood the hearing to encompass both the § 4244 inquiry and sentencing. Buker's counsel indicated in his opening statements to the court at the hearing that the evidence he planned to present would be "enlightening to the Court in terms of sentencing." In his closing remarks, Buker's counsel noted that "the bottom line is that we are here before the Court for sentencing" and explained to the district court his understanding that the hearing was to serve as both a § 4244 and sentencing hearing. Under these circumstances, it is nonsensical to argue that counsel was not afforded sufficient time to prepare for the sentencing hearing.
Buker next argues the district court erred in concluding it lacked jurisdiction to adjust his sentence under Rule 35(a) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. The version of Rule 35(a) applicable to Buker1 provides that " [t]he court may correct an illegal sentence at any time...." An illegal sentence under Rule 35(a) is "one which is not authorized by the judgment of conviction, or is in excess of the permissible statutory penalty for the crime, or is in violation of the Constitution." United States v. Johnson, 988 F.2d 941, 943 (9th Cir. 1993). The district court held it lacked jurisdiction to consider Buker's Rule 35(a) motion because it believed Buker did not contend his sentence is unauthorized by the judgment of conviction, exceeds the permissible statutory penalty for his crime, of violates his constitutional rights. We agree. On appeal, Buker argues his sentence was illegal because it conflicts with the district court's § 4244 finding that he is mentally ill, but he did not raise this argument before the district court in the current case. There is a good reason for this--it is the same argument we rejected in his previous appeal. Buker, 902 F.2d at 769 ( § 4244 permits the district court to sentence a defendant to imprisonment notwithstanding a finding that the defendant is mentally ill). Buker's sentence was not illegal, and the district court correctly held that it lacked jurisdiction to consider his motion under Rule 35(a).
Buker also argues that the district court failed to address the merits of his ineffective assistance claim. This is plainly incorrect. The district court addressed the question and expressly found that Buker "failed to prove either prong of the Strickland test." We believe this to be correct. Buker claims his trial counsel failed to investigate fully the facts underlying the indictment before advising him to plead nolo contendere. We agree with the district court that " [i]t is abundantly clear from the record that counsel made a well informed strategic decision that resulted in a favorable outcome for his client." Moreover, the errors and omissions of which Buker accuses his counsel are inconsequential in light of the strength of the evidence against him. See Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 696 (1984) (" [A] verdict or conclusion only weakly supported by the record is more likely to have been affected by errors than one with overwhelming record support.").
Buker's fourth and final argument is that the district court erred in failing to consider "newly discovered" allegedly exculpatory evidence or to address his contentions, not raised in his direct appeal, regarding the nonconstitutional sentencing errors he alleges occurred during his sentencing hearing. The "newly discovered" evidence--affidavits taken after his plea--is not "newly discovered" at all, since he could have obtained these affidavits prior to his plea. Baumann v. United States, 692 F.2d 565, 580 (9th Cir. 1982). Moreover, it is unclear what relevance the affidavits can have given that Buker chose not to contest the charges against him. This is particularly so in light of our conclusion that pleading nolo contendere was a wise strategic decision. Further, a § 2255 petitioner cannot challenge nonconstitutional sentencing errors if those errors were not challenged in an earlier proceeding. United States v. McMullen, 98 F.3d 1155, 1157 (9th Cir. 1996) (citing United States v. Schlesinger, 49 F.3d 483, 485 (9th Cir. 1995)). "Petitioners waive the right to object in collateral proceedings unless they make a proper objection before the district court or in a direct appeal from the sentencing decision." Id. Acknowledging this, Buker argues the nonconstitutional sentencing errors and new evidence should be considered as support for his motion under Rule 35(a). However, he does not argue any of these supposed errors or any of the new evidence renders his sentence "illegal." Accordingly, the district court properly rejected Buker's allegations regarding nonconstitutionaln sentencing errors.
The panel finds this case appropriate for submission without oral argument pursuant to 9th Cir. R. 34-4 and Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and may not be cited to or by the courts of this circuit except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3
Because Buker committed his crime prior to November 1, 1987, the pre-Sentencing Act version of Rule 35 governs his case. See United States v. Stump, 914 F.2d 170, 172 n. 1 (9th Cir. 1990)
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Justia › US Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › District Courts › Florida › Southern District of Florida › 1994 › Mann v. Air Line Pilots Ass'n
Mann v. Air Line Pilots Ass'n, 848 F. Supp. 990 (S.D. Fla. 1994)
US District Court for the Southern District of Florida - 848 F. Supp. 990 (S.D. Fla. 1994)
848 F. Supp. 990 (1994)
William B. MANN, Jr., et al., Plaintiffs,
AIR LINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION, et al., Defendants.
No. 93-0983-CIV.
United States District Court, S.D. Florida, Miami Division.
February 18, 1994.
*991 James L. Linsey, Cohen, Weiss & Simon, New York City, Robert T. Kaufman, Stearns, Weaver, et al., Miami, FL, for defendants.
Jonothan Rosner, Myles J. Tralins, Tralins & Associates, Miami, FL, for plaintiffs.
ORDER ON DEFENDANTS' MOTION TO DISMISS
EDWARD B. DAVIS, District Judge.
BEFORE THE COURT is Defendants' Motion to Dismiss (D.E. 27). The plaintiffs filed a response, and the defendants subsequently filed a reply. The Court heard oral argument on the motion on February 2, 1994, after which the plaintiffs filed a supplemental response to the defendants' motion to dismiss. For the reasons discussed below, the Court will grant the motion and dismiss the complaint.
I. Standard of Review
Courts do not grant motions to dismiss unless they are convinced that the plaintiffs cannot prove a set of facts that would entitle them to relief under the claim. See SEC v. ESM Group, Inc., 835 F.2d 270, 272 (11th Cir. 1988), cert. denied, Peat Marwick Main & Co. v. Tew, 486 U.S. 1055, 108 S. Ct. 2822, 100 L. Ed. 2d 923 (1988). In analyzing motions to dismiss, courts assume that the allegations in the complaint and incorporated exhibits are true, and construe the complaint in favor of the plaintiffs. See Burch v. Apalachee Community Mental Health Services, Inc., 840 F.2d 797, 798 (11th Cir.1988), aff'd sub. nom., Zinermon v. Burch, 494 U.S. 113, 110 S. Ct. 975, 108 L. Ed. 2d 100 (1990).
II. Background
On May 24, 1993, the plaintiffs filed a two-count complaint in this Court alleging two counts of federal RICO violations by the defendants. The plaintiffs are flight deck operating crew members employed by Eastern Airlines ("Eastern") between March 1, *992 1989, and January 18, 1991. (Compl. ¶ 3). The lead defendant, Air Line Pilots Association ("ALPA"), is the labor union that represented the plaintiffs during the Eastern strike in 1989. (See Compl. ¶ 4). ALPA is an unincorporated labor organization which, at all times relevant to this case, has served as the collective bargaining representative under the Railway Labor Act, 45 U.S.C. §§ 151-188, for the plaintiffs. ALPA has a separate governing body for the pilots of each carrier that it represents, and that body is called the Master Executive Council ("MEC"). The individual defendants in this case were either officers of ALPA or members of ALPA's Executive Board during the period in which the plaintiffs complain of wrongdoing.[1]
The plaintiffs in Mann seek damages for violations of RICO's civil provisions alleging that the defendants participated in a scheme to defraud them. The plaintiffs allege that because they were employees of a small or financially troubled air carrier, ALPA more or less sacrificed their interests in order to protect the interests of employees of air carriers that were financially more stable. Specifically, Count I alleges that defendants ALPA, Henry A. Duffy ("Duffy"), and J. Randolph Babbit ("Babbit") violated Section 1962(c) of RICO, 18 U.S.C. § 1962(c), by engaging in a pattern of racketeering activity. Count II alleges that ALPA, Duffy, Babbit, the ALPA Executive Board members (the other defendants in the case), and others violated Section 1962(c) of RICO by conspiring to engage in a pattern of racketeering activity. (Compl. ¶¶ 117-23).
In support of their allegations that the defendants initiated a scheme to defraud them, the plaintiffs allege the following: that ALPA had a practice of abandoning members of small or financially troubled airlines and denying them the rights to which they were entitled under ALPA's Constitution and By-Laws, ALPA's Merger and Fragmentation Policy,[2] and ALPA's collective bargaining agreement with Eastern ("CBA") (Compl. ¶ 7); that the scheme to defraud included representations transmitted by mail and wire (Compl. ¶ 8); and that the scheme to defraud was for the benefit of "active members employed by dominant and financially stable air carriers" (Compl. ¶ 9). The complaint points out relevant portions of the ALPA Constitution and By-Laws, ALPA's Merger and Fragmentation Policy, and ALPA's CBA with Eastern. (Compl. ¶¶ 10-24). The defendants seek dismissal of the complaint on the basis that the federal RICO claims are preempted by federal labor law and, in the alternative, that the RICO claims are not pled sufficiently.
This case is related to Dunn v. Air Line Pilots Ass'n, Case No. 91-2679-CIV-DAVIS, which currently is pending before this Court. In Dunn, the plaintiff flight crew members who were employed by Eastern during the strike in 1989 sued ALPA, officers of ALPA, the Chairman of the Master Executive Council, and the members of the Strike Committee of ALPA's Eastern Air Lines Chapter, alleging breach of the duty of fair representation and defamation.[3] Most of the Mann plaintiffs are also plaintiffs in Dunn.[4] The Dunn case seemingly is ready to proceed unimpaired into the discovery stage.
III. Discussion
The initial issue for the Court's determination is whether the Mann complaint is preempted by federal labor law. Since the Court finds preemption, it will not consider whether the plaintiffs adequately alleged *993 their RICO claims in the complaint.[5] As this Court previously discussed in its Order on Motion to Dismiss in Dunn v. Air Line Pilots Ass'n, 836 F. Supp. 1574 (S.D.Fla.1993), the plaintiffs' and defendants' relationship is governed by the Railway Labor Act ("RLA"), 45 U.S.C. §§ 151-188, which imputes a duty of fair representation that requires a union to treat all members of a collective bargaining unit fairly, adequately, and in good faith. See Air Line Pilots Ass'n, Intern. v. O'Neill, 499 U.S. 65, 111 S. Ct. 1127, 1130, 113 L. Ed. 2d 51 (1991). The duty of fair representation is granted by Section 2, Eleventh (a) of the RLA, 45 U.S.C. § 152, which grants an elected union the exclusive authority to represent all employees in a collective bargaining unit and which also imparts a corresponding duty on the bargaining representative. See Nellis v. Air Line Pilots Ass'n, 815 F. Supp. 1522, 1530 (E.D.Va.1993), aff'd, 15 F.3d 50 (4th Cir.1994). ALPA's statutory duty of fair representation, then, obligated it to "serve the interests of all members without hostility or discrimination toward any, and to exercise its discretion with complete good faith and honesty, and to avoid arbitrary conduct." United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO-CLC v. Rawson, 495 U.S. 362, 372, 110 S. Ct. 1904, 1911, 109 L. Ed. 2d 362 (1990); see also, e.g., Teamsters Local Union No. 42 v. NLRB, 825 F.2d 608, 611 (1st Cir.1987) (duty of fair representation forbids union from illegitimately favoring some of its members at the expense of other members).
The defendants argue that federal labor law and the duty of fair representation preempt the federal RICO allegations in the Mann plaintiffs' complaint. The defendants argue that, in essence, the Mann plaintiffs are alleging that ALPA treated them unfairly, favoring its other members at the expense of the plaintiffs, and that at its root the Mann complaint is a classic duty of fair representation claim. The Court generally agrees with the defendants' characterization of the plaintiffs' complaint. The complaint alleges facts that go to ALPA's representation of the plaintiffs, and it then alleges that ALPA's misrepresentations with regard to this representation constitute RICO violations. The plaintiffs, on the other hand, make an unsupported assertion that the facts "supporting the Mann Complaint's RICO claims are substantially different from the factual allegations supporting the Dunn Complaint's claim for breach of the duty of fair representation," (Plaintiffs' Mem. in Opposition to Defendants' Mot. to Dismiss Compl. 16); however, the Court finds that there is no appreciable difference in the fact allegations contained in the two complaints.
RICO claims for mail and wire fraud typically are preempted by labor law. See generally MHC, Inc. v. Intern. Union, United Mine Workers of America, 685 F. Supp. 1370, 1377-79 (E.D.Ky.1988) (explaining the nature of RICO and its relation to federal labor law). Numerous courts have enunciated the test for determining whether federal labor law preempts federal RICO claims. In Brennan v. Chestnut, the Eighth Circuit said that
a RICO claim based on allegations of mail and wire fraud as predicate acts would be preempted if the underlying conduct falls within the exclusive jurisdiction of the NLRB because mail and wire fraud are `generic' acts.... The mail and wire fraud statutes ... do not define fraud but rather leave that definition to other laws.... If the court must look to the labor laws to define the fraud, then preemption applies.
973 F.2d 644, 646 (8th Cir.1992)[6] (emphasis added); see also, e.g., Talbot v. Robert Matthews *994 Distributing Co., 961 F.2d 654, 662 (7th Cir.1992) (holding that if the underlying conduct is wrongful only by virtue of the labor laws then the RICO claim is preempted); McDonough v. Gencorp, Inc., 750 F. Supp. 368, 370 (S.D.Ill.1990) (ruling that if the alleged fraud is defined by looking at the labor laws then preemption applies). Hence, if this Court must look to labor laws to define the fraud alleged by the Mann plaintiffs, then preemption applies. This Court must look to federal labor law to evaluate the fraud alleged by the Mann plaintiffs, and therefore federal labor law does preempt the federal RICO claims. As the defendants argue, the plaintiffs' complaint deals with whether ALPA adequately and fairly represented them: it is a duty of fair representation claim that is not appreciably different from the claims in the Dunn complaint.[7]
Further, the Mann plaintiffs allege that the source of their right to fair treatment springs from the CBA, ALPA's Merger and Fragmentation Policy, and ALPA's Constitution and By-Laws.[8] (See, e.g., Compl. ¶¶ 10-24.) The defendants cite a number of cases that stand for the proposition that the Railway Labor Act preempts RICO claims whose source is traceable to rights arising under a collective bargaining agreement. In Underwood v. Venango River Corp., the Seventh Circuit held that if the alleged wrongdoing would not be actionable in the absence of obligations contained in the collective bargaining agreement then there is preemption. 995 F.2d 677, 684 (7th Cir.1993). The Seventh Circuit concluded:
Try as they might, the plaintiffs simply cannot overcome the fact that their RICO claim alleging generic wire and mail fraud depends solely upon an interception of the rights created in the collective-bargaining agreement because the severance pay and job security rights they seek to enforce originate in the CBA.
Id. at 685 (emphasis added); see also id. at 685 (saying, "As we have discussed above, the RLA preempts all minor disputes that may be resolved by interpretation or application of the CBA"). Similarly, in Hubbard v. United Airlines, Inc., the Ninth Circuit observed that "it appears that federal labor law *995 was intended to provide the exclusive remedy for generic fraud claims relating to rights under [a] CBA."[9] 927 F.2d 1094, 1098 (9th Cir.1991). In essence, the holdings in these cases are simply a subset within the broad rule that federal RICO claims are preempted if the court must look to federal labor law to determine whether fraud has occurred. Hence, these cases further support dismissal of the Mann complaint on the basis of preemption.
The Mann complaint alleges acts that fall under the duty of fair representation. The complaint essentially alleges misrepresentation and fraud pertaining to the plaintiffs' rights under the CBA, the Merger and Fragmentation Policy, and ALPA's Constitution and By-Laws. The breach of this duty is cognizable only under federal labor law, more particularly, the RLA, not under federal RICO law. Numerous courts have articulated important policy reasons for addressing these sorts of claims within the framework of labor laws, see, e.g., MHC, Inc., 685 F. Supp. at 1377-80, and these policies further support this Court's finding that the Mann plaintiffs' claim is cognizable only under federal labor law.
Having found that dismissal is necessary based on federal labor law preemption, the Court will not consider whether the RICO claims were sufficiently pled. Accordingly, it is
ORDERED AND ADJUDGED that the Defendants' Motion to Dismiss is GRANTED.[10] This case is DISMISSED. The case is closed and any pending motions are moot.
DONE AND ORDERED.
[1] For a more complete summary of the facts, see Dunn v. Air Line Pilots Ass'n, 836 F. Supp. 1574 (S.D.Fla.1993) (Order on Defendants' Motion to Dismiss).
[2] Under this policy, ALPA pilot groups were supposed to work with their managements to provide Eastern ALPA pilots maximum protection during the liquidation of Eastern's assets.
[3] The Dunn plaintiffs recently filed their third amended complaint.
[4] The defendants assert that only 23 of the 653 Mann plaintiffs are not Dunn plaintiffs. These 23 plaintiffs were plaintiffs in a suit similar to Dunn against ALPA and other individual defendants in the Eastern District of Virginia. See Nellis v. ALPA, 815 F. Supp. 1522 (1993), aff'd, 15 F.3d 50 (4th Cir.1994).
[5] The Defendants also argue that the Mann case should be dismissed because it should have been pled as one action with the Dunn action. Although there may be some merit to this claim splitting issue, the Court need not discuss it since it is dismissing the complaint based on preemption by federal labor law.
[6] The Court recognizes that the Railway Labor Act constitutes a body of legislation that differs from the National Labor Relations Act. See Brotherhood of R.R. Trainmen v. Jacksonville Terminal Co., 394 U.S. 369, 383-84, 89 S. Ct. 1109, 1118, 22 L. Ed. 2d 344 (1969). However, the NLRA is useful to construe the terms of the RLA or to determine "the least unsatisfactory judicial solution in the face of congressional silence." Id. at 391-93, 89 S. Ct. at 1123.
[7] The plaintiffs rely on Landry v. Air Line Pilots Ass'n Intern., AFL-CIO, 901 F.2d 404, 429 (5th Cir.1990), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 895, 111 S. Ct. 244, 112 L. Ed. 2d 203 (1990), for the proposition that federal RICO claims are not preempted by the federal labor law duty of fair representation. Landry did not expressly discuss the preemption issue, and this Court, therefore, does not find it as persuasive as other cases that address the preemption issue directly. However, to the extent that Landry may implicitly allow federal RICO claims that are predicated upon misrepresentations to exist independently of duty of fair representation claims, this Court disagrees with such dictum. In Dunn, this Court held, consistently with the overwhelming weight of authority, that all claims "based on the Defendants' alleged misrepresentations whether cast as claims for fraud or otherwise are precluded by [the federal labor law duty of fair representation]." 836 F. Supp. at 1580 (holding that state law fraud claims are preempted by the federal labor law duty of fair representation); see also Nellis, 15 F.3d 50, 51 (holding that the lower court was correct in dismissing state law claims based on misrepresentations because they were preempted by the federal labor law duty of fair representation).
[8] Counsel for the Mann plaintiffs, during oral argument, generally admitted that the complaint relied on these documents. However, counsel sought to distinguish the Mann complaint from the Dunn complaint by contending that the Dunn complaint alleges breach of the duty of fair representation based on rights created in these documents but that in Mann the allegation is that ALPA made certain representations to the plaintiffs saying that it would protect the plaintiffs' rights under these documents but then breached the actual promise to protect the rights. Counsel tried to liken the Mann case to one of fraudulent inducement, as opposed to breach of contract (which is how counsel described Dunn). The Court concludes that the distinction that Plaintiffs' counsel sought to establish does not help avoid a dismissal of the Mann complaint. Counsel for the plaintiffs argued that the defendants breached promises to protect the plaintiffs' rights as listed in the CBA, Merger and Fragmentation Policy, and ALPA's Constitution and By-Laws; however, counsel did not direct the Court to the source of the plaintiffs' rights not to be fraudulently induced (i.e., the plaintiffs' rights to force ALPA to keep its promises). If the source of the rights is state common law, then preemption obviously applies, as this Court discussed in Dunn and as the Eastern District of Virginia discussed in Nellis. If the source of the plaintiffs' rights is the CBA, the Merger and Fragmentation Policy, and ALPA's Constitution and By-Laws, then preemption still applies, as is discussed in the body of this Order as well as by other courts in such cases as Underwood v. Venango River Corp., 995 F.2d 677 (7th Cir.1993).
[9] Like claims arising from the CBA, claims and allegations predicated upon the Merger and Fragmentation Policy also are subsumed by the federal duty of fair representation. See Nellis v. Air Line Pilots Ass'n, 815 F. Supp. at 1534 (holding that in the fact circumstances of that case, a valid duty of fair representation claim must be based on a showing that ALPA breached the terms of its Merger and Fragmentation Policy).
[10] A handful of Mann plaintiffs are not Dunn plaintiffs. This handful of plaintiffs are individuals who did not cross the picket lines during the Eastern strike but rather observed the strike, and they litigated their duty of fair representation claim against ALPA in Nellis. Counsel for both parties agreed during oral argument that these plaintiffs' duty of fair representation claim against ALPA and, for that matter, all Nellis defendants is barred by res judicata. See, e.g., Pelletier v. Zweifel, 921 F.2d 1465, 1500-01 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 112 S. Ct. 167, 116 L. Ed. 2d 131 (1991) (discussing the elements of res judicata). That is, these plaintiffs litigated their duty of fair representation claim against ALPA in Nellis, and in Nellis the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia dismissed these plaintiffs' duty of fair representation claims on summary judgment. In short, even though the parties in Mann and Dunn differ slightly, this Court, upon review of the case and upon listening to oral argument on the present motion, has concluded that no Mann plaintiffs have cognizable claims. For that reason, the plaintiffs will not be granted leave to amend their complaint.
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Tariff war | US ‘not ready’ to make a trade deal with China, Trump says
- Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - 2 months ago No Comments 5,182 Views
The U.S. isn’t ready to make a trade deal with China, President Donald Trump said while on a state visit to Japan.
“I think they probably wish they made the deal that they had on the table before they tried to renegotiate it,” Trump said yesterday at a joint press conference in Tokyo alongside Japanese leader Shinzo Abe. “They would like to make a deal. We’re not ready to make a deal.”
Trump said American tariffs on Chinese goods “could go up very, very substantially, very easily.” His comments came after trade talks between the two countries stalled earlier this month. Each side has since blamed the other, and Trump has threatened billions more in tariffs.
Trump said businesses were leaving China for countries without tariffs, including the U.S. and Asian neighbors including Japan. Still, he also expressed optimism that the world’s biggest economies would eventually reach an agreement.
“I think sometime in the future China and the United States will absolutely have a great trade deal, and we look forward to that,” Trump said. “Because I don’t believe that China can continue to pay these, really, hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs. I don’t believe they can do that.”
NEW RHETORIC
For some time, the U.S. “has had various voices on China- U.S. trade talks. Sometimes it is said that an agreement will be reached soon, and sometimes that it is difficult to reach an agreement,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said in Beijing yesteday when asked about Trump’s comments.
“In the same period of time, China’s position has always been the same,” Lu said. “China has always believed that the differences between any two countries should of course be resolved through friendly consultations and negotiations.”
Over the weekend, China pushed back at the perception that Trump’s tariffs are hurting its economy.
Higher tariffs will have a “very limited” impact, and would hurt the U.S. about as much, according to Guo Shuqing, head of China’s banking and insurance regulator. Guo is the highest- ranking Chinese financial official to publicly comment on the trade standoff since talks deteriorated.
A commentary published by the official Xinhua News Agency accused the U.S. of “scapegoating” China for its trade imbalance and even some domestic economic issues, as Chinese state media urges unified resistance to foreign pressure.
“The United States is attempting to squeeze an unequal trade deal out of China, using measures such as tariff hikes and targeting its tech companies,” it said, while praising Beijing’s “utmost sincerity” in the negotiations.
China has escalated its anti-U.S. discourse since the talks faltered and Trump blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co. and scores of its affiliates earlier this month in a bid to stymie its access to the U.S. market. His administration is considering restrictions on as many as five other Chinese tech companies. Shannon Pettypiece & Iain Marlow, Bloomberg
Friday, July 19, 2019 – edition no. 3336
Kapok | The great delusion
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North Platinum Corridor the Next Chapter in Frisco’s Success Story
by Yvonne Brown
If you live in or around Frisco, you’re likely familiar with references to the “Five Billion Dollar Mile” — a one mile stretch along the Dallas North Tollway from Warren Parkway to Lebanon Road, expected to comprise four mixed-use developments.
Incorporating The Gate, The Star, and Frisco Station, this hive of construction activity has been in progress for the last couple of years yielding great benefits for the area and firmly marking Frisco as a destination point to live, work and play.
However, as the area evolves it’s no secret the Frisco’s growth spans beyond this single mile segment.
The Frisco North Platinum Corridor
Maddie Cargile Photography
In a release yesterday Craig Moen, Chairman of the Frisco Economic Development Corporation clarified the current branding of the major developments along the Dallas North Tollway, either announced or under construction.
The ‘corporation’ will market Frisco more holistically,” said Moen, “while emphasizing development along the entire stretch of the Dallas North Tollway (DNT), between S.H. 121 and U.S. 380. Frisco’s ‘urban spine’, as identified in the city’s Comprehensive Plan, will be branded using Frisco’s ‘North Platinum Corridor’.
We’ve experienced phenomenal growth over the past two decades, but as our city evolves we’re at a pivotal point in commercial development. We’ve posed the question before, but our fast-paced growth and development amid changing trends and technologies prompts us to ask it again, ‘what do we want to look like when we grow up?’”
Let’s look at how the three key projects of the North Platinum Corridor have progressed since they first broke ground.
The Dallas Cowboys World Headquarters and practice facility of the Dallas Cowboys opened in August 2016. Featuring The Ford Center, a multi-use event center and indoor athletic facility, is the “first of its kind” public-private partnership between the Dallas Cowboys, the City of Frisco and Frisco ISD.
The Star, otherwise known as The Entertainment District, is 91 acres of retail, dining, and office space, as well as a 60,000-square foot gym, the Omni Frisco Hotel, and the Tostitos Plaza, where visitors can enjoy outdoor events and activities. While many of The Star’s amenities have been fully operational for more than a year, “The Entertainment District” held their official ribbon-cutting ceremony in March 2018.
Image courtesy Maddie Cargile
Frisco Station
This exciting new Urban Development off Gaylord Pkwy near The Star is the largest project, comprising 242 acres with a mission of delivering a unique, smart, creative, and healthy environment. A mixed-use community with luxury office space and apartments, retail, restaurants, medical facilities, wellness amenities, two hotels (Marriott AC and Marriot Residence Inn) and conference center. The area will also incorporate 29 acres of green open space around creeks and trails for relaxation, gathering, entertainment, and events with a strong emphasis on walkability.
Frisco Station prides itself on being a Wellness Enhanced Development. On-site facilities will support leisure pursuits, recreational activities, creative expression, and healthy dining options, alongside unparalleled medical and fitness resources.
The first building, a seven-story office facility, opened late 2017 just a year after the initial groundbreaking. When completed the development will house more than 3,000 residents and provide over 10,000 future daytime employment opportunities.
The exploration into an innovative, autonomous vehicle pilot program follows an earlier announcement from Uber Elevate and Hillwood to develop one of the nation’s first vertiports at Frisco Station.
A mixed-use development funded by Dubai-based company Invest Group Overseas (IGO), The Gate spans 41 acres located at the DNT and John Hickman. In the works for over two years, it broke ground in Oct 2016 with a 350-unit multifamily development known as Domain at the Gate.
Amenities will include an 11,000 square foot clubhouse, two-level fitness facility, golf simulator, dog spa and bike garage. Almost another 20 buildings are also now under construction including a boutique hotel, retail, dining and Class A office space ranging in height from 3 to 10 stories. Full completion of the master-planned community is expected by summer 2019
June 2018 Development Update: Read Mayor Jeff Cheney’s address from the State of the City Luncheon, which references the above projects and the Frisco North Platinum Corridor.
Announcing New Frisco EDC President Ron Patterson
In addition to the rebranding of the Five Billion Dollar Mile, earlier this month Ron Patterson was officially promoted to President of the FEDC. A familiar face in Frisco Ron has served as interim President since December 2017, following the retirement of Jim Gandy who served for 21 years.
Ron Patterson shared, “I’m excited to serve our (Frisco) citizens in a new way. It’s a great privilege and I’m very humbled to have this opportunity. Consistent vision and reliable leadership from our city councils, past and present, as well as our city manager, George Purefoy, are cornerstones for our success.”
Patterson has worked in city government more than thirty years, which includes his initial service to the City of Frisco from 1993 – 2000 plus two jobs as a city manager in other Texas communities. He graduated from the University of Texas at Dallas with a Bachelors in Public Administration; he completed his Master of Public Administration at the University of North Texas. Patterson served 23 years in the United States Air Force / Texas Air National Guard. He’s been married 32 years and has two daughters.
“Ron’s excellent negotiation skills and utmost integrity combined with his knowledge of government operations makes him uniquely qualified to be president of the Frisco Economic Development Corporation,” said George Purefoy, City Manager. “Given his knowledge of Frisco, as well as our stakeholders and influencers, he’s able to immediately hit the ground running.”
Patterson says he’s committed to the city vision and is dedicated to bringing high paying jobs to Frisco. As an assistant city manager, Patterson has had a leadership role in city capital projects, as well as public-private development projects.
“Our vision for Frisco is to be an innovative, entrepreneurial, ‘best in class’ community for all generations,” said Mayor Jeff Cheney. “As a full life-cycle community, we want to provide high quality of life, exceptional services at the best value for our residents and businesses. An aggressive, yet thoughtful and strategic approach to economic development will help us achieve those goals. We’re confident Ron (Patterson) is the best person to lead those efforts.”
Related: Innovative Partnership to Improve Transportation in Frisco’s North Platinum Corridor
Tags: Frisco Economic Development Corporation, frisco station, Mayor Jeff Cheney, the gate, the star in frisco, wade park
About Yvonne Brown
Yvonne Brown has been a resident of Frisco for over 8 years having relocated from Ireland with her husband and 2 daughters. With a 20 year background in Corporate Operations & Customer Service Management, she turned her skills to freelance writing, more recently specialising in residential and commercial real estate around North Texas. She also enjoys trying out new restaurants, kid-friendly places to explore and discovering all aspects of Frisco life as it grows. In her spare time, she likes to read, write fiction, run and enjoy the outdoors with her family.
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Top Five. The Fictional TV Characters I Wish were Real
I’m starting a new thing in this blog which I’m calling “Top Five”. Just for kicks.
My first “Top Five” pays homage to the brilliant minds who created characters on Television today whom if these people had been real, they would certainly and surely make the world… well, not necessarily a better place, but surely a more interesting one. Good or bad, these characters make Bart Simpson seem like just another regular Joe.
1. Jack Bauer. You can’t not know Jack Bauer. He’s the lead character in the TV series 24. An ex-CTU (Counter Terrorist Unit) agent, eventually became a CTU Director, then a free agent, then a wanted fugitive, and eventually a private citizen who simply wanted to live his life in peace. But we know better. As long as Jack Bauer roams the streets of the planet Earth, Jack Bauer can never rest in peace.
The world needs people like him. The guy you can count on to always do the right thing regardless of the cost to himself. He has literally died (twice!) for his country; been tagged as a hardcore enemy of the state; sacrificed his wife, daughter and friends for the sake of the country. He has saved the world from countless terrorist attacks, saved the lives of millions. If a Jack Bauer really existed in this lifetime, maybe terrorists would think thrice about striking.
2. Michael Westen. The lead character of Burn Notice, a show about the life of an ex-agent who gets burned, leaving him with no prior work history, no money; in essence, no identity. He suddenly wakes up after a humongous explosion while on a mission in Nigeria, in Miami, Florida, attended to by an ex-girlfriend, and an old friend who tells on his activities to the US government. The entire series is all about Michael investigating why he was burned and by whom; and trying to find ways to restore his identity and recover his assets. But in the meantime, he accepts odd jobs helping people who can’t help themselves, and who can’t ask help from official channels. Victims of scams and cons; targets of gangsters and mobs; people who were basically taken advantage of, ripped off and abused.
His methods, like Jack Bauer, are often questionable. But he does what needs to be done, and his heart is in the right place. You’ll never catch this guy crossing over to the wrong side of the fence. He will always champion the side of the good, albeit the side of good can sometimes be riddled with shades of grey. And he’s street smart too. ‘Course he is, he was one of the US’ best field agents before he was burned. A modern day but low-key MacGyver who’s loyal to the core.
3. Dr. Sheldon Cooper turns 20 minutes of each Big Bang Theory episode into 20 minutes of utter hilarity and uproarious belly-aching laughter. The young know-it-all genius Physicist who has absolutely no concept of emotional intelligence makes Geekdom seem like the coolest thing to be. He puts pompom-donning cheerleaders and prom queens to shame. Admittedly, he is a bit arrogant…. (okay, ‘a bit’ is an outright lie), has no concept of what it means to be a good friend, is probably asexual, and is emotionally constipated.
But he’s absolutely funny and adorable! He can probably change our perception of sub-atomic particles, black holes and whatever other things that rock the world of Physics (leaving about 99.99% of the world’ population in complete obscurity about such discoveries), but he surely wouldn’t be the best housemate to anyone. But he can sure make us all laugh. And with a character as oblivious and clueless as that, he’d make for a highly entertaining companion, as long as you’re not in dire need of a morale boost.
4. Mademoiselle Blair Waldorf from the Upper East Side. ‘Queen B’, as she was fondly called up until Season 2 of Gossip Girl. Absolutely spoiled, insane and sometimes bordering on having a blackened soul… but gorgeous, trendy, funny and sweet, in her own bitter-sour way. Most people I know who love Gossip Girl, love Blair Waldorf more than her other Upper East Side female buds. She’s often a hardcore bitch with a capital ‘B’. But when she loves someone, she loves them to death.
Do not ever make the mistake of crossing the Queen of the hive, she can guarantee you’ll be out of friend, acquaintances, a home, a hometown… she can even send an entire city running after you…. if it doesn’t get to Gossip Girl first. If Blair were real, I’d give my entire month’s salary to make sure I’m on her good side. The best part… while I may not have the heart nor the guts for sweet satisfying revenge on those who wrong me, Queen B certainly does…
5. Walter Bishop is the genius of Fringe. A bit weird, yes. That’s what genius does to many.
And maybe if Walter Bishop were real, the fabric between our world and the parallel world would tear and other versions of ourselves would be crossing over, wreaking havoc on the world as we know it. And maybe buildings with thousands of people in them would start crossing over and pushing aside our buildings on this side. And maybe we’d have children test subjects who would be exhibiting extraordinary abilities when they reach adulthood so they can defeat evil. Would that be such a bad thing?
But okay, scientific genius aside, we love Walter Bishop cause he’s lovable, adorable and a generally good father to Peter. He may have technically stolen his son from the other side… but he’s certainly making up for it in his older age.
Who’s on your top five?
Filed under Television, Top Five Tagged with 24, Big Bang Theory, Blair Waldorf, burn notice, Fringe, Gossip Girl, Jack bauer, michael westen, Sheldon Cooper, Top Five, walter bishop
TV Shows: Renewed or Cancelled?
In the US, the latest seasons of our favorite TV shows have just finished. Which means that for us folks down here in the Americanized third world archipelago called the Philippines, there’s a strange separation anxiety and a tinge of sadness giving up the usual prime time cable fanfare habit catching up on our favorite characters on television.
I don’t catch the shows on TV though. I wait for the DVDs or the legitimately downloaded shows from friends and acquaintances.Which doesn’t mean that TV show season endings don’t affect us just as much. If any, it hits us worse off. See, we normally wait for the entire season to finish, then watch the season for a few days straight. And then as soon as that’s done, it means another one year hiatus from our TV friends.
In this rough-and-tumble world, these shows have been with me and hubby through thick and thin; bringing us joy and temporary respite from the madness called real life.
And sadly, it’s that time of the year when TV lovers like us wonder – which shows get renewed, which ones get cut? Which friends live to continue keeping our minds occupied for several more hours again? And which ones do we bid adieu to?
Here’s just an unconfirmed rundown of the status of these shows we’ve come to love:
Stays! 30 Rock, Big Bang Theory, Bones, Castle, Chuck, Criminal Minds, CSI (all of them), Family Guy, Fringe, Glee, Gossip Girl, House, How I Met Your Mother, Human Target, Lie to Me, Mentalist, NCIS (both of them), Private Practice, Royal Pains, Smallville (!)
Goes: 24 (buh-bye Jack Bauer! *sniff*), Dollhouse, Flash Forward, Heroes
I have a few thoughts about some of the shows that were axed.
We haven’t started watching this latest season of 24, but I’m actually a little bit glad about this being the last we see of Jack Bauer (on television at least). I love the show to bits, and I love Jack Bauer to bits — but I seriously think it’s time for Jack to retire. The scenarios portrayed in the last few seasons were sometimes already bordering on being ludicrous. If we were talking about invincible superheroes like Superman, plots upon plots where Superman gets this close to certain death and still manages to escape unscathed could already be considered unbelievable… what more a mere mortal like Jack? I know he’s Jack Bauer… but seriously, Jack Bauer puts the Titan Gods to shame. And for that reason alone, I really think it’s time Jack really retires.
If he were a real person (and I’ve written about my profound admiration of the man in a previous post), I’d liken his life to a Greek tragedy. And then I’d say that this man deserves to finally die and be at peace. 10 seasons to relive Jack Bauer again and again until I’m old and frail is good enough for me.
I also wrote about Dollhouse in a previous entry. Wrote about how much I loved it, while singing the praises of one of the greatest directors in our lifetime, Joss Whedon. Of course when I wrote that post way back in 2009, I already had an inkling it wouldn’t last.
And why not? The show is not about a damsel (seemingly in distress) falling in love with a blood-sucking vampire. Ironic how I talk about humans and vampires considering the creator of Dollhouse was the first director to even conceptualize a TV show featuring human-vampire relations through Buffy and Angel. And then Twilight, Vampire Diaries and True Blood comes into the picture. All copy cats, if you ask me. Joss Whedon is and will always be the true genius of cult flicks.
Which brings me to say that Dollhouse being axed is a sad disappointment. Granted that the premise of the show may be a bit too out-of-this-world and as un-mainstream as it can be… but isn’t that what true entertainment is all about? When I plant myself on our living room couch in front of the television set with a bowl of chips, I want to be swept away into another reality where anything is possible. That’s what Dollhouse has always done for me. I guess that’s that.
Now, Flash Forward. Within the first five minutes of the pilot episode, I was taken in. Three episodes later, I was hooked. But after about ten, twelve episodes… it just sorta fizzled. (Much like how Heroes took us all in at the beginning. Season 1 was terrific. Season 2 was so-so. Season 3 was a mess. Season 4 was a waste of time and money.)
Too too bad. It had an excellent plot. In fact, it made me ask one too many existential questions. What would you do if you could know without a doubt what the future held for you? Would you change your future without even knowing the full context of the few seconds’ glimpse of the future? Would you sacrifice yourself to save the future of a virtual stranger? What would you do if you knew you were to die in the very near future?
It started out on the right foot. Excellent casting (I love Joseph Fiennes!). But it just abruptly went downhill midseason. I haven’t even finished the first season and don’t even feel a tinge of enthusiasm to finish it. What a pity.
Filed under Television Tagged with 24, Cancelled and Renewed TV Shows, Dollhouse, Flash Forward, Jack bauer, TV Shows 2010, TV Shows in Fall 2010
Lessons from the Anti-Heroes
We can always learn a thing or two about dealing with injustice and grief from today’s fictional anti-hero heroes and icons. (indulge me for a while in this post as I talk about fictional characters as though they were real).
I wager many fans of thriller and suspense flicks actually love Hannibal Lecter as much as they love Clarice Sterling. I know I do. After all, he does what we all just wish we could do but dismiss as even a remote possibility owing to our long-held beliefs of right and wrong. When karma takes too long to get back at those who did wrong to you, it’s almost tempting to contemplate revenge and vindication.
But that was one of the very few things my mum has carefully instilled in me since I was a young girl. Never exact revenge, and never will nor want for anything bad to happen to anyone, even to those who have wronged you. The world has a way of righting the wrong, but just let it be… and don’t cause for any of it to happen.
And so I just take vicarious pleasure watching and contemplating Hannibal Lecter’s life principles. Not that it makes his methods right, nor does it make him any less of a madman, nor is what he does right in any way. But you gotta admit. He does what we all just wish we could do in a less extreme way. Hurt the ones who hurt other people. Lecter generally takes good care of the people whom he has dubbed as “people who are worthy of being a part of the human race”. He lets people like Clarice Sterling live. He offs the opera singer who cheats on his spouse; tortures and terrorizes the ambitious, dishonest journalist who gives little regard for what is morally right… effectively, he is just ridding the world of morally ambiguous people.
I have a handful of friends and acquaintances who classify as “don’t ever mess with me or you’re dead meat“. They’ve gotten justice at people who’ve wronged them in ways I can never even imagine doing (and yet, it’s nowhere even remotely close to Hannibal, okay?). On the one hand, I cringe at the thought of willfully causing hurt or pain to someone else…. even if it is only to seek justice (not even revenge). Even if repercussions on the recipient of justice are mostly emotional scars.
On the other, part of me admires their tenacity and will to get the justice they feel they deserve.
Where do you draw the line?
Every decision and action we make, no matter how seemingly insignificant, has corresponding actions and reactions. It’s not so far from making a decision everyday on how we behave towards humanity.
My husband gave me an interesting insight last night. As we were watching a documentary on History Channel about the Legacy of Star Wars, he told me to pick up lessons from Anakin Skywalker’s journey to the dark side. It began with just one incident: his mother’s death. Not only did it awaken his lust for revenge and power, but it brought out the strongest emotion that led him down the path to the destruction of his humanity: fear.
And so it begs the question of what to do when people have wronged you. It’s so easy to seek vindication and justice but sometimes, you wonder. At what cost does it come? Whose feathers do you ruffle? How many individual’s lives will you alter? Whose spirit will you crush?
Perhaps those are the same questions that plague Jack Bauer. (Jack Bauer, the perpetual martyr in the TV show 24)
I used to joke that next to God and the others powers-that-be in the Universe, Jack Bauer is the next rockin’ hero.
He takes bullet after bullet of crap to save his country. Several nuclear bombs, suicide bombers, biological warfares and homicidal terrorists later, Jack Bauer still keeps coming back to save the day. At what cost? His life, his wife, his daughter and all the other things that matter in his life.
Never one to seek revenge or vindication for himself. Always does the right thing. Always takes the fall even when he should be the last person to take it. Seeks to protect others before himself. Decides always for the greater good even if it’s at the expense of his own life.
Does a person like that truly exist? If there is, I’d like to meet this person and take him away from his awful reality, give him a taste of the good life for a change.
Like many fans of Jack Bauer, I draw comfort from the possibility that a Jack Bauer exists in this lifetime. A character like him restores my faith in humanity (although watching his enemies affirms the cynicism that the human race is often in a state of total, utter disgrace) and reminds me that there are people who will go beyond the call of duty to do the right thing.
The whole point of this discourse? Nothing much. Maybe except for the fact that life will always be unpredictable and we will always wonder why things happen to us that we feel we don’t deserve. And maybe we really don’t, who’s to say?
Perhaps if there’s anything you can take out from pop culture’s icons today, it’s this: we can never ever lose the part of us that’s good, that’s kind and decent. That’s what it means to be human. Every single day, we cannot lose our humanity. Every word we say, every thought we think of, every action we do irrevocably shapes the person we will become someday.
Filed under Cinema, Real Life Stories, Television Tagged with 24, Anakin Skywalker, Clarice Sterling, Hannibal Lecter, Jack bauer, Star Wars
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Master Elizabeth Bennet Chapters 13 & 14
Date: June 23, 2016Author: melschertz 0 Comments
“Lady Catherine, there is a man wishing to speak with you and Miss de Bourgh.”
“And who is this man, Jeevers?” Lady Catherine inquired, her tone being frustrated at having to ask.
“A Mr Wickham. He states he has news for you, news he is certain you will wish to hear.”
Lady Catherine knew very well what the subject of the news would be. She had long paid George Wickham to keep a watch over her nephew.
George Wickham had been the son of Gerald Darcy’s steward. He was a year younger than Fitzwilliam Darcy, but had been his childhood playmate, until Gerald paid for the younger Wickham to attend school with his son. The true nature of the young man was shown when he was away from parental guidance. Fitzwilliam had not wished to burden his father with the trouble Wickham got into, and would usually pay the debts Wickham left in his trail, to protect the Darcy family name, a name Wickham had cashed in upon.
When his nature was emerging, Lady Catherine realized the potential ally she had in the young man. As he was constantly in need of funds, it was simple to pay him to spy on her nephew. She wished to know what he was doing, and to ensure that Fitzwilliam was not falling for one of the young ladies of society who flung themselves at him.
As Wickham entered the room, the footman closed the door behind him. “Lady Catherine, Miss de Bourgh, such a pleasure to see both of you once again.”
Anne was well aware of her mother’s agreement with the young man, and, like everything else in Anne’s miserable life, the young lady could not care less.
“What news do you have for me, Wickham?”
“Ah, yes, straight to the point. You never stop to smell the roses, just plow straight ahead.” Wickham stated, waiting for the grand dame to approve his taking his seat. When he saw that no offer would be made, he walked over to the sideboard, pouring himself a glass of port, then took the chair that was situated to the left of Lady Catherine’s throne like chair.
“Well, I have the most interesting of developments to report to you today. It is a most shocking development, one I would not have ever imagined.”
Lady Catherine was impatient with his stonewalling. “Mr Wickham, I suggest you tell us the news or be gone. You are already treading on my nerves, helping yourself of my best port and acting as if you live here.”
“But Lady Catherine, I have traveled from Town, and require refreshment.” Wickham smiled as he raised the glass to his lips. After taking a few sips, the man continued to speak.
“There is a new tea shop in Town, one that has become a frequent stop for several members of your family.”
“Why would I care where my family shop for their tea? How could this matter to me and my daughter?”
Wickham took another sip. “Well, it seems that the shop is favored by the Countess of Matlock, and she has sent your nephew to frequent the little shop. As a matter of fact, your niece, Georgiana Darcy’s new companion is a relation of the shop’s owner.”
“Fitzwilliam Darcy hired a lady from trade to serve as my niece’s companion? How dare he lower Georgiana’s chances of making a proper match? She will never be taken seriously with a companion who comes from a family in trade.” Lady Catherine nearly roared.
“That is not the worst news, your Ladyship.”
“Then speak. I demand to know what else is happening.”
Standing, Wickham returned to the side board, pouring more port in his glass. Before retaking his seat, he sipped from the glass and topped it off for a third time.
“Mr Wickham, you need to speak of your news before I have the footmen throw you from this house, with nothing but the clothes on your back. If you request financial recompense, then speak.”
“The tea shop is owned by Mr Edward Gardiner, who died near a year past. The young man who manages the shop is a nephew of the Gardiners, and runs the shop on behalf of Mr Gardiner’s widow and children.” Wickham took another sip, savoring the liquid as it flowed down his throat. He had not enjoyed such fine drink in some time, as his finances had been tight. Wickham was infamous for being on the run from creditors and male relations of the young ladies he had ruined.
“So are you telling me that the companion to my niece is taking advantage of my nephew? Is she a fortune hunter, and has caused my nephew to compromise her?”
“No, Lady Catherine, the companion is not the problem.”
“Then tell me what the problem is immediately. Out with the news, now, or leave penniless.”
Anne rolled her eyes. She did not care what dull news the man had to share, as she knew that her cousin was a bore.
“Lady Catherine, I was standing across the street from the shop, and I witnessed your nephew protect the young man from a robbery. During the robbery, the young man was injured. A customer was entering the shop as the robbers were exiting, and she went for the physician, at Darcy’s demand. While she was gone, Darcy began opening the young man’s shirt and coats to check the wound, at least that was what I believed, until Darcy took hold of the young man by the arms and pulled him into a passionate kiss.”
Neither Anne or Lady Catherine could have anticipated such news. “Is this the reason my nephew has refused to do his duty to his family? Is this why he has not declared his engagement to my daughter?” Lady Catherine stood and began to pace about the room. “But this is the best news.”
“The best news?” Anne was shocked. “Mother, are you well? You were just told that your nephew was seen kissing another man. Not only is the thought disgusting and repugnant, but it is illegal. He could hang for such actions.”
“And that is why the news is perfect. Do you not see? We can use the information to blackmail Fitzwilliam into marrying you. We will keep his secret, and that of the young man, if he agrees to be married immediately. Once he agrees, we will control Pemberley.”
“Why is it you wish to have me married to a man who would behave in such a manner? The thought makes me ill.” Anne was repulsed.
“Do you not understand? All this time, I have wished to have Pemberley. It was the only way I could take control of the estate. My sister always thought she had the best of everything. But my having both Rosings and Pemberley, I will be the most important of us. My sister will never be able to take that from me.” Lady Catherine was nearly salivating.
“How can you expect me to marry such a man? No, Mother, I will not be bound for the rest of my life to someone who is committing such vulgar acts of depravity.” Anne declared.
“You will marry him, and then you will make certain you bear him a child. Once you have done these two things, you can banish him to his estate in Scotland. You need never see him again, once you have his heir. And the best part of the situation is, the heir does not have to be a male, as there is no entail for either Rosings or Pemberley.” Lady Catherine was planning the future which she could see opening before her. “I will take charge of Pemberley, as it has long been in need of improvements which my sister lacked. You may remain here, or come to Pemberley with me.”
“Mother, this is not a discussion we should be having in front of Mr Wickham. I believe we have much to decide prior to making arrangements to move to Pemberley, or anywhere else.” Anne was becoming more repulsed by the moment. Her desire to flee from the room weighed heavily against her desire to protect herself from spending the remaining years of her life as Mrs. Anne Darcy. If Wickham spoke the truth, the last thing in the world Anne wished for was to be in such a marriage, but how was she to convince her mother not to pursue the dream she had held for so many years?
“Wickham, I will need you to return to Town and keep watch over the situation. Send me express messages if necessary, when there are any updates on the situation. And I need more information on the young man. This is my nephew’s weakness, and I will exploit this weakness, even if it means ruining the young man. But if he is such a carnal creature as to prefer men, he deserves no less than to be ruined.” Lady Catherine started for the door of the drawing room. “Come with me, and I will give you the funds you will require to do my bidding.”
Wickham stood, still holding his glass, and followed the grand dame of Rosings Park from the room.
Left behind, Anne began to search her mind for options to save her from the future her mother had decided for her. Finally, one name came to mind. She would write to her cousin Richard. If anyone could help her find a way to escape her mother’s plot, it would be Richard Fitzwilliam. Was he in England or on the continent? She could not remember what he had written in his last letter. Anne admitted that she had been in a horrible mood the past several months, as she knew it was fast approaching when she would not be able to avoid her mother’s demands to marry Darcy. Yes, she was spoiled, and had continued behaving with Darcy as she always had, praying that she could disgust Darcy enough to refuse to marry her. When she was completely honest, Anne had to admit that she did not wish to marry, as she had no guidance on how to have the sort of marriage she would wish. Her parents had a horrible relationship, filled with anger and bitterness.
If Anne had admitted the truth, she would have been pleased to marry Richard. He was kind to her, even when Anne acted the spoiled heiress. Richard was one of the few people she had respected and cared for throughout her life. So it was with determination that Anne made her way to her bedchamber to search her cousin’s latest letters, hoping that he was in England, and that he could come to her aid.
~~~~~~~ ** ~~~~~~~
The Darcys had invited the Bennets and Gardiners to dine with them at Darcy House. Mrs Gardiner was worried about taking her children, but Darcy was adamant that they were welcome to come. “Mrs Gardiner, we have a nursery filled with all sorts of delights to keep the children occupied, and they can dine there. Your niece can tell you that my staff is more than dependable to keep watch over the children for a few hours.”
Finally, Mrs Gardiner agreed to bring her offspring to the grand townhouse in the Mayfair district, along with her nieces. Jane was with Georgiana, as she had decided to keep her position as the younger girl’s companion for the time being.
Along with the Bennet/Gardiner family, Darcy had invited the Fitzwilliam family to join them. It would be the night they all discussed the situation with Elizabeth no longer pretending to be a man. The family would be relied upon heavily to protect Elizabeth and her relations as she emerged to the world as herself once more.
Richard Fitzwilliam was free from duties and had joined his parents and his elder brother, Albert, at Darcy House. He had chuckled when he learned the news of his cousin’s love interest, especially when he was informed of Darcy’s kissing Elizabeth in the tea shop.
After the meal was enjoyed, with Elizabeth sitting to Darcy’s right, the men decided to forgo the division of sexes and joined the ladies in the music room.
Rather than music, those gathered were to discuss the plans for Elizabeth Bennet’s return.
“I received a letter from Mrs. Reynolds, my housekeeper at Pemberley, stating that the tea shop in Lambton had indeed closed. The building is available, and it has living quarters situated to the back of the shop. The living quarters have three bedchambers, a parlor, and a kitchen with a dining area. Above the shop, there is room for two bedchambers and an office. There is a basement, much as the shop you currently have.” Darcy began the discussion.
“How much are they asking for the property?” Mrs Gardiner inquired.
Reading from the letter, Darcy continued. “For the shop, the living quarters, and a small garden area near the living quarters, they are asking about half of what you can earn from the sale of your property in Town. That would be enough to allow you a cushion in the bank. And, when the children are old enough, they can attend school.”
“Will we be able to afford a carriage and horse?” Kitty inquired. We have Uncle’s small carriage, and his horse, but will we be able to keep them?”
Mrs Gardiner took a moment to think of the finances. “Possibly. We will need to consider the expenses of moving. We might need to hire someone to tend the children while Kitty and I work in the shop.”
“Aunt, I have no intentions of leaving you so soon. There will be plenty of time with me assisting you, before you need worry about someone as a nanny for the children.” Elizabeth announced.
“But you will be working as Miss Elizabeth Bennet, correct?” Richard Fitzwilliam asked pointedly. “That is the point of this ploy, is it not?”
Elizabeth nodded her head. “It pains me that I have caused so much difficulty to all of you. At the time, my only concern was to keep my family together, housed and fed.”
“Do not fret, Lizzy.” Jane said. “All will be well.”
“We do not wish to excite any speculation, so Georgiana, Miss Bennet and I will leave Town in three days. We will arrive at Pemberley, and then I will speak with the solicitor about the purchase of the shop in Lambton. Do not fret, it will not be a hardship for me to wait for you to reimburse me. Even if you would prefer to pay me a bit at a time, I find no difficulty in such a situation.”
“No, Mr Darcy, we will repay you as soon as possible.” Elizabeth was firm on that matter. “I will not allow anyone to say that you purchased the shop for my relations, as a way of buying my favors.”
“Of course, Miss Elizabeth. But we will make certain that everything is above board.” Darcy attempted to keep from laughing. It was clear that Elizabeth was nervous, and did not wish to add fuel to the potential fire that could rise when word came out that Darcy intended to wed her.
“I do not wish to sound so ungrateful. It is difficult for me to explain my feelings.” Elizabeth stood, walking towards the window, wishing for a way to speak what was on her heart.
Darcy followed her, standing close behind. He was tempted to wrap her in his arms, hold her close, and take away all of her fears. “Miss Elizabeth, I wish I could take all your worries from you, and show you that I care deeply. Forgive me, for I have always had the tendency to do everything in my power to protect those for which I care. My sister can attest to this truth. As you are not accustomed to this, I must seem overwhelming and pompous.”
Elizabeth gave a slight chuckle. “Indeed, Mr Darcy.”
“It pains me to see you have to work, when you are a gentlewoman by birth. And to see you have to hide who you are, brings me sorrow. I wish to do whatever I can, so you can be yourself.”
Turning around, Elizabeth looked up into the pair of brilliant blue eyes of Fitzwilliam Darcy. She knew she was being foolish, and that she should allow herself to feel. But it had been many months since she had been a carefree young lady, living at her father’s estate, doing whatever she pleased. There had been too many months of having the responsibility for so many others. Even before she had dressed as a man, Elizabeth had nursed her family members through the epidemic. She had been the only member of her family who did not take ill, which had left her to tend to their needs. Keeping them cooled with cold water bathing their faces and arms, broth and tea made to nourish them, washing the bedding and clothes for her family, seeing to their personal needs. And giving them the medicine that the apothecary had sent to them. The physician had come as often as he could, but the epidemic had taken a strong hold throughout London, and very few households were unaffected. The same had been in many counties, including Hertfordshire.
Elizabeth had needed to be strong, to protect her family, to keep them together and living. Could she step back? Could she allow someone else to take over for her? She desired to move forward, to have a life filled with love. She wished to be a wife and mother. But was this the right time to do so? Could her family survive the changes that would come with moving and beginning again?
As she looked into Darcy’s eyes, she felt she could see into his very soul. He was an incredible man, generous, caring, strong, devoted, and extremely handsome. And he spoke of his attraction to her. Could he truly love her, after knowing that others believed her to be a man? What would he do if word were to spread, announcing his desire to marry a young lady who had pretended to be a man? Would he abandon her, if gossip spread?
“I wish to give you an answer, Mr Darcy. I would love nothing more than to believe your words, and give into the plans you have for the future. But what if gossip rose about me? What if word spread that I had pretended to be a man? Can you promise me that it would not matter to you? Can you give me your word that you would not become bitter if your name was dragged through the mud? What would happen to my family if you decided it would be too much to be worth the degradation? We would be ruined.”
“Do you have so little faith in me?” Darcy pleaded with his eyes as he spoke. “I do not give myself over to such feelings lightly. I have thought of nothing more for the last fortnight. Even before I had confirmation that you were a lady. Please, Miss Elizabeth, allow me to show you my love. Allow me to show you my faithfulness and devotion. I would never turn you away for anything as simple as gossip. Gossip is nothing of importance. Ask my family if I speak the truth. Ask them if I am the sort to permit gossip to take you away from me.”
Lady Matlock decided it was time to step in and assist the young couple. “Miss Elizabeth, please, allow me to speak for my nephew. There are few men in this world I would trust completely, and Fitzwilliam Darcy is one of those few men. He will not desert you over nonsense spread by gossips. Believe me, if it meant staying at Pemberley and avoiding the ton for the rest of his life, William would not hesitate for a moment. As a matter of fact, he would prefer to have a reason to live the rest of his life at Pemberley. Georgiana is the same, she is just as shy as her brother, and both prefer the country life of their estate.”
“I know that your words are true, your Ladyship, but my heart is still having a difficult time accepting something so good, after all the bad which left us where we have been these past months. I do not wish to wake to find this all a wonderful dream, and I have to return to dressing as Elijah.”
Darcy lifted her hand to his lips. “Do you feel my lips against your skin?” He turned the hand over, exposing the delicate point of her wrist, and placed another kiss there.
Elizabeth gasped as the simple gesture lit a fire inside her. Unable to speak, she simply nodded her head to answer his question.
“This is real, Miss Elizabeth. Not a dream, but me, wishing to love you. Will you not give me the opportunity to love you?”
Her inability to think rationally had caused her a momentary lapse of speech. When she could finally speak, her answer was simple. “Yes, yes, a million times, yes.”
Published by melschertz
Author of Pride and Prejudice fan fiction books. Retired crime lab/crime scene technician, I now spend my time with my family, making jewelry, and reading & writing P&P fanfiction. View all posts by melschertz
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Tag Archives: Kathleen Battle
“Plaisir d’amour” Revisited
Posted by michelinewalker in Uncategorized
Élizabeth Vigée-Lebrun, Baroque, C'est mon ami, Kathleen Battle, Marie-Antoinette, Marin Marais, Plaisir d'amour, Vincent Dumestre
perfomers: Claire Lefilliâtre, Brice Duisit, Isabelle Druet
group: Le Poème Harmonique
conductor: Vincent Dumestre
Related blogs:
“C’est mon ami,” composed by Marie-Antoinette
“Plaisir d’amour,” sung by Kathleen Battle
Photo credit: Wikipedia
Marie-Antoinette, by Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun
(please click on the picture to enlarge it)
On the 13th of August 2012, I posted a blog on “Plaisir d’amour,” sung by Marian Anderson: “Plaisir d’amour,” sung by Kathleen Battle. New information surfaced when I wrote about “Le Roi a fait battre tambour.” As a result we need an update.
The Dates: circa…
Marian Anderson’s rendition of Plaisir d’amour remains delightful, but it is different. As for the date given by above, 1785, it may be the date “Plaisir d’amour” was first performed, but it may be safer to write c. 1785. According to my earlier post, the lyrics, or poem, were written in 1780, now c. 1780, by Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian. But the lyrics were not set to music until 1784 or c. 1784, by Jean Paul Égide Martini.
From Paul Aegidius Schwarzendorf to J. P. É. Martini
Composer Jean Paul Égide Martini, also known as Martini Il Tedesco, was born in Freystadt, Bavaria and his birth-name is Johann Paul Aegidius Schwarzendorf (31 August 1741 – 10 February 1816). Martini changed his name when he arrived in France. Martini Il Tedesco or Il Tedesco Martini would mean the German Martini.
The Revival of Ancient Music
However, what I should underline is the current revival of Baroque music and ancient music, interpreted using the instruments of that era in music, the seventeenth century or 1600 to 1730/50. Eras in music overlap and going from era to era does not necessarily mean progress. The same is true of eras in the fine arts.
The leader in the revival of Baroque or early music is Jordi Savall i Bernadet (born January 14, 1942, in Igualada, Spain), known as Jordi Savall. I became aware of his effort when I saw Alain Corneau‘s Tous les matins du monde.[ii] a 1991 film about composers Sainte-Colombe and Marin Marais, 17th-century French musicians.
The music Savall adapted and performed for Alain Corneau‘s film earned him a César (a French Oscar) from the French film industry in 1992 and the soundtrack to this film sold more than a million copies worldwide (Wikipedia). There is a song entitled Sur tous les chemins du monde.
Poème Harmonique’s Vincent Dumestre is also engaged in a revival, but he seems to be focussing on songs. He is recording old songs as they were performed when they were composed. It is in this respect that Claire Lefilliâtre‘s rendition differs from Marian Anderson’s and vice versa.
Plaisir d’amour
The words, or lyrics, based on a poem by Jean de Florian (1755–1794), were written in 1780, now c. 1780;
The text was set to music by Jean Paul Égide Martini in 1784, now c. 1784;
In 1859, Hector Berlioz (1803–1869), a Romantic composer, arranged the piece for orchestra
Lyrics for Plaisir d’amour
Plaisir d’amour ne dure qu’un moment.
Chagrin d’amour dure toute la vie.
The pleasure of love lasts only a moment.
The pain of love lasts a lifetime.
J’ai tout quitté pour l’ingrate Sylvie.
Elle me quitte pour prendre un autre amant.
I left everything for the ungrateful Sylvia.
She is leaving me for another lover.
“Tant que cette eau coulera doucement,
Vers ce ruisseau qui borde la prairie,
Je t’aimerai”, me répétait Sylvie.
L’eau coule encore, elle a changé pourtant.
“As long as this water runs gently
Towards the brook that borders the meadow,
I will love you,” Sylvia said repeatedly.
The water still runs, but she has changed.
[i] translation: Every Morning in the World.
Posted by michelinewalker in Music
Antoine Watteau, Hector Berlioz, Jean de Florian, Jean Paul Égide Martini, Kathleen Battle, Micheline Walker, Plaisir d'amour, Wikipedia, words and music
L’Embarquement pour Cythère, Antoine Watteau (1684 – 1721)
Wikipedia‘s entry on Plaisir d’amour is very informative. For instance, it even contains the lyrics for the song. I will therefore provide a point-form summary of the story of the song, using the Wikipedia entry. There are several pop music settings of this song. Nana Mouskouri ‘s interpretation is particularly delightful, but I have not been able to embed the video.
La Surprise, by Antoine Watteau
The words, or lyrics, based on a poem by Jean de Florian (1755–1794), were written in 1780;
The text was set to music by Jean Paul Égide Martini in 1784;
Words for Plaisir d’amour
“As long as this water will run gently
Towards this brook which borders the meadow,
I will love you,” Sylvia told me repeatedly.
The water still runs, but she has changed
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Archive for the tag “International Freedom of Expression Exchange”
Press Freedom in the East African nations with ratings of the environment in 2014 (+ reports that the Ugandan regime turned off the transmitter of the Radio Baba in Jinja yesterday)
Yesterday on the 21.07.2015 the NRM regime cut off the radio transmitter for the “Baba Radio” or as it’s really named 87.7 Basogo Baino FM in Jinja after Dr. Kizza Besigye had a great rally earlier in the day in Iganga and Jinja. Therefore it made me go through the report on ‘Press Freedom in 2014 – Harsh Laws and Violence Drive Global Decline’ that is coming from the NGO Freedom house. Today on 22.07.2015 Mr. Innocent Anyole is sacked from his job after trying to interview Dr. Kizza Besigye this sacking happen by Radio Director Hon. Moses Grace Balyeku, the NRM Chairman of Jinja and MP for Jinja West Constituency. He sure followed party line and broke the wing of the man who introduced FDC man Dr. Kizza Besigye. Well, let me introduce the Press Freedom in East Africa according to the global rankings of the Freedom House and their report on how it was in 2014.
This report has three important levels of how the media is and which place in society it has:
Partly Free
Not Free
The difference between them comes to how great power the countries government controls the media or let them be. How the laws and treatment of journalist and media institutions is and how the events surrounding them have been in the recent year.
I will focus on the East African Countries and those in the “area” around how the quote and place this countries in the report. Because I write about the South Sudan, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda. These are the countries that will be taken. Not the whole world but the basic places that I usually cover in my blog somehow. So it shouldn’t be surprise to anyone.
Before addressing the numbers and rankings of the nations, let me take the quotes on some of the nations from the report as well:
“Ethiopian authorities stepped up arrests of independent journalists, including the Zone 9 bloggers, leading more than 30 to flee the country during the year, according to CPJ” (…) “In Kenya contained several vaguely worded clauses curtailing press freedom, including the threat of three years in prison for journalists who fail to obtain police permission before reporting on terrorism investigations or operations, or for coverage “likely to cause public alarm, incitement to violence, or disturb public peace” (…) “Somalia’s score improved from 82 to 79 due to the increased ability of private actors to open media outlets and the greater distribution of media, especially radio, throughout the south-central part of the country” (…) “South Sudan’s score declined from 62 to 68 due to the government’s near-complete disregard for constitutional and legal protections for freedom of the press in 2014, as well as the lack of such protections in rebel-held areas; a marked increase in restrictions imposed on journalists by the security forces; and heightened censorship, self-censorship, and retaliatory attacks on journalists”.
From here I will address the rankings of the East African nations coming when it comes to press freedom and the numbers that they have gotten from the expert committees that gone through reports and the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX). The stories this numbers are telling and the situation that the media has on the ground is staggering. Therefore it’s a story that has to be told. Now will explain the criteria of the global ranking that is made of scoring process, the value of the levels and what they mean for each country and last the main groups of questions that the researchers and analyst in cooperation with IFEX. That has crunched the numbers with the questions and reports from sources from the whole world.
Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers”
Scoring Process:
“The research and scoring process involves more than 90 analysts—including outside consultants and members of the core research team headquartered in New York—who prepare the draft ratings and country reports” (…) “the other members of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) network for providing detailed and timely analyses of press freedom violations in a variety of countries worldwide, on which we rely to make our judgments”.
Scale Point for the levels:
“A country’s final score (from 0 to 100) represents the total of the scores allotted for each question. A total score of 0 to 30 results in a press freedom status of Free; 31 to 60 a status of Partly Free; and 61 to 100 a status of Not Free”.
Questions that makes the score:
The scores are put into three categories: Legal Environment (0-30points), Political Environment (0-40points) and Economical Environment (0-30points).
Placing of the East African nations:
Rank Country Score Status
164 Burundi 74 Not Free
172 Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) 79 Not Free
180 Ethiopia 83 Not Free
124 Kenya 57 Partly Free
172 Rwanda 79 Not Free
172 Somalia* 79 Not Free
152 South Sudan 68 Not Free
115 Tanzania 54 Partly Free
123 Uganda 56 Partly Free
*Somaliland got ranked 115 – Score of 54 and was set to be ‘Partly Free’
What this means:
This tells something about the environment that the press in the East African nations goes through. Of the eight nations three is ‘Partly Free’: Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. This means that certain levels of freedom is on the media, but has certain levels of strings on the press. It’s worse in the rest of the nations because they are on the level of ‘Not Free’: Burundi, DRC, Rwanda, Somalia and South Sudan. And they did make Somalialand as a separate territory as a ‘Party Free’ whiles the country as a whole is set as ‘Not Free’. Therefore in that setting certain areas of Somalia federation has more freedom then the rest.
What that is shocking for me is how low scores countries of Uganda has compared to Ethiopia. Ethiopia has been strict on media and journalist. Especially to those who are abiding opposition in the country. Uganda has many outlets, still the big ones has over time been disorganized by the regime like the Daily Monitor. That has not happen with similar media in Kenya. Though the laws for media there is isn’t similar reports on shut downs of radio station and papers when the regime disagrees. Rwanda I am sure that the government is strict on the media, because the news from there is usually in the mood of the regime. Burundi if it wasn’t for protests and deflectors, there would be less news and information on the regime of Pierre Nkuruziza. DRC and Kabila haven’t put this into motions after all the issues that have been in the last decades. The regime has control and want to be sure of the information that is put out. Therefore when you hear something negative it’s from the UN bodies or MONUSCO but not the press of the DRC or journalists. Tanzania has its freedom but also strangles on the media. The party has been running the country since independence so the feelings is that their intertwined and feel like they are together, instead of actually being critical of the politicians and society. But it should be worried that the different countries and how big the difference between the top and bottom of the scale in the East African. From Tanzania who got 54 points and the worst was Ethiopia got 83 points – the close competition was Rwanda, Somalia and Democratic Republic of Congo got all 79 points on the scale. 60 Points scale is the max for the ‘Partly Fee’ media nations. So that the environment is on a far level from partly and even longer way to being free. The thing that is worrying is that it’s less than 5 points from ‘Partly Free’ to ‘Not Free’ with Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. It’s just small tweaks and harassment of the media and in 2016 report will degrade this nations and how the media has a place in these countries. Though it doesn’t look to good, but hopefully I and others can be surprised. Until then let hope that the media get into a place where they can actually monitor their areas and speak their minds without fear or legal repercussions. Peace.
Dunham, Jennifer, Nelson, Bret & Ahekyan, Elen – ‘Press Freedom in 2014 – Harsh Laws and Violence Drive Global Decline’ – April 2015 – Freedom House
Posted in Africa, Bans, Civil Service, Development, Election, Ethics, Governance, Government, Law, Media, Politics, Sanctions and tagged Baba Radio, Basogo Baino FM, Burundi, CCM, CNDD-FDD, Congo, CPJ, Democratic Republic of Congo, Disturb Public Peace, Dr. Kizza Besigye, DRC, EAC, East Africa, East African Community, Economical Environment, EPRDF, Ethiopia, Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, Free, Global Ranking of Media, Hailemariam Desalegn, Harsh Laws, Hon. Moses Grace Balyeku, Human Rights, IFEX, Iganga, Innocent Anyole, International Freedom of Expression Exchange, Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, Jinja, Journalist, Jubilee Coalition, Kenya, Legal Environment, Legal Protection, Media, Media Laws, MONUSCO, National Resistance Movement, NGO Freedom House, Not Free, NRM, Partly Free, Paul Kagame, Pierre Nkurunziza, Politicial Environment, Press Freedom, Radio, RPF, Rwanda, Rwanda Patriotic Front, Salva Kiir Mayardit, Security Forces, Self-Cencorship, Somalia, Somaliland, South Sudan, SPLM, Tanzania, TV, Uganda, Uhuru Kenyatta, UN, United Nation, United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Violence Drive Global, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, Yoweri Museveni, Zone 9 Bloggers | Leave a comment
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Home Biography Michael Symon
Michael Symon Biography
Updated On 05 Dec, 2018 Published On 20 May, 2017
Facts of Michael Symon
Symon
Michael D. Symon
Angel Symon
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chef,television personality, and author
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Relationship short Statistics of Michael Symon
What is Michael Symon marital status ? ( married,single, in relation or divorce):
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Michael Symon is a James Beard Foundation Award-winning American chef, restaurateur, television personality and an author; he is a very recognized and famous name in the cookery world. He is a regular face on American cookery shows and has contributed to several shows. He owns several famous restaurants around Cleveland area. He is one of the renowned chefs in America and owner of several reputed restaurants.
Early Life and Education Of Michael Symon
An Award-winner chef Michael Symon was born on September 19, 1969, in Cleveland, Ohio. He holds the American nationality and belongs to the white ethnicity.
James completed his schooling in 1987 from St. Edward High School. After that, he joined Geppetto's Pizza and Ribs on Warren Rd. as a part-time job holder.
He graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York in 1990.
Following his graduation, in 1993 he moved to Piccolo Mondo founded a small yet devoted restaurant.
Michael Symon's Career
In February 1997, Michael along with his wife Liz Shanahan opened a restaurant Lola in Cleveland's.
On 15th April 2006, he opened his third restaurant named 'Parea' and after that, he succeeds to establish more restaurants.
Television Career
After their successful career in hotels and hospitality, he was motivated in Television. On 3rd November 2009, he promoted the Food Network's video game entitled 'Cook Or Be Cooked for Nintendo Wii'.
As well as he worked in the "Cleveland, OH". In September 2011, he began co-hosting the ABC show entitled 'The Chew'.On 24th September 2013, ABC launches his book named Chew: What's for Dinner'.
In 2008, Michael Symon began working as a "spoken chef," representing cookware companies such as Vitamix and Calphalon also appearing at housewares shows and other demonstration events.
Michael Symon's Achievements
As of now, Michael Symon won many awards in his career. In 1995, The Plain Dealer Sunday Magazine named him as a Cleveland's Hottest Chef.
In 2009, James Beard Foundation Award him as a "Best Chef Great Lakes". He is also the three-time winner of Food Network South Beach Wine and Food Festival Best Burger Award years including 2010, 2011 and 2012.
Also, see the biography of popular chefs; Christina Tosi
In 2015 he won Daytime Emmy Award in a category of Outstanding Informative Talk Show Host.
Michael Symon's Net worth
The 49 years old Emmy winner chef, Michael Symon earns huge amount of money over his career and his estimated net worth is $4 million.
Michael Symon's Personal Life
Michael is a married man. In 1994, he got married to beautiful Liz Shanahan who is his business partner and chef too.
The couple first met during the collaboration of Liz Shanahan and after five years of togetherness duo admit their love for one another.
The duo doesn't have their own children but they have a son named Kyle Symon, from Liz's past marriage. It was believed Kyle was two years old when the couple first met.
The duo is together since more than two decades ago and there aren't any rumors regarding their split and divorce.
Michael Symon Married
First Marriage with Liz Shanahan
There is no information available on her except that he met Liz when her child was 2 years old. They started dating afterwards and later got married. They don't have their child together yet.
Michael Symon Children
SON : Kyle
Mother: Liz Shanahan
Kyle is the step son of Michael Symon and he is two years old when his parents got married.
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Canberra Times article on the Canberra Museum and Art Gallery photography exhibition I’m in
New Canberra Museum and Gallery exhibition Lens Love explores the self, subject and environment
Sally Pryor
Marzena Wasikowska’s Jess, Oskar, Kai and Mia.
It’s one of the most common complaints of modern life – the increasing tendency to photograph life when you should be living it instead. Snapping images of weddings and babies and parties and soon-to-be-devoured meals, as a way of affirming life’s existence when just being there isn’t enough. And why wouldn’t we, when cameras are constantly on hand, be moved to capture every single meaningful moment?
But when photography is more than just an impulsive social interaction, the process of living through images can be much more complicated. A new exhibition at Canberra Museum and Gallery shows how six local photographers have negotiated the porous boundaries between the self, the subject and the surrounding environment.
Gallery director Shane Breynard, who curated the show, says he set out from a cerebral standpoint – photographic film theory from the 1970s and ’80s that focuses on ”the gaze” as ”a concept for that period where the infant becomes aware of themselves”.
Lee Grant, from the series Belco pride.
”They get a shock that they’re an object in the world among other objects – they’re not just a flood of sensation. So I’ve had fun using that as a bit of a thread to select and group works together,” he says.
”Indeed, it’s something that is common among these photographers, that they all have a real sensitivity to the way today, in the modern world, we live half of our lives through an awareness of ourselves in images … we kind of live across time and in the relations of how we might be seen in an image.”
The six artists he chose have ta common anthropological vision of people and their place in the world as well as distinctive preoccupations.
Denise Ferris’s The long hot summer.
Polish-born artist Marzena Wasikowska has three series of photographs in the show, and all relate to her family, including large-scale montages showing her three adult children, and their friends, spouses or children.
The images are immediately striking, and not just because of the instantly recognisable face of her middle daughter, actor Mia Wasikowska, but because of their careful, painterly composition. These are people who have grown up under their mother’s watchful, artistic eye, and their resulting lack of self-consciousness is palpable.
She also presents a study of a recent trip to Poland, her third since leaving her homeland at the age of 11, with images presented in grids that are made all the more poignant through their disconnectedness from each other.
Detail from Martyn Jolly’s ACT Bushfire Memorial Images
Wasikowska’s husband, John Reid, also has works in the show, including his classic Fishman and Walking the Solar System series, both eccentric conceptual forays into the wilderness that immerse him as a subject at the mercy of the elements.
The youngest artist in the show, Lee Grant, is already known for her Belco Pride works – a series exploring her connection to the suburban Canberra of her childhood and adolescence. But her academic past as an anthropologist also shines through in the wary gaze of her subjects, from a group of teenage girls in a fast-food restaurant, to a well-dressed African family lined up in front of their house. Her Korea Project and Oriental Dinnerseries – Grant has a Korean mother – is also an examination of the refracted identity of Asians in Australia.
Head of the ANU school of art Denise Ferris presents works that are as inextricably bound up in the landscape as she is. From where she lives in the Perisher Valley, she has recorded the beauty and the fragility of the often harsh landscape of the mountains, in the midst of winter or the blaze of summer. Her images are sometimes populated with human figures, sometimes partially obscured by snow and thick clothing.
”This picks up on Lens Love, the title of the exhibition,” says Breynard. ”This is a place that Denise adores, and as she’s taking these photographs, there’s something there that she’s searching for and wants to grab and articulate. And it’s not just the landscape without people in it – there’s something about the connection and the way people use the landscape.”
Martyn Jolly has long been fascinated by archival images, and the effect created when he zeroes in on particular details, and removes the surrounding context. His series Faces of the Living Dead uses images from an archive at Cambridge University, images that are today known to be fakes – men and women caught up in the 1870s craze of ”communing” with dead relatives through photographs. The images, which include hazy presences floating around the faces of the grieving hopefuls, are cropped in for maximum and pathetic effect. Jolly also includes his series commissioned as part of the 2003 bushfire memorial – a reproduction of the columns of images he produced depicting the aftermath and recovery. He has used the same technique to crop the images close as a way of highlighting the drama and pathos.
Cathy Laudenbach is fascinated by how stories and experiences interact with particular places, leaving marks that aren’t always discernible to the naked eye.
In one series, The Beauty and the Terror, she has been inspired by the story of Daisy Bates, the Australian journalist who, in the early 1900s, retired to the Australian bush to devote herself to protecting Aboriginal people. Laudenbach includes no people in the images, but a presence is implied through shadows and objects.
”She’s divining, almost, a colonial inhabitation of this landscape,” says Breynard. ”There’s a sense in these photos of something that you can’t grasp – a story unfolding, or a mystery you can’t quite get, or a presence of a spirit.”
Like Jolly, she is also taken by notions of the supernatural, and in another series, The Familiars, she photographs rooms in which people have reported ghostly encounters.
”Today, it’s something characteristic of our time with our smartphones – we point at something and say, ‘That’s a good photo’, and we take it and file it away, and then we look at it again to connect with a time,” says Breynard. ”But these artists, I think, really slow down that time. There’s awkwardness in that, it’s their own searching … They slow you down, and they connect you with the mystery and ineffability of stuff you think you know.”
■ Lens Love, at Canberra Museum and Gallery, runs until February 23.
Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/entertainment/new-canberra-museum-and-gallery-exhibition-lens-love-explores-the-self-subject-and-environment-20131129-2yh6m.html#ixzz2mD9WrG5n
Posted on December 1, 2013 by martynjolly. This entry was posted in Blog and tagged 2013, Australian exhibitions, Australian photographers, Martyn Jolly. Bookmark the permalink.
← Opening Thursday 28 November
Famous people in spirit photographs →
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Tag: Lexi Trèble
#NewMusicFriday is here and todays post is dedicated to the debut EP from Lexi Tréble!!
I had the privilege of hearing the EP a few days ago and honestly, hand on heart I have been playing it ever since. Having spoken to Lexi, it is clear her musical influences definitely come from artists such as Solange Knowles, IAMDDB, Lauryn Hill and many more soul/jazz/r&b artists. The EP title “Kintsugi” is Japanese and is the art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. According to Lexi this is relevant as for her she believes it relates to life and the idea of growing and healing with situations in life. The Japanese theme is also reflected within the artwork and visuals she has released. From this I knew this EP was going to be a meaningful piece of art.
The first track “Crash and Burn” is a brilliant opening track. I always talk about the importance of intro tracks on projects as it’s the first chance for the artist to show us who they are. As soon as the track starts and Lexi sings, I can tell this is going to be an interesting track. The juxtapositioning of the anticipation provided by the background music and the title of the track for me is perfect. She is singing about crashing and burning which indicates it is the end of something, but the music makes it feel like more is to come. I feel this song will be perfect in a movie or tv show where there is something about to happen, maybe a chase scene. A great intro track as it leaves you wanting more and wondering what other sound can be produced!
The next track “Go” starts off with a slower pace but picks up throughout. It’s funny because I feel Lexi’s voice is quite unique which is rare nowadays. This song is the kind that would sound even more amazing with a live band! The vocal ranges she exhibits in this song is the standout moment for me. I get the impression that she is telling the romantic interest that he should leave because of his actions and she is realising all she has is herself. The content reminds me of Beyoncé’s “Me, Myself and I” with the idea that you can only really rely on yourself. The uncertainty continues into the track “Distant Memories” as she sings “I find myself questioning love…you called me your muse but now I’m just your fool”. This is one of my favourite tracks from the EP as I feel the combination of the beats and Lexi’s voice have the best combination. The uncertainty continues into the track “Distant Memories” as she sings “I find myself questioning love…you called me your muse but now I’m just your fool”. This is one of my favourite tracks from the EP as I feel the combination of the beats and Lexi’s voice have the best combination.
The 4th track from the EP “Superficial” is my absolute favourite. The content/message, sound, compositing is just perfect. Again, this is another song that would be perfect live with an audience singing back. This song is the kind of song I would play for my little cousins in order for them to take the messages being put across. This is an important song in a society where most people are superficial and distracted by unmeaningful things. Lexi sings “Don’t be so superficial, there’s more to life…when you go outside live life to your fullest, don’t need no designer to feel alright”. Lexi reminds us that life is about the simple things and not the artificial moments. Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the idea of maintaining an image or impressing others but we have to remember life is for living. There is more to life than designer labels, Instagram likes or chasing boys or girls. This will be the first single released from the tape too so I look forward to seeing the video for this!
Love Me Right” is a powerful self-loving anthem. Lexi sings “I’ve got to love me right” meaning that love starts from within before anything else. Going with the theme of the EP, the end of EP focusses on the regeneration of Lexi. In the song she sings “I know that real love has got to start with me”;
We have seen how she was broken in the beginning and how through the journey of healing she is realising what is important and is putting herself back together. The final track “Look At Me Now” is the perfect ending to the EP as Lexi reflects at how far she has come “Look at me now, I’m not the same little child…oh how I’ve changed”. A self-reflecting therapeutic song where we see how much Lexi has grown and how she now sees the bad moments as lessons.
As the first realised EP from Lexi, this is pretty impressive. The EP stuck to theme and took us listeners on a journey through every song. Every song had its own meaning and back story while still keeping a unique sound to each. I have personally added every song to my ‘Vibes’ Spotify playlist and I hope this is the beginning of more music from Lexi.
Check out her music below as well as her socials;
https://www.instagram.com/lexitreble/
hyperurl.co/d9frh5
Author M&LPosted on June 21, 2019 June 21, 2019 Categories musicTags EP, Kintsugi, Lexi Trèble, music, music reviews, new music, new music fridayLeave a comment on #NewMusicFriday Kintsugi EP by Lexi Tréble!
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The Siege of Marawi: Experimenting with the Art of Mission Command
Emmanuel Sioson | February 22, 2019
“Teka muna,” the Filipino general said.
We had just exchanged pleasantries, so I started to peruse the menu at a quaint café in the quiet neighborhood of McKinley Park, away from the daily chaos of metropolitan Manila. In Tagalog, “teka muna” roughly translates into “wait a second.” The general had to take a phone call.
It was May 23, 2017, and the general was the same officer I had worked with on my first deployment to the Philippines as a Special Forces officer seven years earlier. When he hung up, he explained that an important mission was occurring at that moment, and he was simply getting updates. The call reminded me of how we used to talk during that first deployment to the country. What I didn’t know was that the mission he was tracking was particularly significant: the first engagement in what would become the Battle of Marawi. That siege would rage in the southern city for five months.
This article is part of MWI’s “Dispatches” series, featured in Army Magazine. Read it in full here.
Maj. Emmanuel Sioson is the strategic planner for the Modern War Institute at West Point. He served as the principal adviser on US special operations to the US ambassador to the Philippines and commanded Task Force 511.1 during the Battle of Marawi. He has multiple combat tours in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Philippines, as well as operational deployments throughout Asia.
The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, the Department of Defense, or the US government.
Image credit: First Scout Ranger Regiment, Philippine Army
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Brian on February 25, 2019 at 1:18 pm
I have the utmost respect for Maj. Siosan, but I find it hard to see Marawi as anything other than an unmitigated disaster for both the Philippines and for the U.S. mission there. By focusing on the cost of operations during the crisis we ignore the vast amounts of time, energy, and resources that he United States has invested in supporting a credible Philippine government and security apparatus since 2001. The result was a AFP that could neither maintain nor retake control of its own city without significant outside aid. The AFP also mostly destroyed the city, which still lays in ruins, in the process. The discontent among the Marawi refugee population will likely act as a boon to future recruitment for violent Islamic groups in Mindanao. To me this looks like a case where the Philippines and the U.S. eventually succeeded tactically and operationally but failed at the strategic level.
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Posts Tagged ‘draw’
Asian, Children, draw, lives, Their
Asian children draw their lives
In Uncategorized on October 14, 2010 at 2:44 pm
A painting contest called “Asian Children’s Artists Day Mitsubishi-Enikki 2010-2011” was launched in Hanoi on October 13.
A painting of the display
Children aged between 6 and 12 are entitled to enter the contest, which has been co-organised by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s Department for Fine Arts, Photography and Exhibitions and the Japanese Union of UNESCO Associations.
With the theme “This is my life”, the entrants have to describe their daily lives in the form of a pictorial diary of five paintings, with a short description of each picture they draw.
The contest is aimed at encouraging children to explore their artistic creativeness and express their own understanding and experience of life.
Source: SGGP
after, Cup, DPRK, draw, lift, millennium
DPRK lift Millennium Cup after draw
In Uncategorized on October 13, 2010 at 3:58 am
QĐND – Saturday, September 25, 2010, 21:17 (GMT+7)
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) U-23 team drew against hosts Vietnam in a goalless match today but still managed to win the Millennium Thang Long-Hanoi Football Cup at My Dinh stadium on September 24.
The DPRK team, which took two wins over Kuwait and Australia, placed first with seven points.
After beating Kuwait 3-0 and losing to Australia 2-0, Vietnam was placed second with four points, after edging out Australia on goal difference.
In the early match on September 24, Australia were held to a goalless draw by Kuwait, which left the Australian Olyroos in third place at the tournament.
The DPRK team, which featured six World Cup players, set up a strong defence to block Vietnam’s attacks.
Vietnamese strikers failed to penetrate the DPRK’s defence, firing only long shots at goal.
Captain Nguyen Minh Phuong had the best chance in the first half time when he lobbed the ball from the edge, but it was saved by the DPRK goalie.
In the second half, the DPRK threatened the hosts with their rapid counterattacks, but Vietnamese keeper Duong Hong Son put in a good performance to save all the shots.
During the last 10 minutes, Portuguese coach Calisto bolstered his strikers, which he hoped would break the DPRK’s defence, but the hosts failed to net the ball.
The DPRK team walked away with a US$20,000 cash prize, while Vietnam pocketed US$10,000.
The tournament was held to mark the 1,000th anniversary of the capital city.
After the tournament, Vietnam will be defending their title in the ASEAN Football Federation-Suzuki Cup, which is co-hosted by Vietnam and Indonesia and will run from December 1 to 29.
Source: VOV
Source: QDND
DPRK, draw, physical, response, sanctions, says, strong, will
Sanctions will draw strong physical response, DPRK says
In Uncategorized on July 24, 2010 at 11:18 am
The Democratic People of Republic Korea on Saturday said it would give a strong physical response to US sanctions, Pyongyang’s state media reported.
A foreign ministry spokesman attacked the United States for planning to hold joint naval drills with the Republic of Korea Sunday and for announcing new sanctions against the North over the sinking of a South Korean warship in March.
“As the US has opted for military provocations and sanctions against us… we will strengthen our nuclear deterrence every possible way and take a strong physical response,” the Korean Central News Agency quoted the spokesman as saying.
The spokesman, however, did not elaborate on what the physical response would be.
Ang, asked, draw, EZ, Ha, Investors, More, Tinh, to, Vung
Ha Tinh asked to draw more investors to Vung Ang EZ
In Uncategorized on July 5, 2010 at 4:09 pm
QĐND – Monday, July 05, 2010, 21:26 (GMT+7)
The central province of Ha Tinh needs to invest more in infrastructure in the Vung Ang Economic Zone (EZ) and create favourable conditions for businesses that are carrying out projects there.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung made the request at a working session with the provincial leaders during his trip to Ha Tinh province on July 4, focusing on its socio-economic performances in the first half of 2010 and development directions for the 2011-2015 period.
PM Dung urged the province to take full advantage of Vung Ang deep-water seaport, step up investment promotion and simplify administrative procedures, in order to attract more investors to the Vung Ang EZ.
Ha Tinh province must utilise from 6,000 km2 of land, including 100,000 ha for farming and 250,000 ha for afforestation, and a population of almost 1.3 million, he said, adding that it needs speed up the application of scientific-technological advances to cow breeding and rubber growing.
The government leader asked Ha Tinh to upgrade and build more healthcare and education facilities, develop human resources, ensure social security and reduce traffic accidents.
PM Dung praised the socio-economic achievements the province has reaped over the past five years, referring to its annual average economic growth rate of 9.6 percent and preliminary successes in developing industrial and economic zones and seaports.
However, the PM also pointed out a number of shortcomings facing Ha Tinh such as low per capita income, which stands at VND11 million a year, equivalent to just half of the nation’s average, a high rate of poor households and poor socio-economic infrastructure’s facilities.
During his visit, PM Dung inspected the construction of resettlement areas and the construction tempo of major projects in the Vung Ang EZ, including the Vung Ang 1 thermal power plant and the Son Duong steel complex and seaport. The EZ has so far attracted more than 90 projects with a combined registered capital of almost VND200 trillion (US$10.5 billion).
The government leader also called at the monuments to the late Party General Secretaries, Ha Huy Tap and Tran Phu, and the Dong Loc T-junction relic site.
Source: VOVNews/VNA
becoming, Delta, draw, eco-tourism, Heavenly, Lake, Mekong
Heavenly Mekong Delta lake becoming eco-tourism draw
In Uncategorized on July 5, 2010 at 12:10 pm
Bung Binh Thien (Peaceful Lake of Heaven) is regarded as the biggest blue fresh water lake and a place of tranquility for visitor in the Mekong Delta.
Boat race is organized on Bung Binh Thien lake every year. (Photo :Sggp)
Located in An Phu District in An Giang Province, the natural lake links three communes including Khanh Binh, Khanh An and Nhon Hoi, adjoins the Binh Di and Hau rivers and is becoming known as an eco-tourist area.
The water surface of the lake spreads out more than 800 hectares in rainy season. It narrows to 200 hectares during dry periods and never dries out completely.
Bung Binh Thien is also called the lake sea of the Mekong Delta, providing fresh water for the people in the region.
The lake is home of a variety of fish species, with an especially great quantity of Ca sat (Sat fish), which are often fried. Sat fried fish mixed with mango salad is a specialty of the southern region.
Visitors to Bung Binh Thien during flood season have the chance to enjoy many other special foods. Residents usually organize boat races on the lake every year.
The lake remains clean and pure all year round. Meanwhile, the rivers and canals surrounding it have been muddied by alluvium.
The People’s Committee of An Phu District in An Giang Province is calling on investors to build up the lake area as a cultural tourist site.
ahead, draw, Dutch, in, labour, Liberals, of, One, seat, vote
Liberals draw one seat ahead of Labour in Dutch vote
In Uncategorized on June 10, 2010 at 10:44 am
THE HAGUE (AFP) – The Liberals were one seat ahead of Labour with 88 percent of the vote counted early Thursday after cliff-hanger general elections in the Netherlands, the far-right Party for Freedom the big winner in third place.
The Liberal party (VVD) led by Mark Rutte, which had campaigned on the need for deep spending cuts, and the Labour party (PvdA) of Job Cohen had been tied for hours at 31 seats each in the 150-seat parliament after Wednesday’s polls.
Women in traditional dresses vote in general elections in Staphorst. AFP photo
But with a greater percentage of the votes counted, published partial results showed the Liberals with 31 and Labour on 30.
Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom (PVV), which demands an end to immigration from Muslim countries and a ban on new mosques, took its number of lawmakers from nine in the last parliament to 24, and could hope to enter a coalition government.
The far-right leader with his distinctive shock of fair hair called the result of Wednesday’s elections “magnificent”.
“The impossible has happened,” he told a televised party gathering. “We are the biggest winner today. The Netherlands chose more security, less crime, less immigration and less Islam.”
Pushed into fourth place was the Christian Democratic Action party of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende. The CDA, which has been in almost all Dutch governments since World War II, lost 20 seats to end at 21, and was the big loser in the election.
Balkenende, who had headed a centre-left coalition since 2007, acknowledged defeat by resigning both his party’s leadership and his seat in parliament.
“I have informed the party chairman that I will lay down my party membership with immediate effect,” said Balkenende, 54, adding that he was taking “political responsibility” for the state of affairs.
The Liberals, who had 21 seats in the outgoing parliament, had topped opinion polls for several weeks.
Labour lost two seats compared with the previous elections in 2006.
The election was the first in a eurozone country since the Greek financial crisis erupted and has been closely watched to see how the public reacts to Europe’s wave of austerity.
The Liberals had led pre-election polls with their promise to cut public spending by about 45 billion euros (54 billion dollars) over the next four years and by 20 billion euros a year from 2015. But their support appeared to drain away in the final 48 hours of lobbying.
Rutte had also promised to eradicate the public deficit, which was 5.3 percent of GDP last year, shrink the government and parliament, lower income taxes and cap civil servant pay rises while raising the retirement age by two years to 67.
Labour had promised more “careful” savings, the retention of social benefits and higher taxes for the rich.
Rutte has set a target date of July 1 for the establishment of a new government. “We do not exclude any party,” he said in a debate Tuesday night when asked about a possible coalition with the far right.
He was previously reported as saying that a coalition with Labour was unlikely. Cohen has ruled out cooperation with the PVV.
The maverick Wilders has earned notoriety around the world with his campaign to ban the Koran in a bid to “stop the Islamisation of the Netherlands”.
Wilders, who has called Islam a fascist religion and likens the Koran to Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”, is known abroad for his 17-minute commentary, “Fitna”, which was termed “offensively anti-Islamic” by UN chief Ban Ki-moon.
He goes on trial in the Netherlands in October on charges of inciting racial hatred against Muslims. He was barred from entering Britain in 2009 to stop him spreading “hatred and violent messages.”
Voters marked their ballots with red pencils at some 10,000 polling stations in an election called after the government collapsed in February in a spat over military aid to Afghanistan.
The voter turnout was put at 74 percent, the lowest since 1998.
With none of the competing 18 parties able to rule alone, the party that emerges on top will lead coalition negotiations.
Official results will be released next Tuesday.
000, 20%, anti-austerity, Athens, draw, Police, rallies
Athens anti-austerity rallies draw 20,000: police
In Uncategorized on May 5, 2010 at 12:41 pm
ATHENS, May 5, 2010 (AFP) – Protests against a government austerity drive drew 20,000 people in Athens as rallies kicked off Wednesday shortly before midday amid a general strike, police said.
About 10,000 protestors from the main public and private sector unions massed in the capital for speeches while the PAME communist union drew another 10,000 people.
Crew members stand at entrance to a ferry in the port of Piraeus due to a 24-hours strike on May 5, 2010. AFP photo
Protestors bore banners reading “IMF and EU are stealing a century of social progress” and “the rich must pay for the crisis”.
After their separate rallies, the demonstrators began converging on parliament, where the government was preparing for unprecedented spending cuts and tax hikes to be voted on Thursday.
In Greece’s second city in the north of the country, Thessaloniki, some 14,000 people gathered for protests, police said.
1-1, 10-man, against, draw, Milan, squeeze, Zurich
Milan squeeze 1-1 draw against 10-man Zurich
In Vietnam Sports on December 9, 2009 at 1:33 pm
Zurich’s striker Alexandre Alphonse (L) fights for the ball with AC Milan’s defender Thiago Silva during their UEFA Champions League match in Zurich (AFP photo)
ZURICH (AFP) – AC Milan did the minimum on Tuesday to secure their Champions League fortunes, coming from a goal down to secure a 1-1 draw as Swiss minnows Zurich almost repeated their first leg slaying of the Italians.
With Zurich out of the Champion’s League, the Letzigrund was looking for a consolation repeat of the shock 0-1 win over Milan at the San Siro in their first leg more than two months ago.
And they almost got it for more than half of the game as Milan’s stars swiftly ran out of pace and inspiration up front while Zurich found the Achilles heel in the Italian back four.
Milan coach Leonardo admitted afterwards that the Swiss had virtually outplayed them in the first half, while his beleaguered eleven were tense with memories of their earlier setback.
“We were playing against a team that no longer had any expectations… that had won at San Siro,” he explained.
“It was also a question of tactics,” Leonardo added, betraying his surprise at seeing Zurich press deep in his side’s half.
“But I just don’t want to underestimate the fact that we qualified.”
The Swiss could have gone four up in the first 45 minutes as Milan’s experienced central defence inexplicably parted three times on the edge of the penalty area.
Dida saved Milan twice, parrying from Silvan Aegereter in the 10th minute and at stretch from Okonkwo in the 36th minute, while Alphonse shot wildly over the bar with only the goalkeeper to beat.
But the Brazilian’s luck ran out on the half hour, when Milan Gajic bent a freekick low around the wall to put the Swiss on the road to a new upset.
“Milan was maybe good for us, because their tempo was not so fast and we had space. Gajic can thrive on that,” said Zurich coach Bernard Challandes.
Swiss keeper Johnny Leoni used his legs to keep Pato’s volley out seven minutes into the game.
But the next 35 minutes were largely downhill for Milan, as an ineffectual Ronaldinho was condemned to solitary confinement on the right wing, while striker Marco Borriello was stifled and Pirlo’s pivotal playmaking seemed predictable.
Zurich’s hopes were ultimately dashed after Leonardo brought a dab of colour to his side by bringing on former Arsenal midfielder Matthieu Flamini ten minutes into the second half to replace the diminished Ambrosini.
After finally troubling the Zurich defence by making it into the penalty area, Ronaldinho scored from the penalty spot eight minutes later after Borriello was brought down and Zurich defender Alain Rochat was sent off.
“It’s true that maybe there was less pressure,” Leonardo admitted, when asked why his side didn’t score again.
“Zurich then massed at the back. There were almost nine of them behind the ball,” he insisted.
For Milan the 1-1 scoreline secured a 25 goal unbeaten run since their last defeat, against Zurich at the San Siro on September 30.
Meanwhile, Zurich bowed out with just a couple of decent results in their campaign – a shock victory and an almost upsetting draw against Milan.
“We wanted to give a good impression of ourselves and of Swiss football. We can be happy with this performance in the Champions League,” said Challandes.
Source: SGGP Bookmark & Share
As, Cup, draw, looms, S.Africa, security, tightens, World
S.Africa tightens security as World Cup draw looms
In World on December 4, 2009 at 4:42 am
Police stand for a briefing outside the Cape Town International Congress Centre (CTICC)
South Africa has beefed up security around Cape Town for the World Cup draw to be held on Friday to prevent any incident and reassure fans about visiting one of the world’s most crime-plagued nations.
With an average of 50 people killed every day, fears about crime have dogged South Africa since it was named host nation.
With Africa’s first World Cup just six months away, the country has been recruiting new police, putting them through tough training, and buying hi-tech new equipment.
About 100,000 people are expected to watch the draw at the Waterfront in Cape Town. More than 100 million people will likely watch the event on television in 200 countries around the world.
Keenly aware that any incident would only heighten the country’s reputation for crime, security forces have pulled out all the stops to ensure the draw runs smoothly — with 1,000 police on patrol around the event, armed forces onstandy and even tightened air security protocols for flights around the city.
“There is adequate security that has been put in place,” South African Football Association president Kirsten Nematandani told AFP.
“We are more than happy with the security measures for Friday and preparations that have been put in place when the actual World Cup starts.”
South Africa’s chief World Cup organiser Danny Jordaan said the country is spending 1.3 billion rands (177 million dollars, 117 million euro) to beef up security.
That includes the 41,000 police officers deployed for the event, but also new equipment including helicopters, water cannons, body armour and 100 new patrol vehicles.
South African Police Service (SAPS) spokeswoman Sally de Beer said 14 government departments have worked for two years to create the security plans for Friday’s draw and the month-long tournament that begins June 11.
“The SAPS, the South African National Defence Force and intelligence agencies are ready to deal with any contingency, be it land on land, in the air or at sea,” she said in a statement.
While South Africa’s general crime rate is alarming, Jordaan noted that the country has staged other high-profile sports events without incident.
“For 15 years, we have not failed anybody, South Africa’s track record in that is unquestionable,” he told the Soccerex business conference this week.
“In 2009, we hosted the British and Irish Lions, then we had the Indian Premier League, Confederations Cup and then the International Cricket Council matches,” he said.
“Currently the England Cricket team and the Barmy army is here and I have not had complaints. If you believe South Africans are aggressive, it’s a label which is unfair and unjust. There has not been a single incident of security during the hosting of these events.”
“Societal crimes are not my responsibilities,” Jordaan said. “Events crime are my responsibilities. Events crime starts from arrival at the airport, fan parks and venue security.”
Since taking office in May, South African President Jacob Zuma has taken an agressive new tone about fighting crime, sparking a national debate about how much force police should use in chasing criminals.
With parliament mulling greater leeway for police to use force, debate over a so-called “shoot-to-call” intensified last month with the accidental shooting death of a three-year-old boy, killed as officer chased a murder suspect.
Zuma on Tuesday urged South Africans to welcome the 450,000 foreign fans expected for the World Cup.
“Welcome visitors who come to be with us, handle them with care,” he said.
“We expect that everyone who comes here must go away without a single complaint,” he added.
Add new tag, againstugh, athletes, draw, foes, puts, Unlucky, VN
Unlucky draw puts VN athletes against tough foes
In Uncategorized on August 20, 2008 at 2:31 pm
HA NOI — Vietnamese taekwondo athletes, who are expected to repeat countrywoman Tran Hieu Ngan’s success at the Sydney Games eight years ago, were unlucky to be drawn against tough rivals in their opening encounters of the Games.
The draw, which took place on Monday, has pitted the country’s main medal hope Nguyen Van Hung in the men’s +80kg against a number of powerhouses, including world defending champion Keita Daba Modibo.
Meanwhile, Nguyen Thi Hoai Thu, one of two female taekwondo martial artists in Beijing, has been drawn against title favourites from Italy, South Korea and host nation China in the -57kg.
Tran Thi Ngoc Truc, a replacement for Hoang Ha Giang who has a viral infection in the -49kg, however, has received a relatively good draw.
“They are all facing a hard job, especially Hung and Thu, who are competing against tough rivals from the beginning,” said coach Nguyen Dang Khanh after the draw.
“Hung and Thu both need to work very hard if they want to go further, and if they succeed they will face world champions in the next round,” said Khanh.
Three-time Southeast Asian Games gold medallist Hung, who is making his second Olympic appearance, will face the towering form of Chukwumerije Chika Yagazie of Nigeria in his first match on Friday.
“Hung has never met the 2.10m-tall Nigerian before so we do not know anything about this opponent,” said Khanh.
However, the real challenge will come in the next round, if 1.9m-tall Hung, who won the Asian 90kg title in 2004 in South Korea’s Seongnam, survives the opener.
“If Hung reaches the second round he will meet either Mali’s Modibo, who won the world title last year, or former three-time world champion Borot Mickael Justin of France,” said Khanh.
Greece’s Athens Games silver medal winner and European champion Alexandros Nikolaidis is also likely to present a major challenge to the 28-year-old.
Women’s draw
Thu, the Asian Games silver medallist, faces Senegal’s world bronze medallist Bineta Diedhiou in her opening bout tomorrow.
“Thu has got the worse draw, compared to her fellow compatriots,” said general director of the Viet Nam Taekwondo Federation Truong Ngoc De, who is with the team in Beijing. “Bigger challenges are waiting for her in the next round, if she makes it to the second stage, where she would meet Italian Veronica Celabrese, who finished second in the Olympic world qualifiers.”
If Thu does progress in the tournament, she is also likely to encounter, South Korea’s Lim Su Jeong, who finished first in the Olympic world qualifiers, and Chinese Taipei’s 2005 world silver medallist and Asian defending champion Li Wen Su.
Truc, who like Thu is also making her Olympic debut, will have an easier time of things against underdog Tona Teresa of Papua New Guinea.
The 19-year-old world youth champion’s group B match will be against either Thailand’s Puedpong Buttree or Cuba’s 2005 world bronze medallist Montejo Daynellis.
Truc’s rivals are mostly ranked between 10th and 33rd in the world.
“The title favourite host Wu Jing Yu, who won the world 49kg title last year and Asian silver earlier this year, is in group A, so Truc has a chance to go further in the Games,” said Khanh. “However Truc is disadvantaged by the fact that she started training later than the others as she was only called up as a replacement.”
Hung is seen as the most experienced athlete as he competed in the last Olympics in Athens, where he failed to bring home a medal. Hung injured his left knee in the run up to the Games but says he has fully recovered.
Despite their tough draws, all three athletes are in high spirits.
“Without pressure we will compete in a relaxed and beautiful way to win a medal,” Hung said. “Whoever the rival is, we will try our best so that we won’t have to look back on the Beijing Games with regrets.”
Tran Hieu Ngan won Viet Nam’s first Olympic medal when she finished second in the women’s 47kg in Sydney eight years ago.
Weightlifter Hoang Anh Tuan on August 10 won another silver for Viet Nam in the men’s 56kg. —
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> August 2013
Spain’s fearless small town
Andalusian utopia
Marinaleda has experimented with a subsidised, anti-capitalist system for over 30 years, improving lives in this small southern Spanish town. How is the experiment doing in the current financial climate?
by Gilbert Haffner
Marinaleda is an Andalusian town in the southern Spanish province of Seville; population: 2,800; area: 25 square kilometres. It is surrounded by the vast estates of rich landowners (terratenientes) who exploit thousands of hectares of land and tens of thousands of day labourers (peones or jornaleros). This is the land of the casual worker.
Marinaleda is well known in Spain, and even Europe, because under the leadership of its mayor Juan Manuel Sánchez Gordillo, in office for the last 34 years, it has developed a novel social, political and economic system. The motto on the town’s coat of armsreads “A Utopia for Peace”. Is it a genuine anti-capitalist model, or just a farce? Is it a system for withstanding the financial crisis, or will it simply delay the effects?
In the 1970s the town had no social, economic or administrative infrastructure. This is the hot, poor south — “Christ stopped at Marinaleda”. There were no tarmacked roads, living conditions were miserable, with inadequate healthcare, no functioning town hall and no secondary school.
Everything began to change in 1977 when the Union of Agricultural Workers (SOC) was set up and most local people joined. In 1978 they occupied a large private estate, the finca of Bocatinaja. Then they elected Sánchez Gordillo, a history teacher, as the youngest mayor in Spain. He promised to fight poverty and its causes: the economic system, landowners, sometimes even the authorities. He believed that in this agricultural region, the land everybody needed to work should belong to the community, not private landowners.
Old dream become reality
So began a long journey of public appropriation of private land, hunger strikes, land occupations and forced evictions by the guardia civil. Finally, in 1991, the Andalusian regional government expropriated 1,200 hectares from the Humoso estate, owned by the Duke of Infantado. and gave the land to Marinaleda town council.
So the old dream (...)
Gilbert Haffner
Translated by Stephanie Irvine
Gilbert Haffner is a journalist
(1) A reference to Carlo Levi’s novel Christ Stopped at Eboli (1945).
(2) www.marinaleda.com
(3) He owns 17,000 hectares.
(4) The PER, established by President Felipe Gonzalez in 1984 to reduce rural poverty, gives grants to local councils for construction projects to provide work for the unemployed.
(5) Young people over 25 can do work of benefit to the community here, while receiving a salary and earning a qualification. Similar workshops exist in every Spanish autonomous community.
(6) A decision registered by the council on 8 August 2012.
français — Marinaleda, phalanstère andalou dans une Espagne en crise
Español — Marinaleda, falansterio andaluz en una España en crisis
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The left-right debate in Israel is over the speed of colonization, not how to end it
NewsOpinion
Jonathan Ofir on December 13, 2018 11 Comments
Logo for the new Commanders for Israel’s Security campaign (Image: Commanders for Israel’s Security)
“Bibi, it’s time to divorce the Palestinians”,
says a banner by the liberal-Zionist organization Commanders for Israel’s Security, which is now up on their main website page, having gone up on billboards across Israel.
This organization, endorsed by former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, has been out with a similar campaign last year, with billboards in Arabic featuring Palestinians and Palestinian colors, saying “we are soon the majority”.
They thus show a particular taste, or rather lack of it, for gimmicks which are supposed to catch the Israeli nationalist mind – and it is very important to emphasize that this is not right-wing Zionism, this is the left and center.
The organization, which advocates for unilateral ‘separation’ from the Palestinians, started the recent campaign last week with videos which went under a Youtube channel of “Israel Israeli”, supposedly a private name, meant to mark their ultra-nationalist Zionist leaning. The logo features a likening of a wedding photo, which is being torn in the middle. The series of videos featured half-minute clips (Hebrew) of people who are supposedly speaking about their private lives. This recent one for example (from yesterday), features a man around his 30’s, saying:
“I’m trying to remember when we last had it good between us. Trying, trying, trying, and not succeeding. I think about our future and only see black, and I’m tired of it – tired of it! That’s not the life I want. Don’t want mediation, don’t want consulting, there’s no one to talk to! I want freedom, I want to live, and I’m not willing to wait any longer – I want to divorce”.
A slide then appears saying “it’s time to divorce and to separate from millions of Palestinians”, revealing the organization (Commanders for the Security of Israel) and inviting to enter their website.
All the videos basically follow this pattern, with that final sentence “I want to divorce” and the campaign promotion.
The vision – Bantustans, with a contractor
In a recent interview with TV host Avri Gilad one of the organization’s leaders, Uzi Arad, former head of the Institute for National Security Studies, laid out the group’s vision and said they hope the campaign is “hitting the awareness” of people. The vision is the notion that the ‘Jewish and democratic’ state is under threat – a demographic threat. The whole discussion is framed against the notion of a possible annexation of Area C of the West Bank, which comprises more than 60% of the area, surrounding some 165 Palestinian enclaves in a Bantustanized archipelago. This area C under full Israeli control is a design of the Oslo Accords of the mid 1990’s. Prominent proponents of its immediate annexation are people such as Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and Education Minister Naftali Bennett (both Jewish Home party), who are to the right of Netanyahu. These areas have contained an estimated 300,000 Palestinians in a UN count of 2014, and it is likely close to 350,000 by today. Shaked says that Israel can afford ‘absorbing’ this population.
In the interview with Gilad, Arad says the annexation of Area C will have disastrous implications. He mentions several issues he thinks are central in relation to this “divorce”, and why annexation would hurt Israel:
1) The “birth rate” of Palestinians (2:58).
2) “Ongoing tension”, because “the Palestinian side will “become agitated” by annexation.
Gilad answers the latter by suggesting that maybe, when those Palestinians get Israeli citizenship, they will “calm down”. Arad answers that “then Israel will be less Jewish”.
This is what it all circles around. It’s a central Zionist concern: Maximum territory, but minimum Palestinians – just like ‘centrist-liberal’ lawmaker Yair Lapid says.
Then Gilad presents scare scenarios, in opposing a supposed ‘two-state solution’:
“What’s the option? To give them a state in that area, in their areas, and then masses rush in, all kinds of Palestinian refugees and the such, Hamas takes over, rockets on the airport – that’s more-or-less the script, no?”
Against such doomsday theories, which Gilad and Zionists in general are so prone to, Arad seems desperate to provide a comforting message of ‘security’. He thus assures:
“It’s clear that Israel needs to maintain security control of the whole area, such a situation that you hint at here cannot arise”.
Arad is suggesting that due to this “separation”, the Palestinian Authority will “blossom and thrive”. In other words, the Bantustanization will continue, with a contractor.
‘Separation between the yolk and white’
“Separation” is now a central word for liberal-Zionists. Recently, centrist opposition leader Tzipi Livni likened the separation between Israelis and Palestinians to “separation between the yolk and white” of an egg, in order to make “a good cake”.
People who are part of the Commanders for Israel’s Security line have been advocating for such “separation” also in order to “save Jewish Jerusalem”. Two years ago, in an appallingly racist, Islamophobic video, the Movement for Saving Jewish Jerusalem suggested a scenario where East Jerusalemite Palestinian residents go to vote en-masse, electing a Palestinian mayor. This is essentially the same scare-mongering as Netanyahu’s “the Arabs are going to vote in droves“ from the eve of the last elections, only it’s uttered by people who generally identify as the ‘peace camp’. The notion of the clip is that the terrorist Arabs will use Israeli democracy as their weapon. The solution is thus to cut off the 28 West Bank Palestinian villages which Israel annexed as part of east Jerusalem (expanding the municipal borders tenfold from 1967), yet maintain all the Jewish settlements in the same areas, in order to better ‘Judaize’ ‘Greater Jerusalem’. The group included Shaul Arieli, one of the lead negotiators of the Geneva Initiative, and Ami Ayalon, the former Shin Bet head and Labor Party MK who launched a two-state peace initiative with Sari Nusseibeh in 2003. Both have been central in the forming of the Commanders for Israel’s Security.
In other words, more or less everything that comes from Zionists, left and right, is always about Apartheid, and it’s always appallingly racist.
The Zionist ‘peace-camp’ cannot catch the attention of those in their fold or further right by means other than vulgarity, in order to “hit their awareness” – that Zionist awareness, that the Arabs are threatening the Jewish State in droves. Zionism doesn’t have a solution to this, because its adherents can’t seem to find in themselves the ability to even conceive a divorce of Zionism. The talks about ‘divorcing Palestinians’ are disingenuous from the outset, because it’s not as if Israel ‘married’ them to begin with. The ‘divorce’ solution is likewise not an actual equal separation where each goes to their own life, but one where Israel continues its colonialist control and subjugation of the ‘divorced’ Palestinians. The inherent racist imbalance is never addressed.
The ‘plague’ of mixed-marriage
One might also be under the impression, that the “divorce” campaign is but a euphemism for a purely national, impersonal issue. Yet it echoes a general Zionist isolationist vein that reaches all the way to the private lives of individuals, and this often comes from the left and center of Zionism.
Earlier this year, former left and opposition leader Isaac Herzog warned that intermarriage, especially in USA, is a “plague”. In response to a recent marriage between Jewish and Muslim celebrities Tzahi Halevy and Lucy Aharish, the mentioned ‘centrist-liberal’ Yair Lapid bemoaned merely that condemnations of the marriage (from top Israeli ministers) were not reserved for a week after the wedding; back in 2014, Lapid responded to another supposed “mixed marriage” (supposed, because the woman had converted to Islam an the man was Muslim), by saying:
“It would bother me if my son married a non-Jew… It would bother me greatly.”
So there is a very real personal aspect here, one of fundamentalist isolationism, and it’s very Zionist. The ‘peaceniks’ use the personal ‘divorce’ notion as a metaphor, because they know it will “hit the awareness” of Israelis (read=mostly Jewish), since they will imagine it as if they were, God forbid, married to a Palestinian (read=non-Jewish).
In this mindset Palestinians are regarded with intrinsic and institutional disgust by the colonialist state of Israel. And none of these enlightened Zionists really care how this portrays Palestinians, because it’s all for the sake of the sacred ideal of Zionism: “separation”. Because we need to be a nation apart, in “our land” as the national anthem goes.
A debate over the speed of expansion
In the end, there is really nothing new here. This is all very Barak-like, that is, when Ehud Barak made a supposedly “generous offer” to Palestinians in 2000, one which basically amounted to Bantustans. The struggles between right and left Zionism have always historically been not about a Palestinian state alongside Israel, but about the speed and rate at which expansionism needs to happen. The essential factor is always Jewish demography, which is existentially important for Zionists, because the coveted and supposed ‘Jewish and Democratic’ nature of the state could only be achieved by means of expulsion and Apartheid in various forms. The ‘peace process’ has also played an integral part in this. As Ben White summarizes in his recent in The Arab Weekly:
“Thus, while Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s decade in power has seen the consolidation of a de facto single state between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, it was the Oslo Accords and Rabin’s vision of separation which lay the foundations for today’s apartheid status quo”.
While the Commanders for Israel’s Security are warning about the dire consequences of annexing Area C, Israel is engaged in ongoing slow-motion ethnic cleansing of that area. B’tselem, the Israeli human-rights monitoring NGO, has a permanent theme-page with a live blog called “facing expulsion”:
“Thousands of people – residents of dozens of Palestinian communities located throughout Area C, the West Bank – face imminent expulsion by Israeli authorities on a variety of pretexts”.
So Israel is actively engaged in “solving the demographic problem”. While the left-center say that annexation is no solution, this is not so as far as the right, as well as Zionist logic as a whole, are concerned. ‘Non-solutions’ of Zionists have also played part in Zionist strategy. In the wake of the 1967 war, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan proposed saying to Palestinians:
“We don’t have a solution, and you will continue living like dogs, and whoever wants will go, and we’ll see how this procedure will work out”.
This is essentially how Israel carries on, shifting Palestinians around, dispossessing them, and creating settlement ‘facts on the ground’ in order to ‘Judaize’ the territories it expands into. This is all Zionism 101. The ‘liberal-Zionist’ concern is always about how fast it should go, and which solutions, or non-solutions, are acceptable at any given time.
That’s why I’ve divorced Zionism.
Many thanks to Ofer Neiman
Jonathan Ofir
Israeli musician, conductor and blogger / writer based in Denmark.
Other posts by Jonathan Ofir.
RoHa on December 14, 2018, 12:11 am
“What happens when I’m seventy?
Must come a time…seventy.”
Israel is now seventy. A bit late to start reviewing the situation, but the Zionists really do have to think it out again.
Off topic, but a cheering bit of news from Damascus that I think MW commenters will like.
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-12/12/c_137667793_2.htm
Elizabeth Block on December 14, 2018, 9:17 am
“the ‘Jewish and democratic’ state is under threat”
Excuse me. What Jewish and democratic state?
It used to be said that Israel had to choose between being Jewish and being democratic. That choice was made a long time ago.
oldgeezer on December 14, 2018, 11:29 am
@Elizabeth
It is offensive for Israel to claim it is a democracy. Yes you get a vote but the result is gerrymandered. Restrictions on jobs and positions, unequal rights, unequal support from the state.
Voting is the only similarity with a democracy and that is of no benefit. Even communist countries have votes.
MHughes976 on December 14, 2018, 3:50 pm
Exercising sovereign power over a population in large part disfranchised is a form of oligarchy or minority rule
oldgeezer on December 14, 2018, 9:55 pm
@MHughes976
I minority rule is the appropriate choice. Israel claims all the land but denies the people resident on that land, for many centuries or more, any right to any political control over their lives.
If you actually compared it to any western democracy it would be the equivalent of saying you may vote in municipal elections but not in state or national. They don’t really have as much control over their lives as a people in a municipality would have.
Misterioso on December 14, 2018, 10:22 am
Meanwhile, ever growing numbers of Jews are “divorcing” the entity know as “Israel.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/why-jews-flee-to-europe-or-at-least-half-of-it/article15446274/
Why Jews flee to Europe (or at least half of it)
By Doug Saunders,
Canada’s Globe and Mail, November 16, 2013
“Have you heard about Europe’s Jewish exodus? Amid growing tensions and tough economic conditions, tens of thousands of educated middle-class Jews are fleeing every year – not out of the continent, but rather from Israel into Europe, and especially to Germany, which has become the chief destination (after the United States) for the half-million Israelis who have left the country amid its much-discussed ‘brain drain.’
“This has taken both Israelis and many Europeans by surprise – and offended some Israeli leaders. Last month, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, during a visit to Budapest, took to Facebook to denounce the growing wave of Europe-bound Jews who have become known in the Israeli media as the New Yordim (emigrants, or literally, ‘fallen’).”
https://www.newsweek.com/2018/05/18/israel-brain-drain-technology-startup-nation-religion-palestinians-economy-919477.html
“More Israelis are moving to the U.S.—and staying for good” Newsweek, May10/18
“Spurred by the high cost of living, low salaries, and political and demographic trends, Israelis are leaving the country in droves.”
By Yardena Schwartz Newsweek
“Israel has one of the highest poverty rates and levels of income inequality in the Western world. It also has one of the highest costs of living. Tel Aviv ranks ninth among the world’s most expensive cities, higher than New York and Los Angeles; five years ago, it ranked 34th. The situation is so dire that a 2013 survey by the financial newspaper Calcalist (the most recent Israeli study conducted on this topic) found that 87 percent of adults—many with children of their own—depend on substantial financial support from their parents.”
Times of Israel, June 21/17:
http://www.timesofisrael.com/devastating-survey-shows-huge-loss-of-israel-support-among-jewish-college-students/
https://www.haaretz.com/israel -news/.premium-jewish-agency- chief-warns-young-u-s-jews- more-turned-off-to-israel-1. 5751616
Haaretz – Jan 22, 2018, by Judy Maltz
“Young American Jews Increasingly Turning Away From Israel, Jewish Agency Leader Warns”
“The Jewish Agency’s CEO and director-general called the trend ‘extremely worrisome,’ and said that a new strategy must be undertaken to engage young American Jews with Israel.”
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-progressives-welcome-aipac-is-all-just-gaslighting-1.5871623?utm_campaign=newsletter-daily&utm_medium=email&utm_source=smartfocus&utm_content=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.haaretz.com%2Fopinion%2F.premium-progressives-welcome-aipac-is-all-just-gaslighting-1.5871623
“Why Young Jews and Democrats Are Waving Goodbye to AIPAC”
By Emily Mayer, March 6, 2018 – Haaretz
“My generation has only known Israel as an occupier. We won’t back anyone who supports that injustice – including the powerful lobby that is AIPAC”
Good read:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/gaza-siege-music-peace-musicians-israel-palestine-occupied-territory-palestinians-egypt-a8673596.html
The Independent, Dec. 14/18
“‘Music is a freedom that breaks every border’: Young musicians in Gaza fight the siege to play for peace. With just one grand piano in the whole of Gaza, and a dwindling number of teachers, young Palestinian musicians fight 11-year-long blockade to keep music alive in times of war.”
klm90046 on December 14, 2018, 8:31 pm
I have always said, and I say it now, these liberal, soft-spoken, mealy-mouthed Zionists are more dangerous than the Likud variety. The latter you can attack, condemn, wage war against. WTF do you do with these harmless-looking, love-spouting human beings?
Maximus Decimus Meridius on December 15, 2018, 12:18 pm
Yup. That’s why I was glad ‘Bibi’ won the last election, and will probably win the next one too.
With Labour, nothing of substance would change, but the “Liberal” Zionists – who prefer their oppression of Palestinians to be done with nice words – would have a fig-leaf. With ‘Bibi’, it’s impossible for them to deny the horrible reality of Zionism, though lord knows they try.
oldgeezer on December 14, 2018, 11:14 pm
@klm90046
Liberal zionists are far worse than the right wing. They don’t seek a different outcome. They just want to be totally dishonest about it and have you feel good before they drive the knife in your back. Figuratively and not literally. They are ok with the iof putting bullets through you to enforce that outcome though
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How Chinese Investment in Latin America Is Changing
China's push for Latin American consumers reflects changes back home.
First appeared at Americas Quarterly
Chinese financing in Latin America is changing. After becoming a major source of capital flows to Latin America and the Caribbean over the past 15 years, a more diverse range of investors has surfaced, interested in more than simply channeling resources towards infrastructure, governments and state companies.
The profile of Chinese investment in the region tracks the evolution of China’s economy as it moves toward a higher reliance on services and domestic consumption.
Lending by the China Development Bank and China’s Eximbank was until recently directed mostly to infrastructure and the energy sector. In recent years, however, China’s development lending to Latin America and the Caribbean has been larger than lending from the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and CAF Development Bank of Latin America combined.
Of the estimated $140 billion China has lent to Latin America since 2005, over 90 percent has gone to four countries – Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina and Ecuador. More than 80 percent of China’s foreign direct investments, either as greenfield investments or through mergers and acquisitions, have gone to Brazil, Peru and Argentina, with Mexico also rising as a destination for manufacturing investment in recent years.
This shift in focus has brought the emergence of new investors. Direct investment in the region went from almost nothing in 2005 to likely passing $110 billion by 2018. The initial focus was on the extractive industry (oil, gas, copper, iron ore), but currently more than half of the flows are going to services. Chinese investors' pursuit of opportunities in transport, finance, electricity generation and transmission, information and communications technology, and alternative energy services catering to local markets is growing at rapid speed.
China-backed commercial financial institutions and platforms have also established their footprint in the region, actively engaging in private sector deal-making. Besides co-financing projects and setting up regional investment funds, four major Chinese commercial banks have ramped up operations in the region, many in partnership with international banks. The scale and number of transactions may be smaller compared to the lending spree led by development banks, but point to a qualitative change in the structure of financing options coming from China.
Increased participation of non-state investors has introduced new sources of dynamism and diversification to Chinese direct investment in Latin America. Brazil’s emerging tech industry, for instance, has successfully and continuously attracted high-profile Chinese investments. Additionally, Chinese participation in mergers and acquisitions into specific value-added sectors reflect new consumption habits in China, ranging from vineyards in Chile to meat-packing plants in Uruguay.
Attention to risk when looking at potential returns has also come to the fore among Chinese investors, particularly after the experience with Venezuela. As domestic regulations and lending caps tighten in China given concerns with its increased financial fragility, a more stringent look at the country's development lending can be expected.
State-owned enterprises still lead among Chinese investors in Latin America and the Caribbean, from mining, infrastructure and oil and gas to hydroelectric plants. China’s policy response to the global financial crisis in the form of large-scale stimulus given to infrastructure and housing sectors generated excess domestic capacity in heavy industry and in real estate, while financially boosting industries such as construction, retail and wholesale trade, hotels and restaurants. This overcapacity then went to look for foreign markets. In fact, China’s physical integration abroad via the “One Belt, One Road” initiative has become a vehicle to put its overcapacity in construction and heavy industry to work elsewhere.
Recent episodes of contention with Latin American governments around environmental impacts and corruption associated with some previous lending deals have highlighted the need for China’s investment finance to reckon with risks and the fallout from environment and governance issues. Official guidelines on environment and social policies for Chinese companies investing abroad have been issued, signaling the matter has caught the attention of Chinese authorities.
If Chinese deals used to be limited to construction – winning concessions, building a project, then leaving – new equity investments in Latin America indicate longer-term interests and ownership in projects beyond its construction to include operation, maintenance and more. This is especially true in port projects.
The speed and intensity of China’s growth-cum-structural-change has been to a large extent matched by the profile and volume of its capital flows to Latin America over the last 15 years. One may expect the continuation of a sizable Chinese footprint in the region. In order to maximize development bang-for-the-buck, however, the responsibility lies on the quality of Latin America’s domestic policies and negotiation of agreements.
Otaviano Canuto, based in Washington, D.C, is principal of the Center for Macroeconomics and Development, a senior fellow at the Policy Center for the New South and a nonresident senior fellow at Brookings Institution. He is a former vice-president and a former executive director at the World Bank, a former executive director at the International Monetary Fund and a former vice-president at the Inter-American Development Bank. He is also a former deputy minister for international affairs at Brazil’s Ministry of Finance .
How to heal the Brazilian economy
The parrot and commodity prices
Latin American economies face political crossroads in 2018
Poverty reduction in Brazil… partially gone with the cycle
One Third of Americans One Paycheck Away From Homelessness
Mercosur-EU trade agreement: better late than never
Economic effects of the Brazilian constitution
Benefits and Costs of Opening Brazil’s Foreign Trade
No Women, No Growth: The Case for Increasing Women’s Leadership in Latin America
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Where does WAINMAN rank in the most common names in the U.S.?
WAINMAN is identified by the U.S. Bureau of the Census as a surname with more than 100 occurrences in the United States for the year-2000 U.S. Census. In "Demographic Aspects of Surnames from Census 2000", the Census Bureau tabulated the surnames of all people who had obtained Social Security Numbers by the year 2000.
WAINMAN ranks # 58397 in terms of the most common surnames in America for 2000.
WAINMAN had 325 occurrences in the 2000 Census, according the U.S. government records.
Out of a sample of 100,000 people in the United States, WAINMAN would occur an average of 0.12 times.
For the last name of WAINMAN the Census Bureau reports the following race / ethnic origin breakdown:
Search the web for more on the name WAINMAN :
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Where does WAMBLES rank in the most common names in the U.S.?
WAMBLES is identified by the U.S. Bureau of the Census as a surname with more than 100 occurrences in the United States for the year-2000 U.S. Census. In "Demographic Aspects of Surnames from Census 2000", the Census Bureau tabulated the surnames of all people who had obtained Social Security Numbers by the year 2000.
WAMBLES ranks # 67725 in terms of the most common surnames in America for 2000.
WAMBLES had 272 occurrences in the 2000 Census, according the U.S. government records.
Out of a sample of 100,000 people in the United States, WAMBLES would occur an average of 0.1 times.
For the last name of WAMBLES the Census Bureau reports the following race / ethnic origin breakdown:
Search the web for more on the name WAMBLES :
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Accenture & Oracle Take West Midlands Police on a Journey to Cloud for Enhanced Operations and Data Sharing
West Midlands Police’s Digital transformation project achieves a significant cloud milestone
BIRMINGHAM, England; Jan. 18, 2018 – Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) today announced that they have teamed with West Midlands Police (WMP) to successfully deploy a suite of Oracle Cloud applications designed to increase efficiencies and processes across the force. The project is one of the first implementations of cloud technology by a public safety agency in the U.K.
The SaaS applications deployed for the West Midlands Police, across Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Human Capital Management (HCM) and Customer Experience (CX) solutions, have enabled the force to modernize processes across its HR, finance, procurement and shared services departments, and provided an internal self-service portal allowing officers and employees to quickly access critical information and back-office services. The introduction of a cloud-hosted supplier portal also enhanced agile interaction between the force and its suppliers.
“The deployment of this cloud technology is the latest-step on our technology transformation journey as envisaged under our ‘WMP 2020’ change program,” said Neil Chamberlain, Director of Commercial Services at West Midland Police. “This project represents a significant investment by the force as part of our transformation program and demonstrates our commitment to investing in digital technologies to enable new and more efficient ways to manage operations, share information and deliver police services to the public.”
Accenture has worked alongside WMP since 2014 when selected as transformation partner to help create and deliver the WMP 2020 change program; an ambitious five-year transformation project to create a modern, technology-enabled and more efficient force. The team leveraged the Accenture Cloud Suite for Oracle, including an industry-specific solution developed by the Accenture Oracle Business Group to provide a faster delivery with more quality assurance.
“By leveraging our Cloud First approach and leading industry and technology capabilities we have, in partnership with West Midlands Police, delivered a modern suite of back office services that will drive efficiencies and increase collaboration and information sharing across the force,” said Dave West, Managing Director, of Accenture’s Health & Public Service business. “The technology enables WMP to access and share information where and when required and supports modern digitally enabled Policing in the West Midlands region.”
Debbie Green, Senior Sales Director for the Public Sector at Oracle UK said, “The public sector is innovating at a rapid rate to transform its organizations and deliver better services to the taxpayer. West Midlands Police is a leading example of how organizations are looking to make use of cloud technologies to change their operations and deliver the next generation of public services.”
Accenture has been one of Oracle’s leading systems integration partners globally 12 years in a row, with more than 54,000 Oracle-skilled consultants around the world who help accelerate digital transformation by implementing Oracle-based business solutions and new business processes that develop and evolve as their digital business grows. Accenture has teamed with Oracle for more than two decades and is a Global Cloud Elite-level member in Oracle PartnerNetwork. For more information on the Accenture and Oracle relationship, please visit www.accenture.com/oracle
Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries and all business functions – underpinned by the world’s largest delivery network – Accenture works at the intersection of business and technology to help clients improve their performance and create sustainable value for their stakeholders. With more than 435,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture drives innovation to improve the way the world works and lives. Visit us at www.accenture.com
About Accenture Cloud
Accenture is a leader in helping organizations move to the cloud to take advantage of a new era of service delivery and flexibility, where applications, infrastructure and business processes are brought together and delivered As-a-Service. Accenture’s Cloud First agenda offers comprehensive, industry-focused cloud services including strategy, implementation, migration and managed services, and assets including the Accenture Cloud Platform that can drive broader transformational programs for clients. Accenture has worked on more than 20,000 cloud computing projects for clients, including three-quarters of the Fortune Global 100, and has more than 44,000 professionals trained in cloud computing. The company has been innovating in cloud technology for over a decade and holds more than 200 granted patents and pending applications across its global cloud portfolio. For more information on the Accenture and Oracle relationship, please visit www.accenture.com/oracle
Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) is Oracle’s partner program that provides partners with a differentiated advantage to develop, sell and implement Oracle solutions. OPN offers resources to train and support specialized knowledge of Oracle’s products and solutions and has evolved to recognize Oracle’s growing product portfolio, partner base and business opportunity. Key to the latest enhancements to OPN is the ability for partners to be recognized and rewarded for their investment in Oracle Cloud. Partners engaging with Oracle will be able to differentiate their Oracle Cloud expertise and success with customers through the OPN Cloud program – an innovative program that complements existing OPN program levels with tiers of recognition and progressive benefits for partners working with Oracle Cloud. To find out more visit: http://www.oracle.com/partners
The Oracle Cloud offers complete SaaS application suites for ERP, HCM and CX, plus best-in-class database Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) from data centers throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information about Oracle (NYSE:ORCL), please visit us at oracle.com
joe.x.doyle@accenture.com
James Drake
james.w.drake@oracle.com
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Kristen Dowling Named Head Coach of Waves Women's Basketball Team
Community Seaver | Community University
Alumni | Faculty | Staff | Students
Kristen Dowling (MA ’07), former Pepperdine women’s basketball assistant coach who has led the Athenas at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps since 2012, will return to Malibu as the eighth head coach in program history.
“Pepperdine Athletics exists to further our institution’s Christian mission, to provide an enriching, rewarding experience for our student-athletes that results in graduation, and to compete for championships,” said Pepperdine director of athletics Steve Potts (JD ’82). “Kristen Dowling gives us a perfect fit for those objectives. She brings a strong Christian faith, a true commitment to our student-athletes’ well-being as a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Redlands, and is dedicated to building a championship-caliber women’s basketball program. We are excited to have Kristen leading our women’s basketball program for many years to come.”
Dowling posted a 147-46 (.762) record as the head coach of the Division III Athenas, including six straight 20-win seasons and at least a share of six consecutive SCIAC regular-season championships. Her squads won the SCIAC Tournament four consecutive years between 2014 and 2017 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament each time.
“I am elated to lead the Pepperdine women’s basketball program,” said Dowling. “I want to thank President Benton, President-elect Gash, Steve Potts, and Karina Herold for entrusting me with the leadership of this program. Pepperdine’s Christian mission and commitment to academic and athletic excellence are core to who I am, which makes this role an absolute dream come true. I am excited to get to know the current team, encourage them to compete with purpose, and build upon their success. The future of Pepperdine women’s basketball is incredibly bright.”
Dowling’s first team at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps posted a 9-16 record in the 2012–13 season, but she turned the program around quickly and recorded a school-record 24 wins in the following season. The Athenas have hit 24 wins two more times since then and had at least 23 wins in five of the last six seasons. She led Claremont-Mudd-Scripps to its first NCAA Tournament victory in 2016, and the Athenas again won a first-round game in 2017.
Dowling was named SCIAC Coach of the Year in 2015. Over seven years, she posted a 93-19 (.830) record in conference play, with a remarkable 88-8 (.917) record the past six seasons. Her student-athletes won two SCIAC Player of the Year awards and were named to the All-SCIAC first team 10 times.
This will be Dowling’s third stint at Pepperdine. She was a graduate assistant and academic advisor during the 2006–07 and 2007–08 seasons, then returned as an assistant coach for the 2010–11 and 2011–12 campaigns under former head coach Julie Rousseau (MA ’12). The Waves went 32-27 during the 2011 and 2012 seasons. They placed third in the West Coast Conference in 2011 and advanced to the Women’s National Invitation Tournament.
In between those two stays at Pepperdine, Dowling worked as an assistant coach at California State University, Bakersfield, for the 2008–09 and 2009–10 seasons. The Roadrunners went 35-23 those two years and made their first-ever Division I postseason appearance in the 2010 Women’s Basketball Invitational.
Dowling is a 2004 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Redlands, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Spanish with a minor in physical education. As a student-athlete, she helped the Bulldogs to their second-ever SCIAC title in 2004 and a WBCA Class Act Achievement Award. Dowling also earned a master’s degree from Pepperdine in educational technology in 2007.
She is a graduate of Nike’s “So You Want to Be a Coach” program, as well as the NCAA Women’s Coaches Academy. In 2018 she served as an on-court coach for the USA Basketball U17 World Cup Team Trials.
Dowling takes over a program that was on the rise under Delisha Milton-Jones. The Waves went 22-12 last season, tied for third place in the WCC (the best showing since 2011), made the WCC Tournament semifinals (for the first time since 2010), and won the program’s two first postseason games in the modern era, making it to the Round of 16 in the WNIT.
Community Athletics Awards & Achievements Campus Life University & Campus Life Athletics Awards and Achievements Basketball Campus Life Kristen Dowling
Pepperdine Announces 2017 Athletics Hall of Fame Honorees
Lorenzo Romar to Return as Pepperdine Men's Basketball Coach
Pepperdine Unveils Newly Designed Mascot
Pepperdine University President Andrew K. Benton to Conclude Presidency in 2019
Seaver College Announces Spring 2019 Dean's List
Dean’s Executive Leadership Series Presents Under Armour Executive Emeritus Jody Giles
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LINDROS, RANGERS LOOK TO REBOUND
By Larry Brooks
Eli Manning (right) and Ahmad Bradshaw share some words. Joseph E. Amaturo
TORONTO – So why exactly is it that, for so long, Eric Lindros had his heart set on playing in this city and wearing the historic Maple Leafs crest?
“You’re six years old, you turn on Hockey Night in Canada, and every Saturday there are the Leafs. That’s it, that’s what was behind it, nothing more and nothing less,” Broadway Eric, who will be the focus of intense scrutiny here tonight playing his first game in his hometown as a Ranger, said yesterday. “Let’s face it, we’re all kids at heart here. We’re playing a kid’s game.
“When I was growing up, you didn’t have satellite dishes, you didn’t get to see every game of every team. You saw one team’s games. And for me, that was the Maple Leafs. They were my team. That’s what it was about for me.
“But again, that’s in the past, and I am very happy the way it worked out. I’m very happy to be playing in New York with the Rangers. This is a historic franchise, too. Playing for an Original Six team is something very special.”
The Rangers come into tonight’s game is mild disarray, having surrendered 11 goals in losing their last two. They were beaten badly at home on Thursday by the Maple Leafs, allowing six goals in the final 31:40 to lose, 6-3. Their defensive zone work was shoddy. Petr Nedved and Radek Dvorak had a difficult night. So did Lindros and Flyboys Mike York and Theo Fleury, outplayed decisively in their marquee matchup by Mats Sundin and wingers Mikael Renberg and Jonas Hoglund.
There’s a theory that having been hit with so many penalties throughout the year – the Rangers have been shorthanded more than any club in the NHL – the team is now, perhaps unconsciously, shying away from the physical play that marked much of its success. Lindros sees it differently.
“If you play aggressive hockey, moments are going to arise when penalties are going to be taken. We accept that,” said No. 88. “But what’s very frustrating is when you’re trying to get in on the forecheck and you can’t, because . . . “
Lindros stopped short, but it’s clear he believes that league officials have backed off zero-tolerance enforcement of anti-obstruction regulations.
ULANOV ON THIN ICE
Joel Sherman
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Iran denies involvement in apparent oil tanker attacks
By Ben Feuerherd
An oil tanker is seen on fire in the Gulf of Oman on June 13. Reuters
US shoots down Iranian drone in Strait of Hormuz, Trump says
Iran says it seized foreign tanker for allegedly smuggling oil
US to deploy 500 troops to Saudi Arabia amid Iran tensions: report
Iran denies it's ready to discuss missiles despite Pompeo claim
Iran’s UN Mission said Thursday that they “categorically reject” the assertion by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that they’re responsible for attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman.
In a statement, the mission added that the country is committed to safe maritime passage and maintaining peace in the region.
“Iran stands ready to play an active and constructive role in ensuring the security of strategic maritime passages as well as promoting peace, stability and security in the region,” the statement said.
They also called for urgent dialogue among all countries in the Persian Gulf to end the rising tensions in the region.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran reiterates that the only solution to the tension in this region is the active and constructive engagement of all regional countries within the context of a genuine dialogue based on mutual respect, inclusivity and basic principles of international law,” they said in the statement.
Pompeo told reporters in Washington that the attacks on the two tankers, Norwegian-owned MT Front Altair and the Japanese-owned Kokuka Courageous, are part of a “campaign” of “escalating tension” by Iran and a threat to international peace and security.
“It is the assessment by the United States government that the Islamic Republic of Iran is responsible for the attacks that occurred in the Gulf of Oman today,” Pompeo told reporters at the State Department.
With Post wires
Filed under attacks , iran , mike pompeo , oil
It's illegal for campaigns to take things of value from fo...
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PM for building linkages between MNERGA and AIDS programme
Edited By Odishatv Bureau Published By Odishatv Bureau On Jul 4, 2011 - 4:28 PM
New Delhi: Favouring that linkages be built between MNERGA and HIV/AIDS programmes, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said ministries should make "HIV sensitive" policies and programmes to provide employment and succour to victims.
"Linkages should be made between HIV and AIDS programme and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme to facilitate employment of HIV positive persons," Singh said addressing the National Convention of Zila Parishad Chairpersons and Mayors on HIV & AIDS here.
The programme was organised by a forum of Parliamentarians on HIV and AIDS, which was attended by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and a host of union ministers.
Gandhi said the fact that the forum is represented by people from all parties demonstrates that "our resolve" to address issues concerning countrymen can be greater than "our committment to any political party."
The Prime Minister said the nutritional needs of HIV positive people, specially women and children should be tackled by linking them with ICDS and other developmental schemes.
"Other concerned ministries should also have an HIV sensitive policy and programme so that the marginalised populations infected and affected by HIV and AIDS are not denied the benefits of these schemes," he said.
"There is a need to ensure that there is no stigma and discrimination towards HIV infected and affected persons, the Prime Minister said, adding, "No child should be denied admission in schools and colleges because he or she is afflicted with HIV or because his or her parents are afflicted with this disease."
Noting that those belonging to the most disadvantaged sections of the soceity suffer the most, Gandhi highlighted the need for creating awareness about the disease.
The Prime Minister said, "We must ensure that no person loses his or her employment because of HIV".
He said there is a need to ensure that women are not doubly stigmatised.
He also underlined the importance of strengthening the Panchayati Raj institutions and communities supported by them in National HIV and AIDS programme to get better results.
Both the Prime Minister and Gandhi highlighted the role of civil society in HIV/AIDs control programmes.
"If health has to become a truly people`s movement for people`s benefit, civil society involvement and Panchayati Raj guided programme delivery are absolutely essential," Singh said.
Gandhi also hailed the "active civil society initiative" in the AIDS control programme.
The Prime Minister noted the AIDS control programmes have been able to reduce new HIV/AIDS infections by 50 per cent in the last 10 years.
Gandhi said, "We are beginning to turn the tide in the battle."
While hailing the success the country has achieved in containing HIV AIDS, the Prime Minister said, "There should be no room for complacency even though we have been able to show a reduction in new infections."
Noting that there are 24 lakh people estimated to be living in India with HIV/AIDS, Singh said, "There should be no let up in efforts to provide services to these HIV infected people and prevent others from getting the infection."
"We have a large population of young persons to whom we have to reach out with awareness and other prevention services. There are emerging vulnerabilities of migrants and mobile populations which are not yet fully addressed. HIV prevention services have to be scaled up for all those who are at risk."
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EJ Hill: American Mountains
Wednesday, April 17, 2019, 4:00pm
Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
EJ Hill, RI '19 is an artist whose practice incorporates painting, writing, installation, and performance in ways that seek to elevate bodies and amplify voices that have long been rendered invisible and inaudible by oppressive social structures. Hill’s work has been presented domestically and internationally. He is the recipient of a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists award (2018); an Art Matters Foundation fellowship (2017); the William H. Johnson Prize (2016); and a Fellowship for Visual Artists from the California Community Foundation (2015). In this talk, Hill investigates the roller coaster as a symbol for the need for foundational structures, systems of support, and sources of uplift for those most vulnerable to homegrown American terrorism. Free and open to the public. For more information, click here.
See also: Lecture, Visual Arts, Open to the Public
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Who’s Going to Replace Orszag?
By Noam Scheiber
The inside scoop.
The first-day stories on Peter Orszag’s looming departure from OMB highlighted a number of possible successors. Among them: Gene Sperling, now a senior aide to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner; Laura Tyson, a Berkeley economist and former Clinton official; Rob Nabors, a top aide to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel who served as Orszag’s deputy early in the administration; and Jeff Liebman, a top OMB official who’s been acting deputy since Nabors left.
But, unless the White House decides to broaden its search (more on that later), this appears to be a two-person race between Sperling and Tyson. According to a handful of administration officials I’ve consulted these last few days, both Nabors and Liebman are highly-regarded in Obamaland, and Liebman is positively adored within the Old Executive Office Building (where OMB resides). But neither is viewed is as a first-tier contender for the job.
As for the relative merits of Sperling versus Tyson, they appear to run roughly as follows: Both served as director of the National Economic Council (NEC)—Larry Summers’s current job—under Bill Clinton. The NEC played a very prominent role in the annual budget process in those years, sometimes more so than OMB itself. So both have the relevant experience.
In terms of pure budget mechanics, Sperling probably has the edge, having helped put together eight federal budgets under Clinton from a variety of NEC positions (culminating in director), and having helped put together the first two Obama budgets. (Sperling effectively serves as Geithner’s top lieutenant on fiscal policy matters.) Sperling is also known among administration officials and Capitol Hill veterans as a master at navigating the intersection of politics, messaging, and policy. He was, for example, one of the Clinton administration’s three lead negotiators for the 1997 Balanced Budget Agreement with the GOP Congress—something that looms large now that a new round of painful budget negotiations is in the offing.
On the question of who would better manage the OMB bureaucracy, opinions are somewhat split. Tyson was considered a success as head of the more academic-y Council of Economic Advisers. But her follow-up stint as NEC director came at a difficult historical moment—not long after the 1994 midterm elections handed Republicans control of Congress and led to some disarray in the White House—making it more of a struggle and tougher to evaluate. Tyson also gets points for having served as dean of two prominent academic institutions since leaving government: Berkeley's Haas School of Business and the London Busines School. (Though I should stipulate that the officials I spoke with didn’t know a ton about her tenure as a b-school administrator.)
Sperling’s NEC, which he ran for four years, was by all accounts a highly effective agency —if nothing else, his sheer duration attests to that. But he had a round-the-clock work ethic that sometimes exhausted subordinates. It’s unclear how this aspect of his style would translate to a larger bureaucracy like OMB, though one person who’s worked with Sperling recently says his workaholic reputation is largely a relic of the ‘90s and that he is home most nights to tuck his young daughter into bed.
Meanwhile, administration officials give Tyson the advantage in the somewhat ill-defined “star power” category—a term that came up in a few conversations. In addition to crafting budgets and running a bureaucracy, the OMB director is a spokesman for the president’s economic agenda, after all. Both Sperling and Tyson are experienced on television and effective at dealing with reporters. But Tyson seems to get extra credit in the charisma department.
In both cases, the administration has to be somewhat concerned about the atmospherics of nominating yet another former Clinton official, though there would be some PR benefit to adding a highly-qualified woman to the male-dominated economic team. Likewise, both candidates could face unpredictable confirmation hearings, depending on how big a fight the GOP intends to pick. One can imagine Republicans using Sperling’s hearings to re-litigate the financial-market bailouts, even though he played no role in these decisions at Treasury. Likewise, one can imagine scrutiny of Tyson’s corporate board memberships, particularly her time as a Morgan Stanley director. On the other hand, it’s hard to imagine a candidate the Republicans wouldn’t try to bloody, however weak the basis. (And both of these are pretty weak.) So this consideration hardly seems dispositive.
Taken together, it’s not obvious that the calculus favors one candidate or the other—at this point the decision seems like it could go either way. Or, for that matter, neither way. Among the people I spoke with, you often hear talk of “expanding the list” to include less orthodox options. The name of Congressman Artur Davis, who recently lost a Democratic gubernatorial primary in Alabama, surfaced earlier this week, and I heard it again on Thursday. Administration officials have also started talking about Erskine Bowles, the former Clinton White House chief of staff and current co-chair of the president’s deficit commission. (One potential snag with Bowles: appearing to undermine a project you’ve spent months talking up.)
But the problem with such candidates is that they generally lack the granular, executive-branch budgeting experience of a Tyson or (especially) a Sperling, meaning it could take months for them to get up to speed. And it’s not at all clear that there’s time for that to happen. Even if the Senate were to approve a new OMB director before its August recess—by no means a certainty—that would leave them little chance to settle in before the next budget season, which will be well underway by October. And, of course, one reason the OMB decision looms so large is that the administration’s next budget will be a critical document. It will serve as a guide to solving one of the country’s great economic challenges: cleaning up the fiscal wreckage of the recession and financial crisis. With so much at stake, I’d be surprised if Tyson or Sperling didn’t end up with the job.
Noam Scheiber is a senior editor of The New Republic
*Update: I've tweaked some of the language for precision's-sake.
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Economy, London, NEC, Nabors, Clinton, Gene Sperling, Larry Summers, Jeff Liebman, Laura Tyson, Rahm Emanuel, Rob Nabors, Tim Geithner, Council of Economic Advisors, White House, GOP Congress
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Cleaner power and more reliable energy drive Duke Energy Indiana rate increase request
Strategic investments to serve a growing customer base are also a key part of request
PLAINFIELD, Ind. – Generating cleaner electricity, improving the reliability of electric service, and investments to serve a growing customer base are some of the key factors leading Duke Energy to ask the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission to increase its electric rates.
“We’ve made investments to meet the needs of a customer base that has grown by more than 100,000 since our last full-scale rate review,” said Duke Energy Indiana President Stan Pinegar. “We also have environmental responsibilities and are taking significant steps to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and move to a cleaner power generation mix. And we are upgrading our electric grid to improve reliability, help avoid power outages and speed service restoration when outages do occur.”
Based on these drivers, the filing today with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission requests to increase annualized revenue by approximately $395 million, for an overall average rate increase of about 15% across all customer groups. If approved, the increase will be added to bills in two steps, approximately 13% in mid-2020 and 2% in 2021.Timing will depend on state regulatory commission action.
The increase will vary among consumers depending on the cost to serve different types of customers. If approved by the commission, the company’s typical residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours a month could expect a monthly bill increase of about $23, or approximately 77 cents per day, which includes both steps of the increase.
To help customers save on their electric bills, the company is proposing a pilot program with time-of-use rates where customers can lower their bills on high power demand days by shifting their power usage to times of day when energy is less expensive.
Duke Energy Indiana’s overall average electric rate is currently below state, regional and national averages and is the lowest overall electric rate average in Indiana.
The company also has the lowest customer basic facilities charge in the state. It’s part of every monthly bill and is intended to cover the cost of the facilities the company has installed to deliver electricity to a customer’s home. It is expected to remain the lowest in Indiana after this increase.
The regulatory review process will include an opportunity for public comment.
The proposed new rates would be used to cover a range of innovations, upgrades and improvements that customers value, including:
Investments to accommodate growth
We have made investments to upgrade and keep up with growth on our system, including the addition of more than 1,400 miles of new power lines.
Transitioning to cleaner energy
Nearly 90% of the power Duke Energy produced in Indiana in 2018 was generated from coal. Duke Energy needs to continue to prepare for the likelihood of future greenhouse gas regulations and has proposed accelerating the retirement dates for some of its Indiana coal-fired power units. It is a moderate plan that staggers generating unit retirements over time and spreads out the customer rate impact.
Federal rules require changes to the way the company manages coal ash stored at power plant sites. Duke Energy is closing ash basins at its power plants responsibly and in compliance with stricter regulations.
Improving reliability and reducing power outages
Trees are a primary cause of power outages, and the cost per mile to trim trees on our system has more than tripled, mostly in the last two years.
Duke Energy is replacing and upgrading equipment to reduce power outages and modernize the electric grid for the type of information and services consumers have come to expect, such as better communication during power outages. These improvements include line sensors that detect problems, reduce power outages, and limit the number of customers affected when outages do occur.
Providing customers with more convenience
Duke Energy has been installing smart meters for its customers across its Indiana service area. Smart meters are read automatically – not manually – so they significantly reduce the need for estimated bills when meters can’t be easily accessed, such as in severe weather. They also provide customers the ability to view their previous day’s usage and make adjustments before their bill arrives.
The company is proposing the elimination of convenience charges for residential customers when they use a credit or debit card to make a bill payment.
New rate options
The company is also offering new electric rate proposals for state regulators to consider.
Due to factors such as more energy efficient appliances and the success of energy efficiency programs, customer power usage has been declining, but the amount of fixed costs to deliver power continues to rise. Duke Energy is proposing a five-year program for residential and commercial customers that would align the interests of customers and their utility by tying company revenues to the number of customers served instead of the amount of power they use. It removes the incentive for utilities to increase the use of electricity and allows utilities to continue to aggressively support customer energy efficiency programs. A number of electric utilities have moved to this model, and it is often currently used by gas companies.
The new smart meters enable options such as “time of use” rates, where customers can shift their power usage to times of day when energy costs are lower.
Money-saving opportunities for customers
Duke Energy has programs to help customers manage their electricity costs and their bills.
"We're committed to helping customers find ways to save energy through our energy efficiency and bill-lowering tools,” Pinegar said. “We also have assistance for low-income customers and work with our state’s network of community action agencies to provide help.”
Customers can visit duke-energy.com/home/savings for energy-saving tips and programs. The company also has programs to help customers with managing their bills. Learn more at duke-energy.com/home/billing/special-assistance.
To learn more about Duke Energy’s proposed rate increase, visit duke-energy.com/IndianaRates.
Duke Energy Indiana, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, provides about 6,600 megawatts of owned electric capacity to approximately 840,000 customers in a 23,000-square-mile service area, making it Indiana’s largest electric supplier.
Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is one of the largest energy holding companies in the U.S. It employs 30,000 people and has an electric generating capacity of 51,000 megawatts through its regulated utilities, and 3,000 megawatts through its nonregulated Duke Energy Renewables unit.
Duke Energy is transforming its customers’ experience, modernizing the energy grid, generating cleaner energy and expanding natural gas infrastructure to create a smarter energy future for the people and communities it serves. The Electric Utilities and Infrastructure unit’s regulated utilities serve approximately 7.7 million retail electric customers in six states – North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. The Gas Utilities and Infrastructure unit distributes natural gas to more than 1.6 million customers in five states – North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky. The Duke Energy Renewables unit operates wind and solar generation facilities across the U.S., as well as energy storage and microgrid projects.
Duke Energy was named to Fortune’s 2019 “World’s Most Admired Companies” list, and Forbes’ 2019 “America’s Best Employers” list. More information about the company is available at duke-energy.com. The Duke Energy News Center contains news releases, fact sheets, photos, videos and other materials. Duke Energy’s illumination features stories about people, innovations, community topics and environmental issues. Follow Duke Energy on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.
Contact: Angeline Protogere
Office: 317.838.1338 | 24-Hour: 800.266.3853
Indiana, Rates
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Population by Country of Birth
Net Migration Statistics
About MWUK
Donate to Migration Watch UK
20 Bogus Arguments
10 Key Points on Immigration
There Are No Excuses Now For A Failure To Reduce Migration
Economics, Employment, European Union, Population
The triggering of Article 50 last week was a major step towards honouring the referendum result.
It will undoubtedly please the 69% of the public who say they want Brexit to go ahead (YouGov poll, March 2017)
Yet the mass-migration lobby continues to make unconvincing assertions about the risk of economic damage if free movement is curtailed.
A recent New Statesman article (‘Brexit is teaching the UK that it needs migrants’, 28th March) typifies this, claiming that immigration brings a net fiscal contribution for the UK of £7 billion a year.
It is unclear where this figure comes from as no reference is included.
However, it is contradicted by studies of empirical evidence by a range of organisations, including the UCL’s Centre for the Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM).
Research by CReAM published in 2014 found that immigration has been a net fiscal cost to the UK, with researchers disagreeing only on the size and components of that cost. The study finds that between 1995 and 2011, immigration to the UK resulted in an overall cost of between £115 billion and £159 billion, or £20 to £25 million per day during that period. This resulted from a lower employment rate of migrants overall, lower wages for some groups and the cost of public services and benefits. All of these factors remain in place to the present.
Clearly skilled migrants in high-paid jobs will make a positive contribution. However, 80% of EU workers who have arrived in the last ten years are in lower-skilled jobs. The Government’s independent Migration Advisory Committee has not reported a positive economic impact from low-skilled migration on fiscal contribution, GDP per head or productivity.
The article also notes that the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) project that, with zero net migration, public sector debt would rise to 145% of GDP by 2062-63, while with high net migration it would fall to 73%.
However, these projections are now out of date. The OBR’s latest Fiscal Sustainability Report projects that even higher ‘high net migration’ would not prevent public sector debt rising towards 200% by then.
The OBR does project that, over the next decade, high migration would reduce the debt/GDP ratio to 1% lower than it would otherwise have been, but after that date it would not prevent the ratio rising inexorably to unsustainable levels.
The OBR acknowledges that ‘higher migration could be seen as delaying some of the fiscal challenges of an ageing population rather than a way of avoiding them’. As the OECD put it: “This type of demographic dividend vanishes quickly as migrants also age or leave.”
Immigration may also be one of a range of causes for the UK’s abysmal productivity, comparative to the rest of the G7.
As journalist Jeremy Warner has noted (Daily Telegraph, (£), March 2016): “There is some evidence to suggest that employers are choosing easily dispensable cheap labour in preference to productivity-enhancing investment.” He adds that ‘the inexhaustible supply of cheap labour that uncontrolled mass migration provides is almost bound to be bad for low skill wages’.
Indeed, despite repeated attempts by academics, politicians and journalists to suggest otherwise, there is no evidence that the very large amount of migration into low-skilled or low-paid work in the UK over the past decade or so has in any way enhanced productivity or, consequently, GDP per person.
What is clear is that recent record levels of immigration are causing the UK’s population to rise at the fastest rate in nearly a century, by half a million each year.
High immigration means that there are more people for the NHS to care for. It also places a strain on schools, with three-fifths of primary schools in England expected to have a shortfall of places by next year. The demand for homes driven by high inflows of people will also ensure the continuation and worsening of the housing crisis. Indeed, the ONS finds that 95% of the increase in new households between 2010 and 2014 was accounted for by non UK-born heads of household.
The triggering of Article 50 means the government now has an opportunity, and indeed a solemn duty, to deliver on its promise to reduce net migration.
Migration Watch UK has set out how EU migration could be reduced by 100,000 a year.
There are now no excuses for a failure to take decisive action.
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Political Campaigns, US Government
Turning a Pro-Nonprofit Message into a Winning Electoral Strategy
A little after midnight on election night, Nate Shinagawa conceded New York State’s 23rd District congressional seat to Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.). Unlike most other candidates for Congress, Shinagawa had the distinction of being one of the “nonprofit eight” who received the endorsement of CForward, the nation’s first political action committee specifically devoted to candidates friendly toward the nonprofit sector. A professional nonprofit hospital administrator, Shinagawa was as articulate about the nonprofit sector as any of the CForward candidates. In a conversation with the Nonprofit Quarterly after the election, Shinagawa reaffirmed his core Democratic positions on issues such as taxing the wealthy and eliminating subsidies for big oil companies, but he also articulated positions that clearly reflect both his position as a nonprofit executive and his nonprofit roots.
The Nonprofit Candidate
Shinagawa tells the story of his younger brother, a special needs child who wasn’t being well served in the Prop 13-fueled anti-tax fiscal environment in Shinagawa’s native California. When Shinagawa moved east, his family followed him to New York, where governmental programs and nonprofit services helped turn his life around. “Government saved my brother and saved my mother especially—my entire family,” Shinagawa says.
The fact that government accounts for one-third of nonprofit revenues—and much more in the realm of human services—is part of Shinagawa’s story. “For a lot of voters, it’s an issue where you have to connect the dots,” he says. “People love their nonprofits, people donate to the food bank or the church or local support networks, [but] a lot of these entities get support from the government. If we give more money to the rich, we are taking away from the organizations that are keeping people afloat.” He adds, “People find it very easy to attack the government—big thing, faceless, amorphous—but when I connect the dots [showing that] it affects your local church, the food bank, people are saying, ‘Whoa.’ It puts a powerful face to the agencies we have in our community. It shows a face and a human element.”
With a nonprofit lens on many public policy issues, Shinagawa talks about issues differently than other politicians. He is articulate and passionate about the implications of national health care reform, discussing the impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on nonprofit health and human service organizations. He understands that, as organizations, nonprofits will be able to get help in purchasing health insurance through participating in the ACA’s health exchanges, and that, as service providers, nonprofits can look to the ACA to eliminate some of the pressures that lead to medical bankruptcies that force families to rely on social services provided by nonprofits.
On the charitable deduction, he describes proposals that might limit or cap deductions of mortgage interest payments or charitable donations as “the equivalent of raising taxes on middle class people,” because unlike the wealthy, the middle class does look to the economic boost of these deductions. Shinagawa argues against what he sees as the draconian budget cuts currently being considered in Congress, believing such cuts would harm the ability of nonprofits to function as social safety nets to “help uplift people out of poverty.” One can plainly see what made Shinagawa attractive to CForward, but why didn’t that translate to voters in New York’s 23rd Congressional District?
The Moneyed Incumbent
While Shinagawa lost, there is no question that his candidacy turned a lot of heads. He ran ahead of President Barack Obama in much of the district and came far closer than anyone would have ever thought to claiming what most thought was a “safe” Republican incumbent seat. In fact, Shinagawa believes that “a little more support from outside organizations, support from labor and from the national party at a higher level would have put us over the top” in this election. Shinagawa says that on the stump, he diverged from other candidates and “talked about overturning Citizens United…[and said] that corporations are not people.” Voters got to see “a campaign of grassroots versus corporate money,” he says, “[but] we didn’t have quite enough money to get our message out there.”
Shinagawa’s opponent was House freshman Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.). Shinagawa says that approximately 60 percent of Reed’s campaign money came from the roughly 600 PACs that donated to his campaign. Reed was certainly considered a favorite in a district with a 22 percent Republican voter registration edge. Given such political demographics, that Shinagawa captured 48 percent of the vote and lost to Reed by less than four percent is a testament to his campaign’s work. But Shinagawa, who was virtually ignored by the national Democratic Party machinery such as the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, was outspent three to one by Reed, a fact that can’t be ignored in the realities of running a political campaign.
Reed’s campaign pulled in $1,977,658 compared to only $709,727 for Shinagawa. Shinagawa was outraised by almost $200,000 in individual donations, raising $600,290 compared to Reed’s $788,238. Shinagawa was throttled in terms of PAC contributions, getting only $87,817 while Reed pulled in $1,068,280 from PACs. Almost all of Shinagawa’s PAC contributions were from labor unions. On the other hand, Reed pulled in many $5,000 PAC contributions from a panoply of conservative and Republican PACs, not to mention sizable donations from the PACs of Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, New York Life, Xerox, Boeing, Halliburton, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, EBay, Procter & Gamble, Hewlett Packard, Google, Wal-Mart, and Exxon Mobil.
For CForward’s future activities, Shinagawa’s campaign was a textbook of the challenge most real nonprofit candidates are likely to face in districts where their elections might really mean overturning the status quo. To our knowledge, CForward raised little money to put behind its selected candidates. To have affected Shinagawa’s campaign in financial terms was well beyond CForward’s capacity, at least in this, CForward’s first national electoral cycle.
Who’s in Each Corner?
There is no question that the political contributions of a PAC that supports nonprofit-friendly candidates will likely continue to be outmatched by big corporate money—and this doesn’t even address the purportedly non-candidate “independent” 501(c)(4) and Super PAC spending. Therein lies one of the problems/challenges for CForward or any nonprofit-focused political action committee.
Strikingly, despite Shinagawa’s profession as a nonprofit hospital administrator, the big health PACs went with Reed, including the American Medical Association PAC and the American Hospital Association PAC. Although nonprofits are a small percentage of apartment owners and managers in the U.S., the National Multi-Housing Council takes policy stands in favor of protecting the Low Income Housing Tax Credits and implementing comprehensive immigration reform, both strong nonprofit issues, but its PAC also supported Reed, not Shinagawa. Even the Fraternity and Sorority PAC, whose website features Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) lauding the PAC for its efforts to protect the values of Greek life, put money into Reed’s campaign.
Although not big money, the national nonprofit infrastructure group with its own PAC—the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP)—wasn’t looking toward CForward’s “nonprofit eight” for its 2012 contributions. It gave $10,500 to Congressional Democrats and $13,000 to Republicans, with the largest single contribution to the reelection campaign of Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), followed by smaller contributions to House members Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and Rep. Patrick Tiberi (R-Ohio). Meanwhile, the Americans for the Arts Action Fund went 72 percent Democratic and 28 percent Republican. The PAC of the National Community Action Foundation (NCAF) also went 72 percent Democratic; they didn’t give to Shinagawa or Reed.
The above points to a second problem. Even the nominally nonprofit PACs were not contributing to Shinagawa’s election. This is because, for the most part, nonprofit PACs like AFP and NCAF look to support candidates who are (a) likely winners, and, (b) likely to be influential on the committees that are of concern to their members (thus AFP’s generosity toward Hatch, who will likely be the ranking Republican member of the Senate Finance Committee, and Lewis, who will be the ranking Democratic member on the crucial House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight). If CForward is going to help its favorite candidates—those reflecting nonprofit sector values and priorities—it is going to have to influence the nonprofit-focused PACs.
The exception to the “PACs not contributing to Shinagawa” rule was Planned Parenthood, and this points to a third challenge for a nonprofit political agenda. Despite the assertion of national nonprofit leadership organizations about a nonprofit identity and agenda, many nonprofits have topic-specific agendas that override their 501(c) identities. The Center for Responsive Politics maintains a category of PACs described as “Ideological/Single-Issue” which includes groups focused on abortion policy, the environment, gun control (and a much larger opposing group of PACs supporting gun rights), human rights, and women’s issues. Like Planned Parenthood, these groups are looking for candidates to support based on their positions on specific issues, not necessarily their allegiance to a tax status or overarching nonprofit sector values.
What Lessons Might Be Brought to a Rematch?
Although he hasn’t committed, Shinagawa has dropped hints that he might be open to another run in 2014 if he can get the support of national political funders, particularly the DCCC. Judging by his against-the-odds showing in 2012, his national political career may just be taking off. If he does run again, he’ll likely continue to bring with him his nonprofit roots and values, and insights like this one: “With many nonprofits, the CEO is also the CFO and HR director. With a nonprofit agency, you truly are a problem solver. When you run a nonprofit in an era of declining revenues, you’re learning how to do more rather than less. We are well trained to take an attitude to government to get things done, to get the job done. Congress needs an attitude adjustment. They would rather fight than fix things. In an era when people are frustrated with things not getting done, management experience is a compelling story.”
CForward wasn’t the only PAC with almost no money to recognize Nate Shinagawa’s strength as a Congressional candidate. He was also recognized by the Progressive Action PAC and he received endorsements from the much better heeled People for the American Way and MoveOn. Had he won in 2012, Shinagawa would hardly have been the only pro-nonprofit member of Congress. Winning her reelection, for example, was Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.). A former executive director of the Arca Foundation and co-founder and executive director of the National Network to End Domestic Violence, Edwards has nonprofit credentials to match anyone, but, in the opposite scenario of Shinagawa, she ran in a safe Democratic seat, winning with over 77 percent of the vote.
But aside from the rare elected official here or there, can truly pro-nonprofit candidates succeed on a larger scale without taking on the impact of big money distorting elections and laundering secret dollars through 501(c) organizations? That may be a necessary element of an ultimately pro-nonprofit agenda. It isn’t just a matter of fighting for government funding for nonprofits or protecting charitable giving incentives. Looking at the big picture, it may be equally important to cease the diversion of as much as $10 billion into election cycles, money that could be used far more productively by nonprofits and society for social betterment.
For now, given most nonprofits’ issue-specific concerns, CForward has to figure out how to translate a pro-nonprofit message into a winning strategy for candidates like Shinagawa. It has to figure out how to attract other political nonprofit entities to the CForward selections so that a nonprofit message from CForward isn’t seen as disconnected with the nonprofit messages of PACs such as AFP and NCAF. And it has to deal with the resource question, because CForward and other nonprofit-friendly PACs are hardly going to be able to outmuscle corporate money flowing to the opposition. Between now and 2014, CForward and potential nonprofit-friendly congressional candidates face some big challenges.
Youth Climate Case Claims Constitutional Right to a Livable World
By Karen Kahn
Make No Mistake: The Governor’s Race in Georgia Isn’t Over
By Diandria Barber
Advancing from New Ground Taken: What Civil Society Must Bring Forward from the Midterms
Early Voting Gives First-Time Young Voters a Way In
By Jason Schneiderman
Kemp and an Unauditable Voting System Meet Abrams and the People of Georgia
A Message on the Midterms (and Beyond)
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In anticipation of our final NYFOS After Hours of the season next week, “Harry, Hoagy, and Harold,” we’ve asked our performers, young talents from the Juilliard School, to curate this week’s Song of the Day. Come out to see them at 10pm on Monday, May 2nd at HENRY’s Restaurant! First up is mezzo-soprano Amanda Lynn Bottoms.
The Day The World Turned Purple
When an icon passes there is the unavoidable sharing of their creations and outward expressions of nostalgia from fans across borders. In the 21st Century we share in the profound grief that fans face beyond word of mouth and radio broadcast but even more profoundly through social media, sources that allow us to recall or experience for the first time the insurmountable joy fans received from an artist’s work. As I scrolled through Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and every other site this week I was faced with post after post of the gut wrenching truth that the world lost yet another an icon, one who’s influence went far beyond the boundaries of their craft and challenged preconceived notions about not only music, but style, race, and sexuality: this irreplaceable genius was Prince.
I had already written about a Shubert piece but after hearing Purple Rain pipe through my headphones for the tenth time as I lie in the middle of Central Park staring at the clouds I knew I had to change my course. If this is your first of fiftieth time hearing this song let it wash over you with open hearts and minds as the man who made this emblematic piece no longer exists with us but his art endures on.
A combination of rock, gospel and orchestral music, Purple Rain was a staple of Prince’s concert repertoire. A lone guitar starts the piece and is joined by drumming and an organ to set us in a gospel church mood. As the pared down musical summary of the same named film, this track follows the story of “The Kid” and his quest for reconciliation with three characters in his life. The first verse is dedicated to his father, then his ex-girlfriend (Apollonia), and then his band mates.
For decades fans have pondered the true meaning of Purple Rain and why Prince would embark upon such a radical, evocative song style. Prince himself said “When there’s blood in the sky, red and blue equals purple. Purple rain pertains to the end of the world and being with the one you love and letting your faith/god guide you through the purple rain.” Band mate Lisa Coleman said the song symbolizes “a new beginning. Purple, the sky at dawn; rain, the cleansing factor.”
Whether it was supposed to signal the end or beginning of an era, Purple Rain undoubtedly was a dramatic change for pop music and a definitive moment in Prince’s career. Re-translate “Purple Rain” as “Purple Reign,” and Prince’s royal connotations with the color purple throughout his career come to the forefront and further the belief that he was, and remains, an uncontested member of musical royalty. Allow yourself to journey through the entire Purple Rain album, venture on to Sign o’ The Times and then Dirty Mind. Recapture the powerful hopes and emotions that his music and performances stirred up from within us in our youth and now today as adults. Remember our incomparable Prince.
Posted on April 25, 2016 April 25, 2016 by nyfos This entry was posted in Song of the Day and tagged Amanda Lynn Bottoms, Prince. Bookmark the permalink.
← Song of the Day: April 22
Song of the Day: April 27 →
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“Thomas Jefferson’s connections to the Virginia State Penitentiary”
Posted on July 12, 2018 February 7, 2019 by Notes on the State
Although Thomas Jefferson is remembered for ardently petitioning on behalf of man’s endowed rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, he likewise involved himself in the development of the carceral system and institutional punishment.
While serving as the Ambassador to France in 1785, Thomas Jefferson wrote to Virginia Governor, Patrick Henry, about being asked by Virginia state officials to oversee the design of the Richmond Capitol Building and a prison. Jefferson detailed that his preliminary plan for the prison drew from “a benevolent society in England which had been indulged by the government in an experiment of the effect of labor in solitary confinement on some of their criminals, which experiment had succeeded beyond expectation.”[1] Prior to the organization of this ‘experiment,’ most American prisons followed strict European models where individuals convicted of crimes remained in jail for the duration of their sentences.[2] The concept of the penitentiary, where criminals could prepare for reentry into society through hard labor, gained popularity as an effective rehabilitative treatment as well as a way to productively put the imprisoned population to work.[3] Jefferson considered his proposal as one of if not the first introduction of the notion of penitentiaries and solitary confinement as a basis for criminal justice into the American consciousness.[4]
The same year of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the Virginia legislature commissioned Jefferson to head a committee dedicated to revising the new state’s criminal laws.[5] He wrote in his autobiography that “on the subject of criminal law, all were agreed that the punishment of death should be abolished, except for treason and murder; and that, for other felonies should be substituted hard labor in the public works.” The final bill, titled A Bill for Proportioning Crimes and Punishment in Cases Heretofore Capital (Bill 64), used language that alluded to a more rehabilitative purpose for prisons.[6] This coincided with the publication of Cesare Beccaria’s publication, On Crimes and Punishments (1764), in which the Italian philosopher encouraged enlightenment philosophers to contemplate prison reform. Beccaria’s treatise proposed some of the first modern arguments against the death penalty, arguing that long term imprisonment would be a more effective deterrent due to the transience of execution.[7] Jefferson said that Beccaria’s reflections “had satisfied the reasonable world of the unrightfulness and inefficacy of the punishment of crimes by death” with his arguments regarding the citizen’s duty to respect the social contract.[8] In 1785, Jefferson’s Bill 64 faced the Virginia legislature but lost by a single vote because of hesitations with abolishing the death penalty as punishment for horse thievery (a common crime at the time).[9] A year later, the state of Pennsylvania embarked on an experiment of a similar design to Jefferson’s plan of substituting hard labor for the death penalty with the construction of the Walnut Street Prison.[10] The trial appeared unsuccessful in its efforts to reform prisoners with Jefferson himself writing that the embarrassment of public labor “plunged them into the most desperate & hardened depravity of morals and character.”[11] The Philadelphia prison later implemented solitary confinement as a form of punishment and seemed to produce the desired result of a reduced crime rate. Once the second iteration of Bill 64 reached the legislature in 1796, Jefferson amended his original plan by substituting solitary confinement for hard labor as a result of the success of the Pennsylvania penitentiary and the conversations about prison reform taking place in Europe.[12]
In addition to basing his reforms for criminal laws on European models, Jefferson also attributed his design for the Virginia State Penitentiary to the work of two French architects. In a letter to James Buchanan and William Hay, Jefferson attached a “plan of the prison proposed at Lyon which was sent by the architect, and to which we are indebted for the fundamental idea of ours.”[13] The French architect of Lyon, Pierre-Gabriel Bugniet, published his original drawings in the July 1765 issue of French literary magazine, the Mercure de France. The prison accommodated for 900 cells or chambers which would be organized by types of prisoners to ensure that “there is no confusion in the internal policing of the prison; the honest man who is the unfortunate victim of fortune, or merely imprudent, is no longer intermingled with those whom the laws condemn or stigmatize and whom society casts out.”[14] Jefferson also mentioned the significance of Charles-Louis Clerisseau’s architectural advice in the design process.[15] Clerisseau mainly assisted Jefferson in his design for the Virginia State Capitol but he nonetheless gifted the architect with a silver coffee urn as a “present for Clerisseau for his trouble about the draughts & model of Capitol & prison.”[16] A specially appointed committee eventually selected the designs of Benjamin Latrobe for the final structure of the penitentiary, which featured three stories of cell blocks facing an open common area and solitary confinement cells in the basement.[17] Despite the fact that his exact drawings were not followed, Jefferson admitted that “it’s principle accordingly, but not its exact form was adopted by Latrobe, in carrying the plan to execution, by the erection of what is now called the Penitentiary, built under his direction.”[18] Curiously enough, after the reconstruction of the penitentiary in 1928, a plaque allegedly placed on an exterior wall incorrectly stated, “The bricks used in the construction of these buildings were from the original penitentiary which was designed by Thomas Jefferson and erected on this site in the year 1797.”[19]
“Estimate of the cost of the raising floor and roofing of a prison.” Original manuscript from the Collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
After Latrobe began construction, Jefferson (then Vice President of the United States) continued to invest his time in the penitentiary. He specified in a letter to the Governor of Virginia, James Wood, that he would act to prevent “an affectation of ornament which would be entirely misplaced on a building of this character.”[20] While Jefferson prided himself in his self-taught knowledge of classical architecture, he withheld from displaying any aesthetic frivolities in his design for the Virginia prison. This stipulation was strangely out of character for Jefferson who would later design the University of Virginia as a living architectural textbook and an institution that encouraged discipline in the humanities. His insistence that the exterior of the prison match the character of its function bears insight to what Jefferson may have thought of prisons and those who resided behind their walls. Not only would the threat of incarceration remain to deter crime but the experience of being imprisoned would engrain the purpose of recovery as a process through which the criminal must prove their worthiness to society.
Until the original penitentiary’s destruction in 1928, the facility housed a variety of notorious criminals, many of whom sat in solitary confinement. In the summer of 1800, an enslaved blacksmith named Gabriel Prosser organized a slave rebellion in Richmond that involved almost one thousand slaves. After the plans of the revolt reached the ears of Governor James Monroe, Prosser (the last name of his owner) and twenty-six other co-conspirators were arrested and taken to the penitentiary and Henrico jail. Gabriel was taken to the penitentiary and placed in solitary confinement until his execution on October 10.[21] Governor Monroe wrote to Thomas Jefferson asking if he ought to hold more executions to deter future rebellions, to which Jefferson replied: “there is a strong sentiment that there has been hanging enough. The other states & the world at large will forever condemn us if we indulge a principle of revenge, or go one step beyond absolute necessity.”[22] While Jefferson disapproved of excessive displays of punishment, he did not reciprocally advocate for rehabilitative penitentiary sentencing. Jefferson instead suggested that the legislature pass a law for the exportation of black Americans to the African continent, an effort that later culminated in the establishment of the American Colonization Society (1816). The early supporters of the group included Jefferson, James Monroe, John Randolph, Henry Clay, and James Madison, who served as the Society’s president in the 1830s.[23] In the Notes on the State of Virginia (1785), Jefferson anticipated being asked, “why not retain and incorporate the blacks into the state, and thus save the expense of supplying, by importation of white settlers, the vacancies they will leave?” In response to his own question Jefferson replied: “Deep rooted prejudices entertained by whites; ten thousand recollections, by the blacks, of the injuries they have sustained; new provocations; the real distinctions by which nature has made; and many other circumstances… will probably never end but in the extermination of the one or other race.”[24] Although Jefferson’s opinions on criminal justice certainly fell into the more radical camp of the time, his commitment to ‘reforming the criminal’ failed to extend to non-white individuals.
Cell to original Richmond State Penitentiary built in 1800 and raised in 1928
Key found during excavation of Virginia State Penitentiary in 1991 (Jay Paul, Richmond Times Dispatch)
Gabriel’s time in the penitentiary stood in stark contrast to the treatment former Vice President Aaron Burr received during his time in the prison. In 1807, Aaron Burr occupied a special apartment in the penitentiary house composed of three rooms while undergoing court proceedings for the charges of “1, treason in levying war against the United States, 2, preparing an expedition against the colonies of Spain, a nation with whom the United
States was at peace.”[25] In a letter to his daughter, Burr noted that “while I have been writing, different servants have arrived with messages, notes, and inquiries, bringing oranges, lemons, pineapples, raspberries, apricots, cream, butter, ice, and some ordinary articles.”[26] Despite Jefferson’s own belief that treason and murder ought to be the only crimes punishable by death, Burr was spared while Gabriel, who neither fulfilled an act of treason nor committed murder, was hanged. The excessive consideration given to Burr, compared to the severe sentencing of less prestigious inmates, proved that the newer penitentiary system introduced by Jefferson still discriminated on the basis of race and moreover made exceptions for the supposed reformative purpose.
The Richmond prison was built in 1800 and was once called the “most shameful prison in America” by the ACLU.
Jefferson’s contributions to the Virginia State Penitentiary distinguished him as an authority in what developed into the modern-day prison system. On June 24, 1823, Joseph Carrington Cabell wrote to Jefferson requesting help in designing the Nelson County prison because he heard that Jefferson drew up plans a month prior for the jail in Cumberland County.[27] The aging Jefferson replied with a copy of the Cumberland County sketch equipped with a solitary confinement cell and holding cells separated by gender and race. Solitary confinement soon became a standard for prison sentencing and in 1833, the penitentiary issued new guidelines that required a prisoner to spend at least 1/12th of their term in solitary.[28] That same year, Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont published On the Penitentiary System in the United States and Its Application in France which recounted their tour of American prisons and penitentiaries. In reflection of the implementation of solitary confinement, the two Frenchmen concluded that “in general it was ruinous to the public treasury” and “proofs were soon afforded that this system, fatal to the health of the criminals, was likewise inefficient in producing their reform.”[29] After a trip to Virginia they also specifically described the Richmond penitentiary as “one of the bad prisons in the United States.” While the two did not specify the reason for categorizing the prison as “bad,” Tocqueville and Beaumont clearly articulated that the practices of American facilities should not be emulated in France despite the fact that Jefferson obtained his schemes from their home country.
Thomas Jefferson’s plan of a prison in Piedmont, Virginia. Collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society
Jefferson’s accommodation for racial discrimination in prisons further informed the enactment of penal laws, in his own time and up through present-day. In the years following the opening of the penitentiary, free black communities were increasingly seen as “a great problem” due to the notion that their condition corrupted both slaves and other prisoners.[30] Virginia legislatures sought to solve this ‘problem’ by issuing a new penalty in 1825 that punished any free black convicted of a crime not with a penitentiary sentence but by being whipped, sold, and transported as a slave. Governor William Giles moved to repeal the law in 1828 but by then, thirty-five free people had already been sold.[31] A later 1857 Virginia law authorized the employment of free blacks and slave convicts on state public works which provided the state with cheap labor while simultaneously reducing the problem of overcrowding in penitentiaries.[32] The law implicitly encouraged courts to dole out longer sentences to African-Americans and with the stipulation in the Thirteenth Amendment that permitted slavery or involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime, African-Americans then and now continue to face disproportionate rates of policing and incarceration. Not only have Jefferson’s own writings supported the disenfranchisement of black Americans but acts of legislation following his precedent have set the foundation for the modern prison-industrial complex.
Whether Jefferson intended to shape the evolution of prison reform in the United States with his simple sketch remains unknown but his ideas have continued to impact contemporary applications of criminal justice, both in practice and theory. Solitary confinement has continued to serve as a legitimate form of punishment in the United States but since the 1990s, the U.N. Committee Against Torture has condemned its use as a form of torture. Approximately 80,000 individuals currently remain in solitary confinement, a condition that if endured for long periods of time may produce symptoms such as hallucinations, insomnia, paranoia, increased risks of suicide, and PTSD.[33] Furthermore, the significance of the simultaneous construction of the Virginia Capitol and the state penitentiary under Jefferson’s direction alludes to the establishment of an ideological precedent on matters of discipline. If the erection of the capitol symbolized democratic freedom, cultural achievement, and national dignity, more so did the penitentiary represent the consequences suffered by those who proved undeserving or unfit to enjoy the liberties endowed upon a citizen. More than one hundred years after Jefferson produced his original prison sketch, his innovative ideas have continued to shape notions of democracy and citizenry but have also given credence to the act of rescinding rights and branding of the non-citizen.
Hahna Cho
[1] Rice, Howard C. “A French Source of Jefferson’s Plan for the Prison at Richmond.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians12, no. 4 (1953): 28. doi:10.2307/987652.
[2] Giordano, Ralph G. The Architectural Ideology of Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson, North Carolina and London: McFarland & Company, Publishers, 2012. 113.
[3] Keve, Paul W. Prisons and the American Conscience: A History of U.S. Federal Corrections. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1995. 10.
[4] “From Thomas Jefferson to James Wood, 31 March 1797,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified June 13, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-29-02-0267. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 29, 1 March 1796 – 31 December 1797, ed. Barbara B. Oberg. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002, pp. 335–336.]
[5] Lewis, Orlando Faulkland. The Development of American Prisons and Prison Customs, 1776-1845: With Special Reference to Early Institutions in the State of New York. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2005. 210.
[6] “64. A Bill for Proportioning Crimes and Punishments in Cases Heretofore Capital, 18 June 1779,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified June 13, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-02-02-0132-0004-0064. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 2, 1777 – 18 June 1779, ed. Julian P. Boyd. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950, pp. 492–507.], “Bill 64.” Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/bill-64.
[7] “Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794).” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://www.iep.utm.edu/beccaria/.
[8] “Avalon Project – Jefferson’s Autobiography.” Avalon Project – Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy. http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/jeffauto.asp.
[9] Lewis. The Development of American Prisons and Prison Customs. 210.
[10] Lewis. The Development of American Prisons and Prison Customs. 25, 29-30.
[11] “Avalon Project – Jefferson’s Autobiography.” Avalon Project – Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy. http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/jeffauto.asp.
[12] Rayner, B. L. Life of Thomas Jefferson with Selections from the Most Valuable Portions of His Voluminous and Unrivalled Private Correspondence. Boston: Lilly, Wait, Colman, & Holden, 1834.
[13] “From Thomas Jefferson to James Buchanan and William Hay, 26 January 1786,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified June 13, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-09-02-0194. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 9, 1 November 1785 – 22 June 1786, ed. Julian P. Boyd. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1954, pp. 220–223.]
[14] Rice. “A French Source of Jefferson’s Plan for the Prison at Richmond.” 29.
[15] Jefferson, Thomas, and Paul M. Zall. Jefferson on Jefferson. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2002. 45-46.
[16] “Coffee Urn.” Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. https://www.monticello.org/site/house-and-gardens/coffee-urn.
[17] Brumfield, Dale M., and Evans D. Hopkins. Virginia State Penitentiary: A Notorious History. Charleston, SC: History Press, 2017.19-20.
[18] “Thomas Jefferson: Autobiography, 6 Jan.-29 July 1821, 6 January 1821.” Founders Early Access. http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/founders/default.xqy?keys=FOEA-print-04-02-02-1756.
[19] Brumfield. Virginia State Penitentiary: A Notorious History. 146.
[20] “From Thomas Jefferson to James Wood, 31 March 1797.”
[21] Brumfield. Virginia State Penitentiary: A Notorious History. 27., “Gabriel’s Rebellion: Another View of Virginia in 1800.” Ushistory.org. http://www.ushistory.org/us/20f.asp.
[22] “To Thomas Jefferson from James Monroe, 15 September 1800,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified June 13, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-32-02-0094. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 32, 1 June 1800 – 16 February 1801, ed. Barbara B. Oberg. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005, pp. 144–145.], “From Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 20 September 1800,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified June 13, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-32-02-0097.
[23] “The African-American Mosaic: Colonization.” The African-American Mosaic: Colonization. July 23, 2010. https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam002.html.
[24] “Notes on the State of Virginia.” Notes on the State of Virginia. http://notes.scholarslab.org/.
[25] Christian, W. Asbury 1866-1936. Richmond, Her Past and Present. Richmond, VA: Nabu Press, 2010. 64-65.
[26] Burr, Aaron, and William Livingston Davis. Memoirs of Aaron Burr: With Miscellaneous Selections from His Correspondence. Vol. 2. 2 vols. New York, NY: Harper & Brothers, 1837. 409., The American Prison: From the Beginning: A Pictorial History. College Park, MD: American Correctional Association, 1983. 12.
[27] Nelson County Board of Supervisors January 24, 2013 Agenda. PDF. Lovingston: Nelson County Board of Supervisors, January 24, 2013. http://www.nelsoncounty-va.gov/wp-content/uploads/January24BoardPacket.pdf.
[28] Grant, Mary Agnes. History of the State Penitentiary of Virginia. Master’s thesis, College of William and Mary, 1936. 68.
[29] de Tocqueville, Alexis, and Gustave de Beaumont. On the Penitentiary System in the United States and Its Application in France (1833). PDF. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard. http://davidmhart.com/liberty/FrenchClassicalLiberals/Beaumont/Beaumont_1833PenitentiarySystem.pdf
[30] Grant. History of the State Penitentiary of Virginia. 73.
[31] Brumfield. Virginia State Penitentiary: A Notorious History. 41.
[33] “Solitary Confinement Facts.” Solitary Confinement Facts. February 23, 2018. https://www.afsc.org/resource/solitary-confinement-facts.
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#Charlottesville 18th century African American History bibliography built environment France Haiti Haitian Revolution Monticello Monuments and memorials Prisons rape Sally Hemings Slavery the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson Toussaint Louverture UVA
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Transformers Trailer
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/225478/action/topic#225478
10-Jul-2006 2:40 PM
Looks pretty rad! I'm definitely going to be seeing this.
Pirates of the Caribbean Two
7-Jul-2006 12:52 AM
Man, Doom wasn't even decent. It was pretty much the epitome of a bad film, to be honest. Like, the single redeeming factor about the movie was Clint Mansell as the composer. Coincidentally, Mansell also composed for Sahara.
Anyway. As far as Pirates go, I thought the first one was average. Like, it wasn't bad, but at the same time I didn't see anything special about it. So, I'm pretty much indifferent towards the sequels. I'm sure I'll see them at some point, but I'm in no hurry to.
original>lotr<trilogy.com petition?
30-Jun-2006 2:31 PM
Originally posted by: Ingo Sucks
When does it come out?
Three “Lord of the Rings: Limited Edition” sets, one for each movie, will roll out Aug. 29 (prebook July 25) at $28.98 each. Each two-disc set will include both the original theatrical and the extended version of the film, along with Costa Botes’ feature-length documentary on each film’s creation.
Is Dune a good movie?
I haven't seen it since I was around 10. Maybe I should rewatch it. I remember thinking it was pretty boring, but that's probably because I didn't understand what was happening.
I hate M. Night Ramalamadingdong!
Originally posted by: Darth Chaltab
Yeah, but I don't remember George Lucas ever starring in stupid self-agrandizing credit card commercials.
You've gotta be kidding me. Several celebrities have appeared in American Express ads (in fact, they're famous for it). But because he's in one it's all of a sudden self-agrandizing? Wes Anderson starred in and directed an American Express ad as well, and it doesn't mean he's SPOILED or SELFISH or whatever the hell it is you guys are trying to accuse M. Night of being, it just means HEY IT'S A BUSISNESS THIS IS THE KIND OF THING THESE GUYS DO FOR A LIVING.
Also, I've searched all around and I can't find anything that says M. Night WROTE the commercial, he just directed and appeared in it. For all we know, it might have been written by someone else. Besides, he was ASKED to direct the commercial. It's not like he DEMANDED to be able to direct a commercial. I don't even know what you were trying to prove by this post, other than "HE'S USED HIS NAME TO SELL THINGS" which is true for, like, almost all famous people ever (including Lucas).
Originally posted by: ricarleite
Yeah but I mean, what director dosen't do what he does? Spielberg does, Hitchcock did, he did self promotion constantly, had his names sustain his films (see the movies after "Birds" and you'll see what I mean), bashed actors and he was a genre director. Orson Welles did that. Tim Burton. And take no talent hacks such as Uwe Boll and McG for instance... Or George Lucas for Christ's sake! I just think you are seriously overreacting about that M Night subject in a way I don't understand...
I completely agree.
Originally posted by: zombie84
This is the most digusting, ball-less, self-serving, cry-baby-ish display i have ever seen from a director.
Hello Tony Kaye, Sam Mendes and Quentin Tarantino! Or what about Elia Kazan? He "named names" and got people BLACK LISTED because he didn't like how they would alter his work. Seriously, several directors are very defensive of their work and don't take constructive criticism well. Sure, there are a lot who are fine with constructive criticism, but the fact remains that M. Night is not the only director who's ever complained about critisism, and he's hardly the worst.
24-Jun-2006 10:34 PM
Originally posted by: MeBeJedi
As much as I like M. Knight's films, I will say that it's kinda...i dunno...disappointing to know that I have to wait until the end of the film for everything to click into place (assuming I haven't figured it out already). Not that I don't like his twists, but the wait for the twist has become predictable, if that makes any sense.
Oh no, don't get me wrong. I completely agree. My point was simply that once a filmmaker has found a formula that works, they continue to use it, and it's almost never as good the second time as it was the first. That was what I meant by that statement.
One of the reasons I really liked The Village was that there was so much going on in terms of character development and cinematography, that I was distracted from the "how is this going to end" mindset. I'm also a big fan of all the main characters in that film, so that certainly helped.
I agree with this too. The characters and cinematography and strong underlining messages all put his movies above the average mainstream American movie. This isn't even looking at it from a subjective view point, it's from an academic view point. Regardless of if you were entertained by his movies (I personally didn't enjoy Signs or The Village), they're still better than most the other crap put out there by Hollywood.
Hey greencapt, I'm not sure if it was a typo or what, but his name is actually M. Night Shyamalan, not M. Night Ramalamadingdong. I just thought I'd let you know, since you seemed a bit confused.
one-trick-pony filmmaker
You do realize that this pretty much describes, like, 90% of all filmmakers ever. There's a reason why people say every artist has only one masterpiece.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not really a Shyamalan fan. I just think you're ridiculously overreacting. Like others in the thread have said, there are SEVERAL directors out there who are far worse than Shyamalan. Like, at the very least, Shyamalan's stuff stands above the average ROMANTIC COMEDY or VIN DIESEL ACTION MOVIE or something else equally as stupid. Most his stuff is, regardless of whether or not you liked it, above average. I don't even see how someone could argue that they're not.
M. Night, prior to his last film, had a 'controversial' documentary(fake) made about himself to be aired on SciFi networkwhich served to take the spotlight away from the film itself. And now just prior to his NEXT film we have to hear about his 'woe is me' life in Hollywood...
I doubt that the documentary and book are meant to take the spotlight away from the film. I actually get quite a different impression. They're meant to make more people interested in the film. They're publicity stunts.
it IS a business after all
God is Blizzard.
what what what?
16-Jun-2006 1:52 AM
Nobody is arguing that it's possible to disprove God, Shim. In fact, everyone agrees that it isn't. The only thing I'm saying is that nobody needs to disprove God, so the whole argument is irrelevant in the first place.
-edit-
it might actually be more harmful to organised religion then helpful.
I don't agree with this at all. If, say tomorrow, somebody (for the sake of argument) proved that God really does, without doubt, exist. I think everyone would immediately run out and join a church or something. Like, the fear of a real hell would bring everyone to religion. Whether that's a good thing or not is debatable, but all churches would definitely see large surges in funds and other stuff like that.
-edit again-
One last thing:
i personally beleive that mans worst invention was organised religion.
I don't know, man. I think nuclear missles or guns or something would be way up above organized religion. Like, at least organized religion has given some people hope of an afterlife, and an overall more optimistic view on life. Not to mention all the missionary services that have distributed food and built houses for thousands (probably millions, actually) of people.
Originally posted by: theredbaron
But burden of proof or not, the point still stands. A human being cannot disprove the existence of a Creator.
Obviously not, but like I said, anyone who doesn't believe in God doesn't have to worry about disproving him. So it's a useless statement. Like, the point is correct, but the point is also irrelevant, so it doesn't really matter whether it's correct or not.
The first one is a correct analogy in the sense that science can't prove if God does or doesn't exist, but at the same time it's completely inane because the burden of proof doesn't rest on scientists who don't believe in God, but on the believers who proclaimed his existence in the first place.
For example, I don't believe in magical mole men who live at the center of the earth and feed on human children; but that doesn't mean I have to prove they don't exist. But, if someone were to claim they saw magical mole men, and started to tell the press, then they would be expected to provide proof of their claim.
All in all, I guess it's a funny analogy, but pointless.
And the second one just wasn't funny. =\
Who Would Win?
30-May-2006 11:22 PM
Perhaps Superman is not who he claims he is, an alien brought to Earth by a grumpy neon-colored Marlon Brando. Maybe he knows how to manipulate the Matrix...
I guess, since he's an alien, he might be able to manipulate the matrix the way Neo does. But really, it's just speculation. There's no telling how an alien brain would be able to handle the matrix, or how the matrix would be able to handle an alien brain.
But, based on the info we DO have, Neo would be able to rip him apart.
Of course, if it took place in the real world, things would be much different and Neo wouldn't even stand a chance.
Originally posted by: ricardo
hopefully this gets caught before a reply is posted. Superman vs. Neo. set in the matrix.
Assuming Superman is actually part of the matrix, all Neo has to do is realise that his powers aren't real ("there is no spoon") and then Neo could do whatever he wants to him.
But, if Superman is a human who's been plugged into and is aware of the matrix, like Neo, he'd still lose. There is only one "one", so superman would have all his powers toned down in the matrix, and wouldn't be able to keep up with Neo. He'd probably have equal powers to, like, Morpheus or Trinity. Because even if he has super powers in the real world, he wouldn't be able to manipulate the matrix as well as Neo in order to use them.
Originally posted by: Yoda Is Your Father
Charles Manson has an advantage because he is real.
Not to mention Manson had/has a cult fallowing. All he would have to do is sic his menions on Hannibal. To my knowledge, Hannibal worked alone. So, yeah. When you're up against 10+ people, the ability to EAT HUMAN FLESH isn't gonna mean anything.
X-MEN 3 PSYCHO REVIEW
I just saw it. I didn't care for it that much. I don't really know why. Like, I can't point out anything that was wrong with it. But through almost the entire movie, I was more interested in getting home and playing video games. It bored me, honestly. There were a few parts where I thought they had some cool ideas, but overall, I was just looking forward to getting out of the theater.
It's really weird, because, unlike other movies that bored me, I don't really know if there was anything TERRIBLY WRONG with this one. It seemed like they handled everything pretty well, and there's nothing really to complain about. So, even though it didn't grab my attention, I'm sure most people will probably enjoy it.
The Non-Biased PS3 Thread
19-May-2006 4:26 AM
Man, this whole topic is ridiculous. Nobody makes a WII HATING THREAD or a X-BOX HATING THREAD. Seriously, what is with people and this stupid "LOL MY CONSOLE IS BETTER THAN YOUR'S" mentality? The bottom line is it's all purely subjective, so it's stupid to argue over it, and it's even dumber to just PICK FIGHTS about it. Like, nobody was even going around saying "i like the ps3" BUT NO WE NEED A TOPIC ABOUT HOW MUCH WE HATE IT BECAUSE GRR 70 BUCKS WHAT THE HELL?! I mean, it's basically the same as going around saying "my religion is better than your's!"
Originally posted by: sean wookie
I heard today that the PS3 games will be 69.99$
When the PS2 came out, games were 60 bucks. 70 is only 10 dollars higher. Besides, after it's out for a few months, they'll start getting a greatest hits list and games will go down.
Originally posted by: Switch Radic
70 bucks for a stinkin' game!! they are going to lose big time this round!
See, this is what bugs me. Can't people just PLAY THE GAMES instead of worrying about WHO'S BETTER?
Who here will actually buy one?
Me. I'm not going to be picking it up when it first comes out, because $600 is ridiculous, no matter how you look at it. But I definitely plan on getting one, simply because I prefer the game catalog. Oh wait, I'm sorry. What I meant to say was I HATE YOUR STUPID WII GRRR COMPETITION COMPETITION COMPETITION!
arent games usually highly priced when they are first released?
Yes, obviously.
Besides from seeing 100$ N64 games no.
This is the second time you've done this, so I think it's safe to assume it wasn't a typo, but the dollar sign goes before the number. Also, I guess it depends on your definition of high priced, but the games for the Game Cube, PS2 and X-Box were all around 50-60 when they first came out. So, uh... yeah, 70 is such a huge difference.
Funky Godfather Trailer
8-May-2006 12:34 AM
Good job. You make it look like a unintelligent action movie.
...Aren't you the same guy who told me I would never understand what made Advent Children such a good film?
Also, yeah, good job with the trailer. The sound seemed a little awkward in a few places, but it definitely came across the way you wanted it to.
New PSP to offer touch screen
13-Apr-2006 10:53 PM
Now, seems to me most of you are not bothered by the PSi (the new PSP) featuring a touch screen, even though I've heard AGAIN and AGAIN from PSP owners and Sony-lovers how the touch screen is "dumb". What next? Two screens?
Man, who cares? It's all stupid politics. As long as you're getting to play the video games you want to be playing, who cares how or why they got to you? Seriously, the only reason I pick Sony over Nintendo is because the PS has more RPGs. Besides that, I don't see much of a difference.
Besides, can you really blame Sony for wanting to make money? That's the whole reason big corporations exist. To make money. The DS is selling better than the PSP, so what do you expect Sony to do? Sit on their hands and say "we can't be copy cats!"? No, of course not. Obviously they're going to go where the money's at. That doesn't mean they're FIGHTING DIRTY, it just means they're good businessmen.
13-Apr-2006 3:30 PM
Complaining about a video game company stealing the rumble feature and analog sticks is like complaining about a fast food company stealing the idea to serve fries with their burgers.
A New Hope Script Game
3-Apr-2006 4:38 PM
*clank*
*bzzt*
Leia: "Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi! You're my only hope."
2-Apr-2006 10:48 AM
Originally posted by: Gaffer Tape
By saying it's nothing amazing, are you comparing it to the first Kingdom Hearts, or do you not find the series in general anything special?
I'm saying that it doesn't have a very good story or any real emotional involvement. If you're looking for something thought provoking or powerful, this really isn't the game for you. But if you're just looking for an entertaining game to burn a few hours on, this one's pretty fun. This is how I felt about the first one as well.
I read a review that said it sucks compared to the original, in that the oversimplified combat system ruins everything...
If you liked the original, I see absolutely no reason why you wouldn't like this one. It's basically the same game, just with a new paint job.
Also, it sounds like that review sucked. The battle system is basically the only good thing about the game. Like sean wookie said, the cut scenes are pretty long and drawn out, and the story is pretty slow and corny. The characters are just there to make you say "oh, cool, it's [insert disney or FF character]" and you have no real attachment to them at all.
There's really not much reason to play the game except for the combat and the puzzles. Oh, and if you're a big graphics buff, then obviously (it's Square-Enix) the graphics are top notch. But yeah, story has never been KH's strong suit.
Wait, it's out? When was it released? I totally missed the boat on this!
It was released, like, 4 days ago.
I got it yesterday, and I've already racked up almost 9 hours of game play (as if that's something to brag about). It's pretty fun so far. I'm enjoying it. I mean, it's obviously nothing AMAZING, but for what it is, it's pretty entertaining.
Arrested Development News
1-Apr-2006 6:48 AM
Originally posted by: GundarkHunter
Now Arrested Development gets to move into the annals of "Great Shows that were killed before they got stupid."
Well, at least that's better than "shows that stayed around for way too long and eventually became repetitive and boring," right?
Looking at womens' breasts will make you live longer...
http://www.snopes.com/humor/iftrue/breasts.htm
Snakes on a Plane
30-Mar-2006 10:23 AM
Jaster, I think you are mistaken. I too thought that Snakes On A Plane was intentionally bad, but now I don't think so. I think it's just bad, but people online have seen how bad it is, and turned it on it's head in a 'so bad it's good' way. But I don't believe it was the original intention. I think Samuel L is very lucky that people online are treating his steaming turd of a movie the way they are, because now he will have a hit instead of a turkey.
Samuel L Jackson said in an interview that the only reason he took the job was because of the name. They were planning on changing the name, but Jackson wouldn't let them. I think it's obvious he knows what he's doing. Seriously, they even implemented the "motherfucking snakes on a motherfucking plane" line into the movie. How can the writers not be in on the joke? Did you watch the trailer? It had a clip of Jackson using a snake as a WHIP. If you honestly think that Samuel and the writers and the director don't know what they're doing, then you're seriously underestimating them.
Besides, even if the entire crew IS taking this film seriously, the audience still isn't going too. Even in the slim chance that they actually think they're making an AMAZING, THOUGHT PROVOKING MOVIE, that still doesn't change the fact that it's so terrible it's bad. In fact, it'd probably only make it funnier, seeing Jackson do interviews talking about how he thinks the movie has reached out and made a huge impact on several people.
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Essays /
Since there are three shares data, there will be three sets of correlation coefficients: one between Johnson & Johnson and Hewlett Packard, between Johnson & Johnson and American Express, and between Hewlett Packard and American express. We will look at each correlation separately, and then we will compare the three shares together. The coefficient of correlation measures the relative strength of a linear relationship between two numerical variables.
Johnson & Johnson and Hewlett Packard The linear relationship between Johnson & Johnson and Hewlett Packard is 0.041(corrected to three significant digits), which means that there is little linear relationship existed. If I draw a graph with Johnson & Johnson’s share price against Hewlett Packard, it would look like that: It should be noted that they are positively correlated. Those share prices with the highest price from Johnson & Johnson tend to be associated with the highest of Hewlett Packard’s share price. However, this relationship is weak, as indicated by a coefficient of correlation of 0.041.
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ESSAY SAMPLE ON American Express TOPICS SPECIFICALLY FOR YOU
Johnson & Johnson and American Express The correlation between Johnson & Johnson and American Express is 0.26. This means that the two shares are slightly correlated, but not overly so. In fact, if you plot Johnson & Johnson against American Express, you barely notice the correlation. Hewlett Packard and American Express The correlation between Hewlett Packard and American Express is 0.863, which means that they are highly positive correlated. Holding these two shares together as a portfolio will not diversify the risk. Instead you magnify the risks. It’s like you put not only one, but two eggs in the same basket. (The idea of diversification is not put all the eggs in the same basket.) Below is the graph shows Hewlett Packard against American Express would look like.
Therefore, even though Johnson & Johnson and Hewlett Packard are not exactly compatible portfolio wise (If so, the coefficient correlation should be negative), they still make a fairly okay portfolio. In summary, the coefficient of correlation indicates the linear relationship, or association, between two share prices. When the coefficient of correlation gets closer to +1 or -1, the linear relationship between the two share prices is stronger. When the coefficient of correlation is near 0, little or no linear relationship exists. The sign of the coefficient of correlation indicates whether the data are positively correlated or negatively correlated. The existence of a strong correlation does not imply a causation effect. It only indicates the tendencies present in the data.
Below I have put together all the three share prices during the period: Compared to Johnson and Johnson, we can see that Hewlett Packard and American Express are more stabilized in terms of its fluctuation. Johnson’s share price has increased during the middle period of the 30 months, and then there is downward trend. However, at the end of the 30 month, Johnson share price did pick up. We can see Hewlett Packard and American Express have an almost identical trace along the period, once again proving the very positive correlation. Johnson & Johnson’s is less, but still positively, correlated to the two shares. The three shares peak approximately in the different period. While Johnson and Johnson at its highest mark, Hewlett Packard and American Express are in a decline trend.
Q3 Financial Advice on Hold, buy and sell. Actual return on an investment may differ substantially from your expected return. If we say that risk as the variability of returns from those that are expected, therefore the greater the variability, the riskier the security is said to be. A meaningful diversification is combine securities in a way that will reduce risk, for example the portfolio of Johnson & Johnson and Hewlett Packard. The relationship between Johnson& Johnson and Hewlett is weak, as indicated by a coefficient of correlation of 0.041. Therefore, even though Johnson & Johnson and Hewlett Packard are not exactly compatible portfolio wise (If so, the coefficient correlation should be negative), they still make a fairly okay portfolio.
The greater the standard deviation of returns, the greater the variability of returns, and the greater the risk of the investment. Apply this to the 3 stocks; both Johnson & Johnson and Hewlett Packard’s standard deviation are bigger than the American Express share, meaning greater risk of investment compared to American Express. However, we can not only look at it’s variability but also at its volatility and its fluctuation. (I have considered these two at below)
To conclude, I would suggest “hold” the Hewlett Packard’s shares until end of 2006, as from the graph of Hewlett Packard the trend is going up steadily, therefore the last highest mark 32.9 may not be the highest mark. At the end of 2006, I would suggest sell the Hewlett Packard’s shares because at this point the shares probably have reached it’s highest point, and there after the shares are likely going down. So hold any longer may result in losing the value of the share.
I would suggest “buying” more shares of Johnson & Johnson, though it has just been to a decline, but the share price is just start to rise from 31/01/2006. Therefore buying the share at this time is relatively cheap and we can wait for increases in the future, where Johnson & Johnson’s graph clearly indicates the increasing trend. In addition, Johnson and Johnson’s share price has been pretty stable all along. We can also say that Johnson and Johnson’s share as a fairly secure stock.
For American express I would suggest to “sell” the share because its share is now at its highest point (concluded from the American Express graph). So it’s wise to sell it now. In addition, information from London exchange market indicates that American express’s shares are decreasing from June 2006 to September 2006, a little increase from September to December 2006, afterward it towards decreasing direction. Generally in 2007, American express is the weakest stocks in the Dow Jones industrial. Moreover, I would also like to consider the possibility of share portfolio. As I have indicated before Johnson & Johnson and Hewlett Packard make a fairly okay portfolio.
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Pac-12 News
Chris Waller Hired As UCLA Women's Gymnastics Assistant Coach
By Pac-12 Conference
UCLA women's gymnastics head coach Valorie Kondos Field announced the hiring of former UCLA All-American and 1992 U.S. Olympian Chris Waller as a Bruin assistant coach.
Waller was member of the U.S. National Team from 1989-97 and captured the U.S. all-around crown in 1991 and pommel horse titles from 1991-93. He was an all-around finalist at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona and took fifth on the pommel horse, just one-tenth of a point away from the gold medal. In addition, Waller placed in the Top 6 on the pommel horse at the 1993 World Championships and won three medals at the 1990 Goodwill Games and a team gold at the 1995 Pan American Games.
A four-time All-American at UCLA, Waller helped lead UCLA to its second NCAA title in 1987 and also won individual titles on the pommel horse in 1989 and the high bar in 1990. From 1989-1993, Waller won either a U.S. or NCAA national title every year.
Waller, who graduated from UCLA in 1991, has 15 years of coaching experience and was selected the 2002 Southern California Level 7 Male Coach of the Year. As the head coach at All-Olympians Gymnastics Club, he coached former UCLA star Mohini Bhardwaj to a Top 10 finish at the 2002 U.S. Classic. Waller also served as a member of the USA Gymnastics Executive Committee and the 2000 Olympic team selection committee and chaired the Athlete's Council.
Waller and his wife Cindy have two daughters, Alexandra and Lilia. He and Cindy founded GymJam summer camp, and will now serve as the directors of GymJam at Woodward West camp, which opens in California in the summer of 2003.
'Chris Waller coming back to UCLA is a dream come true for all of us and for Chris,' said Kondos Field. 'His personality and character, which defined him as an NCAA Champion when he was a UCLA student-athlete, make him a perfect fit as a UCLA coach.'
Waller replaces Steve Gerlach, who has moved with his family to New Zealand after five seasons of coaching at UCLA.
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2020 Pac-12 Championship
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LEGACY IN STONE: SYRIA BEFORE WAR by Kevin Bubriski (Nepal)
Browse archives for July 07, 2019
Thanks to the ‘heads up’ from David Arnold (Ethiopia 1964–66)
Legacy in Stone: Syria Before War
by Kevin Bubriski (Nepal 1975-78)
powerHouse Books
$50.00 (hard cover)
Legacy in Stone: Syria Before War is a collection of 100 black-and-white photographs immortalizing the ancient monuments of Syria.
Kevin Bubriski was on assignment in Syria in 2003, during the infancy of the U.S. war in neighboring Iraq. He was photographing the country’s ancient monuments, as well as documenting the daily lives and ordinary human stories of its citizens. Unbeknownst to him, within the decade, a war would break out in Syria, and destroy or damage much of what he had photographed.
Until the Syrian civil war in 2010, the Suq in Aleppo was considered to be the longest continuously inhabited place of commerce in the world, existing for well over two millennia. Bubriski photographed the Suq while it was still thriving, teeming with merchants and artisans. He also captured stunning, decisive images from the Dead Cities, the basilica of St. Simeon, the pilgrimage sites of Serjilla, al-Bara, Kharab Shams, Mushabak, Baqirha, Qalb Lozeh, Resafe, early Islamic sites near Raqqa, and the ancient Roman trade cities of Apamea and Palmyra.
Bubriski recalls a special sense of discovery and awe being in a place of such rich history and haunting beauty. He remembers holding his breath and seeing the ruins take shape on the ground-glass of his Hasselblad camera as he gathered and preserved these sites forever in photographs.
Kevin Bubriski’s (Nepal 1975-78) art photography is in permanent collections at the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. He is a recipient of Guggenheim and NEA fellowships. His books include Portrait of Nepal (Chronicle Books, 1993) that won Peace Corps Writers Paul Cowan Non-Fiction Award of 1994, Pilgrimage: Looking at Ground Zero (powerHouse, 2002), and Look into My Eyes: Nuevomexicanos por vida 1981-83 (Museum of New Mexico Press, 2016). His retrospective monograph Nepal 1975-2011 was published by Radius Books and the Peabody Museum Press of Harvard University in 2014. In 2016-2017 Bubriski was a Senior Scholar Fulbright Fellow in Nepal, where he pursued his independent fine art photography in Nepal’s remotest regions. Bubriski lives with his wife in Vermont.
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Appointment of Queenslander as nation’s first female High Court Chief Justice a worthy and inspired choice
Potts Lawyers > General Law News > Appointment of Queenslander as nation’s first female High Court Chief Justice a worthy and inspired choice
in General Law News
Queensland Law Society has praised the Federal Government for its appointment of esteemed jurist Susan Kiefel as the nation’s first female High Court Chief Justice.
President Bill Potts said the appointment was a just and warranted recognition for the tireless leadership and contribution Justice Kiefel had made to the judiciary since her appointment to Queensland’s Supreme Court in 1993.
“Justice Kiefel’s appointment is most welcome and the decision to appoint her is probably the easiest one Prime Minister Turnbull will have to make during his tenure; Her Honour is clearly the best person for the job,” Mr Potts said.
“She is not only a Queenslander by birth but also by deed. She has already had a long and successful career at the Queensland Bar, being the first woman to be appointed Queen’s Counsel in Queensland.
“Her Honour has also given freely of her time to speak at Queensland Law Society seminars, something for which the Society is extremely grateful-and which indicates Her Honour’s willingness to give back to the profession.”
Justice Kiefel will replace retiring Chief Justice Robert French and her appointment ends an almost 115-year stranglehold on a position that has been exclusively held by male members of the legal profession.
The appointment was announced by Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Tuesday (Nov 29) ahead of Justice French’s imminent retirement.
Mr Turnbull, in making the announcement, said: “Susan Kiefel’s story is one that is an inspiration.”
He said Justice Kiefel left school at the age of 15 and began her working life as a legal secretary before studying law part-time through the barrister’s admission board.
“She has been one of Australia’s most outstanding judicial officers and her appointment crowns a great career with even greater judicial service yet to come in this most important role,” Mr Turnbull said.
Mr Potts said the newly appointed Chief Justice’s legal career was almost second to none in the legal profession.
He said her list of legal achievements included: her admission as a barrister of the Supreme Court of Queensland in 1975, becoming Queensland’s first female appointment as Queen’s Counsel in 1987, appointment to the Federal Court of Australia in 1994 and then to the High Court of Australia in 2007.
“Simply put, Justice Kiefel has had a stellar career and that experience makes her the perfect choice as Australia’s most senior jurist,” Mr Potts said.
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Tag Archives: father Abraham. impossible
“Things Hoped For”; Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16; August 11, 2013; FPC Jesup
Posted on August 11, 2013 by Kathleen
“Things Hoped For”
August 11, 2013, First Presbyterian Church of Jesup
“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.”[1]
These words by Emily Dickinson speak of hope as a birdlike creature in our soul, singing a song of improvisation, a song that begins without knowing where it will go, that sings wordlessly, unceasingly.
Our scripture today says, “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
To many faith can seem like a strange or elusive thing, it is, by definition, a trust in a promise without concrete evidence.
Favorite artist of mine, and Decorah native Brian Andreas is known for his “StoryPeople,” art that carries anecdotal stories with playful drawings. One such story speaks to the intangibility of faith, it says, “Can you prove any of the stuff you believe in? my son asked me & when I said that’s not how belief works, he nodded & said that’s what he thought but he was just checking to make sure he hadn’t missed a key point.”
The Bible has quite a bit to say about hope. Hope appears in the Bible 167 times, 15 of which occur in Job. Job is a man who has lost everything he had and all of his immediate family. He wrestles with hope, whether or not hope his hope is warranted. His friends try and talk him out of hoping. Hope is in the Psalms 26 times, as the Psalms provide poetic accounts of interaction with God over time, in good and in bad. Proverbs 10:28 says: “The hope of the righteous ends in gladness, but the expectation of the wicked comes to nothing.” Proverbs 13:12 says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” In Paul’s letters he often refers to the Gospel promise of redemption as “hope.”
The story of Abraham and Sarah is held up several times throughout scripture as a model of faithfulness, a lived out hope. In our scripture today we read, “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he stayed for a time in the land he had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith he received power of procreation, even though he was too old-and Sarah herself was barren-because he considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one person, and this one as good as dead, descendants were born, “as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.””
In Romans chapter 4 Paul shares this reflection on the faith of Abraham, beginning with verses 3-5: “‘Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.’ Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness.”
Continuing in verses 13-25 Paul writes, “For the promise that [Abraham] would inherit the world…depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”)—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “So numerous shall your descendants be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.”
It says that Abraham “hoped against hope.” Abraham had hope in that which was deemed impossible, that which seemed ungraspable. The “thing with feathers” inside of him sang a tune that he couldn’t know the words to. He hoped for the impossible.
I’ve always been a big fan of musical theatre, which is known for it’s infectious tunes. Sometimes when I’m reading scripture or working on a sermon certain songs will get stuck in my head on repeat. This week it was the song “Impossible,” from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. The song begins by listing all the impossibilities of Cinderella’s predicament, as she’s standing distraught with no way to get to the ball. Her Godmother sings to her, “the world is full of zanies and fools, Who don’t believe in sensible rules And won’t believe what sensible people say. And because these daft and dewey-eyed dopes keep building up impossible hopes, impossible things are happening every day.”
What are the impossible things that you hope for? The things that might seem foolish. The things that might even hurt to hope for? The places in our life where to ask God for a yes risks possibly receiving an unfathomable “no.” How might we trust God in these circumstances?
How might we begin to see these things as possible? How might we hope unceasingly? How might we hope beyond hope?
Our passage today says in Hebrews 11:13, “All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them.” Can we really take comfort in hopes that our not answered in our own lifetimes?
How can we be anything but disappointed by unanswered prayers? How can we continue to trust God when things don’t work out the way we want them to? The only way is by having a kingdom mindset, by having faith that God’s willing is being worked out in the way it needs to. That God’s plan for us is much larger than us, and with a much longer timeline than any we will experience firsthand. This is not an easy thing, but it is part of what faith calls us to. God is not in the business of wish fulfillment
Hebrews 11:3 says, “By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.”
The unceasing song of hope, does not end when we are no longer the ones singing it. To have faith is to trust in the promise that just as the blessings of our lives came from that which was only promised to those before us.
Maya Angelou speaks of this slow to come hope in her poem, “I Rise.” This comes from the conclusion of the poem:
“Out of the huts of history’s shame
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise.”[2]
That line, “I am the dream and the hope of the slave” haunts me. Though I do not have ancestral roots in 19th century American slavery, we as children of God, come from a people enslaved. Our faith’s origins are found among those slaves in Egypt, those aching for freedom, aching for the Promised Land they would never live to see. We are their dream and their hope. We are the harvest of that deep grief, of that desert wandering.
After the familiar narrative of Jesus and the woman at the well, Jesus speaks to his disciples about the continuation of kingdom through the harvest of believers that they themselves did not cultivate:
In John 4:34-38 we read, “Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.””
The hopes of our hearts may not always come into fruition before us, but as heirs of salvation, workers in God’s kingdom harvest, our acts done in faith bring life to the hopes of those who come before us. We reap a harvest for which we did not labor, and we hope for a promise that we may not witness.
Romans 8:24-25 says, “For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” 2 Corinthians 3:12 after speaking of confidence in the promises of Christ says, “Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness.”
How may your hope spur you to action? When something seems impossible, our fear can paralyze us. May we be bold in our hope, allowing ourselves to hope for what seems impossible, to invest in the promises of God’s goodness. May we be bold to invest in the future we may not see.
One of the hardest prayers to pray is one we echo week after week in the Lord’s prayer: “thy will be done.” This short and simple phrase can seem an easy one to pray when we are thinking of the circumstances of another, but in our own circumstances it can seem callous or like an act of retreat. Though “thy will be done” is a prayer of surrender, it is not one of retreat. It is faith in allowing our hopes to rest in God’s hands.
May we have faith in the promises of God’s kingdom. May we sing the tune of hope even while God is still revealing the words. Amen.
[1] ““Hope” is the thing with feathers,” by Emily Dickinson: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171619
[2] “I Rise,” Maya Angelou: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15623#sthash.NoaHqirm.dpuf
Posted in First Presbyterian Church of Jesup, Poetry, Sermonizing, Song Tagged Abraham and Sarah, belief, Bible, bird, Brian Andreas, bubble, Cinderella, conviction, descendants, Egypt, Emily Dickinson, faith, father Abraham. impossible, God, God's Kingdom, harvest, harvest you did not cultivate, Hebrews 11, heirs of salvation, Hope, hope deffered, Hope is the thing with feathers, I Rise, impossible, invest, invisible, Jeremiah, Job, Kingdom, Maya Angelou, Paul, plans, Proverbs 10:28, Psalms, righteousness, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Romans 4, sing, slavery, song, soul, StoryPeople, things hoped for, thy will be done, unanswered prayers, visible, wish fulfillment, woman at well Leave a comment
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Home / Hebron / 15-year-old boy assaulted and detained in Hebron
15-year-old boy assaulted and detained in Hebron
in Hebron, Reports, Video May 10, 2014
10th May 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine
Today in al-Khalil (Hebron), Israeli soldiers viciously assaulted a 15-year-old boy while they were attempting to arrest him. The soldiers accused him of attacking 10 settler youth; he was then taken to Tel Rumeida military base and then released after 20 minutes with no charges.
ISM activists witnessed one Israeli soldier pulling the young teenager towards Tel Rumeida military base, as his two sisters frantically tried to intervene. The 15-year-old was held in the military base, on his own, for approximately 20 minutes before being released.
After the incident, ISM activists spoke to the boy’s father, Abu Shamsiyeh, who described the events leading to his son’s detention. He explained that he was in his house when his two daughters ran to him and said that Israeli soldiers were attacking their brother. Abu Shamsiyeh left the house to witness a group of soldiers grabbing his son by the neck and throwing him to the ground. He told the soldiers that his son has problems with his back, and was ignored.
More Israeli soldiers, including a commander, arrived and when Abu Shamsiyeh tried to speak to them, he was physically grabbed and told he was not allowed to accompany his son to the military base, or to continue filming.
Israeli police did not arrest the 15-year-old as they said it was impossible for a boy of his size to attack 10 settler youth.
Abu Shamsiyeh stated that the family, himself, his wife and all five of his children, have many problems with Israeli soldiers and with the settlers from nearby illegal settlements in Tel Rumeida. However, he explained that on Saturdays (the Sabbath in Judaism), the harassment often escalates due to an increase in settler activity and an influx of Zionists tourists.
child detention Hebron Settler harassment 2014-05-10
Tagged with: child detention Hebron Settler harassment
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Penske Truck Leasing Repeats as U.S. EPA SmartWay Affiliate Challenge Award Winner
April 22 2014 08:14 PM
READING, Pa., April 22, 2014 – Penske Truck Leasing has been named a back-to-back winner of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) SmartWay Affiliate Challenge Award. One of 10 companies to win in 2014, Penske was also named a top honoree, cited for its strong marketing efforts.
The SmartWay Affiliate Challenge is a national challenge developed by EPA to acknowledge organizations that participate in SmartWay and do an exceptional job supporting the partnership’s freight sustainability goals.
SmartWay Affiliate Honorees have initiated and executed recruiting, promotional and marketing activities that raise awareness and encourage their members to address air pollution from freight activities.
Here are some of the ways that Penske promoted the SmartWay Transport Partnership:
• Assisting customers with modeling and completion of the program’s tools and helping them to establish fuel economy and emissions benchmarking that correlate with SmartWay Carrier Performance Rankings
• Ongoing education and introduction of customers to join SmartWay
• Hosting of educational events for customers via webinars, one-on-one education and strategy sessions
• Attending and presenting at sustainability conferences, college symposiums and other transportation industry events
“We are truly honored to be a repeat winner of the SmartWay Affiliate Challenge Award,” stated Drew Cullen, Penske Vice President of Fuels and Environmental Affairs. “It is in our company DNA to not only be good environmental stewards ourselves, but to also aid our customers in identifying, quantifying and implementing sustainable transportation solutions.”
“I commend Penske for its level of commitment, enthusiasm, and creativity in promoting EPA’s SmartWay program, and sustainable transportation,” said Chris Grundler, Director of EPA’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality. “Penske’s work in this arena brings us all closer to achieving the shared goals of clean freight and clean air.”
EPA launched SmartWay in 2004 to help business improve the sustainability of their freight supply chains. Today the Partnership consists of nearly 3,000 Partners, representing a cross section of the freight supply chain industry. As of today, SmartWay Partners have saved 120.7 million barrels of oil. This is equivalent to taking over 10 million cars off the road for an entire year. SmartWay’s clean air achievements (51.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxides so far) help protect the health and well-being of citizens while contributing to our nation’s economic and energy security. More information on SmartWay in general: http://www.epa.gov/smartway/
Penske Repeats as U.S. EPA SmartWay Affiliate Challenge Award Winner/Page 2 of 2
Penske Truck Leasing Co., L.P., headquartered in Reading, Pa., is a joint venture of Penske Corporation, Penske Automotive Group and General Electric Capital Corporation. A leading global transportation services provider, Penske operates more than 200,000 vehicles and serves customers from more than 1,000 locations in North America, South America, Europe and Asia. Product lines include full-service truck leasing, contract maintenance, commercial and consumer truck rentals, used truck sales, transportation and warehousing management and supply chain management solutions. To learn more about Penske's products and services please visit http://www.GoPenske.com.
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Archbishop Joseph Tobin
Pope Benedict XVI appoints Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin sixth archbishop of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis
Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R., the Archbishop Secretary of the Vatican Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the sixth archbishop of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.
Archbishop Tobin, 60, succeeds Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein, O.S.B., who was granted early retirement by Pope Benedict on September 21, 2011 for health reasons. Since Archbishop Buechlein’s retirement, Bishop Christopher J. Coyne has served as the archdiocese’s Apostolic Administrator.
Archbishop Tobin, a Redemptorist priest, is a native of Detroit. He was born May 3, 1952 and is the oldest of 13 children. He was educated at Catholic schools. He studied at Holy Redeemer College in Waterford, Wis., where he earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy in 1975. He also studied at Mount Saint Alphonsus Seminary in Esopus, N.Y., where he received a master’s degree in religious education in 1977 and a master of divinity degree in 1979.
Archbishop Tobin professed perpetual vows as a member of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (the Redemptorists) on August 21, 1976 and was ordained a priest on June 1, 1978. He was ordained an archbishop on October 9, 2010 in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome following his appointment on August 2, 2010 by Pope Benedict as the Archbishop Secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. (See his full bio here)
As Archbishop Secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Archbishop Tobin worked in the Vatican to oversee the more than 1 million men and women in the world’s religious orders.
Archbishop Tobin has served as a parish priest in the inner city in Detroit and Chicago.
As associate pastor of Holy Redeemer Parish in Detroit from 1979 to 1984, Father Tobin was responsible for ministering to the Hispanic community. He served as pastor of Holy Redeemer Parish from 1984 to 1990. He then served as pastor of St. Alphonsus Parish in Chicago from July 1990 until October 1991.
Archbishop Tobin served as General Consultor of the Redemptorist congregation from 1991 to 1997 and as its Superior General from 1997 to 2009. He was appointed by the Pope to five Synods of Bishops in 1998, 1999, 2001, 2005 and 2008.
Archbishop Tobin speaks several languages including Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese and reads several other languages.
Archbishop Tobin will be installed as Archbishop of Indianapolis on December 3 -- the feast day of St. Francis Xavier, the patron saint of the archdiocese -- at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis. Details of the Mass are pending.
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Book review: “You Suck: A Love Story” by Christopher Moore
Book review: “Galactic Derelict” by Andre Norton
Book review: “Architecture by Birds and Insects: A Natural Act” by Peggy Macnamara
You Suck: A Love Story, published in 2007, is a sequel to Christopher Moore’s 1995 novel Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story.
It was then followed, in 2010, by Bite Me: A Love Story.
You may notice a pattern here.
The temptation with sequels — it’s something that’s good and bad — is to regurgitate the plot and characters of the first book in a slightly different (but pretty much the same) way. It worked the first time, right?
The good part is that fans of the first book tend to lap up (if you’ll excuse the image) the slightly different (but pretty much the same) sequel. It was, after all, fun the first time.
The bad part is that, well, it can come across as stale.
For Christopher Moore, though, “stale” is a word that hasn’t been invented. His comic sense transcends triteness because I’m not sure he knows the meaning of “boring.” (I mean, I’m sure he knows the meaning of the word “boring,” but I don’t think that he’s able to write a boring page if he tried. [Well, maybe if he tried, all in the service of a higher comic purpose. So, in that case, he would be “boring” in a funny way, if you get my meaning {if I get my own meaning}.])
Of vampiring, a gay cop and a Smurf of the night
Yes, You Suck has a lot of similarities to Bloodsucking Fiends.
As the subtitles indicate, both are love stories.
As the titles indicate, there’s a good amount of vampiring going on in both.
(I don’t know about the third one, but, since it’s called a love story and has the title Bite Me, I’m guessing there will be some similarities.)
Jody and Tommy — C. Thomas Flood to the fans he expects to get whenever he’s able to write the Great American Novel although, in this book, he has precious little time for writing with the way his schedule is crimped in a particularly crimping way— are back as well as The Emperor of San Francisco and the Animals and that old, old vampire (even though he was exploded into mist at the end of the first book) and the two cops, one of whom is gay but has no fashion sense.
Everyone gets into a lot of the same sort of pickles as in the first book although they’re enough different and weird enough and raunchy enough (in Moore’s ribald way) that You Suck doesn’t come across as “stale,” especially since a lot of these pickles involve the former Cheddar Princess of Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin, who, for various business reasons, has dyed her skin blue because, in the whoring trade, guys, she has discovered, will pay a lot more for sex with a woman who looks like a Smurf.
Her dark nature and perkiness
But it’s another new character who makes You Suck into very much its own novel — Abby Normal.
Abby (real name: Allison Green}, a Goth girl, is desperately trying to live down a fatal reputation for perkiness.
She’d been true to her dark nature, too, trying to maintain an aspect of exhausted mopey-ness while channeling any enthusiasm she felt into a vehicle for imminent disappointment, and, above all, suppressing the deep-seated perkiness that her friend Lily said she’d never shed…
“I’m complex and I’m dark.”
“You’re perky…”
“As Azrael is my witness, I will never be perky again,” said Abby, her wrist set tragically to her forehead.
Nonetheless, even though Abby finds herself knee-deep in vampires — and loves it — she remains ever and always perky. Indeed, she becomes a vampire minion — and remains perky.
What do you expect of a girl named Allison Green?
“The lair of the vampyre”
Abby isn’t technically a new character.
She makes a minor appearance in another Christopher Moore novel A Dirty Job, published in 2006, as the friend of another Goth girl Lily Severo, but, as I say, it was just a small role and, besides, A Dirty Job, although it’s a love story, isn’t subtitled “A Love Story” and has nothing to do with vampires. It’s the first of (so far) two books about a much different subject: Death.
Like Lily, Abby is in the middle of the plot of her novel, but, unlike Lily, she’s the narrator for a lot of the book.
About half of You Suck is made up of excerpts from “The Chronicles of Abby Normal,” the diary in which she recounts her deepest emotions and wildest adventures and dreams about this really sexy Asian guy she falls in love with.
I have been to the lair of the vampyre… I am part of the coven! Kinda. Okay, back up. So I like slept till eleven, because we’re on Christmas break, only it’s called winter break now because Jesus is AN OPPRESSIVE ZOMBIE BASTARD AND WE DO NOT BOW DOWN TO HIS BIRTHDAY! At least not at Allen Ginsberg High school, we don’t. (Go, Fighting Beatniks.)
There is so much about those few sentences that I find delightfully zany, but I can’t help but point out Moore’s comic genius to have Abby attending Allen Ginsberg High School….and, of course, the football team would be the Fighting Beatniks.
“The oppressive iron fist of…”
One of the many minor steams of comedy through You Suck is Abby’s little sister who, alas, has gotten head lice.
As Abby finishes one diary entry, she notes:
Addendum: The lice shampoos didn’t work on my sister. Looks like we might have to shave her head. I’m going to try to talk her into getting a pentagram tattooed on her scalp. I know a guy in the Haight who will do it for free if you verbally abuse him while he’s tattooing. More later…
Later, she notes in her diary:
We leave a note saying that Jared has impregnated me and we’re running off together to join a satanic cult, so my mother won’t panic when she wakes up, because she’s totalitarian about leaving notes.
Then we head to SOMA. But apparently, the entire fucking country shuts down on Christmas, slammed under the oppressive iron fist of baby Jesus, so out of nine Starbucks we try, all are closed.
Well, if you’re read Christopher Moore before, you’ll recognize his wackiness, and you’ll be glad to welcome Abby into the pantheon — or is it a lunatic asylum? — of the weirder (but not too much) than life people who populate his novels.
Or should I say Allison?
Book review: “Bite Me: A Love Story” by Christopher Moore says:
[…] (so far) trilogy of comic novels about vampires — Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story (1995) and You Suck: A Love Story (2007) — you may be tempted to skip the first chapter of Bite Me: A Love Story […]
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Nevada bill would raise RPS to 80% by 2040
AB 206, introduced yesterday into the Nevada Legislature by Assemblyman Chris Brooks, sets an aggressive ramp up of the state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS) to four-times its current level of 20%.
February 15, 2017 Frank Andorka
Well, that’s one way to make a splash on your first day as the chair of the Energy Subcommittee in the Nevada Assembly.
Assemblyman Chris Brooks, long a solar champion, used his first day in the chair to propose AB 206, a bill that would increase Nevada’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS) from its current 2017 level of 20% to 80% by 2040.
The increases would come in two-year intervals starting in 2018-2019, when the RPS would jump 4% from the current goal of 22% to 26%. It would then rise 4% in each subsequent year until 2030, when utilities would be required to produce 50% of their electricity from renewable energy.
In addition to the incremental rises, the bill instructs the director of the Nevada Office of Energy to provide the legislature with an update by Nov. 30 in every even-numbered year about how the state will reach an 80% RPS by 2040, including reports on technological advances and financing advances that will allow this to happen.
AB 206, which has five co-sponsors in addition to Brooks, also requires the Public Utilities Commision of Nevada (PUCN) to set new RPS standards for utilities in the state immediately to move them toward the higher goal.
The bold proposal comes in the wake of two years of almost uninterrupted bedlam surrounding the solar industry in Nevada. In December 2015, the PUCN abruptly eliminated solar net-metering programs, leading to national companies pulling out of the state entirely and throwing the rooftop distributed-generation (DG) segment of the industry into turmoil.
Since then, the PUCN has walked back the most egregious aspects of the 2015 decision, including restoring net-metering for 20 years to pre-2015 solar customers. While the walk-back hasn’t completely restored the rooftop DG market in the state, it has eased concerns among most state observers, who now believe the rooftop segment will recover despite the previous disruption.
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And the Oscar goes to: a film that doesn’t deserve it
Garrett Cook
Filed under Opinion
On Feb. 24, the most prominent faces of the film industry will come together at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles to attend the 91st Academy Awards, a gathering better known as the Oscars. Since 1929, the Oscars have been the “it” ceremony for motion picture awards. Receiving one of the glistening eight-pound golden statues is one of the highest honors a film or person in the industry can receive. But to the disappointment of film lovers and industry professionals alike, the Oscars are awarding on all the wrong reasons.
Whether I am with family or friends, I am known as the guy who knows a lot about movies. Each year when February rolls around, I am asked the same question: “Garrett, who do you think deserves to win Best Picture at the Oscars?” And every year, I give my pick for the award, then explain why my top pick will have no chance at winning even though it is one of the most engaging, fresh and exciting films of the year. This is because the Oscars’ award system is based on the message of films, not the quality or craftsmanship.
The Oscars are supposed to serve as a ceremony celebrating achievements in film. When an awards show like the Academy Awards has so much influence and fame, yet doesn’t award on quality, the best in film are unrecognized, underappreciated and quickly forgotten.
Historically, the highest quality films from a craftsmanship standpoint are almost never recognized. “Citizen Kane,” “Singing in the Rain” and “Brokeback Mountain” are some of the most notable films snubbed by the Oscars over the show’s long history. These types of films are usually small and independent, and often get overlooked at the box office by people who will only see a film if it has the red “Marvel Studios” logo on it. The Oscars are supposed to acclaim the best of film and provide a platform outside of the movie theatres where a film can shine. But sadly, the award ceremony is not serving its purpose.
According to Vanity Fair, The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences votes on films based on a ranking system. First, a ballot is sent out with the nominations to all Academy members. Then, the members rank their picks for each category from best to worst. The votes are sent back to the Academy, which then removes the film who received the least amount of votes. The Academy then takes the number of votes given to the crossed out film and gives the votes to the film that has the second least amount of votes. The ballots are sent back and the process is repeated until a winner is chosen. The process is unfair and confusing, but it’s the films that are nominated based on message, not quality, that are the larger problem.
The Academy routinely goes through phases of what type of films they want to nominate. In the early 21st century, the Academy favored Holocaust films and war biopics, but has now turned to films about recognition for minority groups such as women and African Americans. I am certainly not saying that giving much-needed representation to these groups is not important, but instead, I believe that a film shouldn’t just win Best Picture solely because its message is timely.
This year, the superhero film “Black Panther” has become the first in its genre to ever be nominated for Best Picture. The film has earned over $1 billion at the global box office and started a powerful movement and conversation about Black representation in Hollywood. Instead of the stories usually told in “Black film” about hardship and suffering as a result of historic abuse and marginalization, “Black Panther” looks to the future and portrays African Americans as strong, brave and capable of becoming superheroes. The impact of the film is undeniable, but is the film actually Best Picture worthy? I would argue no.
Though I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, it does not showcase a fresh enough approach to the superhero genre to justify it being the first film of its kind to be entered into the race for Best Picture. From a film standpoint, it is a good superhero movie, but it is no different in quality than the likes of “Iron Man” or “Wonder Woman,” neither of which were nominated in the Best Picture category in years past. The message of “Black Panther” needs to be heard, but it should not be the sole cause of recognition by the Academy.
With all of the influence and fame the Academy Awards command, they should focus on representing the best of films—not the best messages. If the Oscars won’t do it, then who will? Blockbusters and films with more prominent messages are represented in abundance at the box office and through media coverage, but the smaller, better films in terms of craftsmanship and quality are very rarely recognized. Let the box office take care of the messages and the blockbusters, and let’s have the most recognizable film awards show actually do its job: award on quality, not message.
Tags: black panther, hollywood, movies, Oscars, the redwood bark
Garrett Cook, Video Editor
Garrett Cook is a Junior and reporter for the Redwood Bark. He loves reporting on all things Hollywood, and related to the movie industry.
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[Re-Read] A Storm of Swords – Jon I
March 15, 2016 / ownersinc
This post has spoilers for George RR Martin’s fantasy novel series A Song of Ice and Fire, including fan theories and speculation. If you do not wish for certain information regarding future plot points from this series or other related series to be revealed to you, you might want to consider not reading any further.
Check it out, first Jon chapter! This chapter is a great one – it introduces to the Wildlings; who until this point in the story, we’ve only seen as hostile; as well as to the Wilding way of life and, of course, the King-Beyond-The-Wall, Mance Rayder. The chapter is important in the sense that it sets up everything that is going to happen north of the Wall right away. We get the tension between Jon and the Wildlings, Jon’s unease at being even a false traitor, the romantic tension between Jon and Ygritte, and most interestingly, the mutual respect that Mance and Jon share for each other. It is in this chapter that Jon begins the long process of not seeing the Wildlings as wild, hostile savages but as a group of people like any other and of course, this will play a big role in influencing his actions in A Dance With Dragons.
Dead, all dead but me, and I am dead to the world.
The first few paragraphs basically bring us back to the land north of the Wall and give us some unneeded description of the dreary landscape. A few things are obvious right off the bat. First, Jon is probably the least convincing double agent that has even been conceived and I can’t help but wonder if, on some level, that is working in his favour. If Jon was too enthusiastic too fast, it might have raised some eyebrows, for example but perhaps Martin meant for Jon’s reluctance to come across as a believable to the Wildlings. Even Mance, who Jon later convinces in this chapter, might perceive Jon as a man who is caught between his honour and his dissatisfaction. These first handful of paragraphs also serve to establish a sense of normalcy in the otherwise foreign Wildling camps but not so much so that the camps feel dull and overly familiar. There is still a sense of foreboding and danger; for instance, when all the dogs are barking at Ghost; or just from Jon’s increasing unease. We should also note that Jon doesn’t quite get the Wildling’s general banter – when Rattleshirt vaguely threatens him, the Wildlings just laugh it off but Jon takes it a little more seriously. I don’t Jon is wrong in doing this, of course – Rattleshirt wasn’t joking around – but I do find it interesting that Jon never truly lets his guard down around any of them, ever, except Ygritte.
They had numbers, but the Night’s Watch had discipline, and in battle discipline beats numbers nine times of every ten, his father had once told him.
This point has been made again and again but I’m still not sure I buy it. Now, I’m not military tactician but surely it’s plain to see that the Night’s Watch is far from disciplined itself? It would be one thing if this Wildling horde was to fight a seasoned, well-trained group like the Golden Company but the Night’s Watch is little more than a group of ragtag criminals barely capable of swinging a sword without cutting themselves. Besides that, a thousand reasonably armed and armoured soldiers will have an uphill task against twenty thousand warm bodies – and that’s assuming those bodies are just mindless zombies that just bum rush the soldiers. The Wall is a great force multiplier, true, but without it, the Night’s Watch might not fare nearly as well as they would like to think.
“A blind boy, must be. Who ever heard of a king without ears? Why, his crown would fall straight down to his neck! Har!”
Would it surprise you to know that I’m not really that big of a Tormund fan? I mean, he’s alright, but I don’t find everything he says to be instantly hilarious or anything. I was a little disappointed to remember that in the books, he was short and ‘broad’ (which sounds suspiciously like fat) because the image I had in mind was more of the Tormund from the TV series. Likewise, if you can believe it, I didn’t have much of a mental image of Styr, the Magnar of Thenn, either. Honestly speaking, I don’t really put much energy into visualizing the characters in a lot of detail – I keep a vague impression of them in my head but nothing much beyond that.
“You ought to thank me for killing your enemy,” Jon said finally, “and curse me for killing your friend.”
This reads like one of those old-timey riddles that the hero would need to answer before being allowed to proceed on his quest. Either that, or I’m thinking of Harry Potter. Regardless, this is a good place to pause for a while and consider the character of Mance Rayder before we really dive into the meat of this chapter. Mance is, first and foremost, one of the most romantic characters in the series – not in the sense that he’s dreamy or anything though I’m sure some fans found Ciaran Hinds comely enough. I mean that, in a world of ruthless, cold blooded pragmatists like Tywin Lannister and Roose Bolton, Mance is competent but not amoral and it’s really refreshing to see. It makes it that much easier for us to really sympathise with Jon when he has to later consider betraying Mance. As we will soon see, Mance is pretty much the only person who could ever have united the Free Folk. No one else possessed that perfect blend of charisma, cunning and vision that Mance did and as Dance showed us, without him, this great Wildling alliance shattered.
“You swore not to tell.”
“And kept my vow. That one, at least.”
I’ve given a deal of thought to why Martin decided that he needed Jon and Mance to have met twice before. Clearly, this scene works fine if Mance had been at Winterfell at the banquet for King Robert, so why did Martin want this extra meeting? Well, for one thing, I think that it gives Mance and Jon a closer relationship than a single chance meeting could have. Admittedly, this new meeting makes its two chance meetings but the addition creates this sense that their meeting was fated. In addition, it takes some attention away from the fact that this is clearly a retcon. Despite that, it was a nice addition, a connection to civilisation and the known world that both Jon and the readers needed.
There is more commerce between the black brothers and the free folk than you know, and soon enough word came to my ears as well.
Again, I can’t shake the feeling that Martin just sort of adlibbed this bit. I’m not saying that it is impossible that there was some meager trade between the brothers on the Wall and the Wildlings but we haven’t seen any major evidence of that in five books. Sure, there is some exchange between the two factions with Craster as the middle man but it just seems incongruous that there could be this much trade between the two sides and the readers never see any sign of it. Then again, by the time we get acquainted with the Wildlings and the Watch, the tension between them is higher than it has been in a while. Now, this raises the question of why the Wildlings and the Night’s Watch haven’t settled into an uneasy peace but I guess it’s a very Israel-Palestine kind of situation.
I will not deny that Bael’s exploit inspired mine own… but I did not steal either of your sisters that I recall.
This is a great line for no other reason than the foreshadowing of Mance’s heroic but ultimately almost hilariously futile attempt at rescuing ‘Arya’. Don’t think I’ve missed all the foreshadowing of guest right either; it’s just getting tiring to point just how far in advance Martin established the sanctity of guest right.
The king was plainly a man who liked the sound of his own voice.
Yes, this is definitely one of Mance’s flaws but really, what King, doesn’t like the sound of his own voice?
“I left the next morning… for a place where a kiss was not a crime, and a man could wear any cloak he chose.”
This reason makes Mance very sympathetic, especially to modern readers who value peeps all freedom and liberties very highly. Had Mance not been a character directly in conflict with Jon Snow, this one story would have been more than enough to get us to root for him – and that’s as much a testament to the story as it is an indictment of the number of sympathetic characters in this series. In hindsight, it should have been obvious that Mance was a sympathetic character but I remember thinking that Mance’s sympathetic nature was precisely what made his ‘death’ at the beginning of Dance so tragic. Turns out, I wasn’t wrong about the sentiment, just the timing, but that’s a whole new discussion
“And did you see where I was seated, Mance?” He leaned forward. “Did you see where they put the bastard?”
I’ve always struggled with this line because I can’t decide if it’s problematic or if it’s genius. When I read it, even today, my first thought is that Jon is trying to portray himself as this jealous bastard son who is resentful of his half siblings for their status but that reaction is followed by confusion as to just why Mance would want such a person in his ranks. After I think about it a little though, I realise that the Jon’s line is more a deep criticism of the Westerosi class system – it isn’t about resentment at not being on the table, or at least, it’s not only about that. Instead, it’s hitting out against the established social order that dictated that as a bastard, he was of no importance. Mance, being of the Free Folk, recognises that Jon sees the inherent inequality of the Westerosi system and thus accepts him (Jon) as one of them.
And with that we have wrapped up our first Jon chapter of A Storm of Swords; a fairly eventful chapter and a good introduction to the major characters in his story. Up next, Daenerys.
A Song of Ice and Fire, A Storm Of Swords, On-going, Re-Reads
A Song of Ice and Fire, A Storm Of Swords, asos, Books, fantasy, Game of Thrones, George RR Martin, Jon, night's watch, rereads, snow, stark, targaryen
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Assoc Prof Pham Quang Cuong
Associate Professor, School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Email: cuong@ntu.edu.sg
Office: N3 02C 90
Cuong was born in Hanoi, Vietnam and grew up in Vietnam and then in France. He graduated from École Normale Supérieure rue d'Ulm, France, in 2007. He obtained a PhD in Neuroscience from Université Paris VI and Collège de France in 2009. In 2010, he was a Visiting Researcher at the University of São Paulo, Brazil. From 2011 to 2013, he was as a Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), doing research in Robotics at the University of Tokyo. He joined NTU as an Assistant Professor in 2013. He was the recipient of the Best Paper Award at the conference Robotics: Science and Systems, 2012. His team won the second prize at the Airbus Shopfloor Challenge at ICRA 2016.
- Motion planning for service and industrial robots
- Locomotion and motor control in humans
- Nonlinear contraction theory
- Neural networks, computational neuroscience
- Modeling of the human musculo-skeletal system
- Human posture control and sleepiness
Factory automation with contacts in unstructured environments
Programme: Building and Construction
Robotic precision drilling system for unstructured environments
Towards Robotic Dexterous and Bimanual Manipulation in Microworld
Huy Nguyen and Quang-Cuong Pham. (2018). On the Covariance of X in AX=XB. IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 34(6), 1651-1658.
Jian Hui Lim, Biranchi Panda and Quang-Cuong Pham. (2018). "Improving flexural characteristics of 3D printed geopolymer composites with in-process steel cable reinforcement. Construction and Building Materials, .
Francisco Suárez-Ruiz, Teguh Santoso Lembono, Quang-Cuong Pham. (2018). RoboTSP - A Fast Solution to the Robotic Task Sequencing Problem. 2018 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) (pp. 1-6)Brisbane, Australia: IEEE.
Francisco Suárez-Ruiz, Xian Zhou, Quang-Cuong Pham. (2018). Can robots assemble an IKEA chair?. Science Robotics, 3(17), 2018.
Q.-C. Pham, S. Caron, P. Lertkultanon, Y. Nakamura. (2017). Admissible Velocity Propagation: beyond quasi-static path planning for high-dimensional robots. International Journal of Robotics Research, 36(1), 44-67.
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Search Results for self
Journal Article (1631)
Art Criticism and Theory (11)
Research Article (1182)
1-20 of 1631 Search Results for
This Sheba, Self: The Conceptnalization of Economic Life in Eighteenth-Century America The Puritan Origins of the American Self
Daniel Horowitz
History of Political Economy (1 September 1977) 9 (3): 442.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/00182702-9-3-442
... Conceptualization of Economic Life in Eighteenth- Century America. By J. E. Crowley. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Uni- versity Press, 1974. Pp. 161. $8.50. The Puritan Origins of the American Self. By Sacvan Bercovitch. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1975. Pp. 250. $15.00. J...
Is Food Self-Sufficiency Conducive to Long-Term Growth? An Assessment of Malthus (1803) on the International Corn Trade
Neri Salvadori, Rodolfo Signorino
History of Political Economy (1 March 2017) 49 (1): 113–136.
...Neri Salvadori; Rodolfo Signorino We reconstruct the arguments employed by Malthus in the second edition of An Essay on the Principle of Population (1803) concerning the superiority of a balanced growth pattern, and we show their theoretical consistency with Malthus's food self-sufficiency policy...
Adam Smith's Conception of Self-Interest in Economic and Political Affairs
A. W. Coats
History of Political Economy (1 March 1975) 7 (1): 132–136.
...A. W. Coats Copyright © 1975 by Duke University Press 1975 Adam Smith‘s conception of self-interest in economic and political affairs A. W. Coats In a stimulating recent paper, George Stigler commented on the apparent inconsistency between Adam Smith’s emphasis on...
First Principles in Translation: The Axiom of Self-Interest from Adam Smith to Jean-Baptiste Say
Pierre Force
History of Political Economy (1 June 2006) 38 (2): 319–338.
... . London: Peltier. ____. [1810] 1958-60 . De l'Allemagne . Paris: Hachette. Force, Pierre. 2003 . Self-Interest before Adam Smith: A Genealogy of Economic Science . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Fuchs, Hans-Jürgen. 1977 . Entfremdung und Narzißmus: Semantische Untersuchungen zur...
Postface: Just What Is the Self Interested In?
Kenneth R. Hoover
History of Political Economy (1 November 2007) 39 (4): 639–642.
....: Rowman & Littlefield. Smith, Adam. [1759] 1984 . The Theory of Moral Sentiments . Edited by D. D. Raphael and A. L. Macfie. Indianapolis, Ind.: Liberty Fund. Postface: Just What Is the Self Interested In? Kenneth R. Hoover The theme of the 2004 European Conference on the History of...
Economy and Self: Philosophy and Economics from the Mercantilists to Marx
E. K. Hunt
... Fischer. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1979. Pp. 218. $22.50. This is a book, written by a philosopher, in which different philosophical views on the nature of the relation between the individual and the society or be- tween the private self and the social self are tied to different...
Navigating the Shoals of Self-Reporting: Data Collection in US Expenditure Surveys Since 1920
Thomas A. Stapleford
History of Political Economy (1 December 2012) 44 (suppl_1): 160–182.
.... : US Government Printing Office . Navigating the Shoals of Self-Reporting: Data Collection in US Expenditure Surveys since 1920 Thomas A. Stapleford If there is one domain of economics grounded in direct observations, it would seem to be economic statistics. For more than a...
“Self-Interest Ennobled”: The Family in German Political Economy
Marynel Ryan Van Zee
...Marynel Ryan Van Zee This article examines conceptions of the family, and the relationships within it, as checks to individual self-interest in German economic thought over the nineteenth century. Across various discourses, marriage and the family emerged as symbols of commitment to the common good...
The Hesitant Hand: Taming Self-Interest in the History of Economic Ideas
David Collard
...David Collard The Hesitant Hand: Taming Self-Interest in the History of Economic Ideas . By Medema Steven G. . Princeton : Princeton University Press , 2009 . 230 pp. $35.00 . Copyright 2011 by Duke University Press 2011 References Nussbaum Martha . 1993 . Non...
Eligo Ergo Sum : Classical Philosophies of the Self in Neoclassical Economics
Murray Wolfson
... International Conflict Journal of Conflict Resolution 36 . 1 : 119 -49. Eligo Ergo Sum: Classical Philosophies of the Self in Neoclassical Economics Murray Wolfson Introduction One of the lessons of the history of economic thought is that when great minds looking at the same world come to...
The Adam Smith Problem in Reverse: Self-Interest in The Wealth of Nations and The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Maria Pia Paganelli
.... Journal of Political Economy 35.2 : 198 -232. Winch, Donald. 1993 . Adam Smith: Scottish Moral Philosopher and Political Economist. In Adam Smith: International Perspectives , edited by Hiroshi Mizuta and Chuhei Sugiyama. New York: St. Martin's Press. The Adam Smith Problem in Reverse: Self...
Das Adam Smith Problem and Faculty Psychology in the Antebellum North
Stewart Davenport
History of Political Economy (1 December 2008) 40 (5): 243–264.
... instead of one has always posed difficulties for those seeking integrity between the ethical and the economical. For two groups of antebellum Protestants—the “clerical economists” and the “pastoral moralists”—this is where faculty psychology came in. Employing the tripartite scheme of conscience, self...
The Moralizing Role of Distance in Adam Smith: The Theory of Moral Sentiments as Possible Praise of Commerce
History of Political Economy (1 September 2010) 42 (3): 425–441.
...Maria Pia Paganelli The Theory of Moral Sentiments can be read as a book praising commerce. In The Theory of Moral Sentiments , Adam Smith claims that viewing oneself from a distance decreases the natural tendency toward self-deception and increases the propriety of one's behavior. In front of...
From One Sympathy to Another: Sophie de Grouchy’s Translation of and Commentary on Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments
Laurie Bréban, Jean Dellemotte
... highlight some of her choices of translation. Thus we supplement the existing interpretations of Grouchy’s choices of translation. We show that the self-interested basis of her system of sympathy might explain, at least in part, why she missed the important Smithian distinction between self-love and...
Conflict as a “Normal Economic Activity”: The Contribution of Jack Hirshleifer, 1925–2005
Teresa Tomás Rangil
...Teresa Tomás Rangil The writings of the American economist Jack Hirshleifer (1925–2005) are considered some of the most influential contributions to the economics of conflict. This article examines how Hirshleifer transformed the behavioral assumptions of Homo economicus (the self-interest model...
Beyond Altruism? Economics and the Minimization of Unselfish Behavior, 1975–93
Philippe Fontaine
...Philippe Fontaine This article provides a historical account of the developments of research into seemingly unselfish behavior between 1975 and 1993. I shall first argue that the triumph of the self-interest model in the examination of seemingly unselfish behavior can better be understood if it is...
Religion and Political Economy in Early-Nineteenth-Century France
Gilbert Faccarello, Philippe Steiner
History of Political Economy (1 December 2008) 40 (5): 26–61.
... the links that should exist in industrial society between political economy and religion. A truly a-religious political economy based on self-interested behavior and utilitarianism, such as the one presented in Jean-Baptiste Say's writings, gained acceptance for most people interested in the “new...
Solovian and New Growth Theory from the Perspective of Allyn Young on Macroeconomic Increasing Returns
Roger J. Sandilands
... macroeconomic increasing returns reveals the limitations of models that assume an aggregate production function exhibiting constant returns to scale while “augmented” by exogenous technical progress. His endogenously self-sustaining growth paradigm is also shown to differ in important respects (including in its...
We Are Not the Center of the Universe: The Role of Astronomy in the Moral Defense of Commerce in Adam Smith
... the move from geocentric to heliocentric understandings of the solar system. If we imagine ourselves at a distance from our own position, we humble the arrogance of our self-love as we realize we are not the center of the universe. In The Theory of Moral Sentiments , Smith describes the realization...
Constructing Markets: Environmental Economics and the Contingent Valuation Controversy
H. Spencer Banzhaf
History of Political Economy (1 December 2017) 49 (Supplement): 213–239.
...H. Spencer Banzhaf As economists took up the task of measuring the “demand” for environmental services not traded in markets, some chose to substitute survey-based methods known as contingent valuation (CV). Doing so, they could not help but find themselves in the uncomfortable position of self...
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Lorenzo Valla’s Radical Philology: The “Preface” To the Annotations to the New Testament in Context
Christopher S. Celenza
https://doi.org/10.1215/10829636-1571912
Christopher S. Celenza; Lorenzo Valla’s Radical Philology: The “Preface” To the Annotations to the New Testament in Context. Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 1 May 2012; 42 (2): 365–394. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/10829636-1571912
The last fifty years of scholarly research have revealed the fifteenth-century thinker Lorenzo Valla as a powerfully original intellect, difficult to shoehorn into contemporary disciplinary divisions. One of the most interesting areas of his work concerns the intersection of philology, theology, and philosophy, which Valla himself did not, in practice, separate discretely. His Annotations to the New Testament presents a case in point. As a collection of critical notes on the standard Latin translation of the New Testament (the Vulgate), the annotations themselves range from lexicographical to theoretical. Yet the “Preface” that Valla wrote for the Annotations has not been studied in great detail; the two versions of this “Preface” represent Valla’s views on the importance of studying scripture with philological tools, his respect for the Greek language, and his strong sense of himself as a rather revolutionary interpreter. This article brings these concerns into relief and offers the first English translation of the two versions of the “Preface.”
© 2012 by Duke University Press
John Bois's Annotated Septuagint and the King James Bible
Glossing the Vulgate after the Reformation: The Marginalia of the Catholic Tutor, Thomas Marwood
Drawing Out the Essentials: Historiographic Annotation as a Textual Network
Late Nahuatl Testaments from the Toluca Valley: Indigenous-Language Ethnohistory in the Mexican Independence Period
Lorenzo Bird
An Analysis of Lorenzo Valla’s De Voluptate His Sojourn in Pavia and the Composition of the Dialogue
Testamento / Testament
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Prince's home
Prince estate administrator denies plan to sell Paisley Park
A court filing on Friday had included Paisley Park, Prince's home and recording complex, among a list of properties that could be sold.AP | August 07, 2016, 09:07 IST
MINNEAPOLIS: The administrator of Prince's estate says it is not planning to sell Paisley Park, one day after asking a judge for permission to offer several Prince properties for sale.
A court filing on Friday had included Paisley Park, Prince's home and recording complex, among a list of properties that could be sold.
But on Saturday, Bremer Trust issued a brief statement saying: "Bremer Trust, the special administrator for the Prince Rogers Nelson estate, has no plans to sell either Paisley Park or the property referred to as the "Purple Rain" house." That Minneapolis house was filmed in Prince's 1984 movie.
Court papers filed by Bremer has asked a judge for permission to offer for sale nearly 20 properties owned by Prince worth an estimated $28 million.
Tags : Industry, Prince's home, Paisley Park, Minneapolis, international
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Published: 8 July, 2014, 5 years ago
Last Update: September 25, 2016 2:36 am (UTC/GMT)
Rape is under reported globally.
Rape Under Reported Globally
First Appeared as a Note on RINJ Facebook Page
After the abundance of news stories covering rape in the U.S.in recent times, it’s impossible to ignore the ever-pressing issue that never seems to improve. Recent statistics seem to show that rates of rape are higher in the U.S. than in other developed countries. The remaining issue, however, is simply that the reported number of rapes in any country create statistics that are likely to be far from accurate.
Recent stories in the U.S. include two women accusing 10 to 12 juveniles in Delaware of gang-raping them in a park in Wilmington.
Rapper Sean Kingston just settled a $5 million lawsuit in which a fan, Carissa Capeloto, 22, accused Kingston and his bodyguard of raping her in a hotel room after a Justin Bieber concert.
A Montana teacher accused of raping a student was just given what many perceive as a light sentence by Montana District Judge G. Todd Baugh; the sentence infuriated many throughout the state and country that the judge is being pressured to resign.
And three students in the American Naval Academy are being accused of raping a fellow student after a party–the largest military case on sexual violence since Obama has been in office.
In India, a recent sentence for six men accused of raping a 23-year-old female has led to an outrage because one of the rapists was 17 at the time of the crime and therefore received a light sentence compared to the rest.
The recent statistics comparing India and the U.S. imply higher rates in the U.S., but the actual facts don’t quite add up.
In 2012, over 24,000 cases of rape in India were reported, calculating approximately two rapes per every 100,000 people.
In the U.S., the chance of a person being raped is reported to be 13 times more likely.
But the severe discrepancy between the two countries isn’t exactly a mystery, as local surveys in India through the past 25 years revealed approximately 1 to 4 percent of Indian women acknowledged having been raped–which brings the rate of rape in India to between 50 and 200 times greater than reported by the Indian government.
Is it ever possible to assess accurately the number of rapes occurring in any country? Officials on the subject say no.
Criminologists also refer to the immense number of rapes that go unreported as the “dark figure,” because the number is expected to be frighteningly large.
The other issue within the statistics collected is that some countries make a deliberate effort to motivate victims of rape to speak up and report any incidents, while other countries may actually pressure victims to keep quiet, eventually causing the more motivating and encouraging countries to appear to have a larger issue of rape compared to others.
According to information from the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, Sweden, for example, experienced a dramatic increase in incidence of rape in 2004, and while it is clear that citizens of that country are more likely to come forward and report the crime, the dramatic increase still raises questions.
The U.S. has seen a very slight decrease in reported rape over the past few years, while India and Canada have remained relative low and steady. “Comparing countries can be very misleading, particularly for a crime like rape,” explained Chief Angela Me of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
She adds, “This doesn’t mean Sweden has more rape than other countries,” and confirmed that citizens of Sweden do indeed “have a very high level of consciousness about what is rape and [that] they need to report it.” When comparing rape to homicide, Chief Me explained that hiding the evidence of a murder is not nearly as easy as hiding the evidence of a rape or sexual assault.
The evidence of a homicide usually includes a dead body, whereas victims of rape can watch their own claims be destroyed in a trial and dismissed based on lack of physical evidence or faulty character, etc.
Another issue arises in the way alleged victims of rape are interviewed and the words used by interviewers to illicit a clear report from victims.
Comparing two different surveys, one from 2011 and one from 2010, revealed that when asking victims if they were “raped,” there were approximately 250,000 reports in 2011.
The 2010 study asked alleged victims by using the phrase “with or without consent” around sexual activity, which lead to about 1.3 million reports of rape throughout the prior year.
Sociologist Ronet Bachman is encouraging the development of a standard group of questions be adopted consistently across the country to gain more consistent reporting and more accurate statistics. Bachman recently reported a paper to the CDC panel on the history of rape in the United States, but acknowledges that there many hurdles to implementing a standardized set of questions, including cost.
The solution seems painfully unclear.
Even if rates of rape were reported more accurately, that doesn’t mean any particular country would know how to lessen the incidence of the crime.
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Beavers lose to #14 Arizona in Overtime!
posted by Ron Callan - Feb 23, 2018
The Beavers battled one of the Nation's top teams to Overtime before coming up short 75-65>
This was an emotional night for both teams. The Beavers are preparing for the Pac-12 conference tournament in Las Vegas in two weeks and wanted to show the rest of the conference they are an up and coming program. Despite the loss, I don't think anyone wants to face Oregon State in the tourney.
For Arizona, they were playing in Corvallis reeling from the news that one of their best players, Allonzo Trier not going to play. Trier was declared ineligible by the NCAA after a trace amount of a banned substance was found during a late January drug screen. He is out indefinitely.
It was another exciting evening in Gill. Check out the highlights above courtesy of FS1.
Here is more info courtesy of Oregon State Athletics:
The Beavers (13-14, 5-10 Pac-12) battled back from a 12-point first-half deficit and tied the game 50-50 when Gligorije Rakocevic made a baby hook with 9:51 to play. Stephen Thompson Jr. followed the hook with a jumper that gave Oregon State a 52-50 lead. The lead grew to 56-53 after four free throws by Ethan Thompson and Tres Tinkle. The lead changed four times in the final 4:18 before Rawle Alkins made two free throws with 14 seconds left to tie it at 61. Thompson Jr., who hit a game-winning 3-pointer two weeks ago against Washington had a jumper go in and out. Arizona (22-6, 12-3) went 4-for-4 from the field in overtime, including two 3-pointers, to outscore the Beavers 14-4 in the extra frame. Ethan Thompson led Oregon State, and tied a career high, with 20 points, going 7-for-14 from the field, 4-for-8 from beyond the arc and 2-for-2 from the free throw line. He added eight rebounds two assists and a steal. Tres Tinkle had 14 points, six rebounds, six assists and two steals. He's now scored in double figures in 30 consecutive games.
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Sneak Peek of “Bible Secrets Revealed” on History, beginning Nov 13, 2013
Dr. Bart Erhman (UNC, Chapel Hill) appears on “Bible Secrets Revealed” airing on History beginning Nov 11, 2013.
You can sneak a peek at the first teaser/trailer of “Bible Secrets Revealed” on the History web site.
Drs. Bart Ehrman, Candida Moss, Francesca Stavrakopoulou, and Reza Aslan are shown inviting viewers to come and watch.
The series begins airing on Nov 13, 2013 at 10/9c. The series airs every Wednesday for the next six weeks.
I can also reveal a list of some of those scholars who will be appearing in the series. This partial list (in alpha order) includes:
Reza Aslan (University of California, Riverside)
Gary Burge (Wheaton College)
Robert R. Cargill (University of Iowa)
Bart Ehrman (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
Lori Anne Ferrell (Claremont Graduate University)
Israel Finkelstein (Tel Aviv University)
William Fulco (Loyola Marymount University)
Jeffrey C. Geoghegan (Boston College)
Bryan Givens (Pepperdine University)
Mark Goodacre (Duke University)
Bradley Hale (Azusa Pacific University)
James Hoffmeier (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School)
Amir Hussain (Loyola Marymount University)
Alvin Kass (NYPD)
Chris Keith (St. Mary’s University College)
Peter Lanfer (University of California, Los Angeles)
Jodi Magness (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
Dale Martin (Yale University)
Candida Moss (University of Notre Dame)
Bob Mullins (Azusa Pacific University)
Elaine Pagels (Princeton University)
Yuval Peleg (Israel Antiquities Authority)
Pnina Shor (Israel Antiquities Authority)
Jordan Smith (University of Iowa)
Daniel L. Smith-Christopher (Loyola Marymount University)
Francesca Stavrakopoulou (University of Exeter, UK)
James Tabor (University of North Carolina, Charlotte)
David Wolpe (Sinai Temple, Los Angeles)
Jennifer Wright-Knust (Boston University)
I invite those of all faith traditions, sects, and denominations, as well as atheists, agnostics, secular humanists to watch the series, as History presents a scholarly look at the difficult texts and traditions within the Bible.
Filed under: archaeology, bible, christianity, judaism, religion, scholarship, tv | Tagged: Alvin Kass, Amir Hussain, azusa pacific university, bart ehrman, Bible Secrets Revealed, Boston College, Boston University, Bradley Hale, Bryan Givens, Candida Moss, Chris Keith, Claremont Graduate University, Dale Martin, Daniel L. Smith-Christopher, David Wolpe, documentary, duke, Elaine Pagels, Firbidden Scriptures, Francesca Stavrakopoulou, Gary Burge, history channel, israel antiquities authority, israel finkelstein, James Hoffmeier, James Tabor, Jeffrey C. Geoghegan, Jennifer Wright-Knust, jodi magness, Joel M. Hoffman, Jonathan Kirsch, Jordan Smith, Kathleen McGowan, Lori Anne Ferrell, Lost in Translation, Loyola Marymount University, mark goodacre, Mysterious Prophecies, Notre Dame. Bob Mullins, NYPD, Pepperdine, peter lanfer, pnina shor, Princeton University, Prometheus Entertainment, Promised Land, Real Jesus, Reza Aslan, Riverside, robert r. cargill, Sex and the Bible, Sinai Temple, St. Mary’s University College, Tel Aviv University, Tel Azekah, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, ucla, UNC Chapel Hill, UNC Charlotte, university of california, University of Exeter, University of Iowa, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Wheaton College, William Fulco, yale, yuval peleg | 6 Comments »
New History Channel Documentary “Bible Secrets Revealed” Begins Airing November 11
I’m pleased to announce that a new documentary series will begin airing on History beginning Monday, November 11, 2013 at 10:00pm / 9:00 Central.
The series is entitled, Bible Secrets Revealed, and is produced by Prometheus Entertainment for the History channel.
The titles of the six episodes and their schedule of appearance are as follows:
“Lost in Translation” – November 11, 2013
“The Promised Land” – November 18, 2013
“The Forbidden Scriptures” – November 25, 2013
“The Real Jesus” – December 2, 2013
“Mysterious Prophecies” – December 16, 2013
“Sex and the Bible” – December 23, 2013
The documentary features dozens of the world’s top biblical scholars, religious studies scholars, archaeologists, and historians, who offer different points of view while addressing some of the more difficult readings in the biblical and extra-biblical texts.
It is also worth note that portions of the documentary were filmed on site during the 2013 season of archaeological excavation at Tel Azekah.
Please tune in to this documentary, which seeks to address difficult biblical scriptures and teachings in a responsible, academic, yet entertaining manner. The series is certain to be compelling as much for its scholarship as for its examination of secrets buried deep within the biblical texts, that have often traditionally been known only to scholars.
Filed under: ancient near east, archaeology, bible, christianity, education, israel, Jerusalem, judaism, religion, robert cargill, scholarship, theology, tv, University of Iowa | Tagged: Alvin Kass, Amir Hussain, azusa pacific university, bart ehrman, Bible Secrets Revealed, Boston College, Boston University, Bradley Hale, Bryan Givens, Candida Moss, Chris Keith, Claremont Graduate University, Dale Martin, Daniel L. Smith-Christopher, David Wolpe, documentary, duke, Elaine Pagels, Firbidden Scriptures, Francesca Stavrakopoulou, Gary Burge, history channel, israel antiquities authority, James Hoffmeier, James Tabor, Jeffrey C. Geoghegan, Jennifer Wright-Knust, jodi magness, Joel M. Hoffman, Jonathan Kirsch, Jordan Smith, Kathleen McGowan, Lori Anne Ferrell, Lost in Translation, Loyola Marymount University, mark goodacre, Mysterious Prophecies, Notre Dame. Bob Mullins, NYPD, Pepperdine, peter lanfer, pnina shor, Princeton University, Prometheus Entertainment, Promised Land, Real Jesus, Reza Aslan, Riverside, robert r. cargill, Sex and the Bible, Sinai Temple, St. Mary’s University College, Tel Azekah, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, ucla, UNC Chapel Hill, UNC Charlotte, university of california, University of Exeter, University of Iowa, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Wheaton College, William Fulco, yale, yuval peleg | 78 Comments »
Announcing Spring 2014 Seminar in Syriac at the University of Iowa
Peshitta Gen. 1
I shall be offering a course in Syriac Readings (RELS:4960/7900) open to upper-level undergrads and graduate students in the spring semester of 2014.
Students should have competency in Biblical Hebrew, and the completion of one of my Aramaic courses (Biblical or Targumic) is highly recommended as a prerequisite.
The first part of the course will introduce students to Syriac script and grammar using Thackston’s Introduction supplemented by the Eisenbrauns update of Nöldeke’s Grammar, while the course will conclude with a series of readings.
Texts to be read in the course include the standards (excerpts from the Peshitta and some Doctrine of Addai), as well as a special treat: because I cover the Greek pseudepigraphical story of Joseph and Aseneth in my “Banned from the Bible: Intro to Pseudepigrapha and Apocrypha” course (RELS:3247 – with continued thanks to my Pepperdine professor Randall Chesnutt, who wrote his dissertation on Joseph and Aseneth), I thought we’d end the semester reading a less popular, but well-known text located in the British Museum, written by an unknown West Syriac writer dating to the late 6th century CE. The author composed an Ecclesiastical History that included a translation of part of a lost Ecclesiastical History by the Greek writer Zacharias Rhetor. The work is commonly referred to as Pseudo-Zacharias Rhetor. This Syriac text is of interest because books 1-2 of Pseudo-Zacharias Rhetor contain a Syriac translation of the History of Joseph and Aseneth, which is often skipped in English translations because it is already known in the Greek.
Joseph and Aseneth (and be sure to visit my colleague Dr. Mark Goodacre’s Aseneth Home Page) is a well-known, ancient apocryphal expansion of the biblical account of the patriarch Joseph’s marriage to Aseneth, the daughter of the Egyptian Priest of On (Heliopolis). This popular ancient love story serves an apology explaining why a righteous Israelite patriarch like Joseph would marry the daughter of a pagan priest. The answer: Joseph and Aseneth explains how Joseph’s wife converted to monotheism and belief in the Hebrew God before she married Joseph (a detail the Bible “left out”).
Pseudo-Zacharias Rhetor’s Syriac account of Joseph and Aseneth is of note because just prior to his retelling of the story, the author writes a letter to a certain Moses of Ingila, asking for a translation and whether there is a deeper allegorical (θεωρία) interpretation of the story beyond the literal narrative. Some have argued that Moses of Ingila’s response attempts to interpret the story of Joseph and Aseneth allegorically, as a gnostic union of the soul (represented by Aseneth) with the divine Logos/Word of God (represented by Joseph). Likewise, there have been many who have argued (largely unsuccessfully) that the text is an allegory, with Joseph symbolizing anything from Jesus to Israel. For her part, some scholars have understood Aseneth’s description as the “Bride of God” in 4:2 as representative of a redeemed Israel, or of the matriarchs of the Bible, or perhaps even the practice of voluntary virginity, which was increasingly popular in Christian circles in the late first and early second centuries. But the employment of symbolism does not an allegory make, and while some scholars have argued that the text is a distinctly Christian text, most scholars conclude that the text is distinctly Jewish, while allowing that the text may possess some evidence of later Christian reworking, especially eucharistic interpretations of the meal of bread and wine within the story. However, the attempts by multiple scholars (cf. Chap 1 of Chesnutt) to interpret the story allegorically ultimately fall short, as any allegorical interpretation must be highly selective of particular details, and therefore necessarily ignores many other details within the story that simply do not fit the supposed allegory, relegating claims of allegory to the realm of wishful thinking. The story must ultimately be read as what it is: a Jewish narrative apology for the patriarch Joseph’s mixed marriage, with possible, occasional Christian reworking.
Anyone attempting an allegorical interpretation of Joseph and Aseneth, and arguing for anything other than an apology for why Joseph married a non-Israelite (and the daughter of a pagan priest at that), is grasping at speculative straws, and attempting (like the author of the Syriac text) to stretch the text into something it was never designed to do. Whether it be a gnostic interpretation of the text, or an attempt to argue something truly ridiculous and sensational, for example, that the story somehow represents Jesus and Mary Magdalene (as “Bride of God”, requiring an appeal to separate Gnostic texts like Pistis Sophia, the Gospel of Mary, and the Gospel of Philip), and that this allegorical representation from six centuries after the life of Jesus, relying on the weaving together of multiple Gnostic texts composed a full century after the life of Jesus, somehow provides “evidence” of aspects of Jesus’ actual, historical life – such allegorical interpretations are the height of unsubstantiated speculation.
As Chesnutt concludes:
“While no one doubts the presence of symbolic and allegorical elements, the trend now is toward a method which recognizes those elements of symbolism and allegory which are straightforward and explicit in the narrative of Aseneth’s conversion rather than those supposed to be encoded deep within it.” (Chesnutt, From Death to Life, p. 45).
Thus, reading the story of Joseph and Aseneth in Pseudo-Zacharias Rhetor will allow students to exercise their Syriac skills, hone their Greek comparative skills, engage the vast array of published scholarship on the text, and the seminar should produce contributions that can enhance future offerings of the Pseudepigrapha and Apocrypha course.
So sign up today for Readings in Syriac, because who knows – knowledge of ancient languages like this may come in handy some day :-)
(And may I offer an eternal tip of my hat to UCLA’s Yona Sabar, who taught me Syriac. Thank you Yona!)
Filed under: christianity, robert cargill, scholarship, University of Iowa | Tagged: allegory, Aseneth, Bride of God, course, Doctrine of Addai, Ecclesiastical History, Joseph and Aseneth, language, mark goodacre, Moses of Ingila, Pseudo-Zacharias Rhetor, pseudoscholarship, Randall Chesnutt, Syriac, yona sabar | 4 Comments »
“Simply pretending to hold a watermelon does not validate your argument.”
Posted on October 9, 2013 by bobcargill (@xkv8r)
– Steve Caruso
So true. And it’s the funniest thing I’ve seen in a while. :)
(HT: Tom Verenna)
Filed under: humor, pseudoscience | Tagged: Giorgio Tsoukalos, Joseph Atwill, pseudoarchaeology, pseudoscholarship, simcha jacobovici | 5 Comments »
Digital Humanities Lecture at University of Maryland entitled “Toward an Archaeological Standard for Digital Imagery”
The University of Maryland’s Department of Art History and Archaeology, in conjunction with the Michelle Smith Collaboratory for Visual Culture, has invited me to speak on the topic of digital imagery. I’ll be giving a lecture entitled, “Toward an Archaeological Standard for Digital Imagery“.
Title: “Toward an Archaeological Standard for Digital Imagery”
Place: Michelle Smith Collaboratory for Visual Culture (4213A – Art-Sociology Building)
Date: Wednesday, November 20, 2013
“With the increased use and power of digital imagery tools comes the increasingly frequent manipulation of these images for purposes ranging from humor to advertisement. Unfortunately, these purposes also include the manufacture of evidence to support revisionist theories of history and religion.
And while fields such as journalism have begun setting standards for acceptable practices concerning the processing of digital imagery, many scholarly fields within the humanities have not yet effectively addressed digital media processing and manipulation.
A rise in frequency of pseudo-archaeological claims made by amateurs employing manipulated digital imagery to support their sensational claims necessitates the immediate establishment of a set of standards and best practices for the use of processed images in academic settings. This talk highlights some recent examples of digital manipulation and offers a set of standards for future use of digital media within the academy that preserves the integrity of the imagery and enhances the credibility of those employing digital media.”
About the Lecturer: Robert Cargill is Assistant Professor of Classics and Religious Studies at The University of Iowa, where he has taught since 2011. He came to Iowa from the University of California, Los Angeles Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures. While at UCLA, he also served as the Instructional Technology Coordinator for UCLA’s Center for Digital Humanities. At Iowa, he is part of the Public Humanities in a Digital World cluster of faculty. He also authors an active blog XKV8R, that covers wide-ranging subjects, chief among them ancient archaeology, and digital manipulation and the hazards therein.
Sponsorship: This talk is made possible through support from The Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Studies, the Department of Art History and Archaeology and the Department of Classics.
Maryland’s full ad is here.
Filed under: archaeology, digital humanities, lectures | Tagged: art, best practices, classics, digital imagery, history, Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Studies, Michelle Smith Collaboratory for Visual Culture, standard, University of Maryland | Leave a comment »
Archaeologist David Ussishkin responds to the use of mechanical excavators…in 2006!
For Simcha Jacobovici, facts apparently mean nothing. He appears to be making this up as he goes… (Photo http://www.jpost.com)
The recent exposure of paid employees of Simcha Jacobovici attempting to alter the Wikipedia article on “bulldozer archaeology” was as embarrassing for Simcha as it was shameful.
“John” (User: JohnEUnited) and “Nicole” (User: Naustin1980) were caught red-handed in their attempt to manufacture artificial controversy on Simcha’s behalf by creating single-purpose accounts to pepper the Wikipedia article with references to Robert Deutsch’s (previously) anonymous ad in the pages of Biblical Archaeology Review, and Simcha’s bandwagon cheerleading attempts to promote the manufactured controversy.
The publishing of material on Wikipedia for the purposes of self-promoting and/or attacking others is not permitted upon on Wikipedia.
The article has since been restored.
“John” and “Nicole” also attempted to credit Simcha with the neologism “bulldozer archaeology”. That’s right, these champions of “investigative journalism” claimed that bulldozer archaeology was “a term coined by filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici”. I kid you not. John McGinley then graciously spammed an email to a number of archaeologists and scholars touting their weasel works on Wikipedia, claiming, “”Bulldozer Archaeology² [sic] is now a recognized term in Wikipedia…The Goren/Deutsch debate is now in Wikipedia.”
Idiots.
It only took about ten seconds to discover who was behind the changes to the Wikipedia page, AND any number of instances (for instance, this one by Ralph Harrington) of the use of the term “bulldozer archaeology” long before Simcha’s PR team claimed he “coined” the phrase.
Once again, investigative journalism at its finest!
But it was upon perusing this Harrington article that I stumbled upon a citation, which led me to yet another article, in which none other than Tel Aviv University Professor Emeritus of Archaeology Dr. David Ussishkin responded to questions about his use of a mechanical excavator.
You’ll recall that Simcha highlighted the fact that Prof. Ussishkin did not sign the Tel Aviv University statement addressing the use of mechanical excavators in the midst of the Simcha/Deutsch campaign of retaliation against Prof. Goren.
Simcha stated:
“More important than who signed the statement, is who did not sign it. Legendary Tel Aviv archaeologist David Ussishkin – excavator of Lachish and Megiddo – never used a Caterpillar and did not sign the statement. Also notable by their absence are Tel Aviv archaeologists Ran Barkai, Avi Gopher and Dr. Mario Martin.”
[Emphasis mine]
As we see, Simcha invoked the name of Dr. Ussishkin just before he cited a deceased archaeologist as having supported him, and then corrected/deleted it from his blog. But he should have also deleted the claim about Dr. Ussishkin.
That is because not only does the above Harrington article prove that Simcha did not coin the phrase “bulldozer archaeology”, but we also note that in footnote 21 of the same article, which references a blog post entitled, “Archaeologist David Ussishkin Responds to El Haj Accusations“, Dr. Ussishkin states:
“5. I believe the use of a JCB to determine the line of the rock-cut Iron Age moat was justified. It was essential to establish the size of the Iron Age enclosure in order to understand properly the site. In most of the area to the south of the site where this work took place bulldozers had removed and disturbed the debris during development works which had taken place here prior to the beginning of the excavation project. In view of the nature of the debris here it would have been impossible to accomplish the work with the aid of students/volunteers. A JCB with a long arm working delicately under archaeological supervision was the right solution: it can do useful work without damaging ancient remains, and I believe that this was the case here. Some later wall remains were exposed and recorded but were mostly left unexcavated – they probably belong to Byzantine domestic remains in the Iron Age moat or along its inner side. They all remain buried for future excavations.”
With all best wishes,
Now I ask you: how many times can Simcha Jacobovici shoot himself in the foot trying to attack professor Yuval Goren? How hard is it to check to see if David Ussishkin ever endorsed the use of a mechanical excavator?
And how long will he rely on his bumbling employees to spam out emails about Wikipedia pages they marked up without even doing a minimal amount of simple research before they go embarrassing Simcha by making claims about him that take ten seconds to debunk?
Today we not only learned that Simcha is not beyond having his employees credit with something he did not do (coin the phrase “bulldozer archaeology,”), but that Simcha was wrong about claiming that Prof. Ussishkin never used mechanical excavators; clearly, David Ussishkin feels that:
“A JCB with a long arm working delicately under archaeological supervision was the right solution.”
Investigative journalism at its finest. lol.
Once again, how can we ever trust ANYTHING Simcha says?
I shake my head.
Filed under: archaeology, fail, idiocy, pseudoscience | Tagged: bulldozer archaeology, David Ussishkin, John McGinley, Nicole Austin, pseudoarchaeology, Robert Deutsch, simcha jacobovici, wikipedia | 5 Comments »
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Sports Trader
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Is schools cricket recovering?
Photo Tuks Sport
Date: February 22, 2019Author: Trudi du Toit 0 Comments
Dare sport retailers start hoping that cricket sales could be picking up again? Cricket equipment sales have been a bit in the doldrums for a few years, but there are some signs that there is renewed interest in playing the game at school level.
Sports Trader asked schools to let us know whether the interest in cricket among their learners are going up or down by completing a short survey. They could remain anonymous if they wished to.
The majority of the respondents (72%) are from high schools — several of them from some of the top sport schools. About three-quarters of the schools (77%) have multiple teams for every age group.
The good news is that 44% reported that there is now more interest in cricket participation in their school than five years ago. What’s more, 12% said that this year started with much more interest from learners wanting to play cricket than last year.
Whether it is interest generated by the winning performances of the Proteas against Pakistan (at the time of going to press the verdict was still out on the tests against Sri Lanka) or the looming excitement of another World Cup … who cares?
What matters is that the new participants have to buy equipment, which is good for retailers.
Nearly a quarter of the respondents said that the interest in cricket remained about the same over the past five years … but 32% said there has been quite a big drop in participation.
For many of the respondents (44%) the greater interest in the sport did not increase the number of the teams at the school, as they still have about the same number of teams as five years ago.
“Our cricket team numbers stay more or less the same every year, but it depends on the league and what teams other schools have,” comments PT Vermaak of Northridge Primary School.
Nearly a quarter (24%) say they have slightly fewer teams than five years ago, but a fifth say they have slightly more teams.
The 5-7 teams cricket teams at Hoërskool Randburg are slightly less than the number they had a few years ago, but this is due to fewer learners wanting to participate in sport overall, reports Armand Erasmus.
Only two schools reported that they now have significantly more teams than a few years ago. Both of them are primary schools in smaller towns.
And as a sign of the times, more than a third say girls are also playing cricket at their schools, although all have more boys’ teams than girls.
One school only enters teams in the boys’ league … but girls also play in these teams.
Most (84%) of the schools say that all their teams play in school’s leagues, with only a handful reporting that only their top teams play in leagues.
As so many other things, an inspiring and enthusiastic coach and/or teacher promoting cricket is the biggest contributor to the growth in cricket participation, say 43% of the respondents. Another factor in renewed cricket interest is how well the school performed in cricket the previous year, say a third of the respondents.
SACS, the alma mater of a cricket great like Peter Kirsten, is more used to winning than losing cricket matches, and the fact that the school performed well in cricket last year, coupled with enthusiastic teachers and new coaches driving participation this year, are reasons for the growth of cricket participation at the school, says Graeme Wepener.
These sentiments are echoed by Grant Young (MIC) and Jean van Zyl (Head of Sports) of Trinityhouse Randpark Ridge.
This also confirms what many retailers have observed: all sports fans are keen to support winners, but sadly turn their backs on losers.
It is interesting that only 14% believe that the fact that it is compulsory to participate in a summer sport at the school contributes to cricket growth.
And less than 10% believe that the Proteas’ good performance at the start of the year contributed to more learners wanting to emulate their cricket heroes.
The schools that reported declining cricket participation (67%), attributed this mainly to a drop in overall sport participation amongst learners.
There are many reasons why cricket participation has dropped significantly at Port Rex Technical School, says Director of Sport Timothy Kirby: “cricket is expensive and the school cannot afford more facilities as there is too much competition from other sports that are less time-consuming. Besides, fewer learners are nowadays interested in participating in any form of sport.
More than half of the respondents (57%) agree with him that cricket participation suffers from too much competition from other sports because it is a game that is too time-consuming.
There is much less interest in cricket at Hoërskool Brandwag in Benoni, despite the fact that boys and girls are encouraged to play the sport, says Henlo Blignault, because there are just too many other sports and activities competing for the learners’ limited time. The school offers eight other summer sports in addition to cricket.
Despite the tough economy, only a third of the respondents from schools where participation declined believe this is due to the expense of equipment, or because the school cannot afford facilities (22%).
Schools buy gear for players
Schools do, however, attempt to supply what they can afford. “We supply what the coaches would need, but the budget is tight, which makes it difficult to maintain this throughout the cricket season,” says an anonymous respondent. “The rest of the equipment players need to buy themselves.”
Just about all the schools that responded buy basic cricket equipment in bulk to supply to their teams like balls and stumps (96%). Many of them also provide bowling machines (84%) and scoreboards (72%).
Interestingly, nearly two-thirds (64%) of the respondents’ schools supply equipment that are often usually for individual, rather than team, use, like pads and helmets. More than half of the schools (56%) also supply even more individual personal gear like bats and protective.
The fact that a school would buy bats and pads in bulk for use by a team, instead of every player buying his or her own, is not such good news for retailers.
But, on the other hand, if this is a way to encourage the participation of learners who would otherwise not play cricket because of the cost involved, there is always the hope that the learner will make such good progress that his parents will one day buy him that coveted top end bat.
About a third of the respondents’ schools supply clothing for their teams. Retailers should benefit from this as the clothing would (hopefully!) not be shared amongst team members and each member would receive/buy an individual set.
CricketCricket at school
Published by Trudi du Toit
Sports Trader owner, industry veteran with 20 years' knowledge of the Southern African sport, outdoor and lifestyle retail trade, and the suppliers View all posts by Trudi du Toit
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Save Our Planet (Part 1)
Today we have part one of a two part series on the environment, entitled ‘Save Our Planet’. We’ll start with a report in this month’s Share International with the headline: “Over 1 million young people go on strike for climate change”.
In one of the largest environmental protests in history, an estimated 1.4 million young people in 123 countries skipped school and took to the streets on Friday 15th of March to demand stronger action on climate change. The global protests were inspired by 16-year-old Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, who began missing school on Fridays in August 2018 to protest outside the Swedish parliament. Students around the world soon began similar protests, and now school strikes have spread around the world.
Quote: “We have been born into this world and we have to live with this crisis, and our children and our grandchildren…. We are facing the greatest existential crisis humanity has ever faced. And yet it has been ignored. You who have ignored it know who you are.”
Scientists and academics in many countries have signed open letters giving their support to the climate strike movement. Now, parents and grandparents are mobilizing in support of the youth strikes for climate under the banner ‘Parents for the Future’ and have also written an open letter demanding urgent action.
For more information https://share-international-nz.info/save-our-planet
2019 Podcasts:
The Gathering of the Forces of Light & UFOs
More information: Share International
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Home National FBI forced to take emergency steps to protect informant — from Trump
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
FBI forced to take emergency steps to protect informant — from Trump
Desperate to undermine the Russia probe, Trump is now actively endangering national security and forcing the FBI to take emergency steps to mitigate the fallout from his push to expose a confidential informant.
Trump's war on the U.S. intelligence community reached alarming new heights on Thursday as he joined his Republican accomplices in pushing to expose the identity of a top-secret FBI informant.
The move is so dangerous that the FBI has been forced to take the extraordinary step of putting in place emergency security measures to protect the safety of the informant and his or her associates in case their identity becomes known.
Anticipating that the informant's identity may soon be exposed, the FBI has also had to take steps to protect the integrity of other investigations that the informant has worked on, according to The Washington Post.
The source, a U.S. citizen who has worked with the intelligence community for years and provided valuable information to both the FBI and the CIA, reportedly aided the FBI as it began its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and continued to assist investigators after the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller in May 2017.
According to The Post, Trump and his allies believe that outing the source could help them undermine the Russia probe and ultimately lay the groundwork for firing Mueller.
In their quest to provide cover for Trump, Republicans led by Rep. Devin Nunes have launched a relentless assault on the FBI and Department of Justice, including threatening to hold Attorney General Jeff Sessions in contempt of Congress and impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein if they don't give in to all of their demands to see confidential information about the Mueller investigation.
In the latest demand for sensitive documents, Nunes subpoenaed the DOJ for "all documents referring or related to the individual" identified as the confidential informant.
Turning over such information would risk lives and "contradict years of policy about protecting intelligence sources," senior intelligence officials say.
Despite the dire warnings from the intelligence community, Trump has now publicly joined Republicans in their effort to expose the informant.
Rudy Giuliani, Trump's newest attorney, told The Post on Thursday that Trump believes law enforcement officers have been conspiring against him. Earlier in the day, Trump bizarrely suggested that the lawful use of a confidential informant could be "bigger than Watergate!"
Based on his unfounded paranoia, Trump wants the DOJ to hand over classified intelligence about the origin of the Russia probe — including information on the top-secret source — to Nunes and his fellow Republican accomplices.
This comes just a day after Christopher Wray, Trump's handpicked FBI director, warned that providing information on a source would not only imperil that person and the people around them, but also the American public.
"The day that we can’t protect human sources is the day the American people start becoming less safe," Wray said. "Human sources in particular who put themselves at great risk to work with us and with our foreign partners have to be able to trust that we’re going to protect their identities and in many cases their lives and the lives of their families."
Informants provide critical intelligence that is used for a variety of national security purposes, including preventing terrorism, helping our troops avoid danger, and solving crimes ranging from murder to drug trafficking. If informants don't trust that their identities will be kept confidential, they may stop coming forward — and without the information they provide, national security would suffer.
Commenting on Trump's involvement in the campaign to expose a confidential source, former CIA analyst Nada Bakos warned that the fallout could be disastrous for future efforts to recruit sources.
"If human sources are at risk of being exposed at the highest levels of government," Bakos wrote, "it is not hyperbole to say it will have, not just a ripple effect, but tsunami waves throughout our national security apparatus and ability to recruit sources."
In an extraordinary act of betrayal, Trump is disregarding all of these warnings and putting the FBI in the position of having to take emergency steps to protect the safety of a top-secret informant whose life may soon be in danger. And to make matters even worse, he's doing it in an attempt to obstruct an investigation and shield himself from the damning evidence it's producing.
When Richard Nixon was impeached, Congress declared that he had violated his oath of office by engaging in conduct including "interfering or endeavouring to interfere with the conduct of investigations by the Department of Justice of the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the office of Watergate Special Prosecution Force, and Congressional Committees."
So perhaps Trump wasn't entirely wrong when he tweeted that this incident could be "bigger than Watergate" — just not in the way he meant it.
Previous articleGOP ex-congressman: 'Politically correct culture' to blame for shooting
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Tag Archives for Diablo Cody
Hulkatrice: Ramblings on "The United States of Tara" (TV)
[This is only my second attempt at writing about a TV show, so please excuse my clumsiness and/or stupidity]
The new TV show “The United States of Tara” is a huge success, as far as I am concerned. As I type this short piece, I am watching episode three, delighted by every second of it, as I was delighted by every second in the previous episodes. It is a success in every possible way. The writing is delicious, getting so many pitches just right, as when Kate’s husband talks about the “big diff”, or when having a scene involving both T’s 1970’s hipster jargon and Kate’s 2008’s jargon: Diablo “Juno” Cody’s writing is always clear, always on point, but it would not work as well with actors less great than the cast of this show. The acting is the main selling point. Tony Collette is as good as we’ve come to expect of her, but Keir Gilchrist, who plays Tara’s son, is absolutely astonishing. The premise of the show is easily described: Tara Gregson, who works as a painter of nursery room murals, is a mother of two kids and suffers from D.I.D., dissociative identity disorder: she has multiple personalities which she calls ‘the alters’.
So far we’ve encountered three of them: there’s T, a sixteen year old would-be punk, trapped in this middle-aged woman’s body. She can be rude but she’s actually very friendly and warm. The exact opposite is Buck, a male Vietnam vet, who likes to shoot guns and get into a fight. And then there’s Alice, a 1950’s woman, who appears to be a Super-mom, albeit fitted with 1950s ideas of sex (although she is learning) and morality. Tara is married to Max (played by John Corbett, a.k.a. Aidan from SatC), who is (I think) a gardener, and the weakest character of the whole show, so far. He is little more than a prop in this story: very friendly, very patient. He has trouble resisting the sexual advances of the two female alters, but other than that we don’t get much of him except indulgent smiles and sighs. The Gregsons have two kids: a son, Marshall, and a daughter, Brie. Brie’s your typical teenager, rebelling against her parents (T, of course, is exempt from teenager derision). She is blond, pretty and thoroughly unremarkable. Like her father, she is little but a foil to demonstrate the dynamics of Tara and her alters. Marshall is a closet homosexual 14 year old. He is shy and has just fallen in love with what appears to be a homophobic Christian jock. His character is the only one in the family which is interesting even when not interacting with Tara.
At this early point there is little I can say about the show that is less trite than the previous two paragraphs. I will, however, state what fascinates me about the show, maybe that’s more interesting. I read Tara as a sort of anti-Hulk, or a female Hulk. Now, from our embarrassing comic knowledge we all know about Jennifer Susan Walters, a.k.a. She-Hulk. That character, who chose to keep the Hulk shape, is an endless source of discussions about women and power and feminism. You can go to your local MLA archive for more and smarter work on the She-Hulk. Tara is different in many respects. She does not have superpowers, in the sense of super-human powers (yes there are a couple of classic and not so classic characters who share that with her but we’re comparing her to Hulk now) and she does not prefer to stay in her other state(s). She is closer to the original Hulk, the incredible one. Bruce Banner turns into Hulk when he’s angry just as Tara turns into one of her alters when she’s under stress. She cannot control this and she’d rather just be Tara, just as Mr. Banner’d rather stay himself. Her alters, while not equipped with superhuman powers, can be seen as superpowers in the sense that they represent the ‘shortcomings’ of any regular mom.
Alice is a perfect cook, she can talk and soothe mad teachers and suspicious parents and she keep the house in tip-top shape in the most efficient way possible. T covers a different area of trouble: the teenage child. T can effortlessly em- and sympathize with Brie, she knows what the girl is thinking or feeling because she thinks and feels it as well. Buck, finally, represents a third, and largely underrated area of expertise: when a woman ‘needs to be a man’. We encounter Buck for the first time when Tara witnesses Brie’s Goth boyfriend hit her. When Tara tries to confront him, she fails and this triggers Buck’s appearance, who, in the course of this episode, engages the boyfriend in a fistfight, thus ‘defending Brie’s honor’. The alters are also different in appearance from Tara, although just in the way they are dressed and made up. So, having brought up some similarities to the incredible green guy, why’d I call Tara the anti-Hulk?
My reading stems from the standard reading of Hulk, who is generally read as representing the repressed part of the human character, in Freudian terms: the id, yadda, yadda (for smarter comments, again, do consult the MLA). If Hulk is the id, Tara’s alters could be seen as the super-ego. Hulk is a way for Banner to break out of his mold (the genre expression “mild-mannered” has multiple layers, after all), whereas Tara’s alters are a way of breaking into the mold (also, remember Marcuse’s modifications?). They are her way of conforming to the gender expectations, providing three facets of the perfect wife, the roles she is supposed to play; yes, they are clearly essentialist, but then they’re supposed to be, they are, as I said, not fully formed characters, but gender roles, informed by cultural parameters. The way they interact with their environment speaks volumes of the contradictions inherent in such roles.
There is a limit to this, however. Through all the characters and their interaction a simple moral line is threaded, but there is a lot of promise, especially if we look at fields like heteronormativity. Another intriguing tangent of the whole set up is sexuality. There’s not just Freud/Marcuse, as mentioned. Clearly, the extent to which sexuality is foregrounded almost asks for us to include Reich, doesn’t it? Not so far, however, but the potential’s there. All the characters develop a sexual relation of sorts with Max, their bodies, although they all share a body with Tara, appear to have a different sense of body-ness. This includes a wide range, from the different gait of the four characters to Buck’s declaration that his penis had been shot off in ‘Nam. Sadly, there, too, is a limit to the reflection. Health, height, strength and other things are a given. Still, to wrap this pointless blather up: there is a lot of promise in the “United States of Tara”. As it is, it’s enjoyable and fascinating. It could be great but we’ll see about that. It’s worth at least taking a look.
February 10, 2009 by Shigekuni - Book Blog Categories: Moving Pictures | Tags: Diablo Cody, Essays | Leave a comment
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„Home is not where you live but where they understand you.“
— Christian Morgenstern
Christian Morgenstern6
poeta i pisarz niemiecki 1871 - 1914
Podobne cytaty
„You can go home again, the General Temporal Theory asserts, so long as you understand that home is a place where you have never been.“
— Ursula K. Le Guin American writer 1929
Chapter 2 (p. 55)
„Home is in here [tapping temple]. Where you live is just a geographical preference.“
— Lemmy Kilmister British singer-songwriter 1945 - 2015
„Wasn't that the definition of home? Not where you are from, but where you are wanted“
— Abraham Verghese, Cutting for Stone
„Home is where you will always have a place, where you will always feel loved, and you will never be alone.“
— Janette Oke Canadian writer 1935
„You can't understand where someone's going unless you understand where they've been.“
— Jerry B. Jenkins novelist, biographer 1949
„I'm going to take you out of here... I'm going to take you home, to the world where you belong, where cats with bent tails live, and there are little backyards, and alarm clocks ring in the morning.“
— Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
„Home is the place where they have to take you in“
— Diana Gabaldon, Voyager
„Whitney: Where is your home?
Clayton: Wherever you are.“
— Judith McNaught, Whitney, My Love
„Home is where somebody notices when you are no longer there.“
— Aleksandar Hemon, The Lazarus Project
„Home is where they want you to stay longer.“
— Stephen King, Revival
„Home is where you dance with others, and dancing is life.“
— Stephen King, 11/22/63
„Home is where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.“
— Lois McMaster Bujold Science Fiction and fantasy author from the USA 1949
This evokes a statement in "Death of a Hired Man" by Robert Frost: "Home is the place where, when you have to go there, They have to take you in."
„Home is the place where, when you have to go there,
They have to take you in.“
— Robert Frost American poet 1874 - 1963
"The Death of the Hired Man" (1914)
„Home was not the place where you were born but the place you created yourself, where you did not need to explain, where you finally became what you were.“
— Dermot Bolger, The Journey Home
„I don't want to say something cheesy like 'home is where the heart is,' but home is definitely where the heart is. And my heart is, and has always been, with you.“
— Melissa Senate, The Breakup Club
„The simplest questions are the most profound.
Where is your home?
Think about these once in awhile, and watch your answers change.“
— Richard Bach American spiritual writer 1936
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Random Sports Chat
Sports news and opinions
Six Degrees of Sporting Separation
RedShift Radio
London Franchise? No thanks
January 20, 2012 David Hurst Leave a comment
Like all the other British NFL fans, I have thoroughly enjoyed the introduction of the annual International Series game at Wembley stadium and I myself have been lucky enough to have attended three of the games. Each year the stadium is (almost) full and the crowd are down in London hours before kick off, taking in the atmosphere of the entire day and the whole operation has proved to be a success in taping into the undoubted fan base within the UK and Europe with fans travelling from across the continent to the English capital.
On the face of it, it all sounds like the perfect build up to the much talked about arrival of a full time NFL franchise being based over here, most likely in London. However, I am firmly of the opinion that any such move would NOT be a success and I know I am not alone amongst British based fans of the sport in this belief. Here are just a few of my thoughts as to why I wouldn’t move a team over to London.
• Travelling and Scheduling
One of the more obvious stumbling blocks the league would have to overcome is how they would compensate for a team having to play 8 games in the UK and 8 in the U.S. as well as the 8 teams having to play away in the UK. At the moment, the two teams who compete in the International Series game have their bye week immediately after. It would be impossible to leave the schedule in it’s current format with a team based in London but there would probably be a way round the problem, maybe changing the bye week system and having the UK team play a few away games and a few home games in a row to prevent constant back and forth travel. Having the team play say three or four games in a row away from home would leave UK fans on the sidelines however meaning that idea would probably be unusable.
• The Novelty Team
The weekend of the International Series still has a novelty factor to it, both to people in the UK and the U.S. and I would expect a permanent to team to have that as a permanent issue. Taking a team out of the U.S. would basically alienate them from the rest of the league and basically make them outcasts with American fans having little to no interest in what happens to them. I would think this would be an issue when trying to sign players and draft picks also with players having to relocate to another country and be removed from the rest of the NFL. With the team being plucked out of the air and placed down in London, having no history in the UK and
• Cultural Differences
American football (it would never be called simply football) is still viewed as a nothing sport by many in the UK with people offering the same reasons such as the stop start nature of the games and the amount of padding worn compared to rugby players. I always look to defend the game when confronted with these arguments but it just goes to show how different the game is to any other major sport in the UK. American football really is perfectly American in every way and it is that American style that attracts so many of us to the sport, but it also turns many others away. Trying to anglofy it would simply make it a side show from the real thing and would only serve to make the team further removed from the rest of the league.
The fact that the NFL season takes place between from September to the Super Bowl in February, it would have to compete with sports that have long been established as national sports within the UK, football and rugby. There is pretty much 0% chance that an NFL team placed in London would prise football and rugby fans away from attending their teams games in favour of watching an American football team they have no long standing emotional attachment with.
• Fan Base
Whilst the level of fan interest around the International Series games has been strong each year but that interest has seemingly dropped since the first game between the New York Giants and Miami Dolphins in 2007. There were large areas of Wembley with seating covered over at last year’s game (as seen in the picture taken by myself before the game) and I fear this would be a regular sight with more and more seats becoming redundant should a team become based at the stadium.
Wembley stadium before the 2011 International Series between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Chicago Bears with covers over unused seats
Clearly there are thousands of NFL fans within the UK and Europe with the fan base continuing to grow but the vast majority of those fans already have their own teams that they support and would be unlikely to change their allegiance just because a team has popped up in Europe. It would also be expecting a lot of fans to make regular trips to London for the games. A day trip to London to watch the International Series is both expensive and time consuming for fans from the Midlands and the North of the UK, not forgetting those who come over from Germany, Sweden, etc. Most likely you’d have people making one off trips to games, picking a weekend when they are free to do so and whilst this combined with the ‘newness’ of the entire concept may keep the attendances relatively high initially, after a couple of years, the ‘take it or leave it’ fans will have lost interest and those who have their own teams would likely go to the game should their team be playing and not support the London side.
Football teams and rugby teams in the UK have built up their fan bases over a long history and fans pick up their teams for various reasons at a young age and stick with them through thick and thin, most of the time thin. Should a London team prove to be unsuccessful early on, you can guarantee plenty of people would lose interest as they have no emotional ties to team and why bother forking out three figure sums to go and watch them play. Whilst on paper it may seem like a great idea, all European NFL fans rallying behind and supporting a team based in London, it wouldn’t be the case. Why would an NFL fan who lives in Hull, Glasgow, Cardiff, Birmingham, Newcastle, Liverpool or Manchester for example, feel any passion for team based miles away in London when they have their own local football, rugby, cricket teams to support? It’s not like they would have any connection with the team other than the fact it is being played a couple of hundred miles down the road. It takes time to develop a relationship between teams and fans and before that can be established at a sustainable level, the bubble of interest surrounding the new attraction at Wembley may well have burst.
As you can clearly gather, I don’t see the reason for taking an NFL franchise away from the U.S. and bringing it over here. The International Series is fantastic and we will continue to enjoy that and the amount of coverage of we receive now is great but I really do think it would one step too far to try this. Obviously this is all just opinion and conjecture and should a team be moved into Wembley, the exact opposite could happen and you could see me writing a new article a few years down the line singing the praises of the London team after winning their first Super Bowl and saying how I always believed in them and how it could work. Who knows.
Categories: NFL Tags: Chicago Bears, International Series, London, Miami Dolphins, New York Giants, NFL, St Louis Rams, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, UK NFL Franchise, Wembley Stadium
Crewe Railroaders will join the British American Football League this year
with the BAFL culminating each year with the BritBowl which was won last
year by the London Blitz at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre.
The current stadium at the Crystal Palace Sports Centre is on the same ground
as the old football ground that hosted FA Cup Finals between 1895 and 1914
with Burnley the last team to win the cup at the venue, beating Liverpool in
the final in 1914.
In Burnley’s history, they have only once made it to the European Cup (now
Champions League) when they lost in the quarter finals in the 1960-1961
season to Hamburg
Hamburg’s last European game against an English team was in the 2009-2010
Europa League semi final where they lost to Fulham having beat Standard
Liege, Anderlecht and Dutch side PSV Eindhoven in the knockout rounds.
Eindhoven had hosted the 2008 European Aquatics Championships a year
earlier where Tom Daley became the youngest ever European Champion in
the diving events a few months before he competed for Great Britain at the
2008 Olympics in Beijing at 14 years old.
Another athlete to make a big impression in the Olympics at 14 year old
was Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci [ko-mo-neech] who won three
gold medals at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal as well as becoming the first
gymnast to be awarded a perfect 10 score in an Olympic gymnastics event.
Categories: Six Degrees of Sporting Separation
January 9, 2012 David Hurst Leave a comment
Nantwich Town sold Ben Mills to Macclesfield Town this week
Macclesfield drew 2-2 with Premier League Bolton in the FA Cup on Saturday
Although currently injured, American midfielder Stuart Holden is a key player for
Bolton Wanderers having joined the club from MLS side Houston Dynamo.
The Dynamo’s are one of Houston’s professional sports teams with the city
boasting a team in every major American sports league apart from the NHL including
NBA side the Houston Rockets.
The Rockets’ next game is on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning at the Charlotte
Bobcats.
The Bobcats share a nickname with BAFA Division 2 the Bournemouth Bobcats,
the same league that the Crewe Railroaders will join this year.
December 12, 2011 David Hurst Leave a comment
Haroon Khan who won silver at 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi for Pakistan, is
the cousin of Lancashire and England cricketer Sajid Mahmood
Mahmood made his test debut for England against Sri Lanka in 2006, getting Kumar
Sangakarra as his first test wicket
Sangakarra spent the 2007 cricket season with English county Wawrickshire as an
overseas player and another former overseas player for Wawrickshire was West
Indies legend Brian Lara who is one of three cricketers to have won the BBC
Overseas Sports Personality of the Year award
As of 2010, only boxing legend Muhammad Ali and 6 time Wimbledon champion
Roger Federer are the only two to have won the BBC Overseas Sports Personality of
the Year award 3 times
Federer won his first ever grand slam title at Wimbledon in July 2003, the same year
that Wimbledon lost their football league team as Wimbledon FC moved to Milton
Keynes in September 2003
Wimbledon changed their name to the MK Dons in 2004 and this season the MK
Dons became Nantwich Town’s first ever opponents in the FA Cup First Round
December 5, 2011 David Hurst Leave a comment
South Sydney Rabbitohs star Michael Crocker agreed to join Hull FC in 2009 before
he wasn’t provided with a UK visa and signed instead for South Sydney from the
Crocker played in the victorious Melbourne Storm side in the 2007 NRL grand final
(scoring a try) against the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles helping the Melbourne team
coached by Craig Bellamy to the NRL title.
The Welsh footballer who shares the same name as the Melbourne Storm coach
Craig Bellamy is now back at Liverpool where he was a runner up in the 2006-
2007 Champions League, helping the Anfield club on their way to the final with the
equaliser against Barcelona in their 2-1 first leg win in their first knockout round tie
after Brazil born Portugese international Deco had given Barcelona the lead at the
Nou Camp
Like Deco, another Portugese sports star born outside of Portugal is Francis Obikwelu
who won the silver medal in the men’s 100m at the 2004 Olympics in Athens
Another silver medal hero from the 2004 Olympics in Athens was Amir Khan who
won the silver medal in the lightweight division in the boxing event
Haroon Khan is the brother of Amir and has become a successful amateur boxer
himself, winning bronze for Pakistan in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi
November 28, 2011 David Hurst Leave a comment
Sam Tomkins scored 5 tries for the England rugby league team in the Four Nations
campaign just gone and he made his rugby union debut this past weekend, scoring the
only try for the Barbarians in their 60-11 loss to Australia.
The only other player to put up points for the Barbarians with 2 penalties was
Danny Cipriani, the former London Wasps and England fly half now playing in
London Wasps play their home games at Adams Park which they share with
Wycombe Wanderers FC
Wycombe famously reached the FA Cup semi finals in the 2000-2001 season before
losing 2-1 to Liverpool who went on to beat Arsenal 2-1 in the final
On the bench for Arsenal in that final was Cameroon defender Lauren who a year
earlier had scored for Cameroon in their penalty shootout win over Spain in the
Sydney Olympics football final to help his country win a gold medal in Stadium
Australia, now called the ANZ Stadium
The ANZ Stadium is now the home venue of NRL side South Sydney Rabbithos
Sepp Blatter has been in the news this week for his controversial comments inferring
that he thought on field racism in matches could be solved with an end of game
handshake. Not a stranger to controversy, the Swiss head of FIFA was born in 1936.
1936 saw the Summer Olympics staged with much stronger racial issues behind it in
Berlin with Germany controlled by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party where African-
American athlete Jesse Owens famously won 4 gold medals in the 100m, 200,
4x100m and long jump.
Owens’ achievements weren’t equalled until 1984 when American Carl Lewis won
the same 4 gold medals in the Los Angeles Olympics.
Lewis was born in Birmingham, Alabama, a city named after our own Birmingham
the home of Carling Cup holders Birmingham City.
After drawing 1-1 with Peterborough United last weekend, Birmingham’s last victory
came against Leeds United on October 26th.
Leeds United play their home games at Elland Road, the venue for the Rugby League
Four Nations Final where England lost to Australia last weekend.
Liam Willis
The Football Reporter
oDesk profile
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Media Ownership Monitor Sri Lanka
This is an automatically generated PDF version of the online resource sri-lanka.mom-rsf.org/en/ retrieved on 2019/07/18 at 23:01
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) & Verité Research - all rights reserved, published under Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Sri Lanka’s history of media ownership, especially state-owned media, dates back to the British colonial period, where Sinhala and Tamil language papers, such as Lankaloka and Illangai Pathukavalan, began as a response to the colonial control over ownership and content. Growing independence movements eventually led to Sri Lanka, then Ceylon, achieving dominion status in 1948. In 1972, Ceylon became a republic and changed its name to Sri Lanka. Since independence, media outlets rendering content in Sinhala and Tamil have increased. Although the colonial administration’s ownership of media was criticised, the post-independent government has seemingly adopted similar measures of state-ownership – and by extension – control over media.
By way of monopolising the media sphere, the government took steps towards nationalising key media institutions from as early as the 1960s. The dynamics of state control over media notably shifted, taking stronger steps from media ownership towards regulation with the second insurgency in 1987 led by the left-wing party, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), and the armed conflict between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the state. As an alleged trigger to the killing of 13 state soldiers by the LTTE, the armed conflict between the two forces began in July 1983. Prior to this however, there were several points of contention between Sinhala-inclined and Tamil-inclined politicians, including the Official Language Act No. 33 of 1956 (Sinhala Only Act). After a brutal 26-year period of violence, the LTTE was militarily defeated by the state in May 2009. While measures were taken to increase the privatisation of media during this time, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) insurgency and armed conflict with the LTTE became instances to justify the need for greater state regulation.
Entering the political sphere under the mandate of ‘good governance’, the current government has recurrently emphasised the importance of protecting fundamental freedoms, including media freedom. However, the plurality of ownership and opinion remains a pertinent concern even in the post-war landscape.
Bahai Teachings. (2013). Baha’is and Communism. Image retrieved from Bahai Teachings on 11 October 2018.
Commonwealth Legal Information Institute. Sri Lanka Press Council Law (No. 5 of 1973). Retrieved from Commonwealth Legal Information Institute on 23 July 2018.
Commonwealth Legal Information Institute. Ceylon Broadcasting Corporation Act (No. 37 of 1966). Retrieved from Commonwealth Legal Information Institute on 23 July 2018.
Commonwealth Legal Information Institute. Proscribing of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam And Other Similar Organisations Law (No. 16 of 1978). Retrieved from Commonwealth Legal Information Institute on 23 July 2018.
Crawley, William, Page, David, and Pinto-Jayawardena, Kishali. (Eds.). (2015). Embattled Media: Democracy, Governance and Reform in Sri Lanka. Retrieved from Google Books on 23 July 2018.
Daily News. (2017). The following extract is reproduced from Ceylon Daily News of February 5, 1949. Image retrieved from Daily News on 11 October 2018.
De Silva, Annemari. (2018). Limits of Expression: Creative Artists and Censorship in Sri Lanka (Publication). Retrieved from International Centre for Ethnic Studies website on 23 July 2018.
Doyle, Kit. (2018). A recent study suggests widespread censorship of student publications at American Christian schools. Image retrieved from Religion News Service on 11 October 2018.
Jones, Derek. (2001). Censorship: A world encyclopedia. Retrieved from Google Books on 23 July 2018.
Lake House. Our History- Lake House Building. Image retrieved from Lake House on 11 October 2018.
Liyanawatte, Dinuka. (2013). An air force officer holds Sri Lanka's national flag as the sun sets at Galle Face Green in Colombo. Image retrieved from Foreign Affairs on 11 October 2018.
New Democratic Front. The Election Manifesto of President Maithripala Sirisena. New Democratic Front. Retrieved from New Democratic Front on 23 July 2018.
Parliament of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (2018). The Right to Information Act No. 12 of 2016. Retrieved from Parliament of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka on 23 July 2018.
Perper, Rosie. (2018). After declaring a state of emergency, Sri Lanka has banned Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Retrieved from Business Insider on 23 July 2018.
Reporters without Borders. (2016). World Press Freedom Index 2008. Retrieved from Reporters without Borders on 23 July 2018.
Seneviratne, Madhura. (2017). 20th Amendment requires referendum after gaining two-thirds majority. Image retrieved from SBS on 11 October 2018.
The Sunday Times (2018). TRC shuts TV network linked to Prime Minister’s brother Retrieved from the Sunday Times on 23 July 2018.
The Sunday Times. (2018). FMM condemns President Sirisena’s attempt to re-activate Press Council. Retrieved from the Sunday Times on 23 July 2018.
Vikalpa. (2010). Let's bring justice to Black January. Image retrieved from Flickr on 11 October 2018.
Download complete website as PDF
English Sinhala
Individual Owners
Political Affiliations
State-Owned Media
Verité Research
5A Police Park Place,
Colombo 00500, Sri Lanka
This website is updated regularly. Do not hesitate to contact us, should you have information questions or remarks to share: momsl@veriteresearch.org
Last change: 2019/04/05
Olaf Steenfadt
Nafisa Hasanova
Deepanjalie Abeywardana
Stephanie Nicolle
Shamana Amjah
Edward Uthayathas
Rochel Canagasabey
Mahoshadi Peiris
Vinusha Paulraj
Dayan Surendranathan
Pathum Punchihewa
Lahari Jayetileke
Vidya Nathaniel
Viran Corea
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