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Rising of the Shield Hero Watch-Through Episode 3: "Wave of Catastrophe"
(Originally Published on Jan 29, 2019)
So here we are, three episodes in. These summaries are pretty meaty, but folks seem to enjoy them, and the show's given me quite a bit to cover in these posts. For those who are new to these breakdowns, I'm covering each episode of "Rising of the Shield Hero" and explaining how western SFF writers and readers can learn from Japanese "Light Novels". If you're not a writer, and simply want my thoughts on the show, then gain, feel free to skip the last bit. Also, you can read episode summary one and two with the links.
If you want to check out the story, you can buy the novel on Amazonor watch it for free on Crunchyroll. So without further ado, let's dig into the summary! Also, spoiler warning.
The episode starts with Naofumi and Raphtaila hunting some porcupines. After the latter emerges from the brush, we see that she's inexplicably grown up, and is now looks to be about Naofumi's age. Though the show doesn't explain why, a quick online search revealed that Demi-humans grow up with experience rather than age, "peaking" at their physical prime and then aging normally. So because Naofumi's been training her, she's matured not just mentally, but physically as well.
After going to the blacksmith's, the owner makes remarks about how much Raphtalia's grown since he's last seen her. Naofumi is weirded out by this, recalling how other vendors were offering her free things due to how pretty she is, and claiming that "this country's full of weirdos.". Though it's pretty clear that she's an adult now, Naofumi still thinks of her as a child, something that clearly frustrates her. The topic is changed to armor however, and after Raphtaila sweet-talks the blacksmith, she manages to get custom armor for Naofumi and a shiny new sword for her.
After eating, Naofumi decides to look into when the next Wave hits the kingdom. Though he knows it's coming and has trained for it all this time, he's still not sure when and where it'll ultimately hit. He later learns that a great Dragon Hourglass in the city's capitol will reveal to him the days remaining. And that when the Wave ultimately hits, he'll be transported to its location. While visiting the Hourglass, Naofumi chances upon the other Cardinal Heroes, who all regard him with a mix of pity and disgust. The worst of them being the Spear hero, who openly condescends Naofumi before his eyes come across Raphtailia. He's immediately interested in her, running up to grab her hand without asking, and telling her that she's "too cute to wield a blade." Myne, who watches all this go on, isn't so much perturbed by him harassing a girl as much as said girl being a "filthy demi-human." Naofumi of course, takes issue with this, and gets in between her and the Spear Hero. The latter reacts with a smirk, asking if she "knows about what you did." Naofumi is speechless at this, and at seeing his accuser, and storms off in a fit of shame and anger, dragging Raphtalia away before they can spread the lies to the one person who cares for him. At the inn, Raphtalia expresses concern for Naofumi, but when he tells her not to worry, she decides to leave it. The next day, she approaches him, and reaffirms her loyalty to him, that he helped cure her, saved her life, and that she in turn will help to save him. It's a very touching scene, and shows how much she's grown as a character. But shortly after this, the sky darkens, and she and her are taken to the location of the Wave.
At first, Naofumi wants to join the other Heroes, but when he sees them abandon a small village (the same one where he mined the ore from Ep.2). Not wanting innocent people to die, he tells Raphtalia they need to help, and the two set off to fight the monsters. There they see a horde of undead, demon-dogs, big monster knights and....bees, for some reason. Granted, they're giant bees, but it's still kind of strange. And even with his newfound abilities, Naofumi has trouble taking them on, using his defensive capabilities to protect the townsfolk rather than attack monsters. However, his resourceful thinking allows him to take out several with environmental traps and other tricks, allowing him to bide his time until the other Heroes kill the wave's boss. Eventually, some of the villagers jump in, spurred on by Naofumi's actions, and help to fend off the monsters.
As the Wave's minions grow thicker, a hail of fireballs ends of taking out several, and Naofumi has to shield Raphtalia or she'll be killed. Upon looking up, he sees a group of knights who previously abandoned the village. They firebombed the place knowing Naofumi was here, in the hopes of possible hurting or killing him, sending Raphtalia into a rage. However, as more monsters attack, the knights are forced to fight with the Shield Hero, and eventually, the others kill the boss and clear the wave. The villagers, and even some of the knights thank Naofumi for all he's done, and the heroes are all offered rewards from the king. Raphtalia says that she's glad she prevented more kids from going through what she did, and Naofumi says she did a good job. H esees tears forming in her eyes, and pats her on the head, saying she did a good job. For now, the waves have been cleared, but things are only going to get worse from here on out.
Another solid episode!
The aging-up of Raphtailia is something I honestly thought I'd hate, but as with everything else in this show, I'm pleasantly surprised. I assumed it was going to be an excuse for "fan service," but they (thankfully) don't do that. Rather, it seems like the decision was made so she could plausibly fight against hordes of zombies and giant knights in doom-armor. I also really like how her personality's changed. She went from a scared little raccoon to a headstrong girl who argues with her so-called "master" openly and flirts with shopkeepers to get good deals. She still respects Naofumi quite a lot, but isn't afraid to sass him out if she thinks he's being reckless or wrong in any way. If it wasn't already abundantly clear that she's a "slave" in name only, the exchange at the blacksmith's shop pretty much cemented that fact.
Granted, I still find the whole concept weird (why do demi-humans "age up" with their levels when humans in this world don't?) but the story takes advantage of this for some funny and genuinely cute moments. Which really is the redeeming quality for this show. It takes a lot of LitRPG tropes and improves upon them (the fantasy world is real, just with omnipresent RPG stats) and explores concepts that should be kind of terrible in cool and interesting ways.
My favorite parts by far these are the two scenes where Naofumi basically refuses to see her as anything but a child. He acts like she hasn't grown a bit, and even tries to buy her a Medieval Times Happy Meal again despite her protestations. Grumpy Dad Naofumi is hilarious, and seeing this side of him is really fun. Interestingly, it seems even the blacksmith from the first two episodes is having second thoughts, and perhaps reconsidering the Shield Hero's innocence. He's moved past the point of openly throwing snide death threats his way, so that's at least some progress.
Despite seeing the better side of Naofumi for a bit, he's still the bastard antihero, and has some interesting moments in the show. The scene where he meets up with the other Cardinal Heroes and reverts back to his awkward, shy personality is really painful to watch. Especially because his shyness and pain comes across as him looking really freakin' guilty to the other Heroes. Also, speaking of painful to watch, literally anything the Spear Hero does, including hitting on Raphtalia. Of course, Myrne is here, and drops a lil' of the old racism, calling Raphtaila a "filthy demi-human" and asking why the Spear Hero would bother giving her any attention. So she's basically fine with this guy harassing girls (despite her initial claims), is a massive racist, a sociopathic liar, a thief, and unbearably smug about it all. At this rate, I can't even keep track of all the reasons I genuinely hope she falls in a volcano.
This episode also really cemented what I think the overarching theme of this series is. Basically, actions speak louder than words. It's a really simple theme, but practically ever aspect of this story revolves around it. Naofumi puts on a big show of being a villain, but his actions shine through in the end. Out of the four Cardinal Heroes, he's the only one who seems to treat the inhabitants of this world like actual people instead of NPCs in a video game. He "owns" a slave, but it's an ownership in name only, and his actions show he respects her as an individual and cares for her deeply. The heroes too, are only heroes in a superficial sense. Sure they fight and do protect people, but they only see everything as a game. Going back to Episode 1, even when Naofumi was accused, their reaction was less "you hurt a real person" and more "look at this sick dude messing with the NPCs".
It'll be interesting to see where they take this concept next episode, as it seems to revolve around Naofumi's conflict with the others. And I'm sure it'll in no way make me wish Spear Hero wasn't warned about the stairs.
Labels: fantasy genre, gamelit, high fantasy, Japanese fantasy, light novels, Rising of the Shield Hero, watch-through


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China lastest design modular wooden exhibition kiosk.
Wooden exhibition booth design buy.
Yalla stacks vegetable crates for exhibition in germany.
Takt project installation for yamaha design exhibition tokyo.
Material design gt al concorso di wood stock vincono.
Globe of science and innovation at cern switzerland e.
Double deck manufacture china mainland booths design.
Image result for trade show booth idea wood pallets.
Modular trade show displays non warping patented wooden.
Exhibition stall designer mumbai design.
Cheltenham vintage wedding fair amber marie photography.


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STATE REPRESSION 10.06.2002 21:59
Oregon Federal Grand Jury Targets Forest Activists
From the newswire: Forest activists and others in Oregon have been served with subpoenas to appear before a federal grand jury now sitting in Portland. An unknown number of individuals began to testify before the grand jury last week after receiving visits by FBI agents at their residences or workplaces.
As one local activist states, "This is not your usual grand jury, where a local district attorney gets indictments handed down."
As attorney Brian Glick explained in the book War at Home:
"A grand jury subpoena carries legal penalties for non-cooperation. Those who refuse to testify, despite immunity from direct use of that testimony against them, can be jailed for contempt of court..." [ Read More ]
No Cooperation With Grand Juries
From the newswire: I feel it is a horrible decision on the part of those recently subpoenaed to the Portland grand jury to try to keep the situation low profile and secretive. As a community - not just in Portland but nationally - we have a right to know who has been subpoenaed and who is cooperating with this grand jury. The grand jury is not just about those subpoeaned, it effects everyone who in some way struggle against the state. One does not win against a grand jury by testifying and giving information or cooperating in any way with the system. This only leads to more people becoming subpoenaed, indictments being handed down and an affirmation of the grand jury system as a whole. [ Read More ]
[ Grand Jury FAQ | FBI Witchhunt Website | Protect Civil Liberties Website ]
Past Features Related to Grand Juries w/Background
[ 02/13/02 - Ben & Jerry's effectively labeled as 'Terrorist' at House Hearing on 'Eco-Terrorism' | 11/13/01 - Local activist faces grand jury in Eugene - grand jury delayed until january | 11/13/01 - Patriot Act: Silencing Dissent ]
CFA responses:
[ Let's stop doing the feds job for them | Here you go | You are all playing into the hands of the enemy | Another Anarchists perspective grand dury cointelpro returns | Indymedia is not a movement Gossip Column | apology of sorts ]
POWER OF INTERACTIVE MEDIA 10.06.2002 21:58
So how did the Peace Parade at the Rose Festival go?
On the newswire, someone asked how it went at the Peace Parade at the Rose Festival, which was announced on this website. Here are quotes from the reply by comment:
"About 50 of us met at the Salmon St. fountain by the waterfront at 3:00. We huddled under trees while waiting for a drum corps member because it was POURING, and many of us, including myself, were totally unprepared. Once we started marching, the sun came out (yay). We marched by the Pepsi Corporate Fun Park (or whatever they called it), led by the rockin' drummers, and chanting away. We were told to be quiet when we passed by these poor little ponies who were attached to one of those rides that goes around and around - our noise scared them. So Chris, the Chant-Meister, led us in some whispered chants til we passed."
"After marching by the park, we split up into 2 groups and went onto both sides of the Morrison Bridge, where we hung 3 banners and held our signs for passing traffic. The banner I was helping to hold read: MAKE ROSE FESTIVAL A MILITARY FREE ZONE. The one next to me said something like: MONEY FOR BOOKS AND FOOD, NOT BOMBS. My sign said: TERROR LIVES IN THE WHITE HOUSE. We got a lot of honks and peace signs from drivers on the bridge." [ Read More ]
PEACE 10.06.2002 11:15
Weekly vigil in Astoria elicits enthusiasm, agitation
From the open publishing newswire: "About 15 people showed up, with several others stopping by. Age range of participants was 5 to 70. Among the signs displayed: 'We Are All the Same--Thou Shalt Not Kill', 'Why Not Peace?', 'One World, One Chance'. As usual, most of the people driving by on the busy road were enthusiastically supportive. Two white men in their 60's to 70's took issue with our presence, however. In separate incidents, each got out of his car and walked over to speak at us. Both may have been inebriated. The first said, 'I'm a veteran of WW2, and I wouldn't spit on you'. For that we thanked him. He walked away. The other man was quite agitated, got very close to us, and yelled that his daughter was in the Army in Afghanistan, that he was very proud of her, and that we were jeopardizing her safety with our messages. He delivered his objections in rather colorful language with a lot of body gesturing." [ Read more... ]
May 25 & June 1 vigils: "Astoria Post Office reclaimed!"
At the May 25th Saturday vigil in front of the Post Office in Astoria, activists dealt with "a man who said he represented the Post Master" who told them to "get off the PO property". They briefly complied, but then regrouped in front of the Post Office again. The following week, on June 1st, activists got "fiesty" with the man, who then retracted his "order", telling them they could be there "so long as the gathering was 'peaceful', and thare was no 'littering'." [ Full story ]
RELIGION, CULTURE AND TRUTH 09.06.2002 17:44
Countering Western disortions of Islam
"Islam - A Brotherhood of Peace"
The "terrorist" act of September 11 has profoundly added to the suffering of the Islamic nation. With the blame of 9.11 being placed on a Muslim man with an alleged history of terrorism... and nineteen of his "followers", also Muslim, many people have amalgamated all Muslims as "terrorists". This sort of homogenous thinking is both obtuse and dangerous, a racism that has created many incidences of hate crimes against Muslims (as well as against people with non-white skin and individuals who wear turbans). These hate crimes include the U.S. government's systematic rounding up and imprisoning thousands of men with Arabic names but no history of criminality.
According to the Qur'an (the word of God that was delivered by the Angel Gabriel to Muhammad), rigorous tests must be undergone before charges of guilt can be brought against someone... This is similar to our own justice system that declares that a person is "innocent until proven guilty". Storming Afghanistan (in search of a man said to be hiding in a cave) without ample evidence of his guilt, and holding men prisoners, without proof of any complicity, clearly indicates a breach of our own judicial contract, and in the eyes of the Islamic world, defies the word of Allah or God. [ Read more... ]
"'Jihad' is corrected - lecture at the Portland Rizwan Mosque"
Jihad is based on the Arabic "Jahada", which means to strive for a better way of life. "Holy War; the latter does not exist in Islam nor will Islam allow its followers to be involved in a Holy War. The word refers to the Holy War of the Crusaders."
Mainstream news sources have made the term "jihad" synonymous in the minds of most western readers with that of "holy war". Although defence is clearly allowed as a lesser form of jihad it is clear that a "holy war" is not called for. In response to what must be centuries of repetition of the linking of the the two terms in western minds and also to recent events the Portland Rizwan Mosque held a lecture this Saturday that gave the correct meaning of jihad and the following are some thoughts gathered from this lecture. [ Read more... ]
"Don't forget - 'Jihad' as we know it was made by the CIA"
Though the mainstream media seems to have forgotten, it is well documented that the CIA created the Taliban and supported Osama bin Laden as a way of fighting the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980's... "[T]here is lot of weight in the thesis that the modern Jehadi-Islam is a by-product of intrigues by the West to keep the Islamic world under its suzerainty, devoid of any kind of democratic processes. And also to use it as a whipping boy occasionally whenever attention needs to be diverted from issues raised by anti-globalisation campaigners." [ Read more... ]
Islam and the Arab world, have at times, been a pinnacle of human culture and there have been many great thinkers, philosophers and poets. People that were beacons of light in the world, and are still, even today. It is especially important to understand this, in this time of overt racism towards Arabs/Muslims.
[ IBN RUSHD (Averroes) | Rumi ]
9.11: DEMANDING THE TRUTH 08.06.2002 17:30
Students and community members in Eugene take to the streets to expose '9.11 LIES'
From the open publishing newswire: "For the fourth consecutive Friday, students and community members in Eugene took to the streets to demand investigation into 9.11 and to expose the lies being told by the government and corporate media. This Friday's was the biggest action yet, with twenty people altogether participating... As we marched, students delivered speeches through the bullhorn. Talk about making a joyful noise! The rhetoric was filled with rage, and drove home the importance of finding out the truth. We attracted a lot of attention and handed out a bunch of flyers to people. Like last week, reception was mostly positive." [ Read more ]
"WAR IS PROFITABLE!"
Another account from the wire reads: "I was too happy to break out of study mode and march in a 'demanding truth' rally regarding the whole 9.11 thing. Being sufficiently roused after writing my final paper for my World Religion class (an article on Islam with the required theme of educating the public about Islam) and with a newly acquired piece of information that I read this morning about the Carlyle Group funding the Pakistan-India Conflict, I was ready to blow off some steam. My theme for this weeks rally: 'WAR IS PROFITABLE'. It is completely beyond comprehension to me that there are corporations and individuals who get rich at the expense of human life!" [ Read more ]
Previous 9.11 Truth Seeking rallies in Eugene: [ May 31: Students in Eugene march to expose '9.11 Lies'; Police cite two for handing out flyers | May 24: Rally in Eugene: "Bush complicit in 9-11 terror" | May 17: Citizens in Eugene rally to demand 9.11 investigation, launch signature campaign ]
Other expressions of dissent:
Join the War on Terrorism - billboard alteration
Pledge of Resistance - verse
New American Flag - art
Cut the head off the diseased body - Impeach Bush petition
THE TRUTH OF 9.11: ANALYSIS 08.06.2002 15:33
'Terrorism' and the Enemy
An Indymedia activist once said, "[F]irst-hand news is better than second-hand news, IMHO. Seventeenth-hand news might be good for getting a Harvard etc. professorship, but that's not Indymedia style." Indeed, the open publishing newswire gives anyone with internet access the opportunity to upload their own first-hand thoughts in multi-media form. But the news is never just about facts, events and "straight" reporting; news outlets often contain analysis, opinions, editorials and the like, and Indymedia is no exception. Here are two pieces of analysis that were posted to the portland indymedia newswire about 9.11, the possible complicity of the U.S. government, and the joys and trials of living in such an intense time, as the "war on terror" shambles forward both abroad and at home. These views are under-represented (if not non-existant) in the corporate media, and their presence here showcases the possibilities of open publishing.
"Know Your Enemy"
THE BLITZKRIEG (a.k.a. "time's up!") Historically, this time honored high-pressure sales tactic has been very successful for the Bush clan. The basic idea is this: 1) Manufacture a crisis that forces people to act without thinking because of limited time. 2) Pound your answer to this crisis into their heads, keeping up the pressure until they finally see things your way. This tactic was used to brilliant effect during the 2000 presidential election. "The president must be confirmed and inaugurated at such-and-such a time!" the press screamed. "Our national stability is at stake! Gore needs to be a man and concede for the sake of our country!" Since when do we subjugate democracy to fit a schedule?
Then of course, we were served the Patriot Act, the war in Afghanistan, and now the Homeland Security "Department" in the exact same manner. Next course: the Invasion of Iraq. What bothers me is that these see-thru tactics appear to have worked on the American people. When will they realize there is no worse crisis than the one they have been embroiled in for months? [ Read more ]
"Why Bush thinks Ruppert is a terrorist, and why he is not"
On September 11, 2001 over 3,000 Americans were murdered in the World Trade Center in New York City by hijacked airplanes. The Bush administration quickly blamed an Islamic "terrorist" group based in Afghanistan. No sooner said than our military bombed and occupied that country causing a debatable several thousand more deaths. Almost as quickly, others charged President Bush and his team with complicity in the 911 crimes. Michael Ruppert, for example, claims Bush and his team: 1) knew about the 911 plot to commit mass murder, 2) were complicit in those murders, that is, they were not just criminally negligent, a situation where there were responsible for protecting Americans, but failed to do their job, but instead gave aid and encouragement to the terrorists, 3) had a motive in oil and drug profits which explain why they would murder Americans.
The events of 911, the charges and counter charges about Ruppert's claims define our time. Many of us would agree our goals of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" are at risk. I am not in a position to gather more facts to support or refute what Ruppert is saying. However, the leaders of our country tell us that because of what he's claiming, without hearing those facts, we should think he's confused or a traitor. I can address myself to this claim because such criticisms stand or fall on the arguments that Ruppert and the rest of us make. I will show his argument makes sense, so he is not loony tunes. I will show that if our concern is the protection of people, and the defense of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," he can not be a traitor. [ Read more ]
Taxpayer-funded TV ads to 'greenwash' Tillamook Rainforest clearcuts
ODF to increase timber harvesting by 30 million board feet [mbf] a year in the Tillamook Rainforest.
From the open publishing newswire: "Despite hundreds of comments calling for a balanced approach in the Tillamook Rainforest ODF has decided to give into the demands of timber industry and the Forest Trust Lands Advisory Committee (FTLAC).
"The Oregon Department of Forestry will add an Eagle Creek size (28.3mbf) timber sale each year for the next ten years. This increase will be incorporated into the soon to be approved 10 year Implementation Plans (IP's). In order to achieve this increase ODF will do away with certain 'operability restraints' to better facilitate the deforestation of Oregon's coastal temperate rainforests.
"To greenwash this attack on our state lands, the Oregon Board of Forestry has joined with the Oregon Forest Resources Institute (OFRI) (which is funded by taxpayers) and will run a series of TV ads assuring everybody that everything us just fine and dandy in Oregon's forests. In the TV spot, State Forester Jim Brown says it is important to balance the things we value that grow out of our forests - like clean water, recreation and a diverse economy - and invites Oregonians to help achieve that."
Forest activists are encouraging people to visit the OFRI site and fill out a survey form to let them know you feel about this issue. [ Full article, with talking points for OFRI ]
Benefit for the Tillamook Rainforest
In related news, there will be a benefit for Tillamook Rainforest preservation efforts at the Snake and Weasel in Portland on June 19, from 7:30- 10:00 p.m., featuring a slideshow of the area.
Visit TillamookRainforest.com for more information on the issues.
ANIMAL RIGHTS 06.06.2002 14:21
Ark Animal Sanctuary in Tillamook Shut Down - Animals In Desparate Need Of Care
The Ark Animal Sanctuary in Tillamook has finally been closed down due to chronic, extreme neglect of its animals. Assistance desperately needed to treat sick animals and find them homes!
"Quoted from the newswire: I was at Ark Animal Sanctuary yesterday and was both shocked and horrified at what I saw. I had heard from all of the reports that the facility was bad, but it was beyond my imagination. Starving animals, sick animals and animals in pain encompassed me. Filth and the accompanying stench was everywhere. There were trashed vehicles all over the place filled with debris...rotting buses, trailers and cars that animals hid in and lived in. Pigs whose home was a camper shell in the ground buried in the mud. The horse barn was the most disgusting place I had ever been in...animal waste and water were at times halfway up my calves. Burros whose hoofs were so bad that they could barely walk. Pregnant cats and cats with litters were at my feet.
"I tell you all of this not to upset anyone, but to let you know that the pain and suffering for these animals is almost over. But we need your help to end their suffering!"
[ June 6th: HELP!!! Ark Animal Emergency Evacuation Continues | June 4th: Animals in dire need of help! "Sanctuary" shut down for neglect. | Ark Animal Sanctuary Website ]
STATE POWER 06.06.2002 11:36
Has the Portland Joint Terrorism Task Force secretly expanded from 9 to 40 officers?
Two thirds of the way through an Oregonian article on the new FBI, the article quietly says: "The Portland Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), which before Sept. 11 included nine police officers from Portland and Beaverton working with six FBI agents, now has 40 full-time local police investigators teamed with 12 FBI agents."
The article indicates this is a done deal. Has Mayor Katz and the city slipped by this change without informing people? If so, it is a troubling sign after assurances given at the JTTF Hearings last year, and the Oregonian is remiss for letting it pass without any questions on behalf of the people of Portland. The article also mentions 50 CIA agents joining the various JTTF's around the country, meaning that the Portland JTTF may also have one or more CIA agents.
Fortunately, Portland's activist community is vigilent and a local citizen has written a letter to Mayor Katz and the City Council asking some important questions:
When exactly did such a drastic expansion of the PJTTF become effective?
What, if any, public process took place around this? Was the Memorandum of Understanding between the FBI and the PPB amended? If so, did it go before the Council for approval? Will it go before Council in the future? If so, when?
If the MOU was amended without Council approval (a possibility alluded to last fall by Mayoral aide Sam Adams) under what legal authority was this done?
Full letter on the newswire
HEALTH AND CIVIL LIBERTIES 05.06.2002 23:54
Smallpox, vaccinations, and the Emergency Health Powers Act
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have announced a series of public forums to be held from June 6-11 to share information and solicit comments about a proposed change in smallpox vaccination policy. Currently, the CDC does not recommend that people recieve smallpox vaccinations unless they are engaged in scientific research that brings them into proximity with the disease. But in the wake of 9.11, with bioterrorism on people's minds, the CDC is considering reversing this recommendation, and has announced that it will have 286 million vaccination doses ready by 2003 -- one for every U.S. citizen.
Support for vaccines is not universal, however. A growing body of research implicates vaccinations with sudden infant death syndrome, immuno-deficiency dysfunction, and other health problems. Some research suggests that they have been ineffective in disease prevention, and that the decline of communicable disease has been due to improved hygeine, i.e., plumbing, sewage disposal, water treatment. Other people are opposed to vaccinations on religious grounds.
But the freedom to say "no" to vaccinations if one wishes could be taken away by the Model Emergency Health Powers Act (MEHPA), which is currently being introduced to state legislatures everywhere. MEHPA was released after 9.11 and, like the USA PATRIOT Act, curtails basic constitutional rights. The American Civil Liberties Union describes it thus: "The Act lets a governor declare a state of emergency unilaterally and without judicial oversight, fails to provide modern due process procedures for quarantine and other emergency powers, it lacks adequate compensation for seizure of assets, and contains no checks on the power to order forced treatment and vaccination."
What does all this add up to? Some are fearing a new form of social control. [ Full story ]
Report from CDC Hearing on Smallpox Vaccination Policy in SF
From the open publishing newswire: "Alerted by a post at the Portland Indymedia site, I hurried to San Francisco, to make observations and add my two cents during the time allotted for public comments... There were so few people representing the "public" that the organizer invited me to speak first in the afternoon session (since I had to leave at 1:30 pm to take care of my children after school). I expressed my concern over the Emergency Health Powers Act which the Health and Human Services Department is trying to push through legislatures nationwide, and would grant virtually dictatorial powers to governers, including the power to force vaccinations, quarantine or isolation upon the public." [ Read more ]
POLITICAL PRISONERS 05.06.2002 16:23
First year anniversary of Jeff 'Free' Luers' incarceration
On June 11th, 2002 Jeff "Free" Luers will have spent one year in the Oregon State Prison system for torching three SUVs in a Eugene car lot. He was sentenced to an astounding 23 years for this crime, leading many people to believe that the sentence was politically motivated and intended to intimidate environmentalists. For perspective, consider that, according to the Department of Justice, the average sentence given to a man who kills his wife is 13 years.
Here are Free's own words on his actions: "My name is Jeffrey Luers. Most of my friends call me 'Free'. I have been active since 1996 fighting for a range of issues such as animal rights, gender equality, anti fascism, eco-defense and others. These issues are not separate they are one struggle, one fight. My story is only a small part of a greater whole. . .
"In my lifetime I have witnessed an onslaught against the inhabitants of this world lead by the greed of industrialized nations. It is my belief that the oppression of people is rooted in the oppression and exploitation of nature. A fundamental disrespect for life that began with the conquest of Mother Nature and has led to the conquest of humankind.
"I struck back. In an act of resistance designated to raise awareness and draw attention to a problem that affects every human being, every animal, every plant, and every form of life on this planet. I am speaking of global warming, air, soil and water pollution. We are in the midst of a global environmental crisis.
"On June 16, 2000 I ignited a fire that would forever change my life. I torched 3 SUV's. I took extra care and used specific fuels to ensure no one would be injured." [ Read more ]
This week, "Anarchy: The Intentional Creation" continues in Eugene, and will feature a film about "Free". [ Details ]
POLITICAL STREET THEATER 05.06.2002 11:50
Portlander stages one-person flag action
From the open publishing newswire: "i decided to walk around downtown Portland yesterday afternoon with a few doctored US flag mini-posters that carried on them the inspirational (threatening?) caption 'United We Stand' and just to unscientifically gauge the reaction of those around me...
"i got the roughly 8'x11'-inch poster from a downtown Kinko's-like establishment. i saw the plentiful stacks of them sitting in the window and i decided to run an experiment. the US national flag motif was underscored by the phrase 'United We Stand.'
"i asked the clerk lady really nicely if i could have a few and she gladly offered them over (yay, free american flags--now if i could find an affordable place to reside or if the govt would let me build w/o all the costs).
"i then procured some white out from a print shop and proceeded to transmute the phrase United We Stand to 'United We S i n'.
"after this, i just stalked the downtown in a slow, methodical fashion while holding the poster so that the flag wash upside down--this is an international symbol of 'distress' as i'm sure more than a few joes and jane q. publics were aware of." [ Read more... ]
REALITIES OF WAR 05.06.2002 09:33
U.S. soldier told to kill women and children in Afghanistan
Some U.S. armed forces were told to kill women and children during 'Operation Anaconda' in Afghanistan, according to the Ithacha (NY) Journal, which interviewed a local soldier about his experience there. "'We were told there were no friendly forces,' said [Army Private Matt] Guckenheimer, an assistant gunner with the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum. 'If there was anybody there, they were the enemy. We were told specifically that if there were women and children to kill them.'"
Guckenheimer told the Journal that "he loved learning about tanks and guns and watching battle scenes on TV when he was young." He also mentioned the alienation he noticed in the U.S. upon returning: "After living in a Third World country, where people he didn't know would smile or say hello to him on the streets, it was jarring to return home, where contact among strangers is mostly shunned. 'These people who lived through life, they seemed to be more grounded,' he said. Coming home was like walking back into a 'clueless' society where over-consumption is commonly regarded as the route to happiness, he said."
...or was he?
A commenter to this newswire post pointed out that, in a letter published in the Ithaca Journal on June 4, Guckenheimer clarifies his quotation in the newspaper. Guckenheimer does not deny that he and other soldiers were told to kill women and children; he adds that they were to do so only if they showed hostile intent. "Noncombatants" such as infants were not to be killed at all.
But another commenter to the article says, "I was in the 82nd 504th Batt in the infantry - The Ithica reporter got it right the first time. One of our chants was 'Kill the babies, rape the women'. Just as there was a hatred of children and women there was a fierce hatred of anything that lived on the other side of the barrel."
Was Guckenheimer misquoted by the Ithaca Journal? Or was he too candid with them during the interview and pressured later to make his clarification? Read the discussion and join in.
Senate Committee to vote on Yucca Mountain Radioactive storage site Wednesday
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee plans to tackle legislation (S J Res 34) this Wednesday that would overturn Nevada's veto of the use of Yucca Mountain as the nation's nuclear waste repository. Senator Wyden and Senator Smith are on this committee. They have not stated how they plan to vote though Sen. Ron Wyden will likely vote against the project and Sen. Gordon Smith is leaning toward voting for it.
Eugene Peace Works, and others, are urging people to contact Wyden and Smith Tuesday or early Wednesday and say "vote no against the Yucca Mt. proposal in committee".
According to Michael Carrigan of Eugene Peace Works, "Waste from the Trojan nuclear power plant and the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington may pass through through Oregon to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) estimates that 3,324 truck shipments of highly radioactive waste will travel through Oregon along Interstate 84, or as many as 649 train shipments of the waste will travel alongside Interstates 84 and 5. This cargo may pass through Eugene, Oakridge, Klamath Falls and other cities in Oregon."
"The nuclear industry is spending thousands of dollars on full page color ads in the Register-Guard and other newspapers urging Oregon's Senators to vote yes on Yucca. A broad coalition of Oregon peace, environmental and church groups is waging an active campaign to get Sen. Wyden and Sen. Smith to vote against the Yucca Mountain proposal. It's a classic struggle between big money and the power of the grassroots."
9.11 INVESTIGATION 04.06.2002 00:56
Division on the Left over 9.11
From the open publishing newswire: "The 'Left' continues to be divided on the issue of investigating 9.11, even now, when the issue is breaking into the mainstream. One point of view holds that 9.11 was due to incompetence on the part of U.S. intelligence agencies (which is essentially the government's current story). Another sees clues that suggest foreknowledge or complicity by elements within the corporate/governmental power structure. A diverse array of theories and questions are being put forth by this second camp, and cynics from the first camp are broad-brushing them with the label 'conspiracy theories'."
"This week, two new essays came out from 9.11 investigation skeptics. In 'The September 11 X-Files' David Corn, of the Nation, takes 9.11 investigators to task, but fails to put the government under the same sort of scrutiny: 'As of now, there is not confirmable evidence to argue that the conventional take on September 11--bin Laden surprise-attacked America as part of a jihad, and a caught-off-guard United States struck back--is actually a cover story.' His article has stirred up a lively debate on the newswire: [ Read more, join the discussion ]
"In 'Conspiracies Or Institutions: 9-11 and Beyond', Stephen R. Shalom & Michael Albert of Z Magazine present a thesis that is at once ponderous and snide, and try to jam the entire discussion about 9.11 into a false dichotomy of 'institutional' vs. 'conspiracy' theories. Their effort is as unconvincing as it is overly-wrought. (Which is to say, 'very'.) This post, too, has spawned an active discussion: [ Read more, join the discussion ]
"Not everyone on the 'left' is digging in like Corn, Shalom and Albert, though. Peter Phillips, the well-respected editor of the venerable 'Project Censored' series, has gone on record accusing the Corporate Media of "defaulting" on 9.11. The magazine In These Times has stepped out into the field with a well-balanced article entitled, "Nightmares of Reason: Sorting fact from fiction in 9/11 conspiracy theories". Alexander Cockburn's Counterpunch magazine published an article by Bernard Weiner called "The Bush 9/11 Scandal for Dummies" that lays the subject out clearly without a jot of venom or froth. Still others feel that this is not an issue of 'Right' or 'Left' at all, but simply of truth.
"When it comes down to it, it's too early to say if the full truth of 9.11 is already out or will never come out... But we need proof, and we don't have that yet. We need a full and public investigation to unearth that."
[ Full article: The Liberals strike back ]
JUSTICE FOR THE WRONGFULLY IMPRISONED 03.06.2002 21:21
Peltier Parole Letter Writing Campaign Organized by Eugene Students
From the open publishing newswire: "Several University of Oregon students in Eugene have begun an aggressive letter writing campaign to show solidarity with the wrongfully-imprisoned Leonard Peltier, whose next parole hearing will be around the end of this month.
"All people are encouraged to write on behalf of Peltier, whose two-consecutive life sentences for crimes he did not commit are a true miscarriage of the (in)justice system. He will be up for parole later this month, around the 25th or so, so any and all letters to the parole board are greatly needed!"
"Eugene activists have taken up the call to action, launching a week long makeshift letter-writing campaign, independent of any organization. The tabling effort consists of solely of 3 or 4 concerned students (one recently evicted and now temporarily homeless). The response has been better than anticipated. Perhaps 100 letters may be sent out as a result of today's effort alone.
"Leonard has been imprisoned for over 26 years for the murder of two FBI agents on Jumping Bull property in the Pine Ridge Reservation - murders he clearly didn't commit. Over 6,000 secret documents have been kept from the courts, documents which could well prove his innocence. Ballistics evidence proves that he did not fire the weapon that killed the agents."
FIGHTING FAST TRACK 03.06.2002 13:00
No on Fast Track activists need help
From the open publishing newswire: "Here are two No on Fast Track activists from Corvallis, (in photo), and we are asking for your help. Here we are standing on the Capitol steps in Salem and looking into a future expansion of NAFTA, Chapter 11, FTAA and GATTS if we do not defeat the Fast Track bill heading to conference in the US House. We all must CALL all the Oregon Representatives and let them know how very very important this issue is to Oregonians.
"Please call and urge others to call Rep. David Wu at 503 326-2901 and Rep. Earl Blumenauer at 503 231-2300 and Rep. Darlene Hooley at 503 588-9100 and Rep. Peter DeFazio at 1-800-944-9603 and thank them for believing in a democratic Oregon and voting to defeat Fast Track the first time it was before the House in December. It passed then by only ONE VOTE so do not think that your call is not important. It may be your one call that makes the difference this time around. If you make just one call to Congress this year then make this the call and take action. Urge them to vote aganist giving Fast Track to Bush.
"Corporate America is going all out to lobby them to get them to change their votes and if they don't hear strongly from us then they just might do it. Also do not let Republican Walden get away with his first vote for FT and let him know that Oregon is watching. Call Walden at 1800-776-4646. If we fail to act on this then we are in for an ugly ride as we get Fast Tracked right into FTAA and worse by the end of this year. CALL please, its important."
INDYMEDIA IS EVERYWHERE 03.06.2002 12:49
Indymedia in Ashland, Oregon
From the open publishing newswire: "Over Memorial Day weekend, I went to Ashland, Oregon, with another portland indymedia volunteer to meet with local activists about indymedia and how easy it is to get involved. What we found was an already established media collective at Southern Oregon University sporting the indymedia ((i)) logo over their door and in their newspaper, Soapbox. Turns out they've been there for going-on two years, as long as portland indymedia has been in existence !!
"The new issue of Soapbox had just come out, and an article entitled 'IMC POD' discussed the idea of regional indymedia 'pods', a concept that was introduced in a portland indymedia newswire post back in April."
"While in Ashland, we taught some of the media collective folks how to upload features to the website. They've already been posting to the newswire, and had been thrilled when these stories became center-column features. We figured it made sense to cut out the 'middle-men'. So these folks are now part of the editorial team and will be working from Ashland."
"portland indymedia volunteers encourage everyone around the state to become more involved with this website. At least a couple of us love to travel, and we'll come to your town, or meet you somewhere between, if you want to talk about establishing a 'pod'. Send an email to imc-portland@indymedia.org to start that conversation. In the meantime, post to the open publishing newswire and get your story up here now!"
TEXTBOOKS FOR PALESTINE 02.06.2002 14:30
University activists organize book drive for schools in Palestine
From the newswire:
"In this time of terrible violence in the mideast many of us feel there is so little we can do. Here is something positive that can be done! The school year is ending now, for high schools and for universities. Make contact with one near you and find out if there are books which are being discontinued that can be donated to this wonderful cause. Do it. Make a difference. It is just that simple!"
From the Book Campaign of the Palestine Children's Welfare Fund:
"We are sponsoring a drive to collect books and software for the children in the refugee camps in both languages English and Arabic. We are collecting books and software in the academic fields of mathematics, science, social studies and other relevant subjects."
BILLBOARD LIBERATION 02.06.2002 14:02
Portland Media Jammers take on Coors Brewing
Overnight, Portland Media Jammers "correct" a billboard at the corner of SE 11th and Madison. (Photo credit: "Hovering")
The original text of the billboard said, "Here's to twins". It seems to be part of the beer company's "Summer Exposure" ad campaign, which features lots of skin and little responsibility or respect.
[ "PDX Media Jammers Take On Coors Brewing" | Billboard Liberation Front | Adbusters Jammer's Gallery ]

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Teeth Whitening is a cosmetic dental technique, which aims at removing the stains and discolouration deep within the tooth enamel.
It is the most common and popular non-invasive cosmetic dental procedure, which can greatly improve your teeth appearance and colour, as well as rejuvenate your smile.
It is illegal for anyone other than a dentist or a qualified and trained dental professional to perform such procedure. If not performed correctly, it can cause damage not only to your teeth but also to your gums and other mouth as well.
Am I able to have teeth whitening?
Most people can! Our experienced clinicians will be able to assess your dental suitability for teeth whitening. You must be in good general and dental health with healthy gums.
We also follow professional guidelines and recommendations for teeth whitening, including taking up-to-date x-rays of your teeth to identify any hidden and untreated dental disease, which may cause complications during your teeth whitening process.
To find out more, please contact us for a no obligation consultation. We are waiting to hear from you!


text:
Q: Updating a caption of a text box when something is changed in the userform I have a userform that has a dropdown of choices and each choice has different information related to it. to make sure the user has selected the correct Item that they want I have created a sentence in the spreadsheet which updates with the relevant information. I would like this sentence to be displayed on the userform when anything is updated on the userform i.e. if a different item is selected from the dropdown, the caption of the textbox will also update.
is there a way of doing this? I am currently using the following but it seems to only update some of the time:
Private Sub Item_No_TB_Change()

        Confirm_Info_Update.Caption = ThisWorkbook.Sheets("Email").Range("B60").Value

End Sub

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Charles Amofa
Man sentenced to 20 years for sexual abuse of local girls
BY REBECCA BENNETT — Charles Amofa of Chillum was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the 2012 abduction and sexual abuse of two girls on two separate occasions, according to WJLA. The incidents took place in Lewisdale and the City of Hyattsville. The 27-year-old plead guilty in April to kidnapping, sexual offenses and solicitation of a minor.
In 2012, Prince George's County Police announced they arrested Amofa after the August 6 abduction of a 6-year-old from the Value Village Thrift Store located in the 2200 block of University Boulevard. Police say the then-25-year-old lured the victim outside by telling her he had a toy outside he wanted to show her. He then took her to the playground at the Lane Manor Recreation Center, police say, where he sexually abused her.
Police Officer First Class Fredys Castro-Rivas, a six-year veteran, says the girl's father told him he couldn't locate his daughter. Officer Castro-Rivas says he then located both the victim and Amofa near the park. Amofa was arrested without incident, according to police. He was held without bond.
According to Detective Luis Machicote, less than 30 minutes had passed by from the time the victim went missing from her father to when she was located at the park.
Officers say Amofa confessed he was also involved in a kidnapping and attempt sexual assault of an 8-year-old girl on July 9. According to police, Amofa also lured the victim away from the same University Boulevard Value Village to a vacant property off of Chapman Street. The victim fought off her attacker and managed to escape and run back to the store, police say.
At an August 2012 press conference, Detective Machicote warned parents to keep their eyes on their children at all times while they are out and about, even if those children are the kinds that like to run around.
The father of the 6-year-old victim thanked Officer Castro-Rivas for saving his daughter's. "If it wasn't for him, who knows what would have happened," he said in a statement to police.
"People should realize it only takes 30 seconds and your daughter or son would disappear just like that."
Tags	#Lane Manor Recreation Center	#sexual abuse	#Value Village
Local Halloween Events 2014
PHOTOS: Joe's Movement Emporium hosts "Thriller" community dance
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Council delays vote on tree ordinance after lengthy public hearing
Streetcar Suburbs Publishing, 5 months ago 5 min read
Firefighters announce 2014 Santa Run schedules
POLL: Hyattsville resident, Hyattsvillian or Hyattsvillager?
From the Editor: No Peace for the Peace Cross
New 7000-series rail cars move through Hyattsville on the Green Line


1 Most kittens at around __ weeks of age can begin using a litterbox, and most don't need much formal "training" to get the hang of it.
Most kittens at around 4 weeks of age can begin using a litterbox, and most don't need much formal "training" to get the hang of it. Learn more.
2 If your dog regurgitates it is not a cause for concern.
Unfortunately, regurgitation in dogs can be a sign of a serious underlying disorder. A disease of the esophagus is the most common cause and is either the result of an obstruction or a motility problem. Learn more.
3 Hydrotherapy is helpful for animals recovering from an operation and lose weight without putting additional stress on ligaments and joints.
Hydrotherapy is tremendously helpful for animals recovering from other disabling conditions as well, such as spinal cord injuries. Underwater treadmills are also being used to help overweight pets lose weight without putting additional stress on overtaxed ligaments and joints. Learn more.
4 If your dog has red eyes, what is the best thing to do?
If your dog has red eyes, it's important to get them checked out by a veterinarian, as redness can be a sign of inflammation or infection. Learn more.
5 If your dog is _____ it might be best to look into at-home veterinary services.
In-home veterinary care can also be an ideal solution for families with pets who are shy, scared or skittish. Learn more.


We compare over 1000 man and van Stoke-on-Trent companies to find the best price for your move.
There are plenty of reasons to move to the Midlands and one thing that you will realise when you are looking for somewhere to relocate in this area, is that you have plenty of choice. Many people decide to settle in the larger, more recognisable cities such as Birmingham and Coventry, but this means that they overlook other great options such as Stoke-on-Trent.
Stoke-on-Trent is a great place to live, for many reasons and to help inspire you to think about moving there, we have put together some of the main reasons why it might be somewhere you want to live.
Okay, so we know that probably isn't going to be a reason why you choose to live somewhere. But this still doesn't take away from the fact that living somewhere which is world famous for creating beautiful ceramics isn't great. Especially when the time comes to find the ideal gift for someone.
Education is a massive reason that people decide to relocate and Stoke-on-Trent has two different universities that you can choose from. One is Keele University and the other is Staffordshire University. Both institutions have a wide variety of courses on offer, which means that you are going to find the perfect course to help you on your future career.
When you are looking for somewhere to live then you are going to want to get the most that you can for your money. The great thing about Stoke-on-Trent is that it is incredibly affordable. In fact, you might even find that you can pick up a two-bedroom terrace house for around £50,000 which is a price that is never going to be possible elsewhere in the UK, let alone a city.
Of course there are plenty of cities out there have a spot of green or two within them, but Stoke-on-Trent really does give those who live there a chance to escape from the streets and sit back on the grass and soak up the sunshine. This is great if you are moving with your family and you want to make sure that you have plenty of places to take them when the weather is good.
Your career is important, especially when you are trying to earn a living and support your family. Thankfully Stoke-on-Trent has plenty of great career opportunities. There are large companies and small businesses where you can develop your career and take yourself further. You can also then choose to attend one of the universities, where you can learn new skills and perhaps make a move in your career too.
When you are looking for somewhere to live, you should never ever discount Stoke-on-Trent. It is a fantastic place to live, packed full with interesting characters, amazing sights to see and cheap living that can really make the most of all the money that you are going to earn.
Moving to Birmingham? No need to take take the canals when you can hire your man and van through us!
Bedford has a generous reputation, as indeed do we - book your Bedford hosue move with us and we'll save you time and money!


NEW YORK (AP) — J.C. Penney Co. reported a loss of $87 million in the fourth-quarter due in part to an aggressive turnaround plan that includes ditching blockbuster sales for everyday low prices in its stores.
In recent years, Penney has suffered because its core middle-income customers have been among those hardest hit by the weak economy. It's also failed to make its stores fun places to shop. But under new CEO Ron Johnson, the retailer is overhauling just about every aspect of its business.
"While 2011 was a year of transition at J.C. Penney, 2012 will be a year of transformation," Johnson, a former Apple Inc. executive who became CEO in November, said in a statement.
At the core of the retailer's plan is making pricing in its stores more predictable for customers and breaking the cycle of heavy discounting that has depressed the chain's profits and hurt its image.
Penney is eliminating hundreds of discounts a year in favor of a three-tier strategy: everyday prices that are about 40 percent less than what they were a year ago, monthlong sales on select items and clearance events during the first and third Friday of each month. As part of this, the company added a monthly catalog to highlight some items.
Penney also is changing the in-store shopping experience. Penney announced in December that it will develop mini-shops in its stores with homemaking doyenne Martha Stewart.
Last month, the company outlined plans to add 80 to 100 other brand shops inside its stores. It's also planning to add spots in its stores called Town Squares, like Apple's Genius Bars, that will offer services and advice.
Penney's fourth-quarter results were impacted by the changes. The company, based in Plano, Texas, said Friday that its loss amounted to 41 cents per share for the three-month period ended Jan. 28. That compares with net income of $271 million, or $1.13 per share in the year-ago period.
The impact of its pricing strategy, which debuted Feb. 1, lowered results by an additional 59 cents. Restructuring and management charges totaled 56 cents per share. Excluding those charges, the company earned 74 cents per share, which beat estimates for a profit of 68 cents per share, according to FactSet.
Revenue slipped 5 percent to $5.42 billion, reflecting the company's exit from its catalog business. Analysts expected $5.5 billion. Revenue at stores open at least a year fell 1.8 percent for the quarter.
Penney shares slipped 43 cents, or about 1 percent, to $41.51 in trading as investors.
Going forward, Penney faces a challenge in selling shoppers on its new pricing. Some like the thrill of the sale and Penney has become known for its heavy discounting.
Fitch Ratings said it's not sure that shoppers will accept the pricing structure or that the company can lift sliding sales and improve profitability. So it dropped its rating this week on Penney's debt to the "speculative" range, better known as "junk."
Johnson said shoppers seem to be reacting well to the trendy fashion and accessories highlighted in its new monthly catalog, but it needs to better educate the new pricing strategy in the fine jewelry department. During a pre-recorded call Friday, he noted that February sales are trending below a year-ago, but the chain is learning a lot about the consumer.
Penney reiterated that it expects to earn at least $1.59 per share for the current full year. Analysts are expecting $1.84 per share, according to FactSet.


The bottle is only a quarter empty, but the tone is already descending. "Think of it as 'Get Drunk with the Amish,'" says Duncan Ridgeley, suddenly animated by the shot he's just knocked back. "No, wait, 'Get Annihilated with the Amish.' Well, that would be the headline if it ran in The Sun.'"
Sitting in his kitchen in the rural heartlands of northern Romania, this is guesthouse owner Duncan's attempt to explain what I can expect from Maramures, Romania's northernmost province. Often described as 'the last peasant society of the EU', Maramures could have been lifted from the pages of Grimm's Fairy Tales. Modernity, where it exists, is restricted to the towns. In the rural villages that dot its landscape of wooden homesteads and small-scale agriculture, life goes on much as it has for the past five centuries. So much so, according to Duncan, that it bears comparison with the ultra-traditional communities of America's Anabaptists — forerunners of the Amish. Except with booze.
"The tourists who come here have already seen half the planet," local guide Cornelia Lupsa had told me earlier, as we'd set out for the countryside from the industrial town of Baia Mare, whose station my overnight train from Bucharest had trundled into just after dawn. "They're sick of big squares, hundreds of tourists taking photos. They want something simpler." Maramures, then, is a refuge for travellers seeking a break from the modern world.
My base for exploring the region is Breb, a chocolate-box village surrounded by forested hills, 17 miles shy of the Ukrainian border, where Englishman Duncan and wife Penny opened The Village Hotel in 2014. When we arrive, a dozen clucking hens scramble from our path as Cornelia's car jolts over the ruts in the road.
"And look out for people making this stuff," Duncan says, pointing at the depleted bottle of horinca (the local plum brandy) on the kitchen table. I promise I will.
In the event, it takes just three hours of exploring the next day to be offered alcohol, but by then I'm already intoxicated on the rolling countryside and languid pace of things. A bike borrowed from The Village Hotel carries me out of Breb, up and over Maramures' patchwork hills of woodland, field and furrowed plots, then down into the Cosau Valley, where I've been told some of the region's prettiest villages are to be found at two-mile intervals.
The first, Budesti, is a picture of rural calm when I freewheel in; its courtyards piled high with pumpkins and firewood. The only activity comes from a roadside wood shop where three men have formed a carpentry production line: one splitting the wood with a hatchet, another shaving the pieces into oblong shards, the last cutting in the ornamental taper at the tip and chucking them onto a pile at his feet. The resulting 'shingles' are the roofing material that gives Maramures' wooden homes their special character.
The apotheosis of this style was just around the corner. Budesti's wooden church sits on forested hill within a cemetery of metal crosses, the most recent piled high with garlands of plastic flowers. Although most local services now take place in more modern churches, these timber chapels remain at the spiritual and geographical heart of the Maramures village.
This one in Budesti — among eight designated World Heritage Sites by UNESCO — has stood since the mid-17th century; sturdy yet delicate, with oak-beam walls and thousands of shingles covering the double eaves and spire, greyed and frayed by age. Typically, for the benefit of curious visitors, a sheet of A4 is tacked near the door with the phone number of a key-holder. Today, I'm in luck — she's already here.
The door swings open onto a dark room lit by small windows and a single chandelier. The floor is piled with gaudy woollen carpets, and on the wall, above the modest altar, is a pantheon of flaking haloed icons. By the door, a frame contains a helmet and chainmail vest that once belonged to the beloved outlaw Pintea the Brave, Maramures' own Robin Hood — a legendary hero for a fairytale building.
Over the next two days there are more villages, more exquisite wooden churches, and no end of colourful characters to bring it all to life. In Barsana, a master craftsman shows me around his workshop. The gateway arches — status symbols in these parts — he creates are ornately carved with rustic motifs. A farmer with hands like ham hocks and a beaming smile takes a break from baling hay to pose for photos with his pitchfork; in Sarbi, the smell of alcohol drifting across the road lures me into a distillery, where a horinca-maker plies me with so much of his product that I have to be careful not to wobble headlong into a ditch when I return to the saddle.
It's tempting, of course, for an urbanite to over-romanticise such rustic places, but on one morning excursion with Cornelia I get a poignant reminder that behind this folksy, preindustrial Eden lurks a long history of hardship. Sighetu Marmatiei (or 'Sighet') is a town of 40,000 tucked up against the Ukraine border. Down a pedestrianised road, where fountains chuckle outside quiet coffee shops, we enter a building with a sinister past.
The Memorial of the Victims of Communism and of the Resistance was once a prison. It was here that many of the country's intellectual elite were jailed and exterminated during 'Romania's 45 years of darkness, 1945-1989', as a banner on a wall display puts it. Over two floors, the story of decades of communist repression is retold in the former cells. We learn of Nicolae Ceausescu's villainous cult of personality, and the Danube-Black Sea Canal, known as the 'graveyard of the Romanian bourgeoisie' — a reference to the over 200,000 regime opponents who perished while being used as forced labour during its construction. Only the windowless punishment cells required no description, containing nothing but a single manacle spot-lit on the floor.
It says much for the resilience of Maramures' singular culture that its way of life survived the communist era, during which the land was collectivised and the pervasive brand of Christianity practised in its wooden churches suppressed.
Ten miles west of Sighet, the uniqueness of Sapanta's 'Merry Cemetery' seems a poetic two-fingered salute to Ceausescu's ambition to create a culturally homogenous 'Greater Romania'. What began 80 years ago as a solitary headstone-maker's act of eccentricity has evolved into this region's most celebrated tourist attraction — two coachloads of Italian tourists are here when we arrive, weaving through the 600 or so blue oak crosses with their cartoonish depictions of the deceased as they were in life — holding a scythe, down a mine, in nurse's garb — together with a few lines of doggerel on how they lived, how they shuffled off this mortal coil, and who they left behind.
Yet for all the wry humour and defiant, peasant's fatalism expressed on the crosses there's also much melancholy. "Please cry for me mother as long as you shall live," translates Cornelia, reading the heart-wrenching inscription beneath the image of a child falling beneath the wheels of a train waggon. Another shows a hapless man being decapitated by some 'bad Hungarians'.
On the way back to Breb, it's tempting to see echoes of the hardships portrayed in those naïve drawings in the scenes we pass at the roadside. Most of the people toiling in the fields are old — too old, surely, for such unforgiving labour. On one hilltop, the sight of a disabled farmer struggling to wield a 20ft stick as he scrumps apples is a sobering symbol of rural tribulation.
Outside many of the houses stand 'pot trees', their trunks stripped of bark and their bare branches hung with brightly coloured pots and pans. According to local custom, such a display serves to give notice that a girl of marriageable age resides in the house. But most are merely ornamental now — memorials to a time before the exodus of many of the youngsters to the towns. Successful émigrés who return often proclaim their newfound wealth by building large holiday homes in their hometown, many of them out of keeping with the region's traditional architecture.
"Look at this one," groans Cornelia, nodding towards a particularly incongruous, three-floored concrete monolith towering above its medieval neighbours. "It's killing my eyes!"
It's against this backdrop — of a throwback lifestyle hemmed in by the encroaching 21st century — that tourism can seem a valuable diversification. The outsider's appetite for old Maramures has incentivised its preservation, encouraging small, family-run guesthouses to spring up in almost every village.
It's impossible to know how long this process might endure. But as the road coils back down into Breb the fairytale is restored. Cornelia's eyes are safe — for now.
Wizz Air flies from Luton to Cluj-Napoca — the closest airport to Maramures. From Cluj, regular buses run to Sighet and Baia Mare. Alternatively, British Airways flies from Heathrow to Bucharest, and Ryanair from Stansted to Bucharest. If travelling up from Bucharest, several trains, including sleepers, travel daily to Baia Mare.
Maramures is served by cheap, but irregular, local buses. But most visitors hire a car. The villages of the Cosau Valley, meanwhile, can be easily explored by bicycle.
The best time is spring (late March-early June) and autumn (late September-early November) with temperatures around 15C. Avoid visiting in winter.
Currency: Romanian new leu (RON). £1 = 6.24RON.
International dialling code: 00 40.
Advisio Turism offers a four-day, all-inclusive tour of Maramures from €225 (£159) per person.
Romania Travel Centre creates bespoke trips to Maramures, which can include drivers and guides as well as accommodation.


Nature Nearby is written by Naturalist Valerie Blaine, environmental education manager for the Forest Preserve District of Kane County. You may reach her at blainevalerie@kaneforest.com.
This month, we "ooh!" and "ahhh!" over the colorful leaves in the treetops. But as soon as they hit the ground, they fall out of favor. They go from being a treat to being a nuisance. What gives?
The abrupt change of heart is due to the suburban turf war, in which we pit lawns versus leaves. The suburbanite's dream is a perfect, uniform carpet of green grass, but achieving this ideal is a never-ending battle.
This time of year, people even take up arms for the cause — rakes, wheelbarrows, mowers, blowers, bags, you name it.
This is an expensive war. Not only is there a cost to us, there is also a cost to the environment. For us, there's the expense of time, energy, and money. For the environment, the cost is the loss of both renewable and non-renewable resources.
Landscaping with native plants is a wonderful way to make peace with leaves. Leaves on the ground will decompose, thereby enriching the soil. They will also provide habitat for lots of native animals.
If you don't want to totally "go native," you might designate an area of the yard for leaf composting. Leaves can be used as mulch and placed as bedding material for shrubs and perennials.
There are a lot of local resources to learn about natural landscaping. Check out The Conservation Foundation's "Conservation at Home" program. There's also great information on the Kane County Recycles website.
Additionally, Northern Kane County Wild Ones meets monthly and features speakers on native landscaping topics.
So, let's call a truce and make peace with the leaves.


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Are the members of Jagged Edge brothers?
Asked by Emmitt Bonilla
Rani Gautam
Rough but smooth male vocal quartet Jagged Edge formed in Atlanta, Georgia, consisting of identical twin brothers Brandon "Case Dinero" Casey and Brian "Brasco" Casey, who had moved from their native Hartford, Connecticut; Kyle Norman (aka "Quick"), whom they'd met through church activities, and Richard Wingo (aka " ...
Which member of Jagged Edge is married?
Former Jagged Edge singer Kyle Norman and his wife Marrika appeared on the Steve Harvey Show to discuss the violent episode where he violently beat her, choked her and took her engagement ring during a drunken, drug-fueled tirade.
Who died from Jagged Edge?
Robert Loggia, the veteran actor whose portrayal of a seedy detective in the 1985 Joe Eszterhas film Jagged Edge earned him an Academy Award nomination, died Friday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 85. His wife of 33 years, Audrey, said that he had been battling Alzheimer's for the past five years.
How much is Jagged Edge net worth?
Jagged Edge's net worth is $15 million.
How old is the boys from Jagged Edge?
During the interview, Mathew admitted that it was a "poor" decision when he put R&B boy band Jagged Edge and Destiny's Child on the same tour bus. Knowles said "Now remember, the girls are minors. They're 16-years-old the guys are 21, 22-years-old," he explained.
Are Brandon and Brian Casey twins?
When Brandon Casey and his twin brother, Brian, were growing up in Hartford, they had no plans to be top R&B; singers and songwriters. ... Their mother, Linda Casey, was a well-known vocalist in New Haven and Hartford jazz circles. But the boys concentrated on basketball, even when the family moved south.
Is Jagged Edge still together?
Jagged Edge return with brand new album
The Atlanta group is back with their 10th studio album and they are already hard at work on the 11th. ATLANTA, Ga. ... "A Jagged Love Story" was released in late July and immediately soared near the top of the iTunes R&B Albums Chart.
Who did Jagged Edge date?
Jagged Edge twins Brandon and Brian Casey each began a secret relationship with LeToya Luckett and LaTavia Roberson of Destiny's Child until their affairs were revealed after an incident on tour involving LeToya's mother.
Is Jagged Edge still with So So Def?
While many of So So Def's acts moved with the label to Arista, Bow Wow and Jagged Edge were forced to remain at Columbia, due to their contracts having been with that company primarily. ... So So Def, meanwhile, was able to retain J-Kwon and Anthony Hamilton, despite them still being signed to Zomba.
Where did the name Jagged Edge come from?
The name Jagged Edge is derived the song "Snake" by rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard's debut album Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version, more specifically, the beginning of RZA's verse, which states, "Jagged Edge, Rockhead God, hard as Stonehenge..."
Is jagged edge on Netflix?
Watch Jagged Edge on Netflix Today! NetflixMovies.com.
What does Jagged Edge mean?
1 : having a sharply uneven edge or surface jagged peaks. 2 : having a harsh, rough, or irregular quality jagged rhythms.
Are there two sets of twins in Jagged Edge?
The band is a quartet composed of identical twin brothers Brandon and Brian Casey, Kyle Norman, and Richard Wingo. They came together in Atlanta, Georgia, having met through their frequent performances with local church choirs.
How many records has Jagged Edge sold?
With over 8 million records sold across 7 studio albums (5 of them gold or multi-platinum), Jagged Edge is one of the most successful R&B groups in music.
What was Jagged Edge first album?
A Jagged Era is the debut studio album by American R&B group Jagged Edge, released on October 21, 1997 by So So Def and Columbia Records. The quartet worked with So So Def head Jermaine Dupri on the majority of the album.
When did 112 break up?
Co-signing with Def Jam (2002–2006)
In search of greater creative control, 112 left Bad Boy Records in February 2002 and signed with Def Jam in July on their Def Soul-imprint, insisting that the breakup was amicable.
Who has Jermaine Dupri produced?
Jermaine Dupri has been a staple in Atlanta hip hop for nearly three decades. He's produced hits for superstars such as Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, Usher, Ludacris, JAY-Z, TLC, and many more.
Whos in jagged edge?
Jagged Edge is an American R&B group from Atlanta, Georgia. The group, initially signed to record producer Jermaine Dupri's So So Def Recordings, is best known for their string of hit singles including "Let's Get Married" and "Where the Party At", most of which were produced by Dupri.
Who is in Jagged Edge?
Jagged Edge is an American R&B group; featuring lead singers, identical twins Brandon and Brian Casey "The Casey Boys" (formerly known as Case Dinero and Brasco), born in Hartford, Connecticut on October 13, 1975, Kyle Norman (formerly known as Quick) of Decatur, Georgia born on February 26, 1976 and Richard Wingo ( ...


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Enhancing Capacities and Mechanisms to Identify and Protect Vulnerable Migrants in the Western Balkans
Over the course of 2015, the Western Balkan countries have experienced a sharp increase in numbers of people within mixed migration flows transiting through their territory along the Western Balkan portion of the Eastern Mediterranean migratory route. The mixed migration flows consists of asylum seekers, refugees, and other migrants, including vulnerable migrants, moving towards the EU.
Read more about Enhancing Capacities and Mechanisms to Identify and Protect Vulnerable Migrants in the Western Balkans
Regional Support to Protection Sensitive Migration Management in the Western Balkans and Turkey
Overall objective of the project is to close existing gaps and operationalize a comprehensive migration management system in the Western Balkan by complementing national efforts and improve the capacity of IPA II-Beneficiaries to offer a protection sensitive response to mixed migratory flows.
Read more about Regional Support to Protection Sensitive Migration Management in the Western Balkans and Turkey
Providing Support to Youth in Local Communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina
The most pertinent risk in Bosnia and Herzegovina concerning radicalization is that young people may be drawn to join extremist groups as foreign fighters, ostensibly on a religiously ideological basis, but often driven – at least in part – by political, social, economic marginalization and a sense of injustice resulting from this.
Read more about Providing Support to Youth in Local Communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Enhancing Preparedness for Migration Management Through Contingency Planning in the Western Balkans
In response to the growing prominence of the Western Balkans as part of the Eastern Mediterranean migration route, this project proposes to enhance the capacity of the targeted countries in the management of mixed migration lows and by ensuring that appropriate and timely assistance and protection can be provided to all transiting vulnerable migrants and asylum seeker.
Read more about Enhancing Preparedness for Migration Management Through Contingency Planning in the Western Balkans
Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR)
Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR) is one of the core support activities provided by IOM to migrants and Memeber States and is likely to increase in the years to come in both volumes and complexity. Top 10 host countries in 2015 represented 85 % of total, with Germany representing more than half of the total. It is worth mentioning that the AMIF (Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund) gap has impacted the number of returns from EU Member States in 2015.
Read more about Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR)
Seeking Care, Support, and Justice for Survivors of Conflict Related Sexual Violence in BIH
The overall objective of the project is to identify and address gaps in existing care, support, and justice systems, and create an effective, comprehensive and standardized approach to dealing with survivors of CRSV. Furthermore the project aims to gain an important insight into understanding not only the drivers of high rates of sexual violence in conflict situations, but also how sexual violence impedes the full restoration of peace in post-conflict societies.
The project has three main components:
Read more about Seeking Care, Support, and Justice for Survivors of Conflict Related Sexual Violence in BIH
Swedish Medical Programme (SMP)
IOM facilitates visits of Swedish medical teams to perform complex operations together with local colleagues. Based on an assessment of the most frequently occurring medical evacuations, the Swedish teams are sent to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH) to target those specialities in most urgent need of assistance. The Swedish teams screen, evaluate, and provide treatment for patients in BH who would otherwise need to be evacuated for medical care.
Read more about Swedish Medical Programme (SMP)
Support to the Immigration and Asylum Management System in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Phase II
As regards the management of migration in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH), the previous decade has constituted a period of success. However, additional support is needed to maintain momentum within these areas and to effectively and efficiently implement the Strategy in the Area of Migrations and Asylum and Action Plan for the Period 2012 - 2015 (Strategy and Action Plan 2015 - 2015).
Read more about Support to the Immigration and Asylum Management System in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Phase II
Roma Holocaust Survivors - Humanitarian and Social Programmes (RHS-HSP)
The project focuses on elderly Roma and its overall objective is to strengthen the NGOs network amongst Roma communities by providing direct assistance to Roma in their later years of life. Given also that the experiences of Roma during the Holocaust and their suffering as a nation is often forgotten, the project aims to ensure recognition of what these individuals have undergone and survived and to raise awareness of the events of the Holocaust as it affected Roma, giving these forgotten survivors a voice.
Read more about Roma Holocaust Survivors - Humanitarian and Social Programmes (RHS-HSP)
Return and Reintegration of Nationals of Bosnia and Herzegovina from European Countries and Canada
This comprehensive return and reintegration project assists migrants from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH), living in various countries in Europe and in Canada, to return to BH. The project includes migrants who were asylum seekers, those living in an irregular situation, as well as those who were granted international protection or with a residence permit. The project offers information and counselling on voluntary return to BH and assistance with return, reception, and reintegration.
Read more about Return and Reintegration of Nationals of Bosnia and Herzegovina from European Countries and Canada


The Imam's life coincided with the caliphates of Maʾmūn and Muʿtaṣim of the Abbasid dynasty. Both summoned him from Medina to Baghdad. Imam Muḥammad Taqī was a great figure from the time of his childhood.
Following the martyrdom of Imam al-Riḍā in 204 AH, Maʾmūn left Marv for Baghdad and repeated his duplicitous policy vis-à-vis the Imam's son. He wanted to have him under control and so the Ninth Imam was compelled to leave Medina for Baghdad. The Imam's arrival in Baghdad coincided with the convoy of Maʾmūn travelling in a Baghdad street. All the children who were playing in the street fled as Maʾmūn's convoy approached, but someone was still there. Maʾmūn was surprised. He got off his howdah and went to the child.
Maʾmūn asked the child: Why didn't you run away like others?
The child replied: Your way was not narrow and I have done no wrongdoing.
The appointees of God had all been educated for special purposes and therefore they were infallible from the time of their childhood. Everyone could see the connection between Imam Al-Jawād and God when he was discussing with scholars in Baghdad in the presence of Maʾmūn.
Among Abbasid caliphs, Maʾmūn was famous for his intelligence and foresight. He was fond of learning and culture but he was also aware that the Abbasids lacked popular support and that the Muslims loved the family of the Prophet. Maʾmūn knew very well that revolutionaries throughout the Muslim world all sought the leadership of God's genuine representatives. But, instead of using force and intimidation, Maʾmūn decided to align himself with revolutions and movements in a bid to bring them under control. To that effect, he invited the eighth the Imam to Khorasan, but he finally decided to kill him for fear of his growing popularity.
The martyrdom of the eighth the Imam did not spare Maʾmūn the threat of overthrow because Imam al-Riḍā's son could still lead an uprising against him. So Maʾmūn invited Imam Al-Jawād to Baghdad and married him to his daughter Umm al-Faḍl in an attempt to win over the hearts and minds of his followers.
Where has the animal been killed?
Has it been killed inside the sanctuary or outside of it?
Was the hunter aware of the ruling for this act?
Has it been done on purpose or by accident?
Was it the first time he did so?
Was the prey a bird or not?
Was the prey small or big?
Did he regret his act?
Was hunting done in the day or in the night?
Was the hunting done during the major or minor pilgrimage?
Was the hunter a slave or not?
Maʾmūn had decided to blame the Imam for the government's ineptitude in a bid to humiliate him in the eyes of Muslims. Imam Al-Jawād was aware of this trap so he sought a pretext to distance himself from the Abbasid Caliph. He convinced Maʾmūn to let him go to the Ḥajj pilgrimage with his wife. After the end of pilgrimage, the Imam settled in Media and never returned to Baghdad.
Some of the companions of Imam Al-Jawād are as follows: 1. Faḍl b. Shādhān 2. ʿAbd al-Azim Ḥasanī 3. Abū al-Tammām 4. ʿAlī b. Mahziyār 5. Muḥammad b. Abī ʿUmayr 6. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Abī Naṣr.


Recycle your old gadgets on letsbuy.com and save!
Unlike people who buy Gold and Real Estate, gadget lovers have to move on to flashier ones quite often and depreciation of the value doesn't help either!
I was wondering what to do with my old Samsung Omnia B7610 Pro (whatta name!) after I upgraded to a Windows phone. No one wants to buy it on tech forums and I hate to let it collect dust in a corner of my room!
Coming to the point, letsbuy.com offers a nice deal where they buy your used stuff and give you a discount coupon which you can use in the next 3 months. I got a very fair price of 6500 for my 2 year old phone. However, if something is too good to be true, it probably is – there's a catch here. You can use that coupon to buy items that are at least 5 times it's value AND the price you see after you enter details may not be the actual price they are willing to pay for it. Please go through the rules carefully if you are considering to sell your used stuff here.


For six years his main practice was at the Oasis Health Clinic in Covent Garden, of which he was co-director. Recently he has concentrated more on teaching and building his current practice in Chiddingfold.
Paul taught at The London College of Traditional Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (LCTA), the largest institution dedicated to teaching Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in England, for ten years. He was a Senior Lecturer and a Clinical Supervisor on the BSc Acupuncture course. Paul has been involved in training literally hundreds of today's acupuncturists and herbalists.He now teaches at The College of Naturopathic Medicine (CNM), just off of Oxford Circus.
Paul is the chief presenter on "How To Locate Acupuncture Points: The Definitive DVD", and has been published in many magazines, such as Yoga Monthly, Lifescape, Natural Health, CAM Magazine, the Dragon's Tale, and the Chinese Medicine Times.
Paul first had acupuncture in the early Eighties. He had been practicing T'ai Chi Chuan for several years and was so interested in the Traditional Chinese view of health that decided to visit an Acupuncturist. Acupuncture made Paul feel very different. He became a lot calmer and focused, less stressed and irritable than he had been previously. After a few years it had brought about such a profound change in his outlook that he decided to change career and retrain as an Acupuncturist.
Paul worked as a self-employed illustrator for fifteen years before re-training as an Acupuncturist. He worked primarily on children's educational magazines and comic books. He worked for Marvel, DC and Dark Horse comics, drawing and painting such titles as Batman, Judge Dredd and Aliens.


From Genesis to Revelation, marriage between believers and unbelievers is forbidden. This is one doctrine upon which all believers should agree. God even forbade Israel to yoke together different kinds of animals, such as an ox and a mule, for the weaker animal would be overworked, unable to keep up with the stronger, and the stronger animal would be hindered in doing its work by the weaker. Using this analogy, Paul told the saints not to be "unequally yoked" with unbelievers.
It is wrong for saints to be "yoked together" with unbelievers. Jesus described believers as "not of the world, just as I am not of the world." Unbelievers, on the other hand, are "of the world." These two kinds of people should never be bound together, especially in the areas of worship and marriage. The unbeliever cannot keep pace spiritually with the believer, and the believer cannot bear the load of the unbeliever's unsanctified spirit.
Obviously, we must associate to some extent with sinners because we live in a world filled with sinners. The only way for saints to avoid all contact with sinners is, as Paul said, "to leave the world." But when we can avoid ungodly associations, we should avoid them because the nature of people "of the world" is contrary to the nature of the people of God.
When a sinner and a saint live together, a compromise must occur, and since a carnal mind cannot be subject to God (Rom. 8:7), the compromise must always be on the believer's part.
Ungodly marriages of "the sons of God" with "the daughters of men" (that is, between the righteous and the unrighteous) led to such an increase in wickedness that God destroyed the earth with a catastrophic flood. Later, Samson's godly parents pleaded with him to marry one of the virgins of Israel, but he lusted after Philistine women until, at last, his enemies found him sleeping on Delilah's lap. Not heeding God's counsel, King Solomon took foreign wives, who influenced him when he was old to turn from God, and "Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites" (1Kgs. 11:5). Thus we learn, as Solomon in his better days taught, "There is no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel, against the Lord" (Prov. 21:30). God said that unbelievers would turn His children's hearts from Him, and they did that to wise Solomon. Nobody is wiser than God.
Israel's attraction to foreign ways of worship and her self-willed marriages to Gentile unbelievers resulted in untold suffering and heartache for them. After Cyrus, King of Persia, ordered the temple rebuilt in Jerusalem, one of Ezra's fellow workers, Shechaniah, openly confessed, "We have trespassed against our God, and have taken strange [unbelieving] wives of the people of the land; yet, now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing. Now, therefore, let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them" (Ezr. 10:2–3). What an uproar among people it would cause today if a man were sent from God to denounce the ungodly marriages of saints and sinners, and to demand, as Ezra did, that they put away both their wives and children! This would be no easier a task than it was in Ezra's day, for as then, "we are many that have transgressed in this thing" (Ezr. 10:13). There had to be a purging among God's people then, and the Bible plainly tells us that the body of Christ will be purged before the return of the Lord (Mt. 13:40–42).
Just as Ezra discovered that "the hand of the princes and rulers has been chief in this trespass," so it is now. The leaders of God's people are those most guilty in this transgression, which explains why so little is ever said about this subject. The hands of the men whom God's people trust most are covered with the blood of saints who fell from righteousness because of ungodly marriages — marriages sanctioned by ministers. I wonder how many more of our young women will be sacrificed to the lust of unbelieving men before the people of God demand that it stop. And how many more of our young men will be allowed to trade their fire and faith for worldly wives, before the saints cry aloud for help, as the repentant Israelites cried to Ezra (Ezr. 10:14)? There will be an accounting to God for the ungodly marriages to which ministers are lending their hand.
Young friend, do not yoke yourself in marriage to anyone who has not been born into the family of God. No words can express the grief of those who have joined themselves to those who have no heart for Christ. Their stories (and they are many) are heartbreaking. How can two hostile spirits work together in the same yoke? If your spouse's objective is carnal and yours is spiritual, what will the outcome be? Oh, how many precious brothers and sisters are defeated and confused because of worldly entanglements, marriage being one of the chief. Their pathetic and despairing spiritual condition gives somber testimony to the veracity of the word of God.
"Do you not know that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of an harlot? Absolutely not!" With words like these, Paul made it clear that, although believers are free to marry whom they will, they must marry "only in the Lord" (1Cor. 7:39). It is easy to hire a minister to perform a ceremony and pronounce that God approves of your marriage, but that does not make it so. Man's marriage ceremonies are as vain as all the other works of men.
Every young believer should be taught that his or her marriage is to be contracted through Christ. That is the key to God's blessing. It is the way God unites a man and woman physically, mentally, and spiritually. A marriage thus formed is unbreakable. Jesus spoke of such a marriage when he said, "So then, what God has joined together, let not man separate" (Mk. 10:9).


The hunters, who visited Lalong on Tuesday in Jos, also promised to intensify security surveillance of Plateau bushes against criminals.
Mr Igyem Danladi, Commandant PHA, Plateau Command, said that the hunters were supporting Lalong because of his administration's effort at ensuring that peace reigned in the state.
Danladi stated that the hunters,apart from hunting games, had in many occasions, recovered stolen cattle.
"We had many times run after rustlers and retrieved cattle they were rustled.
"The armed rubbers who were terrorising road users in Shendam, have also been successfully checked by the hunters.
"Again, a girl that was kidnapped in Angware last year regained her freedom when a hunter chased and caught up with the kidnappers and rescued the girl," he said.
The commandant stated that the association, which has over 10,000 registered members, was supporting Lalong because of his efforts towards entrenching permanent peace in Plateau.
He said that they would mobilize both registered and unregistered members and their families to vote for Lalong.
Danladi, however, listed the association's challenges to include lack of office complex and vehicles to enhance their movement.
In his remarks, Gov. Lalong promised to work with the hunters to rid the state of criminals.
The governor said that with the elections around the corner, criminals may want to sue the bushes as hideouts.
"If you see any gathering of people in the bush that are not your members, please notify us immediately.
"Continue with your vigilance and report any suspicious movement in bushes to security agencies," he urged.
He commended the hunters for the role they have been playing in ensuring peace in Plateau and Nigeria.
Lalong assured the hunters of government partnership in security surveillance.
He promised to look into the requests of the association to encourage them continue with the good works.