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You are here: Home / Fiction / Dialogue
Deborah Vlock
August 9, 2010 /0 Comments/in Fiction /by Miciah Bay Gault
Ute Schmidt's first lesson, upon arriving in Boston, is that Americans talk fast and laugh at things that are not funny. She learns this while going through customs and immigration at Logan airport, when an officer asks her where she is hiding the sausages and then laughs immoderately. He has to wipe the moisture from his eyes with the back of his hand before he can collect her form. Her second and third lessons are that she will have to tolerate being called "Utah," and that a Starbucks cappuccino costs the equivalent of six marks.
Her primary motivation for moving to Boston was to meet Jews. Otherwise, she might just as well have gone to graduate school at Freiburg, where her brothers attended. In her Dorf of Klärbach there were naturally no Jews, although there were four pubs and an Italian restaurant on the main street (it was not completely backward). So, she had to imagine. And what she imagined when she was a child and not old enough to know any better was: androgynous skeletal figures in stripes. She knew later, however, that this was incorrect, that Jews lived—somewhere—in full color, healthy and plump and prosperous, that they ran film studios and law firms and, as they had once done in Germany, contributed special things to the culture. But even at twenty-three and fresh out of University, she does not know what, exactly, these special Jewish things are. She wants to find out.
Ute is tall and heavy-set and blond-haired—hübsch but not schön, as her grandmother told her when she was fourteen and always dreaming about Christmas Carp and Linzer Torte. Her nose is a shade long, aristocratic, although her ancestors were shopkeepers. Her eyes are Dresden blue. Her field is Musicology. She has considered looking at Jewish contributions to Western music in her dissertation, and hopes to make her decision after a year of living amongst Jews. It is less a question of musical style than of personal shame, as if the only music Ute can justifiably embrace is the music of the Other. She does not particularly like the music of Ernest Bloch and Kurt Weill; it will be a fitting expiation to listen endlessly to their voices.
Ute's grandfather, Hans-Jörg Schmidt, was a prominent Nazi doctor in the thirties and forties. Under his direction, hundreds of inmates at Sachsenhausen underwent gruesome medical experiments. Ute knows all about it. There had been no Opa at all until she was eight; then one day a tall, lean man with stand-up gray hair, rather like the roots of a leek, and a penchant for Belgian chocolates and the Struwwelpeter, arrived in the spare bedroom next to Ute's. He was the kind of grandfather who would have played "Hoppe Hoppe Reiter" with a grandchild of four, if he had been around when she was four; who had tirelessly watched her jump rope when she was obsessed with jumping at the age of nine. But when she was ten a classmate had made a comment, a quiet kind of comment but one which stirred her to ask questions: Rosalie Kreisler, always with the red ribbons, saying, "You never met your grandfather until you were eight? Where can he have been all those years?" She said it in a way that suggested Ute was foolish, as if everyone except she knew where her grandfather had been.
She asked her mother where Opa had lived before he came to be with them.
"In a place far away," was the reply.
"Because of his medical practice."
"He could not practice here?"
"There was some sort of trouble."
"What trouble?"
"Don't ask so many questions!"
Once they were driving in her mother's car and noticed some graffiti above a cigarette machine on the side of a house. "This country is going to the dogs," Opa had complained, pointing at the tags. "We built the Autobahn," he'd boasted on more than one occasion, "and put people to work." The old stories. She asked him, "Opa, what did you think about Hitler?"
"The Führer is misunderstood," he'd replied mildly.
When he died at the age of seventy-eight, three hundred people attended his funeral. "He was a great man," whispered Frau Handschuh to Frau Klinger. The pastor's eulogy lasted half an hour. After the service mourners shook her hand as if congratulating her on having such a distinguished family member. On her twelfth birthday she composed a letter, in tentative English, to Sir Hugo Oswald, a noted Holocaust scholar and author of a book on the Third Reich she'd read in a shaft of furtive sunlight between the dusty library stacks. "Hans-Jörg Schmidt was responsible for the 'medical' program at Sachsenhausen," he wrote in response, four months later and on the back of a cocktail napkin. After reading the napkin, she'd taken a box cutter from her father's workbench and carved four straight lines, like the stems of quarter notes, in the flesh of her left forearm. Then she'd wrapped her arm and gone to the shops, where she'd found a purple, mohair sweater, just her size, and taken it home without paying for it.
She plays her clarinet on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, when she is not overburdened with theory. She often sobs when she plays Stamitz, and this produces a startled squeak. It is more satisfying to voice a tender A, sostenuto, than to work out keys and intervals, to read Schumann, or Burney, upon music, but Ute decided early on that she would be a scholar and not a performer. Her parents had always hoped that she and her brothers would be musicians. The family vacationed in Vienna, for the music; never in the Alps, for skiing, which Ute would have preferred. The day Ute learned about the death camps in school, she went home and played the slow movement of Weber's first clarinet concerto twelve times in a row. Then she flushed her goldfish, Sophie, down the toilet to set it free. Ute, Ute, her mother had scolded. You play like a machine. And the goldfish will die in the sewer.
It is at Brandeis, where she studies Bloch and Weill, that Ute has come to know Jews. The very first was a doctoral candidate in sociology named Elizabeth Grunebaum. At the orientation for foreign graduate students, Elizabeth Grunebaum served as a sort of docent, taking the foreigners on campus tours, describing student life at Brandeis, asking them about their hometowns. Elizabeth wears a tiny golden Star of David around her neck; that's how Ute first inferred she is Jewish, that and a certain air of difference from the people Ute knows at home. It is not simply that she is American, although Americans, who are always saying, "We should do lunch!" and never following through, are different enough. It is that standing beside her makes Ute feel like she is submersed in water, desperate for air, the way she was once, as a very young child, at the baths in Baden. It is hard to catch her breath.
She wonders whether Elizabeth's grandfather or great uncle perished at Sachsenhausen at the hands of her Opa. This represents a real possibility in Ute's mind, and it makes her uncomfortable around Elizabeth whenever they meet. But Elizabeth, if she feels at all uncomfortable around Ute, never shows it. At the orientation she smiled graciously and told Ute about a high school trip to Munich. She told her that the campus pub at Brandeis is called "the Stein," didn't she think that was funny? Ute didn't get it. Only later would she learn that Americans think the German word for beer glass is "stein." She would also discover that there are fourteen Steins in the campus directory, and they are all Jewish.
Near the end of her first semester at Brandeis, Ute receives an email inviting her to attend a meeting of the campus German-Jewish Dialogue Group. The email comes from Dagmar Krauss, a German student in the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies program. Ute has met Dagmar a few times around campus and finds her unbecomingly philosemitic. It reminds her of Berlin's faddish devotion to Klesmer music and bagels, which she has heard of from her brother Martin, and which she disdains—not because these are Jewish things, but because a German adoption of them rings false. Like Jews, yes! But do not become one, when you are not, she thinks, reading the email. That night in bed, she hears a breathy voice: do not think it, or you will become it. Is this the whisperings of the radiator under the window? She puts her pillow over her head to drown out the voice, which reminds her that her obsession with Ernest Bloch, whose music does not move her, amounts to the same thing.
When she was a teenager in Klärbach, Ute's peers talked incessantly about rejecting their parents' denial of Jews and ovens. They murmured obscenities at their history teachers, resolved to spend a year in Israel working on a kibbutz. Ute observed from a distance. She rarely spoke. Sometimes she read American comic books, sent to her by a cousin who lived near the military base in Frankfurt, and sometimes she listened to music for hours at a time, but she never invited a girl or a boy back to her house after school. Their talk frightened her, ovens and kibbutzim frightened her, and she found comfort in silence. She thinks of the silence, pristine and cold as a snow, when she reads Dagmar's email, and feels acutely her failure—as a child of the seventies; as a young German. She will go to the dialogue, and if she can, she will talk.
Dialogue #1: The first meeting of the dialogue is in a classroom on the second floor of Rabb Hall. Ute enters ten minutes early and sees the pattern laid by the early afternoon sun upon the wooden seminar table. It is like marquetry. Later, the pattern will be spoiled by books and the moist imprints of nervous hands on the table. She takes a seat near the door, in case she should need to escape. She is the first one to arrive.
After three or four minutes other people begin to wander in. Ute searches faces and finds that it isn't hard to tell the Germans from the Jews. Of course, there is the young man in the Lederhosen; he is an embarrassment. But the others, even without leather shorts or knitted caps, show physical characteristics that fall neatly along what Ute assumes are racial lines. Elizabeth Grunebaum, for example, who has settled directly across the table from Ute, has dark hair that curls angrily, and that exotic otherness. She is a beauty, but not the sort of beauty Ute sympathizes with—Ute regards Elizabeth the way one might regard Jane Morris if one's taste ran to Renoir and not the Pre-Raphaelites: coolly, and without joy. The German co-chair of the group is blond and big-boned and rigid as Ute herself. His name is Wolfgang. She notices a rosiness under his nose, and she thinks of offering him balm from a tube she carries in her purse—she feels oddly tender toward him, as if he were a boy or a small animal—but then his Jewish co-chair says, "Thank you all for coming," and the dialogue begins.
They start by going around the room and introducing themselves, talking about that part of their histories that has brought them together. The Jewish co-chair, whose name is Debbie Shapiro, has a Bergen Belsen grandmother. Wolfgang is German; that is enough. The young man in Lederhosen had a Nazi great-uncle, a journalist who wrote grotesque and inflammatory articles for Der Stürmer until he died of tuberculosis in 1941. Kari Lieberman's parents were both refugees in the mid-thirties. And Ute has the grandfather. When it comes her turn she says, simply, "I don't know any stories. I am here to listen." The room is quiet, then, while the other participants size her up. She can hear what they are thinking: denial! But her courage has failed her, and they will think what they will think. She can't help that.
She thinks of something she'd like to say, near the end, but she doesn't know how to say it. It is a question about American Jews—something banal but interested, such as what do they learn about in their religious schools—but one can't say "Jew," and she isn't sure whether "Jewish people" is acceptable, either. She sits in an agony of indecision until Wolfgang stands up, signaling that the dialogue is over.
Dialogue #2: The room is cold, and Ute, the first there, sits directly in the block of sunlight on the window side of the room. There is room for one other in the sun; she hopes it will be someone German but NOT the young man in the Lederhosen. Of course, it's a Jewish person! There is nothing wrong with this, but Ute is afraid the Jewish person will not like her, that there may be an odor to Germans that is offensive to Jews, that she will say the wrong thing and the Jewish person will snub her. She is afraid of these things even though her head tells her, no. And the young man, who does not wear a crocheted cap and has friendly brown eyes, merely smiles at her and asks her how she's doing, which she assumes is a formality and disingenuous. She smiles back at him and then lowers her eyes to her lap.
Elizabeth Grunebaum sits down across the table from her once again. "Utah, how do you like Brandeis?" she asks.
"Oh, of course, I like it very much," Ute tells her. "But it is a different culture, and I sometimes do not say the right thing." She hopes she has been disarmingly honest. Elizabeth says nothing, just nods and looks at her with what Ute perceives to be a hostile eye. She smiles, at last, but it is too late.
Wolfgang starts the dialogue by asking if they might talk about current events. A German politician has offered publicly some old lies about the Jews, and has been relieved of his post. The discussion that ensues reveals utter ignorance, on the part of the Jewish participants, about German culture and politics. And where does it end up? The Holocaust. Jewish interest in Germany, she is starting to see, is limited to the Holocaust. The Germans attempt to steer the discussion back to the present. The Jews stubbornly resist. Then Ari Solomon pulls out an eight-by-ten photograph of his grandfather in his concentration-camp stripes. It was taken, he says, by some inmates after liberation to record their unspeakable history for their children; they donned laundered and pressed Auschwitz garb and sat for a portrait. Dagmar Krauss, completely undone, drops her head into her hands, and the dialogue is over.
Ute notices Debbie Shapiro laughing with a German woman named Karin on the way out; Debbie grasps Karin's upper arm, a simple gesture of intimacy, of warmth. She cannot stop watching their bodies' proximity, the way they walk like friends toward the campus center.
Dialogue #3: Two Jews and one German are absent. The young man in Lederhosen—always, strangely, in Lederhosen—has brought in three Der Stürmer articles, penned by his great uncle. He passes out photocopies of the originals, and translations for the Jews. One is a crowing account of the beating of a Jewish leather merchant on the steps of the synagogue in Darmstadt. We kicked some Jewish ass! Lederhosen has translated. Ute glances discreetly around her to see the reactions. Debbie Shapiro looks alarmed. The man with the friendly brown eyes looks unfriendly. The Germans sit thin-lipped and tense.
The second article is a review of an Aryan production of Cosi fan Tutte.
"What's notable," remarks Kari Lieberman, "is the paranoia."
"Yes," agrees Wolfgang. "There would have been no Jews in the audience of a German opera house. None in the orchestra or cast, and the opera was by an Austrian. Yet all this reviewer can talk about is the Jews."
Ute glares at Lederhosen, but of course it is his uncle's fault, not his.
The third article is on the art of Bonsai. She braces herself for more anti-Jewish invective but there is nothing but gentle discoursing about the beauty of pruning and containment, and a nostalgic tramp through the Black Forest, where Bonsai candidates may be found. Everyone looks puzzled. "I wanted to include it," says Lederhosen, "because it's curious. It makes you see the human inside the monster."
"It's tender, almost," offers Elizabeth Grunebaum, and then she smiles an inscrutable smile in Ute's direction. Ute flushes as she smiles back.
There is discussion about the articles, reference to family stories. (The Bergen Belsen grandmother, it turns out, was the model for a Nazi poster illustrating the beauty of Aryan women and the ugliness of their Jewish foils. Ute thinks she has seen this poster in a museum exhibit, and that the grandmother had frizzy black hair and a nose like a beak.) Elizabeth leans over and whispers something in Dagmar's ear. Dagmar smiles. Ute's chest aches. Lederhosen collects the articles from those who don't want to keep them, and the dialogue is over.
Dialogue #4: Someone mentions Sachsenhausen! Ute closes her eyes and counts slowly to ten. The Sachsenhausen mention comes from Dagmar Krauss. It turns out the friend of a friend of a friend's father was Commandant there. She thinks she can bring information about Sachsenhausen back with her when she returns from Germany after winter break. Ute makes four livid crescents on the tender inside of her wrist with her fingernails.
Today Wolfgang makes a confession. It is not just that he's a German. That's not the only thing that brings him here. He too has a great uncle, and that great uncle—ninety-five years old and infirm—was in the Wehrmacht. He does not know exactly what the great uncle did in the Wehrmacht, but once he found a photograph in a desk in his great uncle's house: women, maybe twelve of them, naked and running. Their eyes are cold with fear and their bodies must have been cold as well, for there is snow on the ground. He thinks the women are Jews. Surely, the women are Jews.
"I don't know why he took this picture," Wolfgang says, "but I do not imagine it was for any good reason."
Ute cannot raise her head. She stares at her wrists and imagines her blood, tiny beads along a thin cut, then a fine red line, then a geyser-like spray from the severed artery.
There is silence around the seminar table. Debbie Shapiro suggests the dialogue adjourn. Ute notices that the sun has retreated to the other side of campus. The autumn sky offers its half-light and nothing else to the cold room. She sits for a full five minutes after everyone has left, feeling chilled and depressed.
The Stein is half empty. She takes a table in the corner, so as not to feel the emptiness. As she eats her burger and drinks her beer, she sees the man with the friendly brown eyes enter. He wears an oversized gray pullover that makes him look vulnerable. She looks away, but he has seen her, and he walks over.
"Hi," he says cordially. "It's Utah, isn't it?"
"Ah, well, yes, but it's really Ootuh," she explains.
"Oh. Ootuh," he says. "Sorry. Can I join you?"
She hesitates for a beat. Then she smiles and pushes the chair across from her out with her foot. It is a graceless gesture, she realizes as soon as she does it, but the man with the friendly brown eyes, whose name is Brett, doesn't seem to care.
"How do you like the dialogue, Ootuh?"
"Oh, fine, fine. I haven't much to say, but I like listening to everyone else speak."
"And what's your story? Oh, that's right. You don't have a story. Forgot."
Ute feels the urge to tell him about her grandfather and the experiments at Sachsenhausen. He seems very nice; perhaps he won't despise her if she tells him. But as she thinks this, the opportunity passes.
"The only Germans I knew before dialogue were my German-Jewish grandparents," Brett says offhandedly. "Then I came here, and it's like, Germans everywhere!"
Ute narrows her eyes. "We're not really everywhere," she says, a bit coldly. "I think there are only twelve of us on campus."
"It's a figure of speech," he says.
"Is that why you go to dialogue?" she asks, changing the subject. "Because of your grandparents?"
"In part, yes. But I also thought it would be cool to meet some Germans, learn a little bit about that history and see how the other side feels."
Ute finds this alarming: being on the other side. She has finished her beer and wants to leave, but she doesn't want Brett to think ill of her, to think she's rude—or Nazi-like. She says, "Oh."
"You know," he says, "there's another dialogue group, one that meets in Newton. They're not students, just random Germans and Jews in the community. I went once. It was a different perspective. Mostly they were older than us, our parents' and grandparents' generation. Anyway, it was interesting. You should give it a try."
"Maybe I will," she says. "I have to go now," she adds faintly, and stands up. Brett reaches out and shakes her hand. "Nice talking to you," he says. "See you around." She walks back to her dorm, pausing to notice the moon, barely risen and as pale and round and haloed as the face of an angel. It casts faint light upon the shrubbery flanking the walkway, makes the leaves look silvery around the edges.
There was a man in Klärbach, a physical education teacher in the local Gymnasium, with whom she'd had a detached kind of relationship—sex and a movie, once weekly. If they missed a week, it was because his wife's choir practice was cancelled. The man was fifty, and his name was Bernhard Krup. Because years before he'd been her teacher, she called him Herr Krup for the first month, even though she knew it was ridiculous, like bad pornography. She tolerated him, nothing more, because it was preferable to be one of a pair rather than a singleton, even if one half of the pair was married to someone else. There was nothing balletic or inspired about their coupling; Bernhard grunted and sweated, thrusting with animal vigor, hard enough to drive Ute's diaphragm up out of reach of her fingers. This happened every week, and Bernhard would have to remove the diaphragm carefully, with the nail of his middle finger.
Ute wonders, sometimes, whether there will be a man for her in Boston, and whether that man will be Jewish. She tries to picture herself in bed with Brett, but she cannot visualize him naked. She has never seen a circumcised penis, and her imagination fails her. Also, what would they talk about in bed after the sex? Would she have to mention her grandfather? He would thrust her away and pull on his jeans, leave her lying there with her hair a mess and her nightgown bunched up around her waist. Probably there is no man for her in Boston. An American song she knew and loved as a girl wafts through grad housing and intensifies her misery: The love she'd waited for was someone else, not me…
Dialogue #5: One evening in January she takes the subway to Newton Centre and makes her way to the Unitarian Universalist church. A sharp, crystalline snow drives against her face, and she screws her face against it. A man dressed for summer in light ragged pants and a dirty golf shirt, probably homeless, tells her to lighten up. "You're frowning!" he cries accusatorily. She looks the other way and walks faster.
The church is warm and bright, and the contrast makes her cheeks burn. She has come late: the dialogue has already started. She stops in the doorway; thirteen pairs of eyes scrutinize her, until the facilitator, a woman perhaps in her fifties (brown curly hair, large chest) invites her in. "I am Heike," she says, and it appears that Ute has failed the test: she thought Jewish for sure.
Heike asks Ute to introduce herself, and Ute mentions Brandeis and Musicology, but neglects to mention Sachsenhausen. "If it's okay, I would just like to listen," she murmurs, and the group nods sympathetically.
An elderly German man speaks about the superiority of the Jewish race, and a couple of the Jews demur. "We cannot use that language!" shouts a bearded man in a little cap and scuffed black shoes. Then, a general restlessness. Several other Jews agree. "It is the language of the Reich," suggests a petite, round, red-haired woman with red-penciled eyebrows. "But," protests the German, "there is evidence that this is so. There are more Jewish Nobel Prize winners, more Jewish scholars, than Christian, or Muslim, or anyone else. At least, relative to their numbers. The Jews," he insists, "are a superior race."
The Jews seem agitated, and this mystifies Ute. Yes, of course race was something used by the Nazis to differentiate and denigrate the Jews, but the elderly German has not said that they are an inferior race, and she does not think that they should be offended.
The discussion here is livelier than at Brandeis, but she has not heard any of the Germans admit to a Commandant father or a grandfather like hers. She wonders about their stories, and when it comes time for a coffee break she deliberately makes eye contact with a few people, German and Jewish, to see if they might initiate conversation. She herself cannot initiate conversation. Not yet. She nibbles on an almond macaroon, and it becomes evident that no one, German or Jew, will speak to her. They are chattering madly to each other and barely notice her.
After coffee, the dialogue reconvenes. She hears nothing but the blood roaring inside her head as if she held a conch shell against her ear. There is laughter, and earnest discussion, but she is inside her past: having breakfast with Opa; having sex with Herr Krup. Despair at Gymnasium. It takes a tremendous effort to break with memory. When she does, near the end of the meeting, she finds her mouth opening, her voice emerging. The voice is hoarse. Staring at the puddle under her left boot, she recites a sentence from Sir Hugo Oswald's cocktail napkin: "At Sachsenhausen, the doctor was an obstetrician before he was a Nazi." She feels, then, the kind of relief one feels when one has emerged gasping from the water, as she had at Baden. She has not drowned.
People strain to hear. They notice her distress and nod sympathetically. Then, for a full measure: nothing. When the scraping of chairs upon the floor commences, the bustle of people donning coats and hats, murmuring goodbyes, she drops her face into her hands. One person squeezes her shoulder in passing, a single person, and she looks up, after a moment, but the person has left. The room is empty.
She rises heavily and walks alone toward the bus stop. She hears rapid footsteps behind her, either someone trying to catch up or someone intending to mug her, and she tries to look behind her without seeming to look. It is a small, older man in a soiled jacket; she recognizes him from the dialogue. She tried not to notice him then, in that church basement, because something about him made her lungs constrict, the old feeling. Reluctantly, she slows down. He is out of breath.
"I had a dream last night," he says thickly. Ute looks at the ground. The street is silent, silent.
"I was back in Germany. I was walking along the Main, with my mother. My mother was alive, and we were walking together along the river in the sunshine. In Germany." He touches Ute's arm. "It was as if there had been no Auschwitz. I wasn't going on a train to England; I was just with my mother." He pauses, and Ute feels the tightness like a tourniquet around her heart. She wants to run but at the same time is afraid to move. She is afraid of how the story ends.
"The sun was warm," he continues. Ute waits. The snow stings. They have stopped and are standing in front of a café. She cannot look at him so she looks instead at the jittering flames on the café's tables. Each table has a candle. In the unbearable silence she counts ten candles. Then he touches her arm again.
"Goodnight," he says gently, and walks away.
In a bit she can look up, but the darkness has swallowed him and she is alone again.
https://hungermtn.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/firstposition.gif 702 1000 Miciah Bay Gault https://hungermtn.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Writing-and-Publishing-Logo-300x874px.png Miciah Bay Gault2010-08-09 13:44:522019-03-19 09:03:10Dialogue
hungermtn@vcfa.edu | 36 College Street Montpelier, VT 05602 | (802) 828-8844
Frank Paino Ota Benga in the Land of the Dead
David Yost


MONDAY, Jan. 7, 2013 (HealthDay News) -- The lowest paid workers are at greater risk for high blood pressure than those taking home bigger paychecks, a new study suggests.
This is particularly true for women and those between 25 and 44 years old, noted the researchers from University of California, Davis (UC Davis). The findings could help reduce the personal and financial costs of high blood pressure, or hypertension, which is a major health problem, the study authors pointed out in a university news release.
"We were surprised that low wages were such a strong risk factor for two populations not typically associated with hypertension, which is more often linked with being older and male," study senior author J. Paul Leigh, a professor of public health sciences at UC Davis, said in the news release. "Our outcome shows that women and younger employees working at the lowest pay scales should be screened regularly for hypertension as well."
Using a national study of families in the United States, which included information on wages, jobs and health, the researchers compiled information on over 5,600 household heads and their spouses every two years from 1999 to 2005. All of the participants, who ranged from 25 to 65 years of age, were employed. The investigators also excluded anyone diagnosed with high blood pressure during the first year of each two-year interval.
The study found that the workers' wages (annual income divided by work hours) ranged from roughly $2.38 to $77 per hour in 1999 dollars. During the study, the participants also reported whether or not their doctor diagnosed them with high blood pressure.
Based on a statistical analysis, the researchers found that doubling a person's wage was associated with a 16 percent drop in their risk for hypertension. Doubling a worker's wage also reduced the risk for hypertension by 1.2 percent over two years and 0.6 percent for one year.
"That means that if there were 110 million persons employed in the U.S. between the ages of 25 and 65 per year during the entire timeframe of the study -- from 1999 until 2005 -- then a 10 percent increase in everyone's wages would have resulted in 132,000 fewer cases of hypertension each year," Leigh explained.
The researchers also calculated that doubling the wages of younger workers was associated with a 25 to 30 percent reduction in the risk for hypertension. For women, earning twice as much reduced their risk by 30 to 35 percent.
The study, which was published in the December issue of the European Journal of Public Health, could have been limited by the fact that it relied on participants to report a hypertension diagnosis, the researchers pointed out.
"Other research has shown that women are more likely than men to report a health diagnosis," noted Leigh. "However, the longitudinal nature of the data used in our study helps mitigate that natural bias, and self-reports of health do typically correlate with clinical data."
The study authors said more research is needed to explore the link between low wages and hypertension.
"If the outcomes are the same, we could have identified a way to help reduce the costs and personal impact of a major health crisis," Leigh concluded. "Wages are also a part of the employment environment that easily can be changed. Policymakers can raise the minimum wage, which tends to increase wages overall and could have significant public-health benefits."
Hypertension, which contributes to heart disease and stroke, affects approximately one in three adults in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC also reports the condition costs more than $90 billion each year in health-care services, medications and missed work.
While the study found an association between wages and blood pressure levels, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.
The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more about high blood pressure.


text:
Q: How can we run Robot Framework files and Test cases using command line?
Please can anyone suggest and help how can we execute the Robot Framework Test Cases and Files via command line ?
My Robot Framework Directory Location is as follows :
/Users/tanyagrover/Desktop/Robot Files/Charcoal PreProd
I've tried :
robot -L debug Charcoal preprod.robot

and got error as :
  File "/usr/local/bin/robot", line 6, in <module>
    from robot.run import run_cli
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'robot'

I'am using ride.py to create my test cases and the test cases are running fine when i'm using RIDE UI. But I want to run my test cases using Robot CLI. Whenever I'am executing my .robot file using robot command I'am getting following error
robot Login.robot
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/robot", line 6, in
    from robot.run import run_cli
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'robot'
Thank You

A: The reason you are getting the below error is , you need to go to the same virtualenv/interpreter where you have installed robotframework,as you have configured your eclipse to run on. Otherwise, you will get the below error.
 File "/usr/local/bin/robot", line 6, in <module>
    from robot.run import run_cli
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'robot'

Steps to remedy

*

*You need to use the same virtualenv/interpreter and

*then make sure you have robotframework installed and

*then you need to invoke robot, only then it is going to work.

APPROACH#0
Assuming that you have created a virtualenv/interpreter with robotframework installed successfully, then you need to just

*

*cd to that specific directory and

*then execute robot as mentioned below.

If you want to run all the testcases from all the files and folders under Prepod
cd /Users/tanyagrover/Desktop/Robot\ Files/Charcoal\ PreProd
robot *.robot

NOTE: few users are confused regarding "cd" when dir name contains
  space i have created a simple folder name "sample sd"(there is a space
  in the folder name)

On mac this works,
cd sample\ sd/
06:30 PM##~/sample sd::>

A: First, make sure you have robot framework installed and it is found in PYTHONPATH environment variable.
For executing the tests, there are many ways to do this.
Option #1:
Go to Charcoal PreProd folder and just robot Suites
Option #2:
Go to Suites folder and just robot .
Option #3:
If you wanna run only Login test suite, in Charcoal PreProd folder: robot Login.robot (assuming the file extension for Login file is robot).
Also note that the last argument cannot have spaces as you have in Charcoal preprod.robot. In this case, you should use quotes: 'Charcoal preprod.robot'.

A: Setting default python version to 3.6 worked for me

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Sentinel
========
Triggered templating and command execution for etcd.

[![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/BlueDragonX/sentinel.svg?branch=master)](https://travis-ci.org/BlueDragonX/sentinel)

How It Works
------------
Sentinel allows you to trigger template generation and command execution off of
key changes in etcd. Sentinel defines a `watcher` to wait on one or more
`watch` keys. The watcher then defines `templates`, `context`, and a `command`
to execute when a `watch` key changes. The `command` is executed only when one
or more of the destination templates files changed. If no templates are
provided to a watcher then the command will always be executed. A watcher may
also be defined with one ore more templates and no command. The `context` is is
a list of keys which are retrieved from etcd and passed into each template for
rendering.

Installing
----------
This is a go-gettable package. It should be as simple as:

    go get github.com/BlueDragonX/sentinel

Configuring
-----------
The `sentinel` binary takes two optional arguments: `-config` and `-exec`. The
`-config` argument takes as option the path to the Sentinel configuration file.
This defaults to `config.yml` in the current directory. The `-exec` argument
causes Sentinel to execute a watcher's actions directly instead of running
continuously and waiting for its watchers. The `-exec` argument may be provided
multiple times to execute multiple watchers.

The config file is written in YAML. It is structure into four sections: `etcd`,
`watchers`, and `logging`.

### etcd ###
This section configures the connection to etcd. Available parameters are:

- `uri` - The URI to connect to etcd at. Defaults to `http://172.17.42.1:4001/`.
- `uris` - Connect to multiple etcd nodes. Used as an alternative to `uri` when
  redundancy is called for.
- `prefix` - All etcd key paths will be prefixed with this value. Defaults to
  an empty string.
- `tls-key` - The path to the TLS private key to use when connecting. Must be
  provided to enable TLS.
- `tls-cert` - The path to the TLS certificate to use when connecting. Must be
  provided to enable TLS.
- `tls-ca-cert` - The path to the TLS CA certificate to use when connecting.
  Must be provided to enable TLS.

### watchers ###
This section defines watchers to trigger off of etcd key changes. The watchers
section is a mapping of watcher names to their configuration. Available watcher
paremeters are:

- `prefix` - Key paths will be prefixed with this value. This will have the
  `etcd.prefix` value prepended to it. Defaults to an empty string. This allows
  you to reuse a template across multiple watchers whose keys would otherwise
  look the same.
- `watch` - A list of etcd keys to wait watch for changes. These are
  automatically prefixed with the the value of `etcd.prefix`.
- `context` - A list of keys whose values will be retrieved and passed to the
  templates to render. These values are retrieved recursively. Key values will
  have dashes (`-`) replaces with underscored (`_`) so as to be accessible in
  the templates.
- `templates` - A list of templates to render. Each template is a mapping
  containing a `src` and `dest` value. The `src` is the template source code
  and the `dest` is the place where the rendered template will be written to.
  Directories under `dest` will be created if necessary.
- `command` - The command to execute. If templates are provided then this
  command will be only be executed when one or more template destinations are
  changed. The command may be one of two forms: a string or an array of
  arguments. The first form will cause the command to be executed in a bash
  shell. The second will cause it to be executed directly.

### logging ###
This section controls how Beacon outputs logging. Sentinel uses [go-log][3] for
logging. See its documentation for valid target and log level values.

- `target` - The target to log to. Defaults to `stderr`.
- `level` - The log level. Valid values are `debug`, `info`, or `error`.

Template Functions
------------------
A handful of template functions have been added to make configuring certain
things easier. These are:

- `addrHost` - Return the host part of a host:port formatted address.
- `addrPort` - Return the port part of a host:port formatted address.
- `urlScheme` - Return the scheme part of a URL.
- `urlHost` - Return the host part of a URL. This include the :port if present.
- `urlUsername` - Return the username part of a URL.
- `urlPassword` - Return the password part of a URL.
- `urlRawQuery` - Return the URL's query string.
- `urlQuery` - Return the first value of a query key. Takes `name` as an additional parameter.
- `urlFragment` - Return the fragment part of the URL.
- `json` - Unmarshal a value into a JSON map or array.

All functions return an empty string on error.

Beacon Example
--------------
[Beacon][2] discovers services running in Docker and registers them in etcd.
The following Sentinel configuration maintains a list of registry endpoints:

    etcd:
      uri: http://localhost:4001
      prefix: beacon

    watchers:
      registries:
        watch:
        - registry/_index
        context:
        - registry
        templates:
        - src: /tmp/registries.tpl
          dest: /tmp/registries.yml

The registries.tpl template looks like this:

    registries:
    {{range $containerId, $container := .registry}}- http://{{$container.host_name}}:{{$container.host_port}}/{{end}}

Assuming there is one container listening on port `2002` whose hostname is
`docker.example.net` the output of `sentinel -exec registries` would look like this:

    registries:
    - http://docker.example.net:2002/

License
-------
Copyright (c) 2014 Ryan Bourgeois. Licensed under BSD-Modified. See the
[LICENSE][1] file for a copy of the license.

[1]: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/BlueDragonX/sentinel/master/LICENSE "Sentinel License"
[2]: https://github.com/BlueDragonX/beacon/ "Beacon"
[3]: https://github.com/BlueDragonX/go-log/ "go-log"

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


When chocolate melts, it is ideally a beautifully smooth, shiny, satiny mixture. However, there are a number of things that can turn your melted chocolate into a clumpy mess. If chocolate comes into contact with even a small amount of water, it will "seize," turning into a grainy, clumpy mess in the bowl. Similarly, if chocolate is overheated, it will become quite thick and lumpy.
Chocolate is a mixture of fat (from cocoa butter) and dry particles (cocoa and sugar). When chocolate is melted, these ingredients break up evenly, creating a smooth consistency. However, when the melted chocolate comes into contact with water—even the smallest amount—the dry particles become moist and begin to stick together, quickly forming a gritty, rough mass of chocolate. This occurs because when the water joins with the sugar in the chocolate, a syrup is formed, which attracts the cocoa particles and makes for a grainy texture.
The most important thing you can do to prevent chocolate from seizing is to eliminate any chance of the chocolate coming into contact with water. Always make sure the bowls and utensils you are using are perfectly dry and avoid using wooden spoons or boards, as they might retain moisture and impart this moisture to your chocolate.
If you are using a double boiler to melt your chocolate, keep the water hot but not boiling, or turn off the heat before the chocolate is placed on top—boiling water might splash above the rim of the saucepan and cause droplets to fall in the chocolate. In addition, boiling water gives off a great deal of steam, and steam can also cause the chocolate to seize. Also, be sure to wipe the bottom of the bowl the chocolate is melting in to remove water and condensation. Finally, never cover warm chocolate with a lid, as the heat of the chocolate might form condensation on the inside of the bowl, which will cause the chocolate to seize.
This may seem counterintuitive, but the way to fix chocolate that has seized is to add more liquid to it. Adding the right amount of water (or other liquid) will dissolve the sugar and cocoa in the clumps and make it a fluid consistency again. Using 1 teaspoon of boiling water at a time, add to the seized chocolate and stir vigorously until the mixture is smooth. This is ideal when you plan on using the chocolate for a drizzle or sauce, but not if you were incorporating it in a baking recipe since the chocolate is now diluted.
If you are using the chocolate for baking projects, there is another solution. Stir solid vegetable shortening into the chocolate, using 1 tablespoon for every 6 ounces of chocolate. Stir gently and evenly until the chocolate has loosened and the shortening is incorporated. You can now use this chocolate for brownies, cakes, cookies, or other recipes that call for melted chocolate.
Chocolate is very sensitive to high temperatures and different chocolates require different maximum temperatures. Dark chocolate should never be heated above 120 F, while milk and white chocolates should never be heated to above 110 F. It is quite easy to exceed these temperatures if using a double boiler with boiling water, or if microwaving on full power.
Overheated chocolate will lose the silky shine of melted chocolate and become thick and muddy. The best way to melt chocolate is in a double boiler, keeping the water hot (but not boiling), and using a chocolate or instant-read thermometer while melting the chocolate.
Like seized chocolate, overheated chocolate can be rescued. First, you will want to cool the chocolate, as it is harder to save overheated chocolate that has been at a high temperature for a long time. To cool the chocolate, remove the bowl from the heat source, transfer the chocolate to a dry, cool bowl, and stir in a handful of solid chocolate chunks. Stir constantly and allow the solid chocolate to bring down the temperature of the melted chocolate.
If the chocolate remains thick or lumpy, try straining it through a sieve first. If this doesn't solve the problem, add a spoonful of vegetable oil or melted vegetable shortening and stir thoroughly. You can also try adding some freshly melted chocolate with a few drops of soy lecithin (an emulsifier, available at health food stores), or using a handheld immersion blender to smooth the chocolate. If none of these tricks helps your chocolate, save the chocolate to use in baking recipes.


Denicah Heathered Drawstring Jogger Pants W/ Striped Trim from Neiman Marcus.
Joie "Denicah" jogger pants in combed cotton. Drawstring waistband. Side patch pockets. Slim fit through skinny legs. Striped, ribbed cuffs. Pull-on style. Imported.


Access is considered a relational database in which data is split into tables that are interconnected. Database Relationship tells you how one table is connected to the other table and how data is integrated in between them. It is important to know how relationships in Access work in order to maintain referential integrity between tables.
In this tutorial, we will teach you how to create relationship in Access.
To create a relationship in Access, start by clicking on the "database tools" tab and then click on the "relationship" button. In this example we will create relationship between all our tables and also set the referential integrity between them.
Click on the "show tables" button; select each table and add it. Show tables button shows all the available tables created by the user in the database. From the list, you can choose the tables amongst which you want to create a relationship.
In real sense, this is the first step towards building a relationship in between tables.
Now drag the "worker id" field from the "sales people" table and drop it onto the "sales" field in the "customers" table. An edit relationship window will appear showing you the source field and destination field. Check the "enforce referential integrity" check box and then check the other two boxes as well.
Click on the "join type" button and select the second option. Click on create button and you will see that a relationship has been established between the "sales people" table and the "customers" table.
We select the second join type because we want to see reports on sales employees even if they didn't have any assigned customer.
Once you click ok, you will notice that a one–to-many relationship will be established. This means that one employee can have several customers.
Now for the last relationship, drag the "SKU" field from the product table and drop it onto the "product" field in the order table. In the edit relationship window, checkmark the first two boxes and then click on the create button.
Once a relationship in Access is established, you will see a black line running from the source table to the destination table. You will notice a "1" and an "infinity" sign telling you the type of relationship.
In the last relationship, we selected only the "cascade update related fields" option because we don't want the SKU to be deleted even if the products are deleted from the product line.


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text:
A Discussion with Open Up Music: Opening up music to young disabled musicians
By The GMS Team
This month we had the wonderful opportunity to speak with Open Up Music to discuss their organisation further, we touch on initiatives, accessibility, Open Orchestras, The National Open Youth Orchestra, Clarion and More.
Open Orchestras helps special schools set up accessible orchestras so that hundreds of young disabled people get first access to music education every year.
– Can you tell us more about what this entails and how you started developing this?
We initially piloted Open Orchestras in 2013-15. At the time, there was a clear lack of ensemble music-making opportunities for young disabled people. Most mainstream schools had a school orchestra. None of the special schools we spoke to did. Fast forward to 2021 and Open Orchestras is behind the largest community of inclusive youth orchestras in the UK. We work with special schools, Music Education Hubs and arts organisations to create equal opportunities for young disabled people to learn an instrument and "be part of the band". By the end of their first year in the programme, most Open Orchestras are ready to share their music. That first performance is often a revelation for everyone on stage and in the audience!
What Open Orchestras does is create a space for music as a creative subject – not just therapy. Through the orchestra, we introduce weekly rehearsals, train and mentor staff to work with a diverse group of musicians, also sharing teaching resources and adapted music that every young person can play. For previously isolated young people, this could be their opportunity to shine and through music, make friends. Some musicians play acoustic instruments, others accessible instruments – such as the Clarion, our innovative electronic instrument that can be played on iPad or PC with any part of the body.
Once their orchestra is established, schools can run it sustainably year after year – the oldest has been with us since the beginning. This year, there are 41 Open Orchestras around the country, each supporting 8-18 year old disabled musicians to make their own music, play independently and expressively. Open Orchestras is also a community that's really supportive, and endlessly creative. Because our repertoire comes in "building blocks" that can be arranged flexibly according to participants' playing styles, no two orchestras will play our music the same way!
Ibrahim, Chadsgrove School Clarion player:
"I think it is important for schools to give young people the opportunity to be in an orchestra, as it is a chance for them to explore and experiment with how great they can be. My advice is not to be nervous; give it a try and have fun reaching your potential!". Watch him play 'Walking In The Air' with his orchestra.
The National Open Youth Orchestra (NOYO) is the world's first disabled-led national youth orchestra. It pioneers an inclusive orchestra model where talented disabled and non-disabled musicians rehearse and perform together.
— Perhaps you can touch on the NOYO and Friends event discussing this?
"I like the word influential to describe NOYO because there aren't other orchestras, youth ones, who are as passionate about showing disabled people can play on the same stages as non-disabled people." Holli, NOYO harpist
We launched the National Open Youth Orchestra in 2018 to provide a progression route for talented young disabled musicians. Through it, we're hoping to create the conditions for them to shape not only their own future, but also the future of orchestras.
At the heart of NOYO are partnerships with leading arts organisations who deliver NOYO regionally: Bristol Beacon, Barbican, Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Midlands Arts Centre, B:Music and Services For Education. Together, we've started building this ecology of organisations working collaboratively to create accessible opportunities in music.
In the coming years, this ecology needs to grow and engage as many music organisations as possible, so that young disabled people nationwide:
Have equal opportunities to learn a musical instrument, acoustic or electronic
Can develop their musicianship through a range of programmes at different levels
Have the option to pursue a career in music
We hope you can be part of this ecology. A starting point could be joining us as a guest speaker for a "NOYO and Friends" session. They're informal Zoom get-togethers for NOYO Musicians to find out from the professionals about working in music. Past guests have included Mark Bowen from the Idles and Lloyd Coleman from the Paraorchestra … Please email our Pastoral Support officer if you'd like to take part ben@noyo.org.uk.
We understand that Open Up Music has also developed the Clarion. an innovative accessible instrument that can be played expressively with any part of the body, including eye movement. An incredible development! –How did this idea come to be? I noticed that this also is used through the Open Orchestras, when did you realise or decide this was something you wanted to share further and develop into an application? How does this help disabled musicians?
Conventional instruments can be disabling due to their shape, size or the need to bow, pluck or blow them. Clarion was developed with young disabled people and their teachers to remove those barriers. Available on iPad and PC, it can be played using mouse or finger touch, but also head movement or eye movement. It works seamlessly with assistive technology like Eyegaze or Infrared head trackers.
It's currently played by Open Orchestras and National Open Youth Orchestra musicians. We're working on ways it could be shared more widely.
NOYO Residential
There needs to be a greater representation of disabled people in music. The development of Clarion can support this, giving talented disabled musicians an instrument they can show prowess at. Starting to play Clarion doesn't require musical skills, but like all good instruments, it takes practice to play well.
It's expressive – the sound it makes is down to how each note is hit, and it can be customised to meet a musicians' needs with a variety of sounds and settings to choose from… But a lot more can be done, like giving it its own sound.
Our ambition is to make Clarion a professional-grade orchestral instrument, comparable in its range to traditional instruments. We're hoping that in the future, through alliances with disabled musicians, tech specialists, professional orchestras, composers and accreditation bodies, we can develop an accessible instrument worthy of disabled musicians' passions, abilities, and hard work.
What does Open Up Music see as some of the current barriers to inclusivity and how are you striving for greater accessibility in this industry?
Before starting NOYO, we commissioned a feasibility study from Sound Connections, which highlighted a number of key barriers that might prevent talented young disabled musicians from fulfilling their potential. Barriers identified included:
Instruments – for example, musicians who may not be in a position to play traditional orchestral instruments are excluded by the four conventional sections of an orchestra (strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion)
Fixed repertoire – disabled musicians may require more flexibility (reasonable adjustments) in certain aspects of their music-making. The inviolable nature of much orchestral repertoire also limits the potential diversity of instruments that orchestras might otherwise include.
Entry requirements: many young disabled musicians haven't benefited from a music education that can equip them with musical qualifications.
Low expectations: a lack of disabled musical role models hampers the expectations of young disabled people, their families and teachers.
Recently, NOYO musicians contributed to the Youth Music Reshape Music report, "which illustrates in very stark terms that the views, lived experience and expertise of Disabled people are still absent in the planning and delivery of music education and music-making."
At Open Up Music, two values that guide our work in driving change are "Community" – we believe in collaboration and supporting each other to make positive change happen, and "Influence" – working alongside young disabled musicians to influence and challenge preconceptions of what they can achieve in music.
Open Orchestras Musicians
What is Open Up Music's experience when you have worked with composers on commissions in the past?
Creating exciting new music is central to the work we do with the National Open Youth Orchestra. When in 2018, Liam Taylor-West won a British Composer Award for 'The Umbrella', our first major commission, he credited the young musicians: "Our fine-tuning in rehearsals gave the whole piece a truly collaborative feel. Thank you for helping me decide which bits to leave in, and which to chuck!". The opportunity to feed into how music is composed and played is what makes NOYO "more enjoyable" and "more creative" according to members.
For a composer, working with NOYO involves embracing a certain degree of flexibility. If music is going to benefit from the injection of creativity that diversity can bring, we need to be more adaptable in approaching the music we play, more flexible about which instruments this new music is composed for, and more open to rearranging existing repertoire for different instruments and musicians.
Next year, NOYO will premiere What Fear We Then?, a new piece by Alexander Campkin co-commissioned with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Alexander visited NOYO rehearsals in London, Bournemouth and Bristol over a year, workshopping with the young musicians, and also learning about the electronic instruments played by the orchestra such as the Linnstrument, Seaboard Rise and Clarion.
Diversity can act as a catalyst for being innovative with music. After all, Beethoven and Mozart were at the forefront of experimenting with new instruments and repertoire in their time!
What can our GMS members do to support Open Up Music?
We'd love to see you in the audience for the first NOYO concerts next summer – ticket sales will be announced on our website at noyo.org.uk, and through our newsletter (please subscribe). Follow us on social media, on twitter and instagram.
Find out more about our programmes at openupmusic.org. None of this work is possible without our partners and supporters, so please donate if you're in a position to do so. Every gift helps to open opportunities.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
The Air Force just resurrected a 60-year-old B-52 bomber named 'Wise Guy' from its boneyard to fight another day
A decommissioned B-52H Stratofortress heavy, long-range bomber nicknamed "Wise Guy" was brought back from the Air Force's "boneyard" and delivered...
By Ryan Pickrell, Business Insider May 15, 2019
A decommissioned B-52H Stratofortress heavy, long-range bomber nicknamed "Wise Guy" was brought back from the Air Force's "boneyard" and delivered to an operational unit, the Air Force announced Tuesday.
Col. Robert Burgess, the commander of the 307th Operations Group, 307th Bomb Wing, flew the aircraft back to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana on Tuesday, The War Zone reported.
"We are excited about the wing's role in bringing this jet back into service," Burgess told reporters. "Its return is a testament to the skill of our Airmen in restoring the bomber for regular use in the Air Force."
The art on the side of "Wise Guy."(U.S. Air Force/307th Bomb Wing)
The bomber will replace the B-52 that crashed in Guam three years ago, bringing the size of the B-52H fleet back to 76, the maximum permitted by US-Russia arms control agreements.
"Wise Guy" being delivered to the 307th Bomb Wing.(U.S. Air Force/307th Bomb Wing)
"Wise Guy" served with the 5th Bomb Wing out of Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota before the powerful bomber was sent to the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, which handles the "boneyard" at Davis-Mothan Air Force Base in Arizona, in 2008.
"Wise Guy" at Barksdale Air Force Base, May 14, 2019.(U.S. Air Force photo)
When it was retired, someone left a note on an internal panel hinting that "Wise Guy" might one day return to service. The message read: "AMARG, this is 60-034, a Cold Warrior that stood sentinel over America from the darkest days of the Cold War to the global fight against terror. Take good care of her… until we need her again."
"Wise Guy" lands at Barksdale Air Force Base, May 14, 2019.(U.S. Air Force photo)
"Wise Guy" is the second B-52 to ever return from the "boneyard." The other, a bomber nicknamed "Ghost Rider," was brought back and delivered to the 307th Bomb Wing in 2015.
Read more from Business Insider:
The Air Force got parts from its 'boneyard' to put its biggest plane back into service
Here's what's in the cockpit of one of America's most secretive weapons — the B-2 stealth bomber
The U.S. and its allies in Iraq are bracing for attacks as a hidden threat from Iran looms
The U.S. says a Russian man tried to smuggle F-16 manuals into Russia, but Moscow says it looks like a setup
The FDNY said a Navy SEAL was too old to join, and now he's getting offers from other fire departments
SEE ALSO: 3 Reasons The Legendary B-52 Bomber Will Outlive All Of Us
WATCH NEXT: The B-52 Brings The Fight To ISIS
Ryan Pickrell, Business Insider View Ryan Pickrell, Business Insider's articles
~d:fs
307th bomb wing
Marine shot and killed fellow Marine at South Carolina air station
A Marine was shot and killed by a fellow service member on Friday night at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort...
The Army is 'addressing' a drill sergeant's TikTok rant about 'soft' recruits using cell phones
An Army drill sergeant at Fort Sill in...
'I'm Worried Nobody Will Come' — Daughter Of WWII Hero Asks Vets To Celebrate Her Late Father's Life
Have courage. That's how Cornelius Cornelssen VII signed...


text:
Consider This!
Let's talk politics, in 10 minutes or less!
What is "Consider This!"
As Heard On…
in Apple Podcasts
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in Stitcher
or the "podcatcher"
of your choice
Episode 271: #SaveJamesYounger
Monday, October 28th, 2019	at 3:00 am
http://media.blubrry.com/consider/p/considerthis.ctpodcasting.com/wp-content/uploads/powerpress/ConsiderThis-271.mp3
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | TuneIn
James Younger
A 7-year-old boy is the latest victim in a sexual orthodoxy that will not let you disagree with it. The father is trying to save him from a gender transitioning that he is convinced was brought on at the urging of his mother since the boy was 3.
Can a 7-year-old really make that kind of decision?
Mentioned links:
'Mommy says I'm a girl': Dad fights to save 7-year-old son from gender 'transition'
Jury rules against dad trying to save his 7-year-old from gender 'transition'
WALSH: Here Is The One Crucial Detail Everyone Is Overlooking In The Case Of The 'Transgender' 7-Year-Old
Judge rules dad will have say in gender 'transition' of 7-year-old
Getting some shopping done? If you're going to shop at Amazon, please consider clicking on my affiliate link. Thanks!
On Apple devices, you can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes.
If you're on Android, listen with Google Podcasts.
Stitcher Radio is another possibility for both Apple and Android devices. If you do download Stitcher to your phone, please use the promo code "ConsiderThis" to let them know where you heard about it.
Browser-based options are the Blubrry Network and Player.fm.
And if you have some other podcatcher or RSS reader, click here to get the direct feed and paste it wherever you need it.
I would love it if you would spread the word about the podcast! Click the Facebook, Twitter, and other icons (or all of them!) at the bottom of this post to recommend "Consider This!" to your social media audience.
This is the story of James Younger. He's 7 years old, and he and his twin brother Jude come from a broken home. The breaking of the home seems to have started soon after the twins were born. The husband, Jeff Younger, started noticing strange behavior by his wife, Anne Georgulas.
Well, it appears to me that strange behavior was there from the start. According to Jeff, they had quite the "prenup". "In the prenuptial agreement we disclosed our education, all assets that we owned, and our income levels, with proof pay stubs and everything. In addition, we gave each other Social Security numbers, and driver's license numbers in order [to do] a background check."
Interesting. Anyway, after the twins were born, things got stranger. "She had told me at one point she was seeing lights. She had a couple of mental breakdowns where she would just pass through every human emotion about every 20 to 30 seconds."
And when the twins were 3 years old, she started something else; telling one of the twins, James, that he was a girl. In a video posted on YouTube, James says, "Mommy says that I'm a girl." More than that, she would dress him in dresses, put hair clips in his hair, and paint his nails. On his fifth birthday, Anne made it something of a "coming out" party. He wore a dress in public there even though everyone who was in pre-K with him knew him as a boy. In school now, he's referred to as Luna.
But the thing is, now that the parents are separated, James, who is now 7, gets out of his girl clothes and puts on his boy clothes when it's time for his visits with dad. While there, James and Jude enjoy wrestling, plastic sword fighting, playing "nature detective" (searching for animal tracks and identifying bugs and plants) and playing video games. When a reporter from LifeSiteNews.com showed up, James referred to himself as James.
His mother, Anne, however, got court orders to keep his dad Jeff from saying anything at school other than this is a girl named Luna. That is, he's required, by court order, to lie about his son. He can't even say that to his son. The mother also recently won a jury trial which requires all visits by the dad to be supervised. But here's the kicker; she now has the permission of the court to start transitioning James, including the administering of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. It probably won't be happening soon, but she has the go-ahead.
She has this permission because she got a counselor to claim that James has "gender dysphoria", even though he does not actually meet the requirements of that diagnosis. And at least the fact that James changes his preferred identity depending on the parent he's with should be sending up red flags.
But alas, there are no flags on this play.
Matt Walsh at the Daily Wire has been beating the drum on this case, so much so that he got #SaveJamesYounger trending in the US on Twitter. He notes one really interesting angle to this. Originally, James wanted to take the name Starfire as his female name, but his mother urged him to choose a different name. Odd that he can decide to change his gender, but she won't let him pick his new name. But the bigger deal here is where he got his new name from; a girl superhero on "Teen Titans Go!", his favorite cartoon. This is a game to him, a fantasy. He doesn't think he's a girl; he thinks he's a cartoon superhero who happens to be a girl. He identifies as a girl about as much as, when he pretend swordfights, he identifies as Sir Galahad. And as I've asked before, can he also decide that he doesn't need a bedtime and have Cap'n Crunch for supper every day? I bet you his mom won't allow those decisions, but based on a cartoon character and the brainwashing of his mother, at some point he's going to be pumped full of drugs to make lasting changes to his body.
And searching the TV news websites while I putting this episode together – CNN, MSNBC, Fox, ABC, CBS, and NBC – I found no mention of this. The papers; NY Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Washington Times? Nothing. And yet this courtroom ordeal (well, at least the part about transitioning James) has been going on for over 18 months.
Save James, indeed, but save us all from a culture and a judicial process that makes something like this bit of child abuse possible. That's the story. The divorce is bad enough, but it doesn't rate national news. What should be national news is that people are being bullied into, not just tolerating, but affirming that this insanity is a good thing. The Right has been accused for decades of wanting a theocracy and wanting to police what people think, and yet a better example of exactly that you would be hard-pressed to find. Well, you might not find much of it now, but the slope, it is exceedingly slippery. I know because we've seen the slippage year after year until now 7-year olds are the cannon fodder in the culture war. But it is indeed a religious war where they enforce their orthodoxy using their high priests of judges, psychologists, and counselors that drank the cultist's Kool-Aid. And if you can bully the populace into understanding the ramifications of heresy, you can get a jury to agree.
I'm sounding harsh, I know. But something like this ought to be a wake-up call. Let's start with legislation. If you can't drink, smoke, vote, or dress yourself, you shouldn't be allowed to make such life- and body-altering decisions. But legislation isn't the cure-all. We need to change hearts and minds. The law is just a stop-gap measure.
It starts with #SaveJamesYounger.
Some late-breaking good news on this front is that this past Friday the 25th, the judge said that the parents will have joint custody so that Jeff will have a say in this gender transition. Of course, what that "say" will actually consist of is yet to be known. Ad remember, chemically castrating your child is perfectly fine, but spanking them; that's abuse.
Episode 217: Florida Fails / Track Meets / 4-year-old Calling the Shots
Episode 153: What Activists (and the Media That Cover Them) Get Wrong About Human Sexuality
Episode 235: Conscience or Compliance / RFRA at 25 / My Thanksgiving Message to You
Episode 172: The North Carolina Boycott 1 Year On and Transgender Accommodations
Episode 108: Jenner's Gender; Genetics and Psychology
Filed under: Human Sexuality • Transgender
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text:
Russia's Troubled Nureyev Production Sweeps Board at Ballet Awards
Leaflets of the "Nureyev" ballet by director Kirill Serebrennikov, about the late Soviet ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev, are seen on a staircase banister at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia December 8, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin
By Olga Sichkar
MOSCOW (Reuters)
A ballet about Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev which tested the Kremlin's tolerance with its evocation of gay romance picked up the major prizes on Tuesday at one of the ballet world's most prestigious awards ceremonies
Among the award winners at the Prix Benois ceremony in Moscow was the ballet's original choreographer Kirill Serebrennikov, who is awaiting trial on what his supporters say are charges trumped up to punish him for challenging the Russian establishment.
The Nureyev ballet – which was completed by a stand-in choreographer because Serebrennikov was under house arrest – won in the best male dancer, best composer, and best choreographer categories, in addition to Serebrennikov's gong for best production design.
Serebrennikov was not present at the ceremony, at Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre. The ballet's composer, Ilya Demutsky, accepted the statuette on his behalf.
"My feelings are that this is, in a way, a triumph, but at the same time there's a certain bitter taste because we cannot share this triumph with our friend," Demutsky told Reuters, referring to Serebrennikov.
Nureyev, who died in 1993 from AIDS, was regarded as one of ballet's most gifted male dancers and was an accomplished choreographer.
The ballet about Nureyev's life had been due to open at the Bolshoi Theatre in July last year but was canceled at the last minute, with the theatre's management saying it was not ready.
At the time, Russian state news agency TASS quoted a source close to the culture ministry saying there were concerns about the ballet's theme of homosexuality.
The ballet finally had its premiere in December last year, but the producers at the Bolshoi ballet gave it an 18+ rating.
SENSUOUS DANCE
In one scene, dancers playing Nureyev and his lover, Danish dancer Erik Bruhn, performed a sensuous dance. At another point, a huge image of a completely naked Nureyev was briefly projected above the stage.
That kind of portrayal was divisive in Russia, a country which adopted a 2013 law outlawing the spreading of "propaganda for non-traditional sexual relations" to minors.
Serebrennikov was detained last August on charges of embezzling state funds provided to pay for a theater production, an allegation he has denied.
Some of his supporters have said he is being victimized because his liberal views have irked social conservatives who have acquired influence in Russian state institutions.
The Kremlin has denied that Serebrennikov's prosecution is politically-motivated.
Other winners of the Prix Benois awards were Brazil's Deborah Colker, joint winner of the choreography prize, Isaac Hernandez of the English National Ballet, joint best male dancer, and Sae Eun Park of the Opera National de Paris, who was best female dancer.
(Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Gareth Jones)
Natalie Romero


text:
Controversial New Program Will Track Your Driving — For Tax Purposes
March 17, 2016 By James Poulos 13 Comments
As state drivers' changing habits undermined roughly a hundred years of gasoline taxes, California officials debuted a controversial new pilot program designed to make up the difference.
"The state of California is looking for 5,000 volunteers this summer for an experiment with potentially major pocketbook ramifications," the Sacramento Bee noted. The so-called California Road Charge pilot program, proposed by the state Legislature, has tasked "Caltrans and other transportation officials to set up a nine-month test to see what it would be like if drivers paid for state road repairs based on how many miles they drive in their cars or trucks rather than how many gallons they buy at the pump."
Aiming for a July start and a nine-month run, the program "already has a list of 4,300 people who are game," according to Next City. "Participants will continue to pay the pump tax, but receive simulated monthly statements detailing how much they would pay under a road usage system."
Losing gas
With gas prices, gas taxes and gasoline usage all sinking, lawmakers have labored to settle on a different way to collect revenue from road usage. "In California, drivers now pay 30 cents per gallon, plus 18 cents a gallon in federal tax," the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
"Not only are politicians averse to raising the tax — which hasn't been bumped up since 1994, with polls showing extreme distaste from voters — but also the continuing rise in fuel efficiency and the boom in electric vehicles ensure the steady evaporation of revenues even as more cars roll up more miles on the road. Gas taxes are expected to bring in $4.5 billion this fiscal year, 16 percent less than last year and 21 percent less than in 2014. Projections call for revenues to drop another 6.5 percent in the coming year."
Just last month, regulators signaled the shifts to come by throwing their weight behind a further drop in the gas tax. "California drivers will pay 2.2 cents less per gallon of gasoline, starting in July, after a divided Board of Equalization voted to cut the excise tax," according to U-T San Diego.
"'Lowering the rate is the right thing to do and I'm sure Californians will welcome this reduction,' board vice chair George Runner said in a statement after the agency voted 3-2 to pass the reduction that was recommended by BOE staff."
From a regulatory standpoint, moving toward a per-mile tax would offer an additional advantage — a relatively smooth and seamless transition from a logistical and bureaucratic standpoint. Of the four vendors recruited to track mileage in the new pilot program, three "are already providing bonus services to fleet managers based on vehicle data," according to Techwire.net.
"Azuga currently offers fleets a device they plug straight into a vehicle's OBDII computer — a standard component in all vehicles made after 1996. Aside from automatically reporting mileage back to fleet managers, the computer is what alerts drivers to specific problems in the engine and can also offer information about what's going on under the hood," the site noted. "Two of the other companies signed up to track the mileage of participants in California's test program, Intelligent Mechatronic Systems and EROAD, offer similar services. The fourth vendor, Arvato Mobility Solutions, will manage the accounts."
Although privacy advocates have expressed skittishness and dismay, many Californians have grown accustomed to their driving habits being monitored electronically. California Road Charge will offer "the option to allow the state to monitor their in-vehicle computer, tracking where they go so they aren't charged for the use of private or out-of-state roads," Next City noted. "Recognizing that many will see this as an intrusion on their privacy, the state is testing other ways to collect this data, like periodic odometer reading verifications. California will also experiment with offering drivers weekly or monthly 'all-you-can-drive' passes."
This article was originally published by CalWatchdog.com
Filed Under: Top Stories Tagged With: Board of Equalization, CalTrans, Car, Driving, James Poulos, taxes, Transportation
Maybe if they did not spend the gas tax money for things other than road maintenance or curtail caltran's waste we would not be short of money to fix the roads
But….but….without the equestrian, bike, and walking trails, just think how congested out streets would be with all those extra people…..and then there's the horse sh*t.
Gotta Gedada Displace says
Any word on whether this next totalitarian step will ALSO track out-of-state and cross-border (unrestricted) NAFTA commercial traffic entering Kalifornia (and what percentage of "fair" road use should THEY be "paying for" ?), or like MOST totalitarian overreach, is it only focused INWARD and DOWNWARD on "low-hanging fruit"?
Randy Townsend says
1) This is California – they could get 5,000 "volunteers" to test new methods of suicide; 2) When the brain trust in Sacramento pushed for everyone to buy a Jetson mobile, they understood these cars did not use gasoline and did not pay the gas tax. For them to now COMPLAIN that these cars do not pay the gas tax is the definition of stupid; 3) Why not simply charge the electric car owners the equivalent of a year's gas tax?; 4) CA's gas tax was, for years, the highest in the nation. Now that it isn't, the pols complain about it? We get the government we deserve.
Bjust says
California has been spending the gas tax on things other than infrastructure for decades, now they want more. We are so glad we got out of the socialist state of california and settled in the conservative state of Idaho. Gas is 1.79/gal, sales tax 6%, Max 7.3% income tax after a 22K exemption, and property tax rate is half of calif for a larger home.
JLSeagull says
Those of us that live in rural areas of northern, eastern and central Kalifornia will get screwed royal because of the longer distances we have to travel for medical appointments, major shopping opportunities, etc. Our nearest Walmart, Home Depot, Staples, etc are 55 miles away. Our nearest Costco, Target, etc. are 112 miles away. Our county seat, jury duty, county offices, etc. are 55 miles away. Of course the urban legislators will pass the legislation and our three assembly members and three senators for the 14 counties in Northern California will get rolled over in the voting. The State of Jefferson can't come soon enough.
Skeptical says
" The State of Jefferson can't come soon enough."
Say, isn't that next to the golden city called El Dorado?
Must be, because both are as likely to reach.
"With gas prices, gas taxes and gasoline usage all sinking, lawmakers have labored to settle on a different way to collect revenue from road usage."
Get the impression that Sacramento assumes money that you think is your property, is actually theirs you are holding until they decide how to spend it?
I SURE DO!
California has been spending the gas tax on things other than infrastructure for decades, now they want more. We are so glad we got out of the socialist state of california and settled in the conservative state of Idaho. Gas is 1.79/gal, sales tax 6%, Max 7.3% income tax after a 22K exemption and social security is not taxed, property tax rate is half of calif for a larger home.
Dntgiveup1 says
Sounds like a great way to discourage electric vehicles and motorcycles….They want to spend money for a useless bullet train and want a way to gather more out of our pockets. So here's the question, if I drive a motorcycle which does less damage on the road and uses less gas than most cars I will then be paying what a car pays and my savings would be mute, now that sounds really fair. California is so politically screwed up and if it were not for my wife I would join Bjust in Idaho. Who keeps electing the likes of Brown, Pelosi, Feinstein, Leno, Boxer and the list goes on, into office?
JET says
CA has got to get it's act together. We are becoming the laughing stock (fools) of the country. I believe Randy Townsend is correct. People here are so stupid… really stupid. and I'm tired of my Florida friends (who can't vote a ballot) reminding me of this.
Fox says
If the ruling elite taxed us at 150% of what we earned, they'd still be angry at us for them not being able to steal even more from us.
They truly do look at our earnings as theirs for the taking whenever
it pleases them to do so.
Gary Marquis says
No gas tax increase.