Louisiana forum, a part of AHF's new national 'AIDS is a Civil Rights Issue' public awareness campaign, takes place during Black History Month. Keynote speaker Reverend Al Sharpton will be followed by a town hall discussion exploring the fact that African Americans & Latinos are disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS. Local partners include Greater King David Baptist Church & Promise Land Baptist Church.
BATON ROUGE (February 25, 2014) In response to the fact that African American and Latino communities continue to be disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has embarked on a new national "AIDS is a Civil Rights Issue" public awareness campaign intended to highlight this health disparity as well as to emphasize the fact that access to HIV prevention, care and treatment for HIV/AIDS should be universal.
As part of its campaign, AHF has teamed with local Louisiana partners Greater King David Baptist Church, Pastor John E. Montgomery and Promise Land Baptist Church, Pastor Perry Wrights Jr., to host an 'AIDS is a Civil Rights Issue' town hall discussion at Greater King David Baptist Church from 6:00pm to 9:00pm on Friday evening, February 28th. The forum—which also takes place during Black History Month and during the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964—is the third in a nationwide series spearheaded by AHF. Reverend Al Sharpton will be keynote speaker followed, by a program featuring a town panel discussion with several respected local community, political, health, religious and HIV/AIDS leaders.
Currently African Americans account for 44% of all people with HIV/AIDS in the United States, yet only account for 12% of the population. Latinos account for 21% of all new HIV infections nationwide, yet only represent 16% of the U.S. population.
Lack of access to clinics for care and HIV testing.
High levels of stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS in these communities prevent people from learning their HIV status, or from seeking care and speaking honestly with their partners if they know they are positive.
Both society and the healthcare industry have marginalized members of these communities both on account of sexual orientation and race, blocking essential treatment, care, and education for those who need it.
Over the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday weekend in January, AHF launched its innovative national 'AIDS is a Civil Rights Issue' billboard campaign. AHF's billboards are intended to serve as a reminder of the fact that African American and Latino communities continue to be disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS compared with their respective percentages of the overall population. The campaign also hopes to send the message that access to HIV prevention and care and treatment for HIV/AIDS should be a universal human right. The billboard campaign is running now in Atlanta, Washington, DC; Columbus, Ohio; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Jackson, Mississippi South Florida and in Los Angeles. In most of the cities, the campaign will also be posted as transit shelter ads.
To address some of the health disparities highlighted in the 'AIDS is a Civil Right Issue" campaign and town hall forum, AIDS Healthcare Foundation recently opened two AHF Healthcare Centers in Southern states: One, in Baton Rouge—AHF Healthcare Center/Baton Rouge, 8281 Goodwood Blvd., Suite D, Baton Rouge, LA 70808, +1 (225) 231-5733; the other, in Jackson, MS—the AHF Healthcare Center/Jackson, 766 Lakeland Dr., Jackson, MS 39216, +1 (877) 470.8071.
AIDS Is A Civil Rights Issue!
Please join us and a multitude of faith-based communities in the South in illuminating and fighting the persisting bias against communities of color as we collectively strive to lower the incidence of HIV/AIDS, and together we can ensure all communities have equal access to the tools we need in this fight.


The term population medicine has recently come into use. I was privileged to spend a few days last month in the Harvard Pilgrim Department of Population Medicine where our agenda included discussion of these definitions. They have defined population medicine as "…the specific activities of the medical care system that, by themselves or in collaboration with partners, promote population health beyond the goals of care of the individuals treated." Much of the discussion centered on how a health care organization, whose day-today work is closely tied to clinical practice, can also take action on the broader determinants of health. I think their definition gets it right. Population medicine is primarily concerned with clinical or health care determinants of health, but acknowledges the vital role of multi-sector partnerships (such as with public health, education, business, and social services) to influence health more broadly.
A colleague in Minnesota has taken this idea a bit further. As a part of the 2014 strategic planning process at HealthPartners in Minneapolis/St.Paul, George Isham worked with staff and board members to identify and commit to those traditional responsibilities over which the organization has influence or control (i.e., healthcare and health behavior). But they are also seeking other opportunities aligned with their mission for which they (as a health care organization) have limited opportunity for direct influence. They are therefore developing partnerships with others to expand the scope of their influence beyond clinical care and health behaviors to the socioeconomic factors and the physical environment. Specific three-year goals were set for these partnership activities in the same way as was done for the traditional health care cost and quality goals of the organization.
Occasionally I hear population health being used to describe the clinical, often chronic disease, outcomes of patients enrolled in a given health plan. Certainly an enrolled patient group can be thought of and managed as a population, but defining population health in terms of patient populations undermines our goal of emphasizing the critical role that non-clinical factors such as education and income play in producing health. Such a view is even more limiting than population medicine, and certainly is not appropriately termed population health from a modern policy framework.
I think we should use the term population medicine to describe and promote efforts by leading clinical organizations to use their professional and financial base to actively participate and partner in improving total population health through a multi-sectoral approach to address broad health outcomes and disparity reductions.
Dave - I greatly appreciate your continued efforts at precision in wording here. Words and definitions do matter, they matter a lot, and I think it's important that we all have a common understanding of definitions - - and, in this case, the distinctions in meaning between "population medicine" and "population health."
then c) what do we call "the specific activities" of anyone else (other than the medical care system) "that, by themselves or in collaboration with partners, promote population health"?
In other words, why are activities that address socioeconomic or physical environmental drivers of health called "population medicine" when the health care sector does them, but not when others do them?
Or, more bluntly, why should only the medical care sector get a special name for its activities in these areas?
Geof raises an interesting question. Another question I have is whether pop med's primary focus is applications in the one-on-one clinical setting rather than clinicians promoting health outside the clinic. The Harvard pop med determinants schematic shows clinical care at the center with social factors influencing it and their website guides address how to bring pop med principles (largely epi) into the clinic.
This ultimately speaks to what we are preparing MD students to do. Should competencies for MD students in pop med/pop health focus on both clinical applications and going beyond the clinic? One more than the other? What does the new MD look like?


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MLB Update: 04/21/2021
We're back for another episode breaking down everything that has happened in MLB over the past couple of weeks. We touch on the two no-hitter, Corbin Burnes' hot start, the Braves and Yankees struggles and so much more.
Plus, we give you the usual Commonwealth College Baseball update and ponder whether there could be a baseball Super League. Tune in!
Top 3 Moments from Week 1
We've gotten through one week of the 2021 MLB season and there is already so much to talk about! Trey Lyle and I sit down today to go over our top moments from the first days of the season and some of the biggest overreactions we are having to the way teams are playing so far.
Plus, a bit of injury news regarding one of the game's top talents, but it's not as bad as it could've been. Tune in for all that and more on today's episode!
Happy Opening Day and AL Preview
Opening Day 2021 is here! After a shortened 60-game season last year, we're getting a full 162 games this season, and we are ready for all of it. Last week we gave you our predictions and preview for the National League, and this week we're shifting to the American League.
Tune in as we go through the win total odds for each team in the AL and give our predictions on division winners, World Series matchup and more!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


This project involved selective demolition and renovation of an existing space for the construction of a new, 6,812 square foot swim school for the Aqua-Tots Swim Schools franchise. Work involved construction of a pool, changing rooms, 4 bathrooms with showers and a lobby as well as the installation of new HVAC equipment and a new electrical and duct system. Plumbing, safety flooring, acoustical tile ceilings, and aluminum storefront windows surrounding three sides of the pool were other major components of the scope of work.


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New dwarf galaxies discovered in orbit around the Milky Way
Welcome to the neighbourhood: new dwarf galaxies discovered in orbit around the Milky Way
Astronomers have discovered a 'treasure trove' of rare dwarf satellite galaxies orbiting our own Milky Way. The discoveries could hold the key to understanding dark matter, the mysterious substance which holds our galaxy together.
A 'galactic hailstorm' in the early Universe
Astronomers have been able to peer back to the young Universe to determine how quasars – powered by supermassive black holes with the mass of a billion suns – form and shape the evolution of galaxies.
Astronomers discover the 'Mighty Mouse' of stellar remnants
An international team of astronomers has found a pulsating, dead star beaming with the energy of about 10 million suns. This is the brightest pulsar – a dense stellar remnant left over from a supernova explosion – ever recorded.
The most detailed exoplanet weather map ever
In this artist illustration the Jupiter sized planet WASP-43b orbits its parent star in what is one of the closest orbits ever measured for an exoplanet of its size — with a year lasting just 19 hours. The planet is tidally locked meaning it keeps one hemisphere facing the star, just as our Moon keeps one face toward Earth. The colour gradient on the planet represents the temperature across its atmosphere. This is based on data from a recent study that mapped the temperature of WASP-43b in more detail than has been done for any other exoplanet. Credit ESA, NASA.
Clear skies on exo-Neptune
This is an artist's concept of the silhouette of the extrasolar planet HAT-P-11b as it passes its parent star. The planet was observed as it crossed in front of its star in order to learn more about its atmosphere. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Gaia discovers its first supernova
Image caption: An artist's impression of a Type Ia supernova – the explosion of a white dwarf locked in a binary system with a companion star (Credit: ESA/ATG medialab/C. Carreau). The inset figure shows a low-resolution spectrum obtained with the photometric instrument on Gaia of the supernova. (Credits: ESA/Gaia/DPAC/N. Blagorodnova).
Highest-precision measurement of water in planet outside the solar system
The discovery of water vapour in the atmospheres of three exoplanets includes the most precise measurement of any chemical in a planet outside the solar system, and has major implications for planet formation and the search for water on Earth-like habitable exoplanets in future.
Astronomers create first realistic virtual universe
Tracking 13 billion years of cosmic evolution, astronomers have created the first realistic virtual simulation of the Universe.
A newly-developed computer simulation has created the first realistic version of the Universe, enabling researchers to understand how galaxies, black holes and other cosmic phenomena developed from shortly after the Big Bang to the present day.
Stellar Stuff - Gaia Live in Schools
An IoA, Cambridge-led outreach project is connecting over 2,200 pupils with the excitement of ESA's Gaia mission through a Q&A session that will take place tomorrow with the discussion streamed live to schools throughout Europe.
Will Gaia discover habitable planets similar to the Earth? Is the Universe infinite? Could Gaia be hit by a piece of space debris as in the film Gravity? How many planets are there in the Milky Way?


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THIS might be deemed the meal of last choice but a wide cross-section of the community banded together to ensure every bite is worth it. City of Ballarat hosted more than 100 people for lunch to blind-taste a three-course meal from two providers in the final stage of the Meals on Wheels tender process. This is the second time the City of Ballarat has held as taste test as part of the tender process. Ballarat deputy mayor Jim Rinaldi felt, as a councillor, it was important to actually taste the food and governance side of Meals on Wheels rather than rely on experts' opinion for council approval. "The last contract we had I wasn't involved and there was certainly a lot of discussion at that time about who got the contract. I wanted to make sure this time I was involved so I really understood the governance involved and how this works," Cr Rinaldi said. Participants compared entrees, mains and dessert from each applicant, which remains anonymous in the tender process. Texture-modified food, designed to dissolve on the tongue, was also available to taste and compare for clients who might have issues swallowing. City of Ballarat active ageing members Gwen Austin and Val Fitzpatrick said it was a privilege to offer their opinion. "I think old people are entitled to get good meals as much as anybody," Ms Austin said. Meals must meet a stringent set of nutritional content. The tender process has also focused on produce, with a preference for local ingredients and fresh food, as well as good value for money. This has included site visits. The tasting session, like a television cooking competition, was about taste and presentation for a wide cross-section of the community, including The Courier. City of Ballarat active ageing executive manager Ann Pitt said the ultimate test was whether you would appreciate such a meal for your tea. "For people getting Meals on Wheels, it is the meal of last choice when you can no longer look after your own cooking needs or get your own nutrition and you're nutritionally at risk," Ms Pitt said. "It's important to get the smell, the taste, the look right. As people age, their desire to eat drops off. We want it to be the food they like to eat. We're back in the '80s, comfort food. Lamb's fry and bacon is a must in winter, as well as mashed potato with lots of meals and casseroles are popular, too. For dessert, Ms Pitt said customers want real custard. Once the tender is awarded, a community panel will review the menu with the caterer. City of Ballarat supplies about 80,000 main meals, 40,000 desserts, 15,000 sandwiches and 14,000 soups to 400 meal recipients across the municipality each year. Have you signed up to The Courier's variety of news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in Ballarat.
https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/crop/frm/XBHRDThPr8rZ8LC4FzPP7b/3d05d4fa-7b4a-4490-9f59-3235044376f1.jpg/r0_158_4267_2569_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg
June 7 2019 - 6:30PM
Cook-off puts City of Ballarat's Meals on Wheels catering hopefuls to test
Melanie Whelan
GWen Austin and Val Fitzpatrick. Picture: Lachlan Bence
THIS might be deemed the meal of last choice but a wide cross-section of the community banded together to ensure every bite is worth it.
City of Ballarat hosted more than 100 people for lunch to blind-taste a three-course meal from two providers in the final stage of the Meals on Wheels tender process.
This is the second time the City of Ballarat has held as taste test as part of the tender process.
Ballarat deputy mayor Jim Rinaldi felt, as a councillor, it was important to actually taste the food and governance side of Meals on Wheels rather than rely on experts' opinion for council approval.
"The last contract we had I wasn't involved and there was certainly a lot of discussion at that time about who got the contract. I wanted to make sure this time I was involved so I really understood the governance involved and how this works," Cr Rinaldi said.
We are talking about the most vulnerable people in our communities and if we provide them with better food, than it's better for their health and keeps them at home longer being self-sufficient - that's crucial.
Ballarat deputy mayor Jim Rinaldi
READ MORE:Meals on Wheels - the shutdown, the whistle-blower and a multi-million dollar claim
Participants compared entrees, mains and dessert from each applicant, which remains anonymous in the tender process. Texture-modified food, designed to dissolve on the tongue, was also available to taste and compare for clients who might have issues swallowing.
City of Ballarat active ageing members Gwen Austin and Val Fitzpatrick said it was a privilege to offer their opinion.
"I think old people are entitled to get good meals as much as anybody," Ms Austin said.
Meals must meet a stringent set of nutritional content. The tender process has also focused on produce, with a preference for local ingredients and fresh food, as well as good value for money. This has included site visits.
The tasting session, like a television cooking competition, was about taste and presentation for a wide cross-section of the community, including The Courier.
City of Ballarat active ageing executive manager Ann Pitt said the ultimate test was whether you would appreciate such a meal for your tea.
"For people getting Meals on Wheels, it is the meal of last choice when you can no longer look after your own cooking needs or get your own nutrition and you're nutritionally at risk," Ms Pitt said.
"It's important to get the smell, the taste, the look right. As people age, their desire to eat drops off. We want it to be the food they like to eat. We're back in the '80s, comfort food.
It's no good putting up trendy food because it's what we like - they won't eat it.
Lamb's fry and bacon is a must in winter, as well as mashed potato with lots of meals and casseroles are popular, too. For dessert, Ms Pitt said customers want real custard.
Once the tender is awarded, a community panel will review the menu with the caterer.
City of Ballarat supplies about 80,000 main meals, 40,000 desserts, 15,000 sandwiches and 14,000 soups to 400 meal recipients across the municipality each year.
Have you signed up to The Courier's variety of news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in Ballarat.


For holiday feasts, that is. I have nothing, exactly, against the standard green bean, mushroom soup, onion things casserole. But unless you make it from scratch, it just doesn't compare, for flavor with this easy and candy-esque treatment for b'sprouts. One of the secrets, of course, is bacon. The other is to cook the heck out of the sprouts until they are the kind of candy you like.


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Legal Reference Material
Encyclopedia of Law & Economics
0500 SCHOOLS: GENERAL (PROOFS 25-9-98)
Encyclopedia of Law & Economics - 0500 SCHOOLS: GENERAL (PROOFS 25-9-98)
SCHOOLS: GENERAL (PROOFS 25-9-98)
Ejan Mackaay
University of Montreal
© Copyright 1998 Ejan Mackaay
1. Introduction: Schools in General
2. Common Ground in Law and Economics
3. Schools in Law and Economics
Bibliography on Schools: General (0500)
The concept of schools is used to summarise the ideas of thinkers who share common premises on how and what to research, and to contrast them with those of other schools. It is an expositional convenience and should be used only when the differences touch fundamental matters of the field of research. The differences between schools focus attention on questions to be resolved by further research.
Within the current law and economics movement, besides the mainstream, the institutionalists, the neoinstitutionalists and the Austrians constitute distinct schools. Whether the New Haven School constitutes a distinct school is debatable.
JEL classification : K00
Keywords : Law and Economics in General, Schools
A school of thought in scientific endeavour is a group of thinkers who adopt a common approach, including shared theoretical premises, on how and what to research in a particular field. The term is also used as shorthand for the ideas those thinkers defend.
Originally the term school may have designated a major thinker, founder of the school, and his or her disciples. In current usage the link to a common intellectual leader is no longer essential. The members of a school of thought may, but need not themselves claim allegiance to the school. Members of a school may consider that the adherence to a set of common precepts allows them to build on each other's work and so to attain economies of scale in research not available if they worked in isolation.
When should we distinguish schools? To speak of schools, one must see groups of scholars defending contrasting, even incompatible views about fundamental aspects of a field of research and these views must have a certain complexity and logical coherence ( De Geest, 1995, p. 458 ). Classifying such views into schools facilitates exposition ( Teijl and Holzhauer, 1990, p. 622 ; Teijl and Holzhauer, 1997, p. 8 ). We understand through contrasts. Presentation of schools focuses attention on their differences, which further research, theoretical as well as empirical, should aim at resolving.
The convenience of summarising the thinking within a school through the common ideas should not lead one to disregard the differences amongst the thinkers belonging to that school. Menger, Mises and Hayek, all belonging to the Austrian school of economics, share ideas of spontaneous order and a reluctance towards government intervention designed to correct its imperfections. But they differ in that, for instance, Mises is clearly more aprioristic and deductive in his reasoning than is Hayek and sees no room for empirical testing of his ideas, something Hayek admitted ( Teijl and Holzhauer, 1997, p. 121-128 ). Whether the Austrian school itself should be distinguished from the neo-classical mainstream is sometimes questioned within economics proper: 'With all the respect due to "Austrian" economics, its latter-day insistence to differentiate itself from the neo-classical mainstream seems more important to a small band of its practitioners than to the bystander. What matters is that Menger and Wieser argued within the same rational choice "paradigm" as Marshall and Edgeworth.' ( de Jasay, 1992, p. 337 )
Legal theory shows many instances of schools. The legal realists in the United States, associated with the names of Holmes, Frank, Llewellyn and others, were united in their reaction against what they presented as the excesses of positivism in American law schools of the late 19th and early 20th century. During the same period in France, the ' école de la libre recherche scientifique ' [Free scientific research school] of Gény and Saleilles was a comparable reaction against the earlier ' école de l'exégèse ' [Exegetic School], to whom they attributed the view that law was strictly to be found in the Code and statutes. The historical school of Savigny and others in Germany, followed by Maine, Maitland and others in the UK, reacted against what was considered excessive reliance on logic and aprioristic reasoning in German legal thinking at the time. In their view law was to be seen 'as something which evolved from the instinctive sense of right of the community and developed in and by reason of particular social, economic, and other contexts' ( Walker, 1980, p. 1106 ).
1.2 Movements
It is useful to consider a few related terms. Movement is a broader term than school of thought. It designates a large grouping of people loosely sharing scientific or practical, in particular political aims. One could speak of the law-and-economics movement, but scarcely of the law-and-economics school.
1.3 Paradigms
Since the 1960s, two new terms, paradigm and research programme, are used to describe aspects of the evolution of scientific thinking ( De Geest, 1995, p. 389 f. ). Paradigm in normal usage is a very clear or typical example of something. With respect to the evolution of the sciences, it acquired a different meaning as a result of Thomas Kuhn's book ( Kuhn, 1970 ). The term 'research programme' is due to Lakatos, writing in reaction to Kuhn ( Lakatos, 1970 ).
The puzzle Kuhn sought to explain is how science grows. The collapse of the best-corroborated scientific theory of all times, Newton's mechanics and gravitation theory, in favour of Einstein's ideas had scattered the view of scientific growth 'by accumulation of eternal truths' ( Lakatos, 1970, p. 92 ). Popper had used this and like episodes to argue that the best way forward in science is not so much by seeking confirmation of one's ideas through observation, but by seeking ruthlessly to disprove them. The force of scientific theories lies in the attempted refutations they have so far withstood.
Do scientists effectively proceed in this manner? Kuhn's reading of the history of science leads him to argue that they do not. During periods of what Kuhn terms 'normal science', the practitioners of a scientific discipline let themselves be guided by a shared fundamental theory and view of 'methods, problem-field, and standard of solution' ( Kuhn, 1970, p. 103 ). These shared ideas Kuhn termed the paradigm ( Kuhn, 1970, p. 10 ). To attract a following amongst scientists, the paradigm must account for observations and regularities considered certain within the discipline, and for some new ones; it must also be open-ended enough to set a range of new puzzles to be solved. During this period of 'normal science', scientists are engaged in puzzle-solving and the discipline advances without the paradigm being questioned ( Kuhn, 1970, p. 10 ).
As research proceeds and empirical results accumulate, one finds observations tending to support the theory, but also some which tend to disconfirm it. If the latter concern puzzles at the periphery of the theory, one attempts to refine it to yield predictions that better accord with observation. But the contrary evidence may also concern more fundamental aspects of the theory. Such observations do not immediately lead one to consider the current theory refuted. Rather such instances are provisionally set aside as anomalies.
As the number of known anomalies grows, there comes a point when some practitioners of the discipline no longer consider the current paradigm tenable and start looking for a modified or improved one. As this sentiment spreads, the discipline enters into a crisis: practitioners are no longer convinced that their theory and associated research procedures are well-founded. An outsider may have the impression that research stagnates and that there are interminable discussions about foundations and methodology.
As the crisis deepens the stage is set for a new paradigm to be proposed. The acceptance of the new paradigm bring about what Kuhn calls a scientific revolution. The fundamental advances in science are in his view the result of such revolutions.
1.4 Research Programmes
In Lakatos' eyes scientific advances do not all come by way of revolutions and Kuhn's view suffers furthermore from the difficulty that the transition from one paradigm to another appears to be based on the psychology of researchers rather than on reason. Lakatos sees within any discipline or sub-discipline several competing 'research programmes' which specify at their 'hard core' a set of unquestioned premises about the discipline ( Lakatos, 1970, p. 133 ) and at their periphery a 'protective belt' of matters for which the theory may be further elaborated and which may be subjected to empirical testing. At the periphery, one accepts negative test results without considering the theory refuted. They invite further refinement of the theory.
On this view, scientists adhere to a research programme because of its plausibility and the research agenda it implies. Progressive research programmes, offering a wide open research agenda, attract many practitioners, 'degenerating' or declining research programmes are progressively abandoned. Growth of scientific knowledge in this view is more like the competitive process with which economists are familiar rather than like a 'religious conversion' ( Lakatos, 1970, p. 93 ), 'a bandwagon effect' ( Lakatos, 1970, p. 178 ).
1.5 Paradigms and Research Programmes in Law and Economics ?
Do the concepts of paradigms and research programmes apply to law and economics? Kuhn himself is doubtful about the application of his ideas to the social sciences generally, which he consider pre-scientific. He concedes that any group of scientists may adopt common beliefs and practices to guide their endeavours (even a phlogiston theory), but stresses the difference between such a paradigm and the one guiding the activity of the practitioners of a 'mature' science.
About the 'the transition from the pre- to the post-paradigm period in the development of a scientific field' he writes: 'Before it occurs, a number of schools compete for the domination of a given field. Afterward, in the wake of some notable scientific achievement, the number of schools is greatly reduced, ordinarily to one, and a more efficient mode of science practice begins. The latter is generally esoteric and oriented to puzzle-solving, as the work of a group can be only when its members take the foundations of their field for granted' ( Kuhn, 1970, p. 178 ) and he continues '[w]hat changes with the transition to maturity is not the presence of a paradigm but rather its nature. Only after the change is normal puzzle-solving research possible. Many of the attributes of a developed science which I have above associated with the acquisition of a paradigm I would therefore now discuss as consequences of the acquisition of the sort of paradigm that identifies challenging puzzles, supplies clues to their solution, and guarantees that the truly clever practitioner will succeed.' ( Kuhn, 1970, p. 179 ).
Blaug (1980) considers paradigms and research programmes for economics at large. He concludes that a presentation in terms of competing and partly overlapping research programmes is apposite and to be preferred to one in terms of revolutions. He speaks nonetheless of the marginalist revolution in the latter part of the 19th century and of the Keynesian Revolution in the 1930s. Wolin (1980) applies Kuhn's ideas to political science, but adopts as the criterion for the merit of a theory the extent to which it is acceptable to various political actors. The approach allows him to demonstrate what he considers to be a paradigm shift in his discipline. But it leaves the reader with the uncomfortable question of what distinguishes a scientific paradigm from a shared social or religious outlook, or even a mere fashion. Surely the distinction must ultimately rest on the possibility to account for observations and to make testable predictions.
Can these concepts of the paradigms and research programmes be usefully applied to law-and-economics? Several writers have recently considered this question ( Rubin, 1985 ; Veljanovski, 1985 ; De Geest, 1995, p. 389 f. ; van den Hauwe, 1996 ; Teijl and Holzhauer, 1997, p. 7 f. ; Ellickson, 1998 ; Posner, 1998 ). If the answer is affirmative, further questions concern the scope of the paradigm or research programme and the grounds for preferring one paradigm or research programme to another.
In the piece on the History of Law and Economics (0200) the term 'paradigm' was loosely used in describing different periods of the latest wave of law and economics. The 1950s, 1960s and 1970s might be described, loosely again, as periods of 'normal science': the research agenda seemed clear and researchers spent their time solving puzzles indicated by the 'paradigm'. The 1980s brought debates about various foundational questions. Since then several competing 'schools' present themselves in the law and economics literature. In Kuhn's terms, that could indicate attempts to establish a first scientific paradigm or a crisis in the existing paradigm.
To accept the latter hypothesis, one would have to be able to point to a set of unquestionable scientific accomplishments and to anomalies giving rise to the crisis. Ellickson (1998, p. 551) professes to see the latter in the blindness of the 'classical law and economics' to 'social norms' (which, in his view, would have an entirely different twist to the problem situations envisaged in the Coase theorem). Posner (1998, p. 565) sees no crisis but merely new puzzles to be solved within the existing research programme, the core of which, in his view, is the rational choice theory. 'A paradigm shift occurs when a theory no longer furnishes acceptable answers to the questions that trouble current researchers, not when it is modified or enriched to cope with new questions or questions previously beyond the grasp of the theory.' ( Posner, 1998, 564 )
The question of the criteria to be used for choosing amongst competing theories or research programmes is debated in ( Rubin, 1985 ; Veljanovski, 1985 ; De Geest, 1995, p. 389 f. ; van den Hauwe, 1996 ; Teijl and Holzhauer, 1997, p. 7 f. ; Posner, 1998 ). Posner (1998, p. 555) recalls Friedman's prediction test in writing that 'a theory that does not generate predictions is difficult to feel comfortable with.' De Geest, after a lengthy discussion of the issue, proposes what he terms a 'plausibility theory' ( 1995, p. 407 f. ), which is criticised by ( van den Hauwe, 1996 ). In De Geest's view, the 'mainstream approach' to law and economics is sufficiently open-ended to absorb, by way of puzzles to be solved, the ideas which are now put forward by competing 'schools'. This view appears close to Posner's (1998) .
Teijl and Holzhauer (1997) undertake a comparison of what the 'Chicago school' and the 'Austrian School' have to contribute to law and economics. The Austrian School considers that the optima on which much Chicago law and economics relies are indeterminable. The approaches appear to be radically incompatible and this obliges the authors squarely to face the question of the criteria for choosing between rival approaches. The difficulty is to avoid judging the performance of one approach in terms set by the other. Teijl and Holzhauer opt for the framework of research programmes put forth by Lakatos and propose to examine what each approach has to say on a range of practical legal puzzles within the fields of contracts, tort liability and litigation. In each case, they seek answers to three questions: what are the effects of legal rules? To what extent do they contribute to society's welfare? How to explain the emergence and contents of legal rules? (Teijl and Holzhauer 1998, p. 35)???. At the end of their study, Austrian economics is presented as perhaps more like the 'armchair economics' than its practitioners would like to admit. Nonetheless the authors profess, in conclusion, to be unable to state a preference between these theories on objective grounds. Ultimately the choice is a matter of acceptance within the scientific community (Teijl and Holzhauer 1998, p. 365)???
Before examining the different schools within law and economics, it may be helpful to summarise the common principles which set law and economics approaches off against other intellectual currents such as Critical Legal Studies, and feminism. As for the sociology of law, popular in Europe in particular as a link between the social sciences and the law, there is debate about the extent to which its practitioners share the premises set out below, in particular the postulate of methodological individualism.
All law and economics research is aimed at gaining new insights in the law by applying economic concepts and theories. The underlying premises are those of economics proper.
2.1 Methodological Individualism
The first premise is the postulate of methodological individualism . According to this postulate all analyses must ultimately be couched in terms of the behaviour of individuals; all collective phenomena must be explained as compositions or perverse effects of individual decisions.
By way of an example, consider the 'urban war' in Amsterdam in the late 1970s and early 1980s opposing about 3000 squatters and their sympathisers amongst the public at large to the police. One might be tempted to attribute this to the climate of the times, in Amsterdam in particular, to large unemployment amongst the young, to the housing crisis. All of these factors have some plausibility but do not touch the heart of the matter. They do not explain how individual participants in this development could rationally act as they did and yet arrive at a collective disaster.
The source of the problem was the rent control policy then in force in the Netherlands. It granted tenants fixed rents and almost unassailable occupancy of rented premises, and placed severe restrictions on what landlords could do with their property. This led landlords recovering possession of their premises to leave them empty while waiting for permission to renovate. As a result there were a lot of vacant buildings in the city. This in turn led squatters forcibly to occupy such buildings, a practice which the courts were reluctant to stop. Once legal ways had been found to secure eviction of squatters, there remained the practical problem of enforcing the judgements. The police called in to enforce were facing a determined group defending a vested interest.
This explanation accounts for the 'climate' which developed in Amsterdam in that period. Each step of the development is the result of transparent rational choices made by actors in this game. The overall disaster is a perverse 'composition' effect which the law should seek to avoid.
2.2 Rational Choice
Individual decision-makers are presumed, secondly, to be rationally maximising their satisfactions, or their benefits over costs, as they see them (the rational choice hypothesis ). This hypothesis is essential for scientific work in that '[i]f people do not behave in predictable ways, then the idea that we can regulate society by laws and incentives becomes untenable'. ( Veljanovski, 1990, p. 35 ). It allows one to flesh out predictions of how individuals are expected to react to changes in their environment.
The realism of the rational choice hypothesis is questioned principally on two grounds. Psychological research tends to show that people's decisions tend to deviate from the rational choice model in situations involving in particular small probabilities or great complexity. We do not appear to have the intellectual hardware to perform the calculations that the full rationality assumption attributes to us. Furthermore in real life individuals face decisions fraught with risk or uncertainty. They are often imperfectly informed about the stakes. There is debate about what rationality means in a context where decision-makers cannot assess the extent of their own ignorance. As we shall see, these difficulties are the focus of criticism by both the institutional and Austrian schools. The critics propose to attenuate the rationality postulate, but not to reject it. It is one of the matters on which the survey of the history of law and economics ( 0200 ) sees room for further research.
2.3 Stable Preferences
A third premise is that of stable preferences ( Becker, 1976, p. 5 ). Admittedly, preferences are not given at birth, by biological necessity, to remain fixed during one's lifetime; they are shaped or reshaped during one's youth and may shift more slowly during later life. Cultural influences may thus be accounted for ( Becker, 1996, p. 3 ; Sowell, 1998 ). Yet to make predictions of how individuals will react to change, one must presume their preferences to remain constant in the short run. Whoever submits that preferences have changed must adduce evidence to that effect.
2.4 Equilibrium
A fourth premise concerns what happens in human interaction. Barring disturbance, interactions are presumed to tend towards an equilibrium , described in bare form by game theory and more elaborately by economic theory dealing with markets, in which (implicit) price adjustments in the process of competition tend to equalise supply and demand for a good or service. Becker (1976, p. 5 f.) considers the premise of market equilibrium to be applicable to implicit markets in politics, marriage and other areas as much as to markets in which transactions involving money take place.
Within a community as large as the law-and-economics movement, one must expect differences of opinion about research matters. They may concern such questions as whether particular anomalies should count as tolerable within the existing theoretical framework, rather than as refutations calling for rejection or revision of the theory, or what is admissible simplification of reality within a model as opposed to unacceptable reductionism. In law-and-economics, different views are expressed, for instance, on whether inconsistencies in choice or the practice of rule following should call into question the postulate of rational choice.
Not all differences of opinion indicate distinct schools. The term schools ought to be reserved for situations in which several fundamental differences of opinion coalesce to form incompatible approaches at a relatively fundamental level.
The Encyclopedia itself distinguishes in its classification several schools and approaches: Austrian School, Institutionalism, New Institutional Economics, Property Rights Approach, Game Theory Applied to Law, Comparative Law & Economics, Experimental Law & Economics, Law & Economics and Development. Some authors profess to discern even further schools: 'Law and economics and critical legal studies are richly diverse intellectual movements involving a multitude of individual views, methodologies, "schools," and diverse theoretical traditions. (...) There are, however, other "schools" [than the Chicago school] within law and economics that exhibit different perspectives. The New Haven school, of Yale University, for instance, has attracted liberal practitioners who adopt the common methodology of the Chicago school but believe that there is a larger need for state intervention in order to cure problems involving market failure' ( Minda, 1989, p. 111-112 ).
Let us briefly look at each of these 'schools, to determine whether the term school is justified. For convenience we begin with the last item of the classification in the Encyclopedia.
'Law & Economics and Development' is a field to be investigated with the tools of law and economics, but should not be seen as a distinct school. 'Comparative Law & Economics' too is a field for the application of law and economics. It is all the more promising as it exposes law and economics methodology to the test of being applied to legal systems different from its home base of American law and possibly being found wanting. This is not a distinct school, but rather a focus which gives larger scope to existing approaches. 'Game Theory Applied to Law' and 'Experimental Law & Economics' are promising tools or approaches with which to broach law and economics questions. They are not in opposition to older approaches, but complement them.
3.1 The Property Rights Approach
The 'Property Rights Approach' is presented in the chapter on History ( 0200 ) as the name economists gave to their attempts at solving a puzzle in economics proper. In neo-classical economic theory--still according to Demetz (1997, p. 1) 'the central theory of economics'--organizations and the behaviour of individuals within them are puzzling. In studying decentralised socialist enterprises in the former Yugoslavia, for example, one does not get far by examining policies adopted the owner of the capital goods, which is to say the State or the bureaucrats nominally in charge of the enterprise ( Furubotn and Pejovich, 1974b, p. 250 ; Barzel, 1989, p. 98-113 ). It is more instructive to look at the preferences and decisions of the workers, who were in charge, through the Workers Council, of the policy decisions for their firm. Focusing on the workers, one can readily explain why such firms were loath to let workers go in circumstances which would make such a decision seem logical for a comparable Western firm: the workers making such decisions would cut the branch on which they were sitting.
More puzzling is the question why the firms did not maximise worker salaries, but instead retained some profit as savings for future investments. Why would workers invest in capital goods they did not own? As Furubotn and Pejovich explain, workers would find this to be in their interest in so far as it maximised the present value of the future income stream paid to the average employee. Their conclusion is that the behaviour of the Yugoslav firm is explicable in terms of rational decisions by persons who actually control the use of the resources in the firm. The heuristic Furubotn and Pejovich draw from this insight is that to explain the behaviour of the firm, one must look at the 'property-rights structure' at all levels ( Furubotn and Pejovich, 1974b, p. 251 ).
It is clear that the term 'property-rights structure' is not used here in its legal sense. Property rights, in this usage, mean 'decision authority' ( Libecap, 1989, p. 1 ), the actual power to control the use of a good and to appropriate the fruits. Property rights in this economic sense are a descriptive term, more general than 'right of ownership' ( Furubotn and Pejovich, 1974a, p. 4 ). When one speaks of 'my office', 'my secretary' or when a gang speaks of 'its territory' the possessive term is used in this sense.
The term 'property rights' used in the 'property rights approach' has created confusion with the legal meaning of the term. Be that as it may, the approach no longer seems to constitute a separate school. Its insights have been absorbed into law and economics proper as Posner first unified it.
3.2 The Austrian and Institutionalist Schools
The clearest case for distinct schools within the classification adopted in the Encyclopedia could be made for the Austrians and for the old and the new Institutionalist approaches, in contrast to the mainstream or Chicago approach to Law and Economics. The distinctions correspond to 'schools' in economics proper.
Readers are referred to the chapters on these three schools (0510, 0520 and 0530) for detailed accounts of what these schools stand for and the differences with the mainstream approach. The differences between schools and the mainstream point to matters that are part of the agenda for future research presented in the conclusion of the piece on the History of Law and Economics (0200): the role of institutions, historical research, the place of uncertainty, discovery and entrepreneurship, strategic behaviour and bounded rationality.
3.3 The New Haven School
Minda sees room for the New Haven school: 'There are, however, other "schools" within law and economics that exhibit different perspectives. The New Haven school, of Yale University, for instance, has attracted liberal practitioners who adopt the common methodology of the Chicago school but believe that there is a larger need for state intervention in order to cure problems involving market failure.' ( Minda, 1989, p. 111-112 ). The school warrants an 'Aside' in Mercuro and Medema's chapter on Chicago Law and Economics ( Mercuro and Medema, 1997, p. 79-83 ).
The New Haven school goes back to the writings of Calabresi (see review of history of law and economics - 0200), whose views are quite distinct from the Chicago law and economics ( Duxbury, 1995, p. 393 ). Without taking issue with any of the postulates of the neoclassical model, Calabresi believes that efficiency which the model stresses could never be the whole story in so far as legal rules are concerned. Justice and distributional concerns would always have to have their due ( Duxbury, 1995, p. 393 ).
Susan Rose-Ackerman articulates what she sees as the central tenets of the 'school' following in Calabresi's footsteps ( Mercuro and Medema, 1997, p. 79-83 ; Rose-Ackerman, 1989 , 1992 ). Distributional concerns remain central. Market failure is held to be more prevalent than Chicago law and economics would make it out to be and government intervention is expected to be capable of correcting it, although it may not succeed in all circumstances. The overall philosophy of this group is presented as less 'politically conservative' than the Chicago law and economics group and the public choice group.
On the whole, the differences seem to be a matter of political colour. The theoretical premises and methods the New Haven group adopt are insufficiently distinct from the mainstream view to constitute a separate school.
3.4 The Freiburg School
The Ordo-Liberal or Freiburg school of law and economics is now mainly of historical interest. It was founded in the 1930s and influential in the years immediately following the Second World War. It included well-known scholars and politicians such as Walter Eucken, Wilhelm Roepke, Ludwig Erhard, Franz Böhm. The School has only recently been recognised internationally as an interesting intellectual current of law and economics, as a result of the translation of the major works of Böhm and Eucken in particular. ( Vanberg, 1998, p. 172 ). Several articles on the movement as a whole and on individual members have appeared recently (Streit 1992???; Backhaus 1996 ; Behrens, 1984, p. 8 ; Behrens 1993???; Grossekettler 1996 ; Lenel 1996 ).
The Freiburg school focused on the proper role of government in an open society which had evolved out of the earlier feudal structures, on preventing factions from controlling the state and on competition policy as fostered by the state. The paradox of the state as grantor of special privileges and at the same time as guarantor of competition was, in their view, to be solved by constitutional design. This focus brings them close to the agenda of the public choice and the constitutional political economy groups.
Schools are an expositional convenience to summarise the ideas of thinkers who share common premises on how and what to research, and to contrast these with those of other schools. They focus attention on questions for further research. One should not lay too much stress on the alleged differences amongst schools ( De Geest, 1995, p. 468 ). It may be worthwhile to see them as puzzles to be solved within a broadly defined 'mainstream approach' ( Posner, 1998 ).
Within the current law and economics movement, the mainstream, the institutionalists, the neoinstitutionalists and the Austrians may be regarded as distinct schools, as they are in economics proper. Whether the New Haven School constitutes a distinct school is a moot point.
The differences between the schools point to questions which should be part of the agenda for future research: the role of institutions, historical research, the place of uncertainty, discovery and entrepreneurship, strategic behaviour and bounded rationality. These matters have been presented in the piece on the History of Law and Economics (0200) .
Backhaus, Juergen (1996) , Franz Böhm issue, 3 European Journal of Law and Economics , 297-376.
Barzel, Yoram (1989) , Economic Analysis of Property Rights , Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Becker, Gary S. (1976) , The Economic Approach to Human Behavior , Chicago, The University of Chicago Press.
Becker, Gary S. (1996) , Accounting for Tastes , Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press.
Behrens, Peter (1984) , Die Ökonomischen Grundlagen des Rechts - Politische Ökonomie als Rationale Jurisprudenz [The Economic Foundations of Law - Political Economy as Rational Jurisprudence], Tübingen, J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck).
Blaug, Mark (1980) , 'Kuhn versus Lakatos, or Paradigms versus Research Programmes in the History of Economics, in Gutting, Gary (ed.), Paradigms and Revolutions - Appraisals and applications of Thomas Kuhn's Philosophy of Science, Notre Dame, University of Notre Dame Press, 137-159.
De Geest, Gerrit (1995) , Economische Analyse van het Contracten- en Quasi-Contractenrecht - Een Onderzoek naar de Wetenschappelijke Waarde van de Rechtseconomie [Economic Analysis of Contract and Quasi-Contract Law - An Inquiry into the scientific Merit of the Economic Analysis of Law], Antwerpen, Maklu Uitgevers.
de Jasay, Anthony (1992) , 'Rational Choice in Conflict', in Radnitzky, Gerard (ed.), Universal Economics - Assessing the Achievements of the Economic Approach, New York, Paragon House, 327-338.
Demsetz, Harold (1997) , The Economics of the Business Firm - Seven Critical Commentaries , Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Duxbury, Neil (1995) , Patterns of American Jurisprudence , Oxford, Clarendon Press.
Ellickson, Robert C. (1998) , 'Law and Economics Discovers Norms', 27 Journal of Legal Studies , 537-552.
Friedman, Milton (1953) , 'The Methodology of Positive Economics', in Friedman, Milton (ed.), Essays in Positive Economics, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1-43.
Furubotn, Eirik G. and Pejovich, Svetozar (1974a) , The Economics of Property Rights , Cambridge, MA, Ballinger Publishing Cy.
Furubotn, Eirik G. and Pejovich, Svetozar (1974b) , 'Property Rights and the Behavior of the Firm in a Socialist State: The Example of Yugoslavia', in Furubotn, Eirik G. and Pejovich, Svetozar (eds.), The Economics of Property Rights, Cambridge, MA, Ballinger Publishing Cy, 227-251.
Grossekettler, Heinz (1996) , 'Franz Böhm as a Pioneering Champion of an Economic Theory of Legislative Science', 3 European Journal of Law and Economics , 309-329.
Kuhn, Thomas S. (1970) , The Structure of Stientific Revolutions , Chicago, The University of Chicago Press [1962], (2d ed.).
Lakatos, Imre (1970) , 'Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes', in Lakatos, Imre and Musgrave, Alan (eds.), Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 91-196.
Lenel, Hans Otto (1996) , 'The Life and Work of Franz Böhm', 3 European Journal of Law and Economics , 301-307.
Libecap, Gary D. (1989) , Contracting for Property Rights [Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions], Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Mercuro, Nicholas and Medema, Steven G. (1997) , Economics and the Law: From Posner to Post-Modernism , Princeton, Princeton University Press.
Minda, Gary (1989) , 'The Law and Economics and Critical Legal Studies Movements in American Law', in Mercuro, Nicholas (ed.), Law and Economics, Boston, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 87-122.
Posner, Richard A. (1998) , 'Social Norms, Social Meaning, and Economic Analysis of Law: A Comment', 27 Journal of Legal Studies , 553-565.
Rose-Ackerman, Susan (1989) ,' Law and Economics: Paradigm, Politics, or Philosophy', in Mercuro, Nicholas (ed.), Law and Economics, Boston, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 233-258.
Rose-Ackerman, Susan (1992) , Rethinking the Progressive Agenda: The Refom of the American Regu!atory State , New York, Free Press.
Rubin, Paul H. (1985) , 'Some Notes on Methodology in Law and Economics', 7 Research in Law and Economics , 29-39.
Sowell, Thomas (1998) , Conquests and Cultures - An International History, New York, Basic Books.
Streit, Manfred E. (1994) , 'The Freiburg School of Law and Economics', in Boettke, Peter J. (ed.), The Elgar Companion to Austrian Economics, Hants, UK, Edward Edgar Publishing Co., 508-515.
Teijl, Rob and Holzhauer, Rudi W. (1990) , 'Pluriformiteit in de rechtseconomie: een verkening van scholen' (Pluriformity in Law-and-Economics: An Exploration of the Schools), 39(10) Ars Aequi , 617-631.
Teijl, Rob and Holzhauer, Rudi W. (1997) , Wisselende Perspectieven in de Rechtseconomie (Varying Perspectives in Law-and-Economics), Arnhem, Gouda Quint.
van den Hauwe, Ludwig (1996) , 'Book Review : Economic Methodology and theEconomic Analysis of Law, Gerrit De Geest, MAKLU: Antwerpen-Apeldoorn, 1994', 3 European Journal of Law and Economics , 97-103.
Vanberg, Viktor (1998) , 'Freiburg School of Law and Economics', in Newman, Peter (ed.), The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics and the Law, Vol. 2, London, MacMillan, 172-179.
Veljanovski, Cento G. (1985) , 'The Role of Economics in the Common Law', 7 Research in Law and Economics , 41-64.
Veljanovski , Cento G. (1990) , The Economics of Law - An Introductory Text , London, Institute of Economic Affairs.
Walker, David M.(1980) , The Oxford Companion to Law , Oxford, Clarendon Press.
Wolin, Sheldon S. (1980) , 'Paradigms and Political Theories', in Gutting, Gary (ed.), Paradigms and Revolutions - Appraisals and applications of Thomas Kuhn's philosophy of science, Notre Dame, University of Notre Dame Press, 160-191.
Note to Prof. Ejan Mackaay: please complete the following citations
Following citations in text have no entry in the Bibliography:
Teijl and Holzhauer 1998, p.35
Streit 1992
Behrens 1993
Copyright 1996-98 Ejan Mackaay


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Survey: Americans trust GOP on gun policy, not Dems
By Cam Edwards | 5:30 PM on March 31, 2022
The topline story from a new Morning Consult/POLITICO poll is that voter enthusiasm among Democrats is still cratering, but on today's Bearing Arms' Cam & Co we're delving a little deeper into the survey results, which also offers more evidence that the Democratic Party's enthusiastic push for more gun control laws is turning off voters and could have a major impact on the midterm elections.
As POLITICO reports, the double-digit lead among Republicans in terms of voter enthusiasm has some Democratic strategists hitting the panic button. One big problem for the Democrats is that on issue after issue, the electorate trusts Republicans more than Democrats… including gun policy.
Republicans currently have a 7-point lead over Democrats on the issue, and are trusted more to handle gun policy by a majority of voters over the age of 34… which just so happens to be the people who are most likely to vote in any given election.
Even groups that tend to skew Democratic in their votes are divided on who they trust more to handle gun policy. Voters with post-graduate degrees, for example, split 45-45 on who they trust more.
The numbers are particularly bad for Democrats when broken down along geographic demographics.
Urban voters trust Democrats over Republicans by 17 points, but even then they can only attract an anemic 50% of respondents. Voters in deep-blue Democratic-run cities appear to be losing faith in the party's gun control efforts, and that's the good news for Democrats here. Suburban voters, which have long been a target of gun control groups like Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action, now side with Republicans over Democrats on the issue by 7-points, which could be hugely important this fall in key swing districts like Virginia's 7th Congressional District, where Democrat Abigail Spanberger has touted her endorsement of Moms Demand Action in recent campaigns.
The growing trust gap in the suburbs is nothing compared to the hole Democrats are digging for themselves with rural voters, however. By a whopping 23-point margin rural respondents say they trust Republicans more on gun policy than Democrats, which is brutal for a party that's trying to figure out how to compete with the GOP in rural parts of the country. As I wrote in February in response to another Morning Consult poll that specifically looked at rural voters:
Basically, the only rural voters who want gun control are the most hardcore Democrats, but even then the issue is one of their lowest priorities, along with expanding immigration, support for Black Lives Matter, and LGBTQ+ rights.
In other words, what drives support for the Democrat Party in big cities is driving rural voters away from the left, though there are still some Democrats who insist that with just a few tweaks the party can deliver a message that resonates in rural spaces.
There are more votes in the cities than in the country, so the Democrats aren't going to abandon their big city base in the hopes of winning over us rubes. In fact, even though it's likely to cost them votes in the suburbs and outlying areas, I don't think the Democrats really have a choice in doubling down on their embrace of an anti-gun agenda. Right now Democratic campaign strategists are looking at ways to motivate the party's base to turn out, and that means they can't abandon or back off their gun ban plans, even if it's going to be the ATF and DOJ doing the heavy lifting instead of congressional Democrats.
In the NBC poll, more than seven in 10 Americans say things generally in the nation are on the wrong track. Only a third of Americans approve of Biden's handling of the economy, by far the overarching concern in the midterms. Biden's approval rating, according to the FiveThirtyEight polling average, sits below 42 percent. And while two-thirds of Democrats in the spring of 2018 registered a high level of interest in that year's midterms — presaging a successful midterm election for the Democratic Party — just 50 percent of Democrats do today.
Now, a lot can happen between April and November, so I don't want us to get too cocky. Still, for months now we've seen a number of polls and surveys showing a steady drop in support for new gun control laws, while millions of Americans are embracing their Second Amendment rights for the first time in their lives. All in all, the evidence is adding up that the Democrats' anti-gun ideology is going to be another drag on their electoral fortunes and that the party is simply out of step with a majority of American voters when it comes to our right to keep and bear arms.
Tags: SECOND AMENDMENT VIDEO GUN OWNERS CAM EDWARDS POLITICO CAM & CO
Understanding the reality of California's violence problem


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Home » Imogen Poots
Imogen Poots Bio, Height & Age
Quick Bio / Wiki
Net Worth: $ 2,000,000
Birthday: 3 Jun 1989
Occupation: Actress
Weight: 115 lb
Measurements: 34 24 34 in
Birth Name: Imogen Gay Poots
Nickname: Imo, Imi
Ethnicity: Northern Irish, Dutch, English, Scottish
Father: Trevor Poots (Current affairs television producer from Belfast, Northern Ireland)
Mother: Fiona Goodall (Journalist and voluntary worker from Bolton, Greater Manchester, England)
Siblings: Alex Poots (Older Brother) (Model)
Striking blue eyes
Silver-Blonde Hair
Violet Eyes
Who Is Imogen Poots?
Imogen Poots was born on June 3, 1989, in Hammersmith, London, UK. She is an English Film and Television Actress. She is best known for her role as Tammy in the post-apocalyptic science fiction horror film 28 Weeks Later, Linda Keith in the Jimi Hendrix biopic Jimi: All Is by My Side, Debbie Raymond in the Paul Raymond biopic The Look of Love and Julia Maddon in the American action movie Need For Speed.
Queen's Gate School, Latymer Upper School, Courtauld Institute of Art.
Fears and Phobias
Facts and Trivia
Castle in the Ground (2019) Ana
Vivarium (2019) Gemma
The Art of Self-Defense (2019) Anna
Age Out (2018) Joan
National Theatre Live: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (2017) Honey
I Kill Giants (2017) Karen
Mobile Homes (2017) Ali
Green Room (2015) Amber
Need for Speed (2014) Julia Maddon
A Long Way Down (2014) Jess
Waking Madison (2010) Alexis
Cracks (2009) Poppy
V for Vendetta (2005) Young Valerie
Marital Status: Unmarried (in a relationship).
Children: She has no children.
James Norton (2017) English Actor, James Norton and Imogen have been dating since Dec 2017.
Anton Yelchin (2010) Imogen Poots had a fling with American actor Anton Yelchin in 2010.
Explore Other Celebrities
Morfydd Clark
Parker Posey
Mackenzie Davis
Eliza Scanlen
"Unfortunately, Poots is the name that I've been graced with for my life, but it's not short for anything." - Imogen Poots
"Sometimes I think you just have to decide if you're going to stand up and get on with it or if you're going to be crushed and threatened." - Imogen Poots
"I was very aware of Jeff Buckley. My brother actually bought me The Mamas And The Papas and Jeff Buckley for my birthday when I was in my early teens." - Imogen Poots
"You can tell when someone is putting on a role. If someone really believes in what theyre saying, its quite hard to find cracks." - Imogen Poots
"Once you play a superhero, is there any way back again? Once you're a superhero, it's just crazy." - Imogen Poots
"I never personalize anything because I think that can be dangerous. For me, the best way is – this may sound pretentious – but its to breathe the character and get into the psychology of it." - Imogen Poots
"I'm a big Johnny Cash girl. And I love singers like Laura Marling and Joanna Newsom." - Imogen Poots
"I do admit to being slightly in love with Christopher Walken." - Imogen Poots
"I can scare myself like a pro." - Imogen Poots
This is where British actress Imogen Poots grew up.
Location: London, England.
In 2014 film 'Need for Speed' she is seen driving cars but actually didn't have a driving license at that time.
Getting new tattoo!
She gets the initials "AY" inked on her fingers in memory of deceased actor Anton Yelchin.
Initials "AY" (Ex-Boyfriend Anton Yelchin)
Fear of Heights
Poots has never received any formal acting training.
She has Scottish and English ancestry on her mother's side.
"Poots" is a surname of Dutch origin.
Imogen was born in London's Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital.
Imogen Poots has played the role as Julia Bonet in the 2014 film 'Need for Speed'.
Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival - 2019
Best Actress in Vivarium (2019)
British Independent Film Award - 2013
Best Supporting Actress in Best Supporting Actress The Look of Love (2013)
EDA Special Mention Award - 2011
Most Egregious Age Difference Between the Leading Man and the Love Interest in Solitary Man (2009)
Hamptons International Film Festival - 2012
Breakthrough Performer in Knight of Cups (2015)
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San Franciscan non-profit, The Seasteading Institute, is working towards building self-sufficient and self-reliable floating cities in an attempt to reverse environmental damage and jumpstart the global economy.
The hurricane season in the Western hemisphere has come to a close, leaving many island-nations and southern United States scrambling to make repairs and cut damages. Within growing conversations about human damage to the environment and its impact on freak natural disasters, Seasteading, a non-profit organization, is working to build the first floating city that could reverse damage done to the environment.
Established in 2008 in San Francisco's Silicon Valley, The Seasteading Institute plans on building a floating city off the coast of French Polynesia in the South Pacific Ocean. The city, according to the Institute, are a pilot to test how humankind can learn to live together in environmentally-friendly dwellings. The organization's goal is to maximize entrepreneurial freedom and reverse damage accrued to the environment. Earlier this year, The Seasteading Institute signed a memorandum of understanding with the French Polynesian government to begin working on the floating island project by 2020.
The floating city, also called a "seastead," will consist of a community living at sea that is largely responsible for setting its own rules and creating its own culture. Located in a natural lagoon off the coast of French Polynesia, the socio-economic framework of the seastead will be similar to the concept of special economic zones and will be governed under a "special government framework." Although the city's governance is yet to be determined, local French Polynesian laws and International Law may be applied to the island city in varying degrees, according to The Institute.
Coupled with homes, restaurants, offices, schools, and hotels at its core, the seastead will focus on the creation of new job opportunities for residents of the city. The Seasteading Institute emphasizes the importance of aquaculture, vertical farming, and scientific and engineering research in creating new jobs, but also in maintaining a sustainable ecosystem in and around the floating city.
Conceptually, the floating city may seem promising, given that the organization has explicitly mentioned the importance of not interfering with local usage of the site or with the environment. In more realistic terms, however, there may be a number of hurdles that the Seastead Institute needs to overcome like piracy, affordability, and compliance with 'host nation' domestic law. The Seasteading Institute commissioned a similar project in the San Francisco Bay that was set for completion in 2010, but the project never materialized. And since the floating city project near French Polynesia is being funded through cryptocurrency, the stability of which is projected to fluctuate in coming years, this project could face similar challenges as its San Francisco sister project did.
As innovative as a floating city in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean is, the concept of seasteading itself is not novel. According to Business Insider, seasteading has, in recent years, become a symbol of the tech industry's utopian visions for the future. The Seasteading Institute has also made clear that one of the project's goals is to attract businesses and investors to French Polynesia, which may or may not have a positive impact on the island-nation's economy. All in all, while the project has many promising effects on the environment, local and international economy, and our collective understanding of communal governance, the world is yet to see how foolproof the floating city will be.


text:
Failure of the Workers Alliance: A split in the Spanish U.G.T. is engineered by the Communists by L. Nicolas * In La Revolution Proletarienne (Paris)
Nicholas Lazarevitch
Readers of this magazine will no doubt recall the pact that was concluded towards the latter part of July, between the National Confederation of Labor (C.N.T.) and the General Union of Labor (U.G.T.). The entire press in loyalist Spain hailed the act as "an historic event." Yet, in the two months following the event almost no attempt had been made to put any part of the adopted plans in operation. Of the numerous Liaison Committees elected by the two organizations for the purpose of creating local united councils, the press has mention only of one case where such a thing was accomplished, that between the metal workers' unions in Madrid. The only statement issued by the National Liaison Committee to the press mentioned other cases without, however, naming the localities. (Solidad Obrera, September 9.)
The sabotaging of the alliance between the two unions is mainly due to the deep set hostility of the communist agents within the U.G.T.; the communists are fundamentally displeased with the pact; because of that, they are contesting the right of the General Executive Board to conclude such a pact without submitting the question first to the National Committee of the U.G.T., which is made up by the Executive Committees of the Federations affiliated with the U.G.T. It would be a mistake, however, to believe that in their action the communists were prompted by a desire to uphold democracy within the union; they are simply relying on the fact that by devious maneuvering, of which they are past masters in all countries, they managed to obtain a majority favorable to their policy in the National Committee. They want to accomplish at any price the complete domestication of the labor union movement in Spain. They make use of every possible method in order to attain that purpose: towards the C.N.T. they are using cunning and flattery; in the Levant they did not hesitate to create a peasant organization in opposition to both the U.G.T. and the C.N.T. organizations; and in the U.G.T. itself they managed to create a split. The following are the facts:
The Stalinist agents being aware that the majority on the General Executive Board is composed of left elements grouped around Largo Caballero, decided to destroy the Board. Through the Executive committees, with communist majorities of the different Industrial Federations, an ultimatum was forwarded to the G.E.B. of the U.G.T., ordering that body, in virtue of article 33 of the Constitution of the U.G.T., to call a National Committee meeting within a week. They based their ultimatum on the fact that the signatories constituted a majority of the said National Committee. The order of business they proposed for the meeting was extremely important: Report of the G.E.B.; the aid to be given to the Popular Front government in carrying on the war; the problems of production and workers' control of industry and the adoption of the most important of them to war conditions; the intensification of agricultural production; cooperatives and collectives; the scarcity of food and the fight against speculation; the municipalization of city services; the unity of action with the CNT; election of officers to vacant posts in the unions …
The General Executive Board answered the ultimatum through a letter addressed to the signatory Industrial Federation Executive Committees. We reproduce the essential passages of the letter from Claridad of September 9:
"The Executive Board received the document bearing your signature, demanding the calling of a meeting of the National Committee. We are astonished to see that you are basing your claim on article 33, since in conformity with article 9, your federation is suspended for non-payment of its taxes to the U.G.T. Seeing that at the last National Committee meeting several federations that participated, debated and voted in that meeting without having the right to do so, the G.E.B. decided that this should not be done again and so it unanimously decided to apply to your federation the first part of article 9."
(The first part of Article 9 says: "Organizations in arrears with taxes for two consecutive quarters stand suspended.")
The ruling affected nine federations, miners, leather workers, clothing, gas and electricity, drugs, wood, teaching, banks and exchange, and oil, representing a total of 200,000 workers. On September 6 the G.E.B. sent communications to all the local unions of the suspended federations, inviting them to communicate directly with headquarters in order to re-establish the bond between them.
The Stalinites retorted with a violent campaign making much of the sentimental arguments, that the exclusions were hitting at the heroic Asturian miners; they evoked all the technical arguments on the one hand contesting the validity of the debts, on the other hand offering to pay them up. On September 24 the suspended federation committees invited all the Industrial Federations of the U.G.T. to a conference where the question of suspensions should be examined. Of the forty-two federations affiliated with the U.G.T. thirty-one answered the call favorably and participated at the conference. Three federations: Transport workers, Agricultural workers and Metal workers remained loyal to the G.E.B. The excluded federations and those in sympathy with them declared themselves the only regular organization and elected a new General Executive Board. Thus the split within the U.G.T. became an accomplished fact.
Viewed from the angle of democracy within the labor movement, it would have been more logical to have called a special convention which could have settled the issue, instead of invoking the delinquency. However, such a call for convention was difficult under the actual conditions. How can a true representation be obtained from such a highly industrialized district as Asturias where the war was raging, or from the Bay of Biscay district, occupied by the fascist forces?
Naturally, men of the Caballero type deserve to be treated with the greatest circumspection. The fact of having radically changed his political attitude three times in six years is by no means a guarantee of stability for the future. The massacring of socialist and anarchist workers in 1931 and 1932; the enacting of drastic legislation for the defense of the bourgeois republic against the workers, and then from that position flopping over to a camouflaged Stalinism, contributing to the bolshevization of the socialist party and of the U.G.T. in order to arrive finally to the idea of labor unionism free from political party domination, the road he traveled in six years was indeed a tortuous one. But, in spite of all, the left wing of the U.G.T. contains many sincere rank and file militants, and their present position of barring the road of Stalinism is in conformity with the interests of the working class.
We give below some of the arguments used by them in the Correspondencia de Valencia, in answer to the open letter of the Political Bureau of the communist party, tendering its "outstretched hand" to the anarcho-syndicalist C.N.T. The first article as reprinted by Solidaridad Obrera of September 17 follows:
"The document published by the 'Bureau' is one more irrefutable proof of the theoretical and practical inconsistency of that group of would-be leaders, who for so many years past was dragging after them what they call the vanguard of the revolutionary proletariat, in all the quagmires, and who so often in the past acted in a manner becoming to the sixth column.
"Just as on the day when they abruptly decided to jump into the workers' alliances after having fought against them with fire and blood; just as when they suddenly decided to fight with all their energy for the democratic and parliamentary republic after having demanded, holding the knife at our throat, that we break entirely all the ties that might have attached the working class to the bourgeoisie; just as at the time when of a sudden it threw itself at the feet of the socialists after having for so long vowed that their unity with the revolutionary socialists would not be accomplished until all the reformist roots would be first pulled up; just as at so many other culminating moments of the revolutionary development, these apostles of iron discipline and of the firm and immovable 'line,' made a complete turn and upheld that which the previous day they absolutely condemned."
The second article contains a warning to the C.N.T. We take it from Solidaridad Obrera of September 19, where it was reprinted:
"The communist party persists in its eternal false position; its present attitude lacks all seriousness. We were right, when speaking of the document of the Political Bureau of the communist party, we said that nobody will trust them any longer; that all they wanted was to make a toy of the C.N.T. pretending to be for unity and for the restoration of the Popular Front.
"The communist party has once more betrayed those who naively would have liked to see in that statement of the Bureau a change in their tactics. The communist party is not causing anti-fascist unity. It shook it up and broke it and today, by following their suicidal tactics, which the Bureau itself declared to be incompatible with the interest of the war and the revolution, makes the solution of the problem of unity more difficult. It creates an atmosphere of hostility, using the most repulsive methods against the two great labor union federations. These are the great merits of the communist party."
The Correspondencia de Valencia has been suspended since. The stranglehold of the Stalinists is so strong not only in Spain but in other countries as well, that the disappearance of Largo Caballero's publication was passed over in silence. The People, the organ of the French General Confederation of Labor (U.G.T.), and Le Populaire, organ of the French socialist party, did not even mention the fact to their readers. And yet, a few weeks before, Largo Caballero was for these papers the grand champion of Spanish democracy. What sort of a convention would that of the U.G.T. have been in such an atmosphere, where even a Caballero or an Araquistain cannot freely publish a paper or speak at a meeting? And what can be the status of the common rank and file militants?
The explanation of this despotism is that there is a widespread discontent and grumbling within the unions. The appreciations of Claridad, a strongly communistic paper, is extremely significant in this connection. We reproduce from its September 6 issue:
"Every meeting is a fight in which no quarter is asked or given; in which, at times, one encounters the same passion as in the battles carried on in former days with the enemy class. Every election for any union function brings forward, with bitterness and strife, all the instruments of agitation and propaganda which we workers were in the habit of using when the bourgeois governments were calling us to the ballot box. Vote soliciting for candidates, anonymous tracts containing dire threats, strange behaviors and uncalled-for manifestations. Such are the outward consequences of these suicidal battles that some forces are interested in fomenting within the locals of our glorious union. But have those trouble makers given any thought to the internal repercussions of these fights? If they have, then surely they would have put the brakes on some of their activities of which we are complaining. Such negatively aggressive policies will damage the labor unions most of all. These damages are manifesting themselves by a lack of activity, by the absence of energy with which to confront the actual and momentous problems of today. This road leads nowhere except to the entire discrediting of the unions, making them unfit for the special tasks that are incumbent upon labor unions.
"Calmly but earnestly, we take the liberty to warn the unions. We are forced to seriously consider the situation. The present time is certainly not the proper time for us to indulge in internal fights that will weaken our forces and further divide the energies of the working class. We have consistently urged the unions that they hold regular meetings and conferences. We have done so with a positive point of view; we believed that the unions, through their meetings, could realize a constructive plan of work of which the immediate result would have been increasing material support to the government in its war work; overcoming the shortages in production by intensifying the work, putting in operation all the wheels of industry and agriculture, and generally orienting themselves towards the objectives that should be the same for all of us. But, if union meetings and conferences are to serve only for maneuvering, by using methods of Ignatius Loyola, for breaking up everything that is now united and preventing the unity of that which is still separated, then it is better not to hold these assemblies."
The Stalinites certainly must have run up against serious resistance in order to make them speak thus.
The Opinion of the Left Socialists
The Madrid socialist organization makes known its appreciation of the situation in an open letter addressed to the Executive Committee of the Socialist party of Spain. This Madrid organization has in its ranks such outstanding socialists as Largo Caballero, Araquistain, Pascual Thomas and Llopis. We are reproducing parts of the letter from the Information Bulletin No. 49, of the F.A.I.-C.N.T.:
"A people is invincible on condition that it is not made to lose confidence in its aspirations of liberty, on condition that it will not see emerging from its own bosom and from its collective sacrifices a new tyrannical power, and internal despotism that would freeze up its enthusiasm in the fight for freedom at home and in the long run its resistance to tyranny from the outside.
"… Its knowledge that there is a political organization that is working above anything else, for the increase of its own power, having the secret ambition of becoming the sole organization both during and after the war, shatters the morale of the fighters on the front and of the workers of the factories and fields.
"… We are referring to the Spanish section of the communist international. We are holding this party mainly responsible for the misfortunes experienced by the republican cause in the last three months, and we hold that party responsible for the even more serious disasters that will come in the near future unless an immediate remedy is found.
"… Until three months ago there was a real unity of anti-fascist action in Spain. All parties and the labor unions were collaborating directly in the control and responsibilities of the conduct of the war. That unity of purpose and action has been diminishing from day to day. By whose fault? By the fault of the communist party in the first place, because it was they who first set up a conspiracy to remove from power the people and the organizations that would not submit to the orders imported by the communists; later they slandered the very personalities whom they have raised up on the pedestal, when they saw in them an obstacle for their partisan schemes, whether on the war front or in the state offices. They took the ridiculous attitude that political parties, and particularly the communist party, are privileged bodies of almost divine origin, charged with the mission of directing public conduct and that the labor unions were only good to do the work and blindly obey the newly selected aristocracy, as if people who follow a manual or professional calling had less capacity for the affairs of State than those whose calling is nothing but politics, and at times, what sort of politics!
"The communist party declared war to the death to those in the U.G.T. and in the C.N.T. who were opposed to its totalitarian policies, which is by no means a dictatorship of the proletariat. It broke the cordial relations existing between that party and the left wing of the socialist party since the October revolution and during the first months of the military insurrection in 1936. And now they even have the nerve to state that it is our party that has changed policy.
"The left wing socialists are now the same as they were before. They are not responsible for a single act of hostility against the communist party, but the communists are guilty of many such acts. The left socialists still desire the political unity of the two parties, subject however to three conditions which were formulated and established as a basis of discussion by a conference of their groups in April 1936.
"The united party should be at all times subject to an exclusively national direction and responsibility; in any case a national convention should have the right to terminate the unity.
"We are disavowing the campaign of force and persecution carried on by the communist party on the war fronts and in the rear; it is revolting to the socialists who are upholding the dignity of their party and their own dignity as men and Spaniards. The injustices and the favoritisms introduced by the communists were never considered favorably in Spain; the misguided leaders of the Spanish section of the Communist International should have taken this in consideration …
"Something more was destroyed: a government that was more truly Spanish through its aims, and was the most efficient both internally and internationally than Spain has had since the beginning of the war; this government was for the unity of all the parties and of the labor unions; thus it was for the comprehension of all the parties and of the workers supporting political unity. By the destruction of that government the confidence of the soldiers on the front and of the workers in the rear was shattered. In spite of the fact that the war was a tragic affair, costing rivers of popular blood, the communist party did not hesitate to profit by it in order to further its policy of absorption and of speculation.
"If the recent unfortunate war operations at Brunete, which have been rejected several times in advance by the military technicians, who considered them fated to failure, if these operations were due only to military errors we would keep quiet about it and would only ask for the discharge and the punishment of those guilty of having wasted so much of the people's blood; but in these operations the military objectives were subordinated to petty political ends: to the glorification of some communist chiefs, who conducted them, in case they would have succeeded. The intention was to demonstrate the superiority of a government that could come back and save Madrid, in contrast with a government accused of having deserted the city; to demonstrate also that if such an easy victory was not won sooner, this was due to the unreasonable resistance of those who confounded inaction with prudence, of those who confounded the opposition to the partisan passions of communism with the anxiety for not spilling criminally torrents of popular blood. The pitiful results have demonstrated who was right."
Summing up its position towards the communist party, the Madrid socialist organization concludes:
"A policy of division, a spectacular policy at the cost of thousands upon thousands of dead and wounded without any strategical gain, such was the policy of the communist party. If we would be as evil-minded as they, we would say that these policies are made for the purpose of creating the moral and the material conditions for a complete defeat.
"We prefer however to believe that it is only a question of errors of judgment, and of the maneuvering of poor and mechanized intelligence that can believe that victory is near and that the communist can attain it by themselves.
"If that is the case they are erring profoundly. Victory will be the result of the combined anti-fascist forces or there will be none. For, of two things one: either the communist party will alter its policy which leads to defeat or it will have to be removed from public affairs as the enemy of republican Spain."
The open letter adds that in justice it is necessary for it to state that even if the communist party is the most responsible for the present situation, yet it is not the only one. Without mentioning the socialist party by name, the authors of the open letter are accusing the socialist party of unexplainable complicity inside of that party:
"There are an infinite number of forms of treason. But that of wanting to liquidate one's own party for the benefit of another party, that is unprecedented … of such an act only an anti-revolutionary, anti-democratic, unscrupulous minority seeking power for the sake of power could be capable."
* L. Nicholas was the pseudonym of Nicholas Lazarevitch (1895-1975).
From: One Big Union Monthly, November, 1937. Translated by: Joseph Wagner.
Part of News of the Spanish Revolution : Anti-authoritarian Perspectives on the Events
Workers War to Stop Fascism: Reports on the Events in Spain by the Secretariat of the International Workingmen's Association .
Fagin, Sophia. The "Uncontrollables" in Spain .
Lazarevitch, Nicholas and Joseph Wagner. Hi-Jacking the Revolution: L. Nicholas* reveals some interesting facts about the betrayal of Spanish Workers by the "friends" from Moscow. Translation and Introduction by Joseph Wagner .
Blackwell, Russell. The Spanish Revolution Revisited .
Pateman, Barry. The Spanish Revolution 70 years later .