text:
What Makes You Think That?
There's a question I've learned that can be helpful when someone is upset about something that you're not ready to buy into—or maybe more likely, they're upset about something you know is false. You have to be able to ask this without snark, without obvious skepticism. Ask to sincerely know where they are coming from:
"Really? What makes you think that?"
What I think is that most people want to be able to think of themselves as good. They're trying to figure out what's right and wrong, and they want to choose the better side, but maybe they have very little guidance about what that is. And that makes them vulnerable to manipulation. Sometimes what they think they know just isn't true.
As Ronald Reagan used to say about his political opponents, "It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so."
There's a clear example of this type of error going on in recent news cycles. NFL players have decided to protest our flag and country during the national anthem before football games. The purported reason? Racist cops killing unarmed black men and getting away with murder.
That's the narrative. As Kaepernick said, "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.… There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."
Image from here
As David French wrote yesterday,
Standing for the National Anthem is meaningless if it's mandated, and such a mandate undermines the essential liberty of free speech.
In order to have a country with peaceful liberty, we need people who love the country and respect and revere it willingly. Those "taking a knee" are doing a lot that's wrong, and it isn't really about their First Amendment right to protest. They're accusing their fans, who are innocent of the wrongs being protested, in a nation that can never meet their approval, because their accusations have no connection to reality.
For me, it's no sacrifice to tune them out. Deciding not to watch NFL football is no loss. I can hardly get myself to pay enough attention to know who's playing in the Super Bowl every year. But there have been plenty of instances when I've had to decide whether some entertainment was worth suffering through the hateful accusations from some entertainer using his/her celebrity to spread "so many things that aren't so."
We may have come to a point where it isn't enough just to have NFL owners tell them what they have to do under contract of employment. We want them to choose not to protest the country that gives them greater freedom and opportunity than any society in their race's history.
The symptom that our culture is seriously ill comes from a youth football league (ages 8 and under) that decided to do the "cool" trend and "take a knee." Their coach, botching a teaching moment, made sure they knew why they were doing it. One third-grade boy answered, "Because black people are getting killed, and nobody's going to jail." So the coach joined them in disrespecting our flag and country.
screen shot from here
Did it not even occur to that coach to ask a kid that age, "What makes you think that?" Or, "Who told you that? Because, you know, that's just not true."
Because, in fact, black men being murdered by non-black police officers is not a trend. It is not something on the rise. It is a rarity, and it's inconceivable that such a murderer would be protected from prosecution.
Larry Elder (a black commentator, so he gets to say things without the knee-jerk racist label) listed some of the facts on his radio show a couple of days ago—all from reliable research. I found the facts repeated today in an article he wrote. I'll summarize:
· Unarmed black men killed by police are extremely rare. An estimated 21 black males get hit by lightning in a given year. In 2015 (latest statistics) 17 unarmed (not necessarily nonthreatening) black men were killed by police, including those killed by black police officers.
· Blacks are not more likely to be pulled over by police than whites. Whites have nearly as many encounters with police in a typical year as blacks do: whites 1.2 encounters, blacks 1.5. Any racial disparity in traffic stops is due to "differences in offending" in addition to "differences in exposure to the police" and "differences in driving patterns."
· Blacks who encounter police are not treated more harshly than whites. Bureau of Labor studies show, "Only 0.6 percent of black men experience physical force by the police in any given year, while approximately 0.2 percent of white men do. … Moreover, keep in mind that these tallies of police violence include violence that is legally justified." And an earlier study of the 75 largest counties in the nation concluded there is "no evidence that, in the places where blacks in the United States have most of their contacts with the justice system, that system treats them more harshly than whites."
As Larry Elder says,
Any death that results from police misconduct is one death too many, but the point is that police killing of a suspect is rare, no matter the race of the suspect or the cop. And a police shooting of an unarmed black male is still more rare.
Where the rare uncalled-for police shooting happens, we're all in favor of prosecuting the offending officer, and improved training—and maybe even more cameras—to keep such incidents from happening ever again. The few high-profile cases meant to show the problem end up exonerating the police, but those cases get referred to anyway, and when someone is brought to the truth on such a case, the response tends to be, "Well, it's still happening all over the place where we don't hear about it."
But what if they could learn that that's a lie?
Every time the media repeats the "Hands Up Don't Shoot" lie, they are doing yeoman's work as racial dividers. Any time an authority figure such as a football coach or manager doesn't say, "That protest is for your own time; it's bad for business if you disrespect the flag and country that the fans who pay our salary love and revere," they're countenancing the lies.
I've read To Kill a Mockingbird, the Emmett Till story, The Help, and others. I know those bad situations existed. But they're decades in the past. Mostly before my lifetime, and certainly before my adulthood. The stories seem foreign to most Americans. There are 320 million of us; of course you can find a few outliers. But institutional racism is simply not an issue in this nation.
When blacks—particularly those who make millions of dollars playing a ball game—complain that this country is so bad, they need to be pinned down: "What makes you think that?"
If I were to guess, I think it might be some kind of leftover from their early life in a worse place—which they escaped from but not everyone else did. Something like survivor's guilt. I don't know how we get a word in, when we're not being listened to and the truth is substituted with some fabrication, but it would be good if the "oppressed" learned the secret formula for avoiding poverty in America:
1. Don't have sex before age 20.
2. Don't have sex until after marriage.
3. Stay married.
4. Obtain at least a high school diploma.
Only 3 out of 100 who follow this formula remain in poverty. Everyone else gets work with enough income for the family to eventually move up into the more comfortable middle class. This is true regardless of race.
That's a pretty good guarantee. For those exceptional 3%, if that's all we had to deal with, we could easily identify what more needed to be done to help them along. Unfortunately, we also have to deal with mounting numbers of people who don't live the formula but then want to blame someone else for their unwise choices.
What we could use, as a people, is a way to identify what leads to the sense of oppression. Chances are it's the untruths promulgated by people who gain power when they stir people up to anger. That's a millennia-old tactic, tied to all those historic cultures living in tyranny.
If we want freedom, prosperity, and civilization, we could use a better combination of understanding and truth.
Labels: formula for avoiding poverty, institutional racism, National Anthem, respect, taking a knee, truth
Hurricane Harvey made landfall near Corpus Christi on August 25th, and made its way north to Houston August 26th, beginning the biggest flooding event in recorded US history. That was one month ago today. So I took a drive, camera in hand, to see how things look now, compared to that crazy day.
Today's post is mostly a photo essay.
There aren't any hills in Houston. We use overpasses and skyscrapers for views. So when you see a little hill like this one, you know it's not natural. This is the Addicks Reservoir Dam, not far from the spillway. Most of the time, it's just part of the road.
Clay Road runs over Addicks Reservoir Dam
Addicks Dam south of the spillway
Eldridge Parkway goes through the reservoir. During heavy rain, it floods, and they close it. This has happened maybe a dozen times in the nearly 20 years we've lived here. It's part of the plan. It was closed until a few days ago. There's still water in the reservoir that hasn't drained yet.
Eldridge Parkway, running through the reservoir, is finally open,
but there's still a lot of water alongside the road.
Bear Creek Park is the alter ego of the reservoir. Our kids used to play baseball here. There are soccer fields, camping areas, playground equipment, a lot of forest primeval, and other things you'd expect in a park. That's how we make use of the space between floods. It has probably been out of commission for an entire month several times. We don't know how much longer it will still be water instead of playground.
The road through Bear Creek Park is closed
while the park is serving as the reservoir.
Bear Creek Village was one of the worst hit neighborhoods. For those who think people shouldn't be building in flood zones, understand that this neighborhood is 40-60 years old. They probably thought they'd never flood. But it turns out, when the reservoir fills up with 800-year flood waters, they do flood.
It took quite a while to get the water out so the mucking out could be done. Finally now the debris removal is underway. You can see the heavy equipment at work, and some really big trucks.
Debris removal is underway in Bear Creek Villages
There's still a lot of debris to pick up.
Sometimes you see stacks of furniture, like this, that remind you there was a live family that lost all of this.
The post office I usually use is being rebuilt.
Bear Creek Post office before
(Photo from Melissa Willis)
Bear Creek Post Office
Closer to my house, you can see more lawn scars—the places where the debris sat before getting picked up. Some houses are marked with a C or an H. I believe those were put there by rescuers. I haven't been able to learn what they stand for. Maybe "clear" and "hazard." I'm not sure. I'm not sure how they remove them either. But that's a minor detail by comparison with rebuilding the home's interior.
In my neighborhood, I was able to do a few side-by-side comparisons.
After the mucking out.
Same corner after debris removal. Dusty, but looking near normal.
The street the boats went down to rescue people is clear and dry again.
Where boats launched to do rescues into the neighborhood.
Dry again, and looking pretty good.
This was our entrance underwater, and back to normal now.
Our entrance, once the heavy rains stopped. It was underwater
for about a week. That means those homes were underwater that long too.
Back to serving as a road again. You can't even tell.
The Mormon Helping Hands were still out this past weekend, but we're reaching the end of mucking out. Unfortunately, homes that haven't been able to do that yet may be a total loss. The church where I play music with friends once a week is back to normal today; a week ago it still had refugees sleeping in the sanctuary, and a dog refugee room somewhere at the back (we could hear them). That was a long time for a church to be used. Schools are open, and students have been reassigned to new schools as needed.
So Houston lives on. The streets were designed to flood, as backup waterways when the bayous are too full. There's a lot of engineering that helps this city handle massive amounts of rainfall. But when several feet (not just inches) come down all at once, even this system is overwhelmed.
What's amazing, really, is how well the water was handled, how few lives were lost. And most important was how neighbors, from near and far, helped one another. Which needs to keep happening for some time yet.
There are a few areas that might not be rebuilt. And there are plenty of places still in the midst of cleanup—way before restoration. But what's surprising is how much has returned to normal for most of Houston, and how much hope there is that most of us will have our lives rebuilt eventually.
We feel blessed here. So many people showed they cared about us.
Meanwhile, we're watching the devastation in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria. We know a missionary there, who was flown out today, along with a hundred or so others. They had been working hard there, but The island is in desperate need. there wasn't enough food, clean water, or housing for them. They had stayed in the mission office during the storm, packed in together. Most of them were unable to return to their apartments, so they lost all their belongings beyond the change of clothes with them.
There's no electricity. Spotty communication. Transportation difficulties. Prayers and aid need to go their direction next. That's what good people do for one another.
Labels: disaster recovery, Houston, Hurricane Harvey, hurricane recovery
In the Mind-Changing Business
I was talking with son Political Sphere the other day, about Ben Shapiro's speech last week at Berkeley. I watched it live-streamed, and he had watched it replayed later. We had both enjoyed it. We're Ben Shapiro fans.
The Q&A following the speech was pretty epic. You may have seen a clip of him doing a little debate with an audience member on the issue of abortion. I'll include it here, because it may be the clearest delineation of the two sides (and the obvious morality of one over the other) that you will see in two minutes.
Ben Shapiro isn't someone you can safely disagree with; he will win in a debate. He will have the facts in his head, and be able to lay out the argument in a logical way. And, as Political Sphere was pointing out, he never uses an emotional argument.
I am a lover of truth. Sometimes finding truth requires not only laying out the facts and arguments, but also applying conscience, which can be emotional, but is trained toward truth—unless you have practiced overriding your conscience.
When someone uses an emotional appeal—"But what about the children?" "Shouldn't everyone be allowed to love the person they choose?" "Do you want people to die without health care?"—the emotion is typically irrelevant to the issue.
Do we care about children? Of course. It may be that we care more; we actually want them to be raised in stable families and taught to become productive, civilized adults. A policy that doesn't bring about those results doesn't qualify as actual caring.
Are we against love? Of course not. We're not even against people committing to the person they choose. What we're against is being forced to give some other arrangement the imprimatur that God gives to actual marriage.
Do we want people to die without healthcare? Of course not. But forcing people to buy a type of insurance they don't want and can't afford, and which does not meet their particular needs, is not providing actual health care. What we see as a better way of getting care to everyone is free market plus philanthropy—both of which are hindered by government interventions.
Those are just examples. Emotional and logical people talk past each other, because one side rushes to place its ladder on the wrong wall and insists that we have to climb, while the other side looks around to determine where is the best wall to place the ladder against, and goes there instead—and then gets yelled at for not climbing the ladder on the wrong wall.
Earlier this week I listened to a Daily Wire Conversation with Ben Shapiro, a full hour of his conservative brand of fun, covering, at breakneck speed, political topics as well as music, movies, and religion. About ten minutes in, the host, Elisha Krauss, asks Shapiro about whether he intended to someday run for president. I've never heard him talk about any political aspirations before, and he wasn't positive about any here either, but he didn't rule it out. But he said something about his purpose—and the purpose of The Daily Wire, where he is editor-in-chief—that struck me:
Eisha Krauss: What would it take for you to run for president in 2020 or 2024?
Ben Shapiro: So, 2020 is not going to happen. I am old enough—like, right at the cusp. So I turn… Let's see, I was born in '84. So, in 2020 I would turn 37. But the problem is that I wouldn't want to divide the Republican Party, and whatever happens right now, President Trump is the titular leader of the Republican Party; there are a lot of people that are very loyal to him. The last thing you want to do is sink the candidate of the Republican Party in the primaries and destroy him for a general election. Or, alternatively, alienate half of the people who are big Trump supporters.
So I think it's Trump of bust for the Republican Party in 2020.
Further down the line, yeah, we'll see what happens. I don't really have any intention of doing anything like that right now, but that's because we're focused, obviously, right now, on building the company, but in ensuring that the message gets out to the widest variety of people available.
And I'm actually not sure whether you do more good convincing people outside of government, or being in government, trying to convince people. Once you sort of have the patina of government stamped on you, I wonder how many ideas you can actually…how many minds you can change, as opposed to being in the mind-changing business, which is what we do here.
He's in the mind-changing business. That's very close to what I do. Maybe that's why it struck a chord.
It's an educational mission, changing minds. Mine is more refined as, "Let's reframe the structure of the ideas, so we can see how they interrelate, and thereby make decisions that will lead us in the right direction—toward freedom, prosperity, and civilization." Shapiro's arguments fit well in my framework, but he's doing more of the nitty-gritty details, issue-by-issue, comparing the two sides and showing clearly which side makes more sense, both morally and economically. While I try to do that too, on certain issues, I don't tackle as many issues each and every day.
There's a book I've been spending some time on—referred to it before, The Eden Conspiracy, by Joe Harless—that is education oriented, with the purpose of producing "graduates who have skills, knowledge, information, and attitudes to become accomplished citizens." I agree with that goal, but then we have to define what an accomplished citizen is.
The author suggests that a society of accomplished citizens would have these characteristics [p. 47]:
· Exists under a democratic form of government.
· Is lawful, orderly, ethical, and safe.
· Allows freedom for its citizens—within the law.
· Allows freedom for enterprise—within the law.
· Provides equal opportunity for its citizens.
· Values the family as the basic unit of society.
· In partnership with the family, provides protection and development of the young.
That's not too different from how I describe civilization in the Spherical Model. But there's some difficulty, not only in getting schools to teach these values, but even to agree on which values, and what those values mean.
Harless mentions an anecdote from his household: p. 148
This reminds me of the time our four-year-old son was going to a friend's house. As usual, my wife admonished Be a good boy. With all sincerity he asked, Mom, what IS a good boy? I don't recall what she then told him, but the question became our family's response when any of us became too soft [ambiguous] in our speech.
This lack of precision in speech is part of why there is so much strife in society.
For example, can we agree that being tolerant of differences is a necessary value in a non-homogenous, free society? Yes. But what does tolerance mean? One side simultaneously screes, "Don't shove your beliefs down my throat!" while using the force of dubious law, social shunning, economic boycotting, and even fascist violence to enforce their beliefs on those who disagree.
A non-slave should not be forced to use his artistic talents to portray a message that goes against his religion, for example. It's not about a couple getting a cake for a gay wedding; they can get that elsewhere; forcing a particular baker to do it is the ultimate intolerance—beyond what slaveholders ever had the power to force their slaves to do.
Tolerance doesn't mean we must believe or do all the same things; it means we ought to calmly agree to disagree.
Ben Shapiro's speech at Berkeley is important for several reasons. One is that it became clear to anyone paying attention that his speech was not a threat; those trying to shut down his speech were a threat. Also, he spoke clearly, rationally, and calmly—even respectfully—toward those who disagreed with him. And that civilized decorum allows for an actual conversation.
If there is an actual conversation, in which terms are agreed on for common ground, then there can be mutual understanding. That may or may not lead to changing minds, but at least it gets rid of the hostile assumption that anyone who disagrees with some prevailing viewpoint is evil and must be eliminated.
If an idea is right, if it's true, it stands up to scrutiny. If you feel so threatened by someone articulating an idea that you don't agree with that you must resort to violence to forcibly shut down that speech, maybe your idea is weak. Maybe you're wrong.
On the Spherical Model, shutting down free speech is a southern hemisphere tyrannical behavior. It could be in the statist tyranny quadrant, with government preventing the speech; or it could be in the anarchical tyranny quadrant, with mobs preventing the speech. Either way, it does not lead to the enlightenment necessary for civilization.
What I believe—what I trust about humanity—is that minds can be changed to come to see the truth. I believe that most people want to think of themselves as good and right, and so, if presented the truth clearly, without clouding emotional pressure, they will choose truth. I might be wrong. But I hope I am right.
Truth is worth seeking and finding. And it's worth finding ways to express it so that minds—and lives—can be changed for the better.
Labels: Ben Shapiro, Daily Wire, Eden Conspiracy, intolerance, Joe Harless, logic, persuasion, tolerance
Revering the Constitution
Constitution Day—the anniversary of the signing of the US Constitution—was September 17, yesterday. But I'm going to continue celebrating for a few days.
The US Constitution
from the National Archives
The Constitution is the basic law of the land. It is NOT what grants us rights; it is the tool we use to protect our rights, which God gave us. If we could identify that difference, it would make a huge difference in how people approach public policy.
The Constitution is a legal document, not a philosophical statement—after the preamble. So it's not poetic or exciting. But it is profound. If you don't admire it, you either don't understand the Constitution's meaning, or you don't understand the principles that lead to freedom, prosperity, and civilization.
So let's take this day to honor and better understand the Constitution.
Here's the basic outline: Preamble, Articles, and Amendments.
The Preamble, which lays out the proper role of national government, is short, and beautiful, so here's the whole thing:
The body of the Constitution is made up of seven articles, most of which are divided into several sections. Here's a brief summary.
Article 1 lays out the powers of the legislative branch. There are 9 sections, vesting all legislative powers for our federal (national) government in Congress, which is divided into a Senate and House of Representatives, outlining who can serve in the House and Senate, and such things as elections, revenue bills, and other legal details.
Article 2 lays out the executive powers vested in the President. It has four sections, talking about how the president will be elected (the Electoral College), the president's powers concerning the military, making treaties, and representing our country on the international stage; informing Congress of the State of the Union, and impeachment (removal from office) of the president or vice-president.
Article 3 lays out the judicial powers in the Supreme Court and inferior courts. There are three sections, detailing their powers and the kinds of cases they will cover.
Article 4 covers interstate rules, and guarantees for citizens going state to state. There are four sections, including information about how new states may be admitted, and how the federal government guarantees protection to each of the states.
Article 5 offers ways to amend the Constitution: amendments can be proposed by either two-thirds of both Houses, or two-thirds of the state legislatures can propose an amendment. This option has been talked of more in the past few years, and about a dozen states so far have voted to go ahead (including my state of Texas).
Article 6 talks about paying debts incurred by the national government, and that the federal government shall be the supreme law of the land.
Article 7 talks about ratification of the Constitution, and signatures from representative of the states at the Constitutional Convention, where the document was written and revised.
Then come the Amendments. There are 27. But the Constitution wasn't ratified until the first ten were included. These are what we call the Bill of Rights. They weren't originally included, because they were understood by all as a given. But there were those—Virginia led in this—who were afraid if at least some of these rights weren't spelled out, later generations might try to abridge them (violate them, pretend they didn't exist).
They were prescient. Not only did that forgetting happen, but even with these rights spelled out, people argue whether or not the government should grant those rights—forgetting that government doesn't grant them; it only protects them. Think about current riots, from people claiming no one should be allowed to speak things they find offensive, or that they do not approve of. Or claims that religious freedom should be subjugated to popular beliefs about sexuality.
And there has been a great deal of government overreach—taking on authority that is not granted in the Constitution.
We need to return to our Constitution. That is the path back to freedom, prosperity, and civilization. We need all good people to learn the truths our founders knew, and then stand up as our founders did.
We'll need to start with learning.
I came across a video (see it here) over the weekend, meant for students—probably aimed at upper elementary through middle school. But it's worth a watch with the kids. The hosts, which include a 10-year-old girl, touring the capitol, and interviewing two senators from the judicial sub-committee on the Constitution: Ted Cruz and and Richard Blumenthal.
If you want something aimed at a little higher education level, try testing your knowledge with Hillsdale College's quiz on the US Constitution: (here).
And maybe that will lead you to take their Constitution 101 course, which I've recommended before. High school students shouldn't be scared off by the college label; it's what everyone graduating from high school should know and understand. In fact, every voter ought to know what's in this course.
Hillsdale College also has an annual Constitution Day celebration going on, with live streaming on various topics, starting tonight and going through tomorrow. [Schedule here.] I'm especially interested in the "Roundtable on The Political Theory of the American Founding: Natural Rights, Public Policy, and the Moral Conditions of Freedom," at 9:00 AM EDT Tuesday.
If you're not ready to dive into a college level course, but could handle something about the length of a movie, I recommend A More Perfect Union, produced by Brigham Young University. It's a beautifully done dramatization of that hot summer of 1786, and the extraordinary men who came together to create our Constitution.
After you've done a bit of study, you might want to reward yourself with a bit of humor. Here is Studio C's frat house version of the founders.
Labels: A More Perfect Union, bill of rights, Constitution, Constitution 101, rights, Studio C
A Lot of Broken Glass
There's an economic example often used to illustrate, among other things, how government spending affects the economy. [See here and here.]
From Greg Mankiw's blog
In short, if a vandal breaks the glass display window of a bakery, it stimulates the economy: a glazier gets, say, $500 for the work and materials to replace the window. But what we don't see is where that $500 would have been spent if the window had remained intact. Maybe the baker could have bought a new suit, and/or hired another worker in his shop. The suit tailor and/or the new employee are out that amount of money.
There is the seen and the unseen.
So, in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, here in Houston, we're looking at an estimated $30-40 billion in metaphorical broken glass, or property damage. What is going to happen next? A lot of renovation and rebuilding. In fact, it will be a boom town for renovators. If they're mobile enough, it would be prudent for such workers to move to Houston and set up shop for the next year or so. The same is true for drywall and flooring suppliers. And furniture sales. There's $30-40 billion here, above and beyond what the economy needed before the storm.
Jobs galore! Isn't this great?
Ask one of those families how they feel about it. Are they better off economically by spending money on flooring, drywall, and furniture replacement—after possibly spending money on hotels or apartment rent during the rebuild, along with clothing replacement and the expense of eating out—or would they have preferred to use their money in ways they had intended before the storm? Things like a new car, education, retirement savings, a vacation?
from the southern section of my neighborhood
Even those with insurance are likely to prefer their own plans for their money, rather than the storm-caused new plans.
People who are charitably giving sense this. They wish to mitigate the damage by volunteering labor, materials, money, or other help so that the cost to the storm victims is less severe.
Let's take a look at the volunteer labor. The professional cost for mucking out a house—removing flooring, drywall, ruined furniture, and other debris, and then cleaning, drying, and preparing the walls and floor for rebuilding—before any rebuilding is begun, so, separate from those costs—is an estimated $16,000 per house.
Does that charitable giving deprive the economy of money? Technically, it would deprive those particular professionals of money they might have made. But there is a time issue involved. Suddenly there is a shortage of companies that do this service, since in non-storm times such needs are limited to broken pipes or other hit-and-miss personal disasters. And it's assumed that a home needs to be cleared and aired out as quickly as possible. Any home that remains waterlogged and growing mold for 30 days is likely to be a total loss.
We're at day 19 today. Some houses are still underwater. But this time issue is why, anywhere the water has receded enough for homeowners to return, you see the debris piles along the streets. They want to give their home the best chance possible for a successful rebuild.
Volunteers are spending their time. But we're assuming they're spending out of their surplus. So they're not short-changing the economy by failing to earn during those volunteer hours. Anyone who would prevent the volunteer neighbor-helping-neighbor work would be doing nothing for the available workers in that field, since they have more work than they can do already. But they would be condemning those homeowners to total loss.
So I think we can agree volunteer work after a disaster is a community good.
While we're talking about giving, there are plenty of places to give to charity, for anyone who wishes to alleviate some of the pain. Among those that send all donations directly to those in need:
· Rebuild Texas Fund, which Governor Abbott has endorsed.
· J. J. Watt Foundation, which has raised $33.5 million, but will be ending fundraising Friday, September 15, at 5:00 PM.
· LDS Humanitarian Services, which has already provided 22 truckloads of supplies in Houston, including equipment for all those Mormon Helping Hands to use. (We are still housing the generator they provided during Hurricane Ike, for use in our congregation. We shared it with neighbors on both sides during the eight days we were without power.)
Additionally, a number of people have set up GoFundMe sites, to raise money for specific people. In this kind of grassroots arrangement, you know the money you send goes directly to those who need it. I know the people involved in these two:
· Derrick Campos Family in Houston
· Harvey Recovery—Tom Tidwell
I've mentioned Derrick's story and shared his photos in the past couple of weeks. He lives not far from me. Here'e Derrick talking about coming to be willing to accept this help:
The Tidwells live in Port Arthur. I've been friends of their extended family since my first year of college. Both families ended up being rescued by boat and face a long recovery. There are going to be many many others in similar situations. But I know any donation you can afford would be well spent on these families.
Back to our economic discussion. One of the reasons central planning is always a bad idea for economics is that the central planners can't know what the needs of the individual are. They can't make better decisions than the people earning the money and deciding how to spend it. They can't see the unseen—the economic choices that are lost when one choice is made rather than another.
Government has its role: protection of life, liberty, and property. But its economic role is mainly to get out of the way. If only!
One way the private sector has managed disaster recovery in the past is insurance. I read this helpful note earlier today:
Most of the money from previous Texas hurricanes has come from private insurance. And, in some ways, this process of rebuilding restores a balance in the economy. For the past couple of decades, almost all homeowners have paid for insurance but few people make a claim. Most of that money sits on the balance sheet of big insurance companies to pay out future claims, and those companies often invest those dollars on Wall Street and real estate. That's all fine—good, healthy commerce.
Now the time has come for the flow to go the other way. Big insurance companies will be paying out money to settle insurance claims, and most of that will go to working class Americans who will rebuild damaged property. Demand for labor will rise, as will wages, as the money starts to flow. The tilting of the economy away from physical labor toward the financial sector will reverse – maybe only temporarily, but it will still reverse.
In other words, insurance money has been in the economy all along; this disaster just changes where it is put to work for a while. It has given many homeowners and businesses a chance to get back to their previous economic track more quickly than if they hadn't been putting money toward insurance all along.
What about government money? If it's there, we'll take it. But this same author says something that maybe ought to be obvious but isn't:
Of course, if the federal government decides to give away money, I suppose people will sign up for it. But this madness eventually needs to end. The federal government is broke, and insisting that folks in Kansas or Vermont pay for a hurricane in Houston is silly on the face of it. This is not an invading army we're talking about here. It's a really bad storm. The Constitution doesn't contain the words "storm," "weather," or "insurance." Why are we continuing to twist its meaning to make Congress and the President look like heroes? If they want to help, let them help with their own time, talent, and treasure. Like the rest of us.
But we also don't want to be suckers. If Washington DC decides not to help Houston, they should end it for everyone in the future. Which they should, in my opinion.
I've had good things to say about Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner during the past few weeks. But earlier this week, he kind of wiped out all that good will. He decided that now is a good time to add an 8.9% property tax hike to all Houston property owners. Rates will be charged at pre-storm property values—even though those values may have plummeted because of storm damage. Why? Because, to a Democrat, paying for government is paramount.
What will the citizens get for this? Not protection from this storm or future storms. Not greater fire and police protection. Not better roads or infrastructure. Nothing but the dubious satisfaction of getting city government fully funded before they even get back into their own damaged homes.
Was there a cost to the city caused by the storm? Yes. It was far less than it would have been without good engineering and planning, based on past storms. But shouldn't the city economize, as the citizens have to, rather than burdening people who are already suffering financially?
Again, it's that short-sighted economic view that sees only a chosen segment of society—in this case, city government. If we can get Houston back on its feet, and rebuilt, and economically humming along in its normal healthy way, wouldn't that benefit the city well enough?
I'll note that Harris County, a government entity that is larger than any local government entity in the US except possibly the City of Los Angeles, has decided to economize, rather than burden the people.
Fortunately, the mayor must go through the city council, with a final vote in mid-October. It may be that the people can be vocal enough to convince the city that now is not the time to force storm-weary citizens to cough up an additional $100 million in taxes.
So, when there's proverbial broken glass, that temporarily helps the window repairman. That's the seen benefit. But unseen are all the lost uses for that money. I hope we can soon get back to letting the people who earned it decide how to spend it.
Labels: economics, glass breaking fallacy, Hurricane Harvey, hurricane recovery, Mayor Sylvester Turner
We Will Rebuild
Sixteen years ago enemy-caused disaster happened on American soil. Our lives changed on that day. We dug through the rubble, and helped one another out of the ashes and debris. We were stunned. But we set our jaws and said, "We will rebuild."
Sixteen days ago nature-caused disaster happened on Texas soil. Our lives changed on that day. We dug through the rubble, and helped one another out of the flood waters and debris. We were stunned. But we set our jaws and said, "We will rebuild."
One of the images from 9/11/2001 is of an American flag being flown on a pole among the debris.
Raising the Flag at Ground Zero
image from Wikipedia
In honor of that, a friend who has a pile of debris outside his home, posted an American flag among the debris.
Derrick and Gloria Campos fly the American flag
on the debris in front of their flooded home
He is at the stage of mucking out where they could power wash the floors, which he describes as, "One step closer to being one step closer to being one step closer to being clean." It's not an easy process.
He's had a good attitude about this, considering. This is their third flood: Memorial Day Flood 2015, Tax Day Flood 2016, and Hurricane Harvey 2017. All of these were rainfalls beyond expectation, beyond 100-year flood levels (way beyond). They hadn't built in a foolish place—unless you expect these crazy storms. Odds are there won't be another for half a millennium. Yet they've come three years in a row.
Derrick told their story on the walls. And they had people from each day's work crew sign a wall. Here's the collection.
Wall from Derrick Campos's flooded home
The collection was posted on Facebook by Amy Knight
All I can say is, I admire the good attitude and resilience. It's exemplary of who we are as Texans and Americans. We get to work, and we rebuild.
I spent a week out of town, visiting my son and his family. This was the view of our entrance when I left.
It was still a few days later before water was down to make the roads passable, and people near us were able to get back to their homes and begin the mucking out process, so they can eventually rebuild. On Saturday I drove through those streets. And this was the common sight.
It's not going to be easy. But the bones of these houses are still good. Sometimes the insides are back to where they were 25-30 years ago, during the original building process—bare concrete floors and wall studs. But a year from now, barring further disaster, the signs of the storm will be hard to see.
This is still my favorite image from 9-11-2001, "Out of the Ashes" by artist Ken Turner. It shows our indomitable America spirit.
"Out of the Ashes" by Ken Turner
There's no painting or iconic image yet for Hurricane Harvey. But, as a comparison, I'll use this group of nearly 500 Mormon Helping Hands gathered yesterday morning for a brief church service and then instructions before dividing up into work crews for yet another day of helping their neighbors dig out of the debris. The photo was posted on Facebook by Melissa Willis, and captioned, "Get on your knees and pray, then get on your feet and get to work," quoting Gordon B. Hinckley.
Mormon Helping Hands from the Bear Creek Stake
Center is Stake President Scott Welch; at the podium
is his counselor, President Dave Hansen
As I'm writing this, we're waiting for news about how Florida has survived Hurricane Irma. Early reports are that the storm was not as devastating as it might have been; it had been a category 5 hurricane, but by landfall last night was down to a category 1. But that's still a dangerous storm. So our prayers are with them today. We're with them in spirit.
I hope the fear of storms doesn't interfere with our lives. Or the fear of loss. Or the sadness at lost treasures—photos, heirlooms, surroundings. I hope what lasts is the memory of helping one another, of being in this together, rebuilding together.
Because United We Stand.
Labels: "Out of the Ashes", 9/11, disaster relief, Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma, hurricane recovery, hurricane relief, Raising the Flag at Ground Zero, rebuilding, resilience
Through the Deep Waters
I've been away from Houston the past several days, helping out family, as planned well before Hurricane Harvey. But I've been following much of the labor and service and heartache, and I'm so proud of my many friends who are reaching out and putting in one heavy-labor day after another, at no cost—simply because it has to be done, and we Texans have compassion for those in need.
Disaster relief comes in stages: preparation, getting through the storm, rescue, mucking out, and then rebuilding. We're at the mucking out stage now. In some neighborhoods, enough of that has been done to get trucks in to pick up the debris. In other areas, houses still have standing water, and the owners are still waiting to get inside. The longer that takes, the more damage, sadly.
Anyway, as you might imagine, there's no hiring enough workers to muck out that many homes, and many homeowners are unable to do the job themselves. That means, if it's going to get done, it's volunteers who will do it. And that's what my friends are doing.
So I'll just share a few of their images that I've borrowed from Facebook. I want to note that Mormon Helping Hands aren't the only helpers. We're two percent of the population, and no everyone has the right age and ability for this job. Catholic Charities is working with us, and there are many other organizations and ad hoc community groups doing this messy work. But my access to friends who are doing this is mostly Mormon Helping Hands.
This first group is from my ward (congregation) Monday. Similar groups (including many of the same people) have been mucking out homes since late last week.
Mormon Helping Hands from Copperfield Ward on Monday
Several friends posted this photo, so I'm guessing and
giving photo credit to Janet Taylor
Here's another crew coming from my church building. Their regular church building got a lot of water damage, so they'll be sharing our building for some time.
Mormon Helping Hands from Bear Creek and Westlake Wards on Monday.
Photo credit to Melissa Willis
And here's another crew from a little way north. They were lucky to have President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, of the First Presidency (a counselor to the Prophet and President of our worldwide Church) show up for services on Sunday—which were short and followed by work crews heading out to assignments. In every way, it was a special Sunday service.
Cypress Stake Center, which had been a command center
for boat rescue, is now a command center for
Mormon Helping Hands. President Uchtdorf
showed up to join them this Sunday.
Photo credit to Mary Moellmer.
If you wonder what mucking out means, it's tearing out flooring, moving damaged furniture and debris to the curb for pickup, and tearing out damaged drywall from above the flood line so the insides of the walls can dry out completely before rebuilding can be done.
It looks like this.
Photo credit to Derrick Campos, who hasn't been able to get back in
his own house yet, but has spent the waiting time helping other
people do the mucking out. This is the third time his home has
flooded in recent years. Sometimes life isn't fair.
Another photo from Derrick Campos
This is what's happening inside--cutting out drywall.
Flooring gets removed inside as well.
Photo from Melissa Willis, who had water up
onto the driveway, but her house was spared.
Some friends of mine, the Siebert family, are very talented. Jim Siebert is the meteorologist for the local Fox television station, and he's the one many of us tuned in to for constant updates during the storm week. His wife, Debbie, is a musician, with a particularly gorgeous voice. They have been doing short Sunday hymn videos for a while—the whole family. They did one this past Sunday. It's a hymn, "How Firm a Foundation." It's a common Christian hymn, although I think many churches use a different tune ("Old Hundredth," I think it's called). But they do the one from our LDS Hymns. The fourth verse, which we've sung all our lives, has taken on new meaning these past couple of weeks:
The rivers of sorrow shall not thee o'erflow,
And sanctify to thee, and sanctify to thee,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.
The Sieberts used photos from the disaster and cleanup as backdrop to their song. When they get to this verse, they change tempo and tone, which brought the tears when I heard it—for the sorrow of loss so many are feeling, because of literal deep waters; for the generosity and kindness of so many who are helping others in their need; and for the love that we feel from our Father in Heaven, who promises to be with us, our troubles to bless and sanctify.
We've said for more than a decade now, when the Lord wants His people to turn to him, He sends a hurricane to the Gulf Coast. Mormon Helping Hands have been active here since 2005, the year of Katrina and Rita. Would that we would all turn to Him without these painful reminders. But bad things happen even to very good people. When they do, our job is to serve God by serving one another.
Labels: community service, Hurricane Harvey, hurricane relief, Mormon Helping Hands, Siebert Family hymns, volunteers


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Tattoo of Johnny Depp's Attorney Criticized as Not a 'Slay Girlboss Moment'
A lady not long ago gave herself a tattoo of Johnny Depp's legal professionals and the internet has views.
The planet has been observing the defamation demo unfold as Depp is suing his ex-wife, Amber Heard, for $50 million for the reason that an op-ed she wrote in 2018 that was printed in The Washington Post. Depp's legal professionals argue that the op-ed is naturally about him, even even though he was not named in the post. Heard is countersuing Depp for $100 million for damages.
A female named Jazzmyn Wollfe, underneath the username @tattooedingenue shared a video clip on TikTok that has absent viral with above 100,000 likes and has been found at the very least 800,000 occasions. In her video clip, she is shown giving herself a tattoo of one of Depp's lawyers, Camille Vasquez.
"gave myself a Camille Vasquez tattoo," she writes in her movie. The tattoo is revealed to be an define of Vasquez with the phrase "Objection" beneath.
Given that the video clip has been posted, numerous consumers on TikTok have feelings on her tattoo and most are criticizing the female.
One consumer mentioned in one more viral online video, "this just isn't the slay millennial girlboss minute you imagined it was."
"No you didn't. Oh god you did," wrote a different.
"This is quite basically a domestic violence circumstance. Jesus," one particular user mentioned.
"why would you do that," questioned another.
Wollfe took to the reviews to deal with the negative opinions.
"for all the negative nancys: i defined what it signifies in the feedback- it holds meaning for me and even if it failed to- it really is my human body, and it has zero outcome on you lol," she stated.
In a new video, she demonstrates a screenshot of a hateful concept she's acquired on social media.
"I you should not want to retain responding to the detrimental reviews mainly because you will find no use in squandering my strength on that," she exclaimed.
However, other people are defending Wollfe and commenting on their love for the tattoo.
A female has confronted criticism right after posting a video clip of supplying herself a tattoo associated to one of Johnny Depp's attorneys, Camille Vasquez.
KEVIN LAMARQUE/AFP
"This is dope lady. Awesome," exclaimed a user.
"Can you all in the opinions chill out? It's HER human body. I take place to assume the tattoo is fairly cool. So rest fellas. It truly is not like that tattoo is on u," 1 wrote.
"I see it as a representation of an individual who is preventing for not just gals, but males to be read in situations of DV. I like it," a single exclaimed.
Yet another wrote, "Men and women be hella pressed about what you are observing in your own time and placing on your individual physique lol. Your tattoo is beautiful!"
"I do most of my personal tattoos and have by no means had any person respond so passionately to what artwork I place on my human body," Wollfe informed Newsweek. "Numerous of my tattoos have meaning, quite a few never, but this a single in certain symbolized a large amount for me."
She also commented on how she admired Vasquez when observing the demo.
"I was blown away by the ferocity and self-confidence Camille's evaluation was delivered with. my admiration for her diligence and manner has no relation to my belief about Amber, Johnny, or anybody else who's personal narrative I cannot speak on.
"What I noticed was a sturdy woman, keeping her ground and executing everything in her ability to bring justice to who she thinks to be an abuse victim, and shine light-weight on a sort of domestic violence culture frequently seems to dismiss or refute fully. I understand she was just accomplishing her occupation, nonetheless any person who watched her in action could not potentially deny she did so in an very productive, articulate and outstanding way," she continued.
She defined that she designed the design and style herself and did not want the tattoo to be a image of Vasquez as she would not know anything at all about the attorney outside the house of the Depp-Listened to scenario.
"I needed it to be a reminder of the a great deal broader items it represented to me. I selected to merely place 'objection' opposed to additional utilizing 1 of the lawful phrases that is come to be popularized/ referenced, this sort of as 'objection, hearsay' due to the fact I thought it greater to preserve it a very simple reminder somewhat than additional of an homage to the genuine trial."
She explained how she in no way expected the video clip would go as viral as it did, in particular currently being bombarded with negative feedback which include that she is "what's improper with humanity," how she was "romanticizing abuse," which she states is not accurate. She tells Newsweek that the hateful messages are "disgusting" as she was told to "get rid of herself" and that they hope her tattoo gets infected.
"I get that something you put on line is issue to criticism, and at the conclusion of the working day there will be folks who concur with you, folks who you should not, and men and women who fall somewhere in the center but hardly ever should harassment and encouragement of suicide be the response," she said.
She concludes that individuals may not understand the concept of her tattoo, but she's happy of it.
"I continue to preserve my feeling that Camille's anyone who's unwavering pursuit of justice has encouraged lots of gals and girls around the earth in both equally own and expert means," she mentioned.
Church sex scandals must be supplied to authorized technique | Editorials
Our Finest Defense In opposition to Hurricanes Is to Modernize This Coastal Law

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
is a passenger railway station  located in the city of Sakaiminato, Tottori Prefecture, Japan. It is operated by the West Japan Railway Company (JR West).

Lines
Amariko Station is served by the Sakai Line, and is located 15.0 kilometers from the terminus of the line at .

Station layout
The station consists of one ground-level side platform locate don then right side of a single bi-directional track when looking in the direction of . The station is unattended.

Adjacent stations

History
Amariko Station opened on December 22, 1932.

Passenger statistics
In fiscal 2018, the station was used by an average of 658 passengers daily.

Surrounding area
Tottori Prefectural Sakaiminato Technical High School
Sakaiminato Second Junior High School
Sakaiminato Municipal Yoko Elementary School
Sakaiminato Municipal Seido Elementary School

See also
List of railway stations in Japan

References

External links

 0641708  Amariko Station from JR-Odekake.net

Railway stations in Japan opened in 1932
Railway stations in Tottori Prefecture
Stations of West Japan Railway Company
Sakaiminato, Tottori

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


The shell tcsh is an extension of csh. It stands for the TENEX C SHell, as some of its enhancements were inspired by the TENEX operating system.
And so on. In general, with the exception of csh and tcsh, it is usually safe to assume that any modern login shell is compatible with Bourne shell syntax.
Outside of this chapter, this document does not generally cover the C shell syntax. If after reading this, you still want to write a more complex script using the C shell programming language, you can find more information in on the C shell in the manual page for csh.
The first thing you should notice is that the script starts with '#!'. This is known as an interpreter line. If you don't specify an interpreter line, the default is usually the Bourne shell (/bin/sh). However, it is best to specify this line anyway for consistency.
Type or paste this script into the text editor of your choice (see Creating Text Files in Your Home Directory for help creating a text file) and save the file in your home directory in a file called test.sh.
Once you have saved the file in your home directory, type 'chmod a+x test.sh' in Terminal to make it executable. Finally, run it with './test.sh leaders'. You should see "Hello, world leaders!" printed to your screen.
This script provides an example of a variable assignment. The variable $1 contains the first argument passed to the shell script. In this example, the script makes a copy and stores it into a variable called FIRST_ARGUMENT, then prints that variable.
The functional difference between set and setenv is described in Exporting Shell Variables.
Notice that the echo statement is followed by a string surrounded by quotation marks. Normally, the shell uses spaces to separate arguments to commands. Outside of quotation marks, the shell would treat "Hello," and "world" as separate arguments to echo.
By surrounding the string with double quote marks, the shell treats the entire string as a single argument to echo even though it contains spaces.
The first line above prints "Hello, world leaders!" because the space after "leaders" ends the first argument ($1). Inside the script, the variable $1 contains "leaders", $2 contains "and", and $3 contains "citizens".
The above example creates a directory in /tmp called "My Folder". (Don't worry about deleting it because /tmp gets wiped every time you reboot.) It then attempts to list the files in that directory. The first time, it uses quotation marks. The second time, it does not. Notice that the shell misinterprets the command the second time as being an attempt to list the files in /tmp/My and the files in Folder.
A classic example of an environment variable that is significant to scripts and tools is the PATH variable. This variable specifies a list of locations that the shell searches when executing programs by name (without specifying a complete path). For example, when you type ls on the command line, the shell searches in the locations specified in PATH (in the order specified) until it finds an executable called ls (or runs out of locations, whichever comes first).
Generally speaking, the first time you assign a value to an environment variable such as the PATH variable, the Bourne shell creates a new, local copy of this shell variable that is specific to your script. Any tool executed from your script is passed the original value of PATH inherited from whatever script, tool, or shell that launched it.
With the BASH shell, however, any variable inherited from the environment is automatically exported by the shell. Thus, in some versions of OS X, if you modify inherited environment variables (such as PATH) in a script, your local changes will be seen automatically by any tool or script that your script executes. Thus, in these versions of OS X, you do not have to explicitly use the export statement when modifying the PATH variable.
A script written without the export statement may work on some versions of OS X, but will fail on others. You can solve this portability problem by using the export builtin, as described in this section.
A shell script that changes variables such as PATH will alter the behavior of any script that it executes, which may or may not be desirable. You can solve this problem by overriding the PATH environment variable when you execute each individual tool, as described in Overriding Environment Variables for Child Processes (Bourne Shell).
To guarantee that your modifications to a shell variable are passed to any script or tool that your shell script calls, you must use the export builtin. You do not have to use this command every time you change the value; the variable remains exported until the shell script exits.
Either of these statements has the same effect—specifically, they export the local notion of the PATH environment variable to any command that your script executes from now on. There is a small catch, however. You cannot later undo this export to restore the original global declaration. Thus, if you need to retain the original value, you must store it somewhere yourself.
In the following example, the script stores the original value of the PATH environment variable, exports an altered version, executes a command, and restores the old version.
While automatic export is usually convenient, you may sometimes wish to change a preexisting environment variable without modifying the environment of any script or tool that your script executes. For example, if your script executes a number of tools in /usr/local/bin, it may be convenient to change the value of PATH to include /usr/local/bin. However, you may not want child processes to also look in /usr/local/bin.
Notice that the assignment statement MYVAR=7 applies only to the command that follows it. The value of MYVAR is altered in the environment of the command ./printmyvar.sh, so the script prints the number 7. However, the original (empty) value is restored after executing that command, so the echo statement afterwards prints an empty string for the value of MYVAR.
In the C shell, variables are exported if you set them with setenv, but not if you set them with set. Thus, if you want your shell variable modifications to be seen by any tool or script that you call, you should use the setenv builtin. This builtin is the C shell equivalent to issuing an assignment statement with the export builtin in the Bourne shell.
If you want your shell variables to only be available to your script, you should use the set builtin (described in Shell Variables and Printing). The set builtin is equivalent to a simple assignment statement in the Bourne shell.
Notice that the local variable version requires an equals sign (=), but the exported environment version does not (and produces an error if you put one in).
This will generate an error message. In the C shell, it is not possible to print the value of an undefined variable, so if you think you may need to print the value later, you should set it to an empty string rather than using unset or unsetenv.
If you need to test an environment variable (not a shell-local variable) that may or may not be part of your environment (a variable set by whatever process called your script), you can use the printenv builtin. This prints the value of a variable if set, but prints nothing if the variable is not set, and thus behaves just like the variable behaves in the Bourne shell.
This prints X is "" if the variable is either empty or undefined. Otherwise, it prints the value of the variable between the quotation marks.
Unlike the Bourne shell, the C shell does not provide a built-in syntax for overriding environment variables when executing external commands. However, it is possible to simulate this either by using the env command.
As an alternative, you can use the set builtin to make a temporary copy of any variable you need to override, change the value, execute the command, and restore the value from the temporary copy.
You should notice, however, that whether you use the env command or manually make a copy, the PATH variable is altered prior to searching for the command. Because the PATH variable controls where the shell looks for programs to execute, you must therefore explicitly provide a complete path to the ls command or it will not be found (unless you have a copy in /usr/local/bin, of course). The PATH environment variable is explained in Special Shell Variables.
As a workaround, you can determine the path of the executable using the which command prior to altering the PATH environment variable.
Security Note: If your purpose for overriding an environment variable is to prevent disclosure of sensitive information to a potentially untrusted process, you should be aware that if you use setenv for the copy, the called process has access to that temporary copy just as it had access to the original variable. To avoid this, be sure to create the temporary copy using the set builtin instead of setenv.
For the most part, in Bourne shell scripts, when you need to get rid of a variable, setting it to an empty string is sufficient. However, in long-running scripts that might encounter memory pressure, it can be marginally useful to delete the variable entirely. To do this, use the unset builtin.
The unset builtin can also be used to delete environment variables.
C Shell Note: The C shell unset builtin is identical except that it cannot be used to delete environment variables. Use unsetenv instead, as shown in Overriding Environment Variables for Child Processes (C Shell).


Here's another SEO tip that will help you to get extremely relevant backlinks to your website. We're going to do this by using what are called "Footprints".
So what exactly is a footprint? Simply put – they are strings of text that we can search for to find sites that run using a specific software.
As an example most blogs that run on WordPress will have the text "Powered by WordPress" somewhere on the website.
So how can footprints help you to find relevant websites to build backlinks on?
We can use these footprints to find specific website platforms that we know allow us to add a link somewhere.
In fact there are quite a few different website platforms out there that allow you to add a link in some way and by using footprints we can easily find these sites.
Below I've compiled a list of footprints that you can use to find some of the most popular platforms out there that allow you to build a backlink somewhere on their website.
These backlinks will not only be extremely relevant but are extremely easy to obtain!
some good SEO backlinking info. Thanks.
Thanks bro! With the Google zoo getting out of their cages, this is a big help!
Amazing SEO tips! I was wondering if you have any tips for us so our comments are approved by their blogs. You know, some of us hate comments spam..
Thank you Jay for sharing this helpful information in a way that is simple so that I can understand it. I look forward to learning and implementing your next lesson!
Hey Jay. Great stuff from you as usual. I can always count on getting some extremely useful tips when I come to your site. What a great way to easily find places to get relevant backlinks. Thanks a lot man.
I want to diversify my online income and adding a CPA/affiliate income stream looks really tempting. I am going to take a look at your free "How to build a profitable niche website" training!
Wow! Thanks for the lists of footprints. Looking out for a number of blogs and forums according to your niche is a hectic job, but with these, it can alleviate the time I consume in finding it.
Great post on footprints I don't know i missed this for a lazy azz stoner you do great work Thanks !
There is a very nice list of footprints to build extremely relevant backlinks.
Thank you for for your nice and informative posting. This will be very helpful for SEO. thank you very much.
Thanks for the post. I really enjoy your "outside the box" strategies.
how do you know if they have dofolllow or nofollow links?


One of the serious problems of our time is clearly the changed relationship with respect to life. A widespread and insensitive mentality has led to the loss of the proper personal and social sensitivity to welcome new life. The tragedy of abortion is experienced by some with a superficial awareness, as if not realizing the extreme harm that such an act entails. Many others, on the other hand, although experiencing this moment as a defeat, believe they have no other option. I think in particular of all the women who have resorted to abortion. I am well aware of the pressure that has led them to this decision. I know that it is an existential and moral ordeal. I have met so many women who bear in their heart the scar of this agonizing and painful decision. What has happened is profoundly unjust; yet only understanding the truth of it can enable one not to lose hope. The forgiveness of God cannot be denied to one who has repented, especially when that person approaches the Sacrament of Confession with a sincere heart in order to obtain reconciliation with the Father. For this reason too, I have decided, notwithstanding anything to the contrary, to concede to all priests for the Jubilee Year the discretion to absolve of the sin of abortion those who have procured it and who, with contrite heart, seek forgiveness for it. May priests fulfill this great task by expressing words of genuine welcome combined with a reflection that explains the gravity of the sin committed, besides indicating a path of authentic conversion by which to obtain the true and generous forgiveness of the Father who renews all with his presence.
A final consideration concerns those faithful who for various reasons choose to attend churches officiated by priests of the Fraternity of St Pius X. This Jubilee Year of Mercy excludes no one. From various quarters, several Brother Bishops have told me of their good faith and sacramental practice, combined however with an uneasy situation from the pastoral standpoint. I trust that in the near future solutions may be found to recover full communion with the priests and superiors of the Fraternity. In the meantime, motivated by the need to respond to the good of these faithful, through my own disposition, I establish that those who during the Holy Year of Mercy approach these priests of the Fraternity of St. Pius X to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation shall validly and licitly receive the absolution of their sins.
Romana, No. 61, July-December 2015, p. 212-214.


text:
Alita: Battle Angel Has Added A Nashville Actor For An Important Role
By Adam Holmes
After over a decade of unsuccessful attempts to get started, Alita: Battle Angel finally got off the ground earlier this year with Robert Rodriguez taking over as director and Rosa Salazar being cast to play the main protagonist. Since then, some well-known names have been added to the cast, and while today's latest casting might not be familiar to everyone, he'll be play one of the story's most integral roles: Alita's love interest.
Nashville actor Keean Johnson has been brought Alita: Battle Angel aboard to play Hugo, a young boy who teaches Alita how to play Motorball, a gladiator-style sport. He also spends his time secretly stealing robotic parts. According to THR, Johnson beat out actors like Jupiter Ascending's Douglas Booth and Jack Lowden from the upcoming Dunkirk for the part after the studio felt he fit the "ethnically ambiguous" route they were going for with this character. He'll be acting alongside Rosa Salazar, and the rest of the cast so far consists of Christoph Waltz as Dr. Dyson Ido, Jackie Earle Haley as CHI-heavy cyborg villain and Ed Skrein as a fellow cyborg baddie named Zapan, who possesses a weapon known as the Damascus blade.
Taking place in the 26th century, Alita: Battle Angel will follow the eponymous heroine, a cyborg, who wakes up in a scrap yard with no memory of her previous life, but still retaining her amazing martial arts skills. She'll put those skills to good use being a bounty hunter. In the original manga, Alita met the orphaned Hugo (or in Japan, Yugo) during one of her hunts for a dangerous criminal. She was impressed by his efforts to protect her, and they eventually struck up a close friendship when she agreed to help him collect enough currency to bail him out of a precarious situation. Eventually a romance blossomed, but if the movie is following the source material closely, then those two won't get a happy ending.
Keean Johnson is best known for his recurring role as Colt Wheeler in the ABC (now CMT) series Nashville. His other credits include headlining the Hub Network series Spooksville, recurring on ABC Family/Freeform's The Fosters and appearing in the movie Heritage Falls. It's safe to say that Alita: Battle Angel will be his most high-profile project yet, and should the movie be well received, he may have a blockbuster career ahead of him. As mentioned earlier, Robert Rodriguez will be handling directorial duties, taking over from James Cameron, who has the Avatar franchise to keep him busy. However, Cameron still involved with the movie as a producer with his partner Jon Landau.
Alita: Battle Angel will arrive in theaters on July 20, 2018. Let us know what you think of Keean Johnson's casting in the comments below.
Adam Holmes
Senior Content Producer
Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.
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Because, you know, Negativland had an album called U2, which they and their label SST got spectacularly sued for. The lawsuit was interesting enough that they wrote a book, Fair Use: The Story of the Letter U and the Numeral 2 that detailed their travails. So why not have a Negativland U2 iPod?
And if you read down to the bottom, the seller (Francis Hwang – who we've never met) is donating the proceeds of the sale to Downhill Battle.


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Network Rail to carry out major revamp to Cramlington station footbridge
By RailUK-admin
This week, teams from Network Rail will begin work to completely revamp and refurbish the footbridge at Cramlington railway station.
The vital project begins on Thursday, 25 November and will see the footbridge taken off-site for inspection. During this time, the footbridge will be grit-blasted to remove rust and old paint. Following this, the team will carry out any repairs which are needed and repaint the footbridge.
The footbridge will then be put back into place at Cramlington railway station and new handrails and stair treads will be installed. Work to improve drainage on the bridge will also take place.
The work, which is an investment of £590,000, will make using the footbridge a much nicer experience for passengers, as well as making sure that the structure remains reliable, fit for purpose and in good condition for years to come.
To allow the work to take place safely, the footbridge will be closed from Wednesday, 1 December until the project completes in late-March 2022.
Network Rail and Northern are working together to minimise any impact which this work has. During the improvements, access to both platforms at the station will be maintained via pedestrian access ramps and this diversion route will be clearly signposted. This work will not impact on train services.
Sarah Reid, Route Director for Network Rail's East Coast route, said: "This is a much-needed project which will help to future proof Cramlington railway station and create a nicer environment for everyone who uses the station.
"This work does require the footbridge to be closed for over three months and we are sorry for any inconvenience which this causes. We are working closely with Northern to make sure that passengers can still move around the station easily and we'd like to thank all those using Cramlington station during this time for their patience."
Kerry Peters, Regional Director at Northern said: "This vital work being carried out by Network Rail will improve the footbridge at Cramlington railway station.
"We will work closely with colleagues across the rail industry to minimise the impact on our customers and I'd like to thank them in advance for their patience and understanding while the work is completed."
Photo credit: Network Rail
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TUESDAY, Sept. 1, 2020 (American Heart Association News) -- Labor Day weekend is synonymous with picnics and barbecues, and because of the COVID-19 pandemic, small outdoor gatherings are more popular than ever. However, food that sits out too long or is improperly prepared can lead to trouble.
The good news is, that can be avoided by following a few simple steps.
Penny Kris-Etherton, a distinguished professor of nutrition at Pennsylvania State University recommends keeping hands, utensils, and cooking and food prep surfaces as clean as possible.
"Wash your hands with soap for 20 seconds, and make sure to clean beneath your fingernails and in between your fingers," she said.
Following the cooking guidelines on Foodsafety.gov also can help keep you safe. Beef, pork, veal and lamb should be cooked to an internal temperature of 160 F, while turkey and chicken should be at 165 F. "If you're eating extra lean ground beef, it should never be medium rare or raw," said Kris-Etherton, citing the risk of E. coli.
The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics suggests other simple steps to reduce the risk of food poisoning:
Keep raw meat, poultry, seafood and eggs separate from ready-to-eat foods.
Use a food thermometer to make sure foods are cooked to the appropriate internal temperature.
Store perishable foods at or below 40 F within two hours. If the surrounding temperature is above 90 F, then refrigerate within one hour.
The risks are real, said Kris-Etherton, a past chair of the American Heart Association's Council on Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health. "A lot of people get food poisoning every year, and it's something that's preventable."
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 48 million people in the United States – about 1 in 6 – get food poisoning each year. While most recover, 128,000 end up in the hospital and 3,000 die.
Symptoms can range from mild to severe – from stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea to death. In fact, there are more than 250 foodborne diseases, mostly infections caused by bacteria, viruses and parasites. Those pathogens include salmonella, norovirus, listeria and E. coli.
Food poisoning peaks in the summer months when warmer temperatures cause foodborne germs to flourish, according to the CDC.
The illness usually has to run its full course, but Kris-Etherton urged people with bloody stools or a fever of 102 or above to go to the doctor. People who have uncontrollable vomiting or diarrhea also should head straight to the emergency room to get quick IV hydration.
While anybody can get food poisoning, Kris-Etherton said people with compromised immune systems are most at risk. That includes people with autoimmune diseases and those being treated with chemotherapy and other immunosuppressant drugs. Young children, pregnant women and older people also are more vulnerable.
There is no evidence to suggest the coronavirus is spread by handling or eating food. But the CDC urges people to limit close contact with others outside their homes, wash their hands, wear masks and avoid sharing utensils during events and gatherings.


Posted on Monday, July 27th, 2015 at 9:17 pm.
Major internal refurbishment to two health centres in Manchester has brought huge benefits to staff and patients.
Renovations made to the reception areas of Chorlton Family Practice and Cheadle Hulme Health Centre were coordinated by Sally Teague, Assistant Project Manager at NHS Property Services and have provided patients, staff and visitors with an improved, welcoming environment.
The Chorlton Family Practice is based in the NHS Property Services owned Chorlton Health Centre in South Manchester. The refurbishment initiated following the merger of the three practices based in the building, who have united to create the newly formed Chorlton Family Practice.
Commenting on the interior changes seen at the practice, Sally Teague said: "The practice saw its patient list increase to a population of 10,000 but because of the merger, the current use of the building was no longer appropriate.
"We project managed the upgrade and refurbishment, integrating the three separate reception desks to make one new reception area. The distinct administration areas were also combined to create an open plan office with hot desk facilities.
The project team were also able to introduce two new treatment rooms to the building and worked closely with Urban Design & Consult Limited to implement the changes.
Dave Percy of Urban Design & Consult (UDC), said: "We were delighted to work with NHS Property Services and the Chorlton Family Practice on this project.
The community reception desk at Cheadle Hulme Health Centre had originally been identified as requiring an upgrade as it was not compliant with the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA). The reception area also had security issues because it was not located next to the main waiting area.
Commenting on the changes made as part of this project, Sally, said: "We designed a new layout for the reception to not only meet security and DDA requirements but to also create a more user friendly environment.
Dave Percy of UDC was delighted to also support NHS Property Services on this second project and highlights the opportunities that the changes presented for the centre.
He said: "'We took the opportunity presented by the DDA upgrade to also create a much more modern, usable heath centre, incorporating a dedicated waiting area, secure records store and independent access to all rooms which previously could only be accessed via the main multi-purpose room.
Justin Cunningham, Regional Director (North) at NHS Property Services, said: "It's obvious that these much needed upgrades are already valued by the patients, staff and visitors of Chorlton Family Practice and Cheadle Hulme Health Centre.


We have often said time and again, that mother nature is the best artist in the whole world and we are sure that most of you would agree with us. Not only is mother nature a great artist, but she is also a great source of inspiration. That is why you have an art form that is called botanical art where plants and other such vegetation is depicted in art form. It could definitely be counted among nature inspired works of art that will make you smile and we are sure that you will soon be hunting art supplies to start doing some botanical art of your own. The thing about nature is that you not only want to replicate what you see but you also want to add a few touches of your own.
Take for instance, beautiful bird house designs you will fall in love with – in such art forms you are definitely adding to the immense beauty of nature. Or truly tantalizing and inspiring tree art that takes the loveliness of trees and makes it even better if that is possible.
Ranging from the simplest educational tool to the most detailed and delicate rendering, botanical art does include a huge range. No matter what form the botanical art takes, it is heartening to see that plants, and other similar forms of nature are being honored in such a manner. In fact, when you think of it, botanical art is also a way to make you aware of the vegetation and plant life of regions that you have never visited. It is very difficult for a person residing a cold region to envisage the fruits, vegetables, plants and other greenery that are part of a tropical area and vice versa.
While we are talking about the informational and educational value that botanical art has to offer, it is not to say that they do not have aesthetic or artistic value. In fact, they also double as decorative pieces adding to their intrinsic value. That is why many artists have chosen to utilize their skills and creativity in the creation of botanical art. But when it comes to art, artists and their creativity, we cannot always expect realistic representations of the plant life as it is. In some instances, the way the artist renders the botanical object could be somewhat on the fanciful side but this in no way takes away the charm or value of the botanical art.
The world of vegetation is such a rich treasure trove of colors, textures, shapes and varieties that an artist can never run out of subjects to use when it comes to their botanical art. That is part of the beauty of this kind of art and if we add to the artist's creativity and different ways of looking at the botany subjects, then you have infinite possibilities opening up for the artists to work on. It all depends on why the artist is into botanical art.
Is it for educational and information purposes? Or is it for decorative purposes only? Or is it out of purely aesthetic motivations? Since we are talking about art and artists, it could also be interpretative art. We leave it to you to look at all the examples of botanical art that we have given here along with this article and glean what you like the best. Some of the botanical art has actually found its place in the culinary world as illustrations in cookbooks having recipes.
Do tell us which are the forms of botanical art that you find so appealing. We would love to hear from you.


Branded was fast paced, raw and gritty, with a heart wrenching romance and a captivating story. One of my absolute favorites of this year!
It's post WWV, where the privileged live in fear of being accused and the unlucky one's fight for their life in the Hole.
With a twisted, unyielding Commander as their leader, those who oppose him are murdered and the sinners are sent to the Hole where they can be contained.
He controls our depraved society and believes sinners make the human race unforgivable. His power is a crushing fist, rendering all beneath him helpless. So much so, even family members turn on each other when an accusation surfaces. Just an accusation. No trial, no evidence, nothing but an accusation.
Lexi has been accused so, she is sent to the Hole with LUST wrapped around her neck. In the Hole she finds violence, rapes, and death awaiting her but she's stronger than all that. She's a survivor.
He thinks he can destroy me by stripping away my possessions. But he can't and I won't let them take my memories, my ambition, and my pride.
I have a soft stop for Dystopian books but Branded completely exceeded my expectations. There was a forbidden romance that had my stomach in knots (and I mean forbidden, like Eve eating the apple forbidden) and a wonderful storyline.
They're chosen from a young age and trained in combat. They kept order of society by using violent methods of intimidation. No one befriends a guard. Relationships with them are forbidden inside the Hole.
But even with the romance, there was an actual story too. I loved that I was equally enthralled with the romance as I was with the storyline. There were twists and turns I didn't see coming and I was kept at the edge of my seat the whole time.
He can strip me naked, but he'll never reach my soul.
Lexi is one of the strongest, most courageous characters I've read about and definitely makes it to my favorites. I'm pretty sure I have a girl crush on her, that's how much I liked her. I loved her drive and determination, her ability to help others, and the way she held on to her humanity in one of the darkest places.
Every day, I witness the ugliness of humanity and it diminishes my faith in the goodness of people.
And then there was Cole, who had me stuck in a permanent swoon.
"I'll fight for us because nothing else brings me joy except loving you," he whispers in my ear.
Holy hotness, that man has my heart, body, and soul. Right from the beginning you could tell he was different.
He wasn't as mean, cold, wraped and absolutely repulsive as the other guards. You could see that he had a heart.
"Just leave me," I whisper into his ear.
Even with it being forbidden, Cole and Lexi's relationship was beautiful. Not everything was filled with death and despair and they were able to escape into each other, whether it was with some steamy lip locking or bantering around.
I understand that this story isn't for everybody because, despite it being YA, there were some gritty, dark, and gruesome scenes that had me cringing.
However, I would definitely recommend this to anyone who wants and steamy romance, unpredictable turns, and an action packed story.
Be strong for the times ahead. Stand up for those who cannot. And remember, you can overcome anything short of death.


Hilton Sutton: For more than a decade Pastor Sutton served on the Advisory Board of Hilton Sutton World Ministries. During this time he preached various prophetic conferences and minister conferences with Dad Sutton. Some of these resources are available for purchase through HSWM. Click on the link to be taken to the store.


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Froissy – miejscowość i gmina we Francji, w regionie Hauts-de-France, w departamencie Oise.

Według danych na rok 1990 gminę zamieszkiwało 836 osób, a gęstość zaludnienia wynosiła
127 osób/km² (wśród 2293 gmin Pikardii Froissy plasuje się na 341. miejscu pod względem liczby ludności, natomiast pod względem powierzchni na miejscu 726.).

Bibliografia

Miejscowości w departamencie Oise


Firefox 3 is now Available and new features | Tech for Lunch!
Firefox 3 is now Available!
Just a quick post to let everyone know that the long awaited Firefox 3 is now available for download from Mozilla. This new version has been in the works for a long time now(actually, 34 months to be exact!) and the entire Firefox Community has been watching and hoping for the final release. Boasting some 15,000 changes to improve performance, stability, rendering correctness, and code simplification and sustainability, Firefox 3 is an exciting product that I can't wait to review.
Improved Performance - This is probably, and by far, the most anticipated improvement for this release. Firefox 2 is an excellent browser, but its memory consumption is sometimes excessive and makes it a very fat application in the long run. This release claims to load pages faster and use less memory.
Password Manager - Such a feature was already available via some toolbars and plugins, but it is now integrated directly in the browser.
One-Click Bookmarking - One click on the star icon at the end of the location bar bookmarks a site. Two clicks and you can choose where to save it and whether to tag it.
Smart Location Bar - The new location bar learns as you use it. Type in a term and the autocomplete function includes possible matching sites from your browsing history, as well as sites you've bookmarked and tagged in a drop down.
Instant Website ID - This is a security feature. Click on a site favicon for an instant identity overview or click twice to get a detailed report.
Full Zoom - Lets you zoom in the fineprint and on images more easily.
Platform-Native Look & Feel - Firefox's interface adapts to the OS you are using, whether it's Windows XP, Windows Vista, Apple or Linux.
There are many more new features available and I will install this new version as soon as I get a chance to be able to review it in a future post. stay tuned and let me know if you've already had a chance to try Firefox 3.