text:
New Path for Conservatives after Bush Broke Reagan Coalition
http://www.profam.org/docs/acc/thc.acc.yale.081108.htm
"Learning From Conservative History: Main Trails…and Less-Travelled Paths"
by Allan Carlson, Ph.D.
Sunday, Feb 8, 2009
FOR THE ISI REGIONAL LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE "THE NEXT AMERICAN CONSERVATISM?" HELD AT YALE UNIVERSITY NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT NOVEMBER 8, 2008
By training, I am an historian. I love the discipline and believe that historical mindedness – the ability to see and understand the grounding of current institutions, issues, and events in the complex matrix of the past – this is the superior way to make sense of reality.
All the same, I have been troubled for over a decade by the growing interest of American conservatives in the history of their cause. This is not to criticize fine books such as George Nash's The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945. Nor is it to imply that ignorance is the better strategy for guiding a cultural, political, and intellectual campaign. Nor is it to deny that any movement calling itself "conservative" must, by definition, have a healthy – even determinative – regard for the past.
My concern is over a kind of triumphalism that has crept into American conservatism, a neo-Hegelian view that sees this cause rising out of the intellectual rubble of the Truman era, destined by the spirit to history to create mass publications, to control the radio airwaves, to found great think tanks, and to dominate a political party. This version of history sees the apotheosis of the movement in the creation of FOX News. This has actually tended, I believe, toward a narrowing of thought, and a closing off of healthy debate.
Well, I am not a Hegelian and I have agreed to speak about "Learning from Conservative History," so let me turn to that. I will first examine four "Main Trails" that converged over the last sixty years to form American conservatism. I will then examine the legacy of the conservative ascendancy. Finally I will explore several "less-travelled paths," forms of conservatism largely abandoned along the way.
The oddest thing about modern American conservatism is that it emerged during the late 1940's and 1950's, a time of perhaps unparalleled American power, economic expansion, and social order. The United States came out of World War II with an unprecedented military machine, and an astonishing global presence. The American industrial economy was the wonder of the world. The Bretton Woods agreement delivered stability to international finance and opened markets to American goods. American capitalists, demonized during the 1930's, were heroes again, patriots all, and relatively humble in their compensation claims. Every year, hundreds of thousands of American families moved up into the middle class, becoming home owners in the burgeoning, optimistic suburbs. The American welfare state, organized around the New Deal's social security, was modest in its claims and popular. The national debt was manageable, and shrinking as a percentage of Gross National Product. Most unexpectedly, negative family trends of a century's duration had all reversed. A marriage boom commenced; the average age of first marriage fell to 22 for men and around 20 for women: records both. By age 40, 95 percent of American adults were married. More dramatic was the Baby Boom. Overall, the U.S. fertility rate nearly doubled between 1940 and 1957. Defying a law of sociology, the greatest rise in fertility was among women who had attended college. Following a post-war spike, even the divorce rate fell steadily through the 1950's. Church construction was booming; the Sunday schools were bursting at the seams with little Christians. As LIFE magazine summarized in 1960, "the American people did all these things and more. They did them under the benign and permissive Eisenhower sun," an era "in which so many age-old visions of the good life first became real."
So, just what was the problem?
One set of answers came from a group of economists, loosely called the libertarians. A number of them had been raised and trained in Europe, only to become refugees from Naziism or Communism. Perhaps this grounding in Old Europe gave them a stronger sense of history, a deeper perception that allowed them to see beyond certain superficialities. They were vividly aware of how near the destruction of all human freedom had recently come. In 1940, Bolshevism and its collectivist economy dominated the earth's greatest land mass, the Soviet Union. National Socialism in Germany was proving to be a remarkably effective vehicle for building racial empire through an economy planned for conquest. Other fascist variations – also harnessing the power of strident nationalism to socialist forms – were popping up around the globe: most effectively, the Japanese militaristic model. Historian John Lukacs has suggested that the United States and the British Empire, by themselves, could probably not have prevailed over this descending darkness.
Economist Friedrich Hayek's masterpiece The Road to Serfdom, written in 1942 (but published after the war), ably captures the time. Pointing to both German Nazi and Russian Soviet examples, he concludes that "the cry for an economic dictator is a characteristic stage in the movement toward planning." And economic planning was the great trap.
Only Adolf Hitler's remarkable invasion of the Soviet Union – a war of choice on his part – and the consequent troubled alliance of Great Britain and America with the USSR, only those things allowed democracy to survive in Western Europe. However, victory over one totalitarian system quickly gave way to new problems: an expansive and again belligerent Communist Russia; and a newly emboldened Democratic Socialism. Even in Britain and America, many now believed that "democratic" economic planning had been vindicated by the war. In Great Britain, the Labour Party swept to power with a program of socialist planning. In America, Keynesianism – the demand-side theories of John Maynard Keynes – became the new orthodoxy. In liberated Europe, other political leaders turned to economists such as the social democrat Gunnar Myrdal of Sweden, who served as the Executive Secretary of the influential Economic Commission for Europe.
Hayek and other "Austrian economists" such as Ludwig von Mises settled in America. They raised their banner against Keynesianism, arguing instead for liberty, including a free economic system involving deregulation and faith in market forces. While building on somewhat different assumptions, American-born economists at the University of Chicago – notably Milton Friedman and George Stigler – agreed with the Austrians that Keynesian economics rested on contradictions that hampered efficiency, limited growth, and encouraged unhealthy "rent seeking." They warned that the American prosperity of the 1950's was precarious, the result of historical accidents that would not last.
Another set of warnings came from writers usually labeled "traditionalists." In his 1948 book Ideas Have Consequences, rhetorician Richard Weaver argued that the true Western philosophical consensus had dissolved. Practical men – "those in charge of states, of institutions, of businesses" – now faced the task of persuading "to communal activity people who no longer have the same ideas about the most fundamental things." With the then ubiquitous Life magazine especially in mind, Weaver said that vested interests now tried to maintain traditional values artificially. They had constructed what he called the "Great Stereopticon," a medium which projected "selected pictures of life in the hope that what is seen will be imitated." Moreover, these "metaphysicians of publicity" pressed the idea that the goal of life was "happiness through comfort." Weaver believed, however, that the true result was "a sickly metaphysical dream," too weak to sustain anything more burdensome than easy abundance.
Russell Kirk of Michigan also had no illusions about the American miracle of the 1950's. A ruralist himself, he held no sympathy for the burgeoning suburbs. Referring to Long Island, he wrote:
During the late fifties…, I watched…the devastation of what had been a charming countryside…. To make room for a spreading population was necessary, but to do it hideously and stupidly was not ineluctable.
Elsewhere, he called "this brutal destruction of the very landscape…a belligerent repudiation of what we call civilization. It is a rejection of our civilized past." So much for the creature comforts of Levittown.
Kirk's essential project was to recover and animate an American conservative philosophy. His great teacher in this respect was the British statesman Edmund Burke. From him, Kirk adopted the concept of "moral imagination," which he described as an intuitive human power to perceive ethical truths and a natural law within the apparent chaos of experience. He traced the legacy of Burke's "moral imagination" through American philosophers and poets, including Paul Elmer More, Irving Babbitt, and T. S. Elliot.
Kirk called "traditions" the "wisdom of the [human] race; they are the only sure instruments of moral instruction…, and they teach us the solemn veneration of the eternal contract which cannot be imparted by pure reason." He defined traditions as "presumptive social habits, prejudices, customs and political usages, which most people accept with little question, as an intellectual legacy from their ancestors." Kirk readily acknowledged that change must and would occur. Yet such reform had to take place within sound tradition. Moreover, while Kirk praised free enterprise as "the most productive and most [generous] economic arrangement conceivable," he cautioned that a market economy could only survive within a web of custom, religion and community.
Libertarians and Traditionalists: these were the two strands of a proto-conservatism that emerged in the late 1940's and early 1950's. William F. Buckley, a son of Yale University, took on the task of unifying them – fusing them – in the journal National Review, launched in 1955. "Ordered liberty" became the catch phrase. Early results, though, were not encouraging. Friedrich Hayek, for example, saw no grounds for cooperation. And while he regularly wrote for National Review, Kirk turned down an invitation from Mr. Buckley to become an editor.
It was from Frank Meyer, who did serve as an editor at the magazine, that fusionism gained theoretical coherence. His book In Defense of Freedom described conservatism as an embrace of "the Christian understanding of the nature and destiny of man"; while "reason operating within tradition" formed the core principle of the West. Meyer argued that the American founders had adopted the "fusionist" scheme of James Madison, instead of the "authoritarian" ideas of Alexander Hamilton or the "libertarian" approach of Thomas Jefferson.
Still, many traditionalists and libertarians refused to buy into fusionism. Politicians, however, found it immensely useful. As Senator Barry Goldwater explained in his 1960 book The Conscience of a Conservative, the conservative approach "is nothing more or less than an attempt to apply the wisdom and experience and the revealed truths of the past to the problems of today." Freedom and order became his catchwords. In his acceptance speech at the 1964 Republican convention, Goldwater declared: "This party…has but a single resolve, and that is freedom – freedom made orderly for the nation by our constitutional government; freedom under a government limited by the laws of nature and of nature's God; freedom – balanced so that order, lacking liberty, will not become a slave of the prison cell; balanced so that liberty, lacking order, will not become the license of the mob and the jungle." So did fusionist conservatism reach into the Republican party.
Of course, the golden days, the "happy days", of the 1950's did come to an end. Actually, the year 1964 is an excellent choice to mark the advent of the notorious "60's". Some wag once said that if you can remember the 1960's, you weren't there. Whatever the case, over a ten-year period, the Potemkin village that had been Eisenhower's America mostly crumbled. The counter-culture, the drug-culture, the New Left, bra-burning feminism, the political assassinations, the sexual revolution, the blood claimed by a land war in Asia: these and more tore through American culture, leaving it disfigured. By 1974, America was in global retreat, with the fate of South Vietnam soon to be sealed. The American economy was in serious recession; the Keynesian bromides no longer worked. The divorce rate was soaring; the marriage rate tumbling; the Baby Bust was in full swing; and abortion-on-demand was the law of the land.
These disorientations actually generated two new elements of the emerging American conservative coalition: the neo-conservatives; and the Religious Right.
A neo-conservative has been defined as "a liberal mugged by reality." There is truth here, but the ideological origins of the neo-conservatives were more complex. Some such as Irving Kristol and Daniel Bell emerged out of the radical politics centered around the City University of New York during the 1930's, where as young men they had tried on Marxism. Others such as Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Jeane Kirkpatrick were Roman Catholics disturbed by the liberal utopianism and irrationality of the New Left. Concerning domestic politics, they used social-science to counter ambitious radicalism, a recurrent theme in the late journal The Public Interest. They also defended the limited New Deal welfare state as necessary to social peace. In foreign affairs, they advocated a strong anti-Communism, and they defended the state of Israel from New Left criticism. More broadly, they believed that the United States must continue the role of global policeman, lest chaos ensue. In economics, neo-conservatives such as Michael Novak became exuberant cheerleaders for what they called Democratic Capitalism.
The Religious Right was a product of the 1970's. Its first manifestation came in 1972 as Phyllis Schlafly of Illinois launched her remarkable and successful campaign to stop the feminist-inspired Equal Rights Amendment. When the U.S. Supreme Court issued its Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, creating a right to abortion, most evangelical Protestants actually were unconcerned. Some prominent evangelical figures even welcomed the decision as an advance of religious liberty, against Roman Catholic machinations. However, over the next several years Protestant writers including Francis Schaeffer and Harold O.J. Brown reawakened the evangelical conscience over abortion. In 1977, the new Jimmy Carter Administration launched a series of bizarre initiatives against American churches. The Carter regime wanted to regulate religious fundraising, to strip some Christian schools of their tax exemption, and to otherwise narrow religious exemptions from Federal oversight. Carter's promised White House Conference on The American Family became instead a conference on "American Families," where concerns over soaring levels of divorce, abortion, and illegitimacy were displaced by a strange celebration of unmarried mothers and other "new family forms." All these developments led to new organizations, ranging from the poorly named, short-lived, but influential Moral Majority to the formidable Focus on the Family. Centuries-old suspicions between conservative Protestants and orthodox Catholics definitely gave way to a new spirit of practical alliance.
Ronald Reagan drew these four strands – libertarianism, traditionalism, aggressive anti-Communism, and Christian activism – together in his successful run for the Presidency in 1980. In declaring his candidacy, he famously announced:
A troubled and afflicted mankind looks to us, pleading for us to keep our rendezvous with destiny; that we will uphold the principles of self-reliance, self-discipline, morality – and above all – responsible liberty for every individual; that we will become that shining city on a hill.
Well, as of this last Tuesday night, the Reagan Era is over. The conservative political coalition that kept the California governor, his Vice President, and that V.P.'s son in the White House for 20 of the last 28 years, and that brought Congress under Republican control for a dozen years: that coalition was pretty well drubbed.
There had always been tensions within:
• Traditionalists were troubled by the libertarians' lack of respect for the transcendent moral order and by what they saw as the neo-conservatives' messianic view of foreign policy.
• Libertarians distrusted the traditionists' call for order, the neo-Conservative faith in government, an activist foreign policy, and war, and the Religious Rights' insistence on a normative family structure.
• Neo-conservatives were put off by what they considered the musty Toryism of the traditionalists, by the libertarian faith in a spontaneous international order, and by the anti-intellectualism of the religious Right.
• The Religious Right saw libertarians as "libertines" and constantly found Christian "Main Street" values subordinated to "Wall Street" priorities.
These tensions became more visible as the "glue" of anti-Communism faded away after 1990; but the coalition soldiered on, most recently under John McCain, to the dawn of the Age of Obama.
In foreign affairs, the United States is caught in two Middle Eastern wars. While matters have surely improved in Iraq – more through short-term deals cut with tribal sheikhs and ethnic leaders than through military victories – while Iraq is better, the situation in Afghanistan steadily deteriorates.
• And in economics, the United States is in an odd and oddly crippling recession, triggered by financial speculation in American housing and insurance markets and reverberating around the globe.
Fairly or not, American conservatism as defined by the Reagan coalition appears to be taking the ideological fall, so-to-speak, for these circumstances, particularly for the consequences of the Bush Doctrine in foreign affairs and of deregulation in the economic sphere. As conservatives reassemble in the post-Reagan era, I suspect that a new variation, a different kind of coalition, may be necessary. What might it look like? Alas, that is the arena of the futurist, not the historian. However, there have been other "conservative" possibilities in the past, paths that were not followed. Perhaps one or more of these might help provide a more coherent response to the new circumstances of our time.
One less-travelled path could be labeled Distributism, American style. In 1934, a young American journalist and historian – Herbert Agar – wrote a long essay for the American Review, entitled "The Task for Conservatism." It reflected the six years he had just spent in England, working as a junior editor at G.K.'s Weekly, the journal published and edited by G.K. Chesterton. While embracing the label "conservative," Agar stated that it had been thoroughly "discredited," twisted by what he called the apostles of plutocracy into a defense of "gamblers and promoters." He now wanted to save the term, by appealing to "another, and an older, America," a time when there was virtue in and a moral plan for the nation.
Central to this plan, Agar insisted, was "the widest possible distribution of property." Among some of the American founders, such as Jefferson, "this [had] meant agrarianism," or self-sufficient farming. To others, such as John Adams, "this [had] meant an interdependent community" of farmers and modest merchants, with government maintaining the balance. Agar insisted that all the founders believed that "a wide diffusion of property…made for enterprise, for family responsibility, and in general for institutions that fit man's nature."
But America, he continued, had lost its way over the course of the 19th Century. The natural wealth of the nation tied to the industrial revolution had raised "the rewards for a successful raid on society to dangerous heights." Protestant Christianity went into decline; proving incapable of restraining economic "buccaneers." Property grew concentrated; the sharecropper replaced the yeoman; the renter replaced the home owner; factory workers fell into dependence on an hourly wage; democracy degenerated toward mob rule.
Could the situation be reversed? Agar thought it possible that trends had gone too far in the wrong direction. "If Americans have come to believe that a wage is the same thing as freedom; if they prefer such a wage, with its appearance of security, to the obvious danger and responsibilities of ownership, then they cannot be saved from the servitude which awaits them." Yet, he concluded that a "redistribution of property" could still be accomplished; this would be "the root of a real conservative policy for the United States." The ownership of land, machine-shop, store, or a share of "some necessarily huge machine" needed to become the normal thing, to set the moral tone for society. Such a system, though, was not in line with existing trends. "It must be produced artificially," Agar said, "and then guarded by favorable legislation." He argued for differential taxation on business profits and corporate-held property, to favor the small, family-held operation.
Following Chesterton and his sometime collaborator Hilaire Belloc, Agar also warned against an informal merger between Government and the great Banks and Corporations. In this scheme, financiers would continue their speculations and consolidations, while the state would confirm workers in their dependent status through a minimum program of social insurance and welfare, tied to wage labor. The result would not be socialism, Agar explained, but what Chesterton called the Business Government or what Belloc labeled the Servile State.
A second less-travelled path was conservative communitarianism, a defense of society's little platoons, a suspicion of all big entities, including the great corporations and the national security state. While prefigured in Burke and also to be found in Russell Kirk, this orientation received full expression in the work of sociologist Robert Nisbet. His 1953 book Quest for Community focused on "the individual uprooted, without status, struggling for revelations of meaning, seeking fellowship in some kind of moral community." Nisbet dissected what he called the "ideology of economic freedom" falsely built on an atomistic view of human nature. He argued that "the so-called free market never [really] existed at all save in the imaginations of the rationalists." The 19th century capitalist system seemed to work, Nisbet asserted, only because it had inherited the moral capital of truly natural communities – the family, the village, the church – "which had nothing whatsoever to do with the essence of capitalism." Direct social affiliation alone brought acceptable order: "Not all the asserted advantages of mass production and corporate bigness will save capitalism if its purposes become impersonal and remote, separated from the symbols and relationships that have meaning in human life."
Nisbet said something similar about the national security state. In an essay entitled "Uneasy Cousins" he compared and contrasted libertarianism and traditionalism, here called conservatism: He reported: "…there is a common dislike of war and, more especially, of the war-society this country knew in 1917 and 1918 under Woodrow Wilson and again under FDR in World War II." Nisbet noted that opposition to America's modern wars, from the Spanish-American conflict on, "…came from those elements of the economy and social order which were generally identifiable as conservative – whether 'middle western isolationist,' traditional Republican, central European ethnic, [or] small business…." These were persons "closely linked to…church, local community, family, and traditional morality." Nisbet concluded: "This was the element in American life, not the miniscule libertarian element, that both Woodrow Wilson and FDR had to woo, persuade, propagandize, convert, and, in some instances virtually terrorize in order to pave the way for eventual entry by U.S. military forces in Europe and Asia."
A third less-travelled path is the original cultural pessimism of the neo-conservatives. An exemplary expression of this was Daniel Bell's 1976 book, The Cultural Contradictions of Captitalism. In brief, Bell argued that the frenzied economic impulse of capitalism had long been held in check by Puritan restraint and the Protestant ethic. While these checks permitted great capital accumulation, they also limited sumptuary or extravagant consumption. "One worked because of one's obligation to one's calling, or to fulfill the covenant of the community." "Being moral meant being industrious and thrifty." "If one wanted to buy something, one should save for it." Alas, according to Bell, the Protestant ethic of vocation and thrift was done in by capitalism itself. He wrote:
The greatest single engine in the destruction of the Protestant ethic was the invention of the installment plan, or instant credit. Previously one had to save in order to buy. But with credit cards one could indulge in instant gratification.
The creative trick here was to avoid the word "debt," while emphasizing the word "credit," allowing everyone to live beyond their means…for a time.
Irving Kristol, the "godfather" of neo-conservatism, also linked "the decline of the bourgeois ethic" to the "drainage of legitimacy out of the business system" in his 1978 book, Two Cheers for Capitalism. Crafting a sharp critique of Friedrich Hayek, Kristol charted the transformation of the United States from "a capitalist, republican community, with shared values and a quite unambiguous claim to the title of a just order" into "a free, democratic society" where "the will to success and privilege had been severed from all moral moorings." In short, "the dynamics of capitalism itself," especially the building of a system of easy consumer credit, subverted both virtue and justice, bringing the whole system into crisis.
Dismantling the Servile State, building a true Distributist property state, defending small communities of virtue from mega-systems, exposing within capitalism the corrupting influence of a culture of debt: these paths once less-travelled may be of greater appeal to a future William F. Buckley and to the next American conservatism.
Armageddon Thru To You
If you've been wondering why it seems like the world around us is unraveling, it's because the last days as foretold in the bible are now upon us. Just as it was 2000 years ago, many were unable to discern the signs of Jesus Christ's first coming (Mat 16:3), as will many concerning his second coming, which will occur very soon. Yes many have proclaimed a similar sentiment many times in the past, but their errors have no bearing on today other than to lull you into spiritual apathy, and that too was prophesied to occur in the last days.
If you're not a believer in Jesus Christ because you're an atheist, consider that the underlying impetus for your disbelief is most likely borne of pride and here's why:
When we die, if you as an atheist were right, then there is no upside or downside for anyone regarding the afterlife. We will all simply cease to exist
However if we Christians were right about our belief in the afterlife, then we will be given eternal life and you as an atheist will receive eternal damnation
Given the choices, the position held by an atheist is a fools bet any way you look at it because the atheist has everything to lose and nothing to gain. It is tantamount to accepting a "heads I win, tails you lose" coin toss proposition from someone. And that someone by the way is Satan (see Ephesians 6:12).
The only way to explain the attitude held by an atheist is pride, pure and simple. The intellectually dishonest and/or tortured reasoning used by atheists to try and disprove the existence of God is nothing more than attempts to posture themselves as superior (a symptom of pride). And as anyone who has read their bible knows, this is precisely the character flaw that befell Lucifer, God's formerly most high angel. (Isaiah 14:12-15). Is it any wonder then why the bible is so replete with references to pride as the cause of mankind's downfall?
Pride permeates our lives and burdens us in ways that most of us seldom recognize. Ironically, pride is the one thing that can blind someone to things even the unsighted can see. And sadly pride will blind many with an otherwise good heart, to accepting the offer of eternal salvation that Christ bought and paid for with his life.
In any event, if you're an atheist, I wish you only the best for every day of the rest of your life because for you, this life is as close to heaven as you'll ever get, but for believers in Christ, this life is as close to hell as we'll ever get.
If you're not a believer and follower of Jesus Christ because you are of another faith, please take the time to very carefully compare your faith to Christianity and ask yourself, why is the bible the only religious book with both hundreds of proven prophecies already fulfilled as well as those being fulfilled today? No other religion can claim anything remotely close to this fact. Many Christians who are serious students of bible prophecy are already aware of the role and significance of bible prophecy in foretelling end time events. God gave us prophecy as evidence of his divine holiness to know the begining from the end (Isa 46:10). God also believed prophecy to be so important that to those willing to read the most prophetic book in the bible, the Book of Revelation, he promised a special blessing (see Rev 1:3), and this is the only book in the bible that God gives its reader a special blessing for reading. Something to think about.
Don't risk losing Christ's offer of eternal life by not accepting him as your savior and by thinking that the bible is nothing more than a compilation of unrelated and scattered stories about people who lived 2,000 plus years ago. If you take the time to study (not just read) the bible, you will literally be shocked to learn things you would have never imagined would be revealed in it. Did you know that like parables, God also uses particular months and days in the Jewish calendar, Jewish Feasts and customs, solar and lunar phases, celestial alignments, gematria (Hebrew numerology) early bible events and more as patterns and models to foretell future events?
Consider the following interesting facts about the bible that testify to its God-inspired authorship:
Did you know that in Gen 12:2, God said he would bless Israel?. How else can you explain the grossly disproportionate level of success achieved by Jewish people as a tiny minority in the world, especially after all they have gone through? And how can you explain the success achieved by the tiny nation of Israel, surrounded by enemies outnumbering them 100 to 1 and yet still they remain victorious in all their wars?
Did you know that as evidence to indicate that Israel is the epicenter of the world from God's point of view is the fact that languages to the west of Israel are written and read from left to right as if pointing to Israel, and languages from countries to the east of Israel are written and read from right to left, again as though pointing to Israel. Just a coincidence, you say? I think not.
Did you know that the six days of creation and seventh day of rest in Genesis is a model for the six thousand years of this age (ending very soon), that is to be followed by a 1,000 year millennial reign by Christ (see 2 Peter 3:8)? Adam was born sometime prior to 4000 B.C., therefore our 6000 years are almost up.
Did you kow that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is hidden in the meaning of the Hebrew names listed in the genealogy of the book of Genesis (Research it online)? To deny this was God-inspired, one has to instead believe that a group of Jewish rabbis conspired to hide the Christian Gospel right inside a genealogy of their venerated Torah, which is not a very plausible explanation.
Did you know that solar eclipses, which the bible describes as the sun being black as sackcloth, and lunar eclipses, which the bible refers to as blood red moons, have prophetic meaning? Research it online. God showed Adam (and us) his plan for man's redemption through the use of celestial alignments. (research Mazzaroth online)
Did you know that much of the symbolism in the book of revelation refers to planetary alignments that will occur when certain events occur as prophesied? These planetary alignments also explained the birth of Christ, just search out The Bethlehem Star movie on the Internet.
Did you know that the references in Eze 39:4-17 and Rev 19:17-21 in the battle of Gog/Magog and Armageddon respectively, in which birds of prey will eat the flesh of the dead in battle from two enormous wars is based on fact? The largest bird migration in the world consisting of bilions of birds (34 species of raptors and various carrion birds) from several continents converge and fly over Israel every spring and fall. Coincidence? I think not.
Did you know that Hebrew numerology, also known as Gematria, and the numbers with biblical and prophetic significance are hidden in the Star of David? Google the video called "Seal of Jesus Christ"
Did you know that the seven Churches mentioned at the beginning of the Book of Revelation describe the seven stages the Church will go through?
There are literally hundreds of hidden messages in the bible like these that testify to the fact that the bible was God inspired, and statistically speaking, are all exponentially beyond the likelihood of any coincidence. You can find them yourselves if you only take the time to look into it. Remember Proverbs 25:2 "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings".
And finally, if you are Catholic, or one who subscribes to the emergent Church or seeker-friendly Church movement, please compare the doctrine taught, advocated or accepted by your Church, with the actual bible, notwithstanding some new-age version of the bible. And remember that although the bible is often referred to as the living bible, the word "living" was never intended to imply in any way that the bible "evolves" over time to meet, or be consistent with, the standards of man. It's just the opposite.
Well, am I getting through to you? If not, the answer might be explained in the response given by Jesus Christ in his Olivet discourse when he was asked by his disciples why he spoke the way he did (in parables, etc.) in the book of Matthew 13:10-16. What Jesus said could have easily been paraphrased more clearly as "so that the damned won't get it". Why did Christ respond the way he did when asked why he spoke this way? Is there something about pride (the bible says there is) that closes one's heart to seeing or hearing the messages supernaturally hidden in bible parables, models, typologies, and similes, etc.? That should give you something to think about, but don't take too long. Time is now very short.
If it sometimes seems like there are powers at work behind the powers we know, remember what it says in Ephesians 6:12 "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." If you study the bible, it will become clearer.
And by the way, if you are a scoffer, this too was prophesied to occur in the last days. See 2 Peter 3:3.
Thank you and God Bless you!
Armageddon.thru.to.you (at) gmail.com
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text:
using System;
using System.Linq;
using Game;
using GnomeServer.Extensions;

namespace GnomeServer.Models
{
    public class GnomeSquad
    {
        public String Name { get; set; }
        public Gnome[] Gnomes { get; set; }

        public GnomeSquad()
        {
            // Empty constructor for serialization.
        }

        public GnomeSquad(Squad squad)
        {
            var skillDefinitions = GnomanEmpire.Instance.GetSkillDefs();
            var gnomesInSquad = squad.Members.Where(obj => obj != null).Select(obj => new Gnome(obj, skillDefinitions)).ToArray();

            Name = squad.Name;
            Gnomes = gnomesInSquad;
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
c2c 'sorry' for rush hour ticket queues and pledge extra staff tomorrow
TRAIN bosses have apologised after commuters were faced with huge queues at Chalkwell train station after newly-installed ticket machines "took too long to work" yesterday morning.
Commuters reported due to the new payment machines being installed, the usual morning waits were taking considerably longer.
The Echo reported last week that c2c had pledged to bring in extra staff after commuters complained of chaotic queues as the new system began rolling out.
The new ticketing system is rolling out in stations across south Essex to try and improve the booking process. The website has been replaced and customer accounts are being transferred.
The mobile app is also being replaced, meaning customers cannot use it to buy tickets until the new one launches.
Commuters have reported long delays as a result of the change, citing long queues to ticket machines at railway stations.
The system was installed at Benfleet Station on Wednesday and Leigh Station on Monday.
Commuter Martyn Ballam said: "They have introduced new payment machines which are slower and I have been advised not to use smart card.
"The staff had the power to authorise payment at destination but they didn't."
Commuter Ross Bush said: "I think they should extend the London Oyster Cards to cover the whole of the c2c network beyond Upminster, then perhaps it would eliminate these problems or at least make life a lot quicker and easier for passengers."
Martin Hayhurst recommended people use their contactless cards to help ease queues.
He said: "Using my credit card on the underground recently was incredibly simple and quick. You don't need to input a destination as the software knows when you use your card at your destination to leave the station."
A 50-year-old commuter from Shoebury said the train line had also had issues with civil servants accessing their pre-paid tickets.
He said: "With our system we register for tickets then get given a code to take to the machines to print out. But these days the machines are never working, so I have to get on and travel all the way to London with no ticket before accessing it at Fenchurch Street. I'm left feeling so vulnerable and have already been challenged when I'm allowed to travel."
A c2c spokesman said: "We are very sorry that customers experienced long queues at Chalkwell station on Tuesday morning. We have introduced a new ticketing system across our route and while it settles in, this has certainly caused queuing at peak times.
"From Wednesday morning we will be putting extra staff at Chalkwell station with handheld ticket machines to provide more ticket selling and reduce wait times.
"Chalkwell is a very busy station and while the ticket offices are open as usual we would encourage passengers buy their tickets online to avoid queues. Smartcard customers can buy in advance and collect their ticket by tapping on the gates as they walk through.
"We have also contacted all of our customers who experienced issues with our Flexi tickets last month to arrange for them to receive new replacement Smartcards."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: python tkinter применить значение в виджете при переключении между виджетами Как применить значение в виджете(tk.Entry) при нажатии кнопкой мыши в другом виджете либо в свободной части формы\ другой программы и т.д.?
Пример: в tk.Entry введено значение 5. При нажатии в другой tk.Entry, либо в любое место формы\рабочего стола и т.д. - выполнить команду. Тот же print. Но, выполнить единожды. Многократные выполнения не нужны.
Видел подобное в различных cad\cae программах, но, как реализовать, не нашел.

A: Тут нужно отлавливать события потери фокуса текстовым полем (<FocusOut>). Чтобы запоминать, что действие уже выполнялось, можно отмечать выполнение действия в глобальной переменной:
already_printed = False

def on_focus_out(event):
    global already_printed
    if not already_printed:
        print("Some action")
        already_printed = True

entry.bind("<FocusOut>", on_focus_out)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


He looked away, as if unable to meet my gaze. I touched his shoulder gently, above the bandages that swathed the wound there.
"Who's hunting you, Phelan?" And why?
"You're not making any sense," I said gently. I put my hand against his forehead and he flinched away.
"Gods and monsters, your hands are cold," he murmured, shivering.
"Probably because she stabbed you with something there." I sighed and helped him sit up slowly, since he'd try even without my help. He was as stubborn as Thom and then some.
He nodded slightly. "In part, yeah. Small favors, at least." He touched his injured shoulder again, almost unconsciously. "Going to have to be careful," he murmured, half to me and half to himself.
"Do you think she'll come back?" I asked softly.
"Then who was it?" I asked the question a little more sharply than I intended to, staring at him intently. He just shook his head.
"I have my suspicions," he said quietly, "but I don't have facts in evidence." He rubbed a hand roughly over his face and shivered. I wrapped an extra blanket around his shoulders.
"I'm going to go get someone," I said quietly.
Phelan shook his head again. "No, just sit a while. Just sit a while with me so I can get my bearings. Five days, you said? Gods and monsters." He shook his head slightly. "Turning into Teague," he muttered, almost too quiet for me to hear.
"You're finally telling her?" Thom stood behind me, leaning against his crutches as if his ribs weren't bothering him at all, which either meant he was ignoring them or that our three-man medical squad had found something more potent to take the edges off.
Wait a second. I twisted to stare at Thom, though not before I caught sight of Phelan's guilty look out of the corner of my eye. "You knew?" I blurted, blinking. Thom knew and didn't say anything? Why?
Lord, but I wish he'd lied to me instead. Thom wrapped his arm around my shoulders and shook his head grimly.
I was glad that someone did.
They say it is always darkest before the dawn, but what they do not say is what walks the earth during the darkness and just how discouragingly far away the dawn is. I am afraid that for Marin and friends, the dawn is very discouragingly far away and the dark holds far fewer sparks of light than darker than dark entities.
You speak as if they may not be a spark of light in the abyss themselves.
They are sparks, some brighter than others, yet against the darkness they seem so few in number. I am sure they too feel their smallness, yet they continue to shine. They do this to hold back the darkness and to provide a guide to those who would seek the light in a world of darkness. They do this knowing full well that entities of both the dark and the light will see their light and seek them out.
May The Powers That Be watch over them and support the light bearers while misleading into oblivion those seeking to snuff the light.


The Society of Earth Scientists (SES) took birth during the International Year of Planet Earth-2008 to meet the objectives even beyond its designated period. The objectives of the SES, thus formulated, are to meet the requirement of 'Earth scientists and the Society'.
To bring Earth scientists of all the domains and across the geographical boundaries at a single platform for closer interaction and to promote multidisciplinary research.
To bring benefits of Earth science research to common man by means of Outreach activities, public awareness drives to 'Save Mother Earth', To obtain this objective SES also propose to interact closely with Social scientists and Earth activists.
Encourage young students to take up career in Earth sciences.


There's hardly anything in Obama's budget plan that won't mean a fight in Congress.
President Obama can bank on plenty of budget migraines this year as he calls on a sharply divided Congress to effectively freeze domestic spending while unemployment remains in double digits and states and businesses struggle to regain their footing.
Obama's challenge is twofold: He must create jobs now while also beginning to cut the deficit, expected to hit a record $1.6 trillion this year. A sharply divided Congress with lawmakers quickly criticizing different parts of his budget plan ensures a stormy season writing next year's budget in the months leading up to the midterm elections.
Obama's $3.8 trillion spending plan for fiscal 2011 anticipates a nearly $1.3 trillion deficit, or 8.3% of GDP, in fiscal 2011. Under White House economic assumptions and other calculus, that level of deficit would gradually fall to $752 billion, or 3.9% of GDP, in 2015.
But as an additional step, Obama wants a bipartisan deficit reduction commission to propose, and for Congress to vote on, a yet undefined plan to bring the deficit down further, to 3% of GDP or less in 2015. Three percent of GDP is what many economists consider a sustainable deficit and would be roughly equal to the interest payments on the national debt, which would grow by about $8.5 trillion over the 10 years covered by the Obama budget, roughly doubling today's national debt.
The controversial commission plan is a way to punt very hard and possibly monumental decisions until after the midterm election. The idea is to create an 18-member panel to propose steps to reduce the near-term and longer-term budget deficit through spending cuts and possibly changes in tax policy and entitlements, namely Social Security and Medicare. Congressional leaders would pledge to vote on the proposal in December in a lame duck session after the election.
But it's not clear Republicans will support such a commission or even participate, and many Democrats are already hesitant about allowing a yet unnamed commission to have so much power in determining the future course of the national budget. The problem is that many experts believe Congress will never summon the political will to make the tough choices on its own.
Also controversial is Obama's proposed "freeze" on domestic spending because it excludes defense, veterans affairs and national security, which together amount to more than half of the discretionary budget that Congress has a say in. Also included in the budget are $180 billion for continued military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan this year and next. Liberals in Congress want to tap some of that war money for domestic spending.
Businesses that are burdened by much Washington regulation will have something to cheer, by default, about the proposed freeze. If approved, according to Obama's prescription, it will mean regulatory agencies such as the Labor Department's Occupational Health and Safety Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Consumer Product Safety Commission would receive very slight increases, no increases or actual cuts in the next several years. That's a big switch from this year, when they received big boosts and used them to play more aggressive roles.
Congress will probably back some form of a jobs package that Obama included in his budget, including tax breaks for small businesses and more for infrastructure spending that is popular with members in both parties and sought by governors. Some work will be required on his revived plan to provide small business tax credits for companies hiring new workers or raising wages. Congress rejected a similar proposal last year. His jobs package is $100 billion, about one-third less in cost than what House Democrats have already passed. Even so, several Republicans will object to it, saying it would amount to another "stimulus" of questionable impact.
Some defense hawks will oppose Obama's plans to cancel production of additional C-17 military cargo planes built by Boeing, for halting funding for a second, or alternate, engine for the problem-plagued Joint Strike Fighter program and for cutting Navy shipbuilding accounts. Even with some program cuts, the defense budget would still rise to nearly $710 billion from $660 billion in the current year, a 7.6% increase.
Republicans will rail against the White House plan to let the Bush tax cuts benefiting families earning over $250,000 expire in 2011, but that budget proposal comes as no surprise. Obama has long pledged to let that tax cut expire as scheduled and to extend the related tax cuts for the middle class.
Backers of NASA space programs will object to Obama halting work on a manned mission to the moon by 2020, a project that would ultimately cost $20 billion or more over a decade. Obama wants more funding to go to unmanned missions and robotics work at the agency and to replacement of the aging space shuttles.


text:
Jimmy Fallon, Billy Crystal Mock Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders for Being 'So Old'
By Curtis Houck | November 12, 2015 7:42 AM EST
After uttering a slew of jokes about Tuesday's Republican presidential debate, Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon made sure to play the role of equal opportunity offender during Wednesday's monologue by teaming with comedian Billy Crystal to mock Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders for being "so old" (in borrowing a bit often employed in the Jay Leno days).
Fallon switched gears from the GOP debate by admitting that "we had a little fun joking around about the Republican debate, earlier, but actually, the Democrats seem to be a little worried about their candidates as well" since "both of the leading Democratic candidates are over 65."
Before starting the routine (which involves a back-and-forth with the audience), he observed that "a lot of people are saying Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton might be too old to be president and I mean, it's true. I mean, Bernie Sanders is so old."
The audience then asked "[h]ow old is he" to which Fallon invoked a certain male performance enhancement pill in making a quip about Bernie Sanders before moving onto Clinton and her well-known decision to wear pantsuits:
FALLON: Bernie Sanders is so old, he needs 12 Viagras to go up in the polls. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] You know, I'm saying, he's old. Hillary Clinton, she's no spring chicken either. No, no. She is old.
AUDIENCE: How old is she?
FALLON: She's so old, her first pant suit was made by Betsy Ross and you know, she bought it at Ann Taylor cave.
Pretending to have a cough in his throat, Fallon turned things over to Crystal, who first mocked the conservative theory of trickle down economics to hit Sanders: "He's so old, he thinks the trickle down theory is about him urinating."
Following a second Sanders joke, Crystal turned the heat up on Clinton with references to bingo and the telegraph: "And Hillary's so old, when she hears 2016, she yells bingo. [LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE] She's so old, the first political scandal was deleting all her telegraph messages."
The Tonight Show host then returned and the pair combined to close out the schtick with some jests about Clinton and Sanders being older folks at a shopping mall and a crude one about the socialist Senator from Vermont:
FALLON: Hillary is so old, she's not running for president. She's mall walking for it. [LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE] Where's the Panda Express?
CRYSTAL: Where's the place where I can get a house key made?
FALLON: Where is the Orange Julius?
CRYSTAL: Julius is over there.
FALLON: Oh, Julius, I didn't see you there.
CRYSTAL: And Bernie Sanders is so old.
FALLON: Oh, how old is he?
CRYSTAL: He tucks his testicles into his sock. [LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE]
The relevant portions of the transcript from NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on November 11 can be found below.
NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
11:39 p.m. Eastern
JIMMY FALLON: You know, we had a little fun joking around about the Republican debate earlier, but actually, the Democrats seem to be a little worried about their candidates as well. In fact, they seem most worried about appealing to younger voters because both of the leading Democratic candidates are over 65. Yeah, a lot of people are saying Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton might be too old to be president and I mean, it's true. I mean, Bernie Sanders is so old.
AUDIENCE: How old is he?
FALLON: She's so old, her first pant suit was made by Betsy Ross and you know, she bought it at Ann Taylor cave. [LAUGHTER] She's so old, you know what — I'm sorry, I have a tickle in my throat. I think I might need a lozenge. Can someone tag in for me please? Oh, thank you. I appreciate it. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]
BILLY CRYSTAL: Thank you. Thank you very much. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] I'm getting older. Boy, that Bernie Sanders sure is old.
CRYSTAL: He's so old, he thinks the trickle down theory is about him urinating. [LAUGHTER] This has got to stop. [LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE] This has got to stop. He's so old, he remembers when ol' dirty bastard was just dirty bastard. [LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE] And Hillary's so old, when she hears 2016, she yells bingo. [LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE] She's so old, the first political scandal was deleting all her telegraph messages. [LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE] She's so old, she remembers when Jimmy Fallon had hands. [LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE]
FALLON: Thank you very much. Billy, thank you, so appreciate it.
FALLON: Is that right?
CRYSTAL: Which, believe me, is not such a bad thing.
NBDaily Campaigns & Elections 2016 Presidential Liberals & Democrats NBC Tonight Show Video Jimmy Fallon Billy Crystal Hillary Clinton Bernie Sanders


Moore has written many iconic characters: Batman, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain America, Iron Man, Thanos, Firestorm, and the Transformers, among others.
He's also written prose novels based on Marvel characters. He adapted the best-selling Civil War mini-series, in which Captain America and Iron Man fight over opposing political ideologies. This served as the basis for the 2016 movie Captain America: Civil War. Moore's latest novel, Thanos: Death Sentence, published earlier this year, is an original work about Marvel's nihilistic villain.
Before becoming a full-time freelance writer, Moore worked as an editor for nearly 20 years at St. Martin's Press, DC Comics' Vertigo imprint, and Marvel's Marvel Knights imprint.


text:
Q: Can't override margin-bottom from navbar on bootstrap with my own css I've tried to change on navbar, the margin-bottom that is 20px.
.navbar {
     position: relative;
     min-height: 50px;
    margin-bottom: 20px;
    border: 1px solid transparent;
}

This error occurred when I've tried to put an empety content. So, to solve this I use in  my css, !important:
.navbar1{
        margin-bottom: 0px !important;
        position: absolute;
        min-height: 50px;
        border: 1px solid transparent;
    }

and added on the index page the navbar1 on the class:
<div class="navbar navbar1 navbar-inverse navbar-fixed-top" role="navigation">

How ever, the !important override the margin-bottom: 20px but it still keeps active, i've tried with div.navbar1 but it's the same problem.
Any suggestions?

A: Do you load it in 2 seperated css files? If yes your overwrite have to be loaded at last.
But I think it is better to overwrite it directly with modifying the .navbar attributes.
So make a new css file for your overwrites load it behind the bootstrap.css and than put in your overwrites:
.navbar{
    margin-bottom: 0px !important;
    position: absolute;
}

And delete the navbar1 in html. This works for me every time I modify the bootstrap css.

A: Do not forget that margin may overlap one another. maybe the margin-bottom that you see isn't because of your div. Please inspect the element (Right click -> Inspect Element) and go to "Box Model" or "Layout" tab to see there the real margin of this specific div.
A code sample will really help us (use http://jsbin.com or something similar)

A: Actually, the margin-bottom in bootstrap is assigned to ol and ul elements, not the nav or navbar classes, which is why this didn't work.
So, instead of adding "margin-bottom: 0px !important;" to .navbar, try assigning it to an ol or ul element.
Also, if all goes well and the css file is linked after the bootstrap file, the !important is no longer neccessary.


text:
Nina Jia
Nina is an associate in SSQ's China in-house legal search team. She focuses on recruiting lawyers for in-house legal teams in China across commerce and industry and financial services.
Nina has a master's degree in Business Administration from the City University of Hong Kong and was transferred to University of California, Berkeley. Nina holds a BA in Finance and a certificate in advanced accounting and securities. Nina moved into legal recruitment in 2010 and worked for a number of years at another legal executive search business in Beijing and Hong. She joined our team in Beijing in 2017.
City University of Hong Kong - Master of Business & Administration
Capital University of Business and Economics - Bachelor of Finance
Connect with Nina


text:
Postecoglou: Germany asked for Australia friendly
Written By Iain Strachan
Getty Images https://images.daznservices.com/di/library/omnisport/f7/50/australia-cropped_wjbjgzdmoefd1ei3jxbsjzflp.jpg?t=2064607827&w=500&quality=80
Ange Postecoglou says he had no hesitation agreeing to a friendly against Germany when Joachim Low's heavyweight side came calling, despite the Socceroos' struggles in the wake of last year's World Cup.
Australia will tackle the winners of Brazil 2014 in Kaiserslautern on March 25, with a clash against the top-ranked side in the FIFA rankings an enticing examination for the newly crowned Asian Cup winners.
Postecoglou revealed it was the European powerhouses and Low who suggested setting up the match during Germany's run to an extra-time victory over Argentina in Rio de Janeiro.
"We had a good chat to them over at the World Cup and they were really keen to get a game going. [The] fixtures worked out so we're happy to go," he said.
"They came to us and I couldn't agree quick enough. This was in the midst of the worst run we were having. People were scratching their heads as to why I'd choose to play the world champions if we were having a bad run.
"But I believed January would go well and because January did go well, it's a great measure for us. They're the best in the world and we want to find out where we're at."
Some well-earned rest for the coach and his backroom staff would surely have been warranted after Australia's memorable triumph on home soil last month, but Postecoglou has no intention of resting on his laurels.
"Straight back into it," he said with a wry smile when asked about facing the world champions.
"Looking forward to it obviously, it's a big game for us and coming off the back of what happened in January, [it's a] great chance for us to test ourselves again. We'll see it as another opportunity to build on what we've started and give some other guys an opportunity as well."
In addition to the Germany clash, the coach confirmed Australia would seek to arrange another friendly during the international window next month.
Fans can perhaps expect to see some changes and fresh faces from the group of players that overcame South Korea in the Asian Cup final in Sydney.
"We're hoping to get a second game in that window and hopefully it'll be a really good camp, because it's the last time we'll be together before the World Cup qualifiers start," Postecoglou said.
"It's a friendly, so it gives us a chance to test a few things, we don't want to miss an opportunity to measure ourselves against the best. We'll make sure we get the absolute maximum out of them."
NFL 1m ago


text:
Sempra Energy, RBS complete sale of commodities joint venture North American assets to JP Morgan unit
Doug Kline
Financial Contact:
SAN DIEGO, Dec. 1, 2010 – Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE) and The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) today completed the sale of key North American assets of RBS Sempra Commodities to J.P. Morgan Ventures Energy Corp., a unit of JP Morgan Chase & Co.
The assets include wholesale natural gas and power trading agreements, as well as over-the-counter and exchange-traded transactions, with counterparties across North America.
The sale, which was originally announced Oct. 7, together with previous sales of the joint-venture assets, has essentially completed Sempra Energy's exit from the commodities trading business.
Last month, Noble Group Ltd. acquired the San Diego-based Sempra Energy Solutions unit of RBS Sempra Commodities. In July, Sempra Energy and RBS completed the first phase of the asset sales with a transaction to sell to JP Morgan Chase & Co. the joint venture's global metals and oil businesses, as well as the European natural gas and power businesses.
Sempra Energy, based in San Diego, is a Fortune 500 energy services holding company with 2009 revenues of more than $8 billion. The Sempra Energy companies' 13,800 employees serve about 25 million consumers worldwide.
This press release contains statements that are not historical fact and constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements can be identified by words like "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "estimates," "may," "would," "could," "should," or similar expressions, or discussions of strategies, plans or intentions. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Future results may differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon various assumptions involving judgments with respect to the future and other risks, including, among others: local, regional, national and international economic, competitive, political, legislative and regulatory conditions and developments; actions by the California Public Utilities Commission, California State Legislature, California Department of Water Resources, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Federal Reserve Board, and other regulatory and governmental bodies in the United States and other countries where the company does business; capital market conditions and inflation, interest and exchange rates; energy and trading markets, including the timing and extent of changes and volatility in commodity prices; the availability of electric power, natural gas and liquefied natural gas; weather conditions and conservation efforts; war and terrorist attacks; business, regulatory, environmental and legal decisions and requirements; the status of deregulation of retail natural gas and electricity delivery; the timing and success of business development efforts; the resolution of litigation; and other uncertainties, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the control of the company. These risks and uncertainties are further discussed in the reports that Sempra Energy has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These reports are available through the EDGAR system free-of-charge on the SEC's website, www.sec.gov, and on the company's website at www.sempra.com.
Sempra Pipelines & Storage, Sempra Generation, Sempra LNG and RBS Sempra Commodities dba Sempra Energy Solutions and Sempra Energy Trading are not the same companies as the utility, San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) or Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas), and Sempra Pipelines & Storage, Sempra Generation, Sempra LNG and RBS Sempra Commodities dba Sempra Energy Solutions and Sempra Energy Trading are not regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission.


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Note the reddish swellings or galls on these peach leaves.
OSU Extension Plant Pathology Slide Collection, 1976.
This is a peach tree grafted with two curl resistant cultivars. Cultivar 'Q 1-8' on the left and the cultivar 'Mary Jane' (with lots of curl) on the right.
Photo by Ed Hoffman, 2003.
Without fungicide protection, susceptible trees defoliate in the spring and may die after the next winter.
Sometimes western Oregon can have weather for peach leaf curl well after bud break. Sometimes called late curl or secondary curl. Note that the oldest and newest leaves do not have curl symptoms. Damage is not considered as severe as curl that occurs at bud break.
Cause Taphrina deformans, a fungus. Spores of this fungus overwinter on bark, twigs, and old infected leaves. Infection occurs through bud scales in mid- to late winter just as buds begin to swell. Slow growing shoots and leaves can be infected during cool and wet growing seasons. Maximum susceptibility is between bud break and petal fall. In wet seasons, the fungus continues to cause slight summer infection, particularly west of the Cascade Range. East of the Cascade Range, after the initial spring infection and the shedding of diseased leaves, no further evidence of the disease is visible. Photosynthetic function of infected leaves is reduced, the leaf imports sugars, and the contents of non-structural carbohydrates and enzymes involved in their metabolism are similar to sink leaves. Defoliation from severe infections weakens trees to the point that, if not controlled, they may die in 2 to 3 years.
Wetness from rain (or other factors) for over 12.5 hours is needed for leaf infection but only when the temperature is below 61°F during the wet period. Maximum infection occurs when trees are wet for 2 days or more, a frequent occurrence west of the Cascade Range. Although infected, symptoms may not appear if temperatures rise and remain above 69°F. Fruit are susceptible after petal fall until air temperature remains above 61°F. Rainfall of 0.5 inch and wetness of 24 hours is needed for fruit infection.
Symptoms The first visibly infected leaves are yellow to reddish and somewhat thickened and crisp in texture. As leaves expand they become deformed, puckered, and thicker than normal. The puckered areas are brightly colored with reds and/or purples and may continue to develop a dusty white coating of spores. Infected twigs occasionally are distorted, and a few fruit may show a reddish growth on the surface. Some infected leaves drop; others remain throughout the growing season, gradually becoming dark brown and heavily coated with spores. Ultimately, many infected leaves are shed. Trees die in 2 to 3 years from repeated defoliation.
Cultural control Resistant cultivars offer the best option for backyard growers and can be useful for commercial growers. Cultivars available today are selections from formal and informal breeding programs, chance discoveries by various growers, or propagated from trees planted by pioneers which have survived for decades. Many of these will do better if sprayed with fungicide the first year or two after planting. Trees may still die due to other problems such as shothole and/or bacterial canker. A report from North Carolina in 1981 found Redhaven and trees derived from Redhaven as tolerant but these trees are very susceptible in the PNW. The following peach or nectarine cultivars are offered by a variety of west coast nurseries as curl resistant: Autumn Rose, August Etter, Avalon, Avalon Pride, Charlotte, Early Charlotte, Early Crawford, Frost, Indian Free, Kreibich, Muir, Nanaimo, Oregon Curl Free, and Q-1-8.
Chemical control Two fungicide applications are recommended for western Oregon: at 50% leaf fall (late October), and again at delayed dormant (usually in late February, before floral buds open). A third application may be needed during the dormant season for shothole control depending on materials selected. In Washington, apply three (3) times 3 weeks apart starting in early January. East of the Cascade Range and in low rainfall areas, a delayed dormant application alone should be effective.
Bravo Weather Stik at 3 to 4.1 pints/A. Group M5 fungicide. 12-hr reentry.
Champ WG at 8 to 16 lb/A. 48-hr reentry.
C-O-C-S WDG at 12 to 15.6 lb/A. 48-hr reentry.
Copper-Count-N at 8 to 12 quarts/A. Oregon only. 48-hr reentry.
Cuprofix Ultra 40 Disperss at 5 to 10 lb/A. 48-hr reentry.
Kocide 3000 at 3.5 to 7 lb/A. Use the highest rate in western regions. 48-hr reentry.
Nordox 75 WG at 5 to 13 lb/A. 12-hr reentry.
Nu-Cop 50 DF at 8 to 16 lb/A with 1 pint superior-type oil/100 gal water. 48-hr reentry.
Echo 720 at 3.1 to 4.1 pints/A. Group M5 fungicide. 12-hr reentry.
Ferbam Granuflo at 4.5 lb/A. Do not apply within 21 days of harvest. Group M3 fungicide. 24-hr reentry.
Luna Sensation at 5 to 7.6 fl oz/A. Do not use within 1 day of harvest. Unknown efficacy in the PNW. Group 7 + 11 fungicide. 12-hr reentry.
Syllit FL at 3 pints/A. Group U12 fungicide. 48-hr reentry.
Thiram Granuflo at 3.5 lb/A. Do not apply within 7 days of harvest. Also serves as an animal repellent. 24-hr reentry.
Ziram 76 DF at 6 to 10 lb/A. Rated excellent. Group M3 fungicide. 48-hr reentry.
References Moscatello, S., Proietti, S., Buonaurio, R., Famiani, F., Raggi, V., Walker, R.P., and Battistelli, A. 2017. Peach leaf curl disease shifts sugar metabolism in severely infected leaves from source to sink. Plant Physiology and Biochemistry 112:9-18.
Rossi, V., Bolognesi, M., and Giosuè, S. 2007. Influence of weather conditions on infection of peach fruit by Taphrina deformans. Phytopathology 97:1625-1633.


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YOU ARE HERE:Home » Sports » No rematch for Trojans MRU wins ACAC appeal, retains title
No rematch for Trojans MRU wins ACAC appeal, retains title
Curtis Taylor, Weal Reporter — April 1, 2011
A roller coaster week ended in disappointment for the SAIT Trojans on March 31, as the Mount Royal Cougars won their appeal with the ACAC and retained their championship title.
After the Trojans' hopes of a fifth-straight championship were crushed in a 1-0 loss to the Cougars in game 5 of the ACAC finals, word came out early in the week that Mount Royal had an ineligible goaltender on their roster. In light of this operating code violation, the ACAC ruled the two longstanding rivals would have to face off again for a final matchup.
The initial news came as a shock to Trojans star forward Shane Lust and the rest of the team. They anxiously waited out the week before hearing the ruling on Thursday.
"We didn't have a clue," said Lust about the ineligible Mount Royal player. "Everyone thinks that we are doing it because we lost, but it was one of the Mount Royal academic people who told the league. This has nothing to do with SAIT, and people need to understand we're not just doing this because we lost."
After the ACAC became aware of the ineligible player, the league rescheduled game 5 for this Saturday. Mount Royal in turn appealed the ruling, and the appeal was successful.
In a media release, the ACAC stated that "Through the appeal process the tribunal reached a just decision which follows the core values of our conference.
The situation facing the two teams drew perhaps more media attention within the city than the ACAC has ever seen before.
Shortly after it was announced the ruling was overturned, SAIT Trojans athletic manager Mark Pretzlaff offered his opinion on the matter at a press conference.
"Our interpretation of the rules was that any time an ineligible student athlete played, they would forfeit the game they appeared in," he said.
"We thought these rules were clear and concise beforehand, and I think this ruling has murkied the waters a bit. It's up for the ACAC to determine how it's going to affect future student athletes."
For Lust, it was a tough way to put an end to his remarkable Trojans' career.
"It sucks cause it was the championship, but if it's a regular season game that's an automatic forfeit," said Lust. "I think every game should be treated the same no matter what. Rules are rules and they have to be followed."
SAIT student wins top accountant
Opinion: Safety is your responsibility


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A return to Through The Keyhole?
Through The Keyhole, which first appeared back in 1983 on TV-am is set to be revived by Freemantle Media.
The breakfast feature, which became a fully-blown ITV game show in 1987, has been bought by the media giant – owner of the Grundy Television archive and Thames Television production company – from Sir David Frost's company, David Paradine Productions.
The show saw Lloyd Grossman wandering around the home of a famous face, providing clues to a panel of other celebrities who had to guess "who would live in a house like this?"
Fremantle Media, Broadcast report, is planning to moot a rivival to UK broadcasters as "a young-skewing, celebrity access style gameshow."
Trish Kinane, FremantleMedia's acting president of worldwide entertainment, told Broadcast: "It was the first gameshow to celebrate celebrity culture, and there is now a new generation of celebrities all over the world who are eager to respond to the famous catch phrase: 'Who lives in a house like this?'."
Last year ITV decided against bringing the series back, in a spoof format, for ITV2. Earlier this year a special edition was aired as part of Comic Relief.
The original version, fronted for its entire run by David Frost, switched from ITV to Sky One and then to the BBC before being axed after being shunted from BBC One to BBC Two in 2008. Grossman quit in 2003, and was replaced by a number of female presenters.


"I founded RRF in 2007, because I have an important vision for our country Liberia: We need to build up an equitable society characterised by respect for the rule of law and equal opportunities for all.
That is why RRF programming purposely links human and civil rights to economic, social and cultural rights. Its strategy is based on community empowerment and helping people discover their human talents and potentials, identify natural resources and fully participate in making decisions and taking positive actions that will transform their lives, their communities and the country."


text:
Kleist
Kleist, or von Kleist, is a surname.
von Kleist:
August von Kleist (1818–1890), Prussian Major General
Ewald Jürgen Georg von Kleist (ca. 1700–1748), co-inventor of the Leyden jar
Frederick William von Kleist (1724–1767), Prussian major general, commander of the Green Hussars. One of 58 officers of the Kleist family to serve in the Seven Years' War
Ewald Christian von Kleist (1715–1759), German poet and soldier
Henning Alexander von Kleist (1677–1747) Prussian general
Henning Alexander von Kleist (1707–1784). Prussian Lt. General. Nephew of Henning Alexander von Kleist (above)
Franz Kasimir von Kleist (1738–1808) Prussian General
Franz Alexander von Kleist (1769–1799) Poet
Friedrich Graf Kleist von Nollendorf (1762–1823), Prussian Field Marshal
Heinrich von Kleist (1777–1811), German writer
Kleist Prize, German literary prize named after Heinrich
Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist (1881–1954), German Field Marshal
Panzer Group Kleist and Army Group von Kleist, parts of the German First Panzer Army
Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin (1890–1945), conspirator to assassinate Adolf Hitler
Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin (1922-2013), conspirator to assassinate Adolf Hitler
Kleist:
Kleist Sykes, former Tanzanian mayor
Henry Kleist, farmer and Socialist state senator from Rantoul, Wisconsin
Kuupik Kleist, First Minister elect of Greenland
Karl Kleist, German psychiatrist


text:
This Researcher Made Good on His High School Promise to Improve How We Treat Depression
Battling the Baby Blues: Meet 3 Researchers Whose Innovative Work Is All About Boosting the Mental Health of Moms
3 Innovative Ways One Company Is Helping Rethink How We Treat Mental Healthcare
"I Have Treatment-Resistant Depression": What It's Like to Live With the Challenging Mental Illness
20 Inspiring Stories of Progress and Hope for the Future of Healthcare
Johnson & Johnson's New Chief Financial Officer Answers 7 Popular Investor Questions
4 Things We Now Know About Treatment-Resistant Depression
How Johnson & Johnson Is Doing Its Part to Tackle the Worldwide Mental Health Epidemic
New Year, New Healthy Habits: 5 Expert-Backed Ways to Get Better Sleep in 2020
6 Things We Now Know About Depression
The Mind Matters: This Johnson & Johnson Researcher Is on a Mission to Change How We Treat Mental Illness
This Johnson & Johnson Researcher Is on a Mission to Change How We Treat Mental Illness


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First, let's look at the requirements. I decided for this experiment I would use only OneNote on my Android (LG G4) phone and a Bluetooth keyboard. The same results could be obtained without the keyboard, but I found it lent itself to longer and more complete note-taking.
To begin, I created a note for the project as an overall capture point. As I entered text I used a bulleted structure with tabs to create an organizational outline for my notes as I proceeded. The process was simple enough and I was able to capture all the information I needed quickly and efficiently as I moved through the first steps of my effort.
When I encountered my first recordable task is also where I hit my first decision point. Should I create a separate list for all the tasks to make them easier to track or should I embed them in the outline I had already been creating? You can make arguments on both sides of the equation, but I decided to go with the one that created the minimum amount of work and rework. By tapping on the To Do icon at the top I was able to create a task right on the bulleted item I was working with and then track it's execution by tapping on the checkbox when it was complete. Quick and simple.
As my work progressed I did encounter some problems. Since you cannot collapse outlines in Android I wound up with a lot of vertical scrolling to keep track of all the items I had marked for completion. Also because of the odd way OneNote handles the horizontal scrolling of pages I found it wasn't quite as smooth as I would like when it came to moving around the page.
In looking back at my notes today from yesterday, it is very easy to see what was accomplished and what remains to be accomplished. The mechanism works well for recording and tracking items to be done though I do have my doubts about the embedded tasks when it comes to future reference of outstanding items.
The work will continue with OneNote today for reference and tracking and I'll see if it can hold up to multiple parallel projects without my losing track of any of the information I capture. In the back of my mind I know I always have the web safety valve to access the content, but I'm curious to see just how far I can take the Android only approach for now.


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More than 100 Rohingya arrested near an island in Myanmar's Ayeyarwady region
Junta troops arrested 112 Rohingya near an island off Bogale township in Myanmar's southwestern Ayeyarwady region, local residents told RFA.
The eight children, 47 women and 57 men were in two motor boats, waiting for other boats to take them to Bogale when they were caught on Tuesday morning.
Locals say they were from Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships in Rakhine State and were planning to sail from Bogale to Malaysia.
"Two boats were caught near Ka Tone Lay [Gayatgyi] island. The boats that were waiting to transport them to Bogale fled the scene," a local resident, who didn't want to be named for security reasons, told RFA.
The Rohingya are being held at Bogale Police Station, and locals say they do not know what charges, if any, the police plan to file against them.
RFA phoned Maung Maung Than, the junta spokesman and social affairs minister of Ayeyarwady region to ask about the arrests but the calls went unanswered.
Suspected smugglers arrested
In a separate development the junta issued a statement Tuesday saying 12 men have been arrested in connection with the deaths of 13 Rohingya whose bodies were found on Nov. 5 in Yangon region's Hlegu township.
The junta said the Rohingya had fled a refugee camp in Bangladesh and returned to Rakhine State, from where they planned to travel to Malaysia.
It said the Rohingya were being driven to Yangon, concealed in a fuel truck and died between Htantabin township and Hlaingtharyar (West) township.
The statement did not say whether they suffocated in the truck or were killed by the smugglers.
The bodies were found near a pile of trash in the early morning and locals told RFA at the time they showed signs of being immersed in water for a long time, had injury marks, and appeared to have been dead for more than two days.
The junta said the 12 men who were arrested had also taken money from 255 Rohingya and sent five groups to Malaysia.
According to data compiled by RFA over the past 12 months, some 1,653 Rohingya from internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in Rakhine state and refugee camps in Bangladesh were arrested in various parts of Myanmar. Of these, 271 were sentenced to between two and five years in prison.
More than 740,000 Rohingya fled Rakhine State following a military crackdown on the ethnic minority Muslim group that started five years ago and live in refugee camps in Bangladesh. Of the more than 600,000 that remained around 125,000 are living in IDP camps in Rakhine.
Translated by RFA Burmese. Written in English by Mike Firn.
China is on the brink of its first major Covid surge. How it copes will affect us all | Devi Sridhar
Putin Ally Meets With China's Top Leader, Signaling Close Ties
Canadian lawmakers pass motion to accept 10,000 Uyghur refugees
Canada's parliament on Wednesday unanimously passed a motion to resettle 10,000 Uyghur refugees to Canada in...
BANGKOK — Myanmar's military government announced Wednesday that it is extending a state of emergency it...
Two years ago, the Myanmar junta ousted a democratically elected government in a coup, claiming election...


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text:
Polarity in international relations is any of the various ways in which power is distributed within the international system. It describes the nature of the international system at any given period of time. One generally distinguishes three types of systems: unipolarity, bipolarity, and multipolarity for three or more centers of power. The type of system is completely dependent on the distribution of power and influence of states in a region or globally.

Scholars differ as to whether bipolarity or unipolarity is likely to produce the most stable and peaceful outcomes. Kenneth Waltz and John Mearsheimer are among those who argue that bipolarity tends to generate relatively more stability, whereas John Ikenberry and William Wohlforth are among those arguing for the stabilizing impact of unipolarity. Some scholars, such as Karl Deutsch and J. David Singer, argued that multipolarity was the most stable structure.

Unipolarity
Unipolarity is a condition in which one state under the condition of international anarchy enjoys a preponderance of power and faces no competitor states. A unipolar state is not the same as an empire or a hegemon that can control the behavior of all other states.

Scholars have debated the durability and peacefulness of unipolarity. William Wohlforth argues that unipolarity is durable and peaceful because it reduces the likelihood of hegemonic rivalry (because no state is powerful enough to challenge the unipole) and it reduces the salience and stakes of balance of power politics among the major states, thus reducing the likelihood that attempts at balances of power cause major war. Wohlforth builds his argument on hegemonic stability theory and a rejection of the balance of power theory. With no great power to check its adventurism, the United States will weaken itself by misusing its power internationally. "Wide latitude" of "policy choices" will allow the U.S. to act capriciously on the basis of "internal political pressure and national ambition."

According to Carla Norrlöf, U.S. unipolarity is stable and sustainable due to a combination of three factors: 1. The status of the American dollar as the world's dominant reserve currency, 2. American commercial power, and 3. American military preponderance. The United States benefits disproportionately from its status as hegemon. Other states do not challenge U.S. hegemony because many of them benefit from the U.S.-led order, and there are significant coordination problems in creating an alternative world order.

Nuno P. Monteiro argues that unipolarity is conflict-prone, both between the unipole and other states, and exclusively among other states. Monteiro substantiates this by remarking that "the United States has been at war for thirteen of the twenty-two years since the end of the Cold War. Put another way, the first two decades of unipolarity, which make up less than 10 percent of U.S. history, account for more than 25 percent of the nation's total time at war." Kenneth Waltz that unipolarity is "the least durable of international configurations." Secondly, even if the United States acts benevolently, states will still attempt to balance against it because the power asymmetry demands it: In a self-help system, states do not worry about other states' intentions as they do other states' capabilities. "Unbalanced power leaves weaker states feeling uneasy and gives them reason to strengthen their positions," Waltz says.

In a 2009 study, Martha Finnemore argues that unipolarity has, contrary to some expectations, not given the United States a free rein to do what it wants and that unipolarity has proven to be quite frustrating for the United States. The reasons for this is that unipolarity does not just entail a material superiority by the unipole, but also a social structure whereby the unipole maintains its status through legitimation, and institutionalization. In trying to obtain legitimacy from the other actors in the international system, the unipole necessarily gives those actors a degree of power. The unipole also obtains legitimacy and wards off challenges to its power through the creation of institutions, but these institutions also entail a diffusion of power away from the unipole.

In a 2021 study, Yuan-kang Wang argues from the experience of Ming China (1368–1644) and Qing China (1644–1912) that the durability of unipolarity is contingent on the ability of the unipole to sustain its power advantage and for potential challengers to increase their power without provoking a military reaction from the unipole.

American primacy
Numerous thinkers predicted U.S primacy in the 20th century onwards, including William Gladstone, Michel Chevalier, K'ang Yu-wei, Georges Vacher de Lapouge, H. G. Wells in Anticipations (1900), and  William Thomas Stead.

Liberal institutionalist John Ikenberry argues in a series of influential writings that the United States purposely set up an international order after the end of World War that sustained US primacy. In his view, realist predictions of power balancing did not bear fruit because the United States engaged in strategic restraint after World War II, thereby convincing weaker states that it was more interested in cooperation rather than domination. U.S. strategic restraint allowed weaker countries to participate in the make-up of the post-war world order, which limited opportunities for the United States to exploit total power advantages. Ikenberry notes that while the United States could have unilaterally engaged in unfettered power projection, it decided instead to "lock in" its advantage long after zenith by establishing an enduring institutional order, gave weaker countries a voice, reduced great power uncertainty, and mitigated the security dilemma. The liberal basis of U.S. hegemony—a transparent democratic political system—has made it easier for other countries to accept the post-war order, Ikenberry explains. "American hegemony is reluctant, open, and highly institutionalized—or in a word, liberal" and "short of large-scale war or a global economic crisis, the American hegemonic order appears to be immune to would-be hegemonic challengers."

Michael Beckley argues American primacy is vastly underestimated because power indices frequently fail to take into account GDP per capita in the U.S. relative to other purportedly powerful states, such as China and India.

In 2011, Barry Posen argued that unipolarity was in wane and that the world was shifting towards multipolarity. In 2019, John Mearsheimer argued that the international system was shifting from unipolarity to multipolarity.

In 2022, William Wohlforth argued that the international system was heading towards a system that can be characterized neither as bipolarity nor multipolarity. He added that polarity did not appear to matter as much in the current international system, as great powers command a far smaller share of power vis-a-vis the rest of the states in the international system.

Bipolarity

Bipolarity is a distribution of power in which two states have a preponderance of power. In bipolarity, spheres of influence and alliance systems have frequently developed around each pole. For example, in the Cold War of 1947-1991, most Western and capitalist states would fall under the influence of the US, while most Communist states would fall under the influence of the USSR. Kenneth Waltz's influential Theory of International Politics argued that bipolarity tended towards the greatest stability because the two great powers would engage in rapid mutual adjustment, which would prevent inadvertent escalation and reduce the chance of power asymmetries forming. Dale Copeland has challenged Waltz on this, arguing that bipolarity creates a risk for war when a power asymmetry or divergence happens.

Historic examples of bipolarity include Great Britain and France in 18th century from the end of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1715) until the Seven Years' War (1754-1763), and the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War (1947-1991).

According to Sullivan and Donnelly, a "polycentric" period emerged between 1963 and 1988 - in contrast to the bipolar period of 1945 to 1962.

 De Tocqueville foreshadowed in 1830 a great-power bipolarity similar to that of the Cold War.

Multipolarity
Multipolarity is a distribution of power in which more than two nation-states have nearly equal amounts of power. The Concert of Europe, a period from after the Napoleonic Wars to the Crimean War, was an example of peaceful multipolarity (the great powers of Europe assembled regularly to discuss international and domestic issues), as was the Interwar period. Examples of wartime multipolarity include World War I, World War II, the Thirty Years War, the Warring States period, the Three Kingdoms period and the tripartite division between Song dynasty/Liao dynasty/Jin dynasty/Yuan dynasty..

Classical realist theorists, such as Hans Morgenthau and E. H. Carr, hold that multipolar systems are more stable than bipolar systems, as great powers can gain power through alliances and petty wars that do not directly challenge other powers; in bipolar systems, classical realists argue, this is not possible.

Neorealist hold that multipolar systems are particularly unstable and conflict-prone, as there is greater complexity in managing alliance systems, and a greater chance of misjudging the intentions of other states. Thomas Christensen and Jack Snyder argue that multipolarity tends towards instability and conflict escalation due to "chain-ganging" (allies get drawn into unwise wars provoked by alliance partners) and "buck-passing" (states which do not experience an immediate proximate threat do not balance against the threatening power in the hope that others carry the cost of balancing against the threat).

Multipolarity does not guarantee multilateralism and can pose a challenge against multilateralism. According to Kemal Derviş, a decline in unipolarity creates a crisis in multilateralism; it is possible to revive multilateralism in a multipolar system, but this is more threatened and the structure to do so is not fully developed. In multipolarity, larger powers can negotiate "mega-regional" agreements more easily than smaller ones. When there are multiple competing great powers, this can lead to the smaller states being left out of such agreements. Though multipolar orders form regional hegemonies around 'poles' or great powers, this can weaken economic interdependencies within regions, at least in regions without a great power. Additionally, as multipolar systems can tend to regional hegemonies or bounded orders, agreements are formed within these bounded orders rather than globally. Though, Mearsheimer predicts the persistence of a thin international order within multipolarity, which constitutes some multilateral agreements.

Measuring the power concentration
The Correlates of War uses a systemic concentration of power formula to calculate the polarity of a given great power system. The formula was developed by J. David Singer et al. in 1972.

t = the time at which the concentration of resources (i.e. power) is being calculated
i = the state of which the proportion of control over the system's power is being measured
Nt = the number of states in the great power system at time t
S = the proportion of power possessed. Hence, Sit = the proportion of power possessed by state i at time t.

The expression  represents the sum of the squares of the proportion of power possessed by all states in the great power system.

The closer the resulting concentration is to zero, the more evenly divided power is. The closer to 1, the more concentrated power is. There is a general but not strict correlation between concentration and polarity. It is rare to find a result over 0.5, but a result between 0.4 and 0.5 usually indicates a unipolar system, while a result between 0.2 and 0.4 usually indicated a bipolar or multipolar system. Concentration can be plotted over time, so that the fluctuations and trends in concentration can be observed.

See also
 Balance of power (international relations)
 Global policeman
 International monetary systems
 Non-Aligned Movement
 Pax Americana
 Pax Britannica
 Power (international relations)
 Posthegemony
 Regional hegemony
 Thucydides Trap

Bibliography
 Thompson, William R. On Global War: Historical–Structural Approaches to World Politics. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1988, pp. 209–210.

Notes

References

External links
Global Power Barometer

International relations theory

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