text:
Love Grenade is the 13th solo studio album by American rock and roll musician Ted Nugent. It was released on September 4, 2007. It was recorded at DRS Studios in Waco, Texas. Sales figures, however, have been low, with the album only selling 360,000 copies in its first week, landing it at No. 186 on the Billboard 200.

The album features of new version of the song "Journey to the Center of the Mind", a hit for Nugent's 1960s group The Amboy Dukes.

The pre-release cover art drew some controversy, as it depicts a naked woman bound and bent over on a large platter, with a grenade in her mouth. Eagle Records pulled the planned cover, and instead released a milder design featuring a hand grenade with a pink ribbon affixed.

Track listing
"Love Grenade" – 5:03
"Still Raising Hell" – 3:21
"Funk U" – 4:00
"Girl Scout Cookies" – 4:03
"Journey to the Center of the Mind" – 4:21
"Geronimo & Me" – 4:44
"EagleBrother" (instrumental) – 4:38
"Spirit of the Buffalo" – 7:29
"Aborigine" – 3:22
"Stand" – 2:43
"Broadside" – 3:36
"Bridge over Troubled Daughters" – 3:36
"Lay with Me" – 6:23

All songs written and arranged by Ted Nugent, except "Journey to the Center of the Mind", written by Steve Farmer/Ted Nugent.

Reception

Critical reception of the album was mixed to negative. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic declared the album "sterile" and representing "the same old hard rock that Nugent has been cranking out for over three decades now, and it sure sounds like he's been doing it that long, as the riffs are recycled, the production is too clean, and the performances too professional."

Personnel
Band members
 Ted Nugent – guitars,  lead vocals, producer
 Barry Sparks – bass guitar (except "Love Grenade", "Spirit of the Buffalo" and "Lay with Me")
 Tommy Clufetos – drums

Additional musicians
 Jack Blades – bass guitar on "Love Grenade", "Spirit of the Buffalo" and "Lay with Me", background vocals, producer
 Eric Martin, Will Evankovich, April Grisman, Amber Morris, Tommy Shaw – background vocals

Production
 Chris Manning, Matt Cohen – engineers
 Steven Rosas, Kayla Rosas – pre-production recording engineers
 Juan J. Orteaga – mixing
 Dave Donnelly – mastering
 John Rios – disc artwork
 James & Maryln Brown – live photos
 Nick Zimba – Little Kid with big grenade photo
 Neil Zlozower – Platter girl photo
 Peter Tsakiris – package design & layout

References

2007 albums
Ted Nugent albums
Eagle Records albums


Before joining a company that offers you a business opportunity, it's very important that you do your research first. As you should already know by now, there are many companies out there that offer bogus business opportunities. One of the best ways to determine if a company is legit is to read tons of reviews about it and its products or services. This brings us to InCruises, a company that' scheduled to have its pre-launch on January 16, 2016. The big question is this - is InCruises a viable business opportunity? Well, we have gathered information about the company so that we can write this InCruises review as accurately as possible. We hope that this review will help you in deciding if InCruises is the right opportunity for you.
What Is InCruises And What Does It Do?
In the simplest of terms, InCruises is an exclusive membership travel club. It focuses on luxury cruises and vacations that take members to various corners of the globe. With that said, if you are a person who constantly travel, then this club is the perfect organization for you. The great thing about InCruises is that members earn what's called Cruise Dollars for every dollar they pay for their membership fees. Members can then redeem and use these Cruise Dollars to avail of luxurious cruises and travel plans at a fraction of their original costs. In a nutshell, InCruises provides avid travelers the chance to get their hands on affordable luxury cruises as well as connect with other travelers from all over the globe.
How Can You Join The InCruises Business Opportunity?
Aside from being a member in the company's exclusive travel club, you can also enroll in their compensation plan. The good thing about this plan is that you can still enroll in it even if you are not a member in the exclusive travel club. To enroll in the plan, you are going to pay $195 which you can renew every year for only $95. It's a really inexpensive way to run your own business from home. Your investment is very low but the rewards can be limitless. The only costs you are going to pay is the one-time enrollment fee and the succeeding annual fees. The compensation plan is currently being finalized by the company's legal team to make sure that it's 100% ready when it's launched on January 16, 2016.
1) You get a nice bonus every time someone you invited becomes a member.
2) You will be paid a coaching bonus as a reward for building a productive team.
3) Bonuses between $500 and $30,000 will be given to leaders at the end of every month based on their rankings.
4) Top income earners will be rewarded with awards like free travel packages and luxury cars.
5) There's what's called a World Market bonus that will be available to top team builders. This bonus can pay up to 5% of sales.
6) There's a residual income compensation plan that enables members to generate monthly revenues.
When everything has been said and done, InCruises is a company that offers a legit and sustainable business opportunity. You can either register as a member to avail of affordable cruise packages or you can enroll in the company's compensation plan to earn money. We hope that this InCruises review helped you in deciding if the business opportunity is right for you.


One of the things that makes KVCC special is the variety of social events scheduled throughout the summer. There is always something going on at the KVCC!
The KVCC prides itself in our Casserole suppers. The club provides some summertime favorites like hamburgers and hotdogs and our members do the rest! Musical entertainment is often part of these events so bring your harmonica!
On Friday nights, you can bring your dinners down to the club and join the Grill and Chill, using the club's brand new grill.
your cowboy boots and some chow for your friends and family.
Among our most popular events are our traditional teas and socials held on select Saturday afternoons throughout the summer. Please check the calendar for the current season dates. Dress is casual.


text:
Arena War
Maybe I'm an odball.. but so are many others it seems
By junior731657, April 6, 2019 in Arena War
junior731657 310
Liberty City Secrets Team Leader
All I see from youtubers & the like is what a failure the AW update was, they talk of how no one ever plays it, however I have recently gotten really into it, I'll be honest when it first came out I was interested but not interested enough to want to play it all the time but just lately I've found myself joining AW games, which are often at full capacity and the players seem to have formed a community from just this one update, a community seperate from the greater GTA Online, it's loads of fun sure the payout is weak, but we've got heists, bunkers, nightclubs & many other ways of making large sums of money, it was at that point I realised that what is the point in grinding if you are never going to spend what you have been grinding for.. buying more supplies so you can run the gauntlet once more? others on here may want to tear me a new one for saying this, but I saw this update as R* giving us some way of escaping the grind & in doing that a chance to do something else which is actually fun & as an added bonus every 25th level you unlock another rare vehicle, which is one of the reasons I started playing it, but now I often forget about that & just enjoy playing the matches, some are a win & others are a total fail, but the fun is consistent!
I have even set the arena workshop as my spawn location which my nightclub is making money in the background, the devs have even gone to the effort of making it easier to join an active event by displaying it on a TV in the workshop, youtubers & other commentators say it would be a mistake to add a part 2 but I for one would welcome more being added to it, but maybe instead to try & keep everyone happy add more vehicles/modes in the dripfeed as part of another update rather than a full blown dedicated update.
Anyway that is my take on this update while we are awaiting news on the next.
Feel free to add your take.
~John~
whywontyoulisten 12,182
Adapt or die
Oh sure, escaping the grind...as long as you don't want a rusty tractor or Go Go Monkey Blista.
Also, existing topics, inc.:
Gaffa 6,997
Gutted...
Everyone's got issues, nobody's "normal". Like that's a suit we're all supposed to wear... 🙄
On the topic though, yeah it's definitely something I wanted to give more time and play, but sadly on PC I'm just more wary of anything these days, and would rather not have the hassle of being forced to restart (etc) or dealing with people using godmode or a Hydra when they should be in an AW vehicle or some nonsense.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Working with us – Suppliers
US - Crop
US - Turf
John Gillam BCom, MAICD, FAIM
John Gillam joined the Board on 31 July 2020 and was appointed Chairman on 24 September 2020.
John has extensive commercial and leadership experience from a 20-year career with Wesfarmers where he held various senior leadership roles including CEO of the Bunnings Group, Managing Director of CSBP and Chairman of Officeworks.
Other directorships and offices (current and recent):
Chairman of CSR Limited (Director since December 2017 and Chairman since 1 June 2018)
Chairman of BlueFit Pty Limited (since February 2018)
Director of Trinity Grammar School (since June 2018)
Director of the Heartwell Foundation (since 2009)
Director of Clontarf Foundation (since 2017)
Board Committee memberships:
Member of Nomination and Governance Committee
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
Non-Independent Executive Director
Greg Hunt joined the Board on 5 May 2015.
Greg joined Nufarm in 2012 and was Group Executive Commercial Operations prior to being appointed acting chief executive officer in February 2015.
Greg has considerable executive and agribusiness experience. Greg had a successful career at Elders before being appointed managing director of Elders Australia Limited, a position he held between 2001-2007. After leaving Elders, Greg worked with various private equity firms focussed on the agriculture sector and has acted as a corporate advisor to Australian and international organisations in agribusiness related matters.
Gordon Davis
BForSc, MAgSc, MBA
Gordon Davis joined the Board on 31 May 2011.
Gordon was Managing Director of AWB Limited (from 2006 to 2010) and has held various senior executive positions with Orica Limited, including General Manager of Orica Mining Services (Australia, Asia) and General Manager of Incitec Fertilisers. He has also served in a senior capacity on various industry associations.
Other directorships (current and recent):
Director of Healius Limited (formerly Primary Health Care Limited) (since August 2015)
Director of Midway Limited (since April 2016)
Chairman of the Risk and Compliance Committee
Member of the Human Resources Committee
MTax, BBus, FCA
Frank Ford joined the Board on 10 October 2012.
Frank is a former Managing Partner of Deloitte Victoria after a long and successful career as a professional advisor spanning some 35 years. During that period, Mr Ford was also a member of the Deloitte Global Board, Global Governance Committee and National Management Committee.
Chairman of the Audit Committee
Member of the Nomination and Governance Committee
Peter Margin
BSc(Hons), MBA
Peter Margin joined the Board on 3 October 2011.
Peter has many years of leadership experience in major Australian and international food companies including Executive Chairman of Asahi Holdings (Australia) Pty Ltd, Chief Executive of Goodman Fielder Ltd and before that Chief Executive and Chief Operating Officer of National Foods Ltd.
Former Non-executive Chairman of Asahi Holdings (Australia) Pty Ltd (to December 2020)
Deputy Chairman of Bega Cheese Limited (since September 2020)
Former Director of PACT Group Holdings Limited (from November 2013 to 14 August 2019)
Director of Costa Group Holdings Limited (since June 2015)
Director of Bega Cheese Limited (from June 2011 to January 2019)
Chairman of the Human Resources Committee
Member of the Risk and Compliance Committee
Marie McDonald
LLB(Hons), BSc(Hons)
Marie McDonald joined the Board on 22 March 2017.
Marie is widely recognised as one of Australia's leading corporate and commercial lawyers having been a Senior Partner at Ashurst until 2014 where she specialised in mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and commercial law.
Marie was Chair of the Corporations Committee of the Business Law Section of the Law Council of Australia from 2012 to 2013, having previously been the Deputy Chair, and was a member of the Australian Takeovers Panel from 2001 to 2010.
Director of CSL Limited (since 14 August 2013)
Director of Nanosonics Limited (since 24 October 2016)
Director of Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (since October 2016)
Chairman of the Nomination and Governance Committee (since March 2020)
Lynne Saint
BCom, GradDip Ed, FCPA, FAICD
Lynne Saint joined the Board on 18 December 2020.
Ms Saint has broad financial and commercial experience from a global career including more than 19 years with Bechtel Group where she served as Chief Audit Executive and Chief Financial Officer of the Mining and Metals Global Business Unit. Her expertise encompasses strong financial skills, corporate governance, enterprise risk, supply chain risk and project management.
Director of Iluka Resources (since October 2010)
Toshikazu Takasaki
Non-Independent Non-executive Director
Toshikazu Takasaki joined the Board on 6 December 2012.
Mr Takasaki represents the interests of shareholder Sumitomo Chemical Company (SCC).
He is a former executive of SCC holding senior management positions in businesses relating to crop protection, both within Japan and in the US. He is now a business consultant with a national qualification registered by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry as a small and medium sized Enterprise Consultant.
He brings broad industry and international experience to the Board.
Fiona Smith
Group General Counsel and Company Secretary
BSc, LLB, GDipGov, FGIA
Fiona joined Nufarm on 20 June 2019 and was appointed company secretary on 27 June 2019. Fiona is a senior legal and governance professional with 20 years' experience in company secretarial roles arising from her time spent in such roles in listed companies. Fiona reports directly to the Board. She holds a Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Law from the Australian National University and a Graduate Diploma in Applied Governance.
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ATAP, Google's advanced research unit, showed a new project at the company's I/O developer conference today that aims to replace mobile passwords with a new system that looks at your typing patterns and other signals as you go through the day.
The idea here is to move the burden of PINs and passwords from the user to the device, which generates a continuous trust score as you go through the day to ensure that you're indeed the person who is using it.
ATAP chief Regina Dugan today explained that the team looked at the existing research on this subject, but none of the academic institutions had been able to create a system that was even as secure as a four-digit PIN.
To improve this, Google partnered with numerous universities and invited 25 experts from 16 institutions to Google to participate in an intensive 90-day research sprint. The team took data from 1,500 donors and got to the point where the new system is now 10x more secure than fingerprint systems.
If that's true, then that's a major achievement, indeed, and could soon replace existing security mechanisms. You'll probably still want to use two-factor authentication when you log in to your bank's mobile apps, though. All it would take to enable this is a software update, so ATAP hopes that it will be able to bring this system to millions of Android phones in the future.


text:
Q: Slow lint with prettier Created a new React project. There is almost nothing there -- just SSR, code splitting and a couple of 'hello world!' pages. On top of eslint added prettier. Before I added prettier the lint used to take 10-15 sec. Now I got +2mins for almost empty project:
time yarn lint
yarn lint  3.19s user 0.49s system 2% cpu 2:35.39 total

Thought that I'm linting node_modules. In order to check that updated 2 files:
// node_modules/eslint/lib/rules/no-unused-vars.js
...
create(context) {
    const sourceCode = context.getSourceCode();
    // ########### LOG #############
    console.log(`eslint processing file [${+new Date()}] ${context.getFilename()}`);

    const REST_PROPERTY_TYPE = /^(?:RestElement|(?:Experimental)?RestProperty)$/u;

and
// node_modules/eslint-plugin-prettier/eslint-plugin-prettier.js
...
        const prettierFileInfo = prettier.getFileInfo.sync(
          filepath,
          Object.assign(
            {},
            { resolveConfig: true, ignorePath: '.prettierignore' },
            eslintFileInfoOptions
          )
        );
        // ############## LOG ########################
        console.log('Prettier processing file', filepath);

        // Skip if file is ignored using a .prettierignore file
        if (prettierFileInfo.ignored) {

Would really appreciate it if you could tell me a better way to list processed files. A trick with
"scripts": {
  ...
  "lint": " DEBUG=eslint:* eslint --ext .js --fix server src tools",

gave too much data.
Not sure do I even need this file
# .prettierignore
# Ignore everything:
/*

# Good guys
!/src
!/server
!/tools

The output showed me that difference between timestamps of the first and the last file is ~1.5 sec.
  eslint processing file [1592686834050] /Users/...
  Prettier processing file...
  ....
  eslint processing file [1592686835724] /Users/...
  Prettier processing file ...

Just wondering, what for are used the rest of 1500 sec?
.eslintrc file
{
  "parser": "babel-eslint",
  "extends": [
    "airbnb",
    "plugin:prettier/recommended"
  ],
  "env": {
    "browser" : true,
    "jest": true
  },
  "plugins": [
    "prettier",
    "react-hooks",
    "jsdoc",
    "jest"
  ],
  "rules": {
    "max-len": [2, 120],
    "react/jsx-wrap-multilines": ["error", {"declaration": false, "assignment": false}],
    "import/prefer-default-export": 0,
    "react/jsx-filename-extension": 0,
    "react-hooks/rules-of-hooks": "error",
    "react-hooks/exhaustive-deps": "warn",
    "arrow-body-style": ["error", "as-needed"],
    "curly": ["error", "all"],
    "jsdoc/check-indentation": "error",
    "jsdoc/check-param-names": "error",
    "jsdoc/check-property-names": "error",
    "jsdoc/check-tag-names": "error",
    "jsdoc/require-hyphen-before-param-description": ["error", "never"],
    "jsdoc/require-param-description": "error",
    "jsdoc/require-param-name": "error",
    "jsdoc/require-param-type": "error",
    "jsdoc/require-param": "error",
    "jsdoc/require-property": "error",
    "jsdoc/require-property-name": "error",
    "jsdoc/require-property-type": "error",
    "jsdoc/require-returns-description": "error",
    "jsdoc/require-returns-type": "error",
    "jsdoc/require-returns": "error"
  },
  "settings": {
    "import/resolver": {
      "node": {
        "paths": ["src", "server", "tools"]
      }
    }
  },
  "overrides": [
    {
      "files": [ "**/*.stories.js", "**/*.story.js" ],
      "rules": {
        "import/no-extraneous-dependencies": 0
      }
    }
  ]
}

A: Restarted Mac and got a normal processing time (~4 secs):
time yarn lint
yarn lint  4.09s user 0.61s system 109% cpu 4.279 total

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Last September, during TIFF 2018, global streaming service Netflix announced the acquisition of the distribution rights of Nigerian film Lionheart. This latter, stars and is directed by notable Nollywood actress Genevieve Nnaji. Many are hoping that this would mark the beginning of a new relationship between Netflix and Africa's biggest film industry.
It's after it started producing and distributing its own movies, that Netflix started to be interested in foreign films. The streaming giant started by buying the rights of Nollywood blockbusters such as Kunle Afolayan's October 1, Biyi Bandele's Fifty, as well as others, after they had already premiered in Nigerian theaters.
However, purchasing the rights to Lionheart is part of Netflix's new strategy: introducing its audience to overlooked world cinema gems.
Starring Genevieve Nnaji, Lionheart -which is also the actress' directorial debut- is a typical family comedy. The Nigerian actress portrays Adaeze, a logistics director who has to deal with sexism inside her family company after the passing of her father.
Perfectly aligned with Netflix's progressive brand and editorial slant, Lionheart is the perfect introduction to Nigerian cinema thanks to themes such as family, class, and ethnicity.
Although it represents Africa's biggest film industry, Nollywood's economy and modes of production are different from most film industries. In the last twenty years, Nigerian movies have exclusively circulated on VHS tapes and Video Compact Discs, instead of being shown in theaters.
This distribution system has unfortunately prevented Nollywood from reaching worldwide success. In this context, many are hoping that streaming services such as Netflix will improve movies circulation across the continent.
However, a lot still needs to be done, since Africa doesn't exactly have the best internet connection. For instance, when iROKOtv, the Nigerian version of Netflix, was launched, it didn't do as well as expected. Local distributors have also expressed their hostility towards streaming services, refusing to have any competitors.


Share ideas and broaden your horizons?
We have just the thing for you . . . VOLUNTEER! Become an OWA insider by joining a committee.
Catch the spirit of volunteerism — it will pay big dividends! To express interest in a committee, update your profile and check the appropriate box(es) under Committee Interest.
If you are an OWA member and wish to contact a Committee Chair, please login in order to view their email addresses. Otherwise, if you are not an OWA member and wish to contact a Committee Chair, please contact us so that we may handle your request.
The Communications Committee creates the OWA newsletters, communications pieces, and more. If you love to write, interview industry leaders, research relevant industry topics or have always wanted to try, this group may be great for you.
Do you speak marketing, branding, and social media? Think you can apply your marketing prowess and help the OWA make an even bigger mark on the industry? If so, the Digital Marketing Committee is calling your name. This committee is charged with infusing new excitement into the overall online presence of the OWA, and keeping that excitement alive throughout the year. The goal is to make sure that everyone that interacts with the OWA online gets a real feel for what the association is about and why they should get involved.
If you love the networking socials and professional development seminars and want to keep these events packed with a wide variety of optical professionals, the Events Committee may be a good fit. The committee organizes networking events, Connection Series professional development seminars, and more, covering the logistics behind the planning of a successful event.
Do you want to be sure that the OWA remains a growing, vibrant group? The Membership Committee develops new ways to keep our membership coming back for more.
Perfect for those who like to share their knowledge and grow professionally from the professional insight provided by fellow members, the Mentoring Committee is always looking for help creating the One-Minute Mentor blasts.
The right leadership can make or break a group, particularly one that is made up solely of volunteers. The Nominating Committee thoughtfully considers each nomination for board positions and encourages members to take a more active role in the directing of the OWA by accepting leadership positions.
This committee ensures the future of the OWA by building partnerships with generous benefactors and creating the blueprint for the financial growth of the OWA.
The Website Committee works hard to make sure the OWA's website is easy to navigate, beautifully designed, and packed full of all the valuable information and resources our members need.


Note You will probably have to change colours to your other column elements like the site title, description, menu, social icons, and footer text colours.
There is really only one background option for the sidebar column, but how you want it to show is going to be determined by the size of image and the other image attributes you apply to your background.
You also have the option to upload additional images and then click on the "Randomize Uploaded headers" button show each image randomly as your website page is refreshed or visited.


text:
Home Government and Politics 2020 U.S. Presidential Election – What Will Trump Do When He Steps...
Photo by Ian MacNicol
2020 U.S. Presidential Election – What Will Trump Do When He Steps Down
Synthia Rozario
Democrat Joe Biden's team begins the process of forming a new administration… Republican Donald Trump will remain in the post of US President formally until January 20, until he transfers power to his successor, and then joins the "elite club of former US presidents," writes BBC…
So what will happen to Donald Trump after leaving the White House? He could start writing memoirs, or start planning for the presidential library. Former US presidents, including Jimmy Carter, took up humanitarian affairs, and George W. Bush began painting.
But Trump has never been a traditional politician.
"Donald Trump has violated many norms as president. There is no reason to think that Donald Trump will act like any former president we have ever seen," says Tim Calkins, professor of marketing at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.
Here are some future scenarios for Donald Trump.
He can run again for the presidency of the United States.
US Presidential Election – Does Donald Trump Really Want to Win the US Presidential Election
Trump's Chances of winning US Presidential Election Plunge
US Election 2020 – The president of the USA voted in advance: I voted for a guy named Trump
US presidential election: Trump catches up with Biden in key states – poll
Losing the 2020 US elections does not mean the end of Trump's political ambitions – he may well try to win a new presidential election, as former American leader Grover Cleveland did at one time.
Cleveland is the only US president to leave the White House and return four years later to become an American leader again.
Former Republican aides suggest Trump may run again.
"I would definitely put him on the list of people likely to run in 2024," former Trump team member Mick Mulwani recently said.
Trump is clearly in love with rallies, and he garnered 71.5 million votes in the election, demonstrating a significant base of support among the American public.
"He will leave the presidency as controversial and scandalous as he came to the post of the American leader," says Professor Calkins.
There are also suggestions that President Trump's eldest son is interested in running for the top office in the United States.
Trump will start "saving his business empire."
Before becoming a politician, Trump was a real estate tycoon, reality TV star, and bearer of his own brand, using his name to make lucrative deals. Trump may again become interested in the "world of business" and continue where he left off four years ago.
The Trump Organization has numerous hotels and golf courses. There are Trump-branded properties in Mumbai, Istanbul, the Philippines – and of course Washington, DC, as well as golf courses in the US, UK, Dubai, and Indonesia.
But if Trump plans to become a businessman again, he has a lot of work ahead of him. Several areas of his business, which are engaged in tourism and the service sector, have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Also, not so long ago, information was published that Trump did not pay taxes for a long time. However, the Trump Organization and Trump himself have denied the veracity of this report.
Professor Calkins believes that President Trump is good at "maintaining his own brand" and that his business empire has remained strong enough, but has changed as a result of his political career.
"Trump's controversial political career could make his business brand less attractive to collaborate. However, now if you're going to have a wedding at a Trump hotel, it has a different implication than it did before he took office," says the professor.
Trump's daughter Ivanka has faced some challenges in her business after taking on the role of senior advisor to the White House.
Trump's sons, Eric and Donald Jr., "followed" the Trump Organization during their father's presidency, but they were also deeply involved in Donald Trump's political career.
"One of the things they will all think about is what is most beneficial for the family," says Professor Calkins.
Trump could become a media mogul.
President Trump is no stranger to television after working on the reality show The Apprentice. Therefore, it can be assumed that he will try to plunge into the media space by creating his own television channel, or he will start cooperating with the Republican television network. He will definitely have his own audience.
He would be an interesting "TV character" because he knows how to create scandalous and controversial situations that would attract the attention of viewers.
Trump can also start writing books or memoirs, which would also be a lucrative business. For example, George W. Bush received an advance of ten million dollars for his memoirs. Barack Obama has signed a multi-million dollar deal with Netflix.
"Post-presidential pension".
Trump will receive a presidential pension and many other benefits when he leaves office.
The Former US Presidents Act, passed in 1958, provides for benefits, including an annual pension, which was $ 207,800 in 2017.
Former presidents are also eligible for life-long protection for the American secret services and receive medical treatment payments. So Trump, now 74, could safely retire.
He can do charity work, create his own presidential library, and spend his free time playing golf.
But Professor Calkins does not see a "quiet life" as a possible scenario for someone who loves being too much in the spotlight.
Trump even said in October that the disappointment of losing the election could force him to leave the United States. One way or another, Trump "as a person" will most likely not disappear anywhere, and his name will often continue to be in the spotlight, the BBC concludes.
© The Eastern Herald
No oligarch or politician dictates to us how to write about any subject. We need your support. Please contribute whatever you can afford. Click here to make your donation.
An editorial staff member at The Eastern Herald. Formerly, correspondent of The Eastern Express, Hong Kong.
UAE… Emirates postpones flights to Tel Aviv until further notice
Iraq.. Hundreds of protestors are trying to storm the "Green Zone"
Libya Elections 2021: Why do foreign powers back the Dec. 24 national election?
Investment after Corona… the rise of digitization and e-commerce growth opportunities


text:
Rosmini College heading to World Cup in Greece
The Rosmini College Premier basketball team has accepted an invitation from the International School Sport Federation (ISF) to participate in the 25th Basketball World Schools Championship.
The 2018 Schick Secondary Schools Champions will travel to Heraklion on the island of Crete for the 24-team tournament beginning April 12, 2019.
Rosmini are following in the footsteps of Rangitoto College that attended the last World Schools Championship held in Croatia in 2017.
Rosmini Head Coach Matt Lacey is looking forward to the prospect of leading his team against some of the top secondary school teams in the world.
"Following our success at the 2018 Schick Nationals in October we were all thinking the season was over and were ready for our team to part ways. However this is too great an opportunity to miss and we are delighted to be headed to Crete next April.
"It's exciting to be invited to a world championship event and is a fitting reward for an outstanding group of players, many of them having played together for the past five years. The year thirteens in the team now get an opportunity to extend their school basketball careers for a further six months," said Lacey.
Unlike the 2017 Rangitoto team that was deprived of three starters (Sam Waardenburg, Braydon Inger and Dan Fotu) for their Croation expedition, Rosmini will be travelling with all but Joseph Hylton from the twelve-player squad that won Nationals in October.
"Due to the timing we were unfortunately unable to take the full team that won the 2015 Schick Secondary Schools National Championship," said Rangitoto Coach Kenny Stone.
"It will be a fantastic experience for the Rosmini boys. The bulk of the teams are from Europe and those from Turkey, France, Croatia and Spain were very strong in 2017. The team from Turkey that won the event that year would have beaten our New Zealand NBL teams. All the European teams arrive in good shape because their season is just coming to an end in April," added Stone.
For three of the Rosmini team it will be a second trip to a World Championship event in ten months. Mitch Dance, Kainoa Lepou and Marvin Williams-Dunn were all members of the New Zealand team that attended the FIBA U18 World Cup in Argentina in June.
Rosmini team:
Terence Abdon, Jayden Boucher, Mitchell Dance, Kainoa Lepou, Reihana Maxwell-Topia, Tyler Martin, Thomas Morgan, Sean Murphy, Taine Murray, Kruz Perrott-Hunt, Tom Seuren, Marvin Williams-Dunn
You can follow the team's journey through their Facebook page, click here.
For information on how you can assist the team in their quest to attend ISF Basketball World Championship click here.


Emma Connors and Mark Jones have written about click fraud in today's Australian Financial Review. Unfortunately the article cannot be viewed online for free. They write that Nielsen/NetRatings is starting research into this issue in Australia. They are going to look at the behaviour of IP addresses, exactly what I said in the same article!
Try this service if you are having problems with click fraud – ClickProtector – it detects fraud and it is pretty cheap too. It has a way to try and get money back from the Tier 1 and many of the Tier 2 search engines, including Google and Yahoo etc. They have a pretty cool feature wher eyou can make an unblockable popup come up on the screen of the offending clicker. I dunno… works pretty good for my sites!


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as with any purchase, you will receive a confirmation email once the gift card is shipped or once the e-gift card email is sent to the recipient.
a gift card cannot be purchased using another gift card or e-gift card. the same applies to e-gift cards.
no sales tax is charged when purchasing a gift card.
please note that we cannot replace a lost or stolen gift card/e-gift card. to purchase a gift card or an e-gift card, click here.
our gift cards and e-gift cards are redeemable at, katespade.com, kate spade new york specialty shops and kate spade new york outlet shops in the United States only. a Kate Spade Saturday gift card can be redeemed for kate spade new york products.
our gift cards and e-gift cards cannot be redeemed at department stores or non-brand specialty stores.
you may apply multiple gift cards or e-gift cards to a purchase.
to apply the balance of a gift card or an e-gift card, simply enter the gift card number and PIN in the appropriate fields in the payment step of our checkout process.
on a physical gift card, the gift card number is a 19-digit number printed on the back of the card. the PIN is a four digit number found under the silver scratch-off patch also on the back of the card.
the gift card number and PIN for an e-gift card can be found in the e-gift card email message sent to you.
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if the value of your gift card exceeds the order total, the remaining balance will be available on your card for future use.


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text:
Information, Misinformation, Statesmen and Politicians
How ironic to read that the 5th Ward councilperson recently objected to pausing the design phase for a new sewer line on the grounds that project costs would continue increasing if action were not taken soon. Ironic because the same councilperson actively supported "pausing" construction on the new electric substation and transmission line earlier this year. (See council minutes from January 19 ). Unlike the sewer line, whose projected costs have rapidly increased, the transmission line project was, at the time it was paused, on time and within the allocated money for the transmission and substation budget that had been presented to voters. The concern of project costs increasing was not in evidence when the council voted to pause the transmission line, and has not been much in evidence since as the project remains stalled.
Those participating in our "Community Commons" dialogue on "citizen centered planning" have been asking what citizens can do to help our leaders make better and more predictable decisions about our public infrastructure. Part of this discussion has focused on the difference between leaders who are "public servants" or "statesmen", and those who are merely politicians. Differences identified included:
focusing on the common good v. catering to special interests or the loudest voices,
being a good steward of our public resources v. following the political winds,
being transparent v. "trying to control the message", and
staying true to a vision and core values v. changing with the polls.
The council's actions with regard to the transmission line have been a frequent reference point during these discussions. The decision to pause the transmission line (which was first approved in 2013) was made as public meetings were being held on pole placement and design, in response to public opposition engendered by those meetings, and without input from the citizen led Water & Light Advisory board. Shortly thereafter, the 4th Ward council person suggested that maybe conservation could solve the the transmission issues (Note: as explained here, it won't). In May 2016 the newly elected mayor supported the ongoing delay and suggested that a new "Option E", might be possible based on his conversations with another electric provider. Neither has updated the public on the feasibility of these alternatives, nor provided a timeline for their evaluation, nor provided estimates of the costs associated with ongoing delay. A letter sent by the Water & Light advisory board to the City Council on September 18, 2016 providing an analysis of the public concerns and reaffirming the advisory board's support for Option A, appears to have been largely ignored.
The recently released 2016 "Citizen Handbook" – which is offered as the City's "performance report" to its citizens, stated (p. 8) "Wherever you live, water, sewer, electric and stormwater systems should be safe and reliable." What are we doing to ensure that that goal is met? Who is responsible for the costs and risks of delay when a project is "paused"? What information should be gathered before an "alternative" is put on the table for consideration? What information should be shared with the public and when? What circumstances justify reopening decisions already made?
On p. 31, of the Citizen Handbook this report is given with respect to our electric service:
"The tricky part of getting the electricity exactly when and where it is needed is very complicated. Over the years, Columbia electric ratepayers have invested in the infrastructure to build a system that has a reliability rating of 99.9876 percent. Although the electric load growth has dropped from a 2 percent increase to a 1.25 percent growth rate, it was identified in 2007 that an additional substation and transmission lines were needed in southern Columbia. After many public meetings, gathering feedback from residents in the area and the meetings with the City Council, a route for the new transmission lines was decided at a public hearing in 2013. Voters approved the funding for the project through using bond funds in 2015. In 2016, the City Council decided to reconsider the route. At the time this article was published, a solution to electric reliability and overloading issue had not been decided by the City Council."
How do we want our key infrastructure decisions to be made? What would best serve the common good? What can we do to ensure good stewardship of our public resources?
Join us tomorrow at the Community Commons and share your ideas.
Community Commons
Tuesday, Nov. 15, 7-9 pm
Enter the Tribune Training Room on Walnut Street, between 5th and Providence.
Sponsored by The Columbia Daily Tribune in partnership with the Kettering Foundation.
This entry was posted in Citizen Centered Planning, Dialogue Events, Trib Talks Forums and tagged accountability, community commons, development, economic development, electricity, energy, forum, forums, infrastructure, notice, politicians, public stewards, statesmen, vision. Bookmark the permalink.
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i'm back from the dead, you guys will really hate this entry but i was jammin' along just fine then some fucker created a discord server and as an aspiring musician you JUST NEED TO HAVE A DISCORD SERVER IT SEEMS TO BE THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF MAKING MUSIC DON'T MAKE MUSIC JUST G E T A D I S C O R D S E R V E R ! ! ! ! ! ! !
My computer crashed just before compo so I had to scramble with the hardware that I happened to have running to get something together.


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text:
http://itmattersks.org/
Kansas Behavioral Health Services
Partnering to promote prevention, treatment, and recovery to ensure Kansans with behavioral health needs live safe, healthy, successful and self-determined lives in their communities.
Kansas communities support prevention and recovery throughout the lifespan.
Fiscal Year 2020 Synar Report Public Comment
The FY2020 SYNAR report is now available for Public Comment. Please review the document below and submit any comments you may have about the report to KDADS.BHS@ks.gov.
Submissions are due by close of business on December 23rd.
FY2020 Synar Report
Kansas Prevention Collaborative Behavioral Health Indicators Map
The Behavioral Health Indica tors Map is now available to the public. The map presents county and state-specific summarized data for seven behavioral health indicators prioritized by the Kansas Governor's Behavioral Health Services Planning Council Prevention Subcommittee:
Opioid Prescribing Rate
30-Day Student Alcohol Use
Past-Year Student Depression
Student Perception of Risk of Marijuana Use
Student Favorable Attitudes of Marijuana Use
Knowledge of Treatment Options for Problem Gambling
The data presented in the Behavioral Health Indicators Map was prepared and provided by Greenbush. This map will help Kansans identify geographical areas of strengths and needs related to the indicators. It also provides the information necessary to build awareness and capacity, and will make it easier to collaborate with other partners to create more comprehensive plans for prevention and behavioral health services across the state.
If you have questions about the map or are experiencing technical issues, please contact the KPC Team.
The Behavioral Health Services Commission manages mental health services in Kansas, working with 26 community mental health centers across the state. In addition, it oversees addiction and prevention service programs for the State of Kansas, including targeted workforce development initiatives.. In addition, the commission works in close collaboration with the Governor's Behavioral Health Services Planning Council. The commission is also charged with overseeing the state's two psychiatric hospitals, Larned State Hospital and Osawatomie State Hospital.
Our work is supported by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and KDADS. KDADS is responsible by statute and holds the authority and responsibility to coordinate and provide substance abuse and mental health services in Kansas. We promote effective public policy and develop and evaluate programs and resources for behavioral health prevention, treatment and recovery services.
How We Can Assist
Behavioral Health Services offers assistance to Kansas in a variety of ways:
Kansas Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Block Grant
Problem Gambling Coalitions and Task Force Information
Contact Behavioral Health Services
Report Questions and Concerns
2019 Mental Health Task Force Final Report
Final Mental Health Task Force Report - January 2019
Adverse Incident Reporting "AIR" System Training Video
This AIR system is designed for KDADS service providers and contractors to report all adverse incidents and serious occurrences involving individuals receiving services from the following KDADS programs: Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) Waivers, Money Follows the Person (MFP), Behavioral Health, Aging and Disability Resource Centers (ADRC), Senior Care Act and Older Americans Act. To learn more about AIR and how to make a report to KDADS, please watch the training video. Should you have any additional questions, please contact KDADS.HCBS-KS@ks.gov.
Once the video starts, you can click on the YouTube logo at the bottom of the screen to view the video in full screen mode.
Osawatomie Temporary Census Diversions Process
Potential Moratorium Guidelines for Admissions to Osawatomie State Hospital and OSH Temporary Census Diversion Funds 5.14.15
Quick Guide on Accessing Inpatient Psychiatric Services and How to Access Osawatomie Temporary Census Diversion Funds 5.14.15
Q&A Osawatomie State Hospital Temporary Census Diversion Process Updated 5.20.15
Program and Renewal Information
Click here to find documents related to the Serious Emotional Disturbance (SED) waiver renewal application.


text:
Gordon Crosse
Gordon Crosse's Music Map
Gordon Crosse was born in 1937 in Bury, Lancashire. In 1961 he gained a first class honours degree at Oxford, after which he did two years' research on early fifteenth-century music. Since 1964 he has held various appointments at the Universities of Birmingham and Essex, and was for two years Composer-in-Residence at King's College, Cambridge. In 1976, the year in which he won the Cobbett Medal, he returned to his home in Suffolk to devote all his time to composition.
Much of Crosse's work reflects his interest in the dramatic and literary arts. This is evident not only in his four operas (The Story of Vasco, Purgatory), but also in many of the concert works. Examples are Memories of Morning: Night, for mezzo-soprano and orchestra, based on Jean Rhys's novel Wide Sargasso Sea (recorded by NMC); World Within, for actress, soprano and ten players with a text taken from the writings of Emily Brontë, and Play Ground for orchestra - later choreographed by Kenneth MacMillan, as was the 1981 The Wild Boy. In 1984 he was approached by the choreographer David Bintley, who asked him to extend Britten's eight-minute work Young Apollo into a piece of suitable length for a ballet for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
Notable concert works, including Ceremony, Epiphany Variations, the Cello Concerto (also on NMC) and Dreamsongs, have been written to commission for international orchestras and festivals including the BBC Proms.
From the late 1980s until recently, Gordon Crosse moved increasingly towards involvement with computer technology and away from composition. However, recent works include a contribution to The NMC Songbook.
Publisher: OUP
Composer Website
Memories of Morning: Night
Wavesongs
Pastures New
A Round-up of NMC


An ongoing multibillion-dollar overhaul of the nation's air traffic control (ATC) system is designed to make commercial aviation more efficient, more environmentally friendly and safer by 2025. But some white-hat hackers are questioning the safety part. The Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) will rely on Global Positioning Systems (GPS) instead of radar. And so far, several hackers have said they were able to demonstrate the capability to hijack aircraft by spoofing their GPS components.


text:
Becoming a Family
Marriage is not a contract but a vow.
I grew to immaturity in the sixties, at the moment famously, and ironically, described by Philip Larkin:
Sexual intercourse began
In nineteen sixty-three
(Which was rather late for me)—
Between the end of the Chatterley ban
And the Beatles' first LP.
Young people of my generation had no time for Larkin's irony and simply dismissed traditional sexual morality as a clutter of meaningless taboos. The old culture endured among adults, especially those who had fought in the war and learned firsthand that societies depend on sacrifice. But the fidelity of our elders to the old mores merely caused our experiments to appear romantic and sophisticated in our own eyes, marks of a singular freedom of mind.
In truth, I didn't enjoy the spectacle of permissiveness and half suspected that the old morality was right. Nevertheless, I was not going to miss out on the available freedoms and felt entitled to my share of thrills. Like many of my generation, therefore, I was reluctant to marry and did so only when I discovered that my experiment in cohabitation had ceased to be an experiment and had become a commitment instead.
My wife-to-be had been brought up as a Roman Catholic in provincial France. We had lived together through the antics of May 1968, which impressed both of us with the destructiveness and stupidity of people when guided by nothing more than a desire for liberation. Marriage was to bring an end to such childish things and to imbue our life with discipline.
In that spirit, I attended the obligatory lessons with Father Napier of the Brompton Oratory in London, by way of preparing for the sacramental—and sacrificial—act. The Oratory retains the permitted vestiges of the Latin mass and as a result has amplified its congregation of true believers with a reserve army of believers in belief, of which I was one. Next to the Italianate church, where its priests sing in their gorgeous robes, and a four-part choir responds, stands an altogether humbler building, the residence of the Oratorians, whose order requires them not to fast and pray in seclusion but to go out and spread the word, obedient to the vision of Saint Filippo Neri, their activist founder and high priest of the Counter Reformation. Neri made the term "propaganda" part of the language, and the thing denoted by it part of life. But the home of his London followers, established in the last century by the great Cardinal Newman, has a dull, quotidian atmosphere; it is a place of quiet footsteps and mumbled greetings. Copperplate engravings of forgotten saints gather dust in corners, and the smell of institutional cooking wafts down corridors where nothing moves save a shuffling old priest, a fluttering curtain, or an aproned housemaid too old and stiff to brush the high cobwebs away.
In the room set aside for instruction, Father Napier rehearsed the tenets of the Catholic faith. I assented to them all: not one of them created the slightest intellectual difficulty, save the major premise of God's existence. But this too could be held in place, I surmised, by the structure that had been built upon it, and whose angles and junctures I knew from Saint Thomas Aquinas. A religion without orthodoxy is destined to be swept away by the first breath of doubt. When the doctrines are all in place, however, neatly interlocking, expressed and endorsed by ritual, then, I reasoned, none can be pried free from the edifice and exposed to questioning. The structure stands unshakably, even though built upon nothing. Seen in this way, religion is a work of art, and its values are aesthetic values: beauty, wholeness, symmetry, harmony.
Clearly, my attitude to the Church whose rituals I was prepared to borrow was not ultimately the attitude of a believer. Hence, when the marriage came under strain—which it very soon did, since our years of cohabitation had disenchanted our first love, while offering no second love in place of it—the religious chains proved to be made of paper.
Divorce appeared at the time in all the attractive colors of an easy option: a bid for freedom, a way to become what I truly and authentically was. Young people of my generation were told to seize their chances and to free themselves from guilt. Only too late do you discover that guilt is not a sickness to be overcome but a punishment to be lived through. The years following the end of my first marriage were filled with grief, and rightly so. Nobody should be allowed to get away scot-free from a life's commitment, and no one should treat lightly what is the most solemn vow. You can hope for forgiveness; but you have no right to expect it.
Nevertheless I learned from the experience. My guilt was a clear proof of the Church's view of matrimony as an indissoluble tie. This doctrine, which at the time of my marriage had been for me merely an inert corollary to an abstract system of theology, now hit me in the face as a living truth about the human condition and a deep explanation of the ruined lives that I saw on every side, my own and my ex-wife's included.
For 20 years, my efforts at romance would fizzle out, quenched in the inward flow of lamentation. This process, if painful, was also purifying. It rid me of illusions and in particular of the illusion that sexual love is just an ordinary expression of our freedom. Often I recalled those quiet corridors of the Oratory and the foretaste they had offered of the penitential path beyond my marriage. A doctrine that permitted no other course save abstinence elevated marriage to a higher sphere, idealized it as a kind of redemption. What Father Napier had offered us through marriage was the very thing the Oratorians enjoyed in their place of dusty rituals: the transfiguration of everyday life.
When I met Sophie, six years ago, I knew how ridiculous it was for a man of 50 to propose marriage to a girl of 22. But it was as though I had carried her portrait within me during 20 years of penitence and had suddenly happened upon her incarnation. We were introduced in the hunting field, constrained by the meticulous courtesies of which fox hunting is, in England, one of the few remaining preserves—the real reason our new rulers hate it. If romantic feelings arise in such a context, they come imbued with courtly hesitation. So it was with us, and it is part of what made us serious. Although impatient every Saturday for the moment when Sophie would appear, I was nonplused in her presence, searching in vain for words. Then one day my horse fell, and she stopped to rescue me, so sacrificing the day's pleasure and giving proof that she cared. We began an old-fashioned courtship that lasted through many months of restraint.
Formality does not freeze emotion but heightens it. And emotions that take ritual shape lead of their own accord to that supreme ritual, which is marriage. By amplifying the distance between you, courtship intensifies the magnetic force when finally you join. Indeed, in our tradition—not necessarily the only or the best one, but the only one we have—marriage ought to be seen as the culmination of a process that begins in bashfulness and proceeds by stages to an intimacy both resisted and desired.
I was lucky: not everyone is given a second chance, certainly not a second chance like this one, in which sympathy sparked across the years, made us welcome the barrier of age and then work to overcome it. When we awoke to what had happened, we knew that it was too late to think of any course but marriage, which had grown between us like a plant that had suddenly burst into flower.
Of course it matters what others think, and we, especially, needed their acceptance. The small-scale, furtive event in the registry office, hastily conducted like an illicit affair, would not have served our need. On the contrary, it would have seemed an admission that our spheres and years divided us and that we were making a dreadful mistake. We needed to make others complicit in our venture, to be bound together not just in private but also in the public eye. Ceremonies are redemptive. They raise private undertakings into public avowals, and at the same time make the union of individuals into an emblem of the community's will to endure.
Modern society tends to construe marriage as a kind of contract. This tendency is familiar to us from the sordid divorces of tycoons and pop stars, and is made explicit in the "prenuptial agreement," under the terms of which an attractive woman sells her body at an inflated price, and a man secures his remaining assets from her future predations. Under such an agreement, marriage becomes a preparation for divorce, a contract between two people for the short-term exploitation of each other.
Surprisingly, it was the great Immanuel Kant who prepared the world for this view of things, describing marriage, in language of exemplary bleakness, as a "contract for the reciprocal use of the sexual organs." But then Kant didn't marry, and his heresy was soon corrected by Hegel, who did. According to Hegel, marriage is a "substantial tie." It begins in a contract—but it is a contract to transcend contract, by abolishing the separation between the parties.
Hegel's point can be put more simply. Marriage is surrounded by moral, legal, and religious prohibitions precisely because it is not a contract but a vow. Contracts have terms and come to an end when the terms are fulfilled or when the parties agree to renounce them. They bind us to the temporal world and have the transience of human appetite. Vows do not have terms, nor can they be legitimately broken. They are "forever"; and in making a vow you are placing yourself outside time and change, in a state of spiritual union, which can be translated into actions in the here and now but also lies above and beyond the world of decaying things. That we can make vows is one part of the great miracle of human freedom; and when we cease to make them, we impoverish our lives by stripping them of lasting commitment.
Hence divorce does not end a real marriage, which will continue to bind those who have drifted away from it or who have tried to set its vows aside. For 20 years I was constantly aware of that other person, whom I no longer saw, but whose thoughts, feelings, and reproaches were addressed to me in my own inner voice. Sophie understood this and accepted it, because she is the child of divorced parents, who took trouble never to quarrel in her presence and always to speak of each other with the respect due to a fellow parent. Sophie was the living reminder of their vows and of the need to give due weight to them, and the marriage remained in a strange way untouchable, just because it was sacred in the eyes of a child.
Thanks to that great reservoir of fudge and compromise that is the Anglican Church, divorcés can now wed in church—not through a marriage ceremony but through a "service of dedication," designed to put a holy seal on the state's scrap of paper. Without presuming on, but nevertheless hoping for, forgiveness, you can petition the Almighty through this lesser ceremony and thereby summon the support and endorsement of your community. We married in a registry office and arranged the service of dedication for the next day, in Sophie's local church. We had rehearsed our vows, and discovered as we spoke them that they were exactly what we felt. This promise to love, honor, and cherish till death us do part was precisely a recognition of our new state of unity.
Our feelings gained an added solemnity, now that all those on whose approval we depended were silently observing us. The words seemed to echo back from the unseen wall of sympathy in the church behind, and—far from announcing our bondage—they were a cry of liberation, the real liberation that comes through accepting a moral law. In my first marriage, I had lost my freedom by wanting to hold on to it. In my second, I regained it at the moment when I freely gave it away.
When we first met, I had just acquired the old farm where we now live. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a house and 30 acres must be in want of a wife. But Sophie was as surprised by what happened as I was and entered my life almost on tiptoe, disturbing nothing and seeming to admire my bachelor ways at the same time as she gently and discreetly abolished them. Under her influence I became more outgoing and more relaxed, while never for a moment fearing that I might lose my carefully acquired routines and my armory of homegrown protections. There resulted from this an unusual division of roles: I do the cooking and the housework; she looks after the animals. We work at our desks in the day and ride out when we can. And whenever one of us crosses the house to peer at the other, it is always with a thrill of anticipation, like a child creeping up on its parent.
Sometimes we embark on a quarrel, but there is neither winner nor loser, because we are one thing, not two, and any attack on the other becomes an attack on oneself. All the matters over which people like us are supposed to argue—money, freedom, visits, friends, hobbies, tastes, habits—become occasions for a deeper cooperation. What we have discovered through marriage is not the first love that induced it but the second love that follows, as the vow weaves life and life together. Western romanticism has fostered the illusion that first love is the truest love, and what need has first love of marriage? But an older and wiser tradition recognizes that the best of love comes after marriage, not before.
The birth of Sam did not change things. But it presented us with a problem that is particularly acute in Britain. The state now forces us to send our children to school, while ensuring that nothing much in the way of education occurs there. What passes for education in many British schools is really a process of demoralization, in which children are taken from their parents and surrendered to their peers. Today, significant numbers of young Britons leave school unable to read or do mental arithmetic. Useless old subjects like Latin, Greek, and higher mathematics have disappeared, and English grammar, with its oppressive rules and useless complexities, has been pushed aside as "elitist." As for manners, these have declined to such an extent that shops near London schools regularly close their doors to children, while older people seek refuge in another car when children board a train.
Instead of preparing children for adult life, our system of education ensures that they remain children, with all of childhood's self-centered incompetence but none of its redeeming innocence and shame. The state's attempt to sexualize children—encouraging members of the younger generation to master all the relevant positions by the age of 14, and making homosexuality a central part of their curriculum—doesn't help matters. Sex, pupils learn, is just an extension of childhood—another realm of play, in which all is permitted that could lead to enjoyment, and in which only the serious, the lasting, and the loving are dangerous.
The sixties' ideology, which caused such havoc in my own personal life, and the evil effects of which it took me 20 years to overcome, is now an obligatory basis of schooling, enforced from the tenderest age, and with complete disregard for the personal happiness and long-term hopes of the pupils. What I escaped only with the greatest difficulty and by the skin of my teeth is now being imposed as a general destiny. Surely, the first of my duties toward Sam is to ensure that he does not fall into the clutches of the people who want to do this to him.
The new curriculum, which has both the aim and the effect of cutting off children from their parents, making them unlovable to adults and the exclusive property of the state, springs from the minds of people who are themselves, for the most part, childless. It would be better, it seemed to us, for Sam to be sent down a coal mine, there to encounter the real world of adults, than to go through the complete course in demoralization that our rulers require. Even the private schools must follow the National Curriculum, which has been carefully devised to remove all the knowledge that Sophie and I value and to substitute the "life skills" needed in an urban slum.
The only solution that has occurred to us so far is to educate Sam ourselves for as long as time, energy, and knowledge permit and then to send him to the Lycée Francaise in London, on the understanding that the French have been slightly less contemptuous toward their national culture than we have been. As to what Sam's curriculum should be, common sense directs us down the old and beaten path. And we shall start him off with Grimm, Andersen, and Lewis Carroll, since their brand of children's literature does not merely enlarge the imagination: it also educates the moral sense.
While pondering this matter, however, I was invited by a national newspaper to describe what we intended for Sam—a sign that many people share our concerns. Naturally, I assured the readers, if John Stuart Mill could read Greek at six, why not Sam? And maybe Sam's first public utterance could match that of the four-year-old Macaulay, deflecting the meddlesome attentions of a toddler-coddler, after he had hurt himself, with the words: "I thank you, Madam, the agony is abated." Sam would be kept away from pop music and television but would study the viola as a salutary form of self-abasement. He would be introduced to horses and fox hunting, so as to learn both to care for animals and to do so unsentimentally. He would be taught the virtues—courage, justice, prudence, and temperance—in their Christian version, as forms of faith, hope, and charity. And although Sam would probably not enjoy his childhood, I wrote, he would emerge from it as someone agreeable to others, whether or not happy in himself.
The article precipitated a storm of abuse from experts in child-rearing, educational gurus, feminists, and assorted believers in progress—all manifestly products of an education system that identifies irony as an elitist crime and has therefore extinguished the ability to understand it. For several weeks, we lived in dread of the social workers. If we could not answer their inquiries, we feared, Sam would be put into foster care, denied all access to his parents, and given a normal diet of pop, television, and takeout.
The experts who greeted our educational plans with such outrage were, after all, the voice of our modern culture—the very same culture that has shaped the educational system and set up the state in opposition to the family. It is only since becoming part of a family that I have fully gauged the depth and seriousness of this opposition. The family has become a subversive institution—almost an underground conspiracy—at war with the state and the state-sponsored culture.
Hence the official curriculum has rigorously excluded the family. Mothers appear from time to time in schoolbooks, but they are conspicuously single. Fathers are never mentioned—indeed, they have become unmentionable, as trousers were to our Victorian ancestors. The state-imposed sex education is designed to sever the link between sex and the family, by showing the family to be merely an "option." Sex education will ensure that the next generation will not form families, since it will have destroyed in its pupils everything that leads one sex to idealize the other and so to channel erotic feelings into marriage.
But Sophie and I have no doubt that it is the family, not the state, that fulfills us. Hence we have decided to follow our own instincts and observations, and to bring up our children as we believe to be right. We are members of a growing class of criminals, who have declared war on the state-sponsored culture and are prepared to challenge it.
This official culture is founded on the premise that the human material is infinitely plastic and can be molded by the state into any shape required. This is one of the first of the official doctrines that you learn, as a parent, to doubt. We compared Sam with other boys and could not help remarking how similar they are in one fundamental respect: which is, that they all want to be men. Moreover, they all associate manliness with action, with the use of tools, with the making of something out of nothing, and with power and the machines that produce it. Sam has shown little concern for language, has entirely neglected not only the viola but also the guitar and the piano, and has confined his musical experiments to turning on the rhythm machine of my electronic keyboard whenever he sees me working.
His principal interest is building. He spends his days with the men who are working on our extension—handing out trowels, heaving buckets, mixing his own version of cement and occasionally using it to make plaster casts of living chickens. Although he is unlikely to emulate either Mill or Macaulay, his eager, cooperative nature, his determination to be useful, and his narrow but real curiosity about the world of masculine labor has endeared him to many hearts.
The official doctrine attributes such tendencies to culture: change the toys, the role models, and the contexts, the experts say, and boys will dress up, play with dolls, coddle animals, and make little interiors where they can be snug as a bug in a rug. But there seems to be a paucity of supporting evidence for such a view. Science, common sense, and recorded history all point to the conclusion that sex is a constant, which influences what can be achieved and what can be desired. Rather than work against it, we should work with it, to use its vast and unconscious power to drive our civilizing purpose.
The birth of our baby girl Lucy again awoke our curiosity in this respect, and while we of course intend to bring her up in the same improving regime that we proposed for Sam, we are fairly sure that she will not be seen, 12 months hence, with a trowel in her hand. Lucy's first smile was enough to convince us of this. Whereas Sam grinned broadly and mischievously, and then reached out to tear down the toy horse that hung above his crib, Lucy offered a serene, observing twinkle. Friends and neighbors all confirm the view that little girls are interested in people, in words, in the intimate togetherness of home, and that tools and machines fail to awaken their sympathies.
Why should people resist the obvious, when it comes to sexual roles? The answer, I believe, goes to the heart of our modern anxieties. In the world described by Jane Austen, men and women enjoyed separate spheres of action, the first public, the second private, the first involving influence without intimacy, the second an intimacy that was also a form of far-reaching, though publicly hidden, influence. Dress, manners, education, recreation, and language all reinforced this division, with marriage as the great life-choice in which it culminated and whose purpose it was. Because there is no going back to Jane Austen's world, we take refuge in the belief that every aspect of it reflects some arbitrary cultural imperative, with nothing due to permanent human nature. By extending cultural relativism even into those spheres where it is not culture but nature that determines what we do, we deceive ourselves into accepting—but with anxiety—a situation so novel that our ancestors never even thought to guard against it: the situation in which men and women are exchangeable in all their social roles and all their spheres of action.
It seems to me, however, that we do our children a disservice if we fail to acknowledge that their sexual nature sets them from the beginning on different paths. We should learn not to deny sex but to idealize it—to set before our children an image of the good man and the good woman, and to teach them to imitate what can be loved and admired. Even without the old division of roles, we can envisage alternative forms of role-playing that serve a comparable function—that rescue sex from animal appetite and make it the foundation of a lasting commitment.
Children, in their innocence, have an inkling of this. Sam with his trowel is idealizing himself; just as Lucy will idealize herself as she reads stories to her dolls and tends their fictitious ailments. Idealization is natural to human beings; for it is the process whereby they try to make themselves lovable and to live in the only security that our life provides. In our marriage vows, Sophie and I were making the same attempt. We knew the fickle lot of the human animal; we knew that married life would be fraught with temptations and frustrations. But we knew also that those things are not the only reality. We become fully human when we aim to be more than human; it is by living in the light of an ideal that we live with our imperfections. That is the deep reason why a vow can never be reduced to a contract: the vow is a pledge to the ideal light in you; a contract is signed by your self-interested shadow.
You do no service to a child by preparing him for the lower life—the life of the state-produced animal. Happiness comes through ideals, and it is only by idealizing each other that people can really fall in love. Such is the lesson that Sophie and I draw from our own experience, and we are surely not unique in this but normal human beings. The strange superstition has arisen in the Western world that we can start all over again, remaking human nature, human society, and the possibilities of happiness, as though the knowledge and experience of our ancestors were now entirely irrelevant. But on what fund of knowledge are we to draw when framing our alternative? The utopias have proved to be illusions, and the most evident result of our "liberation" from traditional constraints has been widespread discontent with the human condition.
It seems to me, therefore, that you should prepare your children to be happy in the way that you are happy. Treat them exactly as you would if your own ideals were generally shared. One day they will find, as we have found, the partner who makes it all worthwhile. Knowing this, we can re-apply ourselves to the education of Sam and Lucy, systematically depriving them, day after day, of the things our rulers recommend.
Photo: monkeybusinessimages/iStock
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Man arrested after threatening to shoot and kill 'fake news' CNN employees
Many warned that Trump's lashing out at the media could lead to violence. Here we are.
Trump's attacks on the free press don't undermine democracy and help the spread of misinformation; they can also potentially be deadly. According to a local CBS affiliate, a Michigan man was arrested after making numerous threats to shoot and kill CNN employees, saying they worked for a "fake news" organization.
An investigation was launched by the FBI after the unidentified man made threatening phone calls to CNN about a week ago.
"Fake news. I'm coming to gun you all down," the man told a CNN employee, according to WGCL-TV.
"I'm smarter than you. More powerful than you," the man reportedly said in another call. "I have more guns than you. More manpower. Your cast is about to get gunned down in a matter of hours."
"I am coming to Georgia right now to go to the CNN headquarters to f*cking gun every single last one of you," he said.
The FBI was able to trace the calls and ultimately made an arrest.
For the most part, slandering CNN with the term "fake news" was made popular by President Trump and later became popular with his supporters. CNN has led the way in much of the adversarial reporting on the Trump White House. The network was among the winners in Trump's "Fake News Awards" gimmick from last week.
Trump also made headlines when he tweeted an edited GIF of him wrestling a man with the CNN logo superimposed on on his face. Another meme tweeted out by Trump showed an image of him with what appeared to the CNN logo in a splatter of blood on the sole of his shoe.
#FraudNewsCNN #FNN pic.twitter.com/WYUnHjjUjg
As The Hill points out, many have warned that Trump's characterizations of the media could lead to actual acts of violence against journalists and news figures. No kidding.
Featured image via Shutterstock
Related Items:CNN, Fake News, featured
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White lions are expanding our consciousness by reawakening our connection with nature. Andreja Cepuš, a NOVA reader from Slovenia, shares her own deeply moving experience.
Stepping onto the sacred land of Timbavati, the ancestral land of White Lions, not albino lions but a genetic rarity unique to this one region on Earth. is an experience that cannot but leave a mark on you. In the middle of the African wilderness you begin to take in nature in a different way. The Global White Lion Protection Trust, established and led by Linda Tucker, author of Mystery of the White Lions andSaving the White Lions extends over an area of no more than 900 hectares and organises special customised programs for different groups of people who hear the call to meet these majestic animals.
Timbavati means "the place where star lions descended on the Earth". The feelings of love and respect that are nearly tangible permeate every single cell of this place. It is impossible not to feel that energy even if you are not a highly sensitive being; it is people and nature living in harmony.
"A representative of the lions is sitting here with us," were Linda's first words greeting our circle that evening, and she pointed at one of the chairs in the circle, which was made exclusively for the lions. "We are equal, therefore it is only right that they speak for themselves," she explained. It doesn't happen every day that one feels so much respect that it can be felt in the air at a precise moment. The spirit of the lions was there in all its might. Linda is a charismatic woman radiating the energy of a lioness, and a "Guardian of the White Lions," who has the important role of bringing them back to their free homeland.
Her story is the stuff of Hollywood. Linda was pursuing a successful career in marketing and fashion in London, but one night when she was back in her homeland of Timbavati she met her destiny.
She was at a birthday party with friends when all of a sudden they heard a lioness roar in the wild. They knew a lioness was to give birth soon and it had been predicted the cub would be white, so they climbed into an open-topped vehicle and, overcome with excitement, headed for the wild. They soon tracked down the roaring lioness, but as Linda recalls, "We were reckless. We didn't realise we were invading her space, showing no respect whatsoever. We managed to enrage all the lions, of course."
In the middle of the night, they found themselves at the mercy of their destiny, encircled by 24 lions. When they tried to retreat, the vehicle hit a tree trunk breaking an axle - and they couldn't restart the car!
Linda says it is hard to describe the fear you feel in such a moment. As they sat frozen in terror, a female figure with a baby in her arms and two youngsters following her appeared like shadows out of the bush. Together, they just walked through the circle formed by the lions, which calmed down completely and even laid down upon their arrival. The woman climbed into their car without saying a word. Then, hand in hand with one of the youngsters, Linda's friend walked through the lion circle to the nearest village, and came back in another car, which took them to safety. The woman disappeared again into the darkness.
Linda returned to London but couldn't find peace after this experience. And indeed, a white cub was born that night. Three years later, she returned to Timbavati to look for that mysterious woman, and she found her. In the nearby village she was known as the Lion Queen of Timbavati, a representative of the shamans who knew how to communicate with lions. Maria Khosa had already been expecting Linda. That's how Linda's training and path began - the path she is still walking today.
The Global White Lion Protection Trust is her mission and her life. There are seven white lions (of 10 lions altogether) roaring freely on their homeland now. The first white lion Linda rescued from captivity and reintroduced to its homeland was a lioness Marah, (the name means "mother of the Sun God"). "The birth of Marah had been predicted by prophecies of African shamans," says Linda. Marah, regarded by African Elders as the most sacred animal on the African continent, was born on Christmas Day in the South African province of Bethlehem. Symbolic? Indeed. And so very real.
Marah and her three cubs were successfully returned from captivity so they could roam freely in nature by Linda and Jason Turner, her partner and a lion ecologist. Since then, Marah's lineage has been born free and wild in their natural environment. At the same time, Linda and Jason are striving to protect all lions born in captivity in Africa to meet the demands of pleasure hunting, which is still legal in Africa. The conflict they face is that while it serves as entertainment for the rich, it also provides a source of income for the locals.
Our opening circle made us realise that we had landed in a very special place. That immense vastness, those peculiar sounds, the fact that we were in the very centre of the animal kingdom right under the vault of the Milky Way, and so much more. "The white lions have a particular mystique about them," says Linda. "Timbavati is their endemic and only homeland on Earth, and all the legends describe them as star creatures. The native ancestors were convinced that they are children of the Sun God, and legends say that they came down to Earth to help save humanity at a time of crisis." There is no doubt that this time is right now.
"Scientifically, the lions are at the tip of the ecosystem, at the top of the life pyramid of our planet," explains Linda. The problem is that by eliminating the top of the pyramid, the entire ecosystem collapses. "If the white lions disappear, the Earth will lose its balance completely, and this is something that we, humans, cannot survive," is her very straightforward message. "Our task is to help restore the natural balance, which also means to restore the natural balance within us, human beings, within ourselves. Let's just take a look at the lion as a symbol. It represents power, dignity, leadership, courage, and heart. When we, people, are our best, we are exactly like that - lion-hearted."
"There are really only two rules in nature, love and respect," Linda taught us. "If you follow these two rules, nature will show you love and respect in return." And nature showed us immediately how very true all this is. There is no time to be absent here. Nature teaches you to be wide awake.
Meeting with the royal pride of white lions, the lion Mandla, the lioness Zihra and their daughter Nebu, was a powerful experience. When you enter their space, you have to show respect. You have to know the boundaries. You have to be patient. You have to open your heart. And these are exactly the values lacking in day-to-day communication in our society.
"Communicating with animals teaches us unconditional love," says Wynter Worsthorne, a renowned animal communicator and one of Linda's close colleagues at the WLT. "There are no filters in this communication as it can only flow directly from heart to heart. If there is fear, insincerity, or a hidden purpose that differs from the one we try to express, the animals sense this immediately. Therefore, no one can hide here," we learnt from Wynter during the drive. Nevertheless it was pretty clear that such communication first makes you face all your fears.
Zihra and Nebu were lying in the bushes in the late afternoon. To have a better view of them, we moved a little closer. We may have got a little too close, which was soon confirmed by Nebu, who rose, came up to our vehicle, and marked her territory right in front of us. After that, she walked in a circle around us, and her crystal blue eyes made us freeze on the spot. All of a sudden, I felt a strange feeling down my spine, as if it had been brushed by a wave of light and straightened out. And suddenly the energy in the car rose. We sat in silence, each of us on her own, yet together with them, the two white lionesses. Zihra had joined Nebu circling around us, before both lay down behind our car.
While feeling this particular energy I found myself in a heightened, enraptured state that made me hear Nebu's voice very clearly. It was her message to me. At first I thought I was just imagining it, of course, but the voice spoke again and the message was the same.
I accepted the fact that one cannot question nature, and that the invisible is as much a part of nature as are the trees, the grass, or the stones. This new insight opened a new dimension in my perception of life. The feeling of connectedness with these beings is beyond description. It makes you feel at home, and there is no fear even though we had experienced fear at a certain point while living this experience. There was just enormous respect and a fully open heart; the comprehension that we are brothers and sisters; that we are all created from the stars and the soil and that it is time to restore the missing connection to nature.
I understood that the way we treat nature is actually the way we treat ourselves. Whatever we do to nature, we do to ourselves. Nature does not have to prove anything to us, as we are used to relating to ourselves and to others nowadays. Nature teaches us to listen to it because it gives us all the answers if we just show enough patience and respect. As Linda expressed it so clearly, "In order to save humanity, we have to restore our connection to nature because nature is the source of life, together with its plants, water, soil, and animals. And we can achieve this by reawakening love and respect."
That evening we were greeted not only by Zihra and Nebu, but also by the king himself, Mandla. And in the days that followed we met the rest of the lions as well. Every single experience was a special one, and as far as I am concerned there is no longer any doubt - white lions are special creatures. The mystery surrounding them is real. They are leaders, bright examples of brave-heartedness, which entails courage, heart-centeredness, ethics, spiritual maturity, harmony with nature, and balance, the harmony of coexistence on this planet where all things are connected and every single piece has a meaning and a purpose. They are the leaders of a new era, and the values they teach us can save our world.
"The white lions, born in captivity all around the world, have the role of ambassadors since they, simply by their presence, expand our consciousness and call people to finally wake up and re-establish their contact with nature," says Linda.
"I believe that this is the turning point year, that humanity will start giving back to nature, and not only take from it." When we manage to make this shift (and the shift always begins within ourselves), natural order can be restored again, and our lives will acquire a completely different quality. Each one of us can make a difference.
"If you doubt that you can make a difference that is just not good enough. This means you are failing yourself and failing nature. This is ego," says Linda, and I can only agree with her. "Let go of your doubts and look deep into your heart. You'll realise you are here for a purpose, and that's what the white lions are activating in all of us. Just watch what's going to happen when we start living our purpose."