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Op-ed Articles
Written by Mark Steyn Published: 01 April 2009
MARK STEYN'S column appears in several newspapers, including the Washington Times, Philadelphia's Evening Bulletin, and the Orange County Register. In addition, he writes for The New Criterion, Maclean's in Canada, the Jerusalem Post, The Australian, and Hawke's Bay Today in New Zealand. The author of National Review's Happy Warrior column, he also blogs on National Review Online. He is the author of several books, including the best-selling America Alone: The End of The World as We Know It. Mr. Steyn teaches a two-week course in journalism at Hillsdale College during each spring semester.
The following is adapted from a lecture delivered at Hillsdale College on March 9, 2009.
MY REMARKS are titled tonight after the words of General Stark, New Hampshire's great hero of the Revolutionary War: "Live free or die!" When I first moved to New Hampshire, where this appears on our license plates, I assumed General Stark had said it before some battle or other—a bit of red meat to rally the boys for the charge; a touch of the old Henry V-at-Agincourt routine. But I soon discovered that the general had made his famous statement decades after the war, in a letter regretting that he would be unable to attend a dinner. And in a curious way I found that even more impressive. In extreme circumstances, many people can rouse themselves to rediscover the primal impulses: The brave men on Flight 93 did. They took off on what they thought was a routine business trip, and, when they realized it wasn't, they went into General Stark mode and cried "Let's roll!" But it's harder to maintain the "Live free or die!" spirit when you're facing not an immediate crisis but just a slow, remorseless, incremental, unceasing ratchet effect. "Live free or die!" sounds like a battle cry: We'll win this thing or die trying, die an honorable death. But in fact it's something far less dramatic: It's a bald statement of the reality of our lives in the prosperous West. You can live as free men, but, if you choose not to, your society will die.
My book America Alone is often assumed to be about radical Islam, firebreathing imams, the excitable young men jumping up and down in the street doing the old "Death to the Great Satan" dance. It's not. It's about us. It's about a possibly terminal manifestation of an old civilizational temptation: Indolence, as Machiavelli understood, is the greatest enemy of a republic. When I ran into trouble with the so-called "human rights" commissions up in Canada, it seemed bizarre to find the progressive left making common cause with radical Islam. One half of the alliance profess to be pro-gay, pro-feminist secularists; the other half are homophobic, misogynist theocrats. Even as the cheap bus 'n' truck road-tour version of the Hitler-Stalin Pact, it made no sense. But in fact what they have in common overrides their superficially more obvious incompatibilities: Both the secular Big Government progressives and political Islam recoil from the concept of the citizen, of the free individual entrusted to operate within his own societal space, assume his responsibilities, and exploit his potential.
In most of the developed world, the state has gradually annexed all the responsibilities of adulthood—health care, child care, care of the elderly—to the point where it's effectively severed its citizens from humanity's primal instincts, not least the survival instinct. Hillary Rodham Clinton said it takes a village to raise a child. It's supposedly an African proverb—there is no record of anyone in Africa ever using this proverb, but let that pass. P.J. O'Rourke summed up that book superbly: It takes a village to raise a child. The government is the village, and you're the child. Oh, and by the way, even if it did take a village to raise a child, I wouldn't want it to be an African village. If you fly over West Africa at night, the lights form one giant coastal megalopolis: Not even Africans regard the African village as a useful societal model. But nor is the European village. Europe's addiction to big government, unaffordable entitlements, cradle-to-grave welfare, and a dependence on mass immigration needed to sustain it has become an existential threat to some of the oldest nation-states in the world.
And now the last holdout, the United States, is embarking on the same grim path: After the President unveiled his budget, I heard Americans complain, oh, it's another Jimmy Carter, or LBJ's Great Society, or the new New Deal. You should be so lucky. Those nickel-and-dime comparisons barely begin to encompass the wholesale Europeanization that's underway. The 44th president's multi-trillion-dollar budget, the first of many, adds more to the national debt than all the previous 43 presidents combined, from George Washington to George Dubya. The President wants Europeanized health care, Europeanized daycare, Europeanized education, and, as the Europeans have discovered, even with Europeanized tax rates you can't make that math add up. In Sweden, state spending accounts for 54% of GDP. In America, it was 34%—ten years ago. Today, it's about 40%. In four years' time, that number will be trending very Swede-like.
But forget the money, the deficit, the debt, the big numbers with the 12 zeroes on the end of them. So-called fiscal conservatives often miss the point. The problem isn't the cost. These programs would still be wrong even if Bill Gates wrote a check to cover them each month. They're wrong because they deform the relationship between the citizen and the state. Even if there were no financial consequences, the moral and even spiritual consequences would still be fatal. That's the stage where Europe is.
America is just beginning this process. I looked at the rankings in Freedom in the 50 States published by George Mason University last month. New Hampshire came in Number One, the Freest State in the Nation, which all but certainly makes it the freest jurisdiction in the Western world. Which kind of depressed me. Because the Granite State feels less free to me than it did when I moved there, and you always hope there's somewhere else out there just in case things go belly up and you have to hit the road. And way down at the bottom in the last five places were Maryland, California, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and the least free state in the Union by some distance, New York.
New York! How does the song go? "If you can make it there, you'll make it anywhere!" If you can make it there, you're some kind of genius. "This is the worst fiscal downturn since the Great Depression," announced Governor Paterson a few weeks ago. So what's he doing? He's bringing in the biggest tax hike in New York history. If you can make it there, he can take it there—via state tax, sales tax, municipal tax, a doubled beer tax, a tax on clothing, a tax on cab rides, an "iTunes tax," a tax on haircuts, 137 new tax hikes in all. Call 1-800-I-HEART-NEW-YORK today and order your new package of state tax forms, for just $199.99, plus the 12% tax on tax forms and the 4% tax form application fee partially refundable upon payment of the 7.5% tax filing tax. If you can make it there, you'll certainly have no difficulty making it in Tajikistan.
New York, California… These are the great iconic American states, the ones we foreigners have heard of. To a penniless immigrant called Arnold Schwarzenegger, California was a land of plenty. Now Arnold is an immigrant of plenty in a penniless land: That's not an improvement. One of his predecessors as governor of California, Ronald Reagan, famously said, "We are a nation that has a government, not the other way around." In California, it's now the other way around: California is increasingly a government that has a state. And it is still in the early stages of the process. California has thirtysomething million people. The Province of Quebec has seven million people. Yet California and Quebec have roughly the same number of government workers. "There is a great deal of ruin in a nation," said Adam Smith, and America still has a long way to go. But it's better to jump off the train as you're leaving the station and it's still picking up speed than when it's roaring down the track and you realize you've got a one-way ticket on the Oblivion Express.
"Indolence," in Machiavelli's word: There are stages to the enervation of free peoples. America, which held out against the trend, is now at Stage One: The benign paternalist state promises to make all those worries about mortgages, debt, and health care disappear. Every night of the week, you can switch on the TV and see one of these ersatz "town meetings" in which freeborn citizens of the republic (I use the term loosely) petition the Sovereign to make all the bad stuff go away. "I have an urgent need," a lady in Fort Myers beseeched the President. "We need a home, our own kitchen, our own bathroom." He took her name and ordered his staff to meet with her. Hopefully, he didn't insult her by dispatching some no-name deputy assistant associate secretary of whatever instead of flying in one of the bigtime tax-avoiding cabinet honchos to nationalize a Florida bank and convert one of its branches into a desirable family residence, with a swing set hanging where the drive-thru ATM used to be.
As all of you know, Hillsdale College takes no federal or state monies. That used to make it an anomaly in American education. It's in danger of becoming an anomaly in America, period. Maybe it's time for Hillsdale College to launch the Hillsdale Insurance Agency, the Hillsdale Motor Company and the First National Bank of Hillsdale. The executive supremo at Bank of America is now saying, oh, if only he'd known what he knows now, he wouldn't have taken the government money. Apparently it comes with strings attached. Who knew? Sure, Hillsdale College did, but nobody else.
If you're a business, when government gives you 2% of your income, it has a veto on 100% of what you do. If you're an individual, the impact is even starker. Once you have government health care, it can be used to justify almost any restraint on freedom: After all, if the state has to cure you, it surely has an interest in preventing you needing treatment in the first place. That's the argument behind, for example, mandatory motorcycle helmets, or the creepy teams of government nutritionists currently going door to door in Britain and conducting a "health audit" of the contents of your refrigerator. They're not yet confiscating your Twinkies; they just want to take a census of how many you have. So you do all this for the "free" health care—and in the end you may not get the "free" health care anyway. Under Britain's National Health Service, for example, smokers in Manchester have been denied treatment for heart disease, and the obese in Suffolk are refused hip and knee replacements. Patricia Hewitt, the British Health Secretary, says that it's appropriate to decline treatment on the basis of "lifestyle choices." Smokers and the obese may look at their gay neighbor having unprotected sex with multiple partners, and wonder why his "lifestyle choices" get a pass while theirs don't. But that's the point: Tyranny is always whimsical.
And if they can't get you on grounds of your personal health, they'll do it on grounds of planetary health. Not so long ago in Britain it was proposed that each citizen should have a government-approved travel allowance. If you take one flight a year, you'll pay just the standard amount of tax on the journey. But, if you travel more frequently, if you take a second or third flight, you'll be subject to additional levies—in the interest of saving the planet for Al Gore's polar bear documentaries and that carbon-offset palace he lives in in Tennessee.
Isn't this the very definition of totalitarianism-lite? The Soviets restricted the movement of people through the bureaucratic apparatus of "exit visas." The British are proposing to do it through the bureaucratic apparatus of exit taxes—indeed, the bluntest form of regressive taxation. As with the Communists, the nomenklatura—the Prince of Wales, Al Gore, Madonna—will still be able to jet about hither and yon. What's a 20% surcharge to them? Especially as those for whom vast amounts of air travel are deemed essential—government officials, heads of NGOs, environmental activists—will no doubt be exempted from having to pay the extra amount. But the ghastly masses will have to stay home.
"Freedom of movement" used to be regarded as a bedrock freedom. The movement is still free, but there's now a government processing fee of $389.95. And the interesting thing about this proposal was that it came not from the Labour Party but the Conservative Party.
That's Stage Two of societal enervation—when the state as guarantor of all your basic needs becomes increasingly comfortable with regulating your behavior. Free peoples who were once willing to give their lives for liberty can be persuaded very quickly to relinquish their liberties for a quiet life. When President Bush talked about promoting democracy in the Middle East, there was a phrase he liked to use: "Freedom is the desire of every human heart." Really? It's unclear whether that's really the case in Gaza and the Pakistani tribal lands. But it's absolutely certain that it's not the case in Berlin and Paris, Stockholm and London, New Orleans and Buffalo. The story of the Western world since 1945 is that, invited to choose between freedom and government "security," large numbers of people vote to dump freedom every time—the freedom to make your own decisions about health care, education, property rights, and a ton of other stuff. It's ridiculous for grown men and women to say: I want to be able to choose from hundreds of cereals at the supermarket, thousands of movies from Netflix, millions of songs to play on my iPod—but I want the government to choose for me when it comes to my health care. A nation that demands the government take care of all the grown-up stuff is a nation turning into the world's wrinkliest adolescent, free only to choose its record collection.
And don't be too sure you'll get to choose your record collection in the end. That's Stage Three: When the populace has agreed to become wards of the state, it's a mere difference of degree to start regulating their thoughts. When my anglophone friends in the Province of Quebec used to complain about the lack of English signs in Quebec hospitals, my response was that, if you allow the government to be the sole provider of health care, why be surprised that they're allowed to decide the language they'll give it in? But, as I've learned during my year in the hellhole of Canadian "human rights" law, that's true in a broader sense. In the interests of "cultural protection," the Canadian state keeps foreign newspaper owners, foreign TV operators, and foreign bookstore owners out of Canada. Why shouldn't it, in return, assume the right to police the ideas disseminated through those newspapers, bookstores and TV networks it graciously agrees to permit?
When Maclean's magazine and I were hauled up in 2007 for the crime of "flagrant Islamophobia," it quickly became very clear that, for members of a profession that brags about its "courage" incessantly (far more than, say, firemen do), an awful lot of journalists are quite content to be the eunuchs in the politically correct harem. A distressing number of Western journalists see no conflict between attending lunches for World Press Freedom Day every month and agreeing to be micro-regulated by the state. The big problem for those of us arguing for classical liberalism is that in modern Canada there's hardly anything left that isn't on the state dripfeed to one degree or another: Too many of the institutions healthy societies traditionally look to as outposts of independent thought—churches, private schools, literature, the arts, the media—either have an ambiguous relationship with government or are downright dependent on it. Up north, "intellectual freedom" means the relevant film-funding agency—Cinedole Canada or whatever it's called—gives you a check to enable you to continue making so-called "bold, brave, transgressive" films that discombobulate state power not a whit.
And then comes Stage Four, in which dissenting ideas and even words are labeled as "hatred." In effect, the language itself becomes a means of control. Despite the smiley-face banalities, the tyranny becomes more naked: In Britain, a land with rampant property crime, undercover constables nevertheless find time to dine at curry restaurants on Friday nights to monitor adjoining tables lest someone in private conversation should make a racist remark. An author interviewed on BBC Radio expressed, very mildly and politely, some concerns about gay adoption and was investigated by Scotland Yard's Community Safety Unit for Homophobic, Racist and Domestic Incidents. A Daily Telegraph columnist is arrested and detained in a jail cell over a joke in a speech. A Dutch legislator is invited to speak at the Palace of Westminster by a member of the House of Lords, but is banned by the government, arrested on arrival at Heathrow and deported.
America, Britain, and even Canada are not peripheral nations: They're the three anglophone members of the G7. They're three of a handful of countries that were on the right side of all the great conflicts of the last century. But individual liberty flickers dimmer in each of them. The massive expansion of government under the laughable euphemism of "stimulus" (Stage One) comes with a quid pro quo down the line (Stage Two): Once you accept you're a child in the government nursery, why shouldn't Nanny tell you what to do? And then—Stage Three—what to think? And—Stage Four—what you're forbidden to think . . . .
Which brings us to the final stage: As I said at the beginning, Big Government isn't about the money. It's more profound than that. A couple of years back Paul Krugman wrote a column in The New York Times asserting that, while parochial American conservatives drone on about "family values," the Europeans live it, enacting policies that are more "family friendly." On the Continent, claims the professor, "government regulations actually allow people to make a desirable tradeoff-to modestly lower income in return for more time with friends and family."
As befits a distinguished economist, Professor Krugman failed to notice that for a continent of "family friendly" policies, Europe is remarkably short of families. While America's fertility rate is more or less at replacement level—2.1—seventeen European nations are at what demographers call "lowest-low" fertility—1.3 or less—a rate from which no society in human history has ever recovered. Germans, Spaniards, Italians and Greeks have upside-down family trees: four grandparents have two children and one grandchild. How can an economist analyze "family friendly" policies without noticing that the upshot of these policies is that nobody has any families?
As for all that extra time, what happened? Europeans work fewer hours than Americans, they don't have to pay for their own health care, they're post-Christian so they don't go to church, they don't marry and they don't have kids to take to school and basketball and the 4-H stand at the county fair. So what do they do with all the time?
Forget for the moment Europe's lack of world-beating companies: They regard capitalism as an Anglo-American fetish, and they mostly despise it. But what about the things Europeans supposedly value? With so much free time, where is the great European art? Where are Europe's men of science? At American universities. Meanwhile, Continental governments pour fortunes into prestigious white elephants of Euro-identity, like the Airbus A380, capable of carrying 500, 800, a thousand passengers at a time, if only somebody somewhere would order the darn thing, which they might consider doing once all the airports have built new runways to handle it.
"Give people plenty and security, and they will fall into spiritual torpor," wrote Charles Murray in In Our Hands. "When life becomes an extended picnic, with nothing of importance to do, ideas of greatness become an irritant. Such is the nature of the Europe syndrome."
The key word here is "give." When the state "gives" you plenty—when it takes care of your health, takes cares of your kids, takes care of your elderly parents, takes care of every primary responsibility of adulthood—it's not surprising that the citizenry cease to function as adults: Life becomes a kind of extended adolescence—literally so for those Germans who've mastered the knack of staying in education till they're 34 and taking early retirement at 42. Hilaire Belloc, incidentally, foresaw this very clearly in his book The Servile State in 1912. He understood that the long-term cost of a welfare society is the infantilization of the population.
Genteel decline can be very agreeable—initially: You still have terrific restaurants, beautiful buildings, a great opera house. And once the pressure's off it's nice to linger at the sidewalk table, have a second café au lait and a pain au chocolat, and watch the world go by. At the Munich Security Conference in February, President Sarkozy demanded of his fellow Continentals, "Does Europe want peace, or do we want to be left in peace?" To pose the question is to answer it. Alas, it only works for a generation or two. And it's hard to come up with a wake-up call for a society as dedicated as latterday Europe to the belief that life is about sleeping in.
As Gerald Ford liked to say when trying to ingratiate himself with conservative audiences, "A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have." And that's true. But there's an intermediate stage: A government big enough to give you everything you want isn't big enough to get you to give any of it back. That's the position European governments find themselves in. Their citizens have become hooked on unaffordable levels of social programs which in the end will put those countries out of business. Just to get the Social Security debate in perspective, projected public pension liabilities are expected to rise by 2040 to about 6.8% of GDP in the U.S. In Greece, the figure is 25%—i.e., total societal collapse. So what? shrug the voters. Not my problem. I want my benefits. The crisis isn't the lack of money, but the lack of citizens—in the meaningful sense of that word.
Every Democrat running for election tells you they want to do this or that "for the children." If America really wanted to do something "for the children," it could try not to make the same mistake as most of the rest of the Western world and avoid bequeathing the next generation a leviathan of bloated bureaucracy and unsustainable entitlements that turns the entire nation into a giant Ponzi scheme. That's the real "war on children" (to use another Democrat catchphrase)—and every time you bulk up the budget you make it less and less likely they'll win it.
Conservatives often talk about "small government," which, in a sense, is framing the issue in leftist terms: they're for big government. But small government gives you big freedoms—and big government leaves you with very little freedom. The bailout and the stimulus and the budget and the trillion-dollar deficits are not merely massive transfers from the most dynamic and productive sector to the least dynamic and productive. When governments annex a huge chunk of the economy, they also annex a huge chunk of individual liberty. You fundamentally change the relationship between the citizen and the state into something closer to that of junkie and pusher—and you make it very difficult ever to change back. Americans face a choice: They can rediscover the animating principles of the American idea—of limited government, a self-reliant citizenry, and the opportunities to exploit your talents to the fullest—or they can join most of the rest of the Western world in terminal decline. To rekindle the spark of liberty once it dies is very difficult. The inertia, the ennui, the fatalism is more pathetic than the demographic decline and fiscal profligacy of the social democratic state, because it's subtler and less tangible. But once in a while it swims into very sharp focus. Here is the writer Oscar van den Boogaard from an interview with the Belgian paper De Standaard. Mr. van den Boogaard, a Dutch gay "humanist" (which is pretty much the trifecta of Eurocool), was reflecting on the accelerating Islamification of the Continent and concluding that the jig was up for the Europe he loved. "I am not a warrior, but who is?" he shrugged. "I have never learned to fight for my freedom. I was only good at enjoying it." In the famous Kubler-Ross five stages of grief, Mr. van den Boogard is past denial, anger, bargaining and depression, and has arrived at a kind of acceptance.
"I have never learned to fight for my freedom. I was only good at enjoying it." Sorry, doesn't work—not for long. Back in New Hampshire, General Stark knew that. Mr. van den Boogard's words are an epitaph for Europe. Whereas New Hampshire's motto—"Live free or die!"—is still the greatest rallying cry for this state or any other. About a year ago, there was a picture in the papers of Iranian students demonstrating in Tehran and waving placards. And what they'd written on those placards was: "Live free or die!" They understand the power of those words; so should we.
As Lands Bill Fight Ends


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Q: Having trouble determining the sample space for conditional expectation problems My book states the following theorem

Let $X$ be a random variable with sample space  $\Omega$. If $F_1, F_2, . . . , F_r$
  are events such that $F_i$ and $F_j $ are disjoint (for $i$ not equal to $j$) and $\Omega = \cup_jF_j$ then $E(X) = \sum_jE(X|F_j)P(F_j)$

I understand this to mean that given $X$ which can take on a value / outcome from $\Omega$ and $F_1, F_2, . . . , F_r$ are all pairwise disjoint whose union forms $\Omega$, $E(X)$ can be computed by the given equation. However, I had trouble understanding the example illustrating this theorem:

Let T be the number of rolls in a single play of craps. We can think of a single play as a two-stage process. The first stage consists of a single roll of a pair of dice. The play is over if this roll is a 2, 3, 7,
  11, or 12. Otherwise, the player's point is established, and the second stage begins. This second stage consists of a sequence of rolls which ends when either the player's point or a 7 is rolled. We record the outcomes of this two-stage experiment using the random variables X and S, where X denotes the first roll, and S denotes the number of rolls in the second stage of the experiment (of course, S is sometimes equal to 0). Note that T = S + 1. Then $E(T) = \sum_{j=2}^{12} E(T|X = j)P(X=j)$

Here I think T is analogous to the X in the theorem above and each outcome of a roll of the two dices ($X = j$) is an event analogous to an $F_j$. However, the potential values of T can take on are in the set $\{1, 2, ... \infty\}$ while I think the set formed by the union of events $X = j$ for all $j$ is just $\{2,3..,12\}$. I'm confused about what the sample space $\Omega$ would be in this example since it appears the values of the random variable and event appear to be drawn from different sets.

A: This is called the "law of total expectation" and is similar to the "law of total probability."  The sample space $\Omega$ is the set of all outcomes $\omega$ of the form:
$$ \omega = (\mbox{first roll}, \mbox{sequence of other rolls})=(X, \mbox{sequence of other rolls})$$
This sample space can be partitioned into events where the first roll is 2, the first roll is 3, ..., the first roll is 12.  So the partition is:
$$ \Omega = \{X=2\} \cup \{X=3\}\cup\{X=4\}\cup...\cup\{X=12\}$$
We know that $X$ can only take values in the set $\{2, ..., 12\}$ and so the events $\{X=2\}, \{X=3\}, ..., \{X=12\}$ are indeed mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive.  The event $\{X=4\}$ contains all outcomes that start with a first roll of 4.

The individual events $\{X=i\}$ look like this:
\begin{align}
\{X=2\} &= \{(2)\}\\
\{X=3\} &= \{(3)\}\\
\{X=4\} &= \{(4, 4), (4, 2, 2, 5, 4), (4, 12, 5, 5, 7), (4, 8, 4), ...\}
\end{align}
and so on.  The event $\{X=4\}$ has a countably infinite number of outcomes, but all of them are sequences that start with $4$ and end with either 4 or 7.
The events $\{X=2\}, \{X=3\}, \{X=7\}, \{X=11\}, \{X=12\}$ all contain just one outcome each and so we trivially have
\begin{align}
E[T|X=2]&=1\\
E[T|X=3]&=1\\
E[T|X=7]&=1\\
E[T|X=11]&=1\\
E[T|X=12]&=1
\end{align}
On the other hand, $E[T|X=4]$ is equal to 1 plus the expected time to roll either a 4 or a 7.

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Dear Tracey...may heaven be impeccably decorated and free of blue roses.
Dear Husband...thank you for knowing more about The Great Mouse Detective than most grown men should including all the words to the song about Ratigan.
Dear travel writing course...you are ever so interesting. AND you're helping figure out this whole blogging thing too which is just crazy random happenstance.
Dear Austrian friend...Four bags of brown sugar?!?! You're the BEST!!!!!
Dear Switzerland...it was cold the other day. Okay...cold for you. Like -13 and it was a little icy and I slipped and yeah...it felt like home.
Dear 2 franc gluhwein from the grocery store...you're not half bad. I like you.
Dear Swiss Postal System...You're kind of amazing. And efficient. And awesome. And great.
Dear Canadian Postal System....you could learn something from the Swiss.
Dear Christmas cards that are trickling in...you remind us that we are loved.
Dear Christmas card we sent out this year...I haven't been this proud of a Christmas card since the first one we did in 2003.
Dear packing for Berlin...I'll get to you I swear.
I rather like the gluhwein as well. It's pretty tasty and for CHF 2.50 (or whatever it is) it's not bad.
Nothing quite compares to the freshly-made stuff outside in the cold, but this isn't a half-bad substitute when one is lazy and just wants to nuke a mug for a few minutes.
The Canadian post office is what's taking my cunning Jayne hat so long to bloody arrive! Arg!
Just discovered you through Expat Blogs! Your blog is hilarious :) Looking fwd to reading all of your other posts!
Having Christmas cards trickle in to my little corner of France is making me feel very loved indeed (Dear La Poste: Thank you for actually delivering my cards this year).


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Q: Macro-assigned button does not work in Excel I created a button and I assigned a macro to it. The button does not work, but if I run the macro manually by using the "run" option in the developer tab or if I press the "play" button in the VBA window, everything works perfectly. I do not think that adding the code will be useful.
Regards,

A: It's possible the macro got "un-assigned".
Right-click the button in design mode, and select "Assign Macro"

Re-assign the macro in the dialog, exit design mode and click the button - it should "just work".


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Die Neptune war ein Kreuzfahrtschiff der griechischen Epirotiki Lines, das 1955 als Meteor für die norwegische Det Bergenske Dampskibsselskab in Dienst gestellt wurde. Das Schiff blieb bis 1994 in Fahrt und wurde nach mehreren Jahren Liegezeit 2002 in der Türkei verschrottet.

Geschichte
Die Meteor wurde unter der Baunummer 104 in der Aalborg Værft in Aalborg gebaut und am 6. Mai 1954 vom Stapel gelassen. Nach der Übernahme durch die Det Bergenske Dampskibsselskab am 14. Januar 1955 wurde das Schiff am 22. Januar auf den Hurtigruten sowie für Kreuzfahrten in den norwegischen Fjorden eingesetzt.

Seit 1958 war die Meteor ausschließlich für Kreuzfahrten im Einsatz. In den Wintermonaten im Mittelmeer sowie in der Karibik und in den Sommermonaten vor Norwegen. Nach weiteren zwölf Jahren im Dienst ging das Schiff 1970 an die neu gegründete Reederei Meteor Cruises mit Sitz in Bergen.

Am 22. Mai 1971 brach während einer Kreuzfahrt von Vancouver nach Alaska in der Straße von Georgia ein Brand an Bord der Meteor aus. 32 Besatzungsmitglieder kamen dabei ums Leben. Das ausgebrannte Schiff wurde anschließend zum Totalschaden erklärt. Dennoch fand es mit der griechischen Epirotiki Lines einen neuen Eigner, der es in Neptune umbenannte und im November 1971 zur Reparatur nach Griechenland schleppen ließ.

Im April 1972 konnte die Neptune wieder in Dienst gestellt werden. Das Schiff wurde fortan für Kreuzfahrten im Mittelmeer sowie in der Nordsee genutzt. Die Neptune blieb mehr als zwanzig Jahre lang für Epirotiki in Fahrt, ehe sie 1994 ausgemustert und in Eleusis aufgelegt wurde.

Nach acht Jahren Liegezeit wurde das Schiff zum Verschrotten verkauft und traf am 2. März 2002 in der Abbruchwerft im türkischen Aliağa ein.

Weblinks
 das Schiff auf faktaomfartyg.se (schwedisch)
 das Schiff auf hurtigwiki.de

Kreuzfahrtschiff
Passagierschiff (Norwegen)
Passagierschiff (Griechenland)
Motorschiff
Verkehrsunglück 1971
Aalborg Værft

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Home » Topping Mother Nature
Topping Mother Nature
Josh Marx
rom ancient manmade structures to the latest examples of modern architecture, building drainage systems have been rendered useless by Aceraceae germen - the dreaded Maple seed, whose swarms are known to homeowners everywhere as "helicopters."
The company's 43,000-square-foot manufacturing facility is designed to fill product orders within a 24-hour turnaround time.
rom ancient manmade structures to the latest examples of modern architecture, building drainage systems have been rendered useless by Aceraceae germen - the dreaded Maple seed, whose swarms are known to homeowners everywhere as "helicopters." Preventing drainage problems caused by seeds, leaves and other debris was the goal of Tony Iannelli, who invented Gutter Topper®.
Gutter Topper is a self-cleaning metal cover system that installs over existing gutters to prevent almost anything but water from collecting in gutter troughs. In the decade since its 1996 conception, Gutter Topper has grown into a $60 million a year corporation. From its headquarters outside of Cincinnati in Amelia, Ohio, the company operates a national network of independent dealers in 140 exclusive territories across the United States and Canada. Its 43,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Batavia, Ohio, is capable of producing over 25 million feet of Gutter Topper product each year. With more than 200,000 residential installations in the last five years, large-market dealers generate million-dollar revenues of their own. The root of this success? A gutter protection product that actually seems to work.
"My partner and I investigated a lot of different covers," states Richard Breedlove, co-founder of On-Site Gutters in Redding, Calif. "From its lifetime warranty to its design, Gutter Topper was by far the superior product." Iannelli devised his patented system after more than 25 years of firsthand experience in the gutter and gutter cover business.
"Some systems require the same maintenance as gutters or can clog easily or buckle under summer heat or winter snow loads," states Iannelli. "They can have unsightly brackets or foster bird nesting." He devised Gutter Topper specifically as a solution to these issues.
Gutter Topper improves curb appeal by matching different colors and materials and creating a sleek roofline.
Minimizing Maintenance
The priority function of a gutter protection system is to keep nature at bay, which in turn, keeps customers off their ladders. According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, 175,000 ladder falls occur annually, resulting in 300 deaths. "We sell safety first," says Mark Barak, product and sales consultant for A&J Reliable Inc., a Gutter Topper dealer since 1996. "I had an emergency room nurse call me after all of the roofing fall accidents she had seen."
Gutter Topper minimizes gutter cleaning by extending a solid cover from under the second row of shingles across the entire gutter width. The product performs an S-curve over the edge of the gutter before attaching to its outer lip. Water flows out, over, and back up under the beveled edge before passing through narrow pre-adjusted slits and into the gutter. The system relies on surface tension, a principle of physics that states water will flow along curved contours. The principle does not apply to waterborne debris, which the company claims washes over the cover's edge and falls harmlessly to the ground. A no-drip edge keeps wayward flow from escaping.
"Our vice-president, John Shepitka, is a mechanical engineer," says Andrew Gallina, president of A& J Reliable in Spring Valley, N.Y. "We chose Gutter Topper because it's the best design out there."
Durable Performance
The cover's unique design adds to its functionality and durability. "Because it fastens to both the roof and the gutter, it's the only cover product I know of that makes the gutter system stronger," states Reid Ribble, owner of Ribble Group Inc. and a past president of the National Roofing Contractors Association.
Consisting of 0.024 aluminum or 16-ounce copper, Gutter Topper guarantees its durability with a lifetime performance warranty that is transferable with the deed to the property. The company can offer the warranty because of the product's successful performance in severe weather trials. The company commissioned PRI Asphalt Technologies, an independent construction product-testing laboratory in Tampa, Fla., to measure Gutter Topper's effectiveness. PRI certified it could handle 22 inches of rainfall per hour and support up to 1,200 pounds per square foot with 95 percent recovery from deflection. After 2,000 hours of accelerated weathering, PRI indicated the product showed no chipping, blistering or other surface changes. It also certified Gutter Topper as meeting Dade County standards with a wind resistance of 110 mph with no lifting or movement of components.
Gutter Topper's low profile also increases curb appeal. No unsightly brackets or hangers are required; the product fits under the second layer of shingles creating a sleek roofline. "Without a perfect match, other gutter covers that sit over the top of shingles are a total eyesore," explains Ribble. "From the ground, only Gutter Topper's nose is visible."
The company demonstrates it ability to ensure color compatibility on its interactive Web site. Visitors can compare the 13 colors of aluminum Gutter Topper or solid copper with various roof and gutter color combinations. The premium polyester paint finish is baked on at 650∞F and has a limited 20-year warranty. Appearance is further enhanced by the product's patented BirdGuard® feature, which prohibits avian and animal nesting alike
For the benefit of both installers and sales representatives, Gutter Topper fits over existing gutters rather than replacing them. The preformed sections are manufactured in 5-foot lengths to fit standard 5-inch or 6-inch gutters. The factory can custom-fit special applications as needed. The size of the openings is pre-adjusted, while the pitch angle is tailored on site. Gutter Topper's double-reinforced edge snaps onto the gutter's lip and is secured with color-coordinated, stainless steel zip screws. More of the same fasteners are used to interlock the sections where they meet at a 1-inch overlap. The entire system is secured to the roof by galvanized screws and sealed under the shingles.
"My business is 90 percent retrofit, and Gutter Topper is a good fit for our business," says Ribble.
Gutter Topper conducts installation and marketing training at its corporate headquarters in Amelia, Ohio.
After honing their product, Iannelli and CEO Slate Kirk have poured their effort into marketing it. Dealers are provided TV, radio and print advertising and a custom interactive Web site. Product displays, yard signs, door hangers, direct mail pieces, brochures, truck decals and other options are also available. "With the product's sharp appearance, we always do proximity marketing," says Ribble. "The 50 closest homes will get a postcard."
"I'm obsessed with the unsolicited lead," confesses Gallina. "When a past customer has a barbeque, I want them to talk about us." He goes on to explain that any interested friends and neighbors within A&J's exclusive territory are his favorite sales prospects. "By the time my salespeople talk to them, it's a slam dunk."
Gutter Topper is designed to improve gutter strength by attaching to both the roof and the outer lip of the gutter.
The latest marketing techniques are only part of Gutter Topper's annual regional training meeting. Dealers and their employees receive hands-on installation training and instructional sessions. A training center at the corporate headquarters is also open year-round. The company maintains a toll-free technical support line for questions on and off the jobsite.
"The support we get from the corporate office is just incredible," says Breedlove. "Tony and Slate have been great and are open to our suggestions and ideas."
The sessions have proved productive. The company's new Leaf Terminator product is a gutter guard for commercial structures. The challenge in the commercial arena is to identify and reach viable markets efficiently, since many commercial buildings are tall and surrounded by parking lots. Dealers learned to target schools, not just for their low profiles and proximity to trees, but for Leaf Terminator's effectiveness against bats, balls and bottles.
visitwww.guttertopper.com.
Recent Articles by Josh Marx
DECRA Celebrates 50 Years of Strength
Contractor-Friendly Solar Power
Contractors Get the Most Out of Their Work Trucks
Best of Success 2006
Josh Marx is associate editor of Roofing Contractor. He can be reached at 248-244-1738.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Archive for the 'Switch' Category
Venture Kid Review
Developer: Snikkabo AS
Publisher: FDG Entertainment
Genre: Action Platformer
Available on: Switch, Steam, iOS
Venture Kid is a retro action platformer that's reminds us of the good old 8-bit days. Taking heavy inspiration from a certain Man that was Mega, the game was originally released to iOS in 2016 and appealed to the handheld touch screen crowd. Two years later it was re-released to Steam, appealing to those that prefer the controller and a screen. With the Switch becoming ever more popular, it makes complete sense that FDG Entertainment would release the game on this platform, especially since players can choose to take the game on the go or just chill out in front of the TV.
In Venture Kid you play as plain old blue T-shirt wearing Andy. He's not the most inspiring video game hero; however with the power of my weird brain I decided he was based off my friend Andy in real life. For some reason carrying this thought with me throughout the game made me enjoy the rather basic story immensely. You see my friend Andy has to stop evil Dr. Teklov who has built a giant space fortress for evil reasons, of course. A fine bearded gentleman with an eye patch gives Andy a space pistol, which is where our adventure begins. The story is presented in some pretty decent pixel art. Straight from the title screen where your greeted with "Venture Kid" and some catchy 8-bit chiptunes. Additionally an angry Andy leaning on the title which gave me Kid Camelon flashbacks from the Mega Drive/Genesis, the only exception being the lack of sunglasses and the 90s angst.
Written by jamalais
Posted in PC/Mac, Reviews, Switch
Tagged with fdg entertainment, snikkabo AS, venture kid
ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove! Review
Few games thrive to be like the original. Sure, plenty thrive to be as influential or popular as the original, but in the case of the ToeJam & Earl franchise the goal is to literally be just like the original. This is a fact that franchise designer Greg Johnson knows all too well as he's seen any delineation from the formula of the first game fall short. As you can read in my recent retrospective, Johnson along with various teams has been trying to give the fans what they have consistently asked for: a new version of that unique Genesis roguelike from 1991. I'm happy to say that if you are one of these fans, or even if you've never touched a ToeJam & Earl game before, you're in for a treat. Back in the Groove takes the magic of the original title and enhances it in various ways while also knowing when to keep things consistent.
ToeJam and Earl are two funky rapping aliens that "borrowed" the Rapmaster Rocket from their planet of Funkotron to go joyriding. Along the way the duo, along with friends Latisha and Lewanda, accidentally travel through a black hole and crash land on the mysterious planet of Earth. In ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove! you are tasked with selecting one of the four friends along with the original version of both ToeJam and Earl from the Genesis iterations as you collect all 10 pieces of the Rapmaster Rocket and get home to Funkotron. In a hybrid exploration and survival isometric action game, you utilize presents with unique abilities to navigate the enemies and traps in multiple levels that are either fixed or randomly generated. Yes, as I said, ToeJam & Earl is back.
Posted in PC/Mac, PS4, Reviews, Switch, Xbox One
Tagged with back in the groove, greg johnson, humanature studios, toejam & earl
Iron Crypticle Review
Tikipod continues its quest to release all of it's games to the Switch and I'm sure my whinging at the developer on the internet for a full year had everything to do with it. Iron Crypticle is next up for players and once again Tikipod has knocked it out of the park, or maybe the crypt in this case.
Set in the land of Cryptonia, the royal treasure consisting of giant golden fruits, vegetables, and the princess have been taken, leaving a large gaping hole in the floor. It's up to the lazy kings guard (who sort of let this happen in the first place) to jump down the hole and save the day. Iron Crypticle doesn't take itself too seriously and you will undoubtedly chuckle at various moments including the merchant cat and the games final ending, which of course I won't spoil here. I highly recommend you check out the "ledger" which is a sort of codex of all the items you collect in the game where the developer has taken the time to give a humorous description for practically everything you see (there may also be an achievement in it for you if you make the effort).
Iron Crypticle is a top down twin stick arcade shooter with roguelike elements that takes influences from a few old arcade favourites including Ghouls'N Ghosts, Smash TV, and even Bubble Bobble.
Tagged with iron crypticle, pelican game, tikipod
Rock Boshers DX: Switch Review
Developed and Published by Tikipod
With the Switch becoming ever more popular day by day its no surprise indie developers are starting to re-release a lot of their work onto the system. Developer Tikipod released Aqua Kitty UDX to Switch earlier this year, a game well suited to Nintendo's hybrid handheld. Now it's time for Rock Boshers DX to gets turn in the Switch spotlight. Both myself and Fred reviewed Rock Boshers for PS4 and PS vita and after reading the reviews again I feel everything is still relevant to how I feel about the game today. That review can be found here.
Aqua Kitty minigame
Rock Boshers DX is a love letter to the micro computer days of video games. A time where several video games were developed – some in bedrooms apparently – it was a time where you would see all sorts of crazy game ideas but as the years progressed and consoles became more popular video games became more focused and everyone decided Zelda was the best game ever, the end. Okay, that's not exactly what happened, but Rock Boshers DX also likes to play with history. You play as Young Victoria in a steam punk future set in 1880. Victoria finds a nice hat that disguises her then decides to head to Mars. After being forced to work in the mines and "bosh" some rocks, your goal is to escape and find a way home and possibly bump into Charles Darwin a few times as you do. The story is just brilliant and your curiosity to what will happen next will carry you through the games 24 stages. Once you've finished with the story you also have four arcade style games to enjoy which are unlocked by collecting tea, scone and cheese collectibles in the main game. Not sure I know any other game that uses this as a collectible.
Posted in Reviews, Switch
Tagged with rock boshers, tikipod, zx spectrum
Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom Review
Developer: Game Atelier Publisher: FDG Entertainment
Monster Boy is the spiritual sequel to the Wonder Boy franchise, a series Sega has left dormant since 1994. These games were hugely important to me growing up and hold a very special place in my heart. I probably love the Wonder Boy series how people love the Zelda series except without dressing up as one of the characters (real chain mail is expensive). For me it has been a very long wait for a sequel spiritual or otherwise. We have since seen a few re-releases of the previous games on multiple digital platforms. In 2017 developer Lizardcube gave us a beautiful remake of Wonder Boy: The Dragons Trap. Originally we were going to see Monster Boy release that same year but developer Game Atelier decided to halt for a final year to polish up the gameplay and completely redo the graphics. Its been almost five years of development for the team, was the wait worth it?
On booting up the game you're greeted with an impressive anime style cutscene which gives you a preview of the enemies you will be fighting and the animals you will be playing as. The song playing is also awfully addictive and it hasn't left my brain since I heard it at E3 this year. You play as Jin, a young chap with blue hair whose uncle appears to be up to no good changing the people of Monster World into animals as well as having a potential drinking problem. It's not long into the story when your Uncle turns you into pig dressed in pirate gear (a nod to my favourite NPC in The Dragons Trap). You soon learn that to lift the curse you need to collect five magical orbs scattered across various dark corners of Monster World. The story comes with a few twists and turns and inevitably ends up as a typical save the world type tale. What makes this story stand out however, is its sense of humour. All the characters speak with text boxes including Jin himself and won't shy away from making a witty joke about the current situation. Right up to the games darkest turns it was hard not to laugh at some of the games witty attempts at humour. The story is straight forward to follow and doesn't really get in the way of your adventuring. Should you need to repeat sections of the story the game does allow you to skip them.
Posted in PS4, Reviews, Switch, Xbox One
Tagged with fdg entertainment, game atelier, monster boy, wonder boy
Podcast: Jam's Take on the Nintendo Switch
Jam steps up to give his take on the first anniversary of the Switch.
https://gaminghistory101.podbean.com/mf/play/jn2phs/gh101_jam_switch.mp3
Posted in Gaming History 101, Gaming History X, podcast, Season 7 (2018), Switch
Tagged with nintendo, Switch
Podcast: Reflecting on the Switch's First Year
Fred is joined by Learned From Gaming's Chase to discuss Nintendo's Switch on its one year anniversary. For the second time in history, Nintendo managed to highly innovate and turn the company's success around in a very small period of time. The two discuss announcement, release, success, library, and various other notable topics.
https://gaminghistory101.podbean.com/mf/play/dxea5j/030318_switch.mp3
Posted in Gaming History 101, Gaming History X, podcast, Switch
Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap Review
I've been waiting for a Wonder Boy revival ever since I saw that dammed "to be continued…" message at the end of Wonder Boy in Monster World on the Mega Drive. I did get some relief when the Wonder Boy Collection was released in 2012 for Xbox 360 and PS3, however. This game featured the localized version of Monster World 4 which was the sequel to the beloved game from my childhood. Of course this was just an English translation of a Japanese game that had been around for years. Some would be happy with this but, I wanted more Wonder Boy darn it! Which was why, last year I came over as giddy as a school kid when I heard Wonder Boy would be making a return in not one, not two but three games. One of these three games, Wonder Boy: The Dragons Trap developed by Lizardcube, is a remaster of the 1989 Sega Master System game. While not exactly a new entry into the Wonder Boy series, Lizardcube have put a lot of care and attention into this title, reviving a classic forgotten game to showcase to old fans and a potential new audience.
The Dragons Trap is a beautiful remaster with hand drawn graphics, which brought Monster World to life by filling the 2D game with lots of detail in the backgrounds as well as the character sprites. The game allows you to instantly switch between the old and new graphics at the touch of a button. This simple effect doesn't interrupt the gameplay and allows you to see just how much effort has been put into the remaster when held against the original. The soundtrack has also been updated this time with a full orchestra. The music is still reminiscent of the old 8 bit titles but has really been brought to life with the updated score. Just like the graphics you can also switch between the old and new soundtracks at the touch of a button.
Tagged with DotEmu, Lizard Cube, sega, the dragons trap, wonder boy


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Annual General Conference 2019 Motions
The NSW Nationals' Annual General Conference is always a great example of grassroots democracy in action, which is very healthy within the Party. Here are the successful motions put to the Conference in Inverell.
The Agenda Committee received 197 motions from branches, electorate councils, regional conferences, policy committees and other party units. However, with only a limited amount of time to consider motions at Conference, not all were able to be debated. The Committee particularly prioritised motions that met the criteria outlined in the office-bearer's handbook that is distributed each year, namely that the motion:
· Has specific policy points and calls for action;
· has a state-wide or national application;
· canvasses new, innovative or current issues;
· is a matter of substance so as to sustain political debate;
· is capable of implementation; and
· avoids repetition of motions previously debated.
Petroleum Exploration Licences
That Conference calls on the NSW Government to extinguish Petroleum Exploration Licenses as soon as they expire.
Mover: Boggabri Branch
CARRIED
That The Nationals, having been elected to form part of a third-term government, develop an energy policy with the following objectives:
i.Increase the supply of energy in the Australian marketplace through development of proven, safe resources and production systems within Australia,
ii.Ensure the reliability and security of the supply of energy within Australia without impacting our export customers,
iii.Lower the cost of energy for all domestic consumers by increasing volume and security of supply, and
iv.Develop and lead the transition to more efficient methods of generation, storage and transmission of energy.
Mover: Gunnedah Branch
Minister for Resources, Mines and Minerals
That Conference call upon the NSW State Government to restore the portfolio of the Minister for Resources, Mines and Minerals with a stand-alone dedicated portfolio.
Mover: Macleay Valley Branch
The Rocky Hill Case
That this Conference call on the NSW Nationals to legislate to protect all industries against "Scope 3 emissions" being used against them.
AMENDED, CARRIED
That Conference supports the use of nuclear power in Australia.
Mover: Narrabri Branch, Orange Branch
Abolition of the Climate Change Fund
That Conference call on the NSW Government to abolish the Climate Change Fund contributions on all electricity suppliers.
Mover: Tweed SEC
Native Vegetation Laws
That the State Parliamentary Nationals amend the land management (native vegetation) code, the Biodiversity Conservation Act and regulations to prevent and stop all prosecutions for offences under the repealed Native Vegetation Act 2003.
Mover: Moree Branch
South Australian Water Allocation
That Conference encourages the Governments of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland to strongly resist South Australia's demands to increase their share of the Murray Darling Basin's water, and fight for the return, to the three contributing States, of some of the excess given to South Australia.
Mover: Tamworth Branch
Biosecurity Levy
That Conference call on the NSW Government to adopt an annual levy on all NSW residential and commercial properties to contribute financially to the State's biosecurity.
Mover: Wagga Wagga Branch
Drought Assistance
That Conference supports unregulated stream horticulture irrigators being given the ability to store 50 per cent more water to combat drought conditions and protect permanent plantings.
Mover: Orange Branch
That the State and Federal drought relief measures be made available for drought-affected small businesses, including contractors.
Regional Investment Corporation
That Conference calls on the Federal Government, through the Regional Investment Corporation Fund, to provide long-term loan facilities, and that the interest rate be no more than 1.5 per cent over the official interest rate.
Mover: Inverell Branch
Fixed Price for Milk
That Conference calls on the NSW Nationals to investigate a minimum fixed farm-gate price for three years as an interim measure to help combat the cost associated by the drought and high electricity prices on the dairy sector.
Mover: Mudgee Branch, Boggabri Branch
That Conference call upon the NSW Nationals to investigate the current limits on water harvesting rights on properties for water storage, and to differentiate between coastal and inland requirements.
Mover: Wauchope Branch
That Local Land Services play a main role in primary production animal welfare cases without any regulatory or compliance role.
That the cost of exclusion boundary fences between National Parks and Forests and private property be subsidised by the NSW Government.
Mover: Forbes Branch
That Conference call on the NSW Government to subsidise exclusion fencing as a means of protecting landholders' interests from feral pests.
Mover: Griffith Branch
Farm Income Protection
That Conference call on the State and Federal Parliamentary Nationals to establish a fund to adapt the current cropping Farm Income Protection fund model to grazing enterprises.
Mover: Primary Industries Committee
Fodder Industry Code of Conduct
That Conference call upon the NSW Government to work with the fodder industry to develop a code of conduct for the sale and purchase of fodder and hay bales.
Development of Forestry Industry
That Conference call upon the State Parliamentary Nationals to work with the forestry department and key industry bodies to identify and incentivise all land that could be utilised for the forestry industry
Electoral Matters
Electorate Sizes
That the State Parliamentary Nationals undertake a review so that the sizes of the largest electorates are reduced and equitable access of constituents to Members of Parliament is provided.
That the Royal College of Physicians urgently facilitate specialist training in psychiatry, palliative care, gerontology and general practice to be carried out entirely in regional facilities.
Mover: Bellingen Branch
That Conference calls on the Federal Government to reinstate its subsidising of the cost of Q Fever testing and vaccination.
Mover: Boggabri Branch, Gilgandra Branch
That Conference call for the recommendations of the Primary Health Medicare Review Taskforce regarding the Better Access to Mental Health Care Initiative to be implemented.
Mover: Farrer FEC, Murray SEC
Medicare for Regional Counsellors
That Conference call upon the Federal government to make Medicare rebates available for qualified rural and remote counsellors to cover the cost of counselling appointments for mental illness.
Mover: Narrabri Branch
That Conference call upon the NSW Government to begin a trial of regional clinics and support groups in key towns to support sufferers of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
CARRIED UNOPPOSED
Cancer, Diabetes and Heart Disease
That the NSW Nationals set the goal of eliminating the gap between metropolitan and rural and regional NSW rates of cancer, diabetes and heart disease within 10 years.
That Primary Amoebic Meningoencephalitis (PAM) be declared a national notifiable disease and that the Federal Government raise awareness of, and take measures to prevent Naegleria Fowleri contamination, especially in rural and regional areas.
That pharmacists be authorised to prescribe short-term antibiotics such as Trimethoprim 300mg for acute, uncomplicated urinary tract infections, based on a treatment protocol.
Mover: Port Macquarie SEC
Economy & Taxation
Payroll Tax Exemptions
That businesses based in Regional Local Government Areas be exempt from payroll tax.
Mover: Gunnedah Branch, Moree Branch, Uralla Branch, Wauchope Branch
Wine Taxation
That the Federal Parliamentary Nationals consult with the peak wine industry body, the Wine Federation of Australia (WFA), and key players within the industry to develop a wine industry tax reform blueprint for the future.
Disaster Management & Emergency Services
That, where possible, consideration be given to CAT12 RFS and SES vehicles be delivered via local motor vehicle dealers.
Duty of Care of Employees
That Conference calls upon the State Government to amend Section 19 (1) of the Health & Safety Act 2011 (NSW) to include the responsibilities and duty of care of employees in the event of non-compliance with employer safety regulations.
Mover: Cootamundra SEC
That the NSW Criminal Procedure Act 1986 be amended to allow accused persons and legal representatives to view footage from NSWPF devices such as body-worn cameras and in-car video rather than providing physical copies as evidence.
Mover: Broken Hill Branch
Regional Development & Local Government
Regional Tourism
That a special fund be established to promote tourism and tourist attractions throughout rural and regional NSW.
Caravan Park Fees
That the Long Term Casual Occupation Act 2002 (NSW) be revised so as to set a limit on caravan park fee increases as a means of inhibiting caravan park owners or managers from imposing unreasonable price hikes on temporary tenants.
Regional Development Approval Processes
That the NSW Nationals call for adjustments to environmental approval regulations for regional development projects so that, where the proponent has existing relevant data from monitoring near to or adjacent to the project, that this data should be applicable over the development area to streamline approval processes.
Regional Development Coordinator General
That Conference call for the implementation of a Coordinator General for State significant regional development projects in NSW.
Mover: Resources and Energy Policy Committee
Regional Immigration
That waiting list reduction incentives be made available for migrants who have lived in regional Australia.
EPAC Review
That a review be undertaken into decision-making by the NSW Department of Education's Employee Performance and Conduct (EPAC) directorate.
Mover: Dubbo Branch
Teacher Gender Imbalance
That Conference calls for the teacher and school leadership gender imbalance in NSW public schools to be addressed, particularly in primary schools.
Review of University Price Structures
That Conference calls on all Federal Parliamentary Nationals to review the price structures for university courses.
Mover: Education Policy Committee
ATAR Review
That the NSW Nationals call on the State Government to review the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR).
Timber Collection
That citizens be allowed to access fallen timber from roadsides where it is safe to do so.
Port of Newcastle
That conference call for the NSW Nationals to ensure:
a)That removal of all obstacles facing the Newcastle Container Terminal Expansion Plans, including the cap on the number of containers and the State Government fee payable on container exports and;
b)The Port's development of a high intensity container terminal.
Second-Hand Vehicles
That Conference call on the NSW Nationals to ensure all vehicles offered for sale require that vendors provide Personal Property Security Registry (PPSR) history prior to sale.
Urgency Motions
Broadening FMD Scheme
That Conference supports broadening the eligibility of the Farm Management Deposit scheme to include companies and other entities with a turnover of up to $10 million and to increase the deposit limit from $800,000 to $2 million.
Funding for Aged Care
That The Nationals support maintaining pre- 30 June 2019 Federal funding for aged care facilities as introduced post March 2019 , and urgently seek a review into the decrease in funding to apply from 1 July 2019.
Prepoll Voting
That prepoll voting for both State, Federal and Local Government elections commence no earlier than the Saturday prior to the election date.
AMENDED, CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
Hunter New England Health
That Conference calls on the State Government to divide Hunter New England Health into two separate health districts being Hunter Health and New England Health.
Aspirational Water Scheme
The NSW Nationals call on the Federal Government to develop an ASPIRATIONAL NATION BUILDING PROJECT to assess the potential of harvesting of water from the Burdekin Dam in Queensland and redirect these waters south by canal, existing waterways and pipelines terminating in the Murray River in NSW. And, that Conference adopt this plan and ask the Federal Government to match the $25 million put on the table by the NSW Government.
Emergency Animal Disease Response Agreement
That the Federal & State Governments include Samonella Enteriditis in the Emergency Animal Diseases Response Agreement.
Small and Micro Businesses
That this Conference supports the Government to investigate a program that allows small and micro business owners to put tax-free money into a deposit account in a profitable year, in order to withdraw that money in a year that they take parental leave from the business, and hence the business makes less profit.
This proposed initiative is similar to the way a Farm Management Deposit is used by farming businesses in drought years.
Conference call on the NSW Nationals in Government to develop economically effective soil management practises, to protect regional areas from the impacts of climate change and enabling rural and regional communities and landholders to take advantage of the economic opportunities from improved soil management practices.
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Joining a sorority means a lot of things -- socials, sisterhood, philanthropic work, etc. -- but at its core, being a part of Greek Life means surrounding yourself with women you are proud to call friends. Throughout your college experience, you get to walk alongside these women as you figure out which classes to take, what to do with your Friday night, and what you want to pursue post graduation. When Gild decided to expand their workshops on campus, our goal was to help sororities foster these relationships and tighten the bond between members, all while empowering each individual woman.
The reason we incorporate a creative project into each workshop is because when you create together, you grow together. We've watched young women sit around a table and unpack the unique challenges of being a female in college. Together, we discuss strategies to overcome these obstacles, and how they can be applied in the future. Whether done as a separate event or built into a sisterhood retreat, we love watching young women take pride in their strengths and empowering their sisters to do the same.
College is also a time of personal growth, so we wanted to offer campus organizations a fun, effective way to help young females gain confidence and professional skills as they prepare to enter the workforce. This is why we address topics such as, "Communicating Effectively," "Uncovering Unconscious Bias," and "Addressing & Elevating Gender Issues." We want to encourage young females to discover their voice and empower them to use it. We want to teach them how to combat any gender bias they may experience in their job and internship search. We also want to help them understand how these biases are formed and provide tips on interrupting them. This experience not only prepares them for the future, but allows them to address any issues they might face on their college campus as well.
Our mission is to help women unlock confidence and connect creatively, and we love working with the next generation of females who will soon be entering the workforce. If you're interested in learning more or planning a sisterhood event with Gild Collective, please feel free to reach out.
Older PostWhat Does Empowering Women Really Mean?


There is one summary for H.R.5730. Bill summaries are authored by CRS.
Amends the Honoring America's Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act of 2012 with respect to the one-year period after a service member's military service during which: (1) a court may stay proceedings to enforce an obligation on real or personal property owned by the service member before such military service; and (2) any sale, foreclosure, or seizure of such property shall be invalid without a court order or waiver agreement signed by the service member.
Repeals the revival, effective January 1, 2015, of the old nine-month period in place of the one-year period granted by such Act.