text:
PART TEN – The Issues of Life (cont.)
Particle – Vision: House with Windows on Second Floor
Our public internet correspondences were kindling indignation and opposition from several people who were accusing us of being hateful and arrogant. They couldn't point to any of our words in particular when we asked them to back up their accusations. Still, I don't take these things lightly and have sought the Lord many times for His judgment.
Am I arrogant, as some declare? As I was seeking the Lord about this, on January 5, 2004, I saw a two-story, rectangular house with a 4/12 pitch roof. Suddenly two, two-foot square windows appeared on each side of the second story. Light then entered and the once dark second story was illumined. I could see the floor through the windows on the second story. Then I heard the question: "Is the light arrogant? Is light arrogant when dispelling darkness?"
On the first anniversary of this vision, 2004, I was writing to an Al Thomas, self-proclaimed prophet and teacher. He was rejecting our right to offer The Public Forum Correspondence by email without his permission. I knew this vision was meant specifically for him, though it is universal truth. I asked Thomas, "Does God need an invitation from sinners before sending His prophets to speak to them?"
Particle – Grinding Teeth
In a visit to Dr. Rice, our dentist, I was informed that I was a classic example of one grinding his teeth. I wondered, "Why, Lord?" Yes, it has been hard all our lives, as it was for other saints (believers), like Jacob, who confessed before the Pharaoh, "Few and evil have been my years." Isaac was blind for many of his latter years; David was cold in his body in his last years; Elisha, who had a double anointing of Elijah, no less, was ill at his death, and yet when he died and was buried, his body revived another corpse that came into contact with his (2 Kings 13:20-21).
Yes, I have been grinding my teeth, and that with over a dozen mercury fillings I've had in my mouth for three decades since Dr. Grenkow installed them in Winnipeg. So what happened to all the toxic mercury? Where is it and what is it doing?
Particle – Children of God
There are many who have the erroneous notion that all are children of God. To counter this error, I completed a paper on January 7, 2004, Are All Persons Children of God? The Bible is very clear on this matter, as for example:
"But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His Name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:12-13).
Particle – No Renouncing Sean
About January 8, 2004, Marilyn apologized for having hurt me with Sean. I had confronted her on the fact that while she publicly chose Sean as her husband, she has never renounced him, not even privately. She admitted this was so, and that she could do no other. She said she was waiting for God to give her repentance. I said, God calls on you to repent and you say, "God, You repent me"?
Particle – Sara a New Woman
When Paul, Marcia, Sara and a hitchhiker they knew from Helena, Brian Wirak, arrived at the farm, Sara was manifestly a new person, receiving from us and rejoicing in the Lord. She had the fruit of the Spirit, Whom she received on December 20, about three weeks before.
Particle – Cody Rebels
Cody and Dena also came up for another weekend while Paul and Sara were here. Now he criticized me for pressuring him for payment of his debts. Yes, I was making it known that if he could afford to continue buying other products and pay other people what he owed, he had no right to borrow from me or hold back my money, saying he was borrowing it because he didn't have money – clearly a lie.
There were many things we discussed, and while Cody resisted them all, Dena seemed to understand and receive what we were saying. Lois was moved to tell Cody he had to obey. He confessed disobedience but was unrepentant. We concluded business matters with Cody and he paid what he owed us for machines. The future did not look healthy for him.
Particle – Monopoly on the Sabbath
On the 10th of January, we all played Monopoly, a game Jonathan had purchased. Should we be playing such a game, if any game, on the Sabbath? I wondered but was not constrained in spirit to prevent it. As it turned out, natures were displayed, Jonathan was dealt with in his attitude, and lessons were learned. It was revealing, correcting, and good for all.
Particle – Letter to Randy Olafson
I wrote a letter to Randy and Debbie Olafson concerning the feedlot battle, his ailment, and the Lord.
Hi, Randy and Debbie,
Victor here. You will recall, Randy, that I have wanted to meet with you, and it has not come together. While we have Grander, and we believe it is the very best thing we know of (and I would say, vitally necessary) that one can do with water, I did not have Grander alone in mind.
I hope you'll believe and understand that I write to help you, not to sell you. Please hear me out.
Do you remember your father trying to establish a feedlot beside Moon River Estates, and how some people in the community opposed it? Do you remember the man who stood up, weeping, and speaking in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, standing against the feedlot? That was after it had passed first reading by the MD. Are you aware that I was that man?
I remember you sitting at the back when I spoke. Somehow I knew who you were but I don't remember how. We had never met. When I spoke in the Name of the Lord, I recall that you looked over to your father, and had a peculiar look on your face. Often, when people hear the kind of thing I was speaking, they might get uncomfortable, embarrassed, or even scornful. It isn't for me to judge where you were at. I only recall that you had a reaction that didn't seem a positive one.
I don't know exactly what happened, but I heard that the application for the feedlot in that location was withdrawn shortly after the hearing. You would know. Believe it or not, while the feedlot appeared that it was going through, the Lord spoke to my wife, saying, "Fight the feedlot, and you will win". I think everyone, from both sides, was sure the feedlot was a "shoo-in." Late in the game, I entered the fray, obedient to the Lord, and the outcome was as He promised.
There were a few people rather upset with me. Your father certainly was. I heard later that his son had a serious problem, as you do.
Randy, the Lord appeared to me in 1972, took over my life in 1973, gave me His Spirit in 1975, and I have walked with Him since then. I have learned many things of and from Him in the past 30 years. One of those is that if we humble ourselves, and repent of our pride and independence of Him, and of our sins, and seek to do His will, He makes Himself known, answers prayer, and heals. We have seen miracles. He has performed them through us, for us, and for others. If we don't repent, we destroy ourselves, sooner or later.
He's what life is all about. He's what all the issues of life are all about. Be ashamed of Him, and you are ashamed of life itself. Be ashamed of life, and life will be ashamed of you. It is really quite simple and straightforward, clearly recorded in Scripture, which is the Word of God. I am communicating to you life-giving, life-saving truth. That's why I wanted to talk to you.
Why do I talk about the feedlot episode in 1993, and of your reaction? I do so because I believe that your illness could be related to that day, depending on your attitude and what you were thinking, believing, feeling and saying relative to the testimony of the Lord that day. When people despise the Lord and those He sends, and His Word He gives them to speak, judgment comes on those people.
If you repent of that, and call on Him for repentance, faith, and forgiveness, He may well give those to you, and restore you to life. You would then know life as you have never known it, in joy, fulfilment, purpose, and power. I'm not talking about church or religion now; make no misjudgment here. I'm talking reality.
There was no reply.
Particle – Gayla Erickson's Complaint
Gayla Erickson, a Hsin Ten and Grander distributor was the one who asked us to help her at the QXCI conference last year in the Bahamas and it was primarily because of her request that we went. Originally, she agreed with Paul to pay his expenses. After all, we were not under any obligation to pay for them. She knew she would be away from her booth during the days at classes of instruction in a product with which we had nothing to do, that being Bill Nelson's QXCI, and she wanted someone to take care of it.
Something happened though and after we had made flight and schedule arrangements, she changed her mind but didn't tell us. When we arrived in the Bahamas, she and Sharon Castro from Florida, another Jehovah's Witness member (Gayla is JW) were set to take care of things themselves, but she still didn't tell us what she was thinking. While things seemed rather askew to me, I said nothing, thinking an understanding had been arrived at between Paul and Gayla. As it turned out, she chafed at our presence, but still said nothing, and we were left wondering what was going on.
I signed up France Veer under Gayla but decided to take the initial sale to pay a portion of our expense, an arrangement Hsin Ten had on their sales contract to reward all parties participating in a sale. Gayla would receive all future business from France, should France pursue building an organization.
Gayla later objected and there ensued a great controversy between us. She was "out for bear," threatening lawsuit, full of anger and hate. While I felt guilty and condemned, though ignorant of what had occurred between Paul and her, we all agreed in prayer that we needed to stand our ground. I was willing to give her what she asked, though not fair. Paul insisted, with facts, that he was clear of any guilt of misunderstanding with her.
She also complained to Kenny Lai and wrote us letters, to which we replied with substance (all on file for all to read), but she would hear none of it. As far as she was concerned, we were at fault and cheating her.
Now, we could have easily allowed her to have the sale and suffered the wrong, as Christians often ought to do, but for some reason, we couldn't let her have her way. Kenny Lai of the New York head office also understood the situation and agreed with us. While the mention and memory of the event itself slowly evaporated into the atmosphere over time, the conflict was never resolved to Gayla's satisfaction (or ours for that matter), and France Veer never did follow up with further activity, so nobody gained anything more.
Gayla later revealed to us that she had an inordinate fear of men, having been abused in her past, and we think she was paranoid of being cheated, particularly by men. We determined we would continue to help her in future business transactions as much as we could, beyond the call of duty if necessary.
Particle – Sara's Dream: Biscuit
Sara had a strange dream on January 14, 2004. Her record:
This dream took place during a time of peace between Marcia, Paul, and me. She had just passed a point of obedience.
The atmosphere was dark at the beginning. The sky was gray, and I knew that I was in a country at war. There was a feeling of fear or grimness in the air that does not exist at other times.
I was standing beside a road, and a gray armored vehicle came up the road. Through the window I saw the face of a woman that I did not know, and she seemed to be in pain, or in fear. I had the feeling that she was taken somewhere against her will.
In the next scene, I was beside the bedside of this woman, and was waiting for her to give birth. I knew that the baby would be ours to care for.
Next, Paul and Marcia and I were all in a room with this baby, and we were discussing what to name her. When we began to throw names back and forth, the baby said, "Biscuit!" We all knew that she was saying she wanted to be named "Biscuit."
I said, "Look, guys, she wants to be named 'Biscuit,' so what's wrong with that?" Let's name her 'Biscuit'."
Paul said, "No way! No child of mine is going to be named 'Biscuit'!"
Marcia didn't say anything.
I decided to look up the name "Biscuit" in a book of the meanings of names that we had on hand to see if it was a legitimate name, or had a legitimate meaning.
It read, "Biscuit: War-like."
I said, "See, Marcia, it means the same thing as your name, so it can't be bad!"
After this dream, I was laughing about it with Marcia, and she said, "Sara, did you know that Chuggie used to call me 'Biscuit'?"
I didn't remember that, and was quite amazed."
Particle – Mark's Dream: Cody and Dena
On January 19, 2004, Mark told me he had an unpleasant dream of Cody and Dena. He writes:
All of us (believers – I believe Paul & Sara were there too even if I did not see them) were gathered together. I was walking down a hallway and happened to look into a room (I believe through a door that was ajar) and saw Cody and Dena in the act of intercourse while everyone else was gathered in the living room (it was the living room of the old farmhouse at our grandparent's farm though). They both saw me at the same time I saw them. I remember Dena looking ashamed but Cody did not but rather looked indifferent or even defiant. I remember feeling angry with them to be doing such a thing while all were gathered together in another room." END OF MARK'S RECORD.
My interpretation of the dream was that Dena was sensitive to the call of God on her life, of goodness and holy appropriateness, while Cody was contemptuous of God and us, preferring the things of this world.
Particle – Sara's Vision: Her Mother, a Snake
Sara records: The Lord gave me this vision on January 26, 2004, soon after I received the Spirit of God:
"My mom's face was before me. Then it floated high above me, and her body came into view. It was the body of a very large snake. Then I saw the situation from afar. I saw myself at a distance, standing at the entrance to a large cave. The snake was coiled before me, and its large body in coils stood two or three times higher than my own. The body was also about three times thicker than mine as well. The snake had my mother's face. I was speaking to her, confronting her wickedness. I was able to stand in what the Lord had given me without fear."
Particle – The Mad Cow Disease Crisis
Being farmers, we were somewhat aware of some agricultural matters going on in our province, country and the world. Cattle farmers were suffering horrendous losses over the BSE (Mad Cow Disease) brouhaha. A cow was purportedly found with the disease in Canada and consequently the US and other countries shut their borders to Canadian beef. This immediately and effectively subjected many Canadian farmers, ranchers and feedlot operators to serious financial circumstances because much of their product was for export.
There were reports of death, bankruptcy and suicides among farmers. We knew that if that disease were anywhere near us, we too could lose our herd, but the Lord assured us we were safe.
As well, the Avian bird flu crisis was happening in Asia, where they were slaughtering millions of birds. It also happened in British Columbia, the province next to ours. With reports that the disease could spread by wild birds, we wondered how long it would take before foolish government bureaucratic policies would be put in place that would either eliminate organic chicken production or at least make it much more difficult. Already, we had been facing many foolish and hurtful policies and regulations by the government that served only to make matters worse for all.
Particle – Frustrating Conflict with Cody
On January 28, I record that Cody is stubborn, obstinate, stupid, arrogant, opportunistic and demon-possessed. I told him he followed his father, who, he had told me, was not the most moral man in town or country, but was a thief and a liar. He told me that when he was a young teen, he had approached his father with a proposition to team up together to steal and take advantage of people. With or without his father's participation (he died in a vehicle accident), Cody was apparently following through on his evil desires and dreams.
Dena was agreeing with us. I addressed the devils in Cody, knowing they were there, but felt that unless he was repentant, there was nothing to be done; they had license to remain with an unrepentant soul. As Cody grew more stubborn and implacable, Dena began to be lifted in spirit, rejoicing more and more. She was being set free from things of which we weren't aware. She was hearing things she had already been feeling and receiving to be true. God had been at work with her and confirming truth to her by us. We would see much more.
Particle – Jonathan Confronts Marilyn
Jonathan had difficulty believing that Marilyn was practising deceit and disloyalty with me in the matter with Sean. She was conditioning him to believe it was my fault, not by her words so much as by a deportment of innocence, as though she has been misunderstood and victimized. So I advised Jonathan to question her for himself, directly and specifically.
He was very good at it. He asked and she evaded, and he knew she was evasive. How contradictory and slippery must the ways and subjects of darkness be!
"Just what is your relationship with Sean?" Penny Mills once asked Marilyn point blank? "We are friends," Marilyn replied in front of everyone (who knew better). She lied to me, hid things from me, and could not be honest. Liars are nevertheless exposed. Jonathan would not be deceived, not that he was satisfied with the truth. After all, who wants to know such things about his mother?
Particle – Catholic Conflicts and Controversy
After meeting them in Hawaii, we had much correspondence with John Oldham and Martina Rodriguez, who are Catholic. We found that they had no good reason for believing the things they believed and were not prepared to listen to reason, which is the case with almost all people. The correspondence had been thick and heavy, but finally wound down to cease altogether, not by our choice but theirs.
Truly, people were thinking we were arrogant, unlearned in spiritual matters, hateful, deceptive, predatory, angry, insane, and heretical. Certainly, with their definitions and frames of reference, we were all those things and more. Darkness hates the light; to darkness, light is all those things. "Leave us alone," the devils cry! "What have we to do with you? You're not going to tell us what to do!"
Particle – Another Hsin Ten Cruise
Paul and I were slated for another complimentary cruise with Hsin Ten. This time, however, we would be meeting many people who had also won the cruise and with whom we had conflict in the spiritual correspondence of recent past. These were Conrad and Judy Ching, Bob and Karen Nelson, Deanna Sudweeks, John Oldham, Martina Rodriguez, Chandler Mitts, and others. As we contemplated the possible unpleasantries, I had words come to mind: "Better to be a true friend and hated, than to be false and loved" and "Better to be a friend of God at the expense of favor with men, than a friend of men at the expense of favor with God."
Particle – Destiny Will Call Back
On February 3, 2004, Lethbridge acquaintance Bonnie Nemeth gave me a book her 17-year old son Cody had just published, Destiny Will Call Back if You Leave a Message. I said I would read it and get back to her. Upon reading, it was clear the book was about positive thinking enabling us to master ourselves and have the universe at our beck and call if we just do things right. It is the age-old and popular, "I can lift myself up by my own bootstraps" kind of thinking that keeps on taking a slightly different form in every generation.
I decided I would respond to the philosophy of it in full and publish it. My intention was not to belittle Cody but to point out the fallacy for the good of all. I saw Cody as a young fellow misled by those one would think would know better but don't. The link: Destiny Will Call Back – Lifting Yourself Up by Your Own Bootstraps.
Particle – Lois' Vision: Cody Angry and Dena Afraid
On February 4, Lois had a vision of Cody and Dena. Cody was very angry and Dena was very afraid of him. We didn't really know what was going on between them, only that it wasn't good. We took this dream as a peek into the reality of their relationship. On the 7th, I apologized to them for having some erroneous conclusions. I was being reminded that I was to not speculate. Speculations will never do. No facts – no conclusions. We would learn that even many facts will not always tell the conclusive truth – one must have all the facts.
Particle – Sell Your Business
I saw that Cody was in idolatry of physical health. I received that he needed to sell Journey of Health or lose it. He wasn't interested in selling but eventually he consented to do so and gave it a feeble effort.
Particle – Vision: Cody, Worshipping Physical Health
During this time, I had a vision in which Cody was dressed in a shiny red gown reaching down to his feet. The cloth and patterns on it looked like the kind of garments astrologers, fortunetellers, or palm readers might wear. On his head he had a red peaked cap, something like a "dunce's cap," with a gold tassel dangling from the tip of it. He had a long, thin, red beard flowing from his chin, the kind one might imagine sorcerers wearing as depicted in fairy tales. He was on his knees, bowing to the ground, worshiping, with hands forward on the ground. Before him was an altar and statue of some kind, not tangible, but I identified it as an altar to himself and physical health.
Particle – Vision: Man Deliberately Destroys Himself
I dreamed a dream in the night of February 10/11, 2004:
A man and I approached a deep cement pit or bunker that had parallel walls about ten feet apart. We approached on one side. The depth of that bunker or pit was about twenty-five feet. At the bottom were rocks, snow, ice and water. The pit had guardrails for safety. Yet I warned the man, who was to my left, to be careful and not slip. However, when the man with me heard my caution, he deliberately slipped under the guardrail and over the edge of the cement wall. He hung on to the edge with his hands for a while, as if deliberately taking chances.
I was surprised that he would do such a thing; a bit alarmed, I warned him to stop. I was hoping he would heed me, and I was heading over to grab his hand to haul him up, warning him not to move. Suddenly, he deliberately let go, as if having no fear of danger or death. He landed on the rocks below.
Shocked, I expected his body to be mangled and he to be certainly dead. I hollered down, "Are you alive?" To my surprise, he stirred somewhat, showing me he was still alive. I thought that perhaps there was a chance of somehow getting him out of there and treating him. However, I didn't know how I would get him out, and it seemed that he was very stubborn, heedless, and incorrigible, and therefore whatever measures I took to save him would ultimately be in vain. He seemed determined to destroy himself.
I asked him not to move, so that I could have a chance to get help. He again deliberately defied me and moved, and thus slid into a dark hole of water and ice, disappearing out of sight. I was both angry and very disturbed that he should do such a thing. The dream ended there.
Note: The person, at every step, would deliberately do what I told him not to do because I told him not to do it.
I cannot help but believe that this man was Cody Dahl. Cody has been just that way in his actions and attitude. He also had a dream, which seemed somewhat similar to mine.
Particle – Ingrid in Unbelief
Ingrid confessed on February 21 that if she had known she was not going to get her children back, she would not have come to Canada. She also said she didn't want more children, lest she should go through the same again. She was in great fear, doubt and depression about having left them behind.
On the morning of the 23rd, the Bensons and I sharply rebuked Ingrid. She has been pining for her gods long enough, casting in the Lord's face His abundant mercies and great privilege bestowed on her. I told her she was eating her own shit, and expecting us to sit there watching her and having to smell it. I also told her that if she wished to continue in her idolatry, that I would pay her ticket back to Belgium if she had no money. "There is no point in remaining with us as you are; it has been two years," I said, "Enough is enough."
Particle – UFO
I have wrestled with an oppression of unidentified fear, but what is it I'm afraid of? I'd like to know and deal with it. Is it of losing the farm? A lawsuit? Is it a guilt of wronging others? Is it a fear of conspiracies? I really don't know. It's not a fear of death or of myself or of being alone. I came to terms with those. If not death, what can I be afraid of? Yet something is always there bothering me, on and off, day and night, although I get over it and can function without difficulty almost all the time.
I then recall the great release from anxiety and fear with chiropractic treatments, replaced with a sense of well-being. I know my neck has often bothered me without realizing it, especially at night, perhaps because of its position on the pillow somehow.
Particle – Bringing in Goliath
Harley Laporte of Coaldale, Alberta, a Catholic, came to the farm on February 24, 2004 and left me with a tape of Scott Hahn, a Protestant who had converted to Roman Catholicism. He was the RCC's latest knight in shining armor and proof positive that the Catholic Church was indeed the true, original, "mother" church of God. We would soon address this unfortunate, wandering star in a public paper that would answer all the arguments he put forth for the Catholic Church, answering those questions he had pre-conversion that Protestants couldn't answer satisfactorily, but which he came to believe the Catholic Church answered irrefutably.
Harley assured us that Scott would reply if we wrote him. Scott never responded. Harley also promised he would get back to me to discuss theological matters, but never did. The link: A Protestant Minister Converts to Catholicism.
Particle – A Cruise with Paul and Jonathan
On February 27, 2004, Jonathan and I drove to Calgary to catch a NWA flight to Florida. We were on our way to another Hsin Ten cruise, Jonathan's first airliner experience and first cruise. The airline gave him a certificate, wings, a piece of cake, $30 worth of food coupons, and he got to sit in the cockpit with the pilot. These treats added to the general novelty and excitement.
I was surprised when the pilot asked Jonathan if he would like a picture with his father in the co-pilot's seat as he sat in the pilot's, and Jonathan decisively refused. My facial expression was obvious; the pilot chuckled, saying, "Ah, look at that – your father's crushed!" This wouldn't be the last time Jonathan chose to not take pictures with me, though he would with Marilyn, instructors, club associates, friends and strangers.
Arriving at Orlando, we took a shuttle to the Courtyard Marriott where we met with Kenny Lai, Conrad and Judy Ching (Conrad avoided us like a plague), John and Deanna Sudweeks, Bob and Karen Nelson, and Joe Hong. Paul and his brother Seth met us there. Seth left us and we took a bus to Cape Canaveral where we boarded the "Disney Wonder."
On the ship we met up with Mitch and Michelle Fields, Mel Turner, Norman and Evelyn Gibson from Riverside, California, Ian Liu from Hsin Ten, New York office, Gordon Pan (CEO and owner of Hsin Ten) and his wife, Eric Pan (Gordon's son) and his wife, Joe Hong, his wife, and Joe's sons Victor and Vincent, Jerry Tsai and his wife, Julie, and several Mexican distributors, including Jesus (Spanish pronunciation, "Hay Zoos") and his wife, Raphael Garcia and his wife, and Rosa, Raphael's sister.
We had good spiritual talks with the Tsais, Turner, Gibsons, and Kenny. We missed supper the first night because of rough waters and Jonathan, along with several others, got seasick, but with a good night's rest, he recovered for the rest of the cruise.
A note concerning the Tsais: At a dinner, I told them that one day we would stand side by side with each other and Siddhartha Gautama Buddha (the Tsais were of Buddhist background), with arms upraised, together worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ. I made it clear that we all, Buddha included, would confess Jesus Christ as Lord.
Particle – Spreading the Truth
Landing at Nassau, Paul and I distributed many of our writings to the people at the Straw Market and on the streets. We also dropped off a hard copy of Diabolical Doctrines with a Tanya Hunt-Major, the administrator of the Episcopalian Church within blocks of the dock, and gave her our website.
Particle – Jonathan Has Compassion
A beggar in his fifties or sixties named Moses met us on the street, asking for a handout after giving us a brief history lesson of the city. Jonathan had never been confronted by a beggar before. As we were talking with him, Jonathan called me aside and asked if he could give him his last $20.
I'm the perpetual skeptic or cynic, especially given our lessons in Israel from the Lord concerning beggars. I taught Jonathan that though the man was likely lying to us, he still seemed poor, and that it would not hurt Jonathan to give to him, so he did.
The fellow either was, or pretended to be, surprised and thankful, giving Jonathan a big hug. No doubt he rarely received $20 from a young teen, and that with parental consent.
Part X – Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Part I ~ Part II ~ Part III ~ Part IV ~ Part V ~ Part VI ~ Part VII ~ Part VIII ~ Part IX ~ Part X ~ Part XI ~ Part XII
wHaT tHe LoRd HaS dOnE wItH mE; Part IV, Page 8
Page 8 PART FOUR– Bernalillo to Moon River (cont.) Particle – Split Tree Falls on Fred's House While visiting Fred and Delores, I had a vision wherein I saw a great tree, cut off at the top and bottom, trimmed, and split in two down the center. I saw half of it come slamming down on top of Fred's log house, crushing it. The second half of that log fell, landing on top of the first, matching the splits (the first with split up, the second with split down). I interpreted it to mean that Fred's house was finished. Particle – Ivah and Leah Revealed Delores wanted us to visit her friend, Ivah. Ivah's husband was in prison, and her daughter, Leah, was living with her. Ivah was in her fifties, very thin, and professed to believe, though she seemed quite confused. Scars on her neck evidenced her having undergone surgery for cancer. Leah was in her early twenties. While Leah had gone along with her mother's religious activities, she was now dating a Catholic fellow, drinking, and generally living contrary to her mother's wishes. When I asked her about it, she said she wasn't interested in following after God, that she had tried it and gotten nowhere. (Of course, it was a case of the blind leading the blind and having fallen into the ditch.) I had thought that the vision I had was of them. The strange thing, however, was that Leah's hair wasn't thick, long, and black at all, but medium brown and short, and her skin wasn't dark, but very pale, almost a light cream. The...
wHaT tHe LoRd HaS dOnE wItH mE; Part I, Page 15
Page 15 PART ONE – Darkness to Light (cont.) Particle – My Offense against Frank Hickey Even while I was in a spiritual search, I was still very capable of the worst of sins and the "best" of sins. I recall a simple, friendly, enthusiastic, hard-working couple who wished to buy a mobile home (the fellow's name was Sonny). They did not have a down payment to qualify for financing. Terry Johnston urged me to inflate the selling price, fake receiving a down payment, pretend that their parents had given it to them, and apply for the loan. Homes Canada worked with Frank Hickey, the loans manager for the Bank of Nova Scotia. He questioned the transaction, being very skeptical. Terry Johnston coached me to bluster my way, which I did, railing on Frank, who was consequently perplexed and insulted, though confounded, it seems, not knowing for sure whether I was lying or speaking the truth and angry that he was not accepting my word. We got the loan, we were guilty of fraud, and I earned an enemy in the financial world. On the other hand, Sonny and his wife were super happy to have their very own home, though modest, one they could not have hoped to have otherwise. I was happy for the new home owners and hoped they would never default on their loan. And I would remember this offence against Frank. Particle – Sometimes, Lightning Does Strike Twice at Once A customer came purchasing a mobile home. He told me that his education in forestry was so high that o...
wHaT tHe LoRd HaS dOnE wItH mE; Part VI, Page 10
Page 10 PART SIX– Harvest Haven to Surprise Visitors (cont.) Particle – Marilyn's Bitterness "Marilyn" means "bitterness." I spoke to her that morning and got absolutely nowhere. She said she saw what I saw of her, but she didn't change. She continued to demand, boss, dictate, argue, interrupt, and adamantly insist on her rightness, way, and beliefs. I was helpless. Again, behind my back, she conducted conversation with Lois, who stood with her. On my walk, I begged You, Lord, to open my eyes, ears, and heart that I might see, hear, and understand. If wrong, correct, rebuke, even kill, but get it over with. "What is going on?" I asked, pleading with You. Immediately, the thought came: "Power struggle, two entities vying for power, authority." Of course! For 23 years, we had battled! We hadn't been man and wife, but competing partners. Marilyn had been a tyrant in my life. In these days alone at home, I felt such a wonderful relief. At times, I'd been somewhat lonely and yet very relieved. After all these years, I began to realize the utter control Marilyn had over every aspect of my life. She was a tyrant, a dictator, and a smooth one at that. I have many times also seen her colors come out when she didn't get her way, even in small things, and if her schedule ever had to change, she was almost beside herself. She told me how when her mother left when she was 12, she wasn't going to let anyone anywhere know th...


Give yourself two taps on the back for finishing driving school and for getting a driver's license. Congratulations. Now the roads are yours for the taking. Navigate through its highs and lows. Take yourself to places you want to be in. Although driving school such as San Diego driving school happened for quite some time, it imperative of you to keep them in mind. Remembering all of them might be a chore for you as the newest driver in town. As an aid, we have listed down three (3) considerations to help you brush up driving skills 101.
Comfort should always be your number one concern for your passenger/s and for you as the driver. The whole point of using your car to transport you to other places is convenience. You would definitely enjoy convenience if all of you riding are comfortable. On the contrary, you wouldn't enjoy the ride if one of you (especially you the driver) are feeling uneasy. It will be a nerve rattling ride.
Today's car manufacturers have already made ergonomic designs that aid in achieving your comfort. Once seated, do some adjustments on your mirrors and seat according to your height.
not yet ready for this challenge so we suggest you for the time being, stick to small roads when driving. Once you already have identified your pace of driving for 3 months or so, you can now roll with the big guys where you can navigate major highways and interstates.
Driving is both physical and mental activity. The mental part requires you to remember all turn signals and road signs. Plus, you need to respond not only appropriate but also quick actions for all these road elements. This can be really overwhelming on your end as the driver. Counter this feeling by zooming in what you need to focus- and in this case safe driving. A focused and safe driving will result to quick responses. It will spare you from overthinking.
You may have your car music to boost you up, but it's encouraged to only play instrumentals as it doesn't have any lyrics to make you sing. Only when you have mastered your pace as a driver, you'll be allowed to do karaoke.
We know it's a tough road out there. As a response, remember all the driving lessons you had in your school by keeping these three (3) considerations in mind- adjusting for comfort; avoiding major highways for less stress; and concentrating on driving itself. These considerations will make you realize how important road rules are in keeping all road users safe; hence, assisting you in a stress-free driving experience. Contribute to the safety of all by taking this huge responsibility by heart.


text:
Furtif (Stealth) est un film américain réalisé par Rob Cohen, sorti en 2005.

Synopsis

Dans un futur proche, Ben Gannon, Kara Wade et Henry Purcell font partie des meilleurs pilotes d'essai d'avions de combat sur des jets ultra-modernes à propulsion à détonation pulsée. Ils sont appelés sur le porte-avions  pour tester un nouvel équipier. Ce nouveau partenaire s'avère être un drone, le E.D.I., doté d'une intelligence artificielle basée sur un ordinateur quantique. Lors d'une mission de bombardement, il est touché par la foudre et échappe à leur contrôle. Il devient alors très dangereux.

Fiche technique

 Titre français et québécois : Furtif
 Titre original : Stealth
 Réalisation : Rob Cohen
 Scénario : W. D. Richter
 Musique : BT et Trevor Morris
 Photographie : Dean Semler, Russell Boyd (seconde équipe, non crédité, Thaïlande)
 Montage :
 Décors : Jonathan Lee et J. Michael Riva
 Costumes : Lizzy Gardiner
 Production : Mike Medavoy, Arnold Messer, Neal H. Moritz et Laura Ziskin
 Société de production : Columbia Pictures
 Distribution :
 Budget :
 Pays d'origine : États-Unis
 Format : Couleurs - 2,35:1 - DTS / Dolby Digital / SDDS -
 Genre : action, guerre, science-fiction, thriller
 Durée : 121 minutes
 Date de sortie :
,  :
 :
 :

Distribution

 Josh Lucas (VF : Bruno Choël) : le lieutenant Ben Gannon
 Jessica Biel (VF : Marie Zidi) : le lieutenant Kara Wade
 Jamie Foxx (VF : Julien Kramer) : le lieutenant Henry Purcell
 Sam Shepard (VF : Hervé Bellon) : le capitaine George Cummings
 Richard Roxburgh (VF : Bernard Bollet) : . Keith Orbit
 Joe Morton (VF : Jean-Paul Pitolin) : le capitaine Dick Marshfield
 Wentworth Miller (VF : Xavier Fagnon) : E.D.I. (voix)
  : le lieutenant Aaron Shaftsbury
 Ebon Moss-Bachrach (VF : Jérôme Rebbot) : Josh Hudson
 Michael Denkha : le contrôleur naval
 Rocky Helton : le maître d'armes
 Clayton Adams : le marin sur l'USS Abraham Lincoln
 Maurice Morgan : le marin sur l'USS Abraham Lincoln
 Christopher Naismith : le marin sur l'USS Abraham Lincoln
 Charles Ndibe : le marin sur l'USS Abraham Lincoln
 Nicholas Hammond : le cadre supérieur
 Megan Gale : la secrétaire

Production

Le tournage a lieu de février à . Il se déroule en Australie (chaîne de Flinders, Kurnell, Sydney, parc national des Blue Mountains, Fox Studios Australia, Australie-Méridionale), en Chine, en Californie (Coronado, San Diego), en Nouvelle-Zélande (Alpes du Sud) et en Thaïlande (Bangkok, Ko Phi Phi Le). L'équipe a pu tourner sur un véritable porte-avions de l'US Navy, l'.

Bande originale

La musique du film est composée par Brian Wayne Transeau et Trevor Morris. L'album de la bande originale est commercialisé en  chez Epic Records. En plus des compositions originales de Brian Wayne Transeau et Trevor Morris], le groupe Incubus enregistre trois chansons inédites pour le film. Le réalisateur Rob Cohen est un grand fan du groupe. C'est la première fois que le groupe travaille pour un film. Le chanteur du groupe, Brandon Boyd, cite Princes of the Universe de Queen comme inspiration. L'album contient également des chansons non originales.

Accueil

Critique

Le film reçoit des critiques plutôt négatives. Sur l'agrégateur américain Rotten Tomatoes, il récolte 12% d'opinions favorables pour 141 critiques et une note moyenne de . Sur Metacritic, il obtient une note moyenne de  pour 31 critiques.

En France, le film obtient une note moyenne de  sur le site AlloCiné, qui recense 14 titres de presse.

Box-office
Le film enregistre des pertes records. Il fait partie des plus gros échecs au box-office avec moins de 80 millions de dollars de recettes mondiales, pour un budget estimé à 135 millions.

Notes et références

Annexes

Articles connexes
 Furtivité
 Commandes de vol électriques
 Liste des plus gros échecs au box-office

Liens externes

Film américain sorti en 2005
Film d'action américain
Film de science-fiction américain
Film de guerre américain
Thriller (film) américain
Aviation au cinéma
Film mettant en scène l'arme nucléaire
Film sur l'intelligence artificielle
Forces armées des États-Unis au cinéma
Film d'Original Film
Film de Columbia Pictures
Film se déroulant dans le futur
Film se déroulant en Alaska
Film se déroulant en Birmanie
Film se déroulant en Corée du Nord
Film se déroulant en Corée du Sud
Film se déroulant au Nevada
Film se déroulant dans l'océan Pacifique
Film se déroulant en Russie
Film se déroulant à Seattle
Film se déroulant en Thaïlande
Film se déroulant à Washington (district de Columbia)
Film tourné à Bangkok
Film tourné en Californie
Film tourné en Nouvelle-Galles du Sud
Film tourné en Nouvelle-Zélande
Film tourné aux Fox Studios Australia
Film tourné à San Diego
Film tourné en Thaïlande
Film réalisé par Rob Cohen

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


My recent release The Nazi and the Psychiatrist won the Minnesota Book Award in the general nonfiction category at the 26th annual awards ceremony on April 5, 2014. The event, organized by The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library, brought together 960 lovers of books and literature.
I salute my fellow finalists — James Dawes, author of Evil Men; Larry Haeg, author of Harriman vs. Hill: Wall Street's Great Railroad War; and Rae Katherine Eighmey, author of Soda Shop Salvation: Recipes and Stories from the Sweeter Side of Prohibition.
Look out for the paperback publication of The Nazi and the Psychiatrist in September 2014.
My book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist has just been published. It had strange beginnings.
When one dead man passes you a tip about another, you pay attention. Years ago, while researching my book The Lobotomist about Walter Freeman, the psychiatrist and neurologist who pioneered lobotomy for mentally ill patients, I read the late Dr. Freeman's writings on a topic that obsessed him: psychiatrists who commit suicide. One Douglas M. Kelley, MD — once famous for his study of the top Nazi prisoners held for trial at Nuremberg — received special attention from Freeman. The portrait that Göring signed to Kelley.On New Years Day in 1958, Kelley inexplicably swallowed cyanide and suffered an excruciating death in front of his wife, sons, daughter, and father-in-law. Nobody could understand why a man in the prime of life, famous and engaged in his work, had decided to end things so violently. The Nazi who had most powerfully drawn Kelley, Hitler's prospective successor Hermann Göring, had killed himself the same way to cheat the Allied hangman.
I couldn't forget about Kelley. Four years after reading about the psychiatrist, I tracked down his oldest son, who invited me to stop by and look at some of his father's papers. I couldn't believe what awaited me — a collection of astounding manuscripts from Dr. Kelley's files. The boxes had come from the Santa Barbara home of Dukie Kelley, the psychiatrist's widow, who had died a few months earlier, aged 92. Kelley's son led me to four boxes that stood separate from the rest. "These are his Nuremberg papers," he said.
I removed one lid, and the first thing I saw was an old Kodak carton labeled in hand, "X-Rays of Hitler's Skull." There were eight large transparencies inside, all showing different radiological views of a skull topping a spinal column. As sometimes happens in x-ray pictures, a faint presence of fleshy body outlined the bones. This was Hitler's head. "Dad got those from one of Hitler's physicians," the son said.
Beneath the Kodak box was a priceless collection of Nazi and Nuremberg mementoes. They were more than mere memorabilia — they represented the sum of Kelley's psychiatric involvement with some of the worst criminals in history. The son left me there for a couple of hours to go through the collection as a changing guard of cats watched disdainfully from nearby recliners.
Beneath Göring's file lay small boxes, the size of necklace cases. They contained peculiar jewels. In one were six paper packets, still sealed with smears of red wax. Each contained samples of sugar, chocolate, and other foodstuffs that Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess had refused to eat in prison because he believed they were poisoned. Hess signed and dated each packet and wrote an explanation of his suspicions. Another little box enclosed a bed of cotton wool upon which lay a glass vial of about a hundred white tablets: the narcotic paracodeine. The prison authorities seized these from Göring soon after his capture. He had been addicted to the drug.
I took photos of these items, partly to keep my hands busy and to distance myself from the thoughts pressing on me: What on earth were these artifacts doing in a ragged cardboard box that was sitting on the floor of a modest living room? Why weren't they in the collection of an archive devoted to the history of the Nuremberg Trials? Clearly no historian of the trials or the Third Reich had ever set eyes upon them, so what was I doing holding these objects in my hands? A letter that Kelley received from Göring at Nuremberg.
I did not want to consider the answers to these questions at that moment, or the nagging realization that these bankers' boxes held documents and artifacts of inestimable historic value, because three more cartons still remained for me to go through. It's a poor excuse for rushing through a trove of valuable documents, I know, but I had to get back to my mother's house for dinner before rushing off to the airport.
I did my best. The cats circled and licked themselves. Kelley's son clacked away at his computer in the next room. I inhaled dust, flakes of paper, and particles of a dead Nazi leader's paracodeine stash.
When I returned home, I frequently thought about the boxes I left behind. Kelley's son promised to save them for me in case I wished to come back and look at them again. I did so wish, and I returned soon and often. My new book, The Nazi and the Psychiatrist, grew out of them.
I've neglected to post news of two guest contributions I've recently made to the Wonders & Marvels history blog.
One is about the history of the study of psychotic visitors to the White House. First Lady Pat Nixon greets White House visitors in 1969.My post describes three surveys of mentally unstable callers for the President made during the 1940s, 1960s, and 1980s. These studies agreed in some of their conclusions and disagreed in others.
I'm happy to announce that Mythology Entertainment — the production and writing talent behind such films as Shutter Island, Zodiac, The Amazing Spiderman and the upcoming White House Down — has optioned stage and screen rights to my forthcoming book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist. Psychiatrist Douglas M. Kelley, who spends months examining Nazi leader Hermann Göring in my forthcoming book The Nazi and the PsychiatristThe book, which tells the story of American psychiatrist Douglas M. Kelley's encounters with Hermann Göring and other top Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg and his own personal downfall, will be published next year by PublicAffairs.
I've previously collaborated with Mythology, which is currently working on a series pilot of my book The Lobotomist for HBO. The principals in the production company are Bradley Fischer, James Vanderbilt, and Laeta Kalogridis.
You'll find more details of the deal here.
Several years ago I finally got the chance to watch a documentary that had been in my thoughts for a long time. It was Titicut Follies, which the renowned filmmaker Frederick Wiseman shot in Bridgewater State Hospital in Massachusetts in 1967.
I had heard that Titicut Follies included gruesome and horrifying scenes of the abuse of mentally ill patients — and it certainly does — but the film sticks in the viewer's mind more for showing how patients and staff in this hospital were trapped together in a system of psychiatric care that benefited few and brought misery to all.
I recently wrote a post about the history of Titicut Follies as a contributor to the Wonders & Marvels history blog. Please check it out, and feel free to leave a comment (here or there) about your favorite films that tackle the topic of the treatment of the mentally ill.
Below: Film critic Cole Smithey gives a good introduction to Titicut Follies.


text:
Frank E. Thompson (July 2, 1895 – June 27, 1940) was a Major League Baseball third baseman who played with the St. Louis Browns in .

External links

1895 births
1940 deaths
Major League Baseball third basemen
Baseball players from Missouri
St. Louis Browns players
Cushing Refiners players


text:
United States Supreme Court to Decide Whether Title VII Protects LGBT Employees
Phelps Dunbar LLP
MEMBER FIRM OF
USA April 22 2019
The United States Supreme Court announced this morning that in its next term, Justices will consider the hotly-debated issue of whether the protections of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) extend to gay and transgender employees. In addition to protecting employees against discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin and religion, Title VII prohibits discrimination "because of . . . sex." The issue to be decided by the Supreme Court, which has divided lower federal courts and federal agencies, is whether the Title VII's reference to "sex" includes sexual orientation and/or gender identity.
For years, federal courts took a very narrow view of the scope of Title VII's protections against sex discrimination, uniformly holding it did not extend to employees discriminated against because of sexual orientation. The federal agency charged with enforcing Title VII, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), followed the lead of the courts up until 2012, when it administratively ruled that discrimination based on gender identity constituted discrimination "because of sex." More recently, the United States Courts of Appeal for the Second and Sixth Circuits have ruled that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity is Title VII sex discrimination.
The Supreme Court has granted petitions for certiorari to review the lower court rulings in three cases. In one of those cases, before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the volatility of the issue was highlighted by the fact that the United States Justice Department was arguing that gender identity was not protected by Title VII, directly contradicting the stance of the EEOC. The Supreme Court's ultimate ruling as to these cases could have an impact beyond Title VII, since Title VII precedent is frequently relied upon in deciding cases brought under anti- discrimination laws, such as Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, which prohibits sex discrimination in any federally funded education program, including K-12 schools and universities.
Federal courts have repeatedly "punted" on the issue, taking the position that it is up to Congress to expressly and legislatively amend Title VII to include sexual orientation/gender identity within the definition of sex discrimination. However, over the years, repeated efforts to pass such legislation have been unsuccessful.
Phelps Dunbar LLP - Mark Fijman
To Be or Not to H-2B: The Pros and Cons of the Temporary Guestworker Program *
Fifth Circuit Refuses to Take the "One Purpose" Test of the Anti-Kickback Statute to Its Logical Extreme: United States ex rel Ruscher v. Omnicare, Inc. *
EEOC Takes Aggressive Stance on Employee Drug Testing Amid Prescription Drug Abuse Epidemic *
CMS Proposed Regulations to Disrupt Medicaid Supplemental Payments *
DOL Final Rule Limits Joint Employer Liability *
EEOC rules that "sex" encompasses sexual orientation under Title VII; ruling helpful to LGBT employees, but not an end to the debate *
How Will SCOTUS' Upcoming Cases Affect Title VII? *
New EEOC ruling says that Title VII already prohibits sexual orientation discrimination *
Nadia Martel
" I am very pleased with the content of the Lexology newsfeeds. They are a centralized way of getting legal related updates from many jurisdictions and a great way to stay informed with a minimal time commitment."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Eleven visited countries (including five brand new ones!), exploring England and Scotland, solo travelling, travelling as a couple, amazing people, great memories, freedom, love and happiness. But also difficult decisions, people's bad intentions, disappointments, changes. A lot of changes. What a year!
When it comes to travelling, I was never into the amount of places, that I visit (I still have to count every time that someone asks me how many places I've been to), but the quality of my stay there. However, this year it turned out, that I've been to 11 countries – and only one of them was planned in advance. With a full time, 9-5 job, I think that it's pretty good outcome. Everything is possible!
I started 2016 with a bang, in Russia. Together with my friends Paulina and Grzesiek we celebrated New Year's Eve in Moscow and New Year in St. Petersburg. With -19 degrees, snowy streets and frozen pavements, city sighseeing had entirely different persective and taste of vodka and a hot soup in a local restaurants was the best in the world!
I came to the UK through Poland, and after a couple day I was already going to Abu Dhabi in UAE for a training from work. I spent there the whole January, visiting all the known places and exploring new ones.
Spontaneous decision about travelling to Asia from Dubai by myself, straight after training, was one of the best ones. It gave me the opportunity to travel solo in Philippines, Malaysia and India. Although very short, still amazing! Philippines charmed me with it's calmness and friendly people, Kuala Lumpur with its colorful streets full of tastes and smells, and Kerala with local food and entirely different look than the one that I know from the North India.
After another visit to Poland, there was a time for bigger trip. And so, with cheap tickets offer announced in fly4free, in May I found myself spending 2,5 weeks in Madagascar. On the way I also visited Florence and Pisa – two Italian cities, that I haven't seen before (photos come from random people who I met on the way). Despite the bad situation that happened to us and resulted in the loss of all of our photographic and camera equipment with our phones and some money, it was still a great trip. I fell in love in the wilderness and diversity of that island of lemurs and big smiles of Malagasy people. I will definitely come back there.
At the beginning of September my big dream came true – we went to Iceland. It was the only trip, that I decided to do for sure this year, and it worked out very well!
Together with Alex we drove around the whole south part of the island, sleeping under the stars, watching unbelievable Northern Lights spectacles, bathing in the wild hot springs and watching amazing nature around us. I am already thinking about another trips to that country in order to see other parts of it!
In October, as my birthday surprise gift, Alex took me to Madrid. The amount of Sagria that we drunk, jamon and calamari sandwiches that we ate and my excitement for paella was over the limit 😉 It was great to spend few days in the sun, see real flamenco show and visit beautiful city buildings.
December trip to Poland was the end of my trips abroad this year, but there were still a lot smaller local ones, that allowed me to explore wonderful corners of the UK.
In may we flew down to visit our friends in a sunny Salisbury and London. We also went to see famous Stonehenge.
July saw us in the Lake District, where we visited Windermere, hiked up to Scafell Pike and did some pub crawling in Keswick.
We also went to Manchester, Pennines and Peak District with its green hills and lamas in the gardens.
In Scotland we made a trip to Oban, where we tried amazing seafood platter. By ferry from Oban we got to Isle of Mull and Isle of Iona with a boat trip to Isle of Staffa. There were beautiful views, rich history, very interesting geological formation and puffins (!).
When our friends paid us a visit, we rented 7 seater and drove north through Applecross, Torridon and Gairloch, camping on the way.
Another trip was to Ullapool and Lochinver, where we hiked on Suilven, dominating above the surrounding area.
Next trip took us to Isle of Skye, from where we took a ferry to Isle of Lewis and Harris with spectacular white sand and turquoise water beaches and rich nature.
Apart from that our weekends were full of going to the mountains to hike or to Edinburgh eg. for Fringe festival.
This Christmas we went to the tree house in the middle of the forest in Scotland, where we were supposed to spend the night. Unfortunately things weren't entirely as we planned, but it was still nice!
A lot have happened this year!
I started it alone, after all the changes that previous year brought to me, but I am finishing it in a happy relationship, already planning the next year travels.
The biggest change, however, is the fact, that after over 3 years living in Scotland, I am ending this chapter of my life. I am moving out of Aberdeen in January.
My future plans are still under construction, but when I know for sure what I'm going to do, I will share it with you.
But you can be sure – what's coming is big and it will be a hell of a year!
I'd like to wish you 2017 to be even better than 2016.
Aim high, don't worry to dream and make those dream come true. It's not always easy (in fact, it usually isn't!), but that's what life is about – you need to get up after you fall and try again and again and again. Until it works out.
Travel deep and truly – you don't have to go far – even hidden part of your home country can sometimes have more charm than crowded Thailand.
Treat other people with respect, together with their culture, beliefs and behaviors. When travelling, you are only a guest in somebody's else home, but use that time in the best way you can to learn about people and this fascinating world. You will find out pretty quickly that all the people you meet have good in them, that's worth sharing.
Live your life to the fullest, because it's the only one that you have. 2017 is the only of it's kind as well, so use it wisely!


Ms. Jerri Carr is the founder and CEO of Simply Beautiful Skincare and Bodywork, LLC. The company is a New Force in Global Beauty specializing in in-depth skincare analysis.
The natural products that are used by Simply Beautiful Skincare are Gluten, Vegan, Paraben and Sulfate free. They are designed to heal, protect and mask skin imperfections such as scars, acne and pigmentation.
Jerri's professional and educational training is from the highly regarded ST. Johns School of Aesthetics, PCA Skin, Aveda Institute and the Madison School of Massage Therapy in Huntsville AL.
She is currently Board Certified by the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCBTMB), a Certified Thai Practitioner by Thai Institute of Healing Arts, Nurturing the Mother Pregnancy Massage and has received training in theory, techniques and practice of Dalton's Myoskeletal Alignment Techniques.


text:
For the Love of Justice- series
Alex Polkosky
This was a three part series on social justice. All three sermons are below.
"Unitarians and Justice" First of a three part series
Rev. Brian J. Kiely Unitarian Church of Edmonton
This is the first of a three part series looking at our religion and our connection to social justice. The series is inspired by something our Unitarian Universalist brothers and sisters are doing in the USA. They are in the middle of a 30 days of justice mindfulness campaign. And that is part of a larger initiative called Standing on the Side of Love. It is a nationwide UUA campaign calling people to live lives of justice. It started a couple of years ago and has had a great deal of impact. I will talk about that in a minute but first I want to share a reading that muses a bit on that title Standing on the Side of Love. These thoughts from the Rev. Fred Small
"Many Unitarian Universalists suffer from a chronic identity crisis. People ask us, What do Unitarian Universalists believe? And — we freeze! We don't know what to say, because UUs believe so many things, so many different things. We are priests of paradox, apostles of ambiguity, nattering nabobs of nuance.
" And so the UUA produces seven principles and six sources and countless pamphlets and little wallet cards to remind us what we kind of believe. We are exhorted to compose elevator speeches, summations of Unitarian Universalism so pithy that they might be recited on an elevator in its fleeting passage between floors.
"Do we believe in God? Question – simple. Answer – impossible.
"Define 'God.'
"Define 'believe.'
"Define 'we.'
"Define 'in.'
"Whatever God is or is not, I don't think God cares what we believe. I don't think Jesus cares what we believe. And I know Buddha doesn't care what we believe.
"The important question is not what we believe, it's where we stand. I want to be standing on the side of love."
So Fred Small wants to be standing on the side of love.
Simple, direct. Clear in some ways and not in others.
Well, it's a little like his questions about belief: define God, define belief, define in…
Define 'Standing'. Define 'Love'.
At their national gatherings in Arizona two years ago, thousands in the bright yellow "Standing on the Side of Love" tee shirts joined advocates for immigration reform in protests outside Sherif Joe Arpaio's infamous desert prison camp. The UUA media people tried to interest the press in speaking to President Peter Morales with no success until they hit on the strategy of asking if the press wanted to talk to 'the head of the yellow tee-shirts". They flocked. It was a day of great exposure for us and the campaign. It has been repeated on several different issues. And while that was nice, it wasn't the point. Bearing witness against injustice is the point.
Standing on the Side of Love is the point…but what does that mean?
Defining 'standing' can be a bit challenging in an open congregation where people are encouraged – no expected to think for themselves. For what shall we stand up? There are so many good causes out there, climate change in its many guises, first nations issues, LGBTQ and other human rights, human slavery, corporate excesses, First World exploitation, Occupy and the 1%, immigration, the federal government's stand on… well that's too long a list to even begin. You get my drift.
We each have issues that ring our bells and get us going. But those aren't necessarily the issues that will cause the ears of everyone else to perk up. And there might even be some who just flat out disagree with the bell ringing point of view. There have been passionate people who have come through our doors and have been bitterly disappointed that we free thinking liberals could not see the obvious rightness of their cause. Some of them have left, disillusioned because this community would not instantly take over their struggle.
But diversity of opinion is part of the price of our free church. One of the hardest things to do in a Unitarian congregation is to adopt a formal stand on anything. There will always be some who disagree with the stand or with the course of action which comes from it. So instead we encourage individuals to make their case from time to time and see who rallies to their cause.
We encourage that commitment, because whether we use the slogan or not, we do believe in standing on the side of love as each individual understands its meaning. We are all called to work for the justice we see missing in the world. And sometimes when enough of us see the same problems, we start to have an impact as a community. But whether that happens or not, we at least know that this is a safe place to find support and sympathy and restoration of the spirit before we enter the fray once more.
There was an incident that illustrates this particular challenge just a few weeks ago on our UCE Facebook page. There was a vigorous debate about singer Neil Young's recent visit to Ft. McMurray. Now I imagine that there is nothing like a uniform agreement to be had here on precisely what to do about oil dependence. We might all agree that climate change is a real threat, but what we need to do about it would likely cause some disagreement among us.
The Facebook issue was a good illustration. It began when I posted an article by a local filmmaker who was hired by Mr. Young to shoot Ft. Mac from a helicopter. He was not angry or vindictive but wanted to bring some balance to Mr. Young's remarks about his hometown. I posted the article initially without comment . Several people liked it.
There then appeared several strongly worded posts and links from someone who is not familiar to me. She has very strong environmentalist views and appears to have a role in the Green Party. Others – and I- tried to discuss the content of her points to which she replied, "Your apologist rhetoric has no place when people are dying. It is your duty, all of you, to speak out against something that is killing our children – not to excuse it away. For any reason. Esp. jobs, jobs, jobs."
I felt attacked personally because I dared ask some deeper questions about the issues. She posted links to a slew of articles and videos to the thread. None of them actually addressed my questions. I truly do not know whether this person has ever attended here. Her name is not familiar to me.
This person was certainly passionate about her cause – and a generally good cause it is. But was this person standing on the side of love as she expressed her outrage?
It is an interesting turn of phrase. It's not, "Standing on the side of justice." Because that is sometimes hard to define. It is not "standing on the side of righteousness." Because righteousness usually follows on from faith and belief, and around here I think most of us agree that faith and belief can be pretty subjective…and maybe even a bit short sighted if not blind…
…especially OTHER people's faith and belief.
In fact almost any other word you could put in place of love would cause as many problems as solutions. Because any other word would appear to be pointing towards something that is not part of who we are…something from which we can maintain a distance. We can debate a proposition, a concept of justice, a theory without necessarily owning it as our own. Heck we can even get angry about it and think that such passion comes from love. It does to a degree, but not fully, for it is a passion defined and bounded by the limit of the cause. It does not take the other side into its loving embrace.
The love under discussion here is 'agape', a Greek work meaning a spiritual selflessness and openness. It is not sexual. It's passion is not passion for, but passion with …com-passion. It wants justice, but it also wants fairness and balance and respect. The starting place of love is in us in treating others as we would be treated, in standing up on behalf of the mistreated because that's not how we want to be treated. The starting place of compassion and empathy and sympathy is therefore also us.
Committing to standing on the side of love is committing to making change first inside of us. It is about having more than an opinion. It is about giving of ourselves in some way and listening as much as talking – listening in order to find the bridge with the other instead of speaking into the ever widening chasm.
So most importantly, when we truly stand on the side of love we tend to avoid finger pointing and name calling. We say what we believe and why we believe it. And we listen to what those of differing views have to say, open to the possibility of altering our views if need be. There is no call to denigrate those with different positions. For one thing, it doesn't work. As one other person in our Facebook debate suggested, "You haven't changed nay minds". It just ratchets up the rhetoric and causes the people with whom you disagree to become more entrenched.
Love understands that we will never change a heart by calling someone a boogeyman or evil, or a corporate capitalist pig or whatever. I have never heard of a world leader burned in effigy say, "You know? Those folks are making some great points!"
Standing on the side of love is an embodiment our first principle to respect the inherent worth and dignity of every person, even those on the 'other side'. And Standing on the Side of Love uses that principle of affirmation as a justification for constructive immigration reform, or the redress of economic injustice that favours the very, very wealthy. Standing on the side of love is promoting the cause of green reform while understanding that people must still feed their families and live in safety while we transition from one kind of way of living to another. Standing on the side of love remembers that the innocent get hurt the most in times of revolutionary change and tries to ameliorate that.
And that can take a frustratingly long time, for real justice comes through cultural evolution – and that is slow. Look at how much we have achieved in human rights, in LGBTQ rights, First Nations rights and climate awareness. It's been painfully slow, but there has been progress. Getting angry – getting away from our centre – will not make it go faster. It will likely just burn us out.
But enough generalizing. I want to show you something that has been making the social media rounds lately. It is the best example of what Standing on the Side of Love means.
You have probably heard that the Olympics are happening in Russia, and that there has been a justice controversy or two associated with that fact.
Live and Let Love
We who made the film LIVE AND LET LOVE were all saddened and upset about what was happening and decided to protest. The Russian Anthem is one of the world's most beautiful anthems, filled with pride, melancholy and strength to show the true sentiment of the Russian people. Although not every Russian feels proud when they hear it. For many Russians the song has been a symbol of oppression. However, the lyrics of the song were changed in year 2000 and in 2009 a poll showed that 56% of respondents felt proud when hearing the anthem… Still there are many people of Russia, who are not able to sing the song with pride, among them many millions of LGBT people. It is their anthem too, but the state is criminalizing their lives. Being a singer as well as a choir conductor Sean Kelly, the initiator of the project, suggested protesting using the Russian National Anthem, making it a proud song for people of all colour and orientation. Singing for those who can't.
(See the video at: http://youtu.be/0KWhaqr1v8s)
When it comes to social reform and social justice, well, there are a lot of things out there that push our buttons. Groups of official and unofficial people all around the world do things that push our buttons. Perhaps their acts disgust some of us or infuriate us or anger us or sadden us or cause us to despair of the future of the human race. It is so easy to match their disregard for humanity and their hatred with hatred and anger of our own. Sometimes in the face of the horrible, yelling feels mighty good.
Standing on the Side of Love challenges us to get past that. To hang on to our humanity and our principles even as we seek to change those things we are moved to change.
As our responsive reading concluded
Let us speak out with courage and act with compassion. May our journeys – of the spirit, and of mission – always be life affirming and for justice.
For the Love of Justice – a sermon by Rev. Brian J. Kiely
February 16, 2014 Unitarian Church of Edmonton
So, how was your Valentine's Day? Romantic? A non-event? Forced or stressful?
I can't say I have ever loved that day – pun intended. When I have been longing for love it has felt oppressive. When I have been in love it usually has felt stressful and obligatory. In fact I have a hard time remembering any of them that stood out as even approaching what social pressure says they are supposed to be. Well… okay… there was that one time …but that was a surprise for both of us, almost an accident…but I'm NOT telling you anymore about it. Still 1 good one in 45 or so tries is not a great track record.
I guess the point is that romance can't really be forced into a box, not matter how frilly and heart-shaped that box may be. The best romance springs from the heart when it will, is full of surprises and delight, and it has almost nothing whatsoever to do with love.
Romance isn't love. Oh, you can have love and romance wrapped together, but a common mistake is seeing them as the same thing. They aren't. One is chemical and tied up with attraction and pheromones and stuff like that. For most people it lasts but a brief time. I recall a study published not too long ago that suggested relationships where the feelings of romance consistently lasted even three years were pretty rare – 12 to 18 months was more of the norm.
But love? That can last a very long time. Love is something that develops over time. It comes from deep inside. It emerges slowly but, once established, is there all the time…even when it is on shaky ground. If romance is a trumpet fanfare splitting the night that is lit by fire works, then love is the steady hum of the cello. It is a wonderful instrument. It can be passionate. It can evoke the tragic, and it can simply serve as the rhythm of life. You might not always notice the sound, but whenever you listen for it, the comforting sound is with you.
And how does all of this fit into the second sermon in the series on social justice?
Well, every so often, someone reaches out to you and asks for a signature on a petition, or a donation, or to come join a march or come see a film. Or maybe you see something on TV that stirs you, or you read it in a newspaper or see it in a Facebook post. It catches your imagination, sparks your outrage, spurs your feelings of humane sympathy and calls you to act right now to make a difference.
Being sparked like that, getting fired up is a wonderful thing. It reminds each of us that we are part of the human race, that we are all connected to each other and to the planet. Our consciousness gets raised at least a little and we start to think of the good and the needs of others, not just ourselves. Yeah, that's a very good thing.
But in a way, these are like romantic moments…lots of sizzle, but with no guarantee of a long term commitment. And like romantic moments you can come away from them filled with energy and a joyful heart of having done something. And you have! Woo hop! But these are just moments. They often aren't sustained, except perhaps by the organizers who stay with the issue day in and day out.
I know whereof I speak on this, for it's happened to me too many times to count. Many years ago one of my oldest friends, Norberts – who happens to be a truth teller – caught me in this. Now Norb lives in Montreal. We don't see each other often, and he is terrible at returning phone calls, so we don't talk much either. It doesn't matter. We have the kind of friendship that picks up exactly where it left off.
And one time, when we were getting together I started telling him about the trip to Nicauragua in 1986 – the one I spoke of last week when I mentioned meeting Pete Seeger at a rally.
"Ah, so it's peace in Central America this year, eh?" he said with a wry smile that should have been a warning, "What happened to the Nuclear Free Zones of last year? Or the pro choice rallies of the year before?"
He was right, of course. There was a time when I was a bit of a rally junkie going from the high of one cause or event to the next. Again, nothing wrong with that. Just like there is nothing wrong with dating and romance. The good folks who organize those rallies and marches and events need our support. The thing is I never stuck with one cause for very long, never joined in the ongoing work.
Still, taking part in those events was and is a good thing, even if it is all we do. I learned a lot about how the world works. I learned to sift through the claims of both sides and to try to make up my own mind. I became more conscious of the world around me and the kinds of injustice that do not always touch me, but that do deeply affect the lives of others. Those kinds of mass events slowly help to move culture on its evolutionary path.
One of our early US ministers, Thomas Starr King wrote almost two centuries ago about slavery, "I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight, I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice."
In 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King shortened the thought into the more popular, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." That line has been quoted by President Obama and a lot of other folks.
The rallies and the petitions and the marches, those are the bright spots, the energy builders, the colours that make the arcing rainbow sparkle. They give the reassurance that we are not alone and that there is always cause for hope that positive change will come.
But the actual arc of the moral universe? That needs more than the romance of banners and marches. It needs the sustaining power of love, the constant sounding of those low reassuring base notes.
Last week I spoke about the UUA campaign called Standing on the Side of Love. I commented:
"The love under discussion here is 'agape', a Greek work meaning a spiritual selflessness and openness. It is not sexual. It's passion is not passion for, but passion with …com-passion. It wants justice, but it also wants fairness and balance and respect. The starting place of that love is in us in treating others as we would be treated, in standing up on behalf of the mistreated because that's not how we want to be treated. The starting place of compassion and empathy and sympathy is therefore also us.
Committing to standing on the side of love is committing to making change, first inside of us. It is about having more than an opinion. It is about giving of ourselves in some way and listening as much as talking – listening in order to find the bridge to the other instead of speaking into the ever widening chasm."
This kind of love is a long term thing, a sustained appreciation of the world around us, the people and the creatures populating that world, even extending to the plants, water and air.
It is the kind of open and free form love we find in Jesus and the Buddha and Mohammed and Quan Yin. It is the spiritually centered sense of radiant love people feel coming from the Dalai Llama, or Pope Francis. BTW I tried to think of a woman other than Mother Teresa to add to this list. I even Googled "Compassionate woman leaders." and was directed multiple times to a speech of the Dalai Llama. He made the case that women are more compassionate leaders who understand the well-being of people better than men. He also allowed as how it would be fine if his successor was a woman. But I digress.
The old 1965 Hal David/Burt Bacarach song was corny, "What the world needs now is love, sweet love." But it was also true. It has indeed been said so often as to be corny and hackneyed, but the world does need love. The only way to move society along the arc of justice is to love it along with that compassionate agape kind of love..
My friend Norberts was right. I used to get caught up in the bright shiny flash of causes. I don't regret or denigrate that. But for the last four years I have mostly worked on homelessness in Edmonton. You see, I love this city, and I want everyone who lives here to love my children's birthplace as much as I do. By extension I have to therefore be willing to extend my agape to the people who live here, even the ones who scare me or trouble me because of my un-Dalai Llama-like limitations and prejudices. Helping support the Interfaith Initiative on Housing and
Homelessness is one way I can contribute. Believe me when I say it is not flashy or romantic. It is very much a slow-moving cello movement. But it is constant, and it is moving and we are helping the city to house its people.
And you? Well perhaps you show that love in your work, or in answering the many calls from YESS and other groups inside and outside of this church. perhaps you care for a neighbour or family member. Perhaps you work in a field where you get to help folks. We each find our own way to express the kind of love that grows in us and that helps keeping moving our society and our world with painful slowness along that moral arc of the universe.
We are each called to do what we can, and only what we can. But the first step is finding that sustained love within yourself and then letting it come out of you in whatever way seems right for you. And that will be sufficient.
"Finding Your Passion" third sermon
in a series on Social Justice —Rev. Brian J. Kiely
Unitarian Church of Edmonton, February 23, 2014
Many will know that the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautauma was born a prince – into a life of privilege and wealth. But one day, a seer came to his father ,the king and prophesied that one day the boy would both break his father's heart, and bring light to the world as a Buddha.
The king didn't want his boy to become a religious figure. He wanted his son to become king after him. He decided that the best way to ensure this was to make the boy's life perfect and filled with joy. He issued commands that kept all unhappiness and ugliness away from the boy, and later young man.
But there came a time when Siddartha needed to go into the world and see the kingdom which would be his. His father did all he could to make these processions pleasant and joyous, but on the first journey, the boy saw an old man stumbling along the side of the road, crippled and infirm. He had never known such a sight – such a state of being- existed. Returning home he grew angry with his father for lying to him so about the perfection of the world. On his next journey – despite even more precautions by his father, Siddhartha encountered a sick man, and on his third he encountered a corpse in a funeral procession. Discovering first illness and then death, he grew more despondent and more angry with his upbringing.
Finally, the prince ventured out once more, not in a procession, but unannounced with only one aide by his side. They went to the markets and saw the haggling, the fear, the laughter, the dynamics of commerce at it's lowest level. In the middle of the market, in the middle of all this chaos and dirt and smell and noise, he also encountered one monk, sitting serenely with a begging bowl. He asked his companion about that, the companion replied that the offering bowl was less about the monk's needs, and more about giving the people a chance to make offerings and so ease the pain in their souls.
Siddhartha so admired the serenity of the monk that he decided to renounce his birthright and follow a path seeking enlightenment.
I tell this story both as an example of a man who would grow to exemplify human compassion, but also as an illustration of how we who are fortunate discover the darkness that also inhabits our world.
We in Canada are a privileged lot. Even those among us with impoverished upbringings, who have faced racism, abuse, sexism and other unfortunate events are privileged…in comparison to some parts of the world where there is war, famine and mass destruction.
We have clean water, places to sleep – most of us – enough food, health care, a fairly safe city largely free of violence. It's far from perfect, but much better than conditions in many parts of the world. We who have been born here or who have been accepted as immigrants are privileged.
I know some days it may seem hard to believe that, but it's true for most of us. Like the Buddha, many of us do not see what's going on outside the walls of our privilege, especially when we are younger.
And for a lot of us there comes a moment when we encounter our own sights of aging, infirmity, illness and death, violence and poverty, abuse of people or substances – whatever it might be. Like the Buddha we each encounter our Four Sights. These are the moments when we recognize how our privilege has shielded us from some unpleasant realities. And perhaps we discover that we are complicit in some of the evils being wrought in the name of prosperity.
Perhaps the turning point is something that happened to you, and injustice you felt that caused you to stand up and work to make change. Sometimes it comes from simply learning of an injustice that has kept others down.
What is common is that something happens that shocks us out of our privileged complacency, something tears away the gauzy veils of innocence and lets us see a world we did not know existed.
Like the Buddha we grow angry at those who have lied to us, either to protect us or to lull us into not paying attention to what they might be doing.
And some of us turn to justice work as a way to give vent to that anger. Probably anyone who stands up for others or for themselves feels that anger of disillusionment at some time. It is a natural starting place for justice work.
But I'm not sure that anger can be sustained for very long.
I believe that those among us who continue in this work move like the Buddha to a place of serenity. Instead of anger, we begin to work for a better world motivated by something else. If you have attended either of the two services in this series, you will likely guess that this place of the heart I describe is compassion.
The angry activist burns and fumes and demands complete victory, and is usually disappointed. The compassionate activist looks for gentler solutions; Looks for healing solutions; looks for bridges. When we center our work in compassion, it becomes easier to stay with that work.
So today as I wrap up this series on social justice, well I have talked enough. I would like to give us a chance to hear from one another, to conspire about compassion. The printed question is Does your passion call you to work for the world? But you could easily choose to tell us how you feel called, what issue calls you the most and why or what is it that gets in the way of you answering the call you feel.
A congregational conversation followed. You will be able to listen to the discussion elsewhere on the www.uce.ca website.
Tags: Brian Kiely, social justice, social responsibility, UCE, Unitarian Church of Edmonton
Previous PostEmbracing Winter
Next PostCelebrating Women
A Free and Responsible Search for Truth and Meaning: A Case Study
Living Our OWN Lives


BARRE – Members of the Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter 20 out of the Rochester area, were present this morning to dedicate a new veterans' memorial and flag pole at the Barre Town Hall.
The family of the late Fred Daniels donated the flag pole and plaque. The stone for the monument was donated by Keeler Construction.
Daniels was 75 when he passed away on Oct. 22, 2014. He served in the US Army from 1961-1964 and was a member of the Sheret Post #35 American Legion and Past Commander of the Strickland Post #4635 V.F.W. He also volunteered as a driver with the Joint Veterans Council, taking veterans to medical appointments.
Town Supervisor Sean Pogue welcomes the crowd to the dedication. Pogue was dressed in an 1800s-era suit as part of Barre's bicentennial celebration.
The family of Fred Daniels is pictured with the memorial after the dedication. Fred's wife, Adrienne, is third from left in the back row. She is also the town historian.
Charlie Nesbitt, a former state assemblyman, grew up in Barre and was later a helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War. Nesbitt today spoke about a childhood friend, Rick Engle, who was 19 when he was killed in Vietnam on Feb. 2, 1968. Engle played Little League for the Barre Cubs as a kid. He grew up on Old Route 98.
Nesbitt said Engle is a hero. He was caught in an ambush in Vietnam and was killed when he tried to save a friend who was out in the open.
Gary Daniels is the brother-in-law of Fred Daniels. Gary noted that Nesbitt was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. Nesbitt was tasked with extracting a Special Forces unit out of Laos on November 14, 1968. While under enemy fire and with one chopper in the force crashing in the jungle, Nesbitt picked up the crew and left. However, it was soon discovered that one man, John Grimaldi, had been left behind. Though low on fuel, Nesbitt turned his helicopter around and successfully rescued Grimaldi under intense enemy fire.
Daniels said his late brother-in-law was dedicated to veterans, serving in the American Legion, VFW and with the Joint Veteran Council.
Orleans County Legislator Don Allport, in back by memorial, also spoke during the dedication. Allport is the nephew of Fred Daniels. Allport said he was fortunate to grow up in the "serenity" of Barre. He remembers sledding at Pine Hill and being a part of the Boy Scouts, Troop 175.
"I hope the youth growing up today enjoy what a fantastic place this is to grow up," Allport said.
Three Scouts – Ethan Dunn, Ivan Barry and Aiden Rush – from Troop 175 raise the American flag on the new flagpole.
Earl Schmidt, director of the Orleans County Veterans Service Agency, thanked veterans for their service. He welcomed more volunteers for the van service. Adrienne Daniels volunteers helping make appointments for the drivers. Schmidt said more volunteers are needed as drivers and in the office.
Members of the Vietnam Veterans of America attended the dedication in Barre.
Keeler Construction donated the large stone for the memorial.


text:
Home » Boots owner 'weighing up' potential £5bn sale
Boots owner 'weighing up' potential £5bn sale
The parent company of Boots is reportedly looking into putting the UK's high street chain of chemists on the market next year for an estimated £5bn.
Walgreen Boots Alliance (WBA), the US health group which has owned a stake in Boots since 2012, is lining up advisers from Goldman Sachs to consider a potential sale next year, according to Sky News.
A potential stock market listing for the Nottingham-based retailer and pharmacist, which has more than 2,000 outlets and employs about 55,000 people, could be considered, as well as a private sale.
WBA said it would not comment on "market speculation" and that Boots was "an important part of the group".
However, the company said in a statement: "It is accurate that WBA announced a renewed set of priorities and strategic direction for the group in October, which includes a more pointed focus on North America and on healthcare.
"As underlined during the last WBA investor conference, the group continues to be very pleased with the performance of Boots and the international division as a whole.
"In line with the group's long-term healthcare strategy, Boots UK continues to expand its healthcare offering. Furthermore, boots.com continues to grow above expectations having more than doubled sales when compared with pre-pandemic levels."
Speculation about a potential sale of Boots has risen in recent months given its new business focus and the $6.5bn (£4.4bn) sale of its European distribution arm, Alliance Healthcare, in June this year to AmerisourceBergen.
Boots, which was founded by quaker John Boot in 1849, joined up with Alliance Unichem in 2006 handing control to Italian billionaire Stefano Pessina. The renowned dealmaker then brought about the even bigger merger with WBA, where he is currently chairman.
High blood pressure: The 'blue' juice shown to lower blood pressure over '7 days' – study
US State Department phones were hacked with NSO Group spyware – CNN
Italy mulling measures to use strategic gas stocks to help curb prices – sources
Crude Oil Prices Edge Lower as Libyan Output Returns; Chinese Demand Eyed
Amazon halts plan to stop accepting Visa credit cards in the UK


People around the world love to play online bingo with sign up bonus. But do you know why they do so? If you're curious, read on and find out why it's a great idea to play online bingo with sign up bonus.
When you play online bingo with sign up bonus, you get many benefits. Here are the salient benefits, have a look.
The sign up bonus is free money that you get on registration. With this money, you can enjoy playing your favorite bingo games any time you like. You don't need to deposit any funds in your bingo account; that's done by the website itself.
When you play online bingo with sign up bonus, you get the best way to explore a website. It is likely that you would play bingo for money in future on the same website. It makes sense to explore it. And there's no better way to do that than playing bingo for free.
So, are you ready to give these wonderful games a try? Then, head for a bingo website that let you play online bingo games with sign up bonus. Have fun!
Playing bingo online, players can make use of optional features which make playing the game easier.bingo players don't have to use software support other gaming features as Card Sorting.such a amazing experience on play online bingo.